[i][centre][h1][colour=red]Gauss[/colour][/h1][/centre][/i]
[hr][sub][colour=00aeef]Location[/colour]: Outside Le'Nombril Restau, Shibuya, Tokyo Prefecture[/sub][hr]
The battle was over. The Nomu was dead, and his classmates and the civilians were safe and sound.

Yet, despite those facts, Gauss didn’t feel like he could relax just yet. Briefly, he checked his bracer once again and [i]tsk[/i]ed in annoyance at what he saw. That last move took a lot more energy than he would have liked to expend. Healing people always did, he’d found, and that’s why he preferred to leave that part to others more suited to it. However, desperate times called for desperate measures, and he didn’t exactly have the luxury of choice. Letting Akira die due to inaction would have been foolish on his part. Not to mention rather unheroic of him.

Moving past that, he needed to–

It happened almost faster than he could react to it. The sudden flash of cold blindsided him—that didn’t happen to him very often, and that wasn’t about to change now. The ice crept over his armour at a blisteringly fast pace, spreading over its entire surface in a fraction of a second.

But he was faster.

With a burst of electricity, the ice shattered and Gauss took a few steps back, shaking the frost from his armour. He took a quick glance at the others, finding them in similar states to the one he’d just narrowly avoided, though his gaze lingered on Mei for a moment longer. She was completely encased in ice, her face frozen in an expression of surprise. Nothing he could do about that now that he was nearly running on empty. She still had a few minutes more before permanent damage settled in, so they had to make this quick.

[i]Easier said than done....[/i]

His eyes settled on the woman standing on a platform of ice in midair.

An unknown villain with an ice Quirk who appeared nearly the moment the Nomu had been defeated? Gauss knew well that coincidences were oftentimes strange, to say the least, but this was not that. It was all a bit too convenient for his taste, and it made him curious.

[i]This was going to be a pain.[/i]

No sooner had the thought manifested in his mind did reinforcements finally arrive on the scene. He sighed, half-relieved and half humorously, though he didn’t relax.

[colour=lime]“Took you long enough. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a battery to charge.”[/colour]

With his piece said, Gauss walked away from the gathered group, his charge already starting to build. In just a few seconds, he’d be topped up and ready to rejoin the fight, if it was still ongoing. It wasn’t his typical style, but he had to play the hand he’d been dealt, especially since it was a result of his own failing.

More than anything, he didn’t want to tap into his core reserve if he could help it.