The Tick vs... MY HERO ACADEMIA! Issue 44

"The issue, Shigaraki, is that you rely too much on your quirk." The American super criminal, Chairface Chippendale, he was wiping a sword down with some oil, as he and Kurogiri were demonstrating what expertise in the blade could mean for the stylish supervillain in the modern era. Breadmaster's renovations of the League of Villain's headquarters were quite extensive and had the almost compulsory underground portion for those that would live at the headquarters, as well as other facilities.

Tomura Shigaraki was sitting off to the side, not giving it any thought, actively dismissing the mere thought. "Pffft." He blew it off. All he needed was his quirk. That's what Sensei told him. Besides... "Anyway, my quirk decays anything that I touch. Do you really think that I could use any weapon?"

"It is a bit of a conundrum for the lad. If he took the grip of a knife or a sword or a gun, it would disintegrate in his grasp. And the boy has never wished to wear gloves." The Warp Quirk user, Kurogiri added. These were the kind of situations that Tomura loathed to be in. A social situation to guys at least twenty years older then him and completely incapable of using his own limited social skills to read their body language, as Chairface.. had a chair for a head and Kurogiri had his miasmic mist that made up his head.

And wearing gloves? Please... that would make him mastered by his quirk, not the other way around. And he wasn't going to allow that too happen.

"Is that so, Shigaraki?" You had to have practice with Chairface to understand just what he was getting at... it was all in the way the legs moved. The bearer of the Decay quirk nodded, running a hand through his hair. "Hnnn... so I see."

And quick as he pleased, before Tomura could even respond, a silver arc flashed through the air, slicing off good amount of hair from the leader of the League of Villain's head!

"What the hell, Chairface!?" What the hell was he thinking? What could he possibly be doing! The American super criminal shushed him, as he gathered up the locks and wrapped them around the handle of the sword in his hands.

"You don't decay your own hair, Shigaraki... catch." And he tossed the blade at the young man, who thankfully had the hand eye coordination needed to snatch it out of the air! With his hair wrapped around the handle that he was gripping... the sword wasn't decaying at all!

"Excellent. I, myself, learned the art of the sword when I went to Choate. There was a club dedicated to academic fencing or mensur. But we won't be doing anything for that. Classes start now. I'll be your headmaster... and I am a most cruel teacher!" He flicked the tip of a new blade and before Tomura could figure out what was happening, the American super criminal was upon him.

His instincts, honed by training from Sensei was the only thing that allowed his head to not be in the space that Chairface's sword arced through, a singing slicing silver flash!

"What the hell!?" He barely got his own blade out only to hear the two blades ring as they collided! He could feel the tremors up and down his arm as their blades locked.

"It took decades for me to master the sword, Shigaraki! But you don't have that! You don't have decades, you don't have years, you don't even have days!" Their blades broke from each other and Tomura found himself taking a step back, only able to put up the most pathetic of defenses against speed of his make shift opponent!

"Don't you understand, Shigaraki?! Too take a step back is to grow old! To stand still is to die! The only recourse is attack!" He was mad! Insane! Why wasn't Kurogiri doing anything? Why wasn't he helping!? He didn't want to die... not when he still had his hatred for All Might... not when Izuku Midoriya still lived!

So he did the only thing he could do, as he took a step forward and brought his blade around! This wasn't a video game, this was life or death now! And he was going to live!

The gulf between their skills easily became apparent, as he went for a lock of their blades, that Chairface turned into a disarm.

"You're not completely helpless. With live steel and live blood, you'll learn!" He kicked the sword back up into his free hand, then tossed it back to Tomura. "Now then... let's try this again!"

Tomura was ready for him this time!

There was maybe another day before the Summer Camp. We had a few days rest and I knew that the Tick wasn't going to come with me, but honestly? I didn't need the Tick to come in and save me every time. I didn't need him in the Hero vs Villains Battle Trial. I didn't need him during the Sports Festival. I didn't need him against the Hero Killer himself.

Sure, him helping at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint was needed and apparently someone he knew decided to attack him in Hosu City with the monsters rampaging all around.

Besides, it was just summer camp? I was gonna be fine.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU BRAT!" The man made into a monster was chasing after the vigilante known only as the Aphid! Partner to that mad man of Mustafu, the Big Blue Bug of Justice himself! And right now, probably over his head!

Oh, sure, he shouldn't go out and do the vigilante thing by himself like this, but he felt like celebrating and he was in a good mood! When a hero was in a good mood, criminals and bad guys would have to be wary, because the Aphid was on patrol!

Which brings us to the present! When you were going to be a vigilante, you should go all out. And the Aphid went all out this time, finding a typical gathering of bad guys, well known ne'er-do-wells and proceeded to follow them! Unfortunately it did take them out of Mustafu, but so did following at the heels of the Tick!

And lead him to the run down factory that seemed to be the cliche headquarters for any would be super villain or criminal cartel!

Izuku Midoriya, Aphid, had seen mutation quirks before. Quirks that change the entire way people look! In his class alone there was Tooru Hagakure and Ojiro Mashirao were in his class, just to name a few! But here, he was facing someone with a similar quirk to Gang Orca.

Except instead of being a killer whale, the size and shape of a man, it was a man in the size and shape of a blue whale. Which lead to his current predicament of trying to outrun such a horrible, huge monster man that was crashing through girders and supports of the warehouse as he chased after the comparatively mouse sized vigilante!

He got low, he activated the frictionless skate function on his shoes, and slipped through the narrow crack of the factory wall, making his escape.

Hands on his knees, he managed to catch his breath, waiting for the villain to do the dumb thing and slam into the wall of the factory.

He got his wish when the monster crashed through the wall!

"Oh, c'mon... can't a guy get a break!?" Aphid said to no one in particular, exasperatedly. Sure, he couldn't run... so they were going to do the fight thing. He could do this! Wouldn't be the first giant he brought done, but certainly the biggest!

"They're gonna have to mop you up when I'm done with you!" A fist the size of a compact car attached to a arm the size of a small bus, attached to a man the size of a small building came swinging at the relatively diminutive vigilante!

But Aphid was a canny one, managing to leap into the air at the right moment, causing the villain to miss! Landed right on his hand and started to run up the massive limb, cocking back his own fist!

And with a primal scream, green bolts of power traveling up and down his arm as he focused! He slammed his fist into the man monster's chin!

"SMMMMMMMAAAAASH!"

A mighty crack filled the air and down the giant went.

He did it! He was successful.

And then he heard the sirens. Right. For a brief moment, in the whole moment of facing a monster unlike any before... Aphid forgot that he was a wanted vigilante, and now he had to skedaddle before trying to explain to the cops just what he was doing.

And then he realized... he knew exactly where he was and he knew exactly where he was going to hide out!


Mei Hatsume was getting ready for bed. Her bedroom was one part work shop, one part laboratory, and only rarely one part living space. She was drying her hair off, already slipped into her pajamas and cursing the deal she made with her parents that on weekdays she'd be in bed before ten as long as she was allowed to tinker to her heart's content on Friday and Saturday this summer.

"Ugh. Why did I have to make such a dumb deal with the 'rents?" She muttered to herself. So many half finished projects on her work table. Beckoning. Calling her. It was putting her in a bad mood that nothing was going to solve!

And then something hit the window to her bedroom. A pebble.

Then another pebble.

She brushed it off. Could be anything, really. Easily ignore.

And then she heard someone knocking on the glass and now she had to know what the hell was going on and opened the window and saw there was Izuku Midoriya.

"... Izuku... what are you doing?"

"Hey, Mei... mind if I come in?" He was grinning that dopey grin of his and he was wearing his Aphid costume.

"... did you do something stupid, Izuku?" She looked at him flatly, folding her arms.

"What? Me? Do something stupid? C'mon... it's me, Mei!" She went to close the window.

"Wait, wait, wait! It was really stupid, it's just a complicated happenstance. I didn't set out to come here when I was following those bad guys. Or when I knocked out their boss. Or fled from the police."

Any one of those things would get Izuku in trouble. He just barely survived the Aphid Hunt at high school! The amount of people that we're learning who Aphid was increasingly included people that Mei wasn't sure she could trust! But Izuku, big dopey idiot with his big dopey idiotic grin and his cute freckles and his bright eyes would tell anyone who asked at this point.

"Ugh! Get in before someone see's you, Izuku!" She threw her hands up. What was she going to do about her idiot?

"Thanks, Mei, you're a life saver!" He slipped into the room, his foot finding a slick patch of machine oil, sending him stumbling as he fell forward onto his pink haired girlfriend, the two falling to the floor.

"Well... this is awkward, if not unwanted..." Mei said, with a smirk, though there was a blush staining her cheeks. But that wasn't at all like her boyfriend, who's face was a burning bright red.

"M-m-mei! I... I... I'm so sorry!" Her hero... a stuttering mess. She decided to silence him the only way she knew how right now, and kissed him!

... ... ... ... ... ... ...! ( has crashed! Please wait for a reboot!)

For the Mighty hero only known as the Tick, this was one mission that he could not fail! This was one person he could not disappoint! His mighty muscles were barely strained as he held is objective aloft!

"Alright, Tick, you can put the couch down now." Inko Midoriya said, as she turned off the vacuum cleaner. It was so nice having someone around that could move the furniture so easily. She couldn't remember how long it's been that she could vacuum underneath the couch and arm chairs.

"Yes ma'am! Just know, that where ever dust bunnies gather in their masses, the MIGHTY TICK will be there to help slay them!" The Tick proudly exclaimed as he sat the couch down.

"You don't need to always help me, Tick. You already done so much, but... every little thing is appreciated." Inko sighed. It was nice having a man back in the house, but... of course the Tick would never replace her late husband.

Still, Izuku adored him and she could see that Izuku improved substantially, even if she was against the whole going into danger, Izuku always wanted to be a hero, even before the disaster that struck her young family.

"Pity I won't be able to join the lad on his training trip this summer. Oh, it would be so cool, to help mold the minds of the junior defenders of this land! But alas, the mighty Tick has a MIGHTY team up with Giagantigal and Treeman, as we track down the perverted purveyors of pornographic periodicals!" ... ... ... Inko sighed. It was just the way of her world now.

The Exile of Tenya Iida, Part 2

Tenya wasn't sure what to expect on the other side of the door when it rang. He was dreading his parents, his grandfather, his other siblings. Maybe someone from Tensei's office saying that he got injured again in a fighting with a super villain.

He was surprised to find the diminutive principal waiting for him on the other side of the door.

"Principal Nedzu... what are you doing here...?" He exclaimed. His behavior that last... the last month it seemed, he had not been himself. He had lost... too many hours of sleep and quite a bit of weight.

"You do realize we agreed that part of your..." The furry principal paused for a moment. "Redemption would include a heroic crash course, no?"

"Shouldn't we wait until the second semester starts, sir?" It was an obvious question, but sometimes he didn't know about the Principal. What was an act and what was him just being eccentric.

"Perhaps, but all your friends and colleagues on the hero course have their summer training camp coming up, so I've decided to take it upon myself to make sure you don't fall so far behind. Who knows? You might impress your teachers only a week into the second semester and be rejoining them in no time." Nedzu replied as he walked in and made himself comfortable.

"I don't think Aizawa-sensei will want me back in his class."

"What Eraserhead wants isn't in the calculation at all, Mister Iida. All you have to do is impress me. If I can see that you've made strides in your growth, if the mistake you made is well and truly behind you..." He let his words dangle and draw off. "And I had a most wonderful conversation with your sponsor, Mrs. Midoriya. Delightful woman and mother to one of your classmates... who I believe let you get in touch with each other?"

"Izuku Midoriya has been a far better friend to me then I have to him." Tenya replied, sitting down, heavily.

"Please, Mister Iida... Tenya... Mister Midoriya is everyone's friend. Even Mister Bakugo, despite the fact that they have a... history of antagonism with each other. It's actually quite admirable of him. But that's not here nor there... let's get started. It's going to be one enjoyable summer, I can assure you of that!"