MHA: Slipstream

Chapter 17 – USJ



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<Japan / Oxton House / 8:00>

"I'm leaving dad!" Lena said as she hugged her father.

"Have a good one!" Winston hugged her back and gently stroked her hair.

After that Lena left the house and walked towards the bus stop at a slow pace.

Winston who was watching his daughter leave, couldn't help but look at her with a smile, she had grown up a lot in the last few years, more so in the last few days where she told him about the UA tryouts and her new friends.

'This feeling of pride in my chest feels good' Winston thought with a small laugh as he remembered how smug his daughter looked when talking about her friends.

After a moment of contemplating his daughter's growth, he went back inside the house to fix himself something to eat, it seems the usual breakfast wasn't enough to satiate him.

'Maybe Lena is starting to influence my appetite...'

Ring~ Ring~ Ring~ Ring~ Ring~

Suddenly his phone started ringing in a peculiar tone, just by the tone alone he already knew who it was but he was equally curious why this person would call him so early in the morning.

-DAVID SHIELD-

Taking the call with a smile on his face Winston spoke cheerfully. "Hey David, how have you been?"

"Hey Winston, I've been great thanks...although I'd like to talk to you about something" David's voice answered through the phone with a matter-of-fact tone. "I have things to do so I'll get right to the point, I need your help on two projects."

"On two projects? You know I only help out occasionally on US projects and I'm basically retired don't you?" Winston asked confused by the sudden request. "I mean, I have no problem helping you since I basically owe you Lena's life but..."

"You see, a famous medical researcher provided me with a lot of data about her recent research was... interesting to say the least" David explained, Winston could picture him scratching his head and with a nervous smile on his face. "After giving it some thought I think it could be a project that revolutionizes the medical world forever... but your research is based on a fact that was made public a few years ago... you know that don't you?"

"Entropy, right?" Winston sighed as he rubbed his tip with a sour face, he wasn't liking where this was going.

David grimaced on the other end of the line at Winston's tone. "The reason I'm calling you, is because we need Entropy Energy for the project... and Lena is the only person in the world who can produce it."

"I'm not going to involve Lena in a project I know basically nothing about and take her as a test subject, David" Winston said through gritted teeth. "Besides she already started at UA on the Heroes Course, I'm not going to take that away from her."

"Calm down. I already know Lena is at UA, Melissa informed me a while back that she was preparing for the Entrance Exam, she said she was going to give Lena a gift but I don't think she's finished it yet" David replied in a cheerful tone before coughing awkwardly. "Ahem, back on topic, I'm not asking for Lena to be present or to be a test subject, I just need a little Entropic Energy every now and then to move forward with the investigation."

Winston was silent as he pondered deeply. "I have a question."

"What is it?"

"How would you use Entropic Energy in this project?"

"Well, not to make the explanation so long we plan to make a special liquid that can contain Entropic Energy inside it, that's the easy part" David explained with precision his tone denoted professionalism honed through years as a scientist. "The hard part is that we need to make the Entropy inside the liquid move in the opposite direction. So that the damage caused is reverted to its previous state, for example: If I have a big bruise all over my arm using the liquid could revert the damage caused to my state before the damage. That's the idea, and from the notes you possess it should be theoretically possible."

'That... sounds ambitious, and very dangerous. As far as I know, Lena is the only one who can reverse her Entropy for a few brief seconds without suffering some secondary damage... how do they plan to reverse Entropy without Lena?' Winston thought curiously as he pondered deeply.

This project was very dangerous.

Mainly due to the fact that if it is indeed possible to do something like this, many medical companies would suffer unimaginable losses. In addition, it is possible that some country might look for the project and try to steal or sell it.

After some thought, Winston sighed audibly. "Okay, I'm in."

But on the other hand, getting on the bad side of David who was the leader of I-Island and the person who helped him save Lena's life would be even worse.

"But with some very serious conditions..." Completed Winston as he closed his eyes, he felt it was going to be a very tiring few days. "By the way, who is this researcher?"

"Her name is... Angela Ziegler."

 

***

<Japan / UA / 12:50>

"Quiet" Said Eraser as he entered the classroom, it wasn't long before everyone was in their seats paying attention to the teacher.

"Today we will be looking at one of the most important Hero Bases" Explained Eraser as he looked at all of his students without blinking. "It has been decided that for this class three teachers will be present, which will be All Might, myself and a special person, whose name I will not say to generate mystery."

"Professor! What are we going to do?" Asked Sero as he raised his hand.

"Rescue Exercises" Eraser said simply as he looked at him with his ever weary eyes.

"That seems a bit difficult..." Kaminari muttered as he thought about how he should rescue people.

"Don't lose heart man!" Kirishima exclaimed as he punched Kaminari's arm with a smile on his face.

"Don't get ahead of yourselves. First of all, you can use your suits, but I would recommend you to use UA's sports suits, as some of their suits are not made for rescue" Eraser said as he pressed a button under the podium, the wall opened to reveal the briefcases with the students' suits and their respective numbers. "The training site is quite far away, so we will go by bus. That's all, now get ready."

After that everyone took their costume, except Midoriya who had torn it during the combat trials, and they went to the bathrooms to change.

As Lena finished putting on her jacket she suddenly felt someone tap her shoulder gently, turning around she saw Uraraka looking at her curiously.

"Lena, why does your jacket have the Japanese and US flag on it?" Asked Uraraka as she tilted her head.

Lena blinked as she wondered if Uraraka hadn't connected the dots. "Well, I was born in USA, later my father and I moved to Japan because of my father's work."

"Woah! So how is USA, did you go to any of their important places?" Mina asked suddenly joining the conversation.

Lena shook her head as she scratched the back of her neck. "Nope, my dad moved when I was just a baby so I don't remember much."

Mina nodded her head with a thoughtful look. "I see...and what about your mother?"

"Well, I-"

"Lena!" Suddenly Kyoka's voice interrupted the conversation, the girl already dressed in her outfit was looking at her from the door with a bored look. "Come I need to talk to you about tomorrow!"

"I'm coming! Let's talk later what do you say?" And before Mina or Uraraka could say anything Lena had already left together with Kyoka towards the hallway.

The two remained silent as they walked towards where the bus was.

Suddenly Kyoka interrupted the silence with a question. "Are you okay? You looked a little uncomfortable back there."

"I guess" Lena sighed while making a face. "I... well, I don't have a mother so it's a little awkward when they talk about it."

Kyoka's pacing paused for a moment before resuming but looking down at the ground with a complicated grimace. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Eh? No wait, I don't mean I'm dead!" Lena quickly corrected herself as she crossed her arms in an 'X' shape "I mean I'm... well, adopted so I don't have a mother since my father never married anyone and I don't think he will either "

Kyoka simply looked at her with a blank stare before she started to giggle lightly.

"What's so funny?!"

Kyoka simply laughed harder as Lena looked at her with an accusing look.

Finally they all gathered at the bus. Momo gave the order for them to board in pairs and sit wherever they felt best, after a few minutes everyone was sitting quietly on the bus, once Eraser confirmed that everyone was ready he gave the order to the robot driver to head to the USJ.

Suddenly Tsu turned her head towards Midoriya with a curious look although her face gave nothing away.

"Midoriya, I have a question that keeps running through my head" Tsu asked staring at Midoriya.

"Ah?! Asui!" The most nervous boy in the class looked at Tsu with wide eyes in surprise, at least he could talk without burning his brain. "W-What did you want to ask me?"

"Call me Tsu, and I think your Quirk looks like All Might's" Tsu said with the same poker face staring at Midoriya.

"Ah?! N-No! I-I mean! Are you sure about that!" Exclaimed the always nervous Midoriya, it seemed like they had just revealed their biggest secret to the world as if they had just discovered their forbidden magazines or something. "I-I mean..."

"Ah wait! But All Might never gets hurt!" Kirishima said refuting Tsu's theory. "It's true that Midoriya's punches have a lot of power but they don't look like All Might's."

"Y-yeah...hehe" Midoriya laughed nervously as he stared at his legs while ignoring conversation and his pounding heart. 'C-Calm down! You can't let All Might down!'

"Besides the chances of Midoriya having the same Quirk as All Might are minuscule" Lena said as she leaned back in her seat lazily she was sitting next to Kyoka, the latter had lent her an earphone to listen to music while they waited to get to the test site. "It's not impossible though."

After a few conversations and an angry outburst from Bakugo, they finally arrived at a place that looked as big as a soccer stadium, no, rather, many bigger than a soccer stadium maybe at least 10 of them.

'How come UA has so much land?' Thought Lena with a puzzled look.

Entering the place they could see several different areas, mountains, burning building, a big lake, a big cave, among many others. Waiting for them was the special guest, who was none other than...

Thirteen! The Space Hero!

"Welcome aspiring Heroes to the USJ! Or better called Unforeseen Simulation Joint!" Exclaimed Thirteen in a friendly and polite manner, earning a few smiles from the people in the class.

Uraraka seemed especially excited about the Hero's appearance.

"As you know we are going to do a rescue training, you only need to know one...or two...or three...or four things" Said Thirteen increasing the number of things you need to know for this training causing some students to start sweating while others took it with humor. "Well a couple of things."

Aizawa suddenly approached Trace as he quickly looked around the surroundings. "Hey Thirteen... where's All Might?"

Thirteen held up 3 fingers as she muttered. "Apparently he was a little late and will be here later."

The students were chatting amongst themselves excited to meet another professional hero so they didn't notice this exchange except for four students, Todoroki Shoto and Midoriya Izuku, Bakugo Katsuki and Oxton Lena but although they heard what the teachers were talking about they didn't pay too much attention to it.

After that followed a talk about the responsibilities of the Heroes and the Quirk's care when rescuing someone. About how Quirks can easily be used to kill, steal, kidnap and about their proper use in society.

Lena simply just listened superficially to the explanation.

'It's pretty obvious that Quirks can easily kill someone... why are they so scared?' Lena thought with a frown before looking down at her own palm. 'What they don't tell you is that your own Quirk can harm you...'

As Lena was lost in thought with a sour face, in the middle of the USJ square a small dark purple mist appeared out of nowhere, suddenly the mist expanded in large quantities and from it many strangely dressed people began to appear, but all with clear murderous intentions as they looked at the children.

Eraser was the first to notice the abnormality and his eyebrows rose to the sky before turning to Thirteen with a serious look.

"EVERYBODY QUIET! THIRTEEN TAKE THE KIDS AWAY!" Shouted Eraser as he put on his glasses, apparently he had also noticed the portal.

The funny thing was that his aura went from relaxed and lazy, to serious and deadly in less than a second.

"Are you the entertainment staff?" Kirishima asked as he looked towards the people in the portal. "They look a little weird..."

"NO! THOSE ARE REAL VILLANS!" Eraser shouted, that warning alone made much of the class cringe in fear. "NOW GO AWAY!"

It was then that Lena's bad feeling began to expand....

She unconsciously tapped the Slipstream again....

This will not end well...

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