15.07.2022
Hello you wonderful people it's the absolute madman here and I'm here for your weekly dose of mediocre fanfiction!
But first comments!:
Imperatia - I swear if I got like a dollar every time someone pulls out the ARK reference I'd have an additional income source. That being said - no.
PasiveNox - Thanks!
JesterGlytch - Ha! That is indeed a valid concern! And I don't know. It's not like I control this world or something he-he.
Qhaq - I'll keep doing my best!
Speedwagon - I feel like you're just stroking my ego here, but thanks for the kind words anyway!
69MeterPeter - It may have been a better story that way, but it wouldn't be Stranded then.
And with that, the chapter!:
Momo woke up well-rested around noon with what she thought to be a dream still fresh on her mind. Yet as her mind focused on the subject more and more, she realized that it was no dream, especially once she started feeling the phantoms of Izuku's caresses on her skin. She raised one of her hands to touch her lips, his taste still faintly discernible.
"It really happened…" She thought to herself as a smile crept onto her face. "I had s-sex with Izuku!" She cheered mentally as a blush spread across her cheeks.
One thing that she also noticed after some time was the fact that her mind was devoid of all those distractingly chaotic thoughts and random snippets of ideas, replaced instead with a calmness and focus she didn't feel since coming here. She got used to her previous state of mind already, but she definitely wasn't against this moment of clarity.
Although with that clarity came thoughts that she's never paid any attention to earlier. Yes, they'd united in an unmistakably intimate fashion, but what was the reason behind it? What was his reason for going through with it? And what was her reason for suggesting it in the first place?
Maybe she thought that it'd be the best way to get his mind off of work? No, that couldn't be it. For all his stubbornness, Izuku hated the idea of worrying his friends and would no doubt agree to take a break every now and then if she shared her thoughts with him. Was it because he had feelings for him? There was no denying the fact that her crush on her green-haired classmate grew since the time she shared it with the other girls, but this couldn't have been the sole reason behind her actions.
Maybe… Maybe she wanted to find out if he'd enjoy being with her? It's not like she wasn't aware of her own beauty and appeal, but - at least in her opinion - her love rivals were equally as attractive as her, so what if he'd find Mina's and Tooru's teasing nature or Kyouka's laid back attitude more interesting than her maturity and elegance? He clearly enjoyed her body, but would he enjoy the rest of her?
"I'm starting to miss all of the chaos in my head…" Momo groaned to herself as she flopped onto her back on her weirdly comfortable stone slab of a bed. It was probably thanks to the not-exactly-bear pelt that functioned as the bedsheet.
In the end she decided that enough was enough and forced herself out of bed to do some good ol' thinking. And get something to eat. Not necessarily in that order.
The clarity that enveloped her mind started fading throughout the day as she idly conversed with Mina about anything that her pink-skinned classmate brought up. Apparently Izuku was still snoozing in his 'room', so she didn't have to worry about the atmosphere turning awkward. For now that is.
Yet even as chaos was about to bust down the doors to her mental abode, Momo was still discovering more and more holes in all of her projects that she couldn't have possibly overlooked if it wasn't for the absolutely maddening amount of random thoughts circling her mind at the time.
Some of them required at least a bit of knowledge - something that she possessed literal heaps of - like the first project they've completed.
Bamboo is a very sturdy material for what it weighs, but it doesn't mean it's indestructible. From what Mina and Izuku told her in her first days they had to survive a monsoon that dropped the temperature down to chilly and now they had to endure a hellish heatwave. Both of these events appeared almost overnight, which meant no time for preparations. If that was the case, who's to say that a cold snap can't hit out of the blue and freeze the water inside their pipes making them explode from within? She should probably try and come up with a solution to that potential problem lest all of their - Izuku's - hard work go to waste.
There was a second project with an even more glaring oversight however - her choice of a weapon for Izuku. How in hell was a knife going to be better against an apex predator the size of a bear but way faster?! She herself was trained in the use of staffs with some polearms thrown in as a bonus, so she should've immediately realized that a spear would be a better choice. And it's not like it's that much harder to make than a knife. It's basically a knife attached to a long stick!
"Hmm, a spear where the tip can be detached and used as a knife…" Momo mused out loud, startling the pinkette next to her.
"Wha-?" Squeaked out Ashido with a mix of confusion and fear.
"Nothing, don't worry about it." The raven-haired woman answered with a polite smile that somehow looked to be very, very sinister to Mina.
"Don't tell me she wants to kill me and keep Izuku all for herself!" She panicked inwardly, whilst trying to maintain a somewhat undisturbed expression on the outside. "Just what have you done to her to make her so head over heels for you?! God, now I'm horny and afraid!"
The next work-filled night and the day after brought a much needed breath of fresh air. Literally.
Just as the suns were about to set, the trio could feel the temperature drop by a couple degrees and the heat dissipated fully before the suns started to shine in the morning, a welcoming breeze taking its place.
Yet the heatwave ending overnight was as much of a reason for celebration as it was for worry. It would take at least a day or three for them to switch back to being active during the day, but that was the least of their problems, at least by Momo's standards.
Even though the mental clarity she woke up with yesterday was no more, Momo was still acutely aware of the flaws her plans had, she wrote them down after all. That's why she began to worry about a potential cold snap hitting right after the scorching heat.
Momo relaxed on the log she was sitting on and closed her notebook, laying it on her lap with a sigh. She found her eyes drifting upwards of their own accord and was soon staring at the crystal chandelier overhead.
"These sure do look tantalizing…" She thought to herself in fascination.
Yet as her eyes were drawn to the shining formations up above she failed to notice that the chandelier was sprouting new chunks that emanated a faint citrine hue.
Now that they didn't have to hide from the suns and could work in the daylight instead of relying on the light reflected by the moons they continued making progress on their current project at a very rapid pace.
Most of the bricks that were required for Momo's forge had been already fired, but they maintained their production in case they needed them in the future and they managed to locate a limestone deposit nearby the waterfall - which Izuku claimed to have never seen there before, a statement that Mina seconded without hesitation - and acquired it to later use as mortar for when the construction of their workshop finally begins.
Now that Momo was sure that she'd have a proper workplace, all that she lacked were materials for the spear she wanted to create, which sounded relatively easy but turned out to be more tricky than expected.
You see, to try and clear her head from time to time, Momo liked to explore their little corner of the world, never crossing the river as per Izuku's orders, and usually found some useful or at least interesting things like the bamboo patch or the limestone deposit. One thing that she hadn't found yet were ore veins. And she'd known if she did since she studied metallurgy pretty thoroughly to aid her Quirk.
This would normally warrant an expedition outside of their safezone, something that Izuku would be very much against, but ultimately convinced to agree - especially if Momo was to use her two best 'arguments' - yet that was ultimately deemed unnecessary as the chaotic mess that was Momo's mind conjured an image of a purple-ish glow coming from a crevice in the cliff and also provided a surprisingly easy to follow map.
Izuku, the brawn of the mining operation, was doubting the legitimacy of something so unusual as a vision - despite being the one that has spoken with ghosts of people who have died decades ago on a regular basis - yet was quickly forced to take all his naysays back as it took only a few mighty swings of his trusty, but already kind of rusty, climbing pick to unearth the purple ore which Momo dubbed 'Element' for no reason whatsoever, but this time Izuku chose wisely not to argue with the brains of their group.
Although he had further doubts about the usefulness of their find. This was a mineral that didn't exist or wasn't discovered just yet on Earth so they had no way of knowing about its properties, like melting point for example. A piece of info that they needed if they wanted to do anything with that ore really.
Yet as Izuku and Mina were about to discover, Momo worked with Element as if she was doing it her entire life and was at least two steps ahead of them.
"Should we be concerned?" Mina asked in worry as she and Izuku cowered behind the sturdiest looking tree around while Momo was finishing up some last minute preparations for the grand event of melting Element.
"I'm already concerned about the fact that I somehow brought back an entire crucible and an entire bag of thermite without noticing." Izuku said back, his eyes focused on Momo.
"Huh, I honestly thought you'd be more surprised by the anvil." Mina stated with a thoughtful expression as she pointed at the heavy piece of metal standing just next to their newly built forge.
"That too, but I was already too preoccupied with the crucible and a bag of thermite to worry about something else." He explained, his expression looking worryingly close to the one Aizawa wore on a daily basis.
Their conversation was cut short when Momo appeared next to them with a lighter at the ready and a neat trail of thermite at her feet.
"Are you ready?!" She asked with a grin that definitely didn't belong on her face as she faced her two companions.
"No?" They skeptically answered in sync.
"Too bad then!" She exclaimed and lit up the trail of thermite.
Both Izuku and Mina will forever question how the insanely hot flame followed the neat trail of thermite and didn't immediately spread to the grass at their feet and start a forest fire. Momo in the meantime was watching the thermite burn with glee as she awaited for the main load to be ignited.
It took a deceptively long amount of time, but once the flame reached the crucible the real show entire pile lit up with tons of superheated sparks flying all over the place and then exploded in a fiery tornado that still refused to spread to anything that wasn't thermite.
They were able to feel the hit despite standing quite a few feet away from the crucible, but it soon died down as the reaction came to an end due to lack of fuel.
As soon as the tornado vanished Momo grabbed a pair of tongs and made her way towards the crucible. She looked inside to see Element in its liquid form, melted completely without so much as a speck of ore floating on its pink surface.
"It worked!" She exclaimed with glee at the success.
Mina and Izuku - who definitely weren't hiding behind a tree during the entire process - soon joined Momo where she stood and admired the results.
"It's so pretty!" Mina - the biggest fan of all things pink - cheered.
"So… do we now wait for it to cool down again?" Izuku questioned with curiosity.
"Of course not! We need to strike the metal while it's hot! But first we shall cast this into a proper ingot." Momo explained.
"And how do we do that?" This time Mina asked with equal interest.
"With this!" Momo exclaimed and magically pulled out a cast from thin air.
She then proceeded to lift the red hot crucible with her tongs and pour its contents into the cast as her friends watched with straight faces.
"I don't recall finding this either…" Izuku groaned mentally, but ultimately decided that trying to make sense of most things in this world was an exercise in futility.
"What do you need this for anyways?" Mina, who was out of the loop for the entire endeavor, finally questioned.
"Don't worry about it!" Both Izuku and Momo shouted immediately, one with a grin and the other in panic.
"She really wants to kill me!" Mina quickly realized as Momo's grin turned sadistic. At least for her.
While Momo busied herself with her first technologically advanced creation since coming here, Izuku and Mina were left to their own devices for the most part, gathering food and fooling around as usual.
Yet even as he pumped in and out of Mina his mind couldn't help but flash him images of his time with Momo, something he still felt vaguely guilty about, even though his not-exactly-girlfriend encouraged him to do it. Besides it's not like he could have refused. Momo may have not been aware of that, but the moment he laid his eyes on her bare Bountiful Boobalicious Breasts he was fully under her control as if her name was Shisui Uchiha. A truly powerful opponent indeed.
However instead of confronting Mina about his inner turmoil and trying to resolve his love triangle, Izuku decided to bottle it up like he usually does nowadays and leave it up in the air for now. It's not like it'll lead to an even more complicated/awkward situation in a not so distant future that could've been easily avoided if he'd just decided to man up and be open about his feelings, right? Right…?
It took a couple of days, many strikes of a hammer and another close call during Izuku's nightly supply raids, but Momo finally was able to finish the spear Izuku wanted. And what a spear it turned out to be!
The tip made from the mysterious Element lost its pinkish color and turned to something akin to cobalt. It also didn't look like a normal spear tip, having only a single blade with the other side being flat and blunted, resembling a naginata. The shaft on the other hand was an even bigger surprise. As it turned out Momo decided to go an extra mile and instead of making it out of wood went with using more Element. It was an excellent call as it made the polearm look very cool and futuristic that even Mina was gushing about. One thing that Izuku was wondering about was the complex mechanism just below the blade, but was sure Momo would no doubt enlighten them right away.
And enlighten them she did, just not exactly as by the end of her explanation they had even more questions than before. The fact that the blade was detachable and could serve as a knife was really cool, but how did she make it so that it could resharpen itself if left unused? And why would it need a firing mechanism? And how did she come up with the name? Tek Spear. Sounded pretty cool, but why did she spell it with a 'k' specifically?
The worst part about this whole enigma was that even Momo didn't have answers to most of their questions.
Izuku ultimately decided that there was no point in worrying about things they had no control over and graciously accepted the Tek Spear. It was surprisingly light, but he didn't doubt its durability for even a second, as he knew very well that Momo strived to be the best and would hardly settle for anything but perfection.
The moment was quite serene as Izuku admired the craftsmanship he would soon wield on his adventures, but the atmosphere was soon broken by none other than Ashido herself.
"It looks cool and all, but why exactly did you make it? It's not like the predators can get to us." Mina questioned in confusion.
A short silence befell them as Izuku kicked his brain into overdrive to quickly come up with an at least believable cover story, but as the words were about to roll off his tongue, Momo beat him to the punch and spilled the beans.
Mina was, as you might've expected, quite unnerved by the two close calls he'd experienced in the last week and a half and even more upset by the fact that all of this was hidden from her.
Izuku tried to reason with her and explain his thought process of not wanting to worry her, but all of his arguments fell on deaf ears. After what felt like hours but lasted fifteen minutes at most he managed to calm her down enough to accept his apology, though he had to promise not to pull anything like that ever again; a small price to pay for forgiveness. However something told him that Mina had an additional condition that she decided to keep to herself for the time being, but will probably reveal it as soon as the two of them were alone.
Just as Momo predicted, the temperate weather took its leave far earlier than they'd have liked for that to happen, but what came next wasn't all that bad. It was a far cry from being good but still nowhere near as disastrous as a sudden cold snap.
The first sign that the weather conditions were changing once again was a slightly more chilly breeze in the morning and stronger gusts throughout the day. It started off small but quickly ramped up over a couple of days and the howling gale became the dominant sound outside of their cave. That coupled with a permanent chill marked the end of their topless excursions as the hearth inside of their cave has been lit up once again, creating a need for constant supply of wood.
And if that wasn't enough, it soon became known that Momo wasn't doing so hot in low temperatures, which led to her sneaking into Izuku's bed on a couple occasions when she thought Mina didn't notice. Spoiler alert - she noticed. And had mixed feelings about it.
She and Izuku weren't dating and Momo didn't even know about their relationship, so it's not like anyone was cheating on anyone, yet that knowledge did nothing to the queasy feeling in her stomach. Giving it some thought, she and Momo had similar builds with Momo being a bit on the juicy side. The biggest difference was their characters and Mina had to admit that she had no idea which one Izuku would prefer - her cheerful bounciness and boundless energy or Momo's refined manners and maturity.
She… she should probably get around to letting Momo in on what really was going on between her and Izuku. And unlike the aforementioned fate-tempting boy - Mina decided to get to it as soon as possible.
"Izu~" Came a muffled moan from within Izuku's room.
"Tomorrow. I'll talk to her tomorrow." Mina decided before retreating back to her own room.
Only to double back towards the source of the noise to sneak a peak or five.
Mina was determined to finally come clean to Momo and thankfully didn't have to wait for an opportunity to reveal itself as the supply drop was scheduled for the very next day, which meant that Izuku would be out and about for at least an hour or two.
The weather was relentless as per usual and the howling wind showed no signs of settling down any time soon. And if strong winds and a chilly breeze were not a nasty enough combination already, it got even worse when the gusts started picking up smaller stones and hurling them around. That's why the three friends decided to hang out in the cave so as to avoid traumatic brain injuries, since one of them already had a pretty lengthy record of hospital visits.
They had underestimated the might of nature however and ended up spending the entire day just lazing around or taking naps as the weather only improved in the evening, but when it did it surprised them with yet another u-turn. The breeze was nowhere near as noticeable as in the morning and the wind had died down completely, allowing the usual forest soundtrack to take over once again.
Izuku wasted not a moment in getting himself prepared for his nightly excursion as he donned his satchel and grabbed the Tek Spear on his way out. It was only a couple of minutes later that Mina also left with Momo right behind her.
Izuku made his way over to his usual lookout with his futuristic looking spear in hand. He still couldn't get over the fact that Momo somehow managed to do it all by herself. Climbing up the giant tree to reach his vantage point was a trivial matter already and he found himself admiring the view before he even noticed. Though for some reason he thought that he should be sitting on a plastic chair with a white energy drink can in his hand and a blue dimension slashing blade at his hip. A strange thought to be sure, but ultimately not something he needed to pay attention to. He instead chose to let his eyes wander over the picturesque view. The two suns, partially hidden over the horizon already, basked everything in various hues of red, yellow and orange, creating something hard to describe and even harder to look away from.
Whilst waiting for the flaming ball of fire to come crashing down, Izuku decided to take a look around their little valley. Momo's workshop was somehow still intact despite the fact that it was most likely ravaged by the brutal winds throughout the day. Most of their safe zone was covered by trees of different shapes and sizes, but Izuku was able to spot a couple of taller outliers that had tilted under the pressure. As his eyes came back to trace both banks of the river, Izuku noticed something really scary.
You see, the river looked more like a small lake where the waterfall was turning into a water-fallen and then narrowed sharply before once again widening only to split into two and encompass the giant tree. Izuku however was still stuck on the narrow part of the river where a really tall tree had been toppled over by the wind and created a makeshift bridge. This on its own wasn't really a reason to panic. The reason to panic was the clearly quadrupedal creature that was currently crossing the aforementioned makeshift bridge.
Izuku's blood ran cold as a bead of sweat appeared on his brow. He didn't even have a chance to think about what he saw before he found himself with his feet on the solid ground and the Tek Spear firmly in his grasp as he sprinted towards their shelter to warn his friends about the incoming danger. Alas they weren't where he thought they would be and was now left with no other choice, but to frantically search the places he knew they liked to frequent.
And so Izuku once again found himself running with a sole goal in mind - find the girls before they run into that murderous furball.
As Izuku's mind was occupied with hopeful and dreadful thoughts, he failed to notice that tonight the sky was being lit up by not one but two flaming balls of fire.
No, this is still not inspired by ARK. I am however quite spiteful, so there we have it.
Also, a pretty funny cliffhanger, huh?
That's all for today, so have a great day and I'll catch you all next Friday!