Iron Fire Reforged
Chapter 1: Useless. Rigged Up.
Song of the Chapter: I'm Gonna Win by Rob Cantor.
A.N: This is based on Iron Maiden, but with a totally quirkless character. A certain character I wanted to rework again, Sido Todoroki.
I was four when I found out that no one was created equal. Everyone had a special power called a quirk in my family. Ice, Fire, or in the case of my twin brother, both. I was a failure from the start, my hair was mostly white, with a paint-like spatter of red on my left side. My eyes were a beautiful smoky orange.
I never really was a stand-out kind of person, of course, I had my own problems, the fact that I was a night owl didn't help. I was working hard on a little passion project of mine as my mind drifted back to the past. I was building my way to being a hero. No powers? No problem!
All that mattered to my father though was my power. Or lack thereof. It all started when I was five.
"Sido, show me your power," Father instructed, sitting across from me as I concentrated, holding a kettle. My mind was racing as I tried to will it to boil.
"At least make it freeze, Sido…" he sighed.
"I can't… I can't…" I sniffed, tears making their merry little way down my cheeks.
"What?!" Father growled, his flames igniting harshly as I flinched.
"How dare you mock me! Get out!" Father snarled, tossing me out like trash.
I ran to the one person who saw me as a person at the time, my mother.
"Mama! Mama!" I sobbed, burying my face into her shirt as she held me.
"Sido… Shh…" she crooned, nuzzling me gently as I cried harder.
"A-am I a failure, Mama?" I blubbered.
"No! No, you're my boy… you and your brother aren't failures!" she encouraged.
"B-but… I wanna be a hero…" I huffed shakily as Mama kissed my forehead.
"You will, Sido. Without a quirk, you can do amazing things… your father is just disappointed," she said gently.
That word kept ringing through my head, Disappointment…
Cut to today, and I had only one way out, one way to escape, and that was through a computer where Stark Industries ran a history site based off of their famous CEO, Tony Stark. I would spelunk through the site, drinking in information and writing down meticulous notes to try to make a suit myself. There was an A.I based off Stark himself. I had drawn blueprint after blueprint, determined to become a hero no matter what it took. I checked the clock.
'Four-thirty in the morning yet again…' I thought, smirking as I stepped back to admire my handiwork.
"Hey Tony, bring up that speech I like, please," I said.
"Sure, I'm bringing it up now," The AI said robotically.
The video was after another successful day as Iron Man, Tony was standing above the reporters, his hair had gone gray as his beard was starting to. His eyes held warmth and wisdom in them, this was a man who I admired more than my brother admired All-Might. He was so… human, real, and so approachable from what I could tell.
"Mr. Stark, what do you think about the 'Quirk Generation' and their rise to normalcy?" a reporter asked.
"I think they don't know what being a hero is truly like, all they know is that they have power… back in Afghanistan, I didn't have power. All I had was an electromagnet in my chest and one hell of a grudge. I had to build to be a hero, and that's all you really need, you need to build instead of being born with it," He said, his calm and crisp voice and laid back smile made my heart calm.
I replayed that video more times then I care to count, Tony Stark was my hero. Not All-Might or any of the others, they have power. I just had my brain and a lot of time on my hands. I welded the armor plates together on my first suit: The Iron Rig. It looked like Tony's first attempt (What I could replicate with a welding torch and old sheets of pounded metal anyway.) with more of his mark two and less of mark one. I also made some sort of stable concoction from an array of so many chemicals Marie Curie would have to close up shop. So many brave hairs lost their lives in the line of duty...
Anyway! I didn't have the time for an arc reactor, so I settled with the next best thing! A car battery!
Then, one morning, I saw my computer was already on and whirring softly as it was on the site again.
"Huh? What're you doing on?" I asked.
'I probably left it on after a long night of tweaking the rig again…' I thought as I plugged it in. I left the room.
"I've found him…"
In school was where I was mostly annoyed by the others. I just wanted to stay low down and quiet as I adjusted my glasses. It was during class, and today was the day where we turned in our sheets for what we wanted to do in the future. I was nervous as I handed in mine, walking slowly as I imagined a noose around my neck as I marched on.
Momo walked over to me, "Sido, is everything okay? You've been antsy lately," she said, concern in her tone. She had beautiful black eyes, as deep dark pools and hair pulled back into a spiky ponytail that bobbed up and down as she walked. There was something else about her… the fact that she could literally send me through a few feet of cinderblock with a small encouraging slap to the back made me like her because she knew she could.
But she didn't.
I felt something else when I was around her. Like there was some sort of electric field around her. She had a more mature body than most girls in our grade, but I liked that she was so carefree about it. She was real instead of being fake. Laughing, smiling, holding my hands sometimes just to help me keep up with her. Momo was taller than me, to the point where she had to lean down slightly to make eye contact with me. She had a longer stride, too.
But God save your soul if you get her mad.
"Uhm… I'm fine, Momo," I sighed.
"No, no you're not," She huffed.
Momo's look of pity and concern made my blood boil a bit. Why was she so kind to such a useless guy like me? Of course, she was always a worrier. 'Did you do the project?' 'Did you eat?' 'Did you sleep?' It was a little annoying, but knowing that she cared about me was what helped me through all of those dark times.
"I wanna pay you back for all these years of kindness someday!" I vowed as Momo giggled.
"You're so serious for a machine-head!" she teased, slapping me on the back as I was almost launched from my seat.
"Oops! Sometimes I don't know my own strength!" she chortled as she smiled at me.
I realized that maybe… she liked me for being me. I grinned sheepishly.
"It's okay, Momo! At least it wasn't the Baseball Incident…" I sighed, we shall never talk about the incident, thank you very much!
"I know you're all third years, you all wanna become heroes, right?" Our teacher asked.
The rest of my 'peers' raised their hands and roared loudly. I pitifully raised my hand up to my eye level, sheepishly smiling.
"Hey… seems like Sido wants to go to UA like Yaomomo!" One of the others crowed, pointing at me. The other students laughed in a loud roar.
I flinched as the laughter of the others drowned out my hearing. All I heard was my father's voice, my mother's voice, and the laughter.
"You're useless! Get out of my sight!"
"I can't raise them anymore!"
No.
"Those without power are lazy and not good for anything!"
"Why didn't you stop him?"
"Heroes are born! Not this fantasy that they were built!"
They're wrong.
"So what?! Sido is more of a person than you all could ever be! Quirks don't matter! All that matters is the passion and hope in one's heart to make that change!" Momo retorted, holding her hand out to me.
I took her hand.
That was the epitome of our relationship so far. She would take my hand and I would follow. Sometimes willingly, sometimes reluctantly. Today was one such day of willingness.
Momo smiled, "C'mon, Sido, there's something I want to show you!" she cheered, dragging me behind her as we exited the school, as it was the end of the day. My mind started to whirl as I noticed more things about her. Her cute downward slanted eyes, her subtle grin, and her strong grip on my hand. Her hand was warm and comforting. The adorable way her ponytail was bobbing around with every footstep we took made my brain go crazy again. The red-orange sun accentuated her whole face and body. That wasn't the motivating factor though… she was my friend! Momo treated me like I existed… and that's why I liked her… I wouldn't call it love yet.
She led me to an old warehouse near the train station, "I found this place a while back! I do a little bit of urban exploration in my free time," Momo explained, opening the door as light spilled into the dusty confines of the warehouse. Spiders and moths darted and crept among the shadows that the rafters spilled throughout the weak packing crates and tarnished metal containers. It smelled of intense dust and looked like it wasn't touched for years.
Momo took a deep breath, "Mmm… take a whiff of that must! Man, I thought my Papa- ACHOO!" she sneezed.
"Bless you!" I said, seeing an array of boxes and cabinets along the walls.
I went to a beat-up metal cabinet with scorch marks on it. Someone must've tried to burn it in the days of yesteryear. I nervously reached out to the charred handle. It was rough in my hand, I opened it with a little showing of force. It wasn't too damaged to where I couldn't open it.
Momo watched as I opened the cabinet, a rack slid out with a set of clothes hanging off it.
"A set of clothes? Weird…" Momo huffed, an expression of confusion on her face as she stepped away to rummage through something else.
I reached out and touched them.
"Huh… seems like some sort of silky fabric… but in some places it's tingly…" I surmised, my mind going on overdrive as I beheld a certain logo.
"Holy… holy hell…" I breathed as my eyes locked on it.
It was the logo for Stark Industries. Completely unharmed and still a cheery white.
"Momo! Come look at this!" I called to her as she was rummaging through a packing crate. She fast-walked over, her odd perfume of mocha and some sort of other sweet confectionery wafted over to me. She took a closer look as my brain barely registered what she was doing. All my pubescent brain could register was: Girl, close, scent nice, MATE? I could feel her body so close to my little bubble.
"Sido? Sido? Si-do?!" her voice called, her hand waving in front of my face.
"Huhwha?" I blurted as she smiled down at me.
"C' mon, Machine-Head, let's get out of here!" she chuckled, her subtle grin back on her face as she grabbed my hand and dragged me along back to my neighborhood. My neighborhood was a collection of small and old houses. All built when my brother and I weren't even a thought in my family's minds. Brick and stone, wood and metal.
"It's not every day that you find a Stark Industries warehouse just hanging out unnoticed in the middle of a bustling city, I'm glad you were so willing to come with me!" Momo was positively glowing with happiness as I found myself making a weird expression.
"What's up? What's with the weird face?" she asked cautiously.
"N-nothing! It's just… just… uhm…. Bye!" I choked out, dashing back to my shed in my back-yard. Fuyumi was probably at a meeting or something, otherwise, I'd have seen her.
I pushed the door to my shed open, being greeted by my suit. It was made of pieces of pounded steel that I lightened up with my odd compound. Apparently, it made the suit almost snow white and the steel look like extra shiny chrome. I smiled as I opened the suit and stepped in as it closed around me.
"Okay, take a step!" I coached myself along as I listened to the music being pumped in to motivate me. I took a step, and another, and another.
Falling too fast to prepare for this
Tripping in the world could be dangerous
Everybody circling, it's vulturous
Negative, nepotist
Everybody waiting for the fall of man
Everybody praying for the end of times
Everybody hoping they could be the one
I was born to run, I was born for this
Whip, whip
Run me like a racehorse
Pull me like a ripcord
Break me down and build me up
I wanna be the slip, slip
Word upon your lip, lip
Letter that you rip, rip
Break me down and build me up
Whatever it takes
'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do whatever it takes
'Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains
Whatever it takes
You take me to the top I'm ready for
Whatever it takes
'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do what it takes
Always had a fear of being typical
Looking at my body feeling miserable
Always hanging on to the visual
I wanna be invisible
Looking at my years like a martyrdom
Everybody needs to be a part of 'em
Never be enough, I'm the prodigal son
I was born to run, I was born for this
Whip, whip
Run me like a racehorse
Pull me like a ripcord
Break me down and build me up
I wanna be the slip, slip
Word upon your lip, lip
Letter that you rip, rip
Break me down and build me up
Whatever it takes
'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do whatever it takes
'Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains
Whatever it takes
You take me to the top, I'm ready for
Whatever it takes
'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do what it takes
Hypocritical, egotistical
Don't wanna be the parenthetical, hypothetical
Working onto something that I'm proud of, out of the box
An epoxy to the world and the vision we've lost
I'm an apostrophe
I'm just a symbol to remind you that there's more to see
I'm just a product of the system, a catastrophe
And yet a masterpiece, and yet I'm half-diseased
And when I am deceased
At least I go down to the grave and die happily
Leave the body and my soul to be a part of thee
I do what it takes
Whatever it takes
'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do whatever it takes
'Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains
Whatever it takes
You take me to the top, I'm ready for
Whatever it takes
'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do what it takes
I smiled, gradually knowing that I was ready for a test run. Oh, how wrong I was.
"Activating jet mode… ONLINE!" I yelled, shooting out of my shed's open roof.
"WAHHHHHOOOOOO!" I whooped as I flew over the city too quickly to land safely.
I knew where I was gonna go, I heard that my father was battling some villains nearby. What better way to stick it to him than to do his job for him and do it even better? The only problem was that I wasn't gonna land prettily. I was too excited to test out my new suit to even think about that… I jump the gun WAY too much…
I slammed into the pavement with a not too graceful bellyflop… I laid there, propping my head up.
The villains and my father looked at me in shock as I looked up at them.
"So… who's first?" I mumbled. I was woozy. I was also glad that I had my armor on. I got up, standing before them as the newly reborn Iron Man!
Enji couldn't believe his eyes, a hero from an age of quirkless just fell out of the sky in front of him. He landed as he'd never been in his suit before.
'If Yagi were here he'd be fanboying… what a pain.' he thought, taking a closer look at the man in armor. He had gotten up and started to fight.
'This isn't a quirk! He's inexperienced too!' Enji thought, watching the Iron Man fight the villains as he rested up. The man used a technique that involves a lot of the technological aspects of the suit, or exoskeleton… Mainly his fists and rockets.
In fact, it looked like the man wasn't a man at all, rather a kid. A child would be using his powers like he found his parent's gun.
Sido fought with his metal sheathed fists, batting the villains back as the crowd cheered and roared, one of the villains was a giant horse-headed man that was terrified, not only did ENDEAVOR come for him but IRON MAN, too! That was a real kick in the teeth for the poor horse-headed giant.
"GET AWAY!" he yelled as Sido was swatted aside, his helmet careening off towards Enji. He slammed into him as the Hell-Flame Hero caught him. Enji turned Sido towards him. He left the horseman to the other heroes to clean up. He needed to show his son the error of his ways.
When I came to, I was in the arms of someone I didn't want to see again, but my bravery came out at the worst of times.
"Sido? What were you doing there?" He asked, cradling me. It was my father, and I noticed my armor was off. I the only piece of armor that was on me was my gauntlet on my right hand.
My father's fiery beard was extinguished as he took a deep breath.
"I'm disappointed in you, Sido… I thought you gave up this foolish dream of yours to… build your way to being a hero, this armor is a mockery of what heroes stand for." he sighed, his azure eyes holding kindness in them. I stood back up.
"Shut… the hell up! All you're saying is hypocritical! You don't know the first thing about being a hero! All you know is that you shattered the lives of all your precious children! You're the pretender here!" I snarled at him. My bravado was masking my fear.
His face went from confusion to rage, "HOW DARE YOU, YOU USELESS BOY! HOW DARE YOU PLAY AT BEING A HERO!" He screamed in my face.
I felt a deep-seated fear worm it's way back into my gut as I quickly raised my now active prototype repulsor. Panic rose in my chest as he stood up and reignited his flames.
He then proceeded to burn my armor to an absolute crisp. After he was done, I fell to my knees.
"NOOO! NO!" I sobbed, crawling forwards. My dream was gone, all turned to ash as the only things left of it were the helmet and the gauntlet.
"This is why I should've never had your mother fill your head with all of that wishy-washy 'anyone can be a hero' bullshit!" Father yelled, whirling around to see me desperately trying to hold on to anything from the neck down.
He pulled me away as I grabbed my helmet from him and he put me outside.
"Go home and give up, Sido. That's not a request, that's an order," he growled.
I staggered back to my house, I was numbed… it was all over. I walked to my shed, holding the helmet like a child and clenching and unclenching the remaining gauntlet. I looked around at all of the plans, the diagrams, and the charts and the tools… All useless now. I looked on the screen of my computer, seeing the site open again. I closed it and shut it off.
I touched the scar on the left side of my face, feeling the pain all over again. I was useless… a failure…
All because I wanted to be a hero…
Tears started to stream down my face as I bent over my work table, my shoulders shaking from the emotions I was feeling.
Loss
Sadness
Regret.
All three of them seemed to stick their hands into me and manipulate me. I only had one photo of everyone together and I took its frame up in my hands.
I brought it up to my chest, "I'm sorry…." I sobbed as I took off my gauntlet and clunked the helmet on the work table.
I put the photo back as I noticed that my sister was home. I left the room and turned off the lights.
"Fuyu… you won't believe this… sit down," I sighed as she patched me up.
"How did you get so many bruises and cuts?!" She ranted, adjusting her glasses. She was yet another worrier. Her longish white and red hair looked more like it was streaked throughout. She looked exactly like my Mom. She sternly glared at me as I took a deep breath.
"I… made a suit of armor so I could be a hero. I finished it today and thought that it'd be fine to test it out with a villain attack where father was… I got knocked out and he brought me to an empty warehouse down at the docks. He and I had an argument and he ruined most of my armor except for a gauntlet and the helmet. I give up, Shoto can go be a hero," I sighed heavily.
Fuyumi grabbed my shoulders, glaring at me with her deep gray eyes, "Look at me, Sido. This is your dream… so don't give in! Tony Stark never once gave up, he was a hero in and out of the suit! I've seen how your eyes shine when you work on your suit! You have to do that, you have to make that armor again, and make it better! Don't let his words force you to change! You're a hero already, I can tell you're doing this for more than just us. You're doing it to prove that even quirkless can be heroes again, right?" She encouraged me to try again.
"Now get some sleep, Sido, see you in the morning," she said with finality.
I washed myself off, free of the dirt and grime, looking outside to the shed. I saw a small white and blue light in there.
I dismissed it as nothing and got into bed.
Dreams of being a hero flooded my mind again. I just wanted it all to stop already… Out of everyone in my family. I was the useless one, the horse with no eyes, the black sheep, and the failure. Then, I remembered what my sister said, that I could remake the armor and make it better...
My mind drifted back to my first meeting with Momo. I had to find the root cause of these odd feelings I had for her. Every time she would grab my hand, my heart would thunder in my ears as my breath quickened, my hand would grip her's firmly and my lips would stretch into an involuntary grin.
But why?
Why did I start to love her? I always said I liked her a little more than a friend.
After today, I started to feel something odd. A clenching in my heart, an ever-encompassing need for her to be close to me. I don't know if it's the puberty talking or what, but I needed her.
I fell asleep, seeing nothing but that soft blue light in the shed.
I hid behind my mother's leg, I hated going to these things… I was five then.
"Sido, go play with the others, okay?" Mom asked.
"Okay, Mama…" I shyly mumbled as I scuttled over to the other kids. I just found out I was quirkless, so I just stayed away from the others, cuddling my Iron Man plush to my chest. How ironic that I was to become another Iron Man.
I saw so many kids with so many cool quirks, and then… I bumped into someone.
"Ouch!" I grunted, Iron Man, flying from my hands.
"Oof! Oh! I'm sorry!" Momo cried as I got up.
"HEY! Watch it!" I snapped, scooping up my Iron Man and glaring at her.
"Sorry! My name is Momo! My quirk is Creation!" Momo greeted, back then she had her hair in two short pigtails. She wore a poofy yellow dress as I hugged my Iron Man to my chest.
"My name is Sido… I-I'm… Quirkless," I responded, fully expecting Momo to gasp or run away or even both. Other kids did that, so why would she stay?
She just smiled, and nodded, "I'm guessing Iron Man is your favorite hero? Mine's Spider-Man!"
I smiled, "Iron Man doesn't need a quirk to beat up bad guys! He's got his armor!" I whispered as I saw Mama talking to a woman who was pale with long black hair and glittering blue eyes. That lady was Momo's mother, and she looked almost like a doll. They looked up at us and waved.
We waved back as I followed her around like a lovesick puppy. Momo and I had fun that night, chasing each other and exploring. That night I found a lifetime friend.
Tony sat on the desk chair, peering at the helmet and gauntlet.
"The kid's got some baggage… but, he's got things to prove and things to lose," He sighed, passing his hand through the helmet and gauntlet, seeing some complex wiring and not too shabby metalwork.
"He's good… Not a bad design at all!" Tony muttered, smirking as he looked at the photograph of Sido and his family.
"Shame he has such a shit dad… destroying his own kid's chances to become what he dreamed of all these years? Getting all of the materials and making his own compounds? Working on this for months and months and months, only for his bastard of a dad to destroy it all on the first day? That's the father of the year for ya!" Tony ended with a sarcastic comment.