The Bright Hero, Cobalt

Chapter Eleven

Once more, I thank my editors Penguin Lord0029 and nightwind83. They are hilarious and you will quote everything they say.

"Normal speech."

"Buff Might/AI/Rage Mode Bakugo (or other people, but mostly Bakugou) speech."

'Thoughts/accidental telepathy.'

"Telepathy."

'Sign language.'

Outside Of The Stadium, With Gentleman, Lady Love, And One Other

The pair of former villains were making their rounds, signing a few autographs here and there when requested, though making sure that one of the pair kept their eyes and ears open at all times, not wanting to get bamboozled when in the middle of working security. As La Brava finished signing an autograph for a kid who also had a quirk that was exclusively a support-type, she turned to their friend, who was invisible to everybody in the area aside from them.

Truly, they were working security, but they were mainly there to ensure U.A.'s less-than-visible security agent didn't have any issues. Aureck was choosy of who she interacted with, but with the added visible security along with her invisible presence, there was little chance that a villain would make it far if they breached the grounds. It was with a smile that Lady Love patted her friend on the back, intent on a bit of smalltalk when they made their way somewhere with less people.

The unseen enigma rolled her eyes despite the smile on her face, and the three of them made their way to the woods. Might as well take a quick break, and they couldn't interact with their unseen comrade as freely as they wanted if they were in a populated area. Once they'd made it far enough that the unseen young woman said they were clear, Manami let out a giggle and asked her friend, "So, how is it? Are you happy he's doing as well as he is?" she asked, a grin on her face as she looked up expectantly at her reclusive friend.

Aureck smiled sadly. "Yeah. That blue aura is really something. I wish I could have seen him use it, though...It's a shame my little brother never got to be happy like Midoriya-san is. I guess that's what you get with a proper childhood where you're raised with love, huh?" the woman said, lamenting her childhood, or lack thereof.

The former villainess grinned mischievously. "Speaking of love, I heard through the grapevine that you've been hiding a romantic partner from me! Who's the lucky sonuvagun? What are their favorite movies? How did you meet?" Lady Love quizzed her friend, her eyes glowing in excitement.

Placing a gentle hand on his wife's head, Danjuro attempted to calm the young woman down. "Now, honey, don't be so nosy. I'm curious about her partner as well, but that's information for Aureck-san to divulge. You wouldn't want to make her feel shy and run off, would you?" the hammiest of the trio chastised, looking smashing as ever as he did so.

Aureck giggled a little, excited at how her life was turning out. The traces of blue aura that she still felt in the air were like a drug, making her happier than she was used to being. "You'll be meeting them soon enough. I just need to get Mom's permission to bring them on campus. It took a few years to bring them out of their shell, and even so, they've still got issues, but I think they and I have helped each other. Kinda like Izuku and Uraraka-san. I wonder if the little green bean will get around to realizing what the Bond means? He's really smart, so he can probably help me figure a few other things out," the woman, feeling unusually giddy, explained to her friends.

The pink pigtailed heroine smirked, having struck gold. "So, they're non-binary, huh? Good to know, Aureck-chan!" she exclaimed, then leaped to high five her husband. Seeing as it would be impolite to leave somebody hanging, the gentlemanly former villain reciprocated.

With a chuckle of her own, Aureck retorted. "I mean, you're technically not wrong, but that's not the main reason for the non-binary pronouns. Your theory that I gravitate towards good people holds true with them, but it looks like I also pick out the craziest morons to befriend," she added fondly.

The trio had made it over to one of their little nooks away from the main paths. It was a nice area, that shared a few counterparts across the campus if you knew where to look, that several members of the staff had set up for Aureck and the few friends she spent time with. The two ladies took a seat, while Gentleman poured them some tea. He turned on a monitor that had been set up, and turned to his wife and friend with a sheepish smile. "I'll keep patrolling, but you two may check out a few matches in the meantime. Your friend Hatsume-kun will be up soon, Aureck-san. I suggest you watch. If I find anything, I'll just send you a ping," Danjuro suggested. The young woman in question shooed him away with a grin, the three of them realizing that soon had become now. The man chuckled good naturedly as he headed back to the more populated areas of the campus, his friend gazing at the screen with anticipation.

Back At The Arena

Tenya grinned confidently at the young woman across from him. He had seen her gimmick, but power armors wouldn't stop him. He'd have to be careful to dodge their weapons, but he was well-suited to that, having one of the fastest quirks in the school, along with quicker reaction times than most humans without quirks that explicitly granted such a boon. However…

The gleam in her eyes made him somewhat nervous. It was like she saw more than just an opponent before her. What was going through her mind?

Meanwhile, in Mei's mind, the mad engineer was figuring out which power armor to best display her technological genius. She noted her opponent's quirk, going through her mental database to come to a decision. It didn't take long, however, she'd need to make time for her weapon of choice to arrive, due to it not being in the pod currently.

"Iida Tenya, are you ready?"

"Yes, Sensei!"

"Hatsume Mei, are you ready?"

"Affirmative!"

Midnight raised her thumb, and the man with a mouth with a mic screamed, "READYYYY? CLASH!"

Pressing a sequence of buttons on a glove she'd put on before the match, Mei's hover boots activated, and her pod sent another power armor careening down to the arena, the machine preventing itself from slamming into the ground as it levelled out and approached the teenage genius.

Tenya saw this, and grinned. "You'll have to try harder than that!" he shouted as he intercepted the power armor, landing a powerful kick into it and flinging it off course. A voice from way too close spooked him, however.

"Bold of you to assume I wasn't trying harder already!" the tentacle-haired girl exclaimed as her arms wrapped around the hero-in-training, and with a roar of power, the girl's hover boots went into overdrive, the two of them rising from the arena. "You ever play Pokemon, Iida-chan? Here's a fighting type move you might recognize!"

With a flip in the air, Mei used Seismic Toss! However, Tenya's used to fighting, so it wasn't very effective!

"OH, AND A BLOW FROM THE ANCIENT PAST! WE'VE SEEN MOBILE SUITS AS WELL AS POKEMON ATTACKS NOW! WHAT OTHER POP CULTURE SHENANIGANS WILL WE SEE TODAY, FOLKS?"

Tenya grit his teeth in frustration, despite his easy landing. 'Now she's free to get in her power armor!' he thought to himself. 'There goes an easy win.'

And just as he thought this, the power armor opened up and took her into it, the pink mono-eye looking startlingly menacing on the blue machine as she dove to the field. "You think you can beat me with a zaku?" the second son of the Ingenium line challenged, landing a kick that sent the girl flying back.

He could hear the grin in her reply. "This is no Zaku, boy," with tactical use of the thrusters, Mei reoriented herself in the air and flew back at Tenya with a powerful slobberknocker, her armored fist meeting his jaw. "NO ZAKU!"

Tenya landed painfully, but got up, ready to give his opponent everything he's got. He was startled when a metal cord wrapped around his arm, constricting itself to prevent his escape. "What the heck-?"

"YOU DONE GOUFED!" Mei shouted, and electricity went through Tenya's body momentarily before stopping, the bluenette gritting his teeth as he pushed himself through the pain and flew at his opponent. She had other plans, however, as a beeping in her ear alerted her to something and she ascended into the sky and out of his range.

"I must insist you descend this instant! We cannot fight if you are up there!" Tenya shouted from below, unaware of the ranged attacks his opponent could fire off at any time. He was surprised when the machine ejected her high above the arena, and the girl started free falling, the Gouf returning to the pod from whence it came. Concerned, Tenya moved to try and catch her, but the touching attempt at heroism was unnecessary.

A red power armor, more elaborate in its appearance, opened up as it flew past, picking up its occupant as it did so. In seconds, it returned, and dropped down to the arena, the mono-eye flashing green this time as it pulled a rocket launcher off of its back. With laughter born of madness, Mei roared, "DOOOOOODGE!"

Tenya didn't need to be told twice, doing just as his opponent said. He didn't regret it, seeing as when he got an opportunity to check, he saw a sticky substance that would have stopped him in his tracks, speedy quirk or not. He continued dodging her shots, until she stopped to reload. 'Now's my chance!' the blue blur thought to himself as he sped at his opponent with a roar.

It was almost comical. Mei simply ascended, her opponent's attack no longer having a target, and Tenya slowed himself down to prevent himself from falling out of the arena. Actually, he almost did, but the girl finished reloading and fired a shot, sticking the heroics course student to the very edge of the arena before he could ring himself out. "Thanks for getting hit, by the way. Now I can show off the solution I use to get rid of that sticky stuff," Mei said casually, pressing a button that flipped the barrel of her weapon, and firing another rocket. A substance exploded from it that ate away at the material that stuck Tenya to the arena, and thankfully only that material. The boy quickly moved away from the edge, launching a kick at the sinanju-encased girl, only for Mei to block with her shield, and float away to the field outside the ring.

"Hatsume Mei has left the ring! The winner is Iida Tenya!"

The honest boy blinked, not understanding what had just happened. "What? Why did you forfeit?" he asked, aghast at what his opponent had done.

Mei busied herself with a device in her hands for a moment before turning to respond. "Sorry about that. You probably wanted a proper fight, but I'm from the support course. My goals aren't the same as yours, and I've already achieved mine for the festival. Plenty of support companies have seen what my babies can do, and there's no reason to prevent you from getting an internship, so I made the logical choice. That was a real rush, though! Not enough room for a proper fight, considering your quirk and the mobility of my power armors, but I had fun. I'll have to see if I can make something capable of matching your higher speeds when you've got the time, though I doubt I'll be able to make something that can match your top speed without outside help anytime soon," the girl explained, her eyes occasionally zooming in and out as she spoke to him.

The two made their way into the tunnel he'd emerged from. Tenya would have told her that she was going the wrong way, since her fellow support course students would be reached more quickly if she'd gone back through the other tunnel, but this was the girl who worked on Izuku's hero gear. She probably had something to say to him. Thankfully, despite her texting, she didn't get lost. Smiling a bit, Tenya decided to be friendly. "So, who are you talking to?" he asked, genuinely curious.

With a chuckle, the pink-haired girl responded. "Just a childhood friend. We've kept in touch, and she let me know ahead of time she'd be watching. She's also upset that the arena wasn't bigger, since it would be a better fight if we could both go at top speed. She was pretty impressed with it, regardless," she said with a fond smile.

The speedy hero frowned slightly. "You seem less enthusiastic than normal. Are you all right, Hatsume-san?" he asked, his concern obvious.

The locked on girl barked out a laugh. "I'm fine, Ingenium Jr. I've just gone too long without sleep. As soon as I get something settled with Midoriya-chan and another one of your classmates, I'm going to sleep for a day and a half, then get back to work," Mei explained.

Tenya smiled at the girl next to him, making sure she didn't fall over as they made their way to the 1-A section. Considering how much she was swaying, she wasn't joking about needing sleep.

Before long, they had made it to their destination, only to find they'd missed a match. "Damn, Ashido! Swift and decisive! So damn MANLY!" Eijiro cheered as they emerged from the innards of the stadium's main structure.

Adjusting his Glasses of Awkwardness, Tenya scolded his classmate. "Kirishima-san, I understand that you use that term as a compliment, but Ashido-san identifies as a girl! I do not think it appropriate to use your typical compliment in such a situation!" the boy arm-chopped.

The Crimson Fanboy just turned and grinned. "It's all good, Iida-san. Ashido and I are Horn Buddies! She knows what's up," he said, not really explaining anything while he tried to calm his classmate down.

Before Tenya could try and ask him to explain what a horn buddy was, Mei shoved the bluenette to the side as she made her way to Izuku. "That the girl who wants to be visible?" she asked bluntly, pointing at Tooru. Izuku nodded, a bit nervous at her demeanor. "Cool. Imma nab some of her hair and pass out. Send me back to my workshop afterwards."

Izuku, Ochako, and everybody else in their row and the ones behind gaped as the rosette stumbled in the general direction of Tooru before pulling a tiny...something out of her pocket and using it to remove a bit of their classmate's hair before pocketing the device once more. Tooru, for her part, didn't seem to notice, too busy cheering on Momo as she fought Fumikage and Dark Shadow. The mad child of Gundam stumbled back, attempting to get to Izuku, but stopped in front of Tenya and just stood there. After a full ten seconds, everybody who witnessed the event realized what happened.

'SHE FELL ASLEEP STANDING UP?!'

With a groan, Izuku facepalmed. "I'll ask Hagakure-san if what she just did was okay. Iida-kun, keep her from falling over in the meantime, please?" the ninth inheritor asked his friend before making his way over to their invisible classmate. The speedster nodded dumbly, too freaked out by the girl before him leaning forward and using him for support unconsciously. He made sure she didn't fall over, obviously, but having a lovely young lady basically draped over him was making him uneasy.

"Midoriya-kun! While I am proud that you're recognizing that you shouldn't do everything yourself, I question your decision to have me support this unconscious girl when you know you can do so yourself!" the bespectacled boy telepathed to his friend as loudly as he could, an eyebrow twitching as he glared at the back of his green head.

Tenya could feel the smile on his friend's face, even if he couldn't see it. "You need more friends, and from what I've gathered, so does she. I felt like the two of you could mesh well together. You could learn more about the support side of heroics, and she could learn more about the more physical aspect of it. Besides…" As Izuku continued his explanation, Tenya could feel his happiness going from the joy of seeing friends do well to the glee from a bit of petty vengeance. "I did my best to keep my assumptions to myself, but to have it confirmed that the little brother of one of my favorite heroes is my friend, and for him to not tell me? I'm a bit upset, so I decided this would make a good prank."

Before Tenya could congratulate his classmate for his less than harmful attempt to experiment with his social knowledge or lack thereof, he could sense the boy begin panicking nervously as he turned to look at Ochako and Katsuki, probably having a mental conversation with the two. The former chuckled a bit with an encouraging smile, while the latter face-palmed and grimaced a bit.

Tenya simply grinned. "I think I can guess what you're worried about. It's fine, Midoriya-kun. Your prank was acceptable, though I would suggest not making them so...physical in the future. I would be happy to talk to you about my brother later!" he informed his class vice rep.

Izuku nodded as he turned around, a relieved smile on his face as he powered up his blue aura and left with Mei, obviously wanting to be quick enough not to miss the next match. With a grin that promised destruction of the irregular kinetic variety, the collective rage and nitroglycerin sweat of Class 1-A that was Katsuki made his way to the waiting rooms. With a giggle and a wave of her deceptively deadly hands, Ochako followed, to head to her own waiting room. "Midoriya-kun says you're in charge until Yaoyorozu-san or he gets back, Iida-kun!" she called back before she vanished from view.

The orange juice-fuelled hero-in-training smiled before discreetly checking his phone, which still had no new notifications. With a slight frown, the boy turned to watch the rest of the match.

With Izuku And Mei, Outside Of The Workshop

With a sound Izuku was beginning to recognize as his aura acting as propulsion, the verdette landed near his destination, getting ready to bring out his 'key' so to speak. Before the docking station could open up, though, the front door opened on its own, and one of Mei's power suits came out, this one similar in design to the one she'd fought with at the end of the match. The machine held its arms out, gesturing for Izuku to hand Mei over to it. With a chuckle, Izuku commented to himself, "Hatsume-san, your inventions sure are helpful. You've even got one to help get you to bed." He was a bit startled when a voice that definitely wasn't an Ai responded.

"The power suit is hers, but she lets me use it from time to time when i want to interact with somebody without lowering my shields. I figured she'd be okay if i used it without asking this time," a girl's voice responded.

Izuku blinked before putting two and two together. "You're...Aureck-san, right?" he asked, refraining from handing Mei over in case it was somebody else with a similar ability.

The mech nodded. "Yup. You're smart. You came to the correct assumption, but also stopped yourself from handing Meimei over in case you were wrong. Here's your proof," the girl hidden within said, before he suddenly was able to sense her intent, though he was cut off before he could dig any deeper. With a hesitant nod, he handed the mechanical genius over, ready to pull her back in case this was still an imposter. "Let's get her inside quickly and get this bit over with. Your best friends are gonna have a crazy awesome match, and I know I'm not the only one here who wants to see them show off," the girl, because that's all he could gather from her voice, suggested as she cradled Mei with a startling amount of care.

It didn't take long for the two of them to get Mei situated, and the mech-encased enigma opened a panel on her armor and set a pair of timers. "One for starting up her cold brew, and the other for when it's safe to wake her up. She prefers her coffee fast, so cold brew is the only way for her outside of just pouring regular coffee on ice. So, are there any non-invasive questions you have for me? Ones that I can answer quickly, preferably."

Izuku thought for a moment, trying to think of something that wouldn't be too personal, but might get the person across from him to open up. "You...sound like you're my age. Not exactly, but, like, the same age group...Sorry if this is inconsiderate, but I'd thought somebody of your reputation would be a little bit...older?" the verdette supplied, hoping the reference would help keep his conversation partner from being upset.

He could feel the mirthful smile behind the helmet, the green mono-eye seeming to shine a bit brighter for an instant. "General Midoriya. You're shorter than I expected. You're all right. Normally it would be rude to ask a girl her age, but I've come to terms with the bullshit around my appearance a while ago. I look and sound nearly a decade younger than i am. That sounds nice on paper, but there's gross stuff involved that morons seeking an extended lifespan don't typically think about. I'm not like this willingly, mind you, but I'm a lot more familiar with what goes into it than I will ever be comfortable with. Got another question, kid?"

The hero in training decided to try pushing his luck a bit. "My...sperm donor...He's actually dead, right? I don't have to worry about him showing up someday to hurt my mom again?" he asked, his green eyes flashing with concern.

The red helm nodded. "Yeah. The heroes wanted to take him alive, but...I couldn't let him live. He had knowledge that should never be used the way he'd intended to. Knowledge no person should seek. After making sure it was gone from the world, I removed everything related to that info from my memory, outside of what he'd intended to do with it. Couldn't let somebody get the specifics out of me after I'd gone through so much trouble to destroy the data," she said, and Izuku could tell she didn't like talking about the man.

'I should probably look for a way to salvage this, then leave politely. I screwed up,' he thought to himself, then jumped a bit when the green monoeye flashed.

"Yeah, I'm upset, but you didn't screw up, and you don't need to salvage anything. Regardless, you should leave soon. Meimei will probably want to binge watch the Universal Century Gundam series with you and Uraraka-san when she gets up. Be grateful she's got a list of essential episodes, because there's no way you'd be able to get through the whole timeline when you're not on break. More importantly, it seems like your friends have already started their match," she said, and Izuku took that as his cue to leave.

Bowing politely, the verdette quietly left, flying away with his green aura. When he was sufficiently far away, the power armor opened up, and Aureck emerged. "I need to tell him soon. It's not right for me to keep him in the dark like this," she said, then gazed at her friend, who was less asleep than she'd pretended to be. "You mind helping me get in his house?"

Mei grumbled. "You could just ask his mom. You and I both know she wants to meet you, and it's not like you're going there to do anything weird," the rosette complained sleepily.

Aureck stuck her tongue out in disgust. "Blegh. Don't imply gross things. Fine, I'll do it your way. Just don't let Izuku know, Meimei," she said, smiling at her friend despite the conversation topic.

The maker of destructive items rolled her eyes. "Sure thing, Ko-chan," she mumbled. Before Aureck could retort, she'd fallen asleep. With a sigh, the ghost of a girl sat down.

"I'm lucky I have such good friends," she said, patting Mei's head before docking the power armor she'd been using and heading back out.