Apotheosis

CHAPTER 40: NECROMANCY

"Please remain calm!"

Mei frowned at the robotic voice. Still too monotone and echoed. She'd been working on giving Nemesis a few verbal responses. Izuku wasn't too keen on the idea of their pet project being able to talk, but he soon warmed up to the idea with some persuasion.

"Hello. Hello! Hello? Hello."

She tried various different greetings with different tones and effects. The voice came from lines that she herself recorded with a microphone. She just deepened it and changed it around with the computer. The voice still sounded too monotone for her taste. It just needed more personality Mei tried her best, she just wasn't a very good vocal performer.

"I'll ask Izuku. He's a great actor." If anyone could give Nemesis a good sounding humanlike voice it would be him. Reaching for the phone she quickly dialed his office upstairs to see if he was available for a quick thing. Mei's smile dropped when he didn't pick. That was odd considering he always answered when he saw her I.D on his office phone. She tried the video chat through his computer, but he wasn't responding to that either.

Getting up from her desk, Hatsume walked out of her lab curious to find out what was going on. Her gut told her that something was wrong with Izuku for him not to be answering her calls. Going through several corridors and one elevator she made it to the main hall of the base. It was there that she saw the boy in question, flanked by his former villain associates Stain, Dabi and Toga. He was angrily trudging forward, hair shadowing his eyes.

"Izuku!" Mei called. Midoriya seemed to notice her and finally stopped walking.

"Mei." He said quietly. "You need to go back to your lab, and stay there for a while." There was a certain edge to his tone that he never used when speaking to her.

"I was hoping you could help with something." She looked at him worriedly.

"Mei." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Please just go back to your lab and stay there. I promise I'll come by in a bit and help you with whatever you need." Izuku's eyes were hard and dark. "There's just something I need to do. Please...go."

"Okay." Hatsume was now more concerned, her plans already forgotten. His villainous escorts didn't say a word. Those three rarely acknowledged her any way. Not that she cared. Without another word Izuku walked past her while Stain, Dabi and Toga followed. She watched him walk away wondering what was wrong with him. In the end Mei decided to do what he asked and wait for him in the lab. She'd question him later that was for sure.

U.A-PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE

"This is an interesting development." Nezu remarked as he examined the paper in his hand. A message written in code. The message was delivered by class 1-A student Tsuyu Asui and handed off to Midnight, who brought it to the principal.

"Apparently Iida gave it to her." The rated-r hero said.

"It appears that one of Midoriya's loyal knights, is not so loyal after all." The white creature smiled.

"Can you decode it?" Midnight asked.

"Of course. Give me twenty minutes at most." Nezu said, taking a sip from his tea.

"I don't like this." She said.

"Neither do I" The principal agreed.

"What do you think Midoriya will do to Iida if he finds out about this?" Midnight wondered.

"Nothing good. Now please I need to figure out what this says." Nezu focused back on the coded message, asking her to leave.

'Shouta is definitely not going to like this.' Midnight thought as she left. The last thing her friend and colleague wanted to hear was that Iida was purposely putting himself in serious danger again.