My Hero Automata

Summary: It's time for Day 2 of the Heroics Tournament! This time, the students have to show off their ability to work together in randomized groups to rescue people from disasters!

Chapter 18: Heroics Tournament Day 2

"It's so arousing to see your youthful faces~! Are you all ready to get sweaty together today? Mmmm, just thinking of all those squirming muscles as everyone ends up in compromising positions is making me eager!"

It was Midnight that had taken the stage this time, to present the day's events. The Dean was conspicuously absent, likely with either the second or third years. Izumi suspected he'd actually prefer to be here, given that the older students were presented fewer new variables for him to enjoy. But she supposed he needed to show himself relatively unbiased. Not to mention that the older students were the ones that would have the media spotlight on them. As it was, it was kinda funny to see Group B react to the oozing sexuality of their sensei. Group A had already started getting used to it, but those poor souls in Group B probably hadn't had any exposure to her beyond the media. Most of the boys of Group B, and at least two of the girls for that matter, were riveted to far more than Midnight's words…

"As some of you might have guessed, where yesterday was all about your individual efforts. Today is all about teamwork! While today's events won't have quite as much effect on your placement in the 1 vs 1 Tournament, today is in some ways even more important than tomorrow! The team events are what virtually all of the hero agencies scouting first years will be most interested in. It does them no good to take on an intern that isn't a team player, after all!"

Spinning on one heel from where she'd been stalking the stage, deliberately sending her boobs bouncing and swaying with the motion, Midnight snapped her fingers. Like the day before, the large wall display lit up. Unlike the previous day, however, it showed a four-way split image. Each quadrant of the screen showed off an enclosed stage of some sort that each appeared themed after the elements. In the upper left corner, there was a mountain with numerous rope bridges, clearly loose rock, and tricky inclines. Scattered all over its slopes were standard recuse dummies, in various degrees of danger. In the upper right was an urban sprawl being hit by hurricane-force winds, with dummies taking shelter in various semi-exposed places. In the lower left were a series of small 'islands' being tossed about by rough 'seas' in a giant pool, the dummies there were everywhere from in the water, on the islands, and aboard various boats of differing sizes. The last screen, the lower right, showed the wreckage of a fuel tanker dumped over a fake bridge, the fuel alight and burning. The dummies there were scattered to and fro, from other wrecked cars, to one that was even hanging over the edge of the bridge. Even together, the area in the zones was probably only half the size of the USJ, but they were still seriously impressive both individually and taken as a whole.

"What we have for you today is four time-critical rescue scenarios. I will tell you right now, that these scenarios are designed to be completely impossible for one person, even All Might, to save everyone alone. This will force you to work with teams, randomly selected teams. Just as you would if you arrived at the sight of a real disaster. You'll need to work together to quickly prioritize victims, eliminate dangers, and overcome any unexpected events we throw in to complicate things. You will almost certainly fail to save everyone, a fact that too many heroes are blasé about. You will be graded on how many you save as a team and how well you work together to do so. With points docked from everyone for any 'victims' that don't make it."

Most of Group A were looking at Izumi and Momo, clearly grateful that they'd put together the team exercises. As well as probably hoping they would be paired up with one of them. Group B, on the other hand, was looking more than a little pale. Had they not had anyone point out to them the likelihood of team trials? Was it really that unknown? Izumi really needed to check her assumptions…and also possibly check how much of her information about the exams might have come from 2B's hacking habits, without Izumi realizing it. Oh well, there was nothing to be done about it now.

"Now, my adorable little students, you'll be heading into the room next door in a moment. These tests are done in groups of five, with all four stages running simultaneously. You will, of course, be shuffled through all four stages over the course of the day, though you'll have an hour to rest and recover between each run. Once you head into the adjoining room, find an Ectoplasm clone! He'll inform you which of the twenty doors to go through and if you're part of set one or set two. Good luck!"

The double doors to the next room over swung open, and a rumbling mumble began as all the students began standing and drifting toward it, with various levels of eagerness and trepidation on their faces.

... ...

Izumi pouted even as she prepared herself. Momo and she had been separated between Set 1 and Set 2, meaning it wasn't possible for them to end up on the same stage. Something she suspected might have been intentional despite the claims of randomness. Still, even as she pouted and waited for the signal to start, her eyes skimmed the data 2B's Scout Pod was feeding her. She probably wasn't supposed to know that she'd been assigned to the Fire Zone first, given that there was still a solid metal door between her and the zone. There was a countdown clock ticking down right in the center of it, letting her know why she was still waiting. Presumably, the needed to make sure both that everyone was in place to start, and that the Stage was at precisely the right conditions.

If they hadn't intended her to know where she was going, however, they really should have been more careful. After all, even without 2B's sensors, her current partial transformation was showing heat data from beyond the door that could only mean something was on fire. Probably a lot of something. Which meant the fuel truck scenario, unless they'd shown completely wrong scenarios, which Izumi deemed unlikely. Maybe for older years that level of going in blind might make sense. For first years, not even a hint of what they were going into was a great way to end up with badly injured students. No, it was likely the bridge scenario. Unfortunately, even 2B's sensors had only been able to find two of her four teammates, positioned in such a way that Izumi suspected she and they would be coming in from one side of the bridge while the missing two came in from the other end.

One of the two she had identified was Iida. Which was good but not great. He got along with her well enough and was likely to work with her. On the plus side, he was almost certainly trained by his family for this sort of thing. On the negative, he hadn't showed up to a single teamwork event, so they didn't have any real synergy. That would be compounded by the fact the other student she could currently identify was from Group B and, frankly, a terrible match for this particular disaster. The files 2B had gotten from somewhere Izumi wasn't going to ask about listed Shiozaki Ibara's Quirk as 'Vines.' Able to control, to an extreme extent, the Vines that grew from her scalp in places of hair. Unfortunately, those Vines weren't listed as fireproof, which was going to make a usually-powerful Quirk a bit more of a liability in this scenario.

Izumi took a deep breath and began listing out priorities based on what she'd seen of the zone footage. Sure, she only had fifteen seconds left. But with hyper cognition activated? That might as well be an eternity…

... ...

Izumi jumped on her second step into the zone, getting significant air for a bird's eye view of the fake disaster area. Hyper cognition activated as two sets of eyes and a dozen scanners darted over the situation. Iida was already accelerating straight toward the disaster. Shiozaki was…looking pale as she was processing which zone she'd ended up in. Her vantage point was able to finally identify the other two people in the zone with them. Kamakiri and Honenuki from Group B. The latter was excellent, the former a possible problem, but only if she let him become one. Known to be aggressive…but also known to revel in cutting things. If she gave him a direction to do just that, he'd probably go with it. And Honenuki being here was seriously great news. She dropped out of hyper cognition mode and tapped into everyone's com gear.

"Honenuki, on the trailer! It's going to explode in less than three minutes. There are no load bearing supports right below it. Sink it straight through the bridge, please. I'll cut the link to the cab and get the driver out before you reach it. Kamakiri, check your scouter HUD, I've highlighted five trapped civilians we'll need to cut free and you're our best bet. Be fast but careful. Shiozaki, there's a car highlighted on your HUD about to go over the bridge side, no flames near it. Bring it back or get the people out, I don't care which. Then start getting everyone you can reach without ending up on fire out of danger. Iida, you know what to do. Prioritize the one's closest to the flames, but leave the trapped set for Kamakiri, he'll be able to get them out faster than you. I'll join you after I get the driver. 2B is on overflight and will keep your HUDs updated with any new dangers or updates, keep one eye on them."

Hoping they would all take her suggestions, Izumi landed and kicked off again, this time keeping her speed linear as she raced forward. She bypassed Iida's rapidly-moving form in a few heartbeats, going slightly airborne again a moment later as Virtuous Contract formed in her hands. She'd already covered the distance to the truck, the jack-knifed trailer and cab only meters in front of her as she lashed out. The shockwave attack was as sharp and focused as she could make it, disrupting the truck only a little as it severed the twisted linkage between the cab and the trailer full of fuel. Ignoring the flames, knowing that both she and her uniform were both thoroughly fireproof, she shifted direction to land on the hood of the cab.

The dummy inside was marked as 'seriously injured, but living' and she grimaced. Moving him was a risk, but the correct risk. As close to the flames as he was, the smoke and heat would kill him. Even if moving him made his situation worse, it was still the right call. Still, she should try to mitigate the damage of motion. The glass was already shattered, but not gone. Two swipes with Virtuous Contract and a rough pull had a big enough chunk of it removed for her needs. Izumi pulled a brace for the dummy's neck out of her digital space, before using a much more careful strike to sever the dummy's seat belt. She caught the dummy in as gentle a telekinetic grip as she could manage before it moved more than a centimeter or two, and did her best to apply the brace without moving its neck. She didn't succeed entirely, of course, but it was the best she could do in a situation like this. Brace applied, she pulled 'him' forward, through the glass, as best she could. Again, not optimal. But the flames were literally licking at the cab door. Getting him out that way was out of the question.

A few seconds later, Izumi had the dummy braced into a flat position with her telekinesis and lept over the flames. She used her own body as a spring, softening the landing by partially folding under the dummy, then shifted it to lie just over the ground. She summoned a Spine Board below it as quick as she could. Deft, practiced hands strapped the dummy to it…and then she nearly jumped a foot when Iida appeared at the other end. Her surprise only lasted a minute as she realized he'd seen her and knew the drill with injuries like this one. She could have done it alone, but using her telekinesis for something this delicate was mentally taxing, so she nodded gratefully. They both picked up an end and moved the dummy away from the accident scene as fast as possible. There was a triage area at the end of the bridge, clearly marked and likely meant to represent the point that ambulances and such would arrive at. They dropped the man there and both of them zoomed back towards the flaming wreckage.

Even as they did, Izumi was gratified to see the burning fuel tanker sinking through the bridge. Excellent, that was the worst complication dealt with. And Shiozaki was already pulling the car at the edge of the bridge back fully onto the bridge. Kamakiri looked entirely too happy as he cut his way into a car to get a dummy out, too. Everything was going as well as she could have expected. Using 2B's bird's eye view to pick out the next most dangerous spot, Izumi darted back in to help…

... ...

Momo was doing her best to make use of her completely unexpected ability to fly. She hadn't meant to start flying when she lept up the slope of the mountain zone. But, apparently, flying was now a thing she could do. A thoroughly compartmentalized section of her mind, which sounded suspiciously like Momo's girlfriend, was busy gibbering about where the ability had come from, why now, and how it worked. Thankfully, the 'where' was something she had an instant answer to, as her HUD was showing a new thread of power spiraling off from One for All's massive QE pool. Knowing that, it wasn't impossible to regulate the power to just 'float,' using her suit's maneuvering thrusters for actual propulsion. She'd have to work it out better later. Right now she was much more concerned with trying to pretend she'd known she could do that. As well, of course, as adjusting her plan on the fly, to account for the new information.

Thankfully, her team was manageable. Sort of. She'd ended up with Mineta, but had gotten extremely lucky to end up with Tsu at the same time. For whatever reason, Tsu-san had proven to be the only person in the class that could routinely wrangle Mineta without threats of significant physical violence. Not one to overlook the advantages blind luck had given her, Momo had immediately assigned the two of them to take care of the most likely complication for the instructors to throw at them all. Specifically, the unstable areas of rock left over from the initial rockslide they were 'responding' to. Mineta's Quirk was essentially perfect for temporarily stabilizing those sections, and he was small enough for Tsuyu to rapidly transport him between each such section.

The literally hard-headed Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu might have been a bigger problem, if Kaibara-san hadn't immediately stepped in and pointed out that the 'manliest' place for his classmate to use his Steel Quirk was exactly where Momo had suggested they go. She had, after all, asked them to take one of the areas of greatest danger by focusing on the base of the mountain, where dummies were trapped by the rockslide that they were 'responding' to. Kaibara-san's Quirk would help in getting the trapped 'victims' out, while Tetsutetsu could help tank any hits from additional falling rock. Pointing the danger out had done an excellent job of redirecting the Steel user, and Momo had sent the other Group B student a mental thanks for corralling his fellow.

Momo, meanwhile, had been intending to super jump her way up the mountain and begin moving people down to safety. It was something All Might had shown her how to do safely, and it had seemed so simple. Until, of course, she'd jumped for the first time and found herself flying instead. Now, she was doing essentially the same thing, but was juggling an unknown aspect of her Quirk as she did so. Simply not using it, after she'd shown it off, would cause questions. So she was consciously breaking the golden rule about not using new abilities or moves without testing them first, hoping she could keep it together.

Her train of thought, in which that part of her brain that sounded like a gibbering Izumi was taking more and more control, was abruptly interrupted as she spotted something unexpected. Her eyes widened as she recognized the Villain Bot that appeared at the top of the mountain. She'd watched Izumi's perspective of the entrance exam and new instantly what it was. A missile-launching Venator Bot, one of the entrance exams three pointers! Her hand came up on instinct, fingers flicking with the full 45% power she could currently manage of One for All. To her relief, the air bursts intercepted and shredded the missiles the three-pointer launched before they got more than a few feet. The bot, already half destroyed by the same airbursts, did not survive the follow up laser shot as Momo created a clunkier version of 2B's Pod Laser. The two follow-up bots, that appeared seconds later, never even got a shot off as she eviscerated them with the laser.

Reabsorbing the laser with a satisfied grin, Momo went back to pretending she knew how to fly while rescuing dummies in danger of falling off cliffs…

... ...

It was entirely possible that Kaminari Denki was never more grateful to have met three entirely crazy women before in his life. If he'd been thrown into the water rescue scenario even a month previously, he'd have been nine different kinds of completely fucked. Sure, he wasn't like some of the particularly unfortunate electric-quirk users that shorted out when they came in contact with too much water. But he also couldn't actually use his Quirk in water without risking hurting anyone nearby. Which would have included the recuse dummies. And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that, prior to Izumi and Momo sending him into the possibly-unholy hands of Hatsume, he wouldn't have actually had a way to use his Quirk to his advantage. Not in a pure rescue scenario like this, let alone a water based one.

Now, however, he grinned confidently as he dropped an Uraraka-lightened Kirishima onto the raft nearest the largest 'island,' the one with the sign for a triage station. Kirishima gave him a thumbs up, even as he moved to check on the dummies and try to get the raft moving. Kaminari, meanwhile, kicked in the power-hungry jetpack Hatsume had designed. Her original design had only been good for about ten minutes of use, fifteen at the outside. But with most of the original batteries thrown out for high-density capacitors that could take lots of juice, just not hold it well, he had potentially hours of flight time. And that was only one of the new additions to his gear. As his eyes caught movement below where Uraraka and Awase were using their combined Quirks to patch a massive leak in another boat, he realized he might be about to get a chance to use more of them. He keyed his com system to alert the others.

"Uraraka, look out below! Something is surfacing! Pony, keep trying to rescue the swimmers! If something is in the water they're in even more danger! Uraraka, I'm moving to assist you with whatever that thing is."

'Whatever it was' proved, a moment later, to be some sort of enraged whale bot. Maybe it was supposed to represent a Quirked Animal going amok? Regardless of if that was true or not, Denki grinned hugely. He still couldn't electrocute that thing until Pony got all the 'swimming' dummies out of the water. But the Wire Arrow system Mei had loaded him up with could be used just fine without pumping any juice into it. Time to see if he could slow that thing down by tangling it up…then fry it via the cables once Pony did get all the swimmers taken care of!

... ...

Mina clung to the lightpole, barley managing to keep the dummy she was protecting from going horizontal as a new burst of wind was funneled through the streets. She watched in dismay as Sato's intelligence slowly faded and he seemed confused what he was doing holding up the windblock made of debris and Bondo's glue. A moment later, as Sato shifted in place, the dominos of their crude plan began to fail. A gust of wind slipped past the windblock completely and picked up Komori from where she and Kuroiro had been trying to get into a car to retrieve a dummy. The small girl was outright flung into the air and shrieked in terror as she was swept down the street. Kuroiro immediately freaked out and went chasing after her, leaving the confused Sato alone and bewildered.

Then one of the buildings down the street collapsed. It seemed to happen in slow motion, possibly because this was a test area and the fall had been at least somewhat controlled. But two cars with dummies still in them had just been crushed, and debris from the building was getting picked up and fired down the street. The steady wind wasn't enough to make that debris hurt, but the next gust was going to fill the street with what might as well be grapeshot.

"Fuck!"

Okay Mina. This was a mess. But they'd already gotten most of the more vulnerable pedestrians to safety. Midnight had lectured about this, right? Prioritize. With three of her team disable or distracted, she wasn't going to be able to get to every dummy clear. Sato would be fine, he was still hunkered behind a solid shield. Kuroiro was already helping Komori and she'd have to trust that those two would be able to at least protect themselves. That left her and Bondo, the dummies they were carrying, and the vulnerable dummies in the remaining cars. Spying what she figured was her best chance, she pointed at a big delivery truck they'd ignored until now. Its size had made it resistant to the wind and, thus, a relatively low rescue priority. But it's trailer was enclosed and lucked to be properly sturdy metal.

"Bondo! The truck! I'll melt us an entrance to the back! Throw your dummy in and grab the driver! I'll get the nearest additional dummies!"

The Group B student hesitated, then followed after Mina as she moved without bothering to wait for his confirmation. She could sort of understand the hesitation, given that the truck was actually toward the downed building. But, other than taking refuge in one of the buildings, it was their best bet. And if they did that, they wouldn't be able to rescue any dummies beyond the ones they were currently carrying. As it was, with the gusts as far apart as they had been so far, they should be able to get at least a couple more…and it looked like Komori had gotten her shit together and was building a mushroom fortress around a pair of still-occupied cars farther back. They weren't going to 'save' everyone…but it was the best they could do. This hadn't exactly been a great team matchup. Particularly since she was closest they had to a leader. Which, frankly, really wasn't her vibe…

Hopefully, she could show off a bit better in at least one or two of the other zones. Equally hopefully, maybe she'd luck into getting Izumi or Momo, or even Bakugo, so she didn't have to try and play leader. A role every moment of this exercise made her realize more and more she did not want.

... ... ...

A/N: As you can see, I'm not going to try covering every combination of every event. I don't want the story's progress to get bogged down to a halt by doing that. As such, snapshot views like this will be the norm for the Tournament events, just as I already did with Day 1. On that note...the entire Tournament is written at this point and available on my P-atreon. Day 3 and an afterparty chapter was just posted to early access there today!