Chapter Text
A young, green haired boy stirred from his sleep, the vision of a man in a bloody hockey mask swinging a chainsaw that dripped a corrosive poison still sitting at the top of his mind. Even now, a few days after the battle with All Might that spelled the end of the Toxic Chainsaw’s crime spree, the boy still found it hard to forget the terrifying supervillain.
The youth sat up, his bright green eyes moving this way and that, searching for the safe and familiar. Luckily, the safe and familiar were all around. In every direction he looked there was a comforting collage of red, blue and yellow. The same huge, fearless smile beamed at him from a hundred different places. The smile of the Symbol of Peace, the Number One Hero. His favorite hero.
The sight of his room made the last of the nightmare start to fade and he found himself calming down. It was late, very, very late. His bedroom was dim, his All Might curtains blocking off the glare of the outside street lamps. The only source of light was the All Might nightlight that was plugged in beside the boy’s desk. He kept purely it because it came with his limited edition All Might sheet set and no other reason thank you very much.
The boy yawned, his mouth opening wide, his eyes growing heavy once again. The sun wasn’t going to be out for hours. The young green haired boy reached for the All Might sheets he had kicked away while in the grip of his nightmare. It was time to go back to sleep.
WHAM!!!!
His eyes bolted open and his head whipped towards the sound. Any traces of sleepiness were gone. Something had hit the wall by the front door. It had hit it hard. What if it was a burglar? What if it was a supervillain!?! The boy shook a little in a mix of fear and nervousness. What if…no. That would be impossible. There’s no way a hero like All Might would ever be a part of his little world.
What if it was someone in trouble?
That thought got him to swing his feet over the edge of his bed. The thought of it possibly being a superhero who needed help got his feet to the floor. The notion that he was not quite ready for middle school but close got him to his bedroom door. It was one final thought that got his feet moving though.
What would All Might do?
The boy slipped into the hallway that lead to his both his and his mother’s bedrooms. As he did, he passed the bright blue sign bearing All Might’s trademark hair and the boy’s name. Izuku.
He made a quick stop by his mother’s door, putting an ear to it. He wanted to make sure she was still asleep. A few seconds was enough to soothe the boy’s worries. She had always been a sound sleeper, even more so since Izuku’s father had gone overseas to work.
There were times where she would want to do nothing but sleep. Izuku knew how tired she got taking care of everything, but he also thought she might just want to be alone when she was in her room…
He had heard her crying a few times.
Izuku wanted so badly to tell her that things would be okay, to give her a hug and make her feel better. That was what she had always done for him. The problem was that she was crying about adult things, things that Izuku probably wouldn’t understand. How could he say things would be okay if he didn’t know what was wrong?
He shook his head quickly, clearing his thoughts. The socks he wore muffled what little noise his steps made as he crossed the darkened living room. Every step brought the front door, and more importantly what was on the other side of it, closer.
Izuku needed to be focused. He didn’t know what he was going to find on the other side of the door. He had to think about what a Pro would do. Should he borrow a move from Ingenium and quickly spin to the side if an attack comes head on? Oh, maybe he should do some Gun-Head martial arts…though he didn’t really know any of those moves. He had bought all of Gun-Head's martial arts DVDs and he tried his best to follow the motions but…
Izuku reached up, his small hand shaking more than a little. The door’s bolt gave a smooth click as Izuku unlocked it. He pulled it open, letting summer night air wash over him. There was something in the air, a heaviness that promised a storm. The young boy stepped out onto the walkway that ran along the third floor of his building.
It was brighter out here than inside, Izuku realized. There were a dozen apartments that ran down the walkway and each one had a small light next to their door. Only his light was out. It had burned out about a week ago. His mother hadn’t called the maintenance man yet.
Izuku turned to those doors and the comforting little lights that sat beside them and found himself frozen in shock. There was a man leaning against the wall of his apartment! The man’s posture was slouched, his breathing heavy. He wore a suit that Izuku couldn’t tell was black or blue in the dim light.
“M-Mister?” Izuku’s stammered, his young voice nearly failing him. “Are you hurt?”
The man’s head slowly turned towards Izuku, the young boy feeling more than seeing the man’s eyes fall on him. The man rose to his full height. He was tall, far taller than Izuku’s mom. Almost as tall as All Might!
He wasn’t just tall though. He was, big. Big like All Might was. The whole world seemed to revolve around him. Izuku didn't know why but somehow that was even scarier than the sheer size of him.
The man in the suit moved with a speed that was frightening. One moment he was ten feet away and the next Izuku found himself lifted off his feet with one rough hand. The man’s long, strong fingers wrapped around Izuku’s cheeks, digging in painfully. A huge palm covered the boy’s mouth.
Izuku’s head rapped sharply against the concrete wall that lay at the far end of the building’s outer walkway as he was shoved against it. He stars for a moment before blinking them away. It was only when they faded that Izuku saw how badly the man holding him was wounded.
His dark suit, a salary man’s suit without the tie almost, was caked with blood that was both long since dried and freshly shed. He looked like he had been in a fight with a monster, a monster scary enough to make All Might think twice.
All Might would still fight it of course; he was the Number One Hero after all.
“An acceptable vessel.” The hurt man wheezed, as he looked over Izuku’s terrified face. The tall man’s hair was dark and unkept. Izuku didn’t get the feeling that this man was lazy though, he just had better uses for his time. His face was in rough shape, his lip split, his right eye swollen shut. Izuku was sure there were broken teeth in the man’s mouth. “Under the circumstances.”
Izuku had no idea what that meant, and he didn’t want to find out. His eyes darted this way and that, looking for some kind of escape. This search for an exit only lasted a few seconds. His gaze instead found itself focused on the man’s free hand.
Bolts of what Izuku could only describe as scarlet lightning crackled off the back of the man’s palm and his hand began to glow like a blood red sunset.
The man placed his glowing hand on his own chest, right between his collar bones. There was a moment of pause, of calculation. The man took a deep breath. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration and effort. His fingers clenched. Bolts of red lightning crackled and jumped, striking the dark suit and white shirt the tall man wore.
Seemingly of its own volition Izuku’s mind conjured up the image of one of those plasma balls his mother had shown him at the Coruscant Science Museum. He could remember the way the lightning inside those glass balls danced. He remembered how the bolts of energy had jumped and arced as he had run his finger along the glass orbs, following along with him.
That’s what those bolts of power reminded him of as they lashed against the tall man’s chest. They were random…but focused. They struck and then stayed, jittering and jerking but staying right where they landed, not vanishing but locking into unstable arcs.
Izuku watched all of this, trying to take in every detail, terrified but unbearably curious. This was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It had to be this man’s quirk but…what could it possibly be? He was so fast, so strong…
The man gave a grunt of what might have been pain before redoubling his efforts, his hand slowly beginning to pull away from his body. Izuku saw smoke and was certain that the man’s shirt had caught fire. It took a moment for the boy to see that the man’s clothing was untouched.
The smoke was coming from inside the tall man in the suit.
Dark, noxious looking soot was winding its way up the bolts of crimson that still stayed bound to the man’s chest. For a moment Izuku thought the smoke would choke the lightning out altogether but instead that inky darkness and crimson light seemed to mix, becoming a terrible cloud that swirled silently around the tall man’s arm, running almost to his shoulder. Izuku had been right about there being a storm coming.
The man in the suit was the storm.
His steely eyes moved to his arm and the tempest that surrounded it. “You’ve witnessed a miracle, boy. You should be impressed.”
Izuku nodded frantically, hoping that agreeing with the man might earn him some kind of reprieve. Maybe if he said just the right thing this man would let him go, let him run back into his room and hide.
The man didn’t seem to pay Izuku any mind, continuing to admire the dark spectacle that boiled and churned around his arm. When he was through his eyes turned back to Izuku. “Now hold still.”
Izuku’s eyes bulged, his mind filling with a thousand different possibilities of what would happen if that arm touched him, absolutely none of them good. Unable to help himself a high-pitched scream managed to slip past his lips before being muffled by the hand that still clutched at his face. Even this small sound, however, was enough to earn Izuku a vicious shake that once again caused his head to hit the concrete wall hard enough to daze him.
Izuku’s frantic mind, usually buzzing with thoughts on a particular quirk and its applications, was cloudy from the sudden burst of pain. Tears began to stream down both of his flushed cheeks, wetting the man’s hand. The boy only had one thought as that terrifying mix of smoke and lightning moved closer and closer to him. He was going to die right here, all of nine.
What were they going to tell his mom?
The glowing hand crept closer and closer to Izuku’s chest. Finally, after what felt like both a fraction of a second and hours they met. The instant they did tendrils of lightning lashed out, latching onto the young boy. That was when the pain started. The smoke followed, coiling around the lightning as it made its way to his small body. It was when that smoke touched him that it all got so much worse.
Izuku’s vision began to swim, going from grey to black and then grey again. He hurt, he hurt so badly he could barely process it. He thrashed in the steely grip that still held his face, that blocked the screams that were trying so desperately to escape before the torment robbed the boy of his voice. His arms flailed and his feet kicking at empty air. The man’s arms were as immovable as a mountain.
The tall man shushed Izuku as the boy convulsed. “Now, now. It’ll be over very, very soon.”
Izuku paid the man no mind at all, his mind only on the pain that was whipping through every nerve of his body. It felt like he was being burned alive from the inside out.
Finally, after what felt like days the last of the crimson light faded away. The pain went with it, becoming a dull ache that was downright reasonable in comparison to what had come before.
The man in the suit looked over Izuku for a moment, inspecting his handiwork. “Ah, quite the hiding place. Even if All Might should find you what could he possibly do?” Izuku’s eyes were wide with shock, not terror. Did he just say ALL MIGHT?
The man grinned through his broken teeth. “He’d never do a thing like kill a child.”
The terror came rushing back.
Izuku was tossed aside with all the ceremony of an empty candy wrapper. He hit the concrete floor hard, air forcing its way out of his lungs before they locked up completely. All Izuku could do as the cruel stranger turned and walked away was watch and wheeze as he tried to catch his breath.
Even through the fight for air Izuku was engaged in he noticed a difference in the tall man. He seemed smaller. No…that wasn’t right. He was limping now as he walked. His breathing was heavier that it had been before. He was still terrifying, able to end Izuku with barely a thought, but...
For the first time he seemed human.
The man in the suit had only taken a few steps when he stopped, reaching out and taking the rail that ran along the half wall. He seemed to be holding himself up by it. Izuku thought that maybe the main in the suit didn’t look wounded after all. Maybe he looked like he was dying.
“Iron Skin x3, Kinetic Dampener x2, Kinetic Accelerator x4, Muscle Enhancement x7! Plus, a dozen other support quirks! This should have been over already. Tonight, is not going at all how I planned it.” The man said, far more to himself than to the young boy. He was almost muttering to himself, the workings of his mind coming out as speech. “Not at all.”
The man turned his head, fixing in place the youth with a stare. Izuku found that under that stare he couldn’t breathe. His lungs were frozen, his heart stopped. If this man kept staring at Izuku like that he was going to die.
“I will be back for my property boy. Do not grow comfortable.”
The man then turned his eyes away from Izuku, and to the horizon.
Izuku had a thousand questions and no breath to say them with. What was the man talking about? What property? What had he done to Izuku? The tall man in the suit placed a foot on the low concrete wall.
Both his hair and Izuku’s ruffled as a gust of wind whipped through the night, seemingly at the man in the suit’s command. It swirled around his feet, building and churning, throwing bits of debris this way and that. The turbulence grew and grew underneath the man before erupting, rocketing him into the dark night.
The after effects of that blast were enough to rocket through Izuku’s still open front door and into his living room. Books flew off shelves. The small vase Izuku’s mom bought the week before sailed off the edge of the end table it sat on. It hit the floor with a crash, spilling both water and the irises that it had held.
Izuku’s arms moved reflexively to his face to protect his eyes from the harsh wind. Only when the breeze died away completely did he find the courage to drop them. He sat there for a long moment, listening to his own breathing. His mind was completely and utterly blank, filled with a shock that masqueraded as calm.
This trance was broken when a light came on inside his home. Izuku saw it spilling across his socked feet. His mother’s voice called out. She sounded tired. Tired and scared.
“Izuku? Where are you baby?!?”
He then did what any young boy would do in that situation. He bolted to his feet and ran to his mother, splashing through the quickly growing puddle as he went. When they met, his small arms whipped around her back, holding her tightly as he began to sob in earnest. He stayed there for a long time.
Inko Midoriya stood at her son’s door for a long time that night, maybe a little too long even. She didn’t really know if there were guidelines on that sort of thing and right now, she didn’t care to know. All she knew was that her boy was finally sleeping peacefully.
She shook her head and muttered darkly. That was the last time Izuku would be watching things like that awful Terrible Buzzsaw or Poison Powertool or whatever his name was. She had known for certain he was going to have nightmares and lo and behold she was proven right.
Even her sleep had been a little uneasy since she had seen that horribly thin man and his terrifying weapon. She hadn’t stayed to watch the end of that particular video. According to her son it had all ended up okay in the end.
Inko found herself doubting how okay it had gone as she surveyed the shambles her living room was currently in. With a sigh she walked over to the remnants of her shattered vase, grabbing a small wastebasket as she did so.
She turned her will to the biggest shard of porcelain, concentrating on it. The piece of former vase quivered and then lifted off the floor, floating upward. It halted in midair for a moment and Inko grimaced, “pulling” at it again. The shard moved towards her once more. When it hovered over the waste basket, she released it.
It hit the bottom of the basket with a dull thud. Something about that sound sent a surge of real anger through Inko. Hadn’t she only just picked this vase up? She had really liked this one!
That anger cooled almost instantly, however. Izuku had had a nightmare. He was also a really a good boy, kind, caring and so sweet. He just seemed to…feel everything so intensely. He gave his heart to everything he did, focusing on it with an almost frightening intensity. She could only imagine what he could have done if had been born with a quirk.
Her boy could have moved mountains.
The image of a blurry x-ray and a suspiciously present joint came to her then. There was something maddening about the fact that her little boy’s dreams had been so thoroughly crushed by something like an extra joint in a pinky toe. She focused on the next piece of porcelain muttering to herself.
“Sorry kid, it’s not going to happen. What kind of doctor says that?”