Heroes Chapter 2 teaser. (Patreon)

Howdy all, here is what I have written of the next chapter of Heroes. It’s… well it’s a teaser frankly. I won’t post the rest until its all done, but I wanted you to see what I had written already. Unfortunately, Tomon did get Stallion back to me, and I spent most of today and yesterday, that which I had free, editing it. I Could have finished in a day, but family duties got in the way. I started work on this Wednesday, worked on it Thursday, and had a few hours to put a few final touches on it today. Hope you enjoy it, and look forward to the rest.

In other news, Since Tomon finished with Stallion, I sent him Death’s Avenger. Given the amount of lore bits, I don’t want to post it without a lore expert going over it. And since no one else volunteered, that means that Tomon’s reward for a good job on Stallion is more work via the DA chapter. It will be updated as soon as he gets it back to me. Come to think of it, Tomon will probably want to look at the rest of this chapter too, as will Primordial Vortex… erk.

I will also be posting the polls for October tomorrow.

Chapter 2 Part 1: The Ocean Can Be a True…

The scent of all things larger than a blue whale stayed in their minds even as it disappeared under the waves, and after the initial declaration, everyone Izuku fell silent. Izuku’s mumbling created a background noise to the others, who could barely make out one word and for until Melissa reached over, tugging on an ear and ruffling his hair. “Snap out of it, Greeny! This isn’t the time to get lost in your own mind, we’re already lost in a large freaking ocean!”

Izuku blinked, then pointed towards where the dolphin had disappeared. “The size of the dolphin is worrisome,” he summarized his mumblings. “For one thing, what it says about the world we’re on, the ecosystem here. If the dolphin is that big, it stands to reason there could be far, far larger predators.”

That served to bring Tsuyu and Kirishima out of their own paralysis as both of them began to laugh, Kirishima’s loud guffaws drowning out Asui’s cute keros. “Bro, dolphins are not easy to pray on for other animals. They work in pods, and they can be mean battering rams if they want to be. I saw them bully a huge shark once. It came too close to the school, and a few dolphins peeled off and pounded it until it ran away.”

“Kero, giant octopi maybe would attack them, but even killer whales don’t bother them,” Tsuyu added.

“Maybe not, but the other end of that concern is still viable,” Izuku argued back. “The bigger the animal, the more food it needs to consume. And if the dolphin is that size, then everything else might also be larger.”

“Are you saying we’re in the land of the giants?” Jirou asked, playing with one of her ear jacks nervously.

“I’m more concerned about our survival right now than what kind of world were in, kero,” Tsuyu said, shaking her head and dragging their attention back to earth. “When lost on the ocean like this, there are a few things you need to worry about: dehydration, and exposure. We need to keep the sun off us.”

“Ah, on that vein, does anyone see the balloon I made?” Momo asked, looking around for it. “We could make do with that. Cover a portion of the middle of the boat with it, have some of us rest inside.” She glanced at Izuku and his now black and blue fingers, then over at Todoroki who was now laying out on the boat. His leg, although healed from being squished like an empty tube of toothpaste, had been healed by Recovery Girl, but it was still nowhere near as strong as his other leg. To say nothing of his other barely healed wounds.

“That would be midships from port to starboard,” Kirishima interjected.

“Whatever. It’s over there.” May stated, pointed it out from her side of the boat.

Tsuyu jumped into the water, swimming hard for it before diving down to grab it as the tarp finally went under just before she could reach it, weighed down by the small grips along its edges Momo had imagined into the thing when she made it. Soon she was back, and with Momo providing nails and a makeshift tent pole, they quickly rigged up the tarp over the center of the boat. As they did, Kirishima and Tsuyu did what they could to fill in the others about the nomenclature of the sea, port, starboard, how to work the tiller as well as the different sections of their ship.

“Although, calling it a ship’s really stretching the point. This thing isn’t even big enough to really serve as a ship’s boat, let alone a modern survival craft,” Kirishima grumbled.

“Well excuse me,” Momo answered, sounding somewhat affronted. “It was the best I could do under extremely trying circumstances.”

“Kero, where did you get the design from?” Tsuyu asked, staring at the bottom of the boat contemplatively. The sides of the boat showed wooden seems as would be normal in a wooden rowboat, but the bottom was a solid piece.

Momo blushed a bit, looking away even as she continued to hold the tentpole in place for Izuku and Mei who were carefully hammering in nails into the flanges at the bottom to make it stay upright. Thankfully, the bottom of the boat she had made was quite thick, so they were able to nail the tentpole down without causing leakage. “From a children’s book I read when I was younger. I really liked the description of the boats in it, and I found some pictures online. It was the biggest thing I’d made at the time.”

The others all chuckled a little at the heiress’s embarrassment, but kept on working.

Swiftly, the group were able to finish nailing the tarp down and Todoroki and Midoriya were moved underneath it. But just as the others were about to wonder what they could do to make the rowboat more livable, the wind began to pick up. Within one second and the next, the clouds darkened and rain fell like a torrent while the ocean began to toss under them and what had been a bright clear day was but a memory. It was literally that sudden. And Iida, who had been hanging onto the side of the boat to nail the tarp down was flung overboard.

Luckily, Jirou heard his screen, and shouted, “Ian went overboard! Left to the back of the boat!”

She might have gone unheard, but Kirishima heard her and shouted, his voice punching through the storm. “Man overboard, starboard aft!”

Tsuyu reacted quickly. From her own perch near the prow she leapt into the air, looking around quickly. Right where Kirishima said to look she spotted where Iida’s hand sticking out of the water. Iida had already gone under, pulled by the weight of his legs and unable to fight through the heavy waves.

“KERO!” Asui lashed out with her tongue as hard as she could, needing to stab into the water, which, as choppy and heaving as it was, was not easy. I’ve never seen a storm this heavy!

Limbs flailing wildly, Iida tried to make for the surface. For the first time he cursed his family’s Quirk as it dragged him down no matter how hard he tried. No, no, I can’t die like this, brother I…

A pink thing flashed through the water beside him, barely discernable through the water, and Iida grasped it quickly with both hands..

Asui grimaced, as she landed on the prow of the boat, osing her footing and falling forward. This would have her head into the bottom of the boat if not for Melissa and Jirou catching her by her shoulders. Pulling Iida in was extremely awkward, but the two other girls kept her stable as she slowly pulled her tongue back in, tears of pain coming to her eyes to join the rain running down her face.

By the time Kirishima and Izuku could grab Iida out of the ocean, Asui’s tongue was badly pulled to go with the end having been squeezed so much. Asui didn’t even protest as Momo wrapped a thin rope around her wrist, connecting her to the others, all of whom looked terrified.

Even Kirishima did as he finished pulling Iida under the tarp, staring forward towards the others. “I’ve been to the sea a lot of times with my pops, and I have never seen a storm come up so quick! That’s not natural!”

Izuku leapt to what he thought was a logical conclusion ignoring the fact that his fingers were throbbing badly from helping Iida into the boat and that he had jammed one of them badly before that when the ship lurched, making the pain even worse. His pain was worthless right now in comparison to making certain that everyone lived through whatever was going on. “Could there be a weather controlling Quirk user out there?”

“Don’t know, don’t care! Momo has the right idea, link everyone together and to the rowboat, but make the ropes loose. In this seas, were in danger of capsizing, and that wouldn’t be manly at all. Keep the weight in the center of the boat, ready to move so we can balance the boat against the swells!” Kirishima ordered

For several moments, the group battled the storm as best they could, which wasn’t very well at all. After all surviving in rowboat stuck out at sea was a horrible place to be in on a clear day. In a storm, people could only really buckle themselves down and pray. There was a reason why people thought that the term SOS stood for Save Our Souls.

Luckily for everyone aboard the small ship, particularly those already wounded like Izuku, whose fingers were not looking good at the moment, and Todoroki, the storm began to subside with the same abruptness that it arrived. Once more, before she could even blink the sky was clear, the storm vanishing with a truly terrifying abruptness. “And maybe there is a Quirk user involved, but if so, that is one scary Quirk. Most weather based Quirks either specialize, like ones who can summon lightning, or work slowly, like that worker in Canada who manipulates the weather on demand for farmers throughout the country.”

“It doesn’t matter. If were being attacked, or if this is natural, it doesn’t matter!” Kirishima said, emphasizing his words by thumping his fist lightly on the bottom of the boat. “We just got really lucky. We need to find land quickly, or else. A rowboat is not going to cut it out here guys, no matter how manly we are.”

Izuku became aware of the throbbing in his fingers once more now that the immediate danger, and winced trying to hide his hand behind his body as he slumped on one of the benches. He passed in an effort to push the pain aside. To his surprise, Momo, Jirou and Melissa seem to be handling it pretty well. Jirou, sitting between the two taller girls looked nervous and concerned, but dealing with it well enough. Momo, Izuku was certain, was pushing things aside for now to concentrate on immediate needs. Currently, she was looking at her forearm as a long metallic cylinder began to appear there.

As he watched, that, Melissa began to issue orders, which Kirishima and Iida hastened to obey, scooping out the water from the ice that Todoroki had used to link them altogether out of the boat, as Todoroki apologized before the blonde girl shushed him. “You’re quick thinking saved us all. A little bit of discomfort is a small price to pay for all of us staying in the boat.”

The orders serving to push Iida through the last of his funk from his near death experience and he went to with the will, thanking all and sun-dried for saving him in an overdone but heartfelt manner, which ended abruptly as Melissa ordered, “less hand chopping, more scooping.”

Izuku understood where his friend’s former paralysis came from though. Iida’s legs were far heavier than they looked, thanks to the engines within, and the ocean during that storm had been such that even an expert swimmer would’ve been terrified if he didn’t have a Quirk specialized for that environment.

To his surprise, the one who seemed to be having the largest case of the jitters was sitting next to Todoroki, who had reacted just as he would in a training exercise back at school. But Mei was shivering in place next to him, and Izuku could sense that it had nothing to do with still being cold. Indeed, the warmth of the day was almost oppressive, and Izuku could feel himself start to dry out already. It was evident though that May had never faced the fury of nature before. She had been in life or death situations during the fight back on I-Island, but Izuku wasn’t the only one who was looking at Mei little worriedly as she began to mutter, “No babies, no tools, nothing to build, nothing to fight with!”

“What are you talking about?” Momo asked, smiling slightly as she held out the cylinder she had made toward Mei. “You still have your Quirk, and you still have your mind. Your mind will help us get through this once we reach someplace where you can build your ‘babies,’ it’s only a matter of time. But for right now, your Quirk will be the most useful with this.”

May took the spyglass, peering into it, then nodded gratefully to Momo, pushing yourself to work feet, and moving to the prow of the ship. “Thanks, Boobs.”

Momo spluttered at that, while Izuku and the other boys looked away, and Iida and Jirou took Mei to task for an inappropriate name. Unfortunately, after a few seconds, Mei, who had been ignoring them, pulled the spyglass away from her eyes shaking her head. “I don’t see anything else out there but more ocean. Not behind us, not in front of us not anywhere.”

That brought a somber silence to the group for moment, which Izuku broke, knowing that he couldn’t let any of them become depressed. They had to keep pushing forward, or else they were all going to become crushed by the impossibility of the danger they were facing. “Right, that just means we need to start moving then. Did this rowboat come with oars?”

“We lost them over the side,” Jirou said, having seen it happen. “Yaomomo, I hate to ask, but are you up to…”

Momo nodded, wordlessly holding out two metallic looking paddles, each the size of her own body which she had just extruded from her hands. They were lightweight titanium, with rubber ends, far easier to make than a similar wooden oar would be, and cost her less in terms of her reserves. Whatever those actually might be, she reflected, holding back an entirely inappropriate chortle as she remembered the conversation she’d had with Melissa and Izuku on that score back in Melissa is laboratory.

“That’s well and good, but we need to think about what we can do if another storm comes upon us,” Todoroki said in his normal monotone. A tone of voice that everyone knew after their adventure on I-Island was false, but which served to further calm them all dow. “I can freeze us into a glacier to shield us from it and keep us afloat. Although, it won’t be pleasant for anyone. Least of all you, Tsuyu.”

Tsuyu waved her hand weakly from where she had sat half in and half out from under the tarp, slowly rolling her tongue back into her mouth wincing with every twist of the tongue. The fact that she could still make herself understood even like this was somewhat surprising to Melissa and Mei, but the rest of the students there had gotten used to that over the weeks they’d known the frog girl. “I’m still wearing the coat Momo gave me, and going into hibernation isn’t all that bad so long as it doesn’t last very long, kero.”

“So that is one viable way of getting through it. Did anyone see anything that could’ve warned us it was coming?” Todoroki asked, taking Tsuyu’s words at face value. “I need some warning to craft enough cold to create an iceberg like that without hurting us.

Jirou slowly raised her hand from where she had slumped next to Melissa, not having anything to do right now. “I might have felt the wind started to pick up a little. My ear jacks are sensitive to that kind of thing. But that’s about all. I may be able to warn us, but don’t bet on it.”

Todoroki just nodded, while me shook her head, reminded of the storm may began to panic again. “What’s it matter if we spot a storm coming, we can’t stop it! And eventually, we might be hit by a real storm, one that stays around for a while and then we’ll be dead, either frozen like popsicles or sunk or…”

Izuku reached for her hand, squeezing it briefly, causing her worst hole for a second as she looked at him. Oh my God, I’m holding a girl’s hand willingly! The extremely socially stunted Izuku exclaimed mentally, a but he couldn’t allow any of those thoughts to show on his face. Although he did stutter a little as he spoke. “H, Hatsume-san, you’re surrounded by hero students. Yes, t, t, the situation might be dire, but so have some of the exercises we’ve been put through by All Might and Eraserhead.”

“Especially when he puts in logical ruses,” Jirou grumbled, causing nods from everyone from 1-A bar Iida. The class president quickly began to take her to task about impugning a teacher at such a vaunted Academy as UA.

Izuku however kept concentrating on Mei’s face, trying not to let his eyes wonder. All of them had been dressed for bed, and Mei’s version of bedwear had been a sports bra and boy pants. Really, really short boy pants. And she wasn’t the worse of the girls. That had to be Momo, whose silk pajamas clung to her like a second skin. Izuku tried hard not to look at anything but her face, but it was hard. “T, the rest of us can get us to land. But you, Momo, and Melissa might be the keys to us surviving afterward. So, so stay with us okay? Don’t panic, Hatsume-san. We need you.”

May stared into Izuku’s eyes for a moment, then nodded, breathing in a few times deeply, causing her chest to heave in such a way that Izuku, who despite being socially awkward, was a red-blooded teenager, had to fight to keep his eyes trained on the pink haired inventor’s. “Right, got it Green.”

With that, she resolutely turned back, scanning the horizon once more with the spyglass.

Melissa nodded, happy that Izuku had broken her fellow inventor out of her funk. “Let’s break into groups here. We’ve got the tarp to keep us from getting sunstroke, and we have Todoroki to create ice for us that we can melt into drinkable water… Right? Your Quirk doesn’t do anything to the ice to make it not drinkable?”

Todoroki nodded, and to the surprise of everyone, actually had experience with that. “I have drunk the water from my own ice quite a few times after particularly hard training sessions with Endeavor.”

{Hearing something in the tone of voice from Todoroki, and the use of the fiery hero’s codename, Izuku’s eyes narrowed. He had made certain conclusions during their time together on I-Island when it came to endeavor that his hero worshiping side was not happy about. But hearing that tone in Todoroki’s voice, he now knew for certain that there was something bad going on there.}

He didn’t Interrupt now though. There would be time enough later to maybe ask Todoroki to open up a little.

“We might need food eventually,” Melissa continued, ignorant of Izuku’s thoughts. “With Tsuyu out of action, we might have to try our hand at fishing. Eijiro, you said your family was one of the fishermen groups supplying I-Island, maybe you can teach us how to fish? My dad always says that it’s therapeutic for some reason.”

Kirishima blushed a bit at being kalled his first name by the attractive older American girl, but Momo disagreed. “I’m getting to the point where I’m feeling hungry despite the pizza and everything else from last night. But even so we don’t need food yet, so let’s not get sidetracked. We need to instead figure out a direction to go and a way to keep us on that course without any landmarks.”

“A compass and a sextant then,” Melissa answered, both of the terms coming out in English. She’d never had cause to look them up in Japanese after all. The others looked at her blankly, and she sighed. “Dammit, the language barrier. Sorry, there are just some words I’ve never used before in Japanese. The thing that always points north, small, fits in your hand?”

“Compass,” Kirishima said quickly getting over his embarrassment. “No ship ever goes anywhere without one.”

“Oh dear, I don’t think I’ve ever made that… Although I have made magnets, and that’s how they work right? A loadstone I think they are called, always pointing north?” Momo muttered.

Somehow, Izuku was suddenly holding a pen and notebook, causing Iida, who was sitting next to him, to twitch in shock and shift away pointing at the thing is if it was from the devil. “W, Midoriya-san, where did that notebook come from!?”

Izuku ignored that as he always did when people wondered where he kept his notebooks. It wasn’t his fault that people didn’t know he always had a notebook on him. “A compass looks like this…” Izuku began to draw, and within seconds, held up the notebook to show a small circular object, the exterior made of wood, covered over at the top with glass, with a dial inside and numerals around the outer circumference of the circle. “Does this help?”

Momo smiled at him, causing Izuku to blush this time, although it looked far redder in comparison to his hair than in Kirishima’s case. At least in Momo’s opinion. And those freckles of his are quite cute. “That will help immensely Izuku, thank you.”

She closed her eyes, holding out her hand and willing what she wanted into existence. Much like the autocannon she had used during the battle trials back on I-Island, it came far faster than a part of her mind had really expected, and Momo once more thanked Melissa and Izuku in her mind for their help in better understanding her own Quirk.

However, when Momo opened her eyes and looked down at the item in her hand, she sighed in dismay. “Drat it! I must’ve made it wrong. Look, it’s spinning all over the place.”

Before anyone else could say anything, Mei, who had turned away from watching horizon to watch events, reached down and plucked the compass up out of Momo’s hand, staring at it. Those nearby could see her eyes shift as she activated her Quirk, the crosshairs within them suddenly dialing down almost like a sniper staring at a particularly long range target. “No, you made it right… It’s just, wherever we are, this place has more than one magnetic pole.” {About polarity and so forth}

Tsuyu and Kirishima both looked shocked at that, while Melissa stated assertively, “that’s impossible!”

“Maybe, but that’s what’s happening. I can see this thing taking little minute jerks and twitches in each direction for a few seconds, before then spinning around like a top.” May handed back the compass, shaking his head. “Nice thinking, but I think we’re just going to have to pick a direction and pray.”

“Well, since the ship is pointing this way, let’s just keep going in that direction, then,” Izuku said, causing Tsuyu and Kirishima to shake her heads

“Bro, you are among the manliest guys I know, but that was such a landlubber comment, my Pops would smack you over the head for it. There’s the current to consider, waves, the wind might pull us a little off course. Not to mention any storm that comes up screwing with our visibility and course. Keeping on a course at sea is a lot tougher than you might think.”

“Perhaps so, but while Izuku spoke in ignorance, we cannot simply wait here, we need to be moving. Even if we are moving haphazardly, that is better than waiting in a vast expanse of nothing isn’t it?” Momo asked.

To that, none of the others had anything to say, and Iida and Kirishima began to row them forward, while Jirou sat next to Mei on the prow, ready to grab her if she overbalanced and fall out of the boat. She also extended her ear jacks as far as they would go in every direction. This way, she hoped to pick up enough signals to tell her if the weather was about to change.

It worked, and the next time a squall came up, Todoroki had time to cover the interior of the boat and perforce all of them with ice, at least from the waist down. As the storm hit, Todoroki’s ice continued to grow in several directions, creating a small flat glacier. With this, they rode out the storm somewhat well.

On the other hand, Tsuyu reacted even more poorly than she had expected to being frozen and it took Todoroki several moments to develop enough heat to slowly start to fall them out. Luckily, the heat of the day did its best to help with that, but even so, everyone was wet, bedraggled, and still a shivering by the time everyone was free of the ice.

This included Todoroki himself, who was shivering so much at his position in the center of the boat, that the tent pole was shaking in turn. “I’ve never enjoyed being stuck in my own ice like that, and now I like it even less.”

Melissa hurried over to him, crouching down and beginning to poke and prod his right side for a few seconds, holding up his hand and moving his fingers gently, feeling at the bones in his elbow and shoulder. “You still feel a little rigid to me, and your arm look as if you were in danger of giving them frostbite. The cold you create doubles back on you, doesn’t it? Keep using your heat side for a bit until your fingers are back to normal, okay? That’s about all I can tell you unfortunately. I’m a scientist, not a doctor.”

“That’s better than any of the rest of us,” Izuku said, holding up his hand for emphasis. Momo had been making him small finger guards for him when the storm hit, and while one of them, a cross between a guard to prevent further injury and a splint, looked very good, the others… didn’t.

With a good-natured chuckle, Melissa came over, unwrapped Izuku’s fingers and began to rewrap them properly, with Mei and the 1-A students looking on, even Kirishima and Iida from their positions rowing the boat. Izuku began to feel a little self-conscious at all this attention, which Iida pointed out, before stating bluntly, “if you don’t want such attention in the future, Midoriya-san, perhaps you should undertake to not break anymore fingers. However, knowing you, you will almost certainly break some other portion of your body. Perhaps if enough of us know how to treat you afterwards though, oh we can save you a little bit from yourself.”

Izuku blushed at that, while the rest of his classmates, and even Melissa and Mei to his horror, nodded in agreement.

Me however was distracted a second later, and she stared into the distance, saying, “I can see a dolphin out there. No way I can tell if it’s the same one though.”

“Let’s make for it,” Kirishima said. The others all looked at him in confusion even as Tsuyu, who was now standing by the aft of the ship with the tiny tiller, had begun to do so. Seeing this, Kirishima explained. “Dolphins are friendly. Not only that, they’re smart. Dolphins sometimes help swimmers, and who knows, if this dolphin is just a regular dolphin done large, it might even be smarter. The size of the brain matters right? It could be leading us to safety somehow.”

While this sounded really farfetched, no one else had anything better to do, they did so. Moments later, they were rewarded by the dolphin flipping through the air, splashing about in the distance, and remaining there, until they came a little closer, whereupon it moved away again. If this was to help them, or simply to stay away, none could tell. Jirou jokingly asked Tsuyu if she could speak dolphin, to which the frog girl simply deadpanned no, causing everyone to laugh a little as some more of the tension of their arrival in the strange world and the storms they had faced began to subside.

The group of teens dealt with a few strange currents over the next few hours, but nothing horrendous, pushing on through the day. Todoroki occasionally made ice for them all to melt into water. But thanks to the hugely fatty meal they’d had the evening before, only Momo was feeling a little peckish for several hours.  Yet all of their stomachs were rumbling by the time evening began. Worse however, was the fact that the heat and the tiredness of their exertions meant that several of them were beginning to nod off.

Which was when storm hit them.

At first, this one seemed downright gentle in comparison to the others, and once more Todoroki froze them all together in the rwboat. Yes, there were a lot of waves, but not so much, instead, it was the torrential downpour of rain that was a major concern. Iida and Kirishima stopped rowing for a bit, stowing the oars under the benches. They then began to help the others bail out as droplets the size of their heads crashed down into the boat almost like cannon shots, although not causing as much damage.

Then suddenly, the rowboat was being turned twisted around and turned, so hard it was almost pulled over onto its side. Todoroki quickly expanded the ice within the ship out to create an iceberg but to his astonishment, the ice shattered, torn apart the instant it began to expand out from the boat. Before he could think of anything else to do, the boat heaved again this time a combination fo the new current and a massive wave. The ship was flung into the air, where it flipped.

Seeing what was about to happen, Izuku shouted orders, straining against the ice as much as he could with his still broken fingers. “Shoto, full burn, melt the ice and let us go! Or will be trapped underneath it when we hit the water!”

Todoroki did so, flames roaring out from his shoulder and neck as below that, his side heated up to the point where they would’ve burned anyone in direct contact. The ice around him melted instantly, the rest thawing quickly. Kirishima, Izuku, Mei and Kyoka all broke free quickly thanks to their own strength and Kyoka’s earjacks shattering the ice.

But Melissa and Iida, were still frozen in place by the time the boat slammed back down onto the water, having indeed capsized. Instantly, the water snuffed out Todoroki’s fire. He could barely make up enough to heat the water around his own body, let alone the remaining ice trapping the twosome in the rowboat. And then he had to concentrate on swimming too hard to worry about anyone else.

Kyoka saw the same thing through the deluge, and quickly continued to use her earjacks to break Momo and the comatose Tsuyu out, noting the frog girl was already beginning to rouse in the warm water. Good because I don’t think most of us can swim in this! She thought, wrapping her arms around the gunwale of the rowboat and holding on for dear life.

While Kokya and most of the others were keeping their cool even under these conditions, Iida began to panic. Upside down, his lower half still frozen to the boat, he had no way of saving himself. Melissa also began to panic, but she had the presence of mind to at least cover her mouth and nose before they hit the water. Alas, that impact nearly knocked her unconscious. Her eyes began to roll back into the side of her head, but before Melissa could completely lost it, Izuku appeared before them, barely visible in the darkness underwater and the shadow of the rowboat above.

Control it, control it, only a tiny amount, less than a percent! Izuku chanted internally, bringing his undamaged hands down onto the ice coating the two of them. It shattered, and Melissa and Iida found themselves grabbed and tossed upwards at an angle to get them out of the water.

Both of them burst out of the water, and found Jirou’s jacks wrapping around their arms, hauling them back down and towards the others. She in turn was clinging to the side of the boat, her arm locked around the gun whale in a death grip, looking soaked pistol and terrified all at once. The pair of them dropped into the water nearby, and were quickly joined by Momo, who had helped Todoroki to reach the side of the rowboat. It was now floating upside down, but that was enough for them to grab onto at least, and all of them did so, their hands clenched white knuckled about the wood.

Kirishima and Tsuyu were the only ones able to swim in these heavy seas, and Kirishima couldn’t do so very well. But he was clinging to the prow of the boat, having grabbed Mei the instant the ice around him had thawed.

Tsuyu was able to somewhat fight the waves, and went after Izuku, pulling back towards the boat.  I’ve never seen waves like this, or that current, it’s as strong as the nastiest undertow I’ve trained against!

The two of them clung on to the aft of the rowboat, as Todoroki shouted, now finally showing some concern, indeed, quite a bit of fear as the boat tossed and turned, and all of them had to fight to hold onto it lest they be dragged away by the waves. “How do we get this turned around!? I can’t… my ice just breaks, this current, it’s too strong!”

The water was also noticeably warmer than where they had first arrived in this world. But that didn’t matter as much right now as the current. Something that bothered Tsuyu a lot, although if her voice was raised more out of fear than the need to be heard over the storm, none of the others could tell as she began shouting out instructions.

Eventually, Izuku and Kirishima were on one side of the boat pushing upwards. This was not easy, the water was sucking and trying to pull the ship down even as the two strongest members of the group pushed up, and they had to concentrate just as much on treading water with just their legs in monstrously heavy seas.

Everyone else clung to the other side, weighing it down, and eventually the combination let them stand the rowboat on its side for a second, before plummeting back down right side up this time. That impact nearly had many of the girls lose their grip, but Jirou, who had yet to move her arms from where they were locked around two of the posts in the gunwale, grabbed at them with her jacks, pulling both Momo and Melissa back in, while Tsuyu, who had released her grip, was able to float for a brief second, reaching up and grabbing onto the gunwale, and pulling herself up onto the boat.

The storm continued to rage, nearly having them over again as Kirishima clambered in. But he was followed by Momo and Melissa, then the others one after another, with Izuku and Iida being the last of the boys.

But the storm wasn’t done with them. Even as they all hunkered down and Todoroki began to use his powers once more to try and create a iceberg around the boat, it shattered, and Tsuyu watched, her eyes widening. All of the ice is flowing in a single direction, even from the other side of the boat, which means… “Mei! Get the spyglass, look in the direction I’m pointing, Kero!”

By the time she finished, Tsuyu could feel the boat again being tugged in that direction, and after a second, May’s voice floated back to her, nearly distorted despite the fact there were only four yards or less between them thanks to the power of the wind and the tumbled of the waves. “There’s some kind of big whirlpool thing out there… Oh, crap…”

Todoroki grimly began to cover the boat again and ice, but Izuku scolded him, shaking his head. “It won’t work. That current will just pull the whole iceberg in that direction, you can’t make it big enough to weigh us down fast enough with the ice shattering all the time. Don’t tire yourself out.”

Given all of his exertions up to this point, Todoroki could only agree. Frankly, as battered and tired as he was feeling, even sealing the others together in the boat might well have been beyond him.

“Hatsume-san can you see the dolphin!?” Izuku asked. He wasn’t certain that he believed that the dolphin was trying to lead them to safety, it obviously wasn’t going to be helping them any further than that like in some of the made up stories he’d read when he was younger.

May quickly scanned the horizon, and then pointed at what looks like 120° angle away from the whirlpool. “I can! It’s over there, splashing around big time!”

Izuku took a quick look at the direction she was pointing, then turned directly away from it, and held up his unbroken fingers. From nearby Momo stared, worried how much the boy was going to hurt himself this time, but she obeyed as he barked out, “everybody hold on!”

Jirou took the opportunity to wrap her jacks around Momo’s arm while everyone else hunkered down, grabbing at the gunwale or benches of the rowboat. Seeing that, and the fact they were halfway towards the center of the whirlpool, Todoroki gritted his teeth and within seconds froze them all, one after another into a single ice block, although the ice was only hip tall.

Can’t hold back this time, have to bet it all on one strike! “100% Finger Smash!” Izuku shouted as he pointed down at the ocean in front of him. The boat was blasted up and out of the water at an angle, but boats were not very aerodynamic, and they began to twist and twirl through the air, end over end and then side to side, as everyone aboard screamed. But it had gotten them away from the whirlpool, and that was the most important thing, even as Izuku began to scream for an entirely different reason.

Moments later they slammed down into the ocean, somehow the right way up. The ship skipped along the water for a few bounces and for a moment, everyone just clung there, looking around to check that yes, everyone was there, and alive. Then everyone else became aware of Izuku’s whimpering. Quicky everyone began to try and break out of the ice, finding it much easier as the ice had cracked in various places thanks to the reflected impact from Izuku’s attack.

Then, the boat was coming down a final time, bobbing in place for a second. The nighttime sky was clear above them, and there were few waves once more, a tranquil sea around them.

Several more moments of frenzied followed, until finally Jirou, who had used her jacks to shatter the ice around her, was free. This let her be the first to reach Izuku, who was cradling two more broken fingers to his chest while also moving his waist gingerly, possibly having pulled something there. “Damn it, Green, you can’t keep this to yourself, dude!” She growled out, staring down at his hands and beginning to pull them away from one another so she could examine the damage. His previously injured hand was looking bad now. The fingers were no longer straight in their splints and one was obviously broken from some kind of impact. But the fingers of Izuku’s other hand looked way worse.

Ian and the others followed a bare second later, and Iida roughly pulled his friend into a hug, even as one arm began to chop in the air along Izuku’s back. “Indeed! As a student of UA, you should start looking for alternative solutions rather than simply breaking yourself. Or else how can you be a hero fit for other generations to follow?”

At the center of the group hug, Izuku mumbled, “They’re just my fingers, that’s a small price to pay.”

“Not to us,” Momo said, shaking her head.

Kirishima got into it too. “Izuku, you are manly as hell my dude, but come on! This time you might’ve been right in doing it, but still…”

As Momo and Mei, the last two hugging him released Izuku, he stumbled to his knees, and would’ve fallen forward if not for Melissa quickly reaching out and taking him by the shoulders, lowering him gently onto his side. She then twisted him around to lay on his back in the center of the battered rowboat, his feet propped up on one of the boards that served as a chair.

His head, however? Izuku found his head laying on something soft, and he wondered for a moment what it was before Melissa leaned over him, and began to stroke his green hair shaking her head. “You just rest right there Zuk. You and Todoroki are out of it for now, let the rest of us do some of the heavy lifting.”

“Zuk?” Izuku mumbled, staring up at Melissa.

“Yep, Zuk. It sounds cool, and it’s short for you name. It also isn’t as generic as Green or that strange Deku name,” Melissa answered with a giggle.

“O, oh, I see,” Izuku mumbled. He found himself unable to look away from her face even as he began to be aware of swell of her breasts getting in the way of looking into Melissa’s eyes. W, wait, this angle, then, then that means that the softness underneath my head is…

“Holy ship! A lap pillow!” Kirishima exclaimed, staring at the scene, astonished. Jirou was also staring, her eyes wide, and Iida seemed torn between also staring and going into a diatribe about how such things were inappropriate.

Momo on the other hand was fighting an urge to either pull Jirou’s head into her own lap to see how it feels, or pushing Melissa aside somehow and taking over with Izuku. My! Where did that thought come from?

Trying to concentrate on something else, she looked around them, then decided to take charge of it. “Mei, do you still have our spyglass? Kirishima, Iida, scour the rowboat. we lost the tarp, but did we lose all of the nails? Given how I am feeling presently I don’t know if I would be up to making much to bolster our material supplies unfortunately.”

Nearby, the dolphin swam, circling the boat for a moment, then swam in one direction and back, then back and forth again. Mei took note of this, and waved at the dolphin. The dolphin flipped onto its side, one flipper waving back, before diving down and away, disappearing into the depths. “Well, I think it wants us to go in that direction. And since it seemed to lead us into this calm area, maybe the dolphin really was trying to help us.”

“We have no other option right now. Let us row in that direction,” Iida said, putting himself forward and castigating himself for not having done so before this. He was the representative of UA’s 1-A class. As a member of that illustrious academy in a position of authority Iida felt he should’ve been the one to take charge in this emergency. But it had been the others, Izuku, Momo and Melissa at different points, which had done that work.

Kirishima nodded and as the others slumped in place, the two young men got to work, thankful that they had been able to stove the oars away and that Todoroki’s ice had kept them in place just like the students.

Meanwhile, Izuku’s brain, frozen and torn between how exhausted and in pain he was and his embarrassment, decided ‘fuck it, I’m out’. He closed his eyes and simply lay there, falling asleep quickly. Todoroki, Jirou, and Melissa all did the same, the young man propped up against the forwardmost bench on the other side from where Izuku was laid out, with Melissa and Jirou squished against him.

Momo took over for Tsuyu at the tiller, and they continued to move in the direction that the dolphin had indicated as the evening darkened above them. Soon, they were rewarded with the greatest gift any of them had ever imagined possible under the circumstances: Mei shouting and pumping one fist into the air, her now dry hair bouncing wildly. “There’s something out there. It looks like land.”

Scene break

Well to the left and out of sight over the horizon from Mei and her spyglass, there was a small ship. It was a tiny sloop, well-made, but small, and although lovingly cared for, it had seen better days. It also seemed to have been trawling for trash recently given all the debris scattered across the deck.

It’s crew of two didn’t seem to care about that, though as they were in no hurry to clean up. One was fishing while the other, a young boy stood in the Crows Nest, such as it was. He wore a pair of pants cut short to fit, a jacket, a pair of goggles and some other knickknacks.

He was staring out towards where the interdimensional travelers were with a much longer, more powerful spyglass than the one Momo had created. Pulling away, he looked over the side of the Crows Nest down to the deck, which was only about 14 feet away given the size of the mast and the ship in general. But that was enough to let him see the hero students and their companions without being spotted in turn.

“Borodo, there’s some old rowboat making for that island over there. It looks as if it came off of a bigger ship, but I don’t see any bigger ship out there. Maybe their survivors of a shipwreck? They don’t seem aware of us.  Do you think we should help them?”

The man below was tall, his build obscured by a heavy green jacket, one that would have oddly made Melissa think of the coats pilots wore on the ground in WW1. One of his hands was made of metal, all of the joints and everything else having been crafted to the point of clockwork, allow Borodo to move his hand as if it was his real one.

Now he brought that same hand up to his chin, tapping thoughtfully as his other hand kept hold of the fishing rod.  After a second, he shook his head. “No, there’s no need. If there are this close, they can probably make it to that little nothing island without any trouble… well as long as they don’t run into one of the few sea kings around the area anyway. And while that island isn’t much, it still has fruit, a few crabs and other things. They’ll be okay and survive.”

Borodo sent a grin up at the younger boy who had scowled at Borodo’s plans. Hopping to his feet, he moved over to the ropes that controlled the sails. “More importantly though, their arrival might pull one of the Trump Pirates ships to investigate. And if so, we might be able to take advantage of it…”

“You’re so cool Borodo! That sounds like a great plan!” The boy said enthusiastically and older boy laughed, as he began to twist the sales away, moving the ship further around the island away from the small rowboat and further out to sea. There was a series of rocky shoals there that they could use as cover to watch both the island and out to sea for their real quarry.

Scene break

Soon, the rowboat was close enough that even those without Mei’s superpowered eyes could see the island ahead of them through the spyglass. Each of them took turns, grinning at one another bar Izuku and Todoroki, one of whom was still asleep. The other had woken up, but was once more frozen, staring up at Melissa as she grinned at the others, not having moved from her position using her lap as a pillow for his head.

She didn’t even move a few moments later, when there was a thunderous roar as something burst out from the water nearby, instead looking up calmly. A giant sea creature of some kind looking like a cross between a lizard, lion and fish reared its head up above them, glaring down at them and chomping its teeth.

“You want some of this!?” Kirishima shouted as his body turned into his stone pharmacy and he smashed his feet fists together.

It seemed as if the giant creature did, for its head dove down towards them. But before it’s head could lash down towards them, Tsuyu appeared behind Kirishima, and gave him a swift kick to the rear, launching them upwards into the creature’s face. “Fastball special, Frog Style, kero!”

“Manly!” Kirishima howled, bringing his fist forward and battering into the creature’s nose, with such punishing force that it retreated quickly.

Whereupon Jirou’s earjack slammed into its chest.

The same sonic vibrations that she used to corral Mineta and Kaminari lashed the monster, and despite being far, far larger than either of those idiots, it began to spasm and jerked away. Now thoroughly put off of its possible meal, it dove back into the water, and swam away rapidly.

“Is it going to come back and attack us from underneath do you think?” Momo asked, talking over Kirishima’s shout of at last having a problem he could actually punch.

Izuku heard her from where he was still in Melissa’s lap. The moment he’d made to sit up his waist had argued against moving, and Melissa ha put a hand on her forehead, pushing him back down into her lap. “W, we should be able to tell if that happens. Jirou-san, can’t you put one of your earjacks into the water? With that and your hearing, you might be able to make a primitive sonar.”

Jirou blinked, and then began to smack her head with her hand. “Why didn’t I think of that?” She did so and a moment later reported that the creature seemed to have decided that their boat had just a bit too much bite to it for it to bother with.

The others all laughed, and as Kirishima rejoined Iida in rowing the ship towards the island, Melissa began to giggle, which caused extremely interesting things to occur to her chest. A chest that was directly above Izuku. Indeed Melissa’s curves almost blocked out his view of the setting sun above. Izuku couldn’t help but notice the hills above him, the fact that Melissa’s clothing still clung to her, all of them still bedraggled if not wet from their experiences prior to arriving in the strange calm zone around the island. Indeed, she had lost a few buttons somewhere, and before he could stop himself, Izuku saw a bit of Melissa’s creamy skin directly underneath her chest, the soft curves grabbing his attention for a second before he looked away.

Luckily Melissa hadn’t even noticed his gawking, pointing at Kirishima and Tsuyu. “You were so close, although I suppose, it would be better for Zuker to be up to help.”

Kirishima looked over at her, brows wrinkling. “What are you talking about?”

“That old meme, using one motherfucker to beat another motherfucker! You and Tsuyu kind of created your own version of it. It’s not as strong as in the original photo that caused that meme though.”

At that point Momo of all people began to break out into giggles, causing everyone else to laugh at the somewhat lame joke. Even Todoroki, who’d been woken up by the commotion with the monster, smiled, much of the tension of the battle against the ocean beginning to leave them all.

Momo and Mei moved to help the two boys rowing, Momo creating two more oars for them despite how hungry she was. It took them a bit to get into rhythm, but once they did, they began to move much faster towards the distant island, which began to grow ever larger as they closed. It looked almost like an ideal tropical island: a nice looking beach, with a forest in its interior and no shoals or rocks as far as they could see. But they would’ve still open rowing for it if it was just a bare rock sticking out of the ocean. Any island would’ve done for them after what they’d had to deal with that day, and with night coming on quickly.

The four of them continued to row forward until the boat began to scrape along the bottom, whereupon Tsuyu leapt out of the prow, and began to pull it along, with Iida joining her a second later. Soon all of them bar Izuku and Todoroki clambered over the sides and began to haul the ship and the two wounded boys further up and away from the water until it was fully beached, laying half on the beach, and half into where the jungle began. At that point, Izuku and Todoroki were helped out of the boat, with Izuku protesting that he could walk.

But the pain etched on his face, and the way he huddled, clenching his hands against his chest told the real story. Jirou and Iida insisted on helping him forward, as the taller Melissa and Momo helped carry Todoroki.

Soon, all of them were standing in the shade of the tropical tree above. At that point, the last of their tension and adrenaline left them, and the still standing teen just flopped to the ground where they were. Even Tsuyu did, although she was further away from the others, half in and how half out of the water, enjoying the feeling of the warm water on her legs and the cool breeze coming off the ocean as night finally began to fall.

For a few moments, all of them were just silent, grateful the ordeal was over. Then, Kirishima sat up, and whooped. “We made it! Manly! Oh and fuck you, ocean!”

Everyone blinked, and Iida instantly began to remonstrate with him, one hand beginning to chop in midair. “Kirishima! While I realize we are not on school grounds, that is no way for a student of UA to speak!”

“Ian, I believe we could afford to lighten up a little bit,” Momo said in her normal high-class tone. She then abruptly stood up and began screeching out towards the waves, “FUCK YOU OCEAN! My, that is therapeutic.”

Soon, all of them got into it, cursing out the ocean and the storm and the whirlpool and everything else they’d had to deal with since splashing down in this weird world. The only one who didn’t curse was Iida which surprised no one. Instead, the one who really surprised everyone was Todoroki, who began to curse like a sailor. “Fuck you up the ass with a weathervane you cunt of an ocean, I hope you dry out like the god damn Sahara!”

Everyone stared at him, and Todoroki looked back blankly Only the twitching of his lips showed he was making a joke. “What? My father is Endeavor.  Those are just a few of the words I’ve heard my older brother used to describe him.”

This caused many of the others to frown a little, while Izuku simply nodded, certain now that Todoroki had been abused in some fashion. Thus he turned back towards the ocean, and took his own turn to shout at it, before adding, “And screw you, Endevwhore!”

The others all laughed before falling silent, looking at Todoroki for his reaction. In return he was looking at Izuku as if he was a little boy who had just been told that every Saturday would be Christmas. “Izuku, you were already my best friend for life, there was no need for you to take that extra step. But I thank you for it.”

“Best friend for life?” Iida asked, frowning and wondering what Ochako, if she were here, would say to that. Judging by the fact that she was the daughter of construction workers and fiercely protective of her place as Izuku’s best friend despite only knowing him for three weeks, he doubted it would be printable. But he was still wondering how Todoroki, who hadn’t exchanged more than a few sentences with Izuku before they came to I-Island, had suddenly decided he was Izuku’s best friend.

“Isn’t that how it normally goes? We argued a lot, then fought a villain together and nearly died. That’s the way it happens in my big brothers mangas, anyway.”

Everyone else laughed at that, while Izuku’s simply nodded and gave Todoroki a thumbs up before the pain of his hand reminded him of itself once more. He flinched, pulling his hand back down to his chest, cradling it with his other one, which was just as if in pain at the moment.

Seeing that, Melissa hurried over, examining the two boys. Todoroki just needed time, {}. Eventually, what remained of his wounds from the battle against the metal using villain on I-Island would fade. But Izuku’s renewed breaking of his fingers was a problem, and she quickly called Momo over, tearing at a portion of her pajama top near the bottom of the hem. “I’ll need some kind of soft material, and some sticks. We’ll break the sticks down, and create makeshift splints. Momo, just make the soft bits, I know I’ve heard your stomach grumbling for the past few moments.”

In fact, Momo was running on literal fumes. She didn’t know if she could even make the soft portion of a splint, let alone the entire things as she had before when they were out at sea. So she was very grateful for Melissa’s perspicacity. Quickly, they worked on Izuku’s fingers, first straightening them out, causing him to wince, before binding them tightly together. This meant his hands were more blunt objects then usable manipulators, but that was all right by the girls. So long as Izuku didn’t injure himself again.

As Momo was finishing up with that, and causing Izuku to blush and look away as she leaned over him, Melissa turned her attention to the others. Tsuyu’s tongue was still hurting her, but there was little Melissa could do for that unless she could make some kind of numbing agent that the other girl could put on her tongue. The short froglike girl had also been battered about when they were holding onto the rowboat, and had developed a cut over one eye. Melissa created a small makeshift bandage to go around the girls head from the bottom of Tsuyu’s pajama top, but that was it as it didn’t seem to be infected. It was something to watch though.

Jirou’s forearms and inner arm up to the elbow were badly bruised from where she had locked them around the gun well, having been flung around with punishing force but holding on through sheer determination. Mei had taken a blow to the shoulder somehow which had left a very nasty and now growing bruise. The others had survived with only a few minor scrapes and cuts. Melissa would have to be aware of them all going forward, as well as her own injuries: a cut to the back of her elbow and a skinned shin and numerous bruises, but she didn’t think any of them were in danger of infection.

Strangest of all the injuries though was that Iida reported he could not use his engines. “Alas, this is something my family has long understood, and is why none of us have ever worked near the ocean. Seawater interferes with our engines badly, corroding the interior, and causing us physical pain if we try to use them until they dry out.”

“That, that makes no sense,” Melissa mumbled, kneeling down to one side of the young man’s legs and staring at the engines which stuck out of the back of his shins. Mei was on his other side also examining them, poking them, pulling them this way and that as she examined them with her eyes. “Normal metal doesn’t corrode that quickly, and certainly not to the point where an engine wouldn’t be able to work because of saltwater residue. It is the water itself which causes issues if you try to start an engine that’s been waterlogged.”

“Well, when you think about it, there’s no way legs is engines can be made of metal right? Not any of the common more ones anyway. First, they are ultralight. If these engines weigh as much as they should, he’d be moving at a snail’s pace, let alone be able to wear that clunky thing he calls armor,” Mei opined.

“How do you know about my armor?” Iida asked confused.

“Support course students are allowed to look at people’s uniforms if the school has made them on-sight. Yours confused us a lot, considering we all thought that someone with your Quirk would want something lighter,” Mei explained. “I kind of listened, because I thought maybe we’d be able to make you a new baby, but we weren’t, and your design was okayed despite it looking so stupid.”

While Iida was torn between depression and an urge to defend what was essentially a more knightly version of his family’s patented outfit, Melissa had shrugged her shoulders and turned away. If Iida understood that his engines would not work for now but was certain they would eventually, then they just had to accept it for now. “All right, although we’ve made land, we can’t really relax just yet. Food, water we can actually drink, and shelter first. I know its dark now, but we still need to keep moving for now.”

At that, everyone there suddenly realized how thirsty they were. Momo in particular slumped down as the last of her energy left her. She then began to get the shakes as the full import of what they were facing sank in.

Jirou and Izuku instantly moved to comfort her, with Jirou leaning in and whispering, “Come on Yaomomo, don’t think about it. Just think of this as, as a small personal island your family owns. Okay? We’ll do some survival camping for a bit and then go from there.”

“I don’t think even my family is that… Well perhaps if we… but no, that’s impossible I…” Momo subsided, staring out into nothing for a moment as she considered whether or not her family really was rich enough to buy a personal island.

But Melissa looking around at the others and saw the realization of what they had left behind, the fact that they were very, very far from home sinking in. But just like Izuku had before she couldn’t let them become depressed. Or me either, she thought, shaking her head. Come on Melissa, you’re the oldest one here, and even heroes sometimes need direction.

Clapping her hands together as loudly as she could, Melissa gathered everyone’s attention once more. “Food, water, shelter,” she said again emphasizing each word in turn. “Jirou, you stay and watch over the wounded. Tsuyu, Iida, move around the beach, see if you can find crabs or something else we can cook up for food as well as fallen wood for a fire. Mei, can you climb?”

Her fellow inventor gave her a thumbs up. “You bet I can!”

“Then get climbing. Get some of those fruits we see above us down. Coconuts and bananas will do for a meal for now. Momo, your job is just to eat whatever she brings down. We’re going to need materials, nails, and tools as soon as you can make them. Keep things low-tech for now, nothing major. The easier stuff won’t take as much out of you, right?”

Momo nodded weakly, and Jirou gave her another sideways hug, letting the taller girl rest her head on Jirou’s all-too thin shoulders.

“Kirishima, you’re with me. We need to find if there is a source of water we can use on this island and see if we can find someplace to use as shelter. Barring that, enough wood to at least put up a few walls for a camp.”

With that, everyone nodded and began to break up into the groups she had ordered, with Kirishima and Melissa setting off deeper into the islands interior.