Chapter 11: True Colors Part 1
"So, wait just a moment... Are you saying that the news personnel, literally powerless people, managed to break through the school's security yesterday?!"
It was the very next morning of the false emergency at UA and Ben felt pretty comfortable with telling her what happened… with some edits.
"It was just a false alarm, mom. Plus, our teachers made sure to evacuate us outside in an orderly manner."
He really wanted to give the credit to Iida based on what he heard from Midoriya but this really wasn't the time for that, she was scared enough and his job was to reassure her.
"Mom, it was just a one time deal…" he says. "Plus all of our teachers are pro-heroes so even if there was a real break-in-"
Her gaze hardens. "This IS a real break-in, Ben. This should not have happened. You could have been hurt and I wish you would take this more seriously."
"I AM taking it seriously." Ben retorts swiftly and opens his arms to his sides. "But we had the number 1 hero with us."
"And do you really think anyone will even scrape their knee when he is in the building?"
His mother paused.
"You might be right but-" she says but Ben grabs her hand.
"The school told us that they are doing a check on the system. To make sure that this doesn't happen again." he says with confidence. "Trust me, there is nothing to worry about."
She pauses, with all sorts of emotions clouding her mind.
At that moment, Sandra wanted to keep Ben close, wanted to keep him safe by preventing him from going to this hero school. But… he was right.
Where was safer, than the side of Japan's number 1 hero?
She nods. "I understand."
"Well..." Ben says, gesturing to the empty bowl in front of him. "Maybe I should head out for school?"
"Yeah, have a nice day."
As he was about to leave, his mother yelled: "Ben!"
He poked his head from the side of the door. "Yeah?"
"Be careful."
Ben gave her a thumbs up and walked down the stairs as he looked at the Omnitrix.
"Yeah, be careful..." He knew that yesterday was a false alarm but he couldn't help but wonder…
The battle against the Techadon battle had come too close for comfort. If something else were to really come, would he be able to deal with it?
"For today's hero basic training, it's turned into a class with three instructors, All Might, me and one other person." Aizawa says as the clock hits 12:50 in the afternoon.
"Turned into?" Ben thinks. "Must be one of the precautions..."
"Excuse me!" Sero raises his hand. "What'll we be doing?"
And in response, Aizawa just calmly raises up a card, like All Might. The difference this time was…
"Rescue..." Ojiro read the front of it.
"Disasters, shipwrecks, and everything in between." he says. "It's rescue training."
"Now, this is the true duty of a hero!" Kirishima whispers to Kaminari and then raises himself. "My arms are ready to rumble."
"Kirishima, ever the macho man..." Ben thought as he was sitting right next to him and… agreed with the sentiment.
"Yeah, everything in a hero's day-to-day life comes back to this." he squeezes his fists. Battling against villains was fine, after all most of that summer was about punching bad guys in the face.
But that was only one way to save lives. In real life, there were a variety of situations, some he already experienced, and some he didn't…
This was a class where he could learn a lot.
"No one can beat me in water, ribbit." Asui said and Ben looked over at her.
"Don't mind me if I take that as a challenge..."
"Hey, I'm not done." Aizawa says in the most dead tone possible.
"You can decide if you want to wear your costume or not this time. Because there are probably costumes that limit your abilities, too."
The cases for the said costumes came out of the wall yet again.
"The training will take place off-campus, so we're taking a bus."
He made a move towards the door. "That is all. Start getting ready."
Ben stood up. "Rescue training..."
"It's another stepping stone to become the greatest version of myself." He rolled back his sleeve and then looked over to Midoriya.
"Hey Midoriya-"
As he turned around, he saw the greenette turned towards the creation girl Yaoyorozu, the one who was onto his identity…
"Yeah... Tennyson?" he turned around, with his mouth open like he had way more to say… but forced to hold it back.
"Nevermind." Ben moved along. He didn't want to be a part of the conversation, if she was listening in...
"Okay, so who is in the lead of the bet?" Kaminari asks as everyone had been assembled in front of the school.
The news of Ben using Jetray during yesterday's emergency had spread within Class 1-A due to Iida and Uraraka sharing what they saw in natural conversation.
"If my recollection is accurate…" says Tokoyami. "You, as well as Sero, Asui and Jiro have two points."
Kaminari crosses his arms in a cocky manner. "Yeah, and?.."
"And, the rest of us only have 1 point since flight was pretty easy to guess." Sato continued but his tone still held competitiveness. "You better not count us out yet, Kaminari. We still have 3 forms, so this can go either way."
"Don't tell him that, Sato." says Jiro as she comes out of the crowd. "We could at least let him have the victory for now."
"Hey!" Kaminari responds. "We won together in the battle trial! Don't you remember that Jiro?"
"I mean… I remember you getting captured and me needing to pull your weight as well." she says with a snarky attitude.
"To be fair, you guys didn't know that Mineta's hair balls conducted electricity." Ojiro says.
"Yeah and he still ran in there shouting, like that was a good plan."
"Shouting?" Sato asks and Jiro becomes beet red. "What did he even shout out?"
At that moment, the bus arrived.
"Get in." Aizawa said as he sat in the passenger seat.
"You honestly don't want to know." Jiro answered at the questioning glances. "Let's just go and..."
She then sees Sero, Ashido, Kirishima and Kaminari standing in a huddle. "Oh boy."
"What's going on?" Sato asks.
Jiro puts her hand on the bridge of her nose. "He's getting competitive again, that's what."
"I bet I can beat you guys to the bus…" Kaminari whispers and with that silence envelops the group.
All of them wait to digest that honest challenge and then...
Ashido says: "Alright chums! Let's do this..."
Together they shout out: "LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
And run straight in the bus.
*Tweet! Tweet!* Iida blows his whistle after them. "We need to form two lines by your student numbers to orderly board the bus!" *Tweet! Tweet!*
"I feel so sorry for you Iida..." Jiro says as she puts her hand on her head in an embarrassed manner.
However, for her, something felt missing from this...
"Hey Tennyson." Jiro hits the shapeshifter on the shoulder. "You still with us?"
"Huh? Yeah yeah..." he says, shaking his head.
"I thought you would charge in with that crew over there..." she points to the four that were currently laughing their asses off. "You know, since you like to run face first into this stuff."
"It was literally one time with Cannonbolt." he answered but Jiro was ready.
"Oh, so you're saying Rath wouldn't rush in?"
Ben thinks about it for a second. He could definitely see Rath in shining armor, breaking a team's huddle to be a hero and take all the glory...
He deepens his voice. "Lemme tell ya somethin our hardworking and prepared team, no one goes before Rath says they can go! Because Rath… GOES BEFORE ANYBODY! LEE- Like that?"
"Yep, I would say that fits within my expectation." Jiro says with a slight grin.
The two share a laugh.
"I have to admit though. I never thought that the top class of the first years would be so…"
"Stupid?" Ben asks cheekily but Jiro refuses to back down.
"You said it, not me."
"Yeah…" The shapeshifter started to reflect on his time here. Even though the classes were tougher than ever before, the days were feeling a lot more eventful and rewarding.
There were still some groups or lone wolves in class, but everyone felt a lot more connected, like they were really facing the challenges ahead of them together.
It was a feeling he never had before, at least in school. Back in America's school system, it felt like a battle royale to stay alive.
"When I heard that I would be going to an elite Japanese high school…" he starts. "I expected everyone to be… a Todoroki, you know? Cold-dead stare, not much of a fiery personality..."
"Hilarious." Jiro said as she rolled her eyes at Ben's subtle joke.
"I'm not sorry." he replied in an equally cheeky way.
"You are right though." She follows up. "He looks at everyone like how Endeavor looks at his criminals."
Jiro then realizes what she said. "Well, I say everyone..."
Ben raises his eyebrow.
"But apparently, he's mostly interested in the big shots."
"So, like people who scored high in the entrance exam?"
Jiro nods. The shapeshifter had hit the nail on the head. "Yeah, and Yaomomo since she was also recommended."
"I see… Scouting out the competition maybe?"
She shrugs. "That's what I think at least."
To check, the shapeshifter looked over to Todoroki in a less than conspicuous manner and unfortunately made eye contact as he was getting on the bus.
His eyes just had that very overconfident yet composed aura, almost like he was bored.
And for good reason since his showcase in the battle trial was nothing short of dominant. He had complete control all the way through and checkmated Ashido and Aoyama in a snap with barely any help from Shoji.
He was completely on another level compared to his other classmates and by the looks of it, Todoroki was just as aware of it as he was.
"I think I see what you mean..." Ben says.
"I'm glad." she responds. "Now we better get on the bus, before our teacher starts giving us that exact same look."
When they stepped on board, the pair quickly came to realize that the bus was severely different compared to how Iida planned.
So, they just sort of sat in whatever way they wanted and since Ben and Jiro entered last, they had to sit across from each other at the front of the bus along with Iida, Ashido, Kaminari, Midoriya, Asui and Kirishima.
As Jiro inserted one of her jacks into her phone and Midoriya took out his notebook, a conversation sparked among the rest of the group.
"Shoot. I didn't think it would be this type of bus… I should have prepared better for my duty as class rep!" Iida despaired and Ashido did not miss the opportunity to tease as he looked down on the ground.
"Yeah, there really was no point to the lines, huh?" She then turned to the rest of the group. "So, where do you guys think we're going?"
"Well, Mr. Aizawa did say shipwrecks, disasters and everything in between." Kaminari says, from his seat next to Tennyson. "So, I'd bet somewhere pretty big."
"And expensive..." Ben thinks, still not being able to come to terms with the fact that his school really could pay for all of this. "Unless it is out in the open, there is no way that the school fees are the only ones taking care of all of this."
"Wherever it is, I just can't wait to see what else they have in store for us." Kirishima responds.
His battle training against Sato and Koda was fine, but it wasn't exactly satisfying either. He knew he needed to learn more and this was his chance!
"I agree. " Iida says. "And since the theme is rescue, I think a lot more of our quirks will work better."
"I'm hoping for it! I haven't got one chance to use my acid for anything other than mobility!" Ashido says and Aoyama also joins in.
"Pareil ici! Everyone should see the power of my sparkling navel laser."
"Speaking on quirks..." says Asui and nudges the greenette sitting next to her. "Excuse me, Midoriya."
The greenette flinches from suddenly being ripped away from his thoughts. "Um, yes, Asui?"
"Call me Tsuyu." she immediately responds. "I hope you don't mind it but I usually say whatever comes to mind..."
Midoriya raises his eyebrow.
"But I noticed that your quirk… is kinda like All Might's."
Even though he was trying to not make a scene, Midoriya was visually taken aback and sweating. "Y-You really think so? Well, thanks, but I..."
"Wait a sec, Tsuyu." Kirishima comes to his aid. "All Might doesn't get hurt when he uses his quirk. They just look similar, that's all."
Midoriya breathes a sigh of relief while Asui's face doesn't change much just like every other instance they interacted with her.
"But it must be nice to have a simple augmenting-type quirk." Kirishima follows himself up. "You can do lots of flashy stuff!"
He raises his arm and hardens it. "My hardening on the other hand… Not so much."
However, always the optimist, Midoriya's eyes light up. "I think it's really cool. It's great for both offense and defense in a fight and it would work well in shielding bystanders from villain attacks."
With a similar light, Kirishima takes a look at his arm too. "I hope that's the case, Midoriya."
"But..." Kaminari opens his arms. "If we're talking about flashiness as well as power, just who can match these three behemoths?"
Ben, out of curiosity, slowly lifted his head from his seat. He saw one of his thumbs pointed at Todoroki and Bakugo, who had ended up sitting together, and the other… was pointed to him.
"I mean seriously! Super intelligence, flight, keen senses, super strength… Just what kind of a broken mess are you man?" Kaminari jokes around. "I can't imagine you going pro."
And the class couldn't do anything but agree.
"Yeah no kidding..." said Ashido. "And to think you still have 3 more!"
Ben nervously puts his hand behind his neck. "Yep, that's me alright."
Iida also tries to put a familiar smile on his face. "Are you perhaps planning on showing us the rest during this training?"
Ben leans over to look at him and tries to assemble the answer in his head.
"Well, maybe the last 2? I think I won't need anything other than the 9 I already got."
Midoriya raises his head, with a question in mind. But, after his talk with the deputy representative and the small interaction with Tennyson in the morning, he didn't know how to ask him.
Thankfully…
"What's wrong with the 10th one?" Asui blurted out and seeing that all eyes were suddenly on them, she tried to clarify.
"I mean… You have not exactly been subtle with your forms until now. So, why stop now?"
Maybe it was another result of his best summer ever or a lifetime of trying to discern his parents' mood, but regardless of the reason, Ben had gotten quite good at reading other people.
When he encountered Yaoyorozu, there was an obvious skepticism. She was definitely suspecting something and asking her questions appropriately, however Asui felt… different.
Even though her face was revealing extremely little, he could only sense one emotion from her and by extension the rest of the class.
Simple curiosity.
And if he didn't want another Yaomomo situation in his hands, Ben knew that he would have to use what he learned from Midoriya, and be honest.
"Come on Tennyson!" Kaminari joins in. "You're killing us here."
"Hey..." Jiro raised her head from the phone. "If he doesn't want to talk about it, we probably should respect that, don't you think?"
"Exactly." joins in Asui. "You don't have to tell us if it is making you feel uncomfortable Tennyson. We understand."
"No no, it's fine." Ben quickly takes the control back to his hands. "I can talk about it. After all, I can trust you guys."
Yaoyorozu raises her head for that last line and prepares her own notepad.
Without noticing the creation girl's reaction, he lets out a small chuckle, trying to alleviate the situation. "Hell, I shouldn't have built it up in the first place."
All eyes were on him, just like when he was explaining his "quirk" for the first time and the first time that it awakened on him.
He clasps his hands and leans back to his seat. "Well, everyone here knows how some of my forms affect my personality, right?"
"Yes, we have all met Whiskers the Wondercat." Mineta deadpans from the backseat which earns him an irritated gaze from Jiro.
"And like Brainstorm, right? Which increased your intelligence as well as your arrogance?" Asui rather innocently asks.
Ben nods. "Yeah, and well, not all of them turn out that vocal."
He looks to the roof of the bus.
"My 10th form is like most of my other transformations at first… He's super adept at fighting and he would do great in rescues as well."
Midoriya leans in closer with his pencil and notebook.
"But, the more that I use his powers, he starts to give me some bad tendencies…"
Yaoyorozu leans closer along with everyone else.
"It might not immediately show, but I feel becoming more ravenous, irritable and impatient. He messes with my instincts to survive and…"
Ben puts his hand over his face.
"Ugh... even thinking about transforming into him makes my stomach churn."
"Well, what's the difference between that and Rath?" Jiro asks.
Ben turns. "With Rath, I have to physically touch someone to hurt them which makes it easier to control. But he… doesn't have that same luxury."
To Midoriya, the message was clear. If Ben fought too long as him, everyone would be in the splash zone.
In the midst of this, Kirishima also loses to his own curiosity.
"So… Is it like, your most powerful form? How strong is he?"
Ben lowers down his hand to cover his mouth.
"I don't know exactly… But he is definitely the most dangerous."
At this point, they were like a group of Junior Woodchucks that gathered around a campfire, listening to a scary story.
Kaminari asks now. "Well, why is that? What is his power?"
Ben unclasps his hand. "Well, he-"
"Save the story time for later Tennyson." says Aizawa, interrupting him without mercy from the front seat. "We're here."
The group really wanted Ben to continue… but no one challenges the authority of Eraser Head.
"Yes, sir!" they said and broke the mood.
At the end though, before the doors of the bus open, Yaoyorozu skims through her notes one more time and narrows her eyes.
They arrive at a massive dome-shaped building, which upon walking inside, showcases eight main sections with six of them being devoted to various disaster scenarios and a small fountain in the center.
Ben just nervously laughed. "A whole lake, mountain range and destroyed buildings?! Yeah, sure, why not?"
Also, two of the disaster sites were covered with their own domes and by the pictures inscribed on them, one of them was for fire and the other was for heavy weather.
Under the hood, he was excited for everything but his sense of wonder was completely thrown out of the window ever since seeing the mock cities prepared for the entrance exam.
"Wow!.." Kirishima says. "It looks like Universal Studios of Japan!"
Ben looks around again. Yeah, he could see it.
Inside, they are also greeted by the other teacher Aizawa was talking about, named-
"It's the Space Hero, Thirteen!" Midoriya blurts out in true fanboy energy.
She had a white space suit-like costume with a puffy jacket, a black helmet with white eyes and a pair of yellow boots. Because of the costume covering all over her, they couldn't make much else of her appearance.
"Hello everyone, I've been waiting for you." she says, introducing herself. "Welcome to the training ground I made with all kinds of accidents and disasters in mind."
She takes some time explaining what each section will have in store for them and then says…
"I call it the 'Unforeseen Simulation Joint', or 'USJ' for short!"
Ben shakes his head as he notices the similarity of names. "Subtle… Really subtle..."
"Thirteen..." Aizawa calls her out from the crowd. "Where is All Might? He was supposed to meet us here."
She walks closer to him and starts whispering something.
Whatever they were talking, Ben was getting slight goosebumps. He hated being left out of stuff like this and he doubted that they were talking about the state of the weather or any other unimportant topic.
"Let's see..." she turns back to the students. "Before we begin, let me say one thing… er… or two, or three..."
"Or four… five… six… seven..."
"It's increasing!" Ben thinks, just like the rest of the class.
"Everyone, I am pretty sure you are aware of my quirk, Black Hole which sucks up anything and turns it into dust."
Uraraka repeatedly starts to nod while, as a response, Ben had to raise an eyebrow. That… was quite the quirk, even for the aliens he had before his reboot.
"You've been able to use that quirk to save people from all kinds of disasters, right?" Midoriya asks with a smile.
"Yes, but it is a power that can kill easily. Some of you also have quirks like that, right?"
Even though she wasn't looking at him specifically, Ben took the message personally. He had that kind of power alright… and he wanted to get better with it.
In the meantime, she continued her speech…
She told them how the certification and regulation of quirks do not take away their lethality, how Aizawa's fitness test showed their quirk's potential and All Might's battle trial showed them the danger of using that potential on another person.
It wasn't anything that Ben didn't know. Frankly, it was one of the things he had over the rest of the class, which enabled him to properly hold back during the battle trial.
But it was nice… to get reminded at least once in a while.
"This class is a fresh start. You shall learn how to use your quirks to save people's lives."
"You do not have powers so you can harm others, but for helping others that need it."
She then bows before them. "That is all. Thank you all for listening."
The entire class bursts into cheering and clapping.
"That was wonderful!"
"Bravo! Bravo!"
Ben also clapped in place. This school was certainly a good one, but it was now time for business.
"All right then, first-" said Aizawa pointing towards the course but was interrupted with a flash of electricity dimming the lights above them.
The students looked up obliviously, wondering what the problem was, but the pro-heroes could already feel the air of malice and dread that was falling upon them.
"Eraser Head!" Ben yelled out, taking his attention immediately and pointing towards the fountain in the center of the facility.
With the realization hitting him in the face and his eyes widening in response, Aizawa turned around and saw a small, dark-purple, swirling mist at the bottom of the stairs.
It slowly expanded to the absolute dread of everyone present and eventually erupted forth like electricity coming out from a busted generator!
And out of it, came a young adult covered with severed hands, a black hulking figure that was several times his size... and numerous other accomplices.
"Don't move!" Aizawa yells and warns his students. "And Thirteen, look alive!"
But the students still couldn't grasp the situation.
"What's that?" Kirishima says and tries to take a better look but immediately finds Ben's arm right in front of him.
"Tennyson?" He looks at his friend's face from the side and sees his hardened expression.
"If you're wondering, Kirishima. No, this isn't about paying the electric bill..."
There was still humor in his tone, but it was a lot more restrained and clearly done to put a bit of levity. If you ignored the line and just focused on the tone, you could even confuse him as angry.
Midoriya, despite being further back than Kirishima, could also see his shapeshifting friend.
With utmost anxiety, he watched Ben slowly lower his arm and roll back his sleeve, just like his teacher who was putting on his signature yellow goggles.
"Those..." he heard Aizawa start and even though Ben hadn't said a word, he could feel Tennyson finishing the sentence in his own head. "...are villains."
The class was appalled and even though most instinctively took a step back, there were still some that either composed themselves to stand still...
Or in the case of one special student, prepared themselves for an all-out brawl.
Meanwhile, in the center… the villain heads were having their own little chat.
"Thirteen and Eraser Head, huh?" Kurogiri spoke. "According to the curriculum we had received, All Might should have also been here."
Shigaraki couldn't believe what he was seeing either. However, his voice was riddled with disappointment, instead of shock.
"Is that really so?.. After all the trouble I went to assemble my party, too..."
"All Might… The Symbol of Peace isn't here?... Just how cruel can a man be?"
He then noticed something was missing.
"And our partner?"
Kurogiri swiftly responded. "She had requested to be snuck in with our man that disabled the alarms. She should also be in position."
"Alright." Shigaraki then narrowed his eyes and then switched his attention from what was missing, to the audience waiting atop the stairs.
"I wonder… just how many kids we'll need to kill before we draw him out."
Aizawa's binding cloths then suddenly rose into the air. "The trespassing from the other day were these scumbags too, weren't they?"
The majority of the group were barely coming back to their senses.
"Villains? There is no way..." said Kirishima.
"Just how would they break into a hero school?" continued Uraraka, equally fearful.
Among them, Yaoyorozu stepped forth as one of the composed students and brought up a good point.
"Teacher, what about the trespasser sensors?"
Thirteen answered first. "We have them, of course..."
"Did they only appear here, or around the whole school?" Todoroki continued the questioning, but Ben immediately answered it.
"Doubtful." He pointed towards the main warp gate. "See those three big shots waiting over there?"
"If they wanted to take over UA, they would have to bring more worthwhile people like themselves, similar to a league. All they have now..."
He looked down at the horde. "... are a bunch of grunts."
"This plan… clearly has a laser focus." the shapeshifter crossed his arms.
Ben wasn't holding back at this point with what he knew. His secret be damned. If villains had really infiltrated their school, he wasn't about to let anything get in front of their safety.
Todoroki then immediately took the word right back from Ben. "Either way, if the sensors are not responding, then they must have someone with a quirk for that."
He put his hand on his chin. "An isolated area from the rest of the campus, with students acting as collateral and extra leverage... "
"They might be fools, but they are not dumb." He finishes which colors Ben impressed.
Who knew that under an edgy persona like that slumbered an actual analytical mind?
"Thirteen, start with the evacuation and try contacting the school." Aizawa took charge. "Regardless of whether it is a villain or a device, there must be a range to it."
"What about you?!" Midoriya calls out. "Will you really fight alone?"
"Midoriya." Ben said. "If we want our teacher to concentrate on the battle, we need to make sure he doesn't need to worry about us and get out of here first."
Well, after getting out, Ben was definitely planning on coming back and helping out, but with these types of situations, it was usually one step at a time.
"I know Tennyson." replied Midoriya. "But Eraser Head's fighting style is capturing after erasing the enemy's quirk and a frontal assault is-"
"You can't be a hero with just one trick."
Right after saying that, Eraser Head took hold of his binding cloths and leaped right over the giant staircase of the USJ, into the mob of countless villains below!
"Shooting squad, let's go!" says one of the three grunts as they get ready to open fire on the approaching "..." , only to see that no bullets were coming out. "My quirk..."
"What the hell? Who is t-" he gets interrupted, as they get wrapped up by the cloths and are collided in the air by the pro hero!
"Idiots! That's Eraser Head! He can erase our quirks by- ah!"
The pro hero doesn't wait for the words to be finished though. He immediately starts going on a rampage, trying to erase, tie up and take down as many villains as possible in a short time frame.
"He's efficient." Ben says as he scrolls through his aliens. "And if he's really more efficient in one-on-one matches, I better pick someone to handle the masses. That should give him the breathing room to take down the big shots."
But first, he needed to secure the safety of his friends.
"Come on Midoriya!" He grabbed him by the arm and pulled him along. "This is no time to give the play-by-play."
The group sprinted towards the door and even though some of them had speeding quirks, they chose to stick together behind their teacher Thirteen.
However before they make it to the door..!
"I admire the attempt!" the same black and purple vortex opens up in front of them. "Though, no one's going anywhere."
Up close he really was just a dark colored mist with yellow eyes, standing before them with his arms stretched out, almost like he was about to hug the entirety of the class.
"Nice to meet you."
Ben immediately gets ready to slap the dial at a moment's notice. He definitely didn't want to act on impulse in front of a warpgate quirk who also happened to be one of the big shots besides the handy guy and jolly purple giant.
"We're..." he starts. "The League of Villains."
"It may have been presumptuous of us, but we have invited ourselves into the birthplace of heroes, U.A. High School, to watch as the Symbol of Peace, All Might, drew his final breath."
He clearly had a flair for the dramatic and Ben was just left staring at him…
"I believe All Might should have been-" He continued but Ben honestly could not listen anymore.
"League of Villains, really?!" He put his hand on the bridge of his nose and exhaled. "Ugh..."
Midoriya took notice. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Ben waved it off as he stood behind Shoji to not take the attention of the villain. "I'm just getting too much Dr. Animo energy, that's all."
Ben questioned his initial reaction. Maybe he had overreacted a bit… After all, he had taken down people many times more threatening than this before.
But, this didn't change the fact that they were dangerous. He had to keep in mind that they had still sneaked to the number 1 hero school and that, even though they had B-lister villain energy, was no small feat.
"...This is the part I am to play." Kurogiri says as Ben notices Thirteen remove a cap from her finger.
"She's going to use her quirk." Ben took note and noticed a fatal flaw in her plan. "Someone needs to prevent him from warping away."
He turned his gaze to the Omnitrix and pushed on its rims. "It's hero time."
Kurogiri raised up his arms and the mist grew even more wild than before!
As it was about to consume them, Thirteen raised her finger.
But, before the villain could act, several tendrils shot out from the ground and wrapped themselves around his arms and legs!
"Thirteen, now-" a deeper and raspier voice said but was shortly interrupted by two others jumping into the action.
"Get out of my way, freak!" Bakugo yelled out as he leapt up to the villain's face with Kirishima and blasted him away with an explosion!
"What do you think of this role?" Kirishima also taunted him as they landed back to the ground.
Smoke had covered the area and the heroes were left smirking with the surprise attack they pulled over him. However…
"You dumbasses!" Ben yelled behind them. "He's just going to-"
Kurogiri rises, losing that arrogant aura. "That... HURT!"
The mist grew even more unstable and started to spread at full tilt.
"No! Get back, both of you!" Thirteen shouts.
"SCATTER AND BE TORTURED TO DEATH!"
The entire area was immediately covered in a mystical purple fog.
As the screams of the students got silenced one by one, Kurogiri's laugh under his breath quickly filled the void.
"You may all have wonderful quirks… but in the end, you're all still just children."
Just as he was about to stroke his ego for a bit, a green hand shot out from the darkness and attached itself to the roof!
"What the hell?!"
"That… was too close." a brand-new green figure said as he lifted himself and three others out from the darkness. "You guys okay?"
"Yep, all good here." Kaminari replied.
"T-Th-Thank you." Mineta said with a jittery voice with tears also appearing under his eyes out of fear.
And Aoyama cheered with sparkles coming off from him. "Merci!"
The figure nodded and with the purple dome disappearing, he slowly started to lower them to the ground and Kaminari decided to look up to their mysterious savior.
From what he could see, he had a skin that had all the shades of the green color as well as a big blue eye in the middle of his face. Instead of five normal fingers, he had four vine-like ones and he and his friends were currently dangling off from three of his five tendrils which were equally vine-like.
On top of all of that, he had two flytrap-shaped flaps with teeth covering his head, and lastly several black pods on his back.
Kaminari knew he was no academic genius, but considering what he saw so far from this new school, he surely had a pretty good guess.
"Is that you, Tennyson? Your eighth form?"
The figure looked down. "Yep."
"S-So, what do you call this one?" Mineta asked, trying to distract himself from the current situation.
Ben answers nonchalantly. "His name is Wildvine."
"Wildvine?.." Aoyama repeats. "Sounds interesting but..."
He takes one more look at Ben's new form.
"I don't know if he's really that flashy."
Ben smiles and acts coy. "Well, he still got the job, didn't he?"
Kaminari jumps the gun. "Yeah... We really owe you big time."
"Don't sweat it." Ben replies as he lands to the ground. "Now, everyone off."
The three students get off from Wildvine's tendrils and get immediately bombarded with Kurogiri's attention.
"Hey, you! Overgrown weed!"
Ben looks over. His voice didn't harbor aggression. There was just... interest.
"We weren't expecting any more special forces.… Mind sharing with me your name? And who you are?" he continues but the shapeshifter refuses to answer.
If he really didn't know, leaving him in the dark would be their best bet. Now, to take stock of the situation...
Discounting the Kaminari, Mineta and Aoyama who were saved by him, there really wasn't anyone left...
Thanks to Iida's reflexes, Uraraka and Sato weren't teleported away either but… that was it.
Only 6 of the other classmates were left to stand alongside Thirteen.
"It's risky." he thinks. After all, they barely had any combat experience and he would be relying on a rescue hero to hold off a villain. "Well, we can't evacuate them now..."
He looked down at Eraser Head, giving his all against the horde of grunts, as well as the big brute and the man of 12 severed hands.
"What other choice do we have?"
"Thirteen." Wildvine called out and the rescue hero questioningly turned to him.
"Yes, Tennyson?"
With a grim expression, he asked: "Can I leave things here to you?"
"What do you mean?" She raised one eyebrow before both of her eyes widened with realization. "No..."
His classmates also stepped up.
"Definitely not!" Iida said. "Have you seen what's down there?"
"Yeah Tennyson, they will tear your plant form to shreds." Sato also worried. However...
"No, they won't." Ben opposed. "Wildvine has some crazy self-regeneration. Nothing will happen to me."
"But what will happen when you're not Wildvine?" Uraraka asked.
All this time, she had been trying to keep her composure, but she had to crack at some point!
"What will happen when you turn back?" She asks and Ben flinches for a second. However, this wasn't time to get cold feet.
"I'll make it up as I go." he says which only earns him more criticism.
"We have to stick close, Tennyson." She says. "That's the best fighting chance we'll have."
However, Ben shook his head. "No Uraraka… Remember that they came here to take out All Might."
He puts her hand on her shoulder.
"And now that they scattered our group around, I'm starting to doubt whether that's a bluff or not."
She was still uneasy, just like everyone else.
"It's too dangerous..." Thirteen still protested but Ben just couldn't spend more time easing worries.
"Very well then..." he put a confident smile on his face. "Let's get dangerous."
And then he leaped towards the action!
"Tennyson!" Thirteen tried to grab him, but it was too late. There were more pressing matters.
She turned around and faced the villain.
"You know, I have been tasked to keep you and your students in, Thirteen."
He narrows his eyes.
"So I allow you to have your chat with your students, even though I don't enjoy being ignored."
Thirteen opens the cap on her finger and tries to bluff. "Aren't you worried about what will happen down there now?"
Kurogiri however smiles under his sleeve. "Not even a little bit."
"HA!" Aizawa grunts as he entangles another villain while landing a flying kick at another one and knocking her out cold. "Damn…"
However, two more villains were nothing. They were just continuing to get up and fight!
"Just where did they find this many grunts… It's exhausting!" as he elbowed another one in the face and then threw him on top of three others. "And to think, I barely made a dent..."
His hair fell down again.
Normally, he couldn't care less about what the number one hero had going on with him, but this was not a normal time.
"It's typical of him to be this irrational…"
He knocked another grunt.
"...I just hope this teaches him some consequences."
But Aizawa didn't really have time to worry about how this would affect his colleague in the future.
He had to make it out of this fight first, and even though he didn't need it, it would be great to have just a bit of-
"Get down!" he heard from above.
Three small black pods flew right over his head and hit the villains behind them, making them explode right on impact!
"What was that?"
He looked above and saw a venus flytrap touch down the ground next to him.
"How are you doing, Mr. Aizawa?" the plant smiled.
"Tennyson?" he immediately asked back. He knew no one else looked like that and had that kind of attitude.
So, his expression hardened. "I thought I made it clear to you. You should have stuck with Thirteen."
However, Ben had that song and dance before.
"And leave you with this hungry pack of wolves?" He tripped up another villain that was rushing at them and threw them right at the wall. "I don't think so."
"I bet he really wants to shut off my quirk and give me a flight up the stairs..." Ben thinks. "Thankfully, even his erasure, can't help him with that."
The fact that Aizawa's quirk did not work on transformation types was definitely a big bonus here since this meant that he could help to his heart's content without the secret of his Omnitrix being on the line.
The only things he would be risking would be his life… and possibly his enrollment. He didn't know how hero schools were, but going against teacher's orders in a crisis were probably grounds for expulsion...
"Ugh… You're a really big piece of work, Tennyson. You know that?" Aizawa tied up two more and chopped them on the back of the neck for the knockout.
Apparently his teacher had realized the inevitable situation too, much to Ben's relief.
"Yep, I get that a lot..." he replied."So does that mean-?"
"Unfortunately yes..." Aizawa says as his hair falls one more time and he resists the urge to scratch his eyes. He knew that if he acted weak now, more could be inclined to jump in to overwhelm them both. "Stick close and be careful..."
The only thing that he could do now was defeat more villains than him and…
He looked over to the fountain.
...keep him far away from those two. In the meantime...
"What is that plant?.." Shigaraki pondered under his breath.
It was no other pro-hero that's for sure, the schedule didn't have-
"Wait a minute..." his hand made its way to the side of his face.
It was true that the curriculum they got didn't cover him. It had All Might, not some hedge. So... Could that have been a replacement for All Might? Were they... duped?!
It was possible for the principal of this school, Nezu.
"Duped… by a rat?!" he itched away at his face with volatile fury while also watching the two heroes slowly dispose of his crowd, taking care of multiple grunts each in the very same breath.
They had fallen for a bait?! SOME STUPID BAIT?!
He and his master had planned this for months! Was this a fucking joke?!
His fingernails finally drew blood.
"Did they know how much he-?!"
Suddenly a strong shockwave blew some of his hair into his eyes and knocked him out of his craze.
"What..."
He looked at the field. It was one of those pods that the plant was throwing around. It's explosion had slightly budged the hand on his face.
"What was I..." he stopped. It didn't matter.
"Don't just throw those around!" he heard Eraser Head shout which made the plant give a thumbs up.
"All Might is not here today…" he admitted at last.
But, he wasn't about to let this trip go to waste for that.
Shigaraki looked at the Nomu next to him and, regaining his composure, he made his declaration.
"I don't care who he is…" he said with a sinister tone. "He is messing with my toys."
His master had given him his chance.
"Today is your day of fate, Tomura. Pay those so-called heroes back for the suffering they have brought upon you." he repeated his master's words. "Let this be… your debut."
And he was right. Today WAS his day. And no one was about to mess it up.
He raised his hand again, however instead of continuing to itch, he touched a very high-tech earpiece that was given to him.
"Time is up. Get back here with th-"
As Shigaraki said that though, another explosion went off near him. This time though, it hadn't come from the plant.
It came… from the Shipwreck zone.
Like a geyser, an astounding amount of water had suddenly shot up into the air, with a boat right on the top of it.
"What is going on now?" he thought to himself and turned his gaze over. After all, today was filled with all kinds of surprises.
As it stopped ascending and slowly went down to crash, his eyes caught something…
Two students, with one having a hold over the other, were in mid-air… like they had jumped…
Shigaraki noticed the boat again that was now completely in pieces, and the villains that were coming out from that vicinity to look for their portion of the students again.
He narrowed his eyes and touched the earpiece again.
"Change in plans. Tell me when that little pet project of yours will be ready..."
However, what Shigaraki didn't pay attention to was that some curious eyes were also staring back at him… Or in this case, a curious eye.
"What are you doing handy buddy..." Ben thought as he smashed another villain's face to the pavement. "You're surely doing something more than just standing there menacingly."
Wildvine really couldn't quite tell what he was doing. The two were quite far away from each other and he still had some grunts to take care of.
The only thing he could tell was Shigaraki's hand, real hand, being on his ear and his head moving but what was he-!
Reality slapped him in the face. Of course he was communicating!
But with who? Another villain? Maybe to the purple mist up top?
And what was that shockwa-
"Tennyson!" he heard Aizawa's shout. "Finish up here and go to the shipwreck!"
Ben nodded as Eraser Head got blindsided by another villain!
"Take this!" he shouted and launched multiple arrows, all shaped like lightning bolts, right towards the hero!
"Another long range..." Aizawa thinks as he jumps back and dodges all of them, not knowing that he... made a big mistake.
Below him, the villain smiles under his mask.
With another lightning rod on the bow, he draws the string back. "You can't dodge mid-air, Eraser Head! We win!"
The villain lets it loose, however the pro-hero had no intention to give up.
Aizawa immediately grabbed his binding cloths, unraveling them and without wavering, swung them around and caught the bolt!
The villain couldn't believe his eyes. "No! No one's that good!"
But Aizawa kept his cool.
"Guess what..." he took the bolt in his hand. "...I am."
And as soon as Aizawa landed, he threw it right at another villain in the back, before running up and knocking out the first one!
"That's that..." he stretches his neck and then looks over. "Tennyson?"
"Right here!" Wildvine replies as he faces off against a mutant-type villain with pristine technological armor.
"Listen here, you horticultural terror." he pointed towards him with all kinds of bravado. "Your kind's time in the limelight has come to a close. With my rapid advancements in robotics, I will render your greenery here obsolete! Behold!"
His hands sink back into his armor and out comes two saw-blades that were larger than Wildvine's head!
"Saw-blades..." Ben thinks and then looks around. There were still two more who were, from what he could tell, looking for their opening.
"I think I have an idea..." He thinks and then returns to laughing. "Okay, if it means I can be quick with this, I'll gladly play this part."
"Let's see what you've got!" Ben yells out and cracks his whips towards the enemy. The villain on the other hand either allows them to hit or slices them off. He was clearly confident of this matchup.
However Wildvine then, instead of cracking it, he entangles his whip around one of the villain's arms!
Seeing the smirk on Ben's face, he lets out a roaring laughter. "What's that supposed to accomplish, you chloroplast-filled do-gooder?"
Just as he says that, thorns grow out of Wildvine's arms.
But, they fail to pierce the armor and in a moment, drunk on cockyness, the villain replaces his hand back and instead pulls him close!
On the ground, with a saw-blade over him, Ben yells out."Oh no!"
Eraser Head does turn to help, but soon finds Ben winking back at him, like he has a plan.
Or... at least he assumes that was a wink since Wildvine only had one eye to begin with.
"Time to end th-" he holds up the blade up high, to strike it down, but-
"One phrase..." Ben says.
"What?"
"I wonder if you have heard this one phrase, you overgrown weed wacker!" All of his seeds drop off from his back at the same time. "Now you see me..."
The villain turns around and sees the two villains rushing at them! "No, you buffoons!"
"...Now you don't!"
A smokescreen covers the entire area.
He tries to wave it away, but as soon as he does, he doesn't find anything. Wildvine was gone!
Shivers run down his spine as he squints his eyes inside the armor.
To cope a little bit, he yells. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"
There was no answer. The only noise made were the ones coming from the outside, as well as his spinning saw blade.
He takes a couple of steps forward and continues trying to regain his composure. And it doesn't take long for him to laugh at his initial fear.
"Heh! Of course you wouldn't come out!" He calls out as he continues to walk. "You know why?"
He puts his hand around his mouth for this one.
"Because you're just a little root! Just a coward!"
At that moment, two objects drop down from the ground right to the bottom of his feet.
He looks down and in that moment of realizing what those were, his heart skips a beat.
Those were the roughed up bodies of the previous two villains!
The villain's eyes frantically look around as he raises his head however...
"A coward, am I?"a chilling tone speaks from behind.
"There!" he turned around… but there was nobody there.
"There is just… no way." he despairs. "I'm pretty sure my sensors- AHHH!"
Tendrils rise up from the ground below and immediately encircle him!
He tried to cut them off with the other saw-blade but some vines had stopped the main motor from spinning!
"Then… Let me show you..." The main body of Wildvine rises up in front of him with his hand sharpened so much that it looked like a claw. "...What a true natural disaster is."
"No! No please!" he cries out, closing his eyes with fear.
When he opened them back up, he wasn't dead…
And by the looks of the smoke, he wasn't knocked out either. However, the back of his neck was feeling a bit breezy.
He tried lifting up his armor's arm to check but he couldn't. He was stuck!
"What!" he yelled.
It had just hit him. He didn't need no goddamn check, the armor's motor controls were offline!
"What did you do, you photosynthesising-" the villain cried out to Wildvine.
And, granting his wish, the hero appears before him and shows a part of his armor in the claw.
"Me?" he asks, acting coy. "I just took this out. It seemed important."
"My neural interface! You'll pay for-"
"Yeah yeah, put it on my tab." Ben ignores him and then walks out the smoke to meet up with Eraser Head.
"Was that everyone?" Ben asks.
"What? You wanted more?" Aizawa replies coldly and then cracks his knuckles.
"So, what was that about a shipwreck?" Ben asks and his teacher points to the shipwreck.
"The source of that shockwave was from there. If what you say about the students being scattered is true-"
Ben didn't have to listen anymore. He had got the message loud and clear.
"On it." Wildvine confidently replies and the flaps on his shoulders close, just before he sinks underground.
He still had 3-4 minutes or so. It should have been more than enough!
He drilled his way through the cement ground. Thankfully there were no conduits or water pipes because he just couldn't care about going around them right now. He only had his one goal.
"Come on..." he thought. "Please hang in there a little bit longer, guys…"
As he got closer, he could still hear the shockwaves' effects on the ground.
"If I were a betting man…" he thought. "That could either be Midoriya or Bakugo."
"But considering that we're near the water, I would bet on the former..."
To the greenette's credit, he was getting better at using his powers during training. The punch that he had thrown at him while he was Water Hazard was pretty solid.
However from what he saw during the battle trial, Midoriya still had a ways to go… which made this situation dangerous.
Suddenly, the cement ground made way for dirt and roots.
"Bingo..."
This was it. The little amount of grass between the center and Shipwreck area.
He immediately surfaced and opened the pads around his head. "Midoriya!"
There was no answer.
"This isn't good… Midoriya!" he called out again.
There was no answer again, however…
*Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!* *Bee-*
Ben looked down at the dial on his chest. It was blinking green and making noise. "And now you had to breakdown on me, fantastic..."
Did that JUST recalibrate on him? Man, when he gets the chance to see Azmuth again he will-
His eye catches something.
"There!"
In the shallow parts of the Shipwreck area, there were Asui and Midoriya's bodies, face first in the water.
"I'm here guys!"Wildvine lifted them up with both hands.
With the way he picked them up, their backs were turned to him and he couldn't look at them face to face but Ben couldn't care less. With his tendrils, he could feel them breathing and their hearts beat.
And then there were also the two broken fingers of Midoriya. They must have saved themselves from the villains!
"Man, am I glad to see you guys!" he exclaimed. "I was so worried that you wouldn't be able to save-"
"Hey bastards! Don't think you could get away from us!"
Wildvine then saw a couple of villains running towards their location but he immediately used his tendrils to tie them up.
"Some people just don't know what privacy is..."
He picked his classmates back up and the Omnitrix immediately went back to blinking again.
"What's with you today?" he thought to himself. "You never did this before."
It was almost as if…
He turned the two classmates around to face him... and the sight that followed made his blood run cold.
"What did they do..." he uttered under his breath.
There were two small, purple and incredibly disgusting creatures just leaching off from them!
"I-I'll save you guys!" he said, trying to hide his surprise. "Don't you even worry!"
Ben definitely had never seen anything like them before. Trust me, if he saw a brain exposed octopus like that, he would know!
He grabbed the creatures. "Here goes nothing."
And pulled with all his might!
"Come on!" he yelled in the moment but all that followed was the agony-filled screams of the students.
"Oh! Sorry!" He retracted his arms. Brute force wasn't going to do it.
"I don't get it…" he said. " Who would do this to you?"
He asked like there was anyone around to answer. But to his surprise, someone did speak...
"I would."
And then punched him in the face with cold, unforgiving metal! It was Rojo!
"I've been waiting a long time to do this, Tennyson! Consider this my welcome back party!"
Then, like it was on the flip of a switch, Asui and Midoriya got up to their feet, and stood beside her.
"And don't worry… I made sure to fill the guest list."