Chapter 46: I-Island (Expo Day 1)
Summary: Day 1 of the Expo, including an unexpected meeting...
Chapter 46: I-Island (Expo Day 1)
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The I-Expo was a grand event, lasting an entire week, but the first day was always the most chaotic. Unlike the rest of the heroic's students, Momo and Izumi were busy working, but this was also hardly their first Expo. While Melissa was their only R&D employee on the island, that didn't mean she was the only employee they had on staff at all. Aegis was, in fact, considered one of the more desirable places to work by the non-scientist population of the island. Izumi and Momo had always maintained a policy that you get what you pay for, and paid their employees extremely well as a result, by virtually any standard. Add in quite a few extra perks and the satisfaction of knowing you're working for a business making a real difference. Then top it all off with the local boss being an extremely hot blonde who seemed oblivious to the fact half the staff had crushes on her. The predicable result was that Aegis Inc had highly loyal and highly competent people staffing its I-Island lab and offices.
That fact meant that the vast majority of the visitors to their booth and its displays of new hardware were handled smoothly by said highly competent staff. Generally, since Aegis was privately held and didn't accept investors, only fellow engineers and scientists made it through the subtle screen around Izumi, Momo, and Melissa. That screen was extra effective since all the employees had perfectly reasonable excuses to be wearing state-of-the-art Hero Scouters…which just incidentally identified and sorted everyone that visited the booth. A bit Big Brother, perhaps. But, given that the entirety of I-Island possessed similar systems built right into their security, and it wasn't exactly a new violation of privacy to anyone who'd bothered to actually read the waivers they signed to come to the island.
All of which meant that the people that got through the screen to interact with them were the sorts of people that even Izumi was often outright excited to speak to. Such was the case with their current, entirely unexpected visitor-of-the-moment. One that had gotten through the screen not because she was an inventor or scientist, but because she was a Hero, and the staff was well aware how much of a Hero Nerd one of their bosses was.
"Ohmygoshyou'reStarandStripe!"
The muscular, 6'4" woman in strikingly similar colors to All Might blinked in surprise as Izumi seemed to simply appear in front of her. Clearly not quite used to someone managing to do that without her being able to track it happening, the woman was off put for a moment…but only for a moment. Then, in another eerily familiar act, the large woman threw her head back and laughed. For all that it was pretty blatantly an action modeled after All Might, it seemed quite genuine, with the Heroine ending with a grin.
"You have got to be the 'Young Midoriya' that my Master has told me about! Good to meet one of the few others All Might has trained personally, kid!"
She leveled her fist up to Izumi, who practically squeed at Star and Stripe's signature offer, putting a decent bit of her own strength into returning the Fist Bump. The Heroine only grinned harder at feeling the power in that tap, even as she turned her attention to Momo, who had disengaged from a talk with an aerospace inventor. The inventor, clearly an American himself, only grinned at the exchange and passed Melissa a contact card.
"And you've got to be the other one! Yaoyorozu, right? I hope I didn't mangle that too much, bit of a mouthful!"
Momo chuckled at that, more than used to foreigners having trouble with her name. Her family's conglomerate was thoroughly multi-national, after all. She offered her own hand for a Fist Bump, already knowing from her girlfriend's occasional ramblings that this woman wasn't one for formality.
"It can be a mouthful even for those fluent in Japanese, yes. Feel free to just call me Momo. All Might has certainly mentioned you often enough for me to feel like I know you a bit, though I wasn't aware he'd said anything to you about us."
The Heroine happily nodded as she returned the Fist Bump, seemingly extra satisfied that Momo had put a touch of One for All into it, making it just as hearty a tap as Izumi had given.
"You two are 100 percent free to call me Catheleen, then! And you bet All Might has mentioned you two! He was super excited back when he first found you both doing relief work, serious relief work, before you ever even became Heroes! Then you blew his expectations out of the water when he offered the two of you some one-on-one training. He's incredibly pleased he found two people who he thinks can 'take up his mantle' for Japan." Catheleen winked at them. "Though between the three of us, I hope you don't mind if I make a go at the Number 1 title for the world rankings once the old man finally retires!"
Izumi's head rapidly shook, even as Momo smiled and far more calmly made the same gesture. Izumi managed to get herself mostly back down to normal-human speaking speeds as she spoke up.
"Not at all! Honestly, neither of us really care about the titles, you know? We just want to help!"
Star and Stripe met her eyes, her smile dimming for a moment, before finding something in them that made it come back brighter than ever.
"I'll be damned, you actually mean that. All Might wasn't kidding. He really did find some great successors."
Star and St. No, Cathleen. Cathleen's voice was much quieter as she said that. The heroic persona put away as she smiled at both of them. The obvious approval in both her tone and look caused even Momo to flush. This was the top Heroine in the world. Period. As well as the Number Two Hero on the World Rankings. Those rankings were an entirely different animal to the dog and pony show that Japan had. They were based on pure hard stats, known achievements, and didn't factor popularity in at all. All Might had held the Number One ranking on the world charts nearly as long as he had held the same for Japan, though few people in Japan realized how close he'd been coming to slipping behind Star and Stripe in the last few years. He'd been progressively less active after his injury, whereas Star and Stripe was over a decade younger than him, uninjured, and hadn't shown any sign of slowing down at all.
"You kids have any plans for lunch? I wanted the chance to talk to you, and figured I-Expo was the best chance I'd get for a long time. It's not so easy to cross boarders once you get to a certain level in our profession, I'm afraid."
Izumi and Momo glanced at each other, with Momo quickly answering for them.
"No. We do have to be at a lecture we're giving on Quirk Energy theory in a bit over an hour and half. But we're free until then."
Catheleen grinned at both of them.
"Then come on! I've got a private room booked for us at a place that makes fantastic burgers. If you've been training with Master, I'll bet you've gotten a taste for them!"
Both of them laughed at that. Despite his injury, All Might had insisted on treating them to the 'best burgers' in Japan several times. He'd looked incredibly forlorn that he couldn't eat them himself anymore. So much so that they'd created a back-burner project trying to make a human-implant-safe version of the food processor that YoRHa Androids used. It was slow going, since it had never been intended to be used that way. But, in theory, they thought they could eventually make a stomach replacement that would hold up to his needs, even if he retained the use of One for All. Which they also had a project for, which was actually going better than the artificial-stomach project.
"Yes. Momo loved them immediately, and they grew on me!"
Izumi's reply got another huge grin from Star and Stripe as she ushered them out of the booth…
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The burgers at Astro's Turf really were fantastic. Better yet, Catheleen had won some serious points by immediately asking to meet 2B once they were in private, and introducing herself to the android-cum-quirk as if she were any other fellow hero. Too many people, even some of their own classmates, tended to forget that 2B was entirely her own person. Even more so than Dark Shadow was with Tokoyami. But Star and Stripe didn't seem to have any qualms about including her in the 'Sisterhood' of those that had trained with her master. She'd even ordered food for 2B, causing the android to smile. Only All Might and Nedzu really remembered to do that all the time.
Still, while the food was great and Star and Stripe had entertained them with several stories, both from when she was working with All Might and from her own career, none of them had missed that she had politely asked 2B to check the room's security. It had come up clean, free from any of I-Island's all-pervasive security features. But Cathleen had seemed to expect that, obviously having taken them to such a place on purpose. It also made them less surprised than they might have been when she ultimately broached what must have been her major reason for wanting to meet them.
"So. You two are fully read in about Master's injuries, huh?"
Carefully, they both nodded. So far as they knew, Star wasn't one of those who knew about One for All. But she'd clearly been told about All Might's condition, at least.
"Scary as hell that someone managed to do that to the old man. He told me about it…and showed me the scars, the first time we met in person after it happened. Wanted me to be aware that it was inevitable he was going to have to retire, which would put me on the top of the international lists. We've actually been working together since then to smooth that transition. For the last few years, I've answered most of the international requests for a high-level hero that All Might used to get. We covered it, officially, with the idea that he's starting to age and wanted to focus on Japan. But I'm sure at least most of the intelligence agencies have realized something is wrong."
They both winced, with Izumi being the one to speak for them.
"Yeah. There's no way they don't know something is up if that's the story you went with. He's been doing fewer and fewer hours of active hero work for the last three years, even in Japan. And even before that, if you compensate for him withdrawing from international work, it would be clear he was losing time…"
Cathleen nodded.
"Yeah. Can't say there aren't a few people getting pretty anxious about Japan, too. All Might being there has risen its importance and kept a lot of the worst elements quiet throughout the entirety of Oceania. It was a relief to me to when he told me about you two." Star pointed at Izumi. "And you, in particular, have already publicly shown you have the horsepower to cover at least some of the gap. Though what happened with the recent attack on the various schools…that's got a lot of people nervous as hell. It was like something straight out of the Era of Chaos, after the Quirk Wars ended."
It was Momo who spoke up this time, voice quiet but serious.
"We know. Worse, there's some serious concern that the Supervillian that injured All Might may still be around. Just…well, as wounded as All Might is. Hopefully."
Cathleen flinched at that.
"Damn. I'd hoped that wasn't it. But I admit I sort of suspected. The intel types said some of it matched his MO. Parts of it, at least. And those Nomu…"
They all sighed, but 2B interjected to break up the downward spiral.
"Even if he has survived, the fact he has not taken the field means he likely can't. The Nomu are a threat, but one that can be contained. We also have reason to believe both Izumi and Momo are immune to All for One's ability to steal Quirks. Even in the worst case, we are in a better position than All Might was when he had to take him on mostly alone and at the height of All for One's power."
Catheleen nodded seriously at that. Then surprised them by pulling out a Hero Scouter. A compact ear-mounted model also identical to the type All Might used.
"That's good. But it's also the other thing I wanted to mention. You know, I'm sure, that the United States wasn't okay with someone else deploying something like the HSN. We have a home-grown version of the same thing now, though it's still playing catchup to your tech. I, on the other hand, had All Might acquire me one that's linked to the central HSN in Japan. Technically, he had to make me a silent partner in the Might Agency to make it happen. And even then, I think he had to ask you?"
Izumi, Momo and 2B all glanced at each other. Momo was the one that eventually nodded.
"He did, though we actually didn't know why he wanted it. He assured us it was going to a hero he trusted absolutely. Someone we could call if the worst happened."
Cathleen smiled genuinely, with just a hint of humor in it.
"Sounds about right. He knows that I'd basically tell the UN to buzz off and cross borders if I really had to. I'd catch hell for it…but there's benefits to being at the top of the international rankings. To a certain extent, it allows you to ignore the rules. Not between countries that are politically unfriendly. But between somewhere like the United States and Japan? I'd get yelled at, quietly slapped on the wrist, and both governments would pretend I'd been called in by official request."
That…made a lot of sense. In a lot of ways, high ranking heroes were walking WMDs. No one wanted to make one go rogue. So, so long as the offense wasn't between actively hostile countries, the legal powers that be would likely grit their teeth and let it slide.
"Anyway, I know All Might well enough to suspect he didn't tell you exactly what he'd given you when he connected me to the HSN. Mostly trying to protect all of us. But, the way I see it, it's going to be us that protects him before too much longer. So I wanted you to know. I also wanted to tell you to feel free to just call me up on the HSN if you need advice, too. Just keep the time difference in mind if it's not an emergency, yeah?"
Both of them nodded, half-speechless at the offer. Thankfully, Star turned away from serious subjects to tell a few more stories a moment later. And, eventually, it was time for them to head off for the lecture they were giving…
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A/N: This is the once-and-update that I mention that this and my other works have a Page. Currently, chapters 47-56 (roughly 17,500 additional words) are already up in early access! Not to mention there are early access chapters of my other stories amounting to roughly another 20-40k words at any given time. If you're enjoying this story, please consider tossing a bit of support my way?