CHAPTER TEN: THE TITAN
Izuku paced around the room he was told to wait in. Today was the big technology expo. An event where companies showed off their new and upcoming inventions and devices in a big stadium sized convention center. There were also some independent inventors who rented their own booths or milled about hoping to get noticed and attract investors and major companies to support their projects.
It was here that Izuku Midoriya would be presenting for Geonosis Tech's panel. Normally these big support manufacturing companies have a CEO or head scientist present whatever the newest thing was. However Geonosis was different and much more humble in that regard. To the green haired boy's surprise they told him they would rather have the creator present his own creation. The head of research and development said, "Who better to show how a new hero support item works than the person who invented it", of course the inventor would know all about it.
Two months into his work study program and he was already the most popular intern in the employ of Geonosis. They liked his ideas and inventions so much that they were willing to not only pay him, they also promised to cover the rest of Izuku's high school tuition including a full college scholarship to the university of his choice under the agreement that he work for them. Izuku agreed with all of it under the condition that seventy percent of his current pay went to his mother Inko Midoriya.
His intelligence and ingenuity was at the level of some of their brightest and best. It made the scientists wonder what he would be like when he graduated. Because of this Geonosis was willing to do almost anything to keep that brilliant mind the boy possessed. They even gave him his own personal office with state of the art computers so he could work on the designs and blueprints, and a twenty four hour access pass to the building so he could come by any time he wanted during the summer.
It was all too perfect for Izuku. With this company's resources at his fingertips the Infinity Gauntlet would soon be complete. He had already hacked the systems of the building and created a secret hidden code into his work computers that hid his real projects. All he had to do was keep the scientists and big wigs happy with some new technological marvel or support item and they were none the wiser.
Now here he was waiting in one of the back lounges of the convention center. Nervous and scared having never spoke in front of a crowd this big before. The irony was not lost on Izuku though. The fact he could commit such villainous acts without fear yet he was shivering and about to vomit from stage fright.
"Excuse me?" He turned to the company representative sitting in the room with him. "I need some air can I step out for a bit".
"Just be back in half an hour, the panel will start soon", she told him giving him a sympathetic look. She understood how nerve racking it must be for a young teenager, but she did admire his courage to do this for the company. Izuku thanked her and left the room to walk around the convention, maybe get a drink to settle the butterflies in his stomach.
As he wandered the random booths, his eyes passed apathetically over the independent inventors. None of them had made anything remotely impressive at least compared to what he created. Getting bored Izuku went and sat down at a nearby table where food and drinks were being served. He decided to have a coffee, maybe a good dose of caffeine would give him the nerve to make this upcoming live presentation.
"I recognize that logo!" Someone shouted from far away. Izuku looked around wondering who was yelling when he spotted a girl with odd pink hair and yellow eyes waving her arm and looking at him. He glanced around to make sure she wasn't looking at someone behind him. "Yeah you!"
'Me', Izuku mouthed the words while pointing a thumb at himself in confusion. In matter of seconds the girl moved through the crowd and was standing at his table.
"That logo, you work for Geonosis", she smiled at him while pointing at the tag on the front of his dark green suit that the companies logo next to his name. "You work for them don't you", she stated excitedly.
"Actually I'm an intern" he corrected with a nervous chuckle. This girl's over the top attitude and enthusiasm took Izuku off guard for a moment.
"Really? I tried to get an internship with them but they're so picky and here I thought my display at the sports festival would have been enough to get me in", it was then that Izuku finally recognized her. Mei Hatsume of the U.A support department class. She went up against Tenya Iida and used him to show off her gear.
"I remember that, you did well…right until you surrendered" Izuku smirked pointing out her fatal mistake.
"Huh?" Mei's line of thought was halted.
"I mean you had Iida at your mercy, but you played it too safe and quit while you were ahead", Izuku explained going full analysis mode. "I mean if you won then went on to battle one of the stronger students like that boy Bakugou for example you could have showed off your inventions against a stronger opponent using improvised tactics. You played it safe with Tenya and the whole fight felt staged so the companies probably weren't that impressed since they didn't get to see a real battle. They didn't get to see any real firepower from you, so I would advise working on that", he took a pause to finally inhale. Seeing her confused and slightly offended face Izuku quickly apologized. "I'm so sorry. Sometimes I get talking and I don't know when to stop"
"It's alright. I appreciate any constructive criticism" Mei laughed while absorbing his notes to apply them later. "My name is Mei Hatsume, U.A support class!" She introduced.
"Izuku Midoriya, intern for Geonosis Tech" he returned with his own.
"What's it like working with them? How big is their workshops? Do you work in research and development?" She started spouting questions one after the other.
"It's great actually. I don't know how big all their workshops are as I just design things and the engineers build it" Izuku answered all her questions.
"What do you design?" She asked.
"Mostly support devices, not just for heroes but police as well" he explained.
"Like what?" Mei pressed.
"I'm not at liberty to say. Company secrets and all that" Izuku chuckled lightly. "If you want to find out why not attend the panel?"
"I wish I could", Mei pouted. "My sensei Power Loader was able to get a seat, but only for himself. He said he'd tell me all about it though", she grumbled about unfair teachers and exclusive panels.
"That's completely unfair, you're a student, he should have given you his seat. This would be a great learning experience", Izuku fumed. One of his pet peeves was seeing brilliant or talented people being held back. Suddenly getting an idea he quickly downed the rest of his coffee. "Come with me" Izuku stood up from his table and asked her to follow him. Mei went with him wondering where he was leading her. She didn't have to wonder long as he brought to the entrance of the convention center's largest auditorium where Geonosis was hosting their panel.
"Pardon me", Izuku walked up to the security and showed him his I.D badge. "This is Mei Hatsume she's a guest of mine", without further questions they let them both into the auditorium. Once there Izuku led Mei down to the stage. "Wait here", he told her. Izuku left the girl standing by the stage and went around behind the curtain. He never did come back instead five minutes later a woman in a suit walked out and gave her a spectator's I.D badge with her name on it.
"This way please" the woman then led Mei, to her surprise, a front row seat. The pink haired girl could barely contain her excitement. Not only did her new acquaintance Izuku Midoriya get her into the panel, but he somehow pulled some strings and got her a front row seat to the whole event.
"Please have a seat the presentation will begin in three minutes" a voice over the speakers announced. A few moments later everyone in the large theatre was quietly sitting and the lights dimmed out. The curtains opened revealing a big black metallic stage with several trap doors on the floor and one big door in the center. "Presenting for Geonosis Tech's new line of prototypes our rising star student Izuku Midoriya", The spot light landed on a podium where the teen stood looking not the least bit nervous. Mei's jaw dropped. He was also the heading the panel?
"Good afternoon and welcome", Izuku said into the microphone attached to his ear while a few camera's flashed. He was able to work up some proper courage by pretending that he was not speaking to a large crowd, but instead his new friend who he spotted in the front row.
"You should have combed his hair", behind the stage the company representative whispered to the makeup girl.
"I did, it's just naturally messy", she whispered back.
"I did have a whole boring opening speech prepared but let's just skip that and get to the stuff you want to see", Izuku smiled stuffing the notecards in his hands into the pocket of his suit. The podium then lowered into the floor as he walked to the left of the stage. "The first in our new lineup of capture weapons", one of the floor panels opened and what liked like a turret was raised out. "The Trap Foam Gun or T.F.G", Izuku announced while three autonomous mannequins appeared farther into the stage. The gun then sprayed a stream of blue sticky foam at the dummies covering them up to their necks in it. "As you can see the targets are rendered immobile via non lethal means, ready to be transported", the audience clapped, but they weren't that impressed just yet.
"Don't worry we're just getting started", Izuku promised the crowd. Next he unveiled a device he designed called the Mag-Net. A cannon that shot a barrage of metal balls, not at the mannequin, but around it. Once it passed the target a magnetized energy beam connected all the balls and they quickly closed around the target, locking its limbs down.
After that Izuku showed off more defensive and capture based devices. His portable shield generator, a gun that projects a small personal barrier and a new armor set for the police to wear that protected them from the effects of various quirks. He also showed them a fire fighting device designed to be worn like a back, then plug directly into the fire hydrants, pump water through the hose and launch it out the other end. Basically it was the power of a fire engine truck that a single person could use. All of Izuku's inventions were made for those who lacked quirks or lacked a suitable quirk for a situation.
"Now for the finale", Izuku announced. "Imagine all these wonderful devices in a single machine", Mei leaned forward in anticipation. "I'm talking about a robot. A big walking, moving Swiss army knife, containing all the best support and combat devices. A mechanical sidekick for heroes and police", as he spoke the largest floor panel opened up behind Izuku and the very robot he was talking about was elevated onto the stage where everyone could see it.
"This mechanized soldier was designed and built to combat a variety of different quirk users" the audience stared in awe at this marvel. A big bulky chrome robot, with a large chassis, heavy arms that were clearly loaded with capture weapons, and massive hydraulic legs. The thing stood nearly ten feet tall, its red eyes lighting up signaling activation. "Observe", Izuku stood safely off to the side as more automated mannequins emerged. The robot turned, made a noise similar to a watery growl and lifted its arms. From its right arm it fired the trap foam at the targets and from its right it launched the Mag-Net balls. The robot fired nets, tethers and every kind of captured device imaginable to incapacitate the mannequins.
"These robots are also designed for rescue missions as well", Izuku smiled as the robot launched a mechanical hose that attached to one of the hydrants on stage. Flaming targets then appeared on the back of the stage only for the robot to put them out with a blast of water. "Infra-red censors, motion detectors, long range scanners, and a complex problem solving digital brain built to assess the situation and make decisions in the effort of saving human lives"
"Ladies and gentlemen I give you the future of law enforcement and hero support", Izuku walked to the center stage with the mech standing behind him. "The Anti Villain Robot, Titan!" The now named Titan robot lifted its arm and saluted the crowd. The entire audience went into an uproar of applause, more than impressed by the company's latest and possibly greatest invention. Some like Mei Hatsume even gave a standing ovation.
"This version of the Titan is merely the prototype, but at Geonosis tech we are hoping to eventually build a compacter, better version in the future", Izuku proclaimed. "Now let's open up the panel to some questions", over half the theatre raised their hands. "Yes you", the teen pointed to a journalist who was handed a mic by the expo personnel.
"Geonosis has built robots in the past, what's the difference between them and this new model?"
"As you know those bots were created for training purposes", Izuku explained. "They were made to be broken and smashed by students with quirks. The Titan is designed to withstand great physical force, extreme temperatures, electricity and magnetism. Think of them as an automated hero that can be programmed", he pointed to another person in the audience who raised their hand.
"You say programmed, but what's stopping a villain with a computer or machine controlling quirk from turning it against a hero?" The woman asked.
"I'd like to see them try!" Izuku bragged making the crowd chuckle. "But seriously, we're one of the best support companies in the country, these robots will be completely un hackable when we're done", after a few more rounds of questions he spotted Mei Hatsume raising her hand in the front row, so he called on her next.
"Where did you get the idea for the Titan?" She asked. For a moment Izuku was surprised by her line of question.
"Um, this is a bit personal…" he looked back at the robot for a second. "You see I always wanted to be a hero. Unfortunately I was diagnosed as quirkless, and thus my dreams of being a hero were crushed at a young age, but I didn't give up", Izuku smirked triumphantly. "If I couldn't be a hero the next best thing would be making a hero. A hero that truly live up to his name and image", for a brief moment the smiling face of Allmight that he now despised flashed into his mind. "Who knows, maybe one day the Titans will replace heroes and the people of the future will look back and say that I Izuku Midoriya created real heroes", the audience applauded him for that, murmuring about how wonderful it was that a quirkless teenager found his place in the world. A few more questions later, a news reporter asked him to stand close to the robot to get a picture for an online article, and the panel was over.
"Thank you all for coming", Izuku waved awkwardly and stepped back as the curtains closed in front of him. Mei stood up to follow the crowd out, but stopped when she heard someone trying to get her attention.
"Psst!" Izuku poked his head out from behind the curtain and waved her over. "Come here", he whispered. Mei followed him only to gape when she saw the robot still there waiting. "Go ahead get a closer look", Izuku wasn't normally one to show off, but he just had this crazy impulse to let someone his own age who was also into his field examine his work. Mei began running around the Titan poking and prodding all the parts and pieces.
"How much weight can it lift?" She questioned while touching the gears and hydrolics.
"Well I designed it to support a building for about ten minutes, in case of a collapse it can stall for time until everyone evacuates", Izuku smiled at his creation.
"Were you serious when you said these things will replace heroes one day?"
"Of course, but only time will tell", he walked around the machine. "Unfortunately as powerful as I can make these things, it will still probably pale in comparison to heroes like Allmight. That's just something I'll have to accept"
"This Titan is far beyond what I make", Mei then went on to tell him all the devices she's created so far during her time in the U.A. support department.
'And I thought I talked too much', Izuku thought as he chuckled at the girls behavior.
"That's an impressive list of gadgets. I haven't made nearly that many", Izuku sighed looking at his robot. "Then again I prefer quality over quantity"
"I still can't believe how lucky you are", Mei whined. "You get accepted as an intern at one of the best manufacturing companies, a high level position in development and you even got to show for them during the expo"
"You act like you haven't got your moment in the sun yet", Izuku pointed out.
"It's just…I thought showing off my babies at the sports festival would be enough" She looked saddened by that.
"There's no such thing as failure, don't let a nonexistent concept keep you down" Izuku decided to be nice and keep her name in mind for the next internship. He wouldn't be able to stay with Geonosis forever at the end of the summer he'd go back to school and they'd pick someone else the next summer break. The boy would make sure to give the company her name along with his recommendation. Plus he wouldn't mind having her around when he reformed this hero society. An intelligent engineer like her would be useful to his future organization.
THE NEXT DAY
"Kurogiri?" Izuku asked. "What's wrong? You usually just text when Tomura needs me", he was surprised that the man actually called him this time.
"Tomura Shigaraki wishes to speak to you immediately, send me your location", the villain demanded leaving no room for argument. Izuku discreetly stepped into an alley. He was on his way back to his dorm room having just returned from day two of the expo. This time he didn't have to present anything and instead just mingled and went to other company panels. Then he got this sudden call from the league.
"Alright", Izuku was a bit uneasy about this whole thing, but he went ahead and gave his current location. A few moments later and a warp gate appeared on the wall of this filthy back alley. Izuku quietly stepped through. As soon as he came through the other end a pale hand gripped him by his shirt and pinned him to the wall.
"Ow", Izuku looked up to see Tomura's hand covered face baring down on him. "Hello Tomur-ack!" The villain grabbed him by the throat, keeping his middle finger extended so as not to disintegrate his throat yet.
"You want to explain this?" Shigaraki held up a phone with his other hand shoving it in the boy's face. The screen showed a news article that said 'Geonosis Tech Presents New Anti-Villain Robot', underneath was a picture of him from the panel with the Titan behind him.
"Oh the expo? I think it went pretty well", he got choked a bit harder for being cheeky. It was then that Izuku noticed a few new faces in the bar. A blonde school girl, a tall dark haired guy with burnt patches of skin sewn on to his face, someone dressed in an orange trench coat, black top hat and mask, and lastly a man dressed in a black and gray body suit.
"Answer the question brat!" Tomura snarled at him.
"You're really not seeing the bigger picture", Izuku sighed gripping the wrist of the hand that was strangling him. "Let me go and I'll explain everything" reluctantly Tomura released him after he turned his tie to dust out of spite. "Did the thought ever cross your mind that I might be working an angle with this company?"
"What are you talking about?" Shigaraki glared at him.
"I'm deep inside a company that makes hero support gadgets" Izuku smirked devilishly. "Think about it. Let's say a fight breaks out between heroes and villains. What if these heroes happen to be using my technology? But oh no, half way through the fight all that technology suddenly stops working or worse turns against them", Shigaraki remained silent as he digested the information. "Who would win then in that fight? The heroes or the villains?"
"I see" Shigaraki grinned with his cracked lips, finally understanding. "And here I thought you betrayed us" he said plopping down in his arm chair.
"You know Midoriya would never do such a thing" Kurogiri defended the kid, having grown to like his polite attitude and manners. "Not if he values his life"
'That was my favorite tie', Izuku thought as he wiped the dust from his shirt and suit.
"Taking down heroes with their own gadgets, so that's what you were up to in that lab of yours" Tomura sounded pleased to finally know what Izuku was secretly working on. Unfortunately he didn't realize it was still a misdirection. Only All for One knew what he was really building.
"That's so genius and so stupid!" Twice announced.
"Is he okay?" Izuku asked Tomura wondering if the new recruit had a personality disorder. He seemed weird and maybe a tad…comical. "Wait are you supposed to be Deadpool?"
"I am not possibly not Deadpool" Twice denied or maybe confirmed.
"Are these the new guys?" Izuku ignored him and walked around the bar.
"That fellow with the paradoxical personality is Twice", Kurogiri started introducing the new recruits.
"Hello and goodbye little man", Twice waved at him.
"Charmed", the green haired boy rolled his eyes. Another lunatic was just what they needed. "I'm Izuku", he froze when the orange covered man suddenly appeared in front of him tipping his hat.
"I'm surprised the League of Villains has a boy such as yourself in their midst", He said in a way that the other couldn't tell if he was being sincere or condescending.
"Lots of surprises today", Izuku spoke sarcastically. "And you are?"
"I am the fantastical villain known throughout the world as the great…Mr. Compress", he introduced with a rather flamboyant bow as if he was waiting for applause.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Izuku", he walked passed him, not really that impressed by the magician motif. The man scoffed in offense as the boy waved at him dismissively. Izuku's eyes landed on someone who looked interesting and he walked over to them until someone else got in the way.
"Hi!" The girl smiled getting in his face. "I'm Toga Himiko"
"That's nice", Izuku walked around her and sat at the stool next to the mysterious older villain
"Hello", Izuku said facing the patched up man who still wouldn't look at him. "I'm Izuku, but my associates call me Apotheosis"
"Dabi", the man introduced taking a sip of his drink still not looking at him.
"Cremation, that's a cool name", Izuku smiled trying to get his attention. His face looked familiar to him, like he'd seen the resemblance before on someone else, but he couldn't place it. Unknown to them Himiko didn't like being ignored so she went to stab him from behind. Izuku, sensing danger tilted his body on the stool, dodging her blade, grabbed her wrist, gripped the back of her head and slammed her face into the counter.
"You should really be more careful", Izuku said looking at the knife she tried to cut him with. While he was pinning her to the counter he noticed everyone was looking at him, even Dabi was glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. "What?"
"We've never seen you get physically violent before", Kurogiri said while reaching over and removing the knife from the girl's grip. "Tomura and I didn't think you knew how to fight"
"I didn't, but I picked up a few things from my time with Stain", now that made Dabi finally turn and look at him. Tomura and Kurogiri knew that he worked with Stain a few times, the former didn't like it but Sensei told him that Izuku's relationship with the Hero Killer could be good for the league, so he allowed it.
"You worked with Stain?" Dabi sounded mildly intrigued.
"A couple times. Are you a fan?" Izuku wondered if he could use his connection the Hero Killer to his advantage.
"You could say that", Dabi took a chance to really look at the boy. At first Izuku seemed like a plain looking kid with nothing special about him. Until he swiftly dodged and slammed Toga into the bar. He'd have to keep an eye on this one. He seemed interesting and maybe could tell him more about Stain.
"I like him", Himiko drooled while still being pressed face first into the counter by Izuku. This position was also starting to turn her on. Getting creeped out by her moaning and attempts to grind herself against him Izuku finally released her.
"Is this it or are there more recruits?" Izuku asked Kurogiri.
"The rest aren't here right now", the misty bar tender said as he fished a file from out of his warp gate. "These are the new recruits", he handed Izuku the folder containing the list of their new villains and what their quirks were.
"Looks like Tomura finally has the League of Villains he wanted", Izuku remarked looking through folder seeing if there were any quirks that could be useful to himself. Now if only that creepy blonde girl would stop making googly eyes at him so he could concentrate.
This was a fun chapter to write. Originally I wasn't going to have a role for Mei, but after watching her again in the sports festival I really wanted to do something with her. She's going to play a more important role in the second and third arc. I just wanted her and Izuku to meet and establish some form of relationship.
The Titan robots are loosely based on the Sentinels in X-men Days of Future Past. They won't be as OP as those things were, but the final version will be pretty strong. Izuku can't lead a revolution without foot soldiers now can he?
Freaking Dabi. At one time I thought Shoto was the hottest character in MHA. Then the series through Dabi at me and I thought 'Whoa! Who's this sexy hot topic looking bastard?' I kind of like the theory that he's the oldest Todoroki sibling. I might run with it in my story.
I know some have pointed out a few times that I spell Allmight as one word. I know it's supposed to be All Might. It's just a personal thing for me. I think because it's a super hero name it makes more sense in my head that it's all one word, but hey that's just me.
Thank you Star Wars fandom. I'm going with Raxus, because I liked the sound of that name the best.
Something I forgot to mention in the last note. I decided that there will be a mind stone. However it won't appear until the second arc. I reworked a few things in the next two arcs and I figured out how to fit it in without completely rewriting everything.
Thanks for reading.