Chapter Sixty-Six

After we finished our drinks, Melissa was more than happy to show us around, talking more about the work she did at the 'Academy', as Ochaco and Asui's dispositions towards the woman that'd been showing their totally-not-boyfriend around finished thawing, realizing the Ms. Shield was just naturally friendly. I also listened in, the girl's generalized talk not enough to trigger Science Talent, but hearing about this place was interesting anyways.

"So, if we have all of this, why haven't we started colonizing Mars or something?" I finally asked, as Melissa talked about a plane that was space-capable which utilized an omni-medium engine that her father developed, which did give me a trickle of knowledge via my Talent. I knew just enough to understand that, with the tech on display, reusable, comfortable, and relatively inexpensive spaceflight should be possible. The answer I'd gotten from Power-Loader when I'd first asked was, 'There's enough problems here on Earth,' the man not explaining, and trying to research it on my own had turned up conspiracy theories so complex and documented that they looked as good as the real 'is true but we don't want to talk about it' reasons would be.

The blonde winced. "Ah, it's, um, complicated?"

Yaoyorozu perked up, "Oh, Denki, I think I believe I know why!" She hesitated, turning to Melissa, "But I would also like to hear your thoughts on it, Shield."

"Shield?" I-Island native asked, a little taken aback. "Right, Japanese grammar," she reminded herself, before smiling at the heiress. "Please, call me Melissa. And, well, I guess to put it simply, who owns Mars?"

"No one does," Ochaco replied automatically, before pausing. "Oh. Oh, yeah."

Momo nodded, "There are moon bases, but the Lunar Treaty holds, just like the Antarctic Treaty makes the south pole a non-colonizable zone. However, there is nothing like that for Mars."

"Then, couldn't people just go there?" Mina asked. "Like, the American Old West or something?" She giggled, taking a wide stance, tucking her thumbs into the waist of her costume as she turned to face me, "Howdy there, Space Cowboy!"

Melissa tilted her head to the side in a 'not really' gesture. "Well, you would need to have the technology, and everything developed on I-Island has to be approved before being released. And most of the time, it's just the equipment, not the technology behind them."

"Meh, I could do it," Mei scoffed, looking my way. "Sparky, you wanna build a spaceship?"

I considered it. "After we graduate, and make our first few mil. It won't be cheap, though I've got a few ideas myself that might help." Or, more accurately, I would eventually be able to start pulling from other dimensions. While I'd like to believe the rest of our time at UA would be peaceful, that my disabling of Shigaraki, and the extra protections we'd have at camp, would be enough to further blunt any of the League's efforts, All-for-One was still out there, and I had a feeling I'd have the opportunity to make the handful of points I needed to get my pocket dimension sooner rather than later.

With that, I'd get a door to other dimensions, each with their own systems of Science and Magic. Something like Star Trek would be ideal, but I remembered the World Ratings, back before I'd become Denki. Star Trek was a two, akin to present day where I came from, or was somehow a seven, on par with Worm, the grimdark setting where the planet was a few years from getting destroyed, and everything always got worse. This place was a solid four, and, given how the Company had presented itself, I had a feeling that I wouldn't be able to pick the lower tiered version to travel to without additional conditions.

I'd looked over the generalized list of accessible dimensions at my Tier, assuming I wouldn't be able to move between them at all, and, to be honest, it wasn't that bad a list, though some of them I didn't know that much about. For instance, I vaguely remembered Macross as something involving spaceships, a ludicrous amount of missiles, and, for some reason, singing. So with 'Macross Zero' as an option, that might've been a good pick. Then there was something called 'Legend of the Galactic Heroes', which I knew nothing about, but, by definition, would have to take place in space.

More solidly, there was Starcraft, either before or after the first game, or the Empire era of Star Wars. Given I wanted to take Mina with me, I was probably going for the second as, while, yes, Palpatine's regime was literally an Evil Empire™, the conflict was actually pretty localized, and my girlfriend's appearance could easily be passed off as being just another of the numerous alien species that existed in the setting.

Star Wars, I thought. Definitely Star Wars. The look on Mei's face when I gave her a repulsorlift was going to be priceless.

Ms. Shield paused mid-step, looking at the two of us in confusion. "You, you can't just build a spaceship," she stated, frowning.

Mei pointed at the spaceship we were currently walking away from.

"I, yeah, I guess you can," Melissa agreed, before specifying, "But there's rules about it. We can, because I-Island is a special development zone. If you tried to do that on your own, you couldn't."

"Who's gonna stop us," the pink-haired inventrix scoffed, complete with air quotes, "the 'government'?"

Wincing, I replied before our guide could. "Um, yeah. I think she's saying they will. Either way, that's a problem for the future. Now, what's-" I started to ask, before the sharp crack of ice instantly forming rang out, and all of us, except Melissa and Mei, turned in the direction it came from, hands up and at the ready.

It was a rock formation, with an enormous, and very distinctive, glacier sticking out over the top.

"Oh, that's the villain course that was set up!" Melissa informed us, "Wait, you're heroes! Why don't you give it a go?"

Looking around, the other girls just shrugged, so we made our way there, arriving as Todoroki finished melting the glacier he'd just created. "Sorry for making a mess," he told the girl who was doing the announcements.

She just smiled broadly, in a way that almost seemed fake, but, given her job, just came across as perky. "It's no problem! And with an amazing time of sixteen seconds, you're well in the lead at first place! That was amazing! Is there anyone else that thinks they can beat that incredible performance?"

Mina gave me a questioning look, and I gestured for her to go ahead, as she was just as much a hero as I was. With a cheeky grin, she smiled, and leapt over the railing, coming down and sliding forward on her acid, stopping in front of the announcer. "I'll give it a go!" my girlfriend smiled, just as perky as the woman running this event.

"Great!" the woman cheered back. "The robots are reset, so start in three, two, one, Begin!"

Mina wasn't in her new costume, as its 'power-armor' designation meant she couldn't wear it around the Expo without special dispensation. As a trainee heroine, especially one without even a preliminary license, she did get it. Regardless, even in her old costume she still took off of on a streak of low-level acid, skating forward and then up the mini mountain that'd been set up, spinning about, practically pirouetting as she sprayed concentrated jets of corrosive fluids at the enemy robots.

My girlfriend slowed a little as she went higher, her control not enough to let her keep her momentum yet, as she skated back and forth the rock formation, getting close enough to douse the 'Villains' completely and render them non-functional, lacking any long range, or even medium-range attacks without her armor. She could cup her hands a little, but it wasn't the same as the cannon that Mei and I had made for her, though the potency of her fluids was enough to eat through the sealant protecting the joints, eroding the internals in about a dozen seconds even without her in physical contact to improve the effect.

Reaching the top, she leapt, surrounding herself with acid like a living water-balloon that burst when she tackled the last robot, the fluid unnaturally reaching around it and shoving itself inside, the reinforced machine coming apart in a single second, bits spraying everywhere as the hardened, metal pieces were torn asunder and thrown around the battlefield.

"Wow, what a performance! And at twenty-six seconds, Mina Ashido is number six in the rankings!" the woman running this announced, all of us cheering as she came back.

With a burst of low-level acid, she leapt up to the wall, using more to help bring herself up to the rest of us. "Not bad! You're up, Sparky!" My girlfriend smiled, clapping me on the back.

"But you don't have your equipment," Momo frowned, even as I jumped over the railing, extending my legs as lightning to land smoothly.

"I've got enough," I called back, jerking my hands forward as I ran a bit of current through my bracelets, activating them. The internal locks disengaged, and the kinetic force helped extend the insulated metal plates down over my fingers, which I kept carefully straight, and then down my arms when I jerked my hands back. The brassy metal locked into place, sealed as well as it could, and only then did I allow my fingers to curl.

"Let's all give a hand for Denki Kaminari, our next challenger, as the course resets!" the announcer cheered, though she frowned, adding more quietly, toggling off her microphone, "Um, kid, the systems says you're a designer, not a hero."

"I'm both," I replied, looking at her, trying to see what she was reading. "I go to UA."

Her eyes moved, seemingly randomly, and I caught a hint of light, realizing that she was wearing some kind of advanced contact lens that was feeding her information. Taking a closer look at the headset she was wearing, I realized that, with the tech level this place worked under, even the slim headband she was wearing was far too big to just be a microphone.

It's a computer, and the contact lens is the monitor, I realized, impressed at the level of miniaturization needed. Mei was good at it, but her wheelhouse was more taking known phenomena and utilizing them in new and interesting ways. Making the screen/interface that small, with a power source that would last the hours needed to run this attraction, was beyond our level.

For now, I amended, glancing back to Mei, who was paying close attention to my gloves, likely using her Quirk to examine them closely even back in the stands.

"Okay! Everything has been reset!" the woman in pink announced, mic back on. "Ready? Go!"

With electric limbs, I pushed myself forward, a blast of energy through my gloves sending me flying up the mountain towards my first target, pulling on OFA as strength filled my limbs and pushed me even faster. Falling on the first target, I'd worked on enough of these sorts of things to know its weak-points, and drove a piercing fist of solid lightning into its central joint. The hardened spike of electricity broke through the protective covering, my fingers tingling as I hit its interior power distribution system, allowing me to dump far more charge into its circuity than it could handle.

The electronics sparked, and I leapt away, tearing across the landscape for my second target, having taken down my first robot in less than a second after impact, but I had to get close to each, darting around punching limbs and avoiding canons that shot beanbag rounds at blistering speeds. Pushing myself, I focused fully on taking them out, not how long I was taking, only on the kill, as electricity sparked more from my form.

Finally, one was left, at the very top, and I landed on the near-vertical stone, narrow-tipped feet digging into the rock face. Flaring energy through my gloves, which were getting uncomfortably warm, I let loose with as large a blast as I could manage, accelerating up as I pushed myself with my legs in turn, rocketing high and slamming into the last machine hard enough that it came apart under my feet, blown to pieces from the sheer force of my blow, as I went through it, going high up over the arena, and starting to fall back down to earth.

It was easy enough to let my legs snap back to normal, shifting my arms instead into wings, and gliding down to the starting platform, landing at a jog as the announcer cheered, "What a show! And at twenty-one seconds, he comes in at third place! Is there anyone else that wants to try?"

I felt a twinge of disappointment at that, but smiled regardless, waving to everyone before leaping back up to my friends. "You're up next, Deku," I told him, and the boy looked hesitant, but as he glanced around, seeing everyone's encouraging looks, he smiled.

"I will," he announced, jumping down to the arena floor, his thin lines of red energy already spreading out across his body.

Mei stepped up next to me, lifting my arm, and putting her hand over mine, careful not to touch the gloves directly. "How is it?" she questioned, quickly tapping the metal once she felt it wasn't hot enough to burn.

"Not bad, started to hit the limit, but that was expected," I reported. "Pity we couldn't put in the dispersion fins."

"Stupid 'safety regulations', holding my Babies back," the inventrix grumbled as the announcer gave Midoriya's pedigree as a UA student, and winner of the Sports Festival, much to the boy's chagrin.

Mina gave me a questioning look. "Heat channels to lengthen flight time," I explained. "But they'd either be sharp, so blades, so 'weapons', or heat up to the point that they could burn people while keeping me safe, so, again, a 'weapon'. Making it so that it burns me if I overdo it, at the same time I could use it to burn someone else, means it's a flaw in the design, so it's okay."

"Well that's dumb," my girlfriend frowned in annoyance. "You should be able to make them so they protect you!"

My inventing partner shot the pink-skinned girl a commiserating look. "I know, right? It's practically child abuse, to hold my Babies back from greatness!"

"Guys, Izuku's gonna start!" Ochaco interrupted us excitedly, pointing at the field as the green clad boy took a runner's stance.

"And begin!" the announcer yelled, before having to shield her face from the blast of wind All Might's successor created as he shot forwards, faster than I could move on my own, taking off and leaving an emerald streak of lightning in his wake.

As he hit the first target, and not only hit it, but blasted through it with a kick that let him land and take off for the next target one without pause, I was once again reminded of the gap between us. My finishing move, the one I'd stressed myself to pull off, was Deku's opener, and, as the boy darted back and forth, destroying robots with ease, I had to shake my head.

I knew he'd surpassed me at the Sports Festival, but he was getting better even faster. My own growth rate, according to All Might, was impressive, but Midoriya?

Stupid Shonen Protagonists, I couldn't help but laugh at the disparity, as his time of eleven seconds was announced. No way I can compete, even when I'm literally cheating using out-of-context bullshit.

On my other side, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to see Momo looking at me, a small smile on her face. "Lifting a car," she murmured, quiet enough so the others wouldn't hear, glancing down to my gauntlet, and I looked at her in confusion for a moment, before I realized what she meant.

I chuckled, but this laugh was warmer. "Thanks," I whispered back, understanding what she meant. Yeah, in terms of this challenge I couldn't compete with Shoto or Izuku, but this was just a single metric. Neither of them had the understanding of Support Items that I'd gained, even if I'd been helped along greatly by my various Talents, and there was more to this place than just punching robots in the face.

On Momo's other side, Mina gave me a questioning look, but I shook my head. She just glanced at Yaoyorozu and grinned lasciviously, and I rolled my eyes as Izuku returned. Tenya also made his way over, the engine-legged boy congratulating Mini-Might, pretending that nothing had happened earlier in the day, and everyone let him.

"Damn good job, Izuku," I told the green-haired boy, clapping him on the back, my gauntlets only warm now. "But about what I expected, given what we've seen of you."

"I, really?" he asked skeptically, everyone else nodding. "Oh... well, okay then," he grinned, as we all went back to exploring the expo, Melissa continuing to show us around, though I did catch the older girl giving the newest holder of OFA considering glances now and then, when everyone else was oohing and aahing over some new piece of tech.

The sun was starting to set, and a drone flew over to Ms. Shield, dropping a sealed envelope in the blonde girl's hands, before flying off. "Let's do one last thing," she suggested and the rest of us shrugged, heading back to the café, which we'd passed a few times, both Mineta and Sero hard at work. Handing them a pair of tickets to that night's expo reception, which was what was in the envelope she'd called for while we'd been walking around, they tearfully accepted, Tenya even offering words of encouragement for their dedication to their jobs.

With that, Ida announced that we would all arrive as a group, which was a bit presumptuous, but I didn't object, as it'd be easier to manage things if, or more likely when, things went wrong if we were all together. The girls, except for Mei, had made appointments to get mani-pedi's before the party, the inventrix getting dragged along with them as Mina had 'seen this coming' and reserved a spot for the engineer as well.

"I don't need one of those; I need to spend time double-checking my Babies!" the dreadlocked girl had objected, but my girlfriend would not be dissuaded, and I just smiled and wished everyone a good time.

Then it was just Melissa, Midoriya, and I left over, the older girl wanting to say something, but hesitating. Looking right at her, I asked, "This about All Might?"

Called out, the college-girl deflated a little. "Kind of. I wanted to show Deku something, but..."

"Don't worry," I replied, assuaging the guilt Melissa was obviously feeling over excluding me from whatever this was. "You two have fun. See you later!"

Walking away, I wondered if whatever was going to happen would occur when the two were alone, but, well, they would've been going that way even if I hadn't attended, probably, so it should be fine. Right?

AN: Next Four Chapters Up On