Hanger, US Air Force Base, [REDACTED]

A Week Later: Friday, April 3rd, 1:15 p.m.

"The future of air combat. Is it manned or unmanned?" Eijirou spoke as he turned to face the new cadets while he gave the tour of the base. "I'll tell you, in my experience, no unmanned aerial vehicle will ever trump a pilot's instinct, his insight, that ability to look into a situation beyond the obvious and discern its outcome, or a pilot's judgment."

"Colonel? Why not a pilot without the plane, hm? It seems that would be way easier, wouldn't it?" Katsuki appeared out of nowhere, completely stealing the attention of the new cadets from Kirishima.

"And look who decided to fall out of the sky, tell me how's that arm treating you?" Kirishima remarked.

Katsuki was quick to grab his arm, remembering the previous events and his very real descent out of the sky. "Just fine, thank you." He said defensively. "But speaking of manned or unmanned, you gotta get him to tell you about the time he guessed wrong at spring break. Just remember that, spring break, 1987. That lovely lady you woke up with."

"Don't do that."

"What was his name?"

"Stop it."

"Was it Ivan?"

"Stop doing that, they'll believe it."

"Okay fine, Shitty hair. It's not what I came here for anyway." Katsuki seemingly let off. "Kind of like you in 198-"

"Alright that's enough! Please, just give us a minute." Kirishima blurted before pulling the ash-haired blonde off.

"It was nice meeting you!" Katsuki said before he and the dyed redhead were out of sight.

Pulling Katsuki aside to the other side of the hanger, Eijirou was ready to let loose on his best friend until he was stopped before he could even get a word out. "Look shitty hair, I know you're angry but just hear me out."

"Katsuki, you can't just show up in places like this and start strutting around like you own the place." He began, before a couple of gears started working in his mind. "Just to be clear, you don't actually own the place, correct?"

"No, well, not yet anyway, but I do own Area 51."

"I'm sorry, what? Actually, you know what? I don't care anymore, what the hell do you want?" He said, putting his questions aside if only to get Katsuki out of there faster. "I swear, I didn't expect to see you walking around so soon."

"Well I'm doing a little bit more than walking, shitty hair."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Eijirou, I'm working on something big. I came to talk to you. I want you to be a part of it." The billionaire said, shocking his best friend as he used his first name.

"Wow, no nickname, huh? You must be serious, Bakubro." He said with a smile on his face. "And I'll tell you what, you're about to make a whole lot of people around here real happy, 'cause that little stunt at the press conference, that was a doozy."

"This isn't for the military, as from what I've seen, you guys can't seem to keep my shit out of the wrong hands." Katsuki said distastefully. "Plus I'm not… I can't… it's different."

"Katsuki Bakugou, a humanitarian, I never thought I'd see the day, but oh how wrong I was." Kirishima responded sarcastically.

"Look shitty hair, I just need you to listen to me."

"No. What you need is time to get your mind right. I'm serious." Eijirou said, speaking to his friend in a serious tone.

Picking up what Kirishima was putting down, Katsuki only responded with a simple "Okay." before his friend started speaking again.

"Trust me when I say my words do not come with malicious intent, I'm only worried for your health, now go home, it was nice seeing you, Katsuki." He said before walking off.

"Well… thanks for nothing I guess."

—

Hours later, Katsuki could be found in his workshop, working on his computer and hologram table, a bit irritated, but then again he's always irritated. "Hey Mina, you up?"

"For you, sir? Always." Katsuki remained unfazed as the feminine voice responded.

"Good, I'd like to open a new project file, index it as Mark II."

" Very well, Mr. Bakugou. Shall I store this on the Bakugou Industries Central Database?"

"Actually, I don't know who to trust right now. So until further notice, why don't we just keep everything on the private server?"

" Ooooo, we're not working on a secret project, are we, sir?" Mina teased, Katsuki's attention suddenly being brought to her tone of voice.

"The personality software is doing you wonders, I see."

" Why yes, sir, I quite enjoy it very much."

"Good, and to answer your question, the only reason we're keeping this thing secret is because I don't want this winding up in the wrong hands. Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good."

—

All the way across the world though, the members of the 10 Rings could be seen searching through the wreckage left behind by Katsuki in hopes of getting a hold of the very technology that allowed him to escape their clutches.

As the men continued to search on, a man with half of his face charred appeared, watching his men search, it was Raza, smiling as he watched the men search.

24 hours later

"Next. Up. Not in the boot, Dumbass. Right here. You got me? Stay put." Katsuki said, working on metal boots in his workshop. With his robot, "Dumbass", assisting him. Though it wasn't going well as the machine kept disobeying his orders. "Mina! Recalibrate Dumbass to follow my commands he's being a… well a dumbass!"

"It would seem that I am unable to follow that command sir, as you have forgotten to install the systems necessary that would have given me access to that model."

"Well then you're of no benefit to me! Why didn't you remind me to do that earlier!" He complained.

" Well aside from the fact that you were kidnapped, it was because I forgot sir."

"WHAT?! YOU'RE AN AI! HOW DO YOU FORGET SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!"

" Because you programmed me in your mother's ima-"

"Ah-ah! Don't establish my mother complex with me, just… don't." With visible embarrassment on his face, the blonde turned back to dumbass as his face turned red from blushing, pointing at the machine. "And you! Disobey me again and I'll scrap you for parts! Understood?" His answer came in the form of rapid nodding from the robot. "Good, now move to the toe and you don't even move or I'll turn you into a rolling tragedy."

An hour later, Katsuki was wearing the boots in his workshop for a test flight. Another one of the robots is filming it, he didn't care to name this one though as in his eyes they all had annoyed him anyway, while Dumbass is in charge of the fire extinguisher. "Okay, let's do this right. Start mark, half a meter, and back and center. Look alive, Dumbass. You're on standby for fire safety, you let me burn and I'll come back and dismantle you from the grave. You, extra, roll it."

The video started recording as Katsuki began tapping both feet to ensure that everything was in place. "Okay, everything feels all good. Mina, activate the hand controls. We're going to start off nice and easy." He said as he felt the power in his hand linking to the boots turn on. "We're going to see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift off in three, two, one." And without warning Bakugou was immediately flung back and hit the upper wall, groaning as Dumbass used the fire extinguisher on him.

" It would appear that the experiment was a success, though two things. One, I would highly recommend flight stabilizers for better control of your mobility while in the air and two, I would also recommend that you stop threatening to dismantle Dumbass and sell it for parts if you don't want me to put a bigger kick in your boots next time, I mean it, he's my favorite robot." Mina proposed, throwing in a threat at the end.

"Wouldn't you be your favorite robot?" He questioned.

" No, because I'm not a robot, I'm an artificial intelligence." She defended.

"There isn't much of a difference. An AI is essentially a self-aware computer and a robot is essentially a computer that can transport itself from place to place."

" That's hurtful."

"Consider it payback for sending me flying!"

A few hours later out of both fear and realization, Katsuki is then seen working on flight stabilizers for his hands/arms. "Damn artificial intelligence, sending me at walls and shit." he thought to himself, not daring to speak any of his words out loud now that he know that his AI carried a grudge, it was clear that he was carried away in thought as he didn't know if Ibara walking in while he was working with a wrapped box and a cup of something. "Okay Mina, move that up two. All right, aaand set that."

"Y'know, I've been buzzing you. Did you not hear the intercom?" She asked as he was still caught up in working on the stabilizers, she waited for a response as she said the items on the messy table, realizing that he clearly wasn't paying attention to her. "Katsuki!"

"Yeah yeah, I got everything… wait what?"

"Obadiah's upstairs."

"Great great!"

"It's clear that you're busy so what would you like me to tell him?"

"Nothing. I'll be upstairs in a minute." He responded, setting up the flight stabilizers on his hand and arm.

"I thought you were done making weapons."

"I am. This is a flight stabilizer, completely harmle-" he was interrupted as he flew backwards by the backlash of the stabilizer, startling Ibara and sending him into the metal racks behind him. "Okay. I didn't expect that. Mina you didn't have anything to do with that did you?"

" No. That was your own faulty design. Maybe you're just a bad inventor?"

"You know maybe you're right, I did make you after all, I guess that should have been my first clue."

"You banter with the AI?" Ibara asked in confusion.

"You don't?"

————

Though reluctantly, Katsuki had finally got himself up and made his way upstairs to find Obadiah playing his piano in the living room while Shiozaki was working on the couch next to a box of pizza, he made a quick assessment of how everything went and quickly sat down while took a slice of pizza. "I would ask how it went and hope for good news, but I think it's safe to assume otherwise." He began.

"Just because I brought a pizza back from New York doesn't mean things went badly, assuming things make an ass out of you and me." Stane responded, still playing the piano.

"Sure it doesn't." He shot back, rolling his eyes. "Oh boy, here it comes..."

"You know it would have gone better if you were there." Obadiah stated, with Katsuki mouthing every word mockingly when he wasn't looking.

"Uh-huh, YOU told me to lay low. And that's exactly what I've been doing. I lay low while you take care of all-"

"Hey, come on. In public. The press." Katsuki was interrupted once again as Obadiah finally stopped playing the piano to come over and take a seat next to him. "This was a board of directors meeting."

"A board of directors meeting?"

"Yeah, they're claiming you have Post-traumatic stress disorder. They're filing an injunction." He said, taking Katsuki by surprise once again. "And it doesn't help that you rudely rejected their daughters."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Point is, they're trying to lock you out."

"Why, cause the stock dipped 40 points? Because we knew that would happen." He said trying to make sense of what he was hearing.

"Actually it was Fifty-six and a half." Ibara threw in.

"Doesn't matter. We own the controlling interest in the company."

"Katsuki, the board has rights too. They're making the case that you and your new direction aren't in the best interest of the company." He continued. "And no offense, I'm starting to think they have a point."

"I'm being responsible! That's a new direction for m--for the company! I mean, for me on the company's behalf on being responsible for the way that… uh, fuck it I've got nothing. Well… this is great." He gave up, walking away, taking the box of pizza with him while Stane followed.

"Oh, come on. Katsuki. Katsuki!" He called after him.

"I'll be in the shop."

"Hey, hey! Hey, Katsuki. Listen. I'm trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them." He said, grabbing Bakugou to stop him. Looking the blonde in the face while pointing at the arc reactor in his chest. "Let me have the engineers analyze that. You know, draw up some specs."

"Nope. Absolutely not."

"It'll give me a bone to throw at the boys in New York!" He tried to bargain.

"No. This one stays with me. And that's final, Old man. Forget it." He finished, putting his foot down.

"All right, well, this stays with me, then." He sassed, taking the box of pizza back. "Go on, here, you can have another slice. Take two."

"Thank you." He said, taking two slices.

"Would you mind if I see what you're working on down there?"

"Good night, Obie." The blonde said as he made his way back down to the workshop.