New Home
“-Serious fallout continues to pile on following the emergency UN meeting called by Japan several days ago. With the announcement that alien life does exist, and is hostile, markets have entered a sharp downturn nearly across the board. The only sectors that seem to have avoided a near collapse are that of the firearms industry and the commercial space lobby. Stock prices for the companies in these sectors across the globe have soared, with the acquisition of space grade materials by governments skyrocketing and the purchasing of firearms by civilians following suit. The short term effects of the announcement are out in the open for everyone to see, but the long term changes have yet to be seen or understood. In other news riots have broken out across the United States, mostly centered in its capital of DC. Following the revelation at the United Nations, a number of small government activists took to the streets in response to what they believed to have been years of government censorship over the existence of extraterrestrials. Leaders of these movements have called for the president to declassify all files regarding this field, though he and his administration have not provided any response. But they aren’t the only ones on the streets, as left wing counter protests have sprung up in response and led to a number of clashes between the two groups. In the state of California a state of emergency has been declared, the governor calling in the National Guard in an attempt to quell the violence. Lastly, naval activity in the South China Sea from the Chinese has increased dramatically since the UN meeting, provoking worried responses from Vietnam, Taiwan and India. With the possibility of territorial conflicts flaring up again in the region, no one is quite sure what-“
Aurdel shut off the TV. With the ship that he rode in on sitting at the bottom of the ocean, it meant that at least for a while he wouldn’t have the opportunity to try and get home. Not that he would do that right away either, he had other things on his mind to juggle. As such he would need to quickly get adjusted to the setting of his new work environment and the nuances of his job. But he could not help himself when it came to watching the fallout of his UN appearance. He frequently checked social media to see the responses, and there were large rumblings across the world. The Russian federation had re-launched its cosmonaut program from the Soviet era, though this time with a near exclusive military purpose in mind. European countries had done something similar, collaborating to pool resources together and fund the European Space Corps. The regional alliance had some issues as a result of national differences, but they would work together. Meanwhile in the United States many politicians were now lobbying for increased funding for NASA and the US Space Force, though many preferred to lobby for them through the subsidization of a number of private companies. Additionally minor conflicts had broken out in South America as corporate interests tried to seize as many aluminum holdings as they could, fighting against the ever present local gangs and cartels. It was a chaotic situation for sure, but it was controlled chaos. Things would fall back in place.
Having arrived at UA several days earlier, Aurdel had taken the time to turn his room into proper accommodations and performed a number of personal fixes he saw as necessary. The room he was provided with sat on the ground floor, being rather out of the way due to not originally being part of the floor plan. What was once a simple dorm room had been transformed into an invariable safe room. He’d torn out the previous walls and insulation, replacing it with reinforced steel plates, concrete and soundproofing material. The previous wooden door was torn off its hinges, instead being replaced with a much more sturdy and less likely to break steel door. A number of deadbolts and other locks were carefully attached to it, meaning that no one would be able to enter the room without him knowing. Additionally there was also one window in his room, facing outside towards a number of bushes. He was able to reinforce the window with polarized bulletproof glass, also setting up bars on both the inside and outside to keep anyone from getting in even if they had broken the window. To make it less noticeable he dug up the bushes and positioned them in a way to obscure the window as much as possible. As for furniture, he tried to keep it simple. The bed, the table, the desk, all of them were strengthened so that they could be easily flipped over and used as protection against small arms fire. Even the chairs were stronger, though that was mostly so he could sit on them in his armor. He reinforced the ceiling, setting up extra support beams and poles with overlapping areas of support to make sure that it was near impossible to collapse. Then, after everything else was done, he took the liberty of ripping up the floorboards and replacing them with something a little more solid. Additionally, he’d dug a small network of tunnels under the dorm building for easy access and escape. They weren’t big in size, but they were easily large enough to fit himself or one of the students through. Throughout the tunnels were a number of firearms that he’d acquired, setting them up in positions where he could grab them if the situation deemed it necessary. Surely the school would have his head if they knew about it, but he had his reasons. But with all that said and done he made his way to the main building, having since memorized its halls.
One of the requests he made was to have a personal workshop so he could work on and maintain his weapons and gear, but that was quickly denied due to how expensive all the equipment he needed was. So instead of getting his own workshop, he’d have to share with UA’s support classes. But given that classes hadn’t begun yet, and that the dorms were still closed to the students, he figured that he would have some quiet time to work on his things. He figured wrong. Just outside of the workshop he watched as the door was blown off its hinges, smoke pouring out from the aftermath of some explosion. “Hatsume! You just got here and already you’ve nearly destroyed the shop!” A man shouted. He was one of the school’s teachers, Powerloader. He was the head of the support course and seemed to be having trouble with someone.
“Sorry Mr. Powerloader!” A cheery female voice said from inside, “But you can’t make progress without breaking a few eggs! And no matter how many tries it takes, I will get my babies working perfectly!”
“You can say that once you’ve cleaned up the shop and the mess you’ve made!” Aurdel stepped in once the smoke had cleared, it was a complete mess. Oil, bits of metals, wiring, rubber insulation, nuts and bolts and various other trinkets were all scattered across the room, some of them even embedded into the wall.
“What’s going on?” He asked.
“Ah, sorry about that,” Powerloader waved him away, “Just scolding one of my students for causing a mess.”
“A student? Classes won’t start again for another two days.”
“That may be so, but this one really doesn’t really care so much about that as she does having the opportunity to work on things with the school's tools.”
“Like I said Mr.Powerloader, my babies will be perfect!”
“Babies?” Behind his helmet Aurdel raised an eyebrow, “Why do you call the things that you work on your ‘babies’?”
“Because in my mind, they’re like my own cute little babies!” She exclaimed, turning towards him and pulling off a set of goggles. “If I make all of my inventions personal, I can put in Plus Ultra effort to make them work the best they can! Just recently I was working on this powered suit, but there are a few things that I still need to get the kinks out of.” A… Powered suit? He looked to the other side of the workshop where all the things the students had made were stored. To his amazement one pile stood taller than the rest, that of Mei Hatsume. “Wanna take a look at it? With that armor of yours, I think you’ll be really interested!” Without even waiting for the answer to get out of his mouth she tried to pull him over. Certainly she was energetic and eccentric. “This is it, my powered suit!”
“You built this?” He stared at the machine in front of him in disbelief.
“Sure did! All by myself, though I had to borrow materials from a few other people.” He ran his hands across the top of it.
“You’re using steel for the frame and plating, that’s going to be incredibly heavy for whoever is supposed to wear this.”
“I was considering using an aluminum frame, but I didn’t think it would be strong enough for what I wanted to do. I made sure to make up for it with the actuators though!” She flipped open a lid on the back of the suit. “Pneumatics, hydraulics, electric servomotors. The sensors on the inside track your movement, and the suit moves almost instantly in response.”
“Motion tracking is a lot less accurate and not nearly as fast as reading the body's signals.”
“Sure is, but I couldn’t get my hands on any biometric scanning equipment so I had to improvise. Granted there have been some cases of it overcompensating for certain motions, but it’s not too big of a problem.”
“Show me,” Hatsume grabbed a remote and pressed a button, and the suit began to articulate. First the fingers and arms moved, then the legs. Even from this limited viewing he could see the problem with it, but when the midsection twisted it became a lot more obvious. “You set the lower limit for the servos on the arms and legs far too low, and for the torso it looks like you forgot to set an upper limit to how far the servos could go. If someone steps into that thing and tries to turn around, they’ll end up looking like a pretzel.”
“Just a tiny mistake, I was actually working on fixing that before you came in. Well, I was going to once I finished making my omnitool kit and had it ready to attach.”
“Is that what blew the door off the hinges of the workshop?”
“Sure was. Drill, adjustable wrench, pocket knife, welder, saw, etectra. You name it, it had it.”
“I’m surprised you’re even alive if all of that was shrapnel in an explosion. How did you even plan to fit so much in one toolset?”
“Few connectors here, few connectors there. No big issue.”
“You can’t just standardize everything into one piece of equipment. That’s how you get over engineered pieces of garbage that are hard to use and maintain,” he explained, “Split up the equipment, have specialists, it’s all a simple way to increase the efficiency of your work and get more consistent results.”
“I would have liked to make more, but that would take a lot more time and resources that I don’t have to work with.”
That’s a fair point…” he stared and the suit of armor in front of him, thinking. “Well, if you need to save on material then you could make something similar to my suit.”
“Yours? What about it?”
“Well for starters, it’s not one solid set of armor. Rather, it’s a number of interlocking plates and servos set around a form fitting undersuit with designated hard points for easier swapping out of parts. You could reduce material usage dramatically while also increasing the general flexibility of the suit, not to mention you could focus the servos more on the force amplification of the user rather than just trying to move around.”
“It’s a smart idea, but not one I can do with the material I have on hand. Steel is incredibly heavy, and even if I removed most of the plating to try and lessen the weight it would still be far too much for almost anyone to wear and move in. That’s why I made the full suit, so that it would rely more on its supporting frame rather than the person inside of it.” He’d… Forgotten to consider that. Even with all his expertise, he still fell into the trap of forgetting that he was an augmented individual who was conditioned to be able to wear MJOLNIR. He still shuddered a little thinking back to the video he was shown of unaugmented Marines attempting to wear the suit and move in it.
“A lightweight titanium alloy would work best, nearly twice the strength while only half the weight. But I don’t suppose that you can get your hands on that.”
“You’d be right. The school doesn’t want me using expensive material like that, so I use what they give me and try to build my babies around the limitations that I have.” Hmm…
“Well in that case, I’d suggest that you focus on making it a brawling suit above all else.”
“I could do that, I just need to work on a way to amplify the force more than it already is.”
“That’s not to say you should strip out all additional equipment. Other weapons or utility tools would be incredibly useful. A taser would be good, alongside a pressure cannon to launch non-lethal projectiles.”
“You know, you sure know a lot more than I expected,” she said, looking up at him.
“Just how I am.”
“And you’re the new teacher right? The one who went on TV told everyone that aliens exist?” He nodded, “Well if you need anything, come here and I can probably fix something up for you.”
“I can make things on my own, but if I need your help then I’ll make sure to ask,” he looked around, “By the way, is that yours?” He pointed towards another machine in the room.
“Ah, my baby!” Hatsume rushed over with a fire extinguisher, putting out the flames sprouting from the machine. Certainly she had a long way to go, but her skills in engineering were promising. Frankly he was amazed that someone so young could make things like this. If she had the near infinite resources of an organization like ONI, he would be terrified to know what she could make.
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With two more days having passed, UA was officially open to students once more. Personally, Midoriya wasn’t sure what to expect. During the period that the school was closed they’d already received letters and visits from school staff about the introduction of the dorm system, as the school wanted to prevent any more attacks by Villains that came from being off campus. All Might had been the one to visit his home. It… Well, to put it simply, it had stirred up a scene. But that was in the past, right now he was walking to the campus to meet up with the rest of the class at the dorms. He wasn’t carrying very much with him, just his usual school supplies. The school had asked the families of students to send clothes, furniture and anything they needed ahead of time, that way they could avoid wasting too much time on carrying things in to furnish their rooms. “Hey, Deku!” A voice called from behind him.
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“U-Uraraka!” He quickly stammered out.
“Aren’t you excited?” She and Ida had caught up with him on their own way there. “We can finally get back to our training after being away for so long.”
“I am, though I made sure to keep studying and practicing while I was at home.”
“As expected of a UA student, Midoriya,” Ida said in his usual tone, “I myself made sure to keep up with training my quirk while I was at home. After all, disuse is one of the many ways that a quirk loses its strength.”
Uraraka seemed a little deflated after hearing how they’d been keeping up, “I actually took a little while to rest and help my family. But Deku, aren’t you worried?”
“About what?”
“Well you hurt your arm pretty bad, shouldn’t you have been taking more time to rest? You don’t want to make your injuries worse than they already were…” She said it with evident worry, then quickly got out a follow up sentence. “N-not that I want to tell you how to live your life! I'm just a little worried that you may be taking things too far!”
“Don’t worry about it,” he gave a smile, “I know my limits, I just want to be able to push past them when I need to.” Uraraka smiled back.
“Ah, that reminds me,” Ida said before shaking both of them. “Do you know how worried I was about you two and everyone else?! The moment that I heard you’d disappeared, I felt that I had failed my duty as class representative!”
“C-calm down Ida, it’s not your fault! Mr.Aizawa told you to stay at the camp so were out of the Villains line of fire, it was my decision to go look for Kacchan.”
“That’s exactly my point! If I was there, I could have at least gone with you to make sure that you didn’t hurt yourself fighting any of the Villains. Just look at what happened to your arm!”
“My arm is all healed up now!”
“Ida you’re being too overbearing,” Uraraka chided. The three of them were able to laugh it off, and kept on their way to the dorms.
Supposedly the next week or two after coming back to school would be extremely tough, as they were going to do remedial sessions in place of the time they were supposed to have at the training camp. After all, they were supposed to be going for the licensing exam and they needed every bit of skill that they could muster going into it. It was especially important because of how UA handled its publicity. With the sports festival, every students’ quirk, limits and weaknesses broadcasted to anyone bothered to tune in. That meant that when they go into a fight, their opponent will know exactly what they’re capable of and will have already planned accordingly. Of course that wasn’t exactly a completely bad thing. Pro-Heroes who go public almost always had their powers revealed at some point, mostly because you couldn’t do anything without someone noticing. And just like those pro-Heroes they would have to work to overcome the disadvantage laid at their feet.
“We… were late?!” Ida said, ashamed of himself. When they arrived at the entrance to the dorm building they found that almost everyone was there, aside from a few stragglers. “Truly I have failed my duties…”
“We’re five minutes early Ida, we’re not late. If anything I’m surprised that a lot of the others came in before us.”
“But why would they not Midoriya?! They are students of UA, just as we are!”
“Could you please keep it quiet? I’m trying to get in a few extra minutes before we begin…” Mr.Aizawa said, lying down on the ground inside of his yellow sleeping bag.
“Of course Mr.Aizawa sir!” Ida immediately responded with, quieting down. Ten more minutes had passed and the rest of the class had arrived, they were able to begin.
Mr. Aizawa stood up, “I’m sure all of you know why we decided to switch to the dorm system, it’s safer. Even though the League of Villains is pretty much done for there’s no saying what its members might still do if given the opportunity. But there’s no reason for you to worry about the safety of your families either, as the police have made doubly sure to watch them and ensure that no Villains attack them. With that being said, I wanted to clear something up about the training camp,” Mr.Aizawa let out a sigh. “That attack never should have happened, and the school takes full responsibility for allowing it to get as far as it did. But I will warn some of you for the future, specifically those who ran off to look for your classmates. It was a Heroic thing to do in the moment, and the school is proud of you for that, but it was also incredibly reckless given that you are all still Heroes in training. None of you will be punished, but you know who you are. Simply keep that in mind for the future. Got it?”
“You got it!” They all said.
“Good, then let’s go inside. Rooms have already been assigned to each of you, and a map of all the assignments is in the common room. Are there any questions?”
“Actually I have one,” Kaminari said, sticking his hand out. “Which class is that new guy teaching? The one that was on TV and made that insane announcement?”
“Yeah!” Ashido shouted, “If he’s going to be working at our school I want to know where he is, you don’t get the chance to see someone like that everyday!”
“If you can find him then you can talk with him. Otherwise, you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow.” ...Find him?
With that cryptic message they were left to explore and set up their dorm rooms. Midoriya made sure to set up his room first, not wanting to be left rushing right before bed to try and get things in order. The room was bigger than he’d expected, being larger than his own room at home. The main space was large, with a desk, bed and mini fridge set up in relatively close proximity. There was also a small closet and bathroom tacked on, meaning that in terms of utility his room would be fine. There was even a balcony outside the window he could open up to let in some fresh air, though the room was well ventilated so he didn’t have to worry about overheating. Besides that the things in his room were the kind of things you would expect from anyone his age. On his desk he had his computer, and next to a shelf for all of his school supplies. Near the closet was an extra dresser to keep anything else that didn’t fit inside, and next to his bed was a nightstand to keep his phone on to charge. However… There was also his large amount of All Might memorabilia. It was almost embarrassing how much he’d brought over, especially since at home it looked like much less than it really was. There were commemorative posters, lunchboxes, photos, statues, figurines, pez dispensers... Really, anything that was related to All Might he could get his hands on. Some might call it an obsession, but he knew that there were people out there who did far more and much worse things than he did just because they put All Might on a pedestal. Ultimately he had some trouble in deciding how to organize everything. Part of him wanted to organize it by the era the things represented, that way it would be like a timeline. But another part of him wanted to sort it in order of production, that way he could see how the general quality of the merchandise had changed over time. Most people wouldn’t give something like this that much thought, but to him it was important.
As for his classmates, some of them used that time to try and ‘find’ the new teacher on campus. They searched around their dorm building, the dorms of the other classes, around the dining hall, the gyms, various training areas and even the classrooms. But despite all their efforts there was absolutely no sign of him. “I can’t believe we didn’t find him!” Ashido said, flopping onto the sofa, “I had a bunch of questions that I wanted to ask him.”
“Yeah, it sucks…” Kaminari followed up, folding his arms. “He looked like he might be a real tech wiz, so I wanted to know if he could help me in controlling my quirk.”
“We just got back and you’re already asking for help?” Jiro raised an eyebrow. “Just what were you doing in the time that we were gone?”
“Hey don’t start like that, I was just taking a small break! Besides, I was having trouble before we were sent home. Like sure, I can let out electricity normally. But if I want my attacks to me more fine tuned then I'm going to need some gear. That's why I went to the support department. But I figured that since he'd be around, he might be able to help.”
“You sure about that?” Kirishima was sitting on the sofa next to Ashido, “From what I heard, he didn’t even know what quirks were until he was told. Do you really think he’ll know how to help you?”
“Of course I do, he’s supposed to be really smart...”
“You’re correct in assuming I can help you. In fact, I already have plans drawn up to help each one of you.”
“Where did that voice come from?!” Ashido jumped from the sofa, startled.
“Underneath,” the voice said. Kirishima quickly got off the sofa, then pushed it to the side. Moments later a set of panels on the floor popped out, being set aside. “You’ll have to work on your search skills, with the way things were going I didn’t expect you to ever find me.”
“How were we supposed to know that you would be hiding under the couch?!” Kaminari wailed as the man climbed out of the hole, still decked in the armor that Midoriya had seen him wear before.
“The best place to hide is the most obvious in plain sight, something that has just been proven true considering you never bothered to look under the couch.”
“Because we know that you're a big guy and this is a small couch! How did you even manage to hide under the floor?!”
“Emergency tunnels, I set up them underneath each of the rooms on the bottom floor. I would have set them up on the other floors too, but that would have compromised the building’s structural integrity. However, I will say now that they will not be used to creep on your classmates or to steal their belongings. Am I absolutely clear?” Everyone knew why he gave his warning, and almost all of them readily agreed.
“Um, Mister Aurdel- Sir,” Midoriya stammered out, “What exactly are we supposed to call you?”
“For simplicity’s sake just call me Mr. Aurdel. I don’t plan to give out my last name unless it’s absolutely necessary later on.”
“That’s not your last name?”
“No, it’s my first name. I prefer it a lot more than a number,” he said tapping the number nine that was on his armor’s chestplate.
“So then, Mr. Aurdel, which class are you going to be teaching?” Sero asked.
“Your class.”
Huh?! “You are?”
“Is something wrong with that?”
“I just figured that you seemed like someone who would actually teach one of the senior classes. There’s a big difference between them and us after all.”
“And because it’s easier to learn when you’re younger, I’m going to help you close that gap before it becomes any larger.”
“What are you going to be teaching us then?” Midoriya asked, slightly hesitant to hear his answer.
“Since you’re going to be Heroes, I’m to ensure that you have a variety of skills that I think will be necessary in your line of work. Chief among them will be how you approach close quarters combat, through non-lethal methods. Otherwise I’ll occasionally be filling in for other teachers in various classes whenever necessary.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “Unfortunately if you want to get extra help you’re going to have to come to me during your lunch blocks, my schedule is effectively packed.”
“With what?”
“In the morning I’ll be either working on things in my room or in the school’s workshop. If it’s the latter, I’ll be too busy to do anything other than answer a few questions. After that you’ll be in the middle of your classes and I’ll be setting up anything that I need to teach. Then after that is lunch, followed by our class together. Once I’m done with that I technically have the rest of the day off, but since I still have to do my duties as a Hero I’ll be in the city patrolling for Villains. In most cases, I’ll probably be back by early in the morning.”
“When are you supposed to get any sleep?!”
“I won't say that I plan to get no sleep, but my body needs very little rest to function. Granted, I don’t expect you all to have the same sleep habits that I do. The last thing you need is to be working past midnight on something and waking up the next morning exhausted. Lights out is going to be eleven PM at the latest, any longer and I’ll force you to go to bed. In any case, both I and Aizawa have permission to punish you if you regularly fail to meet that time.”
“How are you supposed to enforce it if you’re out patrolling?”
“Believe me I have my ways.”
“Don’t say such scary things…”
“Anyways, earlier some of you said you had questions. Now would be the time to ask them.”
“Me! Me!” Ashido shouted, quickly raising her hands up into the air, “Your armor, how strong is it? And how strong are you?”
“That’s hard to judge, but the closest comparison I can make is to that of a main battle tank. The amount of explosions I’ve had go off in my face and I kept walking is almost frightening. As for how strong I am, that varies. Outside of my armor and under normal circumstances I can easily lift a ton, but in my armor I can easily do more than double. As for how much once the adrenaline starts pumping, I can’t say for sure. The hope is that I don’t have to get to that point.”
“How’d you get your suit?”
“From a secret government program.”
“How secret?”
“So secret that if I told you and they were here, then they’d put the entirety of the school six feet under with a mountain of explosives.”
“Scary!”
“What’s the biggest battle you were in? How many bad guys did you beat up?” Kaminari asked. Mr. Aurdel seemed quiet for a second, before responding.
“That’d be the most recent battle that I left, Reach. As for how many enemies I defeated… Thousands, possibly into the tens of thousands. I was never one to keep count, I always focused on the task ahead of me.” His tone when speaking about that topic was a little less stoic, with a hint of somberness underneath.
“What about how you became a soldier?” Another second of silence, just as unnerving as the last.
“Let’s just say that at the time, it was one of the few opportunities available to be. But with no other real choices, I took it and made what I could of it.”
“Do you have any gadgets?”
“Not necessarily ‘gadgets’, but a lot of tech.” He motioned to his armor, “Most of the things I use are integrated into my armor. I can remotely access things like networks or tools, communicate with people, trigger a mechanism that I’ve set up, fly with a thrusterpack, etcetera. The suit isn’t cheap though, far from it.”
“What do you think the most important part of being a Hero is, Mr. Aurdel?” Ida asked, much more formally.
“Of being a Hero? Self-sacrifice. To me, being a Hero means that you’re willing to put yourself through tough situations and risks to protect those around you. And it doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from or what odds you face. Ultimately, a mindset of constant perseverance will overcome opposition.”
“Do you have a Hero name?” Midoriya asked.
“A Hero name…” A pause. “Despite everything, I never really considered the thought. It was never on my list of priorities. But if I was going to pick anything it would just be one word. Spartan.”