The Bright Hero, Cobalt
Chapter Thirty-seven
A/N: Recently joined the IzuOcha Temple discord server. They're so friggin' wholesome there, and I love it! If you love IzuOcha and positivity, head on over!
Sometime In Class A's Second Year
Izuku frowned slightly as he did some last minute checks. 'Sap Shots? Check. Shields? Double check. Got four now. I-Fields? No way to really test them currently, but they've worked fine thus far…'
"Baby bro, I can't hear your monologuing, but I can definitely feel it. Don't worry so much. We're gonna be fine. Besides, you aren't even sticking around after dropping everyone off in the hot zone. You're beelining it for the others and picking people off almost as soon as you land," Himiko reminded him, needlessly, but at least it made him less nervous that his sister wasn't worried.
Within the cockpit of Phenex, Izuku smiled. "Thanks, Neechan. I needed that. You're right, we'll be fine," he expressed gratefully. He thought of his classmates, who'd be waiting for him on the other side of that line, acting as support for the pros.
A couple weeks ago, the Meta Liberation Army made an unexpected announcement. It seemed their leader had gone mental, and a significant portion of his forces with him. Learning that he and Himiko, instead of rebelling against the new non-quirk superpower laws, had accepted them with grace, apparently sent him off his rocker with rage.
Not long after, it was revealed that their group was in control of an entire town. They'd hunkered down, and challenged the heroes to come in after them. Unfortunately, their walls were nearly impregnable, and regular flight quirk users were able to be taken out before really getting any headway.
So naturally, they'd be coming down smack dab in the middle of a courtyard not far from that wall, from orbit. Phenex and Kshatriya were packed as much as they could be with strategically-picked pros, who he and Himiko would be dropping into that courtyard. Himiko would be sticking around, and he'd be in charge of breaking their defenses from the inside, so that the other pros could funnel in.
"Operation commences in one minute. Prepare for launch."
Izuku took a deep breath, confident his real body would feel the positive effects, before Phenex was loaded onto a catapult beneath U.A. Kshatriya was likewise loaded onto a second one, as Izuku turned his mechanical head to lock visual receptors with the singular mono-eye that had turned to look his way.
"Launching in 3...2...1…"
Izuku felt a rush that he guaranteed filled his blua aura reserves at least a little. Flight had always brought him joy, ever since he became capable of achieving it. In his flesh and blood body, it was a rush of wind, blowing past him as the world below him passed him by. In this body, it was a slight rattling of mechanical parts, and the sound of his power being used to propel him loudly as he told the laws of physics where they could stuff it.
Quickly, he extended that blue aura he'd been generating to Kshatriya, and both mechs accelerated tenfold, shooting up into the sky. Soon, the weapons systems on both mechs shut down, letting everyone know they were nearly to the peak of their ascent.
Soon, they were above the atmosphere, and Cobalt readily accepted the boost in power from the awe and excitement coming from his and Marida's passengers, before checking in with Uravity.
"We're above the drop zone. Are you ready on your end?"
"Let me just let 'em know you're in position...Yeah, we're gonna start now. Be safe, Izuku."
"You too. Have fun flinging trees at the villains, Uravity!"
Cobalt gave a thumbs up to Marida, and the head of Kshatriya nodded in acknowledgement. Both mechs flipped so that they were upside down in comparison to the earth, quad wings and shields positioning themselves to take the brunt of reentry.
Both mechs rattled violently as they fell through the atmosphere, reentry being a lot more rough on them than exiting the atmosphere. Cobalt could sense that several of the pros within his mechanical body were nervous, and projected his calmness onto them, helping relieve them of their worry.
After a minute or so, several loud clunking sounds were heard by those in his cockpit, and Cobalt rolled his eyes, knowing Marida would have to explain the exact same thing on her end.
"Problem child?"
"Just loading Sap Shots, Sensei. You're hearing the ammo moving around inside me. Hull integrity is still at one hundred percent. We're fine," the empathic hero explained with a smirk. Izuku let out a very unprofessional chuckle as he and Himiko simultaneously flipped, startling the occupants of their mechs' cockpits as they went from falling headfirst to feetfirst.
"I have eyes on the courtyard. Remember, we're gonna take the brunt of the attacks while you get out. Don't be alarmed when you lose access to your quirks while they're unloading on us, that's just our I-Fields. We'll stop using them as soon as everybody's off and on the ground," Marida explained.
They were coming in hot, and Cobalt could see the fighting going on at the edge of the town, holding in a laugh as he saw an uprooted tree getting tossed at one of the hastily constructed towers along the border. Their entry wasn't unseen by their foes, and already several villains were figuring out where they'd be landing, preemptively filling in the courtyard they'd selected as their landing zone.
Slowing down, the two enormous mechs made a quartet of loud thuds as their armored feet touched down, Kshatriya's mono-eye thrumming once in a technique Izuku learned a while ago his sister uses for intimidation purposes, his own mechanical body undergoing a short metamorphosis as it unfurled into Aura-Enhanced Mode.
"WRECK THESE SCUM!" someone shouted amongst the villains, and quirks of all kinds were flung at the pair as they knelt down and set up their wings/shields to intercept, activating the I-Fields, as Hatsume affectionately called the defensive tech.
A significant amount of the attacks thrown at them vanished into nothing, the quirk-inhibiting energy either outright destroying or reducing the power of every projectile quirk that hit them. Izuku counted thirty-two villains in the courtyard. "You get sixteen, I get the same?" he asked his sister.
"No, I need to conserve my ammo a bit since I'll be in here longer. You get twenty-four, I'll get eight. Marking my targets on your HUD," the cat-eyed heroine explained as eight red Xs appeared over her targets. Their passengers offloaded, Cobalt decided to be a little ballsy.
"Our turn," he said through a voice emitter as his two front shields went back to their default position to either side and twenty-four canisters were launched out of his back, trailing green aura particles as they flew at their targets.
Many of their targets dodged, but with the powers Cobalt and Marida possessed, every projectile is a homing projectile. The lot of them found themselves covered in sticky, sweet-smelling goo that greatly reduced their mobility, allowing for the pros the pair had brought with them to quickly restrain them properly.
"Meimei's right. They are environmentally friendly. Who'd have thought you could use actual tree sap like that?" Marida commented in amusement, before a mechanical clang was heard, and Izuku realized she was patting his 'back.' "All right, scram. I'll see you soon, baby bro."
The former verdette nodded, and took off, deploying his shield bits to destroy any weapons carried by the villains he passed, and firing sap shots at them as well. Soon, he saw the wall, and could sense his friends and comrades on the other side of it. "I'm about to wreck that wall. Move out of the way, guys!" he said as he landed hard on his mechanical feet, then straight-up bull rushed the wall, quickly smashing through the rush job of brick and mortar, passing the pros who rushed into the breach as he made his way to his class, relieved tears emerging from his eyes upon seeing that none of them had more than a scratch or two, 2-B also looking well off, if a bit smug on the part of Neito.
Cobalt sat down in front of his friends, facing the breach and smiling as several of them climbed onto his mechanical form to better keep their side of the breach secure, taking advantage of their raised elevation. He was a bit startled when nearly his entire field of view was taken up by the grinning form of Uravity. He knew he started crying when the brunette leaned her forehead against right above where she was aware his sight came from, essentially rubbing her forehead against his, even if he couldn't feel it.
"I'm glad you're safe, Izuku," she said quietly, her smile never quite leaving her face even if a couple tears did.
"I'm glad you're all okay as well," he replied affectionately, a mechanical fist rising to stop about half a meter away from her. Sensing his intent, she grinned cheekily and fist bumped him.
"Now let's finish this and go home, 'kay?"
The mission was rough and tumble at times, but everybody went home, or to the hospital, safe, and looking forward to the next day.
One Evening, During Fall Of The Second Year Of U.A.
Melissa Shield smiled fondly at the teen seated across from her. The picnic date had been incredibly fun, and her boyfriend's cooking, while needing a bit of work still, was pretty tasty, all things considered. More and more, as the night wore on and she enjoyed their back and forth, was a thought crossing her mind.
'I'm glad Hatsume-chan and I made their bodies capable of blushing,' she thought as artificial eyes darted to the side, and the aforementioned blush crept onto Ao's face. The boy had confessed a while ago that her smile drove him nuts in ways he had trouble articulating. "I'm really glad I confessed to you. You're just so cute, Ao-kun," she teased happily.
The boy let out a squeak, before composing himself a bit and retorting. "You made this body, Shield-chan. You know it's just a mechanical replica of my brother's body," he said quietly.
The blond American rolled her eyes. "Yes, it is, but you and I both know the two of you are very different people. While, yes, you're both shy, you are also more blunt than he is, and a bit more grumpy at times. He jumps into a fight almost instantly, whipping up a plan as he goes along, but you're a good bit more cautious, taking time to make a plan before executing it. You're also a bit more prone to jealousy, I've noticed," she said before poking the freckled teen's nose. "I fell for you, not your brother. Please have confidence that I took the time to learn the differences."
Ao nodded, a frown making its way onto his face. "Sorry. I'm...just a little sensitive about it. You've been very kind to me, and I just worry sometimes that it's because of my brother and not me," he replied, the frown slowly turning into a smile. "I'm really lucky, aren't I? Even after discarding my body and my life, people decided they wanted me to stick around, and a pretty engineer lady decided that, along with doing maintenance on me, she'd like to date me."
Placing a hand on his, Melissa addressed him gently. "Ao-kun…"
Suddenly flustered at the contact, Ao got up quickly. "I-I'll just pack up our trash and recycling, and we can get going," he stammered as he did just that. Melissa smiled sadly at the boy's retreating form, sighing as he rounded the bend, out of sight.
'He needs to have more confidence in himself,' she thought to herself as she absently ran a hand through her hair.
Sadly, a problem presented itself not long after. Melissa grit her teeth in annoyance as a pair of drunks who were passing through decided to stop and harass her.
"Hic-So, sexy, ya wanna...ya wanna have a good time?" one of them slurred, stumbling over his words as he tried his best not to stumble over his feet.
Uttering a groan of irritation, the aquamarine-eyed genius responded. "I have a boyfriend, and you're both disgustingly intoxicated, assholes," she retorted sharply, letting out a curse in English at the end.
One of them made a show of looking around, nearly falling over as he did so. "Well-hic I don'...I don't see him around anywhere-"
"I'm right here, turd blossoms," Ao called out, having rounded the corner once more, looking none too happy.
"Where-HIC...Where the hell did you come from?"
"I was disposing of some trash. Do I need to call waste management to dispose of more?" he taunted as he walked quickly to reinforce his girlfriend, who'd already gotten her phone out. He idly noticed a groupchat pop up that had the names of his brother and several of his classmates in it.
One of the drunk's eyes widened, having finally processed the insult. "Are you implying we're trash, you shit-HIC...shithead?" he asked noisily.
"Yes, I am. Considering the smell coming off of the two of you, I'm beginning to wonder if you aren't also literal trash."
"Why you little!"
CLANG
"OW! What the fuck are you made of, metal?!" the drunk who'd punched him asked, cradling his hand before gasping at the sight before him.
Ao's single remaining good eye rolled, the other sparking as mechanical parts moved around in plain view as he responded. "Yes, actually, and you just went from public inebriation to quirk-usage while intoxicated. Was that really necessary? I'm gonna be getting funny looks all the way home now!" he said, a portion of his false skin having been torn off when he'd been punched.
"Uh-uh, no way. With that level of damage, you're coming back to U.A. with me, Ao-kun! Hatsume-chan and I will fix you up in the morning!" Melissa said with finality.
"You dumb shits aren't going anywhere! You hurt my bro, now I'm gonna beat you both like a drumset-"
"SOMEONE STUPID, GET IN MY WAY!"
THUD
"NOOOOO! BROOOOO!"
"Do you see this apron, shit-for-brains? IT SAYS DON'T FUCK WITH ME!" their savior exploded, first verbally then literally, sending his remaining opponent flying into a lamp post.
When the dust settled, Kacchan stood angrily, wearing an apron with text that said, "Don't fuck with the cook!" With a roar of irritation, the aggressively friendly teen approached the couple. As soon as he reached them, he took their hands and placed them near each other.
"You dumb fucks are on a date! HOLD HANDS, DAMNIT!"
Ao and Melissa burst into peals of laughter, obeying the commands of the blast hero.
"Seriously, though, you shits should head back. I'll get your picnic crap, and deal with the police bullshit. There's food at the 2-A dorm if you're still hungry. Now skedaddle! They're gonna wanna know how the date went, and the sooner you satisfy The Admiral's thirst for gossip, the less I'll have to deal with her stupidity on the matter," the hero in training said.
The pair didn't need to be told twice, heading back to U.A. hand in hand. It had been a fun night, and while it looked a little dicey near the end, at least it had ended with a bang.