Hello all,
So, a minor update to MHH this time around, primarily due to changes in my work position and the need to train for it, which has left me without the time to write. However, I felt like this was a nice in-between chapter before we get to the big fight with the very odd Pukei-Pukei and Great Girros against Tsuyu, All Might, Eri and Izuku! Additionally, this would also demonstrate what happens when a person with a quirk consumes too much monster essence.
Especially when said quirk has multiple quirks ;)
The next chapter on the pipeline is the Ochako Date for 'Bag of Chocolates'; I hope you all enjoy it when it comes out!
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to My Hero Academia and Monster Hunter; they belong to their copyright holders. If anyone reposts this or any of my stories on Youtube or any other media streaming platform) without my consent, I will be taking the appropriate actions as is my right.
Chapter 10
Tokens of the Past
The ops center of the agency was in full panic mode by the time Mina had entered the room, with her various fellow pro heroes running about or manning the different stations. Her golden eyes scanned the room from under her domino mask as she stopped at her locker to put on her hero costume, finally finding her target and marching right over, moving between the others as they dealt with the current crisis.
"Alien Queen, reporting for duty!" Mina announced, saluting Momo and several others who were gathered around the pregnant woman, her onyx eyes looking toward her colleague with relief at seeing her back, but there was still some hesitation in her eyes.
"Ashido, while I'm happy to see you return after your experience, are you sure you're up for it?"
"Still feeling a little under, to be honest." Mina relaxed from her stance, but gave a slight smirk, "But that should be gone in the next hour from what Midori said before he left, and I couldn't just wait until then! I'm a hero dammit."
Momo gently nodded her head towards Mina, a small smile appearing on her lips, "Of course, however, with two monsters currently on the field, can you please assist Denki and others in trying to get surveillance back up? Ever since the one identified as "Pukei-Pukei" was bitten by the other one, all video feed and communications in the surrounding area just stopped working."
"On it!" Mina nodded and immediately went to work, though admittedly, her focus was more on not only Tsu and All Might currently engaged with the two strange creatures, but also Izuku, whom she hadn't seen since he left the detox room to go and 'suit up'. Considering what armor he had chosen and what it was made from, the pink-skinned woman couldn't help but be worried about him.
"Midoriya is about to enter the dead zone." Kyoka spoke up and snapped Mina out of her inner thoughts, with everyone in the room now watching the large holographic map of the city where the 'disturbance' was located. The red blip was moving extremely fast across the map terrain, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, where a few of their working drones would catch glimpses of green lightning flashing by.
"Try to keep the drones outside the dead zone," Momo commanded as she turned her gaze towards Tokoyami. "Tsukuyomi, have you reached Hatsume yet?"
"No, her comms are still offline, and when I try to activate the emergency alarm within the support labs, all I keep getting is a 'Do not Disturb' message blasting back in my earpiece." The bird-headed pro hero grumbled as Momo sighed heavily and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"I told her not to mess with that alarm, but so be it…" The head of the agency slowly began to rise from her chair, huffing as she struggled with her current pregnancy state. However, Kendo was close enough to help Momo to her feet. "I will need to fetch her myself," she said.
Any sort of protest from anyone was silenced when the rather cold gaze from Momo looked about the room, "Kyoka, you're in charge until I can drag Hatsume out of her dungeon. Keep the drones we have working far from the dead zone, but try to record something as close as they can get from zooming in."
"Got it." The punk rocker heroine went to sit in the 'command' chair as Momo looked over to the small group of heroes working on the surveillance, though the blip that was Midoriya on the map suddenly fizzled out once it hit the dead zone, which made Momo glance at it before turning it back towards the group.
"Shemage, you're with me and Battle Fist."
"O-Oh, yes ma'am!" Kinoko suddenly rose from her chair, looking at the others from under her bangs before rushing towards the now-exiting commander and fellow pro hero out of the room, catching up with them before they turned the corner to enter the awaiting elevator that would take them to the lower levels.
"Um… I don't mean to pry, Yaoyorozu… but why did you bring me along? Hatsume doesn't usually like it when I go into the labs after the 'pepper bomb' incident." Kinoko spoke softly as all three women entered the elevator. Kendo watched the pair as Momo looked at the shorter woman, a calm and collected smile on her lips.
"I know, Komori, and make sure you stand by the armoury door should she resist."
Mei Hatsume was a genius.
Sure, it had taken her a few years to make sure her 'babies' didn't explode after the first testing, but that's what it was for! To test and make sure they didn't blow up while on the field, unless they were supposed to! Which often meant that the first 'test' was simply a field test.
However, this particular 'baby' was special, given what its intended use was going to be. The inventor knew that when she finished her latest project, all the time she had spent shutting down the support labs would be worth it in the end. Besides, the only thing she did notice, if even for a brief second while she was working, was the one equipment bin being rolled down the conveyor belt and awaiting maintenance.
Surely it could wait a little longer before she could get to it, after all, she made a ton of spares of everyone's gear so as not to disturb her.
"Whew!" Mei rose m her squat before the giant metallic leg he had been working on, the power socket in her hand slowly coming to a stop, wiping her brow before lifting her goggles upFew more bolts to screw on, and then running the checks on the electronics and this baby should be forty-five percent complete!"
The support engineer turned her gaze towards the large computer nearby, her golden eyes scanning the various blueprints on the screens and considering what to work on next after resolving the electronics issue. The solitary light above her workstation was the only visible light source, as the rest of the lab was in complete darkness —a given, since Mei only needed to focus on her current project.
That, however, was short-lived as suddenly the house lights came to life, illuminating the entire workbay, but also shutting down the computer and powering down the tool in her hand.
"WHAT THE?! HEY!" Mei shouted, quickly covering up her project from prying eyes and storming over towards the entrance of the support lab doors with a fiery look on her face, "Who the hell do you think- Oh!" Only to be met with the furrowed eyebrowed and exhausted glare coming from Yaoyorozu, someone else who was in the middle of creating her own 'baby', at least the organic kind.
"Hey, boss lady! What brings you down here?" Mei said and tried to play off that she was about to shout at the reason she had her own support lab, though the further glare coming from the pregnant woman made Mei wince slightly as she knew that Yaoyorozu was not going to fall for it, but still she persisted, "Um… is everything ok?"
It was then she seen the two other heroes walk in from behind her, making Mei freeze up when she saw the mushroom-obsessed woman appear to Momo's left side, offering at least a friendly wave which Mei returned with her glare and pout before looking back towards her boss and the other heroine who was holding an equipment box, "You know I will fix any of the gear you guys send to me once I finish my latest baby, right? That was in the contract."
"I know, Hatsume, and normally I wouldn't push the matter, but an emergency has arisen that I have been trying to contact you about for the last week or so." Momo spoke with a tone of authority as Itsuka went to put the container she had been holding over to one of the very few empty work tables, "I also remember that the contract stated that you were not to disable the emergency alarms and communication devices should we need your expertise."
"I didn't disable them this time!" Mei protested, pouting and crossing her strong looking and grease covered arms over her black tank top, but her pout soon faded when she seen the scrutinizing look Momo was giving the inventor, "Well, ok, I did earlier this morning because I got a brand new idea to add to 'Baby 548' and needed the quiet to finish the improvements!"
The head of the agency could only rub the bridge of her nose, shaking her head as Momo was clearly getting a worse headache given the current circumstances and also now having put up with Mei's usual antics. Momo took a long, deep breath, though; she couldn't get too stressed out, considering the child she was growing within her body. "We will discuss that later. Right now, we need a solution to a communication blackout."
Mei leaned on her back heel, raising an eyebrow, "That's it? I already supplied you with enough gadgets and gear that suppresses most of that, and the drones also have that built in as well!" Rolling her eyes, Mei started to walk towards the equipment box that had been placed on the table as she continued, "If it's quirk-related, then slap some suppression cuffs on the perp and problem solved! No fuss! No muss!"
"It's not quirk-related, nor is it something made with a device, Hatsume." Kendo replied, her eyes watching the inventor beginning to unlatch the locks on the equipment box, "It's being caused by something… more 'natural'."
"What's more natural than quirks? I mean outside of the electrical field of an animal like a jellyfish or something, but even then, that still requires the surrounding water for it to function properly." Mei looked towards Itsuka with a smirk, removing the top of the box, "Even then, I doubt something like a land-based jellyfish could exist-"
Mei went silent and froze as she looked inside of the box, standing as still as a statue while her eyes shifted left to right slightly at the continents, her smirk from before instantly vanishing as the three pro heroes could see that for the first time for any of them, Mei Hatsume was almost pale white as a ghost.
Still silent, the inventor slowly reached in and pulled out a somewhat familiar glove. Even with her strength from constantly building 'babies' and lifting heavy pieces of machinery and metal all day, the hybrid gauntlet she was holding felt heavy to her. Using her quirk, Mei could see the rather amateurish repair job along the cloth of the gloves, including some stitching that looked like it was done to make the glove bigger, though none of it was close to the vents for the 'Air Force' part of the gauntlet.
Her gaze zoomed in on the sleeves, what little remained of them anyway, as it looked like someone had been replacing any broken parts with scraps of metal, shaping them to match the original design and also painting them with a substance that featured some odd artistic details along its surface. While primitive, Mei could tell that the work done here was crafted by a master blacksmith, working well within their means and abilities with the material given to them.
Placing the lone gauntlet down beside the box, Mei reached in once again and pushed aside the re-plated leg bracers and stitched-up hero suit and yellow cape for the one thing that would solidify whose gear this all belonged to.
Slowly pulling out the very familiar rebreather, Mei's breath escaped her as she could see the buildup of what looked like soot along the vents of the mask, slowly turning it around to see that a metallic mesh replaced much of the filters in it, with highly intricate weaves of some kind of metal being used that no machine could do itself, but only that of a skilled hand of a human.
But, that wasn't what she was looking for, as she turned it slightly still and audibly gasped as she came upon a small mark within the inner rim of the rebreather, a sort of 'seal of quality' to show not only the care that went into its making, but also the various tests it went through to get such thing.
And, of course, she would recognize this mark, as it was hers, or at least the old one she had used back at UA during her first year.
The one she used often and on all of her 'number one' client's gear during that chaotic time.
Turning towards Momo now, the creation pro hero could see the utter disbelief within Mei's eyes and facial expression, she could even see tears beginning to form at the corner of her eyes as Momo moved to place a hand on the inventor's shoulder, "That was the other reason I was trying to get a hold of you. The events over the last week have been… strange to say the least."
"W-Where is he?" Mei asked somberly, gently sniffling as she raised a gloved hand to her face to stop any tears from falling.
"Currently, he's in a zone where none of the drones or communication devices will work within it," Kendo spoke up now, moving to rub Mei's back to further offer support. "The drones outside the field can see into it, but that's limited."
At this point, Mei had moved away from Itsuka as she was explaining the situation. Gently, and almost motherly, placing the rebreather back into the box before taking one deep, shuddering breath and then slapping her cheeks, turning around to face the three women with a fierce and determined look in her eyes.
"I need to see the data."