Practice

Looking over the building Nick immediately knew that he had a disadvantage against the other team, he didn't know the building as well as they did. It made sense for the situation, he was meant to be raiding a villain's lair after all. Nodding at Tamaki they both dashed forward, Nick's body adapting and shifting as he warped his flesh to the desired form.

The building was big, very big, there would be countless corners and shadows to hide something as small as a baseball-sized bomb. It would almost be impossible to find it normally among the clutter, even more, so that he would be hunted down while he was trying to do it. His best bet was letting Tamaki find it, but even he would have trouble doing that.

It was easiest to just take down Nejire and Mirio in this circumstance, but that also had its issues.

Running into the building he enhanced his hearing and focused on the feedback through his feet. Feeling the vibrations through the ground but most importantly, the rejection of matter.

He knew from experience that he could feel where Mirio was once he made his form solid when phasing. So if he was going to shoot through the floor he knew that he would have a split second to feel him before that happened but, honestly? In an environment like this? Mirio had a clear advantage…

Rounding a corner he looked both right and left and saw nothing, the corridor was empty apart from littered trash on the bottom floor. The ground was clearly unsteady as he was close to where the building had crumbled. It was probably just a few walls in front of him, stepping into the hall he felt the ground give slightly, rebar all that was holding the concrete together that he walked on.

Cursing he knew that this was bad for him, he should make his way to the solid part of the building, yes his quirk could now bleed to adjacent objects, but it went from water to honey in a sense. It was really hard to get a proper hold of anything he was not touching directly.

Going to his right in hopes of finding the ladder on the outside of the building he hoped that Tamaki was making his way to his position correctly. The only reason he had gone to the left of the building was to be unpredictable since Tamaki was clearly the stronger choice on the broken side. That meant that it was more likely that Nejire was on the other side of the building.

Steadily making his way down the hall he got outside of the building and started to make his way up the ladder.

It would be hard to find the bomb to win, but it would be just as hard to capture both Nejire and Mirio. They couldn't catch the latter, that was just impossible basically. Cuffs could not stay on him, and if they did catch Nejire who could fly, then Mirio could free her in more ways than one.

It was a good team-up on their part with a good role, defending. This wouldn't be easy.

Getting to the top of the ladder he wiped the rust off his palms and onto his cargo pants. The crunching of gravel and glass beneath his boots sounded through his head like grating nails. The floor of this room was covered in trash and broken metal, when the building crumbled the rebar had been torn through the ceiling creating large cracks all throughout it.

Crouching low he started to make his way through the room. A few steps at a time each one sending the sound of crunching glass through the room. Then he felt it, dully, almost barely in time to react. The glass and shards all over the floor were messing up his perception and by the time he felt it, it was already too late to react.

Trying to roll to the side he felt something pierce his shoulder but ignored the feeling, rolling around here was a terrible idea but the blow from Mirio just barely scraped by his side, perfectly aimed for his stomach now a glancing blow but the power of it was felt. Ramming into an organ and making him choke up a bit. Getting back to his feet he saw Mirio leaping through the air.

Gritting his teeth he got ready to attack as the boy's hand phased through the roof in confusion Nick wondered what was going on before he realized what was happening, he was calling for Nejire.

Eyes widening he plated his back as hard as he could as he felt the air currents shift through the window behind him his back was blasted by a heavy wave of Nejire's energy sending him catapulting out of the room and soaring through the air. Turning around mid-flight he grits his teeth bearing with the pain as his shoulder healed.

Spinning he launched two tendrils out that grabbed onto the building before yanking himself back and over the roof, soaring over the building as he aimed for Nejire but she wasn't having any of it.

Seeing another blast coming he yanked himself down, out of the way of the blast only to feel something impact the back of his head.

Stunned for a moment he wondered why he hadn't felt it coming before it clicked, Mirio was adapting to his senses and using them against him. Nick was becoming reliant on his air sense and since he was never challenged by his classmates he was never pushing his limits or finding what was weak with him. He had stomped the festival, but in doing so he had ignored his faults which most of his classmates had found there. His progress had stunted his growth.

Spinning around he suddenly launched a tendril at the ceiling to yank himself towards it and back into the cover of the concrete but as Nejire started aiming for his predicted motion as Mirio fell through the ceiling to intercept him as he arrived he suddenly shot upwards.

As soon as the arm had impacted the concrete instead of pulling it exploded like a spring sending him once more back into the air. Turning around rapidly he sent a whip-like tendril cracking through the air at Nejire with one purpose, to disrupt her.

As she moved to block it she was suddenly shot out of the sky but a large net, the ropes tangling around her.

Yes, they could strategise, but so could Tamaki and Nick.

Blocking Nick's tendril he felt the arm blast off with her counterattack but the net catching her from behind had her tumbling through the air. Nick had made it before from broken rebar on the floor and left it where he entered the building.

He and Tamaki had both assumed that Nejire would take to the air to avoid their melee-focused styles. So once or if he engaged, he would go find the net and shoot it from a launcher that he was well and truly able to make with some creativity.

Looking into the car park as Nick flipped through the air he saw Tamaki smiling as their plan was working. Nejire was falling through the air as he was there with his right arm heavily expanded, a crossbow-like construct made from bamboo and other animal and plant products. The creative combination of elements creates an almost deadly powerful projectile launcher.

Seeing her fall he dashed towards her with a sudden burst of speed aiming to capture her so that Mirio would have to defend and attack his own but the older boy had other ideas.

Dashing forward Mirio suddenly shot from the side of the building. Arriving at Nejire just before Nick did.

Attacking and aiming to throw him off Mirio just ignored his attacks with perfectly timed and planned phasing. He was even holding his breath.

With a sudden grasp on the net Nick attacked the hand to force him to let go but to his surprise Mirio's hand went through the net, it was never his target.

Disorientation was the only reason that Nejire was tied up and both Tamaki and Nick knew that this would be their one shot to trap her, if she escaped then it would be a lot harder to do this again.

If she suddenly got a hold of where she was and where to fire she could easily get out of the net. And Mirio was helping with that. As he grabbed her wrist and moved it to point in a certain direction where the weights of the capture net were tangled he yelled suddenly. "NOW!"

With a blast of yellow light, the net exploded apart and fell off her. With another explosion from her feet, she shot into the air and with a flip was pointing her arms at Tamaki as Nick fell through the air thrown back by the blast.

Gritting his teeth he spun and pulled himself towards the floor crashing into it with enough force that the ground shattered from the impact. Charging his legs up he got ready to shoot from the ground at Nejire. Mirio had just fallen into the floor, fading beneath the concrete.

Bulking his legs up he waited for the right moment. And with a sudden explosion, he was about to launch.

At the same time, the yellow energy barreled towards Tamaki, who created a massive shield out of bone and clam in an instant. The crossbow transformed into the shield in a second.

As Nick was just about to push off he felt something impact his ankle and his course was thrown off, instead of shooting at Nejire his path was slight to the left, the unexpected impact Mirio who had shot out of the floor at just the right moment to throw the jump of letting the blast properly hammer into Tamaki's shield throwing him back and into a wall.

Shooting off into the forest Nick desperately tried to turn around and slow his momentum as he lashed his tendrils to trees but the trunks broke from the sudden strain and his inadequate response time. Just barely too slow, Nick watched as both Nejire and Mirio ganged on Tamaki and put a capture tap on him before he could even respond to the combined assault, his shock at Nick's disruption clearly contributing to his lack of response time.

Cursing Nick yanked himself back into the car park and glaring at his enemies watched Mirio once more fade into the floor as Nejire stood between him and Tamaki.

Seeing Tamaki hang his head at first he thought the boy was beating himself up for his failure but… no. He was trying to tell him something. He hadn't fought back much for a reason?

Seeing the boy's eyes cast to the side at a small shed to the base of the grain silo, looking from Nick to the shed over and over he suddenly realized what was happening. Tamaki had found the bomb. But how?

Nevermind he would ask later, the boost in confidence meant that both the enemies were focused on him well and truly, probably assuming that they had both given up on finding the bomb and gone for the subjugation method instead, after all, it made sense since trying to find the bomb was a very very hard task.

Dashing forward Nick looked like he was going for Nejire but as soon as she was about to blast him he shot to the right and into the shed, the path he was taking suddenly had Mirio in it who watched in shock as Nick dashed to the right and into the shed.

Going through the door Nick looked around his eyes going over the room as from his speed he spun and planted his feet against the far wall. The room was too cluttered, he would never be able to find it in this mess...

It all happened in barely a moment, in just a fraction of a second, Nick darted into the shed unexpectedly.

Nejire and Mirio worried he had found the bomb dashed after him. Mirio needed to keep an eye on what was happening, for the briefest moment they both forgot about the already caught Tamaki. Since the bomb was inside Nejire couldn't just send a blast into the shed without accidentally breaking it.

As they turned and started to dash towards the shed Nick shot out of the door that he had entered just a moment ago.

Like a ball from a cannon, the only thing that was missing was the fiery explosion behind him. Soaring through the air at speeds that the others could barely keep up with he spun so that his feet were above his head, turning so that he was facing both the backs of Nejire and Mirio. Grabbing Nejire Mirio was forced to phase to dodge the bindings.

Reacting in an instant Nejire started to blast apart the arm. Nick's real hand grabbed Tamaki and pulled the tape off in the same spinning motion he grabbed the other boy and threw him into the shed down the path that he had just come from, however, Tamaki had been able to find the bomb he trusted he could find it in the clutter, he would keep Nejire and Mirio busy.

Even if the latter was an issue.

With Nejire finally blasting the arm apart in yellow light Mirio was unphased just to see Tamaki who had a shocked look on his face that morphed into determination. Seeing the boy go past Mirio instantly turned to follow him into the shed.

Cursing Nick had no way to deal with Mirio for now, his stun spores weren't allowed in this match so he couldn't use them and Mirio was now way more careful with how he breathed.

Leaving that problem for the moment Nick focused on Nejire as he spun, his feet hitting the floor and digging trenches as he stood up and faced her. She turned back to him as she charged her hands up. She was confident that in the confines of the shed Mirio could deal with Tamaki, she just needed to keep Nick from getting in there.

Dashing forward Nick darted side to side as he dodged the blasts that Nejire sent out with increased desperation. Crouching down he got ready to jump and as she adjusted her aim Nick's legs broke apart leaving him as just a floating torso. With his hands hitting the floor she saw that the legs reformed although in a different position, to push forward.

With had hands aimed up and Nick's deconstruction and reconstruction almost instant he suddenly dashed forward, grabbing her wrists and pulling them behind her back as he kicked off the floor flipping over her so that her desperate blast passed through where he was.

Spinning in the air he forced her to spin as well, hands facing inwards in a martial art made to capture people whose palms were dangerous because of their quirk.

With her palms against her back, he put the capture tape on her and looked up towards the shed to see Mirio darting around and striking Tamaki over and over.

Staring for a moment Nick didn't know how to react… neither did Nejire, looking at the 'fight,' it was honestly kind of amusing.

Tamaki had basically made himself into a clam. He was crouched on the floor and was sniffing the air as the armour he had made was basically skin tight meaning that Mirio couldn't punch him through it… he was just a crouched ball with a shell and padding between the shell and himself… waddling around the room to get a sight of the bomb.

Nick had for some reason assumed that Tamaki would try to fight Mirio which in the shed would have been practically impossible but now Nick saw that there was no point… Tamaki could just find the bomb and defend from the strong yes, but still human attacks.

Sharing a look with Nejire they both started to laugh as Tamaki pulled the bomb out of a pile and looked at the both of them. A shocked look on his face with clear embarrassment, thinking they were laughing at him for taking so long or something like that.

After some quick comforting and explaining that the scene was just amusing for what had been such an intense yet quick fight before.

With the bomb found Tamaki and Nick were declared the winner as they all went and sat down in the ground floor of the main building at a small table Nick made as they got out some snacks and drinks. "Damn that was intense, it was only what… not even 10 minutes the round went for?" Nick said as he looked at his phone that he had gotten from his bag.

"Yeah fights always go super quick, you were awesome as well Tamaki! That net then the shell defense was super creative." Mirio said, his voice super happy for his friend.

"a-ah, It was mostly Nick, he made the net and-" Tamaki started to respond,

"Yeah I helped you, but you put in the effort and basically made it all yourself, I just made the net and gave you the ideas." Nick said as he leaned back and looked at his friend. Nejire to busy stuffing her face to join in as she looked between her three guy friends.

Sipping the jasmine tea that she brought she tuned in a bit more when Nick asked, "Oh yeah Tamaki, how did you find the bomb?" His voice was clearly curious.

"I, I just you know, used some more ideas you gave me… you said a while back that you used animals to help increase your senses and were planning on doing so more so I just copied you really, no big deal." He tried to shrug off the praise.

"Oh come on give us some specifics!" Mirio said before smiling and saying, "No need to CLAM up!" A broad smile on his face as he looked at Nick as if waiting for a laugh. Nejire almost snorted her tea, not at the joke but at Nick's complete dismission of the joke.

"Yeah, what animals did you use? I am really interested to hear what you did." Nick said as he kept his focus on Tamaki, taking another bite of his food, ignoring the excited Mirio who was patting Nejire on the back to help her recover.

"Uh… So I used a mole, to try and smell out the scent better, because we ran here you know. So the smell of sweat was still on the ball from when Mirio hid it, that and a snakes infra-red vision." Point to just below his tear glands and to two points at the base of each of his palms. "Pit organs, from a snake, they can detect heat and my brain can overlap it on my vision, it only is very short range but the ball you made still had traces of warmth from being held."

Smiling Nick complimented Tamaki again saying, "damn, soon I'll be learning from you. Honestly your quirk is amazing, if I wanted to use pit organs I would have to rewire my brain to deal with the new input and there is no way I could do that. You're amazing Tamaki."

Trying to shrug off the compliment soon they had eaten and decided not to do a second round for today, the match had been really really intense and Mirio needed to go to his internship to sort out some paperwork for a mission that he had done before.

With quick goodbyes being said Nick soon started to make his way home. It had been fun if not short. The talking before and after had taken up more time than the fight but the fight felt like it had gone on for so long, all the twists Nick's mind was still trying to wrap its head around and how he could have done better.

Soon after arriving home, Nick wondered what he would be doing tomorrow, he didn't have any plans. He needed to give Yomi the new clinic location as well as help Yu deal with the marionette… maybe he would get rid of her tomorrow. Honestly, he was growing more curious about her, in the original she must have been dealt with by Kai when he hired Yu right?

That was probably what had happened, at least the most likely. For now, they would just work for the doctor who was going to heal Heros. Yu would be a guard, and Yomi would make appointments. He had already promised the two of them help, and he wasn't going to go back on it just because he wasn't doing his original plans.

With some ideas of what was happening tomorrow on his last day off, he smiled a bit, workplace experience would be starting soon. He honestly wondered how many offers he had gotten. He also hadn't thought of who to go with… constant things to do. With a small sigh, Nick just smiled to himself as he got on the train, at least life wasn't as boring as it was when he was a kid...

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Thanks for all the supports and reviews! Really happy with the fight in this chapter, I don't know why but it was a lot of fun to write, let me know what you think!

Reviews and comments are always welcome to!