A/N: Whoops, I keep forgetting to upload, so here's a double chapter upload! Please Read, Review, and Enjoy!

Chapter Eighteen; Harder Work and Cooler Babies

While Izuku was busy with physical exercise mixed with brainstorming, Mei studied the blade.

Well, a high-powered plasma cutter, that is. A device that made it easy to cut and form metal to how she pleased. Though powering it ran up the electricity bill of her workshop, she didn't pay it much mind since her parents didn't seem to question it.

After spending an entire weekend, Mei had completed the first couple of devices she was planning on utilizing in the festival.

"My super cool babies are gonna steal the show! Izuku will be so jealous," Mei exclaimed to herself as she grinned wickedly at her creations.

As if on cue, the door to the workshop opened. As light poured in, Mei was practically blinded from the lack of natural light from the days of work, only able to see the silhouette of the person entering.

"Ah, Mei, you're in here after all," came the voice of Izuku, who promptly closed the door to block out the waning sunlight. "Have you made a lot of progress?"

"Of course I have! I'll have so many babies that it'll make me shine brighter than any Hero!"

"Maybe word your statements about babies better.." Izuku chuckled a bit. "But what was it you wanted me here for?"

"Oh! Right!" Mei smiled and began to rummage through the work desk, producing a thin vial of a black substance. "Here, check it out!"

Izuku took the vial, gazing at it. He tilted it a bit, noticing how viscous it was, barely moving within the vial as it seemed like it was—

"Sludge? Is this…?"

Mei nodded intensely. "I took some of that sludge villain before, and I've been able to recreate his makeup a bit. It's amazing stuff!"

"E-Eh? Is it safe?" Izuku nervously held the vial in both his hands.

"Of course it is!" Mei laughed. "I made sure to kill any traces of life in it."

"K-Kill?!"

"Not like that! It seems like when the sludge guy loses a piece, that piece tries to get back to him," Mei explained, taking the vial back. "It took a while but I managed to make it stop... Or maybe he died? I dunno."

Izuku sighed. "Well… What does that have to do with me?"

Mei chuckled and held up a finger. "I worked on it for you!"

"For me?"

"Mhm! This baby is perfect for what you want to accomplish!"

Mei grabbed a spherical device the size of her palm, placing the vial into a slot in it. The liquid was drained from the glass container, which she then removed, handing Izuku the device.

"Here, this is a bomb that'll send the stuff all around it!"

Izuku was a bit nervous handling something that Mei straight up called a 'bomb', but he took it and looked at it, noticing a single button on one side.

"Now here's the kicker— That stuff is highly resistant to electricity and heat," Mei began to explain as she rummaged through the desk drawers again. "It's been able to resist EMP's and explosions easily!"

"Electricity and heat… Explosions?" Izuku's eyes widened a bit in realization.

Mei turned to him again, with three more vials in each hand. She smirked as she saw the look on his face.

"Yup! This is your answer to that explosion guy!"

"A-Are you sure this'll—"

"Ehh, you'd doubt me after all this time?"

"N-No never! I just…" Izuku trailed off a bit. "How do you know it'd work on him?"

Mei sighed and pointed to her eyes. "I'm always watching and studying things I need to research, so I've found some interesting stuff on that guy."

"On Kacchan? Like what?"

"Well, it seems like his sweat causes the explosions, or it's made of explosive material," Mei said, before tapping the device in Izuku's hand. "Soo if this stuff gets on him, he shouldn't be able to go kaboom!"

That's amazing, Mei managed to do this without knowing Kacchan as long as I have, Izuku thought. Gazing down at the device in his hands, a thought occurred to him.

"W-Wait, why go through all that trouble for me…?"

"Hmm well, you are my best friend, Izuku," Mei said simply. "Even if Power Loader-sensei didn't tell us to, I would've helped you any way I could!"

Izuku has to turn away a bit to hide his blush. He felt awful that he had even asked, because he, too, felt the same way as she did.

The past year had changed Izuku's life in a way he never thought possible. Thanks to Mei, he was able to discover a new passion and a new way to become a Hero that nobody ever even hinted at before. And now Izuku was attending his dream school, and had already experienced a piece of what it was like to be the Hero he wants to become. None of that was possible without the energetic and helpful Mei.

"Mei… Thank you," Izuku said softly.

Mei smiled and held out a fist to him. He looked at her and returned the smile, bumping it with his own fist, much like they had done before.

"You can always count on me, Izuku!"

Izuku's work never stopped during that last week before the Sports Festival.

Power Loader had allowed them free reign during the latter half of the school days, replacing the Support lessons with unlimited workshop access.

Everyone had their own plans and aspirations for how they might be able to stand out, some working together to make it happen.

One example was an unlikely duo in the smaller workshop near the 1-H classroom.

"Ah, what the hell— This stuff's really complicated! Explain things better," Risako barked angrily, her sharp teeth grinding together in frustration.

Taka pushed up on his glasses. "It's really simple if you just try it."

Risako scowled and watched him work his magic on the laptop in front of them, as he tried to teach the girl the art of programming, without any prior knowledge.

A few others were utilizing that workshop, including Shiro and Ken who were working on something that could help the small statured Shiro possibly survive the Sports Festival.

"Ah, how does that design look? It seems super cute too," Shiro asked, showing the boy what she had cooked up.

Ken blinked at the picture. "It looks unpractical."

Shiro scowled. "Ken… You're so uncool…"

"I don't really try to be," Ken retorted as he receded the screwdriver he made back into his skin, then produced a flashlight from his forehead and a pair of pliers from his hand, leaning in close to the device before him.

All the meanwhile, Izuku sat in the back, putting the finishing touches on something he felt may be his most important new creation.

Taking into account the mobility he would need to truly stand out, Izuku had created a special device that would react to his voice commands. While that wasn't always practical, it was the easiest way to implement it with his limited timeframe.

The main part of the device sat at his hips like a belt, and extended downwards into two metal rods that got thinner at the end, stopping before his ankles. Thanks to help from Taka and Shuzo, he was able to get voice commands that only worked with his own voice, without having to shout.

When given a command, such as "Stop left", the device would fire the left rod into the ground with intense force, enough to break into most surfaces, allowing Izuku to quickly pivot to his left to avoid something with ease.

Another prompt would be "Fire Left" that would eject the left rod with enough force to give him a propulsion forward or to his right. This not only gave him more options to move, but ejecting the rod could even be used as an offensive option as well.

For further example, during testing earlier that day, Izuku had worn his Flow unit as well as this new device, which he deemed the "Drift."

"Ready whenever you are," Yuki had told him, the boy wielding special gloves that he had created to launch projectiles as different speeds and angles.

Izuku nodded, checking himself quickly. His Flow unit's metal hoses were connected to his boots, and the Drift unit was powered on.

"Drift check!"

As Izuku exclaimed that, the device made a small noise, before stating in a simple heavily robotic voice: "Check."

With that, Izuku clicked his middle fingers inwards on both hands and began to run across the field towards where Yuki was standing.

Nothing escaped Yuki's eyes, that much was true, but once his projectile was fired, Izuku at least had a chance to dodge. Knowing this, Yuki was hoping to still catch him by calculating in the moment where he might be.

Yuki lifted his right hand and fired a test projectile, a simple rubber ball that might leave a welt on someone at best if it hit. It flew at the oncoming Izuku quickly.

"Right stop!" The rod on Izuku's right side shot into the ground, allowing him to bank to his right. "Release!" The rod slid back up into the device, freeing himself. He then began to run to the side,

circling towards Yuki.

With the first exchange in mind, Yuki began to run in the opposite direction. Looking back, he fired off a few more shots towards Izuku, aiming in a horizontal pattern that made it hard to dodge to the side.

Izuku released his middle fingers, sending a charge into his Flow. A blast of air shot from his boots as he jumped expertly over the oncoming attack.

Yuki, of course, had expected this, sliding to a halt and firing a few more shots at Izuku while he was in mid-air.

The Flow unit had been enhanced slightly, only taking a second to charge with air again, but this still proved too long to be immediately effective. Thus, Izuku and Mei had found a way to allow it to store three charges at a time, requiring more buildup time to fill them all, but allowing more uses quickly.

With this upgrade, Izuku was able to quickly fire off another Flow charge to shoot himself to the side, sliding by the oncoming projectiles. As Izuku slid to a halt, he was surprised to see Yuki approaching him quickly.

"You're wide open," Yuki commented as he drew in close, ready to fire upon him at an unavoidable close range.

"Stop left!"

The left rod slammed into the ground, and Izuku held in his right pinky finger, before releasing it. This would send only a slight pulse into the Flow, which in turn triggered a quick burst instead of a long and powerful one.

Yuki fired two shots, but Izuku suddenly began to spin, using the rod in the ground as his pivoting point. As one of his boots shot the air and caused his spinning motion, the other kicked away the projectiles with ease.

With a grunt, Yuki slid to a halt and tried to run away. However, Izuku was already ready to finish it, stopping his spin and facing towards Yuki.

"Fire left!"

The Drift shot the rod into the ground, ejecting it and causing Izuku to propel forward. As Yuki turned, Izuku was already upon him.

He tapped on Yuki's shoulder, and the test was over.

As the two took a moment to catch their breath, Yuki watched Izuku grab the rod from the ground and examine it, before reloading it back into the Drift.

Yuki had known Izuku was getting better and better at physical tasks and support devices, but seeing how quickly he could adapt to them was almost frightening. Somehow Yuki, with a device made to specifically go hand in hand with his Quirk from a distance, wasn't enough to get to Izuku first.

No, my flaw is that I got in close, Yuki had thought. I have to accept that if someone gets in close, I'll probably lose.

"Yuki, thank you for helping me out," Izuku told him with a small smile. "Should we try to do some more tests?"

"I needed this as well, but I think I know what I must work on already," Yuki said with a nod. "I feel like you've already got it down."

"W-Well, it just… Seemed like a good idea—"

"Did you get the idea from that Hero named Power Pole?"

"Eh?! You know about him?"

Yuki shrugged. "It doesn't matter if you took inspiration. He ripped off the old Son Wukong legend anyways."

It was true that Izuku had gotten that sort of inspiration from martial artists and Heroes that mimicked them. The sheer agility and physical

control that allowed them to wield staves and use them as pivot anchors to move around was amazing to him even to this day.

"Well it needs work, but I can't do much more than this before the festival," Izuku commented.

"You'll be fine," Yuki told him. "Don't go losing early, or we won't be able to fight for real."

Izuku looked up at the broad-shouldered boy and nodded.

"Promise!"

In the end, Izuku knew the design needed work, so he continued to try and fine tune it to see if he could correct its faults...

Then the final day of the second week came.

"Next up is Izuku Midoriya," came the voice of the Principal. "Come on in."

Izuku nervously stepped into the room, where three figures were sitting in waiting. He was relieved to see Principal Nezu and Power Loader, but the third person was very intimidating looking.

Today was the day they'd need to get approval for the devices they'd be using in the Sports Festival. Because it was an exception for the Support class, they wanted to make sure it was still fair compared to the Hero students.

"I'm sure you have lots of cool things to show us, Midoriya," Principal Nezu said happily.

"Don't mind that guy over there. That's Mr. Aizawa," Power Loader said, pointing towards the tired-looking man with scraggly black hair. "He always looks like that."

"Can we just get through this already?" Aizawa was slouching in the seat, obviously not enjoying his time there at all.

"Nonsense. We need to be diligent," the Principal retorted. "We needed a Hero teacher to accurately weigh what's fair and what's not."

"All Might's probably not doing anything," Aizawa muttered.

"All Might's still recovering— But anyways, show us what you have, Midoriya."

Izuku nodded and began his demonstration. They were inside a conference room of sorts, so not much room to maneuver, so they were being forced to be able to explain their devices as well as show them off in a limited environment.

The Flow and the Drift devices were accepted with ease. Power Loader had already known about the Flow, and personally commended it as Hero level equipment.

Izuku also had created special goggles, ones that used thermal vision in case of any kind of smokescreen or anything. The design was taken partially from his original Hero costume idea from before he pursued the Support Course, looking like the top half of a traditional kabuki mask colored green. They were approved easily.

It was difficult for Izuku to explain the 'bombs' that Mei had created. He was supposed to pass them off as his own, so he had renamed them and tinkered with the way they worked.

The Firestops, he called them, now worked on a timer basis. By pressing and turning the button, it would count down up to 5 seconds before exploding the sludge compound all around it.

When explaining its qualities, Aizawa slowly sat up in his chair.

"That's to counter Bakugo, or maybe Todoroki, hm?"

Izuku was surprised by that question, gulping as the serious looking teacher gazed at him.

"I, uh—"

"It seems dangerous for someone to target someone outright. I wouldn't allow it," the man stated, before slouching back into his chair.

Power Loader scratched his chin and shrugged. "Were both biased I suppose, what do you say, Principal?"

"Hmm…" The bear-dog-rat man contemplated for a moment. "Midoriya, explain how you can utilize this in other ways."

Izuku thought about what Mei had said— It was perfect for surviving intense heat or electrical interference. She had also told him how she used some during the Entrance Exam to climb the electrified wall. So that meant….

"S-Since it's highly resistant to electrical currents, it could be used to disable electronics or traps," Izuku began. "An electric Quirk as well maybe? And also it could be used to cover myself to survive heat or electricity, as a defensive option—"

"But mainly to counter explosions."

This statement by Aizawa made Izuku freeze, which easily confirmed it to the man.

"Like I thought. I'll pass on that," Aizawa said, looking towards the window as if now uninterested.

It's not going well… But these Firestops… Maybe the name is too lame? No, I need to be honest!

"A-actually, Mr. Aizawa… I've known Ka— Bakugo since we were kids," Izuku explained. "He and I are likely to target each other in our rivalry, so it's only natural that we want to be ready."

"Bakugo has never mentioned you."

"Mention my name… No, tell him about 'Deku', and you'll see," Izuku said confidently. "If he reacts accordingly, then will you approve this?"

Aizawa looked down for a moment at the Firestop device, then sighed and looked back towards the window.

"That's a pain, having to do something extra," the man muttered. "If he does, then maybe."

Izuku politely bowed. "Thank you! I hope you consider it!"

"Well, then we will let you know before the festival begins, Midoriya," the Principal stated, nodding to him.

After giving them his regards, Izuku hastily left, feeling flustered from the experience. He jumped when Mei came out of nowhere, jumping on him and holding onto him.

"Izuku! Did you do it?!"

"A-ah, I think so—" Izuku was used to Mei being a girl at this point, but there was quite the bouncy problem that he couldn't get used to yet, whenever said problem was touching him.

Izuku waited for Mei to get her turn, since she had waited for him. When she emerged soon after with a trunk full of inventions, she smiles and gave him a thumbs up.

"T-They approved them all…?"

"Yup! That 1-A teacher guy didn't care much, and Power Loader was super into them all!" Mei smiled proudly.

The festival is going to start tomorrow, Izuku thought as they walked together. The most important moment of my life— Well, the second most important..

"Hey Mei, s-should we celebrate or something with the others before the festival?"

"I think the others are going to sleep or something lame, but I'm glad you're willing to pull an all-nighter with me!"

"Well… I don't know about that…"

When classes released that day, Bakugo was surprised to see Aizawa waiting for him at the gate.

"What? Am I in trouble or somethin?"

Aizawa eyed the boy seriously. "Have you heard of Deku?"

Bakugo blinked at this, at first showing no signs of reaction— But then Aizawa caught it, the moment Bakugo's face twisted and his hands clenched tightly into fists.

"Nope, sounds like some kind of goddamn forgettable nerd," Bakugo hissed. "I'm leaving."

The boy stormed angrily past Aizawa, who sighed and looked towards the orange horizon of the setting sun.

"Well, that answers that then…"

To Be Continued

Next Chapter: Resounding Sports Festival! (SF Arc)