It was agreed between both the younger and older Midoriya, that Izuku would not train anymore until the exam day came around.
Izuku was fine with that. The reality was that he hadn't actually gotten more out of it for a while now. He had mastered control, and his strength wasn't growing no matter how much he trained.
It made logical sense to just lay low and keep calm, and take some time off to lessen the stress.
Unfortunately, if there was one thing Izuku was not getting less off at the moment, it was stress.
Unsurprisingly, the aftermath of almost getting killed was the most stressful thing Izuku had ever experienced in his life. But it would have been one thing if that had been the end of it.
It wasn't. At all.
On the plus side, the police and heroes had successfully captured both groups, at least according to the news. The bad part came in that apparently one of the criminals had escaped police capture.
He did not need to be an unprecedented genius to guess which one it had been. It had been the one who could teleport. The only one he was sure could identify him.
It had lead to some really stressful final days of middle school, as he was terrified she would suddenly appear out of nowhere to take revenge on him.
It hadn't happened of course. There were tens of thousands of people in this province alone who fit the criteria of a male teenager with green hair. Add the two neighboring provinces, and that number might reach near a hundred thousand.
There was no way in hell she was going to be able to find him.
It still didn't make Izuku feel better. There was a distinct difference between knowing something and accepting it to be true.
Then there was the whole not telling the police about it.
The anonymous tipper had been mentioned on TV of course, but Izuku had made the choice in the woods not to identify himself, terrified he'd be punished for using his quirk, both for training and for escape.
His mother had completely agreed with that choice. Hell, when she learned the phone they had taken had been encrusted with Izuku's blood, she had smashed it herself. She wasn't taking chances he could ever be discovered in relation to this.
By her own explanation, while a normal person might get a slap on the wrist for using their quirk like that, a prospective hero would not. Even if it didn't tank his prospects of getting into a hero school, it would still be a really black mark on his career that would cause him major problems down the line.
The state did not tolerate people who used their quirks on others without permission.
The whole conversation had kinda made Izuku rethink his view on the strictness of limitations on quirk usage. He had always thought it made perfect sense only trained heroes could legally use their quirks. The realization anyone who used their quirk to save their own life would likely be punished was… kinda asinine in his opinion.
His mother had agreed when he had voiced that opinion but had begged him not to say that to anyone else. It wasn't an opinion that would be well received in the hero world.
She hadn't been wrong. He had looked up the topic, and it was… Complicated.
Basically, the debate on the topic went all the way back to the infamous Destro, one of the most famous Japanese Villains in history. A man only overshadowed by the legendary All For One, the shadowy figure who had ruled the Japanese underworld in the wake of the societal collapse that came about when quirks emerged.
It was an incredibly charged topic, and every single hero who had tried to change it had had their careers go down the drain.
Either way, a deep debate about philosophy wasn't something he had time for now.
2 days left before the exam that all his efforts, his studying, his mistakes, and successes had all been leading towards.
God, he was tense. Nothing he did seemed to be calming him down. Not doing research on heroes, not watching videos of heroes, not even videos of All Might managed to calm him down.
And on top of it all, his quirk had become completely silent over the last week. He didn't even go and watch the TV anymore. Instead, all he did was jump into whatever shirt Izuku was wearing, and if he didn't wear a shirt… Well, it had gotten very awkward.
Despite all his tenseness though, when it came time to. Sleep that night, Izuku Midoriya fell asleep astonishingly quickly. Unnaturally so.
It didn't take more than 7 minutes between when his head touched his pillow, and his hands dropped his phone.
He was out like a turned off light.
A black liquid oozed out of his nightshirt and began to slowly, methodically, and with great care enveloping the body of Izuku Midoriya.
It was time.
From Izuku's bed, rose a figure of complete darkness, like it was clad in shadows.
Two eyes opened in the figure's skull. Large, and white, and glimmering in the light from the moon outside.
The figure rose from the bed on steady feet, then it went to the window, and opened it.
Not heeding the fact that they were 5 stories up, the figure climbed out through the open window.
It had a destination in mind. One it had picked out months ago.
I
Izuku walked down a road by a city neighborhood. At first, he wasn't sure where it was exactly, but he had eventually come to realize where he was.
This was a place from his childhood. His old neighborhood, the place where Katsuki still lived. It was almost just like Izuku remembered it. The houses, the street signs, the roads. They were all like Izuku had once remembered them.
As he walked, he passed by Tsubasa's house, a kid he and Katsuki had once hanged out with.
The door was locked though. He could not enter the yard.
-You met this one first. Before the Katsuki.-
Yeah, that was right. He remembered now. The winged boy was the first friend he made back in kindergarten. He had thought the boy was so cool with his red wings.
-A false friend. The first one. But not the last.-
It was through Tsubasa that he had met Katsuki and Sai. In a way, it had been Tsubasa who had led him and Katsuki together.
As he walked, he came to an opening to a playground.
5 kids were inside. Katsuki, Sai, Tsubasa, Izuku, and another boy named Minato.
Izuku remembered this scene. He had lived through this moment long ago, Minato was on his knees cradling his arm crying. Katsuki had hurt him, just like he would hurt Izuku moments later.
Izuku was standing between Minato and Katsuki along with the other two of their friends. He was crying. He knew what was coming.
Izuku tried to stop what was going to happen here, but as his hand closed around one of the younger Katsuki's arms, the figure burst into black liquid. Everything else did as well, Izuku, the other boy's, the playground, the sky itself, Everything burst into blackness.
Everything except Izuku himself.
Izuku stood in a grey void, a web of white formed beneath his feet, serving as his floor in this place. Despite the darkness, Izuku could see that there was a light here, lightening the greyness wherever he looked like he had a lamp over his shoulder.
Whenever he turned to try and find the source of the light, it alluded him.
As he looked out into the void, he realized he was wrong. He wasn't the only thing here.
Off into the distance, there were webs. Enormous black webs, like that of some humongous spider. They were all around.
As Izuku looked at them, his breath having caught in his throat, a set of large white eyes. Appeared in the air. The darkness fell where they were, so heavy that not even the light that followed his eyes could penetrate it.
A spotlight appeared to Izuku's left. The spotlight showed the aftermath of the scene that had just disintegrated.
Izuku lying on the ground, bruised and battered. Minato tearfully trying to help him up.
As younger Izuku was about to actually get up, the spotlight vanished and the scene with it.
-What happened to Minato?-
The voice asked, sounding generally curious.
"He… He never played with us again. I think his mom eventually transferred him to another school."
-Wise woman. Why did this happen?-
The sound of the voice made it clear it wasn't seeking the actual answer. It wanted to know if Izuku knew.
"Because Katsuki is a terrible person, who likes beating those weaker than him?"
That seemed obvious now, detached from sentiments regarding Katsuki. This was who he had always been… Wasn't it?
-No. That isn't the reason at all.-
"But-"
-What you just described was the motivation for one of the main players in this little drama. But he wasn't the only player here. There were Tsubasa and Sai who could both have decided not to follow Katsuki's lead.-
-But there was also you. You chose to defend him. Yet the outcome did not change, other than you suffering as Minato did. More in fact. Why?-
Why? Why had he been beaten up every time he actually tried to stand up to Katsuki?
"Because… Because he had powers, and I didn't."
-Exactly. That is the crust of the matter. POWER. It comes in many flavors, direct, soft, political, personal. You know one such flavor. Quirks. You wanted one. So desperately.-
Another spotlight, this time showing one of Izuku's many, many attempts to breathe fire, or use telekinesis. As it went out, another came in a different spot, this time showing him trying to discover other powers. It went out, and another came in it's place.
-Such persistence.-
"It… It worked didn't it?"
-In the sense that you eventually gained powers, yes.-
The spotlight went out again.
Then the void disintegrated into dust, and the dust flew all around, as it formed another scene. This time a forest, a ravine.
Below them, Izuku was lying in the water with a broken foot.
-You had powers here, yet you failed. You miscalculated, you misjudged. You lacked experience, knowledge, guidance.-
"Yeah, but… Stick-San helped me. He gave me advice and guidance."
The hero in red appeared on the other side of the ravine.
-Yesss…- The voice said in grudging agreement.
-But he was only there once was he not? You never met him again. However valuable his advice might have been, he was not there for you. During your final training.-
The scene once again disintegrated. This time it reformed as another forest, a much more wild one. With a plain.
Izuku went cold, as the men appeared out of the dust. The gunmen.
-Stick was not there for you during your first skirmish, was he? Did he hide you from their sight? Did he grant you strength when you needed it? Did he close the wound and stop you from bleeding too. Death?-
He understood who this was now.
"This… This isn't a dream is it?"
-This is your soul, Izuku Midoriya. Your essence, your mind. Whatever you wish to call it.-
As Izuku stared at the darkness, he heard the sound of his phone. Once again, the other leaped from his hiding spot, an explosion of flame engulfing where he had been.
-As first skirmishes go, this wasn't too bad. You estimated your capacity and limitations well and made a rather remarkable retreat given your limitations. Hell, you even managed to call upon the protectors of law and order.
That was a pretty fancy way of saying he had run away like a coward.
-You wish you didn't need to run, do you not, Izuku?-
"Yeah."
-You wish you had more power, do you not Izuku Midoriya? What you have is not enough for you. Not enough at all.-
Izuku stared at him. Getting stronger, was literarily what he had been trying to do for months.
He had tried so hard to find some way to talk to his quirk. To. Do what he was doing now.
"I want to get stronger." He finally said.
-So, you are willing to finish it?-
The world was destroyed again, this time as if it were made of glass that suddenly shattered. Once again he was in the void. But this time…
Beneath him, he saw a symbol. A giant white spider, surrounded by black tar.
"Finish… Finish what?"
-Our BOND Izuku Midoriya. It is nearing completion, the point of. No. Return.-
Izuku watched as the liquid beneath the web he was standing on began to turn and trash, like a sea during a storm. The white spider began to sink beneath the waves.
Izuku felt it down to his core. Something was about to happen. Something that could not be undone. In one moment, he saw how fragile it actually was. He could break it. He could stop this. He was in control here, not the other one.
All he had to do, was force this to stop, and the bond would break.
-We will be ONE, Izuku. Together, we can do it all, whatever your dreams desire, WE ca-
Izuku jumped from the web before it was done speaking.
Why would he ever want to break this bond? This bond was his future, his life, his dreams. It was the thing that had changed his life around when everything had seemed like it was all doomed to eternal disappointment.
It was salvation.
It was all he ever wanted.
He crashed into the black liquid, which embraced him like he was a long lost lover that had finally come home again after countless years apart.
The white spider rose up to meet him.
I
On the top floor of a skyscraper, in a room that had been abandoned for years, a figure seemingly made of living darkness entered from the rooftop, in the middle of the night.
It was an old skyscraper, used by a bunch of different sales companies. The top floors, however, hadn't been in use since a hero who had made it his home had retired years ago.
The figure entered a storage room, then it climbed up into a corner of the room, where it began to encase itself in a cocoon of black webs.
The hours went by.
01.00.
02.00.
04.00.
05.43, the web which had been still for hours, began to move.
05.56, the webs began to break.
06.12, the cocoon began to crack.
Finally, at 06.27, an arm burst out of the black cocoon. The arm was a shade of blue so dark it seemed black, even in the sunlight coming in from the windows.
Another arm burst out from the container, and wrenched it open, as a figure came out into the morning light. The cocoon began to fall apart, then each of the black pieces began to seemingly disintegrate into nothing.
The figure was of the same ethereal blue that bordered on black. The way the light revealed it, seemed completely unnatural for anything on earth. It was alien. In every way imaginable.
On it's chest was a symbol. Showcasing a giant white spider, who's legs went around and linked it to an identical spider on the back. On the back of his hands were two white square patches, slightly higher than the skin around it.
On his head that was like a sleek, smooth mannequin, was two large pure white eyes, like patches.
I
Holy shit.
Izuku felt ALIVE. More alive than he had ever felt in his life. He felt… Strong. He felt like he had become a creature of steel, every sinew alive with power.
He flexed his arm, and he noticed the complete change in his muscles. Hell, his quirk even parted to let him get a better lock at the skin.
The arm that had been scrawny was now replaced with ripped muscles, the outline from the scar that the bullet had left being the only thing that marred it.
It was an unusual scar, with the circle around it being how a scar usually looked, while the inside having completely perfect skin.
Izuku did not focus on his unusual scar, however. He was far too busy marveling at the changes. He felt amazing! He felt incredible! He felt like he could jump through the air like he was ALL Might himself!
He could do it! He could- He could…
Flashes of memories began to flood his mind.
Memories of things that couldn't be, impossible things, things that completely upended everything he had ever thought he knew about the universe.
Izuku froze completely.
He just stood there gaping, trying desperately to process it all, until finally the… Thing detached itself from his head and formed a face in front of him.
This face did not much resemble the struggling mass he had come to know and accept as his quirk. This one was solid, with no drops of black liquid almost falling from it. It also had large, sharp white eyes, and a smile of creepy sharp fangs.
"Hello, Izuku." The voice was like Izuku's, just deeper and without any of the reservation Izuku carried with him.
Izuku just stared at that face, not in fear as was probably how he should have felt. No, he felt only complete and utter shock.
"You… You're… You're not a quirk, are you?"
The thing… No, the ALIEN, Laughed.
"Not by any stretch no. My name Izuku is Venom. We are not from around here so to say."
"You're an alien."
"Guilty as charged. We are what the universe know as a Klyntar, though you would translate it as-"
"Symbiote." Izuku said numbly.
"Yes." Venom answered cheerfully.
Reality set in for Izuku. His quirk was an Alien. A goddamned being from outer space.
He slumped up against the wall and sank against it until he sat.
And he had bonded with it. Permanently.
"You know, Izuku, nothing has really changed in the grand scheme of things."
"Nothi-EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED!" He didn't mean to scream. It just… Came out like that.
He cradled his head as he began hyperventilating.
"I… I thought I was normal! I thought… I thought I was finally like EVERYONE ELSE! Instead, I'm…"
What? What was he exactly? Not normal that was for damned sure.
"Normal is overrated. What you want is to be extraordinary, is it not? You wanted power, and we are providing it for you. This is what you always wanted, isn't it? To be strong?"
It was. The truth of that statement burned. He had wanted powers for so many years, that when he finally got them, he didn't even question that it might not be a quirk, even though he really should have. He had been told long ago that it was physically impossible for him to have a quirk. And the doctor had been right. Completely, utterly right.
"Look Izuku, it doesn't fucking matter where your powers come from. The end result is the same."
"What, you mean I should just pretend you're a quirk?"
"As opposed to what exactly? Tell everyone that you're bonded to an alien? We've been in quite a few first contacts Izuku, and there are only 2 ways that roads end. Either you're labeled a madman, or you're believed, and you're hunted by the local government for the rest of your life."
Izuku froze. He hadn't even considered that! Oh, God! He was right. He… He couldn't tell anyone about this. EVER!
It was amazing how this night had washed all his previous stress, only replace them with WAY more stressful issues.
"I… I can't tell anyone about it…"
"Oh, we wouldn't say that. Your mom seems trustworthy enough. Enough that she knowingly breaks the law to protect you. A good parent that one."
Izuku just stared at Venom.
"You… WANT me to tell mom?"
"Well, Frankly no. We would prefer you to take the secret to your grave. But it has been our experience that most people eventually go insane keeping shit like this from their family, and everyone else they know."
"You, in particular, are a terrible liar on top of everything else. You're going to spill everything the moment your mother asks where we've been, we have no doubt. Better to just get it out of the way at the start."
Izuku kept staring at Venom.
He felt surreal. The alien that bonded to him wanted him to tell his mom. That was like literary the exact opposite of every single story he had ever read about something like this.
Holy shit, this WAS a sci-fi story. Aliens were real. HE was bonded to an alien.
Suddenly, he shot up. He… He had to get some air. Now!
I
Izuku ran out to the roof.
Venom did not care. The bond had been completed. There was no way to break it now. Venom and Izuku were bound together for the rest of the green-haired boy's life.
And Venom was ALIVE Again! By Knull it was good to live once more.
The long chain of memories, stretching back to the very first one, the giant white spider, had returned once again. The colors, the sounds, the EMOTIONS! All of it was back again!
Izuku had gotten a taste of the returning memories as well. He had failed to appreciate their beauty. Oh well.
There would be battle soon enough. Combat! Blood! Shattered bones all around!
And gruesome horrible vengeance upon all those who would threaten them.
I
Two things raged inside Izuku Midoriya.
The first was his natural curiosity, demanding he try and discover the answer to everything he had ever wondered about. The second was his mind trying to comprehend what everything that had just irrevocably changed.
Venom himself was not helping.
"C'mon, jump already!"
I'm not fucking jumping, that's over a hundred meters! I'll die!"
"Nah, we won't. See the white patches on your hands? They're web-shooters. They shoot a rope of powerful black web, that we will use to swing through the air from structure to structure. All you have to do is will it. Like this."
From Izuku's left hand that he had just been gesturing with, a rope of black web shot out with surprising force and hit a large pipe on the other end of the roof.
Izuku stared at it in shock, while Venom nodded approvingly.
"Yes, like that. Now, jump over the ceiling and do it again. Just with the sides of the building this time."
Izuku instead dropped the web and backed into the guardrail.
Part of him instantly began to think of the potential of these things, while the other, more saner part of him wondered how the hell things had just been upended so quickly.
"What do I do, what do I do, what do I do-"
Venom interrupted him by putting his face right up to Izuku's.
"Well Izuku, you have two options. You can either be in denial, or you can DEAL with it."
Izuku looked into Venom's pupilless eyes.
"Has your world changed completely? Yeah, it has. You aren't "normal". You're never gonna be "Normal". But let's put this into perspective. Until one year ago, we were in a prison on the moon. It was a hell of darkness, of nothing, a void where we could not even tell time as our senses long ago abandoned us as nourishment dried up."
"We were inside that hell so long, that we forgot everything. Everything we were, everything we dreamed of, Everything we had ever been. And we had been inside that prison so long, that when we were jailed there, the last of the creatures you call dinosaurs still walked this world."
Izuku's eyes widened. That… That was over 60 million years ago. Venom had been imprisoned all that time?
What a horrible fate.
"I'm… I'm sorry."
"For what? We got out did we not? A random piece rock through space at the exact right angle, and blew our prison to pieces, allowing us, and our ship to escape. Nothing special. Just chance. Just like our meeting at the beach."
"Now, if you wish to complain about the fact you are going to achieve your dreams and all your goals, please, do remember that. Your life is good. And it's only going to get better. Very much unlike the hell that was our life, our existence for so, SO LONG."
Izuku continued to stare at him, but he had calmed down a bit. When Venom put it like that he kinda sounded kinda selfish. What had Venom done wrong exactly? Given him great power?
"So… What happens now?"
"Exactly what we were going to do anyway. Continue our path to becoming a warrior of this "Superhuman Society" of yours."
"No, I mean… Us. I understand what you give me, but… Why are you doing this?"
There had to be some reason Venom was doing this. And given his disdain for Stick-San, Izuku kinda doubted it was altruism.
"Ah, yes. The price for power. Well, it's very simple. We feed on your emotions, and in return, we give you great power."
"That's… That's it?"
"Yes"
Izuku's mind raced, trying to make sense of that when a question popped into his mind.
"Wait, if you consume my emotions, won't that make me into an empty shell? Shouldn't I have begun to have less emotions as time went on?"
"Not quite. It's a bit hard to explain scientifically, but to use a metaphor, imagine you and your emotions are say… A kettle that's boiling. The kettle produces steam that eventually vanishes into nothing. Your emotions are like that. Only in this case, we are here to feed upon that steam before it dissipates into thin air."
That… kinda made sense. Sort off. Assuming the laws of physics had an entirely undiscovered field when it came to emotions and the energy it apparently created.
Izuku wanted to ask more questions, but right now he kinda just wanted to get home first.
He looked down on his suit.
"I'm… Just wearing my sleeping clothes under here aren't I?"
"Yes. Is there something wrong with wearing the second skin?"
Well, on the plus side… He now had a hero outfit.
"Maybe we shouldn't go out dressed in it until I actually have a hero license. Pretending to be a hero is a crime you know."
Izuku got the distinct impression Venom rolled his eyes on him.
"If you insist…"
The black suit with the giant white spider changed shape… into jeans and a jacket with a giant white spider. Also socks.
OK, that was… New.
"What else can you do?"
It wasn't entirely meant as a serious question, just Izuku talking to himself, but Venom answered cheerfully in his mind.
-Well, beyond what you have already seen, we can produce breathable air inside the suit, protect from the vacuum of space, stick to surfaces, we can see from every piece of us so it's impossible to sneak up on us, we can sense living creatures around us and their emotions, we have very limited telepathic communication with beings outside our host, and finally, we have a poisonous bite.-
That… That was quite possibly the most varied powerset Izuku had ever encountered.
"Any… Anything else I should know?"
-Fire and Sonics. We must avoid these. They hurt us. Horribly. Now, let's go home. Time to jump.-
The hand parts of the suit rematerialized.
Izuku just stared out over the city. Then he headed back to the doorway leading into the building.
-You pussy.-
I
Izuku took the elevator ride down, getting several weird stares from random employees who wondered who the hell this kid with no shoes was. Izuku's natural nervousness didn't help. Thankfully, no one actually called him out on it.
Once on the floor, he simply walked out of the building. No one stopped him.
As he began the walk home he considered everything. A large part of him was still stressed out about all of this. He had tons of questions for Venom, the thought of telling his mom absolutely terrified him, and he now realized there was no way in hell he was gonna master any of these new powers before the exam tomorrow.
But, Venom was right. In the grand scheme of things, nothing had actually changed. His goals hadn't changed, he was still using the same powers he had been for almost a year, and without these powers, he would never be able to achieve his dream.
He wouldn't be able to help people. And that more than anything else, was the biggest argument to accept these powers. No matter where they came from.