Hello, little caesars? You're my favorite pizza place
Anyways, here's your chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
Abraham used his tendrils to lift himself off the ground, his body still jittery from the occasional arc of lightning that crossed his body. He shook his head. Ok, guess he would have to fight. Before he could even try and come up with a battle plan, Melissa raced and was already within striking range. She threw a punch, barely missing the traitorous doctor and punching the wall behind him. She freed her fist from the vault wall and turned to him.
"Not what I was expecting," Abraham admitted.
"Good! That's part of the design. No one would expect it," Melissa smirked.
Abraham frowned, as he pulled out something from his pocket. "Well then. If we're going to show off our experiments...I'll show mine. Are you familiar with Trigger, Melissa?"
"Trigg-" Melissa froze, "You don't."
"I wanted to experiment a little- see if I could use some old nanomachines inside the drug for some 'fun' results." Abraham said, pulling out a small syringe. "So, I'll test ITS combat potential here and now..."
Melissa steeled herself and raced towards Abraham, trying to stop him from even bringing that syringe close to his neck!
Abraham jabbed into his neck, and his eyes immediately changed. His sclera turned black and gained what looked like the noise on a TV screen. His body started to creak and crack, as his tendrils started to 'wig out' and flail around in pain. More and more tendrils sprouted out of his back and hands and feet, before they were coated in a thin, metal coating.
Melissa took a step back, as Abraham finally breathed again. "...Fascinating." Abraham sighed, cracking his neck. "It seems this Trigger variant reacts to stress."
One of the tendrils lashed out, trying to impale Melissa's armored form, but she was able to dodge out of the way of the hit. She looked over to the tendril just in time to see it jab deep into the floor, cracking the tiles.
"...oh," Melissa realized just how much more difficult of a fight this was gonna be.
"Don't tell me this is your first fight, kid." Abraham said, propping himself up with his extra arms. "Tell me you can throw a punch without that suit..."
Melissa inhaled sharply. "Oh, I can." Melissa said, as her suit's back rockets flared to life.
"Then let's test that little theory!" Abraham grinned, several of his armored tendril rearing up like scorpion tails ready to strike.
The Iron Might's shoulders opened up to reveal a multitude of missiles- Melissa began to launch her ammo, and it hit Abraham hard. Abraham assumed that because his quirk was increased, his body's durability and strength would be as well.
This was not the case. The missiles felt like strong, rapid punches. The explosions were small, but enough to stun him.
Some of his tendrils seemed to act of their own accord during the barrage. While he was trying to tank the hits because of his self-proclaimed "improved durability," the tendrils were actually trying to defend him. Some of the missiles never reached their target having been smacked aside or outright cut in half by the iron-covered tendrils.
"These tendrils seem to have some minor form of shape shifting. Intriguing." Abraham smiled. "I wonder what they can do if honed more..."
As if the tendrils could hear that, one of them responded and the tip split open, forming into four blades.
"Fascinating. I wonder if they're more technological than organic now..." Abraham mused, "Let's call this a field test, then."
Melissa evaded the tendril's attack. It was like trying to avoid a storm. Melissa was relieved that she had strengthened her armor with heavy grade titanium. Still, she didn't want to see if this new Trigger could cut through that.
Melissa extended her hands and began launching energy blasts. The strikes on the tentacles were quite effective, blasting off bits of nanotechnology.
Some of the tentacles dodged the blasts, while others were hit and recoiled like wild animals. Abraham growled as he used the tendrils on the ground to begin circling Melissa. Those not hit by the Iron Might's blasts dug out pieces of the floor and threw them as makeshift projectiles. Melissa had to swap between ranged barrages and quick punches to break apart the thrown chunks of metal.
Melissa was suddenly pierced in the chest by Abraham's tendrils—the attack was a distraction. There was no piercing of the flesh, only some metal on the chest. Abraham made an effort to rip off her chest armor. Melissa tried to grip the tendrils, but they sprouted microscopic blades and spun like a chainsaw. Melissa didn't want her hands to get chopped up, so she had to let go. She chose the safer option of blasting herself backwards.
Using the rockets on her feet, she blasted herself upwards and ripped the tendrils out of her chest. The only consolation prize those tendrils got was a small chunk of armor. Abraham angrily shredded it to bits, and glared up at Melissa.
"Annoyingly fantastic work." He said, with grit teeth.
"Coming from you," Melissa smirked behind her helmet, "'annoying' is the best part."
The former colleague of Dr. Shield growled as he had several of his tentacles surge out and up at the armored girl, hoping to tear away at more of the armor. Instead of weaving around them, Melissa charged through them. Swerving and rolling out of the way of the rushing mutant appendages, she reared back a fist and aimed right for Abraham's stomach. At her current speed, boosted by the powerful rockets, this could end up being the final blow if it connected.
"I noticed how you're trying to keep me at a distance, Abraham. To try and overwhelm me and distract me from the fact there's not a single piece of metal on your main body." Melissa said, as Abraham coughed and stumbled backwards. "A basic strat, that probably would've overwhelmed a lot of the kids from UA. None of them are equipped to deal with you...at least, not the way I am."
"A little overconfident aren't we?" Abraham coughed, "Yes, I may not have armor...but that just means I have to be a bit smarter with this. Luckily..." As the two were talking, one of Abraham's had silently snaked its way towards Melissa and silently wrapped itself around her ankle.
"I'm always a few steps ahead!" the scientist laughed, yanking on the armored suit and pulling Melissa's leg out from under her. She slammed into the ground and before she get up, two of the starfish limbs attacked, jabbing down at her. She served her head away from the impact points, letting the mutated tendrils impale the floor before she used the rockets to right herself. She the grabbed hold of the tendrils before the mastermind could withdraw them, sending him into a panic. Thanks to the strength of the suit, she easily lifted Abraham into the air and begin to spin him like a lasso.
"Sorry, Abraham. But consider this your exit interview!" Melissa yelled, before throwing him into a wall. Melissa began to charge all of her powers into her thrusters, as she flew at Abraham's body. Her mind flashed back to when she was first told about her quirklessness, for some reason-
Melissa could remember the hospital room she was in. Every single detail. She couldn't forget a place that determined her future.
"S-she's quirkless, you say?" David looked more crushed than the young Melissa. His first action was to immediately comfort his daughter. "D-don't let it get to you, hun. I mean, my quirk is just these dumb squirmy fingers- never comes in handy, ever!"
Melissa just stared ahead. "I-it's okay, daddy. I'm fine." On the day she was diagnosed quirkless, being told she had no powers wasn't a big deal.
It more felt like they were telling her she could never be a hero.
The next few days after the diagnosis were...uneventful, really, but one day did stand out to her. She walked into her father's office to check up on him. He'd been working nonstop for what felt like days now and it was a bit concerning. When she opened the door, she saw her father fast asleep at his desk, with his glasses resting a bit in front of him and a computer screen open to a digital schematic of a support item.
"Daddy?" the young Melissa called out, rousing her father from his sudden sleep. He rubbed his eyes and quickly put his glasses back on.
"W-well that's a little embarrassing," he said with a small smirk, "When did I fall asleep?"
"You're still researching support items?" Melissa asked, her eyes wandering over to the computer screen, "It seems a little hard if you just fell asleep here."
"It can be, yes. But, the end result is well worth the effort," David confirmed for his daughter.
Melissa stared at her father for a few moments. Her dad was always a stand up, white collar guy. He worked diligently to support the both of them, and was always busy with some fantastic project. Even with his 'useless' quirk, Melissa had to ask-
"Dad? Did you ever want to become a hero?"
"Hm? No, I never dreamed about that." David laughed. "My quirk isn't really suited for the big leagues. I can't contend with all those new faces. Plus, Ben 10? No beating him."
Melissa was about to question him some more, when there was a knock at the door.
"Speak of the devil," David said, standing up to walk over to it.
When he opened the door, he was greeted with the usual booming introduction of All Might. This was the first time Melissa had met All Might properly and he was, to be honest, a little intimidating to her.
"I AM HERE...to kindly request costume maintenance!" the Number 1 proclaimed.
"There you are Toshi! Where's-?" David began, looking behind All Might to find his other visitor.
Ben struggled to poke his head over Toshi's shoulder. "I'm also here! Being totally overshadowed by Toshi's giant shadow!"
Melissa knew one of the heroes- Ben 10, that was a face everyone knew. But the other guy was totally different. She'd never seen him before.
"Hm?" Toshi looked down to see Melissa staring at him and he grinned, "Well, if it isn't Melissa! My, you've gotten big!"
"Toshi, ease up. You might scare her on accident," Ben added.
"W-who is this? H-he's written so differently!" Melissa said, definitely a bit scared.
"Oh, right. You haven't seen me since you were realllly little!" All Might said. "I'm All Might, a hero based out of Japan."
"And an old friend of mine." David added. "I designed his signature costume."
"And you made the new one, too." Ben said. "So, where is it?"
"Ah, right this way. Again, I'm really sorry to make you come all this way just for the new costume," David said as he lead the two back to his work station.
"Nothing to apologize for! No one else can handle the delicate technology that goes into these works of art better than you can David!" All Might praised. He and Ben arrived at David's workstation where the good doctor pulled a box off a shelf.
"Considering all the damage you said the last one took, I took the liberty of changing up the material again. It's a custom-made one I developed to better handle shock absorption," David explained.
"Always making improvements, aren't you?" Ben smirked.
All Might beamed. "Always making strides forward, Dave! Love it."
Melissa watched the adults interact in awe. Real heroes! In her house! And one of them was wearing a costume her dad made.
Ben noticed Melissa and waved awkwardly. Mr. Tennyson was just as friendly as he was on the news. "Hey, kiddo. How are you doing?"
Melissa paused. "I'm okay, I guess."
"How old are you now?" Ben asked, trying to strike up a small conversation.
"I'm 5 years old now." Melissa said.
"5 years old? Wow, that means your quirk's probably developed by now, right?" Ben said.
Melissa looked away. "W-well, about that-"
Melissa was cut off by the knocking on their window.
"H-hey! Mr. Shield! Over here!" a voice called out from the window, even if it was a bit muffled. It was one of their neighbors and he seemed incredibly panicked.
"Hm? Excuse me," David said to the two heroes and walked over to the window, opening it so that he could hear the man properly, "What's wrong?"
"The alert system must be broken or something, because there's a GIANT tornado heading this way! You need to grab what you can and evacuate! Now!" the neighbor warned.
"A tornado? Here? Not even a cloud in the sky last I looked," Ben said, "You don't think..."
"A possibility yes, but one we can confirm for ourselves in a few moments! David, I'm afraid I'm going to stress-test your latest creation now!" All Might said.
"All yours, Toshi," David nodded. All Might nodded back and quickly went to change into the costume, racing upstairs before racing back down, now in the new and improved costume, the very same he wears to this day.
"Alright, now then! Let's go! 10K, with me!" All Might, immediately going into Pro-Hero mode.
All Might and Ben (now XLR8) hopped into action. Ben started by rushing everyone out of the city, and putting them a safe distance away. All Might took care of the heavy work, bashing and swatting away cars and other debris that could harm innocents.
This costume is great! All Might thought, as he punched another car away. The drawback from my punches don't hurt as much anymore. Dave- you truly are one of a kind!
All Might reared back his fist, and threw a punch at the tornado. SMASH!
Instead of just air however, All Might heard the clang of metal from -inside- the tornado, making him raise a brow at that.
"If I were programmed to feel pain," a voice called from within the tornado, followed by a pair of eyes illumination from behind the wind, "I would say that hurt. However, I am not."
"A-ha! Ben! You were correct! It IS a villain! A very robotic sounding one at that!" All Might yelled. Ben had just finished gathering up a bunch of civilians, saving them from being thrown into the air by the tornado's winds. When he heard the 'robotic' part of the villain's description, he knew exactly who it was.
"Gust-o! How many years has it been since I last threw you in the scrap heap?" Ben taunted a little. Gust-O, the leader of the robot trio known as "The Weatherheads" looked over to Ben with malice so intense it could only come from an emotionless machine.
"Ben Tennyson. A coincidence you are here or fate giving me a second chance to avenge Hail-o's and Shock-o's liquidation?" Gust-O mused.
"Liquidation? Sunny actually went through with that?"
"She did and the blame lies solely on you. All of your intervention is to blame for Sunny's fury," Gust-o said. From his perspective, targets appeared and locked onto Ben. He didn't even care that All Might was still the closest threat. Even machines can be a bit illogical when it came to revenge.
Ben shrugged. "I feel bad for you, but it's not my fault you eggheads were bad at your job. I mean, come on. What's so hard about a guy who can counter any basic elemental manipulation?"
"Be silent," Gust-o raised his arm inside the tornado and had it shift into an air cannon. He fired out bursts of air at Ben, but thanks to XLR8's speed none of them hit. Meanwhile, All Might was looking up at the artificial tornado before an idea finally hit him. All Might reared his fist back, rotating his arm slowly but quickly picking up speed.
"Nebraska...SMASH!" All Might called out as he punched Gust-o's tornado with his own tornado, generated entirely from rotating his arm. The winds around Gust-o vanished, catching the robot off guard. He was still flying under his own power, but it was honestly surprising. He had clearly seen better days. What was once a clean suit-like design on his chassis was now scorched and scarred by his superior's wrath. While Gust-o led the trio of Weatherheads, he was more akin to a division boss, while Sunny was the CEO of the entire company. And when you drew the ire of the CEO, it did not end well for you. The Weatherhead's true leader only kept Gust-o online so he could try and prove himself one last time. And this attack...wasn't even her idea. (edited)
"You've failed. Once more." A female voice sighed, in the back of Gust-O's head. "Oh, well. I guess our working relationship...is terminated."
"Your superiority! Please-!" Gust-O yelled, before his power was shut down.
The skull-faced robot went limp in the sky before he fell to the ground. All Might caught him before he impacted, thinking that Ben might wanna take a look at him later. He -did- yell out one of his boss's many titles and, to his knowledge, Ben never actually got the chance to take down Sunny.
All Might landed on the ground, where Ben was waiting. "Yeesh. Look at his suit- someone's been acting off the grid. I'd never see a weatherhead be this filthy." Ben noted, as All Might set the bot on the ground. "Load him into my car...after I do a quick bomb scan."
"Got it," All Might nodded as Ben quickly used the Omnitrix to scan the defeated machine for any bombs. Melissa had watched the whole thing in awe. Her eyes were practically sparkling in excitement at the whole thing. All Might made his way over to the Shields to check on them.
"Are either of you hurt?" All Might asked.
"We're fine. What about you, Toshi?" David asked back.
"Ha-ha! Never been better! All thanks to the new costume! You weren't kidding about the shock absorption!"
"That...was...AMAZING!" Melissa beamed, "You stopped that bad robot with one punch! Even...even cooler to me since I don't have a power of my own." Melissa's face fell a bit, her smile diminishing ever so slightly.
All Might's then-dormant parental energy flared to life. "Take a gander at this costume of mine, Melissa! Notice anything?"
Melissa looked confused. "Uh...it looks really good on you?"
All Might beamed. "Exactly! It stood up to the power of that tornado! See, not a scratch on it." Melissa looked over the costume, to confirm All Might's statement. "Nobody but your old man has the tech skills to make a costume that works like this one."
"Only dad could make that?" Melissa repeated.
"Yeah. Thanks to your dad's costumes, even the biggest, baddest natural disasters and the scariest villains can't stop heroes like us from saving people." Ben said. "Do you get it?"
Melissa tilted her head.
"Your dad...is our hero." Ben said.
"Daddy is...your hero..." Melissa repeated, awestruck.
"That's what we're saying!" All Might beamed his trademark grin.
"I know I may not work as a pro like these two," David began, "but the costumes and support items I make help those pros every single time they're used. When you work on items like that, you're a different kind of hero Melissa. Instead of helping people out in the field, you help them by giving those more able the tools they need to do their jobs in the best way they can."
"Your dad can make even the weaker heroes look like a heavy hitter with his enhancements. I've seen some crazy stuff from him..." Ben sighed.
"Then...then I'll make even crazier stuff!" Melissa resolved. And indeed, she did strive towards that goal.
"I used to think that I couldn't be a hero without having a Quirk," Melissa thought to herself, "but after hearing Ben's and Uncle Might's words, I realized that you didn't need one. 'Being a hero' has never had only one definition and that's exactly what I needed to hear. Someday, the support items I make will help a hero like Uncle Might."
"Someday...I'll be someone's hero too!"
And today was finally that day. Melissa crashed into Abraham's chest at full force, shattering his chest. Abraham coughed, as Melissa watched him crumple to the ground.
"Stay down," Melissa sighed, "for both our sakes."
Abraham's tendrils curled up behind like the legs of a spider would when its time came. The traitorous scientist was still alive, of course.
Abraham coughed. "N-not bad, kid. You're...something."
Melissa didn't let her guard down. Abraham coughed some more. "And...one more thing..."
"Which is?" Melissa asked cautiously.
"...My range...is fantastic with this trigger." Abraham grinned, as his tentacles shot out one last time-
Only for Melissa to catch them in her hands and tie them together, restraining him.
"Range might be fantastic, but I can still do that," Melissa scoffed.
Abraham scowled...but, some odd reason, he was proud. Abraham grit his teeth in defeat. "Well played."
"Thank you," Melissa said, walking off all cool.
...that was the scariest moments of her life.
That moment was interrupted when Izuku was thrown through the wall of metal outside and he slammed into Melissa, catching her by surprise.
"Izuku!" Melissa called out.
"I'm...I'm ok," Izuku said, getting back on his feet.
"Well...isn't this a surprise. You took out the doc...and you used a metal suit to do it," Wolfram grinned, stepping back into the vault room.
Melissa's eyes shrank in horror. She quickly tried to deactivate her suit, just as Wolfram was about to use his quirk on her. "Let's see how much this will do..." Wolfram grinned, holding up his hand. He forced Izuku to the ground by wrapping him in metal.
Izuku yelled out as the metal wrapped around him, some of it even coming from the Iron Might suit. The heavy gauntlet of the suit grabbed onto the student's head and pinned him down.
"You UA kids have it so easy nowadays." Wolfram said. "You never had to go through what I had to through...the envy, the rage, the hatred- all because my quirk was better than everyone else's. It's not MY fault they couldn't keep up. They never learned what I did."
Wolfram began to crush the Iron Might suit.
"Power is the most important thing on this planet- and we're nothing without it." Wolfram said coldly.
Melissa's eyes went wide in fear as her suit began to crumple like an ordinary tin can. Izuku struggled to break free of the metallic bonds, but he soon came to realize he wouldn't be able to make in time. Wolfram was about to close his hand in a crushing motion...until a loud scream filled their ears and a trio of soundwaves slammed into the metal villain, sending him flying.
"Echo Echo!" Ochako called out. Or well, three of her.
Wolfram spun around, and glared. "How the hell did you get free?"
"Trade secret," Ochako lied.
"We'll never tell!" The two clones added. The three Echo Echoes ran at Wolfram, ready to fight.
"Figures 10K would be the one to get free first!" Wolfram roared as he commanded the metal in the ceiling to attack the trio of aliens. He thrust his hands down like he was pulling down a rope. The metal seemed to spark before coming to life, racing down to try and crush the Echo Echos.
Ochako used her speakers on her feet to propel herself away from the falling debris, while the other two clones perished. Ochako cloned herself a few times, and immediately dogpiled Wolfram. Wolfram struggled to get the clones off of him, as Melissa freed herself from her slightly crushed suit.
"Melissa!" Izuku said. "Run! Take care of the security system!"
"On it!" Melissa said, making a mad dash for the security controls.
Izuku found the metal around his body was loosening- he easily busted his body out of the trap, just as one of the lone Echo Echo clones was making her way over.
"Where are the others?" Izuku asked.
"Busy! They're still handling some robots. As soon as Melissa handles that, they'll be up here to help." Ochako explained.
"And by the time they get here, they'll find two of their classmates crushed under god knows how many pounds of iron," Wolfram growled, already back on his feet, "I won't even try to stop the Shield girl. I can finish the both of you by the time she's done, maybe even before then."
"For someone who's entire syndicate's been taken down by a bunch of kids, you sound incredibly confident," Ochako taunted.
Wolfram smirked. "You know, Tennyson- you don't look like you. You'd be shifting through every alien in the roster to kick my ass. Especially after I threatened his wife."
Ochako kept her guard up.
"Who are you, I wonder?" Wolfram asked.
"Who they actually are doesn't matter to you," Izuku said, trying to safeguard Ochako's identity, "What does matter is that now you have to deal with both of us."
"Fine," Wolfram shrugged. With some quick motions, the metal in the room came alive. Ochako and Izuku were forced onto the defensive, dodging around the various metal attacks that rushed at them. Metal Industry's leader was just standing there, not even really putting out that much effort to fight them.
Ochako quickly shifted into Big Chill, flying through some of the metallic strikes, freezing them and shattering them. Izuku struck with One For All when he could, punching the pillars and wire like attacks right down the middle like the world's strongest cleaver.
Ochako rushed at Wolfram, an icy glaive in one of her hands. Wolfram summoned a wall of metal before him, letting the glaive smash against it. However, Ochako knew that Wolfram would pull something sneaky like this. Her next move was phasing through the wall and Wolfram, freezing him solid.
Wolfram willed all the metal around to him to break him free, giving Izuku an opportunity to land a good hit. Izuku punched Wolfram in the chest, sending him flying into a wall. Ochako and Izuku's assault didn't end there.
"You go low. I go high." Ochako said.
"That works for me." Izuku said, as energy sparked around his body.
Wolfram simply scowled and launched his own attack. He tapped the walls beside him and, with a spark of energy from his fingers, massive square columns rushed out towards the heroes-in-training. They weren't too big a threat to the duo though, as they simply used the same tricks they did before, freeze and cleave. Izuku connected a powerful shot to the metal villain's gut, causing him to crumple over, while Ochako turned solid long enough to land a sucker punch that knocked the villain leader off balance.
He rubbed his jaw in anger, looking back at the two students. With a flick of his wrists two more massive iron pillars launched out from the walls and raced towards the duo, aiming to crush them like a compactor.
Ochako quickly shifted to Four Arms to try and stop the rushing pillar from hitting Izuku in the back, while the successor to All Might did the same. The iron pushed against the two's strength, able to halt their advance. They were locked in a constant struggle now between their own powers and Wolfram's.
"Getting my ass handed to me by a bunch of rugrats- how embarrassing." Wolfram huffed, holding himself back with some metal behind his back. "UA sure knows how to raise them...at least now they do."
Izuku pushed himself a little further than his body could handle. He had to break through this stalemate!
"Come...on..." Ochako growled. She started to skid back, the power from the iron pillars starting to get the better of her.
"Done!" Melissa called out, pressing one final button on the security panel, overriding Anonymous' control. The cyborg villain actually felt a shock as some kind of new defense was brought online that forcibly kicked him out of the system.
Wolfram's face fell a bit. "Well then."
"Well then? That's not the words I'd expect a villain to say." Ochako snapped.
"What? Expecting some grand breakdown?" Wolfram scoffed, "I'm not some C-lister villain here."
Izuku's eyes lit up. "Good to know." Izuku reared back his fist, and using the gauntlet for a second time, smashed into Wolfram's face using 60% of his power.
Ochako dodged the still rushing iron pillar Izuku was holding back, letting the two slam into each other harmlessly.
Before Izuku's fist could connect, however, Wolfram brought up a metal wall to block the punch. When the fist dented the wall, the metal villain made a mad dash for the vault's exit.
"Anon, get everything ready! We are leaving!" Wolfram yelled. The cyborg villain got the orders and quickly made his way out of the tower. Ochako saw the villain run off and charged after him. Hopefully she could actually detain him, but more iron walls rose up to defend him. The metal-masked villain quickly reached the exit and, continuing his mad dash, he picked up the slowly recovering David by the collar. He tossed the doctor over his shoulder and bolted.
"He's got Dr. Shield!" Ochako called out.
"Dad?!" Melissa gasped.
"Don't worry Melissa, we got this!" Izuku reassured her. He and Ochako made their own bee-line after Metal Industry's leader.