Izuku and Nejire were currently standing in a forest.
He was in his armor, and she was in her hero costume, and they were both here for the same reason.
Flight training.
Or to be more accurate, Nejire was here to teach Izuku about flying.
"Sorry for taking up your time Nejire." Izuku apologized, blushing under his faceplate.
"It's no problem! It's more than worth it to make sure you don't kill yourself." Nejire said bluntly without losing a bit of enthusiasm or cheer.
"Hehe, yeahhhh." Izuku blushed even more.
"Ok, so first let me see what you can do! Get up there and show me your moves!" Nejire instructed.
"Right!" Izuku activated his thrusters and jetted up into the sky.
Nejire then proceeded to test his abilities by commanding him to do certain things.
"Sharp turn!"
"Loop de loop!"
"Fly slow!"
"Now fly fast!"
"Now fly fast and do a sharp turn!"
This went on for quite some time until Nejire eventually told him to get down.
Izuku landed a few feet from Nejire. "How did I do?"
"Well you have some experience, but it's pretty clear you're untrained," Nejire told him. "Your movements were all sloppy and I don't think you could pull off a smooth sharp turn to save your life. If we were in a city you'd probably crash through a whole bunch of buildings."
Izuku slouched dejectedly. "Oh."
"Don't worry, don't worry we'll fix that right away!" Nejire told him. "But first, we need to see how you fly through tight spots. Try flying through those trees, slowly."
Izuku nodded and activated his thrusters once more before taking off into the forest.
At first, he was doing ok, he dodged the trees relatively well while having a few close calls.
Then he hit one tree.
Which made him hit another.
And another.
And another.
Until he just kept hitting trees.
All while Nejire watched with that ever-present smile on her face. Knowing that this was gonna be a lot of hard work.
Later in the gym.
"Alright let's get this training started!" Kirishima said, hitting his hardened fist together.
"I'm honestly surprised you'd ask me to help me with this." Said hero, Tail Man, Aka Mashirao Ojiro.
The Midoriya's were only somewhat acquainted with the lesser-known hero via his girlfriend Toru. This combined with the fact that as a hero, he was pretty overlooked, made it pretty shocking when Toru told him that they were asking him to teach Izuku hand to hand combat.
"Well, you're one of the best martial arts heroes around. Plus you teach martial arts at U.A. so if anyone could help me with this it'd be you." Izuku explained.
"Oh." Ojiro blushed a bit, not used to having praise heaped upon him. "Well, then I guess I'll just have to do my best. Get in a stance and we'll go from there."
"Uh...right," Izuku said, as he slowly and awkwardly got into a battle-ready...pose?
Ojiro sighed. He'd seen that type of stance before many, many times.
It was the "I watched too many movies stance"
Ojiro shot Kirishima a look, and the two turned their attention back to Izuku.
"Try attacking him and see what happens," Ojiro told him.
Izuku heard the wording and tone Ojiro used and realized that he was doing something wrong. Despite this, he went along with it, Ojiro was teaching him so he would follow his instruction to the letter.
Kirishima had been chosen as Izuku's sparring partner simply because...well...despite Ojiro having way more skill than Izuku, the sheer gap in defense, offense, and speed capabilities meant that he didn't make a very good sparring partner. Kirishima on the other hand could take a hit from Izuku's armor and dish one back, making him more than adequate for training.
He charged at Kirishima and threw out a punch aimed at the hardened hero's face.
Kirishima easily deflected the blow with his hardened arm and went to uppercut him in return.
Izuku barely reacted in time and moved back to avoid the blow, however, Kirishima noticed that this made his footing unstable, so he crouched down and performed a sweeping kick and sent Izuku to the ground on his back.
"Ah. Ow." Izuku groaned. It didn't really hurt too much or damage his armor, but it still wasn't a pleasant feeling by any means.
"All right." Ojiro sighed. "Now the real work begins."
Sometime later in the gym.
Izuku stood, in his armor, opposing his foe on the opposite side of the indoor gym, Chizome, wielding two whips, connected to a device on his back.
"You ready boss?" Chizome asked with a vicious grin.
"I have to be," Izuku told him.
"Good answer." Chizome pressed a button, his whips, and the deceit of his life came to life, filling his whips with blue electric-like energy.
Meanwhile on the sidelines, was Ochaco and Momo, watching the two of them go at it.
"Those whips are designed to mimic the effects of Whiplash's quirk," Ochaco explained. "And with Chizome's skill, while it may not be a perfect simulation of fighting against Whiplash, it'll be very close. When he gets better at fighting him like this we're gonna start simulating some different environments so he can get used to-"
Ochaco stopped when she noticed that Momo wasn't paying attention to her, and was instead watching Izuku getting absolutely owned by Chizome.
"Why are you enabling this Ochaco," Momo asked her in a serious tone. "Overlooking the fact that you are blatantly exploiting a loophole in the law to commit vigilantism, do you think that just a few months of training can allow him to fight at the level of pro's who have been training for years?"
Ochaco sighed. "The suit-"
"Is a tool." Momo cut her off. "And something I learned a long time ago, is that a tool is only as good as the person using it."
Ochaco glared at her. "And what are you trying to imply with that?"
"I-" Momo paused to choose her words more carefully, not wanting to seriously offend her friends here. "Look at him."
The two looked at Izuku still fighting Chizome, making stupid mistakes that he would capitalize on in an instant, leaving openings that would be exploited mercilessly.
"He's just...some people have things that they're good at, and ways they can help people. He's already been doing that with the company." Momo argued. "He doesn't need to-"
"Stop," Ochaco told her, shutting the black hair girl up immediately.
"Let me ask you something Momo," Ochaco said. "If I asked you to become a villain, then would there be anything I could say that would convince you to do that?"
Momo was taken off guard by the question and shot the girl a strange look. "No. Obviously not."
"That, this is that. The same way I could never convince you to become a villain, I could never convince Izuku to stop trying to stop these guys." Ochaco told her.
"But you're his wife!" Momo pointed out. "Surely there-"
"Momo." Ochaco's voice was firm. "Do you think I like watching him go off and put himself in danger? Don't you think if there anything I could say to get him to stop, without either ruining our marriage or ruining him, I would have said it already?"
Momo didn't respond, also not looking Ochaco in the eyes.
"Besides, I know how he feels," Ochaco said, the edge that had been in her voice fading. "I'm furious about our products being used by villains. I won't rest until I know that tech is out their hands, and back into ours. But it's worse for him. I just sell this stuff, Izuku MADE it. He put his heart and soul into developing that tech, to help save innocents and stop villains. Having villains use them to HURT innocents, is a spit in the face of everything he's been trying to achieve. He's not stopping. I can't stop him. So if I can't stop him, the only thing I can do is help him succeed."
Momo didn't respond. Instead, she just looked at Izuku, getting back up, ready to try again.
Days later in the lab.
"So I've been looking at the interface and the designs, and I realized that it'd be normally impossible for someone to make full use of the armor's speed," Mei told Izuku as the two of them stood over a table with pieces of her armor on it. "I mean, it doesn't matter how fast the armor is if the human inside can't control it."
"Right, if anything it can make fighting harder at times," Izuku said.
"Yes, yes, so I thought about possibly adding a neural interface in the helmet and back, so that way a person could have their reflexes and reaction speed boosted to be more on the armor's level," Mei suggested. "This could also be used to get rid of all those audible commands that make it obvious what you're gonna do next, as well as a few other benefits."
"I mean, that would help but it would also cause unbearable headaches and nausea both during and after use." Izuku countered.
"Yeah, but you could get over that." Mei waved it off, only to get an "are you serious" look from Izuku.
"No, I'm serious!" Mei reassured him. "After enough exposure, a person's brain could get used to the interface, and eventually all those side effects would vanish!"
Izuku paused for a moment, doing the calculations in his brain until he eventually found himself at the same conclusion she was at. "But that would take weeks, months of adjustment."
"Right you are! Luckily, you have that kind of time." Mei told him.
Izuku took a deep breath and sighed. Honestly spending all this time not fighting crime was killing him. He knew there were villains out there, using his tech, and he wasn't stopping them.
But he couldn't let himself act on these thoughts. He just had to prepare.
Weeks later.
Izuku and Nejire were back near the forest, but this time Nejire had set up a bunch of targets around the area.
"Ok, so today we're gonna be working on your shooting," Nejire said. "Try shooting something using your aim system thing."
Izuku nodded and held out his palm.
After a few moments, he fired a repulsor blast at one of the targets, hitting it dead in the center.
"Twenty seconds." Nejire said "You're definitely going to need to improve that a lot or learn how to aim on your own. Try doing it without it."
"Ok." Izuku knew that twenty seconds was a lot. It didn't seem like a lot of time, but in a battle, twenty seconds could make a huge difference.
He kept his palm raised and fired at the target.
And missed.
Izuku sighed. Looks like he still had a lot of work to do.
A few days later back in the lab.
"Ok, the neural link should be good to go just put on the helmet," Mei told Izuku, who was standing a few feet away, already in most of the armor except the helmet.
"Right." Izuku slowly put on the helmet, which latched itself onto the armor.
There was a moment of silence, and then Izuku fell over.
"Oh! OH! Ah! God! Ugh!" Izuku shouted out in agony. "My head! Ohhhh! I'm gonna...bwagh!"
"Wait no not the helmet!" Mei cried as Izuku vomited inside the helmet.
Later that day.
"Whew! Ah, gah." Izuku was breathing heavily, as he and Ochaco ran laps around their EXTREMELY large house. Only made worse by the fact that Izuku was carrying Eri on his shoulders.
"You can do it, daddy!" Eri cheered him on.
"Come on honey! Got to build up that endurance!" Ochaco told him. She'd been doing this kind of exercise for years so she was fine.
With the two of them cheering him on, Izuku pushed past the pain and kept on running.
Later that night.
The door to Izuku and Ochaco's bedroom burst open, as the husband and wife duo walked in, or in Izuku's case, limped in.
Once the two had made it in and Ochaco closed the door behind them, Izuku unceremoniously fell face-first onto the floor.
"Everything hurts," Izuku whined. "I wish I didn't do that helmet test on the same day as the exercise."
"Was it really that bad?" Ochaco asked, using her quirk to lift him off the floor and onto a nearby chair.
"Imagine using your quirk on yourself for an hour," Izuku told her.
"Eeee." Ochaco cringed as she imagined what that would feel like. "In that case, let me go make you some tea. You're probably really hungry but can't stomach any actual food right now."
"That's what it feels like." Izuku groaned.
Ochaco went over to their tea brewing set and started making expensive leaf water, taking great care as she did so. "You're doing great, you know. With your training. You're making a lot of improvements."
"Still doesn't feel like it," Izuku answered honestly. "I still don't think I'm moving fast enough."
"You're progressing as fast as you can," Ochaco stated firmly. She had been very watchful of Izuku since he started his training, making sure he didn't try to overexert himself with extra training like she knew he would if she ever allowed him out of her sight.
The room was silent as Ochaco poured the tea into a cup and served it to Izuku.
"This should help with your stomach." She told him.
"Thank you," Izuku said as he took a long sip of the beverage. "Is there any news on Whiplash?"
"He hasn't popped up as often anymore. It seems he's stopped trying to bait you." Ochaco reported. "But we haven't managed to pin down a location."
"So we have no leads?" Izuku frowned, setting down the tea.
"Unfortunately no," Ochaco said solemnly.
There was a long pause, as Izuku brooded over the fact that Whiplash was still out, there, somewhere, hurting people with his tech.
Ochaco put a hand on his shoulder. "He won't get away with this. We'll take him down."
"I feel so worthless," Izuku said, before taking another sip of his tea. "Have you seen the news?"
Ochaco scowled. "What have I told you about listening to the news...don't."
"They think I gave up." Izuku continued.
"They don't know you," Ochaco told him firmly. "You never give up when it comes to helping people. Never."
"They say it's impossible for someone like me to beat Whiplash," Izuku said.
"...Maybe it is," Ochaco said.
Izuku gave her a shocked and slightly betrayed look.
"But that's just what you do isn't it, the impossible." Ochaco smiled at him and took his hand into her own. "People said that your breakthroughs in support gear were impossible. A lot of people would say it's impossible to break out of Yakuza base with nothing but some supplies they hand you and a little girl. But you did it anyway. Your amazing Izuku. You achieve miracles! Who cares what they say? I know you can do this."
Izuku didn't react at first, just staring at Ochaco in awe, before returning a smile. "You always know what to say."
Days later in the lab.
"So I had an idea," Mei told him.
"You've been having a lot of those lately." Izuku pointed out.
"I can't help it! Ever since I saw this beautiful baby my mind has been full of wonderful, wonderful ideas on how to improve it!" Mei gushed. "I can't believe it took you so long to show this to me!"
"W-well I was pretty busy at the time." Izuku defended himself. "S-so what's your idea!?"
"So, do you remember the Jarvis project?" Mei asked him.
Izuku gave her a confused look. "Yes. It was the project to make a semi-sentient A.I. to assist in certain tasks in ways that were too complicated for normal A.I. but it was shut down because we didn't have a way to...efficiently...power it...oh."
"You're too focused on your armor Izuku." Mei scolded him. "The arc reactor can do so much more than just power a suit! For now, let's focus on Jarvis! If we gather a lot of combat data on heroes and how they act, fight and react, then we could make an A.I. that can really help you out in combat."
"That's...a great idea!" Izuku smiled as ideas filled his head. "Eri."
Eri, who was watching from a nearby perked up.
"Why don't you come with me while I gather footage on heroes," Izuku suggested. "We can watch it together."
"Y-yes!" Eri immediately accepted.
"Great! I'll get working on a new arc reactor and the framework." Mei said. "Since it's not going to be portable we shouldn't have to worry about it running out of power for the next century or so."
That was the biggest failure of the Iron Man armor. It wasted so much power. If they could find a way to fully optimize the Iron Man armor to work with the arc reactor, then it could power an Iron Man armor for years.
This was less because of how much power the armor used, and more because of how new the arc reactor tech was.
Having just been created, no one knew exactly how to make the most of this astounding breakthrough in technology, not even the person who created it. It was a miracle he was able to shrink it down and make it portable, however, this portability came at a price. An energy leak. Seeing as the arc reactor had way more power then than what it was powering could actually use, this would result in a lot of that energy leaking out, rapidly draining it until it no longer had any energy.
Of course with a stationary arc reactor, they could make new devices to keep this leak from happening.
"Ohh I can't wait! Let's start immediately!" Mei said.
A few weeks later, in the gym.
"Again," Ojiro ordered.
"Haaa!" Izuku went to punch Kirishima in the face, who in response, deflected the punch with his hardened arm and went to punch Izuku in the chest.
Izuku caught this fist, and pulled Kirishima closer, and then kneed him in the stomach.
This didn't do all too much damage to the hardening hero, who smirked in response to this blow. "Nice."
Kirishima tried to push Izuku away, but Izuku held onto his arm tightly and punched Kirishima in the face.
The redhead tried to punch Izuku to get him to release his grip, but Izuku moved his head to the side and countered with a punch to the gut.
"Enough." Ojiro stopped the fight.
Izuku let go of Kirishima, and the redhead started laughing.
"Man, that suit packs a punch. I actually felt that." Kirishima smiled at him.
"Are you ok!?" Izuku asked quickly. Concerned he might have hurt his friend.
"I'm fine! I'm not a high ranking hero for nothing!" Kirishima told him.
"You've improved significantly." Ojiro stepped in. "You're no master martial artist, but you're just above a novice. Which is impressive considering we haven't been training for that long. Toru was right, your drive is outstanding."
"Ah...thanks." Izuku blushed heavily under his faceplate.
"But we're not anywhere close to done," Ojiro told him. "Now that we've gotten base hand to hand combat down, we need to start working in your replusers and thrusters."
"Right, I knew I could use those in close combat but when I tried doing that before...it didn't end well." Izuku sheepishly admitted.
"Well, that's what practice is for," Ojiro said. "Honestly I think Ground Zero would be a better teacher for stuff like this, but when I mentioned it to your wife...she refused."
Izuku cringed. "I can imagine."
"I don't get the beef between you guys!" Kirishima scowled. "Seriously, I don't understand why she hates him so much!?"
"It's...complicated." Izuku sighed. "Let's just start already."
Weeks later, outside.
"Um...Nejire." Izuku said.
"Yeah?" Nejire smiled at him.
"What's with all the rocket turrets?" Izuku asked.
This time, scattered around their usual training area, were many, many rocket spewing turrets.
"Well, it's time for you to practice dodging while flying! So what better way to help that than with a few dozen homing rockets!" Nejire said. "Oh and also I'll be flying around trying to hit you!"
Izuku groaned. He could already feel the pain.
A Month later
Izuku, Mei, and Eri were back in the lab, as Mei and Izuku put the finishing touches on the Jarvis mainframe.
"Alright! Finally! All we have to do is turn it on!" Mei said eagerly, before looking at Eri. "Want to do the honors?"
"C-can I?" Eri walked up the console hesitantly.
"Of course Eri, you helped gather the data after all." Izuku exaggerated. In truth, all she did was sit and watch some hero footage with him, but he wanted her to think she helped.
Izuku grabbed Eri and lifted her up so she could press the button on the console.
Eri reached out, and slowly, pressed the button.
BRRRRRRR
The system booted up, and within moments they heard a British accented voice speak out to them.
"Hello, I am Jarvis." The computer said. "All systems are fully operational. Is there anything you require of me?"
"It works...why is it British?" Izuku raised an eyebrow at Mei.
"Well, it's kind of like a digital butler if you think about it. And you know what they say, not all brits are butlers but all butlers are brits!" Mei explained.
"...No one says that, but ok." Izuku moved on, the less he tried to figure out what happened in Mei's head the better. "Jarvis, you should be able to connect to the house, and my armor's systems."
"Already done sir," Jarvis said.
"He's inside the house?" Eri asked, looking around at the walls.
"I am part of the house now ," Jarvis said. "Observe."
Suddenly the lab door closed, and then opened again. Various things started turning off and on, showing that Jarvis now had total control over the house.
"Wow," Eri said. "Are you going to help my daddy fight?"
"Young lady, it would be my genuine pleasure," Jarvis responded.
Weeks later in the lab.
"Alright," Izuku said as he prepared to put the helmet back on. "Let's do this again."
He placed his helmet back over his head, as it latched itself to the rest of the armor and locked.
The neural link-activated, and for a moment, Izuku suffered a terrible headache.
But then...it was gone. And it seemed like the world had changed.
"Woah." Izuku moved his armored hands in front of him. It was hard to tell from his perspective, if he was moving faster, or if the world suddenly became slower.
"Looks like the side effects have finally subsided," Mei said, as she looked for something in her lab coat. "Let's test it out!"
Suddenly, Mei pulled out a gun and fired it at Izuku.
"Woah!" To Izuku's surprise, he reached out and grabbed the bullet mid-air.
"Success!" Mei raised her arms in celebration.
"Mei!" Izuku shouted at her. "You can't just shoot people!"
"Oh come on, you're worried about that!? Your armor is bulletproof!" Mei defended herself.
"But what if it bounced off and hit Eri!" Izuku pointed at Eri who had hidden under the table the moment the gun was drawn.
"Actually calculating the trajectory, it'd be impossible for the bullet to hit her from where she was sitting," Mei said.
Izuku facepalmed and gave a long, painful sigh. "Just don't do it again."
Later that week.
Izuku stood off against Chizome, wielding both the energized whips.
The green-haired man was now equipped with the latest and greatest version of the Iron Man armor. The Mk 4.
The Mk.4 was the product of months of R and D. Complete with Jarvis, a neural link that enhanced one's reflexes, better power efficiency,
"You ready boss?" Chizome asked, cracking his whip.
"You ready Jarvis?" Izuku asked the A.I.
"Of course sir," Jarvis said. "He will most likely begin with a sideswipe followed by an overhead strike."
"Alright," Izuku said. "I'm ready!"
"Hmph. Rah!" Chizome did exactly as Jarvis said he would, swiping one whip across and lifting one in the air, covering a large area.
However, instead of trying to go over the whip, he allowed himself to fall under it and then used his thrusters to rocket his way towards his employee.
Chizome barely managed to jump over Izuku's charge, and Izuku propelled himself into the air behind him.
The bodyguard was about to try and whip him out of the air, but suddenly Izuku was in front of him and batted the whip out his left hand.
Chizome backflipped a few times, dodging a few point-blank repulsor blasts, and used the whip to sweep across the room in an attempt to hit him.
Izuku jumped over the attack, and charged at Chizome, moving so fast that by the time he could see what was coming it was already too late, he had knocked down Chizome, and kicked the other whip out of his hand, before keeping his foot on Chizome to pin him.
"Agh, nice." Chizome gave his boss a feral grin. "Looks like your training's done."
"And not a moment too soon!"
Izuku and Chizome looked towards the door and saw Ochaco running in.
"Ok, firstly, that was amazing, and secondly, we have a lead!" Ochaco told them enthusiastically. "The heroes captured one of the villains selling our tech, and he's willing to give up some of his friends for a plea deal. Including Whiplash."
Izuku's eyes widened. "Then...is it really time?"
Ochaco nodded with a big smile on her face. "That's right. It's time for Iron Man to return!"
Alright, the next chapter is the final confrontation with Whiplash!
Please review and have a nice day.