Titanium Soul
[CHAPTER 5]: Dynamo
[ALTERNATIVELY]: In Which Mei and Izuku Ruin The Entrance Exam For Literally Everyone Else
Dynamo (n): a machine for converting mechanical energy into electrical energy; a generator
"...What do you mean, you forgot how to walk?"
"I mean none of the actuators are ported into my simulated nervous system! I'm a mannequin piloted by ants."
Mei blinked. "You're a what?"
"A mannequin piloted by a colony of those super big Amazonian ants- because, like, I have the joints and they can operate them but I don't know how to tell them what to do or even how to distinguish them from each other and-"
"Explain it without using stupid metaphors, please."
Izuku thought for a moment. "I… have no muscle memory for this body, so... it feels like I'm at a 500 button switchboard and don't know any of the key mappings?"
"Was that so hard?"
"It really was."
Mei rolled her eyes and thwacked the back of his metal-plated head. "Well, the timer's already started so you've got fourteen and a half minutes to figure it out and get enough points for us to win."
Izuku hummed thoughtfully. How can he… ah. This was going to be heavy on his CPU, but hey, that's what it was for. He widened his awareness beyond the visual feed from his cameras and pulled up the blueprints to Corpus Primus.
new program "get_up_nerd" created
blueprint analysis complete
creating virtual model . . .
As a 3D model of the body assembled itself in his head, Mei made a surprised noise. "Hey, we're fighting robots for this test?"
virtual model created
applying material properties . . .
Izuku frowned distractedly. "Wasn't there, like, an explanation or something?"
material properties applied
engaging physics engine . . .
Mei waved her hand flippantly. "Well, yeah, but I was distracted by this kid with engines in his legs."
physics engine running
isolating actuators . . .
"Wonder how that works," muttered Izuku as twitches ran across Corpus Primus.
control inputs and feedback variables identified
starting conditions set
beginning simulation . . .
engaging reverse-input readout
"I have no idea! He had a big bottle of orange juice, I'd put even odds on that having something to do with it. Think I can sweet-talk him into letting me take 'em apart?"
Okay, now he just had to… move the simulated body how he wanted to move and copy the reverse-input readouts to the inputs on the actual body? Piece of cake.
Ah, who was he kidding, this was gonna be hell.
He jerkily made his way to his feet. "Alright, I figured something out but this is absolutely not the best way to do this. My reaction time is shot and we have 12 minutes, 43 seconds to get enough points. Plus Ultra?"
Mei nodded approvingly. "Preach it, Zuzu."
"Alright, let's see what we got…"
Izuku glanced around the deserted cityscape. The sounds of fighting echoed through the streets. "No nearby enemies, unless… are there any inside the buildings?"
Mei slipped on her goggles and peered through a window. "Yep! That one says three on it, I think that means we get three points for killing it-"
She was interrupted by a spray of gunfire from the inside, shattering the window. She ducked, and Izuku braced himself for impact. As the rubber bullets smacked into his chassis, he overcompensated and fell forwards. Again.
This wasn't going to work, was it?
Mei sighed and straightened up. "No, yeah, this isn't working. How about we try something else?"
She vaulted in through the broken window and rolled under another spray of gunfire. She hooked her hand onto the armor plating of the robot, swinging herself up and scampering her way to its shoulders.
She harrumphed and pulled a set of wrenches from her tool belt as the robot drove in circles, firing aimlessly into the air. "Man, that workplace safety training program really paid off. Now let's see those innards!"
Her hands moved with surgical precision, carefully removing a panel from the back of the 3-point robot's head. A few wires cut and twisted together, and the entire thing was immobilized. "Hey, Zuzu, I need your brain over here. Try not to trip on literally everything along the way."
He rolled his eye screens and carefully entered through the broken window. "It's not my fault you forgot to set up macros for this thing."
She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Between the two of us, which one is actually a computer again?"
Point taken. Izuku jerkily picked his way across the room, finally resting his forehead against the plating of the three-point robot. It was actually kind of intimidating from up close, looking more like a robot tank centaur with guns for arms than anything else.
A USB cable dangled down next to his head. "If you could just plug yourself into that and break the encryption on this thing, that'd be great."
"Got it." He slowly grasped the wire and plugged it into the side of his neck.
beginning decryption process . . .
He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Is it a bad sign that I have hacking software that can beat UA Cybersecurity installed by default?"
Mei pulled out her phone and plugged that into the mess of wires in the back of the robot's head. "I mean, it's not UA Cybersecurity. Just standard low-risk Support Tech security measures. If I wasn't prepared to beat something like this, we probably shouldn't have even shown up."
decryption: complete
Her phone dinged, and she squinted at the text running across the screen. "Alright, behavior models- that's not what we want… control protocols? Sounds right. System commands… death flag combined with identification… looks like it just uses the examinee designation, no codes, so let's just jam ours in there… and there!"
She smacked a button on her phone, and the sounds of fighting outside died out.
Izuku plucked the wire from his neck and looked up at her. "Mei… what did you just do?"
She smoothly dismounted the robot and grinned smugly at him. "I just sent the kill command out to every robot in range, tagged with our ID. Pretty sure that means we win." She turned back to the robot speculatively. "D'ya think they'll let me take this thing home?"
The PA system went on.
"Alright listeners, since all the villains in your testing field have been defeated with 9 and a half minutes left on the clock, your exam now has a new objective: SURVIVE!"
The ground shook, and the screams of twisting metal and crumbling concrete echoed from the building above them.
Oh, crap. Izuku scooped Mei up under one arm, taking great care not to break her spine, and threw himself through a nearby window. They skidded across the road, coming to a rest on the opposite curb.
With a deafening crash, the building they'd just exited fell against its neighbor.
It was times like these when Izuku was glad he no longer had the necessary equipment to have a heart attack. "Oh God, we were in that!"
Mei slipped out from his grip and brushed herself off. "That's probably gonna leave a bruise, but good call."
Wait, why did that skyscraper have tank treads? And arms?
Mei wolf-whistled. "That's a big robot. See that, Zuzu? That's why I like UA. They're not afraid to do things like set advanced military tech on their Hero Course."
Ah. So that was what Present Mic meant by survive.
The PA system crackled back on. "Oh, I didn't mention this earlier because it didn't feel important at the time, but the Obstacle Robot is programmed to target areas with the highest density of points scored! Good luck, listeners!"
The robot's massive, many-eyed head swiveled to point directly at Izuku. "Mei… do you know how many points we scored?"
She furrowed her eyebrows, glancing down at her phone. "I can't actually check but I'd estimate somewhere in the 2 thousands?"
"This, uh, might be a great time to run."
Eijiro Kirishima sheared the last armor plate off the corpse of a 2-point robot and handed it off to… Sato, was it? The massive dude carried it over to the fortification zone and firmly planted it in the asphalt.
He turned over to the removal team. "This one's stripped, feel free to toss it somewhere!"
Some chick with dangly things on her ears let out a piercing whistle. "IT'S COMING!"
Kaminari jumped up to a vantage point on top of a dead robot. "THE BOSS IS COMING! BATTLE STATIONS, EVERYONE! FIND COVER! FINISH LAYING YOUR TRAPS! THE RAID BEGINS… NOW!"
Everyone scrambled to hunker down behind repurposed armor plates as the sounds of collapsing buildings grew closer.
Some kid wearing… some sort of tech-looking armor and a cool samurai-crested helmet? That or he was a robot, too far away to tell. He was running down the street with some pink-haired girl on his shoulders.
"RUN AWAY! IT'S FOCUSED ON US, JUST RUN AWAY!"
He took a turn away from the fortified city square, footsteps lost behind the sound of twisting metal and concrete hitting asphalt.
Kaminari frowned from his position. "Did he just aggro dump us?"
Jirou tilted her head. "No… the robot actually is still following them."
Kaminari slowly began counting on his fingers. "... the two of them have more points than everyone here combined? ...Nah, he probably just Taunted it."
He turned back to the rest of the examinees."ALRIGHT GUYS, THAT BRAVE SOLDIER IS HOLDING AGGRO FOR US SO WE HAVE MORE TIME TO PREPARE! BACK TO PREPARATION! RECON TEAM, I WANT TO KNOW EXACTLY WHEN THE AGGRO DROPS! FORTIFICATION TEAM, WORK WITH RANGED DPS AND SET UP VANTAGE POINTS FOR THEIR EFFECTIVE RANGE! TRAP TEAMS, DON'T FORGET HOW BIG THIS BOSS IS!"
Kirishima gazed back towards the side street that tech kid had run down. Distracting that giant robot? That was damn heroic.
He frowned down at the armor plate in his hands. Wasn't he there to learn how to be a hero? Wasn't that the entire point of applying to UA? This wasn't a video game boss battle, this was his chance to prove he was worth acceptance to the top Hero School in the country! And how could they accept him if he didn't even think he was worth it?
If Kirishima didn't put himself in front of danger for the sake of others... what was this body, this Quirk, even for?
Izuku frowned, the rubberized soles of his shoe-feet thumping against the dusty asphalt of UA's Testing Field C. He was finally getting a handle on the ridiculous control scheme, but he was sure there was an easier way to do it.
Ah, that was right. Natural Learning: the lazy programmer's Holy Grail.
created new program "get_gud"
recording movement data . . .
Now he just had to… keep running… until the exam timer ran out. And maybe his new program could learn how to frickin walk by the time school came around. Piece of cake.
Mei lowered her head, speaking down to him from her vantage point on his back. "Y'know, those guys back there were more than ready to take this thing down…"
They were? He hadn't noticed, too busy running away and screaming. Was it too late to go back?
A quick glance back over his shoulder yielded the result that yes, it was too late to go back without getting run over by the Obstacle Robot. Damn it. "Oh well. All we have to do is hold out for another five minutes and we're done."
Suddenly, a loud banging that had nothing to do with Izuku, Mei, or the Obstacle Robot began echoing in the empty cityscape.
"I didn't even do anything to you you stupid robot, why are you doing this?"
Izuku frowned and slowed down. "Excuse me?"
A… floof of purple hair stuck out from under the corpse of a nearby 1-point robot. "Oh thank God, can you give me a hand? This stupid thing died on me before I could even hit it, and now I'm stuck." The floof grew an arm holding a frying pan and swung it against the robot's chassis demonstratively.
Izuku winced. "I, uh, I'm a bit busy, actually."
"Busy doing what, they're all dead!"
He pointed down the road, at the approaching Obstacle Robot. "Not that one."
There was a moment of silence. "Oh. I see."
Izuku began to speed back up, but the voice spoke up again, this time in a scandalized tone. "Wait, it's gonna run me over!"
Ah. That… was a problem. Judging from the speed of the Obstacle Robot, he had about… 45 seconds to do something before whoever it was under there got steamrollered.
simulating debris removal. . . strength parameters insufficient to complete task under time constraint
If he couldn't free the person, then he'd just have to… keep the robot away from them? The Obstacle Robot was focused on him- no, it was focused on Mei. He was still technically classified as support gear. There were no intersections on the road between him and the robot, which meant he couldn't just bring it down a different path… the only option was to try and make it between the treads and force it to turn around?
simulating redirection of hazard "OBSTACLE ROBOT" . . . viable
Well, his wonky control scheme wasn't gonna cut it for this, was it?
generating local environment information . . . complete
compiling behavior model for hazard "OBSTACLE ROBOT" . . . complete
expanding "get_up_nerd" simulation . . . complete
predicting path of hazard "OBSTACLE ROBOT" . . . complete
calculating path of highest success probability . . . processing power insufficient to complete simulation under time constraint
Izuku blinked. What did it mean, processing power insufficient? He was running on a nanotech supercomputer that by all rights shouldn't even exist - oh. The power requirements.
[WARNING]
bringing the Z-PEG power supply past the overload threshold may permanently damage your device. Do you wish to continue?
Mama didn't raise no quitter.
[YES] / NO
power supply overload controls . . . overridden
calculating path of highest success probability . . . complete
generating predicted reverse-input readout . . . complete
compiling macro . . . complete
simulation complete
begin operation?
[YES] / NO
He skidded to a stop, reversing his direction and smoothly sprinting back at the Obstacle Robot.
Mei tapped his helmet in alarm. "Zuzu, what're you doing-"
Izuku grinned. "Plus Ultra, you know? I think you need to hold on tight for this part, actually-"
Her hands gripped his Heroic Crest tightly. "I don't know what you're trying to do but hell yeah."
The Obstacle Robot's many-eyed head tracked his movement as he danced between rubble and cracked pavement. Its massive arms reached down to grab them-
updating behavior model for hazard "OBSTACLE ROBOT"
But he fluidly dodged out of the way. Another chunk of rubble to vault over, and they were between the treads. The robot began to back up, but Izuku reached out and hooked an arm around the upper tread, throwing himself further behind it.
[WARNING]
the Z-PEG has reached critical instability. The core will detonate in 15 seconds if further action is not taken. Core ejection is advised.
So that's what it meant by "may permanently damage your device". For a moment, he'd forgotten he was powered by a bomb.
Speaking of bombs… a vicious smile spread across his face, because he actually had somewhere he wanted to put it.
simulating core ejection . . . viable
Ah, wait. Mei was still on his shoulders, wasn't she? He didn't know if she could keep evading the Obstacle Robot without him… Hey, look, there was another hero applicant right there!
"Hey! Catch!" He swung Mei off his back and threw her at the unfortunate individual before turning back at the Obstacle Robot, that was now trying to turn around.
initiating emergency core stabilization protocols
emergency heatsink: engaged
Izuku's Hero Mode helmet disengaged, returning to its natural plate-metal hair form.
disabling processor limiters
estimated core detonation time . . . 43 seconds
Apparently the only way to delay the Z-PEG's explosion once it hit critical instability was to just use up as much power as he could for as long as he could? Weird, but he wasn't going to complain.
generating virtual environment . . . complete
predicting path of hazard "OBSTACLE ROBOT" . . . complete
calculating path of highest success probability . . . complete
generating predicted reverse-input readout . . . complete
compiling macro . . . complete
simulation complete
begin operation?
[YES] / NO
Eijiro Kirishima could safely say he had not started his day expecting to have a… generously proportioned female thrown bodily at him by a fellow Hero Course Applicant.
Now, certain arguments could be made - namely that… uh…
On second thought, there wasn't really much he could say to this situation.
He held out his arms and Hardened his legs for added support, and the girl slammed into his chest. He teetered backwards for a moment, but managed to salvage his balance.
"You good?"
She grinned and nodded. "Thanks for the catch, you can put me down now."
Kirishima obliged, setting her down on her feet and turning to run. A hand grabbed his wrist before he could go. "Hold up, my dude, you're gonna wanna see this."
He stopped and turned back. That green and white tech kid from earlier was now on top of a nearby building? Must've taken a fire escape up, Kirishima guessed. He jumped between roofs, heading towards where the Zero Pointer was bracing itself on one of the buildings as it turned around.
Kirishima frowned. "What am I looking for?"
She slid her ridiculous goggle things down over her eyes and grinned wildly. "Trust me, you won't miss it."
The kid with what Kirishima assumed was some sort of mechanical-form Quirk jumped… onto the Zero Pointer's hand? He positively scampered up the arm and ran along its shoulders, stopping at the base of the thing's neck.
He sent a jaunty salute down towards the girl before turning and… jumping backwards off the robot? Something small and glowing shot out of his chest, sparking with electricity and shuddering violently as it drew level with the robot's face.
And then it exploded.
And not some wimpy grenade-sized bang, either- it detonated with the force of probably a few missiles, shattering the windows up and down the street and fully decapitating the Zero Point Robot.
Kirishima stared at the wreckage in awe. Was… was that the kind of firepower he was going up against here at UA?
He was drawn from his musings by a loud sound somewhere between a clang and a crunch. The Obstacle-Slayer's body slammed into the ground in front of them, twisting in a violent and definitely not healthy manner.
Kirishima winced. "Was I supposed to catch him too?"
The guy's decapitated head crawled out of the wreckage of his own body? "Nah, I'm fine. We're just gonna have to take this thing in for repairs."
The girl picked up his head and put it on her shoulder, turning back to admire the headless, smoking form of the Zero Pointer. "Zuzu, I think this right here is the start of something beautiful."
"You're not upset that I broke Corpus Primus?"
She shook her head. "Building something that can handle you using it is going to be a delicious challenge."
"I would be insulted, but in light of what just happened that's a fair point."
The PA system went back on as Kirishima fell to his knees.
"Alright listeners, since there is literally nothing left we can throw at you without violating the Geneva Convention, specifically on collective punishment, your practical exam is now over! Recovery Girl is on her way to treat any injuries. If you didn't perform as well as you had hoped, don't worry, we're probably going to have to change the entire admissions system for y'all anyway. Thanks for that, Examinee 9117."
The pink-haired girl grinned maniacally and saluted a nearby camera. "It was my pleasure!"
Minoru Mineta left the testing field feeling rather satisfied with his performance. He'd done the best he could, and he either got in or didn't. Either way, there was no point worrying about it just yet.
And since that was out of the way, so began his favorite part of this entire process: "scoping out the competition."
In case you were unaware, this was a euphemism for checking out chicks.
And as Mineta casually leaned against a wall, he saw Her.
She was wheeling a stretcher into a van, with some sort of broken armor or something on it. He could be forgiven for not paying all that much attention to it, or Her pink-haired companion, because his focus was on Her and Her alone. His eyes followed Her as She climbed in the passenger seat of the truck, and as the vehicle pulled out from the parking lot, he stared out into space. Was that…
He frowned, deep in thought.
Ibara Shiozaki was leaving the UA entrance exam, when a remarkably short individual with grapes for hair came up to her.
"Excuse me? You're religious, right?"
She turned and eyed the… boy? Unfortunate teen? She had absolutely no idea. "Yes, I have devoted my life to God. Why do you ask?"
He frowned, clearly in thought. When he spoke, he did so slowly. "...What made you believe in God?"
She thought for a moment. "What is your name?"
"Minoru Mineta."
She considered something for a moment, then nodded. "Well then, Minoru Mineta, come with me. I believe I have something to show you."
A/N: [PIXELKIND]: Well, there you have it. Formatting looks weird because it was done for Ao3 and the ffnet document formatting is ass. Can't even right-align text. Ao3 also lets me put parts in cooler, more computer-ey font so if you want the best reading experience feel free to mosey on over there.
