Izuku is barely able to take in what just happened, he had won the obstacle course race in first place out of 200 students. He did so with almost 2 full minutes ahead of Bakugou who blasts himself through the same gateway shortly followed by Todoroki skating on the ice he created. He laughs partly to himself for actually coming in first, throwing his fist in the air excitedly celebrating the first win. While normally Katsuki would walk over to Deku to put him in his place, that would probably result in him getting disqualified. "We're gonna put that useless nerd in his place in the next match, so what if he has One for All. I'm still the strongest there is." Katsuki monologues internally, continuing to glare daggers through bloodshot eyes. Contrary to Bakugou's less than warm or sportsman-like reaction, Todoroki offers Izuku his congratulations though it is brief. Alternatively, as the other members of the hero course make it through the finish line, the first thing they see is Izuku's face plastered on the jumbotron with the time he finished the race and his placement.

"Wow! Way to go Deku! You got first place!" Ochako shouts as she comes bounding over to Izuku, the bubbly movements causing her hair to bounce slightly as she comes to a stop. "I finished in the thirties, but you beat Bakugou with a huge lead! You even beat Iida!"

"I'm impressed, Midoriya, here I thought I was the only speedster in our class." Iida himself congratulates, patting Izuku on the back. "I managed to finish just after Todoroki, it is very difficult to run on the ice he made."

"I just floated over all of it, did any of the obstacles hold you up?" Ochako asks, still trying to fathom how Izuku managed to clear a five kilometer race, with massive areas of traps in under two minutes.

"The last part of the pitfall one did, I didn't want to risk not making a jump to the other side so I took the tightrope across." Izuku responds, "I jumped over most of the minefield, and used one of them for a boost in the final stretch."

"That was the obstacle that gave me the most difficulty, I got launched a couple times by them." Iida says.

"You Dekubro, nice job man. A 5k in 100 seconds, that's the manliest shit I've ever seen." Kirishima declares as both he and Kaminari make their way over to the little powwow. "How fast was that anyways? You got a calculator, Iida?" the red haired teen asks.

"Give me a second," Iida responds, reaching into a pocket of his gym uniform before producing his phone. "Let's see, he did five kilometers in 101.21 seconds..." He narrates to himself as he punches in the numbers on the calculator app on his phone.

"He was moving at almost 180 kilometers per hour, or 112 miles per hour." Yaoyorozu answers, having overheard the question from Kirishima. "Luckily, I finished within the slots. It didn't help that I had this... creature attached to my back the entire time. I came in almost dead last of the 42." Momo says, turning and gesturing to Mineta who is attached to her back using his pop off balls.

"Hampering another student's performance in the sports festival. How despicable, Mr Aizawa will be hearing about this one Mineta." Iida declares, repeatedly chopping at the air with a flattened out hand.

"May I have your attention please!" Midnight's voice echoes through the sound system in the stadium. "We have the last of the 42 finalists that have crossed the finish line meaning we have everyone who is progressing to the next round! Everyone else who didn't finish in the top 25% you're out! Head up to your class's seating area and enjoy the show!" The busty woman declares, gesturing up to the jumbotron display that reads the names of the majority of the hero course students plus two students from class 1-C. "It's time for the next event! Eraser would you do the honors?"

"Whatever." Aizawa mumbles over the intercom before pressing a button in the announcer booth causing the display to once again light up with the slot machine graphic. Deciding to skip the animation of the display, Aizawa hits the button a second time prompting it to immediately select the next challenge. "And the next challenge is the cavalry battle." He mumbles before tucking his arms under his head and falling asleep.

"Why did I ever marry him?" Midnight asks herself rhetorically. "The cavalry battle is a new addition to the events at the sports festival. It will consist of teams of two to four members creating a mock horse and rider formation. The objective is to steal headbands with different point values off the heads of the other riders. The points are from descending order from first place to 42nd place. The first place headband is with 10,000,000 points, and the only rule is don't lose your headband!" When Midnight says this, the elation Izuku had after winning the first round vanishes in an instant as the eyes and expressions of all 41 other contestants are all locked on him with a foreboding aura on each of them.

"You guys have 10 minutes to get into your groups! Go!"

The moment the words ten million points left Midnight's mouth Izuku feels his stomach drop to his feet. Talk about a target on your back. Though the mixed threatening and targeting looks are short lived as the remaining students that made it to the second round break off to start forming teams of their own. The group that had congregated around Izuku scatters to go attempt to find partners leaving Izuku all by his lonesome, and despite the better self confidence he's been building through training with the teachers, he's still very uneasy about the situation he's in. Each group he goes up to denies him from joining, and he doesn't even bother asking Bakugou to join him since that would be an instant no. though in his panic, he doesn't notice that Uraraka never left his side.

"Well, it looks like We're in this together, Deku. Did you have any luck asking anyone else to join us?" She asks, noticing the relief in Izuku's face once he realizes she's still there by his side.

"I-I've tried asking but everyone has said no." He responds, scratching the back of his head anxiously.

"Ah, good it seems you two have already teamed up. Mind if I join you?" Iida asks, walking over to the pair. "I thought since You're the only other speedster in our class it might be a bit unfair if we teamed up but, it would be the best tactical decision to pair up with you."

"Of course, now we just need one more person to join but who do you think is gonna say yes?" Ochako responds, answering for Deku but he was going to say yes to Iida joining anyways.

"We could ask Todoroki, I haven't asked him but he wandered off once Miss Midnight started the timer." Izuku responds, before turning to scan the crowd of people looking for the son of endeavor. "You two see him anywhere? He's kinda hard to miss."

"Behind you." Shouto says nearly causing the trio to jump out of their skin.

"Gahhhh!!!" Izuku screams, having been startled by Todoroki's silent approach. "Holy crap, you scared the life out of me. We're gonna need to put a bell on you."

"I'm usually pretty quiet." Shouto responds, "And if you need the fourth member I'll join you."

"And that makes four, good. Now with the remaining time we have left I suggest we devise a plan." Iida says as the group walks a few paces away from the others so that they can speak privately. "Any ideas?"

"This might be a bit on the obvious side, but Midnight didn't mention any rules about us having to keep the headband we were assigned. Turn them inside out and mix them up between us but make sure Midoriya gets the lowest point value headband since he's the biggest target." Shouto suggests.

"That's a good start, now all we need to focus on is how we're gonna avoid everyone for fifteen minutes." Izuku starts, "Your ice can create obstacles and a path for us to run on but Iida can't use his quirk on the ice since he'd have no traction."

"Leave that to me!" A new voice calls out causing the quartet to turn and look at the girl who spoke. Before them stands a woman with pink dreadlock styled hair with a harness over her UA sports uniform. A set of goggles sit over the top of her head, her eyes looking like a set of gold and red crosshairs. "The names Hatsume Mei, Inventor extraordinaire. I have plenty of babies to use for our team that will prove to be a major help." She says with a twinkle in her eye and a thumb pointed at her chest through the introduction.

"Babies? Do you mean actual children?" Iida asks incredulously.

"No, my inventions are my babies." She corrects them.

"I thought we were only allowed four people in a team?" Ochako asks seeing the better filled out proportions of the newcomer to their group.

"There's 42 members that made it through the race, and that doesn't divide evenly into groups of four so there has to be an outlier or two. So, I can be the fifth member of team ten million." Mei explains, "Now, I have a few babies that will make excellent additions to the team. I have hover boots that can clip and adjust to your shoe size, a jet pack and even drones and other things we can use."

"You have support items? What class are you in?" Izuku asks, not noticing the slight look of jealousy from Ochako.

"The support course of course! I made all these precious little ones and I even have patents!" She declares before shoving the jetpack into Izuku's hands. "Glasses, you put on the hover boots, they can switch between hover, skating and traction modes. Candycane, you put on this, it's a gauntlet that can create a force field to deflect blasts. The brown haired girl and I will also use the boots!" They aren't given much time to think as the support items are foisted into their hands.

"Does everyone have a group for the cavalry battle? This is the last call, for those that do, find a place in the arena and assume the positions!" Midnight declares, the sudden announcement startling the group slightly.

With the time quickly running up, the quintet finishes putting on Mei's support gear items. Each of them tie a headband inside out around their heads so that the numbers are not visible, and they've randomized the numbers between the five of them. With Todoroki taking point in front of the formation, Iida and Mei at the sides and Ochako pulling up the rear, she makes Izuku weightless so it's easier to carry him around as he sits on Mei's and Iida's shoulders. "I can make you weightless for up to an hour since you don't weigh that much, but the more people I make weightless the more of that time runs up before I get sick." She explains. "I'll release you when you use the jetpack since it isn't weightless right now, only you are." Izuku nods, though he wishes her touch lasts a moment longer as she presses her fingers to his hand to make him weightless.

"Everyone ready?" Midnight calls out from her podium, earring a resounding shout of 'Yes' from the teams. "On your mark, get set! Go!" She yells as the second event gets underway.

Almost immediately the teams closest to Izuku and his group turn and B-line it straight for them. With Todoroki watching the right and Izuku their left, both teens immediately get on the defensive with Shouto creating a wall of ice to his right to block off any of the others from flanking them. Izuku takes his time with his counter offensive, tucking his index finger behind his thumb, aiming at the rider formations coming for them. With a brisk flick of his finger, the small amount of his power he's channeling creates bullets of pressurized air. The bursts of compressed air shot from Izuku slam directly into the students at the head of each formation and target the rider. Tokoyami and Shouji are struck directly but don't fall due to Shouji's massive build and extra arms holding Tokoyami, Mineta and Tsu. The next strikes Kirishima flat in the chest, only managing to disturb his clothing slightly from the air force. However, the one meant for Bakugou connects with a headshot, nearly launching the particularly cantankerous blonde off of his cavalry mount.

"Oh! Team Midoriya is already on the move! With the other teams attacking they defend themselves by attacking first! The best defense is a good offense, wouldn't you say Eraser?" Present mic declares, as loud as ever, watching as Katsuki recoils back from the attack from Izuku, his expression seething with rage.

"Just shut up and watch the fight, you overgrown peacock." Aizawa responds, said response was preceded by the sound of him hitting Present Mic with the binder of student names.

"I thought the game plan was to not piss him off Midoriya." Todoroki says as he shifts his weight forwards and begins to move along the icy pathway prompting the other three to follow. "We have a big enough target on our backs as it is."

"He was going to single us out from the get go, it's likely he's still miffed about the loss in the battle training during the first week of classes." Iida says as he taps the set of boots Mei had given him, together causing a set of ice skates to pop out from the soles of the boots.

"I was trying to get him out but Kirishima held on to him too well." Izuku responds, "We just have to stall for time so Todoroki freeze as much of the ground as you can."

With a quick nod, Shouto lifts his foot and stamps hard on the ground, the activation of his quirk causes the temperature around them to drop like a stone. Immediately their breath becomes visible as the ground around them freezes spreading outwards from his foot. The surrounding contestants are left with their feet frozen to the grass as the ice covers over their ankles. "That'll hold some of them but not for long." Shouto says, prompting the others to nod before getting on the move. The first to break out of the ice, predictably, is Bakugou who launches himself off of Kirishima and Kaminari as he makes a b-line straight for Deku's team. Uraraka grimaces when she sees the snarling expression on Bakugou's face as the apoplectic blonde blasts himself through the air. Getting to the height of his jump Bakugou blasts himself once up higher before raising his hands into the position he used against Muscular at the USJ. "Todoroki! Shield now!" Izuku shouts seeing a glowing light in the circular hole being made by one of his palms. A half second later a machine gun of AP shots is fired out from Katsuki's hand directly at them.

Todoroki raises his left wrist and presses a button on the control stick in his hand, this causes the metal plate of Mei's particle shield to expand creating a large lightish blue webbed dome over the group that Izuku recognises almost immediately. This is the same material that Powerloader had designed for his Half guard gauntlets but Mei had redesigned it to act as a shield rather than piece of armor. The peppered barrage of explosives slam into the dome created by the particle shield, some exploding on contact and others rebounding off the surface of the barrier. The AP shots that bounced off of the surface of the barrier strike randomly through the arena, hitting the ground, different objects and even hitting the invisible barrier protecting the audience. Bakugou himself has to use his quirk to evade his own attack, blasting himself from left to right to avoid the blasts. With the distraction from the shield, team Midoriya skirts off to another part of the arena to continue the defense. The destruction left in Bakugou's wake shifts the attention from Izuku's team to his as Katsuki finds himself with a target now on his head.