"So, Mei, what do you need me here for again?" Izuku asked the mechanic, her wrench tightening a few bolts on her latest creation. It looked to be a work-in-progress power suit. Which it was.
"Well, you told me you were gonna show me that Upgrade form of yours right?!" Mei said, not turning away from her work.
"O-Oh! Yeah. I forgot about that. Um.. right now?" Izuku asked, rubbing the back of his head and Mei snorted.
"No… I brought you here to tell you that I want you to transform next week. Yes, right now!" Mei said, turning away from her project and waving her wrench at Izuku.
"S-Sure," Izuku said, pulling up the Omnitrix's selection wheel. Mei looked at the piece of level 20 technology, amazed.
"The craftsmanship… Amazing. You need to tell me who made this thing." Mei said, nudging his shoulder. Izuku gave her a halfhearted shrug and slammed on the dial, finding the alien he wanted.
A green light washed over the workshop they were in, making Mei shield her eyes. Apparently, it had been a while since she's seen light because she hissed at the sight of it.
"The light! It burns!" Mei cried as the light faded, in Izuku's place being Upgrade. Mei let her hands drop to her side, her face showing her complete utter shock.
"Wh-What! You have circuitry! How does that even work?" Mei poked Upgrade's chest, her finger sinking into the alien's gelatinous body. Upgrade chuckled, his voice sounding like it was coming from a walkie-talkie.
"I- uh. No idea." Upgrade said as Mei began to poke at him even more. Upgrade began to laugh.
"He-Hey! Stop! That tickles!" Upgrade yelped as Mei looked at him like he was all she ever wanted. If Upgrade could blush, he would've right then and there.
"Well! You've gotta upgrade one of my babies! What about this one!" Mei pointed to a machine that looked like a slightly upgraded blender.
"Wh-What does that even do?" Upgrade asked, tilting his head.
"Oh, it can shoot a heat beam," Mei said nonchalantly. Upgrade looked at her, his single eye blinking.
"What?"
10 minutes later
The entire workshop was completely and utterly in shambles. Papers were strewn across the room and several scorch marks were on the walls, tables, and ground. Mei was either possessed by a demon or was a demon because she had basically shoved the Galvanic Mechamorph in every piece of technology she could. Including a toaster.
Why the U.A workshop had a toaster, he didn't know. But the now human Izuku was too busy laughing with Mei to care. It was honestly fun and spending time with her was a lot better than what he was about to do in the next few hours after school was done.
Mei bent down in front of him, seemingly inspecting something on the floor. Izuku's brain froze for a second, not comprehending the sight before him until she turned around and held up a piece of… Upgrade?
"Huh? What's that?" Izuku looked at the black blob with green circuitry. Upgrade had never split off from him before. Although this was like the second time he had transformed into Upgrade. The first was to make his food microwave faster like 2 days ago. Maybe this was just a normal thing?
'Although... The notes never said anything about this... You know what never mind.'
"It fell off from you when you transformed back. Hey! Can I keep it?" Mei asked, standing waving the blob in his face.
"Uh.. sure. Why not?" Izuku said, still trying to process what just happened.
"Sweet!" Mei threw a fist into the air as the bell rang, signaling that class was about to begin.
Izuku sweatdropped.
'Oh god, what have I done.'
Izuku didn't quite know what to expect when he got to the address Principal Nezu sent him after school. He definitely did not expect it to be a fishing store in the middle of nowhere. No other buildings could be seen around and Izuku didn't know if that was a bad omen for what was to come. Looking inside, he saw fishing rods and tackle lining the walls and shelves. It was an unassuming fishing store. Gulping, Izuku walked through the entrance and began to look around. What exactly was he here for? Everything seemed to be perfectly normal.
Izuku sighed in relief, maybe Nezu just wanted him to get a fishing rod or two? Does Nezu fish? Izuku didn't even know how to fish. What did a good fishing rod even look like?
Looking around and looking over the several items, he hummed as he finally relaxed. He was just being paranoid! Finally, he was doing something relatively normal!
A whirring began to fill the air as Izuku's eyes widened. A familiar sensation washed over him, and he deadpanned.
"Damn it."
A robot burst from the ground behind him as he whirled around. It had a dome-like glass head, the body was silver, and the arms had bulky vambraces on them. Not hesitating, Izuku activated the Omnitrix and began to scroll through the selection wheel. He thought about who to choose but was promptly interrupted when the robot shot a laser from one of his vambraces straight at him. Thinking quickly, he ran and dove for the front desk. Using it as cover, he activated the Omnitrix again.
'Crap who do I transform into? Feedback? Buzzshock? I could freeze it with Articguana! Wait, what if this thing's resistant to high temperature?' Izuku thought as he struggled for a solution. This never usually happened. He usually just knew what alien was best for each situation. But he didn't know what this thing could do. For all he knew, he could pick the wrong alien and end up a splatter on the floor after the robot hits him once.
Izuku knew he couldn't stall for long so he just slammed on the dial.
Green light enveloped him and crouching near the front desk was Diamondhead. Looking at his hands, he breathed a sigh of relief. He could work with this.
Standing up, Diamondhead threw his arms out and willed his crystals to shoot out from his arms. Shockingly the robot shrugged off the crystals like it was nothing. Diamondhead's eyes widened as the robot shot an honest to god missile at him.
Not being able to dodge it, he braced himself as Diamondhead's feet skidded back, the missile colliding with him. Smoke covered the broken and burnt front desk as Diamondhead crouched down. Jumping forward, using the smoke from the missile to conceal himself, he reeled his fist back to punch the machine.
"Wh-" Diamondhead looked at his fist which was caught by the robot. Diamondhead had enough time to mouth an 'oh' before he was flung across the fishing store and hit a wall. A sizable crater was created in a wall as Diamondhead groaned.
Extricating himself from the wall, Diamondhead looked at the robot with a gleam in his eyes.
"You want to play? Let's play." Diamondhead sharpened his hands into blades just as a laser was fired at him. He brought up his arms just in time to block the attack. He grunted a bit as his feet dug into the ground.
Diamondhead blinked as he saw that the laser was reflected off of him. He grinned as the robot fired off another laser at him. Instead of blocking, he thrust his hands out, forming them into layered crystals as he caught the laser.
Reflecting off himself, he redirected it to hit the robot, melting its torso and right arm. Putting his hands on the ground, Diamondhead erected a large structure of crystal to encapsulate the robot's body. It struggled for a bit but was ultimately trapped.
Suddenly, smoke began to hiss from the head of the robot, slowly opening to reveal…
"A-Azmuth?" Diamondhead assumed, remembering that the creator of the Omnitrix was a Galvan, much like Gray Matter. The alien in question was dressed, quite funnily, in fishing clothes. Izuku didn't know what to make of that. Do Galvans have fish?
"Yes, yes, It is I, Azmuth. The First Thinker. Smartest being in 3, arguably 5 galaxies. The creator of the Omnitrix. Now come with. I have a lot to teach you, although not as much as I thought I'd have to." Azmuth said nonchalantly as he dropped down from the mecha he was in and gestured for Diamondhead to follow.
Diamondhead slapped the dial, turning back to normal as Azmuth guided him to the fishing shop's back rooms. The entire store was completely in ruin, but somehow the back had remained untouched. Soon enough, they found themselves in a small supply closet. The alien and Izuku stood in silence as if waiting for something.
"U-Uh… N-Nice brooms you've got here." Izuku gestured to the broom beside him, the mop brushing against his shoulder. Azmuth looked at him appraisingly and slammed one of the cleaning supplies. Turns out, that wasn't just any bottle of Bleach because the supply closet suddenly began to lurch and move down, startling the freckled boy.
"Wo-Woah!" Izuku yelped, grabbing hold of the shelf behind him, to steady himself. Azmuth rolled his eyes at the teen and waited silently.
After a while, the supply closet stopped moving and the doors opened. The light blinded Izuku and Azmuth began to nonchalantly walk out of the supply closet.
Turning around, Azmuth looked at Izuku with a raised eyebrow.
Reluctantly, Izuku released his grip on the shelf behind him and carefully began to follow Azmuth. They had walked into a massive room, the walls were all blinding white and at the center of it was a massive cylindrical pillar with what seemed to be monitors attached to it. There were chairs and workshop tables strewn about and something resembling a basketball court to the left of the center pillar.
"Woah.." Izuku muttered as he gazed at the various scientific instruments and objects strewn across the place in shock. Following Azmuth, his mouth slightly agape, he finally gave in to his curiosity.
"S-Sir Azmuth? What is this place?" Izuku asked as Azmuth hopped on a table in front of him.
"It's my own personal laboratory in Japan. I have one in every country and every major planet I've been on. However, that is not important. Give me your left arm." Azmuth said impatiently. Izuku reluctantly reached his left arm out to Azmuth.
Izuku nearly yelped when the Galvan leaped up onto his wrist and began to fiddle with the Omnitrix. Izuku watched on in awe as Azmuth tapped the Omnitrix's faceplate in a sequence.
Suddenly, a flash of green light enveloped his arm, causing Izuku to close his eyes.
When he reopened them, Izuku raised an eyebrow in alarm.
"H-Hey! What happened to the Omnitrix?" Izuku asked as he gawked at his bare left wrist. Despite it being a little over 2 weeks since he had put on the Omnitrix, he had basically accepted it as a part of his wrist.
Azmuth pinched him in response, "Give it a minute."
Izuku looked at him incredulously until he was blinded again by a green light. When he opened his eyes this time, he was just confused.
"Is that-"
"Yes, it is the prototype Omnitrix." Azmuth hopped from Izuku's wrist and landed on the ground to look up at the boy. Izuku looked down at the bulky brace that was the original Omnitrix and was surprised to find that his clothes were different. He was wearing a familiar white shirt with a black stripe down the middle and green cargo pants.
"But why? What happened to the upgraded Omnitrix?" Izuku asked, fiddling with the dial. The faceplate popped up and he began to scroll through his aliens. His eyes widened when he mentally counted how many he had now.
"10? What happened to my other aliens?" Izuku asked, deactivating the Omnitrix as he turned around to face Azmuth who was on a table working on a holographic screen.
"It's for your training. And besides, I have to check if anything's wrong with the official Omnitrix after you initiated the failsafe and nearly got it disintegrated." Azmuth said as turned around to look at Izuku.
"But to explain, that is the Omnitrix you would've originally put on if I had not interfered. It'll suffice for the 2-3 weeks it will take me to run diagnostics and fix up a few bugs that are in the official Omnitrix that you have been wearing for the past few weeks." Azmuth said as Izuku looked at the prototype Omnitrix
"Huh. So the Omnitrix didn't upgrade, you just sent me a different one?" Izuku asked and Azmuth nodded.
"Originally, it would've recalibrated and it did. But I sent you the official Omnitrix instead as sort of a trial run. A hands-on demo test if you will. Once I did that, the recalibrated prototype was sent to me and I reset it back to its default state, back to the first time it had ever activated. Which is the reason for your sudden change in attire. Although I did tweak it a bit and added a few more functions, unless you suddenly gain an intellect equivalent to a Galvan, I doubt you'll be accessing them." Azmuth explained as Izuku slowly nodded in understanding.
"So basically, you sent me the finished product to test out and are now taking it back to see if you have anything you have to change or fix. In the meantime, I get the prototype to use as a backup." Izuku said as he looked at the prototype Omnitrix. The black and white color scheme gleamed in the light as he raised his arm up to look at it.
"And like I said, you'll be using it for training." Azmuth said as Izuku stared on in confusion. Azmuth scoffed and rubbed his temple.
"Humans… let me put it this way. If you were to duel Benjamin, frankly even with your sharper mind and larger selection of aliens, you would lose. Do you know why?" Azmuth asked as Izuku stammered.
"Er, well… Experience? But that's something I'll get as I use the Omnitrix more and more right?" Izuku asked and Azmuth shook his head.
"Experience plays a part… but the real answer is Ben had an uncanny ability to adapt. I'm not insinuating you cannot adapt, from the footage Nezu has shown me of your battle training, you have a strategic mind and are quick on your feet. I have no doubt you'll be able to wield the official Omnitrix to its full potential some time in the future." Azmuth said as Izuku mulled over his words.
"But then-"
"I'm not finished. I said the official Omnitrix's potential. Not the prototypes. See, over the few hundred years I've been working on it, I have massively improved the A. I and overall functionality and accessibility of the official Omnitrix. Which makes it more forgiving for when a mistransformation happens and more easily usable. Which is exactly what the problem is." Azmuth explained as he paced around the table he was on.
"The prototype was unforgiving. It was bugged. It was flawed. You needed a mind the equivalent of a Galvan to really understand how to use it. Which is what made Ben special. He wielded the prototype like it was second nature. He could use it to its full potential. If he had Master Control, he would be one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy. And it's all because of how he could adapt. Before, the Omnitrix would not give the user's the instincts of the aliens they would transform into. Ben had to learn each alien's abilities on the fly and once he knew how to use them, he was able to use them exceptionally. He took to something that would have several species, people, scratching their heads like a fish to water." Azmuth said, spreading his arms out.
"I'll teach you how to adapt, Midoriya. I'll test that analytical mind of yours. And you'll need it. Because right now, you're at square one." Azmuth hopped off the table and looked up at the teen.
"10 minutes. 10 aliens. You can't change back, you can't just hit the dial and hope for the best. There are no preprogrammed instincts, no safety nets, and no fail safes. Are you up for it? Do you think you can live up to Ben's legacy?" Azmuth asked as Izuku hardened his resolve.
"Yes."
"Well then, let's get going."
Izuku thought training for the Omnitrix was bad.
What Azmuth was doing could be classified as torture.
Turns out, that the "basketball court" to the left of the center pillar wasn't a basketball court. It was a whole death machine. When he had entered, walls had suddenly erected themselves from the ground and before he knew it he was in a cube.
A training cube, designed to handle all of his alien's full firepower. And in Heatblast's case, quite literally.
Izuku breathed heavily, wisps of fire coming out of his mouth as he dusted himself off.
"Is that the hottest you can go? A human shower can reach higher temperatures! Hotter Midoriya!" Azmuth yelled from the intercom above him.
Heatblast cried out as he turned up the temperature, even more, the very ground beneath him turning into liquid as plumes of fire rose from his head, the air sizzling with his intensity. Every fiber of his being was complete and utter heat as the flames around him rose and rose.
'Hotter!' Izuku thought as he put his hands on the ground and shot out more flames. The flames he shot out were no longer orange and were now a dazzling white. Heatblast kept going, not wanting to give up.
Eventually, Heatblast was completely out of fuel and the plumes on his head were nothing more than a flicker.
The cube opened up just in time for Heatblast to exit the courtyard.
Beep Beep Bwoo
Izuku gasped and took a swig of water as he collapsed in a nearby chair, panting.
"Not bad, that was around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Rest for 10 minutes and I want you back in the Cube as your Kineceleran form. I want you to push at least 900 miles per hour for 3 minutes" Azmuth said from on top of a table.
Izuku learned very quickly that Azmuth's training wasn't combat-oriented. It was more of a crash course on the 10 original aliens, besides Ghostfreak who was replaced with Cannonbolt since the prototype did not have the fail safes to deal with an Ectonurite. After an hour or two, Izuku began to actually freak out at the information Azmuth had given him on each alien.
'Four Arms is stronger than every other strength quirk in the world, maybe besides All Might, XLR8 is the fastest thing in this solar system, Heatblast can reach supernova temperatures according to Azmuth, hell even Upgrade is a force to be reckoned with.' Izuku thought as he stared at the dial of the Omnitrix.
Izuku didn't really know how much he had relied on the preprogrammed instincts of the official Omnitrix until he had transformed into Cannonbolt. He had been incredibly clumsy, tripping on his own two stubby legs, and Izuku assumed he was gonna be like that for a while.
"Midoriya! Get back in the Cube." Azmuth yelled, not turning to look at him as he viewed the official Omnitrix's diagnostics.
'I might be having trouble now, but I'm sure I'll figure it out!' Izuku thought as he transformed into XLR8 and tried to set his water bottle down on the table.
Unfortunately, Izuku had claws instead of hands now so he dropped it and it spilled on the floor. Izuku sighed.
'Eventually.'
"Dude… you look like crap," Kaminari commented as Izuku rested his head on his school desk. It had been 2 days since Azmuth's training and in that time he had already made acquaintances with the cold floor of Azmuth's laboratory. He's tripped, slipped, been burnt, rammed into several walls, gotten motion sick, and lifted twice his class's combined weight ten times over. And he was supposed to do this for another week.
'Goodbye sleep. I'll miss you.'
"Yeah.. you're telling me," Izuku said as he slowly lifted his head. The class had ended over a few minutes ago and everyone was already getting ready to go home. He barely paid attention to his classmate's conversations until he heard an offhand remark.
"Hey, Midoriya. What's with the new watch?" Kirishima asked, pointing to the bulky brace on Izuku's left wrist. Izuku rubbed his head and struggled for an explanation.
"Er, well, I- uh, my old watch is being l-looked over to make sure nothing went wrong in the villain attack. This is my backup." Izuku said holding up the prototype Omnitrix.
"Huh. It looks a lot bulkier than your other one. Anything different about it?" Kaminari asked, peering at the support item with interest.
"N-Not really." Izuku lied, not wanting to reveal the fact he only had 10 aliens now in case he had to use the prototype for the Sports Festival. He really hoped he didn't have to. Facing the hardest hitters of the school with a handicap would be a nightmare.
"Well, uh, anyway, I'll see you guys tomorrow," Izuku said as he grabbed his bag and made his way to the door. Exiting the classroom, he made his way to the Principal's office. Apparently, there was something urgent that involved him. Izuku wondered what it was.
'Maybe it's another Plumber mission? Oh god, what if the villains found my Mom or something.' Izuku sweatdropped as he turned the doorknob to the Principal's office.
Color him surprised when he opened the door and found Mei Hatsume sitting in a chair in front of Nezu's desk.
"Hey, Izuku!" Mei said happily as she turned around to face the boy. Izuku looked at her in shock and at Nezu who was calmly sipping tea.
But there was something very peculiar held in Mei's arms.
"Ship!" A Galvanic Mechamorph barked happily as she nuzzled into Mei's bicep. Izuku only had one thing to say.
"What?"
A/N: And there is another chapter, albeit a bit shorter than the other ones. Sorry for the long wait and if this chapter was a bit lackluster, finals are coming up and I have been cramming lol.
So yes, Izuku has the prototype Omnitrix for now. He's essentially gone back to basics, having to face the BS that Ben faced in the Original Series.
I've changed the official Omnitrix a bit more than what it was in Omniverse. It's not gonna malfunction as bad as it does in Omniverse. Never understood that. For all intents and purposes, the official Omnitrix is 10 times (no pun intended) better than the prototype since it's been like 100 or so years since Azmuth has been working on it.
And Ship has made his appearance, expect him to play a big role in one of the events of the Sports Festival.
Speaking of the Sports Festival, I have big plans for the Obstacle Race which will probably be the next chapter, so stay tuned.
Until next time.
