Green, skittering irises scanned the surface of a screen, hungrily scanning for meaningful information to absorb from the plethora of news, gossip sites, and blogs that to which Izuku Midoriya adhered.
Most headlines and articles were simply bland; minor gossip like rumours of a romance between a pro hero and a former vigilante. Others detailed new breakthroughs in research about quirk activation methods... Which while important and interesting, seemed to be extremely inconclusive and irrelevant, with little to no useful applications to heroes or society.
As he stared at the screen, he occasionally noticed his own fingers as they shifted webpages downward a few times. They were still gruesomely scarred, belonging to an old, timeworn warrior who fought with tooth and nail for his life; the very opposite of the nubile smoothness expected of a high school student. Oddly, his left hand appeared to be in better condition than the right, this being due to his left fist being disintegrated and reformed multiple times during his encounter with Overhaul.
It had been a complicated fight; if not for Mirio and Aizawa helping, it would've been over very quickly... And yet here he was, technically benefitting from his near-death experience. The Eight Expendables and the Precepts of Death had been defeated after the brief but brutal confrontation, Eri was safe, and the perpetrators captured— much to their dismay. Most of had really wanted to die for their organization—to go out with a bang that would save their boss.
The Heroes, being heroes, ignored their sentiment, and denied them the death that they craved. A life was a life, and to them, such a life must be saved even if that means beating them it into a pulp and restraining its owner.
Izuku, on the other hand, felt strange. Eri was in recovery, and despite the many frictions with his classmates once the little undercover operation was over, he finally felt like a true hero. Before, he had been attacked, he had saved other heroes, he had fought for his survival and the survival of his fellow classmates. Now, having saved Eri, he could claim to have aided someone innocent, someone who had no way or intent to fight, someone who could end fights, undoubtedly, but she never meant to... It was all involuntarily, a reflex or instinct of her quirk.
In the end, the little girl was safe, and now the most eventful ordeals that he faced were his classes and the occasional set of nosy interviewers. Izuku felt oddly flattered; class 1-A and 1-B were now being interviewed and talked about not because All Might was their teacher, or because Yuuei was a prestigious school! Now, it was because each student who had gone out to the field now had their own little cult following: Fans!
The very idea often left him in a state of hazy disbelief. Even now, pride swelled pert within him as thoughts of saving Eri, appealing to his fans, and laughing whist carrying half a dozen accident victims on his shoulders became dominant within his head.
Unbeknownst to him, his current fit of daydreaming caused his slurred chuckles and boyish blushing to catch the attention of a few of his classmates.
The deadness of the day lent much to wandering eyes; Iida and Momo insisted that they studied, Kirishima, Bakugou, Mina, Sero, Denki, and Rikidou went to the school gyms to train and play -something- in their free time, while others went out to shop or run around in town. Right now, Izuku was alone with Tsuyu, Tokoyami and Jirou, all of whom seemed to be independently distracted with their respective hobbies: books, music, and poetry.
Every now and then, Tsuyu replied to some messages from a friend outside school, before getting back to reading. It seemed she was mostly going through the pages to wait for her friend to reply, really.
Izuku kept scrolling, something caught his eye, mainly because of just how contrived and complicated the article seemed to be.
"Heroes investigate the attack and robbery of the QIRF, suspected connection to vigilante/villain fan base"
According to the article, the QIRF (Quirk information and research foundation) had been recently sent threats, and had their fancy-looking building vandalized. After an online group delivered a particularly specific threat, the foundation had been raided clean, and while no information was "exclusive" to the foundation, what was lost still contained historic and otherwise important records of quirks and the individuals who had them.
A few staff members were found incredibly wounded yet alive the article mentioned "incredibly brutal, savage fighting" somewhere in online groups had begun to take interest in villains and vigilantes—they were famous and revered in a manner similar to Heroes, albeit less often in person. Therefore, anonymous or pseudonymous sites allowed them to interact with fans, especially as of late.
Through his reasoned Izuku recognized the trend as an incredibly popular one. Perhaps a bunch of fans trying to impress a villain? Was this how vigilantes had to try to gain access to information? Where villains using threats and messages to impress and instill further fear before committing the crime?
At any rate, the event was equivalent to a library being raided, most of the information inside it was either too old or too vague, the important quirk data was held in more secure institutions like the pro hero registry and the civilian quirk registry.
"We suspect that this group -who call themselves 'agents of the pact' online- are the same ones who protested against quirk experimentation and research in other laboratories and even medical facilities. We believe at least one of the 4 or so recognized individuals had a powerful quirk." were the closing lines one of the detectives gave to the press.
Many other websites offered places for fans, heroes and communities to flourish, for better or for worse. So far, the league of villains and the Eight Expendables where all in jail, or in some form of confinement! Even all for one! Truly these where the times of peace that would allow a new symbol of hope to rise... Well, he would rise to become the new symbol of hope, in theory.
The fact that a bunch of overzealous fans -he was an overzealous fan himself, in a moment of clarity- took some information from an old archive was likely not something he should concern himself with, and if it became such, Sir Nighteye, Mirio and All Mig- Toshinori would let him know.
These articles tickled many parts of his nervous, if not polarizing and brave self. No part of him could resist geeking out over hero gossip and news, and as a hero in training, any sort of criminal investigation would teach him in some way. Very rarely did something slip by his fine, analytic gaze— whenever he wasn't freaking out over something, that is.
Elsewhere, a similar, yet far less grounded individual mumbled sentences presented to him by his environment.
"Let us be what we are, to be anything else would be fatal."
"Make our blood pact hold against the tyranny."
"Magnificent acts of magnificence."
And lastly... The one which upset him the most.
"We will transcend the very meaning of heroes and villains."
Tomura mulled over the scribblings that street thugs and nobodies had been painting recently all over the street, in tiny papers, in pamphlets…Even in overly ornate graffiti. He didn't know what they meant, but they upset him; he was one of the few free villains in the street, and the fact that some dumb online meme community was having more of an impact than him as of late was just infuriating.
He swallowed dryly and traced his five fingers around a section of wall as he walked by, making the graffiti scrape and flake off like paint being eaten by solvent.
"I will find you, stupid NPC…"
Within a large room dominated by computer screens spoke a pair of individuals, their silhouettes plastered to the room's back wall.
"So uh! What next?" a very petite, peach-skinned girl with tattoos and orange hair asked to a much taller, robed man.
"We already knew where the rats where hiding, why did we have to check first?"
In response, another figure— that of a strange looking man with oversized shoulders whose skeleton, baldness, and apeish stance conflict with one another—chided his smaller counterpart.
"Rats? Do not speak like that of our companions..." The robed man spoke.
Tired and clearly not very energetic, his clothes looked heavy, woven tightly and folded many times over, as if his figure was blanketed by heavy, wet fabric.
"Our siblings abandoned us, we must make sure they arrive home well and healthy." he stated following heavy sigh.
The many screens in the room made it hard to see anything—to hear anything. About 20 or so individuals were present in total; all watching, typing, talking, listening. Eventually, one of them broke the cacophony in an attempt at putting some order in the chaotic reunion. She wore purple-rimmed glasses and kept her red hair in a bun; a formal look if not for the few bits that the low, changing lights allowed the eye to see.
With a gentle adjustment of her glasses and a snap of her fingers, all heads turned to her, and all sounds went away. Most of them were used to her abilities, but some still groaned from being forced to pay attention.
"While I appreciate our flexible schedule and eagerness to spread our mantra to the world, I do believe we should make a move sooner rather than later." she briefly explained and pointed her fingers to the large, robed man.
"Thank you, Adavina" he replied, placing his hands to the shoulders of the petite, orange-haired girl and to the large, bony man.
"Amensis and Felhid... " He began to explain before a red-hooded, masked man leapt out, alongside a tall... Thing, which seemed to be following him closely. Its gender was difficult to discern; metal was grafted in many places and its general shape, while human, was very gruesome. Leather-like skin and profusions of bulging organs and metal inserts permeated its shape.
As if indifferent to his appearance, the white-masked male owner to which the ghastly frame belonged interjected roughly.
"If bloodbag and brittle bones are going, I want to go too! Ya know? Aren't we supposed to be a squad? The whole 'body of the pact' or somethin like that?" he grunted.
Reflexively, the tall, metal-grafted creature grunted in ascent. Bands of barbed metal plating covered its face and mouth, thus guttural sounds were its only response option.
The girl -Amensis- and the skeletal, bulky man -Felhid- stared at the two others, clearly not pleased with their intrusion but at least Amensis seemed happy that they would come along.
"Oho! More people to make a mess with! You know what I like, Mori!" She giggles and somewhat eagerly punches the white-masked male in the arm, in a friendly fashion
"Won't this be Overkill? I accept working with my peers, but all of us? Even just Ghele could scour the area clean." placing his heavy-looking hand on the shoulder of the metal-grafted being.
The tired, robed man laughed slightly "I think you three should make a good display of our power... Be ready, study the enemy and await for our signal."
With this utterance and twirl of his fingers, his robes began to fold and twist, seemingly compressing into a single spot, and with a flash of light, his clothing became a small cube of metal which he held in his hand.
"Very well... The blood, flesh, bone and humor." he pointed to the four individuals "Will be the ones to try and intercept my brother and stop his little escapade." he announced to the whole 'court' before dismissing them, the conference room was still very much full even as they left to get ready.
"Ada, do we have everything ready for the broadcast?" He asked her... It was easy to assume she was very much a secretary "we do, my dear brother... "
AN: Let it be known that this is the very first ever that I actually write down into a site... most of my works are private and shared with silly links to folders... So this is me going "public" so to speak.
The story takes place a while after our heroes confront the eight precepts and Expendables, unless the canon changes by the time I write a particular scene: nobody is dead, people are in or about to be in captivity or free just as in canon, and Eri Is safe in a rehabilitation center.
There are no pairings as of yet, and while I have a ship or two I want to include, I am simply terrible at realizing who works with who besides "it makes sense" so, any suggestions will be welcome.
I will be writing characters who, by design or characteristics, will likely be very graphical, provocative, depressing or outright offensive, this is meant to cause anger in both our protagonists and the reader, but I do not intend to offend anyone by doing this, you have been warned.
This first episode was mostly a test of my own writing skills, so if grammar or formatting sucks, let me know! English is not my first language and even if I feel incredibly dumb at times when people correct me, I want that, I want to learn and improve! So any feedback or criticism is welcome.
Any observations that you, the reader makes, will be taken into account as this fic progresses, let me provide an example... If someone comments about how x was mentioned and found it curious, then that thing will either be also noticed or ignored by the characters.
Consider this some form of experimental writing, if you see an evil dude being evil in the background, commenting and analyzing will affect the outcome of his evil plan.
I do have a whole plot planned out, and it is very flexible and branching in terms of possibilities, hence why I wanted to explore my own array of ideas with the reader...
So if you want a ship, tell me and I'll work it in if it makes sense, if you think you figured out the villain, comment or message and I may tell you a couple secrets, the readers will even decide what happens to some characters when they are defeated, or in which order the fights take place.
So yeah, if this catches your eye, please ask, comment, speculate, guess... Anything like that!