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Hero Time

Summary:

Around 5 years ago, two Plumbers went missing. It is up to Ben Tennyson (savior of the whole entire universe)... and his partner Rook to find them. Though why he's with a Quirkless middle schooler is anyone's guess. Oh and there's the whole issue of him being a vigilante but whatever.

Notes:

OK, so this is my first fanfic and against my better judgement I decided a crossover between two series I really liked was the best idea to start with. Comments, reviews and criticism is much appreciated.

Chapter 1: Pilot

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya was currently having the worst day in the history of bad days. Of course, his life was essentially bad day after bad day but this day was easily one of the worst days he’s had.

To start with, his childhood friend Kacchan attacked him with his Quirk but that’s just par for the course. Well, until Kacchan told him to kill himself. He must of been in a really bad mood but that was just the start of it. Even with the suicide baiting, the day wouldn’t even reach top 10.

It reached top 10 when he nearly died because some villain attacked him under the shady underpass he always goes under on the way home. In hindsight, it’s kind of a miracle it took that long for him to be attacked...

However, it quickly left the top 10 worst days and entered the top 10 best days of his life when All Might saved him and it likely would’ve stayed that way if he hadn’t stupidly clung to All Might’s leg as he was taking off. Again, hindsight is 20/20.

That’s when things turned weird. As it turns out, the extremely buff form that essentially embodies all the strength, kindness and heroism of All Might isn’t his true form. His true form is some lean looking guy that looks like he’s been homeless for years. Izuku would’ve been alright with that; he learned something no one else does of All Might and he still got to meet All Might so... Top 5 best days? And that’s when things went to shit.

“Can someone without a Quirk become a hero like you?”

“Without power, can one become a hero? No, I should think not”.

And that landed this emotional rollercoaster of a day on the Top 3 worst days of his life. Honestly Izuku didn’t know what he was expecting. All his life people had been telling him he couldn’t be a hero without a quirk but there was something different about hearing it from the Symbol of Peace himself. All Might was right; he needed to start being realistic about his goals.

But of course, the universe wasn’t done making him miserable. He needed to suffer for daring to think he could ever be a hero without a quirk and so he found himself face to face with the same villain that tried to kill him.

Ok to be fair, this is partly his fault because he actually ran to the villain when he could’ve walked away but Kacchan was dying and nobody was going to help him! What was he supposed to do? Walk away? Probably for when he actually ran forward and threw his bag at the Sludge Villain, the Sludge Villain merely surrounded Izuku’s body with those tentacles of his.

All Izuku succeeded in this little stunt was to be captured just like Kacchan was. He was going to end up as just another victim of villains, a statistic.

Why didn’t he listen to everyone? Did he really think that he could help save someone when the Symbol of Peace himself said he wouldn’t be able to? Why was he such a dumb idiot? If five Pro Heroes couldn’t take this guy down, what hope did a Quirkless middle schooler have?
‘Maybe I’ll get a Quirk in the next life’ Izuku thought.

However, just as Izuku was giving up he heard a loud noise.

“It’s hero time!” someone exclaimed in a gravelly voice.

When Izuku looked up, he saw some rock man that was on fire with an hourglass symbol on his chest. He didn’t look like any Pro Heroes he knew and that was surprising because he was the biggest Hero fanboy in the world. A hero from another country perhaps?

Suddenly the molten man held up his hands and the fires caused by Kacchan immediately flew towards him. Once they reached him, the rocks he was made of glew a whitish colour and the fire surrounding his head grew bigger.

It was subtle but Izuku could feel the Sludge Villain tense up as if he realised this new challenger could end him at any moment. He had stopped trying to possess Kacchan after all and was now focused on the magma man in front of him.

“Don’t come any closer! Or I’ll kill these kids” The Sludge Villain said as it grew a couple more tentacles before shapeshifting them into blades to cut Izuku and Bakugou. While, no one could see it, one had the idea that the Sludge Villain was giving his opponent a smug smirk as he casually threatened the lives of two kids.

The air was tense. While there were no fires anymore, the villain holding blades mere inches from the throats of children left the Pros unable to do anything even if their Quirks were suited for the job.

The magma man, on the other hand, merely gave an unimpressed look at his opponent.

“Really, dude? A hostage situation?” he said flatly as he narrowed his eyes.

The Pros turned to yell at him for treating this situation without the care it required and Death Arms tried to bargain with the Sludge Villain.

The magma man on the other hand merely raised his hand and threw a flaming shuriken at the Sludge Villain’s blades at which point several things happened at once. The shuriken cut through the monster like a hot knife through melted butter. The Sludge Villain screamed in agony and released it’s two hostages.

Before the villain could do make another move, the magma man flew towards him and punched the villain. Like with Death Arms, his punch was swallowed by the mass of goo. Unlike Death Arms, this hero had a bit more firepower at his disposal and proceeded to increase the heat of his punch. The villain let out another scream but this one sounded more fearful in nature rather than as a response to pain.

Pretty soon, the green slime started to glow orange and the villains howls of pain increased. It continued like that until the villain exploded and the entire alleyway was filled with green sludge.

The symbol on the magma man started making a weird noise before the man was encased in a red glow. In the place of the flaming man was now a brunette teenage boy dressed in green. A smug smirk adorned his face.

“All in a day’s work. While I do love a good cheer; please, keep your comments on how awesome I am to a minimum”, the boy said.

While the boy may have been expecting some flattery on the efficiency of his takedown of the villain, what he got was much more different.

“Where’s your Hero License?” Death Arms said in a low voice.

“My Hero - what now?” the boy said in confusion.

“Your Hero License. It allows a person to use their Quirk and fight villains without the instruction of a Pro Hero” Death Arms said before continuing. “Without one, you’ve just broken the law on two accounts by committing not only an act of unregulated Quirk usage but also an act of vigilantism”.

Now if the boy played his cards right, the worst he’d get was a warning.

“Ok, I’m going to pretend I know what you mean by ‘Quirk’ and ignore that for now but from what I understand, you lot weren’t doing your jobs right”.

The boy turned to Death Arms in particular with the smug grin.

“Now listen here-” Death Arms started but was interrupted.

“I mean a kid was drowning in sewage and you couldn’t do anything. Not only that but you let another kid run towards the hostage situation. While you were just standing by, doing nothing important, I put out the fires, saved the lives of two kids and defeated the villain”.

With each insult to the Pro Hero or self-praise, Death Arms’ glare noticeably intensified. The same could be said for several of the other Pro Heros though one or two looked embarrassed at the fact that they could do little more than prevent the inevitable death of a child.

“Besides even if what I did was illegal it’s not like your going to arrest me for saving lives, are you?” the boy said.

While this was happening Izuku decided it was best to just go home. As much as he wanted to get notes on the interesting boy with the transformation Quirk, he needed to do some re-evaluating now that his dream was completely and thoroughly crushed. Little did he know that a tall, gaunt, blond man was following him.


As if his day couldn’t get worse from being told to kill himself, having his dreams shattered by the man he looks up to the most, nearly dying twice etc. he was confronted by Kacchan on the way home.

“Deku! Don’t you dare think what you did fucking mattered! I could have beaten that villain by myself and there was no way in hell that your shitty ass helped save me!” Bakugou growled before turning on his way.

“He’s right” Izuku said sadly.

“I couldn’t do anything in that fight and only succeeded in adding another hostage the Pros had to worry about”.

As Izuku was about to go home, he was interrupted by All Might charging in front of him and yelling “I AM HERE!” before spewing blood.

“All Might! What are you doing here?!”

“Kid. Truth be told, your actions have made me rethink our earlier conversation and I have a proposal of sorts to offer you”. All Might said.

“B-B-But I didn’t do anything!” Midoriya exclaimed. “I only succeeded in making the situation worse by giving the villain another hostage” Midoriya said as he looked down at the ground.

“While, that’s true from a certain point of view, you cannot overlook your intent”

“My intent?”

“While that villain was holding your classmate hostage and the Pros were unable to do anything but wait for someone with the right Quirk, you charged forward. It didn’t matter the danger you faced, all that mattered was that someone was in danger and you wanted to help them. You moved without even having to think about it, didn’t you?”

“Y-yeah but what does that have to do with anything?” Midoriya stammered.

“Many great heroes claim that their bodies moved without thinking and judging by your actions, you have the personality of a true hero. If that boy hadn’t shown up, your actions would’ve spurred me into action. I just feel that that would be the case”.

As All Might praised him, Midoriya starts to get increasingly flustered. However, it was All Might’s next words that finally broke the dam of his tear ducts.

“Young man, I believe can become a hero”.


As it turns out, yes they were going to arrest him for saving the lives of two kids. Ben didn’t quite understand, well anything in this scenario. What the hell was a Quirk and why did you need a license to save people?!

This was meant to be a vacation. OK, not really. Him and his partner, Rook, were meant to be checking up on a couple of Plumbers who hadn’t contacted them back in a while. But come on! Just because they were on a mission didn’t mean they couldn’t see the sights, meet the people, maybe expand the scope of his followers. Small stuff like that.

He did not think taking down someone holding two hostages, starting fires and defeating a guy who was giving five “Pro Heroes” trouble would get him arrested! What even was a “Pro Hero” anyway?

“You’re free to go, kid” an officer with a cat face said.

“Finally realised that arresting me was bit of an overreaction?” Ben snarked.

“No. You got bail”.

The only response Ben could give was a small grunt before being led to the entrance of the station. When he got there, he saw his partner, Rook, giving him a disappointed look. They walked in silence but it was broken by the time they got to Rook’s truck.

“We have not even been in this country for six hours and you have already gotten arrested” Rook flatly said.

“Oh sorry. I didn’t realise that saving lives was a criminal offense”

“Given your track record, I’m sure it was actually the property damage you caused while doing so that got you arrested”.

“No. I kept property damage to a minimum, I swear. The reason they arrested me was because apparently I need a license to save lives” and that comment caused Rook’s eyes to widen before using the in-built computer interface on the dashboard.

“Apparently to prevent Quirks from creating a societal collapse, the Quirk Regulation Act was put into action”. Rook read off the screen.

“Right. What exactly is a Quirk?” Ben asked.

“A quirk is a special ability that an individual possesses. While you transform into aliens for combat, these individuals simply have Quirks. For example, the Number 2 Hero, Endeavor, possesses pyrokinesis much like how you use Heatblast. They come in three types; Emitter, Transformation and Mutation. Emitters allow the user to release certain matter or energy, transformations allow the user to change their body in some way while mutations permanently affect the user” Rook explained.

“I see. So like, how Kevin can absorb matter and energy despite being human”.

“Yes. While, there is a bit of controversy regarding the Osmosian species as former Proctor Servantis had no means of fabricating that much evidence or extending his reach beyond the Plumber’s influence, one possible explanation is that Kevin’s powers do originate from a Quirk”.

“Ok but that doesn’t explain why I got arrested for saving lives and defeating a villain” Ben said annoyed.

“It would seem that to compensate for the increase in criminal activity, the government implemented the rise of Heroes. People could use their Quirks to help others and fight criminals. However, to maintain the stability of society, anyone using a Quirk or participating in heroism without the proper approval would be deemed a vigilante. You simply transforming and fighting was in clear breach of these of these guidelines” Rook responded.

“I guess. I mean I still find the idea of arresting people for helping a stupid idea but I guess I understand. Hey where are we going anyway?” Ben said.

Rook merely sighed before responding “Have you forgotten why we’re here in the first place? We need to make contact with Plumbers Smith and Midoriya. Said Plumbers have been off the grid for the last five years. It is only thanks Patelliday noticing an abnormality in the ranks that we are even on this mission”.

“Right” Ben said. “What do we know about them?”

“Midoriya would often take assignments in Japan and has a record of going off the grid for undetermined lengths of time. For his part Smith is mostly clean aside from being dragged along for Midoriya’s adventures” Rook explained. The two Plumbers were silent for a moment before Ben broke it.

“Hey Rook, you think I’ll be able to get one of those Hero Licenses?”

Rook smiled. “Who knows? From what I understand, it requires a great deal of skill and intelligence to achieve. It might just be too much for you”.

“I’ll have you know I passed the Plumber’s exam with 95 out of 100” Ben said in a somewhat offended tone before smirking “And what exactly did you get?”

Rook frowned before responding “87 but in my defense I had to take my test in a trailer after the Vreedles blew up the Plumber Academy”.

“So what you’re saying is that I beat you?” Ben asked with a smug tone.

As the two continued their conversation while travelling to their destination, they failed to realise that they were being followed by a drone.

“Hm. Plumbers. I had hoped they would have forgotten about me by now but I guess we can’t all get what we want now, can we?” remarked a figure in shadows.

Chapter 2: Heroes Cross

Notes:

Honestly I'm not very pleased with this chapter. A lot of the timing is weird and the Paradox exposition felt forced but I really just wanted to get to Ben and Midoriya interacting without beating around the bush. I don't feel it's entirely terrible. I felt Ben and Midoriya's individual scenes were good (or at least passable) and I'm pleased with the fight scene but the ending kinda just feels forced.

Because I don't think it's clear enough I'll say it here. Ben and Rook's scene happens just after the last chapter, which means the Sludge Villain attacked earlier that day. Midoriya and All Might's "training" took place two days afterwards meaning that there is a two day gap between the first scene and the second. It takes place in the evening, rather than the morning because I am a dumbass who didn't bother checking the scene again.

As I said before comments, reviews and criticism is much appreciated.

Chapter Text

“Now this is just a hunch but I think this might, just might, be a trap” said Ben while outside the shady warehouse that was the last known location of the two Plumbers they’re searching for and causing Rook to turn to him.

“And just what makes you say that?” questioned Rook.

“Come on, dude! Abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town? They had no reason to be here for whatever they were doing”. Ben ranted before giving his partner a confused look. “What exactly were they doing here anyway?”

“Well I was about to ask Magister Tennyson but you immediately took off as soon as he said ‘you’re going to Japan’” Rook replied, clearly frustrated at the incident.

Ben gave Rook a blank stare before walking towards the warehouse.

The warehouse door opened with a large creak and just like exterior, the interior was devoid of anything that hinted at recent activity. In fact it seemed to be completely empty.

Ben turned to Rook and said “Well, if we’re in the right place, this is definitely a trap”.

“I fail to see how the location being empty makes the possibility of a trap anymore certain”.

“C’mon, this is where their badges were tracked to, right?” Ben replied and Rook nodded his head in response.

“So two Plumbers have gone missing, their badges just happened to be in a warehouse on the outskirts of town where they did not have to be. Face it. If they haven’t betrayed us, then they’ve been taken out by someone who knows what the Plumbers are and in both scenarios their badges are somewhere they had no business being, likely meant to lure more Plumbers to their doom”. Ben explained.

Rook looked as if he was being torn between conceding Ben’s point or continuing with the mission. He decided to do both.

“Be that as it may, it is still our duty as Plumbers to retrieve their badges if for no other reason than to prevent alien technology from getting into the hands of those who are clearly not ready for it” Rook sternly stated.

“Whatever, man”.

And so Ben and Rook searched the warehouse for the missing Plumber badges and searched and searched.

It wasn’t until half an hour later that they decided to take a break.

“OK I know I said this was a trap but are you sure we’re in the right place, Rook?”.

Rook looked at the interface on his Proto-Tool for what must’ve been the tenth time. “Their badges are recorded to be in this very warehouse”.

“Well, then I guess there’s only one thing left to do” Ben said with a smirk as he hit the Omnitrix.

As he was engulfed in the green light the Omnitrix gave off, his bone structure morphed to become more canine-like and his skin changed into orange fur; the form of Wildmutt.

Wildmutt sniffed around until his scent caught something. Moving towards the wall at the back, Wildmutt eventually stopped at the center before digging into the bottom of the wall. While it was apparent that Wildmutt had found a secret passageway, all doubt immediately vanished when his digging caused him to fall into it.

“Ben!” Rook exclaimed before following him into the passageway.

Rook found himself in a large spacious room filled with old and new technology. In the center there was a large computer screen. Ben had already transformed back into himself and messing with a gadget. In Ben’s hands were two Plumber badges.

“Found them” Ben said without looking up from what he was doing.

Suddenly the device started making a crackling noise before a distraught voice was heard. “OK first, if some dumb kid accidentally stumbles onto this recording go to the police. Do not sniff around or such, just inform the police of the whereabouts of this hideout. My name is Adrian Smith. I’m a Plumber who was sent to Japan to investigate the Quirk Integration Project with my partner Hisashi Midoriya. However- wh-what are you doing here?! Hi-hs-hi”

The recording of Smith was interrupted by another voice but the static prevented the words from being made out. Ben was about to open his mouth when the computer started beeping dangerously.

Quickly using the Omnitrix to turn into Cannonbolt, Ben grabbed Rook and turned into his ball form just in time for the explosion to go off. When he thought it was safe, he released Rook and turned back into Ben before saying “OK, now might not be the best time but I just want you to know I totally called it being a trap”.

Rook just nodded in response before turning to look at the warehouse, now reduced to nothing more than ruins. Despite the outcome, he had achieved his objective. So what was the next course of action?


When All Might had told Midoriya that he could be a hero, he did not expect to be cleaning up the garbage beach. Granted he did not expect All Might to offer up his Quirk either. It’s still quite amazing to know that there’s a Quirk that can bestow power to others. If he had known about such a Quirk before, maybe Kacchan wouldn’t have bullied him for 10 years and maybe he might still have friendsinsteadofbeingasocialoutcastand-

“You really need to get a handle on that muttering habit of yours, kid” All Might interrupted his thoughts. Wait, had he been muttering out loud again?!

“I get that you have a lot of questions but it won’t do if you accidentally blurt out my secrets”

“Right!” Midoriya replied before continuing his ‘training’. And by training he meant trying to move a refrigerator with All Might sitting on top of it. The only progress he made was tripping and falling on the ground in tears.

“Why am I dragging this garbage across the beach anyway?”

“Being a hero isn’t just about saving lives and defeating villains, it’s about volunteer work regardless of how unglamorous it is. But besides that currently you are an ill-suited vessel for my power” All Might said from atop the fridge.

“But I thought you said I was worthy!” Midoriya cried.

“You are but your body isn’t ready for my Quirk. One For All binds the strength of multiple people together and your limp-noodle body just isn’t ready to handle it yet. If you were to take my Quirk now, your limbs would pop right off!!” All Might exclaimed.

“My limbs!” Midoriya screamed. He was seriously having second thoughts about taking All Might’s Quirk now.

“However, that’s what my self-designed “pass the american dream” plan is for!” All Might exclaimed. “With this, you should be able to get into U.A by the time the Entrance Exam rolls around”.

“U.A!” Midoriya exclaimed. “I’ve always dreamed of going to U.A considering it is where you went All Might”.

“You fanboy! Well in any case, this training will help you pass the Entrance Exam. However, I should warn you that your journey is going to be super tough. Can you handle it?”

Midoriya looked up from the regimen he was given and gave All Might a large grin “Yes”.

And that would’ve likely started a big montage that showcased Midoriya’s months of training if it weren’t for one little detail. As Midoriya was finishing up his ‘training’ for the day, a large red man with four arms was thrown into the truck where he was loading up garbage.

“Sorry!” he yelled in a gravelly voice before turning to his assailants; three people in magenta suits of armor. One was large and bulky, another while not as big was still quite muscular while the third was thin and lean.

“Come on guys. It’s the same old crap with you. You hunt me down either by yourselves or as a team. We fight. I end up beating you and you escape. Rinse and repeat. Can’t we take a break from the whole trying to kill me thing?!” the man exclaimed in a tone that seemed almost like... whining?

The response he got was predictably all three of them shooting lasers at the man. Midoriya was paralyzed with fear but the man grabbed a hold of him and yelled “get down!” before putting him behind the vehicle.

Meanwhile the villains continued their barrage and after making sure Izuku was safe, the man turned around with a steeled gaze, prepared for battle. The lasers he didn’t dodge seemed to have no effect on him. Once the armored villains realized that their ranged weapons were not going to have any effect they charged at him.

Two of the villains opted to take flight with the thin one wielding an energy sword while the average one of the bunch wielding a buzzsaw forcing the red man on the defensive. This created an opening where the biggest of the bunch ran towards him and went to punch him with energized knuckles.

However, the multi-limbed man merely caught the punch and threw the villain into his comrade who landed a little too close to Izuku. The thinnest villain took this as her opportunity to drop down and impale the man through the back with an energy sword causing him to yell in pain before ripping out the sword.

It was at this moment that a man with black markings adorning his head appeared in blue armor.

“Ben!” he exclaimed before charging up his weapon and firing a shot at the thin villain. However, the shot was blocked by the bulky villain which let out a loud growl before releasing two wired tentacles which shot out missiles at this mysterious third party.

Given all the crazy stuff Izuku’s been privy to over the last few days, he shouldn’t have been surprised when the missiles were effortlessly dodged or when the thin villain was thrown into the bulky one’s back.

“You sure you don’t want to surrender or go home? I mean I’ve beaten all three of you by myself before and now my partner’s here to help me” The hero named Ben said with a smirk.

The two villains looked to each other and growled, hopefully meaning they were surrendering. They were not surrendering. In fact the large villain charged at the blue armored hero, turning his hands into laser gatling guns while the thin villain charged at the multi-limbed hero wielding dual energy swords.

As Izuku was watching the fight, he failed to notice the third villain twitch.

“Rook! You doing ok there?” the multi-limbed hero asked while dodging sword strikes.

The hero known as Rook turned his gun into a sword to fight the villain before responding “While I am physically unharmed, I fear SevenSeven is causing too much property damage for the locals”.

It was true. Every laser blast Rook dodged only ended up damaging the surrounding buildings and vehicles behind him. SevenSeven growled.

“What do you mean by ‘not my fault’?!” to which SevenSeven growled causing Rook to sigh in exasperation.

Meanwhile Ben wasn’t having much progress either. Seeing that the swords weren’t helping her fight, the villain abandoned them in favour of hand-to-hand combat. While it was likely the hero had more raw power, he was having trouble actually landing a hit on her. By contrast the villain had opted to land successive but much weaker hits on the hero when she wasn’t dancing around his own.

However, the tide was quickly turned when Ben slammed his hands into the ground knocking everyone off their balance, creating an opening for him to grab the villain and knock her out. Ben then threw the body at SevenSeven who evaded but created an opening for Rook to stab his sword into the armor electrocuting him.

“Well, I did tell you so” Ben said before transforming back into... the teenager that saved him from the Sludge Villain? Hold on. Didn’t his Quirk allow him to turn into a rock monster with pyrokinesis. Does he have two Quirks? But before he could ponder that thought anymore, Izuku was suddenly hoisted up into the air by the third villain. A laser weapon was right in Izuku’s face.

“Huh. A hostage in two different incidents in only two days. You have the worst luck, don’t you” Ben said with a smirk though it was clear he was starting to panic.

“Look. Sixsix, you’ve already been defeated. We’ve defeated your two stronger siblings so there’s no way you’re getting out of this. Just put the kid down, I won’t have to kick your butt again and we won’t have to resort to any unnecessary and possibly bloody violence” Ben said holding his hand up to his... watch?

However, this caused Sixsix to growl louder and hold the gun much too close to Izuku’s head.

“He says-” Rook started before he was interrupted.

“I know what he said!” Ben yelled. “I mean not actually but I got the gist of it. Don’t use the Omnitrix or I’ll shoot the kid, right?”

Rook merely nodded.

“Just use your Quirk!” Izuku yelled. “Turn into that flame monster or that guy from before and it’ll all be alright” Izuku was clearly crying now.

Ben merely gave a conflicted expression before whispering “Rook can you make the shot?”

Before Rook could even attempt it, Sixsix sent out a grenade that was similar to EMP which shorted out the Proto-Tool. In doing so he gave Ben an opening to try and take Izuku. However, Sixsix simply shot him causing Ben to fall to the ground. Izuku struggled but ultimately failed to release himself.

Sixsix started walking towards his comrades with Izuku in hand, using his tentacles to start messing with their equipment, likely to activate their jetpacks before-

“I AM HERE!” All Might exclaimed. Sixsix growled again but in the blink of an eye, Izuku was safe and Sixsix was on the receiving end of one of All Might’s trademark ‘SMASH!’ attacks.

“Young Midoriya, are you alright?!” All Might asked, missing the shocked expression on Rook’s face.

“Yes but All Might... This guy just died trying to save me and he’s the same person who saved me two days ago and he has two transformation Quirks and I justdon’tknowwhat...”

“Breathe, young Midoriya. You said this boy died saving you? I’ll make sure he gets a proper funeral” All Might said solemnly.

It was at that moment that Rook took his opportunity to speak up “Um. While we appreciate the gesture but you really do not have to do that. Can someone help me load these bounty hunters into my truck”.

Those words caused something to snap in Midoriya and he tried to punch Rook but Rook merely stepped out of the way.

“HOW DARE YOU?! You’re partner just died and you don’t seem to care”

“With all due respect, Ben is not dead”.

“Huh?” Midoriya said with a confused expression before hearing a pained groan coming from the ground.

“Ow. OK I could’ve played that a bit smarter” Ben said before looking up causing Midoriya to turn around.

“You’re alive”/“You’re ok!” the two boys exclaimed happily.

“Wait, alive?” Ben questioned. “That laser blast wasn’t that powerful” he said before clutching his chest in pain. “Right the sword, that’s gonna leave a mark”.

Just how many Quirks did this guy have?!

“Yeah, I actually don’t have a Quirk” Ben said.

“Oh crap, I said that out lou- wait WHAT?!” Midoriya yelled.

“But young man, your transformation into that magma man”
“and that four armed guy or how you survived that laser blast”

“And you seem to be regenerating from a sword wound fairly quickly”

““All that clearly points to a Quirk!!”” both Midoriya and All Might said at the same time.

“Well, first off my transformations are thanks to this” Ben said pointing to his watch. “The Omnitrix allows me to turn into about 70 different aliens. Trust me it’s just a piece of equipment. And secondly I fail to see how either of those make a Quirk. It’s pretty standard stuff”.

It was at that point All Might transformed back into his true form, spewing blood.

Ben’s eyes widened before saying “Y’know I feel like I should be shocked but I think that’d be pretty hypocritical of me”.

“Uh, don’t tell anyone. Not everyone is as outgoing with their secrets as you”.

“I mean, all my enemies know about it so keeping it a secret feels kinda pointless” Ben deadpanned before moving to help Rook load the villains in the truck.

“People don’t just regenerate from being impaled! You clearly have a Quirk!’ Midoriya yelled.

“Look. I just found out about Quirks two days ago so if I had a Quirk surely someone would have informed me about it especially when I was displaying such impossible abilities like healing fast or psychic dreams or an innate sense of metaphysics, right?” Ben tried to reason. He had loaded the last of the three bounty hunters into the truck.

“But you can’t be a hero without a Quirk!” All Might exclaimed.

Ben merely responded with a cold glare before saying “So have you always been this racist or is this a recent development?”.

“No- I-I-I was just stating a fact” All Might stuttered.

“Really? Because I don’t have a Quirk and I’ve saved that guy” Ben paused to point at Midoriya “twice in three days as well help capture four villains and save one other guy. Hey is that guy alright by the way?” Ben asked that question to Midoriya specifically while All Might could only gape.

“K-Kacchan’s fine but there’s something I don’t understand”

“Shoot”

“You say you didn’t know what a Quirk was until two days ago but currently 80% of the population has a Quirk. Even if you don’t have a Quirk, you should’ve at least known about them long before then”.

Suddenly a rift in space-time opened and a man in a lab coat and green goggles walked through. “I can answer that, Izuku Midoriya”.

“How-” Midoriya began to question before Ben interrupted “Timey-wimey time travel BS. All you need to know is that he’s a time traveller and knows everything”.

“Indeed. Anywho, Ben, quite simply you and your partner have come into contact with several time aberrations; beings that distort time, space or even reality itself. Hugo, Eon and more recently Maltruant; all of them are or were time aberrations and you Ben have come into contact with them all”.

“But what does that have to do with anything” Ben asked while Midoriya tried to process this information.

“Tell me Ben, why do you think I simply stand on the sidelines whenever conflict arouses despite being one of the most powerful time travellers in this reality. If I so chose, I could simply stop time and deal with any issue that arises. If I so chose, you wouldn’t have to do anything and there would be no need for a Symbol of Peace. Why do you think that is?” Paradox asked, grinning at his last statement.

“Now hold on, Mr. Paradox was it? While I have no doubt about your capabilities, I think saying that there would be no need for a Symbol of Peace is a bit of an exaggeration!” All Might exclaimed.

“Why hello Mr. Toshinori Yagi, it is a pleasure to meet you” Paradox said as if he had just noticed All Might was there. “Would you like a gumball?” Paradox asked holding a bag of gumballs that definitely wasn’t in his hand before.

“No.” All Might said with a dumbfounded expression before morphing it into a frustrated one to rant at Paradox for his earlier statement. Midoriya was trying to calm him down to no avail.

Ben however, was pondering Paradox’s question. Why had Paradox just stood back and allowed him to play hero? It couldn’t have been because he was unable to; he’d helped out in the past before. But even then he tended to have a fairly minor role in actually defeating those villains as Ben recalled back to the Highbreed War, in which Paradox’s only contribution was taking out nameless mooks.

‘Think Ben think. Why wouldn’t Paradox have a more active role in times of crisis’

Suddenly Ben recalled a couple of sentences Paradox had uttered during his fight against Aggregor.

“Travelling in time weakens the fabric of space. The reality in Los Soledad is already paper-thin”

“Well if you can defeat All for One with a snap of your fingers, why don’t you?!” All Might exclaimed. He looked as if he was on the verge of manhandling the professor.

“Who’s All for One?” Midoriya asked.

“Someone you don’t need to worry about Young Midoriya” All Might spoke firmly denying Midoriya the chance to argue.

“On the contrary, Toshinori, All for One is a being Midoriya has every right to be concerned about. The two have quite the history or is it will have? Tenses can be so confusing as a time traveller”. All Might was positively seething at that.

“It’s to protect the universe” Ben spoke with a firm tone, causing everyone to turn to him.

“What was that, young man?”.

“The reason Paradox can’t make too many direct actions is because as a time traveller any action he takes will create a ripple effect, which will weaken the space-time continuum as a result. But Paradox, that still doesn’t explain why I and Rook don’t know what a Quirk is”.

“Indeed. In many ways I could be considered a time aberration as well. However, the reason you and your partner were unaware of what a Quirk is because you two are well on your way to becoming aberrations yourselves” Paradox said with a grim tone.

“Having been in the centre of too many reality altering events has caused you to become displaced in time as it were, now able to notice changes to the timeline. This universe has deviated far from it’s original course and you two are now noticing it”.

Rook, who had been quiet until now finally spoke. “But Paradox, Ben was facing these ‘reality altering events’ long before I became his partner. How is it that both of us are affected?”

“While Ben has been a hero for longer than you have been a plumber, he did not actually start facing many aberattions until you showed up. That isn’t to say he didn’t face any aberattions at all; examples are Hugo and my time machine, which was not a failure-” Paradox glared at no one in particular before continuing.

“But make no mistake. Ben is further on his way to becoming an aberattion than you are. He’s simply been at the center of more events with more of an impact; even disregarding his creation of the universe and holding the Big Bang”.

“WHAT?!” Midoriya and All Might exclaimed before staring at Ben. ‘Just how powerful was this guy’ was the simultaneous thought they had on their minds.

Paradox paid them no mind. “As aberattions you two are beginning to notice the differences between timelines and one particular deviation...”

“... Is the emergence of Quirks” Rook said with realization.

“Indeed. While Quirks were going to make an appearance eventually they have appeared 200 years ahead of schedule as have certain individuals like those two” Paradox pointed to Midoriya and All Might who were still gaping at Ben.

Paradox turned back to Ben. “The reason I am here is because things are about to make a drastic change depending on you and Izuku. While I cannot say what, I will give you that free advice you requested. Do not use Alien X unless absolutely necessary. A celestialsapien’s mere presence can cause disastrous changes to the timeline after all. Izuku Midoriya is far more important than you realize and when the time comes to it, I trust you’ll do the right thing Ben” Paradox said before giving a cheerful “Toodles” and disappearing in thin air.

“Do-Does he always do that?!” All Might asked.

“Yeah, he just kinda shows up and disappears when it suits him” Ben replied.

“Hmph. Good riddance” All Might said.

“So you’re name is Izuku Midoriya?” Ben said turning to the green haired boy who’s probably still in shock.

“Y-y-yes!” Midoriya answered.

“Ben Tennyson” Ben said before shaking Midoriya’s hand.

“Excuse me. Do you have any relation to Hisashi Midoriya?” Rook asked peering over Ben’s shoulder.

Midoriya didn’t know why that question had such an effect on him, after all he hadn’t seen his father in years. Perhaps it was because he had finally reached his limit as to how much crazy shit he could handle in a day but regardless, his response was to faint right then and there.

“Young Midoriya!”

Chapter 3: Morality

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Eighteight couldn’t believe it, having just been placed in the truck while her brothers bickered about whose fault it was. She had been so sure that they would’ve been able to beat Tennyson this time. Her plan was foolproof and she made sure to double check it with her brothers...

Oh who was she kidding? They’ve never been able to defeat Tennyson even when he’s alone. He could’ve probably ended the fight right then and there with a different form. His partner showing up just ensured their defeat.

This was a stupid plan. They never should’ve done this but they were desperate for money. Repeated failed missions had caused their finances and resources to plummet and they really needed money if they were going to take care of Twotwo as well as themselves.

The only reason they took this mission was for the reward. 10 dumpsters of Taydenite. It was almost too good to be true! It probably was too good to be true but they needed the money and the bounty was against the person behind their repeated failures in the first place.

Well, whose fault it was didn’t matter. The top priority was finding a way to escape from the truck and find Twotwo, maybe scavenge some money or food for the night and go off from there. She’d survived Sotoroggia and found a way to leave with her family, this was child’s play by comparison.


“So, uh, do you know where lives?” Ben asked All Might.

“Unfortunately, I only have his contact details. This was the first day for his training, after all and I figured I’d get any details of his after training. I didn’t want to be overly presumptuous after all.”

“May I ask what training, this Midoriya is undertaking?” Rook asked though his eyes stayed on Midoriya’s unconscious form.

All Might didn’t say anything, conflicted about what to do in this situation.

“Right. Well I suppose we have been privvy to more of your secrets after all” All Might said with sheepish expression.

And so All Might told Ben and Rook the story of One For All. How it was a Quirk that passed on from generation to generation, getting more powerful with each bestowal and how Midoriya was the person he had chosen to succeed him.

“Surely there are better options than a defenseless middle schooler” Rook tried to reason while Ben processed what had been told to him.

“Well, the thing is I have been looking for a successor for a while and he’s the first to possess the personality of a true hero” All Might said, scratching his neck.

“A true hero?” Rook said incredulously.

“The drive to do good and put the needs of others above their own. Surely, young Tennyson you noticed young Midoriya’s heroic nature when he selflessly risked his life to save a classmate’s” All Might said directly to Ben.

“But from what Ben has told me, Midoriya only served to make the situation worse!” Rook exclaimed.

Ben was quiet for a moment before speaking “This Quirk. If Midoriya had it he’d surely be able to become a hero if he had it, right?”

All Might grinned “Without a doubt”.

Ben sighed “Then go for it. It’s not like it’s any of our business anyway”.

“I knew you’d see him for the kind hero he was destined to be!”

Ben was quiet before speaking “It’s not quite like that. Before acquiring the Omnitrix, I was just like him. I didn’t have any special powers but I wanted to help people. However, I know better than anyone that just because you want to help people doesn’t mean you actually can. All I did was add another casualty as it were and the people I tried to help weren’t exactly thankful for my efforts”.

Both Rook and All Might looked on with somber expressions. “Ben” Rook said softly.

“Besides if you don’t give him that Quirk he’s just gonna get himself killed anyway with that heroic nature of his” Ben said in a joking manner though all three present knew the likelihood of what he had said coming to pass.

“I do have one question though. Why was Midoriya cleaning trash from this beach?” Ben asked with a curious tone.

“Ah. Well, as he is now Midoriya is an ill-suited vessel for my Quirk. Because the Quirk stockpiles energy from generation to generation, it has gotten so powerful that a regular person just can’t handle the sheer power of it” All Might exclaimed.

“Right. So cleaning the beach is his training?”

“Indeed. Why if Midoriya tried to take my Quirk as he is now, his limbs would blow right off!” All Might said with a much too cheerful expression for the morbidity of what he had just said. Ben and Rook’s only response was their jaws dropping to the ground.

Once he had recovered Rook asked a question that sent shivers down All Might’s spine “And his parents are ok with this?”

“Uh-well you see. I was kinda planning on keeping it a secret from anyone who didn’t need to know...” All Might said while twiddling his fingers.

“And his parents don’t need to know about a potentially dangerous power that could critically injure their son if not handled properly?”

“Well...”

“I guess it’s a good thing we’re all dropping Midoriya off at his house then” Ben said with a smirk. “That should give you just the right opportunity to tell his parents what you’ plan to do with him”

“Midoriya is perfectly capable of getting home on his own!” All Might said desperately trying to stop this meeting.

“Nonsense. He’s just had a traumatic experience and is in no condition to be walking home at this time of night. Besides if his reaction to Rook’s question means what I think it does, we have business with one of his relatives anyway” Ben said with a sadistic grin on his face.


Midoriya didn’t know what to expect when he woke up. He certainly didn’t expect to wake up on the beach to see All Might looking scared while Ben and his partner glared daggers at him. Ben turned to him and said “Oh, you’re awake. Good. We would’ve dropped you off at your house but unfortunately you fainted and no one knows where you live”.

‘That’s right’ Midoriya thought. ‘I fainted after... after that guy asked me if I knew my father’.

Now the group were on their way to his house but that still left him curious as to why All Might was scared.

As if Ben read his mind (‘Can he read minds?’), he responded to Izuku’s thoughts. “Don’t worry. All Might is just preparing how to tell your parents about One For All”

Midoriya’s eyes widened before muttering in a downwards spiral “B-b-but he can’t tell my mother about One For All. She’s gonna prevent me from accepting it and then I can’t be a hero! And then I’ll end up in some lousy office job and I’ll end up all alone and in depression and then-”

“Hey! Calm down and just relax. I can assure you that everything’s gonna turn out alright” Ben said in a soothing voice before grinning “Besides I don’t have a Quirk and I’m a great hero”.

Midoriya didn’t know what changed but something about Ben’s expression or voice allowed him to feel as if he could trust him. ‘Yeah. Everything’s gonna be alright’ Midoriya thought as a small smile crept onto his face.


“Absolutely not!” His mother exclaimed and Midoriya glared at Ben for giving him hope. Ben at least had the decency to look somewhat sheepish after the rejection. To be fair the meeting was going well.

Inko was initially suspicious of the tall gaunt man and two strangers that had followed him home. However, that expression was immediately replaced by awe and delight when All Might revealed himself and she even started crying tears of joy when she recognized Ben as the same person who had saved her son. A couple exchanges hear and there about what One For All was and why Izuku had taken All Might’s interest and it looked like she was ready to approve him getting One For All especially considering the training he’d undertake would be something productive and help the environment. ‘Unlike his hero notebooks’ went unspoken. Then All Might had to open his big fat mouth and say “His limbs would blow right off if he doesn’t” with that SAME. DAMN. SMILE on his face.

The reactions after that varied from person to person. Rook facepalmed and Ben followed but added a frustrated groan. Izuku’s eyes widened as he looked at his mentor in disbelief and let out a high-pitched whine and of course Inko’s expression shifted from one of pride and approval to one of fear and anger. All Might for his part didn’t seem to realize what he’d done wrong.

“But-”

“No! I’m sorry All Might. As a citizen of the city, I am thankful for all that you have done as the Symbol of Peace but I will not allow my son to take part in something that could rob him of his limbs!” Inko exclaimed.

“Shouldn’t you consult your husband before making a decision like this?” Ben tried to reason. Of course that only made things worse.

Inko’s expression darkened. “Don’t even get me started on that deadbeat! He left five years ago and never returned. Sure he deposits money into our account and provides for us but he hasn’t even called once...” Inko’s expression softened and she started to sob.

“A-are you-” Ben started to ask but was cut off.

“No I’m not ok! But you wouldn’t be ok either if your son was diagnosed with a genetic disease that made him powerless in a world where everyone has a superpower! A-and your husband eventually left you for something that was out of your or your child’s control! A-a-and instead of supporting your child, you crush his dreams AT THE AGE OF FOUR because you want to protect him. No because you’re a coward who couldn’t handle the fact that her son was a minority. I’M SORRY IZUKU” Inko wailed.

“Mom...” Izuku wasn’t quite sure what else to say. Everything she said was likely true and he had always wished that his mother was more supportive of his dreams instead of breaking down and crying.

The other three people in the room just had unsure expressions, not really knowing what to do.

“So Mr. Tennyson to answer your question. No, Hisashi does not get a say in this decision” Inko said as she recovered her composure.

“So they are related” Rook said.

“Not the time Rook” Ben quickly said. “Look Ms. Midoriya I understand your concerns, my parents were exactly the same but the thing is restricting your son isn’t going to protect him”.

“And just what do you mean by that?!”

“You know, what All Might said before y’know” Ben took that moment to shoot an annoyed glance at All Might.

“The reason your son was chosen was because he has a kind heart, a desire to save people and just wants to be a hero. I suspect a lot of that was because you’ve done such a good job raising him... but the problem is you’ve done too good a job”.

Inko raised an eyebrow, confused as to what Ben was talking about.

“In the past three days, Izuku’s heroic nature has nearly gotten him killed. He’s ended up in two seperate villain incidents and he’s lucky that me and All Might were there to save him... but one day we won’t be. And so you have a choice. You can choose to allow him the means to defend himself when he inevitably ends up in another villain attack. Maybe he’ll even be able to make it his job to protect others and make it big” Ben paused before continuing “Or you can reject it and your son just may end up dead and the only thing he’ll have accomplished is becoming another statistic”.

That last statement actually caused Inko to flinch in shock and she began to reconsider her judgement. If she allowed Izuku to inherit One For All, there was a chance he could be critically injured or dead but if what Ben had said was true, Izuku might end up dead either way with One For All being the only means to defend himself! Torn between Izuku’s immediate safety or his safety long-term, Inko did not know which was better.

“Besides All Might was probably exaggerating how much danger One For All actually is. I mean it’s been through eight generations and it hasn’t caused that much damage before. The training is just a precaution to ensure Izuku’s safety and that nothing will go wrong, right All Might?” Ben asked that last part in particularly venomous fashion, shooting All Might a cold glare as he did so.

Thankfully All Might seemed to get the message “Uh, yes of course! While there is a minute chance something will go wrong, the Quirk’s never lashed out to that extent before so with training it should be fine” All Might said before boisterously laughing.

Inko didn’t say anything for a moment before sighing with tears in her eyes “OK. Izuku you can train to inherit All Might’s Quirk...”

Izuku grinned and was about to yell in celebration but Inko interrupted him “On two conditions. You need to promise me that you will try to keep yourself safe both before and after you have received One For All and I want you to be supervised by either All Might or this young man here”.

Izuku smiled “You’ve got it mom”.

“So when will you be able to get All Might’s Quirk?”

“Well, if all goes according to plan, Young Midoriya should be able to inherit my Quirk in 10 months. Just in time for the entrance exam at U.A!” All Might cheerfully explained.

“U.A?! Wait, you’re not seriously banking Izuku’s high school entrance exam on a power he just received with no idea how to use it, are you” Inko said returning to her glare at All Might.

All Might frowned and said the only thing he could in this situation “Uh...”

Ben sighed “Man, you really aren’t cut out for teaching are you?”. He stood back up and said “OK, Rook is there anything preventing you from teaching Izuku Revonnah Kai?”

“Not to my knowledge but even then Revonnah is going through a period of change provided there have not been any deviations” Rook said putting his hand to his chin. “Why exactly do you want me to teach Izuku Revonnah Kai?”

“What exactly is this Revonnah Kai?” Inko asked.

“It is the primary martial art of my people, Ms Midoriya though why Ben wants me to teach your son it is a mystery” Rook said, still waiting for an answer.

“Well, I just thought if you could teach him Revonnah Kai, he might be able to learn the Stone Cutter technique, right? And that could apply as a Quirk on it’s own and would certainly allow Izuku to hold his own. Of course in real life it just wouldn’t be practical but it should help him get by for a simple Entrance Exam”. Rook’s expression shifted to one of understanding.

“It may be possible though I would need Ms. Midoriya’s permission to train him of course” Rook looked at her questioningly.

“As long as it keeps my son safe, I have no issues...”

All Might was keeping very quiet during this, almost as if he feared that another word would send Inko on the warpath.

“Then it’s settled. Rook will train Midroiya in Revonnah Kai until he’s able to inherit All Might’s Quirk” Ben said with a triumphant grin before his face turned serious. “Now onto the reason we’re here. Ms. Midoriya would it be possible if we could talk to you in private” He said shooting All Might and Izuku glances.

“I suppose I have no objections”. Inko got up to lead the two Plumbers to a more private room.

“Great” Ben said as he and Rook were about to follow until All Might interrupted.

“Um, actually Young Tennyson is it possible for Rook to be able to handle this business with Midoriya’s mother alone. I’d like my own word with you in private”.

Ben shot a glance at Rook who merely shrugged. “Sure” he said as his eyes narrowed. And so Rook followed Inko while Ben followed All Might and Midoriya was just left in the living room, all alone.


“So what exactly did you want to talk about Mr. Rook?” Inko asked nervously.

“It is about your husband.”

“What about him?” Inko asked coldly.

“He was apart of the same organization Ben and I are from. Why he did not tell you is beyond me but the real reason we are in Japan was to find him and his partner after disappearing five years ago. Any information you could provide about his behavior before he disappeared would be helpful” Rook explained.

Inko put her hand to her mouth and begin to think about what her husband was like. “To be honest, I didn’t know much about the man. He was fascinated about all things Quirk-related, even kept notebooks full of notes on ones that caught his particular interest. I suppose, it’s just another thing Izuku got from him”.

Rook cleared his throat causing Inko to flinch and get back on topic.

“Right. I didn’t know what he did for a living but I assumed he was a freelancer. He was a prosecutor for Hero cases but he was likely involved in the media as well. He was always going around asking for interviews from figures of particular importance, dressed in that same sharp suit of his” Inko sighed. Despite her complaints of the man, it was clear that she missed him or at least the days when he was part of the family.

“So you married a man you had little information on?” Rook asked.

“I know it wasn’t very smart but well, I don’t know how to explain it. Me and Hisashi just really clicked and it wasn’t until nine years after Izuku was born that he finally ran out on us. He didn’t even seem that affected by Izuku’s Quirklessness. However, now that I’ve had five years to think about it there were a lot of hints that something was wrong” Inko said seriously.

Rook nodded as if silently asking her to elaborate.

“Well, he always used to take long trips away overseas supposedly for his work. While he never outwardly expressed it, I could tell he was conflicted about Izuku’s Quirklessness and dreams about becoming a hero. I mean he handled it much better than I did but still” Inko paused with a guilty look plastered on her face before continuing “And despite loving Quirks, he had a blatant disdain for heroes, Hero Agencies, Hero Academies, even Hero Society itself. He even once called Endeavor a “waste of life whose flames were better off burning garbage”! To his face. If it wasn’t for his own Quirk, he’d have been burnt to a crisp”.

“And what exactly was Hisashi’s Quirk?” Rook asked despite knowing what Hisashi's record said.

“Fire-breathing. Despite not having an active role, his fire was easily able to rival Endeavor’s Hellflame” Inko said before looking directly at Rook “I’m sorry I can’t be more help. It has been five years after all but if I remember anything else that may be important I’ll be sure to tell you!”

“Thank you for your time Ms. Midoriya” Rook said as he got up to leave the home and check on the bounty hunters in the truck.

“Wait!”

Rook paused to look back at her.

“I know it’s selfish but can you promise me that you’ll take care of Izuku.”

Rook looked at her questioningly before saying “Of course, why would I not?”

“I-It’s nothing”


Meanwhile, another conversation was going on outside between Ben and All Might though this one focused on current events rather than the past.

“I know what you did, young Tennyson.” All Might spoke with a cold tone. Disappointment and anger were etched into the gaunt man’s face.

Ben sighed “And what exactly did I do, All Might?”

“You manipulated Young Midoriya’s mother! How can you stand there with that smile knowing you did something so unheroic?!” All Might asked with a frustrated tone. “The whole reason I came here was because you and your partner forced me to tell young Midoriya’s mother the truth”.

“Quite frankly I don’t see how it matters. Everything I said was completely true. She has done a good job raising her kid and the kid’s probably going to get himself killed if he doesn’t get that Quirk”. Ben paused before taking on a sinister expression “Besides if I’m unheroic, what does that make you?”

“What?!” All Might asked incredulously, clearly not understanding where Ben was coming from.

“I’m just saying, while I was “manipulating” Minoriya’s mom, you could’ve stopped me at any moment but did you? No because our interests align. We both want that kid to get One For All and you knew that the best chance of that happening was to sit there and have someone else convince his mom that it was a good idea” Ben paused almost as if he was thinking of something before continuing. “And there’s a difference between telling someone the truth in that there’s a chance this could critically injure someone and cheerfully telling someone that this’ll BLOW YOUR KID’S LIMBS RIGHT OFF! Tact. Learn to use it”.

For a moment All Might didn’t know how to respond. He knew he had screwed up in how he told Midoriya’s mother the truth but to have it laid right out in front of him hurt. However, something Ben had said caught his attention.

“Our interests align... What exactly are your interests young Tennyson?” All Might said seriously. While he had used up his time limit today, he may still be able to muster up enough energy to give Ben a beating if he was planning to use young Midoriya for some nefarious purpose.

“Oh, make no mistake. I do hope he becomes a great hero. I didn’t lie when I said that we weren’t so different but if he becomes a great hero, surely his deadbeat dad will come back, right? And if and when that happens me and Rook will be ready to strike. Now if we’re done here, I need to go check that the bounty hunters haven’t escaped. I have some business with them” Ben said as he walked off back to the truck.

All Might let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. All the tension in his body seemingly vanished. All Might was left unsure of what to do. ‘The right thing is to tell young Midoriya but young Tennyson wasn’t wrong when he said that our interests align...’ Manipulating one person to ensure the Symbol of Peace lives on and saves countless others? All Might had to concede it wasn’t a very large price to pay.

All Might decided that for now, it was best that young Midoriya didn’t know about Tennyson’s manipulations. His mother had entrusted young Midoriya to both him and Tennyson and it seemed that she placed more trust in him than she did All Might. He could only hope that this partnership didn’t end disastrously.


Mr. Baumann had thought things were looking up. He had finally found love. Ben had finally left the country. There hadn’t been any villains attacking his shop in a while. All in all, his shop was damage-free and continued to be a safe-haven for aliens that had to hide from the fragments of Forever Knights that continued to persist in their activities.

He should have known it was too good to last. He had merely gone to the back to stock up on supplies and when he returned, he found this gigantic grey man wielding a red energy ax.

“Oh, don’t mind me” the man said and he didn’t look to be causing any trouble so Baumann left him to his devices. However, soon another person arrived or rather a robotic crab looking thing arrived.

Baumann silently prayed to whatever god that would answer that there was no more trouble going to ensue. However, if there was a god, they were laughing at him. His store continued to fill up with miscreants from three humanoids in purple armor to a biker gang to the usual miscreants of Psyphon’s gang. His patience nearly broke when Vulkanus arrived. However, just as he was about to exclaim what in the actual hell was going in his store, Psyphon intervened.

“Relax, old man. This shall only take a moment.

For some reason he was carrying a laptop, which he proceeded to set up. “Uh we need the Wi-Fi.” Psyphon said before turning the laptop to him. Mr. Baumann grumbled but decided the sooner this was over with, the better and quickly put the password in.

Psyphon mumbled a “thank you” before standing up and turning to the mass of villains inhabiting the store. “If I’m correct, you were all told to come here with the promise of either the Omnitrix or Tennyson’s location or” Psyphon paused looking at the bounty hunters “Taydenite?”. The bounty hunters either nodded or grinned confirming his theory.

“Right, well the floor is yours” Psyphon said to whoever he was Skyping. There was only a box that said AUDIO ONLY.

“Thank you!” the voice said cheerfully. “Now if I’m correct all of you had suffered quite a few humiliating defeats at the hands of Ben Tennyson. I mean he’s only a kid with a watch. He should be easy to beat and yet you’ve all failed to beat him” the voice took on a smug undertone as most of the villains cried out in anger.

“Now, now, now. I understand that it’s more difficult than it appears and was probably a result of you lot underestimating him, rather than because you were weak and/or pathetic. That’s why I’m giving you one final chance” and that caught the attention of all the villains in the store before the voice continued. “I’ll give you the co-ordinates of his location, hint; he’s in Japan, and anyone who kills him and his partner gets to keep their equipment including that troublesome little watch of his plus I’ll even throw in my entire Taydenite deposit. How big is that you ask? Well imagine, like 10 dumpsters full of the stuff and no that does not mean I’ve just hidden it away in random dumpsters throughout the city”. The voice paused before continuing “I mean it’s up to you but if I were you I’d take me up on this gracious offer. I bid you adieu”.

The AUDIO ONLY message was replaced with some co-ordinates as well as an email address, which almost everyone took pictures of before leaving, no doubt thinking about how to kill Tennyson.

Baumann on the other hand, had only one thought on his mind. ‘I’ve got to warn Ben about this’.

Notes:

OK so this chapter is called "Morality" because this is the chapter where I start to introduce the morality of some characters. I've noticed that MHA, as good as it is, tends to keep it's characters in two alignments. Good and Bad. White and Black etc. If you didn't notice, I'm not doing that.

Both Ben 10 and All Might are good people but Ben's morality is a lot more flexible, which is something that the AF/UA era dove a little into (especially the Aggregor arc). All Might's morals are not so easily turned but that doesn't necessarily mean he's better. Just as Ben has no issues manipulating others or generally being a selfish douche, All Might has no problem's putting someone's kid in danger and keeping it a secret from them. Ben does morally questionable things while All Might is morally questionable because of his secrecy and inaction. At least that's how I see it.

Also the plot thickens as the big bad makes his second appearance. Who is this big bad, I wonder? As always reviews, comments and criticism is appreciated.

Chapter 4: Sotoraggians

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The first thing Midoriya did that day was to reorganize his schedule. It was a given, considering he was not only cleaning the beach but also getting training in some alien martial art and had to juggle these two things with school work all so that he could pass the entrance exam in 10 months.

As Rook hadn’t left the house (his truck had a flat tyre and his mother insisted that they stay the night), he was able to get training out of the way early in the morning. However, despite Ben saying that the Stone Cutter technique specifically would help him, Rook was just having him do meditation poses. Apparently he had to get a ‘feel’ for the art whatever that meant.

Frankly Midoriya doubted he would be doing this but Rook’s demonstration of the Stone Cutter technique filled him with determination. Said demonstration had left a small but noticeable crater in the road. Unfortunately Rook underestimated how powerful he could use the technique and as such destroyed on his truck’s tyres.

Apparently Revonnah Kai used a similar methodology to ki. Well, similar in the sense that the user draws out energy that is apparently stored from within. While he wasn’t a revonnagander, heroes like Sun Wukong; the Monkey Hero allegedly had Quirks that had nothing to do with ki (Sun Wukong’s for example was a simple mutation Quirk) or were even Quirkless themselves and used a similar technique. Back when he was trying to find his Quirk, Izuku also tried to bring out ki in an attempt to have something. But his attempts beared no fruit. However, that might change now that he has an actual teacher.

With renewed vigor, Izuku focused on trying to feel this energy inside him...

‘OK this is taking way too long, why the hell isn’t it working?!’ Izuku thought after five minutes of essentially standing in a silly pose. A growl interrupted his thoughts and when Izuku looked up, he saw the three villains from yesterday staring at him.

There was a pause. Eighteight tilted her head curiously, wondering why the kid from yesterday was doing a silly pose. Sevenseven growled but Sixsix actually waved at the kid he had held hostage just the previous day.

Izuku knew he couldn’t do anything against any one of them much less all of them, so he did the only thing he could in that situation. ‘Alright, I’ve just got to calmly analyze the situation, see if they have any weak points and “RUN AWAY!”

Izuku quickly ran to find All Might or even Ben and Rook so that they could hopefully re-apprehend the villains. ‘How did they even escape?” Midoriya thought in panic as he ran into someone. It was Ben... and Rook!

“You guys have to help! The villains from yesterday have escaped custody, I don’t know how but maybe someone broke into your truck last night! Anyway they’ve out and about and I’m pretty sure they’re gonna try to hold me hostage again and” Midoriya had entered his usual muttering state.

“Relax!” Ben said firmly. “I’m sure everything’s fine. Just take a seat and we’ll work this out” Ben gestured to a small crystal pillar.

“Y-you don’t believe me!” Izuku started to cry but just as he said that the three bounty hunters arrived “S-s-see there they are! Now you can just defeat them again and make extra-sure they won’t escape”

Midoriya was confident that Ben and Rook were going to leap into action to defeat the villains but they did nothing. Izuku felt like crying. In fact he probably already was judging by his wet face but then he noticed something. The three villains also weren’t attacking him or Ben for that matter.

Rook turned to Ben with a glare and said “Go on Ben. Explain to Midoriya how you were the one to release the bounty hunters”

“What?!!”

“Let me explain from the beginning...

Last night.

Ben was unsure of himself as he walked to the Proto-TRUK. He was sure he’d done the right thing for finding Hisashi Midoriya but was it the right thing for his morals. All Might certainly didn’t think so but he was a hypocrite. Still Ben couldn’t deny that he may have had a point. ‘Well, it’s not like I can’t think about this more after I’m finished here’ Ben thought as he entered the truck, only to be met with three loud growls.

It seemed that Eighteight had managed to get her restraints off and was working on Sevenseven’s. She stared at him before lunging at him. Ben barely had enough time to transform into Goop and restrain her before putting her restraints back on. As he transformed back, he was met with Eighteight whining? Not quite what he expected from the badass bounty hunter but ok.

“All right. Calm down! I know all about your employer. Hired you and a bunch of other bounty hunters to hunt me and Rook down. Said you could keep my Omnitrix and would pay you 10 dumpsters full of Taydenite for your troubles” Ben said to the bounty hunters earning him some surprised growls.

“You’re not the only ones with friends who wish to keep their identities secret” Ben smirked “But what I want to know is why the three of you would fall for such an obvious lie” The growling momentarily stopped no doubt wanting Ben to elaborate on that.

“10 dumpsters full of Taydenite? Even being generous and assuming he meant the smallest dumpsters around, there’s still not enough Taydenite on the planet to fill that many dumpsters”

Sixsix let out a high-pitched whine but Eighteight seemed to be trying to talk with him if her repeated growls were any indication. Unfortunately Ben didn’t speak Sotoraggian so they were at an impass. However after five minutes of Eighteight trying to talk to him, Ben had an idea and reached for his Omnitrix. All three of the bounty hunters tensed.

“Relax” Ben said before using the Omnitrix’s Scan Function to scan Eighteight. Once the Omnitrix finished scanning, Ben hit the Omnitrix in a flash of light. Once the light died down, his form had been replaced by a lean but muscular Sotoraggian wearing green armor.

“OK, what?” Ben said.

Eighteight seemed to still be at a loss for word before finally saying “If you could turn into one of our species at any time, why didn’t you to better understand us?”

“Look. Rook does just fine translating for me. Quite frankly you guys aren’t very high on my rouges gallery so I didn’t really think it was worth it” Ben shrugged. “Also it’s kinda hard to scan someone that is repeatedly trying to kill you. Now what exactly were you trying to tell me?”

The Sotoraggian was silent for a moment before replying “Right. Taydens. Aren’t Taydens made of Taydenite”

“Uh. Taydens aren’t actually made out of Taydenite. They’re made of a cheap substitute that is nowhere near as durable or valuable. Why do you think it costs 5 Taydens for some street food? I mean if we had enough Taydenite to make it into currency, it would be nowhere near as valuable”.

“Oh” Eighteight said in a disappointed tone.

“That bastard!” Sevenseven replied outraged.

“Calm down” Sixsix tried to reason.

“No I won’t calm down. It’s because of him that we’re stuck in this mess in the first place!”

“Technically you’re stuck in this mess in the first place because you tried to kill me and failed” Ben tried to reason.

“Shut it. We’ve been arrested, Twotwo is probably alone and scared by now and we used the last of our fuel just trying to get to this country”.

“So I’m assuming you guys are having financial issues” Ben said.

All three bounty hunters turned to him and just stared at him. It was actually kinda creepy after a solid 60 seconds of them doing nothing but stare at him.

Finally Sevenseven responded in a low tone “Yes.”

“Well, have I got some good news for you!” Ben said in what he assumed to be a cheerful tone for a Sotoraggian. “I may not have Taydenite but I do believe we could help each other”

“And just how-” Sevenseven tried to respond before he was interrupted by Ben.

“Look we both want to find this guy. I mean he put a bounty on not just my head but also my partner’s. He forced you to waste precious resources but... if you were to work for me I could make it worth your while” Ben said confidently.

“And how exactly would you make it worth our while?” Sixsix asked

Ben grinned before placing his hand on the Omnitrix symbol on his chest plate turning into a creature made of some blue crystalline substance with two spikes protruding from his back. “I believe you’ve met Diamondhead!” Diamondhead proclaimed loudly before generating a large pile of crystals “It may not be Taydenite but I feel these will be worth quite a lot to the right buyer” Diamondhead smirked.

In response he got a bunch of growls. “Oh, come on!” Diamondhead said before turning back into Ben’s Sotoroggian form.

“Sorry, what was that?”

Sevenseven was the one to respond this time “Well, seeing as we have no other choice. We’ll take you up on your offer” before sighing in resignation.

“Of course what we do will be purely up to how valuable these crystals are but I’m guessing you’ll be using us to search for our former client” Eighteight said.

“Right! The only possible roadblock is my partner and grandpa but I’m sure there’ll be no issues there” Ben said.


 

“Absolutely not!”

 

“But grandpa!”

 

“Don’t grandpa me, Ben. These three are dangerous villains who have tried to kill you and me on multiple occasions. From what Rook says, they tried to kill you just a few hours ago and I refuse to have another incident like last time” Max spoke in a stern and authoritative tone that was probably intended to leave no room for argument.

 

“This is nothing like Fistrick” Ben tried to argue before Rook cut him off. The Revohnnagander having taken Max’s said in this if you can believe it.

 

“And just why is this not like Fistrick?”

 

“Gee, I dunno how about everything surrounding the incident” Ben replied.

 

“Really?” Max asked in an incredulous tone “You’re trying to work with villains that have tried to kill you on multiple occasions. Not only that but you’re trying to help them in their goals. How does this differ, Ben?”

 

“Motive for one. Fistrick was just being a criminal but Midoriya has forced them to use up all their resources. They’re desperate and not just doing this for laughs. Oh and what about the circumstances? With Fistrick, I was trying to be a spy and take them out from the inside but with these three, we’re gonna make them work for us, which won’t be a problem because like I said they’ve used up all their resources and are trying to take care of their little sister as well as themselves” Ben reasoned but both Rook and Max didn’t seem to be convinced.

 

“Look. They aren’t villains because they want to be. They’re strictly in it for the money. We give them money and boom, we’ve got three competent bounty hunters on our side. Besides as that fight showed me and Rook can take them if they ever betray us”.

 

Max said nothing for a moment causing both Ben and Rook to be uncomfortable before speaking “Under any other circumstances, I would pull the plug on this immediately but from what you told me two days ago, Smith died trying to keep this Quirk Integration Project secret. It may be more important than we first assumed. If Midoriya is the one behind the mass bounty hunt, than I suppose it couldn’t hurt to have extra hands on board trying to find him and unfortunately we cannot afford the manpower”.

 

“Wait, what’s happened that you can’t send extra plumbers here?”

 

“Long story short there’s an incident in Los Soledad that Paradox has informed me about. Something about the space-time continuum shattering and we need to reinforce it before it’s too late. There’s also been a shipment of Techadon robots that have allegedly been stolen and Aggregor has been stirring up trouble in the Null Void and you get the idea” Max said absent-mindedly before adorning the serious expression before.

 

“Ben. I am only agreeing to this because I know you and Rook can handle those three anytime. They aren’t very high-up on your villains list, after all. However, any other bounty hunter you try this on has to be approved by me or Rook. And if I hear that things have gotten out of hand, I will drag you back to base myself! I wish you two luck on your mission”. The hologram of Max fizzled out as the Plumbers adorned two different expressions; Rook’s was one of shock while Ben’s was one of triumph.

 

... And that’s pretty much all you need to know” Ben finished.

The whole flashback seemed to have broken Midoriya, who trying to say words but none came out.

“So, your boss is ok with you releasing three villains? And you can turn into one of them? How does that work? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!”

Ben glanced to Rook before responding to Midoriya “Uh, well in that order not really. As you can tell from Rook’s expression and general demeanor, my actions aren’t very appropriate for someone who is essentially a space cop. The only reason I’m getting away with this is that we need to make some headway on your dad’s location and we don’t have resources to spare”.

Ben paused upon noting Izuku’s expression before sighing “Your dad worked for our organization but we recently found evidence supporting the idea he had gone rogue during this project. As for your last two questions, yes I can turn into a Sotoraggian, one of their species” Ben pointed to the bounty hunters “and it’s thanks to some sciency stuff about this watch of mine” Ben gestured to the Omnitrix.

No one really spoke after that. Midoriya would normally be muttering to himself about the applications of a watch that can turn the user into other series was still trying to process the fact that his hostage taker had been released and was working under his savior.

After a while, Rook tried to change the topic by asking him about his meditation. This seemed to surprise Midoriya and succeeded at bringing him out of his thoughts.

“Well I tried getting a feel for ki but I just failed. Sorry.” Midoriya looked down at the ground.

“That is alright. Truth be told, I did not think you would get a feel for ki in the first place” Midoriya looked shocked but was placated when Rook continued “The meditation was just to see if you were a prodigy. I have learnt to expect that in my line of work”. He looked back to Midoriya and gestured to the crystalline structure before him.

“However, hopefully by 10 months you will be able to break this small construct” Rook said, prompting a gasp from Midoriya.

“But that’s just a giant crystal!”

“In ancient times my people used to break boulders with their bare fists to perfect the Stone Cutter technique. This is the best method of teaching you the Stone Cutter technique” Rook said in an educated tone.

“Right!” Midoriya grinned before charging at the structure and striking it as hard as he could. No one knew what Midoriya thought was going to happen but it probably wasn’t him reeling back in pain with an injured hand.

“I said in 10 months” Rook said in a panicked tone. “Right now, you’ll be hitting something easier to break like ice for example” Rook turned to Ben who grinned in response.

Ben hit the Omnitrix and in a flash of light had turned into a blue moth-like creature, whose wings were currently in the form of a hood.

“I call this form Big Chill” the creature said before breathing cold air, manipulating it so that it created a structure similar in size to the crystal construct that had injured Midoriya’s hand.

“You may not be able to destroy this at first but whittle at it day by day and you should be well on your way to learning the Stone Cutter technique. On another note, do you not you have school?” Rook inquired causing Midoriya to adopt an expression that could only be summed up as ‘oh crap’.
“I’m gonna be late!” Midoriya exclaimed upon checking that he only had 20 minutes before classes started.

“No worries” Big Chill responded coolly before hitting the Omnitrix to cause him to be engulfed in a flash of green light. In the mothman’s place was a blue and black velociraptor... on wheels.

“XLR8!” it yelled out before grabbing Midoriya and his bag and running off... until stopping.

“Why’d you stop?”

“I... just realized I have no idea where you go to school” XLR8 said in a sheepish tone and so Midoriya gave him directions and then XLR8 raced him off to school.

Of course when XLR8 dropped him off, it had to be in front of Bakugou who just seemed really confused.

“Oh, you’re that other guy I saved” XLR8 noted before transforming back into Ben. “No need to thank me by the way” he said in a tone that was clearly implying the contrary.

Bakugou just stared at him before saying something about “Shitty Deku” and walked off. For his part, Ben didn’t seem to care and upon checking that Midoriya had everything zoomed off back to Rook. Midoriya, was left perplexed at why Kacchan hadn’t done more. ‘Why- was it because Ben was here?’ he thought before continuing his day, knowing that the next 10 months were going to be complete and utter hell.

Notes:

OK so this is another example of Ben doing something morally questionable; hiring bounty hunters to help him. I should make something clear, the Sotoraggians may have an improved relationship with the Plumbers but they are not performing a Heel-Face Turn ala Kevin. No they won't betray Ben because they are just desperately in need of money and resources, not just for themselves but also for Twotwo. Right now the safest option is just to help him find Midor- I mean the mysterious person who put the bounty on our two Plumbers. So for the rest of the season (that's what I'm calling arcs), they will be temporary allies to the Plumbers.

Also sorry MHA fans but it's going to be a while before Midoriya does anything of importance. The problem is that the conflict of the season has nothing to do with him, which is a missing plumber that has possibly put a bounty on Ben and Rook's heads. Midoriya will be spending the majority of the season trying to learn Stone Cutter and cleaning up the garbage beach. Not saying he's going to be a minor character in this fic (I have big plans for him after the first season) or that he will be written out completely for the first season but he's not going to be as prevalent.

Chapter 5: Thanatos

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe it” Ben exclaimed. The other four people present turned from what they were doing.

“What happened?” Rook asked, almost knowing that the answer was something self-absorbed, trite and had nothing to do with what they were meant to be doing.

“I just searched myself on social media. They’re calling me and I quote “dangerous and a menace to society”. It’s Harangue all over again”.

“That’s fascinating. Now can we please plan our next move? How do you plan to find Hisashi Midoriya?” Rook asked with a tone that was begging Ben to get back on task. Thankfully, Ben complied.

“Well, assuming he’s the same guy who put a bounty on our heads, I’d assume at least one of the bounty hunters has some information on his whereabouts. In that case all we have to do is wait until they come to us” Ben said with a smirk.

“I am still surprised that so many fell for a simple trick” Rook said with an almost disappointed look.

“I don’t think they did. These three” Ben gestured to the three bounty hunters “only fell for it because they were desperate and are either insane or not very well educated in taydenite and how much of a backwater planet Earth is”.

Sixsix gave an offended growl.

“Really?” Ben quirked an eyebrow “You guys have been beaten by me in combat at every turn and yet you still thought you could beat me by just charging at me and fighting me. If that’s not stupid, it’s most certainly insane”.

Sixsix merely gave a smaller, quieter growl in response, to which Ben continued his glare before turning to Rook.

“Anyway, the fact most of the bounty hunters had co-ordinates to where I, and the most dangerous and valuble weapon in the universe are is probably motivation enough for them to come here”

“However, the fact that these bounty hunters had no way of contacting him other than an email likely means that most of the bounty hunters don’t have any information on their client. The safest bet would be Psyphon assuming what Baumann says is the truth” Rook said in thought.

“Of course we may have been able to lure out the client if someone hadn’t decided to send an angry email at the guy for deceiving him” he said turning to glare at Sevenseven who merely pointed at his other two siblings, sparking a fight between them.

“Well, luring him isn’t impossible. After all, there is the Thanatos idea we talked about but it’s going to be hard to pull off” Ben noted.

Of course their scheming was interrupted by a green laser that was fired at Ben, who had to duck to avoid it. Ben quickly slammed his hand on the Omnitrix “come on Humungousaur!” Ben yelled before being engulfed in the trademark green light of the Omnitrix.

However, despite his expectations of turning into a large, brown dinosaur with the ability to size-shift, Ben had turned into a small red goblin with a large nose.

“Jury Rigg, really Omnitrix?” Ben said with a frustrated tone “Well, I suppose it has been a while since I mistransformed” the goblin sighed in resignation before turning to look at his assailant.

From where the laser had been fired, there was a humanoid of black and green goo, with a single circular eye in the center of his forehead.

“Baz-el. I assume you’re here for the bounty” Jury Rigg said while dodging another optic laser.

“In a sense” Baz-el said before morphing over Sevenseven, the maroon armor now had a green and black colour scheme. The eyes had turned black while his weapon shots were green and despite Sevenseven’s panicked growls, it was clear who was really in control. Baz-el unleashed all his weapons at Jury Rigg who had to jump out of the way and hide by the truck.

Jury Rigg had an idea and started dismantling the Proto-TRUK and using the parts to create three items that would hopefully be able to defeat Baz-el. One was an electro-magnetic grenade designed to capitilse on the Galvanic Mechamorph weakness. Another was something for protection. As he worked, he heard Sixsix and Eighteight join the fray while Baz-el continued to abuse the truck.

Jury Rigg looked up for a moment to see that despite their best efforts and the fact that Sevenseven was at a disadvantage in a regular fight, Baz-el was far more skilled in combat. Or rather, he had simply upgraded the suit to the point where they didn’t stand a chance. Guns were coming out of everywhere that would hold them; the shoulders, legs and a chest laser that was certainly more powerful than anything either of the three bounty hunters had wielded before.

The current strategy was for Eighteight to fight up close while Sixsix fired at him from the air. Despite Baz-el’s upgrades (or maybe because of them), Eighteight still held the mobility advantage and was able to dodge Baz-el’s shots with ease. That was until, Baz-el morphed two wired claws from his back to catch Sixsix and throw him at her. She dodged but left herself open for Baz-el’s chest blaster and blasted her into the truck and into Jury Rigg.

Jury Rigg was momentarily stunned but went back to inventing as Eighteight got up to try and defeat Baz-el. Of course as Jury Rigg was inventing, Rook who had his shield threw a grenade at Baz-el. Unfortunately it did nothing but draw Baz-el’s attention.

“That’s right, you also had a bounty on your head” he said with a sinister tone. Rook’s eyes widened as Baz-el used Sevenseven’s upgraded jetpack to quickly get to him and smash through the Proto-Tool’s shield.

“My Proto-Tool!”

However, it would take more than that to defeat Rook who simply evaded all of Baz-el’s punches and grabs. Rook tried to punch through the armor as well but the armor was too tough for him and Baz-el used the opportunity to punch him into the ground breaking his armor. Eighteight and Sixsix used this opportunity to attack but they were blasted into a house by his shoulder cannons. Rook raised his right hand, which caused Baz-el to scoff

“Surely you know your punches can’t hurt me”

“I do. But I am not trying to punch you” Rook said with a smile. Baz-el’s eye widened as Rook hit him with all the energy he could muster.

“STONE CUTTER!”

A wave of vibrations went through Baz-el and he was quickly blasted into the air, struggling to maintain his control over Sevenseven’s armor. Knowing he was bound to lose control soon, Baz-el unleashed all of his arsenal in one final blast that was sure to kill Rook.

Just before the blast hit, Jury Rigg jumped in front of him and activated his second invention; a forcefield that functioned similar to Rook’s own Proto-Tool shield. For a second it seemed as if he had managed to block Baz-el’s blast but only for a second as the forcefield broke under the pressure and hit Rook and Jury Rigg, who was trying to activate the third device before being engulfed in a large beam.

When the dust settled, both Ben, who had been transformed back into his human form and Rook were lying prone on the ground. Baz-el approached the two and got a good look at them before removing the Omnitrix, knowing that if nothing else he could sell it for a large price on it’s own, especially with Vilgax and that fallen Galvan scientist after it.

Baz-el let out a sigh of relief, when there was no reaction, before pulling out a phone to take a picture of the two presumed dead plumbers and contact his client.

“Honestly such primitive technology. The sooner I get that taydenite, the sooner I can get off this planet, and the sooner that happens the better”.

“Hello?” a voice said, unsure of who was calling him. He had to be sure it wasn’t the Plumbers trying to lure him out with a fake picture.

“It’s done.” Baz-el said with a tone of finality.

“Oh, awesome! I knew at least one of you would be able to succeed” the voice cheered.

“Yes, yes, now just tell me where I can find my taydenite and we can go our seperate ways.”

“Oh, about that...”

“What” Baz-el asked, his eye narrowing in suspicion.

“Yeah, I kinda don’t have it. I mean I’ve heard it’s like super rare, where am I supposed to even get 10 dumpsters of the stuff?”.

“But you have Taydens, right?” Baz-el said, hoping it was just a mix-up of vocabulary but he already knew the answer in his gut.

“Yeah, no” and there was no word to describe the amount of crushing disappointment he felt at that point. Every failure he had had in life was nothing in comparison to being used as a pawn in someone else’s game. On top of that, he’d had to kill two people for no reason.

“Look. Considering how unpopular, he was I’m sure you had some grudge against Tennyson so just take satisfaction in the fact that he is finally dead” the voice tried to placate him. The disappointment gave way to rage.

“But I didn’t have a grudge against him! Sure we had our... disputes but it never got to the point where I’d want to kill the boy over it” Baz-el said thinking back to all the times he’d tried to take back his spawn. “The only reason I hunted him was for the Taydenite!”

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you but quite frankly it’s not my problem. Have a good day” the voice dsaid in a particularly cold tone before hanging up.

Baz-el stared at the phone for a moment before destroying it with one of his optic lasers. You could practically feel the rage off him before he composed himself.

“Well, at least I still have this” the Galvanic Mechamorph sighed as he looked to the Omnitrix. However, as he prepared to leave, he noticed something peculiar”.

“Was that sphere always there?” Baz-el asked before it started to shine.

“Oh son of a-” Baz-el was suddenly engulfed in the full force of a particularly powerful electro-magnetic grenade, his form started to shift and fizzle out causing him to drop the Omnitrix.

“Tennyson?!” Baz-el shouted in confusion as the teenager quickly ran up and retrieved his Omnitrix while Rook threw an energy bolas to restrain him.

“You’re supposed to be dead!”

“And you are supposed to be in custody” Rook stated, bringing him to the now ruined Proto-TRUK.

Baz-el turned to Ben “For what it’s worth Tennyson, I am glad you are alright” he said as he was finally placed in the truck as if it wasn’t completely ruined.

Rook turned to Ben and asked him what they were going to do with Baz-el. Keep him in custody or release him to help with the investigation?

“No”. Ben said looking at the truck. Upon noticing Rook’s confused expression, he decided to elaborate “There’s no denying that he could be a huge asset in helping find our missing plumber and/or the guy who put a bounty on our heads. However, I don’t think they would feel the same”.

Ben pointed to the Sotorrogians who were just conversing, seemingly just be happy that Sevenseven wasn’t still controled or dead. Rook couldn’t deny that freeing Baz-el wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do when he took into account the people on the team.

“Quite frankly, Baz-el is more trouble than he’s worth. I released those three for three reasons. It would give us numbers we usually don’t have, they were desperate and I knew we could take them if they decided to betray us. However, if we used Baz-el to find our missing man by putting him into the internet, what’s stopping him from freezing all of our assets, hm? Besides Upgrade is already a good enough Galvanic Mechamorph.”

Rook held a look of contemplation before realizing something Ben had said.

“What if you turned into Upgrade to find the missing plumber?”

Ben looked at him with a frown “Reason number 2 on why we don’t enlist Baz-el. It’s highly unlikely that he would even be able to find our man. While it’s true Galvanic Mechamorphs can enter digital spaces, they don't have full control over it nor do they know everything there is to no about it. Finding our man’s location would be like looking for a specific needle in a field of needles. The internet is really big”.

Ben’s little rant made Rook frown with disappointment, not because they couldn’t use Baz-el but because their mystery man seemed just too elusive.

“Very well. What exactly is that you are holding?” Rook questioned, pointing to the final device Jury Rigg created.

Ben smiled “I believe this will make our lives just a little bit easier. Remember when I told you to play dead, this is the reason why”. He pressed a button and Rook was thrilled to hear a full confession that the price on their heads was a total sham as well as Baz-el’s enraged rants.

“You put the Thanatos plan into action, already?” he asked.

“That’s right. Now the big question is what do we do with it”.

However, their musings were interrupted as they heard a shriek. Turning their heads, they saw that Inko had just discovered that her house had taken the brunt of the damage in their fight.
“Oh, crap” they both said.

Notes:

I'm sure you can all tell the meaning of the chapter title after reading it. The bounty continues though now Ben and Rook have an item that can help them fend off other bounty hunters. I'll admit not much else happened here. Ben and Rook got attacked, they defeated their assailant, got a recording and face the wrath of Inko. I picked Baz-El because he has displayed empathy in past episodes. He's still a big enough ass that he would kill someone for money but is also one of the few that would possibly display regret after finding out it was all for nothing (Eye of the Beholder, notwithstanding).

Chapter 6: Contemplation

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

It had been a surprisingly good day for Midoriya. No one had bullied him, aside from a couple “Shitty Deku’s”, Kacchan hadn’t bothered him and he was able to work on his notebooks in peace.

‘There is practically nothing that could worsen my day’ Midoriya thought to himself as he tucked away his 14th notebook titled Alien Analysis.

Midoriya stopped in front of his house and noticed there was a giant hole in the wall. The rest of the area wasn’t much better; a large crater had been made in the road and there were burn marks everywhere and ash covered the grass. He then noticed that Rook’s truck was still there.

‘Weren’t they supposed to have left already?’ Midoriya thought to himself.

He then noticed that calling it a truck was being generous. It was more accurate to call it a misshapen box on wheels. The entire front half of the truck was demolished and it looked like there had been a car crash; the doors were bent out of shape or removed entirely. There was an abundant amount of glass around the truck.

However, the back half of the truck was in far better condition. It was so full of holes, it may have been swiss cheese. Honestly, Midoriya was surprised there even was a wall with that many holes in it. In one of the holes he could see some kind of green and black substance.

Midoriya looked back at the house, then to the truck, then he looked at the rest of the ares, then back at the house and truck a few more times before he decided to do the only thing he could think of at the moment. He channeled his inner Kacchan and yelled “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?!”

“Could you keep it down?” a pompous voice said.

Midoriya looked in the truck to see the green and black blob looking at him. He might have panicked if he hadn’t taken notice of the monster being restrained by something made of blue energy keeping him to the wall.

“A bounty hunter?” Midoriya mumbled to himself. That was the most likely assumption given the general state of the area and the fact that Ben and Rook were evidently still here.

The blob monster looked at him before saying “I don’t suppose you could let me out of these restraints, could you?”

Midoriya did nothing but mumble. He had gone full on analysis mode. “There’s no mouth so how does it talk? Perhaps it’s a telepath? But then how did those burn marks get everywhere? It’s possible Ben’s pyrokinetic alien could have made them but it’s generally demonstrated much more control and even then a telepath should be easy enough to capture without excessive damage’. He looked around to re-evaluate the damage.

Baz-el looked on and sighed “I guess that’s a no”.

“Wait, where are the first three? They have lasers that could easily create those marks and it looks like the truck got shot. Maybe while they were fighting this guy, Ben and Rook got betrayed by them. No, wait Ben said he recruited them because they were desperate for money. They might betray him later on in the future but doing it the day after they’ve been recruited serves no purpose and even if they did betray him, it’s unlikely that all three would get away especially given the speedster alien he used today” then a thought hit him.

“What if this guy’s telepathy is so powerful he can control other people’s minds? That way, Ben would have to be fighting off four people at once, five if Rook had also been mind controled and might’ve had to turn into one of his less physical aliens to avoid being mind controlled and to lessen the damage. That’s why there’s so much exessive damage”.

Midoriya was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of clapping and turned around to see Ben and Rook looking at him with grins on their faces.

“Impressive analysis, Midoriya. Of course some of it is wrong but is is most impressive how much you got right for someone with minimal information as to what happened” Rook said, clearly impressed at Midoriya’s analysis.

“Wait, so I was wrong?” Midoriya asked.

“Well, a little bit” Ben said, making a pinching gesture. “Let’s start with what you got right”.

“Sevenseven was indeed taken control of by Baz-el and was the cause for most of the damage in this area. There is a possibility that the three Sotoroggians will betray us in the future “Rook glanced to Ben who shrugged “but not today. And you are correct in the assumption that if they did, there would be at least one more body in that truck. Ben also had to use a less physical alien than normal but not for the reasons you think”.

“You only said Sevenseven was taken control of but if that was the case, the damage should be much less severe. Even if the telepath could only take control of one person at a time, he should still have gone down much more easily especially with the other two bounty hunters on your side”.

“That’s because Baz-el isn’t a telepath” Ben interjected.

“He is a Galvanic Mechamorph or in layman’s terms a being with control over technology, a technopath, if you will” Rook explained.

“Baz-el basically hijacked Sevenseven's suit and upgraded it to the point where it was easily able to beat Rook, Sixsix and Eighteight”.

Midoriya was silent for a moment before looking up at Ben “But you were in one of your less physically adept forms so how were you able to beat him? And how does it talk with no mouth?”

Ben grinned “Why? Because I’m awesome of course. Also aliens have weird physiologies that don’t really make sense”.

Midoriya turned to look at Rook, begging for answers while Rook glared at his partner. “The actual answer is he did not. He changed back into human form and we played dead to get a recording from him. Baz-el even briefly acquired the Omnitrix. However, after getting the recording Ben struck by exploiting the Galvanic Mechamorph weakness to electro-magnetic fields”.

‘Psychic dreams, an accelerated healing factor and now the ability to generate electro-magnetic fields. All in human form. Just what is your Quirk, Ben?” Midoriya thought as he reflected on the enigma that was before him.

“Actually I used an electro-magnetic grenade, Jury Rigg invented” Ben said to Midoriya’s embarrassment. ‘I said that out loud?’

Trying to get his thoughts out of his embarrassment, Midoriya asked what Jury Rigg was.

“Obviously, it’s another one of my aliens. A small, red goblin with mastery over inventing machines at quick speeds. He may not be my smartest or fastest alien but if I ever need to invent something in the middle of battle, he’s the most likely to get it done” Ben explained.

“Interesting”. Midoriya said before taking out his notebook and making an entry for this Jury Rigg.

‘Pyrokinesis, Super strength, whatever powers the bounty hunters had, crystal manipulation, cryokinesis, super speed and a master of invention and those were just the forms Midoriya knew about. Ben has 10 times as many forms and he probably copied the DNA of that blob monster if he didn’t already have it and that’s on top of whatever Quirks he has in his base form’ Midoriya thought to himself as he wrote his journal entry. ‘He certainly hit the jackpot’ Midoriya thought enviously.

However, his mood was lightened when he saw his mother bossing the two Plumbers around to continue fixing the house. Apparently she had even roped the three bounty hunters into it.

‘Well, whatever the case I’m glad he’s on my side’ Midoriya thought with a grin.


Soon after that incident, Midoriya dropped most of his stuff off at his house and went to the beach for his training with All Might. He only kept a few pens and two of his notebooks.

“Hey All Might, can I ask you a question?"

"Young Midoriya, please stop asking about All For One. I know you're curious but I know for a fact he's dead so he's not important". All Might seemed to be content in keeping this 'All For One' from him despite the fact that he was clearly important. Well, it's a good thing that wasn't what he was going to ask anyway.

"What do you think of Tennsyon?” Midoriya asked as he hauled a table with some garbage on it to the truck.

All Might flinched? Must have been his imagination.

“Well, what exactly do you mean by that young Midoriya?”

“It’s just weird. I always admired heroes because no matter what power they had, they would always use them for good or to save others. Like you All Might” Midoriya beamed.

“What exactly do you mean by that, young Midoriya?”

“Well your Quirk isn’t inherently good and you could commit a lot of crimes with it. For example, you could kill a person in the blink of an eye. You could easily rob a bank by breaking into the vault and making off with it before the staff could even comprehend what had happened. You’re practically unstoppable All Might and yet you chose to use that power to help others though I guess part of it is because you were chosen by another hero to gain their Quirk, right?” Midoriya looked up to him expectantly.

All Might gave a half-hearted and nervous laugh “I suppose you do have a point there, young Midoriya”.

“But Tennyson takes it to a completely different level. He’s got an entire arsenal of Quirks and aliens at his disposal and yet the one constant is that he wants to be a hero. I’m not even talking about villainy. Sure that fire alien would be great at arson but earlier today, I found out he has a master inventor at his disposal. He could probably make millions with that alien’s inventions alone but he doesn’t. He just wants to be a hero and so I was wondering what you thought about him” Midoriya explained.

“You’ve certainly given this a lot of thought Midoriya. I even see that you’ve bought a new notebook dedicated to his powers” All Might said, holding the notebook up.

“Hey!” Midoriya said, snatching the notebook away.

“Honestly, young Midoriya. While I do acknowledge his desire to help people, I feel he’s a lot less pure than he believes he is” All Might thought back to the previous night.

“What do you mean by that All Might?”

‘Shit’ All Might thought as he tried to come up with an excuse. “Well, I, uh, he’s arrogant and immature. His power is certainly formidable but he has a long way to go before becoming a true hero, young Midoriya. In the two times he’s saved you, one was self-defense and the other was because he was trying to show off”.

That caused Midoriya to pause from cleaning up garbage and shoot All Might a suspicious look. “But he took a laser trying to save me”

“Uh, yes, but as we later found out, the laser was never life-threatening so can we really say that he would truly go out of his way for others if he didn’t have something to gain from it?” All Might tried to reason.

Midoriya looked like he wanted to argue before shrugging “I suppose not” though he thought back to earlier in the morning when he dropped him off at school or when he had convinced his mother to let him inherit All Might’s Quirk.

All Might may not have been there for the former incident but he was certainly there for the latter ‘Am I missing something?’ Midoriya thought to himself.

‘I’m probably overthinking it. I just need some time adjusting to being trained under All Might. It’ll probably go away soon enough’ Midoriya thought though he couldn’t ignore the nagging sensation he felt that something had conspired between Tennyson and All Might.


“So what exactly are we going to do with this?” Rook gestured to the device that had recorded the man’s confession. They had finally finished fixing up the Midoriya home, the truck and were back in their apartment for the time being.

“I was thinking we just put in on the Source so that the bounty hunters realize it’s a lost cause”. The Source was essentially the internet on a much grander scale. It effectively collects information all throughout the galaxy. It’s especially useful for bounty hunters as it harbors every bit of information on a potential bounty (with the exception of some exceptionally backwater planets) and served as an adequate means of communication.

“That seems like a terrible idea”

“And why is that?” Ben narrowed his eyes.

“The fact that the bounty hunters have had to resort to Earth technology proves that this bounty was not even on the Source and they are likely are not checking it for additional information. Putting this information on the Source will likely indirectly reveal that we are stationed in Japan and therefore cause more bounty hunters to search for you. Even if the bounty hunters did find out, they may go after their client, which will be disastrous if he is indeed Hisashi Midoriya.” Rook explained in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Hm. OK, new plan. We show this to every bounty hunter that comes our way. If they either don’t care or go after their client alone, we kick their butts, good?”.

Rook smiled. Regardless of what they did with the recording it was bound to make their lives easier. Little did they know they were being observed by an incredibly small bug-like drone on the wall.

Meanwhile somewhere else a mysterious man was observing several recordings that had been made these past few days. Recordings of Tennyson convincing Inko to let Izuku inherit One For All. Recordings of his fights with bounty hunters. And of course recordings of the conversation that had occurred just a few minutes ago.

The man said nothing before uttering a simple “Well, shit”

Notes:

So this is the last chapter that takes place in this time period. Honestly if I made all six chapters just one to accommodate for all that happens within 3-4 days it would come out at around 18-19k words. The pacing is going to get a bit quicker given that I want to both finish the missing plumber arc and cover the 10 month time skip in canon at the end of the season. Chapter title meaning comes from the fact that Midoriya's actually starting to think about the situation. Why is All Might keeping secrets from him, why does All Might dislike Ben even though Ben's shown to be a decent person, why does Ben want to be a hero etc.

Like always comments, reviews and criticism is appreciated.

Chapter 7: Bakugou

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The conflict did not go away as Midoriya found out. It had been three months and things were still weird. He hadn’t made any progress on using the Stone Cutter technique. Any time he did punch hard enough to cause a few cracks in the ice sculpture, he found that the ice had been reinforced the next day. He was making considerable progress with the beach but it was still progressing slow and he could tell that there was still tension between All Might and Tennyson. It couldn’t be because Tennyson was a vigilante, could it? And yes, despite his vigilante status, he continued to help save civilians and defeat villains.

Tennyson, himself was weird. He had recently gotten a couple of his vehicles from overseas and had even driven him to school a couple of times. He could tell where All Might was coming from. As he had gotten closer to Tennyson, he could tell the guy was indeed a show off. From alien forms to his car, the guy was certainly prideful. However, underneath all that pride and arrogance Midoriya could tell that Tennyson cared about him succeeding. He would often ask him how his training was going and give him advice on how to improve himself. It was encouraging but why he was so sure Midoriya would succeed is anyone’s guess.

However, perhaps the weirdest thing of all was that Kacchan hadn’t been bothering. In the past three months, the most Kacchan had done was call him a “shitty Deku” but other than that Midoriya was ignored.

However, that all changed one day when Ben was dropping him off.

“HEY” Kacchan shouted.

“Kacch-”

“I wasn’t talking to you Deku!” Bakugou growled.

“Oh. Kacchan, right” Ben pointed out with a smirk on his face. Why was there a smirk on his face? Didn’t he know who he was talking to? ‘Well, I suppose Ben does have reason to be arrogant with the Omnitrix and all’ Midoriya thought.

Bakugou for his part had been silently fuming. “I’ve told you before, my name is Katsuki Bakugou. Not fucking Kacchan, Katsuki Bakugou. What about this is so hard to fucking understand?!”

“Did you have a reason for talking to me” Ben said disinterestedly as he looked at his phone.

This was a new experience. All his life, Bakugou had always been praised and looked up to no matter what he did. Even in situations where he didn’t really do anything, he was still praised for his awesome Quirk... and yet Tennyson couldn’t care less.

“Well, I have a question Mr. vigilante” Bakugou said with a smirk causing Ben to look up. “I want to know why you’ve taken such a keen interest in Deku here” Midoriya flinched.

“He doesn’t have the guts to be a vigilante or a Quirk either so I want to know what you plan to do with him”

“What I plan to do with him? I plan to make sure he becomes a successful hero, of course” Ben said with a grin before moving uncomfortable close to Bakugou. “As for why, well, that’s none of your business” he said in a level tone.

Bakugou’s eyes widened as he took a step back. He quickly regained his composure and said

“But he doesn’t have a fucking Quirk! He has nothing to help him become a hero. He’s just a shitty, worthless Deku”

Ben frowned. “Well I have a plan to remedy that but you’re gonna have to beat it out of me”.

Bakugou just stood there “Name the time and place”.

“Hm?”

“I’m gonna be the very best so I’m gonna have to beat you eventually” Bakugou said, clearly planning to use Ben as a stepping stone. “So when I win, I want you to tell me everything about how you plan to make that worthless wannabe hero a real hero”.

“Kacchan! You can’t just say something like that. Besides it’s kinda pointless because Tennyson won’t get anything if he wins”

“ARE YOU SAYING I’M GONNA LOSE, FUCKING DEKU!” Bakugou grabbed Midoriya by the shirt.

“No! But you can’t expect someone to fight if they have no reason to” Midoriya tried to reason.

“Alright you have a deal, Kacchan” Ben said with a cold glare. “I’ll pick you up later after school”.

“After school! Today?” Bakugou frowned, starting to sweat. He had hoped he’d get at least a little prep time before their fight.

“What? You say you’re gonna be the best so you should be adequately prepared to fight me. I mean I saved you from that Sludge Villain, like, three months ago so that should’ve given you more than enough time to prepare for our fight” Ben stated.

Bakugou said nothing for a while. It was true that he had done extensive research on the guy, planning to fight him eventually but today? The rational part of his mind told him it was far too soon. Unfortunately the rational part of his mind was promptly ganged up on and got the shit beat out of it when it said that.

“You’re on” Bakugou said with a vicious grin as he threw Midoriya to the ground.

After checking that that Midoriya was alright, Ben got in his car and left thinking about the upcoming fight.


“Ready to go?” Ben asked.

“Of course I’m ready!” Bakugou growled as he got into the car.

“Just checking. This is your last chance to escape total pain and humiliation” Ben said snidely.

Bakugou’s only response was a frustrated growl and thought ‘I’ll show you and then I’ll prove Deku can’t be a hero once I’ve beaten his vigilante master’.

They arrived at what looked to be the ruins of a warehouse. Bakugou threw Ben a questioning look.

“We’re both pretty destructive. If we fight here, neither of us are going to injure other people or get sued for property damage”

Bakugou shrugged in understanding as he followed Ben to a particularly destroyed part of the warehouse. The roof wasn’t even entirely there and there were splinters of a support beam on the ground. In their hurry to start the fight, they failed to notice that they were being followed by a drone.

“Well, you may have the first move” Ben said gesturing to Bakugou.

‘What?’ “Turn into that fire monster. You don’t want to underestimate me!” Bakugou yelled.

“Nah. I’m pretty fine underestimating you” Ben said lazily.

“Are you looking down on me?” Bakugou yelled, sparks flying from his hands.

“Yep” Ben said with a popping sound.

It was funny. Tennyson hadn’t even done anything yet. He hadn’t thrown a punch and he hadn’t even really insulted him so far. Yet that confirmation, that one word was enough to send Bakugou into a flying rage.

“Yo-you’re gonna regret that!” Bakugou yelled, seething with rage. He let out an angry yell and fired off his most powerful explosion at Ben who was engulfed in the blast. The entire area was covered with dust or smoke. Bakugou was no longer pissed beyond all reason and started to consider the implications of what he had just done.

He had just illegally used his Quirk to attack a defenseless civilian. Sure a vigilante but even if he tried to spin the ‘vigilante’ story, he hadn’t bothered calling the authorities. He’d gotten into a car with the vigilante without telling anyone but Deku. Worthless, shitty Deku. If he had caused serious bodily harm to Tennyson or worse, killed him, he could be facing serious jail time and then he could kiss his dreams of becoming the number 1 hero good bye.

‘Did they plan this?’ Bakugou thought as he took a step closer to try and see how much damage he’d done to Tennyson.

“Tennyson?” Bakugou called out, his voice betraying the uncertainty he felt.

As the dust settled, Bakugou braced himself for the worst. ‘Oh shit!’ Bakugou thought. His eyes going wide. There was a body wearing Tennyson’s jacket. It just lay there unmoving. Bakugou got closer to Tennyson to see what the damage was.

“Tennyson?” Bakugou could hear his heart beating in his throat. The walls had started closing in. His breathing started getting faster and more erratic. “Tennyson?!” Bakugou yelled as he grabbed the body and turned it over to inspect the damage... Only there was no damage. It was a mannequin wearing a brown wig and Tennyson’s jacket.

“What the f-” Bakugou started bit was interrupted by three jabs to his face in rapid succession.

Bakugou gripped his nose and noticed he was bleeding.

“The fuck?!” Bakugou shouted before being tripped up. He felt a weight around his neck. He tried to let out explosions but he was in a choke hold and his assailant held on harder. Bakugou couldn’t focus. He didn’t know what to do and he was going to pass out! His vision blurred and the last thing Bakugou heard was “I win” in a cold, sinister tone.


When Bakugou woke up, he was greeted by the sight of Tennyson leaning against the wall, on his phone.

“Oh. You’re awake” he said in a bored tone.

“... You fucking cheated” Bakugou growled.

“No. I gave you a fighting chance”

“You tricked me!”

“... which is a lot better than using my aliens to curbstomp you. The first form you saw easily absorbed the fire from your blasts. What exactly was your plan if I did use him? XLR8 could simply dodge all of your moves and trap you in a tornado. Several other forms would just be able shrug off your blasts” Ben explained as he walked closer to him.

“After all, if a Quirkless teenager could shrug off one of your strongest blasts, what could you possibly do against beings that can actually manipulate, dodge or resist fire attacks, hm?” Ben asked before flicking Bakugou in the forehead.

Bakugou wanted to yell but unfortunately he found himself agreeing with the vigilante’s evaluation. Despite how cheap his victory was, a win was a win and Bakugou knew he stood no chance against any of Tennyson’s forms. Honestly he should’ve expected the more pragmatic approach. After all villains don’t fight fair, why would a vigilante?

“Alright, come on” Ben said as he started walking to the car.

However, just as he was about to get to it, a red laser fired out and caused the car to explode

“My car!” Ben exclaimed in anguish before mumbling something along the lines of “Now I know how Kevin feels”.

Ben turned to see his attacker; a tall, thin, white man with red eyes, black stripes and a fin on his head donned in black and gray skeletal armor.

“Well it’s been a while, hasn’t it Psyphon? I mean we’ve been looking all over for you for the past three months and you were nowhere to be found” Ben’s eyes narrowed.

“I get that you have someone very special to you in your life now, so why don’t you tell me more about him after I kick your ass”.

Psyphon merely laughed. “What gall, Tennyson. You have no idea just what situation you’re in, do you?”

“Care to enlighten me?” Ben asked in a bored tone as he flicked through the possible forms on his Omnitrix.

“Why, look around” Psyphon gestured to the surrounding area, which Bakugou saw was filled with all types of villains. Bakugou counted at least 12 different people, wielding weapons of some kind. Some were even flying on jetpacks. Bakugou had to admit they were at a disadvantage.

“Look Tennyson, I know you think you’re some super awesome vigilante or something but we can’t win with these numbers. Just give them what they want and hopefully they’ll let us go” Bakugou said nervously. He was useless against the Sludge Villain and he failed to beat a single vigilante, there was no fucking way he was going to be able to help.

“That’s gonna be kinda difficult, given that what they want is my death.” Ben said.

Bakugou tried to call the police but his eyes widened when he found there was no service on his phone. ‘Oh shit. I am going to fucking die here, aren’t I’

“As you see, I’ve got the advantage in numbers and don’t even think about calling your partner. This entire area is surrounded by an energy field preventing your communications systems from working” Psyphon grinned like a depraved lunatic.

“I have as good as won Tennyson!” he proclaimed with glee.

“We’ll see what Way Big has to say about that” Ben grinned before slamming his hand down on the Omnitrix.

Ben was engulfed in a flash of light. Once the light died down, it was clear he had transformed into... a large green, plant-like man with a yellow and red head.

Ben sighed “Or Swampfire. Swampfire’s good too”.

“Uh, Tennyson how exactly is that fucking form going to help us?”

“You of all people should’ve realised that it’s never a good idea to underestimate me” Swampfire frowned.

Psyphon seemed to agree because immediately afterward he ordered his gang of villains to “FIRE!”

What followed was that Swampfire was brutally torn apart by the gang’s laser weapons. An arm here, a chunk of plant there and his head was way behind him.

Bakugou’s breath hitched but tried to maintain his composure.

“OK, you idiots got what you wanted so just leave. I mean I’m just a kid so there’s really no need to kill me, right?” Bakugou tried to reason.

Psyphon put his hand to his chin and said “True” before turning around.

However, before Bakugou could celebrate Psyphon told his gang to “kill the brat anyway”.

‘Shit’ Bakugou felt like crying but if he was going to die anyway, he could at least die fighting. Letting out a yell, he flew towards Psyphon.

“If you bastards think I’m just gonna sit here and let you fucking kill me, you’ve got another thing coming!”

Bakugou let out one of his most powerful explosions only for Psyphon to block it with a forcefield.

‘Again?!’ Bakugou thought incredulously. ‘Well when all else fails try try again’. Of course Bakugou must not have realised there was an opposite saying ‘The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again’.

However, as Psyphon’s goons fired at Bakugou, they failed to take into account his position. Being right in front of Psyphon they were also firing at their boss who was trying to keep his forcefields up.

“Not at me you idiots!” Psyphon exclaimed.

Bakugou, who had nimbly dodged the lasers, took this opportunity to fly right above Psyphon’s forcefield and let out another explosion of similar power to the first. The forcefield broke under all the pressure and Psyphon fell. His fin was bleeding.

Bakugou smirked before realising he was still surrounded, outgunned and way out of his league. Upon seeing that the villains had all their guns pointed at him, Bakugou grabbed their leader and placed his hand to Psyphon’s head.

“Nobody fucking move or your leader’s head goes Ka-blam!” Bakugou tried to keep up the tough guy persona but inside fatigue was already setting in. He likely only had one or two explosions left in him. His only hope of survival was for him to hold their leader hostage and for his goons to care enough about him not to fire.

However before anyone could do anything, Psyphon growled, impaled the boy with his claws and fired out a red energy beam to send him flying.

“I’ll admit you are certainly powerful. You could be a problem” Psyphon growled. He fired red energy beams from his eyes.

Bakugou could do nothing and braced for the pain but was surprised when he found himself protected by large green vines.

Psyphon’s eyes widened in surprise and he was so off guard he allowed himself to be hit by a burst of fire.

“Tennyson!” Psyphon growled as he fell. When he turned to see where Tennyson was, he found himself staring at not one but six Methanosians though one was clearly larger than the rest.

“Looks like we have a winner! Enjoy it while it lasts” Swampfire said in a sinister tone before turning to his new allies. “Take out the rest of Psyphon’s gang. Leave Psyphon to me”.

The five Methanosians charged at Psyphon’s gang, flinging fireballs at the villains. Flames clashed with lasers but despite the overall numbers advantage for the villains, Ben’s allies had an advantage of their own. Regeneration.

Whenever the villains succeeded at removing a limb from Ben’s minions or decapitating them, the minions would simply regenerate from the wound.

Psyphon, meanwhile was fighting Ben and was putting up a much better fight. While Swampfire regenerated from any wound, Psyphon’s forcefields and generally levitation made it difficult getting in a clean hit.

Swampfire was clearly getting annoyed at Psyphon’s ability to dodge or block his strikes. Putting both hands together, Swampfire generated a massive flamethrower and engulfed Psyphon’s forcefield in flames.

Psyphon merely grinned as he successfully blocked it but was shocked to find vines had captured him by the foot.

“What?!” Psyphon yelled as Swampfire caused the vines to violently throw him to the ground, leaving a crater.

Psyphon got up to call to his minions but looked to see that they had already been defeated by the inferior Methanosians... who were currently walking towards him.

Psyphon growled “Why are you all so incompetent?!” before generating enough energy to vaporise them. Swampfire however, was completely unharmed.

“Well, it’s clear I can’t defeat you in a fair fight Tennyson” Psyphon grinned “But you know me well enough to know that I don’t fight fair”.

Psyphon shot past him and grabbed a rifle before firing his red energy beams at Swampfire who blocked them with his flamethrowers. Unfortunately that left him wide open for a blast from Psyphon’s rifle.

Swampfire let out a yell of pain and went to shoot Psyphon with a jet of fire only to realise he couldn’t.

“What did you do?!” Swampfire asked.

Psyphon merely smirked “Last year, I tested out my exciter beam on you. A beam that sent your nerves out of control. Think of this device as the opposite. You won’t be firing off any more fire Tennyson and just like that I’ve won”. Psyphon proceeded to laugh and gloat but was stopped by a punch to the face.

“I wouldn’t call it an exact opposite. I can still move, after all” Swampfire smirked before summoning a wall of vines. Psyphon merely destroyed them with his lasers but Swampfire took that opportunity to grab him and throw him into the ground.

Psyphon tried to summon his forcefield but discovered the device had been broken in their fight as it crackled with electricity. Psyphon merely changed a setting on the rifle and fired it at Swampfire. When the beam hit, his limbs started contorting in all sorts of ways. Swampfire had no choice but to fall down.

“Now I only need to wait for the Omnitrix to time out and you’re as good as dead, Tennyson” Psyphon made a vicious smirk.

“Agh. Bakugou! Listen to me. I need you to create the biggest, most powerful explosion you can but only after my signal. Can I count on you?”

Bakugou’s eyes widened. All throughout the fight, he’d been practically useless. He’d been just as worthless as Deku and yet Tennyson was counting on him. There was a villain that needed to be defeated. Heroes always win, right?

“Yeah”.

“Great”. Swampfire released an oddly coloured gas from his body.

Psyphon immediately realized what he was doing “I’m aware of your species ability to generate methane but it won’t work!” he said as he prepared to fire at Bakugou.

“No you don’t!” Swampfire yells, summoning a small vine to trip Psyphon up and cause him to miss the blast.

“NOW!”

Bakugou lets loose the most powerful blast he can muster once he’s sparked the methane, the entire area is consumed by flames. Bakugou is left untouched by the explosion thanks to a wall of vines grabbing him and throwing him into the air. Those same vines catch him when he falls.

Once he’s made sure he’s ok, he tooks a good look at the area before him. Everything is covered in ash and anything that was directly hit by the explosion was outright obliterated. There even seemed to be a drone in the wreckage. In the center of it all is Tennyson whose in his human form, nursing the injuries on his arms with pieces of his jacket and checking his phone. Psyphon had been completely knocked out, had some blue energy rope around his body. Both had parts of their bodies charred black.

“Looks like the blast took out the energy field. I’m gonna go invade this guy’s mind so you can do whatever” Tennyson looked at him before pressing the Omnitrix.

“You’re gonna fucking what?!” Bakugou exclaimed but Ben had already turned himself into a green and blue fairy with pixie wings.

Bakugou could only look on incredulously. The vigilante who has been posing as a hero for the past three months, the guy who saved him from the sludge villain and the person who not only beat him Quirkless but also saved his life tonight was now a fairy wearing a skirt.

Suddenly the fairy turned into green dust and entered Psyphon’s forehead.


“Don’t have much time. I’m just gonna have to get what I came for and get out” the fairy known as Pesky Dust said as he flew around Psyphon’s mind.

Soon enough Pesky Dust found himself flying through Psyphon’s memories; failed gang attempts, failed attempts on his life etc. When suddenly he bumped into something.

A large behemoth of a man with green skin and a beard made of tentacles. Red veins covered his body and his armor seemed to double as life support... Vilgax. Judging by his armor and enhancement, this must’ve been the first time Psyphon met the galactic conqueror.

The behemoth roared at him and went for a punch. Pesky Dust merely dodged and glowed with green energy, forcing the memory away.

“Sorrrry but I’m nearly out of time and I don’t need to waste any of it beating you Vilgax” Pesky Dust said as he continued flying through Psyphon’s mind “Besides we don’t need to add a third fight in a single chapter”.

Finally Pesky Dust found what he was looking for, Psyphon’s consciousness. He was merely standing on a desolate planet but before he could make a move, the Omnitrix started to beep.

“Crrrap! Actually given who I’m dealing with, it should be quite easy to get what I’m looking forrr” Pesky Dust mischievously grinned before waving his hand into the air to change the dream.

The dream changed and Psyphon was on his knees. “Lord Vilgax!” he exclaimed.

“Psyphon!” Vilgax grabbed Psyphon by the neck and threw him into the ground, putting his foot onto the gang leader’s chest.

“Where is the man who put the bounty on Tennyson?! Only I get to kill the boy and if someone else gets the Omnitrix, it’ll put a dent in my plans... and we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?” Vilgax knelt down to glare at Psyphon, his eyes practically glowing with danger.

“N-n-no Lord Vilgax! Adrian Smith’s in Kamino Ward”.

Pesky Dust’s eyes widened. “Adrian Smith but he’s supposed to be dead” and it was at that moment he had to leave Psyphon’s head judging by the rapid beeping of the Omnitrix and the flashing red colour.

Not a second too soon as the moment he appeared back in the real world, he timed out.


“Phew, that was a close one. I don’t want to imagine what would happen if I timed out in there” Ben sighed in relief as he looked at Bakugou who was staring at him.

“What did you do?” Bakugou asked after a moment of silence.

“Exactly as I said; I used Pesky Dust to invade Psyphon’s mind and... retrieve some information I need”.

“Not exactly heroic behaviour” Bakugou huffed.

Ben hummed “Can’t really disagree with you there but unfortunately the world isn’t so black and white. Sometimes have to do immoral actions to achieve the best result”.

“All Might never compromises”

“I highly doubt that. For example, this guy likely wouldn’t have told me anything anyway so the only solution was to invade his privacy. One criminal’s privacy for information that could save lives? Not a bad trade”.

Bakugou was stunned. How someone could aspire to be a hero and yet hold such immoral ideals? The idea baffled him. There had to be a different way, right? Heroes didn’t compromise their ideals for anything or anyone! All there was to it was that they always won and villains always lost.

However, before he could voice his complaints, he was greeted with the sight of Tennyson grinning at him “But anyway I think it’s about time we got you home”.

“Your car’s totaled, how the fuck do you expect to get me home?” Bakugou growled.

Ben merely grinned and that was how he found himself in a bridal position clinging for dear life as Tennyson’s speedster form dropped him off.

“Well, that’s that” Ben said as he returned to the abandoned warehouse. He pulled out his phone to call Rook. It wasn’t even that late and he was already feeling tired but Rook needed to know what he found out.

“Listen Rook, I just had a run-in with Psyphon and his goons at the abandoned warehouse. I easily dealt with the situation but you won’t believe what I found out. I can’t really say it over the phone so come soon”.

Having finished his call he looked up to see that he was surrounded by a knockout gas.

Ben gave an unimpressed expression and merely said “Of course” before blacking out.

Notes:

Well, the chapter title is pretty obvious. This chapter revolves entirely around Bakugou even in the scene from Midoriya's perspective, it's pretty clear that it's about Bakugou.

Now, this chapter was interesting to write because I wanted to write a chapter where Bakugou gets completely and utterly humiliated without losing the hyper-competent badass middle schooler that he is in canon. The original draft was just him getting the crap beat out of him by Ben's aliens but that was in clear breach of the latter part. However, then I realized that Ben's base form can take a beating. Seriously in one episode he tanks being blasted by Aggregor's lasers into a wall and has a piece of the ceiling fall on him into a pit and he's no worse for wear so I'm pretty confident that he could tank one of Bakugou's explosions. Not only is it humiliating to lose to a vigilante who didn't even use his "Quirk" but he learns a valuable lesson of underestimating people. Of course I still had to make him badass, which is where the Psyphon fight came in.

Now as for the Swampfire duplication trick. I feel that despite Swampfire gaining a more powerful form in Omniverse, the show doesn't really make use of his potential. I figured that since AF Swampfire could survive being shredded to bits, it would be a natural progression for Swampfire's more powerful form to take his healing factor to the next level, which is where the minions come in. For example if a person can regenerate from a single cell, what it stopping that person from creating a veritable army of people just by sending their cells everywhere. Of course Swampfire isn't that powerful but I do feel he could achieve something to the same affect. Hopefully it doesn't come across as too ass-pully.

Chapter 8: Necessary Evil

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Midoriya woke up the next day and had a gut feeling that something was wrong. Of course it wasn’t immediately apparent so he initially thought nothing of it.

Then Rook showed up days before he was meant to to “assess his training”. The real reason was because Ben had gone missing. He had left a message to Rook, which allowed him to find an entire gang of alien criminals but no Ben.

Izuku tried to reason that he’d just gone to do some vigilantism in the late night and had probably fallen asleep somewhere but Rook seemed unconvinced. However, Izuku did tell him that Ben fought Kacchan after school and would ask him if he knew anything.

Rook thanked him before continuing his search with the bounty hunters. However, before he left he congratulated Izuku on his progress with Stone Cutter. Apparently he judged from the large chunks of ice next to the pillar that he was well on his way to learning the technique. Izuku hoped he was right. The sooner he developed Stone Cutter, the more time he had to train with it, which would mean he wasn’t going to be as reliant on One For All for the Entrance Exam.

However, Izuku couldn’t help the feeling of dread starting to sink in. If Ben had been abducted, what were the chances that Kacchan was left unscathed? The truth was that even if Kacchan had won, he would be left exhausted thanks to the fight and wouldn’t have been able to do anything. He prayed to whatever god there was that Kacchan was all right.

And it seemed his prayers were answered because Kacchan showed up to school like nothing was wrong. However, any lingering dread was replaced with outright fear as Kacchan started to stalk up to him. Like so many times before, Izuku felt like he was in a lion’s den and he was about to be devoured.

Izuku closed his eyes and hoped that Kacchan wasn’t too pissed at him for whatever arbitrary reason and that he would get it over with.

“Deku. We need to talk.” Kacchan growled.

‘Huh?’ Kacchan didn’t do talk, especially not with him. Usually he’d be caught up in his own praise and ignore everyone else. If he did talk it was with his fists.

Izuku quickly recovered “Oh, Kacchan. I take it you easily won your fight”.

Bakugou slammed his fist into the wall next to Izuku’s head.

“Shut up you damn nerd! Your vigilante friend didn’t even need to transform to beat me. As much as it pains me to admit it, I was way out of my fucking league”.

‘Kacchan’s admitting defeat? This is certainly a new experience’ Midoriya thought.

Bakugou grabbed him and dragged him to behind the school’s library so that they could talk without risk of anyone overhearing him.

“What’s so special about you?” Bakugou asked with a glare.

“Huh?!”

“I mean you say the first time you met the guy was the same time I met him” Bakugou said, carefully ignoring the Sludge Villain incident.

“Yet, you seem far more familiar with him than I am and he clearly wants you to be a hero. The guy even said you were doing some special training to make you one. Deku. What. Did. He. Mean?” Bakugou growled.

Izuku said nothing for a while, trying to figure out how much he could safely reveal to his childhood friend.

“Well, his partner is essentially Quirkless yet he has a special technique that works like one thanks to his ki. And so Ben got his partner to train me in ki to help me learn the technique myself”

Bakugou gripped his hair with his hands “The bastard has a partner?!”

“Um yes b-”

“I don’t care Deku. Why are you friends with a vigilante who’s clearly trying to play hero despite not being one?”

“I-I-I mean. Just Because he’s not a hero legally doesn’t mean h-he can’t be one Kacchan. He certainly has the power- he beat you Quirkless, right?”

Bakugou let out an explosion “DON’T REMIND ME, YOU DAMN NERD!”

Bakugou calmed his composure. “And yeah, I’ll admit he has power but what he does with it is another thing entirely”.

“What do you mean by that Kacchan?”

“Look after our fight, we got attacked by a gang of criminals with mutation Quirks. It was close but me and him eventually won” Bakugou paused while Izuku stared at him intently, silently begging him to finish the story.

“The guy’s crappy car got demolished” Kacchan said with a smirk. “Anyway after the fight was over, the leader apparently had some information he needed and instead of handing him to the authorities to retrieve it he turned into some fairy thing and I quote “invaded his mind””

“Interesting” Izuku commented as he took out his notebook. “So he has an alien that can invade people’s minds. Such a power would definitely be useful for interrogation and time-sensitive missions but does he have control over the mindscape or is he merely inside the victim’s mind. If it’s the latter, than the form’s usefulness decreases immensely. I wonder, how fast he can collect information though Ben did tell me once that he only has approximately 10-15 minutes for a form. Ergo the form must have some form of enhanced speed if he doesn’t have any form of mental manipulation. Kacchan, did he call out the form’s name by any chance?”

Bakugou gave Izuku a weird expression, clearing not expecting the reaction he received.

“What does the form’s name even matter? Did you even fucking hear what I said Shitty Deku? The guy invaded a person’s mind without their consent. How is this not a big deal for you?” Bakugou asked, incredulous at Izuku’s fascination of such an immoral power.

“Yes but I don’t see how it matters, Kacchan” Izuku tilted his head curious as to what point Kacchan was driving at.

“How it fucking matter-”

“The Pro Hero Dreamwalker also has such a power and also uses it for interrogation purposes just like Tennyson did, last night. Tell me Kacchan, are you aware of the Ticking Time Bomb scenario?”

Bakugou huffed “Of course. There’s a bomb that will go off in a set amount of time and once it does, it’ll kill millions of people. The question is whether or not it’s ok to torture people to get the location of the bomb before it explodes”.

Izuku smiled “Right. So what exactly would you do in that situation, Kacchan?”

“Huh. I’d beat the location out of them, of course” Bakugou said with a prideful grin on his face.

“Interesting”

“What?”

“Well, it’s just there is several things wrong with your approach”

Bakugou glared and growled “Whatever the fuck do you mean, Deku?” Smoke was coming off his hands as they prepared to let loose an explosion.

“Well the first problem is that we assume the terrorist is telling the truth. He could lead you on a wild goose chase for all you know. After all, do you really expect a terrorist to tell the truth to someone who resorted to torture?”

“If it’ll stop the beatings, yeah I do expect them to tell the truth. They’ll be too in pain to think up a convincing lie”

“But you’re forgetting the time limit. The terrorist merely has to endure until the bomb goes off and we don’t know when it does” Midoriya put his hand to his chin “Besides the terrorist was likely trained to endure the torture”

Bakugou growled “What’s. Your. point. Deku” clearly unhappy at a shitty Deku taking apart his plan.

“Well if you had the power to invade a person’s mind, you wouldn’t need to torture the terrorist. It’s a lot safer than trusting the guy to tell the truth and more efficient as we clearly get the location of the bomb without having to rely on the terrorist’s breaking point”.

Midoriya continued talking but Bakugou wasn’t listening. Something shifted in Bakugou’s mind. An understanding. He sure as shit didn’t agree with Tennyson’s methods, after all if you were powerful enough you could do anything in the world, but he could understand why someone who couldn’t or didn’t rely on brute force would take that option.

“Because of this, Dreamwalker has been instrumental in the dismantling of criminal organisations such as the Yakuza”.

Apparently Deku had shifted onto fanboying about some lame-ass hero who wasn’t even in the Top 100. Bakugou turned to walk away.

“Oh Kacchan! When was the last time you saw Tennyson?”

“Huh?”

“Well earlier this morning, his partner came up to me because he’s apparently gone missing so I was just wondering if you had any information that could help” Izuku muttered while twiddling his fingers.

“The last time I saw him was when he dropped me off and that’s it”

“Hold on but you said his car was destroyed so how did he drop you off?”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP, SHITTY DEKU!” Bakugou yelled, letting out an explosion towards him.

Once he recovered, Izuku merely concluded that Kacchan was a dead end. Although he was glad his childhood friend was safe, he couldn’t help but wonder where the vigilante with the alien watch went.


“Uh, where am I?” Ben asked, with his head on something soft.

“You’re at U.A. High” a female voice said above him.

Ben opened his eyes to see a woman’s face with what was essentially a mane of black hair behind her. However, judging from his positioning, he should be- oh crap.

Ben quickly got off the woman’s lap with a furious blush on his face.

“Look ma’am, I’m sure you’re perfectly nice and-”

“Did you just call me ma’am?!” the woman yelled, making a vicious expression with red eyes and a fiery background behind her as if she was some kinda anime character.

“Oh no”.

“And to think, you had such a great youthful spirit. I’m going to have to punish you for that slip-up” the woman gave him a vicious smile.

“Please no”.

“That’s enough Kayama!” a cheerful, high-pitched voice interjected.

Both occupants of the room turned to the new voice, a large mouse-dog-bear thing accompanied by a homeless man wearing a large scarf.

“Greetings Mr. Tennyson! I am Principal Nezu of U.A High School, this is Shota Aizawa and-” the mammal was cut off by a large yellow beam shooting across the room and covering him.
“DNA sample collected” the Omnitrix said.

“Been a while since it’s done that” Ben remarked before noticing everyone had their attention to him. “Uh, sorry.”

“Yes, well as I was saying you’ve already met Nemuri Kayama. I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here” Nezu smile.

“Not really. I can tell you’re Pros and you’re probably going to hand me over to the authorities”

“Actually-”

“Well I’m not going to make it that easy!” Ben slammed his hand on the Omnitrix and turned into a blue, multi-limbed monkey.

Spidermonkey let out a string of web to trap the three Pros and escaped through the open window in Nezu’s office.

“Should we go after him?!” Aizawa asked the principal.

“Oh, there won’t be any need, Aizawa. Why do you think I left that window open for him to escape? I think we should just wait until he gets back, don’t you?” Nezu explained causing Aizawa to shrug.


“U.A, huh. Wasn’t that the school Midoriya wanted to go to? Well I suppose it couldn’t hurt to take a look around”.

Unfortunately Spidermonkey had to dodge a rally of bullets. He turned to see where the bullets came from but to his amazement it seemed, the bullets were changing their trajectory easily.

“Oh that’s so cool and- oh” Spidermonkey nimbly dodged the homing bullets.

“Got to escape fast” Spidermonkey said as he shot a trail of web at a building. He saw a city in that direction and decided to head in that direction. Unfortunately one of the bullets managed to slice through it causing Spidermonkey to fall to the ground.

It seemed this was one of the school facilities as he landed in a pile of students. Spidermonkey gave a sheepish grin and yelled “Don’t mind me!” before preparing to take off again. However he found that he had been partially encased in concrete.

“Principal Nezu has informed me that a certain vigilante escaped from his office” a cement block with limbs said. “Try as you might, you won’t escape.”

Spidermonkey merely punched through the concrete in response.

“Hm. Students, we have a vigilante on the loose. You have your provisional licenses and are allowed to use your Quirks. Think of this as yet another exercise in your journey to becoming Pros” the cement man said.

The class let out a big “YEAH” and proceeded to bombard Spidermonkey with Quirks.

“Crap!” Spidermonkey said as he dodged jets of fire, pieces of rubble and a jet of water that sliced through the building behind him.

Just when he felt he had dodged the worst of it, he felt tentacles around his legs. Looking up he saw a black haired student in a hood with the most depressed expression you could imagine. It’s like he wasn’t even trying, fully expecting someone else to take the shot.

“You have got to be kidding me” Spidermonkey said in a deadpan tone as he looked up. Yep, there was a girl levitating in the air firing spiral energy beams at him. Fortunately they were sooo slow that he was easily able to release himself from the tentacles and dodge them. Unfortunately that left him wide open to a punch that appeared in thin air.

“Well, looks like it’s end of the line, vigilante” a blond and very plain looking student said.

“Uh, sure but where are your clothes?!”

“Whoops!” the student said before disappearing into the ground and reappearing where his pants where.

“Sorry about that. But you can’t honestly expect to defeat us, right” the student said but he didn’t seem to be arrogant. He seemed to just be enjoying himself.

“Actually I do” Spidermonkey said before webbing the student. Predictably he disappeared but at least he got the dejected looking guy and the blue-haired girl who cried out in protest.

Suddenly Spidermonkey felt something in his mind but before he could dodge he was on the receiving end of the student’s punch.

“POWER!”

“C’mon, it wasn’t that powerful” Spidermonkey said, getting up from the ground.

The student disappeared and reappeared but the presence in Spidermonkey’s mind alerted him to the punches and he was able to dodge them repeatedly. However, when he went to counter-attack his punch went straight through the boy’s gut.

“Oh intangibility, of course” Spidermonkey remarked putting one of his hands to his head.

“Impressive. You figured out my Quirk but it won’t help you”.

“No, you’re right. If I keep using Spidermonkey, all I’ll be doing is monkeying around” he remarked causing a collective groan around them. Right there was also a whole class. Why weren’t they helping and just letting this guy do all the work? Questions for later.

“However, I’ve got someone who can” Spidermonkey said pressing the Omnitrix on his chest.

The vigilante was engulfed in a flash of green light and his form was no longer that of a blue monkey but of a blue humanoid moth with a lean build. Not an incredibly muscular one because that would be stupid.

“Big Chill!” the moth remarked. “First things first, let’s make sure none of your classmates can help you”.

Big Chill placed both hands to the ground and created a gigantic wall of ice separating the student from his classmates. The student wasn’t dissuaded though and disappeared again. However just as the punch was about to connect, Big Chill’s form turned into a blue shadow and gripped the boys arm, before throwing him.

“Woah. You can touch me while intangible? That’s awesome but it still won’t beat me I’m afraid” the student replied.

“I’m Togata Mirio by the way”

“Ben Tennyson”

And so what ensued was a battle of intangible creatures. However, even Ben had to admit that Big Chill was in for a tough fight. True, he could perceive and counter Mirio but it went two ways. Just from Mirio’s build, he could tell that he had more striking strength and durability than Big Chill who was a glass cannon that relied on his ice powers more than anything.

‘I’m going to have to play dirty if I want to win this fight’ Ben thought as Big Chill slashed Mirio with his claws after Mirio punched him in the gut.

Big Chill let out a breath of cold air, which Mirio dodged but practically froze the surrounding area. Big Chill placed both hands on the ground and started manipulating the ice into complex structures before fading into the ground to dodge one of Mirio’s hits.

Unfortunately, when he reappeared, Mirio was waiting for him and threw him into one of his structure but not before Big Chill let out a blast of cold air.

Mirio dodged again but Big Chill didn’t need to hit him to win and created more structures. When Mirio appeared, it was quite clear he was suffering from the effects of the battle just as much as he was.

Mirio was shivering and his hands hand started turning blue just from grabbing Big Chill.

“Fe-fe-fear not! I-I c-c-can st-st-still fight!” Mirio exclaimed despite it being abundantly clear that he was at the end of his rope.

“You pretty obviously can’t Mirio. You should take a break to chill out” Big Chill said earning himself more groans from behind the wall. Big Chill placed his hands to the ground and created another ice structure beneath Mirio who dodged and reappeared but his reactions had slowed so he was unable to react in time for the sculpture toppling on both him and Big Chill.

Big Chill was still standing, Mirio was not. Ben turned into Heatblast to warm him up and after making sure Mirio was ok he said “I told you I’d defeat you. Now who’s next?”

Unfortunately the Omnitrix started beeping and timed out and if things couldn’t get any worse, the wall of ice crumbled revealing an entire class full of students ready to capture him.

“Crap” Ben said before being hauled away to Nezu’s office.


When he finally got there, he was greeted with the sight of Nezu’s smug smirk.

“Why hello again, Mr Tennyson!” Nezu said in that obnoxiously cheerful voice of his. “I take it you enjoyed your fight with Mirio?”

“How could you possibly know that?!” Ben asked incredulously.

“I must admit I’m disappointed, Mr Tennyson” Nezu frowned. “You were easily able to figure out Mirio’s Quirk yet mine stumped you”.

“Uh, my hand phased through him, what else would it be?”

“You’d be surprised at how many people are unable to guess what it truly is, even or maybe especially after witnessing what he can do with it. Most people assume it’s a teleportation Quirk rather than an intangibility Quirk” Nezu explained, his smile never faltering.

“Would you care to take a gander at my Quirk?”

“Other than being a giant rat?”

Nezu merely smiled at him causing Ben to sigh “I dunno, precognition? You clearly knew what I was going to do if that sniper was any indication and you knew I was going to fight Mirio so you definitely predicted my actions”

“Close, Mr Tennyson! My Quirk is High Specs. It allows me to have intelligence far surpassing that of humans and because of it I can-

“Predict exactly what I was going to do, where and when. That’s actually really cool” Ben said.

“Hm. But if I’m not mistaken, you have several forms that also allow for super intelligence” Nezu inquired.

“Yeah but never to that degree. Brainstorm also possesses a similar psuedo-precognition but it’s on a much smaller scale and I’ve never really bothered with Gray Matter. I’m usually just trying not to get killed when I use him” Ben explained.

“Interesting, well Mr. Tennyson the reason I called you here before you tried your futile attempt at escape...”

Ben shrank in his seat with a blush on his face.

“... was to offer you a job at U.A High!”

“What?!” Ben and the other teachers exclaimed. Clearly Ben wasn’t the only one unsuspecting of Nezu’s surprise. Had he even told anyone?

“Look, I appreciate the offer but I’m no teacher. Ask literally anyone who knows me and I already have a job”

“Oh yes, as a Plumber I’m aware” Nezu said causing the teachers to look at Ben in confusion.

Ben noticing this merely turned to the rest of the staff and said “Space cop” as if that explained anything.

After a brief pause Aizawa spoke up “Sir, while I do see the value in having a vigilante around there is no way he could possibly teach our classes even if we relegated him to purely combat”.

“Think of the public’s opinion of the school if they found out we hired a vigilante” Midnight tried to reason.

“On top of that, the students have already met the vigilante and who knows what they will do if they find out he’s working here all of a sudden” Cementoss added.

“Enough!” Nezu stated in a decisive tone ceasing all argument. “I am well aware of the risks but we can spin Tennyson’s presence to improve our public image. If the police have failed to arrest him after all this time, imagine what good news it will be to hear that the top hero school in the country has him in their custody and is training him to stop his vigilante ways and become a Pro. The students will be fine after a brief adjustment period and besides I wasn’t planning on making him a teacher” Nezu smirked.

“You weren’t?”

“Oh no, Mr Tennyson. Besides maybe assisting some of the classes, your Omnitrix is an asset on it’s own. We could have you train with the students to increase their ability to combat versatile foes but that is merely a drop in the bucket of possibilities you present. Swampfire could create miniature forests and Jury Rigg would undoubtedly help the Support department.”.

“How do you-”

Nezu pressed a button showing camera footage of all of Ben’s exploits in the past three months... including the night before, his fights with Bakugou and Psyphon.

Ben merely gaped in response. He’d been spied on! On the one hand, he was offended that this mouse-bear-dog-thing had invaded his privacy. On the other hand, it was pretty awesome that someone thought he was worth spying on. The guy truly did have super intelligence.

“In truth Mr. Tennyson, I want you to increase the security of our school. As you know All Might’s power is fading hence his choice of successor and I fear that once he does Hero Society will start to crumble and start a new era of crime. Also you could continue your vigilante ways, at night” Nezu said seriously.

Nezu motioned for the other teachers to leave the room before saying in a whisper “I know you have gotten close to Izuku Midoriya. You want him to succeed to lure out Hisashi Midoriya. This job will help you keep an eye on him”.

Ben merely turned to him with a stony expression on his face “Sorry but the information I found out last night shows that I may not actually have to find Midoriya. Look I appreciate the offer but in 6-7 months the kid’s gonna be a badass. He’ll have Rook’s training and All Might’s Quirk and quite frankly I could be saving other people than watch over a kid who will be able to take care of himself” Ben turned to leave.

‘Tch. Looks like I’ll have to use Plan B’ Nezu thought.

“But Mr. Tennyson, that’s not a guarantee and if the great Ben 10 can’t protect my school, I’m going to fear for the student’s safety and just think of all the good publicity you'll get by protecting the country's top hero school” Nezu said in the most convincing depressed voice he could muster.

Ben paused and looked at Nezu, analysing him.

“I know what you’re doing”.

“Do you now?”

“Nezu, you’re appealing to my ego to try and convince me to take the job”.

“Oh” Nezu said with an amused grin on his face.

“Well, it’s not going to work”

“Oh bother. Fine then, Kayama if you will”.

“Wha-” and just like that Ben was knocked out a second time by Midnight’s Somnambulist Quirk.


When Ben woke up, he noticed the Omnitrix was missing. In fact Nezu seemed to be inspecting it on his desk with a shirtless guy in a helmet.

“Why hello, Mr. Tennyson! I take it you’ve reconsidered my offer”.

“What? No. You just knocked me out! And you stole my watch”.

“Well, I will be more than happy to return your watch to you if you sign the papers on the desk”.

The papers in question was a contract that required him to work for the school for the next three years. Ben looked at them with disdain. He was already a Plumber, he didn’t need a second job.

“Of course, you could simply walk out of here without the Omnitrix though I’m not sure leaving Level 20 technology in the hands of a school is necessarily the best choice but the choice is yours Mr. Tennyson”.

“This is extortion!”

“Actually I believe the proper term would be bribery. You have a choice Mr. Tennyson. You can take the bribe and work for me or you can walk out of here without your Omnitrix”.

Ben was stumped for words. He couldn’t really do anything. Maybe sue but as if Nezu could tell what he was thinking, he stamped out those thoughts.

“Legal action isn’t recommended. Remember where you are Mr. Tennyson, you’re a vigilante and I’m the principal of the top Hero school in the country. How do you think a lawsuit between the two of us would work out?” Nezu said in his usual cheerful tone but there was something different about his expression. His grin had become more sinister and his eyes were cold and calculating.

Ben really didn’t have any choice. He was a terrible shot and useless at everything else. Without the Omnitrix, he was nothing. With a sigh he walked to Nezu’s desk and grabbed a pen. And then just as he was about to sign, another thought came to him. Grandpa wasn’t going to be pleased about this.

“Wonderful!” Nezu exclaimed as if he won.

"Do you think these dumb little papers actually affect anything?" Ben questioned

"You can't just steal the greatest object in the universe and expect everything to go your way. You can't just have a guy sign some papers and act like there's no consequences. I'm pretty sure this counts as duress. The Omnitrix was made by a man far smarter and greater than you. He won't take this lying down nor will the Plumbers!" Despite Ben's little speech, Nezu still wore a big smile as if knowing exactly what Ben was thinking.

"You're correct, Ben Tennyson. So why do I think you'll be working for me regardless?"

"Look, I have a vested interest in someone who I am pretty sure is going to be attending your school next year."

"You're referring to Midoriya Izuku, yes?."

"Yeah, specifically his estranged father. The Plumbers are looking for him and we could really use some help on that front and I'm sure a person as smart as you would have some pretty vital leads on where to look."

"I might have some ideas but such information would naturally only be divulged to close allies."

"Yeah, I figured. You help me, I help you. You can even tell everyone that you caught me and once we find our man, you'll never see me again."

"I highly doubt that, Mr. Tennyson but fine you have a deal."

And almost as if the universe was laughing at him, that was when Sevenseven busted through the wall like the bloody Kool-Aid Man and let out a loud growl into his transceiver letting everyone know he’d found Ben.

“Hey, Sevenseven” Ben said in an embarrassed tone and waved his hand.

Notes:

So, we're getting more into the morality of the characters. If I hadn't used up "Morality", I would've titled this chapter it. The theme of the chapter is well, necessary evil and are there scenarios in which evil actions are right? On one side, you have characters like Bakugou and All Might. For them, there is always another way that doesn't involve breaking your principles and if you take the path that does, you're no better than a villain. On the other side, you have characters like Midoriya and Nezu here and this partly stems from their lack of power. All Might and Bakugou can take their side because they believe that might makes right. In other words, if you're powerful enough then you can make your own path. Midoriya and Nezu, however lack that power and so are typically a lot more cynical. They know the world isn't fair and without having the power to change it, they find it a lot easier to justify amoral actions like manipulation or invasion of privacy. They're still heroic people but they are more grey in their morality.

This partially goes into why Nezu wants Ben on his side. Ben is a wild card. He has the most powerful weapon in the universe and has a tendency to break the rules, when it suits him. Hell, the Plumbers exploit this and use him as a rogue agent in the Rooter Arc (which, has the absolute worst storytelling in the series). And because he doesn't know Ben personally and knows that Ben has the potential to change the world for better and for worse, he wants to ensure that Ben is on the 'right' side.

Anyway comments and criticism are appreciated. It's probably going to be a while before I upload the next chapter, mainly because the next two chapters are a two-parter and I intend to upload them together and also I've started my next semester so I don't have as much time to write.

Chapter 9: Preparations

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe you’re working at U.A!” Midoriya screamed as he hit the recently reinforced block of ice. Every hit seemed to be actively breaking it, which hopefully meant he was close to achieving Stone Cutter.

It had been two weeks since the meeting and Ben was hoping Midoriya wouldn’t find out until too late but Rook trying to be ‘helpful’ as always put a dent in that plan. As it was, the current state of his life was work at U.A. in the daytime. Investigate Kamino Ward at night.

He was hoping for a more precise location but unfortunately Adrian had covered his tracks well. He’d found Psyphon and would appear in a different location each time they met. As for Adrian, himself the man was an enigma as a Plumber. He constantly followed in Hisashi’s footsteps and didn’t really have any defining qualities when he was working.

However, he was an addition to the timeline. Apparently his Quirk had something to do with electricity or whatever, Ben kinda zoned out when Rook was explaining this to him. Where was he? Oh, right. Midoriya was fanboying about U.A.

“Uh, yeah. So you have to make sure to make it in. I don’t wanna waste my time” Ben said tiredly, while rubbing his eyes. His sleep schedule had been well and truly shot though.

Midoriya gave him a large grin “Right” and proceeded to start punching the crystalline structure now that he had demolished the ice sculpture.

Grandpa Max had some choice words for his little stunt but eventually he relented. In the meantime Grandpa reminded him that his work as a Plumber took precedence.

Ben had managed to get one of the bounty hunters to help him with security. As cool as he was, he was going to need a second pair of eyes if he wanted to cover the whole school. Occasionally he’d have Rook to help but most times it was one of the bounty hunters while Rook and the other two continued to search for Adrian.

“C’mon” Ben beckoned to Eighteight who was helping her little sister ‘eat’. He wasn’t sure what the reason was between Sotorrogians needing to adapt to a certain climate or maybe they just developed late but either way, Twotwo had tubes coming out of her mask to drink some smoothy thing. Before you ask, yes Ben did try some and no, he refuses to be embarrassed about it. It was surprisingly nicer than you’d think.

Another thing to note was despite being bounty hunters, the relationship between him and Rook and the three Sotorrogians had improved tremendously even if both parties knew they were going to go back to trying to kill each other once the mission was over. He’d even learned some Sotorrogian to understand what they were saying now.

Sevenseven would often bond with Rook over cars and they had gone to a couple AUTO shows together. Sixsix was surprisingly a fan of Sumo Slammers and video games in general. Eighteight was generally amicable though her interests lied more in martial arts and weapons. Still as long as he didn’t compare her to her brothers, she didn’t try and kill Ben and that was good enough.

“Don’t you think it’s a little too... I dunno happy?” Eighteight asked as they flew to the school. Ben in his Sotorrogian form.

“Oh, absolutely” Ben said with a grin.

In Ben’s life alone they had a breakthrough in the mission and had befriended the bounty hunters. Even the blackmail into U.A. was more of an annoyance than anything truly bad. Things were good and that meant things were going to go to shit real fast.

“Something’s definitely going to go wrong” Eighteight stated.

“Definitely”. That was what him and Eighteight bonded over. Sure, they may not have any shared interests but they both were also the most experienced in their groups and thus had some sort of innate ability to decide when things were about to get dangerous.

Of course part of it was because Sotoroggia was essentially hell if it was a planet and the bounty hunters didn’t really trust anyone or anything but still it was something. Supposedly Sixsix and Sevenseven also were savvy but were either too prideful or just chose a “shoot it til it dies” methodology.

“Still, once things go south, we should be able to easily take care of the problem. I mean Adrian’s facing the savior of the whole, entire universe and a kickass bounty hunter” Ben said arrogantly. Funny, he could almost feel Eighteight’s eyes roll.

“The same people who got their asses kicked by my brother’s upgraded suit” Eighteight remarked as they arrived at the school.

“True. But we beat him eventually and we’re facing a human. No matter how good his Quirk is, it’s not like we’re facing a reality warper like Charles Zenith” Ben said with a sly smirk as Eighteight drew her weapons on him.

“Never. Mention. That. Show. Again” Eighteight said with a buzzsaw perilously close to his neck.

“Ok! Ok! I was kidding. Geez”. Eighteight withdrew her weapons.

“It still baffles me how you can be so needlessly optimistic” Eighteight said.

“Because I generally tend to win” Ben replied.

This was effectively the crux of their differences. Eighteight had grown up on a planet that quite frankly didn’t suit her species, even if she was one of the lucky few who hadn’t mutated and didn’t need cybernetics to survive. By contrast he had grown up relatively normal and had the most powerful tool in the universe handed to him on a silver-platter. Even in times where he did lose, things would usually work out but Eighteight didn’t have that luxury.

When Eighteight lost, she had wasted precious resources for nothing. When she took up a mission she had damn well better be sure she emerged victorious and even when she did, she would eventually find herself in an “all or nothing” scenario. Granted, she would never stop being a bounty hunter. She loved the thrill of fighting, killing, acquiring relics etc. but she couldn’t deny that it would be better if she didn’t have to keep essentially living off a gambling lifestyle.

‘I wonder what I’ll have to do once the mission is over’ Eighteight thought before shaking those thoughts out of her head.

“I’ll meet you for lunch?” Ben asked to which she gave an affirmative nod before moving to her post. Ben went to go his own route before being interrupted by a blue-haired girl. He thinks her name was Hado, right?

“Hey! Who was that? Was that your girlfriend? Hey, Tennyson” Hado said while poking his face.

Ben swatted her fingers away before explaining “Well gee, Hado, you first met Sixsix, then Sevenseven, what do you think her name is? Anyway she isone of the bounty hunters I work with and no, she is not my girlfriend. Gross”.

“What’s so gross about having a girlfriend?” Hado was really up close and personal, now.

“Nothing’s wrong with being in a relationship but once her mission is over we’re going to go back to killing each other”. Ben looked around to make sure Eighteight wasn’t around before whispering in Hado’s ear

“Besides do you have any idea how old she is?” he said before having to dodge a plasma blast that came from Eighteight’s direction.

A growl came from the Omnitrix’s communications feature.

“Super hearing. Did not expect that to be a power the Sotorrogians would have” Ben remarked, as if he hadn’t been in close proximity to four of them in the last three and a half months. Maybe it would be in his best interest to just say nothing and get on with security detail?


“Deku” Bakugou growled as he took a seat next to Midoriya.

Midoriya and Bakugou’s relationship had somewhat improved in recent times, thanks to a certain vigilante.

“Have you asked him about it?” It being training. Bakugou realised his faults and figured the best way to become number one was to train against a guy who had something for every situation.

“Oh, no Kacchan. Sorry” Midoriya looked down at his feet.

“Tch, damn bastard” Bakugou said but clearly he hadn’t been expecting to get the training done no matter what Deku’s role in it was. Even if Deku did ask, there was a high chance that Tennyson would just refuse.

“I swear I was gonna ask but I was too caught up in the fact that he has a job at U.A and-”

That was something he most certainly wasn’t expecting.

Bakugou let our miniature explosions from his hands “What the hell do you mean, he got a job at U.A, you damn nerd?!”

“From what I know after that night, the R18 hero Midnight knocked him out with her Quirk and dragged him back to U.A where the principal gave him the choice to surrender or work for him. But that’s just what I know, I swear” Midoriya cried out.

“Tch. All the more reason to make sure I get in” Bakugou muttered to himself before turning to Midoriya “I would say don’t even fucking think about going to U.A but with him working there, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get in. Just stay the hell out of my way, Deku!” Bakugou yelled as they ate their lunch.

The rest of lunch was spent discussing possible weak points of Tennyson. So far Bakugou knew that Tennyson could only shapeshift into one form at a time and thus only could use a fraction of his arsenal. He could shapeshift into other forms but seemed to prefer sticking to the one he got unless absolutely necessary. However, Deku had actually been useful and had started taking note of the strengths and weaknesses of those forms.

For example, he had no idea the speedster alien was so fragile that it would only take one hit to break it’s bones though thanks to it’s healing factor, it kind of made it a moot point. Perhaps Deku wasn’t so worthless after all.


Despite, all he had seen this new timeline still managed to surprise him. Case in point, just a few seconds ago he had been bumped into by clothes. Well judging by the uniform it seemed he had been bumped into by a teenage girl but said girl was invisible.

“Sorry!” she yelped before going on her merry way.

Well, that was a thing but he needed to focus on the mission and Rook was, to put it simply, frustrated. Ben had made a breakthrough, yes but it would’ve been helpful to get a more precise location. Without anything out of the ordinary to tie him to, the group had essentially been wandering around Kamino Ward, hoping that they might be able to come across Adrian by sheer luck.

Ben had wanted to check out an abandoned factory that was on the other side of the Ward but Rook quickly dismissed that idea. They couldn’t dismiss all other locations on a hunch. What baffled him even more was that Eighteight agreed with Ben citing that it would be the perfect place to lay low and hide something despite the fact that a man regularly going in and out of an abandoned factory would just draw attention. Where was he? Right, Adrian.

The fact that Adrian was the mastermind still baffled him, even two weeks after the revelation. While he wasn’t entirely clean, the reports had always indicated that he was a follower not a leader. Most of the trouble came from Hisashi though Rook was sure he was still involved somehow.

True, he had managed to go off the grid for five years but the moment he saw two Plumbers, he immediately tried to kill them. Him and Ben would never have got this far if he merely stayed quiet. On top of that, he called a meeting for these bounty hunters at Baumann’s store. Yes, it was a place everyone knew and seemingly innocuous enough but it was also managed by an ally to the Plumbers.

Even if Adrian was smart enough to realise the implications of his plan and plan around it, the course he had taken was so needlessly complex. Why hire people who have encountered Ben before (and Ben has defeated before) when he could hire an assassin to kill them in their sleep? Or even better, Adrian was likely observing them so he could’ve done it himself. Adrian’s Quirk would’ve been perfect for the job.

His plan relied not only on people that have previously been defeated by Ben, managing to kill him but also those same people not looking into how much Taydenite there was on Earth. It wasn’t that hard! In the event that they did succeed in killing Ben and himself, Adrian’s plan also relied on those same bounty hunters armed with the Omnitrix and Plumber equipment not tracking him down and killing him.

‘I found something’ Sixsix said though everyone only heard a growl.

“Finally!” Rook yelled in glee as he followed Sixsix.

It was doubtful that they found Adrian, just due to the sheer lack of laser fire going off and the fact that Sixsix likely wouldn’t have come told him anyway but hopefully it was something that could help. They came to a bar. Rook shot Sixsix a quizzical look.

‘OK I know it looks bad but as I was... investigating this bar something happened that might be important’ Sixsix said as he entered the bar.

Rook followed and was astounded to found a large, black expanse in the wall. Rook radioed Sevenseven letting him know where they were and what they were doing before entering the expanse.

Rook was surprised when he entered the other side only to see a man on a medical bed, his eyes seemed to have been completely removed from his face. His vitals were being monitored by a doctor.

“I take it you’re Plumbers?” the man said in a cold tone.

“Only I am a Plumber. My name is Rook Blonko and how do you know what the Plumbers are?” Rook said pointing his proto-Tool at the man.

He wasn’t sure what it was but something was off about the man. It was like there was a snake in the room, patiently waiting for it’s time to strike.

“Why I was one, of course” the man replied with a cold smirk.

Rook gripped his proto-Tool while Sixsix kept his guns on the man. “Hisashi Midoriya”.

“In the flesh”.

“I was under the assumption your Quirk was fire-breathing, not portal creation”

“Inko still remembers? I’m flattered. Did she tell you that story about when I confronted that living dumpster fire? I truly don’t deserve someone like her” Hisashi said fondly.

Rook didn’t take his eyes of Hisashi. “Oh relax, this was the work of one of my associates’ Quirks, not mine. It’s like you think I’m some Quirk stealing monster or something’

“Well if you had a teleportation Quirk at your disposal, why did you not head back to Plumber HQ? “

‘Gee, I dunno, maybe because there’s no Plumbers in this country and there’s a limit to how far an individual can teleport. Especially when your in the condition I am in”.

“Then why did you not contact us?” Rook asked. Hisashi made a frustrated noise, clearly getting tired of these questions.

“Well, that’s a bit of a problem. One, I feel we both share”.

Rook’s eyes widened. “Adrian”.

Hisashi smirked “Quite. Around five years ago, I got into a fight. As you can tell I lost and have been unable to do anything ever since. Adrian took full advantage of my crippled state and made off with the Quirk Integration Project”.

Rook’s eyes widened “More on that later, but first I thought you might want to know where Adrian is right now”.

“If you have a teleporter at your disposal, why didn’t you take him down yourself?”

“... If you haven’t noticed Blonko”

“Rook”

“Blonko. If you haven’t noticed, I can’t move” Hisashi said, his voice practically dripping with sarcasm.

“Besides I only knew his whereabouts within the last three months and I felt it would be much more poetic for a traitor of the Plumbers to be defeated by a Plumber, don’t you? Lucky for me, I found you and your partner around the same time as Adrian slipped up”.

Rook sighed “OK. Where is he?”

“Before I give you his location, you don’t need any other information like his Quirk, right? I’m sure the records will suffice”.

“Just tell me already!” Rook said impatiently and so Hisashi complied with his wishes.

‘Oh. Oh son of a bitch’


“You were right” Rook said begrudgingly as Ben and Eighteight arrived at the Midoriya household.

“Hm?”

“You were right about the location of Adrian” Rook looked down at the floor. He could not believe this.

“Alright!” Ben exclaimed before offering Eighteight a high five who left him hanging.

“OK, fine” Ben said as he high fived himself.

“So where is he? You found him so you must’ve arrested him. Is he already back at Plumber HQ?” Ben asked in addition to 10 other questions and going on about how he wanted to give the guy a smackdown or something.

“I have not arrested him yet. I received some intel, made sure it was accurate and then returned here to confide in you for what our plan going forth is”.

“Duh, beat the guy up of course, then arrest and interrogate him. If that doesn’t work I’ve got Pesky Dust. We head out tonight”.

“Can I come?” Midoriya asked.

“No”/”Yes” Both Plumbers turned to each other and glared.

“If he comes, we will only be putting an innocent child at risk of being harmed”.

“Uh, hello. It’s one traitor against three bounty hunters, one Plumber and the savior of the whole entire universe. If we do our jobs right, the kid’s not going to get hurt and will gain some valuable experience about how to handle situations as a hero. Who knows? Maybe the presence of All Might’s chosen one will actually help us succeed easier”.

“We’re not going to need help, especially not if it puts an innocent civilian at risk!”

‘Personally I agree with Tennyson’ Eighteight interjected.

“Why?” Rook turned to the bounty hunter.

“Look, the kid is his partner’s son. His partner who he tried to pin the blame on. In the past three months, the target has shown himself to be more emotional than logical ergo he will prioritise the kid over any of us. This will be useful if his “Quirk”” Eighteight said Quirk while making air quotes “is the perfect counter against us, as you’ve described. We’re going to need a distraction and we’ve got one that’s perfectly willing to play the part” she said as she gestured to Midoriya.

Rook would ask for Sixsix and Sevenseven to back him up but he knew their idea was to go in guns blazing with or without Midoriya. Finding himself outnumbered, Rook knew there was only one choice.

“Alright. Midoriya can come with us and be the distraction as long as there is not sufficient risk”.

“Wait, what’s this about me being a distraction?!” Midoriya questioned. But before he got the opportunity, Ben reassured him that no harm would come to him considering it was only one human with a Quirk.

“In other news Midoriya, I am pleased to say your father is not in fact a deadbeat.” Rook changed the subject with a smile.

“What?!” Midoriya’s eyes narrowed.

“It would seem sometime in the past five years, your father and his partner got into a fight. Your father was crippled and even to this day cannot move besides speaking. The top half of his head was the most severely injured and it would be highly unlikely that he did not suffer any brain damage, especially with the loss of his eyes...” Rook explained.

“The loss of his eyes?!” Midoriya exclaimed.

All this time he’d hated his father. For leaving without so much as an explanation. For hurting him and his mother. He still had fond memories of the guy like when his father took him out for ice cream after he was diagnosed Quirkless and reassuring him that he didn’t have to have a Quirk to be a hero despite his clear disdain for the profession.

It was thanks to him that he started analysing Quirks in an attempt to hopefully make a difference someday. His dad helped him and looked over his notes with glee. They’d analyse Quirks on TV... and then one day he left and never came back.

But the knowledge that it hadn’t been his fault. That his father was just a victim of some villain. It changed everything and made his blood boil.

“Is that where you got the intel from?” Ben asked.

“Indeed. He even gave me this to give to you and your mother” Rook said as he pulled out a device of some kind. It only had one button on it.

“What is it?” Midoriya asked.

“It is a transceiver. You can use it to get his teleporter to bring you to your father. You could use it now if you wish”.

Midoriya ignored Ben’s cries of “he has a teleporter” and stared at the device before looking down.

“It can wait. First I want to meet the guy that hurt my dad” Midoriya said with fire in his eyes. Fire that if utilised could utterly burn a person into ash.

And so that was all that was said on the matter. The group got their plan and equipment sorted to take down the man known as Adrian Smith. Little did they know, the odds were not as in their favor as it seemed.

Notes:

OK, I'm sorry I took so long. Exams and assignments have been a bitch to deal with and I'm not even done yet. I plan on uploading chapter 10 soon. It's nearly finished so thanks for being patient.

Now as for this chapter, I'm not happy with it. Like with chapter 2, I'm mainly fine with it but there are a couple of scenes that just kinda ruin it for me. So much so that I literaslly deleted one of those scenes because reading the story back, it really has no reason to be there. Unfortunately, the end result just felt really forced. As for the rest of the chapter, it feels alright. Title name is obvious and it clearly shows that we're getting close to the finale (of this season).

Once again, I am really sorry for keeping you readers waiting. Chapter 10 will be up soon and so will my exams/assignments sooo hopefully I will be able to get back on track with updates.

Chapter 10: Adrian

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Adrian Smith was a fairly average person. Sure, he’d become a space cop but he mainly did grunt work and he never really stood out. His partner, Hisashi, had criminal connections and was obviously a “villain” but as long as it didn’t affect him, it wasn’t his problem. If the Plumbers’ didn’t want to do their jobs, that was on them.

Hisashi would regularly lord his superiority over Adrian and forced him to accompany him. Adrian wouldn’t say he had a strong moral compass but... the things Hisashi made him do. The things he saw Hisashi himself do... to innocent people. They were wrong, plain and simple. Unfortunately Hisashi was too powerful for him and did whatever was required of him. No less but certainly not more.

However, one day, he found himself in a prime opportunity. He could be free of Hisashi and while he was it, he could get a little more power for himself. All thanks to a little thing called the Quirk Integration Project.

It was almost funny how easy it was. It took but a phone call and Hisashi was out of his hair. See people with power tend to make a lot of enemies and it seemed Hisashi, for all his strength, had bit off a bit more than he could chew.

And after the fact, Adrian took the opportunity to steal Hisashi’s little pet project and disappear, never to be seen again. In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before the Plumbers caught on that something was amiss but he’d gotten lucky. The Plumbers were in the middle of re-establishing their authority over Earth. A single, average Plumber was not important enough and it made getting away, that much easier.

However, his status was eventually deemed an abnormality. The Plumbers finally got their shit together and sent their best agents after him. Adrian figured he’d do the same thing he did to his partner but alas Tennyson managed to prevail.

And now he had figured out where Adrian was. Hisashi wasn’t actually dead and his son is coming after him. If his son was anything like that monster, Adrian shuddered at the thought. And of course that’s on top of the three bounty hunters he had pissed off with his little Taydenite gambit. As well as another Plumber and Ben freaking Tennyson. Adrian looked at the monitor displaying their Plumber badges.

“Wonderful. Just fucking wonderful”. Well at least he’ll get to beat the shit out of Hisashi’s son.


“Hey Rook, what do you think’s going to happen once the mission’s over” Ben asked as they made their way to the Kamino Ward.

“I had assumed, that we would head back to base to debrief Magister Tennyson but I find it unlikely that the search for the Quirk Integration Project will end here. Either way, as per our agreement the bounty hunters will likely take their payment and leave, hopefully searching for bounties unrelated to us”.

“What about Hisashi?”

“There is no doubt in my mind that he is up to something. While I was with him, it felt like there was a predator in the room, waiting ready to strike” Rook said as Sixsix nodded his head in agreement.

“And I thought you only accepted facts and evidence” Ben smirked.

“Well, something doesn’t feel right about that man. If he was truly the loving family man he claims he is, he was why didn’t he make an extra effort to get in touch with them?”

Ben tried to answer only for Rook to cut him off “And I find it highly unlikely he only just found where Adrian is especially with a teleporter on his side. Speaking of which, said teleporter was nowhere to be found when we interviewed him”.

“Based on the circumstances, I feel justified in saying that there is something wrong with him” Rook finished his rant.

“I guess” Ben said as he set up his bike. “Hey Midoriya?”

And that was how Midoriya found himself gripping for dear life on a motorcycle instead of in a safe truck. Although Ben did have a point that it was far faster, he’d prefer the vehicle with less of a chance of crashing. Rook could’ve used the company given that the three bounty hunters were flying overhead.

Said bounty hunters did not go unnoticed by Ben “Flight? Now that’s just unfair. What do you say we speed things up a little, Midoriya?”

“No no no!” Midoriya tried to yell but went ignored as Ben sped the motorcycle up to dangerously high speeds to try and catch up to the bounty hunters. All the while Midoriya gripped tightly and was hoping this was some kind of dream.


Predictably Rook was the last one to arrive at the factory, though Ben had managed to catch up to Sixsix.

Midoriya seemed to be shaking after the whole ordeal and was muttering something about speeding and lasers.

Rook sighed “I believe, the only reason I agreed to Midoriya being here was that we did our best not to traumatize him”, which caused the other four people to let out a chorus of apologies.

“Now the factory has two possible routes, upstairs leading to the upper floors and downstairs which lead to the basement. I for one believe it is in our best interest to-”

“Split up.”

“No.” Rook glared at Ben.

“C’mon Rook I actually have a good reason for it this time. If Adrian catches us roaming around the warehouse all in one spot, that’ll give him a greater opportunity to escape”.

Rook couldn’t fault his logic and agreed to splitting up in two teams. Him, Sixsix and Sevenseven would take the upper floors while Ben, Eigheight and Midoriya would take the basement. Not only was it the safest route for Midoriya but by putting the Plumbers on two seperate teams, it would prevent the bounty hunters from betraying them in the heat of things.

Rook’s group went upstairs and started roaming through rooms. After 10 minutes, they were interrupted by laser fire. Rook looked up to see at least half a dozen Techadon Robots!

‘Magister Tennyson did say that a shipment had been stolen but I never thought Adrian would be the culprit!’ Rook thought as he dodged another barrage of laser fire and transformed his Proto-TOOL; Sixsix and Sevenseven also bringing out their weapons.

They fired their weapons and managed to destroy one or two but they simply regenerated. Rook brought up comms and said “We need backup! Fourth room on the second floor. There is a group of Techadon robots comprising of 6-7 units”

However, Rook was only met with static.

“Ben?” he called out before having to dodge a blast that destroyed the wall, where he had been.


Midoriya was quite frankly excited. Sure he was a distraction but this was his first ever mission! This was the first time he got to be part of the action instead of just standing on the sidelines, watching others do the work. Of course given that he doesn’t have a Quirk and hasn’t even learned Stone Cutter he was just going to be on the sidelines... watching others do the work but. Huh.

“Well, well, well if it isn’t the Plumber, the bounty hunter and Hisashi’s kid” an almost gleeful voice called out to them in the dark.

He knew this was Adrian and he felt himself shaking with rage.

“Midoriya”. Ben called out to him in a concerned tone but he didn’t care.

Channeling his inner Kacchan, he yelled out “Adrian, show yourself you damn bastard! You’re gonna pay for crippling my dad” Izuku felt tears going down his face.

“Midoriya!” He heard Ben yell.

“Oh, but I didn’t cripple Hisashi. I mean I certainly had a part to play but the guy had it coming. Think what you will about me but he’s a far worse person than I could ever hope to be”.

Midoriya processed the information. There was another person who crippled his father? No, judging from Adrian’s actions it was probably just a bounty hunter doing his job. That bit about his father deserving to be crippled, however.

“LIES!” Midoriya yelled as he ran forward to reach the source of the voice.

“Wait, Midoriya!” Ben reached out to stop him but Midoriya simply batted his hand away and kept running. However, when he got to his destination he felt a hand grab him and a knife at his neck.

‘That’s not blood going down my neck, right?’ Midoriya thought. He looked up at Adrian but Adrian had his eyes on the rest of his group. However, Adrian immediately removed the knife so he could tell that the knife had indeed cut him.

“Let’s be honest, I don’t have to kill you right now and you’re a Quirkless teenager. Holding you should do for now”. And Adrian was right. Despite Midoriya’s training, he was still a middle school student compared to a space cop that’s been on the run.

“That’s it. It’s hero time!” Ben called out as he hit the Omnitrix. Only he didn’t transform. Ben kept hitting the Omnitrix to no avail. Likewise Eighteight was clearly trying to shoot Adrian but found that her guns weren’t working.

“See what you’ve done, Izuku? Thanks to you, I can keep my attention entirely on the two people in this room who could actually stop me” Adrian said without even turning to him.

Suddenly his face sported a ginormous smile that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror movie

“Oh, Mr. Tennyson don’t even think about calling your partner. I mean not just because it’ll be a waste of time but I do believe that you’ll find that they are quite preoccupied at the moment”

Adrian pressed a button on a remote in his pocket and a large screen behind him came to life, showing that Rook, Sixsix and Sevenseven were fighting a group of large orange robots. Whenever the robots took damage, they would simply regenerate.

“True, my Quirk can’t reach them from here but they should still be kept busy for long enough. Kill them” Adrian announced.

It was at that moment that Midoriya noticed there were similar robots in this very room. Midoriya counted five in total. Their hands shapeshifted into gauntlets and let out a barrage of lasers, which both Ben and Eighteight quickly dodged.

“Damn it what’s his Quirk?” Ben said as he kept dodging while trying to get the Omnitrix to work.

Eighteight let out a couple of growls.

“Technology nullification?! Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Though Izuku didn’t understand Sotoroggian, he had a feeling what she said was something like “We did” especially given Ben’s reaction of “OK OK. There’s no need to be mean about it”.

Izuku started analysing the situation. OK his Quirk is Technology Nullification but there has to be a limit to that. Hm. Adrian hasn’t taken his eyes of the two, even when he was talking to Izuku. Also both the robots and the screen were placed behind Adrian and for whatever reason Rook and his team were out of range...

“Guys, his Quirk is based on sight. He can only nullify your equipment of he sees you!”

“Tch, I see you share Hisashi’s penchant for analysing Quirks. Once I’m done with your friends, I am going to kill you. Of course you already knew that but the process will be very slow and very painful and I’m going to record the whole thing so that I have something to send Hisashi when this is over. I’m sure he will be most amused at the sounds of your screams” Adrian ranted.

“I know I will” Adrian turned to Midoriya, looking very unhinged. Ben tried to take the opportunity to transform but Adrian quickly turned back

“Whoops! Almost let my emotions get the better of me there!” He said in a cheerful tone.

Eighteight however, had taken the opportunity to activate her jetpack for a small burst of propulsion to leap over Adrian and start fighting the Techadon robots.

Adrian was pissed that he had allowed an opening but knew that between one bounty hunter and Tennyson, Tennyson was the bigger threat. The Techadons would protect him if they did their job correctly. And protect him they did, four of the Techadon’s had now formed a line between Adrian and Eighteight and continued to fire while Eighteight nimbly dodged the blasts and fired her own.

She proceeded to dodge and flip around the battlefield but she was steadily getting closer and once she got closer she activated her energy swords and sliced clean through one of the Techadons. Of course it tried to regenerate but Eighteight used the opportunity to use the regenerating body as a shield against the other three Techadon robots.

For his part Ben was also trying to get closer but wasn’t having as much luck. While four had been made to protect Adrian, one was still left to fire at Tennyson before he could get too close.

Eighteight wasn’t faring much better. The Techadons were adapting their fighting strategy so that when she got close to one of them, the other two shot at her. Eventually she was blasted into a wall and her armor was starting to crack, yet the Techadons were taking this opportunity to fire at her with everything they had. Then one of the Techadons through a grenade at her for good measure. The grenade exploded and took out a good chunk of the wall.

“Ooh that sounded like it hurt” Adrian remarked but Eighteight merely let out a primal growl. Her armor had been completely destroyed and she had been reduced to the black underlayer, which even that was starting to crack. There were black spots over her and it was apparent she had been burnt and was bleeding.

Despite that her face remained stoic, the fins on the top of her head twitched and the glare from her red eyes made it clear she was pissed. Eighteight merely picked up the regenerating head and performed an elaborate set of acrobatics with her shield before jamming it into another Techadon. She must've hit something because both her shield and one of the the Techadons blew up. She let out another primal growl and lept forward to tackle the Techadon’s. Despite having none of her weapons, she wasted no time punching through the chest of one of the two remaining Techadons and ripping out it’s core with some wires.

Adrian had heard the thing as well. “That’s not possible!” he said as he let go of Midoriya.

Midoriya quickly took the the opportunity to get away from him.

“Oh fine, it’s not like you can do anything anyway” Adrian said as Ben was blasted into a wall. Eighteight’s injuries seemed to be taking their toll on her as she was her movement’s became more sluggish and the Techadon took the opportunity to pin her to the ground with it’s blaster aimed at her head.

The remaining Techadon started moving towards Ben who was incapacitated, clearly with the intention of killing him. Adrian had a smug smirk on his face.

Izuku couldn’t believe it. He was about to watch one of his heroes die in front of him. The person who’d convinced his mother to let him follow his dream. The person who’d saved Kacchan and him, twice. This couldn’t be the end. He had to do something... but he couldn’t.

Adrian was right. He was just a stupid, fucking Deku. He couldn’t do anything. Izuku sighed as he looked down at the ground and then he caught Eighteight who couldn’t get up from the Techadon’s pin. Her strength had left her and she faced the the impending shot with closed eyes.

He looked to Ben, who despite his injuries was still trying to get up to face the Techadon.

It couldn’t end like this. He wanted to be a hero and heroes saved people. They meddled in affairs even when they didn’t have to. Izuku felt something channel inside him and decided to try something. He had no idea how well it would work but he had to try, right?

Lifting one hand into the air, he manipulated this feeling into his right arm. He yelled and punched into the ground.

“STONE CUTTER!”

An immense amount of vibrations was felt thoughout the area. The Techadon aiming at Eighteight lost it’s footing and missed creating an opening that Eighteight seized. She punched through the robot and ripped anything she could find out of it. The Techadon tried to fight back but Eighteight refused to give it the opportunity and pretty soon she had dismantled the entire thing without a hope of it recovering.

Adrian lost his footing and with that opportunity meant he also couldn’t use his Quirk effectively, which Ben gladly took hold of the opportunity.

“C’mon Jury Rigg!” He yelled as he entered a flash of light, only to come out as a large brown dinosaur.

“Well, Humungousaur is good enough” he grinned.

Adrian tried to activate his Quirk again but was sent into a wall by the final Techadon robot, which Humungousaur had thrown at him. Adrian tried to get up but failed and merely slumped to the floor, unable to even use his Quirk.

Humungousaur transformed back into Ben and looked at the group and grinned. Then took notice of Eighteight without her armor on and blushed. She let out a quizzical growl.

“You’re just prettier than I thought you’d be” Ben said.

Eighteight let out another growl but Midoriya didn’t understand what she said.

“Hey, c’mon don’t be like that. I said you were pretty, right?” he said.

“You heard that, right Midoriya?” Ben turned to Midoriya only he wasn’t there. He was on the other side of the room seething with rage. His fist lifted into the air, above Adrian’s unconscious body. Tears of sadness and anger trickled down his face.

“It’s because of you my dad never came back home... and you had the audacity to say he deserved it” Midoriya said in a cold tone. His breathing had become erratic.

Ben only needed one look to figure out what Midoriya was about to do and it seemed Eighteight had also realised. In Adrian’s state, the Stone Cutter technique had a very good chance of killing him or at the very least critically injuring him.

Eighteight went to tackle Midoriya away from Adrian but her stamina had been completely depleted and her injuries had taken their toll on her so she pathetically fell down.

“Midoriya!” Ben called out. “Stop. Just think about what you’re doing. Adrian’s already been defeated. If you do this, the only thing you’ll accomplish is becoming a murderer”

“He tried to kill my father and held a knife to my neck. He deserves what’s coming to him”

“What about being a hero?”

That gave Midoriya pause. “What?”

“You wanted to be a Pro Hero, right? Cause if you do this, you will be throwing that dream away. The villain’s been defeated, there’s no need to do anything more. Are you willing to throw that dream away just to satisfy some petty grudge’

“HE TRIED TO KILL MY FATHER!” Midoriya screamed. “Because of him, my father never got to come home. He missed out on so much and maybe if he was there, my life wouldn’t have been so miserable the last five years”.

“Yes but what would your dad say if you ended your future to avenge him? What about your mother or All Might, for that matter? What do you think his reaction would be to finding out his successor killed a defenseless man in cold blood?”

“SHUT UP!” Midoriya couldn’t take it anymore. He turned back to his father’s betrayer and prepared to use Stone Cutter. He channeled all his energy into his arm and prepared to strike. He went for the killing blow but stopped.

Tennyson was right. His father had never been fond of heroes but Izuku knew that he would gladly take his son being a “child soldier” over a murderer whose future had been cut too short.

Holy shit, what would his mother say when she found out he’d killed someone? She’d try to defend him, maybe, but the end outcome would stay the same. Midoriya imagined being in court, his mother, her head down in despair, having completely and utterly lost the case as the judge delivered his verdict.

“GUILTY”

And All Might had planned to make him his successor. What would his reaction be? Disappointment, anger and regret most likely.

“You had so much to live for Young Midoriya” All Might said. “It’s a shame you decided to give it all up before you could even start. Fortunately I was able to choose a much more worthy successor before handing you my power” All Might started walking away from him.

“All Might!” Izuku called out, to no avail.

All Might ignored him and continued walking towards his successor. Kacchan.

“Well I always knew you were a worthless Deku but I never thought you’d sink this low” he said with a sinister smile on his face.

Suddenly Izuku couldn’t take it anymore. His arm dropped to his side, the intent to kill completely leaving him as he broke down in tears. Ben came to try and comfort him but he didn’t really pay attention.

5 minutes later, Midoriya had calmed down and Ben and Eighteight had restrained Adrian. It was then that Midoriya noticed that the room Rook was in was completely empty, save for some orange scrap parts, which were probably the Techadons.

“Ben!” Rook busted through the basement with Sixsix and Sevenseven.

“Rook! See I told you we’d handle be able to handle it easily. Didn’t even need the whole team” Ben said.

“We nearly died... and I nearly killed a person but thankfully Ben was able to talk me out of it”. Midoriya said bluntly.

Sixsix and Sevenseven noticed their sister without her armor and initiated a conversation between the three of them.

Rook raised an eyebrow as he took in the amount of destruction. Two walls had been destroyed, one of the support beams had fallen down, there was a large crate in the middle of the room with cracks in the floor, both Ben and Eighteight had suffered extensive damage and their clothes were ruined exposing either burn wounds or bleeding.

“What exactly happened?”

“It’s a long story but on the upside, I learnt the Stone Cutter technique!” Midoriya said with a beaming smile, his guilt being replaced at the excitement of finally being able to utilise the technique he’d been working on for the last three and a half months.

Well at least, that was something good. Rook smiled at his pupil.

“Here, watch and see!” Midoriya went to use the technique.

“Midoriya, wait now is not the right time for this!” But it was too late. He had performed the technique and combine it with all the previous damage and the factory began to collapse in on itself. They were only saved thanks to a blue and black blur.

After seeing what he’d done to the factory Midoriya sighed “I guess that wasn’t very smart of me, was it?”

“It is understandable that you would want to show me your new technique but no it was not” Rook remarked.

“Yeah, I mean if it wasn’t for XLR8, we would’ve been crushed”.

“That was not XLR8”.

“Hm.” Izuku looked up to see Ben in yet another alien form. He was blue and black like XLR8 but was far more humanoid.

“Another speedster?!” Midoriya remarked.

“Meet Fasttrack. He may not be as fast as XLR8 but he is stronger and more durable. But enough of that, I’d say it’s time to go home, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

Fasttrack grinned. He knew that grin and it didn’t like it. Ben was up to something.

“Wait, Tennyson!” And that was how he found himself in a bridal position as Fasttrack raced him home.

Rook looked in the truck. “Well, at least he had the sense to put Smith in the truck”.


The next day Izuku and Inko had decided to take up Rook’s offer of the teleportation transceiver. The moment they used it, a black portal opened in their living room.

They walked inside and found Hisashi lying on a medical table.

“You came. I had hoped you would” he said in a fond voice.

“Hisashi!”/”Dad!” both Inko and Izuku yelled as they ran to Hisashi with tears in their eyes.

“There, there. I’ve been looking forward to this reunion. Unfortunately, there have been some complications as you can see but enough about that. I’m sure you both have some questions”.

“Why, why didn’t you call? We would’ve understood your situation. Just a call would’ve been enough” Inko rambled.

“I assume Mr. Blonko told you about how I ended up in this condition. I was in a fight and needed extensive surgery. I’ve only been awake this past year or so I’m told. It pains me to say it but I forgot our number. I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t really try any other methods after that but I had some... business to take care of” Hisashi said that lost part in a particularly cold tone.

“Was the man who did this to you connected to Adrian?” Izuku asked.

“No but Izuku, how do you know that name?” he asked in a commanding tone.

“Uh...” and so Izuku found himself telling the story of the past three months and recalling the events of the previous night.

“Izuku, you are grounded young man!” Inko exclaimed after hearing that her son had almost died and had nearly killed a man in the process.

“But mom!”

“Your mother is right, Izuku. What you did was extremely dangerous and you shouldn’t have been there in the first place” Hisashi said before sighing “Having said that I’m proud of you. You didn’t throw your future away and are finally starting to accomplish your goal. It is still to become a child soldier, working for the government, right?”

“Dad, it’s not like that!”

“Yes it is. But regardless of my oppositions to the profession, I know you can achieve it and I won’t stand in your way”.

Izuku wiped the tears from his eyes “Thanks dad.”

“You sure you don’t want to be a lawyer or work in the media industry or analytics?”

“I’m positive”

“Just had to make sure.”

“Oh and one other thing, All Might’s giving me his Quirk!” Izuku exclaimed as if it was something to be celebrated.

Hisashi thought otherwise “... what?”

“Yeah, apparently he has a Quirk called One For All which he can give to others and he picked me. Isn’t that cool?!”

Hisashi wanted to object. He wanted to voice his concerns about One For All and All Might. He wanted to tell Izuku that what he had seen that Quirk do to people... but he didn’t. Because despite the risks, he could tell that Inko was still tense from 5 years of absence. He’d already been gone for 5 years and he was not willing to risk a divorce as soon as he got reunited with his family.

So Hisashi didn’t tell Izuku about the danger of One For All. Instead he grimaced and merely told Izuku to be careful, that the Quirk might not be suited to his body if the number 1 hero had been using it. Only for his son to say that’s what All Might said and explain his training. Lovely.

‘Well at least Izuku is happy’ he thought to himself.

At the very least, he was able to see or rather feel his family’s presence again. Now he only needed a way to restore this body to the way it was and he could rejoin his family. He also needed to keep nurturing Tomura so that he could make an adequate leader or the underworld.

He and his family exchanged goodbyes when Izuku realised he still needed to clean up Dagobah Beach.

‘The garbage beach? Oh Toshi, I knew you were stupid but I thought you’d at least the sense to create a proper training program’.


“So here’s your payment” Diamondhead said to the three bounty hunters, having just finished creating a mountain of crystalline constructs while also throwing in a few limbs of his.

‘Well, first I need to go back to Sotoragg and get some new armor’ Eighteight remarked with a smile while Sixsix and Sevenseven loaded their ship. Part of their payment also included fuel for their ship so that they could leave this planet.

‘Then we’ll probably continue bounty hunting. I know I will. I just love the profession too much’ Ben nodded in understanding. Asking her to stop being a bounty hunter would be like asking him to stop being a hero.

“Well, it’s been fun. Take care of yourself guys as he held out a hand.

Eighteight took it and hugged him?! The person who wouldn’t even give him a high-five was hugging him.

‘You know, I noticed you still haven’t named your Sotoraggian form. Ever think about Tenten?’ She said as she released him.

Ben simply stared. “It was right there! I’m Ben 10, it should’ve been so easy. I can’t believe I was so dumb”.

Eighteight laughed ‘Thank you for giving us this opportunity Ben. It’s thanks to you my little sister is safe and sound. Goodbye’ Eighteight said before getting on the ship. Sixsix and Sevenseven waved while growling goodbyes before the ship door closed and they took off.

Rook arrived “Enjoy fraternizing with our enemies?” he said with a smile.

“Please, as if you weren’t fraternising with them either. Don’t think I didn’t see you and Sevenseven take off to the AUTO show that one time. So where do we go from here?”

Rook shrugged. “Our orders from Magister Tennyson are to find out as much about this Quirk Integration Project as we can and with you working at a high school, I wager we will be here for at least the next three years”.

Just then the radio of the Proto-TRUK went off about how there was a villain holding two people hostage and the Pros unable to do anything. Ben and Rook looked at each other.

“No. Ben let the Pros handle it” Rook tried to reason.

“Rook, the Pros are already handling it. I think they need to see how a real hero operates”.

Rook sighed as Ben pressed the Omnitrix covered in that familiar green light.


“Are you certain, Sensei?”

“Positive, Tomura. When I sense a Quirk, I analyse every last detail and I do believe I sensed a restoration Quirk. However, getting it may be a problem”.

“Huh but why?!”

“Whoever possesses that Quirk is in the hands of the Yakuza, a dying breed but a formidable one”.

“So let’s just bust in there and grab the guy”.

“Tomura, remember patience is a virtue. If we attack now, we could risk everything if the leader is who I suspect he is” Tomura slumped like a child.

“However, I do believe that if we play our cards right, we will be able to take our, how would you put it, white mage? We should be able to retrieve our white mage without taking any unnecessary risks, especially if we use our two new Plumbers to help us” All For One grinned viciously.

“But remember what I said about patience, Tomura. It’s all about waiting for the right opportunity to strike”.

“If you say so, Sensei”.

The Plumbers didn’t know it yet but now that Adrian was out of the picture, all he needed was that blonde buffoon out of his way and his plans would move along quite nicely.

Notes:

And here's part 2 and the finale to season 1. So to the surprise of no one, this is a dad for one fic. I've always loved the theory that Midoriya is both the Symbol of Peace's successor as well as the son of the greatest supervillain in the world (though that part is now disputable considering the Ben 10 universe is a part of this now).

So I think I should probably tell my plans for the near future in regards to season 2. First of all, both Adrian and the Sotoraggians are out of the picture. They might get a mention here or there but I do not have any plans for them so far. Secondly, just as season 1 was mainly focused on Ben and his problems, season 2 is going to be focused on Midoriya. Mainly because I'm tackling MHA canon territory now instead of that 10 month time skip. As such I don't exactly have plans for Ben and Rook because I'm focusing not just on Midoriya but also Bakugou and U.A.

My exams/assignments are going to be finished in about 10 days so I'll have a lot more time to write but tell me who you want to see next season. It might not make a difference because I've got a fair idea of what I'm going to be including but I am curious to see what you guys think. Tell me what you thought of this 'season' and what I could do to make the next one better.

Chapter 11: Where They Are Now

Notes:

Huge thanks to ThisIsRidiculous for recommending this fic on TvTropes. So, it's been a while, huh? Y'know especially considering I promised you guys that I would be updating more frequently, ha ha. OK so what happened was I thought I was going to have a break because there was a two-week break between classes but then university decided we could be more productive with our time and gave us a bunch of assignments to do. And now, if you can do the math, university is back in session for me. So yeah, this took a bit longer than I thought and I'm sorry for leading you guys on. The good news is that I have got a significant portion of the next chapter done so it's not going to be another month before I update again.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

It had been an interesting few months since the incident. OK not really. Ben returned to his job at U.A. and had started training Bakugou while Rook tried making leads on whatever project they had. Midoriya however, returned to his school work, breaking pillars of ice (which was far more easy now that he had Stone Cutter) and cleaning up the garbage dump.

The only thing interesting was that he’d somehow managed to lose one of his earlier Quirk Analysis notebooks. No. 5 but he was sure it was around. Well, that and the fact that Bakugou had started attending therapy but that was bound to happen sooner or later. Although he still didn’t know why he had to attend therapy as well.

It was fine, really. Boring meant their lives weren’t in danger but Izuku couldn’t deny the feeling of wanting more. He tried to tag along with Ben but his attempts were shut down every time. It made sense, what with the Entrance Exam only 3 months away but still.

‘I wish something exciting would happen already’ Izuku thought as he dumped a large engine into the truck.

“HEY!” an angry voice called out to him.

Izuku turned to the sound of the voice and found a pink-haired girl with two big- no Izuku, bad. Said girl was glaring at him as if he had offended her.

‘Oh no, can she read minds? I’m sorry for being perverted!’ Izuku thought.

However, the girl merely gave him a quizzical look.

“OK, I uh don’t know why your making those expressions but what are you doing with that engine?”

Midoriya turned to the engine and hesitantly pointed at it

“Yes, that engine! It would be the perfect engine for one of my babies and-” she said before getting real close to his face.

‘Does this girl have no idea what personal space means? Wait why does she need an engine for a baby?’ Izuku thought.

“YOU’RE JUST GONNA THROW IT AWAY?!” she yelled.

“Look Ms.”

“Hatsume and drop the Ms. We’re probably the same age.”

“Look Hatsume, I’m just moving garbage off the beach. If you want the engine, you can take it for your... baby” Izuku said that last part with a blush.

“REALLY?!”

Midoriya nodded.

“Thank you! Come along then.”

“Wait what?”

“You’re a gentleman, aren’t ya? Well shouldn’t a gentleman like yourself be able to carry my engine. I certainly can’t do it”.

Midoriya looked at her with disbelief before sighing in resignation and carrying the engine.

Hatsume grinned “That’s the spirit, lackey!”

“It’s Midoriya, Midoriya Izuku”.

“Whatever you say, lackey” Hatsume said as they continued walking to her house.

When they got there, Midoriya was finally able to carefully drop the engine and sigh in relief.

“Hm. You handled that better than I thought you would. I was certain you’d have to take a break at least a few times on the way but you just did it” Hatsume said in interest before she began feeling him up.

Midoriya sported a massive blush “W-w-what are you doing?!”

“I’m feeling you up, duh. Hm, yes you are much more built than you look”.

“Please stop”.

“Hey, lackey how’d you like to be my guinea pig?” she says as she finally stopped feeling him up.

“For what?” Midoriya was almost too afraid to ask.

“Why for my babies, of course!” she seemed to be very excited.

“B-babies?!”

Hatsume merely smiled and pressed a button on the door causing a pile of gadgets to slip out.

“All of these are my wonderful babies! Of course I never leave home without some of my children” she said as she pulled out a jetpack, a laser and was that an eye? More importantly where did she pull those from?!’

“Why, from this of course” she grinned as she held up the eye.

“It’s my hammerspace projector and allows me to send things to a pocket dimension for easier mobility. Isn’t it great?!”

Midoriya looked at the eye with an uneasy expression before quirking an eyebrow. “Wait so if you had this thing on you, you could’ve just gotten the engine by yourself”

“Uh huh” she said as if she didn’t acknowledge or care that she had just wasted his time.

“... I’m leaving”

Hatsume’s grin finally vanished and was replaced with something he couldn’t quite place. “No wait, Midoriya, I’m sorry! I just really wanted someone to test my babies for the Entrance Exam to U.A”.

Midoriya paused “U.A? You’re applying for that school as well”.

“Yep! If I want to make it big, I have to graduate from the best school in the country, right? Besides, you could help get my babies get some recognition if I made you support items”.

Midoriya paused to think. On the one hand, just looking at the assortment of her gadgets showed that she would be a good ally to have in the future. On the other hand, he didn’t really like the idea of spending time with a person who would gladly treat him as a pack mule. He weighed the pros and cons but eventually... con won out.

“Goodbye Hatsume!” Midoriya turned to leave.

“Wait! Please, look through my babies, I’m sure they’ll be something to your liking.” Hatsume was starting to sound desperate. Why did she even want him anyway?

Midoriya turned towards her and sighed. However, now that he got a good look at that jetpack...

“Is this modeled after Air Jet’s jetpack?!”

“Ah, so you know your heroes. Of course I made a few additions of my ow-”

“And that staff is clearly modeled after Sun Wukong’s. Can it extend?”

“Of course it can, who do you take me for?”.

Midoriya took a look at a cybernetic arm that was in the back “No way. Is this what I think it is?”

“Slasher’s original cybernetic arm after losing it against Bonecrusher. I managed to acquire it from a pawn shop and it has been the basis of many of my inventions, including this!” She opened the closet and revealed, a mech suit?!

Midoriya was overwhelmed. Despite her eccentricities, this girl was just as much of a geek as he was.

“OK Hatsume, I’ll test your ‘babies’ at the beach but you have to bring them to me”.

“Yes! I guess I won’t be needing this anymore” she replied pulling out a notebook. Specifically Quirk Analysis for the Future No. 5.

Midoriya was unnerved as he took back his notebook.

“Hatsume?”

“Yeah”.

“I lost this two weeks ago. Have you been stalking me since then?”

“Yep.” Well at least she’s honest.

“Now come along new best friend. We’ve got babies to test”, she said with a grin on her face.

Midoriya sighed. Well he had wanted something interesting to happen after all. He had just hoped it would be a villain attack and not a stalker girl with no sense of personal space.


Rook sighed in frustration. Adrian still wasn’t talking. They had managed to regain a device with information regarding the Quirk Integration Project on it but it was completely encrypted and every attempt to decrypt it failed.

Ben had used Pesky Dust but to no avail. If it was in Adrian’s mind, it had been locked away so that even he had no idea what to do. It seemed Hisashi had been the one calling all the shots on this project but with him paralyzed, it was unlikely that he would be able to help. Or rather Rook had tried to get Hisashi to co-operate but he had rather inconveniently lost all memories of the project.

Besides Rook still felt uneasy around the man. He warmed up considerably whenever he was with his family but outside of that, something about that warmth turned fake. A disguise to hide how cold and calculating the man could really be.

But as it is, he couldn’t really do anything and as such had nothing to do. As much as he hated to admit it, he sympathised with Ben’s wishes for something more exciting to happen. Although at least Ben had found other uses of his time, like working at the high school or training Bakugou. Rook was just stuck staring at a wall. Perhaps he could take Rayona out on a date?

Although now that he mentioned it, Rook was wondering how Ben was training Bakugou. Surely Ben was taking it easy on the middle schooler. Especially considering said middle schooler was able to be defeated by his human form. He trusted his partner but a little call to check on how the training was going wouldn’t hurt, right?

“What do you mean he had a panic attack?!”


When Bakugou finally had confirmation from Deku that Tennyson had agreed to train him he was, well he wasn’t elated but he was pretty fucking happy. After all being trained by such a versatile foe would make becoming number one, that much easier.

After all if there was one weakness of his that he had to concede, it was that his Quirk was too circumstantial. It was still a fucking awesome Quirk but against villains who could absorb energy, freeze things or just outright tank his explosions like nothing, well he contributed exactly the same as shitty Deku would in that situation. That’s not even getting into the more weird Quirks out there that, as much as he hated to admit, put his to shame.

So yeah, Tennyson training him was a good way to circumvent this. Of course he hadn’t known how much it would fucking suck!

Training effectively amounted to Tennyson transforming into one of his ‘aliens’ (he didn’t care what Tennyson called them, it was all one fucking Quirk) and then beating the shit out of him.
Thinking back to their first meeting of training still pissed him off.

First training started much like their first fight. Abandoned warehouse, Tennyson makes a few snarky comments etc. The only difference is that this time Tennyson actually bothered to transform.

“You wanted to fight Heatblast first, right”? He asked before transforming into the fiery rock monster.

“Flame on!” he yelled before blasting Bakugou with a fireball. Bakugou growled before letting out explosion after explosion, only for Tennyson to absorb them. There weren’t even any char marks around the place.

“Tch, should’ve known that wouldn’t work. Good thing I at least have the mobility advantage” Bakugou schemed before propelling himself into the air with his Quirk.

However, as soon as Bakugou was in the air, Heatblast propelled himself with his flamethrowers and he seemed to have experience in aerial fights. His movements were fluid and Bakugou found himself having made contact with Heatblast’s foot before he could react sending him hurtling towards the ground.

“Hm. I suppose that was a bit rough for your first fight. I probably need to actually give you a chance”.

Bakugou stewed in his anger. He couldn’t do anything and he was being looked down upon.

‘Is this what Deku feels like? It fucking sucks!’ he thought. However, just like Deku he refused to give up in the face of adversity and braced himself for the next form.

Said form was a small brown rodent with a moustache. Of course because why the fuck not, right?!

“I dare say, Mr. Bakugou but I can positively feel your aggression from here” the rodent said in a british accent for some reason?

Bakugou calmed down. ‘You know what? Tennyson’s underestimating me, I can use that to my advantage. Besides it will be fun blowing up Tennyson for once. I wonder what his burnt hair smells like? And does it have to use conditioner? It is a pretty sweet mustache.’ He cut off that train of thought and looking towards Tennyson with a grin.

“Oh, are you finished strategizing for our combat? I dare say, a real villain would not give you the time to articulate a well-thought plan but I am a gentleman first and a gentleman must always-” the rodent started to ramble and Bakugou felt this was as good an opportunity as any.
He let out a gigantic explosion and yelled “DIE!”, shaking the walls as he did so. He let out a victorious smirk but was unprepared for what came next.

The rodent had shapeshifted his mustache into helicopter blades so that he could fly over the explosion.

“A magnificent show of power Mr. Bakugou. Unfortunately, your attack was easily telegraphed and as such I could easily avoid it in time”.

Bakugou started seething with fury. OK, so the rodent could fly. He could fly too and he could tell from the rodent’s movements that it was far slower than he was, even when he first learnt how to fly. Putting both hands to the ground, Bakugou released his Quirk and yelled “DIE, you fucking rodent!”

However, just as he was about to reach Tennyson, the rodent’s mustache shapeshifted from helicopter blades to fists and connected with his face, sending him backwards into the ground... again.

Bakugou wouldn’t be deterred and ran towards Tennyson with his hands outstretched, sparks flying off them. The rodent noticed him though and shapeshifted one of the fists of his mustache into a shield to block him.

“Tough shit, Tennyson because the thing about hair is that it burns!” Bakugou yelled, fully prepared to burn through the rodent’s mustache. However, he felt something on his leg.

‘Oh. That’s why he only shapeshifted one fist’ Bakugou thought as he was promptly tripped up by the fist and then held into the air.

“I must say, dear Bakugou. You are quite a disappointment. Out of all of my alien forms, Mole-stache is one of the more unsatisfactory ones and yet you have still failed to land a single blow” Mole-stache said.

Bakugou growled and tried to let out another explosion but Tennyson dropped him on his ass.

“Perhaps an alien with a similar temperament will be more to your liking” Mole-stache said before hitting the hourglass symbol on his belt.

The rodent had been replaced by a giant, humanoid tiger in a wrestler’s outfit.

“LEMME TELL ‘YA SOMETHING, KATSUKI BAKUGOU! RATH IS GONNA SHOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO LOSE!” the tiger yelled.

Bakugou smirked “Hell yeah, you are” before letting out another gigantic explosion. His hands were starting to hurt but at least he finally got a hit on Tennyson. Even if he didn’t win, he still had that victory. That is to say until, Bakugou saw Rath had no injuries. The area around him was charred but even his wrestler’s outfit seemed to be unaffected by the attack.

Rath looked at him and growled. ‘Oh shit’.

And so what ensued was Bakugou getting the crap beat out of him by a very-strong, nigh-invulnerable tiger person. He doesn’t even know how long it was. He was trying too hard to minimize the damage. Of course, when Tennyson timed out, he was in shock and apologised for letting Rath get carried away. Bakugou of course was too tired to respond but then the Omnitrix had finished it’s charge time.

“I’ve got just the thing” Ben said before being transforming. After the light died down, Bakugou was surprised to see a more feminine form of Tennyson’s. It even gave Pesky Dust a run for its money. This was a dainty, pale humanoid with stringy, blue hair wearing a green robe. It could almost pass for human if it wasn’t for the head. Chin up was fairly normal. Pale skin, dainty lips, etc. Pretty standard stuff until the forehead.

The eyes, well first there were three of them but they were small and almost entirely white. There was blue pupils in them but other than that, they were entirely white. And the form also had parallel antennae. It also had sharp ears but compared to the previous two, that feature wasn’t as prevalent. The hourglass symbol was on a nurse’s hat on her head.

“I call this form Medicura” it said. It even had a feminine voice! Medicura put it’s hands towards Bakugou and started glowing blue energy.

Suddenly Bakugou started to feel rejuvenated. His bruises started healing by themselves and he regained his lost stamina. Even the self-inflicted damage to his hands had been healed. Within minutes, Bakugou was restored to the state he was in before training started. He grinned.

This form of Tennyson’s was clearly not suited to combat. It was more suited to healing others and had only been brought out to heal him so it probably didn’t have any offensive capabilities.

Bakugou let out an explosion at the effeminate healer and was proved right. Medicura didn’t have any offensive capabilities. Medicura did however, have the ability to project force-fields through his hands.

“I see you’re as grateful as you normally are” Medicura snarked coldly, their eyes glowing blue.

Bakugou growled at his failure. Well, this wasn’t the first time a forcefield got in his way. Bakugou grabbed onto it and started blasting it with his Quirk. The forcefield started to crack under pressure.

“Just a little more” Bakugou started punching the barrier. The cracks started to grow larger. Finally, the barrier broke.

“Yes!”

“No.” Medicura said as they gave an unimpressed look and sidestepped the wannabe hero. They waved their hands towards Bakugou, creating another barrier which sent him flying.

To add insult to injury, Medicura healed him that time as well and he-she-they were definitely looking at him with pity.

“Are you ok?”

“Yes, I’m fucking ok!” Bakugou growled before using his Quirk to fly at the healer, only to land face-first into another barrier. The rest of that fight was more of the same. Bakugou would get pissed and fly at the healer, Medicura would summon a barrier, he’d break the barrier only for the healer to summon two or three more to send him flying, then he’d get healed, pissed and try and get to the healer.

Eventually the Omnitrix timed out and they would have to wait for it to recharge. Sure, Bakugou could attack Tennyson now but he’d also found out that any wounds Tennyson sustained would also apply to his ‘alien forms’ and vice versa. Defeating them while they had a handicap would be entirely meaningless and Tennyson knew it judging from the smug smile on his face.

So Bakugou stewed in silence. Maybe he should’ve attacked Tennyson so as to prevent the next fight from happening. None of the previous fights made him feel as powerless and as helpless as the next one.

It started out like the previous fights. Tennyson would say some smartass comment about Bakugou being so weak or whatever. He turned into an alien form by random. It had to be because he wasn’t even looking at his watch. The form was apparently called Goop and it was just some green blob with a disk above him. That was probably his weak point given that the sludge followed it.

Bakugou grinned. He guessed Goop had no internal organs after Bakugou blasted him to kingdom come, only for Goop to pull himself together.

“Congratulations, you finally did some damage”.

Bakugou frowned. Something about this situation didn’t feel right but he didn’t know why. Bakugou doing no damage to Tennyson? Check. Tennyson making some smartass comment? Check. Something about the situation just made him feel uneasy and he was sweating for some reason but it was probably just him exerting himself and the multiple asskickings finally taking their toll. He had a target, he just needed to hit it!

Bakugou flew towards Goop and Goop easily dodged. However, Bakugou wasn’t aiming for the blob as the explosion went towards the tiny disk but alas it evaded his attack.

“Damn it!”.

Bakugou started letting out blasts rapid-fire not even caring if he hit the disk or not. The blasts started sparking fires around the room but he didn’t care. Goop, however, did care and was trying to put them out with his sludge.

“You’re wide open!” Bakugou yelled, charging at Goop but Goop wasn’t having any of it and grabbed him out of the air.

“Look, I know you’re desperate for a win but don’t burn down the warehouse while doing it!” Goop yelled.

Bakugou wasn’t listening. He now understood why he felt uneasy throughout the fight with Goop. His breathing became erratic as he became surrounded by sludge. The fires around the area, looking awfully familiar.

He couldn’t breathe! Why couldn’t he breathe?! It was like he was drowning. Bakugou started thrashing around, trying to escape from the monster’s grip. His Quirk constantly active.

‘Why isn’t anyone helping?! Somebody please help. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die’.

Bakugou’s vision started to blur and he started hyperventilating.

‘Somebody please help me. Anyone. Even Deku just as long as I don’t...’ was the last thought he had before blacking out.

When Bakugou woke up, the fires had been dealt with and Medicura was looking at him with concern.

“Are you alright?” the healer asked, their features etched with worry.

“How long was I out?” Bakugou asked.

“Just a few minutes. As I was putting out the fires...” ‘that you created’ went unsaid. “... you started hyperventilating. All of a sudden, you started holding your breath and your body temperature started to decrease. I had to perform CPR on you” Bakugou felt himself blush at that but Medicura didn’t seem to care.

“May I ask what happened?”

“...”

“Bakugou” Medicura said in a tone that was both concerned and assertive. One that was clearly demanding answers but for his good or some shit like that.

“I don’t know, OK!” Bakugou growled. “It’s just when you grabbed me with that slime monster, I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was drowning and I was powerless to stop it”.

“Drowning? But that doesn’t make any sense. I made sure, Goop’s goop stayed out of your airways. Why on earth- oh.” Medicura’s eyes widened before the Omnitrix timed out.

“Dude, I’m sorry.”

“Huh. The fuck are you sorry for?”

“I didn’t realize...” Ben’s eyes went to the ground.

“You didn’t realize what, Tennyson?”

“That you were still suffering from the Sludge Villain”. You could hear a pin drop from the silence that followed.

Bakugou laughed “The Sludge Villain! It’s been months since that incident. There’s no fucking way I’d still be affected by it”.

Ben looked up incredulously “Really? Are you so sure?”

“Yeah, I haven’t thought back to it in ages, it’s perfectly fine. You’re just delusional”. Of course Bakugou still had the occasional nightmare about the incident but he wasn’t going to let Tennyson know that.

“Well, if I’m delusional you can provide a perfectly fine reason as to why you only panicked when faced with a similar opponent to the Sludge Villain”.

“Look, it’s been a tough day. I’ve had my ass kicked a lot”.

“And yet the only form you reacted to with fear was the one made of sludge”

“SHUT UP!”

“Look, I don’t need you reading into this. The only reason I’m here is to get some help on taking down problematic opponents. If you aren’t going to help me, I’ll just leave”.

“I am going to help you but dude. You had a near-death experience. It’s normal to get therapy after something like that, especially when you were only 14 years old. Have you talked to anyone about it?”

“Oh yeah? You’re just some big hero aren’t ya? How ‘bout you quit being a hypocrite and just train me, already?”

“Hypocrite?!” Ben responded with offence.

“Yeah. Deku told me, you started heroing at 10. I bet there were a lot of near death and traumatic experiences during that time but you don’t have a therapist, do you?” Bakugou said with a smug grin.

“... I do have a therapist”

Bakugou did a double-take “What?”

“I do have a therapist. I’m sure Midoriya also told you that I was on a road trip with my grandpa and cousin at the time. Do you really think any adult would be irresponsible enough to just leave me to my own devices after my life was threatened every week?”

“But Deku...”

“Never told you? No because I never told him. I didn’t think it was important enough. An error on my part but allow me to tell you something he doesn’t know... yet” Ben said before putting a hand on Bakugou’s shoulder

“Every city we travelled to, my grandpa had a meeting reserved with a therapist so that we could unload all that had happened. Man, I really hated those meetings. I had to pretend our experiences were just some coping mechanism and it wasted my vacation time but it helped. I’d probably be way more twisted if I didn’t go”.

Bakugou didn’t say anything. He just had to process this information. The super powerful vigilante who easily defeated him not once but five separate times (six if you count the panic attack) attended therapy. The guy who treated everything like a joke and looked down on everyone attended therapy. The guy with an ego so big he called himself “saviour of the whole entire universe” attended- actually when he puts it like that no shit the guy attends therapy.

“Yeah well just because you need it sure as hell doesn’t mean I do”

“Oh but you do. That is if you want our training to continue”

“What?!” Bakugou yelled in shock.

“If you want me to keep training you, you’re gonna have to attend therapy.”

Bakugou just stared ahead, weighing the pros and cons. Getting tips on how to be number one faster with the caveat of one hour of mandatory therapy a week or being surrounded by idiots who would never amount to anything and he is improperly prepared for when he faces another opponent that has a Quirk that perfectly counters his. It was a no brainer.

“Ffffine. I’ll attend your shitty therapy”.

Ben smirked. “Great. Two to beam up!”

“Wait, what?”

But the two had already been teleported into some place with green walls. Across the room there were two small things bickering with each other.

“He said ‘two to beam up’!”

“No he didn’t”

“Yes he did”

“I actually did Driba” Ben said.

The thinner of the two looked at Ben and said “That’s what I said”

“No it isn’t!”

“Yes it is!”

“Ah you are just impossible to deal with”

“... no I’m not”

As the two midgets continued arguing, Bakugou turned to Ben “What the FUCK is this place?!”

“This is Plumbers HQ. Katsuki Bakugou, welcome to my world” Ben said as he made a gesture while he walked out of the room.

“Wait up!” Bakugou raced after Tennyson and was faced with a bunch of mutation Quirk users. And by a bunch he meant every single person had a mutation Quirk of some kind. He saw walking fish, rodents, fairies, horned people, a purple gorilla, humanoids with different coloured skin and... a sludge person. Bakugou instinctively backed away when he saw her. He also noted that a lot of the different Plumbers were actually forms Ben could turn into.

“Well, well, well if it isn’t Ben Tennyson” a large red man approached him. Bakugou recognized him from Deku’s notebook. Ben called the form “Four Arms”, right? What a stupid name.

“I heard you became a teacher. The hell are you doing back here?”

“Well I had to see that you didn’t throw another space station out of orbit, of course”

‘What? Another as in that’s actually fucking happened before’ Bakugou thought incredulously.

“Hey, that was mainly your fault!”

“Was it though?”

“Yeah it was. Now who’s the shrimp?”

“Well, Manny meet Katsuki Bakugou. One of my students and in dire need of a psych evaluation”

“The FUCK did you just say?!” Bakugou yelled.

“Yeah, I can see that” Manny’s eyes narrowed. “You do know the only reason we let you get away with this kinda stuff is because you’re too valuable to let go, right”.

Ben went to answer but Manny stopped him “Don’t answer that.”

“Relax, the only reason he’s here is because it’s nearly time for my own and it’d be quicker this way. Don’t tell grandpa, I’m here ok?”

“Oh and here I thought my grandson was checking up on me” an old man said behind Tennyson.

Bakugou didn’t think it was possible for Tennyson to turn that pale. He mouthed something like ‘Damn it’ under his breath and turned around.

“Hey grandpa!” He waved “I uh thought you had to stabilize the continuum in Los Soledad”

“Already done and don’t change the subject, Ben. Why have you brought a student into our base?”

“Well, I already told Manny and I’m pretty sure you’ve been standing there for the entire time”.

“Ben” he said in a tone that indicated Tennyson’s grandpa wasn’t going to tolerate any more bullshit.

“I’m just following in your footsteps, ok?”

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean”

“Someone needs psychiatric help and I’m taking him to get it” Ben said twiddling his fingers together.

“And you had to take him to Plumbers HQ to do that instead of taking him to therapist in his hometown”.

“That’ll happen later but I was kinda hoping if I showed him other alien species, he’d finally believe I’m Quirkless”.

“... I knew it. There’s always some ulterior motive to your actions.” Max said disappointed while Manny simply uttered an “unbelievable” under his breath.

Bakugou simply watched the whole conversation play out. It seemed unreal to think that the usually confident, arrogant and completely unashamed vigilante would turn out to be so... meek and embarrassed. He almost seemed like a real person instead of just an obstacle in his path, now.

“Look, I know it sounds bad but he needs a Plumber psychiatrist”.

“And just why would a Plumber help more than a regular therapist?”

“Because Goop gave him a panic attack!”

Max’s eyes widened.

“Hm. Perhaps, what is your name?”

“Katsuki Bakugou” he said in a rigid voice.

“Perhaps Katsuki would benefit from a Plumber. After all it was a Plumber that found caused this and if he’s been having panic attacks because he’s made contact with aliens, he would serve to benefit more from a person who works with them. Come on, Katsuki”. Max said as they followed him to the psychiatric ward.

He met with a blue skinned woman with both eyes on the left side of her face and an additional frontal lobe. Her head looked weird but apparently it gave her empathic abilities. Bakugou later found out that the woman’s name was Kr’lk.

Kr’lk had this aura around her that made it extremely easy it trust her yet Bakugou still didn’t want to talk about the incident. However, roughly half an hour of meaningless drabble later and Bakugou felt it would be best to talk about it despite his own feelings.

And so he told her. About how he was nearly drowned by the Sludge Villain. About his interactions with Tennyson, leading up to the training. About his pathetic freak out, when faced with Goop. By the end of it, Bakugou had expended his information and several tears.

Kr’lk told him it was alright to feel vulnerable in this situation, how it was normal and blah blah blah. All cliche bullshit that you’d expect. However, what he didn’t expect was her telling him that he should try relaxation methods to start with. That he clearly had some anxiety and anger issues and that these are a big part of his trigger.

So apparently learning to relax will decrease his anxiety and anger which may be the first step to getting control over this. Getting a hold on this will mean he’s well on his way to becoming number 1. Maybe Tennyson had a point when he said therapy was important?

And the rest is history. Apparently Tennyson’s partner called during Bakugou’s blackout and called his parents. Once they were actually filled in on the situation, they responded differently from what he’d expect. His dad of course was all for it but the old hag actually was supportive. Huh. Bakugou was sure she’d go on about how Katsuki was so weak and mock him, maybe even whack him but no the bitch was actually supportive and had no qualms paying for therapy.

That happened about a month ago. Bakugou continued his therapy and training with Tennyson and felt he was slowly getting better. He was still uneasy against sludge monsters but he wasn’t constantly angry anymore.

Deku had muttered that “Kacchan was calmer for some reason” and immediately understood when he found out his friend was taking therapy. It’s almost like the bastard thought it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Of course, he’s still fucking pissed right now because currently he’s stuck on the ground and paralysed. Apparently it’s a side effect of one of ‘Jetray’s’ neuroshock beams. Whatever the hell that meant.

“Oh, you’re still on the ground” Ben said as he came back.

“No shit I’m still on the ground, you paralysed me you asshole!” Bakugou said.

“Well, yeah but everyone I’ve tried it on usually escapes it in seconds” Ben slurped his smoothy.

Great another reminder how weak he was. Bakugou felt his eyes roll. Wait.

“Where did you get that smoothy?”

“Bellwood?” Bellwood as in his hometown in America?

“You flew to a completely different country for a smoothy” Bakugou said incredulously.

“Well, duh, Mr. Smoothy hasn’t expanded to Japan yet. Also greatest change to the timeline is that it’s finally back to the way it was before the incident”.

“How did you even do that?” Bakugou asked as he felt the paralysis wear off. “Do you have a teleportation alien or is one of your aliens just that fast?”

“Oh, I didn’t realise we were talking about the next form to kick your ass” Ben said as he pointed to the scoreboard they had placed in the warehouse. It reading Bakugou: 5 Tennyson: 46.

“Yeah, whatever. I’m slowly gaining on you” Bakugou grinned as he cracked his knuckles.

“One of those victories was Walkatrout, the only alien without any powers. Seriously my base form is better than that”.

“Oh quit complaining. A win is a win!” Bakugou yelled before smirking. There were three months til the U.A. Entrance Exam and he was going to use every asset he had access to.

Notes:

Alright so onto the chapter itself, not much happens in the first 'episode' of 'season 2'. This chapter was less about plot progression and more about identifying what the characters are up to currently, hence the title. And if you're not into that, well unfortunately the next chapter isn't much better though it focuses entirely on a character that hasn't yet be introduced. However, it's all to set things up. As you can see I got to use that idea I had for Ben 10 VS Bakugou! But also I'm taking a sort of different route with Bakugou's character, namely the fact that he's got PTSD. How will this affect him for the future? Who knows? What I will say is that Bakugou is still the same bully he is in canon. Him having PTSD is in no way going to make up for his actions especially considering his personality before and after the incident is pretty similar. However, the fact that he has a therapist helping him through his problems is going to somewhat change his personality onwards but at a very slow pace.

Chapter 12: Hagakure

Notes:

Let me just say that for the record, university is a bitch and because it's a bitch I'm probably not going to get anything done for the next three weeks. I feel I could've done better with this chapter but I was already keeping you guys waiting for a chapter that's not even 3,000 words long so I'll just have to deal with it.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Hagakure felt she had a fairly normal life. Got her Quirk at age 4, saw a counselor on how to work around the minor inconveniences that came with it... like blindness.

All things considered, Hagakure was lucky. She had a Quirk that could potentially ruin her life forever but thanks to a friend of her parents, Hisashi Midoriya, and some experimental and possibly illegal treatment, Hagakure could see again! Well practically.

The problem with her Quirk was that light never reached her eyes so if she had any chance of seeing again, she’d need to allow her eyes to be seen again, which would be a huge disadvantage for hero work.

Uncle Hisashi did start by trying to alter the reflection or refraction (she could never remember which was which) of light for her eyes but unfortunately was unable to retain the sheer transparency of her body so he shifted gears. Instead of trying to get back her sight, he looked into methods that could enhance her other senses and maybe give her some new ones.

Hagakure had to be sedated for the treatment and she still doesn’t know the specifics of what he did but it worked! Her senses were supercharged. She could feel a person’s breath from a few meters away, hear certain tones that she shouldn’t be able to hear and in general she was able to construct the world around her without having to use sight.

It was great. Her parents were elated and she had stopped being treated as an invalid at school. She made friends very easily after that, all because of her cool Quirk. Invisibility had its perks, once you got past it’s drawbacks.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. While her Quirk was certainly passable, the novelty of being constantly invisible started to wear off. She couldn’t evolve her Quirk so she was essentially stuck as the dumb, invisible girl.

Her super senses also allowed her to detect when someone was lying thanks to their tone, a change in their breathing and feeling the change in their facial muscles. She could distinguish the difference between a liar and someone who was just uncomfortable though sometimes they overlapped.

For example one time in elementary school, she asked her friend Nagi a series of questions. They were innocuous to start with; “What’s your favourite power or who’s your favourite hero?” before getting deeper “Do you think I can still be a hero?”

Nagi was clearly uncomfortable and it was Hagakure’s fault for pushing her but when she lied to that last one, she didn’t take it well.

“Uh. Sure thing, Hagakure”. Heartbeat had elevated and Nagi’s voice had a slightly higher tone.

“You’re lying” Her tone cold and her cheeks wet.

“What-”

“You’re lying! I can tell. W-why don’t you think I c-can become a hero?” Hagakure started to sob.

For her part, Nagi leaned in and tried to comfort Hagakure but only made things worse. “It’s just your Quirk isn’t very useful for heroing. Sure you can hide from villains but fighting them? You’re practically Quirkless once anyone finds you and I think it would be better if you just let others do the fighting”

“S-sh-shut up!”

But Nagi kept going “I’m not saying your Quirk’s useless. You could be a spy like Jason Bond. Wouldn’t that be cool? You’d get to use lots of spy tech and drive fancy cars. It’s practically like being a hero but-”.

“I’m not going to be a spy, Nagi! I’m gonna be a hero.” Hagakure said in a small voice. Spies had never been an option for her. It was a job that revolved around deceit and deception. It was such a villainous occupation and she didn’t want to go anywhere near it. Besides even if she did, she hadn’t the faintest of where to start.

“What was that?”

“I’m gonna be a hero!” Hagakure yelled before storming out of the room.

“That idiot’s going to get herself killed” she heard Nagi say before leaving.

Looking back on it, Hagakure was an impulsive and whiny brat. She threw a tantrum and outed herself as being a lie detector. After that people straight up started making an effort to ignore her instead of being cordial to her. They were too afraid, she’d rip them apart.

Her parents, for their part entered her into a Krav Maga course to help her achieve her goal. Of course they also preferred it if she went into a less dangerous profession but they supported her. Uncle Midoriya didn’t seem to care . He supported her dreams but hated the Pro Hero business with a passion. He was always calling it the government’s method of indoctrinating children for their cause. He also teasingly brought up Nagi’s spy idea, despite the fact that she would be indoctrinated all the same.

One day, Uncle took her to see his son. The kid was her age and Quirkless. Hagakure is ashamed to admit it but finding someone weaker than her, she liked it. There was finally someone who couldn’t judge her for her weak Quirk. He also had a lot of notebooks on Quirks. He was writing in his fourth when she brought it up.

“Hey Midoriya, why do you take so many notes on Quirks?”

Midoriya looked up, his breathing hitched as if he had been caught doing something villainous.

“W-well everyone needs a hobby right?”

Midoriya was clearly nervous but he was also lying.

“Liar. Try again” Hagakure said in a teasing tone.

“Wait. Your Quirk gives you invisibility and you can tell when someone’s lying?” And then Midoriya evaded the topic by muttering up a storm about her Quirk. She had to admit, it was nice having someone go in-depth about her Quirk.

“It’s unlikely that she has two Quirks, Dad said both of her parent’s Quirks were invisibility in one way or form. However, those were transformation Quirks, while Hagakure’s is a mutation Quirk. Not that you could tell from the photos. However, if light is constantly bending around her, then it must not be hitting her eyes. If that’s the case she would’ve been blind since her Quirk manifested at the age of four or even younger ergo her body likely amplified her other senses to compensate for lost sight” Midoriya looked to her.

“Ah, that’s mostly right” she said ‘Since when did this turn into an interrogation of me?’

“So I got something wrong?!”

“Yeah. Maybe my body would’ve amplified my senses slightly but I still wouldn’t be able to walk around without equipment. Your dad did some experimental treatment on me and now I can practically see the world around me” She cheered. “Didn’t your dad tell you?”

She felt Midoriya make some kind of expression.

Midoriya put his hand to his chin “I don’t actually know what Dad does for a living. He told me he was doing some kind of surgery thing but he never told me it was on you. Mom met him at a courthouse, where he was a prosecutor for some washed up hero called Electro” Midoriya’s tone became more cheerful at that bit.

“His Quirk allowed him to absorb electricity through touch and then use himself as a human stun gun”. Hagakure face palmed. Of course he’d get excited at the topic of heroes even if they were washed up.

However, Midoriya quickly returned to the topic at hand “I also think he might be involved in the media somehow. He’s always dropping off these magazines from this specific company. I never asked for them but they’re good”.

Now that she thought about it, what did her uncle do? Her parents said they worked for him but they were constantly overseas doing infiltration work. Hagakure shook off the uneasy feeling she felt and decided to change the topic.

“OK Midoriya but that still doesn’t answer my question, why do you really take so many notes on Quirks?”

Midoriya started to become embarrassed and he started making some weird gestures like shaking his hands in the air.

“Alright. You’re gonna find out eventually, no use prolonging the inevitable, right?”

Hagakure nodded.

“Well, I’m Quirkless but I still want to be a hero. I can’t do much but I do have one skill; analysis. I’m kinda hoping that despite what everyone says my notes will be useful when I become a Hero.”

Hagakure said nothing at that moment. How on Earth could notes help when it came to being a hero?

“Maybe being a Hero isn’t the best thing for you? May-” Hagakure started but was interrupted by Midoriya.

“Stop. I’ve heard it all before. ‘You can’t be a Hero without a Quirk’ Well I’m going to prove them wrong”.

“And how is your analysis going to help you?” she tried to argue.

“How is your invisibility going to help you in a fight?” Hagakure’s breath hitched. Midoriya didn’t know about her problems yet he hit the nail on the head. It was then that she realized she wasn’t any better than her classmates. Sure she got mocked for wanting to be a hero despite having a weak Quirk and yet.

And yet the moment she found someone even less suited to heroism than her, she tried to play the morality card. ‘I’m just trying to stop him from getting himself killed’ she tried to reason yet the thought was hollow. Yes, Midoriya was unsuited for heroism but so was she. She didn’t have any reason to judge.

“It won’t” Hagakure said solemnly. Maybe it was time to pick a different career. Maybe her uncle could help her get into journalism. But before she could continue that train of thought Midoriya interrupted her.

“Liar. Try again”.

“Wha-”

“Sure our skills aren’t offensive in nature but that doesn’t mean they’re useless. There are plenty of heroes out there that fall under the same category. Eraserhead, for example can erase Quirks”. Hagakure felt her eyes narrow.

“OK, sure that’s not an offensive Quirk but it’s still really useful, Midoriya”.

“Of course it is! But he can only erase emitter and transformation Quirks ergo, his Quirk would be completely useless against us”.

“Oh?”

“His Quirk only allows him to level the playing field and is completely useless against Quirkless people or mutation Quirks yet he still fights against mutation Quirk villains even if he’s at a disadvantage. Why because heroes fight even when they are at a disadvantage”. Midoriya said, determination dripping from his voice.

Hagakure felt Midoriya’s conviction and desire to be a Hero emanating from him. Before she could say anything, Midoriya interrupted her again.

“Electro’s electricity absorption is great and all but there’s a time limit for him to use it and in an area where electricity is sparse, his Quirk is practically useless. Yet when the villain Earthly Grain tried to take advantage of that exact scenario, Electro was still able to beat him senseless and arrest him”.

“But wasn’t Electro washed up?” Hagakure asked.

“Yes, because he was an alcoholic deadbeat who kept cheating on his wife. Electro is washed up, not because his Quirk wasn’t good enough but because the person wasn’t good enough”.

Midoriya then went on to list even more heroes that were practically Quirkless and listed the situations that they found themselves in where they couldn’t rely on their Quirk. With each Hero, Hagakure felt her determination start to come back to her.

“Of course, with you and I we’re constantly disadvantaged for hero work but that just means we have to work even harder than the rest of them, right” Midoriya gave her a wobbly smile. He was nervous but he believed every word he was saying.

“Right” Hagakure nodded. In spite of what everyone else said, she was going to become a hero and she wasn’t going to let anyone try and change her mind anymore. She bid farewell to Midoriya, giving him a big hug as thanks for showing her she could still be a hero.

She visited Midoriya a few more times after that and the two would often talk about their progress. Hagakure showed him hert progress in Krav Maga and Midoriya would talk about Quirks. It was great.

Then everything became not so great. Uncle got attacked, leaving him crippled and blind. She wanted to see how Midoriya was dealing with it but her parents said it was better if she left them alone.

Then her mother got killed in an accident overseas and her father was left critically injured before entering intensive care. When asked if she had any family that could take her in, she gave the location of the Midoriya family, only they had moved so she had no one to go to.

After that she got in contact with Uncle again, who promised to pay for her living expenses. She ended up in a small little apartment. Mold was abundant on the walls and she heard something about a murder. It was far from the best but it could be worse.

And yet despite all that had happened, Hagakure refused to give up. She’d make it big as a Hero and hopefully make enough to get her father and uncle alright again. So she trained herself to the bone. Some days she just blacked out because of how exhausted she was. She would make it into U.A and then she’d become a hero if not for her, than for her loved ones.

Or so she thought. The hospital eventually become overcrowded and needed to remove someone for a Pro Hero’s recovery. Her father having been admitted the longest and with no signs of recovery was the lucky one to be removed. It made sense but it sucked. Her dad didn’t deserve this. He deserved to get better. Why, why did this have to happen to her she thought as she cried for the loss of her father.

That had been yesterday. Out of tears, Hagakure didn’t really know what to expect. She didn’t really feel sad anymore so much as empty or numb. Her uncle had gotten in touch with her and now she was walking to his bedside.

“I’m sorry. He didn’t deserve this” he said.

“It’s alright. Why save a person nobody knows when you can save a celebrity, right?” Hagakure said.

“Hm. Well, we do need to talk about your future Toru”.

“Yes. I-I I want to go to U.A!”

Her uncle made a small growl. “Are you sure you still want to be a hero? Your father’s dead because of one”.

Hagakure grimaced “No. It’s not that Pro’s fault for being so injured that my father had to die. It’s whoever who attacked them. I want to be a hero to take villains like those down. I know I won’t be able to make a difference in the world but maybe I can minimize the damage. So that maybe a child doesn’t have to grow up like I did because I did my part”. She said as she shuffled her foot together.

Her uncle was silent for a moment. “Fine. I don’t like the idea of you putting yourself in unnecessary danger but I do admire your intent”.

Hagakure mood shifted and she felt... well, not happy but content.

“Thank you, uncle” she said before walking out the door.

When she was gone, Hisashi hear a voice coming from a screen in the bar.

“What a waste. Her father’s dead because of society’s inclination for Heroes and she still wants to be one. Sensei I thought you said this was how we were going to infiltrate U.A and kill All Might.”

“It is Tomura. But my plan will have to have a few adjustments to it. I do hope you’ll trust me on this”.

“Fine” Tomura Shigaraki said as Hisashi tried thinking of what he could do to rectify this. He already had an idea in mind but before that Toru would have to get into U.A first. There was only two months left for the Entrance Exam to U.A.

Notes:

Alright, so Hagakure is the character I was talking about. She's a character whom I have mixed feelings on in canon. I get that juggling 20 characters is hard and some sacrifices have to be made but to me she comes across as Ashido if Ashido's power was invisibility. Of course Ashido has more character to her but still. The fact that she blatantly violates her own universe's rules (i.e. she should be blind like Mirio is when he uses his Quirk) doesn't help and it seems like Horikoshi didn't really put too much thought into her character.

Then I realized the advantages to using a character with no character in the sense that I can do whatever I want with her. So her parents were villains, hence why they were buddies with good old AFO and she's going to be slightly darker in this story but hopefully not too dark. Anyway there should be one more chapter before the Entrance Exam. I'll try and get it out within a month but I wouldn't count on it. Oh and the fact that Hisashi has stayed in contact with her is going to be a key point, not in this season because this is more establishing life at U.A, the Heroes vs Villains exercise and the USJ but don't worry it is going to come up.

As always comments and constructive criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 13: Baby 29

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“STONE CUTTER!” The teal crystalline pillar finally smashed, a testament to Midoriya’s hard work for the past 9 months.

“Impressive!” Rook said with a smile.

Midoriya felt ready to cry. Even if All Might decided not to give him One For All, or for whatever reason it backfired, he had a backup plan. Granted that plan was essentially just sending vibrations through touch but hey, people with less powerful Quirks had managed to become heroes.

Midoriya felt he was finally making progress, towards his dream. Learning Stone Cutter was the first step but he had also managed to make it more powerful and his charge time was faster than ever.

“Oh, Izuku! I’m so proud of you” his mother said off to the side.

Weirdly enough, progress towards his dream had also given him progress in his life. His mother finally expressed trust and belief in him.

Kacchan no longer bullied him and their relationship was somewhat better. He doubted he would ever be able to trust Kacchan again and his thoughts that Kacchan was going to hurt him again hadn’t stopped. Still the fact that Kacchan continuously proved those thoughts wrong was a start.

He had made his first real friend since elementary school and she was scavenging the crystal remains of his destruction while whistling and trying to be discreet about it.

And best of all, he’d finally reconnected with his missing dad. Sure they couldn’t analyse Quirks over the TV anymore given his blindness but they could still talk about possibilities. Midoriya’s side project was finding a healing or restoration Quirk that could possibly be used to help his father.

All in all, life seemed to finally be turning up for Midoriya. He’d gained a powerful technique, was slated to inherit All Might’s Quirk and had generally become more confident. He was slowly breaking out of his worthless Deku shell that Kacchan had created for him.

“Hey, Midoriya! Where’s the guy who made these crystals? The composition of them is just perfect for a few of my babies!”

“Uh, Ben left for U.A about five to ten minutes ago”.

Hatsume made a low whine before a grin appeared on her face “Well, this is the perfect time to test one of my babies!”

Hatsume pulled out the eyeball from... wherever she kept it and opened a portal. Even after two months of this, it was still weird seeing the girl put her head into the portal with those loud screech’s accompanying her.

“OK OK, fine!” she yelled before popping her head out of the portal. Three seconds later, she was followed by a pink-ish grey tentacle, which was promptly cut off as she turned the eyeball off.

Annoyance etched on her face while fear and disgust etched on the faces of everyone else.

“Stupid, void creature” she mumbled.

His mother cleared her throat before looking at Mei “Hatsume, just remember I expect you to clean up any messes you make while here”.

Hatsume’s eyes widened and she uttered a nervous “yes, ma’am”.

“Good”.

The whole reason Hatsume was at his house was because she had started using their garage for her babies and so she would sometimes have impromptu sleepovers after getting too caught up in her work and using him as a lackey.

It wasn’t all bad and she was currently making support items for him to use in the Entrance Exam but he wasn’t so sure about the idea of being used by another person. He’s always up for helping others but helping Hatsume got a bit weird...

Sometimes she’d ask for him to use the Stone Cutter technique and would grip his muscles while he performed the technique or if she thought she could be discreet (she couldn’t), she’d take a picture of his abs.

Izuku had no idea what to do in this situation! He’d asked her out but she said she wasn’t interested in relationships. Honestly the sheer confusion of the situation outweighed the rejection.

What was he talking about? Oh, right Hatsume at his house. Well during one of her impromptu sleepovers, she used baby 29 and made a whole mess of the house. There’s still a hole in the roof so now his mother makes sure to keep an extra, watchful eye on Hatsume’s antics.

“Hey, what babies are you going to use for your portfolio?” According to Hatsume, the Support Course at U.A. required applicants to submit a portfolio of their greatest inventions. The only problem was that Hatsume had currently created no more than 70 different babies and she was only allowed to present 5.

She’d been wracked with indecisiveness for the past month. She gave him a frown as her reticles focused.

“Well still I was planning on baby 29 but...”

She was interrupted by everyone screaming “NOOO!” at her.

She pouted and rubbed her temples “I still can’t decide! I want each and every one of my babies to get their time to shine. The fact that you won’t even give baby 29 a chance hurts me even more”.

“Well, to be fair it did melt the sink” Rook said, causing Hatsume to glare at him “I am going to just leave now”.

“Good idea”.

“Let’s focus on the portfolio for now” Midoriya tried to change the topic.

“Right. What babies do you think I should showcase, Midoriya!” Hatsume yelled as she invaded his personal space.

Midoriya gently pushed her away and put his hand to his chin “With the limited amount of options, it would be best to showcase babies of differing variety. For example, baby 4 (her jetpack) should not be shown in conjunction with baby 12 (the hover shoes) as they both achieve the same purpose”.

“I see but in that case baby 4 would be the better option as baby 12 also needs the assistance of baby 2 (the grappling hook) to achieve its practicality. Without baby 2, baby 12 is unfortunately relegated to a fun party trick. However, I could showcase baby 2 on it’s own as a grappling hook is practical even without the hover shoes. What else could I show?”

“Oh, baby 43!”

“The barrier projector. Not that I’m complaining but why that baby specifically?” Hatsume asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Come on, Hatsume. The Support Course is looking for support items. They’re not looking for items that could turn a Quirkless person like me into a Hero. They’re looking for items that can be used to support others. Baby 43 does just that by adding a layer of protection around a person. It could be used to protect civilians, allowing Heroes to go all out or protect the weaker heroes from things much stronger than them”.

Hatsume hummed and smiled “Alright Midoriya, baby 43 it is”

“Besides most of your offensive babies tend to backfire horribly” he added quietly though he could feel Hatsume’s glare despite him looking away from her.

“Fine if my offensive babies aren’t good enough for you”

“I never said that”

“What do you suggest since you’re so brilliant and gorgeous with your big muscles?”

The two stared at each other for a solid 30 seconds “What is up with you?”

“Uh, nothing. Nothing at all. Now next baby”.

There clearly was something going on but Midoriya decided to ignore it “Well, I suppose, you can’t go wrong with your first baby”.

“My goggles? Midoriya they were made to regulate my Quirk”

“Yes but over time, you’ve been upgrading them so that they are so much more than that. Just last week, you were boasting about how you could scan my vitals and weak points. These goggles have a ton of applications for Support work. They could assist heroes by allowing them to see the weak points of villains or see how many hostages are actually in a hostage situation. They could be used to enhance their own vision instead of just regulate yours” Hatsume smiled at the idea that her very first invention could be useful in Support work.

“Thanks, Midoriya. I’ve already picked my last baby” she said as she held up the eyeball.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he said looking at the void tentacle.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine” she said in a cheerful tone.


“POWER!!” Mirio yelled as he went to punch the blue blur. Amajiki and Nejire had trapped him. Their classmates may have lost to this vigilante but they wouldn’t. Mirio connected his punch... into his childhood best friend, which caused his tentacles to go flying into Nejire, giving the speedster an opening to escape.

“NO!”

“Alright that’s enough. Class, what have we learned?” Cementoss announced, bringing an end to the sparring session.

The class groaned as XLR8 did a celebratory dance, complete with sticking his tongue out at them.

“That Tennyson’s a cheap-ass vigilante who is a very poor winner” one student said.

“At least I won” Tennyson said with a smug smirk on his face, prompting everyone in the room to glare at him.

“Yes, but also that it is wise to be aware of your allies. Tennyson took out half of you just by positioning himself just right so that you would hit each other with your Quirks. Mirio, though your plan was adequate, the fact that your Quirk renders you blind made you extra vulnerable to his ploy, resulting in you missing your target and being responsible for the defeat of your companions Hado and Amajiki”.

“Yes, sir” Mirio looked down.

“Good, now I believe it’s time for lunch. Dismissed” he said to the class before turning to Tennyson “Nezu wants to see you”

“Ah crap” he said in resignation.

“Y’know, Tennyson wouldn’t be nearly as difficult to defeat without that watch of his” Hado pointed out, causing Tennyson to stop.

He turned to them and said “Yeah, well you’re more than welcome to try and steal it” before running off.

“That gives me an idea” Mirio said causing Amajiki to just hide his face and say “please no”.


“You wanted to see me?” Ben asked as Nezu poured himself a cup of tea.

“Why yes, young Tennyson but before we start, why don’t you tell me the reason you think I brought you here?”

Ben was familiar with this. Despite their agreement, Nezu always liked to manipulate him into confessing things he’d done by just asking him a question and staring at him. It was creepy but it wouldn’t work. Not today.

‘Quick think of some other reason. Under no circumstances reveal what you’ve done’ Ben thought to himself.

“Uh, you’re hiring a new teacher?”

“Impressive! And I thought I’d done a good job at keeping it a secret”

“Really? I thought you’d brought me in here because of the satellite relay on the roof” Ben said before realising just what he had done and Nezu’s grin got even wider.

“Oh” he facepalmed.

“Yes, well that aside I figured it would be best if you filled in this new teacher on the basics of what I expect at this school”.

“I mean I guess I can do that but wouldn’t it be better to get one of the other teacher’s to help him?”

“Yes, but you two have history and I can trust you’ll be unbiased in your interactions with him. Also whatever you do, do not mention your vigilantism”

“History? Who could it possibly be? Oh.” Ben said as he turned to the door opening and waved at the person entering.

“How you doing you big hypocrite?”.


All Might was quite pleased with himself. He had recently taken a look at the garbage dump and could see that Young Midoriya was nearly finished with his training, meaning that he was certainly going to reach the deadline.

He also hadn’t had any more unfortunate confrontations with Tennyson though if there was one good thing about meeting that arrogant show-off, it was Midoriya’s new technique. Even if young Midoriya didn’t take to One For All as easily as All Might himself, he still had a useful power that would do adequately against the Entrance Exam.

And with this job that Nezu offered, he could easily monitor and guide young Midoriya in how to use One For All that much more effectively. ‘There is no one or nothing that could ruin my plans, now’ All Might thought as he entered Nezu’s office.

“How you doing you big hypocrite?” Tennyson said as he waved.

Toshinori spewed blood on the carpet to the amusement of Nezu and Tennyson.

“Well principal, I must congratulate you on the capture of this vigilante” Toshinori said, trying to convince himself that there was no other possible explanation for why Tennyson was in Nezu’s office.

“Why thank you, All Might!” the principal said in that cherry voice of his. At least his suspicions went unconfirmed.

“Though I must say, you are a few months late” No. No, there is no way that happened. There is no way Nezu would be so reckless.

“All Might. Meet Ben Tennyson, my latest teaching assistant and security officer”.

“‘Sup”. Of course it was true.

All Might sighed “Principal, I know it’s not my place to say this but are you out of your mind?!”

“Probably” admitted the other two occupants of this room.

“I mean hiring a vigilante? What are you thinking?”

“Well I was thinking of the safety of the school and the protection of your secret, All Might” Nezu said in a harsh tone.

“Urk” All Might tried to swallow down the blood that was rising up his throat.

“With your powers decreasing by the day, it’s unfortunate of me to note that society isn’t quite as safe, anymore. Mr. Tennyson is a valuable asset in case of a villain attack and while you being here also helps to ensure the safety of the school considering that you can only maintain your power for three hours a day now”

“So? Tennyson can only maintain his powers for 15 minutes at a time”

“Why yes, but unlike you the Omnitrix can recharge in a matter of minutes allowing him to protect the school for far more time than you can. It’s better he’s protecting my school than committing acts of vigilantism. Additionally he has knowledge on One For All and what happens if his recklessness accidentally allows a villain to know about your secret All Might?”

“I literally have not told anyone about One For All” Tennyson pointed out.

Nezu ignored Tennyson’s complaint “And if you had been paying attention to the news, you would know that hiring Tennyson was a controversial decision; met with either outrage at the idea or praise for managing to keep the vigilante off the streets and accomplishing what the police have failed to do on many occasions”.

All Might was ashamed to say he had never even heard of this despite it being public knowledge. He weighed his options. Yes, Tennyson was a reckless vigilante who only cared about himself and had no problems manipulating others but all of Nezu’s points made sense and it was definitely unlikely that Tennyson could manipulate Nezu at all.

“Fine, but expect me to avoid him at all times”.

“Actually, he’ll be showing you the ropes of teaching at U.A.” Wonderful.

“Now the reason I called you both here was to discuss One For All. I fear that your successor may be the last, All Might” Nezu said solemnly.

“Why exactly?”

“Well I’ve done some basic calculations on each of the users of One For All and compared them to see the power gap between them and the potential power of the ninth user. Unfortunately according to my calculations, One For All is quickly nearing the point of singularity. It may even surpass it when you transfer it. Are you sure, Izuku Midoriya is the right choice?”

All Might looked down at his knees and hummed in thought “To be honest, I’ve had doubts about how well this kid will handle One For All since I approached him but... the kid deserves it. If One For All doesn’t backfire, it will turn him into the world’s greatest hero even if the point of singularity isn’t reached”.

“And if the point of singularity is reached it could strip the boy of his future”.

“What is the point of singularity?” Tennyson asked, causing the other two men to turn to him.

“Right, until we met you didn’t even know what Quirks were. I suppose it would be a bit much to ask for you to have looked into Quirk Theory” Tennyson glared at All Might but said nothing as the principal explained.

“Indeed. Well, Mr. Tennyson I suppose the easiest way to explain it is that as generations pass by, Quirks start to get stronger as they are mixed with more and more genetic variations. As this happens the Quirks get more complicated, powerful and versatile. Do you follow?”

“I guess. So what is the singularity?”

“The singularity is the point at which Quirks get too powerful to control. Quirks are constantly evolving but they’re evolving at a faster rate than humanity can adapt. Eventually they’ll be a point at which humanity has to find a way to evolve... or die”.

“... And you theorize that One For All has reached that point? So what happens to Midoriya if it has reached the singularity?”

“Who knows?” the principal said in a cheerful voice causing the other two to thud to the ground.

“But I thought you said it’s nearing the point of singularity!” The two men yelled in unison.

“Well, it is only a theory and there are any number of possibilities that could happen to a person if their Quirk reached the singularity. They could die but they could just as easily evolve. We’re treading new territory, gentleman” he grinned causing Tennyson and Toshinori to sweat drop.

“I suppose we’ll figure it out when young Midoriya inherits it in one month’s time.”

“Yep” Tennyson said as the three gentleman drank their tea.

‘I can only hope it doesn’t go disastrously’ they all thought.

Notes:

Alright so this was another chapter where some rewriting had to be done. Only the scene in Nezu's office was rewritten but the original draft was going for a more morose tone, where All Might was considering going back on his promise to Midoriya. I realized immediately that it was an idea I couldn't really pull off and considering Midoriya was going to get One For All in the next chapter regardless, it just created unnecessary drama.

The Mirio plot where he gets an idea to get the Omnitrix will not be covered in the main story. I do have an idea for it but I don't know how it would fit in on the overall plot of things. Maybe I'll make a sidestory when I get the time. What else happened? Oh Hatsume's muscle fetish. I pretty much just exaggerated that scene where she feels Midoriya up. Yeah, she has one but she just isn't interested in a romantic relationship and I doubt her stance on that is going to change.

Like always comments and criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 14: Entrance Exam

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Eat this!” All Might grinned as he held up a strand of hair for Izuku to eat.

“Huh?!” It’s safe to say that this is a very different idea to what Midoriya had in mind.

His whole plan for today was that he’d finally finish the garbage beach, All Might would thank him for a job well done, pass on his Quirk through touch or telekinesis, maybe? Then he’d use All Might’s power to pass the Entrance Exam.

What actually happened was All Might had actually praised his good work and progress and then went into a speech about One For All possibly reaching Singularity. Of course, his Quirk knowledge allowed him to trim down the amount of time he had to use up on it and All Might made it clear that the Quirk could potentially be really dangerous and said it was up to him if he still wanted.

Of course Izuku still wanted the power despite the risks. Everyone had helped out so much to get him to this point. His mother had adjusted their diets, All Might had constructed a training regiment, Rook had taught him Stone Cutter and Ben... well he had saved him from multiple villain attacks. If he didn’t accept the Quirk, he felt it would be insulting to their hard work.

So of course when he accepted, All Might’s course of action was to pluck out one of his hairs and tell him to eat it.

“To inherit my Quirk, you must digest some of my DNA! Although it doesn’t really matter what you eat so”

“Can I get some of your blood, then?” Izuku really did not want to consume some of All Might’s hair.

All Might spewed blood and transformed into his weakened state “U-uh well unfortunately there’s nothing I could use to get any blood for you. Hair is the better option, you see!” His grin had faltered, clearly he did not understand that this was yet again one of the things that Midoriya should’ve been told about. After all not everyone would take to eating hair as easily as he did.

Midoriya was eyeing the ground where All Might had spewed blood “Midoriya”.

He seemed conflicted between grabbing the hair or grabbing some sand with All Might’s blood on it. “Midoriya no. That is extremely unsanitary”.

Midoriya began reaching for the blood.

“Midoriya that’s been in my mouth”.

Suddenly Midoriya sighed and grabbed the hair, eating it in a crunch. ‘Why is it crunchy?’

An eccentric voice yelled out at him and a certain pink-haired girl had somehow materialised herself in front of him.

“Hey Midoriya, why are you eating All Might’s hair?! I mean I knew you were a hero fanboy but I didn’t think you were this far gone. Although now that I think about it, I do want to know what it tastes like” Instead of asking him, Hatsume just turned around and started reaching for All Might’s hair.

All Might slapped her hand away and glared at Midoriya “Young Midoriya, who is this?”.

As Midoriya was frozen like a deer in the headlights, Hatsume introduced herself “I’m Mei Hatsume, future Support Course student at U.A! If you ever need Support Equipment, and I’m almost certain you will given this...” Hatsume gestured to All Might’s langy form “...give me a call.

“I’m too strong for Support Equipment and even if I wasn’t I actually have someone I trust to make it for me” All Might said.

Someone made All Might support equipment? “Who?!” The two teens yelled.

“No one you have to concern yourselves with. More importantly Midoriya why is young Hatsume, here?”

“She stalked me, we became friends and we’re walking to U.A. together” Midoriya said in a curt tone.

He was starting to get tired of All Might’s secrets. In the previous 10 months it seemed that All Might only ever told him the bare minimum and sometimes even that had to be done with coercion from others. He still had no idea who All For One was though he assumed it was the villain capable of injuring All Might. This in spite of the fact that All For One was supposedly going to be an important figure in his life.

He understood that everyone had their secrets. He had just hoped that All Might would be a little more open about it. All Might frowned “Midoriya, does she know about-”

“No. Now c’mon Hatsume, we’ve got just under three hours til our exams” Midoriya said in a tone All Might had never heard before. He was usually a mix between nervous breakdown or fanboy but this was a lot more cold and... familiar.

Midoriya grabbed Hatsume and left, hoping that he could figure out an answer along the way. All Might called out for him to “Break a leg!” but Midoriya was lost within his own thoughts, trying to figure out a solution for All Might’s secrecy all while Hatsume was going on about how incredible it was that he knew All Might and the opportunities that could arise from it.


Hagakure was experiencing multiple emotions at once. She was excited at the opportunity to enter U.A. but simultaneously she was nervous because well, her Quirk is kinda situational. Still she had put an adequate amount of study in both her academics as well as her martial arts. It really depended on the format of the Entrance Exam.

If only her parents were here for this moment. Uncle Midoriya was fine but he couldn’t replace her parents and they rarely saw each other. There’s also the fact that he despises heroes and had tried to talk her out of it multiple times. In fact he had helped her with her backup plans in case U.A. doesn’t work out and had ensured her that she had options outside of heroics. If U.A didn’t work out, she had an opportunity to do work for a big but shady magazine. Failing that he’d help her get into law.

Still Hagakure was determined to pass the U.A. Entrance Exam! And so she marched forward and promptly bumped into some other applicant.

“Sorry!” She said at the same time as the person she had bumped into. That voice seemed oddly familiar for some reason.

“Hagakure?”

“Midoriya?”

“Hatsume!” a girl next to Midoriya yelled.

“So you’re taking the Heroics Course as well?” Midoriya asked.

“Yep. Got to make sure at least one of us disadvantaged people makes it in” she said, causing Izuku to chuckle. The two started catching up on what they had been doing recently though the conversation took an awkward turn once she revealed she had been living alone with help from her uncle.

“Dad? That’s weird.” Midoriya mumbled.

“Huh, why?”

“Well, I only found out that he had been crippled last year and even though I’ve been seeing him, he hasn’t mentioned you at all”.

“That is weird.”

“Why did you need Dad’s help anyway?”

“Well-” Hagakure started before realising she had no idea how to bring the topic up without making things awkward, even if she wanted to. ‘Oh- well you see Midoriya, my mom was brutally murdered and my dad was taken off life support three months ago but do tell me more about this new training you’ve started’

“It’s ok. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to”.

“I- thank you Midoriya. Let’s focus on this exam! Plus Ultra!” she yelled with he hands in the air. She turned to Midoriya “Y’know I was kinda hoping you’d do it with me”

“I didn’t even know you were going to do it”.

“Midoriya!” she whined.

“Fine” he said half-heartedly.

“Alright. Three. Two. One”.

“Plus Ultra!” All three teens yelled with their fists in the air.

“Excuse me. You three are blocking the path to the Exams. If you’re not going to take this seriously, you should just go home” a boy with glasses and engines in his legs lectured them while doing weird arm gestures.

“Sorry.” the three said before leaving for their assigned seats with each of them going to completely different rooms.


Bakugou was completely exhausted. He had called Tennyson for a morning spar as preparation for the Entrance Exam and Tennyson had no problems obliging. Mainly because it meant Tennyson had an opportunity to beat the shit out of him. Though Bakugou observed a pattern.

First Tennyson had used some nuclear reactor alien called Atomix and promptly slapped him away when he got close enough. This was the first time seeing the alien and Bakugou already knew he was out of his league.

Then Tennyson changed into some green robot with red eyes and lots of guns. Seriously, this alien would be a nightmare for airport security with how much guns he had. From earlier fights he knew that it was agile and there were hidden compartments that allowed him to summon missiles. It also had a jetpack for flight, energy swords and electric shurikens that could disable his nervous system. According to Deku, Tennyson called this form Tenten though he didn’t know why. Probably because he had 20 different types of weapons.

And yet despite it’s vast arsenal, Tennyson was content using just the jetpack and the two standard blasters. Well that was his mistake. These repeated fights were slowly making him faster, stronger. Bakugou quickly used his explosions to propel himself into the air and outmaneuver Tennyson. He grabbed onto the helmet and let out an explosion that blasted Tennyson into the wall.

“You shouldn’t have underestimated me” Bakugou smiled as he turned to the scoreboard. That was his 12th victory against Tennyson! Sure, Tennyson was still winning with 108 wins to his name but he was catching.

Tennyson then transformed into some green blob. If Bakugou recalled correctly, it’s name was Upgrade and it was able to fuse technology and upgrade the hell out of it. It fused into Tennyson’s bike and transformed it into a quad-pedal robot with a ton of guns attached to it. And then it started firing bullets at him.

Bakugou quickly dodged and fired an explosion towards Tennyson. Of course Upgrade simply canceled it out with his optic blasts and continued to fire bullets at Bakugou. Bakugou nimbly dodged and flew over Tennsyon. Unfortunately one of the robot’s limbs went to grab him but Bakugou grabbed it and blasted it. The two were covered in a wave of smoke but before it settled Bakugou was hit by Upgrade’s optic beam and sent to the other side of the warehouse.

And that was how he found himself being healed by Medicura.

“Hey Tennyson, why did you only use mechanical forms today?”

“Hm. The Omnitrix has a randomizer function and when in that function I have no control over what aliens I get to use” Medicura stated in a matter of fact tone. “Now I believe that you are healed and ready for the Entrance Exam”.

“Of course, I’m ready!” Bakugou’s hands started sparking.

“Bakugou, remember what we and Kr’lk talked about in regards to that temper of yours”.

“Yes, ma’am”

“I’m a guy”.

“It’s not my fault you look like a girl!”

Medicura sighed “Just go to your exam already”.

Bakugou left for U.A., told shitty Deku to stay out of his way and somehow ended up sitting next to Deku anyway for the exam.

“... After this presentation you’ll each head to your assigned location!”

“Hey, that’s so kids from the same school can’t help each other, right?” he asked Deku.

“Yes. It’s also why consecutive ID numbers are assigned to different locations” he muttered.

Well it’s a pity that he couldn’t crush Deku but at the same time he was somewhat glad? Apparently Deku had managed to take down a factory in Kamino Ward thanks to a technique Tennyson’s partner taught him. He didn’t want to admit it but he was somewhat relieved he didn’t have to compete with that kind of power. Although it was probably a fucking lie Tennyson thought up to irritate him, the fact was that a factory had been destroyed a few months ago. Of course shitty Deku denied any and all queries but he could be lying.

Present Mic then went on to explain the four different types of villains in the exam though only three were applicable to gaining points. Though destroying the fourth type would be an impressive show of power, he wasn’t an idiot. The judges are scoring on villain points only so taking it out would be a waste of time.

He did get a kick when some stickler told Deku off for his mumbling during the Exam although he was somewhat surprised to hear the guy go off about how Deku apparently had no sense of shame or dignity.

He turned to look at Deku for an explanation.

“Me and a couple friends were just doing the Plus Ultra pose in front of the school”.

Honestly he wasn’t sure what surprised him more. The fact that this stuck up guy drew his attention towards Deku for doing a somewhat common pose or the fact that Deku had friends.

‘Well, it’s not like it’s any of my business’ Bakugou thought as he got off the bus that would lead him to his area. Once the doors opened and the signal went off, he leapt into action all while sporting a sadistic grin.

‘It’s showtime’ he thought as he let out a blast, completely decimating the group of bots before him.


With approximately 10,800 people applying for the Heroics Course in U.A, Tenya Iida supposed it was inevitable that at least one or two of them wouldn’t take it seriously. However, he had hoped that the green haired boy would at least try to pretend to take things seriously.

Talking during the introduction to the practical? Clearly someone had no regard for others. He may’ve been too hasty in his judgement of U.A. Obviously Japan’s top hero school wouldn’t make such a blatant error and that was his fault for thinking he could get one over on them but he was sure his judgement on the green-haired boy was spot-on.

At the very least said boy wasn’t in his division. He didn’t need anything distracting him from the practical and neither did anyone else. He could only pity the division that did get stuck with him but such as the way of life. Not everyone is equal and there will be circumstances where they will be disadvantaged. As future heroes, it is up to them to overcome any obstacle in their path and if said obstacle was a green-haired boy with a penchant for distracting others so be it.

“And begin!”

‘What?’ he thought as Present Mic’s voice yelled out to everyone.

“What’s wrong? You think villains would give you a warning? The test’s started so run, run, run!”

As expected of Japan’s top Hero school! Even during the Entrance Exam, they are teaching the applicants how to be heroes. He knew he made the right choice in picking this school... and everyone else has already leapt into action.

‘Argh. Even now that green-haired boy is distracting him from his goal. No matter. I’ll just have to work extra hard to make up for lost time’ Iida thought as he kicked through a 2-pointer. This was but one obstacle in his journey to being a hero.


“Get down!” Hagakure pushed a boy with manic hair down to the ground to prevent them both from being riddled with bullets.

She was screwed. Completely and utterly screwed. Turns out the Entrance Exam was frickin stupid and generic. The school had decided instead of things that Heroes would actually face like human villains or non-combat situations like search and rescue, they had decided to go with robots.

Robots with thermal vision, rendering her invisibility useless. It was only thanks to her enhanced senses and years of training that she was able to dodge the bullets fired at her. In essence the “top hero school in the country” only cared about flashy and powerful Quirks.

Well, it wasn’t anything she wasn’t used to. She and Midoriya already knew they were going to be disadvantaged. What would Midoriya do in this situation? He’d go off on some nerd talk and probably analyze the hell out of it. He probably knew the exact model and it’s abilities and it’s weaknesses. It’s weaknesses! It had to have a weakness of some kind, right?

Judging from the sounds it makes when it’s about to fire, there are a lot of moving parts involved. She could probably use something to jam them but what? All she could detect around her were rocks.

Hagakure sighed and picked up some of the rubble. It was better than nothing. Hagakure decided to abandon all logic and ran towards the bot trying to riddle her with bullets. She was agile enough to dodge them, she could do this! And then the bot started swinging at her. It seemed they were programmed to only fire when a target was at a certain distance.

It swung downwards, which gave her just the opportunity she needed. She leapt towards it’s arm and held on tightly. She got her footing as she was swung into the air. The villain bot tried to shake her off while Hagakure tried to get just the right spot. She only had one chance at this. The next time she was swung upwards, she threw her rock into its neck.

To her surprise the robot shut down. The rock having made a sizable dent in it’s neck hole thingy. She had only done it because she was desperate.

“Huh. I did not expect that to work. I’ll see you around, yeah?” She waved to the person she saved before going to find more bots.

‘I might actually be able to do this though I’ll have to be smart about it’.


Midoriya was to put it bluntly, acing this test. He hadn’t even had to use One For All yet. He had started out Present Mic’s test by using Stone Cutter to send everyone off balance. It was a dirty move but a necessary one if he wanted to get into U.A. Stone Cutter had also been useful for sending the villain bots into walls or directly applying vibrations to their armor, destroying them.

OK, so he was just using Stone Cutter a lot but it was a good technique and when all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail, right?

There were plenty of people with more powerful and versatile Quirks in this exam. He’d met a girl who could sprout mushrooms everywhere, clogging up the robots and netting her easy points.That is until one of them got out of her range and just started shooting at her.

“Oh shittake” she frowned.

‘What the hell is the school thinking, shooting at children? He dreaded to think what would happen if he wasn’t there to push her out of the way. Although she stole the kill off him and left but whatever.

“Sorry but this is a competition. Only 36 of us will make it through and I need that spot. Thanks for the save though” she laughed before running off.

Honestly, the girl had a point. There was around 10,000 applicants competing for only 36 spots. Even though that group had been split up into 7 locations, that still meant he was directly competing with over 1,400 people. U.A. was looking for the best of the best and saving others wasn’t going to help show them that but he couldn’t help it.

However, as he was deep in thought, he failed to realize he was surrounded by villain bots. He was still in their ‘no-shoot area’ so they were simply approaching him. As one swung at him, he punched it’s limb using Stone Cutter. Orange vibrations went through the 1-pointer, dismantling it immediately.

Unfortunately, now there were red lasers pointing at him.

“I thought you guys couldn’t shoot this close!” Midoriya tried to use Stone Cutter on the ground to get them out of the way but a 3-pointer shot at him preventing him from making contact. The lasers never leaving his body. Midoriya braced himself for fire and was promptly saved by a bunch of vines wrapping themselves around him and shielding him from the bullets.

The vines wrapped around a couple of two-pointers and crushed them with Midoriya destroying a three-pointer with Stone Cutter.

“Are you alright?” a voice called out to him after they had finished destroying the group of villain bots.

Midoriya turned to see a girl with vines for hair, looking at him worridley.

“Thanks to you, yeah. You really saved me back there. Thank you!”

Relief passed over the girl’s face “I am most glad, you are alright. However, it is really the Lord you have to thank. It was His plan for us to meet”.

“Um, okay? Although are you sure that was the best course of action for you to take? We’re being scored on villain points so it would’ve been more beneficial if you had taken those kills yourself”.

“But, is it not a Hero’s duty to protect those that cannot protect themselves? Protecting you was my first priority over defeating those villains”.

Well at least they shared similar ideologies. “It was nice meeting you. I hope you get into U.A.”

“And I will pray for the Lord to allow you to get in as well” Shiozaki said with a smile making a prayer gesture. Was she doing it right now? Well to each their own.

As he looked for more robots to smash, he passed a human cement mixing who had glued a bunch of bots to the ground and was smashing them apart with his bare hands. As Midoriya got closer, the mixer growled at him.

“Sorry!” he said as he ran past. There had to be more robots he could smash but everywhere he looked, they had either already been demolished or were in the process of being smashed by someone else.

A boy with blonde hair seemed to have already given up after electrifying the last group of them. He was now doing some weird victory pose with his thumbs sticking upwards.

By some luck or miracle, he found six two-pointers in the alley. They seemed to just be standing there without looking for applicants, likely placed there as a bone to throw to those with surveillance Quirks.

Red lasers appeared on his body as they approached. Midoriya smirked and hit the ground, only for nothing to happen. ‘Crap, I must’ve used up all my ki. The hell am I supposed to do now’.

“Tch. Not very fair of them to only give us a limited amount of robots to defeat but oh well. Fortunately, you seem to have used up your time limit on your Quirk meaning these points are mine!” A smug voice said behind him.

Midoriya’s head was smacked by a blond boy, smirking at him “I admit you have quite a useful Quirk but I bet I can make better use of it”.

‘Better use of it? He has a copy Quirk!’

“Wait! That wasn’t a Quirk!” Midoriya tried to stop the boy but it was too late.

The boy hit the ground with enough force to create a minor earthquake, toppling buildings onto the bots and them if Midoriya hadn’t dragged them out of the alley.

“Are you alright?” but the boy didn’t hear him, letting out pained yelled. His arm had turned completely purple and the bones in his body had clearly been broken by the force of the hit.

‘One For All will do that to my body?!’ Midoriya thought, clearly thinking that maybe he should’ve passed on the Quirk after all. The electric boy from before bumped into him going “Wheeey”.

“Hey, I know it’s a lot but can you help me help him?” Midoriya said as he took off his shirt to be used as a makeshift cast. Upon closer inspection, the boy’s legs were bending in a way Midoriya was sure they weren’t supposed to be in.

Unfortunately, instead of helping the electric boy just kept going “Wheey”. Meanwhile, the copycat was currently having a crisis.

“It seemed like such a good Quirk. Vibration inducement. There was no way it could possibly go wrong. Why the FUCK did everything go wrong?”

Midoriya tried to calm the Quirk copier down but was interrupted by a gigantic robot crushing everything in it’s path... and all three of them were in it.


All Might felt something was wrong and he couldn’t understand why. Barring Tennyson also being at U.A, everything had gone according to plan. Young Midoriya had spent 10 months of his life cleaning Dagobah beach, easily surpassing All Might’s expectations in the process.

He had offered his Quirk to young Midoriya and he had accepted after a little prompting. Perhaps he should have explained the transference process a bit earlier? But even taking that into account, young Midoriya was just fine until that Hatsume girl showed up.

Now that he thought about it, he had seen the two together as Midoriya cleaned the beach. They seemed close and it was likely that she had simply followed after him as he went to receive One For All.

Yes, that must be it. Young Midoriya must’ve been embarrassed that he had slipped up and it threw off his mood. Well, as the Symbol of Peace and the boy’s mentor, it was up to him to inform his student that the damage was minimal and that he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

Although no matter how All Might tried to rationalise it, he couldn’t deny the feeling he felt when young Midoriya’s mood shifted. It went from fanboy-ish joy to something more cold and villainous. More disturbingly, the feeling he felt was familiar somehow but he couldn’t remember where from.

‘I’m sure it’s nothing’ All Might shifted into his muscle form to join the rest of the staff in watching the Entrance Exam. He overheard the principal talking to Tennyson.

“Now remember what I said about respect, Mr. Tennyson”

Tennyson merely rolled his eyes “OK, I’ve got it- oh hey it’s the” he paused after seeing Nezu watching him and grimaced “Symbol of Peace, himself. How are you?”

Tennyson showing respect? Well it’s best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. All Might smirked.

“I’m doing just fine, young man. Though are you sure you should be here? This is a hero school after all”

Nezu ignored Tennyson’s protests “I know you heard me talking to Tennyson, All Might. I hope I don’t have to remind you that we are here to overlook and pick out candidates for the Heroics Course this year. We are not here to pick fights with our allies”.

“Of course, principal. My apologies.” He gave a smug grin towards Tennyson.

Nezu glared at him before looking to the rest of the staff “Now then, considering we have two new employees I think it would be best to iterate the rules of judging the applicants. Judging through villain points is pointless. We have cameras disposed around the entire city and we will tally them up later. What we are currently looking for is heroic spirit. If a person displays an adequate ability to save others, we will decide how many rescue points they shall receive. Considering All Might and Mr. Tennyson have students partaking in the Entrance Exam, they will merely be observing, am I clear?”

A murmur of agreements swept throughout the room. Many of the occupants eyeing not just Tennyson but surprisingly All Might, himself warily. Of course there were still faces of admiration aimed towards him but the tone of the room was clearly not one of trust.

Well, he supposed it couldn’t be helped. It was a person’s natural instinct to be suspicious of others and trust took time to build. Him being the Symbol of Peace didn’t change anything. After all why would the Number 1 Hero, someone who had significantly decreased villain activity by his mere presence, all of a sudden want to become a teacher?

Nezu had seemingly taken notice of this. “Rest assured, All Might, everyone in this room is trustworthy”.

All Might sighed “Well, if we are to be working together I suppose you will need to know I’m not as strong as I used to be” He deactivated his Muscle Form and revealed his weakened state to his would-be co-workers.

Almost immediately a wave of gasps were let out and All Might was promptly bombarded by questions and statements.

“Nezu told me you had weakened but I didn’t think it was this bad”.

“Who did this to you?”

“How long can you maintain your powers?”

Nezu coughed “I know you all have questions but try to remember the reason we are here in the first place. The Entrance Exam is about to start”.

And sure enough the gates opened and Mic yelled out to the students to commence when they all paused.

All Might looked for his pupil and eventually found him in Division E. He was doing surprisingly well on his own but something was amiss. Young Midoriya didn’t seem to even be trying to use One For All.

Instead he seemed content to just use Stone Cutter, which he had greatly underestimated. He didn’t mean to say Tennyson’s partner was weak but this technique young Midoriya had learned could function as a Quirk on it’s own and a flashy, powerful one to boot.

The villain bots stood no chance against the powerful tremors his pupil created. Perhaps, if All Might hadn’t given young Midoriya One For All, his pupil would’ve gone on to become the world’s first Quirkless Pro Hero and yet something was still bugging him.

Sure Stone Cutter, would help young Midoriya through the Entrance Exam but that still didn’t take away from the fact that he wasn’t using One For All. He had hoped this would be the first means of showing Midoriya had well and truly been picked out by the Symbol of Peace, to replace and surpass him. Right now Midoriya just seemed like another one of the thousands of applicants.

He had a flashy Quirk, yes but currently he was disposable. This was further reinforced by his pupil getting his kill stolen by a girl with a mushroom Quirk. On the subject of flashy Quirks, Tennyson seemed particularly interested in a boy with an explosion Quirk. Could he be the student, Nezu spoke of?

All Might felt a pit in his stomach form when he saw that said student was flawlessly destroying villain bots at such speeds. He effortlessly dodged gunfire and dished damage out. He was capable of punching through the armor of a three-pointer (albeit with the help of his Quirk)!

If there was any silver lining here, it was that Midoriya had not been placed in the same division. This student was mowing down villain bots as if they were mere grass and as a result prevented many others from even scoring a single point. It was tough but that was just how life went. He may’ve scored in the Top 10 but he had definitely prevented others from passing.

All Might looked for young Midoriya on the hundreds of screens in the room and was scared to find that his pupil had run out of robots to destroy. The robots he did come across were in the process of being destroyed by others.

“Power Loader, I do believe it is time to send in the Zero Pointers” Nezu announced as he looked up at the clock. One minute left in the exam. Hopefully Midoriya would at least be able to make it up in Rescue Points.

However, before he could capitalise on the Zero Pointer, the ground beneath Midoriya’s feet shook and he had to drag out another student. Said student had a completely bruised and broken arm and was freaking out as Midoriya tried to calm him down and help him.

‘Damn it. To think One For All would be discovered this quickly’. Everyone had seen him with the ability to induce vibrations and a power copier had now just revealed Midoriya’s true power. For his part Midoriya seemed shocked at the amount of self-inflicted damage One For All had done to another student.

“Tennyson, this test is for the students only. You cannot help them”. All Might saw that Tennyson had gotten out of his seat and was scrolling through his Omnitrix.

“Are you kidding me?! A kid has broken his arm and a giant robot is coming towards him. The exam’s over for him” Tennyson spoke in a harsh tone. Harsher than anything All Might had heard from the vigilante before.

His student was the boy with the explosion Quirk so why did he care so much about some random civilian who had injured himself? Was it possible he had judged Tennyson unfairly?

Nezu sighed “I understand your concerns and you are more than welcome to tend to the injured after the exam is over-”

“No. I’m going now” Ben hit the Omnitrix and transformed into a blue velociraptor. XLR8 if Midoriya’s notes were anything to go by.

“Just look at screen 143.” Power Loader said.

“Huh?” XLR8 turned to screen 143, where a girl was trapped in rubble with a Zero Pointer approaching. Everyone else in the arena had dled from the scene with no one to help her.

XLR8 was about to protest and race off but then the Zero Pointer stopped just before it reached the girl.

“What?”

“The purpose of the Zero Pointer is to judge how students will react in perilous situations. It values at 0 points to prevent people from randomly trying to defeat it. If you had paid attention when Mic informed you of the Entrance Exam, you would know that it’s purpose is allow us to more easily judge a student’s heroic potential. Will they rescue despite it not being worth any points or will they selfishly flee in an attempt to get more points?” Eraserhead glared at the speedster with red eyes, his hair standing on end..

“Sorry” XLR8 looked down.

“Speaking of heroic potential, I do believe screen 616 will feature some of it” Nezu said.

The screen featured young Midoriya still tending to the injured student and it seemed another student had joined them. He looked to the two and tried to speak to them but nothing happened. He tried to drag them away but they were unresponsive and the injured boy fell on the ground, clearly his legs had also been damaged. As the Zero Pointer approached, Midoriya sighed. He looked to the boy’s injured arm and knew the same would happen to him.

And yet, he calmly took a breath. With no other options he started walking towards the Zero Pointer and leapt into the air, green electricity crackling around him. He reared his fist and SMASHED the Zero Pointer away from the two students!

“YES!” All Might yelled. Midoriya had finally demonstrated the power of One For All. His entrance into U.A. was all but certain. However, his yelling caused everyone to turn to him.

“Uh, well it was such an impressive display of power and heroism, that seemed like the appropriate response” he said sheepishly. Of course all was not over as Midoriya was now falling to his death. XLR8 raced out of the room but as it turns out he wasn’t needed. Young Midoriya was saved by a swarm of vines surrounding him.

Present Mic announced the end of the test and Midoriya seemed to be encased in a radiant blue glow. His injuries were starting to heal; no doubt another power of Tennyson’s. All Might thinks he understands just what young Midoriya meant by Tennyson’s ability to do anything he wants a few months ago. Perhaps it was time to re-evaluate his perception of the green vigilante.


Midoriya couldn’t believe he’d just taken out that colossal titan of a robot! He really did have All Might’s power! Although he did suffer a bit of power incontinence which was partially the reason he was here.

“Hey, um Present Mic! “ he called out to the Voice Hero who was accompanied by the blonde power copier he’d met in the exam. Oh no. He was probably trying to report him or something.

“What’s up little listener?!” the voice hero yelled.

“Funny. We were just talking about you” the copier said with a smile. Crap.

“I- this guy got injured because I failed to stop him from copying my Quirk. I was just hoping I could give him some of my points to compensate for the damage”.

Present Mic laughed in his face “Sorry, little listener. It’s just Monoma here was trying to do the same thing for your save”.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, well I’m afraid you can’t give away points but I have a feeling you two won’t have to worry about that. Now if you excuse me, I have to go to a meeting to help tally up the villain points” and so Present Mic walked away, leaving the two students alone.

Monoma broke the silence first “So your Quirk is a super-enhancement Quirk that breaks your bones without caution. Then what was that vibration power you used. Is it an application of your Quirk?”

“Uh, no. It’s actually an entirely separate technique I learned from a teacher of mine. It works on ki rather than the power of a Quirk”.

“Ki? Like Sun Wukong, the Monkey Hero?”

“Yes! Exactly like that. But what about your Quirk? Is there a limit to what Quirk you can have. I’m assuming you don’t gain the knowledge on how to use the Quirk but what about mutation Quirks. But your Quirk likely has a time limit if you could copy mutations”.

“Well, it’s nice to meet a fellow Quirk enthusiast like myself. For your information, any and all Quirks I copy only last for 5 minutes and I can only use one at a time. Perhaps you would like to talk about this at a later date?”

The two exchanged numbers and went their separate ways.

“Hey, Midoriya!” Midoriya barely had any time to react before he was glomped by a pink blur.

“H-hatsume!”

“How’d my babies do?!” she asked with a keen smile on her face.

“Oh. Right, your babies that you gave me to help me in the Entrance Exam”. Midoriya bore a wobbly smile on his face.

Hatsume smile shifted to a glare “Midoriya. You did use my babies, right?”

“Well, funny thing is that I kinda forgot about them and just used Stone Cutter the whole time”.

“NOOOO!” Hatsume let go of him and threw her hands in the air before pouting.

“Hatsume, I’m sorry! I just forgot about them” She didn’t budge.

“I’ll buy you a chocolate cake?” and just like that Hatsume had seemingly teleported in front of him with an enthusiastic grin on her face.

“That’s more like it.”

Midoriya sighed. He’d possibly made a new friend, punched a gigantic robot in it’s face and had reunited with an old friend. It had been a pretty good day, all things considered. Although he did wonder how those friends had done on their practicals.

Notes:

OK so at long last the Entrance Exam is finally here. I didn't exactly want to do the same thing I've seen a lot of other (not every or even most but I've seen it more than I'd like) MHA fanfics do by making the Entrance Exam the exact same thing as it was in canon barring a few changes to Midoriya's skill set. Naturally 'For Want Of A Nail' is going to come into play, with Midoriya forming relationships with different characters as opposed to just Uraraka and Iida like in canon. That in and of itself is going to have some consequences down the line.

Oh and I know that Monoma's Quirk actually can't copy One For All for being an "accumulation" Quirk. Let's just say it's another change to the timeline. As always comments and constructive criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 15: Acceptance

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you’re alright?” her uncle asked in concern.

“I’m actually not as upset as I thought I would be. I just feel kinda empty, y’know” and it was somewhat true. Of course she’d had time to process what happened but it was a different story directly after the exam.

Hagakure had only managed to take out two additional robots. She probably could’ve taken out more but she spent most of her time trying to save people who were also having trouble. Mainly by distracting the robots so they could score the kill but still. And as reward for her heroic actions, she didn’t gain enough villain points for her acceptance into U.A.

She tried to put on a brave face. She said she was ok to any acquaintances that asked. She entered her apartment and, and the moment she closed the door; all the tears she had been repressing were released. She bawled her eyes out for a good 30 minutes.

It wasn’t just the fact that she failed the exam but the circumstances surrounding it. This was her chance to show her uncle that good can come from the Hero Industry, to help people like her, to... make her parents proud. And yet, she had failed! She couldn’t do any of that because she had been prevented from moving forward.

And of course her uncle had jumped on the opportunity to say how flawed the Hero Industry was; that they cared more about results rather than heroic actions. Well, at least she can focus on some other career.

Perhaps, her uncle was right about heroes. After all, the top Hero School of the country clearly only cared about strong Quirks that were good for fighting. Heroism was more than just combat-based and yet U.A. didn’t seem to understand that.

The funny thing is every once in a while she would still think back to her final save of the day; a fairly chubby kid trapped under some rubble as the Zero Pointer approached. She had used a nearby metal rod to lever the rubble off him. She could’ve left him and looked for more points. Why didn’t she? Well, if she’s being honest it wouldn’t have made a difference. No use dwelling on it now.

“I know you must be heartbroken but we have other matters to discuss. Quite frankly, I want you to work for me”.

“What?” Working for her uncle? Wasn’t that a bit weird? Sure, they weren’t actually related but still. And she still had high school!

“I know it’s not heroism but it’s the next best thing. If you worked for me, you’d have the opportunity to create a better society and help others like you’.

“... What would you have me do?” To be honest she still had no idea what the man did even after all these years. Shouldn’t be much of a surprise given that his own son didn’t know.

“The choice is yours. You could go down a similar path as your parents and become a spy or you could go into journalism or become a lawyer or...”

“Wait! My parents were spies.”

“But of course. I had assumed you would’ve pieced it together what with all the secrecy and the constant trips overseas”.

She hadn’t but in hindsight it made sense. Her parents were so secretive about their jobs and when the whole ‘spy’ debacle came around, her father had muttered under his breath something about the family business. However, her mother shut him up and supported her in her decision to not be a spy.

“I see. However, I don’t think that’s something my parents would want”.

“Very well. However, Toru I do think before we start making plans, we should make sure U.A is well and truly out of the way”.

‘Damn, he knows’ she thought to herself. It was true. The letter from U.A. had arrived today. She was holding it in her bag but she hadn’t opened it out of the fear of rejection. She knew she had failed but she was still filled with dread at the thought of confirmation.

With shaky hands, she pulled the envelope out of her bag and opened it. Out dropped a metal disk, which displayed a hologram. Though she couldn’t tell what until the voice was heard.

“THIS IS A PROJECTION!”

All Might was delivering her message?! ‘You have got to be kidding me’ she thought because there was nothing better than hearing the knowledge that you failed from the Number 1 Hero and Symbol of Peace. It seemed she wasn’t the only one because she felt her uncle twitch at the sound of his voice, what the hell was he even doing at U.A anyway?!

As if the projection read her mind, All Might said “I’m in town for one reason and one reason only. I’ve come to teach at U.A!”

Oh great, she gets to miss out on being taught by All Might.

“Yes, well unfortunately you failed. You passed the written portion of your exam but you only managed to get six villain points and I’m afraid that’s just not enough to pass”.

... Y’know despite knowing that she was going to be rejected, actually hearing it out loud was just soul-crushing and she wasn’t sure why. Tears started rolling down her cheeks.She had been hearing she couldn’t be a hero all her life. Maybe it was the fact that she had really, really tried and had still failed. Maybe it was the fact that all of her hard work failed to pay off. Or maybe it was just the fact that All Might was telling her she couldn’t be a Hero. It doesn’t matter why, it just really sucked. She was pathetic for not listening to everyone else.

“That is, if we were watching for villain points exclusively”. What?

“What kind of Hero School would we be if we didn’t reward heroic actions? For you see rescue points were also a factor in evaluating applicants! Hagakure, your numerous saves during the exam and sacrifice of villain points netted you a collective total of 40 Rescue points allowing you to just barely scrap in. Congratulations Hagakure, this is your Hero Academy!” The projection vanished and Hagakure was left speechless.

She started crying again but her tears had a different energy to them. One of hope and satisfaction. Her hard work had paid off. She’d gotten into U.A. She could do this!

“Well, it seems you will be going to U.A. after all” her uncle said in a disappointed tone. Not really surprising given his stance on Heroes and the fact that he probably wanted her to become just like her parents.

Hagakure rushed up to the crippled man and hugged him, thanking him for all his help in accomplishing her dream. Of course she quickly let go when she noticed his pained winces and apologised.

Suddenly a black portal opened up with Midoriya and his mother running through with tearful grins on their faces.

“Dad! I got in. I came second overall in the entire test” Ouch. She was happy for Midoriya, she was. But at the same time she couldn’t help but feel a little hurt and jealous at the fact that the Quirkless kid had come second while she had only just scraped through.

Still she was glad that both of them were one step closer to accomplishing their dreams. She wiped away her tears and went up to Midoriya.

“Second, huh? Wow, Midoriya. That’s great. I guess we’re both one step closer to accomplishing our goals, right?” she lightly patted his shoulder.

Upon noticing her, Midoriya blushed “O-oh Hagakure, I didn’t see you there”. And that statement was followed by groans from her and her uncle.

“That pun was completely unintentional!”

“Well, despite that I’m proud of you kids. Despite all the obstacles in your way, you’ve successfully overcome the first hurdle. Of course that doesn’t give you permission to slack off, now” her uncle said.

At that moment Midoriya finally seemed to register what had happened. “Wait Hagakure, you got in too?! That’s great!”

Hagakure sheepishly put a hand to her head and giggled “Yeah, but unlike you I only just managed to scrape by on rescue points so it’s not really impressive”.

“I disagree! Out of the 10,800 applicants for the exam you managed to make the cut of the 36 best students. That means you were deemed good enough to be in the top 0.009 percent of people taking the exam. Besides I only got second place because of rescue points as well so I’m not as impressive either”.

“Wait so your trying to understate your score by saying rescue points don’t really matter?”

Midoriya seemed to get what she meant because he immediately backtracked “Well, no but really all I did was take out a robot worth zero points”.

“You took out the Zero Pointer! Just what the hell happened Midoriya?!” She had no doubt that his analytical skills were some of the greatest but where had this scrawny Quirkless boy attained such power?

“Oh dear, he just inherited All Might’s Quirk” her aunt said as if it was an afterthought.

“I see” So Midoriya didn’t work as hard as she did, he just got lucky enough to get power from the right person at the right time. Hagakure honestly didn’t know whether to feel jealous or relieved. She settled for shock, especially for what came next.

“Yes and broke all his bones while doing it. I told you inheriting that Quirk was a bad idea. You should’ve just used Stone Cutter” her uncle said with a smug tone.

“I couldn’t and two people were in danger!”

“You should’ve been more concerned about yourself”

“That’s not what a hero does”

“Clearly we look at different Pros”.

Hagakure was starting to grow frustrated as Inko sighed. It was like she was used to these debates or something. “Uh, can one of you please explain to me the whole Stone Cutter and All Might’s Quirk thing?”

Midoriya seemed nervous but complied when her uncle spoke up “Go on Izuku, she’s practically family anyway”.

Midoriya seemed confused but decided to ignore the questions he wanted to answer in favor of an explanation.

“Right, well it all started about 10 months ago when I nearly drowned in sewage and was saved by a magma man”.

Oh so this was going to be one of those stories. Neat.


It had been a good 45 minutes but Hagakure had finally been told of what exactly had transpired in the past 10 months. The watch-wielding vigilante and his partner, Adrian and One For All.

“I can’t believe you got chosen by All Might!” she squealed towards Izuku who was madly blushing.

“It’s not really impressive... All I did was blindly run into danger and add another hostage. Sorry I can’t help show you the potential of us disadvantaged”

“ Oh, who cares about that? All Might chose you. If he chose me, I’d have done the same thing and at least you still tried something while 5 Pros were just going to let him die” Although there was a fake undertone to her words. She seemed to be trying to hide her displeasure at the situation.

“Yes, well as lovely as this conversation was, Izuku I think your father is near the end of his rope when it comes to Hero conversation” Inko said as she peered towards her husband who was currently fidgeting and biting his lip.

“You know me so well dear. Don’t worry, just because you two got into U.A. doesn’t mean I’m going to lighten my disdain for the industry but that’s a topic for another time. With how late it is, that you all should be going home”.

And just like that, a black portal appeared out of nowhere no doubt leading to the Midoriya residence.

“Hagakure, Hisashi told me you live alone. If you would like you can stay the night at our apartment” Inko sent Hagakure a soft look and a warm smile as Hagakure accepted her offer. Hisashi waited for a few seconds before the portal dissipated in front of him.

“Well, great the girl’s in U.A. Now what, sensei?” a raspy voice asked from the darkness.

“Now we initiate phase two. First Tomura, we need to polish your acting skills. Our plan hinges on you being able to give a convincing performance. Imagine I’m a hostage in a situation and you’re going to kill me”.

Tomura made his way over to him and held out his hand near him. The hands that could destroy whatever they touched. Decay was a good Quirk but an impractical one. The woman who had it practically begged him to steal it from her, with how it ruined her life. It had taken some refining but eventually Hisashi had been able to make it into a usable Quirk for Tomura without giving up the essential parts for his development. It was still constantly active but now the user had to apply all five fingers to activate. Such a weakness should help teach Tomura about control. What was he thinking about again?

“Listen here, you damn NPC! If you don’t meet my demands, I-I’m gonna kiiiiiiiiiiiiii...” Tomura branched off before quickly removing his hand and running to the other end of the room.

“What are you doing Tomura?”

“I-I can’t do it sensei!” his raspy voice cried out. His mask disguising the stray tears rolling down his face.

“Don’t worry, you have plenty of time to work out the kinks” Hisashi’s voice took on a more gentle and understanding tone.

“Could I practice on Kurogiri?” Tomura said hopefully.

‘Oh. So that’s the problem’. It seemed that he may have been a bit too good of a mentor to Tomura. The manchild couldn’t hope to give a convincing performance if he was the hostage in question. Well, that put a dent in his plan but he could fix this

“Yes, of course” Hisashi said as he thought of an alternative route. All the while, Kurogiri protested about being the hostage. Whatever, it’s not like Tomura could actually harm him.


It was incredible how despite how much time had passed, some things never truly changed. Case in point Midoriya’s bedroom was still filled to the brim with Hero merch. Judging from the shapes, she could tell that most of it was All Might related.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Midoriya asked as he twiddled his thumbs.

Hagakure turned to him, the delight at her friend meeting and training with All Might had been replaced by something else. The more she thought about Midoriya’s story, the more negative her thoughts became. She supposed it was best to come right out with it like ripping off a band-aid. “Before you met All Might, did you ever actually train?”

“No, why?” Midoriya raised an eyebrow.

“It’s just we talked about working harder than anyone else so we could be heroes and it doesn’t seem like you took your own words to heart”.

Midoriya looked down, ashamed at himself.

“Like, I’ve been training since elementary school and yet I only barely managed to get into the Hero Course. Meanwhile, you only trained for 10 months and yet you scored second!” Her words were starting to drip with venom. She hated it. It didn’t matter how long Midoriya had trained for, he had still trained to get into the Hero Course but her words kept going.

“It’s not fair! You were the one to inspire me to keep trying to be a hero but you didn’t do anything to secure your chances. I work my butt off for years and despite that I only manage to get in thanks to some random points I didn’t know about. You just get given a Quirk and all of your problems vanish. Sure, I got in but the only person supporting me is your dad and he doesn’t even care about Heroes! You have the Symbol of Peace in your corner! What hardships have you had to overcome?!” Shit she wasn’t supposed to say that!

Midoriya seemed to pick up on it and embraced her, his embarrassment temporarily forgotten “You’re wrong. I’m sorry if my training seems like a spit in the face of your hard work but All Might isn’t in my corner and my dad’s not the only one in yours”.

Hagakure was starting to sob, her breaths becoming heavy. “My parents-”

“Would be proud of you! Like I said you’re in the top 0.009% of U.A. applicants. You’re well on your way to proving that someone that’s practically Quirkless can be a Hero. I believe in you”.

Hagakure cried harder and returned Midoriya’s hug. They stayed like that for a while as Midoriya encouraged her to let all of her stress out. Eventually Hagakure felt better and rubbed the tears away from her eyes.

“Hey, Midoriya”

“Yeah?”

“What did you mean when you said All Might wasn’t in your corner?” She could feel his grimace in response to her question. Clearly the hero fanboy wasn’t as big a fan as All Might as he used to be.

Midoriya sighed before turning to Hagakure. He put his hand to his chin and narrowed his eyes. Perhaps she had crossed a line? But she had just revealed the deaths of her parents to him. Surely she deserved some information in return.

“All Might doesn’t believe in me” Midoriya said firmly.

“What? But he gave you his power”

“So I could succeed him, yes. He believes that anyone with One For All can be a great hero, even a Quirkless person. His belief is towards his own Quirk, not me. It’s why I tried not to use it during the Entrance Exam”.

“You what?!” Midoriya didn’t want to use One For All during the exam but if that’s the case, how did he get so many points? As if reading her mind Midoriya answered her.

“I only used One For All once and that was to save two people from the Zero Pointer. They were incapacitated and there was no other option. All of my villain points were thanks to Stone Cutter, which All Might had nothing to do with, remember?”

She didn’t. She had effectively been stewing ever since Midoriya told her about inheriting One For All and as such she was clearly missing out on some details that Midoriya had tried to explain to her. But wait, if he didn’t use One For All...

“Hey, Midoriya could you teach me Stone Cutter?” It was amazing how though she was blind, she could still see the gleam in Midoriya’s eyes. It was like he had this happy energy to him.

“Sure, though I’m going to have to call Ben”. The watch-wielding vigilante, why?

“He’ll be able to construct an ice sculpture for you to break”.

“Huh?” But Midoriya wasn’t paying attention to her. He was already mumbling to himself about making a training regimen for her. But U.A. started in 2 weeks!

“Uh, Midoriya you don’t have to go through all this trouble” she sweatdropped. Sure having such a technique was good and all but she still planned to be more of a stealth-based hero. It would be best to only use it as a last-resort rather than using it to substitute a Quirk.

However, Midoriya had stopped paying attention altogether and was mumbling up a storm. Whatever, at least it was nice having another person willing to support her. They spent the rest of the night just talking about what things the future would bring now that they were in U.A.

Notes:

Not exactly happy with this one. In fact I had it ready a few days ago but put it off because I just didn't like how it turned and tried to change it. I feel like Midoriya and Hagakure's interactions were a bit stilted and forced. Regardless, this chapter serves as an interlude of sorts. As you likely noticed, the first half of the season was fairly slow-paced and was toned in a sense of preparation or foreboding for the Entrance Exam. With them in U.A and having surpassed the first hurdle, that's definitely going to change.

The chapter title obviously refers to their acceptance into U.A. but I realized it could also refer to Hagakure accepting how Midoriya's becoming a hero... or some crap like that, I dunno. Naturally, next chapter will be covering their first day at U.A and will explore some of the ramifications of the differences from canon. As always comments and criticism are appreciated (especially considering I can't seem to get a hold of making my characters less forced).

Chapter 16: Quirk Assessment Test

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Midoriya woke up this morning, completely refreshed and anew. It had only been a couple of weeks since his acceptance but it was really starting to sink in. He was going to the same school as All Might! And Endeavor and Best Jeanist and so many other great heroes.

“Morning Midoriya” was said by two different voices.

“Morning!” he replied cheerfully.

Hatsume had fallen asleep in the garage again and so it was agreed to just let her sleep. Her parents trusted the Midoriyas with the pink haired engineer and thought it would be good for her. She barely got any sleep in the first place, up all night making babies. That came out wrong. It was like she knew this would happen because her uniform and school supplies just happened to be in the bag of things she had brought with her.

The other voice belonged to Hagakure. Given that her apartment was in Kamino Ward, his dad had thought it was a better idea for her to temporarily relocate to the Midoriya household, rather than have her look for another apartment, especially considering it was with his money that she would’ve been using.

She had questioned why Kurogiri, his dad’s teleporter couldn’t just drop her off but apparently Kurogiri had a limit to how many times he could teleport and also had a job to do. He wouldn’t always be around to be able to teleport her to and from school.

Well that was his dad’s explanation at least. Kurogiri however, had chosen to angrily reply that “I’m not some pack mule you can abuse!” or something and that’s all that will be said on the matter.

Anyway the two girls had gotten acquainted immediately though that was mainly Hatsume pushing to get another client. She also seemed to have a habit of feeling Hagakure up in just the same way as him. Did she have a muscle fetish or did she really just like feeling up other people? Hagakure didn’t seem to mind though.

With breakfast finished and a quick speech by his mother about how proud she was that the three of them were in U.A. they left for school.

“So Midoriya, anything you’re looking forward to?” Hagakure asked.

“Well. I would be excited to be taught under Pro Heroes and I’m looking forward to what teachers we have but unfortunately we’ll probably spend the day doing orientation or the opening ceremony so we won’t actually get any work done”.

Hagakure laughed “Only you would prefer school work over a free day, Midoriya”.

“Actually I have to agree with Midoriya here. I just want to jump straight into the workshop and work on my babies!” Hatsume grinned before frowning “But if we have to spend the day for orientation, i don’t get any work done and if I can’t work, then I have less time to make babies, which means I have less babies to show off to those bigshot corporations and...”

“We get it!” Her two companions interrupted.

“I don’t know what you’re so upset about Invisible Girl. It’s thanks to my hard work that you’re not so blind anymore”

This was the first time Midoriya was hearing about it though given Hatsume’s other inventions (like the void projector or the solid rainbow generator), he wasn’t exactly surprised. He turned to Hagakure who seemed to be contemplating something.

“I appreciate your work Hatsume but your baby leaves something to be desired”.

“Impossible!!” the engineer yelled dramatically.

“It’s just a big helmet and it’s so heavy I can barely carry it anywhere. It also has a tendency to overheat and burn me. Perhaps one of the upsides to being invisible is that you can’t see how much hair your invention has made me lose” Hagakure seemed to be making a pointing gesture but it just looked like her shirt sleeve was flapping around in the wind.

Hatsume had seemingly summoned a notebook out of nowhere and was taking note of all of her baby’s flaws. “Well I can’t make it much more streamlined but perhaps U.A. has materials that could make such a thing possible. It would probably be better if it wasn’t made out of junk people had thrown out.”

“I was wearing a garbage helmet?!”

“Well, you know what they say one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure”

“Did you at least wash it?!” Hatsume gave Hagakure a long stare before turning back to her notebook.

“As for the overheating, adding a water tank would be a temporary fix but would only serve to make the helmet more bulky”.

“Don’t ignore me Hatsume”.

“Oh. Perhaps I could get my hands on some coolant. Though that would require better materials.”

“Hatsume!”

“Whatever the case it must not be cold enough so that the photokinetic engine can still continue running. Otherwise, that renders the entire project that I worked so hard on pointless. It wouldn’t do to keep Hagakure blind”.

Hagakure was now shaking Hatsume’s arm to get her to pay attention, demanding to know where the helmet had come from.

“Well, if it isn’t the boy who destroyed the Zero Pointer. It’s a pity he doesn’t quite know how Quirks work if last night was any indication” a smug voice called out. All three of them looked up at the voice, which belonged to a blonde boy with blue eyes.

“Monoma!” Midoriya called out, with a grin. The two had kept in touch since the Entrance Exam, going over Quirk theories and analysis. Last night they had been in a debate over the Pro Hero Jinx. Quirk: Lucky. Midroiya believed her Quirk was functioned as a barrier for her, always activated so that bad luck never befell her. Monoma (wrongly) believed that it was a conscious wave of probability that activated at her mere thoughts.

“It’s so good to see you. Even if your pride is misplaced” Midoriya said prompting a scoff from Monoma.

“Hm. Well at least I get to meet the Invisible Girl herself”

“What does he mean by that?” Hagakure had an edge to her voice. She didn’t like the idea of people talking about her behind her back.

“Uh, well, we are- your Quirk has been an interesting point of conversation for the both of us” Midoriya stuttered. Hagakure growled but thankfully Monoma was there to save him.

“Yes. A mutation Quirk from two transformation ones is very interesting. However, the fact that you also developed a Super Senses Quirk as a result makes you much more rare and interesting than the usual flashy Quirks we talk about. You’re particularly inspiring given how you managed to pass the exam practically Quirkless” Monoma said but he had dropped the smug tone. His words seemed sincere, as if he knew from experience what it was like to have a weak Quirk.

Hagakure made a satisfied hum and said “Well ok, then. Nice to meet you Monoma”, holding her hand out for him to shake. Monoma promptly turned invisible though Hagakure couldn’t exactly see it. While she did hear her friends’ cries of “What?!”, it was different. She could almost feel as if the light in her surroundings was bending around something else now.

“Shit I’m blind!” Though there were other problems to attend to at the moment.

“What just happened?!” Hatsume yelled out.

“He copied Hagakure’s Quirk. He tends to have control over them but mutations are different for obvious reasons. It’ll wear off in five minutes” Midoriya explained. Hatsume had a big grin on her face, realising the sheer opportunity that Monoma offered but was shut down by Midoriya.

“OK, what class are you in?”

“Class B!” Monoma said frantically. And so the three lead Monoma to his class. The copy wore off just as they got there.

Monoma was clearly blushing at the embarrassment that had befallen him. “Uh. Thanks, I guess. I guess I’ll see you around” he said before entering the class.

Midoriya checked the time and yelled out “Crap, we’re gonna be late for class! See ya Hatsume”. Hatsume merely waved goodbye before running to her own class of Class 1-H.

Although as it turns out, they didn’t have far to run. Their class was actually right next door to Class B though for some reason a yellow caterpillar thing was on the ground. Midoriya opened the door with a forced smile.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well it would seem that two people I don’t really like are in the same class as me” he said, his facial muscles not really moving at all.

“Remove your foot from that desk! Such an action is insulting to those who came to U.A. before us as well as those who made the desk!” the glasses guy commanded

“Like I care. What middle school are ya from, you extra?” Kacchan said.

‘I figured I would have to deal with at least Kacchan but the guy from the Entrance Exam is here too?!’

Said guy was now making his way towards Midoriya and Hagakure. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the two troublemakers at the exam”.

“Oh c’mon, we were just doing the Plus Ultra pose to psych ourselves up!” Hagakure whined.

“And blocked the way for other attendees taking the exam. I am still bewildered at how you two managed to get into this prestigious academy”.

“Rescue points” Midoriya mumbled.

“I find that to be preposterous. I find it unlikely that the two of you managed to figure out the hidden portion of the exam.

“We didn’t” Midoriya felt it was best if he said as little as possible when confronting this guy. Unfortunately, things were about to get sooo much worse.

“DEKU!!”

Kacchan had gotten up and had pinned him to the wall. He was making a face he hadn’t made since before the Sludge Villain incident.

“How the hell did a shitty nerd like you get second?!” his hands were sparking dangerously close to his face. Well it wasn’t anything he hadn’t dealt with before. Although he hadn’t been like this when he found out Midoriya had gotten into U.A. Probably just saw his name at the top of the list, smirked and then dismissed everyone else as extras.

“Second place?!” the strict student exclaimed. “I only came in sixth! There must be some mistake here”.

“ENOUGH!”

The caterpillar transformed into a man with red eyes and wavy hair. Bakugou’s explosions stopped. Iida’s thoughts had been interrupted and all conversation within the classroom ceased. All eyes were on him.

“I had hoped you would all be mature enough to sit in your seats and wait for the teacher but it seems I expected too much from the next generation of heroes”.

“Yes! Our teacher is rig-” Iida tried to say but was cut off.

“You started the conflict. If you think you should have more say over who gets accepted than the school itself, you can just leave” the man’s glare completely destroying Iida’s uptight and strict attitude.

“Yes sir” Iida slumped.

“Alright then. Since you lot can’t behave yourselves, I believe a lesson is in store for you. Get changed into your P.E. uniforms and head out to the grounds”.

As the class changed, Midoriya couldn’t help but feel there was something familiar about the man. Then it suddenly hit him as everyone else was leaving.

“You’re Eraserhead!”

Eraserhead looked stunned at the fact that somebody he had just met had recognised him.

“Wow really, Eraserhead. You inspired me to be a hero! Well partially” an invisible girl said. Hagakure, if he remembered right.

Eraserhead wasn’t sure how to react. Not one but two of his students recognised him. He was meant to be an underground Hero and he took that job because he didn’t like the publicity and now his class contained two people who not only recognised him but were praising him. What was he supposed to do in this situation?!

He settled for cold indifference “If you just came to this school to fawn over Pro Heroes, you shouldn’t be here” he said walking out.

“He’s just as cold as you said, Midoriya!”.


“What’re you doing?” a silly voice spoke causing All Might to look up from the faculty registry. He saw a diminutive, black and white alien with green spots on his shoulders standing on the desk looking at him curiously.

“Aren’t you supposed to be securing the perimeter?”

“Ditto is” the alien spoke before his body morphed and split into two. The clones nodded and and started poking him.

“So what’cha doing?”

All Might batted away their tiny forms. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to possess the standard superhuman condition that most of Tennyson’s alien forms possessed. Even his weakened state was more than a match for the two of them.

Unfortunately they just split again. Though All Might was stronger and faster than them, Ditto had the advantage in numbers and it seemed like he had no limit to the amount of clones he could produce.

Not seeing a way out of this, All Might huffed in resignation “I was checking the faculty registry for Young Midoriya’s teachers. I simply wished to see the kinds of teachers that would be monitoring over him. It says that he has some underground hero called Eraserhead”.

“Eraserhead, huh? That’s rough” one of the clones said, while on top of a chair, causing all three to hum in agreement.

“What do you mean?” He knew that the teachers at U.A. had some freedom in how they taught their classes but surely one of them couldn’t be that bad.

“Uh. Well. He kinda, maybe, sorta expelled an entire class last year” a Ditto said on the edge of the table.

“He what?!” All Might slammed the table causing the ditto to fall and bruise his butt.

“Ow!” All four Dittos exclaimed before starting to badger All Might “Hey, watch it/ We feel each other’s pain y’know/ Have you no respect for others/ Aren’t ya meant to be the number one Hero or something” And so on.

“I think I’ll just have a quick look into Eraserhead’s class” he announced.

“Uh. He won’t be there though/He’ll be on the fields/ doing the/Quirk Assessment Test!” all four Ditto’s proclaimed. Were they constantly in sync? But then how would the other clones littered around the school be acting? Questions for later.

All Might started running for the grounds though it was significantly harder with the four clones grabbing onto him and yelling “Onwards!”


“Today we’ll be performing a test of your Quirks. Anyone in last place or doesn’t take this seriously enough will be expelled”.

“EXPELLED?!” the class yelled out.

“But what about the opening ceremony orientation?” a brown haired girl asked. Uraraka, if he remembered correctly.

“There’s no time to waste on that stuff if you want to become heroes. We only have three years before you lot become heroes and there’s a lot to cover. If you don’t have the determination or are willing to put in the work, you may as well leave now. If you have the time to complain about how others are not as deserving of their place, you clearly aren’t taking this seriously enough” Eraserhead finished his little ramble by sending a glare towards Bakugou and Iida.

Bakugou reacted by merely replying with a “Tch”, his hands smoking as he glared at Midoriya. Iida, however was still slumping and responded with a simple “Understood”. Good. Perhaps this meant that he wouldn’t have as many problem children as last year. At least he only seemed to have one kid that was willing to start fires, this time.

Eraserhead continued “Softball throwing, the standing long jump, the 50-meter dash, endurance running, grip strength, side to side stepping, upper body training, seated toe touch. All 8 of these events were your standard no Quirks allowed gym tests in middle school. Well it’s time to see how well you would do if we lifted that irrational ban”.

“Let’s start with our champion of the Entrance Exam. Bakugou, how well could you throw without your Quirk?”

Bakugou stiffened as he made his way to the circle “Last time I checked, it was about 70 meters”.

“Great. Now try it with your Quirk”.

Bakugou grinned viciously at the prospect of being able to show off how powerful he truly was. He grasped the ball firmly in his hand before moving to throw it. As he threw it, he yelled “Die!” and the ball was propelled by the explosions of his Quirk.

Eraserhead faintly heard a “Yes!” in the distance. Clearly the vigilante was wasting his time watching the class instead of the school. The device in Eraserhead’s hand beeped and showed that Bakugou had been able to throw the ball a whopping 709.5 meters. Hm, well the kid certainly had potential at least.

“It is important to know your limits. That will be the first step towards figuring out what kinds of heroes you will be”.

Perhaps in another timeline, the kids would be thrilled at not only Bakugou’s score but the prospect of being able to use their Quirks with no restrictions. However, they were still stuck on the ‘expulsion bomb’ that Eraserhead dropped. They knew what the stakes were. Some of them were visibly shaking, even the two fans of his that encountered him in the classroom.

Of course he had no intention of detonating said bomb. From the entrance exam, he could see that all of them had potential to be great heroes. This was merely a logical ruse to get them to try their best. Of course, they didn’t need to know that nor did the vigilante and Symbol of Peace spying on the class.


Midoriya was in trouble. Deep trouble. He was in a test for Quirks and he couldn’t even use his without breaking his bones! He hadn’t even been use One For All since the Entrance Exam! Up against 19 other people who could use theirs with no restraint. The one exception was Hagakure, who he could tell was also bothered by this test but even her years of training trumped his 10 months and so even she would be beating him.

“Psst!” What? Midoriya looked around as the class started the first event but could see nothing.

“Down here” Midoriya looked at the ground to see a hole with a black head submerged in it. Ditto. Power: Self-duplication. He can divide himself into clones with practically no limit. Enhanced digging. Possibly has shared telepathy among clones. Weaknesses: Below average physicality. Any damage felt by one clone is felt by all of them. Overall, it is one of Tennyson’s gimmick aliens, with the flaws outweighing the benefits.

“I take offence to that! I am not gimmick!/ Me too/ Me three/ Me four” Oh. He said that out loud. How many clones were there and what were they doing here?

“Look no time for that. I just need to tell you not to use One For All”

“But why?” Midoriya asked, making a confused expression.

“Well, to put it into your words. It’s a gimmick power. The flaws outweigh the benefits, right?” OK clearly they are still upset at being called a gimmick. “You could get a really good score in one event but/ then every score afterwards would be terrible/ so you see it’s not worth it”.

There was truth to his words but Eraserhead said...

“That whoever comes in last place will be expelled, right. Do you really think grape kid over there is going to beat you most of the time?/ Or any of the kids that haven’t become super buff” No. That’s right. He didn’t need to come first. He just needed to make sure he didn’t come last!

“Midoriya and Bakugou, you’re up.” Eraserhead’s tired voice called out.

Midoriya’s spirit was engulfed in determination. He turned to Ditto to thank him but all that there was was just a hole. It seemed they left to avoid Eraserhead catching them out. Midoriya walked up to the track and ran as hard as he could without One For All, avoiding Bakugou trying to blast him away and completed the track in 6.88 seconds.


“What did you tell him?” All Might asked.

“Oh, we just told him not to use One For All”

“WHAT?!” All Might yelled, prompting the class to look their way.

“Keep it down!”

“I just don’t understand. He’s under threat of expulsion and you tell him not to use his greatest power!”

“Said power breaks his limbs thus ruining his overall average score. Just trust us, ok?”

All Might grumbled but there was nothing he could do about it. He just had to hope Eraserhead wouldn’t be too harsh on him.


For the rest of the events, Midoriya tried his best without using One For All and sure enough he was actually doing surprisingly decent. For grip strength, he placed above average in the class though still paled in comparison to powerhouses like the multi-limbed student. Did controlling them require more brainpower to operate them? Or did he have to use absolute focus to control each and every one? Questions for later.

The standing long jump yielded a similar result. He couldn’t compare with those who could propel themselves into the air with explosions, lasers, cannons etc. But neither could most of the class. For the most part it was an event that forced a lot of the students to be Quirkless themselves.

Side stepping was much closer. There was only one standout example. The grape kid who accumulated piles of balls to bounce himself off them but he had done so badly in the rest of the tests that this one excellent result wasn’t going to change anything. What was he so worried about?

Little did Midoriya know that he was being watched closely by his teacher. He went up to the softball throw and threw a pitiful 80 meters. Yet despite the fact that it wasn’t the best in the class or even top 10, he was smiling in contentment. It was that smile that caused Eraserhead to leap into action.

Before Midoriya knew it, he was wrapped in a bandage cloth. His teacher’s eyes glowing blood red while his hair stood on end.

“I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt because despite your reckless self-inflicted damage against the Zero Pointer, you still adequately showed the potential to be a great hero. And yet even with the threat of expulsion you find that it’s appropriate to smile with a mediocre score like that”.

Midoriya shrunk under his teacher’s gaze. You may not be coming last but you haven’t deemed this important enough to even use your Quirk. If you think this is a waste of your time, then I believe your schooling here will be an equal waste of my time”.

Midoriya gulped. “Now if you’re willing to actually try then you can have another go”. Eraserhead threw the ball back to Midoriya.

‘This isn’t good! If I use my Quirk I’ll be incapacitated but if I don’t I’ll be expelled anyway’ Midoriya thought. He had to come up with something when suddenly it hit him ‘He probably thinks my Quirk is Stone Cutter. If that’s the case this should be easy’.

Midoriya summoned up all the courage he could and talked back to one of his personal heroes “Y-yeah but s-so what?”

“Hm?”

“So what if I didn’t use my Quirk? It’s ill-suited for these events. You’re not threatening that guy” Midoriya pointed to the blonde kid he’d seen in the exam. Said student just pointed to himself dumbly “And why would you? He’s got an electrification Quirk so it wouldn’t make sense to expel him for not using a Quirk that won’t help him”.

Eraserhead glared at him. Well, he’d just made one of his personal heroes pissed at him. That’s alright. It really is.

“True but Kaminari is not you, Midoriya. You have a super strength Quirk. Such a strong Quirk that you can create shockwaves and take out the Zero Pointer”.

“WHAT?!” yelled the class. Bakugou for his part, looked like he was having a seizure at the reveal of just how powerful Midoriya had become.

“I actually have a vibration inducement Quirk! I can only do those things through touch”.

Eraserhead looked at him incredulously but as he thought back to the Entrance Exam, he did recall finding it weird that Midoriya always touched the ground before unleashing a shockwave. It was a plausible enough explanation but there was something wrong with it.

Aizawa was torn between his professional, underground hero side that sought the truth or his regular, apathetic and tired side which just wanted to go home and sleep. His apathy won out in the end. “Very well. Let’s just get this over with”.

Bakugou, however, was having an internal conflict of his own. After the revelation that shitty Deku not only had a Quirk but also one powerful enough to take out the Zero Pointer, he was torn between his usual aggressive side that would try and blow Deku up and his curiosity that would torture Deku for answers and then blow him up.

“Well I have a plan to remedy that but you’re gonna have to beat it out of me” Bakugou’s eyes widened as he thought back to the events of last year. Deku talking about Tennyson’s supposedly Quirkless partner and Tennyson teasing him about how Deku had managed to bring down a factory and now this. Tennyson had helped Shitty Deku find a Quirk somehow.

Bakugou didn’t know what to make of this information but one thing was clear. Bakugou was seeing red and all of his killing intent was aimed at Deku. His hands sparked as he went flying towards Deku and yelled “DEKU!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT A VIBRATION QUIRK?! How’d you get it you worthless loser?! How’d Tennyson help you?”

“Why don’t you ask me yourself?!” a voice yelled out before slamming him into the head. And lo and behold, it was the vigilante himself in that black and white form that could multiply himself but was really easy to beat.

“How-”

“Whoops got to go Bakugou! He looks mad” and just like that the vigilante dug a hole into the ground.

Bakugou was about to look behind him but found himself covered in a scarf. He tried to use his Quirk but couldn’t. He was helpless to do anything, just like with the Sludge Villain or Goop except now he couldn’t even use his Quirk. He certainly didn’t have to stop himself from freaking out even though he may’ve held his breath for a few seconds to steady his breathing. He vaguely heard voices telling him that it’ll be alright.

When he looked up he noticed he wasn’t caught up in the bandages anymore, Deku and his teacher were looking at him in concern. Further back the class looked on in worry.

‘Tch. Even now, that Sludge bastard still has me in his grasp’ His sessions with Kr’lk had been helping (or at least Kr’lk said they were) but he still wasn’t strong enough. He still had panic attacks out of the blue. In the midst of all this he had completely forgotten about the circumstances leading up to his panic attack in the first place.

“Kacchan are you-”

“I’m fine you damn nerd!” he said.

“Bakugou. You aren’t fine. If you can’t handle a little disciplinary action, how do you expect to become a hero?” Eraserhead sternly said. The boy had potential to be a great hero but if he was hindered by such small things, his potential substantially decreased.

Bakugou chose to ignore him and kept walking while the class whispered to themselves.

“Bakugou...”

“I don’t know ok?! I’ve been trying to fix it but nothing seems to be working. But it won’t get in the way of me becoming a Hero, I promise!”

Aizawa looked at him skeptically. This wasn’t just some issue that you could fix by trying hard enough. It was full on PTSD. Aizawa, himself, had some experience with the disorder. A short fuse and PTSD. If he became a hero he would be a PR nightmare, showing the absolute worst the Hero Industry had to offer.

On the other hand, Bakugou was incredibly skilled and had a powerful Quirk. He had consistently placed top 5 in each of his events so far and the versatility of his Quirk would make him a brilliant hero. He had a minimum of three years before he became a hero. That was plenty of time to work out the kinks in his personality and hopefully get a hold on his PTSD.

“See that it doesn’t” Aizawa sighed.

Bakugou didn’t show it but on the inside he was jumping for joy. His dream was still achievable. That Sludge bastard hadn’t ruined it for him. He did need to get a handle on his trauma buttons though...


The rest of the events went by as planned. There were no standout moments at all.

“Alright time for the results” Eraserhead said as he pressed a button. Everyone in the class knowing what the stakes were for the lowest scorer. Those who hadn’t tried hard enough had been reprimanded accordingly but had not been expelled so the only one getting expelled today was the person in last.

All eyes locked onto the name at number 20: Minoru Mineta.

“NOOOO!” the grape kid yelled out.

“Also I was lying about expelling someone” Eraserhead said with a nightmarish grin. “That was merely a rational deception to bring out the best in you”.

“WHAAAT?!” said most of the class barring a few who seemed to be arrogant enough to say that they knew all along.

Midoriya quickly scanned the board for his number and was pleased to find he was number 11, just behind Hagakure. In fact he had to actually tell her that given her... situation.

“Well, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be” the invisible girl said to him. “We’re just average compared to the class”

Midoriya smiled and said “True but we had the advantage of training our bodies. Most people only train their Quirks and while that’s great for people like Kacchan who have versatile Quirks, it can be a major problem for people like that electricity guy”.

The two picked up their curriculum documents and made their way to the Midoriya household. They may not have gotten to the top of the class but they did surprisingly well for two people who couldn’t use their Quirks at all. Unfortunately the sentiment was not shared by everyone.

Bakugou thought back to the scoreboard as he picked up the curriculum. Third, barely. And he had had another panic attack. Why? During the months of training with Tennyson and the compulsory therapy he had to go through, Bakugou felt he had been making progress.

Now, he knew he wasn’t completely fixed but still. His nightmares of the incident had lessened considerably and he wasn’t feeling so damn helpless anymore. Until now. And of course, it had been in front of all his new classmates. Bakugou clenched his fists and bit his lip. There was only one thing to do.

“Tennyson! I know you’re there. I think I need to have another therapy session”. The sooner he got it over with, the sooner he’d be able to become a Hero.

“I agree” a silly voice called out. It would probably be serious but the fact that Ditto sounded like an Animaniac undercut the situation a bit.


Later that night. ‘Things are starting to look up’ Hagakure thought as she got ready for bed. She had gotten into Japan’s top Hero Academy, reconciled with a childhood acquaintance, made a few more friends and had proved her potential as a hero.

Like Eraserhead said, the next three years weren’t going to be easy but right now nothing could bring her mood down. And just like that she was swallowed by a black void.

“Welcome Ms. Hagakure” a deep voice spoke out. One that she recognised as Kurogiri.

“I must congratulate you on your Entrance to U.A”.

“What do you want?”

“Oh. Nothing much. I just want information on All Might. He works at the school does he not?”

“I didn’t take you for an All Might fanboy Kurogiri. Well sorry, but he hasn’t started teaching us yet. Nothing to tell, I’m afraid”.

“You misunderstand. I want very specific information. His whereabouts at certain times and places and especially his weaknesses”.

“Haha. I almost mistook you for a villain, Kurogiri. You could seriously be an actor” Though despite her words, Hagakure was quickly becoming more afraid that something was wrong.

“Oh. I wouldn’t exactly call myself a villain. I merely work for an organization who wants information on All Might and I’ve found the perfect spy to get it”.

“But I don’t want to be a spy! I want to be a hero”.

“And just what kind of Hero do you think you’ll be in three years? The kind that is flashy and well-known for taking down villains or the kind that hides in the shadows and performs reconnaissance?” Those words struck a nerve in Hagakure. For years, she had been determined to become a Hero and shrugged off any idea of her being a spy but for the first time she had come to the conclusion that those two occupations may not be so different.

“Consider this as training for the future”.

“I won’t do it! I won’t work for villains like you!”

“Oh. You will, if you want to save the last connection to your parents” Kurogiri’s voice had become increasingly cold that Hagakure felt chills down her spine.

“What?!”

The black expanse disappeared and she was in the room with her uncle. Her uncle was snoring slightly, clearly unaware of the newfound presence or the fact that his head was in a portal right now...

Hagakure turned to Kurogiri, whose golden eyes glowed. Just like that the portal started to close in around her uncle’s neck. The horrible realization dawned on her that Kurogiri’s Quirk was the perfect murder weapon. He could teleport a person’s limbs off or in this case decapitate them and dispose of the evidence. She wanted to do something, anything to save the last family she had but she couldn’t.

Tears rolled down her face as she realised just how helpless she was in this situation. Even if she went to the authorities or some hero, Kurogiri could merely teleport away and finish the job.

“Fine. I’ll do it. Just stop! Please” she pleaded with the gaseous teleporter who made a noise of some kind before dispelling the portal and sending her back into her bedroom.

“Hagakure?” And great now Midoriya was here.

Notes:

And so begins the second arc of the season. It's pretty much the standard cookie cutter Quirk Assessment Test, with a few elements thrown in. For example, this is where we see just how much of a hold Bakugou's PTSD has on him. There's a reason why Eraserhead triggered it despite not being slimy in anyway but I'll save that for the next chapter.

Another thing is For Want Of A Nail. Because Iida never saw how heroic Midoriya was, he retains his initial interpretation of the boy. Instead of awe and a reaction along the lines of "of course he deduced the hidden portion of the exam!", Iida's reaction is one of disbelief, bordering on thinking Midoriya and Hagakure cheated so naturally their relationship in this fic isn't going to be as smooth as in canon. Conversely, because Midoriya actually gave a somewhat competent performance in the Entrance Exam, Aizawa isn't singling him out from the start.

So all in all, I'm actually happy with this chapter. The interactions aren't forced (or at least not as forced as they have been in the past), the plot for the chapter runs smoothly from what I can tell and it sets up the next chapter pretty well. As always comments and criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 17: Humiliation

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“I just don’t understand. There wasn’t even any fucking similarity to the Sludge Villain so why’d I freak out like that?”

“Well, different people have different triggers” the blue woman before him explained. Her eyes looking down at the paper before her.

“And this trigger may not have been as different as you think.”

“Ha?”

“From what I understand, your panic attack was triggered by your teacher ensnaring you in his capture scarf. Trapping you in a way that made it difficult to move. While there was no sludge involved, you cannot deny that just the mere entrapment parallels your own near death situation”.

Bakugou grunted. Kr’lk was right that there were similarities. Now he had to deal with fucking binding attacks of any sort instead of just sludge.

“There is also the matter of your Quirk. While the incidents with the Sludge Villain and Goop allowed you to use your Quirk, it was still practically useless and even the mere use of it would go on to make the situation worse”.

Bakugou gritted his teeth “Your point?”

“Well, at least in those scenarios you still had access to your most powerful tool that you have been quite literally attached to since you were four years old. Eraserhead robbed you of that tool in a way that no one else could and it is expected that you would feel just as, if not more, helpless in that situation”.

Bakugou looked down at the ground, processing the information that Kr’lk had laid out for him. It was true that the situations were more similar than he thought and the fact that his teacher could openly invoke that helplessness within him wasn’t something he was comfortable with. However, there was one thing wrong in Kr’lk’s assessment.

“Actually I’ve felt it before”.

Kr’lk looked at him intently, urging him to continue. Her aura was hungry, almost suffocating but when she noticed his discomfort the aura relaxed.

“Apologies. But what is this about feeling the loss of your Quirk before?” Apparently Kr’lk was something called an empatrian. A species of empathic beings. They always knew exactly what to do in situations regarding others. However, Kr’lk wasn’t all that content with just being able to help. She worked for the Plumbers as a therapist because she loved information. She loved the idea of someone opening up and telling her all their darkest secrets. Or maybe she just ate emotions, he didn’t really know.

Bakugou knew it wasn’t heroic behaviour, maybe even villainous but hey at least she wasn’t going around calling herself a hero. As long as she helped him become number 1, he really couldn’t care less what her motives were. It’s the same reason why he hadn’t reported Tennyson to the authorities.

“Bakugou?”

Bakugou was snapped out of his thoughts and decided to focus on Kr’lk for the time being “Right. Well, it may seem weird but there was one incident when me and Deku were kids.”

“And by Deku, you mean your childhood friend Izuku Midoriya” Bakugou rolled his eyes. She did this in every new meeting. She’d always correct him whenever he’d say Deku. It was just a name.

“Yeah. Anyway, me and a couple of friends were beating up this other kid and Quirkless, shitty Deku decided to get in the way. Though I can’t remember any of their names weirdly enough” Kr’lk had long since become aware of his bullying habits but she didn’t seem to care enough to do anything about it. If Tennyson knew how bad he used to be, his training would’ve been canceled a long time ago.

“That’s ok. So what happened next? I presume Izuku tried to stop you and failed.”

“Yeah. He got a real beating. I guess I was in a bad mood or something because I wasn’t careful at all. After the ‘fight’, Deku had burns and bruises all over his face and arms. His clothes had been torn in some places, if I remember right”.

“I assume Izuku’s parents weren’t happy with that?”

Bakugou grimaced “Yeah. Auntie tried to sue the school and talked to my parents. After that the old hag who calls herself my mother started getting physical with me. Whacking me upside the head whenever she thought I was out of line. I was also grounded for a month or so”.

“However, that wasn’t the end of it, was it? You still had to deal with Izuku’s father Hisashi Midoriya. Though he was often overseas or off-planet, he wasn’t this time was he?” Kr’lk said with a devious smile on her face. Her antennae twitching, hoping to hear the end of the story.

“No. About a week into my punishment, I was visited by Deku’s dad and it was probably one of the worst experiences in my life. It only lasted 2-3 minutes and he only talked about how he was so disappointed in me, how I was proof of the failed society around us, stuff he normally says. All the while, there was this smothering sensation. It was like I was being choked out and then mid way through his conversation, it stopped”.

“I felt empty. I tried to attack that bastard but my Quirk wouldn’t activate. He kept talking and I was just flailing my arms outwards, desperately trying to activate my Quirk. I was close to tears when he finished and then he said “Oh Katsuki. I do hope we don’t have another meeting like this. After all it would be such a tragedy if you and your mediocre Quirk were to disappear”. I could feel it again but when I went to tell my parents, they just ignored me and that asshole denied it ever happened”.

“Interesting” Kr’lk said with a blush on her face. “So Hisashi’s been keeping secrets but that’s another matter” Kr’lk looked intently at Bakugou.

“If what you say did indeed happen, then perhaps your teacher triggered memories of a completely separate trauma. Did you ever think back to this moment?”

Bakugou thought for a while “I mean, the bastard always made me feel uneasy when he was around but I didn’t have nightmares of him or shit like that if that’s what you’re asking. The closest thing is maybe wondering what would happen if I really did lose my Quirk to him”.

“I see. Well what about Izuku himself?”

“What about that damn nerd?” Bakugou growled.

“Well, was there anything that stood out about him? What made you choose him as a target?”

“Pfft. The only thing that was special about that nerd was that he was Quirkless.”

“I see. Are you sure there was nothing else?”

“Of course not. Why are we even talking about him anyway?”

“Really? Because from our talks it sounds like you singled your childhood friend out specifically to assert your dominance over him. If you truly saw him as useless because of his lack of Quirk, why would you continue to belittle and demean him?” Kr’lk said with an even tone.

Bakugou growled “The damn nerd thought he could still be a hero! A Quirkless Hero! What a stupid idea. If he tried to be a Hero, he’d get himself killed. I was merely trying to break his spirit to protect hi-”

Bakugou was cut off by a shift in the room. Kr’lk’s aura had flared outwards but instead of the hunger he had previously felt or the calm that she usually used for their meetings. This was anger in it’s purest form. And just as quickly as it appeared, Kr’lk composed herself. She breathed inwards and the aura receded.

“My apologies, Katsuki but I absolutely have no taste for insincerity, especially in the form of excuses to cover up one’s inappropriate behaviour”.

“Wh-”

“Quiet.” That singular soft-spoken word was enough for Bakugou to believe that it was in his best interest to listen. Kr’lk could cut off his training at any time and he needed this.

“Now as a therapist, I really shouldn’t be saying this. My job is not to give you speeches on why you suck or tell you what you’re doing is wrong. My job is to help you move forward by coming to those realizations yourself. However, I must say that you did not bully Izuku to save him from himself or any crap like that. You did it because for some reason you felt threatened by him”.

Bakugou clenched his fists and growled. Threatened by Deku? She had to be joking. Kr’lk seemed to pick up on his thoughts.

“Of course, he wasn’t a threat to you in the physical sense. Even if he did have a Quirk like those “extras”, yours could’ve easily blown him away. However, there was something that made him stick out among those extras, wasn’t there? Something dangerous, that despite his lack of Quirk, he was still the biggest threat in the class for you. Perhaps something related to Hisashi? Lucky for you, he had no Quirk so you did the best thing your mind came up with and you tried to stamp it out before it actually became a problem”.

Smoke started rising from Bakugou’s hands as his therapist talked. He wanted her to stop talking about this but if he made a move...

“Unfortunately, your bullying just made the threat even worse. No matter how many beatings or insults or dismissals that Izuku received, he just would not back down. Like a weed, the threat he posed would keep springing up. With nothing else to do, you continued bullying him in hopes that one time he would just stay down... but he didn’t. Your treatment got harsher and harsher until you finally told the poor boy to kill himself. So you don’t want him to get killed by a villain but it would be perfectly fine if he died jumping off a roof instead?”

“SHUT UP!” Bakugou yelled. Sure, he had told her about how bad he’d treated Deku but she’d taken it in stride. He didn’t understand why Kr’lk was making a big deal about it now. Though Bakugou did still feel that craving aura. Was this about Hisashi?

“You’re wrong. He’s just a shitty Deku who had a stupid dream. And I being the hero I am tried to stop him but he never listened”. His hands were now sparking but Kr’lk stopped them with a burst of calmness and ease.

“Then why couldn’t you let him get rejected by society?”

“Huh?”

“If you truly thought he was useless, then you’d think he would have no hope in achieving his dream. After all, how would a Quirkless kid be able to enter the most prestigious Hero School in Japan? Or how would he be able to go through the hurdles necessary to obtain a Hero License?” Kr’lk reasoned.

Bakugou was about to fire back when he realized he had nothing to say. He had no idea why he thought shitty Deku had a chance at becoming a Hero. He couldn’t fight villains without a license and he couldn’t do that without a Quirk. His confidence and bluster left him as he mumbled out “I don’t know”.

“Hm. Well it looks like we’ve made a breakthrough but unfortunately our time is up. We’ll continue this next week. Now if you’ll excuse me Katsuki, with all these revelations I have some uh business to attend to” She practically pushed him out of the room and to be honest, Bakugou did not want to be around that door when she started her ‘business’.


“Kurogiri’s a villain!” Midoriya exclaimed.

“Shhh! I know it’s a shock. I’m still dealing with it myself but he could be hearing us! What we need now is a plan. What do we do?” Hagakure whispered.

“Well, we can’t tell anyone. Even if they did believe us, what could they possibly do against Kurogiri?” Midoriya clenched his fists.

“What about Tennyson?” Hagakure sighed. “He probably has an alien that could handle Kurogiri”.

“Not to my knowledge.” Midoriya said as he thought back to the various aliens that he had analysed. Those that Kurogiri couldn’t harm could just be sent to another country.

“All we know about Kurogiri is that he can open up portals and is made of mist, we need to find a weakness of some kind. OK, here’s what we do. We play along with Kurogiri’s plan and spy on All Might. Whenever, we meet up with Kurogiri we pay attention for any subtle ticks that Kurogiri has, how his body works and with that information hopefully we could find something that could counter him”.

“Right. Besides, it’s not like any information could be useful to him, anyway. It’s All Might after all”.

“Right...” Midoriya said as he thought back to his 10 months of training and how he’d been able to analyse the various weaknesses that All Might had straight up trusted him with. Chief among them were his time limit and his weakened form. If Kurogiri got his hands on those... Well he hoped it would never come to that.


The following day, they started classes proper. Normally Midoriya would be ecstatic about things like having Present Mic as an English teacher or having his lunch prepared by Lunch Rush but this was no normal day. He was too busy thinking about the implications of what he’s doing.

He was going to betray the Symbol of Peace himself! All to protect his father who he hadn’t seen in 5 years. Yet Midoriya knew that he would make the same choice 100 times. His father had already been mutilated and put into a coma by some villain. He didn’t deserve reuniting with his son only to be killed.

Midoriya flashed through all the possible outcomes in his head. He saw all the ways Kurogiri could brutally kill his father. Decapitations, severance of limbs, slicing him in half etc. And that was only if used his portals as a weapon. Kurogiri could just as easily open a portal into outer space or into a volcano.

“Midoriya, are you ignoring me?” Hatsume asked. She seemed to have gone on a spiel about one of her babies. He vaguely remembered that it was some kind of camera and goggles. Great for surveillance and- oh who was he kidding? This whole Kurogiri business had put him in such a bad mood that he didn’t even feel like analysis at this moment.

“Sorry, Hatsume. I was just lost in thought”.

“What are we talking about?” asked Monoma as he came to sit next to them.

“Well, I was talking about my latest baby. This camera uploads a live feed to these goggles. It would be perfect for surveillance missions, right?”

“And I’m assuming it explodes?” Midoriya had gotten Monoma up to speed on the pink-haired genius’ tendency to make explosives even when not meaning to. It was sort of a warning for what’s to come given how Hatsume had expressed interest in the opportunities a copier would have for her babies.

Hatsume sent Monoma a withering glare before speaking “It does but this time it’s intentional. If one were to push the button on the left here, the camera would explode preventing villains from being able to track were the data had gone”.

“Hm. That would’ve been useful in the Heroes vs Villains exercise, today”. This statement caused Hatsume to beam at the power copier. The engineer was pleased, it seemed.

“Oh, yeah you have All Might’s class in the morning. What was it like?” Midoriya asked. This served two purposes. It would help him prepare for the next class but Monoma would also note anything strange in All Might’s habits.

“It was actually quite weird. All Might had business to take care of so he conducted the entire class through audio. There was even a screen with orange writing saying AUDIO ONLY. He also sounded really sick for some reason”.

“Huh, you don’t say.” That was likely because of All Might’s time limit. With only three hours in a day where he can use his muscle form and having to teach two two hour classes, All Might likely chose to cut Class B so that he could actually monitor his successor. Of course he didn’t have to tell Kurogiri any of that.

“What about the exercise itself?”

“Well, we were divided into pairs and split into groups. Each group consisted of two pairs who were either heroes or villains. The objective was to either secure or protect the bomb respectively”.

“Ah so you wanted my baby so that you could have eyes on the bomb at all times because you were a villain, right?” Hatsume gleamed.

Monoma sighed and slumped in his seat “Yep. Because of course the power copier gets the role of villain”.

“I mean at least you weren’t a supporting character” Midoriya said with mirth. “Who won anyway?”

“Setsuna Tokage and her team mate who didn’t really do anything. Her Quirk allows her to split her body up into 10 different pieces” Monoma said with pride. Despite losing, he was almost glad that he had such a powerful person in his class.

“Seriously? But in order for that to be useful she would have to possess an ability to live without her organs, flight and a healing factor in case one of her body parts gets damaged” Midoriya said with wonder, his morose temperament temporarily forgotten.

“I figured you’d like that. You seemed pretty down so I thought learning about a powerful Quirk would cheer you up”.

Midoriya was stunned silent. It may seem like a small deal but it was far more than anyone else had done during elementary and middle school. Midoriya merely uttered a “Thank you” before the topic moved onto discussing the Quirks of the Heroics department.


Midoriya found himself fidgeting in his seat as he waited for class to start. Oddly enough he was less worried about Kurogiri’s mission now that he had something he could give to Kurogiri. All he needed to do today was observe.

However, the fact that today’s lesson would likely be combat training did put him at a disadvantage. Stone Cutter while useful was also immensely predictable and had a usage limit. As for One For All, he had no idea how to even activate it. The one time he’d done was completely by accident. He just hoped for the best and it worked.

There were a lot of students who had a much better handle on their Quirks allowing for better variety in their skill sets. Midoriya could only hope that he was put up against the students who only had one use for their Quirk like the kid with the navel laser or the one with electrification.

“I AM COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE NORMAL!”

And with All Might’s arrival, the class broke out into murmurs. Even Kacchan seemed interested. With everyone’s attention on All Might, everyone missed the sudden flinch and fidgeting that Midoriya and Hagakure gave off. Well almost. They were unaware that there was a certain heterochromatic boy with red and white hair watching them.

But before too long, All Might announced that it was time for combat training and everyone got dressed into their hero costumes.


One of the benefits of having a brilliant engineer as a best friend is that she can make a lot of cool stuff for you. Apparently, Izuku’s mother had wanted to make him his Hero Costume and had enlisted Mei to help her.

The result was a green and black hood with sleek, long pants. They were apparently made out of fiber lined with Kevlar and some other material, making it resistant to damage, somewhat fireproof and was well insulated against electricity. On his head were the goggles from earlier. He had grabbed them under the guise of aiding Mei while also thinking they would be handy. Ideally he would have a mask in place with a sort of in-built computer allowing him to make full use of his analysis capabilities. However, Hatsume did end up building it so no points for guessing what happened to it.

“That’s your super hero costume?” Hagakure asked.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing. I just expected something I dunno, flashier than simple clothing” Hagakure waved her hands around.

“It’s practical” Midoriya then took notice of Hagakure’s own costume and heat rose to his face. “Besides, what is up with your hero outfit?!” he yelled while blushing madly.

Hagakure’s “costume” was a simple pair of blue gloves and shoes. Apart from those, she was completely naked and Midoriya wasn’t sure what to think. The only reason she could get away with it was because she was invisible. Midoriya quickly took a picture to send to Hatsume.

“S-s-shut up! It’s the best thing to make full use of my invisibility. Anything more and my invisibility would be useless”.

“Um, actually. There is a way you could get a costume that turns invisible with you” Both of the teens turned around to see that Tennyson was watching them with a tablet in his hands.

“Tennyson! I didn’t know you were teaching us today.” Midoriya said happily though he quickly changed expression to something scrutinous “By the way, you wouldn’t happen to have an alien that can counter teleporters would you?

“Ah, not really.” he said with a confused expression before speaking again “Nezu wants me to help out All Might with his classes, this week”.

“OK, but what did you mean by a costume that could turn invisible with me?”

“One of the third years has a similar problem. He becomes intangible to anything and everything, including clothing. His costume is made out of his hairs or something so that it phases with him. Something similar should work for you”

Both the vigilante and Midoriya were not prepared for what came next as Hagakure’s mood did a complete 180. All embarrassment and enthusiasm was replaced by a completely deadpan tone.

“Are you kidding me? There’s already been a costume made for this and the people behind mine just thought ‘Eh, it doesn’t matter’. I mean it’s not like actual armor could be useful for Pro Heroes. Let’s just let her be naked. It’ll turn out alright.”

Midoriya’s phone bleeped. “Well if it’s any consolation. Hatsume has the same complaints and is perfectly willing to make you a new one”.

“YOU SHOWED IT TO HATSUME!?”

In hindsight, that wasn’t his best move. Everyone had started looking at them as Midoriya uttered apologies while Hagakure went off at him. Thankfully All Might saved the day by regaining control of the class.

“Uh, yes. Well anyways it’s time for combat training!”

“Sir! This looks like the same field used for the Entrance Exam. Will we be performing cityscape maneuvers once again!” Iida asked.

“Nope. This time, we’ll be doing indoor, anti-personnel battle training! For you see, while the villain battles you are more likely to see are outdoors, the most dangerous ones will be indoors. That is statistically speaking. I’m sure even our resident vigilante can attest to that”

“I guess? Most of my fights happen in wide open spaces but if you consider the fact that there’s a roof over them, then sure. One time there was a whole battlefield but it just turned out to be a spaceship”. Midoriya actually wanted to know more about this battlefield spaceship but the vigilante was interrupted by Iida.

“That leads me to my next question; why is the vigilante here?”

“Yeah, well why are you wearing a mask? It’s not like you have anything to hide” Ben said alluding to earlier that day.


Ben was simply going about his day. Thanks to Jury Rigg, he actually had eyes everywhere in the school and thanks to that, he could monitor the school all at once. Which was great because apparently Nezu wanted him to help All Might’s classes today.

“Hmph. What a disgrace to this fine institution” a haughty voice said.

Ben looked up to see a surprisingly tall kid with glasses on and engines coming out of his legs standing before him. He was in Midoriya and Bakugou’s class if he wasn’t mistaken.

His eyes narrowed “Excuse me?”

The boy merely glared at him “The fact that a vigilante such as yourself is on school grounds. Honestly, why on Earth would the principal think you could help?”

“Oh, really? What’s your Quirk because I guarantee that I have a lot of things to teach you”.

“My Quirk is Engine. Whether or not you are superior to me, doesn’t change the fact that you have no problems with breaking the law and I highly doubt there’s anything you could teach me”.

“Engine. So I’m guessing you’re fast? How about a little race then? I promise that if you win, I’ll leave this “prestigious school” and never return”

“If that’s what it takes to remove the stain you’ve placed on U.A. then so be it.”

“Great, first one to touch your class wins”. Iida looked unsure. “Getting cold feet?”

“If that was our goal, then I would have to run in the halls and unlike you I refuse to go against U.A.’s guidelines”.

Ben rolled his eyes. “Fine. First one to touch the school entrance just over there wins. But we have to be touching this wall when we start”.

Iida thought for a moment before saying “I find those terms acceptable. Now prepare to leave this school.”

The two crouched down with their feet touching the wall. Ben used his Omnitrix to turn into Clockwork.

“And GO!”

Iida activated his Quirk and had nearly reached the entrance. Nearly being the operative word. He had nearly touched the gate when he was engulfed by a green beam. Ben turned back into his base form and calmly made his way to the gate. Touching it and winning the race, Ben decided to take advantage of his frozen opponent and pulled out a black marker that may or may not be permanent.

“Hopefully this didn’t cause too much damage to the continuum”.


“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HIDE!”

“Prove it then.”

“I will not!”

All Might cleared his throat “Yes, well Mr. Tennyson is here to assist me in teaching this class. This is my first day teaching and he was the only one available”.

“I see.”

“Now then, you will be split into hero and villain teams and face off in two v two indoor battles! While it is true you have experience fighting robots, you will find that villains are a lot less predictable”.

And like that All Might was bombarded with the class’ questions; among them were how to determine victory, how the teams would be decided and if he was planning to expel them.

“Listen up! The villains are hiding a nuclear weapon in their hideout and the heroes have to go take care of it. The heroes have a limited amount of time to either capture the villains or secure the bomb, while the villains must either capture the heroes or protect the bomb til time runs out. The teams will be decided by drawing lots”.

“Is that really the best way to determine our partners?” Iida asked in that condescending tone of his.

“It actually makes sense. Pro heroes have to work with other heroes on the spot in times of crisis” Midoriya said.

“What a ridiculous notion. My brother personally has never had to team up with others-”

“Actually, young Midoriya is right. Young Iida, your brother may be able to avoid most of these team-ups because of the massive number of sidekicks in his agency but unfortunately most Pro Heroes do not have the luxury of having as many sidekicks as he can. They are an expense that the agency must pay you see”.

“I see. My apologies”.

“‘Massive number of sidekicks’? And that armor! Your brother wouldn’t happen to be Ingenium would he?”

For a moment Iida’s haughty attitude dispersed and revealed another side to the strict hero student. Though no one could see it his scowl turned into a smile and his eyes now had warmth to them. It seemed he was really proud of his older brother.

“Why yes! I am glad that someone such as yourself knows about him!”

He said with glee. Midoriya decided to ignore the jab at him and decided to go for the throat. “Didn’t he do a bunch of jobs with a vigilante? The, what’s-his-name, the Cruller, that’s it!”

Iida flushed with embarrassment “Yes, but he had no other choice. There wasn’t enough time to call in his sidekicks”.

“So what you’re saying is... in a time of crisis, your brother had to team up with someone undesirable?”

Iida’s face was fully red now as he looked down at the ground “I see your point. Yes it seems, that even without sidekicks we as heroes must be prepared to co-operate with anyone. I apologise for my rudeness”.

“Yes, well let’s just get to it now!” All Might yelled, trying to retake control of the class. Tennyson for his part was smirking at his floundering attempts and was talking on the phone.

“Tennyson, I was under the assumption that you were meant to be helping me. Get off the phone” he said, while the class found their groups.

Tennyson rolled his eyes and said “K. Bye Power Loader”.

What did he need Power Loader for? Perhaps he needed something done to his Omnitrix?

“I was discussing changes to Hagakure’s costume”.

All Might gave him a sad look and said “It is a shame that she needs to be naked and exposed to the elements but unfortunately there is no other way”

Tennyson looked at him with an incredulous look, almost as if he couldn’t believe that All Might had just said something so dumb.

All Might continued “What’s the point of giving her armor if she’s just going to remove it anyway?”

“She won’t. Power Loader’s going to see if he can make a costume out of material that either is invisible or can turn invisible. Though apparently some girl named Hatsume’s taken over the project”.

“I see”. To think support could make things like invisible costumes now. Though if they could, why didn’t they do so for Hagakure? Hm. Well no use complaining about it now. All Might saw that the class had finally gotten into their assigned pairs.


Midoriya, to put it bluntly, was doomed. His opponents were Kacchan and Iida and without One For All, he couldn’t exactly do much. His team was also going first, meaning he had little time to strategize. To top it all off, he was a villain! At least his partner was amicable.

“Hey, so how’d you know about my Quirk?” Kaminari asked.

Was this kid for real? Apparently so. “We met in the Entrance Exam” Midoriya said simply.

“Oh. Then you already know about the downside to my Quirk” Kaminari’s face flushed.

“Downside?”

“You don’t know?! Great now I’ve got to explain it” he mumbled. “If I use my Quirk too much I short-circuit my brain and I’m practically useless in that state”

“So that’s why you didn’t help me with Monoma. You couldn’t”

“Huh?” Midoriya then explained the full ordeal of the Zero Pointer as he set up Hatsume’s camera.

“That really happened?! Um, well thanks for saving my life but what are we going to do against the heroes”.

“Well neither of us can guard the bomb. If I used Stone Cutter, the structural integrity of the building could weaken and debris could land on the bomb detonating it. Because you lack control of your Quirk, you could detonate the bomb just by using it”.

“I mean it’s just a test”

“A test that is meant to simulate this same situation in real life. We cannot take advantage of the fact that this is a test”.

“OK. Then what do we do?”

“Well, we’re meant to act like villains right? So let’s act like villains” Midoriya said with a smirk.


Bakugou saw this as his perfect opportunity. He’d made a fool out of himself yesterday with that shitty panic attack but now he could truly show how powerful he was. Glasses kept trying to suggest points of entry but that was stupid.

“Shut up! We’re going through the front entrance, ya hear me?! We’re going to win this by absolutely crushing our foes. You can just provide backup to my victory” Bakugou snarled.

Glasses kept trying to talk to him but he ignored it, merely waiting for the timer to run out.

“START!”

Bakugou smirked and blasted off into entrance, only to find himself tackled by two masses.

“Now Kaminari!” he heard Deku’s voice call out and not a moment later, volts of electricity ran through his body. Bakugou let out a feral scream.

Deku tried to tie capture tape around him but Bakugou recovered. He quickly blasted Deku with an explosion, sending the nerd into the wall.

Unfortunately it didn’t deter the nerd one bit. Didn’t he just get shocked as well? Well no matter Katsuki was still going to win this. He pinned Deku’s partner to the ground.

“You’re gonna pay for that” he growled. His hands sparking as he prepared another explosion.

“STONE CUTTER!”

What? But before Bakugou even realised what Stone Cutter meant, a wave of vibrations was sent through the floor and Bakugou lost his footing. The electricity bastard quickly made use of the opening and grabbed him before letting out another bout of electricity.

“I’ll save you from these fiends, Bakugou!” Glasses said which prompted different reactions from the three.

Bakugou of course was filled with indignation and yelled “I don’t need saving, you bastard!”. Pikachu merely let out a confused “what?”. And shitty Deku said nothing, only slamming his fist into the ground to send out another wave of vibrations. Fortunately Deku’s attack caused Glasses to lose his footing and rammed into the wall. Deku went outside with the capture tape.
Good. Damn nerd deserves it for interfering in his victory.

“Bakugou, help!” Glasses called out but Bakugou ignored him. Instead he turned to Pikachu over here and decided to get some payback.


Today just wasn’t a good day for Iida. He’d tried to be an upstanding citizen and throw the vigilante out, only to mysteriously lose to him in a race. He then found that said vigilante had drawn on him. He’d been made a fool out of twice and was currently running into a wall.

He hit the wall with a loud CRACK! His armor that had been crafted specifically by his brother’s agency had broken. Iida was about to go on a tirade about how important this costume was to him but realized that doing so would be completely unprofessional. Villains wouldn’t care about his costume, and that was just the role Midoriya had been playing.

Speaking of whom, it seemed he had vastly underestimated the student. For all his mediocre scores yesterday and unprofessional behaviour, the boy possessed a powerful Quirk and had somehow gotten second! He was also falling into the role of villain quite seamlessly.

“Why, there you are hero. I’m afraid I can’t let you ruin my plans just yet” an affable but cold voice pierced the air. Iida looked up to see Midoriya staring at him with a smirk on his face. His fists clenched as he crouched down onto the ground, sending forth another wave of vibrations.

‘Not this time’ Iida thought as he ran around Midoriya. In such close proximity, Midoriya fortunately didn’t have much range. Unfortunately, the vibrations kept going forth with their angle widening until they damaged the entire width of a building.

Iida’s best option would be to stay within moderate distance of Midoriya. His only problem would be that Midoriya’s Quirk worked through contact. Iida would have to make sure to keep his hits fast and small so as to prevent Midoriya from getting an opening. Luckily Iida’s whole family revolved around being quick.

Iida ran towards Midoriya and delivered a quick jab to the face before running out of Midoriya’s reach. Midoriya clutched his face in pain and Iida took the opening to deliver another punch, this time to the gut. Midoriya let out a pained grunt and Iida continued to take advantage of the openings Midoriya gave him. With each hit, Midoriya took a step back.

Eventually Iida decided enough was enough. Iida prepared the capture tape and ran at Midoriya. However, Midoriya was prepared for this and ran at him. No matter, Iida was easily faster. The two charged at each other and Iida took the opportunity to lengthen the capture tape, preparing to arrest this foul villain.

Unfortunately he was not prepared for Midoriya leaping at him, obviously trying to use Stone Cutter on him. Iida evaded the attack and Midoriya hit the ground... and not just by falling on it. Midoriya did a semi-flip and sent out another wave of vibrations at him. Not prepared for the attack, Iida lost his footing.

Midoriya quickly took advantage of the opening and tackled him, preventing him from getting up. Iida went to grab Midoriya off him but Midoriya punched his armor, only letting out a small “Stone Cutter” as he did so. Unlike the previous time he had yelled out the technique, this one was barely a whisper and had no fire to it. Almost as if he was saying it for himself, rather than because he wanted anyone to hear it.

Iida’s armor cracked under the vibrations placed upon his body and quickly fell to pieces. Iida quickly threw the green-haired villain off him and got a good look at his chest. The armor plating was completely destroyed and even part of his shirt was coming apart at the seams. Further down the armor, there were still a surprisingly large number of cracks.

Iida knew it was illogical, Midoriya was simply playing his part, but he was completely filled with rage. This armor was a gift from his brother and it had been thoroughly destroyed.

“That’s it! You are under arrest villain! For the destruction of public areas and my armor as well as the illegal storage of a nuclear bomb. Surrender now or feel my wrath!”

Midoriya adopted a feral grin and giggled? “Surrender?! Oh come on hero! You’re armor’s destroyed and one more of those Stone Cutter attacks will kill you. You might as well just go home”.

“What?!”

“Tell you what. You surrender and I won’t detonate that bomb, killing millions. Isn’t that a good deal?”

“I’ll never agree to your vile deal!” Iida yelled as he sprinted at him.

“Tsk. Kaminari how’re you doing with Bakugou?!” Midoriya yelled as he evaded a kick from Iida. What ensued was Midoriya trying to evade Iida’s attacks as he listened to his partner.

“OK, that’s not exactly good. Just hold on! I’ve got a plan”


Bakugou wasn’t exactly sure what was going on but this electricity bastard was putting up a surprisingly good fight. No matter how many times he tried to outmaneuver the bastard, he would somehow be blocked. Everytime he got close to the guy, he was shocked through a metal pipe that Pikachu had found on the ground.

“Tsk. I wanted to save this for Deku but you’ve proven far more of a nuisance Pikachu. Do you want to know what these gauntlets do?”

“Not really” Pikachu said, while looking incredibly pathetic. The dumbass looked close to tears. Disgusting.

“I’ll tell you anyway. See, my Quirk allows me to sweat nitroglycerin and my Gauntlets store that sweat to create a truly special explosion”.

“Nitro-what?”

“Hm. I guess you’ll just see” Bakugou said with glee as he grabbed the trigger of his gauntlets.

Suddenly the bastard seemed to get a message from Deku “Not well Midoriya. I’m barely holding him off and he keeps shooting explosions. Bakugou’s stored up some nitro-gl-ric thingy in his gauntlets and is about to shoot. Plan?”

Deku then took that opportunity to yell out something that made his blood boil.

“Hey Katsuki! Are you so spineless you need your partner to finish off your formerly Quirkless friend?!” Deku yelled in a somewhat familiar tone.

“What the actual fuck did you just say to me Deku?!” Pikachu was promptly forgotten as he headed outside to confront Deku.

“Wow, I suspected your constant Quirk usage made you hard of hearing but it’s good to have confirmation Bakugou” Deku smirked.

“If you think you’re better than me just because Tennyson gave you a Quirk, you’ve got another thing coming!”

“I mean you set the bar pretty low. Even Iida is better than you”.

Bakugou growled as he finally exited the building not even noticing Pikachu following him outside.


Midoriya sighed. Insulting Kacchan and calling him by his first name were the hardest things he had done in his life but it was necessary. He knew just how hard Kacchan’s explosions hurt and he was not willing to let Kaminari face the full brunt of them.

“DEKU!”

Speak of the devil. Kacchan was his symbol of victory. He excelled in everything he did and stupid Midoriya just had to piss him off. He could practically smell the smoke from here.

“Ah Bakugou! How wonderful of you to join us. With your help, we’ll be able to defeat Midoriya in no time!” Iida waved to Bakugou.

Kacchan let out an earth-shattering yell and flew towards him. Midoriya braced himself for Kacchan’s attack... only it never came.

“What are you doing? We’re on the same team!” Iida yelled. It seemed Kacchan had bypassed him entirely and decided that before killing his childhood friend, he needed to go after the one who was stealing his spotlight.

“What the hell did I miss?” Kaminari said as he came up to him.

“Oh just stuff. The bomb’s still secure, right?”

“Yeah, I managed to hold him off. Should we join the fight?”

“That’ll just shift their attention to us. Best case scenario, they take each other out though that’s unlikely. Kacchan’s definitely going to win but even now they’re weakening each other and even if they stop fighting right now, they likely won’t be in any condition for your most powerful electrification, all while time runs out”.

“Huh. So we just do nothing?”

“Or we could just leave? I mean we are villains and the heroes are fighting each other, allowing us to make a clean getaway” Midoriya said. His face taking on a mischievous grin, his eyes catching an object that Kaminari could use.

“I like it!” Kaminari said, grinning. And so while Bakugou was trying to take out his own partner, the villains made their way back to All Might.


“Well it looks like your protege beat mine” Tennyson said. The rest of the class were commenting about how young Bakugou had turned on his partner. Honestly, he wasn’t expecting having to pull up the footage from outside the building for an indoors training exercise but here he was.

All Might sighed “And just how exactly is that? Young Midoriya broke the most basic rule of this exercise; that it was meant to be indoors. On top of that it seems he’s left the ground entirely”.

“Yeah but he’s a villain. Villains aren’t exactly known for abiding the law. That’s why they’re villains and as a villain, he took the best opportunity for him. Even if Bakugou and Iida secure the bomb, the villains have gotten away to ruin someone else’s lives another day”.

“But young Bakugou has dealt the most damage...”

“... to his own partner, instigating a fight which allowed the villains to get away. Now the only way to win is to secure the bomb, and even that is unlikely”.

All Might had to concede Tennyson’s point. While young Midoriya had failed to follow the rules, the entire point of this test was to simulate a conflict between heroes and villains. Unfortunately young Midoriya had drawn the short straw and made the best of it.

That being said, there was something off about his performance. Midoriya slipped into the role of villain far too easily as if it was a second skin. It was almost as if Midoriya had experience with a true villain before.

But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that it all felt so familiar. From young Midoriya’s actions to the tone of his voice. Even his expression seemed to be familiar to... his master’s killer. He needed to handle this situation with the utmost care, if only to prevent young Midoriya from becoming a villain for real.

“Midoriya, what are you doing here?” young Hagakure asked. True to her words, young Midoriya and Kaminari had just come through the door.

The entire class turned to them and bombarded them with questions, mainly pertaining to why or what he was doing in this room instead of the battlefield.

All Might cleared his throat “Enough! Young Midoriya, I’m afraid I’m going to have to disqualify you for leaving the simulation early. Your actions have allowed the heroes to secure the bomb”.

Midoriya raised an eyebrow as he pointed to a screen clearly showing that said heroes were preoccupied with fighting each other.

“Yes, well their discord aside you have left your base completely unattended and the bomb can easily be secured. Such tactics are not smart even for villains”.

“Oh but I have a plan for that”

“And just what plan is that?”

“It looks like we’ll get to see it in action” Tennyson said as he looked to the screen. Bakugou had finally defeated young Iida but was in pretty bad shape. He looked around clearly looking for his next opponent but found that he had been deserted.

“DEEEKKKUUUU!” pierced the air. Bakugou’s scream was so loud that it could be heard without the comms devices. However, he only had 2 minutes to get to the bomb and in the state he was in, that didn’t look likely.

Bakugou didn’t seem to care about likelihood though. Despite his obvious exhaustion, it seemed that he ran on pure rage as he desperately searched the building. He searched room after room to no avail until finally he found it with 10 seconds to spare. He leapt at it and with the last of his energy, his arm completely outstretched to touch it...

Then young Midoriya pushed a button on his goggles causing an explosion that engulfed the room and was about to send Bakugou flying away from it.

“NOO!”/”Kacchan!” All Might and his successor yelled.

Despite knowing that he should be using One For All as little as possible, All Might quickly found himself over by the building and shielding young Bakugou from the explosion. After it was over, he brought the boy back to base.

“I-I didn’t know it would be that powerful” Midoriya said. All Might turned to him, absolutely furious at his student only to be greeted by the boy already in tears.

“Young Midoriya, what you did was completely irresponsible and dare I say even villainous” All Might sternly said. His student looked down at the ground.

“Isn’t that the point?” Tennyson said.

“What-”

“Hold on.” the vigilante said as he pushed the Omnitrix. The vigilante then turned into a more feminine alien and started emitting blue energy from their hands healing the two hero students of their injuries and revitalising him.

Within minutes, the two had fully recovered. Bakugou’s eyes snapped open as he yelled “DEKU!”

“Would you quiet down?” Iida said with narrowed eyes.

“Shut it, you extra! You made us lose”

“Me?!” Iida yelled incredulously “You are the one who attacked his own teammate instead of the villains. If anyone is to blame here, it’s you!”

Bakugou prepared to yell at his teammate some more but was interrupted by young Yaoyorozu saying “He’s right”.

“What?”

“Your team would’ve won if you could’ve just kept your ego in check. From the looks of things, Midoriya was able to manipulate you into attacking your own teammate and in the midst of that, his team was able to comfortably make it back here leaving the bomb completely unprotected”.

“Shut it, ponytail. In case you weren’t paying attention there was an actual bomb!”

“Iida could’ve comfortably removed the real bomb while you secured the villain’s bomb. Unfortunately you decided to pick a fight with him and when that was over, you had two minutes to find it while in a poor state, yourself”.

“Should we do something? It looks like we’ve lost control of the class” Tennyson asked him.

All Might decided to take that as his cue to intervene “Ah, yes. You’re certainly right young Yaoyorozu but we can not forget that Midoriya went against the rules and planted an actual explosive to the training bomb. If he didn’t young Bakugou still would’ve been able to secure it. Now can anyone tell me who the MVP is?”

Yaoyorozu spoke up again “That would be either Iida or Midoriya, sir. Midoriya fell into the role of villain effortlessly and it was thanks to his manipulation and constant rule-breaking that his team won. If this were a real scenario, the villains would’ve gotten away and may have succeeded in killing millions of people. Likewise Iida fell into the role of hero graciously and his adaptability and general fighting style allowed him to keep Midoriya busy. Unfortunately he failed to account for his partner deciding to attack him for some arbitrary reason. Kaminari was content to let Midoriya call the shots though he still put up an admirable fight against Bakugou. Speaking of... Bakugou constantly made blunder after blunder. He didn’t bother to capture Kaminari before going outside to confront Midoriya and while confronting Midoriya may’ve been a good way to prevent his partner from getting injured, he failed to make good on it opting to defeat his own teammate, which would lead to the heroes’ downfall”.

“Ah yes. Though I would say Midoriya got a bit too involved in the role but that’s it. Let’s get onto the next match. Also because of Midoriya’s little stunt, any team that takes the fight outside or attaches a bomb to the training bomb will be disqualified immediately” All Might said as he shot Midoriya a glare.

As this was going on Bakugou was looking at the ground, deep in thought.

“Kacchan?”

“What?!”

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for blowing you up. I didn’t realise the blast would be that powerful”.

Bakugou glared at him “Just forget it, you damn nerd” he huffed as Deku watched the next fight play out.

Perhaps, he would’ve gotten angry at Deku in another life for defeating him in such a humiliating fashion but right now? He was reflecting on the events of the trial and how he was defeated. It was true that he let his ego get in the way but that wasn’t all.

Looking back, he couldn’t help but feel the same dread that Hisashi instilled in him when Deku was goading him and especially when he was about to get blown up by a bomb.

‘Just what is your deal Deku? And where’d you get that Quirk’ he thought as he looked at the fights.


The rest of the fights played out with no special tricks. Some like young Todoroki and Yaoyorozu showed off their great potential while others, like Hagakure and Ojiro, were unable to. Midoriya’s villain exercise aside, All Might would have to conclude that this was a pretty good first day as teacher.

“Alright, that’s it for today” All Might quickly dismissed the class as he felt his grip on his muscle form fading. He needed to get out of sight as soon as possible. He prepared to rush off when he was stopped.

“Um, All Might?” his successor called to him. Young Hagakure was right next to him.

Against his better judgement, he decided to turn to Midoriya. Steam was practically coming off his body as he did so. Hm, he did need to talk to Midoriya anyway.

“Ah, Midoriya. I think you and I need to have a little chat” he grabbed Midoriya and raced off with him. He barely got to the teacher’s lounge before his form shifted back into it’s natural state.

“I think Hagakure might notice something is off about you” his successor snarked.

“The media has suspected something is “off” about me since my debut. As long as she doesn’t know my actual secret, it should be fine. Now...” Midoriya flinched and looked down. All Might frowned.

“I know you wanted to win but your actions today were not those of a hero. I honestly don’t understand why you thought it would be a good idea to strap an explosive to the bomb. You failed to even get the point of the exercise, which was to simulate an indoor fight. I chose you as my successor because you had an innate instinct for heroism yet I saw none of that today”.

Tears streamed down Midoriya’s face. When he looked up, regret was etched into his face and he merely uttered a simple “I understand”.

In a weird way, All Might was proud of his student. He wasn’t making excuses for what he did and he seemed to genuinely regret his actions. Midoriya got up to leave but All Might spoke out to him.

“One more thing. Kid, why the hell aren’t you using my Quirk? I gave you it so you could succeed me yet you seem content with just using that Stone Cutter technique of yours”.

“It just seems like the safer option” Midoriya’s demeanor completely changed. The once open and regretful Midoriya had been replaced by the cold and calculating persona that he saw in the combat trial.

“My boy, what do you mean?”

“I’m thankful for your Quirk All Might. Truly, it’s a huge honor to be picked out by you to succeed you but...”

“But?”

“With all due respect, your Quirk kinda sucks” he said sending a worried glance at All Might.

“It breaks my bones whenever I use it, and even with all your teaching I still have no idea how to activate it”.

“Hm. I don’t understand what’s wrong, I took to it like a fish took to water” All Might frowned.

“Yes Tennyson, I do believe you may have a point. This could likely be the Singularity at play here” a chipper voice spoke.

Both All Might and his successor looked to a couple of chairs on the other side of the room, showing that Nezu and Tennyson were watching them... while drinking tea, it seemed.

SIIIIIP

Tennyson was looking directly at the two as he drank from his teacup.

“Tea?” Nezu offered.

“Ah, Principal, All Might was just scolding me for my disastrous performance in combat training today!” Midoriya tried to quickly cover their meeting up as he waved his hands around.

“He knows, kid. Principal, if One For All truly has reached the point of singularity, does that mean it’s useless?”

Nezu merely stared at him with a smile on his face “Perhaps”.

“Then what are we gonna do when I die as the Symbol of Peace. We need to get a replacement, soon right?”

“What if you tried talking to it?” Tennyson said as All Might could only stare incredulously.

“What?”

“Ahem. Tennyson rather amusingly believes that because the Quirk has reached Singularity status, it is now fully sentient and can interact with it’s user. Of course such a thing is ridiculous” the principal said to Tennyson’s dismay.

“Back to the subject at hand, it is possible that One For All is unusable in it’s current state but it is possibly more likely that you are just an unfit teacher”.

“Huh?” All Might said while Tennyson wore a shit-eating grin. He passed Nezu a school tablet, which probably wasn’t good. Soon enough, Nezu activated a video player and lo and behold, it was showing him training young Midoriya. Midoriya constantly floundered even after his instructions. Seeing Midoriya’s failures laid out before him, perhaps Nighteye was right.

But Nezu interrupted his thoughts “From the looks of things, your training is just to get Midoriya to ‘try harder’ to control it. However, as someone who wasn’t in possession of a Quirk until the Entrance Exam, it’s understandable to see why he fails to adapt to it. And as you cannot see that, I think it might be best if someone else broke him into it. Perhaps Gran Torino?”

All Might snapped to attention. Nezu was thinking of handing Midoriya over to that man?! No he wouldn’t allow it. He outright told Nezu as such.

“Who’s Gran Torino?” Midoriya asked.

“No one you have to think about, young Midoriya”

“That’s what you said about All For One”

“Because All For One is none of your concern!”

“My goodness. You haven’t told your successor about your most dangerous enemy? For shame”.

“Young Midoriya. Please leave”

“No! Not until you stop keeping secrets from me! I’m your successor and clearly these two are important”.

“Just leave this room. Go home! You are on a need-to-know basis and you don’t need to know who Gran Torino and especially All For One is”.

“While I disagree with All Might’s methods, I do think it’s best if you left Midoriya. As for the training incident? I want you to see me in my office at lunch tomorrow” Nezu said with a stern tone.

Midoriya gulped and left the room but not before glaring at All Might one last time.

Once he was out of earshot All Might returned to the conversation “You will not hand young Midoriya to that man. He’d get destroyed. I know because Gran Torino did the same to me”

“Can I get a video of that?” Tennyson asked.

Nezu decided to ignore him “Yes, and you turned out to be the Symbol of Peace. Just think of how great he could make Midoriya if we handed him over to him”.

“No! Only villains would believe handing a child over to someone who will definitely beat him for their future is the right thing to do. Just give me a little time and Midoriya will be able to start using One For All more effectively”.

“Oh, All Might. You know I don’t believe in your black and white mentality. Human beings are far too complex to be cleanly divided into hero and villain” Nezu gave him a smug smirk “And it seems that Midoriya is starting to develop trust issues”.

All Might looked down at the ground. He knew there was tension between him and his successor but he thought they would eventually work things out. Unfortunately things seemed to only get worse. Perhaps not on a daily basis but the cracks in their relationship were starting to get larger.

“I don’t understand why. I’m the Symbol of Peace and he’s the world’s biggest hero fanboy. Our relationship should be better than this”.

“Really? I would’ve thought that constantly keeping secrets and making him do all the work in the relationship would be a surefire way to build trust” Tennyson snarked.

All Might glared at the vigilante, anger pulsing off his body. “Oh really? Like you’re one to talk. Your protegee attacked his own teammate!”

“Yeah, that’s terrible but that’s not an indication of our relationship. I mean, it is an indication that Kr’lk isn’t doing her job but that’s not the point. Bakugou trusts me because I act in his best interest. Can you say the same?

All Might’s eyes narrowed “I am acting in young Midoriya’s best interests!”

“No you aren’t. When Bakugou asks me for something I at least give him something resembling an answer instead of repeatedly dismissing him. I’m at least somewhat open with him about my intentions. Despite the fact that an actual time traveller said All For One’s going to be important, you decide that it isn’t and dismiss Midoriya’s concerns”

“All For One is dead!” All Might shifted into his muscle form and broke the table before them. Nezu gave him a cold glare, remarking that the table cost 83,000 yen. However, All Might’s full attention was on the green-clad vigilante before him who had activated his Omnitrix.

“Cool. Then you should have had no problems telling Midoriya about it instead of freaking him out. I mean did you even consider how he felt about this very important figure that a time traveller told him about and the only person with more information decides it isn’t worth it? Because it’s not like his actual fears and concerns are worth anything. Seriously you’re not even the one who thought it would be best to get him therapy. I was the one to do that and I barely interact with him. Face it you didn’t care about Midoriya. You just wanted a successor and when he wanted to know something, anything about a topic you were too much of a coward to cover you dismissed him”.

All Might growled. He wasn’t even aware that young Midoriya was taking therapy. It was true that he didn’t want to talk about his master’s killer. It wasn’t important and the whole subject made him uncomfortable. He had to change the subject somehow “But I gave him something worth so much more!”

“What, your Quirk? Then you really don’t know anything about your successor, do you? Rook already gave him a power and doesn’t expect him to uphold some big responsibility, like becoming the Symbol of Peace. And because of that Midoriya is more interested in geeking out over Revonnah Kai then One For All”.

“That’s preposterous! Young Midoriya’s greatest interest is analyzing Quirks. So much so that he has 13 notebooks on the topic and One For All is one of the most mysterious”.

“You do have a point, All Might but unfortunately Midoriya has other venues to cover. His Stone Cutter technique draws on from a power within, despite his Quirkless status. It’s such a unique power in the sense that anyone could learn how to use it. His friend Toru Hagakure’s Quirk is a mutation-based Invisibility Quirk yet she acts as if she can see. Her senses have been heightened to a point which should be impossible for her. Mei Hatsume’s inventions and Neito Monoma’s Copy allow for all sorts of avenues that pose less of a risk to him than One For All”.

“Yeah, I mean sure the passing down thing is pretty cool but it constantly breaks his limbs and you’ve done a crap job at teaching him how to use it. The novelty’s kinda worn off”.

“Indeed. So if Midoriya doesn’t make progress by next week, I’ll be bringing in someone who can help him”.

All Might slumped in his seat. Had he really been such a terrible teacher to young Midoriya? Tennyson and Nezu did have a point. The topic of All For One did make him uncomfortable and he shouldn’t have to go into detail... but Midoriya did deserve some answers rather than the same dismissals over and over again. Had his actions really driven his successor away? He needed to fix this.

“I understand” was all he said before leaving.


“I’m not due for another meeting until next week, Tennyson!” Bakugou growled. The only reason he was walking with the vigilante is because it was either that or having the vigilante actually carry him to therapy.

“True. But your recent performance today says you definitely need one before then”.

“Agh. Let’s just get this over with” Tennyson opened the door as the two walked in.

“Tennyson...” Bakugou growled

“Kr’lk, looks like your client hasn’t really been showing progress at all”

“Tennyson, what the hell are you doing?!”

Ben opened his eyes to see that Kr’lk was currently in a session with Molly. Oh, that’s why they have appointments.

“Oops”.

Notes:

So the chapter title was originally going to be called the generic "Heroes vs Villains" or something like that but I realized "Humiliation" was much better considering how much it happens to the characters in this chapter. From small stuff like Ben drawing on Iida's face and Hagakure's nakedness being brought to light to larger stuff like Bakugou failing his own exercise and All Might's shitty teaching coming to light. Naturally most of these acts are going to have an effect on the story going forwards. But enough about that, next chapter is going to be a bit of a breather; it's really just the final chapter to set up the USJ so bar's not that high.

As always comments and criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 18: Calm Before The Storm

Notes:

Sorry for the late update. Things have been pretty crazy with university lately so I haven't been able to get much done. Even with study break, my work load is pretty busy. Also I watched Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus and it's pretty much everything I wanted from it. I highly recommend it if you liked watching Invader Zim as a kid. I mean it's slightly lighter in tone but the comics have been doing that for years now. Maybe I should have Ben unlock an Irken form? Although I doubt it would add anything besides a penchant for world domination but it's a fun idea.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Midoriya was doomed. Now that the events of the day had caught up to him, he’d had a chance to process what exactly had transpired. He’d blown up a bomb in class, severely injured Kacchan, gave a chilling performance as a villain and had a fight with the Symbol of Peace, himself!

To make things worse, he had to go to the principal’s office tomorrow. So basically, he’d ruined his reputation with his classmates, ruined his relationship with All Might and the Principal is probably going to kick him out of the school for being too villainous.

“Midoriya, I know you’re stressed but focus. Kurogiri’s going to open a portal soon and we need to tell him what we found out”.

“Right” and just as he said that a familiar black portal materialised in the room.

“What did you find out?” Kurogiri said, stiffly. It seemed he wanted to get straight to the point.

“Well I found out where All Might’s office is. It’s right next to the cafeteria”

“Hm, do you have his schedule?”

“Ah, well no”

“And what about you Midoriya?”

“Well I didn’t find his schedule but for some reason he didn’t turn up to one of the classes he was meant to teach. A friend in the other hero class said that instead of him physically being there, he just took the class vocally. They even say that there was just a screen with the words AUDIO ONLY on it” Midoriya made sure to choose his words carefully. If he revealed Monoma’s name, Kurogiri could easily kidnap him.

The two hero students felt absolutely terrible. They had wanted to become heroes and despite being practically Quirkless, they made it into U.A. It was great for all of one day before they got roped into being the villains they were meant to fight.

However, what they were not expecting was Kurogiri to laugh. His mist turned into a pinkish colour before returning to normal “Apologies, but my employer will enjoy this. However, now that you know where All Might’s office is, I suggest you find his schedule”.

“We’ve done what you want! Why can’t you just leave us alone?!”

Kurogiri’s mist grew in size. His golden eyes pierced through them as he towered over the two. It truly helped them understand just how powerless the situation was. Even in a world of superpowers, Kurogiri was one of the most versatile and powerful people they could face.

His body seemed to be completely gaseous, allowing for a means of intangibility while also allowing for size manipulation and then there was his main ability, the ability to generate portals. He could be anywhere in the world at any time and that just scratched the surface of what he could do.

This one moment, right here and now, with Kurogiri doing nothing but glare at them was the best reminder that the two hero students had to be absolutely careful when dealing with him.

“I expect All Might’s schedule by the end of the week” he simply said before teleporting away.

“I really hate him” Hagakure said.

“How did you find out All Might’s office?”

“Oh, I asked him during combat training” and just like that the resentment buried itself deeper into Midoriya’s heart. Hagakure must have felt something to tip her off because she then asked if he was alright.

It was like a dam broke within him and for some reason he started pouring out his thoughts about, well everything really. The tension between him and All Might, how All Might still doesn’t trust him and how he’d probably ruined his chance at U.A. with the stunt he pulled during the training exercise.

“Oh, that’s rough” she said. “I guess All Might really isn’t on your side. Well screw him. Wait, is that seriously why you haven’t been using One For All? To spite All Might? Are you crazy?”

Midoriya flushed red “I mean that’s part of it but it’s also due to the fact that it breaks my limbs whenever I use it.” He didn’t bring up how it still refused to activate when he tried.

“But have you done anything to prevent that? Like I dunno, practice with it?” Midoriya said nothing.

“Damn it Midoriya! Do you know how many people would kill to have a Quirk like that?!”

“Hold on, I thought you hated me inheriting his Quirk?”

“No. I hated how you pretty much hadn’t worked at all towards becoming a Hero and you still aren’t”.

“That’s not true! I have been working towards becoming a Hero. I’ve just spent most of my time on Stone Cutter” he mumbled that last part under his breath.

“And how long do you think that will last?”

Midoriya looked at her, with some expression Hagakure couldn’t quite picture. With a level tone he spoke “The ability to generate vibrations is useful and adequate enough on it’s own. I don’t see why I should invest time in a power that isn’t worth it”.

“Isn’t worth it?! Oh, Midoriya go fuck yourself. Sure Stone Cutter is a handy tool and sure it could pretty much substitute as a Quirk and sure your actual Quirk injures you but none of that is the issue here. The issue is that you just don’t care as much about your dream as you used to anymore”.

“I haven’t lost sight of anything. I still want to be a hero and I still want to use my powers to save others and defeat villains. I intended to do this, even without a Quirk so I don’t see the problem in not using one for the same outcome”.

“Because it’s not the same outcome! Not anymore, Midoriya. Do you want to know why I still became a Hero student? In spite of the fact that no one believed in me? In spite of the fact that the only one supporting me hated the industry? And in spite of the fact that my Quirk was pretty much useless for it?”

“Because you were stubborn as all hell”

Hagakure paused as if taking into consideration that a large part of the reason she was in U.A was because of her stubbornness but other than that ignored him and continued “Well, it’s because I want to minimise the damage”

Midoriya opened his mouth to speak but Hagakure wasn’t having it “I lost my dad because a Hero needed his spot and if I can at least do my part so that less people have to go through what I did then... that’s great”

Tears welled up in her eyes but she didn’t care. Instead she turned to Midoriya and said “You’re right. Stone Cutter is useful enough on it’s own and if you didn’t have One For All, I wouldn’t think less of you for only using that technique... but that’s just it. You have All Might’s Quirk and the means to surpass him. By refusing to utilize it like a dumbass, you aren’t helping minimize the damage. Think of how many more people you could save if you just growed the fuck up and tried to learn how to use the damn Quirk. All Might saved 1,000 people in his debut. You have the means to do the same but won’t because you’re a stubborn asshole who’s more concerned about this little feud you have with All Might than people’s lives!”

Not bothering to wait for Midoriya’s excuses, Hagakure walked off to the guest room to get some sleep. She was done with this argument, despite the fact that she could definitely sense Midoriya looking down at the ground in shame.


“OK, what was so important that you felt the need to interrupt another Plumber’s session?” the blue skinned empatrian said. Her antennae twitched in annoyance as she laid down on the couch in her office.

“Well, Bakugo here decided it was perfectly acceptable to attack his own teammate in a training exercise”

Kr’lk rolled her eyes as if she honestly could not care less “Let me guess, he was teamed up with Izuku”.

“No, that’s the weird thing. Izuku was on the other team and yet he completely ignored him for the most part” Ben said causing Kr’lk to straighten up from her spot.

“Does it have anything to do with our conversation yesterday?” both occupants in the room looked at Bakugou for confirmation.

“I thought these sessions were meant to be private” Katsuki said in an attempt to evade the question.

“Oh they are, but you also know that me and him don’t care about the rules. Besides if this is about Hisashi, it’s probably for the best that he knows sooner rather than later” Kr’lk said pointedly.

“Wait what about Hisashi?” And as Kr’lk explained the story to Ben, Katsuki thought back to the events of the day. Did his outburst have anything to do with Hisashi?

He thought back to the incident in the hallway, when Deku called out to him. How he had abandoned that shitty nickname just to provoke him and how easy it was for him to insult Katsuki. All in a very cold, familiar voice.

With a sigh he confirmed Kr’lk’s suspicions. Both the fact that he had viewed Deku as a threat and the trauma that Deku’s dad had dealt to him.

“OK but if that was the case, why did you decide to target Iida? I would’ve thought that you of all people would relish the chance at beating down Hisashi 2.0” Ben said.

“I... don’t know. At the time, I was trying to show how powerful I was and Glasses seemed to be stealing my thunder while I was stuck with shitty Pikachu. Tch and of course it all went according to shitty Deku’s plan”

“It’s possible that the trauma combined with Izuku’s provocations and the seeming confirmation that Izuku has in fact been looking down on you lead to an emotional outburst. All rational thought went out the window and you merely acted on instinct. Because you were so determined to show off how powerful you were, you did... against your teammate” Kr’lk noted. “However, perhaps on a subconscious level you were trying to avoid Izuku”.

“Ha?”

“According to you, at the time Izuku or at least his voice bore a striking resemblance to Hisashi. The one person who made you feel powerless without even trying and the similarities don’t stop there. Izuku and Hisashi are also the only two people to reject this reality that you cultivated for yourself. In a way, they don’t care what you think and at the time both were looking down on you as if you weren’t good enough”.

“So? What does that mean, doc?”

“Trauma can act as a sort of defense mechanism. It triggers in times where one thinks they are in danger. They are always on guard because of this survival instinct that has been built into them. Now if Izuku’s act triggered the same level of trauma that Hisashi left on you, you may have gone out of your way to avoid him. After all, Hisashi stole your Quirk and on a subconscious level you felt the same danger resided in Izuku”.

Bakugou said nothing to the therapist. Instead he turned to the vigilante looking around the room “What do you think?”

“Hm? Oh, I think I need to have a talk with Hisashi. Well I’ll leave you two to your session. Bye!” and just like that he walked off to who knows where.


It had been a while since Ben had last come here but it was just as cold as he remembered it. The bar was fine and comfy. He’d like to get a drink from there but apparently the savior of the whole, entire universe was too young to drink. Other planets weren’t so stingy, why did Earth suck so much?

He thought this as he passed through a portal. Still as barren and lifeless as ever. Granted that’s what a hospital is meant to look like but it still made him feel uncomfortable.

“Well, if it isn’t Ben Tennyson? What have I done to deserve the pleasure?” Hisashi said in that fake voice of his.

“Oh, y’know just checking in to see if any memories of the Quirk Integration Project have come back since my last visit. Y’know Plumber business”.

“Hm. I can’t say that they have. Though if you could find someone who could restore me or rewind my body to a previous state, that might prove quite helpful”.

“I’ll keep a look out” Ben said with narrowed eyes. “Anyway there have been some complaints from a couple of Hero students regarding you”

“Oh?”

“Yeah apparently a Katsuki Bakugou says you stole his Quirk and gave it back to him a while back”.

For just a moment, the facade dropped. The fake smile that Hisashi adorned was replaced by a furious frown.

“Ah, yes I remember that incident”.

“So you did take his Quirk!”

“Took his Quirk? No. Surely Tennyson you must realize that my Quirk is none other than fire-breathing. My file and wife can attest to that. I was referring to that pathetic little upstart. A while ago, he did something horrible. He burned my son to the point where you can still see some of the scars he left. In return I merely had a little chat with him though in hindsight I should’ve used the Incursean sensor rifle on the brat”.

“That would’ve killed him...”

“Oh, please Tennyson you can drop the hero act. Don’t act like you haven’t contemplated using the Omnitrix for your own gain. As if you’ve never had the urge to use it against bullies at school”.

Ben clenched his fists but said nothing “Right. Well your son asked me if I had any counters against teleporters. Kurogiri hasn’t been taking part in any illegal activity has he?”

Suddenly a deep voice struck through the air and a purple gaseous being teleported into the room “I can assure you that if I was taking part in any illegal activity I would be discreet enough so as to not alert a person related to space police. Midoriya is probably just curious about how many aliens you have”

“I must admit, I am curious to hear what answer you gave him”.

“I told him I didn’t”.

“But...”

“But, nothing. I don’t have a counter for teleporters”.

“Well that’s disappointing. Over a million different DNA samples and not one is good against teleporters?”

Ben opened his mouth to respond but his phone started to go off. It seemed Nezu wanted to talk to him.

“I’ve got to go”.

“Oh please do come again. I am quite fascinated in your Omnitrix” Hisashi yelled out, only for Ben to turn into XLR8 and run out of the room.

With the vigilante gone, Hisashi turned to Kurogiri “I thought I told you to be subtle. Honestly, it’s a miracle my genius of a son hasn’t gone to the authorities already”.

“Apologies but after Shigaraki failed to give a convincing performance, I had to resort to more drastic measures”.

“Yes. I felt that portal you had created around my throat. You gave quite the convincing performance though I had hoped my son would be able to stay out of this. Unfortunately, it’s only a matter of time until the authorities piece things together. And once that idiot, pieces things together it is as Tomura would say game over”.

“Hm. So what do we do now?”

“I have an idea. A very risky idea but it’s the best we’ve got”


When Midoriya got up, he saw that Hagakure was already eating breakfast. Upon noticing him come in, he saw her clothes bump as if she flinched.

“Hey” she said.

“Hey”.

The two sat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments, only broken by the sounds of chewing and his mother. The two continued like that until they were leaving for school. Well, no time like the present.

“I want to apologize. You were right. I’ve been holding back out of a petty grudge and as a result, I’ve slowed my progress”.

Hagakure made a humming sound as they continued walking.

“I mean it’s your power. You should be able to decide what to do with it but I’m glad you’re going to start using it”.

Midoriya decided to take the opportunity to change the topic “So, um what’s the plan for taking All Might’s schedule?” he whispered.


So apparently the plan was for him to try and get information out of the man who refused to share anything with him. Well, shit.

“Ah. Young Midoriya, just who I was looking for!” a familiar voice called out. Midoriya rolled his eyes as All Might lead him into a room away from the sight of others.

It was weird. He never thought that his idol would get on his nerves this much though given his other idol regularly beat him, it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Even weirder is that All Might hadn’t done anything wrong perse, certainly nothing worthy of his breakdown yesterday but the constant secrecy was annoying to say the least.

“I feel we need to clear something up about One For All. It’s been brought to my attention that perhaps the way I acclimated to it is not the same as the way you will take to it”.

Midoriya let out a huff of annoyance. ‘You don’t say?’ Midoriya thought to himself ‘Surely the fact it constantly breaks my bones was a sign that he was acclimating to it perfectly’. He didn’t voice these thoughts, of course. He was meant to be trying to mend his relationship with his mentor.

“Look I’m aware that I haven’t been entirely upfront about everything and you will get some answers but we need to start making some progress with One For All. Now” All Might said with an urgency that left no room for argument.

Midoriya was taken back “Wait, you haven’t cared they much before. Does this have to do with Gran Torino?”

All Might sighed. Well the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. “Yes. Gran Torino was my mentor. He made me into the man I am today but by way of breaking me every single training session and he’s gonna do the same to you if we don’t make some progress by the end of the week”.

Midoriya took the time to process this information. All Might had a teacher?! How the hell did he not know?! Oh and said teacher was probably going to break him to make progress but All Might had a teacher!

All Might interrupted his musings “Look, you’re the Quirk expert so do you have any ideas in how to make it agree with you?”

“Well, it seems to function in a similar way to Revonnah Kai. Both use some kind of internal energy within the body to create external effects. Both enhance the body in some way and give power to those without it. Indeed both are also attained through training the body so there must be some physical component to it. However, One For All affects the user on a genetic level while Revonnah Kai is more spiritual in nature”.

“How exactly do you activate Stone Cutter? If there are similarities between the two, perhaps they have a similar method of activation”

“Hm. Well, to be honest I’m not exactly sure”.

“What?!” All Might fell off the couch.

“I mean I just feel some kind of essence bubble up inside me. I’ve gotten a lot better at accessing this energy but I don’t really see how it would help me. They use two seperate energy sources”.

“I see” The two entered an uncomfortable silence after that.

All Might frowned to himself. It was true that One For All and Stone Cutter were different but that wasn’t the problem here. There had to be some means of getting young Midoriya to easily access One For All in the first place but what? He needed to find a trigger of some kind.

His mind flashbacked to the Entrance Exam and how young Midoriya accessed his Quirk to smash the Zero Pointer away.

“Young Midoriya. Think back to when you used One For All the last time, how you used it to save those two students. Think about how you got it to work”.

“Well, I didn’t think. Kaminari and Monoma just needed saving and I moved without thinking”.

All Might bit his lip. Great the one time he uses it and the kid has no idea how he did it.

“OK, well think about what you were feeling back then. Call upon that heroic desire of yours and bring forth your power!” All Might exclaimed.

“Right!” Young Midoriya said with a determined gaze. Closing his eyes, Midoriya tried to recall what prompted him into calling upon One For All. The pained screeching of Monoma, the apprehension he felt when he saw Monoma’s broken arm, the feeling of helplessness as the Zero Pointer approached and the need to do something, anything to save them.

Midoriya thought back to his and Hagakure’s conversation the previous night. How Stone Cutter wasn’t enough in that scenario and his promise to do better. Midoriya focused on the presence he felt, clenched his buttcheeks and yelled “SMASH!”, expecting a broken arm but he felt nothing.

He opened his eyes... and saw that absolutely nothing had happened apart from his mentor wearing a confused expression.

Sighing, Midoriya said “Sorry All Might. I still can’t use it”.

“I don’t understand. You were able to summon it perfectly during the test. Are you sure there was nothing else other than the desire to save?”

“Well... I couldn’t use Stone Cutter at the time. I had completely depleted my ki reserves and so I was essentially acting out of desperation more than anything”.

“I see” All Might said before looking at the clock on the wall “Young Midoriya don’t you have class to get to?”

“Oh, right. Um All Might, before I go can you tell me your schedule?”

“Hm, why is that my boy?”

‘Because I need to sell you out to villains to save my bedridden father’ Midoriya thought to himself.

“Well I just figured it might be useful if I ever needed to consult you about One For All. These kinds of things are better in person right?” Midoriya mumbled.

“Hm. Well ok then. I’ll send you a copy of where I should be later but this should suffice.” And just like that All Might took out his schedule for the week and showed it to Midoriya.

“What’s secret field trip?” Midoriya’s eyes narrowed, looking at the big red writing at the end of the week.

“Ah you weren’t supposed to see that! Young Midoriya, you are not to tell the rest of the students about what you saw” All Might gestured around frantically.

“OK, OK, I promise I won’t tell anyone” Midoriya said as he ran to his next class.


Aizawa honestly just wanted to go to sleep. Was it too much to ask for a normal class with no problem children? To be fair most of the class were normal enough but there were a few who just had to fuck it up. There always were.

“Alright, I’ve looked over your grades and evaluations as well as reviewed the battle footage myself. Most of you did good work. However...” his eyes turned red as he looked at the problem children for this year.

“Bakugou, I know I said I would give you a chance but one more stunt like that and you’re expelled. I don’t care what you’re therapist says”.

“She wha- mmph understood” he growled, seemingly backing down from the glare of his teacher.

“Midoriya, while it is commendable that you easily slipped into the role of villain, you will learn to follow the rules and not blow up your classmates. Additionally, any support equipment you use has to be approved by both the Support department and myself. Do I make myself clear?”

“Y-y-yes sir” he flinched.

Honestly there were more than just those two. Kaminari was too much of a follower for going along with Midoriya’s insane plan, Todoroki couldn’t work with others and in doing so had also prevented him from getting a good read on Hagakure and Ojiro. However, embarrassing the two students with the most impact would hopefully get the point across. He was not in the mood to tolerate bullshit.

“Now with that being said, onto normal class business. Today we’ll be picking a class president. I don’t care how you do it but just hurry it up”.

Aizawa slumped in his sleeping bag as the class was filled with noises of excitement and giddiness as everyone volunteered for the position. Honestly Aizawa didn’t even know why everyone was volunteering. Sure the job requires skills in leadership but it’s not such a game-breaking position that those who weren’t class rep would lose to those who were when applying for a job. A lot can happen in three years after all and Pros are more interested in accomplishments over representing a class.

“Quiet down everyone!” Iida’s voice filled the room and broke Aizawa out of his musings.

“Leading the many is a task of heavy responsibility but ambition does not equate to ability. If this is a democracy, I propose that the class representative must be chosen by election!”.

That was probably the most logical option. If the entire class wanted to be class rep, it would be troublesome finding the one to fill the role. It was likely that at least one person didn’t want the job and thus whoever they voted for would become class rep.

The class didn’t seem to agree “We haven’t known each other long enough to build trust”. Exactly so the choice will be unbiased.

“Everyone will just vote for themselves”. Unlikely but if that was the case, the problem could easily be resolved by forbidding people to vote for themselves.

Iida seemed to have a similar mindset “Which is why the person with multiple votes will be perfect for the job”. Aizawa didn’t feel like calling Iida out on his faulty logic. It was just class rep after all.

“Will you allow this Mr. Aizawa?!”

“Whatever. Just make it quick”.

And so the class voted on pieces of paper. They were quickly tallied up and to the surprise of most everyone the class villain had 2 votes, tying him with Yaoyorozu.

Bakugou yelled out about who the hell voted for “Deku”, Iida was slumped in his seat, having only received 1 vote which he himself likely gave and the rest of the class were yelling about a tie.

“Midoriya and Yaoyorozu, I trust you’ll sort this out by the end of the day”.

“Yes!”


“Midoriya if I could have a moment?” Yaoyorozu asked him as he was going to lunch.

Midoriya turned around from the Class 1-B person he was conversing with.
“I take it this is about the class president thing?”

“Yes. No offense but I just think I might be a bit more suited to the role. I have a vast knowledge of organisation and while you have shown leadership in the Heroes vs Villains trial, the way you went about it makes me doubt your abilities” she tried to say earnestly.

“Oh wow, so the Class 1-A person is looking down on those with true capabilities! What a surprise” the blonde boy next to Midoriya yelled out.

“Monoma, what is up with you recently?” The blonde boy opened his mouth as if to say something before closing it again.

Midoriya turned to her and simply said “Yeah, you’re probably right. You likely had training from your family’s estate for these kinds of positions, right? I honestly don’t know how I got two votes”.

“Did you not vote for yourself?”

“No. I voted for Hagakure”

Yaoyorozu wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting. In class the boy seemed to go between timidness and determination. During the practical, he had displayed a much more ruthless side of himself. Yet despite that he was graciously giving up a position that he could’ve easily gotten.

“Oh, do you want to join us for lunch?”

“Really?!” she said a bit too excitedly. “I mean I would like to take you up on your kind offer”

Both Midoriya and his friend sweatdropped at her attempt to backtrack.

“Well we better start going if we want to get some good seats” Midoriya said to the agreement of her and his friend.


“That is a lot of food. You sure you have enough?”

“It’s fine. I need to eat a lot so that I have enough lipids for my Quirk.”

“And what exactly is your Quirk?” the blonde boy who she had learned was Monoma asked her with a suspicious look on his face.

“Creation. I can create anything I want so long as I know the molecular structure of it. Unfortunately I am limited by the amount of lipids in my body to draw from”.

Monoma took on a rare fascinated smile towards her as he pulled out a notebook. “Fascinating. Midoriya, why didn’t you tell me you had such an interesting specimen in your class”.

“Well I didn’t really know too much about her Quirk so I was waiting for more information”.

“I see. Tell me Yaoyorozu, what is the ratio for your lipid conversion. How big of an item can you create?”

“Uh, well I’m not exactly too sure about that. I’ve never really bothered with the technical part of my Quirk apart from memorizing the molecular structure of objects. I even have my trusty Yaoyopedia to help me with that. As for how big of an object I can create; cannons are currently my limit”.

“Yaoyorozu, how many times can you use your Quirk before you pass out from EFA deficiency?”

“Ah well it would depend on the size of the objects” Why did she think she had been lead into a trap?

As the two Quirk enthusiasts continued asking her more and more questions, she failed to notice Kaminari walking up their table.

“So have you decided who’s gonna be class rep?” Kaminari said as Yaoyorozu jolted in surprise.

“We have. We agreed that it was best for the class if I was the one to take the position” Yaoyorozu said sweetly.

“Oh c’mon man! I voted for you. Now I owe Kirishima, let’s say a substantial amount of money”.

“Yeah, come on Midoriya! I trusted you” an invisible voice called across the table. How had Yaoyorozu missed Hagakure? Floating clothes weren’t exactly a common occurrence even in this world of superpowers.

“You were betting on us?!” Yaoyorozu blushed.

“More importantly you voted for me Kaminari? Why?”

“Ah well, you seemed to really know what you were doing during the training exercise. You knew exactly what to do to win and while I think you went a bit overboard with the bomb, you’re not going to do that again, right?” Kaminari said earnestly though there was a bit of apprehension to his voice.

“I won’t and while I appreciate the sentiment but manipulating others for victory isn’t the same as managing a class. Yaoyorozu beats me in that regard”.

“Thank you Midoriya”

However, the moment was cut short by the alarms going off.

SECURITY LEVEL THREE HAS BEEN BROKEN! ALL STUDENTS PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION

Well naturally, all hell broke loose and the entire cafeteria went into an uproar.

“What’s security level 3?!” Hagakure asked.

“If I’m right, it means that someone has broken into the building. In that case, it’s best to follow the school’s instructions” Yaoyorozu stated firmly.

“You don’t think it might have to do with the reporters, earlier today do you?” Midoriya asked.

Now that she thought about it, there were a lot of reporters earlier today. What are the chances that one of them had a Quirk that was perfect for getting past the school’s defenses. She looked out the window and low and behold Midoriya’s assumption was correct.

“Can you make something that can get their attention? Like a flashbang or a megaphone” Midoriya asked.

While Yaoyorozu refused to resort to stun grenades and the like, she could make a megaphone. Looking through the Yaoyopedia, she finally found what she was looking for and seconds later a large white megaphone appeared out of her in a flash of colour.

“EVERYONE CALM DOWN!”

Unfortunately the students were too busy panicking. She needed to get some place higher.

“Hold on” Midoriya told her as he ran off. Within a minute he had brought back a girl with vines for hair?

“Shiozaki can you get Yaoyorozu higher up so that she can quell the panic”.

“If the Lord wishes, yes I can” the green haired girl said before springing her vines towards Yaoyorozu, wrapping themselves around her limbs for support before hoisting her up.

Yaoyorozu took this as her chance. Bringing the megaphone to her face, she yelled at the students below her.

“EVERYONE CALM DOWN! THE MEDIA HAS JUST BROKEN THROUGH THE SCHOOL’S DEFENSES. THERE IS NOTHING TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT!”

And just like that the panic that ran throughout the masses was quelled.

Shiozaki lowered her down.

“Huh, not bad. Looks like you do have what it takes” Monoma said.

“Thank you!” Yaoyorozu said with a gleaming smile. However, something was amiss.

“Where’s Midoriya?”

“He realized that it was almost time for his meeting with the principal so he left as you were calming everyone down” Monoma explained.

“Meeting with the principal? Oh” And just like that Yaoyorozu remembered just why she was uncertain about the prospect of him representing the class. However, he proved quite useful in leading the group so perhaps a little disciplinary action is required to... work out the kinks as it were.


A few minutes earlier

Shigaraki wasn’t quite sure why he was doing this; he already had a couple spies for information retrieval. Being here just increased the chances of being caught. Still Sensei told him to do this so it must be part of his big plan.

Still did there really have to be so many people? He counted 25 reporters here demanding a quote. All because the Symbol of Peace himself had now decided to become a teacher. It was pathetic. He didn’t know what was so great about the guy and he injured Sensei!

Tomura would never forget how much Sensei had done for him. He’d taken him in when no one else would. He’d given him a Quirk and he had opened his eyes to the frauds that these so-called “heroes” really were.

What had All Might done? Nothing. He just continued to perpetuate the flawed nature of this society. He didn’t do anything to actually change it for the better. He just put “villains” behind bars and called it a day. Sensei wanted to well and truly change the world and he’d been crippled for his aspirations. All Might? He did nothing to truly help and basked in the fame and glory like the fraud he was.

Still if these NPCs wanted to see All Might, Tomura would be glad to help them along. After all, Sensei did preach the importance of being kind so this will be his good deed for the day. With minimal difficulty Tomura weaved through the sea of reporters at the gate. They were so focused on getting a statement, they barely noticed him.

Once he got to the front, Tomura calmly removed the fingerless glove on his left hand. While trying to keep a natural facade he moved his hand forward and just barely grazed the gate with all five fingers as he moved away from the crowd. Within 90 seconds the gate had completely turned to ash.

Those simple NPCs didn’t even care about what happened, too focused on their mission to infiltrate U.A. It was almost too easy. Of course just like the games he plays, he’d fallen into the age-old trap of tempting fate. A green streak of lightning appeared in front of him.

“Where do you think you’re going? That gate cost quite a bit of money or so I’m told” a deep voice said.

Tomura turned around and found himself face to face with a large zombie with two big green electrical conduits sticking out of his back. Bolts covered the man and it was pretty obvious that the body was composed of several masses of skin stitched together. On his chest there was a circular hourglass symbol sticking out. The sounds of the reporters and staff could be heard in the background but Tomura was too focused on the monstrosity before him.

“Right. Sensei did say something about a vigilante working for the heroes. Don’t you think it’s weird how you only want to help people yet you’re considered an outcast by society? It’s probably because you’ve shown how incompetent these frauds really are”.

“Perhaps but I’m still gonna kick your butt” the zombie spoke with a grin. Green lightning coursed in between the two conduits before firing out at him. Like a whip, the lightning struck him and Tomura could only shriek in pain. He wasn’t sure how long the attack lasted but as soon as it ended, he fell to the ground. His hoodie was singed from the attack, what a shame. As Tomura was recalling his thoughts, the zombie made his way over to the villain.

“Oh c’mon it wasn’t that powerful. Most of my enemies can usually withstand another blast”

“I... see. You’re... just like... those other frauds” Tomura said as he tried to regain his breath. “You try to... say you’re fighting for justice... but in the end you only know how to fight. Violence only breeds more violence... and you have no idea how to actually... solve the problem”.

“I feel defeating villains is a pretty good method” the zombie’s uncanny smile dropped and stomped over to him.

Tomura started cackling “You have no idea what it truly means to be a hero, do you?! Say what you will about those idiots” he pointed to Eraserhead and Present Mic who were trying to calm the reporters down “but at least they stand by their ideals. You can’t even be bothered to get a Hero’s license. You break the law just like I do and yet I’m the villain”.

The zombie growled, having finally gotten to Tomura and threw a punch. However, Tomura had recovered from the electricity and evaded the hit which went into the ground.

“That road cost quite a bit of money... or so I’m told” Tomura said with a grin. The zombie grimaced. It was but a moment of hesitation but a moment was all he needed. Tomura quickly grabbed onto the zombie’s limb and just like that it was game over. Decay activated and the zombie could only scream in pain as his body disintegrated.

It was a pity. Tomura had hoped the vigilante would be some kind of bonus boss that would help him prepare for All Might. Alas he turned out to be a simple NPC. Tomura didn’t even feel like watching the rest of the body disintegrate and turned around to go back home.

Suddenly he heard a sound and out of the corner of his eye was a bright green light. Tomura’s curiosity got the better of him and he turned back to greet the vigilante, only he wasn’t a zombie anymore but a slim, green slime monster with some kinda thing floating above his head.

“GOOP!”

“Th- that’s not possible!” Tomura yelled out. He had hit the vigilante with Decay. His one-hit kill had somehow failed and the vigilante seemed to be no worse for wear with how quickly he was flying about.

He reached his hand out to attack Goop but the vigilante merely manipulated his body so that Tomura was only touching air, while the gelatinous substance ensnared his arm.

“Not this time!”

“I killed you! How can you be this strong?!” Tomura yelled out as he thrashed about within the green substance. Said substance started wrapping itself around his body while keeping his hands free.

Soon enough Goop had wrapped him up in some bubble and bounced him around. Tomura started to feel sick in his stomach but he was merely along for the ride. Thankfully Goop eventually stopped and unraveled himself from the villain.

Tomura got a good look around and saw he was now in an office of some kind. In front of him was a large mouse-bear-dog thing. He didn’t know what it was, only that it was the principal of this sham of a high school.

“Very good, Tennyson! I knew you made the right decision to apply for this job”

“You tried to blackmailed me into it”

“Tomato, tomahto. All that matters now is retrieving information from this young man” and just like that the principal’s cheery expression became much more stern.

“Who are you and why did you attack my school? The authorities will be here soon enough and if you cooperate we could put in a good word for you destroying 48,000,000 yen worth of security”.

“You’re insane if you think I’m gonna help you. You call yourself a hero yet you hired a vigilante. Besides All Might, you are perhaps one of the most morally broken heroes in the business”.

The principal raised an eyebrow and looked to his pet vigilante who merely said “He has this thing with trying to break people by talking to them. Of course all it really does is make people aware of how annoying his voice sounds”.

“My voice is not annoying!”

“Sure, keep telling yourself that”.

“Well in any event, it doesn’t seem like we will be getting any information out of this young man. Tennyson, perhaps it’s time to use Pesky Dust before the authorities take him away.

“Right” the vigilante said and started looking at his watch though Tomura wasn’t paying attention. How dare these two just treat him as if he was some common nuisance! He had come this close to killing one of them and yet they didn’t seem to be wary of him. They hadn’t even binded him.

Still he wasn’t an idiot. Tennyson had some way of resisting Decay and even if he managed to kill the principal, the police were already on their way. He hates to admit but he’ll have to leave these two alone for now. Tomura fiddled through his pockets for the device Sensei gave him.

He heard a door open and Tennyson yelled out “Got it!” but it was too late. Clasping the device in his hand, he pressed the button and instantly became enveloped in dark liquid.

“SEE YA LATER, FRAUDS!”

Tomura savoured the looks of disbelief on their faces as he vanished before their very eyes though he failed to notice a green-haired student staring in shock at him. Tennyson had changed form but it was too late as the final traces of Tomura Shigaraki warped back to Sensei.

The office was silent for a moment after he left though that was broken by the resident vigilante.

“Walkatrout! Really Omnitrix?!”


After the villain had teleported away, Nezu noticed Midoriya at the door.

“Ah, young Midoriya it’s good to see you didn’t just abandon our meeting. And what good timing too. My last visitor just left” the principal smiled as if a villain hadn’t just escaped his grasp.

“Wh-who was that?”

“Some nobody who decided it would be a good idea to destroy the school’s security gate”.

“Yes, well putting that aside... Midoriya you are aware for the reason why you and I are having this meeting, aren’t you?” Nezu asked in a serious tone.

Midoriya stiffened in his seat “Yes sir. I am here because I got too caught up in the role of villain and ended up causing serious harm to one of my classmates. I promise I won’t do it again!”

“Hm. You seem earnest so I’ll only give you a week’s detention”

“Thank you sir!” Midoriya was about to get up and leave when Nezu said “Now, onto the true reason why you’re here”

“Huh?”

“Oh, Midoriya. If the only reason you were here was to give you a little disciplinary action, this meeting wouldn’t be happening. I’d have just left Eraserhead to deal with it”.

“Then why am I here? I already said that I’ll stop thinking like a villain” Midoriya said, his body shaking with dread as to what else Nezu wanted from him.

“Oh please don’t. It’s a very useful skill to have in this society. However, you seem both misguided and underdeveloped. Hopefully I can help guide you”.

“What?” Midoriya sat up straight.

“Let’s review your performance in the exercise, shall we?” Nezu pressed a button with his paw causing a screen to appear with the training exercise.

“You did a good job realising the danger Bakugou posed to your teammate and successfully manipulated him into going outside, even if your intent was not to turn him against his partner”.

The screen proceeded to show what happened in the exercise before Nezu paused it “This was your first major mistake”

“Hm?”

“You left your enemies to their own devices. What if it was all an act to get you to lower your guard? Or what if Bakugou defeated Iida right after you and Kaminari left? In either case you and Kaminari would have left the bomb completely undefended and made it much easier for the heroes to retrieve the bomb”.

“I see”. Honestly it was a bit weird having the principal of a Hero school teach him how to be a better villain.

“Wait, but I made sure that in that event I had a failsafe”.

“Yes and while I do commend you for thinking outside of the rules, you treated it too much like an exercise. In the event that you did detonate it, you would’ve killed millions of people as well as you and your partner and then you would’ve gone down in history as one of the worst terrorists in the world. But that’s neither here nor there, your manipulation skills only worked because you took advantage of Bakugou’s unstable mentality. Against anything else and it would’ve failed” Nezu stated matter-of-factly.

“OK, so how do you plan on helping me develop this skill?”

“By rearranging the way you think Midoriya. Tell me, what do you think of this society of heroes and villains...”

The rest of the session involved him and the principal trading forth ideologies of society and even looking at the Hero Killer’s influence on society. However soon enough he needed to get back to class.

“Now that our class villain is back, we can decide who the class president will be”.

“The villain thing’s going to stick, isn’t it” Midoriya said with a forlorn look.

Yaoyorozu shared a sympathetic look at him before saying “Yes. Midoriya and I decided it would be for the best if I took the position of class president, while he assists me as vice-president. With that out of the way, we should choose the other members of the student council”. Midoriya tried to ignore the collective sigh of relief that the class gave when it was announced that he wouldn’t be class president.

However, as they were discussing class business, they failed to notice the glare of a certain student with engines in his legs.


“Well?”

“I wasn’t able to find All Might’s schedule, sorry.” Hagakure said.

“But I was!” Midoriya quickly said to the gaseous villain.

“Oh?” Kurogiri said with interest.

“I mean, not exactly but there’s meant to be a field trip to some place called the USJ. He’s meant to make an appearance around 11 in the morning”.

“I expect that you will use your transceiver to communicate to me when this “trip” happens” Kurogiri said before teleporting out of the room.

“Are you sure that was the safest thing to do?” Hagakure asked.

“No, but we have no other choice” Midoriya said grimly. He could only hope that All Might would be able to beat whatever plan Kurogiri had in store for him.

Notes:

I really didn't want to use Calm Before The Storm, primarily because there are likely going to be better opportunities to use it but it was the only idea I could come up with.

Despite the word count, not much actually happens. The only thing I actually have an opinion on is the starting scene where Hagakure calls Midoriya out and that's mainly due to her having a similar issue to Midoriya when he went up against Todoroki. Half-assing your efforts is disrespectful to those around you. Only except for competition, her issue is mainly in the wider scheme of things. I'd say she has kind of a point considering she has the perspective of someone who was unlucky enough to know the limits of what heroes can and cannot do. Even if that Pro had still been injured, there possibly would've been an open spot for him if the Heroes had done more to save civilians in her area.

Besides that, Midoriya and Hagakure continue being traitory traitors, Class 1-A votes for class president and because of causality Yaoyorozu ends up with the position, Ben meets Shiggy and that's about it. Like I said in the last chapter, this one was all about setting things up. Besides the obvious USJ attack, we've got Yaoyorozu befriending Midoriya and Monoma, Iida's growing resentment and Hisashi's other plan to help him minimise the damage when things inevitably go south on this one. Also Hisashi gaining more suspicion because well, let's be honest, he's just a genuinely suspicious dude. All of these events are going to be important in the future though time will tell, if I'm being genuine or if I'm just meaning as important as the fern in The Stanley Parable.

As always comments and criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 19: Premonition

Notes:

Well, I'm back. Sorry for my impromptu hiatus but after I found out how lackluster my grades really were, I decided school was more important. Fortunately, I'm in the clear so updates should be a lot more regular from now on. The plan is that I'll update another time later today with this being a two-parter and then regular updates will resume.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“And that is how I became savior of the whole, entire universe!” Ben said triumphantly.

“Wow, Tennyson. You’re so cool but I do have a few questions about Ventrilosquid” Midoriya responded.

“Yes, Tennyson I was wrong about you. You truly are a Hero. Kids, for your studies it would be best if you emulated Tennyson”.

The rest of the class agreed and a couple of them asked for his autograph, which he graciously signed. Suddenly the scene was interrupted by laser fire. The paper disintegrated in his hands as he turned around to face his attackers.

“Tennyson! This day shall be the day you die for your crimes against humanity” a man with the body of a gorilla announced. It seems Chadwick had finally resurfaced after all these years, only with his ragtag group of Forever Knights.

“So you finally decided to try and fail to defeat me again Chadwick? Also crimes against humanity? I’ve saved the world more than the Forever Knights can claim” he said with a smirk before hitting the Omnitrix.

In a flash of light Ben’s hands morphed into claws, his teeth grew exponentially larger and fins had grown out of his limbs. His skin took on a more pale hue and he grew gills. His forehead sprouted an antennae. The final transformation was a loincloth tied up with a belt bearing the Omnitrix symbol.

“That’s not good. While Ripjaws has super strength and extremely sharp claws and teeth, his best use is underwater where he gains a tremendous speed boost. Thanks to the angler on his head and his physiological need for water, Ripjaws is best-suited towards aquatic missions. Or rather that’s his only real use. He’s got a huge disadvantage against a large group of villains on-land” Midoriya muttered.

“I was going for Humungousaur but I can work with this” he said before diving into the pool before him.

“Open fire!” Chadwick yelled to his men who aimed their guns into the water. With little difficulty Ripjaws was able to dodge the barrage of lasers fired into the water before leaping out and tackling a knight to the ground, his claws indented into the armor as the knight screeched in pain.

Ripjaws removed the gun before diving back into the water. From there on he repeated the process of leaping out, disarming the knights and knocking them unconscious before diving back into the water.

Unfortunately the strategy got predictable rather quickly and so when he attempted to go back into the water after taking a huge bite out of the Forever Ninja, Chadwick quickly grabbed him and slammed him into the ground.

“Not this time Tennyson. With you gone, I’ll be free to do what I please with the aliens on this planet. I think I’ll start with your partner” he said ominously.

Ripjaws attempted to get up, only to be slammed and thrown into ground by the gorilla man. Chadwick proceeded to beat Ripjaws down with his fists. Ripjaws put up his arms to protect himself from the onslaught but he was on a clock. He could already feel himself dehydrating as each punch hit him.

Gritting his teeth, Ripjaws tried to see a pattern in Chadwick’s attacks. As it turned out he didn’t need to as Chadwick grabbed his tail and torso and prepared to break his back. However, in a small window of opportunity Ripjaws reached out his left arm and slashed Chadwick across the chest.

Chadwick abruptly let go and stumbled. Crimson blood covered the gorilla fur and Ripjaws’ claws. Chadwick looked down before charging at the Piscuss Volan with a roar. Ripjaws responded in kind and ducked under Chadwick’s haymaker before slashing the Forever King across the chest again. Only this time his claws dug right into ape.

Chadwick let out a scream and tried to grab the fish but Ripjaws backflipped away from the gorilla. Diving into the water to hydrate himself, Ripjaws came back out to try and catch Chadwick off guard.

Chadwick went to punch the flying fish but Ripjaws caught it and kicked him in the solar plexus, Ripjaws’ toenails stabbing into him. Chadwick let out another scream but Ripjaws merely evaded his attacks, while using his claws to land small but painful hits. Chadwick, fed up with how evasive Ripjaws was, hit the ground in anger.

The vibrations caused Ripjaws to stumble and Chadwick took this as his opportunity to hit Ripjaws away. However, Ripjaws regained his bearings and stabbed his claws into Chadwick’s arm. A sickening CRUNCH could be heard throughout the arena though from whom was anyone’s guess.

Chadwick went to grab Ripjaws off him but Ripjaws finally made use of those teeth of his and bit a chunk out of Chadwick’s right arm. Chadwick let out another screech and seeing that he was near his limit Ripjaws quickly leapt onto Chadwick’s head and headbutted him, knocking the Forever King out.

A chorus of cheers could be heard as Ben turned back but then the scene shifted. Sick, ominous laughter filled the arena and All Might was attacked by a large, black thing. It was incredibly muscular and had a beak for a mouth. It’s exposed brain was perhaps it’s most prominent feature as large red scars ran down his body.

Despite All Might’s attempts to fight back, he quickly found himself losing as steam rose from him. He was at his limit and the Omnitrix was out of charge. He could do nothing but watch as the creature, seemingly unaffected punched through All Might’s body as he changed back.

“ALL MIGHT!”

“Oh I haven’t forgotten you, vigilante” Ben turned around to find a hand reaching out to him.

And just like that Ben woke up at 3 in the morning. Rubbing his head he remarked “It’s been a while since I’ve had one of those dreams”.


“So let me get this straight. You believe that Forever Knights are in Japan and that the Symbol of Peace is in danger because of a dream?” Rook asked with a skeptical tone.

“Yes! I told you I had psychic dreams, didn’t I?”

“Yes but in all our years working together you have not once had one of these ‘psychic dreams’. I merely thought you were referring to one of your aliens or were stroking your own ego”.

“Come on, why would I lie about this?”

“With all due respect, it is possible that the lack of activity has caused you to wish for more action and so you dreamed of a villain capable of killing All Might. The only weird thing is that you dreamed up a new villain instead of someone like Vilgax or Albedo”.

“I don’t need to dream up a new villain. I’ve still got plenty of things to do like finding that disintegrating villain”.

“Or focusing on finding the Quirk Integration Project”

Ben gave his partner a withering glare. Rook sighed “Fine. Assuming you did have a psychic dream, why now? Why has it taken you this long to have one when we have faced plenty of dangerous foes. Malware nearly succeeded in taking over the Galvan homeworld, Vilgax has succeeded at conquering several planets and Maltruant attempted to destroy the universe. We have faced bounty hunters, rogue Plumbers, monsters, villains from alternate universes and the like. Compared to many of the villains in the past, why on Earth would a dream warn you of something far less significant?”

Ben put his hands in the air “Hey I never said the dreams warned me of important villains. The last time I had one was when the nanobots came back”.

“Yes the one where Humungousaur became really tiny”

Ben, raised an eyebrow “Gwen?”

Rook nodded in response.

“Well whatever, I’m sure something’s about to go down” Ben transformed into Fasttrack and ran to U.A, leaving Rook to his own devices.

Rook looked back at the hard drive containing the Quirk Integration Project. He still had failed to make any progress. Hisashi was still of no use and no one at Plumbers HQ could decipher it and considering Ben decided to start teaching at U.A, the sooner they unlocked the mysteries of the Quirk Integration Project, the better.

His one saving grace is that he had recently discovered a place akin to the Undertown in Bellwood. It was much smaller, only being about a third of the size as Undertown but it was his only hope.

‘Well might as well get to it’ Rook thought as he drove into mini-Undertown.

“Excuse me, do you know of the Quirk Integration Project” he asked a person with teal skin and antlers.

“No, sorry” the person said before leaving.

And most of his encounters afterwards happened in similar ways. He would ask around, only to either be ignored or politely dismissed. Taking a break, Rook found that Ben has texted him some coordinates that Ben wanted him to go to.

Likely the place that he saw in his dream. Rook still doubted Ben’s psychic dream but on the off chance that he was correct, Rook needed to be there. It was not as if this place was yielding any results anyway.

‘I will try again tomorrow’ Rook thought as he got in his truck. He was about to start the car when someone slammed their hand against the window. A tetramand with a green right hand.

Opening the door Rook asked “Yes?”

“I hear you’re looking for the Quirk Integration Project? Well you’re in luck. I happened to be apart of it.” the tetramand said before removing his coat, revealing large green tendrils going across his chest and up his arm.

‘Finally’ Rook thought to himself.


“Hey is there some kind of trip Class A is going on?” Ben asked the principal.

“Why yes. They will be going to the USJ to participate in rescue training. Why do you ask?”

“I think they’re going to be in danger”.

“Interesting and why is that?” Nezu frowned.

“I had a dream that they would be attacked by the Forever Knights and that guy from before. There was also some big, black guy that could fight on par with All Might”.

Ben expected that the principal who claimed to care so much for his students would do something like cancel the trip or at least make some preparations to make sure nothing goes wrong. In reality Nezu laughed in his face.

“A dream... hehe... please Tennyson ha..., you have to give me something more substantial than that” The rat’s giggles came out more like squeaks but it was still disrespectful. Surely, he could at least entertain the idea.

“Hey, I’m being serious” Ben’s face turned red.

“Oh please Tennyson... ha ha ha... thank you for giving me such a good laugh but if you do have any more ‘warnings’ make sure you have at least evidence more substantial than a dream”.

Ben stomped out the office to the sound of Nezu’s laughter. Hopefully he’d find someone who would take him seriously. Unfortunately when he talked to the other staff members about it, he garnered similar reactions. With slumped shoulders, Ben soon found himself in front of 1A.

“What are you doing?” a tired voice called to him.

“Eraserhead! Look I know this might sound crazy but that trip you’re going to go on is probably going to be attacked by villains. I know because I saw it in a dream. The disintegration villain as well as some villain as powerful as All Might will be there”.

Eraserhead looked at him annoyed before sighing “What else can you remember?”

“Huh?”

“Are you deaf? I asked what else was in the dream. If the students are in danger, I need to make preparations to better protect them”

“Well at least you believe me. Everyone else has just laughed at me”.

“I don’t believe you. A dream is not substantial evidence but on the off chance that you are right, I am not going to allow the students to suffer just because of something I overlooked. Now. what. Else. was. In. the. Dream?” Aizawa’s eyes turned red.

“Right. Um, the Forever Knights will be there. They wield lasers and their boss has the body of a gorilla. All Might runs out of time and gets killed. I didn’t see anything else other than the disintegration villain reaching out to me”.

“Very well” Eraserhead nodded to the vigilante. After Tennyson had left, he entered the class and dialed a number.

“Hey Eraser, what can I do for ya?” the voice of his self-proclaimed best friend answered.

“If I’m right, you don’t have any classes during 1-A’s field trip to the USJ.”

“Um, yeah but why? Don’t tell me you bought Tennyson’s dream warning?”

“Illogical it may be but as long as the possibility of an attack remains, it’s best to be safe rather than sorry”.

“I guess but don’t you think you’re going a bit overboard?”

“No I don’t. Quite frankly Mic, I’m only asking you to be there because you don’t have any other plans. Assuming Tennyson is wrong, then no harm no foul but assuming he is right, then it’s best to be adequately prepared for the sake of the students. Can I count on you?”

“Always”.


“See this family, heroes? Come after me and I’ll snap their necks!” Habit Headgear announced to the heroes after him. He dodged one of Mount Lady’s strikes so fast he created an afterimage of himself.

“Time to make my escape!”

“FEAR NOT, GOOD FAMILY!”

‘What’ but Habit Headgear didn’t have time to comprehend what followed. All Might had delivered a swift neck chop and saved the family allowing the police to apprehend the fallen villain.

He briefly overheard one of the heroes say how he’s gonna put him out of business.

All Might chuckled inwardly ‘If you think it’s tough in the hero business nowadays, you should’ve seen how it was in my prime’.

All Might frowned ‘Though I’m getting weaker, slower and generally less reliable. Me passing my power on to Young Midoriya has quickened the process and even just now, my maximum duration has shortened. I can feel it’.

But All Might was shaken out of his thoughts when he heard there was a hostage situation in the town next over.

“I suppose it can’t be helped. Not even heroes get breaks after all!” All Might announced as he quickly jumped to the next town.

However, when he got there, he saw a very familiar vigilante already handling the situation. Although he had not seen Tennyson use this form before, it bore a resemblance to the villains that had apprehended young Midoriya during his first meeting with the vigilante.

The vigilante shot the villain’s gun out of his hands, freeing the young boy who had been taken hostage. The boy had some scrapes and throbbing on the right of his head but thankfully it didn’t look like there was going to be any lasting damage.

Tennyson extended metallic claws out and grabbed the boy while the villain retrieved his weapon. In a desperate attempt to take as many people down with him, the villain started shooting at the gathering crowd but All Might quickly blew the bullets away from the crowd.

Tennyson approached the villain. Bullets bounced off his armor. Seeing no other solution, the villain put the gun to his head but Tennyson kicked it out of his hands and knocked the villain out.

Tennyson turned around and nodded, finally acknowledging his presence. He seemed to make a gesture towards himself. It seemed that the vigilante wanted him to follow him so after making sure the police had properly detained the villain, he went after the vigilante but not before he felt a tugging on his pants. It was the boy from before. ‘Deja Vu’ All Might thought to himself.

“You’re not going to arrest him, right?” the boy said with a concerned expression on his face. Now that Toshinori got a better look at him, it seemed the young child was a fan of Hero Killer Stain, judging by the domino mask and knife in his hands.

“Well he’s a vigilante. He acts outside the law and it’s my job to bring him in”.

“But Ben 10’s a hero. He saved me!” the boy exclaimed. All Might wasn’t sure what to do. If he continued denouncing Tennyson, he would be discouraging heroic behaviour but if he did the opposite, he would be encouraging vigilantism and was that truly better? Add in the facts that he was a fan of the Hero Killer and that he’d been saved by a vigilante and this event probably didn’t have any good effect on his opinion of heroes.

“Naoto! Stop bothering the Symbol of Peace” A women interrupted “I am so sorry, All Might. Please continue saving others”.

All Might, stunned merely responded with a nod before pursuing Tennyson. It didn’t take long. One jump later and he found the vigilante waiting for him, having transformed back into his human form. Just then steam evaporated from his back and Toshinori realised he couldn’t hold his form any longer. In a cloud of smoke, All Might reverted to his skinny form.

‘This isn’t good. I might be able to hold him off for a while but his watch will recharge far faster than I can’ All Might thought as he adopted a fighting stance.

“Hey, stop treating me like a villain! I just want to talk” the vigilante said exasperatedly.


“And that’s about it” Ben said recalling his dream.

“So you think that a villain attack is going to occur at the USJ today?”

“Yep”.

“And that the Forever Knights, a Quirkless terrorist organisation hellbent on destroying Quirks and aliens is also going to attack”

“Did not know about the Quirk part but yes”.

“And you think that my life is in danger?”

“Yep”.

“All because of a dream”.

Ben nodded “Yes. What you just said pretty much covers everything”

“Well ok, then. I’ll be careful”.

“Finally someone with common sense! Seriously, I told everyone at U.A and apart from Eraserhead they all dismissed me”.

“Honestly, the only reason I haven’t done the same is because I know I haven’t seen the full brunt of your capabilities yet. If your healing factor, and your watch truly aren’t the result of a Quirk, then. Well there are stranger things out there then psychic dreams. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with being a bit more on guard” All Might smiled.

“Now if you excuse me...” All Might transformed back into his muscle form and flew off.

“Wait, that’s not U.A. Of course, the one guy who believes me ignores my warning” Ben said as he transformed into Fasttrack and headed back to U.A.

Upon returning to the school, he caught sight of a familiar angry blonde. Fasttrack tried to stop but overshot a bit much and nearly ended up in the wall. Turning back into himself, Ben saw Bakugou’s absolutely confused expression on his face.

“‘Sup. Listen I need you to hold onto this” Ben said taking out his Plumbers badge.

“Why?!”

“Can’t explain. Hopefully nothing happens but need you to be prepared. Bye” Ben said before running off.

Bakugou looked at the badge in his hand “I don’t even know how to fucking use this!” he said before pocketing it.


“Today’s class is a bit special. Under the supervision of All Might, myself and one other hero, you will be taking part in rescue training to prepare you for for disaster relief” Aizawa tiredly said.

As the class excitedly chattered away, Midoriya couldn’t help but notice a hidden edge to Aizawa’s voice. Apprehension maybe?

“I’m not done” Aizawa said and the class fell silent again. “It’s up to you if you want to wear your costumes or not but regardless of what you decide, get ready soon. As the training area is a bit further away from the school, we’ll be going by bus. That is all”.

Once outside, Midoriya spoke to Yaoyorozu “Hey, do we need to organize seating or something?”

“I don’t see any real need for it. With the exception of you, Bakugou and Iida, I trust everyone will be able to behave themselves no matter where they sit. So let’s just let them sit with their friends, right?” she responded with a bright smile.

“Right. Uh, speaking of friends have you made any? You just seemed really excited to sit with us the other day”.

“Ah. While most people seem friendly, I can’t say I have formed any close connections with anyone thus far but with luck, this trip may fix that” she replied, carefully ignoring the latter point.

Midoriya decided not to pry further “Well, ok then. After you?” Midoriya said gesturing to the bus, where everyone else had already gotten on.


“Hey, who’re you texting?” Hagakure asked.

With how much spatial awareness she had, Midoriya still found it difficult to believe that she was blind “Monoma. Apparently, Class B is going through civilian rescue training”.

“Hm. So what do you think is going to be involved in our training today?”

Midoriya put down his phone and tapped a finger to his chin “Well, considering Mr. Aizawa specified disasters and the remote location, we’re either going to a mountain with frequent landslides or more likely an area which can simulate natural disasters without risk to students. In that case, the plan is likely for us to split into groups and have us try and save dummies acting as civilians in certain scenarios”.

Eraserhead’s eyebrow twitched ‘Hm. Midoriya is smart. All the more reason to ensure he doesn’t stray from heroics’.

“Of course it is entirely possible that some of us will act as civilians” Yaoyorozu replied.

“And just what would be the point to that?” Iida responded.

“No, she’s right. A natural disaster can happen at the most inopportune moments. It’s possible that we will be trained on how to respond to a natural disaster if we happen to be caught up in one” Midoriya replied, defending Yaoyorozu.

“... I see”.

Eraserhead rolled his eyes. He figured there would be some tension in class but he figured that Iida of all people would try and remain professional. Yet in the past week or so, he had been rather petty, acting out towards Yaoyorozu and Midoriya in particular. It was as if he thought that he deserved the job despite them obtaining it through his means. If it goes beyond a few simple antagonistic statements, Eraserhead just might have to have a word with the boy.

“We’re here” he said. ‘Time to see if there was any value to Tennyson’s dream’.

The class was greeted by a person in an astronaut costume.

“It’s the Space Hero Thirteen” Midoriya cried out. Honestly Eraserhead should’ve expected a fanboy who could identify him to be able to correctly identify the rest of the U.A. staff.

As Thirteen explained the purpose of the USJ, Eraserhead looked around. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary but in a world of superpowers, you could never be too careful.

“Psst. Eraser”

“Mic, I take it you scoped out the area before hand?”

“Yeah. No knights or villains or anything. So I guess Tennyson’s dream was a bust, huh”.

“Not necessarily but we still need to be on guard in either case” and as soon as Eraserhead said that, a swirling sound could be heard.

A portal appeared in the middle of the facility, gradually growing larger and larger. A man with a hand on his head appeared first and villains started pouring through.

“EVERYONE HUDDLE UP AND DON’T MOVE!”

The class just murmured in confusement as if this was another test like the Entrance Exam. Eraserhead quickly informed everyone of the threat and motioned for Mic to help him.

“Thirteen and Eraserhead, is it? And Present Mic?! According to the intel I received the other day All Might should be in your place” a gaseous villain said.

“Intel? So that’s what that incident was for” Eraserhead commented, completely unaware as to how this villain and what he had said was affecting two students in his class.

“Well sorry to disappoint but we had some intel of our own!” Present Mic remarked before unleashing a bellowing “YEAH!” at the villains.

All of the villains fell to their knees as the wall of sound hit them. With a single shout, over half of the villain’s had become incapacitated. The hands villain merely grunted “Noumu, take care of that pest”.

The big black villain, seemingly unaffected by the sound let out a loud roar before charging at Present Mic and slamming him into a wall, knocking him unconscious. It moved so fast that Eraserhead could barely perceive it, much less counter it. Fortunately it didn’t make any additional moves.

“I was hoping the Symbol of Peace would be here. We came all this way after all. I wonder if some dead kids will bring him here” the hands villain remarked with an ominous tone, staring right at the class.


Ben was livid. He should be at the USJ, not babysitting a bunch of kids. He was sure something was going to go down.

“Alright, Class B. Today we’ll be going through civilian rescue training. The objective will be to secure the civilian from our resident vigilante over there. Ordinarily we would divide you up into groups but as much as it pains me to say it, the vigilante is extremely powerful. As such we will be conducting different scenarios in which Tennyson will have to face off against the entire class as a team”.

And that was another thing! He was a hero and yet everytime U.A. called him in to train the students, he would always be treated as the villain. He’s the savior of the whole, entire universe for crying out loud. He’s defeated Vilgax, Aggregor, Maltruant and plenty of other villains but because of some stupid law, he was getting the same exact treatment as those guys.

Actually, why was he here again? Right. Because they needed to be in Japan to find out about this Quirk Integration Project and it would be easier for everyone if they just left each other alone. Being here is an easy means of preventing needless fights between heroes. Still, it didn’t have to suck so much!

‘Whatever. I just have to show how heroic I can be’ Ben thought to himself as he hit the Omnitrix. In a flash of light, he turned into Medicura.

“Tennyson?! You’re playing the villain, are you sure that form is fine?” Vlad King asked.

“Uh, I was going for another form but this is fine” the medic replied.

“I see. Well regardless, despite the odds do not mistake this as a combat training exercise. The top priority is the civilian that the vigilante has taken hostage. Any questions?”

“Yeah. Why have I taken a civilian hostage?”

“Uh, because you’re a vigila-”

“Don’t be absurd. In my first week here, I stopped two hostage situations and I’ve handled many more since. Heck, I stopped one just earlier today”.

“Tennyson don’t be absurd!” Vlad King got out his phone to check, confident that Tennyson was lying just like his “psychic dreams” only to stop at the top page.

LOCAL VIGILANTE SAVES YET ANOTHER HOSTAGE! ARE HEROES OBSOLETE?

Vlad King sighed. “You’ll do it because we pay you to do it”.

“I wish.”

“What?” Now that was surprising. If Tennyson wasn’t getting paid, why was he still here?

As if reading his mind Tennyson continued “Thanks to some BS project Nezu is supposed to be helping me with but Nezu doesn’t have to pay me a cent. He pays me in "help" that he manages to weasel his way out of. You guys are just lucky that abandoning this school isn’t worth all the extra attention but you can be sure that as soon as Rook and I are finished with our mission, we’re leaving first chance we get.”

Kan supposed it did make sense, whether it was ethical was another thing he wasn't sure if he could agree with. He supposed it would be nice finally getting the vigilante out of the way but... eh, he's not too worried. Suppose Tennyson does leave. That would leave quite a stain on U.A.'s reputation. If it ever comes down to that, it's likely U.A. will be responsible for his subsequent arrest. It doesn't matter how powerful the vigilante is, he won't be able to take on all of the faculty at once. He's almost looking forward to it.

But back to the matter at hand, Kan sighed “Please just do it”.

“Whatever” Medicura said before grabbing the civilian and moving to the side of the building.

“Alright, the vigilante is going to escape in five minutes. You need to find a way to save the civilian and preferably apprehend the vigilante before time is up. BEGIN!”

And immediately Kamakiri forgot that this was a team exercise as charged right at the vigilante, screaming as he generated a sword from his arm. A barrier materialised out of nowhere and knocked him out.

“Next?” Medicura asked. Honestly Medicura was probably one of the best aliens he could’ve turned into. No offensive capabilities, fairly heroic skill set and doesn’t look evil. Perfect for a hero. If he lost this, well then he was just bad at being the villain. Granted he had no intention of letting them win.

The class was already trying to figure out how to break through the barriers but they seemed to be going for a purely offensive method, surrounding the entire barrier before pounding on it. From giant hands to giant gorillas. Wait! Was that kid shooting scales at him? He was.

“Just a little more” the girl with large hands said. Sure enough the barrier was cracking. Under the constant barrage of hits, vines and scales the barrier finally broke. The class cheered but Medicura merely created another barrier in it’s place. The class roared at him but chose to continue their assault.

“What a bunch of idiots” a voice said. Everyone briefly stopped what they were doing and turned to the one who spoke, Neito Monoma.

“At least we’re trying to do something, Monoma” the girl with large hands said.

“Sorry Kendo, I meant you were insane” Monoma replied.

“Alright I’ll hold him down. Everyone do what you like” Kendo said as Monoma showed an alarmed expression. Without a word Monoma ran away but the entire class followed him, completely abandoning their objective.


Monoma had always been quick on his feet. It helped a lot with those who wanted to bully him for his weak Quirk. And now it was helping him escape from his class who wanted to kill him. Suddenly he turned a corner and found himself at a dead end.

“Got you, Monoma” Kendo said as he ended up trapped in her hands.

“Good, we’re out of Tennyson’s range of hearing. I think”

“What are you talking about? You just insulted the whole class-”

“On purpose. I needed you guys to follow me so that Tennyson couldn’t know about how we’re going to defeat him”.

“We were doing just fine!” Tetsutetsu said.

“Just fine looking like idiots, maybe. Anyone can break Tennyson’s barriers but then what comes next? He’ll create another barrier for you guys to pummel and stall us out”.

“And just what do you think we should do?”

“Obviously we need to come up with a plan to retrieve the hostage. Fortunately I’ve already come up with one” Monoma smirked as Kendo released him.

“Thank you. Anyway Tennyson’s looking down on us. That form of his has no means of attacking us and he won’t change unless he’s in danger”.

Monoma dramatically pointed to Shiozaki “At the moment the barrier breaks, it’ll be up to you to retrieve the civilian. At least then, we’ll have fulfilled one of the conditions for victory”.

He then pointed to Tokage “At the same time, you will have to get at least one of your body parts within the barrier to at least confuse him, causing him to lose focus on the barrier”.

“Um, right”.

“We’ve only got about a minute to put this plan into action so we best get to it” Monoma said running back to the training ground.

“Back again so soon?” Medicura asked before being bombarded by a number of attacks. Monoma copied Rin’s Quirk and shot out streams of scales at the barrier. Pretty quickly, the barrier collapsed under all the pressure.

Medicura was about to summon another one but was caught off guard by Tokage’s head coming down to greet him. Medicura was startled for a second but that was more than enough time for Shiozaki to grab the training dummy, winning them this exercise.

Medicura smiled before transforming back into Tennyson. “Ah, well guess I’m just not cut out being a villain”.

The class erupted into cheers at the sound of their victory but Monoma was lost in thought.

‘Hm. Midoriya told me how powerful this guy was but now I finally get it’. Even disregarding the fact that Tennyson could change forms at will, he felt as if the victory while not being handed to the class, happened partially because of how little the vigilante was trying.

Monoma started running through scenarios. How would the exercise play out if he was fending off a class with Medicura’s skill set. For one, not just stay in the same place. Medicura could’ve easily pushed through the class with their barriers. Two, in the event that Shiozaki did steal the civilian, he would use the barriers to cut through Shiozaki’s vines and retrieve the civilian.

Monoma was still thinking about this even as they moved on to the next test. And his belief was further reaffirmed by their victory against Toepick. While the reveal of his face did paralyse more than a few of his classmates, they were still able to restrain him and retrieve the dummy leaning precariously over the building.

Midoriya had said Toepick’s nightmarish face was only scratching the surface of his abilities. In particular, Monoma recalled Midoriya talking about acid generation, which could’ve easily burnt through Komori’s mushrooms. Yet he didn’t, he allowed Komori to distract him and Yanagi to reach the dummy. And when Yanagi failed, Toepick did nothing to prevent Shishida from grabbing it and knocking him over.

No matter how Monoma looked at it, Tennyson was letting them win but for what purpose? He didn’t respond to his class talking about how well his strategies were working out or even when the vigilante left in the middle of the class.


‘Something’s wrong’ Ben thought as he looked for Plumbers in the area. Rook was fine but the badge he’d given to Bakugou wasn’t working.

“Listen Tennyson, don’t you think you’re going a little easy on the class?” Vlad King said.

“Hm.” Ben honestly wasn’t paying attention to whatever Vlad King was trying to say. He needed to find someone who could get to the USJ fast.

“Look, I’m not saying beat them to a pulp but these kids are starting to grow arrogant. They think that you’re all talk and that they can handle anything.” Vlad King said.

Ben paused from his scrolling. That was going to be a bit of a problem to his image. Well when he gets back, he’ll use Cannonbolt or Humungousaur. Someone to show these kids how great he truly is but later.

“I need to go. I told you so and I need to go now” Ben said.

“Not the psychic dream again” Vlad King groaned.

“Not that you idiot. After you guys brushed me off, I gave a tracker to one of the 1A students and now it’s stopped transmitting, meaning...”

Vlad King’s mouth fell agape “That someone’s attacked the USJ or is at least preventing outside communication.”

“And?”

“... That you were right” Vlad King grumbled.

“Good. Round up the rest of the teachers, I’m gonna get a headstart” Ben said before shouting “XLR8!”.

In a flash of green light, Ben transformed into a humanoid pterodactyl wearing a jetpack. Sighing Ben said “Or Astrodactyl”.

Without wasting another second Astrodactyl activated his jetpack and flew as fast as he could to the USJ.


“Did Tennyson get fed up with losing?” TetsuTetsu smirked.

“If you honestly think that you would win that many times against that vigilante, you’ve got a lot to learn” Vlad King scolded his class for his arrogance, many of his students losing their smirks.

He ignored the “I knew it!” from Monoma and explained just what was going on. “Anyway there’s an emergency he had to take care of with the other class. We have reason to believe that a villain attack has attacked the students of 1A and I as well as the other teachers need to help now. So class is dismissed early”. Vlad King explained before making his way to Nezu’s office.

“Aren’t you supposed to be taking your class through civilian rescue training?” Nezu asked.

“Tennyson was right. 1A is being attacked and we need to move”.

“Oh? And what evidence do you have of this?” Nezu asked.

“The kid planted a tracker on one of the 1A students. It was working 10 minutes ago and now it’s not. I tried calling Aizawa but I can’t get a hold of him. Same for Thirteen”.

“It is very possible that Tennyson is lying. Aizawa and Thirteen are in the middle of teaching a class so it’s understandable why you wouldn’t be able to get a hold of them. I would say you should be doing the same thing”.

“Cut the crap, Nezu! Tennyson knows full well what would happen if he abandoned class to go on a power trip, with no evidence backing it up. Like it or not, we need to get to the USJ and help out”.

“And like it or not, I cannot pull teachers out of their classes on a whim! I need hard evidence that there is a villain attack or else I cannot help Aizawa. Think about it Vlad, what if there is no villain attack? If everything is as I said, the media would be all over us, going on about how we can’t even maintain a school properly”.

“And just what counts as hard evidence to you? A student breaking in here actually telling us there’s been a villain attack”.

“PRINCIPAL, THERE’S AN EMERGENCY! VILLAINS HAVE ATTACKED THE USJ!”

Vlad King and Nezu stared at Tenya Iida with wide eyes, their mouths open as if to say something but nothing came out.

Finally Nezu chuckled “Well not necessarily but it’ll do”. Nezu reached over to the microphone on his desk announcing to every teacher to get ready to move out to the USJ.


Astrodactyl had almost reached the USJ when a barrage of lasers came his way, causing him to swerve down. Unfortunately because of how fast he had been going, he didn’t realise that in doing so would lead to him divebombing a tree.

With a squawk, Astrodactyl rubbed the gigantic bump on his head “Let me guess, Forever Knights?”

“Tennyson” Chadwick smirked before morphing into something of a genuine smile “How is your girlfriend by the way? I did see that you two had finally made it official”

“Kai? We broke up but more importantly how did you know I’d be here?”.

“What a shame. And you two had such good chemistry” Chadwick responded, dodging the question.

Astrodactyl raised an eyebrow “Why are you so interested in my lovelife”.

“Oh, I’m not but it does serve to keep you in place while my men surround you. FIRE!” Chadwick yelled.

Before they got the chance, Astrodactyl took off creating a large propulsion blast that sent most of the Forever Knights flying. Taking the opportunity, Astrodactyl fired large green energy blasts at the Forever Knights, taking out Morton and the twins. Unfortunately the Forever Ninja was agile enough to dodge his onslaught and Chadwick was able to tank the blasts that were decimating the area around him.

“What?” Astrodactyl squawked but was cut off by Chadwick using what looked like a railgun to gun him down. To make matters worse, the Forever Ninja was delivering an energy barrage of his own making flight much harder.

Astrodactyl bobbed and weaved but he knew he was on a losing battle. His energy blasts were either too slow or too weak for his opponents and he couldn’t get close enough to use his energy whips or a propulsion blast.

‘I don’t have time for this What to do?’ Astrodactyl thought to himself ‘Wait I can quick change, duh!’ Pressing the Omnitrix on his left arm, Astrodactyl changed forms in a flash of light.

“Chromastone!” he yelled out. Falling to the ground, the jetpack wearing pterodactyl was now a large puple humanoid with spikes protruding from his limbs.

His one eye narrowed at Chadwick “So do you want to give up now or do you want me to beat your surrender out of you”.

“It doesn’t matter how many aliens you shapeshift into, they’re all the same” Chadwick smugly said before firing his railgun. Chromastone was too slow to dodge it but he didn’t need to. The entire blast was absorbed into himself, generating a rainbow aura around him.

The forever Ninja tried to ambush him from behind but found that his weapons merely added to Chromastone’s energy. Chromastone merely turned around and punched the robot through a tree before using some energy to melt off it’s armor.

Once he was sure the robotic ninja was no longer a threat, Chromastone flew towards Chadwick. Chadwick responded with a powerful jab but was surprised to find the vigilante had easily caught his punch. They ended up in a stalemate position, neither fighter being able to overpower the other. That is until Chromstone’s hands started glowing with energy.

“Oh dear” were Chadwick’s final words before being blasted through the wall of the USJ. The Forever King was flew through the air before crashing into the large black creature he saw in his dreams.

“What...” Shigaraki looked on with wide eyes as the vigilante came through the hole in the wall.

“...the...” Tsukachi, equally surprised at the vigilante’s appearance, having tried to arrest said vigilante for months but to no avail. Ordinarily the vigilante arriving in front of him would’ve been a blessing but he had currently bitten off more than they could chew.

“FUCK?!” Well, no points for who said that. Bakugou was standing in the middle of the arena, holding Kurogiri down.

The scene Chromastone walked in on was one of pure chaos. There were far more villains than he remembered, all fighting the students in differing areas. Thirteen had been torn apart and Eraserhead was bleeding face down on the ground. The arena was half frozen, the ground had been repeatedly cracked and it looked as if the building itself was about to fall apart. Unexpectedly, the police had also arrived but it seemed they had been taken care of. Fortunately save for a few, it didn't seem like they were too injured but he'd be lying if he said the sight of the few unlucky ones didn't make him squeamish. One of them even had bone sticking out from his arms.

“Well this is interesting” Chromastone said “I mean I knew there’d be a villain attack but to think the cops would show up, and Kurogiri! I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for why you’re involved in this”

“Would you believe me if I said there was?” the mist man meekly asked.

“Not a chance”

“I thought so” Kurogiri said in a resigned tone, surrendering to Bakugou.

“You know him, Kurogiri?” Shigaraki coldly asked. “Well, it doesn’t matter Noumu kill him”.

“It doesn’t matter who you order so long as Ben 10-” Chromastone was cut off by the beast slamming him into the ground.

“OK, skip the boast, got it” Chromastone struggled as the Noumu grabbed a hold of his arm. Blasting a ray of ultra-violet energy at the creature’s exposed brain, the Noumu faltered but held on and started to swing him around.

With a grimace, Chromastone grunted “I’m not sure if this’ll work but...” and just like that jagged crystal morphed from his arm and stabbed through the creature’s hand. Releasing an aura of energy, Chromastone burned the Noumu’s hand. Finally released, Chromastone got away.

“I’m gonna need someone faster” he said before he pressed the Omnitrix on his chest. In a flash of light, the stone cyclops was replaced by a blue and black blur.

“Fasttrack!” he yelled. Fasttrack added to the Noumu’s pain with but a fingersnap. A fingersnap moving faster than the speed of sound that is. The resulting sonic boom disoriented the Noumu and allowed Fasttrack to run to Tsukauchi.

“I didn’t expect you to be here, Tsukauchi” he smugly said.

The cop frowned. “We got an anonymous tip that there would be a villain attack. Unfortunately, as you can see the Noumu easily took care of us”.

“Any ideas on it’s weaknesses”.

“None. All I know is that it’s superhumanly strong, fast and durable. It also has a regeneration Quirk. Tomura Shigaraki, the leader of the attack, claims it’s the Anti-All Might. It might be best to use another form”.

A beastly roar brought Ben’s attention back to the Noumu, who had finished regenerating.

“Well, I can’t exactly do that but I do have an idea” Fasttrack said before raising his hands towards his mouth “Hey, big black and beastly I bet you-” but Fasttrack was interrupted by the Noumu trying to punch him. Tsukauchi used the opportunity to get away from the fight.

“So slow and so easy to read. You’ve got a big brain, why don’t you use it?” Fasttrack said as he calmly dodged the Noumu’s powerful strikes. Strong as he may be, the Noumu’s attacks were predictable. Any experienced fighter could see the pattern in the Noumu’s fighting style and anyone quick enough to dodge the Noumu’s attacks could easily exploit an opening, which Fasttrack did with a smirk.

Unfortunately, Fasttrack forgot how superhumanly tough the Noumu was and easily shrugged the attack off.

“Ha. Y’know when I said you had a big brain, I meant you were intelligent. I was just having a bit of fun?”

The Noumu ignored Fasttrack’s attempt to back track and punched him across the arena with a sickening CRUNCH!

While Fasttrack’s healing factor kicked in, he took the opportunity to survey the new area. He was in some mountain-looking area.

‘What to do?’ Fasttrack thought to himself ‘I could quick change but I’ve already quick-changed twice in a row, the Omnitrix is low on energy as is. I’m gonna need every last second it can give me. Still, there has to be some way to defeat this guy!’

The Noumu’s cries interrupted him as it leapt through the air. Fasttrack dodged the hit and almost as if a lightbulb went off, an idea formed in Fasttrack’s mind.

‘It’s a long shot but it’s my only hope’. Fasttrack whistled at the Noumu, getting it’s attention “See ya!” and promptly ran away.

The Noumu gave chase and to the outside viewer, it would’ve looked like two blurs running around.

“Alright nobody move! Thanks to your little stunt, you now have a choice between your lives and his so what’s it gonna be” a masked villain said to two students while holding Kaminari at gunpoint.

Yaoyorozu gritted her teeth ‘It’s my fault. I’m sorry Kaminari’.

However, before it could get anyway, the villain was knocked out by a blue blur and thrown at the Noumu who smacked it away.

Fasttrack ran to the next area, a boat in the middle of a pool, surrounded by villains. Using his powers of acceleration, he was able to generate a visual duplicate of himself, giving off the illusion that he was in two places at once.

“We’re going to die!” Mineta yelled out as the boat started to sink, while Sero and Tsuyu desperately tried to patch the hole in the ship.

Fasttrack created some waves to repel the villains before jumping onto the boat. His body constantly vibrating so as to maintain the illusion, which the Noumu followed.

“You can throw sticky balls, right?” he said to Mineta, frozen in fear.

“Vigilante! Please save us!”

“As much as I don’t want to agree with him, we’re about to die so any help would be appreciated”.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah but first I need you to throw those balls around like NOW!” The Noumu had roared as it crashed onto the boat. Fasttrack grabbed the three students and jumped off the boat. Mineta, in his fear quickly grabbed as many balls he could get and threw them at the creature as they were flying away. The monster went down with the ship.

Fasttrack brought them to the entrance before luring the beast to another area. Almost as if they were playing a game, Fasttrack repeatedly lured the Noumu to areas with villains and allowed him to disturb whatever semblance of control the villains had.

The next area was a city that was constantly raining. The Noumu landed right in front of him and let out a loud roar before jabbing at him. Fasttrack dodged and went inside one of the buildings.

The Noumu burst through the wall and started punching at Fasttrack.

“There was a door, y’know! I even went through it for you”.

The Noumu didn’t responded and doubled down on his attack, punching through walls and beams as Fasttrack outmaneuvered him. However, eventually the building started to creak and groan.

“Uh oh” Fasttrack said as he looked up at the collapsing building. Seeing this as his chance, Fasttrack stopped running away and unleashed a series of punches and kicks while simultaneously dodging the Noumu. While he kept the Noumu in place, the shockwaves from their attacks finally destroyed the building’s final support and it simply collapsed.

Fasttrack used the last second possible to move out of the way and ran up the walls to throw extra debris at the Noumu. With the Noumu buried under the building, Fasttrack took the opportunity to run back to Central Plaza.

“Well, looks like you’re ultimate weapon wasn’t so ultimate after all” he grinned at Shigaraki.

“You. You cheated! This was supposed to be the day All Might died and not only did he not even show up to it, the Final Boss wasn’t even defeated by him” Shigaraki whined like a child.

“Yeah, sucks to be you. Might as well surrender”.

“Surrender? Surrender?! You’d like that wouldn’t you? You think you’re so special but in reality you’re just using a toy watch, playing Hero. I’m gonna make All Might regret not being here!” Shigaraki yelled before turning to Midoriya “... By killing one of his students”

Shigaraki reached out to grab Midoriya’s head but the blue blur appeared behind him and elbowed him in the back. The villain fell down to the ground unable to do anything.

With the teleporter, Noumu and leader of the attack all incapacitated Fasttrack yelled out “Hey Tsuckauchi want to do your job?!”.

“Uh, yes”

However, before any arrests could be made a familiar roar yelled out and the Noumu landed in the Central Plaza, good as new.

“You have got to be kidding me” Fasttrack said taking up a fighting pose. And to make matters worse, the Omnitrix timed out turning Ben back into his human form.

“Oh crap” Ben said.

“Hehehe! Nomu kill Ben Tennyson!”

The Noumu went to follow through but was stopped by a smiling hero clad in blue, red and yellow.

“HAVE NO FEAR, FOR I AM HERE!”

Notes:

So this chapter is alright. A lot of it is fluff but I felt you guys deserved a long chapter after my extended absence. As you can see, Ben is starting to get a bit sick of U.A or Japan in general and in season 3, I plan on having him leave completely. Honestly, the plan was that he needed to be at U.A for certain events but the story's changed so it just was thrown in there for no reason. And with the Quirk Integration Project subplot finally making some strides, there doesn't seem to be a reason to keep him there. Also psychic dreams return. Honestly, I know it's a common trope for heroes to get dreams out of the blue foreshadowing events (it's happened twice in the original series) but considering Ben is a descendant of magic, psychic aliens my headcanon is just that it was part of his Anodite DNA. Anyway the story should update later today.

As always comments and criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 20: How they got here

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Half an hour earlier

“I wonder if some dead kids will bring him here” the hands villain said in a cold tone. With that sentence, the entire class flew into a panic.

“Shouldn’t there be intruder sensors!?” Yaoyorozu asked with an edge of panic.

“Of course there are”.

“They’re probably jamming the sensors with one of their Quirks” Todoroki remarked. “That being said, how did they know that this specific time and place would be the optimal time for their attack?” he wondered. As he thought out-loud both Midoriya and Hagakure started to sweat considerably.

Fortunate for the two traitors, the class was busy dealing with other things, like the fact that people had teleported on their field trip and wanted to murder them.

“Thirteen! Help evacuate the students and try to call the school. It’s likely an electric Quirk that’s jamming the sensors so Kaminari use your Quirk to signal for help” Eraserhead said as he prepared for combat.

Upon realizing what his teacher was going to do, Midoriya yelled out “But Mr. Aizawa, your Quirk won’t be effective against that many people and your fighting style isn’t suited for head-on battle!”

“Hmph. No good hero is a one-trick pony. Thirteen, take care of them” And with that, he leapt into battle.

With a certain elegance, Eraserhead took on the remnants of the villain group. His capture tape wrapped around one villain, who was thrown into a group of others. His Quirk, negating any enemy Quirk he saw and when coming face to face with a Mutation Quirk user, he would send the villain flying.

“Tsk. As expected of a Pro, regular thugs are no match for him despite the number advantage” Shigaraki said.

“Amazing he can hold his own against that many people” Midoriya commented before someone touched his shoulder.

“Midoriya we need to go” Hagakure said.

“Right!”

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that” a deep voice announced as black mist appeared in front of them. “Greetings.We are the League of villains, I’m Kurogiri, that’s Tomura Shigaraki and we have come here to the prestigious academy of U.A. high school to end the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace Unfortunately, his schedule seems to have been changed but no matter. My role remains unchanged”.

“SHUT UP, YOU DAMN BASTARD!”

Kurogiri was suddenly attacked by a hardened uppercut followed by an explosion.

“Hm. That was close. Yes, you students certainly are good. Begone”.

“Get back!” Thirteen tried to warn them but it was too late. Kurogiri grew in size and the world around them turned black.


When Midoriya opened his eyes, he found himself in what looked to be ruins. He heard the sound of puking and turned to see light blue gloves and shoes on the ground.

“Hagakure, are you ok?!”

“Argh. Yeah. For a second there my senses just went all weird. I just felt a little sick is all. Where are we?”

“It looks like we’re still in the USJ. It seems Kurogiri’s finally putting his plan into action”.

“I knew it was a bad idea to give him the schedule!”

“Well we didn’t have any other option, that is unless you wanted Dad to be killed!”

Before they could continue their argument the ground froze beneath them. “So you two are the traitors. Well then, unless you want to become amputees, I’m gonna need their plan. NOW!” Todoroki yelled as he gradually froze the two traitors bodies.

“Gah! We don’t know. We just gave him the schedule and it’s just because he threatened to kill our disabled relative”.

“A likely story”

“She’s telling the truth, besides it’s more her fault than mine” Midoriya said.

“Excuse me! You’re the one who handed Kurogiri the schedule!”

“Yeah but I wouldn’t have done that if you hadn’t dragged me into this mess. After all Kurogiri threatened you, not me. I just helped someone who needed saving. You’re the one who told Kurogiri about All Might’s office so that Kurogiri could just teleport into the school and kill All Might!”

Todoroki, for his part, was starting to look equal parts confused and awkward. He had thought it would be simple getting information from these two traitors but these morons didn’t know anything.

“Hey, don’t try and pass the blame. The moment you ‘helped me’, you become just as much of an accomplice as I was”.

“Well, it doesn’t matter! I’m sure anyone would’ve done the same in our position”.

“Yeah, that’s right! Todoroki, surely if a teleport was threatening to decapitate your father, you’d tell him anything he wanted to know right?”

“Actually I’d tell him to go right ahead”.

Hagakure’s jaw dropped “OK, so you’ve got some daddy issues. Me and him can get that. But what about your moth-”

“Hagakure, no! His mother is in a mental hospital for burning him” Midoriya said in a hushed tone.

“Really? Oh- I’m so sorry” but Hagakure’s words went ignored as Todoroki calmly walked up to the half-frozen Midoriya, before grabbing hold of Midoriya and knocking him down.

“How do you know that?!”

Midoriya looked as he feared for his life, gulped before saying “It’s simple logic. The day before your father showed you off to some event. I think it was the prestigious Little League Quirk Show. No I’m sure of it because it was used as your administration into Virtus Primary School”.

“Midoriya”

“Right. Anyway so you took part and delivered a really great performance with your ice powers by the way but really humiliated Endeavor who boasted about your fire powers. Not sure what that was about but you had no burn mark. Then two days later your mother is admitted into Whippendell Mental Ward and the press does an interview with Endeavor. You appeared for a short time and now all of a sudden there’s a burn mark on your face so you can see how I deduced it. Popular theories are that your mother was a gold digger who was abusive towards her children but given your reaction to Hagakure’s question I’m gonna go with the other popular theory in that Endeavor is like my dad said a burning dumpster fire who abuses his family and your mother broke under the pressure. Of course-” Midoriya continued to mumble.

“Your father hates Endeavor?” Todoroki questioned.

“With a passion”

“Then it would be unheroic to let such a man die by the hands of a villain! We’ll defeat Kurogiri, here and now so that your father may live a peaceful life. Don’t worry I won’t tell the school”.

“Kinda skewed priorities but hey it works for us” Hagakure said as Todoroki unfroze them.

“By the way, don’t you think it’s weird that there aren’t any villains?” Midoriya asked.

“That is concerning. Kurogiri had plenty of opportunities to teleport villains to us but it’s just us here”.

“Undoubtedly he wants to make sure you two are safe so that he can get more information after this attack. Though why I’m here with you is a mystery. A mystery that can be solved by fighting the villains”

“Right!” x2


‘Well this is just fan-fucking-tastic’ Bakugou thought to himself. He and Kirishima had the teleporter, or so they thought. The bastard just had to teleport them where-ever. And that was how he found himself in the middle of a city. Alone. In a constant downpour, unable to use his powers.

To make matters worse, the place was abundant with villain scum. Fortunately, his training with Tennyson was paying off, as much as he hated to admit it. He’d gotten faster and more agile, able to out-maneuver villains with ease before knocking them out.

“What the FUCK does this even do?!” Bakugou growled, looking at the badge in his hand. Tennyson gave it to him so it must do something important.

“Hey there’s another Hero student!” a villain shouted.

“Tch” Bakugou prepared for combat. He felt this would be just another of many battles he would have to face today.


To say Yaoyorozu was worried would be a great understatement. When she woke up this morning, she wasn’t exactly expecting to have to fend for her life. Though she was dealing with her emotions a lot better than some others.

“What the hell do we do?!” Kaminari yelled out as he dodged a blast of fire, likely feeling the same emotions of worry and concern as she was. He was just dealing with it a little differently.

Yaoyorozu quickly created a wooden javelin and threw it at the villain. “Calm down. Villains attack unexpectedly all the time. As heroes in training, we will have to eventually learn how to deal with attacks like this and we will do so in a calm and efficient manner. Simply consider this as a training exercise”.

“A training exercise where we can actually die?!”

“I don’t see how this is different to blowing up a classmate”

“That was Midoriya’s fault!”

“As his partner, it was up to you to make sure he didn’t cross the line. You failed. Try not to fail today”.

Kaminari lowered his head “Right.”

“Good. Now the first thing we have to do is find the other classmates. Judging by how easily that villain was taken out, I’d say we can safely assume that most of these villains are simple thugs that have been hired for this attack. Nevertheless, our overall chance of success will increase if we team up with the others, especially considering some of our classmates don’t exactly have suitable Quirks for attacks like this”.

From what she had seen of the training exercise, at least a quarter of the class had ill-suited Quirks for this attack. If at all possible it was her priority to make sure they were okay..


Tenya was not fine. As expected, the ‘rightful’ representatives of the class got taken out of commission immediately. Not only that but thanks to his partner in the Heroes vs Villains exercise, Thirteen was unable to apprehend the villain known as Kurogiri and Kurogiri was able to teleport most of the class away. He doesn’t know if they’re still in the USJ but they aren’t here and that’s most important.

Thankfully Mr. Aizawa had allowed them to use their Quirks in self-defense so he wasn’t acting as a vigilante but only a handful of the class remained. It didn’t help that the villain facing them had a very versatile Quirk. Physical attacks were no use and only allowed the villain to teleport his attackers away. As much as he wanted to prove himself, Iida knew that any attempt to take down Kurogiri would be rendered useless.

“Do we know where the others are?!” he yelled.

“They’re all still inside the facility but they’ve been scattered” Shouji said.

“I see”. Perhaps now was the time to reveal the technique passed down the Ingenium heritage. He would lose his ace in the hole for the Sports Festival and it wasn’t perfected but he might just be able to quickly grab a student so that they can defeat Kurogiri. Ideally Todoroki would be the one for the job. However, as he was about to ask Shouji where Todoroki was, Thirteen said to him

“Iida, I need you to escape through the front gate and report to the teachers what’s happened”.

“I REFUSE!”

If he were to just escape the school while leaving his classmates to the villains, he’d be no better than the vigilante or Midoriya. Tensei had always told him that the engines they had been born with were to run towards villain activity, not away from it and Tenya refused to do such an unheroic act.

“If you don’t, we won’t be able to get reinforcements and the chances of someone getting seriously injured become that much higher” Thirteen explained.

Iida clenched his fists. Was it possible that there was more to heroes than simple heroic behavior?

“Just go already!” Sato yelled.

“Alright, fine!” Iida yelled back as he boosted his engines.

“What fool discusses their strategy out in the open?” Kurogiri asked as he expanded his body, ready to swallow Iida hole.

“Oh no you don’t!” Uraraka yelled as she grabbed onto the villain, making him float. Kurogiri tried to redirect but was taken veered off course by Sato.

“Just a little more” Iida said as he reached the gates. However, Kurogiri had caught up to him and he didn’t have enough time to push through the gates.

“What?!” Kurogiri yelled out as he was pulled back by Thirteen’s black hole. It was only a few seconds but that was enough for Iida to run outside the building. However, looking back he saw a horrific scene play out in the form of Thirteen being ripped apart by their own black hole. Gritting his teeth, Iida ran as fast as he could back to U.A., hopefully to prevent anymore casualties.


“Don’t you think this is a little weird?” Midoriya asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we’ve been walking for 10 minutes and not a single villain has arrived to fight us. I get that Kurogiri knows Hagakure and I are valuable but we’re nearly out of the area and from there, it’s just a small walk to the plaza”.

“It is strange. Maybe Kurogiri doesn’t have too much faith in this plan of Shigaraki’s and is using us as a backup”.

“But that doesn’t make any sense. Apart from the schedule, we’ve likely given him all the information that we can. And doesn’t it draw suspicion to us if we’re the only group that hasn’t fought villains?”

A loud sonic boom came from an area behind them.

“I see your point. For that matter, why am I here? I’m not one of Kurogiri’s spies and as loathe as I am to admit it, the son of the number 2 Pro Hero. Surely it would’ve been smarter to drop me in an area with lots of villains”.

“At the very least, we’ll be able to get to Central Plaza quicker” Midoriya said.

Suddenly they were interrupted by a loud clapping. The one responsible was a thin man in a black suit of some kind. His green eyes glazed focused right over them; his pupils dilated like a predator finding it’s prey.

“Well, well, well. So I’m the lucky one who gets to fight the son of the number 2 Hero” the man said with a cheshire grin as he fixed up his tie.

Todoroki merely glared at the oncoming villain and sighed. He swung his right hand towards the villain and generated a pillar of ice towards the villain. Unfortunately, the villain was nimbler than he seemed. With almost zero effort, he was able to dodge the attack and allow it to keep going until it hit the water.

“Hey you two! I know you’re traitors but don’t jump in. I need to see how pissed off I can make him!” He gleefully proclaimed, dodging another one of Todoroki’s attacks.

The man’s grin grew larger as he could see Todoroki becoming more furious. Suddenly the man closed the distance and generated a pink blast of energy.

“Watch out!” Midoriya yelled, pushing Todoroki out of the way and taking the blast. He promptly dropped to the ground unconscious.

“What did you do to him?!” Hagakure yelled as she punched the villain, dazing him for enough to allow Todoroki to encase him in ice. They quickly got to Midoriya’s body just laying on the ground, unmoving.

“We need to check his pulse” Todoroki said.

“He’s breathing” Hagakure said with an ounce of relief in her tone before jolting Midoriya awake.

“Argh! Hagakure, let go of me!” He yelled as she trapped him in a bear hug yelling about how he’s ok. Meanwhile Todoroki turned towards the villain they captured and started his interrogation.


Yaoyorozu and Karminari were wondering through the mountain zone, looking for their classmates. Both were armed with polearms after Kaminari had disappointedly revealed that he couldn’t use his Quirk without electrocuting her in the process.

To be fair, her own Quirk wasn’t necessarily all that useful for combat purposes either but the sheer versatility of Creation allowed her to be unpredictable and keep the villain’s on their toes. However you put it though, it was essentially two Quirkless people armed with polearms. She could add a little variety but that’s about it.

Suddenly they hear a loud roaring sound and the two heroics students quickly ran towards it in hopes of finding a classmate. And find one they did, for the scene that waited them was Kyoka Jirou fending off a group of villains with soundwaves.

With the villains defeated, Jirou turned and saw them before smiling “About time a friend showed up. What’s the plan Yaomomo?”

“Uh, well the plan was to search for our classmates and aid them in the defeat of the villains attacking the USJ”.

Jirou raised an eyebrow “That’s it?”

"What?”

“Nothing. I was just expecting something a bit more complex and grandiose from you”.

“Well, you can escape but I’m more concerned about our classmates who don’t exactly have the most useful Quirks for combat”.

“So Mineta. Personally Yaomomo I think we should let the little pervert die but I’m glad your falling into the role of a true hero”.

“It’s not just Mineta but thank you. However, it seems we have found ourselves surrounded”.

Jirou’s eyes widened “Crap. Hey, you’re the lightning guy, right? Use your Quirk to take them all out!”

“I can’t”/”He can’t”.

“Why not?” Jirou said with an annoyed tone.

“His Quirk attacks indiscriminately. If he shocks them, he also shocks us”.

“Then how did you attack Bakugou in the training exercise?!”

“I can cover myself with electricity and with a piece of metal, like what Midoriya gave me, I can conduct it through the rod, see?” Kaminari explained as he charged electricity through the polearm.

“Fine! Be a human stun gun, then” Jirou said before kicking Kaminari into a villain. Sure enough her ‘attack’ worked and Kaminari found himself electrocuting the villains around him.

‘Oh how could I have been so stupid’ Yaoyorozu thought. Within a few seconds, she had created a sheet of insulation.

Covering herself and Jirou, she yelled out “Now Kaminari, use your Quirk!” and after the fact all the villains had been defeated by Kaminari’s electrification. Well nearly all.


Honestly, this “attack” was a right mess. Half of his guys had gotten taken out by a Hero who wasn’t supposed to be here, the other half fell soon after. Granted he still had some reserves to call upon but Kurogiri was still dealing with Thirteen. It was only thanks to him being a nimble, little sociopath that Tomura hadn’t been arrested already. Still...

“20 seconds”

Eraserhead was reaching his limit, Tomura was sure of it. For some inexplicable reason his hair would wave about before falling down and the period of time when this happened was getting smaller.

“17 seconds” Shigaraki grabbed Eraserhead’s capture weapon. Eraserhead took the opportunity to elbow him in the gut.

“Your max duration is getting smaller. Don’t overdo it, Eraserhead!” Shigaraki yelled before grabbing onto the Pro Hero’s elbow, skin and muscle tissue already starting to peel away as his Quirk kicked in.

Eraserhead grabbed onto his arm and threw Shigaraki away before jumping away. Fortunately there was still some other villains around so it wasn’t as if Shigaraki was in trouble or anything.

“I have to admit, it is kinda cool that you decided to jump straight into the fray hoping to make your students feel safe in spite of your Quirk. Still I’m not the final boss, Eraserhead”.

BOOOOM!!

“What?!” Shigaraki yelled out as he recovered being blown up by one of the students.

“Bakugou, get out of here!”

“Are you fucking crazy? There’s no way you can fend these bastards off” Bakugou yelled as he blasted Tomura away from Eraserhead. It was quite impressive that the boy had already deduced how dangerous the Nomu was. Time for a demonstration.

“Yo-you! Noumu, ki- argh!”

“Nice try but that things not going to move if you don’t order it to, is it?” Bakugou sneered as he continued blasting the villain leader while Eraserhead took the opportunity to ravel his capture tape around Shigaraki.

However, both the capture tape and Bakugou’s explosions were redirected.

“Took you long enough, Kurogiri. I take it Thirteen is dead?”

“Thirteen is incapacitated. One of the students escaped”.

Shigaraki frantically scratched his neck “There’s no way we can stand against a dozen Pros. Let’s retreat for now”.

“Not so fucking fast!” Bakugou yelled as he unleashed another explosion which was redirected.

BANG!

Shigaraki’s arm went limp as a bullet went through it “What?!”

“Tomura Shigaraki. You are under arrest-”

‘Shit, it’s the cops’ Shigaraki thought to himself. This was supposed to be a secret mission so why were the heroes so damn prepared? First All Might doesn’t show up then another Pro Hero turned up, now the police are here?! Perhaps those spies weren’t as reliable as he thought.

Shigaraki gritted his teeth “Noumu take them out”.

The black beast roared as it finally moved back in action. It was almost funny how hopeless, their secret weapon made things. It was designed to match All Might so a shout or a few bullets will mean nothing. The Noumu charged on through and soon enough the police were taken care of. And he shouldn't have to elaborate on what "taking care of" really meant but it did bring a smile to his face.

Honestly, Shigaraki didn’t know what he was getting worked up over. They’d had a few setbacks but as long as the Noumu was around, it didn’t really matter.

“Alright Kurogiri-” Shigaraki started before finding that their way out had been restrained by the explosion user.

“... He’s a child, Kurogiri” Shigaraki sighed before moving to remove the angry teen, while holding his arm.

Suddenly a bandage wrapped itself around him and soon after the arena had been frozen solid. Shigaraki turned to see three other students coming his way.

“Are you kidding me? Noumu kill these guys already!” The Noumu roared. It grabbed Eraserhead and smashed him into the ground. Several times. Then a gorilla man came flying through the wall and hit the Noumu.


Now

Tomura was absolutely livid. How had this happened? The heroes were too prepared for their attack. The vigilante showed up out of nowhere and disposed of his ultimate weapons. His way out had been incapacitated and he had been shot.

Suddenly a familiar roar rang out in the arena. ‘Finally something goes right for a change’ he thought as he ordered the Noumu to kill the vigilante.

“FEAR NOT, FOR I AM HERE!”

Shigaraki’s jaw dropped as the Symbol of Peace finally arrived, right when he didn’t want him to. The Noumu was punched away from Tennyson and engaged in a battle against the being it was created to kill. The shockwaves from their punches blasted everyone away.

It was a magnificent sight to see but something was off. Perhaps not to the untrained eye but Shigaraki knew better. The Noumu’s attacks were slower. Weaker, even. It seemed it’s battle against Tennyson had worn it down. Fortunately that Shock Absorption quirk was still doing it’s job.

“Tomura Shigaraki. It might be best to retreat” Kurogiri said.

“Hold on” It was true that it would be best to retreat. However, they can’t leave without the Nomu and with All Might on their tail, all they’d be doing is leading All Might to Sensei. Their best bet was to have the Noumu wear down All Might and then make a clean getaway. But there was another problem...

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, vigilante!” Shigaraki raced towards Tennyson with his hand outstretched.

The vigilante widened his eyes but turned to him all the same.

‘All I need is one little graze’ Shigaraki desperately thought but his announcement had Tennyson on guard who redirected his hand and delivered a swift punch to the chest.

“Gah!” Shigaraki recoiled at the pain but swiped again at Tennyson. And again. And again. But each and every time Tennyson was able to either redirect his blows by targeting his arms or swiftly dodge his attacks.

“Dude, seriously? My grandpa fights better than you! And pretty much everyone else I know for that matter” the vigilante said before throwing a hook at his injured bicep.

“It wasn’t supposed to end like this” Tomura groaned as he felt his arm break. “It was simple. We show up unannounced and kill All Might. That was the plan but... so many things went wrong”.

Tennyson dodged another strike and retaliated. Tomura could feel the bruises from Tennyson’s onslaught but he didn’t care. A plan was starting to form in his mind. “Although do you know how we knew this field trip would happen?”

“No but I don’t care” Tennyson said before delivering a swift blow to his ribs.

“We had a spy. Invisible girl. Perfect for spying, don’t you think? And she’s right over there!” Tomura pointed. The spy had tipped them off, Tomura was absolutely sure of it. Might as well crush her dreams as penance for this mess of an attack.

Tennyson paused at the revelation. Not for a long time but brief enough to create an opening. Shigaraki lunged at Tennyson and his hand just barely grazed the vigilante’s face as a shine of pink appeared.

“I’ve won!” Shigaraki yelled before Tennyson delivered fast and hard punches to him.

“You’ve won? Please, this entire attack has been a failure. Before I got here, high school students were fending you off and I’ve been able to beat you without using the Omnitrix. The only thing of value here is that Noumu but it seems All Might is doing just well enough on his own”.

“How?! I touched you. I know I did. How are you still alive?”

“Because I’m Ben Tennyson” And with that the vigilante punched him in the throat.

“I wouldn’t say he’s the only thing of value Mr. Tennyson” Kurogiri said as he materialised right beside the vigilante.


Ben looked to the Omnitrix but it was still on recharge mode.

“Now, now as I said there’s a reasonable explanation for all of this”.

“Oh yeah? Why don’t you tell me about it in jail”.

“Who do you think tipped off the cops?” the mist man sighed.

The air grew cold at that. Ben actually seemed to be shivering at the comment. Actually he really was shivering. He blinked and Kurogiri was trapped in ice.

“I got you!” Midoriya exclaimed.

“Please, Todoroki got him”.

Ben turned to see the three Hero students approaching Kurogiri. He thought back to Shigaraki’s proclamation. Even if Hagakure was spying for the villains, she didn’t know about the trip until they arrived so how had Kurogiri known the right place and time to attack? The communicator that Hisashi gave Izuku! But why? Midoriya had been concerned about teleporters recently.

Ben looked back to Kurogiri before calling out to the Hero students “Well if it isn’t our two spies. If I may ask, what the hell is wrong with you?!”

Midoriya and Hagakure flinched. So Midoriya was involved in this. “I’m assuming you’re not involved” he said to Todoroki.

Todoroki looked to the vigilante and back to the two traitors before uttering a single “Nope” and wandering off.

“Look Tennyson, I can explain”

“Explain what Midoriya? That Kurogiri was threatening you? That you betrayed your entire class and nearly got them killed? Instead of coming to me or someone else. Why? Did you feel you had something to prove?”

Midoriya looked down “You know?”

“I just pieced it together. Shigaraki told me Hagakure was spying for the League but the only way they would’ve known where the USJ was if you signaled Kurogiri. There’s just one thing I want to know” but the vigilante was cut off by the Noumu punching All Might away.

With the Omnitrix fully charged Ben said to the two students “If you want to make it up, make sure Kurogiri doesn’t get away” before being enveloped in a flash of light.

“Ball Weevil, seriously! Alright change of plans, Midoriya I’m going to need you to do something”


All these punches were taking their toll on All Might. The leader of the League of Villains wasn’t kidding around when he said this being was the anti-All Might. None of his punches were dealing any damage to the villain. Though the Nomu wasn’t as powerful as him, his attacks were still packing quite the punch. Still there had to be a limit and so help him, Toshinori would find it.

“That is if I don’t get killed, first’ he thought as he got punched into a wall.

Like a cat playing with it’s food, the Noumu pounced on him. Only instead of playful swipes, All Might was subjected to brutal blows. To think this League of Villains would be able to create a being nearly as strong as he was. True he still had the strength advantage but he was on a time limit and the Noumu wasn’t.

Each hit that he had to endure from this beast took just a little more time off his usage. But he couldn’t and wouldn’t give up! If he did, he would just be allowing a very dangerous villain on the loose. The Noumu roared as it went for another punch. However, just as All Might was about to parry it, he heard something.

“STONE CUTTER!!!”

Almost as if an earthquake had hit the USJ, vibrations were felt through the arena but this wasn’t Young Midoriya’s standard Stone Cutter technique. No it was much more powerful, almost as if it had been amplified by something. Almost like a tsunami, the vibrations destroyed everything they touched as the ground beneath them splintered. Stairs, trees, buildings, it didn’t matter. The attack was completely indiscriminate and ruthless.

‘So you finally learnt how to use it, Young Midoriya’ All Might took advantage of the opening by unleashing a flurry of punches on his opponent, easily dealing out 100 within this small timespan.

However, if one were to pay attention not on the two behemoths duking it out but on the surrounding area, they would find a small yellow bug on top of a large green ball which continued to increase in size as he rolled it around the area.
With blinding speed, All Might managed to overwhelm the Noumu and send it flying. Without giving the Noumu an opportunity to recover, All Might flew after it and continued to pummel it.

The Noumu was getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of punches it had to take but All Might noticed something interesting. There was a green line or something attached to the Noumu’s body. As All Might’s eyes followed the line, he finally saw the absolutely massive ball of green slime that presumably one of Tennyson’s forms was rolling on. The ball was about twice as large as this Noumu. Suddenly Tennyson spat out one end of the line.

BOOOM!

The Noumu screeched as his left arm was blown off. Tennyson nodded at Toshinori as an understanding came to his mind. All Might unleashed a powerful punch to the monster, pushing it back.

The Noumu roared and absolutely failed to notice the gigantic ball that was approaching.

“Hey!” the vigilante yelled out as he kicked the ball towards the Noumu.

Of course the Noumu merely tried to punch the ball away and that was his own undoing. For just a brief moment, the Noumu’s arm sank into the gelatinous substance and became stuck. Though All Might was sure the Noumu could have easily broken out of it, those few precious seconds were all Tennyson needed to blow it kingdom come.

The explosion was felt all amongst the USJ. Windows shattered as the vibrations destroyed whatever was left from Young Midoriya’s One For All enhanced technique and the Noumu was at the center of it all.

However, when the dust settled a piercing screech was heard. The Noumu had somehow survived the blast or rather it had just finished regenerating from it’s wounds judging by the fact that it’s limbs were on the ground.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Tennyson yelled out. “How much more can you take?”

All Might was inclined to agree and to make matters worse, his time was nearly up. The steam for his transformation was already appearing as All Might had to choke down some blood.

All Might didn’t want to do what he did next. He would be endangering innocent civilians but he had no other option. However, it did seem to be slowing down. All Might wagered that it would only take one really good SMASH to defeat it so while the monster started to charge, All Might moved as fast as he could and mustered up as much power as he could and put it into one final PLUS ULTRA attack.

The creature was launched into the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound. Anything still standing up in the plaza promptly fell apart.
‘As soon as I’m recovered, I’m going to have to find that creature but for now another problem awaits’ All Might thought as he looked at the leader. All his arrogance had vanished but instead of breaking down, he sighed.

“How?” A simple word yet it perfectly captured the feeling of defeat. An emotion that made perfect sense with his forces defeated, the weapon he’d brought to kill All Might flung into the stratosphere and his escape route frozen off.

He had clearly underestimated the heroes, if he thought hiring thugs would be enough to overwhelm the class of 1-A. To make things worse, the villain likely hadn’t been expecting his plan to be tipped off by the vigilante. Said vigilante also had 70 alien forms to easily fight off the villains and had shifted into his nurse form, currently healing Eraserhead.

In short the villain’s plan was destined to fail from the get go and the vigilante only exasperated measures. Though what would’ve happened if he hadn’t arrived, well All Might shuddered at the thought.

All Might walked over to the villain and was about to arrest him when he suddenly jumped up and grabbed onto All Might! All Might’s skin immediately started smoking as it disintegrated away.

“No! I’m not going back to Sensei just to tell him I was a complete and total failure. You were supposed to be so much weaker but that doesn’t matter now! Even if I lose here, I’m gonna make it so that you’re so much weaker than he is!” Shigaraki yelled as he continued to grab onto All Might.

“Gah!” All Might grabbed the young villain off his arm and threw him into a nearby bush but the damage had been done. The skin of his arm had been completely destroyed leaving just a mass of muscle and bone. To top it all off, his time limit had run out. Unable to maintain his muscle form, All Might’s body became enveloped in smoke as he reverted to base form. Although interestingly, his arm was now healed so there was that.


Shigaraki couldn’t believe it. He had expected the Noumu to lose but he couldn’t even make it to Kurogiri. That spy of his blocked the route and with the beating he’d taken from Tennyson, he was in no condition to fight someone in peak condition, even if it was a teenage girl. She was as useless as the heroes. Typical for a Hero student. Of course there was also that friend of hers who created an earthquake in the USJ.

If there was one silver lining to this, it was that All Might had thrown him away. Losing the Noumu and Kurogiri would be a great loss but right now, all he needed to do was focus on escaping. Once he got to Sensei, he would be able to come up with a new plan to defeat All Might. It wasn’t like that was their only Noumu afterall.

“Going somewhere?” a cheery voice rang out.

“Shit” It seems the calvary had arrived and completely surrounded him.


“Oh, well look who finally arrived!” The vigilante called out while helping Eraserhead walk.

Nezu rolled his eyes. He had already instructed the rest of the faculty to help out with the arrests. “Yes, I expected you would savor the moment you were right and I was wrong. Go ahead say it”

“Well if you insist. I told you so”

“Yes, yes I’ll be sure to take note of any ‘psychic dreams’ of yours in the future. Is there anything else I need to be made aware of?

“I’m the one who betrayed the school” a voice said to his right.

“Is that so, young Midoriya? May I ask what compelled you to do so?”

“I didn’t want to but when a teleporter is threatening to decapitate your father who you only just found last year, what you want doesn’t really matter. If I did tell someone, Kurogiri could’ve just killed my dad before anyone could do something”.

“I see. We’ll be discussing your punishment when we get back to school. Was there anyone else?”

“No. It was just me”.

“Shigaraki said Hagakure was the main culprit”

“But she didn’t do anything! I was the one to inform them of the field trip and I was the one to summon the villains here”

“How exactly did you know about the field trip though?”

“Uh” Behind Midoriya, All Might stiffened.

“Wow. All Might. I can’t believe you broke the rules and told someone about the USJ. Honestly you should be ashamed of yourself. Try and actually follow the rules like I do”

“I explicitly ordered you not to go to the USJ and stay with Class B. Not only did you leave in the middle of class but you also went to the one location I told you not to go”.

“Wow. Tennyson. I can’t believe you broke the rules and went against the Principal’s orders. Honestly you should be ashamed of yourself. Try and actually follow the rules like I do”.

“Hey at least my actions didn’t lead to a villain attack”

“Well if it wasn’t for my actions, you would’ve just gone against the Principal’s orders for no reason!”

“I wouldn’t because the reason I left was actually because I couldn’t reach Bakugou who still has my Plumbers badge. Which, I need to get that back” And with that the vigilante promptly ran off looking for the explosive hero student.

“The nerve of that guy.”

“Now, now. That guy is the reason we had an outcome as good as we did and as a vigilante it should be expected for him to break the rules a little. The Symbol of Peace, however has much higher expectations and as loathe as I am to admit it, he had a point when he said your recklessness lead to the problem in the first place”.

“Ugh”.

“I mean he did help stave the villains off until you arrived All Might” Midoriya said.

“Oh, by the way Midoriya, did Kurogiri’s teleportation involve liquid in anyway?”

“No. He mainly just used dark portals” And at those words, Nezu stiffened.

“Is something wrong, principal”.

“We need to hurry. The villains might already be in the process of leaving!” Nezu yelled as he ran back towards the police.

However when they got outside they arrived just in time to see a smirk on Shigaraki’s face as he and Kurogiri vanished into liquid.

“Don’t be too down. I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon enough!”


“Argh” Hisashi was not in the proper physical condition to be using this Quirk again so soon but unfortunately some sacrifices had to be made if his plan was to work.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” His scapegoa-er successor yelled out.

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? The plan was a complete and utter failure is what’s wrong. The Heroes were way too prepared for us, All Might is still just as fit and strong as ever and we lost the Nomu.”

“They were prepared for you?”

“Yeah, It was probably the spy you hired who told them”.

“I see. Well I wasn’t planning on using her again anytime soon” Which was actually not a lie. He didn’t want to cause more harm than necessary on his dear friend’s daughter so it was always going to be just the one incident. His son being dragged into it made him doubly sure of that.

Hisashi asked if he could track the Nomu but “Unfortunately All Might sent it flying off, I have no idea where it is”.

“Can’t you just teleport it back here Sensei?”

“My Quirk only works on humans and that Noumu is so far removed from humanity it has no effect. Did anything else happen?”

“Yeah. My Quirk failed”.

“Failed, how?”

“I tried to use it on that vigilante in his human form but besides a shine of pink, it didn’t even disintegrate him”

Hisashi sputtered “A shine of pink?”

“Yeah, it was super weird but why does it matter”

“Tomura it matters because I might actually know what that vigilante is. It makes sense given Max’s history but Ben Tennyson never showed any signs”.

“Signs of what exactly?”

But All For One didn’t answer him, for he was too focused on coming up with plans on what to do with this new information and how to defeat Tennyson. And there was still locating the Yakuza. Oh so much to do in so little time.


“Rook, I’m home and I told you so!” Ben yelled as he entered his apartment. He found his partner at the table talking to a Tetramand with a weird green arm. Rook seemed to recording something on a special device.

“Who’s this?”

“Ben. This is Guhvrah. He was part of the Quirk Integration project, you know the entire reason we are here?”

“OK, that’s cool and all but y’know you would’ve been really useful at the villain attack I told you about”.

“There was an attack? I would have liked to take part in such a battle”

“It actually happened?” Rook asked with a tinge of disbelief.

“Yeah, got my ass kicked and the villains got away”.

“That is unfortunate but we have made some real breakthroughs in what Adrian and Hisashi were working on. Guhvrah, show him your Quirk”

With a sigh of annoyance, Guhvrah’s green arm started to transform into vines, which flailed in the air uncontrollably before reverting back into a hand.

“What is that?! Also Quirk, I thought only humans had those”.

“That is just it. This Quirk was somehow implanted into a completely foreign species. Apparently a lean man gave him it and from what Guhvrah describes, he was not the only one. If Guhvrah is to be believed, this project was very similar to the Rooters own project to turn humans into aliens”.

“Except this time, they’re turning aliens more human”.

“Can I leave now” the tetramand said with an annoyed tone.

“Uh yes. Your payment will be delivered in a few days” The Tetramand nodded at him and left out the door.

“So what’s our next plan of action?”

“We still need to find the facility where the Hisashi and Adrian performed the experiments and I have a feeling that once we decrypt this hard drive, we will have the remaining data from the experiment. After that is done, we can finally leave Japan”.

“Fantastic. I mean, we already know what the Quirk Integration Project does so we can pretty much leave Japan right away.”

“No. That is not-”

Before Rook could continue the argument, a flash of light covered the room as someone teleported in. Ben was about to touch the Omnitrix when he saw who it was.

“Grandma?!”

“Hello Ben! So it seems the spark has finally awoken within you!”

“Nope” Ben said quickly, much to Verdona’s confusion.

“What is this Spark?”

“It’s an Anodite thing. Basically it’s like a key to unlock an Anodite’s powers and I don’t have it as grandma would know”.

“But I detected a faint presence of mana not two hours ago in Japan. Of course I asked Gwen but she said she hasn’t left university. And she once again rejected my offer to train her in her powers but maybe you’ll be different Ben” Verdona said with a hopeful look on her face.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t use mana”

“Perhaps it was your psychic dreams? Your vision last night did come true after all” Rook offered.

“Psychic dreams?”

“Probably not. This wasn’t the first time I had a psychic dream after all. Heck my first time was back when I was 10 and Grandma didn’t detect any mana then but she was off planet. Wait, why are you on Earth anyway grandma?”

“That’s... none of your business. Perhaps you didn’t mean to use mana. Has there been anything unusual happen today?”

“Lots of things but I dunno. This one dude has the power to disintegrate anything he touches and he touched me but I didn’t disintegrate”.

“Now we’re talking. Ben you likely unconsciously activated mana to save your life. Plus these ‘psychic dreams’ are likely the result of a passive connection to the mana field. Of course if you were to train with me kiddo, you’d get a lot more than that. Magic, energy blasts, shields, the power to have reality at your fingertips the whole shebang. So what do you say?”

Ben looked unsure of himself but gave Verdona his answer regardless.

Notes:

And here's part 2. I mean sure it's technically an hour late but eh, what're you gonna do? So this season has mainly been... eh. It's probably the worst this story is going to be, both due to my writing inexperience and my attitude being essentially "well, I can just copy straight from the manga and throw Ben in there somewhere and call it a day". I feel the first two thirds of the season was generally better in part because I a) knew what I wanted to do with the story and b) was actually somewhat experimenting instead of copy/paste, which is a problem I had when Midoriya actually started going to U.A (barring the traitor subplot, which was also eh).

Of course, I still plan on doing the Sports Festival and the basic structure will probably be the same because well, there's still a lot of factors that I can have fun with without thinking up different ways to structure the Sports Festival. That being said, I hope season 3 will be the point where the story grows the beard as it were. Now that the traitor plot is over (barring their consequences for doing that), the story can now expand into it's own territory, actually blending the Ben 10/MHA universes together.

As always comments and constructive criticism are appreciated (especially ways to improve my writing).

Chapter 21: The Return

Summary:

Ben and Rook turn their efforts to finding the Nomu and are faced with a familiar foe. Also Verdona is there, kind of.

Notes:

Hey guys. Been a while, huh. I'm really sorry about that. The thing is that what was initially simple procrastination and typical university stuff turned into something else. Long story short, anxiety is a bitch to deal with. I wasn't happy with anything I was writing and I figured that no one would really care anyway. Combine that with me falling off both Ben 10 and MHA at roughly the same time and I wasn't really in a condition to write.

It got to the point, where Kudos started annoying me because I kept being reminded of this passion project of mine that I just wanted to forget about. But over time, I realised I was being an whiny little bitch. I read back through the story and it's not that bad. Sure, there's a few parts that are a bit cringy but it's not horrible. Is it amazing? Absolutely not. But it's serviceable enough entertainment and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Of course, there was still the issue of the amount of time I'd left this story alone. The thing is that with a lot of fics that go on for an extended hiatus, a lot of people generally don't care when that fic picks up again. And if that's you, it's perfectly understandable to unsubscribe and just leave this fic alone. However, this fic was also getting a few Kudos nearly two years after it had been last updated. So I basically decided after the 90th Kudos that if this fic got something else (be it a Kudos or a comment), I'd pick it back up again. And two days later, I got a comment that was simply "update".

So I got my act into gear, went over a bunch of my old drafts and made some modifications. I've tried to channel my passion back into the writing for season 3 and hopefully it comes through. To all those that left Kudos or just generally stuck around, thank you.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“No”. With that, Ben hit the Omnitrix and transformed into a large mouse-bear-dog thing, wearing a dark Victorian era suit with a tophat on his head. The Omnitrix was placed on the back of his arm. 

“Now if you excuse me, grandma, Labrat has to find a large behemoth of a man before he hurts anyone else” he said with a grin on his face as he grabbed Rook’s computer, pulling up a map of the USJ facility. 

Verdona was stunned as she watched her grandson mumble to himself about co-ordinates and the like, completely disregarding how he brushed her offer off. Gwen, she could understand. Gwen already had a decent control over mana. She could be a lot better but she had enough for what she needed in life. 

But Ben really didn’t have enough of the applications that Anodites possessed. All he had was unreliable precognition and barrier generation. It wasn’t even a conscious decision on his part. She couldn’t understand why her grandson had rejected the means to be something much more than he is. At least Gwen seemed to be somewhat conflicted when she first brought the idea up, though trying to remove her mortal body and forcing her to Anodyne probably wasn’t the best method of persuasion. 

“Aha! I found it or should have anyway”

“Already?!” Rook exclaimed as Verdona was brought out of her stupor.

“Indeed, by calculating the amount of force All Might put into his punch as well as the relative trajectory of the Noumu as it was sent flying, as well as other factors like the acceleration of the creature, the distance of it’s flight before gravity started to affect it, etc. I can determine that it landed in Risa Park”. 

“Then let’s get going!” 

In a flash of light the group was already in a park of some kind. There was a large crater in what looked to have been a fountain. Well if Ben was going to be stubborn, Verdona would just have to show him how much better off he’d be if he got in touch with his Anodite genes.

“Thanks grandma” Ben said nonchalantly as he transformed back into himself before conversing with his Revonnahgander partner about what the next step was. 

“Judging from the lack of footprints, I can only assume that this Nomu was taken by another individual, perhaps someone with telekinesis, but where could they have taken him?”

“Worst case scenario it was Shigaraki’s teleporter. If that’s the case, the Nomu is already in the hands of the villain behind the USJ, ready to be unleashed among the world. Hopefully that isn’t the case” Ben said as he hit the Omnitrix. 

In yet another flash of light, Ben had transformed into a Vulpimancer it seemed. And one that was nearing maturity if that budding tail and stripes were any consideration. As annoying as it was, Verdona had to admit that this was the ideal form for the situation. 

Though she could instantly track and teleport any mana, she had no idea what this “Noumu”’s mana signature looked like. Though she could just read Ben’s memories, because Ben couldn’t comprehend mana, no mana signature would appear. A Vulipmancer’s enhanced sense of smell was perfect for tracking down individual’s Ben had already encountered though if he had mana on his side, the process would’ve gone a lot quicker. 

Ben sniffed the general area of the park as well as the fountain before taking off. Verdona grabbed the Revohnaghander and flew after him. After a few minutes of running Ben came to one of those primitive buildings where you could send an equally primitive vehicle to get fixed. She honestly couldn’t understand the appeal of this planet especially if all of these buildings looked as shabby as this one did. 

However, something did peak her interest. She could detect another mana signature, extremely faint, but it was there. 

Turning to the two Plumbers, Verdona simply thought ‘They’ll be fine’ before leaving to conduct her own investigation.


Ben timed out “It’s definitely around here but I think it might be a better idea to just wait until the Omnitrix is fully charged again”.

“That is a good idea. We do not know who has taken the Noumu and you will need to be fit for combat once we confront them”.

“Yeah and the Noumu itself is no pushover either. That guy’s stronger than Chromastone, Fasttrack and Ball Weevil. Even All Might had trouble with him”. 

Just at that point, one of the garage doors started to open. 

“Crap, I’m not prepared for this!” Ben said before turning around “And where’s grandma?!” 

“It seems Verdona may have wandered off for some reason” Rook said helpfully.

“Argh. Can you buy me some time?”

“I will try,” Rook said before the door stopped. A drilling sound could be heard as the door was banged on before it went flying. A blur of red followed after it and jumped in front of the two Plumbers, creating a shockwave. The body was similar to Armodrillo with two pistons in his arms and armor covering him; his hands had shapeshifted into drills. The only noticeable difference was that the armor was red instead of yellow. 

“Tennyson, of course you’d be here to ruin my plans yet again”. 

“Ah crap it’s Albedo”

“RUN!”

Albedo swung his arms at Ben, only to have Rook block it with his shield. 

“Pitiful” Negative Armodrillo turned the drill back to its default state, the piston’s moving as he did so before generating a large vibration blast, destroying the shield and sending Rook flying. 

“Why must you always interfere, Tennyson?!” Ben ducked under the strike.

“Why must you always ruin everything?!” Another strike.

“Just for once, why couldn’t you just stay out of my way?!” Albedo managed to grab Ben by the back of his hoodie and lifted him up to deliver a blow to Ben’s torso, sending him into the wall of a nearby building. Albedo hammered into the ground creating an earthquake to cause the building to collapse. 

Humungousaur burst out of the rubble with a deafening roar. Negative Armodrilo propelled himself to the Vaxasaurian but was repelled back by a swing of Humungousaur’s tail. Humungousaur grew in size and punched Albedo into the ground. 

“We weren’t even looking for you; just that Noumu you stole. What are you even planning to do with it?”

“That’s not something you need to concern yourself with, Tennyson!” Albedo touched the Omnitrix symbol on his chest and was swallowed by a burst of red light. 

‘As long as I keep a hold of him it doesn’t matter what he changes into’ Ben thought, shifting Humungousaur’s hands to accommodate the new form.

When the light died down, Albedo had changed into a red mantaray-esque alien; Jetray. The only difference between Ben’s form and Albedo’s is that Albedo had red eyes but other than that it was a perfect match. 

“Jetray isn’t strong enough to break out of Humungousaur’s grip” Ben grinned “And here I thought you were smart”. 

Albedo said nothing, instead opting to shoot out red beams from his eyes, hitting Humungousaur square in the chest. Ben lost feeling in his body for only a second but that one second was enough for Negative Jetray to break free of Humungousar’s grip and fly off. 

“Ah! Get back here” Though Humungousaur had the strength and durability advantage, he was too slow for an alien like Jetray who had just broken the sound barrier with his flight. Humungousaur tried to hit Albedo whenever he got close but Negative Jetray flew loops around Humungousaur, hitting him with paralysing eye beams whenever he could.

“You’re not the only one who can quick-change” Humungousaur grinned viciously before hitting the Omnitrix and turning into Arctiguana. 

“As if a Polar Manzardill will ever be able to keep up with an Aerofibian!” Albedo cried out as he flew around. 

Arctiguana merely grinned before letting out a freezing breath, which followed Negative Jetray’s flight. Negative Jetray merely used his eye beams to counter. Blue and red clashed in a vibrant show of light but soon the blue freezing ray overpowered Negative Jetray’s neuroshock beams. 

Albedo dodged but it was too late; the sheer cold of Arcitguana’s blast had already frozen parts of his legs and wings, impairing his movement and thus causing him to crash to the ground. Arctiguana took the opportunity to hit Negative Jetray with another freezing blast, encasing him in ice. Soon after that was encased in red light. 

Arctiguana waited to see the next form, only for Albedo to have disappeared. “Ah crap, he’s turned into Nanomech” he said before spinning around and freezing his surroundings. Arctiguana didn’t stop until he needed to catch his breath, which was the exact moment Albedo chose to unleash red bio-electricity onto the Polar Manzardill. 

Arctiguana was pushed back but unleashed a freeze breath in Albedo’s general direction. Unfortunately, Albedo had already moved on and Arctiguana started feeling an intense pain inside his head. 

“Inside me? Come on!” Ben yelled before pressing the Omnitrix, hoping for an alien that could deal with an attack from the inside. 

In a brilliant flash of light, Arctiguana had changed into Swampfire who quickly grabbed his head, detached it and threw it into the air before firing a fireball at it. The resulting explosion Immediately after caused a boy no older than the age of 11 to hit the ground. The burns and other various injuries he had sustained didn’t stop him from trying to transform but Swampfire quickly suspended him in air with vines. 

“Fool. Have you forgotten I don’t need the Omnitrix to transform?” Albedo said before turning into a large turtle with holes on his chest; Terraspin. The only difference being that his overall colour scheme was slightly darker than Ben’s own form. 

Albedo quickly spun to shred Swampfire’s vine cage and generated a strong wind to lift Swampfire off the ground. Swampfire tried to use his flamethrowers but they were pushed back and Swampfire along with them. 

“You have got to be kidding me!” Ben yelled out as he was sent through the wall of a building.

Meanwhile Albedo had changed back into his human form. “I don’t have much time” he said before running back into the garage. As he passed his minion, he gave the order “Kill anyone who tries to get in” before running to the machine he had been building. He hadn’t tested it yet so he could only hope it worked. 


Rook couldn’t help but feel inadequate at what he had just seen. Of course, there were plenty of times when he had to reign his partner in but it was times like these that made him realize Ben really did not need him. Though Ben’s immaturity prevented him from reaching his full potential, Rook would be lying if he said he was not at least a little thankful for that. 

Before being assigned to Earth, Rook had extensively read up on the “saviour of the whole, entire universe”. He’d crafted this image in his head of this supposedly perfect being, who would always do what he thought was right. A protector of innocents and destroyer of evil; a symbol of justice. 

Of course that image quickly shattered upon actually meeting the man behind the stories. Destroyed by an arrogant and selfish teenager who loved to remind everyone about how great and powerful he was but in reality needed to be rescued as much as everyone else. 

And yet, Rook found himself wondering ‘would it really have been better if the great Ben 10 was like how the stories describe?’ The Ben 10 in the stories was certainly no-nonsense but Rook felt the Ben 10 of reality was much more approachable and easier to get along with. There was also the dreaded Aggregor incident to think about. 

Ben had not talked about it but from the stories he’d heard, it seemed his partner abandoned his humanity to do what he thought was right. No longer caring about “another option”, only caring about getting the job done and he would take down any and all those who stood in his way. 

How many times has Rook’s Proto-Tool been destroyed in one of these encounters? How many times has his partner had to do the heavy lifting while he has at worst been relegated to the sidelines? The harsh reality is that any of the Plumbers could have done his job. He was not special. It was times like these that Rook started to question why he was here and it was times like these that Rook found his answer; the same realization. He was here to help. Help Ben when he fell and when he strayed from the heroic path. And so, that is what he is going to do. And so Rook made his way to his partner to help apprehend this villain once and for help.


“If you are done taking a nap, there are criminals to apprehend”

“Ok, ok! Geez, get thrown through a building and nobody cares. You sure you’re alright for this? Maybe it would be better if we waited for reinforcements” Ben suggested, concerned. 

“We do not have time for reinforcements. Albedo could already be carrying out whatever nefarious plan he has” Rook said with a glare. 

“Riiight. It’s not Albedo I’m worried about. His plan will probably end up backfiring like it usually does and we’ll call Azmuth to pick him up”. 

“How can you not be worried over one of your greatest enemies?!”

“Greatest is stretching it” Ben mumbled. “In case you’ve forgotten, the whole reason we’re here is the Noumu who can fight on par with All Might. The Omnitrix has maybe one transformation left and if it fails, I doubt Stone Cutter is going to cut it”. 

“I see your point but at the same time we can not allow Albedo to commit whatever criminal act he is in progress of doing. We can contact the authorities before making contact”.

“Fine by me. At least we’ll buy some time. You ready?” To which Rook nodded as the two Plumbers finally entered the garage.

“Nomu, kill them!” Albedo yelled from the back of the shop. He seemed to be working on some large device though the Noumu prevented them from getting a close view. And right on cue, they were immediately attacked by a large black monstrosity. 

“STONE CUTTER!”

Predictably the blow was completely absorbed into the Noumu’s skin as orange tremors went across its body. The blow the Noumu landed against Rook however, was enough to destroy his armor and send him into the wall. 

Ben gritted his teeth. If he only had one more transformation left, it was definitely going to be one in the higher tiers “C’mon Gravattack!”. 

Engulfed in a bright green glow, Ben was revealed to have transformed into a floating purple squid with dark yellow tentacles. His cranium elongated upwards with fins fraying in the air; the same place where the Omnitrix was located. His eyes perpetually wide looked down at himself, which just seemed to be a mass of tentacles in varying sizes. 

“Seriously? I mean I know I had this guy but I never bothered to work out his powers. Not the best time, Omnitrix!” Ben yelled before sending his tentacles outwards. The tentacles shifted to become very string-like as they connected with the Noumu’s hand who merely pushed forward. 

The vigilante braced himself for impact but it never came. To his surprise. The Noumu was just standing in front of him, his hand covered in dozens of tiny string-like appendages. 

“Kinda weird that you didn’t hit me but-” 

And immediately the Noumu moved to smash him into the ground.

“STOP! STOP! STOP!” 

The Noumu stopped, almost as if it was waiting for an order of some kind. Looking at the Noumu and then the strings attached between the two of them, Ben came to a realization though to confirm this realization he spoke again “Pat your head and rub your belly!”. The Noumu did just that. 

“So I can control the minds of anyone I touch, hehe. That’s pretty cool! Hey, pick me up and take me to that kid over there!” 

Albedo groaned “It doesn’t matter if you’re a puppenus. My invention is already finished!” 

“I think not!” Rook yelled as he broke a large container machine behind Albedo’s back. 

“Oh please, that was there when I got here. Not sure what for but it did make a good decoy. The actual invention has already been activated” Albedo smirked while holding his hand to demonstrate a small white object attached to his arm. 

“Nomu” Ben tried to yell but it was too late. Albedo had already been engulfed in a flash of light. Ben shook with anticipation, his tremors unconsciously affecting the Noumu as well. 

“NO!” A now deep voice echoed through the area. The light died down to reveal, where there had once been a boy in his pre-teens was now an old man with red eyes and long, white hair. 

“I just want my original form back! Is that too much to ask Azmuth?! Damn you!” Albedo activated the device again only to be met with the form of a kindergartner. 

“Come on, work damn it!” Albedo screeched but the device continued to change him into forms of various ages but undeniably human. The final activation broke the device and Albedo ended up in the body of a teenage girl. 

She yelled in anguish as her eyes welled up. Soon enough the dam broke and she started crying and to make matters worse, whatever Albedo had done to his or rather her body had not been with the Omnitrix so her clothes hadn't been refitted to accommodate her body. As a result, unlike the last time this happened Albedo was now crying in a let’s say more considerable state of undress than the time at Billions Tower. 

“Be on your guard, the vigilante known as Ben 10 is here!”.

“Quick grab everyone and run as fast as you can!” The Noumu followed Ben’s orders and escaped the garage faster than the cops could even process. 

Eventually they got back to the apartment. The Noumu put everyone down outside, Albedo didn’t seem to notice that they had left as they were still crying. With a sigh, Ben dragged her into the apartment “Find something to wear, I don’t care what” before shutting the door on the newly female supervillain. 

“You told the cops I was there?!” 

Rook averted his gaze “It was the quickest way to get them to help. Besides you allowed two villains to escape capture so I think it’s even”.

“I wasn’t thinking and if I hadn’t done that we would’ve been arrested as vigilantes and that is not something my reputation needs right now. Besides, a vigilante in control of a superweapon All Might just fought and his ally cornering a near-naked girl? Not the best image”.

Rook merely sighed “Well we need to come up with a plan for what to do going forward” 

The two Plumbers entered the apartment to see Albedo now in a robe, who seemed to have come out of their funk. “You doing ok?”

“Oh, shut up Tennyson” Albedo snapped in that usual pompous tone. However, the supervillain was currently observing something that was somehow even stranger than all that had happened today; Verdona had seemingly come back home. 

“Well, kiddo it looks like I don’t have to train you. I’ve found a replacement”.

A blue blur crashed into Ben making chirping sounds. Ben grabbed it to get a better look and was shocked to see what it was. A baby. Specifically his baby or one of them anyway.

“You have got to be kidding me”

Notes:

I'm not entirely sure what I would have called this chapter had I updated normally but well "The Return" is the perfect title for this chapter, ain't it? A lot happens here. Verdona gets rejected by Ben so no Anodite training for him. He's already OP enough but we'll see the consequences for this decision next chapter. Albedo comes back and yeah I'm kicking his arc off with a higher than standard dosage of humiliation than he normally gets. We'll see how this affects things going forward.

In other news, Season 3 is going to be split into two arcs. 3a will be lighter. It'll be about 5 chapters long and deal with minor things that have been building up in the series like Ben's employment at U.A. Spoilers. He already he thinks he doesn't have to go back. 3b on the other hand is going to be quite fast paced, covering both the Sports Festival and Stain.

As always comments and contructive criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 22: Consequences

Summary:

Ben fights his crazy grandmother, Izuku and Toru face the consequences of their actions.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Stone Cutter: So that’s what happened; the full story.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: Wow... I guess I’m honored you decided to tell me but why?

Stone Cutter: I guess I just needed someone to vent to and Hagakure’s not exactly the right person to do that considering y’know.

Stone Cutter: Besides, you’re already existing reputation doesn’t exactly leave you as someone who can say this without making yourself come across as even more insane.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: Touche.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: So what’s going to happen now that you’ve gone full villain.

Stone Cutter: I imagine that Hagakure and I will be expelled and mum and dad are going to murder us for well... everything.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: Come on. It won’t be that bad? Having OFA practically makes you immune to any punishment too harsh. And I’m sure your dad will be understanding considering the circumstances.

Stone Cutter: I hope you’re right. 


“You did what?!” Izuku and Toru flinched. This was the first time they’d heard their father and uncle, respectively, raise his voice at them. They’d heard him express disappointment quite a few times but this was the first time he seemed genuinely angry. 

“I know it sounds bad but-”.

“Sounds bad?! You’ve risked your futures in this stupid scheme of yours. And Kurogiri, what were you thinking involving them in this?! And what’s this about you summoning a portal around my neck?!”

Yes it was true, Kurogiri was currently right next to them practically kneeling in apology to Hisashi.

“Well, I simply thought it would get the job done faster. Of course I was never going to harm you, sir” It was almost amazing how the most intimidating existence they had encountered could speak with such weakness. 

“And in doing so, you managed to make my son and niece accomplices to the USJ villain attack! They’re risking expulsion because of your actions. On top of that I highly doubt anyone will want to hire them with this reputation they’ve acquired”.

Kurogiri’s mist wavered “My apologies, sir”. 

“Hold on. You knew about the villain attack?! Why? How?!” Izuku yelled, causing his father to grimace in his bed. 

“I didn’t want to involve you but considering how involved you’ve already become, I suppose you do deserve an explanation. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the villain leader had another teleporter to escape”.

“Yeah, it was some weird liquid-y flowing substance that caused him to disappear,” Toru said. 

“Well that Quirk belongs to a villain even greater than Tomura Shigaraki, an ancient evil who has been around since the dawn of Quirks. I’ve had Kurogiri work with this villain, while I work with the police in an attempt to capture him but as you can guess, it’s a lot harder than it sounds”. 

“Couldn’t Kurogiri just teleport him into custody?”

“One of the reasons it’s a lot more difficult than it should be is that this villain never meets with anyone he doesn’t trust. As you can guess Tomura Shigaraki is one of those people”.

“But why the USJ?! Why risk hurting high school students? Why not at least inform the school?”

“Please, those “villains” were nothing more than thugs with untrained Quirks. I’m sure you saw how easy it was to take them down. The risk was minimised if Kurogiri did his job right and teleported the students to areas that were to their advantage”.

“As for not informing you, we couldn’t do that lest this villain think there is a spy amongst his ranks. Unfortunately that bit was rather senseless”.

“Huh?”

“Surely, you noticed there was something off about the USJ. The heroes were far too prepared for what was to come. Even disregarding the cops who were called by yours truly, Present Mic had no reason to be there. The Forever Knights were easily dispatched by Tennyson who also had no reason to be there. On top of all that, Shigaraki was successfully apprehended but it seems the great darkness that plagues hero society somehow knew something had happened to his enforcer”. 

“Wait, are you saying there’s a spy among the villains besides you two?”

“More importantly, how do you know about this oh so great evil? And is this villain called All For One by any chance?”. 

His father stiffened “How do you know that name, Izuku?”

“When I started training with All Might, a time traveller said he was going to be very important in my life. On top of that, All Might refuses to tell me about him but I guess he was the villain to cripple All Might”.

Out of nowhere Hagakure started giggling before her giggles turned into full-out laughter “Come on Midoriya, a time traveller?! Surely you can come up with something more believable than that”.

However besides Izuku’s insistence that his encounter with the time traveller really did happen, no one else seemed to care. In fact, Hisashi Midoriya almost seemed worried at the mention.

“Izuku, was this time traveller- did he go by the name Paradox?”

“Yeah, that’s it! How do you know?”

“It was the name of a secret Plumber scientist, trying to figure out time travel in the 50’s. Everyone thought he was a crazy old coot who disappeared after his failure of an experiment. But it seems he succeeded after all. Right now we need to figure out how we’re going to protect your futures”. 


Welp Albedo escaped. As soon as she had grabbed some clothes, she booked it. It would have been a sure thing stopping them but Verdona caused such a commotion that they didn’t know when Albedo actually escaped. Rook glared at him when he found out. Ben knows he should be worried but it’s Albedo , failure extraordinaire. He’s sure they’ll cross paths some time again and they’ll just arrest her then. But for now, there were other matters to be concerned with.

“How does this Necrofriggian even have the ability to use mana?”

“Well, mana isn’t like DNA. It’s a lot more spiritual in nature. That way any descendant of an Anodite will be capable of using mana and can turn into an Anodite thus perpetuating our species”.

“Does this mean all 14 of Ben’s children can use mana?”

“Well it’s not that cut and dry I’m afraid. All five of my descendants on Earth technically have the means to use mana but only one actually had the Spark to activate it though Ben seems to have found a phenomenon yet unheard of. You either can or you can’t activate mana. Of course with 14 children, at least one would have the Spark statistically speaking”.

“Very fascinating grandma but Spark or no Spark, you’re not forcing my child into training for 70 years”

“What does it matter if I do? You get to keep your mundane life and I get an apprentice. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a win-win” Verdona said with a nonchalant smile. Before he could get a word out, Verdona continued “Besides, don’t act as if you care so much for this one’s well being. It was clearly abandoned and scavenging for scraps. Did you even know it was in danger?”

That question actually struck a chord. It was true he didn’t have any sentimental attachment to this Necrofriggian and it probably would’ve died without him knowing but... But regardless he couldn’t allow Verdona to just kidnap a child for her own selfish needs. Ben growled “Necrofriggians naturally grow up on their own. You aren’t taking my kid to Anodyne. Humungousaur!” Ben slammed the Omnitrix but instead of the large brown dinosaur, a purple humanoid chameleon was in his place.

“Can you hold her off?” Ben said to his partner before grabbing the Necrofriggian child and vanishing. 

“Perhaps that would’ve worked against any other opponent but I can sense both of your mana signatures!” Verdona exclaimed before being trapped by a net, electrocuting her. 

Verdona let out a pained grunt as Rook shot at her through the net. However, after 30 seconds of Rook’s assault, she managed to absorb the energy of his blasts and the net around her. She effortlessly broke out of the net and summoned large green vines from the ground to restrain Rook.

“Now if you excuse me, I have to find my great-grandchild” And with those words, she vanished in a burst of bright blue light. 


“Alright I’m not sure how long we have but she’s eventually going to find you” Chamalien said to his child turning off the invisibility. “What’s important is that we use every second for this plan”

“Plan?”

“Did you just talk?” Ben was taken aback. He didn’t have any feelings like warmth or pride in the first words of his offspring. They hadn’t interacted in three years; “Plan” probably wasn’t even their first word. That being said, he wasn’t going to allow Verdona to force them into training for decades just because she wanted to.

Fighting Verdona was inevitable but he knew first hand how crazy versatile magic and mana could be. If he was going to do this he needed to be able to quick change fast and without Master Control; there was only one option “Omnitrix activate Randomizer”

“Randomizer activated”

And not a second too soon; Verdona appeared in a flash of bright blue light. 

“Please Ben, y’know how this goes. We fight, I’ll overpower you, just surrender the Necrofriggian and I’ll be on my way. You don’t even have my favorite here to help you this time”.

Ben rolled his eyes “I don’t know about that. I’ve gained some new tricks since the last time we fought like so!” And with that he enveloped himself in a flash of light. He felt his skin become soft before something hard covered them; his fingers turned into claws and his entire body was enveloped by a hard shell of sorts. 

Looking up at Verdona through his visor Ben yelled “Water Hazard!” before unleashing two pressurized water blasts at his grandmother. 

Verdona smirked “A walking squirt gun isn’t going to stop me”. She let out a mana blast which immediately evaporated the water. Exactly as planned. Water Hazard rose the temperature of all the water in the area creating a screen of steam. He then manipulated the water molecules to surround Verdona before flash freezing the water to temporarily encase her in a block of ice. Emphasis on temporarily. 

Fortunately he’d already transformed into Brainstorm. Quickly concocting a plan, as he scuttled across the ground Brainstorm shot out a wave of electricity increasing his electro-magnetic field. Cars levitated and were pulled towards him as he made his way to Verdona who had just thawed herself out. She quickly put up a barrier to defend against the flurry of cars coming her way, making her wide open for the lightning bolts he had summoned underground, resulting in a loud crack. 

“You see, dear grandmother of mine you couldn’t possibly fathom the size of my intellect!”

However his barrage merely gave Verdona more ammunition. She quickly got a hold of herself and soon everything he had thrown at her from the cars to the lightning bolts to the manhole cover was covered in a bright sheen of pink. 

“Oh dear” Brainstorm said before Verdona unleashed her attack. Brainstorm was quickly transformed into Heatblast, who was bombarded by attacks before even being able to attack. Fortunately this form had taken a lot worse so he wasn’t too badly injured, taking the opportunity to fly at Verdona shooting pyrokinetic blasts at her. She clearly wasn’t impressed at the five fireballs that had been shot at her and took the time to extinguish each and every single one. 

However, by the time she was finished, Heatblast was close enough to grab a hold of her. Heating himself up to the maximum possible temperature, he merely yelled “Supernova!!” beyond her screams of pain before suplexing her into the ground leaving a large crater. 

“You see? There’s no way you can win with 70 aliens at my disposal and each and every one of them could kick your butt” Heatblast said before transforming into a large humanoid bird with blades on his shoulders.

“Kickin Hawk? Seriously Omnitrix!” He yelled. It wasn’t that Kickin Hawk was weak, far from it. He wasn’t lying when he said Kickin Hawk was his best hand-to-hand fighter but when going up against a flying magic alien who could do practically anything, martial arts falls a bit short. 

He tried to grab a hold of her but she merely floated out of his reach. As he batted away at her tendrils he looked up to see that she had charged up a very large mana blast.

“Oh shi-”  

Kickin Hawk was blasted into the ground and for added measure Verdona decided to bury him underneath every piece of debris in the fight, preventing him from escaping. Fortunately he transformed into Ghostfreak allowing him to phase through the makeshift barrier. Unfortunately, he still didn’t have adequate firepower against his magical adversary though there might be a way to get more...

“I guess I won’t know until I try. Fortunately the sun’s not gonna rise” he said in that raspy voice of his. Without waiting another moment, he pulled and pulled at his ‘skin’ until it ripped apart, his chains falling as he did so. His fingers elongated while his skull rotated upside down was on fall display. He felt an immense amount of untapped power flow through him as tentacles burst forth from his chest. 

“Well, I still feel like me” 

He saw Verdona attempting to grab the Necrofriggian child who kept dodging her attempts. Activating his telekinesis, he uprooted a tree to throw at Verdona as well as a few cars and even some of the sidewalk. With a burst of energy, Verdona flung them backwards but Ghostfreak was nowhere to be found.

She activated her mana sense but still couldn’t find anything. It was almost as if her grandson had completely vanished in thin air. Actually scratch that, she could sense one more mana signature belonging to her grandson’s partner. Rook, if she recalled.

Before she could do anything she was ensnared in another net, followed by being pinned to the ground as the temperature cooled down drastically. She looked around but couldn’t see where all this cold was coming from. Rook had an iron hold on her, she was actually finding it quite hard to move. 

She tried to say a spell but she was being held down by her throat. She couldn’t get the words out! Suddenly she felt this chilling presence get even closer. Ben chose that moment to phase out of the ground and grabs a hold of her, feeding on her life force as he did so. Unable to do anything, being so utterly trapped, it was only a matter of time before Verdona passed out and morphed back into her weakened human form. 


Though he was principal of this school, Nezu was quite sure he didn’t get paid enough for this utter garbage. Tennyson hasn’t contacted him in the three days since the attack. He’d tried to call him but the vigilante was ignoring his calls. Surely he can’t still be mad at that whole ordeal? Well, he’ll deal with the vigilante later. Right now, there were two traitors who needed to be punished. “So if I understand you correctly, the reason you betrayed the school was because the villain known as Kurogiri threatened your father’s life. Said villain was actually a double agent trying to expose All For One”.

“That’s right” the two traitorous students were apprehensive at Nezu’s explanation. Despite the hero’s physical stature, his presence seemed to tower over them. At least that’s the effect he’s going for. 

“And instead of going to the authorities with this information, you decided to go along with his plan and endanger the entirety of Class A”. 

“Yes but if we did that-”

“Kurogiri would be unable to do anything” Nezu said, not giving Midoriya a chance to talk 

“Though I understand your emotional slip up, Kurogiri merely had one hostage. If he killed Midoriya Hisashi, you two obviously wouldn’t go along with his plan, which means he would lose his two spies and gain nothing. Ergo, there was no possibility of your father ever being harmed”.

“But you’re forgetting the fact that Kurogiri’s portal manipulation allows him to teleport wherever he wants and as such he could easily escape and harm more people”.

“Don’t act like you were thinking about civilians. The fact of the matter is that you gave private information to a villain and endangered your entire class as a result” Midoriya and presumably Hagakure were finding the floor very interesting right now.

Nezu sighed “I should expel the both of you but I’m not sure that would solve the problem. If anything I’d be letting the perfect spy and an incredibly intelligent user of One For All fall right into the hands of villains, which is not exactly good considering you two have already shown to be quite adept at villainy”.

Nezu clasped his hands “Right! It seems that is the only option. Three things are going to be happening; first I need you two to hold out your hands.”

The two students did so as Nezu brought out two needles, injecting them with some clear liquid of some kind. 

“Want to tell us what this is?”

“No, I don’t think I will” In essence it was but a set of nanomachines that recorded their location, thoughts and dialogue. A total invasion of privacy but one Nezu felt was entirely justified. 

“Secondly, I’ll be bringing in Ragdoll to keep an eye on you two. Surely, she can expend two slots in her Quirk” Simply a safety measure in case the nanomachines fell into failure.. 

“And third?” Hagakure asked.

Nezu smiled. Meanwhile in a nearby hospital, a recovering Aizawa felt a feeling of dread wash up over him. “Why do I get a feeling, Nezu’s going to forcefully involve me in one of his schemes again?”


“No, no, damnit!” Albedo shrieked out. This had been the seventh time she’d blasted herself with this damn machine and it wasn’t working! The junkyard was little more than a barren area of scrapes now. 

To make matters much worse, she was on a clock now as she eyed her arm. Parts of this flesh bag had already started to flake away. Her skin now had gaping holes all through it, leaving some parts of her muscular system peeking through. 

Albedo wasn’t sure if this was a result of the instability of this new body or the repeated blasts from the machine but either way, she was decomposing like a corpse just laid to rest. In a matter of hours, her skin tissue had already depleted by roughly a fifth. 

Albedo sighed to herself. What she was about to do may kill her pride but better that than literally dying. She was going to have to ask for help. Only problem was from who?

Notes:

I really had no idea what to call this chapter. Consequences was the most obvious but I really didn't want to use it. Unfortunately, it fit so well with the events of the chapter. Ben faces the consequences of rejecting Verdona's offer as well as not keeping in touch with his kids. Izuku and Toru face the consequences of betraying the school and actually being villains. Even Albedo's scene is ultimately a consequence of him being too stubborn/humiliated to stick around and get help.

Of course, part of the reason why I didn't want to call this chapter consequences is because it's just a perfect chapter title for damn near anything. Even this chapter was setting up minor bits of foreshadowing that will have consequences later on down the line.

As always comments and criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 23: Reflection

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“A sports festival!” The class of 1-A yelled out. With the recent villain attack, it seemed almost silly to do something so completely normal. Aizawa was inclined to agree but Nezu’s thought process was that it was important to keep up moral, to show that they would not be intimidated by the villains yadayadayada. 

“This event isn’t something that can be cancelled over a villain attack but there will be five times the security to ensure nothing bad happens. Regardless this is the greatest opportunity you’ll get. As one of Japan’s biggest events, it has since taken the place of the Olympics”. 

“Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?” Bakugou announced from his seat, his gruff expression not changing as all eyes in class landed on him.

“What do you mean Kacchan?” Damnit Midoriya, don’t encourage this.

“He’s making it out to be this big event that has way more importance than it really does. As much as it pains me to admit it, no one’s gonna give a damn about this Festival. Seriously why would they when they can pay attention to the third years” Perhaps Bakugou’s training with Tennyson and the USJ attack had humbled him a little.

“Well, typically that may be the case but given the recent villain attack I’d wager that the media will have their eyes on the students who successfully survived a villain attack” Yaoyorozu said in an attempt to get this back on track. At least she seemed to be persuading the rest of the class that this was an important event.

“That being said, I do agree that you are overstating the importance of this event. Even disregarding the fact that we still have two sports festivals after this, that would mean the only way to make it as a Pro Hero would be to enrol in U.A. in the first place. As a result you are disregarding the students of every other Hero school in Japan” Damnit Yaoyorozu and you were doing so well. 

Aizawa just groaned “Yes, ok. The Sports Festival is not necessary to make it as a Pro. Regardless it is still a valuable experience that allows you to show off what you’re made off to potential scouts. Should you be scouted, you will have more experience than those who have not, meaning that you have an edge when you start to go Pro”. 

Aizawa regained his composure. “You will have two weeks to prepare. Use this time wisely” he advised. Aizawa then spent the rest of the class, giving an overview of what was typically to be expected during the Sports Festival before the bell rang to signal the class change. 


“WHAT’S GOING ON?!” The exit of the class was completely blocked off by the students from the other departments. 

“Extras scoping out the competition. We are the students who survived a villain attack after all” Bakugou said as he glared at the student blockade. Though he knew he was going to win, he wasn’t stupid. He didn’t know if any of these extras had a sli- Quirk that held the advantage over him and if they did; well it was better he didn’t make a target of himself. No point wasting time on people who were going to lose regardless, after all.

“So this is Class 1-A. You’ve been quite popular recently but all I see is a bunch of kids who had everything handed to them” A purple haired student said with a disappointed expression on his face.

“While it is true that some of us in the class have only gotten in through luck, do not make the mistake that those few students are the majority” Iida said, glancing at Midoriya in particular. 

“Tch, and what leg do you have to stand on? If anything, you’re one of those blessed few yourself, aren’t you Ingenium’s little brother?”

“What?! How dare you make such accusations?!” Iida yelled while gesturing with his hands.

“Whatever, I just thought I’d tell you that the sports festival is an opportunity for those who were unable to clear the entrance exam to get into the heroics course... and an opportunity to filter out those who got in only on “luck” as you say. You better watch your... backs” The purple haired student trailed off as he noticed a familiar girl. 

“Uh, Hagakure, I think he’s looking at you?” Midoriya pointed out.

“Hm? What is it?” Hagakure asked.

The purple haired boy said nothing as the invisible girl got closer almost as if to inspect him. 

“Wait, are you the guy I helped at the Entrance Exam?” The boy was unnaturally still for some reason. His breathing had elevated. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” his head moved away from her and the pitch of his voice had elevated slightly. 

“You are him! Well it sucks that you didn’t get in but hopefully you do well enough in the Sports Festival for the school to reconsider!”

The boy merely said nothing before turning away though one may have heard the word “Thanks” mumbled as he did so. So did some other students and eventually the entire crowd dispersed for lunch.

“So the guy you stole a kill from, also got into the school. What are the chances of that?” Midoriya asked. 

“I didn’t steal his kill! I pushed him out of the way of some bullets and destroyed the robot he was fighting”.

“So you deprived him of a chance to score points to take those points for yourself”

“Midoriya!” 

“What he said was true, you know?” Iida butted in. “Those who give a rather lackluster performance in the Sports Festival will be bumped down to General Studies. Perhaps that will be a more suited class for you two”

The two students stopped in their tracks and looked at Iida. 

“I don’t get it. What exactly is your problem with us? No really, you’ve been pissed at us for the whole term and I want to know why!” Hagakure demanded.

“It’s not just us either, you’ve also been quite snippy at Yaoyorozu who won Class President under your rules”. 

Iida clenched his fists “I admit my frustration towards Yaoyorozu is wholly undeserved but you two don’t deserve to be in the Heroics Course”.

“Hey Iida don’t you think that’s a bit harsh?” Kaminari interjected.

“No, let's see just why Iida thinks we don’t deserve to be in Heroics. Go on”.

“Very well, you both gave a lackluster performance in Mr. Aizawa’s Quirk Assessment Test, Hagakure completely failed to do anything in the Heroes vs Villains exercise while you blew up a student, and during the villain attack it seems you two didn’t do anything!”

“That’s not fair!” Hagalure yelled while Midoriya took a more collected approach.

“Oh really? Sure we gave a lackluster performance but we still did better than 9 other students. Are you saying Mineta and Kaminari don’t deserve to be in this class?”

“That’s-”

“I’m not finished! Yeah I blew up Bakugou, that’s on me but while it’s true Hagakure didn’t do anything in the Heroes vs Villains exercise but neither did Ojiro and for that matter Shoji. Are you saying they shouldn’t be in Heroics either?”

Noticing the increasing glares from his classmates, Iida couldn’t help but realise he might, just might have made a mistake in confronting the villain of the class without thinking about the implications of his words.

“And yeah, we weren’t able to fight many villains during the villain attack but it’s not our fault we happened to be teleported to the area where the villains had thinned out the most. Todoroki was also teleported to that area; does that mean he shouldn’t be in the Heroics course for that matter?” Todoroki glanced their way but it was more so out of confusion than anything else.

“In fact now that I think about it, it was really Tennyson and All Might who did most of the work. Tell me how many villains did you manage to take out? You were in one of the most populated areas so it should’ve been more than our measly one, right?” Midoriya looked at Iida expectantly. 

“I-”

“ENOUGH!” The two students were interrupted by their homeroom teacher who had appeared out of nowhere. 

“I told you at the start that you students were on a tight schedule, which couldn’t be wasted on trivial arguments like this. You two will stop this pointless nonsense at once or you’ll both be kicked out of the Hero Course”. 

“Yessir”

“Now Midoriya and Hagakure, you two need to come with me”. 

“Well it seems, Class 1-A isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Starting petty squabbles, deciding who should and shouldn’t be in the Heroics Course. Are all of you as arrogant as this one, I wonder?”

“Oh, sorry Monoma. It looks like we won’t be able to discuss the physics of Rollaway’s Quirk at lunch today”. 

“That’s fine; I’ll just come with” Monoma said.

“No you can’t. We have... things to discuss” Aizawa quickly said in an attempt to prevent more problem children being under his watch. He felt someone poke him. 

“What?” 

“Um, he knows about y’know” Hagakure meekly said. 

Outside Aizawa maintained a cool, apathetic expression. Inside, Aizawa was flipping tables because of the utter stupidity of his two students. Why on earth would you willingly admit you betrayed the school to someone who clearly wasn’t of proper mental stability? Scratch that, it made perfect sense. It wasn’t as if anyone would believe Monoma in the first place.

“Fine”

“I’ll come as well. Midoriya and I need to discuss... class rep stuff”. 

“You two can have this discussion on your own time, Yaoyorozu” Aizawa bluntly stated.

To his surprise and annoyance Yaoyorozu didn’t back down “With all due respect sir. If this has anything to do with my fellow students and their possible threat level, I have to know”.

Now, Aizawa could explain to Yaoyorozu that no she did not in fact need to know about matters the school deemed confidential. That she is simply class representative; a sort of middle man between the class and the faculty. That is her role. But doing so would probably spark an argument that would take up even more of his time and he just doesn’t paid enough for that.


“I’m just saying Rollaway’s forcefields can’t be frictionless. It doesn’t make any sense”.

“I’m inclined to agree, Monoma. Rollaway’s forcefields have clearly slowed down of their own accord before, which means the principle of friction does apply to them albeit at a lower rate”. 

“Bah. The only ways they’ve been outright stopped have been as a result of Rollaway’s own will. Obviously he can telekinetically control them”.

“And you call yourself a Quirk enthusiast!” Midoriya smugly said, while typing on his phone. 

“What is it?”

“Oh just that our resident vigilante has proven you wrong” He said grinning as he held up his phone. His phone displayed Rollaway inside one of his barriers challenging Cannonbolt to a standstill. 

“Please, all that shows is that Cannonbolt can match Rollaway’s speed. It’s an external force so of course it’s going to have an affect”. 

“Yes but in any case, the fact that people can easily stand and move inside Rollaway’s forcefields without slipping over does mean that there has to at least be some friction” Yaoyorozu interjected. 

“I am so lost” Hagakure mumbled.

Aizawa groaned. They had spent the entire trip to his office arguing about the mechanics of Rollaway; a sidekick who’s Quirk allowed him to generate rolling forcefields. Thankfully Hagakure hadn’t joined if only because she didn’t really ‘get’ the concept of friction. Aizawa couldn’t say whether understanding the concept would help her when she goes Pro but it does seem like he’ll have to get a tutor. Eh. He’ll just make Midoriya do it. 

“OK, Yaoyorozu, what exactly do you know about the traitor incident?” He asked, getting them to shut up for once. 

“I admittedly don’t know much. Only that Midoriya and Hagakure seemed to be a part of it.” 

‘So nothing?’ Yaoyorozu sheepishly looked down, confirming his thoughts.

“As expected of someone from 1-A, you have hardly any awareness of your surroundings!”

“Shut up Monoma!” Midoriya said.

“Long story short, Yaomomo. We were villain spies” Any self-deprecation or anxiety on Yaoyorozu’s face was quickly replaced with contempt.

“How long?” She asked almost robotically.

“We weren’t villains planted in U.A. if that’s what you were wondering.” Midoriya said, though Yaoyorozu remained cautious of her two classmates.

“Yeah! We were only doing it because Midoriya’s dad was threatened by a teleporter... though he turned out to be a good guy as well and is part of the reason the USJ went as well as it did”.

“How can you describe that villain attack going well as a good thing?!” Yaoyorozu shouted.

“She meant the reason the cops were there and also maybe the vigilante?” Midoriya fired back and Aizawa took that as his que to join the conversation.

“No. Tennyson did know about the USJ incident ahead of time but it was because he had experienced visions of it occurring the night before” Aizawa ignored Midoriya’s muttering of ‘the psychic dreams’ and cut to the heart of the matter.

“Midoriya, Hagakure. Have you told anyone else about this incident?”

“Mei Hatsume, right?” Monoma suggested. 

“No. She’s a great friend but if she found out something that could potentially further her career at the cost of screwing us over, she’d do it in a heartbeat. It’s why I didn’t allow the topic in the chat room”.

“That’s... not exactly what I’d call a great friend Midoriya”. 

“Fine. So what exactly are your thoughts on their actions Yaoyorozu?” The girl was still stewing in the revelation.

“I just don’t understand why you had to resort to giving information to villains” She said in a broken tone.

“My dad had a portal closing around his neck? What would you have done Yaoyorozu?” Midoriya asked in a bewildered tone.

Aizawa noted that though Midoriya seemed to understand that what he had done was wrong, he seemed to fail to understand why someone might be upset at him for it. Perhaps he thought of it as a lesser of two evils situation. The only problem is that those scenarios are typically utilitarian in nature and Midoriya didn’t even have that going for him. 

“I would have told somebody! Whether it was one of the teachers, All Might or even the vigilante! It beats doing what the villain wants with no plan to take him down!” 

“And risk my dad dying?! Then what, huh? The villain would just have found another hostage. Threatened another family. And eventually, he would have gotten exactly what he wanted!” Aizawa perks up at that, ignoring the two class reps sizing each other up as if they were animals. 

Perhaps he’d been too quick to make a judgement. Despite what Nezu had claimed, there was merit to Midoriya’s thought process. Not enough to say that he was right but his argument did warrant discussion. 

“It all turned out for the best, right? So maybe we can just forget about it?” Hagakure said, moreso trying to dissolve the conflict than avoiding responsibility. Monoma was just watching the fight with a large grin on his face, likely tempted to say some remark about 1A being prone to infighting while 1B was perfect in that sense.

“No. The fact is that you two betrayed the trust of your classmates. Your friends. You put us all in grave danger! Had us nearly killed by villains! You two don’t just deserve to be expelled...” Yaoyorozu’s sentence dragged on as she made that realization.

“Why haven’t they been expelled, Mr. Aizawa?” She said in a low tone, barely able to be heard by those in the room.

“Nezu decided otherwise.” With those three words, Yaoyorozu was blinking away tears. She couldn’t comprehend the inherent unfairness of it all. 

“Iida was right. You two don’t deserve to be in U.A. I’m sorry.” Yaoyoruz stood up from her seat and started to walk out the door. Whether to inform her classmates or give Nezu a dressing down, Aizawa didn’t know but she wasn’t going to get that far anyway.

“SIT DOWN.” His hair flared up as his Quirk unintentionally activated. Yaoyorozu made a small whine before briskly walking back to her seat. Everyone else in the room had a similar reaction, almost paralysed by the uncharacteristic outburst.

“Your feelings regarding this matter are understandable, both of you. But that’s exactly why this isn’t a clear cut case.” The students’ seemed particularly shocked at Aizawa’s take on this case.

“But how?! You threatened us all with expulsion just because we didn’t match up to your standards! How can you accept these two genuine villain spies as if they did nothing wrong?!” Yaoyorozu yelled from her seat.

“Did I say they did nothing wrong?” Almost immediately, Yaoyorozu silenced herself.

“Like I said you are right to feel betrayed by these two problem children but Midoriya is also right in that he didn’t have many options. The villain in this case was just far too slippery. No one at U.A. had an appropriate counter to this teleporter. As Midoriya said, telling anyone else would likely get him nothing more than a dead father and a villain on the loose. But if you have a better solution to Midoriya’s dilemma, let’s hear it.” Everyone in the room turned to face Yaoyorozu who looked incredibly conflicted now that the dilemma had been explained by someone that wasn’t a villain spy.

Fortunately, inspiration struck. “He could have discreetly passed written messages along to the faculty. The fact that this teleporter even needed two spies in the first place meant that his ability to gather information from far away was either too limited or too risky. Ergo, the best way to get around this problem would be to use discreet messages!”

Aizawa smirked. Good she had gotten past the first hurdle. Now for the second.

“That wouldn’t change anything” Midoriya replied. 

“It changes everything! By doing that you successfully evade detection from this teleporter villain!” Yaoyorozu retaliated.

“Yeah until he sees a group of U.A.’s heroes heading right for his base. Best case scenario he gets away and continues the problem. And to avoid detection, you still have to do his bidding. Do you honestly think Hagakure and I would have acted as spies if he wasn’t continuously threatening to kill my father if we didn’t find substantial information to use? How long do you think it takes to organise a plan of this type? Because every day, we were getting threatened by a teleporter if we didn’t bring him the information he wanted!” Every word of Midoriya’s rant was coated in a thin layer of venom. The more he spat at Yaoyorozu, the more the boy started to break down. Tears stung at his eyes and wetly dropped onto his arms.

Yaoyorozu sputtered, trying to form an accurate response but all she could do was look away from those she had accused. Midoriya daring her to come up with an alternative solution but she remained frozen. Aizawa took that as his que.

“The solution would be to tell me, Midroiya. I’m sure Nezu could have come up with a reasonable excuse for me to head to Kamino Ward” In fact, the USJ had provided that excuse. Nezu had smelled something fishy about Hisashi Midoriya but his alibi was somewhat airtight. 

A classic case of a criminal who’s actions had caught up to him and had spent the last few years trying to get revenge with whatever allies he had. Regardless of whatever misfortune befell those around him. Kurogiri seemed to be nothing more than an over-zealous subordinate that didn’t think things through. He tried to get Hagakure caught up in this mess because she was a perfect spy but her moving in with the Midoriyas ended up getting Izuku Midoriya caught in the crossfire. 

This was eerily similar to the behavior Midoriya himself had demonstrated in his first month at U.A. Regardless of his student’s thoughts towards the man, Aizawa and Nezu deemed it absolutely necessary that Izuku Midoriya did not follow in his fathers’ footsteps. That was the purpose of these meetings and why it was important to show Midoriya the alternatives that he had missed.

“I could have gone into Kamino Ward, conveniently stumbling upon the bar where Kurogiri and your father reside, erased Kurogiri’s Quirk and knocked him out.” Midoriya sputtered, that option clearly hadn’t been considered.

“A trip to Kamino Ward might not even be necessary. You had regular meetings with the teleporter and I would have been able to subdue the villain that way.” And just like that Midoriya’s rant had lost all momentum.

“Hmm. See there was another alternative, Midoriya.” Yaoyorozu said, regaining her composure.

“So even the Homeroom teacher of 1-A was able to find a way out of the dilemma. We certainly have a long way to go” Monoma said in an uncharacteristic bout of humility.

“That’s what being a Pro is. Finding alternatives to moral dilemmas. The actions you took in this one were understandable, Midoriya, but they cannot be excused. You fell into despair and convinced yourself that it was the only option but in doing so you aided criminals and risked the lives of your classmates with no plan as to how to mitigate the damage”

His words shook Midoriya to the core and all he could respond with was a timid cry of “I-I’m sorry!” 

“Apologies are worthless. You have a second chance to do right by this school. What matters is what you will do now.” Aizawa gently scolded the boy. It was important to not let Midoriya off the hook completely. So that he never forgets the repercussions of his actions. 

“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh, sir? When you’re powerless, you look for alternatives. And not everyone has the capacity to simply brush off their relative’s imminent death. As long as the job gets done I don’t see the issue with that approach” Monoma said though Aizawa was almost certain he was just being a contrarian at this point. 

Still perhaps humoring the boy could yield results “It is unrealistic to think that all that matters is the result. Especially in a society such as ours, there are consequences based on the path you choose”. 

Aizawa breathed in. “Take vigilantism for example. One can make the argument that vigilantes and not just Tennyson, are doing the world a favor by “helping people”. The reality is that it’s a lot more complicated than simply defeating villains and helping people” Aizawa took out a newspaper Vlad had shown him, the headline was “HEROES OBSOLETE?!”

“Ever since Tennyson showed up, he’s been showing up the heroes. His intentions may be in the right place but because he’s a more competent breed of vigilante, the trust in heroes is falling and is going towards vigilantes” Something that had unfortunately been going on as soon as the vigilante made it to Japan. The vigilante’s tirade to those five Pros had gathered an impressive amount of steam online; almost no one believed that he deserved to be arrested for doing what the heroes couldn’t.

Aizawa took out another magazine, this time showing a young boy being arrested. “As a result, people are now taking matters into their own hands. Some have given up on heroes and have been encouraged to administer justice. Many find themselves believing they should be the authority on how to deal with “villains” instead of the courts and as such find themselves coming into conflict with the law”. 

Aizawa continued showing articles with differing headlines, showing different vigilantes. “But the harsh reality is that not just anyone can become a Hero. You may find my teaching methods harsh but encouraging those without potential to take up the mantle is irresponsible at best and outright dangerous at worst” The students looked at him with varying expressions, ranging from disgust to soft acceptance. In particular, Midoriya grimaced at his words as if he had heard them before.

“This is also why we have the courts; to gather up as much information as possible on a case and make a judgement based on mitigating or aggravating factors. Not every case is the same and vigilantes rarely ever take that into consideration. Now because Tennyson sidestepped the law, consistently showed the authorities up and generally shows a blatant disdain for the law, this is the exact problem our society is facing.”

“OK, but how does that apply to us?”

“Consequences. You chose a path and though it lead to a good outcome, the specific path you chose is going to have serious consequences in the future. Take this as a warning so that you can make better choices in the future”.

“Is that all sir?”

“For the foreseeable future I will be looking after you two. Prove yourselves worthy of trust again and maybe I won’t have to give up my lunch making sure two problem children aren’t scheming”. 

“Ah. I knew that expression you’ve been holding wasn’t just you being grumpy. Well not to worry, we’re not planning any villainy anytime soon”

Aizawa merely sighed. Bridging his nose, he tried to change the topic “Yaoyorozu, have you figured out your speech yet?”

“Speech?”

Yaoyorozu cleared her throat “As class representative of class 1-A, I have to give a short speech for the Sports Festival”

“Well I’m sure you’ll be great” The girl had a conflicted expression on her face.

“Yeah. Um would you mind if I just made you do it instead” She said while twiddling her fingers. 

“What?” Midoriya flatly said, clearly unimpressed at Yaoyorozu's attempt at forcing him to do her job.

“Well, I mean you obviously don’t care what people think of you with everything you’ve done.”

“But there’s a difference between playing the part of a villain and talking in a large crowd on live television!  I’ll probably screw it up and just keep mumbling...” 

“Yeah but so will I! Its better this way. Just think of it as part of your atonement” Somehow this completely serious atmosphere had completely disappeared in the wake of these two children. Aizawa let out a smirk. These types of moments were reassuring, almost as if it reminded him that they really were just kids at this point in their lives.

“The reason I let you be class rep in the first place is because you have more experience with things like this. Surely you were trained to give public speeches, right?”

“Yeah, I’m still not comfortable speaking in front of the entire country”

Both the class president and vice president had been reduced to a couple of mumbling children, their faces bright red from embarrassment. 

“I really don’t care who does it but make sure someone is prepared for the Sports Festival” Aizawa sighed. 

“Just let us at 1-B handle it for you!”

“No.” Class 1-B tended to give the speech. Even Aizawa thought it was unfair to force a position on a student to carry out all the duties and write a speech when the person they were replacing was actually supposed to do it. The downsides to expelling whoever he wanted, he supposed.

“Do you think you could give the speech if someone was there with you?”

“Well it might help...”

“Alright! I guess it’s my time to shine!” Hagakure exclaimed.

“No, that won’t work. Students are required to attend the speech and right after, the festival starts. You’d have no time to take your clothes off and put them on again, unless you want a reputation as an exhibitionist” Monoma pointed out.

“But we still could be there with her, '' Midoriya said, bringing his hand up to his chin. “I’m pretty sure we could communicate with you using one of Hatsume’s inventions. That way if you screw up, we’ll be there to help you recover. If you focus on our voices and the speech, you won’t even notice the crowd”.

“Right! All that’s left is the speech, which with our help will definitely be ready in two weeks”.

“Try to keep it brief” Aizawa said.

“R-right! And thank you guys. I just hope this plan doesn’t backfire”

“Of course it won’t. We’ve laid it all out and it sounds pretty perfect to me. I don’t see how anything could cause it to fail” Monoma smugly said, causing everyone to glare at him.

“What?”

“You’ve just jinxed the plan, you moron! Now we need to come up with a new plan!”

“Don’t be ridiculous! It’s not going to fail”.

“Ah! Stop saying it!” Hagakure yelled, shaking Monoma’s shoulders.

“Perhaps it would be better to come up with a new plan?” Yaoyorozu begrudgingly sighed. 


“I knew this wasn’t going to work” Albedo said from her cell. For the time being she had decided to ally herself with Tennyson, which had immediately gotten her arrested. She was also starting to get this itching feeling but scratching only accelerated the process. She would just have to wait and hope someone comes to check on her. 

And really, that was what this entire plan of hers was based around; waiting. Albedo had already considered the risks of this plan, already knew how unlikely it was that she would receive help. That is why she made a contingency and all she needs to do is wait for it to activate.

Although the irritation was getting quite large, almost as if a swarm of flies were crawling all over her. Perhaps just a rub would work. The instant Albedo started, she couldn’t stop and it eventually led to full on scratching. The irritation only got larger so she scratched more which irritated her more and...

“Ah! What happened to your face?!” Albdeo looked in the faint reflection of the glass and saw that her face had been almost completely worn down. She could almost see a faint outline of her humanoid skull peeking through. 

“This is why I came back, Tennyson. My body is deteriorating beyond repair. As much as it pains me to admit it, I need help.”

Notes:

Alright, this chapter is a bit clunky but I was looking through my old drafts and there were a few holes to say the least. This whole story is kinda scrapily pasted together but the first draft for this chapter was especially bad. I had Yaoyorozu find out off-screen the fact that two of her friends were villainous spies and she was just kinda cool with it. I mean she might have had her freak out but off-screen so it might as well not have happened. Monoma is ok with this revelation because he's long since figured out his "role" in Hero Society and life in general and it isn't the happy "Anyone can be a Hero!" or "You can do anything so long as you put in the work and believe in yourself". As such, his worldview is a lot more jaded and he is more willing to accept the unscrupulous means one has to do when put into a bind. I highly doubt anyone in 1-A would have that same point of view, least of all Momo who seems to be on the more optimistically naive side of the spectrum.

This chapter was kind of meant to function as a bit of foreshadowing and dare I say reflection towards the events that have kind of been glossed over. We get more insight to the public reception towards Ben's vigilantism. Short answer? Basically a regurgitation of what happened in UA. There's a vocal minority that decries his actions but most people seeing him in action either don't care or idolize him. Of course, that is going to change in the coming chapters; one way or the other.

As always, comments and criticism are appreciated.

Chapter 24: Study

Notes:

Procrastination is a bitch and Metroid Dread was fun. At least I got the chapter done by the end of the month, right?

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“HAHAHAHA!”

Albedo blushed in embarrassment as she was forced to withstand the looks of her former enemies. Levin was cackling as if this was the best thing to happen while the other Tennyson was giving the former Galvan a hell of a death glare. They had already had Albedo crack a simple Plumber black box. He had already made his contribution to this deal and didn’t need added humiliation on top of it.

“You know how many times they’ve tried to kill us, right?”

“Only twice and I’m not exactly asking for much. Just turn her into him and stabilize his DNA so I don’t have to use Medicura again” It was astounding how close Tennyson had gotten to the species name, Medicurite. Yet another example of his dumb luck at play no doubt.

“Believe me, I am just as annoyed as you are to be in this predicament so do us all a favor and hurry up.” Albedo said, flaking away parts of her body as her genetic code disintegrated on her. 

The inferior Tennyson scoffed “Good to see you’re still as arrogant as ever. Are you sure we should be doing this, Ben?”

“She does have a point. The last time Albedo confronted you, he was trying to take over Galvan Prime” Levin said.

“Emphasis on trying. Albedo failed, remember?” Albedo stifled a snarl. He didn’t fail. It was Vilgax that lost to Tennyson.

“The time before that, Albedo allied himself with a bunch of evil yous and-”

“Was completely erased after Vilgax betrayed them with the Chronosapien Time Bomb” Well, of course. Vilgax was a galactic conqueror. Not even he believed that Vilgax would stoop to such lows as erasing the entire multiverse from existence.

“OK. What about the time Albedo stole Azmuth’s intelligence?” Levin said.

“Oh, you mean the time I completely wrecked his Ultimate Forms with Atomix? Seeing a pattern here? Albedo’s such a complete and utter failure that it doesn’t matter if he tries to screw us over” Tennyson replied in that usual arrogant tone of his.

“Excuse you?!” Albedo screamed.

“Oh did I hurt your widdle pride. Gonna cry like a baby? Because that’s what you are Albedo. A big, dumb baby who throws a fit whenever something doesn’t go your way.” Tennyson said.

“How dare y-”

“What? How dare I bring attention to this cycle you’ve trapped yourself in? You make a plan to outshine Azmuth. I kick your ass. You get arrested. You escape prison, somehow and start another plan to outshine Azmuth. Which inevitably fails. And while you’re in this cycle you lash out and me who is really just putting a stop to your insanity”

“I just don’t want to die! And my original body back... Is that really too much to ask for?” Albedo whined, trying to get them back on topic.

“But that’s just it. You had your original body. You had a completely separate Omnitrix. You had all the power you could possibly hope for and you failed. Because you decided to try and get back at me out of some misplaced vendetta” Despite his words piercing through Albedo’s ego,Tennyson spoke them in a very bored tone. As if he was explaining why his cursed chili fries were actually enjoyable.

“Misplaced? My vendetta was perfectly justified! How would you feel if you woke up stuck in a cage of flesh that’s not your own with cravings that aren’t your own. Impulses that force you to assimilate to a completely different character!” If anything Albedo was the victim simply trying to regain his dignity. Everything else was merely collateral.

“Well, I probably would try to get help from someone I know because I’m not an arrogant jackass know-it-all” 

Albedo opened his mouth to go in another tirade, that he does know it all and that he didn’t need help like this inferior human that he was stuck in. Tennyson managed to cut him off “But that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? You tried the lone Galvan approach and all you have to show for it is a decaying body that’s not even your gender” Before he could continue on his tirade, his phone blared in the cell. 

Upon seeing who was calling him, Tennyson gave his phone a look of contempt before turning the phone off. His mood quickly shifted back to that of an arrogant human boy who’s luck continued to allow him to scrape by. He turned to his companions and said “Besides, we’re heroes. Letting people die just isn’t what we do... well unless its a genuine threat like Vilgax”

“Alright. I’ve got some stuff to take care of so I’ll leave Albedo to you guys” Albedo watched as the boy left the room without a care in the world. Unbeknownst to him, he would be seeing how much a genuine threat Albedo could be.


If there was one thing Hisashi didn’t miss from his Plumber days, it was these dull meetings. They had finally unlocked the black box for his old experiment and were now discussing what to do. 

“If this data is correct, it would suggest that this All For One was also responsible for a series of five disappearances from March to June of that year” Well you can’t have an experiment without test subjects. Unfortunately, four out of the five died but it was all for the sake of scientific curiosity.

“All For One was quite busy at that time, wasn’t he? I wonder what caused him to go underground?” Hisashi mused, causing the rest of those chattering voices to cease. 

“What do you mean ‘go underground’? Isn’t that just standard fare for being a bad guy?” Ben 10 asked incredulously with a hint of suspicion.

“Did you forget that I used to work for him? A different field, sure but I still knew the culture surrounding AFO and especially the types of crowds he hid away in. And yet he’s disappeared... but don’t worry I’ll keep looking for him. We have unfinished business to take care of.” Hisashi said with a tone of indignation. It was absolutely imperative that he nailed this part.

“Yeah and what exactly did you do for him?”

“Well in between missions, while I was spending time with my family, I heard about this deal exporting goods internationally and decided to make some bank. Of course, I never actually met the guy directly... well not while I was working for him at least” He said trying to convince them that he was but a small fish in this ocean trying to hunt down a larger fish.

“That’s not what Adrian said.”

“Oh yes, let’s listen to the guy who threatened to murder a child” Hisashi gritted his teeth. He was going to get rid of that loose end but All Might had other ideas. Fortunately, he managed to seal away several... incriminating memories before he took his impromptu rest. Unfortunately, Adrian’s involvement basically made it so that Hisashi had to talk out of his ass and hope he wasn’t saying shit.

“I assure you it was only Trigger, which after seeing the averse effects it had on society, we stopped. All For One wasn’t too happy about that as you can see. Rest assured, Kurogiri and I will continue searching for him.” 

“Given your checkered history, I’m having a little trouble believing you should even be looking for All For One in the first place.” Hisashi frowned at Max’s insinuation. How could he get them off his back? Oh, wait. He has Quirks. He used Compelling Voice and spoke.

“Which is fine but you must understand that this is low priority. All For One hasn’t been active in years. If you want, you can send more Plumbers to look for a villain who is in all likelihood dead. But you must know the risks that action would require you to take. Japan has heroes. This isn’t the old days where Hero Society was still finding its stride. The fact is that AFO is a bigger threat to Hero Society than to the Plumbers so let me help them deal with it” OK, AFO thinks that’s less than 100 words so the Quirk should still be activated.

He braced himself in his bed, waiting to see what their reaction would be. Doing it through a phone instead of actually being there may also have hindered the Quirk. Fortunately, Max simply let out a disgruntled sigh. “OK. But I expect a report every month. Ben it seems you’re finally leaving Japan”

“Finally!” The teen yelled, echoing Hisashi’s own sentiments. He finally seemed to be in the clear, at least with the Plumbers. Now he just needed to find a reliable way to dispose of ‘All For One’.


For her part, Gwen didn’t seem particularly bothered by Albedo making demands when she had no power. It was only a gender transformation after all.

“GENUS VERTO!!!”

Albedo was enveloped in a blue light as her body became less curvy and more rigid. The additional body fat that she had accumulated was redistributed... somewhere and her voice became deeper. 

“Finally!” The newly male Galvan scientist exclaimed. However, his skin was still very much flaky and judging by the blood he vomited up, his body was still very unstable.

“Now stabilize my body” He demanded in the way an aristocrat would talk to one of their servants.

“I got it” Gwen said, annoyed. As she flipped through her book, she almost missed Kevin mumble under his breath.

“Heroes, that’s a weird way to put it”

“I’d say it’s quite an apt description but perhaps your human brain is too stupid to understand what a hero is. A hero is defined-” It didn’t take a genius to understand where Albedo was going with that though she was surprised that he had enough humility to consider the three of them heroes.

“I know what a hero is!” Kevin yelled. 

“But there’s a difference between being a hero and being a Hero” He said putting emphasis on the Pro Hero moniker. Albedo rolled his eyes, probably lamenting that he needed help from these simpletons.

“Y’see, in our world we have Pro Heroes. Because there’s so many Quirks on our planet, a person has to go through the official process of getting a Hero License before they can actually start heroing” Gwen said as she continued flipping through the book.

“Your species’ stupidity never fails to fall to new lows” Albedo said, his mouth agape at what he had just heard.

“The thing is none of us actually became Pros. If you’re lucky, you can get a Provisional Licence in your first year of Hero School but for us normal people you have to wait until 18” Kevin said. 

“And it gets even dumber! Your species puts a limit on anything that can further your society out of what I can only assume to be a desperate attempt to regain control that may be lost” Albedo laughed as if this information was the best joke he’d heard in his life.

“Well, there is one workaround. You could always be a vigilante. That’s what we did and because we were competent and experienced with facing alien threats, our government didn’t mind. Japan on the other hand. Let’s just say Ben has been very excited to finally leave the country.” Gwen finally found the spell that she thought would work and pointed at Albedo.

“STABILUS INTERITUS!!!”

A glowing white light washed over Albedo, blotches of skin quickly becoming repaired in the process. 

“About time” He said while checking himself over. “You can go now.” Albedo waved them out of his cell.

Gwen scoffed. She wasn’t sure why she expected anything else from the tyrannical Galvan.


“Hey, Tennyson!” Bakugou called teleporting into the laboratory. He’d had his therapy session with Kr’lk and was ready to get his ass kicked again in preparation for the Sports Festival. 

However, upon getting a better look at the room he merely had one thing to say “The fuck are you doing?”

 In the middle of the room stood vigilante in his Heatblast form with a blue moth baby hovering on him. 

“Oh hey, Bakugou. I’m guessing you want another ass-kicking to beat you into shape for the Sports Festival, huh?”

“No. I mean yes but what the actual fuck is going on with you? You haven’t been to the school in a week and now you’ve got this Big Chill baby hovering around you all the time? Come the fuck on!”

“Well there’s a reasonable explanation for this. This baby here is actually one of my fourteen kids, who I had at the age of 15”

Bakugo looked at him as if his head had turned into a rock, which to befair it had “Fuck off! I’ve been to your house. Your parents didn’t mention or have any pictures of your kids”.

“It’s true!”

Bakugo just sighed and said “Whatever, can you help me with the Sports Festival or not?”

“Sure, I guess I can kick your ass for one last time” Tennyson said in the usual cocky tone. 

Bakugou only rolled his eyes before the realization of what Tennyson said hit him “The fuck do you mean last time?”

“Hold that thought” The vigilante said as his phone rang. Bakugo watched incredulously as the vigilante simply took his phone out and turned it off. The fuck was that about.

“Anyway, yeah. Your school and I are going through a bit of a breakup. But don’t worry, it’s not your fault”

“FUCK. OFF!”

Tennyson laughed “OK, fine. The fact is the only reason I was here was to find out what happened to two missing Plumbers. The only reason I stayed was to take care of a little project that those two Plumbers were involved in. Now we’ve found out that it was this big project where some villain named All For One was basically forcefully implanting Quirks in aliens.”

How the hell was that supposed to work? Quirks only work due to a Quirk Factor. More importantly, why? He’d fought Tennyson’s alien forms so he knew they were powerful enough without adding a Quirk onto their powers.

“Long story short, this All For One guy already has the Japanese authorities on to him. It doesn’t seem like he has been active in years so I’m leaving to actually do some Plumber work. No more being U.A’s puppet. No more limiting myself.” The vigilante spoke in a far more tender tone than Bakugo had ever heard from him. 

Even when he’d first discovered Bakugo’s PTSD, there was a certain edge to his voice. But here, his voice was free. There was only one emotion carried in his tone; relief. Bakugo wasn’t entirely too sure on how he was meant to take that so he settled for the first thing that came to mind.

“The fuck are you acting all relaxed for?! We’re fighting!” Bakugou’s hands let off an explosion. Soon afterwards, he heard a familiar hissing sound in a flash of green light. When the explosion died down, he was greeted with a small rodent flying.

“Mole-stache!” The vigilante yelled in a posh, British voice. 

The small rodent immediately used his recent Super Move; Stache-Cell. His moustache was divided up into several different tendrils and wrapped around Bakugo’s body. Bakugo grunted against the coils of hair that binded him as Mole-stache spoke.

“I must say, Bakugou, you have certainly gotten better with restraint. Why, I still remember when you would blindly rush anything and everything” the rodent spoke. They both knew that this match was going to end in Bakugou’s victory. 

Mole-stache was still just a small rodent, after all. With enough force, he could and would be swept off his feet. And when you spend months fighting a vigilante who has super strength in most of his forms, you tend to get that force. Mole-stache was pulled into blasting range and was swiftly defeated.

“Just hurry up and quick change into something that won’t waste my time” Bakugou grinned. It was a small victory but one nonetheless.

“Very well” The rodent was engulfed in another green glow and in his place was a large humanoid tiger. 

“LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, KATSUKI BAKUGOU! JUST BECAUSE YOU’VE GOTTEN GRADUALLY STRONGER DOESN’T MEAN YOU STAND ANY MORE OF A CHANCE AGAINST RATH!” The Appoplexian chargingly swiped at the Hero Student, who narrowly avoided the attack.

“I know” Bakugou muttered calmly. 

In these months of training, Bakugo’s performance against the vigilante’s various forms had gotten progressively better. From outright being able to actually win against the lesser tiers to being able to hold his own against Tennyson’s usual forms.

Rath was not one of those forms. Even though Bakugou’s explosions had gotten a lot more powerful, they didn’t do much more than mildly inconvenience the tiger. Best seen when the tiger alien ran right through one that was used to keep him away. 

Bakugou could only attempt to evade Rath. His Quirk didn’t have an effect on Rath but it did give him extra speed and mobility to dodge around the flurry of punches, kicks and slashes that was sent his way. 

“QUIT DODGING KATSUKI BAKUGOU!”

“No!”

His one saving grace, if you could even call it that, was that Rath was incredibly predictable. Rath was the alien equivalent of a wrecking ball. He has incredible strength and destructive power but he only goes in one direction. Whatever he deems to destroy. 

This entire fight that wrecking ball was constantly heading in his direction. He had been using his explosions to propel him into different directions. It was a pretty good strategy until he felt his back quite literally against the wall. Rath jumped towards him and swung at his opponent. 

Bakugou quickly propelled himself behind the tiger, narrowly avoiding his attack. He blasted Rath with another explosion as he flew past him but that seemed to only piss him off. Whatever distance between was instantly closed as Rath grabbed onto the teen and submitted him to the force of another Super Move. 

“CORVUS CHOKESLAM!”

Rath grabbed Bakugou by the neck, lifting him up above the ground before slamming him into ground hard enough to make the warehouse shake.

Of course, Bakugo didn’t get a long break as heard Tennyson transform yet again. He looked up to see the first form the vigilante used in Japan. Heatblast.

“You’re really putting me through the ringer today!” Bakugou noted. 

“Well, I’ve got to make sure that you won’t be such a loser once I leave” The rock monster responded in that gravelly voice of his.

Bakugou rolled his eyes. More importantly, what could he exactly do in this situation? Bakugou had become a much better hero thanks to his training but fire absorbers were still a rough spot.

Well whatever option he had, he would have to think of it pretty quickly because Heatblast had opted to start shooting fireballs at him. Bakugou briefly managed to counter the attacks with his own explosions but then Heatblast absorbed the residual fire back into himself. He tried to fly but Heatblast absorbed those explosions too.

“Cheap fucking bastard!” Bakugou growled.

Fortunately, the force of his explosions was still enough to propel him forwards. A straight up brawl was his only chance of winning; with Heatblast being able to control all of his projectiles at once and all.

Unfortunately, he promptly got the wind knocked out of him. He banged his fists on the magma man but no points for guessing what happens when a teenage boy tries to punch a being made of rocks. Bakugou gripped his hand in pain as he looked defiantly at the vigilante.

“Seriously, all this time and you still haven’t found a counter to Heatblast?” The vigilante asked incredulously.

“FUCK YOU!”

Bakugou pointed his hands at the ceiling and let off his most powerful explosion. The ceiling above them broke apart into debris, threatening to crush them. Before the vigilante could even think about his next action, Bakugou headbutted the magma monster. 

As usual, he felt the brunt of the damage but it stunned the vigilante just enough for the panels of roof to drop onto him and free Bakugo. 

“This counts as a win, right?” Bakugou asked before a flaming inferno disintegrated the debris.

“Yeah, no” Heatblast said before handing Bakugou’s ass on a silver platter. He didn’t even need his pyrokinesis to do so. A single punch to the gut was enough to knock him out.


As soon as he got back up, it was back to training. Tennyson seemed to be really hammering in that this was his last week in Japan. Now that the difficult aliens had been used up, the fight devolved into a back and forth between the two wannabe heroes. He’d outmaneuver and blast away Big Chill only to get completely destroyed by Humungousaur. He’d brace himself against Echo Echo’s sound waves, destroying all of them with his AP Shot Auto Cannon and then get possessed by Ghostfreak. He could keep pace with Lodestar throwing metal beams at him before Gutrot would use his own Quirk against him by filling the room with hydrogen gas.

That last one resulted in Medicura deciding to step in. As healing energy washed over him, Bakugo adopted a look of contemplation. He’d gone from a shitty extra to someone who could actually give Tennyson trouble. It was an improvement... but it still wasn’t enough. He has an excuse with Heatblast but every other form he lost to was sloppy. And if he was going to be number 1, he would have to find some way of getting around fire absorbers as well. And that’s not even getting into the other chip in his armor.

“Right, I think that’s enough training for today” Medicura snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Hold on! I need to try... that form” Medicura gave him a stern look.

“Are you sure, Bakugo?” Medicura’s voice is gentle as always, a stark contrast to the rest of the vigilante’s forms.

“Yes. If you’re leaving anyway, I need to make sure that I can’t be caught off guard.” Bakugo said stoically though inside he was dreading the prospect of that slime facing him.

“Ok” Medicura tapped the Omnitrix symbol on his hat and transformed into the bane of his existence. 

Unlike the rest of his forms, Goop simply remained in place. Observing the boy to see what his reaction would be. 

Like this, Bakugo didn’t think there was a problem besides some meddling anxiety. But that was just it. He’s already nervous at a fucking pile of goop that is just watching him! He wanted to blow up the monster, rip it to shreds, fly away, grab that crappy disc and crush it, blow up the warehouse they were in... but he didn’t.

He didn’t do anything but stand there. Eventually Tennyson took the hint and transformed back into his human self. Bakugou didn’t get it. What was the point of all that fucking therapy?! Wasn’t it supposed to help him out in those situations? Wow, Katsuki Bakugou has had less nightmares about that single incident. Therapy is fucking amazing!

“Hey Tennyson! I don’t care when you leave. Every day we’re going to train, got it?” Bakugo growled.

“Whatever man. I’ve got no problems kicking your ass however many times you want” Tennyson said half-heartedly.

Good because he was going to need to get his ass kicked if he truly wanted to improve. He’d get his ass kicked every day until he was number one! And after that... he’d fight Tennyson for real.


“RECIPRO BURST!!!”

Within an instant Tenya had reached the end of his family’s estate, the heat of his smoking engines had rendered them unusable for a good few minutes. He still hadn’t resolved the drawbacks of his secret technique. He had been hoping rapid uses of Recipro Burst would cause his engines to adapt but alas. At this rate, he would be better off training his base speed instead of focusing on Recipro Burst.

“You know, breaks are a thing, right Tenya?”

“Tensei!” Tenya exclaimed, embracing his brother who gladly returned his hug. 

“What are you doing at home? Shouldn’t you be patrolling the area?”

“Well, the thing is I do need to go back to Hosu in a week and a bit and given that your Sports Festival is coming up, I figured you could use some help”.

“It’s much appreciated. It is crucial that I do well in the upcoming festival”.

“Well I wouldn’t say that. You still have two more chances after this and you know I screwed up my first one but it didn’t have any long-term effects”.

“I appreciate your attempts to assure me but this particular festival is of personal importance to me”. 

“You mind telling me?”

“It’s just- well how to put it? There are these two students in my class who have done nothing but goof off. They’ve consistently scored mediocre or worse. I just don’t see them being worthy of being heroes and hopefully this festival will finally push them down to general studies. I’m sure their replacements will be much more worthy of heroics training. To do this, I intend to completely and utterly crush them at the Sports Festival” Tenya announced, clenching his fist. 

His brother didn’t say anything for a while, only taking the occasional sip from his drink before shifting back to contemplative silence. Surely his brother could understand his plight, couldn’t he?

Finally Tensei spoke “Tell me Tenya, what exactly does it mean to be worthy of being a hero?” 

Of all the possible responses Tenya was expecting, that wasn’t one of them but now that it was brought up, what did it mean to be a hero? 

“Well you always said it was to help people whenever you can?” 

“That’s my personal philosophy, yes but the truth is that there are many different schools of thought for that question. Rescue heroes like me focus on helping as many people as they can. Underground heroes focus on gathering data to potentially overthrow a larger organisation. Combat heroes focus on beating your everyday villains. Even vigilantes have their place in society; to help others where the law fails. Everyone has to work together, like some big interconnected web” Tensei put his hand on Tenya’s shoulder.

“I’m not exactly sure what these kids are like. Maybe you’re completely right about them but Tenya, I don’t think this is the right way to go about it. Even if you are right, do you really want to concentrate all of your efforts on these two people? By your own admission, they aren’t very impressive so are they really a threat to your success?”

“I never said they were a threat!” 

“Then why are you so bothered by them? Shouldn’t you be more focused on your peers who actually are a threat to you?”

Tenya gritted his teeth. Tensei just didn’t get it. It wasn’t a matter of his success but of rectifying an error made on U.A’s part. It was about proving a point and restoring order to his class. The best way to do that was to ensure those two get kicked out of the class, even if at the detriment to himself. 

But he was soon shaken out of his thoughts by his brother actually starting their new training. Ten days wasn’t a lot of time but by the end of it, Tenya should definitely be good enough to succeed at his goal. He’ll show them. He’ll show everyone what it means to be a true hero.


“So what you want to do is try and find energy within yourself and use that energy to induce vibrations in the ground” Midoriya said. 

“Gee, thanks Midoriya, I hadn’t figured that out after the last 99 times you’ve said that exact same thing” Toru snarked.

Midoriya rolled his eyes. Teaching her how to use Revonnah Kai wasn’t exactly going well. She supposed that was to be expected but it still sucked that she was doing all this work with nothing to show for it.

“Come on, Midoriya. There has to be some secret unlocking that technique of yours. Some way you managed to finally break through the barrier. Spill it!” She said in a desperate tone. 

Midoriya adopted a thinking pose “I guess the stress of the situation kinda forced me to overcome that hurdle myself”

“Oh?” She’d heard the story of course. Or rather a brief summation of it and its outcome. 

“I mean I’d just found Dad and learned about what happened to him. Who happened to him. And it just so happened that that same guy was the one Tennyson and Rook were after. I begged for them to take me with them.” Midoriya said, trying to recall the incident.

“You’ve said this before. Can you get to the bit where you unlock Stone Cutter?” Toru said.

Midoriya sighed “Fine. I finally manage to meet the guy and he tries shifting the blame of his actions onto Dad. Saying things like he deserved it and such. I-I dunno. I was already super angry at the guy but that was the tipping point. I rushed him and... he ended up using me as a hostage.” Midoriya said ashamedly.

“Oof. You really did suck last year, didn’t you?” Toru said. Midoriya ignored her and continued his flashback.

“And thanks to my actions, Adrian was able to focus his powers on the people who actually mattered while his robot army fired at them. Two people nearly died because I was a useless jackass that rushed a guy who was always going to beat me. I wasn’t just useless. I was actually detrimental to the people who knew what they were doing!” He said in a morose tone. The mere act of thinking back to that scene appeared to cause him pain. 

Toru couldn’t help but think back to their first meeting. Midoriya used to be a lot more optimistic in their childhood, hadn’t he? Toru briefly wondered if she was to blame for his newfound pessimism with all that had happened.

Not wanting to dwell on that thought any longer than she needed to, she embraced the boy in a hug. His pitiful words were cut off and it seemed to do the trick calming him down. After a few more moments like that she made the bold decision of asking “What happened next?”

Fortunately, he answered with little issue “I can’t exactly describe what I was feeling then. I think I was acting more out of desperation than anything else. I saw one of the strongest heroes I’d ever seen about to die. He never had a chance to transform because of me and because of that he was about to be killed, staring defiantly in the face of a laser blaster.”

“I guess all of the stress and the desperation accumulated and I was more or less forced to use Stone Cutter then and there.”

“Uh, great so all I have to do is get someone to threaten my family... again” Toru said, annoyed. 

The two stood in awkward silence for a moment before Midoriya decided to run off “I better see if Mei is done fixing that freeze machine”

“Right” Toru replied but he was already gone.

Unfortunately, with no one to distract her from her thoughts; her uglier side showed itself. Thoughts about the unfairness of her life. Losing two parents, her adoptive uncle crippled. Working herself to the bone and only barely scraping by with nothing to show for it. The fact that her Quirkless friend managed to basically win the Quirk lottery and even his Revonnah Kai seems to have been nothing more than a happy accident. Or the fact that she had been forced to act as a villainous spy.

Toru felt absolutely livid at these jumbled memories accumulating together. Didn’t she deserve to have just one nice thing with no catches at all? And as she continued this tirade that consisted nothing more of pitiful thoughts of lashing out against what she had left, she felt a bubble of energy rise up. As she punched the wall beside her, a small wave of vibrations washed over it. The wall bent underneath them but did nothing else.

Once Toru actually noticed this event happen, she laughed in a sense of disbelief. But she wasn’t going to look that horse in the mouth. She’d finally done it! And now that she had, she needed to train her ass off to ensure it was suitable for the Sports Festival.


Ever since Momo had found out about Midoriya and Hagakure’s involvement in the USJ, she had been feeling a hurricane of emotions swirling around inside her. Betrayal was the knee-jerk reaction and despite Mr. Aizawa’s talk giving her a more understanding viewpoint of the situation, she still couldn’t help but feel that way. 

But she could no longer deny that they were in a tough situation that may have prevented them from finding alternatives. But that didn’t change the uneasiness she felt from them. So when they asked to add her to a group chat, she promptly declined. Having them constantly pop up in her notifications made her stomach turn.

It was better to go analog. She could write her speech, have Midoriya get the headphones and all would be right. Well, they still needed to do a practice round to ensure that they would work, which was why Midoriya was coming to her place today.

That being said, she couldn’t help a feeling of unease bubble up within her when the help informed her that Midoriya was here with a friend. That’s probably Hagakure. From what she had seen where one went, so did the other.

“Send them in, please” She said.

Well, at the very least; this visit should be enjoyable. There were no desperate situations or any type of villain (save for the two visitors). It was just a simple study session like those she had read about. 

Whatever dangers that her two friends posed wouldn’t be an issue. Besides, they were trying to help her do well on stage. Momo smiled to herself, her unease already settling and awaited for her friends to arrive.

“Do all members of Class 1-A live this well off?” To Momo’s complete surprise, Monoma entered the room. Quickly followed by Midoriya.

“I was under the impression that it would be only us two Midoriya. Maybe Hagakure.”

“Oh sorry. Can’t handle a member of Class 1-B in your house?” Monoma said.

“That’s not what I said. I was just surprised! Please don’t put words in my mouth” Momo said exasperatedly. Although soon after, she noticed that he was wearing a rather genuine smile.

Monoma seemed to have two modes; Class 1-A hate-filled lunatic and normal human being, which he seemed to reserve for all situations in which Class 1-A wasn’t affiliated. Fortunately, he deferred to the latter with friends, no matter the class.

“Well, I thought it would be best to get a second opinion on this and Hagakure is doing some training of her own” Midoriya said.

“That’s fine, I suppose. How is your training going?” Momo said, not wanting to be a bad host.

“It’s... had its ups and downs. I have no issues with power but control is now where I’m having issues”. 

“If the USJ was any indication, I imagine that would be your problem. Unfortunately Creation seems to have the opposite problems; perfect control but no power”.

“And Copy doesn’t exactly give me the privilege of either” Monoma said as he brewed himself a cup of tea. “Ooh Imperial Golden Tips! I’ve wanted to try this for a while. Anyway it’s probably in your best interest to focus on that Stone Cutter technique of yours”. 

“I guess you’re right so Momo how have you been going on the speech?”

“Well I think I have it all sorted out” She said as she pulled ten double-sided papers out from under her tray. “You did get Hatsume to make the mic, right?”

“Right here but uh, what’s with all the-”

“It’s my speech.” Momo said bluntly.

“I get that but why is it so large? Yaoyorozu, how many words is this?” Midoriya muttered in concern. Perhaps she might have gone a little overboard but she was determined to make the best speech she could.

“8,000 words. I made sure to cover everything I needed to make it a great speech. So should we get started?” She passed the papers to Midoriya and waited for him to pass her the mike. 

“Yaoyorozu, did you watch the previous festival’s speeches?”

“I did! Don’t worry I’ve taken great pains to ensure that I haven’t accidentally plagiarized”.

“OK but did you notice anything else... like the runtime of those speeches?” Yaoyorozu merely tilted her head quizzically at his question. She honestly had no idea what Midoriya was taking such issue with.

“Most of them don’t exceed three minutes and even that’s a stretch. People aren’t watching the festival for some speech but to watch kids fight each other so it’s best to keep it short and simple”.

“Oh” Yaoyorozu felt heat rising up to her face. The average person says roughly 125-150 words per minute. Even giving her the benefit of the doubt and saying she could speak 200 words per minute, it would still take her about 40 minutes to finish her speech. There’s also the fact that she was quite disadvantaged as the plan involved Midoriya saying the speech, his words going through the mic in her ear and repeating them. 

“I’m such an idiot” she facepalmed. How could she let herself get carried away like this?

“I’m sure you were just enthusiastic” Midoriya tried to reassure her as Monoma went through her speech. 

“No point worrying about it now, we just need to figure out what we can cut while still conveying your original point”.

“Right?”

“If it’s any comfort, the audience probably won’t care about the speech either. They’re just here to see a bunch of kids fight each other with their Quirks”. 

“I suppose. I think it might be better if I just make a new speech instead” 

“I guess it would be a lot less time consuming... but perhaps, it might be best to go over your speech. It is entirely possible that you have already written the perfect speech and we just need to find what parts” Monoma said as he grabbed some of the papers from Midoriya. 

For the next half hour, the three of them skimmed her speech for lines and phrases that could individually be glued together to make a half-decent speech.

“I think it’s come out perfect for what we need to do. It’s only 230 words long but I think it’ll be adequate for the opening ceremony. Should we try out the mic?”

The rest of the afternoon was composed of tests, editing and rehearsing the speech so that nothing went wrong. They might not be allowed to bring paper onto the field so it was imperative that both Yaoyorozu and Midoriya were able to recall the speech from memory. However, by the end of the day, the three’s conversation became more relaxed, less focused on the speech and more on the circumstances of Wrath’s Quirk (the Pro Hero with a W, not Tennyson’s angry tiger alien without a W). 

Eventually though it was time to leave and as they bid farewell to each other, their thoughts became more focused on the remaining week and how they could use it to utterly crush the other.


“Get up Shouto. The Sports Festival is only half a week away and I’m not gonna have you embarrass me. It’s time to put an end to this childish rebellion of your and use my Quirk”. 

‘Over my dead body’ Shouto thought to himself. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to say it to his old man’s face; it was just that Endeavor’s training had left him physically unable to talk.

“Uh Dad, one of your sidekicks is on the phone. He said something about Ben 10?” 

Endeavor made a grumble noise and said something about how he expects Shoutu to have given up this rebellion or whatever before leaving. Shouto faintly heard him yell “Tennyson” before the door slammed. 

A wave of cold washed over him, nursing his bruises. Undoubtedly, this was the work of Fuyumi’s Quirk; Temperature. Fortunately because Fuyumi could only manipulate temperature and not to the extremes needed to generate flames or ice, she had been discarded by that bastard. It was much better than forcing her into training. 

“Maybe it would be better to just give him what he wants” She said worriedly. 

“I’m not using his damn Quirk”.

“At least he’d be treating you better than this!”

Shouto sat up against the wall and scowled as he looked straight at his sister “You and I both know it wouldn’t change anything. Maybe I’d get a short break but the moment I act below his expectations, it would be back to the usual routine”.

The two siblings said nothing for a while because what else was there to say? The two didn’t get to interact all that much; Endeavor refused to allow his successor to become “soft” like her. Fuyumi tried to mitigate any damage but she didn’t have a chance against most Pro Heroes, let alone the Number 2. 

“Do you really think becoming a Hero with Mom’s power alone is going to matter?” she had once asked him. It had surprised him but he answered that of course it mattered. Becoming number one while denying that bastard exactly what he wanted. It meant everything in the world for him to accomplish his goal and see the dismayed scowl on that bastard’s face as he was finally free from him. He didn’t wait for his sister’s response that day; already stormed out of the room. 

“SHOTO!”

Ah great, the bastard is back again. He couldn’t wait to utterly crush everyone with only his mother’s power and he couldn’t wait to see the look on Endeavor’s face as he did so.


“Are you going to get that?” Albedo said.

“What?” Ben muttered dumbly as his phone rang yet again.

“The phone. All throughout today, you have been constantly pestering me with that noise. Just pick up the damn phone for my sanity.”

“OK, let’s be honest you’re not exactly sane to begin with” Ben replied to Albedo’s annoyance.

“Why are you even here?”

“Well, despite the fact that you and I both know, you’re going to escape this prison, I still have to make sure your cell’s secure”

“Are you going to get that?” Ben’s phone rang yet again and for once he picked up but what Tennyson was so badly wanted for would remain a mystery for now as he left the room and Albedo to his thoughts.

“What do you want, Nezu?” Ben muttered boredly as he checked on Glacius consuming a feast made entirely of molten lava.

“I want to know where my security officer is. The Sports Festival is coming up and I need to ensure that security is up to snuff” A none too cheerful voice came through the phone’s speaker.

“Oh, well I’ve decided I don’t really need U.A. anymore. Vigilante stuff, y’know?”

“Our contract allowed for you to do vigilante things of your own accord. I need you here and I am more than willing to use force if I have to”

“And I was only there for the QIP. But we’ve pretty much got that sorted, now. No thanks to you despite our agreement. So kinda done with the whole school thing.” Ben muttered as he saw the Plumbers still trying to make progress on that black box. 

“Oh, please. I defeated you once and I can defeat you again. Do you not remember how you get into this mess in the first time” Nezu’s voice was still that obnoxiously cheerful tone as if he was still in control.

“Well, you defeated me by Midnight knocking me out with sleeping gas. Can you really count that?” Ben said annoyed.

“Defeat is defeat, Mr. Tennyson. Now are you going to come back to U.A or are we going to have to drag you back ourselves?”

“Well I don’t see how you can. Unless of course, you somehow have jurisdiction in space.” Nezu said nothing. For the first time in the conversation, he seemed to be considering the possibility that Ben was actually leaving Japan. 

And his stunned silence is interrupted by Nezu choking on his tea after Ben said his next line “Besides, this phone call is being recorded. You’ve basically confessed to everything. I don’t know how the media would react to Nezu’s grand plan at taming the vigilante being a complete and utter sham.”

However, Nezu was quick to recover “OK, Tennyson. How about a wager? If you can defeat the entirety of U.A. staff, I’ll accept this and rip up that contract. If you lose, you delete that pathetic piece of blackmail you just happened to record.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“Perhaps but isn’t this a lot more interesting? Actually fighting instead of hiding behind blackmail. I’m confident in my abilities. Are you?” And just like that Nezu hung up. 

Notes:

Well, this is a chapter that exists. It's basically the obligatory "calm before the storm" kind of chapter. Rest assured, the action will be picking up quite a bit in the next few chapters but right now there's not much to say. I hope it doesn't take as long as this one did. It shouldn't because I've already got quite a bit done but I'm also a procrastinating prick so all I can promise is that it won't be a month.

Quick teaser but Albedo is done being humiliated and he'll prove that quite well next chapter.

Chapter 25: Ben 10 VS U.A

Summary:

Just a silly chapter full of fanservice and Ben fighting the UA staff. Yep.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Ben you cannot be serious! I was just about to send you to Galvan Prime!” Max’s words echoed throughout the space station.

Almost everyone stopped what they were doing once the elderly man started yelling at the supposed hero of the whole, entire universe. Admittedly the act of his archenemy being scolded by his grandfather like a child did give Albedo a bit of joy as he witnessed the vigilante running to the teleporter.

“Sorry, grandpa but I need this! I mean, it was your idea to send me there, after all. I’m just taking care of some loose ends”

“Making yourself an enemy to the number 1 Hero School in Japan is the opposite of tying up loose ends!” Max yelled.

“Hey, I never said I was tying them”

“BEN!”

“OK, fine! The fact is Grandpa that being relegated to little more than a security guard for the sake of a project that ultimately didn’t yield anything has made me a little impatient. So I’m going to teleport to U.A, show those U.A chumps what for and then come back tomorrow to do this little mission of yours, ‘kay?” It was somewhat refreshing to know that Tennyson’s arrogance and selfishness wasn’t confined to just him, Albedo thought.

“Ben as a Plumber, it is your duty to uphold peace in the galaxy and doing that means you have to follow orders” Tennyson let out an annoyed sigh and glared at his grandfather.

“Yeah, and what peace was I upholding while I was being a security guard? What Plumber missions did I do in the past year besides finding a couple of AWOL Plumbers? Everyone I saved in Japan was of my own volition. I’m more effective when I’m not bogged down following orders. A fact that you exploited when the Rooters took over.” Tennyson added with an annoyed inflection.

Albedo could somewhat empathise. Untapped talent being relegated to employment well below their deserved station. Unfortunately, the subject of this was a pathetic teenager who happened to acquire the most powerful object in the universe by sheer dumb luck.

“I love you Grandpa but sometimes, it really does feel like the only reason I’m even here is because of this” Tennyson gestured to his Omnitrix which was likely the case. “Like I’m just a joke or a mindless soldier for you to boss around.”

Intriguingly, his words caused the elder man some pause. Everyone was watching to see what his reaction would be. Perhaps a hollow apology to smooth things over. Or a more direct approach in doubling down on his orders. Max seemed to choose the former but Tennyson interrupted “I’ll see you tomorrow”. 

The boy left to the teleporter and the old man decided not to follow, leaving him be for now. And as he watched this all unfold, Albedo felt a small twinge of anger at him for not doing more. Oh it was awfully convenient that you show remorse when your negligence and refusal to accept any criticism for your plans. 

Albedo had experienced this before. Many times in fact. But no one was ever truly apologetic. They never worked to improve themselves or try to get to the root of the problem. No, they were just sorry that their underlings felt that way. Constantly overlooking those who had a superior solution for the sake of their own pride. Of course, Albedo doubted that the same experience applied to Tennyson but perhaps even an ignorant fool like him had the odd good idea. 

But he’ll have plenty of time to reflect on this once he is actually outside this feeble prison.


It was well into the late evening when Ben arrived at the coordinates Nezu had texted him. One of the training cities that was used for U.A’s entrance exam. Training City B, if he remembered right. 

“Alright Nezu! I’m here so are we going to fight or what?” Ben yelled boredly as he looked through the list of possible options to start with.

Two bullets fired into the air right where his arms had been before he even had time to select an alien. Before he could process that he had somehow managed to avoid being shot , a giant wall of sound threw him into a building. Said building immediately started to entrap and cover him. He immediately dodged but Vlad King was there to shoot crystal blood at him. 

“Just stand down, Tennyson!” Vlad King said.

“And here, I thought this was going to be a fair fight. Like me taking you on one at a time but I can kick your asses all at once!” Ben slammed his hand on the Omnitrix and shone in bright green light.

“XLR8!” 

Almost immediately, the bombardment of attacks slowed to a halt. Well, at least from XLR8’s perspective they did. The colors became a lot more muted as XLR8 took in his surroundings. In addition to Cementoss, Vlad King and Present Mic, XLR8 was also facing an army of Ectoplasms, Midnight’s clouds, Eraserhead and a bunch of heroes that he had seen but never really interacted with. 

XLR8 immediately got to work. Time dilation was actually quite energy consuming. He didn’t use to have that problem but perhaps the Omnitrix was taking pity on his enemies. XLR8 got to work immediately. He grabbed Eraserhead and put him in front of Vlad’s attack. With Eraserhead’s scarf, he rounded up all the Ectoplasms and hit them all in time dilation. He tapped Midnight so that she would be sent flying towards an angry furry? He grabbed a pink haired hero and a blonde guy wearing sunglasses against each other.

And then he resumed time’s natural flow to watch the chaos unfold. Eraserhead got stabbed into Cementoss’ wall. The Ectoplasm army toppled over each other like a bunch of dominos. Midnight was sent flying into that dog who accidentally kicked her into Present Mic. The two unknown heroes were easily knocked out. It was all quite funny. 

“Haha! I said I’d use only my first 10 aliens but XLR8 is still one of my most dangerous!” He triumphantly yelled before childishly sticking his tongue out at the heroes. 

The dog creature tried to attack him but XLR8 was too fast and way too furious. He literally ran circles around the hero, creating a vortex powerful enough to lift the man into the air. 

“I mean it’s like you’re not even trying!” Ben was getting cocky, which naturally meant it was time for the universe to put him in his place. 

As he was positioning Midnight to take some of Snipe’s bullets, he was punched into one of the buildings. XLR8 hadn’t felt a punch that powerful since Vilgax when he was 10 years old. His armor had even begun to crack at the damage. XLR8’s healing factor kicked in as he looked to see who could possibly enter Time Dilation with him.

“Stay down Tennyson. This will be your only warning.” The Symbol of Peace announced, clearly ready to pick up the fight should he make another move.

‘He’s fast enough to catch XLR8 off guard! He’s way too powerful’ Ben thought to himself.

“I’m impressed, All Might! You’re the first to enter my Time Dilation technique but that’s not the technique I have!”

“Humph! Then show this trump card of yours! I’ll defeat you all the same!” All Might postured, bracing himself for the inevitable technique.

However, All Might was expecting some kind of offensive technique. A technique that All Might would have to block or evade. The point is he didn’t expect XLR8 to run away like a little bitch and that was more than enough time for XLR8 to lose the Symbol of Peace.

The battle against U.A had officially begun.


So XLR8 was the first alien. Nezu wasn’t expecting such a powerful alien right off the bat but he supposed he did force Tennyson’s hand. This unplanned handicap of Tennyson’s was quite annoying. Of course, Nezu had planned for all of the aliens that he had seen so it was only a matter of counting down the aliens. Still he didn’t appreciate being looked down on.

Nezu sighed dismissively at his thought. His greatest strength was Tennyson’s hubris. If Tennyson could make his victory even greater by only restricting himself to his first ten aliens, he would. It would make Nezu’s defeat all the more humiliating. Not that this match of theirs actually mattered but well, Nezu would be lying if he didn’t feel the slightest bit insulted.

So under the assumption that Tennyson would not remove the handicap, Nezu already could remove the possibilities of Tenten, Labrat and Fasttrack appearing. The former two were aliens he had only unlocked in Japan whereas it was highly unlikely the latter would appear due to his similarity to XLR8.

Two bullets flying through his office interrupted his pondering and his tea time. Nezu looked in horror as his 3500 yen tea set crashed to the ground. 

“Snipe! What are you doing? Tennyson isn’t here! I repeat Tennyson is not here!”

“Oh, sorry.” Snipe said in a mistaken tone. What could possibly have possessed him to think that the vigilante was in his office?!

“Because Snipe isn’t here either” Ghostfreak. Ghostfreak possessed Snipe into shooting at Nezu’s office. 

Nezu quickly grabbed Power Loader’s tablet and made a run for it. Against anyone else, he could easily just hole up in his office. Unfortunately, Ghostfreak now had two guns and Homing. He could hunt down the other heroes without taking even one step from his nest. 

For the first time he had been caught well and truly off guard and Nezu was ashamed for it. He had thought he had prepared for everything. Each pro had a set amount of pyro and cryo grenades for Tennyson’s more temperamental aliens. The school was also outfitted with a special magnetic rod to attract or repel Tennyson’s electric aliens. Power Loader had also whipped up a special nanite gel which would negate any of Tennyson’s more transformative aliens (which included phasers). For everyone else there was All Might, who he had forbidden from heroing. 

Unfortunately, they had jumped the gun and allowed Tennyson to transform into one of his most dangerous aliens and he got away before any counter measures were put into place. It wasn’t even that creative of a move but the sheer efficiency at which Tennyson had acted had caught them all off guard. 

Fortunately, Nezu had a way around Ghostfreak’s possession... but first they would need to regroup.


“Midnight, Mindbreaker, Hound Dog and Toxin have been defeated by the vigilante” Eraserhead reported. 

“Are you sure, you’re ok? Eraser” Present Mic asked concern for Eraserhead’s various stab wounds that had been inflicted by Vlad King.

“I’m fine. Though I must ask why we are doing this pointless task?” Eraserhead was the first one to object to Nezu and Tennyson’s little game and the pointless injuries he had suffered weren’t changing his mind on the matter.

“Perhaps, you should take a rest” All Might said in concern. Eraserhead was a good hero but against Ben 10, he was little more than the thugs every hero faces and easily defeats.

At the same time Toshinori couldn’t believe it. He had immediately started searching for Tennyson around the school. One moment he was running around the city. The next he saw a hailstorm of bullets in the sky. He believed it had been that Snipe had found Tennyson and raced to give his fellow Hero a hand against the vigilante. Instead he found his fellow Heroes as victims of Tennyson’s attack. 

He flew to the origin point but Snipe was long gone. At which point, Nezu summoned him to one of the old workshops in the city. A fully closed off room with only one opening. As impressive as Snipe’s bullets were, they couldn’t break through a solid wall. 

“So what’s next Nezu?” They couldn’t exactly go rushing straight to Tennyson or they could end up as his next puppet. Restricting him to only a “set” wasn’t a restriction at all. This Ghostfreak was one of the most frightening forms he had seen from the boy.

“Power Loader, do you have the neural inhibitor?” 

“Yes but placing it on Snipe will be the tricky part”

“I’ll do it” Toshinori stood up. He was the fastest one among them and had the best chance of getting to Tennyson. If this device could defeat Ghostfreak’s possession, it was absolutely imperative that they used it. According to Power Loader, it just needed to be placed on the temple. Easy enough. 


“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the one who gives Galvans a bad name. If it wasn’t for Psychobos, people might actually think Cerebrocrustaceans are the superior species” A high-pitched voice spoke in front of his cell.

In front of his cell were two Galvans on a discount trolleylift. The ones on Galvan Prime were much more sophisticated in their design but perhaps these two lacked the necessary parts. 

“Do I know you?” Albedo replied as a nutrient rod was inserted into his cell. At the very least, the tall one seemed to be content with doing his job.

“How stupid can you be?! You tried to kill me and Luhley on Galvan Prime!” The fat Galva shrieked, ignoring the tall one’s remark of “Don’t forget me too.”

“Oh don’t take it personally. I’ve tried to kill a lot of people, I can’t be expected to remember them all. There are better things my brain power is suited for, you see?” Albedo said, taking a bitter bite out of the nutrient rod.

“Heh, well now that you’ve been arrested you’ll have all the time in the world to reflect on those massive failures of yours. But to get you started I’m Driba and he’s Blukic” Driba said in a tone a bit too arrogant for Albedo’s liking. He frowned at the two in front of them.

“You know, for all of his faults, Tennyson was right about one thing. I always break out of my imprisonment. This time will be no different and when I do, I am immediately going to come after you two to show how much reflection I’ve had from my past failures” The two Galvans who Albedo could only assume to be middle school dropouts widened their eyes in fear before feebly continuing their route.

They didn’t get too far before a violent hiss erupted throughout the station. Albedo chuckled to himself, walking through the now open cell as did every other villain imprisoned on this space station. Those two Galvans were positively quaking in their boots as Albedo stalked towards them with a feral grin.


This was too easy. Usually Ben would take the chance to gloat and get really cocky but something just didn’t sit right with him. This was the staff at Japan’s top Hero school? The same people lying on the ground after being shot? Non-fatally of course. Though he’d be lying if he wasn’t feeling cathartic. It was as if all the stress from this pointless mission had been built up over the past year and was finally getting the chance to be released. 

He heard a noticeable boom in the air as the air currents picked up but before he could even realise what had happened, he was forced out of Snipe’s body. Ghostfreak looked up at his assailant and predictably it was All Might. 

“Oh this is way better” Ghostfreak exclaimed in that raspy voice of his as he turned invisible and intangible and forced his way into All Might’s body. Well tried to. He bounced off the man’s body instead.

“That won’t work Tennyson. Did you seriously think Nezu wouldn’t have prepared for the inevitability that you turned rogue?” All Might said before throwing an ectoplasm grenade at the ghost depriving him of his powers. 

“CAROLINA SMASH!” All Might quickly cross chopped the alien before he could do anything else. 

“I’ve always wondered what would happen when we eventually fought. How I would inevitably defeat you” Tennyson said in an incredibly raspy voice before being covered in bright green light.

“But I think I’ll just go all brute force if you don’t mind” In his place was a large red alien with four arms, wearing a black and green singlet and pants. All Might believed that it was called Four Arms. To his recollection it didn’t possess a specific power, being no more different than the average Strength amplifying Quirk user. If they also had two sets of arms. 

“DETROIT SMASH!” All Might wasted no time at all, going in for a simple punch. An immense pressure of wind was fired into Tennyson as he did so but he quickly gathered his bearings to catch the actual punch. Four Arms was pushed back but managed to gain enough footing to swing All Might around like a baseball bat. 

However as soon as he was let go All Might immediately rebounded into Tennyson. This form of his may have strength in spades but it would take a lot more than that to put him down. All Might moved so fast, an outside viewer may have mistaken him for teleporting and struck Four Arms with a Missouri Smash.

Four Arms wouldn’t go down so easily either and immediately punched the ground with all four arms of his to create a minor earthquake toppling the nearby buildings. As All Might lost his footing, Four Arms took advantage of the opening and quickly battered All Might’s body with all four of his arms. 

All Might grabbed one of the arms that was about to strike him and twisted it back. He did the same with a second hand. Four Arms still struck blows with the remaining two arms but All Might had taken far worse than those pitiful attacks. 

Seemingly sensing this, Four Arms changed strategy and headbutted All Might before wrapping his arms around All Might’s torso and suplexing him into the ground. All Might was quick to recover and used another Detroit Smash to send him into a building. All Might clutched his torso in pain. It seemed Tennyson had done more damage than initially thought. That didn’t change the fact that All Might still held the advantage.

“Why?!” Four Arms stopped in his tracks.

“Why what? Why am I kicking your ass? Well, you attacked me buddy so I’m sorry if you're feeling a little sore, right now” All Might rolled his eyes, not even bothering to correct Tennyson on the fact that this whole fight was his idea and for some bizarre reason Nezu had agreed. Instead All Might chose to get to the issue at hand.

“Why be a vigilante? You have the power to be a true hero, rivalling even myself as the symbol of Peace. Why are you so adamant on circumventing the law?”

“It’s a stupid law. I mean I saved a couple kids when five of your Pros couldn’t and I’m somehow the bad guy?! Can you honestly tell me that what happened that day was in any way justified?” Four Arms snapped.

“You could have avoided that situation entirely if you had just gotten your Hero License!” All Might shouted at the vigilante, trying to get him to listen to reason.

“I literally did not know what that was until after I got arrested for again saving two kids’ lives!” 

All Might grit his teeth. Tennyson was wrapped in many mysteries and one of those was just how he had gone through life ignorant of what a Quirk was as well as the foundations of Hero Society. Yet from their interaction on the beach, All Might knew that somehow that impossible event had come to pass and so it was for that reason that he couldn’t help but feel an iota of sympathy for the boy. 

“But you could still get a Hero License now? To prevent that from happening again. I just don’t understand why you’re so adamant on tearing this society down” All Might said, narrowly avoiding yet another of Tennyson’s attacks. 

Four Arms narrowed his eyes “Don’t be so melodramatic All Might. Society isn’t going to crumble just because I saved some people”.

It was then that All Might realized that Tennyson wasn’t some vindictive vigilante. He truly didn’t understand the consequences of his actions. The fact that a single vigilante showing up most of the heroes in Japan might just cause a negative impact on how heroes in general were viewed. It never even occurred to Tennyson.  

Before All Might could respond, the Omnitrix beeped and glowed red. Four Arms clapped all four of his arms together and yelled “THUNDERCLAP!”

An immense force of wind sent All Might flying away and when he looked back Tennyson was gone. All Might sighed. Perhaps it would be best if he ran after Tennyson right now. But the boy was powerless and surely the other heroes could handle it. For now, All Might just felt like taking a small breather to recuperate.


Albedo was feeling quite proud of himself with this latest scheme of his. The station was completely overrun by a swarm of escaping criminals. They were acting in surprising tandem with each other. 

The Plumbers had been caught completely off guard by this mass outbreak that Albedo had caused. But of course anything less would have foiled him immediately. It was a stroke of luck that Tennyson had decided to leave an hour before his plan kicked into action but Albedo doubted the boy would have been much help anyways. 

Amongst the confusion, Albedo managed to slip away. He headed for the storage, where he hoped he would find his stabilization crystal. He had no idea what kind of havoc the act of transformation would have on his body and he hardly trusted that Tennyson girl to have done a good job with that spell of hers.

Thankfully things calmed down once he got into the corridor that lead to the storage area. With the absolute mess he had caused, Albedo faced very little security. Save for a lone Atrocian guard. They tried very bravely to try and stop Albedo from kicking them in the face and walking into the storage room.

Although he wasn’t the only one who had opted to evade the action. Inside there was a human male, presumably in his 20s, ravaging the warehouse. He looked up to see Albedo enter the room.

“Ben 10, is that you bro? Nice outfit!” The man said in perhaps the most obnoxious voice these humans had in their vocal range. Although he at least had the sense to aim a Plumber rifle at him.

“Do not mistake me for that simpleton!” Albedo snarled but it seemed to cause the man to relax his guard.

“Oh! So you’re one of Ben 10’s enemies, bro! So are you his evil twin or something?” The thought of being related to that buffoon was enough to make his stomach churn.

“This is simply the result of Azmuth taking his punishment too far. I don’t suppose you have found a Polymorphic Crystal around here?” Albedo said, deciding to stay civil with this man for now.

“Azmuth? That’s the name of the smartest guy in five galaxies, right?” The man said as he thre the red crystal at him.

Fortunately, Albedo managed to catch it. The man’s agreeable nature made it so that Albedo didn’t mind the small mistake on his part. In fact, he was in such a good mood that he decided to offer a truce.

“Right on!” The man came out from behind the shelf carrying a large pile of trinkets. What exactly was he in this prison for? Money laundering? Selling stolen goods? Despite the pile having a few weapons in it, Albedo doubted the man’s crime was too reprehensible.

“Do you need a trolley?” Albedo said with a raised eyebrow.

“Good idea, bro!” The man said as he grabbed a spare trolleylift and followed him. “I’m  Fistrick by the way”

“Albedo” Albedo muttered bluntly as the two walked back into the war zone.


Ben was sore all over. All Might had left quite the damage on Four Arms and that had clearly reflected back at him. Right now, he has holed himself up in one of the buildings and all he can do now is wait for the Omnitrix to recharge. OK so perhaps agreeing to this fight hadn’t been the best idea but honestly he really needed to release some stress. 

It was working wonders too but then the Omnitrix timed out. He could swear the Ultimatrix lasted longer than this supposedly perfected model. And also that crap about “hitting it too hard” The other models didn’t have that. At least it usually didn’t come up in work. 

As Ben continued sulking in the room he had isolated himself in, he couldn’t help but notice the walls were runny. He rubbed his eyes, thinking it was just some hallucination but no. The entire room was runny and he’d seen it before. 

“Oh come now Tennyson! Did you really think we would give you the opportunity to just laze around while the Omnitrix recharged?!” Nezu’s voice cackled over a speaker hidden in the room.

Crap. Cementoss had already nearly trapped him once and this time he didn’t have the advantage of a charged Omnitrix. He needed to escape but the stairs he had come through had already been blocked off by cement. That left one exit, the window on the second floor. An exit that Nezu had definitely planned for but it was either that or get trapped in cement.

Ben looked at the Omnitrix, still glowing red before sighing and taking the jump. Upon landing he saw Cementoss focussed on encasing the building in concrete. That immediately stopped because Cementoss had seen him. The ground immediately rose up and tried to encase him but Ben just narrowly avoided it. 

As another slab of concrete came rushing towards Ben, the Omnitrix dinged. “Come on, Four Arms!”

Instead, he transformed into Stinkfly. Well at least he could fly away. Stinkfly narrowly dodged the attack and squirted a bunch of his slime everywhere, trapping Cementoss. It lasted for only a moment but that moment was more than enough for him to flee. He needed to take out as many people as he could before he ran out of time yet again. 

“YEEEEAAAAAH!” Speak of the devil. The shockwave hit him through the air but at least it wasn’t into another building. 

Before he could get his bearings, he ended up having to dodge a slew of gunshots. Keeping one set of eyes on Present Mic who looked uncharacteristically unnerved, he used the other pair at his new assailants. His eyes widened upon seeing an army of robots shooting at him. 

“I can’t believe they used these to test the strength of middle schoolers!” Stinkfly yelled as he flapped his wings as hard as he could, just trying to get away from the onslaught of bullets. 

He agily dodged through the bullet rain and pierced one of the robots with his pincer. The good news is that it was a one hit kill. The bad news is he had an entire army of robots to repeat one attack over and over again while he was getting shot at. Stinkfly opted for a tactical retreat or would have if Power Loader hadn’t burst out of the ground. His pincer clashed with Power Loader’s claws before the robots started firing again.  

“You know I could really use your help, Mic!” 

“But he’s so ugly! I don’t want him focusing his attention on me!” Of all of Tennyson’s aliens, it had to be one that was a giant bug. Power Loader was doing pretty well on his own and Tennyson was bound to stop using this form eventually and... why was he slimy?

Present Mic looked up like he was about to die in a horror movie and saw a giant trial of green slimy spit exiting Tennyson’s mouth. The resulting scream could be heard throughout the entire school.


Hm. So it seems Yamada has come into contact with Stinkfly. Well that shouldn’t be too much trouble. Nezu’s sure that this experience will only be to the benefit of those partaking. To be honest he had doubts regarding this fight. It was only thanks to Tennyson’s ego that it was happening in the first place. 

But the fact remained that this was a fight without genuine stakes. Nezu had already lost his asset the second he had gotten a hold of that recording and simply put there was no real reason for Tennyson to stay. Hell, he'd never really had him in the first place. There was only so much time he could have strung the vigilante along. Thus no matter who won, it wouldn’t have a large impact going forward. 

Rather this fight was important for entirely different reasons. The past year or so had Tennyson generally being an annoyance to U.A staff. It doesn’t take a genius to know that Nezu’s decision to bring the vigilante on was to the confusion of many and will remain an unsolved mystery. 

Admittedly it had been an error on Nezu’s part. Reading the achievements of Ben Tennyson, he was expecting someone older? More experienced. Mature. Regardless, Ben 10 had faced a wide number of otherworldly threats. Threats that quite simply Hero Society was not prepared for. 

Everyone talks about the vigilante showing those poor heroes up but the fact is that those poor heroes are unable to compete with the coming storm. A storm that Nezu realized was on the horizon as soon as this new timeline emerged. So he put all of his efforts into at least trying to get someone with experience to teach the next generation. And who better than someone who’s daily routine is or was fighting off aliens? On the other hand, Tennyson would continue his competition with heroes, showing them just how outclassed they were.

One doesn’t even have to look that far in general society. The best Pros U.A had to offer were having to pull out all the stops just to keep the vigilante on his toes. He’d managed to give All Might a good fight, however brief. If it weren’t for the Omnitrix’s low timer, he would likely be having far more success. It kept things fair, Nezu supposed. 

But what happens when Tennyson’s more dangerous enemies show up? Such as a galactic conqueror that blows up planets on a whim or a cult dedicated to extra-dimensional threats. How about a bog-standard alien invasion? With aliens far more powerful than the average Quirk user. 

Perhaps Nezu is wrong. Perhaps, he is overthinking the amount of danger the world is in and Ben 10’s rogues gallery gets dealt with just as easily as any villain in Japan. The few villains that had actually come to Japan had not been much to look at. But so long as the possibility remains on the table, Nezu must prepare for it. And so must Hero Society.

Nezu took another sip of his tea and saw just how the battle was progressing on one of Power Loader’s tablets. Nezu smirked and pressed a single button.


Albedo expected things to have calmed down significantly. Most of these crooks were only dangerous due to the technology they wielded, not out of any skill on their part. The few that remained a threat had nowhere to go with the station immediately being put into lockdown. Of course, Albedo foresaw all of this. What other reaction could they take after their entire prison was unlocked? 

“Alright, bro! Just follow me!” Fistrick foolishly yelled before running into a barrier of pink energy. Oh, they were still on board. 

“You aren’t going anywhere, Albedo” The other Tennyson said, blatantly ignoring Fistrick. Levin joined her in aiming a Techadorian Multiblaster at him.

“Do you honestly think you can defeat me? The only one who’s managed to best me is your cousin and he’s not here right now” Albedo smugly proclaimed, his hand shifting over his Ultimatrix.

“And we can’t call him. I guess that’s your doing as well” Levin said, not lowering the gun aimed at his chest.

“I admit I hacked into the communications of this station but I confess I had no idea he wouldn’ve just left. It’ll make picking you off all the easier!” Levin fired the rifle, hitting Albedo square in the chest but it was too late. 

A flash of bright light roared through the corridor and Albedo shifted into that of a Polar Manzardill. He believed Tennyson called it Articguana. Albedo simply opened his mouth and utilized the freezing capabilities of this form to their fullest. Within seconds, the entire corridor was completely frozen.

The frightening efficiency of the blast froze even the air, creating a barrier, which prevented him from leaving. Albedo quickly leapt back as the icy wall burst apart with pink energy. 

“ADFISHIO POTENTIA!!”

Several pink tendrils snaked through the air towards him. There wasn’t a need to use an Ultimate form right away. After the humiliation he’s been forced to endure this previous month, Albedo decides that he needs to take his time and enjoy this opportunity. 

He transforms into a Orthopterran and agily evades the tendrils, bouncing off the walls and hitting his foes with a shockwave that knocks them off balance. Levin absorbs the material off the ground and returns the favor, causing them all to drop down a floor. 

Albedo sends Tennyson flying with a savage kick but Levin picks up the slack with a punch to his abdomen. Albedo grabbed the arm and pulled Levin closer for a headbutt before kicking him away too. 

As he did so, nearby Plumbers started firing one him, most predominantly Rook with that failure of Galvanic engineering of his. Tennyson was firing a barrage of pink energy blasts further lessening whatever breathing room he had. Orthopterrans were known for their durability but this onslaught of attacks was a bit much.

Albedo transformed into a Pyronite and entered into his Supernova state. The assault halted as immense heat threatened to melt apart the very station they were inside. Of course, it would never reach that point but the very threat of him doing so should be enough to put these cretins in their place. 

Albedo laughed at these poor fools’ incompetence. Sure, the Plumbers may have been the universe’s last line of defence once upon a time but the invention of the Omnimatrix has long since rendered them obsolete.

“You are all nothing but fools. I once attempted to defeat Ben 10 by taking away his allies but perhaps I should have attempted the opposite approach.” Albedo said, gleefully rubbing his power into those lesser.

But he did not get the chance to savor his victory when someone entered his Supernova and punched him out of it.


“NAAAAAHHHHH!”

Predictably, Mic had started shouting at the gigantic bug flying around the arena dripping slime everywhere. Between that, Power Loader’s underground attacks and the army of robots firing at him, perhaps it was time to change form.

As soon as he pressed the Omnitrix, he felt all of his bones melt into nothing. Any limbs he once had morphed back into a single mass. The robots gunshots hit their target point black but it didn’t matter. Any damage he took would just regenerate.

“UPGRADE!”

As he descended, Upgrade decimated a few robots with his optic laser. Before landing on one of them. This 3 pointer was about to get a whole lot more dangerous. The body of the robot morphed and shifted, gaining a more humanoid shape in the process. His back sprouted jet-powered wings and the armaments shifted to his shoulders. His arms added two energy cannons onto his wrists.

Two energy cannons that he promptly used to decimate the rest of the robot army. Power Loader tried to claw at him but Upgrade lashed out with a chain-like attack, wrapping around Power Loader’s body. 

“AWWW YEEEEAAAAHHHH!” Present Mic shouted with renewed vigor. His screams powerful enough shift the nanites in Upgrade’s body. 

In response Upgrade threw Power Loader at the DJ before unleashing a blast of green energy on the two, easily defeating them. And with that Ben was at the halfway mark. Unfortunately, most of the people he had left were still the most dangerous. 

Before deciding his next course of action, a ginormous mech crashed through the training ground. The same one that Midoriya had broken his arm defeating. Nezu had shown him that it was intended to stop before actually crushing anyone but Ben had a feeling Nezu had disabled that particular feature. 

Wait. If he could hijack that thing, it would absolutely end this fight. Without another thought, Upgrade flew towards the mechanical behemoth. The Zero Pointer swung at him. Upgrade narrowly evaded the attack before pelting the mecha with an onslaught of bullets, lasers and missiles. 

Once he was at the top of the Zero Pointer, he extended wires into its head. Which immediately shocked himself and almost caused him to lose control of his own mech. Stupid! Of course, Nezu prepared for the possibility of his weapons being hacked. The only reason Upgrade had been able to hack this one was probably because Nezu expected it to be destroyed.

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have any long range weapons so the Zero Pointer just swung its arms at Upgrade almost as if it was swatting a fly. Of course, Ben Tennyson was no ordinary fly. He blasted away at the mech, whatever was removed would be integrated into his suit. 

The Zero Pointer could easily swipe buildings away but it was too slow to land a single hit. A fact that did not go unnoticed by the rest of the competitors. Ectoplasm in particular had somehow grown to the same size as the Zero Pointer and tried to bite down on the super-powered mechamorph.

“Since when could Ectoplasm do this?!” Upgrade screeched, barely trying to stop himself from being the cloning maths teacher’s next meal.

‘Oh wait. I can just upgrade myself, duh” The upgraded three pointer turned into a mass of green and black sludge, escaping Ectoplasm’s teeth. 

The sludge expanded in size and morphed into a much larger version of his mech. Only, this time he had guns poking through every orifice. His arms had essentially turned into giant railguns, which he used to fire upon the Zero Pointer. Or would have had Ectoplasm not pushed him out of the way. 

He generated a sword from his elbow, slashing at Ectoplasm but the giant was surprisingly nimble. He dodged the blade before kicking at the giant mech once more. He got in a few good hits before Upgrade fired his optic laser at the man. 

Ectoplasm managed to tank the blast but was left wide open for Upgrade’s railguns to fully charge and hit him into the Zero Pointer. 

“You certainly are quite powerful Tennyson” Ectoplasm noted as he pushed himself out of the remains of the Zero Pointer.

“Oh, you can talk! I just assumed you were one of those strong, silent types” What? It’s not Ben’s fault that every time he made a smartass comment, Ectoplasm completely ignored him. Although that was most people at U.A. And he never really bothered paying attention in the meetings. OK so he just hadn’t really paid much attention to Ectoplasm but it seems the giant took it in stride.

“I’m wondering, do you honestly think you can keep this onslaught up?”

“What? Kicking your butt? Yeah. In fact I think I’m gonna continue that now”

Ectoplasm let out a hearty laugh “Perhaps. But I was meaning the greater picture. How many minutes must you have left on that watch of yours? With everything that you’ve done I’d say that you’ll be lucky to have even two minutes remaining before you time out. Even if I fall here, this battle has broadcasted your location to everyone else. So I ask, do you think you can keep this futile effort up?” 

Crap. That was the one word running through Ben’s mind as he blasted Ectoplasm with everything he had left but it was too late.

The giant clone dissolved and Ben timed out just to see Ectoplasm knocked out on the ground. And it’s not as if he has any good hiding spots. They destroyed all of the surrounding buildings. If All Might or Cementoss were to confront him, he’d be completely useless. 

With a sigh, Ben took out the one bit of plumber tech that he had brought with him. It wouldn’t do much but maybe it could serve as a distraction while he ran away.


“Well, he’s finally timed out. Wonder who's gonna jump him” Sekijiro said from his spot in the recovery room.

"It would be most logical for the remaining heroes to form a united front but something tells me that won't happen"

Oh they hadn't been taken down off screen. It was just that both him and Aizawa thought it best to stop participating in Nezu's dumb fight with the vigilante. They’d fought and Tennyson had run circles around them and quite frankly there was little point to keep this charade up.

Sure Ectoplasm and Cementoss would proudly fight with everything they had for Nezu's orders but they hadn't actually had to deal with the vigilante interrupting their lessons. Constantly undermining everything they said. Eraser had it worse; at least Sekijiro could chase the vigilante off with Blood Control. At least Class 1-B didn’t have any students of Tennyson. 

Either Tennyson wins and they end up getting completely beaten into the ground like so many others or Tennyson loses and they still have to deal with him. So it came as no surprise when both Sekijiro and Eraserhead decided to leave the practice city as soon as Tennyson got a hold of Snipe. Technically they’re still on school property so Nezu couldn’t whine and complain that they didn’t participate.

“To be honest, I’m surprised it took Tennyson this long to pack up and leave” Sekijiro muttered as Ectoplasm wandered into the room for Recovery Girl to deal with.

“Well he’s not exactly the smartest person around” Sekijiro laughed at that. Yeah, Tennyson had plenty of powers but more often than not, he was like a wrecking ball. Completely devastating but also plenty predictable. It was how Nezu had defeated him the first time. Huh.

“How exactly is Tennyson doing far better now anyway? I mean didn’t Cementoss’ class easily capture him the first time?” Not to take away from Mirio but these were genuine Pros and the vigilante had reduced them to four.

Aizawa sighed “Well if Nezu actually was interested in winning, he’d have everyone gang up on him at the start. As it is, we're a bit too thinned out.”

“That is complete and utter bullshit! Remember we did that at the start and Tennyson still won!” He was still sore from getting tossed around the school by that speeder form.

“Then I can only imagine, Tennyson is taking this fight a lot more seriously than before” Aizawa said as he stared at the monitors in apprehension.

“Perhaps he just really doesn’t want to work for the school any longer. Being an over glorified security guard. No pay. Less freedom. No benefits”

“I get it Kan” Aizawa said annoyed but inwardly they both knew that it was a miracle Tennyson hadn’t just tried to fight the school as soon as he got the Omnitrix again. 

They both had to wonder that if Tennyson had such a blatant regard for authority, didn’t like working with U.A. and could face off against the entire faculty all at once, why was he still here?


Albedo had not expected to find a Pyronite aboard this station. After all, the only Plumbers that actually ended up stopping him were Tennyson and his cronies. And yet that was not the only surprise. A Tetramand picked him up and rapidly beat his body before tossing him aside for a Kinecelaran to sweep him up in a vortex of blue and black. Before he could react, a pink whip wrapped around him and slammed him into the ground.

“Believe it or not we can hold our own without Ben! Especially against a crappy knockoff of him” The Tetramand boasted. 

“Says the guy who got knocked away by his shockwaves” The Kinecelaran teased. 

Quite frankly, Albedo didn’t care. They had caught him off-guard and believed they had won. Believing him to be nothing more than a crappy knockoff of Ben 10 would be a mistake. The sheer arrogance of these fools, getting a single lucky hit off and assuming the battle to be over. 

The Plumbers walked over to him, handcuffs in hand to try and detain him. However, there was one trick up his sleeve that they had forgotten about. He didn’t need his Ultimatrix to transform.

He shifted into an Aerophibian and fired a neuroshock ray at Tennyson. The brief paralysis gave him the opportunity he needed to break free and fly around the large open room. Firing upon anyone in his ray. 

The Kinecelaran and Pyronite pursued him and he quick changed into a Tetramand, grabbing a hold of both of them and knocking them together. Albedo tossed the two aside as their Tetramand friend leapt to their aid. 

Ignoring the barrage of lasers that were sent his way, he deflected all of this Tetramand’s feeble punches before unleashing a flurry of his. He swept at his opponent’s legs, tripping him up before grabbing onto his head and continuing his onslaught. 

“I thought you didn’t need Tennyson’s help. Especially against a crappy knockoff.” Albedo spoke these words gently as he threatened to crush the Tetramand’s skull, ignoring his screams of pain.

“Let go of him!” The Kinecelaran screamed in concern. 

Her speed was admirable but she was predictable. Far too predictable. Albedo put her in her place as his strike sent her flying across the room.

“DECLAM BACCURA!!” 

Before Albedo could ponder the nature of this spell, he was flung across the room. The Tetramand had been dropped in the process.

“ERADICO!!”

As he was getting up, Albedo was encased in a sphere of pink tendrils. Eradico. Eradicate. Albedo was just a tad uneasy about the affect of this particular spell so instead of attempting to break out of the sphere, he transformed into a Petrosapien. Not a moment too soon because at that exact instant the sphere glowed white and exploded. 


“I AM HERE!”

‘Well, shit’ Ben thought to himself as All Might punched through the remains of the Zero Pointer.

With all the rubble on the ground, it had been fairly easy to construct a hiding spot. The problem Ben faced was if it would be good enough to last until the Omnitrix recharged. So here he was hiding on his belly underneath a bunch of garbage. He felt oddly nostalgic at this predicament. 

“Tennyson, where are you?!” All Might yelled as if they were playing a game of hide and seek. They kind of were. He was finished with the Zero Pointer and was now just moving rubble around half-heartedly. Fortunately, he was going about this business very slowly. 

“DETROIT SMASH!”

Never mind! All Might had gotten clearly tired of rummaging through rubble and decided to dispose of it all at once. The resulting air pressure was enough to lift the lighter pieces of rubble in the air.  Including his own hideout as Ben felt an immense weight taken off him.

“There you are- argh!” Before All Might could do anything, Ben blinded the Symbol of Peace with the only piece of equipment he brought with him; the Sun Gun. 

“Blinded by my power, All Might?” Although he didn’t have any time to make a snarky comment. Right now, he just needed to get back to where Power Loader and Present Mic were.

Case in point, All Might almost immediately recovered and struck Ben down before he could fire the Sun Gun once more. And Ben was barely closer to his location than when he started. 

All Might went for an axe kick, which Ben quickly evaded. The only way Ben was going to get out of this situation was if he could somehow stall All Might out. And the only way to do that was actually fight him without powers. 

Or so he thought but All Might stopped fighting for whatever reason to say “Do you truly not understand the threat you pose to Hero Society?”

“And what threat might that be? Extending the overall life expectancy of the population?” Ben boredly muttered with a raised eyebrow.

“Did it never occur to you that what you’re doing is affecting how the public views Pro Heroes? That by circumventing the proper procedure and constantly showing everyone up, you might actually be sending a dangerous message to those watching?! People watch you and think that any person can just waltz up and be qualified to solve problems that should be left to the Pros! Think about this rationally, Tennyson! You’re promoting a path of life that is suicidal for most people'' Ben rolled his eyes at All Might’s speech. 

If there was one thing he could give it, it was that it provided him with the necessary time as he made his way to where all the dismantled three pointers were. Still he thought it best to at least respond to the number 1. Wouldn’t want him to start attacking again.

“Except senselessly sticking to those same rules is also a dangerous message! It doesn’t matter if people are dying. Just wait for the heroes to arrive. Heroes that may not be all that qualified themselves. I mean there were, what, five Pros at that scene and not a single one could help two dying children!” Just a bit further. They’d started seeing the wreckage of three pointers now.

All Might opened his mouth to respond but Ben beat him to it “Don’t get me wrong. Where I come from, waiting for the authorities is sound advice but I come from a place where there are no Quirks. No superpowers of any sort. If the cops couldn’t handle it as crimes involving aliens typically would be, I and two others were the last line of defense. Of course, that changed when the Plumbers were reinstated but still...” They had finally gotten to their destination. Ben turned towards All Might, adjusting the intensity of the Sun Gun.

All Might let out a cocky laugh “And when these Plumbers were reinstated, the civilians had to follow their laws; did they not?”

“Well, the aliens did, yeah. But the thing is All Might that all of those laws had nothing to do with helping others. They can all be boiled down to the same principle of causing trouble for others is bad. Theft, murder, world domination. We don’t care if you use your powers and we sure as hell don’t care if you were trying to help someone” Ben was just hoping that the Sun Gun did its job right.

“So any old civilian can just track down villains and fight them of their own accord?” All Might said.

 “No but that’s premeditated. We’re talking about if you or your friend is in danger; well, we’re not going to say ‘Where's your plumber license?!’ and arrest you. And even if that is the case, the Plumbers are way more understanding than this country. I mean I didn’t complete basic training until a few months after I was working with the Plumbers” How long is this going to take?

“Likely because you were a valuable asset with that watch of yours” All Might remarked.

“Not just me. Gwen and Kevin were also with me during that time. The three of us basically did our own thing and the Plumbers cleaned up.” Ben looked behind him to see the Sun Gun had actually started a fire on Stinkfly’s sludge. Just need to keep him distracted for a few more seconds.

“I don’t expect you to understand but the reason we have these laws is to prevent people who aren’t qualified to handle these situations.”

“Qualified? I SAVED TWO KIDS! How wasn’t I qualified enough?!” At that precise moment, all of Stinkfly’s sludge had erupted into an inferno burning at everything in its path. One of the damaged three pointers exploded near the two heroes. 

As All Might processed the situation, Ben shone the Sun Gun in his eyes before running into the flames. Fortunately, Ben’s stalling had worked and the Omnitrix was in working condition once more.

“Come on Heatblast!” Ben slammed his hand on the Omnitrix and got Ripjaws. While surrounded by fire.

“You have got to be kidding me!”

“DETROIT SMASH!!!”

All Might uppercutted the air with so much force, he changed the weather. Clouds formed and soon after that it started raining. 

“Huh. Well, I guess I can work with this!” Ripjaws was still a fish out of water but a fish on land as it was raining was nearly as good right?

Ripjaws charged at the Number One Hero and swiped at the man with his claws. Predictable, All Might managed to evade the attack before throwing another punch. Ripjaws caught it in his jaws and chomped down on the Symbol of Peace. All Might yelled in pain before swinging his entire body around very quickly.

“OKLAHOMA SMASH!” 

Ripjaws was quickly thrown off the man and sent into a building. Perhaps a different approach was necessary. A flash of green light came from the hole Ben had created. All Might waited patiently, eagerly wanting to see what new form he would defeat. 

All Might waited. And waited. And waited. But Tennyson never showed up. “So you’ve decided to run away, have you Tennyson?”

Though All Might’s words were bold, there was no triumph. He knew that the vigilante wouldn’t have run off so soon after getting his Omnitrix’s energy recharged. That can only mean that Tennyson was up to something. Well if a full on fight was not to be had, All Might would simply have to be ready for it. 

Yet, all this waiting was giving him the mother of all itchs. It started at the bottom of his leg but spread really quickly. It went from his leg to his waist to his back. When finally, he felt something really slimy at the nape of his neck. Tennyson! All Might moved to grab whatever form the vigilante had turned into when he felt a pinch in his neck. Almost immediately, he lost all feeling in his body and fell onto the ground, transforming back into Toshinori Yagi.

“The Vagus Nerve is one of the most important nerves in the body, transmitting data from the cranium to well everywhere else. However, a Haphaestus Neurogrip can temporarily halt its function in the body. I suggest you get comfortable because you won’t be doing anything else for the next two or three hours” A know-it-all voice announced though All Might still didn’t get a good look at the creature Tennyson had transformed into.

However, it managed to stay completely undetected and fell him with a single touch. Tennyson’s first set contained quite the fearsome forms.


Fortunately, he was unscathed by the attack. The same result occurred when what was left of the Plumbers started firing on him in a vain attempt to put him down. He simply walked through the energy blasts, not even bothering to absorb the energy. 

Crystalline constructs sprouted through the ground like trees, attacking everyone in his immediate vicinity. The Pyronite flew, the kinecelaran evaded and Tennyson summoned barriers but it was all for naught. Everyone was so off balance that he allowed himself a brief moment of triumph. Like he thought, these peons weren’t even worth the trouble of going Ultimate. 

“How truly pathetic! Did you peons really believe you stood a chance against the smartest being in the universe?!” Albedo yelled, waiting for someone stupid to make a quip about his supposed intelligence but there was none. 

Albedo smirked to himself. Of course. The only person capable of doing so, well he was occupied right now. It didn’t feel quite right. Albedo truly had wanted to wipe the floor with him but Albedo surmised that there would be many other opportunities to do so. 

“Well, it has been fun, but I suppose it is time to put you out of your misery” Albedo said, preparing one final change. 

“Would you just shut up!” Albedo’s thoughts were interrupted by a Taydenite fist breaking his jaw. 

Ah Levin. Admittedly, he had forgotten the Osmosian in his power trip but no matter. Albedo healed his jaw before firing a slew of crystalline projectiles at the man. Levin charged right on ahead before landing another strike powerful enough to send Albedo into his own constructs.

Albedo summoned forth a single ginormous structure towards the man but Tennyson destroyed it with another spell of hers. OK, this was becoming tiresome. He transformed into a Citrakayah and immediately ended this farce of a fight. 

The Tetramand, Levin, the Pyronite, Tennyson and all the other Plumbers were taken out with a single strike. The Kinecelaran was somewhat more of a problem. She was faster but only slightly. In the end, her efforts only allowed her to fight him on somewhat equal footing. A snap of his fingers generated a sonic boom, stunning her and allowing him to clothesline her. 

And yet as he looked down upon her, she still had that irritating look of defiance. Despite his certain victory, she still believed that there was a chance of victory. It reminded him of that person so very much. 

So perhaps trying to firmly establish control of the situation, Albedo grabbed a nearby piece of his crystalline constructs and stabbed into the Kinecelaran’s legs. Green blood oozed out of her as she let out frightened screams.

“Stop it!” The Tetramand yelled out, any bravado had been promptly dropped at this point.

“Very well.” Albedo said, dropping the Kinecelaran onto her knees before delivering a swift kick to her face. 

He turned to face his enemies but it seemed the battle had taken their toll. The Pyronite was barely flying. The Tetramand looked like he could keel over any moment. The only people who were still in fighting condition were Levin and Tennyson but even they were getting weary of this charade. But wasn’t there someone missing from this picture?

“FACIO GRAVIS!!!”

Before he could ponder that thought any further an impressive force pressed down upon him, forcing him to his knees. Was there anything this woman could not do?! 

“I found it!” A triumphant voice called out. 

“Hurry up and throw it! I can’t maintain this spell for much longer” Tennyson grit her teeth.

Albedo looked up to see Rook holding a Null Void Grenade in his hands. No. No. No. No. He was not spending a single moment in there. Not after everything he had suffered. But the gravity spell was too powerful.

Albedo watched in horror as Rook threw the grenade in his direction. Albedo let out a brief smirk. Perhaps, he had written off these peons too quickly. It was only due to his arrogance that he had not won this fight already but now there was no other choice.

So he decided to do the only reasonable thing in his position and went Ultimate.


After defeating All Might, Ben quick-changed into Diamondhead. Surfing throughout the area, he quickly found his next target. Cementoss greeted him with a multitude of stone slabs but Diamondhead merely countered with his own crystalline structures which stabbed through Cementoss’ own constructs. 

“Oh I’m really happy to see you. It’s time I show you how a real geokinetic operates” Diamondhead cricked his neck before shooting out crystal shards at the Cement Hero before detonating them. Cementoss was stunned and had no time to react as Diamondhead extended his arms to push Cementoss in a building.

Diamondhead would have liked to show off a bit more but he didn’t have the time. Instead he used one of his more devastating attacks to finish this “fight”. He encased the area surround Cementoss in a prison of crystals. It was only for 30 minutes tops. Ben would free him after he won this little competition.


The Ultimate Citrakayah was quite something. The body had gone from blue and black to white and gold. The spikes on his arms were thinner but sharper and his muscles were generally more well toned. His fingers were now adorned with razor sharp claws.

Upon its activation, it was as if time itself had slowed down. Time dilation was a somewhat advanced technique for speedster aliens forms such as Citrakayahs and Kinecelarans but going Ultimate seemed to perpetually put him in that state. 

Albedo calmly walked up to Levin and put him in his place. The grenade was still hanging in the. air, almost motionless. He then unleashed a flurry of attacks to Tennyson. He couldn’t afford to have her magically recover and pull another game-changing spell against him. He opted to land most of those attacks against her head, ensuring a long and painful recovery. As if that wasn’t enough, he then impaled her on one of the surrounding constructs. He couldn’t have her just magic away all of her damage while he was about to escape.

Besides that, there didn’t seem to be any other threats. He prepared to find the one who could free him before the Kinecelaran called out.

“Wait! W-what are you doing?!” Her voice was shaky but she had freed herself from the crystals embedded in her.

“How interesting that even in your state you can still enter time dilation. If you must know I am off to free myself from this prison, whatever that will take.” Albedo said, making sure she knew exactly what was going to transpire if he didn’t get his way.

“You can’t!” Kinecelaren's voice was still shaky. She tried to rush him but she was clearly in no condition to run.

Albedo grabbed onto her firmly “You can’t defeat me. Even if you were in top condition, surely you must understand that this Ultimate form is far faster than you now”

“I won’t let you kill anyone else!” She yelled defiantly, feebly struggling against his hold.

“Do I really seem like the type of person to kill you feeble morons? If I truly wanted to, I could have transformed into a To’kustar and completely destroyed this entire station and you along with it” The Kinecelaran stilled at his words, the realization that they never stood a chance hitting her.

“Ultimately, the only one in true danger here is Max Tennyson and even he should be fine so long as he takes the station off lockdown and allows me to be on my merry way” Whatever despair had ridden the girl was obliterated with a renewed vigor.

She broke out of Albedo’s hold... and was promptly run through with another crystalline construct. She could remain up there until her friends got her down. In the meantime, he had a meeting with the Magister of Earth’s Plumbers.


Diamondhead scoured the area until he found a space suit. Strange. Ben vaguely remembered this person from the USJ.

“Before we begin, I just want to say I’m rather envious of that watch of yours. That you have any power you want all at your command. However, I can’t help but admire the fact that you decided the best way to use those powers was to help others” the astronaut said.

“Ah! Finally, someone who speaks my language! Thank you! Seriously it may not seem like much but you’d be surprised how many people think otherwise. Do we really have to fight at all?” Ben genuinely meant those words. To have someone actually note what he does amidst all the people that just say he’s wrong or dismiss his ideas because he’s apparently an idiot.

“I’m afraid so. Ben 10, I, Thirteen, will be your final opponent!” The astronaut said. Ben raised an eyebrow.

“Awfully confident. Y’know that’s probably what everyone else thought as well but well, they weren’t my final opponent. What’s your deal anyway, Thirteen? Gravity powers? Space lasers? It won’t matter because I’m still going to win.”

“Mine’s a bit more destructive than mere lasers” The caps on Thirteen’s fingers released and immediately started sucking things up. Diamondhead shot out some crystal shards at the astronaut but they too were quickly sucked up.

Diamondhead generated cleats at the bottom of his feet but the hero’s Quirk was greatly negating that addition. Black holes. OK, there just might be a problem. Especially considering the one time he actually came in contact with a black hole forced Paradox to save his ass. And that was with all of his aliens at his disposal. 

What to do? He couldn’t punch it. He’d just get sucked in. He couldn’t just escape? Even if he had the means, the only ranged attacks he had would force him back into Thirteen’s range. That left just one option. One absolutely batshit insane idea that might just work.

He quick-changed into Heatblast and almost got sucked into Thirteen’s black holes. He barely managed to propel himself just out of Thirteen’s death range. The gravity well was still affecting him greatly but he wasn’t in any immediate danger. He let out a heavy sigh before flying giant circles around the astronaut. 

He vaguely remembered something about black holes evaporating and immense heat evaporates water so this is the same principle right? He continued flying faster and faster, his flames getting hotter and hotter. He reached what he thought to be his peak heat temperature and continued rising past it. Wasn’t that what this school’s catchphrase was all about? Reaching your limits and soaring past them.

The gravity got all messed up and Heatblast could almost feel himself pulling apart at the seams. Which was really odd for an alien made out of fire and rocks. He screamed in pain but pressed forward. His fire had become pure white in coloration and in one final burst, he let out all of his energy at once, focused only on one point.

“HYPERNOVA!!!!”

Heatblast screamed. Thirteen screamed. There was a lot of screaming before the battlefield turned into a molten hellscape, warped by immense gravity. 

Heatblast crashed into the ground, where buildings had once been but all the buildings in the practice city had either been destroyed by his clash with All Might, Ectoplasm and now most destructive of all Thirteen. The Omnitrix timed out and Ben felt a heavy wave of fatigue entrance him.

He got up from the ground that actually burned him upon timing out. He saw Thirteen laying on the ground and limped over to the astronaut. The visor had been cracked, revealing a young woman. Oddly enough, she was largely unharmed. Her Black Holes seem to have absorbed most of the damage.

“That was a hell of a fight, Thirteen.” Ben said in a rough voice, coarse from him screaming his vocal chords out.

“Thank you. Nezu is in his office waiting for you” She said quietly.

“OK but let’s get you to Recovery Girl first.”


Albedo found Max in the central command centre. He had been run ragged from his little prison break. Albedo transformed into the Ultimate version of himself and faced them.

“I suppose congratulations are in order, Max Tennyson. You aren’t dead... yet. If you want to keep it that way, I suggest you and your Plumbers disable the Lockdown procedure now !” He looked down at the Magister on his throne. Red static emanated from him, threatening to electrocute those around him.

Max’s response was disappointingly predictable. Albedo blocked the incoming blaster fire with a forcefield. “Really Max. You couldn’t defeat me before. What makes you think you stand even an iota of a chance against me?”

“So what exactly was the point of all this, Albedo? You turned yourself into a girl and begged for help for what? What was the point of coming to us to help when you could have just been left well enough alone?” Max questioned. The smug look on his face contorted into one of pain as Albedo struck with a lightning blast.

“Don’t be a fool! I was perfectly content to leave you Plumbers alone but your grandson ruined my only means of getting back to my additional body so desperate measures had to be taken.”

“Funny because Ben said that he did nothing to your invention. It was a failure from the moment you activated- AAARGH!” Albedo cut him off with another lightning blast. 

“It. Was. Ben. Tennyson. It’s always Ben Tennyson who foils my plans because god forbid I have a bit of normalcy in my life! Well him and Azmuth” Albedo said robotically. Another electric blast struck Max as Albedo thought back to the true culprit behind all that befell him.

“The only person responsible for your failures is yourself.” Max chided as Albedo let loose another lightning bolt. 

“That form Azmuth trapped you in was who you really are. A child refusing to own up to his own mistakes but even Ben at that age knew when he screwed up” Another lightning bolt. Max was becoming deathly pale, the gaps in his words becoming longer and longer.

“Shut up! All you’re doing is determining your own death so I would suggest giving me what I want. Now .” But his threat did nothing. 

Instead Albedo heard a fast and high pitch. It was then that he noticed Max pull a high energy grenade out of his hands and grab onto him.

“I would say I’ll say you on the other side but I think its safe to say we’ll be going to different places” Max smugly said as the grenade hit its countdown.

BOOOM!

But they were unharmed by the explosion. In that split second, Albedo used his forcefield to slice Max Tennyson’s hand. Before he could even scream, the hand and subsequently the grenade was blasted to the other side of the room. That was close. A split second was all that prevented him from dying a pointless death.

In a fit of rage, Albedo blasted Max with all that he had and this time he did not stop. Over and over again, he struck Max with crimson red electric bolts. Until the old man drew his final breath. How dare he try and attempt something so pointless! 

“I guess you were right! We did end up going to different places!” Albedo smugly laughed to himself before it hit him.

“Oh wait. With him dead, he can’t deactivate the lockdown procedures... Oh well. It should be easy enough to hack into their systems, especially if those two ‘Galvans’ were the ones that set it up.


Wildmutt charged into Nezu’s office and immediately pinned down the rat principle. His senses were watching out for any traps but there didn’t seem to be any.

“I was wondering what your final form would be. It’s good to know that even if I had decided to hide, I would have quickly been found out” The rat greeted him with the same cheerful tone as always. Despite the fact that he had lost, he greeted the vigilante as if it was just another day at work.

Wildmutt quickly got off the principal and transformed back into Tennyson “What exactly was the point of this Nezu?”

“Oh don’t act like you didn’t have fun! You could have easily turned down my request but you didn’t. This was as much your game as it was mine!” Nezu took another sip of tea. 

“Besides, you’re the one who wanted a more extravagant departure! What better than a boss rush against all of U.A?!” The only thing that could have made this better is if Eraserhead and Vlad King had actually gotten involved but oh well.

“I guess it was pretty fun.” Tennyson hesitantly agreed “I still don’t understand why you did this though. Letting me kick the asses of your staff hardly makes for a good principal”

“Well, Mr. Tennyson. This may come as a surprise to you but not everything is about you” Nezu said, never faltering from the same jolly expression. 

“I admit you truly did catch me off guard with that phone call but what do you think would have happened if you had just up and left as intended?” The boy didn’t say a word as Nezu finished his cup of tea.

“Since you have no ideas, I’ll tell you exactly what would have happened. Everything that you did at this school would have been a waste. You would have been remembered as only a nuisance who happened to be right about one villain attack. And the staff would go about their days, content to believe that there isn’t something more.” Nezu narrowed a look at the vigilante.

“This test wasn’t for you Tennyson. It was for them. And for every other hero in Hero Society” Nezu grinned before showing the vigilante exactly what was on that tablet of his. 

A YouTube video under the name Labrat42069. Specifically, a YouTube video showing the events of the last hour. XLR8 easily taking out a third of the faculty, Upgrade and Ectoplasm’s giant fight, his final battle with Thirteen. The only thing that was missing was All Might, which might have been due to prevent the exposure of One For All and his time limit but even his previous fights against XLR8 and Four Arms were missing.

“You recorded our fight! And edited all the footage together really quickly. You realise this only makes you look bad, right?”

“Tsk. As usual, Tennyson. You miss the point completely. What I have done has proven just how dangerous you can be. It’s been a pleasure but I would suggest leaving Japan forever.” Ben opened his mouth to respond but Nezu quickly tacked something else on to this socially suicidal scheme. 

“Of course, if you’re feeling extra confident you could always leave one last display of your superiority and hunt down the Hero Killer in Hosu before you leave. He’s been a real problem, lately but don’t let me tell you what to do.” Nezu said.

However, their conversation was cut short when Ben’s phone started dinging with dozens of notifications. All of his friends telling him there was some emergency to be taken care of. He quickly sent his coordinates for whoever was operating the teleporter and promptly left Nezu to bask in his glorious loss.


Despite Nezu’s weird plan, Ben really did need that fight. Being able to let out all of his frustrations did a miracle on his mind. The whole things was as if he had been burdened with carrying heavy weights on his back. Every victory against those teachers gradually removed one of those weights until there was only one left.

Were his friends ok? This exercise had been fun but Ben would never be able to forgive himself if it had come at the cost of anyone’s lives. Strangely enough, Patelliday was the first one to greet him. Not Blukic or Driba or any of the engineers.

“What. Happened?” Ben said robotically, already dreading the worst.

“A-well-y’see... I’m sorry” Patelliday said, quickly giving up on any way to pass the news gently. 

He tried to say condolences but Ben was not interested. Ben could simply utter a “No” before running across the station, fearing the worst had come to pass. Finally he came to medbay where he found Gwen’s broken, battered body being put in one of the healing tanks. Kevin and Rook were fortunately in better condition but that wasn’t saying much. 

And then he saw Grandpa’s lifeless body on one of the beds, already being prepared for the morgue. Ben let out a scream, immediately turning into Medicura. He outputs waves of blue healing energy but Max’s body remains the same. Ben fought back tears as he output even more energy, lighting up the entire room.

But the result was the same.

Notes:

Thus ends season 3a. Truthfully, I'm quite worried about this chapter. I actually think its quite well written for my standards but offing a character is a major decision that I'm sure not everyone is going to appreciate. But I think this was the right decision for the story going forward. I've made hints to how dangerous Ben can be when he finally gets serious and that is certainly going to happen in season 3b.

Now off to disappear for the next two years.

Chapter 26: Sports Festival Part 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Bakugo woke up like any other day. Dig some stretches, had breakfast, yelled at the old hag. It was just a normal morning until he spotted Tennyson on the tv. He got a brief glance of Tennyson in his Stinkfly form attacking... Present Mic? The fuck is Tennyson doing, attacking one of U.A. staff for. Wasn’t he just leaving Japan?

Evidently, that was the question of the day. Apparently Tennyson fought U.A. faculty, filmed it and posted their asskickings online.

“Finish your breakfast brat!”

“Fuck you!”

Once Bakugo was kicked out of the house, he opened up his phone to see this supposed video of Tennyson’s. The vigilante was cocky but he had his bouts of maturity. He wasn’t just some jackass that- and yeah, no. Looking at the username, it could only have been Tennyson.

With a disgruntled sigh, he clicked play. The video opened with Tennyson getting his ass handed to him by U.A until the entire band of Pro Heroes was sent flying. Bakugo stared at his phone in complete disbelief. Where the fuck was that power when they were training?! Bakugo thought he had been getting better but evidently the vigilante was just fucking with him! What else had he been hiding?!

The video cut to Snipe shooting at his own allies, which was obviously Ghostfreak’s doing. Bakugou couldn’t even be mad at that one. He knew very early in their training how much of a pain Ghostfreak’s possession could be and understandably it was one of the lesser used alien forms.

And yet despite how much of a game-breaker Ghostfreak is, the video cuts to Tennyson running through the decrepit city. What the hell happened? How was he supposed to learn anything from this? The storm swirling inside Bakugo’s head calmed as he remembered who made this video. Obviously, Tennyson didn’t want to show him getting his ass kicked.

Although something still didn’t feel right. If that was the case, then this whole bit of him running in human form was completely unnecessary. Why not just cut straight to his next transformation? Speaking of, it was Stinkfly who reassured him that not all of Tennyson’s alien forms were complete powerhouses that could have ended him in a second thought Bakugo had to wonder why he vomited on Professor Mic? Some kind of power move maybe? That had to be it. There was no other reason to use Stinkfly.

Certainly none compared to Upgrade who proceeded to go all Gurren Lagann and engage in a titan battle with Ectoplasm. What the fuck! Now that same storm that had calmed was raging and it was hovering over a volcanic eruption! Bakugo’s blood boiled as he saw the events unfold. His next alien was Diamondhead who effortlessly trapped Cementoss in a diamond prison. When did he have that ability? Actually how many game breaking abilities did Tennyson have and how didn’t he know about them?

The video ended with Heatblast and Thirteen fighting each other to a draw because of course the vigilante has enough power to equal a black fucking hole! Why wouldn’t he? The fact that he hid his power level was of no concern to Bakugo but rather the fact that Tennyson had been looking down on him all this time!

Bakugo grit his teeth so hard he almost felt them grinding into dust. It was then as he was leaving the train that a sobering thought occurred. Of course, Tennyson had been looking down on him. He’d made no preconceptions otherwise and had outright told him so. Despite that, Bakugo always felt that the gap wasn’t too large. That it would eventually close in time as he became an actual hero.

And that thought wasn’t baseless. Sure, he’d gotten his ass kicked again and again but eventually he managed to be on the giving end instead of receiving them all the time. Even if it was only occasional, he had a foundation for his improvements. Turns out that foundation was made of glass.

So this entire fucking training was pointless, then. He’d never even come close to defeating the vigilante that had plagued Japan for the last year or so. Out of the six aliens in the video, he only knew the true capabilities of two of them. And one of those two, he couldn’t even fight against! Bakugo called Tennyson to give him a piece of his mind and was sent to voicemail. No point airing out his grievances if the bastard was just going to hang up on him.

“Seriously, all this time and you still haven’t found a counter to Heatblast?”

Bakugo let out a ferocious explosion in the air, startling everyone around him. Crap. Here come a bunch of Pros to lecture him on the importance of Quirk restrictions while simultaneously wanting him to join the agencies when he’s older.

A familiar black and blue blur showed up but upon seeing him, it decided to run the other way. XLR8 (or Fasttrack) didn’t even exit the blur state, having taken only a fraction of a second to analyze the culprit of the explosion.

“The fuck are you doing, Tennyson!” Bakugo roared as he tried to follow him. A futile effort as the vigilante was long gone before his hands had even sparked.

As the heroes arrived, chasing after Tennyson and completely ignoring Bakugo’s prior incident, Bakugo got the feeling that something was very wrong. Tennyson was the type of person to show off and make fun of others. The type of person to steal Endeavor’s cases while, basking in unearned admiration.

A Ben Tennyson that didn’t even acknowledge others, well it didn’t exist. At least Bakugo didn’t think so.


Izuku was just wanting to watch some new Hero news. Maybe an up and coming Pro. Maybe a villain takedown with interesting Quirks. Definitely not U.A’s own Pros fighting Ben 10 and losing badly. Of course, he’d seen the video. It was the only thing people were talking about. From social media to reaction channels to the national news. Everyone had seen it besides his father who would have kept it on loop for days on end if he wasn’t blind. He still laughed for a solid ten minutes after being informed of it though...

There were, of course, people that dismissed the entire video as fake. People who thought that it was nothing more than a bunch of effects strewn together and footage from Tennyson’s escapades. Nezu himself confirmed that the vigilante was no longer contained at U.A, pretty much confirming everything in the video.

Naturally, that led to an outcry against U.A. How can the school claim that they can protect the students? How could U.A fail to notice the vigilante’s growing power? Had the vigilante been contained at all? All of these questions and more sparked debate and at the centre of it all was their school.

But there was just one question at the centre of Izuku’s mind.


Stoner Cutter: Why now?

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: I presume this is about Nezu’s decision regarding that video.

Stone Cutter: It makes no sense to damage the school’s reputation like this, right before the sports festival.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: On the contrary, this is the perfect time to do it. People have very short attention spans. He’s probably hoping the Sports Festival will manage to divert their attention away from this massive failure.

Stone Cutter: You think it’ll work?

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: Mmm not sure. On the one hand, the Sports festival is big enough for it to work but Ben 10 has also been repeatedly a threat to Hero Society.

Stone Cutter: Threat?

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: Oh, come on. He’s basically saving the lives of others for free and constantly showing up those ‘Pros’. He’s not All Might level but well, you’ve seen him clown on Endeavor, right?

Stone Cutter: Which time? He’s done it with so many alien forms... 

Stone Cutter: I think I see your point.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: Right? 

Stone Cutter: Although I wasn’t expecting Tennyson to actually manage to defeat the entire staff. Most of the forms he used were fairly basic as well.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: To think Heatblast was able to output enough radiation to counter Thirteen.

Stone Cutter: Dumbass, he just used the AoE to whittle away at Thirteen until she passed out.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean you have to resort to names.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: That spacesuit is designed to withstand immense temperatures, hot and cold. It could easily survive the barrage long enough to take out Tennyson.

I’M A PHANTOM THIEF: Dumbass.


Today was the day of the Sports Festival. Those two weeks had been put to good use by everybody. This was one of the most important events in their life and the entirety of it would be broadcast across Japan. Despite the current scandal, the stadium was crowded and full of people watching onwards. Whether it would be a memorable distraction or not was still up in the air but for the time being, Nezu’s plan seemed to be working.

There had been a number of interviews regarding the incident but for the time being, all anyone seemed to care about was the up and coming heroes, putting their skills to good use. Of course, not everyone was happy to have the spotlight.

“Yaoyorozu, why are you creating Russian dolls?”

“This is the only way to calm my nerves” She replied curtly. She was giving a speech in front of everyone in Japan, she wasn’t going to allow anyone to make fun of her for being nervous.

“I get that. Best of luck”

“You’re not going to go all villain today, are you?” She tentatively asked. Midoriya smirked.

“Of course I am. My Quirk still doesn’t quite work properly and I can only use Stone Cutter for a limited number of times. It’s not like I have many options.” Momo wanted to bash her head against a wall.

“Wouldn’t it be better to focus on reforming relationships with the class? There are still two Sports Festivals after this”.

“Perhaps but honestly I don’t have a large amount of attachment to the class. When we become heroes, those bonds will break. Surely you’ve seen how Pro Heroes operate. They steal each other’s jobs and with that the credit and maybe even payout. You could argue that the Sports Festival is encouraging that behavior by pitting us against each other” 

Midoriya looked straight into her eyes as he did so, completely and unabashedly unashamed at the words he was sporting. He seemed to truly and honestly believe such a cynical perspective of Hero society and Yaoyorozu was left wondering just where he could have gotten it from? 

Over the amount of time she had spent as his friend, she knew he was a good person. Monoma too. They both had their share of eccentricities but they truly wanted to help others. They truly held an enthusiasm for Quirks and Pro Heroes so why did Midoriya have such a warped perspective on heroics?

And Yaoyorozu knew the answer. She didn’t like it but she fully knew what had warped her friend’s sense of heroism. In a world that was completely insistent on defining a person by their Quirk and not their character, it was to be expected that those with faulty Quirks were treated poorly. And a boy whose Quirk damaged him everytime he used it was of the absolute worst kind. He would’ve been better off Quirkless. Yaoyorozu cringed at the thought of how badly he would’ve been treated. 

“Hey, so should we do another test? Just to be prepared” Midoriya shook her out of her thoughts.

“Um, yes. We should”.

“Cool”

“And where do you think you two are going?! The Sports Festival is about to begin”

“Iida, we’re just going to practice the speech one more time. Chill out for once or maybe you’d prefer it if she embarrassed this prestigious academy?”

As they left, Yaoyorozu thought to herself that though she didn’t agree with Midoriya’s plan, she wouldn’t mind it if he targeted Iida. 


At long last, it was time. The first-year students had assembled around the stage, the provocatively dressed Pro Hero, Midnight had quieted everyone down. Everyone’s attention was on her. Everyone in Japan. And if she screwed up it would only be documented for all of history. With a gulp, she started.

“Honestly when I was asked to do the speech, I was utterly terrified. This is an event that is broadcast all over Japan and well, that’s a lot of pressure for one girl to handle. I even tried pawning it off on the vice president of the class just so I wouldn’t have to risk the utter embarrassment and shame that I would feel if I screwed up in front of all these people.”

Almost like clockwork, all of those bad outcomes and possibilities rushed back to her. She stiffened and felt the eyes of everyone watching her.

“Momo! Relax. Just focus on my voice. This is what we planned for, remember? You’re doing great so just repeat after me: Fortunately my friends talked me out of it”

Yaoyorozu felt reassured at Midoriya’s voice. That’s right, their backup plan was merely to regurgitate what Midoriya had said to her. 

“Fortunately my friends talked me out of it. It’s true that this festival is an event with a lot of risk associated with it but it is also one of the most significant and impactful events during our time at U.A. Not just for hero course students, either. Doing well in this festival will give anyone a glowing recommendation." 

“For Support, students will get exposure for any items they show off”. She followed his words exactly.

“Meanwhile General studies students may have the option to switch courses if they do well enough and Heroics students will...” 

“be able to use this event today to be scouted for potential jobs from Pro Heroes.”

“What I’m trying to say is that yes, this is a time which can be quite daunting especially in the face of failure but the benefits for doing well far outweigh the risks. So with that said, let’s all do our best and may the best student win. PLUS ULTRA!!” 

“PLUS ULTRA!!!”

And with that the moment she’d been dreading for two weeks was finally over. She was somewhat surprised at how easy and anti-climactic it was. Aside from one slip-up, she had gotten through the speech with no issues. The plan they concocted had succeeded contrary to their expectations. Huh.


With the speech done, they were free to start the Sports Festival. The first event was an Obstacle Course. More specifically a lap around the stadium littered with traps and other interfering problems.

“START!”

With that signal, every student ran through the gate... save for one. This student merely positioned himself in just the right way before hitting the ground and yelling “STONE CUTTER”! 

Vibrations spread across the ground from his punch and as they reached the students, tripped everybody up. Well mostly everybody. Several students were already in the air and Iida managed to simply jump over them so he didn’t get hit.

“Already Midoriya?!” Yaoyorozu exclaimed as she created another polevault to replace the one he had damaged. 

“Sorry but this is a competition and all” Midoriya cheerfully proclaimed as he ran past her and the rest of the students. 

In a twisted sense of irony, Midoriya’s Stone Cutter had itself destroyed Todoroki’s own sabotage, preventing many students from slipping on the ground or being frozen in place. And with many students gaining on him, Todoroki couldn’t afford to try it again when it might not work. 

“See ya, Todoroki!” Case in point, Midoriya had just passed him. Wait, shit Midoriya had just passed him!

Unleashing a wave of cold, which instantly froze the molecules in the air Todoroki tried to get him to slow down but was caught off guard when Midoriya punched through the frozen pillar. 

“It’ll take more than that to slow me down!” Midoriya yelled before coming to a stop. His eyes wide as he was confronted with the Zero Pointer, the same villain that forced him to break his arm. 

He had Stone Cutter but he was trying to get through the Sports Festival with a conservative attitude in mind. He still couldn’t use One For All, after all. Midoriya grit his teeth as Todoroki easily defeated a number of them by freezing them in place so that they’d fall and crush the other competitors. 

With several students circumventing the problem by just flying and others teaming up to take down the Zero Pointers, Midoriya sighed and just ran on ahead. He’d already lost his advantage and he couldn’t afford to fall further behind. 


Hatsume was loving this! The Sports Festival was the perfect opportunity to show off how great her babies were and her darlings were making full use of it. Baby 4, for example, had allowed her to easily avoid U.A. 's first barrier while baby 43 had allowed any debris coming her way to harmlessly bounce off her. 

DING!

Oh, great baby 4 was already out of fuel. Not exactly great when she’d only flown 2 kilometers. She slowed her descent and landed in front of a large chasm, with tall platforms and a web of ropes connecting all of them together. Students were already making their ways across it so she had no time to waste. 

But first... she activated Zoom and her reticles focused on one particular person. She let out a satisfied hum. Midoriya’s muscles were in as great form as ever. Well time to completely overshadow him!

“Alright Support Companies, I present to you my Wire Arrow and Hover Soles!!” 

She unleashed her arrow and attached it into the other side of the chasm. She ignored the Hero students' yells of how unfair she was being as she jumped right into the chasm and landed on the other side, her Hover Soles allowing her to make a safe landing as she ascended up the rock face. 

“See ya gorgeous!” 

“What?!” But Hatsume had already left to tackle the third barrier. She had plenty more babies to show off after all!


This was no good! Todoroki, Kacchan, Iida ,even Hatsume had overtaken him. While Midoriya was still confident that he could make the cut into the second round, if he was going to be All Might’s successor he needed to prove he could do much more than just scrape through. He needed to get first!

Midoriya ran as fast as he could, hoping that the final barrier was something he could get through easily and found multiple students being careful for some reason. On closer inspection, the ground seemed to be littered with mines. So whoever was in the lead was actually a disadvantage. 

There were quite a few mines and they went off at the slightest pressure. In the centre of it all was Kacchan and Todoroki duking it out, while trying to maneuver the course. Hm, well there was only one thing he could do now. 

“Hatsume! Use Baby 43!” He called out to her. As soon as she activated her bubble shield, Midoriya breathed in and hit the ground with another Stone Cutter!

The effect was immediate. As soon as he had unleashed his vibrations, every mine touched by them exploded and even if his attack hadn’t reached everything, the debris from the explosions was enough to unleash a massive chain attack. For a brief moment everyone on the battlefield was swallowed by a swarm of fire, sound and smoke.

Without waiting for the situation to die down, Midoriya sprinted through the smoke, knocking people over as he did so. Not intentionally but he couldn’t see and he couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste. 

“DEKU!!!” 

At the roar of both Kacchan and his explosions, Midoriya willed himself to move faster than he thought was possible. However, Kacchan was gaining on him. The finish line was so close but he knew Kacchan would get there before him. So, he did the only thing he could think of. 

“What’s wrong, Katsuki? Worried, worthless Deku is gonna beat you?” He said in a cold tone and grabbed the arm that had unleashed an explosion against him, then flipped him onto the ground before running for the finish line.

And it worked! Kacchan was so stunned that Midoriya had just enough time to cross the finish line... before Todoroki followed him? But Kacchan had been so close. How had Todoroki beaten him? He knew that his little act had stunned Kacchan but it shouldn’t have been that effective. 

“DEEEKKUUU!”

Oh, crap. Well he could ponder how Kacchan had lost to Todoroki later. Right now, he needed to make sure Kacchan didn’t kill him on live television. 


A moment. That was all it took for him to lose. One single moment of hesitation had been all that it took for him to go from winning the Festival to coming in third. He’d lost to frickin Icyhot, as well. 

“DEEEKKKUUU!”

He saw the look on shitty Deku’s face. The one that was like a frightened deer. Pft. Deku may be fooling everyone else but Bakugou knew what he really was. A cold and dispassionate predator, just like his dad. 

Deku’s dad... Did Deku have the power to take Quirks as well? He hoped not or all the shit he had done to Deku was going to seriously bite him in the ass. 

Right. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Bakugou repeated this process a few more times before looking back at Deku. 

“Don’t think your victory here was anything more than luck! Get ready Deku. I’ll show you I’m still better than you in a real fight!” He yelled before he huffed and turned away, just watching the rest of the extras pour in, much to the confusion of everyone else. 


“The one who made it back to the stadium first is none other than Midoriya Izuku. Quickly followed by Todoroki Shouto and Bakugou Katsuki!”

Ben turned the radio off. Hm. He had been expecting Bakugou to win but he supposed it was dumb to think Bakugou was the only one training for this event. Besides there were still two more events so it’ll probably all work out. But at least Midoriya’s clearly doing well for himself. 

Once he’d gotten out of his funk, Ben had started searching vigorously for Albedo. Ben was going to make him pay for all that he’d done. But Gwen was still incapacitated and Medicura refused to heal her any further because “healing too fast will cause disastrous consequences down the line”. Uh, she’s magic. Ben’s sure that any consequences like cancer or something can just be magiced away.

Whatever, the next plan was to track Albedo’s Ultimatrix but Albedo had destroyed their scanners. They weren’t even sure that he was still on the planet or not but Ben couldn’t entertain that train of thought. Besides, Albedo didn’t exactly use the Ultimatrix now that he was a genuine shapeshifter so even if their scanners were still active, it was uncertain that they would be able to track him.

Plan C was looking for some resource Albedo might be looking for but with no idea as to what Albedo planned to do, that was also a bust. Kevin was getting in touch with some old contacts to try and find Albedo through the criminal underground but besides that nothing.

So that left running through every country in the desperate hope that he might find something, anything, that Albedo was still around. Ben and Helen were racing across the globe, searching for Albedo. But Helen was still recovering from Albedo’s beatdown and Ben could only use the Omnitrix 15 minutes at a time. 

Even in this time, Ben did admit it was quite fun solving all of the incidents in a city at once. He’d love to see the looks on the hero’s faces as he did their jobs for them but time was of the essence. Still, it was during one of these cooldown periods that he decided to tune into U.A’s sports festival and fortunately he had just caught the last leg. 

Kids running through minefields. Field day has certainly changed a lot since he was in high school. They have superpowers but still... At least his students are doing well for themselves. Ben glanced at the Omnitrix, still displaying an annoying red symbol. Not much else to do but wait. By the time the Sports Festival picked up again, he would be long gone.

“Hey, is that Ben Tennyson?!” Ben sighed as several heroes closed in on him. 


“I’m surprised you only got 17th” Midoriya admitted.

“Oh, are you?!” Yaoyrozu seemed quite irritated at him but he didn’t have the faintest idea why. 

“Of course you’re surprised, it’s not like you had a role in my placing”.

“Hey, the Stone Cutter thing happened at the start and I lost my advantage half way through. You had more than enough time to overtake me”

“And I did but then some jerk blew up the entire minefield!” 

“Mines are made to explode. I’m sure it was completely accidental and the mines just malfunctioned”

“Midoriya...”

“What?”

“Hey, Midoriya, I thought you promised not to blow up anymore classmates!” Kaminari yelled.

“Well the teachers are the ones who used mines as obstacles, what did they think was going to happen?”

“Probably not an explosion that could be felt all the from the start of the chasm” Hagakure quietly mentioned. At that, everyone looked at Midoriya in something like contempt?

“OK, I’m” Midoriya quietly mumbled the word under his breath “I detonated the minefield, happy?” 

“You just mumbled under your breath”.

“No I didn’t. Hagakure heard my apology, right?”

“MIDORIYA!”

“Ok fine, I’m sorry!” 

“That’s better but you’ve still got a trick or two planned against the class, don’t you?”.

“Midoriya’s betraying the class?! What the hell, dude?”

Midoriya’s eyes twitched in annoyance “Betrayal’s a bit harsh. How good are our chances against 1-A’s heavy hitters? Its best to eliminate them before the final round”

Yaoyorozu sighed “I do admit it is a good strategy for the festival but then what? No one’s going to trust you after this little stunt”.

“Yeah Midoriya, betraying the class doesn’t seem like a good way to make friends”.

Midoriya went to say that people already didn’t trust him, that the few friends he had were all he was likely to get and again he’s not really betraying the class but was interrupted by the sound of a whip.

“Quiet down! Now, the second event is of course the Calvary Battle!” Midnight announced to the confusion of the students. The gist of it was that teams of 2-4 would be formed and have a headband totaling the group’s points. A person’s point value was worth more based on how well they did in the obstacle course... and of course the first place winner got awarded 10,000,000 points. 

“On second thought, your betrayal is forgiven” What? But, why?

“Yeah dude, don’t feel pressured to take any of us as your group. Just go with Class B” Well, it’s good that Kaminari was now supporting him but-

“You’re so gonna die, Midoriya!” Hagakure cackled to Midoriya chagrin. 

Why did it seem like he had just become food in a shark tank? 


OK, he knows he made a promise to Midoriya but 10,000,000 points is too much of a target. Besides, he can’t fulfill that promise if he’s already taken, right?

“Monoma! Quit hiding, I can see you” Well, shit. 

“Oh, hey Midoriya. Look I was thinking, maybe it’s not for the best if we teamed up”.

“So you can steal the 10,000,000 points for yourself?” 

“Precisely!” Midoriya raised an eyebrow.

“Ah-well you see...”

Midoriya folded his arms “If we team up, we already have the 10,000,000 points. We just need to play defense while everyone else trips over themselves trying to reach us and Stone Cutter does a pretty good job at repelling people”.

That was a good point but even still 15 minutes was a long time of playing defense. And to be honest, no matter who they recruited, it was unlikely that they would be able to repel everyone. 

Midoriya sighed “Fine, play it safe. I was going to tell you about my new technique as well as some things my classmates will try but I understand if you want to play it safe”. 

Secret technique? And judging by his words, it seems 1-A had some of their own. Ah, what the hell. It was better to have one less 1-A secret weapon to deal with after all.

“Alright fine but if we do this, I’m the rider!”

Midoriya gave a menacing grin “But of course. My plan wouldn’t work otherwise”

“What do-”

“Hey handsome~”

“Hatsume. I presume you want to use my newly found target on my back to publicise you babies?” Midoriya said in a tone that implied that he knew this was going to happen.

“But of course!”

“Perfect. Now we just need one more person and there she is”.

“May I ask what this plan of yours is?” 

“It’s quite simple, Hatsume here will provide gadgets necessary to run away, I’ll use Stone Cutter to repel enemies, you’ll be the rider so that you can more easily use Copy and hopefully my friend over there will provide defense against attacks”. 

“A sound enough plan. Quite a departure from our usual talks. Are you sure you came up with this on your own?” At that Midoriya simply chuckled and Monoma wasn’t quite sure how he was supposed to react to his fellow Quirk enthusiast’s behavior. 


“I’m not doubting your abilities but are you sure you want to team up with me? I was under the impression that you two were friends with Midoriya. It won’t be a problem, will it?”

“Of course not! Even if we wanted to...”

“Midoriya’s just betraying the class anyway”.

“Not the first time...” Shouto whispered under his breath. Yaoyorozu looked very alarmed for some reason. Maybe she realized she needed to go to the toilet but didn’t have enough time to get back? 

“Betrayal?! As I suspected, he’s in no place to be studying at this prestigious academy”.

Shouto couldn’t tell what it was but there was just something about Iida that unnerved him whether it was his pompous attitude or his inability to realize his own shortcomings while pointing out those of others. He knows that he should be more focused on Midoriya turning traitor for real but he'll have plenty of time to explore that avenue after he's won this competition.. 

The whole point of this exercise was to fight against your peers so betraying them was to be expected if you wanted to make it to the top. On the other hand, someone needed to put Iida in his place. Just because someone wasn’t as good as you wanted didn’t make them useless as his sister knows. 

Still Iida’s Quirk would make for a good asset during the calvary. His speed would be great for acquiring the 10,000,000 point headband and running away. Of course other headbands weren’t exempt either. They’d make a good tool to show that bastard that he didn’t need to use his fire. 

Looking at the other two, Kaminari was good for range while Yaoyorozu could easily provide support while Shouto’s own Quirk was perfect at keeping others away and area control. Yes, he could very much work with this group.



“START!”

And on cue, almost everyone made a mad dash for the 10,000,000 points. Monoma had tactfully guided the team to the end of the field so that they were only facing opposition in front of them. 

“Midoriya you should probably do your thing, right now!” Monoma commanded from atop the group. 

“You don’t need to tell me twice” Midoriya said before planting a fist into the ground and sending vibrations through the ground resulting in their opponents losing their footing and nearly being eliminated. 

“Is that allowed?!” Kaminari yelled out.

“He’s merely using his Quirk like everyone else. If a rider happens to fall off, it’s not his problem” Midnight grinned. 

“DEKU!” Bakugou screamed as he blasted towards their group. 

“You might want to use your secret technique, Midoriya!” 

Out of the corner of Midoriya’s eyes, he saw Todoroki’s team. They weren’t participating in the proverbial bloodbath. They were just watching, waiting for their opportunity. 

“No can do. If I do, we could be leaving ourselves right open!”

“Then what do we do?!”

“Hatsume, can we fly?”

“Yes, let’s go my babies!” And with a simple push of a button they were in the air, just narrowly missed by Bakugou who was falling into the ground. 

“Come on, just fall Kacchan” Midoriya muttered but it wasn’t that easy. The explosive teen was snagged by a piece of tape and pulled back to his group. Though said group had wandered into a big puddle of cement?

“You can admire Bondo’s handy work after we survive this round, Midoriya!”

“Right!” he yelled as they prepared to land and be bombarded by enemy attacks. 


“Careful Bakugou, if you hit the ground we lose!” 

“I get it, shitty hair! Just get me to Deku” He commanded. As he did so, he felt his headband go flying off. 

“What?!” He looked to see his headband in the reach of a disembodied hand which was flying back towards some green haired chick.

“Hm. I figured you Class 1-A kids were pretty full of yourself after the USJ but you’re pretty stupid aren’t ya? You already had a ticket into the next round and instead of waiting on the sidelines and protecting yourself, you went for the big one. I should’ve expected this especially with how many times you’ve had to be saved. Of course, you were going to fail when that team’s leader is Monoma. After that it was too easy to just take advantage of your little opening”.

“Is there a fucking point to this?!”

“Not really, just waiting for the clock to run down. Well that and waiting for the cement to dry, which should be about now. See ya Class A!”

“After her!” He commanded to no avail. The bitch was right and his team was stuck in a cement block. All because he had gone after Deku too fucking early and they had to save his ass. 

Bakugou gritted his teeth. He was getting really fucking tired at the amount of times he had to be rescued or coddled. The Sludge villain, Tennyson, even fucking now. It was getting really tired, real fast. Yeah, he had PTSD but that was no fucking excuse. It was time he started showing how capable he really was.

“Ashido, can you melt this shitty cement?”

“Uh, yeah”.

“Good do that, once we’re out, we’re going after our headband”. Ashido immediately started melting through Class B’s shitty trap.

“And then?” Sero asked almost nervous to ask.

“Then we’re going after the rest of those Class B losers”.

“Not going after Midoriya?” Kirishima wondered.

“Heh. The bitch was right about one thing. There’s no point going after it if doesn’t change anything. Besides, I want to beat Deku one on one”. Bakugou looked down to see that the cement had been reduced to a puddle and grinned. He was gonna show those Class B extras, just why Class A was the best.


Their landing was rough but the fact that vibrations hit them just as they landed nearly caused them to drop Monoma. 

“I thought you were the only one with that technique!”

“No, I taught it to one other person” Midoriya grimaced as he looked up to see their next opponent. 

“I do thank you for teaching me this technique, Midoriya but we’ll be taking that headband” Hagakure announced. Her group was composed of herself, Sato, Kouda and Jirou. 

“I’m impressed you learned that technique but we won’t be just handing over our headband. Stone Cutter!” Midoriya yelled as he hit the ground. Hagakure tried to match him. Emphasis on tried. The reality is that she had just learned a technique that he had mastered and improved upon for months. 

It was but a set-up for Jirou’s own attempt to grab the headband. Her earphone jacks extended outwards and as Midoriya was crouched down, he didn’t have enough time to catch them. Luckily, that’s what their defense was for. 

Several vines sprouted from behind to cover Monoma and grab onto Jirou’s jacks. Jirou tried to send vibrations through them but alas. Though Jirou was able to break through the vines, that brief moment was all Midoriya needed to grab a hold of them. 

One misconception he’d had with Stone Cutter was that it required hitting something. In truth, it merely required contact and used one’s physical strength to augment the amount of power and ki it used. So in theory, it was possible for him to attack using anything as a conductor like say a pair of earphone jacks.

“Aaaah!” Jirou clutched her head in pain at the dose of medicine she’d just received.  

“Now Midoriya!” With Hatsume’s hover soles, the weight he had to carry was significantly less than what it should’ve been. He was easily able to cross the distance between the two groups and allow Monoma to steal Jirou’s headband. 

“Is there anything else they have that could be of use?” Monoma said, looking at his new jacks.

“If you’re talking about Quirks, then no. Kouda’s Quirk allows him to command animals while Sato’s increases his physical strength the more sugar he consumes. 

“I see. Very well, then. Thanks for the headband but we must be off. Hatsume, if you will”.

“Let’s go, babies though I would appreciate it if we could show off more of my precious babies” She muttered as they once again took flight, leaving Team Jirou to wallow in their defeat. 


When Present Mic announced that time was halfway up, Shouto decided that now was the time for action. He saw Midoriya’s team land for the last time. Predictably they were swarmed by other teams but there seemed to be a certain desperation to some of those teams. It seemed quite a few of them had lost their headbands and were now seeking the 10,000,000 points less out of glory and more just to stay in the game. 

“No matter, Kaminari, once we’re in position, I want you to electrocute everyone. Yaoyorozu will prepare the insulator and cover us from the rear while Iida will support us from the front, got it?”

“Right!” they yelled as they got in the middle of the groups. 

“Now!”

Iida stopped while Yaoyorozu threw the insulation blanket over them, allowing Kaminari to use his Quirk. The effect was immediate and most of the groups fell to their knees. Todoroki clenched his fists as numerous vines had protected Midoriya from their attack. 

Todoroki took the opportunity to freeze the ground and steal a couple headbands from the attack. Proof that his leadership skills were still adequate and that he wasn’t focused on one goal. Of course, he really wanted that headband and he wasn’t going to stop until he got it but it was best to maintain the illusion. 

“Hey, Yaoyorozu!”

“Midoriya. I must admit, your plan is working out better than I thought”

“As is yours”. 

“You guys have got second. Why not just protect the bands you already have and let us go?” Monoma tried to bargain. 

“That’s not going to happen. I’m going to prove to everyone that you don’t deserve to be in the Hero Course Midoriya”.

“This again? Now I almost wish we didn’t steal Jirou’s headband to give Hagakure a fighting chance” Midoriya muttered.

“Ah, yes Ingenium’s little brother. As snobbish and rude as ever” Monoma smirked “But how are you going to prove he doesn’t deserve to be in the Hero Course?”

“By-”

“I won the Obstacle Course, Iida. There is literally nothing you can do at this point to prove I don’t belong here”.

“Uh, well by beating you here-”

“With one of the best teams in the Cavalry battle including the son of the number 2 Hero, the heiress of the Yaoyorozu estate, the little brother of Ingenium and Kaminari?”

“Hey! Why don’t I get a cool line” Kaminari whined as a look of disappointment crossed Iida’s face. 

Shouto admits he had wanted to make this point when they were meeting but he was curious to know how long it would take Iida to figure out that Midoriya was practically untouchable at this point. 

“Now if you excuse us, we must be going” Shouto quickly used his Quirk to block them off with a block of ice.

“Hatsume!”

“On it!” Todoroki looked to the sky and then looked back down at the group looking at the pink haired Support girl who could only sheepishly grin. 

“It seems some of that electric guy’s Quirk got through, my baby’s fried!” 

“Nice work, Kaminari! Now we’ll be taking that headband” As they moved forward, two white lobes extended from Monoma and nearly stabbed into him. Thankfully Yaoyorozu intercepted with a cement slab. Unfortunately, those lobes were able to send vibrations through the slab and Yaoyorozu, who was still connected to said slab.

“Argh! Right. Monoma can copy Quirks”

“That would have been nice to know before we took them on!” Iida snapped. 

“Is there a limit to his Quirk?”

“Yes. He can only copy Quirks through touch, he can only copy one Quirk at a time and any Quirk he copies lasts for just five minutes. I’d say he only has one or two minutes left using Jirou’s Earphone Jack”.

“That’s great so we only have to wait one or two minutes, right?” Kaminari exclaimed.

“No it’s the other way round”.

“Huh?!” 

“Midoriya could’ve easily used Stone Cutter to repel us but instead he was content to let Monoma use a weaker and more inaccurate attack. He’s trying to conserve his usage meaning he only has a limited amount of uses and I have a feeling that so long as they have an alternative, he won’t waste them. The time to attack is now”.

“As expected of the son of the Number Two Hero!” 

Shoutoi’s eye twitched. “Don’t compare me to him” He simply said. 

“Ah. Well in any event, we should best make use of this small window, right?”

Though they could wait and though they didn’t need the headband, it wasn’t a matter of necessity or could. This was about proving himself to that bastard. He would get number one and he wouldn’t use his fire to do it. Even if he was wrong about Midoriya’s attitude, they could still get him to waste his Quirk in the event that he did make it to the next round.

He nodded at his team “Yes. Let’s go” and with that simple statement, they raced towards their opponents. 


BOOOOOM!

“We’re taking our points back!” Bakugou screamed as he flew towards Setsuna Tokage, his team trailing behind him. 

“Tsubaraba!” A field of air intercepted his path. 

‘Tch, Tennyson’s force fields are stronger than this’ Bakugou thought to himself as he effortlessly destroyed the wall of air and grabbed onto Tokage and two of her headbands. However, before he could get his one back, he was blocked by a sword.

“Thanks, Kamakiri!” Tokage yelled as she decapitated herself, taking his headband with her into the air. Bakugou found himself being pushed and pulled away from her by several of her body parts, forcing his team to rush to his aid. 

“Looks like you’re still just as useless as ever. Needing others to help you, while you only make the situation worse. Could it be you’re trying to prove your worth to make up for that Sludge Villain incident” Tokage smugly said as she regained her headbands. 

BOOOOOOM! And just like that an explosion rattled the arena. Tokage had completely taken the brunt of the blast and the area where she was flying was swamped with smoke. 

A decapitated head screamed as it rocketed towards the ground, only to be caught and pulled in by Sero’s tape who handed it to Bakugou.

“OK, you said some things. I said some things. We were both jerks so uh, why not call it even?” She grinned. 

Bakugou said nothing, jarring considering his default setting was screaming his head off. Instead, he merely moved his hand towards her. She flinched, expecting another explosion to finish her off. Instead Bakugou simply grabbed the headbands off her head and nonchalantly threw the head back to her team.

“Now who’s next?” He grinned, looking for his next unfortunate victim.


“Hatsume, you do have the eyeball, right?”

“Of course, where do you think I’d keep all of my babies?”

“Right, well do you have baby 68 on you?” 

Hatsume looked at him quizzically but opened the portal anyway. Iida tried to take advantage of the brief opening but stopped when he heard the unholy screeches that echoed throughout the stadium. Almost everyone, students, teachers and spectators alike stopped what they were doing and eyed the exact same spot. The only one unphased by it was Midoriya who’d had the privilege of witnessing it so many times.

“What on earth is that noise?!” Someone yelled as the screeching got louder and more numerous.

Suddenly what sounded like guns going off interrupted the screeching followed by Hatsume yelling “How many times have I told you to fuck off and leave my babies alone, you fucking fucks?!”.

Her torso reemerged, covered in dark liquid of some kind. Her scowl shifted to a grin as she looked at the machine in her hands. “Here you go, Midoriya! Baby 68 as asked for”. 

“Thank you” he simply said as he equipped it. Everyone watching the exchange, Monoma and Shiozaki included, were completely confused as to how he had seemingly unwavered during the chaotic horrors happening right behind him. 

“Do we really have to get the headband? We are in second after all” Yaoyorozu asked.

“Yes. I am inclined to agree. There really is no reason to target Midoriya as we’ll just be moving on regardless” Iida said timidly, trying to put up a logical front. Really he was just unnerved by the Support girl who was... yes, she was just staring at them with her golden eyes. 

Hm. Monoma’s copy is already used up. They’d done a much better job at evading his attacks than he’d suspected. Monoma’s team had purposefully positioned themselves in a way so that none of his or Kaminari’s attacks could even reach them. Yes. He could easily just prove himself to Endeavor in the final round.

“I suppose, this has been a fruitless venture. Very well, let’s fall back”.

“Uh. you guys do know that if we leave them alone we’re gonna have to fight the Support girl anyway, right?”

Damn it Kaminari. You had to choose now to be the logical one. 

“True but we just have no way of getting their headbands. Even without the Support girl, they’ve managed to defend or evade all of our attacks”.

With a sigh, Iida spoke up. “Everyone there’s only about two or so minutes remaining. I’m about to do a technique that will definitely allow us to score the headband but will leave me useless to you. Be sure to grab it”.

“What about Midoriya’s Stone Cutter?”

“Heh. We’ll be going so fast that we’ll practically fly above it. Now are you ready?”

“Yes” Shouto nodded as he readied his reflexes.


“It looks like they’re about to use the technique. Monoma, Shiozaki, it’s up to you” Midoriya said as he felt Revonnah Kai flow through his arms.

“Right” x2

Midoriya crouched down ready to use his technique. Iida’s engines revved as he fire burst from them

“OVERTORQUE RECIPRO BURST!”

Iida pulled his team forward with blinding speed. Todoroki reached out for the headband... and missed. His reach was too short. Something was clearly wrong as he felt his headbands go missing. Then the group spiraled out of control and nearly landed out of bounds. 

“What?!” Iida yelled out. “I don’t understand, it never fail- gah!” Iida looked down to see a number of nasty cuts and bruises on his legs. 

“Hey guys, how’d you like my new technique? I call it Air Slicer” Midoriya grinned. He made a motion with his hands before clapping and unleashing a wave of sound powerful enough to nearly push them out of bounds. 

“One minute remaining!” 

“But how?!”

“Well to be honest Iida, I’ve had a feeling you could avoid my Stone Cutter with ease so I have been meaning to develop my Revonnah Kai a bit more but man, that challenge you gave me and Hagakure two weeks ago? That was all the motivation I needed to make sure I accomplished it before now”.

Midoriya laughed but there was no mirth to it. “But don’t think that’s all I did. See I wanted to be completely sure I could crush you when it came down to it. So I did the logical thing and looked up Tensei Iida, then Tabito Iida and of course the rest of the Ingenium line. And I found something very interesting” He turned to Iida with a grin and continued to speak in the cold and serious tone that others had dubbed “villain Izuku”.

“While there wasn’t much information on the older generations, the recent generations had a technique that allowed them to overclock their engines for a brief period of immense speed. Given that this was their first Super Move, I figured it was my best bet for your secret technique and whaddya know I was right. But oh dear, your mistake has single-handedly cost your team second place!” Midoriya cackled as Iida looked down.

“Ngh! We’ll just regain our headbands!” Iida said before a jet of fire was shot out at them.

“This is quite a lovely Quirk! I do wonder why you don’t deign to use all of it” Monoma said. 

“Hey, Todoroki can be a perfectly good hero with only his ice. He’d be much better if he used his fire, of course but who are we to tell him how to use his Quirk?” Midoriya replied but Todoroki didn’t care. 

“We can still win, right?!” Kaminari asked. 

“Unlikely” Yaoyorozu said with a grimace.

“Excuse me?”

“Midoriya can easily repel us, Monoma has Todoroki’s Quirk, even if we could get close, Shiozaki could easily defend the headbands for the remaining seconds and then there’s that support girl. It’s over”.

“Not yet.” Todoroki announced. “Can you guys throw me over to them?”

“This is desperate”.

“Can you do it or not?!” Todoroki yelled, breaking his stoic demeanor.

Yaoyorozu created a small trampoline of some kind, still connected to herself and gave one side to Iida and Kaminari before lifting it as high as she could. Todoroki jumped off of their shoulders and into the angled trampoline which propelled him towards Monoma’s group. 

Their eyes widened as Present Mic announced only 10 seconds remained. 

He flew straight towards him as Monoma gave a command of some sort. 9 seconds remaining. 

They moved out of his flight path. 8 seconds remaining. 

‘I’ve got no other choice’ Todoroki thought to himself. 7 seconds remaining. 

He corrected his flight path with his left side. 6 seconds remaining. 

At 5 seconds remaining he saw the shocked stares of their group. Only one meter to go.

Midoriya brought up the shield from earlier. Baby 68 but there was only 4 seconds remaining and he could still get one headband. 

Todoroki landed on the shield and reached for a headband. Only 3 seconds remaining.

Midoriya pressed a button and the shield generated a wave of energy that blasted him back towards his team. 2 seconds remaining. 

He landed back with his team as the full weight of this crushing defeat landed on him. Alternative plans and what-ifs running through his head as he wondered what he could’ve done to avoid this. 

“TIME’S UP!!!”


“Shota, has this ever happened before?” Present Mic asked his bandaged friend. See the Cavalry Battle had just ended and they were facing quite a predicament. The idea was that the four teams with the most points would move onto the next round but that wouldn’t exactly work here.

“No. There’s no precedent for it at all”.

“What do we do?”

“I suppose we announce the results and then pick the rest by random”.

“Got it”. Turning his microphone back on Mic cleared his throat. 

“In first place, with 10,001,555 points, Team Monoma!” The group cheered with Midoriya yelling “See, I told you we could do it! Thanks guys, I couldn’t have done it without you... seriously”

“I have never been so happy to admit I was wrong” Monoma remarked. 

“It was with God’s blessing that we got as far as we did but I do thank you as well”.

“And at least I got to show off my babies!”

“In second place, with 1,720 points, Team Bakugou!”

Kirhishima, Sero and Ashido’s reaction was just as excited as the former group but Bakugou’s reaction was much more subdued ‘I’ll show you Deku. Just you wait’.

In third place, with 1,030 points, Team Shinsou! 

The group in question’s reaction was just general confusion as if they had just woken up from a nap in a completely different spot. Save for Shinsou who bore a light smirk. 

“And unfortunately, for the first time in U.A. history. We only have three teams moving on. As such the remaining four students will be chosen through random selection”. 

“But first we’re gonna take a one hour break for lunch. Keep you in suspense just a bit longer!”

And with that, the announcements were over. Just the two of them in awkward silence.

“Want to get something to eat?”

“No.”

“OK”


They’d failed. They had completely and utterly failed and who was to blame? Why him of course. He was the one who had been most adamant about targeting Midoriya. It was his technique that failed because he was so predictable. And they didn’t even need to use the technique in the first place! They were second but noooo. Tenya had taken a stupid, stupid gamble and had cost his team the match.

It was here that Tenya had come to an upsetting conclusion. If Midoriya was unworthy for the Heroics Course, what did that make him who had been one step behind Midoriya from the start? The only reason Midoriya even had a counter to his technique was because Tenya had relentlessly provoked him and Hagakure about not being suited for the Heroics Course. Like a fool, he’d just gone and proven he was all talk. He’d brought shame upon the Ingenium name.

It wasn’t the end of the world. Tensei had done badly in his first Sports Festival as well. If anything, he could use this loss to his advantage. He had two years, he could easily use that time to make a comeback. He would just focus on himself instead of others for the comeback. He had a lot of improvements he needed to make by next year. Yes, he had been wrong and he had paid for it dearly but it could always be worse.


Meanwhile Tensei Iida was having a fateful encounter with Hero Killer Stain. His body paralysed face down on the ground while the Hero Killer held his blade high above his head.

Notes:

This is probably the first time its really hit how compressed the text becomes when transferring it from google docs. Sorry, I'm late. I'm starting to get writer's block again. I intended to upload the two parts together but I think I'll hold off for now so I can get some extra work done on future chapters.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Chapter 27: Sports Festival Part 2

Chapter Text

“Stain”. 

One simple word was spoken before Tensei revved up his engines and charged at the Hero Killer with a quick jab. The villain quickly evaded the attack and allowed him to charge onwards. 

“For the sake of the Heroes you’ve killed and the ones you’ve attempted to kill, I will bring you down Hero Killer” Tensei announced as he charged again. And again. And again. Stain evaded his attacks every time without seeming to put any effort into his movements. 

Stain brought up one of his bloody knives up to his mouth. An intimidation technique to be sure and Tensei would be lying if he was saying it wasn’t working. Still he charged onwards as Stain licked the blade clean. As if on cue, his engines stopped working as almost every nerve in his body failed. His momentum caused him to keep going as he landed face first into the ground. 

It was only as he was lying there, completely helpless and unable to do anything that the Hero Killer finally talked. 

“This is all for the sake of a better society, to clear out all the fakes like yourself. Heroes shouldn’t save lives because it’s a job but because it’s the right thing to do. People like you who only took this job for fame and glory are the lowest of the low but don’t worry I won’t kill you” Stain finished his rant as he stopped just in front of Iida, a sword lifted in the air.

“Sometimes you just need to send a message” He grinned before impaling Tensei through his defenseless back. 

After that Stain merely picked up his sword and started to walk away, almost as if picking up groceries. A green bolt of electricity came out of nowhere and struck Stain down. 

“You’re not going anywhere!” A hyperactive battery grinned.

“Ben 10!?” Tensei yelled, unsure how to feel being saved by an infamous vigilante. Well, it’s not as if he was in any position to be picky.

“Yes?” The battery said as he struck Stain with a bolt of green electricity. 

Stain threw two knives at the battery, which were easily blasted away. Ben 10 shot out another lightning blast, which was barely dodged by the Hero Killer.

“I have to admit I was a big fan, when you first showed up”. Stain said as he deflected and dodged Ben 10’s attacks.

“You seemed genuine, like a true hero! You didn’t save those kids because you were paid to or for glory. You simply jumped in because those fakes were incompetent and it was the right thing to do” Stain swung his sword towards Ben 10 who turned into electricity, shocking Stain. The Hero Killer persevered and sliced through the vigilante.

“However, then I saw you weren’t genuine at all. You save people not to help them but to show others up, which was all fine and good... until you started doing the same to the Symbol of Peace. It was then that I knew, you only care about boosting your own ego. To be so arrogant you think you can just pass over All Might is something I CAN’T FORGIVE!!!” 

Stain tried to impale the battery again but Ben 10 duplicated himself and counter-attacked.

“You’re wrong. I’ve always tried to do the right thing even before getting this power of mine! I always tried to help others even when I didn’t have the power to do so”.

“The only reason you’re a vigilante is because the consequences don’t apply to you! All Might was also blessed with great power but he still abides by the law and his own ideals!”

A surge of murderous intent was felt throughout the alleyway by both the vigilante and the paralyzed hero. Both of them were unable to move for entirely different reasons as they were at a loss for words. 

It was this moment of pause that allowed Stain to grab his knife and lick black goo off the knife causing the battery to fall onto the ground. 

“In the end, you were nothing but a big hypocrite. If you really were as heroic as you claimed, then why did you confront me and leave the crippled hero alone?! He could’ve gotten treatment for his spine by now if you weren’t such a fake” Stain’s words practically dripped with venom as the vigilante didn’t respond. 

He couldn’t respond. Stain was a villain but all of his criticisms had the ring of truth. Perhaps Ben Tennyson did have good intentions but if he truly cared, he should have just become a hero. Tensei wagered that the only reason he had continued his vigilantism was because no one could catch him or the glory of defeating villains. After all, Tensei was still on the ground and his chances of recovery were worsening as time passed. Tensei watched as Stain loomed over him, sword in hand, ready to deal the final blow.

Without any further complaints, Stain brought his sword down on the vigilante’s head but just as it was about to impale him, another lightning bolt struck. Stain’s sword shattered on contact as the vigilante’s duplicate revealed himself.

“Oh shut the hell up! What glory do I have? Talk show hosts constantly talking about how much of a threat or menace I am? Heroes constantly hounding after me because they’re too incompetent to do their own jobs? The only glory I get is a meek thank you from the people I save and even then, that’s occasional!” The vigilante duplicated himself into a dozen batteries, surrounding Stain.

“Tch. Count your lucky stars, you fake” Stain said as he prepared to run off. At least that’s what he was planning to do before dozens of lightning bolts struck him down. Stain tried to deflect them but he was quickly overwhelmed and eventually collapsed onto the ground. 

“Now for the other problem” The vigilante said in an excited tone. 

The batteries hovered around him adorning awful grins on their faces. Tensei braced himself only to feel a wave of healing energy. In place of the batteries was a thin and dainty nurse, holding its hands over him. After mere moments covered in blue energy, Tensei was good as new. His wounds were all but gone and his stamina restored. He was about to ask the vigilante why when his sidekicks interrupted with the intent to capture him. 

“Now, wait! Ben 10 is not a-” But the vigilante had already vanished.

“Sir, are you ok?!”

“Yes, I’m fine. Now let’s get this villain behind bars” As they carried Stain away, Tensei thought back to the boy who had saved his life. Just like Stain, he had written the boy off as a glory hound but perhaps he would have to re-evaluate his stance on the vigilante.


“You really did use these two weeks to your advantage, didn’t you?” Yaoyorozu said from her massive helpings of food.

“Didn’t everyone, Yaoyorozu?” 

“In terms of general preparation, yes but you really went above and beyond. Even I didn’t research family members of others to get an edge. It’s actually quite admirable”. 

“Thanks, I guess? Sorry for uh, eliminating you guys. I mean you and Kaminari, I’m not all that concerned about Iida and Todoroki” Midoriya said, running a hand through his hair. 

Yaoyorozu sighed “Don’t be. You were right, this is a competition designed specifically to allow the strongest progress and besides. The only reason we were eliminated was because we tried to eliminate you guys”. 

“Don’t let him off Yaoyorozu! If Monoma hadn’t stolen Jirou’s headband, we could’ve at least gotten into the next round. And we would’ve if Midoriya didn’t cheat!”

“Cheat?! I’m sorry, you just learned Stone Cutter compared to me who’s had the technique for nearly a year. What did you think was going to happen?!” 

“I dunno. Maybe you’d take some pity on the poor blind girl”.

“Oh, you’re poor all right. From all the hair growth cream you’ve been buying”.

“Hey! I don’t want to hear that from someone who wastes all his money on hero merch”

As the two bickered, Yaoyorozu’s eyes landed on Mineta and Kaminari who tried to tell her about an order from Mr. Aizawa. 

“Midoriya, did Mr. Aizawa give an order for the girls to be in cheerleading outfits?”

“What’re you asking him for? We were the ones Aizawa told!”

“What, no. You’re the class president, just check the email Mr. Aizawa gave us for class representation of something. Wouldn’t we have gotten notifications if it was something important?”

“That’s right. We would have” she said, glaring at the two perverts.

“Midoriya, I thought you were the class villain. Surely you would’ve helped us”.

“About that. See, I’m the kind of villain who tricks people into getting blown up, not the kind that tricks my peers into wearing more revealing clothing”. 

“Even still, what exactly was your plan when we needed the uniforms?”

“Well, you’re the girl with the Creation Quirk...” How dumb were these two?! If Mr. Aizawa really needed them to be in cheerleading uniforms, he would’ve prepared... Actually now that she thought about it, their teacher was the kind of person to leave problems up to other people so their lie is at least semi-plausible. Still, they would’ve at least texted Monoma to see if Class B had the same issues. 

“By the way Midoriya, where is Monoma?”

“Oh, he’s strategising with the rest of the 1-B participants. His overall goal was to prove Class B was just as good as 1-A, while mine was to kick Iida’s ass”.

“Hm. So who would you say is the biggest threat?”

“Out of the 11 other participants I know about? Kacchan by far. His Quirk is one of the most versatile I’ve seen and his physical condition is nothing to laugh at either”.

“I’m inclined to agree. There’s also his mental instability to consider, making him a more unpredictable opponent. I’m just glad that I won’t have to fight him at all”.

“Well, never say never. There are still four participants yet to be announced. It might well be you” Midoriya said with a grin as he got up from the table “Oh, but if you do make it to the next round, focus only on your opponent, not on anyone else.”.

“Right!” Yaoyorozu smiled as he left and then promptly frowned upon the enigma that was Midoriya Izuku. The boy certainly had a villainous streak that chilled her to her bones when he went full “villain” but he was also kind and warm in moments outside of combat. He was cynical but he had a true desire to help others. He had a strength enhancing Quirk yet instead focused on fighting with his mind. The result was a tangled mess.


“Before we get to the final event, we have to announce our final four students moving on to the next round. Give it up for Juzo Honenuki, Pony Tsunotori, Fumikage Tokoyami and Shouto Todoroki!”

“The next round is a tournament! The matchups will be decided by drawing lots. Once all of the matchups have been decided, we’ll move onto the festivities and then finally the tournament” Midnight announced. “It’s up to you finalists if you want to participate, given that you might want to save your strength for the tournament”.

“Excuse me! I’d like to drop out” Ojiro announced to the bewilderment of his peers. They tried to convince him not to give up this amazing opportunity but Ojiro didn’t care.

“I can’t remember the Cavalry Battle at all. It’s not right that everyone else made it to the finals on their own strength and I don’t even know why. I can’t compete on the goal of my pride”.

“If that’s the case I wanna drop out too!” Shoda said. 

“And you couldn’t have said this before lunch so we could choose your replacements because why?” Midnight glared at them, annoyed at their audacity, 

“You two really are idiots if you’re being serious. So what if you can’t remember what happened? Four students literally just got picked by random. Are you saying if you were in their place, you would’ve forfeited?” Midoriya argued.

“It’s not the same!”

“You’re right. You at least passed the second round meaning that even if you can’t remember it, you were still skilled enough to get here. Those four got in by luck. Don’t be an idiot” Midoriya said desperately trying to persuade the two to not throw away this chance.

They ended up being too stubborn and replacements had to be chosen on the fly. Replacing Ojiro and Shoda was Yaoyorozu and Tetsutetsu. 

‘Damn’ Midoriya looked at the two replacements. ‘I had been hoping that Ojiro and Shoda would stay, precisely because they were much easier to beat. Ah well, beggers can’t be choosers’ he supposed. 

The matchups were revealed and the festivities began. The finalists all chose to handle this short break in different ways. Some chose to analyse their potential matchups and wonder deep in thought about how to beat their opponents. Others chose to train and some decided to partake in the fun. Eventually though the battlefield was cleared and the real event began. 


“Oh, look Hisashi! Our Izuku’s won two events in a row! I’m so proud of him” Inko cried as she jumped in her seat. 

“Yes dear but I have a feeling the Pros aren’t going to be as enthusiastic as you. He only won the Obstacle Course by blowing everyone else up and he only won the Cavalry Battle by wrecking that boy’s legs. Not exactly heroic behavior...” 

“Since when do you care about heroic behavior?”

“Contrary to my views towards the government and Pro Heroes, I do appreciate those that legitimately are heroic. It’s a refreshing sight to see in this awful world of ours. A big obstacle Izuku will face is that he’s got the potential of being a hero but he doesn’t have the image for it. If you don’t know him, he’s too plain and if you do know him, you know about all of his pragmatic and villainous actions...”

“Perhaps it will make Izuku’s dream harder to accomplish but not impossible. Just look at  Endeavor”.

“Ah yes, the obvious domestic abuser who’s Quirk is having the best PR team in the world”.

As his wife giggled, Hisashi thought to the events leading up to this moment. His wife had wanted to watch the Sports Festival with him and had requested Kurogiri to bring her to Kamino Ward. This, in spite of the fact that she knew Kurogiri had implicited their two kids in villain activity. She either completely trusted him or she had caught on to the fact that her husband had been caught up in some less then legal events. 

Probably the latter considering how intelligent she was and the fact that she had been wanting to spend more time with him ever since she found out. However, even he was caught off-guard by her loud cheers when their son blew up the minefield. He knew his wife had a rather skewed perception on society but he had no idea she had a dare-he-say villainous streak to her. It made him love her even more.

“It is a bit odd how Izuku’s only using Stone Cutter though” Inko remarked, breaking Hisashi out of his musings. 

“Well, I for one am quite glad he’s taking the safer option instead of using it with reckless abandon. Just imagine how badly the damage would be if he didn’t have another option?”

“Although that’ll likely change soon, with the tournament”.

“I can only hope that the damage isn’t too much. As unfair as it sounds, I am glad that at least Toru isn’t a part of this. She’d either have to be completely exposed or fight Quirkless, which  might work well against some of them but will gradually just put her in more danger”. 

“And you don’t want our kids to injure each other”.

Hisashi grinned “Perhaps”.


Izuku was feeling nervous. He put on a big act and for the most part it wasn’t hard keeping it up. He was too focused on what other people were doing to take into account the immense amount of people watching him! Now it was just him and Hitoshi Shinsou and an audience numbering in the thousands. 

Unfortunately, he could not do the same trick he’d done to help Yaoyorozu. For one, it would count as outside interference, disqualifying him immediately and two, Yaoyorozu probably wouldn’t help him as he was one of the biggest threats against her, especially considering that they could be fighting each other next round.

“Hey, kid!” 

“All Might? What are you doing here?!” 

“To talk with you of course! You’ve done a pretty good job thus far but I’m assuming you don’t have much of a hold on One For All yet”.

“Yeah, I tried to summon it during those two weeks but everytime I did, I felt my bones burst” Midoriya looked down at his scarred arm. 

“I’d say your problem is that your still having trouble holding back the amount of power. Have you tried visualising the amount of power you use? Perhaps visualising One For All as a bar in one of those video games might help you”. 

“Maybe. I know you were expecting me to use this chance to tell the world I’m your successor but I’m sorry. I just need a little more time and I think it might be more prudent if I simply use Stone Cutter for now”. 

All Might merely smiled at him “My boy, you’ve done far better than I could ever hope for. Even if you were to lose here, I wouldn’t judge you for it. Now quit looking so down. It’s a hero’s job to smile for the sake and reassurance of others, remember?!” All Might exclaimed, morphing into his muscle form. 

Izuku perked up “Thanks All Might, that means a lot to me”. With that he turned around and walked out the gate, ready for his first match.


“First up, it’s the boy who’s been heavily involved in winning the first two events; Izuku Midoriya from the Heroics Course!!! And his opponent is none other than the guy who came third in the Cavalry Battle; Hitoshi Shinsou from General Studies!!!” Present Mic announced before going onto explain the rules for the match. 

Shinsou took the time to monolog, going on about how this was a battle of wills and how important this was but Midoriya didn’t respond. 

“START!!!”

“What kind of moron would just throw away a chance like this?! In this society you can’t afford to be so damn stupid that you can pick and choose how you advance”.

Midoriya glared at Shinsou. In all honesty, he was inclined to agree with his viewpoints but Ojiro was capable of making his choices on his own and stick by them. No one can blame him for that when the only person who got hurt by the decision was himself, like a true hero. And thanks to Ojiro, Midoriya knew how Shinsou’s Quirk worked and wasn’t going to waste this chance.

“Not talking? I suppose that monkey told you about my Quirk then”. Midoriya smirked before positioning himself just right.

“STO-”

In an instant, Midoriya’s eyes glazed over and he lost all control of his body. He could still see but it felt more like he was watching a screen with no control as to what happened next. 

“What’s this?! Midoriya’s frozen in place mere seconds before using his Quirk! Shinsou sure is one to keep an eye on!” Present Mic announced. 


“What’s wrong with Izuku?!” Inko cried out from her seat, watching the match occur live on television. 

“Brainwashing” Inko jumped. She wasn’t expecting Hisashi to speak up again so soon.

“W-what’s that, Hisashi?” Inko said.

“That Shinsou boy’s Quirk has to be a brainwashing one. Though I can’t be too sure, Present Mic’s terminology combined with your confusion makes Brainwashing the most likely guess. Our son has completely lost control over his body and is at the mercy of his opponent”.

“Hm. It’s amazing how you can remember all this useless knowledge about Quirks but not our phone number. I suppose Quirks were your number one passion” Inko said in a remarkably bitter tone “So how can Izuku regain control?”

“For the record, I had Kurogiri and my doctor keep me up to date with Quirks these past five years. Also Izuku can’t.”

“What?!” 

“Brainwashing Quirks remove total control over the victim. There are drawbacks like perhaps a time limit, a limited number of commands or some other external force to snap the victim back into control. This is a one v one match completely devoid of anything that could snap Izuku out of it and considering all Shinsou needs to do is order Izuku to walk out of the ring, it’s unlikely that the time limit will run out. It seems this is where Izuku’s Sports Festival campaign ends.”

“Poor Izuku”. All For One wasn’t sure to share in the moment or be relieved that the Sports Festival seemed to be an adequate distraction. He went with consoling.

“Indeed but top 16 out of 240 isn’t bad by any means. With his additional two victories, it’s likely some heroes may want to scout him after this”.


“Now turn around and walk out of the ring” Shinsou commanded and Midoriya completely helpless to do anything did as he commanded. 

‘Is this how it ends?!’ Izuku thought to himself, trying to regain control of his body. With each step, his thoughts gradually just became an endless string of “Stop”s. However, just as he was about to step over the line his vision flashed. 

‘What the-’ He saw eight pairs of eyes staring at him. There was a silhouette that looked vaguely like Yagi Toshinori followed by seven more. The shadows reached out towards him and-

CRACK!

“FUCK!” Izuku yelled out grasping his two newly broken fingers in shock. However, then it hit him. He was free from Shinsou’s control. He could move again! Midoriya briefly wondered about what that vision was. He knew he hadn’t moved his fingers so what did? Midoriya looked towards his opponent who was shaking in disbelief and smirked.

“You shouldn’t have control! I guess it’s to be expected from someone so blessed” Shinsou yelled and ranted but Midoriya paid it no heed. He had no idea what constituted as a response so he could only calmly walk towards his opponent and not talk despite how much Shinsou ranted and how much Izuku identified with the idea of wanting to be blessed. Even when his opponent resorted to physical violence, he wouldn’t waver and finally pushed the brainwasher out of bounds. 

“Shinsou is out of bounds. Midoriya moves onto the second round!” Midnight announced. 

The two participants bowed and exchanged pleasantries before leaving the battlefield. Despite Shinsou losing, it seemed he had gained the admiration of the crowd for a lowly General Studies student being so close to winning. 


“And I thought you said there was no way for Izuku to win” Inko teased, which was a relief at how cold the conversation had gotten. 

“Well, I have been confined to second hand information” Hisashi argued but inwardly he was in a state of contemplation. 

‘There was no way that kid should’ve lost. After all, Izuku wasn’t affected by any disturbances. From the accounts of those two students who forfeited, the time limit of that Brainwashing Quirk is around 15 minutes long, possibly even more. Could it be an effect of One For All?’ he thought to himself as the next match started. 

“Oh Hatsume’s participating in the next match and oh. Oh no” Inko said softly, her tone becoming very fearful very quickly. Well it was to be expected. From what he’d heard, Hatsume was a frequent guest at the Midoriya household and her chances against the Yaoyorozu heiress were slim to say the least. 


Holy shit was he wrong. The Support girl wiped the floor with Yaoyorozu. First she used the girl as a means to advertise all of her inventions and Hisashi would be lying if he said he wasn’t interested in a few of the inventions she showed. 

For example, her first ‘baby’ shown (167) was a device that generated a field which could temporarily negate a person’s Quirk. Yaoyorozu had to resort to using basic martial arts but Hatsume’s sensors and automatics allowed her to effortlessly dodge the attacks. Even when Yaoyorozu could land an attack, Hatsume just used her shields to block it. 

Then there was the linguistic dart (baby 101), which once injected into a victim allowed them to speak a completely different language at Hatsume’s control. So for the next minute or so Yaoyorozu was trying to chase down the Support student while angrily shouting in German. 

Things proceeded like this for a while. Even when Yaoyorozu regained control of her Quirk, it just allowed Hatsume to show off more inventions and more impressively at that. However 10 minutes later, it seemed she had finally run out of inventions and decided to finish with her favorite; baby 29. The way his wife stiffened did not go unnoticed but Hisashi was wondering what could elicit such a reaction. It couldn’t be that bad, could it?


“Everyone calm down. The fires have been contained and the battlefield and stadium are being rebuilt. Also Hatsume has... gracefully opted out of the remainder of the tournament so Yaoyorozu moves onto the second round” Eraserhead announced.

“Now, it’s time for Shouto Todoroki VS Hanta Sero! YEAH!” 

The round ended in 10 seconds with a gigantic glacier forming in the middle of the stadium, encasing Sero with it. 

“Let’s take a short break to both fix up the stadium and tell our participants to be somewhat considerate to those that have to keep repairing the damages...”


“So... that happened” Midoriya said to the people beside him. “I’m almost convinced to forfeit just so I don’t have to face him”.

“Same” Yaoyorozu said. “It was bad enough that Hatsume just used me as a tool to advertise her own inventions. She is much faster than she has any right to be”.

“Where is Hatsume, anyway? I thought she dropped out” Hagakure said.

“Still in police custody. She called me and asked her to bail her out so I just called her parents. I’m sorry you had to experience Baby 29 firsthand. We still haven’t fixed much of the damage it caused to our house”. 

“She did what to your house?! I’m sorry but why don’t you just hire someone to come and fix it. They don’t cost that much?” She said putting a hand to her chin.

Midoriya looked at Yaoyorozu to check if she was being serious and well, it wasn’t likely that adorable expression of confusion was faked. He went to answer, only for Monoma to interrupt.

“Ha! See that Class A?! Class B’s beaten you two for two!” He yelled wearing a deranged expression. 

They looked up to see that Shiozaki had completely restricted Kirishima’s movement with her vines and had reinforced her vine prison. The entire field seemed to be covered with thorny vines. 

“Hm. As expected of Shiozaki. I see her vines maximum length of extension has extended yet again as well as the number of vines. And well, her binding attack was unlikely to falter against Kirishima whose Quirk only really enhances his defense. But speaking of that, judging from your words I’m guessing TetsuTetsu beat Aoyama?” 

“But of course” Monoma grinned. 

“Wait, isn’t it your match next?” Monoma’s grin fell as he recalled the matchups. He then looked at the field to see his opponent, Pony, already waiting on her side of the field. At Present Mic’s announcements, his facial expression morphed into that of panic. 

“Oh crap!” 

“Relax!” Yaoyorozu said as she created a lengthy rope out of herself and flung it over the side of the wall. 

“You’re the best Yaoyorozu!” Monoma said as he hugged her before abseiled onto the ground. 

“That was weird” Yaoyorozu said to herself. Monoma usually wasn’t one to be overly affectionate. 

“Well, I guess since Neito Monoma isn’t here-”

“WAIT!” Monoma rushed to his end of the field and got in a fighting pose “I’m here”.

“Uh-ok, then. I guess you two can start now” Midnight said. 

Pony started by firing out two horns at Monoma. He nimbly dodged the attack but she redirected the horns to follow him. Realizing he couldn’t outrun them, Monoma turned around and faced them head on. Before they reached, a pink and blue glow emanated from Monoma’s skin and a shield was formed. 

“THAT SON OF A BITCH!” 

“Well, I suppose he is at a disadvantage here.” Midoriya said.

“Don’t try and justify his actions Midoriya” Yaoyorozu said angrily and somewhat hurt that Monoma’s gratitude was just a hoax to copy her Quirk. 

“OK”.

The horns stabbed through the shield and got stuck. Pony summoned two more horns but was caught off guard by her own horns being fired at her. Looking up, Monoma was now adorning two zigzagging horns much like her. Horns flew at each other while Monoma calmly made his way towards her. Pony tried to evade him but it was no use. He threw his shield at her, giving her pause enough for his horns to carry her off field. 

“Oh man. I lost”.

“Don’t feel too bad. You made it this far and we’ve given the Pros a good show of your Quirk. I’m sure you’ll get plenty of offers. Besides, you still have plenty more chances” Monoma smiled at his classmate who seemed to cheer up at his words.


“Poor Ashido”

“She really didn’t stand a chance” Midoriya and Yaoyorozu muttered. 

“What did I miss?” Monoma asked as he got back to the stands.

“Two of our classmates fighting. One’s Quirk allows her to generate and manipulate acid while the other allows him to summon a big long shadow demon who can take a lot of damage. Ashido’s only hope was using her Quirk to reduce her friction but the added momentum just allowed Dark Shadow to take her out that much faster”. 

“Hm. It does sound like a bad matchup though I am curious about both of their Quirks. How far can Ashido manipulate the acidity and viscosity of her acid. Is she immune to her own acid? How do different types of attacks damage Dark Shadow? Is it a separate entity from Tokoyami or just an extension of himself?” 

Before they could get anywhere, Present Mic announced the final match of the round, Bakugou vs Honenuki.

“Ha. Good luck, Bakugou. Honenuki’s Quirk allows him to easily soften and harden any material, allowing him full control over the terrain”.

10 seconds later. 

“Poor Honenuki”

“He really didn’t stand a chance” Midoriya and Yaoyorozu muttered as Monoma’s jaw had dropped to the ground. 

“So you’re telling me, that the first 1-A student I’ll be able to face is him ?!” Monoma asked in a panic and rightfully so. Bakugou had completely and utterly destroyed one of class 1-B’s recommended students as if it were nothing. Actually come to think of it, he’d done the same to Setsuna. How powerful was this guy?! 

All Monoma could do was think up strategies and mumble as his two friends left for their match.

“So just so we’re clear, no hard feelings no matter who wins, right?” Midoriya called across the arena. 


“Of course! Let’s just give it our all and may the best competitor win!”

“START!” 

Midoriya rushed towards Yaoyorozu until he was blinded by a large smoke screen, no doubt in an attempt to buy herself more time. 

“Nice try” Midoriya simply said as he gathered Revonnah Kai in his arms and clapped. His Air Slicer attack cleared away the fog as if it was nothing but Yaoyorozu had already finished her creation, a simple cannon aimed right at him.

Midoriya dodged the cannonball fired at him and unleashed a Stone Cutter technique on the ground, the vibrations knocked the cannon out of bounds as well as destroying parts of the arena. 

Yaoyorozu jumped from one tile to the next with a launcher of some kind. It fired out bolas which ensnared Midoriya’s arm. This gave Yaoyorozu time to throw something at him who was still trying to unrestrain his arm. Once he was done, his eyes widened at the grenade flying at his face.

BOOM!

A fucking grenade?! Well, Midoriya would be lying if he said this little act of villainy didn’t make him feel a little excited... on top of his skin bursting apart and burning. He didn’t scream nor did he flail about wildly. Instead he simply breathed in, gathered Revonnah Kai in his arms and delivered an Air Slicer attack. Hopefully this would buy him time to recover. 

“Yaoyorozu is out of bounds! Midoriya moves onto the third round!” What?

As soon as Midoriya’s eyes focused, he saw that his Air Slicer attack had indeed knocked Yaoyorozu out of bounds if only barely. Yaoyorozu was looking at him in shock before creating medical supplies like ointment and gauze to treat his burns. 

“Sorry! I severely underestimated how powerful that grenade would be. Er-well I just wasn’t thinking. I was just trying to think of something to throw you off balance-”

“So you used a grenade”

“Ah. I really am sorry Midoriya” Yaoyorozu continued to ramble.

“Relax, its fine. Besides, at least it was something exciting for the audience to chew on” Midoriya said before grimacing in pain as more ointment was applied to his burns.


“How did Class A get all of the strong students?!” Monoma yelled as Todoroki effortlessly defeated TetsuTetsu in yet another glacier.

“At least he lasted longer than Sero” Midoriya replied helpfully.

“Yeah, you’re right. Suck it 1-A!”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re next. Try not to be late for it”.

“Yeah yeah, I know” Monoma replied snappily. 


Lucky for Monoma, he was coming in the same way Todoroki had come in. He figured he’d congratulate the class 1-A boy for his victory and then beat Shiozaki with the boy’s Quirk. It was underhanded but he was practically fighting Quirkless. Even if he did copy Shiozaki’s vines, she was way more experienced with them and could easily endure his time limit. 

“What are you doing, Shouto?! Give up this petty rebellion and use my flames already!” Why if it isn’t the Number 2 Hero Endeavor. Monoma honestly had mixed feelings on the man. His work ethic was admirable but his attitude wasn’t and Hellflame was a Quirk that was much too simple for his tastes.

“I don’t need to use your Quirk to become Number 1. I’ll make it with mom’s Quirk alone”

“Are you sure about that? That Tetsutetsu boy lasted far longer than he should have and you lost the Cavalry Battle because of this petty rebellion of yours. Your ice might serve you well enough in this tournament but there will come a time when you must use it”.

“Tch”.

Monoma decided to break up this little argument by applauding. 

“Well if it isn’t the Number 2 Hero, Endeavor and his son. No wonder this one’s Quirk is so strong!”

“Ah, the copier. It’s nice to see someone actually willing to make full use of both sides of my son’s Quirk” Endeavor glared at Todoroki who merely huffed. 

“Yeah, well I’m just going to go to my match now. Oh, uh, congratulations on your victory, Todoroki” Monoma said, shaking Todoroki’s hand for a brief moment before he was frozen in place. 

“Copy my Quirk again and there will be consequences” Todoroki snapped as he unfroze the copier.

“Ooh consequences. Whatever, Zuko”.

“What is Zuko?”

Monoma turned towards him “You never watched Avatar? It was like a show that aired seven-eight years ago. All about a Quirkless society with the exception of a few individuals who could bend the elements.” He was met with nothing but blank stares. 

“Whatever, I’m going” Monoma turned around and confronted Shiozaki head on... and effortlessly defeated his classmate with Half-Cold, Half-Hot. Monoma comforted Shiozaki and turned around to see Todoroki absolutely livid. It looked like he was about to burst into flames. Maybe he’ll follow Shiozaki out this time... 


“I never thought I’d see you in one of those curb-stomps. Well, maybe on the receiving end but good work, Monoma!” Midoriya pumped up his fist before grasping his hand in pain. 

“Midoriya, have you been to the nurse’s office at all?”

“No, what for?”

“Alright. Your next opponent is Todoroki so I’m going to give you some advice. The dude’s got some major daddy issues. Big enough for him to outright reject using his fire”. Yaoyorozu gasped but Midoriya didn’t react at all.

“Yeah, I knew” 

Monoma’s mouth opened, almost as if to say something but stopped. “You knew, since when?”

“Since the USJ incident!” Hagakure cheerfully proclaimed. 

“Hagakure you knew as well?!” Yaoyorozu exclaimed.

“Well whatever. I’m just saying maybe you can use that?”

“Don’t be silly. Todoroki’s right where I want him, refusing to use half his power. If I poke that wound, I risk him using his flames and I honestly don’t know how I’ll fare against him if that happens”. Midoriya replied far too cheerfully for an aspiring hero in training.

Bakugou finally overpowered Dark Shadow getting a hold of Tokoyami and unleashed an explosion on the bird, defeating him. 

“Now if you excuse me, I’m off to fight the son of the Number 2 Hero”.


“START!”

Todoroki unleashed a giant glacier headed straight for his opponent who simply lifted his arm up. As soon as the glacier reached him, Midoriya punched it and unleashed a Stone Cutter to completely shatter it. 

“Please, it’s almost as if I was trained specifically for this moment” Midoriya muttered. He couldn’t mutter for too long as Todoroki unleashed another wave of ice. 

Vibrations sent along the ground powered through it and hit Todoroki, knocking him off balance. Midoriya took the opportunity to rush towards his opponent. However, Todoroki froze the ground causing Midoriya to lose his balance. 

Todoroki summoned spikes of ice along the ground causing Midoriya to roll out of the way. However, that was merely a set up for Todoroki to gain speed and jump into the air in an attempt to grab his opponent. An Air Slicer repelled him away nearly sent him soaring out of bounds if it wasn’t for Todoroki summoning a wall of ice to stay inside the field. 

Todoroki sent another wave of ice at his opponent. And another. And another. Midoriya either punched them apart or he managed to dodge them. However, something was becoming apparent. Todoroki’s ice attacks were getting much slower and from the amount of frost on the boy, Midoriya wagered that the cryokinetic was as well. 

It was apparent that ranged attacks were useless in this fight. They only served to counter another and even if one did get through Todoroki merely summoned a wall of ice to stop himself from going out of bounds. If Midoriya wanted to win this, he would have to get up close and personal. The problem was that Todoroki could easily immobilize him with a single touch but with how slow he was getting, Midoriya just might have a chance. 

Todoroki continued to summon walls of ice at his opponent but they were clearly taking their toll on him. He was shaking and his movement was becoming sluggish. He might even be suffering from hypothermia. Despite that Todoroki continued unleashing his attacks at his opponent. 

However, something had changed. Midoriya was still countering but his Stone Cutters were somewhat weaker. Only enough to break his glaciers but not enough to have any effect on him. And every time he did it, he got a little bit closer to Todoroki. At this rate, Midoriya would reach him and Todoroki knew that just one direct Stone Cutter would be all that would be needed to knock him out of bounds. Two if he was lucky. 

Mustering up all his strength, he created all the cold he possibly could, resulting in a gigantic ice wall rushing straight towards Midoriya, his eyes wide with shock. 

“SMASH!”

The wall was completely blasted apart by a tremendous force, which brought Todoroki to the edge of the arena, only stopped thanks to him creating ice walls to slow his momentum. 


“Alright Midoriya!” 

“I think it’s a little too soon to cheer. Look” Yaoyorozu said as she pointed towards Midoriya’s broken arm.

“So his arm is slightly damaged, he only needs one more attack on Todoroki to ring him out” Kaminari said with a smug smirk. 

“A good idea in theory but it’s a great deal more difficult in execution. I suppose it is a bit much to expect a 1-A student to realise this”. 

“And just what do you mean by that?”

“Besides the obvious jab at our class, Monoma does have a point. With a broken arm, Midoriya can no longer use his Air Slicer attack and as we’ve seen during the whole match, Todoroki’s ice walls can easily counter Midoriya’s Stone Cutter technique. There’s also the fact that these techniques draw power from a limited reserve of ki or some other substitute. Slowly but surely Midoriya’s power is being drained”.

“That leaves Midoriya’s actual Quirk, which as we’ve seen comes at the cost of destroying himself. True, he could just use it to push Todoroki out of bounds right now but... that’s not exactly a viable option”.

“Right because then he has to fight Bakugou with two broken arms” Kaminari said, ignoring Monoma’s “Hey!”.

“Even if we took him to Recovery Girl, he hardly has the stamina required to keep him conscious for the rest of the day, much less fight another round” Yaoyorozu said as she looked onwards with worry.


“To think, after all this time you’ve been holding back!” Todoroki shouted in anger and desperation. 

“Like you’re one to talk” Midoriya remarked as he closed the gap between the two of them, his broken arm, down at his side. 

Midoriya gathered up his ki and unleashed a Stone Cutter on his opponent. Todoroki managed to grab onto Midoriya with full force, allowing him to just barely stay inside the ring. With this one touch, he was able to freeze over Midoriya’s arm. Sighing, Midoriya headbutted him to make him lose focus and then used a sweep to bring Todoroki to the ground. 

As he was about to be dragged out of the ring, Todoroki saw his father looking down at him, scowling in disappointment. 

‘Well at least I accomplished something today’ he thought to himself quite happy that he had denied that bastard what he wanted. At least that’s what he thought until he realized that for all his faults, the bastard actually did have a point. 

“there will come a time when you must use it” those words were perfectly illustrated in this very match. He wasn’t the strongest using only his ice and his classmate had perfectly established this. Who knows what kinds of villains he’ll face with a similar power level? As loathe as he is to admit it, there would definitely be times when his mother’s Quirk just wasn’t good enough. 

As Midoriya lifted him up, Todoroki saw Neito Monoma in the stands, an annoying bastard who had copied his Quirk twice in one day... and if he lost this match it would almost certainly be a third time.

FOOOM! 

A tremendous wave of fire blasted Midoriya, his skin was searing hot and blistered apart as he was blasted into the air and on the other side of the arena, just barely avoiding a ring-out. 

“I must thank you Midoriya for showing me the error of my ways” Todoroki said before blasting his opponent with another jet of fire.

“No, no no. This isn’t what I wanted!” Midoriya panicked as he struggled to come up with a plan. 

“STONE CUTTER!!”

Once more vibrations swept through the arena, knocking his opponent back but doing not much else. 

He gritted his teeth ‘No choice. Guess I have to use that again. Alright All Might said to visualise my power’.

Midoriya steadied his breathing and closed his eyes trying to focus. A crackle was felt across his skin and Midoriya opened his eyes to see green lightning all across his skin. His field of view was now slightly obstructed by bars of some kind. He looked to Todoroki and saw other bars accompanied by words; information. Information that told him how much of his Quirk usage he had left, how much ki Izuku still had (an alarmingly small amount), bars that measured stamina etc.

This was all very cool but Todoroki was gearing up for his next attack, likely one that would finally end this battle. Both boys made their ways towards each other with incredible speeds. 

However, as the two met, Midoriya dodged Todoroki’s attack, grabbed hold of the arm that was left wide open and threw him out of the ring thanks to Todoroki’s already incredible momentum.

“Todoroki is out of bounds. Midoriya moves onto the final round!” 

The crowd cheered as Midoriya collapsed onto the ground and groaned; the full weight of his broken arm, his various burns, probably some internal bleeding. Actually, let’s just say all of the injuries he had suffered during the day were screaming at him for being such a reckless idiot. Curiously though, he was no longer seeing words or bars; perhaps it was just an adrenaline induced hallucination he made up to get a hold of One For All?

“Do you need some help?” a monotone voice asked. 

Midoriya looked up to see Todoroki just awkwardly standing there “Sure. You really did a number on me”.

“As did you”. The two boys walked off the field as Cementoss rebuilt what was left of the arena for the next match.


How? How the hell did this happen?! He knew that shitty Deku had a Quirk now but the bastard nearly beat Icyhot while holding back! Bakugou’s teeth grinded as he shook with rage. It didn’t matter. He could still win. He’d show Deku and Tennyson and everyone else just how powerful he really was. And he’d start by defeating this shitty extra that always hanged around Deku.

“So what shitty extra’s Quirk did you copy this time?! Ponytail’s Creation Quirk, maybe Icyhot’s. Oh perhaps you decided to copy shitty Deku’s? It doesn’t matter, I’ll kick your ass no matter who’s Quirk you have!”

The copycat merely looked at him disinterested, as if he wasn’t worth the time of day. It pissed him off to no end but it didn’t matter. This bastard was even more useless than shitty Deku. He’d fall sooner or later. 

“START!” 

Bakugou roared as blasted his way across the field. Copycat dodged and hit him, weakly.

“Tch. Is that it? You’re so full of yourself that you didn’t even bother copying a Quirk to fight me?! I’ll kill you”

“Oh, I copied a Quirk alright” Copycat said with a smug grin on his face. He held out his arm and...

BOOOM! 

An explosion blasted him across the arena but jokes on Copycat, he can fucking fly! That was when some invisible force struck him backwards. Bakugou briefly prevented himself from getting ringed out before he had to cough up some blood. 

Bakugou looked back at Copycat who was still so damn smug and released another explosion. Bakugou quickly evaded the attack and let out another explosion, which was blocked by Copycat. 

Hm, using his Quirk wasn’t a bad move but it merely prevented the inevitable. He was more than his damned Quirk and he’d prove it to everyone. Then Deku’s next. Bakugou quickly took flight and tried to turn the fight into a physical confrontation. He knew without Quirks, he was stronger than the bastard but Copycat was much nimbler than he’d been expecting. 

Copycat took advantage of little openings, evading attacks before blasting him with tiny explosions before hitting him with some invisible force. It was really pissing Katsuki off. Even worse that Copycat was deliberately trying to get under his skin. 

“I don’t know why but I was expecting someone actually good at combat” He said after evading another punch. The bastard wasn’t hitting him with an invisible force anymore so there was a time limit. 

“Honestly your Quirk seemed pretty good but now that I have it, it’s just completely mediocre. I preferred Todoroki’s” Bakugou growled but said nothing. One advantage he had over the copier was that he was more used to the drawbacks his Quirk inflicted on him. In a contest of endurance, he’d win every time.

“I mean, I knew Midoriya would put up a better fight but this is pathe-”

BOOOM! And like that that entire side of the arena was covered in flames and heat as Copycat was blasted out of bounds. Serves him right for bringing up Deku. 

“Uh, well, Monoma is out of bounds. Bakugou moves onto the final round” Midnight announced. 

‘Hm, just one more obstacle to go’ he thought to himself as he prepared himself for the final round.


All of the preparation in the world couldn’t have prepared him for this. After a quick break, Katsuki found himself back at the arena to kick Deku’s ass. However, he had completely underestimated Deku’s condition. 

Right across from him Deku stood covered in black burns undoubtedly from Half and Half and Ponytail’s attacks. One of his arms was broken as was three of his fingers. Blisters ran across his body and his face was swollen. It was clear that Deku wasn’t in fighting condition and the fact that he was standing here, ready to face him really made Katsuki’s blood boil. 

“START!” 

Deku immediately punched the ground and yelled “STONE CUTTER!” like he’d done so many fucking times today. However, no vibrations came forth. Deku just punched the ground and looked like an idiot. 

“DEKU?! Do you really think I’m not worth your using your Quirk on! I’ll kill you!!” 

“No Kacchan, wait I can explain!” But Katsuki was already on him. Using his Quirk to soar through the air, he flew right at Deku before unleashing the mother of all explosions.

The entire arena was bathed in fire and debris with Deku at the centre. A sickening crack came from the boy as he bounced off the grounds and into one of the stadium walls. 

It wasn’t going to be that easy though, Katsuki caught up with Deku and threw him into the ground. A moment passed before Bakugou realized the scope of his actions in abject horror before running after his former friend. Wasn’t his therapy supposed to prevent him from having a meltdown?

Midnight called the match with Midoriya having been knocked unconscious and declared Bakugou the victor to a cacophony of boos. In one swift movement, Bakugou had become the most hated person in U.A.

That’s what he saw happening. The sight before him filled him with such potent anger, he almost carried it out. But when he got to Deku, he just found himself pitying the jackass that hadn’t even tried to mediate the damage.

“Well, what are you dumbasses waiting for?! The match is obviously fucking over! Call it!”

Deku had the audacity to look determined. The same determined look he got whenever he tried to intervene with his bullying. And it was bullying and not some random excuse he justified himself with. Picking on someone that hadn’t a hope to fight back and then doing the same to Deku when he refused to “learn his place”. He could easily kick Deku’s ass here and now. But no matter how much he wanted to, doing so while Deku was in this condition did not hold his interest. What would it even prove? Of course, he’s stronger than a cripple. Everyone in the stadium knew that, including Deku. 

“Call it! Do you really expect me to fight some guy that can’t even summon an ounce of power?! Less than that, he’s broken his arm and is burned across the body. You’d have to be a sick fuck to get entertained from me kicking his ass even more!”

The match was called soon afterwards and Deku was dragged away.


“”I AM HERE WITH THE MEDALS!” All Might announced as Monoma took his place on the podium. He had been busy trying to help Midoriya, who was in a full body cast mind you, reach his place on the podium. 

“Todoroki, that was quite a bit of power you wielded but remember Heroes are more than their power. Sometimes having overwhelming power just won’t be enough. I hope you’ll come up with more creative ways to wield your power in the future” All Might said as he placed the bronze medal around the boys neck who thanked him in return. ‘My power, huh’.

“Monoma, you’ve shown incredible creativity with your Quirk but it might be best to know that you should never underestimate the sheer unpredictability of your opponents” All Might said as he placed a bronze medal around the copier’s neck. 

“Understood” The copier said looking at Bakugou warily. 

All Might moved onto the second place podium “Young Midoriya, congratulations. You’ve certainly come a long way. However, do note that a fight isn’t just about what strategies you can come up with or how much power you have, it’s also about how much restraint you have”. He placed the silver medal around his protegee’s neck. 

A muffled sound came from the boy’s cast. “He says “thank you and I understand. I won’t be a reckless idiot who’s only concern is winning”” Monoma helpfully replied to the ire of Midoriya who was now muffled screaming?

“Right... Speaking of restraint” All Might said as he looked at the first place podium, where they had chained up young Bakugou like a feral animal. 

“Well, young Bakugou you won so congratulations. But I was especially impressed with the amount of restraint you showed. Anyone can follow orders but it takes a true hero to understand when to draw the line!”.

He moved to put the gold medal around the boy’s neck but the glare of him was quite unnerving. Still the boy didn’t make any unnecessary movements and continued to glare at him when he was putting the medal around the boy’s neck. 

All Might turned to the crowd “These may be your winners but everyone here has the potential to be up here. The purpose of this competition is to push each other up higher so that you all can be better heroes. In that spirit, let’s have one final cheer” All Might announced and then he, like an idiot, completely bungled what he was supposed to say.


Well that was a complete and utter disaster. Hisashi was wondering what U.A. was going to not do in regards to that PR disaster. Although... he had seemed to gain a little respect for the boy. 

Inko was currently on the phone, consulting whether or not to sue the school because U.A had allowed Izuku to fight despite such a state. 

“Hm. At least Izuku got second!” Her mood doing a complete 180.

“Yes, at the cost of a broken arm, several broken fingers and burns.” Hisashi replied. He was proud of his son but Hisashi wished that he would be more careful and Inko agreed. 

They discussed their kids’ performance in the Sports Festival and potential solutions to any problems they faced, with number one being “Don’t do it”, but eventually Inko had to leave to go see their kids at the hospital. Hisashi had finally gotten another chance to spend time with his dear wife. It was a perfect end to a perfect afternoon. And then, Hisashi opened his big fat mouth and said something along the lines of “That brings back memories. Tooru often found herself in need of medical attention but I saw to it that she was treated well.”

Inko stiffened. Her movements were that of someone on the verge of making a terrible decision in the long-term. Anxious chills came over her but eventually she steeled her resolve.

“It does confuse me as to how you were able to take care of her, while like this” She pointed out, her voice becoming a lot less warm now. 

Hisashi shifted in his bed, the focus now putting him on edge. So his concerns were right, after all.

“I know you were paying for her expenses as well as our own but that is a lot of money over a period of five years considering you couldn’t do anything” Hisashi was now starting to sweat.

“You want to know what I think? I think you got caught up in some villain activity. There was a large wave of a drug called Trigger imported into Japan, a few years sometime before your accident. I’d wager that kind of activity would be quite profitable and you were quite deep into it weren’t you? But it’s also a business with a lot of risks involved. You ended up making lots of enemies and your partner Adrian caught you. However, because he was also involved, he couldn’t just arrest you so he ended up contacting some of your enemies and told them your whereabouts, resulting in this” 

Inko gestured to the table of which he lied upon. Hisashi was astounded as to how accurate that was. Well accurate for the man known as Hisashi Midoriya, anyway. She had no idea as to how ancient he was and how many crimes he had committed in that time and he intended to keep it that way.

“Well?”

“Yes. You’re absolutely right. Drug smuggling is- was a profitable venture but it was my own undoing. I lost contact with you and Izuku, I became an invalid and every day, my savings continue to decline. Eventually I won’t even have enough to afford this treatment” Hisashi solemnly said. 

He’d been too careless and his wife was too intelligent. Of course most of this was All Might’s fault for being the catalyst for this situation in the first place but he couldn’t deny his own failings. 

“I take it this will be the last time I see you or Izuku, then?” His wife didn’t say anything for a moment. He couldn’t read the expression on her face but it seemed that was all the confirmation he needed. 

“I- I don’t know!” She said harshly. For Hisashi’s part, he was incredibly confused. Given that Inko was a lawyer, he thought her first action would be to call the authorities on him, not whatever this is. 

“I’m torn. Izuku has been much happier to have his dad back. Despite your circumstances, you still helped Toru when she lost her parents. It’s been a long time since the incident so your enemies have probably forgotten you and...” She turned to him, grasping his hand in hers. “ At least a part of me is still in love with the man I met all those years ago” She proclaimed with a waterfall going down her face.  

“I- I love you too” Was all Hisashi could reply with. This turn of events had taken a turn he couldn’t expect. 

“And yet... this whole scenario is fishy. You claim to be trying to hunt down this... All For One character that no one has heard of. You claim to have lost contact with our household yet you somehow managed to stay in contact with Kurogiri, a teleporter that does everything for you and could have easily found our new residence if you so desired. I want to believe part of you does genuinely care about Izuku and Tooru and yet that does not change the fact that they got involved in a dangerous mission on your end with no idea that they even had support. Their futures are hanging in the balance because of you!”

“I’m sorry! I’d like to believe that you’ve left that life behind you but I can’t have you bringing potential danger to our home” She said. 

Her words invoked an awful, familiar feeling within him. He could never place its name and everyone knows exposing your weakness is a one-way ticket to getting stabbed in the back. Still to watch his wife break down in tears over his machinations; it caused him to feel as if his heart was being crushed.The plan had been sloppy but really the plan wouldn’t have been necessary if it wasn’t for All Might attacking him all those years ago. This was his fault. But he couldn’t place the well-deserved blame onto Japan’s number one Hero. That would only make him look worse. 

“I understand. I only hope that one day you give me the opportunity to show you I truly have changed” The two fell into silence before Kurogiri teleported her away.


Stain couldn’t believe this indignity. Chained up like a feral animal, captured by the very hero he had deemed to target. This wouldn’t be so bad were it not for Ben 10 being the one to defeat him. Yet, here comes this fake fully prepared to steal all of the credit for himself. His muscles were still contorted from those lightning bolts Ben 10 had thrown at him. It made him all the easier to restrain and less likely to cut down these fakes where they stood. 

While he was stewing and these fakes were talking about the newest fakes to stand out from the oh-so-important Sports Festival, the van crashed. Stain buckled in his seat as the 

Pros went to investigate. He could hear their feeble attempts to put out a raging inferno before an unholy screech penetrated the area. Followed by the shrill shrieks of those that had captured him. And a hell of a lot more people. It seemed as if this attack wasn’t just to free him. That had just been a happy little accident.

Perhaps a lesser person would be frightened by such an event but to Stain, this was the perfect opportunity to escape. The crash had loosened his chaIns ever so slightly. Just enough for him to dislocate one of his shoulders and get his arm out and grab his sword. As soon as he got out, the first thing he noticed was that the entire street had been set ablaze.

“How many times do I have to tell you sludge that the invasion isn’t ready yet?! Now get back to the tower and let me handle this!” A pompous voice said as Stain exited the vehicle. 

A small gray alien was giving the commands, arrogantly floating above everyone else. Was it one of Ben 10’s forms? Doubtful. He wouldn’t have defeated him just to break him out of a police vehicle before he was even formally charged. There was no glory to be had in those actions. 

“Well at least you’re more observant than most of the buffoons I know. My name is Albedo and I’d like to make a deal, Hero Killer Stain.”

Stain only needed to take a look at the piles of corpses and burning city around him to give his answer. In the form of a knife thrown at Albedo’s head. The knife was blocked by a forcefield but the message was clear as day. 

“So that’s a no, then” Albedo dryly remarked. “Pity. I thought you of all people knew how this society is in dire need of reform”.

“I have no idea who you think you are but there’s no reforms to be had here. All I see are a bunch of power hungry monsters” Stain leapt at the alien only to be blasted away by yet another bolt of lightning. 

Stain tried to at least keep his form but it was clear he was in no condition to keep fighting for today. Best to make a strategic retreat. Another of those unholy screeches sounded and for the first time, Stain got a glimpse of his attackers. Puke green sludge monsters with wide mouths and razor sharp teeth. In an instant they had him on the ground as slime dribbled onto his head.

“Let him go.”

“He refused your offer” One of the monsters growled.

“Perhaps but he can still be of use to us. Far more use than eating him here will yield. I truly hope you continue your crusade Hero Killer but I doubt we’ll meet again” All three aliens teleported away in a flash of light, letting Stain rest. But first, he needed to find a certain fake content with taking credit for other peoples actions.

Chapter 28: The End Part 1

Chapter Text

It hurt. The sting of the explosive and fire and ice all combined to form one really bad experience. And yet the burning wounds that had recently closed were nothing compared to the sheer disdain of Katsuki Bakugo. The weight underneath that glare made Izuku Midoriya feel as if he was just an ant being crushed under some sadistic child. Funny considering that is the opposite that happened. Izuku wasn’t even worth being crushed. He was just some guy that got to the final round regardless of whatever cost his body was stuck with. A sentiment that seemed to be shared amongst the major news outlets. Monoma’s prediction had rung true and now all the people were talking about was him being a reckless jackass unfit for hero duty... well almost. Ironically, thanks to Kacchan, U.A. had come under even more fire allowing him to battle. True the Tennyson incident was little more than a footnote now but thanks to Kacchan’s rant, the question of how capable they were was now in the air. And it is with the combination of the USJ incident, Ben 10 and now the Sports Festival that U.A’s reputation is in the ground.

Thanks to Recovery Girl, his wounds were healing but that lead to more controversy. It actually led to a fairly insightful and long discussion with Monoma. Is the existence of healing quirks an excuse to care less about the safety and wellbeing of students? Personally, Izuku believed no. He had done this damage to himself so there should be no one else to blame and yet the responsibility had fallen to U.A. What this meant going forward, Izuku had no idea. Perhaps they would expel him for being dead weight? Although that would most certainly cause further controversy so maybe he was safe for now. He hoped so at least. 

“Hey Muscles!” A certain pink-haired inventor barged into the hospital room.

“H-Hatsume?! Why are you here?” 

“Well, I’m here for moral support of course” She beamed seemingly uncaring to the fact that it was long past visiting hours. 

Izuku could only make her out in the darkness because she had taken the liberty of outfitting herself with a literally shining visor. Baby 47, if he recalled correctly. Yet the late hour and room full of shadows did nothing to deter the almost creepy smile she had affixed on her face. In the darkness, he could also see a number of other babies. She was using the rocket boots this time around and had armed herself with what looked like a flamethrower.

“I would have been here sooner but Mom and Dad didn’t bail me out until an hour ago. Their invention was so much more important than I was” She said without a hint of sarcasm. “I was wondering where you were but now I understand. You clearly called them once you were admitted to the hospital and that’s fine because you look like crap”

“Thanks.”

“No problem” Hatsume cheerfully said. 

They were silent for a few moments. Neither really knowing or caring how to continue the conversation yet Hatsume refused to leave. Knowing he wouldn’t get any sleep with her still in the room, Midoriya scrolled through articles on his phone. On a whim he searched up Hatsume’s name and to be expected, he found dozens of articles denoting what a crazy madwoman she was and how dangerous she would be in the Support Course. That seems to be the reaction when you set fire to a stadium.

“Hatsume, how can you continue being this cheerful?”

“Whatever do you mean Muscles?” Hatsume said, while fixing some sort of mask, Baby 16 if he remembered correctly.

“Everyone’s written you off like a quack but that doesn’t seem to have dimmed your mood whatsoever. Doesn’t it bother you?”

Hatsume paused and for the first time since meeting the girl, Hatsume seemed to genuinely be considering the prompt. She seemed almost unsure of herself as she did so.

“People are idiots. Don’t listen to them” Such a morose response was completely unexpected.

‘So even the great Mei Hatsume has cracks in her armor’ Midoriya thought.

“You can still be a great hero, y’know” Her response surprised Midoriya. He wanted to exasperatedly sigh and think that of course she had somehow turned it on him  but part of him felt that Mei Hatsume was a far more perceptive person than she presented herself as.

“I don’t think I’ve told you the true reason I stole your book, have I?”

“No, are you going to?” Hatsume pleasantly hummed to herself.

“All those articles about how insane I am... they’re not anything new. All my life, I’ve been treated as a psychopath. By people who can’t realize that I’m ahead of the curve.” Midoriya snorted at that but Hatsume wasn’t laughing. She wasn’t making a joke and she didn’t appreciate being treated as one. After an uncomfortable silence, she continued.

“People can talk all the crap they want about me but at least they’re talking about me... and they’re talking about you too. We’re not going to be forgotten for a while so it’s up to us to “prove them wrong while the spotlight still shines on us”.

“Are you saying you purposefully set the stadium on fire?” Hatsume winced.

“I admit there’s still some troubleshooting but who doesn’t love a comeback story?” Hatsume smiled genuinely.

“Wait, what does that have to do with stealing my notebook?”

“We’re kindred spirits, Midoriya. I recognized that the second I laid eyes on you.” She brushed something out her eyes and placed it in a little case before looking right into Midoriya’s eyes. 

It was a little creepy but he knew she was doing this with a point in mind. So he stared back at her. He stared back at her and into her eyes, like little gold coins adorning her face. Fortunately, it didn’t take long and he found it or rather not it. Hatsume’s eyes were usually adorned with little cross hairs yet they were missing...

“You’re quirkless?!!” Midoriya began to shout before a hand clasped over his mouth.

“Don’t shout it for the whole hospital to hear!” 

“But yes. I don’t count it amongst my babies for obvious reasons but Zoom was my first ever success... although Mom did most of the work.”

“But this is amazing! You could revolutionize society with this!”

“Revolutionize society? Please, Midoriya, you and I both know that Hero Fever is far too ingrained in society for this to be little more than a niche accomplishment. 

“You could still help people! This could single handedly enhance the eyesight of anyone who used it”

“Helping people is a luxury afforded to people who’s futures aren’t precariously hanging in the balance. Besides, you’re not exactly selfless yourself, Muscles!”

“If I had the opportunity to help people I would!” Now it was Hatsume’s turn to snort as if he had told a funny joke.

“Really? Is that why you’re not content to settle for anything less than number one? Why you never helped people even on the smallest scale imaginable? Why it took getting the strongest Quirk in the world for you to act on your selflessness?” Her words were cruel but there was no malice in them. Quite the opposite actually.

As Midoriya sputtered to try and find a rebuttal, he felt her grab his hand “Like I said, kindred spirits you and I. There are very few people in this world that are truly selfless. Tell me, have you heard of the Crawler?” Midoriya was put off by the sudden change in topic but was always eager to show his Hero knowledge.

“If I recall, he was a vigilante. His quirk allowed him to slide along the ground but obviously such a weak Quirk didn’t amount to much. Unlike Tennyson, he couldn’t really accomplish much in the few scraps he did get into. There’s a rumor he was at the epicenter of the Killer Bee incident but last I heard, he became Captain Celebrity’s sidekick.”

“Right and you only know all this because you’re a fanatic. He’s no longer relevant and people have already moved on to the next big thing. But what you neglected to mention was that the Crawler was legitimately selfless. He may have been useless in a fight but he did his best to help the community out. Picking up litter and going after petty thieves was the extent of what he could do but he did it and that’s what matters. Now he’s just a footnote in history”.

“When I get more to my name, then I can afford to help people out but not right now.” Hatsume sighed heavily “Today was going to be my big moment but I got caught up in my fantasies again. Rest assured Midoriya, this is only a minor setback for both of us but as it stands the Hero Industry is not kind to the Quirkless. You need very good connections to even get heard before getting labeled as fodder and I dunno about you Midoriya but I don’t need another label”

“That makes no sense. Hero work, I understand but why should it affect Support?”

“It shouldn’t but there’s still that label. ‘How are you supposed to understand what a Hero needs when you don’t even have a Quirk?’ Its total BS but that’s how it is”.

Midoriya found it hard to keep arguing in the dead of the night so he remained silent. Truthfully, he was unaware of the actual extent of Quirkless discrimination in Japan. He’d accepted that a Quirkless couldn’t become a hero. Even if he tried to do the right thing, he’d just get beaten into the ground. 

‘How are you meant to save others when you can’t even save yourself?’ was a thought that often found its way into his head. 

Some part of him kept the hope alive but truthfully...

“I... think I gave up on my dream of being a Hero” He admitted the subconscious sentiment that he had never realized existed before now.

“The hell you are! You’re my best chance to-”

“Past tense, Mei. Unlike you or Hagakure or even the Crawler, I never trained to be a hero. I never tried to do my bit. When I was diagnosed in that dreadful office, I cried a lot. But after that I never tried to do any hero work unless it was right in front of me. I never tried to get better.”

He turned towards the girl he was just now starting to understand “But you’re different, you know that? You never once gave into that overwhelming despair. You’ve tried over and over, failed over and over and yet you never gave up. You’re still here, trying to make your dream come alive.”

Hatsume said nothing nor did she give any obvious reaction to his words. Instead she maintained a steady look on one of her tablets. “I’m going to help you, Hatsume. Even if it means blowing myself up. I’m going to help you become the world’s best inventor. I just wanted you to know that”

Almost as soon as he finished, she jumped into his bed and hugged him in a way that she was almost hiding behind him. Only this time she wasn’t fondling his muscles.

“Mei?”

“There is something in the hallway. I’m not sure what it is but it’s not human.” She said in hushed breath. 

A low growl emanated from the hallway followed by the sound of slick oozey footsteps. Midoriya pushed Hatsume further backwards. Could it be Tennyson? Unlikely, if he was sneaking in, he’d probably just use Ghostfreak or Big Chill. It it wasn’t human, it could be one of his enemies though. Midoria’s wounds were still aching but he readied One For All just in case.

The door opened and in came a big slimy monster, unlike anything Midoriya had ever seen and yet there was a certain familiarity to it. Goop came close but he was far too clean and there was a certain fluidity to his movements that this thing did not. No, instead every movement this monster made had this jank to it as it shuffled across the ground. Hatsume clutched onto him tightly as it slithered towards them. Midoriya stayed very still, waiting for it to make its first move. This being grabbing the wounded teenager at lightning fast speed and stuffing him inside it.

“Not as old as I’d like but you’ll be just fine for a quick snack!”

As Midoriya was drowning in sludge, his movements completely restricted, it became all too clear where this sense of familiarity came from. He needed to get out of its grasp. Now. He activated One For All but his exhaustion was apparent. Midoriya could summon it for the briefest of moments. One Smash should free him. The force of the attack broke through the windows, giving Hatsume ample opportunity to escape. But the angle was all wrong. All he succeeded in doing was pushing himself into the creature. For whatever solace it provided, at least the creature seemed to choke on the sudden movement but his window was gone. Before he could even ask ‘What would All Might do?’, his limbs were completely restricted. 

“Put him down!” Hatsume yelled, aiming her flamethrower at the beast. 

“Two snacks! How fortunate for me” Another tentacle shot out and grabbed her.

Hatsume pulled the trigger and the creature went up in flames. Its body relaxed around Midoriya, giving him a second attempt to free himself. This attempt would be much more smooth than the last and yet no less terrifying because for the entire duration, it laughed. Once the fire died down, it physically towered over the both of them. It’s mass had increased to fill up the entire room. 

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with!”

Midoriya activated One For All again and rushed towards Hatsume, grabbing her out of the way of the cage of tentacles coming for her, narrowly avoiding getting ensnared himself. 

“SMA- Argh!” The attack fired off without a hitch. 

A massive force completely obliterated the beast. Beds, trays, the glass of water that had remained untouched by his side, all of it went flying with the monster into the next room. The beast let out terrifying screeches of pain. The aftermath however was that his arm became a lot more squishy. His bones had suffered a similar fate to the creature that had tried to engulf them. That thought would need to be amended within the next three seconds. A deep raucous laughter came from the new hole in the room as the splotchy remains of the beast moved on their own to pull themselves together. 

“Like I said, you have no idea what you’re dealing with!”

Midoriya tried to work through the pain and lift his hand up- oh. Midoriya’s arm was now in the mouth of the beast. A small tentacle with a large mouth had  managed to escape the carnage and wrapped itself around his forearm and was biting down. He allowed himself to cry out in pain and peeled it off of his arm but he immediately knew that he had only bought them a minute tops and getting Hatsume out of here was the first priority. He used his one arm to unleash a Stone Cutter to minimal effect before grabbing Hatsume and leaving out the window. It was awkward with only one arm but they narrowly avoided another ensnaring grasp. 

Hatsume used her rocket boots to brace their fall. The escape was a success but it was too harrowing for comfort. Midoriya leaned against the wall. He just wanted to go to sleep. Hatsume stopped that by helpfully slapping him in the face. 

“Ow, what the hell?!”

“Don’t go to sleep! We need to get you help!” Hatsume said. Her jacket wrapped tightly around Midoriya’s arm that seemed to be hanging by a few fibers. 

“OK, first of all that’s for concussions not ripped open arms, secondly that’s a myth and thirdly the closest place with ‘help’ has that thing inside it!”

“Then we’ll go somewhere else! My house isn’t far from here. My dad will be able to help. Come on” She pulled him up and helped him walk though they were both understandably shaky after the incident. 


“Mei! Where have you b- What happened to your friend?!”

“Midoriya needs help. We can’t go to the hospital.”

After a long walk, the two students barged into the Hatsume family home. Midoriya had briefly thought about just laying down on the street but there was no way either of them were taking chances with that new villain. Midoriya wasn’t expecting to confront another sludge-based villain so soon. He wasn’t really expecting to deal with any villains right now reality had other plans in mind.

First the Sludge Villain, then the whole business with Adrian, he’s not entirely sure Kurogiri isn’t one and the USJ. Now this. Maybe Midoriya is just some kind of doom magnet or something? And then you factor in all the aliens that were now in Japan because of Ben 10.

Hm. If only Ben 10 was here. Medicura could fix him right up. He’d probably give him a verbal lashing but everything would be ok. Midoriya wouldn’t be lying on the cluttered floor of the Hatsume home with his friend’s parents trying to make a makeshift cast for him as he’s fighting a losing battle against his own exhaustion. 

“Miraculously the wound isn’t that deep. It can be saved. The more pressing issue is the constitution of his arm. What the hell happened and he’s asleep. Probably for the best. Mei?”

Genjiro turned to his daughter who was watching closely over her only friend. Genjiro still remembered the first time he caught them rummaging around in the garage. Mei adorning all kinds of support items on the poor boy, looking more like a metallic christmas tree than an aspiring young hero. He didn’t know how the two became friends but Mei’s life was all the better for it. There was a certain authenticity to her energy now. Genjiro couldn’t figure out where it came from but he was glad for it. Mei got up and made for the garage.

“And where exactly are you going?”

“Obviously the garage. Midoriya’s going to be ok. You said he’d be ok”

“I said the arm could be saved. That’s not the same as being ok. And we still need to get him to the hospital”

“It was in the hospital! I was visiting Midoriya and we got attacked by this villain. Midoriya broke his arm fighting it. We couldn’t do anything but run. So I’m gonna make a baby to make sure this never happens ever again” 

“There’s more than one hospital we can go to but even though the wound can be fixed up, there’s a lot of internal damage throughout the entire arm. Mei you have to consider the possibility that Midoriya might not be able to do hero work anymore”.


Ben was meant to be about to take a break from hunting down Albedo when the hospital screams alerted him. Screeches that were almost demonic in nature permeated throughout the air. 

‘Albedo?’ He briefly considered but he knew that it was probably some other alien or monster terrorizing a hospital.

XLR8 ran through the hospital’s eerie corridors, trying to find the source of that noise. For a moment the screeching stopped as did all the clearly human screams. But this moment was quickly interrupted by a cacophony of explosions.

“Die! Die! Die!” Ben knew that voice but it was less angry and more terrified.

He followed the sounds and spotted Bakugo cornered by some green sludge monster. The monster detected him and smirked.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Ben Tennyson. We’ve been waiting a long time for you!”

Ben’s memory was usually pretty good but he was drawing a blank at this guy and ‘we’? Immediately the possibility of working with Albedo flashed into his mind. On any other incident, he might throw out a couple quips, toy with the villains and easily defeat them. Not this time. He created a cyclone within the hospital, sucking the sludge monster up. He ran faster and faster, causing its constitution to become thinner and thinner. 

“Wait, stop. Please!” The monster’s cries went unanswered until the Omnitrix timed out.

“Oh come on!” The creature’s sludge bits flew around the room while Ben went flying into a wall.

“Ben Tennyson! For years we have yearned for our revenge. Can you imagine the humiliation we’ve endured? Our entire species driven back by a mere child. Well, no more! We will no longer be the jokes of the galaxy! We-” 

The smoke from Bakugo's hands set off the sprinklers in the building causing the alien to screech in terror. It’s body melting from the water hitting it’s body and steaming up the whole room. Soon, the creature had either completely dissolved into nothingness or slithered away like a snake. 

“The hell was that?” Ben said.

He half expected “One of your fucking alien enemies, dipshit” but there was a surprising lack of profanity in the air. He turned around to see Bakugo completely tensed up, not saying a word. His breathing is erratic, not taking in anything from his surroundings.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s alright, ok? It’s gone. It’s just you and I left” Oh, why did the Omnitrix have to time out? Medicura was perfect for this.

Instead he simply had to stay with Bakugo in this dim room, hoping the panic attack would end soon. 


Gwen was alone. In a space of her own making, she repeated the battle with Albedo on loop over and over again. What ifs pertaining to how they could have dealt with it better. If they could have saved Grandpa Max at all. 

She felt rage at Albedo for taking her grandpa away from her, at Ben for not being there when they needed them, at herself for being so foolish as to cast aside the last time Albedo fought her so easily. The three of them have been through so many adventures together so Gwen does not say this lightly but the darkest day of their lives (before now) was when Vilgax and Albedo teamed up and picked away at their team one by one. It should have been a warning. How well do they stack up against an Omnitrix bearer? The answer was not good at all and yet after that day, neither her nor Kevin really considered what they would do if they had to fight another one. 

And the thing that really made her kick herself was this was not the only time. Ssserpent and Ultimate Kevin and Diagon. Over and over again, they had been left in the dust... and maybe that was why Gwen decided to attend her college early. Despite how much they might rib Ben, he could easily handle himself well. He didn’t need a partner, let alone two. She was certain if Ben had just been there, none of this would have happened. She wanted to curse him out. It was his fault Grandpa Max had died. Some part of her believed that sentiment. But another part of her was well aware of the veritable army of Plumbers Albedo had gone up against. Surely, the gap wasn’t so significant that the best they could hope to achieve against him was fodder.

Gwen had the power within her. She just didn’t know how to draw it out. Maybe she should have gone with Verdona after all.

“Well, it’s good to see you admit it!” A familiar voice said.

“Grandma, what are you doing here?”

“Checking to see that the rest of my family is still alive” Verdona said bluntly. 

Neither said anything for the moment because what was there to say? Grandpa Max was important to them both and both of them had failed him. 

“For what it’s worth, I tried bringing him back y’know. Necromancy is such a simple thing for one my age... at least that’s what I thought. The body didn’t hold. That bastard destroyed too much of the body and it couldn’t handle Max’s brilliant soul. I tried to use Restoration magic on his body to get it to hold together but it would have only been a temporary solution. I tried bending the rules of time itself to prevent this dreadful event from ever occurring! You can thank your professor for how that turned out...”

Verdona was someone Gwen only knew for short periods of time. But everytime they had interacted, she spoke with an almost cheerful energy. Suffice it to say that energy was gone, reflected in her form looking more dim than ever. 

“So if bringing him back is not an option, what say we get some revenge?” Verdona extended her hand out.

Gwen knew there had to be a catch of some kind. She was in a coma so severe Medicura could not bring her out of it. Hex and Charmcaster had gotten similar results. It’s like her body rejected her spirit and here comes her grandmother offering to send it right back. Unfortunately, Gwen was too tired to care. 

She grabbed Verdona’s hand regardless of the possible consequences. 


“I know we haven’t had the best relationship. But I just want you to know that I think you’ll make a great hero.” Ben started saying, partly to break through the overwhelming silence.

“I know you think you haven’t made progress. You’re not where you should be. I think you have and you are. I think you, the real you, is so much cooler than you think you are. Not as cool as me of course but still...“ Bakugo gave no response. 

“Kr’lk says the reason you’re so loud and angry is partly because you feel inadequate to others. I dunno what exactly you have to feel inferior over. You’ve got a pretty powerful Quirk. You won the Sports Festival. You’ve practically got a massive headstart in life” Bakugo continued to say nothing so Ben changed tactics. 

“You’re not the only one with doubts. We all have our moments where we feel powerless, where we want to do something but can’t. I was like that for most of my childhood. And... it’s ok to feel like that sometimes. It doesn’t make you any less of a hero or a person for that matter.”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

“Well, ‘bout time you got out of that rut. What were you doing here?” Ben said, not missing a beat. The Omnitrix had been charged for a while but he didn’t think it was a good idea to leave Bakugou alone while he was having a panic attack. 

“None of your fucking business!” Ben rolled his eyes, ready to continue his patrol when his phone went off. Hm. He doesn’t know this number. 

“Hello?”

“Get over here, now! Midoriya needs your help!”

“Deku?” Bakugou said, just as confused as Ben was. 

“Where is here?”

“Hatsume Industries! It’s a large house in between that hospital and Kamino Beach. I’ve transmitted the location to your Plumber’s Badge. Now hurry up and get over here!”

Ben immediately turned into XLR8 and ran both of them there. His first sight was Midoriya with one of his arms barely hanging on. The bloody stump would make anyone cringe even if it wasn’t a high school kid. Ben immediately transformed into Medicura and assessed the damage. 

The wound was a simple matter, healed in less than 60 seconds under Medicura’s glow. The bones were not. He remembered All Might saying how the Quirk could blow Midoriya’s arm off if not used properly. He thought All Might was being hyperbolic. The arm looked like it had been completely flattened. 

No matter. Still fixable, just time consuming. Given the volatile nature of One For All, Medicura worked through possibilities of what would happen if Midoriya was much less lucky the next time around. Should the arm be rendered completely unusable, it would be possible to amputate it and replace it with one generated by Swampfire’s plant manipulation. It had already worked once. Though given the Highbreed did have similar systems to plants, perhaps they had a higher level of compatibility with such a creation. In that case, a prosthetic made with Jury Rigg and Grey Matter’s abilities could be feasible but only with the right parts. There was still a lot of work to do when the Omnitrix timed out. Work that instantly went away with a flash of light. Everyone looked for the source and found two bright pink lights in the kitchen. Ben briefly tensed up considering the possibility that Verdona had been in Plumbers HQ. He did not untense when he realized that his child wasn’t with Verdona because he saw who was accompanying her. 

“Gwen?” She did not respond. Instead Verdona spoke for her. 

“ Hello, Ben! I thought you would want to know that I’ve done what you could not and found Albedo. I was going to do it myself but Gwen insisted you come with us” Gwen did not respond. 

The news should have been a relief. They’d finally cornered Max’s killer but something was off-putting about Gwen’s state. Unresponsive to everything, following Verdona around like a puppet. And while she had unlocked some of her Anodite potential, it usually manifested as Lucky Girl. Here, with tendrils of mana imitating hair she was indistinguishable from a pure-blooded Anodite. And where was Kevin? Surely, if Gwen spoke up to include him, she’d have done the same for her boyfriend. 

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

Verdona smirked at his response, either not picking up on his suspicions or not caring. Believing she held all the cards and that there was nothing he could do to stop it. 


“Hurry up!” The smooth-brained slime prodded for the fiftieth time.

“Patience, patience. The humans have a saying here that all good things come to those who wait.”

Albedo found himself surrounded by Highbreed arrays. With a slight modification, they could be used to open up a portal anywhere. The Limax weren’t his first choice of invader but he supposed beggars don’t get to choose. They’d get the job done well enough. 

Ben Tennyson had thoughtlessly asked him what he had planned to do after stabilizing his transformation. It disturbed Albedo to realize that the boy had a point. He put in the activation sequence and with the correct coordinates that would only be wrong if these dullards didn’t know where their own planet was located. 

The gate pulsated and flashed with a vicious energy before opening up. Hundreds of Limax ships came through and kept on going. Tennyson’s precious planet was surrounded by a grand fleet of aliens bearing a grudge as great as the one he held. Albedo wondered what this planet’s feeble heroes could do in the face of it? Without the Plumbers in action, how long would they be able to last?

“I’d say the destruction of our hated one’s home planet is a good thing, wouldn’t you?”

Chapter 29: The End Part 2

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Nezu hadn’t the faintest idea where they had come from. All he knew was that as he was about to go to bed.

“No!” He cried out. This was far too soon to be happening right now. Far too soon. They hadn’t had even the slightest grain of time to prepare for such an eventuality. 

Throughout all of Japan and potentially throughout the rest of the world, warships littered the skies. Sharp lasers eradicated any buildings unlucky enough to be in the line of fire. Aliens descended onto the ground. Nezu surveyed the situation using the remains of his drones. Hm. Not much variance. All enemies bore the same physiology. Green, slimy, possessed minor shape shifting capabilities. 

Sharp teeth used to devour the unfortunate passerby wandering the night streets.

Super strength demonstrated in how they cars with ease. Any of the heroes that had predicted a slow night carelessly got flung around like a graduation cap.

Those stomachs could be a possible weak point but it would depend on how resistant the outer slime is.

Nezu gasped in horror when he observed a car explode near one of the slimes and it only made it grow larger. Was there a limit to this ability? Did these creatures have any limits at all? How many abilities did these cretins possess? He witnessed Edgeshot slice off an arm only for it to regenerate!

The entrance exam had come far sooner than Nezu would have liked. He could only hope Hero Society was ready for it.


Rule number one of forming your criminal empire: Don’t get too attached. All For One would hardly have become the boogeyman he was if he folded to something as flimsy as familial connections. His brother knew that better than anyone. And yet as the years got on, All For One found himself less and less inclined to be the big, bad, scary villain. He found himself breaking rule number one more often. Tooru Hagakure was one of the best examples of this. She was a daughter to two of his best agents. She wanted to be a hero, like most kids her age and he got the feeling that were it a possibility, they would have encouraged her to follow that path. She was a lot more reserved when he first met her. Obviously the inability to see was a factor but he felt there was something more to the girl. A deep loneliness, outcasted by her peers. Desperation set in to the parents. They wanted her to have a chance at a normal life and so earnestly signed a deal with the devil. Too bad he never got a chance to collect. 

Networking is an important part of a criminal organization. It’s what separates the sophisticated villains from the street thugs. Get to know people but don’t get attached. And yet All For One broke that rule countless times with the Hagakures. Their relationship became a bit more intimate than standard professionalism. They still worked for him but he also attended family dinners and the holidays. Something about their connection intrigued him. That love that they had for each other and their daughter. They would walk into hell for the sake of their family and did just that.  He couldn’t quite understand it but it truly fascinated him so. He was aware of every little spat they shared but it seemed just that. Little and inconsequential. For the majority of their time, there existed a love that permeated through that family. And then he started wondering what it would be like to have such a thing. For just a little while in his immense lifespan, he desired a normal life indistinct from one of the masses. 

Unfortunately, there had been more than a few road bumps. It should be over real soon but he needed to get the plan just right. 

“Are you ready, Tooru?”

“... Of course I am, Uncle. I even busted out my new hero costume just for this occasion!” True to her words, the stupid, awful light blue gloves were nowhere to be seen. In fact there was nothing of the girl to be seen. The only sign of her existence was a slight creak in the floorboards where she stood. It was a terribly familiar feeling. Having kin that’s very nature prevented them from expressing themselves in the usual way. His Quirks mitigated it a bit, allowed him to sense her, but it was still unnerving just as it had been all those years ago.

“Are you sure about this, sir?” Kurogiri asked.

“You’ve gotten as close as you can. I truly thank you but this next bit is something we will have to do. We have no idea where the girl will be but once we find her, we’ll send for you”. Kurogiri opened the portal and Hisashi found himself right outside the Eight Precepts base of operations. 

The annoying little screeches of the Limax echoed throughout the streets. An invasion was in progress? Why hadn’t he been notified? Oh right, there was that prison break and all communications were down. Hisashi mused at the absolutely terrible timing. Well, at any rate it seemed that he wouldn’t be able to count on the Plumbers.

“What’s going on?!” Hagakure said.

“Something that doesn’t concern us right now. As much as I dislike them, the heroes should have it under control. We’ll only get in the way if we try to interfere.” His voice filtered through the barely finished mask. It was a prototype and the good doctor definitely had not worked out all the kinks but time was not on their side. Even before this all started, Nighteye had started an investigation into the Eight Precepts. Be it from heroes or the demon king of the underworld, Overhaul was not long for this world. The only change in outcome would be where his precious daughter would be in the aftermath. Hisashi would not allow the heroes to steal away his one chance for a normal life again. The one thing that All Might had successfully stolen from him. 

“We’ll cover more ground if we split up. This is a stealth mission so don’t take any unnecessary risks. Remember our target is a young girl. She’s probably terrified out of her mind so please be gentle with her. If you find her, immediately use the transmitter to get Kurogiri and go back to base.”

“You can count on me, Uncle!”


Tooru was not having a good time. This school year has been disaster after disaster and she could barely make sense of any of it. Uncle said this was nearing its conclusion but was it really? What about All For One? What about UA? What about the Eight Precepts? If this was a simple recovery mission, how would it actually help? What was actually going to change moving forward? 

She stilled at the sounds of the yakuza running through the halls and released a breath when they ran past her. Of course they weren’t here for her. There was no way they could have detected her. A monstrous growl echoed throughout the halls followed by screams of people unknown to her. She hoped Uncle was ok.

Tooru wandered through the dark corridors eager to get to her goal. The building almost felt alive, its walls almost shifting as she walked through them. Her anxiety at this situation was like a shadow that consumed her. Every step forward only fueled it. 

More time alone meant more invasive questions running through her mind. Why was she doing this? Saving a kid sounded like a good idea but why had her Uncle decided to bring just the two of them? Why not alert the police? Tooru wasn’t stupid. She knew her dear “Uncle” had criminal connections. It was how he’d gotten banged up in the first place. The official story was that he’d run into a villain far more dangerous than even he could manage. However, what if it was a hero who had caught him instead? Tooru felt a great tightness in her stomach. She couldn’t help feeling something was really awful. Would a two-bit drug dealer really have access to a teleporter and two invisible spies? Even if he did, would his resources really last the better part of a decade? 

All For One. That was the villain they were supposedly hunting. The official story was too flawed to be the simple truth. As far as she could see it, there were two options and neither are particularly nice to think about. Either Uncle was All For One or a villain on the same relative level as him trying to off a rival. Is that the true purpose of this excursion? Destroying the yakuza before they can get off the ground. 

Tooru tried to think about all he had done for her but she couldn’t take her mind off the insufferable feeling that something was genuinely and utterly wrong. Because despite all that had happened and all the thoughts swimming around her mind, there was one question that was at the forefront of her mind.

What was Hisashi Midoriya really doing for the last ten years?


‘Oh it’s good to be back!’ Hisashi couldn’t help himself.

Kleptomania was just in his nature as was reveling in the sheer despair of his victims. Did it make it better that these were child abusers? Probably but nah. The Demon King was back and he made damn sure to show that. Honestly these were such small fry that it really shouldn’t amuse him as much as it did. He was trying to kick this nasty habit of his... for Inko’s sake. And these weren’t even good Quirks. 

‘Ooh, I can eat whatever I want. I can already do that and I’m not such a glutton I need to go beyond regular food’.

‘Ooh a barrier Quirk. Got seven of those’

‘I can twist my shoulders in a weird angle. Yawn’.

‘Vitality Stealing... Actually that one’s not bad’ He glanced back at the mound of corpses to give his respects but he’d already forgotten the face of the one who’s Quirk this was. Oh well. Not like he would have been able to reciprocate anyway.

The roars outside may have seemed unnerving to the outside observer but he only needed to stall for time for Tooru to find the child and alert Kurogiri. Then Kurogiri should alert him and they’ll all be home safe... Although the roars were of aliens raather than deranged criminals. That’s not exactly good. Little upstarts like Overhaul who think they can be the next big shot in town are easy. Alien invasions are much less so. There’s rarely ever a leader everyone defers to on site. You’ll never accomplish total victory unless you’re willing to go to their home planet and personally show them what a mistake it was to invade this “backwater planet” that Hisashi and his family live on.

Hisashi was losing time. If Tooru was in danger he needed to immediately make sure she was ok. He wasn’t going to lose the last remnant of his two best spies (and friends) to some jackass like Overhaul.


Ok, there was a slight problem. Tooru had found the girl and by good luck the guards had been distracted by their friends being slaughtered over the radio. Now what? She couldn’t exactly contact Kurogiri. If she did, Midoriya Hisashi would have the girl and if he was who she thought he was, he would be back to full health with no one to stop him. But she also could tell from the scars and bruises on the girl’s arms that this wasn’t a safe place for her to be in even disregarding the monster haunting the corridors. So what could she do?

The girl was sitting down, clutching a stuffed toy with all her might. She looked suitably frightened surrounded by the screams of people she knew. The room was filled with boxes of guns and bullets and one that had stuffed toys. Hm. She eyed the guns thoughtfully, trying to see if they would provide any advantage that she could leverage in this situation. Against the monsters outside, the yakuza that were also armed with these guns and were far more numerous or the monster that was effortlessly slaughtering them? Surely not. Nevertheless she picked one up and it’s weight surprised her. She eyed the girl unsure what exactly to do to ensure she was safe from everyone. 

“Um?” A single innocuous sound snapped Tooru’s mind back to the room.

“Who- who are you?” The girl said.

“I’m the one who’s going to save you!” is what she said right as the left wall was blown apart.

Without thinking of any kind of plan, Tooru quickly picked up the girl and ran as fast as she could back the way she came. The gun lay forgotten on the ground as a big green monster roared at them. 


The roars of the Limax now echoed the empty, bloody halls. Apprehension filled All For One’s body. Even with all of his Quirks, the Limax were a dangerous species to encounter. In his prime, they would be nothing more than fodder but that estimation was against scouting troops. The demon king did not like his chances against a full invasion and he should know. In the century that consisted of his rule, All For One had helped fend off an invasion or two but those were against those miserable cretins, the Incursions.  Part of the reason he had joined the Plumbers was to scope out new civilizations to conquer. The Incursions had somehow blown up their own planet, hence their pathetic need to try and steal another. In the same league were the Vreedles. Space pirates that had taken full advantage of cloning devices but those devices were the only thing to their name. On the other end of the scale were three species he never hoped to encounter again.

The Highbreed were at the top of the pecking order with technology humans could only dream of. In addition, they made extensive use out of parasitic squids that turned anyone into a brainless puppet to be used and controlled. It was magnificent but he had almost fallen victim to the same treatment when he snuck aboard one of their ships to procure his own. Fortunately, their home planet was so far away the most advanced FTL drives were still nowhere close to what would be needed to reach Earth in a timely manner meaning that they relied on small groups of Highbreed being sent out with Xenocites and using the combined manpower to make portals to and from their planet.

The Ectonurites were close behind. Nasty little demons that possessed whatever they could in an attempt to save themselves from the sun’s rays. He’d... had a particularly nasty experience with one. He sometimes still saw that... monster in his dreams. The upside down skull with a single wicked eye. Razor sharp claws that slashed into his mind. A zebra-striped tail that strangled his squad members, hanging his fellow Plumbers from the ceiling. The worst part about it was they can multiply. No sooner had the Plumbers died and the monstrous beast converted them into Ectonurites. Even his many Quirks were of no help against the onslaught of... tentacles. The one solace he had against them was that they were weak against sunlight.

The Limax were cannibals. Well, not the right word but human eaters. They ate people and due to their ability to shapeshift into said people, you could never really know when one was lurking around the corner. Their strength, while not to the level of say All Might, was still quite formidable. Hisashi had made the mistake of using his Quirk on them, which only made them grow in strength and size. 

Of course the galaxy was an incredibly dangerous one. There were plenty of species that were dangerous to cross. Plenty that his array of Quirks may not be enough to handle if they ever chose to invade. But there was always some catch. Some species like Pyronites were far out of the way and had no desire to leave their homes inside the stars. Others like Chimera Sui Generi were only truly threatening when bolstered by a specific individual. If you take the individual away, the rest of the species is comparatively easy. Even Ectonurites had a crippling weakness to light.  And it is this combination of traits that make the Limax so dangerous. They regularly invade planets to find a new source for food. They had no proper authority to take advantage of. They just held the simple desire to eat things and as such they could not be reasoned with. And they seemed to have no proper weakness, at least none that he could tell in space.

Tooru’s scream broke through his thoughts and suddenly his pace ramped up. He didn’t know what he would do if he found her as the Limax’s newest snack.


“STONE CUTTER!!!”

The vibrations broke through the wall, giving her and the child a way out. She ran into the streets where more of those monstrosities were waiting for her. If it was just her, she could have believably escaped this mess with those freaks none the wiser. Unfortunately, she had a child to protect. Kurogiri’s signal weighed heavily in her pockets but that was a whole other can of worms. 

She picked up Eri and ran and ran as fast as she possibly could. 

Her senses were working overdrive just trying to keep pace with the chaos that had spread. Fortunately, that same chaos could be a shield for her and Eri. What better way to lose sight of someone than when the city is on fire? Buildings were falling apart as energy blasts riddled the city. Tooru ran through a swarm of what she could only describe as slimy blobs that gathered a density where one would have a torso but the limbs and the head were almost formless in a way. There was an overall shape to them but not one that they bothered maintaining. They loved ransacking this city, grabbing people with what she could only assume were tentacles. They demonstrated rough acrobatic agility, moving from one building to the next with little effort. At least the ones that were still human sized. Tooru could sense that there were much larger varieties, consuming the Pro Heroes that had tried to defeat them.

And as Tooru ran, she sensed more and more carnage and destruction, repeated through every street of every city block. She didn’t know how far she had taken Eri. It was becoming too much, too fast. Her senses, something that she had long considered a blessing that allowed her to act truly normal, were now working against her. Feeding her every horrible action these monsters pulled. Every scream, every loose bit of debris, every new fire that started. She couldn’t handle it. She couldn’t handle it.  Tooru wanted to. She wanted to be the hero she always aspired to be. Who was she kidding? She was just a girl with unrealistic dreams. Her Stone Cutter couldn’t even take down a group of high-schoolers much less these creatures. Ever since getting into U.A., she’d been a failure of a student. She never had what it took to be a hero. 


“Has Tooru called?” Hisashi said as the building shook and crumbled around him.

“No, sir. The device has not gone off once.

“Shit!” Enough time had passed that he was sure either he or Tooru would have found the child by now yet she had not signaled for either Kurogiri or himself. 

Hisashi thought about calling her again but the four missed calls were enough to deter him. No. She hasn’t been eaten by the Limax. She hasn’t! But that leaves another possibility. If she has found the child and is still alive in all this chaos, then that means she’s going behind his back. Or she had lost the device in all of the confusion. That was also possible.

Hisashi came to a hall with one wall practically completely destroyed. He’s searched all throughout the building for her. His best bet is outside. Once he made that step, he found it to be an even bigger hellhole than he envisioned. Pros were doing their damned hardest to try and stave off the alien threat. The city was somehow on fire, which only fueled the Limax’s strength. 

“Ah... this vitality. You’ll make a good meal indeed” Perturbed, Hisashi found that one had already grappled onto him. 

“I am no mere meal” If he still had eyes, he would have been wearing a look that could kill. Instead, he satisfied himself by blasting it apart with Air Shot. 

Another reason that he hated the Limax was that they were never alone. As that one started regenerating, he had already attracted the attention of several more. Pondering what Quirks to use, her found himself helped by an unlikely ally. The Limax were quickly skewered on rock spires generated from the ground.

“I didn’t expect you to be here All For One. I don’t suppose you being here lines up with ALL OF MY MEN MURDERED!” Overhaul yelled in an emotion that All For One couldn't quite place.

It was one that his brother's allies often shared and continued with All Might. Before he hadn't deigned to give it any thought but after all these centuries, he couldn't help feel that unfamiliar emotion bubble up again. He stuffed it down and kept his eyes on the prize. This plan had to be perfect. It was his only chance of getting his life back.

“I was wondering where you were, Kai. I assure you that these monsters are the cause for all this chaos. I’m here for one thing and one thing alone.” He said, careful to give away only as much as necessary. 

“That girl is mine to use and cont- ngh!” A Limax interrupted him and promptly found itself blasted away with Air Shot.

“I had it!” Kai said.

“Let’s continue this discussion AFTER we find the girl.”

“Fine.” He admitted gruffly. 


“Yes?” Oh good. That annoyed and tired tone meant that he wasn’t doing anything.

“Sir, I’m in trouble.” She received a tired sigh in response.

“What kind of trouble?”

“Um. Y’know how everything’s on fire and there’s a massive alien invasion happening...”

“Yes. Nezu tried to dispatch me but my Quirk is useless on these guys and they slipped out of my capture device. I’ve been relegated to evacuating citizens.”

“That’s good! Cause I’ve kinda got a child with me”

“Hagakure, I can’t just drop everything for the sake of one child!”

“Well, that’s the thing. It’s kinda sorta achildthatShieHassaikaiwaskeeping...”

“WHAT?!” Tooru flinched at the sudden outburst from her teacher. 

“OK. It’s fine. We will be having a serious discussion about this, later, but right now I’m not going to send you directions to a Pro Hero Agency. With all the chaos that’s going on, I don’t know if they’ll even be there right now but there’s someone there that will be very interested in what you’ve uncovered. Got it?”

“Got it, sir.”

“And Hagakure? Keep safe.”

“Will do, sir”.


“The Noumus have been released and are scouting for the girl, Sensei!” A young adult man with hands all over his face said eagerly to him.

“Who are y-”

“Good thinking releasing those beasts, Kai! Should buy us some time” All For One said.

“What are you on about? Those creatures are not mine!”

“Oh don’t be so humble. There’s only the two criminal masterminds and this is your territory, isn’t it? I must admit I dabbled in the art of biological experimentation once upon a time but I could never get them to work right. How did you get them to understand and carry out orders?”

Kai was befuddled but said nothing. The fact was that those creatures were doing a good job scouting for the girl and fighting against what remained of those slimy monsters. He had no doubt All For One could have easily brought these creatures with him. A teleportation Quirk shouldn’t be that hard to find but what was the point of crediting him for it? Just to screw with him?

One of the creatures screeched as it did loop de loops over a singular building. Kai took that to mean that the beast had found the girl and her kidnapper. The hand guy confirmed his thoughts while still calling him “Sensei” for some reason.

“Such a dutiful follower, Kai”.

“I’ve never met this guy in my life”

“Ha... how humble. Let’s go, shall we?”


After a harrowing call that involved Aizawa droning out directions for her because they both realized that she couldn’t read texts, Tooru found herself outside a five-story building surprisingly not as ravaged by the invasion as every other building. That was not to say it was a perfectly ordinary building but at least its walls were still intact. 

“Alright, we should be safe now, Eri” Tooru said in false reassurance. 

“OK”. Had Eri’s horn grown bigger since the excursion in the hideout? Maybe it was a response to this incredibly stressful situation. Actually, now that Tooru thought about it, why did “Uncle” want to save Eri in the first place. What made her so valuable that he needed to get out of that bed and deal with it himself?

“RRREEEEAAAGH!!!”

Before they could even walk across the street, a large white thing crashed in front of them. Tooru pre-emptively jumped back, shielding Eri from any harm not that she needed to. The creature didn’t make any additional movements. Instead it simply stared at the two girls while a flying creature screeched in the air for all to hear. Tooru tried to move around it but held its arms out as if warning her that it might not care about restraining her right now but it will if it needs to.

“Seriously? I suppose its better than the other creeps”.

One such creep burst out of the walls and roared at her. Tooru almost sighed in resignation before the white thing roared back and ripped it apart with its bare claws. When it tried to regenerate, the thing ate its parts.

“Definitely better than the other creeps”.


Kai was gradually warming up to these reptilian monsters. They were good troops in the absence of his actual troops. They were fast, powerful and expendable. They didn’t talk back and did exactly what he said. That went double for the hand man as well. Kai could get used to the eager, almost overbearing need to fulfill his orders. Perhaps it was a project the Boss had been working on before Overhaul put him to sleep.

They came to a more preserved part of the city. If he recalled, that was Nighteye’s agency at the corner of the street. In the past Kai would have been wary. However, with his newfound strength in numbers any threat Nighteye could have posed was insignificant. Underneath the flying beast was another and behind that one was his dear daughter. There was no one else in sight but that was to be expected. 

“The bird man’s back!” His daughter cried out. 

Overhaul lightly touched the ground and not long after, massive spikes rushed toward her. All For One predictably was even faster and blew apart the spikes with one of his many Quirks though Overhaul cared not which particular one he had used to do the job. 

“How dare you!” His former smarm nowhere to be seen. His words uncharacteristically frothing with rage without a hint of thought behind them. Overhaul didn’t know for certain what All For One had particularly taken offense at. Whether it was disrupting his plans with Eri or something else but he had a slight idea.

“So your spy is still here. I didn’t take you as one to get so outraged on the behalf of your underlings All For One.”

A shrill gasp came out of thin air. “What’s the matter? Didn’t know who your employer was? Hm. You surely have fallen if you need to keep such big secrets. I think it’s time the underworld had a change in leadership!”

More spikes came out of the ground aimed directly at All For One who destroyed them with ease.

“You seem to have misunderstood. I’ll do my best to educate you”.

All For One shot out a blast of air that was easily blocked by a hastily made concrete wall. In return Overhaul summoned dozens of spikes from the ground, if not to skewer his enemy than to trap him. Despite his age, the man evaded his attacks with a skilled grace or perhaps it was one of his many Quirks. Eventually, All For One positioned himself in a way that allowed him to blast apart the concrete into dust. 

Kai simply leveled a look to his new minions “Catch him!”

“Air Step” All For One ran upwards into the air where only the flying beast had any hope of fighting him. 

To its credit it did try to fight All For One but Overhaul quickly realized it was a futile effort. The beast was too slow to contend with the criminal mastermind. But an idea formed in his mind. Placing his hands on the ground, he raised a platform into the sky. He summoned the beast and fused its body into himself. 

‘All I need is one touch and he’s finished’ Flapping his wings, he charged at All For One.

“Shock Wave” An electric blast emanated from All For One and struck Kai out of the sky.

“Laser Whips” Red energy whips grabbed ahold of Kai’s mutated form before All For One swung him around the city.

“Spatial Rend” Suddenly Kai found himself face to face with the demon king. Close enough to touch even.

Kai rushed forward right as All For One activated another Quirk “Fire Breath” and found himself set alight.

As he tried to bear the pain, he heard All For One speak to him for the first time since this fight began.

“This was a simple recovery mission. It was nothing personal. I’m sure you know just how valuable that Quirk is to me. But then you had to attack my dear friend’s daughter. I was content to let you flap around in the dark but now. Now I’m going to personally show you the power of the demon king”

“Air Cannon” Another blast of air propelled Kai into the ground.


“Go go Mask man!” Eri’s delighted cheers were a ray of hope on this incredibly dark day. 

“Tooru” 

“Agh! Kurogiri? What are you doing here?”

“I am here to retrieve you.” The teleporter said matter of factly. 

“Eri, get behind me.” Though he could not see her, he could tell that she took an anxious step backwards, moving Eri with her. 

Tooru scoffs when she sees Kurogiri’s golden eyes flicker with confusion. 

“I don’t want to go anywhere near you.” She says, trying to keep her voice level.

“May I ask why?”

“Well let’s see the number of ways you and Uncle have screwed me over; 1) You threatened to decapitate my last link to my parents, 2) You made me act as a spy jeopardizing my future, 3) You got me involved in whatever the hell this whole operation is!”

“I’ll have you know that we had no idea there was going to be an alien invasion today”

“It doesn’t matter! We broke into a yakuza stronghold and kidnapped a child!! When things were looking up, you dragged me into villainy kicking and screaming! I’m on the principal’s watchlist because of you. Izuku’s the exact same!” 

“It was for the greater good...” Despite having the absolute ability to teleport her and Eri away without their consent, Kurogiri tried to reason with the invisible girl.

“The greater good, huh? You endangered a class full of teenagers”

“With the proper safety measures in play to ensure none of them came to harm!”

“Then why didn’t you tell Nezu or Aizawa or anyone at U.A? Why did you even force Izuku and I into the roles of villainous spies? If you could convince the police about this attack, you should have been capable of convincing the teachers at U.A as well!!!”

“There were-”

“Because of Tennyson! It was a fluke of luck that the trip went as well as it did”.

Kurogiri said nothing in response, any words that could have made one faded away in the face of the stone-faced spy.

“He’s All For One, isn’t he?”

The first thought that entered Kurogiri’s mind was to instantly rebuke her... but that wouldn’t really fix the issue, would it? Kurogiri realized that all of these plans had simply lead to all of Hagakure’s doubt, insecurities and hatred pooling within her. The fact was that it did not matter if Midoriya Hisashi was All For One or not. He was a villain and more importantly a man that had severely betrayed her trust. At least from her perspective. Ergo, what she needed was not a blatant lie to try and tide her over but something resembling the truth.

“Tooru. I will not lie. Your “uncle” is not a good man.”

“Yeah, I figured”

“He is impulsive, reckless, never thinks his plans through, a complete misanthrope with almost no regard for human life. A genuine fool blinded by his immature preconceptions of hero society on top of refusing to even consider opening his mind to the slightest counterargument to his frankly outdated beliefs. A very selfish individual that does nothing but take and take and take.”

“Get to the point!”

“He is also someone that truly genuinely cares about those around him.” Hagakure scoffed.

“It was reckless to get you involved in this scheme but I think that doddering fool was simply trying to replace what he lost.”

“Oh yeah, I feel so bad that his body got mangled by someone who was probably trying to stop his criminal activity”

“I’m referring to your parents.” Tooru’s breath hitched. 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Kurogiri!”

"This may be difficult to believe but your father had a genuinely close relationship to your parents. Closer than it probably should have been for people so involved in the criminal underworld. As difficult as it is, even you must realize just what sort of relationship your parents must have had for the man who has spent so much time caring for you"

Before Tooru could respond, the subject of their conversation crashed into the building

“Tooru? Kurogiri, what are you two still doing here?! It’s too dangerous for her to be here!!”

Tooru felt the ground beneath her shift and without a moment’s hesitation, she inflicted a Stone Cutter to prevent a torrent of concrete and rubble from attacking her. The army of Noumus commanded by Chisaki Kai on the other hand were unaffected. 

“Hardflame Fan” 

Two simple words were spoken before a wall of flames separated Kai’s army and All For One. No matter. Kai activated his Quirk and shot out a concrete arm to punch straight through the flames. He grinned when he heard a satisfying cracking sound. 


"Kurogiri!” All For One cried out as the teleporter was slammed into a wall.

“This charade has been fun but it’s time for Eri to come back home.” Kai’s words made Eri flinch in fear and she gripped All For One’s clothes desperate for someone to protect her. Her horn had now grown even further, a faint glow surrounded it. 

“Please don’t let him take me back, mask man! I don’t wanna go!”

“Everything will be alright. I won’t let him lay another finger on you but you’re going to have to hold me tight”

“OK!” Her face was one of total adoration. The type of adoration that so-called heroes usually basked in. Getting such an emotion directed to him... he wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

He used Air Step to move away from Tooru. It would do no good for her to get in the crossfire of Overhaul’s attacks or Eri’s Quirk. He activated Eri’s Quirk for her and immediately felt the effects. He could feel himself getting worse. Naturally, Eri’s Quirk rewound his personal clock, undoing any recovery he may have had. As he was right now, he couldn’t protect anyone. Not Tooru, not Kurogiri and especially not the little girl grasping onto him as if her life depended on it. So it’s time for a good old fashioned monologue.

“I’m impressed, Kai. You’ve certainly put up a far greater fight than your underlings and your master’s dogs have certainly been most useful in this current conundrum.” He eyed his Noumu that were still fighting off the Limax that dared to try and get in between the two criminal masterminds.

“I’m even more impressed by your willpower. I can’t take your Quirk by force even if I wanted to... and believe me I’ve tried it five separate times in this “fight” of ours.”

“What are you blathering about All For One? Sniff that girl out and tear her limb from limb! We may not be able to see her but I wonder if that accounts for her remains.” No! Not yet! Kai was supposed to stay focused entirely on him. But Eri had only rewound a few years off his life. 

“Don’t worry! We’ll get to the main course soon enough but first I want to show you how it feels to have your loved ones ripped from you right in front of your eyes!”

Hisashi activated Air Shot and blew the Noumu away from Tooru. Hopefully she had done the smart thing and run away. In his current state the recoil devastated his arm but fortunately, Eri was there to repair it. Actually that gave him an idea. His physical body was sorely lacking right now but thanks to Eri he could use his Quirks with no worry about the consequences. 

He held out a hand and his hand erupted into an explosion of flesh and bone. Bone fragments pierced the army of Noumu and within seconds his arm had already regenerated. Good as new. He let out a massive blast of fire breath and Eri had already healed his lungs that had ripped apart from the immense heat and pressure. One of his newer Quirks was Acid Breath, which was exactly as disgusting as it sounded. Hisashi simply opened his mouth and fired a breath of corrosive acid that dissolved anything in its vicinity including the army of Noumus before him. The only drawback to this Quirk was that the man who Hisashi took it from had a body that had adapted with the Quirk and could use it without disintegrating his own jaws. Overhaul could only look on in disbelief as his minions were reduced to nothing by a sickly, ailing old man. Although Eri’s Quirk was getting faster, he would have to finish this quickly.

“The fact is I’m just of a different caliber to you.”

“No! No! I won’t lose here!” Overhaul said before fusing with the remnants of his army.

All For One was greeted by a massive monstrosity with leather like skin, it’s body littered with eyes, beaks and hands. Lots of hands. The beast readied a punch with its now building sized hands. Perhaps it was time to take a page from All Might’s book. All For One readied his enhancement Quirks. Every single one of them. Be they for offense, defense or speed, legs or arms, if it enhanced his physical condition they were being used.

“You ready, Eri?” Hisashi received an affirmative grunt as she nuzzled behind him.

“Good girl.”

Hisashi parried the monster’s punch with his own. His Quirk alerted him to Overhaul or Decay being activated. He wasn’t sure which one but it didn't matter. Overhaul had left himself wide open. Hisashi flowed all of his enhancements into his right arm and uppercutted the creature into the stratosphere. The city seemed to shriek at the punch. The force from the punch generated storm clouds, which rained all over the city but All For One couldn’t let himself be distracted. Refusing to give the creature even a moment to catch his breath, Hisashi gave chase.

He flew right up to the creature and allowed his Quirk to do its work. Black and red tendrils ravaged the beast. Ripping through every inch of the creature and refusing to give it a chance to fight back. Soon enough it was just him and Overhaul. And Eri and Tomura.

Despite the situation, Overhaul refused to give up. His Quirk allowed him to manipulate matter at will. And even though Hisashi could not see it, air did count as matter. Hisashi felt like he was being skewered by little daggers. 

“Just give up!” He released an Air Shot but Overhaul used the force to slingshot back up using whatever air barriers he was making. 

All For One shot out a skewer of bone directly into Overhaul’s head but such an action only served to make Overhaul more enraged. All For One was sent careening out of the sky and rain by another attack. At this rate all four of them were going to die. Just why was Overhaul so damned determined to kill all four of them?!

“Hari, Joi, Boss, I will avenge you! No matter what it takes!”

Oh. 

Augh. What is this feeling? It’s such an infuriating one that he can’t put the name to it. It’s like the time he realized he would never see his wife and son again. Of course, then he had managed to swallow it underneath an undying rage for All Might ripping their happy family apart.  The same could be said for when he found out that her parents had been killed on a mission he sent them on.  Or when he discovered his own brother running away from him. Selfish heroes just trying to get in the way of his happy memories. But he found himself feeling it again when he found himself listening to Tooru desperately scared for her own life... and his. He tried to rationalize it as training her for what her parents did. It would be what she was best at, wouldn’t it? Even if she didn’t work for him and insisted on being a hero; her abilities suited her for espionage... but her personality didn’t. And unlike all other instances, there was no one to blame but himself. It was his plan and his insistence that put her in this position.

It’s such a terrible feeling. What is its name? 

Hisashi looked at his foe. He hadn’t really taken a good look at the man. Not like this. Amidst the onslaught of attacks that were repeatedly healed by Eri, desperate tears leaked out of the man known as Chisaki Kai. He refused to stop. He refused to give up. He couldn’t. He needed to exact vengeance for his fallen comrades. Comrades that All For One could have left alone. Even simply stealing their Quirks would have been enough. But no. He’d gone the extra mile and slaughtered them all. 

They were awful, awful people. But All For One was no better in that regard. How many people had he hurt in his centuries of existence? How many had he hurt this year just in an attempt to get his life back? How many more would he continue to hurt without a care in the world. Undoubtedly, his secret was out. Even if he won here. Even if he managed to get back to Inko safely. How much longer would the peace be maintained before another one of his enemies came to seek revenge? He thought about Overhaul attacking Tooru and realized that Overhaul wouldn't be the only one. His faamily would constantly be under threat of any amount of enemies he had acquired over the years. And that's not even getting into the heroes. Inko, Izuku, Tooru... All of their reputations, all of their futures would be destroyed simply for being associsated with him. The ground was quickly approaching.

“Well, my dear. It’s been fun. From what it seems, this Quirk of yours has given you nothing but trouble. I could take it from you, allow you to live a normal life. What do you say?”

“Um... A normal life? What is that?”

“It means no one would hurt you or force you to do anything you didn’t want to. You would be free to do what you wanted”

“Really?!”

“Really!” Eri excitedly nodded her head.

All For One took the Quirk as his own and gifted her a new one. He knew from experience Quirkless children weren’t treated well. It was a relatively benign Quirk. Not one that he would have used anyway. It would allow her to summon a small barrier for a short time. It could be fun for her to use and he’s sure she would be able to develop it further.

“Tomura, listen to me. When you get back, you are going to give the police everything I have. You are going to tell them I brainwashed you. Placed you under one of my many Quirks. You were not acting of your own volition. This is for your good. Hopefully, they’ll leave you alone to live your own life.”

“Sensei? What are you talking about?”

“Goodbye. I-I’m proud of you”

“W-what are you doing?!”

Hisashi slowed them down, leaving them safely on the ground. He took Tomura’s Quirk. It would be safer for everyone that way and bestowed healing hands. Hopefully, Tomura would find a new purpose in life than the one that was imposed on him. Hisashi slingshotted back into the air with Overhaul.

“SENSEIIII!!!”

It may have been selfish but All For One blasted Overhaul away with another Air Shot. He needed just a bit more time. He readied his phone ignoring the sharp pains that continued to penetrate his torso.

“What are you doing?” Tooru said.

“Apologizing. For... all of this really. I... know it might be hard to believe but I truly did want the best for you. Your parents were the best people I had ever known. I loved them and I thought... it doesn’t matter what I thought does it? I’m sorry Tooru. Truly.”

“Uncl-” He hung up the phone.

He didn’t have much time. He needed to tell Inko about how much she meant to him. He needed to tell Izuku about how much he meant to him. But some things are not meant to be. Overhaul destroyed the phone with another attack.

“I won’t let you call anymore reinforcements! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! I have to!” Overhaul yelled.

“Yes. You do” Hisashi said somberly.

Both men grabbed each other, their Quirks flaring up and making quick work of their bodies. Decay and Overhaul were quite possibly the best Quirks for destruction and it showed. Their bodies disintegrated in a matter of seconds. In Hisashi’s last moments, he saw his wife, his son, his two best friends and their daughter. Were they judging him for his horrid life or maybe it was some other emotion he was seeing? 

What an awful feeling.


The first thing Ben noticed after their teleportation was an immense surge of heat. The second was that they were in Los Soledad, an area that had been at the center of several important conflicts. The third was the vast array of spaceships flying directly overhead, having come through the Jump Gate that the Highbreed had constructed. His thoughts briefly turned to the Highbreed’s galactic war on everything else. The sweltering heat aside, Ben felt an uncanny similarity between the two scenarios. Perhaps that was why he felt a sudden urgency to stop this now. 

“WAY BIG!!!” Having learnt his lesson from last time, he did not try to pull it out of the ground. Instead opted to fire a cosmic ray at the Jump Gate. It survived for mere moments before it pulsated and exploded. 

“The fuck are we even doing here?!” Bakugou said as Ben transformed back.

Ben ignored him, eyeing a massive tower that Albedo was most likely inside. He wasn’t sure he could fend off those monsters, Albedo and possibly Verdona and Gwen one after the other. Something about how Gwen was behaving rubbed him the wrong way and he really hoped Kevin and Rook got here in time.

“That won’t be necessary. Your roles in this story are simply to serve as backup for us” Before any of them could respond Gwen and Verdona disappeared in a flash of light.

“Great. Splitting up. Just what we needed” Ben turned into XLR8 and rushed toward the tower, grabbing his little posse with him.

“What are we supposed to do now?” The Limax general screeched at him.

“I explicitly warned you that the gate may malfunction. Just be glad we at least managed to start the invasion and take over the planet with the forces you already have. Moreover there is a more pressing issue that needs our attention” Albedo said.

How had Tennyson managed to track them down so quickly? Of course Albedo expected him to show up eventually but this was far too soon. It was almost as if he knew an invasion was going to happen. Ugh. It was probably those buffoons not being able to hold their appetites and giving them away too quickly. Still, how had he known that Los Soledad was the origin point of the invasion? In the end, it didn’t matter. What did matter was that he now had his chance to finish Tennyson off.

Before he could act on that opportunity, he was teleported into the middle of a volcano. He transformed into a Necrofriggian to deftly evade his boiling demise but was then struck by a bolt of lightning causing him to hurdle towards the crater of the volcano. He effortlessly phased through the volcano wall and tried to see what was attacking him. Surely this could not be Tennyson’s doing. He had just entered Los Soledad before Albedo was warped out of the desolate town. But then if not him, who?

“Albedo!!! You’re going to pay for what you did to Max!” Ah... another Anodite. Great.

He was blasted in the back before he could even formulate his next move. Oh, two Anodites. How annoying. Although upon further inspection, this was one he had met before. Gwen had probably called a friend to help her get revenge on her grandfather’s murder. He phased through her attacks and unleashed his freezing breath upon her, encasing her in a block of ice.

“I’m disappointed, Gwen. I gave you and your buddies a chance to live but you still choose to squander it on petty revenge.”

The only response he received was another lightning bolt. Gwen burst forth from the icy prison and said nothing. Albedo put his Galvan brain into overdrive as he was met with a barrage of mana blasts. Two Anodites. Energy beings. Physical attacks won’t work on them. Magic gives them a veritably infinite arsenal of things to throw at him. Still, they’re basic physiology is energy. Perhaps that might work. Albedo turned into a Crystalsapien and absorbed the combined onslaught of attacks before firing it back at them. His singular eye narrowed when they were struck out of the sky. It wouldn’t be that easy. Not when they had made their intent to kill fully known.

The mouth of the volcano roared; the molten lava beneath him bubbled and erupted revealing a massive dragon. No doubt one of the Anodites summoned him. Albedo turned into a Kineceleran and ran away while the dragon gave chase. With a single roar, the volcano erupted turning the battlefield into one of molten rock. Albedo tried to outrun it but the dragon somehow managed to keep up with him even as he entered time dilation. He considered going Ultimate but this was no doubt the work of a magical enchantment. If the enchantment was designed to be “faster than Albedo”, it would be a moot point. 

Fine. If running away was not an option, he would waste his time in a direct confrontation. Albedo ran back and jumped on the dragon. A razor sharp mind identified the dragon’s weak points while razor sharp claws slashed at the bits where the dragon’s hide was just a little too thin to fully defend itself from a slashing of the throat.  Before Albedo could even catch his breath, the dragon was promptly skewered by pillars of vegetation. Albedo nimbly was able to avoid the attack and kept on running. The next attack was an army of undead. But with none of the speed enchantments the dragon had, Albedo simply ran past them.

“How pitiful. You must simply be running out of ideas if this is the best you can muster” Albedo said.

Approximately one second later, he was crushed by the immense force of a gravity well. And the zombies clearly took notice, running after him to try and feast off his flesh. Not that a Kineceleran would make a particularly good meal in the first place with them essentially being skin and bones but he didn’t think they cared. 

The natural choice was to shift into a Galilean. Remove the effects of the gravity well and crush the army of undead cannibals in one fell swoop. That’s right. It was the natural choice to make which means it was also an incredibly predictable choice for his assailants to capitalize on. In his tunnel vision, Albedo had failed to notice that they had returned and had used their combined power to generate a massive blast of mana heading straight for his core. Upon impact Albedo turned into red goop.

‘That was a close one’ Albedo thought as he pulled himself together, having shifted into a Polymorph milliseconds before.

He didn’t get time to celebrate. Another gravity well hit him and the two Anodites were preparing to finish him off. If he turned into a Galilean he could reverse the gravity well but after that he’d get hit by the attack. Most other forms were useless against this gravity well and the few that could resist its effects would be annihilated without a chance to do anything else. He could go Ultimate but he had no idea if the form could break through the gravity well or survive the attack, regardless. It could be completely pointless. Looking up at the two Anodites, an idea started flowing through his head.

He shifted into a Prypiatosian-B. An energy being to counter an energy being. The Omnitrix usually added failsafes in case an alien form was too dangerous to make it more suitable for walking amongst other species. And from what Albedo had heard, the DNA donor was a man so dangerous his own people had crafted the cumbersome suit to limit his actions. However, Albedo had made certain improvements. Given that the shapeshifting ability was now innate to himself, he could take away these pesky features if he so chose. And that’s what he did. The suit may have been able to withstand the blast but it was also subject to gravity whereas this form was not.  The blast had already been fired and within the moment of his transformation, Albedo consumed it all. Feasting on their energy, he grew in size before firing a blast of pure radiation at them. Predictably, it was nothing more than a minor inconvenience but that was simply to trim the fat away. In their moment of distraction, he resumed his course and flew away.

Gwen Tennyson had proved to be a far bigger nuisance than he had planned when they fought on the Plumber station. She had shown him just how dangerous Anodites could be. How difficult they could be to fight when they had virtually everything at their disposal. So naturally, Albedo had prepared for the worst and had tracked down a certain piece of equipment from a certain cretin that had made it his priority to harvest from the Plumber’s equipment. Said cretin was a ruthless conman who Albedo could not intimidate into giving him the location of this equipment so Albedo’s savings had taken a bit of a hit. But it would all be worth it if it paid off right now.

The closer he got back to his base in Los Soledad, the more Albedo was convinced that the Prypiatosian-Bs must have evolved after getting into conflict with the Anodites. He phased through any physical attacks and deftly evaded any magical ones. Most of their spells were similarly ineffective. He needed to get to his base as soon as possible so it was important he didn’t accidentally feed on any energy. The sky was riddled with explosions as a result of their battle. 

“Ah, I’ve got it” The talkative Anodite said. Gwen still hadn’t uttered a single word and it was starting to get unnerving.

His flight path was blocked by a massive metal wall. Albedo scoffed before slamming headfirst into the wall. The wall was undoubtedly made out of the same material as the containment suit. Undeterred, Albedo simply turned into an Ectonurite and phased through it. He made himself invisible too to give him a bit of breathing room. He was so close.

“My grandson already tried this. I can sense your mana”

‘Good’ Albedo got to the storage area near the back of the weather tower and found the device. His plan relied on this device and relied on his assailants giving him a single window of opportunity. He assumed his evolved Galvan form and kept the device right out of eyesight, hoping their bloodlust was enough to hyper focus on him and him alone. 

A barrier was summoned outside the entire deserted town.

“No more running. You will pay for killing Max. He was my lover, Gwen’s grandfather. You will find that I don’t take my family’s enemies lightly!” Oh, so that’s who this annoying Anodite was. Tennyson’s grandmother. That information won’t be useful but it’s nice to have it anyway. He’d been racking his brain trying to figure out who she was.

“Would you like to hear how Max died? He did not go gracefully much as he tried to. No. In the end he died an easily avoidable death and lost his life as a stubborn, short-sighted old fool. The best part of it all though is that he set his own death up. Sure, there was refusing to give me the freedom I desired. Some might respect the conviction to follow your heart and do what is right regardless of the risks involved. Of course, you’ve already heard my piece but to each his own. But even before that, if Tennyson had just been around I would have likely lost. He’s beaten me enough times that I’m not “arch enemy” material to him.” His words took on a hint of offense but he was not finished.

“But that begs the question? Why was Tennyson not there to deal with me, leaving those incompetent buffoons with the task. Well, as far as I hear it; that buffoon had the audacity to treat his most competent employee and grandson as garbage. He’s similar to Azmuth in that regard. Despite the clear value Tennyson has to his organization, the man alienated his own grandson who decided to deal with something of a personal matter and well, look where it got him”

He activated his forcefield to prevent debris from crushing his now frail body and fired off an energy beam at the two Anodites. 

“Gwen be a dear and beat him within an inch of his life. I want him to truly suffer” In response to the command, Gwen fired a blast of her own. The desolate street exploded as red and purple beams clashed with each other. Neither alien giving an inch.

“Oh, I see what’s happening here. You’ve taken her free will, haven’t you? Perhaps I haven’t been giving those fools enough credit. At least they never resorted to turning their allies into a mindless puppet whose only purpose is to serve your every whim. I thought this was righteous vengeance being enacted at taking a loved one... but I see now it’s simply a tantrum being thrown because I broke one of your precious toys!” In a moment of anger, Albedo’s blast overtook Gwen’s, threatening to overwhelm her completely.

“Shut up! You wouldn’t know anything about loved ones, you monster” Verdona added her own energy into the beam struggle and quickly overwhelmed Albedo.

With a smirk, he didn’t bother continuing to fight against the beam. Instead, he telekinetically moved Vox Peniculus in front of the attack and let it do its work. Both Anodites were helpless at its pull. Gwen was the first to disappear into the machine.

“What have you done?” The pesky Anodite asked.

“Vox Peniculus. A delightful machine designed to siphon energy from well anything you can name really. Enemies, civilisations, stars, you get the gist.”

“But Anodites are nothing but energy.” 

“And that’s the beauty of it. It’s the one weakness you Anodites truly have, isn’t it? By the way nice job getting your granddaughter killed” Albedo said.

“What? Gwen?” The Anodite said in a small voice as she caught the last few seconds of her granddaughter being pulled into the machine. 

She screamed a string of nos, letting out a string of spells and curses but the Vox Peniculus took it all and soon enough the Anodite shared her granddaughter’s fate.

Notes:

This chapter was very different in the first draft. Verdona did still have a part to play. After killing Max off in the same season she showed up and fought Ben, I figured she had to. It was more or less, Ben figuring out what Albedo figured out in the end and fighting her to try and free Gwen. I changed it for several reasons. Chief among them being that she already fought Ben at the start of the season and I felt it would be too repetitive. Her bloodlusted against the man who killed her lover felt more natural for the story and I hope kept the general fight interesting enough. It also adds another level of danger to Albedo even if he did rip off one of Vilgax's schemes to secure the win.

All For One's fate has also gone through multiple changes. Initially, when I first wrote this story and far more ambitious than I currently am; he was meant to take on a dual role with Vilgax as one of the final bosses of the story. It would have been an excellent source of drama if I had actually gotten around to it... That didn't happen. When I picked the story up again in 2021, I considered essentially giving him everything he wanted. All of his plans come to fruition, he gets Eri, deages himself and lives a happy family life with Inko, Izuku and Tooru (and maybe Eri and Tomura too). Ultimately, I don't think the story is well-written enough for such a decision to come across as anything other than a lucky, evil idiot getting his way. So this was my way of tying up that loose end.

Chapter 30: The End Part 3

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Tooru couldn’t believe her eyes. Uncle Hisashi- no All For One and Overhaul disposed of themselves. A single touch from each other was enough to reduce them to dust. The rain created from Uncle’s attack even had the bonus effect of melting the alien invaders. A position that made them much easier to fight against. The city’s inhabitants cheered at this new turn of events and why wouldn’t they? This was the best possible outcome. Every dangerous villain in the city was vanquished. So then why did she feel like curling up into a ball and crying? 

Her body had not come out of this ordeal unscathed. Uncle- All For One had tried to protect her as best as he could but the sheer scale of this incident ensured she was bruised and cut nonetheless. She really just wanted to lie down and rest but Nighteye’s agency was right there. Tooru steeled herself and prepared to enter the building. With Kurogiri still out for the count, it should be no problem telling them what happened. She took a step forward before she was interrupted yet again.

“Oh no you don’t!” Shigaraki tackled her down to the ground. How he had managed to find her from that one step was a mystery to her but it didn’t matter now. 

“What did you do to Sensei?!” 

“I didn’t do anything you psychopath!”

“You had to. There’s no way he would have lost like that unless he deliberately threw the fight! You did something to make him do that, didn’t you?!” Tooru tried her best to get out of his grip. She knew just how dangerous his Quirk could be if he was allowed to touch her.

“If you haven’t noticed, moron, my Quirk is Invisibility! How would I be able to make him do anything he didn’t want to do?!”

“SHUT UP!!!” 

And with that all five fingers of his made contact with her face. Tooru braced herself. She thought of her parents and Uncle Hisashi and Auntie Inko and Izuku and... she felt astoundingly refreshed. Her wounds started healing and all the energy that had been lost throughout this day just trying to stay alive was restored. 

“Come on! It doesn’t normally take this long!” Shigaraki said.

Tooru placed a hand on his chest and let the Revonnah Kai flow through her. Shigaraki bounced off her and into the air. With Shigaraki being properly defeated, Tooru ran through the events of the day in her mind. As All For One fought Overhaul, there was a brief period where he touched the ground to let Shigaraki and Eri back onto the ground safely. Certainly, at that point he could have stolen Shigaraki’s Quirk but why? As Shigaraki pointed out, there would have been easier ways to kill Overhaul without resorting to a risky tactic like using Shigaraki’s Quirk against him. And why would he replace Shigaraki’s Quirk with a healing one? What was even the point of this whole endeavor if he was just going to die at the end of it? Why allow Overhaul to use his army of Noumus? 

In the end, Tooru doubted she would ever get the answers to those questions. Shigaraki certainly wasn’t in on it and she doubted Kurogiri would be either. If she had to guess, the finale to this whole event was done in the heat of the moment rather than the plan that All For One had concocted. Her eyes fell on Shigaraki again who was having a similar crisis with his cries of “Sensei, why?”. For her part, Eri was trying to do her best to cheer him up. 

“Cheer up, hand man. He helped us. He was a hero!” 

Both Tooru and Shigaraki scoffed at that, an action that caught them both by surprise. Yet it seemed they agreed on one thing: that man was the furthest thing from a hero. Regardless of what his last action was. The more she looked at Shigaraki though, crying his eyes out, always eager to do whatever he said, the more she saw a pitiful kid taken in by a kindly monster. A monster that perhaps succeeded to be there for them where everyone else had failed. 

“Come on. We need to go tell a Hero what happened”

“Are you crazy?! I’d rather die than put my life in the hands of those so-called heroes. Sensei brought me in for this crusade against this broken society and I’ll continuing fighting til the day I die”

“Oh yeah. That will work real good with that new healing Quirk he gave you. Come on! Play your cards right and you might be able to convince them you were just another of his victims” Shigaraki said nothing in response.

“Come on Eri. We need to get your sorted out too... Hey, where’s your horn?”

Eri touched her forehead and felt nothing where her horn would normally be. She smiled. 

“The mask man took it from me. He said I could live a normal life if he took it.”

Tooru doubted those words but she did think that Eri’s Quirk was at the center of all this. Why she was such a valuable asset to Overhaul. Why they had infiltrated Overhaul’s base to retrieve her. Perhaps it was better for Eri if she didn’t have it. In the end, he did end up with the Quirk but it didn’t save him. Guess that was just another question that All For One would take to his grave. She looked back at Shigaraki, still frozen in place and probably asking himself the same questions.

“Hey, Shigaraki you coming? If you don’t I guarantee the Heroes will be searching for you” Tooru said.

“Whatever. Hey. I just want you to know something”

“What?”

“You’re really similar to him, y’know?”

...

“WHAT?! What the hell do you mean by that?”

“Sheesh. It was just something I noticed. Learn how to take a compliment”

“How was that a compliment?!”

“He was the greatest man I ever knew!”

“He was a mass murderer and a psychopath!”

As the two bickered, Eri giggled. All three of them stepped forward into their uncertain futures.


Ben was vexed with this whole situation. They finally manage to find Albedo and of course, Grandma runs off with Gwen. Even if she had been holding back in their fight, Ben couldn’t help but be worried. Albedo had a fully functional Ultimatrix. What would happen if he used an Ultimate Ghostfreak or an Ultimate Chromastone or Ultimate Terraspin. All three of those forms had a specific edge against the type of fighter that Verdona and Gwen are. Evolving them even further could be disastrous for them. And yet as much as Ben wanted to just turn into Big Chill and phase up the top of the tower, he couldn’t.

“The fuck is going on Tennyson?!” Bakugou said.

“It’s a long story.” Ben wasn’t sure how those three managed to get here. Were they dragged in by whatever teleportation spell Verdona used.

“Then how bout you start telling us about those fucking monsters!” That would be for the best. The sight of the few spaceships that got into Earth was still overhead. Hopefully, the planet’s heroes would be able to handle it. He cut off the invasion almost as it began but he can’t waste any more of the Omnitrix’s energy until after Albedo has been defeated and maybe even Verdona. 

“I’m not sure what they are but they seem to hold a bit of a grudge against me. Of course, the list of people that I’ve stopped and want me dead isn’t exactly a short one. You guys got attacked by them. Anything to note?”

“They’re incredibly resilient. I tried using One For All on one and it had no effect. Even if you manage to damage it, they can just pull themselves back together again. They can also shapeshift any part of their body into weapons and they have a distinct preference for eating humans. It clearly had the intent to-” Midoriya mumbled.

“They eat fire.” Hatsume said.

“What?”

“The crazy bitch isn’t wrong. I tried using my Quirk on them but it only made them grow in size. The fuckers eat fire”

“If they can absorb heat, maybe the opposite is their weakness” Midoriya said.

As he said that, the group came to a thin hallway filled with these aliens. Slimy, green, eat fire. Argh... it’s on the tip of his tongue. Ben knows he’s fought these guys before but he can’t remember when. Whatever, if Midoriya is right then this should be a breeze. He activated the Omnitrix and looked for the transformation he needed. He really needed to stop using his disorganized playlist with every transformation in it. It just takes way too long to find anything these days. That or get Azmuth to give him Master Control.

“Tennyson!!!” Bakugou said amongst the roars that were getting much too close for his liking. 

Finally he found it. His skin took on a more scaly texture, his teeth elongated into razor sharp fangs, his spinal column sprouted fins as his posture became more quad-pedal. 

“Articguana!!!” A single breath was enough to freeze the hallway and all the inhabitants within it. He transformed back into himself.

“I can’t keep doing that. I need to save as much of the Omnitrix’s power for Albedo. Hatsume, you got any freezing gadgets that you can share with us? Maybe water as well if you have it”

“Already on it!” Hatsume said as she activated her little eyeball. The roars of the Null Void beasts were not something Ben would ever get used to and the fact that Hatsume seemed to have set up a base in one of their nests was both admirable and concerning.

“Who’s Albedo?” Midoriya asked.

“Yeah, must be real powerful if you’re worried about him” Before this whole ordeal, Ben would have laughed at that notion. 

“To make a long story short, he’s an Omnitrix bearer like myself except he can also evolve his Omnitrix forms and I’m pretty sure he’s made the shapeshifting aspect innate to him; only keeping his Omnitrix around because it stabilizes him” 

“No shit you’re worried about him! He must be your most powerful villain ever” Bakugou said, almost amused at the notion of him having a genuine threat.

And when Ben put it like that, it did sound like Albedo was arch-enemy material. Yet he never felt like that. Albedo never seemed to care about him. He just wanted to get his original body back and eventually he became such a clown, he started doing himself in without Ben even needing to intervene. There was a period of his life where Albedo was such a joke of a villain that Ben barely needed to intervene. And once Albedo’s motivations changed. Once he got everything he wanted and shifted focus to murdering Ben like the rest of his rogues gallery, he was still a bit of a joke. His Ultimate forms didn’t hit as hard as they used to. His regular forms were able to counter them blow for blow when previously Albedo had been able to completely and utterly thrash him. Perhaps it was a side-effect of becoming a shapeshifter instead of letting the Omnitrix do it? When Albedo did get the upperhand, Argit managed to defeat him. Argit . His Ultimate Galvan brain was easily out-manevuered by Ben’s base form and all he had to say for himself is “Oh well, it’s actually a victory for me because now I can kill your friends and family coming to find you”. Come on, man. And that’s not even getting into the fact that Atomix just destroyed him.

Albedo was a joke... until he wasn’t. Something recent had set him off and he’d murdered Grandpa Max out of revenge. There were any number of ways he could have gotten off that station without coming into contact with anyone. Ghostfreak and Big Chill could phase through the station. Nanomech was small enough that he could evade the notice of everyone until it was too late. Pesky Dust could put everyone to sleep and then retrieve the information necessary to activate the teleporter. But no. Albedo had deliberately chosen the most violent option first. Beating his friends and killing his grandfather and Ben was going to make him pay.

“Alright that should be everything!” Hatsume cheerfully said.

“First up we have baby 101: the freeze ray 8001”

“And one?” Midoriya said.

“Freeze ray 8000 was trademarked. Anyway this baby is pretty self-explanatory. Click the trigger and a nasty blast of ice meets any opponent in your way! There’s a variety of styles based on Big Chill’s manner of attacks from nice gentle breezes to extreme blasts nearing absolute zero, the Freeze Ray 8001 is the perfect all purpose freezing device. Next we have baby 25; Midoriya I’m sure you’re familiar with this one. It’s the Super Soaker Extreme. This little thing can shoot water in a variety of modes; a bubbly foam for safer capture, rapid fire sprays for multiple enemies or if you’re feeling particularly dangerous a high-pressure blast capable of punching holes through steel beams and human corpses. Next, we have babies 96 or as I call them “absolute zero grenades”. Truthfully this was a commission by Principal Nezu himself. The Principal of the top Hero School in the country gave his glowing recommendation calling them “neat” and “adequate”” By now everyone had caught on to what Hatsume was doing but Bakugou was the first to bring it up.

“Hold on! ARE YOU FUCKING ADVERTISING RIGHT NOW?!!!”

“Courtesy of baby 84; drone cameras designed to follow and capture us wherever we go to ensure we always catch the perfect high quality video of our exploits”

“You are unbelievable! We are in the middle of an alien base right now! It’s not the time to advertise your products”

“On the contrary, it’s the perfect time. If we die here, we’ll at least have some kind of legacy left behind and if we don’t then it’s proof my products work and are reliable” Hatsume said.

Ben grabbed the freeze ray. He felt safer holding something based on one of his alien forms. Midoriya grabbed the super soaker and Hatsume kept a hold of the rest of her “babies”.  He passed the grenades to Bakugou, encouraging him to stay behind him. This was quite possibly the worst place for him to be in. 

“If it gets too dangerous, I want all three of you to run away.”

“We don’t need to fuc-”

“Bakugou” Bakugou stopped at the firmness in Ben’s voice. 

“We are in one of the most dangerous places for you three to be in. All three of you are practically Quirkless and we are in a den full of super strong, super tough, shapeshifting, fire eating beasts. I need you three to promise me that the moment it becomes too much, you’ll run back to safety.” Midoriya and Hatsume had no problems with his request and after a minute neither did Bakugou.

“... Yes, Tennyson”


Who does Tennyson think he is? Katsuki isn’t just some useless dead weight. He’s powerful, useful, strong. And yet the more they climbed up this tower that seemed to have been haphazardly put together in a mish-mash of other towers, the less Katsuki convinced himself that he could be of any use. When the creatures weren’t in view, there was no problem. A minor dread hung in the air that made him tense up but he was still confident he could show Tennyson that he wasn’t the loser kid that got his ass kicked by Tennyson’s base form. Once they were in view however, it was a different story. He froze up and could do nothing but look at the slimy monsters stumbled into the hallway, gradually getting closer, slime dripping off them before Tennyson or Deku stopped them. He was so useless, Deku of all people was more useful without even having to resort to his powers. It’s not fair. They both almost drowned in that guy, why was Katsuki the only one affected by it?

It was fine. No one could see him. He was at the back while everyone’s attention was at the front. Actually, no. They couldn’t see him because in all his feeling sorry for himself they had gone into the next room. Katsuki ran after them. Surely they wouldn’t have abandoned him, right? He’s not useless. He’s not. He’s still worth keeping around. While Katsuki was caught up in his own insecurities, he stepped on a particularly poorly maintained part of the floor. It broke and Katsuki fell into the floor underneath him.

“Shit!”

He righted himself with his Quirk, ensuring a relatively safe landing. He looked up at the ceiling to find that the hole was quickly being covered by a dark, slimy substance. He flew up, desperate to get through the exit before he was trapped but it was pointless. Worse than that, as his hand brushed up against the ceiling, the slimy roared and grabbed him. 

Once again he found himself trapped within a gooey, slimy prison, struggling and failing to breathe. By instinct Katsuki started firing his Quirk outward but the heat only made the alien grow in size. If he wasn’t already drowning, he would be suffocating on its sheer presence. His body locked up, his mind couldn’t come up with any way out of this. His vision went dark as the beast started to swallow him whole when some part of it bumped into him. 

The grenades pressed up against him. They were so close. His one ticket out of there but his hands were being trapped by the slimy tentacles. OK. These monsters absorb heat but they also grow in size as they do so. Perhaps if he could trigger their absorption, they’ll relax for just a brief moment. That’s all he’d need. Or it would just make it stronger and kill him faster. There’s no time to worry about it. He just needs to get to the grenades somehow. 

He put his all into this one explosion. The force made the beast stretch and in that moment as it stretched, the slimy mass around Katsuki relaxed. He grabbed ahold of the grenades and activated one. Wait. What’s going to happen if he’s caught up in the blast? Of crap! Katsuki activated his Quirk trying to cancel the blast out as best as he could. The force ripped the best apart. It started to pull itself together but just before it could Katsuki threw another grenade at it. Without Katsuki canceling it out, a single grenade was enough to freeze the creature. It became brittle. It’s shifting movement got far more difficult before it eventually shattered into pieces.

With nothing else holding him back, he flew up the whole and made a mad dash to the group who were all looking at him(?).

“WHAT’S GOING ON?!” 

“I knew there was something fishy about you.” Tennyson said.

“So you finally discovered me, Ben Tennyson. But it is too late. The Limax will have their revenge!” The doppelganger yelled before morphing into its default shape and promptly getting obliterated by another of Katsuki’s absolute zero grenades.

The group were silent for a moment before Tennyson spoke with the tone of someone remembering the name of a song that had gotten stuck in his head “Limax... Of course. Man that takes me back”.

The group continued to fend off any Limax that tried to attack them but eventually they made it to the top of the tower. It had started to fall into disrepair but these towers that the Highbreed had left behind may hold the key to solving this entire debacle. First the Highbreed intended to use them to make the planet colder, then the Limax used them to create a massive heatwave. Now it’s their turn to use them to suit their purposes. Ideally a rainstorm would be summoned, being a far quicker and more effective means of bringing the Limax down. Only one problem. The Highbreed obviously made it to work within their language, a language that no one here knew. Albedo was probably the one to figure it out but he was a Galvan. 

“You would know how to read Highbreed if you actually read any of the historical works detailing the Highbreed War” A stoic voice said in a mock teasing tone.

“Why would we have to? We lived the War. Leave it for other people.” Another voice said. 

A smile formed on Ben’s face “Rook. Kevin. You’re here!”

“Took us a while to figure out where Verdona took you but yeah we can take it from here” Kevin said.

Verdona’s screams filled their air and everyone quickly ran out the window to watch Gwen get absorbed into the machine as Albedo gleefully cackled. 

“And Ben. Give him hell!”

“Sure thing.” Ben jumped out the window and transformed into a purple squid-like creature with string-like appendages.

“Ventrilosquid!” He yelled.

Just as Albedo looked up, Ventrilosquid hooked himself into Albedo’s body and started making him hit himself. 

“This won’t work like it did last time, Tennyson! I’m far more powerful now!!” Albedo said as he turned into Ultimate Snare-oh. The body was roughly twice the size of regular Snare-oh, his bandages were made out of a more shining gold substance, contrasted by a bright purple core in the middle of its chest. The gold bandages near it had taken on a similarly dark purple color.

Ventrilosquid tried to maintain his control but he was quickly overpowered. “The Puppenus is a specimen that attacks by targeting its opponent’s nervous system. Surely, even you can tell Thep Khufans are lacking in that department. As an evolved Thep Khufan, I’ve gained power over their natural resource Corrodium” 

The purple crystal shot out a purple beam and Ben only barely managed to transform into Frankenstrike to evade its effects. Albedo grabbed onto Frankenstrike in a serpentine-like motion. 

“You may have evaded the effects of the Corrodium but I can still crush you to death!!!” but he had barely grabbed down on Ben before the latter spoke up.

“Hey, Albedo. Hot tip. Gold is highly conductive” Frankenstrike smiled before unleashing a massive lightning strike on the mummy. 

Albedo groaned in annoyance before changing forms into a flying purple and red crystal monster with a singular red eye; Ultimate Chromastone. Albedo unleashed a red wave of energy that Frankenstrike tried to hold off but he was quickly overpowered and sent into one of the leftover houses. Chromastone was a bit of a wild card for Ben to deal with. He knew he wouldn’t be able to just absorb the energy back and redirect it when his Ultimate form probably outclassed everything he had in that regard. Then there were Sugilite’s abilities; Flight, telekinesis on a planetary scale, resurrecting the dead. Granted that last one was a race that Sugilite specifically guarded but who knows how going Ultimate would have affected his powers. Ben would need to go for an indirect means of combating Albedo. 

Ben transformed into Pesky Dust and hoped that Albedo would personally come deal with him. The house was blown apart by Chromastone’s energy beams. There goes that plan but the dust and debris allowed for the perfect cover. He managed to get behind Albedo and spray him with sleeping dust. Albedo’s one eye started to close, the need to rest taking over his body before his eye snapped open.

“A Nemuina?! Damn it, Tennyson! I destroy your Plumber base, I kill your grandfather, I invade your planet!!! What will it take for you to take this seriously?!” 

“Take what seriously?!”

“That’s it! I’m not just a complete and utter failure anymore!! Since you seem so opposed to seeing me as a genuine threat now, I guess I’ll just have to prove it to you” A red light encased him before he unveiled his transformation.

Before the light had died down, Pesky Dust was grabbed by Ultimate Rath and smashed into the ground several times. He tried to go for his Omnitrix to quick change by Albedo had already turned into an Ultimate Blitzwolfer. The Loboan fur was now white and red though that could just be because it was Albedo using it. More disturbingly, he now had mouths all over his body that opened all at once and screeched. The soundwaves equivalent to an army of Echo Echo’s firing their Wall of Sound. 

Disoriented, Ben didn’t have enough time to quick change before being struck down by red lightning. Albedo had turned into a red and black Conduit with four antennas instead of two and silver coils accentuating his form. Pesky Dust couldn’t move as the red lightning struck him down. It pulsed all throughout his body, frying it black, shutting down his vitals. Any thoughts Ben may have had were overidden by the sheer amount of pain he was in. However, there was an unintended side effect of this lightning. As his body was getting fried by Albedo, the Omnitrix was charging. A wave of green energy pushed Albedo away from Ben, giving Ben space to breathe.

“Master Control unlocked”  

“Thank you, failsafe!” Ben said. 

He immediately took advantage and turned into Humungousaur. Albedo met his challenge, quickly shifting into his evolved variant of the form. As soon as the transformation was done, Ben faced a barrage of missiles. The explosion of dust and debris gave Ben an opening, quickly turning into Nanomech. As Albedo kept on guard, unsure exactly how Ben disappeared, Nanomech entered his skull. He was about to fire off his first blast of bio-electricity when a better idea popped into his head. He’s already inside Albedo and he can quick change. And while he’s at it, he might as well go big or go home.

As Ben began shifting into a To’kustar, Albedo felt a rupture in his skull. He realized exactly what had happened and shifted into a Galvanic Mechamorph. Not a moment too soon as Ben had shifted into Way Big and the sheer mass blew up the Galvanic Mechamorph creating splatters of black and red goo across the desolate street. Way Big then fired a cosmic ray into the street eradicating the bits of Albedo. A single piece remained as it infected the weather tower.


Izuku wasn’t sure what to think when he felt the tower move. The silvery metallic substance it was made of quickly became corrupted by a red and black substance taking over the tower. A moment later, annoyed groans came from Hatsume, Rook and Kevin. 

“What happened?”

“Albedo has taken control of the tower. We will not be able to activate so long as it is in his hands”

The tower groaned as high powered laser cannons littered the transmission rings. There must have been a dozen on just one ring and all opened fire upon Way Big. The concentrated attack seemed to be a minor inconvenience but more pressingly they seemed to stop Ben from firing back.

“More importantly, he’s using it in a fight against Way Big. Ben’s not in trouble but if he engages, this whole tower is destroyed”

Whether by design or accident, Albedo had managed to put Ben in an unwinnable situation. The tower groaned more as it grew arms and legs and rushed to fight the To’kustar. All Way Big could do is defend himself without any means of attacking back. Ben shifted into a small black, battery creature but before he could do anything he was struck down by laser fire. He shifted into Chromastone, which did absorb the energy blast instinctively but even that was a lost cause when you consider that a) he had nowhere to fire the absorbed energy and b) Albedo’s attack just wouldn’t stop. Ben shifted again into NRG. The suit could easily withstand the barrage but it was the form inside the suit that Ben needed. 

“Kacchan, I need you to blow up the wall!” 

“The fuck are you talking about?”

“If I can get to the outside of the tower, I should be able to unleash a Stone Cutter all across the tower. If I amp it up with my Quirk, I should be able to force Albedo off it.”

“That might work” Bakugou unleashed an explosion at the wall but before he could get through Hatsume interrupted.

“Wait, Midoriya! Are you seriously going out there?” Hatsume asked.

“Obviously. Tennyson needs help. And you guys won’t be able to activate the tower as long as Albedo’s in control, right?. This will solve both problems in one shot.” Hatsume eyed him apprehensively before summoning three gadgets. The zip line, the air shoes and a jetpack with stabilizers. She forced them into his hands.

 “Um-”

“Don’t look at me like that. If the tower moves at all, it’ll be all over for you so put them on!!”

“OK” After getting changed Izuku found himself outside the tower.

Fortunately, the way Albedo had Ben pinned down meant he was no longer moving. Unfortunately, the tower was at an angle and Izuku managed to get a lovely look at how high up he was. Hatsume was absolutely right to be worried about him. The command center was placed just above the uppermost ring. A single massive antennae went on for who knows how long. Izuku got into position, firing the zipline at the antennae and putting him just above the center frame that held everything together. He instinctively called upon both One For All and Revonnah Kai. 

“STONE CUTTER PLUS ULTRA!!!”

Izuku hit the frame and massive green waves pulsed all across the tower. The red and black substance that had covered it pulsed before coming apart as inky blobs that were forced to leave the tower. The tower reverted to normal and hopefully the group inside could resume their work.


The chunks of Mechamorph matter were blown apart by Tenten. Midoriya had given him an opening but not one that he could capitalize on easily. The red and black chunk was already shifting. Tenten armed himself with an energy saber and cut through it. The chunks finished their transformation into Nosdeenians. Plural. Ben’s attack had multiplied them. 

Then Albedo evolved further. Ultimate Buzzshock didn’t look too different from regular Buzzshock. A little taller, maybe a bit more of an aura to them but in the end they were still tiny, weak looking battery things. The true power of the evolution was much faster and more powerful duplication. Within seconds, Tenten was surrounded by hundreds of Nosdeenians. All of them wasted no time depowering his suit and unleashed an entire lightning storm across the town.

Ben turned into Shocksquatch, his own electrokinesis managing to barely deflect the Nosdeenians attacks away from him. The army of Nosdeenians took advantage of the situation and smothered Shocksquatch, every single one of them trying to feast on his electricity. Of course, Ben knew this is what was likely to happen. He turned into Spidermonkey and jumped out of the horde of Nosdeenians, capturing them all with a web. He changed into XLR8 and activated time dilation. Albedo had already made quick work of the net and the net hadn’t managed to cover all of them like he hoped. He’d have to make four trips to move them all. So he did. He fixed the net as best as he could and rounded up as many as he could far, far out into the desert. 

He created a massive tornado, rounding them all up before changing into Clockwork. With a single beam, he slaughtered all but one. Albedo quick changed into his Ultimate Fasttrack form and entered a slowed time of his own. Between Clockwork’s chronokinesis and Ultimate Fasttrack’s sheer speed, neither held a distinct advantage on paper. The problem was that Clockwork needed to wind up and keep winding up to keep his powers going. In a battle of endurance, Clockwork lost and it was either this realization or the Omnitrix’s failsafe going to work that he ended up quick changing right as Albedo would have punched his brains out. 

Albedo’s fist instead smacked into NRG’s armor and with the speeds he was going, it was obvious that he ended up breaking every bone in his body. Ben refused to let him heal or transform into something else. As Albedo’s body started to regenerate already, Ben opened up the suit and then released his second suit. Pure radiation given form. He flew over to Albedo and fired a concreted energy blast at the stabilizer, eventually causing Albedo to “time out” and revert to his default Galvan form. Ben then grabbed onto his arch-enemy, radiation seeping into Albedo’s body. Albedo laughed. His body morphing and shifting but not in any way that he wanted it to. The radiation causing his body to deteriorate. 

“See, a little respect wasn’t so hard, was it Tennyson?” Albedo smirked as if he had everything under control. 

“That’s why you did all this?! Because you couldn’t handle me insulting you!!” NRG snarled.

“If you want to be reductive... The fact is I’ve been a footnote for far too long. Stuck in Azmuth’s shadow, stuck in yours. No matter where I go, that wasn’t going to change. After getting my original form back, I only had one goal to beat you. A desire that was only exasperated once I found out you treated me nothing more than a B-list failure.”

“You could’ve gotten a new goal!”

“As what, Tennyson? One of your little sidekicks? An engineer that would only be relied upon if Azmuth was unavailable? I could have started a new life but I wouldn’t have escaped you two. No, I needed to make history and I did!!”

“What?”

“I am the one who murdered Max Tennyson. I am the one who led the Limax invasion. I am the one that you were forced to use Master Control for. No matter how you slice it, this whole ordeal is one for the history books. One that I am at the epicenter of and there’s nothing you can do to stop me! You may have won this fight, bravo, but at the end of the day; I will enter the annals of history as the one who pushed you like no one else and all you have to show for it is a dead grandfather... Farewell, my nemesis!!!”

NRG heated up to an immense degree, almost instantly vaporizing Albedo. The Galvan melted in his hands, leaving nothing but the Ultimatrix stabilizer behind. Ben returned to his human form and eyed the Ultimatrix with a look of pain and misery. His fight against Albedo was finally finished. Grandpa Max’s killer was finally brought to justice and yet he felt nothing but frustration at this turn of events. The fact that Albedo had apparently counted on Ben hunting him down only managed to enrage him further. He thought through Albedo's smug, self-centered speech and tried to find something to salvage out of this. Albedo's "invasion" wouldn't even last a week. Hardly, worthy of the history books. Even Milleous' reign would last longer. Albedo wasn't the first one Ben had used Master Control for... but it was the first time the Omnitrix's failsafe had granted him it because Albedo was just that dangerous. And Grandpa Max was still dead. The leader of the Plumbers murdered in cold blood because... because Ben couldn't keep his damn mouth shut?! How pathetic! The fact that all of this had happened because Albedo's ego couldn't handle a few insults? 

But it went further than that, didn't it? Ever since he first met Albedo in this new reality, he had actively disparaged him. Sure, the Galvan was a joke... but he was also incredibly dangerous. He was an Omnitrix bearer! Ben of all people should know how dangerous one wielding the Omnitrix could be. Especially when they also had the intelligence of the Galvan. Especially when said Galvan is intelligent enough to make their own Omnitrix. Especially when he was smart enough to figure out a way to evolve the same transformations that Ben used on the regular. And yet Ben had gotten complacent. Albedo's many failures lulling him into a sense of security that was never there. More than that, he had actively poked the shapeshifting bear and when it lashed out, he wasn't even there to stop it's attacks. A petty feud with U.A. was more important than securing Albedo and his loved ones had paid the price. Was there a better way?

Earlier in the fight, Albedo had seemed insulted at the idea of ending the fight non-lethally. Kill or be killed. That was the only way their fight could end. For it to end any other way would be a disservice to either of them... At least that seems to be how Albedo thought. A part of Ben almost regretted killing the bastard just to deny him that victory the Galvan had delusionally claimed he had won. Yet, how many times had the Galvan escaped containment? How many times had he returned after Azmuth and/or Ben had put him away? If there was one redeemable quality Albedo possessed, it was his tenacity. His inability to just give up. He would always be back for more and... he was too far gone. Maybe there was a better way this relationship of theirs could end. Perhaps not as friends but maybe not as enemies. Albedo hadn't even cared about him intially. He just wanted his original body back. It was only when Ben had bungled one of his latest attempts to get his body back that he became just as obsessed with killing Ben as the rest of his enemies. Ben and Albedo could have buried the hatchet and avoided all this and yet their relationship just sort of escalated until one of them had to die.

He picked up the device and took in the realization that part of Albedo's words did ring true. He was dead but he would have a legacy. Perhaps as a warning to those about the dangers of obsession and pride. Ben uttered a single word before he went back to Los Soledad.

“Goodbye”.

Notes:

Ben's reflection on his relationship with Albedo is a bit of a last minute change. I dunno. The scene was always planned to have a fairly morose ending. Killing Albedo here wasn't going to spontaneously undo Max's death. Maybe I could have given Albedo a more undignified death. Have him go through a full on villainous breakdown. It would absolutely be deserved but I guess I just prefer the more tragic ending. The monster is dead but he wasn't always a monster. A selfish, arrogant, narcissistic prick, yes... but not a monster. Not until one last failure spurred on by the closest thing he had to an equal (as loathe as Albedo is to admit it). Or maybe, I'm just spouting a load of shit, I dunno.

Chapter 31: Epilogue

Notes:

I want to thank everyone that's stuck around and apologize for taking so damn long to update. I can't even really say I've spent the last couple of years going over possible drafts. The truth is I had finished the Sports Festival chapters and then... I dunno. 2022 was a pretty shit year for me, I guess. I don't really have an excuse for 2023 though yet I only really worked on the finale in the final weeks of January of this year. But hey better late than never, right? At least it's finally done!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya couldn’t help but feel bittersweet at this turn of events. They had stopped the Limax. As soon as Tennyson came back, he upgraded the tower to reach all over the world. What followed was a global downpour that effortlessly beat back the invaders. Kinda weird, they attempted to take over a planet that was mostly covered in water. Regardless, any stragglers who managed to survive the new weather were quickly found and defeated by the Pros. It was a victory, right?

Hagakure told him the truth about his dad. The man known as Hisashi Midoriya was All For One, the one All Might was so terrified about. Hiding right under their noses and in plain sight. In hindsight, it was super obvious. Yet despite that, he and his mother cried all night when Hagakure told them. Why did he have to die? Surely there was another way. But maybe he realized in the end that as long as he was around, his family would always have a target painted on their backs. Izuku liked to think that maybe the fatherly affection the man had wasn’t a facade. That somewhere deep down in the depths of his soul, there was a heart that cared about a few people. 

Rook and Tennyson left Japan. It was always meant to be a temporary thing but it had somehow lasted far longer than he thought and with the Plumbers in disarray, they were probably needed more than ever before. Unfortunately, just because they were gone didn’t mean their presence was. The Pros and U.A. especially, were still coming under fire for his actions. Vigilantism was on the rise especially as civilians had needed to defend themselves against the Limax. Such a threatening alien with only a few discernible weaknesses. Weaknesses that the Pros in the area couldn’t necessarily capitalize on but some civilians with the right Quirk could. How this would affect society going forward, Izuku had no idea. He only knew that it was changing and with an increased interest in vigilantism, he wagered it would only get more chaotic from here. 

Unfortunately, the old system were still in place, which is how he, Kacchan and Hatsume found themselves in a police office. Hatsume had broadcasted their exploits to the whole world. Hatsume Industries got a massive boon and Izuku had enjoyed the fame of him shaking a massive weather tower for all of a day before he was arrested for unregistered Quirk use. Monoma owed him $20. 

“Oh it’s not like they’re not going to arrest you for saving the planet” Apparently they were.

“I blame you for this, you attention seeking freak.”

“Hey! She helped us out the most or do I need to remind you that you would’ve died if it wasn’t for her” Izuku said.

“Shut up, Izuku! Of course you don’t have to remind me or anyone else because a video of me almost drowning to death has made the damn news!!! She could have just not recorded us and all would be well but noooo”

“Muscles is right, Kacchan” Hatsume said, prompting him to growl.

“We all benefited from that video I stitched together or have you forgotten a certain offer from a certain top 10 Hero?”

“Not worth getting humiliated on an international level. I’m missing therapy because of you!”

“Yeah, you definitely need it”

“Oh wow, pot calling the kettle black?!” The two glared at each other and as much as he enjoyed Kacchan having someone else just as likely to start shit with him, it got him thinking.

“Actually, that might be a legit criticism, Hatsume. You were in a life-threatening situation. Maybe some therapy would do you good.” The fact that Kacchan was still attending his had to mean something even if Izuku wasn't sure what that something was.

“Ha!”

“But Midoriya, then I’d have even less time to work on my babies and besides I knew you guys had it all in hand anyway” Hatsume whined.

“You’re free to go kids.” an officer with a cat face said.

“Finally, realized that arresting the saviors of the whole, entire planet was a bit of an overreaction” Hatsume said while Izuku and Bakugou rolled their eyes. 

They had a supporting role in the salvation of the planet. Tennyson was the one to beat the big bad villain and Hatsume only managed to activate the towers with Rook and Kevin’s help plus a bit of repairs done by Upgrade. In any case, they hoped her ego would shrink quickly. Izuku isn’t sure he could handle a Hatsume as his main support if she’s just going to get a big head every time he saves the day.

“No. You kids got bail Just don’t use your Quirks so haphazardly and stay away from dangerous situations”.

“I don’t even have a Quirk!” Hatsume said in response as they made their way outside where they saw...

“Tennyson?!” Kacchan was the first to notice..

“Yo. Kr’lk was worried you’d gotten eaten by a straggler so she sent me to find you. But to think you’d gotten arrested the day I leave town” Tennyson chuckled to himself.

“Fuck off! You’re the reason we even got arrested in the first place. Well you and-” He glared at Hatsume who was already focused on making new babies now that she’d gotten out of jail.

“Let’s just go!”

“OK! Take care, you two!” Tennyson said as the two were beamed up.

An explosion was heard in the distance. Sounded like another villain attack. The two eyed each other. 

“Technically I’m Quirkless and that power of yours isn’t a Quirk, Midoriya”

“We were planning on going that way anyway, right?”

“Yeah, we could just go on our merry way and if there just so happens to be a villain attack and the Pros just so happen to be useless...”

Perhaps he’ll never know what the deal with All For One and his dad was. Whether Adrian was truly right all those months ago or whether he was just a monster looking for an excuse. Izuku doesn’t know whether he’ll become a full-fledged vigilante or go the traditional way of becoming a Pro and he’s not going to act as if his future at U.A. isn’t being held precariously in place. It may just depend on how the world changes. However, right now at this moment only one thing matters. The two shared a grin as they ran towards this uncertain future. 

“It’s Hero Time!”

Notes:

Is this the ending this story deserves? Probably not. Am I happy with it regardless? Yeah, I think I am. I think this story has been one riddled by plot holes and just generally poorly thought out writing but it did have passion put into it and I think I was finally able to channel some of that passion again. When I first started this story, I had planned for it to end in the Hideout Raid Arc. All For One and Vilgax teaming up to serve as the final boss of the series. I even had made up a bunch of Quirks Midoriya was going to get when it was revealed that he was going to get a bunch more. In fact, I'd already written the Stain Arc. But then... I guess I realized I was never going to get to that point and so season 3 took a much more drastic turn with Max's death because I intended it to be the final season of the story. Anyway, thanks for reading!

Some fun things I imagine happening after the events of the story:
- Monoma continues being Monoma but once he finds out the whole story he's actually quite invested in if Midoriya has All For One or not (He does). They continue being geeky Quirk bros.
- Midoriya and Hatsume basically continue their working relationship in whatever form Hero Society takes going forward.
- Iida eventually strikes up a proper friendship with Midoriya and Hagakure. Aizawa basically forces them to work together so they stop disrupting the class.
- Aizawa eventually takes Hagakure and Shinsou under his wing to become proper underground heroes.
- Bakugou keeps going to therapy and eventually becomes both a Plumber and a licenced Hero. He never quite gets over his fear of all sludge-based lifeforms but he can at least tolerate being in the same room as Lucy now.
- Tomura ends up in All Might's care.
- Eri gets adopted by a loving family.
- The Plumbers start having routine practices against Ben to ensure they don't suffer another Albedo incident.
- Verdona sticks around. She starts training Ben's kid in magic though Ben makes sure to keep an eye on her.
- Ben and Rook basically stay the same. Though every so often, Ben goes back to Japan just to rustle the Heros feathers again. The government eventually gives him a Hero Licence unwillingly just so they don't have to keep dealing with him.