Super Science
Ch 21: A Group of Trouble
"Woah! This place is huge!", Kirishima exclaimed while looking at the huge building before them.
Before him, alongside the entirety of classes 1-A and B, was the newly constructed marvel that was The Neo Icon Phoenix Research Facility. Tall white walls made of stone, windows so large they became a wall, decorative plants, two above-ground streams that had an inner connection with one another two large man-made ponds that houses a plethora of koi fish that shimmered as they swam in the light, and a sign on the overhead archway that lead into the front of the building with massive doorways. On the sign was the facility's name alongside its mascot, a Dodo bird.
Apart from the two classes and their respective homeroom teachers, chaperoning them was Present Mic and the principal of UA himself Nezu.
"It looks like a collage.", Jiro pointed out.
"Most laboratories double as universities.", Iida informed her.
"Looks kinda plain.", Sero stated unimpressed.
"That's the point.", Mina side-checked him.
As they all admired the building, the heckler of 1-B, Momona, came up to the class and began to jeer them as he usually does at any chance he gets.
"Ha! Of course, you low-grade 1-A welts can't understand the majesty and simplicity of such a structure! If you need a dictionary to expand your minuscule minds I'll be happy to!", He began to vex them until their class president came up behind them and karate-chopped them on the back of the neck causing him to black out.
"Shut up Momona!", Kendo scolded him while slinging him over her shoulder and walking away with him as she said, "We're no better. Pony just started crying and asking if this place was Auschwitz. Whatever that is."
Momona tried to squeak out something but couldn't through his half-conscious state. As 1-A watched this unfold, Uraraka, who just got off the bus, said something that caught all their interest.
"I know this place! My parents' construction business built it.", She stated nonchalantly.
Before anyone could inquire further. Principal Nezu grabbed their attention'.
"Alright alright settle down.", He called out, making everyone go quiet as he said, "Now I want all of you to be respectful and well-behaved. Professor Crystallo has been gracious enough to allow access to his building for your hero training. So you are to listen to him and his staff as if they were a teacher or UA."
"Yes sir.", All the students said in unison.
"Principal Nezu.", Momo called while raising her hand. "Why were we all made to sign a waiver before coming here and wearing these wristbands?", She asked while pointing to the metallic devices on each of their hands.
"Professor Crystallo does a lot of top-secret work that the public is not supposed to know about. So what you see here today, you are not allowed to speak a word of it until it has been revealed to the public. As for the wristbands, they act as tractors In case any of you get lost while wandering the building.", Nezu explained.
"That's also why we confiscated your phones for the time being.", Blood Vlad told them as he and Eraserhead held small bags filled with the teens' phones.
Mina blew a raspberry and with a wave of her hand stated nonchalantly, "Oh come on Sensi. Don't you think you might be overreacting a little bit? We're not children."
All the adults stared at the pink girl with half-lidded expressions of exasperation. All apart from Nezu who was smiling with hands together as he told her, "Ms Ashido, the day you got into UA you made over 37 posts about the school with varying pictures….in one day."
"It was 38.", She argued back in a pout.
"My point still stands.", Nezu declared.
"I get that whatever they do here is top secret, but what could they possibly be doing? It's not like the public is smart enough to understand half of the fancy science stuff that goes on here.", Tokoyami interjected with logic.
"How about I just show you!", A voice called out as all heads turned to the front of the building where they saw Egon riding on the tusks of Gammoth as she teared up and trumpeted loudly. "Welcome students of UA to the Neo Icon Phoenix Research Facility!", Egon welcomed the students as the mammoth carefully walked down the steps and lowered the man.
"N.I.P.? NIP? You called this place NIP?", Kaminari stated aloud.
Egon looks at the teen with an expression mixed with disbelief and flabbergasted as he replies bluntly, "I stroll in on an extinct animal and that's what you take away from this?"
"Holy shit is that a wooly mammoth!", Shouted someone from the large crowd.
Egon snapped his fingers and exclaimed, "That's the reaction I was looking for! And yes! Yes, she is!"
"Now I understand the waiver.", Momo says to her friends as they nod without taking their eyes off the mammoth.
Egon pets the huge animal's trunk as he rumbles with happiness and says, "This here is Gammoth, one of our first experiments and no I will not tell you how we did it."
"I don't know if I feel comfortable being in a place like this. Seeing as they have no respect for life and trying to play god. Especially for creating…that.", Ibara states aloud with displeasure.
"Well, it was bound to happen eventually, little missy. We're just the first to do so. And if you don't want to be here you don't have to be. No one is forcing you.", Egon offers.
Ibara looks ready to accept that offer until Momona seemingly manages to sway her decision, making her stay.
Watching the teens stare at Gammoth in silence for a long uncomfortable amount of time, he exclaimed, "Well don't just stand there gawking with mouths agape in awe. Get in here! You, little heroes, have a nasty villain plan to stop! But many clues were left at many scenes of crimes. So you better find them and figure out what they're up to before it's too late."
Momona, on point as usual, goes to the front, stands before Egon, and loudly and proudly proclaims while laughing, "No need to fret Professor Egon, for the glory of class 1-B will outshine and show up 1-A. And then you and your lab will see without a doubt how much better we are at overachieving in any task given!"
Egon blinks at the boy with proud sparkles around him, not noticing Kendo marching her way up to chop him down again.
Only for the man to state coldly, "Wow. I've never cared about anything less in my entire life."
Momona appeared to freeze up and shatter on the spot while Kendo halts in her tracks! Everyone stares in shock at his response as Egon's smile shifts into an unamused expression, to which Momona falls to pieces right in front of him.
One person from the crowd whistled and then said in a low tone, "Savage."
Kendo picks up the broken boy and Egon motions for all of them to come inside. The teens do so, unnervingly quiet, as Gammoth moves away from the steps to drink from the shimmering fish ponds. As all the teens move past the professor with hurried steps, Nezu walks up to him and strikes up a conversation.
"My my, when you called me back that day and told me you do some unusual things here, I didn't think you meant this.", he told him with an impressed tone while looking over the extinct animal.
"Is it wise to be showing this to teenagers?", Aizawa asks in a monotone yet serious tone.
"Hey if I'm gonna make an impression, it might as well be a splash. And besides, the public gonna come to learn of what we do soon.", Egon argues back with a nonchalant shrug. "Though if you think the mammoth is a surprise, just wait till you meet the chicken and the octopus.", he says vaguely with a wink of his eye, making the three men and animal all look at one another in confusion.
As the teachers were looking at one another and the students were walking by, Egon caught sight of Bakugou, and once his back was turned, glared at him with every ounce of furry in his blood before returning to his natural expression! However, this glare didn't go unnoticed, and Kirishima almost froze up in fear at the sight of this but pushed through walking normally. Once out of ear shit, he ran up to Bakugou to tell him what he saw.
"WOAH! Bakubro, did you see that?!", he asked in a panicked tone.
"See what, shitty hair.", Bakugou asked back in an irritated voice.
"That professor dude. He just glared at you so hard and cold I swear you would've been frozen solid or fire would shoot from his eyes.", he explained while looking pale as his body shook from fear.
"If looks could kill.", Kaminari added, who also saw the glare, and shivered violently before stating, "You would've been…..everywhere!"
Bakugou just raised his eyebrow and looked back at the professor, only to see him casually conversing with the other adults. Bakugou didn't notice anything at all but he would keep his guard up around him. Just to be safe.
From there the teens were led inside to a massive building that looked like something straight out of the movies! Long hallways with automatic doors revealed rooms with bubbling chemicals, blinking lights, sparking machines, groves of plants, animal subjects, and so so much more! The main entrance was the most interesting due to its size and the large fish tank that held several dozen specimens, including some smaller sharks. It was truly a sight to behold.
After gawking at the amazingness, the front desk that was being operated by Millicent welcomed them warmly and then gave them instructions on what to do. Giving each group of four a scrap of evidence, they were to go around, find more evidence, and then piece it together to find out one of the five villains' dastardly plans. The teens took their evidence and scattered it like bugs to find more clues.
All of them ran from room to room and checked everywhere they could, but mostly got distracted by everything they saw. They were able to talk to all of the staff to find out more or be given a hint. Then they got even more distracted when one group found Peet and began to chase him until a while heard of teens chasing a single dodo to get a look at it!
While this was happening, Nezu, Present Mic, Eraserhead, Blood Vlad, and Egon all went to the employee break room to chat and relax. It was quite a shocker for the adults when a chicken with a large brain and a walking octopus strolled in and began to talk! Nezu was a little gripped about Egon "making them" but he was assured their newfound intelligence was accidental.
From there the three animals began to talk with one another until Nezu's sadistic human hate boner started to rear its head and scared off the only other talking animals in the world. Only for Egon to get a text from them saying they don't want to interact with Nezu unless necessary. Which the professor told the principal, much to his dismay.
Meanwhile, Izuku has hidden away in his office behind the door that was locked from the outside. All signs that this was an office were taken down from the outside and warning signs were put in its place. The teen tried his best to keep busy with paperwork, but they went far quicker than expected and when he finished, they were already there. So he just sat boarded in his office and took down notes on future projects and theories, but that too got very old.
So he decided to call someone for an update on something. Picking up his phone and dialing the number, he was greeted by the sound of cluttering and jumbled energy as the line on the other end was thrown about. Soon after he was given multiple hellos of trying to keep it together.
Rolling his eyes Izuku said, "Professor Genus, how's Torch Wick doing?"
Collecting himself, the professor looked into the window of the enclosure and answered, "Oh he's doing just fine. He's acclimating to his new padlock quite well and is eating well too. No stress or anything. But…"
"But?", Izuku repeated.
Holding back a bit, the Professor finally admitted, "We may have to build something bigger very shortly."
Izuku felt surprised by this and inquired, "That padlock should be more than big enough for him."
Genus looked into the enclosure once more and saw the dragon munching on his meal he answered back, "Sure, but he's only two weeks old and already he's the size of a pony. We're feeding him geese, but soon that'll go to pigs and then cows.", as he said this the little dragon polished off his meal with a large burp.
Izuku sighs while rubbing his face and tells him before hanging up, "Let's collaborate on that later. I gotta go."
Turning away from the phone he turned on the security feed of the building and watched as all the young heroes ran around and worked together or at least tried to. It put a smile on his face to know that even though he wasn't a hero he could still help them. Then the feed switched over to a familiar face and a wellspring of emotions burst out! Quickly turning the computer off he spun around in his chair and placed his hands over his face! Breathing deeply several times he attempted to calm himself down. After a bit, he finally got to the point where he could speak and talked to himself.
"Calm down Izuku. Calm down. It's just for one day. One! He doesn't even know you're here. It'll be fine. The door is locked and no one is allowed in. Nothing will happen.", he tried to assure himself, but failed.
Then he nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the sound of someone trying to enter! He stayed quiet and waited for them to leave. From his end, he could hear what was happening on the other side.
"Hey! This door is locked.", Mina stated as she tried to get the automatic door to open.
Bakugou pushed past her, attempted to open it, failed, and began to bang on it while yelling, "Hey! Open up!"
On top of the door, a PA speaker blared to life and the voice of Hatsume called to them, "Sorry kid, no can do."
"Why the fuck not?!", Bakugou shouted at the box while everyone else was looking around trying to find the voice.
"There's a lot of dangerous chemicals in there. Highly explosive chemicals.", Hatsume explained.
"And?", Bakugou argued.
Already tired of this, he sighs and affirms, "Do I have to spell it out for you? Look, it's off-limits to everyone, okay? Several rooms are in fact off limits to several of you with problematic quirks."
"Problematic!?", Bakugou shouted back, looking ready to find a speaker.
Rolling his eyes to the other end, Hatsume tells them in no uncertain terms, "We didn't leave any clues in these rooms so go look elsewhere."
When he heard them leave, Izuku let out a breath he had been holding in. After relaxing in his chair his stomach complained loudly. After rubbing it he sighed and looked at the time. It was only a little past noon.
"Man, I'm so hungry. And the cafeteria is serving Katsudon.", Izuku complained aloud while spinning around in his chair.
He thought about what to do and then realized the simplest solution! He took out his phone and sent out a text.
Izuku: Hey Egon. I'm super hungry. Can you grab me something?
Egon: Love to, but I'm kinda busy. Let me text the others and see what they're up to. Gimme a minute.
Egon: Okay, everyone is busy and can't be pulled away from what they're doing.
Izuku: What about the robots?
Egon: Apparently they've all been shut down by proxy of "needing a software update".
Izuku: Shoot.
Egon: Let me check something.
Egon: Okay, so Bakubrat is on the other end of the facility. You could probably sneak to the cafeteria, grab your food, and head right back.
Izuku: Okay.
Izuku sighs as he gets up from his chair, walks to the door, places his hand for it to read, and when it opens he peaks out his head before saying when all was clear, "Here goes nothing."
Meanwhile, with team Bakugou, the group consisting of the explosive boy, a pink queen, a red adorable strong boy, and an ADHD Pichu were all sitting on the floor and trying to make sense of the clues they managed to put together. However, after a very long while of mixing and matching, they couldn't connect even two of the dots, much to the group's annoyance.
"Uck! I can't understand this! It makes no sense! I thought finding clues to a villain's plan would be easy?!", Mina complained aloud while slamming her hands on the floor.
Kirishima sighs and tells her, "It rarely is. This ain't a comic strip."
"Maybe we're not looking at it correctly. It's clues, not a set of instructions.", Kaminari offered while shuffling them around before arranging them into some kind of picture.
As the three of them discuss and brainstorm, Bakugou, who was standing off to the side, looked over at their complained evidence before saying, "Wait a second."
The other three teens stop and look at his sudden inclusion. Kirishima asks him, "What? Do you see something?"
Bakugou goes over, takes the clues, and arranges them for a bit, then after he finishes his eyes widened as he yells, "It's fake!"
"It is?", Kaminari inquired.
"A red herring! They're sending us off in the wrong direction on purpose! It's going to.", Bakugou begins to tell them before suddenly turning tail and blasting off down the hallway, leading to the evidence being blown off all over.
"Bakugou wait!", Mina yells for him as her voice is snuffed out by his explosions.
This leads the other two to wonder what had gotten into him, what he found out, and try to reclaim their clues.
Meanwhile, in the employee lounge, Egon was pouring himself another cup of coffee when his phone rang. Picking it up he answered, "Yes?"
"Sir we have an issue. That Bakugou child is suddenly making a mad dash and heading for the cafeteria.", Millicent tells him from the other end.
Egon dood out his coffee and yells, "What!? I'll call Izuku now!", leading the other adults to look at him strangely.
Meanwhile, Izuku stands in the cafeteria with a piping hot bowl of his favorite dish in hand. Taking a moment to admire the smell, he holds the food over his nose and breaths deeply
"Ah. Sweet sweet Katsudon. Come to me.", he says dreamily while breathing out. Taking a pair of chopsticks he says, "Just one bite before I go."
Just before he could bring the tender pork to his mouth his phone rings and breaks him out of his trance.
He signs and picks up the phone while answering, "Hey professor."
"Izuku! Where are you!?", Egon says in a hurried voice.
A bit confused by his tone, Izuku replied, "In the cafeteria."
"Get out of there now!", Egon yells at him.
Freaked out now, Izuku freezes up from his raised tone and questions back in fear, "What? Why?"
However, his question is soon answered when Bakugou comes barreling through the cafeteria doors while saying to himself, "I can cut through here and-."
Bakugou freezes up at seeing Izuku, and so does the boy. The two of them stood there and stared at one another for a long while in heavy silence. Neither making a move nor speaking, both were unsure if what they saw was real.
"Izuku? Izuku!", Egon begins to call him, hearing no reply until he finally figured it out and asked, "...He's there right now. Isn't he.", the only thing Izuku could do was make a yes sound through the phone.
"D-Deku.", Bakugou stated in an unusually calm and confused tone.
"K-Kacchan.", Izuku says back, not knowing what to say or do.
Then the blind-bit hands tighten into fists as his face grows red, a tack mark bulges on his head, and his face twists into a scowl.
Then with a primal roar, he shouts, "DEKU!"
Without hesitation or any thought, Izuku takes the bowl of katsudon and chucks it right at him, landing a direct hit! Only to watch as the bowl of food falls off his face and leaves behind its contents, thus leading to an even angrier Bakugou to be left stewing where he stood.
Izuku gulped and whispers, "Uh-oh."
All before Bakugou roars like an animal and Izuku takes off with him in hot pursuit! Normally Bakugou could easily catch up to him, but two factors were at play slowing him down enough for Izuku to keep ahead. First, they were in an ensouled space making it hard to control the direction of his explosions without the force of it kicking him back into a wall. And second Izuku knew this place, it was his place, so he knew what place looked like a continuation and what was a dead end, and what spots had a turn you couldn't see right away. As Izuku ran for his life he heard Egon calling out to him.
"Izuku! What's going on!", Egon practically yelled hearing the explosions.
"He's after me!", Izuku yelled back, already out of breath.
"What?! Get to your office!", Egon commands him, and he heard before the line goes dead, "Deku, stop running!"
As the heroes were wondering what had gotten into Egon all of a sudden, he turned on his heels and made a mad dash for the door! Though in the process he ended up barreling straight through Blood Vlad, causing him to fall and break one of the break room tables, and accidentally stepping on top of Nezu as he raced out the door and into the hallways! As he barreled through groups of young heroes he quickly typed in his phone and put it up to his ear.
A few rings later and Cho answered, "Yes sir?"
"Cho! I need you to activate the defense system! That Bakugou brat is after Izuku!", Egon exclaimed to her.
A brief silence and Cho replied, "Shit!"
"What?!", Egon questions.
"I'm running a system diagnostic on the whole facility. I can do anything on my end!", Cho told him.
"Shit!", Egon cursed while pocketing the phone and running as hard as he could.
He knew he couldn't fight someone with previous practice and now hero training with their quirk, but he would damn well try no matter what the outcome! Hell drop kick this kid then get blown to hell! He just had to make it to him before he got to Izuku! Then he got a call. Picking it up he heard ragged breathing before the sound of Izuku's voice.
"I *huff huff huff* made it!", Izuku painted out! Breathlessly.
"Good! Now just stay there until we can-.", Egon tried to tell him with some relief until he heard an explosion.
"Open this fucking door, you shitty nerd! You got some explaining to do!", he heard Bakugou yell loud enough for the phone to pick up.
"Leave me alone!", Izuku yelled through his office.
There was a long silence for a while until Bakugou exploded, "Don't tell me what to do you quirkless bastard!"
With that one, two, and three explosions hit the door causing it to shake and bend inwards.
Izuku almost froze up in terror but managed to say over the phone, "He's attacking the door! He's gonna break it down!"
"What?! He wouldn't!", Egon stated before hearing another explosion that nearly caved it in. "I take it back. Of course, he would!", Egon exclaimed.
"What do I do?!", Izuku asked him in a hurried and frightened voice.
Egon thought fast then told him, "Go out the back door and run to padlock number 5!"
"What?! But that's where Torch Wick is!", Izuku told him as another explosion hit the door.
"I'm very aware of that.", Egon told him as he barreled through a group of 1-B students.
"I don't like Kacchan, but I don't wanna kill him!", Izuku exclaimed as he stood by the back door, ready to push the button.
"Torch Wick is too small to kill a person, for now, plus his fire isn't anything that bad. It's just enough to set him off.", Egon tried to assure him.
"What do you mean?", Izuku questions as the door begins to gain single marks.
"That guy is covered in a nitroglycerin compound right? And Torch Wick can only ignite things.", Egon explains.
"But-.", Izuku tried to argue.
"And he's resistant to his explosions, right?", Egon asks rhetorically.
Izuku think for a moment then realized what he was saying and exclaimed, "You want to blow him up with his quirk?!"
Egon groaned and tells him, "Just till he's unconscious or he gives up in the presence of a dragon! Plus Torch Wick listens to you like a dog, so there'll be no death."
Izuku watches as the door is only one more blast from caving in, so he gulps, presses the door button, and says, "Okay."
Izuku escaped as he pressed the lockdown button on the other end and ran for the padlocks. As he heard the door locks bolt down tight, he heard his front door finally give in and fly into his office.
Bakugou stormed into the now empty office and screamed, "DEKUUUUUUUUU!"
Meanwhile, Egon hung up the phone and put it into his pocket as he continued to run through the facility, this time heading to the padlocks. On his mad dash, he nearly crashed into Doctor Genus!
As he ran, the doctor said, "Ah! Professor Egon. Can I-?"
But he rushed past him as he exclaimed, "Not now Anima! I have to get to the Torch Wicks enclosure in padlock 5!"
Genus raised an eyebrow as he ran past and yelled to him, "Padlock 5? Torch Wick isn't in padlock 5 anymore."
Egon stopped in his tracks and with his face red and breathless he asked back, "Wait what?!"
Genus nods and explains, "Yeah we moved him earlier today to padlock 3 since we underestimated how big he was gonna get."
Egon grabs him and half yelled, "If he's in padlock 3 then what's in 5?"
Meanwhile, Izuku had finally made his way to padlock 5 and was leaning on the control panel as he attempted to catch his breath. In many ways he didn't like his more sedentary lifestyle, since he went from a string bean to the pole it climbed up on. He was even more of a wimp than he was before, and even he has to admit it.
Once he could breathe enough to speak he took a moment to look at the huge metal doors that held back a potentially world-ending creature if allowed to escape. He sighed, wondering if he should go through with this. Sure Bakugou was out for blood and Torch Wick was still small, but he didn't want to end his whole career before it started.
Did he want to take such drastic measures for his safety? Then he heard the sound of Bakugou's explosions and his anger-filled voice and decided then it was the right idea.
Bakugou, who finally caught up, kneeled after exhausting his quirk to catch up. He stood up, a wicked expression of frustration on his face as he growled like an animal, "Deku."
Finding his nerve for a second as he backed towards the control panel, "What do you want, Kacchan?! Just leave me alone!"
"I said you have some explaining to do, you piece of shit nerd!", he yelled at him.
Izuku dropped his head, and Bakugou smiled at his weakness. Then Izuku brought up his head and half-shouted at him, "I-I don't owe you anything."
Bakugou furrowed his brow, grit his teeth, breath in a ragged breath, and yelled out a war Cary before racing towards him! Izuku did hesitate when he saw this and slammed the emergency open button and the gates slide open in seconds! Izuku waited for the young dragon to come barreling out, but stopped for a moment when found himself feeling cold.
Just before he could question this, Bakugou was upon him and had jumped into the air to come down on him! Izuku almost freaked out, but the attacking blond was swept away by a pair of tusks that slammed into him so hard he fell to the opposite wall! Izuku was confused since he didn't see what hit him at first, then he heard the trumpeting sound of Gammoth as she walked out of her enclosure and stood between the two teens! Izuku was shocked and confused, but happy to be safe nonetheless.
However, Bakugou stood up, nearly having the wind knocked out of him and wondering what in the world hit him?! But before he could see it it hit him once again! And by that, Gammoth grabbed him by the keg and slammed him onto the ground a few times before throwing his unconscious form! Gammoth looked ready to finish him off as she charged at him but Izuku jumped in front of her!
"No Gammoth no! STOP!", he commanded the animal with arms raised out, making the creature stop its attack.
Once she was fully stopped Izuku breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. Gammoth placed her trunk all over his face to make sure he was unharmed. He stroked her trunk and looked back at the info boy while grimacing.
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