Rejected Stones

The Great Achilles

This document beta'd by kylekatarn77

11. The Great Achilles

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.

-Homer, the Illiad

Izuku glanced up at the TV screen by the vending machine. He'd left to get himself a milk and Mei some canned coffee. The pairings popped up, and Izuku was about to open his milk and take a drink. His first pairing was, fortunately, against Mina Ashido. She was one of the only participants he'd prepped against. But a look at Mei's pairing made Izuku drop his milk, spilling it across the floor. He dashed back to their prep room, his eyes wild with panic.

"Mei! You have to forfeit!" Izuku shouted, slamming open the door.

She looked up, frowning. "Where's my coffee?"

"Mei, you have to forfeit the first match! You're going up against Ka-against Bakugo!"

"Yeah. But where's my coffee?" Mei prompted.

Frantically, Izuku knelt down next to Mei where she was working on the Power Suit's legs. He put his hands on her shoulders, his arms trembling slightly. "Mei, Bakugo, he's really angry. He's going to hurt you if you fight him."

Mei laughed. "No he's not! We made those missiles special for him. I'll teach him a lesson, for all those times he made fun of you and our babies!"

"Mei, listen. Bakugo is strong. Really strong. We never got to test our missiles anti-perspirant spray! What if it doesn't even work? He'll hurt you really badly!"

Shrugging, Mei turned back to her work. "Well if it doesn't, I'll just forfeit. But I have to at least test it out, or what was the point?"

"Mei, please, I'm really worried about you," Izuku pleaded. "The plan was never for you to fight Bakugo! It was supposed to be me."

"Well don't worry, Izuku. If I beat him then I'll forfeit to you. I don't want to keep you from being a hero."

"That's not what this is about!" Izuku half shouted. "Bakugo is ruthless in competition. And he thinks we've slighted him. He's going to go all out against you."

"Izuku, do you not have any faith in me or our babies?" Mei demanded.

Izuku jerked back. "I-no, of course I do. Y-y-your really smart, and...and I know we've made good stuff, but-"

"Then don't worry about it. Now let's finish getting ready. I'll just use the handheld missile launcher I made for my match with Bakugou."

Reluctantly, Izuku helped Mei assemble their handheld launcher and load it with three antiperspirant missiles. Then they worked on the Power Suit in relative silence, aside from Mei complaining twice about the coffee until Izuku went and retrieved the fallen can from the hallway. Still, Izuku couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was going to happen. Eventually though, he had to force it out of his mind and load into the Power Suit as his match was up first.

"Go show them how wonderful our babies are!" Mei said, waving goodbye as Izuku walked out onto the arena floor.

"Um, yeah, same to you," he managed, waving half heartedly, then turning back to the stage.

"Our first two contestants: She's peppy, she's cute, and she's just a little bit fre-kah! Let's get a warm round of applause for Mina Ashido from Class 1A!"

The pink skinned girl glided up onto the stage on a wave of acid, then turned and waved to the crowd enthusiastically. Her quirk was strong, Izuku knew, producing acid that could seriously damage the Power Suit if he wasn't careful. He'd planned ahead though, and held two missiles in his hands loaded with the anti-acid foam. He planned to detonate them immediately, using the foam to shield himself, then detonating a series of missiles over the field to coat it in antacid foam to negate Ashido's quirk.