48

Izuku frowned as he looked at his notes from the morning, "I really don't think I want to do any of these ideas."

"I know!" Mei scribbled something frantically and tore a page out of her sketchbook, crumpling it and tossing it over her shoulder as she started jotting things down again. "Gravity Girl's new quirk is giving me so many good ideas!"

"It's not a new quirk." Izuku rolled his eyes. "Actually, it does kind of act like one, doesn't it? I wonder…"

Melissa giggled as she watched them both bury themselves in their notes, "You can still change your mind, you know! Normally you would have already picked your projects, but today obviously wasn't normal. Besides, since Dad wasn't around this morning, you pretty much have until he comes back to really make your decisions. What do you have in mind?"

"Well, my first thought is to find a way to stop Uraraka from teleporting with a support item or something." Izuku said, grabbing his laptop. "But I don't think that will be very practical, and repressing a quirk can often make it more difficult to control, so it'll be best to just throw that out the window."

"Hmm." Melissa said. "I mean, I wouldn't know, but that makes sense. I wonder if you could make something like training wheels, Mei? Like, to help her learn to control her quirk?"

"I like the way you think, Lab Assistant!" Mei grinned and wrote a few things down, then groaned. "But there's a lot of mistakes and explosions between now and being able to use technology to impact gravity. We need to grow a few more giants before we can stand on their shoulders!"

Izuku thought for a moment, "I mean, I know you already gave her the bracelet, Mei-chan, but I could always perfect this program for tracking her warps."

"That's an idea. It could help her find patterns in where she usually ends up and help her warp more accurately." Melissa nodded encouragingly. "And didn't you try to use it to predict that she was about to disappear in the car?"

Izuku's eyes widened, "Oh yeah! I mean, the program is just tracking her gravity fluctuations and everything starts going wonky before she teleports, so if I get it running fast enough…"

Melissa grinned as she finished his thought, "Then she could potentially have enough warning to stop unintentional warps!"

"You'd need a good alarm system." Mei said. "Sure, you could always do an app, but that's no fun! And what if she doesn't have her phone?! It would need to be small, portable, and…"

She trailed off as her eye caught on Melissa, who started fidgeting as the seconds dragged on, "Um, Mei? Is something wrong? Is there something on my face or something?"

Mei's face slowly morphed into a terrifying grin, "Your earrings!"

"M-my earrings?" Melissa took a step back. 

Izuku gasped, "That's brilliant Mei-chan! Melissa! You invented those to counteract panic attacks, right? How do they work?"

Melissa stopped and she slowly started smiling as well as she caught up to what they were thinking, "They track a person's vital signs so they can send an alert when their heart rate or breathing goes too high. I've been brainstorming different options, but it shouldn't be that hard to just make them beep when the activation requirements are met."

"Good." Izuku opened up his tracking program, "I can debug this program and focus on giving Uraraka as much warning as possible before she warps and Mei-chan can…"

"Figure out how to make gravity sensors fit inside a pair of earrings!" Mei's eyes zoomed in anticipation and she made grabby hands to tell Melissa to hand over the jewelry. "Oooh! This baby is gonna be so much fun!!!"

Melissa giggled as she took out her earrings and handed one to each of them, "You guys really are a power couple, aren't you?"

Izuku fumbled the earring and almost dropped it as he blushed a bright red, "Power couple?! Uh, we, uh, we're not dating or anything! Mei's just my best friend and I mean, I know we spend a lot of time together and everything, but that doesn't mean..."

"Yeah, I just use Izu-kun to help me make babies." Mei said distractedly, eyes already moving rapidly to visually dissect every tiny detail of the earring on the table in front of her. "Lab assistant, get your dad already! I need to take a look at your gravity sensors!"

Hitoshi had half-dozed off by the time Uraraka groaned and blinked her eyes open, "Ugh, I feel like I just puked a skittles factory."

Hitoshi flinched awake and he almost fell out of his chair, but after half a second, he breathed a sigh of relief as he double-checked that Uraraka was here. She was safe on Gunhead's couch. She was fine. 

He chuckled and shook his head, "Yeah, well, for all I know, you did. What happened? Izuku and Mei didn't give me any details on what happened, they just told me where to find you. We were all so worried about you."

Uraraka played with a bracelet on her wrist that Hitoshi didn't recognize, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, Shindig, I just was stupid and thought I could just push it down, but then I lost control and...yeah, somehow I ended up on I-Island."

Hitoshi blinked, "Uh, can you maybe run that by me again?"

Uraraka sighed, "I accidentally bent space-time, teleported to I-Island. Yeah, it's about as crazy as it sounds."

"Whoa." Hitoshi took a second to process that. "Uh, that's one hell of a quirk evolution, I guess."

That made Uraraka snort and she shook her head as she sat up, "Yeah. It's great! And what's even better is that I can't stay put because I can't control it yet. It's a real joy."

Hitoshi chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, "So that's why you disappeared?"

"And why I'll probably disappear again." Uraraka nodded and slumped back against the armrest. "I feel like I'm turning into you! I'm just exhausted!"

He gave her a small smile, "Are you sure you want to add a terrible sleep schedule to everything you've got going on?"

"Ugh, no!" Uraraka rubbed her eyes. "How about this, Shindig, you keep your sleep issues and I keep my disappearing act. Deal?"

She held out her hand for a fist bump and Hitoshi returned it, "Deal. Also, where did the Shindig nickname come from? It's not bad, it's just...why?"

Uraraka chuckled, "Uh, it's dumb. I just wanted payback after you confused the hell out of everyone with your quirk activation requirements at the sports festival and thought a dumb nickname would be a fun way to confuse you back." She frowned. "Not that I haven't done a bang up job of that already."

"Yeah, you definitely threw me for a loop, but whatever." Hitoshi shrugged. "Um, am I supposed to have a nickname for you? I mean, you have one for me and I did just pull you out of a play tunnel an hour ago, so…?"

Uraraka blushed and buried her face in her hands, "Ugh, don't remind me! That's so embarrassing! Those kids probably thought I was crazy or something!"

"Drunk, actually." Hitoshi pointed out helpfully. "So, what nickname do you want?"

Uraraka groaned.

By the time Izuku and Mei called, Ochako was feeling a little more like herself. She hadn't teleported at all since getting back to Japan, but she had a sneaking suspicion that she probably would have if she wasn't so exhausted from two long jumps and all the little ones she'd made while on I-Island. She'd had the weird world-tilty feeling a few times, whenever she thought about Mei or Izuku or really any one of her friends that wasn't in the room with her, but she hadn't gone anywhere, so for now, she figured that as long as she stayed close to Shinso, there wasn't much risk of her ending up somewhere she wasn't intending to be. That might change in a couple of hours, depending on how much One for All hated her at the moment, but that was a tomorrow problem. 

Shinso's phone rang just as everyone was finishing up dinner and he took one look at the caller ID and picked up, "Hey Izuku, how are you? Next time you send me a cryptic location, could you add a few details?"

Ochako giggled as she imagined Izuku panicking on the other end of the phone, but she stopped when Gunhead came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, "Alright you two, let's take this to my office."

Her heart sank and even though she knew she probably wasn't, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was in trouble. She had messed up. Maybe if she had just tried to use One for All earlier or if she'd realized her quirk was gravity manipulation or if she had better self control than she wouldn't have made everyone panic by disappearing out of the blue like that. It was her fault that everyone had thought she'd been kidnapped or something, despite that she had no control over it. More accurately, it was her fault because she had no control over it.

She dragged her feet as Gunhead closed the door behind them, "Alright, put it on speaker. I'm your hero mentor and in order to help you, I need to know what's going on too. Is that alright?"

Shinso raised an eyebrow at Ochako, who took a deep breath before nodding resolutely. Gunhead was here to teach her and help her. She'd already learned a lot, even though she'd only really had a couple of hours to spar with him yesterday and today had been, well, today, so she just had to trust that he wouldn't judge her too harshly for losing control of her quirk.

Shinso shrugged and pressed the button, "Alright, almighty kidnappers, care to explain what in the world is going on?"

"I mean, Uraraka should have explained part of it already." Izuku said.

"I explained what I know." Ochako interrupted. "But that isn't really that much. I mean, I get that I'm warping space-time and it seems to be related to people, but, uh...that's pretty much all I know."

Gunhead took the phone from Shinso and set it on the desk, "What we really need to know is what's causing her to teleport and what we can do to help her control it. These kids seem to think you know what you're talking about, so do you have any advice?"

"Can you tell me how to stop?" Ochako added desperately. "It would be really nice to be able to just turn it off."

"Unfortunately, that's not really gonna be an option." Izuku said sheepishly. "Until you get enough practice and learn how to control it, you're probably going to instinctively teleport to any anchor that pops into your head."

"Anchor?" Shinso said. "Those are people, right?"

"Yep!" Izuku sounded excited. "So, I've been thinking about it and I'm pretty sure how it works now! Uraraka, when you use your quirk on someone, you don't just cancel their gravity, you basically change it somehow. We're gonna have to run a few more tests with that part. But! That means that your quirk basically becomes familiar with the way gravity naturally affects them and you can use that unique gravity signature as an anchor to warp to them! With training, you might even be able to use objects, but that will probably be a lot more difficult, since people are more distinct in weight, body shape, muscle distribution…"

Shinso rolled his eyes, "So what you're saying is that once she's canceled a person's gravity once, she can find them forever?"

"Pretty much!" Mei jumped in. "Well, unless they go on a diet or get fat or something."

"Yeah." Izuku agreed. "A bit of fluctuation shouldn't affect things, but if their gravity signature changes too much, then you'll probably have to use your quirk on them again to refamiliarize yourself."

"Ok." Ochako sighed. "So basically, anyone who I've ever activated my quirk on could be receiving a surprise visit from me at any time?"

"For right now, yeah, sorry." Izuku said. 

"But we're gonna help!" Mei said. "Izu-kun has this really cool program that he's rewriting to help predict your jumps! And I'm gonna make you some super awesome earrings that'll warn you when you're about to go poof!"

"We're going to hopefully have them ready by the end of internship week." Izuku added. "For now, it's clunky, but I can send Hitoshi an app that'll do basically what the earrings are supposed to do and if it's a bad time and you don't want to warp, he can brainwash you and order you to stay."

"Will that actually work?" Shinso asked skeptically. 

"No idea!" Mei answered. "Now come on, Izu-kun! Dr. Shield's almost here with the circuit boards and I wanted to have the prototypes ready with the…"

Ochako ended the call and sighed as she headed toward the door, "It's gonna be a long week, isn't it?"

"Sure is." Shinso agreed. "I'd offer to brainwash you the whole time, but uh, not quite there yet."

"It's fine." Ochako said. "I need to learn eventually, right?"

"And you're gonna do great!" Gunhead said. "This is what internships are for! Learning new skills and doing hard things! And you know what? You have me and Shinso and all the other interns here to help you out, all right?"

Ochako gave a small smile in spite of everything, "Yeah! Let's do it!"

They walked back into the common room where all the other interns were hanging out only to see them all crowded around the tv and watching the news tensely. Gunhead immediately took charge, "What's going on?"

"There's an attack in Hosu." One of them answered. "There's, like, these monster things attacking everything and tearing things up."

"Monsters?" Ochako got closer to the screen and gasped. "That's a nomu. What the hell is a nomu doing in Hosu?!"

"So it's the league?" Shinso frowned. "That's not good. I mean, obviously, but uh...nobody here's from Hosu, are they?"

Everyone shook their heads and Ochako frowned, "I mean, wasn't that where Ingenium was? Wait, Iida's intern…"

Shinso shouted her name, but she couldn't really focus on him with the way the world was shifting. After a moment, things stopped spinning and she swallowed a wave of nausea as she looked around, "Ok, I'm still here. I guess quirk exhaustion has its perks, heh?"

Shinso glared at her, "Seriously? You freaked me out! I thought you were gonna just pop right into the middle of an attack and pass out again!"

"Yeah." Ochako chuckled. "That wouldn't have been fun...passing out sounds like a really good idea though! I think I'm gonna go do that."

Shouto followed behind Edgeshot, stomping the street to create another ice slide as the chaos finally wound down. His father would probably be pissed that he'd been relegated to rescue work the whole time, but Edgeshot didn't make it feel like a punishment or a second tier of heroism at all! He just gave Shouto permission to use his quirk, then went and saved as many people as they could, simple as that. No explanation. No complaining. Just rescuing any civilians who had been unlucky enough to be in the upper stories of the surrounding buildings when the Nomu attacked. It was odd. 

Shouto was starting to shiver at this point, but Edgeshot had been told that the monsters had all been captured, so it wouldn't be too much longer until he'd be able to get back to the agency and warm up. He just had to push through it until then and he'd be fine. He could do this. 

The building they were currently working with was close to collapsing, but Shouto held his slide steady as Edgeshot herded all the people onto it. He gave the signal for all clear and Shouto had to hold back a sigh of relief as he stopped producing ice. Just a little longer. 

He heard a cat scream behind him and whirled around to see Epurr standing far too close to the ruined building to be safe, "What are you doing, you stupid cat?! Get away from there! The building's coming down!"

Epurr just screamed at him again and took a few steps into the alley she'd come from, which unfortunately meant she was even closer to the building. Shouto felt like the panic was starting to choke him as he gestured wildly for her to come closer, "Come on! Epurr! Don't...No!"

He heard a crack and his eyes widened as the building started falling, a piece of the wall breaking off and hurtling down right toward the alley Epurr was standing in, still screaming at him with no idea of the amount of danger she was in. Shouto didn't have time to think. He rushed forward, ignoring his father's voice in his head saying that love was weakness and that he was risking his future as the ultimate masterpiece. No, his only thought was that he couldn't let an angry orange street cat die. 

He dove toward Epurr, wrapping himself around her and creating an ice dome around both of them seconds before the wall slammed down on top of them. The ice creaked ominously, cracking along one side, but ultimately held firm. Shoto didn't uncurl as he desperately scratched behind Epurr's ear, "What were you thinking?! I...you can't leave me like she did! You're...I won't let you!"

Epurr was shivering in his arms and Shouto realized with a start that he was hurting her. He had been creating ice for hours. He knew he was basically a human glacier at this point, and yet, here he was, holding himself right up against her as her hisses and meows grew a little weaker. He hesitated. He'd vowed to never use his father's side in battle and even if this was just a rescue, it was still undeniably a battle, but...Epurr gave another violent shiver and Shouto's face hardened in determination. 

His left side was his father's side, but if it meant saving this stupid cat, he'd just have to steal it back. It wasn't his father's side, not anymore. It was his and he wasn't about to let that flame-bearded bastard hurt anyone else he cared about ever again. 

He activated his fire side, careful not to warm up too quickly so he didn't burn her, and she'd barely stopped shivering when Edgeshot squeezed his way through one of the cracks, "That was reckless, kid, but it looks like you got it done. Good job."

Shouto uncurled himself slightly as Epurr started hissing again and scratching to be let down, "I don't know what's gotten into her! She just wouldn't come!"

Edgeshot frowned and looked at her, "Cats are smarter than we give them credit for, that one in particular. I'm pretty sure she wants you to follow her."

Shouto looked down at the cat in his arms, who was still fighting to leave, and nodded as he let her go, "Ok. Lead the way."

Epurr scratched at the cold wall of ice that her kitten had made and hissed at him to go faster. She didn't know why he was so cold today when he was normally so warm, but they didn't have time for that! His littermate was in trouble!

She'd been trying to avoid the chaos, she really had. A cat didn't survive on the streets as long as she had if they were stupid enough to run toward every fight they saw, but when she'd been looking for a quiet corner to lay low, she'd caught a scent. It was familiar, at least a little, and she recognized it as one of the scents that always clung to him when he visited her from the other kittens he spent his days with. His littermates. 

But the other kitten was in trouble and Epurr couldn't do anything against an attacker with such big claws. Her kitten was strong though, even though he didn't think so, and it was her responsibility to make sure her kitten was socialized correctly and knew how to treat and protect his littermates! She had to get him!

She'd been so focused that she'd almost put herself in danger too, but her kitten had saved her and even warmed himself up in the process, which in any other situation would have made her purr with happiness, but today, she needed to take care of him and he needed to take care of that other poor kitten. 

Her kitten melted a hole in the ice large enough for both of them to crawl through and Epurr immediately shot off like a rocket, weaving through the familiar alleys and only stopping occasionally to let her kitten and his babysitter catch up. Almost there…

When she reached the alley, the attacker was already gone and the scent of blood made her hiss and crinkle her nose, screaming for her kitten as she pawed at his littermate. He was still warm, still alive for now, but if her kitten didn't help him soon…

She turned to look at her kitten as he pounded into the alley, skidding to a stop and gasping as she urged him to stop gawking and just hurry already! He just kept staring though, and a soft whisper escaped him as he stood rooted to the cement, "Iida…"

Thankfully, her kitten's babysitter wasn't more than a few seconds behind and he was at least a little calmer than her poor stressed-out kitten, grabbing at his ear and speaking to someone that she couldn't see, "Paramedics? This is Edgeshot. I need two ambulances to my location, priority one."