(A/N: You might notice, so I'll say it right now and honestly. The chapter names sometimes won't make any sense, and the reason for that is that I find myself delaying the release of chapters because I spend more time trying to think of a name for a chapter than I do actually writing the chapter. I write the chapter first, and then see what name I come up with, but it's harder than just writing the chapter, so I just put something to get it over with and release it, but that's not to say it'll always be like that. Just wanted to get it out of the way.)
/\\//\\//\
[6: Swiss Army Knife]
This dorm is great. It's bland for now, but I'll put some stuff here and there. It didn't take long to unpack, but my cool stuff is all wrinkled now. The awesome military uniform and Enterprise's outfit have wrinkles now. Well, not like I had much choice since all I had was a backpack, and I'm not going to spend money on some special case.
Whatever, I'll just dry clean them. I'm sure there are dry cleaning services here.
Anyway, now that I'm here. Time for more training! I have a head start before school officially starts. I'll get familiar with everything here, train, find out how the networks here work, and so on. Especially the networks. If this place can be infiltrated by exploiting an alarm, then there are problems. Now, is what I'm doing illegal? Absolutely. But it's for the better. Wow, that sounds like a terrible excuse. It's one of those "for the greater good" excuses. Whatever.
So, how do you hack something? It's tedious, but not hard. Now, I'm going to do this through the wifi. And since this is a large campus, there's going to be extenders. All I need is to have physical access to one of them, which is easy, since they're sometimes out in the open, but maybe out of reach. Thankfully, I have drones. Physical access is best because cybersecurity is only as strong as the physical part of it, which is often overlooked. It doesn't matter how good your cyber defenses are if someone can physically access what it is you're trying to protect. Like a computer, a server, or in this case, a wifi extender. With this method, I can bypass remote security measures, and don't have to deal with the quantum stuff.
Let's get looking.
/\\//\\//\
It took a bit, but I found one. I'm not going to do anything too much. All I'm going to do is leave backdoor access, so I can control stuff whenever I want later. Nothing too bad or malicious, I just want access, I'm not going to go in there and be "loud," I'm going to be sneaky. Just a small in and out. And it's better because even if things get updated, I'll still have access.
Anyway, this particular one is on the ceiling. Now, I'm not going to underestimate this stuff. I'll have a drone jam the cameras, so they don't see anything. I'll use another one to spoof the location, so they don't see it's here.
Now, obviously, they'll know it happened here and that something is up, but it's the evidence that matters. They may know it, and when they make an accusation or claim, the burden of proof will be on them, but without the evidence, it doesn't matter. I'll set it to Russia or China, or something. Just blame them as everyone does. "It was the Chinese! It was the Russians!" You know, the usual stuff whenever some big leak happens.
I turned on the first drone, which would block cameras with a jammer. And I made another drone that would carry a USB to connect to the wifi extender and also spoof location. Very simple. I controlled it with my tablet.
It was a small drone. I flew it up slowly, lined it up, and then went forward. Very simple. I left it connected for a few seconds, and then a little notification rang up on my tablet. It's that easy. Sometimes it is that easy, but 99% of the time, it won't be.
So with that done, I quickly left the area after getting rid of the drone, except for the jamming one. I'll keep that up while I leave the area. I'm going to go to the training areas, summon a bunch of drones as practice, and then get rid of the camera jamming one. A good excuse. Just say random stuff about signal interference, a bunch of buzzwords, blah, blah, blah, and I'm clear. Well, clear enough.
A few minutes later, I was in a training area. Outdoors, of course. Now, beyond just covering my tracks, I really do want to discover more of my quirk. I just really wish I could shoot my railguns, but I need a good target, and…authorization. What a horror that. Although who's going to stop me if I just…do it? I mean, I could just shoot them off at a target, and then argue about it later, if I even want to. No amount of arguing or debate will change what's already happened. If I kill someone, just argue later.
It wouldn't be the only time someone has thought like this. This method goes crazy with the government and politicians. They do something, and then argue the legality later. It's genius stuff, really, when you don't care about certain things.
Anyway, let's do this.
I summoned my bow and shot an arrow, which turned into a large drone. This one had no weapons, but everything else. I also spammed a bunch of little drones from my carrier deck rigging.
This did make me wonder. These are traditional drones that everyone thinks of, but do they have to be?
I used my carrier rigging for this one. Turns out, all I have to do is think of what I want, or the type of "drone" I want. The technical details would be filled out by my quirk. So, let's do a test. Here's the logic: a drone, in very few words, is an unmanned aircraft. And…you could make anything an unmanned aircraft. Like fighter jets, helicopters, or any other aircraft you can think of. Therefore, I can just make an unmanned version of an aircraft already.
And with the carrier rigging, it should be easy. After all, it's an aircraft carrier, not a fighter jet carrier. Well, not all aircraft literally, but it's the 22nd century, who knows how much aircraft carriers have advanced by now. Assuming aircraft carriers still have the status as the main ship, like in my time. Which I highly doubt. I remember getting a look at some really "futuristic"-looking stuff. And if you think DARPA is ahead by ten years, oh buddy, you're wrong. Very wrong. That's the public stuff, and if that stuff is impressive to you, you've seen nothing yet, literally.
Anyway, back to my training. I'll start off with something everyone knows. An aircraft, a helicopter specifically, that all branches of the military use. Yup, that's right, the Blackhawk.
It started small, but when it took from my carrier rigging, it turned into its full size. This mechanical beauty was hovering in front of me. The smaller drones got out of the way by themselves. I used this because the helicopter can already be remotely piloted using the MATRIX technology. Like, some random person using a tablet can remotely control it.
But enough of that. It even came with some machine guns and a minigun! And some rockets! It's so cool! It'll never get old seeing stuff like this. I get a childlike wonder seeing these up close. Like how kids seem to be obsessed with dinosaurs all the time.
It hovered in front of me, the wind the rotor blades made, making my clothes flap, and the constant whirling noise. I stepped forward, getting on it. I made sure to grab the helmet on board for ear protection, since it was loud. I took out my tablet again, getting ready to pilot this thing, but just as I was about to, I saw Nezu approaching from a distance.
He had his hand…or paw…up to combat the wind. Honestly, and it may seem inappropriate, but I am imagining him getting swept up into the air from the wind being caused by the rotor blades. It's kind of funny. Anyway, I was waiting for him, and he looked like he was yelling, but I couldn't hear him because of my helmet and because of the noise.
I took my tablet, got some small earplugs, and got off board. I offered the earplugs to him, and he took them, putting them in.
This is nice and all, but…how will we talk? There's no…rat….bear…whatever combination of animal Nezu is helmets designed for him or his size.
He was waving his hands around. I don't know what he was trying to say. Oh, I know. I started writing on my tablet before turning it over so he could read it.
"Do you want me to turn off the helicopter?"
Nezu nodded.
That sucks. He's no fun. Well, his definition of "fun" might be different.
With a few button presses, I turned off the helicopter. Once it was fully off, I also took off my helmet, and he took out his earplugs.
"Did I make too much noise, principal Nezu?"
"Noise is part of the problem. Can you tone down the drones? Their buzzing is disturbing."
All the little drones came my way, disappearing onto my carrier rigging.
"Better?"
"Better."
"Are you here to talk about my quirk?"
"Yes, I looked at your files, and your quirk is called "Super Battlecarrier." Now, I can see the carrier part, but what about the battleship?"
Oh dear. Hearing that come from someone else is…not as cool as I thought. Why does naming things in your head sound better than when someone actually uses them? Oh well, I guess it's not the worst name. Though if it were me, I would just go with something more direct and to the point. Like…drones and railguns. It tells you what the quirk is and what to expect.
"Oh, that? Just look at this." This time, the battleship riggings came out. From behind me, three turrets, each with three barrels, appeared. Robust and sleek, with barrels that had electricity dancing around them. You could see part glowing and pulsing with energy.
"These are railguns. Capable of firing slugs, or rod-shaped projectiles, at Mach…" I paused, trying to remember that this is the 22nd century. "...8 to 10 for thousands of kilometers."
"Assuming a 20-kilogram projectile at Mach 10, rounded up, that would be 118 megajoules of energy released in a single burst. HAve you ever used it?"
"Nope. I haven't seen a good target for it, and even if I did, the projectile could penetrate the target easily and destroy who knows what behind it." It's why I didn't use it in the exam. Sure, shooting the railguns would be awesome, but what if it penetrated the robot and then the walls behind it? That's some collateral damage I don't want to cause. And I'm not going to test out a theory in an environment where people could die. Yeah, the robot was a big target, and the giant concrete walls were there, but it's best to always assume the worst-case scenario. In that case, a bunch of people dying for no reason. Well, if you want to be dark about it, a bunch of people would die to give a result.
"But it's okay, my drones can do the same things my railguns do in terms of destroying something."
"You know we'll keep an eye on you, right? Your quirk needs special attention and a set of rules for how you use it."
Oh great, here it comes. Isn't this what Momo had to deal with? She was restricted on what she could or couldn't make, and some things she made also had to be restricted. Like, she could make guns, but they could only fire one bullet or projectile, or something like that? This is so dumb.
Yes, let's impose restrictions on our heroes, while the villains and criminals we fight don't have to. Because villains and criminals are famously known to follow rules, the law, and be upstanding and moral citizens. This totally won't cause more harm and damage in the long run.
.
.
.
That was sarcasm.
And it's also really dumb. Momo for an example again. If it were up to me, let her make the stuff she wants. Let her make guns, rocket launchers, explosives, and all that stuff. That stuff has been proven to work! Like, why does no one use guns!
And don't give me that dumb nonsense of "but Japan has strict gun laws." Yeah, yeah, who cares? This is a world where people can blow stuff up, shoot fire, shoot ice, shoot lightning and electricity, decay things, and so on, with their bare hands! You might as well loosen the damn laws at that point!
"Nezu, with all due respect, you realize that will limit me in what I can do, right? And if I'm right in the rules and restrictions you will place on me, I won't be able to use my railguns. Sure, I can change the speed and weight of the projectile, but it won't matter because the energy released will still be high. It will also take away the lethal parts of my quirk. Nezu, I understand, but the lethality is an inherent part of my quirk; you and I can't change that."
"That could be said for many other quirks, Eleanor, but we can't simply let you. It could put your classmates at unnecessary risk."
"Nezu, I will say this right now, the safety and life of my classmates, teammates, other allies, and innocent civillians will take priority over everything else during an actual mission. You can put rules on me, but if the situation calls for it, I won't hesitate to take drastic and decisive action to ensure that. No matter what you rules you put on my quirk. And if I end up having to face the law, being expelled from this school, or even being sent back to the United States, then so be it."
"Your words have a bit of a military echo to them, Eleanor. Your hero ethics class will be interesting to see."
Speaking of classes.
"About that, do I really have to take English? I mean…I'm from America. Can't I take an exam to just get the credit or whatever? You know, credit by exam?"
"I suppose you could; it would even give you some more free time in the day. Do you know what a third conditional is?" Okay, that's a random question.
"Yeah. A third conditional is a hypothetical scenario of the past and the imagined outcome. It uses an if-clause and a result-clause. Like, if I did X, then Y.'"
"Okay, you can take a test for it. If you pass, you're free to do with the free time as you wish. You can take it tomorrow."
"Thanks for that, Nezu."
He handed me a piece of paper. "Be at this classroom in the morning. I'll be your proctor."
And he left just like that. Nice, I don't have to waste time if I pass.