Okay, so there were some complaints about Izuku's loss.
Let's talk about the last chapter's fight.
Izuku had Whiplash beat by a considerable margin in almost every degree. He was faster than him, stronger than him, and technically smarter than him.
But Whiplash had experience. While Izuku had almost no combat experience.
You might be saying, "but Izuku's fought a lot of people!"
Technically, but let's take a look at the villains Izuku's beat.
Overhaul, Mimic, and Chrono: Izuku didn't actually fight them, he just ambushed them while they were distracted.
Rappa: While he did fight him, all Izuku really did was shoot him from a long hallway. Not much of a fight and the suit did basically all the work.
The Yakuza Grunts: This was the only "real fight" Izuku had. The armor did a lot of the work, as it did make most of the Yakuza grunts attacks ineffective, but Izuku did have to think on his feet and fight as hard as he could.
Blizzard: This was another case of the suit doing most of the work. Not to mention he had the disk that disabled his tech.
Random goons: Again, the armor does all the work here.
In most of Izuku's fights, he's been dependent on the armor's vast advantages over practically everyone to win. Sometimes he's had to put in some effort, but never too much so.
Whiplash, on the other hand, is an A-rank villain. Meaning he is a rank above Kurogiri, and the same rank as Toga, Dabi, Muscular, and the Nomu from the U.S.J.. In other words, he's very, very dangerous, and has experience fighting actually heroes.
Basically, Whiplash had just enough power and speed to hurt Izuku and utilizing his experience and Izuku's inexperience and no training, to get around Izuku's overwhelming advantages, and win the fight. He also chose an area that practically negated Izuku's flight advantage, by keeping him in a building.
But despite what it may seem, it was still not an easy fight for Whiplash. Now you might say "but he got away without getting hit!" yes, because if he did get hit, then the fight would have changed drastically.
Like I said, Izuku had big advantages in speed and power, so if he could get in a repulsor blast, then he could have won, and if he punched him, then he definitely would have won. Every time Whiplash almost got hit, is a time where he almost lost.
Now let's address some criticisms and questions of the fight.
1, If Izuku is a genius, then shouldn't he have had a better plan for that fight? Ok. Being a genius doesn't make you smart, at everything. If you asked a genius battle strategist to become a scientist, they wouldn't do so well, and vice versa. And while Izuku is a genius inventor, he's only an ok battle strategist, due to a lack of experience and training.
2, Why did Izuku fight the way he did? Couldn't he have been more creative? And why did he shout out his attacks? Firstly, I feel like people forget who Izuku's main influence is when it comes to heroes, All Might, the man whose battle strategy is, punch it, and if that doesn't work, punch it harder. As for shouting out his attacks, the armor is voice-activated, if he wants to fire his missiles or increase the power of his repluser blast, he has to say it out loud. Also, he lives in a world, where heroes shout out their attacks before they do them, so of course, he would do that too.
3, Why couldn't Izuku simply outspeed Whiplash? With his speed, he should have been so fast that Whiplash couldn't do anything. Izuku's speed is not really Izuku's speed. It's the armor's speed, meaning that if it goes too fast Izuku won't be able to keep up, so it's not like he can move around like sonic the hedgehog, he'd crash into everything if he tried. And his reaction time is still just a normal, non-trained person's reaction time. The armor can't enhance Izuku's brain...at least not for now.
Now that we've addressed this, we can move onto the chapter.
"You couldn't have waited for backup?" As Izuku suspected, Ochaco didn't wait long before scolding him, having only just gotten home from the hospital.
After his loss, Tamaki found him in the rubble and brought him to the hospital, and after a few hours of treatment he was released.
Now he was in his lab, with a very upset Ochaco.
"I didn't think that an A-class villain would show up," Izuku explained while he typed on his computer. "Most of the villains I've fought before don't even have rank let alone one that high."
"Izuku, our tech is the most advanced tech in the world," Ochaco stated the obvious. "Naturally every villain from the highest rank to the no-names would want to get their hands on it for one reason or another. It was only a matter of time until the guys at the higher level got tired of you taking down their goons and making their lives harder."
Izuku paused. "I...guess. I just didn't think they would go from no names to A-rank."
"I mean it's pretty effective," Ochaco said. "If they wanted to beat you before you could become more experienced or upgrade your armor."
"But then why would he let me live?" Izuku asked.
"Because you're more useful alive." Ochaco theorized. "My guess, and Chizome's, is that they intended to scare you out of being Iron Man, and hoped that you would eventually take the company out of lockdown and make new tech for them to steal."
Izuku scowled. "Well, that's not happening."
Ochaco sighed. In truth, she kind of hoped this experience would stop Izuku from continuing his "crusade". But deep down she knew it wouldn't be that easy. "You could have died Izuku."
Izuku stopped what he was doing for a moment, and turned his chair to face Ochaco. "That was because I made some mistakes. If I just performed better than I'm sure I would have beat him."
Izuku turned back towards his computer. "Which is why I'm reviewing the armor's feed to see what mistakes I made so the next time we fight, I'll win."
Izuku and Ochaco watched the battle from Izuku's armor, while Izuku scribbled down things in his notebook.
"You're not gonna beat him with just notes."
Izuku and Ochaco looked at the doorway and saw Chizome leaning in the doorframe.
"Chizome, how long have you been standing there?" Izuku asked.
"Long enough to know your in over your head." Chizome walked closer to them and looked at Whiplash. "This guy's not just a villain. He's a professional villain. Experienced. Maybe even...no definitely trained. You're not gonna be able to beat him just by not making the same mistakes. And even then I'm not convinced you won't make the same mistakes. You're too inexperienced. Untrained. The gap between you and him in skill is too wide."
Izuku looked back at the footage for a few moments. "You may be right."
"So what are you going to do?" Ochaco asked him. "We could get you a trainer."
"That takes too long," Izuku stated firmly. "In that time who knows how many people could be getting hurt by my tech...my tech...he's using my tech."
"Yes we get it Izuku, they must be stopped." Ochaco sighed.
"No, no that's not what I meant," Izuku said. "He's using my tech. So I should be able to use that against him."
"You mean with the disk?" Ochaco asked.
"No, if I tried to use the disk on the whips, assuming he didn't just hit them out of the air, they would be instantly destroyed by the energy pulsing through them," Izuku explained. "What I mean is, what if I build an armor to counter his whips."
"And what if he has more than just the whips?" Chizome asked. "You of all people should know that anyone worth their salt will have more than one trick up their sleeve."
Izuku nodded, thinking deeply about what Chizome said. "I'll have to take that into consideration while building the armor. I'll analyze his quirk and see what other applications I can think of and how to counter them. Thank you Chizome."
"I would really recommend combat training, I think you're underestimating its benefits," Chizome warned him.
"I'm not. I'm just not underestimating how much time it will take." Izuku said, returning his focus to his work.
Chizome and Ochaco gave each other worried looks.
Both of them had a very, very bad feeling about this.
A week later.
Izuku looked at his newly finished armor, looking between it and his blueprints to check for discrepancies.
This new armor was different from his old one. It was pure black, except for the white vein-like lines that ran along the entire armor, all connecting to the arc reactor. The chest plate also was a bit bulkier, but not too much so, and the rest of the armor was about the same size.
"Okay, everything looks good," Izuku said while looking it over.
"Everything's good?" Eri, who had once again acted as his personal lab assistant, asked.
"It seems so," Izuku told her.
After a bit more looking, he stopped when he reached the helmet, noticing something.
He picked up the helmet, taking it off the rest of the armor, and getting a closer look at it. "This plate is sticking out. That means there's a wire sticking up and that could mean one of the wires is uneven and could snap. And from what it looks like that could mess up the targeting system. Eri hand me my wiring tools in drawer 2-C."
Eri nodded and moved over the drawer's locating drawer 2-C, opening it, and taking out some tools, before quickly delivering them to Izuku.
Izuku took the tools and sat down, before adjusting the helmet.
Eri went beside him, Izuku stopped for a second to help up onto a stool next to him, and watched him work intently.
After a few moments, Eri spoke up. "Are you gonna beat that scary whip man?"
Izuku paused. "Yes Eri, I'm...altering my armor to make it easier to beat him."
"How?" Eri asked.
"Well, Whiplash's whips are only dangerous to me because of the energy flowing through them. When the whips hit or slash me the energy burns through the armor." Izuku explained.
Izuku pointed at the white lines on his armor. "Do you see these?
Eri nodded.
"These will absorb the energy from the whips, and redirect them to this special arc reactor," Izuku explained. "So any time he hits me with the whip, it doesn't hurt me, it makes me stronger."
"So you steal his energy...like a para...para...parasick?" Eri asked.
"You mean a parasite?" Izuku corrected, receiving a nod from Eri. "Yes I guess it is like a parasite, where did you learn that?"
"Mommy taught me. She kept yelling about parasites trying to steal her happiness and that she was going to do very bad things to them." Eri explained. "She also said humans can be parasites too. Like Ground Zero fans."
Izuku facepalmed. "Looks like I'm going to have to have a talk with mommy about what is and what is not appropriate to teach you."
Eri gave another look at the armor. "Is this gonna be your new armor?"
"Not permanently." Izuku shook his head. "This armor was made to fight against people who rely on energy attacks. It doesn't have many nonenergy based attacks because I had to make room for the absorption system. And the armor is not very energy efficient."
"That means it runs out of power quickly." Eri pointed out.
"Yes, it does, very good." Izuku patted her on the head. "I probably won't use the armor again after I beat Whiplash, although it should be useful to keep around, just in case."
BERRR! BERRRR! "Whiplash energy signature detected!"
Izuku had altered the search and alert system, to look for Whiplash's energy signature, basically, if Whiplash used his quirk, he could track him.
This hadn't been the first time Whiplash popped up in the last week, but now, Izuku could finally do something about it.
"Time to go!" Izuku finished up the modifications on his helmet, running back to the armor and re-attaching it. "Add to the suit up machine, set to prime."
The armor sunk into the wall, which closed up as the armor was transferred.
Izuku walked over to the circle in the center of his lab, waiting for his armor to be placed on his body.
"Are you going to fight that strong villain?" Eri asked.
"Yes, Eri. I am." Izuku answered, as the circle lit up, and the suit up process began.
"Be careful," Eri warned. "And good luck!"
Izuku smiled, as the machine finished placing the armor on Izuku's body, it powered up and he was ready to go. "Thanks, Eri. I will."
FWOOSH!
Sometime later.
The current location of Whiplash put him deep in the forest. Most likely at another warehouse because if there was one thing villain's loved, it was warehouses.
Izuku flew above the trees, he really couldn't see anything below him.
But that was ok, because he had all of his scanners and radar on, so there was no way something could take him by surprise.
KABOOM!
And then suddenly a large rocket flew out of the trees and blasted Izuku.
"GAH!" Izuku cried as the rocket hit him dead on, knocking him higher into the air.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
More rockets, capitalizing on Izuku's stunned state, pelted his armor with explosions, knocking him higher and higher into the air through clouds of smoke.
Eventually, Izuku managed to get his head back in the game, and dodged to the left.
"Armor integrity at 91 percent." His armor announced.
Well, at least they aren't doing much damage. Izuku thought as he dodged more rocket barrages.
Izuku flew through the sky dodging rockets left and right while trying to scan the location of whatever the source of this attack was.
"What's going on? I can't get a lock on its source!? GAH!" Izuku got distracted and was hit in the face with another rocket.
"AH! What's going on? Why can't I detect anything?!" Izuku thought about it for a moment, before he realized something. "They have my tech, they're using my anti-radar tech. Of course, I can't track them."
Okay, what do I do? These are most likely coming out of turrets because I'm not getting any heat signatures or any other signs of humans firing these. I could wait until they run out of rockets but that might not be good for my battery. Wait a minute. Izuku thought of a solution.
"Armor, track where these rockets are coming from, take into account homing properties, wind properties, and my location in relation to their place of origin," Izuku ordered.
His armor obeyed his command, scanning the rockets and where they were being fired at, tracking down the source while Izuku dodged more rocket fire.
"Sources located, adjusting H.U.D." His armor finished after half a minute.
Red dots appeared on Izuku's map, allowing Izuku to finally see where the attacks were coming from.
Izuku flew straight down, landing right behind a big rock.
I can't afford to fly down here. Too many trees, I'll bump into everything, I have to be careful. Izuku looked at the red dots on his map. Ten turrets, I can do this.
Izuku stepped out from behind the rock and ran through the forest.
He approached the first turret in seconds, and as soon as Izuku got close, the turret turned to him and began to fire.
No longer having the air advantage, Izuku struggled to dodge, moving left and right as fast as he could, causing him to trip.
Fortunately, before the turret could take advantage of this, however, Izuku managed to shoot a repulsor blast at the turret, causing it to explode.
Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. One down, nine to-
KABOOM!
"Darn it!" Izuku shouted as he was blown away by another rocket.
He had been so focused on that one turret, that he didn't notice he entered the range of two others.
Izuku rolled out of the way of the rest of the rockets, eventually pulling himself up and running through the forest dodging rockets.
Thanks to his speed, Izuku was able to avoid the rockets pretty well, the tree's however, despite being completely still, somehow proved to be harder to dodge.
Izuku crashed through another tree after dodging a rocket, before crashing through another tree.
Eventually, Izuku got close to one of the turrets and blasted it with a repulsor blast, destroying it.
Izuku jumped out of the way of more rockets, before unleashing another repulsor blast and destroying that turret too.
At this rate, I'll run out of power trying to destroy all these things. Izuku thought. "Switch to beam."
Izuku held up his palm in the direction of the nearest turret, which he couldn't see due to the trees but thanks to his map he did know its location.
BRRRR!
Izuku blasted a repulsor beam that cut through the trees until it reached the turret.
BOOM!
The sound of the explosion signaled the destruction of the turret, leaving Izuku to blast a few more.
BRRR! BRRR! BRRRR!
Izuku let out beam after beam, making holes in, if not just straight knocking down trees, as he blew up turrets in every direction until finally they were all destroyed.
The armored genius let out a small sigh of relief.
"What is the level of armor integrity?" He asked.
"Armor integrity at 82 percent." The armor reported.
"And my power?" Izuku asked.
"Power at 57 percent." The armor answered.
Izuku grit his teeth. This armor's efficiency is really bad. I better find Whiplash soon before-
"Threat detected, behind you." The armor warned.
CRACK!
Izuku felt a small impact on his armor, but it didn't even budge him.
"Power absorbed, power at 64 percent." The armor told him.
Whiplash. Izuku turned around, and of course, standing there was the enemy he had been looking for.
"So that's what you came up with," Whiplash said, looking at his whips.
Izuku wasted no time and ran right at the villain, knowing that the whips could no longer harm him, but could still swat his repluser blast out of the air, so he had to take a direct approach.
Whiplash dodged a punch given by Izuku, the armored man's fist plunging into the cliffside and cracking the rock.
Izuku took his fist out of the cliff and kept charging at Whiplash, letting out a flurry of blows at Whiplash that the villain promptly dodged.
Same as before, his punches are sloppy, unfocuses, predictable. But damn strong. And fast. Without my whips, I can't keep him at a distance, or even hurt him. His punches are too fast for me to dodge for too long, eventually, he will hit me, and I will go down. Whiplash thought about how to best solve this issue.
Whiplash deactivated his quirk, turning his whips into normal metal whips, before he shot out one of his whips at a nearby tree branch, and pulled himself towards it.
The villain landed on top of the tree branch and then jumped away through the treetops.
Is he trying to escape? Izuku ran after the villain, knowing darn well that he had no chance of jumping from branch to branch like he did.
Instead, Izuku fired a repluser blast at the tree's Whiplash was jumping on, but the villain was simply too skilled. Every time Izuku blasted down a tree, Whiplash had already moved onto another tree, his movements were sporadic and unpredictable, and using his whips, and could swing onto trees that were much farther than he could jump.
Soon enough, Izuku had lost track of him in the dense woods.
Izuku tried to use his scanners to track him, but nothing was showing and results.
He must also be using my stealth tech! Izuku couldn't put into words how infuriating it was to have his own tech used against him like this. It made his blood boil and his desire to beat Whiplash increased exponentially.
Suddenly, Izuku heard a branch snap in half and fall to the floor.
Izuku reacted and blasted the spot where he heard the noise, however, nothing was there.
He heard another rustling in leaves, and blasted that area, only to hit nothing.
He keeps hopping from tree to tree! I need to get rid of these stupid trees! Izuku thought. "Blast to beam."
Izuku brought his hands out to the sides, before firing the repulsor beams.
The beams cut through all the tree's in their way, Izuku then spun around in the circle.
Hundreds of thuds were heard as trees fell all around the forest, clearing a large area around him so he could finally see.
Note to self, have people replant the trees in this area. Izuku thought, feeling a bit guilty for the massive destruction of nature.
THWACK!
"AH!" Izuku was suddenly swept off his feet by a tree trunk hitting him in the back.
He still found a way to sneak attack me!? Izuku was about to pull himself up and throw the tree trunk off of him when two more tree trunks fell on top of him.
Whiplash used his whips, to pick up the fallen trees and throw them on top of Izuku.
Soon enough, Izuku was covered in a stack of fallen trees, buried under a mountain of wood.
Once Izuku was completely entombed, Whiplash stopped, and waited for Izuku to escape.
Then, a blue glow started to emanate from the pile, leaking through the openings between the branches, until-
BRRRRRRRRRRR!
The shining beacon of light that was the Uni-beam, burst through the center of the stack, causing some of the trees to roll or even fly off.
The beam dissipated, and the stack started to rumble and move.
"RAHHHHH!" Izuku burst up into the sky using his thrusters, finally free of trees.
He looked down at Whiplash, he really, really wanted to attack him right now.
However, there were some things he had to check.
"Status update," Izuku told his armor.
"Armor integrity at 78 percent. Power at 36 percent." The armor reported.
Damn it! At this rate, I'll run out of power again! Izuku grit his teeth in anger, his armored fist clenched as he glared at Whiplash intensely.
He wanted to beat him. It took every bit of restraint he had not to attack him where he stood.
But he thought of Ochaco and Eri. How they would react to his death. And it held him back.
If he continued to fight Whiplash there was a large chance he would run out of power, leaving him a sitting duck. And if Whiplash wasn't as merciful as last time, it would be the end of him.
In the end, he had to retreat.
And so with a heavy heart, he turned the other way, and flew at max speed away from Whiplash, leaving the villain behind in seconds.
Another loss. Not as crushing or terrifying as the one before it. But a loss nonetheless.
So yes another loss!
Since he wasn't able to attack Izuku directly, Whiplash had to use other methods to attack Izuku. Mostly, getting him to waste his power.
So as you can probably predict, Izuku is gonna spend a long time training next chapter. He has to close that skill gap.
Anyway, please review and have a nice day.