Chapter 1: Heroes Past and Present

Humanity has always had difficulty with equality. Equality was something that was rarely given away. It was something that people had to fight for. African Americans had to fight for it, even after slavery was removed. Women fought to have the same rights as a man. Even the Bible speaks of a fight for equality. Moses fought the Pharoah so his people could be free to live their lives.

Then the evolution of quirks appeared. People born with extraordinary abilities. The first few where amazing, and left the world in awe.

However as the saying goes: With great power, comes great responsibility. Many of those with power decided that they could take what they want, do what they want. Simply because they could.

But not everyone was so selfish. Soon everyday people began using their quirks to combat these villains. And soon began the age of heroes. Being a hero became a legitimate job.

The majority slowly shifted from quirkless, to those who had quirks. Eventually the balance was very heavily in favour of those with quirks. Eighty percent of the world's population now has some sort of quirk.

So now the latest fight for equality, is for the quirkless. Sure, they have the same rights. Yeah, they aren't slaves. They are just simply ignored for the most part. Many people don't even realize they're doing it. It's just so easy to ignore someone who has no way of sticking out.

Even though it was illegal to do so, many people made quirkless lives hell. Refusing them jobs, abusing them, abandoning them. People often discriminated them.

This was the life of one Izuku Midoriya. As a preschooler, he was full of life and eagerness to be a hero. He wanted to be like those great heroes who always saved the day. He was going to use his quirk to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. Or so he hoped.

Unfortunately his quirk hadn't shown up yet. Most quirks made their appearance before the individuals 4th birthday. Izuku had just celebrated his 5th. Maybe celebrated is the wrong word to use here. He spent most of the day trying in vain to activate some sort of ability, any ability. He tried shooting fire, lifting things with his mind, even punching his wall until his knuckles bled. No quirk.

His mother finally decided to take him to see a specialist. He was a polite enough man. However it was easy to see he wanted to be anywhere but here.

After a multitude of tests, the doctor sighed heavily and turned towards the Midoriyas. "After nearly every test in the book, I have come to the conclusion that your son is quirkless"

It felt like the whole world had came crashing down upon them. After a moment of stunned silence she finally managed to find her voice."Qu-qu-quirkless? Are you su-sure?"

The doctor again sighed heavily, as if it was an inconvenience explaining it to her "We ran every test we could, from blood tests, stress tests, X-rays and we even had someone here who's quirk is to feel other quirks around him. Every test said the same thing, your son is, and most likely will always be quirkless."

"Oh…" She turned to look at her son, and what she saw tore at her heart.

Izuku was broken. There were no tears. No sobs. He didn't even blink. He just stared at the floor, not making a sound.

But inside he was screaming 'No! It can't be! Please! Anything! I don't care if it's weak! I just want to be a hero!' His body started to tremble. His dreams were crushed….

'No! I won't give up!'

" -uku, honey? Are you ok?"

Oh! His mom was trying to talk to him. He glanced up at her worried face. She cared about him so much. There was no way he was going to make it worse for her.

"Yeah, mommy. I'm-I'm fine. I j-just want to g-go home"

"Ok honey. If your s-sure." She looked back at the doctor, whom was barely paying any attention at this point. "Th-thank you for the h-help doctor." Startling him out of his own thoughts.

"Hmm… oh yes. Of course. No problem " he barely even acknowledged as they stood up and left.

Even though the doctor said he was and always would be quirkless, Izuku couldn't help but continue dreaming of being a hero. Once he and his mother returned home, he ran to the computer and played the same video he had watched a hundred times.

"Hahaha. It's fine now. Why? Because I am here!"

It was the debut video of Japan's number one hero All Might. He had saved a hundred people in under ten minutes. It was simply amazing.

All Might always saved the day and he always had a huge smile on his face. Bringing hope to those in need and terror to those whom would pray on the weak.

"Really honey, that video again?"

His mother had quietly walked up behind him. Worried that he would shut the world out.

"It's All Might, mommy. He always saves everyone. I want to be just like him"

"You still want to be a hero?" She couldn't believe it. Barely an hour ago her son was told he would be powerless in a world full of super-humans.

"Y-yeah. I-I want to make everyone feel safe. I want to be a hero." His confidence growing with each word. "I can still be a hero, right mommy? E-even without a quirk?"

'Oh Izuku' how could she let her son be a hero. It was a dangerous profession, in a dangerous world. "I-I'm so s-s-sorry Izuku baby."

She grabbed her son with all her might. Holding him tight to her. She wanted nothing more to protect him.

'Not even mommy believes in me?' Izuku thought his world had been crushed at the doctor's. Now he felt it all over again. Only now it was worse. Even his mother had no faith in him. Maybe he really was useless.

Somehow word had gotten out that Izuku would never get a quirk. As he walked to class he could hear the whispering.

"He's quirkless."

"Wow, he's so weird."

"Freak."

He even heard some of the teachers talking about how weird and unnatural it was. All day long he listened to the quiet voices.

"DEKU! IS IT REALLY TRUE YOU'RE A WORTHLESS, QUIRKLESS FREAK!?" Okay so maybe not all the voices were quiet.

Izuku quickly spun around to see his best friend, slash biggest bully, Katsuki Bakugo. He was stomping towards him, with small pops and crackles coming from his hands.

Bakugo was one of the first in his grade to get their quirk. He could actually sweat nitroglycerin, and could detonate it at will. Creating explosions in the palm of his hand. It was equal parts flashy, destructive, useful and amazing. And everyone let him know that. He was showered in praise and told he would be the next great hero.

Now normally praising a child is great, however now his ego was enormous. He thought everyone was below him. They were just pebbles in his path to greatness. If anyone did get a powerful quirk, he quickly showed them his was better.

"ANSWER ME NERD!" Izuku flinched. 'uh-oh I was too busy in my own head to answer him.'

"Kacchan, hey sorr-"

"I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLONG ME THAT! JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION!" Bakugo grabbed his shirt by the collar and brought Izuku's face up to his own.

Izuku felt himself getting smaller in front of the explosive child's anger. Even though Kacchan was only slightly taller then himself, he felt like the boy towered over him.

"Y-y-yes." He said in the quietest of whispers. "I-i-it's t-true."

"HA! You really are a worthless Deku aren't you."

Somehow those few words hurt more then anything else he'd been through in the last 24 hours. It was a huge sucker punch straight to the gut. Taking all the self worth he had and crushing it.

"At least now you'll give up being a hero, you stupid nerd!" He roughly released Izuku so that he'd fall to the ground.

"I-I can still b-be a hero" This was one thing even Bakugo couldn't take from him.

That was the wrong thing to say. Bakugo's face suddenly became one of pure rage. "YOU'LL NEVER BE A HERO DEKU! ONLY SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME COULD BE A HERO!"

Bakugo's hands started to pop and crackle with mini explosions. Suddenly his face changed from fury to a sinister smirk. "So, you want to be a hero Deku?"

Something about that face told Izuku he should back down. But he just couldn't do it. This was his dream. He would be a hero, no matter what anyone said.

"ANSWER ME NERD!"

"Y-y-y-yes" he whimpered.

"Well then let's play hero. I will even let you be the hero this time." He grabbed Izuku and lifted him from the ground.

"R-r-really?" Izuku couldn't believe it. Kacchan wanted to play hero with him?

"Let me show you what a villain will end up doing to you. YOU USELESS DEKU! DIE!" With that he placed his palm against Izuku's chest and releases his biggest explosion he could.

While in reality it wasn't that large of an explosion, it still hurt…. a lot. And was loud. At first his ears rang so loudly he couldn't feel anything. Then the pain set in. He felt like he was on fire. He had once burnt his hand on the stove. This was much worse.

As his hearing slowly came back he could hear a scream get louder… Wait… That was him screaming. 'GOD IT HURTS!'

"What's going on here?!"

Izuku looked up to see the teacher running up to them.

"Deku here said he wanted to practice being a hero with me. So we were practicing" Bakugo lied smoothly. "He said he was going to be a hero, so I figured he could take my strongest blast, like a real hero." He said the last part with a slight sneer on his face.

The teacher either didn't notice or didn't care. With a heavy sigh she turned to Izuku. "You should be more careful Midoriya. Your lucky you weren't seriously hurt."

Izuku couldn't believe it. He couldn't stand! He could barely hear or breathe! Yet she said this wasn't serious. Worse she was saying it's his own fault. 'But I didn't do anything! He attacked me!' he wanted to scream. But all that came out was a sob "O-hic-okay"

Without even seeing if he needed medical help she just walked away. 'I can barely hear, my shirt has holes in it and I'm got burn marks on my chest! Why doesn't she care?'

"Tch! See that Deku? No one cares about a quirkless idiot like yourself." Bakugo stood over him with a smug look on his face. "One of my blasts and you're on the ground crying like a baby. How do you think you would do against a real villain? REMEMBER YOUR PLACE DEKU!" With that he stomped away.

'No Kacchan. I won't give up! I will be a hero.' Even if he couldn't find the strength to say it aloud, he still felt it with all his heart.

When he got home that night, his mother could tell something was off.

"Izuku honey, are you ok?"

He flinched at those words, and his mother didn't miss it. "I'm ok mom. I just got really dirty today. I think I need a bath before dinner."

"Oh? Okay, just give me a sec and I will run one for you."

"No!"

'Okay that was a little too loud' Izuku cringed inwardly.

"I-I mean…. I-I w-want to do it m-myself."

This sent alarm bells ringing in her ears. He has never done something like that before. 'Why now? And why was he so quick to speak up? Was it because I didn't say he could be a hero? Is he trying to prove he can take care of himself?'

"Oh? Um okay Hun if that's what you want."

He quietly sighed and thanked her as he ran off to the bathroom. He was afraid of running it too hot and hurting himself, so instead he accidentally made it too cold. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he first sat in it. But it did feel nice on his burns.

Unknown to him however, his mom had came to see if he needed help. She couldn't help but tremble at the sight of the marks on her baby boy. 'My baby, what happened to you?' She didn't understand. Why would he hide this from her?

She decided she had already pushed him too far lately. There was no way she could ask him what happened without upsetting him more. So she quietly went back to making them dinner. 'Definetly a katsudon kind of night' she thought to herself. After all it was his favourite. Maybe it will be enough to cheer him up.

Five years past like this. Izuku being dragged down by the words of his classmates, jeering at him. Calling him names when the teachers weren't around. Sometimes even in front of the teachers. They never did anything anyways. So why should they stop. After all, the teachers let Bakugo get away with physically assaulting him on a nearly daily bases.

At home wasn't much better. His mom meant well. She just went about it all wrong. She always fretted over him. Double checking almost everything he did.

At the same time she also tried to not react to the marks he came home with on a nearly daily basis. It was a constant whiplash. One moment a helicopter parent the next moment she was clearly overlooking the burns, scrapes, bruises even the odd sprained ankle.

His life consisted of moving from one pain to the next. Emotional pain to physical and back again. It's a wonder he had the strength to go on. Eighty percent of quirkless people commited suicide before the age of eighteen. Of the twenty percent remaining, half would turn to crime. He refused to be a part of either of those statistics.

The only source of light in his dark life, was heroes. Whether it was watching them, studying their quirks or dreaming of one day joining them. It didn't matter, he loved heroes and what they stood for.

Without friends he had plenty of time to complete his homework and get ahead of everyone. So during class he would dream of being a hero. Studying famous villains and thinking on how he would beat them.

After class he would do his best to dodge Bakugo and his flunkies. More often then not, he failed. Bakugo was just too fast and often caught him before he even left the school property.

Once he got home, he would quickly finish any school work and then jump on the computer. He would look for any hero news he could. Not just in Japan, but around the world. Or at least anywhere that had news in English. He would study their moves, their quirks and even how they interacted with their fans.

'Some heroes just aren't meant to be celebrities' was a thought he often had after seeing some of the more…. abrasive heroes. Such as Endeavor. He had met him once. There was a hero he actually hoped he never met again.

Even when he did leave the house, trouble seemed to follow him. Either he would run into his teachers or classmates and he would have to hear the same comments all over again. Sometimes he ran into Bakugo. Those were the worst days. He would wait until Izuku was isolated and then he would strike. Calling him a useless Deku, burning his clothes, and beating him down. Izuku was sure he even cracked a rib once.

However looking back Izuku might even have to thank Bakugo. Because one day Bakugo chased him into a peculiar store, that would change his life forever.

Izuku ran as hard as his 10 year old legs could carry him. Bakugo was hot on his heels. It had been a while since Izuku had seen him this furious. Then again, it might have actually been just the tiniest bit his fault this time.

Bakugo had already beaten him up earlier today and it had put Izuku in a foul mood. So he went for a late night stroll hoping to clear his head. However his habit of muttering to himself got him into trouble….again. He had angrily muttered about a dumb, exploding, angry Pomeranian...just as said said boy walked around the corner.

"GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE DEKU!" Bakugo's crimson eyes gleaming with pure rage. His was baring his teeth in a vicious snarl.

"I-I'm sorry Kacchan!"

"STOP FUCKING CALLING ME THAT DEKU! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

'Ok yeah, Kacchan is pissed...well more pissed then usual.' Izuku looked for any public place. Somewhere that Bakugo couldn't couldn't unleash his rage. But at this time everyone had closed for the night.

Just before Bakugo could grab him, Izuku ducked down an alley and Bakugo overshot him and crashed into some garbage cans. When Izuku looked up he realized it wasn't an alley, just a very narrow street with its own stores.

'Please let one of them be open' he begged every god he could think if. He tried a few doors, but none of them budged.

"DEKU! NOW I AM REALLY GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"Oh god please be open"

He grabbed onto the next handle...and it moved! 'I made it! I'm not going to die.' Izuku pulled himself inside and almost slammed the door shut in his haste. Peeking through the window he saw Bakugo storm by checking every nook and cranny for his quarry.

"Excuse me, young man. Can I help you"

"Eep!" Izuku squeaked as he turned to see who spoke.

Coming from behind the counter was an elderly gentleman. He stood with a slight hunch, and walked with a small cane. His short cropped hair was a dark grey, with strip of pure white by each of his temples. He was dressed smartly, with a white long sleeved dress shirt and a black vest over it. Grey dress pants flowed down to his shiny black shoes. He also had a pair of reading glasses on a chain around his neck and what appeared to be a pocket watch attached to his vest with a gold chain.

"I said 'Can I help you?' I'm just about ready to close but if you need something I'm sure I could help." His voice was smooth and friendly, almost humourous. Like he was constantly thinking about some inside joke.

"Oh! Umm sorry. I-I was j-just trying t-t-to get -"

"Get away from a bully?" The man seemed to immediately know what Izuku's problem was.

"Y-yeah. How d-did you kn-know?"

The man simply laughed for a moment and then looked at Izuku with a gleam in his eyes. "Your not the first kid to run into a comic shop to avoid a bully, although you are the first one in a long time. Most people forget my shop's even here." He chuckled warmly at the jab he just gave himself.

"Comic shop?" At this point Izuku finally got a good look at the store he had stumbled into.

There had to be thousands of comics here. But he didn't recognize any of them. Most comics nowadays were about famous heroes but he recognized none of these heroes. Comics are also usually made of a stronger material to protect them from quirks that might be used around them. These comics seemed to be made of regular paper. Sure some of them were glossy or laminated but they were still just paper.

"Um…e-excuse me. But I-I don't recognize a-any of these. Are th-they from d-different countries?"

"Hahaha no need being nervous lad. I don't bite." The man never seemed to stop smiling. It kinda reminded Izuku of All Might. "But to answer your question. It's more like from a different time. Most of these come from the 20th and early 21st century. The Golden age of comics"

Izuku was immediately intrigued. These comics are even older then quirks. "I thought heroes didn't exist back then?"

"Oh these where completely fictional characters. Not like nowadays. These days comics just retell real life stories that most people have already heard." The man's smile drooped the tiniest amounts before rising again.

"Comics used to be about stories greater than life. Things that people wished they could do. In comics the world could be in danger everyday, but people felt safe because the heroes almost always dealt with the danger before too many people could get hurt."

"The heroes gave people hope." Izuku was hooked. This was right up his alley. An entire world of heroes he had never even heard of.

"Exactly!" The man seemed as excited as Izuku felt. "These heroes were even greater than today's hero. Today's hero deals with petty criminals with powers or the occasional super villain. But these heroes, they dealt with entire teams of super villains or even full scale invasions."

"They sound so amazing! That's the kind of hero I wish I could be." Izuku was practically drooling at this point.

The man released a loud and boisterous laugh at that. "It's so good to see someone appreciate these heroes. Even if they are fictional, they impacted many lives during their time."

"Just like All Might! So many have never even been affected by his heroics personally, and yet everyone looks to him for inspiration!"

The seemed to be exactly what the man was looking to hear. He stuck his hand towards Izuku "Jack Lee at your service young…."

Izuku immediately grasped his hand. "Izuku Midoriya sir." He answered excitedly.

"Well then Midoriya, it was an absolute pleasure meeting you. However I need to close up soon." Izuku started to deflate at the news.

seemed to notice and stared deeply at Izuku for a moment before going behind the counter. He returned quickly with a handful of comics.

"Here ya go lad. Give these a shot and see what you think." He started to hand them towards Izuku, who just started shaking his head rapidly.

"I-I'm sorry I don't have any money on me"

"Oh don't worry about that lad. If it makes you feel better, consider it a loan if you will. Each of those is from a different series. Give them a read and bring them back when your done. That way we can have a real discussion on them." With that he simply places them in a bag and gave the bag to Izuku.

Izuku was stunned. These comics were old. They must be expensive and yet he was just handing them to Izuku with complete trust. He would not let him down.

"I will return them as soon as possible" he bowed deeply and turn to leave. He stopped just before leaving. "It was nice meeting you "

"It was nice meeting you too lad. I hope to see you again soon" With a final wave he closed the door behind Izuku and he heard the click of a lock sliding into place.

Even though it was late when he finally got home, he couldn't help but look at the comics. As had said each one had a different hero, or even teams of heroes. Each with their own personalities and powers. It was as if dozens of heroes had just made their debut. And each one was grander then the last.

Hours later his mother would come in and scold him for staying up so late, and on a school night at that. So even though he was tempted to keep reading, he knew he had to go to sleep. His dreams filled with heroes of days long past.