Chapter 5: Chapter v1.5: Trial Runs
Shouta glared down at the manic looking girl with a rather odd set of goggles on her head, "I'm sorry, why are you here?"
"Because I can," answered the girl curtly.
Shouta felt his eye twitch, which didn't answer his question. "And what is the reason why you feel the need to be here?"
"Because I gotta," answered the girl again.
It's situations like this that makes him wish capital punishments were still a thing. "Try to be specific" growled Shouta through clenched teeth, "why have you decided to come view today's training exercise."
"I need data. And this is the easiest way to get it" replied the girl, not seemingly noticing his annoyance. "It's either that or hack into the schools' systems again to get footage, but that wouldn't be much help. Plus, those babies are still in the trial phase, it's probably best for me to be on site just in case."
Shouta was about to ask about the whole 'hacking into the school's systems' part when the last bit grabbed his attention. "What do you mean by trial phase? You didn't test them out ahead of time?"
"Of course I did," the girl waved dismissively, "But it's important that I see them actually used. That way I can modify them to be better!"
Shouta tried to argue against that logic. But he couldn't. Frighteningly enough it made some modicum of sense, getting first-hand accounts of how things broke was probably useful. But what did he know, he didn't build gear, he only used it. "Who even are you?"
The girl turned to him, her hand outstretched, "Mei Hatsume. The greatest inventor to ever live! At your service sir!"
Shouta didn't shake her hand, 'greatest inventor, eh?' Either she was deluded or if she was to be believed, was God's gift to Support Studios everywhere. Only time will tell which was true. "So, you're Midoriya's support assistant?"
"Yup, that's me!" God she was loud, probably could give Hizashi a run for his money.
"Fine, you can stay. Just don't get in the way unless you need to," relented Shouta. If this was going to help one of his students, he wasn't going to stop it from happening. He just hoped that Midoriya knew what he was doing, or at the very least, Mrs. Hatsume did.
Speaking of, Shouta turned his attention back to the field where he had Class 1A doing drills. The current drill was a dodging exercise. One student would stand in front of a ball launcher and be forced to dodge a rubber ball or be hit by one. If they could dodge a ball, then they could dodge a quirk. It started slow, the balls traveling at barely three kilometers an hour, before ramping up to fire as quickly as possible.
Midoriya was up next, his new costume looked much better than the previous, at least in the practical sense. He had on some sort of belt, something that seemed oddly familiar, but he couldn't place it. The kid fiddled with it, trying to adjust it so it fit more comfortably, as if it wasn't made to fit him. He could see it sag down, the only things holding it up were the straps on his shoulders. It's almost as if it was made for someone with wider hips. 'Wait a second.'
Midoriya stood there awkwardly, and he looked back towards him and Mrs. Hatsume. Evidently, they were having some sort of conversation over radio because Mrs. Hatsume boisterously said "Well of course, I'm sure! Who do you think I am?" "Don't be such a wuss, they're just balls." "Just remember to clench your teeth, otherwise you might bite your tongue off." "No, I'm very serious. Don't bite your tongue off." Mrs. Hatsume turned to him, pointing "Teach! Pull the switch!"
Shouta rolled his eyes and pressed the button that started the test, the ball launcher whirred to life, spinning two disks before pushing a dodgeball into the tube. The ball shot out, flying through the air towards Midoriya. The first ball should be easy to dodge, relatively speaking. Some students didn't though, either because their reaction time was too slow, or they hadn't expected it.
Shouta didn't know which category Midoriya fell into.
The ball had flown through the air, Midoriya stood stock still, like a statue. And much to nobody's surprise he was smacked in the helmet by a dodgeball. The resulting hit forced Izuku onto his butt.
"Hold up, somethings not right. He should have dodged that easily!" yelled Mrs. Hatsume as she scurried forward. Shouta sighed and shook his head. Mrs. Hatsume kneeled down at Midoriya's side, popping open a hidden compartment. Then she smacked her forehead and cried out, "That's why, it's not turned on!" She flipped a switch and stood up, "You're good to go!" She gave Shouta a thumbs up and scurried out of the firing zone.
Shouta started the machine again and was pleased that this time Midoriya didn't get hit by the dodgeball. Small spindly legs shot out from the belt, pushing him to one side avoiding the ball. The same thing happened several more times as Midoriya was rag dolled around the area avoiding balls flying at increasingly terrifying speeds. Shouta called it quits after he dodged a ball traveling at nearly a hundred kilometers an hour. At that speed if Midoriya didn't dodge he'd probably die. Which would be bad for Shouta's career as a teacher and would mean lots of paperwork.
When Midoriya came to a stop he swayed for a moment before pawing at his helmet, jerking it up and over his head just in time to spew all over the ground. Joy. Just what Shouta needed. Puking teenagers.
Mrs. Hatsume gingerly patted Midoriya on the back as she said, "That's right, just get it all out." Once Midoriya finished heaving his lunch onto the ground he stood up. Clutching his stomach. "Feel better?" asked Mrs. Hatsume. Midoriya nodded but didn't speak. "Great! Let's go again, I need data!"
Midoriya looked up, his pale face somehow growing paler, "Wha?"
"Don't 'wha' me! We need data! Come on, you're fine!" Mrs. Hatsume jammed the helmet back onto Midoriya's head then skipped back over to Shouta, "You can start it up again."
Shouta sent a silent apology to Midoriya as he started the machine back up again. After a few more minutes of being rag dolled around Shouta once again stopped the machine. Midoriya didn't throw up this time, although Shouta attributed that to Midoriya not having anything to throw up. The kid looked pale and shook like a leaf as he stumbled out of the cage.
Mrs. Hatsume skipped over to Midoriya, chattering about how the test went "perfectly" and that she had "plenty of data to work with."
'Poor kid,' thought Shouta before shouting out "Ashido, your next!"
Izuku fell face first onto his bed. His muscles ached and he felt like he could just slip off into sleep like this. He relaxed into the soft mattress, letting his eyes close as he just laid there. He stayed like this for what seemed like forever, content with the peaceful sound of silence.
Then his phone buzzed three times, he'd gotten a text. Who would be texting him? The only people who used this number were his parents and Mrs. Bakugo. And even then they only ever did it on very rare occasions.
He clicked the lock screen open, and an anonymous number had sent him a text. There was another buzz and another text notification. Izuku frowned as he unlocked his phone, he quickly navigated to his messages and found the chat.
'Sup nerd! It's ya girl, Mei Hatsume!'
Izuku stared at the message for a moment, how'd she get his number? He didn't remember giving it to her. But this was Mei, he wouldn't be surprised if she hacked UA servers and got it from there. No, his biggest question was now that she had it, what was she going to do with it.
Izuku then blushed a deep crimson as he saw what was below the message. A selfie of Mei holding up a peace sign. She wore her normal black tank top but held the phone up so that it was looking down on her. But his eyes weren't focused on her face, instead they had gravitated to the quite sizable amount of cleavage being shown. He'd never seen her from this angle, so he never really saw it.
After a moment he managed to pull himself together and look at the message below the picture that said, 'Proof that I am me, btw.'
He quickly typed up a response, 'Hi Mei. I probably don't want to know how you got my number, do I?'
'Prolly not. Doesn't matter anyway. But now I got your number I can let you know when another baby is ready!'
Izuku desperately tried to get his mind out of the gutter, 'she means invention. Not actual babies.'
'Right, and I can come by and test out the device to see if it works' typed Izuku.
'Right right, so, you free now?'
His mind blanked for a moment; did she have an invention ready? Was that why she texted him? 'Sure, I don't have anything going on right now.'
'Fantastic, how's your internet connection?'
He shrugged then typed 'It's alright. It's not the best but I can stream stuff without too many issues.' Why was she curious about his internet?
'Good good.'
Izuku didn't know how to reply to that, so he just stared at the message, trying to figure out a way to word a response. Suddenly he was receiving a video call from Mei, he froze. What should he do? Why did she want to video call him? With a shaky finger he pressed the 'accept' button.
"Bout time," said Mei. Her voice much quieter than her normal volume. Izuku didn't know if she was actively being quieter or if it was because of his phone's speakers.
"Sorry" stuttered Izuku, "I just wasn't expecting a video call."
"Oh, I see," grinned Mei, "you panicked when a pretty girl wanted to video chat eh?"
Izuku flushed, "No! I was just surprised!"
"Right right." Mei's grin widened, "but enough teasing, I had a few ideas I wanna talk with you about."
"Okay," Izuku sighed, grateful for a change in topic. "What's up?"
"Hear me out, drone swarm." Mei pulled out a notebook she was working on, "they can be used for scouting and can be armed with lasers to cut up things or stunners to take down targets. It'll also allow your mech to take part in operations inside buildings." Mei continued to ramble, going over all the technical aspects of the drones and how she planned to put them together, how many she could fit, a viable power source, what kind of process they needed, coding, all of it.
Izuku wasn't going to interrupt her, by the end of her explanations she'd been talking for almost an hour. He'd moved to his desk, absentmindedly sketching as she spoke. He didn't tune her out so much as he just couldn't follow her very technical explanations. "Oh! And I can equip them with Lidar! That'll help them maneuver in tight spots." she scribbled down a note onto a piece of paper. She grinned and nodded at the notebook.
Mei apparently saw the call time, and paused, "Oh, erm, sorry if I ramble. I just can't help myself when talking about my babies. I didn't mean for this call to get so long."
Izuku shook his head, "It's okay, I don't mind. I didn't have anything planned anyways."
"Still. It's probably annoying when I do that. I know I shouldn't, but sometimes I can't help it." Izuku understood the feeling. He had on occasion waxed poetic about pro-heroes from time to time. His former classmates had called that particular habit of his 'creepy.' As a result, he's made great strides to curb how often he talks about pro-heroes. He counted himself fortunate that he hadn't had an incident at UA yet.
"That's okay," said Izuku. He tapped his pencil against the paper he was sketching on. "I don't mind."
Mei smiled slightly, they sat in silence for a few moments, Izuku couldn't think of a way to continue the conversation. Maybe it had ended? He couldn't tell. After some time Mei asked, "So, you like drawing ya?"
Izuku nodded, "Yeah, it's one of my favorite things to do."
"That's cool. Do you post your stuff online or do you just kinda horde it away?" asked Mei.
Izuku shrugged, "A little of both. I don't get a lot of views though."
"Can I see some of it?" asked Mei, a hint of hesitancy in her tone.
He felt reluctant, embarrassed to have someone he actually knew in the real world see his anonymous work. 'But she showed you, her inventions. The least you could do is show her some of your artwork' pointed out the rational side of his brain.
He figured it was probably the polite thing to do, "Okay. Umm, let me send you a link to my posts." He quickly found a link to his online gallery and texted it to her. A moment later he heard the ding from Mei's phone and saw she was scrolling through her phone.
She paused from time to time, examining one piece or another, until she stopped on one, "This is pretty good." The complement caused him to flush with embarrassment. "There's a lot of pro-hero stuff here."
Most of what he posted was fanart of pro-heroes. Sometimes doing action poses, sometimes just standing around. "Yeah, I guess you can say that I'm a bit of a fan," stammered Izuku. He was nervous and afraid. She probably thought he was a creep now. Normal people don't really make fanart of pro-heroes. Especially not this much.
"More than a bit of a fan I'd guess. You must be a super fan" she had a teasing grin on her face. Similar to ones some of his classmates had when they found out. "I gotta know, which one's your favorite?"
The question caught him off guard for a moment, whenever people found out about his obsession, they usually called him creepy and left him alone. Nobody had ever asked which one was his favorite.
"Umm. Well. I guess. Umm. I guess it would have to probably be All Might. But like, he's not the only one. I have a lot that I like. Endeavor's pretty cool, so is Kamui Woods, the way he does his tree branch capture technique is awesome. Oh! Someone I started following recently Fearless Sentinel, he's new to the hero world but his quirk makes him super viable.
"It's Accelerated Perception, I think, anyways, so like. He can alter his perception of time. Like he can speed it up or slow it down. It doesn't help him move faster, but he can like, see moves faster. Well, I guess a better way to put it is he notices moves faster than other people, but like he can react faster too. Because he can see it happen faster. Anyways. Last week he fought someone with a gun, and he dodged a bullet!
"At nearly point-blank range! He was so cool! I've been working on a drawing of that, but it's kinda hard, because like the angle of the video from the fight is really bad. So, I can't see their faces, so I've had to try and imagine them, which is not something I'm really good at. I also have difficulties with hands and noses.
"Don't know why noses particularly, they always come out all weird so for like all of my drawings I've just been drawing the same nose on everyone." He realized he was rambling now. And he mentally chided himself for getting so worked up. He'd done it again; he'd had an 'episode'."
He glanced at his phone, expecting to see Mei either gone or looking weirded out. Instead, she looked like she was thinking about something, "So if he can control his perception of time, does that mean he can fast forward through the day too if he wants to? Like if he's just waiting around for his laundry to get done, he can just sit down on the couch, speed up time for a bit and move onto the next thing?"
Izuku was taken aback, so taken aback it took him a moment to even try to come up with an answer to her question. "I guess that's possible. It would make sense he could use his quirk for that. But why would he?"
"Because waiting for things is boring! And that dudes so lucky! Gah! I'd kill to have his quirk. Do you know how much time I've wasted just waiting for parts to be printed or machined! It kills the whole creative process! I'd be much more efficient if I could just skip to the end of the process." Mei threw up her hands as she ranted, her voice steadily becoming louder and louder.
Izuku couldn't help it. He started laughing. Not just a little chuckle, it was a deep laugh, one that had him leaning back in his chair struggling to catch his breath.
"Don't laugh! It's not funny!" whined Mei.
"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you to say that" Izuku smiled broadly. They soon lapsed into silence for a moment.
Mei looked up from her screen suddenly, and Izuku heard the sound of a door opening, "Gotta go." The screen went black as Mei disconnected. Izuku didn't even get the chance to say anything, not even a 'see you later.'
He sat back, sighing as he stared at his screen, letting it sink in for a moment, he'd managed to carry on an actual conversation for almost an hour. And he managed not to be creepy when he talked about pro-heroes. And she liked his art. That particular fact made him smile, he'd shown someone his art, not hiding his identity through anonymity, and they'd complimented it. He'd gotten compliments through comments, but never in person.
It felt good. It felt really good.
'She could have just been being polite though.'
The thought came quickly, causing his smile to falter. Maybe she was just being polite. But she didn't immediately hang up on him the moment he started to ramble about pro-heroes. So perhaps she was genuinely interested.
'And when has anyone actually been interested in you or what you say? You're just a useless nerd who doesn't belong.'
His smile disappeared now. The moment of happiness passed the delusion was over. Mei had been nice though, not many people had been polite enough to hear him out and not immediately interrupt or leave.
'But she did hang up soon after your little tirade. Doesn't that mean she felt uncomfortable?'
No, he heard a door open, reasoned Izuku, someone had come home, so she hung up because of that. That must have been the reason.
That must have been the reason.
It must have.
Maybe.
Izuku set his stuff down onto his desk, his classmates, like always, were chatting amongst themselves. And like always, Izuku didn't interact with them save for the occasional nod of acknowledgement from Kirishima. Class passed quickly; he'd always been well enough at school. Never the best student, but far from the worst.
For lunch, like usual, he brought his own, and breaking off from the others he plodded his normal course to the library. When he got there however, he found that it was closed, his sanctuary was not available. He'd have to find another place to go.
Unbidden to him, the first location that came to mind was the support studio. Probably because that was where Mei usually hung out during lunch. He shrugged; it wouldn't be the first time he dropped by during the lunch period. What's the worst that could happen?
So, he meandered down the halls, humming along to the music playing through his earbuds as he walked. He eventually arrived at the support studio, hesitantly opening the door.
The room was mostly empty save for one lone person hard at work. Her hands deep inside a backpack looking device with large thrusters coming out of it. He walked over to Mei, quietly setting his stuff down onto the floor and sitting down on a stool.
Mei didn't seem to notice him as he pulled out his lunch and popped open the container. Today was rice, egg, and weenies. Mei froze as she sniffed their air, her head snapping toward him. "When'd you get here?"
"Just now" answered Izuku, he picked up a roll of egg and ate one end of it.
Mei's eyes darted down on the food, she stared at it for a moment, before looking back up at Izuku. "Why'd you come? I don't have any new babies ready yet."
Izuku shrugged, "My usual lunch spot was closed, and this was the first place I could think of to come."
"Why not the lunchroom?" asked Mei, her gaze turning back to the jetpack as she fiddled with something inside of it.
"I don't like crowds much," replied Izuku quietly.
"I get that," Mei nodded. "You're welcome here any time."
She glanced in his direction, although Izuku could guess that she wasn't looking at him so much as she was looking at his lunch. Why wasn't she eating anything? Surely she's hungry, it is lunch. "Aren't you hungry?"
Mei shrugged, "I got babies to make. No time to eat."
Izuku frowned, "it's not healthy to skip lunch Mei."
"Bold of you to assume I hadn't already eaten," shot back Mei.
Izuku took a bite of his roll of egg. "Oh yeah? Then why are you looking at my lunch like you want some?"
Mei froze, she looked away, "I'm not."
Izuku raised an eyebrow. He plucked up a weenie and held it out to her, "So I guess you don't want to have this succulent, very tasty, weenie then?"
Mei glanced at the small weenie, gulping a little as she stammered, "I mean, if you're offering. Who am I to be rude and refuse?" She took the weenie out of his chopsticks and quickly stuck it in her mouth. It disappeared in less than a second. Izuku suppressed a chuckle as he popped a weenie into his own mouth. "Thank you." Izuku could have sworn Mei had a light flush, but it could have also just been a trick of the light.
"You're very welcome. I got to keep my favorite engineer fed after all," joked Izuku.
Mei grinned and slyly remarked, "You have other support assistants? You dog."
Izuku snorted, and the two of them lapsed into a content silence, Izuku finished his lunch, leaving a little behind and pushing the box towards Mei. She looked down at it and shook her head, "no, no you don't have to. I don't want to be a bother or anything."
"Nah, I've had enough. It's just gonna go to waste otherwise," replied Izuku.
Mei opened her mouth but seemed to reconsider her reply and instead took the leftover lunch, muttering a quiet "thank you" before quickly eating the meal. It only took her a few seconds to eat it all, she must have been really hungry after all. 'Maybe I should bring more with me tomorrow' thought Izuku. 'She's helping me by giving me support gear, repaying that with lunch seemed like a fair way to at least attempt to repay her.'
Mei set down the empty lunch box next to Izuku, "It was good, thank you." Then she quickly turned back to working on the jetpack.
Izuku nodded and put his empty lunch box back into his bag. He pulled out his new sketchbook, the replacement for the one ruined by Bakugo, and flipped it over to the first page. He had mixed feelings about this sketchbook. On one hand, nothing quite beats opening a fresh sketchbook for the first time, the crinkle of the binding and the smell of glue were bliss to Izuku. On the other hand, sadness because he didn't get to fill the last one before it was destroyed.
He briefly wondered what he should draw as the first picture, it was important, not actually important but it felt like that, to christen all his new notebooks with an important sketch of some kind. His last one had a drawing of All Might fighting Toxic Chainsaw, probably one of his favorite moments of All Might's contemporary career.
He tapped his pencil against the sketchbook, thinking about what he should draw. Another hero costume? No, that didn't seem important enough to be the first page. The rest of them? Definitely. But not the first. Maybe he could do another All Might drawing?
No, that felt like a cop out. He might be his favorite hero, but that didn't mean he was going to make him the first page to every sketchbook. He thought and thought, and by the time the lunch period was over he hadn't come to a decision.
Ah well, he could figure it out later.
Izuku sleepily trudged out of his room the next morning, having woken up earlier than usual just so he could make two lunches. One for himself, and one as a thank you to Mei. He was well into the process of assembling the two lunches when a sudden thought made him pause.
'Wasn't this something that couples do?'
His face went beet red. No, no, no, no, they weren't a couple. No, he was just making a lunch as a way to thank Mei for all her hard work designing and building gear for him. Nothing more. They were only friends.
Friends?
Were they friends?
Part of him hoped that she thought of him as a friend, but the rational side of his brain disagreed. 'If anything, she views you as a customer.' That made more sense to Izuku. He finished making the two lunches and stuffed them in his backpack.
After classes were released for lunch he went straight for the support department, again, the only person here was Mei and she was too busy working on some sort of device to notice his entrance. He quietly slid into a stool at her workbench, pulling out his lunch, and then sliding the lunch he prepared for her across the table.
He popped open his lunchbox, the smell of rice and meatballs made his mouth water. Mei, like last time, was more or less instantly aware of his presence now. "Jeez nerd, you can't sneak up on a girl like that." Then she looked down at the unopened box of lunch sitting next to her. "What the hecks this?"
"It's a thank you from me, for all the hard work you're doing for my costume," replied Izuku, he tried not to sound embarrassed by it.
Mei paused, before shaking her head, "No, no, I, I can't, you didn't need, I don't want to be an inconvenience to you." She tried to push the box back to Izuku.
He pushed the lunch back to her, "You aren't being an inconvenience, Mei."
Mei looked down at the box, then up at Izuku, "You, mean it?"
"Yeah, if anything you've helped me more than I've helped you," Izuku ate a meatball, savoring its taste.
Mei seemed taken aback, she slowly opened the lid, and she began to eat. She didn't scarf it down like she did yesterday, seeming to take her time enjoying the meal. When she was done, she stood up, bringing it to Izuku.
He was now taken aback by the small tears welling up in her eyes, did she not like them? Oh god she didn't like them! Then he was even more taken aback when she suddenly hugged him. "Thank you" she whispered before pulling back, wiping her tears with her palm.
"You're welcome" stammered Izuku, a flush creeping up his face.
He guessed that she did like them.
Mei shuffled back to her device, humming a tune as she worked, a small smile on her face. Izuku finished his own lunch soon after and pulled out his sketchbook, he resumed puzzling over what he should draw on the first page. Again, he didn't come up with anything by the time lunch was over.
"Okay, try it now," Mei chomped on a carrot stick after handing Izuku the spherical drone.
He concentrated on the drone, squinting his eyes as he tried to use his quirk to connect with the little thing. He could feel a buzzing in the back of his skull as he tried to will the little drone to turn on. After a few moments he gave up. Mei grumbled as she made a note, "okay, let's try it with the drone already on then." She flipped a switch on the controller, the little drone humming to life.
It was an almost instant connection this time, he felt warmth radiate from the drone, and suddenly the world around him shifted. He could see 360 degrees around himself, which was weird, very weird. Disorientating wasn't an apt description for what he felt, he was completely and utterly unable to comprehend what he saw.
At the same time, he could see normally, through his own eyes. Which only made the disorientation worse. Not many people can say they've ever seen themselves while actually not seeing themselves. It was all very confusing to Izuku.
The moment he shut his eyes it got better, there wasn't any double vision now, but he was still seeing everything around the drone from every angle. He could even see the drone still. Oh god he was going to vomit.
He wrenched open his eyes, quickly setting the drone down on the table before rushing to the trashcan and heaving into it. He felt Mei pat his back, "that's it bud, get it out." That was the second time he'd thrown up in front of a girl, what's more embarrassing was this was the second time he threw up in front of the same girl.
He wiped his mouth when he finished, shakily getting to his feet, "I'm okay now."
"At least we know you can connect to the drone now," said Mei with a wince.
"Yeah, but" he suppressed a belch, "the 360 vision is really not nice."
Mei chuckled, "really not nice? That a legit term now?"
"It is now," replied Izuku dryly.
Mei shook her head, returning to the drone, popping open the top and peering inside of it. She reached in, yanked on something, then closed the top. "Alright, I turned off the cameras. Try it now."
"Right," Izuku picked up the drone, feeling the familiar connection, fortunately this time his vision didn't split, and he wasn't disorientated. He focused on controlling it, willing the drone to increase its throttle and fly up.
The drone responded to his commands almost eagerly as it increased power to whatever it used to fly and hovered around five centimeters above his palm before stopping. He felt the connection break the moment it left his hand.
"That is super cool!" exclaimed Mei. "Can you like make it Wizz around the room now?"
Izuku shook his head as he dropped his arm, "I lost connection with it the moment it took off."
Mei slumped in her stool, putting her head against the table, "Damn. And here I was hoping you could remote control it." She suddenly sat up, a manic grin on her face, "Ah well! I'll just figure out a way to overcome that little problem." She pulled out a notebook from the desk, muttering to herself as she thought of ideas.
Izuku touched the drone, willing it to power off. It seemed reluctant to follow that command, but eventually it did. It was odd to think of these machines as having a sort of will of their own, that and desires. The drone wanted to fly, and that's really all it wanted to do. It desired open sky to fly around for as long as it could. But Izuku could, with little effort, force the machines to follow his will. But it seemed like a two-way connection. When he'd activated the drone, he had a sudden desire to fly too. Although he wasn't physically capable of that, maybe when Mei got the jetpack working, he could use it.
The bell rang, dismissing students from school for the day. Izuku put the drone down onto the table and began packing up his stuff. Mei hadn't moved yet; she was still feverishly writing ideas.
"Mei, it's time to go," prodded Izuku. Mei either didn't hear him or ignored him. He tried again, "Mei, come on it's time to go." Still, she didn't budge. Izuku rolled his eyes and poked her in the arm. "Mei."
This got her attention, and she swiveled around to look at him, "Huh?"
"It's time to go," said Izuku. He fought down a blush as her face came very close to his own.
"Nah, don't feel like it," grinned Mei, she turned back to her notebook, "Take a look at this. I've been doing some thinking."
Izuku shuffled next to her, looking down at her notes. It was a list of items with numbers next to each, possibly page numbers of where each device could be found. "You and thinking? An unlikely pair" joked Izuku.
"Shush" Mei held up a finger, "I have the talky stick right now Midoriya. Now, this is a finalized list of all the babies I want to put onto the mark 1. Hover Shoes for added mobility, a grappling belt, a pair of drones, I'm still working on those, the laser sword, a retractable shield, a stun pistol, and a jetpack for even more added maneuverability."
That's… surprisingly not that much.
"Eventually I want to make a pair of gravity gauntlets, two more drones, various grenades, a net shooter, a foam dispenser, and powered armor. Maybe I should do the powered armor first, it would make a good addition and be an even closer representation of a mech! This bad boy can fit so many more babies!"
There it was.
Mei cackled as she practically drooled over the possibilities. Izuku set his stuff down, it was clear he'd be here for a while longer, "Woah woah woah, lets dial it back a bit, Mei. This is just supposed to be a way to test concepts, right?"
Mei was practically vibrating now, "So many possibilities, so little time."
"That sounds like a lot of stuff, Mei, almost too much," he wasn't even sure if he could carry that much stuff.
Mei focused on him, her manic grin shrinking, "you, don't want to have my babies?"
Izuku nearly swore; he'd gotten used to her calling her inventions her babies, but on occasion she managed to blindside him with out-of-pocket statements like that. "No, of course I want them, Mei. Your stuff is great, the best even, but let's just take this slow, yeah?"
Mei deflated, "I'm confused. Do you want to have my babies or not?"
Izuku slumped, sighing as he gave up, "Yes Mei, I want your babies" he stuttered, that was more embarrassing than it should have been. No scratch that, it should probably have been more embarrassing than it was!
"Good!" Mei gave him a wide grin as she perked back up.
"Oh god, not you!" a sudden voice behind them caused Izuku to nearly jump out of his skin, he spun around suddenly looking for the voice. He spotted a shirtless man with what looked like an excavator helmet on his head. "Why are you here?!"
"We're making babies!" cried Mei, causing Izuku to blush a deep crimson. He buried his face in his hands and turned away from them.
"You two? Together? That can't be a good combination. Don't tell me you're the master of disasters support tech Hatsume!" The man seemed desperate.
Mei just nodded, "Yup yup, I am" he felt her arm wrap around his shoulder, pulling him around 'master of disaster?', "And we're gonna make a giant robot!"
The man's eyes bugged out under his helmet, "No, no, no, no, no, no! That little troublemaker doesn't need a giant robot! And you! You don't need to build a giant Robot! No Giant robots Hatsume!"
Mei just cackled in response, "You can't stop me Powerloader! My mech is inevitable!" The man just gripped his helmet and started screeching in response.
The only thing Izuku could think was 'What the fuck is going on?'
Chapter v1.6: Behold! The Underminer!
Izuku readjusted his helmet, it had a wide glass visor that displayed a power percentage and loadout status. Everything looked green, and the jetpack hadn't exploded yet. So that was good. His three teammates, Ojiro, Kaminari, and Yaoyorozu were warming up their muscles or fiddling with equipment like he was.
Unlike them though, Izuku was sporting a variety of equipment provided by Mei for their trial. She was off somewhere observing with Mr. Aizawa, but she of course had a direct line to him through the helmet communications system. So if he did run into any trouble with the equipment he could ask for her help.
Izuku stretched his arms, pulling on them as he looked over the obstacle course. Each obstacle was designed in a way that most people could overcome on their own. However the point for the exercise was to overcome them as a team.
"Alright guys, we got a plan?" asked Kaminari.
Yaoyorozu hummed as she looked at what they could see of the course, "I suggest that we overcome one obstacle at a time. When we get to one, whoever has a quirk best suited for the task should take charge." That sounded kinda like a plan, if you ignored the lack of plan she said.
"Good idea," replied Ojiro. "Leave it up to the Vice Pres to come up with good ideas!"
"Thank you Ojiro," replied Yaoyorozu with a smile.
"Shouldn't we come up with-" Izuku was interrupted by the go signal, his three teammates took off from the finish line, dashing forward "more than that?" finished Izuku knowing full well the other three hadn't heard him. "Or just charge in without one, that's cool too."
He jogged after them, the gear Mei had given him was weighing him down some, but it was still easier to move around like this than with his last costume. The first obstacle was fairly easy, just a few hurdles. Perfect opportunity to test out the jetpack.
There was a roar as the jetpack fired its engines, Izuku hopped up, intent on just clearing the hurdles, but he apparently didn't hop high enough since his foot snagged one of the hurdles, causing him to pivot down and crash to the ground. He slid for a couple meters before the jetpack stopped. "Damn it!" hissed Izuku as he pushed himself off the ground. Guess he'd just have to do this the old fashioned way.
He stepped over each hurdle, and eventually made his way through the obstacle. The next one was a long stretch of water, Yaoyorozu had made a small inflatable dinghy with her quirk, his three teammates piled in "Wait up!" called Izuku, but it was too late, they'd launched already. "Come on guys really?"
He tapped his heels together, activating the hoverboots. He lifted up off the ground slightly, he stuck his arms out to balance himself "Whoah, okay, you got this Izuku, you got this. It's just like riding a skateboard. Just, there's no skateboard." Not that he had any experience riding one.
He leaned forward just slightly, moving forward over the water. Surprisingly he remained aloft, going slowly as he hovered across the water. He crouched slightly, "Okay, cool, nice and easy. Almost there." He felt the right boot start to heat up a little. "Oh boy."
He looked up, he was close to the other side now, "Just a little further, you got this hoverboot number 1."
"Shaquan," said Mei over the headset.
"What?" asked Izuku distractedly.
"Number 1's name is Shaquan. Boot number two is Dillan." Of course Mei named them. But even for Mei those were some odd names. "Something the matter with Shaquan?"
"Well, Shaquan is overheating," Izuku replied. He felt utterly ridiculous calling a hoverboot Shaquan.
"Oh yeah, that little guy runs hot sometimes. I'll take a look at it later," said Mei casually.
When he finally reached the far side 'Shaquan' was really starting to heat up. Izuku deactivated the hoverboots almost immediately. His teammates landed a little before him, and were running forward for the next obstacle, a wall. Izuku jogged after them. The wall was too tall to climb on their own, but if Yaoyorozu could make a rope, Ojiro could jump up and secure it so the rest of them could climb up.
"Hey, I've got an idea," said Izuku.
"Alright, let's go!" Ojiro slammed his tail into the ground, launching himself over the wall.
"Wait, hold on!" shouted Izuku.
Yaoyorozu had created a grappling hook and threw it up at the wall, then started to climb over it. Kaminari scrambled up after her, Izuku sighed, "So much for that plan I guess." Izuku waited for Yaoyorozu to finish climbing before he started.
The moment he tugged on the rope it detached from the top and clattered to the ground. He looked up, "Hey guys?" Nobody replied. They didn't hear him. "Guys?" still no reply. Izuku sighed, frustration threatened to overwhelm him, but he took a calming breath, no point in letting frustration get the better of him now. Not like it would help anyways.
He took a couple steps back, crouched, and jumped up, the jetpack fired automatically aiding his jump. He flew up, "Oh shiiiit!" then slammed into the wall. He felt his breath knocked out of him as he scrambled at the wall, trying to find some purchase to cling onto. His fingers looped around the top of the wall, and he dangled there for a moment as he forced himself to breathe. "Help!" cried out Izuku. "Someone? Anyone? Guys? Are you there?"
He didn't get a reply, frustration turning to anger as he barely held on, "Fine. If that's how it is, then that's how it is." He pulled hard, struggling to pull himself up. His arms shook as he managed to get his arms up and onto the top of the wall, his feet kicked at the wall, trying to find some purchase. Eventually he managed to push himself up and onto the lip of the wall.
He lay there on the top of the wall for a moment, catching his breath, then he looked down to the otherside, his teammates were nowhere in sight. "Oh no, it's fine guys, I managed it on my own. I didn't need your help or anything" muttered Izuku bitterly. "It's not like I don't have a quirk that can make me jump over walls" he pulled a grapple anchor from his belt and stuck it into the top of the wall. "And It's not like I can just make any tool I need whenever I need it," he steeled his nerves and repelled from the wall. Descending slowly to the ground.
When he was on the ground he gave the steel cable a hard yank, dislodging it from the top, the automatic winch system reeled it in. He set off in a jog, "Why was I so slow you ask? I was just taking my time you know? I stopped and smelled the flowers, their blooming this time of year ya know?"
He crawled along the ground under an obstacle, he climbed up another wall, this one fortunately had handholds, on the other side there was a sort of slide. He heard a boom in the distance, his head snapping to the sound, ahead of him were his three teammates fighting a few robots.
"Oh cool, the one time my quirk would come in handy and I'm not fucking helpful," muttered Izuku as he set off at a jog trying to catch up with his teammates. He could of course use the jetpack or hover shoes to get there faster and maybe help his teammates fight the robots. But honestly, he didn't feel like it.
And anyways, he could barely control the jetpack and the hover shoes tended to overheat quickly. He wasn't about to push them past their limits, not when they were just training.
His teammates had been able to defeat the robots easily, and were waiting at the finish line. Mr. Aizawa stood there, his arms crossed as he glared at his teammates. Mei was standing next to him, fiddling with one of her drones. He came to a stop a few moments later, breathing heavily as he crossed the finish line.
Mr. Aizawa looked at his watch, "Twenty three minutes. You four fail."
"Wait a second! We got here in only ten minutes! Fifteen at the most!" complained Kaminari.
"It only counts when all four of you cross the finish line," replies Mr. Aizawa. "And your fourth teammate crossed at twenty three minutes."
Kaminari leveled a glare at Izuku, "Thanks a lot man, we failed because of you. I hope you're happy."
"Sorry if I wasn't able to get over the obstacles fast enough, It was kinda hard on my own" shot back Izuku.
"That sounds like your problem," said Ojiro with a frown, "we can't be responsible for your inadequacies."
Yaoyorozu spoke next, "Perhaps if you trained harder you could have kept up with us. Please don't make it a habit Midoriya, I would like to get a good grade next time we're forced to be partnered."
Izuku felt numb, his face impassive as Bakguo's words reverberated in his head, 'Useless Deku!' That's right, he was just a useless Deku. A good for nothing useless Deku. He didn't belong here. Not with these people, who've trained most of their lives with their quirks to be heroes. If they stopped to help him they'd probably have still failed.
His eyes burned as he felt tears threaten to spill out, and he quietly muttered to himself "nothing more than a useless Deku."
He didn't hear Mr. Aizawa's direction's, but saw his teammates moving. He forced his trembling limbs to move, he numbly marched after them, but he made sure to leave a good distance between himself and his three 'teammates.'
He spotted Kirishima, getting ready with his team spot him. As they passed Kirishima called out, "hey, Midoriya, you good bud?"
Izuku shook his head, he didn't want to talk with anyone at the moment, if he did he might say something out of anger to someone. "Who the fuck cares what Deku thinks? Probably just mad because he was so useless out there!" Jeered Bakugo.
He trudged away, heading to the locker room. Refusing to meet anyone's eyes, he found his locker, keeping his head down. He mutely pulled off his costume, gingerly placing the gear Mei had given him, foolishly given him, into their proper boxes. He pulled on his uniform, trying his best to tie his tie from memory. But despite his attempts he never could quite seem to make it look neat.
'Damn it, you're so useless you can't even properly tie a tie.' He looked in his locker's mirror for a moment, frowning as he fiddled with his tie for a moment, before sighing and giving up. "Usless fucking Deku" he murmured before closing the locker.
He exited the locker room and trudged to the sidelines, he sat down on the last bench, furthest away from everyone else who'd finished. They all sat their chatting happily with each other, chattering excitedly about how well they did.
"Yeah man, he's always by himself. Super creepy if you ask me" Izuku felt his heart falter for a moment, he shouldn't listen in on someone's conversation but he couldn't help it. And he had a feeling that he knew who Kaminari was talking about. "Can't believe I got paired up with him of all people, he even made me fail the test."
He didn't hear the other person's response, Izuku hurriedly dug out his earbuds and jammed them into his ears. He put on a random playlist, it honestly didn't matter which one, anything to distract him. He stared at the ground, listening to his music for the rest of the period, doing his level best to keep his face as impassive as possible.
When lunch came, he grabbed his things and left, trying to avoid everyone else as much as possible. He saw Kirishima say something, but Izuku ignored him. He walked quickly, heading to the library, he didn't feel like being around anyone. Especially not Mei, he'd failed her as well, making her inventions look useless.
He found a corner in the library, settling in and pulling out his lunch. He ate listlessly, slowly eating the tasteless chicken he'd made this morning.
He saw movement to his right, and suddenly Mei was sitting down across from him, her eyes zeroing in on his food, then looking up to meet him. Her mouth moved but he couldn't hear her through his earbuds. He should stop being rude to Mei, and he pulled out his earbuds, setting them on the table, "Sorry, what was that?"
"I said, I finally tracked ya down," replied Mei matter of factly.
Izuku nodded, "Yeah, I noticed. Sorry, I just, want to be alone right now."
"Aight," Mei shrugged, "Lemme know when you stop wanting alone time." Mei pulled a small device from out of her bag, fiddling with it quietly. Izuku wondered if she knew what 'alone time' meant? As in, being by oneself? Her being here kind of defeated the purpose.
But he wasn't about to just tell her to go away, at least not in a rude way. Izuku sighed, he supposed this was just another Mei thing. She never seemed to understand many social cues. But he supposed that was probably because she wasn't exactly normal. She made odd comments, was more touchy feely than most people Izuku knew, and had almost no sense of personal space. Mei was definitely on the spectrum. He probably was too, after all he had similar nerd out moments when talking about pro-heroes. So it wasn't like he could judge her for it.
Then Izuku realized he'd forgotten to give Mei her lunch. He quickly dug it out from his bag, and slid it across the table to her. She almost immediately set down her device, licking her lips as she opened the lunchbox. "So does this mean you're done with alone time?"
"Sure," Izuku couldn't help but grin slightly.
"Good, by the way I looked at Shaquan, I found the heating issue and fixed it. Next time he should be cool as a cucumber!" Mei Picked up a piece of chicken, eating it in one bite. It was, in all honesty, a little terrifying seeing her able to eat half a chicken breast in one go.
"Thanks" Izuku said uncertainly. Did she really want to still give him gear after he messed up so badly earlier?
"Welcome" chirped Mei. "This chicken is super tasty!" She chewed on another half of chicken breast.
They had a quiet rest of lunch, Izuku fished out his sketchbook, still having issues with what the first page would be. He'd already started sketching on the other pages though. Mei had resumed working on the drone, humming as she worked.
When the bell rang to signal the end for lunch he felt a little more himself. The dark cloud in his mind still lingered, but it didn't overwhelm him now. He stood up, putting his stuff away and he and Mei walked back, eventually separating to head to their own classes. When Izuku walked in he caught Kaminari shooting him a glare, Yaoyorozu firmly refused to look at him, and Ojiro seemed indifferent. He spotted Jiro lean over to whisper to Asui, her eyes flitting to Izuku occasionally.
He felt a seed of rage form, but he ignored it, if they wanted to spread rumors about him, then let them. He didn't care what they thought about him. It's not like any of them actually care about him, so why should he care about them. He dismissed that thought almost as soon as he had it, the idea felt weird, as if he actually followed through with it he might loose a part of himself. He should really try and get along with his classmates.
As he sat down, he felt someone tap on his shoulder, "You doing okay man? I heard what happened at training this morning."
Izuku turned in his seat to look at Kirishima, he forced a smile and said, "Yeah, don't worry about it. Just a little down that I failed.
"You sure man?" Izuku nodded, "Alright," replied Kirishima. "Also, I know Bakugo is crass, but he probably didn't mean what he said."
Izuku firmly believed that Bakugo meant exactly what he said. But he wasn't about to just say that to Kirishima. No point in trying to convince people that the perfect little hero was anything else. "Water under the bridge. Don't worry about it." He turned back around when Mr. Aizawa walked into the classroom.
Izuku lay in bed, it was the weekend so he fortunately didn't need to go to school. He'd finished all his homework already, so he had nothing important he needed to do. He'd spent enough time lazing around in bed so he threw off the covers then got up out of bed. He walked out, greeted his mom, ate some fruit for breakfast, then retreated back into his room. Now what was he gonna do?
Draw, he decided.
He got his sketchbook out, the first page still blank, he flipped through each page. He put on some music, put his pencil to the paper, and started to sketch whatever came to mind first. He drew pro-heroes, mechs, and costume designs. Around two hours after he started drawing his phone vibrated, notifying him he received a text.
It wasn't unknown to happen, he did receive texts from people on occasion.
His Mom if she needed something, his dad who occasionally checked in on him, and Mrs. Bakugo on very rare occasions. Outside of those three he hardly ever got texts from anyone.
Save for Mei.
Who was currently spamming his phone with texts.
'Hey!'
'Nerd!'
'Hey Hey!'
'Pick up your phone!'
'Come on it's me!'
'The greatest inventor to have ever lived!'
'Come on!'
'Pick up your damn phone Midoriya!'
'Swear to god I'll just keep spamming until you do!'
'Hello!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
Izuku was both impressed and horrified at how quickly Mei could type. Even while he was typing out a response she just kept sending stuff.
'Jeez Mei, okay, you have my attention.'
'Neat. What are you doing right now?'
'Just sketching, why?'
'I'm hella bored. You, me, my house now, baby making time!'
Izuku had to set down his phone after that last message, his face going beet red as he tried to control his breathing. If it was anyone but Mei he'd have died of embarrassment. Scratch that, he still might.
His phone vibrated a few more times, but he couldn't bring himself to look back at it, still trying to get his own thoughts under control, and out of the gutter. After a few moments of breathing exercises to banish the bad thoughts he looked back at the messages had been continuously sending him as he tried to get himself under control.
'Bonus, my dads not home so we can make as much noise as we need to!'
He had to set his phone back down. "God damn it Mei." He fought to get his rebelious thoughts under control once again. Repeating the mantra "This is Mei, she didn't mean that" for several moments until he braved looking at the message spam again.
'And bring food!'
'Lots of food!'
'I'm hungy'
'*hungry*'
'And a change of clothes.'
'It might get messy'
'Well? You coming or what?'
'Come on Mido!'
'You know you wanna!'
'Yes Mei, I'll come. If only because you asked nicely.'
'YAY! Come quickly, these babies won't make themselves!'
He was about to get up when he realized that he didn't even know where Mei lived. He sent a text to her, and she replied with an address a fraction of a second later. Jeez she can really type fast.
The address was in the suburbs of Mustafu, and was mercifully near a train station. He made sure to let his mom know where he was going, and that he was meeting up with a friend. He left out the part that said friend was a somewhat attractive teenage girl who had no filter or concept of embarrassment. On his way there he made sure to pick up a few snacks at a convenience store.
The Hatsume Household was larger than he originally thought it was going to be. It had two stories, each floor looked like they could be two or three times the size of his apartment! They even had a backyard complete with a shed!
He knocked on the door, waiting a few moments before trying again. Still no answer. Sighing, he pulled out his phone and called Mei. She picked up after four rings, "Sup nerd!"
"I'm here, can you let me in?" asked Izuku with a slight stutter, a light flush creeping up his neck. This is the first time he's ever gone over to a girls house, let alone when they were alone. A small part of him wondered if something was going to happen while he was here.
He quashed that small part of him until it was a fine paste. 'Nothing was going to happen', he reasoned, Mei just asked me to come over to work on inventions with her. But why him? He had no idea what he was doing with inventions, he's no engineer, hell he can barely run a computer!
Mei hung up the phone and a few moments later the door was thrown open, "Bout time you got here! You brought snacks ya?" She was wearing a white tank top instead of her usual black one, her hair was tied back in a messy bun, and she wore a very short pair of shorts. He reasoned that this was probably her 'stay at home' outfit. He had a very similar one, albeit with shorts that didn't show off quite that much leg. Her goggles were down, making her look like some sort of demented bug. Izuku held up the plastic sack for her to see, "Then welcome in Midoriya! Me queso is you queso!"
'Not sure that's how that phrase goes' thought Izuku as he stepped inside. He slipped off his shoes at the entrance and followed her deeper into her home. He looked around nervously, expecting to see her mom somewhere nearby. Surely she wasn't here alone. She mentioned her dad was out, but she said nothing about her mom. Was she out too?
He followed Mei past the dining room and living room, "It's a good thing you weren't doing anything important," commented Mei. "I em, I kinda need someone to test out some equipment and, well, you're kinda the only person I know willing to test my babies."
Izuku shrugged, "Happy to help." She guided him through her house, then down a flight of stairs into a basement. The basement, quite frankly, looked more like a junkyard than a basement.
"Behold! The great workshop of Mei Hatsume!" Mei swept her arm across the room, "Ain't it a beautiful sight?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," replied Izuku. 'How many inventions did she make?' there were mountains of them. Stretching up to the ceiling. There were so many that there was hardly any room to walk around the makeshift workshop. Mei waded through the pile, digging through in search of something, she tossed a device to the side, it clattered into another pile.
Izuku waded after her, standing behind her awkwardly as she dug, eventually she must have found what she was looking for, and she stood up, "Ah ha! Found the little buggers!" She held a pair of gauntlets in her hands. "Behold! Baby number 1304! The Gauntlets of unfathomable power! I call em Charles and Roxan" She spun around, a massive grin on her face, "Here" she shoved the gauntlets into his chest.
She trudged past him back towards the stairs, he followed after her, clutching the surprisingly heavy gauntlets in one arm and looping the bag of snacks around his other. Izku climbed the stairs after Mei, intently focused on the now very interesting wood grain of the stair tops. 'Not gonna look up. Nope, nope, nope.'
He only dared look up when he was at the top of the stairs, Mei was already bouncing off, heading down the hall to the left. He followed her, eventually arriving in the backyard. There were a few more inventions here too, scattered around the shed. Along with a very large something hidden under a white sheet. He was pulled from his interest by Mei bounding over to a spot in the middle of the yard, "Alright, let's test the babies out."
He handed the bag of snacks to Mei who became suddenly interested in its contents, then he slipped the power gloves onto his hands. They weighed his arms down. Mei munched on a bag of chips as she yelled out "Wha you watn for? Swich em oh!"
Izuku understood what she wanted him to do despite the mouthful of chips. He examined the gauntlets, finding a big red button, finding no other button he pressed it. Both gauntlets hummed to life, he flexed his fingers experimentally, He swung the gauntlets, hearing a hum with every movement. "Uhh, what are they supposed to do?"
Mei skipped over to him, happily munching on chips, she spoke rapidly, "They're supposed to enhance your punches by absorbing kinetic energy and redirecting it into the knuckles and palm emitters on the gloves. The theory is that the more you hit something the greater the charge. The greater the charge the more devastating the strikes." Izuku nodded, not really following as she explained how the gauntlets convert and store the energy.
He was too distracted by her sudden closeness. Not that it was a new thing she suddenly started doing, she'd never seemed to have a good sense of personal space, she'd occasionally get this close to him when they were at school. Always when she was excitedly showing off one of her inventions. No, he was distracted because of her smell.
He'd sometimes overheard his classmates describing a girl's smell as flowery, sweet, or sometimes intoxicating. They equated them to princesses, incapable of simple things such as passing wind. Mei, he noticed, smelled like no princess or flower he knew of. She smelled like burnt oil and sweat. It wasn't a particularly nice smell.
Mei continued rambling, oblivious to Izuku, and he tuned back in when she started explaining something involving 'energy conversion' whatever that meant. She had her trademark manic grin as she spoke quickly, "it can even take in energy from other sources, heat, light, you name it it can do it. Not nuclear though, I tried but it didn't-" Nuclear? How did she even try nuclear power?? He barely noticed that Mei had stopped talking, her brow furrowed as she bit her lip. "It can't be that simple."
She stepped back, rubbing her chin as she paced back and forth, "That would meet all the energy requirements, besides 187 was less effective because it was smaller, upscaling should improve its efficiency. But where would I get the fissionable material?" She then slammed her fist on her palm "I got it!"
Mei began to cackle, "Say, Izuku. You wanna help me build a fusion reactor?" Her manic grin made him wonder if his life was in danger. Mei smacked her forehead, "Dumb question, of course you do." Mei paused, then looked at the power gloves Izuku still had on. "But, before that, we gotta test these babies. Come on, I've got the perfect thing to test them on."
She practically skipped over to the shed and towards the large object covered in a white sheet. "This is my moms old stuff, I'm sure she won't mind if we use it." She pulled the sheet off, revealing a tall four armed robot. "Behold! The underminer!"
It was a somewhat tall robot, standing at around two and a half meters tall, its once white metal surface was pockmarked with rust, he could see what looked like bundles of sticks or fluffy material nestled within joints of the robot where rodents have built their nests. Izuku knew nothing about robots, but he knew that this one has seen better days, and was badly in need of maintenance.
"The underminer?" asked Izuku.
"The underminer" nodded Mei. "This little cutie is a training bot my dad built." Mei put a hand on the tall robot, wiping away some of the dust that had built up. She had a far away look as she looked at it, as if fondly remembering something from a long time ago. After a moment of silence, she grinned, reaching around and flicking a switch, "Let's see if she still works." The robot hummed, the head lifted, the single lens turning blue as the robot activated. Mei took a step back, giving the robot space to activate.
"Activation protocol initiated.
"Running diagnostic.
"Diagnostic complete.
"Minor damage to capacitors detected. Power efficiency decreased to 60%. Recommend replacing power supply.
"Minor damage to joint motors 001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 011, 012, 013, 014, 015, 016, and 017 detected. Mobility decreased by 72%. Recommend replacing joint motors immediately.
"Damage to power distribution. Power distribution efficiency reduced to 45%, recommend replacing cabling when possible.
"Damage to decision module detected, processing speed reduced to 480mhz. Recommend replacing processor and motherboard. Operating system out of date, last update completed 10 years, 127 days, 3 hours, and 19 minutes ago. Recommend updating OS drivers to Windos 147 as soon as practical.
"Overall efficiency reduced to 40%, recommend full maintenance cycle before use for optimal training session." The robot's voice had a glitchy tone to it, occasionally repeating a sound or word as it listed off all the issues it could detect.
Izuku couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since this robot had been used, how long it had been sitting in this shed under the tarp. "That sounds like a lot of issues," commented Izuku.
Mei shrugged, "Eh, I was kinda expecting worse. Wanna give the old girl a test drive? See if we can't knock some of that rust out of her joints?"
Izuku looked between her and the robot and back again, "You sure it's safe?"
Mei shrugged, "Should be. The fists are just boxing gloves, and it's not like the thing can move fast enough to kill ya, come on, stop being such a wuss Midoriya! You'll be fine!"
The Underminer swung its right arms at him, the old boxing gloves dampened the blow enough that he felt the blow but it didn't hurt. He took sumbling steps back, trying to get room between himself and The Underminer. But despite its old age and damaged components The Underminer moved fast. Scary fast. It took a jittery step forward, its left arms swinging down aimed at Izuku only just barely managed to block the blow out of instinct.
"Come on Midoriya! Hit her!" yelled Mei. "Right hook, left hook, uppercut!"
Izuku struck blindly, flailing more than fighting, The Underminer blocked each blow he tried to make, and fortunately it seemed more focused on defending against Izuku's clumsy attacks instead of attacking Izuku. The powergloves that Mei had asked him to test out did at least do something to the robot, his blows made the robots arms shudder with each hit.
"Release the big one now Midoriya! Use the gloves!" ordered Mei.
Izuku remembered how she explained how to power up the glove. By flexing his digits he heard the powerglove hum, then he jabbed at The Underminer. The robot of course was faster than Izuku and blocked the blow. There was a jolt and a *WHABOOM* as the energy contained within the powerglove was released through the knuckles and into The Underminers arm.
And for the first time The Underminer stumbled back, one of its right arms dropping suddenly to its side, sparks flying from the joints. "Whoohoho! That was awesome!" whooped Izuku. He lifted his arms up, jumping up and down. This was actually kind of fun! He finally realized why people liked boxing so much!
The Underminer came forward, surprising Izuku with a left hook, which sent him stumbling to the ground. That must have been some sort of trigger for the robot because it froze, its red eye turned blue. Izuku sat up, grunting as he rubbed his cheek. That stung. Why did people like boxing again?
"Dude, you're pretty shit at fighting" deadpanned Mei.
Izuku shot a glare at her, "Thanks Mei, that's very encouraging."
Mei shrugged, "Eh, doesn't matter anyways. So how were my babies? Did they work?" She kneeled down next to him, examining the powergloves.
"Yeah, they worked," Mei nodded as she pulled the gloves off his hands. She fiddled with them for a moment, checking them for damage. "My wrists kinda hurt though."
Mei frowned at the gloves, humming as she chewed her lip, "The inertial dampeners should have helped avoid that, perhaps they aren't getting enough power to work properly." She popped open a panel on the back of the hand and peered inside, "Ah damn. I'm a moron! Of course! All the power is being directed to the punch!" Mei sighed, "Ah well. I'll fix that later."
She got up, quickly walking back inside her house, leaving Izuku outside with the Underminer. He slowly got to his feet, approaching the tall four armed robot, its metal shell had small scratches and dents in it. He tentatively reached up, pressing his hands against the metal. It was warm under his touch. He felt a small static shock as his quirk activated, and the world around him opened up. He closed his eyes as he took a shaky breath, fighting back vertigo from the momentary double vision.
He felt how run down the Underminer was, the rusty joints, strained wires, the left leg could only move 35 degrees. He could feel all the damage and disrepair that the Underminor had suffered, it's seen better days. But he also felt a flicker of happiness, this machine was built to train, and after so many years of sitting under a tarp without use, it was finally being used once more. But he also felt the bite of disappointment, it was slower than it should be, it couldn't move like it used to. Which made accomplishing its goal that much harder.
He saw through the robot's eye that Mei had returned, she was carrying some sort of wrist device. Mei paused when she saw Izuku and the robot, and Izuku let his hand fall away from the robot. The disappointment and joy evaporated a moment later. He turned around, facing Mei. "So what's it like? Using your quirk I mean."
Izuku looked down at his hand, "When I touch a robot, I sort of feel a connection. I can see what they see and sort of feel what they feel. This robot, er, the Underminer, feels happy to be useful again." He looks back to the Underminer, feeling a sudden fondness for it.
Mei hummed, "You get it then." Izuku glanced back at her. She had a small smile on her face, "You get that machines have feelings too. That they have wants and needs, that they feel sad when they can't do what they were made to do." Mei gave a small laugh, her eyes moving to the ground, "People used to make fun of me for thinking that. Sometimes they still do. Calling me weird for caring about a machine."
Izuku saw her smile dim, her eyes had a faraway look and she seemed smaller. Izuku didn't know what to do, the mood felt off now, Mie's usually chipperness was gone. He hated it. Seeing her this way made him feel off, like he should do something. But what?
He took careful steps towards her, his hands awkwardly fiddling with the hem of his shirt. What should he say? Should he say anything? Probably. It would be the heroic thing to do to try and comfort her in some way. Right? Right. He shifted from foot to foot, his mouth opening to say something, but it caught in his throat.
He hesitated, unsure of what he should even say.
Mei seemed to shake off her melancholy, "It doesn't matter anymore," she grinned, "so long as I get to keep making my babies." She brushed past him, briskly walking towards the Underminer. Her eyes squinting at the damaged arm, he could hear her mutter something about replacing motors and installing dampeners.
Izuku sighed, some hero he was. He couldn't even help Mei when she needed it.
'Just a useless Deku.' He pushed down the vile thought, back into the deepest corner of his mind.
Mei straighted, biting her lower lip as she mumbled, then she shrugged, "eh, thoughts for later. Anyways! Hey, Midoriya, think fast!"
He barely had time to react and catch the circular device Mei tossed to him. On one side it had straps while the other side was smooth. Izuku held it up, examining its surface, looking for any obvious signs of its use. "What is it?"
"Put the strap on your arm," answered Mei, "then flex your arm."
Izuku frowned, but did as she instructed, he put the straps on his left arm, cinching them down, the cool metal of the device pressed against his skin. If he were a betting man, which he normally wasnt, he'd bet this was a shield of some kind. But it seemed kinda small to be a useful one, it was only the size of a dinner plate.
When the device was secure to his arm he flexed it. Nothing happened, "Uh, Mei?"
"No you dummy, like this" she mimed pumping her arm a few times.
Izuku raised an eyebrow at the odd movement but did the best he could to mimic it. The moment his arm stopped, there was a whirring noise followed by a *ssshhhhhkkkk* and the disk rotated. It expanded to several times its size. "Whoah!" he jumped a little in surprise at the sudden change. The shield was nearly a half meter across, and despite its size it was incredibly lightweight.
"There ya go!" Mei patted the Underminer, "Now for a test run."
"Mei?" Izuku looked between her and the Underminer who was now slowly marching forward, one of its arms raised up. Izuku raised the shield instinctually, hiding behind it. He heard the whirring of machinery, then felt something akin to a sledgehammer impact the shield, ramming it into his harm. He slid back, tripping over his feet and fell onto the ground. He groaned as he got to his feet, his arm felt numb, and he expected the shield to have a sizable dent where the Underminer struck it.
But miraculously the shield face wasn't so much as scratched. "Damn, did better than I expected it would," said Mei as she approached. She grabbed the shield, pulling it closer to examine it, "neat."
Izuku rolled his shoulder, he was definitely going to feel that in the morning.