「God its cold rn, it's like 5℉ by me, please help」
We're gonna get out of filler soonish, I like to establish stuff before i get into the big story. Anyways, here's your chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
As promised, Ochako and Izuku told Iida the next day, after school. He didn't take it all that well. He took the news in such an...Iida way.
"What do you MEAN he asked you to be his successor!?" Iida said, nearly shaking Ochako. "Was that YOU who fought against that Potential villain!?"
Ochako was glad Iida was having this freakout in her apartment and not in public.
"Uh, y-yeah," Ochako admitted sheepishly.
"What were you THINKING?! Taking on a villain with such a powerful Quirk alone?! Despite having a copy of one of the most powerful pieces of technology known to man, that fight could have ended in disaster! But...you did still pull through and manage to actually apprehend the fiend."
"So...it balances out?" Ochako asked.
"I suppose it does. But the concern is still there!"
"A-are you mad at her, or-?" Izuku asked.
"No! Yes! Maybe! I'm just glad she's okay!" Iida said. "I'm just VERY conflicted right now!"
"Um...if it helps, I'm sorry for making you worry?" Ochako tried, hoping that'd make things...less conflicting.
"I appreciate the sentiment, but considering what you did was for a good cause, no apology is necessary!"
"R-right. Just promise us you'll...keep quiet about this, okay? I don't want to freak everybody out." Izuku said.
Are you kidding? Everyone's reaction is gonna be tame compared to Iida's! Ochako thought.
"I promise," Iida said, now calmer, "Not a soul will hear about your status as successor from me."
"Good, good." Ochako said. "You'll just need to cover for me sometimes, and I think that'll be it."
"I'll admit, knowing it was YOU that fought Potential worries me. He's no Stain...but he could have done a lot worse." Iida felt his wrist. Ochako shivered- she really didn't wanna tell Iida about what Potential really did on their first encounter.
"Again, I'm sorry for that, but...if we let worry or fear keep us from acting-" Ochako began.
"Then we have no right to call ourselves heroes! Of course!" Iida finished for the gravity hero. Well, nice to know Ochako managed to make things a bit lighter in tone again.
"I can't imagine even keeping a secret like that! I understand why you decided to shoulder this burden for a short while." Iida said, moving his hands about. "I only ask one thing of you!"
"And what's that?" Ochako asked.
"Stay out of trouble, please." Iida asked. His eyes looked more serious than usual when he said that. "Can you manage that?"
"...More or less," Ochako said.
"More or less?! Ochako, there should be far more emphasis on 'more' there!" Iida began, before rubbing his chin in thought, "It is always possible that myself and Midoriya could assist you in developing better control over them. Which of his aliens do you even have?"
"Oh my playlist? It's Four Arms, XLR8, Grey Matter, Gravattack, Big Chill, Heatblast, Upgrade, Echo Echo, Chromastone, and Water Hazard," The gravity hero-to-be listed off.
"And have you used all of them at least once before?"
"I...think the only one I haven't used is Upgrade."
"Then it's settled! Midoriya, it seems we will have to bother a veritable scrapyard's worth of material to help our friend understand this last form."
"I mean we probably won't need that much," Deku defended.
"There's a high chance we will. An unfamiliar powerset is prone to bad accuracy and may sometimes even backfire."
"Hey, my aim isn't that bad!" Ochako defended before jabbing her speedster friend in the arm lightly.
And the trio got to planning some sort of training exercise for the Omnitrix wielder. Of course, they wouldn't be able to get to that training until the next weekend.
Ben paced around the room, waiting for Kevin to appear. He looked down at the Omnitrix, and paused. "Oh, right. Doesn't tell time." Ben muttered.
Suddenly, a black rift appeared next to him. Ben could hear a few things from the other side.
"I'll be back before dinner," Kevin's voice said. "Or earlier, depending on how long this takes."
"Alrighty! Just send me a text and I'll open the rift again." Min's voice replied, as she smooched Kevin on the cheek. "Tell Ben I said hi."
Ben just smirked. They probably knew he could hear them from the otherside, but either way. Shortly after a quick confirmation that he would, none other than Kevin Levin himself stepped through the rift.
Kevin had grown- he looked skinnier than his past self, his hair was longer, and he had Lichtenberg scars all around his body- one of note was shaped like an X on his chin. He also wore Proto-Tech Armor.
"Sorry for the hold up," Kevin said.
"All good," Ben smirked, "How're they doing?"
"Min's alright, though, Xander's making sure we're both busy with him," Kevin chuckled a bit.
"That's good, that's good," Ben said, as he and Kevin walked down the hallway. "Thanks again for coming halfway across the world for this. You're the best man for the job."
"From what you said, he fell pretty far..." Kevin admitted.
"But not too far so that he's unreachable, right?"
"Hopefully. How many villains did you say he thrashed before trying to take on heroes?"
"Plenty...many of them hospitalized...including one of the actually repentant ones, Invisible Wall."
"Hm. This is gonna be a fun talk." Kevin said, as he and Ben approached the conference room.
"They're using some technology in the room to suppress his quirk," Ben said, handing Kevin a bracelet. "This should grant you some immunity to it. Keep your distance. He might try and take it."
"Got it. Though, you did say it was almost like being charged up changed his personality, right?"
"In a way...yeah. But...well, you'll see..."
"News reports back home said the kid was a total maniac. Believe me- I know the feeling." Kevin said, as he entered the room. Akio looked up.
"Yo." Kevin said, as he sat down in the seat across from Potential.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Potential asked.
"Name's 11. I'm the Absorbing Hero from America," Kevin frowned.
"...11? Really? What, friend of 13?" Akio scoffed.
"Not really. But, not here to talk about what connections I have in the hero world."
"What, you're gonna scare me straight or something? Gonna tell me I'm wasting my powers? I've heard everything." Potential scoffed.
"No. I'm just gonna say that you did good out there." Kevin said.
"Wait...what?" Akio asked, not really processing what he heard properly. He had to be hearing things...right?
"Taking in that much power, going toe to toe with people like Tennyson and Crust- that was pretty impressive." Kevin said.
"I...what?" was all the subdued villain was able to say. This guy was...congratulating him for beating up some of his friends?
"You look confused." Kevin noted.
"Why are you praising me?" Potential asked.
"Because. It shows how starved you are of any positive reinforcement, kid." Kevin frowned.
"How do you...?" was all Potential managed to say. He was just...confused, now. Sure, one of the heroes must have told this guy about his life's story, but...he was expecting to get more of the usual lecture, not...not praise.
"Because...I know the type. Something went wrong with your life. If I wasn't told directly, could've been anyone's guess about what happened. Parents got divorced, poor or...outright rough upbringing, something along those lines. And you had enough. You had enough and you decided to get out and you wanted to make something of yourself."
"That's what it says in my file?"
"Yeah. But I didn't need to read it all the way through to know what I'm dealing with."
"...you're like me." Potential said.
"Yeah. We're kindred spirits. And I know what you've been through, so, I'm gonna cut you a deal." Kevin said. "Tell me what's up, we'll get you into therapy, and you serve the minimum sentence."
"...what even is the minimum sentence for all the shit I've done?"
"Let's see...aggravated assault, sending people to the hospital and threatening a Pro...that's a minimum of...10 years." Kevin said. "Of course, you have opportunities to turn yourself around DURING those 10 years to reduce the sentence."
"...fine. You wanna know? Expectations. And not meeting them."
"Ah...one of the top five," Kevin mused.
"Seriously? Gonna make a joke on that?"
"Not a joke. I've given this talk a few times before and, while it's not a given, that's one of the five reasons I've heard the most. Some others were peer pressure, blackmail, not being exactly what you thought it'd be..."
"Yeah? You ever have parents who refused to give you a lick of respect because you don't have a perfect grade point average?" Akio frowned.
"I know people like that." Kevin said.
"What about a dad that doesn't look at you because you aren't 'excelling' at something?" Akio said.
"I had that too."
"...damn...so you weren't just saying 'we're not so different' just to try and...I dunno calm me down."
"Nope. Totally genuine. Not the kind of guy to use that as an empty platitude."
"...then how did you do it? How did you get out of it? Turn around to be a hero?"
"I had help." Kevin said, scratching his face. "And I'd like to extend that help to you, kid. I just became a parent- and I swore I would never fuck over my kids as much as my parents fucked me over. The cognitive and executive skills, stress response systems, and brain architectures of early infants are all disrupted by severe neglect, according to research. These disturbances, if not addressed, can result in academic difficulties, social adjustment issues, mental health issues, physical sickness, and other issues."
Akio blinked. "...so...it's not my fault for my setbacks?"
"Blame your parent's neglectful nature. Sure, you can blame a bad grade on yourself...but it's important to me that you understand that your did some serious damage to you."
"...I mean...that...that's why I ran..."
"But you still somewhat blamed yourself...right? That's why you joined the...what...what was the crew called?"
"The...Power Company," Akio said.
"...guy who named that outfit must not have been very good with names. But anyway, that's why you joined the Power Company. Wanted someone to finally tell you 'good job.' And they didn't fill that need."
"...no...not at all."
"All this time, you've been craving acceptance." Kevin frowned.
"...yeah." Akio said, looking down.
"I get it. I get how much you've gone through, even if the reasons weren't the exact same. I'll have a talk with the warden. Get ya some therapy while you're serving. Trust me, might not happen off the bat but...works wonders."
"Also speaking from experience?"
"Better believe it. I'd still be a mess without it. Hell, might even be a villain right now if I didn't work out all the issues."
"...right." Akio said, as Kevin stood up.
"Good talk, kid." Kevin said.
The absorbing hero turned and left Akio there for now, with a lot to think about. Ben was still waiting outside the holding room, not listening in, of course. Not like he could anyway given how thick the walls were for the room.
"Gave him the talk. I think he's gonna come around fast." Kevin said.
"Alright, good." Ben said. "...so, wanna get coffee or something before I take you to see the kid?"
"Wow, no smoothies? Adulthood changed you." Kevin joked.
"I still get smoothies. Just not as often..." Ben admitted.
"Point still stands."
Ben's drink- vanilla bean frappuccino, cinnamon dolce syrup, white mocha syrup, and a topping of cinnamon dolce powder. Tasty.
Kevin's drink- black coffee. That was black. Like his soul.
A good reflection of who they were as characters, wouldn't you say?
"So, aside from our super-charged friend in there, things on the villain front cooled down after U.S.J and Stain, yeah?" Kevin asked before taking a drink.
"Mostly yeah. Sure you've got some of the smaller crooks still going around, but nothing as big as the League...well, nothing that we know about yet," Ben admitted.
"America's had their fair share of villains- Stain's words didn't really resonate with the public as much as it did in Japan, but we had some new faces pop up. They were pretty easy to take down, though." Kevin said, taking a sip of his coffee.
"How easy?" Ben asked with a raised brow.
"I fought a dude named 'Tall Girl', Ben. She just wore giant stilts and shot lasers. All I needed to do was give her a good push and she was down." Kevin said.
"Starting to really run out of gimmicks aren't they?" Ben deadpanned.
"Definitely. I mean really? Your gimmick is being tall? Sure, not like there are people way taller."
"The kid's faced some tough opponents- one could counter powers, another could disguise themselves as other heroes with a mask, and now...Potential." Ben huffed. "I fought a giant robot, Animo and a bunch of weird old people when I first started. I miss that."
"Times are a changin." Kevin nodded.
"And not for the better if the League's anything to go by. The captured Nomu aren't much of a help given...well..."
"Given what?"
"Well, we were able to find out one of the Nomus was made from the body of an ex-con." Ben said. "And the rest..."
"The rest were?"
"The rest were missing children."
"You might wanna repeat that...because I know for a fact you didn't just say that."
"Wish I didn't..."
"Goddamn it. That's low, even for them! Body of an ex-con? It's sick, yeah, but the guy was already dead! If they used those kids for those experiments while they were alive."
"We don't know what happened there. I'll let you decide if that's a good thing or not..."
"It's getting scary out there- I swore I'd take care of all the problems that we had to deal with as kids." Ben said. "This new generation shouldn't bear our failures. Not because they can't take it...it's because they shouldn't. Ironwood, Ozpin, even Azmuth...they let us all down at some point, and forced us to deal with their issues. It sucked...and I don't want those kids to do so either."
"For the most part, we've succeeded at that," Kevin said, "Kid's not gonna have to deal with a Vilgax or a Malware or even a Servantis. Put them away years ago."
"I know...just...part of me's still on edge. Whenever the topic of the League comes up...sure we know who's publicly leading them...but I doubt he's the mastermind."
"Toshi killed him years ago. We saw it happen. We were there." Kevin reassured him.
"I know, I know...but some demons don't die that easily." Ben said.
"Last I checked, regeneration wasn't one of his Quirks. That Darth Vader-looking bastard is dead and buried."
Ben rubbed his arm- he still had some nasty scars from that battle. "Given what Heatblast and Toshi did to his face and body...maybe he really is gone and I'm paranoid."
"You are. Some people can be that well damn organized. I mean, case in point: Ceres. Remember the all-nighters she's pulled?"
"Fair, fair." Ben chuckled. "And without coffee, too. She was a beast."
"Heh, yeah. Heard she still pulls them...just less frequently," Kevin chuckled.
"Well, yeah. She's got a kid now." Ben said. "Now she pulls all nighters with them."
"Heard from her recently? Or do you think she's been too busy juggling everything?" Kevin asked.
"Probably too busy...should probably call myself."
"Great. And while you do that...how about I finally get to meet the next 10K?"
"You want to meet Uraraka?"
"Yeah. I know it's supposed to be a secret so, not gonna head over to U.A. or anything. That'd be like putting up a neon sign for the media."
"Lemme just give her a call to see where she is," Ben said, pulling out his phone. He dialed Ochako's number.
In some sequestered forest, Tenya and Izuku had set up a minor obstacle course for Ochako to run- it was made up from some of Tenya's old equipment from his at home quirk training, and some other stuff they were able to improvise.
"Now then, with everything set up, we're going to see how fast you can run this. I can't tell you how many times I've taken a similar course before I attended U.A. It only improved my mastery over my Quirk and, while I'm sure XLR8 can outrun me any day, I'm sure the course will serve to improve your speed as well," Iida went on, stopwatch in hand to time Ochako.
"If you're sure about this...XLR8 isn't exactly the same as your engine quirk." Ochako said. "I might blaze through these targets by accident."
"That's why I recommend you slow your pace!" Tenya said. "You're fast on your feet, but your reaction time needs to be fast as well!"
"Slower speed, faster reaction time...ok. I think I can manage that," Ochako said, dialing up the Kinnecelaran form and slamming down on the Omnitrix. In a flash of green, her form had been replaced by a more slender and reptilian form.
Iida had to admit it, seeing one of Ben 10K's aliens and knowing one of his friends was the one in control was weird, but in a good way.
"Ben 10k said he was fast enough to run on water as XLR8-" Izuku said, looking at one of his journals. "Because the water moves back as you push it, you must go twice as quickly or you will come to a halt. So that's...80 km/hr. Not even that, Ben said he could 'stop time' as XLR8, just for a brief few minutes. Your reflexes need to be REALLY good to contend with that."
"R-right, no big deal."
"Now then, let's begin!" Iida called out, thumb ready to start timing Ochako. Ben's successor took a deep breath to calm her nerves as she got ready to dash.
"Annnnnd...go!" the speedster hero-to-be called out, pressing the button to track his classmate's time.
Ochako decided to take it easy- usually, XLR8 ran at around 100 MPH. But, Tenya was right. Take it slow. She moved at a decent speed of 45 MPH. Same speed a car goes on an average road. She jumped over some hurdles and ducked under some of the higher ones.
"So far, so good," Deku said, watching Ochako take the opening hurdles with ease.
"Good time so far as well. Hopefully she can keep that," Iida said, taking glances back down to the stopwatch.
Ochako dodged the swinging projectiles with ease- even if they hit her, it wouldn't hurt that much. They were filled with only a few rocks.
After she wove through the rocks being launched at her, Ochako found herself almost colliding with a large collection of branches, arranged almost like a climbing wall.
"Okay, weird, but I guess it fits a timed course..." the gravity Quirk user muttered to herself before trying to climb it. XLR8 wasn't the best suited for this, but swapping to another form might outright break the obstacle.
Ochako quickly tried to scale the thing, but found her wheels weren't...exactly all terrain. She slipped and fell as she tried to climb the wall of branches.
If she was moving faster, Ochako could've avoided this entire obstacle by just jumping over it. Ochako jumped back down, and huffed. "How on Earth am I gonna..." Ochako then remembered something, way back to when she was starting out with her aliens.
Ochako wobbled in her new Kineceleran feet, which felt like in-line skates but far worse. Helen assisted her in finding her balance.
The young heroine examined her two-toed feet. "Ohh...this is soooooo weird.
"Easy, easy. It takes a while to get accustomed to the rolling. Took me a few days." Helen said.
"Huh? Are these things not...like, attached to you or something?" Ochako tilted her head.
"Nope!" Helen suddenly released her grip on the balls, and stepped off of them. Ochako was stunned. "These are forged from a special pearl on my species' homeworld. Reduces friction and makes running a bit more of a breeze."
"So, I can like...run around without these things." Ochako inquired, looking at her feet.
"Yeah- but, unless you're on really rough terrain, I don't see you taking them off at any time." Helen laughed.
Ochako blinked. What did Present Mic call a moment like that in his class? Someone's...gun. Ochako shook her head- not the time to think about that. She stepped off the balls, and threw them over the obstacle. She quickly climbed up the obstacle and grinned. She'd have to text Helen about this later and have a good laugh about it. She picked up her balls, and reattached them to her feet. What was next on the obstacle course?
Ochako could see the next ones- a cargo net, a wire field, and a few walls to climb over. How the heck did they set this all up? Ochako once again detached her wheels, and threw them through the cargo net. She climbed over the net quickly, and back down the other side. She just grabbed the balls, and crawled through the wire field. It was pretty hard to keep herself low, especially with her sharp head occasionally getting snagged on a wire. The girl found it a bit annoying, but she cleared it. Now came the walls...
Ochako reattached her wheels, and jumped up- her claws latched onto the ledge, as she pulled herself over. Ochako repeated this a few more times, and now there was one more obstacle left in her way- the skyscraper. She had to leap or climb to the first story, then either climb the corner posts or help one another to the higher floors, and then press a button on top of the item to indicate that she had completed her course. It was a 30 ft structure...seriously, how DID the boys put this altogether!?
Ochako began her climb, using her tail to wrap around the beams and climb her way from floor to floor. The skyscraper was usually supposed to be a team effort, so it was a bit hard to do it alone. Ochako eventually made her way to the top, and pressed the button- a horn went off, as she groaned. "That was a bit rough." Ochako said, as she transformed into Big Chill. She jumped off the skyscraper and flew back on down to the two at the start of the field.
Ochako landed on the ground, and Tenya and Izuku applauded.
"A time of 6 minutes, 43 seconds and 33.224 milliseconds! Great time for a first run." Tenya said, as he handed Ochako water. She reverted back to normal and immediately chugged the water.
Ochako gave a sigh of relief, and wiped her mouth. "Iida, seriously...how did you and Izuku set this up?"
"Truth be told, it was more an effort from my brother's agency- I just told them I'd like a place to train in peace, and they went ahead and set this up in the early morning." Tenya explained. "I've run this course a few times with my brother and his sidekicks, when I was younger...it was good quirk training."
"Wait, so this is an official Ingenium obstacle course!?" Izuku said, a bit amazed.
Tenya beamed. "Indeed! This is the 'Red Group' training, a pretty basic training system, but...I think it works."
"Woah, Iida...you didn't have to do that." Ochako said, embarrassed- her friend had to lie to get this all set up. She felt a tiny bit guilty.
"Nonsense!" Tenya said, chopping her feelings. "You have been chosen for an important task, and as the class representative, I have to ensure that all students get the chance to hone their abilities. Both quirk...and non-quirk."
Ochako held her wrist. "Thank you." She said, with a small smile.
"Man...you weren't kidding." A voice said. "He IS like his brother." The UA trio looked over to see Ben and Kevin approaching- Ochako looked surprised to see them.
"M-mr. Tennyson!" Izuku stammered. "How'd you find us?"
"Omnitrix tracker." Ben said, holding up his bulkier Omnitrix. "Just thought I'd check in and-"
"He panicked because you weren't responding to his texts." Kevin joked. Ben shot Kevin a glance- Kevin gave him a smug look.
"It's good to see you again, Ben 10k." Iida said with a salute.
Ben looked happy to see Iida. "I see Ochako let you in on the secret. Welcome to the club."
"I'll take Ochako's secret to my grave if I have to." Iida said, before noticing Kevin. "Apologies for my ignorance, but who is your guest?"
Izuku's eyes lit up again. "No way- it's 11! You're that American hero that worked with All Might when he fought Lord Zombiemaker!"
"Jeez, people still remember that?" Kevin joked. "That dude was edgy as hell."
"And pretty gross, too." Ben cringed. "Hate zombies."
Can't you turn into one? Ochako thought.
"What brings you to Japan, Mr. 11?" Iida asked.
"Please, just call me Kev." Kevin insisted. "I just came to see my good pal Ben, talk to a kid...and meet Uraraka." Kevin looked over at Ochako.
"It's nice to meet you," Ochako said, bowing her head in respect. "Ben's told me a lot about you."
"Really now? They been good?" Kevin joked.
"Mix of both. Told me about the time you, him and Ruby took on Schism...and then about the time you ate BBQ sauce and 12 lava cakes." Ochako said.
"Ahhh, good times." Kevin bemused.
"What's all this you got up here?" Ben asked, looking in the forest.
"Oh, just an obstacle course." Izuku said. "We wanted to help Uraraka out with her aliens."
"Nice, nice." Ben said, looking at the course. "My grandpa set up something like this for me when I still had the 'training wheels' on. I take it this is just a general race type of deal?"
Iida nodded. "More built for assisting Ochako in her agility and handiness with her aliens."
"Lacking in the combat department, though." Kevin noted. "Couldn't you kids steal a UA training drone or something?"
Izuku made a face. "I don't think Iida would ever do that."
"He's right, I would not." Iida added.
"Could've called me," Ben said. "I got some loose battle drones from my headquarters. I could run back and get some-"
"No need," Kevin said, holding up his hand. He looked back at Ochako and grinned. "...hey. Wanna try and kick my ass?"
Ochako's eyes blinked. "Wha?"
"You heard me right. Let's battle." Kevin sneered. "Ben's been telling me how good a fighter you are...and I'm not sure I believe him."
"Is this like, to the death?" Ochako asked.
Kevin wasn't expecting that answer. "No. Three minutes. I don't care how dirty you fight, just try and convince me." Kevin said.
Ochako took a deep breath. "Alright. I can do that," Ochako said, as she gave a thumbs up to a worried looking Iida and Midoryia. "I got this, guys. Just watch me."
That put a tiny hint of relief in Izuku's heart, as Ben grinned. "Hit 'em with everything you got, kid!" He yelled.
Kevin reached into his pocket, and pulled out something after some digging. Ochako spied it- it was a key. Maybe to his house, or a car. Ochako had no idea why it was relevant to the battle.
But then she remembered his Quirk.
Ochako immediately slapped down her Omnitrix, and morphed into Heatblast. She unleashed a quick blast of fire, but Kevin clenched his car key in his hand. In a matter of seconds, Kevin was coated in metal. Unbothered by the heat, he rushed through the fires and flames at Ochako. He threw a quick few punches, which Ochako dodged with ease. Kevin grinned, as his hands morphed into hammers. Ochako's eyes widened in shock, as he began swinging them wildly.
Ochako launched another flamethrower at him, to try and get him to flinch...but Kevin didn't even move. In fact, he held his position. Ochako let up her attack, and Kevin grinned at her.
"Thanks for the charge up, kid." Kevin held up his arm- it started to heat up to a bright orange color, like it was in a furnace or something. Kevin let loose a powerful explosion of flames, which sent Ochako flying backwards. While in midair, she morphed into Water Hazard. She landed back on the ground, and began to hose Kevin's body down.
Iida and Izuku watched in awe. "Impressive- I've never seen a quirk like this." Iida said.
Ben chuckled. "Kevin's quirk allows him to absorb various solid matter and energy. That includes stuff like tungsten, rubber, fire, electricity...and water."
Izuku's eyes widened when he heard that last one. Ochako was at a disadvantage here- she hadn't been holding back Kevin, she'd just been loading him up with more stuff he could manipulate. Kevin's arms suddenly transformed into some sort of liquid-y metal mix. Kevin lashed out at Ochako, causing her to go on the defensive. Ochako blocked the whips as best she could, but they hurt like a bitch.
As the whips continued to sting her, she tried to slam down on the Omnitrix for a more defensively built alien. She managed it and, in a flash, Water Hazard had been replaced with Chromastone. So far, everything she'd thrown at Kevin had come right back at her, and while he wasn't going to be throwing any energy her way for now, she could still throw out some attacks of her own. Ochako's body began to shimmer with rainbow tinted light, before it all coalesced in the trio of crystals that jutted from her head. Lines of energy connected the outer two to the middle "horn" before the gravity hero fired out a massive beam that slammed right into Kevin's chest.
Ben smiled as he watched Kevin go flying. "Found a weakness in his quirk already- good job." He said.
Kevin Levin. Quirk: Osmose. Kevin can absorb most matter and energy, can be anything from metals to water to fire to even energy. However, he can't absorb ALL energy.
Kevin rolled to the ground, and laughed. "Not bad, kid. Looks like I'm gonna have to kick it up a notch." Kevin charged at her again.
That rainbow hued energy shifted from the crystalline horns to her hands, letting Ochako fire off a barrage of energy blasts. Kevin managed to dodge and weave through most of them. For those he couldn't avoid, he coated his arms and metal and let them act as his shield.
Ochako drew in more sunlight, and absorbed the energy from it. Her horn lit up again, before she unleashed a powerful beam of energy from her chest- a uni-beam. The uni-beam blasted into Kevin's shield, and caused him to skid back.
Eventually, Kevin managed to push back against the uni-beam. He wasn't able to push back against the attack, but he was able to exert enough force to stop himself from moving further back.
"Good hits, kid," Kevin muttered.
"That's not the half of it." Ochako slapped down her Omnitrix, and melted down. The melted Ochako turned black and gained glowing lines all over her body. It quickly morphed into a humanoid shape, and threw a long, stretchy punch at Kevin's shield.
"No tech out here. About to get creative?" Kevin asked, raising a brow.
"Something like that." Ochako grinned. She'd learned pretty early on that she could replicate most tech she touched. It wasn't big stuff like cars or weapons made by Mei yet...but it was just the simple stuff around her apartment.
And right now, she felt like smacking Kevin upside the head with a toaster.
In her right hand, she focused on the internal works and just constructing a toaster. Once it was ready, she held out her hand and launched the appliance right at Kevin. Caught by surprise, and honestly everyone was, the toaster found its mark and smacked Kevin square in the face.
"Was...that a toaster?" Iida asked, looking at Izuku, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Uh, it looked like one, yeah," Izuku answered.
Ochako retracted her hand, and began to assault Kevin with wide blasts of energy from the toaster. They hit Kevin like waves of water.
"She turned it into a gun?!" Izuku and Iida both shouted simultaneously.
"And now you get why Ruby wanted her to have it," Ben smirked.
"How does that even work!? That seems like something Mei would do in her free time!" Iida said, waving his hands.
"Mechamorphs have the ability to fuse their bodies with and manipulate different types of earthly and extraterrestrial technology. They can turn a simple skateboard into a hoverboard." Ben said. "And given how we mostly have tech at our fingertips...it can be a VERY deadly alien."
"Well...the reasoning's sound there. She could probably replicate a cell-phone and turn it into a signal jammer," Izuku imagined.
"Not as crazy as a toaster gun!" Iida pointed out. Seriously, that was staying with him for the rest of the day. Never thought he'd see a toaster used as a deadly weapon, but here we are.
Ochako's bizarre weapon showcase wasn't over yet. Her hand morphed again, this time into an iron. Ochako's arms stretched backwards, before they flung forward. Ochako propelled herself towards Kevin, and 'branded' his shield with the iron. Kevin yelled, as he stumbled back.
"Ow!" He yelled, looking at a darkened spot on his shield.
Singed into the shield was the Omnitrix symbol.
"Oh...oh ha ha," Kevin rolled his eyes.
Ochako grinned. "I get it- you can't absorb stuff like heat, light and Chromastone's lasers. Probably because it's not 'pure' energy or something."
"You pick up on stuff fast," Kevin said, forming his hand into a spiked club.
"Oh...youuuu can do that, too," Ochako said, her thunder taken from her a bit. She shook her head and refocused, changing one of her hands back into the toaster. Iron-toaster combo should be good enough to deal with this part of the fight.
Kevin swung his club, but Ochako ducked under it. She blasted Kevin at close range, and sent him flying.
The Absorbing Hero landed on his feet miraculously and charged back in, shifting his other hand into a proper shield. Ochako fired off a barrage of energy waves from her toaster-gun. While the blasts stung, the shield held strong, letting Kevin get right back up in Ochako's face. With the opening, he moved and struck the Mechamorph in the gut with his club, followed by a shield-bash uppercut to the technological alien's "chin." Ochako stumbled back from the hits, before countering with her own swing. Her iron and Kevin's club clashed, almost like a proper duel between the two with occasional blasts from the toaster of mass destruction.
"Lemme step it up a notch." Kevin said, grabbing another fragment of something. It looked alien, like a form of bismuth or something. Kevin absorbed it, and his entire body was coated in it. He struck back at Ochako, and she was sent flying into a tree.
"That's...Tesmadian." Izuku said.
"Someone knows their heroes." Ben 10k said.
"Excuse my ignorance, but what is Tesmadian?" Iida said.
"Special alloy found on the planet Kinet. Unbreakable and razor-sharp, it punches through steel like a paper, and negates any sort of kinetic energy. A bullet doesn't bounce off, it just stops when it hits his skin. Pretty powerful stuff." Ben explained.
"That...that shouldn't even be possible," Iida said.
"I did say it was an alien metal," Ben admitted.
Kevin leapt up to attack Ochako with an enlarged fist, but she quickly dodged it. Good thing, too. That punch left a tiny crater.
"Time to step it up, then." Ochako said, slapping down her Omnitrix. Gravattack was Kevin's new opponent.
"Gravattack. Given what I've heard about your Quirk, I'd be surprised if you didn't have him," Kevin smirked.
Ochako flashed a grin. "Ben knows me well." Her fist became surrounded in an aura of gravity, as she punched towards Kevin.
She held out her hand and tilted it to the right. Kevin felt the gravity around him increase and forced him lower to the ground. He managed to resist somewhat, managing to still stand, but he couldn't move as quickly as he used to; it felt like he was dealing with the gravity on Jupiter.
"Saving the most familiar for last," Ben nodded.
Ochako increased the gravity more and more. Kevin's steps became slower and slower, like he was walking through quicksand or really packed snow. His back was slowly becoming hunched as he moved closer and closer.
Now matter how heavy the gravity got though, the absorbing hero kept moving forward. With one more tilt of the hand, Ochako added enough gravity on top of Kevin to stop him in his tracks.
Kevin grinned. "Alright...you got spirit, kid. I'll give you that." He held up his hand to suggest a surrender of sorts.
When she saw that, Ochako relented, tilting her hand back to its normal position. The gravity around Kevin returned to normal and let him finally stand back up again.
Ochako reverted back to normal, and wiped some sweat from her brow. "That was...intense."
"Ben gave you a loaded arsenal...a lot more loaded than I thought it'd be. And putting an A-tier alien like Gravattack in there?" Kevin snickered. "Kinda unfair."
"Thought it was fitting," Ben defended.
"Should've given her that weird mustache alien with gravity powers..." Kevin said, walking back over to Ben and the others.
Weird mustache? Ochako wondered.
"He's not exactly one of the best options," Ben explained, "Plus, when it comes to pure control, Gravattack's better."
"What about that Skele-TON guy?" Kevin asked. "That's a better alien to give to the kid."
"I'll consider it for the second set." Ben shrugged.
"I think I might've seen him during my internship. I kinda remember you turning into a giant skeleton and flying off..." Ochako hummed.
"...yeah, that's him."
"You fared well in combat, kid. Ben couldn't quick change when he was a rookie." Kevin noted.
"It was the first thing I wanted to correct, honestly. I didn't always choose the right alien for the job off the bat." Ben admitted. "Sometimes I thought it'd be a Heatblast job, but nope- it was actually a job for one of my bulkier aliens."
"I'm guessing this 'quick change' feature targets the mind of the user." Iida surmised. "They visualize an alien, slap the symbol, and then transform into said alien."
"Something like that, yeah." Ben nodded. "Ochako has an added benefit of also being able to work in her normal form into the 'combo' string, but it might disrupt the attack."
"Oh, so...she'd be able to use her quirk for a brief moment." Izuku hummed. "Plenty of applications there. She could smash up the ground, induce a state of zero gravity on some of the fragments, and batter them at the opponent."
Ben snapped his fingers and pointed at Izuku. "I like the way you think, kid."
"I still got some energy left in me, honestly..." Kevin said, stretching a bit. Ochako gave him a strange look. He was just crushed under a blanket of gravity just a moment ago, and yet he still had the energy to do ANYTHING?
Kevin's eyes drifted over to the obstacle course, and hummed. "Hey, class prez." Kevin said, looking at Iida.
"What?"
"Bet I can beat you in a race." Kevin grinned.
Iida paused.
"I have my doubts on that, Mr. Kevin." Iida said, a slight grin.
"Prove me wrong then." Kevin grinned, as he made a beeline for the obstacle course. Iida took off after him, using longer strides with his quirk to get ahead of him.
Ben shook his head. "That man is a father now. He has a kid at home."
"Good for him." Ochako nodded.
"You did good, kid." Ben said, rustling Ochako's head. "You'd've blown 10 year old me out of the water by now. Granted, you have a better playlist and everything, but...yeah."
"How are you able to work so fluidly in those forms, Uraraka?" Izuku said. "It took me a while to master my power."
"The original creator of the Omnitrix had this function installed on the watch that would allow the user to know some of the 'basics' of the aliens." Ben explained. "Ochako doesn't need to learn how to fly or operate with multiple arms or eyes. It just sort of happens. She'll know how to work her body...just not how to really FIGHT with it yet."
"Ben told me to not try and copy him too, so, I try to get a bit more 'creative' with my powers." Ochako admitted.
"Yeah, some successors shouldn't try to be like their heroes." Ben nodded. "And that applies to your power as well, Deku."
Deku's eyes widened. "Oh, right…you know about One For All." He said.
"Of course I do! So does Kevin, Ruby...hell, a lot of Toshi's American friends know." Ben grinned. "He...he was kind of a bad secretkeeper."
"What do you mean by 'successors shouldn't try to be like their heroes'?" Ochako asked. "That sounds kind of rude."
"My grandpa had this old friend- weird guy, dressed like a kangaroo. His name was Kangaroo Commando. Silver age hero. He had this 'Spring Leg' quirk, allowed him to jump great distances." Ben said.
"Your grandpa knew one of the founding members of the Syndicate for Good?" Izuku asked.
"He had a lot of friends." Ben smiled.
"I remember hearing about some battles from my own grandpa. He was a big fan of his." Ochako said.
"The guy was pretty cool...at least, until he battled Time Stop." Ben sighed. "Time Stop had a dangerous quirk. He could physically stop a person from moving. He used it on Kangaroo Commando when he was doing his famous Kangaroo Unleashed move in mid air, and...well, the fall wasn't pretty."
"His brother took over the role, if I remember properly." Ochako said.
"Yeah...and his brother was the total opposite of him." Ben went on. "Abel was a Silver Era superhero who embodied the Silver Era's ideals. He was unfazed by any challenge, no matter how great or little. He didn't seem to have an ego about it, even though you got the impression he did. Cain, his brother, attempted to be that. He was filled with rage deep within him. He'd been the brains behind all of Abel's best tools. For a while, he tried it his own way. But, he was always compared to Abel, and it hurt his pride. He turned his Commando identity into far more ferociously brutal, and he thought himself to be the personification of vengeance."
"If I recall, he tarnished the name of the Commando." Izuku said.
"He tried his hardest to be like Abel, but that never really panned out. It sucked, honestly." Ben sighed. "Abel passed away a few years ago, and his good reputation had been ruined by his brother. My grandpa never forgave Cain for that."
"Is that why you said 'you're your own person' to me when I left your internship?" Ochako said.
"The most crucial aspects of life are inside rather than exterior. When we compare ourselves to others, we enable others to control our actions," Ben explained. "When we compare ourselves to others, we frequently contrast their finest qualities with our own. At worst, when we compare ourselves to others we end up focusing our energy on bringing them down instead of raising ourselves up. It's why I dislike the hero charts- All Might set a huge standard of what a Hero should do. Stain set up all heroes to Toshinori's philosophy. He killed heroes that were just as strong in heart as All Might, but because they worked in a different way..." Ben made a cutting motion across his neck. "...it sucks."
Ben looked down at Izuku. "I know you wanna be like All Might- hell, I wanted to be like him at some point too. But...you need to grow out of trying to emulate him, and become your own hero. If not...you'll always see yourself as second best for never being able to amount to him."
"Become your own hero..." Izuku repeated.
"I don't think Iida will have any trouble finding his footing as Ingenium. Despite their similarities, Tensei and Tenya are two different coins. I'd be worried if they were two sides of the same coin, but...considering how laid back Tensei could be..." Ben sighed. "I think Iida will carry the name well."
"He'd be glad to hear that, honestly," Ochako confirmed.
"Yeah. That kid's gonna go far...and I know you both will, as well." Ben smiled.
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