MHA Idea Pool - Titanmaster_117 - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia (2024)

Chapter 1: Dreamwalker

Chapter Text

It's an average day for Class 1-A. They're just strolling through a shopping district, having fun, buying gifts and food, defending themselves from a gang of villains.

Yep, an average day for Class 1-A.

Except no. Except it's not. Because something happens. Izuku fights the villains, but is swatted to the side by one of them and into a random civilian girl trying to flee. There's a jolt of light between them, and then they both fall into a deep slumber.

In the aftermath, the two are taken to one of the hospitals, but the doctors find that not only are the two - both Izuku and the girl - in a seemingly permanent vegetative state, but they cannot keep the two apart without causing physical pain to the both of them.

Class 1-A worry about their friend, and then even more so when they learn about the girl - who's name is Ayumu Tachi - and her quirk, Dreamwalker, allowing her to place people into a deep slumber and interact with their dreams. Supposedly, at least.

The only problem is that she shouldn't be able to use it. She hadn't been using it since she turned six years old.

Class 1-A's fears continue to grow. One of their friends being under the affect of a quirk is one thing, but being under the influence of an untrained and untested quirk is another. There's no way to understand how Dreamwalker works nowadays, and there's no proof to say that either of them will wake up anytime soon, or even ever.

Ochako, in particular, fears for Izuku's safety and takes his hand into her own...

And then collapses onto the floor, falling into the same sleep as Izuku and Ayumu.

When she opens her eyes, she finds herself in a world unlike anything that she had ever seen. The sky was green and black and red, the grand buildings around her were golden and riddled with statues of All Might and heroes and Class 1-A themselves, and the rest of the world was of rolling verdant hills and fields... but they were all covered in smoke and fog. Fungal overgrowths covered the fields and buildings, and the entire world had fallen to rot and decay. Glowing purple chains latched the world together and kept everything in place like a possessive prison, and constant murmur of despair and sorrow flowed with the wind that flowed between the buildings and pushed through the smoke.

She was in Izuku Midoriya's mind, having made contact with him and inadvertently interacting with Ayumu's Dreamwalker quirk.

She wonders the world, lost in the fog and fungus and trying to find her way through the decadent ruins mottled with disease and rot. Everything was falling to decay, the rot constantly growing around her, slowly inching up the shallow rivers and broken golden walls. Whenever she approached the rot, she felt sick and fatigued, so she made an effort to avoid them. Eventually, she comes across a spectre - a shadow of Izuku - and when she gives chase to the fleeing spectre, she comes across a cloudy echo floating in the middle of the ichor mottled street, coloured red and black and pulsating like a heart.

She presses herself against the echo, and finds herself in a memory, standing in a room with a young Izuku and his mother as they watch All Might's debut for the hundredth time, only for it to shift to the doctor's office, where Ochako's finds out that Izuku, much to her confusion, was designated as quirkless.

Then, she's back in his room, and she's sobbing alongside him and his mother when he asks if he can still be a hero.

Ochako says that he can, and is shocked when her mother just apologises.

The memory ends, and suddenly, Ochako wants to know more. He was quirkless? But he had one of the strongest quirks she'd seen? What the hell did that mean that he suddenly didn't?

She goes for another echo, but stops herself. She needs to find the spectre of her friend. She needs to help him...

But she can't, because a shadowy figure with glowing purple eyes grabs hold of her, and forces her out of Izuku's mind.

She wakes up once more, slumping upwards next to Izuku and Ayumu, surrounded by her classmates who all fret and worry over her.

She explains what she has seen to them, and they realise that they themselves can enter Izuku's mind via the Dreamwalker semblance, by making contact with Izuku, and possibly anyone who was connected to the Dreamwalker quirk. The only thing that they needed to worry about, though, was the strange spectre within Izuku's mind that had forced Ochako out.

So, with determination in their hearts and a mission to save their friend right before them, they press their hands against Midoriya and each other, and entered into his mind - into his dream world - once more.

From there, the class would go on to explore the strange dream world, sifting through the rotting corpse of the grand kingdom, moving through the spoke, and melding themselves to the strange geometry and physics of the new world that they had stepped into, avoiding spectres and chasing ghosts.

And time after time, they would begin to piece Izuku's life together through the echoes, looking through the cloudy bubbles and walking through the projections and seeing his life laid bare before them piece by piece. Slowly, through random memories through different corners of his life, they would begin to understand Izuku, seeing his struggles, and the damage that he has accumulated all his life.

And with the eight ghosts shrouded in shadow guiding them along - the ghosts of the power that they know now not to be Superpower, but One for All - they are sure that they can save their friend.

But tensions begin to flare in the group when Bakugo's past treatment of Izuku is revealed to the class, and they begin to divide on the subject, causing old resentments within their group to flare up. However, despite their distain, they are forced to swallow it down and move on.

But then they are confronted by the angry spectre with purple eyes from before, which proceeds to thrash them all in a fight. Worse yet, she is aided by her following of Midoriya's nightmares made manifest, the phantoms of Stain, All for One, Shigiraki, and Overhaul fighting alongside the mysterious spectre of shadow as Class 1-A charged at the nightmare villains...

And are promptly beaten solid.

They are left bloody and broken on the ground, but a clear strike from one of the students is able to clear the mist away from the spectre, and reveal the foe that stands before them.

Ayumu Tachi, draped in moonlight and standing firmly against them, with a simple demand: leave them alone.

They were wrong. Ayumu has full control over her quirk. Ayumu is in full control of the dream world.

Ayumu is this story's villain, not a victim.

And with that, the class are expelled once more from the dream world.

We cut over to Ayumu, who returns to a small cottage in the middle of a land of rolling plains atop a tall hill, giant purple chains flowing out from the roof and stretching across the sky. Inside the cottage is Izuku, sitting alone in a chair, looking down with his eyes dulled over.

Ayumu is holding him here, in the dream world, fondling over him and treating him as if he is an old friend - a lover, even. Here, in this world of her that she can change and mould with the snap of her finger, she has made her gilded cage around her captive - a heaven within a broken hell, a slice of healthy flesh underneath peeled layers of truth and diseased skin. She holds him here, and treats him to theatre shows where she is the actor and he is the audience. She showers him with gifts of the mind and the greatest presents.

All she asks for in return is for him to stay with her, for as long as they live.

A few seconds later, something begins to fill in the vials next to her. Blue liquid. Taking them, Ayumu pulls out a sample of the fungus from before, and pours the blue liquid onto it.

It has no affect.

Suddenly, something begins pounding on the door, and Ayumu grabs her weapon, promising Izuku that she would be back in a few minutes, and leaving him in darkness once more.

Meanwhile, Aizawa and All Might find the class waking up from their forceful slumber, and the former begins to chastise them for once more running into a situation without any understanding of what is actually going on. He has the class share their information with him and All Might, and when the class leave, he prepares to have a group of specialised Pro Heroes go into Izuku's mind and pull him out. All Might wants to go, but he's lost his power - he won't be of any help, and Aizawa would like to just open up Ayumu's eyes and negate her quirk, but she needs to be awake for that to happen, and even if he did, her quirk is still relatively unknown. For all he knew, he could shut down her quirk and leave Midoriya braindead as a result.

However, he plans to go in with the Pro Hero team into Izuku's mind and shut down the villain. All he needs to do is get a good look at Ayumu when she appears to repel them, and that might get the results they need.

"Or leave Young Midoriya braindead, like you said."

"Either way, I don't have any other plan, and I'm not dragging the problem children into this. They've already done enough on their own, without my permission. I won't risk it."

Soon, the Pro Hero team of mind specialists and combat retrieval experts arrive, and with Eraserhead, they all connect with the Dreamwalker quirk, and go in.

However, right from the start, everything goes wrong.

Izuku's mind begins to turn against the Pro Heroes. The spectres of Midoriya that had once guided his classmates begin to attack the Pros, and things only get worse when Ayumu and her collection of nightmares appear, which begin to overwhelm the Pros.

But then, everything goes wrong when Ayumu peers into Eraserhead's mind, and pulls out his biggest nightmare.

The massive villain known as Garvey, the one who had killed his best friend Shirakumo.

The Pro Heroes attempt to flee from Izuku's mind, but Ayumu does it for them. By the time that they are expelled from Izuku's mind, they are far worse off than Class 1-A, tired and traumatised.

Meanwhile, Class 1-A, now knowledgeable of Izuku's history, begin to argue amongst themselves about what to do, as well as Bakugo's past and One for All. However, when they learn of Aizawa and the Pro Heroes' failure, they compile all that they already know and have recently learnt about Izuku, and realised that the reason that the spectres assisted them and turned against Aizawa and the Pros was because Izuku simply didn't trust adults: he had been hurt by them so much that as soon as they had entered his mind, he had worked to expel them.

But those of Class 1-A, he trusted. He trusted them with his life, even. That was why they had let him in.

Realising that there is no other way that they are going to get Izuku out of Ayumu's grasp, Aizawa, with a healthy degree of reluctance, agrees to allow Class 1-A to enter into Izuku's mind once more, and though All Might wishes to enter with him, Aizawa orders him to stay behind.

They made contact, and entered into Izuku's mind once more.

Except they didn't. Class 1-A open their eyes, and suddenly find themselves in another world, one of rolling hills and grassy plains under what should've been a clear blue sky, with white pillars and towers piercing the heavens like knives, and islands that hovered in the air and created great waterfalls that turned into twisting rivers that slithered through the atmosphere. But it was covered with the same fungus from before, the same perpetual rot, and the sky, instead of being a clear baby blue, was mottled with smoke and fog. Giant purple chains filled the spaces between the clouds.

They were in Ayumu's mind.

Seeing the opportunity to learn of the villain that they face, Class 1-A, guided along by the spirits of the past One for All users - able to cross over into Ayumu's mind thanks to Izuku's connection to her - begin to pilfer the echoes and seek their secrets out, and with that, the life of Ayumu Tachi was laid bare before them:

When Ayumu Tachi was born, she was an incredibly sociable child. She had always interacted well with other children, and had been eager to talk and socialise, as well as comfort those around her who felt pain and sorrow.

When her parents took her to see a quirk specialist, they discovered that she had some sort of mental quirk, though they do not know what it is. At best, they believe that it is something to do with dreams, though they are still unsure.

However, that wouldn't matter, as soon Ayumu would begin to interact and share her semblance with another girl. A lone quirkless child by the name of Eiko Kase.

Ayumu and Eiko stayed as best friends for all their lives, playing and living their lives together for as long as they could remember. Eiko would help Ayumu with her studies and deliver to her sweet treats, and Ayumu would allow Eiko the chance to offload her stress and trauma from her torment of being born quirkless, before the two of them would be connected via Ayumu's Dreamwalker quirk (which Ayumu kept to herself and Eiko, and never revealed to anyone else out of solidarity with her friend), and they would dance in the dreams that they made with each other all throughout the night.

However, as they continued to grow up, Eiko began to face more and more discrimination at the hands of bullies and thugs because of her and her parents' quirklessness. Ayumu would do her best to try and protect her friend - shield her from harm - but it would begin to wear on the poor quirkless girl. The constant harassment and bullying that she suffered under would begin to break her down, and soon she would begin to grow more depressed and bitter about the world around her. The fact that the teachers didn't do anything about it, because of the customs of their culture, didn't help at all.

Soon, Eiko would grow to become an unpleasant person to be around, but Ayumu would be the only one to realise that it was just a front to protect herself. Her parents would be fired from their jobs because of their quirklessness, and would be left poor and destitute. Ayumu would offer Eiko the chance to stay at her place, but Eiko would break contact with her, out of fear of her bullies targeting her only friend as well.

But it was too late, and Ayumu would begin to suffer at the hand of Eiko's bullies as well, finding red spider lilies on her desk and facing mocking gestures and beatings from the thugs.

Sometime later, a fire breaks out in Eiko's home, but Ayumu would be the only one to intervene. Thankfully, no one saw her pull her friend out of the fire, but no other hero had been there to save his parents. No one else had intervened because of the law, and after saving her friend, the police had actually held Ayumu back from saving Eiko's parents, demanding that she wait for a hero to come and save them. Apparently All Might was nearby. He would save them.

But he didn't. By the time that he arrived on the scene, Eiko's parents were already dead.

Ayumu is traumatised by the event, and Eiko even more so. When All Might tries to comfort them, the two don't respond.

Ayumu brings Eiko to her house, but her parents don't want her friend there. They want nothing to do with the useless quirkless girl. Ayumu disregards them and allows her in regardless.

But Eiko heard their words. Oh, how she heard them...

Soon, Eiko would say that she felt sick and stayed home. Ayumu would go to school in the meantime, but when she got back home, she found it in silence.

She opened the door to Eiko's room, and found her hanging from the ceiling, a noose around her neck and her shoes on the floor.

Ayumu screamed.

When the ambulance arrived, it was already too late. Eiko was dead, and Ayumu could do nothing about it. Worse yet was the fact that one of the paramedics seemed to dismiss her dead friend entirely because of her quirklessness.

But then All Might showed up once again, and tried to comfort her.

He didn't even remember her.

Ayumu explodes at him. She demands that he leave her, and he reluctantly does. Worse yet, she begins to gain scorn and ridicule from the people around her for daring to push aside the number one hero himself...

The next day, she is back at school. No therapy, no comfort.

She heard a group of her fellow students - the same group that had bullied both her and Eiko - laughing about the death of Eiko, saying that it was good that another quirkless stain on the world learnt their place and offed themselves for the betterment of the world.

They even implied that they were the ones that started the fire that killed Eiko's parents.

Ayumu, in a blind fit of rage, grabbed the nearest blunt object and beat them bloody with it.

The police are called, but in order to protect their image, the school cover up the incident and the charges are dropped. Ayumu is still sent home, and her parents harangue her for wasting her time on the memory of the quirkless girl.

Ayumu is left alone, traumatised by what she saw, and punished by others for simply trying to do the right thing. She is left to wander the world after her parents threaten to kick her out into the streets if she ever tries something like that ever again. All she does now is spend her days wandering the city, listlessly and uselessly.

When All Might retires, she can't help but feel a little happy.

But then, when the inciting incident of this story occurs and the strange green-haired boy is thrown into Ayumu, her quirk activates on reflex.

She hadn't meant to draw him into her mind and dreams. It had been purely accidental.

But what happened next wasn't. Waking up into a strange new world of shadows and darkness that she didn't recognise, Ayumu found herself surrounded by seven and a half shadowy figures, Ayumu sought to protect herself from them, trying to drudge up as much of her quirk as she could...

Until she found herself surrounded by a million echoes... and then she knew everything.

Everything about Izuku Midoriya.

As Ayumu's quirk changed and evolved around her, amped up as a side effect of Izuku's connection to One for All, it began to muddy and block Izuku's connection to One for All, and soon they found themselves in the middle of Ayumu's mind, their dreamworlds both plagued by the dark fungal growths that threatened to consume them all.

And she saw him. She saw the real Izuku Midoriya. Not the cheerful helpful boy with a strong quirk and a perpetual smile on his face, but a broken, depressed child with no power of his own, slumped over, catatonic, dead eyed, and haunted by his own nightmares.

"You're like her... so much like her. A broken boy of a system that exploits him, of a world that abuses and kills him simply for being himself, for being born the way that he is. The way that you are... you've had no one your entire life. No one to comfort you, no one to love you, no one to protect you, no one to tell you that it will all be okay."

Izuku says nothing.

Ayumu smiles, her own eyes dead as well, and she wraps him into a tight hug.

"Don't be afraid, my dear. I'm here now. I'll be the one to comfort you. I'll be the one to love you. I'll be the one to protect you. I'll be the one to tell you that it will all be okay. I'll be the one there for you, for now and forever."

She let go of him, and smiled down at the boy.

"All I ask is that you stay with me, in this little slice of heaven... forever."

Ayumu kissed him, before trapping them both in the strange world that encompassed them, with their nightmares as their wardens.

When the echoes ended, the students were left in shock. They now shocked at the torment that she had gone through, the horrors that her quirkless friend had suffered, the fact that there had been so much discrimination against the quirkless and those who associated with them, the fact that Ayumu's friend had killed herself, the fact that All Might hadn't even remembered her...

But more than that, they now knew who Ayumu was.

She was a villain now, to be sure, but almost everything that had led her to this point had hardly been her fault. She was a villain, but she was also a scared girl who was damaged, broken, and trying to fill the gap in her heart where her friend once was.

But she was still a villain, and was holding their friend captive, and she needed to be taken down.

That being said, they did realise one fact: Ayumu didn't have nearly as much control over this world as they, and even she, thought she did. One for All, through Ayumu's new connection to Izuku, had evolved her quirk in ways none of them had ever imagined, and that meant that there were now strengths and weaknesses in the foundations, ones which the spirits of the past One for All users could help them exploit.

Furthermore, they remember Aizawa's account of his battle in Izuku's mind, and how Ayumu had pulled his nightmare of Garvey out of his mind, and realise that their minds were also connected to Ayumu's quirk.

So, they reason, is it not possible for them to use the same powers as Ayumu in the dream world?

With the help of the past One for All users, the class are able to unlock the powers of the dream world needed to overcome Ayumu and the seemingly invincible nightmares - gaining some new snazzy outfits as well - and, with the knowledge of where to find them thanks to the memory echoes they had been pilfering, come up with a plan:

Half of the class (the ones not that close to their comatose friend, that being Shoji, Ojiro, Sato, Koji, Hagakure, Jiro, Denki, Sero, Mina, and Tokoyami) would go to what seemed like the most important parts of Ayumu's mind and reign hell alongside the seven spirits, drawing her attention to them and away from Izuku, while the rest of the class (those closer to Izuku and thereby having the better chance of reaching out to him and breaking him out of whatever vegetative state he was in, being Aoyama, Ochako, Momo, Tsuyu, Iida, Todoroki, Bakugo, Kirishima, and Mineta) would follow the purple chains and make their way to the cottage where Izuku was being held, freeing him and getting him and the rest of them out of this nightmare.

The only problem with that plan was that they didn't know how to leave the dream world. They had only left before because Ayumu had ejected them from the mindscape.

With no other choice, the class agree to carry out the plan.

Meanwhile, Ayumu has transformed the cottage that she holds Izuku in into a colosseum, with the two of them (just Ayumu really) watching the nightmarish projections of Nine and Muscular battling each other below, the two mindless phantoms tearing into each other only to heal immediately afterwards.

Ayumu tries her best to enjoy the show, but can't help but keep her attention on Izuku, still in his comatose state, not saying a word, not saying or doing much of anything at all.

Why? Why was it that was keeping him in that state? Did he not want to be there? It shouldn't be. He shouldn't want to go. This was their piece of heaven, and even if he did want to leave he would've been vocal about it, so it had to be something else? Had separating him from One for All (a horrible quirk by the way. Why one would consider a quirk that did nothing but break their bones a blessing, she would never know) somehow damaged his mental state?

Or was he suffering from waking nightmares of his own?

The phantoms around her began to close in and whisper horrid things into her ear. With a shaky breath, she waved them away.

Then, something called to her, and the colosseum turned into a cottage of chains once more. Apologising to Izuku, Ayumu vacated the cottage, and left him on his own once more.

And then, we see what has been haunting Izuku this entire time.

Himself.

A malicious, villainous version of himself, made from all his deepest regrets and fears.

It prods at him, mocking his beliefs and ideals, and threatens to break him in twain for his failures and weaknesses. Izuku tries to defend himself - oh how he tries - but the malevolent image of himself is relentless.

It will have what it wants, in time.

It will have Izuku broken.

In Ayumu's mind, the class that had been sent away to cause chaos were doing just that. With the assistance of the One for All spirits, the spectres from Izuku's mind, and the new powers that they had unlocked within the dream world, they began to tear apart the landscape, destroying hilltops and burning fields and leaving devastation in their wake.

In the wake of their destruction, Ayumu arrives to rain hell upon them, pulling nightmares of villains out of Izuku's mind to stop them. In the ensuing fight, Ayumu would find herself suddenly overwhelmed by the sudden leap in power that the students were showing, and it was only when she pulled the nightmare of Gigantomachia out of Mina's mind did the fight finally begin to stalemate...

Only for Mina, thanks to the powers of the dream world, to grow herself to enormous size and begin to deck it out with the phantom of the giant villain.

"Oh my god, she just punched that kaiju in the face!"

Go nuts with the dream world fights.

But then, Ayumu senses something else, and leaves the nightmares to keep the heroes busy.

Meanwhile, the other half of the class are busy following the purple chains in the sky to the cottage, but had to contend with the nightmares that were wandering the lands and trying to get in their way.

Soon, they reached the cottage, but had to sneak past the lumbering nightmares that were trying to break down the walls. Upon getting into the cottage, they find Izuku in his catatonic state, but no matter what they do, nothing is able to get him out of whatever slump he is in.

"He won't respond," they look to the side to see Ayumu standing near them, a fierce glare on her face, "He never does."

Using her quirk and the powers of the dream world to restrain the nine students, Ayumu explains that she has been trying to heal and care for Izuku since she accidentally brought him into the dream world, doing her best to treat whatever wounds he seemed to have been inflicted with, whether it be by others or himself, but so far nothing seemed to be working. He was still in the same depressed state as he was since they first arrived, and Ayumu didn't understand why.

But that was okay. No healing process was quick. She smiled,and says that she doesn't care how long it takes: she would heal her love and the damage that had been done to him, and she would leave him happier than ever.

Nearby, the empty vials filled with that same blue liquid. As Ayumu takes the vials and pours their contents into a series of syringes, one of the students asks what the blue stuff is.

"It's my love."

Or rather, it's positive emotions, as scant as they are around here, turned into liquid. A few seconds later, she injected the blue liquid into the fungal overgrowth that had begun to creep into the house, only for it to have no effect, just like before.

The students make the connection:

The fungus isn't just some sort of malicious corruption. It's Izuku and Ayumu's despair given rotten form, their depression, grief, and regret made manifest.

The students try to convince Ayumu to let Izuku go, but she refuses. As the phantoms around her begin to grow their forms and whisper to her, Ayumu declares that she will not let Izuku go. Not while he's still in pain. Not while he still needed her care.

And when he doesn't?

Ayumu has no answer. She simply takes Izuku into her arms and slips out of the cottage, content to let the nightmares of Himiko, Wolfram, the exam robots, and the Sludge Villain deal with the students, before attempting to remove them once more from the dream world, as she and her captive slipped down into the deepest reaches of their minds for protection.

All the while, Izuku's dark double began to grow in power, feasting on the despairing fungus around them and growing in strength as it continued to torment him, and Ayumu's nightmares continued to grow in tandem.

After defeating the nightmares in the cottage, the students are saved from being forced out of the nightmare by the seven One for All spirits, and they contact their fellows and order them to regroup. Now, they would give chase into the deepest part of Izuku and Ayumu's shared connection, into a fortress of black steel and stone, guarded by the worst of their nightmares, including Overhaul, Shigiraki, the Nomu, Kurogiri, Muscular, All for One, Stain... and a mutated, monstrous Bakugo Katsuki.

In a two pronged assault, those students from before - the ones not that close to Izuku, launched multiple attacks around the fortress, drawing out the guards and forcing them into distracting confrontations, all the while the other half of the students - those more close to Izuku - breached the fortress gates, fighting their way past the mutated nightmare of Bakugo to get into the fort and rescue their friend from within.

Inside the deepest depths of the fort, Ayumu's nightmares begin to take form and torment her more, taking the shapes of her former bullies and those who had led to her friends' death, and even Eiko herself, all of them blaming her for her friend's death, to which all she can do is scream and cry for them to stop.

Meanwhile, all Izuku does - all he can do - is watch as the monstrous form of himself - the villain he could've been and still could be - begins to form before him, whilst another nightmare begins to take a monstrous, yet familiar shape...

As the students that fought the nightmare of Bakugo continue to push through the fortress and climb down into its murky depths, they realise that the fungal growths from outside are beginning to spread, putting all of them at risk.

Soon, they come across a massive hall, surrounded by dark pillars and shapes around a central podium. They find Ayumu and Izuku on the ground, their heads in their hands and their bodies writhing as the agony of the nightmares continue to weight down on them. The students try to save Izuku and get him out of the dream world, but neither he nor Ayumu hear them. Their nightmares are too strong.

Then, one of the nightmares looks to them, and smiles.

It introduces itself as Izuku Midoriya.

The superior Izuku Midoriya.

Behind him, the nightmare of All Might emerged, and they began to spew the most toxic speech that they had ever heard. All of the worst aspect of quirkless hate, disparaging, and villainous talk.

These nightmares are representations of the worst parts of Izuku and Ayumu's minds: the villainous Izuku for the original's internal quirkism, lack of self-worth, and self-sacrificial tendencies, and All Might for Ayumu's regret, self-loathing, and guilt for not preventing her friend's death.

And then the two nightmares combine into a horrid amalgamation of a monster, fused together into the worst aspects of both hero and villain, and representative of all that is wrong with their world.

The students go to war with the amalgamation, but it proves to be too powerful for them. It is as if the monster itself is invincible, unable to be deterred by any force or blow.

Everything begins to go wrong. The students outside the fort are almost entirely consumed by the fungal rot, and are forced to retreat into the fortress for protection. Within the crumbling fort, the battle is going even worse than ever, and the amalgamation of nightmares proves to be too much for the students inside to handle, even when the rest join in the fight, and the class attack on a united front.

The amalgamation of nightmares is just too much for them to bare.

That's when they realise why they can't defeat the nightmare amalgamation of the villainous Izuku and All Might like they could the other nightmares: it isn't just some sort of trauma, but a collection of all of their regrets and negative traits. It is Ayumu and Izuku given a new form.

And as such, Ayumu and Izuku are the only ones that can defeat it, not the others.

So Class 1-A reach out to Izuku. They begin to share their happiest memories of him, the ways in which he has helped them, inspired them, made them into the people that they are now, but when it proves to not be enough, the spirits of One for All lend their support, and pull a memory out of the ether.

A memory of his sixteenth birthday, surrounded by his new friends in Class 1-A, with his mother at his side and Eri hugging him, Hatsume and Shinso celebrating with him alongside his new mentor, Yagi Toshinori.

Slowly, Izuku begins to pick himself up.

But Ayumu doesn't. She can't. She's too consumed by her own regrets to-

"I know about Eiko!"

Ayumu stops. So do the nightmares around her.

"I know that your friend died, and I know that you wish that you'd saved her. I know that you're scared, and alone, and angry, and in pain, and that you just want your friend back! But Ayumu... trapping someone in your own mind is not going to bring her back! Nothing will! She's gone, Ayumu! I'm sorry, but Eiko's gone, and we both know that she would not want her dearest friend - her only friend! - to do this to herself and others!"

Nothing.

"Ayumu, please!"

Nothing at all.

So the class and spirits pull another echo of memory from the girl's mind, and throw her into it. However, before they do, the memory begins to change and form around one of her nightmares, and it begins to change.

Not into a nightmare... but into a living memory.

"Ayumu?"

"Eiko?"

The living memory of Eiko.

As the dream world burns and collapses around them, Ayumu and Eiko have one last conversation, exchanging the goodbyes that they never got to share. Ayumu is tearful, knowing that the girl before her is not the real Eiko, just a collection of memories pulled from her mind. But the memory of Eiko tells her that it is enough: that she is real enough to tell Ayumu that this is not what she wants of her best friend. When Ayumu asks why she left her alone then, Eiko says that she didn't die because she was angry at Ayumu. She could never be angry at Ayumu, but she couldn't see the same anger consume her friend. She couldn't see the same pain kill her too.

Ayumu cries in her arms. She can't let go. She can't let go of the pain. She's come too far. She'sgonetoo far. She's not strong enough to do so.

"Yes you can. Ayumu. I know you can. You're one of the strongest, kindest people that I know, and I'll be damned if you can't break out of this. This isn't you, Ayumu, and we both know this. You're better than this. You're better than them. You're better than the people who hurt you. Don't pull yourself down to their level just because you're in pain. Be better than them. Be stronger than them."

"I... I don't think I can."

"Yes you can... you're strong. So much stronger than any of us. All you need to do is accept it."

Eiko smiles, and takes Ayumu's hands into her own.

"Ayumu... it's time to let go."

"...Okay."

Ayumu and Eiko smile, and they press their foreheads against each other.

"Eiko, my friend... I'm letting you go."

The memory of Eiko begins to flicker and dissolve into light.

"Goodbye, Ayumu."

"Goodbye, Eiko..."

The amalgamation continues its battle against Class 1-A, and it is winning. The students, despite all their new powers and all the help from the spirits, are completely overwhelmed and begin to drown in the fungal rot. The nightmares begin to tear them apart. Everything is lost...

But then the fungus begins to change, transforming from black ichor into blue liquid...

And in the centre of the growing pool, Izuku and Ayumu stand, side by side, wrapped in clouds of blue positive light, the sparks of One for All returning to the former once more as Ayumu restores his connection to the quirk.

The amalgamation panics, and summons its nightmares to stop them, but it's not enough to stop the two. With Class 1-A, now recovered and ready to fight again, and the spirits of One for All at their back, Izuku and Ayumu, hero and villain, charge forward.

The final battle is one, dreams vs nightmares, and it is a gruelling battle. The nightmares and their amalgamation master are a force to be reckoned with, but the students and spirits are so much more.

Especially when they begin to bring forth their own memories into the fray.

Ayumu teaches them all the method to conjure memories from the world around them, and from their own minds they begin to pull not nightmares, but positive memories bathed in blue light to battle the nightmares in front of them. For Uraraka it is Gunhead, Ryukyu, and Nejire. For Kirishima, it is Fat Gum, Crimson Riot, Tamaki, and Tetsutetsu. For Momo, it is Majestic and Kendo. For Bakugo, it is Best Jeanist. For Tokoyami, it is Hawks. For Iida, it is Manual and Tensei. For Tsuyu, it is Selkie and Sirius. For Mineta, it is Midnight, Mount Lady, Kamui Woods, and Edgeshot. For Mina, it is Yoroi Musha and even Gigantomachia. The list goes on.

An army of memories, born from positive experiences, against another army of nightmares.

It is a war of memories, and in the centre of it all, Izuku and Ayumu stand against the amalgamation and do battle.

It is a long and gruelling confrontation, and it is one that beats them almost entirely in the ground. But almost, because soon, with the power of their memories and allies at their back, they are finally able to split the amalgamation in two, separating the villainous Izuku from the monstrous All Might, and then, finally...

Ending them.

The nightmares begin to fade, as does the dream world. Izuku and Ayumu's minds begin to heal, and as Class 1-A wave goodbye to the fading memories, Ayumu says one last goodbye to her first and only friend, and then, finally, lets them all go back to the real world.

They all wake up in the hospital room, and Class 1-A is quick to celebrate their victory, joyous in the knowledge that they had saved their friend.

However, Ayumu is not in the mood for festivities. She knows what is to come.

Some time later, she is being processed by police officers, and is escorted away to be arrested for her crimes. Upon passing All Might in the corridor, Ayumu can't help but ask, almost rhetorically, if he even knew who she was.

"Yes. You're the girl who saved her friend from that fire when I couldn't... and the girl who had to witness her friend..."

Ayumu's eyes widened. He... he hadn't forgotten...

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"...I'm sorry for yours, too."

Before she is led away though, Class 1-A catches up to her, and Izuku promises to put in a good word for her in court.

"What...? Why? I hurt you."

"Yeah, you did... but you were also hurting as well, and no one else was doing anything about it and... and I can't sit back when someone needs help."

"..."

"...For Eiko."

Ayumu smiled.

"For Eiko... thank you."

And with that, Ayumu is led away, and Izuku and Class 1-A promise to not stand aside while someone is in pain, or when someone is hurting, no matter who they are.

They wouldn't let anymore Eikos and Ayumus wander the world alone.

They would be the sweet dreams that banished the nightmares.

This they, and the spirits that protected them, decreed.

Chapter 2: Hunted

Chapter Text

One night, when the clock struck midnight, ten thousand children were abducted in their sleep.

There was no flash of light, no sound to indicate their departure. One second they were just there, and the next they weren't.

Ten thousand children, of all walks of live. Some were poor while others were prosperous. Some were quirkless while others had the most powerful quirks imaginable. Some were born to heroes, others to villains, and others in between.

There was no pattern to the abductions, no secret sign or gleamed understanding. The only thing to note of them was that they were all children, and they had all been taken.

Hero society immediately scrambles to respond. Thousands of heroes are deployed on the hunt, calls were made, councils were held, entire armies of government officials and workers were put on the hunt.

And yet, they found nothing.

In another place, high up in the air, the children were held in ships that began to lower to the ground. Then, as the doors opened, those same children were forced out by soldiers and hunters in red and black garb (think of them as the Banished from Halo) out of the ships and were tossed out onto the beach below.

The trash filled beach of Takoba Municipal Beach, outside of Musutafu.

Then, gunfire rips out from the ships and soldiers and into the crowd, cutting down dozens of children and forcing the rest of them out into the forests and into the city of Musutafu.

A city that was empty, ransacked, broken, flooded, overgrown, and left to rubble and ruin.

From there, the ten thousand abducted children, now released into the empty urban and natural wildlands, are forced to go on the run from the army of bloodthirsty mercenaries, all of them looking to hunt them down and cull them like beasts. The first few days of the wild hunting game were marked by vast massacres and local extirpations, chaos filling the air as the streets and waters were stained with young blood.

And in the other plain, the dead children would be brought back into their world, teary-eyed, broken, yet happy that they had returned.

But the rest of the children did not know this, so through the wildlands, in the forests and in the city, they would go into hiding from the army of mercenaries as they were hunted down by the droves, massacres taking place over days until only a few thousand children would remain.

Afterwards, the remaining few thousand children would be forced to adapt and mature in order to survive, developing their own tactics and strategies to overcome those hunting them, or die trying. Some children would slip into depression and desperation, killing each other in bouts of mad rage and the need for survival as they fought over water, food, and clothes. Some went into hiding, becoming hermits hiding away in cubby holes and old homes and refusing to step out under any circ*mstances. Some would even give themselves up to the hunters out of suicidal depression, only to be taken to camps and separated from the weakest to the strongest. The weakest of them were killed via firing squads and gas chambers, whilst the strong were taken away to camps and tortured for no reason other than the entertainment of their captors.

The rest of the children, however, chose to fight back.

It was determined that survival was better on their own or in small groups, so some children, like Bakugou, Todoroki, and Yoarashi, become lone wolves, waging their own private wars against their executioners. Other children, however, rally around charismatic personalities such as Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, and Uraraka. Some groups of children, like Midoriya's, focus themselves on helping other children and saving prisoners from the soldiers. Some, like Yaoyorozu's, would attempt to fight back against those hunting them and try to find an advantage against them. Others, like Uraraka's, would begin to surrender themselves to the desperation and bloodlust that came over them, and would become as violent and sad*stic as those trying to kill them, devolving into nothing more than bandits and killers.

But most of the remaining children would eventually hunker down and slip away into the cracks, too scared to try and confront the people trying to kill them.

In the next plain, the heroes begin to work around the clock to rehabilitate the thousands of children that had returned to them after their supposed deaths in the other world, but find that there is something...off, about them. Something different. Something that should not be there.

In the other plain, several groups of children find the remains of U.A. High School, its iconic structures shattered and crumbled, and begin to make camp within the old academy. Soon, the site would become a hub for many of the surviving children that had been taken, creating shelters and homes for those who had been abducted and had nowhere left to go.

For a time being, things would begin to look up for the children as they began to rest, feed themselves, and make ready for the days to come.

But then everything would change when Uraraka and her clan would capture one of the soldiers and dragged them back to their new home.

They would proceed to torture the mercenary, peeling off the armour and shucking the skin off their bones, cutting into them and breaking them, before they finally took off their helmet...

And Ochako Uraraka found herself staring into the eyes of Ochako Uraraka.

And that's when the truth is finally revealed.

This isn't just a different plain of existence or other dimension that the children were abducted and placed into: it is a parallel universe in of itself. It is an alternate world where, during the past confrontation between All Might and All for One, instead of All Might winning and forcing All for One into hiding, here All Might was killed and All for One took One for All from him, becoming the most powerful quirk user on Earth.

All for One would bring the whole world to ruin, killing millions and enslaving the rest of the world, bringing the heroes to their knees and taking their children for his own. Millions of children would be taken and trained into weapons - child soldiers - for All for One's reign, becoming the fist that would bring dystopian order to the world.

However, years later, a global uprising would bring the world into a global civil war, devastating what was left of the Earth and completely destroying society. All for One and his followers would be killed in the process, and all that was left would be the child soldiers that once enforced All for One's reign, filled with anger and rage and sorrow for all that had been done to them.

However, they would soon find a survivor with a unique quirk: one that would allow them to look through parallel universes, and soon they saw though the universes...

And they saw themselves.

Their alternate universe counterparts, happy and cheerful and living in comfort in their childhoods.

This filled the child soldiers with rage. How dare they? How dare their lookalikes be happy when all that they had done was toil and suffer for years. They wanted to be happy. They wanted to live peaceful lives.

They wanted their childhoods back.

And they would make their counterparts suffer for what they did not have.

And so the child soldiers, warped and twisted by All for One's cruel rule over them and locked in a childlike mentality due to their neglect and inability to grow up thanks to the man, abducted their ten thousand counterparts and dumped them into their universe, taking sad*stic pleasure in making them suffer as much as they had, and beginning step one of their plan.

The next step was to kill their counterparts, let their souls leave their bodies, and then fill them with their own.

The children who returned to their original universe weren't really the same children from before.

They were the child soldiers, taking their place in their lives.

Realising the full extent of their parallel counterpart's plan to body swap with all of them, the children would have no chance to react as a massive forth of these former child soldiers, now grown up, invaded U.A. and began a mass culling of the children within, killing hundreds of children, inhabiting their bodies and sending them back to the alternate world, and forcing the rest back on the run.

Realising the threat that they now face, and the risk to their friends and families back home, the children are forced to unite together against their new enemy. Against this grave new enemy, they finally gain the courage to stand up and fight against them, for their lives back home.

Because this was not just a battle for their survival.

This was a battle for their souls.

Chapter 3: Sins of the Heroes

Chapter Text

Izuku and Bakugo have gone missing.

No one knows where they have disappeared to. No one knows where they had last been. One minute they had been with Class 1-A on a fieldtrip out to the biggest hero convention in recent Japanese history, the next, they were gone.

U.A. panics, and Class 1-A move to investigate as well but are stopped by their teachers. This is best left to the police to solve and they didn't trust 1-A to do anything on their own. Not after the Kamino Ward incident. This doesn't satisfy them though, and half the class goes rogue to find them.

Meanwhile, Izuku and Bakugo find themselves waking up in the middle of a dark hall, chained to the wall and unable to move.

The members of Class 1-A that had gone to find both Izuku and Bakugo spread out across the hero convention that they had last been seen at, but find themselves getting stopped by Pro Heroes eager to interfere with their investigation. The students realise that they can't trust any of the heroes at the convention, and sneak their way into the convention place's security room. There, they find that the CCTV footage of Izuku and Bakugo has been deleted, but they are able to recover the file. There, they find that a group of heroes from the Peacekeepers agency had kidnapped them and taken them all the way down to Dagobah Beach, a tourist sight that had recently been cleared and reopened to the public.

As they head to the site, they come across Pro Heroes from the Peacekeeper agency, as well as other Pro Heroes and police officers aligned with them, hampering their path and keeping conventional access to Dagobah blocked off. As such, the students inform Aizawa and All Might of what's going on. Aizawa is furious at their disregard of his orders, but upon discovering that the Pro Heroes and police there are sabotaging the investigation, he moves to join them alongside Pro Heroes that he knew that he could trust.

Class 1-A move in before him, sneaking around the Pros and making it to the beach. There, they discover a secret entrance beneath the sand to an underground facility, but are stopped and attacked by the Pro Heroes of the Peacekeeper agency. Outmatched and outgunned, the students are forced to duck down and disappear underneath the secret entrance beneath them, into parts unknown.

Back with Izuku and Bakugo, they are confronted by their kidnapper, a woman with a Spider quirk who goes by the name of Black Tarantula.

But she can't be. She just can't be. Izuku and Bakugo know this woman. Her real name is Kimmi Kumo, and she is quirkless.

Flashback to Izuku and Bakugo's shared past, and we see Kimmi's part in it. She is an old childhood friend of the two, having been born at the same time as them and sharing the same friends and classes. She had been quirkless like Izuku, and as such had suffered from the same harsh and brutal bullying that Bakugo had given her friend. As such, she and Izuku had grown extremely close to each other, even falling in love with each other at such a young age.

However, while Kimmi might be quirkless, her parents, whom were scientists and researchers, were not, and their work had taken her away from Izuku and Bakugo at the ripe age of ten. And while Izuku had eventually let go of his crush on her, Kimmi had not, and stayed fixated on Izuku for all the years to come.

Kimmi's mother and father worked for the Hero Public Safety Commission, and spent much of their time covering up incidents of heroes committing crimes and working on genetic experiments and analysis for the organisation, of which Kimmi herself had a fascination with. Soon, she would be taking part in the experiments as well, thinking up new designs and ideas as she grew into a progeny in the field of science and genetics.

However, her quirklessness became a subject of debate amongst the HPSC higherups, and soon her parents and family were booted out of the organisation on the grounds of conspiracy. In reality, it had been because of quirkism in relations to Kimmi's quirklessness.

But Kimmi's parents had an ace up their sleeves. They had pillaged the HPSC's files and hidden servers during their time in the organisation, collecting vast documentations of crimes committed by heroes still in service that had been covered up. Counts of undocumented rape, murder, quirkism, and other atrocities had been hidden by the HPSC, and Kimmi's parents had it all on them on a single hard drive.

But they would never get to use it. They would be murdered by Lady Nagant while she was still working for the HPSC, and Kimmi would spend the rest of her life on the run.

After months of hiding away in the shadows, and with the hard drive of crimes committed by heroes still in her possession, Kimmi would end up finding something remarkable.

An abandoned quirk experimentation site, forgotten by All for One and Ujiko years ago and still filled with a plethora of abandoned quirks. Kimmi would hole herself up in the abandoned site for months, experimenting on splicing quirks into rats, and then fusing multiple quirks into herself, turning herself into a spider-like hybrid and finally gaining a quirk. At the same time, she would spend much time spying on Izuku and All Might as they trained at Dagobah Beach through the hidden entrance hidden in the junk and rubbish that once littered the beach.

However, upon looking on the news and seeing the U.A. Sports Festival and seeing Bakugo being proclaimed its winner, Kimmi would decry the injustice of allowing a bullish thug become a hero, and when she sees Izuku, remarking in surprise at his new quirk as well as revolted by the damage that it did him, she decides to put her plan into action.

Converting the Peacekeeper agency to her side, Kimmi would adopt the alias of Black Tarantula and begin approaching agency after agency, showing the heroes within the contents of the hard drive and all the crimes covered up by the HPSC within. Converting dozens of heroes to her side, Kimmi planned to release the information out to the public, bringing down the HPSC and exposing hundreds of heroes for their hidden crimes.

And now she wanted Izuku to join her, and for Bakugo to watch in punishment as everything that he held dear - the very ideal of heroism that he held to himself - crumble to the ground.

Meanwhile, the students of Class 1-A find themselves lost in the wide labyrinth that Kimmi had built in the time that she had spent to herself, constantly hounded by Pro Heroes looking to capture them for their new leader. Meanwhile, Izuku and Bakugo would protest and lash out respectively at Kimmi's plan and demands, proclaiming that the documents and files that she planned to release would destroy faith in the Pro Heroes. It could even bring down hero society itself!

Kimmi said that maybe that was the point. If a society could be brought down by a single document, than it was a society that didn't deserve to exist.

With their conversation at an end, Kimmi would drag away Izuku to begin the last stages of her plan, leaving Bakugo under guard of her allied Pro Heroes. However, the students of Class 1-A would find Bakugo and, with the element of surprise, incapacitate the Pro Heroes guarding their classmate and freeing him. Informing them of Kimmi's plan, Class 1-A would move out to find Kimmi and take her down.

With all of hero society now at stake, their classmate in danger, and the sins of the Heroes they had all looked up too now at threat of being released into the open, Class 1-A would be forced to make a choice:

Do they keep the information about these crimes hidden and keep hero society going on as it is, or do they release it, and bring these people to justice?

Chapter 4: An Unexpected Awakening

Chapter Text

This story would be a take on the classic 'Izuku gains a quirk aside from One for All/Overpowered Izuku' fic, as well as typical 'Classmates meeting before U.A.' fic. In this fic, Izuku would meet Ochako before U.A., and the two of them would become childhood friends throughout their time at Aldera.

Things would go on as typical aside from that, right up until the Sludge Villain Incident, where Izuku would undergo a late awakening of an extremely powerful quirk and defeat the Sludge Villain all by himself...

Destroying much of Aldera in the process.

That's right, this fic isn't a typical 'Overpowered Izuku' fic. It's a deconstruction of the entire genre.

During the brief fight, much of Aldera High School was brought down by Izuku and Bakugo is crippled in the fight. Realising what he has done and how much destruction he has caused, Izuku goes into a panic and runs back home as the heroes try to pursue him, his quirk firing off wildly and causing massive amounts of property damage in the process.

As he reaches home, Izuku begins to suffer from a panic attack, and as the heroes arrive to arrest him, his quirk wildly fires off once again.

His home is destroyed, and his mother is killed in the process.

When All Might arrives at the destroyed house, he finds a dead civilian, a dozen wounded heroes, and a catatonic Izuku holding the corpse of his mother, eyes empty and welled up with tears. When he takes the boy away, none of them say a word.

Izuku is briefly held in a cell, accused of being a villain by the media, but it is All Might who is able to free him from custody before he is put on trial and sent to prison. Realising his mistake in turning him away because of his quirklessness, as well as seeing how damaged the boy has become because of events that he cannot control, All Might agrees to train Izuku in better handling this new quirk of his, all the while trying to understand how it came about and why, as he is physically too late to be a late bloomer for a quirk.

However, in the ten months that follow, it is clear that this new quirk of Izuku's is both monstrously strong and horrifically impractical. Every movement of his has been increased tenfold. He cannot take a step without breaking the floor, and he cannot hold or grip on anything without shattering it. In fact, almost all of his time with All Might is spent not building up his strength, but toning it down, trying to dial it down and make his quirk more manageable. All Might soon realises that he can't do this on his own and is forced to bring in other teachers as well.

Worse yet is the public response to Izuku's quirk awakening. Many in the media have already touted him as a villain, and many more in the public have joined suite. Many quirkless people have seen his quirk awakening and begun to try and awaken their own quirks as well, resulting in a rise of incidents in which many quirkless individuals would throw themselves into dangerous confrontations between heroes and villains in order to try and gain their own quirks, immediately resulting in more damage and spikes in violence. Not only all of that, but many ambitious heroes have begun to try and take Izuku into their own agencies, seeking to use him to strength themselves or take him into custody themselves, earning him a kind of attention from heroes that he never wanted.

When Izuku is placed into U.A., it is a bittersweet feeling. Because of the monstrous strength of his quirk, he is forced to stay away from the rest of the students in his year and is giving Aizawa as a personal trainer/tutor. However, it soon becomes clear to everyone, Aizawa especially, that their usual methods will not work. Izuku's quirk is already beyond Plus Ultra, so their job would be to get it back down to Just Ultra before he accidently hurts someone else. If he can't be a hero, then they can at least teach him how to control his quirk and progress normally in regular life.

At least he still had Ochako in U.A., though he kept himself as far away from Bakugo as he could.

However, things in U.A. would begin to take a dark turn. The League of Villains' attack on the USJ was more devastating than in canon, and the Sports Festival is interrupted by an attack from the LOV, resulting in numerous students being kidnapped. The faculty of U.A. are forced to deploy Izuku against the growing power of the Leage of Villains as the situation worsens every single day.

As he is sent into Hosu alongside a trio of heroes, Izuku is met by Ochako and Bakugo, deployed to find the Hero Killer Stain with their aligned agencies. However, when Stain attacks Iida in the alleyways, and the Leage send in their Nomu to join in the chaos, the city descends into anarchy. Heroes mistakenly attack Izuku, Ochako is forced to defend him, only to be double-crossed by Bakugo as he rages against Izuku for crippling him, the Nomu attack everyone, and Stain is recruited into the League upon seeing their successes and the folly of the heroes around them, earning Shigiraki and the League a wellspring of new recruits.

After the messy battle concludes, the HPSC steps in and orders U.A. to hand over Izuku to them. A wide political gap between the HPSC and U.A. begins to form, and Izuku is forced into the middle. All the while, the whispers of a traitor within U.A. continues to grow, the League continue to somehow sneak spies and recruiters into the school, and public opinion against Izuku continues to sway further and further away from him. His small circle of allies begins to grow smaller still, and only Ochako chooses to stay by his side.

But things finally begin to take a turn when the training camp is attacked, and Bakugo is kidnapped. Izuku runs away to try and save him, and in the ensuing chaos of Kamino Ward, he is the one to bring down All for One, not All Might. At his victory, and with his new restraint and control of his quirk, public opinion slowly begins to swing back into his favour.

However, his actions earn him even more attention from corrupt Pro Heroes and the HPSC. Eager to take advantage of the mentally wounded boy, many agencies begin to flood U.A. with recruiters and opportunistic invitations. Worse yet, the HPSC continues to request control of Izuku from U.A., widening the gap between the two organisations and intensifying an already worsening situation.

Izuku soon becomes desperate to get rid of his quirk, and upon discovering the existence of the quirkless bullets, he becomes eager to get his hands on one of them. However, when he discovers that the bullets were being made from Eri's skin and flesh, he goes ham on Overhaul and brings him down, almost destroying his organisation and surrounding property in his rage in the process. Everything since then continues to go downhill from there as Eri is brought back to U.A. but is scared of Izuku because of how badly he beat down Overhaul and everything around them.

When the Paranormal Liberation Front comes to call and the war between heroes and villains begins, the combined forces of the new League of Villains is enough to break All for One out of Tarturus and bring him to the frontlines, escalating the situation and bringing the fight to U.A.'s doorstep. Eri and the civilians are forced to evacuate, and Izuku is sent to the frontlines in order to even the odds.

However, hardly anyone trusts him, and he is forced to fight on his own to prevent any casualties. When he is thrown against All for One, he tries to fight him once more, but All for One snaps his finger-

And Izuku burns up.

As Ochako runs to his side to try and aid the wounded boy, she looks up to All for One and calls out something that no one had expected:

This wasn't part of the plan.

Ochako was the traitor. Ochako was the villain within U.A.

As everything comes crashing down around them, All for One reveals the truth of them all: that a year before they had gone into U.A., Ochako had found and approached All for One, begging for help with her parents' company - which was filing for bankruptcy - and for Izuku to be granted a quirk - the strongest one possible. All for One had agreed to help, but only if Ochako agreed to be his man on the inside of U.A.

All for One had been the one to give Izuku his new quirk and had been the one to save her parents' company from bankruptcy and poverty. As Ochako would soon explain, she had done it for them, and for Izuku: she had seen how miserable he was, how worthless he felt in the wake of all the quirkism and ableism that he faced every single day, and she had wanted it to end. So, she granted him a quirk that was so powerful that it would put an end to the misery that he felt and allow him to become more than he had ever thought possible: it had allowed him to finally become the hero that he had always dreamt of.

However, Izuku's reaction is of horror, not gratitude. His new quirk has done way more damage than good: it has effectively destroyed his life and killed his mother. It had ruined so much for him, and it had all been because of her. He's not grateful, he's furious.

But before he can act on his anger, All for One steals back the quirk that he gave Izuku and leaves him for dead, reducing U.A. to rubble in the process.

Now with Hero Society on the verge of collapse, Izuku is forced to step up to the plate, quirkless once more, and defeat All for One once and for all. His awakening has come and passed, and now a new one is needed.

For them all to survive, Izuku must finally accept his quirkless nature and understand the destructiveness that quirks can bring.

It is an unexpected awakening, to say the least.

Chapter 5: The Taken Queen

Chapter Text

Across the city of Tokyo, whispers and rumours of an escaped lab experiment are spreading through the streets. Worse yet, sudden attacks have begun to spread across the city, with civilians randomly attacking innocents, only for both parties involved to suddenly end the fights and part ways as if nothing has happened. Something is happening in Tokyo, and no one knows what.

U.A.'s Classes 1-A and 1-B are sent to the outskirts of Tokyo, in Kijimi Ward, as part of a training exercise with a local hero agency. However, as they roam through the streets, Ochako finds a group of children huddled in an alleyway, all wearing hospital gowns, and all but one with glowing blue eyes. The one without accidently nicks her on the leg in a panic, and Ochako gets up and walks away from them.

As the next day rolls around, the heroes discover that the graveyards of Tokyo are empty. As in all the graves are empty, like the corpses had just dug themselves out and left.

Mobs begin to form in the streets. The dead seem to be walking amongst the living. The faculty of U.A. quickly recall their students to the school as the violence in Tokyo begins to escalate.

But then, it stops. The mobs go quiet.

Whatever the source of the chaos was, it is gone now.

Unbeknownst to anyone, the mobs of living and dead have moved. Tokyo has been completely abandoned. It's now a ghost town.

And meanwhile, Ochako hides away the children that she has smuggled into U.A., cutting her wrist open and allowing her blood to spill into the school's food.

Soon, similar acts of violence begin to spread across Musufatu, but at a much more accelerated rate. The dead are caught clawing their way out of their graves on CCTV, and the mobs of the living, covered in bloody wounds and bites and scratches, begin to prowl the streets in patrols and mobs, their glowing blue eyes on the prowl for anyone that they could turn to their side, hero, villain, and everyone in between.

Soon enough, the heroes that have not become part of the mobs finally understand what is happening to the people below:

They are all infected with some sort of quirk induced plague. A virus. A disease that is transmittable through transfer of blood and/or fluids. A disease that controls their movements and actions, even their minds and thoughts, though for what end no one knows.

But they are given no chance to act on this information. Ochako has infected half of U.A.'s entire populace, teacher and student, with the quirk virus. Some of those who have been infected, like Jirou and Kendo, retain their current forms and bodies, but others, like Hagakure and Mineta, are mutated by the virus into monstrous new forms, all of them turned to the will of the infected.

As U.A. falls into chaos and civil war, Izuku and those who have not been infected flee from the hordes of infected living and dead, and U.A. and its surrounding providences and wards are converted in a massive breeding ground for the virus, filled to the brim with infected. Anyone else that wasn't infected with the virus was either hunted down and turned, fled the area, or sent into hiding.

U.A. is made into the command-and-control centre for the infected, and the children are brought out of hiding and into a growing empire of their own.

It is revealed that the children are the escaped lab experiments, conducted by All for One and Doctor Ujiko to harvest their quirks and turn them into a new breed of Nomu super soldiers. What's more is that all of the children are already dead from those experiments, save for one, a small girl by the name of Keket Saisei, who's quirk allowed her to control a virus that tied everyone infected, living or dead, to her will.

And this is where we get into the specific characteristics of the virus. While the infected disease still retained some previous skills and traits from their previous lives, it was the living that were the most dangerous. Instead of taking away their free will per say, the virus actually added something to their minds: an intense, overriding loyalty to the one holding the quirk. This meant that all those infected were still of sound mind and body, but united together in spreading the virus and serving their master, regardless of all their former allegiances. This made them the most dangerous of the infected, as they could think creatively in their actions and were completely united in purpose, much unlike those that opposed them.

However, their limitations were from their master, Keket. She might have an incredibly powerful quirk at her disposal, but she is still a scared child with significant trauma from her time as a lab experiment. She had only kept the dead children around her alive to serve as her friends and had infected several people out of sheer desperation and fear once she had escaped from where she was being held. That was how this whole mess started. Now though, she's after the only thing that any child could ever want:

A home, and a family.

As the infected, now united under the banner of the Taken Queen, gather around U.A. and slowly begin to spread out from Musufatu to beyond, spreading back across Tokyo and moving onto other parts of the country, the heroes find themselves overwhelmed by one of the biggest threats that they have ever faced.

But soon a plan is formed to bring down Keket's accidental rampage across the country. Across numerous fronts, entire armies of heroes stopped retreating and stood their ground against the hordes, beginning a long series of protracted sieges that bogged down and distracted many of the Taken Queen's armies.

Meanwhile, a small strike force of heroes, accompanied by minor villains that knew the underground of Musufatu better than anyone, would sneak into U.A. and capture Keket, neutralising her and ending her hold over the hordes.

They succeed, but by a hair's thread. Almost everyone sent on the mission is infected and they sound the alarm. The only one left, Izuku, is able to grab Keket and pull her out of U.A. before the infected can get to them.

Izuku brings Keket back to the HPSC's headquarters, but soon realises that they plan to kill Keket in order to stop the virus, and the fact that they no longer have the quirkless bullets in their possession makes things even more difficult.

However, what none of them expect is for Keket's quirk to send a mental message of panic into every infected across the country, who swiftly abandon all their positions to march on the HPSC and the city around it.

With an army at their door, the HPSC accelerate their plans to kill Keket, but realising that there are too many variables that make killing her and ending the quirk virus less of a certainty and more an assumption, on top of refusing to bring about the death of a child, Izuku does his best to protect the girl as the infected break down the walls of the city and surge forwards, overrunning the heroes' defences and bringing even more into the fold, with the infected Ochako, now called the Taken Daughter, leading the charge.

With almost all his friends now infected, and the rest falling one by one, Izuku pleads with Keket to stop this, stop this madness before everything falls.

But Keket cannot hear him. She simply stares out to the chaos and fire below, seeing all the death and destruction that has been carried out in her name.

She can't release the people that have been infected with her quirk. She doesn't know how, and there isn't enough time to teach her.

There's only one way now.

She takes a knife into her hand and slices her own throat.

Thanking Izuku for showing her kindness, Keket throws herself off of the HPSC building and onto the ground, killing herself. As the life leaves her, so does her quirk from the millions of infected, and one by one, her unwilling hold on them releases.

But they still gather and mourn for her regardless, listening to her last words and comforting her as she dies. Ochako holds her hand even as her mind is freed, and as she finally passes, she and those that once belonged to her hordes carry her away to be buried.

As the dead, before and recently passed, are collected and buried once more, the last of those still feeling the effects of Keket's quirk gather for her funeral, burying her not too far from U.A. before the last of Keket's quirk passes from them and they all go their separate ways.

Japan and U.A. would begin to rebuild from the chaos, but everyone would be shaken from it. Those that had been overwhelmed by the Taken Queen's virus still hear the whispers of the quirk from time to time, and those who weren't are plagued by nightmares of their allies attacking them and trying to spread the virus to them. An uneasy period of rebuilding takes place through a shaken Japan, and the public is left to mourn their losses and try to find themselves once more in a world that suddenly doesn't make sense.

And deep in the labs, Doctor Ujiko would mourn the fact that he had been unable to harvest Keket's quirk for his experiments and his master's use before she escaped - an unforeseen development - but does not mourn for long. Shigiraki's power is already growing with each passing day. Soon that old quirk won't matter at all...

Chapter 6: More Than Meets The Heroic Eye

Chapter Text

The story begins as it does in MHA's canon, with All Might choosing Izuku as his successor and beginning his training to prepare him for the immense power of One for All. However, in the midst of the scrapyard that Izuku begins to clear at Takoba Beach, he finds a broken-down and busted yellow Volkswagen Beetle, rusted over and marked to hell and back, but surprisingly still functional after who knows how long.

All Might is surprised to see it here - the last Volkswagen Beetle was made a thousand years ago during the Quirk Awakening, the time in which quirks had come into being in the immediate aftermath of a great apocalypse - but decides that Izuku and himself would take it and repair it themselves, as a sort of side project alongside cleaning the beach.

However, as they try to repair the car, they find that none of the components within make sense. There's so much compressed metal within, and in strange formations and patterns not consistent with the standard engines for Beetles, or even any other car.

But when they try to switch on the car, they find that it's not a vehicle: it's a living being.

A Transformer.

The Beetle converts right before their eyes into a machine - a robotic lifeform that towers over them...

And then cowers away in the corner of the garage that they were fixing him in.

Realising that the robotic being is more afraid of them then they are of it, Izuku and All Might attempt to sooth the machine into not being fearful of them, and eventually are able to gain its trust and acceptance. Needing a name for the being, Izuku and All Might realise that the machine has no memory of what it once was. It didn't even have a voice to itself.

They decide on a name for it.

Bumblebee.

(Who's in his G1 appearance, not the one from his signature film.)

All Might takes Izuku and Bumblebee to I-Island to give the Transformer (as they call the robot) the repairs that it needs, helped along by the artificial island's advanced technology. Here, Yagi Toshinori reconnects with David Shield, and Izuku meets his daughter, Melissa Shield. Collaborating together to try and repair Bumblebee, the four of them dig through the few surviving records of the massive apocalyptic cataclysm that pre-empted the global awakening of quirks over a thousand years ago and discover scant records of metal men that walked the earth and brought it all down, barely stopped by the world's first hero.

Not too far away, two A.I. known as Artemis and Moon, belonging to a secretive militant group, picks up an energy spike on the other side of the world. A Cybertronian energy spike.

Sector Seven moves to investigate and intercept.

Meanwhile, Izuku's mother is quick to pick up on her son's travels, and Inko quickly requests a meeting with the people that Izuku has been talking to. Soon, she meets with Yagi (not in his All Might persona) and the Shields, and quickly hits it off with them as she thanks them for doing what she couldn't for her son: give him hope. They do not let her know about Bumblebee, though.

In the meantime, Izuku and All Might continue to clear out the beach and scout out the area around them, they travel alongside Inko and the Shields to U.A. to explore the school and help David and Melissa build ties between Nezu and I-Island. Later on, Melissa and Izuku meet Mei Hatsume, and the three of them become fast friends (despite Melissa and Mei's constant disagreements about support items and the like).

However, unbeknownst to them, scouts from Sector Seven begin to infiltrate Mustufatu and explore the city, trying to track down the Cybertronian signal from before.

Soon enough, the day of U.A.'s entrance exam comes to pass, and Bumblebee transports All Might, Izuku, and Hatsume to the testing grounds for the latter two's exams. With help from Melissa over the phone, the two are able to pass their exams as they did in canon, with All Might watching them from behind the cameras, and Bumblebee watching Izuku from behind the walls at the mock city.

But, when catching sight of the point robots, as well as the massive Zero Pointer, Bee has a sudden panic attack as a memory of a massive green titan flashes before him, and he flees the city in a hurry.

Sector Seven catch his trail and follow him out of the city.

It is Izuku, Hatsume, and Melissa that catch up to Bumblebee first, and through sign language (as well as discovering how to use his radio to communicate with them), Bee is able to explain to them the flash that he saw, and they begin to piece together the life that he lived once before.

But then they come face to face with a new threat. One that they are all shocked by.

Three other Transformers. One with a tank alt-mode, one with a cycle alt-more, and one with a jet alt-mode.

They are the Vehicons, known as the Tank Drone, Cycle Drone, and Aero Drone, and they attack Bumblebee with no mercy. He and the three humans are barely able to escape with their lives.

The three humans and one Transformer are able to warn All Might of what they just survived, but strangely they all come up short on any incident reports of violence last night. Someone in the chain of command was keeping the incident quiet.

The four of them try to make sense of the random attack but are soon distracted by Izuku and Hatsume's first days in U.A., with the two of them making friends in both the support and hero courses, though Izuku does his best to avoid the wrath of Bakugo.

Soon enough, Class 1-A is sent on a field trip to the USJ, alongside Eraserhead and Thirteen. All Might is supposed to join them, but he's off doing his hero business beforehand and will join them soon. Bumblebee follows after them to observe.

And soon enough, the League of Villains attacks, as is in canon. However, this time, they have another addition to the roster.

Another Transformer, with a red logo on his chest that had been marked and scratched out. His name is Wildwheel (missing his hat and poncho, though, resembling more of what he looked like in Last Bot Standing), and he desires revenge against those that have wronged him.

And he makes himself known by picking up Thirteen and squashing her in his hand, killing her instantly.

The students and Eraserhead are scattered by the villains and Transformer over the USJ and are hunted down and cornered one by one by them. Bumblebee calls All Might to tell him what is going on but is forced to intervene when the Transformer - Wildwheel - is about to kill Izuku, Tsuyu, and Mineta, tackling the robot to the ground and beginning to engage in battle with him.

Wildwheel, however, tries to talk to the other Cybertronian, identifying them both at Autobots. They are brothers, kin. Fellow Cybertronians. He must've seen what the humans have done to their kind. He should be just as angry as Wildwheel. He should be just as angry at them for what they've done. He should be just as needy for justice as he is.

Bumblebee doesn't listen. Wildwheel had just killed a hero - a human - and tried to kill several more. Children, in fact! Whatever an Autobot is, Bumblebee knows that Wildwheel is the furthest thing from it.

The two Cybertronians engage in battle, with Wildwheel trying to kill the organics and Bumblebee fighting to defend them, even the villains. Everyone, from hero to villain, pauses in whatever they are doing just to watch the two metallic titans clash in open conflict.

It is only when All Might appears to bring down those that attacked the USJ that things go into motion once more.

As All Might takes on the Nomu, several of the students identify Bumblebee as an ally trying to protect them and help him in engaging Wildwheel, peppering the rogue Autobot with rounds and blasts and blows and leaving him crippled and broken. They risk life and limb to bring the Cybertronian down, and as All Might finishes the Nomu off, Bumblebee does the same to Wildwheel in a blind flash of instincts, adrenaline, and forgotten skills...

By transforming his arm into a cannon and shooting the renegade Autobot in the head, seemingly killing him.

As the students gather around the corpse of the giant robot in shock, Bumblebee comes to his senses and is horrified by what he has done, transforming into his alt-mode and fleeing the USJ, just as the rest of the heroes arrive to arrest the villains. Some of them attempt to go after him, but All Might stops them from doing so. This was something that he could do by himself.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government contacts U.A., and informs Nezu that an organisation known as Sector Sevel has taken away Wildwheel's remains.

Out in the wild, Bumblebee hides away on his own, still in shock over what he has done, but it is Izuku and Hatsume who catch up to him first, not All Might or anyone else. Through his radio and sign language, Bumblebee reveals that he didn't mean to offline Wildwheel, and that he has been regaining more and more glimpses of his old life before Izuku and All Might has awakened him not too long ago.

What he remembers is that his actual name is B-127, he is an Autobot, and he was a soldier in what was known as the Cybertronian Civil War, protecting the collection of allied Cybertronian colonies - both neutral and Autobot - and alien worlds known as the Autobot Commonwealth against the malicious Decepticon Star Empire, a fascist, technoist state that sought to cyberform hundreds of worlds and expand their empire across the entire galaxy, cleansing it of organic life in the process.

Izuku and Hatsume (more the latter than the former) try their best to repair the damage done to him by Wildwheel, but are soon surrounded once more by even more of those Vehicons from before, as well as new Copter Drones, Artillery Drones, sleek Car Drones-

(The Vehicons in this story are a mixture of both the Beast Machines Vehicons and the Prime Vehicons, as you can tell.)

-And accompanied by elite heroes and human militant kill squads.

(Think of Sector Seven's kill squads as like Shadow Company from Call of Duty.)

Bumblebee and the two heroes are barely able to run from the Vehicons and Sector Seven heroes and squads as they gun for cover in the city, Sector Seven hounding them every step of the way.

Meanwhile, Izuku and Hatsume's homes are raided by heroes and Sector Seven squads, and Inko and Mei's parents are arrested by them, taken away to an undisclosed black site somewhere else in Eastern Asia.

Bumblebee, Izuku, and Mei flee into the corners and alleyways of Tokyo, but Sector Seven and their Vehicons are constantly on their tail. They try to flee out of the city but are cornered by the kill squads and Vehicons in an abandoned part of the city. However, just before the Sector Seven squads can kill them, they are stopped and rescued by a group of cars driving out of nowhere and into the heroes, humans, and Vehicons.

A group of cars that transform into a group of Cybertronians, all of them with the Autobot insignia across their chests.

The five Autobots protect Bumblebee and the two children, slagging the Vehicons and incapacitating the humans. Seconds later, the pink Autobot in charge identifies Bumblebee as B-127 and leads him and the children away, out of the city and to safety in the wilderness.

In the aftermath of the city skirmish, Izuku and Mei are declared as villans and enemies of the state by the Japanese government, much to the shock of their classmates. All Might tries to find out where Bumblebee and the children have gone, and learns that a group of heroes, supported by soldiers in unmarked uniforms, tried to arrest the Transformer and the two children with him, and were supported by unknown machines of their own. However, he is stopped by HPSC officials each and every time he tries to get close to the truth.

Soon enough, for his actions, he is confronted by a man known as Lenard Bishop, a man serving as a representative and leading figure for Sector Seven.

Lenard warns All Might not to get involved in Sector Seven's dealings and reveals that he knows that he's been harbouring a Cybertronian fugitive. All Might demands to know what is going on, and threatens to reveal Sector Seven's dealings, as well as revealing the existence of the Transformers to the world through his fame and connections.

Most people would be cowed by this threat that All Might makes, but Lenard isn't. He laughs it off and reveals that Sector Seven has been covering up the existence of Cybertronians for the last thousand years. All Might's interference won't change anything about that.

Meanwhile, in the Sector Seven black site in Japan, Inko and Mei's parents are kept in a cell as Wildwheel's remains are brought in to be experiemented on, with some of the scientists there believing that the remains might be the key to giving life to Earth's new champion. But for now, the prototype would be deployed on its first mission: to hunt down the Cybertronians outside of Musutafu and eliminate them, as well as their human collaborators.

Nemesis Prime (in his G1 form) is brought online.

Meanwhile, in the wilderness alongside the shoreline of southern Japan, within a cave riddled with energon deposits and makeshift equipment (the Autobots' temporary base), Bumblebee and the two children are hesitant to trust the Autobots that just rescued them, seeing as how the last Autobot that they came across tried to kill them and their friends. The other Autobots are confused by this, especially when they recognise Wildwheel as the one who had attacked Izuku and Bumblebee (he had been a staunch Autobot through and through), but upon coming to the conclusion that he had been forced to thanks to the humans hunting them down, they are able to come to an alliance with each other, especially now that Izuku and Hatsume have become wanted fugitives.

The other Autobots identify themselves as Arcee (who's design based on her IDW appearance), their leader, Tailgate (again, IDW design), Arcee's partner, Wheeljack (a blend of his G1 and IDW designs), the resident scientist, Jazz (again, G1 and IDW), the group's scout and main fighter, and Chromedome (primarily his IDW MTMTE design), the resident mnemosurgeon. They reveal that they have been on Earth for over ten years now, having come to the planet after tracking B-127's - Bumblebee's - signal. B-127's mission? To track down and locate Optimus Prime, who has been missing for a thousand years.

Bumblebee's mind flashes back, and his backstory is finally revealed: he is the last generation of forged Cybertronians before the Third Great Cybertronian Civil War began and was there to witness the fall of Sentinel and Zeta Prime and their fascistic senate, as well as the Functionist regime that supported it, at the hands of the Decepticons. However, when Megatron himself turned tyrannical and attempted to impose his will across Cybertron and her colonies, he joined up with the Autobot resistance alongside Orion Pax, now turned into Optimus Prime thanks to the Matrix of Leadership, become part of his inner circle and helping to protect hundreds - if not thousands - of innocent and organic worlds and species from the relentless hordes of the Decepticons over the last four million years of conflict.

However, when Optimus Prime disappeared, the Autobots were weakened and low on morale by his loss. The Decepticons used this loss in leadership to overrun and overwhelm major positions over the Autobot Commonwealth, ravaging entire worlds such as Klo, Athenia, Master, Nebulos, and Caminus, and forcing the Autobots to go underground, becoming resistance cells such as Springer's Wreckers, Ultra Magnus' remnant, Star Saber's Brainmasters, Dai Atlas' Circle of Light, and so on, and waging their own independent and scattered wars against the Decepticon Star Empire.

However, without any major foe to oppose them and justify their unification, the Decepticon Star Empire stagnated and fell into infighting, with factions such as Skyquake's Predators, Gnashteeth's Predacons, and Bludgeon's Mayhem Attack Squad, as well as other factions under the rule of the lights of Deathsaurus, Scorponok, Scrash, Thunderwing, and the Triumvirate, all competing for power amongst the empire, all the while Megatron would sit on his throne on Cybertron, his underlings would take care of the management for him, and Starscream - alongside his Seekers - would go off picking off renegade Decepticon leaders (sometimes winning, sometimes not) and trying to acquire power for himself to someday overthrow Megatron, to which everyone knows he will lose.

Desperate to turn the tides of the war back into their favour, and eager to stop the Decepticons' casual genocides as soon as they can, what's left of Autobot High Command dispatched B-127 to Optimus' last known location, being in the Sol System, some hundred years ago, to try and find him, but was intercepted and attacked by a squad of Decepticons known as the Monstercons, made up of Skullgrin, Submarauder, Iguanus, Bomb-Burst, Bugly, and Finback. B-127 is able to fend off and kill the Monstercons as they arrive on Earth, but is badly damaged in the battle, losing his voice in the process, and takes the form of a Volkswagen Beetle to hide from Sector Seven as their squads and Vehicons drag away the corpses of the Monstercons, and hides away in the garbage of Takoba Beach in order to not be found by the humans.

Now with his memories awakened, Bumblebee, Izuku, Mei, and the other Autobots are forced to move through Tokyo once more in order to reach the docks, attempting to grab a ferry to I-Island and seek shelter there. However, Sector Seven has anticipated this and posted guards around the ferry, forcing them to go around and seek alternate transport to the island.

Luckily, they are able to contact Melissa and David Shield on the island, as well as All Might, and they arrange a private boat for them to take to the artificial island, allowing them to plan their next move in relative safety.

However, before this can happen, a villain attack and skirmish between them and the hero known as Mount Lady causes massive amounts of damage to a nearby skyscraper, almost bringing it down and killing everyone inside.

In a flash of instincts, Bumblebee leaps into the fray and holds the building up himself, allowing for the civilians to be safely evacuated before it can come crumbling down.

This surprises the Sector Seven forces, especially the one leading them, Marissa Faireborn and her two squad mates Shaoshao Li and Atari Hitotonari-

(Yes, the latter two girls and their association to Marissa Faireborn are a reference to Kiss Players (goddammit, Japan). No, we will not be featuring any of the crap that went down in that bit of forsaken Transformers lore in this story. I'm just as traumatised as you by it.)

-Who already have their own reservations about hunting down the Cybertronians with impunity, and they take the chance to order the Autobot to be brought in alive instead of death, thanks to its very public and heroic actions.

Soon, the Vehicons arrive to drag it off, and their new leader transforms from its truck alt-mode to bring in Bumblebee.

The bot in question lets his optics widen at the sight of the robot before him.

He recognises it as Optimus.

The black and teal form of Nemesis Prime knocks Bumblebee out and drags him away, the Vehicons and Sector Seven forces following afterwards. Izuku, Mei, and the other Autobots are forced to leave him behind as they take the boat to I-Island.

At the Sector Seven black site, the scientists begin to experiment on Wildwheel's brain module, attempting to reprogram the module and insert it into Nemesis Prime once it arrives with Bumblebee in tow. Lenard orders Marissa to explain why she hadn't killed the Cybertronian, and even when she explains that the robot had saved a hundred people from a falling skyscraper, he orders Bumblebee to be destroyed and thrown into the pile. It is only Marissa's insistence that interrogating the Cybertronian may lead him to the others that keeps Bumblebee alive.

In I-Island, All Might meets up with the Shields, Izuku, Mei, and the other Autobots, and discuss what has gone down. The Autobots come to the conclusion that the Optimus Prime lookalike that they saw in the city must be Optimus Prime himself and see that the news is suddenly promoting the copycat as the newest champion of hero society, calling it Grand Convoy, the Nemesis Hero, and saying that it is the next successor to All Might's legacy.

Soon enough, Wheeljack realises that Bumblebee's energy signature is still online, meaning that he is still alive, and he, Mei, and the Shields track him down to an undisclosed location in the middle of the Japanese wilderness. Worse yet, Izuku and Hatsume learn that their parents have been kidnapped by Sector Seven forces and are most likely being held prisoner there.

With that, the Autobots and their allies form a plan to break into the Sector Seven base and free Optimus and Bumblebee, as well as the humans kept prisoner inside: All Might and the Shields would cause one hell of a distraction at the front gates, whilst the children and Autobots would sneak around the side and use the distraction to break in, freeing their fellows and parents from the humans and bringing down Sector Seven and their copycat Prime in one fell swoop. The Autobots and All Might oppose the idea of Izuku, Mei, and Melissa tagging along with them, but upon seeing their determination and realising that there would be no way of stopping them from following along even if they ordered them to stay behind, they agree to bring them along.

At the black site base, Lenard orders the reprogrammed Wildwheel personality core (as they call it) to be inserted into Nemesis Prime, now called Grand Convoy, the Nemesis Hero, and then orders him to be resprayed and painted (he was going to be repainted in whites and silvers with a teal and green finish). However, the reprogramming didn't work: Wildwheel's personality hasn't been changed, and he's angrier than ever.

Meanwhile, Marissa is interrogating Bumblebee, demanding to know where the rest of the Cybertronians are. Bumblebee instead asks Marissa why she and the rest of Sector Seven are hunting Cybertronians, and why they have Optimus Prime in their employ. Marissa explains that Grand Convoy (or Nemesis Prime or whatever it's called) isn't actually Optimus Prime. It's just a replica, a copy made from a combination of human technology and Cybertronian biology kept quiet by Sector Seven in order to serve as All Might's eternal replacement as the Symbol of Peace when his time passes. Then, she reveals as to why Sector Seven has been hunting down and killing Cybertronians for the last thousand years:

Over a thousand years ago, just before the first quirk awakening, there was a massive cataclysm, an apocalypse of global proportion that devastated the Earth and left the Human race in tatters.

It was an apocalypse created by a Cybertronian invasion, when hundreds of the giant metal monsters descended from the sky and ravaged their world, intent on draining their world of their resources and bringing an end to their planet and species.

Only one of the Cybertronians had objected and turned on his fellows, making it his mission to protect Earth from his kind and save them all.

And that single Cybertronian was Optimus Prime.

He singlehandedly fought off the Cybertronian invasion and felled hundreds of his own kind, ending their domination and saving all of mankind. However, in doing so he almost brought about his own end, and none of the surviving humans had any way or knowledge on how to repair his advanced systems, so they just put him on ice until they could figure out a way to do so.

In the aftermath of the apocalypse, and with the first generation of quirks coming into bloom and throwing what was left of society into lawlessness and chaos, Sector Seven was quietly founded by Harold Attinger. They would be a private military organisation that would, in the shadows, would continue Optimus Prime's mission of safeguarding Earth from any more Cybertronian incursions, and would receive enough funding from the United Nations to become more powerful than even Interpol.

Sector Seven would spend the next thousand years defending their world from every and any Cybertronian incursion upon their world and would be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of their kind. Sector Seven would be continuing Optimus Prime's work in killing those who would bring harm to their world.

It's Bumblebee's turn to speak, and through his radio, he asks if any of the Cybertronians they killed were Autobots. Marissa doesn't understand the question, so Bumblebee reiterates: did any of the Cybertronians that she's helped kill had red badges or purple. Marissa says that she's seen to the deaths of ten red badge Cybertronians, and seven purpled badged ones.

Bumblebee swallows down the note of anger that builds within him, and asks if any of the Cybertronians they killed ever tried to help others like Optimus did? Marissa doesn't know. Bumblebee would be the first that she met. Everyone else either fought (the purple badge ones) or ran (the red badge ones).

Bumblebee asks if she ever considered the difference between the two. Marissa explains that they were taught that the badges signified rank in the Cybertronians army. Purple were soldiers, red support. That was what they were taught in the academy. It was what the Sector Seven higherups had told them that they were, at least. It was the running theory.

It was wrong, and Bumblebee explained it to her: the Cybertronian race was neck deep in a civil war. The Transformers with the red badges were the Autobots, who served to protect the galaxy and the organic races within it from the Decepticons, the Transformers with the purple badges. Optimus Prime wasn't just an ordinary Autobot like Bee, he was the leader of the Autobots. The ones invading the planet must've been the Decepticons.

Marissa is shocked by this information, but she doesn't quite trust the answer. Instead, she asks him about Wildwheel, the Autobot who attacked the USJ alongside the League of Villains. Bumblebee doesn't have an answer, and Marissa is unsatisfied by it. She decides to investigate the matter herself and leaves Bumblebee to his cell, ordering Atari and Shaoshao to bring up all the files and mission reports on Sector Seven's executions of Cybertronians over its history, including the classified ones. She doesn't care how many favours she needs to pull.

Outside the base, All Might, the Shields, Izuku, Mei, and the Autobots scout out the base, and find that they're camping out in an old factory/shipping bunker leftover from the days of the first quirk awakenings and find that the base is heavily guarded. A hundred soldiers with automatic weaponry, another hundred in support, a dozen snipers overlooking the sight, and a couple dozen heroes on their payroll. They've got jeeps, Little Bird and Black Hawk helicopters, all six types of Vehicons, APCs, mini drones in the air...

And those're just on the outside. There's got to be twice, even triple the number inside the base.

Suffice to say that Sector Seven has more firepower than a small army, and they're trained in killing Cybertronians and anything else beyond that. Pulling all their men and resources into a confrontation at the front gate isn't going to be easy, but nothing ever is.

They're going to need one hell of a distraction.

Luckily All Might is one hell of a hero, and the Shields are one hell of an inventor pair.

In the base, the uploading process for Nemesis Prime is almost complete, but the scientists take the time to add in a failsafe system into the artificial Cybertronian's personality core. They wanted their new hero to be lifelike, yes. But they also wanted him to be better than the Cybertronians that they had fought again, and under their control.

Meanwhile, Marissa would read over many of the reports that Atari and Shaoshao were able to get her, and finds dozens of classified and blacked out reports of Autobots (the ones with the red badges) and even a Decepticon or two (the ones with the purple badges) going out of their way to assist and save other humans, only to be gunned down by Sector Seven's forces, who then framed the ones that the Cybertronians saved as villains and executed them too. Horrified by what she has found and realising that she has helped in the deaths of dozens of innocent people, Humans and Cybertronians, Marissa and her two friends in the force are given no time to react to the information as the black site comes under attack.

Outside, All Might and the Shields (piloting mech suits made out of the point robots from U.A., supplied to them by All Might) begin to wreck shop, tearing through Sector Seven's vehicles and Vehicons, and knocking down dozens of soldiers and hero mercenaries. Their attack succeeds in luring out the bulk of Sector Seven's forces in order to combat them, but Lenard Bishop is quick to realise that the attack is just a diversion, and that All Might wouldn't risk his entire career just to blindly attack them. He orders Nemesis Prime to be deployed.

Wildwheel's consciousness within him is quick to take control and begins to override the failsafe around his personality. Nemesis Prime rolls out to action.

On the other end of the facility, Izuku, Mei, and the Autobots carve their way into the facility and begin to sneak through the facility, eventually coming across Bumblebee's cell and freeing him, and then freeing Inko and Mei's parents.

However, when they arrive at Optimus Prime's containment centre, they are met by Marissa, Shaoshao, and Atari...

Who let them into the storage facility.

Confused and expecting a trap, the children and Autobots cautiously enter the containment centre, only to see the comatose body of Optimus Prime before them, laying on a wide table and in a new form that they hadn't seen him in before, looking patchworked and messy in construction. He was still alive but was otherwise in stasis. Marissa explained to them that Sector Seven had been trying to bring Optimus back online ever since its creation, but it had been a slow process. None of them knew anything about Cybertronian technology, and even after learning about them after so many years, Prime's physiology was unique to himself in a lot of ways: they didn't know how to fix him and didn't dare tamper with his internal components lest they might kill him. The best that they could do was a cosmetic overhaul.

Wheeljack is able to explain this: not only was Optimus a Point One Percenter, being a Cybertronian born with a uniquely powerful spark, but he was also a Matrix Bearer, having carried the Matrix of Leadership for four million years. Right now, he had a poor fuel substitute - synthetic energon created by Sector Seven - running through his veins and keeping him on barely any power. He needed the real deal.

Wheeljack opened his chest up to begin the repairs needed to move him but find that his chest is empty. The Matrix isn't there. The Autobots demand to know where it has gone - as it is an ancient relic of their home world, and of incredible symbolic importance to the Autobots and greater Cybertronian race - but neither Marissa nor her teammates know what the Matrix is. Neither do Izuku or Mei.

Outside, All Might and the Shields continue their fight against Sector Seven, but as reinforcements arrive, they find themselves, even All Might, find themselves tiring and wearing down.

Meanwhile, Nemesis Prime approaches Optimus' facility, murder on his mind.

The Autobots begin to donate some of their energon to bring Optimus back online but find that he is still too damaged to move. He needs to be carried out, and with the amount of Sector Seven personnel crawling over the facility, even with Marissa's help, they won't be getting out without a fight.

But then, something happens.

Izuku places his hand on Optimus' leg as a sign of respect... and Optimus suddenly surges with life.

In a flash of electricity, colour, and light, Optimus' internal components begin to repair themselves, mending wires and soldering metal back into place. The patchwork metal covering him is paved over and merged with his body, and he is returned to a new body and form (essentially, he's been transformed from his IDW Cybertronian body into his Evergreen appearance).

He awakens, but slumps over onto the floor, incredibly weak and in a daze, slowly coming to his senses and recovering.

And that's when Nemesis Prime joins in the fray.

The Autobots move to defend Optimus alongside the children and Marissa's men, alongside Artemis and Moon (sporting android bodies made from pieces of old Cybertronian corpses known as Cyberdroids) and Marrisa's agents. However, Nemesis Prime is too powerful, and when he states that he recognises Bumblebee from the USJ, said bot realises that Sector Seven have transferred Wildwheel's consciousness into the artificial frame.

However, just as he reaches Optimus, Wildwheel's personality finishes overriding Sector Seven's failsafe protocols over his mind, and he declares that he should kill Prime right now... but he won't. As he scratches a Decepticon logo onto both his shoulders, he declares that he will force Optimus to watch as he will call the Decepticons to this world and take his vengeance on Humanity, right before avenging the Cybertronians that they have terminated and killing Optimus Prime for daring to defend this planet instead of letting the hateful Humankind die out like they deserve.

He is no longer Wildwheel. He is Nemesis Prime, and he will have justice for his kind.

Nemesis Prime leaves the Sector Seven facility and uses his connection to the Vehicons to take control of the army of lifeless machines made from dead Cybertronians. Naming six of them his Vehicon Generals (Tankor for the Tank Drones, Thrustor for the Cycle Drones, Jetstorm for the Aero Drones, Fearstorm (a Prime Vehicon character) for the Car Drones, Obsidian for the Coptor Drones, and Strika for the Artilery Drones) and taking them all out of the facility, the newly christened Decepticon calls all the Vehicons across Japan to himself and goes on the march.

In the confusion, All Might and the Shields are able to get into the facility and meet up with the Autobots as they help Optimus up onto his feet. Lenard is quick to catch up to them with his own troops, and upon seeing Marissa and her two agents with them, as well as Artemis and Moon in their Cyberdroid bodies, is quick to declare them traitors to the cause and orders them to be killed next.

However, when they see Optimus Prime alive and awake, they stop in place in awe and wonder.

Optimus asks where he is, and a dozen voices cut in to try and share the details and their perspectives. However, it is Izuku who is able to explain to Prime what is going on: he's in a Sector Seven facility, he's been offline for a thousand years, he's just been repaired and awakened, and the Autobots are trying to free him and the others from Sector Seven's forces.

Lenard is quick to fire back that they've been protecting Optimus all this time, not keeping him prisoner. They'd been continuing Optimus' work for a thousand years, defending their world from hundreds of Cybertronian incursions and bringing about the end of hundreds of Cybertronian invaders.

However, Optimus is horrified by this news, and the final truth comes out to them:

Before the cataclysm that brought about the global awakening of quirks, Optimus had recieved word of an incoming Decepticon invasion of the Sol System and had left with an army of Autobots to defend Earth and all the worlds in its system. The ensuing Earth War had been devastating for both the Autobots, Decepticons, and Humanity. Thousands of Cybertronians had died in those days, and so had millions of Humans. By the end of it, Optimus had been the last Autobot left standing, and he singlehandedly drove off the last of the Decepticons by himself.

But it had come at a cost. Optimus had been damaged to the point of death and had involuntarily fallen into stasis. Before he fell though, he passed off the Matrix of Leadership to an ally of the Autobots, a family of Humans known as the Witwicky family, and founded, alongside Harold Attinger, Sector Seven as a group dedicated to combating the Decepticons should they ever return. He had hoped that, in time, other Autobots would arrive on Earth to help repair their world and protect their planet from the Decepticons.

Instead, as he learns now, Sector Seven had taken his intentions to the extreme and changed their mission statement to kill every Cybertronian that arrives on Earth, regardless of faction or intention, and then use their bodies to create an army of robots made out of corpses. And when he learns that they had created a copy of himself to serve as their new champion and propagator of that message, he is horrified even more.

Lenard is shocked by Optimus' disproval, and his forces are cowed, especially when All Might glares them down. However, when they receive reports of Sector Seven's Vehicons going rabid, Lenard and his loyalists use the opportunity to flee from the base and go into hiding. The rest of the Sector Seven soldiers, heroes, and personnel report that Vehicons all over Japan and Eastern Asia are going wild, performing a mass exodus out of their bases and storage facilities and travelling fast to Japan, gathering on the shores of the country and amassing for what must be a grand assault.

At their head was Nemesis Prime.

Realising that Nemesis was about to try and wipe out all life in Japan, starting with the city of Musufatu, before spreading out to the rest of the world, the Autobots and Sector Seven realise that the only way to defeat them is to team up with each other and prepare for a siege. However, the Autobots and Sector Seven are reluctant to work together, especially after everything that had happened between them, and how it was Humanitiy's own mistakes that got them into this mess in the first place.

It is Izuku, however, who points out the need to put aside their differences and work together, and when Optimus and All Might back him up, they are all able to come to an uneasy alliance.

So, whilst Nemesis and his Vehicon Generals gather their forces for the coming assault, the Autobots, heroes, children, and Sector Seven remnants make their way to Musufatu to warn them. And as the threat of the Vehicons becomes more and more clear, the city's defenders - heroes, police, and JSDF alike - gather outside of Musufatu to defend it. Izuku and Hatsume are able to get into U.A. and convince Nezu and the staff to send out the point robots - including the massive zero pointers - into the defence but are met with distrust and scorn from the students due to their status as wanted villains.

The two of them ignore it and head back out to the front.

As the Vehicons almost reach the city, and as the heroes and Autobots finish setting up their defences, Wheeljack, the Hatsumes, and the Shields are able to jury-rig a massive forcefield over the city via Cybertronian technology, I-Island equipment, and stuff that Hatsume grabbed from U.A. With this, the defenders are left on their own outside as the Vehicons approach.

And soon, the Battle of Musufatu begins.

Artillery fire goes through the air, as do bullets and laser bolts. The Autobots are right on the frontlines alongside All Might, Marissa's Sector Seven forces, and the rest of the heroes and defenders. The Villain Bots from U.A. are sent out onto the frontline to soak up damage and draw the attention of the Vehicons, allowing the heroes and Autobots to take them down. The massive Zero Pointers throw fire and blasts onto the hordes of Vehicons whilst the likes of Mount Lady and Godzillo throw massive boulders and chunks of land into the machines, before getting down and dirty and slamming themselves into the ground, sending shockwaves through the Vehicon lines and destroying hundreds of them in single fell swoops.

It is the largest battle ever seen upon the world. There haven't been fights like this since the days of World War Two. The defenders, Cybertronian and Human alike, give everything they have to defend Musufatu from the massive army of Vehicons...

But it isn't enough.

The gargantuan Zero Pointers are destroyed by Aero and Coptor Drones, and Godzillo is felled by those same swarms. Mount Lady would run out of steam under fire and collapse, swarmed over by hundreds of Vehicons. Even All Might would begin to tire, losing his energy and running out of time with each passing blow to and from him.

And inside the domed city, all the people within, U.A. students and civilians and the like, could do was watch in fear as the defenders are beaten back by the Vehicons.

And that's when Nemesis Prime joins in the fray.

Nemesis singlehandedly kills dozens of heroes all by himself and leads his Vehicon Generals right into the fray.

And then, he lands a shot onto the makeshift forcefield generator.

The domed shield around the city falls, and the Vehicons surge in.

The defenders' lines collapse, and the fighting turned from a full siege to street-to-street fighting. Entire buildings are destroyed, skyscrapers are toppled over, and the civilians are caught in the crossfire.

In U.A., the Vehicon General known as Fearstorm lands in the grounds, and he and his Car Drones begin to go to work, shooting up the place and reducing half of U.A. to rubble. It takes the combined efforts of both Class 1-A and B to bring down and kill Fearstorm, and even then, half of them are badly wounded in the process.

However, when Fearstorm dies, they realise that the rest of the Car Drones have become disoriented and weakened, losing much of their steam and becoming much more predictable. Warning the heroes of this, the message is sent out: take out the Vehicon Generals, and the rest of them will be weakened and lose much of their tactical advantages.

Soon, the defenders reprioritise and begin to work on destroying the Vehicon Generals and bring in even more people to help destroy them and their subordinates. From vigilantes to civilians and even villains, everyone is brought into the fight.

And in the meanwhile, the Autobots realise where Nemesis is going: he's climbing up the highest point in the city, being one of the skyscrapers, in order to set up a transmitter and broadcast his location to the Decepticons.

Though the other Autobots and heroes are distracted by the Vehicon Generals and with defending the Humans, Optimus, Bumblebee, Izuku, Mei, and Melissa catch up with Nemesis and engage him in battle, Optimus and Bumblebee keeping Nemesis busy whilst the children sneak up through the shattered skyscraper all the way to the top, finding the transmitter almost about to broadcast to the Decepticons far away from home.

Down below, the last of the Vehicon Generals is taken out, but despite losing much of their momentum, the Vehicons are still a massive threat, and the defenders realise that the last thing keeping them together is Nemesis Prime.

In the middle of the city, Optimus and Bumblebee continue to wail on Nemesis Prime, but he is simply too powerful for the both of them, and too full of rage to listen to them.

Up above in the skyscraper, Mei and Melissa try to find a way to dismantle and switch off the transmitter, but are stopped when Izuku applies the simple solution to the problem:

A One for All empowered Punch-Of-Kill-Everything.

The transmitter is destroyed in a burst of light and fire, right before it can complete its broadcast, and Nemesis is left in angst at this, and more enraged than ever before. Now with nothing else left to lose, Nemesis orders his Vehicons to raise the entire city and everyone in it, and continues to throw down with Optimus and Bumblebee, beating them both to a bloody pulp.

The tide of the fight turned when Izuku and All Might joined the battle, adding in their own punches and blows into Nemesis and buckling the metal. The opponents trade blow after blow on each other, shattering metal and steel, right before Bumblebee tried to land in a blow himself...

And Nemesis punched a hole through his chest, seemingly killing him.

Izuku flies into a rage, and with one last surge of energy, ends the fight in a single blow, planting his supercharged fist into Nemesis Prime's chest and completely destroying it, leaving a gaping hole where his spark should be.

Nemesis Prime collapses, and the Vehicons that he commanded shut down, either slumping to the ground or falling to the sky. The defenders cheer at their victory, but Izuku, Mei, and Melissa can find no cheer in them. Not while Bumblebee is laying dead on the ground.

However, Wheeljack is able to stabilise him and keep him alive, leaving the yellow Autobot to fall into stasis rather than leave them. The children cheer, but the mood is once more dampened when they see Nemesis Prime besides them, writhing on the floor in pain.

He is dying.

Izuku is shocked when he realises that he has effectively killed someone (something that a hero is not supposed to do), but none of the Autobots hold it against him. Instead, they simply gather around Nemesis to keep him company as he dies, with Optimus holding his hand as he fades away. Here, Nemesis - Wildwheel - finally comes to terms with what he has done and what he has helped do and bemoans how far from the Autobot ideal he has strayed. He's seen too many good Autobots fall to Sector Seven's - Humanity's - guns, and he wanted justice for them.

All he wanted was to avenge them.

Wildwheel dies inside of the body of Nemesis Prime, and all the Autobots can do is mourn the fall of one of their own.

In the aftermath of the battle, Musufatu begins to rebuild, though now with the existence of Cybertronians as common knowledge. Sector Seven's dirty dealings is exposed to the world and the organisation is disbanded, with members like Marissa Faireborn and her two agents acquitted. However, those like Lenard Bishop, now going by the name of Silas, would go underground with their own caches of Vehicons, forming the Cemetary Wind factions and continuing Sector Seven's grisly work.

The remaining Vehicons, however, would be melted down and stripped for parts. That was the official story, of course, but in reality, many of them had fallen into the hands of rival countries, criminal syndicates, and hero organisations, beginning an arms race for Cybertronain technology in the face of the Battle of Musufatu.

Meanwhile, the United Nations would reforge what was left of Sector Seven into the Earth Defence Command, or EDC for short, with Marissa Faireborn and her two agents Shaoshao Li and Atari Hitotonari in command. They would be working in conjunction with Optimus Prime and the Autobots in defence of Earth from extraterrestrial threats, though would find constant contention from Hitoshizuku Amaō (another Kiss Players character, no we are not getting lewd don't worry), the Japanese representative to the U.N., and someone who had lost her daughter, Shizuku Amaō, to the Cybertronians during the Battle of Musufatu. Suffice to say, she had a good reason to hate the Cybertronians, regardless of whether they were Autobot or Decepticon.

It doesn't help that Shaoshao and Atari have found evidence of experiments by Sector Seven around the process of Binary Bonding a human to what they called a Cybertronian Transtector, and find blueprints for processes and functions such as the Headmasters, Targetmasters, Powermasters, and Godmasters.

In the battle's aftermath, All Might would run out of much of the juice that he had been running on with One for All and would be forced to announce his early retirement. Luckily, he is able to acquit Izuku and Mei of the charges against them, and they are allowed to go back to U.A. as students once again, and even as heroes of the battle. However, they are still met with distrust from their peers thanks to their former status' as villains and how they had gone on the run with the Autobots.

Some in their classes, such as Todoroki and Iida, would continue to express concern and distrust about the Autobots, especially if their relatives and loved ones were injured or killed in the Battle of Musufatu, but they would come across a Cybertronian who shared their concerns and wanted to see the Autobots pay for their crimes.

And what was in it for him? Well, Starscream wasn't going to tell anytime soon.

In the meantime, Izuku, Mei, and Melissa are given temporary licenses and clearances to help the Autobots in their activities thanks to their public affiliation with them and are made into honorary Autobots as well for their part in saving Musufatu. Their families move in with the Autobots as they are given a new facility - a new home and base - just outside of Musufatu - all to themselves and are there to greet new Autobot arrivals as they emerge from hiding and/or arrive on Earth.

It would be Wheeljack, the Hatsumes, and the Shields who eventually repaired Bumblebee and brought him back online, though while they were able to repair his voice, the rest of his body had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Bumblebee would comment that he felt like a gold bug, and then felt that the name had a nice ring to it.

As such, Goldbug was born.

Meanwhile, in the criminal underworld, new alliances are being forged and created in the wake of the battle and the emergence of the Cybertronians. Many villains like Spinner, Mr Compress, and Twice would see and be inspired by the good that the Autobots are doing for the world in defending and rebuilding Musufatu, as well as exposing and bringing down Sector Seven, and would decide to become vigilantes in their name, delivering justice onto corruption and those that would do harm in the uncertain streets of the world. Those like Toga would see the chaos left behind and be enthralled by it. Others, like Dabi, would simply take advantage of the devastation left behind and begin to forge their own paths in the uncertainty of it all.

Meanwhile, those like Stain would be approached by those who would seek to cleanse the world of filth. The Decepticon Bludgeon and his Mayhem Attack Squad (composed of Octopunch, Stranglehold, (G1), Overbite, Smoulder, Steamhammer, Thunderblast, Tuskmaster (IDW), and Fennec (Beast Wars Uprising)) would forge an alliance with Stain and his growing number of followers to cleanse the world of false heroes and idols.

Others, like Overhaul and Wolfram, would forge alliances with each other and grow to become powerful contenders in the fight to claim the criminal underworld for their own, especially after acquiring a number of Cemetary Wind squads and Vehicons for themselves.

However, other groups would engage in open war with each other, with the two groups known as Humarise and the Meta Liberation Army (now joined by Nine and his followers) would begin to wage a shadow war with each other over the spoils of the Cybertronian presence on their world.

Some would already claim those spoils. In a far-off corner of the world, the former Sector Seven scientists known as Giga and Mega would gather Human allies in the form of Cancer, Wilder, Bullhorn, and the famed Darkwing mercenaries Buster and Hydra, and binary bond them to their own Transtectors, as well as turning their cache of Vehicons into a new army for them to help them revive a trio of Decepticons known as Blood, Dauros, and Gilmer, and soon make their own claim on the world.

However, the EDC and Autobots would be ready to counter these new threats, as already existing agents such as the codenamed Lightfoot, Ranger, and Road King would begin the work of building Transtectors that suited them alongside the Autobots, whilst cadets like Minerva, Cab, and Shūta Gō would begin their training to fight alongside the Autobots with their own Transtectors.

However, somewhere in the depths of Japan, Shigaraki bemoans the fact that despite everything that the League of Villains had done in attacking the USJ and attempting to kill All Might, it was these Autobots and Vehicons, and even the sh*tty little green-haired boy from before that had stolen the spotlight away from them, and regrets ever bringing along that hulking piece of scrap Wildwheel. For all of his talk of his race's technology being far superior to anything on Earth, all of it was useless to him!

However, All for One would calm him down, and points out to him that this new era of uncertainty had netted them possibly hundreds of powerful new allies in the form of the Cemetary Wind factions, the likes of Humarise and the MLA, Mega and Giga's faction, and all the people who hated All Might and the Autobots across the world. They had just been granted a slew of new possible allies. All they had to do now was reach out to them.

And as Shigaraki and Kurogiri left to carry out his will and find those allies, All for One would feel the corruptive energies within him stir and smiles cruelly at the thought of One for All being passed down once again.

And all the way on Cybertron, Soundwave would report that Autobot resistance movements across the galaxy has suddenly become more organised and motivated, and that their enemies are finally beginning to gain ground on them. He also reports of possible activity on Earth, and his spies within Starscream's ranks report of the possible re-emergence of Optimus Prime...

The tyrant known as Megatron would stir for the first time in a thousand years.

But at the end, Izuku, Optimus, Goldbug, and their allies in both the Hatsumes, Shields, Autobots, and heroes would watch as the new arrivals to Earth gathered - the likes of Rewind and Ratchet, Eject and Whirl, Windblade and Hound, and so on - and would watch as the sun rose once more on a brand new day, confident that though it may seem like it never ends, whatever the future may bring, they could all face it together...

And that's how act one ends.

I'm not too sure about act two, but I have a few threads and plotlines in place for what could happen then.

1. The Autobots and EDC would work to take down the Cemetary Wind groups across the globe but would also foil a plot by Starscream and his seekers to speed up the Cybertronian arms race between the various factions across the Earth and plunge it into a third world war.

2. Izuku, Melissa, and Mei would dig up evidence of a growing alliance in the criminal underworld between the League of Villains and the Shie Hassaikai, meaning that the League have automatically become more powerful than ever before in the early days of canon.

3. We look through the villains' perspectives at a long running plot as we see the League come into conflict with both the MLA and Humarise, all before All for One brings them into the fold alongside numerous Cemetary Wind forces. However, they themselves come into conflict with a growing vigilante alliance headed by Spinner, Knuckleduster, Mr Compress, Twice, and the Autobot known as Atomizer.

4. Goldbug finds evidence of corruption within the HPSC and hero society itself when he discovers that the HPSC has several kidnapped Autobot scientists in their ranks and are forcing them to build an army of Cybertronians under their control.

5. Marissa comes into conflict with Hitoshizuku over EDC funding, with the latter's demand being to freeze the Autobots out of the EDC, or they will go bankrupt (no their solution is not a sexy calendar shoot, Kiss Players is not going to be a thing, get your head out of the gutter).

6. Izuku and Mei come under fire from members of both Class A and B at U.A. and are forced to come to terms with much of the stigma within hero society and the infamous phrase 'Once a villain, always a villain'. Thankfully, they find comfort in the form of Drift, a former Decepticon named Deadlock, now a faithful and steadfast Autobot. However, this stirs a conflict of ideology between the Autobots and heroes.

7. Izuku and Mei are sent to take some time off and relax by All Might and Optimus, eventually forced to sit out of the Sports Festival because of their injuries and the need to recover. However, when the Sports Festival is attacked by Stain, Bludgeon, and their Mayhem Attack Squad, the two of them leap into action to take on the villain and Decepticons.

8. Mei, Izuku, and Class A and B are sent off to train alongside the EDC cadets Minerva, Cab, and Shūta alongside their mentors Lightfoot, Road King, and Ranger. However, when Giga and Mega's forces attack them, alongside the newly awakened Blood, Dauros, and Gilmer, they must all work together to track the Decepticons and their Human loyalists down before they can awaken a great evil known as Devil Z, a being that was thought to be killed back during the days of the first quirk awakenings.

9. When Izuku, Mei, Melissa, and their Autobot friends come across a group of Cybertronians in Pretender disguises, led by former Decepticon Thundercracker, they discover that a group of Cybertronian neutrals that deserted from their respective armies (Thundercracker, Cerebros, Cyberwarp, Slog, Kakuryu, Groove, First Aid, Tigatron, Airazor, Trans-Mutate, and Rampage), and have also called themselves the Knights of Cybertron, have been hiding amongst Earth's people for years from their homebase of Fortress Maximus, and have simply been trying to find a home for themselves. The Humans and Autobots would have to defend the Knights from Starscream's seekers, before discovering that the Knights have a combiner on their side by the name of Grand Guardian (made up of First Aid, Groove, Slog, Kakuryu, Tigatron, and Cyberwarp, all of whom are parts of a combiner). After repelling Starscream and the Seekers, the Knights of Cybertron decide that while they won't join the Autobots, they will at least be careful allies of them.

10. Optimus Prime and All Might go on a brief sabbatical to locate the missing Matrix of Leadership, eventually discovering that One for All is itself the Matrix, whilst All for One is a corrupted splinter of it. This puts the emergence of quirks and their sudden link to the Transformers into question.

11. A bit of a comedy focus plot, but Izuku, Mei, and Melissa attempt to teach the Autobots the joys of Earth's various holidays. Shenanigans ensue.

12. Izuku finds himself with few allies in U.A. as a plot to frame him for the murder of a classmate is uncovered by the heroes and Autobots. Starscream's manipulations continue to seep into the school.

13. All Might and the heroes are informed of the League of Villains by Atomizer and the Vigilante Alliance and realise that All for One has grown more powerful than ever before.

14. The Autobots and heroes rescue the kidnapped Autobot scientists (Ironfist, Brainstorm, Perceptor, etc) from the HPSC, but that just encourages them to declare the Autobots and heroes that supported them as traitors and mobalise their new Cybertronians and loyal heroes on the EDC and Japanese government, launching a coup of the country.

15. The HPSC and League of Villains go to war, and the Autobots are caught in the middle. The HPSC are brought low by All for One and Shigaraki, and the Autobots, U.A., and the EDC are forced to pick up the pieces.

16. In the aftermath, All for One and the Decepticons go to war with each other, with Soundwave taking command of Giga and Mega's forces as his own, along with his cassettes. However, he and Starscream come to blows over leadership of the operation. Meanwhile, Detective Tsukauchi teams up with Nightbeat and Prowl to search for the League of Villains and their Cybertronian connections, eventually coming across a message from Silas calling for an alliance of all Cemetary Wind squads.

17. Devil Z is brought online, and he takes his Decepticon loyal humans to the planet of Nebulos. The Autobots, EDC Transtector pilots-in-training, and Izuku, Mei, and Melissa are forced to go after them and fight the Nebulan Hive as they finalise the process necessary to binary bond the Humans to their Transtectors. In turn, the Nebulan Rebellion allow the pilots to binary bond with their Transtectors as well, becoming the first Headmasters (Minerva, Cab, and Shūta (Goshooter)) and the first Powermasters (Lightfoot, Road King, and Ranger). Izuku, Mei, and Melissa are bonded to their own Transtectors and become the first Godmasters.

18. Silas had united dozens of Cemetary Wind factions into a united force by the name of MECH. Their first target? The EDC.

19. Whilst Devil Z had returned to Earth, the Autobots and Transtector pilots discover that Scorponok has used the science of Nebulos to create his own army of Decepticon Headmasters on Master (Weirdwolf, Fangry, Horri-Bull, Squeezeplay, Mindwipe, Skullcruncher, Apeface, Snapdragon, and Scorponok himself).

20. Bakugo wishes to challenge Izuku once again, but the green-haired boy has long since got over Bakugo's existence. At the same time, Sentinel Major arrives on Earth to try and spark up his old rivalry with Optimus Prime, refusing to accept that it was totally onesided and Optimus has completely forgotten about him.

21. With his own minion in Scorponok's brother, Black Zarak, Devil Z's Decepticons make a bid for power on Earth, sparking a brief Decepticon Civil War.

22. The League of Villains and MECH go to war with each other, and All for One welcomes Megatron onto Earth as an equal.

23. Megatron rallies the Decepticons to him and moves to take over Earth. He and Optimus clash on the battlefield, and the defenders of Earth are only just able to fend them off. In the middle of the battle, All Might and All for One come to blows, and All for One kills All Might. All of the power of One for All is channeled into Izuku, and he comes into contact with not just eight vestiges, but thirteen shadowy figures. Megatron kidnaps Izuku and invites All for One onto his ship, and the Decepticons depart for Cybertron. The Autobots learn that All for One and Izuku are actually two halves of the Matrix of Leadership, and the Knights of Cybetron reveal what Megatron intends to do: kill Izuku and All for One, revive Cybertron's core, and turn it into a battleworld fit to conquer the entire galaxy. But All for One himself is the corrupted portion of the Matrix and is host to something else entirely. If that takes over Cybertron, then who knows what will happen. The Autobots, Transector Pilots, Artemis, Moon, Mei, and Melissa go after them.

24. On the way to Cybertron, the Autobots are impeded by a pair of demonic beings known as Violen Jiger and Dark Nova, along with their army of Galaman and Novaroid drones. The Autobots are barely able to make it past them as they declare themselves to be servants of the Chaos Bringer.

25. Entire armies of Autobots, alongside Mei, Melissa, the Transtector pilots, and the Earthbound Autobots, arrive to stop Megatron, but it is too late. Izuku and All for One are both killed by Megatron and fed to the core, spreading their energies all over Cybertron. However, All for One reveals himself to not be the corrupted shards of the Matrix, but to be the spirit of Unicron himself - having been separated from his physical body by Primus millions of years ago - and now takes the dead body of Cybertron for his own, reformatting it into his new physical form, and doing the same to Megatron, turning him into Galvatron, his servant, and all the Decepticons on Cybertron into his Sweeps. Only Devil Z's forces, being mostly Human Transtectors, Soundwave (and his cassettes), Shockwave, and Starscream are spared. The Autobots and surving Deceptions flee back to Earth, and Dark Nova and Violen Jiger join their master as the Chaos Bringer feasts on the dead Cybertronian colonies, growing in size each time, before finally setting his sights on Earth. Meanwhile, the Earthbound Autobots and allies all mourn for Izuku's loss, but then realise something incredible: Izuku's spirit has somehow transferred to his Transtector, and he has become a fully-fledged Cybertronian.

26. Back on Earth, the Autobots and Decepticons gather and are forced to unite with the Earthbound defenders. As Unicron and his minions approach, the fight that breaks out between all of them is massive, and millions of Cybertronians are killed with each passing moment. As Earth is nearly consumed, Izuku and Optimus Prime commune with the spirit at the heart of Earth, the one who had activated the Matrix of Leadership so long ago, granted Earth the power of quirks, and sent the energies of the Matrix into One for All. The planet of Earth transforms into the goddess known as Gaea, who destroys Dark Nova and Violen Jiger, and does battle with her brother, Unicron. And as Optimus and Galvatron do battle for the last time, eventually killing each other, Izuku travels into the heart of Cybertron and, after summoning the powers of both the Matrix within him and the individual powers of every Human from Earth/Gaea, both quirked and quirkess, blessed to them via the Matrix and Gaea, and also summoning the strength of not just the eight vestiges, but the Thirteen Primes themselves, Izuku unleashes the purifying energies of the Matrix onto the spirit of Unicron, dispelling and destroying him, and freeing Cybertron from his corruptive malice, as well as the evils of All for One.

27. In the aftermath, the surviving Autobots and Decepticons watch as Gaea, that being Earth, merges with Cybertron to completely reformate it, turning the once metal world into a techno-organic paradise, capable of supporting both organic and mechanical life. Realising that they were so few in number now to justify continuing the war, and that Cybertron is even bigger now with Earth's added mass, the two current Autobot and Decepticon leaders, Goldbug and Soundwave, make peace with each other and declare the Third Great Cybertronian Civil War to be over, to which the Autobots and (most of the) Decepticons agree. Soon, Earthen and Cybertronian life is found repairing the damage that Gaea could not fix, and thousands of neutrals (inlcuding the Knights of Cybertron) return to their home world. And while some former Decepticons, such as Starscream and Devil Z's forces, and former Human villains, such as what's left of the League of Villains and Silas' MECH, refuse to accept the peace and continue to go about their usual scheming ways, the majority of Humanity and Cybertronians agree to put aside their differences to forge a new future together. The next big thing that humanity would need to get used to was their lack of quirks now, though. Thanks to Izuku's sacrifice in stopping Unicron/All for One and purifying Cybertron, all of their quirks are gone now, zapped away when the magics of the Matrix leave them.

28. In the meantime, the last acts of the story would focus on the mourning and funerals of Izuku, All Might, and Optimus Prime, and how their legacies would be the hope that the people of Cybetron, both Human and Cybertronian, would need to look forwards into the future...

29. And in said future, a long time after the Great Downsizing, a group of children, both Humans, Maximals, and Predacons, would gather around the statues of Izuku, All Might, and Optimus Prime, and would listen to the stories of the elderly Human/Maximal hybrids Mei and Melissa, accompanied by the Maximal and Predacon duo Artemis and Moon, as they recounted the tales of the three in statues, and the stories of the final days of the Great War, and their adventures on the old world of Earth...

Adventures that were always more than meets the heroic eye.)

Chapter 7: The Shadow City

Chapter Text

One night, when the clock ticks to midnight, the futuristic city of Morband, within the greater city of Tokyo, is invaded by an unknown enemy.

No one knows who they are, no one knows where they came from, no one knows how they even got into the city. One second the city was at peace, the next there was an army of armed men and women in black garbs and unmarked uniforms patrolling the streets in military vehicles, setting up checkpoint across the city entrances and intersections, and putting the entire city under martial law. Most of the heroes in the city turn themselves over to the invaders' side. The rest are forced underground and are hunted like dogs.

The invaders are called the Shadow Legion, and they have placed the entirety of Morband under their control.

And now Class A are trapped inside.

They had been off on a trip to Morband to explore the sights and see the new technologies that would be available to heroes soon, but had been cut off from each other and left scattered over the city in groups or on their own as the Shadow Legion invaded, forced to watch as the soldiers in black uniforms gun down anyone on the streets - mostly villains - force civilians back into their homes, and hunt down any of the heroes that have refused to side with them.

The invasion of Morband evolves into a national crisis, more so than that of All Might's retirement, and every hero in the immediate vicinity of the city, as well as from across Japan as well, are called into action. The Japanese Self Defence Force is mobilised for the first time in decades, and everyone that the government could muster was deployed in the face of this invasion.

And meanwhile, the scattered students within the city are forced to take shelter where they can, away from the eyes of the Shadow Legion as they scour the city. Some of them choose to hide away, unwilling to fight against the armed force for a multitude of reasons. Others decided to fight the new enemy, linking up with local resistance movements, hero, villain, civilian, and vigilante alike, to batter the Shadow Legion and their hero allies as much as they can until help can arrive, and maybe even force them to flee the city.

However, as the Shadow Legion's invasion of the city slowly turns into a hostage situation for the entirety of Morband, the students must figure out what this army of villains wants before they kill anyone else.

For there is something in Morband, something buried underneath Morband. Something dark. Something cold. Something that's been waiting to be freed for years...

And now that something is ready to be released.

Chapter 8: Providence

Chapter Text

In the beginning, when he was but a child, Izuku Midoriya was a quirkless little boy with no one in his corner. He had no friends to speak of, Kacchan refused to associate with him and bullied him along with his goons, and even his mother, despite her doing the best that she could, had little positive prospects for their future, including hers as the mother of a quirkless child.

He was alone. So very alone...

Until he met someone. A friend. A girl with rosy cheeks and brown acorn hair, who accepted him for nothing more or less than himself.

Uraraka Ochako.

The two of them would become fast friends, spending so much of their time with each other that they were soon enough nigh inseparable. They would laugh and play with each other until the sun went down every single day, and then repeat the process the very next day, and they would do so happily.

But being friends with a quirkless person placed a target on Ochako's back as well, and Bakugo would make it his mission to make her life just as miserable as Izuku's.

And in the face of this violence, Ochako would respond with her own.

Over the years, Ochako would begin to shift in the wake of the brutality against the two of them. Whilst she would retain much of her positive personality, there was a sharp edge to her now, a bitterness and cynicism about Bakugo, Aldera, and everything else that she kept mostly to herself, save for sharing it with Izuku and Izuku alone.

And soon enough, from one of the fights with Bakugo, she would begin sporting a nasty scar across her nose, red and raw.

In the present of the story, Izuku would be caught up with the slime villain and All Might would free him. They would have their talk and All Might would smother his dreams with his words, as was in canon. Soon enough, the sludge villain would capture Bakugo at Aldera, and Izuku would try to save his old bully/friend.

However, this would be where the changes begin.

Because Izuku would end up being caught up in the sludge villain as well.

Because it would be Ochako who saved both Izuku and Bakugo from the sludge villain.

And because it would be Ochako who was approached by All Might and offered One for All.

Yes, this is an 'Ochako has One for All quirk' fic.

And so Ochako and All Might would spend the next ten months at Dagobah Beach, training the young girl to gain the powers of One for All whilst Izuku would be left in the shadows to wallow in misery, losing any chance he had of ever becoming a hero.

However, Ochako herself would refuse this fate, and whilst she wouldn't be able to tell Izuku of her training with All Might, she would begin to train him herself as well, forwarding him to a friend of hers that she had met in private.

A friend by the name of Itsuka Kendo.

Soon enough, the U.A. entrance exam would begin, and whilst Ochako would pass (with the help of One for All) and make it into Class 1-A, Izuku would fail and be placed in the General Education department, though not without making friends in Hitoshi Shinso in his class, and Yui Kodai and Setsuna Tokage in Class 1-B. They would form this story's newest iteration of the Dekusquad, with Ochako forming as the lancer of the group and Izuku as its (reluctant) head...

Before they were joined by Himiko Toga, the class representative of Class 2-B, one of the Big Three of U.A.'s second year alongside Mawata Fuwa and Rody Soul, and the personal joint apprentice of Recovery Girl and Vlad King.

Soon enough the mock battles test would begin, and Ochako would show off to Izuku her new hero outfit, that being a hybrid of her canon hero costume, but less skin-tight with more padding, and that of a militant soldier with armoured pieces covering her body. She would have her fight with Bakugo and Iida, though with the odd number of people in her class, she would be a solo act against them.

The fight would end in a draw, though not before she beat Bakugo's face in.

She and Bakugo really hated each other.

Soon enough, the night before Class 1-A's trip to the USJ, Itsuka and her friend Saiko Intelli would take Izuku to a warehouse in the outskirts of Vale, where they would introduce him, on the orders of another, to the group that they belonged to.

An armed villainous group by the name of Providence, the League of Villains of this world.

That's right: Itsuka and Saiko are villains in this fic, they belong to this universe's version of the League of Villains. Their task, on the orders of their leader and spy within U.A., is to induct and introduce Izuku to the organisation and bring him into the fold, all in time for the attack on the USJ the next day.

But Izuku would rebel against them and escape the warehouse, though he was forced to ditch his phone upon realising that Itsuka and Saito were tracking him on it. He would spend the whole rest of the night trying to warn police and heroes about the attack on the USJ, but would get turned away either by no one believing his story (due to either the supposed ridiculousness of it or his quirklessness) or because of the timely intervention of Providence's agents.

He would be forced to go to the USJ himself.

So he would spend the whole rest of the night journeying to the USJ, constantly stalked by Providence's goons all the way there.

But when he eventually gets to the USJ the next day, he finds that he is too late to warn them.

Kurogiri warps into the middle of the field, and expels from himself the forces of Providence, led not by Shigaraki, but by one Kaina Tsutsumi.

Lady Nagant.

Yep, Nagant's taking over ol' Shiggy's position as the head of the League of Villains, and because of it, the modus operandi of Providence is uniquely different as well. Instead of just being a collection of street thugs and brawlers, Nagant's forces are made up of armoured and armed mercenaries, and by result are much more composed and organised.

On top of that, it is revealed that in the past, her version of the league had subsumed much of Humarise into their fold, as Beros serves as one of her chief lieutenants alongside Kurogiri and their young enforcers in Itsuka and Saito, as well as the villain Leviathan, also of Humarise origin, being their primary Nomu, who willingly allowed himself to be turned into one instead of it being an unwilling victim.

Lady Nagant, in comparison to Shigaraki, is much more mature and methodical to her actions in leading Providence, and would've won the initial fight against the students and the teachers if it wasn't for Izuku's early warning to them, and in the ensuing fight, Kurogiri is forced to scatter them across the USJ at random to be taken care of as a result of last second improvisation instead of it just being part of the original plan.

However, the fight that follows in the USJ quickly turns back into Providence's favour as the students and teachers are hunted down and corralled by Nagant's mercenaries and enforcers. The scattered battles that ensue become much bloodier than in canon, with many of the students suffering from grievous wounds inflicted upon them by Providence, raising the stakes even higher.

As many of the students are forced to surrender and be taken hostage by Providence's enforcers, Tsuyu, Kaminari, and Sato are able to link up with Ochako, with the Nomu that is Leviathan hot on their tail.

And that is when Ochako pulls a gun on the three, Leviathan answering to her call.

Ochako Uraraka, All Might's successor and the ninth wielder of One for All, is a villain, one of U.A's traitors, and Lady Nagant's chief enforcer.

And she coldly orders her classmates to surrender.

He does so, and they march out onto the square where the rest of the hostages have been gathered. The rest of the class is shocked by Ochako's betrayal, but she doesn't divulge her reasons as to why she has turned traitor to any of them.

But when Bakugo and Kirishima attempt to intervene and take down Nagant, Ochako takes on Bakugo and beats him to a bloody pump, shattering his arms and hands and leaving him broken on the floor. Kirishima is forced into submission at Bakugo's capture, and soon enough, all of Class 1-A and their teachers has been captured.

But not Izuku. He remains out of sight of Providence's roaming patrols, having swiped one of their guns from them during the battle and going into hiding, trying to stay out of their sight and make his way toward where the hostages are being held.

Luckily for him, his words from the night before had reached someone's ears.

Though Providence did their best, Izuku's words do reach the head of one hero agency, being that of Team Idaten, and Ingenium, alongside Enigma and Bigshot, go to investigate.

And soon enough, they are confronted by Providence's armed goons and realise the situation that is unfolding before them, calling in for backup.

Calling in All Might.

Just as Providence anticipated.

Soon enough, the USJ is surrounded by a blockade of heroes and police, including the likes of the rest of Team Idaten, the lovers Mirko and Ryukyu, the former vigilante Pop Step (with her husband, the Skycrawler, still working in America for the time being), and the rest of the teachers at U.A..

And as Providence wanted, All Might intervenes to save the hostages, bursting through the roof of the USJ with a frown on his face.

And Nagant is quick to challenge him.

Her orders are for All Might to surrender, and for Leviathan to kill him. If not, then the hostages will be killed in turn.

(She only means this for the teachers, though. She has no desire to harm the children, though she won't let it be known.)

As Leviathan and All Might start to battle, the rest of Providence's goons begin to throw themselves into the fight, firing at All Might and delivering shot after shot onto him, further worsening his critical wounds.

The fight for him is going poorly, and it looks like all hope is lost.

And that is when Izuku, without a quirk or special power at all, intervenes on his own.

Perched up on a high position nearby, Izuku takes the gun in his hand and begins to wildly fire down on the Providence forces below, not hitting any of them and almost hurting himself with the recoil, but succeeding in drawing their attention. This gives Class 1-A and the teachers the brief window that they need to overpower their captors and break free, taking their weapons and beginning their own fight against the disorganised mercenaries and enforcers.

And now, with the hostages cleared out, All Might loses any reason he has to hold back and sends a blow with all his might (heh heh) into Leviathan, before proceeding to beat him bloody and leave him on the ground.

However, the fight is a lot closer than expected, and Leviathan is still able to critically injure him. Worse yet are the Providence soldiers who are still nailing him with rounds, even whilst the rest of the pro heroes begin to flood into the massive building.

But that doesn't stop him, as soon enough he spots Lady Nagant incapacitating Ingenium and his sidekicks, and moves in to take her down...

Only to be rebuffed and stopped by his successor, Ochako, who nails him with a supercharged punch to his side and leaves him spiraled onto the ground.

All Might, bloody and wounded and onto his last minutes of time in his buffed form, is horrified by the sudden betrayal, as is Izuku as he is forced to watch the fight from up above.

And as Kurogiri whisks away Nagant, her enforcers and Nomu, and whatever Providence soldiers they could recover, Ochako locks eyes with Izuku, sending him a tearful expression, before being taken away.

The Battle of the USJ is over, and One for All and All for One are now both in the hands of the enemy.

In the aftermath of the battle, because of his connection to Ochako, Izuku is thoroughly questioned by the police, including Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, but they find nothing that suggest that he had any awareness of Providence before last night. On top of that, his testimony about the heroes and police officers that had rebuffed his warning helped to arrest over a dozen people for negligence and quirkism, as well as exposed several agents of Providence.

However, when the police and heroes raid the warehouse that Providence had been frequenting the night before, they find it stripped down and abandoned. There was evidence of previous activity in there, but not enough to pin it to anyone.

Soon enough, Izuku is released from police custody and returns home for the night, shaken by the ordeal and left with a warning for his actions.

However, upon returning home, he finds Inko chatting happily to a guest.

Ochako.

The news of who was at the USJ hasn't been sent out yet, so Inko still believes that Ochako is part of Class 1-A, and asks if she is hurt. She says no, but is clearly shaken herself by the event.

Izuku and Ochako are left on their own in the living room whilst Inko is in the kitchen, making tea for them. A boy with no quirk and a girl with the most powerful quirk.

The two of them talk in hushed whispers. Izuku asks why Ochako had joined with Providence, and Ochako quotes how she felt about Bakugo, Aldera, All Might, and hero society at large. Izuku knows that this isn't all, but Ochako refuses to say.

Izuku asks if anything about their friendship was ever genuine, and Ochako says that all of it was. Every single detail, and every single second of it. It was why he was supposed to join them after all. It was why she had ordered Itsuka and Saito to bring him into Providence.

And it's why he can still join now.

Izuku gives her no answer.

Over the radio in the kitchen, the first details of the USJ are broadcast, and they reveal Ochako to have betrayed U.A.. Inko looks to Ochako in shock, and all the girl can do in response is shrug and get up, apologising for taking up their time and going for the door.

"The offer's still on the table, Deku... there's still time to join us."

"..."

"...See you around, Izuku."

And she leaves. Izuku tries to catch up to her, but when he opens the door, she's gone.

The next morning, Izuku and Inko are placed in protective custody and sent to stay in U.A.. Meanwhile, police forces raid the Uraraka family's construction business, but find it to be deserted. Not a trace of anyone at all remained. At the same time, the rest of the Dekusquad (Shinso, Yui, Setsuna, and Himiko) meet up with Izuku, and together they try to come to terms with the fact that Ochako has turned against them.

And in the meanwhile, at their secret base, Ochako comes to terms with her decisions as she dons her new outfit (a black and pink set of armour, like that of Crosshair from The Bad Batch), and wishes little Eri at her side well as Providence licks their wounds and prepares for their next operation...

All the while their benefactor, All for One, basks with glee at having One for All back in his possession...

What happens after this, I do not know, but I have a few ideas:

The main story would focus on the rivalry between Izuku and Ochako, and would be a David versus Goliath story, with Izuku, the quirkless boy, going up against the all powerful Ochako, armed with the most powerful quirk in history.

Pop Step would take Izuku and the rest of the Dekusquad under her wing, training them to be able to fight against Providence and the other villains out there, and serving as the Team Mom of the group.

The Sports Festival would be a lot different, with different events leading up to the 1v1 battles. Whether or not it should be behind closed doors due to the threat that Providence poses, I don't know.

There would be a lot of tension between the Dekusquad and 1-A, as the squad would receive more advanced training than the rest of the school because of their mentorship under Pop Step and her hero friends, and Setsuna and Yui would begin to share what they teach with the rest of their class in 1-B. Because of this, the roles of the festival would be reversed, with what's left of 1-A believing that the Dekusquad and 1-B were being arrogant, and the squad and 1-B (sans Momona, because of course) trying to refute this. These tensions would only be worsened by Ochako's defection and Izuku's connection to her, as they would begin to suspect him of being a villain in disguise as well.

Since Izuku is not in Class 1-A, Todoroki would instead choose Bakugo as his rival, but this time the boy would not reciprocate it. His attention would be all on showing Izuku up, and as such would only worsen the inner tensions of 1-A on top of it, thanks to Izuku not serving as the class's heart.

Many of Class 1-A would be injured in Providence's attack, meaning that half the class cannot compete in the sports festival, meaning that the other classes dominate the brackets.

Izuku and Shinso would seek help from Mei Hatsume of the support department to help them get through the sports festival, and the latter is soon brought into the Dekusquad.

The Dekusquad are able to make it into the first stage of the 1v1 rounds, but Hatsume bows out after showing off her gadgets in her fight, and Izuku and Shinso are both taken out in the semi-finals. Yui and Setsuna make it into the finals, and Setsuna wins the sports festival.

Izuku is met with distain at the sports festival due to his quirklessness, and it takes Midnight calling out the crowd to get them to shut up.

Bakugo and Todoroki go up against each other in the first of the 1v1 rounds, but Bakugo ends up taking the latter out whilst he is only using half of his quirk. Bakugo is, of course, enraged by this, but he ends up getting taken out by Yui in the next round.

Providence pulls an assassination attempt on All Might at the ending ceremony of the sports festival via paying off a minor Pro Hero by the name of Slugger to plant a bomb on his weak side, but the assassination attempt fails and Slugger ingests a cyanide pill to prevent himself from being captured.

Instead of being a Hero Killer, Stain instead continues to go under the name of Stendhal, but is now known as the Villain Killer. Ochako and Izuku are forced to team up to take him down when he goes after them both after killing several villains and Providence-aligned heroes.

In the months following the USJ, multiple heroes, from sidekicks to minor rankers, begin to defect to Providence, escalating the crisis as Lady Nagant's charismatic leadership continues to bring more into the fold.

Shinso is allowed to transfer into the hero course, but Izuku is denied because of his quirklessness and the HPSC's refusal to change the status quo. In response, Pop Step introduces him and the Dekusquad to a pair of former villains now vigilantes for training, Gentle Criminal and La Brava. The group proceed to take covert action against Providence in the shadows.

Tensions in U.A.'s hero course continue to rise as resentment and mistrust in the classes continues to grow, and the fears of more traitors in their ranks continue to divide them.

Meanwhile, Ochako and Nagant go on a personal mission to take down Overhaul and the surviving members of the Shie Hassaika, whom they had previously saved Eri from and almost drove into extinction. Now, they finish the job, but learn of the existence of the MLA, who declare war on Providence.

The HPSC learn that Uwbami and her agency have been funnelling money to Providence, and when they try to raid their establishment, they make their change of allegiance public. The lines in hero society are being drawn.

All Might is left filled with regret over giving One for All to Ochako, and begins taking to Nighteye's advice on giving it to Togata. However, the latter turns it down, and All Might is left without a successor in mind.

Soon, during the provisional license exam (Providence have no reason to attack the children at the summer camp, so they do not), Providence activate their agents in all of the hero schools, and a massive uprising takes place, with hundreds of students and teachers from different schools (Camie and Isana from Shiketsu, Shindo and Tatami from Kestubutsu, and even Ms. Joke) siezing control of their academies and handing them over to Providence. U.A. is barely able to stop their own revolt from taking over the entire campus and are just able to quell the uprisers.

Japan sinks slowly into civil war as scores of heroes switch sides, and the Dekusquad are forced into the frontlines. With One for All and All for One on the enemy's side, Providence seems almost unstoppable.

Soon enough, tensions in U.A. finally hit a boiling point, and the Dekusquad, second year Big Three, and many members of Class 1-B are forced to go on the run under Pop Step, Gentle Criminal, and La Brava's protection as they are hunted down by a violent mob made up of their former classmates, led by Bakugo Katsuki.

These escapees soon form their own independent faction of vigilantes known as the Coalition, and find themselves at war with Providence at every turn as they make alliances with unlikely allies in the likes of Spinner, Mr. Compress, and Twice.

Soon enough, All for One and All Might face off, but in the ensuing battle the two of them end up killing each other, and the quirk of All for One is passed down to Ochako, making her the holder of both All for One and One for All, thereby becoming the most powerful quirk user in all of history.

And then, we learn of Ochako's reasons for joining Providence: she was in love with Izuku, and hated how society looked down on him, demonised him and people like him because of what they were, not who they were. She was tired of the corruption and stagnation of the hero and villain dynamic, and as such desired to tear it all down and build something anew.

And she would do so by not just destroying hero society, but all quriks as well.

As Japan falls into war and hero society begins to tear itself apart, the Coalition and Providence face off, one foe to another, ready to fight until the bitter end...

And in the middle of it all, Izuku and Ochako face off. The quirkless versus the most powerful quirk. The weak versus the strong. Nature versus nurture. David versus Goliath.

It was the ultimate test, to see what was stronger.

And the fight that would come was sure to ignite the whole world.

Chapter 9: Revelations

Chapter Text

One morning, on a day that should be like any other, a document is released into the wild. A classified document.

A document containing multiple events and incidents that had been covered up by the HPSC, relating to the students of U.A., all of them about said students either being the victims of bullies or being bullies themselves.

The heroes of the HPSC and U.A. go to work in the face of a massive scandal as public trust in them as institutes takes a massive hit, and all evidence in their case points to the League of Villains as the culprits of the cyberattack, though the attack itself doesn't fit their M.O..

Meanwhile, the League of Villains themselves are confused by the sudden release of documents, as they were not behind it, but the villain that was seems to be more than content with allowing the League to take the credit for it, which is not something that ordinary villains would want.

However, the police and heroes put all of their attention into finding the League of Villains, diverting many of their resources and efforts into chasing as many leads as possible as they try to anticipate the next attack and outthink this new stratagem supposedly being conducted by the League.

But soon enough, the next attack comes, and another document is released.

This time, it is a list of casualty reports.

The casualties? The people that All Might failed to save.

All Might's image takes a very serious blow. Over the years, the media has placed much emphasis on All Might as an invincible hero, as someone who never loses no matter what, as someone who saves anyone and everyone.

But in order to keep this image afloat, the media has made a point of covering up his failures and keeping them hidden from the public, and now that these failures have been cast out into the open, faith in the trustworthiness of the media has taken a heavy blow as well.

Soon, another casualty list is released to the public, and it is one that details the fatalities of innocent people in the countless battles between heroes and villains. As the public becomes more riled up, even the students are getting involved with the investigation as more faith in hero society is lost with each passing day.

An effort is made to contact the people who have lost friends and family members during the events covered up above, and Izuku is met by a woman named Haruma Koketsu, a Kindergarten schoolteacher with a weak quirk - flexible fingers - who lost a bus full of children - her previous class - to a villain attack a few years ago. She is a deeply troubled woman, and Izuku feels compelled to help her with her problems. Surprisingly though, Haruma reveals that she remembered Izuku from the Sludge Villain incident, as she had been there to witness it, and admired his bravery for jumping in when no one else would.

Not too long later, more documents are released into the wild, this time being the crimes of Lady Nagant and how the HPSC used her as their triggerman and assassin against perceived threats to hero society. Not too long later, a slipup on the part of the villain behind this plot allows them to trace their location to an internet café and realise that they had been in contact with someone within the HPSC who had leaked them much of the documents that had been released.

The heroes come down on the corrupt HPSC member, but he refuses to spill on who he is working with, though he does sprout the words of Stain to them, revealing his own motivations. However, he does adamantly deny having any connection to the League of Villains, and says that the person who contacted them was outside of the League of Villains.

With his testimony, the heroes and police investigators realise that while they might be a believer in Stain, whoever is behind the cyberattacks is attempting to frame the League of Villains for their crimes, and has no interest in fame or taking the spotlight whatsoever.

And that's when much of the story's true purpose is revealed: this story is a deconstruction of many of the Shounen genre's tropes, in that the villain of the story defies many of those tropes. Because the heroes and police have been living in a world defined by comic book and Shounen story tropes, they expect villains to act in the usual way that many of the MHA villain organisations due: hungry for infamy and recognition, acting out of respect for their opponents, and demanding upfront fights, calling out their attacks, and doing whatever they want.

Because of this, the heroes are woefully unprepared for a villain that wants nothing to do with respect or gives any sort of a damn about being known, and is more than willing to let others take the credit for their crimes. They label the villain as Mastermind: The hacker Villain, but in the next cyberattack ,this time relating to the activities of the League of Villains and their casualty rates (seemingly knowing that they have been outed as not part of the League), the villain includes a label stating that they hate the name, and that they hate being labelled by any sort of alias as well, deconstructing yet another Shounen trope in that the villain refuses to operate under a codename and chooses to keep themselves anonymous.

Before long, the attacks stop, and for a good while the heroes believe that the worst has come to pass.

However, their hopes are dashed when Mastermind releases a new document, hijacking U.A.'s own servers to transmit it.

It is of Izuku and Bakugo's time in Aldera, and it is CCTV footage of the latter telling the former to kill himself.

The public goes up into arms, and Class 1-A turns against itself. This is after the Kamino Incident, and so U.A. has put much emphasis in protecting Bakugo's reputation and credibility as a potential hero. Now his shared past with Midoriya has been blown out of the water, and U.A. look like fools for ever supporting such a bully.

As the consequences begin to pile up and hero society begins to suffer, the heroes rush to find Mastermind, desperate to try and find them and stop another attack from taking place.

And that's when Mastermind makes their next, and biggest mistake, accidently revealing their location in releasing their latest attack and allowing the heroes to narrow down their location to a few city blocks, where the League of Villains supposedly had a warehouse filled with gestating Nomu being grown. Coming to the conclusion that Mastermind wants to use the Nomu to enact the finale of whatever their grand plan was. As hero society begins to fall apart from the constant revelations, and Class 1-A begins to turn against itself, All Might and the heroes, including the students, track down the warehouse filled with Nomu and make their way inside...

Only to find the Nomu dead, their vats drained, their bodies devoid of life and lying limply on the ground.

The heroes are confused, and that's when they see Mastermind before them, calming speaking to them and not at all intimidated by All Might's presence. They call them Mastermind.

They revoke that name, hating it. They would rather be called Haruma Koketsu, her actual name.

The heroes wonder why she killed the Nomu, and Haruma reveals that she had never wanted to use them at all. She hates villains with as much passion as she does heroes, and the Nomu were tortured souls, unwilling in their change and suffering. They deserved peace.

The heroes declare that Haruma is under arrest, and that her plans have been foiled, but Haruma denies this.

After all, she released the last set of documents half an hour ago.

All over the internet, a hundred classified files relating to All Might, the rivalry between One for All and All for One, the secrets behind the Nomu as known by the HPSC...

And a single video file of All Might telling a quirkless Izuku that he cannot be a hero without a quirk.

And then we see Haruma's backstory.

In the past, Haruma had been on a field trip with her class, and had been herding them onto the bus home when they got caught up in a fight between a hero and villain. The bus was caught in the crossfire and all the children aboard were trapped.

Haruma had a chance to save them, though, and she tried to, but a pair of heroes held her back, telling her not to get involved in the fight, and that All Might would be there soon to save them.

But All Might didn't show up until the fight was over, and the hero and villain had beaten each other into submission. The bus burnt down, and all the children aboard died.

All Might tried, in his best effort, to comfort her, paraphrasing his catchphrase to try and calm her, but Haruma rails on him in anger, shouting at him as to the fact that he wasn't there when those children needed him the most, how she could've saved them if the heroes hadn't held her back, all ending in her spitting in All Might's face and storming off, tears streaking down her face.

And the next day, she would be harassed by the media for spitting at All Might, and is horrified to discover that the deaths of an entire bus of children was swept under the rug, all to maintain All Might's perfect image.

Haruma is a walking deconstruction of the aftermath of a hero's battle. We see the flashy explosions and the cool action scenes and the iconic special moves on each side, but we never hear about the people caught in the middle of the battle. We never hear about the collateral damage, and we never hear about the survivors in their aftermath.

Not only that, but her sheer existence takes apart All Might's image as a perfect hero, and therefore hero society itself, as the media and HPSC are fanatical in keeping up this persona and refuse to air any of his mistakes in favour of maintaining his public image as a hero that can save everyone, as to maintain the peace of hero society and keep the status quo in place.

In Haruma's words, the stories about All Might talk about the ones he saved, and never about the ones that he didn't. To even think of such a thing is heretical.

So Haruma wasn't surprised when, as she was watching the Sludge Villain incident play out at Aldera, no one stepping in to save the boy that was trapped in the monster. Everyone was more than content to stand back and wait for All Might to show up.

Except for one.

Haruma wouldn't learn the boy's name until much later, but she saw him rush in to save his friend when no one else was willing to, and she seemed to be the only one who heard All Light's words to him about inspiring him. That single lonely boy had been the one to make a true difference in that fight, and no one else. That boy was the truest hero that day, and no one else.

But the admiration that Haruma felt for the boy was swallowed up by the distain that she felt as the boy who risked his life was harangued and bullied by the heroes for his actions, whilst the boy who screamed 'Die', was taken hostage by the villain, and acted bullyish towards both his saviour and the heroes themselves, was praised by said heroes - who had refused to do anything - for his quirk and his quirk alone.

All Might disappeared, as always, and the heroes left, leaving the ordinary people to toil and trouble themselves with the aftermath of the latest battle in the endless war between heroes and villains.

And as many of the forgotten injured and wounded were pulled out of the wreckage of Aldera, abandoned by the heroes and villains that came before, Haruma's admiration was replaced by a steely resolve.

Heroes, villains, they were all the same in the end. Nothing more than power-hungry tyrants constantly whetting themselves against each other, fighting and murdering each other, all without a care in the world to the people that they hurt along the way.

She wouldn't allow it.

She wouldn't allow anymore people to die for this endless war.

She wouldn't allow anymore children to be killed in this endless conflict of powers and egos.

For the good of all, hero society, and the very concept of heroes and villains, must be erased.

She couldn't kill All Might though. Stronger men than her had tried and failed, and to kill him, despite how much she hated him, would make him a martyr.

But if she coulddestroyhim, ruin his legacy, and reveal the rot behind his golden image by simply revealing the bloody truth behind his victories, then everything that he had worked so hard to build would fall apart.

It would take her an entire year to amass the information that she had procured, finding the funds to complete such a plan, learning the technical skills that she needed to pull it off, posing as a dozen different identities and aliases - a school board inspector for Aldera, a police detective for the League of Villains investigation, etc. - as well as making contact with as many people as she could whom she could trust with her plan, eventually making contact with a man whom shared Stain's ideology, who she met with in the HPSC's main building. All she had to do was sprout some of Stain's ideals to him, and he fell in line immediately.

When Haruma is asked by the heroes as to what trick she had used to get into the HPSC's headquarters, Haruma just shrugs and says that there is no trick. She just walked in like she belonged.

And that is the final deconstruction of MHA's particular brand of Shounen storytelling: so many of the villains of Shounen stories are big and bombastic, able to put up one hell of a fight with their incredible powers, and they had easily been able to content with heroes and make themselves out as obvious enemies of the state.

Haruma is the opposite of that. She is not strong and cannot put up a fight. She had a weak quirk and had no chance of going up against any kind of hero in a 1v1 battle. All she had was her intelligence and computer skills, and even then she still made mistakes.

And yet she still succeeded.

This is because of the arrogance of hero society. They have become fat and slow from living in the Shounen genre, and cannot anticipate any kind of villain that does not fall into the lines of the villains that they have faced before.

Really, Haruma was only able to succeed because of a lot of luck, and because of the preconceived notions of hero society.

Haruma is arrested in the end, but she has still won. Hero society has taken a massive blow, confidence in both heroes and the League of Villains has taken a massive blow to the point of being non-existent, many from both sides are beginning to defect and desert, and dozens of vigilantes are beginning to rise up in the aftermath.

But in her cell, Haruma is approached by All Might, and he reveals a few truths of his own to her:

He had himself been appalled by the lack of mention in the news about the deaths of those children, but had been stopped from talking about it by the HPSC, who were always desperate to keep a leash on his public image and had paid off the families of the deceased to keep quiet (or even moved them elsewhere) and placed a gag order on All Might himself, because if he were to go public with the event, the perfect image of hero society would be damaged. Not only that, but he had been stopped from visiting her to try and properly comfort her by Sir Nighteye, who had told him that talking to a woman that hated him would only seem like empty pity to her and make her hatred worse, not to mention all the people that constantly needed him to save them.

Haruma tells him that it's not an excuse, and All Might sighs and agrees.

The heroes win in the end, and yet they also lose. Hero society is damaged irrepairably, friendships have been damaged and destroyed, and everyone is left with a bitter taste in their mouths.

In the end, it is hard to decide who won...

Chapter 10: The Almighty

Chapter Text

Some time after the Kamino incident, in Japan's underground, amidst the lost and the vagabond, there is a group that is gaining traction amongst the directionless and those that are lost for purpose. A religious cult, born from the dredges of hero society and made up of both heroes and former villains alike.

A cult called the Almighty.

A cult that worshipped All Might.

They worshipped All Might because, in the eyes of the people that followed the Almighty, All Might was more than just the number one hero of the world: he was the definition of mankind. He was strength, he was compassion, he was humanity.

To them, he was everything.

In their eyes, hero society already worshipped All Might as a deity. They were just honest about it.

Izuku would soon be approached by a member of the Almighty, a girl his age by the name of Aerial, whom had a particularly old-fashioned way of speaking. She had been chosen as one of the cult's Children of Strength because of her quirk Angel, which grants her Angel wings and angelic-like powers. Somehow, Aerial and the rest of the Almighty know that Izuku is one of the biggest All Might fans to ever exist, and they are eager to bring him into the fold.

Izuku refuses, and reports them to All Might himself back in U.A., who dismisses them as a bunch of looney fans.

However, down in the underworld, Shigaraki and the League of Villains find umbrage with the Almighty, as their very existence serves as the antithesis of everything that the League stand for, and their fanatical devotion to All Might only serves to enrage Shigaraki even more than normal.

Meanwhile, in U.A., Izuku and his friends begin to hear more talk about the Almighty, and are becoming more and more disturbed by the fanatical devotion that these cultists have shown to All Might: as much as they respect and admire him, they wouldn't devote themselves to him as religiously as these people do.

After school one day, Izuku is approached once more by Aerial, and this time he decides to humour her by sitting down in a café with her to try and find out as much about the Almighty as he can. As it turned out, the two of them actually got along well, with Aerial being able to match and keep up with Izuku in terms of All Might and hero trivia, as well as Izuku being able to decipher Aerial's literacy quotes and poetic language.

Soon, he begins to ask Aerial about the cult, and the prophet girl is eager to reply. The Almighty had begun twenty years into All Might's forty year reign as the number one hero across the entire world, founded by influential men and women who had been saved by All Might and had come to view him as the next coming of God, like the next Jesus Christ to walk the world. To them, he was walking proof of the existence of God. Since then, the Almighty had brough dozens, if not hundreds of members across the world to come and worship their new deity, bringing in more and more members to their fold each and every day for salvation.

Izuku is somewhat disturbed by their devotion, but fascinated by it as well, as he can't help but draw parallels to his own hero worship of All Might. When asked how they knew that he was an All Might fan, Aerial says that everyone is an All Might fan, but she could just tell that he was a special case, just like the rest of them.

Besides, the Almighty did its best to keep track of everyone who All Might saved.

Izuku is disturbed by the implications of that sentence.

He then asks her how she joined the cult, and is disturbed even more when she reveals that she had been born into the Almighty, much like many of the members her age, and had been brought up through the Almighty's teachings all her life alongside the rest of her peers. Izuku realises that she has essentially been indoctrinated and brainwashed into the cult, but does not say this.

Aerial goes to leave, but gives Izuku a card before she does, detailing when members of the Almighty are going to meet up. She says that she can't wait to see Izuku there, and leaves.

Sitting at another table in the café, Himiko Toga memorises the location on the card and goes to tell Shigaraki.

After contacting All Might and U.A., Izuku goes to the meeting place to join up with the Almighty members, but is surprised to see another student of U.A. there: Ibara Shiozaki. As it turned out, Ibara had been approached by the Almighty as well, leading to an intense religious debate between her and the representative that had spoken out to her. Ibara had little patience for false religions based on nonreligious idols, so she had come to the meeting place to gauge just what exactly the Almighty's deal was.

Soon enough, the two of them would fall silent as Aerial took to the stage of the meeting place, thanking them all for coming tonight and bringing forth one of the central founders of the Almighty, whom Izuku and Ibara recognise as one of the leading figures in the Japanese Diet.

However, in the middle of his speech to the attendants, their gathering is interrupted by the League of Villains, led by an irate Shigaraki who kills the speaker and demands the deaths of all those who follow All Might. Izuku contacts All Might to let him know what is happening, and he and Ibara both leap into action to take down the League, with Izuku in particular using One for All to take down the Nomu and moves that he copied off All Might, something that Aerial takes notice of.

Soon enough, Izuku, and the heroes that arrive on the scene in response to the fight, are able to send the villains off on a retreat, with Ibara protecting the onlookers from any stray attacks. Once the villains are gone, the various members of the Almighty are cared for and made safe by the heroes, but Aerial keeps her eyes on Izuku.

After the event, All Might, Izuku, and Ibara give their reports and statements to the police, and U.A. and the police, with the support of Detective Tsukauchi, decide to use the death of the Japanese Diet member to investigate his connection to the Almighty. Izuku and Ibara are dismissed, and told to stay out of the case.

However, soon enough, Izuku is confronted by the police once again, and told that someone had accessed his medical files, and Izuku suspects that it is the Almighty who did it.

Once more, Izuku and Aerial meet up, with Aerial becoming a lot more hospitable to Izuku as they talk. Izuku mentions to her that someone tried to access his medical records, and he can tell that Aerial feigned her shock as she asked if it was the League of Villains. Aerial invites him to another meeting, this time one much grander and bigger than the previous, and Izuku agrees. When the meeting ends, Izuku contacts U.A. once more, and they agree to let him go to the event, but with Aizawa as a hidden agent inside. Ibara agrees to come along as well.

Meanwhile, the League of Villains discover the event location themselves by torturing one of the Almighty cultists that they had snatched off the street, and send Mr. Compress and Toga to infiltrate the party.

Soon enough, Izuku, Ibara, and a disguised Aizawa make their way to the meeting, in a lavish manor off the side of Musufatu, with golden walls and wide parties and dancers in masks and robes and All Might portraits on the walls. There are hundreds of guests in the manor, all from every walk of life, including Pro Heroes and former villains, and all of them are dancing to the music.

Aerial walks towards Izuku and Ibara and thanks them for coming, before pulling Izuku along to a private room not too far from the party. However, Ibara and Aizawa is barred from entry by the guards and loses track of the pair. Aizawa then decides to investigate the premises, leaving Ibara on her own.

Behind them, Toga and Mr. Compress disguise themselves as partygoers and decide to explore the property.

Aerial brings Izuku to her personal chambers and begins to show him her wears, revealing to Izuku that her room is as much a shrine to All Might as his is. She begins to talk to him, showing off the memorabilia that she has collected over the years and begin to appeal to his own hero worship of All Might. Izuku finds himself connecting to Aerial's familiar sense of fascination with heroes, but finds it tempered by Aerial's underlying note of fanaticism.

Aerial soon draws the conversation to Izuku, inquiring about his own family, about his mother, and about his father. A father that he hasn't seen in a long time. Izuku asks as to why she is asking these questions, and Aerial answers that she is only curious.

She is lying. Izuku knows this.

In another part of the manor, Aizawa finds a cornered off section and makes his way inside. Toga and Mr. Compress follow him inside.

In the main hall, Ibara finds herself becoming more and more uncomfortable with the partygoers' religious devotion to All Might and excuses herself to find Izuku and Aizawa. Guards move to follow her.

Meanwhile, in Aerial's room, Izuku cuts to the chase, and asks her as to why she is asking these questions. She diverts the conversation, retelling Izuku of his battle with the League of Villains.

Izuku's eyes widen. He asks her if she was the one who accessed his medical records. She coyly admits to it. Strange of a quirkless person to awaken a quirk so late in life, no?

She would be kind to him, though. She had no quarrel with the quirkless, unlike so many that seemed to fill their ranks. Why would she ever want to hurt him?

She could never hurt child of their god.

In the depths of the manor, Aizawa finds cages. Some empty, some filled with people. He finds Toga and Mr. Compress following him down. He assumes that they are with whatever the Almighty have going on here. They assume the same of him. The guards that find them assume that they are working together. Ibara has no idea what to think.

In Aerial's chamber, Izuku protests her claim, but Aerial defends it. He is the child of All Might, for he has passed on his fabled quirk to him. He may not be All Might's son biologically, but he is spiritually, in the mind and soul. He is All Might's successor, the heir to his legacy, to his empire of thought and soul.

And she wants Izuku to join them.

Izuku protests this, but Aerial appeals to their shared similarities, their connection, and to his desires to be a worthy successor to All Might. They are the same creature, are they not? Izuku is to take All Might's place, and Aerial and the rest of the Children of Strength are to take the place of their elders when they pass and continue on their mission of delivering divine illumination onto the world.

Izuku blinks, and asks her what the Children of Strength actually are. Aerial happily replies that her and her fellow Children had been brought into the Almighty when they were but children. Her mother was a common street whor*, and her father was a destitute thug. They had plucked her like a flower from the garden when All Might saved her from her father and mother, and had taught her about the meaning of worship. They had sent her to the cages, peeled her rot and revealed the shining gold underneath. They had pulled her away from her senses and let her be reborn to their new divinity.

Izuku realises the implications behind this, and Aerial promises the same cruel kindness to him.

Izuku breaks down the door to her chamber and escapes. Aerial is not concerned. He will fall into her arms eventually.

But the heretics, Aizawa and the villains, who had broke into their manor and sullied their blessed work? They would feel her wrath.

Aizawa and the villains are forced to work together to fight off the Almighty, and the latter take it to mean that they are in lockstep with each other. Ibara is caught in the middle, but is pulled away from the fight by the guards. Aizawa, Toga, and Mr. Compress try to make their way through the compound, but are stopped by a calm Aerial, who uses her Angel quirk to leap down from the manor walls and into the fray, easily disarming all three of the intruders and leaving them at her mercy.

However, Izuku is quick to intervene and challenges Aerial to a battle. One in which she easily bests him in, but he is able to buy Aizawa (and the villains) enough time to escape before he is forced to retreat, though he does try to find and save Ibara before he is forced to go on the run.

Later in the night, Aerial is punished and lashed by the elders for her failure, and she steels herself for the mission ahead.

The next day, Izuku reports what he found to All Might and the U.A. faculty, but find that the HPSC are not being cooperative with them, and their allies in the police force are being removed from the investigation. The Almighty have people inside both departments. To make things worse, Izuku still cannot find Ibara, and the Almighty's agents within the media have recontextualised the confrontation at the manor to be Aizawa and the League of Villains attacking an innocent social event, framing Aizawa as part of the League of Villains, inadvertently sullying U.A.'s reputation. There is no mention of Ibara at all.

Ibara, meanwhile, wakes up locked in a cage. She is pulled out by an old man, one of the founders. The pain soon begins.

And on the other side of Japan, Aizawa is brought into the League of Villains headquarters, and he is forced to temporarily work with them until he can clear his name, creating an uneasy alliance between Shigaraki and himself.

Back in U.A., the Almighty's positive public reputation begins to grow, and their faith begins to spread into U.A. itself. The remaining teachers and All Might himself try to curb this growing influence, but their ideals soon begin to spread into Class 1-A itself.

Izuku begins to grow uncomfortable in his own room at home, surrounded by all his All Might memorabilia, and is made even more uncomfortable by a guest speaker from the Almighty being sent in by the HPSC (the Almighty has a public face as a charity organisation). However, he is frightened when Inko calls him later that day, so say that a friend of his called Aerial had popped in for a chat, and was waiting for him back home.

Izuku rushes back home and finds Aerial in his room, admiring his collection. He demands to know where Ibara was, how she had found his home and why she was there. The answer to the second question was that she had found his address when sifting through his medical documents a few days ago. The answer to the third question was that she wanted to extend the offer back to him. The squabble that they had last night was just that: a squabble. Growing pains are to be expected when a family gains a new member after all.

Izuku says that they aren't family. Aerial begs to differ. He reiterates his first question, and Aerial responds that she is being taught the values of the Almighty. She is being taught about the true faith. Izuku is horrified by the implications, and demands that she be released. Aerial simply replies that soon, she will not want to be.

Izuku asks her how she can possibly stomach what she is doing to Aerial, and she simply replies that it is what is right, it is all that she has known. Izuku realises that, as she had been brought into the Almighty at an incredibly young age, she has no understanding of what right or wrong is outside of the morality of the cult, and has no way of knowing that what has been done to her is wrong. Izuku tries to explain this to her, but Aerial simply brushes it off. In her mind, what was done to her wasn't evil. It was nothing but just.

However, when Izuku tries to push his point onto her, the seed of doubt plants itself into her mind.

Aerial leaves Izuku's home peacefully, commenting that her time is nearly up, but still leaving the offer to join them on the table. Izuku resolves to find as much evidence as he can against the Almighty, but not before he finds the hidden microphone that Aerial had placed in his room.

Elsewhere, Aizawa and Shigaraki are forced to tolerate each other's existence (well, more Aizawa, as Shigaraki still thinks he's cool) as they investigate the Almighty, with Aizawa having to constantly hold Shigaraki back from happily murdering people as they looked into the various places from which the cult were pulling their funds, and then trailing it back to their operations and the people running them. Eventually, they begin to find evidence of connections between the Almighty and the disappearances of various children that are homeless or live in poverty ridden areas.

With Ibara, her will is being chipped apart piece by piece, and the old men that do it are smiling like All Might all the way through.

In the meantime, Aerial decides to look into the inner workings of the Almighty, but finds her access to the internet restricted by their founders, and the information that she is allowed to have is limited. She decides to go to outside sources for information, but the restrictive slab of metal inside of her does not allow it for too long.

And on the other side of the line, Izuku finds similar proof of the Almighty's wrongdoings and, unsure of who he can trust, goes to investigate himself, heading into the lower districts of Musufatu and discovering hidden Almighty agents stealing away children in the dead of night. Recording the information, Izuku links the events to a similar child slavery operation in lower Africa and contacts Aerial over the microphone in his room to show her it.

Meanwhile, the elders of the cult suspect that Aerial is wavering in her faith and activate the restrictive metal placed into her spine. It fills her with excruciating pain, and they order her to intensify her efforts to bring Izuku Midoriya into the fold, or else.

At the same time, Aizawa makes discreet contact with U.A., informing them of the information that he has uncovered, and whatever he could find out about the League of Villains through his reluctant partnership with them. However, he makes no illusion of not knowing that Shigaraki is listening in to their communications.

The next day, Izuku and Aerial meet up in the same café from before, but this time with Midnight and Snipe shadowing them. All Might is kept back because of the unpredictable possibilities of Aerial reacting to her object of worship. Not too far away, Toga, in disguise and under the orders of Shigaraki, keeps her eyes on the meeting as well. At the other side of the café, a hidden Child of Strength keeps watch over Aerial for the slightest signs of disloyalty.

Aerial once more presses the question of joining them, but Izuku stops her by showing her the evidence that he has procured over the course of his investigation, from the kidnappings of children to the child slavery to the ties that the Almighty have to the slave rings in Africa.

Aerial's reaction to the evidence before her is muted, but there is still something there behind her gentle smile. She asks Izuku why she is showing this to her, and he responds that she was always going off about their being a connection between them. If there is, then she should see what these people are doing and why it is wrong. Aerial says that it is simply their divine work, but Izuku turns the tables on her. She thinks that she can read him like an open book? He can say the same about her. They really are alike, at least in that way alone.

Aerial is thankful that he acknowledges that, but asks him once more what she is supposed to do with this. This is the work of the founders. Izuku jumps onto that. Whatever she may believe, Ibara is still missing, and the founders are doing to her the same thing that they did to Aerial, that they did to all the children they took from the streets. However legitimate she may believe her faith to be, the founders are using it, using her, as a front to support a child slavery ring. Aerial protests this, but Izuku pushes it forward. He can tell that her belief is slipping.

Izuku can tell that Aerial is a good person underneath her religious devotion. She a victim of the machinations of evil men using her belief for their own ends, not a villain like them. But right now, Ibara is who knows where under the thumb of those evil men, as are countless others. They need to find them, they need to save them, and right now Aerial might just be the key to not only saving dozens of lives, so if she really was just like Izuku, then she would help them find those missing people.

Aerial asked if she really was going to save them. Izuku said that he would save her too if he could.

Aerial's eyes widen at his words, and she comments that All Might's prodigy really is a kind soul. Perhaps one worthy of the same worship as his forebearer.

Upon hearing her words, the Children of Strength in the corner makes his move. Having sussed out Toga in the crowd, the Child exposes her to a pair of passing heroes who move in to arrest her. Toga attempts to flee, and in the chaos and panic that follows, the Child of Strength grabs Aerial and drags her into the crowds and out of sight. Izuku, Midnight, and Snipe try to follow, but are stopped by police officers on the Almighty's payroll.

Back at the Almighty's headquarters, Aerial is brought before the founders and tortured for her failures. She asks them as to what Izuku has shown her, but they inflict even more pain onto her for it. Once the pain stops and they send her on her way, resetting the inhibitor device inside of her, she leaves, only to find Ibara walking amongst the Almighty's followers in pray, her eyes hollow and her skin mired by scars.

Aizawa and the League, meanwhile, have been making themselves busy with attacking Almighty compounds and bases across the various cities of Japan, eventually stumbling upon a processing facility run by the Almighty and freeing everyone within. This prompts the Almighty's Children of Strength, including Aerial, to respond, dragging many of their followers, including the newly broken Ibara, to repel them. Ibara, now blinded by her new faith, is more than willing to jump into the fight, but Aerial, now suffering from doubts and chronic pains from the torture, is now horrified by what she sees.

Izuku and Aerial soon contact each other over the phone once more, with Aerial discussing what she has found and trying to make sense of it all. However, another of the Children of Strength overhears her and takes her away to be tortured once more, whilst several of the Children of Strength are sent off to bring Izuku to them. He is barely able to fend them all off before All Might, with what little strength he can summon after his battle with All for One, shows up to defeat them. However, upon seeing him stand before them, the Children of Strength fall to their knees in prayer, and Izuku and All Might hatch an idea.

After a long and uneasy truce between them, Aizawa and Shigaraki finally come to blows and fight each other. However, this allows them to be captured by the Almighty and taken to their headquarters as captives. At the same time Aerial is tortured even further for her lack of faith, despite the founders clearly not believing in All Might as a deity themselves, and for trying to move against them. The inhibitor device in her spine is reset to a new time: if she doesn't bring Izuku Midoriya to them, so that they can break him and make All Might's successor their newest addition to their army of zealous followers, in the next twenty-four hours, then she will die.

Izuku and All Might set up a meeting place for the both of them to try and talk Aerial into cooperating with them, but before their plan can go ahead, and before All Might can even arrive there, Aerial arrives early, a forlorn and depressive look across her face. She reveals what has been done to her, and what she has to do in order to live, and apologises to Izuku. Before he can do anything to respond, Aerial attacks him, sparking a fierce fight between the two of them, with Aerial desperately keeping Izuku on the backfoot throughout the entire confrontation before she finally brings him down and holds him at sword point, apologising once more for what she has to do.

However, before she can take him away, All Might arrives, but in his deflated form. Aerial sees him and, in shock, falls to his knees in prayer, but All Might orders her onto her feet, clearly embarrassed by her worship. He asks them to tell her where Ibara and the others that the Almighty are, and Aerial is shocked to see his disapproval. She asks why, and he tells her that he is not a god, nor is he anything that deserves or desires worship. He never asked so many people to fall to their knees in front of him, and he never wanted to be worshipped like she does. He certainly didn't want people to use and exploit the faith of others like the founders of her cult had done. Aerial, on shaky knees, protested that the Almighty wasn't a cult, but All Might said that that was what they truly were: they were a dangerous cult founded on lies, nothing more.

Aerial is shaken, traumatised, and both Izuku and All Might plead to her to help them liberate the people that the Almighty have taken, but Aerial does not hear them. Everything that she believed in is a lie, and she is broken by it. She flees from the scene in a panic, her smiling façade broken, and Izuku and All Might are unable to follow.

Aerial returns to the Almighty's headquarters on the outskirts of the Almighty, but is met with scorn by the founders for her failure once more, and they promise to have her in constant agony for the last hours of her life. At the same time, All Might appears on live television and, thanks to Izuku and U.A.'s research, he exposes the Almighty for their crimes, and orders their arrests.

Aerial snaps.

As Almighty bases and hideouts are raided by an army of heroes, Aizawa and Shigaraki use the ensuing chaos to break out of their bonds and fight back against their captors, but eventually begin to battle each other as the Almighty's headquarters is raided by the heroes that were able to spot the fight taking place. At the same time, Izuku and dozens more heroes begin their raid on the estate, but Izuku comes into conflict with Ibara, who is still too wrapped up in her brainwashing to see reason, and he is forced to incapacitate her.

While the heroes busy themselves with fighting against both the remaining Almighty and the League of Villains at the same time, Izuku breaks into the estate building and looks for Aerial, desperate to save her as well...

Only to find Aerial in the main hall, utterly calm, almost tranquil and ethereal, as she plays the piano. Around the main hall are the scattered and gored corpses of both the founders and the other Children of Strength. The walls and floor, as well as the broken and damaged statues of All Might lining the edges of the grand hall, were splattered in blood. She was bathed in red.

Aerial stopped playing the piano and smiled at the traumatised Izuku. She thanks Izuku for coming, and walks before him to share what she has done to the founders and her fellow Children: she killed them. She killed them all. They were all sinners and apostates, and it was her duty to rid the world of sin and bring about its divinity. They had stood in the way of that goal, and as such they had to be rid of.

Izuku is horrified by what he sees, but he still tells Aerial that the Almighty is done. She's free. She can go and live her life now. Aerial shakes her head. The inhibitor device in her back has accelerated its time. She has about an hour left to live. There is nothing left for her now, but to give her worship to the one who deserves it the most.

All Might is dead, but Izuku is here to fill his shoes. All that she can do now is give her worship to the one she loved the most.

She kisses Izuku on the lips, and declares him to be her new god as she falls to her knees in prayer.

But Izuku stops her. He does not want to be worshipped. He does not want anything like that. He just wants to get her out of there and save her.

But this breaks what little composure and shred of sanity Aerial had left. Everything that she had believed in was a lie, and now that which she loved and worshipped was now ready to abandon her in the same way her old deity had.

She had nothing, and she was going to die in the next hour.

All she had left... was killing Izuku.

So she attacks him, and Izuku is forced to fight back. The battle between them is now on equal footing as they collide with each other, throwing punches and kicks and the blows of power and quirk against each other as they tear the hall apart and set everything alight around them, the two opponents eventually escaping the burning building and continuing their battle outside as they tear into each other.

Eventually, the League of Villains escape, and the remaining Almighty cultists are arrested, but Izuku and Aerial are still fighting in the air, weaving around each other in a grand symphony of combat, until, finally...

Aerial's inhibitor activates, injecting poison into her body. She falls to the ground and begins to die, and Izuku gently cradles her as she dies, letting her watch the sunset as her eyes close as she dies with a smile.

In the aftermath, the Almighty is brought down and its former followers and captives, including Ibara, are sent to be treated and deprogrammed from their false worship. U.A., meanwhile, rehires Aizawa, but is forced to have to deal with the fact that their reputation has been sullied by the fact that one of their own was forced into an alliance with villains, and faces an uphill battle in getting the people's trust back. The League of Villains, meanwhile, make it their mission to track down the remaining hidden members of the Almighty and kill them all.

Izuku is left to cope with the death of Aerial, a victim of the cult who had been forced into their service and died in his arms. A girl who, like she had said, indeed had a lot of similarities to him, but was too blinded by a faith built on a lie to see what was right before her. He resolves to make sure that something like this can never happen again, and promises to make sure that when he becomes the number one hero in the future, he will be seen by the public not as a deity, but as a human, just like the rest of them.

But later that night, he finds a letter suddenly planted on his bed. A letter from a fan that he didn't know he had.

A letter from a fan that calls themselves the Useful One.

A latter that reminds him a lot of Aerial...

Chapter 11: A Round of Robins

Chapter Text

Class 1-A is off on a field trip to Sul'list, a city entirely dedicated to the hero industry and the advancement of Pro Heroing as an industry. Here, heroes are the end-all and be-all of anyone's business; they are the juggernauts of the city, they are its rulers, they are its kings.

This is helped by the mayor of the city being a Pro Hero himself, a man that goes by the name of Sulphur, the Alkaline Hero. He is the head of a virtual empire in the city, the executive of a corporate dynasty, with hands that reach across all of Japan, and even to beyond its borders as well. He is one of the most powerful men in the country, and it is by his hand that Class 1-A have been invited into the city.

However, recently, there have been reports of violence in Sul'list. Nothing too serious, just a few idiots with bats trying to run the streets. At least, that's what the reports say. But any report of villainy is a serious report, according to the HPSC, but officials in the city have been resistant to inquiries.

But that does not concern the students of Class 1-A though, as they are all excited to be heading into the heart of the heroics industry and learn all that they can from the giants that came before them.

That is until their bus is ambushed outside of the city by villains, and they are caught in a brief firefight between the heroes of Sul'list and the villainous insurgency against them.

In the aftermath of the skirmish, with the villains being dragged away by the police, the students find themselves confronted by a hero force that has been militarised in the wake of these continuous villain attacks, forming ranks and structures outside of the scope of the HPSC and other hero organisations, and all without any oversight at all.

And Sulphur is nowhere to be found. He has been replaced by a woman named Robin, the Archer Hero, the new mayor of the city and head of its massive hero corporate empire...

And she greets Izuku with thunderous applause.

As it turns out, Robin's actual name is Tori Hada, and she was Inko Midoriya's best friend during her school days alongside Mitsuki Bakugo. Tori had trained to be a hero whilst Inko and Mitsuki had gone their own ways, but she had still been incredibly close friends with them up until Izuku's birth. Hell, she had been there for Izuku's birth, and, well...

Before Inko met Hisashi, his father, she and Tori had been lovers.

Izuku is shocked by this information, and finds himself regularly pulled aside by Tori during their stay in the city as they are led to their rooms in Tori's headquarters in the city, the two of them bonding over time as Tori treats Izuku like her nephew, spoiling him and sharing jokes and stories with him not just about the various heroes that she knows and her adventures throughout the years, but also the tales that she had about Inko and Hisashi and Mitsuki and the things that his mother had never told him.

However, Izuku can tell that there is something...offabout Tori's actions and motivations. Whenever she receives a report about a villain attack, she responds to it in a very lax and carefree manner, and yet is not eager to answer questions about why the heroes of Sul'list have been militarised so much as they are. She is pushy and often times almost violent in attitude when someone interrupts them, is very dismissive of Izuku's classmates and treats them as hangers-on (Ofttimes referring to them as 'Pets' more than anything), constantly snarks to the teachers with them, and continuously dodges the question of where Sulphur has disappeared to.

And then are the heroes themselves that fall under Tori's control. Class 1-A and their caretakers find themselves continuously being blocked off from accessing important levels in their temporary facility, are restricted to specific paths throughout the city instead of being allowed to explore to their hearts content, and find that the heroes of the city are becoming more aggressive and the civilians under their watch are becoming more fearful of them as well.

Tori Hada, Robin the Archer Hero, is the Pagan Min of this story, acting kindly towards her Ajay Ghale in Izuku but ruthlessly towards everyone else. Sul'list is her Kyrat, and the heroes under her command are her Royal Guard.

And soon enough, Class 1-A will be the Golden Path to oppose her.

A group of villains launch a desperate attack on Tori's headquarters, but her men are able to repel and capture them. However, Class 1-A, barring Izuku, discreetly follow her men and their prisoners down into the facility's lower levels and are shocked to witness Robin's men execute them. Further learning that Tori has discreetly murdered Sulphur and taken his place as the head of his empire, the students flee her headquarters and find themselves linking up with the villains that stand in opposition to her.

Izuku, however, is left on his own with Tori, and that's when she reveals her final truth to him:

Izuku wasn't born via Hisashi. He was a child of rape when a man forced himself onto Inko. Tori had killed the man in a fit of rage when he found out, but when Inko told her friends that she wanted to abort the baby growing in her womb, it had been Hisashi and Tori herself who had convinced her to keep it, as Hisashi had wanted a child for their family, just not in this way.

However, Tori had been rendered infertile due to an incident in her past as a hero, and wishes for a child of her own. Knowing that Inko did not want the child herself, Tori plotted to steal little Izuku away from her when he was born and raise him as her own son. But her plot was discovered on the night of Izuku's birth, and she was sent packing by her former friends. From there, she had spent her days in misery, climbing up the hero ranks running on simple inertia, and eventually joining in a conspiracy of heroes to overthrow the leader of Sul'list, all before turning them in herself once the conspiracy had run its course and take up the reigns of the city herself, turning it and its commercial empire into her own personal fiefdom.

And now, the city of heroes is about to be torn apart by an impending civil war, with Class 1-A at the head of a growing army of villains and insurgents on one side, and Tori Hada and her force of oppressive heroes on the other, with Izuku caught in the middle...

And now it is about to get worse for everyone, because Inko has joust learnt of what has happened to her son and with whom he is speaking to, and by her words, there would be hell to pay.

Chapter 12: Running on the Edge

Chapter Text

Izuku is a scarred boy. His clothes have been singed by Bakugo's relentless bullying, and his skin has been marked by handprint-sized scars running across his arms as his bully's cronies continue to pick at him and torment him as much as they can.

He is quirkless and with little prospects for the future. He doesn't have many places left to go. He is alone.

But then he gets caught up in a violent skirmish between two gangs on the streets of Musufatu, and is surprised to see a quirkless person standing and fighting amongst them.

Escaping from the fight, Izuku looks up criminal behaviour in Musufatu, and finds that whilst All Might's tenue as the number one hero has drastically decreased crime itself, including the dismantling of entire gangs and organised criminal syndicates, there are still smaller gangs and groups of malcontents that wage their own personal wars against each other in the shadows, out of sight of both the heroes and the police. Surprisingly, rumours circulate that many of the number within these gangs are made up of the quirkless, due to them being pushed out by society and forced onto the streets by those who would discriminate against them. However, those said discriminates would shoot down this theory on principle alone, and it would remain as just a rumour.

Recently, there have been rumours of a gang of vigilantes and villains running shop across lower Musufatu. A gang calling themselves the Runner, who welcome even the quirkless into the fold, but again, those are just rumours.

The next day, on his way back home from Aldera (the beginning of the first episode), Izuku would take a different route home from school and ends up walking down an alleyway. However, he is soon accosted by a pair of thugs in hoodies and held at knifepoint as they demand that he hands over whatever cash that he had.

But then the two of them are beaten up by another pair of thugs with bats and masks, their hoodies graffitied with a symbol of two boots running against the ground. The Runners. They tell him to go home, and he pauses, dumbly asking them who they are. They don't answer and walk away, leaving him on his own once more.

Meanwhile, in some other part of the city, Bakugo is come upon the sludge villain as he is trying to rob a store and knocks him down. Illegal quirk usage, but no one pays any mind to it in the face of his amazing quirk, especially one golden-haired number one hero...

The next day, Bakugo comes into Aldera smugger than ever, talking about how he had been given the chance of a lifetime, but he would refuse to share any details about it with anyone. His bullying of Izuku suddenly ramps up, and now Izuku is sporting a fresh scar on his arm. With not much else left to lose in his life, Izuku takes to the streets after school to try and find the Runners once again, but to no luck. He spends days after school looking for even a sign or a mention of them, but whenever he asks around people either shoot him off, ignore him, or threaten to report him to the police should he ask them about the Runners again.

Eventually though, he doesn't find them. They find him.

Having learnt that he was asking around for them, two of the Runners - both girls around his age, one by the codename of Lil' Miss Militant, with a quirk that allows her to summon weapons of all kinds into her hands, and the other a techie by the codename of Black Tarantula, who is quirkless but compensates for it by her mind and inventions, particularly the six mechanical spider limbs on her back - track down Izuku one night and demands he stay out of their business. Izuku, however, wants to know why they do what they do and if they really do accept quirkless people into their ranks, but the pair of them don't answer his questions. They simply order him to clear off and stay away from them.

The next day, Bakugo's bullying is as bad as ever, and after a particularly bad row from him, Izuku takes a long walk out into the city just to think about his life. His prospects are low, he doesn't have a lot to look forward to in life, his mother can only do so much, and no one else gives a damn about him because of his quirklessness.

He has nowhere to go, no one that will accept him, and nothing left for his life.

But then, he is confronted by thugs in hoodies. Those same thugs that he has encountered in the alleyway before.

And this time, instead of robbing him, they stab him in the stomach.

Izuku is left on the ground, trapped in a panic as he bleeds profusely from his stomach. Because of his quirklessness, no one is eager to help him, and so he is left to lose blood on the ground and slowly bleed to death, his breath escaping his body in panicked gasps as the life slowly begins to slip from his body.

And at this point, Izuku isn't sure if he minds it.

But then something grips his body. Through the darkness of his eyes, he sees Lil' Miss Militant and Black Tarantula standing over him. But that is all that he sees before he is rendered unconscious.

When he wakes up, he finds himself in what must've been the basem*nt of an old warehouse, strapped to a table as an underground doctor sealed his wounds, and Lil' Miss Militant and Black Tarantula watching over him. When he asks why they had saved her, or even why they knew he needed saving, they reveal that they had been scoping him out ever since their conversation. They'd been spying on him, in other words, even when he was in school. You don't let someone who'd been trying to track you down for days walk away without someone there to keep an eye on them, after all.

And as for why they had saved him... well, they couldn't just take him to a hospital, considering his quirklessness. Knowing their priorities, he would never have made it onto the waiting list.

Soon enough, an armoured man by the codename of Viper (his appearance in my mind is that of Echo from Star Wars: The Bad Batch) walks in and tells them that it is time for him to leave. Placing a black bag over his head, the three of them unhook him from the table and begin to lead him away from their headquarters, before he blurts something out.

He wants to join them.

They look to each other and blink, before eventually deciding to bring him to their boss. They do, and pull the bag from his eyes.

The visage of an elderly Knuckleduster greets him.

As it turns out, when the Naruhata Vigilantes had split up following their final battle with Number Six, Knuckleduster was the only one who stayed underground as the rest retired or went pro. However, after a year or so of going it alone on the streets, he realised that he couldn't keep going about this fight on his own. Not again. He needed help.

So, he formed a new crew. He collected whatever lost souls and wannabe do-gooders he could find and helped them form a new gang. An underground movement he called the Runners. They would be the ones to keep the helpless in the darkness safe, quirk or not be damned, and anyone would be free to join them, quirk or not be damned too.

Izuku is stunned by this, and Knuckleduster asks him why he wants to join them. Izuku confesses that he is quirkless, and doesn't have anywhere else left to go. Knuckleduster figures this from Black Tarantula's reports on him, ad he confesses that he is quirkless too. Izuku is shocked by this, and Knuckleduster asks him what he wants.

Izuku responds that it is to do good.

Knuckleduster welcomes him in on the spot.

And so begins Izuku's tenure as a member of the Runners, delivering packages between the various operatives belonging to the gang and helping to analyse the powers and abilities of their opponents whilst also being mentored by Viper in the art of combat, dirty fighting, and sheer pragmitism on the battlefield. In the Runners, he would also make his first real friends in Lil' Miss Militant and Black Tarantula, the three of them forming a Freudian trio of sorts as they continued to work together.

Izuku would soon ask of why they joined the Runners as well, seeing as how Lil' Miss' quirk would've made her perfect for heroics, as would've Tatantula's inventions. Lil' Miss is reluctant to say and doesn't tell him, but Tarantula shares why she is with them instead of the hero industry: her parents had been inventors just like her, and had been members of the hero industry as well, leading the charge alongside the greats like the Shields and the Hatsumes in pioneering support technology for heroes. However, her parents were quirkless just like her, and found themselves being repeatedly pushed out of contracts by those who looked down on their quirklessness. By the time she was in her early teens, her parents had been forced into owning a lowly little workshop which was soon raided by heroes targeting them for their quirklessness and they had been killed. However, she had survived, and had inherited their great minds from them. Now she was operating in a scrapyard owned by the runners, and had made dozens of her own inventions from spare bits of metal scattered across it.

Meanwhile, Bakugo is revealed to be training under All Might in order to inherit his power, and when the U.A. entrance exam comes to pass, Bakugo aces it with no rescue points to his name. Meanwhile, Izuku is placed into general education, and finds himself at odds with many of the people in his class due to his quirklessness, but tries to keep his head down to stay out of Bakugo's line of sight.

One day, Izuku and Viper are on one of their nightly patrols in the city, discussing possible encroachments onto Musufatu by a rising Yakuza by the name of the Shie Hassaikai, before something - no, someone- bumps into Izuku.

A small girl by the name of Eri, who begs them not to let the bad man take her away.

A second later, a man in a bird mask and plague doctor's outfit by the name of Overhaul, as well as his goons, find and confront them, demanding that Eri returns to them. Realising that he is the head of the Shie Hassaikai, Izuku and Viper are forced into a fight with Overhaul and his goons...

And in the confrontation, Overhaul disassembles Viper and murders him, covering the alleyway in his blood.

Holding Izuku by his throat and threatening to kill him too, Overhaul demands that Eri return to him, which she does out of fear of getting anyone else killed. Despite still in shock at Viper's violent death and everything that has happened in the last few minutes, Izuku still promises Eri that he will save her before she disappears from his sight, and is found by his fellow Runners crying in a pool of Viper's blood.

Retelling his story to Knuckleduster, the Runners begin a full-on war on Overhaul's Yakuza, raiding his hideouts and shell companies before eventually happening upon Overhaul's main base of operations.

The battle that followed would finally thrust the Runners into the spotlight, which was, ironically, the last thing that they wanted. What should've been a silent infiltration of Overhaul's headquarters soon became a pitched battle encompassing an entire block in the middle of the city, drawing attention from heroes and villains alike as all eyes turn to the massive battle between the Runners and the Shie Hassaikai. In its aftermath, the entire city block is devastated and Overhaul and his minions escape their grasp, but Eri is saved and the Runners slink back into the shadows.

However, now they have been unwillingly pushed into the spotlight and have gained both the admiration and the ire of heroes and villains alike. Worse yet, their battle with Overhaul has completely overshadowed the USJ battle that took place at the same time, so Shigaraki and the League of Villains do not get the spotlight and become a household name like they would've liked, and are furious about it.

But their obscurity is also an advantage to them as well, as with the HPSC pushing all of its resources into hunting down the Runners for humiliating their heroes, and the Shie Hassaikai for opposing them, no one except the teachers at U.A. give enough of a damn to look into the League of Villains, and no matter how much the likes of All Might and Nezu warn them about the threat that the League pose, as well as their possible connection to All for One, none of the heroes are willing to give the time needed to tracking them down, meaning that the League are able to work in the shadows without scrutiny by the heroes.

Worse yet, Overhaul is contacted by the League, and falls into a temporary alliance with them, meaning that the League are able to grow stronger in a shorter amount of time, and with access to a lot more resources as well, despite their still relative obscurity.

Meanwhile, the Runners are forced to go deeper into hiding as they are hunted and hounded by both heroes and villains, a small child now in their protection as Izuku struggles to balance his life as a civilian and student in U.A.'s general education course with his life as a Runner and protector of those that the heroes will not, especially when he comes into conflict with other gangs that also have quirkless people in their ranks as muscle and so on.

None of this is helped when the HPSC announces that All Might and the rest of the top tens themselves are going to be put in charge of curtailing the hidden gang movements in the underworld, including the Runners, with All Might himself bringing his new successor, Bakugo Katsuki, along with him, the both of them now armed with One for All.

Now with the League, Overhaul, and the heroes themselves tracking them down and hounding them every step of the way, Izuku and the rest of the Runners find themselves with few allies and enemies at all sides, as the HPSC tightens its grip and tries its best to bring them down.

And soon enough, the Runners' true enemy in the HPSC reveals itself, especially when Lil' Miss Militant reveals her backstory, and how she had been born to be a weapon for the Commission...

Chapter 13: Those Who Are Worthy

Chapter Text

In the past, All Might chooses Izuku to be his successor, and grants him the power of his quirk.

Unbeknownst to anyone, they are being watched...

In the present day, Izuku, Bakugo, and Ochako have been kidnapped.

During a trip out, under U.A.'s guidance, Class 1-A was attacked by a group of villains, and Izuku is captured by them. Bakugo and Ochako had tired to go after him, but they had been knocked out by the villains and captured as well, the three of them dragged away and forced into submission by their kidnappers.

In the hidden base of the villains, the three students are confronted by the five villains, who go by the names of:

Henshin Obakes, a man with a mutant quirk that leaves him a horrifying looking monster.

Kisei Abe, a boy with a disintegration (I.E. villainous) quirk who is locked in a mechanical suit.

Sachie Aiuchi is a masked and fully clothed assassin - armed with swords - with a sex quirk, in that if she touches someone's bare skin with her own, she can immediately bring them to org*sm.

Riki Aimoto, a quirkless girl much like Izuku, who shares a similar hobby of analysing quirks.

And finally, their leader Iyashi Gushiken, a girl with the heroic quirk of self-healing (meaning that she's functionally immortal), and a Hero-in-training and student of Isamu Academy High School's Class 1-A...

And she wants One for All.

As it turns out, Iyashi and Riki had been the ones to spy on All Might and Izuku back in the day, as they had been going to the same school as both him and Bakugo (that being Aldera) and had happened upon Izuku and All Might after the Sludge Villain incident when the latter offered the former his quirk. Since then the two girls had been spying on the two of them, learning as much about One for All as they could, and now Iyashi had come to collect what she believed to be hers.

However, Izuku refuses to give it to her, and she resolves to find a way to take it from her.

From there, Izuku, Bakugo, and Ochako are kept hostage by the group of villains, and they assume that they are just like any other villain, only doing things because they want to and refusing to use the quirks and skills at their disposal for good.

But as they slowly get to know these villains and how they got into these circ*mstances, they realise that they are anything but willing to be villains.

Henshin was forced run out of his home at a young age and forced onto the streets by mutant haters due to his physical appearance, and had to resort to petty theft and crime in order to stay alive. He is actually a very gentle person who has been screwed over by those who hated him just for his appearance.

Kisei's quirk actually works against him, as instead of disintegrating everything around him (like Shigaraki's), it instead disintegrates himself. He's been living inside a sealed containment suit meant to stop the spread of his quirk, meaning that he is now little more than a skeleton with organs and a few strands of muscle holding him together swimming in a puddle of his own melted skin, and only has less than a month left to live. The metal suit was the only thing still keeping him alive, but it had only been made by Henshin and Riki, as no one in the hospitals had wanted to help someone with a villainous quirk. They had been more than content to let him die.

Sachie's sex quirk marked her as a freak by her fellow children from a young age and led her to be bullied and shunned by everyone around her due to the taboo nature of sex, all of them labelling her with the worst stereotypes and degrading names imaginable. Worse yet, her parents sold her off as a sex slave and prostitute at a very young age, forcing her to earn them money before the gang of villains she was a part of freed her from her slavery and trained her to defend herself.

And Riki had been living under the thumb of Iyashi for years, suffering from very much the same kind of quirkless discrimination from her peers as Izuku had, only this time her main bully had forced her into her service over it. She is very much like a villainous version of Izuku, but with more realistic depictions behind it.

All four of these villains are not here by choice. None of them chose to be where they are now, and all of them are just trying to make the best of the terrible circ*mstances that they have been forced into. The only one who wants to be there is Iyashi, the hero student, and she was the one to assemble them all as a single unit. She had promised them a family and a home, a safe place for the first time in their lives. What were they suppose to do, turn it down? It was the first good deal that they had heard in a long time.

None of the kidnapped trio have an answer for them.

Soon enough, Iyashi grows impatient, and brings a knife out, threatening to kill Bakugo and Ochako if she doesn't get what she wants. To the students' surprise the villains protest this, believing that this is a step too far.

However, Iyashi silences Riki with a forceful kiss, and cows the others into complacency as well.

Iyashi and Riki's relationship is a twisted deconstruction of the BakuDeku ship, as Iyashi has just as many parallels to Bakugo as much as Riki does to Izuku, including his pride and various ego issues. Their relationship is an abusive one, one where Iyashi holds all the power over Riki, and Riki fawns over Iyashi despite all of the abuse that she puts her through.

It is a disturbing relationship, and it is one that makes both Bakugo and Izuku deeply uncomfortable.

Iyashi then puts a knife to Ochako's throat, and demands Izuku give her One for All. Realising that his best friend is now on the line, Izuku relents, giving Iyashi One for All.

She runs her knife across his hand, bringing out a long line of blood and letting it drop onto her tongue.

She waits, and waits, and waits. And then, with a surge of energy, she feels it. One for All swirls in her gut.

Coming to the conclusion that both the hostages and her minions have served their purposes, Iyashi stabs Izuku, Bakugo, and Ochako in their knees and activates a failsafe she had installed in their hideout, setting it on fire whilst she escapes. To the students' surprise once more, the villains, having not been comfortable with the kidnapping plot to begin with and feeling betrayed by Iyashi's attempt to kill them and cover her tracks, are the ones to drag them out of the building before it burns down.

In the aftermath, Izuku tries to summon One for All to his side, but couldn't do it. He was quirkless once more.

Back with Iyashi, she returns to her Class 1-A in Isamu to show off her new power. As it turns out, everyone in her version of Class 1-A are dark parallels of Izuku's, and they all share the same goals: to do whatever it takes to climb the ranks of hero society, and claim as much fame and glory as they can.

However, Iyashi finds out that her plan to kill her old contacts didn't work, and that both her former prisoners and villain minions are still alive. Realising that they might be the only ones that can stop her plans are still alive, Iyashi sends her classmates out to eliminate them.

Now with dozens of fanatical hero wannabes on their tail and about to kill them, Izuku, Bakugo, and Ochako are forced to rally the villains to their side in a desperate struggle to survive.

And with nothing left to lose, the villains are forced to agree to their terms as well, and they all prepare for the fight of their lives.

And the fight comes for them, as Iyashi's minions comes down hard on them, bringing the fight of their lives down onto them as Iyashi leads them into the fray and brings hell down upon the villains and students.

However, as the fight drags on, and as Iyashi's healing quirk begins to evolve and compensate for the damage that One for All does to her, she finds that that very same quirk is beginning to overload inside her body with each passing moment, something that the combined force of students and villains decide to take advantage of as they press the advantage against the rogue hero wannabes.

And soon enough, they get reinforcements in the form of U.A.'s Class 1-A and teachers, turning the tide against the rogues.

The formerly kidnapped students and villains then turn their attention to Iyashi and begin to unload onto the superpowered hero wannabe, throwing everything that they have into her as One for All begins to tear her apart and Izuku and Riki lead them in picking her to pieces, shouting out orders to them on how best to deal with her.

And soon enough, it is Riki who delivers the final blow, landing a hard hit to the head and sending her former bully spiralling to the ground, her admiration for her finally wilting and dying.

And so does Iyashi. The amassed energies of One for All cannot be passed down to a tenth successor, especially one with a quirk. One for All tears Iyashi apart, and she dies from her own ambitions.

And then, so does Kisei. His suit had been damaged and torn open in the battle, and now nothing is stopping his quirk's accelerated decay of his own body. All the villains that he had called his friends can do now is surround and comfort him as he passes on, mourning the loss of their dearest friend as they share his last moments with him as they watch the sun rise in the distance.

In the aftermath of the battle, Iyashi's class are expelled from Isamu and arrested for their crimes, and the former villains are arrested as well for their part in the kidnapping. However, because of the testimonies of Izuku, Bakugo, and Ochako, the three surviving villains in Riki, Sachie, and Henshin are able to get reduced sentences and soon visit U.A.'s dormitories to see Izuku, having been put on probation and sending the rest of their sentences paying off their crimes by helping the heroes in vigilante work.

Izuku offers to let them stay with him once their sentences are over, and they agree, and they all toast a drink to Kisei, mourning his death and celebrating his life.

And with that, this story ends.

Chapter 14: The Time Traveller's Hero

Chapter Text

In the distant past, a young girl in a war zone, surrounded by death and destruction, cries to herself in fear. Suddenly, a boy with verdant hair greets her, and tells her to be brave...

The Hero Convention is a wonderful place to visit. Izuku can attest to this as he and the rest of Class 1-A visit the massive convention on a school trip out of U.A. as part of their education. At the Hero Convention, hundreds of heroes from across the world, as well as representatives from support and technology companies gather together to meet and greet each other in a spectacular fashion.

Here, Class 1-A can learn of the heroes that came before them and know what is expected of them in turn. They can meet and learn from the different heroes from all around the world, begin to build their connections and network with them, make contacts within the many support companies that had gathered for the convention, and even gain potential experience in the Hero Games, small combat and rescue simulations that have been constructed within the convention halls themselves.

Over the course of the convention, the students meet various heroes from across the globe, from Salaam and Big Red Dot to Cow Lady and Elec Plant and dozens of other heroes as well.

However, soon enough, they come across a group of heroes that have come from Japan and other parts of Asia like them, meeting and greeting each other before Izuku comes across a certain hero in particular. A woman dressed in a red, maroon, and gold suit/dress (think himugatok's drawings of human Lefty from FNAF 6), who spins threads from her fingertips. A pro hero that goes by the name of Weaver, the Spinneret Hero...

And out of nowhere, she calls Izuku's name out in jubilation and hugs him for dear life.

Weaver knows Izuku. Somehow she knows Izuku, and she knows him deeply. Intimately, even. She knows about his past, about his family, about his school, about everything as if, as she claims, she has told him before...

But he hasn't. He has never met her before, even when she claims he has, even if she doesn't know why he seems younger or why he doesn't remember her at all. She quotes the Wrath Wars from a decade before, when she had been just a student in U.A.'s halls, and how he had saved her life during the Korean Strife, but he doesn't remember taking part in any of those events.

Weaver drags Izuku away to speak with him, leaving Class 1-A alone with her fellow heroes and friends in Axis (a hero revolving around the theme of compasses and clocks), and Steeljaw (inspired by Steeljaw from Transformers: Robots in Disguise. He's a man with a steel jaw. Go figure). Outside the room that they go into, a pro hero by the name of Vanguard (a hero in military garb and with friends in the local private security guarding the convention), radios his men.

With Weaver, Izuku is shown the diary that she wrote when she first met him, revealing that he had apparently been there in the past with her and had been there to help her through the Wrath Wars. However, he still has no memory about those events, and is thoroughly confused by what she is saying to him.

And then, Weaver reveals something to him that shakes him to her core.

She knows about One for All.

Izuku panics, asking her where she had heard that name, and Weaver states that he had told her, showing her the diary entry where she wrote down about One for All and when Izuku had apparently told her about it. Izuku is almost frightened by the revelations laid out before him and how much Weaver actually knows, but she implores that he listen to her and calms him down, reciting an old story of his that he had once told her when she was younger, a story that he knew very well, as it was the tale of All Might's first outing as a hero, one which he had recited to others before word for word.

As Weaver and Izuku continue to talk, Class 1-A try to join them to begin their own conversations with the mysterious woman, but the like of Steeljaw and Vanguard keep them out of the room. Meanwhile, Axis slinks away, a headache overcoming the young hero.

In the adjacent room to them, Weaver and Izuku continue to talk, with Weaver regaling the tale of how she had supposedly first met Izuku when she was younger, when the HPSC had sent her class, as well as the rest of U.A., All Might, and the heroes of Japan against the parasitic Wrathful hordes plaguing the United Korean States during the brief Wrath War, and how most of her class had died at the hands of a corrupt hero and she had been left alone to fend for herself. However, it had been Izuku - good, seemingly quirkless Izuku - who had found her in the madness and saved her from her own demise.

At the same time, Izuku suffers from a brief headache.

But then something stirs in the background. The private security forces at the Hero Convention have begun to turn against the heroes and other guests and round them up, seizing whatever technology they can get their hands on. Izuku and Class 1-A are sent off to safety by the heroes, and the likes of Weaver, Axis, and Steeljaw quickly move in to help the heroes fend off the rogue guards.

However, after the battle, many of the rogue guards are able to escape (with much of the technology at the convention, including an experimental biological 3D printer), including Vanguard, who has betrayed the heroes and organised the whole thing. Weaver, Axis, and Steeljaw are sent to work with the police in the investigation after the event.

That night, Izuku dreams of being in a world from years in the past. He dreamt of seeing a girl in front of him, and he knew he needed to save her. He offered her his hand, and she took it.

The next day, Weaver would do her best to keep in contact with Izuku, but U.A. would begin to filter her communications with her and try to block her out. Despite that, Weaver still managed to talk to Izuku, managing to get herself invited into U.A. with the police to take witness accounts of what happened the previous day. Despite his feelings about Weaver, Izuku feels an obligation to track down and bring in Vanguard for what he has done, and when Weaver offers to giver him an internship at her agency, known as New Light Agency, he accepts.

The next night, he dreams about leading the girl away from the horrible place, and he asks her for her name. She is Kumo Amino, and she was sent here to die.

Soon, Izuku arrives at New Light with Weaver and is greeted by the pensive, constantly tired Axis, and the crass Steeljaw, as well as the surprising number of quirkless people employed by her. The other heroes and sidekicks there are quick to say hello as well. Apparently Weaver had spoken highly of him. He is unsure how to feel about that.

They bring him into the investigation with their contacts in the police, and they work together to analyse the Hero Convention crime scene and apprehend any of the technology left behind at the crime scene for safe keeping. Using the evidence that they find, they track the last location that Vanguard and his men had been to a warehouse in lower Kamino, the last hiding place of the League of Villains. Deducing that Vanguard and his goons had been on the contract of the League of Villains, Weaver and Izuku forward this new information to the HPSC and raid the warehouse, finding information on the League of Villains and allowing the agency to conclude that Vanguard and his guys had been paid off by the League and sent the stolen tech to Shigaraki. The investigation finishes as such, and the HPSC is placed in charge of finding the League once more and pinning the blame for the convention attack on them.

The New Light Agency allows the investigation into the League to be taken away from them, and Weaver and Izuku begin to go out on patrols with each other, with Weaver continuing to talk to Izuku about the time that they shared together in the past. However, soon Izuku notices Axis wandering off and asks about him. When Weaver reports that Axis is mainly a data pusher and even she doesn't know what his quirk is, Izuku suspects that something more is going on and begins his own secret information.

However, the teachers at U.A. are not satisfied by this conclusion, and they suspect that something more is going on. Seeking their own contacts within the police, Aizawa and Detective Tsukauchi return to the convention sight to try and dig up more evidence, only to find that the crime scene may have potentially been tampered with. Heading to the warehouse that had been raided, the two of them discover that a lot of the evidence at the entire crime scene doesn't make sense, almost as if it was planted. They suspect that someone in the police department is corrupt.

Meanwhile, the students of Class 1-A would begin to spy on the ULA themselves, their own suspicions about Weaver mixing with worry for Izuku. However, Weaver would realise what they are doing and send Steeljaw to dismiss and scatter them.

At the same time, Aizawa and Tsukauchi would try to look into the evidence garnered by the NLA and police, but find that elements within the HPSC, police, and even their fellow heroes are intent on impeding them. Nevertheless, they would discover evidence of Vanguard being in the area, and would witness one of his men meeting with the leader of a notorious villain gang.

Elements of Class 1-A would witness another one of these meetings as well, but they would be noticed as well before the villains attempted to silence them. Coming to the conclusion that something more is going on and suspecting that Weaver has something to do with it, they go to try and warn the heroes of what is happening, but would find their calls constantly being rebuffed.

Soon enough, Izuku would continue his own investigation into the NLA, and would forward a buried sighting of Vanguard meeting with a larger group of villains meeting downtown to Aizawa.

And then, Izuku witnesses Weaver and Steeljaw contacting Weaver, telling him to move onto the next stage of their plan and that the rest of the technology from the convention will be heading his way.

Weaver catches sight of Izuku spying on them and catches him in her web (her semblance is Strand, and it allows her to weave strands of web and wires from her fingertips), asking why he was watching them with genuine confusion and hurt in her voice. Izuku demands to know why she was in contact with Vanguard, and Weaver simply replies that he wasn't meant to be brought into their plans until much later, when he was more familiar with them. Izuku tries to worm his way out of her grasp, but then, after a display of power and a few choice words from Weaver, he makes a horrifying discovery:

Weaver has One for All as well.

Izuku brings his quirk to full burst and manages to break from her web, trying to warn the rest of the NLA of Weaver and Steeljaw's betrayal, only to realise that everyone in the agency is in on her conspiracy as they try to attack him. Fleeing the agency, Izuku soon finds himself coming into contact with the members of Class 1-A that had been spying on the NLA, and together they flee back to U.A..

But then the city around them begins to fall into chaos as Vanguard and both his men and the many villains and criminal gangs that he had conscripted into their cause were beginning to riot and rise up, spreading chaos wherever they went, drawing the attention of both the police and the majority of the heroes to this sudden villainous uprising. U.A.'s teachers would raid the NLA building in the midst of the chaos, but would find that the building has been cleared out, and Weaver and her goons have gone underground.

Realising that Weaver and the NLA had framed the League for their actions and had been covering their tracks until now, Aizawa and Tsukauchi would attempt to present this new evidence to the HPSC but would be rebuffed by them, both because of the sudden rise in violence from the villain gangs and because of possible internal corruption within their ranks. They realise that the NLA must have contacts in each of the rungs of law enforcement.

Meanwhile, U.A. would find itself too busy dealing with the sudden uptake of villains on the streets to properly look into Weaver and the NLA's movements- which was probably their plan to begin with - so Izuku and the students decide to do it themselves, eventually coming across Steeljaw and Axis taking a surplus of trigger and the ingredients needed to make it from one of their conscripted gangs. Steeljaw escapes the confrontation with his new stock, but the class are able to subdue and capture Axis. However, when Izuku tries to interrogate the rogue hero, that's when he becomes a victim of Axis' hidden quirk:

Time travel.

Lost in an old battlefield with no understanding of what is going on, Izuku comes across a girl his age sheltering from the violence and decides to save her. Leading her away from the carnage, he learns her name and discovers that she was sent here by the heroes to die, so he promises to save her and defeat the people who had sent her there. However, when he is badly wounded and believes that he is going to die when fighting the corrupt hero, he gives her One for All, believing that his time has come, only to finally be told what her hero name is:

Weaver.

Izuku, in his weakened state, is drawn back to the present, and as they treat him for his wounds, they realise that Axis never had good control over his quirk, hence the headaches and migraines, and that something like this was just too much for him. Axis has died from quirk overload.

However, even after being treated for his wounds, Izuku still has headaches and strange dreams of his time spent with Weaver, and he and All Might come to the conclusion that they are a result of the unique circ*mstances behind his giving Weaver One for All in the past. They decide to use this to their advantage, and try to use his connection to her to try and contact her through One for All, focusing himself to speak to her through his dreams.

It works, and both Weaver and Izuku speak through their dreams. Izuku tries to get Weaver to stand down but she refuses, confessing that she loves Izuku for what she had done for her in the past, and Izuku discovers that she had figured out that he was quirkless before getting One for All and that she regards the quirkless as a superior being to those with quirks, even to the point of fetishizing them. However, Izuku is able to glean that trigger has something to do with her plans.

The next day, U.A. receives reports that Vanguard's men have been handing out trigger to the villain gangs under their command, amplifying the threat that the gangs pose and furthering the theory that Weaver is only using them to cause chaos and draw attention away from her and her plans. At the same time, Izuku would try to figure out her plans, taking her admiration of the quirkless into account as well.

Soon, he and his classmates, under the protection of several heroes that they know they can trust, raid a warehouse that Steeljaw had been sighted in, and see him protecting the evacuation of what seemed like some kind of laboratory, finding much of the technology that had been stolen from the Hero Convention, including several makeshift copies of the biological 3D printers. Capturing Steeljaw, the heroes discover that Weaver is reverse engineering some kind of virus with trigger in mind, and that many in the HPSC and hero ranks are supportive of her plans. However, they soon discover that Steeljaw had wanted to be captured, as he escapes from their custody with a dozen of the quirk-destroying bullets that they had seized from Overhaul back during the raid on their base.

Soon enough, Izuku has another conversation with Weaver during their dreams, in which he is able to figure out that Vanguard has more contacts on him than just those at the convention, and that he has people in the almost defunct JSDF in his pocket as well.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government are forced to call upon the JSDF - not deployed in a century and wanting of glory - to help contain the villain gangs spreading chaos across their cities.

Realising that Weaver wishes to use the JSDF as a key component in her plans, U.A. try to stop the JSDF's deployment, but elements within the HPSC continue to impede them. It is only after another dream that Izuku and Weaver share with each other do they realise Weaver's true plans:

She wishes to use the missiles in the JSDF's possession to deploy an airborne virus of her own making known as the QL Strand, one that combines trigger and the quirk-destroying drug to create a disease that targets and destroys quirks themselves, rendering the entire global population quirkless and destroying hero society as they know it.

However, upon raiding another laboratory and battling both Steeljaw and Vanguard once more, the heroes discover that Weaver has made a severe miscalculation in her virus: not only will it destroy the quirks in their bodies, but it will also destroy their immune systems, rendering the people infected by the virus vulnerable to every other disease out there. Her QL Strand could kill untold millions of people.

Now it is a race against time to stop Weaver and the NLA before they can launch their virus. However, they find themselves stopped and confronted by an army of heroes loyal to Weaver's ideals, causing a pitched battle to break out in the streets as Izuku rushes off to face Weaver head on.

When he does, she once more tries to convince him to join her cause, only for him to try and convince her to stop her plan before she kills millions. Realising that neither of them are willing to back down from this fight, Izuku and Weaver battle against each other, One for All versus One for All in a crazed fight that pushes them both to their limits, only made worse when Izuku is forced to inform her of Axis' death and the truth behind what happened that day all those years ago, and worser still when both Steeljaw and Vanguard join the fight as well.

Eventually though, Izuku is able to turn the tide of the battle and defeat both Steeljaw and Vanguard, as well as destroy the QL Strand and stop the missile's launch, but this only sends Weaver into a rage as the two go head to head. However, in the middle of the fight, Ochako tries to intervene to protect Izuku...

And Weaver maims her.

Thrown into a blind rage of his own, Izuku attacks Weaver with everything that he has, the two opponents throwing all of their powers against each other before they exhaust their quirks and begin to duel with improvised bats and swords and their own fists. The fight between them is long and exhausting and leaves them both bloody and broken.

However, it is Izuku who lands the final blow as he impales her, finding the strength within him to calm down and then realise just what he has done.

As Weaver dies, Izuku stays by her side to try and comfort her, and discovers that on that day, way back when Izuku had given her One for All, she had beaten down the corrupt hero who had sent her and her classmates to die, only for it to be covered up and for her to be dismissed and paid off in an attempt to cover up the corruption. From there she had worked her way up the ranks and eventually formed her own agency in the NLA, only to be disillusioned and disenfranchised by hero society and its dismissal of the weak and fetishization of the strong, how it treated the quirkless like trash whilst it upheld those with the strongest quirks like gods. No matter how much she tried to change the system from within, it never worked.

So she had decided to force the change.

In the end, all she had ever wanted to do was make her hero, him, proud of her, and had sincerely thought that she was really doing the right thing. As she dies, she finally realises that what she had done was evil, and dies crying in Izuku's arms, One for All leaving her body and returning from the Tenth to the Ninth.

In the aftermath of the battle, the late Weaver's manipulations are revealed to the world, leading to the mass arrests of hundreds of heroes, police officers, and HPSC members. Many of the NLA and Vanguard's men and villain goons are arrested as well, but the rest, including Steeljaw and Vanguard himself, escape and go on the run. Hero society is shaken by the violence carried out by a single group of heroes, and the JSDF is dismissed entirely (explaining why it was the heroes who attacked the PLF during the war arc and not the armed forces).

Ochako is treated for her injuries and Izuku's involvement in Weaver's death is covered up, but the latter is still shaken by what he has done, and despite Weaver's status as a rogue hero and a villain, he still mourns her death and laments that she had only ever wanted to do what she thought was right.

However, later that night, he dreams once more, of all the inheritors of One for All gathered around...

Right as the Tenth Wielder, Weaver, joins them at the table as wires protrude from his fingertips.

Chapter 15: One for All of Us

Chapter Text

One for All is like a chalice, flowing with energy. The stockpiled strength of all those who previously welded it bubbles in the broth of potential within the cup, swirling and eager to be drunk by its newest host.

But what happens when One for All overflows with energy? What happens when there is too much strength within its chalice?

Simple: It leaks outwards.

When All Might passes One for All over to Izuku, One for All cannot sustain itself inside its newest host. Not alone. There is simply too much there for the boy to handle.

So, One for All decides to split itself apart, siphoning the strength away to other hosts nearby.

The first person affected by this is Ochako, suddenly finding herself able to use Blackwhip in the aftermath of the entrance exam into U.A., the new quirk briefly overloading her body as she remains confused as to what is happening to her.

The second is a young girl in high school by the name of Sora Hada. Bullied by her peers for her shy demeanour, she is suddenly thrown into the world of heroics and villainy when Float comes into her possession and she is labelled as a vigilante for illegal quirk usage (think of her like Yuki Sonoda from Megatokyo).

The third and fourth are a familiar pair of criminals, Gentle Criminal and La Brava. With their new quirks in Fa Jin and Danger Sense respectively, they become much more prominent villains in the public's eyes, and drawing followers by the likes of Mr. Compass and Twice to themselves.

The fifth is another villain by the name of Tarantulas, a spider-like villain who was beaten by society for his mutant appearance. With his new quirk by the name of Gearshift, he is eager to take back what she's owed from the hero society that wronged him.

The sixth is a dog named Kubo, already armed with a quirk that allowed them to turn into a human boy. Now with Smokescreen at his side, he is content to cause mischief wherever he goes.

The seventh is a girl named Luska Sadularv, a Chechen immigrant with a fox quirk, now suddenly mutated by the effects of One for All into that of a Kitsune, or a Nine-Tailed Fox. She wishes not to be a part of the war between heroes and villains, but her new power of Quirk Bestowal means that she has no choice in the matter.

And finally, there is the eighth... a woman who knows more than she lets on. She is a strange woman, cryptic and mysterious, unwilling to divulge anything about her (much like Miho Tohya from Megatokyo as well)... but she is after something. She is intent on following Izuku, and those that have been effected by their new quirks...

Because she is One for All. She is the quirk made manifest, made real, made anew.

When One for All split itself apart, the quirk itself found its host in the woman that it made its host and possessed her, using her body to track and spy on Izuku and all those affected by her quirk, and even interfering with their lives and sending heroes and villains alike against them, hiring thugs like mercenaries to fight and trouble them whenever they can.

Why? Because she wanted to test whether the ninth inheritor of One for All, Izuku Midoriya, and all those that she has blessed with her quirks, to see if the ones that she had been passed down too were truly worthy of holding her power.

At her whims, the new inheritors are forced into a constant struggle against One for All itself and the many bodies that she sends against them, all for them to prove that they are worthy of holding her quirk.

For them to face and come out of this battle stronger than ever... they must all look past and put aside their differences, and stand together as one, less they be brought down by the quirk that blessed them as she continues to up the stakes and put more lives at risk to prove that they are strong enough to wield her.

They would be the Ones to save them All, and prove themselves worthy of the powers that they new held...

Chapter 16: A Hero's Destiny

Chapter Text

In the distant past, something happened.

No one knows what it was. No one knows why either. So much of humanity's history after the Quirk Awakening a thousand years ago had been lost to them, gone and forgotten. All that is known is that something happened, something triggered the quirk awakening...

And before that, the three races that make up humanity, Human, Exo, and Awoken, were protected from malevolent forces of darkness by mythological, undying heroes of legend.

The Guardians and their Ghosts.

Now is the modern day, and the age of All Might reigns across the world, ushering in a new age of peace and prosperity to the planet of Earth.

But there has been an awakening, deep down in the earth and across the solar system.

The forces of light and dark are beginning to move into play once more.

And it all begins with Izuku Midoriya, a quirkless boy in the midst of being bullied by his former childhood friend, Bakugo Katsuki.

Their day in Aldera High School is the same as any other, and events soon begin to follow as canon would, all the way up until the moment that All Might tells Izuku that he cannot be a hero and leaves with the Sludge Villain, leaving Izuku to himself.

This time, when All Might loses the Sludge Villain, it does not attack Bakugo, and Aldera is not attacked.

Not by the Sludge Villain, at least.

Because the Sludge Villain is killed in an alleyway by a monster with four arms.

The next day, everything is going as usual for Izuku, with Bakugo and his cronies still tormenting him, and his dreams now shattered and broken thanks to All Might's words.

But then, he looks out the window, and sees a lumbering brute of a creature breaching the school gates.

A four-armed beast covered in boils and rotting flesh, covered in old metal and drapes and holding a massive cannon.

It is Ra'tixx, the Awakened. It is a Chieftain. It is an undead Eliksni.

It is a Scorn.

And it opens fire.

Izuku Midoriya is caught in the first blast.

Izuku Midoriya is killed.

And the school is thrown into chaos as the Chieftain summons its hordes of Lurkers and Ravagers and Raiders and Screebs and Stalkers and Wraiths and Abominations, and the Scorn swarm the area like a horde of locusts.

The heroes are quick to respond, and they are able to drive Ra'tixx and its fellow Scorn into a retreat, but Aldera is left in ruins, and almost everyone inside has been slaughtered, with the sole exception of Bakugo, who was barely able to defend himself from the Scorn before All Might jumped in to save him.

But in the aftermath, a little light bursts out from the darkness. A small machine-like device floating through the air.

It calls itself Mikumo.

It is a Ghost.

And it raises Izuku from the dead, as the world's first Lightbearer in a thousand years, with no memory of his previous life, and no understanding of what is going on around him.

Mikumo leads Izuku underground and out of the eyes of the heroes, and reveals that he is just as confused as Izuku. He has only just been brought into the world as well. All the two of them know is that Izuku has no memory of who he once was, he is a Titan, he can wield the Light, he cannot permanently die, and Mikumo is the key to that resurrective immortality.

But as they stay underground for the next ten months, Izuku - now calling himself Deku, as it is one of the few memories of himself that he can barely recall - begins to hear reports across the news of the Scorn, led by Ra'tixx and its Chieftains, attacking random locations across the city, abducting dozens of heroes and innocents with each attack and killing dozens more, he feels the itching, desperate need to intervene.

And so intervene they do.

Tracking down the various hideouts of the Scorn, Deku and Mikumo discover that the undead Fallen have been performing gruesome rituals on their captives, experimenting on them with dissections and attempting to harvest their quirks, filling them up with Dark Ether to turn them into Ether farms, and sacrificing them for their dark gods. Resolving to stop them, Deku finds their lair underneath the ruins of Aldera and confronts them, freeing the captives and confronting the Scorn, taking them down one by one with his new Super ability, Ward of Dawn, and then coming face to face with the head Chieftain behind the operation, Ra'tixx the Awakened.

(This would be the Destiny equivalent of a Strike, essentially.)

It is a long and gruelling duel, but eventually, Deku is able to defeat it, giving the monstrous Scorn its second demise and ending its demented rituals.

However, all of this is interrupted by All Might, who finds him in the old ruins after receiving reports of a fresh wave of Scorn and violence erupting from the destroyed school. Upon seeing the boy that had been killed, the boy that he had let down and let die, up and about once more, and upon hearing the thankful words of the people that he has saved, All Might finds himself unable to arrest the boy.

Instead, he takes him to Nezu.

Upon seeing the Lightbearer, Nezu tells Deku that he has only ever heard of them in legend, and is himself unsure of how he can help the Risen in mastering his new powers, but he will certainly try.

And he can start by enrolling him into U.A.'s Hero course.

Deku and All Might are surprised by this, but are also grateful, and thank him for the opportunity.

And when they leave, Nezu contacts someone on his personal communicator, and tells them to inform Caiatl that a Guardian has been risen.

As the new year begins, Deku and Mikumo begin to acquaint themselves with their new classmates and peers, and we begin to see several changes in them thanks to the fusion of these two universes. For instance, Ashido is an Awoken instead of just a mutant, and Ibara, Aoyama, Shinso, Koji, Momo, Monoma, Yui, Reiko, and two of the teachers Midnight and Eraserhead are all Awoken as well. However, since Exos cannot reproduce, none of the children are Exos, though in this reality some of the teachers and heroes are Exos, like Gran Torino, who is Torino-43 in this world, whilst the likes of Power Loader and Thirteen are Maijima-13 and Kurose-11 respectively.

Whilst he is at U.A., Deku and Mikumo begin to make friends with some of the people around him, such as Jiro, Iida, and Ochako in his class, Yui and Tetsutetsu in Class 1-B, and also Shinso from General Education and Hatsume in Support, who begins to help him with developing his tech and equipment-

(In this universe, Hatsume is fascinated by the old stories of the Guardians and their Ghosts, and has begun to develop an obsession with unlocking the secrets of a fabled species known as the Vex, and the old legends of the Black Garden...)

-However, he begins to grow a dislike to one Bakugo Katsuki, who apparently knew him in a past life and is really annoyingly rude about it.

Meanwhile, Deku and Mikumo soon become famous for their exploits across Musufatu and their takedowns of the Scorn, as well as being the first fabled Lightbearer and Ghost pair in a thousand years. Because of this, and because of their rapidly growing skills with their powers, Deku soon starts to grow a sense of arrogance in his skills, believing himself to be much better in terms of skills and power compared to his peers.

This will come to bite him later, as when the USJ comes to pass and all of Class 1-A are gathered outside the entrance to the building, when Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and the rest of the League of Villains step out to face them, the two villains don't bring street thugs and brutes.

They bring Cabal.

A remnant of the Red Legion from a thousand years before, hired on by the League as mercenaries and led by the self-proclaimed Valus Ca'lall, an Incendior with high aspirations and low options, believing his unit and himself to be destined for greatness, and in killing All Might they would accomplish that.

At first, Deku would move to take down as many of the Cabal mercenaries as he could, but would soon find himself overwhelmed by the sheer amount of fire that they were throwing out at him as they were scattered across the USJ.

But then, tragedy would strike, as a group of students, under Deku's protection, would be cornered by a group of Cabal, led by Valus Ca'lall, and Deku would declare that the students were under his protection.

It was then that Deku notices the necklace of dead Ghosts around Ca'lall's neck, and the brutish Incendior decides to challenge that...

By grabbing Jiro, throwing her to the ground, and stomping on her head, flattening it into a red paste and killing her.

Ca'lall has just murdered Jiro, and Deku could do nothing about it.

The Lightbearer is enraged by this and goes in for the attack, but is beaten down by the self-promoted Valus' forces, shield-based by his Phalanxes, pummelled by his Legionaries, slashed at by his Gladiators and blasted by his Psions' Void abilities. He is killed and revived by Mikumo over a dozen times, and by the end of it he is left bloody and beaten, now hiding behind his Ward of Dawn from the Cabal with the other students that had sheltered away with him.

But then, soon enough, All Might arrives in the USJ to defeat the villains, and he and Ca'lall go head to head with each other, the two of them duking it out before Skigaraki's Nomu joins in on the pummelling, its body covered in runes and symbols that seemed to have a glowing yellow resonance to them as it joined Ca'lall in beating down All Might, and even when the other heroes arrive, the fight between them and the League's Cabal and Nomu is still one-sided in the Cabal's favour.

But then, just as all hope seems to be lost, a new light is risen in the chaos.

A Ghost by the name of Jackie enters the USJ, and revives Jiro, turning her into the second Lightbearer to see the world, once more with no memory of the life she once led beforehand...

But when she see the chaos around her, she knows immediately what to do, and gets to work.

Picking up a discarded Projection Rifle from a dead Centurion, Jiro the Hunter summons her new Super, Blade Barrage, and takes down several of the Cabal before moving to challenge the Nomu. Ca'lall, realising that the odds have now turned against him, retreats himself and the rest of his forces via transmat, and Shigaraki and Kurogiri are forced to retreat as well, but not before sending the Nomu after Jiro and telling it to kill her.

It is a long and drawn-out fight, but eventually, after many deaths and revives, Jiro is able to bring down the Nomu and kill it, finishing the fight and defeating the villains, leaving only the corpses of fallen Cabal and a dead Nomu in her wake.

In the aftermath of the battle, U.A. is placed into lockdown and the corpses of the Nomu and Cabal are dragged away by the authorities. Meanwhile, Jiro is questioned by the police but is left confused by their questions, as she doesn't remember anything before being risen by Jackie, not even how she died. The only reason she knows that her name is Kyoka Jiro is because they were telling her it was.

Later, Deku approaches Jiro and tries to apologise for letting her die, but Jiro waves it off. She doesn't remember it happening, so no harm no foul.

The other members of their class do not feel the same way.

However, there is little time for them to dawdle, as Musutafu is placed under lockdown. In the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt at the USJ, Ca'lall has shifted his tactics and decided to lay siege to the city. Soon enough, his forces begin their invasion of the city, throwing a Cabal Carrier up into the air and launching their assault from the flying platform, sending multiple drop pods and Threshers down to shuttle their troops down to the surface and lock down the city.

However, not all of Ra'tixx's Scorn were killed by Deku, and now they are coming out of the woodworks to begin their own takeover of the city as well. Now Musutafu has been locked in a turf war between the Cabal and the Scorn, and has to be entirely evacuated before the heroes can begin their own operations on them.

Essentually, Musutafu has been turned into a patrol zone.

U.A. is turned into a fortress for the evacuees, and in the middle of the chaos, Deku and Jiro are called up by Nezu to the main office, where he introduces them to two people that may know how to train them to wield the Light.

Empress Caiatl, Princess-Imperial of the Imperial Cabal, Mithrax, Kell of the House of Light, and Queen Mara of the Awoken.

They transmat out of U.A. and are taken to Neptune, to the alien city of Neomuna, and begin their training with the Corsairs and the Cloudstriders.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the students of U.A. and their families remain locked in the bowels of the school, and Hatsume, feeling guilty for what happened during the USJ and for not being able to properly help Deku with her gear, becomes more and more absorbed in her research into the Vex and the Black Garden, spending day and night looking into them as a way to distract herself from the crushing guilt...

Until one night, she wakes up to be greeted by the mechanical frame of a Goblin, covered in moss and overgrowth.

It is a Vex of the Sol Divisive, and it invites her into the Black Garden.

Elsewhere, many students of 1-A, traumatised by what they have seen at the USJ and embittered at Jiro's death at the indirect hands of Deku, begin to suffer from whispers and visions of pyramids, one on the moon, and one on the icy world of Europa...

And Bakugo, resentful of Deku's accomplishments and how he had got into U.A., as well as traumatised by the events of the USJ himself, would be approached by a trio of figures in chitinous armour, promising him the powers necessary to make him a hero if he would stand with them. He would reject them violently, but the words of the emissaries from the Lucent Hive would continue to linger in his mind.

With Deku and Jiro, the Titan and Hunter duo begin to hone their skills with the Light on practice foes and old Frames salvaged a thousand years ago. Whilst they are there, Deku is given a severe dressing-down by Caiatl, who chastises him for his arrogance, as that is what got Jiro killed in the first place. Suffice to say, Deku is humbled by the experience.

Elsewhere, Hatsume continues to be absorbed into the inner workings of the Sol Divisive, and would begin to explore the Black Garden, coming across the old ruins of the place where the Black Heart once was, before coming across the statue of the veiled woman in the depths of the garden.

In a trance, she would place her hand on the statue, and would be overcome by visions of a world all of her own, of one built of the strength of her creations and inventions, of one where Vex of the Sol Divisive bowed to her as she made herself into their new Black Heart, into their new Queen of Final Shapes...

Hatsume would return to Earth as a changed woman. In her hands she would hold a Splinter of Darkness, and she would use it to slit the throats of her parents and siblings in their sleep, destroy their bodies, and begin construction of not only a lab dedicated to the study of the Vex, the Sol Divisive, and the creation of a gateway made out of their technology, but also the study of the Darkness objects and how to replicate them, spreading them out to various other students and heroes in the school.

With these new deaths to her name, the construction of her throne world would begin.

After a while, Deku and Jiro return to Earth, alongside Nezu, friendly forces from the Imperial Cabal and Eliksni Splicers from the House of Light, and begin to run operations in a coalition with the heroes in Musutafu, taking down various opposing Cabal and Scorn operations in the city and clearing out multiple lairs and champions belonging to the two sides, demolishing their command structures before eventually moving on to the Cabal Carrier up above (in the Destiny equivalent of a Dungeon) to confront Ca'lall once more alongside a cadre of heroes, Imperial Cabal, and House of Light Splicers.

Eventually, they would succeed in their mission. Ca'lall would be felled by Deku and Jiro, his Red Legion forces ravaged by the heroes, and the remnants of his army of Cabal would surrender, forced into prisons seen over by both heroes and Imperial Cabal, whilst Eliksni Splicers and engineers would disable Ca'lall's Carrier for parts and assist in supressing and driving back the Scorn.

Musutafu would be saved, but it would herald a new age as the Imperial Cabal, House of Light, and Reef would be forced out of hiding and into the open of Earth's geopolitics and hero society in general, reopening the age of Intersolar travel once more, albeit in shaky, unstable legs.

As Musutafu begins to rebuild and the geopolitical landscape of the planet shift around them, the students of U.A. would be joined by Deku and Jiro once more, and they would begin to repeatedly be whisked away by their new Intersolar allies in training their new allies, as well as teaming up with the likes of Eido and Petra to investigate what happened a thousand years ago, as even the likes of Mara Sov does not know what happened.

One second the Traveller and the Witness were about to go head to head, and then the next... nothing. They were gone. As was every other Lightbearer across the system. All that was left were people on Earth, all with new powers to themselves.

However, back on Earth, Momo and several others in her class would begin to receive strange visions of a Pyramid on the moon, and would begin to grow obsessed with discovering what they are and what they mean.

Meanwhile, Hatsume would become a serial killer in her efforts to bring more of the Sol Divisive Vex into the world, construct her throne world, and advance the creation of her technology, eventually creating a splice between U.A.'s tech and Darkness splinters that she called the Resonant Generators. She even goes as far to drown one of her peers, Bibimi Kenranzaki, in a pool of Radiolaria to corrupt and turn her into a Vex Hydra frame known as Hḗphaistos, the Transformative Mind.

Soon enough, in an effort to boost the morale of both their students and all of hero society, U.A. would host the Sports Festival sometime after Musutafu's rebuilding, though there would be much tension in the way of jurisdiction, as both the Imperial Cabal and heroes of U.A. and the HPSC would claim the rights to security for the event, a legal battle that U.A. would win out.

However, at the Sports Festival, Deku and Jiro would come into direct conflict with not just their fellow sort-of peers in both the hero course and the other courses, but also Hatsume, who has now been thoroughly corrupted by the Darkness and the Sol Divisive, and has been handing out her Resonant Generator inventions to dozens of her peers, corrupting them in turn. Now, in the middle of the Sports Festival and during her round with Deku, Hatsume activates the generators across the stadium and summons forth her new Sol Divisive minions to attack the heroes in the arena. The fight between her and Deku is long and arduous, especially since they keep jumping between their current dimension and Hatsume's Throne World in the Ascendant Realm-

A throne world of which is microcosmical when compared to the likes of Eleusinia, the High Coven, or High War. It is more comparable to the Oversoul Throne, Toland's sliver of a Throne World, or even Hirak's Ascendant Plane. However, hers is riddled with plant overgrowth from the Black Garden and Vex constructs spliced with Darkness/Pyramid architecture and Human technology, and is riddled by puddles and pools of Radiolaria.

-But eventually Deku and Jiro are able to defeat the Sol Divisive and repel their attack, and send both Hatsume and her Vex minions, including Hḗphaistos, the Transformative Mind, into a retreat to both the Black Garden and Hatsume's Throne World. However, in the attack, many heroes and civilians have been killed, including Shinso, who was found by a Ghost by the name of Sarudahiko and revived into a Warlock with the Super of Stormtrance.

Then, U.A. and their allies receive reports of Sol Divisive attacks, not just in Japan, but across Earth, Mars, and even Neptune as well, all of them using the Ascendant Realm as a jumping off point to do so.

Now with Hatsume gone and at the head of a massive threat via the Sol Divisive, Shinso is kept behind by Nezu to begin his own training on how to handle his Light abilities, while Deku and Jiro travel to the time-displaced Mars to find answers as to how to get into the Black Garden once more, exploring the derelict Braytech facilities and battling through hordes of time-displaced Grasp of Nokris Hive, Virgo Prohibition Vex, and Red Legion/Blind Legion Cabal, only to find that the gate to the Black Garden has been destroyed a long time ago.

Then, the new Vanguard that is forming around them remember of the old gate that had been used by the Vex to get onto the Moon during the Scarlet Keep debacle, and they head to the moon, only to find that it has been dramatically changed since the last time that anyone stepped foot on it. Since the end of the age of Guardians a thousand years ago, the Leviathan exploded and left hundreds of shards of itself scattered across its desolate landscape, all the while the Scarlet Keep, fuelled by Egregore has grown in size and power according to the power of the Hive of the Hidden Swarm, and the Nightmares of the Lunar Pyramid have grown outward to spread across Lunar as well. Now the moon, from its surface to the Hellmouth and the catacombs below are infested with not just the armies of the Hidden Swarm, directionless and split between a hundred different warlords trying to claim Crota's legacy for themselves, but also the mindless, braindead armies of clones of Cabal Loyalists from the aging cloning vats from the old shards of the Leviathan, and the Nightmares that plague the dreams and lives of those who walk Lunar's surface, led by the phantoms of past regrets.

Deku fights his way through the ruins of the Lunar surface, and finds the gate below the Lunar surface, broken and defunct, but still relatively intact. At the same time, Queen Mara directs Jiro and Mithrax's Eliksni Splicers into the Ascendant Plane to attack the Sol Divisive directly, cutting off their pathways through the Ascendant Plane and into the material realm, forcing the Vex to halt their invasion of the planets in Sol and confront the Coalition directly.

Meanwhile, Deku and the House of Light would get to work on rebuilding the gate to the Black Garden, but the former would find himself hunted and haunted by deadly apparitions. The Lunar Pyramid would pluck the Nightmares of Ca'lall, Ra'tixx, and Hḗphaistos out of his mind and manifest them into the real world. Worse yet, Hatsume has become aware of their plan and, through her new connection to the Darkness and the power that it grants her, manifests herself as a Nightmare and begins to taunt Deku, diverting the Nightmares and Cabal Loyalist clones to kill him and impede their efforts to breach the Black Garden.

And worse problems would begin to arise.

Back on Earth, as the heroes and Imperial Cabal continue to bloody themselves against the Sol Divisive, U.A., with the Risen Shinso at their side, and the HPSC would finally fnd the time to dissect the Nomu's corpse, and would learn that the runes carved into its alien skin had the same resonance as the technology that Hatsume was using. Worse yet, they would learn that All for One had used the body of a Tormentor to make the Nomu.

Meanwhile, Momo and several other students of U.A., either corrupted by Hatsume's Resonant Generators or tempted by the whispers that they have been hearing in their sleep, would sneak onto and hijack two Eliksni ships leaving for the moon.

One of them would travel to Europa, to the icy moon filled with cranking Vex and age-old Braytech ruins and a rusting A.I. and the shambling remains of a Fallen House still clinging to lost dreams of vengeance through their use of Stasis. These children would be met by the Archon Aspirants of their House, but instead of killing them, these Eliksni would instead lead them to the Europan Pyramid, to the Ziggurat, and to the Cruxes of Darkness that would give them the powers of Stasis that they desired so.

Through these Humans, these children, the dreams of House of Salvation would be realised.

The other ship, the one that the likes of Momo and several other students of 1-A that had been touched by Darkness would takeover, would complete its journey to the moon, where they would in turn be met by the trio of Nightmares known as the Drowned, the Forgotten, and the Sunken, all three of them controlled by Hatsume (and through its newest Disciple, an enigmatic Voice in the Darkness), who would lead them around the ravenous hordes of the Hidden Swarm - hungry for sacrifices to their dead gods Crota and Oryx - soaking them in the fields of Egregore all the way and drowning them in their miasma, before finally bringing them to the Lunar Pyramid, and the veiled statue inside.

They would commune with the statue, and would take from it the knowledge on how to use the Darkness.

And around them, the Nightmares, Scorn, and Taken that had gathered in the depths of the Lunar Pyramid would bow to the newest avatars of Darkness in supplication.

Down on Earth, the Sol Divisive's assault on Earth would continue, and other forces in the background would begin to make plays of their own.

Stain would happen upon the stragglers of the Red Legion in Musutafu and impose his will upon them. The Cabal remnant surrenders themselves to him as he becomes an unwitting and unknowing agent of darkness, and become his newest tools in culling the undeserving from hero society.

The Shie Hassaikai would come into contact with an entire Fallen crime syndicate known as the House of Spiders, who would begin to supply them a new variant of Trigger. One mixed with their own Ether.

The leaders of the Meta Liberation Army would be approached by a strange alien figure in chitinous armour. The Acolyte of the Hive would compliment them on their philosophy of survival of the strongest, and would offer them the weapons (of Sorrow) and tools they would need to succeed, so long as they give themselves to the way of the sword. Soon enough, a dozen of the MLA's finest members would begin to eat and ingest the worms that it gives them, and begin to acquire demented power for it, along with the need to tithe blood to their new parasitic embryos.

Bakugo would continue to ponder the words of the emissaries of the Lucent Hive, and would end up working with them to investigate a series of heroes being corrupted into Wrathborn by a strange Cryptolith. As he worked with them, he would slowly become more obsessive with proving himself better than Deku and the other Lightbearers, and would listen to more of the Lucent Hive's words as he began to consider their offer.

The teachers at U.A., in the midst of the Sol Divisive's assault on Earth, would begin to encounter Cabal from the Shadow Legion, and, alongside Shinso, would unearth a desecrated Pyramid underneath Earth's surface, covered with overgrowth made from the Light and housing not just remnants of the Shadow Legion and their Tormentors, but the corpse of a God of Pain inside.

On I-Island, Melissa and the other scientists there would continue their secret study of not just Braytech equipment and technology, but also the remains of the uprooted SIVA manufacturing complex that they have kept hidden away from everyone, they would be unaware of the threat looming on their doorstep, of not just Wolfram and his goons, but also a reborn, and fully robotic Taniks and his army of Exo Fallen.

All the while, as the children of Light and Darkness begin to pick their sides and wage their war against each other, the League of Villains begin to lick their wounds and seek to find an advantage in the chaos, and All for One would introduce their newest member to them.

Fikrul, the Fanatic, Archon Priest and Baron of the Scorn.

And as he gathers his forces, All for One would order more Nomu grown from the corpses of the Tormentors he has gathered, and summon forth not only the Taken, but his corrupted army of Ghosts to his side, twisted plans forming within his Darkness-fused mind.

And as the new Children and Disciples of Darkness returned to Earth, armed with new powers of Stasis and Nightmares, and as many more across the world are either risen as Lightbearers or tempted by Darkness, Deku, Jiro, and Shinso must rise as Titan, Hunter, and Warlock respectively, and become the new Vanguard for a new generation of Guardians.

And as a dozen new threats - Hatsume and the Sol Divisive, Momo and the Nightmares and Cabal Loyalist clones, the Hidden Swarm, the stasis-infused 1-A and House Salvation, Taniks and his Exo Fallen, Stain and the Red Legion, the MLA and the Hive, the Wrathborn heroes, Bakugo and the Lucent Hive, the Shie Hassaikai and the House of Spider, the Shadow Legion and the Tormentors, and the League of Villains and their Scorn, Taken, and corrupted Ghosts - step out to face this brave new world, all of them aligned to the cause of Darkness, whether willingly or not, our heroes and Guardians must ask themselves a simple question:

What happened to the Traveller, to the Witness, and to all the other Lightbearers that came before them?

Eyes up, Guardian.

A new legend is rising.

Chapter 17: The Clone Conspiracy

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya has been having dreams.

Dreams about seeing through glass and test tubes. Dreams about being torn from one into many. Dreams of being in some place where he is not and should not be.

In his confusion, he goes to All Might to ask of them, only to learn that he too has been having the same dreams as well. Whatever it is, it might be something relating to One for All.

But in the meantime, Class 1-A attend a hero expo known as Heroes International, and bare witness to the public unveiling of a new hero based corporation known as Tantiss Industries, a company that specialises in the pursuit of science and biological interests in environmentalism and the furthering of the quality of Human life.

However, in the background, somehow, no one notices the wounded, deformed figure running out into the middle of the open, bleeding and screaming before they are shot in the head by a pair of bulky men in white and grey armour (see the Imperial Royal Guard from The Bad Batch) and drop to the ground, dragged away in the middle of the open and leaving a stain of blood on the floor that somehow no one seems to notice or even care about.

Back in U.A., Izuku continues to have haunting dreams of a place that is not his own, as he is pulled open and torn apart. Unable to sleep, he decides to go on a walk to collect his thoughts, but is unable to notice the figure walking across the grounds next to him, fiddling with the device connected to the necklace around their neck.

A few days later, Izuku is plagued by insomnia, unable to sleep because of the vivid dreams that he has been suffering from, is barely able to concentrate as a pair of heroes, two recently debuted twin sisters known as Hansel and Gretel (think Devola and Popola from NieR), whom themselves had connections to Tantiss Industries, came in to give a lecture to both Classes 1-A and B about the idea of passing down quirks and the science behind it, and is forced to go to the infirmary because of his inability to sleep.

However, in his daze, he spots a figure wandering the grounds, but is unable to point them out before he drifts once more into a fitful sleep.

Meanwhile, across the school grounds, the rest of Class 1-A converse about the lecture that they had, completely oblivious to the men in white and grey armour marching the grounds on a manhunt, and even less so as they dragged a screaming, mutilated body out of the ground and into a van awaiting them.

That night, as Izuku tried to sleep in their dorms once more, he would once more be plagued by dreams, this time by a vision of his old home. Rocketing up in his sleep, Izuku leaves the dorms in the dead of night and races back to Inko's apartment, finding nothing out of place, apart for one single thing.

A figure in the darkness. One dressed in an hero costume similar, almost identical, to his, and with a blinking device connected to a necklace hung around their neck.

The figure tries to approach him, but Izuku throws them back. Suddenly, a spark between them as they touch, and One for All reacts.

The figure, his pretender, has One for All

Before the two of them could react at all, Inko walked out of her room, tired and asking what was going on, somehow completely oblivious to the two men in bulky silver and grey armour bursting through the door and aiming their equally bulky rifles at the two of them.

Izuku threw the confused and somehow oblivious Inko to the ground as the armoured men opened fire, only for the figure to pick up the sofa, green electricity running over them, and then threw it at the two, knocking them both to the ground. As another pair of armoured commandos broke through the window and began to spray rounds at them, the figure grabbed Izuku and kicked back the two men, before fleeing with him through the broken window and out into the open, only to be shot at by more commandos, the people on the street somehow unaware of the rapid gunfire.

Izuku and the figure fled out of sight, and Izuku demanded to go back and save his mother. The figure told him that the armoured men wouldn't hurt her, but he wasn't listening to them. He darted away back to his home, only to find that somehow, everything was normal. The armoured men were gone, the apartment was completely intact, and Inko was leaning out of the window, sighing, and then closing it behind her to go back to bed.

Izuku would fail to find the figure again, and in his confusion, he would simply go back to the dorms and back to bed, too tired to think of anything. The next day, Aizawa and Nezu would ask him as to why he had disappeared the previous night, and he would tell them of the incident last night, only for them to look at him in confusion. There was no report of a villain attack in the area where his mother lives last night, and the CCTV cameras show no activity from heroes and villains of any kind as well.

Left in confusion and unsure of what to think, Izuku is left to go about his day, only now under suspicion of his teachers as he is rendered even more tired than before, running behind because of his continued insomnia, yet catching bare glimpses of the white and grey commandos scattered around the school grounds. Believing his mind to be cracking under his insomnia, U.A.'s staff send him to Hound Dog for counselling, and they begin to unintentionally gaslight him into thinking that nothing is wrong, and that it is all in his head.

But then, as the slight sightings continue to build up, and the dreams that he is suffering from start to become more lucid and clear, Izuku begins to grow more and more weary of the world around him, catching slight glimpses of the hidden figures around him and coming to the conclusion that they are nothing more than walking hallucinations.

But then, as his sleep worsens, it is decided to send him off to a hospital, where the heroes Hansel and Gretel can look over him themselves.

However, on their way to the hospital, Hansel and Gretel redirect the vehicle that they are in to another, more secretive facility, one controlled by Tantiss Industries. Stranger still, the two sisters refer to Izuku as their brother...

But in the midst of this, the ambulance is breached by the figure that was dressed in Izuku's costume, and rescues Izuku from them. Now properly awake through the strangle link that he has with this mysterious pretender who somehow has One for All alongside him, Izuku demands to know what is going on and who this person was.

And they reveal their face, and Izuku comes face to face with himself.

Or rather,herself.

It's a clone. A clone of Izuku Midoriya. A female clone, at that.

A clone created by Tantiss Industries.

As the female version of Izuku - who calls herself Izumi - explains, Tantiss Industries is the public face of a secretive cabal of scientists that have long had a fascination with the idea of biotechnology and cloning. For decades, they have been dabbling with clones and the technology behind it, and have only just decided to use Tantiss as a pubic face for their operations.

Izuku asks why she exists, and Izumi reveals that, as far as she knew, she had been born from a sample of DNA taken from Izuku himself, as had many others that had created in the labs as well, some of whom had recently escaped from one of Tantiss' secret facilities in a mass riot.

Why are they cloning him? Izumi does not know, but she reckons that it has something to do with One for All.

Then, they are found by a pair of heroes. Hansel and Gretel, who Izumi recognise from the Tantiss facility, as they themselves are clones of Izuku Midoriya as well. The two of them call the female clone of Izuku as their sister, and tell her that she must be returned to their father and grandfather back in Tantiss. Izuku tries to call for help from the top of the building that they are on, but no one can hear them. No one even seems to look up at them to figure out what the noise is.

It is then that Izuku notices the devices around Hansel and Gretel's necks.

The two pairs battle, and Izuku realises that both Hansel and Gretel have access to One for All as well. Then, more heroes on the payroll of Tantiss Industries, as well as more of the silver and grey commandos from before, arrive to join the fray, and Izuku and Izumi flee from them and are forced to go on the run, Izumi taking Izuku to a hideout of hers in the deepest crevice of the city, where they meet another pair of escaped clones by the names of Yamikumo and Akatani Mikumo.

Back in U.A., Class 1-A begins to feel the absence of Izuku, but in his lack of presence, they begin to take notice of strange happenings around them. Objects moved out of place in their dorms, random sightings and sounds of unknown figures, and the slight sightings of a figure that looked like a disfigured Izuku even though he should not be there.

However, someone else is there as well, keeping an eye on things. Yui Kodai from Class B watches over the students of the hero course for her masters in Tantiss.

Yui Kodai is a clone, one made from the spliced DNA of both Ochako Uraraka and Mount Lady, and with the mixed quirk from both as well.

And she and the rest of the Tantiss commandos in U.A. comes into conflict with the disfigured Izuku Midoriya clone who prowls the school grounds with a misdirection device in his possession, the two of them referring to each other as cousins.

Meanwhile, Izuku, Izumi, Yamikumo, and Akatani stay in their shelter as far away from the eyes of Tantiss and their hero and commando PMCs, and discuss what they have to do next. Izuku is told of where the three clone came from, being a mountain far away from any of the major cities in one of the rural parts of Japan, known to them only as Mount Tantiss, but is told that Tantiss Industries has the mountain and its surrounding regions on lockdown, and will detain and kill anyone who gets too close to them.

What they need, first of all, is what the clones call misdirection devices, advanced pieces of technology that Tantiss' agents have been using to get around the city without being detected.

So, they decide to get one. Using one of the clones as bait, they are able to lure out one of Tantiss' commandos into trying to apprehend them, only for them all to rush and dogpile him, knocking him out and dragging him away, all out in the open thanks to the misdirection device that the commando is using.

In the depths of their hideout, Izuku and the clones find that they are unable to remove the armour around the commando without a blowtorch and welder, of which they do not have, and instead turn to the device that he was using to move around. They discover that the device is simply a small box with a slice of skin in it, as well as a vial of trigger in it and a small mechanism that has been keeping the cells in the sliver of skin alive. They realise that Tantiss has stolen away someone with a quirk that allows themselves to go unnoticed by everyone, and had taken him apart in order to harvest their quirk for their use.

Using their newly acquired misdirection device, Izuku and the clones decide to make their way back to Mount Tantiss themselves, and attempt a raid on a Tantiss Industries transport, only to be forced to retreat when the transport self-destructs, burning all evidence inside it. Realising that they will need more than just themselves to break into Mount Tantiss and figure out what is going on, and coming to the conclusion that since the breakout, Tantiss Industries would've ramped up their security as well, Izuku and the clones decide to return to U.A. to try and get as much help as they possibly could from the staff and students there, including All Might himself.

However, back in U.A., the disfigured Izuku, who has now begun to call himself Mastermind, begins to form plans of his own, intending on drawing out Tantiss' agents into a confrontation of his own, and begins to goad Yui and her men into a long running feud.

On their way to U.A., Izuku and his group of brothers and sister clones come across more aberrant copies of himself, sheltering away in a sewage system running under Musutafu, trying to hide from Tantiss' forces. There, they learn bits and pieces from these clones, such as the fact that they have been suffering from the same deluge of dreams as Izuku himself, and that they have been contacted by Mastermind through a sympathetic source, though who that is remains a mystery.

However, Izuku and his group come to blows with these clones, as they reveal that Mastermind wished to use them to lure Tantiss Industries' men into a confrontation and expose them to the world. Realising the damage that this could do, and the lives that could be caught up in the fighting, as well as the fact that Mastermind has no idea what he's up against and that Tantiss will kill him and all the other clones just to keep what they're doing a secret, Izuku and his group try to talk their fellow clones out of partaking in this madness, but they aren't having it. They are angry at being experimented on, and they want justice for what has been doing to them.

The two groups come to blows, and the aberrant clones are able to overwhelm Izuku and his group with sheer weight of numbers. They leave them bound and gagged as they make their way to U.A. under darkness, rendezvousing with Mastermind and his agent inside of U.A..

Mina Ashido, a clone who had been unaware of who she was before Mastermind had helped to unlock the memories that Tantiss Industries had tried to wipe from her mind, and overriding her original programming.

Now, the clone of Mina and Mastermind had kidnapped Kaminari and Jiro, and were now planning on combining their quirks together to create an EMP that could disable the misdirection devices that Tantiss' agents used, exposing them to the world, uncaring to the lives that would be caught in the middle of the fighting, or silenced for witnessing too much.

Soon enough, Yui and her fellow Tantiss agents and commandos would storm the derelict city-shaped training grounds of U.A., misdirection devices in hand, and chase down the renegade clones and their hostages. Once they were in the city, the two sides would clash, Izuku's One for All-charged clones going toe-to-toe with Yui and her commandos, all the while Ashido and Mastermind would bind Kaminari and Jiro together to a spliced-together device and antenna, feed them enough trigger to permanently mutate their quirks, and then, they activated their makeshift EMP.

It did nothing.

Now, Yui and her commandos would continue to duel with the Izuku clones, unimpeded by the attempted destruction of their misdirection devices as the two sides continued to wage a bloody war with each other, only made messier by the arrival of Izuku himself and his group of clones, with now three groups fighting against each other in a messy duel of One for All and copied quirks that went unnoticed by anyone.

Except for one person.

All Might, who, thanks to the dreams that he'd been having alongside Izuku thanks to One for All, was now seeing through the misdirection devices that Tantiss' agents were using, and was sent on his way by Nezu, who already had his suspicions about what was going on.

All Might would join the battle, and Izuku and his group would side with him in disarming and incapacitating both sides of the conflict, freeing Jiro and Kaminari from their restraints (though they would be forced to knock the two students unconscious thanks to the trigger running through them turning them rabid and feral), knocking out Mina, Mastermind, and the rogue clones, and overwhelming Yui and her commandos, ending the fight in the city.

However, Yui and the commandos would bite down on fake tooths inside their mouths, and whilst they would be able to stop Yui from biting down on her cyanide pill and killing herself, the same could not be said for the commandos, and they would all fall dead on the ground.

Back in U.A., Izuku and his group of clones would meet with Nezu and All Might in secret, and they would tell them of everything that they knew. Meanwhile, in another secretive part of the school, Power Loader and Mei Hatsume would apply the much-needed blowtorch and welder to the armour of one of Tantiss' commandos, prying the metal apart and seeing the dead man that hid underneath.

A clone of All Might himself.

Meanwhile, All Might and Nezu would begin their interrogation of the rogue clones, and while Yui would be uncooperative (even attempting to bite her tongue at one point in another attempt to deny them information), Ashido and Mastermind would be much more willing to speak, filling in the gaps in Izuku and his clones' knowledge on what is going on and what Tantiss seeks to accomplish:

Tantiss Industries and the cabal of scientists that rule it do not want to make an army of Izukus. That had just been a test, an experiment in figuring out how to copy and dissect One of All on top of their previous quirk experiments and cloning efforts, and had created several other clones, such as Mina and Yui, and many more in key positions across Japan to ensure a smooth transition of power when the time comes for it.

The real plan that Tantiss Industries wishes to enact is to create a clone army of All Might.

In Mount Tantiss, the head of the cabal's vast cloning operations, one Doctor Kurōn, guarded by the clones sisters Hansel and Gretel, is displeased by the fact that U.A. has captured several of his clones, both renegade and under his command, but is not concerned by this fact as he continues their operations. All he had to do was be patient, and wait, and soon enough, his army of All Might clones would be complete, and they would supersede the aging Number One hero when he eventually retired and bring true peace to hero society.

At least, that's what he said to the slumbering, dissected body of Izuku Midoriya, still alive and pulled open like a peeled fruit.

The Izuku Midoriya in U.A. is a clone, and has been for a very long time. It is through their shared connection in One for All that he has been sending the other Izuku his dreams and seeing through his eyes.

And now, he has seen the life that the other Izuku has lived in his place...

And he is angry.

Chapter 18: The Grand Army of U.A.

Chapter Text

When he is four years old, Izuku begins to hear voices in his head.

When he is ten years old, Izuku meets his brother, who happens to also be his quirk.

His name is Jango Midoriya, a stoic, surly individual without much humour to him beyond dry sarcasm and blunt honesty, and he is but one of many clones living in Izuku's head. An army of clones in fact.

Soon enough, years later down the line, the events of canon would play out and Izuku would be taken as an apprentice by All Might, only now he had Jango and the clone in his head at his side.

The entrance exam comes and goes (with Izuku and Jango wielding blaster pistols that had been developed with Izuku's quirk, Izuku a pair of DC-15s commando pistols, and Jango a pair of WESTAR-34 pistols), and Izuku is allowed into U.A., Jango accompanying him as he is part of his quirk. As the days go by, events play out similar to canon, and Izuku ends up spawning two more clones from his quirk, one being the dutiful, straightforward, and bombastically quiet ARC-77, and the other being the ruthless, detached, and cunning ARC-17, the latter of whom makes it a point to routinely criticise hero society as a whole, and regularly points out the simply way to end a fight, A.K.A. kill the opposition, which freaks out not just Izuku and Fordo (Jango is more blithe to it), but also the rest of his classmates in 1-A as well.

During this time, we learn that, strangely in the last ten years, technology in the MHA universe has seen a dramatic leap in advancement, exceeding the dreams of even those in I-Island. Alongside floating ocean defence platforms known as Golans, with three variants that get progressively more advanced with each iteration and all of which can surprisingly float in the air if they could, there is also a growing market in droids, with new machines such as Astromechs and Protocol Droids increasing in commodity alongside security droids such as the GU-series Guardian Police Droids, and worker droids such as the CLL-M2 binary loadlifter.

Not only that, but in the last ten years, there was a sudden breakthrough in theoretical repulsorlift technology, and now new atmospheric ships are being utilised across the world in various different models, such as the T-6 shuttle for executive organisations such U.A. and the HPSC, haulers such as the G9 Rigger and the Baleen-class for freight shipping, Star Commuter 2000s and Shuttle Ferries for bus services, Lancer-class pursuit craft as private craft for heroes during their work, Mobile Tac-Pods for private organisations such as I-Island, military-grade starships such as the Z-95 Headhunters and Cutlass-9 patrol fighters for what little armed forces remained in the age of heroes and villains, and LAAT/ie patrol gunships for police and SWAT forces.

Soon, the day of the USJ would arrive, and as the students and three clones arrive at the building and be confronted by the League of Villains.

But this time, there was something different about the forces that they came with.

The LoV were armed with an army of Battle Droids.

As with in canon, the students would be scattered across the USJ, and the villains and their horde of B1s would hunt them down and trap them in miniature sieges and confrontations, the students making regular usage of the B1s weak frames and general stupidity (because you can't have B1s without them being hapless idiots), only to be cut short by the seemingly endless numbers of the droids and the adaptiveness of the organic villains embedded in their ranks, whom act as melee support like the Bedlam Raider melee units for the droids.

Soon enough, the students are outnumbered and without support as their individual groups are surrounded and forced to surrender to the droids, with the last holdout of students being Izuku and his clones, Jango, ARC-11, and ARC-17, and other students being Ochako, Shoji, Ashido. However, in a surprise attack from both the droids and the Nomu, Izuku and Jango are cut off from the rest of the group, Fordo drags the other three students away, and Alpha slinks off on his own to fight the LoV.

As ARC-77 and the students track down the captured students and teachers, and as ARC-17 begins wiping out entire droid squads on his own, Izuku and Jango are confronted by the Nomu on their own, and Jango sends Izuku away for his own safety.

Jango and the Nomu do battle, but it is easy to tell that he is out of his element. Worse yet, the droids catch up to them, and no matter how many he took down, many more would take their place.

Then, he ran out of rockets. His gadgets were busted, his pistols had run so hot that they'd overheated, and all his strength had left his body.

And in the end, it wasn't the Nomu that killed him. It was a simple B1, who ripped his helmet off, tossed it aside, and shot him in the head. A humiliating, undignified execution.

And Izuku feels his death through his quirk, and goes into a rage.

One for All merges with his quirk, and the Grand Army marches.

Meanwhile, the captured students are brought together into a group, and are horrified by the sight of Jango's corpse being dragged into view by the Nomu for all of them to see. Deciding that it would cause All Might more pain if more than just a clone died on his watch, Shigaraki orders five students to be executed, and Yuga, Mineta, Hagakure, Momo, and Kirishima find themselves lined up on the wall. The B1s arm their weapons and ready to fire...

Only to be cut down by a hail of blue light, as a swarm of clone troopers, decked out in white armour and wielding DC-15s and DC-15As on top of PLEX rocket launchers and Z-6 rotary cannons, emerge from bright green portals to do battle with them.

The clones and droids go to war with each other, whilst ARC-77 and the students with him, armed with DC-17 pistols and a few E-5s that they'd scavenged from the downed droids, launch a rescue operation and free their fellow students alongside ten other clone troopers, all the while ARC-17 makes himself known by killing several villains with his WESTAR-M5 blaster rifle and vibroblades. Even the regular clones begin summarily executing any villains who refuse to surrender.

And all the while, Izuku is continuously spawning more clones to destroy the villains and replace the ones that have been killed by both the Nomu and the droids.

Realising that the battle is turning into a scrim of chaos and that more clones will needlessly die because of it, one CC-2224 begins to coordinate with ARC-17 and ARC-77, as well as with one CC-7567, to organise the clones and coordinate with them to retake the USJ. They finally begin to make progress as well, and are quickly making short work of the droids opposing them.

But at the Nomu's death to the clones and All Might's arrival, Shigaraki and Kurogiri beat a retreat, but not before the latter summons more droids, and Shigaraki orders them to fight to the end and take as many of the clones down with them as they could.

Even with All Might's intervention and the U.A. teachers' arrival, the following Battle of the USJ was long and hard, and ended after a grueling siege on the droids' makeshift fortifications by the heroes and clones, wiping them all out. In the aftermath, all of the students were injured, as were all of the heroes, many clones had died, from dozens to possibly even hundreds, Jango is dead, and now Izuku is in a coma.

In his sleep, Izuku's consciousness is awakened within a strange facility, and is confronted by a stranger that both does and does not have hid face, who simply tells him that this is all part of the plan.

And when he wakes up, he finds himself in a changed world.

In the aftermath of the Battle of the USJ, the students of 1-A are traumatized by what they had gone through, the clones are wounded and reorganising themselves, and all are left mourning for the lives that were lost during the battle. Some of the students, like Ochako and Yuga, would resolve themselves to get stronger and be able to fight alongside the clones once more. Some, like Mineta and Kaminari, would take the moment to reflect on themselves and realise what they were doing before would not be acceptable or positive in the face of death. Others, like Bakugo and Todoroki, would double down on their previous behaviour and thoughts and push it all into their training. Most though, would be just taking the time to mourn the fallen and honour their sacrifice, and Izuku would resolve to grow strong and make sure that what had happened to his friends and brothers could never happen again.

Meanwhile, U.A. is forced to adjust to the existence of an army of clones now suddenly living on their front porch. Nezu would be forced to accommodate for them by tearing down an entire section of the mock city that they used to train their students and remake it into habitable living quarters for them, allowing the clones to make their own base there, alongside barracks, armouries, vehicle workshops and warehouses, and even a small landing pad for possible aircraft as they begin to build their force in the wake of the USJ and the LoV, making themselves an air force out of donated Police Gunships, scavenged Z-95s, and retrofitted Gozanti-class cruisers, as well as a ground force made of Panther police interceptors and Gaba-18 airspeeders. Meanwhile, the clones themselves would split into three primary forces, with several divisions headed by different commanders in between the main groups. First, there was the U.A. guard, who's primary mission was to protect U.A. and its staff, students, and campus, commanded by the hardass CC-1010, the perceptive CC-5869, the selfless CC-4477, and a bruiser of a clone who simply called himself Thorn. Second, there was the unit under CC-7567's command, made up of the five-hundred and one surviving clone trooper regulars of the USJ (the Dominos, Jesse's trio, Denal, and so on), who specialised in specific missions and jobs against the LoV. Finally, there was CC-2224's unit, known as the 212th, who provided overall support for all continuing operations against the droids and villains.

In the wake of the USJ, Nezu decides to employ this new army of clones as a private security force for U.A., and begins sending them out alongside the teachers of U.A. to track down possible leads on the LoV and secure the students of 1-A from anymore droid attacks, sending them across the country and creating several pitched skirmishes between U.A.'s forces and gangs of villains and outposts of droids.

However, many professional heroes would begin to take umbrage with the clones, seeing them as possible replacements to their work and growing weary of them, and several hero agencies refuse to work with them out of worry and discrimination. Meanwhile, members of the HPSC and Japanese Diet refuse to allow the clones into certain positions of security, and when the Sports Festival begins, Nezu decides not to assign the clones as security for the event, both to appease the heroes that dislike the clones - both as a people and an institution - and also because he feels uncomfortable sending people that young into battle once more, and wants to give them a chance to rest and properly mourn their dead.

In the meanwhile, the students train for the Sports Festival, and begin to form friendships, some understandable and others strange, with the clones currently stationed at U.A., and even assisting in helping them find names. Ochako forms a friendship with CC-7567, Captain Rex, and the rest of the 501st, and begins to take up flight training with the clones in the burgeoning pilot corps, and given her own custom Delta-7B Aethersprite light interceptor for her troubles. Reiko grows close to one clone designated as CC-1004, nicknamed Gree due to the slight green colouration of his armour and his fascination with other cultures and races. Iida would form a partnership with one clone commander known as Howzer, but would be constantly irritated by the clone's willingness to bend and flaunt the rules. Mineta and Kaminari would fall under the tutelage of one clone officer known as Mayday, a survivor of the USJ who's armour was torn to pieces and barely being held together by cloth and scraps, and he would begin to teach the two how to properly act and behave around the people that they would soon be fighting alongside. Ashido would become friends with Waxer and Boil, and place herself in CC-2224's - Cody's - care. Yui would grow fond of the equally quiet ARC-77, Fordo, and his ten men, who would name themselves the Muunilinst Ten after their heroics alongside Snipe in Muunilinst City. Todoroki would find a confidant in 99, who was born as a cripple after a malfunction in the quirk's cloning processes and had no power to call his own. Ibara would find a strange friend in ARC-17, Alpha, as the two of them would soon balance each other out and inspire each other, Ibara teaching Alpha the art of temperament and kindness to others, and Alpha teaching Ibara when the time to fight was right and when one needed to throw away preconceived notions in order to get the job done.

However, all was not well with the new partnership between U.A. and the clones. Ibara had started out as a conscientious objector to the clones, and that hadn't gone away, as had the many other people who were protesting against the clones, whether it be because they are the products of a quirk or because they are an armed force with guns and explosives on a school ground. Worse yet, many like Monoma and Shinso have begun antagonising the clones, many like Bakugo are openly dismissive of them, insulting them at any chance, and many of the clones, such as CC-1010, now known as Fox, and others like Faie, are as equally dismissive of the students and heroes, viewing them as unprofessional mercenaries dressed as celebrities.

When the Sports Festival came to pass, many of the students that had taken up training under the clones managed to exceed all the others, gaining top places in the scoreboards and earning both the respect of those who acknowledge the clones and the ire of those who don't.

However, Izuku and the few clones that he was able to bring with him to the Sports Festival take notice of SD-K4 Assassin Droids in the holds and the backrooms, and are only just able to defeat them and stop them from killing anyone before learning that someone linked to the LoV had been able to sneak them in under the nose of the heroes. The Sports Festival comes to pass without any interruptions, but in private, the breach in security calls the competency of the heroes into question.

Following the Sports Festival, Izuku and the students are sent off onto their internships, though this time Nezu decides to send off some of the clones with them as guards to prevent another possible Sports Festival or USJ incident. Izuku is sent off with Rex to Gran Torino, Ochako is deployed to Mirko's agency alongside Jesse, Hardcase, and Kix, Yui heads off with Fordo and the Muunilinst Ten head out with Snipe once more, Mineta and Kaminari head off with Mayday, Hexx, and Veech to the Lurkers, Bakugo is sent off to Best Jeanist with CC-1138, known as the ruthless and perfectionist Bacara, and so on, so forth.

Iida, meanwhile, takes his apprenticeship with Manual in Hosu, searching for Stain, the man who crippled his brother, with Howzer trailing behind him, trying to keep him from getting hurt.

However, it doesn't work, and Howzer and Iida face off against Stain as he stands over Manual and Native.

Only now, something is different about the confrontation.

For you see, during Shigaraki's attempted recruitment of Stain into the League of Villains, a shrouded figure, her identity obscured, was able to appeal to Stain's desires to see the corrupt of hero society purged, and succeeded in at least convincing Stain to trial run a possible alliance between him and the LoV.

As such, when Iida and Howzer confront Stain, they find that the two heroes are already dead, and that Stain is accompanied by a trio of lanky Commando Droids, armed with E-5s and vibroblades.

And that's when an army of droids and villains suddenly appear out of nowhere, and invade Hosu.

From the rooftops above, Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and the mysterious woman with them, who simply calls herself T'ad, watch the carnage from above, and it is revealed that T'ad is the one who summoned the droids, though how that is isn't revealed. It is also revealed that she was the one who rounded up all the villains for the USJ as well, and had recruited more villains as mercenaries for their forces, mainly the lizard hunters from Trandosha Island, and the insect inventors from the Isles of Geonosis and their squadron of Nantex-class fighters, to supplement their forces. When Shigaraki asks why she is so eager to help them in causing so much destruction, T'ad does not answer.

The Battle of Hosu is violent and bloody, and at the start it is hilariously one-sided in favour of the League of Villains and their armies, despite how many heroes they throw at them. It is only when the 501st and 212th from U.A. arrive that the battle turns back into their favour, as they are accompanied by new toys alongside their original air force.

You see, because the clones' original air force was made out of old Z-95s, police gunships, and Gozantis from other organisations, that meant that the clones were beholden to those same organisations and kept in control by them. Izuku didn't like that, and began to use his quirk to design a new fleet of ships for his clones to use.

So, when Ochako comes to Hosu in her Delta-7B, she is accompanied not just by the clones' Z-95s, but a flight of LAAT infantry gunships as well, which make quick work of the squadron of Nantex fighters and dropping off new ground vehicles in the BARC Speeder and the AT-RT, and entire squads of clone troopers.

Soon enough, the clones and heroes quickly made work of the droids and villains, and drive off the lizard and insect mercenaries back to their islands, and Stain and his personal guard of droids are defeated by Iida, Howzer, and the newly arrived Izuku, Todoroki, and Yui and the Muunilinst Ten. Shigaraki and his cadre of villains escape, but not before they pick up Stain from being carted away by the Muunilinst Ten, and induct him properly into the League of Villains.

In the aftermath of Hosu, the clones are celebrated as the saviours of the city instead of the heroes, and the HPSC and Japanese Diet are forced to grant them more positions of power in terms of policing and military duties and expanding their connections beyond just U.A. as they move to hunt down the League of Villains. Japan declares war against the League of Villains, and the 501st and 212th, attack both Trandosha Island and the Isles of Geonosis, wiping out the droids and villains stationed there and putting all of them under martial law. Meanwhile, several smaller battalions, such as the 104th, 13th, 187th, 41st, and 442nd begin tracking down and destroying droid bases and staging ground across Japan and its islands, and move to attack other staging ground along the coasts of neighbouring countries, only to be impeded by those same countries due to not wanting a foreign military force on their soil when their own heroes can take care of the problem.

Meanwhile, the students at U.A. become more and more radicalised and indoctrinated into the militaristic aspects of the clone army, so much so that it begins to seep into how they act and react to the scenarios presented to them in their final exams, and their teachers are disturbed by how their students are acting less like heroes and more like soldiers.

The final exams come and go, and Izuku, All Might, and his friends head off to I-Island for a break, only for T'ad and her army of droids, alongside Wolfram's crew, to arrive in the artificial nation and completely ransack it, stealing all of its technology and holding its people for ransom. It is here where we are introduced to new droid units such as the Destroyer Droid ground units, and the Vulture Droid fighters and Hyena Bombers for the LoV's air units.

Here, Izuku meets T'ad for the first time, and is confused to know that, for some reason, T'ad seems to know him. She knows him very well.

Ochako and the clone's air force arrive to I-Island, backed now by experimental BTL Y-Wings and V19 Torrent fighters, as well as new Nu and Rho-class attack shuttles, and the AT-TE and TX-130 ground transports, and they are able to drive back the droids in the air and drop off the 501st on the ground. T'ad is able to escape with the salvaged technology, and the clones are able to secure I-Island, but they are forced to tow the island to Japanese shores and keep it there, turning it into a permanent outpost and RD department for them.

After the Battle of I-Island, the LoV would be approached by numerous organisations, such as the MLA and Humarise, all seeking protection from U.A. and the clone army, eventually forming into the Confederacy of Villains.

Meanwhile, Izuku is met by a representative of the HPSC by the name of Emilia Karn, not the highest ranking member of the HPSC, but one with significant enough power to go about her own way and use her own assets as well, and she comes to U.A. with a proposal to him:

She wants to merge the Japanese Self-Defence Force and the clone army into one Grand Army of Japan.

Izuku, at first, refuses, but Emilia is quick to point out how the game is changing, and how the League of Villains are unlike any opponent that the heroes have ever faced before. They're a force that can now rival and overpower All Might himself. The clones are the only force that might be able to stop them, and right now they are a private force beholden to no one but themselves, Izuku, and maybe even the rodent, but that's a big maybe. That's more than enough reason for people to worry. Without proper oversight, even with their heroics and feats, people are still going to worry, especially during the recent debacle with the clones asking to enter foreign countries to chase down the League and their droids.

Emilia is right, and Izuku knows it, and she knows that he knows it.

Emilia does not press Izuku for an answer - it's a big question, after all - but she does show him something of significance. She leaves him with the offer of the merger and the concept of the TK Trooper, shows him her own personal guard of Elite Squad Troopers, decked out in black, customised clone trooper armour and gear, and then forwarded him to a group of mercenary trainers and warriors known as the Protectors on an old coastal town known as Mandalore.

Izuku chases up the lead, and with Nezu's permission, he brings in the Protectors to begin training the clones and students, forming new Arc Trooper and Clone Commando units, and commingling them together to form the Special Operations Brigade, conscripting several of the students into their ranks as well. The teachers would try to impose limits on the Protectors' interactions with the students, but the latter would always circumvent their decision and adapt themselves to the warrior culture that the Protectors proliferated.

At the same time, Emilia would quietly gain the trust of a pair of clone troopers designated as CT-6200/8901, nicknamed Moz, and CT-0368/7766, nicknamed Olun, and conscripted them into a secretive, personal unit known as the Covert Ops, who specialised not in doing her dirty work like her Elite Squad Troopers, but in silencing any rebellious elements in not just the hero ranks, but also in the clones as well, in order to secure a smooth transition for an unknown agenda...

Soon enough, the Summer Camp would come to pass, and the LoV would attack with their droids once more. The clones and students would fight back as best they could, but this time they would be handed a devastating loss by the villains and their army, and this time, it would be Izuku that is taken, not Bakugou.

Izuku soon finds himself in the company of All for One, and the two strike up a tense conversation. All for One attempts to convert Izuku to his side, and Izuku is resistant to his demands. All for One then tries to take his quirk, but cannot due to One for All's interference. With that, he leaves him for Shigaraki to talk with.

However, Izuku once again comes into contact with T'ad, and learns just how powerful the League of Villains as become, the new allies they have made that stretch not just across Japan, but also across the south east of Asia as well, and their change into the Confederacy. The talk between the two of them is more relaxed and mutual, though Izuku is still disturbed by how well this woman knows him. The two of them talk about the war that has been fermented between their factions, and what T'ad's possible end goal could be, but she doesn't go any further into it. What she does criticise, though, is Izuku's insistence on being a hero. In her eyes, heroes and villains have become outdated and redundant. Quirks were growing more and more powerful with each generation, and Izuku himself was proof of that. The world needed a strong hand now to keep the peace, and All Might just wasn't cutting it anymore.

Izuku would try to protest this, but T'ad would just counter with facts at each turn. Soon enough, T'ad would leave him on his own, and Izuku would be forced to ponder over her words to him.

Meanwhile, the students and clones track down the Confederacy of Villains to Kamino, and prepare to go to war on them. The teachers attempt to stop them, not willing to risk the lives of children in a possible battlefield, but Emilia in the HPSC vetoes their decision and has the clones and their allies deployed to Kamino.

Soon enough, the heroes and clones arrive at Kamino and go to war with the Confederacy, overwhelming them with their new weapons such as the Juggernaut and their replacements for the V19 and the Z-95, being the V-Wing and the ARC-170 respectively, and cutting down the droids and villains in droves. The battle is long and bloody, and it ends with Izuku being rescued, the Confederacy leadership escaping, and All Might and All for One go to town on each other, their duel so much more bloody than in canon, and ending with the two of them killing each other.

In the aftermath of Kamino, the clones are once more lauded as heroes and placed in higher positions of power, and the Japanese Diet begin footing a bill to nationalise the clone army into part of the Japanese Self-Defence Force. Emilia uses her influence in the HPSC and newfound popularity for her actions during the Kamino event to overthrow the current president and place herself in command of the organisation. With her new power, Emilia approaches Izuku once more and tells him of what the Diet plan to do, and tells him that he has two choices: he can either let the Japanese Government nationalise the clone army and let them do whatever they want with it, or he willingly joins with the JSDF beforehand and allow himself to still hold all the cards.

Izuku chooses to join the JSDF.

With his decision, the clone army and the JSDF merge into one entity, becoming the Grand Army of Japan, and giving them the legal power to begin arresting and detaining villains and suspected Confederacy sympathisers and collaborators. With new terror incidents occurring all across the Asian peninsula thanks to the wider reach of the Villain Confederacy, the local heroes and authorities unable to stop them and their militaries neglected, and elements within the World Heroes Association keeping the organisation stunted and bogged down in bureaucracy, the GAJ are allowed access to Japan's neighbours, such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia.

However, not all is well within Japan, as the clones begin to employ more and more draconian methods of stamping out the Confederates, up to declaring martial law until the war is over and arresting any protest groups that try to speak up against the growing police state. And with their new allies in the HPSC, begin enacting the mass conscription and recruitment of numerous people into the new Japanese military, first beginning with an expansion of Emilia's Elite Squad division, and then beginning Operation: War-Mantle and the creation of the TK Trooper program. Many of those who protested against this were arrested, intimidated, or quietly silenced by Emilia's personal squadron.

Meanwhile, tensions would begin to arise within U.A. itself, as whilst the former objectors to the clones hadn't left, many more were beginning to feel threatened by the growing militarism that was being exhibited by the students, and disturbed more by the brutalism that the Protectors were teaching them, as well as how many of the more prominent students would now be guarded by a new Clone Commando unit known as the Imperial Royal Guard. Many more would be disturbed by Izuku, as the once kind boy begins to grow more brutal himself, and begin employing darker methods to protecting Japan and its people from the Confederacy.

Not only that, but divisions would arise within the clones themselves, as while most of them would remain loyal, there would be a growing number of them that would begin to question their orders.

The Covert Ops would remain busy.

In the meantime, a small group of students and clones would come together in hushed protest of the growing imperial state and form the Declaration of 2000, in which many heroes and governmental officials would quietly sign as well, which would be a demand for Emilia, Izuku, and the clones to relinquish their powers once this war with the Villian Confederacy was over.

Things would come to a head during the clones' battles with the Confederacy's allies in the Shie Hassakkai, who had been trafficking drugs and children to the Confederates for a profit. When Izuku finds out the experiments that Overhaul had been conducting on Eri, he becomes so enraged at it, that he orders Overhaul and all his men lined up and executed for their crimes.

This begins the split between the clones and the heroes, as many agencies that had once been friendly to the clones begin to distance themselves from them, only to find their funding being cut by the HPSC and their assets redistributed to the GAJ. At the same time, Eri would be brought back to U.A., and although she is grateful of being rescued from Overhaul, she is frightened by the attitude of Izuku and the students around him.

At the same time, one of Emilia's Elite Squad Troopers would leak the entire list of the Delegation of 2000 to her, and she would start using her contracted thugs to begin intimidating and quietly threatening everyone on it, and even silencing a few of them if she had to.

Meanwhile, one clone by the name of Cut would find love in a fellow student named Suu, and the two of them would plan to run away to France, Suu's home country, together. However, he would be hunted down by the Covert Ops Troopers, and would only just be saved by the Bad Batch, a squad of Clone Commandos that deserted from the army upon surviving their own encounter with the Covert Ops, and have become part of an movement helping clones being hunted by the Covert Ops for thinking for themselves, as well as any former heroes and civilians facing persecution, escape the army and Japan via an underground railroad.

Then, suddenly, the Villain Confederacy attack, only this time they target Izuku specifically.

They target his family. They target his mother.

They kill her.

This sends Izuku over the edge. With no more responsible authority figures around him to hold him back, and with Emilia only encouraging his darker, more militaristic tendencies, Izuku, and his allies, clamp down harder on Japan and the surrounding countries in an attempt to weed out the Villain Confederacy, and Emilia begins to have the people who signed the Delegation of 2000 arrested, forcing many of them to go into hiding.

And then, Emilia comes to Izuku with a proposal:

Overthrow the current Japanese government, dismantle hero society through the GAJ, and establish a new imperial state across not just Japan, but all surrounding countries as well.

Izuku accepts, and embraces his darker nature.

The coup is launched on the same day that the Villain Confederacy is defeated once and for all in Jaku. Izuku would design a new variant of clone known as the Purge Troopers, and would send them along with Emilia's Elite Squad Troopers to governmental buildings across the country. In a single night, and with the fervent support of the people, the civilian administration and ruling body of Japan would be replaced by a new imperial government, with Izuku, Emilia, and their allies at its head, with a reach that would spread out to almost the entirety of Asia and beyond.

The people of Japan would celebrate the end of the war and the beginning of a new era of peace, and the new Imperial Army would busy themselves destroying Confederate holdouts and rebellious heroes.

However, as many once formerly heroic U.A. students would become some of the top Imperial agents, many others would be disgusted at what hero society has transformed into and gp into hiding, fearful of what happens to those who desent against the state.

And within the Imperial Army itself, whispers of rebellious thoughts begin to gather around the clones as rumours of Emilia's true identity circulate.

And some clones that have gone to ground have figured out the truth.

Emilia Karn and T'ad are the same person, and she had been able to supply the villains with the droid army through a quirk that was almost identical to Izuku's.

And her real name isn't even Emilia Karn or T'ad. It is Emerie Karr...

And her designation is CT-0002, one of the first clones that Izuku had produced.

The war is now over...

And a Clone Rebellion is beginning.

Chapter 19: A Change in Direction

Chapter Text

The story begins as it does in canon, with All Might telling Izuku that he cannot be a hero and leaving the dejected boy to walk home on his own.

However, this is where this story diverges from said canon, as instead of going past Aldera, Izuku chooses to go another way back home to reflect on the choices left before him, meaning that he doesn't get his chance to impress All Might.

Instead, Bakugou would capture All Might's attention, as instead of Izuku helping to free him from the Sludge Villain, he freed himself, earning the praise of all the heroes around him and granting him a chance to be All Might's personal student and successor.

In the next ten months, Bakugou, his ego boosted by not just his public takedown of a villain and celebration by the heroes at the incident for his strong quirk, but also his new apprenticeship with All Might as his successor, ramps up his bullying of Izuku, making sure to keep him and his hopes down, and destroying any chances the quirkless boy tries to take to train himself and get stronger, keeping him weak and isolated from everyone else, all without any consequences from Aldera's quirkist staff and student populace.

Izuku, downtrodden and feeling worse than in canon, gives up on going to U.A., if only to get away from Bakugou, but finds that no other high schools other than U.A. itself will accept quirkless students due to various policies and conditions. He has no choice but to go to U.A. anyway.

So, he tries to train himself in whatever spare time that he can find and places applications to both the hero course and the general education courses. On the day that U.A.'s entrance exam, Izuku tries to keep his distance from Bakugou, who has only grown more prideful since the Sludge Villain incident, but is cornered by Bakugou and threatened, leaving him rattled and performing poorly during the hero course exam.

However, during the exam, he is picked up by a trio of examinees known as Yui Kodai, Manga f*ckidashi, and Reiko Yanagi, and soon enough, he gains some confidence and begins to coordinate them and several other students together to take out as many villains as they can, earning him the nickname of 'Commander' from a few of them and granting him the brief attention of the teachers.

However, he is deemed a liability both because of his quirklessness and his lack of training and skill, and he is rejected from the hero course.

However, he is accepted into the general education course and nervously begins his time in U.A. there. He notices, during the orientation into U.A., that Class 1-A was not present at the gathering, and after seeing that Bakugou was not there as well, decides to keep his distance from 1-A for as long as he can, creating another divergence from canon.

During his first few days at U.A., Izuku does not talk much to his teacher, Thirteen, or his classmates in Class 1-C out of fear of being isolated for his quirklessness. But soon, he is approached by Yui, Manga, and Reiko once more, alongside their friends from the rest of Class 1-B, and invite their 'Commander' to join them, earning him new friends in the hero course.

At first, this serves to alienate him from the rest of his classmates in 1-C, as they view the hero course with a sense of distain and jealousy. However, during a brief incident during one of the early days of U.A.'s first year when the front gates into the campus are breached and the alarms flare, it is Izuku and Itsuka, as well as a few helpful gen-ed students, that calm everyone down, and through it, the two classes, through Izuku, begin to form a bond with each other.

Meanwhile, things are not going well in Class 1-A. Thanks to Izuku both not having had One for All and therefore not having the ability to save her, Ochako is left severely injured and crippled after the entrance exam and is therefore unable to attend U.A., and with Izuku not able to attend the hero course, this leaves 1-A without its two designated hearts. Worse yet, with Bakugou's ego having been inflated by All Might's apprenticeship, and without Izuku there to beat him in the battle trial, he does not suffer any losses and as such is not humbled by his experiences, especially when he wins his battle trial. Meanwhile, Shinso is brought into Class 1-A as Midoriya's replacement, but his frosty, anti-social attitude and general ire towards the rest of his classmates only serves to grate on them, especially when he brushes off their problems with him as relating to his quirk, which only serves to alienate him more and seemingly prove his point. Meanwhile, the student who had been brought in to replace Ochako was expelled on the first day by Aizawa, creating an air of distrust and uncertainty within the class and only adding to the negative attitude and dividing them further.

On the day of the USJ, it goes much like it did in canon. However, without Izuku's help, Tsuyu and Mineta are left crippled after the attack and are forced to drop out, leaving Class 1-A three students down.

Meanwhile, All Might continues to train Bakugou to take on One for All, though finds himself continuously troubled by the boy's continuing anger issues and ego problems, as well as his troubles with connecting to the rest of his classmates. This wasn't anything new to him, though. Over the long course of his career, he had been forced to pull aside quite a few heroes with poor attitudes to correct them. Hell, before he had needed to find a successor, he had taken a younger Mirko under his wing to temper her anger and eagerness to fight when he had come across her in the underground fighting arenas under the alias of Tiger Bunny. She'd been kicked out of two hero schools previously, and it had only been because of his advice that she had been able to stick with U.A.'s course and pass to become one of the top ten ranking heroes, so to All Might, Bakugou's attitude wasn't anything new.

Still, it was beginning to trouble him greatly. Whenever he made a move to criticise Bakugou's performance, he only seemed to double down on his behaviour. It was certainly worrying behaviour.

He decided to give Bakugou a chance through the sports festival before giving him One for All. The boy in question is angered by this, but swallows it down and forces himself to cooperate.

Meanwhile, things have, for once, been going well for Izuku. He's got friends now. Friends in the hero course as well. Not only that, but he had friends in his class as well. Thanks to his efforts, either intentionally or unintentionally, the various characters of Class 1-B had begun to not just go and make friends with members of the general education course, but also other departments as well, allowing Izuku to make new friends in the other departments as well, including one Mei Hatsume in the support department.

Soon enough, Class 1-B and 1-C begins to bridge the gap between the hero department and all the other courses, and they all become somewhat popular amongst U.A.'s student population.

Class 1-A, however, begins to insulate and alienate itself. It's fractured state has only broken it apart and served to isolate the class from others.

In the aftermath of the USJ, the various members of Class 1-B and 1-C, their more antagonistic behaviour tempered by Izuku's intervention (whom many of them have taken to nicknaming their 'Commander', much to Izuku's embarrassment), decide to go to Class 1-A to see how they are doing after the attack, to try and build relations with them and to make sure that they are alright.

However, they are met by an antagonistic Class 1-A, too fractured, paranoid, and bitter about their circ*mstances to take the olive branch. Bakugou's blazing ego rails against the members of Class 1-B and C, Todoroki shrugs them off without a care, and Shinso simply insults and antagonises them.

However, Bakugou then spots Izuku in the crowd and screams at him, raging against him for getting into U.A.. Members of Class 1-B and C move to defend Izuku, and a tense standoff ensues before a pair of teachers break it up. A rivalry forms between Class 1-A and 1-B, but one that is more bitter and antagonistic than in canon.

In the aftermath, Izuku is asked about why Bakugou seemed to hate him so much, and he finally confesses to his quirklessness.

He is shocked when his new friends simply say 'So what?' and accept him anyways.

Soon enough, the Sports Festival comes about, and all of U.A.'s general population puts their bets in to Izuku, Class 1-B, and 1-C against 1-A. Their plan? To get Izuku and several others into the hero course, to get them into Class 1-B.

When the obstacle race begins, both classes unite together under the leadership of Izuku, Itsuka, Monoma, Hatsume, and a few members of 1-C. The race itself is messy and confusing for everyone involved, but the united classes are able to knock out much of Class 1-A from the competition, leaving them as the majority.

And through their efforts, they are able to push Izuku forward and render him, the quirkless student, as the winner.

Many cheer. Many more boo.

In the following cavalry battle, 1-B and 1-C once more unite together to acquire the maximum amount of points, trading bandanas with each other to get the likes of Izuku and his friends in 1-C into the tournament brackets. However, Bakugou, Todoroki, and Shinso's teams (Bakugou and Todoroki are forced to be on the same team and argue all the way) prove to be a hinderance to this plan, leaving the event as a boiling pot of messy emotions and aggression from all parties.

Soon enough, the tornament matches came about, and Izuku's team, made up of Hatsume and a pair of gen-ed students, were successfully able to pass, whist Itsuka's team, consisting of Kamakiri, Monoma, and Ibara. However, Bakugou and Todoroki's team (with Kirishima and Iida working with them), as well as Shinso's, are able to pass as well. The three members of Shinso's team, Tetsutetsu, Awase, and Reiko drop out in protest of Shinso brainwashing them into being his teammates, and they are replaced by Setsuna, Jurota, and Yui.

The tournament matches are as listed below:

Monoma vs Shinso.

Kamakiri vs Yui.

Kirishima vs Itsuka.

Izuku vs Hatsume.

Gen-ed#1 vs Bakugou.

Gen-ed#2 vs Jurota.

Ibara vs Todoroki.

Iida vs Setuna.

The tournament matches begin with Monoma catching Shinso off balance with his own quirk and easily defeating him, and then with Yui shrinking the ground underneath her feet and leaving Kamakiri outside the circle and defeating him. Next, Kirishima and Itsuka fight a war of attrition against each other before Itsuka uses her giant hands to grab him and toss him out the ring, whilst Izuku helps Hatsume to demonstrate her babies (her inventions you filthy perverts) and wins the match for himself, all without Hatsume dropping out.

However, during his match, Bakugou is galled at the idea of a gen-ed student standing up to the likes of him and savages them, sending them out of the ring to the cheer of the crowds. In comparison, the second gen-ed student is able to trick Jurota into throwing himself out of the ring when he goes into beast mode. The next two rounds are wins for Class 1-A, as Todoroki covers Ibara in ice before she is able to make a move, and Iida gathers all of Setsuna's individual pieces before throwing them out of the ring.

The next round only serves to keep emotions flared:

Iida vs Yui.

Itsuka vs Gen-ed#2.

Monoma vs Todoroki.

And finally...

Izuku vs Bakugou.

No one was pleased with that last matchup. No one but Bakugou.

The first match is a long slog for Yui, almost verging on a bad matchup, but she is soon able to get Iida to build up his own momentum and throw him out of the ring by himself. After that, Itsuka and the second gen-ed contestant duel each other, but Itsuka is forced to bow out when the second gen-ed kid corners her in the ring.

After that, Todoroki and Monoma duel each other, and Todoroki is still grappling with the problems that he was dealing with in canon. However, the ever pragmatic Monoma, ignorant of Todoroki's issues and more than willing to take advantage of the fact that the son of Endeavour was holding back against him, took the opportunity to copy Todoroki's quirk and use it against him, covering him in ice and then using his fire to blast him out of the ring. Todoroki would leave the arena bitter as to his loss and more determined to reject his father's fire than ever before.

And Izuku and Bakugou's match...?

It was a one-sided slaughter.

Izuku tries his best to put up a fight, but Bakugou unleashes attack after attack onto the quirkless boy, ruthlessly picking him apart and tearing him down both verbally and physically. Soon enough, Izuku is left on the floor, and Bakugou knocks him out with an explosion to the face, rending him unconscious and Bakugou the victor to the cheering crowds.

Izuku is taken away to the infirmary, and his friends stay with him for as long as they can. Soon enough, the rest of the tournament plays out as expected. Yui wins her duel against the second gen-ed student and they part gracefully, whilst Monoma is savaged by Bakugou and sent out of the ring.

Soon enough, the final match comes about, Yui vs Bakugou. The latter expects this fight to last for a long time, for it to be drawn out and for it to be satisfying to take part of, an end to the tournament that he can be proud of, a battle that he has earned with blood, sweat, and no tears at all.

Yui, in an act of spite, walks off the stage and out of the match as soon as it begins.

Bakugou is rendered the winner of the Sports Festival by default, and he rages against it. He is barely able to stop himself from walking off the stage when the medals are handed out, only with the promise of One for All and the lingering satisfaction of beating Izuku into the ground.

In the aftermath of the Sports Festival, the bitterness that is left between Class 1-A and the rest of the school only continues to grow, but the members of Class 1-B and C try not to pay attention to it as they look to the responses to the letters that they had sent to the staff of the school, asking for Midoriya and a few others in Gen-ed to be promoted to join Class 1-B in the hero course.

The two other students are approved. Izuku's is rejected on the basis of his quirklessness.

Meanwhile, All Might finally gives Bakugou One for All.

The residents of Class 1-B and C try not to let Izuku's rejection bring them down as the hero students head off for their studies, with Setsuna deciding to bring Izuku with her to her internship with a hero known as Clamp Down. However, upon hearing the pro hero's quirkist comments and poor attitude towards Izuku, Setsuna quits in disgust and heads back to U.A., Izuku in tow. On their way back to U.A., the two try to look for career paths that will accept quirkless people for Izuku's future, but continuously comes up short. Not even the police force or firefighters accept the quirkless.

Meanwhile, Hosu is wrapped in flame and Iida is killed by Stain.

And with Bakugou, during his internship with Gran Torino, One for All begins to reject him, forcing him to fight and suppress it. Something in One for All begins to darken and corrupt itself.

Upon returning to U.A., Setsuna relays what she has learnt to the rest of Class 1-B and C, and they decide that, when they become pro heroes, they will create their own agencies that freely accept, support, and hire the quirkless. This makes them even more popular with the rest of the school, all the while Class 1-A's infamy continues to grow now with the death of Iida in Hosu and the growing instability and self-destructive behaviour with Bakugou.

Soon enough, the final exams come about, and Class 1-B all pass to go onto the Summer Camp without anyone taking extra lessons. Class 1-A, meanwhile, fail for the most part, their morale crumbling under the constant losses and failures, and even Bakugou failing to overcome All Might despite the new quirk at his disposal, though winning by a technicality as Shinso brainwashes All Might into letting him pass. Bakugou is enraged by this, and his instability only continues to grow.

During their time at the training camp, the League of Villains attack, and Class 1-B and the few cooperative and able members of Class 1-A are barely able to fend them off. Worse yet, Ochako is now part of their number, having been promised support for her parents if she joined them. Soon enough, Bakugou is able to join the fight, but his growing inability to control One for All and the mental strain that it is taking on him makes him a danger to the heroes as much the villains.

The League of Villains deem Bakugou too much of a liability to abduct in this case, and instead settle for the two former Gen-ed students who had been promoted to Class 1-B. Using Dark Shadow's rampage in the darkness and Bakugou's growing instability as a distraction, fleeing with the two Gen-ed students and leaving the remaining heroes and students to clean up the mess.

Worse yet, soon enough, they kidnap Izuku in his home too.

Soon enough, the League of Villains attempt to manipulate Izuku and the two former Gen-ed students into joining them, only for them all to refuse. Better still, Izuku is able to convince Ochako into defecting from the League by helping her to realise that they will never help her parents and will probably kill her once it is all done, and by siding with them she is only betraying everything that she has ever believed in.

Then, the Kamino Incident begins, and All Might and the heroes raid both their hideout and the Nomu warehouse. Ochako is able to get Izuku and the two Gen-eds out of the crossfire before they are pulled away to the big battlefield, only to be saved by a group of Class 1-B students who had left to gone and save them.

Once they are out of the clear, All for One and All Might go to town on each other, and in the aftermath, All for One is defeated and captured.

However, All Might dies in the process, leaving him unable to mentor Bakugou and help him control One for All. Shigaraki leaves the battlefield wearing his cape as a trophy.

In the chaotic aftermath of the Kamino Incident, Ochako goes underground, but keeps herself in contact with Izuku, Vlad King, and the rest of Class 1-B, becoming U.A.'s hidden informant in the criminal underworld. Class 1-A fractures even more as Bakugou's instability grows, and several of them drop out of the school, leaving the class a shadow of what it once was.

Soon enough, Ochako would inform U.A. of whispers of an alliance between the League of Villains and the Shie Hassaikai, and the teachers there would use the information to further the official investigation to the latter organisation, allowing them to uncover several corrupt heroes that were in the criminal organisation's pocket.

Not trusting the heroes to take care of the person that the Shie Hassaikai were torturing, especially with the revelation of corrupt heroes working for them, Ochako swiftly frees Eri from her captivity and goes on the run the eve before the heroes raid the Shei Hassaikai's base of operations, letting Izuku and a select few others know what she is doing, but telling them to keep the heroes ignorant.

Meanwhile, Bakugou continues to try and train with One for All under both Gran Torino and Sir Nighteye. However, his growing instability, both mentally and emotionally, disturb them and his violent demeanour appals them, leaving it clear now to them that the anger issues and problems found within Bakugou now exceed Mirko's old problems tenfold. But when Bakugou learns of their plans to take One for All from him, he rails against them and

Soon enough, the joint training scenarios would begin, and Class 1-B, with C as their witnesses, would be openly eager about their chances at crushing Class 1-A, before noticing that their numbers are halved now and feeling sorry for them.

However, it is then that they learn that the joint training has been cancelled because of Class 1-A's low numbers, and then are startled by another truth:

Classes 1-A and B will be merged together.

The stay at the dorms is tense, to say the least, as tensions that had been built for weeks and months on end between the two classes now as one finally reach their boiling point...

And then, they explode.

The two classes begin to argue with each other, shout, fight, show their verbal claws. Insults are thrown around with abandon, most of them aimed at Bakugou, Todoroki, and Shinso. The three boys would fire back barbs of their own, and Bakugou would begin to grow more and more violent with each passing moment as One for All, now corrupting more and more within him, would continue to try and reject and escape him.

Then, finally, Izuku enters into the dorms, one of his regular visits, and Bakugou explodes.

The mad bomber, now more mad and unstable than before, goes on a mad tirade against everyone, ranting and raving about everything that has gone wrong for him in U.A. so far, Izuku getting in, not winning the Sports Festival the way he wanted, even revealing that he has All Might's quirk and how he was going to use it to become the number one hero no matter what-

Then, One for All begins to violently reject him. Black tendrils whip from him as it seems like One for All is attempting to pull itself away from him, but Bakugou roars as he attempts to force it down. The rest of the students around him begin to panic at the strange display, but Bakugou just keeps ranting about how everyone was looking down on him, how Izuku was looking down on him, how much he hated the quirkless boy for ever daring to think that he was better than him-

What's left of Bakugou's sanity finally snaps. One for All surrenders to its own corruption, and Bakugou goes mad.

One for All explodes outwards into a horrific black mass, hovering above the ground and destroying both the dorms that the students were in and everything else around it. Bakugou is lifted up into the air and sends explosions out everywhere, destroying everything in his path as he continues to rant and rave like a lunatic, his sanity finally slipping away.

Soon enough, all the students and all the local heroes are forced to come together as the corrupted One for All-possessed Bakugou pursues Izuku with murder on what's left of his mind, still going off on a crazed, never-ending rant as he does so. The fight that follows tears up much of U.A. as the students try to get Aizawa in range to use his quirk, only to be rebuffed every single time.

Then, finally, Bakugou catches up to Izuku, and with one final mad scream, all shreds of sanity gone, Bakugou declares that he hates the green-haired boy and lunges.

But then, the corrupted One for All finally separates itself from Bakugou, and the boy falls to the ground, mindless and now braindead.

The corrupted quirk then lunges for Izuku, but Yui jumps out of the way, taking the blow. One for All absorbs itself into Yui and possesses her, turning her into its new host.

The quirk-possessed Yui then turns to Izuku and approaches her, calling him her Ninth in what can only assumed to be a loving voice and reaching out to embrace him, intent on spreading One for All to him.

Izuku rejects the approach and runs into the embrace of his friends and One for All leaves Yui's body and begins to skip from host to host, fleeing deep into the city.

One for All has been corrupted, mutated by a wielder whom it does not judge worthy. Its eight previous wielders and the one that it did not want as a champion now drowned out by the voice that had come to consume One for All, now seeking to claim he who is worthy of its quirk.

One for All has become parasitic, like a Symbiote.

One for All has become like Venom.

Chapter 20: Izuku-117

Chapter Text

Legends persist that, in the past, before quirks had sprung into existence over a thousand years ago, humanity had not only achieved commercial space travel but had colonised the entirety of the Sol System, from Earth to the Galilean moons of Jupiter. However, something had happened that had reduced humanity to just their home world of Earth, and only now, with the reign of All Might and the age of heroes reaching their apex, has mankind finally been able to reach out to the moon and retake their colony there once more under the banner of the Colonial Hero Authority, a subsection of the United Nations Hero Command, or UNHC for short.

However, discontent is growing within hero society as people begin to rise up against the UNHC. Villainy, a majority of them operating under the banner of the United Villain Front, has been on the rise in the form of terrorism and piracy against trade spaceships that operate between Earth and the lunar colony of Reach, but are met by the UNHC with force. However, the UNHC's heavy-handed tactics in suppressing these villains results in the complete destruction of a city known as Far Isle, and, in the face of continued quirk discrimination, oppression at the hands of heroes, and corruption within hero ranks themselves, sparks a dozen more revolts and rebellions across the world, coming together to form a fully-fledged Insurrection against the UNHC. All Might becomes a major propaganda piece for the UNHC, and though while they openly condemn the usage of any military force in the wake of the heroes, the CHA authorises the creation of a military branch of the UNHC known as the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper regiment, or ODSTs for short, highly trained soldiers capable of dropping down from orbital ships onto insurrectionist forces, and they too soon become pubic figures in propaganda pieces for the UNHC.

Meanwhile, one scientist working for the black ops wing of the CHA, the Office of Naval Intelligence (or ONI for short), comes to the conclusion that in less than ten years, mankind will be thrown into civil war and hero society will be completely destroyed. To combat this, the scientist in question, Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, acquires funding for a project of her own: the Spartan-II program.

Soon enough, a hundred and fifty quirkless children around the ages of four and six, including one Izuku Midoriya, are selected and taken to the lunar colony of Reach to begin training into a new form of soldier that would be ready to fight and crush the Insurrection. They would spend the next ten years honing these children in the perfect soldiers, eventually culminating in their mission to capture the current leader of the Insurrectionists, defected CHA hero Watts, real name Robert Watts. After that, it's time for their genetic augmentations and modifications, of which only half of them, including Izuku, survive.

However, on their way to covertly claim their armour from the USJ satellite in synchronised orbit above U.A., the Spartan-IIs, temporarily led by Izuku Midoriya, full under attack as soon as they arrive, along with the visiting Class 1-A, by an unknown enemy.

Not the League of Villains, but a collection of mutants divided into separate breeds and species, who arrive on a spaceship that is far more advanced than anything that mankind have themselves.

They call themselves the Covenant, and they are the instrument of humanity's destruction.

Izuku-117 and the other Spartan-IIs are able to evacuate the U.A. students and cut off the space elevator connecting them to the ground below. However, one Spartan known as Yuga-034, is forced to stay behind as the remaining Spartans evac, and then detonates the entire station and sacrifices herself to kill the Covenant on the station and destroy the ship next to it.

Soon enough, the Covenant begin to arrive on Earth en masse, and the CHA finds themselves extremely flatfooted by this new enemy. The UNHC, however, quickly diverts its resources from the Insurrection to the Covenant as they begin to glass and destroy colony satellite after satellite. The UNHC quickly absorb the CHA into its own body, and many Insurrectionist and villain groups sign up with the UNHC to fight back against the Covenant, recognising the aliens as a much greater threat than anything that the UNHC themselves can muster.

However, not every Insurrectionist group would get the memo, and the MLA, Humarise, and League of Villains would reach out to the Covenant for an alliance.

The Covenant would feign agreement.

Meanwhile, ONI would see the devastation that the Covenant were reigning on Earth, and realise that if this pace was kept up, then even with All Might's help, mankind would be destroyed in less than several years. They instruct the UNHC to begin a mass militarisation across the planet, and begin a new programme of their own.

The Spartan-III program, aimed at created Spartans in higher numbers and lower costs, all in the name of slowing down the Covenant. The likes of Eri, Kota, Mahoro, and Katsuma are kidnapped by ONI and augmented and mutated into this new breed of super soldier.

Soon enough, the UNHC completely militarises and enters a state of total war against the Covenant, and find that while their space forces are vastly inferior to that of the Covenant, and that their heroes are barely on par with the Covenant ground forces themselves, their soldiers outclass the Covenant due to differing military ideologies and methods. The Covenant were, like the heroes, more warriors than soldiers, and acted accordingly. Additionally, almost all of the targets that the Covenant hit seem to be linked by the historical artifacts that had only recently been uncovered.

Meanwhile, the Covenant are suffering from their own internal strife as well. It is revealed that all the primary races within the Covenant (Grunt, Jackals, Hunters, Drones, Brutes, Prophets, and Elites) are all radically evolved humans, mutated by their own quirks and turned into new species. More than that, almost all of them have fallen into worship of the artifacts that they have uncovered on their worlds, all of them belonging to the interstellar humans who came before, whom they refer to as the Forerunners. On top of that, the Prophets have begun placing the violent and easily controllable Brutes in positions of military authority in their War of Annihilation against humanity, in contention with the noble Elites who have long since ruled over the Covenant's armed forces.

Back on Earth and its satellite colonies, Izuku-117 and his fellow Spartans continue to fight back against the Covenant, especially when they begin hitting sights such as U.A.'s Sports Festival and the city of Hosu, but with each passing battle, even with the help of the heroes, ODSTs, and even Spartan-IIIs such as the Headhunter pairs like Mahoro-B292 and Katsuma-B091, and Noble Team such as Eri-A259, Kota-A266, Samidare-A052, Tamashiro-A239, and Satsuki-B320, they were still losing Spartans with each battle, with barely anytime to mourn them before they were moved off to the next battle, leaving the remaining Spartans to become stoic and rather unemotive in order to protect themselves.

Soon enough, U.A's summer camp is attacked by the Covenant, who have begun to use Humarise, the League of Villains, and the MLA as proxies for their war on Earth. The summer camp is ravaged, many are slaughtered, and at the Battle of Kamino, the Covenant decide that all three of their proxies have outlived their usefulness and wipe them out, killing All Might in the process as well.

However, at the remains of the summer camp, ONI analysists uncover a strange artifact, and the Covenant freak out when they see the humans defiling a religious artifact of such reverence to them.

The Covenant attack the lunar colony of Reach en masse, and Izuku-117, now ranked as a master chief petty officer, and the remaining Spartans are pulled to defend their home. However, most of the Spartans die in the conflagration, and Izuku, now paired with an experimental A.I. made from the comatose Ochako's still living brain (after she was wounded and mutilated by the Covenant's forces during the Battle of Kamino), accidently activate the artifact recovered from the summer camp grounds...

And creating a massive portal that swallows Izuku, his new A.I., a large portion of Reach's UNHC personnel and Covenant invaders.

One that transports them to a massive ring floating in space.

A Halo.

Soon enough, war breaks out between the stranded UNHC and Covenant forces, the two factions trying to take control of the Halo ring and figure out how to get home as Izuku and his A.I. are whisked away by a strange machine known as the monitor, which refers to itself as Guilty Spark, monitor of Installation 04,, and identifies Izuku as a reclaimer of the Forerunner's legacy.

It informs him of a greater threat than the Covenant. One that has been accidently unleashed with the arrival of the UNHC and the Covenant.

A parasitic virus known as the Flood.

Soon, the Flood begin to run rampant across the ring, infecting both human and Covenant and seeking to find a way off the installation and infect the rest of the Sol System. Hoping to stop them, Izuku works with Guilty Spark to begin the activation sequence for the Halo ring. However, this is stopped by the A.I. of Ochako, who has infiltrated the Forerunner systems and reveals what the ring truly is:

Thousands of years ago, humanity hadn't just spread out beyond the Sol System, but across the entire universe, colonising entire galaxies and becoming a civilisation so advanced and so magnificent that it made them seem like gods. However, one day they came across a civilisation that was even more advanced than them, only known to them as the Precursors...

And so humanity wiped them out, down to the last.

However, the Precursors themselves would survive as dust, but that dust would soon mutate and become corrupted, becoming a monstrous parasite known as the Flood, which would infect almost all of humanity and force them to construct and fire and Halo rings, which wiped out not just the Flood, but their food as well. Humanity wiped out all life in the universe and reseeded it with new life, and left a special gene code in all future humans to activate and grant them the ability to command the Engineers, access the creations of the Forerunners, and reclaim their Mantle of Responsibility to the galaxy.

However, when this gene code activated within the Forerunners' descendants, it mutated in many of them to become quirks, their new powers, and thereby scrambling their DNA to be unable to activate Forerunner artifacts. It is only the quirkless, now a marginalised minority, who can access Forerunner technology, and allow humanity to reclaim the Mantle once more.

Realising that Guilty Sparks seeks to activate the Halo array and kill all life in the galaxy once more to destroy the Flood, Izuku and the A.I. Ochako turn on the Monitor and put forward a new plan: destroying Halo in its entirety and annihilating the Flood before they can get off to safety. Finding a crashed UNHC vessel on the ring's surface, the Spartan-II and his A.I. would fight through the hordes of Covenant, Flood, and Sentinels to ignite the core, then flee through a portal as the ring exploded, completely destroying the array and all the Flood on it...

Just as the portal deposited Izuku and his A.I. companion onto another Halo, one already occupied by the Covenant, just as a small army of UNHC personnel arrive through the same device found on Reach.

Meanwhile, within the Covenant, the tension between the Elites and the Brutes has only increased. The Prophets punish the Elite in charge of Installation 04's protection, marking him as the Arbiter, and send him off on a mission to eliminate a group of heretic defectors in a scientific survey site close to the destroyed installation. His mission is successful, but he is confronted by the Monitor of the destroyed ring, Guilty Spark, which tries to explain much of what it said to Izuku, but is taken away by the Chieftain of the entire Brute race, Tartarus.

Meanwhile, Izuku and the UNHC do their best to combat the Covenant on Installation 05, even managing to assassinate one of the Hierarchs of the Covenant. However, they soon find themselves at odds with both the Covenant and the Flood, as Izuku is kidnapped by a greater intelligence within the parasite, and the Arbiter, after witnessing the changing of the guard of the Prophet's protectors and chief commanders from the Elites to the Brutes, is sent down to cleanse the ring of the infestation and prevent the humans from reaching Halo's control room.

The Arbiter succeeds once more, and corrals the humans at the ring, especially a quirkless officer by the name of Melissa Shield. However, Tartarus quickly arrives and captures Melissa, before revealing to the Arbiter that his species has been ousted from the Covenant and branded for death, and is sent falling to the bowels of the Ring below...

Where he is captured and, along with Izuku, presented to the Gravemind, the central intelligence behind the Flood, and it is through the also captured Monitor of Installation 05, Penitent Tangent, that the Arbiter finally learns himself what the purpose of the rings are, and the truth behind the Forerunners.

As the Covenant purge Installation 05 of the Flood, the Gravemind sends both Izuku and the Arbiter away, the former to High Charity, where he chases down the last of the Hierarchs as the Elites and Brutes begin to kill each other and the entire Covenant falls into civil war. However, the entire structure is soon overrun by the Flood fleeing from Installation 05, and A.I. Ochako is forced to stay behind to try and keep the Flood contained while Izuku flees back to Earth on the Prophet of Truth's ship.

Meanwhile, the Arbiter is deposited back onto Installation 05, where he, alongside humans and Elite-friendly forces in a tenuous alliance, fight through hordes of Brutes and Covenant loyalists to reach the ring's control room, where they rescue the captive Melissa from the Brutes, stop the firing of Installation 05, and kill Tartarus in quick succession.

When Izuku arrives back on Earth, he finds a devastated world, a Covenant in civil war, and the UNHC and Elite-led factions of the Covenant Separatists aligned together to stop the Covenant Loyalists from breaching the portal device on Earth, having been moved from Reach on the moon to Japan, of which they are unable to stop them.

However, a Covenant ship infected by the Flood breaks through Earth's atmosphere and lands in Japan, forcing the Elites to glass the entire island nation. In the crashed ship, Izuku finds a message from A.I. Ochako, who tells him a horrifying truth about the Covenant.

The Prophet of Truth is actually All for One, and he wants to fire the Halo rings to leave himself as the last living thing left in the universe.

The remnants of the UNHC and the Covenant Separatists follow the Prophet and Brute forces through the portal, arriving at a massive floating structure in space known as the Ark. There, they do battle with the Covenant Loyalists and make their way to All for One himself, just as the Covenant's High Charity, completely infected by the Flood, crashes onto the Ark.

The Arbiter kills One for All, stopping the activation of the Halo rings, and the Flood begins to ravage all forces on the Ark in turn. In response, Izuku and the Arbiter, along with Guilty Spark, commission another Halo, a replacement for the destroyed Installation 04, to fire around the Ark, wiping out the Flood once and for all.

But first, Izuku must infiltrate High Charity, recover the badly traumatised A.I. Ochako, and destroy the entire structure behind him to get the activation index for the ring's firing mechanism.

Soon enough, Izuku and the Arbiter, A.I. Ochako and Guilty Spark make their way onto the new, unfinished Installation 08, but upon learning that a premature firing of the ring against the Flood on the half-made ring and Ark would destroy the installation, Guilty Spark turns on the trio and attempts to destroy them, only to be destroyed in turn as the ring begins its firing sequence.

The trio escape on the UNHC ship known as theForward Unto Dawn, but it is cut in half by a collapsing Slipspace portal back to Earth as the ring fires and destroys itself, wiping out all traces of the Flood off the Ark and eliminating their threat forever.

The half of the ship that the Arbiter had taken shelter on lands on Earth and is recovered, and he and the surviving leaders of the UNHC sign a treaty that ends the Human-Covenant War, bringing their long struggle to a close.

In the aftermath of the war, humanity spends years rebuilding their home of Earth whilst taking advantage of their new knowledge of the Forerunner caches on their world and the various pieces of Covenant technology left behind to build new spacecraft to spread out into the solar system, eventually colonising the entirety of the Sol System in less than a year, with outposts set up as far out as Neptune and the asteroid belts around Saturn. Soon, the UNHC would grow to become the most powerful human faction in the system, eventually swallowing the CHA whole and turning themselves into the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC for short, discontinuing the usage of heroes and pushing the resources dedicated to heroics into their new military forces. Not only that, but a select few of these former heroes would be selected for their services during the war to become a new breed of Spartan, eventually becoming Spartan-IIIIs and numbering first in the dozens, and then in the hundreds.

However, not everyone would be content with this new piece. Not everyone within the various insurrectionist factions that had existed before and during the Human-Covenant War had been killed, and they begin rebuilding and stirring resentment against the UNSC. In particular, factions of the MLA, Humarise, and League of Villains would begin to grow once more, and other factions would begin to rise, made up entirely of former heroes who were marshalled out of service and feel resentment against the UNSC for phasing them out as a societal and military class.

And on top of that, errant whispers would circle around the Outer Colonies. Rumours that All for One was still alive, and was planning his return...

Meanwhile, the Arbiter would reform the various Covenant remnants and splinter cells under his command, most of them being Elite like him, into an organisation known as the Swords of Sanghelios, and takes them back to their home world of Sanghelios to begin rebuilding their culture in the wake of the revelation of the Covenant's lies.

However, not every Elite would be pleased by the truce with humanity and seek a continuation with the conflict, whilst others would still cling to their reverence of the Forerunners and see the Arbiter and the SOS as heretics. Soon enough, the Blooding Years would begin, a civil war that would last for many years as several Elite-led Covenant remnants, such as the Servants of the Abiding Truth and the Defenders of the Sanctum, and others led by the likes of Sali 'Nyon, Merg Vol, and Thars 'Sarov, would begin to wage their own campaigns of terror on both the SOS and the UNSC, whilst Jackal pirate clans constantly raided key targets of opportunity, from shipping lanes to cargo freighters to entire planetary outposts, and various Brute-led factions and remnants, such as the Keepers of the One Freedom, the Voice of Maardoth, and other Covenant loyalists and Brute raiders would attack both each other and others out of need for glory and blood in the name of their clans, most particularly the Elites, dragging the two species into a war just as destructive as the Blooding Years.

One Covenant remnant in particular would become a major threat to both the UNSC and the SOS. Operating out of the Sangheili colony of Hesduros, Jul Mdama's reborn Covenant, known by many as the Storm Covenant, would become a massive terrorist organisation and religious cult that would draw thousands of Elites, Jackals, Grunts, and Hunters to their call. Whilst not nearly as big as the Covenant that came before, they would be classified as the number one threat to both the SOS and the UNSC, as their fanaticism and zealotry would make them both extremely desperate and dangerous in their raids and terror attacks on various targets across known space.

In response to this threat, the UNSC would continue to grow more and more with power as they begin a cold war against not just the Storm Covenant, but all remaining Covenant remnant factions, eventually becoming so big and powerful as to dwarf them all. However, this would only continue to stir resentment against the UNSC from both human and Covenant factions, and the UNSC would slowly begin to grow too big for its own britches, becoming more bloated with each passing day as more and more heroes were phased out and began to take up arms against their former government. In particular the few surviving students of U.A., most notably Bakugo, who had been folded into the UNHC's ODST corps at the twilight of the war, grew angry and resentful of the annulment of the hero rankings and heroes in general, and, aside from the ones who allowed themselves to be turned into Spartan-IIIIs, with no purpose left in their lives with the heroes gone, they would begin to defect and go their own ways, some of them becoming the equivalent of wandering ronin across the Outer Colonies, fashion themselves as mercenaries, or join the various Insurrectionist movements growing across all of human space.

The threat of a human civil war had never gone away during the war. It had simply been tempered, not quelled completely. But now, it seemed to be nothing short of inevitable once more.

But in the darkness, away from the eyes of both the SOS and the UNSC, a banished legacy of the Covenant would begin to grow. Having been formed with the revelation of the Covenant's lies, and originally being comprised or nothing but Brutes, now this new faction would incorporate thousands upon thousands of former Covenant warriors, from Grunts to Jackals to Hunters to even Elites, becoming a brutalist mercenary faction of pirates and raiders under the charismatic leadership a Brute War Chief known as Atriox.

The Banished would begin to bide their time as they built up their strength. They would watch and wait as the UNSC began to bloat and poison itself whilst the SOS would grow more and more embroiled in their civil war. Soon enough, it would all come crushing down, and both mankind and the Elites would be thrown into a new war once more as the secrets of the Forerunners would begin to come to light...

And when they all fell to ruin, the Banished would rise, taking the secrets of the Forerunners for themselves and becoming the dominant power in the universe, where the treasures that they plundered and the lives that they took would be not for lies or servitude, but in the name of their own free will.

But somewhere far away, the severed half of Forward Unto Dawn would stay drifting in space, and Izuku-117 would shelter himself in the ship's experimental cryostasis, sleeping for many years as the universe evolved around him, all the while the A.I. version of Ochako would continue to watch over him as they drifted off to parts unknown...

Chapter 21: Doctor Izuku

Chapter Text

When Izuku is told by All Might that he cannot be a hero without a quirk, he decides to take Bakugou's advice and take a swan dive off a roof.

He hits the ground, All Might sees him, and he dies...

Except, he doesn't. His body begins to glow and heal, and in a roar of fiery light, he does something remarkable.

He regenerates into a completely different person.

All Might takes him to a hospital, where the doctors are confused about how Izuku could possibly have a quirk at all. Despite the two-jointed toe resulting in quirklessness theory having been discredited years ago, Izuku was confirmed to be quirkless. All the genetic tests and blood trials had proven this. He is functionally quirkless, so how was he able to hold a quirk at all.

Then, Izuku wakes up, and it reveals that not just his physical appearance has changed, but also his personality as well. Where once he was shy and timid, now he was confident and snarky, almost smug, and with not much of a filter to his voice and a penchant for speaking his mind no matter what.

The doctors soon reveal to Izuku, All Might, and Inko Midoriya that the former's new quirk is something that they can't even begin to understand. Functionally, he is still quirkless, despite the evidence to the contrary. All the scans that they have carried out reveal nothing out of the ordinary. He has no special abilities, no sudden changes beyond the obvious alterations to his biology, nothing at all. They are positively confused by the change.

However, regardless of whether the scans are correct or not, Izuku has a quirk now, and is alive because of it, and All Might apologises for what he said to Izuku. Izuku, however, with a new perspective on life, begins to doubt whether or not he even wants to be a hero anymore, even though he is still planning on joining U.A. in its general education course. Maybe he should take some time out of his life to travel the world...

So, for the next ten months, instead of training to join U.A.'s hero course, Izuku spends his days reading and studying, having been pulled out of Aldera by his mother over what happened with Bakugou. One of the first deviations from canon is Izuku's intelligence, in that it has dramatically increased due to Bakugou and Aldera's bullying giving him nothing to do but sink into his studying and analysis. As such, when Izuku takes the entrance exam for U.A., he aces it.

Soon enough, he enters U.A. as a member of its gen-ed course, and attempts to make a friend in Shinso, but fails due to the latter's abrasiveness. However, he would soon find his first ever friends in others in the general education department, as well as Mei Hatsume and the others in the support department, and would begin to impress his teachers with his intelligence and technical prowess.

However, one day Izuku comes across one of his friends acting strange on the day of the press break-in, and realises that that same person is not his friend, but instead a villain who has replaced them, calling themselves the Zygon. Using just his wits and intellect, Izuku is able to outsmart the villain, expose them to the heroes of the school, and get him apprehended. Upon seeing the Zygon being carted away, Nezu at first chastises Izuku for going up against a villain without alerting the heroes prior, before congratulating him for taking the villain down.

Soon enough, Izuku is praised for his takedown of the villain, and this begins to feed into his confidence and growing ego, eventually making him become arrogant, convincing himself that he is simply smarter and better than everyone around him.

However, this sense of hubris within Izuku would be torn down when his class goes on a fieldtrip to the headquarters of Mondas Solutions, a massive conglomerate that had a hand in every major market relating to electronics, support items, medicine, pharmaceuticals, and medical issues, including limb and organ replacements.

However, here, Izuku begins to hear whispers about the Quirk Singularity theory, and engages in a pointed discussion with the founder of Mondas Solutions, one Doctor Christine Allen, who answers to the board of the company, known as the Central Committee. During their conversation, Izuku discovers evidence of a plot taking place in the centre of the corporation, including around the local towns, where the homeless are disappearing, and the graves are being dug up. On top of this, the earbuds that are being sold by the corporation leave him concerned…

Izuku begins an investigation into the group once the fieldtrip ends, eventually roping some of his friends into helping him out as they look into the disappearances, having to move carefully as to not run afoul with the police as they do so, including Detective Tsukauchi, who suspects that some of his own people in the force are on the take of Mondas. One night, Izuku and the others find a group of homeless people, with blinking ear buds in their ears for some reason, digging up countless graves in a graveyard and gathering up the bodies inside. Izuku and the others are forced to run when those same homeless chase them off.

Back in U.A., Izuku and Hatsume use an access card that they'd swiped off a Mondas Solutions' worker and use it to gain entry into their systems. They realise that Doctor Allen and the Central Committee are planning something relating to the ear pieces that they've been selling, but are unable to figure out what it is. Izuku decides to use his personal connection to All Might to get his friends and himself entry to a grand party hosted by investors of Mondas Solutions, hoping to find answers there.

Meanwhile, the Central Committee and Doctor Allen hold a meeting with several investors whom share similar interests and concerns about the future of mankind with them. During this meeting, they reveal that they are all believers of the Quirk Singularity theory, and believe that the end of humanity is approaching because of it. As such, they are all eager to survive it.

The Central Committee, however, wish to see all of humanity survive the coming storm in one shape or form. To see this dream through, they unveil a brand new form of hero/soldier/police worker to private investors that share similar interests with them. A cyborg, with its brain, heart, and organs removed and placed inside a steel and plastic shell, the weaknesses of their flesh replaced with cold efficiency...

The Cyberman.

The investors reject the idea, but the Central Committee deem it to be illogical, and make ready to move forward with their plans.

Later that night, at the party, Izuku and his friends try to get as much information out of the partygoers as they can, and Izuku finds himself angered at how far above the rest of society these high class heroes and elites think themselves. However, once again they find themselves running afoul with Detective Tsukauchi, who has gone undercover at the party with fellow officer Monika Kaniyashiki to uncover whatever is going on at Mondas Solutions as well.

But then, the party is attacked and the partygoers are surrounded by the Central Committee's Cybermen, who proclaim themselves to be the next phase of human evolution. Over the speakers, the Committee, now having undergone their own conversion into the first Cyber-Planner proclaim that all of humanity must survive the coming Quirk Singularity, and that the only logical way to do so is to upgrade themselves into Cybermen. It is here that Izuku and his friends realise that these Cybermen are both the missing homeless people and the dug up bodies from the empty graves.

When the people at the party refuse to be upgraded, the Cybermen begin to kill them. Izuku and his friends are horrified by the massacre, and during their escape, Monika is caught by the Cybermen and killed, and two of Izuku's friends, Maina and Bibimi are captured along with the rest of the survivors.

During their escape, Tsukaichi attempts to call All Might and the heroes to assist in stopping the Central Committee and the Cybermen, and they move to intervene. However, it is too late. Almost all the heroes and everyone in Japan, including All Might himself, are wearing the ear pieces provided by Mondas Solutions. Izuku and his friends are the only ones in the entirety of U.A. who have taken them off.

The Central Committee begin transmitting a signal into the ear pieces, and they take control of everyone wearing them, forcing them all to march towards their processing facilities across the country. Even All Might is unable to resist their control. Meanwhile, the Cybermen at the party massacre round up all the survivors and force the ear pieces onto them, including Maina and Bibimi. They are the first to be converted into Cybermen.

Meanwhile, Izuku and his friends are in shock over what happened, and are desperate to get back to Maina and Bibimi. However, they soon find that a larger problem has emerged, as almost everyone in Japan was wearing an ear piece, and they're all marching off to Mondas Solutions' factories. Izuku and the others realise that this is so that they can be converted into Cybermen, and rush to stop them.

At the primary factory for Cyber-conversion, Izuku's group form a plan on how to combat the Cybermen, move to infiltrate the factory to shut off the signal being sent from the ear pieces through separate positions. However, once again because of Izuku's arrogance, he dominates the planning phase and sends everyone on his way. Meanwhile, Doctor Allen is beginning to have second thoughts on the plan, but she is caught by her own Cybermen and taken away to be converted into the first Cyber Controller. However, she is able to slip from their grasp and escape.

As they infiltrate the facility, Izuku's group realise that they have been outwitted by the Cybermen and have severely overestimated their chances. Soon enough, Izuku's group is rounded up by the Cybermen, with Izuku being caught by the converted Maina and Bibimi, traumatising him greatly.

Izuku and the rest of the group are brought before the Cyber-planner, and are questioned for their actions and why they have no ear pieces on. Realising that Izuku was the one who came up with the plan to infiltrate the facility, the Cyber-planner decides to make an example out of him.

So the Cybermen shock, and kill him, dragging his body away to be disposed of.

The Cybermen then place earpieces on his friends', mind-controlling them, and have them taken away to be converted.

However, before they can be turned into more Cybermen, Doctor Allen rescues them by overriding the controls on their earpieces and the emotional inhibitors on the Cybermen guarding them with a small device, not powerful enough to kill all the Cybermen across the country though.

Not unless they can amplify it.

And so, without Izuku, the group come up with a new plan: find the signal amplifier that the Cyber-planner was using to mind control all the people of Japan, override it, and transmit a new signal that deactivates not just the earpieces, but also the emotional inhibitors on the Cybermen, destroying them.

However, the Cyber-planner is quick to realise this plan, and sends its Cybermen to stop them.

Meanwhile, Izuku wakes up, not quite dead, and very close to regenerating. Feeling his body failing him, he stumbles across the facility until he comes to a room filled with experimental robot prototypes called Cybermats, which he takes control of and aims at the Cyber-planner, eager to destroy its many bodies for hurting his ego.

However, he then sees on the security cameras his friends and Doctor Allen speeding through the facility, chased by Cybermen, and then breaking into the broadcasting room to try and override the transmitting signal, and quickly realising what he has done and what he was going to do, and changes the Cybermats' targets.

Meanwhile, Izuku's friends hold themselves up in the transmission room as Doctor Allen tries to override the signal and send out their own. However, the Cyber-planner proceeds to not so much taunt as it does state what it believes is going to happen to them, Japan, and the rest of the world as the Cybermen break through the doors and marches towards them.

But then, the Cybermats burst through the vents and doors and attacks the Cybermen, destroying them. Izuku calls them through the radio, telling them to transmit the signal, before he himself is found by a Cyberman and shocked to death once more.

Doctor Allen and Hatsume send the signal through, and the earpieces shut off, freeing the people of Japan from the Cyber-planner's control. Then, they shut off the emotional inhibitors, and the Cybermen go mad from the realisation of what they have become.

The mad Cybermen then find the Cyber-planner and destroy it, killing all its organic bodies before killing themselves, destroying the Cyber-race and bringing every conversion facility down onto themselves.

Izuku's group help to rescue people from the rubble as they all recover from the shock of what has happened, but then come across a wounded and broken Izuku, who is beginning to regenerate.

Izuku apologises for what he has done, the arrogance, ego, and hubris he has displayed, and all the lives that he has indirectly killed, and regenerates.

He becomes she. Izuku becomes Izumi.

In wild contrast to their previous personality, this Izuku, Izumi, is not arrogance and boastful, but humble and stoic, quiet, and sincere. She is not good around people, much more reserved and somber, and burdened by the guilt of what she has done and the lives that have been lost, both by her and others. She surrenders herself to Tsukauchi to be arrested for her crimes.

In the aftermath of the destruction of not just Mondas Solutions and the Cyber-planner, but all the Cybermen as well, Izumi and her group of friends are celebrated by Japan for saving them all. However, in stark contrast to how they had previously lapped up all the praise of defeating the Zygon infiltrator, Izumi is quick to deflect the praise away from her and back to her friends, calling them the real heroes and refusing to accept any praise. Instead, she asks to be held accountable for the lives that had been lost because of her arrogance, and for those that have died to be mourned before they celebrate anything else.

However, instead of arresting her and letting her be sent to prison, Nezu instead shields her from the law and takes her sacrifice in the facility and her hand in stopping the Cybermen as penance for her crimes, though Doctor Allen is forced to go to prison for her hand in creating and developing the Cybermen, as well as her role in the Central Committee's plan as well. Rather than be thankful for this, Izumi is disquieted and hurt by this, seeing it as unjust.

This is the end of series one of the story. Each series would revolve around Izuku confronting a character flaw of his and overcoming it. This first series would about his overcoming his arrogance and ego. The events with the Cybermen would serve as the replacement for the USJ, as the Zygon infiltrator from before would've been the one that had supplied Shigaraki and the League of Villains with the information that they needed for their attack on the school. From here on out, there would be several epilogues:

The first would be with said League of Villains, where Shigaraki would be raging over not only the Zygon failing to get them the information that they needed, but also the Cyber-Event (as it would soon be called) completely overshadowing any possible attack that they could pull in the future, not only because it destroyed so much and killed so many more people than they could ever manage, but also the fact that it had been stopped not by heroes, but by a group of children from U.A. who weren't even part of the hero course. All for One, however, takes note and interest in Izumi's quirk as he is contacted by Doctor Garaki who tells him that he has found them a new ally in an old friend from the German country of Skaro, one that has been locked in constant civil war between the Thals and the Kaleds: one Yarvelling Davros, who will help them create the perfect Nomu and body for All for One as long as they help fund his personal project.

The second would focus around Yarvelling Davros himself, who would find interest in both the quirk and the intellectual mind of Izumi, admiring her takedown of the Cybermen, even as he is aware of the other eyes that are watching her. He then muses on the philosophy of the Central Committee and even agreeing with it, seeing as how he is a burnt survivor of the Skaro Civil War on the side of the Kaleds, but disagrees with what they were trying to do. Instead of fighting against the inevitable mutation that would destroy all of mankind... they should embrace it, and be made stronger for it. He would see the end of humanity as a challenge, and take from it the ultimate lifeform.

The third epilogue would centre around the other eyes looking over Izuku. However, they would remain ambiguous on both their identity and their intentions.

The fourth would revolve around Izumi as she attempts to recover from the Cyber-Event and everything that has happened around it, but is interrupted by a message from an Ood, a member of a race of docile creatures found underground over a hundred years ago in a place known as the Ood Sphere. Confused as to why the Ood was there, seeing as how Ood rarely if ever leave their home, the Ood simply delivers a confusing message to her: 'The Angels have the TARDIS.'

And then, in a fifth epilogue, a young girl stumbles through an alleyway, broken, wounded, and dying... and then she begins to glow...

And then she regenerates.

Series two of the story would centre around Izumi's guilt complex, and begin with Izumi stumbling aimlessly through U.A., surrounded by people who both praise her for helping to take down the Cybermen and blame her for getting Maina and Bibimi killed. She is lost on what to do and filled with guilt over what happened, and takes to closing herself off from her friends and just about everyone else in order to protect them and herself.

His friends, however, refuse to leave her on her own, and decide to conscript her into a new mystery in the school to take her mind off what happened: the scuttling in the walls.

Izumi quickly throws herself into this mystery, but still cannot stop thinking about the events that came before, feeling unworthy of having friends or even calling herself a member of the academy. Even when she finds a lead on this little case, that being shreds of lizard skin between the walls, her mind refuses to leave the memories of the past.

Izumi's friends decide to stay behind for the night to investigate what is going on, dragging her along with them. Soon enough, they spot Nezu, along with a teaching assistant by the name of Jenny Flint and a student that they knew as Setsuna Tokage, staying behind for the night, slipping down through a hole in the wall and following a swarm of lizards down through a tunnel, past the basem*nt, and deep under U.A.. The group follow them down, only to come across an ancient city built underneath Musufatu...

Populated by a hidden species known as the Silurians.

As it turned out, Nezu had been in contact with this colony of Silurians, trying to help them and the other clans of Silurians in keeping their emergence into modern society peaceful, not helped by by the fact that many of the clans wanted to go to war with the humans above. More surprising to the students, however, the group learn that Jenny and the leader of the leading clans of Silurians, one Madame Vastra, are wives, and Setsuna is their child, making her a half-human, half-Silurian hybrid.

But then, Nezu points out where Izumi and her friends are, revealing that he knew that they were following them. A brief scuffle breaks out between Izumi's friends and the Silurians, during which Izumi panics and throws herself in front of her friends. However, Nezu and Vastra are quick to stop the fighting, and after some questioning, Setsuna fills them in on what is going on:

Before humanity had ever evolved, the Silurians ruled the Earth alongside the dinosaurs. However, when the meteoroid that wiped out the dinosaurs hit the planet, the Silurian clans fled to under the Earth's crust and entered cryogenic stasis, their esoteric computers awaiting for the time that they could awaken and reclaim their world.

However, they had exited stasis at the time of the awakening of quirks and the emergence of heroes. The Silurian clans had been ready to go to war with the people above, but the first principal of U.A. had found and convinced them to stand down and work for peace. From since then, it had become the duty of each principal of U.A. to help make sure that the coming emergence of the Silurians is as peaceful as possible.

It had been to this end that Jenny and Vastra had married each other. At first, their marriage had been arranged by both Nezu and the elders of the Silurian clans as a political move, but soon, the two eventually fell in love and made a child with each other, that being Setsuna and another by the name of Rapt. Setsuna proves this by morphing into her Silurian form.

However, apart from being seen as a freak, Izumi and her friends instead find her to be cool and are quick to accept her, proving to both Nezu and the Silurian elders that cooperation between both Human and Silurian was possible, which the former had hoped for.

Soon enough, the Emergence takes place and the Silurians became known to the whole world. Silurian children would begin attending U.A. alongside Humans, and Setsuna would become part of Izumi's friend group.

However, Izumi is still troubled by the message that she received from the Ood not to long ago. She has no idea what a TARDIS is, or what an Angel is in this context. She is also unsure as to why she seems to be hearing a strange groaning noise every now and then.

Izumi tries to keep her mind off this strange message for the time being as she tries to be friendly to her classmate Shinso. However, his abrasive personality and jealousy over her popularity from both the Cyber-Event and now the Emergence, makes him difficult to be affable with and rather unlikable, especially when Izumi's new humble attitude grates on him all the wrong ways.

Soon, the Sports Festival comes about, and when compared to canon, it's a much more quiet affair. Hero society is still reeling from the Cyber-Event, and the Emergence has only served to rattle people more. Less people attend the Sports Festival, and the news and media networks are more focused on the repercussions of the Cyber-Event and the Emergence to bother with U.A.. As such, the Sports Festival is treated as an afterthought by the world, and the students participating are demoralised because of it.

Not only that, but because of Izumi's lack of presence within the hero course, as well as the lack of a USJ, the hero course students are a lot more bitter to each other, especially because of Bakugo's abrasive attitude and Shoto's stoic aloofness and singling out of Bakugo as a rival without any regard for anyone else. Worse yet, they also feel overshadowed by the Gen Ed course students due to their elevated position of prominence in the eyes of the world for their roles in both the Cyber-Event and the Emergence, especially when several hero students were beginning to get harassed by civilians for their lack of involvement in these events. As such, the resentment between the Hero Course and the Gen Ed course is flipped around, which only serves to make the whole festival feel more bitter in the mouth.

In the end, the Sports Festival is a quiet affair that doesn't catch much traffic, and Shinso, Bakugo, Todoroki, and the other students participating in it are left unsatisfied by the whole event, as they will not be receiving as many offers or attention from the public when the media is still dominated by the politics behind the Emergence and the aftermath of the Cyber-Event.

Meanwhile, Izumi would spend the Sports Festival in the infirmary, working with Recovery Girl to help heal injured students after events, whilst also finding a confidant in one Ochako Uraraka from the Hero Course. It is here that she starts to consider becoming a doctor.

Soon, the Sports Festival ends, and Recovery Girl decides to take Izumi on as an apprentice, hoping that giving the girl something to do would serve as a form of therapy for all her rolling thoughts. Soon enough though, she would be contacted by one Yavelling Davros, revealing that Recovery Girl is actually a Kaled refugee from the German state of Skaro. The conversation between the two is tense, and Recovery Girl is shocked at the fact that the elderly scientist has expressed a personal interest in her protégé.

In the aftermath of the Sports Festival, the Hero Course students would head off on their internships, and would spend almost all of it dealing with the continued aftermath of the Cyber-Event and the Emergence, settling tensions between technophobic mobs and stopping them from attacking support companies, and keeping relations peaceful between Humans and Silurian clans. In particular, Ochako and Tsuyu of Class 1-A would run into trouble with a group of Silurian raiders known as the Sea Devils, to which Ochako would display some additional quirks to her personality, being a tiny bit more snide and sarcastic with her comments.

Tenya, on the other hand, would attempt to hunt down Stain for crippling his brother, at the same time as the League of Villain, still having its manpower saved over from the lack of a USJ incident, as well as both the All Might killing Nomu and the other Nomu that took part in the canon attack on Hosu, laid siege to the city and spread anarchy wherever they went. During the chaos, both Iida and Todoroki would come across Stain...

And without Izuku there to assist them, and with Todoroki still holding his fire back thanks to not having his fight with Izuku as well, both Iida and Todoroki are killed, and Stain slips away into the darkness.

Meanwhile, Izumi is supposed to be on a trip alongside Recovery Girl to help treat and heal the long-term survivors of the Cyber-Event, but she is instead cut off and trapped within the burning city of Hosu. When she comes across multiple civilians hiding away from the rampaging villains, she decides to take the initiative and lead them out of the city, helping to save dozens of innocents from being slaughtered by the monsters attacking the city, and then saving a dozen more as she puts the medical skills that she learnt from Recovery Girl to good use.

Then, she comes across what looks like an elderly version of Tsuyu, suffering from a mortal wound, who gives her a strange-looking key and gives her a warning about someone who called themselves the Master before she expires.

Soon enough, All Might and an army of heroes arrive in Hosu and drive back the League of Villains, and Izumi is once more commended for her actions during the battle. However, she refuses any credit or acclaim, and is instead rattled by the death of the woman who had warned her about this 'Master' person, who had given her a strange key, and who had looked like an elderly Tsuyu.

Meanwhile, Ochako continues to speak to Tsuyu, and the frog girl finds herself growing fond of the gravity controller, even if she could do without the snarky comments. However, one of her classmates, a girl by the name of Yui Kodai, gives her a strange looking key, and tells her not to tell anyone that she has it.

Meanwhile, Izumi begins to suffer from headaches as she tries to focus on her schoolwork, somehow noticing little oddities in historical records that shouldn't be there, little contradictions and paradoxes. Dates getting mixed up, things happening out of order, minute things, but they are beginning to add up. Strange winged creatures were beginning to fly around the world, eating people whole, and others are beginning to disappear.

Reality around her is beginning to fall apart, cracks are beginning to form, and Maina and Bibimi are with her, walking around as if they never died.

Something is wrong with time.

Izumi goes to investigate, finding that everyone around her are somehow holding contradictory ideas in their heads as if they were both true. Her head pounds and aches as she comes across more and more paradoxes.

Then, she bumps into a child. A quirkless girl with white hair and red eyes by the name of Eri. A girl who is running away from the Angels...

Just as Tsuyu is, on her way home, caught and cornered by a winged statue. One that moves whenever she looks away, whenever she blinks, and one that sends her back into the distant past, key still in her pocket.

Izumi carries away Eri in her arms, avoiding the flying creatures around them, only to realise that the creatures were ignoring them, and were focused on eating the people that should not be alive, most of them the casualties of the Cyber-Event, which strangely settles Izumi's headaches whenever it happens.

In U.A., Izumi talks to Eri, who reveals that she was running away from statues of angels. One that always seemed to be crying. She called them the Weeping Angels. Izumi realises that there have been tons of strange statue sightings in the city recently, and goes to her friends to try and figure out what is going on.

With her friends, including Ochako, All Might, Setsuna, and Maina and Bibimi, Izuku tells them of Eri and what has been going on, and reveals to them the messages that she's been getting about Angels and someone called the Master, as well as something about a TARDIS, and shows them the contradictory information in the history records. Though they are unsure at first, they accept that something is wrong, though many of them put it down onto a quirk.

Deciding that they need answers, Izumi and her friends and allies, now including Eri and one classmate by the name of Yui Kodai, set off for the smartest person currently in the country for answers: one Yarvelling Davros, who had been brought in by the HPSC from Skaro to Japan to examine and dissect the Nomu corpses that they'd recovered from the Battle of Hosu.

Izumi is somewhat ecstatic to meet Davros, as he is a personal hero of hers, being a quirkless genius who had survived hell and back, that being the Skaro Civil War, even in his withered, ghoulish state, and had risen to become one of the most prominent minds in the entire world, but is able to control her fangirling as they all work together to understand what is going on. During their investigation, Izumi and Davros have several conversations with each other, testing each other's minds with their questions and queries, before Davros points out that, not too long ago, his scientists had discovered a strange machine that had suddenly popped up into existence one day, only to disappear the next. They had assumed it to be a trick by Thal sabetours, but now he wasn't so sure.

But then, the facility that they are sheltering in is attacked by an unknown enemy, and Izumi sees the face of her newest foe for the first time: the Weeping Angels.

Soon, hundreds of Weeping Angels break through the perimeter and into the facility. The situation is only made worse when Izumi discovers that not only can the Angels interfere with electronics and lights, but that any image that holds an Angel will itself become an Angel.

Soon enough, they are surrounded by Weeping Angels, and that is when they are betrayed...

By Ochako, who fatally shoots Eri with sad*stic glee, revealing herself to not only be in league with the Angels, but also that which Izumi was warned of...

She is the Master.

Izumi, Maina, Bibimi, and a dying Eri are all sent back in time to the same time period, in the days before quirks existed, with Ochako, now revealed to be the Master, laughing at them all the way. Everyone else is scattered through time, and Ochako moves into the captured TARDIS that the Angels had seized, piloting it to begin creating even more paradoxes in time.

Then, back in time, Izumi, Maina, and Bibimi witness Eri do something remarkable...

She regenerates, just like Izumi can. Suddenly she has red hair, green eyes, and is very confused about what is happening to her.

Izumi, Maina, Bibimi, and Eri spend months wandering around in the past, disguising themselves as to not draw any attention to themselves, and try to figure out what is going on. Izumi keeps the informaion of Maina and Bibimi's deaths to herself, though. Setsuna and Hatsume, meanwhile, find themselves during the age of Dinosaurs, where the two of them help to give the Silurians their technology and elevate them into masters of the Earth. And elsewhere, All Might and Yui find themselves lost in the days where the first quirks were beginning to emerge into society, with Yui suddenly leading a confused All Might along through the beginning of what would become known as the Dark Times.

All the way, they are hunted by the Weeping Angels, as timeline after timeline collapses all around them.

However, they soon find cracks in time and space, widening and shifting with each alteration that the Master and the Angels make to time. More than that, Izumi and her group find evidence of messages that have been left over for them from Hatsume and Setsuna in the past, and they all begin to work together over time to uncover the truth behind the Angels, the Master, and the Tardis.

Through the expanding cracks in time, Yui is able to send clues to Izumi about the key in her possession, and how that links to the mysterious TARDIS, and she realises that the key acts as a sort of homing beacon for whatever this strange object is. When she tries to ask as to what this all means, or how she knows about all of this, Yui does not answer.

Soon enough, Izumi and her part of the group are able to use the key to track down where the TARDIS is, and they find it buried underground. Izumi feels herself bonded to this strange looking machine for some reason.

Then, suddenly, the Weeping Angels attack, and they find the Master rolling with them in a different form, a man, having tracked them all the way to the TARDIS. But then the Master questions why they are there, and Izumi realises that they are meeting out of order, and that this is, in the Master's timeline, the first time that she was getting to the TARDIS. They'd just led them to their prize.

Izumi and her group are forced to flee the Master and the Angels, leaving them to take the TARDIS for themselves. During the scuffle, Izumi, Maina, and Bibimi injure the Master, and they discover that he can regenerate too, changing into the form of Ochako Uraraka.

However, the Master recognises that Maina and Bibimi are supposed to be dead, and cruelly reveals this to them, shattering their trust in Izumi and leaving them broken.

However, during the fight, Izumi is able to swipe a strange watch from the Master and legs it, activating the machine and sending them all back in time once more.

She had taken the Master's vortex manipulator and jumps away, back in time to Hatsume and Setsuna's time.

Meanwhile, All Might finally begins to get answers to his questions out of Yui, and she reveals that the TARDIS is an advanced travel machine capable of moving through time, and that it had come far from the future, though because it had been stolen by the Master before she lost it planeside. When All Might asks to how she knew this, she refuses to answer, but All Might is able to intuit that she came from the future as well, and that she had been sent to track it down and recover it.

Back in time, Izumi is confronted by Maina and Bibimi, who are furious at her for hiding the truth from them, and they refuse to allow themselves to die again.

Izumi and her group meet up with Hatsume and Setsuna, and they discover that they can use the vortex manipulator to jump forward in time, and then use the key to track the TARDIS through time. They them use the watch to jump through time, eventually ending up right at the dawn of quirks alongside All Might and Yui, where they discover that the Weeping Angels and the Master are planning on killing the first child and preventing quirks from ever coming into existence.

Soon enough, the heroes put a plan into action, and they begin to fight back against the Weeping Angels and the Master, using the flying man-eating beasts that had been following them for so long, which Yui calls Reapers, to destroy the Angels as Izumi heads off against the Master.

It is here that we finally learn of the Weeping Angel's plan: they feast upon energy created from shattered timelines, so intent to create a thousand paradoxes across time in order to feast on the potential energy generated from them for all of eternity.

Meanwhile, the Master had thrown herself onto the Angels' side, but had now betrayed them for her own ends: she wished to use both the TARDIS and the death of the first quirked child to create such a massive paradox that it would destroy all of time, so that she could rewrite it all from the ground up to her liking and rule over her new universe as a god.

Here, Maina and Bibimi finally see the damage that is done to the universe through time paradoxes, and come to terms with themselves.

Izumi and the Master come to blows, and Izumi is very close to sacrificing herself to stop her opponent thanks to her guilt complex, only to be stopped by Yui as she throws herself in the way of a blast from the Master's weapon...

And then she regenerates herself, decking the Master hard and allowing Izumi to defeat her, the latter woman pushing the Master in the way of a Reaper, allowing it to feast on the renegade regenerator and killing her.

Izumi and her group, alongside a regenerated Yui, rush into the TARDIS and flee, finding that Izumi, Eri, and Yui are somehow naturally in tune with the machine and its functions. Izumi's group then discover that there is one central pillar that all of these paradoxes are built upon, and that if they can solve that paradox, then all of time will rewrite itself back into the correct position.

It is the night of the Cyber-Event, and it is when Maina and Bibimi are killed.

Izumi is horrified by this, and refuses to allow her friends to die once more. But Maina and Bibimi, having seen the damage done to all of reality because of time paradoxes, and have finally come to accept their fates.

So, with one last goodbye, they are able to convince Izumi to let go of the guilt that she feels before it destroys her, and walk to their ends, at peace with themselves.

With Maina and Bibimi's sacrifice, the central paradox shatters, and with that all of time is restored. All the people that died because of the Angels and the Master are brought back, everything is put back to normal, and Izumi and her friends are left to contemplate the future.

Series two ends on a calm note, with Izumi finally letting go of her guilt complex in remembrance of Maina and Bibimi, and decides to use the TARDIS not to disrupt time, but to simply sightsee the world through its past, essentially just go travelling the world, and her friends, Setsuna, Eri, and Hatsume all decide to go with her on a grand tour of the past.

However, Izumi still is unsure of how to feel about Yui, now that she has revealed herself to be capable of regeneration, and that she is still keeping secrets from her. Secrets about the future, and about her future...

The epilogue for Series Two ends with Davros contemplating the future that he is about to step into, and reveals that, thanks to the funding he's received from both All for One and the World Hero Association, the first of his new prototype casings has been created for the mutants...

Soon, his Daleks will inherit the world...

Chapter 22: (Not) Used to the Darkness

Chapter Text

Izuku is a Guardian, a defender of the Light, the Traveller, and the Last City. He has fought against the Eliksni House of Wolves, the Taken and the Hive, and the Red Legion…

And then, one day, during a battle with the Vex, he and his Ghost, Mikumo, wakes up in another world. Another Earth. An Earth filled with people with powers, with quirks.

Izuku and his Ghost spend some time wandering around Japan, rolling as a vigilante for some time as they worked to help as many people as they could. However, their violent methods of taking down villains, of which would've been normal or even restrained within the old world that they had come from, would leave them alienated by the public and branded as villains themselves by the heroes.

Soon enough, it is All Might that catches Izuku and his Ghost during their raid on the hideout of a pair of villains known as Martial Hair and Needle Hair, and the Guardian and his Ghost are forced to surrender to the heroes in order to save themselves.

Upon learning of Izuku and his Ghost's intentions, and also after forcing them to tell him about their past, Nezu decides to shield the two of them from the HPSC and shelter them within U.A., seeing the potential in them to become heroes. Izuku goes through the recommendation exams with the likes of Setsuna, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, and the others, and passes, and is soon admitted into Class 1-A. Along the way, Mikumo, his Ghost, regularly makes comments on the amount of Light that he can feel from everyone around him.

Soon enough, the beginning of the school year begins, but Izuku is unable to rank high in the scoreboard of the quirk application test due to his powers in the Light, his being a Titan, not having many appliable uses in such a test, leaving him in the bottom half of the ranking structure. However, during the next day's battle trials, Izuku is able to dominate his opponents thanks to both his combat orientated Light powers and his wealth of experience, and this nets him several rivals within Class 1-A, particularly Todoroki, Bakugou, and Momo, who is shown to be much stronger in this fic than she is in canon, and ends up becoming the MP of their round due to Izuku's violent usage of his Light and his lack of care toward the destruction of property around him.

A few days later, Izuku ends up voting Momo as the Class Representative over himself, with her becoming class representative and Iida becoming vice representative. During the break-in later that day, the three of them are able to work together to calm down the students, and cement their friendship with each other later that day.

(The key that I've got for this story is to keep Izuku as powerful as a guardian should be, but also with some logical weaknesses to keep him grounded, as well as some flaws to keep him human.)

During the USJ Incident later in the week, Izuku would come face to face with many of the villains that had joined the League of Villains in invading U.A., and he would realise that many of these villains had been ones that he'd fought and beaten before, a few even brutalised in fact, with many of them, particularly Martial Hair and Needle Hair, had joined the League in hopes of getting their own back on the former vigilante. Izuku would go on to defeat them, but would be forced to consider his methods on how he defeats his enemies in this new world, especially if he wants to stay in line with the laws that govern this world as world. Worse yet, his brutal methods against the USJ villains would only serve to frighten many of his classmates, alienating him from the rest of 1-A save for his closest friends.

When the Sports Festival came to pass, Izuku would blitz through the course, as it was now suited to his particular skillset of Light powers. First, he used his Sparrow and double jumping to best the first event, but is barely able to scrape past the second round with his team composed of Momo, Mei, and Shoji, thanks to the likes of Bakugou, Todoroki, and other teams targeting them. When the third event came to pass, Izuku would almost be stopped by Shinso during their match.

However, when Shinso is able to use his quirk on Izuku, instead of doing as Shinso commanded in walking off the stage, Izuku goes catatonic as his mind drifts away into the Light. In this state, Izuku's mind goes into a form of death, and he begins to hear whispers from a dark force that rested itself within their world. A voice using the powers of the Darkness itself.

Izuku's Ghost would be able to snap him out of his stupor, but Izuku would be unable to continue the Sports Festival as he is rendered into shock at his experience with the Darkness, something that he thought he had escaped from. As it is now revealed, Izuku has a deep seeded hatred and fear of the Darkness, so much so that when other Guardians had started using Stasis back in his homeland, Izuku had been disgusted by it to the point of openly challenging them in the Crucible over it. To him, the Darkness was something to be fought and confronted, not bartered with and used for power. As such, he had never got along with the likes of the Drifter and Eris Morn.

Meanwhile, Bakugou and Todoroki would continue the Sports Festival, unsatisfied as they had both wanted to challenge and battle Izuku on the field. However, they would both be defeated by Momo, who would go on to win the Sports Festival and earn All Might's attention, all the while many in the public would begin to make the connection between Izuku and the violent vigilante that had been running around before the start of the school year, and would scorn him for it.

Soon enough, Izuku would go out on his first internship, but would find himself straddled with Eraserhead due to his lack of offers for internships. The two of them would constantly butt heads over what is the best thing to do in a situation, with Izuku wanting to go out and save as many people as possible and Eraserhead restraining him from doing so. Eventually, the two of them would head into Hosu during the League of Villains' attack on the city, and Izuku would break away from Eraserhead to go confront Stain, who was just about to kill Iida and his mentor. However, during the battle, Izuku would find himself on the backfoot against Stain, who was somehow even more powerful than he could've imagined. It took the combined power of Izuku, Todoroki, Eraserhead, Endeavour, and Gran Torino (who had been training Momo for All Might), to take him down, and even then it was a difficult duel.

And then, Izuku would see the object that Stain had been carrying that gave him all his power, and he freezes up.

It's a splinter shaped like a pyramid. A Splinter of Darkness.

Eraserhead is forced to restrained the enraged Izuku before he can kill Stain, and later on, gives the boy a major dressing-down, telling him that he would've expelled him and sent him off to juvie for that if it wasn't for Nezu protecting him. Meanwhile, Nezu asks him as to why he had reacted so violently to the object that Stain had in his possession, but Izuku would refuse to answer, simply saying that it was too dangerous, and needed to be destroyed.

Meanwhile, the Splinter is taken away as evidence, only to corrupt the mind of a police officer who takes it for himself, only for himself to be killed by a gang member and stolen away. A few days later, a gang war would start over it, as the stray Splinter would begin to drive others into a greedy sense of madness, before eventually falling into the hands of one Shoto Todoroki, as it begins to whisper to him and feed his anger at his father.

Soon, the final exams would begin, and Izuku would find himself side-lined and denied entry into taking the exam as punishment for his earlier actions, with some in the staff considering revoking his chance at getting a licence due to his actions as a vigilante earlier. However, Izuku would begin an investigation of his own into the Splinter that Stain had on his possession, and how it linked to the voices that he'd heard when he was under Shinso's control.

All Might, seeking answers of his own about Izuku and hoping to find some time to spend with his chosen successor, would take both Izuku and Momo up to I-Island, allowing him to see his niece Melissa, who reminds Izuku too much of someone from his past, meaning that he finds himself unable to stay in her presence for too long.

Meanwhile, Todoroki arrives on I-Island, following the whispers of the Splinter in his possession to go down into the depths of the artificial island to find what he needed to help him get his revenge on Endeavour.

Meanwhile, Izuku and Momo would find themselves alone, and the latter would begin to prob the former over his reactions to these things of darkness, as he called them. Momo would guess that his reactions were because he had lost someone like Melissa a long time ago, but kept that to herself, and continued to prod Izuku for information and reactions. Izuku, however, would begin to poke at Momo with questions of his own, as he realises that Momo knows way more than she's letting on.

However, they would soon be interrupted by an alarm. I-Island is under attack… by Todoroki, who has been corrupted by the Splinter of Darkness in his possession and is tunnelling down to the bottom of the artificial island.

Izuku and Momo go to intercept, with Momo continuously restraining Izuku from going at Todoroki and killing him for possessing the Darkness, telling him that the dual-quirk user is as much a victim as everyone else. Izuku refuses to hear it, but forces himself to concede the point, remembering what he has been told by Nezu and Eraserhead before.

Soon enough, the two of them chase down Todoroki through the bowels of I-Island, and Izuku is shocked to find that the scientists of the floating island had been studying other artifacts of Darkness, sickening him, though he is left confused as to why they were here.

He would soon find his answer when Momo and he reached the lower depths of the island, and Izuku is shocked at what he finds.

A Pyramid. An obsidian Pyramid belonging to the Black Fleet.

Izuku and Momo follow Todoroki inside, and they find him kneeling before a statue of a veiled woman, having stabbed himself with the Splinter and let it worm itself into her body and fuse its power with himself.

Around them, a legion of Taken, now under Todoroki's command, as well as a new Darkness enemy that Izuku doesn't recognise known as Tormentors, spawn into existence, and begin to attack them, whilst others move to invade and take over the rest of I-Island. Izuku flies into a blind rage at Todoroki's usage of the Darkness, but is unable to stop him from escaping with his pair of Tormentors as more Taken move to block them.

Soon enough, they break out of the Pyramid and move to assist All Might and the rest of the heroes in kicking the Taken off the island, but find themselves being overrun by their enemies, with David Shield and his cadre of scientists revealing that they have been corrupted by the Pyramid's resonant energies as well and open the floodgates for the Taken to move through.

However, right as they are on the verge of defeat, Momo reveals her true colours as she makes a move of her own to take the island, and unleashes her true power.

She is a Guardian herself.

And her Ghost belongs to the Lucent Hive.

Momo is a Lightbearer in league with the Lucent Brood, and at her call, swarms of Lucent Hive invade I-Island and take over, beating back the Taken into the Pyramid and wiping them out, and Izuku, All Might, and the heroes are forced to retreat as they are overwhelmed by the Hive, who begin to push their home, the throne world, into real space and terraform the entirety of the artificial island to their suiting.

And Izuku, upon learning of this, is forced to fight against Momo and her subordinates, meaning that he is forced to run from her Hive Lightbearers, shattering her belief in the Light and destroying everything that he has ever believed in. This is only made worse when he encounters Melissa, who herself has been in league with Momo and the Lucent Hive as well in challenging the Pyramid and the Darkness, and he is rendered catatonic and has to be dragged away by All Might in a hasty retreat.

Izuku, in all his career as a Guardian, has never thought the Lucent Hive before, so this is all a fresh experience to him, and completely eviscerates everything that he has ever believed in.

And here is where we finally get into Izuku's backstory, where we see that, a long time ago, he had a wife, a fellow Lightbearer, and they had a pair of adopted children together. Back then, he had been more willing to entertain using the Darkness to defeat their enemies, and had even been a close reader of Ulan-Tan's thesis about his theory of Symmetry between the Light and Darkness.

However, during the events of Season of Arrivals, Izuku would find that his wife had succumbed to the corruption of the Darkness by the arrival of the Pyramids, and had murdered not just her Ghost, but their children as well, before killing herself right in front of Izuku and laughing all the way.

Ever since then, Izuku had turned away any sense of learning or using the Darkness, and had become violently dedicated to upholding the Light and opposing the Darkness. This led to several problems where he got into confrontations with Guardians who had begun to use Stasis, particularly the Young Wolf, and would decide to leave the Last City behind when the Vanguard made an alliance with Caiatl's Cabal Imperium and allowed the House of Light to shelter inside the city.

But now, with the Darkness well-intrenched inside Earth, and the Lucent Hive, an enemy that he has never faced before, who can also use the Light, something that he thought was sacred and untouchable, Izuku finds his entire worldview shattered and left in pieces, leaving him lost on where to go and what to do in a world that hates him.

And with the Taken now on the field, Todoroki and other heroes being corrupted by the Darkness and using the Taken to further their own purposes, and Momo leading the Lucent Hive into gaining a foothold on Earth to oppose not just the Darkness and the Taken, but also Hero Society as well, Izuku must soon take to the field once more and move beyond his narrowminded worldviews, accepting that to fight and win this war, he must use every advantage that he can get to survive the coming struggle.

Especially when the powers of Stasis and Strand call to him so…

Chapter 23: The Dark Knights Rising

Chapter Text

In this story, Batman and the Bat-Family are some of the biggest names in hero society, having been the first quirkless heroes, and having been as big of an icon as All Might himself, inspiring millions of people across the world...

And they've been gone for over a decade.

Ever since one last climatic battle with the Joker that split the team apart, the identities of its members have been exposed to the public, whom have now faded into obscurity. Alfred and James Gordon were murdered by the Joker during their last battle, and Jason Todd is presumed dead as well. Tim Drake was brainwashed by the Joker into becoming a demented sort of servant, but was freed from his conditioning, only to be locked in a vegetative state with no signs of ever waking up. Barbara Gordon was crippled and gave up the mantle of Batgirl, succeeding her late father briefly as Police Commissioner in Gotham before taking up a place in All Might's agency as Sir Nighteye's replacement, taking up the alias of Oracle and handing off the role of commissioner to Harvey Bullock. Dick Grayson, meanwhile, who had long since abandoned the title of Robin to take up his new name of Nightwing, and had long since been the leader of the Teen Titans, then the Titans, eventually supplanted the original Justice League when they fell apart after most of their members were killed in a climatic battle with Brainiac and Darkseid. The remaining individual members of the original JL are either dead, retired, or gone into hiding over the last ten years, and All Might has stepped up to bear all the burdens of the world in their place, becoming the number one hero, an icon even greater than Superman himself.

And Batman? Bruce Wayne? He would disappear, abandoning the title of Batman out of shame and guilt and going into hiding... but not before dismantling every single criminal empire in Gotham in a rampaging state of revenge.

Meanwhile, many of Batman's old rogues gallery have gone their own ways over the last ten years. Two-Face's mental degradation and split personality has finally driven him to the brink of madness and forced him into Arkham Asylum for the rest of his life. Killer Croc's mutations have finally taken him over completely and turned him into a massive, hulking crocodile-like cannibalistic monster. Scarecrow and the Riddler have gone to ground, Black Mask and Penguin have lost their empires thanks to Batman and have gone into hiding as well. The League of Assassins, under Talia Al Ghul, have set themselves up as mercenaries known as Shadows, co-led by Lady Shiva and Bane. Clayface has reformed and gone on the straight and narrow, as has Poison Ivy, the latter of whom took over Wayne Enterprises and turned it into Eden Industries, a corporation that focuses on developing environmentally-friendly technologies, solutions to helping plant life, and developing methods to combat climate change. Mister Freeze has passed away from his condition, having finally found the cure for Nora's disease after he was forced to work for the Joker when he held her hostage and curing her, setting her free to live her own life before he died. Harley Quinn, meanwhile, has gone to ground herself after having turned against the Joker before the last battle and helping the Bat-Family to defeat him, and no one has heard of the Joker since, with everyone assuming that he is dead.

However, without Batman around to inspire fear into the hearts of lesser criminals, crime has begun to rise in his absence. All Might is able to keep the peace by taking out supervillain after supervillain, evil plan after evil plan, but he is always being forced to concentrate on so many massive threats that he is starting to lose focus on the smaller pieces of the bigger picture, that being the rise in small-time crime thanks to the global effects of the absence of the Bat-Family. Now, the streets are beginning to feel a rise in crime, and the average pro hero is beginning to feel the strain. Worse yet, the fall of the Bat-Family has led to a fresh wave of discrimination against the quirkless, as they are used as an example of why the quirkless aren't fit to be heroes, and how they can fall and fail so easily...

In Japan, Izuku is feeling the strain of this new wave of hatred from Bakugo, who, instead of having the power of explosions, has, somehow, attained the powers of Superman through unknown ways. However, instead of being as humble as Superman, this instead feeds into Bakugo's ego, and he resolves to be an even greater hero than both All Might and Superman combined, treating everyone around him like dirt for it, especially Izuku, whom he attacks for thinking that he can ever be as good as him, or even anything compared to the quirkless weakling that was Batman.

However, during this time, he meets a girl his age, a mute, quirkless girl by the name of Cassandra Cain, who has taken up the fake name of Yui Kodai as she moves to Japan. Cassandra's past is locked in mystery, as the girl can neither read nor write in any language, nor can she speak anything as well. The only language she knows is violence, which she puts to good use in defending Izuku from a group of quirkist muggers.

Soon enough, the two of them join a club at Aldera that is meant to help protect fellow quirkless people such as themselves called the Detective Club. There, they meet fellow quirkless people Stephanie Brown, Duke Thomas, Harper Row, and a young Maya Ducard, and decide to try and make a future for themselves in a world that doesn't tolerate the quirkless by using their collective skills in helping to solve minor crimes around the neighbourhood, eventually getting them into the sights of a minor villain by the name of Nobody.

The first arc of the story would revolve around the Detective Club working together to expose Nobody for his crimes when not even the police could, and eventually learning that Nobody is actually Maya's abusive father. However, at the climax of the arc, Nobody, in a fit of rage about how the Detective Club is interfering with his plans, sicks the Sludge Villain on them. The Detective Club are just able to hold off the villain before All Might makes his appearance and defeats him.

And this is where the first real divergence in the story from the main MHA canon happens, as instead of asking All Might if he can be a hero without a quirk, Izuku and the Detective Club warn him about Nobody, and about how he is running some sort of information racket in the local area. All Might chastises the group for trying to take on a villain on their own, especially when they were untrained and without any hero licenses-

After the fall of Batman and the Bat-Family, as well as the dissolution of the original Justice League, new laws have been passed that have made hero society even more strict on who can and cannot be a hero, as well as on quirk usage and the exclusion of quirkless from heroics as a reaction to Batman's vigilantism. It should be noted that Batman was already rather unpopular due to his manipulations in the name of the greater good, which only served to alienate himself and his Bat-Family from the wider hero community even more than when they were just vigilantes. However, this has only made further problems, as hero society has closed its fist more tightly around its people, only for more of said people to begin to slip through the cracks. The changes are so negative that the Titans had ended up withdrawing themselves from politics and any diplomatic ties in protest, becoming a strictly neutral and apolitical hero group.

-But tells them that he'll forward it to the police, and leaves, Sludge Villain in tow.

However, that proves to not be good enough for the Detective Club, and they decide to finish the job and track down Nobody, who, when eventually caught by them, takes his daughter hostage, rants at them for ruining his chances to get into the 'Court', and sicks his other brute, Amygdala, on them.

So, while most of the Detective Club are trying to fight Nobody and rescue Maya, Cassandra ends up taking on Amygdala on her own. However, instead of simply fighting and defeating the brutish villain, Cassandra, in her limited way, is actually able to convince the villain to stand down and surrender himself, compelling him into a change of heart, showing off her heightened capacity for empathy for others.

As such, Amygdala ends up surrendering, and Cassandra joins the others in freeing Maya from her villainous father, and then beating down on Nobody to prevent him from getting away...

And that is when All Might bursts onto the scene once more, and takes down Nobody with a single punch.

As it turns out, when the Detective Club had told All Might about Nobody's information racket, he had informed his sidekick, Oracle, about the situation once he'd handed the Sludge Villain over to the police, and Barbara had tracked the villain to his hideout at the same time as the Detective Club had. All Might, once again, chastises the Detective Club for trying to take down the villain on their own and putting themselves, especially Maya, the daughter of the villain, in danger, and once Nobody is taken into custody, All Might orders them to follow him.

Soon enough, the Detective Club find themselves in a police building, being held in custody for chasing down Nobody without a license, and are confronted by Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, who grills them over their attempts to take down Nobody, putting themselves in needless danger when they could've just left it to a pro hero, and the Detective Club can't help but feel ashamed for getting one of their friends almost hurt by her own abusive father.

But then, just as Naomasa is about to have them sent away, back into their holding cells, he is stopped by two individuals entering into the scene, who have come to offer the group of children and offer of their own.

They are Principle Nezu of U.A., and one Doctor Marian Drew.

The two talk with the Detective Club, and lay out the facts to them: as it stands, these six quirkless children have attacked a known villain and his thugs - who were also already under investigation - almost got one of their friends hurt by said villain, and did all of this without any legal right to do so, possibly earning them one hell of a bad time from the law.

However, they also tracked down said villain quicker than the officials investigating him could, took down one of those brutes without so much as a fight, and were generally more of a help to the local community by doing so than the police officers who were trying to take down Nobody.

As such, they've come to make the Detective Club an offer that, in all honesty, they really can't refuse:

They can either take the U.A. entrance exam to enter as students, under watch of course, or they can have this incident on their criminal records.

But, if they fail the entrance exams, then they will immediately have this criminal act on their records.

The Detective Club, seeing no other options, take the deal.

As such, the Detective Club find themselves under house arrest for the next ten months until they can take the exams to get into U.A., but also find themselves able to train together (mostly learning from Cassandra) as they are forced to stay together under the guise of the pro hero Gunhead, who's a lot nicer than they'd been expecting, and actually congratulates them on taking down Nobody (though not without warning them of the risks of doing so and pointing out what they did wrong), and even giving them some pointers as they train themselves to be as strong and smart as they need to be to pass the entrance exam. During this time, they learn that Gunhead was actually once a member of the Outsiders, a team that had been set up by the Justice League as a way of training future members of the Justice League, only for it to eventually be disbanded when the original Justice League fell apart and the Outsiders' sponsors pulled out when the Titans went apolitical.

However, the ten months would not be without interruption. Thanks to All Might handing off the Sludge Villain to the police, the incident at Aldera never happens, and Bakugo is never saved by Izuku and All Might, and his ego is never tempered in such a way. As such, he continues to act with the same attitude as he had before, only made worse by his Kryptonian powers, which makes him feel like he could already be on par with Superman himself.

However, during this time, Izuku was pulled out of Aldera under the conditions of his house arrest, and it leaves Bakugo confused as to why he is gone, wondering if he is trying to evade him now. Angered by this prospect, Bakugo seeks Izuku out, eventually finding him in Gunhead's agency where he and the rest of the Detective Club are training themselves for the entrance exam under Gunhead's supervision, and ends up pounding at the door, demanding to know where Izuku is, almost breaking it down entirely with his super strength. When he is inside, he demands an explanation for where Izuku has been, completely ignoring the attempts by the others to stop him thanks to his Kryptonian biology, laughing at them in fact for how little of an affect they have on him.

(In case you couldn't tell, Bakugo is meant to be a lot more terrifying in this story than he is in canon, simply due to the fact that he has the same powers as Superman, who is pretty much indestructible in DC canon. It's also meant to be a sort of parallel between Izuku and Bakugo, as well as a reverse of the dynamics between Batman and Superman, as whereas Izuku, the quirkless hero, lacks the privilege and advantages that Batman had, he has the heart and optimism to make up for it. By contrast, Bakugo has all the powers and abilities of Superman, but grew up in a place of privilege like Batman, which has inflated his sense of self and allowed him to become an egotistical bully, almost the complete opposite of Superman's humble attitude.

Think something like Superboy-Prime meets Injustice meets Homelander meets Brightburn meets Omni-Man meets the Plutonian from Irredeemable.)

However, it is Stephanie who eventually gets him to clear off, threatening to alert the authorities about him and ruining his chances to become a hero. Bakugo sneers at this, but leaves at this threat, snarling at Izuku not to go to U.A., or Bakugo will reign hell on him and his quirkless friends.

When Bakugo leaves, the rest of the Detective Squad quickly move to help up and comfort Izuku, and they quickly realise what Bakugo has been doing to Izuku all this time in Aldera. Stephanie ends up revealing that she's already sent an alert to Gunhead about Bakugo, who has promised to pass it to the proper authorities. Izuku is shaken by Bakugo's constant treatment of him, though counters whatever they say by saying that Bakugo would be a great hero, probably the greatest hero who ever lived. The others wonder if that would be a good thing.

Soon enough, the day of the entrance exam comes to pass, and the Detective Club are led away by the heroes into their own training area, mercifully away from Bakugo. Soon enough, they complete the written exams (though Cassandra, still operating under the fake name of Yui Kodai, has to undergo a special exam due to her inability to read, write, or even speak), and they soon begin the practical exam, fighting against the villain bots and taking them down, working together to break as many as they can, which is not something that a lot of other applicants think of whilst trying to pass. They even end up teaming up with other people outside of their group, such as Mina Ashido, who is renamed Mina Grayson and is revealed to be the youngest daughter of Dick Grayson and Starfire, and has all of Starfire's abilities as well, Ochako Uraraka, and Iida Tenya, who are the same as they are in canon.

Soon enough, the entrance exam ends with a spectacular finale, as the Detective Club and their new allies work together to take down the Zero Pointer before it can crush an injured Koda and Kendo, and leave to learn of their results. Bakugo, who had finished his exam in a blink of an eye by blitzing around his battle centre at superspeed and destroying all the robots before any of the other contestants could even so much as look at them, watches them from a faraway building with a frown.

A week later, Izuku is awaiting the letter in Gunhead's agency alongside Cassandra (who has been living with him since she is technically homeless), Stephanie, Harper, Duke, and Maya, all of them worried about whether or not they had made it in, and whether or not they would be going to jail for taking out Nobody or not.

Soon enough, Marian Drew arrives from U.A. itself to personally deliver the news, and she doesn't hold back on her criticisms on their fighting styles during their practical exams, pointing out every time that they slipped up during combat and what they needed to improve on, before going to their written exams and haranguing them for all the wrong answers that they gave.

When they ask if they passed, Marian responds that they did so with flying colours.

Later that night, the teachers of U.A., now including All Might, who is currently looking for a successor to take up the mantle of One for All, gather around to discuss what is coming up in the new years, and Nezu brings up the recent editions to their ranks, several legacy heroes, such as those from the Iida and Grayson lineages, as well as not just one, but an entire group of quirkless students training to be heroes, the latter of which is the first time a quirkless person has ever entered into U.A.'s hero course, much less multiple at the same time. Some of the teachers question if it is safe for these quirkless students to be in the hero course, but the others, particularly Marian, state that there being quirkless people like herself in the hero course isn't the problem.

The problem is Bakugo.

As it stands, Bakugo is clearly Kryptonian, Superman's species, or at least something close to it. The powers that he had were too close to his to not be. What's more, he's got an attitude problem, an ego the size of the moon to boot, and the power to back it up. He'd cleared out his entire battle centre of so many villain bots that they had needed to redo the entire exam for everyone else that was supposed to be in the centre with him. The only other person who did that was All Might, and Bakugo is already close to his record.

Aizawa can already tell that he is going to be a problem child, and the others ask how they'd been kept unaware of Superman ever having a child. Nezu reveals that they'd had their eyes on Bakugo for a while, but unfortunately it wasn't as long as they would've liked. Bakugo has been more or less keeping his powers under wraps, and Aldera is proving to be less than forthcoming about his actions. It's only now that he's really beginning to show himself off. Nezu suspects that his parents have been hiding Bakugo's power from everyone, as there is no way someone of the powers that Bakugo has, powers like Superman, could've come from their quirks. Not naturally, at least. All Might gives him a look, but Nezu waves him down. That's a conversation for later.

Bakugo's powers are a problem, but like said before, his attitude is going to be an even worse problem as well. One of the teachers quickly brings up the incident in Gunhead's agency, where Bakugo had confronted and almost assaulted Izuku Midoriya, which was reported, by Stephanie, to Gunhead and the local heroes. Midnight quickly asks why it is that Bakugo has even been allowed into the school because of that stunt, not to mention the fact that Aldera is clearly covering for him and offering up documentation that paints both Bakugo and Izuku in lights that are clearly biased in the former favour over the latter, and Nezu makes it clear to her, and the rest of the teachers:

As it stands, Bakugo has all the powers of Superman, who was probably the strongest hero in all of existence, but has none of the humbleness to go along with it. He has an ego even bigger than his head, and all the power to back it up andmore.

Superman, at the height of his power, could level an entire city all on his own. The only thing that was stopping him from doing so was his dedication to helping the innocent.

Bakugo does not have that dedication. He clearly cares more about fighting and defeating his enemies rather than defending the vulnerable.

So, what is stopping him from doing what Superman could've done? What is stopping Bakugo from realising that, with his superhuman, god-like powers, that he is not beholden to any laws?

What is stopping him from becoming one of the greatest villains who ever lived?

As it stands, Bakugo is one of the most delicate cases that U.A. has ever had to handle, a young man with immense power beyond any of his current classmates, beyond any of the local heroes in the surrounding area, and has the ability to complete devastate everyone in the schools, sans All Might, on a whim. He's also got one of the biggest egos that they've ever seen, and isn't afraid to use his powers to intimidate others into submission. The only reason that he hasn't gone villain yet is because of some belief that he holds that the heroes are the people who always wins, and villains are just losers, and he wants to do nothing but win, hence his want to become a hero. They need to work with this, otherwise he might just turn into one of the greatest monsters that ever lived.

All this time, Nezu is reminded of, and reminds the others of, an incident from during Superman's time known as the Brightburn Devastation, where a young Kryptonian refugee had landed on Earth years after Superman's rise, but eventually, in his young age, became deluded by his own power and became a monster, singlehandedly destroying his own hometown of Brightburn and devastating half of Metropolis before Superman could stop him. The villain had to be put down by then-president Lex Luthor using lethal amounts of Kryptonite to stop him, as nothing else would.

Then, he is reminded of the time that the original Justice League had to defend the planet from an army of Kryptonian invaders, led by General Zod, who had colonised Mars and was using it as a jumping-off point to attack the Earth. Half of the entire original League had died during that attack, including the first Question, the first Black Canary, the first two Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner, the first Flash and more, and so many innocents had been killed by the devastation that Zod's Kryptonian army had reigned on the planet before they were stopped and killed by the Kryptonite weapons made by Batman and used by Superman and the surviving members of the League. Superman's cousin, Supergirl, or Kara Zor-El, now governs the colony on Mars, but still...

If they didn't treat this right, then they might end up creating the next Brightburn, or General Zod, or something far, far worse.

The teachers point out that this can't mean that they just bend over for Bakugo and accommodate him whenever he feels the need to act out, and Nezu makes it clear that it doesn't. They just need to be more aware of how he will react than any other students. Marian, mercifully, changes the subject, and asks if they have any leads on this 'Court' thing that Nobody was said to have mentioned from the Detective Club's statements from when he was taken down. Nezu comments that there isn't, but does understand Marian's concerns, as if Nobody was trying to gain entry into some sort of organised crime group, then it's possible that the Detective Club could've made an enemy out of some very dangerous people.

But there's nothing to be done about it now. The new year is about to begin, and they need to get their plans for the next few weeks in order. Aizawa and Kan have already decided on who has first call on the USJ this year. All they need to do now is leave, spend the night finalising their plans, and then come back tomorrow for one last conference, and then get started.

The teachers clear out, but Nezu and Marian Drew stay behind to talk. Nezu asks Marian if she is certain that the Court means something important, and if she really thinks that what is coming is coming. Marian is certain, and she knows that if she's right, then they will need a new family to combat them. Hell, the whole world will.

Then, they contact a partner of theirs. Pamela Isley, the head of Eden Industries (whom Marian called Pam), and tells them that they've found the missing Cadmus baby, and that they're going to need the Krypto-Solution.

Soon enough, the school year for U.A. begins, and the Detective Club (minus Maya, as she's too young to join them in U.A. yet) find themselves placed in Class 1-B, thankfully away from Bakugo. They attend U.A.'s orientation, and notice that 1-A and, thankfully, Bakugo, are not present.

Once the orientation ends, their teacher, Vlad King, leads them out to begin physical exercises, first on their bodies, and then examinations of their quirks and abilities and the possible limits that they may have (the general idea is that it's different from Aizawa's quirk application test, in that it separates the use of their quirks from their physical forms). During these tests, the class gets to know each other, with the Detective Club mingling with their new classmates and getting to know them, and said classmates initially underestimating them due to their quirklessness, only to be surprised by how agile and fit that they were over the last ten months of training that they've spent together, especially Yui Kodai (the fake name for Cassandra Cain) and how, despite her inability to speak, read, or write, she was somehow one of the most well-trained people in the class, maybe even the school as well.

Soon enough, the day would end, and the Detective Club would leave for the day, only to be confronted once more by Bakugo, who is furious at the idea that Deku, much less a bunch of other quirkless freaks, but it is only when Aizawa appears, warning him of his place in U.A. and how his threats of expulsion still stand, does Bakugo stand down and, in frustration, leave. The Detective Club thanks Aizawa, only for him to make it clear that he doesn't think that they, being quirkless and formerly vigilantes, belong in U.A., and leaves as well.

Then, they are joined not just by Mina, Ochako, and Iida from Class 1-A, but also Kendo and Setsuna from their class, and they end up heading out for the night now that the Detective Club's house arrest is over, to which the Detective Club would eventually let them know of their previous acts of vigilantism against Nobody, to which most of their new friends would be amazed by this, though Iida and Kendo would take umbrage with this act of vigilantism.

Soon enough, the Detective Club and Class 1-B would begin their training lessons, their teacher setting them up against props and training dummies whilst Aizawa and All Might would have Class 1-A battling against each other in mock hero-villain battles. Mina and Bakugo would be paired against each other during their battle trial, and Mina would be able to use her Tamaranian ancestry to put up a fight against the Kryptonian Bakugo, but even she would fall as he put her into the ground, winning the battle in his favour without so much as a scratch on him. However, he would end up not being granted the MVP of the match, seeing as he had abandoned his teammates and defeated the villains of the match rather brutally, angering him.

Meanwhile, the Detective Club would be ordered to stay behind after school days to attend extra training lessons under Doctor Marian Drew, who makes it clear that, as unfair as it is, their quirklessness puts them at a severe disadvantage against almost all the other students in the school, and they need to put in a lot of extra work in order to close that disadvantage. During this time, the group end up growing closer with Marian Drew, coming to see her as a friend and something of a confidant, unaware that she and Nezu have their own plans for the club...

Soon enough, the day would come where Class 1-B would need to chose their class representative, and they would all pick Kendo as their representative, with Izuku serving as vice-representative. Izuku would at first be resistant to the idea of being considered to be one of the leading figures of Class 1-B, but Marian would encourage Izuku to keep his position, commenting that Izuku already seems to be adopting a leadership role within the Detective Club, and that it might be good to lean into this as a possible training experience for the future.

However, later that day, the U.A. barrier would end up being destroyed, and a swarm of reporters would end up taking advantage of it to surge into U.A., demanding a statement from All Might for his decision to begin teaching in U.A...

And during this time, Cassandra and Izuku notice that something is moving around in the distance, and, alongside the rest of the Detective Squad, goes to investigate.

It is there that they find two villains sneaking into the school. One is a brutish fellow in an old suit called Bimmu, and the other is a berserker of a man by the name of Mad Dog, who Cassandra recognises from her past, but doesn't speak up about it.

The Detective Club quickly alert the heroes in the school as to the villains, but are forced to defend themselves from the two when they realise that they have been discovered. A violent clash between the two sides begins, with Mad Dog taking on Cassandra, proving to be the closest thing to a match that she has, and slowly begins to recognise her as well...

And that is when All Might and the other heroes arrive to arrest the two villains, once again chastising the group for fighting the villains, but recognising that, in this instance, they had been acting in self-defence and had alerted the heroes beforehand as well.

And Cheshire, a mercenary for the League of Assassins, thanks them as well from her hiding spot in one of the trees above, and the two other League of Assassin mercenaries that had come with her, for providing her with the ample distraction, as she slips out of the school, a timetable for U.A.'s classes in hand.

Later, Vlad King would approach the students to tell them that it's time to begin developing their hero costumes, and have to submit their own ideas for what they want their costumes to be. Marian and Nezu, meanwhile, are able to convince the Detective Club to make their own costumes, and they get together to start thinking up ideas on what they want their suits to look like.

Then, they look back onto the past, to the heroes that have come before them, and they think back to Batman, the hero of the past that had inspired them to make the Detective Club in the first place.

As such, they decide to make their costumes in the image of Batman and the Bat-Family, and design them to have cowls and cloaks, masks, the whole nine yards. The only thing that they decide to leave out, for now, is the Bat logo.

The next day, Vlad King announces that Class 1-B is going on a trip down to the USJ to begin their rescue training. He was able to snag their time in the USJ first from Aizawa to a coin toss, and now they're get to have the first go on it. Class 1-B are excited to hear this, and carry that same air of excitement all the way to the USJ...

Right up until they are confronted by the League of Villains, now supported by the technological prowess of the Riddler and his gang, and are scattered by Kurogiri across the facility, left to be hunted down by the villains.

The Detective Club soon find themselves with their hands full, fending off the thugs and hired guns of the League of Villains, not just their common thugs (think the common gangsters and goons from the Batman: Arkham series), but also the small-time villains from Batman's rogues gallery that they've brought in as well, from Abattoir to Clock King, to Fright and Lady Spellbinder, to even the likes of Kite Man and the Carpenter, trying to defeat the bad guys and defend their classmates, all the while Shigaraki and the Riddler play games with them, luring them into trap after trap to try and get the best of them.

And that's when the rest of the Detective Club, other than Cassandra, get to have their moments in the spotlight.

While Cassandra is busy kicking ass and taking names, Stephanie is forced to deal with one of the Riddler's traps, and ends up figuring out the clues on how to defeat it that the Riddler left behind (y'know, because riddles and clues are kind of his thing), and deactivates it, solving the riddle and demonstrating her ability to solve puzzles and identify patterns. Harper Row, meanwhile, ends up encountering another one of the Riddler's traps, but is able to figure out how the electronics of it works and overrides it, turning it against the villain and showing off her skills with technology and gadgetry. Duke Thomas, meanwhile, ends up battling against a group of villains led by the Tally Man, only to suddenly bend the light and darkness around them to defeat them, revealing that he does indeed have a quirk.

And Izuku? Izuku is able to demonstrate his ability to lead and inspire by rallying the rest of the Detective Club to him, the group solving the Riddler's ultimate puzzle and defeating him, knocking him out of the USJ's systems and leaving Shigaraki vulnerable.

But then Shigaraki reveals his trump card. Two villains that he'd been holding in reserve. One a mutant villain by the name of Killer Moth, and the other a hulking beast that has been lobotomised and modified to become a Nomu, known as Solomon Grundy.

And that is when Marian Drew steps up to the plate as well, swearing to herself and throwing off her disguise to suit up and take on the villains.

As it turns out, Marian Drew was just a fake name.

Her real name is Harleen Quinzel...

Or rather, Harley Quinn.

Harley Quinn quickly gets to work, taking down the last of the villains before fighting against Solomon Grundy all by herself. At the same time, she tells the teachers and the Detective Club to go after Killer Moth, which they reluctantly do. Soon enough, with all their skills, the Detective Club are able to take down Killer Moth, neutralising him, whilst Harley Quinn is able to take down Solomon Grundy all on her own.

And that is when All Might finally arrives, and the rest of the League of Villains are forced to retreat.

Back in their hideout, Shigaraki berates and threatens the Riddler for his failures to make the traps work, as well as his constant need to prove himself as some sort of mastermind by leaving riddles everywhere and clues to defeat his own traps. The Riddler, however, counters that they shouldn't have ever gone to the USJ to try and assassinate All Might anyway, as doing so would've just made him into a maytr, not to mention the resources and manpower that they've lost on such an excursion. Now they've revealed themselves to the world, with little gain to be had as well.

However, All for One quickly chimes in, and comments that this was merely a learning experience for his successor, nothing more. He would know differently now.

And that is when we get to the true scope of the League of Villains. All for One has recruited not just the Riddler, but Scarecrow, Penguin, and Black Mask to his side, the former granting him access to his fear gas so that he can continue his research on the nature of fear as well, and the latter two contributing their remaining manpower in order to rebuild their criminal empires.

Not only that, but All for One has many more allies and partners in the waiting as well, including the newly minted villain Punchline, a Joker-obsessed fangirl and psychotic anarchist who has gathered the rest of Joker's old gang to herself and recruited the pyromaniac Firefly to her cause of destroying hero society as they know it, the Mad Hatter, who at this point has been lost to a psychosis thanks to his continual usage of his mind control tech and is cared for by his Wonderland Gang, that being Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and March Hare. Then there is Overhaul of the Shie Hassaikai, a remnant of the Yakuza that is contributing their resources to try and rebuild themselves, and Re-Destro of the Meta Liberation Army, who seeks to create a world where the strong may rule and is using All for One and his quirks to do so.

And finally, there is Talia Al Ghul, having taken over both the League of Assassins and Shadows after her father's, Ra's Al Ghul's, final death, and leads through her chief lieutenants, Lady Shiva and Bane. She has contributed the entirety of her League of Assassins and Shadows to All for One's cause, paying lip service to his ideals, but is secretly using All for One, and all the other villains as well, for her own, secretive agenda...

Together, they all make an alliance of dangerous and powerful villains, each seeking to usurp and betray the other, but all working towards a mysterious central goal, much like the Light from Young Justice.

They are the newly-formed Court of Owls.

The villains criticise All for One for allowing Shigaraki to go forward with this scheme, but All for One defends it by saying that the heroes were no doubt already aware of them thanks to Nobody's failure, and that this would at least serve as a learning experience for them all. Not to mention the intelligence that they've gathered on the next generation of U.A. thanks to Cheshire's infiltration, the attack on the USJ itself, and their own mole inside of U.A., will serve them well in the future. Some of the villains wonder if Bakugo, who has been identified as the baby clone of Superman stolen from Cadmus over fifteen years ago, will be a threat to them, but the others, most notably Talia, do not view him as a threat. Bakugo is predictable, his ego his greatest flaw. They can counter and neutralise him, and maybe even control him, easily.

It is the other students that she is worried about. Most notably, the so-called 'Detective Club', and their mentor, Harley Quinn.

As is shown, the Court of Owls kept their eyes on the Detective Club for a while after Nobody's defeat, but eventually moved on from them when they were judged to not be a threat after Bakugo tried to intimidate them. The Court's surveillance had fallen upon Bakugo immediately after that. However, with the defeat of Bimmu and Mad Dog by this Detective Club, followed up by what happened at the USJ, that being Killer Moth's capture and Riddler's defeat by the club, not to mention the loss of their first Nomu, Solomon Grundy, to Harley Quinn of all people secretly being a teacher at U.A., the Court was beginning to think that they might need to keep a better eye on these young hero-wannabes, especially now that they were sporting suits similar to the Bats.

Punchline suggests finding out who these children are and killing their families in order to make an example out of them, but the others quickly shoot that down, reasoning that that course of action would only result in the heroes coming at them with nothing to lose and with bloody vengeance on their minds.

For now, they would simply wait and bide their time. Their loss at the USJ wasn't that big of a concern, as they hadn't lost any real critical assets during that engagement. All they had to do now was bide their time and keep to their plans. They already have enough agents in high positions of power to complete their plans. No matter what Harley Quinn, All Might, the Titans, or any other hero try, there wasn't anything that they could do to stop them.

Batman was gone, now. Japan, Gotham, and the whole world was now theirs for the taking.

But Talia was not as relaxed as they were. If what she knew about Harley Quinn was true, and what she suspected that she wanted to do with this 'Detective Club'...

Well, she would need to be ready.

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the USJ, it takes every connection that Nezu has to have Harley's involvement in the event and her role as a teacher in the school covered up, as well as straining all the trust that his subordinates have in him to not have her arrested, as at this point, Harley Quinn is still a wanted criminal, and her having been a teacher at U.A., all the while Nezu was aware of this and actually hired her on despite what she has done in the past, seriously weakens the trust that they once had in him.

However, that doesn't change the fact that Harley is now one of their coworkers, and not only that, but is genuinely reformed from her ways of villainy. Sure, she's certainly more on the Anti- side of the spectrum, but she's a hero through and through now, and is desperately trying to make up for the past.

And later on, Harley and Nezu talk, where it is revealed that Nezu was able to get Class 1-B to sign NDAs regarding her role in saving them at the USJ. Nezu then reveals that he's found a link between this 'League of Villains' that attacked the USJ and the 'Court' that Nobody had mentioned in the past, and tells her that he's learnt that both Bimmu and Mad Dog were members of the League of Assassins judging from the tattoos covering them, but had killed themselves via cyanide pills in their cells before they could be questioned further.

Harley immediately picks up on what he is saying, and pleads to him that they're not ready, that they need more time. Nezu sadly remarks that they don't have time. Not anymore. Not if what he thinks this 'League of Villains' truly is what he believes it to be.

Harley, after a pause, lets out a sigh, and reluctantly agrees, calling Pamela Isley once more and telling her that it's time to get things ready.

And so, Harley and Nezu calls forth the Detective Club, whom are confused as to Harley's motivations and why a famed criminal helped and saved them at the USJ, and lead them down to underneath U.A.'s campus grounds...

And directly into a cave under the main building lined with lead, where one Miss Pamela Isley, formerly Poison Ivy and now CEO of Eden Industries, is waiting for them, and greets Harley with a kiss.

The Detective Club, now joined by Maya Ducard, are confused as to why they are here, and the three figures of authority, Harley, Nezu, and Pamela, begin to lay it down onto them. Whatever the League of Villains are, they're just part of a bigger picture, part of what might be a larger conspiracy in the making, one that the Detective Club may have just made themselves an enemy out of. There are some very bad villains out there, even more vile and monstrous than the Riddler, than Killer Moth, than Solomon Grundy, Nobody, and Shigaraki combined.

This isn't just some random group of villains throwing their weight around. This is the first move in a larger war, the opening battle, and if hero society is going to survive, then they're going to need all hands on deck.

But, ever since they had taken down Nobody, the Detective Club were being scouted, from the beginning of their house arrest all the way to the USJ, by Harley, and Pamela, and Nezu. They were being secretly examined and observed, and Harley and Nezu had been hoping to groom the group into the roles that they wanted them to become, but that should've been later. There should've been more time for them to train and learn and become better.

But now, they've been forced to move up their timetable, and present the Detective Club with their ultimate goal:

They wanted to rebuild the Bat-Family, and they wanted the Detective Club to form the basis of it.

The Detective Club are shocked by this, and they, particularly Izuku, ask why Harley and Nezu had chosen them, and not someone like All Might or Bakugo. Nezu and Pamela counter that All Might's lost touch with the ground level version of crime, and he wouldn't know how to solve it beyond a quick punch or kick. Besides, he's too badly needed to deal with all the larger, more massive threats out there alongside the Titans than just dealing with street-level crimes. Harley, meanwhile, asserts that Bakugo is nowhere near fit enough to be a part of the Bat-Family, much less any other team out there. The boy's too arrogant, too angry and full of himself. He's got the power and none of the responsibility, and they don't need a loose cannon like that on the team.

Plus, he's always lived with power. So have pretty much all the other heroes out there. For good or ill, they've all lived with power, and have been influenced by it. None of them know what it's like to live without it.

But the Detective Club... they've all lived without power. They all know how to live without it, and ergo they know that there is a responsibility to that power, seeing as they've never known when others use that power responsibly.

Batman, Bruce... he was more than just a man in a bat costume. The entire Bat-Family was more than that. They were a symbol, a symbol that struck fear into the heart of every criminal not just in Gotham, but across the world. Much like All Might was the Symbol of Peace and Superman was the Symbol of Heart, Batman and the entire Bat-Family were the Symbols of Fear...

But now, they're all gone. Batman, Superman, and the entire Bat-Family were gone. The old guard of heroes were gone, and All Might's out of touch with the streets. The average criminal was becoming bolder, and now there is a criminal conspiracy growing in the background, one that needs to be fought.

There needs to be a new symbol. Not fear, though, for fear can only get you so far. Batman and the old Bat-Family tried that and look where it got them.

There needs to be a new symbol, a better symbol.

There needs to be a new Bat-Family.

Something that the Detective Club has the potential to be.

The Detective Club would look between each other, musing over the offer that they have been given.

And then, as one, they looked to Harley, to Nezu, and to Pamela... and agreed.

And so, the various members of the Detective Club would take up the symbols of the Bat onto their costumes and adopt appropriate names for themselves. Cassandra would become Orphan, Stephanie would choose Spoiler, Duke would take up the moniker of Signal and Harper Bluebird. Maya would be held in reserve until she was ready but would decide to redeem the name of Nobody and take it up for herself.

And Izuku? He would adopt the name of Batwing, and be designated as the leader of this new generation of the Bat-Family, with Harley, Pamela, and Nezu as their mentors...

All the while Harley and Nezu make plans for Izuku and Cassandra to one day take up the mantle of Batman themselves.

After this, there would be several plot points that would come up over the course of the story. Firstly, would be the sports festival, where the Bat-Family would be pulled out of the event to train and protect themselves from identification from their enemies and to keep the secrecy of the rejuvenated Bat-Family. It would be during this event that Bakugo would once again blitz through the event, forcing all the other students to have to team up against him, only to fail once again. However, a rivalry would begin to form between Bakugo and Mina, as the half-Tamaranean girl would provide Bakugo with the first real challenge of his life, something that he both despises and relishes. However, after the sports festival, Bakugo would find himself slowly becoming a pariah amongst his classmates, and even amongst heroes for his egotistical demeanour and his flagrant flaunting of his powers, as well as his arrogant belief that he is destined to become an even greater hero than All Might and Superman themselves, angering him even further and making him toe the line between good and evil even more, even when his parents, who had rescued him from Cadmus years ago for unknown reasons, tried to deter him from his darkening path.

All the while, the Court of Owls would manipulate him every step of the way.

Meanwhile, the new Bat-Family, under the leadership of Pamela and Harley, would begin a shadow war against the Court of Owls and crime in general. However, they would eventually be discovered, not by the villains, but by one Barbara Gordon, All Might's sidekick who now goes by the name of Oracle. At first, she is contentious of Harley's intentions in rebuilding the Bat-Family, resistant to the idea, but eventually concedes to her and becomes another leading figure in the Bat-Family, serving as their key coordinater and one of their trainers.

And meanwhile, a man in a red hood gathers his outlaws to challenge this new Bat-Family, feeling insulted by their existence...

And the Clown Prince of Crime bides his time, awaiting his return.

After that, I'm not sure how the rest of the story will go. I can imagine a plot point where Harley Quinn suffers from a midlife crisis when she realises that she is becoming like Bruce in leading the new Bat-Family, and I can imagine the story ending with either the Joker or All for One being the final villains of the story, but other than that, I'm not sure where the story would go from there.

That's up to you, really.

Chapter 24: How Useful Are You?

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I've seen so many Villain!Deku stories out there in the wild, and almost all of them seem to simply have Izuku gradually slide into being okay with doing villainy and hurting others to get his way, and almost all of them like to portray Izuku as being in the right and using it as an excuse to bash other characters, at least a lot of the ones that I've read.

I've seen so many of these Villain!Deku fics, and they all seem to blend together after a while, so I'm asking you: what about a deconstruction fic on the Villain!Deku genre?

Like, what if we take all the tropes that go into a fanfic where Izuku becomes a villain, and completely take them apart? I have no idea how something like this would go, but I think that it would be an interesting thought experiment.

So, let's go over what would realistically happen if Izuku became a villain, and deconstruct all the possible routes that he usually takes:

Instead of being a successful villain, I can't really see Izuku going that far in life.

To start off with, he isn't some conniving, evil mastermind. He's a fifteen year-old kid. He wouldn't get respect and the adoration of all the villains around him, he'd be disrespected and laughed out of every villain hideout that he tries to enter into. He's a kid, not a fully-fledged villain, and he's still quirkless at that. Villains are all about the rule of the strong. There's no way that they'd ever accept him.

Secondly, his notebooks wouldn't make him a progeny or genius: turns out that a lot of podcasters and YouTubers make a living off of analysing heroes and their quirks (I got that idea from the fanfic Cain by aconstantstateofbladerunner), and Izuku's notebooks actually have a few things that are wrong and inaccurate about the heroes that he's taking notes on.

Thirdly, he doesn't have any meaningful connections to build any sort of criminal connections with. He's a fifteen year-old quirkless kid who lives with his mother in an apartment complex. There's no way that he's swimming in money.

Soon enough though, he is able to make contact with the League of Villains... and he is instantly laughed out by them. Again, not to beat the dead horse, he is a fifteen year-old quirkless child, dressing up in a tuxedo (the common Villain!Deku outfit) and calling himself a 'Mastermind'. There is only so far that anyone is going to be able to take that seriously, and Izuku is treated as a joke, being seen as no better than any of the thugs that are going to be sent into the USJ. Hell, he's treated even worse because of it. Apparently having a quirk is just as important in villain organisations as it is in heroes, and he is treated no better than when he was in Aldera for it.

Soon enough, the day of the USJ arrives, and Izuku is thrown into the fray alongside the rest of the USJ thugs, and he eventually comes across Bakugo. Here, we get an internal monologue from Izuku, revealing how much he has dreamed of taking down Bakugo, how much he is going to relish getting his revenge on his bully-

But that never happens. Bakugo, upon seeing Izuku, takes him down easily. Worse yet, Bakugo realises that he has a legitimate excuse to beat down Izuku, and proceeds to wail on him, venting his frustrations out onto the quirkless boy and reducing him to the state he was in back in Aldera once more.

And soon enough, Izuku is abandoned by the League alongside the rest of the USJ thugs, and is completely forgotten by the likes of Shigaraki and All for One. He is taken away to be processed by the police. There, he is approached by his mother, who came to visit him in custody, and is absolutely horrified by what her child has become. Izuku explodes at her, releasing his pent-up anger and resentment towards her over his being born quirkless and without anyone to support him, but it is then revealed that Inko has actually been protecting him from others for the longest part of her life, and while she definitely wasn't the best parents, she still loved her son and tried her best. It is also revealed that Inko has been facing harassment and receiving death threats over Izuku becoming a villain.

Izuku doesn't care. He's too lost in his own anger and resentment to see past his own nose, and Inko leaves in tears, remorseful for what her child has become.

And that is when Izuku is taken away, looked at by the heroes and policemen carting him away not with respect or fear, but with pity. Izuku is treated not as a villainous mastermind, but as a dumb child who decided that the world owed him something and trying to take his anger out on the people around him.

The final scene of this story ends with Izuku in a minimum security juvenile correction hall, looking back over his short criminal career, and finally realising that he has destroyed his own future, curling up into a ball and regretting everything that he has done...

Chapter 25: The Tenth Bearer

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What if we were to give Izuku Midoriya a successor?

Okay, hear me out: during the Vigilante Deku arc, we can assume that Izuku was gone for a long period of time, roaming around the country, fighting bad guys wherever he found them and tracking All for One's agents, right? So what if, during that period of time, he ended up picking up someone and training them as his successor, like All Might had done for him?

Essentially, I want to give Izuku a Miles Morales to his Peter Parker. Besides, legacy is one of the biggest themes in MHA, so I thought that this would be a good way of continuing that.

I'm currently imagining this successor character to be an OC, probably a female in order to give the female cast some variety, and having her backstory to be something like Deku's as a form of parallelism. If I were the one writing this, I would have her personality to be rather plucky and enthusiastic, but also all about this hero stuff, even in a society that has lost all its faith in heroes.

I can imagine this character being a year or two younger than Izuku, probably at the same age as Izuku was when he was picked up by All Might, and would have picked up on Izuku during the news or something, probably when he was saving Eri from Overhaul. Since then, she has idolised him, and when hero society collapsed, she found one of his old costumes that was lost during the chaos and took it for herself.

She'd eventually meet Izuku and ask to be trained by him, only for him to turn her down since he's in his Batman phase and is really grumpy and edgy right now, and also because she reminds him too much of himself when he was her age. However, after a lot of pestering from her, as well as her following him around (which he would find impressive because of the speeds that he was going), he would eventually relent and decide, albeit reluctantly, to teach her everything he knew.

Their entire relationship would be like Peter Parker and Miles Morales' from Into the Spider-verse, in that of a grumpy, unkempt mentor who's secretly proud of his student, and said student who is eager to learn and super respectful of her mentor, but also isn't afraid to poke fun at him from time to time.

But all of this is just my idea. What do you all think?

Chapter 26: The Orphans

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Okay, so I got this idea from 3PeopleInACoat's Ignited Spark fic, Young Justice, and DC in general:

In this story, there is another faction at play, a third party. They are the Orphans, a group of vigilantes that have grown up on the streets together and have been orphaned and left homeless by the various battles between heroes and villains, and have decided to go and take justice into their own hands.

They are also the only ones who are aware of the real scale of the threat that the League of Villains and All for One represent.

In this story, the League of Villains aren't just a band of anarchists, but are a malevolent conspiracy within hero society itself. Their reach extends across the entirety of Japan and even beyond, and have their hands in almost every major aspect of hero society itself. How far this reach could extend, I don't know. It could either be simply an alliance between all the major antagonistic factions in MHA, or it could go so far as to have a spy in every major hero school across the country.

Either way, the League of Villains are a much bigger threat than compared to what they were in canon, and the Orphans, a group of castaways and homeless vigilantes, are the only people that have a slight chance of stopping them, despite themselves being considered villains and criminals in the eyes of the world. As such, while the students at U.A., particularly those in Class 1-A, are carrying on with their lives in blissful ignorance, there is a shadow war being waged between these two parties, and the Orphans are constantly on the backfoot.

How this story could pan out, I'm not sure. I've got the idea in my head that the Orphans are a semi-professional group that can out-skill the U.A. students in a quirkless CQC due to having lived on the streets for so long and having trained themselves from that experience, but having serious trouble with people like Bakugou, Todoroki, and Izuku due to their extremely overpowered quirks and having to train themselves to be able to counter them.

I've also got an idea in my head about the Orphans themselves having a spy in U.A.'s ranks, someone like Momo and Kendo, who's mission is to simply identify and weed out the U.A. traitor and keep the other students safe from the League, particularly Izuku, or at least the person who has One for All, as their having OFA would definitely make them a target of All for One.

But other than that, what do you all think?

Chapter 27: The Wrong Quirk

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Okay, so here's the basis for my idea of a possible Villain!Deku fic:

What if the quirks were swapped around? What if instead of All Might having One for All, he instead has All for One, and gives that to Izuku?

So here's how I imagine this going: At some point in the past, One for All and All for One did a switcheroo. Somewhere along the line, the original All for One bit the dust, but his quirk lived on, and in a twist of fate, All for One was misremembered as the heroic quirk of the duo that was passed down from person to person, and One for All was the evil one, and so it's All for One that is passed down from person to person instead.

Only problem is that, well, we all know what happened to Shigaraki in canon, and how he was hijacked by the OG All for One, so instead of Izuku having this cool quirk that has been passed down from person to person, he instead has this ticking time bomb with the original AFO's consciousness inside of it, slowly biding his time and regaining his strength to hijack and take over the minds of not just Izuku, but also All Might, and anyone else who is currently using All for One...

Hell, if we want, we can take it even further by having the League of Villains being controlled by someone wielding One for All, only this time it's the League who are the good guys in this story, as they're the only ones who know what All for One truly is and are trying to stop him before it's too late, essentially turning the League from a rabble of anarchists to a heroic resistance.

Chapter 28: We Called it the Traveller

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What would an MHA/Destiny crossover look like to all of you, and what would you want to see in such an idea?

For me, if I were to write a crossover between MHA and Destiny, I think I would put more focus on the esoteric and fantastical elements of Destiny's lore and how they would mesh with a world like MHA and its more shounen/comic book-like world. Things such as the Sword Logic, Throne Worlds, the Dreaming City, Ahamkara and Wish Magic, and so on.

For characters and races from Destiny and how they would be integrated into MHA, I'm not sure about what I would do for the Exos, but here's what I would do for the enemy races instead:

The Vex in this universe would simply be a replacement for the training droids and villain droids of U.A., with the various frames replacing the point bots, that being the Goblin (one pointer), the Hobgoblin (two pointer), the Minotaur (three pointer), and the Hydra being the zero pointer, with Wyverns and Harpies representing new four pointer and half pointer models. The only actually villainous example of a Vex in this story would be the Sol Divisive subset of the Vex training droids, which would end up malfunctioning and having their programming corrupted by the villains of this story.

In this crossover story, the Fallen would actually be refugees from a neighbouring country that had been destroyed in a great disaster, and had formed into various crime families upon arriving in Japan that they would refer to as Houses. At the time of the story's beginning, the Houses are on the verge of fracturing thanks to the efforts of the heroes, and the lead house would begin to call for all remaining Fallen houses to merge together. The Fallen worship a Goddess of Light that they would refer to as the Great Machine, and practice their worship of her by modifying their bodies with cybernetics and grafting an extra pair of arms onto themselves, as well as feeding themselves on a drug-like stimulant that they call Ether.

The Cabal, meanwhile, are an opposing crime family that had been born into Japan, made up of former JSDF members after the JSDF had been disbanded by the heroes, and adopting a heavily militaristic method of forcing others into submission. Have currently contracted a family of powerful telepaths into their ranks that they call the Psions. Many of them seek a return to old Japanese Confucianism and warlike mentality, and gather under the number of those in their ranks who refer to themselves as the Red Legion. However, others rally under the banner of their former self-imposed emperor, now gone into exile, while others see promise in the daughter of said former-emperor...

And then, there is the Hive, a radical, violent cult that take the ideals of the typical villain, that being the rule of the strong and the want to dominate others, and have formed an entire religion around it, as they have come to worship what they call the Sword Logic, the belief that life must be cut down to its simplest shape, and that only the strongest may survive. So, they seek to prove themselves to be the strongest, and are out to kill anyone who may stand against this goal. They have centred their worship around three siblings who have built thrones in other dimensions for themselves; a sister who gains her strength from war, a brother who turns hero society against itself, and a sister who is growing sick of the sword, and is looking for her own way out...

The Taken would be the result of the Hive brother's quirk, that being the ability to take his enemies and turn them into his minions, corrupting them with that he calls the Darkness. His Taken would be made up of many different factions, from the Cabal, the Fallen, the Vex, his own Hive, even heroes and villains alike. These Taken would be left as wild and directionless without the brother around to command them. However, soon enough, even without the brother around, his Taken would start receiving orders from another...

The Scorn would operate much like the Taken in a way, though instead of being ordinary people turned into monsters, the Scorn would be made up of reanimated Fallen, Eliksni corpses that have been risen from the dead by a corrupted elixir of Ether and the magics of a Taken hero that saved herself from total submission with the powers of her quirk, that being Wish Magic. The Scorn would at first be rabid and mindless, but soon enough, they too would begin receiving direction and purpose, first from the Barons that control them, and then from another...

And then, we get to the larger forces at play in this world. The League of Villain, who take up the roles of Tormentors and Subjugators, Kurogiri, who serves as All for One's first Disciple, Shigaraki, who fashions himself as a God of Pain, and All for One, who, instead of wanting to be the ultimate villain, is simply seeking meaning in what he thinks is a meaningless world...

And the woman who hangs over U.A., covered in a white cloak, a veil as pale as her heart, who made a new people known as the Awoken and blessed them with a city made out of their dreams...

Some call her a silent goddess. Others call her a Great Machine.

To the rest, she is known as simply the Traveller.

Chapter 29: Izuku Revenge!fic Deconstruction

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Okay, so, let me lay it on you:

You know how there are a lot of revenge fics out there for Izuku, and by that I mean that Izuku becomes angry and determined to get his own back in Bakugo, usually by entering into U.A. and not taking any sh*t from anyone? These kinds of fics usually end up being excuses to inflict all kinds of character bashing onto people like Bakugo, All Might, Aizawa, and just about anyone and everyone, and have it so that Izuku becomes this edgy and mature kind of figure who refuses to tolerate any of the BS around anyone, usually acting rude and angry all the time to match. Imagine fics like Mean Rabbit, Heroes Never Die, I am not Done, and pretty much every villain!Deku fic out there. Fics where Izuku gains an attitude and acts rudely towards everyone around him for one reason or another.

Now, what if we were to write a fic that deconstructs that premise?

Imagine a fic that plays all of these points straight, where Izuku is the only person who's been changed and everyone else stays the same. No adaptable jerkassery for the rest of the class, only Izuku, where we portray him with the usual sass, aloofness, and bitterness that comes with fics like these, and have the characters realistically react to it.

Like, instead of people being drawn to him, they are instead pushed away by his attitude and demeanour and come to not like him, much like how Bakugo's attitude pushes people away as well. Meanwhile, in a lot of fics, it is stated that Izuku has begun to expect the worst out of everyone, but this fic would show how this is a bad idea, as Izuku, similarly expecting the worst out of everyone, refuses to cooperate with anyone, expecting them to treat him as disrespectfully as had been done to him in Aldera.

What's more, when he goes on to deliver his character bashing speeches to other characters, it turns out that they're actually not as bad as he (I.E. the fandom) think they are, and he's actually either not noticing the more nuanced aspects and deeper layers to their personalities, or is actively ignoring them. In fact, his attitude only serves to be self-sabotaging, and he is effectively worsening his own chances to be a hero by disregarding and berating the people around him.

Eventually, the fic ends with the consequences of Izuku's actions catching up to him, as his classmates refuse to work with him owing to his poor attitude, and when Izuku shouts at them for thinking his quirklessness makes him beneath them, he is shocked to learn that none of them actually knew that he was quirkless, and even if they did, they wouldn't have cared regardless. They don't like him not because of his quirklessness, but because he's acting like an arse to all of them, just like Bakugo.

And in the end, Izuku is forced to work either with Bakugo, the person that he hates the most, or on his own like he initially wanted, and finally realises that he has effectively ruined his chances to become a hero all on his own.

This fic was initially inspired by reading a TV Tropes page for an MHA fic known as Do It All Over While Beating Reality To Death With A Chair. I was reading through it, thinking that it was so far so normal, only for me to read on further and learn thatIzuku murdered Mineta during the entrance exam and covered it up, and I was just like 'Okay then dick'. I then looked further to see if he suffers any kind of consequences for it, and, as far as I can tell, he gets none.

Another aspect of this idea was inspired by another idea that I had where I imagined a parallel story between Izuku, the hero by the time of the USJ, who slowly became the villain, and a villain who starts out as a murderer from the USJ and kills a classmate, only to be filled with regret and horror at themselves and end the story having redeemed themselves and become one of the most heroic figures in the entire story.

Chapter 30: Hero to Villain (And Villain to Hero)

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This is a story of role reversals, corruption, and redemption.

And it all begins at the start of the new school year for U.A., with Izuku Midoriya entering into the school with One for All in his gut and reinvigorated dreams of heroism and greatness in his heart...

Except he is not alone. He's got his twin sister, Izumi, by his side, the one person who has supported him and his dreams all his life.

But all of that changes when the USJ comes to pass. The villains attack, and Izumi is confronted by one particular villain. A woman by the name Shizuki Shigaraki.

Shizuki is one of the children that have been raised in the orphanages run by All for One, and has been brought together, alongside Tomura and several others, to form the Children of All for One, a subsection of the League of Villains that have been conditioned to be totally obedient to All for One and his desires, the perfect minions and pawns. Shizuki, much like the rest of them, has been pumped full of quirks by All for One, and has been trained and programmed to be a deadly assassin and fighter. Worse yet, she, much like the rest of the Children of All for One, has been conditioned to love combat, to relish violence and to take sad*stic pleasure in the act of murder...

And this is her first day, and Izumi is to be her first kill.

Shizuki, in this instance, is acting much like the average MHA villain, or even just the average Shonen villain. She's braggy, she's bloodthirsty, and she's eager to claim her first kill...

And then... she does.

Shizuki murders Izumi.

Shizuki murders Izuku's sister.

Upon seeing this, Izuku is thrown into a rage and begin to wail on Shizuki, throwing her against the ground and laying punch after punch into her, threatening to kill her in turn for murdering his sister before his classmates are able to pull him off.

Izuku is angry, furious, vengeful...

And Shizuki?

She is horrified.

She now has the blood of an innocent person, someone her age, on her hands. But it's not as happy and joyful and exhilarating as All for One had promised. It is terrifying and sickening and has Shizuki feeling like a monster.

Shizuki is pulled away by a fellow Child of All for One, and they beat a retreat. When they get back to the bar that the League of Villain were using as a hideout, All for One asks Shizuki how it feels to kill for the first time, but Shizuki's only reaction is to throw up and tearfully ask All for One why it didn't make her happy, why it made her feel like a monster. All for One tells Shizuki that it will get easier over time, but all Shizuki can do is curled up into a ball and rock in place, traumatised by the blood on her hands and seen as a weakling by the rest of the Children of All for One.

And Izuku, meanwhile, stews in guilt, anguish, and anger at his sister's funeral, desperate to avenge her.

From here, we see two stories begin to play out in parallel to each other. We see Izuku's side of the story, where he is forced to come to grips with the loss of his sibling and the growing anger that he is feeling, though he still very much remains on the heroes' side, and we also see Shizuki's side of the story, where she is still part of the League of Villains and the Children of All for One, but is slowly coming to terms with her murder of Izumi as well, and is forced to confront the morality of her actions.

But then, soon enough, the Kamino Incident begins, and Bakugo is being held prisoner by the League of Villains. At this point, Shizuki has been forced to accept the fact that she has murdered someone, and has to deal with that fact for the rest of her life.

And she decides that she needs to make All for One pay for what he has done, and what he convinced her to do.

And she begins by freeing Bakugo, attacking and taking down the League of Villains, and convincing the rest of the Children of All for One to join her.

As such, the Children of All for One turn against their unwanted father and attack him alongside All Might, defeating the villain and fleeing before the rest of the heroes can arrest them.

Meanwhile, Izuku is told this by Bakugo, but adamantly refuses to believe it, his anger continuing to get the worst of him, and he convinces the rest of his class to think the same as well. In an ironic twist of fate, Bakugo would end up becoming Izuku's minder as he begins to slowly slip into darkness over the death of his sister.

Elsewhere, Shizuki and the Children of All for One, now separated from the League of Villains and off on their own, are left purposeless and confused on what to do with themselves now. However, the group end up coming across Eri and Overhaul, and would end up saving the little girl from her abusive father and bringing down the Shie Hassaikai all on their own. Worse yet, they discover that Overhaul's Yakuza were actually supplying the HPSC with the quirk-erasing bullets made from Eri's tissue, and uncover a web of corruption within hero society.

As such, the Children of All for One, now led by Shizuki, decide to right the wrongs of their past and become vigilantes, rebranding themselves as the New Dawn and beginning their battle against the corruption of hero society.

At this point, it should be made clear that Shizuki is primarily inspired by Cassandra Cain, the second Batgirl, from DC.

Meanwhile, Izuku is confronted by Sir Nighteye, who demands that he hand One for All over to Mirio. At this point, Izuku is becoming lost in his anger and desire for revenge, and lashes out at Nighteye for it. Worse yet, his devotion and idealism of hero society slowly begins to morph into angry fanaticism in reaction to the New Dawn's various activities in exposing the corruption lying within hero society and taking down corrupt heroes and politicians. This is only made worse when the public begin to express support for them, much like they had done with Stain, and Izuku, using his position as the supposed heart of Class 1-A, convinces the rest of his class to hate them as much as he does for what happened to Izumi.

Elsewhere, the New Dawn happen upon the MLA, the canon fight ensues, and the New Dawn find themselves at the seat of the Meta Liberation Army's power. However, Shizuki, having grown and evolved much since the beginning of the story, has no desire to take power for herself like All for One, and resolves to use what she has been given to help the helpless and finally expose all that is wrong with the world...

By finally exposing the corruption of the HPSC, and what they had allowed Overhaul to do to Eri in order to get the quirk-erasing bullets.

This proves to be a step too far for the HPSC, and they order the heroes to attack the New Dawn and their allies. Soon, the war from canon would begin, only now the moralities have shifted and been flipped.

Now, when Izuku confronts Shizuki, he is not selfless to his core and willing to give his all to help others. Instead, he has become a selfish, vile monster desperate for revenge.

Meanwhile, his opponent, Shizuki, has come a long way since the beginning of the series, and has evolved herself from the selfish, vile monster desperate for her father's approval like she once was, and has now become one of the most selfless characters in the entire story.

This is a story of role reversals, corruption, and redemption.

This is a story of heroes who turn to villains, and villains who turn to heroes.

Chapter 31: Into the Light

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When Izuku first uses One for All, the quirk that he had been given, gifted, by All Might, when he first uses it to smash the Zero Pointer machine to pieces, he is assaulted by visions of pyramids and spheres, of life and death, and of a garden cloaked in red flowers and darkness. When he talks to All Might after the Entrance Exam into U.A., he asks him about the visions, but to his surprise, his mentor is just as confused as Izuku is, as he never experienced any kinds of visions as well.

And so, for now, the two of them decide to put it off for now to focus on getting Izuku through U.A. and getting him used to One for All. The next time he uses it, during Aizawa's quirk assessment, Izuku receives no visions, and One for All acts the way that it usually does in canon, even during the Battle Trials later against Bakugo and Iida.

However, after the Battle Trials, Izuku ends up being approached by one Reiko Yanagi from Class 1-B, who has taken a strange interest in the boy.

A few days later, Izuku and the rest of Class 1-A arrive at the USJ and are confronted by Shigaraki and the League of Villains, as per the usual.

However, this time, the Nomu that the League brings with them has been modified, altered to carry a black triangular obelisk on its back, leaking unholy golden energy and black tree roots wherever it went. Shigaraki and Kurogiri refer to it as their Locus of Oppression.

And their minions, the villain thugs, are carrying smaller triangular shards as well, empowering them with a dark power that they call Stasis.

The League of Villains attack, and the students are forced on the run as Kurogiri scatters them across the USJ. This time, despite their supposed advantages against the early rendition of the League, the students are beaten back by the League's empowered thugs, themselves continuously being overpowered by the icy Stasis powers that the villains now possess.

The only reason that they are not killed is because the black shards that those same villains possess seem to be corruptive and are prompting the villains to continuously battle each other to try and take more of the shards for themselves.

Soon enough, the students begin to take advantage of these divisions and fight back against the League and can use their infighting to disarm them. Izuku finds himself being untrusting of the black shards that the villains are using, and most of the students find themselves staying away from the shards as well.

However, Momo finds herself fascinated by the strange technology that they are wielding, and a whisper in her mind prompts her to take one of the shards and pocket it, promising herself to investigate it and then hand it back later.

But she isn't the only one that is dealing with whispers. Several of the students, and even the teachers, begin to hear whispers from the black obelisk on the Locus of Oppression's back, and many of the students who are more thrilled by fighting than others, particularly Bakugo and Kirishima, or have some sort of lingering anger and resentment in themselves, such as Todoroki, find themselves to be more receptive to those whispers. Even Aizawa is being affected by those whispers, as they acknowledge him and his viewpoints, and encourage him to be stricter and push harder on those views, and to make sure that only the strongest in his class can prevail.

Plus ultra, after all.

But on the other side of the USJ, Ochako has begun to hear her own whispers as she finds a shard of bone, one coloured a greyish blue and with white spikes running across it, buried in the dirt, and something within her convinces her to take it and keep it for herself.

But soon enough, All Might arrives to battle against the Nomu, and using his blinding power, he is able to defeat the Locus of Oppression, clearing the USJ of its whispers and forcing the remaining members of the League to retreat.

Back at their home base, Shigaraki is furious and drags the only USJ thug to escape with him and Kurogiri over to a black statue underneath the bar, a giant statue in the shape of a veiled woman, and kills him, using the fresh death to bring a connection to the mysterious benefactor that has helped to not only strengthen the League, but also bring All for One back to full strength. Shigaraki is furious at their benefactor, demanding to know why his minions lost and why the black pieces of technology that they had been given weren't enough to defeat not just All Might, but a bunch of children as well. The voice, shrouded in darkness, tells them that if they had been defeated, they deserved it. All that had been proven was that the heroes were too powerful for him, and that now he needed to learn from his mistakes and become more powerful in turn.

Shigaraki asks for more of the black devices, but the Voice in the Darkness simply tells him no. Those first devices were a gift, nothing more. Now, Shigaraki had to prove that he deserves their assistance. The next time he comes to find power, he can no longer wait for himself to be given it. He must prove his worth. He must take it.

The voice fades away with the ashes of the corpse that it was used to communicate with, and All for One advises Shigaraki to bide his time and build up his strength once more. There will be time for him to strike again soon. Shigaraki is reluctant to do this, still filled with rage, but is forced to capitulate and go to rest...

And meanwhile, All for One communes with the Voice in the Darkness as well, where it is made clear who that All for One is the servant, and the Voice in the Darkness is the master. All for One resents this, but the Voice in the Darkness is aware of this and does not care. In fact, it encourages All for One to try and usurp it, as it would prove that All for One is stronger than not just Shigaraki, but also the Voice itself, and therefore would prove the Sword Logic true. The Voice in the Darkness leaves All for One by himself, and All for One continues to plot and scheme, eager to take his place as the strongest being Earth, and soon enough, beyond Earth as well, as one of the Darkness' greatest Disciples.

But elsewhere, other forces are afoot, as the leaders of the Meta Liberation Army begin to experience haunting nightmares and red phantoms, and strange little worms begin to appear across Deika City. Strange little worms that whisper into the ears of the people of the Meta Liberation Army and promise power and thrones beyond their understanding...

Meanwhile, a girl known as Ibara Shoizaki tends to her garden, listening to the gentle whispers of a woman in her dreams, and then calls Reiko, telling her that this world's winnowers are coming to reap of their garden.

Later, Izuku continues to train with All Might, but finds that One for All is reacting strangely with him. Where once there was green electricity covering him when he used his quirk, now that electricity was a striking blue, accompanied by flickers of sparks and flame and violet pulls in the air like gravity. Whatever is happening with One for All, it has been acting up since the USJ, having seemingly reacted to those strange black shards that the villains had brought with them. All Might himself is confused by all of this, as all of this never happened during all forty years of his time with One for All. As such, he decides that it is time to speak with Gran Torino about this and get him onto training Izuku as well.

But that will have to wait, as the Sports Festival is to begin, and Class 1-A is sent right into the fight as they battle against their fellows in Class 1-B and the other courses. However, during the first event, the obstacle course, Class 1-A is picked off by each other and everyone else due to being more simplistic and aggressive in fighting and competing to get to first place, leaving only their strongest members left in the competition. By comparison, Class 1-B end up outnumbering Class 1-A in the second round due to cooperating with each other and helping pull off complex maneuvers and plans to claim victory.

By the time of the second round, that being a new part of the tournament that plays out like a raid encounter in Destiny, in that the remaining contestants are paired into teams of four and placed within one of the industrial training grounds of U.A.'s campus, and given objectives similar to that of raid mechanics, in that they must collect a specific amount of dummies in the place of civilians and deposit them into a bunker, as well as complete certain objectives such as collecting fake money stolen from a bank and so on, all the while being hounded by villain pointer robots that serves as enemies to clear out, as well as larger robot mini-bosses and a central robot that serves as the encounter boss. All of this must be completed within a time limit, and if the time limit is reached and none of the objectives are reached, then the entire team is disqualified, labelling a party wipe.

For this activity, Izuku is placed in a four-man team with Reiko Yanagi, Ochako Uraraka, and Fumikage Tokoyami (and Dark Shadow), and they get to work on completing the objective. In fact, it is Reiko herself who takes command of the group, assigning them all roles based on their strengths, with Reiko herself in charge of moving the civilians, Ochako in charge of handling the second objectives, Tokoyami (and Dark Shadow) to deal with clearing out the mobs of enemies that are harassing them, and Izuku to take out the mini-bosses. Soon enough, they all complete their objectives, and team up to take down the main boss of the event, which they do in just the nick of time.

Their team ends up passing the second event alongside four other teams, one composed of Bakugo, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, and Todoroki, who came out first. Just after them is the team made up of Kodai, Ibara, Kendo, and Tetsutetsu, followed by the third team, made up of Shinso, Ojiro, Hatsume, and Kamakiri. Izuku's team ended up in fourth, rounding out the competition.

However, suddenly, Ojiro and Kamakiri end up dropping out of the tournament due to not remembering what happened during the round and not feeling that they deserved to pass, and as such their places are automatically given to Komori and Monoma, leading them to pass on to the next phase of the competition.

Soon enough, the next phase of the tournament begins, where this time it is structured more like the Crucible or the Trials of Osiris. Instead of each match being a 1V1, this time they will be working in teams of four for the first rounds and will be placed in two matches against each other. Once one team is taken out from each match, the two winning teams will be placed against each other. Once a winning team emerges from that match, the winning team will be split up once more into four individual members, and then will be placed into two individual matches. The final match will be decided from the winner of those two matches, which will then decide the winner of the Sports Festival.

However, because Iida was unable to enter the third round, Tensei ends up leaving Hosu to go to the stadium to cheer up his little brother, sparing him from meeting and being crippled by Stain.

Meanwhile, the first match begins between Izuku, Ochako, Reiko, and Tokoyami, and the opposing team Shinso, Hatsume, Monoma, and Komori. However, before their battle, the team is warned about Shinso's quirk by Ojiro and Ashido, and as such go into the fight aware of Shinso's power.

However, even that forewarning isn't enough, as Shinso gets the chance to use his quirk on Izuku-

When suddenly they are both assaulted with visions. Izuku of black pyramids and rotting gardens, of simple life living short, simple lives, of seas of screams, of cutting blades, and a figure in black. Shinso of spheres and lush meadows, of endless life living in endless complexity, of a Black Garden filled with Light and Life, of the insides of a sphere that smells like vanilla, and of a woman in white.

And in both their visions, they stand at the foot of a tree of silver wings.

And then, the visions begin to speak to them.

The figure in black speaks to Izuku. Speaks to him of swords and blades and the simplicity they bring. Speaks to him until his ears bleed. Speaks to him until his mind is overwhelmed by the desires of the strong to cut away the world until only the perfect, final shape remains.

The woman in white speaks to Shinso directly. Speaks of him and the power of his words and wisdom. Shows him visions of a forgotten past, an uncertain future, and the hope that maybe, just maybe, their little lights could prevail against the encroaching darkness.

Then, the visions ended, and both Izuku and Shinso were rocked back, just as the rest of Izuku's team finished mopping up the rest of Shinso's team and were declared the winners.

And so, as Bakugo's team battles against Ibara's team during the second round, Izuku is sat down with the rest of his team, them asking him what happened when he was under the effects of Shinso's quirk, and why it had such an effect on both himself and Shinso. Izuku himself is unsure but decides not to bring up the vision that he saw, believing it to be something to do with One for All.

(During all of this, it should be noted that Dark Shadow, who is a girl in this story, speaks in metaphors and poetic language, and says some things that imply that she may know more than she's letting on. Reiko is quick to notice this.)

Soon enough, Bakugo's team wins the second round handedly, using brutal tactics to incapacitate and cut down Ibara's team. When the dust clears and the field is repaired, Bakugo's team takes to the field again, and Izuku's team follows shortly behind.

The two teams go up against each other, giving it their all...

And Bakugo's team won.

His, and the rest of his team's, brutal and simplistic tactics overwhelm Izuku and his team and any plans that they lay for themselves, and they lose. Hard.

(This is kind of my response to all the fanfics where Izuku wins the Sports Festival. There are so many of them out in the wild now that it's become cliche, and this is just my way of saying that he doesn't need to win the Sports Festival to have character growth and development, or just to show off how awesome he is or whatever.)

Izuku leaves the field in a stretcher, dejected, feeling terrible about losing the Sports Festival, especially having lost to Bakugo and being affirmed by the bomber boy of his supposed place underneath him. His teammates are quick to assure him that his failure is no fault of his own, as is All Might later, but Izuku doesn't feel the same. All he feels inside him is a well of pain, and a candlelight of anger at this loss.

Meanwhile, Bakugo's team is split up into their matches, and Bakugo and Todoroki win against Kirishima and Momo respectively. Quickly, Momo and Kirishima are given a match for third place, and Kirishima comes out of that match the victor.

Then Bakugo and Todoroki begin the final match, and because Todoroki hasn't told Izuku about his issues and about why he refuses to use his ice, he loses against Bakugo, who is furious at his opponent for not coming at him with all his strength.

But regardless, Bakugo is declared the winner, with Todoroki coming in second, and Kirishima in third.

However, it isn't as good of a victory as the winners would like. As it turns out, many pro heroes are not approving of their methods in winning the Sports Festival. During the various matches, Bakugo and his teammates, even Momo, hadn't been working well together and using simplistic brute force to win their battles, making them seem battle hungry and reckless.

By contrast, Izuku's team, though they had lost the Sports Festival, had worked well together and showed support for each other during each event, accomplishing objectives and showing great synergy with each other in more complex maneuvers and displays. This ends up impressing the pro hero audience more than Bakugo's team did, and nets them more in the way of offers.

Bakugo's team and their simplistic, devastating methods had granted them victory in the short term, I.E. winning the Sports Festival, but Izuku's team and their more complex tactics, and taking each other into consideration, had netted them the long-term, more sustainable victory.

(In case you couldn't tell, the entire Sports Festival arc is me comparing Sword Logic and Bomb Logic against each other.)

These circ*mstances only serve to enrage Bakugo, who is furious at this, whilst Momo is saddened and frustrated at her loss and how she had fallen off the wayside so close to achieving victory.

Then, she remembers the black shard that she had pocketed from the USJ and goes to Hatsume to ask for help in trying to understand the strange device and how it had granted the villains their Stasis powers.

Meanwhile, Ochako goes back home and studies the strange spiked greyish-blue bone that she had taken from the USJ as well and begins to hear whispers in her head as she hums an eight-note tune to herself.

And Aizawa, meanwhile, begins to experience dreams. Dreams that affirm his methods of teaching and encourage him to be more affirming about it, to be more brutal. If he really wants to see his students survive the cutting of the blade, then he needs to carve away their weaknesses himself until nothing but strength remains.

Sometime later, the internships begin, and Izuku is sent off to Gran Torino to train with One for All. However, Gran Torino finds himself unsure of how to train Izuku, as One for All is acting differently to how it had done with All Might, leaving him unsure of what to do with him.

Izuku, meanwhile, is dealing with feelings of self-deprecation due to his loss at the Sports Festival and not feeling worthy of One for All. His confusion at the visions that he has experienced thanks to One for All doesn't help in this as well.

Meanwhile, Ochako takes her internship with Mirko, who tries to help her unlock her anger and fighting style and get her to start being a much more aggressive fighter. Ochako, meanwhile, has taken her shard of bone with her, and has begun to draw a strange language into her notebook. A language that is almost infectious...

And elsewhere, Momo finds herself deeply unsatisfied with her internship with Uwabami, and once again considers the black shard that she has on her.

But then, suddenly, the attack on Hosu begins, and because Stain never attacked Tensei, Iida had no incentive to go after him, and as such the Hero Killer can go about murdering other pro heroes with no trouble. However, Shigaraki, who is still pissed at Stain having rejected his offer to join the League of Villains and having attacked him, sends out several Nomu to go and attack Hosu in response, mostly to make the public think that the League and Stain are in lockstep, but also to kill Stain and as many heroes as they can.

Reminder, the League has access to several Nomu right now. Several, not just three. All for One's benefactor, the Voice in the Darkness, had provided them with the means in which to recreate a form of advanced cloning technology, the blueprints of which the Voice claimed to have taken from 'The Leviathan'. Worse yet, all these Nomu have those same black obelisks on their back, which begin to spread strange devices known as Suppressors, which have the stranger property of being able to negate and shut down people's quirks as the Nomu's obelisks began to spread a foul growth called Egregore around the city.

Soon enough, Hosu was covered in growths of Egregore, releasing their dark spores into the air that served to drown the city in more of their cancerous growths. Now with the Egregore linking their minds together, the Nomu suddenly became even more effective as their tasks, killing every hero that they come across and locking down the area, each death serving to strengthen the Egregore further. Worse still, the Egregore began to affect the remaining pro heroes in the area, the spores in the air infecting and expanding their minds and linking them with the Nomu, driving them mad and/or leaving them in a state of near-brain death, turning them into mindless puppets to be directed against other heroes.

Hosu is turned into the equivalent of a patrol zone, with darkness empowered Nomu and corrupted heroes battling against their brothers in arms for control of the city. During this time, Stain would end up teaming up with the heroes that he hates to combat the League of Villains, his publicity and popularity amongst the criminal underworld turning many against the League, much to Shigaraki's frustration.

However, during this time as well, Izuku would end up in Hosu as well, and found that One for All, whilst being muted by the Suppressors, could dispell the Egregore and clear the streets, allowing the heroes a better chance against the Nomu and their corrupted minions. What's more, when he interacted with the Suppressors, Izuku found that he could drain the energy out of them with One for All, rendering them useless and allowing the heroes to use their quirks again.

Meanwhile, Tokoyami would find himself trapped in Hosu as well, and would end up slipping into a portal made by the Nomu's obelisks...

Right into the Ascendant Plane.

Tokoyami would be lost for a long time lost in the Ascendant Plane, jumping over obstacles and trying his best to avoid the strange shadowy beings that always tried to kill him. However, soon enough, he would reach a strange structure in the middle of the grey, otherworldly landscape, guarded by more Nomu, and all of them led by a dark, hulking monster wielding a massive scythe.

A Tormentor.

Through the visions and portals around the inhuman creature, thanks to a strange power that Dark Shadow refers to as his Deepsight, Tokoyami realises that the Tormentor is the one coordinating the attack on Hosu and attacks him, supported by Dark Shadow as he battles against the beast and its Nomu guards.

The Tormentor strikes back by stabbing Tokoyami in the chest, killing him.

Tokoyami dies... but then Dark Shadow gives off a flash of light, and Tokoyami suddenly returns from the dead, confused of what just happened, only to realise what is going on at the moment, put it out of his mind, and then get back to work in taking down the Tormentor and its minions.

The Tormentor puts up a good fight, but Dark Shadow ends up casting a strange set of powers for Tokoyami, beams of electricity from his hands, and lands the finishing blow on the Tormentor, killing it and its Nomu, and crippling the attack on Hosu as Tokoyami flees through the portal and back into Hosu, where the remaining Nomu's attacks have weakened in coordination.

Soon enough, with Tokoyami crippling the Nomu leadership and Izuku draining the Suppressors and purifying the Egregore with One for All, the heroes are able to cleanse Hosu of its invasion and defeat the Nomu, capturing their corrupted brethren and forcing the League of Villains into a retreat once more.

However, all isn't quite as well as the heroes would like. Ochako has been cradling her shard of bone close to her, and it has been whispering to her. It has been talking to her about the flaws of hero society, about how it exploits her, about how it only allows those with the strongest, flashiest quirks to thrive, how not all men are born equal, and that it is commercialised injustice, a commodification of the meaning of the word 'Hero'.

The whispers point out all the flaws in hero society, and Ochako cannot bring herself to think that they are wrong.

Then, the bone whispers secrets to her. Secrets about her friends, secrets about Izuku and One for All and things that not even her friends know about themselves.

And so, she hears the whispers. And she listens.

And then she begins to whisper back.

And then, at the end of her internship, she shows Mirko her notebook, and the viral language inside it makes Mirko just that little bit more agreeable as she whistles an eight-note tune to herself.

Later, Izuku leaves his internship, even more confused about One for All and the powers that it has given him. Even worse is when he talks to All Might about it, All Might is utterly flummoxed, as One for All never did any of this stuff for him before. All it ever did was give him super strength and nothing more. Not even his mentor, Nana Shimura, had this kind of reaction from One for All. These new esoteric abilities that One for All is giving Izuku, and the previous visions that have come with it... this is something beyond All Might's capabilities.

This is confounded even more by Shinso approaching him, telling him that he has been having strange dreams ever since he used his quirk on him, dreams of gardens and gardeners and spheres and so on, like Izuku's own dreams of pyramids and final shapes and figures in black.

However, the two wouldn't have much time to think about the strange events that they have been experiencing, as the end of term exams has begun, and the students are placed against the teachers for their exams.

However, some of these tests have been changed, as the mechanics and objectives of each individual exam have been changed to resemble that of a dungeon from D2. Now, they don't just have to run to the exit to pass. Now, they must complete a random objective during the exam to pass too.

What's more, Aizawa has begun to put more emphasis on the students using all their strength and power to pass. He has become slightly more intense in his tests and lessons, continuously pushing the students to try and get them past their weaknesses and come out of his increasingly ramped up training stronger than ever. The students and teachers put it down to Aizawa being annoyed at how, save for Izuku's team and the most powerful members of 1-A, his class had found themselves pushed out of the Sports Festival by members of Class 1-B and is seeking to bridge the supposed gap between them.

However, none of them hear the increasing whispers in Aizawa's head. Nor the whispers in several other classmates as well.

Soon enough, the exams begin, and Izuku is placed with Bakugo, who abandons him to go fight against All Might, leaving Izuku to complete the objective on his own. Izuku ends up managing to complete the objective, and the rest of the exam plays out much of the same as in canon. However, this time, because he abandoned Izuku to go fight All Might, leaving the green-haired boy to complete the objective on his own, Bakugo ends up failing the exam, angering him even more than before.

Meanwhile, Momo is even more frustrated than before. Todoroki refused to listen to her during their exam (remember, Todoroki hasn't had his talk with Izuku at the Sports Festival, meaning that he still isn't using his fire at all), and her hesitance had cost her the exam as well.

The black shard that she had picked up continues to whisper to her, slowly growing louder and louder.

And elsewhere, Ochako finds a friend in Tsuyu, and hums an eight-note tune to her as she goes to hang out with Izuku once more...

But that will have to wait, as Izuku and Shinso are suddenly approached by Reiko, who invites them to Ibara's home to find the answers they seek.

Meanwhile, All Might meets with Nezu and Naomasa as they discuss the events of Hosu and the USJ, and everything that happened there. All Might is disturbed to learn that all the Nomu were made from different people and quirks, and even more so when it is confirmed that some of them are identical to each other and only seem to be a few days old, as if they were clones of each other. However, what confuses them is the Egregore that the Nomu had been spreading across Hosu, as well as the strange black obelisks that they had been wearing, on top of the quirk-surprising devices that they had been spreading across the city, which seemed to be a similar type of technology to the Stasis shards that the villains at the USJ had been using to empower themselves.

However, what flummoxed the forensics in the police department the most was that all these devices and obelisks had no internal wiring to them. No circuitry, no electrics, no nothing. They just seemed to be useless clumps of solid metal. And yet they had been able to project power onto the world. Like someone had infused them with a quirk.

Or with something supernatural. Or paranormal.

With no other way of chasing up leads, the authorities decide to send the strange obelisks and shards of black technology to I-Island for them to analyse and decipher further. There, David Shield and his daughter Melissa have amassed several black obelisks and Egregore samples which they begin to study and try to deconstruct and even replicate.

However, Sam Abraham soon contacts them, telling them that something had popped up on their radar. Something suddenly appeared right under I-Island. Something that shouldn't exist.

And meanwhile, Hatsume is becoming obsessed with the shard of black technology that she was given, its latent corruption slowly beginning to infect her.

Meanwhile, at the day's end, Izuku and Shinso are led by Reiko to Ibara's house, said girl having collected Tokoyami as well. The three boys are confused as to why they are there and what is going on, with Tokoyami haunted by something that happened to him in Hosu, but Reiko and Ibara are silent for the time being, leading them into Reiko's home...

And into a lush garden, patterned by pictures of spheres and trees and wolves and women in white veils covering the walls.

Izuku, Shinso, and Tokoyami are surprised by the garden and the pictures on the walls, and Reiko and Ibara respond by handing them a book. A book that they've labelled Encounters (a lore book, essentially), which details the long list of events and recounts of people who have encountered strange instances of seemingly supernatural activity, some of them featuring visions and dreams of women in white, of spheres and gardens, and others of figures in black, obsidian pyramids, horrors beyond the comprehension of man, and endless, eternal darkness. Reiko and Ibara refer to them as visions of Light and Darkness respectively.

Ibara and Reiko finally begin to explain themselves, with Ibara stating that a long time ago, something happened. Something in the past, before the Great Disaster. It is revealed that, a thousand years ago, something happened in the past. Something that wiped away all of humanity's previous history and slowly began to bring quirks into the world, an event known as the Great Disaster. No one knows what happened during the Disaster, and no one knows what happened before it. Nothing about humanity's history or culture survived the Disaster. Not any previously existing religions, not any cultures or practices, nothing at all. The slate had pretty much been wiped clean, and mankind was left to pick up the pieces.

Ibara's family has been trying to make sense of the mysteries of the past for all its existence. However, what they considered to be their true mission was the one that visited them in all their dreams, from the first member of her family all the way down to her. A sacred mission, to protect those that were touched by their Goddess of Light, their Gardener, so that on the day that she returns, they can be ready and waiting to combat the Winnower, the Devil of Darkness, that will come chasing after her.

And now, that time is fast approaching. And they, all five of them, are to be the ones to see mankind through into the new world.

Tokoyami doesn't have any patience for it, though. In an uncharacteristic move for him, Tokoyami drops all his fanciful, artistic language, and demands to know what the hell is going on. Because he died, in that other world. He died. He remembered dying, then he remembered waking up and killing that Tormentor with a new power, something other than his quirk.

He died that day.

But Ibara refutes that. Tokoyami didn't die that day. He's already dead. He's been dead for a long time.

Tokoyami died a stillborn. It was his Ghost, Dark Shadow, that brought him back.

Tokoyami doesn't believe it, calling her a liar. But then Dark Shadow appears over his shoulder, dissolving her shadowy form and revealing herself to be a little one-eyed drone.

A Ghost.

Tokoyami is shocked by this, and Reiko approaches him and tells him not to worry. That she died a stillborn too, and summons a Ghost of her own, one named Porter. Turns out that Reiko had been using her strange powers in what she calls the Light, or more specifically what she calls Void, to simulate a quirk, just like Dark Shadow had been using a cloaking mechanism and gravitational shrouds to mimic a quirk for Tokoyami as well.

Tokoyami is shocked by all of this, and Ibara continues. Over the years, her family has prophesised, from their dreams, that one day these strange little Ghosts would return, and with them would come the forces of Light and Darkness. And that with their return would come another disaster, another Collapse, and when that came, they would need to protect their people and survive them, in the name of the Gardener, their goddess, and the Light.

Tokoyami is still in shock, Izuku is confused as to what to think about all this, but Shinso doesn't believe any of it for a second, demanding to be shown proof that anything that they are saying is true. Ibara nods, commenting on things in Shinso's dreams that she never told her or anyone else, freaking him out even more...

And then she summons forth a strange ornate device, something she calls an Awoken Beacon, and summons from it a portal to the Ascendant Realm, beckoning them through and travelling across what she and Reiko call a Ley Line, all the way to a strange realm of gardens and spheres.

Ibara calls it a Throne World. Her Throne World that she called New-Riis. One that her family has made with the use of what she calls Bomb Logic.

And it is a realm populated by four-armed creatures that Ibara and Reiko refer to as the Eliksni, as the House of Light.

Izuku, Shinso, and Tokoyami are amazed by what they see, and shocked by the Eliksni creatures that have made their home in this place, and Ibara and Reiko, as well as an Eliksni female known as Eido, Kell of House of Light, who has no memory of what happened before the Great Disaster, along with all the Eliksni that were hiding out in the Throne World, show them a vast library of photos, accounts, and recordings of information relating to the past, to the dreams of those who have seen the Light, and to even a few surviving records from before the Great Disaster. Turns out that the Encounters book was just the tip of the iceberg.

Shinso, still uncertain of what to make of all this, asks what his place in all this is, and if he is supposed to have a Ghost as well. Reiko chimes in, and says no.

The Speaker has never had a Ghost before.

Shinso is even more confused, and Reiko continues, saying that whilst Ibara's family have been having dreams of the Gardener and the Light for all their lives, they have always dreamed of the one who would be touched by their Goddess, the one whom would be spoken to directly, the one whom could communicate her words to them. And that person, the Gardener's Speaker, matched Shinso's description to a T.

Shinso was to be the Speaker, to be the Gardener's messenger.

And Izuku? Izuku was something else. Something made of pure Light.

Izuku was a conduit for the Light, something empowered by All Might's gift. Izuku is shocked to know that they know about One for All, but they reveal that the reason that One for All is acting differently to him than it did with All Might is because it is reacting to the well of Light that is inside of him. It is effectively enhancing and growing the well of Light inside of him.

Izuku is a well of the Light, a conduit for it to manifest and blossom into the real world. One for All merely serves as a way of amplifying it.

Izuku is surprised by this, thinking that he has had a quirk this whole time. Reiko simply says that the Light isn't a quirk. It is so much more than that, and Ibara speculates that quirks themselves are simply slivers of the Light, aspects of it.

This proves to be too much for Izuku, Shinso, and Tokoyami, and they demand to go back home. Ibara acquiesces without argument, recognising that they have undergone a lot of revelations in the last few hours and that they need some time to process everything. However, in a fit of anger over such a drastic revelation being hidden from him, Tokoyami demands that Dark Shadow leave him, forcing his Ghost to stay behind in New-Riis and leaving him on his own as Izuku and Shinso leave after him.

Later, Izuku is left shaken by Ibara and Reiko's revelations, and he starts going out of his way to avoid both Shinso and Tokoyami as a reaction, as well as Ibara and Reiko themselves, his mind just as consumed by thoughts of what he has been told as the other two boys.

But all that is put to the side as he goes to I-Island, and is greeted by Melissa Shield, who decides to show him around the artificial island. Whilst he is there, he is surprised to find Tokoyami and Shinso there as well, on top of Momo and Ochako from his class too.

Meanwhile, All Might goes to talk to David about what he has found out about the League of Villains' technology and is shocked to hear that David knows next to nothing about it all, same as the forensics back home. However, that is when David leads All Might down to their latest discovery, something that appeared in a massive cavern underneath I-Island that shouldn't have existed at all. Something that suddenly came into existence a few weeks ago, when All Might sent them that strange technology, and something that bears a remarkable resemblance to all that weird tech.

A massive black Pyramid.

And from this Pyramid, David, Sam, and the rest of I-Island's staff and scientific community have been pulling out alien corpse after corpse, all of them bodies of creatures with four arms, some of them removed, and others grown into massive, grotesque forms. Some of them were held in glass/marble cases, others simply strewn across the ground, but all of them were long dead in the haunting architecture. Not only that, but they have begun to bring some of the artifacts from the top to the Pyramid and have found out that they react to each other. David and Sam suspect the artifacts summoned the Pyramid into existence instead of being under I-Island the whole time.

At the same time, a portal opens in the outskirts of I-Island, and a cadre of four-armed creatures stepped out, all with a green glow around them.

They are Fallen. Wrathborn Fallen, led by a deranged, mutated Captain known as Once-Tyriks, Darkness Conduit, and driven by the Voice in the Darkness to take the artifact that they are carrying to the Black Fleet Pyramid ship down below that the I-Island staff had uncovered for them.

Meanwhile, Izuku would continue to tour the artificial island alongside Melissa but would find himself growing ill as the Darkness artifacts stored within I-Island's vaults would continue to interact with the Pyramid down below. Elsewhere, Shinso's visions would begin to get worse, and Tokoyami would wonder about the island on his own, followed in secret by his Ghost, Dark Shadow.

Then, the three boys come across the Wrathborn Fallen, and are attacked by the mad Eliksni. At first, the three boys are confused as to why they are being attacked by these Eliksni, and why some of them, the Captains specifically, are wielding Stasis powers like the villains from the USJ, believing that Ibara and Reiko have betrayed them. However, they notice the green glow around them and their general insanity and realise that something is deeply wrong with them.

As such, the three boys try to fight back against them in any way that they can manage, and Melissa would try to activate the island's security network, only to find that the relics and obelisks that had been sent to them from the mainland was messy with their systems. Even the Pyramid down below seemed to be generating interference.

Soon enough, she is able to activate I-Island's security systems, only to find that they have been subverted by both Pyramid influence and Wrathborn corruption to lock down the island and attack the heroes, taking All Might, David, and several others hostage and attacking and killing anyone who would try to attack them in turn, turning I-Island into a demented hell house.

During the fighting, Tokoyami is killed once again, only for him to be revived by Dark Shadow, who apparently followed her Risen Lightbearer to I-Island to try and reconcile with him. Tokoyami would assume that Ibara and Reiko sent her there after him, but Dark Shadow responds that she followed him on her own. Tokoyami doesn't believe her, but they are forced to put aside their differences for the time being to deal with the Wrathborn Fallen.

Meanwhile, a long Wrathborn Dreg would slip through the chaos of I-Island, Darkness artifact in hand, and would begin his descent into the depths below the artificial island, straight to the sunken Pyramid.

Back up above, the three boys and their allies, including Melissa, Momo, and Ochako, would suffer a long and grueling siege against both the Wrathborn Fallen and haywire security system. However, Melissa would direct them to one part of the island that hadn't yet been compromised.

The experimental weapons storage room, where the scientists at I-Island had been developing new guns to be used in the armed forces and police markets. From hand cannons to shotguns to rocket launchers, I-Island's forges were open to them.

The students, of course, are extremely reluctant to use lethal weaponry, especially on these creatures, but they are forced to accept that the situation truly is that dire and capitulate.

With their new armaments, the group begin to make their way through the mad robots and monstrous Wrathborn, trying their best to take down the Wrathborn non-lethally as they make their way deeper into the island.

On their way down, the group end up moving through the labs within I-Island's underbelly, coming across the various artifacts and pieces of technology recovered from the League of Villains, as well as the rotting and mutated Eliksni corpses that the staff had been collecting from the site underground as well, now with the Egregore samples breaking out of their containers and growing across the entire level. The students are shocked and disgusted at the grotesque sight, and the boys sense a strange sickly darkness coming from the corpses, and it wasn't from the Egregore.

Soon enough, the group make their way to the lead Wrathborn, Once-Tyriks, in I-Island's reactor chamber, and do battle with the maddened Fallen. During this fight, Izuku finds the central servers to I-Island's and uses One for All and his latent connection to the Light to purify the Wrathborn corruption on the servers, whilst Tokoyami brings down Once-Tyriks and Shinso uses his quirk to subdue the creature.

However, this has the knock-on effect of temporarily freeing Tyriks from the Wrathborn influence, and through its pained whimpers, the lucid Eliksni reveals that they had been corrupted there not by their own choice, but by what it refers to as that which cannot be stolen from.

The Voice in the Darkness...

And his and his corrupted crew's presence here was merely a distraction to awaken the dark army below.

Down below, the last Eliksni Wrathborn makes it to the innards of the Pyramid ship and opens the dark artifact that it had brought with it.

It is an urn. A chalice containing Dark Ether.

The corrupted Eliksni then slits its own throat and spills the urn as it dies, corrupting it further and awakening all the Eliksni corpses across I-Island, including the Wrathborn.

Tyriks screams as he dies to the Dark Ether, alongside all the other Wrathborn Fallen, only for them to awaken once more, now as decaying husks, alongside all the other Eliksni corpses across I-Island, now in service to the Darkness.

Now, they were no longer Eliksni. Now, they were Scorn.

The awakened Scorn quickly floods I-Island, taking over the entire artificial city in barely an hour and cutting through any hero, robot, and fighter attempting to stand in their way. Izuku tries to use his Light to purify the Scorn, only to find it unable to work. The Scorn are too far gone. Worse yet, Izuku's powers are beginning to strain him, not helped by One for All's effects on his body. Even Izuku's purifying Light has its limits.

The rest of the group are forced to retreat, even dropping any pretenses of trying to take down their enemies non-lethally on the realisation that the Eliksni that they are fighting are already dead. Yet, for each Scorn that they kill, even more seem to take their place, swarming out of their containment pods in the sunken Pyramid to overrun the island. Not even All Might is enough to stem the rotting tide.

And that is when the Pyramid ship begins to rise to the surface, breaking through the ground and planting itself right in the centre of I-Island, allowing its Scorn occupants easier access into the city.

Soon enough, the evacuations begin, and Izuku and his group, now including Melissa, are put on one of the first ships out. However, that ship is delayed as swarms of Scorn, from Screebs to Lurkers, Raiders to Wraiths, Ravagers to Stalkers, and Chieftains to Abominations, begin to leap from high spaces onto escaping civilian boats and planes and tearing them to pieces, either sinking them to the bottom of the ocean or bringing them crashing down from the air into fireballs, killing every person onboard them.

Once again, Izuku and his group rush into the fray once more to defend the civilians against the Scorn, only to find that task made even more difficult when Scorn champions begin throwing themselves into the mix, alongside modified Pikes and Scorn Walkers. Once again, not even All Might is enough to fend off the tide of rotting and violent flesh.

However, the group, including All Might and Melissa, are able to get onto a ship, a larger ship reminiscent of a Ketch, and begin to take off from the ravaged I-Island with as many civilians as they can. However, their ship is suddenly boarded by a massive Scorn. The formerly Wrathborn Tyriks, now Once-Tyriks, the Unliving Tether.

Tokoyami would be forced to engage the undead Scorn before it tore apart the ship and is finally forced to accept Dark Shadow as both his Ghost and partner, and the Light as his abilities. Soon, with the Light at his side and with the help of Izuku, Shinso, Momo, and Ochako, Tokoyami defeats Once-Tyriks and sends the monstrous Scorn falling to the ground below, allowing their ship to escape.

But they are one of the few ships to successfully escape I-Island as it fell to the Pyramid and the Scorn. David and Samuel's ship is brought down and crashes into I-Island, and it is left ambiguous on whether they survived or not.

But then, the obsidian Pyramid sitting in the centre of I-Island began to activate. Black aura began to leak out from the Pyramid ship and cover the entire island...

And then, suddenly, the Pyramid vanished in the blink of an eye... along with the entirety of I-Island.

The Pyramid ship had just fled, along with I-Island, all the remaining scientists, heroes, and civilians, all the technology that was stored there, and a massive army of undead Scorn.

The Darkness has won this round, and Izuku and the others taste true defeat for the first time.

In the aftermath of I-Island's disappearance, hero society is thrown into a panic. Various hero agencies are put on high alert, villain activity begins to rise, and questions begin to rise about the Scorn, the Pyramid, and the new enemies that they face...

And meanwhile, All for One is angered at being supposedly upstaged by this Pyramid thing and knows that the Voice in the Darkness has something to do with it. When he does eventually get into contact with it, the Voice chides him for thinking that it wasn't going to be moving its own pieces on the chessboard. As it stands, right now All for One and Shigaraki are simply pieces on the board themselves. If they really wanted to be players, then they needed to prove that they have what it takes to be them.

And so, it tells them to prove that they are worthy of discipleship: kill All Might, destroy this world's hope, and it will grant them the gifts that they seek.

Elsewhere, Ibara, Reiko, and their allies in the House of Light are disturbed at this move and realise that with the forces of Light now revealing themselves, the Darkness is making its moves as well. Eido resolves to continue her research into the worlds that came before and try to establish communication with these Awoken people that their records speak of, whilst Ibara and Reiko travel to a part of Japan, hidden to the outside world through a combination of clocking technology, Ascendant Realm trickery, and ancient Awoken magics.

A hidden world known as the Conclave, a hidden city populated by Eliksni and Cabal, and governed by the House of Spider crime syndicate, primarily the Baron Spider and his Cabal enforcers. All of them have no memory of how they arrived in this place or what happened before and during the Great Disaster, just like Eido and the rest of the House of Light. It is revealed that Ibara's family has a long history of working with the people of the Conclave, particularly Spider's lot, in identifying sources of information and people connected to the Light and past, and that it was through Spider's contacts that Ibara was able to identify Reiko as a resurrected Lightbearer.

Ibara demands to know from Spider if he was the one who sent those Wrathborn Fallen to I-Island, and Spider simply responds that he has no desire to consort with the likes of the Wrathborn, and that those Eliksni that attacked I-Island seemed to be of old stock considering how their clothes were rotting off their bodies and their armour was pitted and rusting away, meaning that whoever sent them has a stock of Wrathborn in reserve somewhere, ready to be used. Spider, however, makes it clear that he is interested in acquiring some of those Stasis splinters that both the League of Villains and Wrathborn Fallen were using, so that he can sell them through his contacts at a high price, though Ibara is less than willing to make this happen.

Ibara and Reiko go to leave, but Spider then leaves them with one last note, telling them that the people of the Conclave were beginning to grow restless, and that Spider's enforcers could only keep them in line for so long. Sooner or later, some of them were going to start trying to wander off. Sooner or later, there was going to be an uprising, and at that point, there would be nothing that he could do.

Ibara has long been disgusted by Spider's method of keeping control of the Conclave, but is forced to capitulate to his warning, and tells Spider to get his men and the people of the Conclave ready for the future. With the Darkness finally making its moves, they would need to fight sooner or later.

Elsewhere, Ochako, who is experiencing feelings of trauma and remorse after the events of I-Island and wishing that she could've done more to prevent it, would continue to commune with the shard of bone in her possession, telling it secrets as much as it told her secrets. At the same time, she continues to talk to Tsuyu and learn all she can from her, all the while showing her parents and even the members of their construction company her notebooks with the viral language in them and humming her eight-note song to them.

Then, she gets a call from Mirko, and smiles as the bone whispers spells and runes for her to learn, the feelings of regret beginning to fade as she begins to learn how to make sure never to let what happened on I-Island never happen again.

Meanwhile, Izuku confronts Reiko about what happened on I-Island and about the Eliksni that were there, both the Wrathborn and the Scorn, but Reiko confesses that she doesn't know how they got there either. Izuku isn't sure if he should believe her, still not entirely trusting her, but is forced to put that aside for the time being as the Summer Training Camp begins, and Classes 1-A and 1-B are taken to the Wild Wild puss*cats' forest to continue their training, now with additional security there to protect them in response to I-Island's disappearance.

During this time, it is revealed that Ochako isn't the only one experiencing trauma over what happened in I-Island, as Izuku, Tokoyami, and Momo are all suffering from nightmares thanks to what happened on that day, and they are all unsure of what to do with themselves now. The whispers are getting louder in Momo's head, and Izuku is still suffering from visions and dreams of dark omens for the future to come...

But there is no time to dawdle. The League of Villains are attacking, with a small army of Nomu made once more with their procure cloning technology. Thanks to Stain teaming up with the heroes back in Hosu, the League of Villains were unable to pull the same number of recruits that they gained in canon, so instead, they filled up their ranks with Nomu.

As it stands, the Nomu, and the League of Villains by extension, are establishing themselves as the seventh Destiny enemy faction.

Soon enough, the students succeed in fending off the Nomu, but several of them are once more affected by the psychic influence of the black obelisks that they wear, with Bakugo, Kirishima, and Todoroki becoming much more aggressive than before thanks to being in their proximity, and Aizawa beginning to grow more drawn into his mindset as the Pyramid Spikes that the Nomu leave scattered across the forest grounds, even lasting after Izuku uses the Light to cleanse and destroy the Spikes.

And elsewhere, Momo would suffer a near-death experience at the hands of a Nomu, and from being that close to death, she would unconsciously commune with the whispers in her head, and suddenly learn how to create and use the black shards, the Splinters of Darkness, that controlled Stasis.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Ochako is using her learned runes and spells to carve a path through the Nomu to Izuku and her friends, even summoning forth a pair of gauntlets and a weapon from a wall of black smoke and green fire.

They are the Weapons of Sorrow. The gauntlets, Necrotic Grip, and the gun, Osteo Striga

However, the League of Villains escape, with Izuku and Bakugo in their possession. This sends Ibara and Reiko into a panic, as Izuku is the closest ever connection that they have to the Light aside from Shinso, Tokoyami, and Reiko herself, and they contact Spider and Eido to get them the assistance they need to rescue him. As of now, the Conclave and House of Light were done hiding. Now more than ever, they needed to be ready for war.

Elsewhere, Izuku and Bakugo wake up and find themselves in the League's captivity, with Shigaraki pulling his usual schtick on Bakugo to get him to join the League of Villains, appealing to his desire to win and dominate others, which, thanks to the influence of the Darkness artifacts, Bakugo can match and listen to.

Both Shigaraki and Bakugo are, willingly and unwillingly respectively, becoming adherents of Sword Logic.

Meanwhile, Izuku is brought before All for One, who delights at finally having One for All in his grasp. However, Izuku does not feel fear at being in his presence. Instead, he feels a sort of inate terror at being in the presence of the statue of the veiled woman, whom All for One has placed a Nomu to be sacrificed to.

The Voice in the Darkness possesses the Nomu and begins to speak, congratulating him on capturing his prize, on finally getting what he wanted for centuries. All for One is gleeful at this, gladly taunting and demeaning Izuku, mocking him for his failures, both at I-Island and back in the forest, and now, finally, he will take what is rightfully his.

So All for One goes to take One for All from Izuku... but he can't. At first, All for One assumes that it is due to willpower, much like in canon, but he soon realises that there is something else there. Something deep underneath, now mixed with One for All...

And the Voice in the Darkness concludes that the Light within Izuku has engrained itself into One for All.

And the Light cannot be taken. It can only be given. Such is the way of the Gardener.

All for One is enraged by this whilst Izuku is shocked at the confirmation of the Gardener's existence, and that Ibara and Reiko may have been telling the truth all along, but neither of them have time to dwell on it as the heroes, led by All Might, attack both the hideout and the Nomu production facility.

But this time, there is no Rescue Squad made from students to save Izuku and Bakugo. Thanks to I-Island's disappearance, the whole of U.A. was put on lockdown, and all the students were escorted back to their homes and told to stay there, meaning that none of them could leave or go to rescue their friends.

Well, everyone except Ibara and Reiko, who use their Awoken Beacons and the Ley Lines in the Ascendant Realm to travel between their homes, New-Riis, and the Conclave to assemble their army.

But elsewhere, Ochako is almost subsumed by the whispers from the bone, is approached by one of the heroes and asked what she is doing. When she refuses to answer, the hero presses for them-

Then Ochako sings the hero a song and he unravels.

And as the hero dies, destroyed by the Deathsong, a portal opens next to Ochako, and she steps through, but not before popping into Tsuyu's home and dragging her through as well.

Back in Kamino, the battle is beginning to turn against the heroes, as All for One, in his healed form, proves to be too strong for them to counter. Worse still is the army of Nomu at his and Shigaraki's side, as their Darkness weapons and obelisks prove to be too powerful for them to overcome on their own.

But that is when Ibara and Reiko, in disguises, arrive on the scene, along with an army of Eliksni and Cabal to do battle with the Nomu and the forces of Darkness, arriving in Skiffs and Threshers and drop pods and bringing with them Walkers and Pikes and Goliath Tanks and Interceptors. Surprised at this sudden intervention, the heroes are forced to put up with it as they begin to push back Shigaraki and the Nomu, and All Might goes up against All for One once more...

And he loses.

All Might, the wounded hero, goes up against All for One, returned to his prime by the Voice in the Darkness... and the hero loses.

All for One triumphs over All Might, and then kills him.

And from the death of the number one hero, he harvests the killing energy from it in accordance with the Sword Logic, and the Voice in the Darkness congratulates him on his victory, granting him the power that he desires.

And with that power, the Pyramid ship that stole I-Island away links to him, recognising him as its newest Disciple and appears overhead, holding the entirety of I-Island with it.

And then, as the Scorn come flooding down, now under the command of All for One, the self-proclaimed Demon King shows off more of his new powers, summoning Crypoliths and the armies of Wrathborn Fallen and Cabal with them, and opening rifts in space and pulling many of the House of Light Eliksni and allied Cabal into them, turning them into Taken.

All for One no longer has just the Nomu in his corner. Now, he and the forces of Darkness have the Scorn, Wrathborn, and Taken all under their control.

The heroes and allied forces are overwhelmed, with the heroes being utterly demoralised at the death of All Might, and All for One laughs over it all, utterly convinced of his victory and savouring every moment of it...

But the Voice in the Darkness, through the eyes of the Taken, the Scorn, the Wrathborn, and the Egregore that they leave behind, spots the disguised Reiko battling against their allied forces, killing Taken and Scorn and Wrathborn and Nomu alike with the powers of the Light. It recognises her as a Lightbearer, a Guardian, and convinces All for One that it is time to retreat.

And so, All for One, in all his gravatas and dramatic flair, bids his adieu from the battlefield, and, taking his Pyramid ship and new army, retreats into his new home, his newly constructed Throne World, built on the death of All Might.

He flees, leaving the rest of the heroes and allied forces to recover and rebuild.

The forces of Darkness have won this round and fired the first shots of a new war that will consume the whole world, and it is what forces Izuku, Tokoyami, and Shinso to finally place their trust in Reiko and Ibara as they prepare for the future to come, coming together to form a new coalition for the light, juggling their alliance with Spider and the rising tensions within the Conclave, as well as the uncertainty of a hero society without All Might, the distrust between the people of the Conclave and the rest of said hero society, and having to contend with the forces of Darkness...

But that isn't the only threat.

Because Ochako is still lost in a strange new world, guided by the bone in her hand and the whispers in her head, and dragging Tsuyu around with her.

Then, they reach the centre of this new world, a strange city of Light and growth, populated by those wielding the Light, who guide them to the centre of the city, a massive temple where the Queen of Lies and Secrets sits, surrounded by thousands of Lightbearers who kneel to her in prayer...

They are the Hive. More specifically, the Lucent Brood, who spent the last thousand years swallowing entire Hive broods and growing their numbers to millions across the Throne World.

And their goddess is Savathûn, the Witch Queen, Hive god of cunning and lies.

And Ochako joins the kneeling Hive Lightbearers in worship of she whom she considers to be her Goddess, whilst Tsuyu looks on in fear and confusion.

Then, the kneeling girl looks up to see her goddess, Savathûn, standing above her, smiling a crooked smile as she welcomes her to her home, and thanks her for all the wonderful conversations.

Ochako smiles, thanking her, and telling her that everything is being prepared for her renewal, thanking Savathûn for planting that shard of bone in the USJ and granting her the power to make their dreams of a new world come true.

And thusly, Ochako is named the Witch Princess of the Lucent Brood, and Tsuyu as her executioner, ready to enact the will of the Lucent Hive.

Now, there are two major threats that the growing forces of the Gardener must contend with, not just the forces of Darkness, that being the League of Villains, the Nomu, Scorn, Taken, Wrathborn, and their master, the Voice in the Darkness trying to conquer the world and destroy everything that would stand against them, but also the armies of the Lucent Hive and their growing network of agents, working in the shadows to enact the will of Savathûn, the Witch Queen, and her newest child Ochako, the Witch Princess.

Not only that, but there is also the latent corruption beginning to fester within U.A.'s ranks, as Aizawa, Todoroki, Kirishima, Bakugo, Momo, and several others slowly begin to grow darker and more violent, the Darkness' influence taking hold over them as the threats begin to pile up...

All the while, within the Light, the Gardener, secreted away within the hidden Traveler, begins to stretch her muscles and unleash a new generation of Ghosts, giving birth to a new age of champions and Guardians to the world, as the allies of the Light, from the hidden Awoken to the recuperating Cabal Ascendancy, to the various factions of the Eliksni scattered across the Sol System and their allies on Earth itself.

The Age of Light and Darkness has begun once more.

Chapter 32: Forward Unto Dawn

Chapter Text

Years ago, something happened in the past. Something massive. Something game changing.

A ring appeared within the Sol System. A massive artificial construct in the shape of a halo, sitting at the edge of the solar system, listlessly, inert and inactive. The presence of this ring was covered up by the authorities, which is helped by the general public's perception shift away from space and to the rise of quirks, but faint rumours persist, of a metal man arriving from the ring and working in the shadows, fighting against insurgencies and shattering insurrectionists and terrorist cells all around the world. A hero the complete opposite of All Might. The ultimate soldier.

But then, later, when Izuku Midoriya is just six years old, there is a disaster.

The Musufatu bombing, where a bomb goes off in the middle of Musufatu, detonating a massive explosion that kills not just hundreds, but thousands of innocent people.

Izuku's parents are amongst the casualties.

Izuku is left an orphan, as are several others.

But then, they are approached by several men in military garbs, wearing the badge of not the HPSC, but the World Hero Association, the WHA. These men gather these fresh orphans, and tell them that they have a chance now, an opportunity to avenge the fallen and eventually replace All Might as the newest pillars of society.

They wouldn't be the ultimate heroes. They would be the ultimate soldiers.

But then, the men give the children a choice, to accept the deal and go through deadly, hellish, and even torturous training, and eventually lead lives that, while it wouldn't be happy for them, would lead to them saving countless others when All Might eventually fell, or decline, go into foster care, and try to live the best lives that they could in the wake of this tragedy.

Izuku and all the other orphans accept.

Years later, at the start of canon, All Might begins to hear whispers of armoured figures taking down gangs of villains and terrorist cells across Japan, and ends up passing these rumours along to Nezu, who decides to look into it and finds a hidden report of a team of armoured soldiers taking down a cell of villains buried deep within a mountain of classified information.

Meanwhile, Izuku-Z043, the fireteam leader, Kyoka-Z292, the tracker and scout, Ochako-Z132, the sniper, and Eijiro-Z098, the demolition expert - the four members of Fireteam Verdant, one of a new wave of Spartan-IIIs known as Zeta Company - are being prepped for their first mission. They were supposed to go out and complete an assassination op on a group of villains like the rest of the fireteams, but that had been called off when they discovered that someone at U.A. had tried to hack into their systems and uncover a hidden report about their activities. Their first mission now would be to infiltrate U.A. as its students and uncover the leak, before it compromised national and global security.

So, Izuku, Ochako, Jiro, and Kirishima enter U.A. and take the entrance exam into the school, holding back their strength, training, and augmentations and making a good impression of inexperienced teens. However, it doesn't fool Aizawa, as he can tell that they are holding themselves back and is annoyed at it, thinking that they aren't taking the exam seriously, and Nezu, who suspects that there is something more to them and if there is a connection to the report that he found.

Soon enough, the four Spartan-IIIs enter into 1-A, but are forced to expose and display their advanced strength and skills when Aizawa puts them on blast, demanding that they stop holding back and show their true skills or he will expel them on the spot. The four are rankled by this, but are used to such harsh treatment as per their training and acquiesce. This garners them the attention of the rest of Class 1-A, which puts them off as they would rather their abilities secret, but they put those thoughts aside to mingle with the class and figure out who it was behind the leak.

However, Izuku ends up gaining the unwanted attention of Bakugo, who remembers Izuku and thought he had died in the Musufatu bombing years ago, along with his parents. Izuku, however, doesn't remember Bakugo, and is put off by the strange explosive boy who seems to be harassing him for no reason.

Soon, after a week (the timeline for MHA's canon has been extended here), the battle trials begin, and Izuku and the rest of his team are spread out onto opposite teams due to the teachers observing them always hanging around each other and limiting their interactions with their classmates. During the battle trials, the four disguised Spartan-IIIs end up taking command of each of the groups they are assigned to, and though once again they try to hide it, the rest of the class is impressed by their ability to command a situation and their training, though some of the more observant students are able to tell that they are consciously supressing some of what they have learnt.

The next day, whilst the rest of the class is busy picking a class representative, Izuku and the rest of his fireteam quietly debate amongst themselves how to proceed with the rest of their operation whilst turning down any chance of leadership amongst the class. Soon enough, during lunchtime, Jiro slips away from the group to access U.A.'s restricted servers using a Dumb A.I. program by the name of CAL to break into the online files and purge the offending data of the S-IIIs from the network. She is almost caught by Eraserhead, who was sent down to the servers by Nezu once he realises that his recorded files on the shadow soldiers that he was observing were missing, but she is able to slip out undetected and join the rest of her team before anyone notices that she is gone, leaving CAL in the system for them to use later.

The rest of the school day goes about uneventfully.

A few days later, Aizawa announces to the class that they will be going to the USJ. However, before they get on the buses, Aizawa pulls the four disguised S-IIIs aside and lets them know that he is aware that they are still holding themselves back, and for whatever reason they have, it is unacceptable. He issues them an ultimatum: either they go into the USJ and perform at their best at every test, or they would be expelled immediately.

However, once they get to the USJ, complications arise.

For you see, this time, the League of Villains were not there to greet them right out of the door.

This time, they attack when the students are spread out across the USJ and busy with their various exercises, uncloaking themselves and striking while they and the teachers are distracted.

And it isn't just the regular League of Villain thugs and their Nomu.

It's a Covenant remnant.

A dozen and a half Elite Minors wielding plasma rifles and pulse carbines, accompanied by a group of Special Operations Sangheili armed with energy swords, disengage their cloaking and begin to wreck havoc amongst the students and teachers, all the while a pair of Phantom dropships, guarded by a pair of Banshees, lands outside of the USJ and drops two pairs of Ghosts to lock down the perimeter, alongside a score of Grunts and Jackals armed with plasma pistols and needlers to complete the incursion.

And at the centre of this invasion is Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and their Nomu enters the scene, accompanied by the Elites under their command, a Zealot by the name and title of Shipmaster Mura 'Vagobai, armed with his energy sword and a plasma rifle, and his two attaches, an armourless mystic of the Silent Shadow in command of their Special Operations forces named Sziku 'Ubdomnai, himself armed with an energy sword and a Forerunner weapon known as a Heatwave, and a Field Master in an up-armoured, modified Warrior combat harness called Kreia 'Nadami, their second in command who defected from Jul 'Mdama's ranks once his faction collapsed, and more straightlaced advisor compared to Sziku, and armed with a storm rifle and a plasma caster.

Mura is incensed at having to partake in this attack, especially when he reveals that Sziku's Special Operations Sangheili have been infiltrating U.A.'s grounds for days. As it turns out, this remnant's Spec-Ops Elites had been going in and out of U.A. for days thanks to their active camouflage, stealing the League the information that they needed to plan their attack on the USJ. Mura, as well as Kreia, had wanted to use their Spec-Ops forces to simply break into U.A. and destroy the school from the inside. The simplest and easiest option.

However, their current benefactors, All for One and Shigaraki, had forbade them from doing that. They didn't just want to kill All Might; they wanted to make a statement. They wanted to make it clear to the world who they were and what they were after. It was all pointless theatrics by villains with too much of a flare for the dramatic, and it reminds Mura too much of the Prophets, but he is forced to stomach it. Right now, All for One and the League of Villains were the only thing keeping his damaged Kerel-pattern assault carrier,Song of Redemption, operational, so he has no choice but to relent. Kreia is incensed by this, as it makes no tactical sense, but Sziku merely states that he senses that their gods desire them to go this way, and so go this way they shall.

But elsewhere, the four disguised Spartan-IIIs drop all pretences and attempts to hide themselves and their skills. They stop holding themselves back in the face of this new threat and get to work, killing a Covenant patrol and stealing their weapons, before re-establishing comms between themselves and splitting up to rescue their other classmates and eliminate the Covenant threat.

However, their actions in coldly killing Covenant soldiers and displaying feats and skills that they've never shown before, all without a hint of emotion on their face save for the hints of bloodthirst, serve to frighten the rest of 1-A and make them terrified of them, with even Aizawa regretting telling them to not hold back anymore.

Soon enough, the team realise that whilst their short-range communications are working, their long-range comms aren't, so they look to find whatever is blocking them. However, without their armour they are vulnerable, even with their augmentations, so they resolve to prioritise evacuating the students and teachers, as well as re-establishing long-range communications with U.A. and HIGHCOM. So, Izuku tasks Ochako to go find the jammer and neutralise it, whilst he, Jiro, and Kirishima, go and hijack one of the two Phantoms up in the air.

So, the group split up, much to the protests of the other students and teachers. Izuku, Kirishima, and Jiro make their way through the USJ, with several other students and the two teachers in tow, whilst Ochako slips off on her own to find the signal jammer. Soon enough, the three Spartan-IIIs sneak through the Covenant patrols and make their way outside, finding the two Phantoms flying overhead supported by their Banshee escorts, as well as the four Ghosts that were running patrols around the USJ's perimeter.

However, a Covenant patrol would happen upon the students and teachers and force Izuku to double back to defend them, leaving Jiro and Kirishima on their own to hijack a Phantom. So, Jiro would begin by clearing a path on the ground for Kirishima to make his move by leaping onto one of the Ghosts on the ground and slitting the throat of its Sangheili operator with a hidden combat knife, hijacking it and using it to destroy the three other Ghosts in the field before turning its guns on the Covenant's air support above.

Then, as a Banshee swooped down to try and take her out, Kirishima leapt onto the craft and hijacked it himself, taking out the other Banshee in the air with its weapons and then ramming it into one of the Phantoms, destroying it before jumping off the wrecked craft while it was still falling and onto the other Phantom, slipping inside and killing all its occupants. Then, with the assistance of Jiro in her Ghost, Kirishima then pilots the captured Phantom through the glass roof of the USJ and begins spraying covering fire for the Spartan-IIIs and the students and teachers down onto all the Covenant forces below.

This gets Mura's attention, and he overrides Shigaraki's orders and tells Kreia to call for support.

Meanwhile, Ochako gets the jump on a Kig-Yar sniper, snapping his neck and taking its stalker rifle from him. Then, through the scope of her newly acquired rifle, she spots the source of the jamming, that being a villain by the name of Tesla, who was using his quirk to interfere with the school's long-range communications and alarms. He's expecting a fight, a classic fight of heroes vs villains in close quarters, and he's preparing himself for it.

Ochako shoots him in the head from a long distance, killing him instantly and ending the jamming. Then, she contacts HIGHCOM, informing them of the situation and telling them to initiate local Winter Contingency protocols.

Back with the others, Izuku has just finished putting a blade through the throat of another Unggoy, before he and the people under his protection are set upon by a newly-deployed threat that not even Izuku can stand up against.

A pair of Hunters.

Izuku and the others are forced to retreat, unable to stand up against the pair of Hunters, and Kirishima is forced to abandon his hijacked Phantom after another pair of Banshees arrive at the USJ and shoot the stolen craft down. The Hunters, meanwhile, spot Ochako when she tries to snipe them and attack her, forcing her to abandon her position to regroup with the others, whilst Jiro's Ghost is destroyed by Sziku and his Spec-Ops Elites and she is sent packing back to the others as well.

But then, just as all hope seems lost and the Covenant are about to fall onto their position and slaughter them all, reinforcements finally arrive.

A Longsword emerges from out of the air and launches missiles at the Banshees, knocking them out of the air, just as a trio of Pelicans arrive and hot-drop their passengers into the combat zone.

That cargo being several fireteams of Spartan-IIIs, the newly finished Zeta Company, decked out in Semi-Powered Infiltration armour and wielding battle rifles, assault rifles, DMRs, commandos, and the like, all led by one Kevin-A282, one of the last surviving original Spartan-IIIs, and a pair of Spartan-IVs, survivors of theInfinityand the few Spartan-IVs still alive and active on the field.

As it turns out, the ring at the edge of the Sol System is actually the damaged Installation 07, or Zeta Halo, which had somehow travelled through dimensions when it activated its emergency slipspace jump, and arrived in this universe. During that time, many of the UNSC survivors on the ring had fled from the heavy Banished presence and made their way to the new Earth, where they had regrouped and made an alliance with the leading governments on Earth, becoming a shadow organisation within the World Hero Association called the Outer Regions Security Force, or ORSF, preparing themselves for the inevitable threat of the Banished and to hopefully one day return to the broken ring and take it back from Atriox's army of Brutes.

However, when they began the process of testing the S-IV augmentation process on local volunteers, they found that the local humans, at least the local adults, were somehow genetically incompatible with Spartan augmentations. For some reason, the quirks in the average adult were mucking up their genetic codes and making them unable to survive the Spartan augmentation surgeries without suffering from crippling injuries and disabilities.

But children were compatible, since their quirks were still developing and hadn't yet scrambled their genetic codes... but the process would end up weakening their resulting quirks or even completely nullifying them.

However, considering the threat of the Banished and all the other villainous factions that were beginning to rise up despite All Might's presence as the number one hero, the ONI section within the ORSF, as well as the various HPSC institutions across the globe, considered it a moral price worth paying, and they reinstated the Spartan-III program, stealing away children from orphanages across the world and beginning the process of turning them into an army to keep the world safe and take back the Halo ring.

Back in the present, Zeta Company and their handlers make quick work of the Covenant forces occupying the USJ, and exfil the teachers, students, and Izuku's Spartan-IIIs, but not before Izuku takes on the Hunter pair and, despite lacking his armour, finally manages to kill them, whilst Kevin-A282 and his Spartan-IV subordinates terminate the League's Nomu. The USJ is evacuated of any non-combatants and allies, and the League's leadership, including their Covenant allies, are forced to retreat.

At their hideout, Mura is enraged at their loss, and regals to Shigaraki what a tactically inept leader he is. They had every possible advantage and could've destroyed an actually critical target like the HPSC or one of the big hero agencies with their forces, but instead Shigaraki decided to spend their efforts targeting a place of education of all things. Now he has lost dozens of his warriors to the Demons and their allies, warriors that he could not easily replace, all because Shigaraki wanted to engage in theatrics in order to satisfy his own ego and need for recognition. Shigaraki is angered by their insolence, and even more so when Mura and Kreia suggest breaking off their alliance and simply going their own way. All for One contacts them and states that they will be compensated for their losses, but makes it clear to them that it is him and the League that is keeping his ship and his crew alive, but Mura simply retorts that All for One's attempts to intimidate him are lacking, though he is forced to concede the point to him.

His crew will continue to support the League of Villains... for now.

But next time they are conducting an operation, they are doing things his way.

Meanwhile, 1-A and their teachers are pulled out of the USJ as All Might and the heroes finally arrive, finally meeting the shadow soldiers of Japan and spotting the dozens of alien corpses scattered across the grounds. All Might and the teachers are immediately hostile to the armoured soldiers, but the soldiers don't really care, taking off in their Pelicans once more and preparing to leave. Izuku and his fireteam attempt to go with them, but the teachers hold them back, intent on making them answer for what happened back in the USJ. This leads to a tense standoff between the heroes and the Spartans, but is thankfully averted when a pair of agents from the HPSC arrive and order Izuku and his fireteam to be released from custody, allowing the four to join the rest of the Spartans and depart, leaving the rest of 1-A in deep confusion and shock over what happened.

In the aftermath of the USJ, the students of 1-A are all alive, but severely wounded from plasma burns and needler rounds and traumatised over almost being killed and watching their classmates kill others. Nezu is soon approached by an agent of the ORSF and those same HPSC from before, as well as Izuku and his fireteam finally in their SPI armour, telling him to cease his investigation into their operations, as the events of the USJ have forced them to speed up their timetable.

With Covenant forces active on Earth as well as the Banished, then that means that the Banished may have figured out how to use the ring to move between dimensions. That means that, for the war that is to come, they are all going to need allies.

It's time for U.A. to be brought into the circle.

And elsewhere, in the shadows, an armour figure battles against the Banished legacy of the old Covenant. A mythical figure, a walking legend all on his own.

The Master Chief himself.

Chapter 33: The Grand Army

Chapter Text

In the darkness of Earth's shadows, Captain Rex of the 501st Legion wakes up.

He's had a long life for a clone, from the battlefields of Christophsis back in the Clone Wars all the way to the destruction of the second Death Star on the forest moon of Endor. Now, suddenly, he finds himself here, on this new world filled with people who have never even seen the stars, people who have given up on trying to explore the cosmos, and people who each have an unnatural power to call their own, a quirk to their beings.

And yet, as he explores this strange new world, he finds other clones. His brothers, both dead and alive, who have found themselves on Earth with no explanation at all. From Cody to Wolffe to Echo to Fives and the Bad Batch and so on, he finds more of his brothers scattered across the globe, confused and unsure as to why they are there.

So, over the years, Rex and his brothers begin to build a network over the Earth, gathering as much information on hero society and all the people that live in it, both heroes and villains alike, all the while saving as many people as they can whilst they go, eventually setting themselves up as a private military company known as the Grand Army, acting as mercenaries and taking contracts for third-world governments and private organisations in all sorts of shadow wars and hidden conflicts across the planet, from destroying criminal syndicates in South America to wide combat operations in Africa and the Middle East to covert ops in Europe, and utilising their skills as soldiers to try and make sense of this planet and understand why they have been summoned there.

Through their contracts, the Grand Army begin to net themselves multiple allies and associates. From private manufacturing companies to help them upkeep their food supplies and landowners to build their outposts and headquarters to even places like I-Island with David Shield and his daughter in helping them research and develop their technology and equipment.

However, their actions in the world begin to attract all sorts of unwanted attention, not just from the various villainous factions across the world, who begin their campaign of terrors against the Grand Army in hopes of trying to take them down, but also the heroes themselves, or rather the larger pro heroic organisations who are aware and in control of the politics of the Earth.

In particular, the World Hero Association and their various Hero Public Safety Commission branches in the various countries that they govern over, find umbrage with the existence of the Grand Army, as they have been interfering in local politics pertaining to pro hero operations and destroying villainous organisations before the heroes can do it themselves.

As it turns out, during the chaotic period of time after quirks had been introduced into the world and before hero society was properly established, World War Three and a dozen other conflicts known as the Quirk Wars had broken out and resulted in millions of deaths and the destruction of entire cities due to each side utilising armies of people wielding quirks against each other, not to mention the countless deaths brought about by regular purges of quirkist extremists, race riots, and regular rebellions and revolts in this dark time of chaos. Because of this, when hero society was set in stone and pro heroes were introduced into the world to combat the rising surge of villains, the WHA, supported by the United Nations, instituted a major ban on major armed military forces across the globe, reducing individual countries' militaries and their capacities down to mere national guard units in order to prevent another major war from breaking out.

The WHA have been doing their best to cover up the existence of the Grand Army and their operations in hot zones across the planet, but fears abound that the very existence of this PMC force and their role in the decapitation of various criminal elements across the planet will begin to erode the faith that many people have in hero society, but also topple it entirely. As such, the Grand Army find themselves constantly hounded by not just pro heroes, but also WHA agents and contractors, believing the Grand Army to be villains, or the by-product of a villainous quirk when their existence as clones is revealed, thinking that they were trying to slide the world back into the devastating wars that had come before.

However, there is something else moving in the shadows of the WHA, making their own moves and plotting their own schemes, using the chaos of the Grand Army's operations and what they leave behind to their own end and taking advantage of the cracks that are beginning to form.

Much later, as the years go by, Captain Rex ends up having to sneak into Japan under assignment, taking a job in U.A. as a combat instructor in order to investigate the criminal activities of a supposed syndicate boss going by the moniker of All for One. Meeting up with the head of the school, Rex ends up establishing a connection to Nezu, and assigns the Bad Batch to take up training the hero students as he continues his investigation.

So, the Bad Batch busy themselves with training the students, and the other teachers immediately take note of how unorthodox these trainers are in how they run their lessons, especially in how much of what they teach runs in opposition to what a regular hero course teaches its students. Crosshair shows the students how to fight from long range, Hunter shows them how to track down opponents and use stealth tactics, Tech assists them in designing their costumes and support gear to eschew typical hero flashiness to better protect themselves, Wrecker teaches them how to brawl quirkless, disable explosive devices and juryrig nearby tech to assist them in battle, and Echo shows them how to fight dirty and grab every advantage on a battlefield.

It's like they're teaching the kids how to be soldiers rather than heroes. Suspicions begin to mound.

Meanwhile, Rex continues his investigation into this All for One figure, but is accompanied by Aizawa, who already suspects him of being connected to the Grand Army. Rex doesn't say anything about it, but Aizawa figures it out on his own and stays by the captain's side, intent on watching him in case he tries to pull some villainous move. Rex is confused by this, as he's lived his life in the army and trusts his brothers not to do anything morally wrong, especially considering that a lot of their recent contracts has revolved around protecting relief aid workers and stopping animal poachers, all the way to running security for I-Island scientists working on projects to combat climate change, but when Aizawa tells him about the previous Quirk Wars that have been fought by armies of quirk-users, and when Rex does some additional research of his own, he recognises the bad history that this world has had with militaries, and how many of the Grand Army's contracts have also involved military actions that have left people, mostly civilians, caught in the crossfire, including contracts to perform covert ops in third-world countries on behalf of more powerful organisations and governments trying to nation-build, projects of which always end in failure.

(A lot of the inspiration for this fic is a result of Metal Gear: Green, by TheDarkKnight2707, but a recent worry I've had with it is that it might be unintentionally glorifying the military industrial complex through the MSF, as the conflict within its narrative is very clearly MSF good, HPSC bad. And while I do like the story and its narrative, including how it deconstructs MHA's hero society, I don't want this story to make it seem like the armed forces and militaries in general are a better solution to pro heroism, or that the military industrial complex is something entirely positive at all.

So, the sides of this story, in that the army vs pro heroes, will be treated not as a black and white conflict of morals, but one with a lot of greys on both sides, where we highlight both the positives and negatives of both arguments and showcase how they contrast against each other. Not only that, but this story will serve both as a deconstruction of MHA's setting and the logistics and workings of hero society, but also deconstruct the role of the clones in Star Wars and further explore the topic of what someone who has spent all their life training to be a soldier and fighting in a war is to do when that war is over, as well as the subject of the clones being genetically engineered child soldiers in a world where people like them are looked down on as warmongers.)

Soon enough, a new school year begins, and the members of Class 1-A are put through their paces by the Bad Batch, whilst Rex and Aizawa continue to investigate this All for One figure and what their connections to the criminal underworld are. Eventually, they pass their information along to All Might, hoping for him to give them something to work on, only for All Might to reveal that All for One is an old enemy of his, one that he long thought dead.

Later, Class 1-A is taken to the USJ, alongside the Bad Batch as their protectors. Meanwhile, Rex and Aizawa explore Tokyo, chasing up leads that they found on what they assume to be a link to All for One's criminal syndicate.

Suddenly, several unknown creatures known as Nomu emerge from the shadows, attacking not just Rex and Aizawa, but the civilians, and every other pro hero around them, sparking chaos within the centre of Tokyo.

Meanwhile, in the USJ, Shigaraki and the League of Villains attack the USJ, thankful for their master, All for One, giving them the distraction they need to keep All Might away and letting them kill the children before he arrives, just to make clear his failure to protect them.

Class 1-A are scattered across the USJ, and the Bad Batch begin to get to work, rescuing the students and eliminating every villain that they come across, working their way through the League's forces as they link up with the people under their protection. At first, the students are thankful for being saved, but are then horrified with how their teachers are dispatching the villains, shooting them down and killing them.

Meanwhile, Rex and Aizawa continue to brave the Nomu assault, Aizawa incapacitating as many of them as he can whilst Rex finishes them off. They are only saved by the timely intervention of All Might, who himself realises that this attack is all just a distraction, and rushes off to the USJ to protect his students...

...Only to arrive at the USJ to find the students safe, the Bad Batch having taken care of the villains, destroyed the Nomu with high explosives, and sent Shigaraki and Kurogiri on the retreat. All Might is disturbed by the number of bodies that the Bad Batch have left behind, but unlike the students, who do not have a complete understanding of the world of pro heroism thanks to only just beginning the year, accepts that they didn't have much choice in the matter.

But then, the students and teachers are forced to deal with the most startling and horrifying thing to have happened in the USJ:

One of the students was killed by the villains.

Who this casualty is, I haven't decided. It could be one of the lesser-known characters like Hagakure or Ojiro, or someone like Mineta, or one of the bigger characters like Todoroki, Ochako, Bakugo, or even Izuku himself if you really want to go that far.

(I didn't want to have Izuku as a member of the Grand Army. This idea already has a lot of inspiration from Metal Gear: Green, and I don't want to just copy and paste it. Plus, I've not got much of an idea for what Class 1-A are supposed to do in this fic, so... yeah.)

In the end, who the casualty is doesn't really matter. What does matter is what happens next is the aftermath, in which Aizawa and Rex are pulled in by the police alongside All Might to explain what happened during the attack, but Rex is thankfully able to get as much information as he can out of the police's questions as they cart away the Nomu, relaying it back to the rest of the Grand Army for their own investigation.

However, elsewhere, All for One is silently furious at not being able to kill Rex and the other Grand Army representatives for their poking around where they don't belong and trying to bring them down but decides to be content with the fact that one of All Might's own students had been killed whilst he was away.

And as he calms down an irate Skigaraki and encourages him to lick his wounds, he continues to make plans on how to deal with the Grand Army, which has grown to become an annoyance to his operations as of late, as well as his plans on how to take One for All and destroy All Might.

Elsewhere, a woman working in the WHA/Japanese branch of the HPSC by the name of Miyuki Kera calls her contacts, telling them that they have the start of their flashpoint, and that it is time to get to work.

Meanwhile, Nezu is contacted by the HPSC, who demands that he allow them to assign extra heroes as guards for the upcoming Sports Festival, which Nezu does not like but is forced to accept. However, he then calls Rex and the Bad Batch to his office, revealing that he knows that they're part of the Grand Army. But instead of reporting them to the authorities, he instead decides to hire several of their number as plain clothed security for the Sports Festival, as he does not trust the HPSC or any of the heroes that they send over. Rex and the Bad Batch are suspicious themselves but decide that the lives of the children of U.A. outweigh their concerns and agree.

But in the meantime, Class 1-A are brought back into U.A. after the events of the USJ but are now disturbed by the deaths of both their classmate and the villains and distrustful of their teachers in the Bad Batch for how they dispatched said villains. The Bad Batch in question are unsure of how to go forward now, seeing as their students no longer trust them for actions that they've been undertaking for years now, and must themselves learn how to adjust in a world where killing is considered a last resort in combat.

A month later, the Sports Festival begins, and Rex brings in Cody and his squad, dressed in plain clothes and armed with DL-17 pistols, and spreads them all out across the stadium as extra security.

The tournament begins, and Izuku (assuming that he's the one who doesn't die in the USJ) ends up approaching one of the Bad Batch members, or even Rex, and asks them why they had killed villains. Here, Rex and/or the Batch talk to Izuku, and express how one day, as a pro hero, he will be faced with the possibility of having to kill a villain to prevent a worse outcome, whatever that might be. Izuku, and Class 1-A in general, rejects this notion of course, because they believe that heroes save everyone and should never kill, but instead of lambasting them or calling them out like happens in most stories, the Bad Batch instead decide to leave them be and let the kids retain some of their innocence. They're still hurting after the USJ and the loss of one of their classmates, and it'd be better for them to learn this truth later, when they're not hurting so much and have matured, rather than pulling the rug out from under them now.

Meanwhile, several of the students from 1-A begin to experience panic attacks and horrific flashbacks to the USJ whilst performing in the Sports Festival. One of the story's biggest themes, besides deconstructing both hero society and the clone army, is exploring the different kinds of trauma, how they affect us, and how we react to them. Throughout the story so far, there have been instances of clones reliving the trauma of their own deaths and experience nightmares from them, on top of the generational and societal traumas from MHA's Quirk Wars and how they have affected generations, and now we begin to explore the more personal trauma of the students of Class 1-A and how they react to it, with some of them bottling it up, some lashing out at others in misplaced anger, some keeping to themselves and trying to find ways of coping with what they have been through, and others communicating their experiences with others and trying to find ways to process what they have been through, and a dozen other ways on top of that. Many of the students experience crippling flashbacks to the USJ throughout the tournament, both in the combat rounds and elsewhere, and though most of them choose to power through it and soldier on (some of them manage, others do not), a select few of them choose to bow out of the competition.

During this time, the clones watching the fights down below express their discomfort at the event and end up engaging in several conversations with different heroes and civilians, prompting multiple perspectives of the Sports Festival and hero society in general, as well as comparisons to the clones' service in the Grand Army of the Republic and their role as soldiers. Also, it's a great way of getting the clones to interact with civilians, something that they have never truly done before due to the Republic and later Empire keeping them separated from the people that they are supposed to protect, providing them with a perspective that they have never truly experienced before.

In the end, it is not a member of Class 1-A who wins the Sports Festival, but Monoma of Class 1-B, who happily brags about his victory over the hated Class 1-A and celebrates with a laugh and a cheer on the first-place podium, as he is handed his golden medal by Midnight (All Might has been called away to assist in the All for One/League of Villains investigation)-

And then is shot dead by a sniper.

Various sections of the stadium suddenly explode, the bombs in each of them lighting up the massive building like candles, and members of the audience begin to don black armoured uniforms and whip out blaster rifles and pistols, firing into the panicking crowds and killing heroes, civilians, and clones alike.

The Sports Festival has been invaded by villains.

Immediately, the clones and heroes begin to fire back at the villains, only for the villains in question to display tactical moves and strategies akin to armed soldiers, continuously outwitting the allied forces and killing scores of them. Class 1-A and B are evacuated into the lower depths of the stadium, but even those are breached by the villains, forcing the students and the clones guarding them to try and break out of the stadium to save their lives.

In the end, the clones are forced to break cover and call in a shuttle, summoning a Rho-class attack craft to evacuate the students, the shuttle arriving and blasting apart several of the villains, allowing the students and their clone protectors to scramble onboard and evacuate, leaving the burning stadium behind.

Eventually, All Might finally arrives to defeat the remaining villains, but it's too late. Dozens of heroes and civilians are dead, the army of villains has fled the scenes, and another student of U.A. has been murdered in cold blood.

U.A. is promptly raked over the coals. The supposedly best hero school in the world has been invaded by villains twice in barely a month's time, and each time has resulted in the death of a student. The public lash out at the staff and heroes for allowing this massacre to happen, especially All Might who hadn't been there to prevent this horror from being carried out. Criticism is also laid out on the heroes at the stadium for not stopping the violent attack, as it had been carried out in a way to make the heroes seem incompetent.

However, public notice is soon placed on the hidden security team that U.A. had used to fight back against the villains, as well as the armoured men that had fought back as well, with many recognising them as clones, and the few in the know connecting them to the Grand Army. Criticism is thrown out once more, as the generational trauma of the Quirk Wars still lingers in the minds of many, and representatives of both the HPSC and WHA begin to attack U.A. for even thinking about hiring them on. However, others would offer praise to the clones and their actions, as it was through their efforts that the students had been saved from the army of villains.

And elsewhere, Miyuki addresses the Operatives, her private squad of CX Clone Troopers, and congratulates them on a job well done, especially with their army of recruits, who have been augmented and turned into X Troopers as well.

Meanwhile, Classes 1-A and B are taken to one of the Grand Army's outposts, blowing their cover but giving the students a safe place to rest and recover whilst the clones try to figure out who is targeting them. The students are shaky and panicky, scared and confused over what has happened, and are horrified at how a day that was supposed to be friendly and fun could turn into a nightmare, before becoming suspicious and hostile of the people with identical faces and guns around them.

But the clones try not to let it get to them. As they explain to the students, the attack on the stadium was most likely carried out by the same League of Villains who attacked the USJ as well, though the methods are definitely different, possibly as revenge, and possibly as part of a targeted attack against the students, making the USJ a targeted attack as well. Whoever the League of Villains are, they are targeting the students, meaning that said students need to be kept somewhere safe for the time being until the threat was dealt with or the students could be confirmed safe and without any further risk of possible assassination.

This caused a lot of tension between the clones and U.A., who began secret discussions on where to shelter the students away from any more murder attempts. The staff of U.A. would be extremely distrusting of the Grand Army, and the clones would question the staff's ability to keep their students safe, particularly after two attacks on their own school grounds. However, when public pressure begins to fall on U.A. to release the students and at least confirm that they are alive, both sides are forced to come to a compromise, and the staff are given custody of the students in their care, placed into dormitories and put into protective custody, though on the condition that the Grand Army are allowed to augment U.A.'s security with several of their own squads.

During all this, there is word of the League of Villains attacking Hosu and targeting the Hero Killer Stain, only for the attack to be prevented and the hero killer to be arrested, not by heroes, but by men in bulky white armour...

...And later in a public demonstration, Miyuki Kera speaks to a crowd, using the attacks on the USJ and Sports Festival to make a point about modern day hero society is beginning to fail them, and how All Might can no longer be counted on to always be there for anyone who is in need.

Now, there needs to be change. Hero society is simply becoming outdated, as are the heroes that govern it, and for the future, the world needs new heroes, new faces, and new ideals to keep its people safe.

And this is where she reveals her new project, of which she is now the head of. A collaborative effort between private corporations and interested government agencies, this new project shall serve as the replacement for All Might, and for all heroes, when their time eventually comes.

She presents to the world the heroes of Hosu, the ones who gave the hated League of Villains their first real defeat and brought the hero killer Stain low.

She presents to them the Commando Project, and joining her on stage are a dozen Clone Commandos led by Delta Squad members Boss, Fixer, and Scorch.

In public, the Clone Commandos are the next generation of heroes and soldiers, ready to begin the process of slowly phasing out the heroes and replacing them with what they call the TK Trooper, the first generation of a new breed of soldier.

But in private, the Clone Commandos, and Delta Squad specifically, are Miyuki's personal enforcers, working alongside the CX Troopers and their own small militia of X Trooper conscripts to enact their will.

In this story, the Grand Army are representative of Star Wars canon's interpretation of the Clone Troopers, that being individualistic people with their own personalities and differences from each other, and with a strong sense of right and wrong for each of them.

However, the Clone Commandos and CX Troopers under Miyuki's command are representative of the Legends interpretation of the clones, that being a collective group of blindly obedient soldiers that have no issue with killing anyone and everyone if they are ordered to, regardless of if it is right or wrong.

And if Miyuki has her way, they will be the ones in control of hero society, finally able to do away with the chaos that heroes and villains bring and to finally bring peace, safety, and order to their world... and beyond.

Chapter 34: F.O.R.C.E.

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In the middle of Tokyo, there is an explosion, a flash of colour and light and sound, and then a thousand people suddenly die.

From out of a freshly made hole in the ground, several individuals in garbs and robes slip out into the chaotic night. A prison break, a great escape.

Only this wasn't any ordinary prison, and these weren't any ordinary prisoners.

Immediately, hero society is put into action to try and contain the escaped prisoners, and Class 1-A are marshalled alongside a secretive black ops hero agency known as the Fast Operations and Response Command Entity, or F.O.R.C.E. for short, to capture them. Class 1-A are put off by how typically unheroic these agents were acting, seeming to be more ruthless and militaristic than the average hero, but are forced to bite their tongues and keep their thoughts to themselves.

Soon enough, the students begin encountering the escapees, but are confused as to why they are all young people, ranging from children to teenagers to young adults. Worse yet, they all have extremely powerful quirks, powers so extreme that they could even be considered supernatural.

And this is where the story shifts from a shounen to something closer to horror. Each of these former prisoners have quirks that can bend and break not just the minds and bodies of those around them, but could manipulate the fabric of reality itself, setting them apart from the general quirk users as something far more eldritch and inhuman.

One prisoner could manipulate the dreams and nightmares of others, even pulling out those dreams from the heads of the people they were watching and superimposing them onto reality.

Another could remove all the oxygen in the air in a hundred mile radius, suffocating everything around them.

One could erase the minds of the people around them and turn them into their mindless puppets.

One could go forward and backward in time, creating unstable time paradoxes that threatened the timelines.

And another could grant wishes to anyone, altering the universe around them no matter how large or small or safe or dangerous the wish.

These are the children of the quirk singularity theory, the living and breathing examples of the ideal that quirks are becoming more and more powerful with each passing generation.

And there are more of those with quirks like these being born with each passing generation.

F.O.R.C.E. are these children's jailers. They are the wardens of Black Site Olympus, a secret prison that sought to study these innocents and their quirks, poking and prodding and cutting them open to see how they could use their quirks to their advantage.

And now those children have escaped, and the heroes and F.O.R.C.E. are hunting them down for it. Some of those escapees want to escape Japan and seek out their freedoms, but others wish to exact their vengeance for what has been done to them by hero society, and begin to turn their indescribable powers against those who hurt and tortured them.

But worse yet, All for One has seen the quirks that have been unleashed onto the world, and wants to take them. He wants to take them all...

Chapter 35: My Hero Academia: Black Ops

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We all know that in canon, the Paranormal Liberation War lasted for only a single arc, beginning and ending in the span of a day. One could say that it continued on into the final arc of the story, but that's pretty hazy considering how the villain army that All for One commanded seems to be made up of a lot of Tartarus escapees, but for the purpose of this argument, the Paranormal Liberation War began and ended on the same day in canon.

But here, in this story, the war never ended.

The battle in Deika dragged on into a siege, and scores of heroes and villains died in the conflict. Similar battles began to break out all across the country, and soon enough the whole of Japan fell into civil war...

A war that will rage for years on end.

Several years later, Izuku is one of the last surviving members of his old class. Everyone else is either dead, too wounded to fight, or away on the rapidly changing frontlines of this violent conflict. All Might is dead, as is his mother, and his few remaining friends are being picked off by the Paranormal Liberation Front with each passing day.

His quirk, meanwhile, has grown in strength so much that it's practically unusable. He can't even flick a finger without destroying an entire building, and as such has been confined to his own office to act as a handler for the HPSC.

He has become tired of the war, tired of the constant fighting. This isn't what he signed up for, this isn't why he wanted to become a hero.

Because the heroes are practically gone now. There aren't many true heroes left. They wear the banners and badges of hero society, but they act more like soldiers, too much for Izuku's liking. They don't inspire, they don't fight. They kill. Mercy has become a liability on the frontlines. Now every shot, every blow, is meant to kill.

Izuku hates it all.

And what he hates more is the team that he has been ordered to look over.

Eri, Kota Izumi, Mahoro and Katsuma Shimano, and Satsuki Asui, all grown-up now and conscripted by the Japanese Diet and the HPSC to serve as one of their new black ops teams.

The thing about the Paranormal Liberation War is that it is completely degrading the morals of the people that are fighting inside of it, as is the nature of war. Whilst the PLF are run by a group of psychopathic murderers and terrorists, the vast majority of the villains that are fighting for them are actually decent people who simply wish to tear down the corrupt pro hero system that came before them and build a better future for their children.

Similarly, whilst the pro heroes, for the most part, are decent people themselves, they are also being confronted with the realities of having to battle against a violent guerrilla movement and having to face the traumas of urban warfare, and as such have begun to fight just as dirty as the villains themselves, dropping bombs onto cities that have aligned with the PLF, deploying weapons of mass destruction to gain an advantage in the war, and creating black operations units that are going to have to fight even dirtier than the enemy they are up against to survive.

The Paranormal Liberation War has grounded down any sense of black and white morals and easy morality. Now the entire conflict is a tangle of grey morality and people having to make questionable decisions to achieve victory at any cost.

And Izuku is forced to confront the fact that he himself has to shed his own morals in order to fight this war, something that he is horrified by as he tries to make sure that the team now under his command make it out of the conflict alive.

Whether they do or not, well, that's up to you.

Chapter 36: A Hero Out of Time

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Ever since she was young, Ochako has always been... different.

Even in her early years, Ochako showed a remarkable intelligence. She was a massive history buff and a wiz at technology and electronics, designing and creating all sorts of strange gadgets that only she seemed to understand, all the while passing every test that she has been given to the highest of marks, even attaching extra credit assignments on history papers and correcting them on any mistakes that they made on pre-quirk history.

She also happens to be, according to those around her, absolutely bonkers. She has a lot of strange mental processes and has a strange disconnect from others. She acts like both an immature child and a grown adult at the same time, like a kid in a sweet shop but with the mental faculties of a grown-up genius.

Stranger still, and more worryingly, is her tendency to disappear for long periods of time, and her odd fascination with an old blue box...

By the time she enters U.A., Ochako has already gained a bit of a reputation amongst her local rural community as an oddball. A girl that, while being an extremely helpful mechanic and tinkerer amongst other things, has picked up a lot of peculiar habits and processes, particularly her penchant for dressing in old English dresses and hats. In fact, her entrance into U.A.'s entrance exam had her wearing an old pink and blue English dress with a feather hat on top and sprouting a bunch of babble to Izuku when she first meets him, all before completing the written exam with top marks and then shutting down all the robots in the entrance exam with that strange wand device of hers.

Yep, you heard that right. All of them. Suffice to say, the U.A. judges weren't too happy with her on that front.

But, Ochako gets into U.A.'s hero course anyway, and Class 1-A is immediately bemused by the girl's eccentricities, such as her habit of talking about history and gadgets and her constant need to wear a top hat over her uniform. They are even more bemused when her hero outfit turns out to simply be long coat and hat combo alongside her astronaut inspirations.

Suffice to say, Aizawa can't stand her peppy and eccentric attitude, especially when she seems to find enjoyment from vexing him due to how many ways she can bend the school's rules without breaking them. The rest of her classmates, meanwhile, are both drawn to her because of her strange charisma and also put off by her strange habits and penchant for referring to her closest friends in U.A. as her companions.

During the first hero exercise, Ochako choses not to use her quirk, and instead outthinks her opponents by using her sonic to set off the emergency sprinklers, soaking Bakugo in water and diluting his sweat, therefore rendering his explosion quirk useless. After that, she then sets off the fire alarm, messing with Iida as he is left confused as to either carry on with the exercise or escape from the building as are the fire drill rules, allowing Izuku to sneak past him and claim the bomb, all the while Ochako distracted Bakugo with her endless babbling and sarcastic mockery of him.

Suffice to say, All Might is impressed at how Ochako was able to formulate a plan to defeat the villain team without a single punch being thrown, but Aizawa, despite admiring the creativity, continues to be vexed by her attitude, thinking her as a useless jokester who's not taking the hero course seriously, or worse, a slacker who thinks she can just coast by on words alone.

But then, the USJ arrives, and so does the League of Villains. However, this time, instead of soundly defeating the League's foot soldiers, the students find themselves being outgunned and outfought by the thugs, forcing them all into a corner, with Shigaraki baying for their blood.

It is then that Ochako flashes her strange wand, and with a whirling groan, the old blue box suddenly materialises into existence besides them. Ochako orders everyone into the box, and despite Class 1-A's incredulous reactions, with some haranguing and finagling, along with a few snarky barbs at Bakugo's expense, Ochako is able to get them all into the box...

A box that, as the rest of Class 1-A finds out, is bigger on the inside. Then, with a few shifts on the central console, a shake of the box that is somehow bigger on the inside, and a long groaning noise from the centre of the impossible room, Ochako, to the protests of her classmates, throws open the doors...

And steps out into eighteenth century France, much to the shock of everyone else.

Ochako then whirls back to them, a smile on her face. She advises them to try and find some clothes to blend in. Time travel makes looking for the appropriate outfits always so difficult. The TARDIS can show them where the wardrobe is.

Mina promptly vomits onto the floor.

A few hours later, having found the right clothes to fit in, Ochako leads the class to a nearby, where they gather and begin to talk. When are they now? France. When are they? Eighteenth century, smells like July 14, 1789. The day of the Fall of the Bastille. Ooh, what a sight! They should go see it while they're there! It's the day that the French Revolution really gets into swing and the peasantry finds out that they really like putting people's heads on pikes. Funny thing about the Fall of the Bastille, a lot of it was motivated by the fact that King Louis XVI had stationed royal troops all around Paris, which itself was a response to the creation of the National Assembly by the working class. It also didn't help that ol' Louis had dismissed popular finance minister Jacques Necker since he'd been trying to give the Assembly concessions as well, so the peasantry figured that the King would try to dismiss the National Assembly altogether. Then again, she wasn't sure if Louis was clever enough to think of that. She'd met the man, and he never quite seemed like the smartest chip on the block. She'd also met Marie-Antoinette as well. Surprisingly nice girl, she was. Never actually said 'Then let them eat cake, in all honesty. That whole rumour was started because of Jeanne De La Motte and a diamond necklace-

The rest of the class stop her. What the hell is going on? How did they travel in time? What the hell was that blue box of hers? How was it bigger on the inside?

Who the hell is she?

Ochako sighs, having been expecting this. Her name is Ochako Uraraka. She was born at the same time as all of them, but she's been travelling in time all her life.

And the thing that they all travelled in... it's called the TARDIS. Time-And-Relative-Dimension(s)-In-Space. It's a Type 40 time machine, and it... doesn't belong to her. Not really. It belongs to a friend who she's trying to find. She's just keeping the old girl warm for them.

The device that she used to call it in. It's called a sonic screwdriver, one that she had to make herself using a combo of human tech and Galifreyan sonic devices. She'd have used some of the stuff that they've been making in I-Island, but all of that junk is primitive compared to Time Lord technology. Then again, most tech in the universe is.

Class 1-A find it hard to believe any of this, and half of them accuse her of lying. The other half are convinced that she's not telling them the whole story, and Ochako admits that. She'd just rather keep that to herself for now, though. Trust is a two-way street after all. The others, still in shock, are incredulous at the thought of trusting this strange, mad woman before them, but Ochako quickly retorts that she did rescue them from the USJ.

The rest of Class 1-A suddenly remember the USJ, and that they left Aizawa and Thirteen there. They need to get back there immediately, but Ochako tells them to calm themselves. They need to stop and think of a plan before they do anything. The rest of the class are shocked by her response, saying that they can't wait, they're in danger at this very moment.

Ochako disagrees. They have a time machine. They literally have all the time in the world.

The rest of the class, soaking in this realisation, are forced to concede to her point, and they decide to go watch the Fall of the Bastille together.

It's a rather sombre affair, the Fall of the Bastille. The class have a long talk about it, and Ochako simply sums it up as the beginning of just another cycle of endless violence, the kind that works like Les Misérables never likes to touch on. Study history, from the past to the future, and you will see the cycles of revolution and violence again and again, from the first days of man to its last. It's a sombre sight to behold.

Still, the things that grow and live in between the cycles are always worth living for, as she sees a woman and her child turn away from the violence. When looking at the garden of life, one has to see the flowers that grow against the mud between them.

Then, as she looks around, she sees someone staring at them.

It's Shigaraki, glaring at them.

Ochako freezes, tells the others that they need to go, and that's when they see Shigaraki as well and panic. Shigaraki unleashes his quirk and sends forth the first shot into the Bastille, whilst the class flee through the Bastille and end up being the ones to open the door for the peasants to attack Governor Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay as they flee.

Finding their way back to the TARDIS and shutting the door on Shigaraki, Ochako quickly messes with the TARDIS controls once more and launches them into another corner of time. Mars, in the distant future when mankind has terraformed the red planet.

Shigaraki follows them there.

The moon, when Apollo 11 firsts lands on Luna.

Shigaraki follows them there.

The Jurassic era.

Shigaraki follows them there.

A trading outpost to a star flung intergalactic empire many galaxies away.

Still, Shigaraki follows them there.

Again and again, wherever they go, Shigaraki keeps pursuing them, becoming more and more intent on killing them with each passing moment.

Then, finally, at the edge of the universe, on the last day before the universe reaches entropy, Class 1-A decides that it is finally time to make a stand against Shigaraki.

So, using Shigaraki's evident immaturity and his violent desire to put an end to their lives, they quickly set a trap for the leader of the League of Villains and encircle him, beating him down (which Ochako's not very keen on, preferring to talk her enemies down rather than punch them) and then surrounding him.

And that is when they notice the strange watch around Shigaraki's wrist, which Ochako recognises as a vortex manipulator. Cheap and nasty time travel, she calls it, before commenting that this kind of technology shouldn't exist in this universe. Only the so-called Ascendant Powers in this universe have discovered the art of time travel, and even then it was into the far future and definitely not something as unrefined as a vortex manipulator. Where the hell did Shigaraki get something like that?

Shigaraki smiles and tells her that an angel got it for him. Ochako seems to freeze for a moment at that, but is interrupted by the other students as they demand to know why Shigaraki was trying to kill them so badly.

Shigaraki just spits at them. They escaped from him and he didn't like them. And Master told him that he could destroy the things he didn't like. That's all the reason that he needs.

In response, the class goes to take the vortex manipulator away from him, but Shigaraki, in an act of spite, uses his quirk on the watch machine, refusing to let them have it-

But the rapid disintegration causes the vortex manipulator to malfunction, and Shigaraki lets out a scream of pain as his form bloats and contorts, suddenly disappearing in a flash of light as his atoms are scattered all across time, delivering onto him a painful death.

And Ochako, saddened to see the needless loss of a life, simply shakes her head and mutters to herself about cheap and nasty time travel.

The rest of the class is horrified by the sight of the death before them, takes her time in taking them back into the TARDIS, all the class sparing some time to watch the universe reach its end before they return to their present time...

All the while unaware that Shigaraki's atoms have been reassembled and dumped back into the bar, the boy coughing and shivering and demanding to know why the hell he's back here and not killing those damned kids. The voice that answers back, All for One, simply tells him that he lost. He died, and has just been reassembled. He asks as to where the vortex manipulator is, and Shigaraki simply says that it broke, to which All for One tells him that if that's the case, then he's not getting another one anytime soon.

But Shigaraki isn't cut up by the news. Not entirely. He simply smiles and tells All for One that there are so many things out there in the universe. So many people, so many societies, all beyond Earth, all scattered across time and space.

And all of them for him to destroy.

All for One laughs, encourages Shigaraki to nurture that hatred of his and his desire for destruction, and recalls Kurogiri back to their base of operations. The USJ is to be considered a failure, but they can still view the progress of the Nomu from there.

At the USJ, the villain thugs are left in confusion as to the disappearance of Shigaraki and Kurogiri, and the Nomu is left to mindlessly wander about and punt aside anything that it sees, mostly just villains, due to it lacking any orders. Aizawa and Thirteen have been left alone and surrounded, but it is then that All Might arrives after a long time due to dealing with so many other villains around Musufatu and also because of the lack of communications coming out of the USJ. He handily defeats all the villains and brings down the Nomu, rescuing Aizawa and Thirteen from the villains surrounding them. However, when they realise that the students are all missing, that is when they begin to panic...

Until the TARDIS materialises before them, and all of Class 1-A stepping out, still in their eighteenth century French outfits, with Ochako apologising for their tardiness. They got a bit side-tracked.

At the villain's bar, All for One cuts the link that he had with the Nomu, and steps out of the shadows, somehow having been returned to full health. Though he is displeased at the thought of having lost the Nomu, he is still pleased with the results of the USJ and what they have learnt, not just on how to improve the Nomu in the future, but of what to expect from their enemies. Particularly the children of U.A..

Shigaraki scoffs. He doesn't like them, and he wants to destroy them, and All for One remarks that he will soon enough, but he needs to learn not to underestimate them. Shigaraki comments that they got lucky, but All for One makes clear that, lucky or not, he underestimated them and they killed him. Without their benefactor, he would be very much dead and, most importantly, useless to him.

And now, thanks to Shigaraki's actions, they have lost a precious power that their enemy now has full possession over: access to time travel.

And All for One wants that power.

Shigaraki is soured, but All for One tells him to learn from his mistakes and grow. He will get his chance to destroy as much as he likes when the time comes. Shigaraki is bitter at this notion, but resolves to learn anyway.

All for One leaves, and is consulted by his benefactor, the one who returned his face and body back to full health. His benefactor tells him to practice what he preaches, and All for One scoffs. He has never been defeated before, and he won't be defeated by a bunch of children, access to time travel or not.

His benefactor reminds him of the state that he found him in though, and how it had been through his good graces to save him from his bloodied plight. All for One is forced to relent, and ensures his benefactor that he will not make the same mistake twice. He then asks the angel what he is supposed to do now.

The Trickster simply smiles and tells him to go cause chaos, as is his purpose.

Later that day, the students leave U.A., having been let go by the teachers and police and carefully avoiding revealing the truth of the TARDIS and their recent misadventure across time to them, despite the teacher's clear disbelief.

Soon, they all end up following Ochako to an old scrapyard near one of her family's construction projects, where she'd stashed the TARDIS for safekeeping. There, Ochako invites them in, and finally begin to tell them the full truth.

Her name is Ochako Uraraka. That much about her is true. But she's... not from around her. Her mind isn't, but her body is.

In another place, a parallel world far away from here, is a universe where quirks do not exist. Everyone is quirkless, but there are other wonders to the world. Monsters, aliens, distant planets and civilisations all across time and space.

And it is in this universe that she was born and saw them all.

In this parallel universe, Ochako met a time-travelling alien known only as the Doctor, her best friend. He invited her to see the universe and she did. They explored the stars and went to every single corner of time and space itself, seeing sights that defy the imagination and fighting evils that border on the unfathomable.

She stayed with him for all her life, even up to her final years as an aging, ancient old woman...

But then, on her final day of life, something happened. The TARDIS was sent through a crack in the fabric of the universe, and her physical body was destroyed whilst her mind was sent flying off into the universe before landing in her alternative universe counterpart when she was being born.

This body that she is inhabiting is this universe's counterpart of herself, but her mind belongs to the parallel universe where she came from. The TARDIS, meanwhile, landed here, and it had taken her a long time to find it.

The Doctor, however, was not with it.

He was missing.

And that's why she's here, and talking to them. Her best friend, her impossible friend, is missing, lost across time and space, and she's been trying to find him ever since.

(But that's not the whole story. There's more that Ochako's not telling them, but she's not going to be revealing that anytime soon.)

But now things are even worse than she had imagined. If Shigaraki got his hands on a vortex manipulator, then that means that the crack in the fabric of reality that she'd arrived through is still there, and things are slipping through. Who knows what is coming through the hole in reality into this universe, or what is leaving this universe for the next as well.

And if things are slipping through realities and into this universe, then that means that all life in this reality is in danger. There are things out there in her home universe, alien empires and eldritch abominations and beings that command the powers of the gods themselves, that would fall upon this universe like predators looking for a feast, and they need to be confronted and defeated.

But mostly, she asks them to come with her, to be her companions and join her, in the TARDIS, on her quest.

"Where would we be going?"

Ochako smiles.

"Anywhere and anywhen."

(But elsewhere, a lone child stumbles through the streets, a bloody hole in her chest.

The child stumbles into an alleyway, falls, and dies...

And then a bright golden light erupts from her, and she regenerates into a young girl with pale off-white hair, ruby red eyes, and a small horn on her head.)

And that is when we begin to get into the meat of the story, as Ochako and Class 1-A take off in the TARDIS to go explore the universe, seek out threats to battle again, and to find out what this new universe has to offer on her journey to find her long lost friend.

During their adventures and misadventures, they find themselves going from world to world, time to time, and unravelling a great mystery in preparation to a great threat, all in a format similar to Doctor Who's regular episodic scheduling:

They stop a plot by Nazi agents to destroy 1940s London in a pure historical adventure.

They take part in the Sports Festival, only for the stadium and everyone in it to be stolen/kidnapped and forced to fight in a more lethal tournament with alien champions all for the entertainment of a war god.

They battle against Kyudai Garaki as he tries to create an army of Cyber-Nomu and quirk-empowered Cybermen.

They take part in an intergalactic space race, with the prize being Earth itself. Kendo ends up winning it for them with a superpowered motorcycle.

They defeat an alien invasion with the power of love and rubber ducks.

They team up with the talking Penguin detective Frobisher in investigating the murder of an ancient god (Frobisher the talking Penguin detective is a real character, by the way. Look him up.

It's Doctor Who. Weirder stuff has happened.)

They attend the wedding of a human woman to a sentient swarm of bumblebees.

They find and rescue Eri from Overhaul, discovering her powers of regeneration and how this impossible child is somehow a Time Lord.

And they have their first encounter with the Trickster, who cryptically warns them of That Which Is Coming, an existence so evil that not even the Trickster would dare try to confront it.

But it's not just the whole class. A lot of Ochako's companions, that being her classmates, end up going on their own adventures as well.

Aoyama gets to attend the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

Izuku meets the first hero of his world and teams up with him to stop an incursion from a family of shapeshifting alien criminals.

Aizawa ends up hijacking the TARDIS to save Oboro from death, creating a time paradox and allowing the Reapers to come in and start eating everyone and everything relating to the paradox. It is the first time that Ochako actually kicks someone out of the TARDIS, and at the end of it, Aizawa refuses to learn his lesson.

Momo visits and alien planet and ends up using her quirk to give birth to an entire species (again, it's Doctor Who. Weirder stuff has happened).

Iida uses a time paradox to defeat the Eleven-Day Empire.

Jirou teams up with Present Mic, Pop-Step, and the FeatherHATs to defeat Maestro, the God of Music, with the power of Christmas carols in the obligatory holiday special.

Ochako has to work with Present Mic and Midnight to stop Aizawa from continuously pulling Oboros from parallel universes into their world before feeding the ones that he doesn't want as bodies for the Eternals to grant them the power of imagination.

Mina becomes the queen of an entire alien empire.

Kaminari ends up dating a vast eldritch abomination.

Ochako realises that the consciousness of the original Ochako of this universe is still lingering within their body, and uses cloning technology that she, Bakugo, and Kirishima pinch from a Sontaran invasion fleet (after they blow it up) to give the original consciousness a new body and a new chance at life. The two end up dating Izuku at the same time. Izuku is perfectly fine with it.

Tsuyu is forced to save the world from the Weeping Angels all on her own.

And while this is going on, Ochako and her companions keep encountering and battling against the Trickster and the League of Villains, defeating their plans everywhere they go as All for One seeks to master the ability to travel in time, and the Trickster wishes for him to succeed so that he can shred the timelines to suit his own needs.

All the while, That Which Is Coming lurks in the shadows, waiting, and preparing...

The Dalek Time Controller, having fallen through the crack in the fabric of time after following the Doctor and the TARDIS through, has seen this undefended universe, and is now building up an army of human-made Daleks, all with quirks, to soon take over both this universe, and the next, until the entire multiverse bends to the Daleks.

Chapter 37: Heroes in Disguise

Chapter Text

One day, after a long, hard day of cleaning the beach, Izuku decides to climb up one of Japan's biggest mountains, near the hospital where his mother works, to continue his exercise in learning how to become the number one hero. There, he sits down and begins to muse about his life and the choices that have led him here, and how he plans to go forward with his life.

His outlook is, generally, pretty optimistic. Despite all the torment and trouble that he's been through in his life, his bullying at the hands of Bakugo and the discrimination that he has suffered as a quirkless person, he has been able to retain his cheery optimism and outlook on life, and is very much looking forward to seizing his chance to be not just All Might's apprentice, but also the hero of his dreams as well.

It is then that he meets someone else up on the mountain. A girl whom calls herself Ochako Uraraka, wearing a single glove on her right hand. Izuku is surprised to see someone up here and is embarrassed at the fact that he's never talked to a girl before, but the two are able to hold a conversation, when Ochako reveals why she's up the mountain:

At the dawn of quirks, there was this great big flash, like a meteor falling out of the sky, landing right in this mountain. Izuku remembers reading about it and speculates it to be one of the first emergences of a quirk, and Ochako adds that despite all the searching by authorities, no one was able to find anything, despite it being such a massive flash. This is the first day that the mountain was opened to the public, and Ochako, having a keen desire in space and all the things associated with it, wants to see if she can find anything herself.

Then, suddenly, the ground beneath them begins to shake, and then suddenly gives way, sending Izuku and Ochako plummeting down into an empty chasm inside the mountain...

Or at least it would've if it hadn't been filled with a massive, damaged spaceship.

Izuku and Ochako land on the ground, the latter having used her quirk to slow their fall, and end up exploring the massive spaceship, realising that it couldn't have been down here for long. It is then that part of the mountain around it flickers off like someone shutting off a light. The ship's automatic systems had projected some sort of hardlight hologram around it to protect itself. No wonder no one found it.

Izuku and Ochako are freaking out at having been the first ones to discover evidence of alien life living amongst the stars, but stop when they find themselves inside the ship and gazing upon the giant robots scattered lifelessly across the floor inside. The two decide that it's time for them to bug out and leave, and signal to the heroes what they have found...

But then, somehow, and suddenly, the spaceship's supercomputer, Teletraan-1 reactivates, and begins repairing all the robots scattered around them.

However, thanks to the crash and whatever combat took place in the ship judging from the still sparking and smoking holes and wounds in the walls, Teletraan-1 is badly malfunctioning and begins repairing all the robots indiscriminately, selecting new alt-modes for them and bringing them back up to full strength...

Starting with Starscream, who promptly shoots a prone Huffer in the head, killing him instantly. Then, he moves onto Gears, then Trailbreaker, then Hound, Windcharger, Hauler, Brawn, Bluestreak, and Gears.

(In case you couldn't tell, I'm taking quite a bit of inspiration from Skybound's recent take on the Transformers for the opening of this story.)

Izuku and Ochako are horrified to see such a blatant display of cruel execution, especially with how Starscream is laughing wickedly and gleefully at how easy it is to kill the Autobots on the ground, but just as he's about to turn his null-rays on an unmoving Bumblebee, he stops and sees the two humans trying to sneak away. Spitting out a disgusted comment at the fleshies, the Decepticon Seeker turns his null-rays on them-

Only to be tackled out of the way by a freshly repaired Optimus Prime, who spots the two human children himself and throws himself in front of them, protecting them from Starscream's attacks.

However, Starscream's Decepticons are being repaired as well, with Thrust and Dirge, two Decepticon coneheads, being repaired next alongside the Headmaster Cyberdroid known as Soundblaster, who's connected to a Transtector body and partnered with the Targetmaster Cyberdroid Wingthing.

But luckily the next Cybertronian to be repaired is the Autobot Bumblebee, who kicks down the two Decepticon thugs and swoops down to pick up Izuku and Ochako, promising to get them safely away from the fight as Ratchet is brought back online next, but not before the two humans themselves decide to help out and push Bumblebee's gun to him after he's attacked and pounced on by Ramjet, allowing him to land a shot on the conehead and get him off him.

However, as Skywarp and Thundercracker are brought back online, Optimus and the Autobots realise that they are outnumbered by the Decepticons, and are forced to abandon their ship, the Ark, gathering up as many of their fellow Autobots as they can and destroying Teletraan-1 as they leave, killing Thrust mid-repair as they do.

As the Autobots flee, Izuku is able to point them to a nearby scrapyard, which the Autobots then occupy. There, they lay out their surviving Autobots, that being Jazz, Prowl, Arcee, Wheeljack, Chromia, and Ironhide, the ones that they can fixed with time, and the others, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Beachcomber, Mirage and Cliffjumper, the ones who's lives are less certain. Bumblebee wonders if they can use the Matrix of Leadership in Optimus Prime's chest to heal their friends. However, Ratchet counters that that's not how the Matrix works. It imparts wisdom, not power.

Wisdom that Optimus feels that he really needs right now.

Not too far away, Izuku and Ochako quickly sit down, doing their best to try and process everything that's going on. Then, they're joined by Optimus Prime, who is quickly enamoured by the natural beauty of Earth, something that he's never seen before on Cybertron. He's seen such sights countless times on countless other worlds time and time again, and despite that such wonders never cease to amaze him.

Izuku and Ochako are surprised by his words, and Izuku comments that he figured that Optimus would be disinterested in such a thing. Optimus comments that his home world, Cybertron, was completely made of metal. There was beauty, but it was all synthetic and artificial. Nothing like this.

And that beauty is gone now. Tarnished by a war that's been raging for millions of years. Now their world is a lifeless husk, though the actions of both himself and the people that they fight against. Izuku asks if that's Starscream and his lot, and Optimus comments that Starscream is just a lieutenant in the Decepticon Star Empire. A high-ranking one, but still not the top of the chain of command.

Optimus then begins to explain. Millions of years ago, his home planet of Cybertron was known throughout the universe as home to one of the most peaceful species in existence, the Cybertronian race. They were a species of scientists, theologists, diplomats, and explorers, pushing the limits of their understanding of the universe and wishing to spread that enlightenment to others as well.

But no golden age is perfect, and underneath the glistening polish was a rushing decay. The lineage of Primes, the chosen leaders of their species, began to steer away from the guidance that the Thirteen original Primes had left them, and succumbed to their pride and greed. Leaders like Nova, Nominus, Sentinel, and Zeta Prime turned their search for enlightenment into a desire for domination. The golden age rusted away, and an era of corruption fell over their world and its colonies, paved over by the expansionist desires of those who held power.

Soon, the Cybertronian race fell into an era of functionism, with their species being divided into castes based on their functions. Their form dictated their fate, and it was all propped by by a corrupt Cybertronian senate, ruled over by the equally corrupt Primes and their false claims to divine providence, with only the Council of Ancients standing above them, the last bastions of hope in their sulied world, for they were the only ones that could choose the next Prime.

It was an awful, terrible system, and it was one that Optimus Prime, back then known as Orion Pax, helped to enforce in his foolish ignorance, first as a data clerk, and then when he was conscripted to be a police officer.

But, in those days, a young Cybertronian from the mining caste rose up, a gladiator known as D-16, who defied the weight of the Cybertronian state by choosing his own name. He called himself Megatron, and he spoke out against those that would keep their species locked in oppression, calling those who would stand with him to his side. He named them his Decepticons, and he challenged those in power to change themselves for the betterment of Cybertron.

It was his words that draw the attention of Orion Pax, and through those words, he found himself waking up to the darkness and evils that plagued their world. He sought Megatron out, and together, under the guidance of Orion's mentor Alpha Trion, they stood up against the corruption of the Cybertronian senate and the functionist order that they sought to impose.

In doing so, they became brothers-in-arms and brothers-in-spirit.

But when they stood before the Council of Ancients to speak their piece, Megatron stood first and demanded that he be made the next Prime. It seemed that Megatron's version of peace was just another form of the corruption that came before. As he called it, it would have been a peace through tyranny.

But when he spoke at the stand, the council seemed to listen. All he did was speak what he thought to be the truth, but they seemed to be listen more than they did Megatron. He doesn't know if they were truly moved by what he had to say or if they had become just as corrupt as the senate itself and saw him as a useful pawn, but for whatever reason, they decided to name him as the next Prime.

Megatron would not have it. His rage overtook him at this rejection, and he raised his followers into an army to topple the senate and wage war against all those he deemed to stand against the future of the Cybertronian race. They killed the senate and the council, and decapitated Zeta Prime, but then began to kill anyone who would not stand with them.

It was then that Alpha Trion led Orion down into the depths of Cybertron and, as he fended off Megatron and allowed his spark to be extinguished by the gladiator-now-warlord, he passed Orion an artifact from Cybertron's ancient past.

The Matrix of Leadership, an artifact that held all the knowledge and wisdom of the original Thirteen Primes, which Alpha Trion had sealed away when the Primes that came after the originals proved themselves to be undeserving of it.

The Matrix bonded with him, and Orion Pax became Optimus Prime.

Rallying those who would stand against Megatron's tyranny, Optimus named them to be the Autobots in remembrance to the name that the ascendant races such as the Celestials and Omega Guardians, and became the resistance against Megatron's army.

And so the Autobots and Decepticons waged war against each other. A war across Cybertron and its colonies that lasted for millions of years. A war that the Autobots were losing.

It was in this hopeless situation that Optimus realised that Megatron wouldn't stop until all of Cybertron, and all the universe beyond, bent to his will. If he claimed control of the Allspark, the source of all Cybertronian life hidden within Vector Sigma, the core of their world, then Megatron could create legions of Decepticons to spread out across the universe, destroying all hope.

So, to protect all of creation, Optimus sent the Allspark rocketing off into space, dooming their home world to shutdown.

Optimus had hoped that this would be enough to stop Megatron, but in his arrogance, he once again failed to recognise the depths of the Decepticon leader's hunger for dominance, for he already had plans to leave their world. Regardless of their efforts, the Autobots were forced to abandon Cybertron, the Decepticons took over their dying world and its shattered colonies, and their war spread off-world.

Optimus had murdered his own planet for nothing.

Now, as far as he remembers, the galaxy has been divided into three sections. There is the Autobot Commonwealth, a collection of worlds and civilisations such as the Solstar Order and the Spectral Knights that had aligned themselves with the Autobots against their enemies, the Decepticon Star Empire, a massive swath of territory made up of devastated and cyberformed worlds where the Decepticons had worked every species within it to extinction. Then there was the space in between, the constant battlefield of the Great War, where worlds like Quintessa, Nebulos, Master, and Klo were utterly devastated, and their species, the Quintessons, the Nebulans, and the Klovians were either driven off world or into extinction themselves.

So many worlds have fallen already, and now their war has touched another.

Optimus has been searching for the Allspark once again, to try and make up for his past mistakes, but all he has done is bring their war to Earth.

It is now his duty to defend it.

(This is ultimately supposed to be the key characterising moment of Optimus Prime and what defines him in this story, as while he is still the humble paragon of virtue that we know him as, he isn't as infallible as he is usually depicted as. This Optimus Prime has his flaws, very much makes mistakes, has a tendency to downplay his own achievements due to his sense of guilt and makes too many decisions based on that guilt, and has made bad calls in the past.

However, what makes him a good leader is that he acknowledges those mistakes and learns from them, and always seeks to do the right thing no matter what. Deep down, despite his flaws and mistakes, he is still very much the Optimus Prime that we know and love, and is always going to do what's right for the sake of all sentient life across the universe.)

Meanwhile in the Ark, the Decepticons are counting their losses as well. Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Dirge, Ramjet, and Soundblaster and his Targetmaster partner Wingthing are currently alive and operational, but Thrust is now dead, and they've still got an entire team of Decepticons, possibly their most powerful members, still down and out for the count. Soundblaster calls out Starscream for pursuing Optimus' ship without any backup before they all went down, but Starscream shoots back that it's not his fault, Soundblaster was supposed to be the one to cripple Prime's ship and leave them ready for the kill, not give them the chance to fight back.

What they need right now, however, is a way to contact Megatron and the rest of the Empire. Soundblaster points out that the Ark's comms are damaged, but Starscream simply tells him to use the various Autobot corpses to repair them. Thundercracker expresses his distain at such a thought, but Starscream makes it clear that he doesn't care.

However, that's only half of the problem, as they need a stable source of energon to initiate repairs. Luckily Soundblaster has detected a large settlement nearby with a power station, but he needs to focus more on initiating repairs in the Ark than out there. Realising that Starscream currently has the largest energon reserves, the Decepticons elect to send him out, much to his annoyance.

In the nearby town, Inko Midoriya is looking on nervously from the hospital that she is currently working in to the mountains nearby, as Izuku was supposedly up there and he hadn't returned any of her calls.

Meanwhile, Death Arms is consulting with a local detachment of heroes, ready to depart into the nearby mountains. According to reports, there has been a lot of noise and disturbances coming from the mountain, and now there's an entire chunk of it missing, and they needed someone to go in there and investigate. Death Arms would rather someone else do this, as he's more used to carrying out operations in urban areas, but he needs the boost to his reputation after that Aldera High fiasco with the Sludge Villain, and this is currently the best way for him to get it-

Then, suddenly, Starscream lands in the middle of the town and starts tearing up its power station, grumbling to himself about how he has to be the one to do the grunt work, a position unsuited for a leader such as himself. Death Arms, identifying Starscream as a villain, quickly rallies his team of pro heroes and orders the Decepticon to surrender...

And Starscream, in reaction, laughs at their efforts and blasts them away, before grabbing Death Arms in one hand, commenting about how fun it is to squish organics between his fingers, and then popping the pro hero like a grape, killing him instantly.

(Again, a lot of inspiration from Skybound for this one.)

Elsewhere, Izuku, Ochako, and the Autobots spot a trail of smoke leading up into the sky from the nearby town, and they realise that the Decepticons have begun their attack on the humans. Leaving Ratchet to care for their fellow wounded Autobots, Optimus readies to meet the Decepticons there, and orders Bumbebee to get Izuku and Ochako away from the fighting and to safety. Izuku protests, as his mother is inside that town, but Optimus is firm. This is no place for children to be.

But he will find Izuku's mother. He has his word.

Soon, Bumblebee is driving Izuku and Ochako back to the nearby city as quickly as he can, and Izuku and Ochako try to figure out what to do next. The two are still shellshocked and confused after what happened, and are struggling to process everything that they have learnt and witnessed. Izuku tries to make a call to All Might, only to find that his phone was smashed in the fall. He swears to himself, believing that if All Might was here, then he could easily defeat the Decepticons. He's the number one hero, after all. Ochako somewhat agrees, but is able to get through to someone on her phone, and begins to speak with them...

Only for Bumblebee to be attacked by another Decepticon that had been tracking them, Ramjet, who, wanting payback for earlier, instantly starts trying to kill them, prompting Ochako to tell whoever's on the other side of the line to get to the nearby town and pronto. Bumblebee, meanwhile, realises that the Decepticons are trying to scatter them and pick them off one-by-one, and is forced to make a run back for the town.

Elsewhere, All Might is currently travelling to the mountains himself, being told over his radio of the disturbances in the region and the loss of communication with Death Arms and the other heroes in the area, and though he'd honestly rather be training his apprentice for his future handling of One for All, he recognises the importance of his duties and what is demanded of him as both the number one hero and the Symbol of Peace.

However, he's then cut off as he reaches the town and spots Starscream on the ground, surrounded by the smoking bodies of dead town residents and heroes. All Might calls for Starscream to surrender, but the Decepticon Seeker instead, laughing sad*stically all the way, jets up into the air and swats All Might away, sending him flying into the ground.

All Might and Starscream then face off, and here is where we get to see Starscream's power level in this story, as while he's still a cowardly, short-sighted, arrogant snake at heart's, he's not the Decepticon's primary air commander and a high ranking commander for nothing, as he proceeds to delay All Might for long enough to allow his fellow Seekers, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Dirge, as well Soundblaster and his Targetmaster Wingthing to arrive.

Starscream and Skywarp then begin to fire on All Might as he lands in the town and the fleeing civilians below, whilst Thundercracker and Dirge help Soundblaster and Wingthing collect the parts that they need to begin repairing the Ark and their remaining Decepticons onboard. A group of heroes, arriving with All Might, try to attack the Decepticons, only for Wingthing to use his Targetmaster connection to Soundblaster to take control of his arm and send a single, incredibly powerful shot into the crowd of heroes, annihilating them all with one shot.

Soon, Starscream and Skywarp succeed in pinning down All Might whilst the other Decepticons succeed in finishing the power generator. However, Starscream orders them to stay, wanting to destroy the entire town and everyone inside it as an act of petty spite against the fleshies that would foolishly declare themselves to be heroes-

And that is when Optimus Prime speeds by in his truck alt-mode and slams himself into Starscream, sending him spinning away as he transformed and tossed Skywarp into the Decepticons at the side.

Putting himself before All Might and the humans, Optimus declares that there will be no more innocent lives lost today, and opens fire on the Decepticons.

Elsewhere, Ratchet has gathered enough energon together from their scant few reserves, but it's only enough to revive one of their allies, but gets a call from Optimus, telling him that he's under fire from the Decepticons and has humans under his protection, and needs reinforcements, all before he gets a call from Bumblebee saying that he's under fire from a Seeker as well.

Ratchet frowns, and then decides on who to bring back first. They need fighters now.

Elsewhere, Ramjet is continuing his pursuit of Bumblebee, and Izuku and Ochako inside are panicking at the thought of being blown to bits by the deranged Decepticon. However, Ramjet soon gets a swing on Bumblebee and sends him flipping over into his robot form, forcing the little yellow bot to throw down with the Seeker, right before the Decepticon, upon realising that he is losing, to aim his cannons at Izuku and Ochako on the ground in an act of spite-

Only to be interrupted by a giant foot kicking itself into him, tearing him into pieces and sending him flying through the air like a crumpled can.

The humans and the lone Mini-bot look up to see a giant woman standing over them, giving the Autobot an apprehensive look and readying to stomp on him as well... only for Ochako to run up and throw her hands up defensively, telling her that Bumblebee's on their side.

The woman, the hero, blinks in recognition, shrinking down to person-sized and hugging Ochako. Spotting Izuku giving them a confused look, Ochako introduces the hero as Mount Lady, or rather Yu Takeyama, her adoptive sister.

Yu then recognises Izuku as that kid that stupidly ran in to try and defeat the Sludge Villain back in Aldera, and as Izuku looks away with a blush, demands to know what the hell is going on.

As Ochako puts it, there are bad guy robots trying to kill them all and good guy robots trying to make sure that doesn't happen. Bumblebee says that that pretty much sums it up.

Unfortunately, Ramjet isn't as down as they'd like, and the wounded Seeker ends up fleeing from the lot, intent on warning Starscream of the incoming organics coming after them. Mount Lady ends up leading the charge on a bunch of hero reinforcements, including her fellow heroes in the Lurkers agency. The hero known as Edgeshot ends up pulling Izuku and Ochako behind to safety, but as the heroes and Bumblebee speed off into the town, Izuku ends up following behind them to find his mother, inadvertently dragging Ochako behind with him.

Meanwhile, Optimus is doing his best to try and defend the wounded All Might and the civilians, but finds himself outnumbered by the more agile Seekers - now joined by Ramjet - as well as being outgunned by Soundblaster's enhanced firepower as a Targetmaster. Even the reinforcements in the form of Bumblebee and the heroes, including Mount Lady and the other Lurkers, are not yet enough to stem the tide, not helped at all by how demoralised the heroes become when they see that even All Might has been struggling against the rampaging Decepticons.

But then, that is when Ratchet arrives to the battle alongside a newly risen Autobot to turn the tide.

Ironhide, who turns his guns on the Seekers and blasts Ramjet to pieces, killing the Decepticon before throwing his heavy weapons at Skywarp and mortally wounding the teleporting Seeker as well. Realising that his Seekers are now being picked off by the Autobots and their new fleshy allies, Starscream prepares to leave, but not before noticing something:

Inko Midoriya and other doctors and nurses, ushering people into the town's hospital for shelter.

Realising that this is where the humans go to be fixed, Starscream, in an act of spite, turns his null-rays on the hospital and opens fire, ripping it to pieces and critically wounding many of them, including Inko herself, and callously catching a wounded Skywarp in the blast, killing him as well.

Starscream and the Decepticons flee with their new power generator, and the heroes and Autobots are left to pick up the pieces in the devastated town, and Izuku rushing to his wounded mother's side as she is ushered into the damaged hospital, the situation only made worse by the fact that Starscream took out the hospital's backup generator, meaning that a lot more people are going to die tonight...

Until Bumblebee, in an act of self-sacrifice, uses his own spark and body to act as a generator for the hospital. He is still alive, but in committing such an act, he will be left in a coma until the hospital has been repaired, meaning that the Autobots are once more without one of their own.

But at least no more people will die tonight.

However, as it stands, neither the Autobots or the heroes are in any condition to pursue Starscream's Decepticons. Optimus is battered after the fighting and low on energon, and All Might is feeling the wear on fighting the Decepticons as well. Plus, multiple other heroes have been killed and many more have been wounded, not to mention the townsfolk as well.

Luckily, the heroes, moved by Bumblebee's act of sacrifice, begin to call in reinforcements.

Meanwhile, Izuku is sitting inside the hospital, waiting to hear any news on his mother, and Ochako decides to sit next to him. The two have been through a lot in the last two days, and there's no sign of it stopping anytime soon.

Still, the two of them decide that if this won't at least make them friends, then nothing ever will.

Izuku is terrified at the thought of losing his mother, and can't imagine the thought of being without her. Ochako tries to offer comfort, but Izuku can't help but snap at her in her worry and frustration. What does she know about loss?

Ochako knows a lot. In this story, she's an orphan. Her parents died in a villain attack when she was young, and she doesn't even have any memories of them anymore. Only the impressions and ideas of them. She was shunted around in child protective services for a year before landing in the children's orphanage known as the Masters Home, cared for by the husband and wife billionaire philanthropists Giga Yoshida and Megan Cesone. It was there that she had met fellow orphan Yu, Mount Lady, as well as Yui Kodai and all the others that she would come to know as brothers and sisters.

Hell, her arm wasn't real. She took off the glove that she'd been wearing over her right hand, and asked Izuku to touch it. Izuku, shyly and nervously, took hold of it, and found that the skin was rubbery and the bone underneath didn't feel like bone at all, all the way up to the shoulder where the skin became discoloured from the rest of her body. She'd lost her real arm in the car crash along with her parents, and Megan and Giga had paid to have it replaced with the best that money can buy.

But her parents, her blood parents, were still gone. They were dead, and she was left to see that whatever legacy they leave behind is a good one. It was why she wanted to become a hero: to honour them, and to make sure that no one else will ever have to go through what she and all her brothers and sisters have gone through as well.

Izuku has no words left to say at that. All he can think to do is hug her, which she tenderly returns. They stay like that for a long while, before Ochako gets up, an idea in her head, and she heads off to find Optimus.

Elsewhere, a battered Optimus and All Might are talking with each other, entertaining the townsfolk's children as they do. The two share stories and find kindred spirits within each other, that being tired old leaders feeling the grind of fighting battle after battle with seemingly no end in sight. All Might expresses that he's made his own fair share of mistakes, as has Optimus, and ends up confessing that he is training a successor to take his place. Optimus confesses that he is training people as well for the inevitability that he won't be around to lead the Autobots anymore, and namedrops other Autobots like Bumblebee, Jazz, Windblade, Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, Springer, Star Saber, Beta, Dai Atlas, Daburu Leo, Hacksaw, and Metalhawk as those who, whether in peace or in war, would be there to take his place should his time come.

No single person can hold up a nation, a people, and a civilisation all on their own. It takes many hands to create a better world.

This gives All Might pause, and he is left with food for thought.

Then, the two are approached by Izuku and Ochako, and the latter tells them of a nearby construction site that are owned by her adoptive parents, one that they can use to store their wounded warriors.

And during this conversation, Izuku approaches All Might... and asks for One for All early.

Elsewhere, the Decepticons have attached their makeshift generator to the damaged Ark, spliced together from both the human's technology and the cannibalised bodies of the dead Autobots littering the floor, and are finally able to begin rebuilding their incapacitated warriors.

However, they are critical of Starscream's actions, as so far his plans have consisted of nothing but mindless destruction. No conquests, just petty acts of violence, made all the worse by the fact that their supposed leader has killed one of their own in such acts as well. Starscream is hacked off at this, as they cannot conquer much when his warriors are so incompetent that they are being picked off by a tiny group of Autobots and their fleshy allies, and instead deflects the blame onto his surviving minions, Thundercracker, Dirge, and Soundblaster, for not helping him enough in killing said Autobots and fleshies, despite their being busy creating the generator needed to repair their fellow Decepticons.

But then, as their prone Decepticons are being rebuilt, Soundblaster detects a growing surge of energy coming from a construction site, and they realise that the Autobots and the humans are now working together to repair their own fallen warriors. Seeking to end such an act before it can begin, Starscream orders Soundblaster to stay behind and continue repairing the rest of their minions, whilst he rallies Thundercracker and Dirge to his side.

As it turns out as well, the other Decepticons that Starscream had brought with him during his attack on the Ark had been the Stunticons, being a heavily expanded and enlarged team in this continuity, and the current members that are operational and ready to join Starscream's assault are Motormaster, Drag Strip (who is a female in this continuity), Heatseeker, Wildbreak, Slashmark (all originally from the aligned continuity), and Brake-Neck (the stand-in for Wildrider in Earth Wars),

As night turns to day, the remaining operational Autobots and heroes have relocated themselves to the construction site owned by Ochako's adoptive family, and are joined by the head worker, one of Ochako's adoptive brothers that she and Yu have nicknamed Bullhorn. There, the Autobots revive Wheeljack to help them rebuild themselves, but considering how low on energon they are, he is left having to shut off his legs and waist and is left rolling about in the Cybertronian equivilent of a wheelchair.

Soon, the Autobots and the humans are able to create their own generator made out of Cybertronian and human technology, and are able to begin the process of reviving the rest of their friends, with Wheeljack confirming that with their own technology, they might be able to power the town for the next decade, maybe even beyond, potentially providing the town with a clean source of energy from now on.

Meanwhile, Izuku has eaten All Might's strand of hair from his head and is currently processing One for All as it goes through him. All Might warns him that, at his current form and with his training incomplete, One for All is going to be very volatile for him, but Izuku doesn't care. He's fine with it.

All Might tells him that what happened to his mother wasn't his fault, but Izuku doesn't hear it. He just wants to get back at the Decepticons for what they have done. All Might warns him against the path of vengeance, telling his young apprentice that such a path will only lead to pain in his future, but Izuku isn't hearing it. He just wants to make the Decepticons, make Starscream, pay.

Meanwhile, recognising that the Decepticons are going to be a constant threat for the time being, the Autobots decide to revive their warriors first, beginning with Chromia (at Ironhide's suggestion), and then with Jazz.

However, they are then interrupted by the Decepticons attacking the site, with Starscream leading his two surviving Seekers up in the air whilst Motormaster and his Stunticons attack the site from the ground, with Slashmark and Heatseeker combining together to form Heatmark, and Break-Neck and Wildbreak forming together to make Wild-Neck (in the aligned continuity, it's Drag Strip and Wildbreak who form together to make Dragbreak, but considering that Drag Strip in G1 is meant to be part of Menasor, then I'm just going to replace him with Brake-Neck).

The battle begins once more, with Chromia and Jazz joining Ratchet, Ironhide, and Optimus in repelling the Decepticons alongside the heroes whilst Izuku and Ochako dive for cover alongside the construction workers at the sight. Mount Lady enlarges herself and throws All Might up into the air to duel the Seekers once more, as well as Chromia and Kamui Woods to support them. However, she starts to take fire from the two Stunticon combiners on the ground below whilst Motormaster and Drag Strip are keeping the Autobots and heroes still on the ground suppressed.

During the fight, Izuku and Ochako end up being menaced by the newly arrived Wingthing, who begins diving and blasting at the two humans. However, Izuku summons One for All from within himself for the first time and lands a punch on the Targetmaster, sending the winged Cyberdroid-turned-mini-cassette flying back wildly, to which it decided to beat a retreat...

Only for them to be met by Drag Strip, who lowers her gun to obliterate the two humans, only for herself to be rammed into by Bullhorn driving a cement mixer and smashed through a wall. The Stunticon is quick to recover though, as she tosses the cement mixer away from her and goes on the attack once more, but is stopped by Ironhide, who picks her up and tosses her into Motormaster.

And meanwhile, Mount Lady picks up Wild-Neck and rips the combiner in half, killing both Brake-Neck and Wildbreak in the process as she tosses them at the Stunticons on the ground, giving Optimus the chance that he needs to throw himself at the other Stunticon mini-combiner, Heatmark, and lands a shot with his ion blaster right into its weak point, destroying the combiner and killing both Heatseeker and Slashmark in the process.

Realising that their numbers are beginning to drop, Motormaster and Drag Strip beat a retreat, taking Wingthing with them, and Starscream orders his Seekers back to base as well, but not before destroying the Autobots' makeshift generator in the process.

Realising that the Decepticons will just keep reviving more and more of their warriors to keep relentlessly attacking them and pick them off, the Autobots and heroes move to go on the offensive and pursue Starscream and his minions. It's time to take back the Ark. They move out, and Izuku and Ochako follow with them, much to the protests of the Autobots and the heroes.

Soon, the combined Autobot and hero force reach the Ark, but are then attacked by the Decepticons once more, now joined by the remaining Stunticons, the last of their warriors, that being Wildrider, Dead End, Offroad, Breakdown (in his Unite Warriors pickup truck form in homage to said Unite Warriors and Prime counterparts), and the Micromaster-turned-Headmaster Blackjack. They had been lured to the Ark in a trap by Starscream, who is eager to see his hated enemies finally crushed.

Then, on Starscream's order, the Stunticons merge together, with Motormaster forming the torso, Drag Strip forming the chest, Dead End and Wildrider forming the arms, Breakdown and Offroad forming the legs, and Blackjack forming the head to become the Decepticon combiner, Menasor (think of their final form as a fusion between Combiner Wars Menasor and kamitoge supino's fanart of the character).

And then, the violent and unstable Combiner turns his sights on Mount Lady and begins to attack her, beating her down and forcing her to use a pair of buses as knuckledusters to try and defend herself as the rest of the Decepticons open fire on the scattered Autobots and heroes on the ground, with Soundblaster in particular laying down scores of vicious and destructive fire with his Targetmaster Wingthing, even managing to shoot All Might out of the air with a single shot, knocking the number one hero out of the fight.

During the battle, Izuku launches himself at Starscream, desperately trying to claim revenge for what the Seeker did to his mother. The Decepticon responds by laughing in his face at his anger and swatting him aside, gleefully making fun of his mother's sacrifice and promising to kill her and everyone else that he knows once he himself is dead.

(In case you somehow weren't aware, Starscream is meant to be the genuinely evil type of villain in this story. He's very much not noble, he's completely monstrous, and he knows it and enjoys it.)

Worse yet, Izuku's lack of control of One for All leads to him crippling himself in the middle of combat and thus making him a liability, forcing Optimus Prime to step in to defend him only for Starscream to blast away at him as well, leaving the already severely-damaged Autobot leader crippled and on the verge of shutdown.

However, during all this fighting, Ochako has been able to slip into the Ark and begins messing with its internals, sending something inside the damaged ship's walls as she begins using her quirk to tear up the place, disconnecting the Decepticons' generator from the ship and releasing all the Autobot corpses that they'd been using to repair and power the ship.

However, she is soon met by Soundblaster and Wingthing, who prepares to blast her to pieces for her intrusion and sabotage. However, before he can kill her, he detects something unusual about her. Something distinctly... Cybertronian.

But before he can do anything about it, whatever Ochako has released into the Ark's walls does its job and begins to overload the reactor, detonating it and beginning a critical meltdown within the Ark. Seizing on the Decepticon's distraction, Ochako grabs a stray piece of detritus off the ground and, with her robotic arm, throws it like a javelin through the transformed Wingthing's barrel, killing the winged Cyberdroid in his gun form and releasing all the unstable energies that are held within all Targetmaster partners, beginning the chain reaction needed to overload the ship itself.

Ochako quickly grabs the thing that she'd used to wreak havoc within the Ark and flees, just getting out in time before the damaged ship explodes into a fireball, consuming Soundblaster in the process.

However, because Soundblaster is simply a Headmaster connected to a lifeless larger body, as soon as the Transtector is ripped into pieces by the blast, the human-sized Cyberdroid disconnects himself from the broken body and decides that it is time to beat a retreat, fleeing the battle and into the mountains.

Down below, Starscream is tossed aside by the massive blast, but the heroes and Autobots are unable to capitalise on this as Menasor and the rest of the Seekers continue to attack them, critically wounding many of them as Mount Lady is left on the defensive, broken and beaten under Menasor's mechanical fists.

But, as Izuku crawls to the wounded Optimus Prime, himself on the verge of dying as well thanks to the severity of his wounds, he spots the Matrix of Leadership shimmering inside the Prime's chest, which causes One for All to begin sparking around him. Realising the consequences of his actions and that he has to make things right.

So, reaching out his only working hand, he touches Optimus' chest, and the Matrix and One for All begin to interact with each other.

There is a bright flash of light, and suddenly, to the amazement of everyone - including the horrified Decepticons - Optimus Prime stands up, healed and up-armoured and in a brand new form, somehow stronger than ever.

Optimus Prime and Izuku Midoriya have just become the first Powermaster duo.

With his new powers in hand, Optimus channels the energies of One for All through himself and into his cannons, firing them directly into Menasor's chest, killing Drag Strip and giving Mount Lady the chance to not just rip one of the combiner's arms off - Dead End, which kills him - and slam it down across the deranged gestalt, but to also thrust her fist into Menasor's chest and crush his spark, killing the Combiner and all the remaining Stunticons as well.

Starscream, driven into a mindless rage at the loss of his ultimate weapon, orders the last of his Decepticons to keep fighting while he attempts to book a retreat, but Thundercracker and Dirge, realising that their base has been completely destroyed and that Starscream is ultimately loyal to no one but himself, abandon him and book a retreat.

Starscream is left on his own, and Optimus Prime offers the Seeker a chance to surrender, to possibly make things right between him and everyone that he's hurt.

Starscream refuses and launches himself into the air, intent on raining down a hail of missiles and null-ray blasts into the remains of the town and the hospital that he had shelled previously, intent on killing every single person there as one last act of spite.

And Optimus and Izuku, having to come to terms with the fact that Starscream has no intention of being taken alive, launches into the air under the power of One for All, Optimus' mechanical body much better at handling the strain of the cripplingly overpowered quirk, and delivers a single finishing punch into the Decepticon, ripping him to pieces and changing the weather around them.

Starscream is killed, and Optimus lands unharmed onto the ground, right before Izuku disengages himself from the Autobot leader and converts from his new engine form back into a human, whilst Optimus shrinks down from his up-armoured body into a more manageable form, having now lost his connection to One for All.

The battle is over and the day is won, and Inko Midoriya later wakes up from her medically-induced coma to see Izuku waiting at her bedside alongside his new friend Ochako, her son beyond happy that she is awake once more, even if she's going to have to live in a wheelchair from now on. However, All Might, upon revealing himself to both Inko and Izuku, promises to take care of Inko's expenses and needs. It's what a good mentor should do for their apprentice.

But later that day, as the Autobots count their losses and can finally begin repairing their wounded alongside repairing the devastated town alongside the heroes (now joined by Bumblebee thanks to their finally repairing the hospital's backup generator), Wheeljack, now no longer needed his Cybertronian wheelchair after fixing their generator, informs Optimus Prime of what happened back at the Ark, and how he had fused with Izuku and channelled that weird power of his. According to his readings, whatever Izuku's quirk is, it seemed to merge with the Matrix itself to empower and upgrade Optimus into that super form of his, whilst also allowing him to channel the strength of said power.

This binary bonding combination, similar to the Headmasters and Targetmasters - to which Wheeljack dubs it as the Powermaster process - is yet also uniquely different, as it had allowed Optimus to use his partner's quirk as well.

If that was correct, then that could mean that if they started looking into the process, there could be an entire generation of Autobots as Powermasters, binary bonded to these humans and given access to their quirks. It could be the real key to not only turning the tide against the Decepticons, but maybe even defeating them as well.

But Optimus is reluctant. As much as the heroes have been a major help to them this last few days, a lot of them have also died, and he has no desire to bring any of them to anymore harm by bringing them into their war.

Not only that, but Izuku and his friend Ochako… they are just children, young even by the terms of their species. He has no desire to see children fight and die in their war.

Let them be. They've been through too much already.

Soon enough, Optimus ends up talking to Izuku, and the latter confesses that he thought winning would feel different. He got his revenge against Starscream, and yet it doesn't make him feel any better. The fact that he took a life only makes him feel worse than before. Optimus imparts onto him that revenge will never bring satisfaction to a person's mind. It will only bring more hurt.

Izuku apologises for his actions. He had almost got himself killed, and he had almost got Optimus and a lot of other people killed because of his actions. Optimus doesn't hold it against him though. He's ultimately the forgiving sort. He simply tells Izuku to remember what he learnt from these past few days, because that need to make things right, and that sorrow that he feels for any loss of life, is what separates him from monsters like Starscream.

Optimus then asks Izuku what he is going to do, and the boy replies that his plans haven't changed. He's still going to be a hero. Optimus asks him if he's sure, as this life can be quite the painful one, but Izuku is undeterred. He knows what he is getting himself into now, and even still the violence and horrors of all that he has seen has not changed his mind. If anything, it has only strengthened his resolution to make sure that something like this can never happen to anyone else.

Optimus, seeing that Izuku is dead-set on becoming a hero, simply tells Izuku to hold onto that dream and that hope, even if it may seem like an impossibility, but to also enjoy the life that he has.

And to never give up in the face of darkness, as there is always the flicker of hope that all sentient beings deserve to have.

And Izuku, encouraged by Optimus Prime's words, thanks him for the encouragement.

Soon enough, the day of U.A.'s exams arrives, only this time, All Might has brought Izuku in as a recommended student, seeing no reason to have him attend the regulars as there are already rumours of him taking part in the chaos that took part in the mountains not too long ago from now, and he no longer sees the need to hide his connection to Izuku from the staff there. Getting shot to bits by giant robots and coming the closest to defeat that you've ever been in years tends to put things into perspective.

There, Izuku is greeted by Ochako once more, now herself a recommended student alongside her other adopted sister, Yui Kodai. The three of them quickly become friends as they share their experiences, and go to take the recommendation exams together.

They pass them flawlessly, and end up getting top marks in the first year's entrance exam in general

(To say Bakugo is unhappy with this is an understatement.)

And later that day, as Izuku and Ochako meet with All Might and the Autobots in their new headquarters underneath Musufatu, they mourn the lives of all those that they have lost, celebrate everything that has been accomplished, and getting ready to face whatever the future may bring to them and test the bonds that they have forged together.

(The biggest theme that would be running through this story is the power of bonds, both amongst heroes and villains, which is primarily expressed through the Transformers concept of binary bonding and combining, and what can be done and made through said bonds.)

However, dark forces are afoot in the background. Megatron and his Decepticon Star Empire are still rampaging across the galaxy, and Thundercracker and Dirge are still unaccounted for. Worse yet, All for One and Shigaraki have found and picked up the missing Soundblaster, as a suggestion from their newest member, a sly-talking robot by the name of Steeljaw...

But there's something else. A darker force moving in plain site. As Ochako and Yui return to the Masters children's home, they are greeted not just by their still-wounded sister Yu, but also by their other adoptive sister Mayumi and their brothers that they'd nicknamed Cancer, Wilder, Bullhorn, Hydra, Buster, and Clouder.

Then, they all depart down the building through a hidden compartment, down an elevator and into the basem*nt...

Where they are greeted by a massive factory, filled with human-sized protoforms of humans being made into bestial Cybertronians, and a dozen full-sized Cybertronian drones being prepared by the last two living Seacons under their care, that being the former Decepticons Turtler and Jawbreaker.

Not too far away from them, the corpses of Fangry, Horri-Bull, Squeezeplay, Doubledealer, Dreadwind, and Darkwing have been converted into their Transtectors.

And then, in the centre of the room, as Ochako allows Browning, her little friend and asset that helped her destroy the Ark, slips out from her side and climbs onto her shoulder, she approaches their adoptive mother and father, Megan Cesone and Giga Yoshida, just as they finish consulting the imposing Decepticon known as Overlord.

They all turn to her, and Ochako smiles at them.

She's in.

And the Autobots?

They don't suspect a thing.