The sea breeze off Dagobah Beach reeked of salt, rusted iron, and the sharp scent of ozone. High in the air, Nejire was zipping erratically through the sky as she struggled to keep her balance.
"Whoa—whoa! Flying in a straight line is way harder than it looks!" she squealed, firing off a pair of golden spiral energy waves from her hands.
Down below, Mei's Robot Baby 3.0 tracked her movement with a mechanical click. It raised its left arm—the high-pressure hose—and fired a glowing red energy beam straight out of the nozzle, intercepting Nejire's golden waves in a noisy, crackling explosion of light.
Before Nejire could regain her footing, the machine pivoted its right arm and launched a volley of live grenades into the air.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"Kyaaa! That's way too close!" Nejire shrieked, frantically twisting her body to dodge the fiery bursts, her heart hammering in her chest as shockwaves rumbled through her hair.
A short distance away, Mei was scribbling furiously in a grease-stained notebook, cackling like a true mad scientist. "Fuhahaha! Magnificent! The arc trajectory on the grenade arm needs a three-percent calibration tweak, but the red Mini-Arc beam output is wonderfully aggressive! Keep dodging, Hadou! Give me more data!"
Meanwhile, closer to the shore, Himiko and Toru were locked in intense hand-to-hand combat. Toru's invisible form threw a fast right hook, but Himiko ducked under it with frightening, fluid speed.
"How are you so fast?!" Toru gasped, barely pulling back in time to avoid a sharp palm strike aimed directly at her jaw.
"My mom has a cat Quirk," Himiko replied smoothly, her golden, slit-pupil eyes gleaming with predatory instinct. "Even though I didn't inherit her Quirk directly, I still got some cat-like traits!"
Before Toru could process the information, Himiko dodged another punch, swiveled gracefully, and grabbed Toru's wrist. With a quick tug, she pulled the invisible girl off-balance, slipped behind her in a flash, locked her arm firmly behind her back, and swept her legs—pinning Toru gently but decisively onto the soft sand.
"Argh! No fair! Cats have cheat-code agility!" Toru whined from the ground, though her floating gloves slapped the sand in good-humored surrender.
A few yards over, Mineta was breathing heavy, his shirt soaked in sweat as he traded blow after blow with Yu Takeyama. He ducked under a wide swipe and threw a low leg sweep, but Yu effortlessly bounded into the air to dodge it.
"Your strength and raw output are fantastic, Minoru," Yu said, landing lightly on her toes before launching a quick kick straight toward his chest. "But your form still lacks finesse. You rely heavily on instinct. You really need to look into formal martial arts—it'll give your power structure and direction."
Mineta crossed his arms in a tight guard to block the kick, the impact driving his feet an inch deep into the sand. He gritted his teeth, feeling the solid force behind her strike. 'She's totally right. Once I get formal martial arts discipline layered on top of my raw physical stats, my combat efficiency is going to skyrocket.'
After another twenty minutes of non-stop sparring, everyone except Mei and Yu collapsed onto the ground in a exhausted pile.
Nejire was sprawled on her back, her face flushed red as she drained an entire water bottle in one go. Himiko sat cross-legged next to Mineta, casually leaning her shoulder against his and taking greedy sips from her own drink, while Toru flopped flat on her face with a dramatically loud groan.
"You girls—and you, Minoru—are learning fast," Yu remarked, casually holding her smartphone in one hand while taking a swig of water. Her tone shifted slightly as she stared down at the glowing screen, her brow furrowing into a tight frown. "All that's left now is sharpening your real-time reflexes."
Mineta wiped the sweat from his forehead, catching the sudden shift in her demeanor. "What are you looking at, Onee-san?"
"This is the official Hero Data App," Yu explained, keeping her eyes fixed on the screen. "Only professional heroes and third-year hero course students get access to this network. It's synced directly to satellite telemetry and civilian emergency channels. It flags local villain activity in real-time if a hero is within response range... and right now, it's pinging an active villain attack just a few blocks from here."
Without hesitation, Yu gripped the hem of her biker jacket and unzipped it, shedding her jacket and pants in one fluid motion to reveal her skin-tight purple and cream hero costume underneath.
Mineta's eyes widened slightly, a faint blush tugging at his cheeks at the sudden sight of her curves, though he quickly masked it. "Wait... you wear your costume underneath your civilian clothes?"
Suddenly, a dull, heavy explosion echoed in the distance, rattling the nearby piles of scrap metal. Everyone scrambled to their feet.
"My Quirk, Gigantification, doesn't expand normal fabric along with my body," Yu explained, stepping toward her Kawasaki motorcycle. "So I wear my suit underneath at all times. It's made out of a special synthetic blend mixed with my own hair fibers, allowing it to stretch and grow right alongside me without tearing."
She swung her long leg over the KZ6R, flipped her visor down, and kicked the engine into a roar. "Stay here and keep resting!" she yelled over the exhaust before tearing off down the road in a cloud of dust.
As the roar of the motorcycle faded, Nejire's eyes lit up with unbridled excitement. She looked around at the group, practically bouncing on her heels. "Hey... do you guys want to go check out how she fights real villains?!"
Himiko's cat-like eyes gleamed with mischief, and Toru raised her gloves in eager agreement. The prospect of watching a live hero battle up close was way too tempting to pass up.
"Leave the transportation to me!" Mei declared, stepping forward with a manic grin. She pulled out her remote control and tapped a sequence of buttons.
What happened next blew everyone's minds.
Robot Baby 3.0 emitted a high-pitched mechanical whine. The four retracted spider legs on its back swung upward, interlocking with one another and flattening into a massive, heavy-duty jetpack structure that extended across both sides of its chest.
Its tank-like treadmill legs folded inward, locking together into a streamlined tail frame. Simultaneously, both of its hands swung upward, meeting in mid-air and shifting inward to form a sharp, aerodynamic nosecone.
The jetpack thrusters ignited with a low, rumbling hum, hovering the entire metallic frame a few feet off the sand. It tilted horizontally, revealing that the flattened leg area had been retrofitted with four sturdy leather seatbelts—creating a makeshift, open-air seating rig.
"Robot Baby 3.0:Jet Mode!" Mei announced proudly, placing her hands on her hips as she beamed at her audience.
Mineta, Nejire, Himiko, and Toru stared at the floating mechanical marvel in complete, speechless shock.
'A fucking Decepticon!' Mineta screamed in his mind, his inner fanboy hyperventilating. 'She literally built a real-life Transformer out of scrap metal, a fridge, and a microwave! That is straight-up Megatron!'
Mineta rushed up to Mei, his eyes gleaming with sheer admiration. "Mei! You haven't given this glorious baby an official name yet, right? That's why you've just been calling it Robot Baby 3.0?"
"Yeah," Mei nodded, her cheeks dusting with a pleased blush at his intense, excited reaction. "It's just a prototype designation."
"Then how about..." Mineta paused for dramatic effect, pointing a finger toward the sky, "Megatron!"
Mei mulled the name over for a second, testing the sound of it on her tongue before shrugging with a wide grin. "Megatron? I like it! It sounds dangerous and super cool! Megatron it is!"
Without wasting another second, Mineta, Himiko, Nejire, and Toru scrambled onto Megatron's back, strapping themselves tightly into the heavy seatbelts.
Suddenly, mechanical hatches on the chassis clicked open. Six thick alloy pipes rose from different corners of the frame, interlocking above their heads to form a rigid, benzene-shaped cage.
A second later, thick reinforced glass sheets slid out from the frame, sealing the top and sides completely shut.
'Holy crap... this actually feels like sitting in the cockpit of a stealth fighter jet!' Mineta, Himiko, Nejire, and Toru all thought simultaneously, their hearts pounding with thrilled anticipation.
Himiko squeezed Mineta's hand tightly through the harness, her cheeks flushed as she leaned in close to his shoulder. "This is amazing, Minoru..."
"Hold on to your butts!" Mei hollered from the front control panel, pressing the primary ignition switch on her remote. "Here we go!"
Megatron's Mini-Arc core flared with brilliant crimson light. The thrusters roared to life, kicking up a massive wave of sand, and the jet shot directly into the sky like a silver bullet—accompanied by the ecstatic, wind-swept cheers of everyone on board.