Chapter Text
A blaring alarm sounding was a routine wake up for Izuku Midoriya. Today, however, the alarm wasn’t from his phone. The alarm was on the overhead speakers. He quickly rolled out of bed and grabbed the nearest pair of pants.
“Izuku!” Shouta’s voice called from outside his bedroom.
“I’m up! Report?!” They had to shout to be heard over the alarm system.
“Give it a second!”
“Status: Fire Reported in Engine Room Five. All Engineering Staff please report to Engine Room Five.” A robotic voice finally called over the speakers, giving them the information they needed. And of course it had to be engine five. Izuku JUST fixed that damn thing yesterday! He groaned loudly and grabbed a t-shirt off the back of his desk chair and bolted out of his room.
“Izuku, radio!” Shouta called, tossing him an ear comm from the charging dock on the kitchen counter. “Don’t get yourself killed, report in thirty minutes!”
Izuku didn’t bother to shout back over the alarm, he slammed the button by their front door and shot out of their apartment at top speed towards the engineering sector. It was three sectors down, on deck five, from where most of the living compartments were. The trek wasn’t too long, but it would take time if he didn’t catch a ride on-
“Izuku! Get on!” Mei called, coming right up beside him on one of the deck riders. Izuku didn’t hesitate to jump on the back of the two wheeled hover bike. Mei hit the throttle and the orange engineering lights that told people to get the hell out of their way - and they were off.
“Any updates?!” He shouted over the rush of air in their faces and the alarm still blaring overhead.
“Maijima says it’s a mess! There was an explosion at about 0500 hours which caused a radial concussive wave that started the fire in the engine rotors. They can’t get in under control and the alarms went off the moment the smoke hit the sensors.”
“Shit.” Izuku checked his phone, thankful he’d remembered to grab it before rushing off. It was only 0530, which meant the fire had been going for less than thirty minutes. That was good, but worrisome if their boss couldn’t get it contained. “I just fixed that damn engine yesterday, what caused the explosion?”
“I have no idea but Maijima suspects it was the oxygen return on the secondary power unit, which we didn’t touch yesterday. If our repairs put stress on the older lines, that might have done it in. We’ll have to check everything again.”
“UGH!” Izuku leaned his head on Mei’s shoulder, annoyed. He checked his phone again, finding his group chats lighting up. The whole engineering department was reporting in. Izuku quickly shot a message that he and Mei were halfway there and tucked his phone away.
Ever since Izuku stepped foot onto the USJ Nishimura there were problems. He’d been hired by the Commission to help keep this boat alive for as long as he could - until the Commission decided to retire it. But the moment he got here, he realized that the whole crew and all of the remaining residents wanted to keep the station intact at least until the youngest generation could be assigned elsewhere - which meant another ten or fifteen years at least. Izuku didn’t have faith that could happen without a whole new central core engine. The current core was at least fifty years old, and running on fumes. Those cores should be replaced every thirty, and the Commission refused to pay for another one - which left the engineering crew of the USJ Nishimura high, dry, and burnt - usually more burnt than anything else.
Izuku had come here with his sister, Eri. His mother had adopted her after Izuku found her on an illegal trading vessel and stole her off so she wouldn’t be sold to the highest bidder. With his skills, it wasn’t hard to forge adoption papers and get her a citizenship pass, though his mother never knew the whole truth to that story. Though their current guardian, Shouta Aizawa - Chief Security Officer on the USJ Nishimura, knew the truth. He was the first one to notice a slight mistake in Eri’s paperwork, but once Izuku told him the truth, Shouta waved it off and accepted them both. Had Eri been a little older, they wouldn’t require a guardian, but Izuku didn’t qualify as a legal guardian given he was only sixteen back when he started here two years ago, and he was also an engineer - which is a high risk position. After his mother’s death, he’d taken over caring for Eri, and there was no way he’d ever leave her behind when he came here.
Shouta had given him the run down of the station’s problems when he arrived and Izuku was shocked to find the Commission had left this beloved station so defunct. This was one of the first mining stations ever built, and most of the people on the station were born and raised here. The USJ Nishimura was well over 150 years old. She’d had a few overhauls so her aesthetics and visuals were brand new, but the internal operational parts were all highly outdated and in bad need of replacement and constant repair. Izuku had come to adore this station, and refused to let her die.
Mei’s deck rider came to a screeching halt by the bay doors for engine room five. The station had ten engines all together - eleven counting the central core - and number five was the oldest and most troublesome lately. Izuku and Mei shoved the deck rider in the row of riders off to the side and ran into the huge engine bay together, already grabbing gear and strapping on their safety equipment before the airlock doors even closed behind them.
Izuku tapped his comm over to the engineering channel, “Izuku Midoriya and Mei Hatsume reporting in at engine room five, Maijima - can you give us a report?”
“Thank God, finally. Izuku, Mei, I need you both down on the main floor at the engine core. We’ve managed to contain the fire to rotor two for now, but we’re out of options, we need to do a purge. I need purge prep stat!”
“Shit.” Mei scrambled for their harnesses and stasis masks. Izuku grabbed his harness and strapped it on quickly as he reported to their staff, leaving his stasis mask for last.
“All staff inside engine room five - If you do not have a harness or stasis mask, leave the bay now and gear up, engine room five is being prepped for purge! I repeat, engine room five is being prepped for purge!”
A chorus of ‘yes, sir’ and ‘understood’ came over the comms. A couple people hopped up the ladders to the main bay doors. He spotted Ochako and Tenya strapping on their harnesses and stasis masks and nodded to them. They both nodded back but returned to their work on the upper levels of the engine room.
Izuku grabbed the ladder with Mei right behind him and slid down to the main engine room floor.
All of the engine rooms were identical. A large central bay about a hundred feet wide by two hundred feet tall. The engine itself sat in the very center of the room, a large cylinder like machine with two rotors on each side for a total of four. Izuku could already see the fire in rotor number two being constantly attacked from all angles with fire suppression foam, but it was barely making a dent. The outer edges of the engine rooms were filled with walkways and ladders for a total of five levels stretching from the ground to the ceiling. Countless wires, pipes, and tubes sprung from every angle out of the engine as it diverted energy and power into the station. The walkways were so the engineering staff could make repairs and take readings from all of the devices and offshoots of the engine.
Izuku ran towards the central engine core, finding their boss - Maijima-san, or Power Loader as everyone lovingly called him. At least, they called him Power Loader when things weren’t going haywire. In a serious situation like this, he was the big boss and everyone respected his command of the engineering department.
“Maijima.” Izuku saluted his boss as he strapped his harness down to one of the anchor points on the central core. Mei did the same beside him.
“Reporting in, Maijima!” Mei saluted him.
Maijima was on his comm but he saluted back, letting the two know he’d acknowledged them. Izuku checked his phone and frowned. It was 0603, he was late to check in. Shit. Shouta was going to lecture him later. He switched his comm over to his private channel.
“Shouta, Izuku reporting in. Safe, preparing to purge engine room five and tamp the fire.”
“Understood. Don’t be late next time. Report in one hour.”
“Yes, sir.”
Izuku knew Shouta was likely already aware of the coming purge. Maijima would have had to report it first to Command, the security, then lastly he would tell the Engineers. Everything followed a hierarchy here, an order of operations and a chain of command. Izuku appreciated the organization of it all.
“Okay, kiddos.” Maijima clicked his comm off and strapped himself down to the central core. “Let’s get this room ready. Izuku, you’re in command of the purge process. Mei, you are in command of purge controls. Let’s put this fire out.”
“Yes, sir!” They both chirped at the same time.
Izuku grabbed one of the tablets connected to the central core, taking quick mental notes of the readings from every part of the central core. He could see the temperature readings on the second rotor which were off the charts, but he also noted something else.
“Maijima!” He called over the still blaring alarm. It wouldn’t go off until the fire was put out. “The readings show a possible secondary fire in rotor number four, the temperature is slowly rising. It might be a fire or it might be primary burn out from overuse. We need to shut it down during the purge!”
“Izuku! If we shut down another rotor, the whole sector will go down to half power!” Mei countered.
“I’m aware of that, Mei. But if we don’t shut it down, the fire could quickly get out of control and the purge will damage the rotor if it’s running with a fire going.”
Maijima looked up towards the rotors. The fire in the second was obvious, and still raging, but the possible fire in the fourth couldn’t be seen from the outside - if it was starting. The Chief Engineer frowned and shook his head.
“Do it, shut it down in two minutes. I need to report this to Command. We can’t risk the damage. We can deal with the power fallout later. Engine room six can pick up the slack for a few minutes while we purge the flames. We won’t lose anything but lights with just one engine half down.”
“Understood!” Mei said, moving over to another console and starting the shut down process which took a few minutes alone. “Izuku! I need command authorization.” She pressed a button on the screen.
“Izuku Midoriya, ID 41157, authorization code 63384, authorizing shut down of rotor four in engine room five.” He spoke loudly towards the console. It dinged in acceptance. He’d been hired as Maijima’s second in command, so aside from the Chief Engineer himself, Izuku was the only one who could authorize shutdowns of this size - which meant Maijima had authorized rotor two being shut down earlier. Izuku made a mental note for the paperwork he'd have to do later.
“Shut down process initiated!” Mei called back to Maijima, who was immediately on his comms.
“Commander Nedzu, I have another issue.”
They all heard the cheery reply over their comms from the head of the station as the comm lines switched to open.
“Report, Maijima-san!”
“We may have a secondary fire in rotor four, I’ve authorized shut down prior to the purge. We can’t risk damage to the rotor during the purge. This sector will lose lights but engine six will pick up the slack and control life support and primary systems until engine five is back up.”
“Shut down authorized, purge is a go, understood, Maijima.”
Once Nedzu had given the green light, the three engineers were back in action.
Mei quickly moved the shutdown process forward for rotor four. Maijima was busy checking systems and making other reports on his comms. Izuku had another tablet in his hand, checking every ID that was in the engine bay. It was his job to make sure no one was injured or died during the purge. Every employee was reading as green for health, though a few had elevated heart rates. That was normal in high stress. He tapped another tab and made sure that everyone was registering as wearing a stasis mask, and a harness. Every piece of engineering equipment was registered to its user’s station ID once it locked on. He could even see when they had their tie downs locked onto an anchor point. Everyone was locked and anchored. Everyone had stasis masks on. Good. No human accidents today.
“We are green light for purge, all engineers are locked, anchored, and masked.” Izuku reported to Maijima.
A whirring groan echoed over the alarm, signifying that rotor four was finally shut down and coming to a stop. Most of the lights in the room flicked off, though emergency lighting remained online. That was a good sign. Engine six was indeed picking up the slack. Small blessings did exist.
“Rotor four shutdown process complete. We are green light for purge.” Mei reported.
Maijima checked his anchor and nodded to Izuku, grabbing onto the central core hand holds. Mei did the same with her free hand.
Izuku locked the tablet back into its stand and tapped his comms, “All engineers, please check locks and anchors and hold on, we are green light for purge. Purging in two minutes. I repeat, purge green light in two minutes.”
Again, a chorus of affirmatives came over the comms. Izuku checked the tablet again without removing it. Everyone was anchored down and safe. He watched each name light up as they activated their masks. Mei and Maijima both activated theirs.
The stasis masks were not designed to be used for long exposure to the vacuum of space. They were designed for momentary exposure, primarily for emergencies or purges like this. A thin blue holographic film flickered out from the mask over everyone's chin, covering their whole bodies. The stasis masks lasted at max thirty minutes. They’d only need about five for the purge.
Izuku did one last review. All engineers in the room were locked and loaded. All systems nominal - obviously minus the two fires. Izuku switched his comm to the primary channel that connected to everyone on the emergency line and the sector PA system.
“Izuku Midoriya, ID 41157, authorization code 63384, authorizing emergency purge of engine room five. All residents in sector five should report to the nearest anchor point and lock down.” It wasn’t required, and most folks were used to the jarring sensation that purges caused, but Izuku was required to say it. “Purge of engine room five in fifteen, fourteen, thirteen…”
He counted down slowly. Mei’s finger hovered over the purge button. He could see the anxiety on her face. Purging an engine room was never fun. There was always the risk someone would be sucked into the vacuum of space and well, no one wanted that. There was also the risk that something could detach from the engine and also be lost in space, again, no one wanted that. But this was the way Engineers worked and lived - under that threat and risk every day. It was their bread and butter.
“...Five, four, three, two, one. Initiating purge.” He nodded at the same time he clicked his own status mask on. Mei slammed her hand on the button and grabbed the central core handlebars. Izuku clutched one tightly in his hands. A red light flicked on at the front of the room, announcing the engine room being locked. The large bay doors at the back of the room started to open. Not many folks liked working this close to bay doors. Engineers were often seen as thrill seekers and brilliant crazies for their perfectly nonchalant attitude towards being in the path of something so easily deadly. Immediately all oxygen was sucked from the room, and everyone’s feet left the floor as the gravity locks disengaged once the bay doors were open.
The stasis masks did not provide the ability to speak, however, so purges were unfortunately as silent as the void of space. It’s why whoever took command - Izuku in this case - was the last to activate their mask. It was a terrifying position. If he didn’t immediately activate it, he could very well suffocate in seconds. Izuku had yet to miss his timing, though.
Izuku tapped the tablet screen with the engine readings secured to the engine wall. He was watching the temperatures in the rotor cores. Rotor four was almost back to normal, so the fire must have been pretty small or just starting. The temperature in the second rotor wasn’t going down as fast, but Izuku could see the fire had already been suffocated. Without oxygen, the flames vanished. However, it was going to take a few minutes for the internal coolers and the vacuum of space to kick the temperatures back down to safe working conditions.
Mei waved a hand for his attention and pointed at the other panel. Izuku squinted, flipping through the names on the employee panel. Someone’s harness wasn’t registering as locked anymore. Izuku almost panicked. It was Shoji’s harness. It was anchored, but the lock on his belt wasn’t registering under the pressure of the purge. Izuku whipped his head around, scanning the walkways until he found the hulking form he was looking for. Shoji was one of the buffest members of the engineering crew. His arms were locked around one of the handholds, it looked like he could tell his harness wasn’t locked on correctly. He was safe for the moment, but without a proper harness, holding on against the vacuum wasn’t possible long term. Shoji was likely one of the few people on this whole station who could actually hold himself down against the pressure, which was more than impressive. Of course, once all the ozygen was sucked out violently, the pressure decreased significantly, so he only had to hang on for a few moments, thankfully.
Izuku waved to Maijima, pointing towards the tablet and then up onto the third walkway to where Shoji was. Maijima did the math in his head and Izuku caught him swearing even if he couldn’t hear it out loud. Going back to the tablets, he checked the internal temperatures again. Good enough. He tapped Mei on the shoulder and made a gesture cutting his hand across his throat, telling her to kill the purge. Mei slammed her hand on the button again.
The bay doors took an agonizing moment to close but a chorus of thuds sounded as every member of the engineering crew landed back on the ground. Izuku clicked off his stasis mask after taking a huge gulp of air from within it and immediately tapped his comm.
“Izuku Midoriya, ID 41157, purge doors closed. All systems are nominal.” He gasped for air as the life support kicked in and pumped oxygen back into the room. He’d ripped his mask off just a moment too early but he didn’t care, he needed to report and check on the staff. “All engineering staff report. Mezo Shoji, report to the main engine floor.” He coughed as he struggled to pump air into his lungs. The engine rooms were large and took a few minutes to fill. Everyone reported safe over the comms and Izuku mentally ticked them off as he regained his breath.
Shoji was down to them a moment later, shaking with his eyes blown wide.
“What happened?” Maijima asked. Izuku was still catching his breath. Mei was leaning over the console, trying to let the anxiety of the whole ordeal not take control of her.
“I don’t know, Maijima-san. My gear was perfectly fine, locked and anchored, but when the doors opened and the pull started, my latch came unclipped. I can’t believe I heard it. That’s the only thing that saved my ass up there.”
“Okay. Go get checked out by medical, and put that damn harness in the tag out bin, we’ll report it to security and issue you a new one. You’re off duty for the next forty-eight.”
“Yes, sir.” Shoji stumbled back out the engine room doors to do as directed and get checked out. Izuku wouldn’t be surprised if medical held him overnight for observation. Events like this can really shake a person up. Hell, Izuku was shook up. He had zero desire to lose any of his staff to a purge accident. Izuku took pride that no loss of life had happened in his tenure here the last two years. Engineering staff worked everyday under what they called ‘the threat of exposure’ - exposure to space. They might be brilliant madmen, but they weren’t suicidal. No one wanted to be sucked into space and die a breathless and freezing death.
The alarms finally stopped now that the air system had been cleared of smoke. Izuku shook his head, trying to clear the ringing already starting up from the sudden tick of silence. Maijima was back on comms with Command so Izuku looked over to Mei as she busied herself with reports from the console after the purge.
“Talk to me.” Izuku prompted, knowing she’d be lost in her work and not realize he was there anymore. As expected, she jumped from his sudden voice.
“Shit… yeah, okay. Uhm - This is a bit of a mess. Rotor four is back to normal operation from what I can see. However, we’re going to have to do a clean out before we can restart it just to make sure the fire didn’t do any damage. All readings on the rotor are normal, otherwise, though. Rotor two… that’s an absolute mess. I can see electrical damage at the very least, plus the fire was hot enough by our readings that it probably caused some warping or even welding in the internal structures. We might need to pull out some extra fan blades from storage. Can you get Tenya to run down to storage bay fifty-six, sub section thirty-two? There should be some down there. I’ll likely need both a front and back piece and I’d rather have them on hand up here before I go in.”
“Got it.” He tapped his comm, “Tenya, report.”
“Iida reporting in, all power levels nominal for a half shutdown, no fluctuations or alternating currents.”
“Excellent. Can you grab your deck rider with a transport truck and head down to storage bay fifty-six subsection thirty two? Mei needs a front and back rotor fan blade for the engine. The fire likely caused warping and we’re gonna need replacements. Take Ochako if you need help.”
“On it, boss! Ochako and I are heading out!”
Izuku grabbed the two tablets from their locked positions and tucked the staff register tablet onto his belt hook while he looped the engine stats tablet over his shoulder. He crouched down by the side of the engine core and unlocked one of the compartments with a wave of his ID bracelet. He grabbed the grav-boots from the locker and tossed the second pair over to Mei - who caught them without even looking at him as she typed on the console one-handedly. Izuku would never understand how Mei managed all that at once and still somehow got startled when he spoke.
“I’ll take rotor four since you already seem dead set on handling two, hm?”
Mei waved a hand, nodding while she continued to read reports on the console and tab through screens. Izuku rolled his eyes and went back to strapping on the grav-boots. These were one of the more expensive pieces of equipment they had in the engineering department. The crew was only allowed to use them for specialized repair work on the engines since they were a safety requirement. The boots themselves looked like normal combat boots with steel toes but they had huge metal latches instead of regular shoelaces. He clipped them on, getting vague memories of snowboarding at a special retreat station when he was a kid. The shoes were similar in design. Izuku grabbed the remote and tucked it into his belt and started his ascent up the engine core. Mei would head up to her own rotor when she was ready.
This was one of the more enjoyable parts of the job. Enjoyable in that it felt like an adventure. He grabbed the metal ladder that snaked up and around the whole central core of the engine and started to hoist himself upwards. The engines were floor to ceiling cylinders so it was almost a two hundred foot drop if you weren’t using anchor gear and grav-boots. Granted, Izuku didn’t engage his grav-boots until he reached the top, which wasn’t the standard procedure but he didn’t have the time or patience to engage and un-engage the damn boots at every rung of the ladder. That would take far too much time, even if it was the standard safety procedure. He’d been climbing these machines since he was six years old and he wasn’t about to fall now.
Once he made it to rotor four, he took out an electric screwdriver and unlocked the entry to the rotor housing. Before entering, he tapped his comm.
“This is Izuku, heading into rotor four, I repeat, heading into rotor four.” Mei affirmed his location at the console and locked down the unit so it wouldn’t start up accidentally while he was inside. Even if it was powered off, he preferred the safety locks being on while they worked. He heard the locks engage across the way which meant rotor two was also locked down and Mei was on her way up.
Izuku crunched himself into the small opening after shifting the rotor fans out of the way. Visually, the rotor looked okay from a cursory glance, but Izuku knew better than to let that stand for his professional opinion.
“Hey Zu.” Mei’s voice sounded over his comm unit.
“Sup, Mei?”
Izuku took out a wrench and started unlatching the locks holding the fan blades in place so he could move around more easily and also check every corner of the rotor. The whole rotor housing was just barely large enough to fit Izuku sitting upright without crunching his neck. It was about twice that in length.
“I was right, it’s a mess over here. The back blade is practically welded to the unit wall, and the blade is so warped I’m not sure we can get it out of here without a plasma cutter. Do you have one with you?”
“Let me check.”
Izuku parsed through his gear belt, yanking out a few tools to look into all the pockets. Eventually, he found his hand-held plasma cutter and set it by the entry hole to the housing.
“I got it, let me know when you’re ready and I’ll pass it over.”
“Thanks!”
Izuku turned back to his work, finally getting the front rotor blade detached so he could see further into the column. There was a small scorch mark on the upper right corner near where the electrical came into the housing. That was likely the start of the fire, the question was…did it travel down the electric lines from rotor two into rotor four. If so, they’d have to pull the whole batch of wires and replace them.
“Maijima-san.” Izuku called over his comms.
“Report.” Came the clipped reply.
“I might have an issue here. There’s a small scorch mark indicative of electrical fire leading from the central core. I think the fire may have traveled the lines from rotor two into four across the core. I don’t have to tell you the headache that would cause if that’s what I find.”
Maijima groaned loudly over the comms. If the electrical lines from the core were burnt, they’d have to do a full unit shutdown on the engine, and strip the housing off the central cylinder to get to the wires. It was a nasty ordeal that took at least two days to complete because of all the safety procedures. On top of that, it would leave the whole of sector five without power completely. Engine six couldn’t pick up that much slack for two days, which means they’d have to divert power from engine four as well, to compensate. The nightmare of paperwork that that would cause made Izuku’s head spin. Not to mention the implications for all the other departments. Sector five housed the primary resource labs. They wouldn’t be affected by this short half power situation today, but in a full shut down, they’d need backup generators set up so they wouldn’t risk losing power and thus the station losing valuable resource production for supplies.
“Alright, kid, just figure it out. We gotta do what we gotta do.”
“Understood. I’m diving in.”
Actually, it had been almost an hour, maybe he should be early for a check in with Shouta for once. Shouta only required these check-ins during emergencies or when Izuku was inside heavy machinery - which made sense. Despite him being eighteen and also the second in command of engineering, he was still a kid compared to pretty much the whole of the station’s main command. He was the youngest, by a far margin. Of course, that had led to a hilarious incident when Izuku first arrived two years ago as a bright eyed sixteen year old. Command had been informed of the new hire as Maijima’s backup, an aspiring engineer with a shining record. No one thought the Commission would send a teenager to fix their station. Despite most of the second in command staff being around his age, he was still the youngest by a year or three.
Izuku had more than earned his place in the last two years, though. His co-workers respected him, command paid attention to his suggestions, and he even had a pretty decent social life on the side, when he wasn't working - which was almost never. The station was still orbiting, so people were fairly happy, even if the damn place tried to blow itself up every five minutes(despite Izuku’s best efforts).
He flipped his comm channel over and reported to Shouta.
“Izuku reporting in. I’m currently investigating one of the rotors in engine room five. This might be worse than we originally thought, but I’m safe and secure.”
“Good. Next check-in is two hours, get your work done.”
“Understood. How’s Eri?”
“She’s fine. School started late because of the alarms, but everything is fine. Ugh, hold on.” Izuku could hear him shouting at someone in the background before uncovering his comm. “That damn blonde brat is going to be the death of me. Look, I’ve gotta send a crew down there to inspect the hazards. I’ll have them ping Maijima when they’re on the deck.”
Izuku peeked out of the rotor housing to find Maijima on his comm as well as three separate tablets, likely addressing the paperwork that went with this mess.
“Don’t bother, Shouta. Just have them ping me. I can let them in remotely but they have to put on safety gear because of the recent purge, no exceptions. We are all on anchors and stasis masks until the engine is cleared.”
“Understood. Aizawa out.”
Izuku rolled his eyes. He knew exactly which blonde Shouta was speaking about. Katsuki Bakugo. He was one of only two other resident aboard that wasn’t born here, like Izuku. Katsuki likely didn’t know about Izuku being here, though. They’d never met since he arrived two years ago, Izuku had done his best to avoid it. They’d been born on the same station and grew up together, but their parents’ friendship fell out and Izuku’s mom moved them to a station that focused mainly on training kids for future careers in the tech industry since that’s what Izuku wanted to go into, engineering and technology. Before they left, Katsuki and Izuku had a massive falling out over something stupid. He couldn’t even remember what. They hadn’t spoken or communicated since middle school as a result.
The ping came thirty minutes later when Izuku was neck deep into the wire housing for the rotor checking the leads to make sure none of the wires from the central core were damaged. The beep made him jump and smack his head off the housing.
“Ouch…stupid thing.” Grumbling, he took out his phone and stuck it between his cheek and shoulder as he reached both hands back into the wire housing. “Yeah?”
“Security crew here, at engine room five entry door.”
“Strap in. There’s a locker full of extra gear. Post purge, everyone is required to wear harnesses and stasis masks until the engine room has been cleared. I’ll let you in once you register on my panel. All of you. How big is your unit?”
“Three. Unit lead is Katsuki Bakugo, then me, Eijirou Kirishima, and lastly Mina Ashido. We’d normally be four but our last unit member Denki Kaminari was called to aid in another sector.”
“Okay. Strap in, once all three of you pop on our gear panel, I’ll unlock the doors.”
“Got it!”
Izuku hung up his phone and tossed it aside. Of course Shouta had to send Katsuki over here. Izuku sighed. He unlatched the employee gear tablet and set it to the side and opened the secondary tab for other members in the engine room that aren't registered as engineers. Once they all strapped in and registered their gear to their ID’s, they would pop on this panel so he could see them.
In the meantime, he inspected a few more wires and was pleasantly surprised to find the central engine core wasn’t damaged. Or rather, there was no damage leading from the core into this rotor. Good news, for once. Instead, it looked like Mei had been right about the oxygen returns. That's what caused rotor four to spark. But, they'd shut it down and purged before any real damage could happen. He'd need to replace a few electrical lines and one small section of pipe, but for now, the damage wasn't emergent.
“Maijima-san. Crisis averted. No central core electrical damage detected.”
“Thank God. Good work, keep going. Mei is gonna need your help in a moment. Where’s that inbound security team?”
“Gearing up outside. I’ll handle them.”
“Thank you.”
Izuku was not thrilled to see Katsuki again, if only because he had no idea how the blonde would react to seeing him, let alone having not known he was here for two years and never having reached out. Izuku had been extremely careful in his avoidance, and Shouta had helped out more than a few times in keeping them apart since he knew Izuku's story.
His tablet beeped and all three security IDs popped up. Izuku took a breath and braced himself. He flipped the tablet back to the main screen and unlocked the front entry doors, allowing the security team to head inside for their inspection.
“Mei. I’m almost done here, I replaced a few burnt wires but it looks like this secondary fire was a fluke and only caused by extra strain from the loss of rotor two in the oxygen return lines. Heading over to you in just a second.”
“Awesome. I am gonna need help. Where are Tenya and Ochako with those blades?”
“They should be back any minute. Actually, they might be in the air lock with the inbound security team. Timing is about right.”
“Kay.”
Izuku unlocked his grav-boots and strapped his tablets back to himself. One at his hip, the other hanging from a strap over his shoulder. Once the rotor blade was back in place and secure, he slipped back out the small housing entry and locked his grav-boots to the ladder while screwing the entry door shut. He could hear voices below him, likely the security team talking to Maijima. A loud gasp sounded and Izuku looked down. Oh, right, he must look kind of precarious up here hanging on by only his grav-boots. It felt weird, but he was used to them by now.
“Is he gonna fall!?” A woman’s voice, probably that Mina girl, called.
“Not at all. He has grav-boots on. At least, he better have them on!” Maijima shouted.
“I do, I do, Maijima! Don’t worry!” Izuku waved a hand. Up here, hopefully Katsuki wouldn’t see his face or hear his voice properly. Maybe he’d be lucky and the security inspection would finish before they completed rotor two. Izuku was right in his timing estimates, Tenya’s voice sounded over the comms.
“Izuku, we’re back with the rotor blades. We’re on walkway five, preparing to feed them over to you via secure lines. Can you be latch point?”
“On it, one second, let me hand off some tools to Mei.”
The pink haired mechanic peeked her head out of the housing with an offered hand. Izuku passed over the plasma cutter and the tablet with the engine readings since she’d need it for this project. Latching his harness anchor down and settling his grav-boots onto the core instead of the ladder so he had a more sturdy and flat grip, Izuku hit his comms once more.
“Okay, toss me the latch point, Tenya.”
“Roger!”
A large carabiner hook came flying towards him. Izuku grabbed it in mid air and secured it to an anchor point beside himself, then tugged on it to test the connection.
“Latch point secure, I’ll feed over the ruined blades in a second. Mei has to rip them out with a plasma cutter to get them free. Can you feed over a few tie downs?”
“Sending over ties now.”
Izuku grabbed the little package of tie wraps and secured it to his belt. Mei had been using the cutter for a solid five minutes now. Izuku hoped it didn’t look as bad in there as he thought it might. After another minute, she fed down the first half of the front blade. It was warped and scorched something pitiful. Izuku sighed, resting the blade on his stomach and legs while he made a secure loop around the blade and the line. He was laying almost perpendicular to the engine core, which only made his work a little more troublesome, but he managed.
“Heads up!” He warned as he fed the first half of the blade over the line to the walkway. His co-workers caught it and unloaded the fan blade just as Izuku was handed the second half by Mei. The rest of the blade parts were successfully removed and Ochako sent back the new rotor blades which Izuku handed up to Mei one at a time. Normally this would be a two person job, but Izuku and Mei were both well known for their incredible strength and durability with machinery parts. Some of their fellow engineers really believed they were part synthetic as a result.
“Alright, we’re good to go. Thanks Zu!” Mei said cheerily over the comms. “I can take it from here, go tend the paperwork we all know is waiting for you.”
Izuku groaned, but didn’t argue. He was sure Mei could handle the install of two rotor blades on her own and whatever repairs needed to be done inside the housing as well. It might take longer without help, but maneuvering in those rotor housings was tough for one person, let alone two.
“Alright, unlatching line and heading down to the main floor. Maijima - head’s up!”
He glanced below to see Maijima gently usher the security group out of the way so Izuku could make a quick exit. There were three steps to this process. Step one: unlock his grav-boots. Step two: unlock his anchor. Step three: grab the ladder railing and slide. When he reached the halfway point, he hit the grav-boots remote for a slow engagement and his descent speed dropped to a leisurely pace until he reached the bottom and disengaged them so he could jump down.
“That never gets old.” He mumbled.
“No, but your recklessness does.” Maijima ruffled his hair.
“Hey! I’ll have you know we haven’t had any incidents in like two months!”
“Mhmm, what about shoji?”
“Gear mishap, not our fault! It passed inspection. I checked!”
Maijima sighed and sat back down at the console, which left Izuku to the security team. So far, no one was freaking out, but oh right, he still had his stasis mask on which hid half of his face, even when deactivated. Maybe he could use that to his advantage.
“Hi! I’m Mina Ashido, call me Mina - who are you?”
Or maybe he’d be revealed in the first five seconds.
“I’m Eijirou Kirishima! Call me Kiri, everyone does. This grumpy fellow over here is Katsuki Bakugo. But everyone just called him Baku-”
“Mhm, I know Kacchan.” Shit. Izuku slapped a hand over his mask, and in effect - his mouth. Shit shit shit, habits why???
“What the hell did you just call me?!” Katsuki stalked over to him, “Who told you that name?!” A very angry blonde grabbed the front of Izuku’s shirt and hoisted him up slightly so they were eye level. That’s when Katsuki caught those bright green eyes and Izuku knew it was over. “De-...Izuku?! What the hell are you doing here?”
“Uhm…my job?” Izuku tilted his head.
“I’d appreciate it if you put my second in command down, Bakugo. It’s not polite to grab people who outrank you like that.” Maijima threatened. Bakugo just stared at Maijima, dumbfounded.
Izuku used this opportunity to extricate himself from Katsuki’s fist that was still trying to make a knot of his shirt. Thudding down to the ground, Izuku started to unstrap his grav-boots while everyone else had a fit over his identity.
“Wait, isn’t Izuku that friend you talk about all the time, Bakubro?” Kiri asked.
“Yeah, the one that moved away or whatever when you were kids?”
Huh, so Katsuki talked about him? Maybe he wasn’t hated, after all. Maybe there was a chance to repair their broken friendship. Or, maybe Izuku was just imagining something he desperately wanted.
“Izuku.” Maijima handed him a tablet when he looked up. Izuku groaned.
“Seriously? Another round of I-497 forms? Haven’t we filled these out enough?”
“I don’t make the rules, kiddo. I just follow them. Fill that out and submit it by the end of the day.”
“Mhmm.” Izuku set his boots back into their compartment and looked over the forms after he put his own boots back on. Or he tried to, until the tablet was ripped from his grip. “Kacchan! Give that back!”
“Not until you tell me what the hell you’re doing here, Deku.”
“I told you, I work here. The Commission assigned me to the USJ Nishimura two years ago to keep her in operational order for as long as possible.”
“Wait, you’re the engineer that’s been keeping this floating heap of space junk flying?” Mina asked, leaning around Katsuki’s side.
“Yeah. Well, I’m one of them. The whole department works really hard to keep the station in orbit. Not just me.”
“Right, but you’re the genius the Commission sent over to help Maijima-san, right?” Mina pushed.
“Yes, I suppose. Kacchan please, give me the tablet back, I have stupid paperwork to do.”
Katsuki didn’t fight Izuku’s grasping hands anymore, letting him have the tablet while he looked on with a confused face. The look was much softer than the scowl he’d been wearing before.
“You’ve been here for two years?” He asked quietly. Izuku hummed his agreement as he worked on the papers. “Two years, Deku, and you never even told me you were here?”
“Didn’t think you wanted to talk to me after how we ended things back then.”
Katsuki growled, both hands sinking into his blonde locks in exasperation mostly likely. Izuku looked up, confusion marring his own face for a while. Why was Katsuki so upset? They hadn’t spoken since they were kids.
“You damn idiot!” Katsuki growled, storming off towards the engine room doors. Izuku tilted his head.
“He talks about you all the time, ya know?”
“What?” Izuku asked as Kirishima spoke.
“Yeah, Kiri’s right. He always brings up silly stories or good times from when he was a kid. He really seems to miss you. But uhh, I guess you didn’t miss him?”
“What?! Of course I missed him!” Izuku again slapped a hand over his mouth. His outburst paused Katsuki in his tracks for only a second. Izuku saw the turn of his head, but it didn’t stop him from taking the ladder back up to the doors in the next second.
“Well, anyway, we’ll tell him that. We were done with our inspection anyway. We just wanted to watch the whole crazy project you had going on but we should head out.”
Izuku nodded.
“It was nice meeting you!” Kirishima called as Mina dragged him towards the exit.
In the next few minutes, their ID tags clicked off his tablet and Izuku was left with only his paperwork and a really lost expression on his face. Katsuki had missed him all this time? He wasn’t angry with Izuku for how their friendship ended? Why didn’t that reassure him at all?