Hello there!! Here is today's chapter.
The next milestone 1800 PS.
Happy reading
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Akira leaned against the gate, checking his watch. Surprisingly, he was dressed in standard training gear.
"Where is she?" he muttered, tapping his foot. "She is normally on time."
Then he heard the footsteps.
Momo Yaoyorozu jogged into view.
She stopped in front of him, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.
"Sorry, I'm late," she gasped, hands on her knees. "Mom was messing with me."
Akira chuckled. "Fair enough. Reika-san can be intense."
As he said that, Momo looked around behind him. "Where is Nia? Usually, she's riding on your shoulder like a parrot."
"She's with Mom today. She took her out to get her weekly grooming."
"She must be really excited, right?" Momo asked, taking a sip from her water bottle.
"Yeah," Akira sighed, rubbing his neck. "She knocked over five glasses since this morning."
They shared a laugh as he then turned towards her.
"You ready?" he asked.
"Born ready," she said.
"Let's go then."
They walked past the gym, past the weights, past the sparring mats.
Soon they reached a pair of heavy steel doors at the far end of the facility. This was the section Honoka had built specifically for "High-Risk" testing. Akira placed his hand on the biometric scanner.
Beep. Chunk.
The door slid open.
Inside was a vast space. The walls were scorched, dented, and repaired a hundred times over. The floor was made of reinforced concrete plates that could be replaced easily.
But Momo wasn't looking at the walls. She was looking at the center of the room.
Akira walked over to a console on the wall and tapped a switch.
Rumble.
The floor in the center of the room split open. A platform rose slowly.
Standing on the platform was a suit.
It wasn't a simple hero costume. It was a war machine.
The suit was an exoskeleton made of polished tungsten-carbide alloy. It stood about seven feet tall. It had heavy, hydraulic limbs, mounted with twin long-range energy cannons. The chest plate was reinforced, glowing with a soft blue light from the internal battery core.
This was entirely created by Momo's quirk.
Her quirk is a dream for every equipment developer, Akira thought, admiring the craftsmanship. Most people need a factory and a supply chain. But with Momo, there was no need for all that.
This was what they had been working on for the past two weeks. Project Valkyrie.
"Finally done with it," Akira started, walking around it, checking the seals. "With special ammo openings and battery ports where you can produce ammunition and power cells mid-fight if you run out. We fixed the overheating issue on the joints, right?"
"Yes," Momo nodded, walking up to the suit and running her hand along the cold metal leg. "I adjusted the molecular lattice to dissipate heat more efficiently, and swapped the copper wiring for a gold-graphene blend I read about. Plus I added the kinetic dampeners you suggested to the knees."
She looked at the suit with pride. They had spent hours every day building this suit. She thought about the calories she had consumed — pizzas, cakes, oils — just to build up the mass for this. She thought about how far she had come from making simple wooden staffs.
"It's beautiful," she whispered.
"It sure is." Akira agreed.
He looked at her with a smile. "Let's put this on. Show me what two weeks' work looks like."
***
Ten minutes later.
VMMMMMMM.
Momo stood inside the exoskeleton, her body encased in the metal shell. She was plugged into it.
The HUD inside the helmet lit up, displaying battery levels, ammo counts, and internal temperature.
SYSTEM ONLINE.BATTERY: 98%LIPID RESERVES: OPTIMAL
She flexed her hand. The massive metal gauntlet mirrored the movement instantly. Whir-clank.
She looked across the room.
Akira stood fifty feet away. He looked small compared to her now.
"You ready?" Akira asked, his voice echoing in the large room.
Momo pressed the comms button. Her voice came out through the external speakers.
"Bring it on."
Akira nodded. He lowered his stance. Blue flames ignited around his legs.
"We start on the third beep."
Momo nodded. She raised her arms, the cannons charging with a high-pitched whine. She locked onto his heat signature using the suit's sensors.
Beep.
She adjusted her footing, bracing the recoil dampeners.
Beep.
She tried to calculate his trajectory.
Beep.
BOOM.
She fired instantly.
Two beams of concentrated concussion energy shot from her hands, tearing through the air.
The beams hit the spot where Akira was standing.
The smoke erupted, but Akira wasn't there.
Whoosh.
Akira slid under the beam as he rushed toward her, a blue streak of motion, closing the fifty-foot gap in a heartbeat.
"Target acquired," Momo whispered. "Too fast."
She didn't panic. She activated the secondary systems.
Panels on her shoulders opened. Micro-missiles launched into the air. They detonated, filling the room with thick, white fog.
Visibility dropped to zero.
Akira didn't slow down. He didn't need to see.
Thermal Sense.
The world turned dark in his mind, lit up by heat. The fog was cool. Momo's suit was a blazing Christmas tree of heat. The battery core in her chest was white-hot.
He cut through the smoke, leaping into the air. He aimed a kick at her helmet.
Momo saw him on her radar. She raised her left arm to block.
CLANG.
The impact shook the entire suit. The kinetic dampeners flared, absorbing the force, but she still slid back a foot.
She grabbed his leg with her mechanical hand.
"Gotcha!"
She slammed him into the ground. Or tried to.
Akira twisted in her grip. He exploded with Phoenix Drive, wrenching his leg free with enough force to dent the metal fingers. He flipped backward, landing on his feet, skidding across the concrete.
"Strong grip," Akira commented, shaking his leg. "Hydraulics are working fine."
"I'm just getting started," Momo replied.
She stomped forward. The floor shook.
She swung a massive metal fist. Akira ducked. The fist smashed into a concrete pillar, pulverizing it.
Akira danced around her. He was testing her; He was evading, forcing her to think as she fought.
The armor is too heavy, Akira noted. Turning speed is slow, as the armor is too thick.
Momo realized what he was doing. He was draining her battery. He was waiting for her to slow down.
I can't outlast him, she thought. I need to end this now.
She stopped moving.
She opened the creation ports on her thighs inside the suit. She focused.
Creation: High-Viscosity Foam.
She aimed her palms at the ground.
She sprayed the floor in a wide arc. The foam expanded instantly, covering the ground in a sticky, quick-drying cement.
Akira's foot stuck.
He looked down. "Glue? Really?"
"It works!"
Momo charged. She didn't punch. She opened her chest plate, revealing a bank of flash-bang launchers.
"Lights out!"
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Three grenades went off in his face.
Akira flinched, shielding his eyes.
Momo closed the distance. She raised both fists for a hammer blow.
"Sorry, Akira!"
She brought them down.
WOOSH.
Fire exploded, but this time it was red.
The fire burned through the glue instantly. Akira spun, using the momentum of the explosion.
He didn't dodge away. He dodged up.
He ran up the front of her suit. He stepped on her knee, then her shoulder plate.
Momo tried to grab him, but he was too close. Her arms couldn't reach inward fast enough.
He vaulted over her head and snapped his figure.
Five large blades made of solidified blue fire materialized in the air around her.
"Scatter," he commanded.
The blades launched.
Momo reacted. She slammed her hands together opening a gap in the armor, creating a structure instantly.
"Shield!"
A thick wall of tungsten erupted from her palms.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
The blades slammed into the wall, embedding themselves deep in the metal. The impact pushed her back, her heels digging grooves into the floor.
She lowered the shield, panting.
"Is that all you got?" she challenged, scanning for him.
But Akira was gone.
She scanned the room. The HUD showed nothing. No heat signature. No movement.
"Where..." she muttered, turning in a circle.
She looked up. Nothing.
She looked left. Nothing.
"Right behind you."
The voice was a whisper, right in her ear.
Momo froze.
She felt the cold pressure of a blade against the unarmored section of her neck—the small gap between the helmet and the chest piece.
She stopped breathing.
Akira was standing on a small blue flame platform floating in the air behind her. He had bypassed her sensors by moving in her blind spot, matching her rotation speed perfectly.
His blade — a construct of blue fire — was resting gently against her skin.
"Checkmate."
He dissolved the constructs and landed on the floor.
Momo powered down the suit. The lights on the chest faded. The helmet retracted with a hiss, revealing her flushed, sweaty face. Her hair was a mess. She was panting, but she was smiling.
"I almost had you," she said, climbing out of the suit. "With the glue."
"Almost," Akira agreed. He walked over and handed her a towel. "Your reaction time was better. And the smoke screen combined with the flash-bangs? That was smart. Dirty, but smart."
Momo wiped her face. "You told me to fight dirty. 'Honor gets you killed,' right?"
"Right," Akira nodded. "But you rely too much on the HUD. When I went into your blind spot, you panicked. You stopped looking with your eyes and started looking at the screen. Sensors can be fooled."
Momo stepped out of the suit fully, her legs wobbling slightly. Creating that much tungsten had burned a lot of calories.
"Noted," she said, leaning against the platform. "Next time, I'll add proximity sensors. And rear-view cameras."
"Next time," Akira promised.
He walked over to the bench and grabbed two water bottles. He tossed one to her.
She caught it. One-handed. Without looking.
Akira smirked. "Show-off."
"I learned from the best," she smiled, cracking the bottle open.
They sat there for a moment, drinking water, looking at the massive suit standing in the center of the gym.
"U.A. starts soon," Akira said, breaking the silence. "The real deal. No more simulations."
Momo looked at her hands. They were shaking slightly, but not from fear. From adrenaline.
"I'm nervous," she admitted. "There are going to be so many strong people there."
"You're strong too," Akira said, gesturing to the suit. "Just focus on yourself."
Momo smiled weakly. "Easy for you to say. You broke the record."
"Records are just numbers," Akira dismissed.
He looked at Momo.
"You have control, along with a crazy good brain. And now," he pointed to the suit, "you have firepower."
"You're ready, Iron Maiden."
Momo drank the water, looking at the suit.
"Yeah," she said, a smile spreading across her face. "I think I am."
"Good," Akira said, standing up. "Now, let's go get food. I think Mom ordered pizza for us in advance, but there is only one pepperoni."
As he said that, both of them looked at each other for a while.
"Run," Both of them said at the same time, and sprinted out.
--<<>>--
So yeah, a little of what was happening through out the 1 month break. Some leveling up for Momo, and some bonding.
Let me know your thoughts.
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