25

Abandoned: Humanity's Drift - Chapter 25 - shansome - 

Akari walked back into the arena more determined than before, her horn on her head and a new skip in her step.

In the short time that the competitors had been away, the entire center of the arena had been transformed into a huge fake city complete with buildings of various sizes, just like the areas they used for hero training. It was a little stunning to think that they'd set this up so fast, actually. Cementoss should be paid double the rest of the staff's salary. 

"Let's welcome our participants, everyone, now returning for the third round of the Sports Festival!" Mic's voice boomed loud, echoing throughout the stadium and instantly drawing the audience's attention once again. Akari and the rest of the remaining participants bunched up together on the field, looking up at the announcer's box.

"Up next we have the...wait, you tell 'em what they're getting into next this time, Eraserhead!" 

"...No thanks."

"C'mon, cmon!" 

"He isn't going to stop until you give in, you know." 

A long sigh. Wow, Aizawa-sensei really didn't want to be here. 

"Fine. The third round will be a Rescue Race, held in an urban setting. Students will form into teams of four and start at different points around the city."

"As the name implies, the goal of this challenge is for your team to rescue as many 'hostages' as possible." The giant screen next to the announcer's box displayed a training dummy, much like the ones used in hero class. "They will be hidden in various buildings, and by carrying the hostage out to safety your team can earn twenty points." The screen changed into a scoreboard listing ten unnamed slots, all with a point count of zero.

"But don't accidentally damage them, listeners, or you'll be losing points instead!" Mic warned.

"Each student will carry a bracelet to list their team's points. You are free to fight other teams, and if you knock an enemy out, they are 'out' of this round and you'll be granted five points. In addition, there will also be robots to attack teams and serve as obstacles. The four teams with the highest point count will pass to the next round."

Oh, this was going to be chaotic.

"One last thing." Vlad King added. "If you step more than twelve meters from the rest of your team at any point, you'll automatically start to lose points. So stick together!" 

Todoroki and Bakugou were definitely not very happy about that last rule.

"You have ten minutes to make your teams, everyone, starting...now. Get to it, yeah!"

And the crowd of students immediately broke into a flurry of movement, jostling and pushing to join who they wanted. Bakugou was immediately covered in bodies, his loud cursing rising above the new noise. 

Everyone wanted to get a strong team, or maybe a tactical one, but with exactly forty people they had to choose fast or be stuck in a team with the people left over.

It was chaotic, loud, and Akari couldn't see a thing. 

Akari's horn glowed white around its edges, reinforcement magic anchoring it to her head as she moved faster and faster, accelerating to ridiculous speeds with just careful steps forward. Every student instantly froze in place, unmoving and quiet once again. 

Akari gave herself a moment to truly breathe-it felt so good to move unrestrained once again-before she looked for her team.

(She ignored the reasonable, logical part of her brain that pointed out that she could sense mana and didn't need to approach the speed of sound just to find anyone. That wouldn't be nearly as fun, after all.)

So far, this all lined up with what Momo knew about past Sport Festivals before the Drift. Granted, they had three events before, not four, but it was still had the same formula. 

First, there was a large, often chaotic round to cut down on participants, always followed by a team-based round. Then, they'd conclude with a 1 v 1 tournament to determine the top three winners. 

Momo was reasonably confident she could pass this round, and more than confident if got a good team...though, what about the fourth round?

How would Momo do well in the tournament? Her quirk was useful, but she really wasn't sure she could beat most of her classmates. Momo might be the class president, but most of them were far more powerful. If she couldn't beat Akari without the girl using any of her abilities, what chance would she have normally?

Momo shook her head, banishing the thought. She could worry about that later, right now she needed to focus on the challenge right ahead of her. First, to think of a team for this round-

"You have ten minutes to make your teams, everyone, starting...now. Get to it, yeah!"

Everyone was already getting together. She didn't even have time to find anyone!

Momo was tall, tall enough to see over the heads of most of her fellow students. She got sight of Jirou near the edges of the crowd, as well as Akari's unmistakable horn(which was starting to glow, for some reason)but she couldn't get to them, trapped by the people around her-

A small shift.

"Ow, you stepped on my foot," Jirou complained.

"Sorry!" Momo apologized on instinct.

Wait, what?

She blinked, seeing the same confusion in Jirou's eyes. Abruptly Momo realized Tooru was there, too and that there were arms around the three of them; draped across their shoulders.

Akari drew back with a smile, a hand automatically rising to check her horn. It was still firmly in place, and the girl's smile widened.

(Momo's friend clearly loved the gift. But Momo really didn't understand how Akari intended to do battle wearing it. Was she going to reinforce the horn and stabilize it on her head the entire time?)

"I got us out of the crowd," Akari explained, drawing Momo's attention again. "We can form an amazing team with the four of us now, and have the spare time to plan...unless one of you wanted a different group, then I'm kinda sorry for pulling you over-"

"Nah, I'm cool with this." Jirou shrugged. "Just surprised. Forgot how ridiculously overpowered you were for a second."

"Thanks. I'm not that overpowered, though." 

"...Yeah, sure."

"I'm totally in." Tooru voiced, excited.

Momo nodded happily. "With the four of us, we have a near-perfect setup. Jirou can locate the 'civillians' easily using her Earphone Jack, and Tooru can scout them out before we rush in. I can make a lot of stuff to deal with robots, and Akari should be able to take out any enemies."

"Are we going to go after other teams?" Akari asked, giving her the lead. 

"If we run into one, we'll attack." Momo decided. "We certainly have the combined strength for it. But a single hostage is worth more than an entire team, so we should focus on rescue over getting into battles."

What was Momo going to need for this? What could she make without her books or tablets on hand?

Momo's quirk hummed in her gut, a warm spark of imagination.

There was a thin line between confidence and arrogance. And for a minute, Monoma Neito had foolishly let himself forget the difference.

Neito was always the first; filling himself with confidence in his skills and his weak, thieving quirk. He tried his best, and couldn't afford to underestimate any of his opponents. People like that blonde, Bakugou, were the second, born with overwhelming strength and no need to even learn anyone's name. 

It was clear from the start of the year that 1-A was given more opportunities, attention, and focus than 1-B, something that only increased after 1-A fought off villains. It didn't matter how arrogant the students in 1-A acted, Neito and his class would turn the tables on them. 

But on that hill, when he faced Midoriya with superior numbers, Neito had been the arrogant one. All he'd seen was a 1-A member outnumbered and with her ridiculously unfair quirk disabled and underestimated her-exactly like Neito himself was always underestimated-and as a result, she was able to beat the four of them with pure skill.

He wouldn't make that mistake again.

Neito stepped through the mass of students smoothly, tapping on a specific one's shoulder. Instantly, the head full of purple hair whipped to him.

He felt the new quirk form inside of him and sit comfortably beside Copy. His throat and mind seemed to tingle the slightest bit.

"Hello." Neito didn't bother putting up his arrogant smirk, staring calmly at the boy in front of him. "Shinsou Hitoshi, was it?"

"Who are you?" Shinsou asked warily.

"Monoma Neito. My team needs one more member. You in?"

"Why should I join your team?"

Really? "I know what your quirk is." That got him a small flinch, so well-hidden Neito would've missed it if he wasn't paying attention. "I have a strategy that'll definitely get us to the next round. And, well, as the only General Education student you aren't exactly swimming in teammates."

The careful, drawn-out pause gave Neito his answer.

"I'm listening."

Neito had snatched up Rin and Kodai as fast as he could before heading over to convince Shinsou, and they watched curiously as Neito approached with a new face.

"This is Shinsou. Shinsou, meet Kodai and Rin." Neito introduced. Shinsou glanced between the two hero students, calculating.

Rin stepped forward with a smile, his braided ponytail fluttering behind him. "It's nice to meet you, Shinsou-san."

"...Thanks." 

Kodai simply nodded.

Neito took charge. "Now that we're away from our opponents, I can explain. My quirk's called Copy." He paused here, instinctively waiting for a reaction before continuing. "It's how I know about your quirk."

"So, you instantly know what the quirk you've copied is?" 

"Not exactly." Neito drummed his fingers against his temple. "But it changes my body, so I can...guess. And you did control those students back at the race."

"Two people in one day," Shinsou muttered under his breath. 

"Someone else figured you out?" 

"Yeah. Midoriya." Shinsou stated flatly, and Neito tensed. Of course.

"What is your quirk, Shinsou-san?" Rin asked.

"Brainwashing. If someone responds to a question I ask, they are stunned and I can give them commands." Shinsou's fist clenched at his side, almost unconsciously, and Neito pushed aside the familiar spark of anger for the pride felt when neither Rin nor Kodai stepped away.

So that's how this thing worked. Brainwashing was less of a switch, and more like a dam holding back a flood of energy. Neito probably needed to have the energy flowing up to his throat to use it, and then just... click when he received a response. 

Neito glanced up to see Shinsou now watching him curiously.

"What?" 

"I'm surprised that you didn't copy it and immediately brainwash me." 

"I don't try out quirks without knowing what they do." That would be very reckless, and very stupid. "Also, yours feels like it would be harder to turn it off than turn it on."

Shinsou winced. "...Yeah. I couldn't keep Brainwashing off when I first got it. It just...kept activating."

The people around him must've taken being brainwashed randomly even worse than having their quirk accidentally copied.

"You said you had a strategy, Monoma-san?" Kodai's quiet voice brought them back on topic, and Neito nodded.

"I do. We don't have any sensory quirks or ways to detect hostages, so we'll focus on the robots. There's a strong chance that they'll be clumped around buildings with hostages inside of them, acting as guards."

"Like a video game." Rin chimed in.

"Like a video game." Neito agreed. "We'll move forward in a simple formation; you and Kodai in the front, me in the center, and Shinsou in the back. Our main offense is going to be Rin's scales-they should take down robots pretty easily."

"You want me to enlarge them," Kodai stated.

"Yes. Can you?"

Kodai tilted her head, staring at Rin for a moment. "...I think so."

"Then please do. We can deal with robots really easily if we have giant projectiles."

"And you want Brainwashing for if we run into any human enemies," Shinsou commented. 

"Correct. I'll be in the center so I can copy quirks-offering up more scales or another voice to brainwash." Neito finished. "Oh yeah, and we're staying far, far away from Midoriya's team."

"Fair," Shinsou said immediately.

Rin blinked. "Huh? Why?"

"Midoriya's quirk lets her move faster than we can see, it's a mutant type so I can't copy it, she's better at hand-to-hand combat than we are, and she knows about Shinsou's quirk. Our only chance is if I can brainwash her...which isn't very likely."

"...Oh. Well, what if she comes after us, then?"

Neito just shrugged.

"And that's the end of your team time, folks! All teams, please move over to your start spots..."

Momo found Jirou's quirk fascinating. The purple-haired teen's jacks, currently plugged into the ground, let her precisely sense vibrations from far away and accurately guide the team through this maze of a city. Not to mention how she could emit her heartbeat itself as an attack.

They didn't get any points for taking out robots, so Team Momo(Momo had objected to the name, saying that Jirou was the one guiding them and should therefore be named its leader. Momo was promptly outvoted.) had mostly been sneaking past them. Whenever they did get too close, Tooru and Akari shot at them with their light magic.

Or, well, Tooru shot at them. While the only thing Tooru could do with her magic was launch balls of light, Akari could pull out anything from a long whip to a giant sword to small, thin lasers. For a moment, Momo wondered if the girl was feeling slighted at the difference in magic, but Tooru just seemed to be super impressed. 

Of course, with Tooru fully invisible Momo couldn't really be sure. But she sounded happy, and her voice was usually right next to Akari. 

Jirou stood up, jacks hovering above her shoulders. "The building up ahead has two hostages, and...a couple of robots."

Momo stepped up to the doorway, seeing no robots outside, and let the chemical formula for metal run through her brain before pulling a sword and shield from her arms. The pink light and small tickle faded away instantly before the new weights were in her hands.

Momo burst in, shield held in front of her.

Unlike the entrance exam, the robots in this round were humanoid. They fired off red lasers out of their arms that slightly hurt, and didn't have a very complex AI. 

A couple of shots hit her strong shield, little tip-taps that reminded her of rain falling against an umbrella. Momo pushed forward, swinging her sword and slicing clean through one robot before twisting to deal with three more with quick slashes. Tooru was there in the next instant, knocking robot heads off with what looked like simple blows(She didn't even have any form of enhancement!) 

Akari and Jirou soon joined them, their side done, to climb up the stairs.

That's when they found the two hostages in a large room, surrounded by almost two dozen robots. All of them instantly noticed their appearance and taking aim, and Momo rose her shield in front of her-

And then in front of her eyes every robot just...shattered, falling down to the floor in gray pieces. Akari was suddenly in the center of them, both hostages carefully slung over her shoulder.

Momo was abruptly reminded that no, the overpowered light thing wasn't her friend's only ability. She could also move at supersonic speeds without breaking a sweat.

"That's all of them, right?" Akari asked lightly.

"Yeah!" Tooru cheered. "Great job, Akari. We're at 100 points, now. I bet no one else has nearly as much!"

"You did well too, Tooru. Your kicks are really fluid, now."

"Wait," The slight tremble in her voice made Momo glance over. "How did you...can you see?"

Akari's cheeks flushed red. "Wha-no. You aren't visible right now, Tooru, and I can't see you. I can just tell where your mana is, and it looked like a kick, so..."

"Oh! Right, I forgot about that, sorry." Tooru said sheepishly.

"No, I'm the one who should have explained that better-"

"You were perfectly clear, Akari-san! I just didn't remember what you told me..."

"It's fine, Tooru. Wait, why are you adding an honorific to my name, again?"

"Sorry! But it just slipped out, because you deserve it."

"What?"

Jirou snickered, just low enough that the two couldn't hear.

Momo caught her eye, curious. "What is it, Jirou?" 

"Hmm? Ah, don't worry about it, I'll tell you later."

As it turned out, Rin's scale armor did an amazing job blocking robot lasers. The black-haired boy was fast too, rushing and eliminating each bot with casual ease.

Neito really liked using Rin's quirk, Scales. Once he got the hang of the quirk it was pretty simple, and while he wasn't nearly as quick or well-aimed as Rin he could wield it decently enough. 

When possible, Neito handed over fallen pebbles and such to Kodai for her to use. The offensive potential of Kodai's quirk was amazing, but they had to be careful with it-giant rocks and scales weren't something to throw inside a building or near a hostage. 

(Unfortunately, he couldn't enlarge his own scales after copying both quirks. A shame, really.)

They were up to forty points, now. Decent, but likely not the best.

If they hit a couple more buildings, they'd probably be set-

"Eh? It's the fucking blonde bastard!" A familiar voice yelled, heavy footsteps pounding across the street.

Neito cursed, whirling around to see Bakugou Katsuki. Behind him were three of the people who sat with him at lunch(for some reason); Ashido, Kirishima, and...Seno? Nero? What was this guy's name again?

Facing Bakugou was not a good idea there was a very low chance they could beat him, no matter how bad of a team player he was...then again, he did love to piss arrogant people off.

"Ah, if it isn't Baka-gou and his...allies." Neito drawled, placing a lofty hand on Shinsou's shoulder. Shinsou stiffened then quickly relaxed at the touch as Neito leaned on him casually. "You're picking a fight with us? Really? Are you that eager to lose, 1-A?"

Bakugou scowled. "What did you just fucking-" 

Gotcha.

A purple string lit up in front of Bakugou and Neito let the copied quirk activate, instantly grabbing hold of that connection. The boy completely froze, mouth still open and eyes glazing over.

Bakugou's team turned to their leader, reacting to the sudden pause, and Neito acted.

If he told Bakugou to knock out his team it might've worked, but if the connection broke Neito was screwed. So he settled on the next best thing.

"Use your quirk to fly out of the arena!" Neito ordered.

Ashido's eyes went wide before she was blown flying backward, Bakugou propelling himself into the sky in a mighty explosion and rapidly distancing himself from his team.

Team Bakugou would constantly lose points as long as one member was far enough away. And none of the 1-A members left could fly.

"Huh? Wait, Bakugou! Where are you going-hey!"

The blonde had already blasted away high above their heads, leaving nothing but a smoke trail behind.

Neito gripped the connection tight, feeling it loosen the farther Bakugou went. If he let go too early, they'd have to deal with a very, very angry opponent. 

He shot a smirk at their remaining three enemies. "Well, that was easy, wasn't it?"

The redhead-Kirishima opened his mouth to respond, but Nero stopped him just in time. "He has some kind of mind control, Kirishima. Don't say anything!"

"That's rude, isn't it?" Shinsou mused. "Treating him like that because of 'his' quirk?"

"Wait, no, we're just-" Ashido blurted.

Shinsou caught her instantly, already speaking. "Use your-"

"Hey! That isn't cool, man!" Kirishima slammed his hands against Ashido's ears to cover them.

Neito almost laughed at the action-she'd probably still hear Shinsou's order-but then Ashido suddenly blinked, her strange eyes refocusing and conscious.

The brainwashing must break from external impact, Neito realized. Fuck. 

Ashido shook her head from side to side as if she was throwing off the remaining traces of mind control before silently glaring at Shinsou. Then she was rushing towards him, white acid clumping up in her hands.

That wasn't good. Neito stepped back, barely holding onto Bakugou's mind at this point. "Rin!"

"On it!" Rin's arms grew out ridges, the gleaming scales poking out of his light green skin like a reptile. A dozen fired out at high speeds towards the pink girl. 

Ashido didn't break stride, flinging out her arms. The acid expanded out like a shield around her pink palms, disintegrating every shard coming at her.

Rin aimed low, sending a flurry of scales for her legs only for Ashido to leap over the attack in a flip, leg swinging down in an axe kick for Shinsou's head.

Shinsou sidestepped the blow smoothly before being forced to duck away from her still acid-shielded hands. "Woah, going for me straight off. Am I that much of a-" Something small lashed out against his face, covering his mouth. "-mrmph, mmmrph!" 

Was that...tape? 

Nero grinned, weird elbows pointed at Shinsou like guns. "Nope, no more mind control for you-wait a minute. How do they have the same quirk?"

Shinsou dodged a flurry of pink kicks, eyes narrowed in frustration as Ashido easily kept pace with him. 

"We're twins, actually. Can't you see it?" Neito bullshitted. Nero grit his teeth(so close to responding, damn it) before shooting out more tape from his elbows. Neito let go of Bakugou's mind to dodge the quick strips, not willing to risk getting stuck. For all he knew that guy could shoot duck tape or something.

With their focus on them, 1-A seemed to have completely forgotten about Kodai. A big mistake. Neito watched her throw a small pebble, nearly invisible in the chaos-

And suddenly, there was a giant boulder outlined in purple in front of Ashido's face. Her eyes went wide at the threat, flowing a huge amount of acid in front of her to destroy it. 

Kodai launched another, faster this time, and Kirishima leaped to intercept it. His entire upper body was hardened like rock, shattering the boulder with ease, but the next one nearly bowled him over from its impact.

Ashido and Kirishima slowly backed away near Rero, defending against the barrage of boulders. This gave Neito's team the chance to regroup, and he eagerly copied Rin's quirk, letting the scales flow across his skin once again.

Kodai let go of her projectiles to run her fingers across both of their arms, establishing a connection to her quirk, and together Neito and Rin took aim. Meanwhile, Team Bakugou moved into a defensive position, ready to tank a powerful attack.

"Take this, Nero!" Neito yelled.

"My name's Sero-"

Bakugou Katsuki woke up with a splitting headache, dust prickling at his nose. He pushed himself off the hard floor with a grunt, noticing the field of glass shards around him and the new cuts along his body.

He glanced up to see the window completely gone, likely from his...entrance. When did he fucking crash into a building? Did he have a concussion or something? 

No, it was that Blonde Bitch. It had to be. The last thing Katsuki remembered was a command to fuck off-some kind of mind control? Where'd the copy bastard get a quirk like that? Damn it.

Either way, Katsuki was now completely separated from those three idiots. He couldn't tell how long he'd been out, but the vampire said that if he didn't stick with his team they'd lose points-what a shitty rule-so they probably had zero points right now. 

He needed to find them before they all got themselves knocked out. 

Katsuki brushed glass of his ruined gym uniform and nodded to himself, his course of action now decided. Then he focused his mana into his feet, blasting off in a burst of flame.

The good news was that Katsuki found them within a minute. The bad news was that all three of them were fucking unconscious. 

Useless idiots. Katsuki would much rather work alone, sure, but this was just pathetic.

They didn't seem very hurt, otherwise, though Raccoon Eyes seemed to have gained a number of bruises across her arms.

The street and surrounding buildings were ruined, huge scars carved randomly throughout the area. Katsuki bent low, looking closer to see large chips all over the place. They were sharp to the touch and looked a lot like Shitty Hair's teeth.

A powerful offensive quirk; most likely a 1-B student's and doubled in effectiveness with the copy bastard's help. But Shitty Hair and Raccoon Eyes's quirks should have countered something like that completely. Not to mention they had Flat Face with them. He, at least, had a few brain cells. 

Those crafty extras must have something else up their sleeves. 

Katsuki stood up with a scoff, palms crackling at his sides. It wouldn't matter. He was going to blast 'em all to hell either way.

Starting with that copy bastard.

Notes:

I played with a few fun perspectives in this chapter, so I hope that wasn't confusing! I wrote Bakugou's by adding in swears whenever possible and consulting a list of nicknames, lol.

Copy is such a cool quirk, especially when you think about what it's like to use. And theirs all the possibilities if they're in a team, like specific quirk combinations or doubling up. Monoma probably does need to be careful when copying stuff unless he knows exactly what it does since a new quirk literally changes his body.

The 'have to stay near your team' rule is for divide and conquer strategies like what Monoma did and so Akari doesn't instantly clear this round. Canon MHA seriously downplays how unfair it is to be far faster than an enemy(Cough, cough, Hawks) but I certainly won't!

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