Master Control
Chapter 61
*Tink*
The fluid mechamorphic cat leapt onto the workbench, tail swishing behind itself as it observed its target.
*Tink*
Its sight watched the wrench patting against the table in interest, the rise to pounce growing.
*Tink*
"Mooow"
Mei, who was resting her head on the empty workbench and fiddling with the tool, glanced towards her pet. "I know, I would have taken you too."
"Mow"
"It's so not fair. I had plans on going but not even the Principal will send me."
"Mow mow"
Releasing her sorrows out with a deep sigh, Mei ran her hand along the wavy spine of her companion, if it even had a spine. "Izuku won't even respond to my messages to have him sneak me in. I mean, what's the use of teleportation if you can't even sneak your friends into their favorite event in the world."
"Moow"
"We are friends! Wait, if I'm going to get into the most advanced place in the world with the best technology being presented, what better way than to make my own teleporter to prove my skill?!"
The feline sometimes doubted the intelligence of the human it was assigned. But still, she went to work without a doubt in her abilities.
"Come on kitty! Let's make tomorrow instead of waiting for it a-Hey! Where are you going?!"
Mei wasn't sure if it was possible or ethical, but she should talk to Izuku about having its toleration settings altered. She wanted so much to see what wonders he was beholding over there!
"RAAAH!"
XLR8 dipped out of the way of the speeding fist that nearly took his head. "All Might!"
The hulking crimson creature growled in frustration, its muscles flexing as its veins glew brightly and doubled its efforts towards him.
"It's me! Stop!"
He zipped out of the way, just as what used to be his favorite hero bashed itself through the nearby wall. Well lucky him, whatever corrupted All Might didn't gain his finely attuned skills in using his quirk. Unluckily for him, that meant there was little restraint on his end.
"Hey! You!" Melissa yelled over towards him, pointing towards the others. "Should we be worried that the others are starting to wake up?"
His head snapped over to the other bodies that began to rise. Those that he knew, corrupted into something nearly beyond recognition with a possessed rage.
A wrath targeted against anything that was not their own.
The walking pile of coals that was Endeavor burned with a bright heat, throwing the flames towards the two of them.
Grabbing Melissa, XLR8 dashed off through the hole he left. Zigzagging through the streets, he saw so many others under the same effect. A city swarming with DNA altering-
*ZOOM*
Another was right on his tail, no, three others!
Each blurs chasing after him, with different limbs that ejected streams of condensed smog as they ran after him. That was the Idaten family! The smaller one was probably Tenya.
The flaming comet above he could only guess was Endeavor, also desiring to pursue in the chase.
He ducked under a swipe, nearly tumbling with Melissa currently in his arms.
Ugh, he really didn't need more unannounced reveals to his secrets. Though her Dad knew so it was ok?
*BOOM*
No time for an internal debate!
"Don't freak out." XLR8 yelled over the rushing wind as he ran.
"WHAT?!" Melissa tried screaming over the whistling as another ball of fire crashed behind them.
"Omnitrix, send subject Melissa to-GAH!"
He slipped on a plane of ice, XLR8's feet skating as he tried to find his balance until he was sent flipping and rolling. Melissa slid away from him, XLR8 left to slide until he came to a halt.
Luckily, his weakness was shared by the three other speedsters that crashed into adjacent buildings.
"This is Nezu." The omnitrix spoke with the Principal's voice. "Communications with I-island are cut off, report."
"This is XLR8." The reptile used his claws to push himself back up, eyeing the elemental powerhouses that were Shoto and Endeavor. "There was an explosion, but the only detectable damage is the residents have all mutated into their quirks!"
After a few seconds of silence, Izuku could tell how grave the situation sounded to Nezu. "How many of them?"
XLR8 tried to get back to Melissa, only for a wall of ice to intercept him. It was getting too difficult for him to stay in this form, unable to get proper friction on the slippery floor.
"Only Melissa Shield seems unaffected! Permission for open Omnitrix use-"
"Granted."
*BWOOSH*
Nezu and Izuku both realized keeping his cover was not priority, and it's possible there wasn't anyone to truly witness it as horrible as it sounded. With a squawk and a boost from his organic jetpack fueled by star power, Izuku in his Astrodactyl form flew over the wall and intercepted Melissa yet again.
"AAH!" She reacted poorly to his arrival, starting to hammer his bare fists against him.
"It's possible that she is unaffected due to her quirkless nature. From what I hear you are still there, and are unaffected as well but that could be due to the omnitrix-"
"Ouch!" Astrodactyl kept his eyes away from being poked by the panicked blonde in his arms. "Melissa! Please stop-AGH!"
Letting out a squawk of pain, Astrodactyl was hit from behind by a pillar of flames. Letting out a blast from his own back to throw off any aerial followers, he quickly spotted a large bouncy castle to crash his smoking body into.
A resounding pop was heard as he pierced the plastic layer.
*BWOOSH*
*RIIIIP*
Claws ripped the deflating tarps apart, letting Kickin Hawk open a way out with Melissa tucked under one of his arms. "I can try using the omnitrix to see if I can reverse the change, but without knowing what caused it there is a chance it could happen again. Melissa, do you know if-"
*CLANG*
A massive fist of brass and iron sprang out from her arm, knocking the alien off of his feet. With a confused groan, he leaned up to see the sight of Melissa standing in shock and awe at her new arm.
That, looked like one of the prefabricated designs. But when he looked closer, he didn't see her wristband with the controlled nanites.
"Melissa, as cool as that looks, I would appreciate it if you didn't hit me with that again."
"Who-" In her dazed state, the blonde finally addressed the being talking to her. "Who is Melissa?"
Walking out to the edge of the balcony of the central tower, Van Kleiss examined his work firsthand.
An island full of life, one perfected to fully integrate the quirk into its genome, and one under his control. Heroes all over the world had gathered and were now assets. While he would have preferred to have Stars and Stripes with All Might, Japan's number one hero was considered the stronger of the two.
The world was evolving too fast and too rapid. The most recent incidents in Japan proved it. Ever since humanity could remember, they had charted evolution in its own will. Domesticated animals, crossbreeding crops, so much they had control over yet failed to have the courage to improve themselves. Then quirks came to be, an unpredictable factor that if left unchecked could destroy whole bloodlines in a child's fit.
No, he would master it, carve a refined path with no wavering outside of his grasp.
World domination just happened to be a natural step towards that goal, and therefore he would meet resistance.
But he didn't expect it so soon.
Resting his hands against the railing, he looked down towards the chaos unfolding just underneath him.
His servants were reacting to an error, one he should capture and contain before it too, became unpredictable.
"Come." Van Kleiss marched towards the elevator, one being of black tar with various metals peeking out of its skin and the other that looked like a hollow frame of a person that floated, bits of dust and rock slowly orbiting it. "We must make sure there are no errors in the nanite cloud if we are to spread our influence."
The darkness between the alleys held nothing, the streets silent with only the occasional grunt of a being whose mind was long gone.
But something slithered between the buildings, only those with the most heightened senses made aware that something existed in the dark.
An invisible being came into brief view, this purple reptile with three multicolored eyes waving towards someone else. "Coast is clear. This way."
Melissa, hesitantly checked her surroundings to confirm her friend's observation, and quickly rushing over to gain cover in an abandoned store. Once inside the store filled with trinkets and toys for what was supposed to be the event of the year.
No matter how hard she tried, Melissa couldn't remember any of it.
"So you know me?" She turned to the only person, or whatever he was that wasn't trying to kill her.
"Yes."
*BWOOSH*
Switching to human, Izuku let her look at a human face to help ease her along with this process. "I'm Izuku Midoriya, you're Melissa Shield. But I don't know how much time we have to cover your whole life's story. I only met you today!"
"Then can you start with what the hell you are?!" Melissa pointed towards the omnitrix. "It's that thing isn't it? That let you turn into all those other monsters? Or are you a monster that can turn into something like me? Are there normally people like me or-"
"I actually turn into aliens but-"
"Aliens?! Is that a thing that's normal?!"
"SHHH!" Izuku immediately held a finger to his mouth to help shush the girl. They were getting too loud and who knows what monsterized heroes with enhanced senses were out looking for them. "Listen, I really do want to catch you up on everything but as you can tell we're in a really bad situation right now. Normally a lot of people look like us, and we were all here to celebrate but then an explosion happened, everyone turned into some mutated version of themselves. For some reason we weren't affected, well not that I can really see but that might be because we didn't have quirks to mutate to begin with. The fact that I'm not getting a warning about any alterations to my DNA makes this the most likely solution, so-"
*Pap* Melissa's arms came down on his shoulders, pausing the boy's ramblings. "I can barely understand anything you're talking about, but the problem here is that everyone's monsters right?"
"Well, yeah."
"Then how do we turn them back to normal?"
He could always try the omnitrix, but unless they discovered the how there's no telling what damages there might be from whatever is infecting them. "Let me think on it."
*BWOOSH*
Melissa jolted as Izuku became replaced by a rather large crab like creature with a prominent cranium. The exoskeleton atop his head opened up, as a very thin field of electricity began to dance around himself.
"Yes, I see now." Brainstorm hummed to himself. There appears to be a multitude of highly energized nano robotics lacing the local climate that seems to gravitate towards organic components. The sporadic metamorphosis we examine in the population is caused by the very mechanisms that were theorized to augment the quirk factor and elongate its lifespan. Only these are a more refined product than the ones observed five hours and nineteen minutes ago."
"So?" Melissa beckoned, awkwardly as she still felt put off by this one's crustacean origins. "Can we return them to normal?"
"Unfortunately my omnimatrix would be unable to disperse the nanite cluster in the hosts. Any cure I provide with it would be provisional, and at the efficiency these mechanisms operate would only keep the patient sentient for only two point eight nine seconds before conversion would begin."
The alien's focus shifted towards Melissa, detecting an odd flow of metal in her own bloodstream. "You, on the other hand, seem to have a more symbiotic relationship with the nanites, some of them interlinked as they are still under the command of the refined module we synthesized just prior. That would begin to clarify your recent developments."
"You mean, I'm infected too?"
"That entirely depends on your definition of infected. Is your DNA being reanimated through a twisted series of mutations, no. Are you currently the host of several hundred thousands of micro machines that will construct several of your inventions on command, yes."
*BWOOSH*
Izuku returned to human, his mentality only able to retain a surface level understanding of what he observed just moments ago. "So, congratulations I guess. You have the first artificially created non-biological quirk."
"Isn't that just another word for superpowers?" Melissa held her hand up, trying to accomplish what she did on accident earlier. "How do I use it?"
"Well, what was going through your mind when you punched me earlier?"
"Sorry." She forgot to mention that earlier. "I guess, I thought of having a really strong punch and suddenly I recalled all these, parts and pieces for a really powerful device. Then it kind of just-"
*VRRRCLUNK*
The massive hand of metal pushed itself out from her arm, wires and circuits spilling out from her skin without breaking it until it flowed into the machine she created.
Izuku wanted to gush over how amazing that was, but this was hardly the time. "Even though you have amnesia, you must have spent weeks going over each of your designs in your mind. Every gear and every wire, you've pretty much stamped it into muscle memory recall. Now that you actually have nanites in your muscles, well, the recall is very physical."
Melissa turned the hand over, noticing how the weight should be throwing her off balance but it's not. "How many of these did I make?"
"A lot, but I think there might be another way you can help."
One of the lone monsters that patrolled the lifeless city dragged its feet. Its body seemed to be made of dark brittle stones, but under the cracks lied a torrent of weather. One half radiated heat from its crevices, the other covered in frost with mist following in its path.
The collision of two extreme temperatures turned all the water nearby into a thick steam that surrounded its head.
Clearly, no one would dare to try and challenge a foe such as this.
Until he was suddenly enveloped in a green light and yanked into a nearby photo booth.
The ethereal being composed of a spacial void and flaming green energy flowing around his head steadied his hand, binding the dangerous individual in a field unbreaking. "Hurry! He should be safe to touch but I don't know how long I can keep his body under control."
Melissa was more hesitant, seeing how the being was shaking in place with the cracks revealing the hot and cold that was building up behind a very thin veil of emerald light. "We're not sure this will even work!"
"We have to try!"
"At the expense of my arm?!"
"HURRY!"
Giving it her all, Melissa slapped her hand against the beast's chest. Her veins began to glow as the nanites reacted to their foreign counterparts, circuits running along her arms as he attempted to take command of them. Her mind began remembering the schematics she had gone over countless times manufacturing the tiny robots, how she devised a machine to execute complicated commands on her behalf.
And she could remember what each command was after more errors than trial than she could ever count.
Izuku in his alien form watched in amazement as he could feel the nanites inside the boy being pulled away, undoing the damage and reverting him to how he was before. Feeling he was completely human Izuku stashed Shoto away in the omnitrix to prevent him being infected once again.
"I-it worked." Melissa gave a short laugh. "We still have to find the cause, but knowing we can fix them is a relief. That explosion that released all of these nanites took place where?"
"Right behind the gala stage." Izuku answered, the worry in his gut starting to grow. "While I know David Shield was working on quirk amplification technology using the nanites, and had a demonstration to show at the gala, this feels too controlled to feel like an accident."
While the alien continued to think and plan, Melissa was more focused on a different part. "Shield, like me?"
It never really registered to Izuku how much one could forget when experiencing amnesia. Not knowing who you are or what's going on, seemed expected. Forgetting your own family? He couldn't imagine it.
"Yes." He finally answered. "Your father, he's a big reason why I-island is as amazing as it is."
He bet he would know how to undo whatever just happened, maybe they could try to find him next, cure him, and somehow make a containment suit to prevent him being contaminated again.
"Melissa!" The man's voice called out from outside, David Shield's voice!
The girl, unrecognizing it, was cautious as she approached the curtain, taking a peek into the dark. Izuku stepped up beside her, narrowing his glowing white eyes behind his emerald domino mask. This was, oddly convenient.
Out there, with no other signs of life, was a lone humanoid figure drabbed in clothing as it stumbled around in the empty streets. "Melissa!"
"Who is that?" The blonde asked, Izuku not entirely sure himself.
*BWOOSH*
Melissa briefly shielded her eyes from the light of his transformation, starting to get used to it. She felt something tucked under her hair, the girl rummaging around until she found a pair of goggles within. How was she able to hide those before?
Wondering how important these might be, she looked over to Izuku who might have the answers. She nearly lurched back seeing a massive orange dog with no eyes right next to her! A little warning would have been nice!
"Um, so what does this one do?"
All she got as a reply was a set of snarls and huffs. It couldn't see, it couldn't speak, she hoped there was still a large enough brain for it to not suddenly try to eat her.
Izuku did, and he chose this form for a reason. The gill like nostrils along his neck flared, the boy taking in deep inhales to get a better mental picture of what was happening.
There was a similar scent to David Shield surrounding the man outside, but it was too different for Izuku to believe him to be fully human at the moment. What made him cautious was how the area around the man was unoccupied, with a wide perimeter of several of the stronger ones keeping an eye on it.
This was a trap, and he was lucky enough for Melissa to not remember her own father's voice and go rushing into it.
"Izuku, please turn into something that can talk."
*BWOOSH*
"Sorry." He apologized in his human form. "But as Wildmutt, I could tell something was off about all of this."
"It's an ambush right?"
"Exactly."
"And-" She hesitated to ask. "-the person out there."
With a slow nod, he confirmed her fear. "It's probably your father."
If this was an ambush, then whoever was intelligent enough to organize all of this was probably watching. The person who most likely organized all of this in the first place.
"I'm going to check it out." Izuku dialed up his next alien to use. "Stay here."
*BWOOSH*
With his skin covering itself in blue fur and an extra pair of arms sprouting from his torso, Spidermonkey flipped out from the photo booth and leapt off the roof. Sending out a webline from his tail, he swung over the scene before landing along a building with mirror-like walls.
His many eyes narrowed down, clearly seeing something was off about David's body. It didn't move right, it wasn't the same size, and when the moonlight touched his hands he could see the long fingers that snaked around him waiting to strike.
"OO oo, definitely a trap."
*knock*
Something had tapped on the glass he was currently clinging to, Spidermonkey slowly turning around to his reflection. Doing his best to see through the one way material, he could faintly make out something inside pressing against the glass.
Something humanoid shaped.
*CRASH*
A fist broke out, gripping Spidermonkey's throat and throwing him into the streets. He couldn't reorientate himself in time and bounced against the pavement, leaving a cracked crater behind. Once close enough to the mutated form of David Shield the elongated digits snapped out and bound each of his limbs.
His head spinning, his back aching, he shook his head to try and shake his senses into place. A trap, he saw it and somehow fell right into it! He hoped Nezu wasn't patched into any of the cameras watching him. This was just embarrassing.
Looking up at his captor, he nearly winced seeing just how malformed David had become. Lumps of useless muscles hanging along his skin, and shards of his broken glasses were still stuck in his bleeding eyesockets. The sight made him want to vomit.
"Um, I don't suppose you'll let me go anytime soon will you?"
No response from him, of course.
"How interesting." Someone else did though, Spidermonkey tilting his head back to see the scientist he was briefly introduced to earlier. Van Kleiss, flanked by two unique monsters whose features nudged at the back of his mind. "You retain full cognitive awareness despite your recent enhancements."
Recent change, yes. Mutated like all the others around him? Guess again.
"You did this to everyone?"
Not answering, the sketchy scientist moved closer to the arachnichimp and pinched at his fur with his golden gauntlet. "Hmmm, even if you might have had a more in depth mutation quirk you brain couldn't deviate enough to make a difference. I'll have to make sure there are no flaws to my design."
"And by flaws, you mean free will?"
For the first time, Van Kleiss saw him as something other than a failed experiment. With an amused smirk he faced the alien. "You don't seem very concerned with your capture."
Not really. Spidermonkey most likely had the strength to get out of this and the reflexes to dodge most attacks sent his way. Even if it wasn't enough, he could turn into something a lot faster, tougher, and/or stronger than what he could see in his competition so far. He'd only be concerned if the corrupted All Might made an appearance, then he'd have to use some other aliens and pull some tricks.
Wow, ok time to cool off from thinking about facing an entire army of monsterized heroes and believing he could win. Was that logical thinking or overconfidence? Either way, he shouldn't be thinking about winning an avoidable fight when he needed to make sure they could cure this place without repeating all of this.
"I'm more curious how you made this all happen." Spidermonkey chattered. "Is it part of your quirk?"
"Believe it or not, I'm actually quirkless." The man began his typical evil monologue, Izuku wondering how this tactic worked so often. "It's why I'm not mutated, but instead with a command module embedded into myself I can take control of the nanites running through your veins. Tell me, with quirks growing stronger by the generation outpacing our stagnant technology, where do you see humanity in a hundred years?"
Probably scorched by the Galactic Federation to prevent the spread of 'disease' if there wasn't any intervention.
"Not in a good place." He answered honestly but vaguely.
"Exactly. If we are to overturn the current path we need to reverse the roles. Instead of our science playing catch up to supporting quirks, we need to have our technology take the lead and carve the path in which quirks can be used to improve not control society."
Looking around at the 'change' this man made towards the city, Izuku saw the opposite of what the man preached.
"Ooo ah, sounds like selective breeding on steroids to supply you with a superpowered military."
Van Kleiss didn't deny it, instead holding his golden gauntlet towards the boy. "Maybe you're a little too clever to keep as you are."
With a flex of his fingers, needles extended from his digits and sunk themselve's into Spidermonkey's chest. He yelped out in sudden surprise and pain as something foreign began moving inside of him.
Van Kleiss's overconfident smile fell, the man inquisitively staring at the alien's unmutating form. "This is unprecedented."
*CRACK*
Just as Izuku was about to activate the omnitrix's defensive feature, a massive chunk of pavement plowed the creature that was keeping Izuku hostage and pummeled him into a building.
Van Kleiss backed away from Spidermonkey's body, the boy leaping back as the man let his servants step up to protect him.
"Ah, there you are." Van Kleiss gestured to Melissa, who had a freaking massive gun of an arm mounted on her shoulder and her goggles over her eyes. "I can't say I'm too surprised to learn you created your own command module, but not at this level of efficiency. Perhaps the nanite cloud-"
She didn't let him finish, shooting out another blast that suddenly orbited around them until crashing into a different building.
"Ochaco." Spidermonkey whispered to himself as he recognized the hollow floating creature next to Van Kleiss. Then, the other one with various materials pouring out of the walking tar must be Momo.
"Step away from the monkey!" Melissa warned, the barrel aimed right at the man.
Spidermonkey readied himself for a fight, brushing off the pinpricks on his torso and glaring ahead.
"Very well."
Wait, what? That easy? No, it was never that easy.
Van Kleiss turned around, lazily waving towards the two of them as Melissa retracted her arm cannon. They cautiously watched the man leaving in a casual stroll, like he didn't just commit a biological crime against nature.
That's when they started to notice, the shadows stirring around them, heads and bodies stepping out into the light that were unrecognizable to their true selves. A civilization had turned into his personal army, their primal aggression aimed right at the teenagers.
"I do wish the two of you a good day." Van Kleiss called out as he peeked over his shoulder. "But I don't believe reality will be as kind."
Yep, things happening. Honestly I've been sitting on this chapter for a while. I wanted to double the length of it and add a bunch of more stuff but I think I'll stretch it out a little longer.
Thanks for all of the support you guys have given me recently. I've been able to take time to help a ton of my family out and things are looking significantly better at the moment.
Also, I have had a very MIGHTY NEED to write another big robot story. So just a warning that I may have to put this story on the backburner so I can get over my current hyper obsession with Gundams and just mechas in general.
My Iron Giant was my original outlet to vent this, but now that I've officially closed that chapter I've been thinking about other ideas.
Either an Neon Genesis fic where one of the Eva's they were developing gains sentience and mostly acts as a large overprotective child (Kinda like how My Iron Giant started out)
Lots of variations of Titanfall or Mechas mixed with either Rising of the Shield Hero, Attack on Titan, or GATE but they aren't that thought out.
I've already limited myself to not doing another new MHA fic, since I already have enough of those.
I WILL ATTEMPT TO KEEP FOCUS ON MASTER CONTROL SINCE I'M CLOSE TO FINISHING IT!
But in case my brain says "nah we need big robots" do any of you have cool ideas?
List of Hybrids (In order of splicing):
Eijiro Kirishima & Petrosapien/Diamondhead
Himiko Midoriya & Lenopan/Sludgepuppy
Kyoka Jiro & Sonorosian/Echo Echo
Reiko Yanagi & Ectonurite/Ghostfreak
Shota Aizawa/Eraserhead & Thep Khufan/Snare-oh
Denki Kaminari & Nosedeenian/Buzzshock
Tensei Ida & Citrakayah/Fasttrack
Ochaco Uraraka & Galilean/Gravattack (Alien Generated Quirk)
Yuga Aoyama & Crystalsapien/Chromastone
Mashirao Ojiro & Arachnichimp/Spidermonkey
Higari Maijima/Power Loader & Talpaedan/Armodrillo
Nemuri Kayama/Midnight & Nemuina/Pesky Dust (Alien Generated Quirk)
Hizashi Yamada/Present Mic & Loboan/Blitzwolfer/Benwolf
Any grammar errors please point it out.
Credit for helping me make this story goes to Animeguy1101
Born-From-Black-Lightning: Bing bong, that's correct. Melissa is quirkless therefore the nanites didn't impact her the same way.
Omni-Trickery: While there are quirk enhancing drugs, these nanites are mutating the rest of the body to further increase the quirk's capacity.
HeartGemHolder: I never had plans to really incorporate the Lilo and Stitch verse alongside Generator Rex, but once I saw an opportunity they could really fit into the story I couldn't resist. Maybe I went overboard, but I'm also happy to hear that it's working well enough to where people actually like it.
Fire turtle: I don't feel I need to directly address Pony's leg since there's a similar circumstance that was already explained in this story. I'll leave it to context clues to do the work for me. Also, the omnitrix does have a unique function that prevents the omnitrix user from mutating, as seen in OG Ben 10 whenever Ben has to deal with corrodium.
AnimeFan13579: That's a good point that I wasn't thinking too hard on. Since Ben got nanomech from exposure to alien nanomachines, Izuku could get his own nanomech from these nanites.
