The Drift

"... up! Yaoyorozu! WAKE UP!"

Yaoyorozu's eyes snapped open just in time to see the massive, leathery hand of a Kaiju fill her vision.

Twenty-five minutes earlier.

Izuku charged through the halls, thankful that the alarm hadn't recreated the panic that had put him and Yaoyorozu in Genesis 9 a few days prior. It seemed the recent drills had greatly helped, and since he hadn't heard, "This is not a drill," On the intercom, Izuku assumed this was just another drill.

With the hallway wide open, Izuku was surprised to find that Iida was the fastest among the cadets. He made it to the massive elevator a full thirty seconds before anyone else and was barely winded.

As Izuku and the others piled in, heading for LOCCENT, Izuku just hoped Yaoyorozu was okay with Herc. Even though this seemed like just a drill, he had been in the girl's head and knew that decision making in the heat of the moment wasn't exactly her strong suit.

Thankfully, all of his fears were unfounded, and the elevator dinged open to reveal Yaoyorozu and Herc waiting with another group of mechanics and pilots just three floors up from them.

Izuku let out a small sigh, and Yaoyorozu rushed inside with the rest of the crew, her eyes lingering on her co-pilot for just a moment. It was the most attention she'd given Izuku in this past week of training.

"What's up, kid?!"

Izuku felt a heavy hand slap down onto his shoulder and didn't even have to look up to know who it was. He smiled wide, Benjamin's presence doing loads to set his mind at ease.

"Same old same old, Sir."

"I'm not a Sir!" Benjamin insisted.

"You're old enough to look like one," Martin teased.

"I-" Benjamin sighed, knowing that any response would only egg on his co-pilot even more. "I'm getting kinda tired of these drills. Happen way too frequently for my liking."

"To be fair, you got stuck in the hallway too," Martin pointed out, "Probably thanks to that size of yours."

Benjamin just threw his hands into the air, nearly knocking out two of his technicians with the nonchalant gesture.

The elevator shook lightly, Izuku thinking they had made their stop, but upon looking up, found that they were still moving. He shook his head, it was likely just "turbulence."

Seconds later, the ride dinged and Benjamin smiled, "Ready for a totally pointless suit-up, boys?!" The techs around him groaned, but all had smiles on their faces, betraying their real opinion towards the pilot.

The doors opened and everyone went to spill out as a shout came from LOCCENT, "TAKE COVER!"

Izuku's primal instincts took over and he wrapped his arms around Yaoyorozu and fell to the ground on top of her as an explosion rocked the area. Glass and concrete came soaring into the elevator, some of the smaller pieces bouncing off Izuku's body.

Hacking up the dust that had invaded his lungs, Izuku weakly called out, "I..Is everyone okay?" Looking around through the dust, he saw a couple dozen small cuts covering Kirishima's body, Jiro and Kirishima safely behind him. Iida, Bakugo, and Todoroki had all taken cover behind the walls of the elevator itself. In terms of the cadets, no one was seriously injured.

That's when Izuku directed his attention behind him, towards Benjamin, Martin, and the techs. At least four were dead for certain, enormous shards of glass piercing their chests or chunks of concrete crushing heads.