Chapter 4
Spider-Man was already in midair, dodging taser shots from Mysterio's gauntlets, before he had even finished alerting his new teammates. Their responses came back in short order, revealing that each one of them had found at least one of the villains they had been searching for. With their statuses reported, everyone went radio silent, each needing to focus on the fight they now found themselves in.
Mysterio continued his assault with his taser gauntlets, now adding hovering drones armed with small machine guns to the mix. Spider-Man ducked and weaved around the bullets as they flew through the air, returning fire on the drones with his webs, wrapping them up and pulling them together to destroy them. The Lizard jumped forward, engaging Spider-Man in close combat, while Mysterio floated past them and called more of his drones in from deeper in the facility. Spider-Man crawled around Lizard's body, avoiding his claws, and then shot a web at Mysterio to prevent him from escaping.
Todoroki flew to the left reflexively, narrowly dodging the blast of electricity that Electro threw at him; he felt the hair on his body stand on end, and the heat of the lightning warm his face. Electro surged forward towards the young hero-in-training, but Todoroki unleashed a massive wave of ice to block him. The frozen bolts and the man at their center began to spark; the ice began to steam and boil; the erratic lattice of frost exploded, as Electro broke free and continued his assault.
The young hero and the older villain danced through the sky above New York, sending discharges of fire, ice, and lightning in all directions. The superpowered men minded their surroundings, each trying to drive the other against the walls of the buildings while avoiding getting boxed in themselves.
Before the armored men could step forward, Bakugo was already in the air, flying towards them; he detonated an explosion from each of his hands upon arriving in front of his targets, one for each of them. The Rhino and Scorpion pushed through the explosive blasts, the former charging the boy, while the latter struck with his mechanical tail. Bakugo quickly used his explosions to rapidly shift his position, evading their attacks; he landed with his feet planted on the truck they were using to escape, and then rocketed forward, setting off more explosions as he passed them by, before rebounding again off a nearby wall.
The armored men had a hard time keeping up with the blonde boy's movements, but he wasn't making any progress in damaging them either. Bakugo's fourth flyby had him meet a close call with Scorpion's tail, as the green-clad villain tried to grab him; his opponents were learning the timing of his movements, meaning he couldn't keep this up any longer; it was time to change strategies.
Deku stared down his adversary, looking up at the sunglasses-wearing man who had positioned himself high in the air using his mechanical tentacles. The criminal scientist removed the goggles and put them away in his tattered trench coat, giving the boy his undivided attention.
"Doctor Octavius, please stop this! Weren't you once a brilliant scientist!?" said Deku, trying to reason with the man, but keeping his guard up and maintaining the power of his Quirk.
"What do you know about me, boy!?" the older man snapped back.
"Only what I've heard; that you were in an accident that left those arms fused to your body. Isn't there any way you can stop being a villain, and use your science for the good of the world again?"
"You naïve child; my science is for the good of the world! That's why I need to finish my work at any cost! Now, step aside!"
"I can't do that! I don't want to have to fight you, but I can't let the cost you're willing to pay be the lives and livelihoods of innocent people!" declared Deku, lowering himself into a fighting stance as a final warning.
"Well, unfortunately for you, I don't have such reservations!" yelled Doc Ock, as one of his mechanical tentacles swung toward the young hero.
The mechanized limb hit hard, rattling the air from the impact, but was stopped cold in its tracks; to the Doctor's surprise, the green-clad boy had caught the appendage in his arms. With a twist of his torso, Deku yanked the tentacle, pulling the man at the end of it forward; Doc Ock tried to resist by burrowing two of his mechanical tentacles into the sidewalk, but the boy proved strong enough to tear tri-part robotic hands out of the ground, and send the Doctor flying to the other side of the street.
Ock's arms caught him before he hit the ground; he turned around to find the boy standing in a fighting stance, ready to continue if need be. "I suppose I shouldn't take you lightly, boy," he said, as he lowered himself to the ground and prepared all four of his mechanized limbs to attack.
A thick wall of webbing obstructed the hallway, the result of Spider-Man having shot several web grenades down the corridor to cut off his enemies' escape; the illusionist and the reptile had traded places several times, neither one of them able to make much headway through the silk-steel material while the other kept the arachnoid hero distracted.
The thinner webs were far easier to deal with for the Lizard, in particular, as he tore the threads off of his body just as fast as Spider-Man shot them. The reptilian villain was not some mindless beast, but still a highly intelligent, accomplished scientist at his core; he bided his time during their exchange, waiting for the opportune moment to turn the tables on his foe. The webs stopped; the Spider's mechanical web-shooters, mounted on his wrists, sprang open, dispensing their spent cartridges of web fluid; the boy kicked off of the reptile's chest to put some distance between them, grasping towards his belt to reload his signature weapons.
"Now!" called the Lizard.
Upon command, several drones that had been on standby flew in from the darkened corridors and corners of the research facility. All opened with machinegun fire and hologram projections from every direction; a pair of smoke bombs were thrown in by Mysterio for good measure. Beneath the telescopic, white lenses of his red mask, Spider-Man closed his eyes and focused. The noise was completely shut out; the world became a hazy and dark; other than the sensation of his feet touching the floor and the shape of the hallway he resided in, Spider-Man existed as if in a sensory deprivation tank. Except, all around him he could feel the threats in the air; every bullet, taser shot, and claw swipe was accounted for; he weaved through the hollow images of violence that surrounded him like he was dancing between raindrops; his sixth sense, his Spider Sense, guided him through every hazard like his body was on cruise control, just going with the flow of what his empty mind showed him.
As Spider-Man spun, jumped, flipped, twirled in between his enemies' attacks, bouncing between the walls and ceiling, he managed to swipe a couple of web cartridges from his belt and reload his web shooters. He webbed up a few of the drones, enough to create an opening, then proceeded to slam them into the floor and walls; he moved from drone to drone, dodging their gunfire in an evasive ballet. When the last drone was crushed between his hands, he opened his eyes, finding Mysterio floating in the air a little ways in front of him.
"That never ceases to impress," said the bowl-helmeted villain, "but it has its limits."
Spider-Man was now keenly aware of the fact that the Lizard was nowhere to be seen. He wouldn't have to wait long to find out where the mutated man went, as the green reptile burst out of a nearby lab sporting a pair of flasks in his clawed hands. One flask was tossed at the young hero, sparking a bright light and a violent explosion; the other was tossed towards the dense webbing blocking the hall, and exploded into a pool of liquid flame. The blue flames scorched away the webs, before burning out as quickly as they had started.
The red-clad hero rose to his feet after coming to his senses, only to find the two villains nowhere in sight. he sprinted down the hall as fast as he could, exiting the building in a matter of seconds. He looked around the city streets, noticing a busted fire hydrant and several damaged cars, along with civilians knocked over and injured. With the villains having fled the scene, Spider-Man rushed over to help the people around him.
Civilians in the streets of Manhattan ran for cover, as streaks of flame and lightning surged through the sky above. Shoto Todoroki raced between the high rises of New York City, desperately trying to defend against the lightning-fast onslaught of his opponent. He made another ice wall, this one even thicker than the last he had constructed; it formed in the air in the blink of an eye, turning the city skyline into a frozen mountain; but just as quickly, electricity surged through it, and it shattered to pieces. Todoroki scoffed among the diamond dust of his ruined ice; he glared at the glowing, electrified man that casually floated up to him.
"C'mon, kid, there's no way you're winnin' this," said Electro, coolly.
The electric man hardly looked winded, or even concerned about the situation. He was so powerful from having siphoned so much electricity from the power grid that this fight wasn't even a challenge for him. It was strange, actually; with this much power, ending this fight should have been easy, and in their previous battle Electro was a far more aggressive combatant, so why was he so much more dialed back this time? Todoroki could only assume that he was holding back to preserve as much of the power he absorbed as possible. That settled it; if Todoroki couldn't defeat Electro outright, he could at the very least make sure he burned as much of the resource he had gathered as he could be forced to; all the less of it the Sinister Six would have for their plan.
He needed to push himself to his limits; his ice needed to be colder, his flames hotter. With a jet of flames behind him, Shoto rocketed forward and kicked a wave of fire towards the sparking villain. It had little effect, as Electro merely moved out of the way so quickly that he appeared to teleport the short distance; but Todoroki wasn't done yet. The young hero shot another fire blast towards the villain, and another to his left; when Electro pulsed to the right, a third blast of flame was there to meet him, but that still wasn't enough to trap the electric villain. More flames filled the air, as Todoroki flew around in circles with a blisteringly cold ice slide, shifting his body's position in midair to constantly in order to shoot fire in all directions; New York City's sky appeared to have a second sun, as the hot and cold hero turned the area around him into a giant fireball.
While he had full mastery of electricity, Electro had no immunity to fire; and while he was certainly powerful, his body was still very much human; even he would not survive long in a wall of flames so long as he remained solid. If he had to choose between the power he had gathered and surviving, Electro would choose to fight another day, so with a mighty cry he supercharged his entire body, transforming back into a blue specter of living electricity. With a wave of his hands, he expanded an electromagnetic field, dispersing the fire around him.
"Not bad, kid, but not enough power to take me down!" proclaimed the villain.
"I didn't think it would be!"
Even in his electrified form, Electro could feel how cold the air around him was getting. Standing on an icy platform attached to the side of a building, the young hero stood, the right side of his body almost completely freezing over at this point.
"Take this!" shouted the hero, as flames erupted forward from his left hand. "FLASHFREEZE! HEATWAVE!"
A blast of flame superheated the chilled air in an instant. A massive explosion blew out the windows of every building around them. Now all that was left was to wait for the smoke to clear.
In the midst of the blast's aftermath, a bubble of yellow electricity slowly faded away. Electro, now back in his flesh-and-blood form, floated in the air unscathed.
"That was some good shit," said the villain through his heavy breathing, "but you made one big mistake." He pointed up.
Above them, the sky had darkened. Thunder clapped in the black clouds above.
"Didn't you know hot air creates thunderstorms?" taunted the villain, before he shot up into the clouds.
Electro hovered in the center of the shadowy sea of clouds. He opened his arms and began drawing in the electricity around him. He had used more power than he had intended fending off that new hero's attacks, but absorbing a whole thunderstorm's worth of power would give him more than enough to make up for it, as well as letting him smoke the kid on his way back to base. The villain laughed as he felt the power surging through his body; there was so much power here it was like ecstasy; there was…not as much as he was expecting. Electro looked around, confused, and noticed the storm clouds were lightening, decreasing in volume quickly. He felt…cold again. He looked down.
Just below the building storm, Todoroki flew around the area he had previously turned into a massive heatwave, this time blanketing the entire area in a blizzard. The hero looked up and locked eyes with his enemy.
"If heat builds a thunderstorm, cold will sap its strength," he said with frosted breath. "Your big mistake was thinking I didn't know that!" He stopped in place directly below the New York native villain, his right arm and leg icing over. "HEAVEN-PIERCING ICE WALL!"
In the blink of an eye, a massive glacier flowed up into the dissipating clouds, engulfing the entire storm in a frigid blast. The remaining clouds scattered, and the villain within them was surrounded by frozen spires. Slanted pillars of ice shot out from the enormous construct, attaching it to the rooftops of the skyscrapers and street below to support its weight.
Todoroki fell to the ground, using a jet of flames to break his fall just before landing on the sidewalk. From afar, onlookers recorded the hero on their phones, as he wreathed himself in fire to heat up his shivering body.
Above, Electro had still managed to absorb quite a bit of power from the thunderstorm, though not nearly as much as he would have liked. He was far behind on his quota for the power he was supposed to gather, but he couldn't risk fighting that boy again now. He turned his body into electricity and slowly made his way through the ice; it was slow going, as ice didn't conduct very well, but that suited his needs just fine – the slow creep through the glacier would let him reach one of the buildings unnoticed, where he would disappear into the city's power grid to make his getaway.
A towering blast of fire burned through the sky as Bakugo pulled the pin on one of his gauntlets. The explosion did little more than scorch the armor of the Rhino, but is destroyed the machine guns mounted on the man's wrists, as well as sent him flying to another part of the industrial park; that was one less threat to deal with. With the man in grey armor out of the way, Bakugo was free to focus on the green-armored man now attacking him from afar.
Scorpion's bladed tail whipped towards the blonde hero multiple times, each time taking a swipe at a different part of his body. Bakugo dodged using small explosions from his hands, needing to use each to both propel his body quickly, and to deflect the tail as it closed in – doing only one or the other wasn't enough to defend against such a fast appendage, and would've easily resulted in him losing something if he had made even a single error. During one particularly wide swing of the villain's tail, he took his chance; Bakugo shot himself forward alongside the tail, grabbing onto it to increase his approach speed even more.
Upon reaching his opponent, he detonated a light film of his sweat in a blinding flash. "STUN GRENADE!"
Scorpion looked away from the dizzying light and shut his eyes; when he opened them again, the teenage hero was nowhere to be found.
"A.P. SHOT!"
Scorpion was launched forward by a searing blast to his back; he groaned in pain as he was slammed into the wall of the metal plant by the scorching ray. He turned around and saw the fiery-tempered boy charging him, screaming at him to die. This was clearly the kind of opponent that thought the best defense was a good offense; the boy wasn't unintelligent by any means – as soon as he noticed that his two foes were catching on to his fighting habits, he immediately changed tactics – he was just aggressive; Scorpion was going to make him regret that.
As soon as Bakugo closed the distance and got in Scorpion's face again, the armored villain deployed a pair of pincer-like claws hidden in the arms of his suit. The villain grabbed Bakugo's grenade-shaped gauntlets and crushed them, rendering them useless, and then threw Bakugo up and into the wall of the building. The old brick caved in from the impact, embedding Bakugo in the wall; he didn't even have a moment to rest before Scorpion began climbing the wall.
"Dammit! This guy can wallcrawl just like the Arachnerd!" said Bakugo, under his breath.
Just before Scorpion's tail could skewer him, Bakugo blasted off from the wall and landed back on the ground. Scorpion leaped after him, but Bakugo put some distance between them, thinking it was about time for a more long-range strategy.
Just then, the wall surrounding the metal plant shattered open, as Rhino came charging back into the fray on all fours; the grey-armored villain jumped over the truck and almost landed on Bakugo, but the young hero propelled himself out of the way. The charging villain got back up on his two feet without ever breaking his stride and ran up to Bakugo, intent on making this a fistfight. Bakugo matched Rhino's fists blow-for-blow, using his explosions to match the power of the larger man's superstrong punches.
While their throwdown was happening, Scorpion got into the truck and started the engine. He put the car in gear and started pulling out of the lot at full speed. He sounded the horn a couple of times to let his partner know it was time to make a break for it.
Upon hearing the horn, Rhino re-covered his head with the armored canopy of his suit and charged out of the lot at full speed, completely unconcerned with what Bakugo would do next. Bakugo wasn't having it, and used a large explosion to launch himself into the sky like a missile. He blasted himself through the air and followed the fleeing villain, tracking him through the streets all the way to the speeding flatbed. He launched himself directly at the Rhino, tensing the muscles in his arms to force a large volume of sweat into the palms of his hands as he closed in on his target. Just as he reached his foe, Bakugo threw his arms forward and let off a massive explosion, but the Rhino turned around and the last second and batted him aside.
Both hero and villain were sent flying to opposite sides of the road. The Rhino, covered in armor, recovered quickly and continued his pursuit of the flatbed. Bakugo, reeling from the impact, struggled to get up, being helped by a passing civilian.
Deku bobbed and weaved through the air, dodging the four mechanized tentacles as best as he could; it took all of his focus just to keep track of them all. Whenever one got too close, he would knock it aside with a punch or a kick. They were at a stalemate that the Doctor was clearly getting frustrated with. The tentacled villain brought all four tentacles together and opened their hands, bringing them all down with little space in between them for a pincer attack – just the opportunity Deku was waiting for.
The green clad hero launched the glowing tendrils of Blackwhip from his left hand, catching the robotic hands and then pulling them together; as he yanked them taut, he deployed the Air Force cannon in his right hand and a blast of air pressure at the villainous scientist, releasing Blackwhip at the same time. The air blast knocked Doc Ock back into a wall, though the fact the tentacles were coming out of his back blunted the impact somewhat; before he could recover, Deku dropped down from above with a flying axe kick; two of the mechanical arms reacted autonomously to block the attack, but were nearly smashed into their master's face for their trouble. The arms pushed the boy away, but he landed with a somersault and quickly dashed back at the villain.
Doc Ock tried to hold the boy back using to of his tentacles, but Deku caught them both just below the base of the claws. With a slight intensifying of the electric green glow around his body, Deku stepped forward, forcing the mechanical arms back and starting to crush them in his hands. Octavius angled the claws as best as he could towards the boy's head; sensing something not quite right about that, Deku let go of the tentacles, just as a long spike deployed from the center of each of the claws. The young hero crossed his arms in front of him and blasted the tentacles away using more air bursts, and then captured all four of the Doctors tentacles with Blackwhip, before throwing the man over him to the other side of the street.
The parts of the tentacles closer to his body managed to constrict enough break the Doctor's fall; he put the strength of the mechanical limbs to maximum output and managed to finally rip them free from the tendrils of energy that held them.
"You can't beat me, Doctor Octavius!" declared the young hero. "Please, surrender peacefully."
As much as he hated to admit it, the boy was right – there was no way for Octavius to defeat him; not fairly, at any rate. Octavius held up the large briefcase he had been carrying throughout the battle and placed it between the open palms of two of his claws.
"Let me go, or I'll crush the case open!" ordered the Doctor.
Deku ran forward, getting ready to jump for the case; he hesitated when he saw the claws flex and dig into the case, denting the metal shell.
"I mean it! One more step and this whole block gets bathed in radiation!"
Deku looked around him; there were civilians watching the battle from the buildings around them. At his current power there was no way for him to get the case fast enough, and he couldn't risk using his full power and injuring himself when still wasn't familiar with this city or this world; and there was also the possibility that snatching the case would end up breaking it open by accident anyway. Deku stood down, but kept the power flowing through his body; he backed away to the other side of the street.
"There's a good hero," mocked the Doctor.
"Next time," replied Deku, with an angry glare, "I will stop you!"
"Next time, my work will already be complete," said Octavius, as he put his goggles back on and left the scene.
The four young heroes reconvened on a rooftop downtown. They each went over their encounters with the Sinister Six and what was stolen. Deku and Spider-Man were both impressed with Todoroki for being able to fight off Electro all on his own, though he was rather ashamed that the villain managed to escape in the end; meanwhile, Bakugo was still furious that he let Rhino and Scorpion escape, and was swearing up and down that he would get his revenge next time he saw them.
"So, the Sinister Six should have everything they need to carry out their plan now," summarized Spider-Man. "All they need are the proper facilities."
"Where would they be able to find those?" asked Todoroki.
"Well, there are three places in New York that they could choose from – Avengers Tower, Oscorp Tower, and the Baxter Building."
"We could probably rule out Avengers Tower right away, since they would probably face heavy resistance trying to break in there," speculated Deku.
"Definitely," Spider-Man agreed. "I would rule out the Baxter Building for the same reason; the heroes that live there are out of town right now, but their security is state-of-the-art; besides, I don't think the place is really set up for what Doc Ock has in mind right now."
"That just leaves Oscorp," said Bakugo.
"Bingo. Unlike the other two, Oscorp Tower is almost entirely a research facility from top to bottom; they'll definitely have something in there that Otto can use."
"So, I guess we're just going to wait for them to raid the tower now?" asked Deku.
"Yup. I'll have Mister Stark send a few Legionnaires to the patrol the other two locations, just in case. Meanwhile, we'll hang out and get to know each other better while keeping an eye on Oscorp; it'll be like an old-fashioned stakeout!"
Chapter 5
As the glow of sunset bathed New York City in an orange hue, Deku and Spider-Man swung between the golden-glinting skyscrapers. The two heroes carried several bags of McDonald's in their hands as they headed to the rooftop where the others were waiting to conduct their stakeout of Oscorp Tower. As they moved through the air, the both of them performed various flips and acrobatics in the out of their swings, making sure to let go of the bags right-side-up and catch them again in midair so as not to shake the food around.
"Hey, your swinging's getting really awesome!" cheered Spider-Man, as they twirled around each other in the sky.
"Thanks; I've been learning what I can from watching you!" replied Deku.
Indeed, ever since meeting the arachnid-themed hero, Deku had been studying his web-swinging technique and trying to apply it to his own swings using Blackwhip; he felt fortunate to have met a hero that he could so easily learn from so soon after arriving here in this alternate New York. He found the young, American hero easy to get along with, and hoped that he could meet others here just like him for as long as he had to stay here; it wasn't that he didn't want to find a way home as quickly as he could, but as long as he was here, he figured he'd make the most of the opportunity.
After a few more minutes of swinging, the airborne heroes landed safely on the rooftop of a building Spider-Man had picked out overlooking Oscorp Tower; the building was only about half as tall, giving it a good view of the entire front of the tower from the ground level to the edge of the roof. The tower itself was an ominous, dark monolith that loomed over the nearby cityscape; one of the outer "shells" on either side had the word "OSCORP" running down it, and the inner layer of the exterior was covered in a honeycomb of bronze hexagons.
"Anything interesting happen?" asked Spider-Man, handing one of his bags to Todoroki; Deku handed his second bag to Bakugo.
Bakugo and Todoroki were already waiting for them on the roof, having been watching over Oscorp while Deku and Spider-Man got dinner.
"Nothing so far," replied Todoroki, taking his fish sandwich out of the bag.
"Yeah, when the hell are these guys gonna show up!?" asked Bakugo, pulling his burgers out of his bag and savagely wolfing them down.
"Give it time," said Spider-Man, pulling his mask up so he could eat his own burger. "This is the only place in the city where Doctor Octavius can perform his experiment, and he definitely won't pass up the opportunity to do it as soon as possible."
"It sounds like you know him pretty well," said Deku, in between bites of his chicken sandwich.
Spider-Man became quiet; considering how talkative he always was, it was rather unnerving. "I…he was my idol. I attended several of his lectures in school, and I eventually wound up becoming his lab assistant; then the accident happened and he was never the same."
"I'm sorry," said Deku, somberly.
"Alright, enough about me!" said Spider-Man, cheerfully, clearly trying to lighten the mood. "Tell me about your world; you said you have a high school that trains heroes, what's that like!?"
"Well, I'm not really sure how to describe it; I've never had to explain it to someone because hero academies are pretty normal in our world."
"Right, you said eighty percent of your world's population are born with powers?"
"That's right."
"Man, the X-Men would freak if they heard that; they'd feel right at home."
"You mentioned that name once before," said Todoroki. "Who are they?"
"They're another superhero team, but they're made up exclusively of mutants."
"Mutants?"
"People born with powers. It's not as common in this world as it is in yours, so they faced a lot of discrimination and pushback for years when they first started showing up; the X-Men and the school they run are what helped turn public opinion around, almost completely at this point, though there are still some conflicts over it."
"That sounds a lot like how things went in our own world," added Deku. "I guess that's also why some heroes here prefer to keep their identities a secret?"
"That's part of it; another part is to protect our family members from being targeted by the criminals and villains we fight; and for some people, like me, we like living a normal life outside of hero work. When I'm suited up, I'm Spider-Man, but off the job," he said, pulling his mask up to the top of his head, "I'm just Peter Parker."
Deku and the others were taken aback, but they also felt glad that Peter had warmed up to them enough to trust them with his secret identity.
"So, what motivated you to step out of your normal life and become a hero, Peter?" asked Deku.
"Well…I guess I gotta go ahead and bring down the mood a little again."
Deku tilted his head in confusion, while Todoroki listened a bit more intently than before.
"I already told you all that I got my powers when I was back in high school, but I didn't exactly use them all that selflessly at first; I mostly just used them to screw around, make some money, boost my confidence…y'know, teenage guy stuff."
The UA students weren't particularly surprised; they had encountered their fair share of heroes that were only in the business for fame or money; a certain hero-killing villain came to mind for Deku and Todoroki in particular, who had made it his mission to eliminate any hero who was anything less than 'pure.'
"One day, I let a robber go because he was stealing from somebody that had upset me…that robber ended up killing my Uncle Ben."
The foreign heroes were speechless; even Bakugo, who was keeping an eye on Oscorp Tower, had hardened his expression.
"It was only after that that I understood the lesson Uncle Ben was trying to teach me all that time, that 'with great power comes great responsibility;' that's what I've been trying to do since then – use my powers responsibly, for the right reasons, even if it costs me."
Deku was the first to finally speak up. "W-wow! Your drive to make up for your past failings and the way you see your powers as a calling or an obligation is…kind of inspiring!"
"Well, I've had my share of ups and downs along the way; I can't say I've always made the right choices even after becoming a hero," replied Peter, with a smile. "What about you; what motivated you to become a hero?"
"Oh…what made me decide to become a hero is…kind of shallow by comparison," said Deku, rubbing the back of his head.
"You don't seem like a shallow guy to me, Deku; no way a guy like you becomes a hero for a bad reason."
"Well," Deku began, sheepishly, "I was inspired by our world's Number One Hero, All Might. When I was a kid, I watched a news report of him saving people; there was a terrible fire and he went in and saved every single person trapped in the area. Ever since then, I just always wanted to be a great hero just like him. Now that I'm a hero in training, and have even studied under All Might, though, I realize that more than anything I just want to help people and save as many people as I can."
By this point, Peter was simply staring at Deku with a proud smile on his face. "See, I knew your motivation was a good one; not a lot of heroes with such a pure desire to help people like you; you'll be a great hero one day."
Deku couldn't help but get a little flustered from the praise.
"Hey! We've got movement by the tower!" said Bakugo, drawing the attention of the others.
Todoroki was already scanning the area for the Sinister Six by the time Deku and Peter, mask now pulled back down, made it to the edge of the rooftop. "Looks like Doc Ock and Lizard are climbing the side of the tower."
"Rhino and Scorpion are going in through the front entrance," said Bakugo.
"I see Mysterio flying over to join Octavius and Connors," said Spider-Man.
"That just leaves Electro," said Deku.
"He probably won't be out here," said Spider-Man. "He can enter the building directly through the electrical system; he might even already be in the building."
"So now what!?" asked Bakugo, as the trio of villains up high smashed through a window, while the duo down below broke in the front door.
"Intercept! Deku, you and me will swing over and follow Ock, Lizard, and Mysterio; Bakugo, you and Todoroki follow Rhino and Scorpion. We cut them off before they can get to the lab."
The UA Students confirmed their orders and got to work.
On the middle floors of Oscorp Tower, three villains advanced with little opposition. Their only obstacles were the tower's nighttime security forces, which were of little threat to them. The mechanically augmented scientist batted them aside like they weren't even there with his metal tentacles, as he stomped across the open office floor; the reptilian scientist clad in a lab coat hopped between the floor, walls, and ceiling, avoiding the guards' gunfire, and then slamming into them from their blindspots to knock them out; the armored inventor and special effects expert confused the guards with smokescreens, lights, and holographic illusions, all projected from the small fleet of drones that followed closely behind him. The Oscorp security forces, as well-equipped as they were, folded like paper before the rogues of New York City.
The villains ascended a few floors up the tower when they sensed danger headed their way. The sensors on Mysterio's drones began sounding warning alarms, and the Lizard could smell a familiar scent in the air. The villains were too slow to react, however, as both Spider-Man and the new hero, Deku, swung around a nearby corner into a pair of flying kicks.
Mysterio used a pair of his drones to block the kick from his long-standing nemesis, while the Lizard braced himself and took the kick from the younger, green-clad hero. The two heroes kicked off of their respective targets into flying kicks directed towards Doc Ock, who promptly knocked them aside with his mechanical arms; the heroes maneuvered in the air and landed on their feet before the villains.
The remaining security guards in the area had their attention split now between the villains and the new arrivals.
"Get out of here!" said Spider-Man. "We'll take care of things from here!"
"Several other guards are unconscious and injured downstairs; please take care of them!" added Deku.
They were hesitant at first, but the guards realized they would only get in the way here and promptly vacated the floor.
"Take them!" ordered Doc Ock, as he thrust two of his mechanical arms forward.
Deku and Spider-Man caught the mechanized limbs in their own arms, and prepared to pull and throw the misguided scientist, but they were quickly interrupted by attacks from the other two villains in the room. Spider-Man jumped out of the way of gunfire from Mysterio's drones; Deku let go of the mechanical arm to block a punch from the Lizard. With the heroes' attention occupied, Doc Ock threw himself forward and made for the stairs to the next floor. With their leader enroute to his destination, the remaining members of the Sinister Six prepared for a two-on-two battle to hold off the pursuing heroes; Spider-Man, in particular, had been a thorn in their sides for so long that they were always willing to take him on, and Spider-Man himself was eager to settle the score with the two villains after letting them escape earlier that day – luckily, he wasn't alone this time.
The battle began with a pair of chemical bombs being thrown at the heroes; the Lizard had come to this operation completely prepared with a full stock of the volatile canisters. Deku quickly put his face mask on, hoping it would filter out the green gas, but avoided getting near it all the same; he and Spider-Man didn't very far toward the walls of the room before they were confronted by a swarm of Mysterio. Deku tried to block the energy blasts from Mysterio's gauntlets, only for them to go right through him; before he could figure out what had happened, he was blindsided by a massive chunk of ice and knocked to the floor.
"Be careful!" advised Spider-Man. "The Mysterios around the room are fakes – they're illusions projected by his drones.
Deku looked around the room and noticed that the squadron of drones that had surrounded the villains was now nowhere to be seen; in their place were a dozen copies of Mysterio, various elemental creatures, and some arcane magic circles – the entire outer area of the floor they were on looked distorted and hazy, as well. The elementals attacked, but Deku didn't move, knowing they were fakes; except he felt a blast of fire knock him aside, prompting him to roll on the floor to put out the flames. Even though the illusions weren't real, the drones had very real weapons mounted on them, meaning Deku could be attacked by them without being able to see them through the holograms. He couldn't fight like this.
Over to the side, Spider-Man seemed to have no problem fighting the Lizard and avoiding the illusory attacks at the same time; Deku figured he must have some means of detecting which attacks were real and which were fake.
"I'll help you out!" said Spider-Man, kicking the Lizard into a magic circle, causing a drone to go down in a shower of sparks.
Spider-Man began going around the room attacking empty air, hitting drones each time; if he could keep that up and break the illusions, Deku would be able to see clearly and fight once more. Deku had no choice but to wait until then, so the least he could do was keep the Lizard occupied until then.
Down on the lower floors, Rhino charged forward and smashed through every wall that stood between him and the stairs to the next floor. Scorpion followed closely behind his comrade, taking out any leftover security guards that hadn't already been taken out. The entire building was on lockdown since the outer perimeter was breached, so elevators were out, forcing the villains to ascend the tower floor-by-floor though the security forces; that was fine by them – it was always enjoyable to clear out anyone who stood in their way before they arrived at their objective, especially heroes.
A massive wall of ice divided the third floor of the tower, cutting the villains off from the stairs to the next floor. Undeterred by the obstacle, Rhino charged right through the ice, causing about half of it to shatter apart. Scorpion turned around to see who was pursuing them, but found himself stopping in his tracks when the entire floor became covered in a thick sheet of ice, freezing his feet in place; up ahead, Rhino's feet were also frozen to the floor, causing him to fall flat on his face.
Behind the villains, Bakugo and Todoroki were hot on their trail, with Bakugo in particular flying ahead and delivering a devastating explosion to Rhino, intent on paying the mechanized villain back for his earlier defeat. The explosion sent the armored man skidding across the floor.
Scorpion used his mechanical tail to break the ice holding his feet down and moved to strike Bakugo from behind, but Todoroki sent a barrage of ice attacks his way to stop him. Scorpion smashed the ice attacks with his tail, and then avoided another ice wave from the floor by jumping onto the walls. Todoroki continued to attack the green-armored villain, chasing him down as he crawled along the walls; Scorpion continued to use his tail to crush the ice attacks headed his way, so Todoroki mixed fire attacks into his assault, forcing the villain back from the intense heat.
On the other side of the room, Bakugo and Rhino continued to fight. They were about evenly matched; Rhino's strength was vastly superior, as he smashed walls and columns with his wild attacks, but Bakugo had the upper hand in mobility, allowing him to gracefully dodge his opponent's attacks with the same explosions he was attacking with.
Back on the upper floors, Spider-Man had finished destroying all of Mysterio's drones, lifting the veil of holographic illusions that filled the offices. Deku was now able to focus completely on fighting the Lizard.
The green-haired hero's punches hit hard enough to send the reptilian scientist flying across the room, but he was resilient enough to take the hits in stride. Getting frustrated with the boy, Lizard threw chemical bombs to force the young hero to retreat, but Deku instead used Blackwhip to attach himself to a nearby wall and pull himself closer; the wall caved in as Deku impacted it, and then again when he pushed himself forward to punch the Lizard off the wall and back down to the floor. The villain ended up landing near the stairs, and used the opportunity to run to the next floor, with Deku hot on his trail.
On the other side of the room, Spider-Man swung around the columns and cubicles to avoid Mysterio's energy blasts; he slingshot himself around and kicked the flying villain square in the chest, damaging his armor. Mysterio tried to boost away, but Spidey grabbed his jet boots with his webs and slowly managed to pull him back; he blocked a hidden arm-blade with his hands, and then kicked Mysterio's feet, smashing the boots so he couldn't escape. He webbed the dome-headed villain's arm to the floor, before continuing to fire webs at him until he was well and truly stuck.
"Wow, you added a lot of new tricks to that armor of yours; that Assassin's Creed sword nearly got me," said Spider-Man, sarcastically. "Well, anyway, good talk; I gotta go catch up to my new friend, so don't go anywhere."
Mysterio groaned inside his helmet in frustration, unable to pick himself up off the floor, as the spider-themed hero ran for the stairs.
Two floors up, Deku was searching for the Lizard in some kind of lab; the reptilian villain having hidden himself among the dense jungle of equipment. He tried to remain calm and listen carefully; he tried to do what Spider-Man had done earlier, and sense his opponent's next move. Deku wasn't sure how Spider-Man managed to do that, so the best he could do was clear his mind and wait for his enemy to make his presence known. He heard a swirling of liquid, a light fizzing sound, the low hiss of something burning; it was coming from…behind him.
Deku jumped out of the way just as a flask of liquid shattered against the floor where he had just been standing; the mixture of chemicals went off like a flashbang. Before Deku could recover, the Lizard pounced into him, clawing at his chest like a feral animal. Deku tucked in his legs, using the metal armor covering them to mitigate the damage, and then delivered a double-kick to the villain's sternum; he looked around desperately for anything that he could use. He spotted a canister of liquid nitrogen nearby and fired Blackwhip toward it; he flung the canister in the direction of the Lizard, hitting him square in the gut.
The freezing fluid erupted upon impact, chilling the reptile-man instantly. Seizing the chance, Deku rushed forward and punched straight through the Lizard's outstretched hand, getting behind him, before whirling around into a roundhouse kick that shattered the villain's tail. The Lizard, knowing he was beaten tried to hobble away, but Deku wasn't about to let him get away; the hero-in-training looked to where he had grabbed the nitrogen canister and saw a large capsule with a gurney inside of it; he could only guess based on context what it was, but it would do. Deku grabbed the Lizard using Blackwhip and hauled him closer to the machine; as he kicked the pod open, frigid air leaked from within. Deku pulled the villain in close, then used a low-powered elbow to knock him into the chamber, before sealing the device shut. The cold air inside the cryochamber was not enough to freeze the villain solid, but it was enough to stop him from resisting further.
"Nice work!" said Spider-Man, having arrived just in time to see Deku's handiwork.
"That should keep him restrained until the police can arrive."
"Yeah, now let's hope we're not too late to stop Octavius," added Spider-Man, as the two young men continued their trek upstairs.
Back down on the lower floors, the battle had come to a stalemate, with neither the heroes nor the villains giving any ground to one another. Bakugo and Todoroki found themselves side-by-side, standing between the villains and the stairs.
"Any bright ideas, Icy-Hot?" growled Bakugo, having grown frustrated at the fact that the villains were still standing.
"Just one; an all-or-nothing final attack to overwhelm their armor."
Bakugo flashed his signature feral smile. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
Bakugo surged forward and attacked both villains with high-powered explosions. He poured as much of his nitroglycerin-like sweat into his palms as he could without straining himself, attacking relentlessly to keep the two villains at bay. Scorpion tried swiping with his tail, but was consistently knocked back by explosive blasts; Rhino tried to zero in on Bakugo with his arm-mounted guns, but Bakugo's movements were too erratic to get a bead on. The young hero-in-training continued to attack until the three of them were surrounded by a dome of fire.
In front of the stairs, Todoroki drew out the power of his right side. He made himself colder and colder; he lowered the temperature as much as he possibly could until his whole body began to frost over. With his right hand and right foot, he began spreading ice into the room. The floor and walls frosted over – the ice spread from the front of the stairs across the entire floor they were fighting on; the columns, doors, desks, cubicles – all of it froze solid. The air itself was overcome with a bitter chill, as ice and snow began swirling inside the building.
"Bakugo, now; get out of the way!"
The explosive hero heard his cue and jumped back from his fight, retreating to the side of the room opposite Todoroki. With his teammate clear, Todoroki directed all of his frigid power to the one spot still not affected.
Rhino and Scorpion were overwhelmed by the blizzard that had built in the room while they were fighting the blonde hero. They had not only been insulated from the cold, but were actually quite heated up due to the fiery tornado that the hero had formed around them; the subzero storm hit them all the much harder as a result. They felt the chill right down to their bones. Undeterred, the two villains decided to fight through the cold and resume their offensive against the new heroes. They quickly realized, however that they couldn't move; their respective HUDs within their suits were glitching out, and the suits themselves felt unusually stiff and heavy; the joints were all locked up, servos seized, power supplies had ceased to function, and oil was either congealed or completely frozen solid.
On one side of the room, Bakugo leveled one of his gauntlets in the direction of the villains; on the other, Todoroki now switched focus to his left side, lighting up his body in a blinding blaze. The two heroes launched blasts of fire and explosive force at the center of the room at the same time. The impact sent the villains crashing into each other, as their frozen suits burst apart from the rapid superheating. Tired, but not completely burned out, the two heroes confirmed their opponents were incapacitated, before hurrying up the stairs.
On the upper floors of the tower, Doc Ock had reached Oscorp's fusion lab. He had been moving the equipment around and setting things up for his experiment since he arrived; the lab had all of the remaining equipment he needed to finish his work. Once he achieved cold fusion, he could finally redeem himself from his past failures and reenter the scientific community with his head held high, even if he had to defect to another country in order to stay out of prison; as long as his work was complete and his theories were proven, he didn't particularly care where he lived – it wasn't like he had any reason to stay in America other than the access to facilities and resources.
As he finished his preparations and inserted the chemicals into the reactor, a nearby electrical outlet sparked to life. Yellow lightning flowed out of the socket and took the form of a man.
"You're late!" said Octavius.
"Looks to me like I'm right on time," replied Electro.
"If you were on time, Spider-Man and those newcomers wouldn't be fighting the others downstairs."
"Relax, Doc; those other guys are just muscle; I'm the only one you really need for this little experiment of yours."
"Noted. Power it up."
Doc Ock activated the reactor, while Electro unleashed all of the electricity he had collected from New York City over the course of the day into the machine. The energy fueled the chemical reaction, giving it that initial spark that it needed to get things going. In minutes, a sustained fusion reaction was contained within the reactor.
"Good," said Ock, "the reaction has become self-sustaining. I'm beginning to collect the data."
"The only thing that's good it that this thing is putting out way more power than I put into it, because we got company."
Doc Ock turned around, seeing Spider-Man and his three new friends standing in the door to the lab. Electro, ready for a fight, began drawing power out of the reactor to make himself even more powerful than before.
Chapter 6
The villains were on them in a flash – quite literally – as Electro scattered bolts of lightning all around the room, sending the young heroes flying. Spider-Man flipped himself through the air and landed on the wall on all fours, Deku endured the blast using One for All, and Todoroki stopped his and Bakugo's flight using an ice wall. Before any of them could react, Electro was already back on them; Deku tried to throw a punch, but to no avail, as all he got was a painful electrocution for his trouble. Spider-Man dodged out of the way using his Spider Sense, knowing there was no way he could hit the electrical villain while he was in an incorporeal form. It was Bakugo, who reflexively attacked the incoming man-shaped bolt of lightning with an explosion, that finally knocked Electro back.
"Bakugo and I will hold off Electro!" said Todoroki. "You two stop Octavius!"
It was a good call by the two-toned hero-in-training; the elemental Quirks of Bakugo and Todoroki would be a good match against the similarly elemental Electro, leaving Spider-Man and Deku to deal with the physical threat of Doc Ock. Electro wasn't about to let that slide, and moved to take out the red and green heroes, only for Todoroki to cut him off with a wall of fire.
Spider-Man and Deku leaped across the room, with Deku flying ahead using as much of his power as his body could safely bear. Octavius threw one of his tentacles forward, only for it to get mightily knocked aside by a powerful roundhouse kick. Spider-Man followed up by shooting webs at the disgraced scientist, but two of his metal arms blocked the adhesive fluid in midair. The hero of New York kicked and flipped around his former mentor, all the while dodging and fighting off the mechanical limbs; Deku, meanwhile, took advantage of the distraction and knocked the scientist down by sweeping the tentacles holding him up with a powerful kick.
Across the room, Bakugo and Todoroki struggled to keep up with the lightning-fast Electro; the electrical villain was practically teleporting and hitting them from all sides, but the boys' combat instincts managed to let them get a few hits in. The living lightning's incorporeal body mitigated the damage he took, but the fiery attacks of the heroes still disrupted his form a little each time. Frustrated, he drew more power from the reactor and sped up, filling the room with lightning and putting the boys on the defensive.
Meanwhile, Deku was bouncing off the walls and swinging between Doc Ock's tentacles using Blackwhip, no longer needing to constrain himself for the safety of civilians; he pulled the mechanical arms out from under the doctor and crushed them with his fists and his feet. The scientist tried to fight back, but a low-powered punch sent him reeling. The angry young hero stood over the defeated doctor with a furious, green glow in his eyes.
"Is this really how you want your life to turn out!?" he asked. "Spider-Man told me you were a brilliant scientist once, and you can be again! Tragedy struck you, sure, but that happens to a lot of people; even Spider-Man had his own tragedy that he went through, and look at him – he went and became a force for good in the world because of it!"
The hero in question had let Deku handle the doctor upon seeing he had the fight well in hand, and had moved over to the computer to shut the reactor down. He was touched by how far the foreign boy was willing to go to reach out to someone he didn't even know from all the way across the world.
The doctor, stunned from the beatdown he had received, contemplated the boy's words. "I just…don't know."
"Because you didn't even try! Don't let this become your life, Doctor Octavius; reach out to Spider-Man, or the Avengers – let them help you. My friends and I aren't from this city, or this country," he continued, making sure to leave out the fact that they came from an entirely different universe, "and yet we've already received so much help from the heroes here; I'm sure someone will help you if you just ask, and then you can use your work to help people again in turn."
The scientist looked at the boy's outstretched hand, pensively. After a while, he reached out to take it.
"Alright, I've had enough of that!" said a growling, electronically distorted voice.
Lightning arced all around the room, sending Doc Ock and the heroes flying against the walls. They all struggled to their feet and squared up against their remaining opponent.
"How the hell is he still powering up!?" asked Bakugo.
"The reactor must've become self-sustaining by now," replied Spider-Man. "We'll have to find a way to destroy it."
"Leave that to me!" declared Todoroki. "The rest of you, hold him off for me!"
"Like I'ma let you do that!" said Electro, his voice reverberating from all around them.
More electricity sparked from the edges of the room; the heroes reflexively moved and dodged the hostile energy by the skin of their teeth; Doctor Octavius, meanwhile, was electrified and rendered unconscious. Bakugo fired off several explosive blasts at Electro, followed by Deku firing off dual blasts of air pressure, all to cover Todoroki as he used his ice slide to approach the reactor in the middle of the room, but not without sending a wave of fire in Electro's direction. Spider-Man jumped and swung around the room, all the while creating a network of webbing all across the open space to slow Electro down in any way he could; he had long ago insulated his web shooters against electricity after his first battle against the electrified villain, but even that insulation would be useless against these levels of power – he had to avoid directly webbing Electro at all costs.
Electro burned his way through the webbing, barely letting it bother him. Compressed air and a barrage of explosions held him in place, but his electricity pushed back even harder. The young heroes fighting him were constantly being pushed back, but they got up every time they were knocked down and continued attacking. In the state he was in, Electro had access to effectively unlimited power, meaning this would be a test of the heroes' endurance more than anything else.
On the other side of the reactor, while his friends suffered great injury to keep Electro suppressed, Todoroki made the right side of his body as cold as he could make it; he sent a wave of ice from his hand and foot to the reactor, steadily icing it over. It wasn't enough, as the energy of the reactor refused to diminish; he needed to make it even colder. He dug deep, pushed himself to his limit, made himself even colder than that; he was practically freezing himself solid, as the right side of his body was rapidly being covered in a thick layer of ice. The reactor began to ice over; the fusion core inside began to slow down; it was a slow process, but the power supply's output was already significantly reducing.
On the other side of the room, Bakugo pushed himself to his limit creating a field of explosions large enough to keep Electro at bay; he had already fired off one of his gauntlets and was saving the other for an emergency, leaving him with creating explosions naturally as his only option; his arms were shaking, their muscles tearing themselves apart, from the strain he was putting himself under. He felt a surge of pain in one of his arms and his attack pattern gave way, allowing Electro to break containment with a violent blast of energy.
All of the heroes around the room found themselves thrown against the walls once more; but when they looked up, they noticed that Electro was no longer in his incorporeal form – a flesh and blood man, crackling with yellow electricity, floated in the middle of the room.
"You little punk!" yelled the villain, as he flashed over to Todoroki and lifted the boy by the neck. "You cut off my power!"
Spider-Man shot a pair of webs at Electro's back, pulling him off of the frozen hero; Electro tried to retaliate by electrifying the webs, but in his weakened state, the insulation on the web shooters shielded them from the discharge. Deku flung himself across the lab using Blackwhip and kicked through the frozen reactor, shattering it apart and ensuring it wouldn't come back online, and then moved over to check on Todoroki. Angered even further, Electro powered up as much as he could, shooting electricity at the heroes surrounding him; Bakugo ducked behind cover and then finally made his move – he aimed his gauntlet and pulled the pin.
A furious blast of fire engulfed Electro, disorienting him. Spider-Man took the opening and created a massive web all around the room, with Electro at its center, immobilizing him; it wouldn't hold for long, as the electric villain began charging up again, causing the webs to start burning. Spider-Man kept firing more webs, but he was rapidly running out of web fluid.
On the side of the room, Todoroki began focusing power into his left side, melting the ice on his body. "Midoriya," he turned to his friend, "I need you to create an opening for me, as big as you can."
Deku simply nodded.
With this much ice on his body, Todoroki knew he could go all out with his fire without much backlash; that was how his father always wanted it – his two halves of fire and ice would cancel out each other's negatives; his ice would prevent him from overheating and burning himself, while his fire would prevent him from freezing and getting frostbite. As much as he struggled with it, and still hated to admit it, he really was the perfect successor to his father.
With the webs melted away, Electro grabbed Spider-Man and Bakugo with arcs of lightning, pulling them into the air.
"Damn, you're going all Palpatine on us!?" quipped Spider-Man.
"Hope you're happy with those being your last words," said Electro.
Directly below him, Deku planted his foot. Green electricity ran wild, his glow of his body intensified, his skin reddened from increasing blood flow, steam rose off of his body, his wavy hair spiked straight up, and his eyes gleamed with the same green energy that surrounded him.
"Don't think so!" said Electro, firing a blast of electricity with his foot.
But it was too late.
Deku's white arm bracer warped and shredded apart from the inside, unable to contain the energy in his arm, as the boy threw his punch. "One for All, Full Cowling: 100% - DETROIT SMASH!"
A blast of air so thick it was a visible whirlwind surged forward. The lightning Electro had fired was thrown right back at him, and the man himself was thrown against the ceiling of the lab. Steel and glass and stone all buckled and cracked and shattered, as a massive hole burst outward through the walls of the skyscraper. Electro just barely managed to prevent himself from getting thrown outside.
The boy who had caused so much destruction stood in place, catching his breath and clutching his now-reddened arm. "Now Todoroki!"
From the side of the room, a massive eruption of flame shot the two-toned hero forward, flying straight and true towards his target. His left arm shone like the sun, completely engulfed in white-hot fire so focused that it looked like a laser beam.
"Let me show you what I can do!" he declared, as he rapidly closed in on the villain. "My Flashfire Fist – JET KINDLING!"
With the full power of his flames, Todoroki punched the villain in the top of his head, sending him flying back down onto the floor of the lab, and through the next three floors below.
Though they were thoroughly exhausted, the heroes oversaw the aftermath of their battle. The police had arrived, and worked with Oscorp security to restrain and arrest the Sinister Six. Spider-Man stopped Doctor Octavius just before they took him away.
"I saved all of the data from your experiment today," he said, holding up a flash drive, "I'll hold on to it for you, for when you're ready to talk."
The mad doctor could only laugh and smile as he was put into the SWAT truck.
With their job finished, the heroes stopped by a small, local deli to pick up some breakfast sandwiches before heading to Avengers Tower.
"Well, I read through the reports of everything that's happened over the past day," said Tony Stark, "job well done."
The young heroes all cheered quietly at the acknowledgement.
"Especially you three," continued Tony, singling out the UA students. "I'm impressed with what you guys can do; you didn't make me regret sending you out into the field, and that's all I can ask for. Though, I am a bit worried with what happened to you, smarty-pants."
"Oh, this," said Deku, lifting up his bruised arm, now held in a sling. "This is what happens when I use my full power; my body isn't quite strong enough to handle it yet."
"Yeah; your spiky friend here mentioned something about that."
Bakugo growled at the comment. "How're you doing on finding a way to get us home, you rich asshole!?"
"Well, I've been monitoring all the dimensional activity that's happened throughout the city for the past few days and I think I found the energy signature that brought you here; now I just need to find a way to track it. After that, I can call some friends and put together something that can use that energy to actually get you guys back home."
"That's a lot of progress in just one day; impressive," said Todoroki.
"Hold your applause until after I finish getting you back to your world. In the meantime, would you kids mind helping out with another mission? There are some people that could use your help that should be arriving—" he was cut off by the sound of the elevator reaching their floor. "Speak of the devil."
Out of the elevator, three new heroes emerged. A man in a red, white, and blue suit, carrying a circular shield with a white star in its center; a beautiful, red-haired woman wearing a black spy suit that seemed to hug every curve of her body, but was also bristling with high-tech gadgets; and a man with messy hair and glasses, well-dressed and carrying numerous documents, who seemed to be a scientist of some kind.
The American flag-colored man stepped forward and extended a hand to the newcomers. "Nice to meet you all; Tony's told me all about you. I'm Steve Rogers."