Chapter Text
Today, every student is given a location where they will meet their team. Some students find their teammates on the way there, others, like Momo Yaoyorozu, are left wondering the whole trek over, who their teammates are going to be, but more importantly who they’re facing. I know the exam is going to be a rescue mission, and that they’ve called in some pro heroes to help. I saw Mt. Lady, and Kamui by the gate this morning, so it’s possible I’ll be facing one or both of them… or neither of them. I wonder if it’s going to be all pros, or if they’ll have teachers too. Let’s see, I was assigned Ground Zeta… I’m not super familiar with that one, maybe it’s new? As Momo makes it across campus to Ground Zeta, which is a smaller zone, one glance inside it’s easy to see the inspiration was the recent events. A destroyed city, it looks like a meteor hit it. At the gate waiting for her are Shoji, Kuroiro and Ojiro. “Is this all of us?”
Shoji speaks with one of his mouth tentacles, “Yeah, it was just teams of four right?”
The others nod, and Momo wonders why he ran off ahead without her. A small alarm sounds above the gate, and the door opens. Momo quickly creates a small drone that she throws into the air as they charge inside. “Shoji, Kuroiro, scout ahead and see if you can spot who we’re up against. Ojiro stick with me till I spot our hostage.”
The boys shout in unison, “Yes Ma’am!”
Momo gets flustered by their sudden conviction. I didn’t think they’d fall in line that fast. . . Maybe it’s the new outfit?
(With the new year, Momo thought it was time for a new costume. She redesigned hers to be more comfortable, and allow her to be more athletic. Swapping the boots for tabi-sneakers, and the leotard for spandex tights, and sleeveless crop top. She finally ditched the Yaoyorictionary for just a wrist mount for her phone.)
After finding some cover behind a demolished building, she tunes into her drone’s camera feed on her phone, and notices Ojiro peeking over her shoulder. There’s nothing of particular note on the field as far as she can see. The crater at the center is empty, and- Then the feed goes blank. She glances up at the sky, and sees, a pterodactyl? - Wait, is this…
Kuroiro appears in front of her, “We got Pixie Bob.”
“Did you find the hostage?”
Shoji shouts from atop a nearby pile of rubble, “No but I see where she’s at!”
Then, Pixie Bob’s golems are upon them. Ojiro breaks through one with a flipping strike of his tail, but there are many. “What’s the plan Yaoyorozu?”
“Just run!” Momo makes a dash past the golems, sliding under one’s swinging arm, and then full sprinting out of there. Kuroiro trails behind in her shadow, and Ojiro stays back to fight them off. Momo calls Shoji having no idea where he’s gone off to. Thankful she’s saved everyone’s number from class 2-A. “Shoji?”
He whispers, “I’m finding another spot. It’s best if we stay separated anyways. Let Ojiro keep the golems distracted.”
“Any clues about who else we’re up against?” Momo can’t shake the feeling that Pixie Bob’s golems found her just a little too fast, but she can’t think of who would’ve helped her spot them so fast. Ragdoll doesn’t have her search quirk anymore.
“I can go find her.” Kuroiro offers.
“No!- no. We need to stick together, I already lost Ojiro. We need to stick together until we know who else we’re up against.” Momo weaves through the rubble, trying to move as quietly as she can, believing it could be someone with some kind of hearing power since they weren’t trying particularly hard to stay quiet. Her shadow stays close behind her. Then they spot it. A stronghold made of earth that seems to have partially subsumed a fallen skyscraper. There’s only one entrance. The shape of it reminds Momo of her past, it reminds her of Matryoshka dolls.
As if it was only earlier today, she can hear her mother’s voice. Inside of here, is infinite potential.
She pushes that aside and focuses on the mission. “Shoji, I think we found where Pixie Bob is hiding out.”
There’s no response. . .
“Kuroiro, we have to assume Shoji’s already been captured.”
“Well, we found Pixie Bob, we just have to get the hostage out of there right?”
“I don’t know this feels too obvious…”
“I’ll just go scout it out! I should be fine!”
Before Momo can object, he hops into a shadow and takes off. She sighs and goes through a list in her head. If I assume we’re facing a second pro hero there are just too many possibilities. Let’s assume it’s a UA staff member. Who could’ve helped Pixie Bob find us quickly… Hound Dog’s sense of smell could’ve alerted her, but wouldn’t we have seen or heard him by now. He’s not exactly quiet. Eraser’s pretty sneaky, he could’ve got eyes on us, but… I haven’t felt my quirk erased at any point. Snipe probably could’ve spotted us, but… we definitely would’ve heard gunshots by now. So who’s…- She has an upsetting realization, she peeks out at the stronghold, just as Kuroiro slips inside, and then. It collapses in on itself. It’s principal Nezu!!!
Momo doesn't know if she can do this without her teammates. She's not strong enough to take down an army of Pixie Bob's golems, and she's all but certain she has no hope of outsmarting Principal Nezu, but she remembers, infinite potential, and she doesn't give up.
Somewhere Principal Nezu is sat on top of a hostage robot with a chessboard between him and Pixie Bob. He sips his tea between cackles. “We are doing simply fantastic as a team!”
“We still haven’t caught Yaoyorozu though, and I haven’t spotted her through any of my golems.”
“Well. She only has a little bit of time left, and finding us will be like looking for a needle in a haystack with your golems out there running distraction! AHAHAHA!”
He really loves getting into that villain role… kind of scary for a cute cat- or dog… maybe a bear?
Then, they hear a slight metal, tink. Then there’s a flash of blinding light, and a deafening ringing sound. When it ends, Nezu finds himself on the floor. He shouts at the top of his lungs, “CREATI!!!”
Momo runs through the ruins as fast as she can with the hostage robot on her back, When I realized it was Principal Nezu, I remembered his match against Kaminari and Ashido last year. He spent the whole match up in a crane, laughing. There’s a lot of high spots in this zone, but with the parabolic sound detector I looked up how to make, all I had to do was listen for that evil laugh! As Momo expected, the golems are now swarming her. She’s doing all she can to evade them, but it’s getting more difficult as more descend upon her. Then, the gate is in sight. She just has to get there with the hostage and they win. She wonders if her win will be discredited at all for losing her teammates along the way. She feels a little bit guilty, and questions if she should go back for them, just then a golem erupts from the earth in front of her, and swings to try and grab her, but time seems to slow down, as she remembers the Matoryshka Dolls again.
She can see it so clearly, her mother picking her up the first time she made a Matryoshka Doll. How proud she was, how happy it made her. She said, “They’re just like you Momo!”
Little Momo pouted, “I was trying to make it look like you...”
She sat Momo down and explained, “I mean, just like you, as in, inside...” She pokes Momo’s chest to make her little daughter giggle, “There’s infinite potential! There could be anything at all inside of these dolls. No matter how they look on the outside. Inside, there could be anything you can imagine, but you won't know unless you open it up.” She remembers her mom opening it, and a wave of nostalgic amazement snaps her back to the present.
Momo makes a giant Matryoshka Doll, and shouts as the golem takes it in place of her, “Yaoyorozu’s Infinite Potential!”
The golem tilts his head, and opens the doll to find, fireworks, that burst as soon as the doll opens, he’s so amazed by the light show he forgets his purpose.
Momo dashes through the gate with the hostage, and then even more fireworks go off. The hostage bot cheers, “You pass!”
Eventually, Nezu gathers everyone in front of the gate. Kuroiro was miraculously uninjured, just temporarily trapped in a shadow. “Yaoyorozu, you did fantastic but-”
“Sir! I know it seems as though my teammates went rogue, but that was all according to my plan!”
“Oh?” Nezu looks most curious to hear this.
Ojiro, Shoji, and Kuroiro all nod, but don’t know what plan she’s talking about.
Momo explains, “Since we were up against an army of unknowable size, I had them scatter, while Kuroiro and I tried to go on ahead. Sending Kuroiro into that obvious trap was my only blunder, I thought he would be able to escape it if it really was a trap. It of course, wasn’t a part of my plan that everyone get captured, but… that’s just what I should’ve expected against someone as strong as Pixie Bob, so- what I’m saying is their failures are my fault!” She bows her head.
Pixie Bob declares, “I think you all worked great as a team. I say you passed.”
Nezu squints at her, but… “I agree, but! I’m giving you a B Yaoyorozu. The rest of you get Cs. Still a passing grade! But, not a pretty one. Does that sound fair?”
Yaoyorozu feels she needs to stand up for herself more, “But sir, since I successfully rescued the hostage. Shouldn’t I get an A? -and maybe the others get Bs?”
Ojiro and Shoji both think, Thanks Yaomomo. . .
“No, you get a B because you lied to me, but it was a fairly convincing lie. I’m conflicted… I’ll mull it over. Regardless. You passed. Congratulations!”