Once they'd all made it back to the ground, stepping out into the air-conditioned space of I-Island's airport, Toshinori yawned deeply and stretched for the first time since he and the rest of their family had made their way onto the plane for their trip. He hadn't come in his powered-up form, of course, since there would be no way for him to escape the veritable stampede of fans and reporters who would have inevitably been drawn to All Might if he'd come into the airport looking like that.
Still, it wasn't like anyone would be particularly interested in a Japanese politician, a social worker, a pair of Japanese Heroes, one of them still in training, and their civilian family members.
As the six of them continued on their way out of the airport and into the sunlight of I-Island's intricately landscaped grounds, Toshinori smiled as he felt the warm sunlight washing over his face. The scent of all the flowers that'd been planted in the displays all around them brought happy thoughts of Hana-chan all over again. He found himself wondering if Hana-chan had been responsible for growing any of the flowers around them. It was kind of funny, the way that Hana-chan and Tenko-kun's powers could be said to complement each other's near-perfectly.
Tenko-kun's Quirk, Decay, ran almost perfectly counter to Hana-chan's Quirk, Florist; something Toshinori often found himself thinking about was the way the Quirks of Tenko-kun's immediate family seemed to follow a kind of theme. Kotaru's Quirk allowed him to grow any kind of plant he wanted, Hana-chan's allowed her to grow flowers more specifically, and Nao's allowed her to revitalize both plants and people, either curing them of minor ailments or just making them feel better in general. Really, even Tenko-kun's Quirk fit with that, if you thought of Decay as something that made new soil for plants to grow in.
And really, it kind of did.
As he and the rest of the family continued on their way, Toshinori turned back to his search for Melissa and Hana-chan, since where you found one you were more than likely to find the other. Sure enough, he was soon greeted with the sight of Melissa and Hana-chan, both of them riding what seemed to be some kind of pink vehicles; Melissa looked like she was riding some kind of foldable pogo-stick kind of thing; Hana-chan, on the other hand, looked like she was riding an origami bicycle. It was really funny to see.
"Wow! You really all came!" Melissa shouted, hopping down from her pink pogo-stick thing with a huge, wide grin on her face. "It's so great to see you again, Uncle Might!" she exclaimed, making her way over to hug him, then moving on to Hisashi-kun. "Welcome back, Uncle Sashi!"
One by one, she moved down the line of them, hugging every one of them, moving on just before Hana-chan practically skipped over to throw herself into Tenko-kun's arms.
~MHA~
"Hey, sis," he said, smiling as he and Hana held each other at arm's-length for a long moment.
"I'm so glad to see you again, Tenko," Hana said, smiling up at him, even as the pair of them clasped hands and made their way closer to Sensei and the rest of their family. "How's Dad doing?"
"He's being annoying, as usual," he said, smirking as Hana laughed, punching him lightly in the stomach.
"Tenko! You're terrible," Hana said, a slight grin on her face, as the pair of them met up with the rest of Sensei's family.
Little Zu-chan was looking around at all of them, an expression of consternation slowly growing on his face; it was clear that something funny was going to be happening soon.
"Why is everyone here taller than me?!" Zu-chan exclaimed, looking around at the rest of Sensei's family.
Tenko found himself laughing, but it was Cousin Mel who actually did something, handing over that pink Pogo-stick thing of hers after transforming it into what seemed to be a pair of stilts.
"Thank you, Cousin Melly, you're the only one who understands me!" Zu-chan wailed, almost sounding like their idiot Uncle Toshi when he was out being All Might.
"Don't be so dramatic, Zu-chan," he said, not quite managing to keep himself from smirking, even as he made his way over to give his baby brother a light swat on the leg nearest to him.
"The only one who understands me," Zu-chan reiterated, leaning over to hug Cousin Mel in that same, over-dramatic way he'd been wailing; clearly, he was spending entirely too much time around their idiot Uncle Toshi.
He'd have to talk to Sensei about that.
Turning as he heard Cousin Mel laughing, Tenko rolled his eyes.
"Come on, let's go surprise Papa at his lab," Cousin Mel said, once she'd managed to regain some of her composure.
"Of course," Sensei said, smiling as he reached over to gently embrace Cousin Mel around her shoulders, pulling her in so he could press his right cheek against her head. "You did invite us here to celebrate your father's accomplishment, yes?"
"Yeah, he's been working so hard on that project of his," Cousin Mel said, smiling back at all of them.
"Has he actually told you what he's doing? Or is he still keeping it all to himself?" he asked, as he and Sensei's family continued on their way, turning to head for Uncle Dave's lab.
"Well, he hasn't mentioned anything yet, but I can tell he's excited," Cousin Mel said, smiling back at him.
Given the smile on Sensei's face, Tenko had the feeling he knew more than he was telling; Sensei usually did, though.
~MHA~
When all six of them made their way into Papa's laboratory, Melissa didn't even try to keep herself from smiling. Having Uncle Might, Uncle Sashi, Auntie Inko, Granny Nana, and her cousins Tenko and Izuku back with her was one of the best things about having such a big family. Even if they weren't all actually related to each other, it was still great to be able to spend time with them when she could. Stopping just in front of the door that would take her into Papa's lab, she turned back to Uncle Might and Uncle Sashi.
Both of them were smiling, but Uncle Sashi always looked like he knew something no one else knew; on the other hand, Uncle Sashi had always been more than a bit of a tease.
"You guys wait outside," she said, smiling at her extended family as the six of them – seven, since Hana was standing next to her brother, Tenko – all stopped just outside the door. "I'll go get Papa ready for you."
Smiling as Uncle Might and Uncle Sashi both wished her good luck with what she was going to be doing, Melissa smiled more widely as she made her way into Papa's laboratory at last.
"Papa!" she exclaimed, feeling that same, bubbly excitement she'd felt when she'd first caught sight of Uncle Might and Uncle Sashi making their way off of the plane.
"Melissa," Papa said, turning to her with a wide, cheerful smile on his face. "I'm glad to see you so soon, but I thought you were still studying."
"I got off early, and I also brought along some people that you dearly love," she said, grinning widely at him.
"What? Who?"
Smiling at Papa as the door opened, Melissa laughed as Papa seemed to light up with happiness as Uncle Might and Uncle Sashi came into the room, leading the rest of their family.
"Izuku, why are you on stilts?" Papa asked, turning to smile up at Cousin Izuku as he came stamping up to him on the stilts she'd transformed her Hopper into.
"Because everyone here is taller than me, Uncle Dave," Cousin Izuku said, his face scrunched up in a pretty adorable expression of annoyance.
~MHA~
Reaching up to ruffle little Izuku's soft, wavy hair, David didn't even try to stop himself from smiling as he, Toshi, Hisashi, and all of their family made their way into the living area of the laboratory he spent more and more time in. As the nine of them all settled around the dining room table, David turned to give Hisashi a subtle signal. He'd always been curious about the nature of Toshi's old friend's Quirk, how it allowed him to actually take Quirks, and then use them as though he'd been born with them to begin with. He called it All For One; the name itself was kind of simple, but given how early in someone's life their Quirk emerged – at least for those who had them, he reflected, turning his gaze to Melissa where she was, sitting next to Izuku – David figured that that kind of thing made at least some sense.
It did sound like the kind of name a little kid would think up, after all.
Still, for the time being, David was content to enjoy the time he and Melissa would get to spend with their extended family from Japan.
Still, eventually there was enough of a lull in conversation that David felt comfortable asking Hisashi if they could discuss the workings of his Quirk in more detail. He'd always been fascinated by the way Hisashi's Quirk levels would rise, seemingly exponentially, every time he brought a new Quirk into his stockpile. He'd seen the phenomenon first-hand, back when he'd lent the man his own Quirk – as small as that kind of thing really was, compared to the Quirks that Hisashi had collected over the course of his life – and seen the resulting rise in Hisashi's Quirk levels.
And then the corresponding fall, when Hisashi had returned it to him.
"Thanks again for agreeing to this, Hisashi," he said, as the pair of them made their way into the part of his personal laboratory where he studied the effects of Quirks on the people who had been born with them.
However, someday David wanted to study the process that Hisashi used to give Quirks to someone else; maybe even to have the chance to take a scan of the brainwaves of the person Hisashi was giving the hypothetical Quirk to.
"Of course, David," Hisashi said, smiling as he settled down on the chair David offered to him. "Honestly, your insatiable curiosity about Quirks reminds me so much of Ujiko's. It's rather endearing," Hisashi continued, smiling at him as David attached the monitoring devices one-by-one to his head.
"I'm glad to remind you of one of your friends, at least," he said, laughing softly as he made his way over to the computer that would be recording the data from the brainwave monitors that he'd attached to Hisashi.
"Is something wrong?" Hisashi asked, a concerned expression on his face. "You seem preoccupied."
"It's just," he paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes as he contemplated everything that had been going on in his life between this moment and when he'd last had the chance to speak to Hisashi. "I'd been working on a project; something to help people with less powerful or versatile Quirks to get some more use out of them."
"You made some kind of Quirk enhancer?"
"Yes," he said, pushing his glasses back up and sighing; these thoughts had never been exactly happy for him. "Unfortunately, someone in the government caught wind of it, and they took it away from me. I think they might have been worried that someone with a particularly powerful Quirk would get their hands on it, so that was their rationale not only to confiscate the results of my research, but also to put an end to the project entirely. They stored the prototype away in some kind of secured government facility," he chuckled briefly, recalling Hisashi's proclivity for sticking close to the letter of the law, all while twisting the spirit just enough so that he didn't actually break anything. "I kind of wish that you worked for the American government; you'd probably end up storing it in your home office, and then claiming that that counted as a secured government facility."
Hisashi laughed outright. "Well, my house does have unparalleled security," Hisashi said, then paused for a long moment, studying him in a way that had always made David feel like Toshi's old friend could see into his very soul with a deep enough look; it was always strange to be on the other end of that stare.
Almost like looking into Tempest's eyes, when the Guardian of I-Island was in the midst of one of the storms he created with his own Quirk.
~MHA~
Having Cousin Melly to show them all around was nice, since she knew just where everything was and what the Support gear all around them could do, but Izuku quickly found himself surprised by the sight of Ochako-san, Yaoyorozu-san, and Jiro-san.
"You seem to be having fun, Deku," Ochako-san said, though there was a look on her face that Izuku couldn't quite interpret.
"Is this one of your friends from school, Cousin Izuku?" Cousin Melly asked, turning to look up at him as he teetered a bit on the stilts she'd let him use.
"She's your cousin, Midoriya?" Jiro-san asked, turning to him with a considering expression on her face.
He smiled widely. "Her father's a friend of Uncle Toshi, so we kind of grew up together. She's kind of like my big sister. Cousin Melly, these are some of my friends from school: Jiro-san, Yaoyorozu-san, and Ochako-san are all in the Hero course, and all three of them are in Class 1-A with me," he said, but the sight of Tenko-nii's face distracted Izuku before he would say anything else.
"Ochako-chan there is also Zu-chan's girlfriend, Cousin Mel."
"It's nothing like that!" he exclaimed, feeling his cheeks heat up in the way they always did whenever anyone would start to bring up the relationship he didn't actually have with Ochako-san.
Glaring down at Tenko-nii as his annoying big brother started laughing, Izuku stamped over to him and swatted Tenko-nii upside the head.
Turning at the sound of Jiro-san laughing, Izuku frowned.
"Denial isn't just a river in Egypt, Midoriya," Jiro-san said, smiling at him in a way that reminded him more than a little of the way Tenko-nii would when he was being annoying.
"Midoriya's romantic prospects are really none of our business," Yaoyorozu-san said, and while Izuku knew she was trying to be nice, there was still something about what she was saying…
"I don't actually have any romantic prospects, Momo-san," he said, rubbing the back of his head; the whole thing was getting way too embarrassing, but fortunately Cousin Melly seemed to understand that.
"Come on, let's go have some tea at the café," Cousin Melly said, turning back to his three classmates with an understanding smile.
One of the many reasons he liked spending time with Cousin Melly was the way she understood him; she and Uncle Dave were both really great, that way. When the seven of them had all settled down at one of the outdoor tables in the café, Izuku smiled as he caught sight of Mom and Dad, seated at their own table. Dad, of course, was the first one to notice as they all came out.
"Hello, Izuku," Dad said, smiling as the seven of them all settled down at a table next to where Mom and Dad were sitting together. "And company, of course. How are you kids all finding this place?"
"It's been a very pleasant experience, Midoriya-san," Yaoyorozu-san said. "I'm glad to be able to have such an enjoyable time. I was actually invited because my father is a shareholder in some of the Expo's sponsor companies. I suppose I don't have to ask how you ended up obtaining an invitation, Midoriya."
He laughed, rubbing the back of his head; this whole thing was getting more than a little awkward. "Well, being friends with Uncle Dave does have some benefits, I guess."
"Here are your drinks."
Turning to thank the server who'd just showed up, finding himself wondering about the familiarity of the voice he'd just heard, Izuku found himself surprised to see a particularly familiar person.
"Kaminari-san?"
"Hey, Midoriya," his classmate said, grinning as he set down the drink that Izuku had ordered.
"You and Mineta-san both work here?" he asked, looking between the both of them as his classmates both came up to the table where he and all of his friends were all sitting together.
"Yeah, we got jobs during the Expo, so we could get some extra money and take a free trip to the Island," Mineta-san said, smiling at him in that same, perverse way he always seemed to do when he was talking. "Well, that and we could have the chance to meet-" Mineta-san had been glancing over his right shoulder while he'd been speaking, and Izuku was more than a little tempted to roll his eyes; he had a feeling he knew just where it was that his perverse classmate was looking. "Oh wow, I think I'm in love!"
"C'mon, Midoriya," Kaminari-san said, elbowing him in the side with the same kind of excited, perverse smile that Mineta-san was wearing. "Tell us who those high-voltage hotties you're hanging out with are!"
"That's Cousin Melly, and Cousin Hana, but-"
He was just about to tell Kaminari-san and Mineta-san just who Cousin Hana was related to, if only so that they wouldn't make the mistake of actually hitting on her while Tenko-nii was sitting right there with all of them, when the pair of them pretty much leaped over a couple chairs in their way, smiling widely.
"Are you two in Cousin Izuku's class, too?" Cousin Melly asked, looking over at the pair of them as Kaminari-san and Mineta-san smiled at her.
"More importantly, are you hitting on my sister?" Tenko-nii demanded, standing up slowly from the table, eyes narrowed and an almost crazed grin on his face.
For all that people said that Dad could be scary when he put his mind to it, Izuku always found that Tenko-nii was the one who unsettled him the most when he tried out his intimidation tactics. And apparently, he wasn't the only one who thought that.
"No, sir!" Kaminari-san and Mineta-san shouted, snapping to attention and almost seeming like they'd be saluting Tenko-nii if they hadn't been panicking so much.
"Good," Tenko-nii said, settling back into his seat with the same kind of laconic air as Dad.
Really, Tenko-nii did honestly seem to admire Dad, to the point where he tried to imitate him in more than a few ways.
The sound of distant explosions drew the attention of pretty much everyone at the table, and Izuku narrowed his eyes as he used the Telescopic Vision Quirk that Dad had given him. There wasn't any sign of adverse weather effects, so that meant that it probably wasn't anything that would involve Tempest; particularly an attack, since that kind of thing would have drawn the Guardian's attention quicker than pretty much anything else.
The ten of them, naturally, were quick to investigate; Iida-san had caught up with them while Tenko-nii was busy terrifying Kaminari-san and Mineta-san into submission, and seeing him yell at the pair of them was still as funny as usual.
It turned out to be some kind of a competition; an obstacle-course scattered with faux-Villains that reminded him more than a little of the various training-grounds that had been built on and around U.A.'s campus. Looking down into the pit where all of the robots and various terrain obstacles had been built, probably with an eye toward making it easier for anyone without a vision-enhancing Quirk, or anyone outside of the first couple rows of seats, to see what was going on down on the field, Izuku wondered who it was that'd been making so much noise.
"So, this is why you offered me your ticket, ya nerd."
"Kacchan," he said, turning to face his oldest friend, then jumping backwards in surprise as he found himself almost nose-to-nose with Kacchan. Grumbling as Kacchan laughed at the sight of him falling right down on his butt, Izuku stood up quickly. "Very funny, Kacchan."
"'Course it was," Kacchan said, grinning unrepentantly back at him as he jumped the railing, making his way over to where the ten of them were all standing together.
"Is this another of your friends from class, Cousin Izuku?" Cousin Melly asked, turning to him.
"Yeah, this is Kacchan," he said, giving Kacchan himself an annoyed look before turning back to Cousin Melly. "He's the one I was talking to you about."
"Oh, he's your old friend from when you both were kids," Cousin Melly said, smiling wider at all of them. "It's nice to meet you, Kacchan," she said, offering her right hand to Kacchan to shake.
"Call me Katsuki," Kacchan said, an easy, self-confident smile on his face as he leaned his back against the railing. "So, I guess this makes you the Cousin Melly this little nerd's been talking about for the last day and a half."
"Yeah, that's me," Cousin Melly said.
"Great," Kacchan said, then turned back to him, a challenging grin emerging on his face. "So, when are you heading down there, nerd?"
"I don't know," he said, rubbing the back of his head; it always felt a bit awkward, competing against anyone but Dad and Uncle Toshi, since all three of them possessed at least some kind of stockpiling Quirk. "Really, I don't think it'd be fair for me to compete here."
"Fair, shmair," Kacchan drawled, rolling his eyes.
Before he could say even a single word, Kacchan turned to grab him by the back of his collar and actually kicked him over the railing so that he fell down into the pit that had been set up for the faux-Villain competition. Growling deep in his throat, even as he extended the wings that Hayato had given him, the day after he'd discovered the true nature of his Quirk, Izuku turned around in the air. Flapping hard so that he could rise back up to the level where his family and classmates were all gathered together, Izuku grabbed Kacchan before his friend – annoying as he was, sometimes – could get away from him.
Throwing Kacchan down into the water of the moat that surrounded the arena for some reason or other, Izuku circled back around to land in the arena itself.
~MHA~
Finding himself alone in his laboratory once more, David sighed as he studied the scans he'd taken of Hisashi's Quirk levels. He wasn't truly focused on them, however, not since he'd received word that the distraction he'd called in – the one that he was hoping would allow him to reclaim the prototype that had been so unfairly taken from him – was on its way. He could only hope that Hisashi would understand, when he had the chance to speak to Izuku's father about what he'd arranged.
Considering that his son, his adopted daughter, and the other boy he'd seemed to have all but adopted as well were all going to be at the party with them, David knew that he would have his work cut out for him during the course of said explanation; if anything happened to any of them, he knew all bets would be off…
Sighing as he stood up, David made his way back to his room. All other considerations aside, he was still going to need to get ready for the upcoming reception that they were all going to be attending soon. He'd also need to marshal his arguments for Hisashi, given what was about to happen. If he didn't, Hisashi was almost certain to do something drastic with one or more of those many Quirks he'd collected.
It was pretty much the same reason that he'd had to alert Tempest about what was going to happen tonight: the Guardian of I-Island was as serious about the protection of the island he watched over as Hisashi was about protecting his family.
"David, are you going to start dressing up soon?" Inko asked, making her way over to the bar-style counter where he'd been sitting, contemplating what was going to be happening soon.
"Oh, right," he said, turning to smile at the woman who'd so thoroughly captured his old friend Hisashi's heart. "Thanks for reminding me, Inko."
"Of course," Inko said, smiling at him as she made her way out to the front of his home.
The home he'd offered to them for the week they'd all be staying with him and Melissa on I-Island.
Hurrying to his room, David quickly dressed in the formal clothes he'd set out for himself at the beginning of the day, then made his way back to the front of his quarters. Hisashi, Inko, Tenko, and Hana were already gathered there, and Toshi was just changing into his Hero form. The latest costume he'd created – the one that had come to be called All Might's Golden Age costume – stretched to accommodate Toshi's growth into the form that he and Hisashi had explained was created when the full power of his Quirk – One For All, which had apparently been named by Hisashi's younger brother as a counterpart to Hisashi's own All For One – was allowed to flow through him instead of being restricted. It was strange to think about, as well as more than a little fascinating, to observe the mechanics of two such closely related Quirks first-hand.
Seeing Hisashi's idea of formalwear was as funny as usual, since all he actually did was add a tie to the suit he habitually wore.
Tenko was wearing nearly the same kind of suit that Hisashi was, which really fit with the way he admired the man, with only the gloves that he was wearing serving to set the pair of them apart in any real way; Hisashi's adopted daughter with the pronounced cat Quirk was wearing a pleated skirt patterned like the night sky, paired with a shimmering, sleeveless black top and a black velvet bow around her neck, with a matching bow at the mid-point of her tail; Hana was in a shimmery, pale-blue sheath dress with a tie on her left shoulder that looked more than a little like one of the flowers she enjoyed growing. Inko was in a dark, fitted red velvet dress, with a dark belt wrapped around her waist; the belt itself was a shiny black, which made it a good match with the suit that Hisashi was wearing.
"Well, I suppose since the rest of the children are going to be meeting up with us at the reception itself, everyone here is prepared," Hisashi said, smiling at them in that semi-amused way that he seemed to have perfected during the however-many centuries he'd been alive.
~MHA~
"Wow, this is amazing, Cousin Melly. So this is what you've been working on lately?" Izuku asked, grinning widely as Cousin Melly showed him around the personal laboratory she'd been working in ever since she'd gotten into I-Academy in the first place.
"Yeah," Cousin Melly said, but before she could really get into what she was currently doing, the sound of his phone going off drew his attention.
"Where are you, Midoriya?!" Iida-san demanded, before Izuku could think up a single thing to say in response. "It's time for us to meet up before the reception!"
"Right, sorry!" he exclaimed, feeling himself almost snap to attention at the tone of Iida-san's voice. "We'll be right there!"
Turning to leave Cousin Melly's lab, Izuku shook his head as he called up Hayato-kun's Quirk from within his own variant of All For One – he still needed to pick out a good name for his Quirk; or at least narrow the ideas he had down to a single page – and flew back to Uncle Dave's house. Landing outside his window, Izuku climbed back into his room so that he could pick up the suit that Dad had laid out for him. The suit itself was a dark blue version of the suit that Dad always wore, at least when he wasn't out saving and healing people as Sensei, and Dad had even remembered that he liked bow ties better than any other kind.
Bow ties were cool, after all.
Once he'd finished dressing up, wings folding neatly into his back as he pulled Hayato-kun's Quirk into the depths of his own All For One again, Izuku hurried to the seventh lobby in the central tower as quickly as he could. When he finally did make it there, he only ended up finding Todoroki-san, Iida-san, Kaminari-san, and Mineta-san standing in the lobby with him. Kaminari-san and Mineta-san were actually still in their work clothes, which brought Izuku up short for a moment.
"Where's everyone else?" he asked, looking around the room, just in case he'd managed to miss the rest of his fellow classmates when he'd first made his way into the room.
"They're late," Iida-san snapped, an annoyed look on his face. "Does the concept of an arranged meeting time mean nothing to you people?"
Before he could say anything, Ochako-san came into the room, quickly followed by Yaoyorozu-san, and Jiro-san. Mineta-san and Kaminari-san were both particularly excited to see all of the girls as the three of them made their way into the lobby where the five boys had previously gathered. Once Cousin Melly had joined their group again, Izuku found himself wondering just where Kacchan and Kirishima-san were going to show up.
Still, they were probably all staying in different hotels, and he knew how much Kacchan hated dressing up, so Kirishima-san had probably ended up having to ride herd on Kacchan the same way Izuku had found himself doing, those times when a formal event would come up.
"Kacchan and Kirishima-san are probably going to be late," he said, looking around at Cousin Melly and his fellow classmates, though most of his attention was focused on Iida-san. "Kacchan doesn't really like dressing up."
"Well then, I suppose we shouldn't bother waiting for them," Iida-san grumbled, folding his arms and glaring around at those who had gathered in the seventh lobby. "I'll give them a call when we make it to the reception."
~MHA~
"You've managed to get control of the main computer?" he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly, even as he continued preparing his costume for the party he was about to make his appearance at; he wouldn't exactly say that he was crashing said party, since at the end of the day this was just a performance and all, but he'd be there all the same. "Good; I'll be heading in soon, then."
Locking his phone, Maxwell Wolfe – Wolfram, while he was working – tucked it neatly away in a hidden pocket of his costume, and then finished preparing himself for his I-Island debut.
Making his way out of the room he'd been using to prepare his costume, Wolfram made a last adjustment to his stark white longcoat and helmet, then made his way out to meet with the rest of his crew.
"The mainframe's under our control and the place is about to go on lockdown, so once I give the signal we'll move in," he said, making his way over to where the other members of his strange little troupe were waiting. "All right, Minis, you all head up to the control room. You'll be all right there," he continued, turning to the smallest and strangest members of the troupe he'd formed.
The two of them nodded, calling out their thanks and goodbyes to him as one of the others he was working with escorted them into a nearby elevator. All right, then, he mused, smiling slightly as he fell into step with the rest of his group. Let's see what that scientist thinks of this little show of ours.
~MHA~
When he and the rest of his classmates, at least the ones who'd been ready when Iida-san had called all of them to meet him in the lobby where they'd all been gathered, all began making their way down into the main room where the reception was going to be taking place, Izuku noticed that Iida-san was frowning at his phone.
"What's wrong, Iida-san?" he asked, turning to look back over his left shoulder even as he kept pace with the rest of their group as they all continued on their way down through the wide hallway.
"I'm attempting to contact Kirishima-kun and Bakugo-kun," Iida-san said, clearly frustrated by what he was having to deal with. "But I can't seem to get through to either of them."
"That's weird," he said, taking out his own phone so that he could check and see whether he could contact Kacchan or Kirishima-san. "Mine doesn't work, either," he said, narrowing his eyes as he held his own phone to his ear, then locked it and tucked it away in his pocket as he pulled his own copy of Dad's Mental Voice Quirk up again. /Dad, is your phone working? Iida-san and I can't get through to anyone./
/Give me a moment to check, Izuku. The reception is beginning in earnest./
/All right,/ he said, nodding. /I'll keep in touch./
/I will too, Izuku,/ Dad said, and just from the tone of his voice Izuku could tell his father was smiling.
"I don't know if Dad is having the same kind of trouble, but I've let him know what's going on," he said, turning to look back at the rest of his classmates as they all continued on their way.
"That's good to know, at least," Iida-san said, sighing softly.
~MHA~
"As you can see, this whole tower is under our control," Wolfram said, grinning as he made his way into the room where all of the partygoers were standing, amid the sounds of the tower going into lockdown.
Before he could say even one single word more, however, Wolfram caught sight of him. Finding himself suddenly under the red-eyed gaze of the man, pinned by a look that was – for the moment – slightly amused and more than a bit assessing, sent a shudder crawling up Maxwell's spine. He'd seen the man before; seen the man with his curly white hair and his blood-crimson eyes; seen the way he'd lounged indolently in that chair, surrounded by fires and wearing the blood of what he'd later found out were some criminal lowlifes who'd had the thoroughly bad luck to kidnap the man's son. Maxwell knew that the white-haired man was Death.
Wolfram… was going to have to deal with him.
"What have you come here for, Villain?" All Might demanded, bringing Wolfram's attention firmly back to the present, and everything that went along with it.
"All Might, please," David Shield, the man who'd invited him to this party in the first place – though he'd somehow neglected to mention that White Death himself would be in attendance – said, stepping in front of the Number One Hero. "I'll go with you; just as long as you allow all the people here to leave with their lives."
Right, right. Kayfabe, Wolfram reflected, forcing his attention back to the present; back to where Shield, All Might, and White Death were all standing, gathered around him. "All right then, let's take this outside," he said, forcing himself to sound steadier than he felt.
He could only hope that he'd be able to talk his way out of things; that White Death wouldn't decide to paint the walls with his insides as soon as look at him.
"I'll be coming with you," White Death himself said; Maxwell nearly swallowed his tongue. "My son and some of his friends were caught in one of the lobbies before the lockdown; I expect they'll be wanting to meet up with us, considering our present circumstances."
Fucked. Sideways, with a rusty chainsaw, was the only thought that remained in Maxwell's mind, once White Death had made his pronouncement. Gathering what scraps he could of his remaining composure, Maxwell- Wolfram tried to regain his conversational momentum. "Right, here's how it's going to go," he said, yanking his helmet off and biting back the hysterical laughter that seemed to want to crawl up the back of his throat even as he turned to face White Death. "Before you rip out my spine and feed it to me, let's go see if we can find your kid."
"Hisashi, have you met this man before?" Shield asked, turning to White Death with an expression of curiosity on his face.
Maxwell didn't quite manage to hold down his hysterical laughter at those words; of course Shield would end up being friends with White Death, because it wasn't as though this evening hadn't gone to shit enough. "Yeah, you might say that."
"So, you're not actually a Villain?" All Might asked, turning from him to White Death with a confused expression of his own.
"No, I just play one on television," he said, feeling a rictus sort of grin stretching his face as he continued speaking; sheer terror could fuck with your head in more ways than one, it seemed.
"Were you that boy I encountered, when Izuku and Melissa-chan were kidnapped that day?" White Death asked, turning to him with an expression that seemed more calculating than curious.
"Yeah, that was me," he said, bobbing his head slightly; the closest he could get to a nod while he felt so tense.
Like hell was he going to mention to White Death that he'd been looking into joining up with that group, maybe moving up the ranks and taking control someday. Sure, he made bank with the job, but there was still a part of him that wondered what would've happened if he hadn't met White Death that fateful day.
~MHA~
As the eight of them all continued on their way up through the main tower, after being lightened by Ochako-san, Izuku narrowed his eyes as he felt the familiar prodding of Dad's attempting to contact him with Mental Voice.
/What is it, Dad?/
/Have you encountered anyone else in the corridors, Izuku?/ Dad asked, and Izuku found himself confused.
/There's more people in the tower with us?/ he asked, making sure to keep flapping his wings, since there'd been a few times that he'd forgotten to do that kind of thing and then found himself drifting toward the ground.
He didn't quite know if it was some obscure mechanic of Hayato's Quirk – he hadn't made quite a deep enough study of the full mechanics of that particular Quirk, since there were so many other Quirks that he'd collected that he also wanted to study and document – but whenever he would stop flapping his wings, he'd drift slowly towards the ground, instead of just falling out of the sky as soon as he stopped moving them.
/Apparently, David thought this celebration of ours needed to be more exciting, so he hired a troupe of actors to enact a Villain attack,/ Dad said, and Izuku could tell that Dad was smiling, wherever he currently was. /Head up to the main control room, and we'll meet you there./
"What's going on, Deku?" Ochako-san asked, as Izuku guided them back to the ground again.
"Dad says that the lockdown is because of a fake Villain attack," he said, locking his phone and tucking it back into his pocket as he turned back to his other seven of his classmates as he settled all of them back on the ground again. "Dad said that Uncle Dave wanted to make the party more exciting, so he hired some actors to play Villains and stage an attack," he said, pulling Hayato's Quick back into his own All For One, and feeling his wings folding back into his body as he did so. "He also said that we should meet him and Uncle Dave in the main control room," he said, pausing for a moment as he found himself wondering where Uncle Toshi was in all of this.
As he and his fellow classmates continued on their way up through the tower, they were met at the elevator by Kacchan, Kirishima-san, and a pair of uniformed actors who ushered the ten of them into the elevator. Even though the elevators on I-Island were fairly large, having twelve people all in the same elevator did make things more than a little cramped. It was, therefore, more than a bit of a relief when they all made it to the 200th floor and were finally able to get off.
"Uncle Might!" Cousin Melly exclaimed, throwing herself into Uncle Toshi's arms as they all arrived in the main control room of the central tower.
"The fuck are the Minis doing here?!" Kacchan demanded, stomping over to the control chair in front of the mainframe computer.
Sure enough, Ichiro Bubaigawara was sitting down in front of the computer, looking at the schematics of the tower, probably so that he could oversee the tower's lockdown. Ichiro and his "siblings"… The eight of them really were the strangest kind of people that he'd come across, and certainly the strangest he'd ever met. They'd originally been "born" when Uncle Jin – whose Quirk allowed him to duplicate anything twice, hence the name, and then make copies from the copies he'd made – had been staying with Uncle Toshi in an effort to get back on his feet.
Izuku had been visiting Uncle Toshi at work, and when he'd gone to see Uncle Jin for the first time, he'd seen that Uncle Jin hadn't been feeling very well and so he'd gone to hug him. He'd been about four at the time, so when Uncle Jin and the copies of himself that he'd already made had used their Quirks to copy him, all eight of his copies had come out at the same apparent age. And, since Uncle Jin's copies didn't age themselves, Ichiro and the other seven like him still looked like small, adorable four year olds, even when they were only four years younger than he currently was.
There were times that Izuku found himself feeling sorry for them, since there was a certain way that people treated someone when they looked the way Ichiro and his "brothers" did, even in a superhuman society like theirs.
Once they'd gotten the lockdown solved, bringing the tower back to its normal operation status, Uncle Toshi and Wolfram – the actor who'd been hired by Uncle Dave to distract the security so that he could get back the Quirk-enhancer he'd created – had decided to put on a show for the people still down in the reception. Wolfram had a Quirk that allowed him to control metal, so when he and Uncle Toshi made their way up to the roof of the tower, Wolfram surfed down from the roof of the tower on a scrap of metal plating from the roof, and assembled a three-dimensional obstacle course for Uncle Toshi to traverse while the pair of them were falling back toward the ground. Uncle Toshi leaped, swung, and climbed all around the uneven bars that Wolfram had suspended in the air with the use of his Quirk.
It looked like some kind of Olympic routine; really cool, but Izuku still found himself wondering what was going to happen next.
As it turned out, after he, Uncle Dave, Dad, Uncle Toshi, and the rest of his fellow classmates had filled out some forms – mostly about their the quality of their experience with the company in general and Wolfram in particular – Izuku ended up meeting some of the employees of the Help Us Company. He also ended up encountering something a bit less pleasant…
"Sorry, sorry," he said, grabbing a tissue and pressing it against his nose as he tried to block another sneeze. "One of my Quirks is a passive sensory-enhancement type," he said, then found himself forced to cover his nose as he started sneezing again.
"Sorry about that, sir," the man said, wiping at his face, which had been decorated with smears of what was obviously the fake blood that H.U.C. used to make themselves seem like more convincing victims during the simulated disasters and Villain attacks that they participated in. "If we'd known you had that kind of a Quirk beforehand, we could have brought one of our reformulated, non-allergic versions."
"Thanks," Izuku said, sneezing for what he hoped would be the last time.
After the excitement of that first day, Izuku was glad to be able to settle down and relax for the next four that they were all spending on I-Island. He noticed that Houshimaru Bubaigawara and Bambaa-chan seemed to be bonding over a shared love of space, and Uncle Dave looked like he was getting in on their conversation, too. Still, as Dad came over with a pair of meat kabobs and a bottle of chilled cherry soda, Izuku smiled as he allowed himself to lean back into Dad's embrace as the pair of them lounged together in the large, reclining deck chair that Dad had previously staked out. Whatever else happened later, now was a time for them all to relax.
