CHAPTER 076(The Workshop)
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CHAPTER START---
Standing outside the support course design building Horizon is watching a video on his phone, having the audio played directly into his visor.
Not bothering to put on his uniform since it's Sunday he has his body glove and visor on. The boots from his Hero Costume. A pair of blue pants and a white t-shirt with his logo on the front in blue. And a white and blue hoodie with his logo on the back.
His Hero Costume case was in his hand along with his sword as he focuses on his phone, watching the same videos that has been circulating all day about the Hero Killer Stain. Exploring his past, motivation, and ideology.
"So do you own anything that isn't blue and white?" Power Loader asks as he walks up to Horizon. "Or that doesn't have your logo on it..."
"No," Horizon says as he puts his phone away, holding his Hero Costume case in his right hand and his sword in the left.
Power Loader nods for Horizon to follow him as they enter the building. "I hope you aren't a fan of that Stain guy," he says, overheating the video earlier and knowing what it was.
"He's a moron."
"Worse, he's a madman. Anyway about your request, it's not the first time we got a request for something like this, but without a Quirk that powers it the allocated budget for students just doesn't cover it, not to mention the legality of it."
"I figured Nezu wouldn't mind."
"He doesn't, only because it's you. He's not very subtle about that, even increased the allocated budget to your support equipment to compensate."
"Well it makes sense, I'm Horizon, it'll be worth it."
"Humility goes a long way kid."
"Not my style, anyway are you sure whoever he assigned to this project can actually do it? I was kind of hoping you'd make my equipment, as you did before UA."
"No can do," Power Loader says. "Having the Hero and Support courses work together like this is essential for development. But with that being said, before anything is handed over to our students for use it has to get approved by me first."
"And Mei got approved?"
"More often than not, she's a real genius when it comes to mechanical engineering. And she's not afraid to fail, that's important in learning. It's only been five weeks and she's already made twenty items. Not to mention she learns so fast that she's lightyears ahead of the previous top genius at this time in their school life."
Horizon looks down at Power Loader and raises a brow, "wasn't the top genius you?"
"Until her, yeah it was. But you know what they say, the rookies will tell you when it's time to quit..."
Arriving in front of a massive door Power Loader slides it open for them to see Mei sitting on the floor putting together some machine parts.
Mei Hatsume was a short girl with pink dreadlocks, only 157cm tall -5ft2-, currently wearing her uniform skirt under some coveralls that were tied off at her hips. And a black tank top covering her large chest.
"Mei!" Power Loader has to raise his voice to snap her out of her own little world.
Seeing Horizon she immediately hops up to her feet and rushes over, "hey mister famous, welcome to my lab!" Mei gestures to the workshop behind her.
Filled with her projects and tinkering, parts and pieces on desks and shelves along the walls. There were even a few suits of armor hanging from the ceiling on chains, a full mad inventors workshop.
"Well, I'll leave before something explodes," Power Loader says before rushing off.
"Uh, do things explode a lot with you?" Horizon asks, looking directly down at Mie who was staring up at him with those yellow crosshair pupils in her eyes. Since she's only an inch taller than Jiro she just barely reaches the middle of his chest, making him seem that much more imposing.
"Things explode sometimes, that's life. Don't worry nothing I have planned for you will do that."
"I hope not, so, how do we start?"
"Follow me!" Mei turns around and stiffly marches off.
'So normal people are rare in UA...' Horizon thinks.
He follows her over to a separate desk at the back of her lab that has a large metal case atop it. Mei opens the case to reveal his requested Support Item.
A metal device appears similar to a skateboard. Roughly 1 meter long and 25cm-10in- wide, but it was three inches thick, appearing like a slab of metal. Colored white with blue accents, and Horizon's logo at the top of it.
"Pick it up," Mei says.
"A bit heavy," Horizon says as he lifts it up, placing his case and sword down on the desk beforehand.
"50lbs, but it expands when powered up...hopefully, and gets a bit flatter. This is the compact form for transporting it."
Turning it to see the underside there are two large circles, at a glance he couldn't understand what they are or how they worked. His focus is on biology not technology after all.
"Repulsor lifts," Mei says. "They push against gravity to keep you in the air, it's the same tech the military uses for those fancy jets in America, but the civilian version. Because of that plus the power system it needs this baby costs more than the entire budget allocation to three other students put together, and you've still got room for more stuff. It's rare for anyone to ever even max out their budget considering Principal Nezu funds it."
"Is it really that big?"
Mei chuckles, "let's just say before we had that invention contest to decide who'd get to work with you...things got a bit..punchy."
"Were you winning?"
"I don't wanna talk about it. Anyway, I'm making your stuff now, that's all that matters."
"Fair enough, so about the hoverboard, specs?"
"When we get the power conduit...you should be able to match or move faster than any commercial plane, should be fun. And it can support four hundred pounds of weight."
"That's good, doubt I'll have any passengers but it's good to be prepared."
"Yup," Mei gives him a beaming smile, excited to see this invention come to life. "So, whatcha gonna name this baby?"
"What?"
"Well, every student names their equipment, like the Yaoyoletard, or the Uragautlets, that kinda thing."
"That's stupid."
"What about your sword?"
"Scalpel, but swords aren't clothes."
"Neither is a hoverboard."
"It doesn't need a name, Momo should be here in a few minutes, anything else I need to know."
"Yeah, you'll need these to stay on it," she fishes around to find a pair of boots just like his current set, but they felt slightly heavier.
"Magnetic?"
"The soles are a special material that the repulsor will pull toward the top of the board, that way you don't fall off at 600mph -965kmph-, that'd get messy."
"The Gs would kill me before that," he says. "My body can't handle that kind of strain, I can heal but that's only for so long. I'm not going that fast."
"Really? I thought you had Super-Strength or something."
"What? No."
"Well I mean, you said your Quirk can virtually do anything so everyone kind of assumed you'd have that," Mei shrugs. "But then again you talked so big but now we know you can't even fly..."
Horizon sighs, "I swear you people all act like everyone else in the world can fly, not being able to fly is normal."
"Sorry."
"Whatever, just tell me how to operate this hoverboard."
"Sure, it's super intuitive, you just have to..."
---5 Minutes later...
"Ok, anything else?" Horizon asks as she finishes explaining the details of his hoverboard.
"A lot of stuff actually," Mei says excitedly, getting very close to Horizon, but unlike the usual students he doesn't back away, standing his ground as her chest presses against his abs and she stares up at him hungrily. "You're already super famous, so I wanna upgrade all your things so people will know my name too."
"So branding?"
"Something you clearly know about, but I'll also give real upgrades, I've already considered a few."
"So you're basically using me as a model and billboard...Ok, let's hear them," she steps away and he leans back against the desk.
"First I was thinking of a new visor!"
"You can't change the look," he immediately says. "I don't exactly have a face so I can't go changing the visor all the time."
"Won't change anything about the look, but I saw the build for the current model, I bet with some time and that big budget you got I can use compression tech on it."
"In what way?"
"Think of something about the size of your phone, then you put it at the back of your neck, and BOOM! It expands around your head into the visor."
"So I can always have it on me."
"Yup," Mei says. "That way if it breaks and you can't breathe you at least can have a spare or two. I can't imagine it feels good having to wear that visor as a life support item all the time, this way you don't have to be worried about it breaking."
"That sounds perfect for me," Horizon says. "Anything else?"
"Retractable sword?"
"No." He gestures to his sword, "retractable swords are the first thing I researched, but the trade-off in durability isn't worth the portable nature of it, I need reliable things."
"That makes sense, I assumed the durability wouldn't matter since your sword never actually touches anyone."
"It does when I want to do real damage."
"Mhm," Mei taps her chin a few times as she considers what else there is. "Well, I guess all that's left are the body glove and Hero Costume. They were designed to be comfortable in a variety of natural temperatures but not much else, is there anything you want to add or adjust with it?"
"Actually...I've been ignoring equipment for a while so since I'm here..."
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