Chapter Text
Iida always found hero training to be one of the most interesting and intellectually challenging classes in his schedule. It was the perfect place to put all of his and his classmate’s training to the test, seeing if they could handle unpredictable scenarios in a safe and controlled environment. On top of that he got to learn more about his fellow classmate’s quirks and start to figure out how he could work in tandem with each of them. Like today. The exercise was easy enough; groups of three, villains versus heros. Heros had to find five hostage dummies scattered throughout the cityscape and bring them to the safe zone in 20 minutes and avoid being caught by the villains along the way. So far he was pleased with how some of his group was doing, but not all. Specifically the fact that he had to keep dodging falling debris from where Midoriya and Bakugou were busy punching holes in buildings in their attempts to beat each other up. Sure over the years the two of them got along better and were arguably friends, but that didn’t mean they stopped jumping at the chance to fight each other one on one, if anything it just got worse. With a loud boom he looked up to see Midoriya slam into another building, chunks of cement tumbling down a few blocks from where he was, sighing he just rolled his eyes and kept up his search for the last two costages.
“Yo!” Sero’s voice crackled over a bit of radio static. “Midoriya! Watch where you’re punching. You brought down another building.” Iida nodded in silent agreement as he rounded a corner to find the street clear of rubble. Grinning he mouthed a silent thank you to Sero for his impeccable nets, not only did it help to minimize the damage, but it also meant Iida could actually run at full speed and not worry about tripping over random pieces of cement. Trusting the safety of the net Iida stopped to catch a breather and check his surroundings. So far the only opponent he’d seen was Bakugou, the other two nowhere to be seen, more pressingly he had already covered about ¾ of the map and was still missing two hostages with only ten minutes left. Radio static interrupted his thoughts as Sero called in for backup “Hey man I need some help moving some rubble, it’s on the dummy and it’s at least a two man job.”
Iida glanced over to where Midoriya and Bakugou were currently fighting, guessing Sero was in the area since he had just yelled at Midoriya for dropping debris everywhere. “On my way Cellophane!” So what if everyone else refused to use their hero names in these classes, it only made sense to get used to calling them by their hero names now so when they graduated it wouldn’t be a sudden shift that would affect their professionalism. With that thought Iida was off. He made sure to keep a lookout for the other dummy as he did, if they could get them both on the way to the safe-zone it’d be a guaranteed victory.
Rounding the corner Iida finally caught sight of Sero as he stood in front of a piece of building that was almost up to his waist in height. Glancing up Iida noticed a chunk of cement starting to tumble down the pile stuck in Sero’s net. It looked like it was heading towards him. Eyes widening, Iida sped up, his Reciprico burst activating pushing his legs to go faster. Once he got within shouting range he screamed at the top of his lungs, “Sero!” He saw him turn around and stare as Iida got closer, the cement block now tumbling into a gap right above Sero’s head, “MOVE!” Shit shit shit faster! Everything slowed down as he watched Sero look up just in time for the block to fall, there was only one option, if he slammed into Sero at this speed it’d still injure him he had to deflect the rubble.
With a grunt he lept into the air, he had to time this perfectly or he’d miss the block completely and his classmate would be gravely injured. Twisting his body in midair he used the last of his burst to propel his right leg into an arc, he could feel the block slam against his armored leg, followed by him smashing through bits of shrapnel that bounced off of his armor. With a thud he landed on the ground, stumbling as he struggled to keep his balance.
Once he was sure he was fine he whipped around walking up to Sero as he pulled his visor up to inspect him for any injury. “Are you alright?” Sero just stood there frozen, assuming it was temporary shock Iida continued to look him over. To his relief, the only damage seemed to be a few scratches on his helmet and two small cuts on his arm.
“D-did you just kick it?” Good Sero was responsive again, nodding Iida turned around to look at the dummy he had originally been called over to help with.
“Well yes.” Iida tried his best to make small talk after he finished inspecting the large chunk of rubble, “I didn’t want to risk injuring you by slamming into you at high speed so I decided redirecting the falling debris would work instead.” Looking around he noticed bits of broken concrete were now scattered all over the street, if this had been in a city full of people he probably would have injured a civilian with the shrapnel shards. “Looks like I hit it harder than I thought, I’ll need to practice more restraint to avoid unnecessary damage.” He waited for Sero to agree or comment, but he stood there possibly watching Iida, he couldn’t tell with Sero’s helmet on so Iida shrugged and went back to the rubble. Afterall, they still had a test to finish so he couldn’t waste much more time.
“But it just…” Sero spoke as Iida began to position himself, finding a good grip from which he could hopefully just flip the rubble. “You shattered it!” Iida glanced back up at Sero, his confusion hidden behind his mask he had flipped back down.
“It was the best way to…” He tried to lift the rock but struggled while talking to Sero, “Hold on a second Sero.” Steadying himself to try again he took in a deep breath before pushing up, remembering to push with his legs as he managed to barely flip the rubble. Taking a few more breaths Iida bent down and picked up the dummy, “It was the best way to ensure you would be safe.” Waving Iida turned around to head back to the safe zone and drop off the dummy, “We’ve got one more hostage to find, stay safe Cellophane!”
Rounding the corner Iida started trying to figure out where the other dummy might be. They’d found two in alleyways, another hidden under a car, and the one he carried in his arms. Why would they put one in the middle of the road? It doesn’t make sense. Once he was closer to the safe zone it hit him it wasn’t in the street it was on the roof! Quickly he radioed in to his teammates “Check the roofs for the last dummy, it might be up where we can’t see it.”
Sero responded first, Midoriya still too busy fighting Bakugou, “I’m on it, I’ll let you know.”
“Excellent! Let me know if you find it. I’m expecting the other two to ambush us at the safe zone once we get the last one, and we only have…” Iida glanced over at the billboard with a timer, “Five minutes.” His legs were starting to hurt, having to use his Reciprico meant Iida’s engines would be overheated for the rest of the time. He was going to have to rely on his normal speed to get everything done. Rounding another corner Iida froze, between him and the safe zone was a wall of literal fire. In the past five minutes Mina and Momo had managed to wall off the safe zone, surrounding it in fire fueled by some unknown substance as the two girls stood between him and the now not so safe zone.
“You like what we did with the place?!” Mina stood next to Momo, her hands on her hips as she taunted Iida, “Turns out chromic acid is flammable.”
“Mina. Don’t give it away!” Momo hissed as she created a staff, presumably to use as a weapon if Iida tried to charge them.
“Aw come on Momo. It’s fine, he can’t do much about it anyways.” Iida watched the girls carefully, he knew Mina was capable of creating different acids at least in terms of actual acidity and texture, but he didn’t know she could create flammable acid.
“Hey man.” Sero’s voice came in through the radio, “I found the last dummy, it was on a roof like you said. I’ll be at the safe zone in two minutes tops.”
Iida brushed his hand past his helmet, turning on his speaker and praying Sero would listen to the girls and what he was about to say. “I have to admit I’m impressed with the wall of fire. Although it’s a little cheesy that both of you decided to wait for me here.”
Momo responded, not letting her guard down, “We noticed you took the same route in the past three times you dropped off a dummy, figured you were the one they assigned to run the dummies to the safe zone.”
Mina chimed in, “Yep! Then Momo had the great idea to set up a blockade of some sort, lucky for us I know the chemical makeup of Chromic acid and was able to surround the place in enough of it to keep the fire burning till the end of training, a little spark from Momo and BOOM! Fwoosh!” Mina’s hands shot up in the air, “Not that you’re gonna give up that easily.”
“What makes you so sure no one else from my team is coming?”
“Easy!” Mina grinned, “Baku is keeping Midoriya distracted, and Sero will be looking for the final dummy, besides… tape doesn’t do well with fire.” Sero’s end of the line was oddly silent as Iida began to glance over at the clock, he was going to have to go for it soon, even though he was still without most of his quirk’s abilities.
“As interesting as it is, and I must commend you two on coming up with this plan. And, you are right Mina, I cannot give up so easily.” Iida tossed the dummy to the side, he would have to take out the two girls in front of him if he was going to stand a chance. He made a dash for Mina first being the more agile of the two, dodging a blast of acid as he tried to close in on her. For about 15 seconds the two danced around each other, dodging the other’s attacks.
Suddenly Sero’s voice came on the radio again, “I’m on the roof.” Iida’s eyes went to scan the roofs for a brief second before having to dodge another attack from Mina, “Don’t look at me! When I say so I need you to toss your dummy up in the air as high as you can. Can you do that?” Iida nodded, hoping the signal got through to Sero from wherever he was watching. “Great! They’re both distracted by you so go to the dummy whenever you get a chance to break away.” Grunting Iida saw the two girls gear up to try and land a hit at the same time. Pivoting he ducked between the two girls as he started to sprint back to the dummy. “On the count of three toss it.” Sero’s voice remained calm as he counted down.
“One…” Iida reached the dummy, scooping it up and skidding to a stop.
“Two…” Mina and Momo were right on his tail, Momo seemed to be making a net cannon, while Mina prepared to launch acid at him.
“Three!” Iida flung the dummy in the air just as a net came to wrap around his feet, acid flowing underneath him causing him to topple over. As he fell he could make out a black streak as Sero swung above him, catching the dummy with another taped to his back. “Got it!”
Mina spotted him first, spinning around to change course and get within range. Iida watched as Sero began to swing around the wall of fire, slowly gaining momentum and height as he did. Eyes widening he watched as Sero flipped midair to avoid shots of acid, his helmet falling off after one such flip, easily hooking onto a lamppost as Sero grinned. Iida spared a quick glance at the timer, they were down to thirty seconds and he still had no idea how Sero planned to safely make it over the fire that he now realized was at least 6 meters high. With a yelp he watched as Sero dodged a projectile thrown by Momo, only to hook onto a light that had been weakened with acid. With a harsh metallic snap it broke, sending Sero flying to the ground, but instead of falling he managed to swing around to the side of a building. Sero’s grin barely broke as he swung up, using his free arm to pull himself higher up the building.
15 seconds
Sero gave a little salute before pushing off the building and disconnecting his tape, he shot through the top of the fire wall, flames barely reaching him as he spun around midair.
Ten seconds
Sero was falling straight into the safezone, but at that speed he was going to hurt himself badly if he tried to land. Iida could feel his heart in his throat
Five seconds
Sero shot out another piece of tape, hooking it to one of the poles surrounding the safe zone, stopping inches off the ground. Now he couldn’t even feel his heart, it might have stopped.
Two seconds
Sero disconnected, landing on the ground as he held the two dummies. The alarm went off, signaling the end of the training session as Aizawa’s voice came on over the speakers. “The hero team wins with all of their dummies in the safe zone. Now someone go get Sero out of the ring of fire.”
Iida began to untangle his legs from the net, his heart still pounding watching as Midoriya bounced over, jumping into the safe zone before grabbing Sero and launching the two of them over the fire with ease. Once he was untangled Iida made his way over to his fellow classmates.
“Hey prez!” Sero grinned as he jogged over to Iida, helmet in hand, “Great thinking back there with the radio.”
Iida felt warmth creep up the back of his neck as his heart rate increased again, he was probably getting hot under all his armor, taking off his helmet he cleared his throat before answering, “Why thank you. Although I must commend you for your quick thinking it worked quite well, while being incredibly risky.” That last part came out with a more scolding tone, sure he was grateful and not surprised to see Sero made it out okay, but that didn’t mean he wasn't nervous watching his classmate leap through fire and jump off the side of a building.
Sero rubbed the back of his head, grin never fading, “I’ll be more careful next time.” Smacking Iida’s back he turned around to walk back over to the rest of the group as they headed inside, “Besides, I always land on my feet.” Iida watched him walk away for a second before shaking his head and jogging to catch up to everyone else.