This document beta'd by kylekatarn77

17. The Slow Poison

Once you eliminate the impossible, what remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.

-Sherlock Holmes

The first Izuku had heard of the Hero Killer Stain had been nearly a year ago. The Stealth Hero Translucent had recently been embroiled in a scandal where he'd been accused of using his Quirk to rather perverted ends. He'd claimed he was innocent, and at first it looked like the whole thing would be swept under the rug. Until Translucent was found with his eyes carved out on the floor of a woman's bathroom, with a message scrawled in blood on the bathroom mirrors: A stain on heroes.

That message had resulted in the killer being known as Stain in the media, and a string of a dozen deaths and twice as many vicious assaults across Japan had followed. Sometimes the victims were heroes who were known to have some sort of character flaw, such as gambling or drunkenness, other times they were heroes that everyone had thought highly of. The attacks happened seemingly at random, with the only common thread being that they were always bloody, and always when the hero was in full costume, and on duty. No one was ever killed at home or while they were dressed as civilians, and nothing of value was ever taken.

The identity of Stain was a complete mystery. He was described as being tall, dressed in near rags, and having a horrifically scarred face. Despite this description, no one had ever managed to apprehend Stain. Even more oddly, on occasion, Stain would attack a Hero and incapacitate them, only to leave them alive, saying they understood what it meant to be a Hero. There were whispers that Stain was a revolutionary or a Hero himself, only attacking those who had betrayed the ideals of what it meant to be a hero.

Still, to Izuku the most disturbing thing about Stain had happened when he'd attacked his classmate Iida's brother, Ingenium, crippling the formerly popular and effective Hero. Izuku was a bit worried about the other boy, but he didn't know Iida very well and he was busy enough with his own concerns that he never had time to speak to Iida.

All that came to a head only a few weeks before the end of term, when to Izuku's and the nation's shock, Stain was finally captured, and changed the face of Japan for years to come. Izuku first saw it on his phone's newsfeed when he woke up, with Stain's face plastered on the headline alongside none other than Mirio Togata's winning smile.

HERO KILLER CAPTURED! HERO LEMILLION STOPS STAIN, SAVES LIVES OF CLASSMATE, NATIVE

By Iero Janarisuto

Hosu city was a battleground last night, with another attack by the Hero Killer, Stain. Stain sought to claim his 41st victim, the Shaman Hero, Native. Young Tenya Iida, brother of the famous and tragic Tensei Iida, better known as Ingenium, attempted to intervene, but was also wounded and nearly killed by Stain. The horrific serial killer nearly claimed his latest victims, if not for the timely intervention of Mirio Togata, the Hero Lemillion. In a shocking display of speed and skill, Lemillion not only saved the lives of both Iida and Native, removing them to safety, but also soundly defeated Stain after a brief battle.

It may come as a surprise to some to learn that Lemillion is actually a third year student at UA Highschool, along with Tenya Iida, who is a first year. To those that saw Lemillion's awe inspiring performance this year at the UA Sports Festival, they will know that Lemillion is perhaps the greatest up and coming hero in the entire country (See link: Togata Crushes 3rd Year Field at UA).

Lemillion has also distinguished himself working alongside a number of veteran pro heroes, including Sir Nighteye and his current mentor, Gran Torino. Most famously, Lemillion is All Might's teaching assistant at UA highschool. Last night, he was working alongside Gran Torino against the attack of strange creatures known as Nomu, who are also associated with the League of Villains (See link, Stain and the League of Villains: Masters in Crime).

"I was hurrying to help evacuate some civilians, when I saw Iida in the alleyway. I knew right away something was wrong, and that I had to help!" Lemillion said in a statement to the press. "It's what any hero would have done, especially when I saw the Hero Killer was there. Iida's a good kid, and there was no way I could let him or Native down!"

Lemillion only laughed when asked about the fight, but Iida had this to say, "It was incredible. He popped out of the wall and grabbed me just as Stain was about to strike! The next thing I knew, he'd taken me to safety. I couldn't see much, I was still paralysed, but I saw him fight Stain. He couldn't land a blow on Lemillion, it was incredible! He moved faster than anyone I've seen except perhaps All Might, and took out Stain with a single exchange of blows once he'd rescued Native as well! Truly, Lemillion is an example to all of us at UA and a shining example of the quality of its students."

Native was too injured to comment, but All Might himself arrived on the scene not long after.

"Lemillion is a part of a new generation of heroes. I won't be around forever: that's why I'm teaching at UA this year. It is my hope that Lemillion and his classmates will be the ones to carry forward the next generation of heroes!"

With the defeat and capture of the nation's most wanted criminal, all this reporter can say is that Lemillion appears to be off to a great start.

"He beat Stain?!" Izuku gasped. He hurried through his exercise routine, then dashed off to school, barely pausing to bring two bean buns for his and Mei's breakfast. She was already at the workshop when Izuku ran up, working on a voice modulator for Shinso to aid in the use of his quirk.

"Mei, did you hear? Togata defeated Stain the Hero Killer!" Izuku said, setting a bean bun down in front of her and biting into his own.

Mei looked up, frowning slightly. "Did he use my underwear?"

Izuku thought about it, chewing on his own bean bun. "Well, the article didn't mention him losing his clothes, so probably?"

"Ha! Once again our babies prove how super cute they are!" Mei cheered. "I think his suit needs some modifications though. His quirk seems to have changed since Mr. Maijima first had the Support Course make the rest of his costume."

"Really?" Izuku asked. "I know he has Permutation, his phasing quirk. What else does it do?"

"Well, according to Mr. Maijima's notes, that's all it should do, but it does something else. The tears on his suit are similar to what happens to Iida or Sato when they activate their quirks, which are super speed and super strength. I didn't refit theirs because it was simple, but I did give the fabric recipe to Mr. Maijima and he had someone else do it."

"That's good. Don't forget to eat your bun. I've got to go meet Shinso for morning training at Ground Beta. Togata told me to bring the Power Suit today, but I'll take good care of it. See you in class!" Izuku gave Mei a quick hug, and she started to munch on her bean bun, sketching out ideas for Togata's new costume design.

"You hear about Stain and Togata?" Shinso asked when he met Izuku outside of the urban training site. "Crazy to think he's only a couple of years ahead of us."

"Yeah, I think we've got a lot to aim for," Izuku agreed. "Stain was probably one of the biggest threats to society. With him captured, we can rest easier now."

"Don't be so sure," Shinso said, shaking his head. "A lot of people look up to him. Some of the things he said after he was captured, well, he's going to become a martyr if this isn't handled right."

Izuku frowned. "You think so? I haven't read much about that."

"I...browse certain message boards, sometimes," Shinso admitted. "I don't as much anymore, but, well, I was pretty angry for a few years because people never respected my quirk. I thought society was flawed, and there's a lot of people online who agree. Stain came up a lot in those conversations. Some people thought he had the right idea. Taking out Heros who were abusing their position, or were only concerned with money or glory."

"That's scary," Izuku said with a shudder. "I just thought of him as a villain."

"You could say he was a 'Stain' on society himself!" Togata said, popping right up out of the ground.

Izuku smiled nervously at the pun, while Shinso just rolled his eyes. Neither of them were surprised by the entrance, as that was Togata's typical way of arriving.

"Didn't think we'd see you today," Shinso said. "I was sort of looking forward to not having to put up with the puns."

"Can you tell us anything about the fight?!" Izuku asked eagerly. "What sort of Quirk did Stain have? How'd you neutralize it?"

"It was some sort of Blood related quirk. Iida and Native said they were paralysed after Stain cut them," Togata explained. "I countered it by not getting cut! His swords didn't 'phase' me!"

"You don't say," Shinso said dryly. "Well, set up the scenario for us. How did you manage to rescue the two hostages?"

"I used my super strength and speed to grab them and dash away!" Togata said, flexing and striking a pose. "I made sure to smile the entire time, and told Stain he was a 'cut' above the rest!"

"Of course you did," Shinso sighed.

"Wait, your quirk gives you super strength and speed?" Izuku asked. "I thought it was phasing."

"Um, yes it is!" Togata hastily agreed. "But I'm such a 'dashing' fellow that I move faster than you would believe!"

"I've seen you move," Shinso said, eyeing Togata. "You definitely move faster than a normal human, and you're stronger than one too."

"Can you somehow use your phasing to make yourself lighter or objects easier to move?" Izuku asked eagerly.

"Sure, let's go with that!" Togata eagerly agreed. "But enough talking! Today, we're going to practice a hostage rescue scenario! I'll be the bad guy, and you have to rescue this!"

Togata held out a small fluffy stuffed dog. "All you have to do is get this from me, without me being able to stop you! I'll be hiding with this somewhere, and you two have come and get it, then bring it outside of Ground Beta. Ready?"

"We got it," Shinso acknowledged. "Get the dog out of the training area. Any other rules?"

"Nope! Izuku, you can use your Power Suit, and any other gear you've got. Shinso, you can use your quirk. Here I go!" With that, Togata slipped through the floor, vanishing immediately.

Izuku looked around the training room, which was full of different obstacles. Togata would probably hide with the stuffed dog. He wondered if he could put any special gear into the Power Suit that would help in looking for someone, like heat sensing equipment.

"Better get loaded up," Shinso warned. "He's not going to go easy on us."

"Right." Izuku scrambled into the Power Suit, turning it on and ready all the systems. "Any ideas for tracking him down?"

"We'll split up. Shout if you get eyes on him. I'll try to get Togata to answer me, but he knows better than that."

"We really should have some small radios to communicate with one another," Izuku muttered. "I'll have to add it to the list."

Not bothering with stealth, Izuku launched himself into the air, leaping up atop a climbing wall to survey the area. There were dozens of places for Togata to hide in Ground Beta, and the first task was finding him. Izuku rapidly searched a dozen houses, but didn't find anything. He shot up into the air again, then spotted Shinso, waving up at him. Izuku landed, kicking up a swirl of dust around himself. "Did you find him?"

"Think so," Shinso said, pointing to a building with a large banner out in front of it. It read "No Hostages Here" in bright red kanji.

"Oh. Um, you think he's actually in there?" Izuku asked.

Shinso shrugged. "We could spend an hour looking for him and it would be time for class. I think this is his idea of taking things easy on us. Any ideas on how we get inside?"

"Well, we can't just blow our way in. We don't want to hurt the hostage," Izuku mused. "So I can't just use some HE missiles to break open a wall."

"Also, the teachers probably wouldn't be thrilled if we started exploding the training ground," Shinso observed. "Ok. So, you go in first?"

Izuku nodded. "Yeah, I'll try to get him talking. You think you could mimic how I sound?"

"'Oh Mei, you're so pretty and smart! I hope we can make babies together forever, except I don't mean inventions," Shinso said in a high pitched voice.

"I-I-I don't sound like that!" Izuku protested. Then he paused, reconsidering. "Um, do I?"

"Your voice doesn't always sound like a little girl's," Shinso agreed.

"Oh good," Izuku said, relieved. He blinked. "H-hey! That's not nice!"

"We can argue about my ability to impersonate you, or we can go try to rescue Snuffles the Wonder Dog. Which would you rather do?" Shinso asked.

Izuku sighed. "I'll go in first. I'll open up with a foam missile. If all else fails, I can try a sonic missile and flashbang to disorient him while you steal the dog."

"Got it," Shinso agreed. "Right after you."

Izuku dashed up to the building, twisting the Power Suit so its shoulder impacted with the door, which flew open. "Um, stop, evildoer!" he cried.

"Mwahahahahaah! Foolish hero! You cannot hope to stop my scheme!" a voice responded from a distant room.

"I know you're in here somewhere!" Izuku called, looking around. He moved into the building, but was forced to bend nearly double. He also found that to get through doorways, he had to kick the wall open a bit, as the power suit couldn't fit. "Give up now and I'll ugh, go easy on you!"

"It is you who should give up!" Togata said from behind Izuku.

Spinning wildly, Izuku just caught sight of Togata vanishing into the floor. "Where's the hostage?" he called, but his only answer was a sharp blow from behind.

"Ergh!" Izuku spun again, striking at Togata, but pulling his punch so that he wouldn't injure the older boy. To his shock, Togata easily caught Izuku's punch in his hand, despite the enhancing augments of the Power Suit.

"Not good enough!" Togata snarled. He punched with his free hand, sending Izuku flying into the far wall.

Damage lights flashed and an alarm began to sound, notifying Izuku that light damage had been suffered to several systems. With a groan, Izuku hauled himself up. He was surprised to see Togata standing there, beckoning Izuku forward.

"If that's how it's going to be, I'll have to give this more power!" Izuku roared, rushing forward and completely forgetting his missiles.

Togata grinned, a wicked gleam entering his eye as Izuku bull rushed him. Togata braced himself, catching the Power Suit with both hands, and wrestling with Izuku. Despite amplifying his strength twenty fold, Izuku found he was somehow physically no match for Togata.

"What kind...of quirk...do you...have?" Izuku gasped, still trying to get Togata to talk.

Togata just grunted, then suddenly pivoted and went permeable, causing Izuku to fly forward through the wall. He shook himself off and stood, and found himself staring at Shinso. The other boy was slinking forward on tiptoes, with the stuffed dog in his hands, his eyes wide. Izuku realized Shinso must have come in another way and found the toy, and immediately spun, charging back towards Togata.

"That was pretty good, but I've only begun to use a fraction of my power! Power Suit, manual Override! Smash mode, activate!"

The suit binged, and a new warning indicator began to flash, indicating that the suit's limiters had been deactivated, and that it would now strike with enough force to pulverize a normal human.

"Now that sounds fun!" Togata laughed. "But don't think I didn't see that!"

Instead of catching Izuku's charge, Togata passed right through him, causing Izuku to barrel into another wall, lodging himself in the frame. Behind him, Izuku heard Shinso cry out, then say, "How did you know?"

Togata didn't respond though, and by the time Izuku got back up, he saw Togata running out of the back door.

"We have to stop him!" Shinso called. "He's getting away!"

"On it! Climb on!" Izuku ordered. Shinso jumped onto Izuku as he ran by, and they gave chase after Togata. Once they were outside though, Togata turned, dropping the dog. Once more, he made a "bring it on" gesture at Izuku.

"Think you can take both of us at once?!" Shinso demanded in a not bad impression of Izuku's voice. Togata said nothing though, and Izuku launched a foam capture missile at him.

Toegta sprang forward, moving so fast he was hard to see. He grabbed the missile right out of the air by the sides, then spun around, hurling it back at Izuku and Shinso.

"Oh no!" Izuku wailed. He tried to dive out of the way, but the missile exploded, coating both he and Shinso in foam. It rapidly solidified, to the point where the Power Suit became gummed up, unable to do much more than wiggle.

"POWER!" Togata roared, striking a pose with both his arms extended out of his body, palms up. It was his traditional victory pose, and Izuku let out a sigh.

"I'm stuck, you Shinso?"

"MMMMPH!" Shinso grunted. Apparently, the foam had gotten into his mouth. It was breathable so that no one would suffocate while they were trapped in it, but it tasted awful as Izuku knew from experience.

"We give up," Izuku called. "Help us get out!"

"Right!" Togata agreed. He jogged over, jumping up on top of the large pile of foam. "Um, how do I do that, Midoriya?"

"Well, I have a spray in my suit that will remove the foam, but um, it's mechanism is gummed up and it won't open. I, um, I think you'll have to get Mei to get us out."

Togata winced. "Oh. Um, that might be a problem." Just then, the first bell rang.

"Mmmmmppphhhh," Shinso sighed.

"Oh no," Izuku moaned.

That day, they were an hour late, as Togata had to go get Mei, help her dig out the spray from where it was buried in the workshop - Izuku would have known just where to find it, but Mei had a hard time remembering where things were put away - and then they had to wait a few minutes for the foam to dissolve. Thankfully, Izuku mostly missed the first period and their workshop time with Mr. Maijima.

"You two spend enough time with me that I won't count it against you," Majima said with a shrug when Izuku stammered out an apology. "Just don't make a habit of it."

Shinso, however, got into a bit of trouble, though he didn't earn much more than a slap on the wrist from his homeroom teacher.

"I'll have to write an apology note and I promised not to be late again," Shinso told Izuku and Mei. He'd taken to eating with them in the workshop, as he too had struggled to make friends prior to the Sports Festival.

"Well that shouldn't be too hard, at least for the rest of the trimester," Izuku said, wiping down the Power Suit with a rag. They were still defoaming, after which they would have to grease everything to keep the mechanisms from gumming up. "Exams are next week."

"Well I hope you don't abuse our baby too much more!" Mei said around a mouthful of food.

Shinso didn't seem too bothered by Mei's manners, having become rather used to them. "Just think of it as data collection. After all, if Midoriya does become a pro hero your 'babies' will get beat up all the time."

"I suppose that's the price of getting used," Mei said with a sigh, then took a long swig of her energy drink and let out a belch. "You should have told me you were going to be doing missile testing! I would have come to watch."

"Sorry, I didn't realize," Izuku said, smiling at Mei. "You would have been proud! I activated full Smash Mode! Unfortunately, it didn't seem to phase Togata."

"Something's up with him," Shinso said with a frown at the accidental pun. "How can someone have two quirks? He's got Permutation, but now he has super strength and speed? I saw you plow into him. That would have knocked down a brick wall. He should have been flattened, but he just caught you."

"That's impossible," Izuku said with a shake of his head, finally sitting down to eat the bento his mom had packed for him. "You can't have more than one quirk."

"Why?" Mei asked.

"Well, that's not how it works. Everyone gets one quirk, and only one quirk," Shinso argued. He suddenly winced. "Um, sorry, Midoriya."

"No, it's ok," Izuku said amiably. He popped a ball of rice wrapped in nori into his mouth and chewed, thinking.

"What if he got another one?" Mei asked.

Shinso and Izuku turned to her, puzzled. "Huh?"

"You know, like the nomu, from last night and the USJ attack. I talked with Ashido, she said the nomu had shock absorption, but also regeneration. And the nomu that helped that bad guy last night had all kinds of quirks too. So they had to get multiple quirks from somewhere. What if Togata got an extra quirk, too?"

"That's ridiculous," Shinso scoffed. "You can't give someone a quirk."

"Yeah, All Might said he'd have given me a quirk if he could, once," Izuku said, thinking back to the first day of school.

"What if he gave his to Togata?" Mei asked. "All Might's quirk is super strength and stuff. Togata just got those, and All Might says he's retiring. So maybe he just gave his to Togata."

"That's impossible! You can't pass on quirks!" Shinso said, sounding increasingly frustrated.

"Yeah. That's...huh." Izuku frowned, looking down at his last rice ball. "All Might did say that he thought of Togata as his successor, that he was passing on his mantle to the next generation. What if he meant that literally?"

"I bet I could figure out a way to pass on quirks!" Mei said excitedly. "They're contained in DNA! They manifest in the QR.16 gene. If you could alter that gene, I bet you could get someone to manifest a new quirk!"

That made Shinso blink. "Mei, you think...you think you could just GIVE someone a new quirk?"

"Well, not right now. I'm not really an expert on biology," Mei said with a wave of her hand. "But if I built a machine that could isolate the QR.16 gene and then studied different quirks, I might be able to make one manifest itself."

Izuku felt his heart skip a beat. "Mei...do you think...could you give me a quirk?"

Mei looked at Izuku, frowning. "Well, maybe. But why would you want one?"

"I...I've always dreamed about...about having my own quirk," Izuku said quietly. "Maybe...maybe not even a powerful one, just...just something that was...that was my own."

"Don't be silly!" Mei laughed. "You have me and our babies! That's better than any quirk!"

"Y-y-yeah," Izuku stammered, and quickly grabbed his protein shake, quickly chugging it. He saw Shinso looking at him out of the corner of his eye though, and it made Izuku wonder. What would he do to have a quirk of his own?