Mei swung the hammer. The glowing metal warped beneath the blow, flattening itself into the shape Mei had envisioned. Her eyes picked apart every fold and crevice of the metal, cataloging every dimension of its shape and calculating the next blow required to further her design. She could already see the way every Dial slotted into place - a Shock Dial to output more power than any capacitor of comparable size, Iron Cloud Dials working in tandem to provide far greater flexibility than pneumatics and electric pistons, a clever application of Scent Dials running along the device's length, coupled with a Breath Dial to disperse them. A Flame Dial could turn any gas into a flamethrower, while a Frost Dial could solidify them into projectiles or liquid streams.
It was the next evolution of her inventions, a seamless joining of otherworldly wonders and cutting-edge science. It was the greatest piece of hero equipment she could conceive. It was the one thing that she thought Izuku might have a use for, even with his growing mastery of Rokushiki, Haki, and Devil Fruit.
And in all probability, it would be obsolete by the time he came back from his training camp.
Mei raised the hammer once more. Another strike pounded a groove just large enough to slot the last Dial. Grabbing the massive metal casing with a set of tongs, she thrust it into a barrel of salt water. A cloud of pungent steam erupted from the boiling water. She held it in for a minute, ignoring the searing heat that licked her skin as the steam wafted over it. Once the bubbling slowed, she hoisted the metal out of the water and set it onto the table. The metal was riddled with odd ridges and grooves, to the naked eye seemingly clumsy and inept, but Mei's eyes measured depths and widths, verifying that every measurement of the metal came within her tolerances.
Verifying with a finger that the metal had cooled enough, Mei slotted each Dial into place. Once she had each Dial hooked up and calibrated to the Arduino programmed to activate them all, the popped the lid into place, pulled the trigger, and let the long, tube-like device heft itself with a floating iron cloud. The cloud shaped itself into a draconic maw, with wavy teeth and the faint hint of flames licking about its sinuous tongue.
Baby Two-Twelve, the Dragon's Maw. Mei whipped her arm. A fine iron mist burst from the Maw in a conical spray, followed by a stray spark that electrified the air. Another mist drifted over the barrel of salt water, and when Mei used the Frost Dial, the barrel groaned as ice slicked over its surface.
Mei whipped the Maw around and slapped it at a mannequin. The cloud teeth sank into the dummy, whipped it around like a ragdoll, and slammed it into the far wall. For good measure, she doused it with flammable vapor and set it alight.
"I hope that comes with nonlethal options," Power Loader grumbled.
Mei doused the mannequin, then conjured another mist. This mist, when cooled, settled over everything in a sticky net.
"Everything is nonlethal if your target is strong enough to survive it," Mei said.
"All Might makes a poor standard for whether or not anything you make can be considered non-lethal." The teacher hesitated for a moment, then pulled up a seat. Mei flicked the Maw off and turned towards him.
"What happened?"
"Never thought you'd catch on that quickly." Power Loader cleared his throat. "We just got word back, from the training camp. They got attacked."
"Oh. That's all?" Mei turned back to the Maw.
"They took your friend Midoriya."
Mei's fingers froze over the trigger. "Who, and how?"
"The League, and someone had a magnet Quirk. A bad matchup for whatever he's got going on."
Mei strapped the Maw onto her back. She pulled out a drawer and started shoving boots, bracers, a helmet, and other gadgets onto herself. "Any leads on where he is?"
"They have a tracker on one of the Nomu, and-" Power Loader put a hand on her electrified grappling gun- "The Heroes have it covered. You do not have a provisional license."
"I'm not planning to use my Quirk."
"You don't have licenses for any of this gear either."
"Hasn't stopped me before."
Power Loader ran a hand over his face. "Look, this is extremely confidential information. The only reason you're finding out is because we will need your help. The League of Villains is led by a villain that can steal Quirks-"
"All for One," Mei cut in.
The teacher froze. "How do you-"
"Izuku told me." Mei yanked the device out of his grip. "All the more reason I should get going."
"By the time you get there, All for One will have his Quirk," Power Loader said. "Unless you already made something that can perfectly counter it, that's what we need you to make before it's too late."
"I refuse to believe it is too late until I have seen it with my own eyes."
"Mei, be reasonable!"
"I am. You can either tell me where All for One is so I can kick his ass, or you can wait until I find him myself."
"And if it's already too late?"
"Then I'll come back and make that stupid baby for you."
Power Loader cocked an ear as Nezu said something into the earpiece. "Fine. Nezu apparently anticipated this and made an extra tracker. One of the students tagged it onto a Nomu. We can't guarantee they took Midoriya to the same place, but it's our best bet."
Mei took the tracker, then pulled a familiar backpack out from under the work bench. Power Loader gulped as its pneumatics hissed into place while Mei shouldered it.
"I wouldn't worry too much if I were you." Mei looked back and grinned. "Even if that crusty old bastard took his Quirk, he'll be in for a nasty surprise."
When Mei reached the warehouse, she did not smash down the wall and demand they give Izuku back. Her fingers twitched on the controls of her mech's arms at the thought of it. Against any of the League of Villains she knew, she would have charged in, confident in her babies' ability to take them down. All for One, however, warranted more caution.
She still remembered the fear choking her as she swung the mirror at Kizaru, and she knew it was only because he had dismissed her as a threat that they both still lived. She had no way of knowing if All for One could measure up to the threats of the other world, but given how many Quirks he was bound to have, she had to assume he could stand amongst the Admirals.
Instead of hunting the place with her own eyes, a hundred cameras scoured the place for her. Delicate, spider-like robots, with long, pointy legs jutting from a sensor suite packed with cameras, microphones, and other recording equipment, skittered across the ceilings and through vents as they burrowed deeper into the Leagues' hideout.
Already, she had found a room packed with medical tanks, each bearing a Nomu suspended in a macabre facsimile of a womb. She could have disabled them with the press of a button, but she didn't. She couldn't waste precious seconds on them.
Deeper and deeper they went, but Mei already suspected Izuku wasn't here. The tracker went on the Nomu, and it appeared they housed their Frankenstein monstrosities away from their main headquarters. Her spider babies would have picked up on strong electromagnetic signals if Izuku was here.
The back of her mech opened up. Tiny drones, each a rotor and an electromagnetic sensor, drifted up like dandelion seeds, spreading out in a circle. On her screen, a map of the area lit up, brightening with the strength of each signal they mapped. She ignored the glowing spider web of cables for now - when she found Izuku, his signal would drown out everything else. Instead, she called the spiderlings back to the Nomu room. With the Nomu inactive, the spiderlings simply pierced the tank, burrowed through the monsters' spines, and spun until they liquefied whatever was left of their brains.
Alarms flickered on the computer screen, but she had already cut the connection to the offsite facility. The cut connection would be warning enough, but Mei figured it at least bought her extra time while the villains troubleshooted the issue.
Just as she was about to move on, cameras picked up movement around the warehouse. Best Jeanist and a small horde of heroes closed in on the facility. Mei rolled her eyes. She was just about to pack up and leave when her sensors picked up a spatial anomaly. Black smoke billowed at the entrance. A power presence emanated from the masked man that stepped through, one disturbingly similar to Kizaru. It felt like a predator toying with its meal.
Mei scrambled up the building and flung a tarp over herself. The tarp bent light around itself, a trick borrowed from Hagakure, while also dampening electrical signals, rendering her invisible to most methods of detection. It had the unfortunate side-effect of cutting off the feed to the rest of her robots, but they could operate independently for a while.
Her mech's arm lengthened, sprouting a massive gun barrel, and she loaded up a sniper round high enough in caliber it could be mistaken for artillery fire. She aimed it squarely at All for One as he strode out and addressed the heroes.
She didn't catch his words, cut off from the sensory input of all her robots, but she did catch the moment he started his attack. The slight shifting of his feet, and the pulsating of his arm as he brought multiple Quirks to bear in a single devastating attack told her that anyone in its path would promptly leave its path in multiple pieces.
She fired. The round careened through the air, bending a shockwave around itself that rippled out and shattered windows across the street. All for One turned his head slightly, and the round slammed straight into his shoulder. The villain's punch went wide, tearing a hole through a building instead of Best Jeanist's stomach.
The tarp, now with a hole through it, sparked and winked out. All for One immediately looked up at her and leapt. Mei crouched, and the Impact Dials in the mech's feet rocketed her forward. All for One punched, arm tensed with numerous strength enhancement Quirks, but Mei had a whole battery of Impact and Reject Dials built into her mech's limbs and spine. An empty Dial simply absorbed the impact of his punch.
With All for One's momentum frozen, Mei hammered her other fist into his face. All for One rolled with the punch, avoiding the full brunt of it, but he still hit the ground hard enough to leave a crater.
All for One rose from a crouching position and dusted off his shirt. "Fascinating work. You must be Hatsume Mei. I watched your fight in the Sports Festival. You have a lot of promise, but I'm afraid you don't stand a chance against me."
Mei cracked her mech's knuckles. "Don't be too sure about that. I've made some upgrades."
"I've seen hundreds of fools over the years that thought their toys could surpass the potential of Quirks.
"And I'm better than all of them."
Mei went with lightning first. If nothing else, it would tell her if he had stolen Izuku's Quirk. The Shock Dials unloaded a lightning bolt's worth of current upon the villain. Rather than absorbing it, All for One allowed the current to flow around him and into the ground.
Mei grinned. He hadn't taken it yet. Even if they caught Izuku, there was no way he was going down without a fight. If she took out All for One here, she'd have no trouble getting Izuku back.
All for One flicked a finger. The force from the pressure wave was too spread out for her Dials to absorb, and the blast rocked her mech back. While she was off-balance, All for One sprang forward and hammered at her mech's leg. Mei twisted her stance so the knee took the impact, and the Reject Dial absorbed it.
"I'm not really the hero type, but for tonight, I"m making an exception. Knee of Justice!"
Mei slammed the knee into the villain's gut. The Reject Dial there spat his own force back at him and then some. All for One nearly bent over double and went flying through a building.
Mei was expecting All for One to burst out of the building and charge at her. She was not expecting the entire building to go hurtling towards her. She fired an explosive, and the resulting blast shattered the oncoming building in a million pieces, but All for One parted the smoke and rubble, using the building as a distraction to close in once again. Mei raised a fist, ready to intercept the next blow, but instead, All for One flung an electromagnetic pulse. The electronic components of her mech sputtered and died, leaving her chassis dimly lit by a single Dial.
"And that is why inventions will never amount to anything in this world," All for One said. "They all operate on the same fundamental principle, electricity. Yank that rug out from under your feet, and all you're left with is an inert pile of junk."
Mei grinned. Hoisting her mech's arms without the supporting electrical components took a bit of work at the gym, but she could feel the villain stiffen in surprise as she clocked him once again with a Reject-powered fist. She followed it up with gatling fire, and All for One simply held an arm in front of his eyes as the bullets pinged off his suit like tank armor.
"Impressive," All for One said. "You made the suit so it could operate without power. I should have expected that. But I can tell its not nearly as effective without that boost. And I'm guessing whatever's dampening my physical attacks won't be working either!"
Mei pretended to fall back as All for One charged headlong into the hundreds of bullets she was still firing at him. At the last second, she set aside the gatling rounds and blocked All for One's punch.
"Surprise! That's still working too." She threw another Reject-powered punch, but the manual controls were too slow. All for One darted back and sidestepped the shockwave that shot out from Mei's punch.
"Interesting. You must be using an alternative energy source. Perhaps a Quirk, of some kind? I've experimented with giving Quirks to animals and using them as batteries, but it always proved too much for anything smaller than a human, and larger animals aren't worth it logistically. But if it was a naturally occurring Quirk, say, in some form of mollusk whose shells you have scattered about your mech, that would certainly explain the lack of electricity. Innovative, but hardly impressive."
"Sounds like someone's mad that they're losing."
"Losing? Me?" All for One chuckled. "Oh child. I'm simply having some fun. It's been almost a century since I've had a fight this entertaining. It's either One for All users and their distasteful do-goody ethics or two-bit cannon fodder whose Quirks aren't even worth taking. After tonight, even your amusing little toys won't slow me down."
"You'll have to go through me first." Mei unloaded a torrent of liquid, soaking All for One and the surrounding vicinity, before chilling it with a Frost Dial. The liquid exploded in columns of pearlescent ice, encasing the villain. For a moment, the entire city was eerily silent, save for a soft dusty trickle of crumbling drywall as a strong breeze blew by. Then the ice erupted in a deafening explosion. A razor sharp icicle cleaved through the air, slicing into the mech shoulder. Another pierced a leg as Mei ran for cover.
"So the kinetic dampeners don't work on slashing and piercing attacks. Good to know. In that case, I think it's time we wrap this up."
Wisps of blue energy gathered at All for One's fingertips. When he flicked a finger, blue light coalesced into a shimmering blade that cleaved through the air. Mei drew her Iron Cloud Dial. A wispy gray edge met the luminous blade. Sparks rose as they ground against each other. Eventually, the light dispersed into tiny blue motes. Mei whipped the Iron Cloud forward, slicing at All for One. He blinked aside, and the cloud sent chunks of concrete flying.
"My, that's an awful lot of abilities those shells display. Is it possible you stumbled upon synthetic Quirks? I could imagine finding one useful specimen, but finding so many, from the same species? Impossible."
Mei tried moving the damaged shoulder, bringing the gatling gun to bear, but the metal split at the cut. The arm tore away and landed on the ground with a thud. All for One darted forward, charging at Mei's now defenseless left side. Mei wrapped herself in Iron Cloud, blunting the attack, then pivoted and swung at the villain. All for One blocked the hit, his arms coated in rime, and the cloud froze into tiny flecks of metal.
"Cloud in metal form. What a novel idea, but susceptible to the cold."
Mei flung fire, forcing All for One to back away and heating up her Iron Cloud sword. The droplets she had lost didn't rejoin her weapon, leaving her with an oversized dagger. All for One, on the other hand, had his luminous blades, and when he pushed a bit of ice into them, they bit gouges out of Mei's dagger. She abandoned her weapon and tried to dodge, but All for One carved up her mech one slice at a time.
Mei pulled a lever. The cockpit popped out of her mech, while the jagged remains charged forward. All for One sliced the legs out from under the empty mech, sending it crashing to the ground. Meanwhile, the cockpit rearranged itself, forming a flimsy metal framework over Mei's limbs and torso. She flicked her wrist, locking two different dials in place in front of her hands, then flung a fluid and ice combo that unfurled into a massive sticky web. All for One sliced it to ribbons, but the strands glued themselves back together as they wrapped around him. He tried chilling them further, but that made the material stiffer instead of more brittle. Heat made it more pliable, but also caused it to bubble, spatter, and flow like tar over the rest of him.
By the time All for One incinerated the last of the fluid off of him, Mei had made it into the warehouse. She ran into the room with the deceased Nomu just as All for One smashed through a wall.
"A valiant effort, but you are wasting your time. Your friend isn't here."
"I know," Mei said. "I already searched the entire place."
"If you think you can hide behind my Nomu, you are mistaken. Someone of your talent is far more valuable than this batch of cannon fodder. Swear yourself to me, and I will permit the boy to live after I am done taking his Quirk."
"Nope. My services are not for sale."
"A shame. The hard way it is then." All for One lifted his arms and said, "Nomu, seize her!"
The tanks didn't stir. All for One looked more closely and vibrated in rage when he saw the holes through their craniums.
"Like I said, I already searched the whole building." Mei snapped her fingers, and the walls came alive with a sea of red lights. Her spider droids pounced as one ripping and tearing at the villain. The razor sharp legs didn't so much as scratch his suit, let alone his skin, but the endless horde of robots kept All for One distracted enough for Mei to assemble a motley mix of Dials recovered from her mech. She set two Reject Dials against each other, with a mix of breath and flame dials strapped to them.
With her mechanized frame helping her, Mei wound back and hurled the assembly into the pile of robots. The two Impact Dials went off, shattering each other and unleashing all their stored force in a concussive blast. The Flame and Breath Dials burst, adding their contents to the shockwave. The explosive gases in the Breath Dials expanded, mingling with the oxygen in the air, and the heat from the Flame Dials set it all off in a massive, deafening explosion. Mei ran back after she threw, and the shockwave sent her rolling across the ground.
The Nomu tanks all shattered, spilling a deluge of noxious liquids that quickly caught fire. The blaze raced across the floor. Mei yanked a Frost Dial out of her belt and froze the liquid around her. It slowed the flames just enough to crawl to the relative safety of the far side of the room.
Punching through the far wall, Mei staggered out and drank in huge gulps of the crisp night air. She looked back, at the crumbling, flaming remains of the warehouse, and wondered if she had somehow killed All for One with that blast. Her hopes were quickly dashed when All for One burst out of the roof. Soot and scorch marks covered his body, and his helmet had a small crack running down the front.
The villain looked down at Mei. Mei felt a chill run through her as she straightened her stance, preparing herself for one final fight. All for One gathered blue energy in his fingers, brighter than before, preparing a whirlwind of incandescent death. Just as he let loose, All Might leapt out of an alley, scattering the luminous blades with a punch.
"Fashionably late as always, All Might," All for One said. "I was starting to worry you didn't show. I went through the trouble of letting those pesky heroes live, after all, so they would lure you here."
All for One smacked his hands together. "Cut the theatrics, All for One. This ends tonight."
"Oh, it does, but not here." Black tar oozed out of the villain's helmet. "I had to make sure you were far enough away you wouldn't be able to interfere"
All Might leapt, flinging a punch at the villain, but his hand crashed through thin air. All for One was gone.
"He must be at the other site," All Might growled. "Have to pace myself, or-"
"What other site?" Mei asked.
All Might blinked, seeing her for the first time. "Aren't you a student?"
"Yes. Now, other site?"
"You shouldn't be out here."
"And you shouldn't be wasting time while All for One is getting away."
"How do you know about All for One?"
"I dunno, maybe because I just fought the dude? Now, are you going to tell me where Izuku is, or am I going to have to do everything myself?"
Off in the distance, a booming thunderclap shook the city. A column of lightning rose into the sky, then hurtled off into the horizon.
Mei turned back to All Might. "He better be alive, or I'm going to invent something that'll make you regret it for the rest of your life."
Wriggling out of the mechanized frame, Mei took out her cell phone and said, "Fire up the workshop. I'll make whatever you need to take him down."
As she walked back to U.A. through the crumbling city streets, her mind spun with ideas. She still had those Sea Prism shackles, and knowing that magnets interfered with the Devil Fruit certainly helped. Add in a few Dials filled with swamp cloud, to trigger the Devil Fruit's weakness to standing water, and she'd have the perfect baby for taking down the Rumble Fruit.
And once the job's done, that's one baby she won't be saving for her collection.
A/N: I'm in the middle of a twelve day stretch of work, and I'll be painting the living room on one day and doing Father's day on both of them, because I have two dads. I'm debating burning through a vacation day or giving up on some of my precious overtime to give myself a break, but I don't think I'll go either. I'll just shove some ice cream into my face to get some happy chemical for a bit. Or cake, I'll be making cake. Black forest cake. Mmm… cake… Haven't tried that one before, but I'll be using my usual chocolate cake base, which absolutely slaps. Everything else should be simple enough.
TheGreatBubbaJ: "Aren't we all just trying to find the happy juice."
Bardothren: please share if you find some. I tried running and all I got was sore legs.
Mernom: "Too bad about the Sea Stone shackle being lost. It could've been useful to break out of that trap, probably."
Bardothren: superman doesn't exactly carry kryptonite on him at all times, neither does Izuku. He used to, but he kinda got over the whole being afraid of going on a power trip thing.
JamaarF: "question; couldnt Izuku just...turn off his fruit powers to escape the elecromagnetic jail? I could have sworn that logia users were not always their element and could turn it on and off."
Bardothren: I'll just spitball ways out of this plot hole, and you can pick your favorite. Logias are always vulnerable to their weaknesses, Izuku's too distracted/in pain to concentrate enough to turn it off, or the magnetism is interfering with his ability to do so.
Advent of Sloth: "Doesn't he have Conq Haki now... couldn't he have just knocked them out before getting caught."
Bardothren: Izuku's in that stage before Marineford where it's unlocked, but he has no idea how to use it on purpose.
ProjectIceman: "Was his Quirk really erased by Aizawa? Because if it was, AFO being able to steal it is a possibility.
Bardothren: great memory! Aizawa did erase it at one point.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll have cake AND ice cream. And cookies. And a salad so I don't feel guilty about all the junk food.