Miss Hatsume's voice boomed through the training room with too much enthusiasm for the situation at hand. Shoto didn't have anything against the lab assistant, necessarily. It was just that she was always hyper during training sessions and always got too close to the microphone when speaking from the observation deck.
To be completely honest, she gave Shoto a headache sometimes.
"SO, HOW DO YOU LIKE MY BABIES?! THEY'RE CUTE, RIGHT?!"
"HELL, YEAH!" Katsuki shouted, blowing one to pieces. From the wicked grin on his face, it seemed that the other boy was actually having fun with this. Shoto turned away, slightly disturbed, only for a piece of metal from the explosion to hit him in the back of the head. Luckily, it wasn't sharp.
"SUPER CUTE!" Katsuki whooped as he blew more robots to bits.
Shoto didn't think they were cute at all, but he never argued with Miss Hatsume about it since it seemed so important to her that they were "cute," whatever that meant. She'd created a new type of robot for today, it seemed, designed after him– one side of the droid could shoot fire, and the other could shoot ice. Rockets allowed it to dodge quickly, and if his attack was too fast for it, it could pivot on some kind of internal axis to match whatever he threw at it— the fire side always met his ice attacks, and the ice side always met his fire. He guessed its legs were made of some sort of temperature-resistant metal. Most likely, it had been designed specifically for him. But, while his attacks had little to no impact on it, its attacks also had little to no impact on him. Miss Hatsume would have to revise the design.
Using his right, Shoto created a wall of ice next to it, trapping it against one of the metal walls of the training room before spraying fire at it. It promptly spun to receive it with its ice side. It took a few minutes, but eventually the heat was too much and the robot fell apart, completely blackened. He lowered his hand, slightly surprised that brute force had actually worked. His fire wasn't as hot as Endeavor's, but it was apparently hot enough for this.
"DID YOU LIKE IT, SHOTO?! WHAT DID YOU THINK?!"
Shoto winced at Miss Hatsume's eager voice over the loudspeakers again. He just shot a glance at where he knew the observation deck was and shrugged in reply before turning back to see how his new teammates were doing against the variety of "enemies."
There were the standard humanoid robots of varying sizes and abilities, a few giant stationary robots, a few smaller fliers, and even a bunch strange spherical droids Shoto had never seen before. It was hard to tell how many there were from the way they bounced.
Katsuki tracked them with his eyes, but didn't make a move, yet. Shoto decided to help him, timing his ice to freeze some of the bouncing droids in their tracks. For some reason, Katsuki shot him a dirty look before turning away to find different targets. Perhaps he'd thought that Shoto was claiming the spherical droids as his own targets, but that hadn't been his intent. Shoto supposed he'd have to talk to the other boy later.
"Watch out!" Tenya shouted from behind.
He turned around, expecting to see a robot coming his way, but instead Tenya himself was speeding towards him, out-of-control for no apparent reason. Shoto barely had time to process Tenya hurtling towards him before they collided, sending both of them to the ground.
Shoto blinked, having expected it to hurt more when he noticed the pillow in front of him. Somehow, it had appeared between them, somewhat softening the blow.
Tenya sat up, his glasses askew, and turned to Momo a few yards away from them. He gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks, Momo!"
Shoto also nodded his appreciation.
She pulled a handgun out of her forearm and shot a nearby robot until it collapsed. "Of course! But please be more careful, you two!" Then she ran off to help Ochaco with some of the stationary robots, pulling what seemed to be a small missile launcher out of her stomach.
"What happened?" Shoto asked Tenya as they both stood up, slightly annoyed.
"Ah, I was running at full speed when I slipped on a patch of ice," Tenya admitted, straightening his glasses.
"...Oh. Sorry." Shoto supposed he'd either have to be more careful about where he put his ice or about cleaning up after himself. He wasn't sure which would be more efficient, but he figured they would go over it after the exercise was over.
"Don't worry about it." Tenya brushed himself off a bit. "I'm sure we'll discuss it more–"
"QUIT TALKING, YOU IDIOTS!" Katsuki shouted from across the room while charging at some robots. "YOU'RE GONNA GET– AGH! DAMMIT, HALF-AND-HALF!"
It appeared he'd also slipped on some ice. And wouldn't stop calling him "Half-and-Half" even when "Shoto" was shorter anyway.
Shoto ignored him, torching a few more robots before time was called.
With robots smoking all around them, the five subjects exited the training room to go to the review room and study their efforts, grabbing water bottles and towels on their way out. Izuku tagged along behind them as they left, having just exited the observation deck. Through the open door, Shoto caught a glimpse of Miss Hatsume bouncing on the balls of her feet as she talked to Dr. Aizawa, who seemed to be only half-listening to her.
Once they'd all sat around the table in the review room, Dr. Aizawa joined them inside. Izuku stood in the corner, beaming. Shoto had never really understood why, but Izuku was always excited by watching a training session, even when they were young. He would get a big, almost goofy smile on his face, and his eyes seemed to shine. Shoto had confronted him about it once, but Izuku had just gotten flustered about it, so he'd dropped it.
"So...overall, you completed the goal of destroying a certain number of robots." Dr. Aizawa began, speaking in his usual slow drawl. "But there were a few problems...Anyone want to elaborate?"
Instantly, Momo raised her hand. Her voice was authoritative. "We weren't accustomed to each other's abilities, so we were getting in each other's way. We all slipped on Shoto's ice at least once. We were watching out for Katsuki's explosions and the shrapnel, but he didn't watch for us. Overall, we were all just fighting our own battles rather than fighting a single battle together."
"But you picked up much of our slack," Tenya added, nodding at Momo. "I have great respect for your capabilities!"
"Thank you," Momo replied, confident yet sincere.
By now, Shoto had already picked up on the fact that Momo was extremely intelligent, but he was impressed by her nerve, too. Without hesitation, she'd called out the two most powerful subjects while they were in the room— not something a lot of people were willing to do. Though he hadn't interacted with many people before, Shoto could recall being feared by his own older siblings, back when they were still around. Endeavor had often told him that people should be afraid. And from the irritated look Katsuki shot her when she pointed out his carelessness, it seemed he also thought so. Shoto expected her to back down, or at least react to Katsuki's glare, but Momo was not intimidated.
"Anything else?" Dr. Aizawa asked.
Momo nodded. "Additionally, we failed to take advantage of the variation in our abilities. Miss Hatsume designs robots specifically for each of us, but hasn't made any yet that are capable of withstanding a combination of our powers. In fact, if we had merely switched opponents rather than sticking to the robots designed for us, we could have completed the exercise more efficiently."
Dr. Aizawa nodded. "Good. Any suggestions for training to improve?"
"Something more laid-back, perhaps," Tenya mused, rubbing his chin. "It would be useful to develop ways to combine our skills in a more relaxed environment."
Dr. Aizawa grunted his approval. "Yes, and Dr. Midoriya suggests you all get to know each other a little better, too. Apparently, your conversation on Monday was a bit sterile."
Ochaco laughed nervously at that, though Shoto didn't think the "sterile" conversation was her fault. She seemed a little jumpy around the others so far, but she also seemed to be the most approachable.
"You can take a break now or go to one of the gyms," Dr. Aizawa continued. "Your choice."
After he'd left, everyone agreed to go to the gym on the floor above the training rooms, and Izuku tagged along as well. On the way, Shoto stepped up to Katsuki, who was walking quickly in front, his gait an angry, stomping swagger.
"Hey, Katsuki."
"What?" he snapped, without looking at Shoto.
"You seemed upset when I froze those robots you were fighting, so I wanted to clarify that I was just trying to help. That's all."
"Yeah? Well, you should stay the hell out of my way!" Katsuki snarled. "I don't need your help."
Shoto wasn't sure how to respond to the other boy's rudeness, so he paused for a moment before replying. "Alright."
For some reason, that seemed to irritate Katsuki more, so Shoto kept quiet and fell back, now in step with Momo.
"He's not the most delicate conversationalist, is he?" she mused, clasping her hands behind her back.
"I don't think so," Shoto replied flatly.
"He'll warm up to us, I'm sure. Izuku says he's alright after a while."
Shoto supposed he shouldn't judge Katsuki too quickly, especially if Izuku thought he was kind. "If he says so."
Momo hesitated a moment before continuing. "Izuku told me a bit about you, too. He said you're amazing."
Shoto raised an eyebrow. "He did?"
"Well, I can't disagree." Momo brushed a piece of hair that had come loose behind her ear, breaking eye contact for a moment. "After seeing what you can do firsthand, and to know that's not the full extent of your powers…"
"Um, thanks." In his opinion, Momo's powers were a bit more versatile than his even if she lacked raw power, especially considering her intellect.
"I wanted to ask," Momo continued, looking away slightly as though she felt awkward. Maybe the conversation was awkward. Shoto wasn't completely sure when it came to those things. "Were you born with your powers?"
That caught Shoto off-guard. He'd been told he was a subject of particular interest because he'd inherited his powers from his parents, while others were modified to be given powers. But he wasn't necessarily interested in talking about that.
After a pause, Shoto finally spoke, working to keep his voice impassive. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, your powers are very similar to those of some of the first generation of subjects, namely Endeavor and Blizzard. Their marriage was highly publicized, but I've never heard of any children they had." Momo spoke carefully, as though she sensed Shoto stiffening at the mention of their shaky marriage. Though their union had been plastered all over the news when it had happened twenty-three years before, everything that had followed had been kept completely under wraps by the H.E.R.O. Project.
Momo continued with delicate politeness. "However, you somewhat resemble them both, and I can't imagine why they would modify your appearance to match your powers if you didn't already look the way you do. I thought perhaps...you were their child? Or some other type of genetic experiment, different from the others?"
Shoto let out a small sigh. She was too smart. "Yeah, you're right. They're my parents."
Instantly, she smiled. "Ah! That's good to know! My parents were subjects as well, but not quite as famous as yours. I inherited a perfectly photographic memory from my father, who's now working as a scientist here, and my creation ability from my mother, who went by the codename 'Genesis.'"
"Genesis…" Shoto muttered. He'd heard of her before, but he hadn't made the connection between her and Momo. And if he was remembering correctly, Genesis had been killed off years ago. "She's not…"
"Well, she was called 'Genesis' before she fell in the line of duty, that is." Momo managed a small smile.
Shoto looked at his feet, something tugging at his heart. "I'm sorry."
"No, it's alright. It was a long time ago." She laughed a little. "I simply meant to say that we're alike. We're starting from the same place, I suppose."
He remembered his 'beginning,' the brutal starting point Endeavor had decided for him all those years ago, with an end destination already determined, and a ruthless plan to force him into a mold. The familiar anger boiled in his gut for a split second before Shoto shook the memory away with vehemence, wondering if Momo's words were really true. Did anyone truly start from the same place, or were some born with blessings where others had curses?
"Yeah...I guess so."
A/N: Thanks for reading! :D Feel free to let me know what you think! As always, critique is welcome! :D