The students stood there in shock as more and more villains came through the portal. Most of their eyes fell onto the approaching enemy, but Len couldn't stop looking at the portal itself. It looked scarily familiar.
Eraser Head lowered his goggles. "Thirteen, protect the students! Get them out of here!"
The villain with the bad posture and the hands approached the bottom of the steps. "The report we stole said there would be three teachers here." He scratched at his neck, as if irritated. "Tell me, where is All Might?" The massive hulking bird-creature came up beside him, standing silently.
The leader villain lowered his hand. "Hmmm. Will killing some kids make the symbol of peace show himself?"
The villains advanced. Eraser Head took another step forward. "How did they get in?" Kirishima asked in disbelief.
Yaoyorozu spoke up, sounding panicked. "What about the sensors that detect trespassers?"
"Huh?" Thirteen turned. "We have them, of course…"
"Did they just appear here, or around the whole school?" It was Todoroki, calm and determined. "This is an isolated area and they knew we would be here. They have some kind of plan. As for the sensors, they must have a Quirk that can disable them somehow."
"Kaminari!" Aizawa said suddenly. The blonde boy started in surprise. "Try contacting the school with your Quirk. Thirteen, begin the evacuation. I will hold them off."
"Sensei!" Midoriya cried. "There's so many of them! Even if you tried to erase some of their Quirks… can you hold off that many on your own?"
Eraser Head turned slightly towards the green-haired boy, and Len thought he might have smiled a little. "You don't become a hero without a few extra tricks up your sleeve."
Then, their teacher dived into the throng.
The students gasped, and the villains rushed to meet him… and then the scarf went ham.
Len could barely follow the combat. Aizawa's garment weaved and wrapped through multiple villains at a time, smashing them together or into the ground. He himself bobbed and waved as other villains got in close, landing well-placed hits whenever he could, and erasing their Quirks all the way through.
"Alright, enough spectating!" Thirteen declared. "Let's go."
The students turned and raced for the exit. Midoriya lagged behind, seemingly dazed by their teacher's fighting. "Midoriya, come ON!" Iida yelled, and the boy caught up. Len's heart was racing. Next to him, Mina appeared similarly panicked. I could just teleport out, maybe go tell someone… but I don't want to abandon anyone if I can help it. Especially her. Hold up. Where had THAT come from?
A purple mass swirled into existence between them and the door. Thirteen stopped short, and the students skidded to a halt behind them.
The portal grew larger and darker. Len swallowed, and suddenly felt his own energy begin to panic. What… What is this? Sweat dripped down his face.
"I am afraid I cannot let you pass," said the portal, and Len suddenly noticed two slitted yellow eyes near the top. This was a person, and their Quirk… was frighteningly similar to his own.
"Nice to meet you," the portal continued, surprisingly polite and verbose. "I am Kurogiri. We are the League of Villains."
"Lame name," Mina muttered under her breath.
"We do not mean to presume, but we have invited ourselves in to UA High School in order to eliminate the Symbol of Peace, All Might."
The class gasped in sync. Len saw Midoriya tense up even more out of the corner of his eye. Meanwhile, his warp energy was spinning in circles somewhere below his stomach.
"We thought he would be here with you. Has there been some alteration to the plan?" The portal began to grow outward in two tendrils, as if those were the villain's arms. "In any case… I shall play my part."
Thirteen opened one of their fingers to counterattack, and then… Bakugo and Kirishima jumped forward.
"NO!" Thirteen yelped, as the two of them leapt into the villain, letting out angry battlecries. Idiots! thought Len.
Bakugo let off an explosion, and smoke and light blinded the class for a moment. The smoke continued to billow.
Kirishima and Bakugo stood firm. "Did you consider that we might fight back?" the former asked, grinning.
As the smoke cleared, the purple mass became visible again… standing right where he had before. "But of course," he answered. "I'm counting on it."
"GET BACK, YOU TWO!" Thirteen cried.
"Now we will see how good of a school UA is," Kurogiri said, and suddenly dozens of dark purple smokey tendrils were snaking out towards the class, enveloping them. "Put up a fight if you wish. But it will all be for nothing. My job is to scatter you." The tendrils wrapped around them, forcing Len, Mina, and Sero to back up against each other, yelping in terror. "From there, our troops will torture you." The smokey darkness grew and grew, covering everything. "And then…" his voice seemed to surround them. "You will die."
Fuck off. In that moment, Len's energy seemed to rear up with deadly focus, and he teleported backwards, getting clear of the portal. At the last second, he saw Shoji leap forward and cover Mina and Sero with a mass of created limbs. Next to him, Iida suddenly appeared, having zipped out into the clearing with Uraraka and Sato in tow.
The portal began to dissipate… and it was just the seven of them, and Thirteen. Everyone else was gone.
"My, my," Kurogiri said, regrouping himself in the original position. "Some of you are still here." For a moment, Len saw his neck, covered by a metal brace. He has a physical body, and it's not hundreds of miles away in some lair. He isn't projecting portals from another location, he's really here. He IS the portal.
Would that work in our favour?
***
Tsuyu Asui was surrounded by dark purple soup. Around her, her classmates were panicking in a lost swarm, and then all sounds faded. Her insides felt funny, like she was being flipped over and over. And suddenly, she was falling.
"Ribbit?" She looked down, and yes! The luckiest thing that could have happened in this lineup of misfortunes. Below her was water. She'd been scattered to the shipwreck zone.
Tsuyu folded into a graceful dive and hit the water with a splash, immediately kicking off with her powerful legs as bubbles crawled over her skin. She kicked, one-two, and propelled herself forward. The lake would have been dark, but she could see very well.
And what she saw directly in front of her was an unconscious Yuga Aoyama, sinking downwards in a limp position, his long blonde hair swaying back and forth.
Tsuyu swam forward and grabbed him; he was surprisingly light. Please please PLEASE don't drown. Up ahead, she saw two more entities, one swimming towards the other. A sharklike villain and Midoriya Izuku. Tsuyu swam up and over the villain, overtaking him, and as he opened his mouth to bite into Midoriya, she slammed down on him with both feet.
"Midoriya-chan!" she declared, her Quirk allowing her to speak clearly underwater. "Ribbit!" With both hands full with Laser Boy, she shot her tongue out and wrapped Midoriya up, slinging him towards the surface. He landed on the deck of the ship.
Tsuyu and Aoyama broke the surface, the latter gasping for breath, water dripping down his hair unceremoniously. "I am indebted to you, mademoiselle," he told her.
"No problem." She retracted her tongue, and then used it to sling him up onto the deck with Midoriya. Lastly, she used her Quirk to climb up the side of the ship.
"Th-thanks, Asui-san," Midoriya said, clearly shaken up.
"Call me Tsu."
Midoriya freaked out for a moment. Meanwhile, Aoyama was trying frantically to wring water out of his cape. I might have to take control here. "This has turned into a bad situation."
Midoriya's eyes narrowed. "Todoroki was right. Did you hear what the portal guy said? They knew All Might was supposed to be here. They stole information during the security breach yesterday. They DO have a plan."
Aoyama laughed derisively, all while frantically beating his cape out behind his back. "You must be aware of how silly you sound, monsieur. All Might shines the brightest of any hero. Even if he shows up, he will simply defeat the enemy."
Tsuyu put a finger to her chin, a nervous tic. She wasn't so sure, but it was difficult to say it. "Aoyama-chan…" she began. "Don't you think they've planned this so hard because they've found a way to kill him? They wouldn't want to get all the way here for nothing. And… that guy said we would die… even IF All Might comes, can we hold out that long?" She watched as the two boys's faces grew more and more stressed, and knew she was freaking them out, but she couldn't help it. Is it because of my expression? I really need to work on that.
Midoriya's face went dark, confused. "But… why?" He seemed lost and terrified, falling into his thoughts.
Tsuyu heard a noise from the water below. She and Aoyama whirled, looking down.
"Bastards! We'll kill you!" At least ten villains were swimming towards the boat, encircling it. From the looks of it, they all had aquatic mutant-type Quirks, like Tsuyu's own.
"This is bad, mon amis…" Aoyama stepped backward from the railing. "Their powers are compatible with our location."
But so are mine, Tsuyu thought. And that portal villain's Quirk reminded her of Len's, just as Midoriya and All Might's Quirk were similar. It felt like there was a grand puzzle just beyond her reach, impossible to solve for now, but… there nonetheless.
"It doesn't matter," a cool voice said behind them. Tsuyu and Aoyama turned.
Midoriya had closed his fist. "If these people truly have a way to kill All Might, then… we have to fight them. We have to win. "