This story is inspired by a couple of things, mainly the first fic I did, called Kaiju. The other is the book Project Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson. Originally my plan was to rewrite my first fic, but then I saw the new Godzilla movie and thought I'd give Nemesis a bit more publicity as the American Godzilla. If you read Project Nemesis you will notice some obvious differences to the character, but nothing that is too major, there will, however, be some changes to other MHA characters. Also, the beginning of this story takes place just before the events of the canon story. Anyways, I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 1: Monsters
In this world, power was everything, it was also something that Kaito Endo was missing. He was a quirkless ten-year-old, a being that would normally flounder in such a state, but Endo didn't care. He had his mother and his step-father, who was rich beyond belief, he didn't necessarily need a quirk. Endo had never lived with one, so it was hard to imagine his life as a quirked hero, which was fine by him.
Endo was on the elevator up to the high rise apartment he lived in, on his way home from school. His Super Sentai backpack was clutched in his tiny hands, both filled with excited energy, he and his mother were supposed to go to the pier today. Endo loved the pier, his grandfather had taken him there numerous times before his death, it was like his Disneyland.
Endo approached his apartment's numbered door, placing a card against the electronic reader. A slight click noise could be heard as the lock disengaged and he walked inside, preparing to remove his shoes, but before he could, a smell permeated his nostrils. It was coppery in nature, like a penny. A small voice in the back of his head told him to run and get help, but that part of him was too quiet to overpower his concern. Endo stepped into the living room, revealing a horrific scene. His mother was laid out on the floor, her head had a hole in it, brain matter and blood spilling from the wound.
Standing above her was Endo's step-father, "She killed herself Endo." There was no emotion in his voice, it was like a robot had spoken a pre-programmed line.
"No! You killed her!"
His father shook his head, "No Endo, she killed herself… but not before she killed you." He took the woman's hand in his gloved hands, using her finger to pull the trigger on a gun laying in her open grasp.
A shot rang out and the bullet buried itself deep in Endo's stomach, pulling him to the ground. Blood leaked from the wound as his eyes closed and he passed into unconsciousness.
Five Years Earlier
Chizome Akaguro(Stain) was tired of this world's heroes. They used their fame and power to better their own lives. They were nothing more than glorified celebrities and that pissed him off. He missed the days where you could look into a tree and see a caped man pulling a cat out of it, it was such a pure act. It made him sick to think that this was how humanity carried on that legacy, but it wasn't like he could do much about it, he was quirkless. So instead of becoming some sort of vigilante, he joined the army, the only thing he could really do to become a true hero. But everything changed when he fell into that hole.
He had been in a routine exercise, well at least it was for Japan. It was a glorified version of Hide & Seek. There would be several teams of two, with one large team of hunters, who were permitted to shoot you on sight with BB guns. Akaguro had already been up there on that snow-covered mountain for two days, living on rations beside his teammate, Hekiji Tengai.
"Come on rookie! Move your ass or else we're fucked!"
Akaguro growled at the treatment he was receiving from his "veteran" partner but said nothing and only picked up the pace.
"THERE THEY ARE!"
A BB suddenly whizzed by the rookie's face, causing him to dive to the side, pulling Tengai with him. They slid down a snowy slope, tumbling over roots and each other until suddenly they dropped at a sharp angle and their backs impacted with a stone floor. The two hiders looked up, realizing their luck as they saw how insanely hidden the entrance to this cave was. It was a one in a million that they had fallen in at all. The entrance was nothing more than a small slit in the ground, covered by vast amounts of snow after their tumble.
They moved only slightly into the cave and waited until they could hear the hunter team move on from the area. Tengai finally let out a breath and chuckled, "Well done rookie! In a place like this, we could hide for ages! Rations should last quite some time too!" Then he pulled out a high powered flashlight scanning his surroundings and a scream rang out from his mouth as he scrambled back up the cave entrance and ran all the way back to base camp, but Akaguro didn't move, because he saw something of value in that giant face that stared back at him.
"This is where you found the creature?" General Sachi inquired. His frame was that of a tank, he was built to fight from the looks of it. Whether it be from a strength enhancement quirk or just pure training.
Tengai feebly nodded as Sachi began lowering himself in the hole, "W-Wait General! Are you sure you want to go down there?"
"It took me four hours to get here, I'm not just going to look at a hole in the ground!" Akaguro followed close behind the general, wasting no time. "You two are the only ones who saw this correct?"
"Correct."
"I'm gonna need you two to come with me after this is done."
Tengai fell on his butt as he reached the cavern floor, "C-Come with you? For how long? I have family here."
Sachi seemed to consider something, "What about you Akaguro? Got any family?"
The rookie was staring right into the eyes of the decaying monster, "No, I am yours."
The statement was a little too personal for the General, but it was just what he wanted to hear. He removed his handgun from his waist and offered it to Akaguro, who took it, confused. That is until the General motioned to the back of Tengai's head, which was a bit ahead of them, oblivious to the interaction. Akaguro looked once more at Sachi for permission, as if he was a child about to eat a cookie before dinner. He received a nod and with no hesitation put the barrel to the back of Tengai's head and pulled the trigger.
Present Day
"I AM HERE!" The voice of the number 1 pro hero All Might rang throughout the lab of Aika Yaoyorozu. It was another news report on the latest and greatest deeds of the hero, but to her, it was just background noise.
"Aika!" General Sachi's shout overlapped with All Might's, but he actually pulled away the scientist's attention. "Any progress on organ production?" His voice actually seemed lighter than usual, maybe he finally got a girlfriend?
Yaoyorozu sighed, "No, the fetus grows normally, but as soon as we cut it open to harvest, everything turns to mush."
"Hmm, then I want you to use this." He pulled a vial filled with clear liquid from his pocket, "This should do the trick."
Yaoyorozu hesitantly took it, "What is it?"
"That's none of your concern."
"Well, I can't use it if I have no idea what it is."
Sachi turned up his nose at her defiance, "I thought you were here to make progress. Isn't that why you escaped your father's clutches the way you did? So you could be better?" Before she could answer, he spoke again, "If I'm wrong then I can just always have Akaguro show you out."
"No!" Yaoyorozu cleared her throat and more calmly responded, "No, I'll use it, right away."
"Excellent. The birthing chamber is already prepped with your next subject and everyone except yourself has been sent home." Sachi walked away without another word, leaving Yaoyorozu to breathe out a sigh of relief. Here at Argus, they worked on many projects that would be considered illegal in most parts of the world, but chief among them was the cloning experiments. Argus was hoping to clone humans with no brain activity in order to create an endless supply of fresh organs, after all, healing quirks had a limit. So far, however, she hadn't had much progress. She knew that if she didn't produce results soon, Sachi would send the ninja-like Akaguro after her and she would disappear like all the others who had failed.
The birthing chamber was nothing more than a circular room with a glass tube in the center. The tube, quite obviously, held the clones for Yaoyorozu's failures, but maybe this one would be different. As she submitted the clear liquid into the cloning process, she could help but shiver. Whether it was from fear or excitement, she would never know.
"A villain spotting?! Is it All For-"
"Calm down Toshinori, it's just a suspected hideout, we want you and Eraser to go in and see what's up. After all, he is one of the few who know your secret." This was Detective Tsukauchi a close friend to All Might. But the All Might that sat before him was not the one the public would recognize.
He was skeletal in nature, his eyes were dark sockets and he resembled nothing of the huge body of muscle that would take down villain after villain. A sigh escaped his deflated body, "Good. Where is this hideout?" After an intense fight with a villain, he had been permanently damaged and he could no longer maintain his muscle form for longer than several hours at a time.
"The Aokigahara Forest." Tsukauchi pulled up a picture on his phone, "It's an old decrepit military building that went out of use a couple of decades ago. Shouldn't take you two long at all."
"Has Eraser been notified?" A nod answered his question. "When do we leave?"
"As soon as you are rested."
All Might stood, "Well then!" His body enlarged, "Evil never sleeps! And neither does justice!" About two seconds later, he shrank back down to his normal size, his nose gushing blood.
"Just rest for a while, currently all we know is that the facility is guarded by villains, so far they haven't done anything that requires immediate action."
"But they could be doing something. Look there's a cabin up there, I can travel up with Aizawa and rest there for a little."
Tsukauchi sighed, "Well, I suppose I shouldn't expect anything different from you of all people, just be careful out there. You never know what could be waiting up in those woods."
"H-How long has it been growing for?" General Sachi's voice was one of shock.
Yaoyorozu checked the time, blinking her eyes rapidly, she had barely looked away from the specimen now growing from the tube, "About 48 hours."
"Is this possible?"
"I don't know… it shouldn't be with our tech. It must be because of whatever you gave me." Yaoyorozu stared at the body curled up in a fetal position in the tube, he was at least 18 years old physically, but mentally he was still brain dead.
General Sachi began walking the perimeter of the room, inspecting the body, "Who is he?"
"Uhhh… Kaito Endo, his mother apparently shot him before committing suicide. Endo laid in a coma for two weeks before passing away and we got his DNA as a result. There's also some ongoing investigation with his fath-"
"What is that?" Sachi pointed at something Yaoyorozu couldn't see, so she got up and walked around to the behind of the clone. "Are you asking me to stare at his ass?"
"No, just above it… what is that?"
Yaoyorozu leaned in, "It's just a bump, but I can get a closer look with the RC."
"Do it." The tiny yellow submersible popped free of its charging harness on the wall and moved through the clear liquid to the clone's rear. The camera stationed on it gave them a zoomed in image of the bump. General Sachi pulled out glasses, squinting at the screen, "Are those… scales?"
"That's not even mentioning the tail."
"The tail?!"
"The bump. It's a vestigial tail. A very rare percentage are born with them, but since they serve no purpose, they're usually surgically removed."
Sachi nodded, seemingly relieved, "So it won't affect the heart?"
"No. Why specifically the heart?"
He ignored her question, "Get a sample of the clone." When she hesitated he gave her an icy stare, "Take a sample." A small needle emerged on the RC and Yaoyorozu began moving it towards the bump, but it suddenly stopped. "What's wrong?"
"The needle stopped." She pulled back the RC for a run-up and then drove it forwards, plunging the needle into the clone, which flinched violently. Yaoyorozu fell out of her chair and Sachi just clutched at his chest as he grabbed at a pill bottle in his chest pocket.
"I-I thought it couldn't feel anything!"
"It shouldn't! It's still brain dead!"
Sachi dry swallowed three pills, "Then what the fuck was that?!"
Yaoyorozu pulled back the drone and typed in a few things on her workstation, "Could be some leftover nervous system response. The readings do show a complete lack of brain activity."
"Good, how long until it's ready to be harvested?"
"If my calculations are right, about 2 hours."
Sachi grunted, "Akaguro is preparing the surgeons to transplant the heart."
"For you sir." It wasn't a question.
"Yep, this disease took everything from me. I can't run, I can't get excited, I can't fuck." Sachi gave Yaoyorozu a hungry glare, "You're going to give me those things back."
Yaoyorozu had to repress her urge to shiver, something told her Sachi meant that last sentence for two different things.
"Five different villains spotted, all ex-military." Eraserhead, the Erasure hero was reading from a tablet, listing all the quirks of the villains they knew about. "This doesn't count the ten non-powered ex-military guards."
"Should be no problem for us."
Aizawa gave All Might a look, he was driving the car in his skinny form, "Not like that."
"I only need a few hours to recover."
"Well then you can catch up when you're ready, I'm not waiting to take them down."
All Might looked over at his supposed partner, "Then if you're not waiting for me, I'll just come with you. I still have a few good punches left in me."
Aizawa just sighed and pulled a handgun from the backseat, "Take this."
"What? Why?"
"I'm not going to spend my time looking after you, but I also know you'll come whether I protect you or not. So take the gun."
All Might nodded, "I can't take it right now, unfortunately, I must keep two hands on the steering wheel at all times."
Aizawa grumbled something about righteousness and continued to go over the details of the facility.
1 hour and 55 minutes had passed. In that time Endo's tail had grown considerably, while his fingernails and toenails had seemingly turned into claws. The General, however, paid it no mind and instructed her to prepare the clone for surgery.
Yaoyorozu personally removed Endo from the slimy tube and set him on the gurney. She covered his body with a sheet, making sure the tail and the claws were hidden. She wasn't sure how much the surgeons knew about what they were doing here, but she knew it wouldn't look good if they saw the deformities.
5 minutes later she rolled the body into the surgery room, where Sachi laid on a table, his chest exposed to the ceiling. Three men in scrubs surrounded him, "We'll take it from here."
But Yaoyorozu shook her head, "I want to see it for myself."
They nodded and immediately began carving into the clone. A T-shape could be made out through the red lines. Yaoyorozu thought they were a bit rough, but figured it didn't really matter, he was already dead.
A cracking noise filled the air as the ribs were snapped open and the chest cavity was exposed. Yaoyorozu held her breath as she saw a beating heart, expecting it to deflate or turn to mush, but it stayed perfectly normal. The surgeons nodded to General Sachi, who smiled and addressed the lead scientist, "Well done Aika, you'll never again have to look over your shoulder for Akaguro ever again." He nodded his head at the corner of the room, where a nearly invisible Akaguro emerged from. Scaring Yaoyorozu beyond belief.
The surgeons finally put him under and gestured at the body still remaining in the room, "You can take this out of here if possible, we no longer have any need for it."
She nodded and grabbed the gurney, noticing the silent assassin standing guard over his General, ready to instantly take care of the surgeons should the need arise, but he ignored her and for a brief moment she felt a surge of calm. She was safe.
The morgue was cold, as it always was, but this time it felt even colder. She pulled off the sheet covering the rest of Endo's body and made a startling discovery, his chest was covered by a hard black substance. She poked at it, it was a solid as a rock. The logical part of her brain registered it as an unknown and she went to grab a set of gloves.
Unbeknownst to her, a black, trident tipped tail, rose up behind her, its tip aimed right at her back.
Well, there it is, the first chapter of Project Academia. I realize a lot of the characters that are from canon seem different, but I had to make them a little off to fit the story. Anyways, for those wondering, this will eventually intersect with the canon events. I just have to set up the origins of course. Hope you all enjoyed reading! Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated if you care to leave a review!
