Hello! Welcome to my story in the metro! I have a thing for video game AUs, you see. First off, I'll just clarify a few things here that I think I wasn't able to do so in the story itself;
- Military Grade Bullets, "Shiny Bullets", or just "Bullets", are the currency of the metro.
- The non-monetary and only made for shooting type of bullets are called "Dirty bullets"; they're made from repeatedly reused bullet shells, and use gunpowder that's not very good quality.
- Other stations have taken up ideologies, which created factions such as the Fourth Reich (Nazis), the Red Line (Communists), etc.
- Bandits and mutant creatures are a common problem.
- The italicized text before the story itself are Izuku's inner monologues about the chapter. In the game, a monologue occurs every level about the protagonist's thoughts concerning said level and I felt like replicating it to give it a more "Metro" feel; I dunno if it's working, though.
If you have any questions, you can leave a review if you'd like!
Now with that out of the way, enjoy this.. thing.
It is the year two-thousand thirty-three, and it has been approximately twenty years since World War Three erupted in two-thousand thirteen, which was a nuclear exchange between all of the nations in the world. Due to the war, which lasted shortly but ended with great effect, a nuclear winter fell all over the world as a result of the sun being blocked out by whatever debris the nuclear exchanges brought up. The exchanges started in the Middle East, then the rest of the world followed, notably the United States and the Russian Federation, who primarily nuked each other to nothingness.
Here, in Russia's capital, Moscow, the metro system served not just as a transportation system, but as a fallout shelter as well in case of a nuclear attack; the depths of most stations and their hermetic doors classified them as such. As the exhanges took place, thousands took to the metro for shelter, but it could only accomodate so much; the unfortunate majority who could not be accommodated had to face the wrath of the nukes.
Now, the shell of former Moscow lies in ruin, coated in snow and radiation. The Dead City, as everyone calls it, is now a shadow of its former self. And if someone dares to venture up to the surface from the metro, if it's not the radiation that kills them, the mutant creatures, a deadly result of the radiation, will do so.
It's just another day in Polis, and I'm getting bored already. Shouto keeps on bringing down many new things from the surface, and I have my hopes up that he'll bring something interesting soon. I've also been hearing from Iida about caravans being attacked by a lone bandit, and that's diminishing my hopes of getting anything new here. If I'm lucky though, perhaps Shouto's latest batch of stuff might have some nice things in them. Mister Kuzmich has also been peppy for the past couple of "days"; I wonder why.
Izuku Midoriya happened to be one of the not-so-many tourist children that ended up being born in the metro when the bombs fell; in his case, he's of Japanese descent, and was born two years later in Teatralnaya Station, where his parents took refuge. He has not heard of his parents ever since, like most of the tourist children.
Though sometimes he wonders if his parents stayed in Teatralnaya and became communists.
His current home station, Polis Station, composed of Moscow Metro stations Arbatskaya, Alexandrovsky Sad/Alexander Gardens, Biblioteka Im. Lenina/Lenin Library, and Borovitskaya, is regarded as "the last bastion of humanity" since here, prewar knowledge such as the sciences, the arts, and so on, are preserved. Said knowledge finds little tp no significance to the other stations in the metro, who have put their own survival first over the preservation of cultural artifacts, so Polis took it upon themselves to do so. This mega station's white marble walls, ornate, bright chandeliers, and grand, Soviet sculptures allude to the prosperity and power of the people who were able to take shelter here, which are mostly government officials, businessmen, scientists, and teachers. The station is so revered for its purpose that no one dares to attack it.
The station also happened to have a caste system, and having just turned eighteen, Midoriya had to choose one of four castes to base his future on; The Shudra, the station's servants. The Vashiya, the station's merchants. The Kshatriya, the station's standing army. And the Brahmin, the station's preservers of prewar culture and knowledge; Midoriya chose being a Brahmin, since knowledge suited him well compared to serving, selling, or shooting.
As his everyday routine, he's goes to his workspace at Arbatskaya, and for the day, he's tasked with sorting out the new arrivals of prewar books that the Stalkers have brought down from the surface; his workspace is nothing too fancy, just a wooden desk with the occasional papers and pencils strewn about, and a clipboard where he's tasked to catalog his findings.
Midoriya sometimes thinks of being a Stalker; brave individuals that scour the surface for materials that the metro may find useful, whether they are pre-war books, weapons, or spare parts, and bring them back. The daredevils are commonly praised as selfless heroes for their actions, and can even earn a good living out of it. The life of a Stalker, however, has a high risk of death due to the radiation and the mutants on the surface; Midoriya also tends to be a bad shot, so he puts the thought away for another time. The thrill of adventure and exploration calls to him at times, however.
Midoriya snapped out of his daydreaming as he saw his job on the floor; a cardboard box full of books. He brought the box up his desk, and tied off the rope that held it together. On opening it, he was awestruck; the box was full of prewar comic books, most of them being superhero comics. A certain comic book struck his eye however, a red and yellow one of the All Might series, yet it was in Russian; his Russian sucked since he was taught more of English and his native Japanese by the local foreign community that he was raised in. He could have someone translate it for him later, so he set it aside, yet giddy at the prospect of reading the newfound treasure.
Then a buzz from the intercom beside him startled the boy."Hey, Midoriya! How's the sorting going? Kuzmich wants the catalog ASAP!" a female voice sounded from the wall-mounted intercom beside Izuku's desk, startling the latter. Izuku pressed the red button on the intercom, and spoke. "I just got here, Uraraka. At least let me start." he replied wearily.
"Alright, alright. At least they're not having you lift up junk. It's nice to help and all but I don't want to get sick again." his friend Uraraka said back among the background noise of machinery on her end. "Just get to cataloguing the stuff. Comic books, amirite? You love that stuff a lot." she added.
"Yeah, I do. Just, take care, Uraraka." Midoriya then let go of the intercom's transmission button and looked at the All Might comic book to the side, smiling. "You too Midoriya." Uraraka replied seconds earlier. As soon as he's done gawking at the comic book, he started bringing out each book one by one, and wrote down their titles and authors on the clipboards. Izuku counted about fifty books, and he sighed at the long day ahead of him.
At least I have something to look forward to tomorrow.
The following "day", which Midoriya thinks is the next day since timekeeping became irrelevant in the metro, he stayed around his room in Borovitskaya and read his translated All Might comic. Being a quirkless person, he found himself lucky that he could even have a room whereas most of the people lived in tents, ramshackle housing built along the pylons, or nowhere. He even has a position in the Brahmins to boot, whereas most quirkless persons found themselves kicked out of the station or served as something even lower than the Shudras. He had been very busy proving himself that even a quirkless person like himself can find some purpose in the metro, which bore fruits. Midoriya also found a few friends along the way;
Ochaco Uraraka; a Shudra whose gravity quirk found good use in the construction and fortification projects in Polis. Uraraka helped Midoriya with some crates that needed offloading on the platforms and they kicked it off from there.
Tenya Iida; a Vashiya whose speed quirk found use in distributing materials across the station, and also for procuring materials to sell. Iida was impressed with Midoriya's perceptiveness and intelligence and that's when they started interacting.
Eijirou Kirishima; a Ranger of The Order who is occasionally stationed at Polis if not called to duty somewhere. His hardening quirk found great use as a barrier against the mutants, bandits, Nazis, and Reds of the metro. Kirishima constantly greeted Midoriya on his way to work, so he thought of making small talk with the friendly ranger and they became friends.
"Shouto"; another Kshatriya who is a Stalker that frequently made trips to the surface. His fire-and-ice quirk is a force to be reckoned with by people and mutants, with said mutants avoiding him entirely thanks to it. Midoriya is the one who calls in and accepts Shouto's deliveries, which familiarized the two with each other. The stalker was quiet and stoic at first but thanks to Midoriya's persistence and him being the generally nice person he is, Shouto started talking to him. Midoriya never got to see his face however, since he's always wearing a gas mask.
Suddenly, heavy knocks sounded on his door, breaking his attention from the comic book and his thoughts with a little yelp. "Midoriya. Mister Kuzmich wants to see you 'ne-med-len-no' as he puts it." A voice spoke from the other side, which was Iida's. Midoriya calmed down at that, and was thankful that it wasn't the rent guy. "Okay Iida! Just a second!" Midoriya put the comic away gently and fixed his clothes, a simple white t-shirt with a green jacket, a pair of rather overused jeans, and red sneakers that Shouto found inside a house in the surface and gave to him as a gift.
Midoriya exited his room and locked it with his key, and met up with his bespectacled friend who stood near the railing. Once Midoriya got close, Iida started walking and the curly haired boy followed. "Hello to you too Iida." Midoriya said as he walked alongside Iida, making their way through the crowded hallways to get to Kuzmich, their boss, at Borovitskaya. "Did he say why he wanted to see me?" Midoriya asked Iida as they now made their way down Arbatskaya's non-functioning escalator to Borovitskaya. "Mister Kuzmich said that he has a task for you that should be told in person." Iida replied robotically, to which Midoriya has gotten used to. "If you say so."
Once the two got down to Arbatskaya, they spotted Kirishima talking with another blonde ranger who has an odd black streak on his hair. Midoriya waved at the redheaded ranger, and he momentarily tore his attention from his fellow ranger, waved back at Midoriya with a smile, then went back to talking with his comrade. Iida noticed. "Ah, you know Kirishima as well? Good fellow. Skilled in combat as well." the bespectacled man stated. Midoriya nodded. "Mmhmm. He's very nice, but I haven't seen him fight, though." Iida responded with an "ah" and they went down another flight of escalators to reach the platform.
Once down at Borovitskaya's platform, they met up with Kuzmich, a gruff and bearded man who looked like he drank too much vodka everyday and lived. Midoriya had his share of mean bosses but he's so grateful that Kuzmich isn't one of them. "Ah, there you are, boy." he turned his attention to Iida. "Spasibo, Tenya. You may go." Iida bowed quickly and walked back up the escalators.
Midoriya stood in front of Kuzmich, and he rubbed the back of his neck out of nervousness. "What is it, sir?" the man went up to a crate and started fishing for something out of it. "You see, Izuku, I need you to go up to surface and validate some-" Kuzmich was cut off by a startled yelp from Izuku, who was eyes wide. "M-me?! Surface?! T-this is too s-soon! I won't l-live long up there! I-" On realizing that he's suddenly rambling quite frantically, he shuts himself up, covering his mouth with his hands. A few seconds pass before Kuzmich spoke again. "Allow me to finish. Up there is Lenin Library, and people say there is vaulted room there with documents about secret bunkers with many useful things! I need you to go there and validate. One has sent me document from there as proof but it is about sleep experiments. Gah! Useless. I do believe there are good documents there. You can validate, yes? You analyzed military documents with Bourbon before, no?" With his eyes still wide, Midoriya nodded with much fervor, and pouted a little at the memory of Bourbon.
More like he made me analyze and do his work for nothing. I don't like him. What kind of name is Bourbon anyway?
The sound of Kuzmich clapping his hands once snapped Midoriya out of his thoughts. "Wonderful! You leave tomorrow!" then Kuzmich finally manages to fish out whatever it was he was getting; a bottle of mushroom vodka.
Midoriya, however, was not leaving without any further information, let alone a companion for tomorrow. "I can't go without an escort! I'll die! I-I know it! What am I even getting m-myself into there?!" Midoriya exclaimed not-too-loudly at Kuzmich, who was downing the bottle already and looked dizzy. "Ah? Ah, right. Of course. I will ask ranger or stalker to help you. But tomorrow! Info tomorrow too! Go now." Then the man shooed him away and he drank from the bottle again, tipping it all the way down to his mouth, then he started blabbering nonsensical Russian shortly afterwards.
Midoriya began walking back to his room, leaving Kuzmich and some technicians alone to his rambling. Once he's up Arbatskaya's escalator, he spots Kirishima again, this time just standing around and gripping at his Kalashnikov; the blonde ranger was not with him.
I don't think Mister Kuzmich will remember to ask. I'll just ask for myself, as usual.
He sighed at his flashbacks of the drunk old man. The man is nice, but rather too carefree at times, so most of the time Midoriya had to take matters into his own hands. And so he approached the redheaded ranger, who recognized him immediately; there was only one person with curly green hair and red sneakers in Polis. "Oh hey there Midoriya. How are you?" Kirishima asked Midoriya cheerfully. He noticed Midoriya's distraught expression immediately, and sought to pat him. "What's up?"
Midoriya started fidgeting with his fingers, nervous. "Well, Kirishima, my uh.. boss told me that I have to go up to t-the.." he gulped down a heavy lump on his throat, which seemed to worry Kirishima. "..S-surface."
The two stayed silent for a few seconds until Kirishima's laughter started to resound all over Arbatskaya Station, which earned him a few onlookers. Midoriya could not believe that Kirishima was laughing at his predicament. "W-wow! You actually got me worried there for a second! Haha!" Midoriya continued looking at him in disbelief. "W-why are you laughing?! It's the surface! Y-you should be worried!" the curly haired boy exclaimed loudly, which earned the two more annoyed onlookers.
Kirishima patted Midoriya on his back to ease him up. "Sorry, sorry! I'm a ranger, Midoriya. I ain't scared of the surface." Midoriya continued looking at him with shocked, wide eyes. "Alright, alright. What about it?" Kirishima asked, no longer laughing. Midoriya went to clear his throat with a cough, and started speaking. "Can you accompany me up there? I'm supposed to go to this place called the Lenin Library." Kirishima looked contemplative. "I-I'll pay you eighty bullets!"
Kirishima was struck out of his thoughts by Midoriya's statement. He was about to say something until he saw the curly haired boy's wide, pleading eyes, reminiscent of puppy dog eyes. "Please?" Midoriya pleaded; Kirishima stared at the boy's pleading eyes, and wanted to say yes at that, but his commander won't be so happy with him doing things without his permission first. Still, the redheaded ranger could not handle the cuteness. "Look, I gotta check with Colonel Melnik first. If I can, I'll go with you, alright buddy?"
Midoriya smiled at Kirishima. "Okay." the ranger then patted the curly haired boy on his head, practically ruffling his hair. Then Kirishima's radio piped up. "Hey, Kiri. The colonel wants to see you. Like, now." a voice spoke from the radio. "Would'ya look at that, hehe." Kirishima grinned at Midoriya, then he spoke back on his radio. "Nice timing, Kami! Alright, I'll be there ASAP!" he replied.
The other voice sighed. "Alright bro. Later." the radio cut off afterwards. Kirishima playfully punched Midoriya on his shoulder as the other continued looking at him. "Okay, I gotta run! See ya tomorrow, Midoriya!" And with that, Kirishima jogged away. Midoriya sighed in relief and continued his way back to his room, passing through a crowd that were observing the proceedings of the Polis Council. Back in his room, he opened his safe, where he realized that he only has fifty bullets, and his next payment wasn't due until the next batch of catalogued books; he started cold sweating.
How am I gonna pay Kirishima?!
Thank you for reading! This and the next chapter have nothing shippy yet, though; just atmosphere setting-up. Katsuki will appear in Chapter 3, if that's any consolation.
