Chapter 18
Family Matters, Part 1
Midoriya was a mixed bag of emotions as he resumed classes on Monday. On the one hand, he was extremely uncomfortable from all the pointing fingers, stares and whispers on his way to class—everyone had heard the news that he, Todoroki and Iida had been attacked by the Hero Killer, and as far as the public was concerned, they had witnessed Stain's defeat.
There were a few people who knew the truth, however; after getting a promise from their friends to never share that truth, Midoriya, Todoroki and Iida took turns recounting how the fight really happened. There was no small amount of awe in their friends' faces, though Uraraka started shaking Midoriya again for 'being so selflessly stupid', as she put it.
Because of that, however, their five friends were unwavering in their support, and that gave Midoriya in particular the strength to walk into class with his head held high. He was even able to look his other classmates in the eye when they asked him questions.
"Hey, Midoriya, are you guys okay?" Mineta asked as they all filtered into the classroom.
Kaminari stood behind the tiny boy. "Yeah, you guys had a run-in with the Hero Killer! And also the League of Villains tried to kidnap you, Midoriya?"
While no one had seen the fight with Stain, more than a few people had managed to record the flying Nomu as it snatched up Midoriya. The police had already taken his statement, so he just repeated what he told them.
"I think Shigaraki is still mad because I beat that Nomu at the USJ," he said. "He seems like the kind of guy who holds a grudge."
"Thankfully, everyone was okay in the end, right?" Yaoyorozu cut in, while giving Kaminari and Mineta a warning look.
"Yeah, Hawks saved me before too much happened," Midoriya said, and then made sure to add in the untrue part of the story. "And Endeavor beat Stain after a couple of minutes."
"Come on, you have to know more details than that," Kaminari pleaded, only for Jiro to jab him in the side with one of her jacks. "Ow!"
"Leave the Vice Prez alone," she said, and then dragged Kaminari away by the ear.
Mineta watched them go, then huffed and glared daggers at Midoriya. "It's not fair."
"What isn't?"
"How come you get treated nice by all the girls?" Mineta asked. "You didn't even have to do anything!"
"He saved my life during the entrance exam," Uraraka commented with a blush.
"He saved us in the Shipwreck Zone," Asui reminded him.
"He's nice to pretty much everyone," Ashido chimed in, though she didn't count Bakugo.
Yaoyorozu gave Mineta the darkest glare she could. "And unlike some people, he is respectful."
Mineta scoffed. "Sounds boring."
Todoroki stretched and 'accidentally' created a piece of ice that fell down the back of Mineta's shirt.
"Ah! What the hell, Todoroki!?"
"Please don't try to corrupt Midoriya. You won't like the consequences."
Seeing that most of the strongest students in class were telling him off, Mineta finally gave up and headed back to his seat. Not that Midoriya noticed; at that point, he had buried his face in his arms and tried to hide his blush.
Thankfully, there was a new distraction in the form of Bakugo—more specifically, his hair. For the first time in his life, it wasn't spiky or messy; instead, it was neatly brushed, and if not for the expression of absolute fury on his face, Midoriya would have been hard-pressed to recognize him at all.
While Midoriya just stared, the rest of the class stared and then laughed. The vein pulsing on Bakugo's forehead started to turn an alarming shade of purple.
"Shut. Up," he snarled.
"S-sorry, man," Kirishima wheezed. "Well, n-no, I'm not sorry, it's too funny!"
"That stupid Agency brushed my hair so much that it got stuck like this!" Bakugo let out a muffled scream—somehow, his own rage forced his hair back into its usual spikiness. "Finally! Fuck!"
"All right, that's enough," Aizawa said as he shuffled into the classroom. "Internships are over, so it's back to your normal schedules." He waited about three seconds to make sure that, yes, everyone was seated and paying attention. "First off, hand in the homework you were assigned. If you didn't complete it or didn't do well enough, it might impact whether or not you'll be allowed to take further internships or work studies this year."
Some of the students looked worried as they handed in the work, including Ashido, until she caught Yaoyorozu's eye, and the other girl gave her an encouraging nod. She had gone over her friends' homework at the last second, and was positive that they had all done well enough to at least pass.
"Speaking of normal schedules, we've got a new kind of lesson for you today during Heroics," Aizawa continued. "Before that—Yaoyorozu, Hagakure." He looked both girls in the eye—or at least the general area of Hagakure's head. "Before Heroics, stop by the Support Department; they have something to offer for your costumes."
There was a quiet gasp from Hagakure, and Yaoyorozu looked intrigued. Her experience with Ryukyu had made her aware that, while she wasn't badly affected by negative reactions to her current outfit, a more modest costume—if that was indeed on the table—might be good for her image.
"But that's for later," Aizawa went on. "For now, let's get started."
…
Class went by as normal, but there was a short break before Heroics. Yaoyorozu walked quickly to the Support Department, followed by Hagakure, who chatted excitedly.
"I've been hoping for a costume that I could actually wear for so long!" the invisible girl said. "I mean, I figured I'd have to wait until they could manufacture a suit from my hair, but that would take forever, especially since I keep my hair short."
Yaoyorozu glanced at her—or, well, her floating uniform that presumably had her in it. "How short do you keep it?"
"Around Uraraka's length, but it's kinda hard to say exactly, even for me." Hagakure sighed. "It sucks that I can't see my own hair, but at least I can go to school with a bad hair day and no one will notice."
Considering how much time Yaoyorozu could spend on her own hair, she envied her classmate a little. "I hope your costume works, but I'm still not sure what they are offering me. Self-repairing cloth is generally very thin, and I don't think I'm daring enough to wear something like Midnight-sensei's costume."
"And then you'd be stared at even more by Mineta." Hagakure made a gagging sound. "Another good thing about being invisible."
The conversation drifted over to the internships. Hagakure was a little reluctant to go into detail, but that was because she'd had to perform close surveillance of the leader of a small gang, which had ended up with her watching him in the shower.
"I mean, he was hot, but still…" Hagakure's uniform ruffled, and Yaoyorozu realized she'd shuddered.
Thankfully, they reached the Support Department before Hagakure had to relive anything more traumatic. They opened the door, and Yaoyorozu ducked as something whizzed through the area that had once been occupied by her head. From the way the object dug a crater on the far wall, she was glad she'd ducked.
"Dammit, Hatsume! What did I tell you about loading that thing before we moved it to the testing area!?"
"Sorry, Power Loader-sensei!" A familiar voice called back. "I thought I saw an error in the calibrations, so I thought I'd test-fire with a smaller object."
"We weren't even supposed to test it today!" Power Loader, a skinny man wearing jeans and enormous gloves—and what looked like pieces of construction equipment on his arms and head—noticed that the door was open. "Please tell me no one got hurt."
"I'm fine!" Hagakure said cheerfully.
"I'm not hurt, but I think I need to sit down," Yaoyorozu admitted shakily, and her classmate helped her to a chair, but she had barely sat down when Hatsume was suddenly in her personal space, and she jumped back. Hatsume was covered in oil stains, and she hefted what looked like an oversized air cannon over her shoulders.
"Hey, you're the two who are testing my new babies!" She grinned madly. "Well, technically they're both the same baby, just modified differently."
"Hatsume, please let me explain," Power Loader said. "Just get the stuff ready, okay?"
"Sure thing!"
"She means well," Power Loader said as the girl ran off, "but she's a bit…"
"We understand," Yaoyorozu said. "We all saw her during the Sports Festival."
"Oh, good, that means I don't have to explain." Power Loader cleared his throat. "Anyway, you were called here because of changes to your costumes."
"Can't change what you don't have," Hagakure muttered petulantly.
"Right, sorry. So, you both requested certain attributes for your costumes that we just couldn't apply at first. Thankfully, Hatsume had a breakthrough."
"Yes, I did!" Hatsume said proudly as she burst into the room with two metal briefcases. "Well, technically, I was inspired by that boy who won the Sports Festival. His watch gave me all kinds of neat ideas for adaptive technology!"
Hagakure leaned over to whisper to Yaoyorozu. "If Midoriya is the reason I'm getting an actual costume, I will fight Uraraka if it means I can kiss him."
"Let's start with you, Hagakure-san." Power Loader took one of the cases and opened it up. Inside was a pair of pants, slipper-like boots, and what looked like a thin jacket. Each article of clothing was made of a shimmering, silvery material. "Before I explain, I'd like you to try these on. There's a changing room in the back. When you're done, there's a button on the inside of the collar; press it twice, then hold it down for five seconds."
"Okay!" Hagakure dashed off, and returned a few moments later. The clothes clung to her tightly, but not so much that she didn't have freedom of movement. A sleeve reached up and tugged at the collar; after about fifteen seconds, the arm came back down. "It's still visible…"
"Just give it a sec," Power Loader said. "It's reading your skin cells and adjusting accordingly."
As if on cue, the clothes flashed through several different spectrums of light, and then became as invisible as their wearer.
"Oh…" Hagakure was quiet, and she sounded almost on the verge of tears. "Oh."
"Yep!" Hatsume held her arm out in front of her until she found Hagakure's shoulder. "It's woven nanotechnology, with each nanite in your outfit programmed to match the frequency of your body! You can also make it visible again by repeating the process with the button. Oh, and it also insulates against heat and cold; not fire or ice, but you'll be comfortable in all seasons!"
Hagakure sniffed, and then moved; from the way Hatsume suddenly leaned, and the imprints on her clothes, Hagakure was hugging her.
"Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome!" Hatsume beamed. "I'll give you the technical specs later, but the short version is that you've now got an invisible suit!"
"And now for you, Yaoyorozu-san." Power Loader held out the other case. "It wasn't in your initial request, but I received a report from the USJ that your Quirk destroyed your first costume, and you had to make a new one, correct?"
Yaoyorozu nodded; only Jiro would have known about that, so even if she and Midoriya were only partially responsible for her new costume, she was giving both of them a big hug.
"Obviously, that affects your lipid count, so this is both for practicality and decency." Power Loader opened the case and pulled out a bodysuit that was the same color as her previous costume. Instead of a yellow belt across the chest, there was a small yellow knob at the base of the throat. "Go and try it on, and then we'll test the special features."
Yaoyorozu went into the changing room and slipped on the costume. It was snug, and the mirror inside the room gave it a look that suggested she'd been poured into the suit. A pair of boots had also been provided, but other than the soles, they seemed to be made of the same material as the rest of the costume. There were no sleeves, but she wondered how she would use her Quirk through her legs without destroying the lower half, not to mention anything she made from her torso.
"Looking good, Yaomomo!" Hagakure cheered, her outfit visible once again so that everyone knew where she was.
"Okay, so first, you're going to activate the security feature for the nanotech in your costume," Power Loader said. "Hold one finger against the yellow part and start talking for about twenty seconds. Part of this is voice-activated, because there was no way to fit in all the commands into the nanotech itself, and this way, it won't fall into the wrong hands."
Yaoyorozu held her right forefinger to the knob and started reciting all the elements of the Periodic Table. After she was done, the knob pulsed with light for a moment.
"Great!" Hatsume was bouncing in excitement. "Now, use your Quirk. Doesn't matter what you make, just so long as it tears the fabric!"
"You… want me to destroy part of the costume?"
Hatsume grinned. "Yep!"
After seeing Power Loader nod, Yaoyorozu humored them and created a metal pole from her thigh. The pole burst through the fabric and fell to the ground with a clang, but Yaoyorozu hardly noticed; she was busy staring at the hole in her costume, which sealed up and vanished as if it had never been there.
"The nanotech is programmed to reconnect if it's separated out of its preprogrammed shape," Power Loader explained. "You can even hold parts that were completely removed to the rest, and it'll break it down and redistribute it."
Yaoyorozu was impressed; nanotech had been created decades ago, but interest in the technology had fallen to the wayside with the advent of Quirks. Most scientific breakthroughs focused on Quirk-related functions; it was theorized that, had Quirks not manifested, humans would have colonized the moon, and maybe even farther by now.
"Thank you so much," she said, and bowed.
"Wait, there's more!" Hatsume held out a silver bracer that went halfway up Yaoyorozu's forearm; on one side was a blank screen. "You use that book to figure things out, right? Ugh, that's so old-fashioned! This is a modified tablet that can bring up the molecular composition of almost anything! The internet is a great tool, isn't it?"
"There are a few things you won't be able to look up," Power Loader added. "We don't exactly want you to start building missiles or nerve gas." He shrugged when Yaoyorozu looked hurt. "I don't think you would, of course, but better to not have the temptation, or have such information fall into the wrong hands. This tech is pretty cutting-edge, after all."
"I understand."
"Oh, and there's one other thing!" Hatsume turned on the bracer and pressed a few buttons on the touch-screen. There was a slight itch as the leggings on Yaoyorozu's new costume retracted up to her upper thigh. "Ta-da! Summer edition!" She pressed another button, and the leggings returned to normal, and the entire costume started to warm up. "Winter edition! And everything in between! You can even use this to program designs in the nanotech for fashion purposes!"
Yaoyorozu was amazed; she could admit that she was far above average when it came to intelligence, but Hatsume's designs were beyond anything she could have imagined.
Still, it feels like something is missing…
"Excuse me, is my old costume still available?" she asked. "There's something I'd like to keep."
"Sure, no problem." Power Loader handed her a form. "Just jot it down so the school knows."
Yaoyorozu did so, and then accepted the bracer from Hatsume and put it on her left arm. She looked down at her new costume, and an idea came to mind.
I can change the design, huh? Ryukyu might have inspired me to be more modest, but that doesn't mean I can't be a little daring.
…
By the time Heroics rolled around, most of Class 1-A was starting to get worried when two of their number wasn't with them to get into their costumes.
"I hope there wasn't a problem," Midoriya said as he put on his new visor, which earned appreciative looks from many of his classmates. Some of them had seen the picture he'd taken with Hawks, but it was another thing altogether to see it in person.
He looks cute without it, and cool with it, Uraraka thought, and then remembered to respond to his comment.
"I'm sure they're fine," she said. "Even if there's a problem, they could just go back to their old stuff."
"Hey, my 'old stuff' was just gloves and boots!"
Everyone jumped when they heard Hagakure's voice, and then jumped again when her costume shimmered into existence.
"Whoa, that's cool!" Ashido said. "They finally got you a costume!"
"Yeah, isn't it great!" Hagakure spun in place to show them the outfit. "Yaomomo should be here in a minute; she's fiddling with some stuff."
"I'm here!" Yaoyorozu called out as she jogged over. "I'm not late, am I?"
For a moment, no one reacted; they were too busy staring. Yaoyorozu's costume was far more modest than her previous one, but the way it hugged her figure left little to the imagination. There was only one reminder of how revealing her last costume was—an open circle that exposed a small amount of cleavage. She had also retained her yellow belt-skirt, minus the shelf that had held her book.
"Damn, Yaomomo," Jiro commented. "How did you get hotter with more on?"
Mineta opened his mouth to say something, but Dark Shadow emerged from Tokoyami and put his hand on the small boy's face.
Yaoyorozu blushed. "Th-thank you, Jiro-chan, but we should probably head to class before we're late."
Uraraka noticed that Midoriya was staring at the Class President, and was a little red-faced. Fighting to keep her jealousy from showing, she gently grabbed his arm and tugged him along.
"Come on, Deku-kun, this lesson is being taught by All Might!"
Midoriya nodded, and finally regained his composure.
He was a teenage boy, so sue him.
…
All Might was as bombastic as ever, laughing with good cheer as the students arrived. "You all look raring to go! And young Hagakure, it's nice to see that you've got a real costume!" Hagakure bounced in place as she waved at him. "I hope you learned a great deal during your internships, because today's lesson is a bit of a curveball.
"Sometimes, during a crisis, you won't be able to tell the difference between a terrified civilian and a criminal who's only acting. Only the daring, or the foolish, stand there and laugh at their handiwork. The most dangerous of them will be long gone by the time Heroes arrive on the scene, and some of them will have never been there in person. Most cases, however, you'll see them pushing away from the crowd; in this lesson, your goal will be to apprehend the Villain, while also making sure not to harm the civilians.
"Each of you will take turns as the Hero and the Villain, while everyone else will be the civilians. Think of it like a game of tag; you only need to touch the Villain in order to capture them. But, there's a catch! The Hero won't know which of you is the Villain; the Villain will get away if he or she can successfully avoid identification for five minutes, or make it to the evacuation area before being captured. Quirks are allowed, but only for the purposes of evasion or pursuit—that means no attacking each other! Young Midoriya, you'll be the first Hero; please wait on the other side of the area until you hear the buzzer."
Midoriya nodded, and then jogged off; the test grounds for today, Ground Gamma, simulated an industrial center, with pipes and circular structures forming a natural maze. For anyone with limited mobility, it was a nightmare; thankfully, Midoriya could fly if he needed to. He was thankful of his aerial practice with Hawks, because as soon as the buzzer sounded, followed by a cloud of smoke, he transformed into Jetray and flew into the air in a perfect takeoff. However, a thought came to him, and he turned into Ghostfreak halfway to his destination and became invisible.
He arrived at the 'disaster' site, which was a crater in the ground to simulate an explosion. Most of his classmates were pretending to be panicked civilians, but either put no effort into it, or turned it into a joke by overselling it.
Come on, be observant, Ghostfreak told himself. Which of them is acting weird, or trying too hard to be casual?
It turned out to be easier than he thought; Ashido kept looking around, trying—and utterly failing—to keep from giggling. She also kept glancing at the escape zone, as if waiting for a chance to run for it.
Ghostfreak quietly flew behind her and tapped her shoulder. She turned around just as he became visible again.
"Boo!"
Ashido shrieked and jumped back; she instinctively hurled a glob of acid at him, but he turned intangible at the last second.
"Damn it, Midori!" she shouted. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry," Midoriya said as he turned back to normal.
"And it was all for nothing," Shoji commented, one of his tentacle-mouths curled up in a smile. "Asui has almost escaped."
Midoriya whirled; sure enough, Asui was hopping as fast as she could towards the exit. By the time Midoriya activated the Ultimatrix, Asui had escaped.
"Damn it," Midoriya said, and slumped. "I thought Ashido was the Villain."
Ashido patted him on the shoulder. "Nope. I guess I'm just bad at acting casual?"
Sero laughed. "Yeah, between Tsu, Todoroki, Tokoyami and Shoji, they're the best at being unreadable. You got some bad luck there, dude."
"It was more than bad luck, young Sero," All Might said as he rejoined them. "Young Midoriya, that Ghostfreak form was perfectly silent and completely invisible. You had more than enough time to observe the crowd and give you a better idea of who the Villain was. However, your reaction time was much better; now, you just need to find a balance between that and your analytical mind."
"You're right, All Might-sensei," Midoriya admitted. Maybe there were some disadvantages to Hawks' strategy of doing everything as quickly as possible. "Hey, Hagakure-san? Do you think you could give me some pointers about being invisible?"
Hagakure raised one arm, but her hand was still invisible; still, Midoriya got the feeling she was giving him a thumbs-up. "No problem!"
"It warms this old man's heart to see you students helping each other." All Might let out a hearty laugh. "All right, let's move on to the next match!"
The rest of the lesson went by smoothly. Ashido and Uraraka had been unable to discern who the Villain of their rounds were—both were unlucky enough to have Shoji and Todoroki, respectively—but when it was their turns to be the Villains, each of the Rising Stars were able to either fool their opponent or get away.
Sero managed to bluff his way through Kaminari, and even deflected his suspicions towards Tokoyami for a while. By the time Kaminari had realized he'd been tricked, Sero was home free. When he was the Hero, he simply overshot with his tape, and then reeled himself in to tag Mineta.
Though she'd had less success for the Hero part of the lesson, Uraraka had done better as the Villain. She had simply used her Quirk on herself and propelled forward in a gravity-removed arc, far outside of Jiro's reach. She then canceled and reapplied her Quirk several times to safely lower herself to the exit. The best part was that she was only a little nauseous after landing.
Ashido had had the easiest escape, and also the most motivation. Her opponent had been Mineta; Ashido had just sprinted ahead of him.
Yaoyorozu had also made a break for it, but with Tokoyami and Dark Shadow right behind her, she created a trail of flashbangs from her back—and everyone noticed that her new costume repaired itself as soon as it was damaged—that disoriented the former and disabled the latter. When she was the Hero, she used the same quick-drying cement she'd utilized against Bakugo to literally stop Kirishima in his tracks.
After escaping Midoriya as the Villain, Asui had equal success as the Hero. Aoyama had managed to evade her attempts at capture at first, but he overdid it with his Navel Laser and fell to his knees. He was still clutching his stomach when Asui tagged him, which turned into a sympathetic pat on the back.
Todoroki had easily blocked off Sato's escape with a wall of ice, but his friends were pleased to note that he wasn't so emotionless about it. He even made awkward small-talk with Sato as they rejoined the class.
Iida had very nearly lost both his attempts, but a last-second Recipro Burst had got him close enough to tag Kaminari. When it was his turn to be the Villain, and he saw that his opponent was Hagakure, he didn't hesitate to book it with a Recipro Extend. That had also easily netted him the record for fastest escape.
When it was his turn to be the Villain, Midoriya just waited until Kirishima got close, then turned back into Ghostfreak and simply floated to the exit. He didn't even turn invisible, just intangible so that Kirishima was unable to tag him.
After that, the lesson was over, and the students were dismissed to the locker room to get changed. As Midoriya pulled off his hoodie, Kaminari walked up to him.
"Hey, Midoriya, can I ask you a question about today's lesson?"
"S-sure, what's up?"
Kaminari shrugged. "How come you didn't try to bluff your way past Kirishima? No offense," he quickly added to the redhead, "it's just that you're not exactly the suspecting type."
Midoriya sighed. "I'm n-not exactly good at k-keeping my calm. I thought I'd have better luck just escaping."
"And you did great," Kirishima praised. "That Ghostfreak form of yours makes it impossible to catch you! Kinda wish we could have had a manly battle to see if we could escape, though; I want another go at you when you're Four Arms!"
"A-actually, I have another form that might be good for s-strengthening y-your Quirk," Midoriya said, looking down at the Ultimatrix. "It's good for a straight-up brawl, and y-you might be the only p-person in our class who can take a hit from him."
At first, Kirishima grinned in excitement, but then he saw that Midoriya was more nervous than usual. "What's wrong with that one?"
"Er…" Midoriya glanced at Ben, who knew which alien he was thinking about and was laughing. "I get really angry when I use him… and kind of stupid."
Sato chuckled as he put on his shirt. "Sounds like me when I use my Quirk."
Across the room, Bakugo pretended not to listen to Midoriya, but he was actually paying close attention. Some of his forms change his personality, huh?
Of the male part of Class 1-A, only one student was genuinely not paying attention to the conversation. Instead, he was focused on his own discovery.
"Psst!" Mineta waved to get the boys' attention. "Guys! You'll never guess what I found!"
"Your sense of common decency?" Todoroki asked blandly.
Mineta leered. "Never gonna happen. No, see this poster?" He pointed to the poster in question. "See, behind this poster is a hole. Do you know what's on the other side of this hole?"
From the look on Mineta's face, Midoriya suspected he wouldn't like the answer.
"It's the girls' locker room!" Mineta grinned lecherously. "Someone must have drilled a hole to peek in on the ladies! It's the jackpot!"
The other male students looked at him with disgust, anger, or a combination of both. Even Midoriya was tempted to hurt the smaller boy. How could he be so disrespectful to the girls? They deserved better than to be watched as they took off their…
Unbidden, an image of Uraraka popped into his mind; she was slowly peeling off her costume—
Midoriya bit the inside of his cheek as hard as he could to snap out of it. Yes, the girls in his class were attractive, and yes, he might have a crush on Uraraka, but he would be damned if he sank to Mineta's level! He shared a glance and a nod with Todoroki and Sero, and the three sprang into action. Sero wrapped up Mineta with his tape and dragged him off, while Todoroki put his hand over the hole Mineta had discovered and started to fill it with ice.
"We're really sorry about him!" Midoriya shouted before the hole closed up, and he helped Sero drag Mineta away.
…
On the other side of the wall, the girls of 1-A collectively smiled. They had heard the commotion, and Midoriya's apology.
"Can I just say right now that I'm glad the rest of the boys aren't like Mineta?" Hagakure huffed as she put her skirt on. "How has he not been expelled yet?"
Yaoyorozu scowled and finished putting on her own clothes. "Because he's very good at not crossing that line, especially in front of a teacher. If he ever does that, and we provide evidence, he'll be gone in a heartbeat."
Ashido leaned down to the hole in the wall, now plugged with ice. "Darn it, I was kinda hoping to get a look at the boys." She grinned at the looks the other girls were giving her. "What? Even if they weren't ripped before, all the exercise we do is getting them shredded."
While Yaoyorozu berated her pink friend, Uraraka couldn't get Ashido's words out of her head. The image of Midoriya without a shirt kept popping up, with the muscles of a Greek god. The worst part was that he kept himself hidden with loose clothes, so for all she knew, he was that chiseled.
That's not fair, she thought, he can't be cute and hot at the same time!
Asui tapped her on the shoulder. "Ochako, are you okay?"
Uraraka jumped. "Y-yeah! I'm fine! Totally fine. Why would you ask if I wasn't fine? I'm completely fine!"
Asui gave her a flat stare; her gaze flitted to Ashido, and then the iced-over hole. "Sure you are, ribbit."
…
"Looks like school's over."
"Yep."
"Can we grab him now?"
"Not yet. He's saying goodbye to his friends. We'll take him when he gets home; his mom is at work right now."
"Good. Let's get this done."
…
Midoriya was in a good mood as he got home; though he hadn't gotten the highest score in Heroics, he definitely hadn't done the worst, and he had learned plenty. Now he just needed to get his homework done, and then he could spend the rest of the evening messaging his friends and finish reading an interesting article on the first generation of Pro Heroes. He'd already read it twice, but it was still an enjoyable read, and it was more for Ben's sake than his own.
He had barely touched the door when hand covered in a black glove grabbed his wrist.
"Sorry, kid," an unfamiliar voice said. "We need to talk. Let's go somewhere private."
Everything became a blur as Midoriya was pulled away from his home at incredible speeds. When the world came back into focus, he recognized the heaps of trash; he'd been taken to Dagobah Beach in less than two seconds!
As his brain caught up with him, he looked up into the face of his kidnapper. He didn't recognize him, but he didn't look Japanese; he was at least six inches taller than Midoriya, with messy blonde hair. He wore a green knee-length coat with black flame designs on the hem and ends of the sleeves, over a black shirt; he also wore dark-green pants and black boots.
But it was his face that really got Midoriya's attention. His eyes were a cold grey, and his hair was the wrong color, but he looked almost exactly like the Ben he knew, albeit a few years older.
"Wh-who are you?" Midoriya asked. "What do you want with me?"
"Like I said, we need to talk." The man finally released his iron grip and took a step back. "We just needed some privacy."
"W-we?"
The air shimmered, and then a girl appeared next to him. "Yeah. You really need to pay attention, kid."
"To be fair, you were invisible," the man pointed out.
"That's his problem, not mine."
While they bantered, Midoriya got a look at the girl. She couldn't have been more than a few years older than him, with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes; she was around Midoriya's height, but living in a world of Quirks meant that Midoriya couldn't underestimate her. She wore a dark-red bodysuit that had short sleeves; it was accented by a thick blue line up both sides, a dark-blue belt around her waist, and an inverted omega on her chest. She also had strange red earrings that looked vaguely familiar…
And, much to his shock, she had a red Ultimatrix on her left wrist. Other than the color, the only difference between hers and his was that hers had a roughly triangular crest with an S over the dial.
"You done sizing us up?" the man asked him. "Sorry, you weren't exactly subtle, and you were muttering about half of your observations."
"S-sorry, it's a habit." Midoriya frowned. "Wait, why am I apologizing? You kidnapped me!"
"I prefer to calling it 'borrowing without permission'."
"Can we stop messing around?" The girl scowled up at her partner, and then at Midoriya. "We're here for the Ultimatrix. Give it to us, and we won't hurt you."
The man sighed. "Jen, we really need to work on your social skills."
"Screw my social skills," the girl, Jen, snarled and grabbed the Ultimatrix on Midoriya's arm. "Give me the watch!"
Ben, who had been tense at Midoriya's side the whole time, blinked. "Aggressive action toward device detected. Activating failsafe."
There was a flash of green light, and then the girl was sent stumbling back after Four Arms punched her in the face.
The man facepalmed. "Okay, I guess we're doing this now. Are you happy, Jen?"
"Actually, I am." Jen grinned at Four Arms, but there was nothing friendly about it. "Now I have excuse to beat you bloody and take that watch."
Jen moved; one second, she was twenty feet away, the next, she was right in front of him. Her first punch sent him flying fifty feet into the air; the next connected right before he hit the sand and drove him into a rusted washing machine.
Four Arms winced, and then gasped as he tried to get air back into his lungs. Four Arms was tough, but whoever Jen was, her strength was far beyond what he could take.
She has multiple Quirks, he thought as he staggered to his feet. Her speed could be a byproduct of her strength, but she could turn invisible. Wait, she has an Ultimatrix. Is she from Ben's universe? If that's the case, the rules about Quirks might not apply here. I'll have to slow them down so that I can escape and find a Pro Hero. These two are dangerous, and I need to be safe before I can find answers.
He slapped the dial on his chest, and transformed into a humanoid lizard with blue skin and a hunched posture. He wore a dark-blue jumpsuit, with the Ultimatrix dial on his chest.
"ARTICGUANA!"
"Oh, great, he's shouting the names," Jen grumbled.
The man, who was now sitting on a broken-down car, laughed. "I think it's cute."
"You could help me, you know!"
"Nah," the man said and leaned back. "You're doing fine on your own, really."
Articguana fired a cryo-beam from his mouth, hoping to hit Jen while she was distracted. However, her incredible speed kicked in, and she leaned out of the way. Unfortunately, her relaxed companion was directly behind her, and suddenly found himself trapped in a block of ice.
"Um…" Articguana and Jen glanced at each other and spoke at the same time. "Whoops?"
Jen darted forward and dodged another ice-beam, and then drove her knee up into Articguana's chin. He felt a few of his teeth loosen as he flipped through the air and landed in a pile of trash; before the concussion set in, he slapped the dial again and turned into Swampfire.
"Okay, that really hurt," he said as he healed up. "Are you trying to kill me!?"
Jen actually looked offended at that. "Of course not! But I am taking the Ultimatrix."
The girl launched herself at him again; Swampfire brought up his arms to defend himself, only for someone to appear between him and his attacker. There was a muted boom as Jen's fist crashed into her friend's open hand. The shockwave still bowled Swampfire over, but the man was hardly affected; his coat fluttered a little, but that was it.
"I think you've made your point," he said gently. "Can we please try it my way now?" He glanced back at Swampfire, and then brushed some frost off his shoulder. "That was unpleasantly cold, by the way."
Jen took a deep breath, and then stepped back. "Fine. You get one shot, Ken—if he still doesn't give up, I'm taking that watch."
"If he doesn't give up, I'll take it myself." The man, Ken, glanced back at Swampfire, who was reached for the dial again. "No, none of that. Ultimatrix, emergency override, Code Ten."
Ben appeared in front of Swampfire; from the way Ken and Jen blinked, they could see him now.
"Override recognized." Ben's voice was completely toneless, which unnerved his friend.
"Initiate shutdown," Ken commanded. "Bloodline authorization."
Just like that, Ben vanished, and Midoriya turned back to normal. He did a double-take between Ken and the Ultimatrix.
"What did you do to him!?" Midoriya demanded.
Ken raised an eyebrow. "Huh. More concerned about the tutorial program than yourself." He shook his head. "Not important right now. Unlike certain little sisters I could name, I just want to talk."
Jen huffed, but didn't refute anything he said.
Had he not been so scared, Midoriya would have paid more attention to the fact that his would-be kidnappers were now speaking English. He could understand the language well enough, but—oh, right. He remembered that the Ultimatrix also acted as a translator. Since it was offline, he had to figure out what was being said the hard way.
Midoriya backed up until he was touching another wrecked car. "Wh-what do you want to talk about?"
"That watch, for one thing," Ken said, gesturing to the Ultimatrix. "See, it holds the key to saving our dad's life."
"Our dad is the real Ben Tennyson," Jen cut in, "not that hologram you've got."
"We don't really have time for all the details," Ken continued. "The short version is that our dad is dying, and the only thing that can keep him alive is inside that watch."
Midoriya glanced down at the Ultimatrix. "Why didn't you just say so?"
Ken rolled his eyes and lightly flicked his sister's head. "See? I told you we could talk it out."
Jen scowled at him. "Oh, shut up. I have a lot of aggression to work out right now."
"Anyway, that's why we're here," Ken said. "We need the Ultimatrix to save our dad. Now, I'm being nice, but we have three options going forward. Option one, you hand over the Ultimatrix, we head back home, get Dad fixed up, and give you back the watch when we're done. Shouldn't take more than a few hours, maybe a day."
"Option two," Jen said as she crossed her arms. "We fight you again for the watch. Since you can't use it anymore, that'll be a short fight. We'll take the Ultimatrix, and you'll never see us, or it, ever again."
Midoriya gulped. "A-and… option three?"
Ken smiled. "You come with us, and we prove just how badly we need the Ultimatrix. Besides, after Dad's better, I'm sure he'll want to talk to you in person. It's not every day you meet someone who meets the criteria to be worthy of that watch. Also, he'll probably want to thank you." The smile faded. "Please. I'm asking for your help." He paused for a moment. "Here, a gesture of good faith—Ultimatrix, override, Code Ten. Reactivate."
"Reactivation successful," Ben's voice said. "Resuming normal functions."
Ben flickered into view, blinked, and then turned to Midoriya. "What did I miss? Are we still fighting?"
"N-no, I don't think so." Midoriya started to reach for the Ultimatrix's dial, but then stopped. "They want my help to save the real Ben Tennyson."
Ben's only sign of surprise was to blink again. "All right. What do you want to do?"
Midoriya wanted to think about it, but he was honest enough with himself to know what option he'd choose. Someone needed help—more than that, someone was asking for help. What kind of Hero would he be if he said anything except…
"Okay, I'll help you." Midoriya looked at Ben, who nodded and vanished, and then at the siblings. "Can I at least leave a message for my mom?"
Ken nodded. "Sure thing, kid; I'll deliver it for you."
Midoriya tore a page out of a notebook and wrote a short note—Sorry, Mom, I'll be late; an emergency came up with Ben. I should be home either late tonight or early tomorrow to explain everything—and handed it to Ken. Rather than run off at super-speeds, he just snapped his fingers, and the note vanished in a flash of green light.
"It went right to your kitchen," he said, and then snapped his fingers again, creating a human-sized portal in front of them. "You two go on ahead. I'll be right behind you."
Jen grabbed Midoriya by the wrist—much gentler this time—and tugged him towards the portal. "Just hurry up, Ken. We don't need any attention drawn to this place, and a portal to another universe will do that."
Ken chuckled. "Funny, I thought the metahuman brawl on the beach did that."
"M-metahuman?" Midoriya echoed.
"Later, okay?" Jen pushed him into the portal. "In you get!"
Ken waited for his sister to follow Midoriya; he took a step towards the portal, and then turned around.
"This has been bothering me all day," he muttered, and snapped his fingers again.
When the portal closed, Ken left a pristine beach behind him.
…
"Oh, I regret this," Midoriya wheezed. "I regret everything."
Jen gently rubbed his back with legitimate concern on her face, a far cry from the aggression she'd shown just a few minutes earlier.
"Sorry, some people don't do well in other universes," she said. "Looks like we can go to your universe without any problems, but you can't come to ours without feeling like, uh…"
"Like I want to die?" Midoriya finished. As soon as he'd stepped through the portal, he'd fallen to his hands and knees, overcome with the worst nausea and dizziness he'd ever felt in his life. Fortunately, he'd been able to hold his lunch in. "This isn't fair; you could have warned me."
"Honestly, we didn't know," Jen said. "It's not like we can test this sort of thing beforehand."
Ken helped Midoriya to his feet. "Don't worry, I'll give you a pick-me-up; it should last long enough."
Midoriya watched as Ken put his hand, now glowing green, on his head; a moment later, he felt fine. Now that he didn't feel so horrible, he was able to take stock of his surroundings; wherever he was didn't have any windows, but it was a large room, mostly empty, but dotted with computer terminals. Each of them was manned by someone in a purple uniform that only glanced in his direction. There were a few other people milling about, and they were in costumes that just screamed 'Hero' to him.
"You're lucky I've had practice healing people in your universe," Ken said, getting his attention again as he helped him to his feet. "It's not a permanent fix, I'm just balancing out your equilibrium so that you don't make a mess on the floor. We just waxed it."
It took about two seconds for what he said to click in Midoriya's mind. "You're the Vigilante who saved Iida's brother!"
Ken paused. "I'm just going to pretend I know who that is. If you're talking about the guy who got stabbed, then yes."
Jen gave him a look. "That's what you did? I thought you actually did something wrong."
Midoriya kept looking from one to the other. "I feel like I'm missing something. Also, where are we?" A terrifying thought occurred to him. "Wait, am I in another universe!?"
Ken laughed. "Didn't think this through, did you?"
"No," Midoriya groaned.
Ken gently guided him forward. "Well, we are kind of in a rush, so we'll give you the tour a little later. Come on."
They quickly exited the large room and followed a gently curving hallway; this one had a window, and as soon as Midoriya saw what lay beyond it, he froze. There, gently turning below him, was Earth.
"Are we in space!?"
Jen raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, probably should have mentioned that. Welcome to the Watchtower, primary base for the Justice League, temporary base for the Titans."
Midoriya had way too much to process at that moment, and if it weren't for Ken keeping a firm grip on his shoulder, he probably would have sat down hard to think. Space travel had lost the public interest over the last few generations on his Earth—and, wow, he just started to realize that he was no longer on his Earth.
"This is… a space station?"
"Yep." Ken shrugged. "We don't usually have everyone on either roster here unless there's some serious end-of-the-world stuff happening, so you probably won't see everyone. Actually, there's a crisis in Russia right now that the League is intervening in, and a few of the Titans are in New York, dealing with some smugglers, but they should be back in an hour or two."
Seeing Midoriya's confusion, Jen sighed. "It's a base for two different superhero teams. We're part of the Titans, and we're just using it until our new base is up and running. Got it?"
Remembering how Jen was able to beat him senseless without much effort, Midoriya hastily nodded. "Got it!"
"Good, because we're almost at the infirmary." Jen glanced at her brother. "I'll go on ahead and let them know we've got the Ultimatrix."
"Sure, sure." Ken kept Midoriya from getting bowled over by the shockwave produced by Jen running at super-speed. "She's so bad at keeping her cool. It's why we never assigned her undercover work."
Midoriya looked up at him in confusion. "You said your dad was dying, right? I'm kind of surprised you aren't acting like her."
Ken smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Oh, believe me, I'm about ten seconds from just ripping that watch off, arm included, and running it to my dad." He chuckled when Midoriya paled. "I'm just really good at keeping myself under control; one of the benefits of a lifetime making sure I don't accidentally kill someone."
Midoriya didn't say anything else, mostly because he couldn't get the image of his arm being brutally torn from his body out of his mind. After another few minutes of walking, Ken brought him to a set of automated doors, guarded by two people in costumes. One was a blonde-haired man dressed in varying shades of green; he had a bow and a large quiver full of arrows on his back. On the other side of the door was a beautiful woman with long blonde hair; she wore a black jacket over a low-cut outfit, with fishnet stockings and combat boots.
"Hey, kiddo," the man said cheerfully, though even with the double-diamond mask over his eyes, it was easy to see that he was tired. "You brought a guest."
The woman examined Midoriya with a critical gaze. "I hope you didn't just kidnap him."
"Of course not!" Ken grinned. "Jen beat him up, I asked for his help, and then I kidnapped him." He then pressed a button on the wall, and the door slid open. "I'll introduce you to everyone later, kid."
Bewildered, Midoriya followed him through the door, but as soon as he saw what was on the other side, he froze.
Thanks to the hologram in the Ultimatrix, Midoriya had had a pretty good idea of what Ben Tennyson looked like, even as an adult. He wasn't expecting to ever meet him like this, though; he was lying on a bed, eyes closed and too pale to be natural, and even unconscious appeared to be in a great deal of pain. His hair was grey, though his face seemed several decades too young for that. Several different machines were connected to him; some, Midoriya recognized from his own recent visit to the hospital, but others were unmistakably alien.
His left arm also caught his attention. Ben's Ultimatrix was larger than Midoriya's, and colored silver. The opposite hand was held in both hands of a blonde-haired woman that looked almost exactly like Jen, except for the hair. She wore a blue bodysuit with red boots, a short red cape, and a red S mounted over a shield-shaped crest on her chest.
That must be Ken and Jen's mother, Midoriya thought. Ben's wife.
Jen, who was standing next to her mother with one hand on her shoulder, gently shook her. "Mom, he's here."
"About time!" Midoriya jumped when a tiny, hunched figure hopped over to him. He looked like Grey Matter, only with mustache-like tendrils on his face, and he held himself up with a cane. "You could have brought him here hours ago!"
Ken rolled his eyes. "True, but that would have involved infiltrating his school full of metahumans. This was easier. I thought you'd approve of us taking a measured approach, Azmuth."
Midoriya started; this was the creator of the Omnitrix!?
Azmuth huffed. "Yes, yes, I'm not what you were expecting, but we don't have time for that song and dance. Ultimatrix."
Ben, the hologram, flickered and appeared in front of everyone. "Awaiting instruction."
Midoriya would be the first to admit that it was creepy to see his friend act so… robotically.
"Access hardware diagnostics," Azmuth commanded, and a holographic screen appeared in front of him. He gently swiped at his mustache as he read the contents. "Hmm… yes, the original template is still embedded in the hardware. I can use this to synthesize a cure."
"A real cure this time?" A well-built man with an outfit similar to Ben's wife's, albeit made with a thicker material and a longer cape, raised an eyebrow. "You thought you'd saved him the last time."
"I was trying to stop the poison last time," Azmuth said. "I hadn't realized that it had simply become dormant all these years. Now that I know what to look for, I can purge it from Ben's system."
Finally, Midoriya couldn't take it any longer. "Can somebody please tell me what's going on!?"
Azmuth huffed again. "Years ago, the Ultimatrix was destroyed by one of Ben's enemies; what was left was used as a medium to infect him with a virus that was killing him. To make a long story short, I stopped the virus, and we all thought that was that. It turns out that the virus had mutated over the years, until it became strong enough to kill him. The only way for me to create an antidote is with the original strain of the virus, which remained inside the Ultimatrix, which Ben asked to be rebuilt a few years ago."
Midoriya didn't know what was more impressive—that Azmuth had managed to remain composed throughout his explanation, or that he had been working the whole time he'd been talking.
"Wait, does that mean I'm infected?" Midoriya looked down at the Ultimatrix in worry.
"What? No, that virus was tailored to attack Ben's specific DNA, stop worrying." Azmuth held out one tiny hand. "I've written the coding. Now I just need to extract a physical sample of the virus. A few molecules should be sufficient. I just need to take the Ultimatrix to my lab for the extraction. Hand it over, boy."
Midoriya flinched back. He was ashamed to say that a small part of him didn't want to be parted from the watch; it was what had brought him so close to his dream of being a Hero, and had given him the chance to have friends. Now, a complete stranger was asking him to give it up.
Ben's wife stood up and walked over to Midoriya unsteadily. "Please. We need the Ultimatrix to save him."
Oh, who am I kidding? He looked at Ben, still unconscious and in pain. There's no real choice.
He held out his arm. "Take it."
Azmuth pressed a circle on his holographic keyboard, and the Ultimatrix slid off Midoriya's arm. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
A moment later, he vanished, and Midoriya was left in a room full of strangers. Now, without the Ultimatrix, he felt terribly vulnerable.
Thankfully, Ken seemed to pick up on that and gently patted his shoulder. "Nothing left to do but wait. Come on, let's get you up to speed."