My Hero Automata

Chapter 48: I-Island (Expo Day 5)

Summary: Sometimes, the villains really just should have stayed home...

Warning: Chapters 47-49 were posted back-to-back, make sure you don't miss any!

Chapter 48: I-Island (Expo Day 5)

The I-Island Gala was in full swing, important scientists and heroes from all over the world mingling and chatting throughout the grand ballroom and its attached lounges. Izumi had eyes for absolutely none of it as she and Momo swept around the dance floor. She'd already had entirely too much social interaction, even the hero nerd part of her just done with people by this point. She wasn't the type to be pulled toward crowds of dancers, either. Which might make one wonder why she was here at all.

The answer, of course, was simple. It was entirely about the utterly delighted and enthusiastic expression on her girlfriend's face as they showed up ninety percent of the people on the dance floor. Holding a happy Momo in her arms, in a very daring dress that had made Izumi want to rip it off her the moment she'd first laid eyes on Momo in it, was more than enough compensation all on its own. The fact that dancing tending to leave Momo enthusiastic in the aftermath, only made that fact triply true. Which is why, despite being absolutely done with people, Izumi was smiling almost as broadly as her girlfriend...intermixed with a periodic lethal glare that had caused several would-be cutters in to decide that their life wasn't worth the attempt of getting a dance with either of them.

They'd had one each with All Might and Jirou, swapping between them near the start, and Izumi had to admit that she'd been nearly as happy dancing with the adorably out-of-place Jirou as with Momo. All Might had been...oddly like dancing with a father figure. One who was surprisingly skilled at not stepping on feet. So she hadn't hated that either, and knew it was part of his ongoing efforts to draw attention to them without outright endorsing either of them as his successor. He'd danced with others, of course, mostly other heroines...and one hero that had ended in both of them laughing uproariously at an apparently old joke between them. Izumi was absolutely going to get the story about that one, later. But, for now, she was content wit-

Between one instant and the next, Hyper-cognition activated at its highest setting, the entire ballroom practically freezing in time as Izumi's mind pulsed with momentary disorientation. With her current speed of thought, even that moment was less than an eyeblink. 2B, the source of the violent activation, was already speaking in their metal link as she sorted herself out.

"Security breach! Ambush! Multiple Villains detected by mobile platform scan! I-Island broad-spectrum, total island security activated! Targeted on heroes! Escape required. Villain Disablement Required. I-Island Security Reset Required. Primarily threat, 7.3m bearing 206 degrees, same plane. Identification, A – Rank International Mercenary Wolfram Von Magdom. Metal Manipulation. Unknown Second Quirk Scanned. High Caliber Handgun."

Izumi's thoughts were a whirl as she processed 2B's clipped alerts. Despite her sheer ridiculous speed of thought, she could visibly see I-Island's famed defenses activating, albeit in slow motion. Glowing ribbons of some sort of hard-light construct are flowing out of the ground under every hero in the room. Three of them were moving, All Might and two she quickly categorized as Speed Quirk holders. Yet she could see all three would be too slow, having been caught totally flat footed in a way that Izumi wasn't. Or, rather, in a way 2B hadn't been.

Unlike Izumi, 2B existed in a permanent state like Izumi's hyper cognition mode. She was also, because of I-Island's security, currently restricted from many of the ways she usually used her excess relative time...and had thus been paying inordinate amounts of attention to the room and everyone in it. She'd requested a small mobile platform for that purpose, claiming she was going to keep an eye out for anything interesting. Unfortunately, that platform wasn't a Pod, and wasn't armed. Which meant the immediate reaction to this would be up to Izumi.