Welcome to Chapter 5 of this story. In this chapter, an old promise is brought back to life and might just be what Izuku needs to further his path to becoming a hero. He'll have to use all his knowledge to build and prepare himself for the UA entrance exam if he wants a chance at getting into the hero course.
As always I don't own any rights to Marvel or MY HERO ACADEMIA or any of their characters.
With that let's begin.
As Izuku continued through middle school he continued to train and practice with pro heroes any chance he could. If he wasn't doing homework or working on a repair order for Hatsume Industries, Izuku was either lifting weights, doing cardio or taking a jog. And he was pleased with the result he was getting. The only breaks Izuku took were on Saturday and Sunday, and if he didn't have any work to do he was working on the design of what equipment he would use for UA's entrance exam.
Yet even with only six months left until the entrance exam and the last home stretch of middle school almost upon Izuku, he had nothing. Actually, he had a lot, several different inventions, many of them were his own version of support equipment used by other heroes, yet none of them felt right to Izuku. They all work and would be perfect, but there is an instinctual gut feeling that they weren't meant for Izuku to use.
It was a Saturday afternoon with the day soon becoming evening and Izuku was working in his bedroom. Long gone was his old computer and monitor upon an old desk, to better handle working at Hatsume Industries and support his own invention, Izuku had used his pay to upgrade to the best computer and monitor his money could buy along with a new wooden desk. Izuku was sitting in his chair looking at a repair order from Whiplash as the pro hero had yet again managed the whips within his whips. Izuku had tried several times to get Whiplash to agree to an upgrade, but everything the pro hero shot him down. Now as Izuku looked over the last order, he attempted to just do the upgrade and not tell Whiplash.
A knock from his door pulled Izuku from his thoughts. Izuku turned from his monitor and looked towards his door to find Inko standing in the doorway holding a box in her arms. Izuku pushed his chair back and fully turned to face Inko, "Hey Mom. What's in the box?"
Inko forced a smile as she worked into her son's room and sat down on his bed, placing the box next to her. Inko then looked down at the floor, then after a deep breath she looked up at her son, "Izuku, honey, what I'm about to say it might be hard for you. Your father has been dead for some time, since you were 11."
Inko waited for Izuku to react, but he was frozen, the only movement was a small burst of green electricity behind his eyes. Once the green lightning started Izuku said in a hollow breath, "Is that why you've been worried about paying the bills." Inko took a sharp breath, "I noticed you throwing them away one day, haven't missed you doing that since."
Inko's eyes began to tear up just as Izuku's eyes did. She began nodding quickly and said, "Your father paid for everything through his job. He took care of all the payments, but since he's died, I've been having to dive into our savings. And we're going to be running out soon. I've been looking for a job but nothing has come through."
Inko dropped her face in her hands and began to cry. Izuku was instantly by her side, hugging her, "I'm sure everything will work out. And thank you for telling me that my father is dead. He might have left us but…."
"Izuku, he didn't just leave us, he abandoned us. Left me to raise you by myself, making me stress everyday where he was. The only communication from him was the check to pay for everything, he abandoned us, you, all over your quirk." Inko said in a broken voice. All the feelings she had been hiding from her son were now coming out.
"Okay, he abandoned us. Left you to raise me, but you've done a good job at being the best mother in the world. We might have had a rough time, but look at the past few months, they've been good. Sure we might be low on money, but you're looking for a job and I'm sure someone out there will see how good a worker you are. Until then let me help with that, my pay isn't high for Hatsume Industries but I can help a bit." Izuku said as he felt his own eyes become watery so he hugged his mother more tightly.
"How did you become such a gentleman?" Inko asked.
"I was raised by a good woman that beat it into my genes." Izuku said with a small chuckle that Inko joined him in through her tears.
Then for a few minutes, mother and son embraced each other, reflecting on all the trails they had been through. All the times they had been there for each and the times they hadn't. Times when they should have grown closer together, but ended up further apart. For those few minutes, mother and son enjoyed embracing each other.
Then Izuku's attention returned to the box that his mother had brought in, "What's in the box?"
Inko wiped the tears from her eyes and cleared her throat as she grabbed the box. "You remember that textbook I gave you?" -Izuku nodded as he pointed to the textbook resting on his nightstand, "Well it wasn't the only thing your father left you."
Inko set the box on her lap and pulled the lid off of it. Izuku stood up to look inside the box. He saw there were journals and rolled-up blueprints. Izuku remembered the promise his father had given him when he was a kid. Did the blueprints play any part in that? Izuku grabbed one of the blueprints and however, sliding off the rubber bands, Izuku began to unroll the blueprint. It was soon too big to fit in Izuku's hands, so he laid it on the ground and used his shoes and hands to keep the blueprint from rolling back up.
With the blueprint fully on display, Izuku looked it over. It was extremely detailed and Izuku recognized his father's handwriting from his textbook. Even the notes would have been written years apart; they all looked the same. It was easy to see what the blueprint was of, "It's an exoskeleton." Izuku then thought about what the purpose of it was, "To give me super strength to make me move at high speeds."
Izuku tilted his head as his eyes landed on a note that was written next to the hands of the exoskeleton, "Hey Mom can you hand me the other blueprint from the box."
As Inko pulled out the other blueprint, Izuku grabbed the textbook from his nightstand to hold the first blueprint. Izuku stood up and Inko handed him the second blueprint. After undoing the rubberband Izuku unrolled the blueprint and read the title of the blueprint, "Repulsor technology Mark 1. Designed to give flight to those that can't on their own." -Izuku moved the second blueprint to the side and looked down at the one on the floor- "Put them together and you have an exoskeleton that can fly." -Izuku looked over the larger blueprint and his eyes fell on some writing along the line, "Though I may not be able to directly support my son. I believe I can find the knowledge to build a device that can help my son be the hero he always wanted to be."
"One of the last phone call I got from your father, he told me it was close to finish it. Finishing the exoskeleton and was going to start working on a device that could use your quirk to power it. But he never built one, he could never solve the riddle of your quirk." Inko said.
Izuku looked over the larger blueprint and noticed there wasn't a power source, "But." Izuku then dropped the smaller blueprint and shoved his hand down his shirt. He grabbed the arc reactor and pulled it off of his chest. Izuku quickly put the arc reactor in the chest area of the exoskeleton, he then stood up and looked it over. The slow glow of the arc reactor sat perfectly in the middle of the exoskeleton as if it was always meant to power it, "That riddle was solved by the Hatsumes."
"I didn't think your father's blueprints would be of much use to you, but then the Hatsumes showed us their arc reactor. And after how well it works…. I've known you've always wanted to be a hero and I know I can't give you the tools to be one, but I give you these. With what you've learned from the Hatsumes, I believe your father's invention will work and you can become a hero."
Inko started to cry and Izuku comforted her, but soon his own waterworks broke and he began to cry. Again emotion ran high as Izuku and Inko made a silent promise to themselves to always be there for the other. They continued to hug and cry until Inko said it was time to retire to bed. After brushing his teeth and getting ready, Izuku sat down on his bed and looked at the blueprints again. They were extremely precise, leaving no room to make minor adjustments. Obviously, his father had spent a long time revising these blueprints to get the best design.
Izuku began to smile as he continued to look over the blueprint. Getting a sense of how hard his father had worked to design these, Izuku quickly stood up and scooped the blueprints off the ground. They didn't deserve to be on the ground, Izuku looked all over his room but with all his All Might posters, he didn't have any room to have the blueprints up.
"Sorry, All Might," Izuku said, as he quickly but carefully began to pull out the thumbtack. After rolling up the poster and slipping it into his closet, Izuku hung up the two blueprints. After making sure they were secure on the wall, Izuku took a step back.
Now being about to take in the complexity of the design from a distance, Izuku knew he was going to need some help. And he knew a girl that would be willing to give some. Izuku grabbed his phone from his nightstand and called Mei. She immediately picked up, "No, I didn't almost blow up my shop again."
Izuku grinned as he seemed to have a sixth sense for whenever Mei blew something up, "No, I'm not calling because I felt something. No I was wondering, mind clocking in some overtime helping me on a project."
"What do you have?" Mei asked. Izuku could hear the excitement in her voice as Izuku was finally letting her help on one of his personal projects. Though it would have to wait until the weekend was over.
Monday after school Izuku headed to Hatsume Industries and was not surprised to find Mei waiting for him. Izuku walked over to the metal table set his backpack on the ground and then pulled out the blueprints. "Something my father left me," Izuku said as he unrolled the blueprints on the tables and used magnets to hold them open.
Mei moved around the table and began looking them over. Izuku immorality, noticed Mie's eyes zooming around, in and out, absorbing all the details of the blueprints. After a whole minute Mei let out a breath and said, "You said your father designed these." -Izuku nodded- "Midoriya this isn't just something new. This is ground breaking and using your quirk as the power source, we might just get them to work."
"Think we're up to the challenge?" Izuku asked.
Mei looked the blueprints over again and then looked at Izuku, "Only one way to find out."
With that Izuku and Mei set out building Hisashi's designs. They decided to first tackle the gauntlets as Izuku pointed out they would be best to have for the entrance exam, whatever it entailed. It was slow going in the beginning, turning the blueprints into 3-D models and having the pieces cut out. Yet once all the metal pieces were cut out, Izuku began wielding them together, while Mei began working on the wiring.
Once the wireframe of the gauntlets was all together and wired, the two of them ran into a bit of a roadblock. Hisashi's design of the repulsor that sat in the palm of the hand didn't work. It took a bit to find the focus point of the repulsors was the issue as they would either burn out, or just explode entirely, but Izuku and Mei kept at it. Testing every little change they could think of, starting up late to do so. Until four months before UA's entrance exam, they hit a breakthrough and got everything working.
With everything seemingly now working, Izuku began video recording all the different tests.
Hatsume Industries Data Base accessed.
Izuku Midoriya personal drive accessed.
Password:***********
Video 1 Accessed
"Please press enter."
*click*
"Today is Monday, October 9th 2034. The time is 3:45 in the afternoon." Izuku said as he walked into the frame, checking his phone. He slid his phone into his pocket as he turned to face the camera. He was wearing his arc reactor which had several wires traveling down his arms to a pair of wireframe gauntlets. In the palm of each gauntlet was a glowing disc. Mei's parents had been kind enough to clean and give him the third floor of Hatsume's Industries for testing, "Today is test number one of the Repulsor gauntlets Mark 1. The objective of the day is to see whether these things actually work or not. On camera, we have Dummy and on fire safety, Mei Hatsume."
The camera swung slightly to show Mei holding a fire extinguisher, then moved back to Izuku, "I'll be starting halfway back from the center." -Izuku moved into position. He double-checked everything was connected, then flexed his finger. The arc reactor glowed for a bit, and then the repulsors hummed a bit causing Izuku to smile, "Alright we'll start with low power. 10% and see how that feels. I have stationary targets at 5 yards, 10 yards and 20 yards.'
The camera switches views to show the targets, red plates that were hanging from the ceiling from metal wires. After the last target was shown, the camera switched back to Izuku.
"I think you forgot to credit another inventor." Mei said as she crossed her arm. She might not be the most social person, but something she held close to her chest was giving the credit owed to people when they helped with a project.
"Oh yes. The designs were made by Hisashi Sutaku and built by myself and Mei Hatsume." Izuku said as he rolled his shoulders and loosened up his body, to get ready for anything that could happen. This was new technology and while Izuku had an idea of what they were to do, anything could happen, " Alright remember, half mark from the back with 10% power. In 3…2…1."
Izuku lifted both his hands and extended his fingers. He took a deep breath, then flexed his fingers. The arc reactor pulsed green and green electricity travelled down the loose wires to the repulsors. Both hummed for a bit before both fired out an energy blast. Izuku tried to hold his ground, but the force behind the blast sent him flying back across the room. Izuku backflipped across the floor until his back hit the wall. He stayed attached to the wall for a bit but then he groaned as he fell to the ground.
Mei Hatsume ran over and started to spray Izuku with the fire extinguisher. Izuku waved his hands, yelling, "I'm not on fire. I'm not on fire." Though the cold was distracting him from the pain that coursed through his entire body.
Mei released the trigger and Izuku stayed hidden behind a white cloud. Until the white cloud disappeared and Izuku slowly got to his feet, his back popping as he straightened his back. He brushed the white foam off of himself as he started to shiver, "Alright I think for the next test we should stay at 1%."
Video 1 Ended
After the success of the test, Izuku took a few days to rest up and heal from his landing but then he and Mei drove back to working on the gauntlets. And now they knew the design worked, they wanted to perfect them. Late nights and all-nighters became more common but were quickly cut off when their parents noticed how worn out they were during the day. Worried about their son and daughter's health, Inko along with Mr and Mrs Hatsume sat the two of them down and set some ground rules.
Izuku and Mei begrudgingly accepted the rules and knowing how strict their parents could be, made no attempts to bend the rules and see what they could get away with.
Hatsume Industries Data Base accessed.
Izuku Midoriya personal drive accessed.
Password:***********
Video 24 Accessed
"Please press enter."
*click*
"Today is Friday, January 5th 2035. So this is the first video of the new year, so Happy New Year. The current time is 5:31 and after a short break to celebrate the new year, Hatsume and I have worked tirelessly to improve my gauntlets. Today we will be testing Repulsor mark 5 and this test #3. After furthering testing we found some minor flaws in our improved design in the area of power conversion and distribution. We discovered that during sustained usage, the couplings began to weaken and overheat, resulting in reduced overall power and what power does get through it is lost almost immediately to heat. Meaning we have redesigned the whole repulsor base. As always on Camera we have Dummy and for a lack of a better replacement Mei Hatsume is still on fire safety."
Izuku walked into the frame, he was wearing a simple white t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Both were covered in grease stains and his hair was unkempt and messy. It hung down in front of his face and he had to brush it out of his eyes. He had a few circles under his eyes, showing a bit of exhaustion. As with every video he had his gauntlets on and they were primed to be ready.
Mei huffed off-screen, "At the end of every test, you have blasted me with CO2. Which I always remind you and you always seem to forget is -73 degrees Celsuis. It's cold." Izuku explained as he turned to look at Mei. te then turned to look directly at the camera, "And let it be on the record, that if you douse me again and I'm not on fire, I'm going to Mei Hastume's house and destroying all of her inventions."
"No, don't hurt my babies." Mei winced off-screen. Izuku saw that she was crossing her arms and pouting. To her, her inventions were her kids, something that Izuku didn't see and would have no problem breaking her toys, especially if it got the point across.
"Don't douse me when I'm not on fire and we won't have an issue." Izuku said then moved into position, "As always I'll be starting a half mark back from the center. We'll start with 1% power then move up to 2% power." Izuku walked into position and then connected the arc reactor to the repulsor. They slowly hummed to life, "In 3…2…1" Izuku raised his right hand and fired off a shot and the energy blast shattered the glass plan in front of Izuku. Izuku then spun around on his feet as he lifted his left hand and aimed it at another plane of glass. With a thought Izuku's left gauntlets unleashed an energy blast and shattered the glass plane, "Moving up to 2%." Izuku turned to his left and held up both hands. Even between 1% and 2%, the power increase was obvious as Izuku was nearly caught off balance but managed to hold his ground though his shoe squeaked a bit as he pushed back.
Then to finish it off a glass plane was lowered between Izuku and the camera. Izuku turned and unleashed an attack from his right arm. The energy blast rocketed through the air and connected with the glass plane only a meter from the camera. As the glass hit the floor, Izuku stood in the middle, his hand by his side as he let out a breath he didn't know he had.
Years of studying and months of building all come to this, Izuku had built his father's design and they worked. "YES!" Izuku cheered as he lifted both hands into the air as if he wanted a double high-5. In his excitement, Izuku flexed his finger and his gauntlets went off.
Izuku had to take several steps back to stay on his feet. As soon as he regained his balance, he suddenly turned around and pointed a repulsor off-screen. "Ah, ah ah. No" The camera moved slightly to show Mei creeping forward, an extinguisher in her hands, with the pin pulled and her hand ready to pull the trigger, "You want me to destroy your babies."
"No." Mei lowered the nozzle.
"Good choice." Izuku lowered his hand. He looked around at the destroyed glass and realized each of them had been four inches thick. His attacks had broken them apart as if they were thin. Izuku looked down at his hand, just how powerful the repulsor was. Izuku was pulled from his thoughts as Mei suddenly rushed forward. The nuzzle of of the fire extinguisher raised and Mei pulled the trigger.
Izuku quickly raised his right and fired at the cloud of CO2 rushing towards him. The attack met in the middle and then as if a smoke bomb went off the room was filled with freezing-cold CO2.
Izuku coughed a bit and waved his hand in front of his face. He looked around but couldn't spot Mei, "Your babies are dead, Mei Hatsume. You hear me, dead! Then I'm coming after you!"
Then the fire extinguisher suddenly rolled into view. Izuku instantly aimed his gauntlets at it, but then he hit the elevator's open door. Mei was trying to escape, Izuku wasn't going to let that happen. He took off towards the noise, but he knew he wasn't going to make it in time. So Izuku held his hand behind him and just as his old childhood friend, Izuku unleashed a burst from his hand that rocketed him forward.
"You're dead Meti Hatsume! Run all you want, but I know where you live!" Izuku yelled.
Video 2 end.
Log Off?
*click*
And there's chapter 5.
After having a heart to heart with his mother Izuku receives Hiashi's blueprint to the repulsor technology. Then he enlists the help from Mei Hatsume to build the prototypes then build the marks afterwards. They work through the issues that come up and Izuku overcome different challenges to do so, and I don't mean just the over heating.
Going into the building of the prototypes, I wanted to try and get the same feeling as Tony Stark building Mark 2, so I wrote them as if someone was watching the records Izuku made.
Next chapter we get to see the fruits of Izuku's hard work. He takes the entrance exam to get into the Hero course at UA High School. Will his father's design be enough?
Next Time: Hit or Miss
Review and tell me what you think.