I do not own MHA or Ben 10, all rights reserved to their respective owners.
Chapter 16: I am you, you are me (Internship Arc Part 4)
To say that Izuku felt uneasy would be like saying nothing.
Nothing he ever experience could match up to what he was feeling in that peculiar moment.
The moment, in which he sat next to Ryukyu in an armored truck, wearing his hero costume.
In which the man he single-handedly captured in the incident was sitting on the opposite end of the truck, piercing him with his crimson eyes, with dark circles and scratches all around them.
If it wasn't for the double set of quirk-nullifying handcuffs around his wrists and the multiple layers of chains shackling him to the wall of the truck, Izuku was sure he would already tried to kill him on the spot. He read it from the killer intent in his eyes.
It was the one he saw in himself that fateful day in his old school's classroom when he crushed Bakugou's hand.
The realisation of that fact added to his anxiety and fear he was trying his best not to show.
They sat in complete silence. No one dared to say anything. The only thing that could be heard was the reving of the truck's engine and it's wheels, speeding on the concrete.
He looked to his right, at Ryukyu. She hated this idea at least twice as much as him. He understood why she did. Aside from the obvious facts of being force into a confined space with a dangerous criminal, she also feared for his well-being more than for herself. She was clearly more upset about him being forced to come with her than being forced to do this task.
The truck shook a little, as the drove over a speed bumb, both Izuku, Ryukyu and the captive bounced up a little. But after the initial impact, all went back to how it was seconds later.
But then, Izuku heard a new sound, not heard before in this environment.
It was... complicated to describe. The closest he came to explaining the sound was that it sounded like a kitchen timer clock made out of rusty metal ticking.
Tick.
Tick..
Tick...
Frankly, it much more sounded as if something was grinding against metal with great trouble.
But before he could come to any more conclusion, the ticking increased in speed.
From the tempo of a kitchen clock, it went to the speed of a metronome.
Back and forth, back and forth.
Click-click-click-click.
Did one of their tires loosened itself on the impact with the speed bump?
"Hey" Izuku suddenly broke the silence, turning to Ryukyu "Is it possible that one of our tires got loose?"
"Kid, those tires have been created with intentions to go over metal spikes unharmed, so I doubt that we got a loose tire from riding over a speed bump. Why do you ask?"
"Can't you hear it?" asked Izuku, confused "This sound, like this ticking, of some sort"
The heroine looked at him confused, signaling that she clearly didn't hear anything.
"Midoriya, are you sure it isn't just ringing in your ears from the training? I can't hear anything"
"No, I'm sure it's not because of training. Ringing in your ears doesn't sound like a timer clock grinding against metal"
When he finished his sentence, Ryukyu's face went still.
She quickly looked at Shigaraki.
The last time Izuku came close to looking at Shigaraki's face was when they were escorted to the truck. It was twisted in murderous grimace and it didn't change much through their journey.
But now, despite him trying his best to hide it, it was twisted in a grin.
"SHIT!" suddenly screamed the heroine "MIDORIYA, TO THE GROUND!"
"Huh? What do you-" Izuku tried to ask, but he was quickly pulled from his seat to the ground by Ryukyu.
The heroine fell on top of him. He had no time to ask what she was doing.
Because just a second later, an explosion blew a hole in the place where he was formerly sitting, blowing off one fourth of the truck alongside it.
The truck, having lost one of it's tires, got out of the drivers control.
And a second later, they collided with a wall of a nearby buidling. It was the last thing Izuku remembered, before his head hit the ground and he lost consciousness...
LINE BREAK
His awakening was accompanied by two things: throbbing pain in the back of his head and dizzy eyesight.
He crawled out of the now destroyed truck, holding his temple, trying to focus his gaze.
When it cleared up a little, he could see that the other trucks suffered fate similiar to their's. They were all bearing marks of explosions on different sides.
What he failed to notice, was a person on top of the truck he just came out of, preparing an attack, about to pounce on him.
He turned around on the last second, when the villain was already launching himself at him.
And in his dizzy state, Izuku had no means to defend himself against the reptile-looking man, with his sharp teeth aimed at his face, centimeters away from him.
And this would probably the end for him.
If it wasn't for someone tackling the man away from him and on the ground, knocking him unconsciouss with a quick motion.
Even though his eyesight was blurry, he was able to make out the frame of Ryukyu, sitting on top of the defeated villain.
The heroine quickly got up and ran towards Izuku.
He could not understand most of what she was saying. He only made out a couple of keywords.
"Villain ambush... Shigaraki... Run away... Call for reinforcements"
Despite it all sounding like a jumble of random words to him, he understood what she meant. She wanted him to run and call for help. After all, she was the only pro hero here.
Even if Izuku wanted to argue about leaving his mentor to possible death, in his state that thought didn't even cross his mind. He could hardly process the order from his superior.
Ryukyu took him by his hand and led him through a little corridor between the destroyed trucks. All around him people were shouting, he heard a couple of gunshots as well.
They took a quick turn, as Ryukyu spotted an alleyway, leading away from the battlefield.
She was about to lead her pupil into the alleyway, before she was knocked to the ground.
On top of the Dragoon Hero sat the same villain she knocked out just a while ago.
She quickly turned around, trying to wrestle herself away from the villains grasp. All the while Izuku was just standing there, idly.
Before the villain had any time to turn his attention towards him, the heroine turned her head towards the boy.
"Run!" was the only order she uttered.
And despite his better judgement he would take should his state was different, Izuku obliged.
LINE BREAK
He ran for minutes, and those minutes felt like hours.
As his legs led him far and wide, his sight became clearer and so did his mind.
He finally stopped in a wide alley, leaning against the wall.
The weight of what just happened fell on him and tears came to his eyes.
Why did he ran?
He could help her, he could stay and fight! And instead he left her for dead, like a coward.
He tried to scream out of helplesness, only for his voice to be caught in his throat.
With shaking hands, he fished out his phone from his jeans pocket.
At least it was one thing he could do to make up for his cowardice. Call for help.
Despite having a crack in the middle, it still worked.
He opened an app that he was advised to download when he only started his internship. It was called "Urban Alarm". When used by a hero, or a hero intern, it emitted a signal that alerted other heroes in the area of a danger that he witnessed of was witnessing at the moment. This way, other heroes could rush to help and minimize the damage.
He pressed the "Send signal" button on the bottom of the app. An animation of his current location sending out signal in waves on the horizontal plan of the area played out.
And after just two replays the animation, his phone suddenly died.
His eyes went wide. He tried to boot it up again, but to no avail.
He cursed under his breath and almost shattered the faulty device on the concrete under his feet.
But his attention turned towards something else. Something new.
A sound of slow, heavy footsteps.
He jerked his head towards the source of the sound.
Did the damn phone worked? Someone already got his location from only a couple of signals?
His new found hope quickly petered out, when the source revealed itself, being illuminated by a nearby lamp.
Towards him walked a man clad in armor of black, grey and purple, a purple helmet that covered his face adorning his head.
No, this was definately not a hero.
Heroes don't look like they get their suits from Hot Topic.
And they definately don't cover in shadows.
This was a villain. Most likely one of the villains from the ambush. He must have followed him from the crash site. They probably don't want witnesses and people calling for help.
But now, his mind was clear. And he will not run away like before. He will not let this man hurt him, or anyone else.
He quickly pressed the button on the watch and turned the shield a couple of times, his hand trembling with anger and self hatred for his previous cowardice.
He was about to slam his hand on the hologram of Rath, when the figure, who suddenly stopped approaching him, spoke.
"Please, refrain from doing this. I merely want to talk"
This confused Izuku greatly. The villains from the USJ and this ambush weren't talkative (aside from that mist guy) and would probably go straight for the kill.
No, he couldn't let himself be fooled. What if the villain had some kind of quirk similiar to that of Shinso from the festival? What if answering his question would cause his downfall?
But before he had time to contemplate further or slam the shield, the figure spoke again.
"You have no reason to trust me, I know that. But believe me, what I need to talk to you is crucial"
This irked Izuku further. The person in front of him was really close. If he had any malicious intentions, he would have acted on them already. He decided to risk it, against his better judgement.
"Who are you?" asked Izuku, trying not to let the figure in front of him see the fear behind his words "And what do you want?"
"What I want is to provide help for you in this dire situation. And do believe me, I know exactly what happened, is happening and what is about to happen. After all, I've been in your shoes before"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" shouted Izuku "I asked, who are you?"
"I believe that actions speak louder than words" said the visitor, pressing buttons under his helmet. It opened up a little, and huge cloud of steam flew out of it. "But you probably knew that already. After all-"
The man in front of him removed his helmet, as the steam subsided.
"We are one and the same"
Izuku's eyes went wide as he gazed into the man's face.
A face... that was his own.
LINE BREAK
Izuku was clearly lost for words. After all, what are you supposed to think when a mysterious figure in an alleyway reveals itself to be you yourself?!
The man's face looked exactly like his own. Albeist, it looked a few years older.
He had more defined cheekbones and his mouth area was adorned by a green goatee.
The man chuckled, seeing his reaction.
"Yeah, I know. Must feel shocking, huh? To see yourself standing in front of you?"
Izuku, despite being absolute clueless, didn't lose his edge. After all, this could all just be a villain deception and the man in front of him was just a pretender. He had to test him.
"If you really are me, then you surely can answer a question only the real Izuku knows an answer to!"
"Ah yes, the good ol' reality check" said the man sarcastically "Sure, fire away"
Izuku pondered what to ask the man. He had to test his knowledge gradually. He might as well be a pretender with knowledge about him, so he had to be specific.
"What is our favourite food?" asked Izuku
"Really, food? That's the best you have?" asked the man, chuckling to himself "It's obviously Katsudon"
Ok, that was to be expected. After all, this was something that was not really a guarded secret.
"What was our makeshift hero name when we were in the kindergarten?"
"You really had to bring that up? I was trying to forget it" answered the man "It was "Small-Might", for some ungodly reason"
Ok, that checked out too. But again, he might have that prepared as well. He needed to ask something so specific that it might not come up during the fake's research.
"What is our favourite Pokemon?" asked Izuku
This was a tricky question. Because his favourite Pokemon was actually a build variant of a certain poke, and he would absolutely not guess this and cerainly not find that during his search and-
"A Physically Defensive Slowking with Regenerator, with Bold nature, 248 EVs in HP, 252 in Def, 8 in SpDef, with Scald, Psyschock, Toxic and Slack Off as moveset, holding a Psychium Z to dish out Shattered Psyche like there's no tommorow" answered the man in one breath.
Huh.
Huh..
Huh...
Yep, it was pretty much confirmed. The man standing in front of him was him allright.
Not only did he name the correct Pokemon, he named an entire set that Izuku was using in competetive matches. It wouldn't be one to come out on top of the search bar if he searched for it, as it was quite niche. So he was either him, or an omnipotent fake.
"So what, I finally convinced you?" asked the man in front of him "Will you put that watch down now and listen to what I have to say?"
Izuku nodded and pressed the button on the watch, and the shield retracted back.
The man wiped sweat off of his forehead "Whew, I almost thought we would need to throw hands so I could talk with you like a person. Good to see that you can listen"
"Ok, first of all, how is this possible?" asked Izuku, waving his hands "You are me, but... I am also me? How does it work?"
"Trust me, if I tried to explain this to you, your head would probably explode from all the info I would need to pass to you. All this "future" stuff and all. So it would be best to take it for granted"
"Now, I didn't come here to throw around science mumbo-jumbo. I came here to help you"
"Help me?" asked Izuku "With-"
"Yes, with those villains from the ambush" said the man, predicting Izuku's question "It's because I once were you that I know what to do"
"What about Ryukyu?" suddenly spoke Izuku "Is she-"
"Dead? No, not by a long shot" again cut in the man "But each second we stand here talking, the chances off her not turning up well are dwindling"
"S-so what do we do?" asked Izuku, anxiously
"This is very simple" responded the man "Just take my hand"
He extended his hand towards Izuku.
"If you take my hand we will go and relieve Ryukyu and then we can have some more chat. You surely would love a tip from an older user how to operate that thing on your wrist, wouldn't you?"
He would do whatever it takes to make sure that his mentor that he owes a number of his important hero skills to is saved from the danger.
That last part Izuku also wouldn't mind. After all, the future him had more experience with the Omnitrix and could help him get around that cursed randomizer.
He had no reason not to take the hand of future him. He stepped forward, about to shake his hand.
But at the last second, he noticed something about the man's outstretched left hand.
There was no Omnitrix on it.
He suddenly jerked away from him, earning a confused look in response.
He looked at the man's left wrist once again.
No, it was not possible for him to have the watch equiped. It would also not make sense to assume it was hidden under the man's armor, as the part around his wrist was peculiary thin and would probably be unable to hide an alien device such as this underneath.
And such as the revelation hit him, something new hit him. Or rather... old.
In that moment, he remembered the advice given to him some time ago by the representation of Rage and Agression inside of Alien X.
"Don't trust anyone, especially yourself"
The revelation and the cryptic advice suddenly mixed.
No, it was impossible for this to be a coincidence.
Why didn't he think of that sooner?
Some guy just strolls around in an empty alleyway and proclaims that he is him and he doesn't even check if he has an Omnitrix? How stupid was he actually?
Whoever this was, was certainly not him.
The man in front of him must have guessed the revelations Izuku just came to, as his face twisted in grimace.
"WHICH PART OF "TAKE MY HAND" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?" shouted the man, losing his cool "YOU WANT TO SAVE YOUR MENTOR OR WHAT?"
"Dont trust anyone, especially yourself" responded Izuku, gritting his teeth "Sounds familiar?"
The man's eyes went wide, before a smile plastered itself on his face. He started to chuckle hearthily.
"So, the old Bellicus managed to dance around Celestialsapien laws to save your skin, huh?" said the man, shaking his head "And to think I had to memorise all of this crap to try and get you to come with me peacfully. Since the jig is up, let's not hold the facade any more"
Izuku looked at the man in terror as his face contorted and changed shape. The youthful face he had just a second ago turned into a pale, wrinkled one, with dark circles over his eyes. He looked more like a certain Star Wars character than anyone else and definately not him.
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" shouted Izuku, preparing the watch to transform. Whatever intentions the man had, they certainly were mailicious.
"You will, whether you want or not!" shouted the man
No chance in hell was Izuku taking any chances with him.
He hit the shield as the hologram of Rath appeared. If he was to take the man down, he had to use his best.
In a flash of green, Izuku was replaced by an alien.
…
In this moment, he truly learned how canned fish felt.
Because just as they were confined in a tight can, Way Big was now confined in an alleyway, with not enough space to even move his fingers.
Seeing the boy's missplaced transformation, the man started laughing again.
"A To'Kustar?" asked the man, through his laughter "You're making it really easy for me"
Before Izuku had any time to try and free his limbs, the man aimed the gauntlet on his right hand towards him. And out of the gauntlet shot a purple bolt of energy.
When it initially hit Way Big, he hardly felt anything. It was as if a mosquito bit him.
But everything changer, when he noticed that the spot that was hit by the laser turned gray and begun to crumble. He watched with wide eyes as the effect spred to other parts of his body. And as soon as the last bit of his skin was covered by the gray, stone-like matter, his frame crumbled completely.
LINE BREAK
Way Big's collosal frame quite literally turned to ash. A rather big pile of ash.
A big pile of ash, out of which Izuku just emerged.
He dig his way out, both terrified and confused. What just happened? Way Big just disappeared by a single strike of his laser!
"What the hell did you do?!" shouted Izuku, kneeling in Way Big's ashes "What the hell did you do to Way Big?"
"I accelerated the aging of the To'Kustar DNA sample to the point of it's cells dying out, not being able to regenerate and multiply" responded the man, with a malicious grin "And what I did to this "Way Big" I will do to every single alien form, untill there's nothing left and you'll have no chance but to submit to me!"
"No chance in hell I'll do this!" shouted Izuku. He pressed the button on the watch and scrolled the shield a couple of times.
He hit the hologram of an alien he prayed to get.
In an another flash of green, Izuku's frame was replaced by a little, black creature.
"Yes, Buzzshock!" said the alien, before he turned into a jolt of electricity.
When he transformed into Way Big, his outstretching limbs tore open holes in the walls and in the concrete. And out of the said holes sticked energy cables. This was a crucial plan of his attack.
He couldn't get hit by the man's attacks, cause that was one ticket to get beaten. He needed to strike him, and strike him fast and efficietnly.
The man's armor was made of a metal-like substance, so if he was electrocuted by a strong enough current he would short circuit, or at least have his main weapon disabled.
Buzzshock entered the cables, rummaging through it.
He absorbed enough energy to make a clone of himself. He and his clone split ways going through the cables. They were preparing a double sided assault.
They knew where the man was standing. He didn't move an inch.
They rushed towards his location, gathering energy as they went. They needed enough of it to break through the concrete and execute the plan.
LINE BREAK
And as stipulated in the plan, they did just that.
They jumped out of the ground at the same time and accelerated at the man at a great speed, electricity prepared in hand.
What they didn't expect, was for the man to be completely unaffected by their attempts. The clone and the original looked in shock, as the man took full force of their attacks and didn't waver.
He seized their moment of confusion and grabbed both of them in each of his hands.
He forcefully slammed them together, fusing them back into one.
"How did you-" said Buzzshock
"You think I would come unprepared?" asked the man "You really thought I haven't been observing your progress this whole time, learning about your strenghts and weaknesses?"
Before Buzzshock had any time to try and fight his way out of the man's grip, the same gray, stone-like matter begun covering his body.
In a matter of seconds, he too has crumbled into a pile of ash, beneath the man's feet.
Out of the surprisingly large pile of ash crawled Izuku. He was in the man's arm's reach.
"Did you have enough?" asked the man with a patronizing voice "Will you come with me peacfully or do I have to repeat myself"
"I will..." said Izuku under his breath
The man put his head closer to him, trying to hear what he was saying.
"What did you say?" he asked
"I WILL NEVER COME WITH YOU!" shouted Izuku.
He slammed his hand on the shield, not caring for what alien it might give him. He was fighting to survive and his chances were thinning.
In a sudden flash of green, Izuku's frame was replaced by crystaline forme of Diamondhead.
The man in front of him repeated the attack that has worked on the previous two aliens.
But Diamondhead was unaffected.
"Diamonds don't particularly age well" said Diamondhead "What are you going to do now?"
"I will have to resort to a less civilized way" answered his enemy
Out of his pocket, he fished out some sort of longitudinal object, some sort of handle.
Upon pressing a button on the side of the handle, a blade of ligh blue matter mixed with the man's purple energy appeared. The shape and form of the blade reminded Diamondhead of the matter that he himself was made of.
So the man wanter a swordfight with an indestructible golem made of diamonds? Goes to figure that he didn't account for everything.
Forming a blade out of his right arm, Diamondhead rushed at his adversary. The adversary followed.
They collided in a powerful slash.
...
Diamondhead watched, terrified, as the man's blade cut clean through his arm, sawing it off.
The crystaline golem looked in terror at his crystaline stump where his hand used to be just a second ago.
"The only way to scratch a diamond is to use another diamond!" shouted the man, raising the sword over his head "And such is the case with a Petrosapien and Petrosapien weapons"
The man brought down the blade on the Petrosapien's right shoulder, completely slicing off the remains of his right arm.
He didn't lose momentum when swiping his blade at his frozen in fear enemy.
He turned around and in one swift motion parted Diamondhead's upper body from it's lower body in an arc slash.
The body of the parted Petrosapien fell to the ground, hardly able to move it's remaining left hand.
"Who... are... you?" managed to utter the badly fragmented golem
The man, once again, brought the sword over his head.
"I am Eon"
He uttered, before bringing down his blade at Diamondhead's head, lodging it deep inside.
After a couple of seconds, the yellow in the golem's eyes died out, replaced be emptiness.
Just as the did, his body exploded into parts and bits of crystaline matter.
There were singular pieces of crystal, that turned into different colours, mostly turning into a mix between crimson and pink.
Some larger parts of his former body turned into pieces of hard, dark-blue rock, losing it's crystaline shine and properties.
Upon it's body disintegrating, the symbol of the Omnitrix slid right off of his chest.
Eon walked over the broken pieces of Diamondhead's shattered body and picked up the symbol from the ground.
"Stubborn to the very end..." he muttered under his breath "He might not have joined me, but at least he left his watch behind. At least in that way, he was useful to me.
Eon examined the symbol he held in his hand.
It was nothing new to him. After all, he held mutliple ones in his hands over the decades. Every single one of the wielder that would rather die than join him.
But suddenly Eon was pulled out of reminiscing about his memories, as he felt something connecting with the back of the symbol he held in his hand.
He turned it around to see that a singular piece of crimson-pink crystal stuck into it.
And suddenly, another one followed suit.
He looked over to the remains of the slain Petrosapien.
The pieces that shattered upon his destruction
Were now floating.
And they were floating towards the symbol in his hand.
