Red Hero is doing well! Really well. So much better than most of my other fics which were around for a while. My Hero really is way more popular than AssClass. I feel disheartened. But that feeling goes away every time someone favorites or follows me and/or Red Hero! Anyways, here's the second Izuku.
Disclaimer: I don't own My Hero Academia. My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha.
"Izuku? Izuku, is that you?" Inko called when she heard the door open and close. She and her husband were in the kitchen, where Hisashi was using his firebreath Quirk to cook some kebabs on a couple of skewers. Her husband loved kebabs, almost as much as her son loved Katsudon. The two loved their meat.
Hisashi looked up when their son didn't give the expected response. He looked much like Izuku, but with pitch black hair, no freckles, and pale skin. He placed the kebabs down and walked out the kitchen. He frowned at what he saw when he looked to his right. His 7 year old son froze in the middle of trying to sneak into his room. His son had his hair shaved off the side, and there were bruises all over him. His eyes were swollen from crying, and he had a small nosebleed. Inko walked out after Hisashi and gasped in shock.
"My baby!" she cried as she hurried forwards and scooped Izuku up carefully. Izuku sniffed, and tears leaked out the side of his eyes. Hisashi walked over to his son and placed a hand on what remained of his fluffy hair. He gave his son and wife a hug.
"What happened Baby Dragon?" he asked.
"I-I fell down some stairs." Izuku said as he looked to the side.
"Baby Dragon, tell me the truth." Hisashi said sternly. Izuku sniffed again before breaking down. He blubbered about how the kids at school didn't like him since he was Quirkless, and how Kacchan was beating him up when they played Heroes and Villains because he asked to be a hero. The teachers didn't do anything to stop them. They just ignored Izuku. Hisashi's face darkened.
"Baby Dragon, you shouldn't have had to deal with this." he said. He stroked Izuku's head as he spoke. "Why don't we take a little vacation?"
"A vacation?" Izuku repeated as he looked up at Hisashi with wide eyes. Inko looked at him as well.
"Yeah, a nice vacation. How does America sound?" he suggested.
"America sucks." Izuku muttered.
"Yeah, it does." Hisashi nodded. "But every country has something that sucks about them. The US may have terrible bad, but it also has lovely good. Also, if we go to America, we can meet with some friends of mine."
"Some of your friends?"
"Yeah."
"Will we come back?" Inko asked with a serious look on her face, Izuku looking at her in curiosity.
"That depends on Izuku." Hisashi replied.
The family of three moved out the next week. Hisashi was being transferred to America anyways, so he figured he might as well take his entire family with him. Maybe if he thought that Izuku had good relations with Katsuki, he might not have thought to bring his kid along, but it was clear that such relations did not exist. Izuku was sad to be away from his 'friend', but it was clear that he was a little relieved. He was mostly afraid of having to deal with a whole new crowd, but he threw himself into it when Hisashi told his son that All Might went to America when he was younger. All Might was Izuku's hero after all.
He and his family were greeted by some of Hisashi's friends in America, but they were all adults with no kids of their own that Izuku could befriend. It was a year after the family of three moved when Izuku found someone very nice to him. His mother took on the job of a nurse, and his father was an engineer in charge of a big project. Izuku was ecstatic when he finally found out that the project was working with I-Island and being overseen by David Shield himself. David Shield! The man who made All Might's costumes! And Izuku got to meet Mr Shield when he and his parents had him over for a nice dinner.
"Mister Shield, I welcome you to my home. This is wife and child." Hisashi said in broken English as he gestured to said wife and child. Inko was very nervous while Izuku looked at David with stars in his eyes. David smiled at both of them.
"Hello! I am David Shield." he said kindly. Inko stuttered as Izuku broke out in mutters.
"Mister Shield? May I ask who this is?" Hisashi cut in and gestured to someone behind David's legs. Izuku looked and blinked. There was a girl around his age with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was hiding behind David's legs, but peering back at him.
"Ah, this here is my pride and joy." David said happily, clearly showing said pride and joy. He scooped the girl up.
"This is Melissa. My beautiful daughter." he said.
"H-hello!" Melissa greeted.
"Hello." Hisashi nodded back.
"My daughter is going to do everything she possibly can to become an incredible inventor. She wants to make gear for every hero possible." David gushed, embarrassing his daughter.
"Why not be a hero?" Izuku asked. Melissa looked down at him in confusion, causing Izuku to realize he spoke in Japanese.
"Oh, my daughter decided that she wanted to be a different kind of hero after she found out she was Quirkless." David responded in perfect Japanese. Hisashi and Inko's eyes widened, but not as wide as Izuku's. David and Melissa looked between them in confusion.
"You're Quilkress?!" Izuku finally yelled. Melissa flinched, and David's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Me too!" Izuku finished. Now Melissa's eyes widened, and David's eyebrows shot up.
"Oh, this is wonderful! These two can be friends!" Inko said happily, no longer stuttering. Melissa squirmed before being put down. She and Izuku looked at each other.
"Wanna be fliend?" Izuku asked in English.
"Sure!" Melissa said happily.
"Baby Dragon, why not show Melissa your room?" Hisashi suggested in Japanese. Izuku, happy to finally have a new friend, took Melissa's hand and pulled her through their house. David laughed when they left.
"Oh man! What are the odds?" he laughed.
"..." Hisashi stared at David, who began to feel a bit uncomfortable.
"What?"
"You knew how to speak Japanese this entire time."
"Well, er, uh, well…"
-Line Break-
The five people sat down to have dinner, which they all enjoyed very much. Inko pulled out all the stops and made a feast for them to enjoy. Melissa loved the pizza, Izuku devoured the pork, Hisashi inhaled the kebabs, and David got drunk. Though he sobered up enough to talk with Hisashi about the project that they were working on. They wanted to create a more effective version of their current power grid on I-Island. Melissa kept up with the conversation for a while, as did Izuku, but to a lesser degree. The younger boy eventually got bored, and Melissa allowed herself to be dragged to Izuku's room again, where the two spent their time drawing.
"Izuku, you have a lot of Uncle All Might toys." Melissa pointed out. Izuku froze.
"Oh yeah! Your dad is friends with All Might!" Izuku said. He immediately began firing question after question at Melissa, but stopped when she looked overwhelmed and told him he was talking in Japanese again. He blushed but Melissa just laughed.
"I like talking to you Izuku! Most people I talk to are adults, and they usually act really weird talking to me since my dad is their boss!" she assured her new friend. "It feels nice to talk to someone casually."
"Casuarree?" Izuku cocked his head to the side.
"It means friendly, or normally."
"Oh!"
"Do you want to be a hero Izuku?" Melissa asked as she pulled out some All Might figures and began playing with them.
"Yeah! I want to be helo so bad!" Izuku said excitedly. He looked down with sad eyes. "But a helo can't be Quilkress."
Melissa also frowned. It was something that the two were familiar with. Melissa and Izuku both wanted to be heroes when they were younger, but their dreams were broken due to their biology. It hurt, but they had to deal with it. Live with it.
…
…
…
…
Or do they?
"I'll make you a hero!" Melissa said determinedly. Izuku blinked and looked at her.
"Huh?"
"If you can't have a Quirk, I'll make you one!"
"Huh?!"
"I'll be the world's bestest inventor! And I'll make you a super cool invention to make you a hero!"
"Melissa…" Izuku began to tear up. "You do that fol me?"
"Yeah! I'll make you the best suit invention ever!"
"Thank you!" Izuku hugged Melissa as tears flowed from his eyes. "You vely good fliend!"
The two hugged for a few minutes as Izuku cried before Melissa pulled back slightly.
"Friend."
"Huh?" Izuku sniffed.
"You said fliend. It's friend." Melissa giggled.
"Fl, fl…"
"Ph, er, end."
"Puh end."
Melissa giggled again. She continued to help Izuku work on his L's and R's, unknowingly watched by the three parents from the door.
"Hisashi, I think we might need a new contract plan." David said with a smile. Hisashi had a wild grin, something he didn't always have.
"Agreed Mr Shield."
-Line Break-
And so, from that day on, Melissa and Izuku were best of friends. The relationship between the two was very different from the relationship between Izuku and Katsuki. These two were attached at the hip, working together day in and day out, as partners on equal footing. Melissa helped Izuku learn English, and Izuku helped Melissa learn Japanese. Izuku even began to study code. With the help of his dad, David, his friend, and his own enthusiasm, Izuku managed to excel very well. Melissa convinced her school to let her stay a grade behind. That way, she and Izuku could work in the same class together. It was when she was eleven and Izuku was ten when they made a robot together. It blew up in their faces, but they were proud of themselves.
When Melissa's father finally declared them skilled enough, the two really got to work. At twelve, Melissa began to design a suit. A suit which would increase Izuku's abilities. Along the way, she would create different weapons. Izuku began to train his mind, studying a variety of different heroes and Quirks, as well as training in hacking and programming. Hisashi also taught Izuku basic martial arts. But the suit was the real deal, and it soon became time to test it when Izuku was fourteen.
"Okay, here we go Izukun!" Melissa said as she prepared a pen and clipboard. Izuku was suited up and ready to go. The suit Melissa made for him was made of nanotech, which had a base look of a regular T-Shirt. When extended, it became a durable bodysuit with elbow-high gauntlets and boots, which looked similar to taped up limbs for martial artists. It also had a helmet which covered his head, which had the look of a motorcyclist's helmet, but with a knightly feel to it. Izuku looked at himself with a grin.
"This is when I become a real hero." he said to himself. He took a stance with his fists up near his chin, taking a few test jabs.
"Alright. First test!" Melissa said as she gestured to a few training robots, which took their stances. Izuku took his own stance with his hands up to his chin. The Quirkless teen shot forwards and threw a powerful punch. His fist tore through the metal armor, letting him grab what was inside and yank out a handful of wires. The robot spasmed before shutting down as Izuku landed away from it. Despite punching through metal, his hand didn't feel any pain, and it went through like air.
"It's working incredibly!" Izuku grinned before charging forwards. Another robot charged and threw a hook, but Izuku caught it and twisted around. He yelled as he flipped the robot and slammed it on the ground. The robot tried to get up but Izuku crushed its head with a fist. Izuku spun and threw a kick, tearing through the robot's arm and leaving it dismembered. Izuku yelled as he reared up and threw another punch. Suddenly, his arm slowed down, before stopping. Izuku's eyes widened when he realized that he couldn't move, leaving him open for a backhand that sent him sprawling on his back. The robot advanced before shuddering and shutting down. Melissa sighed in relief as she put down the remote before hurrying over to Izuku.
"Izukun, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Izuku grunted. Melissa punched in a code on her phone, causing the suit to retract into its shirt form. Izuku grunted as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Ugh, it looks like a battery issue." Melissa groaned when she looked over the data being shown.
"The suit ran out?"
"Yeah, it couldn't keep up with your fighting style."
"Dammit." Izuku stood up and pulled off the shirt, revealing a toned body from martial arts. Melissa averted her eyes with reddened cheeks, but Izuku didn't notice as he walked over to the table and put the shirt down. He gave it a look over.
"So, what do we do?"
"Well, we might need to find a replacement power source. We can't just charge it like a phone." Melissa said. Izuku nodded.
"So where are we going to find a good enough power source?"
"We can make one." Melissa said.
"You could." Melissa and Izuku turned around to see Hisashi walking in, wiping his hands on a towel.
"Or you guys can finally take a break."
"Dad, it's only been- woah. Nineteen hours." Izuku did a double-take as he looked at the clock. They had been putting the finishing touches on his suit for almost an entire day.
"Take a shower and a nap. Now." Hisashi ordered. Izuku and Melissa grumbled before walking out of the room. Hisashi sighed as he shook his head before walking out after them.
Melissa walked into her shower and turned on the water, letting it run over her. She sighed in frustration before squeezing a shampoo bottle onto her hair.
'The level of power I put into the suit is too much for the battery. I'm going to have to lower the power of the suit in order to decrease battery use, but then it'll be harder for Izuku to keep up with other heroes.' she thought. In the other shower, Izuku was scrubbing himself down with a sponge, also thinking.
'My fighting style is using too much power at once, so I'll have to rely less on speed and strength and more on strategic maneuvering.' Izuku thought to himself. The two continued to think of different ways to deal with their battery problem until they were in their room. When they were kids, they began bunking together, and haven't slept in different rooms since. But they couldn't sleep now. Their frustration made them feel like doing something. So they did.
"There's some strange readings around here." Izuku said as he and Melissa walked around, trackers in their hands. They were in a forest at a park, trying to find something to take their minds off their recent failure.
"Is it some kind of radiation?" Melissa wondered.
"I don't think so. There aren't any warnings indicating such." Izuku muttered as he hit his scanner a few times.
"I wonder what it is." the two continued to search the park, eventually managing to figure out the general area of the strange readings. Melissa suddenly stopped, and Izuku looked at her in confusion.
"Melissa?"
"Izukun, I'm sorry the suit didn't work." Melissa said bashfully. "I know that the suit is your ticket to being a hero, and-"
"Hey, it's fine." Izuku assured his friend. "The suit is practically perfect. We just need a good power source. One setback has never stopped us before, right?"
"Yeah, but…"
"And besides, it's not like you made the entire thing by yourself. I did the coding after all. It might've been my fault the suit used so much power, not yours."
"I doubt it, Izukun. Your coding is flawless."
"Well so is your inventing." the two smiled at each other. Suddenly, the device Izuku was holding beeped rapidly. The two looked at it in surprise before Izuku extended his hand. The device's beeps strung together to make one loud beep. Melissa got to her hands and knees and pushed through the tall grass. She scooped up several blue stones.
"What are these?" She wondered. There were four stones in total, each one in a strange oval shape with strange points sticking out.
"I don't know, but the energy reading is off the charts." Izuku said as he scanned the rocks.
"Let's take them back to the lab."
"That sounds like a good idea." Izuku said. The two walked off after putting the rocks in a small container. Inside, one of the rocks shifted.
-Line Break-
"Holy stinkin' super crap…" Melissa muttered as she finished looking over the data from scanning the rocks. Izuku was nearby, shutting down the machine they just used to scan them.
"What's up?"
"These rocks are basically batteries. They have enough energy in them to power a city for months!" Melissa exclaimed.
"No way. These little rocks? Then again, we do have crazy stuff of our own in this world." Izuku said as he tossed and caught one of the stones.
"Power a city. For months." Melissa repeated. The two looked at each other with wild grins.
It only took an hour for them to upgrade the suit. The regular shirt was upgraded to have a special harness, and a stone was selected and placed inside said harness. Izuku slipped the shirt on and pressed a button. The shirt expanded to become the suit, but this time with the harness.
"Okay, testing in 3, 2, 1!" Melissa said. Izuku pressed a button. And that's when it happened. Suddenly, the suit retracted into itself, harness and all. The suit became a small beetle-like device on Izuku's bare back between his shoulder blades. The two looked in alarm. The legs of the beetle retracted before stabbing into Izuku's back, causing him to yell in pain as blood dripped from his skin.
"Izuku!" Melissa raced over to try to wrestle the beetle off, but was sent flying with an energy pulse. She cried out as she slammed against the wall, but Izuku's own cries were drowning her out. The device was glowing before suddenly expanding. It became a completely new suit, with a black bodysuit and blue armor that covered the shins, arms, shoulders, and chest. His gauntlets took a smoother, clawed look, as did his boots. It had a helmet with two antennas sticking out the back and a Y-shaped visor. Finally, the beetle on Izuku's back grew greatly in size, with a pair of pincers positioned behind his head.
(Think of the regular Blue Beetle look but with the cool helmet from Injustice 2. The one with the yellow Y or V-shaped visor.)
With the suit created, it retracted into the beetle on Izuku's back, which shrank down to only cover the space between his shoulder blades. The legs pulled out, and Melissa, seeing this, ran over to grab the beetle and throw it across the room. She looked over the groaning Izuku's back, gasping at the sight of the six punctures.
"Oh no…" she put a hand on her mouth. The doors of the lab were flung open, and Hisashi and David charged in.
"Izuku!" Hisashi yelled in concern when he saw the wounds on Izuku's back.
"Melissa, what happened?!" David said as he fell to his knees next to his daughter and pulled her into an embrace. Hisashi also fell to his knees next to his son.
"W-we found some s-strange r-rocks in the forest. We thought we c-could use them to p-power the suit s-since they had s-so much energy radiating off of them…" Melissa stuttered.
"Strange rocks?" David looked at the table as Melissa pointed. He walked over and picked one of them up, examining it.
"What on Earth…?"
"David, Melissa." Hisashi's voice caught their attention. He sat back, stunned. The two scientists watched, also stunned, as the puncture wounds closed up. Soon, the only sign they existed were six faded marks, which also faded away completely. Izuku rubbed his back with a groan.
"Where's the suit, Melissa?" David asked his daughter urgently. Melissa pointed to where she threw it. David hurried over and paused at the sight of it.
"A beetle?" he wondered. He looked at the stones and the beetle before turning to the other three.
"Let's take this to my lab."
-Line Break-
The beetle passed through a large machine as it was scanned. David, Melissa, Hisashi, and Izuku watched through a thick sturdy glass. David looked at the readings of the machine before turning to another machine where the three stones were being scanned as well. He's been doing it for the past couple of hours. Izuku and Melissa were made to take a much needed nap, and now they're just waiting for the tests to be done to find out what the heck happened to their suit.
"Fascinating…" David muttered.
"What is it?" Melissa asked.
"First of all, these aren't stones."
"What?" Hisashi stood up.
"They're beetles."
"Beetles?" Izuku blinked.
"Yes. Look." David gestured for his daughter to look through a microscope. He took a small device and poked a stone with it. A light zap shocked it, and Melissa stared in shock as the stone opened and revealed itself to indeed be a beetle.
"If I'm a betting man, and I am at times, I'd say that these beetles are ones with Quirks."
"Amazing!" Izuku said as he flipped through a notebook.
"Where do you keep those?" Hisashi deadpanned.
"Not only do they produce high amounts of energy, they also have a sort of bonding nature to them."
"Like a parasite?"
"Not really. I scanned the beetles and ran several simulations just now. It looks like these beetles are bonding with hosts in a form of mutualism." David said.
"So they're helping the hosts too?"
"That's right. The hosts feed them nutrition, and it looks like these beetles can sort of, give, a Quirk. It's quite fascinating, and I'll need to keep running some tests."
"Wait, they can give Quirks?!" Hisashi exclaimed.
"So, Izukun has a Quirk now?" Melissa looked at Izuku with curiosity. Izuku frowned as he flexed an arm, trying to detect something. But their spirits were brought down by David shaking his head.
"Unfortunately, no. Not in the normal sense that is. It looks like the energy absorbing harness and the beetle's Quirk seemed to effect the effects of the Quirk. So, the thing that got the Quirk, is that." David pointed to the mechanical beetle.
"...the damn suit got the Quirk." Izuku hung his head. Melissa frowned and gave her friend a hug. It seemed like a cruel joke. But then Hisashi asked a different question.
"What do you mean, not in the normal sense?" the firebreather asked. Izuku and Melissa looked up.
"At the end of the day, a suit is still a suit. It can't give the beetle the nutrition it needs. Likely sensing this, the beetle somehow manipulated the suit to be able to connect to someone who can feed it.. It's not that the suit got a Quirk, but instead, it sort of, became, the Quirk." David walked over to an opening where the beetle was sitting and picked it up. He held it out to Izuku with a smile.
"This is your Quirk."
Izuku took the beetle in hand. It felt warm, familiar. Izuku blinked before slowly raising the beetle and placing it on his back. He felt a pressure between his shoulder blades, but there wasn't any pain. He turned around and showed the beetle on his back. He couldn't help but grin. Melissa and Hisashi were also smiling, though his father's was a little more cautious.
"I think it's time we ran some more tests."
So we have the Red Hood and the Blue Beetle in action! Now there's one more left. Who will it be? I wonder if you can figure it out. And if you haven't guessed already, this will be a Delissa pairing. Don't know if anyone called it that before, but it's what I'm calling it. For real now though, I'm not going to update either this or Red Hero until I update the other fics I said I would. As per the usual, leave a review! Azure out!