My Hero Automata

Summary: Test flights for the UA Space Program!

Chapter 67: Preparations and Lessons

It had taken a few days to make the arrangements they needed to determine if the rough plan the Heroics students had sketched out for the cultural festival were viable. They had spent that time well, of course, working in whatever free moments they had to start roughing out some of the work they needed to do. Yosetsu, Momo, and 2B had been the most critical members during those first few days, but everyone had chipped in what time they could spare around their classes and work studies. As for the arrangements in question…those they'd needed Nedzu for, though the surprised Chimera had been so delighted by the sheer gall of their project that he'd called in a few favors to smooth the way.

Technically, UA's Airspace was already under UA's own jurisdiction, but there were some significant concerns about someone thinking Nedzu had finally snapped and was launching an ICBM or an Orbital Death Laser. That meant that Japan had to send out certain notices to international powers, and deal with the incredulity of the responses they got back. Frankly, without the name of Aegis Inc being thrown in on top of Nedzu's favors, there would have been too much disbelief to cut through quickly. As it was, they'd managed to get authorization to test their bit of insanity with surprising speed. Enough so that, the evening of the 4th day after they'd first proposed the idea in the dorms, every member of the First Year Heroics groups that manage to pry the time free was present.

While virtually everything was present, it was Momo, Izumi, and Uraraka that were the current focus of everyone's attentions. Along with, of course, the still somewhat crude looking Space Capsule they'd been working on in every free moment. For the time being, it was absolutely not capable of holding a person safely. But it was pretty close to its target end weight and shape. Momo had, of course, been the one to produce the shaped materials needed. Cribbed, admittedly, from YoRHa knowledge to get it done in time, those materials could really only be made by Momo. Even she, however, couldn't really have practically made it all of one piece. Making an object several times her own size, after all, wasn't particularly viable. Technically possible, but nearly impossible to do with the pinpoint accuracy required.

Momo had thus carefully produced the frame materials and external panels in sections. Then Yosetsu had been employed to weld the produced materials together at an atomic level. In this fashion, they'd constructed a 4-meter tall, 5-meter in diameter, slightly-crudely shaped capsule. Its total weight came in at only about 8 tons, but it had been loaded up with another 4 tons of material in the form of dead weights. Meant, of course, to represent the internal parts that still needed to be added, plus their intended 'payload' of roughly 15 people per trip.

Uraraka had just finished lightening all of that weight to virtually nothing. Sort of. Under Izumi and Momo's influence, Ochako had been guided to the realization that her Quirk was even more bullshit than Quirks usually are. Instead of removing gravity from an object, what it actually did instead was massively reduce its effective mass. It also did some bullshit with inertia they were still trying to figure out. But the main point was that she could decrease the effective mass of an object and could actually control how much she did so by, now that she was aware of what she was doing. This is what led to her Club of Doom not pasting everything it hit, since she could throttle its mass and shift its inertia a bit.

It also, as it happened, reduced her nausea massively if she left at least some mass behind. Which is why the total effective weight of the mass of metal Izumi was now standing on top of was currently still about 500kg. Well within the weight limits of the specialized Flight Unit that Izumi and 2B had adapted from another specialized Flight Unit they'd already been working on. This Flight Unit was significantly upscaled from the ones Izumi typically used. And, if all else had been as usual, there's no way she could have kept the thing summoned for long.

Which, of course, is where the project she and 2B had been working on came into play.

Originally intended for a Combat Flight Suit Izumi was working on that could deploy without so badly draining her, the Space Flight Suit contained a prototype 'battery' power system. Specifically, it used larger versions of the exact same QE storage batteries that were in her Berserker Gauntlets. Unlike her Gauntlets, however, the SFS was large enough to build in all the proper equipment so that Izumi didn't have backlash to deal with. Effectively meaning that she could keep the SFS summoned and powered by stored QE, instead of with her own personal QE generation. In other words, she could use the SFS for as long as its own QE batteries held out. Since those QE batteries had been upscaled with the suit, and made as energy-dense as they could make them, the result was a suit that had 2+ hours of flight time even under heavy load.

Heavy load like she was about to put on it, as Momo confirmed the last cable attachment and jumped clear of the capsule. 2B, acting as both ground control and navigation computer, spoke up the moment everyone else was confirmed clear of their takeoff zone.

"Zone clear. Approved takeoff window has reached us. Displaying ascent path calculation."

Izumi's HUD highlighted the path and she nodded. She quickly topped herself off from the batteries, something she could do with the fully realized transfer systems built into the suit, then activated the transformation they'd worked out for this. The SFS didn't require her to have much physical power boosting, but she'd certainly need all of her resistances…as well as the niffy ability to not need to breathe. Taking a last deep breath before shutting that function of her body off for now, Izuku used the breath to announce takeoff.

"Launching!"

The SFS's powerful thrusters roared to life, Izumi gently easing the throttle at first, as she got a feel for lifting the awkward-shaped and poorly balanced weight below her. Nodding to herself, she increased power slowly and steadily, both her and 2B adjusting several times a second. Izumi to the not-exactly-great aerodynamics of their squat bullet of a capsule, 2B adjusting their launch ascent angle on the fly to account for Izumi's own struggles to keep on course. Minutes passed as Izumi poured on the power, picking up speed as they passed 40,000 meters.

60,000

75,000

Izumi tried not to let the incredible views distract her, even as the atmosphere rapidly vanished and the capsule got easier to handle.

100,000.

Izumi slowed as she hit the Kármán line, but didn't quite stop. Frankly, at this point she was barely fighting to keep going. While she wasn't intending to hit orbital heights, a little farther wouldn't hurt. Old commercial space flights before Quirks usually stopped right around 100km…so why not do better and hit 120? She powered on, making sure to keep an eye on her energy reserves to make sure nothing went wrong. Reaching her target height, she carefully slowed. There was still the feeling of gravity here. She hadn't come anywhere close to achieving the Low Earth Orbit distance of velocity required to feel as if she was in full Zero-G. But without the need to fight the atmosphere for more altitude, she could easily hover.

For a long twenty minutes, she just sustained her altitude, absorbing the utterly incredible view in silence. The utter black of space, the incredible view of Earth below. Reluctantly, knowing that she was risking finding out the hard way if Ochako had distance limits, Izumi decreased thrust and began to fall back down toward the planet. Both her suit and the capsule had been designed for reentry, though with her ability to actually brake all the way down it was almost unneeded. The issue with hitting atmosphere was mostly caused by the speeds at which most descent craft were approaching. Izumi, with nothing resembling a fuel issue so long as her QE reserves held out, could simply choose to hit the thicker atmosphere below slow enough not to really build heat the way traditional reentry did. Even if it meant a slowish descent.

It still only took another twenty minutes despite that. With Izumi burning course corrections the whole time to bring her right back down to the 'launch pad,' essentially just an empty training field. From start to finish, less than one hour…and Ochako actually looked completely fine from what she could see by zooming in. Of course, as soon as she detached, she was swarmed by those of her peers eager to congratulate her.

Hopefully, Momo would take pity and rescue her soon…

... ...

"Good afternoon, students! Or should I call you minions? Midnight seems fond of that…"

Izumi and Momo rolled their eyes at Nedzu's theatrics. While he hadn't been able to spare as much time as he'd have really liked to give them more personal lessons, they'd squeezed in a few. Between that and their other encounters, both of them had begun to grow used the chimera's eccentricities. Being used to it didn't really make him less terrifying, but it did at least make them more sure of him in general. His thoughts were more than a bit alien to human perception, but he had his own reasons to care about humanity and seemed genuine in them. Even if the ways he went about expressing that care might not always be quite what humans would think appropriate.

"Sit, sit! Have some tea! Today we're moving on from investigation, in a way. There is much more I could teach you about that, that I will teach you, in time. But you have the basics…and recent events have proven that you're going to need another sort of lesson before long. One that both of you have at least dipped your toes in already, thankfully, though not deeply enough to prevent disaster if you don't get a little guidance soon."

Izumi and Momo blinked, automatically sitting and accepting their teas even as they looked at each other in a bit of confusion.

"I see you haven't made the connection. But you will. Today, we are covering Heroic Politics and the factions that currently exist within Japan's Heroic Sphere. The world's in general will need covering too, but we will start small with just Japan."

That got a very different look from both of them, their expressions shuttering slightly as they carefully considered the Dean.

"Oh, don't be so suspicious. You have both already had to dip your toes in the political soup. I imagine Miss Yaoyorozu, in particular, had many lessons on it. From a business perspective, at least. And your joint creation of the HSN and its spread to dominate many Hero systems the world over has already forced you to dip into the Heroic politics game specifically. Indeed, I imagine you're quite well versed in the ills of the largest single player in that game, at least in Japan. Given who you have in charge of Aegis Inc's security apparatus."

Momo sighed and set her tea down, it no longer tasting of anything but ashes to her. Izumi simply fiddled with her cup, not meeting the Dean's eyes. Momo was much more willing to be drawn on the subject and spoke for both of them.

"The HPSC. Their resistance to a privately controlled, completely secure, Heroic Network was considerable. More than we expected. To the point that our dive into the why of that eventually led us to the Lady Nagant situation."

Neduz's own smile, if you could still call it that, had turned malicious at the mention of that.

"Indeed! I'm quite a large fan of the job you did there. The damage you did to the Commission was quite a delight. Though, to my chagrin, I must admit I missed for some years that it had been you two that did it, rather than Miss Yaoyorozu's parents. An intentional misdirection, I assume."

Momo grimaced, then shrugged. Not admitting it out loud, but not denying it either. Nedzu merely chuckled, his smile turning less evil as he went on.

"You have done an excellent job of staying in the shallow waters since then, maintaining Aegis's neutrality. Not a poor choice, but it is becoming an untenable one for you now. Not just because of your completely deniable actions with All for One…but because you had the sheer gall to approach me with something that will push your presence out on the international stage."

Izumi sighed and put her own cup down.

"The Cultural Festival project."

The Dean nodded and went on to point out the obvious.

"The Era of Chaos saw a backing away from Space. Aside from a few Quirk-assisted launches to maintain various satellite networks, no one has thus far been willing to return that direction. There are dangers there, with certain Quirks like Ms. Uraraka's making it all too easy for certain individuals to put serious weapons into orbit. Even the replacement of satellites has been kept deliberately quiet to prevent people thinking too much about it."

Momo's hand was steady as she forced herself to return to the tea. It still tasted like ashes on her tongue, but she forced herself to sip anyway.

"And we are bringing it to the public eye by force, showing how easy it is, with the right Quirks. We knew the risks. But both Izumi and I believe backing away from Space and its potential was a mistake. It is a place to point the energy and creativity of humanity that isn't into more conflict. I'm also not entirely sure how this affects Heroic Politics, however. We were expecting the backlash to be more general than that."

The Dean nodded, accepting her points without adding his own opinion just yet. Instead, he chose to address the last bit.

"The issue, Ms. Yaoyorozu, is that you are both deeply involved in the Heroics field. Both with the HSN and recent events. For all intents and purposes, you've previously been considered a neutral rogue element. Now, you've become too influential for that, and the focus your plan for the festival will put on you will only amplify what was already coming."

Izumi and Momo mulled that over. Momo was by far the better with this part of things and spotted the issue quickly.

"Damn. We've become a big enough factor to become our own faction. Whereas before, we were either considered rogue outsiders to the situation, or part of the general faction around you and UA."

The Dean clapped for her, a gesture they'd long learned actually wasn't ironic. Just an idiosyncrasy Nedzu had picked up trying to become a teacher of humans.

"Precisely! But that means you need to be better briefed on the game board. So, we will be breaking down the factions that currently exist. What their motives are, what they currently control, and how they will react to you. As starting with the unfamiliar will be the best way to teach you the analysis you need from the ground up, I've asked a pair of people to come help brief you on an old faction turned new again."

The Dean pressed a button, with an unobtrusive side door opening. Through it stepped two men. One was immediately recognizable as the Turbo Hero: Ingenium. With his helmet off, his relation to Tenya was utterly obvious. The other man, who's nose looked to have been recently rebuilt by some extensive plastic surgery, was a complete unknown to both of them.

"I'm sure you both know of Ingenium. But let me introduce you to his current companion. The Hero Killer Stain. Whose slight shift of current targets illuminated an issue even I had missed until now. Tell me, what do you know about the Meta Liberation Army…"

... ...

Izumi let her legs dangle out over the city, perched on the edge of a seemingly random roof. It wasn't actually random, of course, as was evidenced a few minutes later as the roof access of the skyscraper opened and Tsutsumi Kaina quietly made her way across the rooftop to sit next to Izumi. For several long minutes, neither of them said a word. They simply watched the city skyline together, both seeing more than most would as a curl of Kaina's hair shifted to act as a scope, and Izumi's enhanced vision modes let her zoom at will. The silence was a companionable one, but not one that could last. Izumi only appeared like this, to sit atop the skyscraper that secretly housed much of Aegis Inc's administration, when something was bothering her. Something she didn't feel comfortable burdening Momo with.

"Are you not sure you did the right thing? Or are you stuck in your own head, knowing it was the right thing, but unsure you were in the right to do it."

Izumi flinched, sighing as Kaina hit the nail on the head.

"The latter…I think? All for One needed to die. But who am I to be judge, jury, and executioner? That's not very Heroic, is it?"

The woman who had once been Lady Nagant, extra-legal assassin for the HPSC, sighed and fished around in a pocket of her business suit for a small case of premium cigarettes. It was a habit she'd mostly managed to kick in the last few years, but stress did funny things to anyone's self-control. Kaina was pragmatic enough to consider the occasional smoke a better solution than letting that stress build up and explode in some fashion she had no control over. There was silence on the rooftop as she picked out her poison of choice for the day, lit it, and took a deep draw, letting the slight buzz of the nicotine ease her heavy mood.

"Kid, I'm not going to lie to you. If that's what you wanted, you wouldn't have come here. You know how I feel about the heroes I killed for the HPSC. Hell, even about some of the villains. But, what I've never told you, was that there are kills I don't regret. The head of a sex-trafficking ring that specialized in children. A lunatic that had intended to irradiate half of Tokyo. A really fucked up hero that was part of some wacko group call the Creature Capture Clan that hunted mutant Quirk holders like they were animals. And did worse things to the poor bastards they caught before dumping what was left of the bodies."

Kaina took another deep draw of her cigarette, looking a little bit surprised to see her hand shaking as she did. As the nicotine kicked in farther, it steadied just a bit. A glance at Izumi showed her the kid was properly horrified. But that wasn't quite the point.

"I'm not going to tell you that playing God and deciding who lives and dies is a great way for a Hero to act. What I am going to tell you is that there are times when not acting when you can end an evil for good is just as bad. Even All Might knows that, if what I've heard about his first throw down with that monster you killed is right. Cold blooded as it is, sometimes being a Hero is all about having the judgement to know when to take that extra step. Don't get used to it, don't reach for it as the first and only solution. But when its fully justified? Do your best not to regret it either."

Izumi looked torn at the advice for a long moment. But then her face settled as she seemed to accept the words. It wasn't likely her unease would just vanish overnight. But Kaina's words, those of someone who'd almost been broken by doing the same sort of thing, carried a lot of weight. It would help, she hoped, even if she knew the doubts were unlikely to go away quickly. If they ever did at all. She'd already known it was part of the price to pay for choosing to be a Hero, but their lesson with Nedzu earlier had brought her inner turmoil to a boil.

The Dean springing the Hero Killer on her today had just been a bit too much for Izumi's mental equilibrium. She understood why he was currently protecting the man, given what Stain and Ingenium had managed to find out about the modern MLA so far. She couldn't even protest the chimera doing so, really. After all, the woman sitting next to her had racked up far more dead heroes before Izumi, 2B and Momo saved her than Stain likely ever would.

But the encounter had brought her uncertainties to the surface, in a way she wasn't comfortable putting on Momo, who was undoubtably having her own troubles with both issues. Thankfully, she had Kaina to call on when things like this came up, even as she was sure that Momo would likely be bringing her own unease up with Grand Torino, who her girlfriend had admitted privately to her was far more 'old school' than All Might when it came to heroics. As in, he probably had a body count higher than Kaina's from his service during the Era of Chaos.

It was so easy to forget that All Might was an outlier for even his own generation in that regard, let alone the generation before his. The world really wasn't that far from the days of vigilante justice being the only kind most Villains had to worry about facing in the first place. Izumi's only hope, after what she'd learned about the state of things today, was that they weren't going to slide right back into those days again with no way to put on the brakes…