[Third Person POV]
Tony's fist slammed into Baymax's at the exact same instant Baymax's punch drove forward, the two strikes colliding in the air. Beside them, Melissa's leg whipped forward in a lightning-fast arc, only to meet the solid block of Baymax's armored forearm with a metallic clang.
There was no outward shockwave—the advanced damping mechanisms built into their suits absorbed the sonic blast—but the ground beneath them fractured all the same. The ground cracked like thin ice, deep spiderweb fissures racing outward in every direction as if the earth itself flinched from their strength. Dust puffed upward in a low, rolling cloud, carried by the sudden updraft of their movement.
The three of them dissolved into a blur of raw velocity. A storm of rapid punches and brutal kicks followed, each strike a flash of silver, red, and electric blue. Their footwork became a frantic ballet—quick steps, sudden pivots, and sweeping slides that guided them around the training field in dizzying patterns.
"Woah…" a few students from both Class 1-A and 1-B breathed, their voices nearly lost to the hiss of displaced air.
Every time fists connected, the impact rang out like the chime of a massive iron gong, a deep metallic resonance that carried across the grounds. There were no visible shockwaves, no theatrical bursts of air—only the pure, heavy sound of power.
Then, with almost casual grace, their movements lifted from the ground. First an inch, then a foot, until their feet barely skimmed the cracked concrete. They hovered, skating across the air itself as their fight accelerated. Sparks crackled off their armor as friction from their rapid dashes heated the atmosphere.
Higher and higher they climbed. Faster and faster they spun around one another until they were little more than streaks of silver and crimson darting through the sky. From the field below they were no longer three distinct fighters but a cyclone of metallic blurs, a twisting helix of motion punctuated by sudden flashes of light each time they clashed. Sparks sprayed in dazzling bursts whenever their blows met.
Heads tilted upward all across the field as teachers and students tried to keep pace with the duel, their eyes darting wildly to follow the unpredictable arcs.
With a sudden burst, rockets ignited along Baymax's back. They screamed into the sky in a swarm of controlled fire, each burning a brilliant blue as the barrage streaked toward Tony and Melissa with lethal intent.
Melissa pivoted midair, her hammer spinning in a perfect circle above her head. Electricity leapt from its head in jagged white forks, each crackling strand hissing through the air. She swung with a fierce twist, releasing a torrent of lightning that met the incoming rockets in a deafening explosion.
The sky erupted.
Heat and light blazed across the rooftop like a miniature sun had detonated, followed by a rolling thunderclap so loud that several students clapped their hands over their ears and staggered back in shock.
Momo reacted instantly. From the pale skin of her arm, a volley of small spherical drones popped into existence, whirring to life before streaking into the air. They zipped upward and stabilized, projecting a massive holographic feed of the battle above the field. The image shimmered with sharp clarity, every flicker of light and every blur of motion suddenly visible in perfect detail.
"That is certainly… useful," Pixie-Bob murmured, her eyes wide as she stared, transfixed by the glowing display.
Momo didn't reply. Instead, she knelt beside Kota and quietly created a pair of noise-canceling headphones, sliding them over his small ears. He barely noticed, his mouth hanging open as he watched the screen with rapt attention, eyes reflecting the flashing lights of the ongoing clash.
Up above, Tony thrust both palms forward and unleashed a barrage of plasma fire. Streams of incandescent blue energy tore through the sky like turret fire, each blast streaking toward Baymax in rapid succession.
Baymax's nanobots responded with perfect precision. The swarm of microscopic machines rippled across his armor, reshaping themselves into a shimmering honeycomb of adaptive hexagonal shields. The glowing lattice flexed and shifted with every strike, deflecting Tony's plasma with sharp bursts of refracted light that splashed like liquid stars across the clouds.
Melissa darted alongside Tony, her hammer spinning like the blade of a hurricane. With each arc she summoned another gust of roaring wind, the air coiling into a tempest that spiraled upward. A dark cloud began to gather overhead, swelling with static as lightning slithered through its depths.
Then, as if drawn by the same gravitational pull, Tony and Baymax lunged forward at the same moment. They met in the center of the storm, their armored hands slapping aside each other's strikes as they fired blast after blast from their palms. Plasma beams, energy bursts, and flashes of crimson light collided in midair like fireworks.
Tony's eyes narrowed behind his visor. He pulled back one arm, focusing every ounce of power into his palm. Energy surged, brightening until it burned like a newborn sun.
"Let's see you block this," he muttered under his breath.
His hand ignited with searing gold, a miniature star forming between his fingers. With a sharp thrust he released it, the compact sphere of solar energy screaming through the air like a comet.
Baymax's shields flared desperately as the blast struck home.
BOOOOOOM!
The fireball engulfed him in a blinding explosion. Flames roared outward in a sphere of molten orange and blinding white. The adaptive hexagons flickered violently, struggling to contain the inferno. For a heartbeat the entire sky seemed to catch fire, the heat so intense it warped the air and painted the clouds in shimmering waves of red.
When the light finally faded, Baymax was still there—but barely. His energy shield flickered erratically, a stuttering lattice of fading blue. Trails of fire danced along the air around him.
Melissa swung her hammer in a downward arc, a spear of lightning ripped free from the sky. The bolt struck Baymax's shimmering energy shield with a blinding flash, crackling across its adaptive hexagonal surface.
The electricity didn't stop. It spread.
Blue-white tendrils crawled across the entire barrier like living veins, surging through every hexagon. The shield flickered, stuttered, and then shattered with a sound like breaking crystal. The full weight of Melissa's lightning smashed through the collapsing wall and struck Baymax head-on.
For a fraction of a second, it seemed like a direct hit. But from Baymax's shoulders, a series of sleek purple rods snapped upward. Lightning rods extended in perfect formation, absorbing the violent discharge in a shower of sparks. Instead of faltering, Baymax's entire frame glowed brighter. The red of his eyes deepened into a molten crimson as the absorbed energy coursed through his body.
"Power conversion: optimal," his synthesized voice reported calmly.
His arms extended out, fingers interlacing before the nanobots swarmed over the plating. In seconds his forearms morphed into a massive cannon assembly, the weapon humming with a dangerously rising pitch.
Tony zipped in front of Melissa, reactor humming as arcs of electromagnetic energy crawled across the plates of his chest. His palms flared, forming a sphere of lightning between them. The orb pulsed violently, rippling with power.
Baymax fired first.
A beam of concentrated energy erupted from the cannon—wide enough to engulf an entire office building. The air around it bent and rippled under the sheer pressure, the beam's roar drowning out the startled gasps of the students below.
Tony thrust both palms forward. An electromagnetic force-field shimmered into existence around himself and Melissa, a translucent dome of rippling light. The beam struck the barrier with a thunderous crack, splitting into multiple streams that skittered across the shield like lightning trapped in glass.
The force was staggering. The impact shoved Tony and Melissa backward through the air.
Baymax's wings flared open, glowing with residual charge. He pulsed his thrusters once—and vanished in a blur.
The atmosphere distorted in his wake, a cone of compressed air tearing apart the clouds as he rocketed toward them at a speed that made the sky scream.
Tony dissolved the force-field in an instant and launched forward to meet him. His gauntlet lit with swirling gravitational energy, the metal of his fist bending light around it, igniting with a violet flare. Across the gap, Baymax's own fist surged with pure lightning, electricity snapping across the air like a whip.
The two streaks of silver and red converged.
Tony swung upward in a brutal uppercut.
Baymax brought his fist down in a titanic hammer strike.
"Tell them to stop!" Aizawa barked as he turned sharply to Mandalay.
Mandalay's eyes flashed as she flung her thoughts outward like a net.
'Stop—!' Too late.
Their fists collided with a sound that defied description. The energies met—gravitational force and pure electricity—and the sky detonated.
A ring of violent shockwaves exploded outward like a tidal wave of compressed air.
Melissa reacted instantly. She planted her feet against the air, gripping her hammer with both hands and raising it like a lightning rod. The weapon absorbed the stray energy bleeding from the clash, siphoning the wild currents before they could rip across the field. Electric arcs danced along the hammer's head like chained serpents as she forced the unstable charge to her hammer.
At Mandalay's telepathic command, Tony's visor flashed a warning. He mmediately disengaged, magnetic fields collapsing as he pulled his arm back. Baymax's sensors flared in response, his own systems halting the cannon's charge.
The three combatants hovered for a breathless second, the air still shimmering from residual heat. Then, wordlessly, they began their slow descent. Melissa's hammer dissolved into silver liquid that flowed back into her hands as the trio touched down before the stunned crowd.
Silence met their landing.
Every pair of eyes—students and pros alike—followed them down. Some stood with their mouths hanging open. Others wore cautious, wary expressions. A few looked like their brains were still trying to process what they'd just witnessed.
Even Aizawa, usually unreadable, pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled in clear exasperation.
Kota tugged his headphones down and blinked wide-eyed at the trio. His small voice broke the silence like a firecracker:
"...LIKE HELL YOU DON'T HAVE QUIRKS! YOU THINK I'M STUPID?!" He pointed at them with an accusing finger, face red with fury and disbelief. "NO QUIRKLESS PERSON COULD EVER DO WHAT YOU JUST DID!!"
The outburst snapped the tension. Several students flinched, others murmured in agreement.
Bakugo clicked his tongue sharply, folding his arms with a scowl. "Tch. You bastards were holding back…"
Heads turned sharply toward him.
"Huh?! What do you mean holding back?!" Pony asked, eyebrows raised in disbelief.
Bakugo snorted, eyes narrowing at the trio. "I saw what that half-robot bastard could do when he fought Endeavor."
Melissa rolled her eyes. "Please. Of course we were holding back. Otherwise you guys would've been implicated in the aftermath." Her casual tone only made the sheer power behind the statement more unnerving.
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