Heroes of the High Seas Prologue (Patreon)

Merry Christmas/Happy third night of Hanukkah!

Yes folks, it's part one.  I split this up into a Prologue and Chapter 1.  You will find the prologue below.  Chapter one is being looked over by Tomon and Primordial Vortex, and will be posted New Year's Eve.  

I hope you all enjoy this, but remember, unless this story receives a LOT of support, a one (2 LOL) shot it will remain for a long while. I have too many other current fics already going to want to take up another at this time.

This has been edited by Primordial Vortex and Tomon. Please thank them for their efforts, and go and see Primordial Vortex’s stories. They’re great.

Prologue: Meetings, Greetings and Wake Up Calls

The day after the USJ incident, All Might sat inside the principal’s office in his skinny, deflated, normal form, scowling at the medical printout in front of him. “Thirty-four minutes? That’s not even enough time to teach one class!”

“Perhaps this will teach you to not be so reckless with your time in the future?” Said Principal Nezu, with one raised eyebrow. “And perhaps to not fight in so… vainglorious manner. Honestly, going blow for blow with a mindless beast that had two Quirks that made it a perfect match for you. That was rather… foolish, wouldn’t you say? Especially since your time in the Muscle form was already spent for that day.”

Toshinori flinched but nodded his head after a moment. “Understood. I’ll try, *Hack*, *HACK*.” he coughed, blood appearing on his hand, even as he tried desperately to interrupt another lengthy lecture from the mouse-bear, raccoon, whatever. “I’ll try to cut down my time in my muscle form, conserve it for more important things. But it is hard to change the habits of a lifetime. And the Symbol of Peace still needs to be seen, doesn’t he?”

“Better, that he is seen less, than people knowing that his power is fading,” Principal Nezu replied tartly. “If there is someone behind this latest attack, some new mastermind… they might well have learned that already.”

All Might hang hung his head, because Principal Nezu was right. His time in the muscle form was just so short now. And yesterday, it would not have been just Toshinori who would have paid the ultimate price. That price would have been paid by the kids who had been caught up in the incident. Yet by the time he had arrived, it had been the students who had stepped up to the task, acting as true heroes in capturing the majority of the villains who had attacked the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. They may not have been able to deal with the two main Villains on their own, but they had helped Toshinori do so, until the rest of the staff could arrive.

Despite having begun to think about his own failings, All Might couldn’t help feeling a glow of pride at how well his chosen successor had done before frowning once more as he remembered how battered Izuku had been by his own power. Yes, he is growing fast, very fast given where he began, but given much he’s hurting himself every time he has to use my power, he is not growing as fast as I am fading. No, I have to stay strong. I must continue to stand as the Symbol of Peace. Midoriya-shounen is not ready yet.

He turned back to the principal. “The classes were canceled for this Saturday and for Monday and Tuesday, correct? In order to deal with the fallout and revamp the school’s security?”

“Indeed. Unfortunately, we’ve never had to clamp down on the student’s use of mass media before, so the story got out almost as soon as it ended. We will have to talk to their family and friends about keeping some information to themselves, while also releasing what information we want to the general public in a controlled manner.” Principal Nezu said with a sigh. “After all, we don’t want everyone to know about the Nomu and him having two Quirks, that would just be foolish. At the same time yes, we will be upgrading our security. I’ve already begun to do that very thing.”

“In that case, is there any reason why I couldn’t take Midoriya-shounen with me to see an old friend?”

Principal Nezu looked at him with those beady yet far too intelligent eyes of his, then nodded, sipping at his coffee. “I have no problem with that. Midoriya-kun’s mother might of course, and you’ll have to get her permission yourself. But before that, I think you have a phone call to make, don’t you?”

All Might sighed but nodded and turned away. ‘Time to bite the tank round, I suppose.

He pulled out his phone and dialed a number, which, though he’d had for years hadn’t actually used ever since coming back to Japan. Yet despite that, the call was picked up before the second ring had time to end. “Hello? Who is this?” said the voice on the other line, in English with a heavy American accent. “I gotta tell you if this is anyone but the person who I gave this number to I can and will make your life hell in a myriad of evil and thoroughly untraceable ways, starting with a sub-audible command to defecate in public the next time you have to go.”

“…hey David.” said All Might with a smile. “No need to let out your evil side. This is All Might.”

“Well it’s about damn time Toshi!” David shot back in a loud voice, shaking his head while in the background there was a loud click of some switch being flipped. “Dammit Toshi, I know all about your freaking pride, but there has to be a limit! Were you just going to go until you killed yourself, or did you think I wouldn’t notice how your time in the spotlight has faded every month for the last two years? And you only reach out to me now? Let me guess, something recently rubbed your nose into the fact you can’t be the solo superhero any longer, am I right?”

Despite his astringent tone, the voice on the other end of the line belonged to one of Toshi’s oldest friends, Dr. David Shield. He was an American, born in New York but educated in California, where they had met. He was a genius and that was not hyperbole. He had multiple PhD’s and had revolutionized several different areas of study based around Quirks. He had also created the synthetic fibers that made up Toshi’s uniform, which allowed him to use his full power without worrying about whether or not his clothing would be able to survive it. This was not exactly a small consideration, considering as a hero, All Might was always in the spotlight, and had to be PG-rated at all times.

That was actually how they’d become friends. He had pulled David out of a fire started by a criminal who had been attempting to steal some robotic technology from the University they were both studying at. Toshi’s clothing had simply disintegrated afterward and David had offered to help him discover fibers and synthetics that could handle his power.

David was also one of the very few people in the entire world who knew the secret of Toshi’s power: One For All. The Quirk that could be transferred from one individual to another, taking that person’s Quirk and adding its power to the reserves from previous users. That was neither here nor there at the moment though, and after a few minutes of letting David yell at him, All Might cut in, saying firmly “You’re right Dave.”

That shut the other man up, and Toshi went on more slowly. “You’re right. I should have contacted you once we had All for One in custody. I should’ve reached out to you the moment I knew that my powers were fading. But, I, I didn't… my pride, I… asking for help is…”

David interrupted him, sighing very loudly over the phone. “You’ve always been a bit of a meathead.” David said with a laugh. “I suppose I shouldn’t have taken it personally that you forgot about me, when you are always so dismissive about support equipment other than your uniforms. Still,” he said seriously “I’ve made a lot of breakthroughs in Quirk research and Quirk training. So, when can I expect you on I-Island?”

“As soon as I can get a plane tickets,” All Might said with a grin, happy their argument had ended so well.

“We can do better than that,” David said with a laugh. “I will send one of our personal jets to the nearest airport to UA Academy. It should be there in a few hours.”

All Might coughed, again hacking blood. “That’s too fast! I need to bring along someone else!”

“Someone else?” David asked, confusion evident in his voice.

“You’ll meet him when we get there, but if you’re going to send that plane, I first need to go talk with his mother about letting him come with me.” Toshi then forced a laugh. “Your chewing me out might serve as a good warmup for that conversation.

OOOOOOO

Inko sighed faintly as she finished cleaning up after lunch. Today had been a trying day, and she wondered if her nerves would ever recover. First had been the news about UA Academy being attacked, and that there were reported injuries among students. Inko had just known instantly that one of those injured would turn out to be her son. Despite coming into his power so late, there was nothing wrong with her son’s heart. It was something that she was somewhat proud of, but not truly happy about, considering how it was likely to get him hurt or, or even killed if he wasn’t careful, which was painful to think about in the extreme. But she knew he would be in the thick of the fighting regardless of the danger to his own welfare.

Then the news had come out that most of the injured were actually villains, and no one among the student body or even the teachers had taken more than light injuries. But that didn’t mean that her worries it had ended, because it’d taken Izuku’s several hours after the first official press release to be sent home, and when he had, he had fallen asleep the moment the door had opened. She actually had to drag him to bed and that had not been an easy task for the short woman, with his new, more developed physique. This had happened once before, right after Izuku had gone to take the UA entrance exam.  Inko knew – thanks to her son’s raving about it at the time – that it was a side effect of Recovery Girl’s Quirk.

She was dying to know how her son had been injured and she was becoming more anxious about this whole hero thing with every passing day. But she knew she couldn’t talk her son out of it. Izuku-chan wanted to be a hero since before he could walk, almost literally she thought, with a faint, put-upon sigh. He’s never wanted to be anything else. Nor has he let anything – not even being Quirkless stop that dream. I just wish I had longer to get used to the idea that he could truly become a Hero. But I have to persevere, for his sake even if not for my own. That’s my cross to bear as his mother, I suppose.

She looked up from wiping the table when the doorbell rang. “Now, who could that be?”

Moving to the door, she opened it to find All Might standing there his bright grin blinding her. “Hahaha, good afternoon Ms. Midoriya! Might I speak to you and your son, Miss?”

Eyes wide, Inko stumbled back her hands going to her mouth as she tried to not faint. She turned and shouted out, “Izuku, Mighty, all… he… hero… here!” she stammered, unable to get her words to come out in the proper order such was her shock.

From his bedroom, came the reply of, “Mom? What’s wrong?” A moment later, her son poked his head out of the door. His eyes widened at the sight of All Might, and he stammered, “A-a-All Might!?”

“I see that stuttering runs in the family.” All Might said in as low a voice as his Muscle Form could manage. “But might I come in before I draw a crowd? We’ve been lucky so far thanks to it being the middle of the day and this being a housing area, but there’s no need to push our luck, yes?”

Quickly, Inko ushered him inside and closed the door behind him, still staring in dumbstruck amazement. “P-p-please come in!”  The woman stammered, “T-tim, er, I mean tea, yes, I’ll get some tea!” With that she turned and scuttled into the kitchen, where clanging and banging was soon heard.

Sweat dropping, All Might looked down at Izuku, who had raced up to him, looking up at him with wide eyes.  ”Your mother is exactly as I pictured her in many ways.” he said, shaking his head. “But how are you doing after the USJ incident?”

“O, oh, I’m all healed All Might.” Izuku said hurriedly. “W-whatever you need, I’m good.”

“That’s good to know, but let’s go talk to your mother first.”

Inko was actually trembling as she tried to pour tea into a cup that was already overflowing staring at All Might. With another even larger sweatdrop growing on his face, Toshi gently took the pot from her and poured himself some tea into another cup. “No need to be so startled. After all, isn’t it normal for teachers to come over to speak to the parents of an aspiring student?”

“Is, is this about school? Or the USJ incident?” Inko asked, finally getting her mental processes in order.

“A bit of both,” All Might admitted.  “I would like to formally apologize to you and to your son for what happened at the USJ Center. UA Academy usually prides itself on its security, yet that security was broken during the USJ incident. We fear that a Teleportation Quirk has fallen into the wrong hands.” he confided, telling the mother information that would be released to the public that afternoon according to Nezu’s planned press release schedule. “That was how the criminals got in, but none of the criminals we captured have a teleportation Quirk.”

Izuku looked at All Might, then back to his mother, silently asking if he could speak about the incident in front of her, but a slight headshake from All Might silenced that. Principal Nezu would be continually giving out press statements, but he would be the one to make the decision on what to share and what not to. Best the students remain quiet as best they could after the initial flurry of messages that had made any attempt to cover up the incident entirely impossible. “But that was only a peripheral reason for my coming here.  Any of the other teachers could’ve handled that. However, one thing became clear in this incident, and that is your son has issues with controlling his Quirk’s power.”

As Izuku flinched, All Might laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently while still looking at Inko. “That is not unusual of course, and not in any way his fault. When a Quirk comes to someone so late in life, their bodies have already begun to grow in a different way than what they would require to deal with it. I’ve known several Mutation Type Quirks to nearly drive their users insane as they attempt to get used to their new powers after half a lifetime or more of being Quirkless.”

The word Quirkless made Izuku flinched even with Toshi’s reassuring hand on his shoulder, and Inko caught it, sighing faintly and nodding her head. “I can understand that, but what…”

“Forgive me I did ramble a bit.” All Might said with a laugh, patting Izuku’s shoulder before releasing it. “You see, I have an old friend named David Shield.”

“D-David Shield, of course I know who he is!” Izuku shouted the instant the name left All Might’s mouth. “He’s the one who designed almost all of your costumes! All but the first one you were seen using in the United States before you made your official debut as a hero! The synthetic fibers are amazing and are used by hundreds of heroes worldwide. On top of, Dr. David Shield has seventeen PhD’s, a world record! He is also a pioneer in Quirk Resear-”

“Yes yes.” All Might said interrupting Izuku’s patented Hero Nerd Moment™, or HNM™. “He also specializes in support equipment research. I believe that – with the proper support equipment – we may be able to help your son bridge the gap between the strength of Midoriya-shounen’s willpower, and his body.”

Inko blushed – pride and concern for her son warring within her – while Izuku simply beamed, his eyes sparkling as he took his mentor’s words at face value. That wouldn’t last for long, since All Might was going to be telling him the real reason they would be heading to I-Island soon. ‘But then again, perhaps we really should look into a support item for the boy. One that won’t become a crutch of course, but there’s no reason we can’t find something that could help him for now.

Eventually, Inko nodded her head. “I-I accept. I think this is a good idea. No, a great idea! When do you leave?”

“Ahaha…” All Might sweatdropped. “Yes well, would you believe now?”

Much shouting and panic later, Izuku and All Might were out of the house, with Toshi carrying them through the air, until they arrived at the nearest airport, where they were quickly ushered onto a small plane. “Your mother, she’s quite special, isn’t she?”

“Hai!” Izuku said with a smile.

Within moments, the plane was in the air and All Might sagged in relief, letting his Muscle Form fade as he leaned back in his chair. He looked over at Izuku, and said hesitantly. “Midoriya-shounen, I wasn’t entirely honest with you and your mother earlier. You see, this trip isn’t for… well it isn’t just for you. After the USJ incident, my time in my Muscle Form has shrunk tremendously. I was pushing it just to get to you and back here in time, hence the steam.” he said pointing around them where the steam still floated.

Izuku winced and hung his head, but Toshi exclaimed “Stop that! Yes, my time in my muscle form is shorter ever since I handed my power over to you, but I knew it would be! That is part of having chosen my successor! There was no way out of that, my boy. We just have to deal with it. You’re in no way responsible for me using up my power before the USJ, nor are you responsible for the attack and the injuries I took during it. And before you say you could’ve done better, you are but a zygote! We do not expect you zygotes to go into battle before you are fully grown! It was our duty as heroes to both teach you and keep you all safe as you learn. We didn’t.”

That seemed to do it for Izuku, and he nodded, though he still looked thoughtful. What he was thinking of, Toshi didn’t know. He sighed, pushing himself out of his chair. “I’m going to go change out of my costume for a while. We’ve got a long flight even at the speeds these small planes go, and I intend to have a nap. You can read or whatever kid.”

Izuku was still staring out the window as Toshi came back. He reclaimed his chair and leaned back, propping his feet up, changing the configuration of the seat to that of a bed.

However, one of Izuku’s main traits was that his mind just didn’t stop. Yes, he too probably should have been getting some sleep at this point, considering that he hadn’t gotten much the night before. His sleep had been plagued by nightmares of how wrong the USJ incident could’ve gone, culminating with All Might dying against the creature that had apparently been created just to match him. Yet to say that Izuku still had a lot of issues with using One For All – along with a multitude of personal demons – was an understatement. And now they came back to him, pushing his mind this way and that.

“Um, ano, All Might.” he asked hesitantly.

Toshi shifted in his chair, pulling a sleeping mask off his eyes to almost glare at his young protégé. “What?” he asked grumpily.

“How do I get stronger?”

All Might smiled at that. “You get stronger by training.” he said simply. “By pushing yourself. By always striving to be better tomorrow than you were today. As to using your power…” he frowned, then, thinking hard. “Perhaps you need to think about somehow limiting how much power you use in each body part. You can only use what, two percent three at the moment? Perhaps if you somehow distribute that through your body, it could allow you to use it better. Perhaps you should think of clenching your butt cheeks only a little bit, then followed by thinking of another body part, clenching again, and then repeating the process?”

Now it was Izuku’s turn to sweatdrop, shaking his head. “I’m s-sorry All Might, but that visualization isn’t helping.”

“Hmm, I’m sorry, young one.” Toshi muttered. “When I first received One For All, it just came all so naturally to me. And remember, I had built up my body tremendously even before then. You hadn’t. We still need to work on that.”

Izuku flinched at that blunt statement, but it was true. Before the training Toshinori had put him through, Izuku really hadn’t trained his body all that much, despite his desire to be a hero. Looking back on it, Izuku knew he had been foolish in the extreme. Perhaps even – dare to say – lazy. Which was not doing anything for his self-esteem whenever he thought about it. Still, Toshinori had given him an idea, and he began to mumble furiously, trying to work through how to visualize in his mind what he wanted to do, and how to do it.

Several hours later, All Might was roused as the intercom intoned that they were coming in for a landing on I-Island.

Toshi groaned, stretching his shoulders and back. The sleep had done wonders for his weary body, but now, now it was time to face his adoring public once more. “Well, time to get back on the clock, shounen.”

The two of them were able to get off the plane and out of the airport before All Might was mobbed as Izuku was wondering aloud, “Ano, where do we go from here?” He barely had the words out of his mouth before a crowd surged towards them from all direction.

Since the island wasn’t open yet to the public fully, the crowd was mostly made of local workers, scientists, and other locals such as students who lived on the island or restaurateurs, all of them shouting for All Might. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it would’ve been if I-Island was fully open for the island’s Expo. But dozens, then hundreds of people were still enough to mob All Might and nearly stamp Izuku into the ground in their haste to get close to the number one Hero.

It took them fourteen minutes to get free of the crowds, with Toshi looking a little out of sorts with several dozen lipstick marks on his face and shoulders. “Is it like that all the time?” Izuku asked, looking at his mentor with some new emotion growing in him as he looked at the kiss marks. ‘Is that jealousy? Stop that! just because you haven’t even held hands with a girl, is no reason to be jealous of All Might of all people!’

“Actually, that was quite a bit smaller than most of the crowds I gather in public when not actively fighting villains.” the man said with a shrug. “I think we just timed our arrival poorly. Two more flights of workers and students were arriving as we were.”

Izuku nodded having seen that himself. In fact, he thought he’d seen one of his classmates, but the view had been so short he couldn’t be sure. Might even have been his imagination.

Before Izuku could wonder more about that, a voice hailed them from one side, a young, female voice shouting, “Uncle Might! Uncle Might!”

Toshinori turned, and shouted “Oh, Melissa!” as a young woman on some kind of high-tech pogo stick bounced into view. And she really was bouncing, crossing several dozen yards at a time, four yards or more into the air, and then twice that forward with each bound of the pogo stick. Then she was bouncing once more, the small pogo stick thing somehow transforming into a kind of book that latched onto a belt as she was plucked out of the air by All Might, who twirled her around in his arms, shouting, “Look at you! You’ve grown so much, but you’re still so light!”

“Hah, I’d have to weigh as much as a tanker to be anything but light to you, Uncle!” The girl replied with a laugh, as Izuku stared dumbly.

She was taller than Izuku by about an inch or so and she looked older too, although most definitely still in high school. ‘Perhaps she’s in her senior year?’ This was an educated guess since she was dressed like a student in a uniform of some kind with khaki pants and long socks along with a blouse combination in plaid. She was also, Izuku reflected, pretty. Very, very pretty. For a second he even worried about having very Mineta-like thoughts, before he shook himself.

She had long, blonde hair falling to just past her shoulders done in a simple style, which bounced as she was flung around, blue eyes, behind a small pair of glasses. And Izuku couldn’t stop himself from noticing her trim waist, that emphasized the fact that she was in excellent shape – and large bust. If he had been Mineta his eyes definitely would have been glued to them, but as it was, Izuku resolutely kept his eyes on her face rather than the rest of her.

Her manner was also extremely bouncy while she talked excitedly to All Might. Her attitude actually reminded Izuku of one of his classmates when she was at her most happy and outgoing.

Izuku was an old hand at analyzing people’s Quirks, which had crossed over into analyzing them for their personalities. Momo Yaoyorozu had stood out from the first thanks to her truly incredible Quirk, but then had stood out even more due to her attitude. It was a strange mix of extremely rich young girl, and an outgoing personality. He had seen her at her bubbly best when she was helping several of the other girls study for one of their exams. That wasn’t exactly a moment chosen to bring out the best in a person, but Yaoyorozu-san had seemed to enjoy it.

After being introduced as Melissa Shield, the girl’s eyes widened in delight as All Might introduced Izuku. “Wow, you’re Uncle Might’s student! That must be amazing! You must be too, if you’re going to UA, Izuku!”

Izuku blinked and stammered, unused to having someone he didn’t know use his first name without any honorifics, and especially not used to being looked at like that by a pretty girl. “I, um, well I, that is, um, I um, I try.” he squeaked.

“Being a hero trainee makes you incredible.” Melissa said firmly. “Wanting to take up that mantle, wanting to put your own life on the line for others, that’s not something everyone can do. Using the power you’ve been given is one thing. Using it for the right reason, is entirely different one.”

Izuku blinked at that, then smiled back at her, meeting her eyes this time. “I-I, um, I never thought of it like that.”

Melissa smiled back before she turned to All Might, smiling internally at how shy the younger boy seemed, despite what she had no doubt was an amazing Quirk. “Daddy sent me to get you. Unless you want a tour of the island before we head to him?”

All Might smiled, but mindful of his limited time in Muscle Form said easily. “I think my young friend here would like one after we see David. However, I would like to see my old friend first.”

“Of course.” Melissa said with another light, bell-like laugh, pulling out her pogo stick and stepping away from the two men. It quickly reformed into its original configuration, and she hopped up onto it. A second later, a small jet propelled something in the bottom of the main body went off, and she was bouncing away laughing. “Follow me!”

Behind her, the two men looked at one another, then grinned as one and set off after her.

The center of I-Island’s growing society was a giant tower set into the center of the island, the main hub of life on the island. It held nearly all of the laboratories bar a few which were testing dangerous substances or weapons for various Heroes, the government complex, such as it was, the security center for the island and all of the sensors and radars and so forth. It didn’t include the dormitories for the schools, which according to Melissa were set along the edge of the artificial island opposite the airport, where a beach had been created.

When they found him, David was in one of the computer labs, looking from one computer screen to another with a second, overweight man beside him looking at a third computer. Each computer was showing a different list, and the men were comparing them, while in one corner a larger computer seemed to be rumbling away at something connected to the three lists.

Dr. David Shield turned out to be a mild looking middle-aged man with blond hair like his daughter and a mild-seeming expression, complete with a three day stubble around an otherwise neat goatee and glasses much like his daughter’s. The way the father and daughter pair smiled at one another told Izuku that the two were close after which David and All Might greeted one another with a fist bump and a laugh.

By that point, Izuku’s self-control failed him, and he gushed, “Oh my God, you’re professor David Shield! You won the Nobel Peace Prize, and designed all of All Might’s uniforms, creating entirely new fibers and materials to handle not only his Quirk but those of other Heroes who had trouble keeping their normal clothing intact! I’m such a fan of your work!”

He stopped only when All Might lightly tapped him on the back of the head, sending him stumbling forward. “Enough of that! Good grief, what am I going to do with you?”

Izuku chuckled sheepishly, looking away as he rubbed his head, but that didn’t stop him from holding out his notebook. “Can I please have your autograph?”

After a moment Dr. David took it, laughing quietly as he looked over at his best friend. “Huh. While I have fans obviously among the scientific community, I think this is only the second time that anyone has actually asked me for an autograph. And it’s certainly the first with you standing right beside me.” he teased his huge friend. “Or did he already get your autograph?”

“Midoriya-shounen got my autograph within a few minutes of meeting me,” All Might said dryly, “he wasn’t even my student then.”

“Oooh.” David said slowly while his eyes narrowed at that, one eyebrow rising behind his glasses even as he finished writing his name down. He paused however reading some of the notes on the page he’d used, a page of notes on a Pro Hero named Mt Lady who he knew used some of his patented stretching fibers. The other eyebrow joined the first as he smiled at the detail there. “This is interesting! Remind me to talk to you before you leave the island, Izuku. Some of the observations here are extremely good, stuff that a trained Quirk trainer or even Quirk specialist would only notice after years of training.”

He held out the notebook, waving away Izuku's stammered thanks and attempts to get out of being praised. He turned to All Might with a serious expression, glancing briefly at his assistant before he did so. “Connor, why don’t you leave us for a bit? I think we’re done for the day here. The two of you too, Melissa. You can show Izuku around, All Might and I want to spend some time together before we can get down to business with Izuku. After all, it has been a few years since we last saw one another in person.”

“Of course Dad.” Melissa smiled and nodded, gesturing towards the door.

Outside, the two young people stood awkwardly for a moment as Izuku looked away from the pretty girl next to him. Had he mentioned she was pretty? Being so close to a girl was not doing anything good for Izuku’s blood pressure. This is almost as bad as when Uraraka-san ignores my personal space! He wailed internally.

Luckily, Melissa wasn’t feeling as awkward. “So, do you want to see the island?”

Grabbing onto that idea like a lifeline, Izuku nodded his head rapidly. “I-it looked amazing! Well, what little we’ve seen already anyway. Um, is, is there anything from the Expo open to the public yet?”

“It is.” Melissa said with a laugh. “I-Island is definitely amazing. The first artificial island built entirely by a single company instead of a country and everything here is devoted to science, research and education… And fun. Lots of fun for the Expo. We’re not ready just yet, but there are a few exhibits already finished we can see. There’s one I think you’ll especially get a kick out of.”

The Expo was the biggest event this year in the world, at least according to Izuku and his rather specific priorities. I-Island would become the center for support, Quirk study and frankly also the business side of the hero scene in the world. Practically every company that worked with heroes was going to be represented there, along with David Shield’s own companies, yes, that was plural there.

“We’re supposed to have the Expo a week after UA’s Sports Festival, so that international dignitaries can go from one event to the other, and we can build on so many heroes already being in Japan for that month.” Melissa explained as they walked away from the tower down the island’s main street. “Are you going to be involved in that?”

“T-the Sports Festival! Oh, no, I-I don’t, that is, I couldn’t… well, maybe?” Izuku stammered, floored by the suggestion that he was good enough to be in the Sports Festival. Yet also realizing that as the holder of One For All, he probably should be. He was the successor to All Might after all. But am I really worthy of that?

His face faltered for a moment, and Melissa caught it as they reached the first open exhibit, then watched as the look faded away before she could call him out on it. This one had flight technology based off a few flight type Quirks, built on something her father had given over to a few other scientists. It contained small thruster technology that mimicked the movements of wings yet had all the power of tiny jet engines. The G-forces were way too much for most to handle at this point, but a suit to handle that too was in the wings, so to speak. Even so, the flight suit was amazing as it was.

But the next one was one of her favorites: an underwater suit that would automatically adjust to the wearers own Aquatic-type Quirk. It came complete with different type of detection equipment, breathing equipment if that was needed, and everything else to make someone with a limited aquatic-based Quirk work as well underwater as someone with an extremely powerful one, like Gang Orca or Selkie.

Melissa had helped design it, and watched as Izuku properly geeked out on it, giggling at his manner. Then as she told him about her part in its development, Izuku turned to her, shouting out his praise little louder than she was actually comfortable with. “Wow, you must be really smart! How long must that have taken you? Where did you get the inspiration for the color dampening scheme, did you take the idea of infrared from a Hero or from some other source? Did you try the suit on yourself at any point? How did it feel?”

On it went for five minutes of nonstop questions as Melissa tried to reply. There was nothing about her being the daughter of David Shield, in there, nothing about it being expected that she would be that good, or that smart and Melissa found herself smiling even brighter. There wasn’t even anything about how she had to have an amazing computing Quirk or anything like that.

However, when she turned the conversation back onto Izuku himself, she noticed once again that he was… well… shy. A wallflower, a complete and utter wallflower, who had little to no confidence in himself and wanted to fade into the background. ‘It is wallflower right? Or is that term only used to describe girls like that?’ Melissa thought to herself, wondering about that for a brief moment, before turning back to the true conundrum in front of her.

“Can I ask a question?” she asked hesitantly as Izuku stopped to breathe. “You came here with All Might, was there some reason behind that? Just, I doubt that it is normal for a teacher to go on a one-on-one trip with a student.”

Izuku flinched, and she wondered what she’d said, as he looked away, kicking at the ground underneath him. “I-I, well, I don’t, that is…” he was trying to come up with an excuse for being with All Might that didn’t link to their connection through his Quirk and didn’t sound as… pathetic as the reason that All Might have given his mother. ‘It was all well and good for All Might to say that kind of thing in front of Mom, but for me to say it in front of a pretty girl?  I might not have much, but I have some male pride!’

But finally, as Melissa kept on looking at him waiting for him to speak, he had to bite the bullet. “Um well, I, my Quirk is a strengthening Quirk like All Might’s, and we sort of have kind of gotten to know one another because of that, but…”

“What’s wrong?” Melissa asked softly, pulling them to a stop and moving the two of them over to the side of the exhibit. Just because they weren’t open for the public didn’t actually mean that they weren’t busy. There were dozens of heroes and support personnel here already, and the few exhibits which were open were rather crowded because of that. But this should give them a measure of privacy for something that looked as if it was bothering Izuku.

With Melissa looking at him so compassionately, Izuku began to stammer out his story. “I, w, well for most of my that is…”

“Calm down.” Melissa said, smiling at the younger man. This did nothing to help him calm down, but she didn’t realize that...

Eventually, he finally began to speak, looking away. “I, for most of my life, I thought I was Quirkless, but it, it came out about a year before I started at UA,” he began, mixing the truth with the cover story that he and All Might have been forced to come up with before he tried out for UA. “I… my body can’t handle my Quirk. Every time I use it, I hurt myself. I have… there’s this friend of mine, he has such amazing Quirk, and well he had to work with it his entire life to get his body to where he can handle it. My Quirk it… it breaks me.” he said somewhat lamely.

But now that he had started it came out in a rush. “E-every time I use it I hurt myself, every t-time I use it I have to go to the infirmary.  When I tried out for UA, I broke my arm in numerous places, and my legs. When I fought my friend, in, in this match between two-man teams, I had to break my fingers to fight him on an even footing, and I could only do that barely. And then in the USJ incident... Well I don’t know what all has been let out yet, b-but a lot of us could’ve been hurt in that. A lot. And, I don’t know how much I was worth in that fight. I have this tremendous power, this tremendous responsibility, and I don’t know if I’m worthy of it, or, or if I’m using it right or anything! I wanted to be a hero for so long, for my entire life, to finally have this power with me is great, but I’m just not certain if I can live up to it!”

As Izuku began to slump into a depressed mumble Melissa frowned, taking her glasses off and working the rim of them through her fingers, before replacing them on her nose as she looked at the younger man. “To my mind, the idea of you blaming yourself for not already being a hero during this USJ incident is stupid.” she said bluntly, and to her relief that got through the younger man’s fugue, breaking him out of his stammering. She reached over and flicked his nose, like she remembered her own father doing to her when she was being silly. ‘Although, I don’t think my face was as cute as that’ she thought to herself with a giggle as Izuku’s eyes crossed as he tried to look at it her finger, a childish pout on his face.

Her smile widened in response, but she went on more seriously. “So we can set that incident aside. You are a Hero trainee. You’ve wanted to be one your whole life, and I going to take it as a given that you did your best. And I’m certain Uncle Might already told you something of the sort.” She narrowed her eyes at him, and he nodded rapidly, although she did not allow that movement to dislodge her finger on his nose. That just added to the amusement factor, and he pouted even harder at her.

With some reluctance she removed the offending digit before continuing. “However, the rest of what you said bothers me a bit. Tell me, do you use any support items? I know that the UA offers support classes, surely they are already working with you the moment you start going there. Don’t they?”

“W-well no, not really, we don’t even talk socially to the other classes, neither support nor business. The three schools are all separate, almost. None of the students have support gear unless they already have signed agreements with them, or can afford the prices support companies ask for one-off jobs, although I understand that changes in the future. I couldn’t obviously, I mean well I only have a mom, my father left for various reasons and she was the one who made my suit…”

Izuku’s voice trailed off as Melissa’s half amused look had faded into a look of true anger. “M-Melissa-san?” he quavered.

For a moment the older girl stood stock still, breathing in deeply as she counted to ten. Then she said, “As… cute as it is that you are wearing a suit designed by your mother Izuku, allowing you to get away with that is by far and away the most idiotic thing I have ever heard!” She exploded, and Izuku was slightly worried that steam was going to erupt from her ears as she stamped one foot, “I want to be clear here. You don’t have support items, and you don’t even talk to the support class students?”

When he nodded hesitantly, Melissa seemed to lose it. “GRAAH!” She threw up her hands and began to stomp around, drawing some attention to the two of them before she started the point at him irritably. “You are a hero in training.” she emphasized the last two words. “That means you need more support, not less! Why the heck don’t they make working with the support classes mandatory! Do you know how many heroes die because they only rely on themselves?”

He began to stammer and answer, which he had come up with off the top of his head. “F-four in the islands of Japan in the last y-year and a half.”

This was actually accurate. There had been nine Heroes who died in the last year. Two of them had died off-duty to simple, unfortunate things like being hit by a car in one case and food poisoning of all things in the other. Three had died in direct action while being parts of teams taking down dangerous villains. The other four, as Izuku had just said, had died on their own and had been lambasted by the media for being in over their heads without anything to fall back on when their Quirks were not up to the job.

But the fact Izuku had given the right answer didn’t assuage Melissa. “Thirty-eight heroes worldwide have died in the last year and a half because they didn’t have partners and didn’t use support equipment! My father pushes the use of support items all the time, and why? Because it’s smart to always have a backup, if not something that works directly with your Quirk! Powering through without something to help if your own skills are not up to the job is just…”

She paused and seemed to calm down a little. “In your case, I have actually developed something that sounds as if it might help you. It’s a gauntlet I devised to try to handle Uncle Might’s power. Of course it can’t, but it should do for a less powerful strengthening-type Quirk. But trying to power your way through… trying to, to force your body to evolve so quickly to the point it would have as if you grew up with it is just plain silly”

She calmed down a bit while Izuku made frantic nodding motions to try and help her calm down. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly, “but that’s kind of a pet peeve of mine.”

“I c-can kind of tell.” he said, trying to make light of it and use sarcasm for the first time in his life. It worked, and the two of them began to laugh.

“Well anyway, as I said, I think I’ve developed something that could help you, so long as you’re willing to try it out?” Melissa asked, cocking her head to one side and giving him a look somewhere between a question and a demand.

“O-o-of course!” Izuku exclaimed. “Of course, I’ll try it! Why wouldn’t I?”

“Good.” she replied with a smile. “In that case…”

At that point they were interrupted by a voice saying, “You two seem as if you’re having fun.”

Izuku turned in astonishment to find three girls from his class behind him. Jiro Kyoka, Yaoyorozu Momo, and Asui Tsuyu stood there, looking at Izuku and his new friend.

“W-w-what!?  Where d-d-did you three… That is, what did you…” Izuku stammered, wondering what they were implying and knowing it wasn’t good for him regardless.

Kyoka chuckled evilly the ends of her ears, which looked like headphone jacks moving, swaying under her control, pointing at Izuku. “Midoriya, I heard it all. Being invited home already are we?” Izuku gulped, blushing hotly at the teasing note in her voice as she went on looking between him and Melissa. “So, do you want to explain what’s going on here?”

The blond girl however was more mature than Izuku and rose to the challenge instantly and simply rolled her eyes, cocking one hip as she looked at Kyoka. “Why, would that make you jealous? Do you think I’m intruding on your territory?”

The sound Quirk user blushed at being called out like that, making it obvious that hadn’t been something she’d been prepared for, and she backed away quickly, shaking her head rapidly. “N-no, not me, sorry.”

Next to her Momo giggled at her friend’s sudden discomfiture then smiled and held out a hand, ending the teasing of Izuku with some reluctance. He did look cute at when he blushed, after all. Next to her, Tsuyu too smiled at Izuku, then up at Melissa. “We didn’t know anyone else from our class would be here, kero. What are you doing here Izuku-kun, kero?”

“A-ano, All Might is friends with Dr. Shield, and well, h-he offered to introduce me to him, because he thought that the doctor could maybe come up with some support items for me.”

“However, All Might didn’t know that I’ve already been developing something of the sort.” Melissa said with a smile. “The two of them have a lot of catching up to do, since they haven’t seen each other in a while. So I volunteered to show Izuku around, and we just agreed that he can use some of my own creations.”

“That’s excellent.” Momo said with a smile at Izuku, and at Melissa. “Though I hesitated to speak to you about it Midoriya-san, but I have long been concerned about how much damage your powers do to you.”

“Oh, are you three all UA students too?” Melissa asked, clapping her hands. “If you three wish to, I can show you a great café. I have so many questions about the Hero Course you all must be taking.”

“Please, that sounds lovely Shield-san.” Momo said.

“Melissa, please, San just makes me sound old.” Melissa replied.

While Momo looked a little reluctant at that, Tsuyu and Kyoka both nodded.

The four girls chattered to one another as they walked, introducing themselves to one another as Izuku followed behind. After a few minutes’ walk though portions of the Expo which were still being worked on, Tsuyu fell back to walk with him. She was not nearly as talkative as Momo was in bubbly mode, or as outgoing as Kyoka was. She nudged her shoulder against Izuku’s, asking “How are you doing?” He looked at her, and she shrugged. “After the USJ. You were the only one of us who was really injured, kero. Well, you and Eraser-sensei, kero.”

“That’s why I’m here.” Izuku said with a shrug. “And I think I’m doing okay. What about you?”

She smiled and nodded indicating she was okay too, but a bit of darkness in her eyes would have indicated to someone who could spot that kind of thing that she was putting on a brave front. She had, after all, nearly died.

By this point Melissa had directed them to an outdoor café where they all sat down, as Melissa said, “UA sounds so much fun even if I disagree with how they handle the division between the three courses. And, well, I’m really impressed by anyone who decides to go to U.A. or decides to become a hero. Putting your life on the line like that, it’s just amazing.”

All for a big three of the girls looked sheepish at that, blushing and looking away while Momo’s smile went a little brittle, although no one noticed. Melissa went on, looking at them then over to Izuku. “Is it true by the way that your class took on 42 villains? And captured them all before All Might showed up to fight the main villain? That’s amazing!”

Finding herself nominated the spokeswoman of the three in some fashion Izuku couldn’t follow, Momo nodded. “That is what happened yes, although they weren’t really super villains. They were more on the level of bank robbers or muggers. Very few of them had anything beyond that level on their rap sheet. There were just a lot of them.”

“A lot of them, and the fact that you had to fight them with, what, two-and-a-half months of training at UA? No matter how good your training was before that, that’s still very impressive.” Melissa said still smiling.

Izuku flinched again at that, since beside All Might’s regime, he hadn’t actually had any training before that. The girls also looked a little sheepish and shy, somewhat unused to being praised like this, especially from someone who was their senpai and so obviously intelligent.

“But can I ask how all of you came to be here?” Melissa asked.

Momo gestured to herself with a somehow lady-like flourish of her hand, then over to Kyoka. “My last name is Yaoyorozu and my parents own the Yaoyorozu Conglomerate.”

“Oh yes, I’ve heard that name. Your family is one of the chief financiers of I-Island. In fact, I think they and a few of the other support countries are the only reason why we are opening on time at all.” Melissa said with a nod.

Momo beamed at the praise to her family, as and then explained further. “So my family was given a pair of tickets, for a representative of the family and their guest to come and tour the island. With school being closed down today and Monday I decided to take it now, to see I-Island before everything was ready and the crowds became a little much to deal with.”

“Are you certain that it was labeled a guest instead of a date? Kero, kero.” Tsuyu jibed with a lurking smile on her face.

Kyoka flushed at that, while Momo stammered, and Melissa and Tsuyu laughed while Izuku just looked uncomfortable until Tsuyu went on. “My story’s the same, except I didn’t get a ticket to bring a guest.  My family’s been involved in providing food, kero. We run a major farming fishing concern, kero, and we’ve been selling our products here. We’ve had invitations to look around the island for a while, and I know one of my younger siblings is intending to come here for school, kero.”

“Oh yes, the family with the frog Quirk! I think I’ve met your parents a time or two, and your sibling. Sumire, is quite cute.”

“Kero, kero.” Tsuyu said with a laugh. “If you told him that, I’ll wager he looked like a tomato, kero!”

“Probably.” Melissa said with a laugh. She was after all an eighteen-year-old girl, and she wasn’t unaware of the effect that she could have on the other sex. She had never done anything about it though, both because her father was over-protective, and she wasn’t a genius like her father. Melissa had to substitute hard work and time in order to do what she wanted, and so had never had time for a relationship. But that didn’t mean she was completely naïve about the effect she could have.

The talk continued from there, with Izuku feeling very much overwhelmed being the only guy at the table, shrinking further into his chair as the conversation continued. Tsuyu noticed this though, and quickly made an effort to steer the conversation back into areas he could take part in, asking aloud, “So, what kind of heroes are you expecting for the grand opening, kero? And how many people in total, kero?”

Izuku quickly began to geek out at each name that Melissa said, with the others looking on in amusement. But at least he was finally taking part in the conversation, which was what Tsuyu wanted as she sat back and sipped at her drink.

OOOOOOO

As All Might had noticed he and Izuku had not been the only arrivals that day. But not all those arrivals had come in by plane. At the same time others were arriving by plane, other technicians, cooks, and other sorts were arriving by sea, along with larger shipments of various types. And not all those arrivals were planned for.

One of them was a somewhat nondescript man, though somewhat taller than most. He led two other men who wore worker’s overalls and looked like they too could blend into a crowd with ease, although they both more obviously had Quirks which effected their appearances. One was tall and skinny with big hands and a beak-like face, while the other one was shorter with a bullet shaped head but was almost squat with muscle. All three wore common construction worker’s garb.

If someone in the security center thought about it more clearly, they would have realized that actually, people shouldn’t still be coming into work on the construction project.  After all, the island was almost fully built now and they already were housing more than enough construction crews to finish the various jobs.

But no one was asking those kinds of questions at the moment. The security team was in fact watching footage of earlier arrivals on a loop rather than real-time video from the security cameras in this area. And the service sectors of I-Island were out of the way from the majority of the people that were already living on the island at this point or were visiting.

There was more than this one group of three. Others had come in separately throughout the day in ones and twos, slipping away from the other chefs, shop workers and so forth coming in from this port. And now these various men – no women among this group – met up in a large group in a section of the docks that was currently unused.

Each of them nodded at the man who had led the only group of three onto the island which signified he was the leader, although there was still nothing to mark him out as special at first. This changed when he paused in greeting his fellows to take out a small compact from which he removed some kind of cleaning agent and began to work it over his face. This revealed that he was wearing some kind of coloring on his face.

When he finished, his face was greatly changed. More than half his face was covered with dark black skin, some kind of burn scar perhaps. There was also a noticeable scar running along one side of his face, visible for but a moment before he pulled on a mask made of iron that covered most of his face.

When he was done pulling the mask on, the man held out of his hand to one of his men. “Phone.”

The other man – a thin person with double-jointed fingers and eyes whose irises seemed to dilate like a photo lens – handed it over. “It’s been fully cleaned. The text will go directly to our inside man, and no one else will be able to pick up the signal or trace it back to us.”

“Our inside man’s been good as his word so far.” the man in the mask replied. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t get cold feet. Not at least until we’re in position.”

He quickly typed in a message on the phone, watching as a text came back in, telling him what he needed to know, nothing more. He smiled, looked around at his companions, and gestured with a shake of his head. “Come on, route C is open. We’ve got five minutes before the next security sweep. Move.”

The others obeyed, moving with alacrity, only to pause occasionally to watch groups of I-Island’s security droids warily as they passed them by at intersections. A squad of six stopped at one point and looked at the men as they passed. But because they stayed on an outlined route, the security droids, who could only obey their programming, did not move after them. After a few seconds they moved on, the alarm unsounded.

Scene break

At the same time his daughter was smiling and having fun with the younger UA students, David Shield was staring aghast at what his medical equipment was telling him about his friend.  “How, how are you even still alive?!” he turned with a snarl on his normally mild face as he glared at Toshinori. “And do not try to be flippant with me dammit! This amount of damage should have killed you! It would’ve killed anyone without a strength and endurance Quirk at least three times over! Even you shouldn’t be able to take this much damage.”

“It would appear as if my Quirk had some regeneration aspect to it. Not enough to overcome the damage, but it at least is enough to keep me alive.” Toshi said with a sigh. “That, and regular visits to Recovery Girl. Or it could be just willpower.” Toshi finished with a booming laugh, then hacked into his hand as he shifted into his normal body.  “What do you think? Can you come up with anyway to give me more time in my Muscle Form?”

“…there are two different problems here.” David said, scowling and furiously typing at his computer for a moment, examining the damage done to his best friend by the monster called All for One. “First let’s begin with injury. The damage is so pronounced now that any attempts to repair the damage done would probably be fruitless. However I have genetic samples of you from before you were wounded...”

“You have what!?” Toshi barked, staring at his friend in shock, his skeletal face going a little green.

David looked at him blankly not understanding his friend’s confusion. “Yes I have pieces of your hair and suchlike, I made all of your uniforms for years, so of course I have enough hairs to use as samples of you. …What did you think I was talking about.”

“I think you need to work on how you say that to your patients.” Toshi said shaking his head and not apologizing for leaping to conclusions there.

David looked at him askance then shrugged, not understanding his point, before going on. “At any rate, I’ve made a lot of progress in cellular cloning. I think I could clone a new lung and a stomach certainly, though the intestines would be tricky. The operation to install them would be incredibly hard, but again, I can do that here on I-Island. I think I’d probably have to ask you to volunteer to be cryogenically frozen for a time while we perform the surgeries. That would shut down your body’s functions and let us work on each segment separately. But given the overall damage, even that is worrisome.”

He sighed then straightened his shoulders. “Still, between me and Recovery Girl, we could do it over… about a month or so. We’d need you to have time to get used to each cloned organ, and make sure your body isn’t going to reject them.”

He paused then to pull up another image and then a graph side by side. “Your time with your Quirk is decreasing at an exponential rate.” he said sharply. “Especially, starting from a month and a half ago.” David looked at Toshi shrewdly, then gestured out to the lab’s outer wall, and the rest of I-Island beyond. “That Izuku boy you brought with you, he’s your chosen successor, isn’t he?”

“You are always so quick on the uptake, Dave.  Yes he’s my successor. When I saw his fire, when I saw him rush into danger with no Quirk, doing what Heroes were afraid to do… I couldn’t not choose him.” Toshi said with a smile.

“Rush into danger?” David asked, momentarily derailed. “What do you mean?”

Toshi told David how he and Izuku at first met, and then how Izuku had rushed into trouble to save Bakugo from the Slime Villain, and then about the USJ incident. All the while David was frowning, listening intently, but not exactly happy about some of what he was hearing. “Toshi, how exactly are you training him?”

Toshi laughed. “Why I gave him nine months of hell: Become a Hero or Become Broken training regime! It worked too! He went from being a weakling to quite a well-built young man. Pity about his height, but we can’t have everything.”

David sighed shaking his head. “That’s nice. And I know full well that you would’ve taken his physical training seriously. But how are you training him on using your Quirk? How are you training his mind?”

“The same way my predecessor trained me. Clench your butt and thrust!” Toshi replied with a laugh.

David blinked, sighed and shook his head. “And you say I need to work on talking to my patients? You need to work on talking to your successor!! What the hell kind of explanation is that? And tell me, where in all this was his mental training?”

“He does well enough in school.” Toshi said with a shrug. “I leave that to the other teachers.”

“Is one of them Sir Nighteye?” David asked tartly.

“No.” Toshi said flinching slightly at the mention of his previous partner, the sidekick he’d had after leaving America for Japan and before his eventual confrontation with All for One. While he had told Dave about All for One, Sir Nighteye – whose real name was Mirai Sasaki – had figured it out on his own thanks to his Quirk and had bluntly warned Toshi that he was too weak to face All for One. That had caused a rift between them which had not healed, with the both of them being too stubborn to be the first to reach out to the other.

“Toshi, his notebook… I didn’t see much of it, but it was extremely impressive. I think he could be almost as smart as some of the better analytical type heroes out there. You need to make certain he’s using that knowledge. I think you need to make certain you’re training him to be his own person Toshi.” David said gently. “Trust me, I know as a parent myself…”

“But I’m not his father!” Toshi blurted, looking a little shaken at Dave’s words.

“No, but you might as well be! You’re his role model, he’s obviously trying to model himself after you, regardless of whether or not that’s the right thing for him to do. It’s your job as a parent to step in and say. No, you need to be your own person!” I had to with Mellissa more than once when she wanted to take a workload similar to what I could handle. And again when she wanted to go into the soft sciences as well as the hard, when she has no mind for them. Izuku isn’t a musclebound monster like you were, and I don’t think he ever will be!”

“I-I will try to train him better from now on. You’re right, he needs to use his mind as well as his body. But, can we please talk about whether or not you can do something to help lengthen my time in my Muscle Form? We kind of got off track.” Toshi said firmly. With the problem pointed out to him, Toshi knew he would be able to steer Izuku right from now on, but his time in his muscle form needed to be addressed.

“A lack of an actual Quirk will have a major impact on what we can do.” David said with a sigh, grateful that he’d already turned off all the cameras and the room’s automatic recorder. “What you have now is basically a memory, after all. But there is some research that I’ve done which might be able to help you.”

“I’ll have to bring you back tonight, in secret so that no one will be able to see you come here for this. This bit of research… You have to understand I was ordered to stop it. Quirk empowering.” he whispered the words, making Toshi lean forward. “The ability to make a Quirk stronger, more powerful, last longer with less fuel. I’ve discovered a technological means to stimulate the areas of the brain that are connected to Qurk usage. But my investors learned of it, and told me to shut it down, saying it was too dangerous. They didn’t realize how far along I was.”

“And you want to use this device on me?” Toshi asked hesitantly. I’ve been Dave’s guinea pig before a few times, but this feels a lot more serious, even more so than his plans to try to repair the wounds All for One gave me.

“Leave me an up-to-date genetic sample – a few hairs just so we’re clear - and I’ll see if it’s possible.” David said with a nod. “If it is, we might be able to lengthen the time you can use your Quirk. But like I said, we will have to be very, very secretive about this.”

Toshi nodded resolutely at that, but then asked “But could you make it permanent? From the way you’re talking about it, this sounds like a… well, a one-shot deal. Or some kind of device I’d have to wear.”

“I could maybe create a device that would go under your skin on your skull. That would mean a depth of miniaturization that would take some time, but it’s possible if we find out you are compatible with it Toshi.” Dave warned. “If you’re not, I’m not going to even try. Doing that would be worse than not trying to help you at all.”

While he was incredibly concerned about a world where the Symbol of Peace disappeared, Dave was not going to hurt his friend to possibly give Toshi more time as All Might. That was a line he could not cross. Not as a scientist, not as a friend.

“…Understood.” Toshi said with a nod, then glanced at the time before blinking. “It’s about time I go. I’ll need to find a hotel for the night, and I’ve already gotten some requests for public speeches tonight at a ball commemorating the last bits of work being done on the tower.  Seems a stretch as an excuse to have a party, but still, will you be there?”

“I’ll be there.” David said, then trailed off tracking where Toshi was looking.

He then blushed a little looking away as Toshi asked “Hah I see you still keep that… what did you call it? Bolt cannon or something? Have you had to scare boys away from Melissa yet?”

“No alas.” David said still looking away. “The first boys who showed interest in her heard about me making a weapon based off the old Warhammer game’s Space Marine bolt pistol and decided that not only was Melissa off-limits, but to also spread that fact around. Luckily Melissa’s shown no interest to seek out her own companionship, so it’s worked so far.”

Toshi laughed at that shaking his head, as he stood up and clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Well, it’s nice to see that your overprotective nature hasn’t changed.”

As his friend was leaving, David turned back to the medical examination, frowning as he looked at the damage, mentally listing what he would need, in what order they would have to work to repair the damage, and whether or not, in fact, it was even possible. He had been telling the truth when he said they would have to basically shut down various parts of Toshi’s body as they went, and he was not looking forward to the experience. Perhaps, perhaps there really is a reason why doctors are not allowed to operate on family members and close friends. We’re a little too close for me to have the emotional distance required to be logical about this.

He frowned suddenly however as he noticed something odd. Something on the biological energy readouts wasn’t right. Enlarging it, he then put it beside a graph of All Might’s body, staring from one to the other. Like this, it became clear to see that there was some kind of foreign bio signature mixed in with Toshi’s wound. ‘Like a poison almost on the biologic level.’ he scowled shaking his head. ‘Could that be why it’s never been able to be healed? Why his wound still looks so fresh? A kind of energy poison attacking his cells? But if that’s the case, how do I remove it? Damn you, All For One.

Quickly his fingers began to move on his computer’s hard light screen, creating a 3D image of his friend from the medical scan, and putting this new information into it along with a few suppositions. He then watched the second bio signature spread through Toshi’s body like a cancer or, perhaps like a vine across the trunk of a tree. “Well, I wonder,” he said, gesturing and enlarging the image in sections. “I wonder… if I excise the entrance wound, will the rest die?”

He trailed off, leaning over his keyboard once more, not noticing anything for a time as he bent to his work.

OOOOOOO

Back at the café, the teens’ conversation was eventually interrupted by a loud explosion in the distance. All four of the hero students hopped to their feet, staring around them as they tried to figure out where the explosion was coming from, but Melissa quickly defused the situation before they could rush off. “Don’t worry, that’s just the Heroes Obstacle Course. It’s part of a few attractions that are to give students and young people the opportunity to train like real heroes.” She laughed. “I heard my father complaining about it actually. It looked so interesting that a lot of the work crews actually shifted their attention to that rather than attractions they were assigned to, so it’s fully up and running while other areas are lagging behind.”

“I thought you said that much of the work had been done.” Tsuyu said, cocking her head as one of her fingers came up to tap her somewhat wide mouth.

“For the island itself yes. The academy, labs, security, communication, power grid, farms and about half of the housing areas are built and ready to go. The only labs that are still being worked on are the ‘dangerous substances’ labs and a few of the personalized academy-level labs for various students. But most of the work that needs to be done to open up the island for the public isn’t done, such as the Expo specific stuff, the various restaurants and tourist attractions.” Melissa replied.

Momo nodded at that but was still looking around to try to figure out where the noise coming from, as were the rest of her classmates. Looking at the four younger students, Melissa smiled. “Would you all like to go and try your luck?”

The three girls nodded, getting up while Izuku followed reluctantly, frowning. Melissa noticed this and realized why he was frowning. “Oh, um, don’t worry.” she said hurriedly. “We can make a stopover at my lab to get you that support item that will help. I told you, I had one that would work for you, remember?”

“What’s this, giving Midoriya a heads up on the competition, are we?” Kyoka asked teasingly.

“No, not really.” Melissa said while Izuku stammered and looked away. “More like giving him the means to actually fight the competition equally. Izuku told me that he has trouble controlling his power.”

“We’ve noticed.” said Kyoka, Momo and Tsuyu all at once causing Izuku to shrink it himself. But Kyoka shook her head at him. “Dude, it’s not exactly a secret you’ve got a whack Quirk. I appreciate the fact you want to be a hero and all, but if you’re going to injure yourself every time you use your power, exactly how the hell will you survive UA, let alone becoming a hero?”

“Y-y-you’re telling me.” Izuku stammered, looking away even as he tried sarcasm for the second time that day.

Kyoka grinned at that, but Momo frowned. “It is not a laughing matter Midoriya-san. While I too applaud your drive when it comes to being hero, if your Quirk hurts you, you’re going to shorten your lifespan every time you use it.”

“Hence why I said we’ll be getting him some support items. I guarantee we can find something that can help.” Melissa replied nodding her head to Momo.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Tsuyu asked, hopping to her feet, and looking at Melissa intently. “Let’s go, kero.”

“B-b-but, Jiro-san w-was right. Getting a support item would g-g-give me a leg up if we compete against one another in this hero obstacle race, right?” Izuku asked

“Who cares about that, kero?” Tsuyu said shaking. “This is just going to be for fun anyway, and anything that can make you a better hero is a good thing. Besides, have you forgotten you saved my life? Kero, kero.” she asked, looking at him quizzically. “If you hadn’t stepped in, that guy with the hands would’ve killed me, kero.”

“B-bu-but, I was j-j-just doing what anyone else, in the c-c-class would have done.” Izuku stammered, looking away.

“No.” Momo said calmly even as she fell into line with Melissa, turning around to look back at Izuku behind him. “You did what no one else was doing at the time. You stepped up and truly acted like a hero. The rest of us who were in the area and could see what was going on were all too frightened to act after seeing Nomu deal with Aizawa-sensei. In contrast you did what you could, Midoriya-san. That speaks highly of your character.”

Izuku blushed and stammered blushed in the way, mumbling a thank you, while Melissa continued to lead them through the island and the girls exchanged smiles at his innocent reactions. They soon took the tram from where they had been eating, which was near the more public areas of the island, out to southern edge of the island where the school was. There they didn’t see any students around as they moved through the Academy and went up several floors. They entered into a large laboratory with, amusingly enough, a hand-drawn children’s sign marking it as ‘Melissa’s Place’.

“Um, well, be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” Melissa quipped as she led them in, feeling somewhat sheepish as she belatedly remembered she hadn’t cleaned up her lab after finishing her last project: a jet surfboard with remote control access which could be used to transport wounded or prisoners away from an aquatic combat zone. A lot of her equipment was still out in the lab rather than locked up, and two of the projects her father had given her to look at were still out instead of in storage.

The girls looked around with interest, both bemused and amused at the amount of clutter and various mechanical devices everywhere. “I take it I-Island Science Academy doesn’t come with a cleaning staff.” Kyoka joked.

Called out like that, Melissa’s blush increased, shrugging her shoulders. “Yes well, let’s just say that I have trouble cleaning up after I finish projects. Comes from basically needing to wean myself off coffee and ramen.”

It wasn’t as if it was actually cluttered per-se, Izuku realized as he looked around. It was actually quite tidy. Everything was clean, there were no tools on the floor, no trash, no unfinished projects or anything like that. But there was just a lot of stuff in a very small area. Moreover, there didn’t seem to be a lot of furniture around either except for a bed tucked away in one corner, a large TV along one wall, and a sofa in front of it, which he could barely make out beyond two large items of some kind under tarps. There was a doorway leading into another area, which looked like a bathroom from where he was standing.

“Anyway, let me show you what I have for you Izuku.” Melissa said moving to a shelf set into the wall along the right side of the lab.

“If we’re talking support items, I don’t suppose you could come up with something for me, could you?” Kyoka asked, looking around with interest. “My Quirk is more espionage-based than combat-based after all, and I could use a leg up. I mean, I like to think I can hold my own against the level of most of the villains we faced at the USJ, but I know there are a lot of people in our class alone who could kick my rear.”

“Can I ask what your Quirk is?” Melissa asked, “I mean, I can see that it seems to be a mutation type, but that can’t be all, can it?” Melissa asked.

Kyoka shrugged and was about to give the older girl a brief outline of her power but then Izuku spoke up eagerly. “Jiro-san’s Quirk is actually kind of cool when you think about it. Her jacks not only receive but can amplify and send out audible signals. I’ve seen her do that, when a few of the other students in class annoy Jiro-san, she stabs them with her prehensile ear jacks and sends out a pulse of music or something directly into their brains. Is actually a great capture tool if used appropriately,” Izuku said with a grin, while Kyoka looked at him, surprised at how forward he was being right now. “Although I do have a few questions about it, for instance, have you ever tried to amp up something else?”

“What do you mean? I do that all the time! You just mentioned me using my heartbeat to deal damage to anything I plug my jacks into.” This mostly meant Kaminari and Mineta, since the perv and the electrical moron needed someone to keep them in line.  But she’d done it to villains during the USJ attack too.

“I, I don’t think that’s what your Quirk really does, I think if it did, you might well have done permanent damage to yourself by making your heartbeat that fast. But what I was asking is, can you plug what you’re listening to with one ear jack, then plug the second ear into say a speaker of some kind, to amplify the sound of the first thing? Something like present Mike and his throat microphone, and make a sound based long range weapon?” Izuku replied. “I know you use your heartbeat to do something similar, you had speakers on your feet which allowed you to mess with the hearing of your enemies. But I think you could do a lot more than that!”

At this point the girls also noticed he was no longer stuttering. Izuku’s eyes were outright gleaming with eagerness as he stared at Kyoka, having produced a notebook from… somewhere… The girls hadn’t noticed him carrying it before this, and now he had a pencil poised over the paper as he looked at Kyoka eagerly.

At that look Kyoka stammered, “W-well I never, that is, I’ve never thought of it.” And I have no idea what he’s talking about it not being my heartbeat. I mean, what else could it be. Although… come to think of it, he’s kind of right about my hurting myself by forcing my heartbeat to go so fast… damn, Midoriya’s really good at coming up with things most people don’t notice, isn’t he?

“Let’s try it then.” Melissa said quickly, happy to have a new small project. ‘And if it helps another hero become better at the profession that’s a great bonus. “I have a few speakers around here, and I bet I could whip up a few small ones for you to carry on your person. With that and maybe some kind of sound creation device to input specific noises…”

“Vibration-based attacks, yes!” Izuku said with a nod.

“Vibration?” Kyoka asked before quipping, “I’m all for good vibrations, but what are you actually talking about?”

“Have you ever seen videos of troops marching along bridges? They have to break cadence to do it. That’s because the vibration they create can sometimes cause trouble with the bridges in question.”

“You can literally shake things apart if you find the right noise to do it.” Melissa said with a nod as she booted up her lab’s main computer. She quickly found a video of a sound-based hero doing that very thing, putting it on the TV for the others to watch. It was a European of Italian descent speaking in his native language as the video rolled which showed him destroying an escaping truck. The truck literally disintegrated under his attack, leaving a group of kidnappers who tumbled out. The instant they did, the man’s partner – a chameleon Quirk user – struck, her tongue lashing out and grabbing the boy they’d kidnapped as she leapt away from her previous position on top of the truck.

“Now, you might not be as strong as he is – considering that his power is based primarily on sending sound waves into metal – but we can definitely work with the concept.” Melissa told her with a smile.

Within minutes, Melissa had fixed Kyoka up with a few speakers. She was now holding it in front of her, her ear jacks jacked into them, and a target dummy in front of her made of concrete as the group stood around a small testing area out the back of the academy. When she activated them, the sound waves that she emitted were almost visible in the air, as they shook and rattled the concrete block until it started to shatter.

Kyoka stopped, staring at the speakers, then at Melissa and Izuku, before shaking her head in awe. “How the hell did that never occur to me!”

A pout of annoyance appearing on her face Melissa grumbled, “Because it appears as if heroes in Japan don’t automatically think about ways to use support items, even when they should.”

Tsuyu held up a hand, asking hesitantly. “What about me Melissa-chan, Midoriya-kun? Kero.”

“Armor.” Izuku said firmly, while Melissa said, “Utility gloves.”

They looked at each other, and Izuku laughed, before smiling. “L-l-ladies first, please.”

Melissa smiled at that and went on. “Your Quirk is based off frogs, which means you can do a lot of various things pretty well. It’s an extremely versatile Quirk. But there are a few things that you won’t be able to do, such as bind and then leave behind a villain. So stun gloves, and some kind of net weapon, maybe even a tranquilizer gun would be a good idea. Various types of espionage gear  could also be useful to get you in and out of places, because I think that with a Quirk which can allow you to climb so well and so silently, you might become a spy for a larger group of heroes once you join an agency.”

“Teamwork, yes.” Momo said with a nod. “We learned that the hard way USJ. Working together is a lot harder than it looks but can have a much greater impact than a hero working along.”

Tsuyu nodded at that remembering how she, the cinnamon roll and the purple pervert (even in her own mind Tsuyu called it like she saw it) had teamed up to take out and capture a lot of villains in the water zone at the USJ. The other teens also murmured agreement as Tsuyu turned to Izuku.

He stammered and looked away for a second, before pulling out his notebook and reading aloud his notes on her. “Uh, um, well, there are a lot of different frogs out there, and so, um maybe as you train with your frog Quirk, Asui-san, which you say lets you do everything a frog can, um… well you could try to become invisible, or at least blending into the environment. Um, also adding poison, l-like the Phyllobates terribilis? That’s an extreme example, b-but there are other frog types which can knock out or disable people.”

“Kero, I’ve always thought poison was more a toad thing.” Tsuyu murmured, one finger on her lips as she looked at the picture Izuku handed her from his notebook. “Hmm…maybe I can figure that out, though the chameleon effect’s more interesting. Poison does sound a bit tricky to control, kero.”

“R-right. But the main thing you n-need is armor. You’re strong, frogs are quite strong for their size, b-but they’re not very durable. If you ever get into a close fight with someone who has a strength Quirk or someone like K-Kacchan who can do a lot of damage with each hit, you could be in a lot of trouble. That’s why I thought of armor.” Izuku said shrugging shoulders. “Everything Melissa said is true, but I think it’s better to w-work on something that will help you get back home safely r-rather than just do your job better.”

“Heck, why not do both!” Melissa said agreeing with Izuku’s point with a nod. “I can modify some of my lab’s chest armor by tomorrow, although it’ll take me some time since the chest plates I have are built for my size. So I don’t think they’ll work for you right away, Tsuyu, sorry.”

While Momo nodded Tsuyu and Kyoka stared at Melissa’s chest, then nodded as one saying, “We can see that.” The only one of the three who had as good curves as Melissa was Momo. Kyoka noticed her tall friend was actually in better shape than Melissa with a slightly bigger chest, and a slightly slimmer waist.

Blinking in confusion at the note of jealousy in her friend’s voice, Momo asked hesitantly, “If we’re on support items for all of us, what do you think about something for me?”

“Hehe, um, same question as my first for Kyoka, what’s your Quirk?” Melissa asked cocking her head and looking at the taller yet younger girl.

Momo hesitantly explained her powers, causing Melissa’s eyes to widen behind her glasses in shocked awe. “That is, that is possibly the most magnificent Quirk I’ve ever heard of!” She shouted, causing Momo to blush, and the others to look at her in surprise. This was the first time they’d seen her become so enthusiastic, and they had thought her rather calm – if bubbly – before this.

“If used right, that Quirk could not only be a boon for heroing, but for humankind! Although, you might have to have someone else partnered with you to give you time to think during combat.” she said after a few seconds thought, her eyes narrowing behind her glasses. “If your Quirk is really doing what it you think it is anyway. Hmm…”

Momo didn’t seem to hear the positives after Melissa said that point about partners. Instead the tall girl seemed to shrink in on herself looking away.

Melissa instantly saw this, and moved over to the younger girl, pulling her into a sideways hug as she asked, “What’s wrong, Momo?”

Unused to someone being that touchy-feely with her beyond her parents, Momo blushed at the contact. This friendly kind of contact was not the Japanese way, except between close friends. The only one she had was Jiro and that was a relatively recent development. “W-why do you think something is wrong?” Momo asked, looking away quickly both to not be caught by Melissa’s kind, big-sister-like eyes and from embarrassment at how close the other girl was.

“Because it looks like something is.” Melissa quipped, shaking her head and then shaking the younger girl lightly. “Come on, you can tell us? You’re among friends.”

Unconsciously Momo smiled at the mention of being among friends. For most of her life, friends hadn’t really meant what the word was supposed to. She had been isolated both by her Quirk’s abilities, and her rich upbringing. When someone of their social class went to school, it wasn’t just to make friends, it was to make business acquaintances. To ‘network’ as her mother had put it. But she had very rarely met anyone in those circles who she would willingly be around beyond the bare minimum.

Worse though, were the insecurities she had built up about her powers ever since her parents had literally bought her way into UA. That came out in a rush now, as she looked away from Melissa again, almost shaking in place as she let it all out. “I-I didn’t earn my spot in UA like the others. I didn’t even need to to take the written exam! My, the name Yaoyorozu was enough to get me my place. And then came the USJ incident, and if not for Kyoka and Kaminari, I would’ve been in a lot of trouble! I just can’t create things fast enough or think quickly enough, and then, when we finished off the enemies in our area, I froze. I should have stepped forward like Midoriya-san did when Aizawa-sensei went down, but I didn’t! I froze, and I wonder… Well I wonder if I’m really cut out for the hero business. Is, is my father right? Am I really more suited for the support business, for my parent’s mercantile enterpr-”

“No!” Izuku, Melissa, Kyoka and Tsuyu all said as one, or rather shouted as Melissa shook the younger girl again. “You wanted to be a Hero! You’ve put in the time to train, to keep fit, to be able to use your power even as quickly as you do already! That’s impressive, Momo-chan! I’ll tell you the same thing I told Izuku. You’re a Hero in training! Not already a Hero!” Melissa said passionately.

“And don’t even think about putting yourself down for what happened at USJ! If you hadn’t been around, electric man and I would’ve been in trouble!” Kyoka said sternly, reaching out to give Momo’s hand a squeeze.

“Besides, I’m not certain that your Quirk is working like you think it is.” Melissa said said looking at the younger girl thoughtfully as she finally disengaged from her hug. This let Tsuyu and Kyoka crowd their friend, putting their arms around her shoulders.

“I know it isn’t.” Izuku said with such decisiveness that they turned to stare dumbly at him, and once more everyone noticed that his stutter had disappeared in his eagerness. “The cannon you made that first day. It weighed far more than you do Yaoyorozu-san. I tried to lift it after you created it, remember? If you’re really turning lipids straight into materials like you think you are… well…” He trailed off, but the meaning was clear.

Momo frowned, but Kyoka nodded as she poked Momo’s tummy, indicating she had seen that.

“Further, you said at one point you had to know the atomic composition of the things you create. That would be too incredible! You’d have to literally have a computer for a brain! You’re incredibly intelligent Yaoyorozu-san, but that would be beyond anyone’s capacity who didn’t have a Brain Type Quirk.”

“But then, what does it do?” Momo asked, frowning. “That’s what I was told it did my whole life! It uses my fat cells to create the items, and I certainly have to eat far more than most people I’ve ever met to maintain my use of it.”

Much to everyone’s amusement, Melissa rubbed at her face and started to mutter under her breath about Quirk Councilors and Specialists getting their licenses from the bottom of cereal boxes, before taking a deep breath and looking answering her, “Oh, I think your power does do something along that line, but I think it only starts the creation process in that manner, then takes the rest of the matter from somewhere else. Perhaps the air around you, or maybe it continues the energy conversion process? We’d have to test that in various ways.” Melissa said thinking deeply. ‘Hmm, energy to matter conversion has always been a dream of the scientific community, but what are the limits? What is the starting conversion rate? How much of Momo’s fat cells equate to how much weight in the item she creates?

“But there are a lot of ways you could augment your abilities from what we know of how your Quirk works already. For example, the staff you used during the USJ. Can you create that now for us?” Izuku asked.

She shrugged, but within a second, was pulling out a staff from her elbow, holding up for them to inspect. “Why make it out of simple steel?” Izuku asked. “Why not titanium, or an advanced carbon-titanium mix?”

“Could you do that?” Kyoka asked instantly, staring at the staff.

“I know the composition of titanium.” Momo began hesitantly. “I think I could, yes.”

She frowned, closing her eyes and reimagining her staff. It was almost as if she was pulling out the colors of the image of her staff in her head, then coloring it in a new with a different color. When the staff was reformed in her mind, Momo created it again, this time from her hand, and stared at it. It was lighter in her hand, the metal of it gleamed with a slightly different color, and the heads were little larger, to match the image in her head.

Izuku smiled proudly. “You see, it’s not just about creating something from nothing. You have to imagine it into being. That cannon you used, I hate to keep going back to it, but you not only created the cannon, but you created the gunpowder and the fuse. Surely you didn’t have to think your way through each segment one after another, did you? While keeping every other part of its creation in mind at the same time?”

Momo shook her head, still staring at the staff as Melissa and Tsuyu looked at the notes on Momo that Izuku had been looking at as he spoke. At first Tsuyu had been a bit hesitant to actually look at his notes on the taller girl. She sat next to the pervert after all, so she well knew what kind of notes a boy would normally make about someone who looked like Momo, easily the most mature looking in the class.

But all of his notes were about her Quirk and general athleticism. He barely made any note about her actual appearance, other than a large note at the very top, which was almost erased but still noticeable to her eyes. It read as ‘very pretty, bubbly’.

“This is amazing, kero.” she said aloud, reaching to tap the notebook in his hands, causing Izuku to twitch away, suddenly looking shy once more as he put some distance between them. “All those notes you made… did you make notes on the entire class like that?”

“I well, I’ve tried.” Izuku said hesitantly. “It’s well… it’s just a hobby of mine. Oh, I’m sorry if that offends you!” he added hastily.

“May I see it Midoriya-san?” Momo asked, holding out her hand.

Izuku became even more embarrassed than that, but hesitantly held it out to her repeating the words, “I didn’t write anything bad in there like, it’s just about your Quirk, that’s all!”

Momo quickly read through his notes, blushing slightly as she too noticed the note at the top, before looking at a few other notes of people in class that she had also examined. Her eyes slowly widened at the amount of detail and information Izuku had on them. “This is amazing! This could be a massive training tool for us all, you realize that, yes?”

Izuku though shook his head. “N, no, it’s not like that at all. It’s just a hobby, nothing important. I mean, I’m certain that most people already know all about themselves after all, and I don’t want to embarrass them or anyone else by pointing things out they already know, and I don’t…”

“On the contrary.” Melissa said with a shake of her head as she had held out a hand for the notebook in turn. “Notes like what you were saying about Momo are vastly important for anyone to grow in their Quirk use, not just heroes. There’s an entire support group based on Quirk identification and training after all.”

She set that aside for now however, as the day was getting on, and if they wanted to try out the obstacle course they had to start moving. “Well, while I could talk about support items and technology all day, I know you all wanted to see what you would be able to do with the obstacle course, right?”

Tsuyu and Kyoka both nodded, while Momo and Izuku both looked reluctant, with Momo twirling one finger through a bang of hair and looking away as she blushed slightly, her mind currently unable to move past the ‘very pretty’ remark that Izuku had put in his notebook. She’d been praised for her good looks before of course, most particularly her… dimensions. But the innocent way that Izuku had put that down and then tried to get rid of it to concentrate on notes about her Quirk gave those two words an impact which they had never possessed for her before.

“In that case, Momo, do you mind if we put off talking more about a support gear for you? I want to concentrate on Izuku now. He’ll need the help after all,” Melissa said to which Momo nodded, thinking hard about her own Quirk. The ideas they’d already given her was more than enough for her to think about right now.

At that Izuku flinched, looking down and mumbling to himself, but Tsuyu wouldn’t let him stay in that state, shaking her head. “Stop that!”

He looked up at her in shock, and Tsuyu growled at him. “Stop looking down at yourself like that, kero! Fine, you might not be as well-trained with your Quirk as you should be. Fine, you hurt yourself every time you use it. But so what? You still keep using it for other people, you still keep trying your best! With the power inherent in your Quirk, you could be a great hero in time, kero.”

Izuku twitched at that, but Tsuyu went on. “You already have the mentality of a hero. You’re self-effacing – maybe a little too much so – but that’s better than the alternative. Just look at Bakugo and his attitude, kero, kero. You reach out to help others, I’ve seen you offer to tutor some of our classmates. You have also gone out of your way to get along with others, you work well in teams, and you don’t have an unkind word to say for anyone. You were willing to put your life on the line for me, kero, don’t think I’ve forgotten that!” It was very rare for the girl to be so emotive, but she looked utterly fired up.

Instead of replying to any of his other good points Tsuyu had pointed out however, Izuku spoke up to defend his childhood friend. “I-I know he doesn’t have the m-most outgoing personality, b-but Kacchan’s always striving and he’s always doing his best. And he got such a g-great Quirk. He… he’s leagues ahead of me, even if I was able to b-beat him in the team exercise, t, that was all because Uraraka-san managed to get to the bomb.”

“Not up here he’s not.” Kyoka said tapping her forehead. “And that’s bullshit dude. The only reason Ochaco-chan got a chance was because of you.”

Momo nodded firm agreement, putting aside her own embarrassment to address their classmate’s issues. “His ego is a big issue. You’ve seen him arguing with me and also Iida-san numerous times about doing work or the need to work with others. And you should have noticed that he has yet to complete a teamwork assignment properly. He’s never actually worked with anyone, instead he goes out of his way to lord his superiority over everyone else. That is not exactly proper hero behavior in my opinion.”

“He’s a bully, kero.” Tsuyu said bluntly. Izuku flinched at that, and Tsuyu nodded grimly taking that flinch as a sign she had been correct. “People like that, with flashy Quirks, they’re praised all their lives because of those, and build up egos. And they get away with a lot of stuff in most middle schools don’t they, kero?” She asked shrewdly.

Izuku flinched again, looking down at his feet, while Melissa growled in the background. But Tsuyu went on, shaking her head. “That’s pathetic, it builds up the kind of ego that Endeavor or some of the other, kero, ‘lone wolf type heroes’ have. But being a hero isn’t about being in the spotlight or being the strongest, or anything like that. It’s about being an example, about helping people and about making them want to better themselves, kero.”

Momo nodded firmly in agreement, having thought up an example that the green-haired boy would get right away. “All Might is not just a Symbol of Peace because he’s the strongest hero, he’s the Symbol of Peace because of how he carries himself, how he is always willing to lend a hand, how humble and how much of a team player he is. Endeavor is in the spotlight and news far more often than All Might has been for several years, but he’s still not the Symbol of Peace! Now if All Might is the ideal for a hero, hold yourself and Bakugo-san up to that image. Which of you is closer?”

Izuku blanched, but under the glares of the four girls, could only nod. “I, I, I see your point, but I don’t think Kacchan’s all that bad…”

At that point however, Melissa interrupted him. “A victim of abuse can sometimes come to sympathize with the abuser. That’s called the Stockholm Syndrome, Izuku. You can’t let that kind of thinking go on.”

With Melissa joining in despite not knowing the young man in question Izuku twitched once more, looking away as he tried to think of a logical way to fight back, to defend his friend from their accusations. But the girls in his class already seen Kaacchan for a month and a half at this point and had formed their own opinion of him. Yes, he was a tremendous combatant, and his Quirk was extremely strong. But as Kaminari had put it on the bus to the USJ, he had all of the social graces of a dump truck.

“Can, can we just leave it?” he asked softly, unwilling to say he agreed with them but also unwilling to say he didn’t agree. Not with the truth of the matter – from their perspective anyway – rubbed in his face like this. And that would be because you know they are right, a small voice said inside his head. You know he was a bully. And you know he never apologized or was punished for anything he did. Not even by you.

Melissa nodded, gesturing Izuku to a corner where a large cylindrical glass canister came out of a portion of the wall. “If you could step into that, I’ll get some readings for later. But before that, try this.” she said, handing over a bracelet made of red metal. It was quite thick, being about 2 inches across and seemed to be made of many different smaller slivers of red metal. “Put it around your wrist.”

When Izuku did, she hit a small button on the top of the bracelet. The others watched as it expanded, one end going up to his elbow, the other end encompassing his hand to the knuckles, leaving his fingers free. “That’s the prototype I mentioned before.” Melissa said with a proud smile as she looked at it. “It stands up to twelve percent of All Might’s power, so it should be able to help you use yours without hurting yourself.”

“And with some readings, I could probably whip up another Gauntlet for your other arm, as long as you all are willing to wait?” she looked at the girls.

They nodded, although Tsuyu asked “Can we look at your inventions while you’re with him?”

“And his notebooks?” Kyoka added quickly.

Momo just nodded, torn between wanting to look at Melissa’s inventions or Izuku’s notes on the rest of their class.

Izuku shrugged off his backpack, holding it out to Kyoka. When she grabbed it, she dropped it to the ground, wincing. “Holy hell! Were you using your Quirk to carry this!?” she asked, staring at it in shock.

“N-no I’ve always carried it. I mean what would happen if I run into a hero, or I want to redo some notes on another hero I’ve already made notes on and I didn’t have my notebooks with me? I have them all in there.” Izuku said, looking a little confused. His backpack wasn’t that heavy, was it?

Momo’s eyes instantly shifted from Melissa’s inventions to the notebooks in the backpack, decision made. Picking the backpack up, she noticed the weight too, but she was both taller and stronger than Kyoka, and quickly walked over to the mechanical devices set behind it. “How many of these deal with our class?”

“Eleven and twelve.” Izuku replied instantly. “I’m working on a thirteenth notebook for some of the boys who I haven’t quite gotten to know yet, as well as Hagakure-san, for, well, o-o-obvious reasons…”

“Obvious reasons?” Kyoka asked, even though she felt a little silly having to do so.

“S-s-she goes into combat um, y-y-y’know?” he said, shaking his head as he blushed hotly at the very thought of it. “That’s incredibly dangerous.”

“And distracting I see.” Kyoka teased, winking at him, causing his blush to deepen in color by a factor of ten. He now looked like a tomato. She laughed, but then turned away to look at the notebooks, putting teasing the cinnamon roll on the back burner for now.

Melissa pushed Izuku down into the cylinder. “Enough talking for now. This won’t take long, but we still need to start moving.”

About forty minutes later the five of them left the science academy. From there the UA students took Segways assigned to the school while Melissa used her electronic pogo stick. With these devices they traveled for about another hour of companionable chatter before arriving at the start of the hero obstacle course. This was a large area with different sections of it designed to resemble different types of environment: a cityscape, a random bridge over a river, a desert and ending with a mountainous area, consisting of giant crags.

Elsewhere in the course were several dozen other robots to simulate villains along the route, but only in the last section would the heroes have no choice but to fight the robots stationed there. There were also remote-controlled video drones that would follow each of the aspiring heroes as they went through the course.

The mountain zone was set inside an amphitheater, so that the heroes running the course would end their time in front of an audience. There, the contestants would face a battle against about forty-five security robots at once. The fight would end when the contestant destroyed or otherwise incapacitated the droids or was beaten themselves.

As they arrived at the amphitheater where they would have to sign in before heading to the starting point outside of the same building, they all paused in surprise as the UA students stared up at the large screen, which was displaying their classmate Kirishima fighting it out with the droids in the mountain zone. With his muscle durability Quirk activated, the stone-hard student punched his way through the robots, taking numerous hits, but taking no real damage.

As Kirishima finished the last robot he waited until his time was announced, then spotted his friends who had come out into the viewing area. With a somewhat toothy grin he waved at them, racing over to the side of the amphitheater. “Yo! What are you all doing here?” he exclaimed, raising a fist to thump against Izuku’s as he leaned down. The two of them were not very close, but Kirishima was just like that, friendly to everyone who he thought of as manly. After the USJ incident, that certainly included Izuku.

Momo took it upon herself to it explain why she and the others were there, before gesturing at Melissa and introducing her to Kirishima. After the introductions were done, she asked, “But why are you here before the expo Kirishima-san?”

“Oh, I’m like Tsuyu-chan.” he said with a laugh, nodding to the Frog Quirk user. “My family is an important part of bringing food into the island too. We’re all proud fishermen of the sea, which is the manliest job out there! Besides heroing of course.” he added hastily. He scratched at the back of his hair, causing a sound like someone was using a steel wire to rasp against rock for a second, looking away sheepishly. “I tried to bring Mina with me, but she already had plans.”

“Does that mean you two are together or something?” Kyoka asked, looking at him quizzically. “I knew you two had known each other before from your middle school.”

Kirishima shook his head rapidly. ”No no, nothing like that.” he exclaimed. “We’re just friends that’s all. She was going shopping with one of the other girls I think. She took Ochaco-chan out by where her parents work. It was supposed to be weekend long trip just to get away from everything. She was kind of rattled, you know… about the USJ and everything.”

The girls all exchanged a glance, nodding their heads in mutual understanding. They too had been rattled by it, but for some reason, talking to Melissa and Izuku today had really bolstered their spirits. Izuku just nodded seriously saying “I hope they get better.”

“’Course they will!” Kirishima said with a laugh. “They’re manly to be part of 1-A aren’t they?”

“I think both of them would say most emphatically that they are not ‘manly’ in any way.” Kyoka said with an eyeroll, even though she was smiling as she did it. “Are you the only other student here?”

‘Nope.” Kirishima shook his head, much to the trio of girl’s surprise. He then pointed back the way that he’d come. “I’ve seen Iida around, as well as Todoroki. Iida just got here, but Todoroki will be…”

“Oh my god!” shouted a female voice over the intercom. They all turned as the announcer shrieked out, “Amazing, astonishing! Entering the last portion of the obstacle course, he is a full nine minutes ahead of the next best time thanks to his speedy movement! But how will he face the last segment? Robot Hell!”

They all turned to watch as Todoroki entered the arena, glaring around him before stomping his foot down hard on the ground. His breath came out of his mouth in a long plume of fog, as ice grew from him in a wide wave and impacted all of the monsters/robots at once, instantly freezing them in place.

“Evidently, quite well.” Momo said with a shrug in response to the announcer’s rather foolish question as the woman announced the other young man’s time. Todoroki’s time had shattered Kirishima’s. Freezing the entire arena in under ten seconds had simply been frozen frosting on the cake.

Todoroki Shoto was not in a good mood, although that was nothing unusual. He had been sent to I-Island to represent his father, although he was doing so now rather than at the Expo which would probably infuriate the old man. Especially since he was supposed to be here to show off to the world as the movers and shakers came to see the other exhibits. But it had either been coming here now, or staying at home with Endeavour, and that was no choice at all.

Thankfully, his old man was at home for now, going over reports forwarded to him from all over Japan on the Hero Killer Stain. So that meant that he wasn’t around Todoroki. Even so, he’d been unable to avoid a call from the old man about how he couldn’t disrespect him by skipping out like this, and how he needed to use his fire and so forth.

Taking out his ire on the robots that had been in the obstacle course had been quite therapeutic, but he sighed now as he raised his other hand and slowly began to melt the ice with his fire power. He had vowed never to use his fire powers in a fight but cleaning up after himself was a gray area. As he finished, he heard his name shouted and turned, seeing the form of Kirishima before blinking in surprise as he spotted the other students. Looking at them, he frowned as they waved him over, before sighing and moving in the direction. ‘I’m not really in the mood to socialize, but I also don’t want to be a complete recluse. My old man made me in his image too much already for me to want to voluntarily do something like that. ‘

By the time he reached the others on the balcony of the amphitheater, the rest of the group had been joined by Iida. And he was saying “Ah no, I’m not here to represent my family, although I undoubtedly would have volunteered most proudly for that job. But Ingenium, my brother, will be here himself for the grand opening of the Expo. No, my old school had a prize for the best student academically for a weekend at I-Island, and I was easily the best in my grade.” He looked sideways at Momo as he said that, having learned over the last month of classes that she was most easily his most serious rival on the academic side of thing. Her and Izuku, which was still somewhat surprising to Iida. “I decided to take the trip now because I didn’t really want to deal with the crowds after the island opens to the general public.”

“Have you gone through the course yet, kero?” Tsuyu asked, crouching on a higher level of seat beside the others.

“I have not.” Iida said holding up his hand formally. “Might I ask why? Are you ladies going to be doing it? Or you, Midoriya-kun?” He added more hesitantly. Like Momo and the others, he deeply approved of Izuku’s hero mentality, but he knew how much using his power cost the young man. It seemed wrong for Midoriya to hurt himself for what amounted to a public exercise course after all.

Melissa smiled, clapping her hands. “In that case, how about we have a competition for second place? I somehow doubt any of you could beat Todoroki-san’s time without significant prep time. In fact, we can make it more interesting than just to finish with the fastest time. We could add points for style, couldn’t we?”

“I’m down with it.” Kyoka said with a grin, patting her new support items – the mini speakers at her waist – affectionately. “It’ll give me a good way to test these bad boys out.”

“And mine too, kero.” Tsuyu said flexing the gloves on her hands.

Izuku looked down at the bracelets on his wrists, then looked over at Melissa who smiled at him encouragingly. He then nodded too, thumping his chest. “I agree. In fact, why don’t we all do it, including you Kirishima-kun? You can just do it again and have that count as your time in the course.”

“Manly idea bro!” Kirishima said with a grin.

“What are the stakes though?” Kyoka asked. “Having something to fight for other than bragging rights would be a good idea. Losers has to pay for dinner maybe?”

“Instead of that, how about the winner just gets to decide where we eat tonight?” Momo interjected quickly. After all, she had no interest in more money.

Kyoka pouted, but when the other two girls nodded she followed as well, looking over at Todoroki. “And Todoroki here can be the style judge.”

Todoroki stared back at her, then sighed in agreement. His eyes traced down to the speaker on her waist. and he gestured with his head. “What’s that?”

“A new present from our friend here,” Kyoka said gesturing with one of her ear jacks to Melissa.

“Support items is it,” Iida said, frowning a little. “I’m not certain that makes it an even contest.”

“I could design something for you I suppose, although we’d have to hold up the contest for me to head back to my lab.” she then pointed Todoroki. “I also have an idea for you. You don’t seem to be able to regulate your heat as well during combat. Is that the case?”

Todoroki scowled looking away. “I suppose you could say that.”

“Then maybe a suit that will automatically keep your body at a constant temperature no matter the environment you’re in would be a good idea for you,” she said, not making any comment about the scowl on his face.

“…That could be helpful,” Todoroki said with a bow from his head. “I’ll give you an address where you can send the bill if you are able to make such a suit.” And if it pisses off Endeavour all the better.

“That wouldn’t be the work of a few minutes, it would take me at least a day so don’t worry about payment or anything like that right now,” Melissa said with a wave of her hand before looking over at Iida. “But you, can I ask what your Quirk is?”

“My Quirk is called Engine,” Iida said proudly. “Like all of my family I have engines on my body. Mine happen to be in my legs. They allow me to go extremely fast as long as they are active, the speed is variable.”

Melissa laughed quietly shaking her head as she looked at each of the younger teens in turn. “You all have such amazing Quirks. Still, I think I can help you there.”

There had been something in her tone when she said that, but only Momo and Izuku noticed. Before they could think about it too deeply however, Melissa pulled out a thing that looked almost like a wallet from a small pocket in her skirt, opening it up and pressing a few buttons. It instantly displayed what looks like a computer screen and a keyboard above it.

“That’s hard light technology!” Momo gasped in wonder. “I’ve read about that several times! It’s so amazing, it could fundamentally change how computers are used and numerous other things. But hard light is supposed energy intensive! How are you creating it from that small device?”

“It takes in energy via a wireless relay system from any point on the island,” Melissa said as she began to type, her voice somewhat short. “Sorry, can’t speak and type at the same time. Just another thing my father can do that I can’t, I suppose,” she said with a laugh.

The others looked a little confused, wondering if she was being self-deprecating, or if there was something a little more there. But they didn’t have time to ask, as she continued on without pause. “Anyway, there are a few ways that we could help your engines. Am I correct in assuming that other than it enhancing your speed, it doesn’t enhance your durability or anything else combat related?”

“If by enhance my durability you mean my entire body, than that would be correct. However, my enhanced speed is in itself however a combat aid, given how fast I can kick, hit-and-run and so forth, and my leg’s durability is heightened in turn to be able to deal with both my own speed and impacts at that speed.” Iida replied, one hand doing that odd chopping motion he seemed to enjoy using.  “It has also helped me build up enhanced reflexes, but I cannot translate the speed of my legs to my hands, alas.”

“True, but what I was thinking about was in terms of hit-and-run so… wait no, I’m not supposed to know about that project no, my father would sooo ground me if he knew I had accessed his personal computer,” Melissa murmured with a shake of her head.

Kyoka leaned over, catching Melissa’s eyes as she asked, “Did you just admit to a group of hero trainees that you might have hacked your father’s computer?”

“Well I thought we were friends,” Melissa said huffily, looking away with a blush.

“We are,” Tsuyu said instantly. “Kyoka-chan is just trying to needle you, since when she tried to make fun of you and Izuku-san you turned the tables on her, kero.”

“Traitor,” Kyoka huffed, but didn’t dispute Tsuyu’s statement, shaking her head. “As if we’d ever turn you in Melissa, that would be a tragedy to do to such a nice girl as you. Heck, you’re almost as sweet as the cinnamon rolls over there,” she said gesturing over to Momo and Izuku.

Both of them cocked their heads, asking as one, “What do cinnamon rolls have to do with anything?” Then they looked at one another, blushed at the unintended doublespeak, and looked away from one another.

“See what I mean?” Kyoka joked.

Todoroki actually let loose a chuckle at that, nodding his head in agreement though he didn’t say what he was thinking. I suppose as a man I shouldn’t say that another man is a cinnamon roll, but it’s perfectly fine for me to admit that Yaoyorozu is when she’s in her bubbly mode.

“What an amazing baby!” a new voice shouted, causing Melissa to jump in fright since it had shouted those words directly into her ear. As she turned to the shouter, she flinched away seeing someone had thrust her head over her shoulder to stare at the hard light computer from about an inch away from her face. God, I need to work on my situational awareness. But wait, shouldn’t the others have seen her coming? Looking around she noticed the others were also shocked at the sudden arrival, which made her feel somewhat better about things.

The woman in question was short, about the same height as Izuku, with pink hair, sniper scopes for eyes and a wide beaming expression, one that looked just a little crazy in fact as she looked at the hard light projection in front of Melissa. “That’s such an awesome baby! Wait, did you say earlier that it is running on a wireless energy relay?”

Melissa nodded hesitantly, and the girl clapped her hands. “Oooh that’s even better! I wonder what else could be relayed like that via the energy loop? Hah! I just thought of a brand-new explosive kind of baby!”

“I’m who, I, mean, um, who exactly are you?” Melissa asked hesitantly, while the others just looked on in confusion. “And why are you so interested in my pocket computer?”

“OOHH, sorry, I’m Hatsume Mei! Just call me Mei, the UA’s support class student extraordinaire. I won this trip for my old school,” the girl said, actually standing back and giving a mock salute.

“Oh, you’re one of the support course members? Excellent!” Melissa said getting over her surprise at the other woman’s closeness and sudden introduction quickly, introducing herself and the others before asking, “Would you like to become part of our little wager?”

“Wager, what are we wagering?”

Melissa explained, then pointed at Iida, and then Kirishima, explaining that they didn’t have support gear just yet, and that the race wouldn’t be fair if they didn’t. The girl clapped her hands gleefully. “Awesome! Although I’m not nearly as good at just designing as I am at actually building, and I don’t have any of my tools on me. I bet me and the speed boy could make a wonderful baby together.”

“HERK!?” Izuku gurgled, as the boys all blanched and flushed in equal measure.

“We can use my computer to come up with things, and then use the equipment at one of the nearby labs.” Melissa replied while Iida gaped and everyone else just stared or blushed at Mei’s words. “I wish we had time to head back to my lab, but it’s already afternoon, and getting there and back would take too long.”

“You have a lab,” Mei said said slowly, looking at her blankly, her happy expression fleeing her face.

“…yes?” Melissa said hesitantly. “Why?”

“Your own personal lab?”

“Yes,” Melissa said with a nod looking a little huffy. “As if I’d let anyone else mess around with my stuff!”

“Yeah I know what you mean.” Mei said with a nod. “And this lab of yours, was this something you won, something you got because you’re the big man’s daughter, or something every student has here?”

At that Melissa stiffened, and even Izuku winced at the social faux pas that Mei had just made while Momo said stoutly, “I’m certain that Melissa-san would never take advantage of her position like that.”

“Thank you Momo, and yes, everything in my lab I’ve made myself or won the right to use. Having a lab to yourself is based off keeping your grades to a certain level and being a student here in the first place of course.” Melissa said stiffly.

Mei seemed torn for a moment, then sighed, drooping. “Darn it, if I’d known that, I would’ve held off until I could apply to school here. I wonder if I can transfer? Unlimited time with babies would be amazing!”

Kirishima held up a hand, looking uncomfortable. “That’s like, the fourth time you’ve mentioned babies. What exactly…”

“That of course.” Mei pouted, pointing at the hard light computer. “And that,” she said pointing at Kyoka’s side where her speaker was. “And those I’ve no doubt.” she went on, leaning over Izuku, grabbing one of his hands and raising the wrist to stare at the bracelet there. “Oooh, an advanced titanium and graphite-based memory metal!”

“GAHH!” Izuku panicked holding up his hands in front of his face. “T-t-too close!”

“Wait!” Mei suddenly grinned even wider, turning then leaning forward deliberately into Melissa’s personal space again causing Izuku to breathe a sigh of relief. “So, you showed him your lab~, did you?” As Melissa backed away, the others looked at Mei quizzically, and she grinned. “For support course people, sharing lab space or even inviting someone over into it is like, like either first base, or inviting a boy home to meet your parents.”

“It’s nothing like that,” Melissa said hastily while Izuku was reduced to a blubbering mess. “And besides, Momo, Kyoka and Tsuyu were all there with us.”

“Now I’m feeling left out.” Mei pouted, actually sidling up against Melissa, try to give her cow eyes. This really did not work well with her natural sniper’s eyes which were a sign of her Quirk, and Melissa simply pushed her away with a look of mild revulsion on her face. “Was worth a try,” Mei said with a sigh, before asking slyly, “Actually, how about we have our own little competition?”

Melissa – still somewhat annoyed by the younger girl’s earlier comment about her familial connections – nodded. “I’m fine with that.” she said crossing her arms under her bust, causing all four boys to look away, although only Izuku was blushing as he did. The older girl was really attractive after all. Even someone as controlled as Todoroki was recognized that.

Mei smiled impishly. “I win, I get to have access to your lab.”

“Hell no.” Melissa shouted before blushing and calming down while Hatsume cackled at her reaction and the others just looked surprised. “Well, I suppose that would be fine with me there to watch over you. Just not unsupervised, and if you use my materials you have to pay me back for them.”

Mei pouted, but nodded her head. “That’s fine, I can deal with that so long as you’re not a major party pooper and try to limit my time in there.”

“If you win you can live in my lab for the few days you’re here so long as I’m there with you,” Melissa said dryly. She looked over at Izuku, smiling at him. I don’t think you’re going to though. There was something about the young boy, the way he spoke when he to spoke about being a hero. It put into her in mind of All Might far more than his strengthening Quirk would allow for.

“Awesome, Let’s make some fantastic babies Glasses Guy!” Mei said, whipping around to look at Iida, her expression practically manic while Iida and the other boys all flushed hotly at her wording.

“Hey wait you never bet…never mind,” Melissa said with a laugh. “I suppose I should have seen that coming. Still, I’ll make her pay up later… hmm… what to demand?”

The girls looked at one another. “What about us?”

You three can go first, that’ll give Mei time to work with Iida. And remember what we said.” Melissa said pointing at Momo. “Don’t just be a slave to what you think your Quirk can do or what you’ve memorized. Build on that but go beyond it.”

“Right,” Momo said, smacking her cheeks. “Right. Let’s do this!” she shouted, thrusting one fist up in the air, causing the other kids bar Todoroki to cheer.

“I’ll go first,” Kirishima said with a laugh. “I’ve already gone once and don’t want any support items. You all can add the two scores and divide by two, to use my time. Besides which, this’ll be fun.”

“No,” Tsuyu said smacking her long-fingered hands together. “I’ll go first. My power is the most likely to be used as a scout in the open field like this. You can use that to better your own time Kirishima-kun, kero, kero.”

“Then I’ll go after Kirishima.” Kyoka said before exchanging a high-five with Tsuyu, as she went on. “The two of us are the ones who are most likely going to be labeled as scouts by any hero group anyway. Tsuyu can go after us.”

With Mei in deep conversation with Iida on what he wanted and with Izuku content to sit in the bleachers and watch the screens, the other girls and Kirishima left the boys there, Melissa going with them. She’d already given Izuku two full gauntlets, the prototype and one she’d whipped up in her lab earlier. Plus, she wanted to see what the others were able to do in person, so she borrowed a construction crew’s skimmer to follow them along like the video drones did from the air.

She was not disappointed.

Tsuyu was highly mobile, racing through the course, or rather hopping, as quickly as possible. She lacked true stopping power, so it actually took her a bit longer than Kirishima to get through each segment, but she was able to pick up more time in the river portion, by simply taking to the river, and dealing with the only two enemies – aquatic based robots – that were in there.

When it was her turn, Kyoka was a bit of a surprise for everyone. The first time her speaker was able to rattle a robot apart, she looked down at it, grinned, then went “hell yes!” After that, she went a little mad, going from robot to robot destroying them from range with her new attack. It cost her a lot in terms of time but gave her more points both with the normal obstacle course counter and Todoroki, who gave her points for style and for not being hit in turn.

“…I don’t know if I can do this.” Momo said, poking her fingers together and looking around, then up at the TV screens then away. She was not unused to being on display of course, but to be on display for her own merits like this was something new and somewhat frightening. As was the fact that they had already begun to draw in a crowd from construction crews, local students and others.

“H-how about I go then?” Izuku said, smiling at her. He had joined her in the waiting area once Tsuyu had finished her run. “That will give you more time to get used to the idea.”

“Manly bro.” Kirishima said. He had returned to the starting point to watch everyone else once his own run had finished and had cheered and clapped along with the others – bar Todoroki – as they watched Kyoka do her run through the obstacle race.

“Would you?” Momo said looking at him hesitantly. “That means you would be going before Iida you know, which might give him a leg up in your little competition.”

“I don’t really care about that.” Izuku said with a smile, looking down at his gauntlets covered hands. “I want to try these out, and well, if it helps to give you more time to gear yourself up, then that’s fine too.”

Momo smiled at him thankfully, and he blushed as he looking away. Every girl had that effect on him of course, but there was no denying that Yaoyorozu was the most attractive girl in their class and he hadn’t built up even the slight immunity to her beauty that he had with Uraraka-san.

With that, Izuku stepped forward, looking at the man who was running the obstacle course for the day.

He had started the day as looking at it as something to do while he was doing some light reading. That had changed when Kirishima had shown up, followed quickly by Todoroki, and then the rest of them. He looked at Izuku and his gauntlet covered hands, and grinned. “You ready?”

Izuku breathed in deeply, then slammed one hand into his other palm. “Let’s do this!”

Thanks to his training with All Might, Izuku was actually quite quick on his feet, and he raced forward, heading straight for one of the first robots. Instead of destroying it, he leaped up on to its back as it swung at him. From there he quickly pulled open one of the panels on the back of its head.

Izuku hadn’t actually been watching the others race through the obstacle course. Even with the new support items, he had a good idea of their abilities. No, he had been watching the robots, and had seen there was a panel on their heads that you could open, as well as what looked like a microphone. With that, he figured that the robots could be controlled locally.

The robots in the cityscape were tracked creatures, which fired paintball blasts from one hand, and had fully articulated fingers for the other. But they were very fast and with his match against Iida, speed was of the essence. So he pulled open the panel, and quickly began to figure out the controls inside, while the others were watching him in shock.

“Is that even allowed?” Kyoka asked while the others nodded in agreement to the question.

“I don’t think it should add to his points.” Melissa said to everyone else’s question. “But it certainly should be allowed for the running of his course.”

“That makes sense.” Kirishima said with a nod. “But damn, I wish I’d thought of that!”

“Would you have been able to figure out the controls like that?” Kyoka asked pointing at the monitor above them with an ear jack. The monitor was now showing Izuku racing along on top of the robot, dodging fire from other robots as he zoomed through the first area of the obstacle race and into the second.

“Probably not.” Kirishima admitted. “Pretty cool of the guy though. But he won’t be able to do that in the other areas will he?”

This turned out to be accurate, but since the second area was a field instead of the starting point’s roads, the tracks on the robot wouldn’t have actually helped Izuku move faster. Here however, Izuku switched tactics, leaping off the robot.

“One for All, three percent.” he muttered to himself, his hands clenching on the robot’s shoulder as he hoped off it. As he did so, he lifted the robot off the ground, the gauntlets helped contain his power without injuring himself. Hefting it above his head, he tossed it straight towards another robot charging towards him. His core still stung badly after he came out of the technique, but that was nothing in comparison to the punishment he would normally take even for a brief use of One for All.

Melissa watched this, cocking her head thoughtfully to one side. “Do you know what kind of martial arts is Izuku learning?”

“None as far as we know.” Kyoka said with a shrug, ignoring the use of Midoriya’s first name without any mode of address by this point from the American girl. “They don’t offer martial arts lessons at UA so unless you go outside for them…”

Tsuyu raised a hand with a faint smile. “My family has an agreement with a Frog-fu martial arts school where we all go to learn, kero.”

“I learned some boxing from an old friend of my dad’s. I know Mina learned some break and ballroom dancing when she couldn’t find anything else to help her gain some kind of martial art that seemed to fit her.” Kirishima said.

“That makes sense.” Momo said, echoing the earlier words deliberately. “She’s very agile and flexible isn’t she?”

Kirishima was about to answer with a nod at that, until he caught Kyoka and Tsuyu looking at him, and he shook his head at them. “We’re not like that, I swear.”

“We don’t believe you,” the two of them said as one causing him to roll his eyes.

By this point, Izuku was entering the last area, the arena and it’s mountain landscape. Here, he crouched down, clenching his hands. ‘All right, okay, you can do this. Push most of the power into your arms, and use One for All just in your arms…’ He could feel the energy gathering within him and tried to imagine his arms like they were empty glasses, and waited, waited until the ‘water’ of his energy was within that image.

With that, he leapt and thrust down on to the ground with one hand, shooting off the ground like a rocket with a loud boom. It also caused him to crash into the mountain behind his target shattering a large portion of the rock and overshooting that robot by several yards. “Gah, too much!” Let’s try again!”

The next blast thrust him forward, deep into the mountain area, where he landed far better than the first time. “Right, I, I can do this!” With that he began to bounce from one place to another, using the same technique: one punch to the ground, the other hand punching the robots into so much wreckage.

A crowd had gathered by this point, and they were cheering him on now, while Todoroki nodded approvingly. “He’s going to get points for style.” he said in his normal monotone as he looked over at the girls gesturing to the screen. “That was damn smart of him.”

“True.” Iida said nodding his head furiously. “I’m going to have to truly step my game to come even with him.”

Mei nodded too, crossing her arms under her own not exactly insignificant chest as she looked at the action unfolding below them. Melissa however was still frowning a little. “I’m going to have to come up with some greaves for his legs I think, if he can’t even manage to use his full strength Quirk in his legs either.”

Tsuyu nodded as well. :His ability to use his Quirk is kind of limited, isn’t it? And you’re right Melissa, a martial arts style is something we’re going to have to get him interested in, kero.”

“He’s a project.” Melissa said with a laugh. “But I think, well there’s just something about him that reminds me of Uncle Might.”

“Uncle Might?” The girls queried, looking at her.

The older blonde girl shrugged apologetically. “I am David Shield’s daughter, so I’ve known Uncle Might all my life practically.” she said, amused and happy that her new friends had seemingly forgot that during their interactions today.

The fact that Momo and Kyoka both thumped a fist into a palm and said, “oh right, forgot about that.” made her day.

By then Izuku had finished. His score was quite high both in terms of his speed through the course and the number of robots he’d destroyed. He had finished the entire course in about sixteen minutes and two-hundred and fifty-five points from the course’s automatic score, to which Todoroki added fifty points for style. That was pretty good, but nowhere near Todoroki’s time time of twelve minutes and a perfect four hundred points for destroying every droid in the course.

Even so, Todoroki moved over to congratulate him as he joined the others in the seats. “That was very good, you’ve grown a lot since you started that first day. Is that All Might’s influence?”

Izuku looked away, rubbing at his nose with a finger sheepishly. “I-I guess you could say that.”

“And he goes out of his way to bring you here where you can get those support items to help you. Is he your father?” Todoroki said, still in his monotone voice even as he laid his pet theory out.

It took a moment for the words to register, and then Izuku began to flush, shaking his head rapidly. “N-no! No I, my father’s in the United States at the moment. I don’t, um, he and I,” Izuku faltered a little looking away. “I don’t exactly, that is…”

Todoroki blinked, then shook his head. “Sorry, forget I asked.” He looked away muttering under his breath. “So other people have trouble with their families too huh?”

Izuku heard that, looked at him quizzically then he asked hesitantly “I, you can shut me down if you want, Todoroki-san, but I notice you don’t use your fire powers in battle.”

“And I never will,” Todoroki said, scowling irritably and looking away. “I made a promise to myself. I will never use that power in battle.”

Izuku looked at him, then stated, “That’s just silly,” without any hint of his normal stutter.

Todoroki rounded on him, glaring at the other young boy. “What do you know about it!!?”

“What happens if you have to use that power to save someone? To save yourself or other heroes or even civilians?” Izuku asked sharply. Far more sharply than Todoroki – or the girls who, unbeknownst to the two boys were listening in thanks to Kyoka's ear jacks – had ever heard before. “What happens then? Is your pride more important than saving lives? That’s arrogant! No that’s worse than arrogant! That’s almost criminal.”

Todoroki stepped back, startled at the amount of ferocity that Izuku had put into those words. “I…”

“You have this magnificent Quirk, but that’s only half the fight.” Izuku said overriding whatever the other boy would have said. “The girls pointed this out to me earlier. You can have the greatest Quirk in the world, but if you’re not willing to put in the work, if you’re not willing to truly act the part of a hero, then you’re not going to be as good as you can be. Eventually you’re going to run into a situation that you can’t handle with just your ice.”

Todoroki looked away, scowling. “It’s not that simple. There’s a lot more to my desire not to use my fire powers, issues cause by, by where I get my fire from.” but even he felt it sounded little lame, and he slowly nodded. He was unwilling to share what else that was, but without it he couldn’t fight Izuku’s accusations. And even with it, my attempt would probably fail. he thought, in a moment of clarity. “I’ll think about it,” he said instead.

Izuku nodded. “T-that’s all I want you to do. Just remember, at the end of the day – whatever your problems with your fire powers – those powers are yours, no one else’s.”

The taller boy looked at him sharply at that. Izuku’s intuition was really strong if he understood that just from some quick words. But Izuku was already turning away, sweatdropping slightly as he looked down at the arena. “Um, we just missed Iida’s entire run.”

Todoroki turned, and also began to sweatdrop. “I don’t think we should mention that to him, should we?”

“I don’t think so, no.” The two boys looked at one another, then smirked slightly before turning away from one another once more.

Back with the girls, Kyoka retracted her earphone jack from the side of the wall separating the amphitheater’s seats from the prep room. “Boy bonding is weird,” she said, before looking over at Momo. “Still, it looks as if your words got through to Izuku at least.”

Momo smiled at that nodding her head, her spiked ponytail bobbing from side to side. “And hopefully his words will get through to Todoroki. I hadn’t realized how much he’d been holding back, but if his heating powers are really strong enough that he could use them in a fight, Izuku’s right, it’s almost criminal for him to ignore it. Now if you’ll excuse me.” she said, standing up lithely, and stretching in place. “I think it’s my turn.” She clenched her fist in front of her, grinning at them all yet somehow still in a bubbly manner. “I’m pumped up now! Seeing everyone else’s matches, has really made me want to step up too.”

“Go for it girl.” Melissa cheered, exchanging a high five with the other tall girl.

Behind them, Kyoka looked over at Tsuyu, gesturing to where Mei and Iida were moving towards them. “…Did you even notice his time?”

Tsuyu slowly shook her head, making little frog noises under her breath.

“Don’t mention it then, we’ll talk Todoroki into giving him twenty points for style too.” Kyoka instructed.

Tsuyu nodded, then raised a hand towards the incoming Iida, Mei and the two boys who had joined them. “You did great Iida, but your speed is still better than your stopping power, kero.” she guessed, which turned out to be accurate as Iida nodded seriously, gesturing to Mei, and speaking about the items she’d made for him. A few moments later however, their attentions turned to the monitors of the rest of the course, as the announcer announced Momo’s start through the course.

She took a single step forward into the arena, then closed her eyes and shouted “let’s do this! With that, she slammed her hands together, and from her back, mostly bare as she had changed into her hero uniform, sprouted a jet pack.” It fit snugly around her waist, which was also bare for the most part, then looped around her shoulders via some straps, which she clicked into place. She then held out her hand, and from her forearm and arm another thing materialized.

Mei’s eyes gleamed as she stared at it, “what is that baby?” she whispered in awe.

The girls looked at one another shrugging in unison. “Some kind of gun? Definitely not her normal cannon.” Kyoka said with a nod.

“It’s probably made of titanium and other lightweight materials… recoil however would be…” Izuku began to mutter under his breath. “But what kind of ammunition… no, rather, the ammunition would probably be the most… mutter mutter, mumble mumble.”

Tsuyu reached out with her tongue and smacked him upside the head, before looking back to the screens above as Momo began to move. Creating her items had taken about a minute and a half, which was actually longer then it took her to run through the first segment. With her jet pack, she flew up into the air and away. She couldn’t use the gun from the air since it seemed to be impossible to aim while flying. But she still used the cut down autocannon on her arm to decimate the robots by keeping the range open with her backpack, constantly moving, landing and firing before moving on again if they tried to close.

In this manner Momo decimated the course and did so very quickly, destroying every robot that dared to show itself, missing only the two aquatic robots in the river segment, before she was within the arena. Here, there were so many enemies, that she slowed down a bit, and the fact that she had to reload her weapon cost her some time. But she still finished not only faster than any of the other boys, but faster than Todoroki, whose eyes widened in surprise as she beat him by a full forty seconds.

“Impressive.” he muttered, shaking his head. “This class is full of possible rivals isn’t it?”

Everyone else moved into the receiving area to cheer Momo’s arrival, clapping and whooping, so much she blushed, extremely thankful there was no one else beside their small group there. That blush deepened though as her stomach rumbled like a small volcano, startling everyone to back away from and looked down at her stomach in shock and some fear. She covered her waist quickly, turning away. “D-don’t look at me like that! I told you it takes a lot of energy to use my power!”

After a moment, everyone laughed sheepishly, before the moment was interrupted by Izuku’s phone going off. He pulled it out and All Might’s name appeared on the cell phone screen “Ah, yes, All Might? Do you want us back at the lab?”

“Not just yet Midoriya-shounen.” All Might replied, his voice coming through normally, indicating he was in his normal body. “It turns out we’ll be staying the night on the island. David will see you tomorrow, but he wants to work with me on a few projects for the rest of this evening.” Even over a phone on I-Island, All Might wasn’t going to talk about his Quirk or his issues with it openly.

“Actually, his daughter had some items that she’s volunteered to let me use, so I’m good to go, All Might!” Izuku replied brightly. “You can spend as much time catching up as you want without worrying about me.”

“That’s good to hear Midoriya-shounen.” Toshinori said with a laugh in his voice. “Still, find yourself a hotel please, then charge the room to my name. I understand you’ve run into some friends?”

Izuku started. “How do you…”

“Your impromptu competition is all over the island’s news feeds.” All Might replied dryly. Izuku started to stammer at that and looked embarrassed, but All Might called him out on it despite not being able to see the youngster. “Bah! It would be best for you to get used to being in the spotlight now Midoriya-shounen. When you become a hero, you will always, in one form or another, be in public. Still, find yourself a hotel, and have the night off. I’ll see you tomorrow, all right?”

Izuku agreed, then asked the others what their plans were. Melissa offered to show him to the hotel, where the girls already had lodgings booked for the night. Mei though broke off saying she wanted to head back to her room, which was in another hotel, and write up a few ideas for new babies that watching the others go through the obstacle course had given her.

Melissa had won their little side-bet, though Mei didn’t seem to care over much, especially when Melissa offered to let Mei have access to her lab the next day. “But only with me there, and no actual making anything unless you run it by me! I get billed for the material I use after all!”

Mei agreed to her terms with a gleam in her eyes that would have sent a shiver up the spines of her fellow classmates. As it was, Melissa just felt a little uncomfortable as she watched the shorter girl race away.

As they walked to the hotel, the girls chattered to one another excitedly about their times and Momo’s innovation. The boys walked, but Iida and Kirishima did most of the talking there while Izuku and Todoroki simply listened. Momo herself was too busy chewing down on a protein bar that Izuku had had in his backpack. It didn’t do much to assuage her hunger, and she stopped as they passed an ice cream shop, grabbing up a large helping. Then she raided a small hotdog stand, chomping through several of them with a ferocity that caused all four boys to become uncomfortable for some reason.

“If I was a petty sort, I’d be jealous of her being able to eat like that and retain that figure.” Melissa mused, to which the other two girls nodding agreement.

As she spoke, Melissa realized she was having the time of her life. She was not used to having friends around like this. She wasn’t very friendly with the rest of the students on the island, who like Mei had initially, thought that she had gotten a leg up just because of who her father was. The only preferential treatment Melissa ever got was access to her father’s lab, and she had earned that. Plus, she had access to some of his research when at home, which again she had earned.

"So where do we all want to go for dinner Momo?” she asked, looking over at the heiress who had easily won the bet between the heroes in training.

“Well, is there any outdoor café like where we ate this afternoon, only with more filling food? I really enjoyed our time this afternoon, and I’d wager the island is amazing at night. If for no other reason than there won’t be as many lights between us and the nighttime sky as usual.” Momo replied.

“There’s a steakhouse already open that has outside seating, but it’s more than a little dressy.” Melissa warned.

“Steak…” Momo said, almost drooling at the very idea she was that hungry. “Protein! Yes please!” the hotdogs would keep her happy for now, but they certainly wouldn’t refill her fat reserves that she’d used up earlier.

The boys looked at one another and nodded firmly. “Steak will do us, but if it’s dressy we’ll have to dress up too.” Todoroki said. “I can, I’m here representing Endeavor and that means being seen at high-end sh…stuff.” He finished lamely. There was also a dark undertone to his words and the others a little uneasy.

“Er, we didn’t bring anything like that, kero.” Tsuyu said hesitantly.

“That’s no problem. I’ll come back with one of I-Island’s uniform creation machines. If you could all have some designs ready from, say, a few fashion magazines to input into it, we’ll be good to go.” Melissa replied. “That’s what I’ve done with all my clothing.”

“I… er, my mom made me pack a suit I guess I can use.” Izuku mumbled, not looking forward to it.

“Heh, my mom made me do the same thing Bro.” Kirishima replied, while Iida nodded agreement. “So we’re good.”

At the idea of getting new dresses the girls exchanged high-fives, all save Momo looking forward to an evening out playing dress-up. Momo was simply looking forward to an evening with her friends, so it was all the same to her.

“Excellent. But first, I want to head back to my lab. Now that I’ve seen Izuku in action, I think I can do a better job of tweaking the gauntlets to work with him. Maybe I can even whip up something for his legs that my fabber can finish for him before he leaves on Tuesday,” Melissa said.

Scene break

The mask-wearing man and several of his fellows stood over six unconscious security guards, while three more worked some of the security consoles scanning through various images from around the island. They were making note of the Heroes and sidekicks that were currently on the island. None were big names, mostly individuals connected to the scientific community for their non-Hero work, independently wealthy, or young up and comers who had somehow won a trip to the island like the UA students.

Only one of them was a problem, but in his case, that was a very, very large problem.

“All Might being here is unexpected.” the mask-wearing man said after everyone around him got over their shock and sudden fear at spotting that all-too-familiar face. “Was there anything in the Island’s schedule that would’ve warned us about that?”

‘Have we been betrayed?’

He didn’t have to say that last question aloud, but all of his men, highly experienced and well-trained mercenaries, heard it anyway and the people at the consoles quickly began to work their computers, even more frantically. Eventually one of them shook his head. “No, Wolfram, there’s nothing about All Might being here on anything we can find. The first notice of his arrival occurred when he was already on the island.”

That made everyone breathe a little sigh of relief, except for the now-named Wolfram, who simply smirked. “So, that came as a surprise to everyone, even our inside man? Do we know where he’s staying?”

They traced All Might’s movement back from the first time they spotted him entering a large house that looked like a simple block structure, which was labeled as the ‘Shield residence’ on the island’s map. It had an entirely separate security system however, so they couldn’t tell what was going on inside. “We can’t get in.” the mask-wearing man’s best computer tech said, raising his fingers away from the console in front of him. “In fact, any attempt from the rest of I-Island’s security to even try to infiltrate will set up a feedback, which will shut down the security system, sending all the droids into local control. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve said it was an AI system, but it can’t be, those are…”

“So freaking illegal it’s not even funny,” Wolfram said, nodding. The spread of Quirks had changed practically everything on a societal level the world over: laws, rights, how people viewed science fiction, fantasy, actual science, computers, everything. But one thing had remained and that was the fear of rogue AI. Surprisingly, robots themselves had gained acceptance, but artificial intelligences had most decidedly not.

This was perhaps sparked by a few Middle Eastern countries attempting what they had called Overwatch program, in order to find segregate and separate Quirk users from the rest of the population. That program had stopped simply because the Quirk phenomenon spread so fast, but it had led to a lot of grisly incidents even so, both on the Quirk side, and on the AI side of things. Even now, Heroes were not as well-liked in the Middle East as they were elsewhere in the world.

“Do we have any idea of how long All Might is going to be here? If he’s just going to be here for another few hours, we could put off the entire operation, right?” said one of the others.

Wolfram scowled. He didn’t want to have to contact their inside man yet. Every time they did, they ran the risk of the greedy fuck getting cold feet, a real possibility given his personality, or simply outright betraying them. Either would be disastrous, given how much more security they had to go through to get to the real prize or even just to get off the island without being caught at this point. “Can we assign one of the security drones to All Might without anyone being the wiser?”

The answer to that was yes, and one of the computer techs immediately did so.

“And we have an itinerary,” said one of the others quickly, looking through a newly updated daily planner that showed the important events occurring around the island that day. “David Shield and All Might are going to be at an impromptu dinner that Shield’s PR people threw together in the last 20 minutes. “

“Apparently they just can’t let All Might being here go without taking advantage of it,” another man said dryly.

Do we have an idea of where is that happening?” Wolfram asked quickly.

“According to this information it’ll be held in the main ballroom . That’s inside the main tower like we are. Seventeenth floor. The entire floor is dominated by it.”

Without being told one of the other villains pulled up the image, as well as the security features that were set up within the ballroom, and the rest of the tower. “Inhibitor energy coils, stun beams, knockout gas, and hundreds upon hundreds of security droids both stored within the rest of the tower and close by for VIP protection.” he read off.

“Has All Might accepted?” Wolfram asked, while the rest of his troops began to grin at one another.

“He has.” the man who had found the itinerary said.

“Excellent. With that, I think we are back in business, people.” He pointed to the two best computer techs. “You two, get to work on cracking the security around the vault. We’ll want to have gotten through as much of the protection as we can before bringing in our inside man. The rest of us will wait here.” He looked at his two companions. The ones who had arrived with him. “You two, pick out seven others, as you’ll be on wandering patrol now.” He pointed at a few of the monitors which had recorded the events in place in the Hero obstacle course.

“Those little fools, and the rest of the Heroes out and about the island might be trouble. We can lock down All Might and everyone at the dinner. But if not all of the other Heroes get or accept the invite, they may be able to give us a big headache along with the youngsters. Remember people, we don’t get paid unless we get out of here with the Quirk Amplification device. We don’t get shit for second place.” Wolfram reminded his men.

Scene break

Izuku and Melissa walked back to her laboratory in silence for most of the trip, with Izuku getting in some more training by running alongside Melissa as she once more used her techno-pogo stick. “Do you, hah, just like to bounce around like, hah, that,” he huffed, “Or, do, hah, you just not like the Segways we used earlier?”

“Oh, there’s a bit of that I suppose,” Melissa said with a laugh as she came down again before bouncing high up into the air. “This is both more fun than a Segway and it’s good exercise too.”

Izuku made a quizzical noise, and Melissa thrust out one leg to the side, patting her thigh as she reached perihelion before righting herself quickly to take the next bounce. “It works your legs with every bounce, as if you’re doing a half squat. You can even add resistance and make it harder for yourself.”

“W-wow, that’s amazing,” Izuku said with a somewhat forced laugh as he looked away from her outthrust leg, which had revealed a lot of very well-toned thigh. “I s-still can’t get over how many devices you designed yourself. I mean living here on island is one thing, but developing these gauntlets, and what you were able to help Jiro-san with, as well as Asui-san on such short notice? That’s incredible.”

“Well, like a certain someone, I wanted to be a Hero too since the moment I could push myself up and watch the TV without falling over,” Melissa said with a smile, and very light blush at the younger boy’s unvarnished praise. “When that stopped being my dream, I started to think of ways to help Heroes instead. That’s why I’m such a big proponent of support gear.”

Izuku gaped at her, then asked quickly, “Bu, but why, I mean why aren’t you at UA then!? Surely your grades would have been more than enough to get in! And with how you’ve helped us all, it’s obvious that you have what Asui-san called the Hero mentality too!” In fact it’s kind of humbling to think of how much she’s helped me, as well as the others since meeting us.

Melissa smile turned a little twisted at that as she shrugged her shoulders. “Well that might be true, but there was a hurdle that I wasn’t able to overcome. After all, no one would allow a Quirkless student into an Academy for Heroes.”

Hearing that Izuku blanched, stumbling to a halt so hard he actually tripped, tumbling forward end over end with an undignified squawk to land on his back on the road. He stared up at the sky in complete shock which was quickly occluded by Melissa’s face as she hopped back to him, leaning down. “Are you okay? Wow, I’ve seen people trip, but that was a trip and a half!” she joked.

“I um, I’m sorry I really overreacted there.” Izuku babbled.

“No no, I get it, there aren’t many of us without Quirks any longer. I’m the only one I actually know about, although my father’s Quirk is so limited he might as well be. Nor is he alone in that if you think about it, But he, well Papa’s not exactly normal up here you know.” she added, tapping her forehead with a laugh.

“N, no it’s not that. I, it’s just well… I know where you’re coming from.” He said lamely repeating the mantra of ‘it’s a secret, it’s a secret’ in his head to keep from blurting out about why. “I, um, I came into my Quirk so late, I, Um, I was thought to be Quirkless for so long. Th-there were so many people, e-everyone in m-my life in fact, wh, who told me to quit dreaming about being a hero. I-I couldn’t! I just couldn’t. And it… it made my life hell. B-but being Quirkless t-that, we-well I can understand what kind of trials you’ve had to overcome.”

Melissa sighed, nodding her head “Yes I suppose you would.” Then she suddenly smiled, holding out a hand to help him up. “Well, that just means that you will have to try harder won’t it?”

He blinked at her, and she helped to pull Izuku to his feet. “After all, doesn’t that mean that you have to become a Hero for both yourself and for me and those like the two of us too? Having your Quirk manifest as it did, it’s like getting a second chance, a chance to stand up for the underdogs of the world.”

Izuku stared at her for a moment, then smiled brightly, nodding his head firmly. “Yeah!”

She smiled back, and then gestured them to move on. Soon enough they were in her lab once more, and Melissa gestured Izuku to sit down on the sofa. She moved to one side of the lab, finding the phone and calling in a request to send the uniform creation machine to the hotel where the girls were staying. Momo of course wouldn’t need it, but Kyoka and Tsuyu would have a lot of fun with it. Melissa had a dress she could wear already of course.

With that done, Melissa started up her own fabber to work on Full Greaves for Izuku’s legs. But since they were starting from scratch and she’d already used most of the memory carbotanium her allowance allowed for on the second gauntlet, it would take a few days. This meant that Melissa would no doubt have to send them to Izuku since he would be gone from the island then.

Sitting down across from Izuku, Melissa gave him a smile as she showed him a few designs, popping them up onto her TV screen. “So, I figured out a few ways to help you train your body to better handle your Quirk. A training suit to hold your movements back for one thing. That will make it tougher to move your body whatever you’re doing. I can whip something up like that in about a week without much more design work. But that would be very good as an exercise for your entire body, not just your upper body, which I’ve noticed what you were doing. You fought like All Might, did you know that?”

“W-well I mean isn’t t-that the way someone with a strength Quirk should fight?” Izuku said, now feeling a little defensive and wary, realizing how close this came to the big secret he and Toshinori shared.

But Melissa simply ignored that going on. “Well perhaps, but you’re not All Might Izuku.”

Izuku flinched at those words, his mouth gaping open.

But Melissa went on, the very bluntness of her words acting like someone physically pulling a band-aid off a wound in order to get the pain over with quickly. “Look at how you were able to come up with a plan to overcome your body’s weakness earlier today during the obstacle course. Yet the moment a fight began, you seem to rely on imitating All Might. That’s really not good, I mean Uncle Might is, well, All Might! And he’s amazing but imitating him isn’t the way to be amazing yourself.”

Seeing the shocked and crestfallen expression on Izuku’s face, she sighed. “I worshiped him as a Hero too you know,” she said softly. “But that doesn’t mean that his way of fighting is the only way, or even the best way, especially not for someone of your build. You’re clearly not scrawny,” And here she caused Izuku to light up in an iridescent blush as she felt up his arm without really thinking, her own face reddening when she realized what she had done, “But you’re no All Might. I swear, his arm is bigger than my torso. You need to fight smarter, not harder.”

She clicked her fingers suddenly, then pointed at Izuku, her finger once more poking his nose. “Your notebooks are just amazing, so lets start there in enemy analysis. You told me about USJ so looking back on it, what can you tell me about the enemy’s Quirks? Start from the band you, Tsuyu and your other classmate fought, then switch over to the main three.

With a shrug Izuku did so, and Melissa questioned him closely on a few of his observations before they came to the main three. Izuku instantly pointed out the weakness of the teleporter, Kurogiri; the fact that he did in fact have a body that could be targeted. “Weigh him down, target the body. Maybe someone with magnetic powers would be the best to fight against him. And a magnetic field would also work as a defense. Something that targets anything metal could drag him to an electric trap of some kind. Kaminari-kun could be immensely useful against him. He and Kachan would have easily been able to beat him I think.”

“And what about the other two?” Melissa asked.

“Lure them into the water area and isolate them there.” Izuku said instantly. “After all, you can’t decay water or even punch it very effectively. Moreover, the Nomu was completely dependent on orders. Without the decay user, the Nomu would’ve been docile. If we were able keep them in the water, that would have completely negated their abilities and ability to work together, since the Nomu wouldn’t have been able to make out the other one’s orders. It-it would’ve been easy.” he stammered, falling to a halt.

“Excellent! Now was that so hard? Melissa asked with a smirk as she reached out to ruffle Izuku’s hair. “The best Heroes aren’t always the strongest, or the fastest or anything like that. They use their brains too you know. Honestly Izuku, you’re not All Might as he is now and even Uncle Might had to start off by thinking his way through things rather than just punching them all out of the way!”

Seeing Izuku so chagrined was making her just want to pat his head and make everything better. “Izuku, I realize, more than anyone else, that Quirks are amazing and fantastic things. But you said to me that my accomplishments were amazing too. There is more to life than Quirks. I know people put you down for most of your life as being Quirkless, but you need to remember that there’s is more to you and your self-worth than just your Quirk, no matter how long it took to awaken in you” she whispered.

Izuku flinched at that, because he hadn’t honestly awakened his Quirk. Instead, he had been given it by All Might. But that didn’t mean Melissa’s words had less impact. Indeed, they had more.

“I… thank you. You’re right. You’re right! I need to think more. I need to remember all the research I did on Quirks. I need to remember to use my brain, I-I have to be more than just a glass hammer now. And, and even when I start to become able to use more of my power, I need to remember that there’s more to me than just my Quirk.” Izuku said, repeating her words deliberately, smiling up at her so happily that Melissa couldn’t stop herself from blushing, unused to receiving such looks of almost naked admiration from people, certainly not for something she said rather than something she did or her father did at any rate.

“T, that’s the spirit!” she said, stammering slightly as she looked away, before clapping her hands as she resolutely moved on from this sensitive topic. “Now I need to go meet the girls, and you need to go back to your own hotel and get dressed.” She quickly pulled up a map, then printed it out for him, holding it out. “I’ll see you at the steakhouse, all right?”

He nodded firmly taking it and stammering his thanks. Their hands touched for just a bit longer than necessary, to both of their hidden pleasure. “T-t-thank you. For… for everything. For the gauntlets, for the pep talk, everything!”

“I should thank you.” Melissa said softly, a warm smile on her face. “After all, making friends like this has been of great fun for me too.” Her smile turned into a teasing smirk, “Now, unless you intend to stay around to watch me shower and change, I…”

But Izuku was already gone before she could finish that sentence, actually leaving behind an afterimage in his haste as Melissa laughed gaily behind him.

Scene break

The group of teens met up at the high-class restaurant that Melissa had picked out for them. The boys arrived first, with Izuku and Kirishima practically dragging a reluctant Todoroki behind them as Iida remonstrated with him. “You agreed to come out and eat with us Todoroki-san, and this is an important bonding ritual with your classmates. Your attempts to become a hermit does no one any good.”

“I don’t know what you’re so annoyed about. You clean up pretty damn good Todo-bro,” Kirishima said with a laugh.

“Ki-Kirishima-kun is right, Todoroki-san. Your suit is certainly far better than mine,” Izuku said with a shrug.

Izuku’s suit was quite clearly a hand-me-down, something that barely fit him in terms of length of leg and arm. It hugged his frame in unusual places and was of brown and black pinstripes with a dark ivory undershirt. Kirishima’s suit, as well as the others were actually quite good. Todoroki wore a white suit with black highlights, red stripped tie, and blue undershirt. Kirishima wore a dark gray suit with black undershirt and red tie. Iida wore a business-like suit in blue with a white shirt and yellow tie.

“I know I can’t get out of this,” Todoroki said, finally pulling out of Kirishima and Izuku’s grips. “I even know it might be… fun. Maybe. But I still don’t like being out in public so much. And dressing up is… annoying.” And like usual, his thoughts turned to a darker side as he thought of an additional reason, Especially since this is a suit my sperm donor picked out for me. Pisses me off every time I see it, let alone when I wear it.

“Yeah, I can understand that,” Izuku mumbled, looking around at the sniggers people were giving him. He sighed, but then shook his head. “Still, for steak I think I can get through it.” The most meat Izuku ever saw at home were beef bowls, and then rarely. He and his mother weren’t poor, but they weren’t all that well off either.

“Hell yeah, that’s the spirit,” Kirishima said with a laugh.

“Indeed. I personally have never had European style food, let alone European style steak. It should be a most interesting experience,” Iida said with a smile.

“Bah, I’d rather have soba,” Todoroki muttered.

In contrast to the boys, the girls were all in high spirits chattering to one another excitedly as they arrived. Even Momo was getting into it, despite being used to dressing up. As they arrived, all of the boys simply stared, with even Todoroki looking a little poleaxed at how good the girls looked. Huh, maybe this wasn’t a horrible idea after all.

Kyoka and Tsuyu were something of a matched pair, both of them wearing dresses that looked like they were from the American swing era, with wide, frilly skirts that only fell to their knees, with stockings below that, paired with a blouse up top. Kyoka wore a black jacket over a dark blue blouse with pink frills, and was practically hiding behind Momo, while Tsuyu had a dark green skirt and blouse combo with long skintight black fishnet gloves to go with her fishnet stockings. Both girls had also done their hair a little differently, and both were wearing lipstick and eye shadow. Beyond that, Kyoka had a choker around her neck while Tsuyu had a pair of gently tinkling earrings.

But the two best looking, hands down, were Momo and Melissa. Momo wore a cocktail dress: a long, light green number with a plunging neckline showing off her curves to such an effect many adult women would have turned green with envy. It tied up behind her neck leaving her shoulder bare, showing off both her light musculature and healthy porcelain skin tone. Her hair was up in its usual spikey style, but she had a hairpin of gold with rubies, a pair of earrings, and some very light red lipstick that drew attention to her lips in a way that Izuku couldn’t quite understand.

But perhaps the best dressed of them all was Melissa, who had really gone all out for a night out with her new friends. After all, when she and her papa ate together they rarely dressed up, and she hadn’t had to be seen in public with him for years.

Like Kyoka and Tsuyu, Melissa wore a skirt although it was far less puffy and frilly than theirs. In white it paired well with a top that hugged her curves across her chest like a girdle, not letting any of her chest be seen but hinting at it while leaving her neck and shoulders completely bare. At her waist she wore a sash of black with a white flower set on her right hip. Around her neck she wore a tight necklace with a golden torque on it. She too had decided to wear lipstick and eyeshadow, in her case light pink lipstick and very subtle eyeliner that brought attention to her lashes. Her hair – like Momo’s – glistened in the light of the lamps, and she had a red ribbon in her hair and a pair of golden earrings, the later courtesy of Momo.

“Y-you all look a-a-amazing,” Izuku said in awe, surprisingly the first boy to find his voice after the girls had arrived.

“You all look the pretty good too,” Melissa said with a laugh, although she was looking askance at Izuku’s suit. She sidled up to him and whispered, “If you didn’t have a suit that fit you, I could’ve made you one with the fabricator now.”

But he shook his head firmly. “N-no. You’ve already helped me so much, I couldn’t ask you to do anything else for me.”

“You wouldn’t have had to ask. Isn’t that what friends are for?” She pouted at him.

Izuku beamed at that, but still shook his head with a laugh saying, “W-well it’s a little too late now.”

“I don’t think so.” Kyoka said, having overheard them while looking Izuku up and down. “Take off the jacket Midoriya.”

Quizzically, Izuku did so, and Melissa and the other girls all blinked, before starting to stare. “…That’s what I thought.” Kyoka said slowly, as she looked at Izuku. While the outer jacket had been too big for him, the undershirt was too small and hugged his upper body and arms almost like a second skin, showing Izuku’s extreme definition easily.

“Damn bro! That’s manly!” Kirishima shouted, while both of the other boys silently vowed to add to their exercise regimens also seeing Izuku’s well-developed six-pack.

“A, Ahem, yes well, I think I can do something about that. Wh, what is your size and arm length Midoriya-san?” Momo asked, blushing and looking away. Oh, oh my, his hero uniform hides that? Good grief. She swallowed, feeling a bit warmer than she had a few minutes ago. “Because, while I mean no offense Midoriya-san, I rather think your outfit as is is…um…perhaps not up to being worn in public.” She said delicately. “Let me create something for you instead.”

After a few more half-hearted protests – which his friends overrode easily – Izuku finally gave in and told Momo what she needed to know to create some new clothing for him. She moved to the nearest women’s restroom, coming back with a green shirt that matched Izuku’s hair style, a pair of black pants, and a black jacket with a white cravat. The group then waited for Izuku to head off to change.

When he came back, Tsuyu whistled appreciatively. “Damn, kero.” The others looked at her in shock, and she shrugged. “I say what’s on my mind, and that deserves a damn.”

Izuku blushed hotly then as the others started to tease him, whined, “C-can we please j-just go and eat please?”

Somewhat reluctantly Melissa gestured them all to follow her into the restaurant, and they did so, still talking quietly amongst themselves. Momo held back, eager to watch the others for a time even as her stomach once more began to grumble, like a dragon clearing its throat.

There have been a lot of revelations today, she reflected, most of them centered around Midoriya. His lack of training to handle his Quirk was easy to see, but I should’ve made the connection between his Quirk and his being so self-effacing, so shy, right away. Him being bullied explains so much about his attitude and his… utterly bizarre so-called friendship with Bakugo. We will need to see what we can do to break him of his enabler mentality when it comes to that…person. Even in her head Momo had issues cursing, but she would certainly have called Bakugo something far fruitier than that if she could have.

The instant the youngsters entered the restaurant, they garnered some interested looks from the people already there. Families, students, workers and various others – including a hero/sidekick pair – were already seated and eating, but their group was easily the most diverse in appearance. Momo drew many an admiring look, so much so she moved behind Iida, the tallest of them by a bare two inches over Momo herself.

Many of the students from the science institute there were straight up gaping at Melissa. Not a one of them had ever seen her wearing anything but their school uniform or an engineer’s heavy slacks and coat, and to say she cleaned up well was to say the sky was blue. More than one jaw had dropped, and more than one whisper began on the lines of ‘maybe the heavy bolt gun isn’t all that terrible threat after all.’

One wag actually said that aloud, and the boys looked at one another. “Um, should we…” Izuku began.

“Not in public.” Todoroki cut in with a shake of his head. “If they come over and try to flirt with her though… Melissa how would you like us to handle that?” Being the only one of the boys with a sister, he had dealt with issues of this nature before.

“Ooh let me.” Kyoka said with a wicked grin, her earphones jacks moving like small, tiny snakes ready to strike on either side of her head. “I have gotten really good at dealing with perverts thanks to the little purple ass.”

“…How did Mineta get into the Hero course anyway?” Todoroki asked hesitantly. “I’m not one to pass judgement on other people often but he’s…”

“Short, weak, perverted, annoying, loudmouth and a crybaby, kero?” Tsuyu said, counting off points on her long fingers.

“T-that’s really quite blunt.” Izuku said, stammering a little. He didn’t disagree with any of her points but still to say that aloud?

“I just said a moment ago I like to speak my mind Izuku-kun, and I always will.” Tsuyu said simply. “He was able to stand up and do something at the USJ, but that’s only because you and I were with him Izuku. Before we smacked some sense into him, he was losing his head in panic, kero, kero.”

“The place looks a little empty to me.” Momo said in an attempt to change the subject as she wasn’t comfortable with the insults dealt to their classmate. Even one such as Mineta. She looked around as they were seated. “This is one of the better restaurants on the island, correct?”

“It’s actually the finest restaurant on the island at this point. We have four more high end places that are supposed to open in the next few days, but they’re not open yet. Normally this place would be so packed I wouldn’t have been able to get us a table. But Uncle Might seems to have taken a lot of the attention tonight.” Melissa said with a laugh.

The others looked at her questioningly, and she shrugged. “Daddy texted me earlier and said that the two of them are going to be at some kind of PR function that his people it put together. From the tone of his message, I think he was kind of annoyed with them frankly. I mean All Might was only here because he wanted to help Izuku and finally see my daddy after so many years, and they have to make a big deal about it.”

“Well, All Might is kind of a big deal all on his own.” Todoroki said blandly before looking around. “Do you know if this place has soba?”

The others looked at him, and he shrugged. “It’s my favorite food, and I’m hungry.”

At that, the dragon posing as Momo’s stomach woke up completely and let loose a loud growl, causing her to blush and try to lower herself down to hide behind the table. The others looked at her for a second in silence then laughed, with Tsuyu and Kyoka reaching over and pulling her back up.

“It’s n-nothing to be ashamed of, Yaoyorozu-san.” Izuku said with a smile. “Every Quirk comes with a foible or an issue like that. And after the showing you put on this afternoon, a-and the help you g-gave me a moment ago, is it any wonder that you still need food?”

“Thank you, but well, I think that was my stomach’s way of saying that it would like to be fed. Is that all right with everyone? Can we get to ordering?” Momo asked, her face still bright red with embarrassment.

They continued to talk for a bit while the waiter subtly tried to look down Melissa’s dress, until he found his feet slowly freezing, and a headphone jack jabbing into his lower leg. He twitched, took their orders, and left quickly, wincing somewhat from the pain.

The conversation turned to the obstacle course they ran that day, with all of the teens bar Todoroki telling one another how they had done and walking one-another through their decision-making. Melissa took part in that and then engaged Kyoka in a discussion on dance and music, while Todoroki was dragged into a talk about martial arts among the boys. Tsuyu and surprisingly Momo both took part in. All in all, it was a very fun time as the food arrived, the conversation continuing on even as all the teens started to eat like hungry wolves. Even the extremely high-class Momo was putting the food away in a professional – if genteel – manner that caused many a person’s eyes to widen.

Unfortunately, the teen’s happy time was not going to last long, because elsewhere, other people’s plans were coming to fruition…

End Prologue