The Tick vs... MY HERO ACADEMIA! Issue 31 Of course, there was the whole Field Training coming up and I still needed to confirm with who I was going to go with...
Other then the fact that Neito Monoma had the personality of a dumpster fire and seemed to be made up of mostly petty spite, the day really wasn't that bad. Apparently my reputation wasn't that trashed, as people realized that apparently I was able to convince a incredibly beautiufl girl to model sexy costumes for me and do what I want. Apparently after some thought, what Neito wanted to be embarrassing, turned into something that could be... if not admired, then at least not needed to be derided.
Izuku Midoriya was getting ready to leave for home, when he was approached by one of his two mentors. The Symbol of Peace, the Number 1 Hero of All Japan! All Might!
"Young Midoriya, do you have a moment, my boy?" The Towering Titan of Truthy, the Blonde Behemoth of Beneficence asked the green haired youth.
"Absolutely, All Might! What do you need to talk about?" He had an idea. He was probably going to talk to him about his Field Training coming up.
"I was hoping to talk to you about who were going to do your Field Training with." Look at that, totally correct. "One of the pros showing some interest with you is Gran Torino!" Gran Torino... he knew of the hero and their Jet Quirk. They used to be one hell of a hero, but as far as Izuku knew...
"Isn't he retired?" Sure, Gran Torino was in the Hero Fighter series starting with III, but mostly as a joke as it used the... far more older version of the Jet Hero.
"Well... yes... but he was my mentor, so long ago. A partner for my predecessor and quite the teacher!" He scratched the back of his head. "At least much better then myself."
Izuku thought about it, then thought about it some more. "There's only one issue I can see with this." It didn't need to be said, wherever Izuku was to go, the Tick would follow. All Might gave a polite cough.
"Which leads to the next point... Torino knows about the Tick." Because of course he does, why not?
"Partly because I'm not sure even if we sent you to Torino, that the Tick wouldn't show up on his own volition." It was a good point. He was pretty sure that the Tick had a special Izuku sense that let him know where exactly the green haired teen was at any time.
Though, the Tick said that it was Destiny that told him where to go and how to work. Izuku didn't exactly buy that, but the Tick's powers were so otherworldly compared to other quirks, even something as fantastic as One for All.
"Does this mean we have to talk with the Tick? It means we have to talk with the Tick?" Izuku sighed. This was possible. Especially with the Tick living with the Midoriya's now.
"If by we, you mean you." ... of course. Why not? Though, in all fairness, the Tick seemed to listen to Izuku... most of the time.
"Sure. I suppose it won't hurt." Izuku was way to be smart and not jinx himself, unlike Eijiro did with the whole rain that happened. And possibly the police catching them.
Which meant, that later that evening, he was sitting at the kitchen table with his mother and the Tick and he was telling them what All Might told him.
"And that's it. All Might thinks I should go with his old mentor. More then that, he suggested that..." He motioned over to the Big Blue Bug of Justice. "The Tick should come with me."
"Hmmmmm..." The Tick stroked his chin, thinking about this. "Hmmmmm... and this Gran Torino... is an older hero, no? This is an opportunity like no other!" The Tick stood up, gesticulating!
"This is an opportunity, Izuku! One we could both benefit from! From this Gran Torino, we shall milk the lactose-free pearls of wisdom!" Oh, he was getting into one his speeches, as he grabbed Izuku by the shoulders and lifted him into the air with the greatest of ease.
"Can you feel it, Izuku!? As the prior generations pass along their their tips and tricks for being a better hero!" He wasn't shaking the poor lad, but Izuku was trying to get the Tick to put him back down. "Sorry, chum, I got a little carried away." And he put the teen back down.
"The only problem I have is that... well... you're... very much you. I can't imagine having you hide out for a week, but..." Izuku was trying to figure out the various logistics of the Tick going with him to staying with a hero for a week. They couldn't really take the train, and if he was seen traveling with the Tick then that could be a problem.
"Haha! No worries, sport! But I have that covered already!" He seemed to vanish into the living room and came back... wearing a tie. "Behold, no longer am I the Tick, but Nick Placeholder! Intrepid Reporter!" He stood proudly, arms akimbo.
"... I think you need a disguise a bit more... disguise-y." Izuku replied. There was no way that anyone could be... foolish enough to think that a tie would be enough to work.
"Are you kidding? This is a hypnotic tie! I picked it up from Caped Wonder when he was my sidekick for a while." That was a story that Izuku never heard about.
"... Caped Wonder. The Caped Wonder. By all accounts the first Superhero... was your sidekick?" Izuku was incredulous about the whole thing. And who wouldn't be? It was the craziest thing he ever heard from the Tick. And that was saying something.
"Well, I mean... I tried to make him my sidekick... but he was kinda against the whole thing and then there was all the trouble we had at the newspaper and I kinda destroyed his car... and his desk... his Fortress of Fortitude." The Tick pondered it for a moment, tapping his his chin.
"Now that I think about it, that would explain when we met up a few years afterwards he was quite upset." He shrugged. "Oh, well, doesn't matter, not important! What is is that with the power of the Hypnotic Tie, I, the Tick, will be capable of traveling incognito with you!"
"Or..."
"Or?"
"Or... we could travel as the Tick and the Aphid! I did win a nationally televised sporting event, the absolute last thing I need is for people to recognize me on the train ride to Gran Torino's town..." Izuku suggested. The Tick seemed to light up at the very idea.
"Most excellent! Get suited and booted, Izuku! I'm so excited that I think I hear the collect call of heroism already! A night of derring-do against nefarious ne'er-do-wellers will do us some good before we travel to see this master of magnanimous munificence!" The Tick exclaimed, he always exclaimed. Izuku looked over to his mother.
"Just be home before 1, please!" She told the two before, Izuku raced to his room to put on his Aphid costume.
Looks like I was right on course to having this work out. I'll learn from the same man that taught All Might, my favorite hero. And not only that, perhaps... perhaps some sanity was going to rub off on the Tick, because that was exactly what my life could use. Some stability and sanity.
Minoru Mineta had been fidgeting the entire time, while on the bus. He had looked up Mandalay's hero career and saw that the Wild, Wild Pussycats were rescue heroes. Not only that, they specialized in mountain rescue.
When he sent his email saying that he accepted Mandalay's offer for field training, he got a quick reply saying that they saw his quirk in use and thought that it could be rather useful in rescue situations and more. He wasn't sure what to think! Someone was telling him that his quirk wasn't weird and it wasn't useless and it wasn't a party trick.
Well, someone other then Izuku Midoriya, of course! He was so excited, he actually left a whole day early to meet up with the rescue hero team leader!
Soon enough, the bus pulled up to the stop, Minoru took a step off, and just waited, looking ot his left... and looking to his right. There was absolutely nothing in either direction. This was the right place, this is where he was supposed to meet up with them. But... where the heck were they? Where were the cute catgirls? There was only some burly dude!
"You Minoru Mineta?" Said burly dude asked him. ... ... ... this wasn't what he was promised.
"Who... wants to know?" Minoru asked, taking a step back from said overly muscular and super tall burly dude.
"Relax, kid. Mandalay asked me to pick you up, I'm one of her team mates." Oh, well... maybe he should've gone and researched more then just Mandalay and instead her team, but hindsight. With his suit case loaded into the man's car and one short drive later, he was meeting the rest of the Wild, Wild Pussycats.
"So... you're the one with the trap balls, huh?" The blonde woman was looking over him. "I saw how you used them in the relay race and against your friend in the final leg. That was really clever."
No, she wasn't looking at him... she was leering at him! There was a glint in her eye that made him sweat, a single bead running down his face as he leaned back away from that gaze. There was a greenette there as well, that bopped the blonde!
"Have you no shame, Ryuko! Mister Mineta is here for a field evaluation. And not only that... he's Shino's charge for the week." She was practically bouncing around the blonde as she berated her!
"C'mon, Tomoko! My biological clock is ticking so loud you can hear it!" She was stamping her foot. Stomp, stomp, stomp! "I can't turn back the hands of time!"
Minoru took a step back. The last thing he thought would happen was some blonde Christmas Cake was going to start hitting on him like that. Sure, she was cute, but she was like technically old enough to be his mom. He took a step back... then another. While the two were distracted by each other, he made a run for it, before running into a brunette.
"Ah ha! You must be Minoru Mineta, right?" She asked. Minoru looked her over, narrowing his eyes.
"That depends... you gonna start hitting on me too on the downlow?" The brunette chuckled.
"I see you met Ryuko, I wouldn't worry about her. I'm Shino Sosaki, the hero Mandalay. You've already met Pixie-Bob, Ragdoll, and Tiger. And thank you for accepting our offer for your field training. When I saw your quirk in action, I had so many ideas on how you could get the most out of it." She nodded, leading the hero in training through the little compound they had set up.
"Well, the first thing I thought when I saw you offered to take me in for field training was that rescue heroing would be a good fit for me!" Minoru lied through his teeth. Lied like a lazy dog. He didn't need to tell them that he was interested in hanging out with a bunch of cute catgirls for a week. Only to find that one of them was a dude and another was a hungry Christmas Cake. He had to suppress a shudder.
Is that how girls felt like when he was in middle school? It was really eye opening.
"Oh! I almost forgot." Mandalay was talking to him again. "And this is my nephew, Kota." She introduce him to a child. A very unhappy looking boy with black hair and a red horned cap.
"Uh... hey, little guy?" Mineta greeted, Kota continued to glare at him. Mineta turned his head to address Mandalay.
"Not much of a talkerrrrrghk!" As soon as he took his eyes off the little bastard, he kicked him right in grapes!
"Kota!" He didn't hear the rest of the aunt berating her nephew, as the agony he was feeling continued to crash through his body as his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell backwards. This really really really wasn't what he was promised at all!