The Emperor's Dragon

Tantrum

First! I've done it!

Mei looked down at her phone with a frown when it beeped. It wasn't the normal beep of a message sent. Instead it was the one when a message failed to send. There was even a little tag on the message informing her of that fact. She checked her reception. As expected, it was good and she knew her data plan was up to date. There was no reason it shouldn't send.

Unless the reason was on First's end?

That was possible. His phone could be off.

No... then the message should tell her that his phone was off. Or not in reception.

She knew how these things worked.

Mei thought for a few moments. It wasn't that his phone was off, or not in reception. And it couldn't be that he had changed his number. Then the message would go through to the new number or again, if the number hadn't been reassigned then it would let her know... so what else could cause her message not to be received?

If you had a Dark phone it could be set to silent... But why would First have a Dark phone? Did he have a Dark phone? Mei struggled with her memory for a few moments but she knew she couldn't remember.

So even if there was no reason to assume that he did, she should act like he did. The message hadn't sent, not even when she told it to resend. How did she get around that?

She could wait until the block was off but Mei didn't know how long that would take. First had given her money. She owed him! It was bad business for her to walk away from that, taking the cash. Even at eleven she knew that. She had to find some way of contacting him, or at least trying! That was the right thing to do and she wasn't going to let her first investor walk away without getting what he paid for.

Except the only way she could see to do that would be to... break the law a little. Stretch it! Mei mentally corrected. She wasn't going to break it. She would stretch it. After all, she owed First and had to contact him. And he'd be thankful she contacted him so it wouldn't matter that... It just wouldn't matter.

Okay, so she needed to get into her supplier's network to see where they were trying to send her message and then she could track down First.

Mei smiled. That shouldn't be too hard. She'd just use her Mum's account as the launch point and see where it got her. After all, her mum had so many useful programs. She couldn't build but... she knew her way around tech.

-ted-

"What do you mean I can't contact Ochaco?"

All For One didn't need to see to know that his son was outraged. At eleven, Izuku could be a surprisingly good orator. He'd been expecting this argument but he had hoped it wouldn't happen.

"Because it is not safe," he explained reasonably, knowing full well that when someone was this emotional, reason did not play a part in things.

Raising Tomura was much easier in this respect. So long as the boy had a game console, a bit of cash and some news on Heroes and how they'd failed, every now and then, he was content. But Tomura was a throw away character. Not an NPC but one he didn't intend to keep in his party for long. Izuku was going to be a permanent feature. As such, he couldn't be overly indulged or spoiled. He had to see reality and know when to back off and when to push.

It was a lesson Izuku was still learning.

"The Heroes didn't find us!"

"They did," All For One corrected. He'd made sure Izuku had seen the articles confirming that. "I had warning so Kurogiri could get you out earlier," he told him. "They were looking for you as well, my Little Dragon," he tried to sooth his son.