The purple abyss of Kurogiri's mist spat Riko Akabane out into the Forest Zone with the indifference of one throwing their trash. She hit the damp earth hard, rolling through thick undergrowth until she slammed against the trunk of an oak.
Silence did not follow.
As she sat there, slumped against the tree, the rustling of leaves grew louder, not from the wind, but from the synchronised movements of dozens of people. From behind the dense foliage and the shadows of the towering trees, the multiple thugs emerged. There were at least fifty of them: a motley crew of low-rank villains with quirks ranging from mutated limbs to jagged blades.
They formed a tightening circle around her. Riko didn't move. Her head was tilted down, her long hair shielding her face like a curtain. Her breathing was shallow, hitched.....the remnants of the panic attack from the entrance still clawing at her throat.
"Look at this," a man with elongated, lizard-like fingers hissed, stepping into the small clearing. "A girl. One of the 'elite' U.A. brats."
"She looks like she's already given up," another sneered, a woman with metallic spikes protruding from her knuckles. "Hey, kid! Where's that hero spirit? You look like you're ready for a coffin."
The villains began to close in, their confidence swelling as they saw her lack of reaction. They threw out nasty remarks, their voices thick with the petty malice of people who had spent their lives in the gutter.
"oh look, brat, not half bad, maybe after breaking some bones, we can have a nice party"
A large, hulking man with arms made of solid stone stepped forward, his shadow looming over Riko's hunched form. He reached out a massive, rocky hand, intending to grab her by the hair and hoist her up. "I'll take this one. A girl like this... make for a nice trophy."
His hand moved to touch her.
In the span of a millisecond, the air in the Forest Zone seemed to drop twenty decibels.
Riko's hand shot out.
It was a movement so fast the human eye couldn't register it. She reached out and touched the stone man's vest.
Vrummm.
A neon-orange glow instantly bled into the fabric of his tactical gear.
"Wha—?"
BOOM.
The vest detonated with the force of a claymore mine. The villain was launched backwards, his own clothes becoming the weapon that betrayed him.
From there on, the Forest Zone turned into a scene of chaotic, localised demolitions.
From the perspective of villains, it was a nightmare. Riko didn't move like the typical hero; she moved through the undergrowth with the frantic, high-speed agility of a speedster. She moved through them like a demon possessed.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of her custom steel pellets.
Flick. Flick. Flick.
To the villains, it looked like she was just throwing pebbles. But as soon as the pellets touched their clothes, their weapons, or even the dirt at their feet, they turned into brilliant orange stars.
"Stay away! Get back!" one of the thugs screamed, swinging a massive iron pipe at her.
Riko sidestepped the swing and caught the pipe with one hand. The orange glow surged from her palm into the metal. The villain's eyes widened. He tried to let go, but the charge was too fast.
BOOM.
The pipe exploded in his hands, the concussive force knocking him into the dirt, clutching his singed fingers.
Riko moved to the next group. She wasn't using massive, building-level blasts. She was being efficient. Every touch of hers was a death sentence for an object. She grabbed the collar of a villain's vest, charged it, and shoved him into his friends.
BOOM.
The small explosion sent the three of them sprawling, their clothes tattered and smoking.
One villain tried to make a break for it, sprinting toward the bushes. Riko didn't even look his way. She took a single steel pellet, charged it to its maximum capacity, and flicked it with a snap of her wrist. The pellet whistled through the air, catching the man in the back of his knee.
BOOM.
The following explosion ended up taking his leg off from under him and sending rest of him face-first into the mud.
"P-Please! We were just hired! We didn't know the UA had monsters like you!" one of the remaining thugs pleaded, backing away as Riko approached.
Riko stepped closer, her aura so heavy it felt like the oxygen in the forest had been sucked out. She reached out and gently plucked a button from his jacket. She held it up between two fingers, the neon orange glow pulsating rhythmically.
"Its fine, don't worry" Riko said, her voice a low, soft voice as if a mother was lulling her child to sleep, "It doesn't matter what you thought, I will kill you anyhow."
She flicked the button into his lap. He didn't even have time to scream before the concussive blast consumed him.
Riko stood in the center of the now-silent clearing. Dozens of villains lay scattered like broken toys across the forest floor, their bodies smoking and their weapons shattered. She wiped a stray drop of blood from her cheek, a small cut from a flying splinter and looked toward the center of the USJ.
Through the trees, she could see the Central Plaza. She saw dust clouds climbing; it seemed Aizawa was still fighting. She then moved on to the zone nearest to her.
.
.
.
.
In the Earthquake Zone, the air was thick with the smell of pulverised concrete and ozone. The urban ruins were a labyrinth of jagged rebar and collapsed flooring, a perfect hunting ground for the group of villains who had surrounded three students of Class 1-A.
Momo Yaoyorozu stood at the centre of the debris, her breathing heavy. Beside her, Jiro was clutching her side, her earphone jacks trembling as she tried to track the approaching footsteps through the rubble. Uraraka was pale, her hands pressed together to keep her nausea at bay after overusing her gravity quirk to fend off the first wave.
"They just keep coming," Jiro hissed, glancing at the dozen or so thugs closing in from the shadows of a fallen skyscraper.
"We have to hold our ground," Momo said, though her voice lacked its usual confidence. Her skin was glistening with sweat; she was running dangerously low on lipids.
Just as the lead villain....a man with jagged, obsidian blades for arms, lunged forward with a murderous grin, just then ground beneath his feet pulsed with a violent, neon-orange light.
BOOM!
The explosion shattered the concrete and sent the entire line of villains tumbling backwards, their clothes scorched and their bodies limp.
From the settling haze of the blast, a figure emerged. Riko Akabane stepped over the unconscious forms of the thugs with a cold stride. She looked remarkably unbothered, though her eyes were sharp, scanning the area for more threats as she approached the group.
"R-Riko-san!" Momo gasped, nearly collapsing in relief.
Riko moved to them immediately, her hands checking Jiro's side and then tilting Uraraka's chin to check her focus. "You guys look like hell. Jiro, can you move? Momo, how much can you still make?"
"I'm fine... just a graze," Jiro muttered, though she winced.
"I can still produce, but we're pinned," Momo explained. "Communication is jammed. We have no way to tell the school what's actually happening down here."
Riko looked up at the massive, reinforced dome of the USJ. The scale of the disaster was too large for them to fight their way out of, especially with three Nomu in the plaza. If reinforcements didn't arrive soon, the survival rate was going to drop.
"I have a plan," Riko said, turning to Momo. "Momo-chan, I need a flare gun and at least three rounds."
Momo blinked, her analytical mind instantly finding the flaw. "Riko-san, a flare won't work. The USJ is a sealed environment. The dome will block the signal before it can reach the outside atmosphere, and the thick plating will obscure the flares for outsiders."
"I know," Riko said, a lopsided, dangerous grin tugging at her lips. She turned to Uraraka. "Ochaco-chan. You can lift me, right?"
Uraraka's eyes widened as she connected the dots. "You... you want to go up?"
"Momo-chan, make the gun," Riko commanded, taking over the lead. "I'm going to make a hole."
Understanding dawned on Momo's face. It was reckless.....suicidal even, but it was the only way. She immediately began to manifest the flare gun from her arm, the golden light of her quirk shimmering as the device took shape.
Meanwhile, Riko scavenged the ruins, kicking aside a fallen beam until she found a thick, rectangular sheet of corrugated steel. She dragged it to the center of the clearing and stood on top of it.
"Ready?" Riko asked.
Uraraka stepped forward, placing her fingertips on the metal sheet. "Release!"
The weight vanished. Riko and the board began to drift upward. Riko immediately crouched, pressing her hands against the surface of the steel. She didn't have a flight quirk, but the Rex Splode's quirk was enough to turn anything into a propellant.
She charged the bottom of the board.
BOOM.
A small, controlled explosion at the base of the metal sheet acted like a thruster, launching Riko toward the ceiling of the dome at a sickening speed. Uraraka watched from below, clutching her stomach as she maintained the weightlessness.
Riko ascended like a rocket, the wind whipping her hair back. As the massive, hexagonal plates of the USJ ceiling rushed toward her, she reached out. She gripped the metal board between her legs and used one of her to hold on to the dome railing and slammed her other palm against the ceiling's support beam.
Vrummm.
The orange glow raced from her fingertips into the reinforced plating of the dome.
"OPEN UP!"
BOOM!
A massive explosion tore through the USJ's ceiling, a circular chunk of reinforced steel being vaporised into shrapnel. For the first time, a beam of real, natural sunlight pierced through the artificial interior.
Hanging onto the edge of the jagged hole, Riko pulled the flare gun from her belt and fired.
Pshooo! Pshooo! Pshooo!
Three bright red streaks of light shot out of the dome and into the sky above the dome, visible for miles.
"Done," Riko breathed, her lungs burning.
But as she looked down to signal the girls, the metal board she was using to hover suddenly jerked. The weight returned instantly. Below, Uraraka had hit her limit, falling to her knees and vomiting as the strain of holding the gravity for so long finally broke her.
"Ah...crap!"
Riko fell.
She was a hundred feet in the air, a human stone plummeting toward the jagged concrete of the Earthquake Zone.
"RIKO-SAN!" Momo screamed, reaching out uselessly from the ground. Uraraka's eyes went wide with horror, her face pale as she realised she couldn't catch her in time.
Riko watched the ground rushing toward her. Ten meters. Five meters.
Think, think, think!
She couldn't explode the ground, she'd just kill herself with the blast.
She focused every ounce of her will on her combat boots. They were made of thick, reinforced metal coil for the sole; she had yet to charge them. Then, without wasting time, she brought her knee closer and touched the soles of her boots.
Charging... now!
Just three meters from the ground, Riko kicked her legs out.
BOOM!
A twin burst of orange energy erupted from the soles of her boots. It wasn't enough to fly, but the counter-force acted like a makeshift thruster, cutting her downward momentum in an instant.
Riko slammed into the dirt, rolling forward to dissipate the remaining energy. She came to a stop in a crouch, her boots smoking and the soles partially melted, but she was alive.
She stood up, shaking the dust from her hoodie, and looked at the stunned faces of Momo and Uraraka.
"Signal sent," Riko said, her voice raspy but steady. "Now we just have to survive until the pros get here."
THIRD PERSON POV
In the center of the facility, the air was thick with the scent of blood and ozone. Shota Aizawa, his goggles cracked and his capture scarf tattered, stood amidst a mountain of unconscious thugs. He was breathing hard, his eyes bloodshot from overusing his Quirk, but his gaze remained fixed on the leader in the plaza.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion rocked the entire dome. Every head in the facility snapped upward. A massive, jagged hole had been punched through the reinforced ceiling, letting a pillar of pure, natural sunlight cut through the artificial gloom. Then three red flares streaked into the sky, screaming a silent SOS to the world outside.
Tomura Shigaraki stood by the fountain, his shoulders hunching as he stared at the light. His hand went to his neck, his long nails digging into the pale skin in a frantic scratching.
"Troublesome... so troublesome," Shigaraki rasped, his voice cracking with irritation. "The kids are not supposed to be this good, hmm, it doesn't matter….. we will move the game to its last stages then"
He stopped scratching, his red eyes peering through the gaps of the hand on his face. He looked toward the Earthquake Zone, where a figure appeared to be falling from the sky.
"Playtime is over. Kurogiri, the balance is shifting. We need to clear the field before the high-level players arrive." He gestured toward the zones where the stronger students were held. "Nomu. Go and finish that ice-and-fire bastard. And the explosion brat. As for the girl who made that hole... let her come here. I've got a surprise for her, too."
"Stay away from my students, you villain!"
Aizawa lunged, his scarf whipping through the air like a strike team of cobras. He was aiming for Shigaraki, his eyes locked on the leader to erase whatever Quirk he held.
Shigaraki didn't even flinch. He just watched Aizawa with a bored, clinical detachment. "Ugh... I wanted to see you fight more, Eraserhead. Your style is so...cool…but never mind, I can sacrifice on my fun a little." He tilted his head. "Nomu. Finish him."
The original, bird-beaked Nomu blurred into motion, its speed breaking the sound barrier as it intercepted the teacher.
THE MOUNTAIN ZONE
Shoto Todoroki stood amidst a graveyard of frozen villains. The air around him was a mist of frost and steam, his right side coated in ice while his left flickered with a heat he rarely dared to show.
He looked up at the hole in the ceiling, the red light of the flares reflecting in his heterochromatic eyes.
As expected of her, Shoto thought, a rare spark of respect flickering in his mind.
He turned toward the central plaza. He knew Aizawa couldn't hold on for longer; he would need reinforcement. Without a word, he began to move, his ice forming a path beneath his feet to accelerate his descent. He reached the bottom of the rocky cliffs and stepped onto the open floor, his eyes fixed ahead.
Suddenly, every instinct in Shoto's body screamed.
He threw himself backwards, a massive wall of ice erupting in front of him as a shield. A split second later, a pillar of pale green fire descended from the sky. It didn't just melt his ice; it vaporised it instantly, turning the floor into a ghastly inferno of bubbling concrete.
Shoto skidded to a halt, his lungs burning from the sudden heat. He looked up.
Hovering in the air was the slim Nomu. It moved with an unnatural, twitching grace, its pale green flames licking the air like hungry ghosts. It had no eyes, but it seemed to track Shoto's every movement with terrifying precision.
"Another one," Shoto muttered, his teeth gritted.
He launched a massive wave of ice, following it up with a burst of flames from his left side to create a thermal shockwave. The Nomu was caught in the blast, its slim limbs charred and its wings shredded by the ice spears. It fell to the ground, skidding across the plaza.
Shoto didn't let up. He froze its legs to the floor and blasted its torso with a concentrated fire breath. For a moment, it seemed like the battle was over. The creature lay still, half-frozen and half-burned.
"Just a mindless doll," Shoto said, stepping forward.
Then, as if insulted by the comment, the creature's body began to twitch.
With a sound like wet leather being torn, the charred skin of the Nomu peeled away. New, pink flesh knitted together in seconds. The wings sprouted back, and the green flames erupted with double the intensity, turning the surrounding air into a kiln.
The Nomu let out a high-pitched, screeching whistle and vanished. Shoto didn't even see the strike coming. A flaming fist slammed into his gut, bypassing his ice shield like it wasn't there.
Shoto was sent flying across the plaza, his back slamming into a stone pillar with a sickening crack. He tried to stand, his vision swimming, but the green-flamed wraith was already above him.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Author's Greenland
damn people, the comments cooked.....flattery was certainly appreciated....so I humbly request, cook more.....throw em comments and review. Let's get this story a rating.
That said, there are multiple reviews saying I don't use AI in my fic. Sry to disappoint..... I do a little to the extent of fixing the spellings, as I think I'm somewhat dyslexic, to the point where I spelled todoroki in 8 different ways in a single chapter. So yeah, I pointed this out of respect to the authors who don't use AI in their work. Those guys are legends.
So in the end, with that cleared, I continue to ask for your love and support, and...uhh glaze me more....to grow my budding lil god complex.
also bout 2999 words...peace out.