Come here, sweetie…

Hold mommy's hand…

Early morning sunlight filtered through a thick and tinted window, hitting Izuku Midoriya's face as he woke up. He blinked the sleepiness out of his eyes and yawned. He used his arms to push himself up from the bed, having slept stomach-down, and began to stretch himself. First, there were his arms. Then, his neck and shoulders, followed by his back and his jagged dorsal plates, running all the way down from his nape to the tip of his 1.5-meter long tail. He began to scratch himself, along both his skin, his scales, and the places where scales became skin and skin became scales.

He lazily checked his personal at-home smartphone. The day was Wednesday: he was required to go to school. He didn't want his friend Kacchan to go through with his promise if he were to not go to school at least four days a week.

Getting out of bed, he made himself some cereal and turned on his television set. As he watched the latest Hero news, he ate with one hand and took notes with another, using his tail as a leverage and a third appendage. After that, he brushed his teeth, took a shower, and put on his underclothes.

Before he could put on his middle school uniform, however, he had to pass through the thick, lead barrier between his apartment's reception area and his living area. After putting in a special code, part of the barrier opened up, revealing the back of one of his overly baggy and bulky hazardous materials suits. They were a chore to put on, but necessary if he were to go out into the world and interact with people. First came came the very restrictive mask that made it hard for him to breath and impossible for him to eat, followed by his special tail harness and dorsal-fin protectors. Next, he gingerly put on his padded gloves, making sure not to make even the smallest rip with his talons. The boots came on next, each on making a strong thud noise on contact with the ground. Finally, he put on his ugly grey-and-yellow bodysuit.

All set to go, he closed the part of his barrier that was open, put in another code, and stepped into the reception area, where his bag, school uniform, and not-at-home flip phone were waiting for him. He put them on, grabbed his house keys, shut the barrier completely, triple locked to make sure everything was secured, and slowly opened the door.

He breathed filtered air, in-and-out, unable to take in the smells of life. He couldn't smell car exhaust, cooked food, or flowers. He couldn't smell whatever his neighbours would've cooked, had they still been living in the apartments adjacent to his. He couldn't smell his friend Katsuki's, or Kacchan's particular brand of cologne, which he knew was from the same company his parents worked at. He could hear his gruff grunts, though. He could also see him waiting outside his door, completely uncaring about things other than making sure his friend goes to school.

"Hey, shut-in. 'Sup. Close that door and let's get to school, Izuku."

He opened the door to his class.

When he was approaching the door, he could hear it. The sounds of a lively classroom, kids talking to each other and joking about life and their grades and whatever they wanted. People talking to friends and being friendly, even if only to their own cliques and in-groups.

The moment people saw him and his hazmat enter, however, all the talking stopped. It was quiet to the point you could hear a feather hit the floor.

He made his way to his desk, near the back of the room, on the same side as the door and not near the windows like Katsuki Bakugou's desk. He put down his bag and sat down, ignoring the black marker that defaced his desk all over with insults and comments and threats. He didn't care about any of it; he had more important things to worry about.

Kacchan, though? He wouldn't let it go. When he saw that Izuku's desk had graffiti on it, he stomped over from his desk, cutting through the room and standing in front of his friend. His teeth were bared, and he was snarling like a rabid animal. His palms exploded with fury.

"Who're the assholes that did this?" No one came forward. No one raised their hand. The only sounds that could be heard were Katsuki's heavy breathing and Izuku's exasperated sigh. "None of you? What, was it the fairy fucking godmother? Come on, you fuckers!" He punctuated this with an explosion on another student's desk. "You got the balls to do this shit to Izuku's desk right here, but none of y'all have the balls to face me for it! Get out of the crowd, or I'll find you myself. Believe me, you won't like the fact that I had to waste my precious time and effort to track down which scumbag did this."

The silence in the classroom was thick enough to shatter iron. Everybody in class knew Katsuki, as much as he wanted to be a hero, was a dangerous element to get angry and volatile. He was like a stick of dynamite- light the fire, and prepare to be blown up. Everybody also knew that he was a fierce friend of the class weirdo, Izuku. The middle schooler was an easy target to pick on, largely due to his general apathy about it, but he was also a dangerous one just because he was the mouse riding on the back of the lion.

Still, it wasn't fair the entire class had to be the ones cowering in fear just because a couple of assholes decided to write on Izuku's desk.

"H-hey, anybody see who did it?"

"I didn't it- I got here just a couple minutes before those two."

"I walked in right before those two!"

"Hey, I came in here thirty minutes ago. That mess looks like, I don't know, an hour's worth of insults and a couple black markers."

"That's not my handwriting."

"Those were there when I got here."

"Well, they aren't my words, and I was the first one here this morning!"

"So, was it someone who stayed after last night?"

"You don't think any of us would've broken in, right?"

"Hey, someone did that over there. There's probably-" A hand smacked against one of the tables.

"Fine! I did it!" It was a student that was tall for a middle schooler, with a generically mean face and a head with a wicked multicolor hairdo. His bat-like wings flared out from behind him as he stomped up to face Katsuki, his face a nervous snarl. "It was me, bitch! I was the guy who wrote all over Deku's desk."

"...No."

"Wha-" He was roughly grabbed by the collar. "What are you on about?"

"That ain't it. This wasn't done by just your scummy hands alone. Now, tell me who else did it, and I'll leave you with only a few marks. Stay quiet, and you'll have to take care of full-body burns."

"Why should you care, anyway? Why do you always have to be Deku's attack dog, huh? Hell, half the class ain't sure that freak's even human- never takes off that hazmat suit! What ugly mug does he have to hide under all that shit, anyways?" The Explosioneer threw him at the nearest wall, and picked him up again to slam him a second time.

"You know the fucking reason."

"Even more reason to call Deku a freak! Seriously, how can Deku be a Hero with a Quirk like his? It's useless to Heroes, like a paper doll in the rain! It'd be better if he was Quirkless, that way we wouldn't be in any trouble at all! I, for one, am glad Deku ain't trying for any sort of Hero course. It's better for all of us if that useless trash stays away from all society!" He received a fist to the nose.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! You have no right to call him by that childhood nickname, dammit! I'm gonna-"

"Do nothing, Kacchan." Everybody's heads whipped around to look at the boy in the hazmat, still sitting at his seat, his first-period textbook already out and in front of him. "Class is about to start, and that means our teacher's going to come in soon. You're aiming to get into U.A.'s prestigious Hero course, right? You haven't gotten into much trouble here at Aldera, but assaulting another student is going to affect the likelihood of your acceptance into U.A. If that happens, Auntie Mitsuki's going to be very worried about you. She and Uncle already have a lot of problems to worry about, so just ignore him, Kacchan. It's better that way."

"Kuh…" He looked back at the target of his ire and rage, who looked like he was about to break into a grin. "If you smile, I kick your balls." He let go of him, and cooly walked back to his seat. He gave Izuku a worried look as he passed by.

When he was younger, Izuku was a very helpful boy. Always opening the door for strangers, always trying to help some old lady cross the street, those types of things. He was kind, gentle, and just wanted to help people.

That attitude may or may not have been because of his fondness for Heroes, who used their Quirks, their superpowers, to help the people. Granted, there were people who only wanted fame and fortune from being a Hero, but Izuku usually tried to ignore those jerks. No, he focused more on those people that actually wanted to help, reading news articles and watching videos with his mother, Inko Midoriya. He would've watched them with his father, but Hisashi Midoriya was often overseas, working hard for Inko and Izuku to send them money. So, he was mostly left with his mom.

Izuku Midoriya spent loads of time with his mother. He couldn't sleep alone in his bed, despite all the nightlights and bedtime stories he was given- he had to sleep next to mommy. He also refused to shower for himself, instead getting his mother to bathe him and clothe him. He spent so much time with his mother, and so much time being a young Hero nerd, that she often knew more Heroics trivia than everyone else in their apartment complex, and sometimes in the Bakugou's apartment complex.

Now, Katsuki's interactions with Midoriya were different than everyone else's interactions with the broccoli boy. Unlike many other young kids who met the curly-haired cinnamon roll, Kacchan wasn't annoyed with all of Izuku's rambling-ons and such. In fact, while he didn't talk as much, his own explosive voice and personality made him as vocular as the green bean. They quickly grew into close friends, often playing 'Heroes" together with other kids in the streets and playgrounds of Mustafu, Japan. They were- and still are- close friends, inseparable and willing to do whatever it takes for the other.

For example, the side-effects of Izuku's Quirk.

His Quirk showed up less than a week after Katsuki's Quirk first manifested. As it turned out, Izuku's Quirk was a bit of a mutation. When kids are born with the ability to have Quirks, their Quirk is usually one of three things- their mother's Quirk, their father's Quirk, or some combination of the two that creates a new Quirk. However, like the Glowing Baby that had the world's first Quirk, mutations and other oddities can happen in genes.

When Izuku woke up one morning when he was four to see his lower arms, lower legs, upper back, and tailbone area covered in dark green scales, talons instead of nails, and a tail, he was very surprised. As it turned out, it was a gene that Hisashi's father had passed on to his son, failed to show- or, since it is a Quirk, activate- in Hisashi, and then showed up in Izuku. It was a simple Mutation Quirk that made Izuku be similar to a Komodo dragon- strong jaws, tough claws, hard scales, and good terrestrial and aquatic ability. That was the oddity.

The mutation affected the other parts of his Quirk. He sort-of inherited his father's ability to breathe fire, as well as his mother's ability to attract small objects, which combined with his Komodo-esque genes to make him a fire-breathing reptilian guy that could absorb heat to power himself up. That's what teenage Izuku theorized his Quirk would've been had it not been for the mutation, which basically replaced anything having to do with heat or fire with radiation.

He could breathe radiation and absorb it, alongside his reptilian qualities. Little Midoriya was very pleased with his Quirk, especially the absorption part- think of all the accidents that he could help clean up with that ability! He could even do it from the water thanks to the Komodo in him. He and his family were happy with the power he had, and he showed it off to Kacchan and his family. The two even had begun little sparring matches with each other, using their Quirks to attack and defend and stopping before it got too out of hand. He refused to spar using his radioactive breath, though- didn't want any complications from hitting Kacchan with a beam of radiation, after all.

16 months after his Quirk manifested, at the age of five-and-a-half, Inko Midoriya was diagnosed with cancer. 28 months after his Quirk manifested, at the age of six-and-a-half, Inko Midoriya passed away.

Izuku suspected that it was he himself that caused his mother's death. His Quirk dealt with radiation, so him being a walking carcinogen wouldn't be too far fetched an idea. Oddly enough, it was an isolated incident; tests and scans revealed that Izuku's classmates and teachers, as well as the Bakugou family, were largely cancer-free, with a few being labeled as "at-risk" for the dreaded disease. Try telling that to a young boy who lost the person he was closest to.

Izuku contemplated giving everything up- his dreams of becoming a Hero and saving others, his home, his father, Kacchan- and running away, hiding somewhere in the wilderness or something. He might try to stow away on a ship headed for somewhere like Antarctica, or just swim there himself. One of the Dawn-Era Heroes he knew of was a person who got stronger as he got angrier and gave off huge amounts of radiation himself; he hid himself in a cave for decades before people found his remains and gave him a proper burial.

It was only because of his father and Kacchan that he dropped the idea to seclude himself somewhere far from civilization and his family, but it came at some conditions. He wanted to be left alone in a place in designed to keep radiation from leaking out as much as possible, and if he had to go to school- the agreed amount was at least 3 days every week when there isn't a break- he would get hazmat suits. They even managed to get some equipment installed into the Midoriya apartment, such as separate reservoir to keep his potentially-radioactive water from contaminating Mustafu's water system. They managed to get a contract with a specialized company to clean off his suits and return them to him every other weekend, as well as dispose of the water, trash, and everything else- they'd even clean school uniforms for him. Hisashi could barely foot the bill with his work overseas, but they managed to find help and funding from a charity organization calling themselves "All for Everyone."

And so, Izuku willingly trapped himself in his anti-radiation bunker, his self-imposed prison cell. Here, he let his thoughts and feelings fester, like a wound that just won't heal or get better in any way. Days pass in self-resentment, years pass in increasing antisociality. His continual silence cause more and more of his peers to ignore him or antagonize him, with only Katsuki being a true friend to him and somewhat grounding his sanity- what could his overseas father do? But friendship and his father's best are only strings holding him to a cliff.

He hates himself. He doesn't believe he can ever go down the same road he wanted to years before. He wants to give up Heroes entirely He's a weak mind, corruptible, and inching closer to heading down a dark road that could leave him not as a Hero, but something else.

Destruction.

As soon as Izuku exited the school, he headed left and saw it- a manhole. He went straight for it, knowing all eyes are on him, and removed the covering.

This is how he gets home: he wades through the sewer system. Well, he doesn't wade through the ick, but the waves of sludge are high enough that they sometimes spill over onto the walkways lining the sides of the sewer pipes. It's fine for Izuku, though- it ain't radiation, but he's developed a tolerance for the waste. It was something he had to get used to if he wanted to avoid people on his way home. He would do it on his way to school too, but Kacchan would have none of it- he knew Izuku would go straight home after school, but he didn't trust that Izuku would make his way to school on his own without trying to stall for time or sneak back home. He wasn't wrong to be wary of his friend, as that urge was always at the back of his mind.

His tail swished behind him as he walked, kicking up some dust and cleaning some cobwebs. Something was off- he could feel that he wasn't the only thing down there, disregarding all the rats and insects. No, there was something else down here with him- something around his size, if not a little larger.

Rounding the corner, Izuku saw what it was he was sensing. It was a mass of metal, vaguely in the shape of a dog. It had the familiar four-legged stance and elongated snout of a dog, but that was it. The legs ended with singular hooks and wheels instead of paw pads and claws, and the muzzle had a single large flashlight instead of a mouth or nose. From below the light, which glowed sakura-pink, a tube was extending into the sewer water and siphoning some of it. After a few seconds of this, Izuku saw the metal straw rescind back into the muzzle of the robo-dog. Slowly, it sauntered off on its little wheels.

Izuku, intrigued, decided to follow it. He'd be fine- he knew these sewers well enough that he'd find the ones that led him back to the manhole outside his apartment complex. He followed the mechanimal through twists, turns, and sludge. They strolled through the muck before he eventually saw some natural light. They were heading for one of the sewer system's exit grates, built to allow large machinery to enter the sewer system in case the city needed it; they were rarely opened, but they did see use and upkeep. The dog was heading for one- it was probably too big to fit into the manholes on the surface, so someone let it in there.

His curiosity was stalled when he saw the obvious shadow of a person outside the gates, likely the machine's owner or something. Of course he wanted to know what was going on here, but he didn't want to involve himself with another person, especially since he just waded through the sewers. After a few moments of deliberation, Izuku turned tail and headed home. He was fine with doing that- he needed to do his homework, anyway.

His encounter with that machine will change the course of his life forever.

A/N: From the plot bunny that refuses to be silenced, it's a new fanfic!

This came up while writing Fighting Spirit chapter 16, and I couldn't focus without getting this idea out of my head.

This one will be very sporadic with its updates, so be patient about that and all.

For reference, my mental image of the robo-dog here looks like the Scrappers from Horizon Zero Dawn but with the Watcher's head in place of the Scrapper's... uh... "mouth." If you have a different image, though, use that if you want to.

And, to those who don't get it or quite understand, Izuku is like a little Godzilla, a Godzilla Junior if you will. Maybe even a Minilla- mini Godzilla. I don't have any plans so far to include other characters with kaiju-like stuff, but if I will, I'll try to add them in as side characters. Maybe I'll even have to make a third Hero class... shelving that idea for later.

In any case, see you guys next time. Bye!