Are you guys getting your PMs? I've messaged a few of you, but I have yet to receive a response from anybody.
Anyway, here's the chapter that's going to change this story henceforth. Let me know if you were expecting me to do this. I've been planning this out since about day two.
In lieu of their victory, and upcoming camping trip, the students of 1A decided that a trip to the mall was in order. The break from both hero and night work was definitely a must for Midoriya. After everyone else split up to look for things they wanted, it was only Midoriya and Uraraka left.
"What are you looking for? I'm hoping to find some heavier weights to up my training," Midoriya asked her, innocently enough.
"I mostly just need bug spray. Gotta keep those pest away!" she said, before taking off.
Midoriya furrowed his brows and tilted his head. That was sudden.
But, even though he was left alone, he could still use the breather. Sometimes, being around his classmates was exhausting.
"Oh, it's someone from UA, nice," said a voice. It wasn't uncommon for people to notice them in public.
Midoriya tried to find who the voice belonged to, but it looked as though he found Midoriya fist. He was clad in a black hoodie, which was pulled over his head. Suddenly, he draped his arm over his shoulder. "You were the one that got beat to hell at the sport's festival, right?"
Is that what people remembered him for? Not the robot, or the quick thinking, but the match between him and Todoroki?
"Uh, yeah," he answered.
"Aren't you one of the students who ran into the Hero Killer in the Hosu incident, too? You're practically famous."
Something was off. "You sure know a lot about me."
"What can I say, I'm just a big fan of yours. I can't believe I'm running into you again."
Warning bells started going off in his head. "It makes me think it might not be a coincidence."
Midoriya's eyes looked upwards, and he knew exactly who had his arm around him. "No, no, this feels like it's destiny."
His hand moved upward, then onto Midoriya's neck. "Oh, right, from your point of view we haven't met since the attack on UA." And that was over two years ago to Midoriya, so it was no wonder he didn't recognize him at first.
He made eye contact with Shigaraki. "Why don't we spend some time catching up, Izuku Midoriya?"
He didn't have much choice. "Act natural, don't make a scene, I'm just an old friend who ran into you at the mall. I think we should have a conversation about where you've been. Of course, if you try to run or fight me in any way, well it will be fast. Soon as all five of my fingers touch your neck, your throat will be the first thing that disintegrates. In a matter of seconds, you'll be nothing more than dust and powdered bone."
"A hero will catch you if you do something like that," he replied. As threatening as the man was, he didn't hold a candle to Caesar.
"I don't doubt that. But, after you, I could kill twenty, thirty, maybe even more before a pro showed up and managed to stop me."
"Okay, I get your point. Let's talk,"
Shigaraki chuckled. "Isn't that nice? Follow me slowly, we're going to sit down and get comfortable."
Shigaraki led them to a bench. Sitting there made Midoriya anxious. He had both his pistol and his plasma rifle with him, but any kind of movement would have easily tipped Shigaraki off.
"So, Kurogiri told us that you had been to a place not quite on this earth. It's a pretty shitty place, I have to admit. The air stank, the people sucked, and the creatures were absolutely dreadful."
"So you've given the old Mojave a visit, huh?"
"Enough to hear stories about you. Even in a world like that, and you still wanted to help people."
"What's this all about? You want me to give you a grand tour of Shitland USA?"
"No, I just thought you might have some insight. You know, about some of the creatures there. See, they have this great big potential. They can easily kill people here, don't you think? And there's no repercussions, no jail time. Just good 'ole fashioned monsters."
"What-"
"Deku?" a female voice said. No, that was Uraraka.
Fuck. Just as she started to notice who Shigaraki was, he let go. "It's too late anyway," he said. Two portals opened up in that instant. One took Shigaraki away, the other introduced something else.
There, in the middle of the mall's courtyard, stood the mother of all beasts. A deathclaw, one of the worst things he could have ever hoped for. Midoriya's Geiger counter in his Pip-Boy started making small ticking noises.
Shrill screams filled his ears just before the deathclaw let out an earth-shaking roar. Most of the civilians had enough sense to run away or take shelter. Uraraka, however, was frozen in place. An easy target, which the deathclaw spotted immediately. It was about to swing at her, but Midoriya threw himself in front of her. Just like before, its claws sunk into his chest. Still, he didn't have time to concern himself with it.
"Deku!" she shouted.
"Get back!" he replied. He snatched a stimpak from his bag before jamming it into his chest. Then, he grabbed the rifle from the bottom of the bag. He designed the folding element so that an easy flick extended and locked each part back to its original size. Then, he loaded the rifle. All of that took only a couple seconds, so by the time that the deathclaw rose its claw to strike again, Izuku was ready.
One shot to the chest caused it to stagger. It didn't do too much overall damage, though. The belly was probably the best place to aim, since it was the deathclaw's soft spot, but a head shot would do just as much damage with a plasma rifle.
He lined up the head of the deathclaw with his sights, then pulled the trigger. It took a few shots, but eventually the beast fell to the ground. Its massive body cracked the concrete beneath it.
"Deku, what was that thing? And what is that thing?" Uraraka asked. First she'd gestured to the deathclaw, then to his weapon. Nobody else seemed to be around, except for her. There was pure fear in her eyes. It wasn't something that Midoriya ever wanted to see.
He folded up the rifle before shoving it into his bag. If Uraraka had to witness something like this, and if Shigaraki had access to whatever was in the wastes, then it was probably time to start offering up some answers.
"A deathclaw?" the officer asked him. First and foremost, it was difficult to convince the officers that what he had killed was not, in fact, a person. In such a vast society filled with many different kinds of people, something like that could have easily passed for a person. Of course, the radiation and DNA testing proved him right eventually.
"Yeah, that's what everyone calls them. I think they're evolved from chameleons"
"And you think the league of villains has access to these things?" he asked again. The police officer seemed nervous. Deku couldn't blame him. He didn't like the idea of deathclaws being here either, but that wasn't even the start of their problems.
"Well, yeah, but that's certainly not the only thing. Raiders, radscorpions, nightkin, and even cazadores are within their grasp."
"And…what are those things?"
"A raider is someone who kills people to get what they want, instead of bargaining. Radscorpions are like scorpions, except large. Nightkin are…well…big, mutated people who are very mean and are kind of dumb, who are also masters of camouflage. A cazador is if all of God's wrath was stuck into a huge wasp. And that's not everything; there's a whole wasteland of creatures and people that he could use."
The police officer swallowed hard. "Is there a particularly effective way to defeat them?"
"You mean besides killing them? No. It's best to shoot on sight."
"Well, we can't just go killing everything that we think might be from there. If we can't identify it right away, then we don't have the jurisdiction."
"They won't hesitate to kill you. Honestly, fighting a beast wouldn't be hard for any pro hero. The issue lies with two factors. One is the radiation. The reason these creatures exist is because animals evolved to survive through the fallout. Two, the cazadores can kill a person in one sting. They are highly volatile creatures. The only bright side is that I don't think the league of villains has the ability to obtain them. Any other creature is easy, but a bug like that would be the hardest."
Izuku went on to explain every wasteland creature or threat that he could think of. He gave descriptions of their appearance, their threat level, their weaknesses, and even drew pictures to accompany each description. By the end of it, they had pages upon pages of information.
The officer leaned back in his seat before sighing. Their night had drug on and on. To properly inform and prepare those around him for what they might be seeing, Midoriya had to dive into the nitty gritty. With the league of villains' ability to hop between worlds, there was no limit to what could have been brought back with them. Even things like spore carriers, although rare, were described in detail. "Okay, I think that's about all we can do tonight. Go home, kid. We'll let you know if we need any more information."
Midoriya was happy to oblige. Come tomorrow, he would have a lot of questions to answer.
Although the students were supposed to be leaving for their camping trip that morning, they were told to meet in their classroom. From there, role would be taken, and they would be on their way. With nothing else to do, Midoriya's classmates were more than happy to gather around his desk. He could tell they were still young and excitable fans – they liked to hear about new threats that their favorite heroes fought against. They spread that information around amongst themselves and on message boards. He used to be like that, too.
"Midoriya, what was that thing?" came the very first question. He was pretty sure that it was from Hagakure, although it was hard to tell when invisible people spoke.
"It's called a deathclaw. It's an evolved chameleon from a different world."
"Don't play around like that, Midoriya," Sero said. "Where's it really from?"
"I'm not playing around. That creature is from the Mojave Wasteland."
"What's that? Some kind of lab thing?" Denki asked. All of the others also wore slightly puzzled looks on their faces. Outside of the ring of students, Midoriya could see both Iida and Todoroki. Neither were in the circle, but he could tell that they were listening closely.
"No, it's a different world. Or a parallel universe. Something like that."
"And how would you know?" Mina asked with her hands on her hips.
"Because I was there for about two years. During the attack on the USJ, while I was only gone for half an hour to you guys, I was gone for about two years in their time."
There was a moment of silence before everyone exploded. Each and every one of them doubted him, although they did still seem curious about the situation. "Look," he interjected by putting out his wrist. "This is a Pip-Boy, something I was given over there."
He fiddled with the computer until a map popped up on the screen. Tons of spots were marked on the crude overlay, each containing notes about those locations. During his journey, he noted the terrain, what kind of things were living inside, and what things he was able to find and scavenge. It seemed useless now, but he at least had something to show.
While everyone was trying to get in close to check out what was on the screen, someone must have knocked the device. There was a click before a recording started to play.
"Are we really gonna do this? It's open, we could just leave," came a voice from his Pip-Boy. Izuku pulled the device back to him before stopping the recording.
"Oops, sorry about that," he apologized while fiddling with the knobs.
"Who was that?" Kirishima asked him.
Midoriya waved his hand. "Someone who died a long time ago. I found the recording when I was scavenging."
"Can we listen to it?" Denki asked.
Well, there really wasn't any reason not to. So, Midoriya went back and played the recording for them. It was short and didn't hold a lot of intrinsic value, but it was still harrowing. It was only five people, talking about telling people about what happened. The students jumped a little when they heard the gunshots at the end of it.
"What were they talking about? What happened?" Tsuyu asked. Midoriya barely noticed her in the crowd around him.
He sighed. Where would he even begin? "Well, first, I need to explain a lot of information. One, the Mojave Wasteland is suffering from the backlash of atomic warfare. The Great War took place two hundred years before I had gotten there. As such, before the war, there were privatized fallout shelters built to protect those who were lucky enough to be accepted in."
His classmates were nodding. It may have been difficult to believe, but they were still with him. "However, many of these shelters-vaults-were built to run tests on unknowing victims. Each vault had it own cruel and unusual experiment. This recording is from one of these vaults, which had been long abandoned by the time I made it there. Shortly, I found out that this vault had a particular need. They were required to make one human sacrifice each year. If they didn't, they were told that the life support systems would be shut down. This was done until only five inhabitants of the vault were left alive. At that point, they denied the vault its sacrifice. When they did so, the vault congratulated them. It opened the door, and told them that they were free to go and return at any time they chose. The vault had wanted them to disobey. In shame, four of those five survivors committed suicide. That's what you just heard. I have no idea what happened to the fifth."
There was nothing that his classmates could say. They didn't really understand the wasteland, or the old world, so it affected them more than it did him. Soon after, they returned to their seats with gloom expressions. He may have ruined that hour for them, maybe even the whole day.
If they wanted to know more about the wasteland, then he would have been happy to tell them. He just didn't think that anybody would dare to ask anymore.