Chapter 17: Deja Vu

Weeks had passed since the raid and since the death of Sir Nighteye. Neither Melissa nor Endo knew him very well, they hadn't even known he had died until a few days later. And of course, Endo had been held up by a dozen or so investigators mixed with heroes, questioning him about that strange power that had come over him. Endo had mulled over the issue for a bit before responding to them. If he were to try convincing them of the other Endo's they would think him crazy, so he opted for the denial route. He told them that his time spent in that monster form was a blur, he barely remembered any of it. A lie, of course, he remembered every intoxicating second of that power, it had seemed limitless at the time.

And now there was the problem of the multiverse machine, he and Melissa had toiled away on it since the raid. Endo even missed the school festival, forcing Melissa to go on ahead without him. Even then, no progress was made, "This is seriously impossible!" Endo nearly chucked the entire frame of the machine out the window with Synapse, "The structure was easy! The power unit was already done for us practically! Programming took minutes! But we can't open a god damned portal!"

Melissa looked at Endo with concern, he had been getting more and more aggravated as the days passed, "Reiji, calm down. We're never going to solve this if we can't stay level-headed."

Endo threw his hands in the air, "I don't even know why I'm being targeted! We still have no information on the person behind this!" The other Endo's had contacted him again through the Nexus, all were at their limits, defending from the monsters at their doorstep, and once they fell, he would be next. He sighed, "Sorry, I just needed to vent… I've been cooped up so long it's messing with me."

She pushed him down into a chair, rubbing his shoulders, "It's ok, I know it's a lot of stress for you to handle." She paused, gathering her thoughts, taking a deep breath, the unseeable molecules that entered her nose smelled of metal and oil, "You know, whenever I couldn't get one of my inventions to work, I went to someone who wasn't an engineer, but someone who excelled in other fields, Mei can't help us, but I think we both know someone who might."

"This has been going on for weeks and you never told me?!" Yaoyorozu was glaring at Endo, who shirked away from her gaze like a frightened puppy. This rich girl could be pretty scary when she wanted to be.

"I didn't really want to drag you into all of this. We're just students, and this is something bigger than the pros themselves." Endo tried to face her again but he was too busy tinkering with the machine to gaze back into her eyes.

She sighed heavily, filling the room with silence for a few seconds, "Endo, it's our job as heroes to help others. Whether or not it's our universe, we have an obligation to save people. So, show me the problem."

Endo shrugged, "It's not something you can see. It's the most obvious problem with a multiverse device… we can't figure out a way to open a portal. We had an original theory, Melissa thought that we could use a Zero-point energy harness as the basis for it, but that stuff comes out of our universe, not any others, so it was a dead-end.

Todoroki, who had been watching with curious intent stepped forward, proposing something, "If you can control it, why not force it to open a portal?"

A creeping annoyance fled back into Endo, "I obviously tried something like that already. I can only force machines to do something they are capable of."

"What about calling the energy from another place? Forcing it between dimensions?" Yaoyorozu took a step back to admire the circular frame of the technology, to create something like this would put them all in the history books for centuries to come.

"We thought about that too, but for the energy to be called, we need something on the other side to seek it out and activate the transfer. This stuff is highly unstable when not harnessed, we could very well create the potential for something stronger than a nuke." A heaviness filled the room, Yaoyorozu hadn't expected something like this to be capable of such power.

Melissa grabbed a whiteboard from the other side of the room, rolling it over, "There is… one more theory… we… um, we could make a black hole."

"I'm sorry, but isn't that infinitely more dangerous than a nuke?" Todoroki was as calm as ever somehow.

"Well, without the proper control, yes, but since we have the Zero-point energy, we can stabilize it… we think. That's why we need your help."

"You want me to create… a black hole?" Yaoyorozu was floored, they couldn't possibly be serious. "Can't Synapse, or Melissa's Swarm, handle those calculations?"

"Yeah, but we can't just will a black hole into existence." Endo stared at her in a way that made Yaoyorozu shudder with fear.

"You don't think… no, you can't be thinking straight. My quirk could never do something like that!"

Endo nodded, "Not a complete one, that would take too much mass, but on the microscopic level it could work."

"But… how would you even survive a black hole?! And I need to know the molecular makeup of something to create it!"

"We have an idea for the first problem, as for your second concern, we just might have someone who can break it down for you."

"So can you do it, Mr. Hirata?" The older man was displayed on Endo's computer screen, a hand stroking his chin in consideration.

"Well, I suppose it could work. After all most of the possibilities of the future showed it as a sphere of pure darkness. But this is dangerous knowledge, is Miss Yaoyorozu sure of receiving such a burden? The power to destroy worlds is not to be taken lightly, it's possible others will one day search for that power and use her to harness it."

Yaoyorozu took just a second to think before nodding her head, "I'm going to be a hero, villains will always be after me."

Todoroki placed a hand on her shoulder, "We will protect her."

"Very well." Hirata took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he began to vibrate violently, causing everyone alarm. No one had seen his quirk in action yet, so they were surprised by the response. Hirata gasped in pain, "Ok… I've… got it." He leaned close into the camera whispering just ten words that would be ingrained in Yaoyorozu's memory forever. "Got it?"

"Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Hirata."

The man was massaging his temples, "Of course, best of luck to you Endo." The video feed blinked out, leaving the four of them to look at each other in silence, they now knew a secret that only five people on the planet shared.

Endo turned his attention back to the machine, "It's all ready, now it just needs you."

The half and half user suddenly became nervous, "Um… shouldn't we do some test runs or something?"

All three turned to him confused, "This is a test run. How else could we try out the machine or her new power?"

"So this basically makes her the most powerful being on the planet right?" Todoroki eyed all the junk surrounding the workshop, "I mean, who could possibly rival the power to make black holes?"

The three nerds shook their heads, "Black holes take an insane amount of energy and matter to sustain themselves, this new power would only be useful with the proper machine. I suppose I could create some sort of Zero-point harness for her body, allowing her to create them on command, but I'm not actually sure if they would be safe to use in battle."

Melissa began calibrating the machine for activation, "We're not specifically targeting any universe since we aren't a hundred percent how to do it yet, but after this trial run, Synapse should get some info on how to aim for certain ones."

Yaoyorozu crossed her arms then uncrossed them at the now uncomfortable thought that she could make a singularity out of her body fat. She shivered imperceptibly before asking one final, important question, "Now I have to truly ask, how on earth do you plan to avoid spaghettification?"

"We're gonna supercharge the Einstein-Rosen bridge with enough Zero-point energy to essentially create a tunnel, one that's stable that is." He pressed one final button and the machine quietly flared to life, the circumference lighting with blue energy, "Alright… your turn. Just hold your hand in the center and we'll take it from there."

Yaoyorozu looked at Melissa, almost asking for confirmation. She gave it, nodding slowly, prompting the onyx-eyed beauty to hold a shaky hand out in front of her. She tried to take deep calming breaths and began the process of activating her quirk. The singularity was too small to see with the eyes, but she could feel a feeble tug on the rest of her body, and then everything became cold. "AH!" Her hand withdrew from the machine, "I-I don't want to do that… it felt… wrong."

Endo sighed, "We almost had it, just a little bigger and the machine would've stabilized it." He knew that Hawking radiation had taken over the microscopic sphere and that it was already gone. Milliseconds, that's probably how long it lasted. "The machine will control it, you don't have to worry Yaoyorozu."

She was crouched down, Todoroki holding her comfortingly, "She shouldn't have to do something so dangerous. Can't you find another way to do it?"

"This was our last theory, we don't have any other ideas, if there was another option we would use it." Endo approached the pair, "Please. Just push through it for a couple of seconds. We can sustain it for as long as we need after. Just one time."

Yaoyorozu looked away, "I… you're sure nothing will happen?"

"I'm not sure about anything involving this, but I am confident." Endo shrugged, "This is new territory for the human race." He extended his hand to her, "Just one more try, please? You were the one who said it's our job as heroes to help others, well here's your chance to help five other worlds." Endo felt bad turning her own words back on her, but this wasn't going to work any other way.

She gave him a sidelong glance, "Just once?"

"Just once."

A deep breath was the creation user's only response as she stood, "Just once more." Her hand once more graced the center of the machine, shaking with nervous energy. "J-Just tell me when."

Endo held out his hand to the machine, activating its programming. "When." This time, there was an imperceptible change, something no one in the room was capable of perceiving, the black hole that was being created, was also being given instructions, and those instructions weren't from that universe.

The black sphere began to grow, still microscopic, but larger than last time. Yaoyorozu shivered, she couldn't escape that chill. It soaked through her, drawing the heat away from her body at an astonishing pace. Melissa gasped, it was actually working, she flipped the switch that released the Zero-point energy, "Yaoyorozu step back!"

The creation hero was happy to do as she was told, and leapt away from the suddenly growing mass of darkness, now becoming visible to the human eye. Endo watched in fascination, the Zero-point energy was functioning just as planned, keeping the singularity from exerting its pressure on the world around them. Once it reached acceptable size the technopath gave the final command, "Melissa supercharge it."

Blue light filled the room as energy obscured the black sphere for several seconds. The four teens began slowly inching away from the flames that licked the air as if it wanted to consume the world itself. Just as suddenly as the flames appeared, however, they disappeared, revealing a bright white sphere, completely taking up the circular space left by the machine. Endo and Melissa removed their helmets, both smiling wide at the accomplishment, "First people to achieve multiverse travel. Sounds pretty fucking good." Endo held out a hand to the portal, a part of Synapse cut itself off and rapidly flew into and out of the portal, confirming its safety. "Ok, first things first, we need to-" Endo was cut off as the began to pulse, contracting and undulating like the crashing waves at a beach. "Back up." He ushered everyone behind him, readying himself for what the others had described as a beast, just in case this was that.

But instead of a monster popping out of the portal, five forms fell out of it, one after the other. Each was unconscious, piling on top of each other almost comically. Endo inspected them, all shared the same jet black hair and, "Huh." Endo then promptly collapsed to the floor, his vision turning to black.

The others rushed over to him, Melissa checking for a pulse, then cursing as she remembered he never had one, she couldn't even check to see if he was breathing. She held out a hand, letting the Swarm cover his head, checking for brain activity while Yaoyorozu and Todoroki turned over the five forms. "Who are they?" Todoroki turned to his girlfriend, he felt like he knew them, but just couldn't place it.

"I… I know him." Yaoyorozu pointed to one with a large scar covering one side of his face, "I don't know how, but I do."

Melissa had been so engrossed with Endo that she hadn't even looked over to the five visitors, until now that was. She gasped, rushing over to them, "There's no way. They're from different universes, how are they all here?"

Todoroki looked puzzled, "Uh, I thought that was the goal?"

"No, no, these are the Endo's!" Melissa checked all of them to make sure they were alive, finding that all had some sort of bruising or wounds, "We need to get them all to Recovery Girl."

"What about Endo… er, our Endo that is?" Yaoyorozu crouched over the one known as Typhon, trying to figure out why she knew him.

"We do the same of course!" She lifted all six with the Swarm, but before she could walk off, Todoroki stopped her.

He was staring intently at one of the two female Endo's, she looked about their age, "Who… who is she?" His brow furrowed as if he were trying to recall some long-forgotten memories.

Melissa started walking again, dragging the others along, "From what Reiji told me, this one is named Akya. That's all he really knows, they were too busy fighting off invaders to talk about themselves."

"Wait he talked to them?"

"Yeah, it-"

Melissa was cut off as Recovery Girl walked out of her office, only to see the three students, and the unconscious Endo's behind them. She sighed, "And here I was looking forward to an easy day."

Endo opened his eyes, but all he could see was black, "What is this?" His voice echoed throughout the chamber, reverberating back to his ears. "This isn't the Nexus." He stood shakily, his footing unsure in such a dark setting, "The last thing I remember is seeing the other Endo's fall through the portal, then I think I passed out, but why?"

The room suddenly became blindingly bright. Endo recoiled at such a dramatic and sudden change. "What… what is this?"

"You killed me."

"What?" The blind light cleared and Endo saw himself at the edge of a roof. "No."

"Yes." It was Hibiki Satoru, his middle school friend.

"You died."

"Yes." The wind whipped through her hair.

"This is a dream."

"No."

"Synapse analyze the surrounding area." There was no response, in fact, Endo couldn't even feel his quirk anymore.

Satoru smiled, "You're quirkless now, just like me."

"What?" Endo breathed out as Satoru shoved him off the edge of the roof, sending him toppling to the ground a hundred feet below.

"Hmm. If there is an issue, I can't find it."

Melissa fretted over the body of an unconscious Endo, "Of course there's an issue! He won't wake up!" Yaoyorozu and Todoroki we're still infatuated with the two respective Endo's.

"All their brain activity is normal, well except for that one." She pointed at the Endo with the scar on his face. "I don't know why, but he doesn't seem completely human."

Recovery Girl had quickly taken care of their physical injuries, which were quite numerous. Due to her quirk's drawbacks, it wasn't unusual for most of them to remain asleep, but for all of them, it was far beyond normal.

"Where did they come from?" The trio, plus the nurse, spun to the door.

"Mr. Aizawa?"

"Who are they?"

Yaoyorozu and Todoroki went to rack their brains for an explanation, but Melissa offered one up without any hesitation, "They're all Endo. Just from different universes."

Surprisingly, Aizawa took it pretty well. "And why are they here?"

"You want the long version or the short one Eraserhead?" Yaoyorozu yelped as she realized the Endo with the scar was awake and sitting up. He glanced at her with a hint of sadness in his eyes before getting serious again.

"You know me." It wasn't a question.

"Five out of the six Endo's here know an Eraserhead of some kind. But in my world, you were my teacher as well."

Before Aizawa could ask any more Melissa got the Endo's attention, "Why are you awake but they aren't?!" She was definitely distraught by the development.

"Because I'm the only one who can deal with my trauma."

"And what does that mean?"

Endo tapped his head on the scar side, "Every human has something in their life that traumatized them, Endo's are no exception. If anything, their traumas are worse for some reason." He looked over his other selves, "Whoever us attacking us has some sort of mental powers, he attacked us through our traumas."

"Then yours must be tame if you got over it so easily." Yaoyorozu was busy examining the rest of the Endo's, as if trying to find similarities.

His gravelly voice was heavy with anger, "I feel the guilt over my wife Momo Yaoyorozu sacrificing herself to save my planet from an invasion." The room went silent upon the revelation, "It would be about ten years from now in this timeline that after returning to Earth, I married my highschool girlfriend and then shortly lost her when an alien race that created me was hell bent on destroying the universe, attacked." For his claim about being able to handle his trauma, he seemed quite distraught.

"Created you?" Recovery Girl asked, "That must be why your thought patterns don't match that of a human!"

While the nurse was quite unfazed, the rest of the room looked at him with shock. He seemed to realize that what he said was quite depressing, so he finished it off with, "But don't worry, this isn't your future, I've already looked into the outcomes of all the Endo's and the futures should all be different than mine."

This didn't clean the air much and Yaoyorozu vowed low, "Please forgive me!"

A hint of nostalgia crossed his face before disappearing. It had been so brief it was up for debate whether it had actually been there at all, "Don't worry about it, besides, we have bigger problems right now."

"Can you help them?" Melissa pleaded.

Akari shook his head, "Not me, not here." He weakly sat up.

"Careful, your injuries haven't yet healed!" Recovery Girl was by his side in a flash and pushing him back down.

"So… what are our options?"

Akari smiled bitterly, "Well, we can either let them duke it out with their psyches or…."

"Or what?!" Melissa was becoming aggravated.

"Does this world have a Saturn Six?"

I know I know, I literally just said it was unlikely I'd continue this story, but after seeing how many people came to view just the update, I felt bad. This chapter has been sitting in my google docs for quite some time, so it was quite easy to finish it off, but I wouldn't expect any future chapters very soon. As mentioned in the update, I'm working on another fic for a discord server and it's taking the majority of my time. Regardless, I'll do my best to push these out! Hope to see you next time! (Hopefully not in like eight months XD)!