Hey hey hey! How are ya? Doing alright? I hope y'all enjoy this chapter! I just wanted to thank all of you reading! You are the greatest! Thank you so much! The song above is House of Memories by Panic! At the Disco!

"And the first match goes to...! Team..." Before the loud blonde could announce the team, Aizawa butted in.

"Before we tell you, we have to tell our... audience... the teams." It was clear that Aizawa had no desire to interact with the crowd, but he had a point; nobody knew who was on a team other than their own, it would get confusing.

"That's right Mr. 'Raser! Midnight! Drum up the scoreboard!"

Suddenly, just above the commentators box, a screen popped out, displaying 30 teams, numbering from 1 to 30, with the names of all the students placed into teams of 4, excluding one, which had only three members.

"With that out of the way, our first team is... 17!!" Present Mic announced, and four names scrolled through on the big screen, along with pictures of the individuals on the team.

TEAM 17-

Neito Monoma

Shihai Kuroiro

Juzo Honenuki

Setsuna Tokage

"And here's our first match, I hope y'all are ready!!! We begin in 5 minutes!" Present Mic was audibly grinning.

"After that, you'll have 10 minutes to scout out the building and plan, before you gain 30 minutes to obtain the objective, the faster you get it, the more points you earn!" Following on, Aizawa added.

"Getting detected, either during or before the match, will result in point deduction; getting captured is a disqualification and that goes for losing the intelligence also." Present Mic whooped into the microphone.

"Mr. 'Raser, how do ya think this'll go down bud?!" The driest voice answered.

"Call me Bud again, and i'll ###~!~~@!~" On the screen above the box, words suddenly scrolled down.

"In order to help safeguard our young viewers, our dearest hosts have been muted. Please enjoy the show!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Oh wow. Mr. Aizawa is really tearing Present Mic apart." A holographic screen floated in the bridge of The Shadow, with subtitles of the ruthless verbal assault Aizawa was shooting at Present Mic.

Then, the screen was overtaken by an alert, as Rex's voice rumbled.

"Sir, we've got a lock onto another Transference signature. It's located in Hosu." When Rex finished, Izuku let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Rell... I'm coming for ya. Don't keep me waiting too long." With a hum, Izuku whispered.

"I'll be with you, always."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Standing on top of a building, a mechanical being overlooked a bustling city, its cross visor gleaming with childish curiosity as he watched the day-to-day movements of the city, watching as it came to life like a living, breathing titan. Rell knew, deep in his bones, that the Orokin would have destroyed this wonderful place.

With a sick pleasure too; they would have torn down each building brick by brick, washing out the spectrum of colours with that bone white and pristine gold look that the Orokin loved oh so much. That was something Rell would not allow, he would never allow this place, this wonderfully beautiful world, to fall, either to Orokin perfection or Void Chaos. Two sides of the same coin.

Leaping off the building, Rell watched the ground approach rapidly before he spun around, landing with a graceful thud on the pavement, thoughts rolling about in his head like thunder, his emotions loosening and his control slipping...

A sudden rift appeared, a swirled mix of fire orange and jet black, a vortex dragging in all life and Rell, he felt an instant pull to go into it, a deep call in his soul and Rell, he leaped in; is his soul, Rell knew exactly what this was, where this was taking him and his heart began to beat rapidly, in fear and in anger.

His body burst into energy before his Warframe disconnected from his consciousness, his Harrow landing with the grace of a snow leopard, as his original body was ejected from the safe haven that was within his Warframe.

This place...

He knew it; his fractured being dreamed of it, his soul cried and raged and spit at this place.

It was a place for the lost, a creation secluded deep in the Void; where reality was nothing but an amalgam of memories and emotion. It held no name, no title, it was here and yet, it was nothing.

A paradox, where people who should not exist live and thrive, forever trapped.

Why was he able to enter...

It shouldn't have been possible, not here. The Wall around this reality was far too thick for the Void to leak, to roll into the physical world like it did to the Origin; there was no Zariman to shatter the Wall, no meddling Orokin toying with forces so beyond their ken it led them down a path so dark it led to their extinction, there was nothing to create the leakage. How a fracture so large that it managed to open to a plane locked in the Void formed was a mystery to him.

It shouldn't have been possible. Not without a Zariman level breach of the Void.

Unless...

"You... Shouldn't be here. This place is not for you. No. No. The cycle. It is broken. Or..." A man marched forward, his face visibly broken like a shattered mirror with thick blue cracks lining his face as his eyes glowed.

"It has changed, not broken. A simple rewrite. No matter, he will come soon; your presence is odd, but will not, cannot, change the story here. You will return soon." Rell stumbled back, glaring at the blue eyed man in confusion.

This place...

An ever shifting eternity, to keep those within the Void inside, never to escape. A prison.

But for who?

"Now then, who are you?" Rell's shoulder lifted to his ears as he spun around, facing that familiar voice.

It was... Izuku...?

But. Older, jaded, colder, worse and better.

His hair was wild, untamed as it cascaded down his back, two veridian eyes glared at Rell, pure confusion within those green orbs before the man looked at the grey beard and barked.

"What's going on here? Who's this? Nevermind that. How do I get out of here?!" Rell could only watch, his being locked up as he watched on.

He watched as the elder Izuku and the old man talked, riddles and ideas flying over Rell's head before the elder Izuku grabbed a pair of beautiful blades and strapped them to his side, glaring at both Rell and the old man, before he left.

"You... you shouldn't be here, The Watcher on the Wall. You should have perished resisting the Man. Yet here you are. Plans and webs have gone awry." The man peered at Rell.

"Where is He?" Rell had a feeling, a deep pit in his belly, that He and Izuku are one in the same.

"Not here. Never here." Rell longed for his cards in that moment, his confusing tangle of emotions seeping into the world as colours floated around him, waving and dancing with the shapeless black and white that made up the world before.

"You may not want it, but events are happening. Has already happened, and they will happen. Try to run from it, but this is inevitable." Rell blinked.

"He will come here. But. He also won't, will he?" Rell pointed out. "This reality, my reality, is the one where He doesn't come here, I will make it so. You will be waiting for another." The old man sighed.

"Perhaps. I will wait, as I always have. But you must leave, lest you are found where you do not belong."

"Begin Again!"

A wave of nausea hit Rell like a Fragor, time itself distorted and warped and Rell was caught in between real time and the reversing time vortex that ran rampant through this realm. It was as if he was being torn apart atom by atom as his very being dissolved into cosmic goop.

"Wait. I sense something. Something new. Something old."

Gasping for air, Rell held a hand to his chest, the warp stopping for now; Rell knew, however, that it was for a moment, until that childishly commanding voice began its song and dance.

"You... Are new here. A broken piece trying to fit into an incorrect jigsaw."

Kneeling down, Rell tried to reach out, hands desperately crawling towards a golden frame holding within fragments of what seemed like chunks of obsidian. A phantom guidance whispered that this was his way out, all he had to do was make it through.

"This place is MY place. I do not want you here. Dax. Seize the Intruder!"

Determination flooded through Rell, this imposter wanted to take Rell, to keep him away from Izuku. How dare he? No! NO!

Blue energy collected at Rell's command as he powered himself up, feet getting sturdier as he walked towards the portal, ignoring that voice as it yelled.

"ENOUGH!"

Everything stopped.

"I see. I know you. You... made it out. Whilst I was trapped here, with..."

Clutching his arm, Rell glared at the vortex, he was so close, he could almost taste his freedom.

"Him. You know the one. He lied. He promised to never leave... but he did."

At that moment, Rell knew who this was, the voice talking, it all made sense.

It was...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Looking at the first team, one would think that they were more than likely doomed to fail; most looked as if they had weak or useless quirks, with how nervous they looked too, made them seem even weaker in the eyes of the viewers.

"Well then. While we all know each other, a brief reintroduction won't hurt anyone. I'm Monoma Neito. My quirk is Copy, which allows me to copy the quirks of others who I touch for a limited amount of time." Neito started, his tone haughty as the green haired girl perked up.

"Sure! I'm Tokage Setsuna, you can call me Setsuna! My quirk is Lizard Tail Splitter and allows me to separate my body into small parts!" The girl demonstrated by separating her head from her body.

The entire team shivered.

"A-h. Hm. Well. My name is Juzo Honenuki. My quirk is Softening. It does what it says on the tin, I can soften any material I can touch. Not including Biological matter." The sandy blonde boy grinned, his mouth literally stretching from ear to ear.

"Greetings, my fellow dwellers of night. My name is Shihai Kuroiro. My quirk is a destiny of darkness, Black. The shadows are my ally and shroud me as I sink into the abyss." The boy quite literally embodied darkness, his pale white eyes striking against his void like skin.

With their introductions out of the way, the team of four all colluded together as they planned what to do; from an outsider's perspective, it seemed as if this team would fail, in fact, most believed that next to none of the teams would make it through the gauntlet of the first round.

Yet, as the match began, the exploration stage, the girl, Setsuna, split apart and her now disassembled body began to float and scout out the building as the white haired boy, Kuroiro, melted into the shadows and vanished. It was a shock when the blonde haired boy, Monoma, also vanished into the shadows.

Now, it seemed like this team would be a great team.

The three quirks showcased so far had fit this kind of situation like a perfect puzzle, as if they were made for something like this. It hyped the crowd up, many thought this would be boring and stupid.

"And Team 17 has begun! And my my! Look at that! They're working like a well oiled machine!" Present Mic commented.

"Hm. Their team is well fit for this kind of simulation. Stealth is their strength. We'll see how well they do."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Neito Monoma was many things, a huge narcissist, a flamboyant master of drama, and... a copycat loser.

Those words, copycat loser, were words that had been seared onto his soul, a wound so deep that it cut his heart with every beat it took. It made him feel weak, he was worthless without the quirks of others, unable to do a thing without the help of another person and their quirk.

And he hated that.

It hurt, forever bound to use the power of another for his own; he knew, or he was taught, that he wasn't worth anything, he was entirely useless.

So, he turned that hatred and anger outwards, using it as his shield against others, covering his bleeding wound with the shroud of hate and suffering; the suffering he caused others to hide himself and his own weakness.

Now it was working against him.

Teamwork, on the first task.

While he kept a good rapport with his classmates, he kept them well away from himself, his ego manic facade always in place around them; they didn't like how egotistical he was, oh they didn't hate him or anything, nor did they bully him, but he also had no true friends. Acquaintances perhaps, but not true friends.

He hadn't had them since his quirk came through.

"Let's get a plan cooking, my comrades." Neito grinned.

"How about Setsuna, Kuroiro and I all scout first, with Setsuna using her quirk to study the outside and Kuroiro and I do the inside." Neito's grin never faulted, even when the shadowed Quirk user withdrew slightly away from Neito.

He was used to it.

"Yeah! That sounds like a good plan!" Setsuna exclaimed as Honenuki perked up.

"I guess I'll be the main breach guy. Make sure to find an area where we can get in completely undetected."

With a semi decent plan, the team of 4 got to work; Neito lightly touched Kuroiro, who looked uncomfortable at his touch, before settling as Neito dropped his hand; Black settled within Neito's quirk neatly and ready to be used.

'Oh wow. What an interesting quirk! Intangibility and teleportation but only within "shadows". What counts as a shadow, complete lack of light or just lower than average light levels? How fast can I enter and exit the shadows? Could I manipulate shadows? Hmm. I'll have to have more in depth analysis later, Black is such an interesting quirk.'

Activating the quirk, Neito fell deep into the darkness, blinking at what he saw. Any kind of shadow in what seemed like a 100 metre radius he could see into, and reach into; he could see and move throughout the building at will. Such a powerful quirk...

Using Black, both users scouted the entire interior, finding where the 'information' on the upper most floor with the highest security.

Unfortunately, Black only allowed the user to enter the shadows, not anything the user is holding, such as the information. Still, a very powerful quirk.

Appearing back outside, Neito waited with Honenuki as Setsuna and Kuroiro followed after, and the information flowed.

"I've counted 15 guards in the building, 2 on each floor with 3 in the main lobby. There's 7 floors, and our target is on the 7th floor." Kuroiro reported. Nodding, Setsuna added on.

"I found a nice little area that isn't guarded at all! No security! Nothing! I even walked right in! There is a... bit of a wall in the way!" The three looked at her as if she was insane.

"Then... then how'd you get in?" Setsuna grinned, shark like and slightly manic.

"You don't need to know!"

~

A squelch sounded through the silence, and an eye mushed through a tiny hole made through the cement of the bricks.

It rolled around for a second, before it shook itself off the bits that stuck to the moist surface.

~

"Right..." Neito drawled. "Well then. The roof access is clear, and goes straight into the Intel room, said intel is placed on a pedestal in the middle. There's two guards in there, but they're not the bot guards that patrol the rest of the building, but clones of Ectoplasm." The team glanced at each other, suitably nervous.

Even though the Ectoplasm within the buildings were clones, they were clones of a highly skilled and fully trained hero with over 15 years of experience. No matter which way you cut that, it was a near impossible obstacle to surpass, especially as first years with barely any training under their belts.

However, Neito had a feeling this was why they put this one in; to weed out the strongest of the pack, to make the best of the best pull through into the later rounds. It was a rather grim plan of U.A, unless of course, it was never U.A's idea in the first place...

Nevermind that, Neito slammed his fist into his palm. It wasn't the time for this, they needed to crush this, and pass into the next round, they needed to win and get into the second phase. It was the only thing to prove that he could be useful, that he could be more than a useless quirk.

"Right. I think I've got a basic plan; Honenuki and Setsuna, you two will create a distraction; soften the lower levels and cause chaos without getting caught. Kuroiro and I will obtain the information and leave via the roof; hopefully, avoiding fighting Ectoplasm." Neito nodded to himself.

For First years with no stealth training under their belt, their plan was solid for the task at hand, and hopefully it would result in pushing them to the higher ranks of the task, even after everyone else had gone.

He hoped it would work...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Silence."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Screams pierced through the narrow corridors of The Shadow as two sets of eyes locked onto the now screaming form of Izuku Midoriya.

All around him fractures formed, bright neon blue as the very space around him broke apart, his eyes, both of them, cried tears of crimson as they looked downwards, blurring the terrible image before them.

From the fractures, hundreds of voices spoke, all speaking and demanding before they fell into a sympathy of silence, until only two voices remained, both barely a whisper in the deep silence that sang through the halls.

If one was to look, ever so carefully, into the fractures, they would have glimpsed into the threads of fate.

Three threads, veridian and bright, entangled yet so far apart from one another, bound together by fate, all weaved around three figures. One in the same.

Chaos.

Peace.

Balance.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Izuku Midoriya."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Take my hand...

Kiddo...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Sighing deeply, Neito glanced around the corner, looking into his target room; he spotted both Ectoplasm and the information data they were after.

Honestly, their plan had gone a bit too well.

They'd managed to get past the security within the building; they weren't the hard part, they were robots with built in programs and pathways which could be avoided easily if you learned their patrol route. Setsuna had just split apart and levitated on the ceiling, adding further evidence to the point that nobody ever looks up for an enemy. Neito and Kuroiro had just sunk into the shadows to get past the enemies whilst their last teammate did some rather interesting distraction ideas.

Such as softening a wall until a part of the building collapsed or caused a slab of concrete to crush some of the security bots within the building.

It wasn't said you couldn't destroy the bots, after all.

With the distractions going well, the trio managed to sneak all the way up to the intel room, where they paused to gather their wits and roll out a combat plan to get the intel without Ectoplasm catching them or destroying said intel.

"How do we do this then?"

That was the key question of the moment.

How do they get the intel without catching Ectoplasm's attention?

...

Suddenly, a chunk of cement fell, causing both clones to spin around, gathering around the block suspiciously as they circled like sharks around their meal.Their legs clanking on the stone floor and Neito realised in that moment that Ectoplasm didn't have real legs, both of them were wooden peg legs. Maybe that was how they could win.

Turning to his team, Neito whispered hurriedly.

"We need to take out his legs! I managed to copy Honenuki's quirk, so I can soften the legs and we can take them from him whilst he's distracted."

Sinking into the shadows, Neito got into the clones' shadows before he materialised behind them, his hands quickly activating softening as the wooden legs suddenly turned to a liquid and the clones tilted and fell without any kind of support for their bodies.

"Setsuna! Grab the info! We're out of here!"

With the clones reduced to crawling, they appeared to be far less of a threat than before, but that meant nothing as they started to walk on their hands.

"What the hell?"

As fast as they were on legs, the clones gained ground on Neito, who got into a rough fighting stance as he started off with a kick to the first clone, who ducked and slide right under Neito and skedaddled over to Setsuna, his fangs bared as he charged.

The second tackled Neito to the ground and started to roughhouse on the ground.

It wasn't a true fight, the clone was holding back considerably so as to not harm Neito, which gave the copycat user a slight advantage over the pro. Lifting his knee, Neito struck the pro in the gut, a firm strike that clearly winded the hero as he stumbled and Neito used that minor opening to throw the hero off of himself and get back to his feet.

A tingle made its way down Neito's spine, and a quirk settled in his quirk factor; Duplicate. He could get copies from the clones? That was useful.

White bile poured from Neito's mouth as he activated Ectoplasm's quirk as a clone of himself sprouted from the goop and he mentally communicated what he wanted to his double.

'Help Setsuna with getting the Intel out of here!'

With a nod, the Neito Clone ran over, quickly leaping onto the Ectoplasm clone and buying time for Setsuna to grab the intel. Only, as her hand grazed the surface, a loud alarm sounded and a voice sounded over the intercom.

"Intruder alert! A hero! Is in the base!"

Neito rubbed the bridge of his nose, somehow knowing this was a reference, as the Ectoplasm clone gasped.

"A hero is in the base?!" Throwing Neito off, the clone got onto the palm of his hands and bolted, his mouth making an odd noise as he grabbed... a shotgun from nowhere using his mouth.

"Hut hut hut hut!"

"Protect the Briefcase!" Utterly lost, Neito blinked as the clone shouted out, rather muffled by the shotgun.

"We've gotta protect the briefcase!"

'What sort of school am I even attending?'

Deciding that was enough, Neito rugby tackled the shotgun wielding clone and claimed the weapon, aiming it at the clone, muttering.

"Right behind you."

*Boom!*

The clone melted into goop and the other was well handled by his clone. With that... fiasco... out of the way, the team made their way out of the building and sirens rang out as the commentator's box sounded off.

"And there we have it folks! Team 17 is... Victorious! With 32 points, they hold the lead for the first task!!" Present Mic grinned.

"Of course they do. They're the only ones who have participated so far." Mr. 'Raser grunted out.

"Party pooper! Anyways! Ignore my oh so helpful colleague! The next round is about to begin!!!!"

(How are you doing??)