25 Chapter 25 : I-Island
The exam ended with the defeat of All Might. An unbelievable sight knowing of his legacy and recent power-up. When Midoriya arrived in the observation room he was hounded by the class congratulating him for his achievement. Praises and cheers were spread around the room and Bakugou stood looking at the frame of Midoriya's win. He looked completely unharmed smiling cuffing and tried but content-looking All Might. The image seared itself into his head.
'He beat All Might.'
'He did it easily.'
'He is better than-'
Bakugou shakes his head to erase that thought.
'No, he could never beat me I'm the best that this world will ever see from now till forever. I will be the best hero to ever live.'
His mind had doubled down on his dreams to be the best hero to ever be and nothing could stop him, not All Might, not Midoriya or anyone else.
---
A few days later, Midoriya was at home watching videos when All Might called him.
"Young Midoriya! I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
"No, not at all. Why did you call? Did you want to speak to Nana again?"
"... Maybe later but I'm calling to invite you to join me at the I-Expo on I-Island my treat."
"Of course, I would love to."
"Great, there are some people I would like to introduce you to that I think you will get excited for."
"I get to meet David Shield?!"
"Of course, he has been a long-time friend of mine and as you know created my hero costumes. I'll come pick you up tomorrow pack light well be there for two days."
Tomorrow
All Might and Izuku had just landed on the island on All Might's private jet. They walked into a corridor with a treadmill and screens on the side. They were scanned and registered into the island's attendance list. They were walking out of the airport when an assistant recognised All Might which brought a crowd of fans and reporters trying to get close to All Might. All Might ever the Hero stayed to give everyone an autograph. When they got out they were in front of a fountain near some stairs.
"Sorry about that. I guess my fame precedes me."
"Do you have to deal with them all the time?"
"Part of the job my boy. You'll have to get used to this as your name gets out. We should be meeting my old friend now. He doesn't know about One for All so try not to mention it."
"He's your friend, right? Why doesn't he know?"
"I don't want to bring him into All for One's attention."
"All Might if he is as smart as I think he is, All for One already has an eye on him. He needs to know All Might. He is already in danger. He needs to prepare."
"Alright Midoriya, I'll tell him when I get the chance."
The sound of a pogo stick attracted their attention. Looking at the top of the stairs they see a blond-haired girl with glasses riding on a red and sleek-looking pogo stick. She gets down the stairs and jumps to hug All Might.
"Uncle Might!"
"Melissa, my you've grown since I last saw you."
"Any bigger and you won't be able to pick me up anymore."
They separate and Melissa turns to Midoriya.
"Oh nice to meet you, I'm Melissa Shield."
"I'm Izuku Midoriya, a hero student from UA. I'm in All Might's class."
They shake hands, her eyes gleam in admiration. She began to circle Midoriya checking out his hero costume and poking at pieces that caught her interest.
"This costume is pretty cool and I can see that it doesn't have much defence so you must have a defensive quirk."
"You can say that."
She turns to All Might.
"You wanted to meet Dad right? He's in his lab follow me."
The pogo stick deforms and turns into a bracelet on her hand as she ran off. All Might and Midoriya chased after her when Midoriya felt a familiar quirk muscle augmentation. He looks toward the person who had it and sees that they have two quirks. Muscle augmentation and a touch-based metal manipulation. He discreetly tells All Might who said that he will deal with it later.
---
They arrived at the labs and Melissa went in first to prime All Might's entrance. Feeling the time is right All Might bursts into the room David was in. David was an older heavier man with short blonde hair who looked like his assistant.
"I Am Here to visit an old friend."
"Might? What are you doing here?"
"What? Got so big that you would leave behind your friends? How could you."
They laugh at each other's antics.
"Good to see you All Might and I believe that this is your student. My name is David Shield, inventor."
Midoriya shakes his hand so awe-struck that he can't get a word out.
All Might coughs into his hand which was noticed by David and Izuku.
"Melissa could you show Midoriya around the expo? I want to speak with your uncle privately."
"Sure Dad, come on there's so many things to show you."
Midoriya follows her out.
"You too Sam."
The older man nods and leaves the room. All Might's body began to emit steam as he returned to his skinny form. He falls to the ground with David trying to comfort him.
"Sorry, you had to see me like this."
"Nothing to apologise for. Let's get you to the lab."
---
Melissa leads Midoriya to a bunch of exhibits. They saw the many innovations of David Shield. As they were speaking a familiar voice was heard by Midoriya.
"Midoriya!"
He turns around to see Uraraka in her hero costume.
"Who is she?"
"Oh, I'm Melissa Shield. I was showing Midoriya around the exhibit. You must be Midoriya's classmates."
"I didn't know you were invited."
To the side, Yaoyorozu was seen with Jiro behind her rubbing her earphones.
"Oh he came he with All Might"
The three girls look at him in surprise. They didn't know that he was close with All Might.
"Then what happened to your invite from winning the sports festival?"
"I gave it to Kirishima."
"Hey Midoriya, we have been walking a while. How about we rest at a cafe?"
---
They were now seated outside. The girls had told him to sit at another table which confused him but he obliged. He was thinking about the person he sensed when his drink arrived.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it, Midoriya."
He looks up to see Kaminari in a waiter's uniform and a tray. The girls notice him too, Jiro with a slight blush.
"Hey, are you working here?"
"Yeah, the island was hiring temps to work during the festival. Being here and getting paid for it was the best decision we've ever made."
"We?"
"Of course we, I wouldn't have got this job without my main man."
Mineta appeared and began ogling Melissa until he felt disappointed looks from the group.
"Are you two slacking!"
Iida comes running after them and stops in front of the group.
"Hey Iida, how did you get invited?"
"Oh the entire Iida family was invited but the others were too busy so I came as representative."
"Ohh."
An explosion interrupts the conversation and they decide to check it out.
---
Arriving in a mountainous arena the group sees a smoking mountain.
"With 33 seconds on the clock, we have our eight placer Enjiro Kirishima!"
*Cheers*
"And a new challenger approaches. Ready, Go!"
An explosion rings out as Bakugou uses his quirk to quickly dispatch the robots getting a time of 11 seconds taking first place. He turns around to the cheering onlookers and sees Midoriya. He flies himself up to the railings right in front of him.
"How the hell did you get here!"
"Plane."
"Hey since you guys are here do you want to try this out."
"As if any of these losers would beat my score."
Midoriya jumped down on the starting circle.
"Looks like we've got ourselves a new challenger. Let's see how he does."
Midoriya jumps up high into the air and using all of his fingers flicks in the general direction of the mountain.
"And with an unbelievable time of 2 seconds, we have our new first placer!"
*Cheer*
"Let me try again I can definitely beat that! I was giving everyone else a chance!"
Bakugou yelled while being held back by Kitishima and Iida. Suddenly the sound of ice makes them look back to the mountain to see it covered in ice.
"With 13 seconds and today's second placer. Shoto Todoroki!
'Still not good enough.'
Bakugou explodes off the stands.
"Ice freak! How dare you! Why the hell are you even here!? To show off!"
"Everyone else is here and Endeavor didn't want to come."
Iida comes running at them.
"Stop divulging UA secrets!"
---
In a dark room, All Might is being scanned in a pod with David looking at the results. The scan completes and All Might gets up.
"This is bad. Your quirk is nearly gone. It wasn't this bad after your fight."
"David. There is something you must know of my quirk."
With a worried face, he replies.
"What is it? Don't tell me you don't have your strength anymore."
"No, it's not that. I've been hiding the true nature of my quirk for too long now. You need to know."
"I'm glad you're willing to tell me. What brought this on?"
"My student Midoriya had convinced me to tell you. Are there any listening devices in this room?"
"No, it's completely soundproof."
"OK, my quirk is called One for All. It stockpiles power."
"Which would explain some of the drop-off but not to this extent."
"But that's not all it is. This quirk has been passed down through the generations for one purpose the defeat of All for One."
"Passed down? You don't mean."
"Yes, One for All was not my quirk. It was given to me by Nana Shimura the seventh holder."
"Then what quirk did you have before?"
"I was quirkless."
"So this power could be from the first instance of quirks."
"It was. It was the melding of two quirks that made One for All. The ability to stockpile power and to give. These two quirks are the basis of One for All."
"Then the quirk awakening you had."
"Was the quirks of the previous holders."
"You have already given away the quirk, haven't you? Even before the fight, your quirk levels were already down. Is it Midoriya?"
"Yes, the quirk had become too powerful anyone who has a quirk and One for All experience accelerated the holder's aging. The fourth could only live for 18 years before he had to pass on the quirk."
"And you've held it for 40 years. How?"
"The one thing that made me different I didn't have a quirk so One for All wasn't a burden on my body."
"Then that's why you chose Midoriya. He could adapt to the strain of the quirk, especially with the boost given."
"We didn't have time to find another holder so Midoriya was the only way to ensure peace if I were to fail in defeating All for One."
"You have been saying that All for One has been defeated. Is there something I should know?"
"... All for One lives. It turns out his subordinates are more capable than we give them credit for."
"..."
"Don't worry he's reign will be stopped. Midoriya has everything he needs to permanently take him down. I'm sure of it."
---
Midoriya is waiting in the reception hall with Iida, Todoroki, Kaminari and Mineta for the others to arrive. He was wearing a dark green suit, black shoes, a slightly lighter green tie, and a maroon dress shirt. Eventually, the girls arrived one by one in dresses and now they were waiting for Bakugou and Kirishima to arrive. Suddenly the lights go out as an announcement is blared out.
"Emergency alert lockdown has been activated. All individuals should seek shelter. All who remain outdoors will be detained."
The doors to the reception were locked and elevators were disabled.
"Well we can't get in what do we do?"
"Jiro could you listen into the reception hall?"
Jiro sticks her earphone jacks into the wall and hears some people sobbing and the sounds of a struggle.
"These villains I need to find a way out of this."
Jiro relays this to the group.
"There is a glass roof to the hall, right? Let's go see what's up."
They get up to the roof and look down to see a bunch of villains with guns and the heroes restricted by blue bands around their bodies.
Midoriya gets the attention of All Might and signs to him that they can hear him. He told them that the villains who had been led by a villain by the name of Wolfram and that they activated the security system, and have taken David and Sam as hostage. They were going to the vault to get something. Midoriya signs to him that they will take care of this which All Might protested but eventually decided to put his faith in them. Midoriya turns to the group.
"Okay, we know that this is an emergency. Villains have infiltrated the island and have control of the security system. Melissa what floor is the security room."
"The 200th floor."
"That's so high. How would we get there?"
"... I'm getting there from the outside. I'll get to the top and work down until I get control and release the heroes. You guys can go from the bottom to make sure they don't escape. Momo could you make some devices so we could communicate."
She makes earpieces for everyone.
"But how are you getting up there? It's a pretty long climb."
"I have a few tricks up my sleeve."
Midoriya takes his shirt off to the flustered shrieks of the girls and from his back Dragon wings emerge.
"Or in this case my back. Give me a shout if you need help."
Midoriya blasts off into the sky to the stunned looks of his class.
"Did you know Midoriya could do that?!"
Melissa received a collective shaking of heads from side to side.
"He never really has a chance to show off his quirk and we never knew he could grow new limbs. None of us could get him to go all out."
In the air, Midoriya was looking around the tower for any air defences or cameras. There didn't seem to be any so he continued up. On the roof he sees a helicopter guarded by some villains with assault rifles. He blitzs past them knocking them out and gets a hold of the pilot using ventriloquist.
"Turn off the engine."
The pilot shuts the engine off.
"Make it so this helicopter will not take off."
He removes the key and flips some switches and levers. Midoriya takes the key and warps it into his hotel room.
"Forget everything about me and how to operate a helicopter and sleep."
The pilot fall unconscious. Midoriya turns off dragon wings and looks around. He finds a storeroom with a bunch of tools, fuel and some chains. He gathers the villains and chains them to a pole. He also chains the pilot to his seat so that if anyone were to get up there they would think it was safe. Midoriya walks down into the building and looks through some rooms. He hears someone talking about kids climbing the tower. Midoriya opens a gate into the room knocks the guard out and grabs onto the guy at the computer.
"Show me the cameras to the intruders."
He presses on some keys and it displays the class running through a hallway.
"Midoriya checking in. I have control of the security system."
They stop and look up to see the camera. They wave to it.
"I'm enabling the elevators and turning off the security systems. Get to the vault and protect it. David is coming your way."
"Okay. "
They get into the elevator as Midoriya switches the camera to David and Sam. They were in the elevator alone. Finding that weird but believing that they would be fine he switches back to the class and they were in the greenhouse running to the elevator.
"Guys hold on the elevator has a few hostiles."
The class dives into the bushes as two villains come out of the elevator. One looked kinda like a weasel and the other was short and had a shaved head. They were looking around when Kirishima and Bakugou appeared.
'How the hell did they get here? Is Kirishima that bad with directions?'
"Hey, do you know the way to reception? We got a bit lost."
"Don't fuck with me kid you really think that would work."
The short one turns into a purple gorilla-like thing and attacks them. A wave of ice encases them but not for long as holes appear in the ice allowing the villains to get out.
"Tell your leader to come up and that David has got his device."
The villain does so and Midoriya waits out of sight of the door. In the meantime Midoriya kept an eye on the cameras to make sure the group was okay and since he didn't need the hacker anymore.
[Hacking taken]
After a few minutes, the door opens to a large red-headed man in a trench coat.
"Come on let's go-"
He sees his subordinate on the ground and the other missing and before he can do anything he feels a hand grab the back of his head.
[Metal Manipulation taken]
[Muscle Augmentation taken]
He smacks the hand away and touches the door frame to trap the intruder but finds that his quirk doesn't work. He tries again and still it fails. He tried to punch the kid but Muscle augmentation didn't activate and he was knocked onto the floor.
"So what did you want to steal?"
"Why the hell would I tell you? What did you do to my quirk?"
"That's quite simple. I took it."
Midoriya touches the wall as metal in the walls bursts out and wraps around the villains. Wolfram looked at the metal in shock still trying to use his quirk to move the metal. The only person he knew able to take quirks was.
"All for One. That fucker set me up."
"So you were working for him."
"What do you mean you planned this."
Midoriya's attention was caught by Melissa's voice. He drags the villain to the computer and opens the camera for the vault room. Sam was holding a briefcase while David was speaking with Melissa and the rest of the class.
"My research was frozen by the board when they found out about it. I needed a way to get it to All Might. I'm sure you have noticed that he is getting weaker."
"Hey, let go of the boss!"
Midoriya turns around to a villain with desaturated pink hair with cone-like blades for arms swinging at him. He grabbed the blades and crushed them causing blood to seep out of the seams. The villain drops to the floor holding his arm in tears looks up in anger and tries to swing with his other arm. Midoriya grabs it again.
[Cone Spike taken]
Midoriya temporarily gave him super regeneration to heal his arm and gave him back his quirk as he already had one like it. Though the quirk didn't seem to want to leave so he forced it out.
[Cone Spike given]
"Sleep."
The villain falls unconscious along with the one on the computer to the surprise of Wolfram.
"Deactivate emergency alert."
The villain wakes back up and does so. Midoriya makes him fall asleep again. Midoriya then grabs Wolfram by the back of his coat and drags him with him.
"Forget my ability to take and give quirks, and that your quirks have not been taken but think that you are in anti-quirk cuffs. If you find you can't use your quirk blame All for One."
Wolfram's eyes glazed over and as he came to he begins to struggle with his restraints.
"If it wasn't for those damned cuffs I would have crushed this whole building."
"Save it for court. Sleep."
Wolfram falls unconscious and Midoriya presses his earpiece.
"Guys I got Wolfram. Let's meet down in Reception."
"Nice going Midoriya. We'll meet you there."
Midoriya arrives at the landing next to the glass roof picks up his shirt, warps the key back onto the helicopter and goes into the hall where the heroes are waiting. A restrained Wolfram was thrown through the door.
"Sorry about the interruption."
"Midoriya!"
Melissa came running and jumped to hug him. Midoriya caught her.
"I'm glad you're okay. He didn't put up much of a fight did he?"
"Nah I got him by surprise. So what's so important about the briefcase?"
David walks up to him.
"I think it would be best if we spoke of this in private."
---
Midoriya along with All Might were taken to a secure meeting room.
"Where is the older guy? No offence."
"Sam was taken into custody. He suggested we use fake villains to stage a robbery to get the device to All Might discreetly. Turns out he felt betrayed that I would allow our research to be frozen by the board."
Fact
"What was the device for? It must be pretty powerful to be able to get All Might back into his prime."
David opens the briefcase revealing a crab-like device.
"It was a quirk amplifier similar to the ones on the black market but this one didn't have any drawbacks. All Might refused to take it and had recommended it be destroyed and frankly, I agree. The chaos it would cause if it was released would be astronomical."
"I can destroy it if you'd like."
"You have a way to dispose of it?"
"You could say that. Impure beam."
A dark laser shot out of Midoriya's finger and completely disintegrates the device along with the case. David recognised the quirk and looked toward All Might.
"All Might?"
"David I know it looks bad but I believe Midoriya would like to explain."
Midoriya told him of his involvement with All for One. How he had weakened him and taken his power.
"Did you get all of his quirks?"
"I did but it seems like he had multiple copies of his quirk along with many others. He had sent Wolfram to get the device to get himself back to full strength."
Fact
"Fact."
"He did. Seems like Sam didn't know what he had gotten himself involved with."
Fiction
"Sam was working with All for One."
Fact
"Fact."
All Might and David sit silently as they process the information. All for One had an agent within I-island. He almost succeeded in his theft. If not for Midoriya this might have been the straw that broke this time of peace. The three of them return to reception.
"Hey, Midoriya how did you grow those wings?"
"Oh, it's something I discovered a while ago just like how I turn my arms into tendrils I can mold my body to my needs though some things are still difficult."
The rest of the night went without issue. The class was very excited to share their experience of fighting actual villains rather than the goons from the USJ.
The next day was the expo where scientist share their discoveries and inventions. The whole class was in awe of the presentations mainly the innovations in hero costumes. Melissa even got to present a gauntlet that reduced quirk strain from excessive forces on the body effectively acting like a brace. She invited an audience member to try it on and she chose Midoriya. Putting the red bracelet on and tapping it. It unfolded and wrapped around his arm.
"Go on try it out."
The roof opens up to the sky it is a sunny day with mild clouds. Midoriya readied his fist and punched into the sky launching a pressure wave and and hole could be seen in the sky. A sudden crack could be heard from the stage. When the audience looked over the gauntlet was cracked and Melissa explained that it was a prototype and it was estimated that it could have survived three of All Might's blows in his prime. Many in the audience were interested in investing in the project and planned to contact her. The expo ended as a resounding success even with the interruption.
_______________________________________
Next time
Chapter 26 : Shopping
