My Super Robot Academia

by Navek

When Izuku was four, it seemed like his dream of becoming a hero was over. But after a day with his father, that dream is reborn into something greater. "Maybe I can't become a hero like All Might...but I can build a hero just as great as him!" Get ready for a hot-blooded, heavy metal revolution!

18. Mechanical Marauders March at Midnight

Author's Note 1: My Super Robot Academia is a non-profit fanfiction series.

My Hero Academia is a property of Bones, Funimation, and Kouhei Horikoshi.

Any original characters or concepts are owned by Navek and xpegasus.

Please support the official release.

Chapter 18: The Mechanical Marauders March at Midnight

Night had fallen on Monokara City, one of the special wards of Tokyo that had been established during the rise of Quirks. It had once served as a manufacturing hub for the entire Tokyo Metropolitan Area with factories that ran 24/7.

But in recent years, the once bustling manufacturing hub with a population comparable to Shinjuku and Shibuya had turned into a ghost town. Most of the factories had shuttered their doors, and the ones that remained only operated during regular business hours. Despite the cheap rent and proximity to bustling places like Hosu City, the population continued to decline year over year as Monokara fell into disrepair and developed a reputation as a hideaway for villains and other criminals. The many abandoned factories proved very appealing to Japan's criminal element.

Inside one such factory was an intimidating figure whom most would run from without a second thought.

His outfit was ragged, consisting of a dark combat suit plated with metal armor across his body to holster his weapons. He wore a blood-red scarf, a matching headband, and the tattered cloth around his face as a mask. He had long, wild black hair, a flat nose, and piercing red eyes.

The room was illuminated solely by a cheap desk lamp. He flipped through a notebook, twirling a pen in his other hand before suddenly stopping. At the bottom of the page was the name 'Sir Dangerous,' with a scowl, the man crossed out the name.

His eyes wandered to the ten names above 'Sir Dangerous' before flipping to another page titled 'Hosu Heroes.'

'Hosu's going to be a bit trickier to work around,' he thought. 'A more densely populated area like that will inevitably have more heroes than fringe areas.' He looked at the list of Hosu's local heroes, determining his next target based on their recorded skills, power set, and how big of a hero agency they worked with.

But what the man did not know was that he was not alone in this factory. Up in the rafters was a spider. Now, a spider by itself wasn't anything of particular note, especially in an abandoned factory like this one. But unbeknownst to Stain, this was no ordinary spider; it was staring directly at him and had a small camera strapped to its back.

What looked like a regular unmarked van was parked across the street from the factory. Inside was a young man sitting at a computer with a video feed of Stain. He had silver lines across his face and fingers and matching silver hair and eyes. He was dressed in a dark blue suit befitting an office worker.

"We have a visual, good work, Webcam," he said, turning to a woman sitting beside him. She wore a form-fitting black outfit with a white spiderweb pattern, a matching scarf styled to serve as a mask over her mouth, and a pair of goggles with dark lenses. She also wore her hair in a bun with eight loose strands.

"I have spiders stationed at every exit. If he makes a run for it, he won't escape my sight," Webcam said, quiet yet serious. "He matches the descriptions from the police to a t," Webcam noted, not even looking at the screen as she watched Stain through the eyes of her spiders. "God, I can smell him from here."

"Low blow, Ayo."

Webcam rolled her eyes from behind her goggles. "My apologies; I should have more sympathy for the bloodthirsty serial killer."

"At least don't do that while our boss is changing right next to us."

"No need to hold back on my account." A man said as he stepped out from behind a curtain, his boots clunking against the van's floor. He was a tall, burly young man with short blue hair and pronounced eyebrows. He was clad in a set of white armor that gave him the appearance of a futuristic knight. In his hands was a helmet with a black solid visor and the top piece pointing outward.

"Suited up already, sir?" the silver-haired man asked.

"Yup. I have to throw the R team a party. The new modular plating made this so much easier," he said with a smile.

"Well, let's make sure we complete our mission before we bring out the confetti," Webcam stated as the armored man looked at the footage of Stain's hunched-over form.

"So that's him," he said to himself before pressing a button on the console. "Ingenium to all points; status report."

On the other side of the building Stain occupied was a red-haired woman in a burgundy dress patterned like bricks. "Meld here," she whispered. She looked at the state of the building and pouted. "Aw, this place is so run down. Why couldn't he hide in a chic office building or something cool like a haunted house?"

A muscular man with a shifting gun arm took a sniping position on the rooftop of another nearby factory. He looked like he'd jumped straight out of an 80s action movie with his camo pants, boots, camo face paint, and opting to go shirtless and expose his muscular torso for all to see. "I'm in position, Boss Man. Just say the word, and Mister Hero Killer is history."

"Ammo, you know that's not how we do things," Ingenium said. "I'm going to try talking to him first."

"You sure that's a good idea, Boss Man?" Ammo asked. "This guy ain't some civvie dealing with QRB. This fucker's got twenty-four of us in his kill count."

"I'm well aware of that. But rushing in for the kill would make you no better than him. If things go south, I'll try to take him down myself. And if it looks like he's going to get the upper hand, you two have permission to jump in and help. Understood?"

"Crystal, boss," Ammo said with a groan. There were times when he often scoffed at his boss's softer side. But then again, that was probably the ex-soldier in him. He had only started this hero thing about two years ago, and Boss Man was the only hero willing to take a chance on a disgraced JSDF member like him.

And Ammo supposed he wouldn't be Ingenium if he didn't try to see the best of a bad situation.

Speaking of Ingenium, he now had his helmet on and was walking towards Stain's hideout. He felt a mix of emotions: righteous anger, nervousness, and disappointment in his fellow man. And the sad thing was that as a pro-hero, he was more than familiar with this blend of emotions.

'Time to get to work.' Ingenium cautiously opened the door to the factory and walked in. But in the center of the factory, Stain twitched. He grabbed a throwing knife from his pocket and threw it at the source of the sound. With a clang, Ingenium swatted the blade away. The Hero Killer looked at him and smirked.

"Well, well, well. Tensei Iida...the Turbo Hero Ingenium," Stain said with a predatory grin. "What's one of the top 50 doing in a place like this?"

"I go wherever evil dwells," Tensei proclaimed, glaring at Stain from behind his helmet's visor. "Hero Killer Stain, your massacre is going to end tonight. Either by your willing surrender..." The Turbo Hero took up a combat stance akin to a boxer. "...or by me taking you in."

Stain let out a chuckle. "You expect me just to hand myself in. No." Stain drew his two large combat knives from their sheaths and held them in a reverse grip. "My grand mission ain't even close to finished."

"Your mission? You mean killing heroes?"

Stain growled and spit on the ground. "Those fakes made a mockery of the title. I did the world a favor by snuffing out those so-called 'heroes.'" There was enough venom in how he said "heroes" to kill an adult elephant. "And it looks like number 25 has walked through my door."

Tensei sighed. He had hoped that Stain would turn out to be full of it. Just some serial killer that got lucky and was riding a murderous high. But that was out the window when he called it a 'mission.' He was determined to kill heroes, and he was clearly working his way up the charts.

"I guess that's that," Ingenium proclaimed as the engines in his elbows began to heat up. "Prepare to face the engine of justice!"

Tensei blasted ahead like a rocket, blowing old paper and garbage into the air as he did so. Most criminals would freak out at seeing a full-grown man in armor rushing towards them like a race car. But Stain wasn't your average criminal. With cat-like agility, he side-stepped Ingenium and reached for his blades. But the Turbo Hero was no one trick pony.

He cut off his left engine and poured all his power into his right engine. He spun around with blinding speed and delivered a devastating punch right to Stain's face, knocking the killer back.

Stain gritted his teeth, reeling from the force. One punch from Ingenium felt like he'd been hit with a brick. He could already taste blood in his mouth. Quickly, he glanced at Ingenium's armor illuminated by his lamp post. He needed to aim for the black fabric parts, which was easier said than done. Stain had to act quickly, dropping one knife to grab some throwing knives from his pouch.

But when Stain threw them, to his shock, not only did his knives bounce off the silver armor, but they barely left a scratch on the black fabric!

"Reinforced mesh," Ingenium said, much to Stain's surprise. "Your Quirk requires you actually to cut your opponent. At least, that's what our working theory is."

Indeed, Ingenium and Idaten came prepared to take Stain down. They'd reexamined Stain's victims and reviewed the incidents with a fine toothed comb. The one consistent thread Idaten had found was that most of Stain's victims appeared to have some initial superficial injury before Stain went in for the kill.

"Must've cost a small fortune for that kind of upgrade," Stain scoffed. "I'm surprised you don't have any corporate logos splashed over it."

However, unbeknownst to Ingenium and Stain, there were others in the manufacturing district with a mission to complete.

A robot, clearly old but newly refurbished, wandered around the manufacturing floor of a factory belonging to Acorn Industries. And through the aged machine's eyes, the artificial intelligence controlling it was observing...and was thoroughly disappointed.

"Almost eighty years, and no one's managed to improve upon my designs." If she had a body, she would've let out the most frustrated sigh. "Complacency really does give way to stagnation."

The AI directed the robot to interface with the factory's central computer in the office above the assembly line. And when it did, the AI was actually intrigued. "Well, at least someone was trying to think outside the box." The robot's eyes glowed blue as it began to download Acorn's data. But midway through the download, the machine's audio receptors picked up the sound of the opening door to the wing and two sets of footsteps walking in.

"What did I tell you, dear viewers? Acorn is so confident they can get away with their crimes, they don't even bother to lock their doors," came a boisterous male voice. "But their blasé villainy pales in comparison to yours truly."

The robot looked out the office window, its eyes zooming in on the two intruders.

One was a tall, silver-haired man in a garish costume. His much shorter compatriot was a woman with fuchsia hair and was filming the man in action with a handheld camera. But more importantly, the robot's bio-scans picked up something in both.

Two Q-Factors Detected.

The AI thought about her next move. The smarter option would be to stay hidden. The body she was piloting was old. Still functional, but not as good as it would've been fresh off the assembly lot. And in her experience, costumed enemies posed more of a challenge than some kids being taken by surprise...then again, it would be a good idea to see just how the Q-Factor had mutated in a near century. How much the infection had distorted the natural world. And in the end, her scientific curiosity (and more than a little blood-lust) won out.

"I apologize ahead of time if this particular video ends up being uneventful, dear viewers. But regardless, I thank you for your continued support of Gentle Criminal..." He flamboyantly gestured to himself and then to the shorty. "...and my lovely assistant, La Brava!"

"Oh, stop!" La Brava giggled and bashfully blushed.

Suddenly, Gentle felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

And then...

BANG!

As the gunshot rang out, Gentle moved. The air around the duo shifted, and the bullet became suspended in some clear field, looking like it was trying to push through a giant piece of Saran Wrap. Gentle stared at the bullet for a moment, certain that if not his instincts, both he and La Brava would be dead.

"Ah, so they did leave a guard on standby," Gentle proclaimed, quickly reclaiming his composure. His gaze followed the path of the bullet. Thanks to the moonlight streaming through windows, he spotted what looked like a gun barrel pointing out the window of the office above.

"They're pretty quick to open fire," La Brava pointed out as she continued to film.

"Indeed. But we must show decorum, La Brava," Gentle stated. "Fair warning: I'm going to send the bullet back. I suggest you evade."

With a snap of his fingers, the bullet bounced back in the direction it was shot from, shattering another office window. The criminal duo waited for a response, possibly the guard running away. Instead...

"Well, long-ranged combat seems out of the question given what just happened."

The robot leaped out of the broken window and landed on the floor of the assembly line, surprising the duo. The metallic eyes zeroed in on Gentle, and the voice that followed radiated malice. "A Q-Factor that allows you to apply elasticity to the air itself: how revolting. You are a walking embodiment of Moha." The machine's right arm reconfigured into a vibrating blade with the sounds of metallic plates shifting. "You will defy reality no longer!"

The robot charged at Gentle with surprising agility for its frame. But the self-proclaimed criminal mastermind was undeterred.

When the robot was in stabbing range, Gentle applied his quirk to the ground and bounced high up, evading the slash. He then applied it to the ceiling, bouncing toward the robot and placing a single finger on its head. With a dashing smile, Gentle proclaimed, "Adeu, my mechanical adversary."

Suddenly, the robot's knees wobbled, and it became unable to support itself. It collapsed into an elastic heap, looking like a rubber robot toy that had been in the sun too long.

"What exactly are you?" Gentle asked as he landed on his feet. "One of Acorn's robots?"

"Not one of the good ones." La Brava commented.

"Don't you dare compare our works side by side!" The voice shouted. "Comparing my fine-tuned Zen-Bots to Acorn's clunky machines! That's akin to comparing wagyu steak to a fast food burger!"

'So someone's controlling this thing.' La Brava thought based on that statement.

"Although..."

Suddenly, the lights of the factory lit up.

Gentle and La Brava watched as the many robots on the assembly line floor sprang to life, their optics red like burning coals. Even the incomplete ones stared right at the duo.

These robots were similar to the ones Acorn provided for UA's entrance exam. The big difference is that these robots were intended for military use. This meant their armor was made of Alpha Titanium, and their weapons were live rounds. And all of them were being aimed at the now terrified Gentle and Brava.

"I suppose sometimes quantity can make up for quality."

Sweat began to appear on Gentle's forehead. "...bollocks."

Meanwhile, Ammo continued watching the abandoned factory from his sniping position, ready to move in whenever he got the word that things were going sideways. But suddenly, he heard the sound of explosions and gunfire. He turned towards the direction of the sounds and saw smoke billowing from a factory in the distance, parts of the building exploding, and bullets flying out of it.

"Guys, you hearing all of that?!" Ammo asked the control team.

"You'd have to be deaf not to."

"I'm gonna go investigate!" Ammo leaped from rooftop to rooftop towards the chaos. And when he landed on the building next to the Acorn factory, he saw Gentle carrying a screaming La Brava, bouncing on elastified air to evade a barrage of missiles. But it was clear to Ammo that they wouldn't be able to evade in time. He grabbed hold of the aiming support on his arm and aimed. He fired six shots, and six shots found their targets, making the missiles explode. Gentle and La Brava landed next to him. La Brava was trying and failing to calm down, and Gentle was clearly shaken.

"Y-You have my thanks, good fellow."

"You can thank me by telling me what—" Ammo was cut off when they saw the Acorn military robots burst through the factory doors and take aim at them. "RUN!"

The three costumed individuals managed to leap to the next building just as the previous one was blown to smithereens. "Why the hell is going on?!" Ammo shouted.

"Some crazy lady that hates Quirks is controlling those machines!" La Brava managed to say in between screams of terror.

"Shit!" Ammo quickly tapped his radio. "Ammo to all points: we got killer robots over by the south end, and they're armed to the teeth!"

"Wait, what?! Robots?"

"That's what I just said, Mainframe!"

"How many are we talking?"

Ammo thought back to when he saw the machines exiting the building. "I saw six of them exit the building."

"There's more than that." Gentle chimed in. "At least sixteen of those mechanical monstrosities."

"You get that?"

"We did. I'm putting a call to all Idaten members near and far!"

Back with Ingenium and Stain, Tensei was growing more than a bit frustrated. The Hero Killer had proven to be a highly adaptable opponent. He was agile, knew how to maneuver around confined spaces (especially with that grappling hook he pulled out of his ass), and his annoying persistence.

"You're annoyingly persistent," Stain spat as he slashed at Ingenium, who parried the knife with his gauntlet. The armored hero didn't reply at first as he pushed Stain back. But when he did speak up, it surprised the hero killer.

"Answer me this: what do you hope to accomplish with all of this?" Ingenium took a stance, ready to strike. "You don't strike me as a man who kills for the fun of it."

"...huh." Stain was legitimately taken aback. "I think you're the first hero I've encountered to ask me why. Most just call me a murderer and die trying to escape or stop me."

"There's always a motive. So what's yours?"

A wicked smile appeared on Stain's face. "What all you 'heroes' have failed to do: I want to make the world a better place."

"And how does killing heroes fit that goal? Fewer heroes in the world mean fewer people get saved."

"Oh, please." Stain twirled a knife as he continued. "You and all the other fakes that call yourselves 'heroes' are a mockery of the very concept. Heroes are supposed to be beacons of humanity! Above our worst impulses! Bright paragons, unwavering in their conviction to battle evil. To put aside their own wants and desires for the sake of pure heroism."

Stain's eyes became strained with absolute hatred, his teeth gritting so hard one would assume he would break them by pressure alone. "But the 'heroes' that this rotten society has produced are nothing like that! Their very existence is defecation in human form! All of you are glorified circus monkeys! You star in commercials for shitty products and business! You stamp your faces on liquor and vibrators! Being a 'hero' in the modern day isn't about saving people! It's about stroking your egos and making money!"

Stain's face then became surprisingly solemn. "I'm well aware that what I'm doing is monstrous. My hands are stained, and my soul is damned. But if it makes a better world, I'll gladly face Enma-O when my time comes."

"Tenma Ishijo."

Stain looked at Ingenium with a raised eyebrow. "What are you—"

"Hikaru Takahara. Michiru Ayane. Goro Hayame. Fuga Horimiya." Ingenium began to walk towards Stain. Behind his armored visage, Tensei's expression was one of rage. "These are the names of five criminals who tried to murder rookie heroes and sidekicks in the last four months. One of them actually managed to cut off a sidekick's hand."

Before Stain could react, Ingenium blasted ahead and punched the hero killer with enough force to knock out one of his teeth, making him roll onto the floor.

"You're not making the world a better place! You're just inspiring a generation of butchers! And that's why I-"

"Attention, all Idaten members; we have a new crisis developing!"

Tensei's eyes widened as he was given the report. The gears in his head started spinning as he was faced with two choices,

He could either help his teammates save people and stop a crisis in progress before more people got hurt but potentially let Stain get away. Or he could stay and continue his fight with Stain in hopes of putting an end to his blood-stained crusade.

"Damn it," Tensei swore under his breath before running to the door.

"Hey!" Stain shouted. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Something more important just came up."

And so, Ingenium left the building, one of Webcam's spiders hopping onto his armor.

Stain stood in the middle of the abandoned factory for a moment, staring at the open door in utter confusion. "What. The. Hell!?" Stain growled as his confusion gave way to pure. Blinding. Rage.

Meanwhile, Ammo, Gentle, and La Brava had taken shelter in one of the nearby abandoned buildings; there were many to choose from. The gun-armed hero quickly found a fire escape and looked at the duo. "I'll keep these metal fuckers distracted; when they've got all eyes on me, you two get the hell out of here."

Gentle was hesitant. "But what abo—"

"My team's already on their way! Just go!" Ammo yelled before running back towards the robots. With a mighty roar, he fired at the robots on the street. Once they had their optics firmly on him, Ammo began running, all while screaming at the top of his lungs and never letting up on his barrage. Ammo barely evaded a hail of bullets as he leaped to the roof of an adjacent building.

"That's it, eyes on me, you metallic fucks!" Ammo screamed. He hoped Gentle and La Brava had made it down the fire escape but dared not to look back so the robots would keep their attention on him.

He kept running and gunning, his heart pumping so hard he could feel it through his whole body. 'Well, this is probably gonna get me killed.' The former JSDF officer told himself as he ran. 'Guess that's the hero life for ya.'

Suddenly, as Ammo was about to jump to the next building, the robots' bullets tore through the dilapidated roof. It began to cave in, and Ammo lost his footing. Ammo missed his jump, fingers scraping the side of the next, and gravity took hold.

"SHIT!" Ammo cried.

Just as he was about to hit the ground, Ammo felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist. "I've got you, big guy." Ammo looked up to see Meld, her lower body fused into the wall of the building.

Before Ammo could thank his teammate, the robots resumed fire, and Meld was forced to drop him. As he landed, Ammo shifted his gun arm again, this time taking the form of a rotating grenade launcher. "Fuck you, ya walking tin cans!" he screamed, unleashing a volley of destruction upon the robots.

As the robots were torn apart by the force of the explosion, a piece of shrapnel flew past Ammo's head, almost clipping his ear. The remaining robots tread over the remains of their fallen comrades and fired at Ammo once. Ammo ran and ducked behind one of the buildings. "Shit, this is looking real bad."

"Well, I've found something that looks real good," Meld said as she emerged from the wall. Ammo watched as she reached down and grabbed the shrapnel that almost took his head off. As she grabbed it, her skin took on the same green sheen as the metal.

"Oh, now this is more like it," Meld said, admiring her newly metallic skin like a fresh manicure."Much cuter than old brick." With a wink, Meld ran from behind the corner and rushed the robots, evading missiles and tanking bullets, until she leaped onto one of the bots and began wailing on it.

While Meld tussled with the green machine, a manic grin spread across Ammo's face. "Let's fucking go!" He yelled, following behind Meld and sending a hail of bullets into the robots. Working together, the two heroes were able to break through the blockade and exit the cramped alley.

They were quickly joined by their leader as Ingenium came in blasting and struck one of the robots with a full-throttle punch, sending a piece of its green armor flying. And that gave Webcam opening she needed. The spider that had hitched a ride with Ingenium leaped onto the robot and started making its way inside. Once it had reached a specific point, Webcam ordered it to stop, and small metal arms emerged from its attached camera and plugged a transmitter into the robot.

Inside the Idaten Mobile Command Center, Webcam smirked under her mask. "It's all yours."

Mainframe grinned and gave her a thumbs up. "Gotcha. Watch my bod for me."

Webcam gave a short nod as Mainframe plugged his finger into the USB port. The lines on his body began to glow the same blue as his eyes. "Dive In."

From Mainframe's perspective, the world around him changed. He was no longer sitting in the Idaten Mobile Command. He was now inside a void-like space with endless 0s and 1s around him. He looked around, seeing the familiar blue coding of the IMC in the far distance. Ahead of him were several 'towers' of hostile red coding that represented all of the killer robots. He saw tendrils that connected the red towers together to a central source off in the distance.

"Looks like I got my work cut out for me." Tendrils of his own blue data strung out from his body and began to insert itself into the red data tower.

In the real world, the robot Webcam's spider infiltrated froze for a moment. Ingenium was wary until it began to punch another robot in the face.

"Everyone, Mainframe has infiltrated the robot's code," Webcam said over the com. "And as a side note, I finally get to put all my years of playing Armored Core to use in the field."

Tensei chuckled and gave the robot a thumbs up. "Glad you're having fun, now let's send these things to the scrapyard."

"Roger that."

"Incoming!" Ammo shouted as a trio of robots aimed their guns at the heroes and opened fire. The heroes were pressed to dodge (or tank, in Meld's case), but a figure jumped in front of the heroes and held his hands out. To everyone's surprise, Gentle Criminal had joined the fray, using his Quirk to stop the bullets with elastic air!

"Bully to you, you robotic ruffians!" He shouted before the bullets bounced back and hit the trio of robots, damaging them.

"The hell are you doing here?" Ammo asked.

"I might be a crook, but I'm also a gentleman. And it wouldn't be proper of me to abandon the man who put his life on the line who saved me," Gentle said before looking behind them. "La Brava, if you would."

The short woman nodded and held her hands together before shouting, "Gentle, I love you!"

A pink aura enveloped Gentle, and he felt the familiar rush that came with La Brava's quirk empowering him. "My thanks." He turned to the robots as more of them began to appear. "Tally Ho!"

Under his helmet, Tensei smirked as he saw Gentle charge with La Brava cheering him on. He had heard of the criminal duo before. Honestly, given their tendency to act more like modern-day Robin Hood and Maid Marian (going after businesses that often engaged in shady practices), they were more akin to vigilantes than outright supervillains. While the HSPC still encouraged active pro-heroes to place them under arrest for illegal Quirk use, all but the most stubborn heroes couldn't help but have a soft spot for the duo.

And given how durable and numerous these machines were, any help was appreciated.

"You heard him, Idaten!" Ingenium shouted as he activated the jets in his elbows. "Let's take these rust buckets down!"

"Right!" The heroes charged into the fray to take down the mechanical menaces. Ingenium was the first to turbo-punch a robot in its shoulder joint. He jumped back to evade the robot's downward punch, which was followed by Meld drop-kicking the machine with enough force to leave a massive dent. Webcam piloted their captured robot, making it fire a rocket that blew the other machine's head off.

Another robot tried to fire a missile at the heroes, but Gentle caught the missile with some elastic air before making it fly back to it, causing the machine to explode. He then leaped and tapped another robot, turning it elastic and letting Ammo tear it to shreds with a hail of bullets. He evaded gunfire from another machine, which ended up getting double-teamed by Ingenium and Meld, shoulder-checking it.

But as the rest of the robots began to converge on the heroes, they knew they were still in for a rough time until Mainframe could stop them.

Back in the digital world, Mainframe's data body approached the source of the red data. It was like looking at an erratic vortex made of 0s and 1s. Odd, but he had no time to dwell on that. He had a job to do, aiming his hand and making a gun shape with his fingers.

"Override Bullet!" A bullet of his own bio-code fired into the red mass. Blue coding began to override it for a moment, but something strange started to happen. The enemy's data exploded outward, blinding Mainframe for a brief second. But in that instance, blips of the red data formed into spikes...and impaled him from multiple directions.

In the real world, Mainframe's still body jerked, and Webcam looked at him with worry.

"What the hell?" Mainframe exclaimed as pain shot through his digital being.

"You..."

"Huh?" In front of the impaled digital hero, the red data began to take the shape of a colossal human head that dwarfed Mainframe. Something about the woman seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite think straight, considering the spikes impaling his digital form.

"It's worse than I thought! Much, much worse! Mutations that alter technology?! Code?! Even the digital domain is not safe!"

Mainframe tried to piece together what was going on. This wouldn't have been possible if the mastermind behind the robots was controlling them with conventional means. "You got some data manipulation, Quirk, too?"

"Don't you DARE compare me to your disgusting Q-Factor!" Hundreds of spikes of red data pierced Mainframe's digital form, his screams ringing through the world of ones and zeroes.

In the real world, his body began to spasm, with blood beginning to spew from his ears.

"M-Mainframe?!" Webcam exclaimed.

But he wasn't about to give up because of sensory overload. He was a hero! The best hero suited to the right situation! He wasn't gonna let whatever this thing was get the best of him! He grabbed the spikes, and his body glowed an even brighter blue.

"Eat this! FIREWALL BREAKER!" A blue blast fired from Mainframe's mouth, piercing the AI right in the center of the forehead. He began to override her, putting all of his mental might into cutting off her connection to the Acorn Military Robots...and figured he might as well try seeing what he was dealing with.

But what he saw was baffling. It felt less like he was breaking into an encrypted data file...and more like seeing someone's memories.

He fell to the ground, blood coming out of his mouth as a gang of biker girls beat down on her, their leader's fingers glowing red with heat.

He felt a sense of fear at the fact that his species would be extinct in a matter of centuries.

He was going over plans for a weapon that would counter any and all mutations. He was on stage, accepting a reward for his breakthroughs in the field of robotics.

He laughed as he saw footage of his Zen-Bots, practically dancing with glee as those genetic abominations were massacred in the streets, practically giddy as he saw a child with spider legs bludgeoned to death.

Rage as those costumed fools burned his lab to the ground and him along with it.

"...get out...GET OUT!"

In the mobile command center, Mainframe's body practically launched out of his seat, slamming into his computer before falling to the floor. Webcam looked at her friend in shock and horror but had no time to waste. She grabbed the medkit and was at Mainframe's side in barely a second.

"Y-y-ya..." Mainframe sputtered, his eyes looking everywhere and nowhere all at once.

"Stay awake, Junichi!" She quickly kneeled down next to him.

"Ya...Yasu...da."

At the same time, Ingenium was tossed into a wall by one of the robots, Ammo was feeling woozy thanks to the amount of ammunition he had fired, Meld was dented in a few places, Webcam's robot had suddenly gone slack, and both Gentle and La Brava were feeling drained, and there were still eight robots left standing.

However, the robots suddenly stopped, falling down to the ground.

"G-Guys...Junichi...he's going into cardiac arrest!" Webcam shouted over the com-links. And as Tensei got up from the rubble, he couldn't help but think that even though this battle had ended, this was merely the beginning.

And, unfortunately for the world, his feeling was right.

In a small lab covered in a thick layer of dust, a computer screen blinked on, showing the face of that strange AI once more.

That was a close one. I'll need to take mutations that can interact with technology into account. But for now...

With a single thought, the old 3D printer on the other side of the lab activated. With another thought, she uploaded the data she had managed to download from Acorn's files: schematics for a new type of intercontinental drone sub. In another window, she was reading an article about a particular location off the coast of the United States of America. The 10th Wonder of the World: I-Island!

Inside the computer that housed her, the AI laughed. She had been in a spiral of despair since her last beloved Gohozenshin had awoken her. But now? Now, she was feeling positively giddy.

I hope you've enjoyed your time in this world, you living manifestations of Moha! You've violated the human gene pool for far too long. You might've thought your costumed enforcers had killed me, but you failed to realize you're dealing with the greatest mind of the 22nd century!

So enjoy your existence while you still can! Because soon, the world will know! They will know...THAT YUKO YASUDA HAS RETURNED FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!

To be continued...

Author's Note 2: This chapter was a lot of fun to write. I didn't want to keep you guys hanging on the follow-up to that killer robot from Chapter 4. As you can tell, this chapter is setting up for some major events down the line.

Kudos to all of you guys guessing the main inspiration for Yuko Yasuda and her Zen-Bots. Putting Sentinel-inspired foes in a My Hero Academia story just makes all the sense in the world to me, considering comics like X-Men were the main inspiration for the series.

Next Time: Those Heart-pounding Days of Youth!