Kan was looking over the request form that Izuku had filled out and handed to him when he arrived in the morning.
It was a request for Kan to find as many general Telekinetics as possible that were willing to come to the workshop for some tests. His mother had already agreed to the tests, with her Quirk being one Izuku was already quite familiar with. Kan looked over the requirements of the Quirks for the potential participants. They had to be able to lift a medium to a large amount and move it with their mind, no physical contact required.
Inko's Quirk was listed under 'prototype' as her quirk didn't meet the requirements, but seemed like a good baseline. He buzzed his assistant into his office. She came in and flashed him a smile. "What can I do for you Mr. Hatsume?" Ken held up the papers. "I have accepted the request form from Mr Midoriya. I would like you to send this down to the scouting department, and have them send out advertisements for this, and tell them that if they see any impressive ones to give a direct offer. She grabbed the papers and gave them a once over.
"That's a pretty specific list of requirements, sir. Is Mr Midoriya aware that he may have to wait?" Ken nodded. Izuku had told him that he had a few people that might work when he handed the papers in, but that it never hurt to get more test participants. "He is aware of that, yes, now go, get the papers down to scouting". She gave a small bow, before walking out of the room. He leaned back in his chair as he fiddled with his watch. The German-made watch, one of the best in the world, had somehow broken, and even he was having trouble with the complex machinations. As he continued to tinker, there was a knock on the door.
He looked up, "You may enter". The door opened and Inko walked inside. She seemed worried. He immediately put the watch down and gave her his full attention. Inko was only really worried when it came to Izuku. "Everything alright Miss Midoriya?" She nodded slightly. "Please, call me Inko. Mr Hatsume, I got a call from Izuku's school today. ''She looked up at him and he nodded, urging her to continue. "Apparently Izuku hasn't been to school for the past 3 days". Now Ken was upset as well. When he gave this offer to Izuku, it wasn't to allow the boy to skip school.
"And seeing as he was staying here all week…" her sentence coming to a close before its end, but Ken knew what she meant. He stood up. "Inko, I promise that I, nor any of my employees encouraged Izuku in any way, shape or form to skip out on his school work. In fact-" He pulled on his jacket and walked to the door of his office. "- let's go down to the workshop now so we can talk to him about this". Inko nodded, following Ken down the hallway towards the elevator.
They got on the elevator and Ken flashed his ID card, pushing the button for the kid's workshop. Inko smiled at the elevator music from the 2010s. Apparently Ken liked the classics. As they reached their destination, both of them started to get the feeling like something was wrong. Both of their parental instincts flared as they heard an explosion from behind the elevator doors, and when they opened, sprinted towards the workshop. They stopped as they realised what the 2 kids had been doing, and the position they were now in.
Inko squealed.
They had REALLY lost track of time.
It was actually a pretty common occurrence. When you don't have to sleep your body clock is just going around and around in circles. Usually, he was able to combat this by watching the sky outside of his windows, but down underground with a constant light source, his only way of keeping track [other than his watch, but he was too focused to think about it] was how tired Mei was.
Which was a negligible amount. If Izuku hadn't already asked her about her Quirk, Zoom, he would have assumed she had the same Quirk as him. He knew they had been going for at least an entire 24 hours, and the fact that she wasn't showing signs of fatigue impressed Izuku. No-one had been able to come this close to equalling him before. The reason for the hyper-focus both of them found themselves in was Mei's newest 'baby'. A Jetpack. A freaking JETPACK. The second Izuku had recognised what she was building, AKA: the minute she started bragging about building a jetpack, he had dropped his Gravity glove designs, as he didn't even have any participants to do tests on.
He had dropped his 'baby' [Mei's fault - it was growing on him] and sprinted over to Mei's side of the workshop, asking to help. She had accepted, on one condition. Izuku had to be the test dummy when they got to the testing phase. Izuku accepted the condition and got to work with Mei. They had stayed up all night planning and building, eating pizza and drinking a soft drink that had been delivered to them earlier in the day. The 2 twelve-year-olds had just reached the testing phase. Izuku, remembering his promise, cleared a space in the middle of the workshop for the test. As Mei strapped him into what she called the Izukuboost V1 [Izuku loved the name] he started doing some leg stretches, in preparation for landing.
Mei walked away from Izuku and dropped her goggles onto her eyes. "Alright, Izuku! Izukuboost V1, Test 1!" She held the remote out in front of her with a dramatic flourish. "3.. 2… 1… GO!" She slammed her hand down on the big red button, and The Izukuboost flicked to life. The pull of the jetpack on his back steadily increased until it started to lift Izuku into the air. Both of them were ecstatic as Izuku hovered 3 metres above the ground, wobbling slightly. He turned to Mei and waved, but this turned out to have been the worst possible thing to do.
The turning had leaned him towards her, and he was starting to move towards her. Then the main thruster crackled slightly, and Izuku braced himself.
The back of the Jetpack exploded.
Izuku flew right at Mei.
The elevator doors opened.
Izuku landed on her.
Izuku shook his head as his vision was really blurry. He reached out to push himself off the floor, but instead of the cold metal floor, his hands landed on something warm and soft. Something that was moving. Izuku's head instantly cleared up as he heard his mum squeal louder than the explosion had been, and he looked at his hands in horror.
The hands that were currently pushing on Mei's chest.
He threw himself off of her, landing on the metal floor with a thud. He then looked over at his mum, who had the biggest shit-eating grin he had ever seen. He groaned. He knew he was never going to live this down as long as they both lived. Oh god, Mr Hatsume was with his mum! He had seen him as well! Mei was his daughter! Izuku was starting to panic as he jumped to his feet, running towards Kan, who had a bemused look on his face. As he reached the man, he bowed low, mumbling at a million miles a minute.
"I'm so sorry Mr Hatsume, I'm sorry Mei, it wasn't my intention to do anything like that I'm really sorry please don't-" Mei seemed to regain her senses, and looked over towards the 3, where Izuku was currently bowing over and over again to her dad. She wondered why her chest was sore.
"Izuku? Did the Izukuboost V1? work?" she had hit her head when Izuku had crashed into her and was still a little out of it. He turned towards her with a bright red face. "I'm sorry Mei! I didn't mean to!" Mei looked at him confused. "Didn't mean to do what? Did you break the Izukuboost V1?" He realised that she didn't remember the last few minutes and his embarrassment faded instantly as he sprinted over to her and check her head for any injuries. Mei was, again, confused. She heard him mumbling about head injuries.
He walked over to the pair, shaking his head. "Mei, can you head upstairs with Inko to the infirmary please so the nurse can check your head?" Mei nodded. Her add never asked for much, but she knew that when he asked for things, you do them. As Inko led Mei up the elevator, Kan placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder. With a deadly look in his eyes, he whispered; "You and I need to talk".
Izuku gulped, the fear of God in his heart.
Inko walked down with Mei a little later, who upon seeing Izuku, broke out into a blush, but was seemingly unaware of this as she walked over to him. Izuku was sitting at his desk with his forehead pressed into the counter, and he was mumbling. As Mei started talking to Izuku, Inko walked over to Kan, who was again fiddling with his watch. "What did you say to him, I haven't seen him like this since Katsuki interrogated Izuku about having a crush on a girl at school". Kan laughed at this, putting the watch back into his pocket, apparently, he would never fix it.
Well, for most of it we talked about how he had to keep better track of time. They had no idea that they were missing school, apparently. They spent the last 72 hours straight building that jetpack that exploded, or as they called it, 'The Izukuboost V1'. He looked away from Inko, and she sensed something else happened. "And then what?" Kan looked at her, obviously trying to hold in his laughter. He failed. Still giggling, he got out; "How could I pass up the opportunity to, as a father, interrogate a boy about his relationship with my daughter?! It's so much fun!" Inko groaned. Her father had done the same thing to many of her boyfriends.
"Kan, they are 12 years old, and hyper-focused on building Support gear. I don't think that until today, Izuku even realised Mei was a girl". She started laughing at this point as well, as Mei poked and prodded at Izuku as he mumbled, seemingly unresponsive. "Look, Kan, they're adorable and all, but shouldn't we at least wait until high school before we start trying to get them together?" Kan pouted, which was hilarious to Inko, and nodded. "Fine! They can focus on their machines I guess…" he said the last bit with fake sadness.
"Actually on that note Inko-" he looked over to Izuku. "- Izuku! Your mum is here, do you want to do the initial testing for the gravity gloves?" At this, Izuku seemed to snap out of whatever he was doing, sprinting over to Inko, grabbing her hands and dragging her to his workbench. "YES YES YES! Let's do this!" Izuku ran around for a few minutes, placing a few electrodes on her head, and getting her to wear a special wrist scanner that would detect the specific energy patterns emitted from her Quirk. After a few more preparations, which Inko wasn't really paying attention too, she didn't have any idea what most of the stuff did, Izuku placed a cup on the table in front of her, about 6 metres away.
Izuku pulled up a file on his computer titled: 'Unidirectional Telekinesis'. "Ok Mum, when I tell you too, I want you to drag the cup in a quickly as possible, alright?" Inko was a little surprised at the shift in the tone of Izuku. One moment he was running around, practically vibrating with excitement, then the next he is acting like one of the most professional people she has ever met. Kan noticed this as well and smiled. 'This kid is going to be one of the best, I can feel it'. Inko got ready to use her Quirk, and almost instantly, Kan noticed one of the screens on Izuku's desk give off a small reading.
Quirks had never been Kan's specialty. General support items that can work for everyone no matter their Quirk? He was your guy, and Mei was following in his footsteps. This fascinated him to no end. Izuku seemed to be excited as well but kept it under a stony-faced mask. Izuku did a double check on the monitors and scanners, before nodding. "Alright mum, go ahead". Inko closed her eyes and rapidly started dragging the cup towards her. It was in the middle ground of her Quirk. It wasn't a struggle but it took longer.
5 pulls later, the cup landed in her hand, and a small beep went off. Izuku immediately dropped the stony face as he got swept up in his excitement. The readings that were given by the scanners were amazing! Izuku started mumbling before seemingly remembering something.
"Right! One last thing mum!" he pulled her over to a larger machine. Kan recognised it as the 3D scanner. He was interested in what Izuku had planned. "Stand in front of this please, feet on the markings". Inko complied, and she was spun as the marking on the ground rotated slowly, the machine beeping as the 3D model of Inko was saved to Izuku's computer. "What was that for sweety?" Inko asked.
Izuku brushed it off before running back to his desk. "Don't worry about it, for now, it's for a future project, but I'm nowhere near good enough at coding to pull it off at this point". Now Kan was really curious. As Izuku slipped into inventing mode, Inko and Kan realised they had lost him again, and went back up the elevator, but not before allowing Inko access to the workshop camera on her phone, to check up on the kids remotely if needed.
A few weeks passed.
About a month and a half of failed tests with the [Gravity Glove Mk1] and no participants for his tests to improve it. Izuku was getting pretty frustrated. Nothing he had used so far had been able to perfectly replicate his mum's Quirk. He hadn't used every material available to him yet, but the list was getting shorter and shorter. He persevered through. He wanted this to work more than anything. He wanted to prove that Hatsume had made the right choice.
He finished up the version of the gloves he was currently working on and got the testing object ready. As he didn't have conscious control of the ability like Inko did, the ability to mentally choose what came to her with her Quirk, Izuku currently had to rely on a small screen with multiple receivers stuck to the item's he wished to attract. The small box with the receiver in it sat on his desk as he walked 6 metres away, and turned the glove on. It was only supposed to activate when he pushed the button on the wrist. He faced the palm towards the box and hit the button.
Almost instantly, Izuku's mood shot up to the happiest he had ever been in his life. The box had shot towards his hand, landing softly in his palm. Izuku was slightly confused. That was quicker than when Inko had used her Quirk to do it. His excitement overrode his curiosity, and he sprinted around the workshop quickly, yelping in excitement and happiness. Mei looked over at him as he did so, and seeing the glove on his hand with a box practically stuck to it, felt happy for her friend.
Deeming the test a success, he raced back to his workbench and placed the glove down. He immediately labelled the file that held the blueprint for this glove [Gravity Glove Mk1 - Success]. Just the feeling of writing 'success' after a month and a half of 'failure' lifted Izuku's spirits even higher, somehow.
Unknown to him, his mum, who had checked up on them using her phone, had been witness to the successful test. She was sitting with Mitsuki as she talked about life with her. She had known Mitsuki since high school, one of the reasons they were so close. Mitsuki saw the test as well, and her eyes were wide open in shock. "Did he just-" Inko jumped up in excitement. "He did it! My baby did it!" she sat back down next to Mitsuki and grabbed her hands.
"He built a glove that replicates my Quirk Mitsu! How amazing is that!?" Mitsuki just sort of stared at her in shock. She knew the brat was smart, of course, she did. She had been witness to his spiels about the strengths and weaknesses of heroes he had seen once and felt a little afraid at how easy he had picked them apart. She knew he was easily the smartest kid at the boy's primary school, but she hadn't thought he was that smart. "That's…" she tried to find the right word to describe it. "That's absolutely mind-boggling Inko, I just… wow".
A sudden thought hit her. "I wonder how much he would sell it for?" Inko looked over at her in surprise. She shook her head. "I doubt he will ever sell that specific glove. You know he still has his first invention right? The automatic dish-scrubber? He keeps it under the sink".
Mitsuki laughed at this but pushed her point. "Inko, you know that when he perfects that, everyone on earth that isn't telekinetic is going to want it right? You might take it for granted seeing as you can already do it, but the convenience your Quirk allows for is astounding." Inko looked back at her in shock. "You really think it would be in high demand?" Mitsuki grabbed her friend by the shoulders. "Hell. Freaking. Yeah. I mean, I have half a mind to offer the kid anything he wants for a pair for myself!"
Inko looked shocked but chuckled. "He probably wouldn't even charge you, he would make it for free just to have the chance to make it again". Mitsuki laughed as well, but she knew it was most likely true. The brat had a heart of gold, one of the purest people she had ever met. Or at least, he used to be pure, if what Inko had said about the jetpack incident was true. She pouted. She still hadn't gotten a chance to tease him about that.
Oh well, maybe next time.
Katsuki was not expecting much to happen Izuku's birthday. The teacher might let him do another Q&A session, the kids would probably dote on him, etc. He did not expect Izuku to walk in wearing what looked to be a black metal glove that went up to his elbow, tubes going over his shoulder into a backpack-like box on his back.
"Yo deku, what the hell is that?" Izuku looked at him and beamed, but there was a glint of what Katsuki recognised as 'Maniacal Genius'. Katsuki usually knew to stay away from Izuku when he saw that look, but it was too late, he was trapped. Izuku was so glad he had finished the [Gravity Glove Mk3] before his birthday. He had gotten a few volunteers for the tests, and Izuku had nearly crushed the last one to be tested in a hug when the results came back.
The volunteer that had led to the current best [Gravity Glove] model was actually one of his classmates, Niko. She had seen the request for telekinetics in a newspaper, and her parents had allowed her to volunteer. He had been surprised to see her enter the Hatsume Industries building but smacked his forehead as he realised he could have asked her first, before spending 2 months waiting.
They had spent a few hours doing tests using her Quirk, and when he had been finally able to replicate it, he was astounded by the results. The replicated Quirk was hard to control without having mental control of it though, and because of this, he had already planned out an important future invention.
But back to the present. He gave Katsuki his brightest smile, pointed the glove at him, and pulled the small joystick on the glove towards him. Pointed at Katsuki's chest was a low-powered blue laser used for targeting, before he was dragged forward, into the crushing hug Izuku had set up waiting for him. He was too stunned to even register that Izuku was giving him a hug in the middle of a classroom, where the extras' could see them. He was angry for a few seconds, but it quickly gave way to curiosity, surprising even him.
"What the hell did you just do Deku? That ain't your fucking Quirk." Izuku nodded frantically, before pressing the up button for half a second. Katsuki was lifted half a metre into the air and was held there. "I made a glove that copies what Niko can do!" At this, the class erupted into chaos, even the teacher losing their mind. Niko looked, pride showing in her eyes. "It's such a cool Quirk! And when I get older, I'll be able to sell these to help people!"
Katsuki thought over the implications of that. He had to admit, it was a fucking awesome invention, something that he knew only Deku would be able to make. Hell, if his palms didn't explode for his Quirk, he might be interested in buying them himself. And from the looks of the others in the room, they would be willing to pay for them as well. Katsuki gulped slightly. He thought to himself. 'Holy shit, Deku's going to be fucking rich…' He shook his head, it was Deku's birthday, not the day to be jealous. He tapped Izuku on the shoulder and pointed to the floor.
Izuku lowered him, before hitting a button on the glove. There was a soft click and the lights on the glove and backpack turned off. Izuku went and sat in his seat, beaming. The day continued fairly normally, the only big difference is that Izuku barely had to get out of his chair, using the glove to bring things to him.
The now 13-year-old boy was as happy as he could be seeing his invention work throughout the entire day. The power source he was given by Kan for it seemed to be just enough, and the Vantablack solar panels on the backpack kept it from going into the red. He would have to work on its power usage, so it could be used for longer periods of time.
Hometime came, and Katsuki all but dragged Izuku out of the building. Usually, Izuku would have run off to the Hatsume Industries building by now, but he had been distracted. "Deku." Izuku was pulled from his thinking by Katsuki softly pinching his arm. "Before I say this, I want you to know that this doesn't mean anything special. This is just a support technician and a hero talking". Izuku nodded, not really knowing what he was on about. Katsuki pulled out a piece of paper, covered in writing and sketches.
He handed it to Izuku. "If you could build some of that stuff for me, I'll buy you as much Katsudon from the canteen as you want for 2 weeks". Izuku's eyes opened wide at this. Katsuki knew how much Izuku loved Katsudon, and he probably knew that he had just made an expensive offer.
Izuku looked over the 'diagrams' (realistically they were just non-scientific drawings). Katsuki wanted Izuku to build him a version of the hero suit they had designed together, big enough for Katsuki to wear now, as well as some specialised weights for his strength training. Izuku nodded as he carefully folded up the paper.
"Deal! Oh my god, Kachaan! You're my first customer!" Izuku's face broke into a grin and he started running towards his house. "If you want you can watch me go through the starting process!" he called over his shoulder as he ran. Katsuki grumbled. He knew that Izuku probably built his stuff some crazy super-nerd, batman type bunker, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't a little curious.
He pulled his hands out of his pockets and sprinted after Izuku.
"MEI! I'm back! And I brought a friend!"
Katsuki had been given a visitors pass under Izuku's name, meaning he could come into the building, but he had to stay with Izuku. He was impressed with the size of the workshop but confused at who Mei was. He didn't know what he was expecting. An assistant? No, Izuku would have told him that he had an assistant. But when the pink-haired girl popped her head out what looked like a barrel with legs, he was a little confused.
"Hey, Izuku! Good to have you back! Who is this?" She hopped out of the barrel and ran over to Izuku and Katsuki. She walked around Katsuki in a circle. "Now, last time a new person came down here it was you, and I assumed you were a test subject, is this guy going to be a test subject?"
"Hell n-" Katsuki started, but he was cut off by Izuku. "Yep! He is my first customer! So I'm going to have to run some tests to make him the stuff he asked for!" The girl, 'Mei', he tried to remind himself, looked at Izuku, her face showing mock betrayal. "You got a customer before me! Damn you Izuku! I'll just have to make even better babies than you do!" Katsuki started sputtering slightly as Mei ran back to her side of the workshop. Izuku looked over at him.
"Long story short; Baby = Invention. You all right?" Katsuki nodded and gave him a thumbs up. Izuku led him over to his desk. "Alright, so the suit will probably take a while, so we should do the weights first so you can use them while you wait". He pulled out some paper and started writing stuff down. "Ok, I can try a super-dense material that won't be very thick, but heavy. It will wrap around your forearm, is that Ok?" he looked back at Katsuki. The blonde took a second to understand the sentence but nodded. Izuku talked really quickly.
Izuku pulled him over to the 3D scanner. "Place your feet on here and stand completely still please". Katsuki didn't know what to think. It was like Izuku was a totally different person in the workshop. Usually, Izuku was a goofy genius, using his smarts to tell great jokes and help people.
Now? Now he was a scientist, running the tests efficiently and quickly. Katsuki was actually a little impressed. Even more so when Izuku deemed that they were done. "Alright! I can bring them to school with me tomorrow! I'll even throw in an undershirt to help get you some abs!" Izuku poked Katsuki in the stomach, eliciting a growl from the blonde.
As they walked back outside the building, Katsuki stopped Izuku. He looked left and right to make sure they were alone. When he saw that they were, he placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "Thanks, Deku". And then he walked off. Izuku beamed wider than he had all day, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered if that was physically possible. He walked back into the building to start making the weights.
As he got down to the workshop, he ran over to Mei and stared at her newest creation in awe. Izuku watched a lot of TV shows. He had watched all of the best cartoons and comedies from the last 200 years. That meant that when he saw the robot that Mei had just built, he immediately recognised it. Standing before him was a replica of [Bender] from [Futurama]. He squealed and grabbed Mei by the shoulders. "Mei! You built Bender! That's so awesome! Does he work at the moment? Or is it just the shell currently?"
Mei giggled. "I knew you would like it, you geek! It is currently just the shell, but you can do a really cool thing with it at the moment". She pulled open the front door of the Bending Unit and crawled inside. The tubing that made up the legs and arms seemed to wobble slightly, and before he knew it, the 'teeth' opened up to show Mei's crosshair eyes.
The robot then began to move, and Izuku understood what was happening. Mei was wearing the empty robot like a suit! And as soon as he realised that, he had an epiphany. Over the course of history armour was an incredibly important part of any fight. And damn had he seen some cool armour in games and movies. If he could build things like Iron man armour or the Spartan suits from HALO, then he could help people with less physical Quirks become heroes. And his dream job was to support everyone right?
He had a new project to put on his list. A suit of [Power Armour].