It had been half a week since Anissa had come to Earth, in that time the physical damage she had incurred had been repaired fully, being nowhere near the scale which Nolan's sudden turn had inflicted it wasn't that surprising. However the fallout from her sudden arrival had made the entire world stand on edge, her sudden arrival with no warning on indication had put a lot of pressure on the Safety Commissions of various states, alongside the Global Defense Agency. Mako, at the behest of Cecil, had gotten in touch with Zack and asked how she had managed to get past the Galdraian monitoring station they had left for him in orbit around the planet.

"So here's the thing." Zack said as he leaned over the console which controlled the small station that he and Mako were standing inside of. "She wasn't picked up by any scanners either here or by any of Earth's." he explained as he turned around in his chair to face Mako. The other U.A. student's face was dropped in disappointment, "As far as I can tell she must have had some sort of jamming device that made her not show up. Maybe something that made the instruments detect something that wasn't in her shape? Could be they thought she was a meteorite or something.

Mako shook his head, "Is there some way to fix it? I mean the GDA scanned her with every instrument they could once they found out she was here." he asked.

Zack crossed his arms and shrugged, "I'll try but I can't make any garuntees. Viltimites take technology they find useful from worlds they've conquered. It's how they armed the Kresh. But we never encountered anything to jam our sensors. Usually you would need to have something with a massive amount of gravity to hide from them." He explained.

Mako bit the inside of his lip, the thought of another Viltrumitd dropping by Earth unannounced didn't sit well with him at all. His father's books mentioned a couple weaknesses that the viltrumites had, but nothing about the technology they employed. So no insight could be gleaned from those, "Well hopefully next time one shows up I'll be ready."

Zack frowned, "Man I'm so sorry I didn't get the alert. If I had known, I'd have come to help you in a shot." He told the young hero.

Mako shook his head as he raised a hand, "It's fine Zack." he assured him before grimacing. "To be honest I don't think things would have been any different if you did show up." she admitted. His friends' injuries hadn't been serious, but that didn't mean they weren't painful. Everyone had been healed by this point but had also been advised to not do any training until Recovery Girl could inspect them.

Zack sighed from his chair, turning around he looked out the window to the earth below them. "I heard that the United States are going to look into arming the space station on the moon. But there's a bunch of old agreements that would violate." He commented.

Major nodded grimly, Anissa may not have caused any lasting damage but her appearance on Earth had left a shockwave. The conversations started when his father had been revealed had reignited with a passion, "I heard. Cecil wants me to hold a press conference today actually, try and help reassure people that things are going to be ok." he explained.

Zack's mouth frowned at the information, "I had to do something like that when I came back home. It was more of a interview though. I was super nervous." he admitted before letting out a chuckle. "God I fought in an alien war but I get nervous over a interview." he said shaking his head.

Mako smirked, "Glad to know I'm not the only one." he replied. While he was nervous about the press event, given what he's gone through in the last month or so it really didn't seem too bad. And Midnight has been giving him lessons on public speaking at UA the last few days. So he was moderately prepared at least. "Speaking of which I better go." He said, noticing the time on his phone.

Giving Zack a fist bump and a farewell, he exited the Geldarian station through the airlock and flew back down to earth. As soon as he reached the atmosphere his phone's messages began chirping from the group chat.

Melissa: Hey I tried calling but I remembered you told me you were heading into space. Wanted to wish you luck!

Deku: Good luck Mako!

Iida: Indeed, just remember you're not only representing yourself, but all of us here at U.A! So please be on your best behavior when representing all of us at this press conference. As well, please keep in mind that posture is very important and you should try standing with your back a firm 90 degrees.

Invincible: Thanks. No pressure. I said with complete sarcasm.

Btw, how is everyone?

Red Riot: I'm good. Still got a boot print on my chest. But I'm good! ? ﾟﾒﾪ

Creati: I'm just sorry I couldn't do more when the moment called for it.

Shoto: It's nothing to be ashamed of. From how you all described it, there wasn't time to think.

Invincible: He's right, none of you guys could have known she was going to show up when she did.

Grape Rush: You know I was so terrified when she showed up but looking back at the video of her…would.

Invincible: You would literally get turned into grape jelly. Then again I didn't fair much better.

Melissa: dummy, you did everything you could.

Pinkie: I'm with you girl. You did everything you could Mako.

Tsukoyomi: Indeed. Take your own endorsement Mako. You did everything within your current ability.

Dark Shadow says don't worry about it.

Invincible: no I didn't. I could have tried to talk to her up in the sky but I didn't want to risk causing a scene.

Uravity: But even if you did then nothing would have changed. No one got hurt.

Invincible: You guys might not have gotten hurt.

Shoto: But you get hurt all the time. How is that fair?

Deku: …

Uravity:…

Melissa:…

Red Riot:…

Earphone Jack: I mean he's not wrong.

Also hi. Sorry I was napping.

Pinkie: Yo Jiro!

Invincible: first off I don't get hurt all the time.

Melissa: I meannnn….

Invincible: Hey!

Melissa: Baby I adore you. But half the time you bring me a suit to repair it's got a lot of your blood on it.

Like a concerning amount.

I'm surprised your not paler actually.

Pinkie: Do vilitimites have more blood than humans?

Invincible: No….i don't think so. But second off, I'm the one who has a chance against her right now…uh. No offense.

Deku: As soon as I'm cleared I'm going back to training.

Uravity: btw I wanted to ask how you got so strong Deku?! You were up at what? 10 percent now?

Deku: Yeah, I've been doing some extra training but I still couldn't do anything to her.

It's frustrating.

Pinkie: I still can't believe she was so casual about enslaving the human race.

Creati: Indeed, she was trying to use honey coated words to try and win Mako over to her side. You were smart to disregard them.

Chargebolt: Look, I hate to play devil's advocate here, but is it weird that I think she made some sense about stuff?

Like she pointed out that one store and…look it's messed up how we have people like that still when we have a bunch of superheroes running around right?

Earphone Jack: That's how losers on the internet win arguments, they find a point you can't argu against and build up from there. It makes it seems like they're right when really it's just Bullshit.

Iida: While I don't agree with the use of language, I agree with Jiro's sentiment.

Tentacole: Indeed, and Kaminari it's not that your wrong for thinking such things, it is wrong that sort of thing goes on. It sucks. But the answer isn't surrending free will so it's not our problem.

Chargebolt: Right. Yeah.

And sorry man, that does suck.

Tentacole: NBD.

Deku: And even then it's not like we can force people to change their minds. I hate that there's problems like that in the world, and we can't just fight those problems like we do with regular villains.

We fight those by example, we inspire others to be better by being our best selves. That's how we fight against those problems.

Iida:...

Uravity:...

Creati:...

Earphone Jack:...

Melissa: Wow…didn't know Deku had it in him! You go Deku!

Red Riot:...damn dude that was super manly!

Invincible: You want to do this press conference instead? I can swing by and pick you up.

Deku: Noijustmeantthatweneedtotryourbestasheroes!

ICST: Oh? Midoriya has pushed his limits once again I see.

Deku: …

Invincible: …

Melissa: Um….who that?

Creati: Aoyama, there's a character limit on user names and 'I Can't Stop Twinkling' can't be put in.

Melissa: Ok but…..abbreviated that looks like….

Creati: ?

Grape Rush: …..I would tell you but I don't want to be banned again.

Creati: ADSUTJTOFFEH

[Creati has changed ICST to Twinkle]

Froppy: Much better.

And Mako

Don't let what Anissa said get to you. Earth isn't perfect, but nothing is. Doesn't mean it should be forced to change.

Don't worry about the interview, I'm sure you'll do fine.

Invincible: Thanks. I'm approaching the Pentagon now, I gotta go, see you guys when I see ya!

Melissa: ?

Invincible: ?

Pinkie: I need to go to the dentist because this is too sweet.

Mako rolled his eyes before pocketing his phone and going down towards the pentagon's center, like the name implied there was a small open space in the middle which Cecil told him to meet Donlad at. Landing on the grass, he saw Donald waiting for him by the door to the building, "Hey Donald, how's it going?" he asked politely as he approached Cecil's right hand man.

The bespectacled man walked over and held the door open for him, "Good, all things considered, the press arrived here a few hours ago and our spokesperson is briefing them on details that we're releasing to the public." he explained as he led the young hero through the building.

Mako pursed his lips together, "So we never really talked about what I shouldn't bring up…" he trailed off.

The agent thought for a moment before answering, "Well try not to mention the situation with your father, brother, and the Tharaxans. However most likely they don't know about any of that and will be focused more on what Anissa was doing here." He explained as he slowed to a stop to talk. "They'll probably ask what she wanted, you can be honest about that but be careful with how you respond. Language is important."

Mako nodded, "So avoid that line of questioning altogether. Got it. Oh! And it's not really important but we decided on a name for him, Osuke." he informed.

Donald nodded, "Right, of course. Toga informed us of that. Sorry, slipped my mind." he admitted, rubbing his forehead. It had been a busy day getting this organized so quickly under Cecil's directive.

"Ok yeah. Speaking of Toga…..she works for you guys?" he asked curiously. His first thought was that Toga seemed a little young to be doing something like that, but given how she was actually two years older than him and he was going on missions for Cecil he shouldn't be surprised. "I mean I ran into her a while back, stopping some guys from harassing her."

Donald snorted, "What?" Mako asked.

"Well to answer your first question, Toga's another one of Cecil's agents, it's not really my place to say anything so you'll have to ask her about it. But suffice to say she's one of our most capable operatives." he informed Mako as he continued his stride towards the press hall. "We recruited her out of high school, she was in a situation that….well it's not my place to say. But we saw her talent and invested in it. But we want her on a low risk assignment for the time being." He explained.

Mako felt a flicker of suspicion, "Why's that?" He asked.

Donald sighed, "She can….enjoy her work a little too much at times. But rest assured, your family is safe with her around Mako." Donald informed him.

Mako however now had even more questions.

It was a ten minute walk through fairly bland and indistinguishable hallways before the two entered a smaller room where a number of monitors were set up with people working on a large control panel. And to his surprise, Rex and Amanda were there as well, Rex looking at a number of screens that were connected to various social media feeds and Amanda standing beside him with her arms crossed amusingly. "Hey guys, what brings you here?" Mako asked as he approached them.

Amanda turned and smiled at him, "Hey Mako, Rex wanted to try and get a better understanding of social media and I came along to watch." she said with a smirk as she tilted her head to her boyfriend. Mako followed her gaze and saw him looking at the screens with visible confusion on his face.

"Hello Mako, and yes I think it would be fruitful for me to study social media to have a better understanding of how modern communication functions…..though some of these terms don't make much sense to me." he admitted as he looked over a number of tweets about the briefing.

Invincible rubbed the back of his head, "I stay off social media since my dad turned on us. Figure that it's best to give people a direct line to send me death threats." He said lightly.

Also ever since that 'Think Mako, Think!' Meme came out from the beating his father gave him became a thing? His enjoyment of social media had nose dived.

Amanda shook her head, "Relax. We've all done this before, just go out there, take some questions and answer honestly. If they ask something you're not comfortable with? Just deflect." Amanda advised.

Mako nodded, his lessons with Midnight jumping to his mind. With how soon the conference would be they sort of had to truncate a whole part of their future classes into a few sessions. Personally he was just glad Midnight had been the one to teach him since Aizawa seemed…..the worst possible choice. All Might had been another option but he had been busy with Aizawa setting up a sort of exercise for some of his classmates before school let out for the summer. Apparently it had something to do with investigations but if he was being honest, All Might didn't strike him as the type of hero to do that.

Then again he wasn't exactly Sherlock Holmes.

The door to the stage opened and one of the aids gestured to Invincible. The young hero took a deep breath, Rex and Amanda both giving him a thumbs up before he walked after the aid and out to the podium, "Now then, Invincible himself will answer some questions from the press pool." the man said before stepping off to the side and standing next to the sign language interpreter who would translate what Mako said.

Stepping up to the mic, Invincible cleared his throat, "G-Good afternoon everyone." he said, briefly stuttering before composing himself. "I'll try and get to as many questions that I can in the time we have. So please keep them concise and to the point." he asked politely. A number of hands rose up all at once, he pointed at one randomly, not really sure himself which one he was directly pointing at but the man who stood up seemed to think it was him.

"Ryan David, Channel 4 News America, we've noticed that your overall activity as a hero has been somewhat irregular in comparison to pros, can you explain that?" he asked.

Invincible nodded, "Sure thing, my arrangement with the Global Defense Agency doesn't follow the typical Pro Hero model. I'm alerted to situations that are ongoing, or I'm deployed somewhere where my help might be needed. So I don't have a patrol or schedule like other pro heroes." he explained as succinctly as he could. As soon as he finished speaking, a few more hands rose up, "How about you?" he asked as he pointed at a woman.

She stood up, "Chai Muraki, England News Network. We were just informed that the woman you fought three days ago was a Viltrumite, the same species of alien as you and your father, what was her goal here?" she asked directly.

Invincible nodded, "I can confirm that, yes. She was an agent of the Viltrumite Empire, she told me that she was here to see what progress had been made on conquering the planet. When I told her that I wasn't going to be taking any action, she attacked me to try and get me to submit to her rule." he informed.

Another hand shot up which he called on, " Reed Standish, Tribune, this is the second Viltrumite to come from space, and so soon after Omni Man's departure. Is it possible that he's rejoined the empire and is leading the invasion of Earth?" he asked.

It did raise a good question in Mako's mind, if his father had somehow avoided execution, could he have rejoined the Empire? Invincible shook his head, "I don't believe so, if that were the case I think that my father would have been the one to come to Earth, not her." he responded as best he could.

Another hand rose up, this one a woman with a stern expression "Rebecca Walters, QBC, What are you personally doing to prepare for another Viltrumite incursion?" she asked quickly.

Mako could hear the accusation in the woman's voice, "I'm training myself daily to get stronger, I can't exactly give a time table on that progress though, not all Viltrumites are the same level of strength, compared to my father for example I still have a ways to go but I've definitely gotten stronger." he said, keeping exactly HOW he knew that fact to himself.

She gave him an unimpressed look, "And how would you know that? You lost the fights with both your father and this Viltrumite woman." she retorted plainly.

Mako tried his best to not make his irritation visible, his mask helped with that as it didn't show how his brows creased at the remark. "My top speed has been rising at a steady rate over the past few months, and the machinery I use to exercise my strength has shown that I'm improving as well." he answered briefly before adding, "But I do understand, I couldn't physically stop the last Viltrumite I faced, and saying that I'm doing the best I can isn't enough. I'm going to get better." he said with a sure tone.

That didn't seem to completely satisfy the woman, but with no other way to further her questioning she sat down. Another hand rose up, this one blue, which Mako called on, "Chitose Kizuki, Shoowaysha Publishing. Invincible, you're one of the only heroes in the world who is able to act as a pro hero without a provisional or pro license. Is that true?" the blue skinned and purple haired woman asked.

Mako blinked, this certainly wasn't where he expected the conversation to go, however he couldn't see the harm in answering. "Yes, I am."

On the other side of the door which Mako had entered from, Donald looked at the screen showing Chitose with a tilted head, that was the same woman who had been reaching out to get an interview with Mako through the GDA. They had run a background check on her since it was standard procedure for press events and didn't find anything out of the ordinary, but the strange thing was that she wanted to talk to Invincible. That fact itself wasn't odd, when he first came onto the scene as a public hero, they had gotten many asks for an interview. However she was someone who consistently requested them, Cecil denied them on account of not wanting to put Mako into the limelight so soon after his father's heel turn.

But now she had her chance to ask questions, and that was the first one she starts with?

"And by being granted this access, you've been able to respond to a number of emergency situations over the past few months. The Lizard League's attack, the Hero Killer arrest and rescue attempt, and not to mention the Kresh Invasion." she listed off.

It felt odd hearing his accomplishments listed out like that, and that wasn't even all the times he had been sent out on a mission, just the most public ones. "I'm sorry? I don't understand the question." he asked.

"Do you think that those events would have been successful without your involvement?" she asked more easily.

Mako nodded, "Well yeah. I mean I'm glad that I was able to help but I'm not the only superhero. If I wasn't there then another hero, or even the Guardians of the Globe, would have been deployed instead. And that's not even considering the heroes already at some of those incidents." he replied. As he was about to move onto someone else however she raised her hand once again.

"Last question, if you may? Do you think that if more people were given that access, being able to use their quirks freely, then we would all be better off for it?" she asked.

Mako tilted his head at the question, this woman was throwing out some curveballs that he didn't really expect. And more surprising they weren't ones that he really needed to be careful with. "If you mean that people should try and help others? Then yes. I think that's something we should all try and do. But if you mean to use your quirk to help others then I think it depends a lot on the situation they find themselves in." he answered diplomatically.

Chitose finally sat down, a satisfied smile on her face as she went about writing down his responses on a piece of paper. Another hand rose up, "John Rolland, Redline News, Invincible, do you believe your actions as a hero are in some way atonement for what your father, Omni-Man, has done?" he asked.

The room seemed to fall into a silence at the question, Invincible steeled himself, this was the question he was more or less expecting. "My father…..I'm well aware of the horrific actions he's responsible for. And I tried my best to stop what he had planned for Earth…..the events of that day are something that is always on my mind." he admitted. "It's not something I'll ever forget, and I suppose it does guide my actions to a certain extent." he admitted as well.

"But I do what I do, not as an apology to the human race, or to try and erase what he did. I help people because I want to, because I believe that's the right thing for me to do. I'm only trying to do what's right." he answered.

The next few questions he answered were easy by comparison, asking for some details about the Viltrumites that he might know but honestly couldn't. When he dismissed himself the room seemed at the very least more placated than when he first entered. Closing the door behind him, he leaned against it and let out a long breath, "Huuuggggghhhhh that was way worse than I thought it was gonna be." he said all in one breath as he exhaled.

Having to put up a front like that for so long wasn't something that he was used to, and with some of the questions being aggressive towards him it felt like he was constantly under pressure.

Amanda bumped his shoulder, "You did great." Amanda said encouragingly.

Rex nodded, "I agree, the answers you gave weren't alarmist and from what I can gather most social medias are positive about what you said. There's obviously some….haters?" he asked, Monster Girl nodded, "Haters online who think you're fabricating all of it, but without any motive their arguments fall flat." he said before frowning. "Do people just make false claims on the internet?"

"Yeah hon, they do." Amanda replied.

"Oh…that's awful." Rex added distastefully as he looked at the feeds.

Invincible pulled his mask off and rubbed his brow, "Well it's over and done with at least. So until the next crisis-" he began.

"Actually about that." Donald said as he approached the trio.

Rex and Amanda gave mako a 'are you happy' expression, "...you know what, can't even be mad at that. That's my bad."

I-Island wasn't the fist place he expected to be sent to, however as soon as it left Donald's mouth he was ready to fly through the roof until he mentioned that no one was in danger yet and the security bots are holding off the intruders…however, the intruders were what the concerning part was. "I'm sorry, run this by me again. Mer-people?"

'No, they are not Mer-People. These are people who have aquatic based quirks who are developing a underwater settlement. It's a I-Island project to help solve population concerns.' Cecil explained as Mako rocketed through the sky over the Pacific ocean. 'The idea is that we make cities running entirely off of hydro-electricity and deep sea magma. Cuts down on carbon emissions and also gives us a whole new world to populate.' Cecil said to him.

Mako felt like this was the plot of some movie so far but he understood, "Let me guess, something went wrong?"

'This project has been going on for the last two decades, during that time people have settled down there, had families of their own. Kids grow up, one of them is assaulting I-Island right now, wanting humans to stay out of the ocean all together. Last month he was responsible for sinking a cruise liner in the South Atlantic.' Cecil explained as I-Island came into view, Invincible dove down towards the water only to angle himself at the last moment and skim along the surface, the water dipping beneath him from the cutting air pressure of his speed.

"Got it, find the guy, kick his ass back to Atlantis, and save the day." he surmised.

'More preferably a holding cell here, but yeah. That's the plan kid. We got teams on standby for containment. Call us once he's down.' Ceceil told him as Invincible scanned the area for where the infiltration was occurring at. When he spotted something fall into the water, he looked up and saw one of the pillars which the Island was supported on had a hole in the side of it that had been torn open.

As soon as he flew through the hole however, a barrel smashed into his head, the impact didn't so much hurt him as it made him falter to a stop. "Hey! Watch it!" he called out.

"Sorry!" Mako blinked at the metallic voice as he took in the sight before him.

There were two figures here, both of them large in scale, one of them was obviously the villain Cecil had told him of since he was a hulking man who looked half man and half octopus, his arms ending with a bundle of tentacles which wiggled in the air. His massive, bulky body was humanoid for everything else except his head which looked like a octopus's body, only with a mouth and pair of red Cephalopod eyes glaring at him.

The other person was…..maybe not even a person considering their entire body was made of metal, the body was humanoid but bulky like a mech with a mostly black color to it. The head of it was human shaped but with a pair of digital angular yellow eyes on it that curved around the sides of the head. There were also golden pieces of armor on it but it almost looked like it had been slapped on, the pieces covered around the chest, arms, and legs, and looked somehow familiar in Mako's eyes.

The mech's eyes looked over and widened at Mako's appearance, "Oh….Uhhhhh…he's the bad guy here!" the mech said, pointing to the squid guy.

The octopus man glared at the mech, "You cow herder! Not any spleen you have me seen!"

"...this is officially the weirdest day of my life, and that's really saying something." Invincible finally said before looking at the octopus man. "And for the record I knew about you before I came here. So yeah, your not gonna bullshit your way out of a beatdown. Give up, and you can walk out of here. If not, then…..well we're probably gonna need a crane or something." he said with a smirk.

The aquatic man growled, "You damn to threaten me!? Octoboss?! Cur!" he roared before charging at Invincible, barreling through the mech and knocking them down. Invincible charged forward as well, slamming his shoulder into Octoboss's chest. The monster man made a wheezing sound before his tentacles wrapped around the hero's arms!

Invincible was taken aback by how strong the villain was, and even more by how girl a grip the arms had on his arms. Swinging his foot up, the villain titled his head back to avoid the attack. "Powerful! But knot deerly uno!" he said before he began to pull at the hero by his arms, expecting the teen's arms to be ripped off in a bloody spectacle. Only to be met with unflinching resistance.

Invincible looked over the villain's shoulder to see that the other person, the mech as he was mentally referring to it as, was slow to get up from the ground. Not that they were visibly hurt, but that they were actually struggling to get up like a person who was overweight trying to stand up, only for them to not be able to reach because of how little their arms were.

He couldn't help but snort.

"Ok I didn't want to sound too mean but man do you realize just how stupid you sound right now?" Invincible asked as he pulled his arms inward, the sleeves and gloves of his costume ripping off as they were still stuck to the tentacles. With his arms free, he swung a powerful right uppercut into the villain's head, making go flying back into the mech as they stood up. No sooner did Octoboss collide with it, it raised it's bulky hands up over it's head and locked fingers, before bringing them down in an axe handle onto the villain's head with a CLANG!

The villain wavered for a brief second before falling over flat with a groan, "head…..hurts…..words…..fumble." the villain said before losing the remaining consciousness he had.

Invincible sighed in relief before lifting his hand up to his ear, "Cecil it's me. Bad guy is down. Send in the troops. But honestly this wasn't really dangerous." he said.

'Yeah I figured, but you were the one who could get there fastest. Besides with everything stowed away on that Island? We're better playing it safe than sorry.' cecil told him before hanging up. Invincible turned to the mech suit as they hunched over, apparently trying to catch their breath.

"Thanks for the assist. And for keeping him here until I showed up." he said grateful as he touched down on the ground and walked over to the mech. Their head didn't turn to look up at him, but the eyes on it rotated to do so.

"Uh…yeah….no…problem…" the metallic voice said unsurely. Mako tilted his head, now that things had calmed down and he was listening to it, that voice actually sounded….familiar? Like it was speaking to him through a voice filter. "Um…..isn't this the part when you…..go away?" the mech asked.

Invincible tilted his head, "What? No, I gotta stick around until they show up and collect this guy. I mean I could bail but you look kind of worn out. First fight?" he guessed. The eyes nodded up and down, "Oh….well…..keep working on it?" he tried with a reassuring smile.

The eyes widened, "Wha-Mako!" the mech said before it's hands slapped over where it's mouth would be.

Wait…..Mako?

"...Melissa!?"

"...I'm sorry, this unit has run out of power and is shutting down it's speech to preserve power beeeeeeeeeeep." the Mech suit said in a not at all convincing impression of a robot even with the voice filter.

Mako looked over his girlfriend's suit, "T….this is your super tech suit of nanotech?" he asked, gesturing to the big bulky frame. He couldn't stop the grin from spreading over his face, the worries he had about Melissa doing hero work had flared up for a moment. But Seeing her in this….big….bulky…..tank on two legs?

"It's not my nanotech, I just…..I was designing a new security bot to replace the ones we use, and so I kinda slapped a bunch of stuff together for concept, but then we had an alarm go off and i thought, 'Oh hey well this is the perfect chance to test it out' and so I hopped in this thing and-" she began before she noticed her boyfriend covering his mouth and snorting. Her hands balled into fists before pointing one at him, "Hey! Don't laugh! This thing drives like a-" she began before the hand jerked forward and bopped him right in the head.

"URK!"

"GAH! Jeeze woman! What the hell?"

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry." she apologized instantly before her torso dipped forward in a slouch. Mako, rubbing his head, couldn't help but find the sight to be adorable. "...can you take me back to my lab….I need help getting out of here…and I need to pee." she admitted in a flustered tone. Mako was tempted to laugh, but considering the last time he did that he got flicked in the head, he made the wise choice to keep his mouth shut.

After getting Melissa back to her lab and getting her out of the mech, which was done with a number of robotic arms unscrewing portions of the armor that fell apart, she quickly went to go use the restroom before returning with a look of both embarrassment and frustration. "Stupid. What was I thinking making this thing like a tank?" she asked herself while Mako pulled his mask off and watched as she walked over and kicked one of the pieces away in frustration. "Oh yeah, genius idea me, I'll make an army of walking wrecking balls, no way that'll cause billions of dollars in damage." she said to herself before running a hand up her face.

Mako walked over and patted her shoulder affectionately, she reached back across her chest and held her hand with her own. She turned back to look at him and found him staring at her, "Melissa…what happened to us talking about this?" he asked with a tone that wasn't accusatory, but showed that he wasn't happy nonetheless.

The blonde support girl sighed before turning around, "I know….we said we would talk about this but when I saw that there was a security breach I thought…ugh, I don't know, I didn't think. Or I did and I thought I could do something." she admitted.

Looking around, she found a stool and pulled it over to sit on, Mako floated in a sitting position in front of her to continue the talk. "I'm sorry." she apologized.

"I…look. This is something I've been meaning to talk about." Mako said, making Melissa flinch. "And I've been putting it off because I don't want to fight, or argue or anything, and I know it'll make me sound like a hypocrite but I got to say it." he explained before taking a deep breath and letting it out. He looked Melissa dead in the eyes, "Melissa. Do you know what your getting into? Wanting to be a hero?"

Melissa to her credit didn't immediately respond, she looked off to the side as she thought about her answer. "I….I think I do…." she answered. Mako looked at her expectantly, silently nodding his head for her to continue, "It means putting others before yourself….and…it means that you might get hurt, maybe even die…..but your willing to do it anyway." she said sternly.

Mako nodded, but he still didn't look satisfied, he opened his mouth but closed it again before speaking. "...I want you to be safe…..but I also want you to be able to do what you want to do." he admitted. Melissa reached her hand out to his, "And I know I can't always be around to protect you, that's something I'm working on and….and I do trust you Melissa it's just….I'm scared that…."

"I know, Mako." she told him, leaning forward and lowering her head so his gaze met her's, "Look I know that when I told you that I wanted to be a hero it scared you." she told him, reaching down and clasping both his hands in her's. "I'm not dumb, I got over excited today and it's really clear that I'm not ready yet. So….lets come up with a plan."

He looked up at her, "A plan?" he asked. She nodded, "Ok….like what?"

"What would it take for you to feel comfortable with me being a hero?" she asked him. Mako blinked at the question, it wasn't really something he considered…but thinking about it there were a few things he could think of.

"Well…..I want you to be protected, above everything else. Even from a viltrumite." he said, thinking back to Anissa. He had thought about the possibility of if she had tracked him down while he was on a date with Melissa, or at home with his mom, he already felt guilty about what happened to his friends, and they were at least able to partially defend themselves. Melissa on the other hand didn't have any quirk to fall back on, so she needed something that could save her.

Melissa pursed her lips together in contemplation, "Well…..I could think of some things to make the suit tough. I can probably make it as tough as you." she said encouragingly, making him smile. "Would that be enough?"

"Yeah…and experience, you definitely need some experience." he said before a thought occurred to him. "And I actually might know someone who can help with that. HIs name is Rex, he's on the Guardians of the Globe, he's Robot." he said, thinking back to Rex and Amanda at the Pentagon. Rex would be the perfect person to mentor Melissa, they were both tech heads, and his Robot suit was something in the same vain as what Melissa wanted to do with her nanobots.

Melissa looked unsurely at him at first but slowly, "Ok, but I want me and my dad to meet this Rex guy first." she conceded.

Mako blinked in surprise at the tone she had, "Um….ok? Any reason why?" he asked out of confusion at her sudden skepticism of someone he endorsed. He had told her she would get along great with the rest of his class, and they had as far as he knew…well except for Mineta but that was kind of a given.

Melissa looked down at her hands locked together, "Well it's just that…..we sorta know Rex….he…..kind of…maybe….snuffed us."

Mako blinked, "What?"

"We were familiar with his work and when we reached out to offer him a place here at I-Island, he didn't exactly give the most flattering response." she said, looking off to the side as she recalled how in a huff her father had been over the entire thing. He wasn't even attached to the educational system of I-Island but it had spread through the faculty of the island like a wildfire.

Mako winced, "Oh….uh….I might sort of know why…..he uhh….you know that movie about the guy who lives in a ball because he'll get sick? That was him until a while ago." he explained.

His girlfriend whirled back to look at him in shock, "Wait, what?!" he nodded in affirmation, and realization slowly dawned over her face. "Ohhhhhh that's…that explains a few things…..still, I want to meet him before I agree to anything." she conceited.

He nodded, "Yeah, yeah, sure." he said understandingly. So far this plan was sounding good, her having a suit able to defend herself and getting experience to do so. He felt the weight that had been pressing down on him lift off, "I think as long as we get those two things lined up? I won't have any problem." he admitted.

Melissa nodded as she looked at her boyfriend, she too felt a sense of relief at clearing the air between them. Looking over Mako, she snorted when she saw his torn up sleeves, "Speaking of problems….did you have to tear your costume up. Right in front of me?" she asked.

"Urk!" he winced.

Melissa rolled her eyes, "Relax, it's just cloth. Now if you had torn up something that I spent weeks on, like a deep space helmet that recycles oxygen. Like that one I let you borrow? Then we MIGHT have a problem." she said, her tone becoming slightly accusatory. Mako swallowed, after her initial joy of seeing him returned safe and sound, she had been curious what happened to his helmet…..when he showed her the remains….

Suffice to say he spent a chunk of his next paycheck on gifts to try and make up for the damage.

"I thought….you forgave me for that?" he asked.

"Forgive? Oh yeah. Absolutely. But forget? Not on your life." she replied with a smirk. Mako's head bowed in shame, Melissa rolled her eyes as she stood up from the stool, "It's fine, just take it off and I'll grab you a new one." she told him. He nodded and stood as well, pulling the remains of his top over his head. She went to her closet where the other spares of his costume were already hanging, tossing him one of the tops he slid it down over himself, as though no fight had even taken place.

As he got redessed, Melissa's hands folded together in front of her, "So next week is the I-Island Expo." she began. "And I was thinking that maybe we could do something special for it." she said as her boyfriend pulled his gloves on.

Mako nodded at that, their little vacation together was something Mako was looking forward to. School was finally out for him and she was going to be joining him after the expo. And barring any catastrophes, he had given Cecil explicit orders not to bother him during that time, Cecil wasn't happy about it but as Mako had said, 'Though shit'. "Like a date night?" he asked.

She tilted her head, "Well there is a gala the first night of the expo we could go to but…..I was thinking of…..something more private." she said, giving him a sly smile. Mako straightened up, usually when she was looking at him like that, it ended with them leaving some hickies on each other.

"O-oh!" he said before coughing into his fist, "What….do you have in mind?" he asked.

She bit her lip, a flash of confidence going over her features, "My dad is going to be busy all night. Either getting stuff ready for the expo or going to the Gala and playing host to that. And I got some stuff I need to do as well, but after that? I'm free, all night." she said as she walked towards him. "So it'll just be us at my place." she said before leaning in close to his ear. "All alone…..with my bedroom door unlocked."

Oh. OH! Mako thought as he swallowed the lump in his throat. "That's…..really…..insanely tempting." he admitted.

She hummed, "I hope so. And between now and then, you'll be….prepared for that. Right?" she asked as she pulled back, he nodded as she smiled. Leaning in, her lips barely touched his, "Good boy." she said against his lips before pulling back and smiling at him. Every hair on Mako's body stood up like an electric current had been run through him, "Alright, I gotta get this stuff back to dad's lab. Can you help?" she asked as she walked over to a magnetic push cart which hovered off the ground

Mako stared in disbelief, did she really expect him to just…..pretend that she didn't just say the hottest thing she's ever said to him! Then she bent over with her rear facing him, and whatever words he had left to say died in his throat, Oh my god this is going to be the longest week of my entire life. He thought to himself as he quickly went about helping her clean up the studio.

AN: Hey guys, sorry this chapter took so long, should have been out last month but I've been dividing my work between this and another something I'm working on.

Also I have a pretty big announcement, I'm going to be spending less time on and more over on Ao3. This has been kinda been something I've been wanting to do for a while and not getting any notifications on FF kinda out the nail in it.

And if I'm being honest I feel like there's few and far between stories on here only that I'm invested in. Plus the guest reviews I get on here that are really either just spam, the same review posted over and over again, or people who are just toxic for the sake of being toxic and just mask it by being positive?

I'm kind of just done with it all. I'm still going to post on here but I'm done responding to reviews because that seems to encourage it more. If you want to ask me something then message me, I still get those, but everything else? I'm done.

But enough sappy crap on my end, we're finally getting to the first movie arc and I'm super excited. Been planning this for a while, well planning as I'm much as I have story beats and I get to be creative with how to connect those.

After that I actually have most stuff until season 4's latter half planned out in some way, shape, or form. And by that part we'll probably be covering stuff from season 3 of invincible so it all sorta works out.

Until next time guys!