My Iron Giant
-I Am-
The dark wind howled as millions of particles of ice bit through the air, the white landscape appearing gray as no life was permitted to exist here. The corners of rusted over metal cut through the weather, machines long abandoned to the tundra as ice bit into their frames.
Snipe did his best to keep his fingers warmed in their specialized gloves. The batteries inside are doing their best to keep them from freezing. Running his hand over one of the many obstacles present, he brushed away the packed snow to reveal the perverted artwork many soldiers placed on their vehicles to retain some version of sanity in their brutality.
Just why the hell did Nezu send him all the way out here?
*Ring ring*
He didn't even speak his name, what sort of devilry is this? Pushing the side of his mask, the man answered the call.
"Hello?!" Snipe did his best to speak over the arctic winds. He wouldn't need to in his old gear, but he had cut out that part of his life.
"Have you reached the coordinates I sent you?"
Grumbling, the man turned back to the Osprey that was waiting for him, debating if he could just say yes and get back to a country that was habitable.
Yet the damn creature would know if he was lying or not.
"I'm nearly there! Could you at least tell me why you sent me to the worst part of Siberia?!"
"And I thought you wanted a paid vacation."
"This ain't a vacation, this is overtime!"
Snipe nearly tripped on a bulbous rock, his foot scraping away some of the ice that built up on it. He was about to move on, but the way he felt his boot clang against the surface of it didn't scream rock. Lowering himself down, he wondered if this is what the Principal had meant.
Using a pocket flamethrower (Power Loader was an easily bored man when Hatsume wasn't around) He melted the ice around it.
The faded symbol of a red star with stripes running down the body alerted the hero that this was man made, or at least most of it. Moving around the object, he stomped his foot through the snow until he felt out what was hidden under nature's icy blanket.
A gunner's spot, but not for a tank. There was more, anti-tank guided missile launcher, 12.7 mm machine gun, remote turret, 30 mm cannon. It wasn't a tank, but it was damn close to one. An early quirk relic, a Russian Bumerang.
And half of it had been melted.
He thought this was some old military outpost with what he had found under the snow, but seeing how hardly any of it was lined up, all pointed either towards his destination or away from it proved it was something bigger.
Snipe was standing in a forgotten war zone.
Hefting his bag to fit more securely on his shoulder, Snipe trudged forward to find just what The Principal was probably already aware of. What did he want then? Confirmation? To show absolute evidence of something? Maybe some old relic left behind that needed retrieving?
Whatever it was, wasn't worth this damn bitter cold.
"Woah!" Snipe nearly slipped, a sudden drop right in front of him that the blinding weather nearly had him fall down.
"Ah! You found it."
"Just what am I supposed to be seeing here?" Snipe questioned, wiping away the new layer of frost from his mask.
"Use the geo mapping tool I sent you with."
The world was already pretty much discovered, satellites scanning every inch in this day and age. That's why google maps was so reliable, even if it was a huge data mine.
Pulling the rod Snipe had on his back, he jammed it into the ground next to him. Clicking a button on the side, he shielded himself from the weather with his coat to be able to see what was being displayed on his tablet.
"Alright, it's a massive crater." Snipe groaned, wondering what one of the many early quirk warsites had to do with Nezu's personal history project.
"How large?"
Clicking on the measurement function, the man was stumped as he realized just how big this thing was. It had a diameter of over 13,000 feet and was….too perfectly shaped. Like someone just took a big scoop out of the Earth.
Ok, now he was interested in what the rat was up to.
"About the size of an early nuke test site." Snipe finally answered, trying to recall his knowledge on weaponry that could have done this. Quirks might have this much precision, but this was an All Might level hit that this area suffered from. Glancing back towards the array of military vehicles around the zone, he realized this is what they were facing against, or away from.
You don't point a gun at a nuke unless you didn't know it was one.
"And we have no record of this battle?"
"Too much early quirk history is long forgotten." Snipe answered as he bent down towards the edge of the crater. "Besides, they were targetin' information networks. Cuttin' off your enemy's line of communication is basic strategy."
"So who was the enemy?"
Running his fingers over the smooth surface, Snipe decided he had enough of this game of chicken. "Get to the point already. I'm freezin' my arse off."
"A large military operation was conducted here against something so powerful, it's hard to believe there's not a trace of it that vanished on its own."
So he thinks someone is hiding the existence of this skirmish. Hell of a job they're doing not leaving anyone to guard it. Then again, that would attract attention. All that's left is a defeated army….but no signs of who they were fighting.
All the evidence of this mystery enemy that existed was how it left its opponent. Metal turned to slag, no bullet holes of any kind, and a large crater that was so precise it practically vaporized everything in its radius-
He stood up, pulling out his phone and immediately searching up images of the most recent battle in human history.
Deika city, where no bullet holes, areas of melted metal, and a perfect crater nearby that could have consumed the city.
What the hell did this mean?
Ochaco was glad she could use the pool, otherwise she might explode with boredom. Of course, she didn't tell the other boys. While Todoroki knew about her arms and Ida finding out through him one day, she just didn't want to have them stare.
Floating through the water in just a school provided swimsuit, she had been contemplating a lot lately.
It wasn't that they weren't cool, hell they were totally badass and really pretty. Holding up one hand to the sky, she watched the water slide down as the droplets glistened from the sun. She just, didn't need a reminder about what happened, which was weird seeing how she can't remember.
Ochaco knew she was capable of combat, but having a part of you that screams to the world 'I got hurt really bad once' makes it feel like they look at her and see someone fragile. Maybe they didn't think that, but it's all her mind could guess what they were thinking when someone's gaze lingered too long on her arms.
Don't even get her started on the red splotch on her throat. It sucks that they're switching to short sleeve uniforms, because wearing a scarf with that would just look like she was hiding something.
Though honestly her injuries were nothing compared to Deika city. Hopefully her classmate's would focus on that more than her wounds. It was still a gamble, and honestly she was feeling like she understood Izuku a little more. Having a new body and just constant events happening one after another, it was a lot for anyone to handle.
That's why she was spending some time alone right now, to just get some space from the world to think. Though, she was never really alone.
Glancing to her right, she smiled towards Izuku standing next to the building and looking over the area. His company was always welcome. They shared everything, looked out for one another, and provided comfort whenever either was in need of it.
Honestly, she couldn't imagine anything managing to drive a wedge between them.
*SLAM*
"YOO HOO!" Mei's voice sang out, the greasy girl destroying Ochaco's peace instantly.
She let the air out of her lungs, sinking into the depths of the water to drown out the voice of madness.
That didn't stop Mei, the girl reaching into the depths and pulling Ochaco up.
"Heya baby creating member!" The pinkette's eyes swept over the sparkling hand, a dangerous gleam in her eyes.
"You're not taking me apart." Ochaco firmly declared, pulling her arm away from the goblin. She then saw the black pool of oil flowing towards the spot that Mei had briefly touched. Disgusted by the lack of showers the girl took, Ochaco swam away from the cesspool of filth that was created by a single touch.
That didn't stop Mei though.
"Don't worry!" Mei did not assure Ochaco at all. "That baby was made just for you, and I already have plenty of blueprints from the designing process."
Ok, that was much worse than anyone staring at her arms.
"Though it's super marketable." The girl mentioned, peaking Ochaco's interest.
"I'm here about the toy line up!"
Toy….line up?
Ochaco glanced up to Izuku, who was her number one source of back up memory.
"Oh yeah." His voice shook the water in miniature ripples. "You had this big money making plan with Hatsume."
"...How much money?" Ochaco rested her arms on the edge of the pool, Mei digging through papers in the mess of a pile she had. Looking over one of them, she read off the brief information.
"Well, Heroes R Us has a production team has a test line up ready. They just need us to show up with Power Loader and get our agreement. Then, we'll make ten percent for every sale!"
Ten percent huh? But aren't action figures only worth like two thousand yen max?
The pinkette placed a paper in front of her, but Ochaco was on a strict no reading rule right now. Izuku's large fingers picked up the danger to her recovering brain, looking over it briefly as he gave it back to the eccentric inventor.
"The projected sales for the test line is twenty billion yen, then if we approve full production then each figure will earn an average of thirty eight million yen on average. This is excluding promotional, limited edition, collectors, quirk enhanced, and other types of higher selling versions. Those each have their own percentage of loyalties we would get, all ranging from fifteen percent to forty percent."
"AND!" Mei cut in, reading from another paper. "We have similar offers from thirty other hero action figure companies! Each with at least twenty figure line ups of their own! Not too mention all of the release events and other proposals from studios for Izuku to turn into their robots and mechs with fifteen million yen up front!"
"I'm pretty sure Mr. Shield mentioned some other opportunities to retrieve some satellites up in orbit. I-island would pay us eighty billion for each mission, and there are hundreds of prequirk satellites up there."
They both waited for Ochaco to say something, expecting a instant response of agreement or anything revolving around excitement. Izuku awaited for that grin she did whenever the topic of making money came up, but there wasn't one.
She just slowly descended into water, bubbles rising from the pool as she descended into money madness.
*SPLASH*
Izuku reached his hand into the water, half of the pool flowing out and washing away everything left untethered. Mei kept her arms up, the water rushing over her waist as she kept the important documents dry.
Lifting his robotic hand out from the water, Izuku looked down to check over Ochaco. She was drooling, her mind taken away from the physical world and focused on the potential wealth.
"Hey guys!"
Izuku looked down towards the dorm building, seeing Setsuna, Manga, Tetsutetsu, and Pony waving from below.
"Movie night! Movie night!" They chanted together, each holding up their own movie they wanted to watch. Other students passed by, each bringing different bags on their backs filled with personal belongings. School started tomorrow, everyone would be back.
He was glad his friends weren't treating him any differently.
Glancing down at the girl in his palm, he was happy she managed to stay alive. Maybe one day he would tell her more about her arms, what he did to assure her safety when he wasn't present.
Right now though, she could use a nap.
*smack*
Vlad would have brought the whole stack of internship offers for his students, but he wasn't going to wait all day in front of the copier. He was proud of a lot of his students, finally he managed to get one on Eraserhead. Though then again, he wasn't sure if he would have lasted with that Bakugo child.
At least they could both relate to both of them having gun wielding maniacs.
"Alright class." The man looked over his student body, feeling something was off but not really knowing why. Recovery Girl already informed him that while Ochaco could show up for the announcements, he couldn't show any words until she left. Was it the fact that she was wearing long sleeves under her shirt? Had her collar folded slightly higher than it was supposed to be?
Nah, that wasn't it-
He stopped, seeing Midoriya's green eyes peering through the glass. That's right, he could shrink down to fit in the class. So how come he wasn't?
"Midoriya, how come you're not in class?"
Ochaco raised her gloved hand, answering on behalf of the giant. "This way gives him more room for his real body. Also, I'm going to enter the cockpit area so he can fill me in on what's being covered in class."
Hm, well ok then.
"Anyways-" He began passing out the stacks of paper, Ochaco sighing as she looked away as they went right by her. "-Each of you received offers from various heroes who saw your performance from what was aired from the sports festival. Even if there wasn't a declared winner…"
Everyone looked out towards the window, the metal boy sheepishly lowering himself from their view.
"..they saw something in you they want to help improve upon, or they saw something you lacked that they believed they could provide. While you've all had your own various experiences, this will be the first time you'll be permitted to legally act as heroes under your guardian. Do as they say, otherwise your hero career could end before it even begins."
"Holy shit!" Monoma gasped as his eyes were fixed on his fat stack. When he didn't hear his teacher talking, he saw he was getting a pointed glare from Vlad. "Sorry, you may continue."
"You know what." He moved back, sitting down at his desk and laying back. "I'm just going to turn the time over now."
"Awww." Midnight slid the door open, sulking as her planned entrance was ruined. "Well fine then, I'll do my boring teacher job. These internships are pretty much your unofficial hero debut, well more official than any other ones."
"Um." Kinoko looked back to Izuku's assigned desk (Not that he used it) and saw a lack of papers. "How come Izuku doesn't have any offers?"
"Because I wasn't about to use up an entire rainforest's worth of paper." Vlad quickly answered, before nodding over to Midnight to continue.
"So!" The heroine cracked her whip next to the board. "In order to work as heroes you're going to need hero names!"
An uproar called out from the students, quickly being silenced when they saw Kendo begin to turn her head.
"Now normally-" Midnight reached under the main desk, pulling out a large stack of white boards and passing them out. "-you get to try out a few names to get a feel for how they fit with your character. But the world is watching UA more intently now more than ever, and they will be wanting to see what the class that is continually being targeted is doing to help keep the world safe."
"It's mostly Izuku though." Monoma whispered to himself, but with no other noise to hide his voice everyone heard.
"Oh?" Vlad got up, marching through the class and coming right up to the boy's desk. Clasping his hands around the side, he slowly leaned down to look straight into Monoma's eyes. "You think they showed up with an army of villains just for show? That they could just watch as they used a monster to kill the number one hero? What about the fact that you showed the world on live television that you have city demolishing potential? They are watching, they are planning, and everytime we go out there we show them a little more of ourselves. There's nothing below them, there's nothing they're not willing to do in order to put us in the ground. All heroes, are in the way of villains having their way with the world. There may be symbols, but we are soldiers under the same flag. Right now, the world looks at Midoriya and they see all of us. You think they aren't aware that there are other threats besides the one right outside the window?"
"He's not a threat." Ochaco corrected while she restrained the tone of her voice. "He's our friend."
The teacher moved away from the stilled boy, looking out towards Izuku's emotionless steel face. "He can be a threat to anyone he chooses."
Seeing how Izuku's face almost seemed to retreat from view, the man switched topics. He was no idiot to think the boy was not aware of his actions against the villain, but he needed to instill in his classmates that being ignorant of their strength was the quickest way to end up killed, or accidentally killing.
"You have this time to go over what you might end up being called for the rest of your life. Afterwards you'll be going over your lists on your own time and seeing which ones might help you be better heroes."
"Classes are getting really intense." Manga mentioned, laying on the picnic blanket that faced the sky.
"Life is getting intense." Tetsutetsu groaned, stretching his limbs next to the boy.
"Intense." Pony echoed in a whisper, sprawled on her back with them.
"Hey." Setsuna's hand floated towards the center of their vision. "Check out this funny lizard."
Their thought-ridden minds were temporarily preoccupied as they witnessed someone recording a random lizard moving side to side with funky music playing in the background.
All of them were on the ceiling of the dorm building, next to Ochaco's room and near the rooftop garden residing next to them. Kinoko was over near the plants with Shizaki, caring for the vegetation while silently debating if they should ask for the last plot of dirt to use for their own experiments.
Izuku stood next to the building, his eyes more dim as usual with his gaze not necessarily focused on anything. The door to the ceiling clicked, his eyes filling back up with light as he looked towards the source.
Ida came across the scene, and did his best to withhold any immediate judgements. "Have you all looked over your offers?"
"Oh buzz off." Setsuna's hand reattached itself to her arm, the girl putting her phone away or else the boy spoil the fun she stored within.
"We were given a week." Manga reiterated the words spoken by their teacher before.
"Same with our names." Tetsutetsu sat up, joining in on the banter. "Hope you pick a better one besides Comic Man."
"Oh like yours is any better, 'Real Steel'. You literally ripped it off from that movie."
"It totally is my thing though."
"Whatever." Ignoring the teen whose identity revolved around anything with the word steel or manly, Manga returned back to gazing up at the sky.
"Hey." The lizard girl actually acknowledged Ida. "Did you even pick before getting on our case about it?"
"I have." Ida smiled to himself.
"Was it your brother?" The giant leaned forward, more invested in what was happening now.
"It was! I am glad to join the ranks of my family as the swift hero, Nitro."
"Huh." Manga hummed to himself. "Would've thought you would go for Ingenium Junior."
"I did wish to." Ida confessed while avoiding eye contact, but he stiffened himself with a hard chop of his arm. "But my brother said that everyone's achievements should be their own! Picking a name to build up my own reputation instead of borrowing my brother's will not limit my choices to solely mimic my brother. My brother is already a hero with his own career. I can take inspiration, but as we all have experienced villains are becoming more dangerous. I must adapt in this new environment and be less predictable as possible. Copying another hero would be detrimental to the safety of all of those around me."
Setsuna in a low grumble hopped up, shoving her hands in her pockets as she shoved past him.
"Where you going?" Pony asked as she sat up.
"Popcorn, just because we haven't decided on a movie yet doesn't mean I can't have a little snack."
With no one to stop the lizard lover, Ida abruptly coughed as he attempted to resume conversation naturally. Attempted.
"Say, where is Uraraka?"
Everyone pointed up towards Izuku, who seemed to be spacing out once again. Ida was confused, until recalling the fact that she can enter his body at any time she wanted.
"Since she can't watch movies yet." Manga grabbed the closed laptop nearby, going through his streaming services and selecting one. "She's up in Izuku's head, listening to our conversation."
"...Really?"
Reexamining Izuku, the boy was a daze, unresponsive and no indicator he even heard them as his dimly lit lenses seemed unfocused on anything. If she was listening, wouldn't she have popped out her head and said something?
That's it! She couldn't take it anymore!
"Izuku." She whined from her sci fi bean bag. "Please, hack the internet or something. I'm booooored."
The mentioned boy sitting in the air beside her, suspended by the mechanical arm on his back, nearly attempted to do just as she requested. He understood the purpose though, she wanted to look at memes.
That would be in direct contrast to her health, so he refused with a sigh.
"Sorry, maybe we could take another walk in the woods?" He offered in an attempt to keep her entertained.
"As fun as that is." She rolled over, facing the real Izuku as she laid on her gentle cushion. "We pretty much explored all of UA by now. Maybe we could get permission to go somewhere else?"
"Recovery Girl won't let us." Ochaco took in a long, deep breath as she kept sucking in air for as long as she could, until finally releasing it for over a minute. After basking in her meaningless task, she focused on the metal room she resided in, taking in the detail as she could make out tons of changes. They were, more militaristic, more hardened with less of the cool details. Taking off her glove, she took in the complete opposite that was gifted to her.
It was full of thought, effort, and made just for her. Everything around her though, what was supposed to be Izuku's own personal space, was not at all what she imagined this place to be.
"How come you picked Titan as your hero name?" She finally asked, seeing his face shift in embarrassment.
"Honestly… I was having a really hard time. Besides, when people think Titan they think of a large powerful person. It kind of matches and, I turned into one, and Knight kind of inspired me so.." He finished with a shrug, the half assed effort towards himself really concerning Ochaco.
"Let's pick another name." She announced while propping herself on her elbows.
She commanded, he obeyed.
"Ok." He nodded along, thinking about what he could call himself.
"Just no All Might junior." Ochaco teased, Izuku blushing at the memory of the various names he came up with.
"Yeah yeah….Well, I guess it should represent what kind of hero the world sees me as. A giant robot, so maybe Mecha man?"
"Nope." She shot that down immediately. "It's just too bland, but you're on the right track of revolving around your robot body. It's pretty much what everyone focuses on."
"...yeah."
A thought that never seemed to occur to him before now settled in his mind, but Ochaco didn't know what. The last time they synched their minds she remembered he liked having a strong appearance, always looking like a hero. So what was wrong?
She tried to get his mind out of whatever gutter it was in, pitching something she never would to him. "Metal Mountain?"
"That's…nice." He let her down easy, because of course he wouldn't call it stupid.
"It really isn't." She laughed, the two thinking over it again.
"Well, what am I to you?" Izuku directly asked, stunting the girl's thoughts.
What was he, to her…what wasn't he? While Izuku was a nerdy, nervous boy, he always worried about others first. When the pressure got to everyone else, he acted, when someone was in trouble, he always moved to save them.
Whenever she needed him, he was there.
Now that she had nothing but time to think, she realized just how much time she chose to spend with him. Not to mention how he was constantly wanting to be around her. The directive just drove him to protect her, not e nice to her, watch movies, chat away long into the night, share a single bean bag and….
Gazing back at the still awaiting Izuku, her mind didn't even acknowledge the cables running into his body. All she saw was the boy who would never leave her side.
They never talked about it, an unspoken bond shared between them that made everything about the other transparent. No one was this close…so did that mean they were-
"Howdy." Snipe's voice came over the speaker in the headspace. "Can I speak to you two for a second?"
Ochaco sat up, spinning away from Izuku as she swore she could feel a smug grin from a dimension away. Damn you Momo!
"Yeah!" Standing up, Ochaco saw Izuku bringing his own hand up to his face with the palm up. Then, one of the eyes of the machine opened up to expose her to the outside world, which was a lot darker than she thought it should be. Walking forward, a metal hand was awaiting for her to step on.
Snipe awaited on the roof of the dorm building, holding a folder tucked under one of his arms. Once Izuku lowered Ochaco to Snipe, she hopped off and stilled at the subtle tilt of his head.
"Do ya know what time it is?" He questioned the both of them, more pointedly at Ochaco.
Keeping quiet, she looked up at the stars to try and gauge what time it could be at the moment.
"Don't." Snipe warned, stepping closer to cover her immediate view of the stars. "I know you can read the sky. Yet, ya know it would be against doc's orders, so I'll save you the time and tell you it's nearly midnight."
"Oops."
"Oops ain't even cover it." The hero sighed, glancing back up to the current course of green light bathing on the ceiling. "Just so ya know, I left a list of all the offers ya got in your room. Ya can shrink down and finally enter it and see what's there. But I reckon the two of ya will be going wherever together?"
"Of course!" Ochaco brightened up, placing one of her hands against Izuku's face and leaning against him. "I mean, we're inseparable at this point."
"Cute." Snipe uttereted with zero emotion. "But ya might change your mind after I give y'all the news."
He held up the folder from under his arm, purposely not opening it but a great big stamp on the side revealed it to be a very important document.
"Are we not going to have normal internships?"
"Nothin's normal with the two of ya." Opening the folder, Snipe made sure he gave a short but accurate summary for them. "While not many put the blame of the fall of Deika city on ya, the higher ups and all those military higher ups who haven't seen action in decades are barely being held back on outright locking you up."
"No way!" Ochaco couldn't believe what she was hearing! Izuku literally was kidnapped and forced to fight a city demolishing villain that hardly any heroes stood a chance against, and now they want to punish him?!
"I understand." Snipe assured the little lady. "But from experience those in power rarely are comfortable when there's something or someone out of their control. Still, this was the best outcome I could see. They want you two to work with one of their 'chosen' field agents so they can do a 'safety evaluation.' Really all they want is to know that you'll listen to their orders over everything else."
"That's stupid." Ochaco huffed. "What if they tell us to do something we don't think is right? It sounds like they want us to be in their army, but even soldiers can turn down orders, and last I checked we're heroes in training."
"That's right." Izuku agreed alongside her. "They can't draft us even when there's not a war."
"They can." Snipe interrupted them with a suddenly harsh tone. "And they do, but since y'all are so well known and watched they can't go about it like they normally do."
Before either of them could question just what the man was talking about Snipe switched the focus. "You both have a curse that too many mistake for a talent. If you're not careful, they will take advantage of it."
"What?" The smaller girl asked, too many things being dumped on her all at once and hardly having any real knowledge of what it was about.
"Killing without hesitation." Turning back to the door, Snipe began to leave the two as they had a long day ahead of themselves. As his hand lingered over the handle, he turned his head just enough to see the baffled expression of his student who he had taught too well.
"Or regret."
Ok, so I got super busy all of a sudden and managed to add to this chapter every now and then. I'm not sure how well it's flowing, but I plan to get to the good stuff soon. As for hero names for Ochaco and Izuku, I'm up for suggestions!
I was thinking about Monolith for Izuku, and either space Warrior Uravity or Battle Angel Uravity. While she does retain some space theme to her outfit overall she's pretty much a gunned up madwoman.
Now with a tv tropes thanks to Arakiisjogenius
Spotify Playlist I listen to while writing this: Cyberfunk by BLACKOUT
Any questions, comments, or jokes are welcomed. As long as they're funny.
Xyrothor: We will have our super awesome space battle at some point in this story.
BoB teh Snail: I mean, who wouldn't be?
Kingkong101: That's actually going to be a plot point for the near future to address! Yeah, he pretty much can't do anything for himself entertainment wise. When was the last time he could even get on the internet to check up on his hero hobbies?