Japan, Shizuoka Prefecture, 30,000 feet up the ground
Miles above the ground, a strange dimensional gateway opens up from thin air, and something, or to be more specific someone, emerges from it. The man suits up, in full metallic armor begins to fall, due to the weight of it, but soon enough stabilizes midair, using the electromagnetic currents of the troposphere to hover. A sparkling bluish aura of electricity surrounds his armor as he dizzily looks down.
He let out a sigh of relief. Moments ago, he had been fleeing from a horde of Tyranids in the previous universe, or more accurately, his original had been, as he unknowingly is a variant. "SteLL, analysis" Luist said as he looked below at the long stretch of land surrounded by sea.
Then a small hologram of his AI companion appears before him, projecting a holographic panel filled with data and geography of the planet they're currently on. "If the database is correct, this may be Earth again, our fiftieth time we jumpt here, as this planet may be a nexus in the Multiverse, right now we're in Japan's flight path, so I'd say you should watch out" she then points towards an incoming plane.
Luist let out a sudden "huh?" As he turns around, and sees the plane just before it slams into him, with the brutal force only a 600-mps metal giant could deliver. His armor absorbs most of the impact, but it still hurts like hell. Knocked unconscious, and with no way to use his powers, he begins to fall. The armor automatically activates its countermeasures, healing his open wounds and internal damage, as it can no longer use the Warp Jump to reach another universe to save him.
Morphine gets injected into his spine as the armor begins to perform surgery mid-fall. The nanomachines work double time, way faster than any human, stopping the hemorrhage within seconds, and repairs his broken bones as he keeps falling. But one section of the armor, still under auto-repair, lets a power crystal slip free, and oddly enough, falls even faster than Luist.
The emerald power crystal, known as Alfedarnomium, is a physical gateway that connects with a sentient being of immense energy, capable of choosing individuals to carry a fraction of its power at will. At this moment, say crystal soars toward a certain rooftop in Mustafu City, where a boy has just received a cruel reminder of how reckless and hopeless his dreams were.
"It's not a wrong dream, however, you need to be realistic, kid" said the skeletal man he has as an idol, leaving the boy alone on the rooftop.
To Midoriya Izuku, those words from his idol felt like sandpaper scraping an old wound. The earlier mocking and cruel words of his childhood friend echoed even louder in his head. It may not be the best place to think on the suicide bait he had been told by his bully, but he couldn't help himself as the self-pity made his skin crawl.
"ugh… don't cry! You already knew this reality. I just… tried so damn hard to hope, to believe I could-" His muttering was cut short when something struck his head from above. Izuku fell to the floor, clutching his head in pain "OUCH! What now!?" He groaned, rubbing the sore spot on his skull, then he noticed the glowing crystal on the ground "huh? What is this? Some kind of loose projectile? Maybe there's a fight nearby!"
The boy stood up and stuffed the crystal into his pocket "I should bring this up, it can be of value to the owner, I need to give it to an officer" he said as he walked down the building searching for a lost object cabinet. Unknowingly to the boy, his hair began to glow little by little, shifting to a lighter shade of green.
Back on the air, Luist that just woke up opens his eyes and realizes he's scarily close to the ground. "AHHH!" He turned on his powers and quickly started to hover, once stable and safe from harm "That was close!" Luist glares at the AI that just spawn before him "SteLL, next time, I don't know… TRY TO WARM ME SOONER IF I'M IN DANGER!" The AI just giggles as if it were a harmless prank "Enough wasting time… prepare the energy output for the next jump… uh, SteLL, why is the warp option blocked and erasing itself!?
The AI stops giggling, and gets serious. "Sorry, but we're not the originals, this is the end of the line for us… also I have more bad news." She sounds sorry as she acted a bit embarrassed. Luist looks at her, clear fear on his face of what's next, but simply nods for her to continue. "The Alfedarnomium crystal in the suit has fallen when the armor was repairing itself. It seems to have found someone to choose, since it didn't fall at our same speed"
Luist loses color and panics. He ignores the variant dilemma, as he had accepted from the start that this was always a possibility. At least he's thankful to be stranded on a normal planet, he knows some other variants end up in far worse places. Still, the thought of a pure power crystal choosing a vessel is deeply unsettling. "And now you tell me!? Search for its power signature! A Chosen One here, on a primitive Earth, could change the dynamics of the entire world!" Even though this planet hasn't reached the space scale, unknowingly to him this planet is far from normal, as 80% of the population already possessed superpowers.
Back to the running Midoriya Izuku, a metamorphosis had begun. Inside the chosen boy, cosmic energy began to take root, spreading and growing. Deep inside his mind, an alien presence started to rewrite his quirkless DNA, and fortifying his consciousness, making him able to handle a new kind of power. The crystal in the teenager's pocket glows brighter as it's strange incorporeal sentience linked with his memories and personality, merging them with the supernatural force that had awakened within him. In mere minutes the job is done, the crystal glow fades and returns to a quiet state, but the "damage" to the boy was already done.
And to his luck, it could not have come at a more perfect time. Izuku was shocked by the scene unfolding before him. The green haired teen started to panic as he recognised the same villain from earlier, the sludge villain that attacked him before All Might's rescue. It had escaped and now the villain was wrapping his slimy body around a new victim, forcing its way into the teenager's mouth. A crowd of civilians and heroes had gathered around, while explosions came out from the victim, they must have a fire-related quirk and, in their panic, accidentally set things on fire. Worst of all, none of the heroes do anything. They stood there, waiting for someone with the perfect counter to the villain's quirk.
Midoriya's mind races with guilt. *Oh god, it's my fault! All Might must have dropped the bottle when I grabbed him before, and now that he wasted his time dealing with me he can't do anything!* The teen panicked and trembled as he realized he doomed an innocent person *I'm sorry… please hang in there… for my fault you have to wait for someone else to save you…* then he saw better who the victim was, his childhood friend and bully *Kacchan!* The terror on the other boy's face was unbearable. Without thinking, Izuku dashed forward, his hair now glowing completely. *IF NO ONE ELSE WILL SAVE HIM, I WILL!*
As Midoriya runs through the crowd, he realizes something, no one tries to stop him. Something feels off as background sound has stopped, and when he reaches the villain, nothing, no attempt to attack him, and more importantly nothing around him moves, everything is frozen in time. "Is this a quirk? From who? When?" His voice is the only sound around, as he looks around he glances at a window from a nearby shop "I… I CANT SEE MY REFLECTION!?" He sees everyone's reflection except his. Then after a few seconds he spots it, still at the back of the crowd. "wha… WHAT!? Did I just do this on my own? Is this my quirk!?" He freaked out, but forced himself to stay calm. He needs to save Kacchan first. "I can nerd out later"
For Izuku, saving Bakugo it's as simple as grabbing his bully's wrist and pulling. The villain's body put no resistance, moving like syrup in slow motion. Since Izuku doesn't know the side effects of his power, he carefully drags the explosive teen away from the danger, walking towards the heroes.
"Ah… now what?" He mutters, realizing he must have stopped time out of pure panic. It's not like he knows how to control it. He breathes in and out, but it does little to calm his mind as it starts to overthink; "how can i even breathe right now? Does my body speed up air consumption? Does air around me combust when I resume time? Is this super speed or actual time manipulation? Does it drain energy? Will I pass out from quirk exhaustion?" he mumbles at a high pace.
As he stays lost in thought, his ability shuts off on its own, and time begins to move again, slowly at first, until the sounds of the world return and he finally notices.
For All Might, who was lamenting being short on time among the crowd, everything happened in a single instant. One moment, a boy was being held hostage, the next, the sludge villain's body was suddenly pulled apart. Then yagi noticed the fan he saved before, his hair was glowing faintly as he helped the victim cough the sludge out of his lungs beside the other pro heroes. Gasp and chatter filled the air as everyone tried to make sense of what had just happened. Even the villain, now reforming, stared at his former victim a few feet away.
"WHAT!? HOW, WHO DID THAT!?" the villain screeched, trying to flee.
That was enough for the Number One Hero. His hesitation had already put too many lives at risk. That boy put his future at risk by using his quirk without a license, but did more than any of them, being a hero is about sacrifice. Clenching his fists, All Might powered up and stroked the villain with a powerful "Detroit Smash!". The shockwave fly through the street to the sky, changing the air pressure, shifting the weather, as it began to rain.
From a nearby rooftop, Luist watched down with a serious glare. "Is that the Chosen?" He muttered, staring at All Might. It was the first time he encountered a Chosen One so powerful right from the start, For him had taken years to master his own Chosen power, what annoyed him the most, was what he saw among the crowd. Nearly everyone he could see had some kind of mutation or power. The complete lack of space travel on the planet, suggested that all inhabitants of this planet were human. "So… a metahuman world" he murmured.
"That seems to be the case" SteLL replied, her eyes flashed as she downloaded the world's network. "I already accessed the global database, people with powers, or quirks make up around eighty percent of the global population. And no, the buff blonde isn't our guy. The alfedarnomium's energy signature is coming from… that boy there, the one that is being scolded for illegal use of a powerful quirk" the hologram points at the green haired teen below.
Luist focused on the scene, oddly people in ridiculous costumes, surrounded a scrawny shy kid with familiar glowing hair, reprimanding him, while praising the ash-blonde teen that was looking at the other with a noticeable hostility.
"I smell drama… and that's exactly the kind of vessel the crystal loves to choose. We need to follow the kid out of here… too many witnesses" Luist muttered, letting helmet merge back into his suit. He took a deep breath, feeling the rain hit his face, and slid down his sky-blue glowing hair "this looks like a good place to live, SteLL upload to my gyrus chip the local language, i'd rather not sound like an alien while we are here."
The AI began to transfer the written, visual, auditory and speech patterns of Japanese directly to the chip in his gyrus. It hurts a little, but being able to blend in, worth the sting.
Luist followed the green-haired boy from above, floating silently from rooftop to rooftop, then he saw the ash-blonde from before storming down the street, shouting. "DEKU! you damn liar bastard!" Small explosions burst from the angry teen's hands. The hostile teen closed the distance to the nervous, yet newly chosen boy "I never asked you to help me! yet you show up out of nowhere with a quirk!? Were you waiting for the perfect moment to humiliate me in front of pro heroes!?"
"That's not true, Kacchan! I just… I didn't have this until today… I would never jeopardize your career like that" the green-haired boy said. the roof of a nearby house, Luist could hear everything. The nervous boy took a defensive stance as the ash-blond approached, but then Bakugo stopped and let out a frustrated groan.
"Ugh! You better stay away, or I'll blow that glowing head off!, stupid nerd!" the angry teen shouted before storming away, kicking the ground.
SteLL's voice came softly sitting in her hologram from on his shoulder. "Oh… this brings back so many memories of when we were at the M9 academy." Luist sighed and frowned at the hologram. "What? You were an even worse bully than the explosive kid. God, you were so difficult back then, no wonder your father preferred your brother" the AI made a smug smile, clearly enjoying his reaction.
"Are you done?" he muttered. "Those aren't exactly good memories… and you have a body back then, so maybe not the best thing to talk about" with that, he turned his attention to the buff blonde speaking with the green haired boy below.
All might coughed as he revert back to his weak form "kid, you were great back there, using your late-bloom quirk without hesitation, even though you clearly didn't know how to control it" Yagi had met some late-bloom quirk people before, most of them were already are too old to become heroes by the time their powers appeared. But this boy, quirkless just moments ago from the incident, yet acted when no one else did.
"You… You're not mad?" The teen asks with shyness and insecurity "I just committed a vigilante act. If the other heroes hadn't reviewed my files, they wouldn't have found out my quirkless status… and I'd be on my way to juvie…" The teen was trembling and holding his shoulder straps tightly "...and it was my fault in the first place, If I hadn't grabbed you, none of that would've happened… I just… i just got in your way-"
"BUT!" Yagi interrupted, his skeletal face breaking into a proud smile "out of everyone back there, even pros, me included, only you acted! Someone who just awakened a quirk, a timid kid surrounded by passive bystanders… you were the only one who helped when it was needed" The young boy's eyes widened, tears forming as yagi continued "most top heroes say that even as children, something deep inside them, an instinct, compelled them to move to help someone in need, before they could even think…"
Luist, who was still listening, nodded to himself. Helping others was always a sacrifice, and sometimes it could be called reckless or even idiotic… but people like him and obviously these two called it; "Bravery…" he murmured to the air, remembering how he ended up stranded in this universe. He had stayed behind to fight someone much powerful than him, just to give his people enough time to evacuate his home planet, it was reckless, suicidal, idiotic… but he would done it all over again to keep his loved ones, his subjects and friends safe so they can fight another day.
"Is that what happens to you back there, yes!?" the skeletal man said to the boy, heavy tears dripping down to the ground as the teen nodded and said yes. "Then you can be a hero!" Luist smiled at the scene, it reminded of his uncle and his brother, of his youth as a war hero, of the friends he has lost along the way. But that was a long time ago, and this boy has no idea that the power inside him wasn't a quirk. Luist decided it was time to make himself known.
"He's right boy, you have the heart of a hero" Luist floated down to the street beside them. the Skeletal-looking man coughed and glared at Luist who had come out of nowhere, the blonde man looked clearly panicking. "No need to worry sir, your secret is safe with me" the boy also looks up confused about who was Luist "as for the power you have, child, is not from this world" teen and hero stared at Luist as if he had grown a second head. Luist raised his hand, and the armor projected a small recovery bean towards the boy's pocket.
Izuku yelped as the crystal slid out on its own, hovering in front of him. the man wearing shiny silver armor said. "This is the source of your power, boy, feel proud, this crystal has chosen you to carry a power as unique as you" he said with a smile, his tone carrying the same reassuring presence as All Might's. After the pause he concluded his monologue "you are still as quirkless as before, but your body has been changed and charged by the cosmic energy of this crystal." The gem pulsed faintly as he spoke, then drifted into a small compartment in Luist armor. "and I'm sure you will be an amazing hero, as I'm going to train you!"
Then All Might cut the man off. "Wait a minute buddy… who are you? what are you even talking about?" Yagi's voice sounded a bit shaken and confused, just like Izuku felt right now "is this some kind of joke? Are you with a TV prank show or something?" the Number One Hero added, glancing around nervously.
"uh… no, I… did I say something wrong?" Luist asked, suddenly looking embarrassed "sorry, I'm not really good at… reading the mood" he scratched the back of his head and bowed awkwardly, clearly flustered. Then before Izuku or All Might could respond, a hologram flickered to life in front of Luist. Both earthling's froze in place.
"Forgive him," said the hologram in a synthetic yet oddly casual voice. "He's socially awkward and doesn't understand social cues. But he is right." The teen and the hero both widened their eyes as the projection continued "we are not really from this world, or universe to be exact, I know this is a lot to take in, but it's true… and again sorry if this idiot just ruined your emotional moment" the hologram, which Izuku can only assume is an AI, turned toward the armored man and started scolding him like an annoyed teacher or more like an angry girlfriend.
Yagi could now honestly say he'd seen it all. This went beyond anything he had ever encountered in his career as a hero, the appearance of a man from another world, accompanied by a fully functional AI, not even his old friend and sidekick, David Shield, had managed to create a true artificial intelligence, let alone one capable of scolding and teasing its owner.*Wait, can an AI like that even be owned?* But as he thought more about what the AI had said, the implication sank in. That would mean that the kid was still quirkless. Yagi had felt a bit disappointed earlier, thinking someone with so much potential was just a late bloomer, but now he realized he wasn't. The boy could inherit his power, he could be his successor after all. be his successor afterall. Yagi glanced at the green-haired teen, who was mumbling to himself again, and a determined smile crossed his face. "Hey, kid… I have a proposition for you!"
Two days later, Takoba Municipal Beach Park, 6 A.M.
Luist walked through piles of garbage, searching for resources and materials to craft a pair of power gauntlets for the kid, currently training with Yagi. They had decided to share the boy's training, and right now, the Number One Hero was making him clear the beach of trash.
"Sincerely, Earthlings are so filthy" Luist muttered, using the HUD of his helmet to scan for useful materials from the trash "Why throw so many usable resources?"
The nanomachines of his armor are working on a car hood, while integrating the materials he collected. Within it, they are a pair of gauntlets that will help the boy control his chosen power. They would act as an enhancer of his powers, and also give an analysis of the true reach of his powers.
"Same here" SteLL replied. "You'd think they will at least recycle this stuff before it rusts away" She was on her holographic form next to the nanomachines "sitting" on the car hood. "You really think that, "American Dream Plan" will actually work?" the AI has been hearing the chatting of the two earthlings "seems kind of irresponsible to me, but well maybe the human body is tougher in this universe"
"Perhaps… oh hey, Midoriya boy! Toshinori! have you already finished?" Luist stopped scavenging and jumped down from the mountain of trash.
"Not really, Chun-san. Young Midoriya here wants to hear what your training looks like" the buffed form of Yagi said in a loud heroic voice.
Luist smiled at that, it was a bit corny, but he liked it. "Ah right. Is it functional, SteLL?" he asked, glancing at the rusty car hood where the prototype scrap gauntlets were resting.
"Functional enough" came her response.
Luist picked up the scrap-made gauntlets, turned them on, and handed them to Izuku. "These will evaluate your Chosen power and help you control it. Put them on."
"Ah sure" Midoriya said, taking them and sliding on onto each hand, The gauntlets lit up briefly with a faint glow, then went still again. "what was that?"
"the scanner" SteLL answered, as she analysed his Chosen power, and shouted "Wait!… ethereal time manipulation? Whoa! this is bullshit!
"SteLL please! There's a minor here, language!" Luist Muttered.
But the AI ignores him, reading rapidly the data she had recollected from the gauntlets "your time-stop power… operates at a universal scale. You can move without combusting the air around you. Anything you touch is protected from whiplash effects, which basically makes you even more powerful than a speedster… and OH I FORGOT" the AI sound frustrated and livid "YOU DONT AGE WHILE TIME IS FROZEN!"
Luist, Yagi and Izuku stared at the AI in complete shock
"something must be wrong, it can't be. that's too overpowered!" Luist said, his voice filled with awe and disbelief "what about power consumption?"
"none…" Stelle replied flatly. "He can even bring anything he touches into his own time-freeze dimension… His power level registers as Omega… this is the only Chosen from the Alfedarnomium crystal to ever reach that classification."
The boy in question stood frozen, his muttering now reaching dangerous levels of panic.
Meanwhile Yagi, from the shock coughed so hard he goes back to his weak form, this was, without question a bullshit power.
Luist patted Midoriya's back awkwardly. "Well… we can train in a literal time chamber, and take as much as we want… so… jackpot?"
It didn't feel right, though. It was too easy. If the kid could freeze time whenever he wanted, no one would ever even know it was him. It felt like cheating.
Luist shook his head and rested both hands on the teen's shoulder."Don't worry. I'll teach you how to fight and use these" He grabs from his back holders two futuristic-looking pistols "Time-stop can be your last resort. These aren't lethal, and I'll train you with all my soldier knowledge and experience while we're inside your time-freeze dimension."
Midoriya stopped mumbling, his eyes lighting up as he nodded eagerly.
Then, from that day and for the next ten months, the training of Midoriya continued. Each day he did his best to complete his two trainings: in normal time he endured the training of All Might, and in the time-freeze dimension he sparred and learned how to use and build his own weapons and tactics from the military skills of the war hero "Tormenta." Inside the frozen time, he didn't age; his body and mind remained those of a fourteen, soon-to-be fifteen-year-old boy, so he and Luist could spend as much time as they wanted inside to polish his skills to perfection. Midoriya learned how to use CQC and ways to disarm any combatant, as Luist trained him harshly there, since the kid didn't get tired and couldn't be harmed as his muscle fibers were also stopped. That way, they discovered that he couldn't get stronger within the time freeze, so he had to keep training each normal day, following the phases of All Might's plan.
Luist wasn't only teaching Midoriya how to fight quirkless, but also strategy and war games. The blue-eyed war hero had been a veteran by the age of eighteen, fighting in an intergalactic war,and winning, and so Luist showed holograms of each battle on the intergalactic map: the forces of the evildoer Servick against the M9 forces and his own squad, the Alfa-9N. He taught the boy how to salvage a hopeless situation, how to supply an army, how to do all the things needed in an evacuation, how to comfort the troops, and how to raise morale, being the hope in the darkness.
Midoriya spent so much time with Luist that he started to see him as an older brother, and the feeling was mutual. Through countless months inside the frozen dimension, they bonded and helped each other. Luist helped Izuku with his stuttering problem and his mumbling; his confidence also grew, as Luist reminded him that even if he fought without his chosen power, he was as good as a pro hero, or, in Luist's universe, a soldier of the Special Forces, a place that only the top ten graduates of the Military Academy of M9 could join.
As for All Might, Izuku looked up to his idol and also bonded with the man who tutored him in all his strength training. The desire of the young one to be just like All Might made him put in more effort each day, filling the boy with determination for what was to come.
Day of the exam
Luist was enjoying the view of the now-clean beach. It had been ten months here, ten months stranded, living off odd jobs and dealing with refugee paperwork to gain citizenship in Japan, but it had all been worth it. The sight of the teen's progress after all his hard work made him smile. "Looking good, Izuku," Luist said in genuine praise, as All Might also admired how far the boy had come, his body now perfectly built for his age…
But then Yagi had to ruin the wholesome moment. "Now eat this!" Luist, Izuku and SteLL stared at the buff man, in absolute awe and horror as he handed the teenager a strand of his own hair.
"¡NO! ¡NO! ¡NO! EW! BAD ALL MIGHT, BAD!" the AI yelled, "hitting" Yagi chest with a frown "Have you lost your mind or something!? That's the worst DNA transfer method I've ever seen! I know there are worse types, but… ugh, give me that!" a nanobot emerged from Luist's armor, drew a small sample of Yagi's blood, and then the nanobot flew over Midoriya, injecting the hero's blood into the vein of the teen. "There. Done. Was that so hard to do? Ugh… men…" SteLL sighed before retreating back into Luist's armor, resting her systems as if they were exhausted.
Luist patted Midoriya's back awkwardly. "Well… we can train in a literal time chamber, and take as much as we want… so… jackpot?"
"Thanks… I'll do my best," Izuku said, his grin bright and determined, grateful to the two men who believed in him and in the hero he could become.