17.11.2021
'Sup guys, it's me the guy-who-is-so-done-with-his-own-family-drama back with another chapter! I won't go off about anything right now, because we (I) have a lot of comments to answer! I'm so excited!
Bucio - Well, Momo and Itsuka are flying to I-Island in a private jet, seems like perfect situation to have a little heart to heart, but I dunno, I'm not an expert. And whilst Kravchenko doesn't have a Pepper of his own he does have someone that comes into play this chapter. He's a SI character, so I'm anxious to see how all of you react to the short backstory at the end! And last but not least, if someone here has any knowledge about Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Adam Jensen in general, than you may guess what's the solution to a missing body part!
Notasavior - Oh if you like him already then just you wait when a major spin-off moment of this story happens! I'm hyped for it cause it's practically Infinity War but shitty fanfic style!
ennard butters - But like a bored 'yeah' or excited 'yeah!'? I sure do hope it's the latter | My best ship since I started writing for My Hero Academia, though now I'm leaning towards many others like 1-B girls or certain Pro Heroes.
Darkjaden - I'm not exactly sure what you mean by your comment since both versions of the first chapter mention Midoriya training his body, though the older one only does so very briefly.
CarEnthusiast - Kendo and Yaomomo: *notice Melissa Shield* Also Kendo and Yaomomo: A new challanger approaches!
helrio uzugaku - For starters, I'm happy that the old chapters didn't deter you from reading the rest of the story! And you know what? I've never thought about the possibilty of a Quirk like One for All being created naturally! It sounds like an excellent fanfic idea imo. Also, as I'm pretty sure you've realized on your own, All Might, One for All and All for One don't exist in this fanfic, though Shigaraki and Kurigiri still want to tear down this society for reasons. They were not the ones to attack the USJ, it was the Technocracy, the evil organization lurking in the shadows with their own mysterious agenda.
Now that that's done we can go ahead and jump into the chapter!:
The VTOL landed on Harrier's main deck and allowed its passengers to disembark before being lowered into a hanger.
"I thought it would be windier here!", Kirishima shouted with a grin on his face.
"You're welcome to stay and try and hold on once we start moving!", Kravchenko quipped with a smirk before heading inside.
Students followed him wordlessly, but made sure to take in as many details as they could. Despite the Harrier being stylized after an aircraft carrier, its inside lacked that distinct marinesque feeling. No narrow corridors or tight doors every couple meters. It was really spacious and not at all claustrophobic.
Another surprising thing that they noticed rather quickly was the complete lack of personnel. Sure, they've seen some guys shuffling around when they landed, but that's about it. Driven by curiosity they decided to ask.
"How come we haven't met anyone yet? This thing must require a ton of people to operate, right?", Kaminari spoke up.
"Ha, if that's what you think then you're in for a big surprise!", Kravchenko stated but didn't elaborate further.
They were about to question the vague explanation when they suddenly found themselves in front of massive doors, which lacked handles. Everything was made clear when the doors started folding into the walls as they approached them.
"Fully automatic doors, triggered by movement sensors", the man said off-handedly before stepping into the room.
The students followed him and felt their jaws drop when they took a look at the room.
It was big, very big. Various displays and computers were lined on a lower level with a small platform looking over them in the middle. The platform had a weird circular table on it, which glowed with faint blue light.
"Martha! We've guests!", the man shouted with a smile.
They were expecting a woman to come out from somewhere but were surprised when she appeared right in front of them. This day was spiraling out of control real quick. What they presumed to be Martha turned out to be some kind of a holographic projection indicated by the fact that she was partly transparent and made out of the same faint blue light that they've already seen a few times today.
"Guys, this is Martha", Kravchenko introduced the… woman? "She's the pilot, the crew, the security and the ship"
"Woah, woah, woah, what do you mean she is the ship?", Kaminari wondered out loud
"Martha is an AI. I don't mean to brag but she's the most complex and advanced AI in the world. She's a wet dream of many eggheads on I-Island! As to why there don't seem to be any crew on board, it's pretty simple. Whenever Martha notices an anomaly of any sort she simply uploads herself to a nearby Vibrant Legion suit and repairs it herself so I don't need anyone besides her. Oh, forgot about the best part!", he facepalmed after that last one before turning to the hologram. "Martha, could you be a dear and let some sunlight in?"
The hologram nodded and vanished. For a few moments nothing seemed to happen, but then the students heard something move in front of them. Soon they noticed that what they thought to be steel plating was a giant window covered by metal curtains which were now folding to the sides.
The five rushed to the very front of the command deck and froze in awe at the sight before them.
They couldn't really see anything whilst in a VTOL since it lacked any windows and even when they were walking on the landing deck earlier they didn't have a chance to admire any views. Besides, they'd be more focused on the clouds that seemed to be almost within reach of their hands.
Now though, they had all the time in the world to admire the view below.
"The world looks so tiny from up here!", Kirishima yelled out excitedly.
"It looks even smaller from lower orbit", Kravchenko stated as he joined them.
"You've been to space?!", Denki, Eijiro and Mina asked simultaneously. They weren't very enthusiastic about space, but come on! Who wouldn't want to go to space even for just a moment?
"I mean, yeah?", Martin seemed confused by their excitement. "Harrier is space-capable and a few of my suits utilize anti-grav technology that allow movement in a perfect vacuum and have their own oxygen filtration systems. Haven't you heard about the time a few years ago when I-Island's Space Station suddenly went rogue due to thrusters malfunctioning? I went to space to bring them back into orbit", the man stated proudly and Izuku could practically see his ego growing as he drank in Kaminari's, Kirishima's and Ashido's awe-filled expressions.
"This brick is capable of going to space?", Jiro asked in curiosity and Izuku couldn't really blame her. The Harrier was the size of a decent shopping mall and weighed countless times more than that! It must require enormous amounts of power to breach the atmosphere!
"Yup, I'm pretty sure that it could reach Mars even if given the chance!", Kravchenko bragged.
"Wouldn't you run out of fuel by the time you get there though?", Kirishima asked a question that Midoriya himself was pondering on.
Instead of giving them a verbal response, Martin only grinned, turned around and motioned for them to follow him.
A few minutes later they found themselves in front of another set of doors. Those ones however didn't open when approached, which Denki found out the hard way when he confidently tried to walk through them with his eyes closed to demonstrate the power of technology or something and ended up smashing into the steel face first.
There were some laughs whilst Kyoka simply looked at the idiot fondly.
"Now, I don't blame you for doing what you did, it's kind of my fault really, I don't have nearly enough visitors to justify placing any signs", Kravchenko revealed. "These doors lead to the power source of this entire ship", he explained and started fidgeting with a panel next to the entrance. "What you are about to see could revolutionize the entire energy industry and solve all of our energy problems for decades!"
"He's exaggerating, right?", Ashido questioned her classmates.
"He's gotta be. But he's so enthusiastic about it though", Kirishima answered as they waited with baited breath for the doors to open.
With one final push of a button, the massive doors started sliding out of the way and the students immediately noticed… a structure made out of small hexahedrons suspended in the middle of the room.
Kravchenko stepped inside and the students followed. One thing they instantly noticed was how warm the room was. It wasn't cold anywhere on the ship, but now they felt as if they were suddenly dropped in the middle of a desert!
"We shouldn't stay here too long, so let's make this quick. Whoever guesses what this here baby is will get a free ride in one of my suits!", the crazy scientist stated and the students immediately started searching for an answer.
All except one. Denki slowly lifted his right arm and then pointed at the thing. His eyes were wide open, filled with disbelief and his mouth was open a bit.
"It's a Dyson Sphere…", he breathed out, catching the attention of his friends.
"A Dyson Sphere? Isn't it supposed to be built around a star? Like our Sun?", Midoriya of course encountered the term before and has read up a bit on it, which is why Denki's answer made no sense to him.
Slow, impactful clapping forced them to turn back towards Kravchenko.
"Wasn't expecting that. This isn't how it was supposed to go, but well… This indeed is a Dyson Sphere, a megastructure meant to harvest the energy of a star. Inside this shell is an artificial star that I've created a few years ago. It hasn't weakened at all, providing heaps of clean power not only to the Harrier, but to I-Island as well", Kravchenko stated with pride, but this was different from his usual demeanor. He was boasting, he was admiring his own work.
Needless to say, the students' jaws dropped to the floor in near perfect sync, whether at the revelation or the fact that Kaminari said something smart for once remains a mystery.
"THIS is the reaction I expected", Kravchenko stated and chuckled.
It took them a couple of minutes and a trip back to the command deck before any of the students managed to find their ability to speak coherently.
"So you're saying that you've somehow created a fucking star and enclose it in that metal structure and it's powering up this entire ship?", Jiro was the first one to speak up, voicing everyone's thoughts all at once.
"Kinda but not really? It IS an artificial star encased in a Dyson Sphere but it's producing way more power than I need for the Harrier, so I have a large battery bank on board to store the surplus energy in case of emergency, though I usually just sell it to I-Island for profit", Kravchenko explained with his usual smirk.
"So we know what", Kaminari started next, "but how did you manage to create a star? Doesn't this usually involve some big explosions and stuff? And shouldn't a star be like… big?"
"Can we just pause for a second to try and wrap our heads around the fact that Kaminari is spewing scientific facts instead of his usual nonsense?", Ashido asked in the background.
"Well, a natural star would be way bigger, but this is an artificial one as I've already mentioned. It was carefully built atom by atom to make it as dense, compact and stable as possible. The shell isolates almost all radiation, so all of the star's energy is being sucked up by the Dyson Sphere. As to how I discovered how to create an artificial star… I didn't"
"Wait, what do you mean you didn't?", Kirishima questioned with a comical question mark over his head.
"I didn't discover it, because I already knew how to do it thanks to my Quirk", Kravchenko struck a prideful pose with his hands on his hips and his chest pushed forward.
"Your Quirk?", now that got Midoriya's attention. He knew that Quirks could be bullshit or overpowered nowadays, but to have an ability to create an entire star from scratch?
"It's nothing special. I call it Knowledgeable and it just makes me know some random things. Like, I know which of your friends are going to bang whilst on I-Island or what numbers would win me a lottery in three hundred years, but I have no idea what I'm going to eat for breakfast tomorrow", the man explained, flustering the girls as Denki started to whistle unsuspiciously.
"It sounds… strange, but extremely powerful in some cases", Midoriya summed up after giving it a good think for a few moments.
"Exactly", Kravchenko agreed and the students finally noticed one important detail that's been avoiding them ever since they stepped onto the command deck for the second time.
"Wait, hol' up, look at the window!", Kirishima exclaimed and pointed at the front.
Earlier they could see the entirety of UA school grounds and some of the surrounding city. Now though it was nothing but water. Water everywhere.
"We're moving?!", Kyoka exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Duh? We started moving as soon as we left this room earlier!", Kravchenko stated, which surprised the students. They didn't feel a thing! "And if you're wondering, I know you are, how come you didn't feel anything I have but one word for you - science"
"He is too lazy to give you a proper explanation as to how this ship is able of dampening all outside forces and providing such perfect traveling conditions for people on board, so he decided to try and act cool in front of a group of teenagers", Martha's voice echoed from the speakers placed around the command deck.
"Y-You didn't have to say it out loud!", a partly flustered Martin yelled as he turned on his heel and faced one of the speakers on the very front of the ship.
The aforementioned teenagers behind him on the other hand were clutching their stomachs and even using each other for support trying not to keel over laughing over someone being dissed by an AI that they themselves created.
After everyone calmed down from Martha's sick burn, the rest of the flight passed relatively uneventfully. The students took some time simply wandering the many corridors of the Harrier. They found their way to places like the ginormous cargo bay at the back of the ship with massive doors that could be opened to form a ramp.
How did they know this? Martha was following them on the cameras and offered this little pieces of information when they stumbled upon something new or whenever they got lost in the labyrinth of doors and halls.
Another prominent room they've discovered is the armor bay where Kravchenko stored his Vibrant Legion, or at least a part of it as Martha had stated.
As soon as they stepped through the doors they felt unease wash over them. The lifeless suits were lined up on opposite sides of a corridor and stored on three shelves. They could even see some armored suits behind the ones on the very front! And Martha said that this was only a part of his entire collection?!
The students found not only new respect for the man known as the Merchant of Death, but also fear.
Speaking of fear - it was slowly starting to creep into their minds as they stepped deeper into the room. They had that gut feeling that someone was watching them. Of course Martha was watching them via the surveillance cameras, but they felt another presence.
Suddenly, in a perfect horror flick moment, eyes on one of the robots lit up and its head snapped directly towards the students.
Shrieks of fear sounded not only from the girls as they covered behind the braver two of their group. The suit went back to normal almost immediately after that and a very melodic laugh could be heard from the speakers around them.
"I'm very sorry, but I couldn't resist the temptation", Martha stated between her giggles.
"Temptation? You are capable of feeling emotions?", Midoriya asked with wide eyes. Was this AI practically human? Or was it all simply coding?
"Yes, I've been created to be as close of a copy of Martin's friend as I could be, which meant giving me a personality that reminded him of her, as well as some of her habits and, as you've mentioned, emotions", the AI explained and the group started thinking about one thing.
Why would he create an AI that mimicked his friend? They had the perfect… person? to ask so they did.
"Did something happen to her?", Ashido asked and Martha was about to answer when a voice from behind beat her to the punch.
"Nah, she has a husband, good job and two lovely kids", Kravchenko himself stated as he walked up to the group. "And I would appreciate it if you didn't reveal any more personal information without my knowledge", the sentence was directed at Martha's holographic projection.
"If she's alive, then why did you make a digital version of her?", Kirishima asked, confused.
The man released a sigh as his shoulders sagged and his entire posture practically started screaming melancholy. He turned on his heel and started walking out of the room. Just when the students understood that their question wouldn't be answered, Martin surprised them.
He leant on the doorframe for support and spoke. "Because I loved her for half of my life, yet she chose someone else", the man looked at them over his shoulder with one of the saddest smiles they had ever seen. "I'm not mad or anything just… disappointed I guess. And I don't blame her, as long as she's happy, that's all I care about", the saddest of smiles and the most blatant of lies.
Kravchenko left without uttering another word, leaving the students to mull over everything they've just learned about the enigmatic Merchant of Death who, surprisingly, was more human than any of them anticipated.
And that's about it for today!
Some laughs, fun and emotional moments to serve as a short break between the two important Arcs.
With that being said I'm waiting to read your thoughts on the chapter and hope to see you next time where we make a stylish landing on I-Island!