Beta'd by kylekatarn77
8. Awakenings
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
-Abraham Lincoln
"I suppose all of you know this already, but the sports festival is in two weeks. You have 10 days to finish your equipment, and then submit it for final approval if you want to use it during the events," Mr. Majima announced the next day at the start of class.
"We're still having that? Sumuri demanded. "What about the League of Villains?"
Mr. Maijima shrugged. "All Might and the rest of us teachers took care of them. A few got away, but most of them are locked up. We need to show the world UA won't be intimidated by a bunch of thugs."
"What about Mirio Togata?" Izuku asked, raising his hand. "How did he help at the USJ?"
"He's All Might's teaching assistant," Mr. Maijima said with a shrug. "And he's quite a talented student. His help was most welcome. He saved quite a few of the students in Class 1A while All Might fought the villains before the rest of us got there."
"What's his quirk?" Izuku asked eagerly, reaching for his notebook. If Togeta was that strong, he couldn't wait to write down a few notes. He already had some ideas on how to stop the League of Villains if they came back, though the warp quirk that one of them had would be hard to counter until he knew more about it.
Mei nodded. "Yeah, he asked us to make some pants he wouldn't lose. I told him I could make him a wonderful baby!"
"Of course you did," Mr. Maijima muttered, then cleared his throat. "Well, that's probably his phasing. He's getting better, and I made him a costume that wouldn't just fall off when he loses focus, but he forgot it. Maybe you can whip him up a pair of underwear or something for casual use, as a thank you."
That got snickers from the other students, though Mei just nodded happily. Mr. Maijima frowned and glared around the room. "I'm serious. You're going to have to get used to the idea of making those sorts of things. Some heroes do need specialized clothing for their costumes. You may very well find yourself making special underwear for heroes more often than you think, and it can be the difference between life and death for someone. Anyway, go work on your projects for the rest of homeroom. Remember, 10 days to submit your list of gear and for me to inspect it for the Sports Festival."
Izuku and Mei headed over to their own work station, with Mei talking animatedly. "This is our chance, Izuku! Time for our babies to shine! We just have to show the world how amazing they are! I'm certain you can do it! You've gotten super good with the Power Suit, and with several of the modules! You're certain to catch the eye of all the support companies, and maybe even the pro heroes!"
"Yeah, I heard that if you do well enough at the sports festival, they let you transfer in to the Hero Course if you want," Izuku said, rubbing his chin.
"Well you can do that! Our babies are the cutest, most wonderful things ever!" Mei burbled.
Nodding Izuku glanced around at the various items they'd completed. There was the Power Suit of course, and the grappling hook, jet pack, and hover boots. But he needed something else…
"I think we need something to counter everyone's quirks," Izuku muttered to himself. "I know what Kacchan's quirk is, but I don't know about the other students. How do I find out what they are? Maybe I could spy on them at lunch. No, that wouldn't work, they're not using their quirks then. Kacchan probably wouldn't tell me, and spying on them during class would be hard, so how do I-"
"Hey, Mr. Maijima, if we want to work on some gear for other students, can we?" Mei asked.
Mr. Maijima nodded, coming over to their table. "Sure, who do you have in mind?"
"Well, we already have so many wonderful babies!" Mei declared. "Could we just get a list of the students in the Hero Courses and their quirks? Maybe in general studies too, especially if they want to be in the Hero Course! We could really give them a leg up!"
"Sure. I'll grab a list for you in a minute," Mr. Maijima said, and walked away. A few minutes later, he came back with a notebook. "I was going to ask the two of you to help me with the next round of costume modifications. Especially you, Izuku. There's one student with an electricity quirk who's having some serious drawbacks from over using his quirk. You're the electrical whiz, maybe take a look at it and see what you can do for him. Name's Denki Kaminari, he's in class 1A."
"Um, thanks!" Izuku said. He took the notebook and flipped it open, his eyes going wide. On it were listed the names of every Year 1 student, along with their Quirks. Even he was listed, though his quirk was just given as "NA."
"Well, does this help?" Mei demanded.
A slow grin spread over Izuku's face. "Yes, yes it does. We're going to be just like Batman, Mei. We'll look at all the Quirks, and create babies to defeat everyone! Starting with Kacchan!"
For Kacchan, Mei came up with a simple but effective solution almost immediately. "Well, if his quirk is sweat, shouldn't we just spray him with antiperspirant? He kinda stunk when we saw him. Mr. Onizuku was always telling me I should put some on but I never remembered."
Izuku blushed at that particular revelation. Mei's grasp of personal hygiene was questionable at best, and Izuku did have to remind her to wash herself after a long day in the workshop. Personally though, he sort of liked how she smelled, but he would never have been so crass as to say so.
"That's a great idea? But what about a delivery system?"
That got Mei's eyes to sparkle. "Missiles."
Unfortunately, as it turned out, creating the missiles ended up eating up most of the ten days they had. They had to come up with a launcher, machine the missiles, get the right propellent mix, and put out a few fires from their mistakes that had Mr. Maijima threatening to ban them from the workshop for life. However, Izuku and Mei were able to engineer a missile that could easily launch from the Power Suit, but could also be fitted out with a number of payloads, one of which was an antiperspirant bomb.
"Maybe we can add in a few other payloads? Like some sort of antacid foam for this girl, Mina Ashido?" Izuku suggested.
Along with building the gear, Izuku spent long hours testing it and honing his combat skills. He'd spent some time since the semester started practicing with the Power Suit, especially after his rather pathetic attempts to take out the robot when Mr. Maijima had tested them at the recommendation exam. Now, however, Izuku trained in earnest.
Mei convinced Mr. Maijima to allow them to set up a course for Izuku to train on, though their teachers flatly refused to allow them to destroy any of the robots. Despite that, Izuku practiced his skill with the grappling hook, using it to expertly swing himself around the large city-like training area. He could combine it with the hover boots and jet pack Mei had created to fly for short periods, ascending to heights of up to 30 meters. He also discovered the grapple could be used as a tether or line to wrap around enemies, though he couldn't use it on just anyone as the metal cable would crush a normal human or cut them in half when tension was put on it.
He also trained hard with the missiles, learning how to use the laser target finder he designed to improve their accuracy. He also practiced dumbfiring his shots so that he could quickly get off a barrage without first painting the target, and got fairly accurate at that as well. He also practiced some basic martial arts katas in the suit, though for those he soon found that if he tried to get too complicated, he just fell over or over-extended. Some basic punches and kicks were going to have to be enough, especially as Izuku could easily break through concrete.
"We're going to have to put limiters on the suit," he told Mei. "If I hit someone full out, I'll really hurt them."
"That won't be too hard, we can put an override in in-case you go up against someone like Kirishima or Tetsutetsu from the hero course," Mei said, tapping their notepad. "They've got quirks that make them super tough, and unless our baby is going all out, they won't even feel your punches, but for regular people we can reduce the power output so you don't kill them. How could everyone know how amazing our babies were if they were dead?"
"Um, yeah," Izuku agreed, though he was honestly just worried about hurting someone. He did practice picking up delicate objects with the power suit, starting with watermelons. The first few times Izuku accidentally cracked the melon, sending sprays of juice and pulp over the suit, and causing Mei to berate him for getting their baby dirty. After a few times though, Izuku got to where he could hold the melons tightly without breaking them, and moved on to ever more delicate objects. He finally managed to carefully pick up an egg, though he still cracked the shell most of the time.
After their two weeks of nearly sleepless nights, Izuku and Mei finally decided they had done enough. They'd only managed to make anti-quirk gear for a few combatants, but they were also the most dangerous. At the last minute, they slapped together some heat shielding to use against Todoroki in 1A, who had the powerful fire and ice quirks, and quickly added some vents that could be used to melt the exterior of the Power Suit if it became iced over.
"This is quite a lot of gear," Mr. Maijima commented, looking over the plans and the sample missile that he'd received. He looked up at Izuku and Mei, a crooked smile tugging at his lips. "Way more than most first year classes I teach submit, combined."
"Well, aren't they all super cute? It would be a shame to leave out any of our babies!" Mei declared.
"At the very least, these are all extremely well made. The electrical system on this missile is a marvel. How'd you make this, Midoriya?"
"Well, actually, I sort of ripped up a few laser range finders. Mei helped me reprogram them so that they would then home in on the laser beam. You have to keep the beam on target, or the missile flies off course, but you can also just dumb fire them. I had to rewire them a bit to get them to fit, but it works!"
"I know it does, I tested them. It's incredible! Make sure you find a way to show these off. I know some pros that would be interested in buying these. Hell, I might way a few myself, especially since you can easily swap out the payloads with this system that you designed, Hatusme. Excellent work! These are all approved! Including the Power Suit MK VII."
"You won't regret it sir!" Mei promised. "We'll get even more funding so that Izuku and I can make babies together forever!"
"I expect to get pictures from the hospital after the delivery," Mr. Maijima deadpanned. When Izuku went white, he laughed uproariously. "Go on, get out of here! Go celebrate your success! I think you'll put in a good showing at the Sports Festival! Maybe someone in my class can actually place in the finals for once. Damn you Vlad and your stupid bets…"
"This is going to be amazing!" Mei cheered as they left. "Everyone can finally see just how cute our babies are! Aren't you excited Izuku?"
"Hmm? Yeah," Izuku agreed absently. He tapped the notebook of quirks he was carrying. "I think we can handle most of the people we face with our load out. But there's one student I'm actually really worried about, and he's not even in the Hero course."
"What? Who? Who's going to hurt our babies?!" Mei demanded, grabbing the notebook and pulling it down so she could see.
"Him, Hitoshi Shinso," Izuku commented. "He's got a quirk that lets him mind control anyone who answers a question of his."
"Well, that's easy. Just don't talk to him," Mei said with a shrug. "I'm still more worried about Shoto Todoroki. Having two quirks is just cheating! I know we put on that heat shielding, but we don't have numbers on how hot his fire can get so I don't know if it will work!"
"Yeah, he's the son of Endeavor, the number 2 hero. Beating him would be tough, but there are a lot of tough opponents. I think we'll find a way though."
"Yep, you'll show everyone you deserve to be a hero!" Mei cheered. Suddenly, she stopped, looking worried.
Izuku halted and turned. "What is it? Is there something we forgot, Mei?"
"Well, it's just...Izuku, maybe...maybe you shouldn't win," Mei said softly. She was wringing her hands, and for once she looked deeply distressed instead of her usual chipper self. "If you do then you wouldn't get to be with me anymore."
At those words, something strange surged within Izuku. He felt a longing and tugging within him, but at the same time he swelled with pride, as if All Might himself had appeared to crown Izuku as the next Number 1 Hero. He also felt a sudden rush of savage lust as blood surged within him, causing sudden and embarrassing changes. Still, the sensation lingered, and Izuku wasn't sure what it was, so unlike anything else he had felt in his life before, so invigorating, and so demanding.
He awkwardly crossed his legs, trying to hide his condition. But the reason behind the emotion was obvious: Mei hadn't said he couldn't win, couldn't prove he was stronger than even the most powerful members of the UA Hero Course. No, she had said maybe he shouldn't win. As if Izuku's victory was a foregone conclusion to her. "Um, why, Mei? I thought you wanted to show off our babies? You're sure to get picked up by a support company, and I might get noticed by some pro heroes who would take me as an intern!"
"That's just it," Mei said quietly, oddly not meeting Izuku's eyes. "What if they take you away and I can't see you anymore? I don't think I'd like that."
Forcing himself forward and trying not to show the state of his pants, Izuku hurried forward, putting his arms around Mei and trying not to bump into her below the waist. "Hey, it's OK! You believe I can win, right Mei?"
She nodded, a tear suddenly rolling down her cheek. Izuku felt a sense of panic. He'd never seen Mei cry. Not when she'd burned herself with a welding torch, not when she'd been shocked by high voltage, not when she'd smashed her fingers in a malfunctioning hydraulic joint.
"Mei?" All thoughts of preserving his dignity were gone. Izuku wrapped her in a hug. "Are you OK? I'm here for you. Just tell me what's wrong!"
Slowly, Mei rested her hands on Izuku's back, then suddenly squeezed him so tightly the breath was driven out of his body. Thanks to long hours of hard work, Mei had surprising muscle strength, and Izuku hadn't been ready for this. Her fingers dug painfully into his back, but Izuku ignored that.
"Would you leave me if you won?" Mei whispered. Izuku could feel a growing wetness on his chest, and realized Mei was silently weeping. "I've never had a friend before. I don't want them to take you away if you win, Izuku."
That same feeling surged in Izuku again, and for a moment he couldn't even speak, so powerful were the swirling emotions. Tears started falling from his own eyes, wetting the top of Mei's head. Neither of the two noticed the stares from their fellow classmates, as they were standing on a busy walkway near the entrance.
"I'll never leave you, Mei. If I enter the Hero Course, if I become the top Hero, I won't do it unless you're with me. And if I utterly fail, if no one loves our babies...well, I'll work with you at your parents shop for the rest of my life!"
Mei looked up, pushing aside her goggles to reveal puffy red eyes. "You mean it? You'll always be my friend?"
"Forever," Izuku agreed. "No matter what. Win or lose, they can't separate us, Mei."
"Ok." Mei suddenly let go of Izuku, rapidly turning and striding off. "Then we'll just have to win so we can make whatever kinds of babies we want!"
"Freaks," someone muttered as they brushed by Izuku, but he didn't care. He strode after Mei, confident in what the future might hold. After all, Mei believed in him. Did anything else really matter?
Authors Note:
A big thanks to my beta kylekatarn77, who wrangled many egregious homonyms and other grammatical atrocities, as well as providing feedback on the story content.