Chapter 129: Start Up

Seeing as Izuku's office was out of commission, Izuku now had to hold his meetings at a D.O.C. building.

Izuku sat in one of their offices. It was rather basic, nothing more than a bland beige room, with a table and two chairs.

The door to the room opened, and Namae came in, wearing her elementary schooler's backpack, and carrying a glass jar, with three crystals inside.

These crystals were about the length of someone's hand, and half as wide. And they were all glowing with this rainbow-colored energy.

"Yo! What up?" Namae greeted, quickly taking a seat and placing her backpack on the floor, and placing the jar on the table. "How's camp life been treating you?"

"Well, things have been going well so far." Izuku sighed. "Although with how busy I've been, I've barely set foot on the campsite."

"Yeah, whenever something big happens, a bunch of works follows." Namae groaned, leaning back in her chair. "Speaking of work, let's just get this over with. Here's the papers on your new bundle of joy."

Namae pulled out a bunch of papers and handed them to Izuku, who immediately started reading them.

They also came with a picture of this child, Gin was his name, and he had a peculiar appearance. That being, he looked like a child mannequin that was covered in silver chrome. They had no notable features, nor hair, even their eyes were just blank silver.

"Basically, this kid's quirk allows him to shoot off some kind of energy beams from their body," Namae explained lazily. "The beams are made of some sort of radiation, but normally given that it's under his control, they wouldn't be listed as an O.P.C., but a birth defect they have means that they constantly leak this radiation out."

"I thought quirks involving leaking radiation were all labeled as level two O.P.C.'s?" Izuku asked, still looking through the papers.

"Yeah, but this radiation is not your typical kind of radiation, in fact, it's not like any radiation we've seen before," Namae said. "We're not a hundred percent sure what it is, and we don't really care all too much. One of our interns apparently got super interested and wrote some papers on it, but no one really cares, you can read her notes if you want they're the last paper."

Izuku took note, and separated the last paper from the rest of them, wanting to give that one more attention later.

"But, like I said, they constantly leak out some radiation, fortunately, this radiation, isn't as deadly as you know, most other kinds. For one, you have to be around him for a while for it to start showing effects, and when it does show effects well…they can be pretty weird. It seems to do random things to people, sometimes they can be good things, sometimes…not so much." Namae explained. "But, thankfully, we've developed these."

Namae tapped the jar holding the crystals. "These babies are called Fractals. They store up this radiation, I think it's called chaos energy or something, attracting it like a magnet. Keeping it from affecting other people. Well so long as the crystal isn't full. All of these are full crystals, empty crystals look like this, but not rainbowy. This makes him pretty much harmless to be around, however, these fractals are full of energy, and they can do some interesting things."

She then opened the jar. "Come on, touch one."

Izuku set down the papers and looked at the jar cautiously. "What does it do?"

"Well telling you wouldn't be any fun now would it?" Namae asked rhetorically. "Come on you can trust me. If anything bad happened to you, I'd be utterly fucked. Just touch one."

Izuku was hesitant, but also, curious.

So he reached into the jar and grabbed one of the crystals.

Instantly, two things happened. First, Izuku felt a flow of energy fill his body, like coffee times 50.

And then lasers blasted out of his eyes.

PEW!

"Woah!" Izuku instantly dropped the Fractal, causing the flow of energy to stop.

The laser had burned through the wall and burnt the wall after it.

"See, pretty neat huh?" Namae said with a smirk.

"Did that just give me a quirk!?" Izuku asked, freaking out just a little bit.

"In a sense. I told you these Fractals do all sorts of weird things when a person comes into contact with them. Some of which can be pretty useful if you're being attacked." Namae told him. "But be careful if your gonna use them. Something about putting them in these crystals makes the energy a bit…unstable. So having that constantly flowing through your body, can put a lot of strain on it. I'd say the safe amount of time to use one is…10 minutes."

Interesting. I wonder what reaction these would have to the Grimm. Izuku thought, before looking down at the last page. Maybe this will tell me more.

As Izuku quickly started reading over the page, Namae got up and started getting ready to leave. "Welp, that should be all, anyway, I'ma head out see ya-"

"Hold on a minute," Izuku called out.

Namae groaned and sat back down. "What?"

Izuku continued to read through the paper for a minute, before responding. "You said that an intern wrote this? One who had an interest in the energy?"

"Yeah, apparently she kept causing a big ruckus, she kept trying to get people to research this a bit more, but everyone just kept telling her to stick to her job." Namae shrugged.

Izuku shook his head. "Of course, they would. Although, I have to say I'm glad. I would like to speak to this intern. As quickly as possible."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mairu Jikan was very nervous as she approached the D.O.C. office building, with two men in suits on both sides of her.

She was a short girl, despite being 17 years old, one could mistake her for a middle school student. Her most notable features, being of course her orange hair, fox ears, and two tails.

And seeing as she was pretty much dragged here from her house after a long all-nighter, she was still wearing her lab coat and some orange pajamas, which was very, very humiliating.

What do they want!? Did I overstep too much back at the lab? Did they find out about the fractals I stole? Mairu thought nervously, as she entered the building, sweating heavily all the while.

She was guided through the plain and rather desolate building, down a few halls, and up to one of the doors.

"Um, so I just go inside here?" Mairu asked one of the suited men, who nodded in response. "O-Ok."

Hesitantly, she turned the doorknob and opened it up.

And was shocked to see Izuku Midoriya, sitting at a desk waiting for her.

"Hello!" Izuku greeted her with a smile. "Please, your , right? "

"Uh-um-yes!" Mairu nodded, a bit confused and a little less scared, she entered the room and closed the door behind her.

"Then please come in, sit down," Izuku instructed her politely. "And don't worry, you're not here for anything bad. I assure you."

"O-Oh. Ok." Mairu walked up to the desk, and sat down, getting a bit less nervous. "You're Izuku Midoriya right?"

"That's right," Izuku confirmed. "It's still weird to have people recognize me."

"Well, I'm a big fan of your work! Really taking on that big of a responsibility, and you're even younger than me!" Mairu said with a bright smile on her face, before frowning again. "Oh and I'm so sorry about what happened to you with that whole villain attack thing. I'd like to say that I can't believe people would do that just because you're quirkless but…"

Mairu looked back at her tails. "I really can."

Izuku frowned. "You've been discriminated against because of your quirk?"

"Not because of my quirk, it's because I have a birth defect," Mairu admitted with a sigh, bringing her tails up to her legs and petting them. "It's really not a big deal. I was supposed to be born with one tail but I got two instead. If I was supposed to have two tails, no one would have batted an eye, but once people found out it was a birth defect, suddenly it's important. I don't get people sometimes."

"Neither do I." Izuku agreed. "But now let's move on to why I asked to see you. As you know, I take in O.P.C.'s from D.O.C., and Gin is slated to be the newest child to be put under my care."

"O-Oh." Immediately Mairu's mood dipped, although she tried not to show it with a fake smile, but given that her ears drooped. "I see."

"I understand it that you were quite interested in the energy his quirk gives off," Izuku said, pulling out the paper he read earlier. "It says here that you believe this energy, chaos energy I believe you called it, could lead to a better understanding of quirks, and even where they came from. And also that it could bring us into a new age of technology. Now those are some pretty heavy statements."

"But it's true!" Mairu quickly defended her claim, rocketing forward and getting a bit closer to Izuku than he'd like. "Think about it! You've seen those fractals right! Energy that assigns and random effects to a person of crystal! Those crystals give effects that are just like quirks! And I can prove it! I've done studies on my own body, and even my girlfriend, and I found an energy signature, similar to chaos energy in my quirk! It's not the exact same, but I theorize that's because the energy the child puts out, is pure! If I just had the resources and time, I could search deeper, maybe I could even figure out where quirks came from!"

"That would be amazing," Izuku admitted, nodding along with what she was saying. "But, what about that, bringing us into a new age of technology."

"Well think about it, look at All Might. He has the power to punch, and produce enough energy to destroy a mountain." Mairu continued enthusiastically. "And where exactly does he get that energy!? He eats and drinks as much as anyone else! It's all coming from his quirks! And it lasts his entire life! Safe, self-sustaining energy, with THAT much power output! Imagine what we could do with that!"

"Oh, I have. I've thought about it, quite a lot." Izuku assured her. "Which is why you're here. If you can prove your claims about energy and its uses, then I can give you an opportunity to study and experiment with this energy."

Mairu's eyes widened with excitement. "Seriously! Thank you! Thank you so much! I knew that someone had to see the potential here! Oh I can't wait to-"

"Hold on a minute," Izuku said, stopping her before she could get too carried away. "You still have to prove that this energy is useful as you say it is."

"Oh well…you see..hehe. I may have already done some experiments on it…at home." Mairu looked away, blushing with shame, and twiddling her thumbs nervously. "With some crystals I…borrowed."

"You stole some crystals from work, and used them to try and prove how useful they could be after no one listened to you." Izuku summarized.

"Y-You pretty much hit the nail on the head." Mairu laughed nervously. "But it worked! I did find a way to power something with Chaos Energy! I made a power source that seemingly never runs out! And is completely safe to use without any negative repercussions on the environment or people! I can show you! Just please give me a chance! And uh…forgive me for the whole stealing from work thing. I promise that was just a one-time thing, I would never normally consider it! But this just had so much potential, and no one was listening to me so I-"

"It's fine." Izuku cut her off. "While D.O.C. might have some issues with this, I personally don't care. As long as you can show me your results, my offer stands."

"Well, it's back at my house," Mairu explained. "We can go there right now if you want! Unless your busy or something."

"No, I made plenty of time in my schedule for this," Izuku explained. "Let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After a short drive in the limousine, they arrived at Mairu's house.

It was a modern, two-story house, that had a rather fancy look to it. It also had a garage and parking lot, but rather than a car being parked, there was a Jet.

"That's…interesting," Izuku noted as he got out of the car.

"You like it! It's called the Tornado!" Mairu explained as she stepped out of the limo as well. "I built it myself!"

"Interesting," Izuku said, noting that for later.

The two walked away from the car, Izuku following Mairu as the two made their way towards the garage.

"Hey, isn't this the house of Blue Blurr?" Izuku asked, recognizing the house from his hero-obsessed days.

"Oh, you recognized it!" Mairu said, slightly surprised. "Yeah, it's my big bro's house. He adopted me when I was little. He may not be number 1 in the rankings, but he's my personal top hero."

"I see." Izuku smiled. Sounds like a good guy. I'm glad that even a hero could find the time to save someone like this.

They swiftly reached the garage, and after Mairu pulled out a key and pressed a button, the door opened up.

And inside a room, covered in blueprints, notes, and strange machines. On the floor walls, Izuku even spotted some on the ceiling.

The only things in here besides those were three tanks containing Fractals, one containing a strange emerald about the size of someone's fist, and a rose on a windowsill.

"Sorry about the mess! The whole chaos energy thing got me REALLY excited so uh, yeah…" Mairu laughed nervously while blushing from embarrassment.

Izuku meanwhile, was immediately drawn towards the emerald, he walked towards the desk it was placed on, and took a closer look at it. "I recognize the Fractals but…what is this?"

"That! Oh, that is actually very important!" Mairu said, closing the door behind her, and running over to Izuku. "This is a Chaos Emerald! It's basically the prototype of the Fractals. It can store MUCH more chaos energy, and you can use it as much as you want, unlike the Fractals. It's way more useful and FAR more powerful…but it was far more expensive to make too. And it required very rare materials. So the guys in charge demanded that we make a cheaper version. These Fractals can only hold a fraction of their power, hence the name."

"Ok, how much power can this hold exactly?" Izuku asked.

"Ehhh. It's hard to calculate, but roughly it could destroy around…2 cities." Mairu said casually.

"EXCUSE ME!?" Izuku gasped, almost falling over from shock.

"Oh but don't worry, it's not actually gonna explode," Mairu reassured. "At least so long as you don't use it to power a bomb. But, perhaps you'd like to see its capabilities, I mean that is what you came here for."

"Yes, please, let's see it." Izuku agreed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After a short amount of preparations, Mairu seemed to be ready.

They were in her driveway, and Izuku was currently standing by the garage door, while Mairu was standing further down, with the Chaos Emerald in her hand, and a device by her feet.

The device looked like some kind of blue sci-fi laser canon, with a slot open at the base, seemingly for the emerald to be slotted in.

Mairu was currently looking at a tablet. "Ok, I was just checking to make sure we don't hit any planes with this."

"Are you sure this is legal?" Izuku asked her.

"Oh yeah, we were given permission to use the skies around here as much as was please, so long as we don't interfere with flight paths," Mairu explained, as she kneeled down, and opened the Chaos Emerald container. "Now, this should shoot out a beam of plasma into the sky."

As Mairu took out the emerald and placed it into the canon, before closing the hatch.

"Ok." Mairu took a step back. "Now I just need to press this button and-

SHOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!

Suddenly the cannon exploded, shooting an absolutely massive beam of light the width of a car into the sky, piercing the clouds with its power.

The beam continued to pierce the sky until Mairu freaked out and pressed the off button on her tablet.

The canon quickly ceased fire, and powered down, smoke pouring from it.

Once the canon stopped, there was a long stretch of silence, as the two of them stared at the canon with wide eyes.

Eventually, Mairu broke the silence with a bit of nervous laughter. "Well, it looks like the emerald's power exceeded my expectations. But…it worked."

"...And you're saying it can do that…forever?" Izuku asked, taken aback by the showing.

"Well the canon itself would likely give out, but the emerald could produce that amount of energy for a period of time, long past a normal human life span," Mairu explained. "I don't know if it's forever, but it could be."

"I see…in that case, I think that'll work." Izuku smiled, as he started to think of more possibilities.

"Wait! Does that mean you'll allow me to do more research on Chaos Energy!?" Mairu gasped, looking at Izuku hopefully."

"Yes," Izuku confirmed. "However, it'll come with some stipulations. You see, I have a plan, for all this. I plan to make a new branch of the Midoriya Foundation, one that's had a very different focus from the main branch. This branch will be focused on researching things in relation to the children's quirks. Such as the Chaos Energy coming from Gin, Yami's Grimm Goop, and other such things, as well as building defenses for the complex, and other things as well. I intend to make you, the head of that branch."

Mairu's eyes widened. "R-Really?"

"You'd be free to research the Chaos Energy as you please, so long as you use it to help secure the complex, and fulfill some request I may have for you." Izuku continued. "Of course, you'll be very well paid, you'll have the freedom to run your department as you see fit, under my supervision, and you'll be provided with funds for your research, development, and experiments."

"That's-that's more than I could have ever hoped for!" Mairu shouted, almost crying from joy, as she quickly started bowing to Izuku. "Thank you, sir! I-I'll definitely make sure to produce results! You won't regret this!"

"I'm sure I won't," Izuku said before he started walking up to the limo. "I'll send you the contract, if you have any issues with it, please call me. I'll be seeing you soon."

Izuku stepped into the back of the car, as Mairu kept spitting out thanks. "Head to the campsite, I want to see how everyone's doing before I go to the news station."

"Yes sir." Said the D.O.C. driver, as he started up the car.

Izuku sighed, as he took this time to close his eyes for a while.

While the attack had ended, the hardships had only just started.

Izuku would never get the sigh of his injured children lined up on the floor. Of Mu's hand nearly being burnt off, of Ken's burnt face and bloodied mouth, of Nara having a hole punched through her chest.

If it wasn't for Eri, things would have been so much worse.

He NEEDED to step it up. No more hesitation, no more considering if something was overkill. If the Meta Liberation Army wanted to declare war on him, he needed to make sure he was ready. He needed more money, more power, more everything. And this was just the first step.

Izuku wasn't happy about the path he'd have to walk, but if the end result of this path was his children being safe, then he had no choice but to walk it.