"...Paraíso, I think the town was called," Eagle said, thinking back to when it all happened. It still felt so recent, as if it happened only yesterday. But Eagle shook that thought away, instead focusing on what he could remember.
"It was a small town, secluded from most of the country. So much so it only had one paved road in and out of town. Some of the town had electricity, mainly provided by a nearby power plant, but that was bombed into rubble during the battle," Eagle explained, trying his best to set up the scene.
"The whole town was in a similar circumstance. Rubble, bullet casings, and… bodies were everywhere… It was like a disaster movie," Eagle muttered, slowly shaking the images out of his head, "Now since Paraíso was so secluded, it made getting equipment to the town quite difficult. Including construction equipment, which meant we had to rebuild an entire town by hand."
"That sounds tough," Yaoyorozu commented, after translating for the class. Eagle simply nodded slowly, still feeling the heat in his mind. They always had to operate in hot countries for some reason.
"It was. Mosquitoes kept trying to snack on us the entire time. Add in the scorching heat, difficult resupply, and the fact neither of us had experience in construction, and it was practically hell. The good news was there were so many of us, the job was completed in six days," Eagle explained, as he noticed the disinterested look Bakugo was giving him.
"[Come on, what's all this bullshit? Have him talk about the combat,]" the blond muttered, with Yaoyorozu looking over at him annoyed.
"[I was lucky enough to get him to talk about this alone,]" Yaoyorozu replied, as Todoroki quickly stepped in between them.
"[We need to hear what the combat was like. If they're lying, he'll slip up on the details,]" Todoroki told her.
"[Todoroki, they very clearly do not have fond memories of the place,]" Yaoyorozu tried to reason.
"[Or it's an act. Ask them, or I will,]" Todoroki retorted, with Yaoyorozu looking at him surprised for a moment. To think he could have helped translate, and yet Todoroki didn't bother. It was a tad bit annoying. But before Yaoyorozu could answer, Todoroki stepped past her and looked at Eagle.
"What was the fighting like," he said, the bluntness in his tone making it sound more like a statement than a question. It made Eagle pause for a second, the man thinking it over carefully. Images of those jungles flew into his mind, even though he knew he wasn't there. Eagle's breathing sped up slightly, but he had it under control quickly. He didn't want to talk about it, but… well the students had questions. Not answering would bring more suspicion to the MSF. And more suspicion would bring more hostility.
"It… There was one battle, I remember vividly… It was in the jungle, somewhere… somewhere near a town called Oro Arroyo," Eagle began, trying not to get lost in the memories, "Me and about twenty guys or so, were… we were sent out to investigate reports of… of some unidentified individuals moving around."
Very quickly he caught the class's interest, which Eagle didn't particularly like. They saw villain fights as damn entertainment, and not what they were. Eagle didn't blame them for it, it's all they knew for years. Didn't mean he wasn't upset though.
"At the time, I… I thought it was nothing. Just a pack of animals someone mistook. About an hour of trekking through the jungle, and we hadn't found a thing. Right… right as were about to head back to base… a soldier next to me collapsed to the ground. I thought he was dehydrated, but the next thing I knew a gunshot echoed around the jungle. I dropped down as fast as I could, but others weren't so lucky," Eagle described slowly, hearing the gunshots that weren't real.
"Bullets flew out of the jungle, tearing apart the guys who couldn't get down in time. In seconds five of the people with us were dead. Another four were critically wounded and couldn't fight. I… I barely peeked my head up… just to try and see the enemy… but there was nothing. The entire damn jungle was blanketed in darkness by the fucking foliage around us. We fired erratically into the jungle, hoping we could hit anything," Eagle continued, not noticing his hands beginning to shake.
"What did you do?"
"We hunkered down… tried to stay as low to the ground as possible. At the same time, we tried calling in for backup… It took ten minutes for them to arrive. That may sound like a short amount of time but… it felt like an eternity. It took seconds for five of our guys to die. Ten minutes was pushing the limit. But it was the best we had, so we fired into the jungle with whatever we had, hoping to hold out long enough," Eagle told them, the gunfire still echoing around in his mind. It never seemed to go away, and the voices of his comrades yelled out in his mind.
"Where are they!?"
"They're above us! In the trees!"
"Medic! I need Doc over here!"
"Where's our backup!?"
"I'm out of ammo!"
"They're breaching out right! I need help over here!"
"For fucks sake, where's our backup!?"
"Agh! My leg! Doc! Help!"
"I've got men dying over here! Send back up!"
"Those fuckers shot Doc!"
"Please! Help us damn it! We're being overrun!"
The voices didn't go away, continuing to yell in his mind. Eagle tried to shake the thoughts away like before, but he couldn't.
"They came from everywhere. Every damn tree had an enemy hiding in it. They were emerging from every mud pit, hole in the ground, or random fucking bush," Eagle said, remembering the event too vividly, as it all came rushing back, "Our JTAC guy kept calling in for air support, and our FO called in artillery. The jungle was set ablaze, and I… I could hear the screams from the cartel members hiding in the foliage as they burned alive. Yet… they didn't stop coming. We blew up every tree in the surrounding area, but they kept coming at us. There had to have been a thousand of them."
Eagle shuddered at the thought, remembering the nonstop onslaught. It never ended in his mind, the enemy constantly charging at him with an endless horde of men. A constant stream of bullets flew out of every random nook and cranny in the jungle. It just didn't stop.
"Eventually backup arrived, and we managed to push the enemy back. But we… we barely made it out of there," Eagle muttered, much to the worried looks the students were giving them, "It was hell in that jungle. Almost every battle was like that too."
"That… that's horrible," Yaoyorozu murmured, with Eagle thinking the rest of her class was in agreement. If only because of the shocked looks they all had. And he was right. Yaoyorozu could hardly fathom the carnage of such a fight. Most hero fights lasted only ten minutes, but they were never so bloody. They didn't have five people die in seconds. It never happened. If only heroes had been able to help them, Yaoyorozu thought, then such bloodshed would never have happened.
"It was," Eagle agreed quietly, his tone reserved, "The cartel made liberating the country a nightmare. But we did it."
The red-haired kid, Kirishima Eagle thought his name was, began to say something to Yaoyorozu. She nodded slowly, before looking back at Eagle.
"He says it's manly how long they held out for," Yaoyorozu translated, only to be surprised when Eagle shook his head no.
"There's nothing manly about killing your fellow man. Even if they may have deserved it," Eagle told her, the memories coming back again. None of this was manly. Sure what he and Ape did in Venezuela needed to be done, but it was war. It was brutal, it was bloody, and he couldn't glorify it if he wanted to. There was nothing manly about war. And when Yaoyorozu translated that to Kirishima, the boy seemed to shrink back slightly, before looking over at Eagle apologetically.
"[Oh crap, were late for class!]" Sero suddenly called out, surprising everyone nearby. Whatever the teen said put the entire class in a frenzy, as they all quickly began to run off down the halls. A few stopped briefly to give Eagle and his buddies a wave goodbye, which Eagle quietly returned.
"Sorry for prying!" Yaoyorozu shouted over to them, as she walked as quickly as she could. It would be rude to run around the school after all.
"Ah, it's fine… kinda helped in a way!" Eagle shouted back, "You or your classmates ever want to talk more, we'll be around here somewhere!"
Yaoyorozu simply nodded, before turning a corner and heading down the hall to her class. It left the soldiers in silence for a moment, before they realized they too were late. Quickly they all got up, and got back to work, heading out on patrol.
Snake was angry. No, he was furious. When Midoriya got back to UA, he immediately told him of his encounter with Night Owl. It was frightening for the both of them, as Snake listened to his son. It didn't take long for him to realize Night Owl was sending a message. He knew that even under the make-up, hair dye, and fake name, Midoriya was in Japan. It should have been all but impossible for him to know.
Never once had Midoriya made an appearance in the media. Not a single interview or photo had been seen of him anywhere. And yet Night Owl knew anyway. Were it not for Miller reminding him of the nuke, and dragging him out of the armory, Snake would have charged into the HPSC's headquarters. Now he sat in the command room fuming, as officers brought up reports every few seconds.
"We've got activity by the north wall. Another mugger," one officer reported, causing a different one to groan annoyed.
"You know the drill. Tell the boys down there to stand down. Either call the cops or notify the staff," their superior ordered, the officer following it quickly. For whatever reason crime had a massive spike near UA. Intel hadn't been able to place why, but Ocelot had a few suspicions. Every few seconds another officer would chime in with another crime occuring nearby. It was mostly small stuff, thankfully.
Though Snake suspected that wouldn't last for long. Aside from that, he got another few reports from his staff in Outer Heaven. Nagant was put in charge of the war effort for the time being, much to her chagrin. She accepted the task though and now was reporting… wait a minute that can't be right. The report was saying enemy resistance had effectively collapsed. Cameroon was taken in a short week, and two minor warlords were captured in the process.
Snake couldn't help but be confused by the reports, before slowly thinking it over. The warlords' cooperation was crumbling. That had to be the logical answer. They had suffered so many casualties over the years, that the strongest warlords are now deciding to cut their losses. Snake couldn't help but smirk at that thought. Still, it was better to take advantage of the fact that they were weakened.
Aside from the war front though was a request from the R&D department to confirm the sale of sixty thousand exoskeletons to varying allies. Most of the exos were going to either Poland, Colombia, or Ukraine, while the rest would go to other allies. Then there were also reports from Strangelove on the latest satellite launch. It was another unfortunate failure but gave much-needed data.
More M1A3s had been built, with a few more being sold off, and the M7A2s were nearing final testing stages. And right as Snake was about to flip over to the next report, the door to the command room opened. In walked Miller, who quickly handed over an Idroid. Curious Snake turned it on, watching the device display a series of messages.
"What's this?" Snake asked, scrolling through the messages.
"An email," Miller replied,
"Someone sent us an email? Who?" Snake asked, attempting to read through the message.
"I think you can guess," Miller answered, as Snake kept reading the message. And yes, it became very apparent who was emailing them. The message from Night Owl detailed a set of instructions and a set of words at the bottom that Snake couldn't understand. It was nothing overly complex, just telling Snake to go somewhere.
"He's sent us what I think are the coordinates to wherever it is he wants you to go," Miller continued, pointing at the words Snake couldn't read, "But it's in Navajo."
"When do you think you'll get it translated?" Snake inquired, with Miller thinking it over briefly.
"Not long. Intel AIs should hopefully get it done quickly. However, I'm not sure if it's going to be that simple," Miller replied, causing Snake to sigh annoyed.
"True. Knowing Night Owl, there's something more to this," Snake muttered, his hand rubbing his chin.
"Once it's translated, when do you plan on checking the coordinates out?"
"The Sports Festival," Snake answered, "The entire country will be distracted, including the Commission. It should make our activities less noticeable."
When Melissa had agreed to stay for the festival, she didn't take into account how far away it was. It wasn't ludicrously far like a few months, but it was at least two weeks away. And of course, she didn't bring much money with her, as she originally thought her talk with All Might would only take one day. It mostly meant she'd be sleeping in the Symbol of Peace's office, or lounging around campus somewhere.
But that just wouldn't do. Melissa wanted to do something, invent something. Unfortunately, the inventor's block was making that somewhat difficult. Still, she wanted to at least try, so she now spent her time trying to navigate through UA's hallways to find the nearest support lab. It was shockingly difficult with all the twists and turns Melissa encountered. But soon enough she found it. Slightly excited to see what UA had in store, Melissa quickly approached the lab's door.
Right as an explosion tore it off its hinges. She stopped, quickly, the door narrowly missing her, before colliding with the wall. Melissa stood there shocked for a second, before shouting erupted from the lab.
"Damn it Hatsume!" a man exclaimed angrily.
"It was Akatani's fault!" the supposed Hatsume replied, with who Melissa suspected was Akatani now sputtering.
"Wha- hey! I warned you that using the Gustaf would be overkill!" Akatani countered while Melissa walked over to look into the lab.
"Oh? My bad then," Hatsume quickly replied, as Melissa got to see into the lab. Inside were three people, whom Melissa deduced as the people talking. The one she believed was Akatani had a large recoilless rifle resting on his shoulders. Hatsume meanwhile tended over the destroyed remains of… something Melissa couldn't see. And a hero she didn't know the name of, had slammed his head onto the nearest table. She decided to make herself known then, curious about what was going on.
"Hello?" she asked, carefully stepping into the room. It brought all eyes on her, as the hero looked up to see her.
"Ah, Melissa Shield. All Might said you might stop by," the hero said, slowly standing up to come to greet her. He was however beaten to the punch, as Hatsume was very suddenly in Melissa's face.
"You're Melissa Shield!? Daughter of the David Shield!?" Hatsume excitedly exclaimed as Melissa flinched back slightly.
"...Yeah?" Melissa replied carefully, though she quickly regretted this action.
"I can't believe I'm meeting you! This is an honor," Hatsume told her, with Melissa seeing the hero in the room giving a tired groan.
"Well, I'm not that big a deal," Melissa tried to protest only for Hatsume to wave her off.
"Nonsense! You're one of the greatest up-and-coming inventors! Second only to yours truly," Hatsume replied, though that last part was more of a quiet mutter, barely distinguishable by Hatsume.
"But that said, what brings you here?" Hatsume asked, quickly bringing things back on topic.
"Oh, I was told I could use UA's labs if I wanted. Thought I would come to check them out," Melissa answered before turning to face the hero, "That is ok right?"
"So long as you don't blow up anything," the hero told her, though his tone sounded hesitant. If the lab's door flying off its hinges was anything to go by, then Melissa had a small idea as to why. Especially as Hatsume walked away and returned her focus to whatever she was working on. Now that Melissa was in the lab, it became somewhat easier to see the odd machine.
It looked like one of the exoskeletons the soldiers outside had, though it was very much destroyed. It had bits of metal and polymers splintering out and off, and its left leg attachment was torn off. Akatani looked at the exoskeleton with a grimace, as Hatsume picked up some of the machine's remains.
"That's definitely coming out of my allowance," Akatani muttered, setting aside the recoilless rifle. He quickly began helping Hatsume clean up the area, picking up bits of metal splintered out across the floor.
"Ah, I'm sure it's not that bad-" Hatsume tried to protest only to be quickly cut off.
"One of these cost seventy-five thousand dollars," Akatani stated bluntly, causing Hatsume to freeze for a second.
"...Is that in Yen or USD?"
"USD,"
"Oh… well worry not my test dummy buddy! Once they see all the upgrades this baby's got, it'll all be fine," Hatsume confidently proclaimed, while Akatani gave her a wary look. The conversation did bring over Melissa's attention though. Looking over the exoskeleton the two were cleaning, she couldn't spot any difference in the ones she saw before. It had the same basic design and material, and nothing about it seemed unusual.
"What exactly are you doing?" Melissa asked carefully, walking up to examine the destroyed exoskeleton. This brought a wide smile to Hatsume's face, as another groan was heard from the hero in the room.
"I'm glad you asked! Introducing the MSF… what was it again?" Hatsume asked, turning to face Akatani for a moment.
"Well… it was originally the M3, but with your upgrades, I think it would be the M3A1," Akatani replied, setting aside a piece of scrap metal.
"That is a very boring name," Hatsume pointed out.
"It keeps things simple and organized," Akatani countered.
"You have a dozen other babies called the M3," Hatsume retorted, pointing at the recoilless rifle Akatani had set down earlier.
"True, but this is the M3 exoskeleton, not the M3 MAAWS," Akatani replied.
"Ahem," Melissa said, trying to get their attention again.
"Ah right. The MSF's M3A1 combat exoskeleton! Complete with a newly integrated jetpack, and arm-mounted grappling hook," Hatsume continued while pointing out the upgrades on the extremely broken exoskeleton. But it was enough for Melissa, as she saw the small holes in the jetpack Hatsume mentioned. As well as the grappling hook placed on the exo's forearm. Actually, now that Melissa could see the grappling hook, she did notice a small difference in the exoskeleton's designs.
For one this exo's forearm was bulkier than the other ones. Probably to store the cable, launching mechanism, and motor, Melissa quietly reasoned. It was very interesting the more she looked at it.
"Ah, that reminds me. You finish that grappling hook?" Akatani asked, dragging away Hatsume's attention briefly.
"Yep, it's over there on the workbench," Hatsume answered, watching as Akatani turned to retrieve the device. It was not what Melissa was expecting. For one it was something akin to a long tube, like an under-barrel grenade launcher. To confirm that thought Akatani walked over to a different corner of the room and came back with an assault rifle. He then attached the grappling hook under the gun's barrel and looked it over.
"Money should have been sent to your account," Akatani told her while aiming his rifle at a nearby test dummy. Hatsume hearing the words quickly pulled out her phone, before chuckling lightly.
"Hehehe, look at all those zeroes," Hatsume muttered to herself, "Pleasure doing business with you."
Melissa found the interaction rather peculiar but was still intrigued by the exoskeleton's design. It was very simplistic, but less so than the Russian prototype she had seen before. It was also far less bulky in design and seemed easily adaptable.
"How long can the jetpack fly?" Melissa asked, lightly tracing her hand over the machine's mostly broken jetpack.
"At most, one hour," Hatsume confidently answered, "Though if you space out your fuel consumption you could make it a jump pack."
"Is that due to fuel efficiency or tank size?" Melissa asked as she stepped away from the machine. Hatsume quickly answered, by opening a small compartment on the exoskeleton's back.
"Tank size. I had to keep the design compact, while still having enough room for fuel," Hatsume replied, pointing out the features she was talking about.
"Not to mention having to factor in weight and thrust to get this baby off the ground," Hatsume added, before carefully closing the compartment up. It was very impressive to Melissa. It may have been a little behind by I-Island standards, but it did its job. And Melissa could tell that's the role it needed to serve.
"Have you considered changing the fuel type?" Melissa asked, thoroughly intrigued by the exoskeleton.
"Wouldn't work," Akatani answered, surprising Melissa briefly, "Changing the fuel type would make resupply efforts difficult. So keeping it the same type of fuel with other equipment cuts down on those issues."
"You've really thought this out," Melissa muttered, with Akatani giving her a so-so-hand gesture.
"Eh, most of the work was already done for us by R&D. Hatsume just stole-"
"Borrowed," Hatsume corrected.
"Borrowed, this exo to tinker with it," Akatain told her.
"Well it's still very impressive," Melissa replied, looking over the exoskeleton again. Now All Might did tell her to be wary of the MSF, but… well she was far too interested now. Fear was overwhelmed with curiosity, as Melissa wondered what else they had at their disposal.
"Makes me wonder what else UA's security has," Melissa muttered, with Hatsume slowly nodding in agreement.
"Yeah… now that you mention it, what else do you guys have?" Hatsume asked, confusing Melissa briefly. However the question was not directed toward her, but instead Akatani. It was only then that Melissa saw the skull patch on his uniform that the dots started connecting. That and she was slowly remembering a few choice words Akatani had said previously. Such as knowing how much the exo cost. It was a bit surprising Melissa hadn't realized it earlier.
Then again, very distracting and very cool exo skeleton with a jetpack.
"Well…" Akatani hesitantly started, before slowly making his way to the door. That was until Hatsume intercepted him, and blocked the door.
"Come on, tell me. Worried I'll borrow it as well?" Hatsume asked, slightly teasing.
"Yes," Akatani replied bluntly.
"Fair enough," Hatsume replied, stepping back a little.
"Is there anything you can share with us?" Melissa asked, hopeful she could at least see something interesting. Akatani seemed to think it over for a second, before giving a reluctant sigh. His right hand moved to his pocket, and he pulled out an odd rectangular device. Carefully he held it out and turned it on. Seconds later a hologram of a small greenish-blue girl in a poofy shirt and skirt now stood on the device.
"This… is Victoria," Akatani hesitantly replied, the hologram giving Melissa a small polite wave, "A… fully sentient AI…"
Melissa's eyes slowly widened once the words registered, with Hatsume doing the same. It left Melissa dumbstruck for a second, as she stared at the hologram on the device. Hatsume broke out of her stupor quickly, and was almost immediately in Victoria's… face? Did the AI have a face? Did the avatar even count as a face? Questions for later Melissa decided as she walked up to Akatani.
"You had a sentient AI with you this entire time, and you didn't tell me!?" Hatsume exclaimed, her eyes going over every bit of Victoria's avatar. Akatani pulled the device away from her quickly, before trying to hold Hatsume back.
"You never asked!" Akatani shouted back, before struggling to keep Hatsume back. She was shockingly strong, so Akatani set the device in his hand on a nearby workbench.
"How was I supposed to know you had one!?" Hatsume countered as Melissa watched the interaction amused. Looking at the device displaying Victoria, she couldn't help but admire its odd simplicity. It was bulkier than a phone, but that was most likely for increased durability.
"Are they always like this?" Melissa asked the AI, hoping the device had some kind of microphone. Victoria simply nodded with a small smile.
"Yep. It's funny in a way," Victoria replied.
"I'll say," Melissa said in agreement, quietly geeking out. She just found this situation too cool to ignore.
"Anyway, I'm Victoria," the AI greeted, even though both knew Akatani already told her Victoria's name.
"Melissa," Melissa introduced her small geek out becoming harder to hide. "This is just… it's just so cool! I'm talking to a true sentient AI! It's like something out of science fiction."
"I guess," Victoria said, slightly embarrassed at the praise. Melissa also thought that was amazing, to see an AI express such emotions so naturally.
"It's just… I'm just so amazed," Melissa told her, "I can ask questions right?"
Her curiosity was overwhelming and Melissa just had to know more. How fast could Victoria think? What was being an AI like? Could she control devices all at once, or one at a time? How much processing power did she take up? She had so many questions. And Victoria slowly nodded, bringing a small smile to her face.
"So long as it isn't about something classified, then yes," Victoria replied, with Melissa already having a long list of questions.
"No," Aizawa muttered, already tired of Hizashi's constant pestering. For now, Aizawa was allowed out of the infirmary. That did not, however, mean he was allowed to teach his class, much to Aizawa's annoyance. It was one thing for Ocelot to try and gaslight him into believing a student died. It was another to get Nezu involved in this as well. And while Aizawa trusted Hizashi and Nemuri, he was sure they were involved as well.
Though they were probably doing it more to mess with him, than whatever Ocelot was up to.
"Come on, it's not like you've got anything better to do," Hizashi pointed out, with Aizawa quietly grumbling.
"That doesn't mean I'm going to join you," Aizawa countered, as he attempted to drink his coffee. Said coffee was in one of those large drink hats used at sporting events, mainly because he still couldn't his arms for anything. Unfortunately, Hizashi found it hilarious.
"What's wrong mummy man, afraid you'll have a little fun in life?" Hizashi asked jokingly, causing Aizawa to grumble again, "It'll at least give you something to do. Besides, you'll see how much progress your students have made."
Aizawa stopped to think over that last point. That… would be a decent idea. He was willing to admit that the last time he saw them, he was not in the best state of mind. Honestly, what kind of idiot tells someone to run out of cover, it's illogical. Himself hopped up on painkillers apparently, Aizawa thought. Still, it would be a good idea to watch how his students were doing under Ocelot's temporary tutelage. He could only dread what the cowboy had been teaching them.
Not to mention how he had been teaching them. If it was bad enough, then the class's progress might have been held back. That wouldn't work with his curriculum. But the only way he would know is by watching.
"Fine," Aizawa agreed, "Just don't expect any lively commentary."
"Please. As if that's something you could give," Hizashi countered with a chuckle.
"I could if I wanted to," Aizawa countered, causing Hizashi to laugh again.
"Everything you say is in a tired monotone Sho. Nem could probably give livelier commentary than you," Hizashi retorted, with Aizawa shaking his head lightly.
"To be fair, Nem is, well, Nem," Aizawa pointed out, remembering the… eccentrics of the woman. Not to mention a few distinct parties she'd dragged both him and Hizashi into before. Those parties ended with Aizawa hung over out of his mind, and in some corner of Japan, he didn't recognize.
"True," Hizashi agreed, most likely thinking of the same thing Aizawa was, "Maybe I'll try the dull commentary then. Work on my impression of you."
"Hmph, you don't have enough coffee to impersonate me," Aizawa replied dryly.
"There isn't enough coffee in Japan, to impersonate you," Hizashi replied.
"Alright, begin test forty-three," Soul ordered, as he watched a pair of engineers test out their latest prototype machine. Surprisingly this machine wasn't like others built before. It wasn't a tank or a new helicopter, but instead a bipedal mech. It wasn't overly large like ZEKE, only standing around thirteen feet tall. Its arms were positioned somewhat higher than the rest of the body, resting over the mech's canopy.
The canopy itself was a somewhat wide thing, with large reinforced glass panes allowing the operator to see outside. The arms, legs, waist, and joints were all reinforced with artificial muscles, to provide more natural movement, while also assisting the mech in walking. Keeping the mech stable on two feet had been difficult, but they were slowly making it work. Contrary to popular belief though, the mech was not being designed for combat.
The operator inside the prototype quickly demonstrated, by grabbing a custom welder designed for this experiment. The mech's hands grabbed onto the tool carefully, mimicking the operator's movements inside the cockpit. With the welder in hand, the operator then walked over to a pair of steel beams and grabbed one with the mech's other hand. He set it up, before looking around confused for a moment, Soul quickly saw the problem.
"Just… stab it into the floor I guess. We'll fix it later," Soul muttered, with the operator doing as told. He shoved the steel beam into the floor, holding it up right before grabbing another steel beam. Holding it up the operator placed the end of the steel beam against the side of the other and began to weld the two pieces together. It brought on a bright litany of sparks, but the cockpit's canopy protected the operator effectively.
Once the pieces were connected, the operator grabbed the steel beams and lifted them out of the floor. Then ever so carefully, the mech began to bend the beams. Soul quickly took note of the success. This was his latest pet project, the Multipurpose-Bipedal-Combat-Vehicle, or the MBCV. It was originally designed after a few engineers watched Avatar, and thought the AMP suits could have a function in the MSF.
A small drinking session later, a few design tweaks to add more maneuverability, adding some artificial muscle to the design, allowing AI's to operate it remotely in case of emergency, the MSF had a custom design combining the exoskeletal structure of the M3 exoskeleton and the canopy of the AMP. It was however originally thought of as a construction vehicle. Providing the Base Development team a protective armor as they built a bridge or reinforced a wall during a firefight. Not to mention serve in roles when a strength quirk is necessary, but one isn't available.
Though Soul could see possible combat applications, it would need some tweaks still, but Soul was interested in the project.
"This is the best you could get me?" Shigaraki muttered annoyed, as he looked over the list Giran had handed him.
"Hey, I told you the market was slim pickings. Not many people are interested in what the League has to offer them," Giran replied, the man smoking his seventh cigarette of the day. Shigaraki could only grumble at his reply, frustrated with the news. Villains should have been lining up to join them, instead he sat in an almost empty bar. He broke into UA of all places, not once but twice. He killed a student on UA grounds. And yet no one, seemed, interested!?
It was infuriating. NPCs all of them, Shigaraki thought, as he decided to go down the list of grunts Giran had given him again. They were all no-namers, people Shigaraki hadn't even heard of before. He needed heavy hitters, people with capable skills. A finely crafted party fit to best any hero he may come across. Instead, all he got were F-rank grunts looking for work.
"Slim pickings is putting it lightly. All of the guys you brought me are bottom of the barrel," Shigaraki muttered, before disintegrating the list in his hands. The small ashy flakes quickly falling onto the once-clean bar.
"Not like I could bring you much else," Giran countered, while snapping his fingers for Kurogiri's attention, "Your reps taken a nose dive after the USJ incident and your capture."
"Yet we escaped," Shigaraki pointed out.
"And left every other schmuck in jail," Giran retorted, just as Kurogiri brought him a glass of bourbon. He thanked the other quietly, before removing the cigarette from his mouth and taking a drink.
"As far as every other villain is concerned, you're going to leave them high and dry the moment shit hits the fan," Giran continued, before taking another drink, "Because of that, the recruitment pool you could draw from is drying up."
Shigaraki was annoyed by the answer but could see the logic. Seems he needed some good PR, something to put the League back on the map. What that PR would be, he didn't know. But it would be something good.
"Another break in this week. This time at the Musutafu Police Department. Several public officials have decreed the break as an embarrassment for not just the department but for Omega Samurai's agency. The hero has gone on record promising an end to the Skull and Bone Bandits, however, all attempts to apprehend the group have failed entirely. At this moment the authorities are calling up more heroes to handle the break-ins. No deaths have occurred luckily, but the mayor has gone on record to state, that these annoyances must be stopped. And that the Skull and Bone Bandits have been a public nuisance for far too long. Now for our top story, who is Snake, the head of UA's security and the MSF?"