This document beta'd by kylekatarn77
9. Made Equal
God made man. Sam Colt made them equal.
-American Proverb
"We can do this, I know we can, we're ready, we're prepared, we've researched every possible opponent, we can do this, we're ready," Izuku muttered to himself as they walked through the tunnel out into the main stadium groups for the Sports Festival.
"Plus, our babies are super cute!" Mei crowed from her perch atop the two and a half meter tall Power Suit. It was now painted in garish pink and green digital camo pattern, which Mei said represented both of their hair colors. While part of Izuku was a bit embarrassed to be in such an ostentatious color scheme, another part was proud of their hard work, and wanted to stand out. "You're gonna win, Izuku!"
The suit itself was bulky and bulbous, weighing in at just over 500 kilos. The main compartment was large enough to hold Izuku's chest and torso, but his arms and legs stuck out into the limbs of the powersuit to aid in making the movement feel more natural, though they only extended about halfway down the limbs. Izuku's head stuck up out of the suit, though it was encased in a metal helmet shaped a bit like a full face mask model for a motorcycle with an opaque visor. He could take it on and off, though he much preferred to leave it on as no one could see his face then.
The arms themselves were also rather bulbous, holding modules for the various systems that they had created. The hands were to scale with the rest of the suit, which was one reason it had taken Izuku so long to get used to using them properly. They were coated in a special rubberized substance that made gripping things easier, with haptic feedback connected to the gauntlets Izuku wore. His legs were somewhat stubby for the size of the suit, though they were still half a meter longer than Izuku's own. The feet were broad and had treads like a large boot to aid in grip along the edges, with the centers holding air jets that allowed Izuku to jump farther and in combination with the jet pack, fly for a short time.
Really, the Power Suit reminded Izuku a great deal of some of the mecha he'd seen at Coruscant Comics, though it wasn't exactly like any of them, and was a great deal smaller than the larger models. Still, he had to be carefully going through the tunnel into the stadium, the top of it only centimeters above his head.
Izuku nodded, keeping his strides even and measured. Mei's presence somehow calmed his nerves, and he forced himself to keep looking forward as they made their way out of the tunnel.
"Support classes F, G, and H!" Present Mic's voice called from the loud speakers.
Izuku tried to smile and look around to wave, but felt too nervous to do so. Mei was now standing up on top of the power suit, waving both arms to the crowd. "Yes, it's us, with our super cute babies! Show off your babies, everyone, the crowd is watching! This is our chance to get funding!"
Mei's frantic energy brought a real smile to Izuku's lips, and he used one arm to steady Mei, while waving with the other.
"They're looking at us, Izuku! They're all watching our baby! Oooh, you really have to win! It will prove just how wonderful our babies are!" Mei shouted.
At last, after some frantic motions from Mr. Maijima, Mei hopped down as all the first year students assembled before the stage.
"And now, to give the student pledge, the First Year rep, Katsuki Bakugo!" Present Mic announced.
With a start, Izuku looked around wildly, spotting Bakugo walking up to the stage, a determined look on his face.
"What, Bakugo?" another student from the hero course with long earlobes that ended in electrical jacks asked. "Why'd they pick him? He's such an asshole."
"I guess he did score first in the entrance exams," another Hero Course student with spiky red hair commented. "Even if he is a jerk sometimes."
"Only for the Hero Course," someone from general studies grumbled.
But Izuku knew the truth: In the end, it was the Hero Course that really mattered in the eyes of the crowd. They were the students who always won the sports festival. Izuku had checked: Never in the history of UA had any student in any year who wasn't in the Hero Course taken first place. There had been students from other courses who made it to the final round, but the final round was always a battle, and the Hero Course not only typically had the students with the strongest Quirks, but also the ones given the most training to use them.
"This year, we'll win," Izuku swore to Mei. She grinned at him and nodded.
"I just wanna say," Bakugo drawled from atop the stage. "I'm gonna win."
Plenty of people booed Bakugo, but Izuku stared determinedly at Bakugo. He knew the truth. Bakugo wasn't boasting. He was making a promise: If you wanted to win this year, Bakugo was the one to beat. And Izuku absolutely believed it.
"See you in the finals, Kacchan," Izuku whispered.
"Why would you say something like that? You're making everyone in Class 1A look bad!" a tall boy with glasses shouted, waving frantically at Bakugou.
For his part, Bakugo shrugged and glanced behind him. "Not my fault you're all just extras in my show."
The boos and heckling continued, several students making threats to Bakugo, but the spiky haired youth just walked off the stage, shouldering his way back to his spot, apparently not bothered by the critics.
"Do you think his social skills are worse than mine?" Mei mused. "At least people just think I'm weird. I don't think anyone hates me. Hey, Sumuri, do you hate me?"
Kata shifted one eye stalk to look at Mei and shrugged. "No. But I might hate that punk who just shot his mouth off. Thinks he's better than us."
"His social skills definitely aren't," Mei laughed.
"Shh, they're announcing the first task," Izuku whispered.
This was a tricky part. He and Mei could plan for the Quirks of their peers, but they couldn't know what the challenges for the first two tasks would be. Upon seeing the trial though, Izuku let out a sigh of relief. An obstacle course. That, they could handle. The Power Suit could run at over 40 kph, and while Izuku knew that Tenya Iida from 1A could go faster than that with his engine quirk, Izuku should still be able to easily outpace most of the field.
"Ready, Mei?" Izuku asked.
"Yep!" she eagerly climbed onto his back, strapping herself in and holding on to the hand and foot holds they'd mounted onto the fame. "Let's show everyone what our baby can do!"
"On your marks! Get set, go!"
Izuku took off, throwing himself into a full sprint, using the long strides of the Power Suit to rapidly outpace nearly everyone. Most of the other students rapidly gave way for the large metal suit, which made Izuku stand just over 2 meters tall. He'd just about made it out of the tunnel again when suddenly a coat of frost rimmed his suit, sticking him to the ground. Todoroki's quirk, Izuku knew. Bakugo laughed and launched himself forward with explosions, dodging the frost, but everyone else was caught in it.
"Engaging heat shield!" Izuku shouted, and immediately the lower portion of the Power Suit heated up. Mei was wearing insulated gloves and boots for just such a purpose, and laughed in delight as they broke free and raced forward.
Ahead of him, Izuku spotted both Todoroki and Bakugo using their respective Quirks to move faster than most could while running. Well, not faster than the Power Suit.
"Hang on, here we go!" Izuku warned, and threw himself into another sprint, racing as quickly as he could along the track. He'd nearly caught up to both Bakugo and Todoroki when suddenly several enormous robots reared up, blocking their way forward.
"Oh man, those are huge!" Mei said excitedly. "Use the HE missiles!"
"Not yet," Izuku cautioned. "We don't know what's ahead."
As it turned out, they didn't need them, as Todoroki's ice covered the robots, freezing them in place, and allowing the other boy to easily bypass them.
"Izuku, those are unstable! Don't let them crush our babies!" Mei warned.
Swerving to avoid the giant robots, Izuku ran straight into a group of smaller robots, some of which he recognized from the entrance interview. Others were shaped like a sort of scorpion with laser tipped tails, and still more were larger models with missile launchers on their backs. For a brief moment, Izuku thought he would panic and run. Sure, he'd faced a single robot before, but that had been easy. Now there were half a dozen, all coming straight at him.
"Use number 54!" Mei suddenly urged, rapping her hand on Izuku's shoulder plates. "Let's show what we can do!"
Her words brought sudden clarity, and Izuku's mind snapped into focus, forming a plan. "Right!" Izuku raised his left arm, activating the module installed in it. A large laser cutter popped out, pointing at the robots. Izuku ran forward, charging up the laster. "Firing!"
A narrow red beam shot out, burning into the nearest robot, one with the missile launchers. Its armor started to melt immediately, though Izuku struggled to keep the beam on target. Still, he managed to melt a sizable chunk out in just a second, causing the robot to blare in alarm. Deactivating the laser, Izuku leaped onto the robot, punching it where the laser had weakened the armor. The frame of the robot shattered under the force of the blow, but Izuku followed through too hard, losing his footing and stumbling to his knees as his fist became stuck in the robot's guts.
"Watch out!" Mei cried. "Don't let them hurt our babies!"
With a heave Izuku freed himself, spinning to face more robots as they charged him. He raised the laser and fired it at a charging wheeled robot with one arm, then activated the grappling hook module embedded in his right. He used it to spear another missile bot through its eyes, causing it to crash into the ground, deactivated. Unfortunately, he hadn't managed to hold the laser steady on the scorpion bot. Thankfully in the wild wiggling of the laser it had passed over the scorpion bot's eyes, melting it and causing the robot to start to run wildly in circles, crashing into a wheeled bot and wrecking them both.
The last robot was another wheeled one, and Izuku ran forward as he retracted the grapple. He punched with his right to deflect the shield arms, then followed up by launching the grapple into the robots torso. It speared straight through the enemy's chassis, destroying the robot.
Gasping for breath, Izuku wrenched the grapple free again, then took off once more after Todoroki and Bakugo.
"How are you doing back there?" he asked Mei.
"Don't worry about me! How're our babies holding up?" Mei demanded.
Checking his screen, Izuku frowned. "Looks like we have a bit of damage. The laser is down to 20% power, I fired it for a full 4 seconds. The arms and legs have some dents and the right arm has minor servo damage, down to 92% functionality."
"Well within tolerances! Keep going!" Mei cheered. "We're still ahead of nearly everyone."
Izuku resisted the urge to look back, instead racing forward down the track after the leaders, who were spending as much time firing off attacks at each other as they were on moving forward.
After another half kilometer, they came to a wide chasm, crossed by narrow lines.
"They call this an obstacle?" Mei laughed. "Engage the jet pack and hover boots!"
"Right!" Izuku leapt into the air, then activated the hover boots and jet pack together. They both provided enough lift to send the Power Suit 10 feet into the air in a controlled ascent. Izuku was able to land atop one of the pillars, where he had to pause for a few seconds while the system charged again.
"We need to figure out a way to have more continuous flight," Izuku muttered, watching as Bakogu used his explosions to recklessly leap from pillar to pillar, and Todoroki simply made ice paths he could skate across over the chasms.
"Use the grappling hook to give us more forward momentum!" Mei ordered.
"Of course!" Izuku quickly pointed the grappling hook at the ledge on the distant canyon side, then carefully aimed it at what looked like a weak point in the rock. The hook easily speared into the wall, and Izuku jumped as it began to rapidly reel him in. He swung on the line, which jerked his arm hard. Thankfully, the built in shock absorbers did their job, handling the sudden stresses. He swung down out over the canyon floor, and when he began to swing back up on the other side, activated the jet pack and boots once more to launch himself up and over the edge. He hit the ground hard, the sprang forward, still chasing after the leaders.
"Come on, come on, we can do this!" Mei urged. "They're catching up behind us!"
"Not for long!" Izuku promised, running as hard as he could. Suddenly, he saw Bakugo and Todoroki slow down dramatically, carefully picking their way forward.
"Minefield!" Mei shouted in warning. "Izuku, careful, don't hurt our babies!"
Izuku shook his head. "We can't stop now! We're nearly to the leaders!"
"Well if you step on those mines they'll explode and damage the suit!" Mei warned.
"We'll just have to explode them before we get there, then! Missiles, activate!"
The twin pods of missiles mounted in Izuku's torso sprang open, and he slowed slightly to point his torso upward. He also trained the laser across the field, painting the targets for each missile. "Load HE rounds!"
"I love it when you talk explosions like this!" Mei giggled. "Come on babies, make mommy and daddy proud!"
"Missiles… launch!"
Ten missiles shot out of the power suit, rising up into the sky in a wide arch. Todoroki and Bakugo looked up suddenly, then back in shock at Izuku who continued to race forward. Todaroki raised a barricade of ice around himself, while Bakugo suddenly leapt up and recklessly launched himself forward with explosions again. He was too late though: the missiles impacted the minefield in a series of blistering fireballs, which then grew into a massive ball of destruction. Bakugo was flung back behind Izuku, who put his hands before himself and threw himself into the shockwave. He and Mei grunted at the impact, but the suit weathered the blast, and Mei stayed strapped in.
"YES! OUR BABIES ARE THE CUTEST!" Mei hooted as Izuku ran through the former mine field. Todaroki was shaking himself off, his ice having protected him, but Bakugo lay on the ground, groaning slightly from the massive concussion from the blast. Izuku didn't have time to think of that, sprinting forward and into the lead.
"There, ahead of us, there's the stadium!" Mei cheered. "Go, Izuku, go! There's no one even close to us!"
They sprinted into the tunnel and out the other side to where the crowd awaited them.
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Present Mic's voice boomed from the loudspeakers. "Two students from the support course finish first! Izuku Midoriya and Mei Hatsume from Class 1H are the clear winners of the obstacle course! The former leaders, Bakugo and Todoroki, have just now picked themselves up and are in hot pursuit, but there's now half a dozen others competing with them for third place! This is incredible folks! We've never seen such a finish from students in the support course!"
"We did it we did it we did it!" Mei laughed, unstrapping herself and jumping on top of the Power Suit to hug it tightly.
Izuku felt the same giddy sense of triumph, grabbing Mei and lifting her high above his head. "We did it, Mei! We won the first round!"
"That's right everyone!" Mei shouted, standing atop Izuku's hands. "I'm Mei Hatsume, and this is Izuku Midoriya! We made all the super cute babies you saw in action today!"
"She means our inventions!" Izuku laughed. "That's what we call our inventions!"
"Just make sure you keep your eyes on us! I'm going to be the world's greatest inventor, and Izuku is going to use our babies to become the next Number 1 Hero!"
"Bold words from our first place finishers!" Present Mic said, laughing. "But what else could you expect after such a showing! And here comes the rest of the field! Tenya Iida takes third place, followed by Shoto Todaroki and Katsuki Bakugou!'
"DEKU YOU DAMN EXTRA!" Bakugo roared, blasting into the stadium on the heels of his classmates. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!"
"Who's Deku?" Mei asked, frowning as Bakugo stood in front of them, panting in rage.
Slowly, Izuku lowered Mei to his side, then stuck out his hand. "It was a good race, Kacchan. I borrowed that last move from you: Using an explosion to clear my way."
"Yeah? Well screw you, nerd! Do you think you're better than me?" Bakugou demanded. "You don't even have a quirk!"
"Well, he doesn't need one to be better than you," Mei laughed. "At least he has social skills!"
"And up yours, you pink haired bitch! If you two get in my way again, I'll bury you, you understand!"
"Bakugo! Calm down." The tall boy with glasses from before, Tenya Iida the third place finisher, ordered, interposing himself. It was probably what saved Bakugo from a broken jaw, and Izuku from disqualification. "They won, fairly and squarely."
"Piss off. You're not in charge of me," Bakugo snarled, then stalked away.
Iida frowned after Bakugo, but then turned and bowed to Izuku and Mei. "Please, excuse my classmate's rudeness. I assure you that not all of us in the Hero Course are like that."
Quickly, Izuku removed his helmet, trying to smile at the polite overture. "I-i-it's nothing, I, um, know Kacchan well, from when we were kids. We went to the same schools," Izuku explained, trying to keep himself calm. How dare Bakugo talk about Mei that way!
Mei shrugged. "I met him a while ago. He has even worse social skills than me!"
"I...see," Iida said, standing and looking at Mei oddly. He shook himself, then smiled and extended his hand. "Well, best of luck to both of you in the coming rounds. I'm certain you'll both do the Support Courses proud."
Izuku carefully took Iida's hand in the power suits, and gently pumped it once. "And to you, Iida. With your engine quirk, you're sure to be a strong competitor."
Iida smiled and nodded his thanks. "I aim to make the Iida family proud. My older brother is sure to be watching."
Izuku and Mei took the next few minutes to hurriedly restock their supplies from the pack Mei was carrying, reloading the missiles and doing some minor repairs to the grappling launcher, as well as swapping out the power supply for the laser.
"The next competition is a cavalry battle!" Ms. Midnight announced from the stage. "You must form teams of up to four, consisting of a single rider and at least one mount!"
"I'll be happy to ride you, Izuku!" Mei said, slapping him on the back. Izuku winced, not from the force of the blow, but for the unwitting implications Mei had made.
"Heh heh, nice one, bud. Good to see at least some of us are getting some tail!" a small disgusting gnome of a boy with odd purple hair commented to Izuku.
He flushed and looked away, focusing on what Ms. Midnight was saying.
"Teams will be given headbands with their total points, earned from the obstacle course. Normally, we'd have first place worth 10,000,000 points, with second place worth a respectable 205."
"Ten million?!" Izuku gasped, going slightly pale.
"But this year, we had some collaborators! Well, we're going to keep the spirit of this alive, so, Izuku Midoriya and Mei Hatsume, you each have a 5,000,000 point bounty on your heads!"
Izuku's eyes went wide, and he took half a step back. He could feel the eyes of everyone on him, the eyes of all the students in the Hero Course who were now determined to beat him into the dust and steal his points. How could he face all of that? Hurriedly, he stuck his helmet back on, not wanting to reveal his embarrassment.
"Ha ha! That's because Izuku and I are clearly going to win! He's going to be the world's Number 1 Hero using our wonderful babies, and I'm going to make them for him!" Mei proclaimed, throwing back her head and laughing to the sky.
"She means, um, she means the-" Izuku stammered, but Ms. Midnight interrupted.
"What's this?! A heated romance on the battlefield! Please, keep your clothes on for this competition! We'll save the spicy details for later! Perhaps these young Heroes will be in need of my expert tutelage!"
Izuku felt as though he were going to melt into a puddle and and die of embarrassment, at least until Mei put her arm around his shoulders. "Come on, Izuku, let's get you suited up so I can ride you to victory!"
Despite his feelings of utter shame, Izuku managed to smile. "Yeah. Um, let's win this."
Authors Note:
Some of you might think that Mei knows exactly what she's doing with the innuendo. I assure you, Mei does know exactly what she's doing, but what she's doing is making incredible babies with Izuku. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, not even in public where everyone can watch. Also, she hates English, and thinks that innuendo is dumb because it has a latin root. Why can't English make sense!?