A Spark of Ingenuity
Chapter 1
Ever since he could remember, he always wanted to be a hero. Not just any hero, the best, the toughest, the undefeated. To be number one you had to excel at everything against anyone.
When a blond boy named Katsuki Bakugo realized his quirk's potential, he knew he could be that. Already he was ahead of those in class, whether it came to sports, creativity, he got praised as with barely any effort he managed to keep his position above everyone else.
Especially when it came to his quirk, well, mathematics too but honestly that was so easy he got too bored to care about it.
So imagine when someone who had no potential to be a hero, no quirk and too timid to do anything told him there was something he can't do.
"I-I'm not saying you can't K-Kacchan." The shaky boy with messy seaweed hair and freckles who was supposed to be his 'friend' dared stand between him, and the pile of junk in front of them.
After school, Katsuki Bakugo alongside a few of his classmates decided to go out and explore a new area of their favorite woods they hadn't been to before. With Katsuki leading them (As was his role as the best) they managed to find piles of appliances, rusted cars, and a bunch of cool stuff they could turn into a base.
Yet one of them protested right as Katsuki was about to blow up one of the piles to make room for his new fortress.
"I-It's dangerous to b-blow up so much meta-" Deku, it was how his name could be interpreted, meaning useless. It was a very accurate description for a quirkless, spineless nerd.
"You think I can't handle it?!" Grabbing his shoulder, Katsuki flung him out of the way with ease. The other two kids that normally followed (Their names weren't worth remembering) latched onto Deku to keep him from Katsuki's path. With a flex of his palm, sparks erupted around Katsuki's palms. "Any villain who tries to stop me is going to get a face full of explosions. Is that what you are Deku? A villain?!"
"N-no!" The smaller one protested. "B-but I d-don't want you to get h-hurt-"
"It's trash!" Swiping his palm against an old fridge door, Katsuki blasted it right off the hinges in a loud boom. "It can't hurt me!"
Throwing his other palm towards the base, he let out another ear ringing explosion to further his excavation. "When I become a hero, not even villains will be able to hurt me!"
Another blast blew smoke all around them, the other weaklings cowering back at his might.
"I'll be number one, greater than All Might himself!"
Pushing both of his hands into the junk, the gathering sweat around his arms ignited to rip apart the metal in front of him.
"I'll be invincible!"
Pulling back and taking a few deep breaths, Katsuki studied his handiwork as he felt a tingling race around his palms. He never pushed his quirk that hard before, it was tiring, painful, but exhilarating when seeing his efforts first hand.
Giving a triumphant grin after teaching Deku a lesson in doubting him, Katsuki had proven once and for all that nothing could stop him. "See? I'm the best."
"Yeah you are!/You're the best!" Those two idiots were just repeating what he already said. Whatever, it's not like there's any kid as smart as him anyways.
Yet, something wasn't right. Deku wasn't praising him like usual or making that ugly grin. Deku was staring at him, like he was weak.
"Are you ok?"
That question burned inside of him. Deku thinks he could do better? That his quirkless ass was better than HIM?! With a fury he never felt before Katsuki turned back to the scorched pile, letting out an even bigger explosion than before. It shook the bones in his arms as his palms felt like they were on fire.
Yet just like Deku, that pile of trash wasn't fully blown away yet.
Over and over Katsuki erupted his rage through his quirk, further paving his way to victory. With each blast his arms ached a little more, his palms got hotter, his hands more numb, and his heart thundered in his chest.
"W-woah." One of the empty headed boys began to back away as shrapnel flew over his head. "Take it easy-"
They didn't think he could do this either?!
Katsuki roared through their doubts, demanding his body to accomplish what it should already be able to do. He was the best, nothing could stop him. Not them, not his exhausted body, not aching quirk, and especially not the rapid beating heart that felt like it was going to explode inside his chest. Not even his explosions could match the noise of the pulsing through his body.
"Kacchan!" Deku's arms wrapped around his bloodied hand, trying to pull him away. "You're hurting yours-"
Katsuki punched him with his other red knuckles. "SHUT UP! I'M NOT DEFEATED!"
He was unbeatable, he was the future number one hero, he was Katsuki Bakugo with the best quirk in the world! So when he plunged his hands into the final section of the smoldering trash, Katsuki let out a triumphant warcry as he gave out one final explosion, to show the world he had the heart of a hero with will and strength to exceed it.
The forgotten gas tank behind his brute force did not listen to his cry, not even as it blew out with greater force than Katsuki's overclocked body could handle.
The first thing he noticed was the harsh ceiling lights glaring down on him. Katsuki tried to raise an arm to shield himself from it but they felt too heavy to move. Why couldn't he move? Where was he? What happened?
As his mind began to catch up to the present it also began to process everything his body was feeling. Numbness, restraints, sores, aches, and something cold in his chest.
"Katsuki?" A face similar to his own, but mature and more feminine blocked out the stinging light. "Katsuki! Are you awake?!"
"S-shut up." He demanded as her yelling was making his headache even worse.
A shadow moved to his right, clicking a button that made a small ring. With as much effort as he could conjure Katsuki turned his head just enough to see his father, calm as ever before someone entered the door to the room.
It was a nurse, why was a nurse here? Oh, this was a hospital.
She walked right up to him, invading his personal space as she confirmed herself that Katsuki was waking up. "I'll go get the doctor right away."
It was all so heavy, his eyelids, his arms, and his chest. Why was it so cold and heavy?
Whatever meds they had him on must be messing with him because the doctor showed up faster than Katsuki would have thought. Everything felt like a blur, their words muffled unless his mother yelled them which only hurt him more.
The last thing he remembered was them playing in the woods, the trash, Deku telling him to stop and then he let out the biggest explosion he ever made. Yet, that one was different. It felt wrong, it was wrong. That wasn't his normal explosion. Was it his quirk? Did he get sick somehow and it made his explosions act up?
That must be why he had such a hard time blowing up some junk. It had to be.
"Katsuki Bakugo." A man's voice spoke firmly next to him, Katsuki grunting as he turned his head to face the man in the suit. "So, you can hear me. Good. I don't have to strain my voice to tell you what happened."
What happened? He was sick and his quirk went haywire. That's what happened. Katsuki was smart enough to figure this stuff out even if the drugs were messing with his head. Yet, Katsuki listened because part of him knew that wasn't right.
"For a kid with an explosion quirk you should know better than to treat it like a firecracker." The man picked up a chart, glancing over it as he skipped the technical terms. "You suffered a lot of fractures, burns, cuts, bruises, like you thought your natural resistance to your quirk would let you pick a fight with a tornado filled with grenades."
This guy must get along well with his mother if that mouth of his was anything to prove.
"Be lucky you have your shots kid." The man said as he put the clipboard back down. "Because no way would you have avoided tetanus given how much rust we had to dig out of your flesh after you picked a fight with the equivalent of a one hundred and twenty gallon propane tank. Consider yourself even luckier that none of it actually pierced your heart."
He wasn't sick, just banged up. It doesn't even sound like any of his injuries were that bad.
Then the doctor pulled up a stool and sat down next to him, his eyes becoming a little more cold to the point where Katsuki could feel it shooting through him.
"But if that was it then you would be out of here in a week." The man pointed down towards Katsuki's chest, the child's eyes following to find something on it. It was rather large, clunky, no wonder he couldn't move. "Kid, I know you probably got told all sorts of great things about your quirk, but from what I've seen it do to your body I would rather be quirkless."
What?
"You pushed yourself, got over excited and had your overactive youthful sweat glands pump so much explosive fluid through your body it actually mixed with your blood and wound up right in your heart. This wouldn't have been easy to do if you were older as your body matures and settles into a routine for regulating all your hormones and needs but you barely got your quirk. It's like baby snakes, they use up all their venom in one strike because they don't have good enough control over their glands. Combine your highly volatile fluids with your blood, a couple of cuts to your skin, you turned your body into a bomb. The fact that you're still alive shows how much natural resistance you really do have, but it wasn't enough."
The words sank deeper and deeper, the beeping of the monitors rising as Katsuki could hardly breathe.
"You burned out your glands, and nearly your heart. You'll never be able to use your quirk again and your body will never be able to handle anything more than a walk around the block."
That's when a sharp pain erupted in his chest, Katsuki's lungs clenching as he fell into a full blown panic. It was expected of the doctor, who plunged a prepared needle into his IV as Katsuki was given relief in the form of instant sleep.
He had been quiet, for longer than he ever had been before. Katsuki's mind kept running through what happened over and over, analyzing everything that happened and what it had done to his body.
His parents were almost constantly at the hospital, his mother had tried talking to him, frustrated, emotional, but never yelling. Katsuki never really responded, only saying when he was hungry or thirsty. He didn't want to talk to them, he didn't want to talk to anyone.
All he wanted was his life back.
"Katsuki." His father spoke up from the door. "You have visitors."
Out of a sliver of curiosity, Katsuki peeked at the door as his mother walked in with two similar faces. A young woman with long green hair, and her son. Deku…..though right now Katsuki didn't like how that word might fit him better than the freckled boy.
"Oh Katsuki." Inko Midoriya looked over him with tears already pouring out from her eyes, making him feel smaller, helpless, like he was just some poor dog at the shelter. "We're so sorry."
"Kacchan?" Deku, lips quivering and his eyes wobbling all over the medical equipment, shakily stepped near him. "Are you going to be ok?"
"Why do you care?" Katsuki's uttered immediately in a hushed tone only the boy could hear, as he felt something swell in his throat making its way up his face. "You always looked down on me."
"T-that's not true!" Deku protested, making Katsuki feel even more irritated.
"You said you were going to be like All Might, like you had a chance compared to me." Now, even though Deku never had a shot at being even a low ranking hero, he was still closer to All Might than Katsuki would ever be now. It hurt, it stung as it welled up in his eyes.
"No!" Deku grabbed the railing of his bed as he defied the reality of the situation. "All Might said anyone can be a hero! That means you too!"
"Shut up!" Katsuki didn't want their pity, their help, because it was all useless. He, was useless.
A month had passed, and Katsuki was finally home. It wasn't the same though, the air felt stiff and it was hard to move around. Especially with the wires running from his chest to the machine that he had to roll behind himself. His heart couldn't work on its own anymore, and needed a heavily modified pacemaker to keep itself working properly. A transplant was practically impossible, quirks making most organ transplants impossible now due to how there were very small subtleties between the composition of each person. The only ones who had a shot at the surgery were quirkless.
Even though Katsuki would never be able to use his quirk again, it had rendered his body useless to the procedure. It was official, he was worse than quirkless.
His father went right to the kitchen, preparing something that would be better than the slop they gave him at the hospital. His mother? The woman who would squabble and tussle with him every day over everything? She treated him like Deku, a fragile boy who seemed like a charity case.
Katsuki marched right to his room, stopping when he saw there wasn't a door on it but instead some curtain.
"We, wanted to take precautions." Mom began hesitantly. "If you have anykind of episode or something goes wrong, we don't want you locked in there or fallen behind the door to-"
He stopped listening, pushing past the fabric and seeing all of his stuff cleaned up and put away. But, the poster of All Might on the wall, that smiling face, it didn't feel the same. He hated looking at it, another reminder of the path that blew up in his face.
An itchy sensation came over him, Katsuki putting his hand up his shirt to scratch it on instinct, but the wires warned him before he touched the device. Pulling his own shirt off, staring down at his chest, he cautiously lifted the wrappings around him to peek down at the metal contraption, blinking lights, the cold sensation fused with his skin. The more he focused on it the more he could feel how it was shoved inside of him, every twitch of his muscles or flesh rubbing alongside the foreign object.
"Inko, what a surprise!" Mom piped up from the otherside of the house. "And you brought Izuku, thank you so much for caring about our son. Even if he is being a jerk."
"Can I talk to him?" Deku asked, with a note of urgency that Katsuki didn't miss.
"He wants to be alone right now." Katsuki's dad warned, the boy temporarily grateful that he would have some privacy before he heard what the man said next. "Ignore that, he needs help."
Katsuki heard that part clearly, reaching out with his heavily scarred hand and instinctively attempted to scorch his pillow. Nothing happened, of course it didn't. He couldn't even hurt a pillow now.
"Kacchan?" Izuku peeked inside, seeing Katsuki fuming while clutching a notebook. He had that same look again, back at the woods, back at the hospital, that same damn look like Katsuki was some helpless creature.
"WHAT?!" He demanded, stomping towards Izuku before the wires at his chest tugged at the larger components still sitting next to his bed. "Why are you here Deku?! Did you come to make fun of me? Tell me I'm weak and useless?!"
"W-what?! No!" Despite Katsuki's still sorry appearance, Deku was still intimidated.
"Well you can't help me so what is it?!" Katsuki was too far to reach him but he was seriously considering risking his health by just lunging forward enough to get in a punch.
"You can be a hero still!" Deku's conviction held as his shaking stopped. It made Katsuki pause for a moment, confused about how Deku managed to come to that conclusion. Now that the boy was given a moment to reorganize his thoughts he opened his notebook, a newer one Katsuki never saw before.
"Look!" Deku placed it on the desk besides them, Katsuki actually daring to see what was written inside. It was heroes, each page was dedicated to one. There was lots of stuff written about them, from their agencies, what type of work they did, most notable accomplishments, but they were all small. The second largest section was their quirk, how it functioned and what it could do. Katsuki felt that anger boiling up again, but before it could rise to the surface he saw the very large section on each page.
Support gear.
"Almost every hero has something to let them use their quirk better." The nerd began, no stuttering to be found in his voice as he brightly explained each part. "Some of them need special materials in their costumes, either to be flexible or to cover a weakness to their quirk. They even have stuff to do super moves that their quirk would never let them do before!"
Wait, did heroes really have all this junk? All Might didn't that's for sure.
Still, what did support gear matter if his quirk didn't work at all and his body couldn't do anything.
"And check out this one!" With a flip of a page, Katsuki was presented with a man sitting in a rather large robot. "Power Loader, he made his own suit to give him strength to lift up structures! His quirk isn't even a strength one but with his equipment he can pick up semi trucks!"
That wasn't his quirk? Then was it an intelligence one, or a tech quirk? "What's his quirk?"
"He has metal digits at the ends of his fingers that let him easily dig through the ground!"
Seriously? That sounded like a lame quirk, practically useless given how he was sitting in that robot the whole time….but he was still a pro. For the first time in Katsuki's life, he bothered to listen to the nerd.
"How did he make his suit?"
A few years had passed, and Katsuki had found a routine. Since he was considered too fragile by his parents to go to school, his father had been homeschooling him. It actually became work now, not like the school he went to before. Now he had to fully use his brain to absorb and use the content his father was teaching him.
He wondered if Deku was also studying particle physics in school this year.
Occasionally his father would bring home some of the stuff for Katsuki to use as a project, like an electric car engine, or random parts of a computer, and now Katsuki's end of the month project was writing the code from scratch for an automated home system. His father didn't give him any set requirements about what it needed to do or what hardware it would be inhabiting.
This was probably the most boring one yet, writing it all from scratch just took a long time and unfortunately his hands weren't incredibly dexterous. After a while the joints in his fingers got stiff, his wrists felt like they were locking up, and he had to stop and return his focus onto something else.
Usually Katsuki would go and work on his other side project. Finding a way to get this damn battery smaller. More efficient batteries did exist, smaller ones.
Honestly he wouldn't be surprised if the technology to fit all of what he needed into his chest was already out there. Trouble was, they didn't have the money. Hell all of his allowance was going towards materials to save up for this thing.
Feeling himself getting hungry, Katsuki got up from his desk, grabbed the handle for his oversized pacemaker, and carted it along as he went towards the kitchen. His father was already there, preparing something for dinner.
"How come you aren't working anymore?" Katsuki asked as he went over to the fridge to grab something simple. "Could really use the extra money for some natrium cells."
"We went over this." The man snuck right past Katsuki, grabbing some eggs before closing it in the boy's face. "You were hurt, couldn't go back to school so I left my job to look after you. Your mother already makes enough money to cover our needs and a little more."
"I can look after myself now." Katsuki reiterated, opening the fridge again. "Besides, all you do for homeschooling is hand me some textbooks, tell me to look over them, and then give me something to work on for the month. You don't need to hover over me like a mosquito."
Just as he was about to reach for a fruit his dad beat him to it, and shut the fridge again.
"Better safe than sorry." Is all he answered with.
"Safe?" Katsuki gripped his palm tightly around the fridge handle. "Are cables hanging from my chest to this outdated block of lead really safe? If you want me to be safe wouldn't letting me move around without a tripping hazard strapped to a battery in my heart be the smart option?"
"Smart?" The man stared down at the stove for a moment, contemplating something that made him forget it was even on. "Can't say I've done the smartest things before."
Katsuki rolled his eyes, knowing he wasn't getting anywhere with the man before opening up the fridge to find something to eat.
Then the door slammed open, his mother arriving home with company. "Katsuki! Look who I brought with me!"
Inko followed in, with Izuku not far behind her. Inko, compared to how she seemed before the accident, was notably happier, more content. Yet her change wasn't the more drastic one.
Izuku was actually standing up straight, his shoulders relaxed and his hair kept to a more manageable length. Hardly a stutter could be heard from his voice anymore, but he still carried around those notebooks of his. "Hey Kacchan!"
"Hi." Katsuki greeted without much emotion, about to reach into the fridge for a bite but his mother cut him off.
"Your dad is making dinner, you can wait an hour."
Tch, he wasn't going to eat a full meal just something to tide his stomach over. Still, he had no way of fighting for his food so Katsuki complied and sat down on the couch where Izuku quickly followed.
"Did you hear that a new hero debuted today? Her name is"
"They have good tech?"
"Well, no but-"
"Don't care then." Katsuki snapped his fingers, the television turning on by itself before several news stations were displayed on the wide screen. With simple hand gestures, Kastuki fluidly moved through various channels, either prerecorded or live, but all of them had key words highlighted under them for the boy to understand the topic of discussion.
"Come on!" Izuku flipped open his notebook to the new page. "Her equipment might not catch your eye but her quirk acts as a black hole! I bet if you studied it you could come up with artificial gravity or something-"
"Quirks are bullshit." Katsuki reminded Izuku for the hundred thousandth time. "We've been down this rabbit hole before. There might be a biological component that's been identified to be associated with quirks but other than that too many quirks are just a waste of time studying because they vary too fast and-"
"David Shield doesn't think so." Izuku interrupted, something he wouldn't try before but now he felt comfortable enough in their conversations to do so. "He put out a couple new theories today that he plans on testing."
Katsuki wouldn't have dared pay any mind to it, if David Shield wasn't involved. Immediately he swiped his hand to brush through all the noted networks, until one of them had the man's name associated in the keyword highlight. With a flick, it was brought to center and expanded to cover the whole television.
David Shield, the man was the biggest name when it came to support equipment and several modern day innovations. He was one of the few people that Katsuki actually kept up on all their research, not just what he thought was applicable at the time.
"Are you going to try and submit an application for an invention this year?" Izuku questioned as they both watched the news coverage of the man's latest published work. "You're old enough."
"I don't want to spend all my time on something that's going to be overlooked." Katsuki folded his arms, briefly tangling his hand in the wires before he brushed them aside. "I doubt that he actually reviews any of the tech itself until it lands the kids at the island. Even then they just pick the ones with sob stories and I don't want to be some media spectacle. For crying out loud some bitch got to go just because she 'reinvented' some prequirk tea diffuser because she knew how to use some crocodile tears! What a waste of resources seeing ion lasers craft out a lump of shit!"
"Katsuki!" A stern voice came from his mother who was trying to have a conversation with the adults. "No yelling in the house!"
She was yelling but would she get in trouble? No.
"Anyways." Katsuki lowered his voice, letting his annoyance simmer in place. "The moment they find out about me, the moment they see me, they would throw me at the cameras with Shield without even caring about what I made. I'm not gonna be some pity show."
"Come on Kacchan!" Izuku was near the point of begging. "You're smart enough to make that tv channel content scrubber and interface!"
"Just repurposed video game equipment."
"Or what about that engine you made?"
"It's a standard hydrogen engine, the output is barely above what's on the market."
"Or what about the time you made your own satellite with a rocket to send it to orbit?!"
"You think rockets or satellites are anything new?"
"When you can do it in your backyard and have it connect to your phone then yes!"
Izuku gripped one of his notebooks, a green one that Katsuki had occasionally peeked at here and there. He hadn't given up on his dream, neither of them really but Izuku was much more vocal about his. It's why he still ended up with bruises despite gaining some more confidence and a proper workout plan with combat training.
"Kacchan, you can make amazing things. I can see you being a great hero one day, and if I could do the things that you can do….I wouldn't waste this chance to be noticed by someone who could give me every resource I would need to be the best hero I could be."
Resources huh? I-island did have the best, and if he got David Shield's attention then maybe he could get a little credit to his name to have some funding. Glancing back down towards the box beside his feet that he was eternally plugged into, Katsuki couldn't help but long for the first chance to gain some sense of freedom, to be untethered enough to move around on his own to carve out his own destiny again.
"I don't want to get picked for some lame ass gimmick to go to I-island." Katsuki stated, Izuku hanging his head in disappointment.
"So-" Katsuki began, Izuku looking up towards him. "-I'll just have to make something new, and so damn impressive that they'll beg me to stay."
A lot of people didn't know this, but Izuku actually had dimples, you just had to see him smile wide enough.
A week had gone by, Katsuki finished his father's latest task and he had set out on his own to make something that would draw attention to itself, so much so they would overlook the fact that he's twelve, that his health is terrible, and that his quirk is broken. There were plenty of ideas he had, but the trouble was making something entirely new. Most of what was out there was just piecing together technology to make something slightly better or accomplish the same thing with cheaper resources.
No, that wouldn't do. Katsuki Bakugo wanted to make something revolutionary.
It just so happens that this would be the cornerstone of the type of technology that would be critical to improving his own life.
"User: Masaru Bakugo is requesting entrance." Announced the automated voice of Katsuki's most latest home school project. Not anything fancy, just an automated home intelligence system. Smart home devices had existed for hundreds of years and could mimic any type of voice or hold conversations like they were a real thinking person.
Bakugo didn't care about that, he just wanted it to get its damn job done. "Whatever."
That job, besides taking care of menial tasks and supervision, was to actually be capable of understanding human speech. Sarcasm, body language, Katsuki never wanted to have to repeat or explain himself and no other home automation system or digital smartphone companion could do that.
The lock to his bedroom door clicked open, Katsuki's father looking in to seeing several drafted designs splayed out across the room. Holograms or rendering everything in a computer would have been easier, faster, just overall better but they didn't have the money for that either. Kastuki knew they weren't poor, but dammit things would be easier if they could afford the proper tools to speed up his process.
"Katsuki." His father spoke up, the boy scooted back from his seat while not wearing a shirt, the blinking contraption stuck in the center of his chest on full display. "Are you planning on submitting a design to the I-island youth innovation contest?"
"Yeah, what of it?" Katsuki suspected this was going to be a longer conversation, he listened but he went back to his work at the same time.
"You might get unwanted attention."
That struck a nerve, because that was exactly what Katsuki was trying to avoid. "I know, that's why I'm going to make sure they can't take their eyes off my reactor."
"That's not the kind of attention I'm talking about." The man's voice lowered as he picked up one of the basic blueprints.
"Then say it already!" Katsuki demanded as he ran the numbers in his head for a polarized containment system.
Taking a deep sigh, his father placed the page back down where he found it knowing better than to bring disorder to an already chaotic design process. "David Shield is a famous man, a very influential man. He managed to get there with his intelligence alone. Now he's seen as the man who leads I-island and the technological world. Any choice he makes, no matter how small, can change the lives of thousands, if not millions."
"No shit." Katsuki was already aware that anyone who got to the top made waves with each footstep, a testament to how important they were.
"I'm not sure that's the kind of life you would be happy with."
His pencil cracked, Katsuki silently cursing himself from pushing too hard against the paper. "If you want me to be happy, you'd let me create a way to take off this damn leash."
Pinching the dangling cable from his chest, Katsuki would make himself known. "You don't have the money for it, fine, I get that, so let me earn it and actually have a life instead of being locked in the house forever."
The man didn't say another word, seeing that this was Katsuki's entire drive, that this was the one thing he could do to feel like he had a chance. Nothing he could say, would change his son's path.
Exiting the bedroom, he saw his wife standing there with concern having heard their brief conversation.
"He doesn't know what you went through." Mistuki came forward, brushing her fingers over his crossed arms. "And unfortunately, he got my stubbornness, so he won't learn what this means until it breaks his legs and bashes it over his head."
"I just, want him to have as normal of a life as possible." Masaru opened himself up to his wife, leaning into her and clutching her tightly. "That life he's going to find himself in, is more demanding than he knows, and the people that will find themselves beside him will constantly be seeking to tear him down."
"Well, luckily that stubborn side will help." Mitsuki tried to be positive about it. "No one is going to be able to back him into a corner without the fight of their lives."
"I hope so."
Within a marvel of a city that floated through the oceans across the world, the man who was put on a pillar at the top of it all, was currently having a headache.
"Melissa." David Shield, head scientist of I-island, was trying to get his daughter to listen to him. It was so easy with the rest of the world, but his own blood was something else. "We've been over this, yes you may technically be allowed to submit something into the contest but think about-"
"I did think about it!" Melissa, a teenage girl with blonde hair flowing past her shoulder and a pair of round glasses shielding her brilliant blue eyes tried to reason with her father. "The academy director said I could be considered a graduate if I win the contest and then I'll be able to finally work with you as an equal! I don't want to be in your shadow, I want to prove I can make things just as good as you can!"
"We know that." David tried to calm her down. "More than half of the directors know that, and the department heads all listen to you, but the contest is watched by the world and if you, my daughter, win it, then that's only going to get worse. They'll see it as me handing you the trophy because you're my daughter not because of what you can make. No matter how great it is they'll think it's one of mine and-"
"Ahem." A older voice coughed out, ending the family squabble as they looked back towards the man at the entrance to David's office. He was towards the end of middle aged, a bald head and a graying beard but wore an expensive suit. "You two need someone to mediate?"
"Obadiah." David was grateful for his arrival, someone to be able to get his daughter to listen. "Melissa here was-"
"He won't let me enter the contest!" Melissa cried out, expecting the man to side with her. "You know I can win it."
"I know you'd win it." Obadiah gave a smirk to her before casually entering the room. "But that wouldn't be fair to the other contestants. Some of them see this as a chance to get noticed, to get enough support to make their inventions a reality. But you're already noticed, we all know you're going to take over your father's work before he could think of retiring."
The confidence he had in Melissa worked, having her rethink her desire to participate if her future was already guaranteed. Not from being the daughter of David but because her own skill had already solidified her future.
"Obadiah?" David saw that there were some rather large rolled up blueprints in the man's arm. The man handled the business side of things why was he working directly with engineering? "What did you bring?"
"Business." He said, noticing Melissa was also trying to get a peek at what he brought. "Why don't you and Whitney go for a walk through the shopping area? My treat, just keep Whitney from going over her allowance."
With a beaming smile, Melissa took the bait and ran out. Leaving Obadiah and David to further talk about what was in the documents.
"What did you bring me this time? Something concerning?" David adjusted his glasses as he rolled out the pages, looking over the intricate design that seemed so…foreign.
"That's what I wanted you to tell me." Obadiah, more seriously, leaned over the desk as he pretended to understand what he was looking at. "This has been passed from one department to another, trying to figure out if this was viable or not."
David, couldn't believe what he was looking over. This was a technology no one possessed any form of, not even the key principles behind it. It was theory manifested into an actual idea, an invention that would push humanity into a new technological age. It also meant a lot of money for whoever made it, hence why Obadiah was personally involving himself.
"So, is it doable?" The business man asked, incredibly eager to know if this was going to be their golden goose.
"I-I don't know." Flabbergasted, David swiped his hand over it as his desk began a digital scan to allow him to process the information directly into a rendering. The lines of the drawings rose in hovering lines, growing into a three dimensional space and forming into a torus with complicated machinery running through it. "We wouldn't know until we actually started trying to make it, but the application of the theory is sound, if only it didn't defy everything of what we already held as fact of energy conversion."
"Well, either way it sounds like we're going to want him involved." Obadiah leaned back, seeing David stumped for the first time ever. It was one thing to catch his eye, it would win you a nobel peace prize if you had him read over your entire work, but to confuse him with a schematic beyond anything he's done would win you favor of every nation on Earth.
"Who?" David ran through the hologram, fighting the urge to shake the answer out of the man. "Was it Samuel? No, it couldn't be him. What about Reed or Alexander? Were they behind this?"
Instead of answering directly, Obadiah pulled out his phone and showed David Shield the image of a blond person with fiery red eyes. Scratch that, someone who might not even be a teenager yet!
"I didn't want to say it while Melissa was in the room." Obadiah pulled up the contestant submission on the hologram for David to fully read from. "But, she might have actually lost that little contest you hold."
After David finally tore his eyes away from the photo and the design, he was willing to make an offer no one could refuse. "How soon can we get him here?"
Smirking at knowing his time wasn't wasted, Obadiah Stane mentally committed to having himself involved at the heart of this opportunity. "I have a limo on route as we speak."
Katsuki was sitting in his living room, scowling at the boy his age sitting across from him brandishing a rather nasty looking black eye. "So you lost."
"They had me cornered and outnumbered!" Izuku whined out as Mitsuki came around with a pack of ice to hand him. "I did as much as I could-"
"Did you break their legs?"
"WHAT?!"
"Katsuki!" His mother gave him a quick glare for daring to corrupt the sweet kid. "It's ok Izuku, you stood your ground and ran as soon as you could right?"
"Yes!"
"Did you at least leave them looking worse?"
Izuku was appalled by the level of violence the family deemed ok. "You know that I can't do that."
"Yes you fucking can." Katsuki corrected before getting a smack over the head. "Damn it hag!"
Luckily Mitsuki left them alone for a moment, heading to a separate room to grab a proper first aid kit. Groaning at the sore spot on his head, Katsuki eyed the scuffed up Izuku before him. "What makes you think you can get away with this?"
"Hey!" Izuku was quick to bring up a single fact that mattered. "They were trying to mug him! You and I both know that our records need to be clean to enter UA and if I left any bad injuries on them I could blow my chances!"
"I mean why do you think you can be a hero?"
"W-what?" A cold sinking feeling came over the boy as he hoped he heard his only friend wrong.
"You need to learn that heroes need to put down villains, not run away."
That, was relieving in a way. Katsuki had stopped bringing up his quirkless status, but he never showed any real confidence in him either. Izuku was extremely paranoid that there really was no one that believed he could be a hero, but so long as Katsuki brought up things he could actually work on he would always value their bond.
"Kacchan, I know. I haven't told my mom but school is really hard, because it feels like the teachers are always looking for a reason to get me in trouble, to hold me back from applying for a hero school. Even if I'm justified in fighting back, what does it matter if it's going to keep me from saving lives in the future?"
Mitsuki came back, pulling out the medical IPA as she smirked at Izuku's intelligence. "While it sucks, you're right. Just make sure to remember their names so you can go back and kick their asses once you're a hero."
"Tch." Katsuki couldn't stand it personally. Yeah he was aware of how stupid people could be sometimes, but he could think of thousands of ways of putting those punks in their place without getting caught. A hero beats the villains and makes sure they don't hurt anyone, and at this rate he couldn't see Izuku managing to get into any hero school.
Though, the idea of anyone quirkless becoming a hero seemed impossible. He was practically quirkless himself, worse than quirkless, so the odds of him actually becoming a hero?
"Oh hey!" Izuku pulled out one of his notebooks again. "I found some more stuff for our future hero gear! My mom and I went to an airshow recently and I think if we managed to integrate some of the stuff that-"
"Alert." Katsuki's home system went off. "An unknown person is approaching the front door."
"Background check." Katsuki immediately stated, the television turning on as they all watched as someone who looked like they were featured in Men in Black approached the front door. His person was highlighted, as was the car he arrived in.
Immediately the computer pulled up a quick summary, essentially it was some random guy who drove limos for a living for some high clientele. Very high clientele. An object was detected on his body that stood out, a remote holodisk? Oh damn that was the higher end model for satellite full body calls.
The man reached for the doorbell, but before he pressed it Mitsuki answered the door, having a worrying suspicion as to what this was about.
"Is Katsuki Bakugo here?" The man asked, almost mistaking the woman for the picture he was given of the boy. They looked rather similar.
"What do you want?" She demanded, but since they were obviously family the man knew he was in the right place.
"I work on behalf of I-island airlines private experiences, I have a call waiting right now for him with an offer." He held forward the envelope, Mitsuki eyeing it cautiously. She could call Masaru right now to get home, but Katsuki was already moving towards the door.
The driver saw the boy approaching, unable to help staring at the box he carted with him like it was an oxygen tank, it even had tubes leading up under his shirt but never reached his face. This might be a problem in case he was overly sensitive to elevation changes.
Katsuki eyed the fancy suit, seeing the letter in his hand before realizing that his opportunity was inside it.
"Kacchan." Izuku came up beside his best friend as he took the letter, feeling the metal inside of it. "Is that?"
"Don't know what else it could be." Katsuki eyed the limo in the road, unsure why they would expect him to come right away. Maybe that's just how I-island rolls, giving each contestant an immediate all expenses paid trip.
Hold on, the guy said a call waiting?
Ripping open the fancy paper, Katsuki marched over to the closest open space before placing it down on the ground.
"Katsuki." Mitsuki warned. "I think we should wait for your father to-"
A hologram shot out from the machine, before one man stood with a slight blue tint to his frame. David Shield himself.
"Ah, good." The man nodded in pleasure as he checked his watch. "You answered right away, I was hoping you would my schedule is rather-"
Then he noticed more about Katsuki, his home, his company, and most notably was the life support system next to the boy in question. "Katsuki Bakugo?"
"Yeah." He crossed his arms, ticked that even David Shield was distracted by his circumstances. "You flying me to I-island?"
"If this call ends the way I hope it does then yes." David nodded before a familiar design materialized around his palm. "As you might have guessed, I'm David Shield. I'm calling you live right now from I-island concerning your submission to our youth contest."
"Don't you just show up for the end to announce the winner?" Katsuki accused, suspicious about what exactly was going on.
"Normally, yes. But for several reasons we had to pull this particular design from the competition."
"WHAT?!" Katsuki roared, ready to stomp off the disc before Izuku held him back.
"Wait Kacchan!" The freckled boy easily pulled the weaker of them away from a regrettable action. "David Shield is calling you! Obviously they're not dismissing you!"
A little taken aback by the display, David Shield rolled with it. "Your friend is right, you see part of the reason for the contest is to let kids have a chance at getting noticed for their inventions, enough to let them get started despite their lack of finances."
"And?" Katsuki pulled himself out of Izuku's grip, giving a scowl up at the man.
"Well you're not like other kids." David Shield admitted, referencing again to the project hovering in his palm. "Katsuki Bakugo, did your parents help you make this?"
"No."
The man glanced up towards his mother, who had been oddly quiet and reserved this whole time. Yet now that he was looking to her for a response, she had to give one before she knew if it was for the best or not.
"Katsuki put in the work by himself. My husband and I made sure to let him grow at his own pace."
"So he's self taught?" David asked, even more surprised when he got a nod for yes. "Well color me impressed."
Giving his attention back to the kid who would shape the world, David Shield was ready to begin. "Katsuki Bakugo, after reviewing over your design for the "Arc Reactor
, we at I-island would like to extend an offer to have you flown in so we can begin building a prototype of it right away. As protocol for all accepted contestants, we're already submitted a patent under your name as the terms stated. But we'd like to offer more."
Katsuki rose an eyebrow as the man extended a hand towards him as if he was really there. "It would be my honor to offer you an immediate job directly under me for this project, and a long term position here at the island for any future projects you have in mind."
Katsuki hummed at the response, not yet showing any particular feeling towards what was presented in front of him. His mind was working it out, not letting him jump the gun quite yet.
"K-K-Kacchan!" Izuku was about to explode though. "Y-you can work with David Shield! Your career would be set for life! You could afford the upgrades to your heart implant and-"
"No." Katsuki answered firmly, freezing everyone.
Even Mitsuki could hardly believe what her son had said.
"U-um ok." David took his hand back. "Can't say I was expecting that, may I ask why you-?"
"I'm not going to work for you, or anyone." Katsuki clarified with his feet planted firmly. "Ever."
David questioned what kind of attitude the boy had after his short outburst. He tried to quickly think of a way to salvage this because he absolutely needed to work on this project. The arc reactor had too much promise just to fall into the archives.
Before he could think of any drastic ideas, Katsuki spoke up again. "But, I'll work with you."
"What?" David questioned, and luckily Katsuki was happy to clarify.
"I want my own business, be my own boss, and I'll work alongside I-island to make the prototype." The explosive boy announced, David running the offer over in his mind briefly. There was going to be more paperwork involved, but it was doable. They helped start many companies, usually under their own name but the potential of the arc reactor was worth the deal.
"I promise you." The scientist said resolutely. "I will do everything in my power to let you start your own company so that we can make the arc reactor. The details can be discussed when you arrive, but I recommend wasting no time. We have lots to discuss."
Hospitals were alike in many ways. Everything smelled like hand sanitizer, his skin kept itching for something, and the lights were always too bright. Katsuki was no stranger to them, he had to frequently visit them for all sorts of medication, check ups, just to make sure the machine attached to his heart was working.
This was the first time he looked forward to one.
The groggy sensation wasn't like the last time, his mind wasn't as muddled, his body wasn't in as much pain, and after a few blinks to wake himself up he actually felt fully aware of where he was and what was going on.
His parents were seated next to the window overlooking a shimmering chrome city, the ocean surrounding its great walls reflecting the sunlight as it rippled across the surface. Over to his right, David Shield with a couple other doctors were waiting expectantly, knowing when he would wake up and knowing his condition down to every cell.
"Welcome back." David greeted in person with a smile. "It may be too early to say but we are confident that the surgery was a success."
Glancing down the blankets, Katsuki didn't see a hunk of metal restraining him to the bed with a cold weight around him. Instead, he could see his scarred arms resting freely at his sides with a simple IV line into one of them. Almost immediately Katsuki reached down to the blanket, lifting it up to see a new set of bandages around his chest. No cables, no wires, just a cold metal inside of him with a pulsing soft light barely peeking out from the wrappings.
"Keep in mind this is entirely new technology." David told him as the other doctors were making their final notes. "I have dabbled in quirk enhancement technology before, and while the organs to your quirk aren't exactly functional it still is present in your body. So, by giving a boost to your quirk factor your body is actually being strengthened to support it. Don't expect to start doing a hundred push ups right away but after a couple weeks you should notice some vast improvements."
"Thank you so much." Mitsuki stood up, shaking the man's hand with a bright smile and glossy eyes. "You have no idea how much this means to us that Katsuki can be healthy again."
"It's my pleasure." David shook it back with the same vigor. "Katsuki never had to promise to work with me for me to offer the proper care."
"Speaking of which-" Katsuki was eager to get out of bed, to test himself, but a solid hand of his father kept him to simply sit up instead. "-I wanted to talk about my company."
"Yes." With a chuckle, David had learned that Katsuki was a very driven person and rather blunt. "Your father agreed to act as the CEO until you become of age, and a trust deposit has already been submitted to your account to use to grow it. Until you have your own facilities we'll continue to rent the room you need for no cost so long as you let us use a-"
"Yeah yeah we already talked about all of that." Katsuki's working memory just after surgery was a good sign that his body was already adjusting to the new medical technology. "I just want to make sure that the press doesn't know about it yet."
"No official announcement has been made yet." His father confirmed. "We can continue to hold them off thanks to I-island's tight security and press laws, but the longer we wait something might leak. Will you feel comfortable in a week to-"
"I feel good already." Katsuki swung his legs out of the bed, scaring the adults as he abruptly stood up. They anxiously held their hands out, ready to catch him should he fall. Instead, he walked, right up to the window with a renewed light in his eyes. "Better than ever."
"Then there's one last thing you need to think about then." Masaru spoke as he stood beside his son. "What are you going to call your company?"
Katsuki thought about this a lot, the perfect name to get him noticed, for the whole world to think of as they pictured his face. "Explosive Innovations."
"No." Then his mother shot it down right away. "Not even a weapons manufacturer would use that."
"It's my company!" Katsuki shouted right back at her. "I get to name it!"
"It won't just be yours though." Masaru calmly explained to him, expecting this response. "You're going to have lots of people working in your company, each with their own lives. That name is going to be a first impression, and lots of people stay clear from something if the first thing they learn about it is 'explosion'. Even if your reputation is perfect, people will expect your inventions to blow up."
"Tch." Katsuki hated when his ideas couldn't work because people were too stupid to accept them. "Fine."
He still wanted explosions involved. That's who he was, that's his quirk, and even if he couldn't use it he was going to blow away the world. Once his arc reactor project was up and running, it would spark a new energy race to….spark…just a weak little flicker for something bigger than itself.
Katsuki couldn't say it out loud, but he was weak. Even if the surgery was a success it just made him healthy again, not strong. His quirk was fried, he was weak, but he was still going to be at the top of whatever he set his mind to.
"Spark Industries." Katsuki finally announced, before he sent a daring look back at the others. "And that's final! I ain't gonna change it!"
Hey, this is something that's been in my head for a while and I need to punch out a few chapters for it to get back to my other projects. If you like it and want to see more, reviews motivate me a ton especially if they are detailed.
Now, if you have read any of my other stories you might have come across me not wanting to write anymore MHA content. Which was true for the most part, but honestly, I have always wanted to see a more Bakugo focused fic where he's the main character that wasn't smut.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I will be using Iron Man content alone for the story with maybe an occasional reference to something else. I thought about turning Izuku into a Captain America, Hulk, or a Spider-Man in this story but I want to keep this Iron Man focused and if I bring in anything other than that I feel it would take away from the theme.
Let me know where you see this story going or what you would look forward to.
Thanks for reading, see you in the next chapter.