[Third Person POV]
"You've been a good boy," Baymax said as he patted Bakugo's head with mechanical precision, its balloon-like fingers squishing into his spiky hair. "Here, a reward." The robot extended one stubby arm and presented a bright red lollipop.
Bakugo's whole body shook with barely contained fury. His face twitched, veins bulged on his forehead, and his teeth ground together. Rage, humiliation, and disbelief blended into something close to madness. He looked like he was one insult away from detonating everything and everyone.
Around him, Class 1-A broke into quiet laughter. One by one, heads turned away, shoulders shaking as his classmates desperately tried to hide their snickers. Mina had both hands clamped over her mouth. Kaminari's muffled laughter squeaked out through his nose. Even Todoroki's lips twitched in a way that could almost be called a smile.
Then came the snap. A bright flash followed, and when the spots cleared from Bakugo's vision, Tony was grinning smugly at his phone screen, before turning it toward Midoriya as if nothing happened. "Alright, your turn. Give it a go!"
"DELETE THAT, YOU BASTARD!!" Bakugo roared, batting Baymax's offering hand away.
Baymax didn't even react. It simply tilted its head and asked in its monotone, "Are you satisfied with your care?"
"MY CARE?! You did this to me, you overinflated pool toy! I'll—!" Bakugo's rant dissolved into incoherent screaming, hands sparking violently.
Tony casually tuned him out, scrolling through the fresh photo as if admiring a masterpiece.
Midoriya, meanwhile frozen in place, pointed at himself. "Me?! You mean me? I-I think I'm fine, Tony. Really. Thanks for the offer, but Kacchan's… uh… demonstration gave me more than enough of an idea about Baymax's capabilities."
Tony clicked his tongue in disappointment, "Coward…"
The word stung more than Midoriya expected. He felt his lips twitch, his brow furrow, and a strange heat crawled into his chest. 'Why does him saying it bother me so much?'
Tony pressed his advantage, dragging a dramatic hand across his forehead. "To think," he lamented loudly, "that the bright-eyed kid aiming to become the number one hero, would cower in the face of a challenge that his own classmate, his rival, attempted and failed to beat. How far… how tragically far… our next generation has fallen." He let out a suffering sigh, like he'd just witnessed the death of hope itself.
Sero chuckled under his breath. "He's really selling it, huh?"
Shoji crossed his arms, deadpan. "He must really want Midoriya to fight that thing."
Deku pinched the bridge of his nose and stared at Stark flatly. "I know what you're doing, Tony…"
From behind his hand, Tony peeked one eye open. "Is it working?"
Midoriya puffed his cheeks, pouted like a sulking kid, and muttered, "…A bit. Yes… Oh alright, Fine."
Tony's face lit up like a child on Christmas morning. "Hehehe, that's what I like to hear. Baymax—combat mode!"
The inflatable nurse straightened slightly, eyes flashing with a faint glow as its programming shifted.
Melissa, watching from the sidelines with her arms folded, shook her head in disbelief. "You're evil, Tony. Truly evil."
Tony smirked, shrugging as if the whole thing were out of his hands. "What can I say? I've gotta entertain myself somehow."
Now it was set. Deku and Baymax squared off in the middle of the empty space. Midoriya bent his knees, one foot sliding forward, arms raised as electricity-like arcs of green energy began to crackle across his body. Baymax simply stood there with its arms hanging at its sides, calm and unbothered.
Green lightning danced brighter around Deku as he whispered, "Full Cowling… fifteen percent." The floor beneath him vibrated faintly, hair whipping around his face. He could push higher, but if Baymax wasn't designed for that level of punishment, he might actually break it.
"Trust me" Tony called from the sidelines, grinning ear to ear. "Punch it with everything you've got. It can take a really good beating!" He gave a double thumbs-up.
Deku glanced at Baymax again. Then, with a deep breath, he cranked the dial higher. "Twenty percent." Sparks exploded off his frame as his aura flared, sharp and dangerous.
Melissa smirked, her voice low but amused as she leaned toward Tony. "You're not just evil, you're sadistic."
"And proud of it," Tony replied smoothly, hands clasped behind his head as he watched with pure anticipation.
The ground buckled and split apart with a thunderous crack as Midoriya launched forward, his boots carving deep trenches into the dirt. In a blur of green light and raw momentum, he slid in close and drove his fist upward in a brutal uppercut. The blow connected squarely with Baymax's rounded stomach, the balloon-like surface rippling outward like a pond disturbed by a stone.
At that exact instant, a sharp spike of pain lanced through Midoriya's skull. His Danger Sense screamed.
The energy of his own punch, the tremendous force that had surged through Baymax's frame, didn't dissipate—it redistributed. Like a tidal wave compressed and redirected, it rushed back. Baymax's fists came forward with surprising speed, fists striking together, unleashing Midoriya's own power against him.
The shockwave slammed into Midoriya like a freight train. He had no time to brace. His eyes widened as he was blasted backwards, body snapping through the air at breakneck speed. A massive tree stood in his path—until he crashed through it, the trunk exploding into splinters around him.
Midoriya spun violently through the air, tumbling end over end, until instinct flared. Blackwhip lashed outward, snaring around several nearby trees. The tendrils grew taut, halting his wild trajectory with a painful jolt. His body whiplashed, but Midoriya gritted his teeth, twisting midair to right himself.
The pent-up tension in the whips coiled around his frame like compressed springs. Midoriya's feet dug into the bark of one sturdy trunk, his eyes narrowing with fierce determination. Then, with a thunderous release, the whips snapped him forward like a slingshot. The air cracked, forming a shockwave ring around him as he shot back toward Baymax like a missile.
Electric arcs screamed around his body, clawing at the ground as he blurred across the field. His legs tucked in, then snapped outward, both feet crackling with emerald energy as he collided with Baymax in a devastating double kick.
The impact sent Baymax flying backwards in a comical-yet-terrifying bounce. He wrapped around a thick tree, his inflatable body bending like rubber before recoiling. Without missing a beat, Baymax rebounded straight back, launching himself into Midoriya like a rubber ball with rocket fuel.
"Wha—?!" Midoriya gasped before the tackle crushed into him.
The two slammed together with a bone-rattling impact. Midoriya was driven into the ground, tumbling helplessly in a storm of dirt and splintering debris. His body scraped against roots, stone, and broken earth until he finally skidded to a halt, sprawled on his back with fresh cuts and bruises across his arms and face.
"Ugh… Ouch…" Midoriya groaned, grimacing through the pain. And yet, despite the throbbing ache, a wide smile crept across his face. Slowly, shakily, he pushed himself back up onto his elbows.
"AHAHAHA!!" Tony erupted from the sidelines, clapping like a maniac. "Oh, that went so much better than I anticipated!! God, I love science."
Class 1-A could only gape. Their jaws dropped, eyes wide, torn between disbelief and awe. Midoriya—cut up, battered, panting—sat cross-legged on the ground, his hand pressed against his chin as he unraveled into one of his trademark muttering storms.
"Baymax… body structure… absorbs force… redistributes through equalized pressure points… counters direct power with redirection efficiency—! If I push to thirty percent and restrain with Blackwhip—no, no, recoil would destabilize control. Maybe… maybe if I layer Air Force shots in tandem with Full Cowling, synchronize outward pressure to offset the rebound—yes! That could negate kinetic feedback, stabilize rotation speed—!"
The words spilled from him faster and faster, eyes darting back and forth like a machine analyzing a hundred possibilities at once.
Kaminari leaned toward Jirou, whispering, "Aaand he's gone full muttering mode. Somebody flip the switch."
Tony, arms crossed, grinned proudly. "That, ladies and gentlemen, is the sound of innovation."
********************************************
+31 advance Chapters on: patreon.com/Shadow_D_Monarch3