Chapter 3:
CRUNCH!
"Dang it! I thought I was doing better!"
Inko shook her head, "You have only been training your strength for a week, Izuku. This is also the first thing you have broken today so..."
Izuku sighed, "It is nine in the morning, Mom."
Inko shrugged, "Two days ago you smashed your alarm clock the moment you woke up. Today you made it three hours."
Izuku sighed again, "I know."
Inko held up a package, "All Might dropped this off, said it was a reward for getting the beach cleaned up early."
Izuku blinked and then opened the package, with one of the corners of the box being a slight casualty of hia super-strength. There was a letter on top of some smaller boxes inside the packing peanuts of the larger box. He carefully opened it and read:
Dear Izuku Midoriya,
I am All Might's friend David Shield. Thanks to a lot of your designs and input I and my daughter will be able to help a lot more heroes, and I have enclosed the blueprints and slightly modified parts for the Web-Shooters that All Might sent me. I have also included a detailed paper on the science behind the webs, which use a lot of the same chemicals as the threads I designed for All Might's clothing, if you are interested in that sort of thing. The webs will retain all the strength, elasticity, and stickiness of a spiders web of comparable size, until they start to break down after a couple hours thanks to that weak and delayed acting acid idea in your notes. I added some insulation to them because All Might told me you have a Bio-electricity quirk, and you didn't seem to account for that in your designs, he also said you were having problems controlling your strength so I figured the metallic compound they should be made out of is the same one I use in All Might's suits, just like the threads of your eventual costume will be the same for the outer layer as All Might's. Once built they will have three fire modes, Web Shot (which is basically just a fairly big ball of the stuff that you can use to trap a villain fairly quickly), Web Line (which you can use to attach to walls or criminals), and finally the oh-so-imaginatively named Web Extrude for if you need a large amount of it in a short amount of time. For Web Shot and Web Line you have a maximum range of about a hundred meters, and you activate each one by either pressing your middle finger to the outer palm trigger, your ring finger to the inner palm trigger, or both down at the same time. I will leave it up to you which one you will program to which combination. Thanks to the mechanics of the chemical compound you will have enough fluid in each cartridge for about 20 kilometers of I also have a proposition for you. I would like you to be something of a beta tester for my company's support gear and send feedback to me. The first test will be your costume, technically these Web-Shooters, but I hope even if you don't make it into UA you could come work for me. Of course this is all predicated on your parent's approval, but I hope they will say yes. Good luck to you on getting into UA, and make sure to send me feedback on those Web-Shooters.
Your hopefully future boss,
David Shield
Inko openly gaped at Izuku who was absolutely floored, "That is who he was talking about? The David Shield?!"
Inko shook her head to get rid of the surprise cobwebs, "Izuku, go for it."
Izuku almost robotically turned towards her, "Mom? Are you..?"
Inko nodded, "Yes, Izuku, I am sure. This is just another step on your journey. Now head up to your room and put your new equipment together so that I can see it in action."
Izuku grinned, "Thank you, mom!"
She watched him zip into his room at high speed, almost throwing the door off its hinges again in his haste, "Careful Izuku! Also, All Might said to meet him at the beach later today. He didn't say why though."
Izuku called out, "Thanks mom!"
CRUNCH!
"Dang it!"
"Oh, Izuku."
All Might watched Izuku come bounding onto the beach leaping really high to clear the debris at the top of the walkway with a pair of devices attached to his wrists that looked like they had two parts in the form of small fingerless gloves and somewhat bulky green watches. He chuckled as Izuku almost ended up in the surf, "I hope David made those things waterproof."
Izuku steadied himself and then ran over, kicking up a small cloud of dust, "All Might, All Might, All Might! Why didn't you tell me that your friend was David Shield?"
All Might chuckled, "You never asked. Do you have the Web-Shooters?"
Izuku nodded, "Yeah, I just put them together and read the paper he left about the fluid. The fact that it is both pressurized and becomes made of 80% Nitrogen once it hits the air while maintaining its structural integrity is astounding and..."
All Might waved him off, "I am going to cut you off there before you become unintelligible in your mumblings. Instead I have something we can do today so you can test them out, and remember that you need to listen to your instincts."
Izuku blinked, "What are we going to do?"
Izuku was holding on to a metal railing so hard that it was warping under his strength with tears in the corner of his eyes, "I am too young to die!"
All Might rolled his eyes, "You won't die, Young Midoriya! Just throw yourself off the edge and trust that your instincts and Web-Shooters will save you."
The man in charge of the "ride" glanced at All Might, "Are you certain your student is ready to do this, sir?"
All Might chuckled, "Of course he is, young man. He just needs to see that himself."
Izuku glared back at the two of them, "We are half a kilometer in the air. I like pizza as much as the next guy but I don't like the idea of becoming one of the street variety."
All Might grinned, "Hey, you are starting to get duress humor. That is good, now get out there and follow your instincts."
Izuku glanced over the edge of the platform and a guy with a mutation type quirk that gave him wings called out, "Hurry up so the rest of us can go, skinny!"
Izuku shot back, "Shut up, beaky! This is my first time doing this."
The base of his skull seems to vibrate as the guy started moving towards him, "Why you little..!"
Izuku leaped away from him and over the edge, "Ahhhhhhh!"
All Might called out a final, "Good Luck."
With that Izuku started to plummet towards the ground. He shut his eyes for a second but his skull started to vibrate so he snapped them open and shot a line back towards the platform he had just jumped off of using his right Web-Shooter. The moment it hit the edge of the platform Izuku lifted his fingers from the triggers and grabbed the end of it. He had miscalculated due to his jump and so when he got to the end of the line he ended up swinging back towards the building. A minor vibration and he sent out another line with his left towards a nearby building, and with it he swung away and a little closer to the ground swinging his body to gather momentum. Using his right Web-Shooter he attached to yet another nearby building barely missing a bird that was flying low. He swung back towards the original building and let out a pair of lines that connected to wither side of the platform exit.
All Might grinned when Izuku yanked on the two lines and used them as makeshift bungee cords to spring himself back onto platform and into the famous superhero crouch, "Well done, Young Midoriya!"
"Uhhhhhh..."
THUD!
All Might winced, "At least he waited until he was back on the platform."
Izuku and his mom gaped at All Might, "You can't be serious!"
All Might chuckled, "Nice synchronization, and I most certainly am. You need some experience when it comes to combat."
Izuku sighed, "Couldn't I just train with you?"
All Might shook his head, "Then you would only learn how to fight against someone stronger and faster than you in a slugfest, and though I think that is an important thing to know there won't be all that many villains or heroes stronger or faster than you. You need to learn the proper way to deal with opponents far weaker and less durable than you."
Izuku fidgeted, "Wouldn't it be easier to just go to a Dojo like Gunhead's instead of entering mixed martial arts tournaments?"
All Might shook his head, "Your physiology and other abilities make it useless."
Inko glared at him, "How so?"
All Might sighed, "A lot of what they teach at Dojos are fighting forms more ancient than dirt. With the advent of quirks a lot of what they teach is no longer applicable because the humans you are fighting do not necessarily conform to former standards of human physiology despite our DNA remaining completely human, present company not included. If your sixth sense is what we think it is then you have the instincts of an apex predator in the back of your mind that actively keeps you from danger and if you don't learn to control it you could easily end up killing someone. You might think a Dojo is a good place to learn control, but the moment they find out you have super-strength you won't be getting any practice against live opponents due to using it being an illegal use of a quirk."
Izuku winced, "Oh."
All Might nodded, "However mixed martial arts competitions are a place where you can use a quirk and support equipment in controlled combat, and you would get live test dummies. Even if there is an accident, there are about ten EMTs with healing quirks on hand at all times. Your own natural temperament isn't the violent type in the first place, so..."
Inko nodded in realization, "That is actually the absolute best place for him to learn about combat, but don't you think the forms would be important to learn as well?"
All Might shrugged, "It all depends on the person, but I think he is like me and would learn better 'on the job' then in a dojo."
Izuku blinked and All Might could practically see question marks forming around his head, "You learned how to fight on the job?"
All Might nodded and shivered, "Yes, from a... very formidable... opponent."
Izuku grinned, "Can I learn under him or her instead of..?"
All Might rapidly shook his head, "No, the tournaments are the safer option. I would not want to inflict my combat teacher on anybody."
Izuku tilted his head sideways, "Huh? But from your reactions wouldn't he be the best option?"
All Might winced, "If you want to be absolutely demolished, even old age hasn't slowed him down or decreased his ferocity in combat. I would not wish that on anyone, but if you still would like to meet him then I could arrange for you to do it during summer break."
Izuku nodded, "Okay... So my fighting style needs to be an organic derivative of my body's capabilities and my sixth sense. I also need to work on turning an enemies strength against themselves or risk doing them extreme bodily harm. My Web-Shooters will work incredibly well in just plain immobilizing my opponent so I should focus on themtoadegree,and... maybe..."
All Might sighed and looked at Inko, "Aaand, we have lost him again."
Inko shrugged, "His father was the same way whenever he tried to work through a problem or was interested in something, our first date I couldn't get him to shut up."
All Might chuckled, "What got him out of that habit?"
Inko grinned, "Marriage to me and following his dreams."
All Might saw Izuku was still going and shrugged, "I really hope he grows out of it soon, but anyways, where is your husband at?"
Inko smiled, "He is in the US, unfortunately work schedule and time difference means he doesn't get to call home much, but we give each other regular updates when we can."
All Might sighed, "That is good."
"He could make more of an effort to talk to his quirkless son!"
All Might watched Izuku rather grumpily walk away with that declaration, and then turned to Inko, "Bad blood?"
Inko sighed, "On top of misunderstanding. He asked that I not tell Izuku this, but he is researching..."
All Might held up a hand, "It doesn't concern me, Miss Midoriya. Young Midoriya is my student, and I would rather hear the story from him, if you don't mind. After he has confided in me I would be glad to hear your side of the story, but not before."
Inko nodded sadly, "I understand, I just wish that my family could be reunited."
All Might sighed, thinking about his predecessor, "Don't we all."
