HEY HEY! I'm reader-funded, and need your help to keep writing! If you like what you're reading and want to help out, see Z75 at the place of patrons. Patrons get to see updates a chapter ahead, suggest edits and changes before it goes live, and participate in polls to do things like choose the name of the next arc.
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Thank you for reading! -Zack, AKA: Z75, AAKA: everyone's favorite asshole
Do note this is a darker story than ROS. It doesn't seem that way on the surface, but that's the whole point. Everyone and everything visible on the surface, from the advertisements, all the way to Izuku himself, is puppeting along to the facade.
-Gilded Green-
"The independence of the Lunar colonies a decade ago was a major blow to the European economy, as well as our lift capacity. We got complacent, and became overly reliant on the lunar colonies being able to manufacture and launch satellites for a fraction of the cost from their much lower gravity.
They still are willing to do that for us, of course, but now there's always a significant upcharge. And the story is the same across the board, even the shuttles that take our people into space to our own stations above the atmosphere, are owned by the Lunarians.
The second space race that we won against China was a representation of modern Europe's claim to major power status. This is a matter of national prestige and geopolitical standing.
The other world powers are busy with their own problems, and even America has given up on space- perfectly content to spend all their time waging a perpetual crusade against a man who's been dead for decades.
This should be our chance to spring forward into even greater unknowns, and yet we're allowing ourselves to stagnate and decay!
We cannot allow ourselves to fall behind, especially not to our own former colonies!
Already there is talk comparing us to the old British Empire, and the Moon to a new America. Our rivals have begun to take us less seriously, and encroach on our sovereignty! This cannot stand!
I am not European by birth, and I know that being elected as head of this commission has caused some negative opinions. But hear me now, I am an astronaut, and proud of it. My home is not Japan, where I was born, my home is in the stars. And I will not allow those stars to slip from our grasp!
That is why I am proud to announce a partnership with someone who understands that the stars are humanity's birthright, and is willing to take the steps necessary to ensure they will forever remain in reach. Someone who has promised to rebuild Europe's space industry, and take us back to the stars!
I present to you, Izuku Midoriya, the head of Midoriya Industries, and his head engineer, the designer of the Aurora rocket herself, Melissa Shield!"
-Ochako Uraraka, retired astronaut known for her work on the mars missions, during a speech to the European Space Commission
-Gilded Green-
-Welcome to Midoriya Industries: Ch6-
Eri stood guard outside of Mr Midoriya's office, and tried not to listen to one of the few consistent things that could be heard through the room's thick door,
One of the arguments between the two big M's.
"NO! I won't stand for this! I won't accept it!"
"Melissa…"
"No, Izuku! I won't let something made by her be mass produced on our island!"
"Look, I know that you and Mei are having one of your frenemy rough spots-"
"That woman is my eternal rival!"
"-but she just happened to be a part of the team, it's not her design!"
"I don't care! I won't let you do anything that puts a single dime in the pocket of that jury rigging, idea stealing, dumpster diving, raccoon of a woman! Let me make my own plane, it'll be ours with a big M on the side, and we can sell it to the world! I'll put that stupid cloaking bomber jet to shame, just watch!"
"Melissa. My love. My golden star." Izuku sighed. "Please don't put your reputation as an inventor on the line trying to make a better plane than Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works. That has historically gone badly for everyone who's tried."
"They're a mental institution disguised as a RND team!"
"Which is why they hired Mei instead of you! This is the team that skimmed funding to try and build a fusion reactor to save electricity costs, the team that somehow cracked the code to making radar invisible aircraft using a scottish physics paper written in the 1800s. You wouldn't fit in, you're far too stable, please don't be jealous about missing the clown car."
"I'm not jealous!" Melissa shouted, clearly jealous about not even getting an invitation to one of the world's most prestigious development teams. "I just know I can make a better plane than them!"
"I'm not saying you couldn't make something impressive, but putting aside the fact you'd be competing with Skunkworks in their own game on their own turf, America only buys American designs. You don't understand how many phone calls I had to make to even get this deal on my desk!"
"But it's hers!"
"Think of it like we're thumbing our noses at them. The Americans have said they're willing to buy the design from Lockheed and license it to us for production, as long as we're willing to pay for the license as a mark off of the final price of each vehicle. If this goes through, it'll be a public admission by the world's biggest military power that we can produce Lockheed's own design faster and cheaper and better than they could."
Melissa didn't respond, and Eri could easily picture the reluctant face she was making as she mulled the thought over.
"This is the American military, they're the biggest customer in the world who casually sign off on checks larger than the GDP of entire Countries, and this is our chance to hook them as a customer while simultaneously breaking into the aerospace industry. If you want to beat not just Mei, but the entire American Military Industrial Complex, we need to play the long game, and we can't do that without a foot in the door."
"...Fine." Melissa huffed, clearly still not liking the idea. "But I'm going to build my own aircraft! It's going to be a hundred times better than that flying hunk of junk, and countries all over the world will buy it!"
"And our company will have the experience from manufacturing the F67 to do it well, and airframe factories that we can repurpose for your vehicle. Melissa, I'm on your side here. Trust me."
"...I'll trust you, but you better put in the effort to make it up to me tonight."
There were some sounds from inside the room of cloth rustling and chair scraping that could have been anything from the two hugging, to Melissa climbing on the table for something less PG.
Eri stared forward, arms crossed behind her back, her face a perfect picture of professionalism, that was only ruined by her massive blush from the sloppy make out sounds leaking through the door.
Damn procalls. She would turn off her ears if it wouldn't be a massive security risk.
A minute later the door opened and Melissa rushed out at a speed just under a jog, muttering about drones, cloaking technology, jet engines, and retractable missile launchers.
Eri smoothly took a step over to close the door so it wouldn't slam shut from its weight, but just as she grabbed the handle a voice stopped her.
"Ms Hassaikai, could I speak to you for a moment?"
"Of course sir!" Eri stepped into the room and stood at attention in front of Izuku's desk. "What can I help you with Mr Midoriya?"
As the door closed, sealing them from any prying eyes, Izuku allowed his business mask to drop.
"Oh, please don't bother with that. We're not in public, I've told you to just call me Izuku." The Green haired man waved her off as he leaned back in his leather office chair.
He looked good for someone only a scant few years from his 40s, but his notorious refusal to go to a doctor for anything short of life threatening, and the stress from his position made his age much more visible than it should have been.
His jacket and hat were hanging on the back of his chair, and the top of his shirt had been undone by Melissa, and the high collar that was a feature on everything he wore was popped open.
Eri pointedly avoided looking at the slightly discolored scar on his neck that he had gotten from his mother nearly strangling him as a child. Other than the high collars Izuku never went out of his way to hide it, but it was an understandably awkward subject to bring up.
"I wanted to talk to you about your new assignment. Leading the guard's attack on a terrorist group is a big step up from working security around my building, do you think you're up to the task?"
"Absolutely, sir! My training has covered everything I could need to know, and the Commander has personally seen to it that I'm fully capable of serving as his right hand. Truthfully I have been ready to deploy for some time, but Commander was worried people might not take me seriously due to my age, so he decided to wait a few years, until I was 19, and used the time to specialize my training even further."
"I could see how that might have been an issue." Izuku shrugged, unconcerned. "As you know, I don't have much input on your training, career, or your hardware. I've left that up to Bakugo and Melissa, respectively, and I trust their judgment on the matter."
Izuku picked up the mug of coffee on his desk and took a sip.
"What instructions has Bakugo left for you to follow?"
"We're preparing for a full scale assault, sir. The moment the Commander sends back a target, or our investigators discover a lead, I will fall upon it with the full might of Atlas island!"
"Oh?"
"These terrorists won't know what hit them! I'll make the Muts pay for all the men and women injured during the riots! That's why you made the guard the way it is, right? It was only a matter of time before these animals exploited the freedom you gave them!" Eri declared with righteous fury formed from lifelong indoctrination by both the Yakuza and the Guard.
Izuku winced, and cut her off. "That's not why the guard is so well equipped."
He put his mug down on the desk with a thunk.
"With metas you just have to be a bit more, you know… they need a heavier hand to keep them steady. A few police officers with nothing more but the ability to issue tickets and a plastic stick can keep an entire town of normal people in line. Meanwhile we need something short of a full blown military for the same effect. Metas are stronger, faster, and sturdier than humans. A police baton is like a pool noodle to them, you have to step up the force for the same effect.
"Furthermore, their powers are directly wired into the part of the brain that is responsible for emotional stimulus. Meta abilities are heavily controlled by, and strengthened by raw emotion. As a consequence of this, Muts are much more prone to emotional outbursts, and when pushed are much more likely to act on base animalistic instinct rather than logic and higher reasoning…"
Izuku trailed off, a far look in his eye as he ran a hand over his throat. "My mother made sure to teach me that…"
Then he blinked and seemed to remember who it was he was talking to.
"Of course, I mean no offense when I say that! It's biology, it's scientific fact, no one can help the way they're born."
"Of course, sir. Everyone knows that, the fact we need such a heavily armed guard proves it. Humans evolved from animals, we thrived because our lack of strength made us rely on our intelligence. Muts are born with strength, evolution predicts that biologically they are less inclined to use their intelligence." Eri sneered. "If it were up to me, they would all be leashed."
"Is that so? I'm glad you understand the science at least." Izuku sweatdropped at how far she wanted to go, but if he was unnerved at the fact Eri was willingly describing herself as less than human, he didn't show it.
"That's what I admire about you and Bakugo. You're metas, true, but you were both raised with a firm hand, and have learned, with incredible effort, to control your nature rather than letting it control you. You have climbed to the level you are at now in spite of that part of you, and that makes all your achievements more impressive in my eyes."
Izuku tapped his finger on his desk meaningfully.
"Other people might not see that, but I do. You're inherently different to the vagabonds down in the factories. You made yourself more."
Eri preened at the praise like a dog.
"Sorry for getting off track. I ramble when no one stops me." Izuku apologized. "I have high hopes for your tenure in the guard, and I look forward to one day pinning a medal on your chest for something amazing you'll do."
"Sir, yes sir!" Eri saluted with a wide grin before excusing herself from the room. Her head was spinning with ideas, and she was practically bouncing with energy, more than eager to make that vision of a medal a reality.
She would make these filthy animals bleed for what they had done.
-Gilded Green-
"This is just my fucking luck." Bakugo grumbled under his breath as he watched security forces take control of the crime scene.
A squad of Melissa's S1 security droids surrounded the perimeter, with several S2s standing guard at choke points- keeping anyone from approaching with the floodlights on their sounders and the heavy guns built into their right arms. There was even an S3, rumbling around on its caterpillar treads, and scaring the Heebie-jeebies out of anyone nearby.
Flesh and blood guards were much rarer this far out on the island.
If some drunk factory worker, pissed at their lot in life, decided to drag an S1 into an alleyway and rip it apart with their quirk, that was inconvenient. If they did it to a guard, it was a tragedy.
(The droids also helped massively cut down the instances of abuse and brutality that often cropped up with the much less professional, and less trained, guard regiments of the outer districts. But no one liked to talk about that.)
An APC rolled up to the scene and a group of guards from the upper districts walked off the ramp, escorting a detective from central in a pristine coat with a fedora. When people from central got involved, that's when you knew it was serious.
This was a massive bust that would be on the headlines for weeks to come, and would undoubtedly make the career of the guardsman that he'd tipped off and slipped a folder of evidence to, but it also wasn't Bakugo's target.
"Follow the money. That's what they say to do in every single crime movie! It's in all the real documentaries, even!"
He'd pulled rank on the company bank, and gotten ahold of a ton of confidential files that he poured over looking for marked instances of counterfeit company scrip and suspicious transfers.
A full two weeks of on the ground investigation, pulling all-nighters, chasing leads, only to bust a completely unrelated drug operation that had nothing to do with New Dawn. In any other situation it would have been a massive feather in his cap, but right now all he could think about was that it was time he had wasted not stopping terrorists from getting closer to their next victims.
"God fucking damn it man, I thought I had it!"
"HALT."A mechanical voice commanded at max volume, as an S1 marched over to Bakugo. It was a thin and scrappy thing, designed to be cheaply mass produced, and was covered in rust spots and water stains from years of use. "ALL PERSONS NOT EMPLOYED IN SECURITY FORCES ARE TO VACATE THE CRIME SCENE IMMEDIATELY."
Bakugo raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the electric shock gun in the droid's hands. This wasn't even one of the much heavier armored S2s that had built in weapon systems, he could probably put it out of its misery with one good punch, if he wanted to.
"Yeah, yeah, I got the message, I'm leaving."
He flipped the droid off, and sulked away, kicking a can that was littering on the ground just for good measure.
-Gilded Green-
"I fucking hate this job." Setsuna grumbled through grit teeth as she slowly shimmied her way down the tight squeeze of the massive furnace's exhaust pipe.
It was a repeat of the exact same situation she was in a few days ago, when she originally was hired to fix the wiring. Her hand led the way, hopping down the claustrophobic metal tunnel with a tiny flashlight pinched between two fingers, and a screwdriver between two others. Her head shimmied after it with half a toolbelt gripped in her teeth.
This time though, the toolbelt had a replacement capacitor in it.
"What's taking so long? Hurry it up! I needed this thing operational days ago!" Mr Hikiishi screamed from the outside, and it was a testament to how loud he was that she could hear him through all the heating insulation inside the steel mill.
Setsuna flipped him off with the hand still attached to her body outside, pretty confident he wasn't looking that way, and continued deeper into the massive machine.
Since she already found the problem last time, it didn't take long to get back to the same spot, and get to work.
Less than ten minutes later, the fried capacitor was removed, a new one was inserted and connected to the wires she replaced last time, and the panel was screwed back shut. She thought it was pretty impressive, considering she literally only had a single detached hand to work with.
Her boss was far less impressed.
"HURRY UP TOKAGE, OR I'M DOCKING YOUR PAY!"
"I just finished, assshole! Just give me some time to get out!"
She shouted at Mr Hikiishi and began the long and annoying process of shimmying her head out of the machinery. She'd done this with dozens of different machines before, but going through this specific exhaust pipe had to suck the most. She wound up just coated in ash and soot.
She also hated this pipe because of how tight it was. It almost seemed to be even tighter than it was last time, and that wouldn't be impossible, either. Metal continuously exposed to extreme heat had a tendency to warp, and this was the exhaust vent of a massive steel oven.
But she pushed away that horrible horrible thought, and refused to think about it until it was confirmed in the worst way possible.
As she came to a bend in the piping, she tried to squeeze her head through, only to find that she didn't fit. She tried to pull backwards, but she didn't budge, she even desperately pulled on her hair with her hand to no avail.
She could try splitting her head into pieces, but there was a reason she'd never tried that before- it sounded like a terrible idea! And if it somehow was safe, the only way she had of testing it was by potentially permanently lobotomizing herself. Or just dying immediately. Death was also a possibility from splitting your brain into chunks!
Fuck her life! She was so close, she could see the light!
After several more minutes of trying and failing to get free, Setsuna finally was forced to accept reality.
She was stuck. Really stuck.
"Hey, uh, boss?" She called out, coughing from the ashy dust. "I think I'm stuck."
…
"No."
There was some shuffling outside, and the distant light cut off, presumably from Hikiishi looking into the pipe from the end.
"There's no way your fucking stuck. You managed to get down there in the first place, just do it again!"
"I had more leverage going down than I do going upwards."
"This isn't fucking happening. I have time for this!" Hikiishi shoved as much of his fat arm into the pipe as he could manage, but Setsuna was so far down she couldn't even see his fingers.
"I know some maintenance guys that have cheap prices, they helped me when I got stuck back when I first came to the island."
Hikiishi crossed his arms and scowled at the machine. Not only had the dumb mut constantly given him lip and disrespected him, she also took forever doing her work, which is why he had to pay her per project instead of per hour. She hadn't even managed to fix the damn thing the first time!
This wasn't some dinky machine, this was a massive, cutting edge piece of industrial equipment. He'd taken out a loan to buy this thing, put most of his savings down on it, and now she had gotten stuck in the exhaust pipe.
To get her out he'd have to disassemble the protective casing, and cut the entire damn back of it open.
That was thousands of dollars down the drain repairing it, at least a full week of maintenance, and that was on top of what he was losing every second it wasn't turned on!
…
That's what it always came down to, huh? The dollars.
People above him that he had to pay, people below him he had to pay, hungry walls squeezing him from both sides. He learned a long time ago that if he wanted to survive, his only option was to squeeze back.
He jammed his thumb into the large red button on the control panel, and the machine lurched as it hummed to life.
"Hey! HEY! What are you doing!?"
"You're in the exhaust pipe, when I start a new batch you'll get blown out."
"I'LL GET FRIED TO A FUCKING CRISP!"
"The employee fatality fine and safety violation fees will be cheaper than the alternative, and I have debt collectors from central knocking on my door already. I really can't afford to lose anymore."
"You mother fucker, don't you dare! NO! DON'T TOUCH ME! STOP!"
Hikiishi pinned Setsuna's body to the chair as she tried to get up, and began tying her up with a rope to keep her from attacking him in desperation.
"HELP! HELP! HEEEELP!"
Trapped in the cramped, claustrophobic nightmare of the exhaust pipe, Setsuna could only cry uselessly as the metal heated up around her and she felt the disgusting fat pig that employed her give himself a free pass to her helpless body.
"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
-Gilded Green-
Bakugo wandered around through the industrial district in a bad mood. No new leads had shown themselves today, and everything relating to his previous evidence turned out to be a dead end.
Dejectedly he was making his way towards the bar that had become his nightly stop before heading back to central. It was a good place to pick up on gossip and rumors, and it also was helping him learn how to fit in better down here. (also it scratched his thirst for that disgusting orange alcohol, but that was obviously not the reason he kept going back.)
"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
Bakugo's head shot up, and before he even realized it his years of guard training had him running towards the sound of the scream. Without even thinking he kicked down a fire exit door into the back of a factory and rushed in.
The place must have been closed for the day, because despite the immense size of the building there were no workers to be found.
"HELP!"
"Oh, stop screaming lady, you're just making this harder than it needs to be."
Bakugo leapt over belts, ran between massive hydraulic presses, and ducked under enormous ladles designed to hold molten metal.
The place was a metalworking factory of some sort, and he soon found himself at the heart of it when he stumbled upon the central furnace itself.
Immediately his eyes locked onto a man molesting a woman tied to a chair, and his boiled at the sight.
Bakugo's fist collided with the side of the man's face, and sent him sprawling onto the floor.
"Are you alright? Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of… here?" He ripped off the woman's bindings and helped her up, only to realize the woman he had presumably saved was missing a head.
"IS SOMEONE OUT THERE!? PLEASE! I'M IN HERE! I'M STUCK IN THE PIPES!"
His head turned, and sure enough, the voice was coming from the machine.
A mechanic would have been slow, precise, and careful.
All Bakugo knew was that the machine was humming louder as it turned on, and there was someone trapped in it, so he was the opposite of all those things.
"Wait, no!" Hikiishi was helpless as he watched Bakugo brace his hands against his machine and blast the siding off in a single explosion.
"Please no! That's everything I have!" Hikiishi cried in desperation.
"What the fuck is happening!?" Setsuna shouted from inside, as she was rattled around like a pinball.
Bakugo ignored both of them, as he ripped out all the loose pieces and threw them behind him, then blasted his way further in with another explosion, and repeated the cycle.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.
Without his suit's gauntlets to store up reserves to draw on, it took six blasts to turn half of the massive machine into slag.
As he went, he slammed his fist against anything that looked vaguely pipe like, trying to figure out where the woman was.
Thunk Thunk.
Setsuna's head shook as something smacked against the outside of the exhaust pipe.
"I'm in here! I'm in here!"
Bakugo grabbed the metal tube tightly with both hands, braced his foot against the machine, and pulled with everything he had until it ripped free with a mighty crash.
He reached inside, grabbed a fistfull of what he assumed was hair, and slowly pulled a decapitated head out of the pipe, which was followed by a hand tumbling to the ground after it.
She looked terrible. Her skin and hair were completely stained black from the soot, she was gasping for breath, her eyes were red from crying, and messy tears mixed with snot as it ran down her face.
It took a few moments, but he recognized her from her unique teeth, and from the look in her eyes, she recognized him too.
"You're the green girl from the bar, who always sits next to me."
"What have you done!?" Hikiishi screeched as he gripped his hair so hard he ripped out chunks of it. "Do you have any idea how much that cost me!?"
Bakugo ignored him in favor of carrying Setsuna's head and hand over to her body, where he was thankfully able to reattach them by just putting them back in place.
"Are you listening to me!?"
"Honestly, no. Fuck off." Bakugo glared at the factory owner, shielding the girl from him with his body.
"I'll have you buried in so many lawsuits, you won't be able to see over the paperwork!"
"After what I saw here, I'd like to see you fucking try!" Bakugo snapped at him. "My name's Bakugo Katsuki, report me to whoever the fuck you want. I'll drag it straight up to the top and have you ripped apart!"
And he meant it.
Magne Steel wasn't just going to be shut down for good, he'd have the vultures in central rip it apart limb from limb as they cannibalized it from the inside out and stripped it for every single penny they could squeeze from it. He could already see the fake smiles and hungry eyes as they pushed forward piles of legal paperwork that might as well be a written death certificate to the man's livelihood.
Hikiishi screamed at him some more before pulling out his phone and retreating back into his office, clearly about to fall for the bait.
Bakugo continued what he had been doing by ignoring him, and carefully walking Setsuna outside
"Thank you." She sniffled, as she clung to him tightly. "I was- I-I thought-"
"It's okay now. You're safe." Bakugo patted her awkwardly on the back in what he hoped was a comforting way. "You know, you've been verbally abusing me at the bar for almost a week now, but I don't think I've gotten your name yet. I practically spelled out my full legal name to that guy back there, so you know mine. Can I get something to call you?"
"It wasn't abuse, it was the truth." The mutant laughed weakly. "All I ever did was call you out on your bullshit, and tell you you're shit at holding your drink."
"I can hold my alcohol fine, thank you very much."
"A full week down here in Industrial, and you're still shit at lying. It's almost impressive."
"That's still not a name."
"...My name's Setsuna." She answered softly, vulnerably. "Setsuna Tokage."
Bakugo grabbed her by the hand, and led her into a nearby alleyway. It was a grimy thing walled in by rusting pipes, the air stung with the acidic stench of chemicals and oil, and the only light came from a single flickering street lamp, but it gave them privacy.
Setsuna leaned against the wall and began cleaning her face with her shirt, and it was only then that the full weight of the situation finally set in.
"I'm fucked. I'm so, utterly, FUCKED!"
"Hey now, you're completely in the clear. All that damage was on me, there's no way that fuckwad can get any of that pinned on you."
"No, you don't understand. That was my job! My income! I just lost it, and I didn't even get paid for that final project! It's the end of the month, rent and bills are coming up, and if I can't pay them I lose my apartment!" She cried out. "I'm FUCKED!"
Bakugo winced. That was pretty bad, he hadn't thought about the problems blowing the machine up might cause for the person he was rescuing.
He needed to say something.
"Uhhh…"
Crap, why was he so shit at talking to women? Oh right, because he was an angsty edgelord as a kid who never bothered to develop any social skills.
"Well, luckily for you, I have money and am looking for some services, and you are in a perfect position to help me."
Setsuna stared at him blankly for a few seconds, processing his clunky words, before she realized what he meant.
Her gut twisted. A lead weight settled in her stomach. She felt like she was going to be sick, and wanted to throw up. But with no other options in front of her, Setsuna forced herself to swallow her pride and her dignity, knowing she'd never get them back, and sunk to her knees.
Maybe she could make it quick?
"Woah! Woah! Woah! Back off!" Bakugo slapped her hand away as she reached for his zipper. "That's not what I fucking meant at all! Get back up. Please."
Setsuna blinked at him and stood back up, looking confused, while Bakugo struggled to even look her in the eye with how bad he was blushing.
"I was going to pay you for info, and some help, not… that. Do you know about the group New Dawn?"
"You mean those terrorists that brought the wrath of Midoriya himself down on the lower districts, and made our lives Hell?" Setsuna eyed him cautiously. "Yeah I know about them. What's it to you?"
"I'm looking for them- Not to join!" Bakugo quickly added as her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"The fuck other reason would you be looking for them then!? They're bad news! Those fuckers set that fire! They cost people jobs, and homes, and brought the guard down on our heads!"
He hesitated for a moment, wondering how much he should tell her. "Look, I'm with the guard. I'm a… investigator for the security forces. They think that since I'm a mut, I'll be able to get closer to them easier." He popped a spark in his hand for effect.
"You're with the guard?" Setsuna backed off, looking much less likely to stab him, and suddenly a lot more nervous.
"Yeah."
"Oh. Okay. Okay. Haha." Sets choked out a dry and humorless laugh. "I've been harassing an undercover cop at the bar for the past week. Fuck my life."
Her mind wandered to the times she'd seen people dragged off the streets by the guard, accused of some minor crime, and then beaten to a pulp while trying to get a confession.
"H-Hey, no hard feelings right? I was just trying to be friendly."
"You're fine, you were just having fun. I suffer way worse grilling by my coworkers, anyway. You're not in any trouble at all." Bakugo tried to calm her down. "If anything it's the opposite. I want to hire you, like I said before about paying you."
"Hire me?"
"The fact is, I don't fit in down here. I need someone who knows how this area works. I can do all the investigating and fighting, I just need someone to be my cultural translator and help keep my cover. I'll pay you for your work, and if you do a good job, I'll see about getting you hired on an entry level job in the security forces. I'll even vouch for you myself."
He wanted her to do dirty work for the guard. The guard. He wanted to pay her to be a rat, and sell out people who had been struggling on these streets the same as her. He wanted to pay her to sell them out to Midoriya Industries.
That was… There were stories about people who did that, and none of them ended happily when word inevitably got out.
But she couldn't lie…The offer was tempting. It was a chance to get her foot into the door of one of the few jobs in this damned district that paid well, it was a shot at escaping poverty, it was a chance at a better life.
…Besides, it was the New Dawn that had made life unbearable recently. They were the ones who burnt down water treatment facilities and apartment blocks just to take out a few big factories. It was their stunt that caused the harsh crackdown in the first place, and squeezed out any semblance of peace. The curfew, the increased patrols, the new cameras, the checkpoints, the frequent searches on anyone deemed suspicious, that was all on them.
A storm raged inside her, one of old scars, buried feelings, conflicting loyalties, and a sickeningly sweet glimmer of hope for something better.
Bakugo waited silently, sensing the weight of her decision.
After what felt like an eternity, Setsuna took a deep breath, the bitterness of the alleyway filling her lungs, and nodded.
She chose to help.
"Okay. I'll do it. What's the plan?"
She chose to gamble on a risky and uncertain future that, at the very least, was full of possibilities.
-Gilded Green-
Across the island from Bakugo and Setsuna, on the other side of the Industrial district ring, the investigation into New Dawn was going much less peacefully.
One of the prisoners had cracked under interrogation, and a hideout had been located.
The guard was called to action immediately, without any of the investigation or scouting that was done before deployment. They were instead instructed to act quickly and ruthlessly, to prevent anyone from slipping the net.
Restrictions on certain weapons were lifted, and protocol on the use of force was loosened.
The message was clear. These terrorists had gone too far and earned the ire of Midoriya himself, they would not be tolerated even a moment longer.
Armored personnel carriers formed two separate rings that surrounded several blocks, a helicopter circled the area with its flood light illuminating the buildings, and small aerial drones combed the area with thermal cameras.
Dozens of S2s and over a hundred S1s surrounded a massive abandoned factory. They marched forward without hesitation, and without fear, slowly tightening the noose. When one fell, two more stepped over its broken body.
Any of the Dawn members in the factory that dared to fire back out of a window or one of the numerous holes in the walls, were immediately focused on with the concentrated fire of hundreds of guns.
Behind that wall of mechanical death, a group of 40 guardsmen were preparing for a raid into the building. They were equipped with some of the most recent armor from Melissa's lab, and were running checks on a wide assortment of personalized heavy weaponry.
Standing a few feet away from them was someone who appeared almost otherworldly.
Even putting aside the whole "two thirds robot" thing, Eri stood out like a sore thumb.
The standard guard uniform was a dull gray with the only exceptions being for marks to show rank, and the green Midoriya Industries logo on their left shoulder. Something something color theory, something something blends in, something something it's supposed to be neutral and both non aggressive and non calming.
Eri, however, was dressed in a full bleached white outfit that matched her hair- a foil to Krieg's full black outfit. Her gear was also very thin and light, prioritizing speed and mobility while relying on her subdermal armor and quirk to shrug off damage.
She also wore a large, hoodless, white cloak that was a decent, if suspicious, attempt to conceal her cybernetic nature from onlookers. It was made of durable material that offered decent protection against small arms fire. It wrapped around her and fell all the way to her ankles.
Eri snapped her fingers to get the squad commander's attention, and when that didn't work she hijacked his helmet's radio and spoke directly into his ear.
"Call off the raid."
The man jumped and looked around in confusion, before realizing what happened and turning to her with a frown..
"Call it off? And do what instead? Let them go?"
"Have your men stay back and ensure no one escapes. The droids are coming with me, I'm taking care of this alone."
"Miss, please be rational. The droids are, well, they're stupid. They're good for nothing but cannon fodder. My men are trained professionals that-"
"Are you questioning me, sergeant? Need I remind you that I'm operating under the direct orders of General Krieg? Until the Commander returns, my orders are his orders."
He opened his mouth to say something, but thought better, and turned away with a scowl. The sergeant muttered under his breath as he walked away from her, well past the point of what any normal human would be able to hear, but thanks to Eri's implants, she picked it up clearly.
"A Mut AND a Cyborg AND she's a Bitch. You cannot make this shit up."
It was insubordination and insulting of a superior officer. If he had said that to any other person higher than him, let alone Krieg, he would have been demoted and made an example out of.
But Eri ignored it. He was right. It was deserved. Which was why she had to do this alone, and make a name for herself. She would earn their respect.
She would prove she was better than these animals.
She connected to the network and sent out a request straight to the top for control of the Droids on site, which Melissa approved without hesitation from wherever she was holed up in her lab.
Eri climbed up atop an APC, her long bone white hair standing out in stark contrast to the rust and iron gray of the massive factories around her.
And with a single unspoken command, the firing went quiet.
-Gilded Green-
-Arc: Welcome to Midoriya Industries: End-
Btw, Skunkworks is a real RND branch in Lackheed Martin, and they are basically Mei IRL. "Skimming funding to try and build a fusion reactor to save electricity costs. Somehow making radar invisible aircraft using a scottish physics paper written in the 1800s." Those are real things that they actually did.
I shall now quote the most accurate description I have ever head of Skunkworks.
"Lockheed drove around America, in a van, collecting every sort of mentally unstable genius they could find. If you'd ever been questioned by the authorities for trying to build a nuclear reactor in your bedroom when you were twelve, if you'd built a rocket and tried to launch your old school hampster into space, if you were the kind of person that spent all their time building paper airplanes while obsessing over the design until they could fly hundreds of meters, then Lockheed was rapidly approaching your location. They took all these "aircraft" engineers with questionable levels of sanity, dumped them into a circus tent, painted a large cartoon skunk on the front, and watched to see what they would do."
This team then went on to design some of the most iconic aircraft to ever fly in the modern age.
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
We also got a bit of a peek into Izuku's brain. Again, he's not a cartoonishly evil villain here, he has logically sound reasoning- biased and flawed though it may be.
What makes it worse is that he's not wrong. Quirks do make traditional policing unviable on a large scale- in canon they've been almost entirely replaced with Heroes for the same reason.
In this AU, where quirks are common enough to be feared and cause a problem, but not common enough for something like Heroes to be viable… yeah, things are rough.
Please comment and leave your thoughts and ideas, if you want more! Community interaction is what drives me to write, and nothing slows me down more than radio silence.