November
A rough object pressed against his back, his semi cognitive state allowing him to register the feeling. Eyes fluttering open as the pressure raised. Izuku absorbed the light of the subway light. It was night now. He could hear a cackling mass of laughter and noises above him, joyful violence.
The boot pressed harder, "What do we have here? A fancy scientist? An engineer maybe? What kind of dumbass falls asleep here, that subway floor sure looks comfy huh?" A group of laughter, crass sounding gangsters surrounded the crumpled form of our inventor, poking and prodding at his body for laughs.
Numb to it, Izuku was settling his head. 'Crap… what happened?' He was drowsy but… He felt incredible, his senses quickly came back and Izuku felt… Different.
Breathe, think, feel, hear… A rush of enhanced feeling flooded through his brain like an endorphin rush, the vibrations in the air, the sound of his own heart, the smell of sake on tongues.
Unbeknownst to his sensory overload, the gangster pressuring him was getting bored waiting for the crumpled man to get up.
The main gangster spoke with venom as he rose a boot above Izuku's head, "Wake the hell up already!" Emerald eyes shoot open fully, time slows.
'What is this feeling?' He can see the entire train cart, the boot, the laughing gangsters around him with their yellow teeth, it's all in slow motion, his head vibrates, it tells him… TO MOVE.
In a blur of motion, Izuku leaps into the air with so much force that he dents the roof of the cart, and almost instinctively… he sticks there, his hands and feet keeping him planted there somehow. Izuku ignored the cathartic feeling of sticking to the ceiling, he ignored the screams of the gangsters below him yelling at him to come down, some flashing their quirks at him.
'What the heck?' How was this happening? Izuku was in a complete loss for words, his eyes practically bugging out of his head. He could not fathom this outcome, he had…
'I have a quirk?'
His musings were interrupted by his head buzzing again, a warning of some kind? He knew exactly what to do in order to dodge the attack, miraculously.
Releasing his grip on his left, Izuku swung over and reversed his position in a flash before any of the gangsters below could react, the shoe narrowly missing him. Staring directly at the group of lawbreakers with a half frown half grimace, Izuku felt some sweat appear on his brow.
"Come down here already little man! We just want to have some fun!" One of the larger gangsters bellowed at him, Izuku marveled at his stupidity.
Izuku glared at the group of thugs, "WHY WOULD I COME DOWN, I'M PERFECTLY SAFE UP HERE!" His panic drew more laughter from the group of lawbreakers, for some reason this situation was hilarious to them.
A woman with goth markings over her face spoke next, "That's the point! Have some fun with us down here instead, a little pain never hurt anyone did it?" She cracked her neck violently to accentuate the point, Izuku gulped.
"Arriving at Nagoya…"
Izuku yelled, "Crap! That's way past Shizuoka!" He'd missed his stop, the trek home from here would take an hour or two. What would he tell his mom? The group of gangsters lurched as the train slowed to a stop, Izuku saw his chance.
Dropping down onto his hands and knees, Izuku felt the world shift to a crawl. He could see… all of it, the slowed yelling of one gangster, the flaming hands of another, the fist hurtling him from behind.
Izuku unconsciously tilted his head slightly to the right, the rock covered fist soaring straight past.
"W-woah! That could've hurt!" Izuku stood up and held his arms out in front of him.
"That's the idea!" The thug mocked before lurching forward again, Izuku felt his senses go haywire again, from behind again.
"Watch out, he has a strong quirk!"
Izuku cartwheeled into a flip and landed on the window of the subway, wincing as he saw the collision of a rock fist and two normal fists.
'How did I do that, how am I predicting this? How am I moving like a ninja?'
"coming to a stop soon…"
Rolling onto the ground, Izuku dashed towards the door with incredible speed after. Stopped by the door, Izuku knew the gangsters were chasing by now, enraged by his evasive maneuvers.
He shoved his fingers through the small gap, "Hurry up!" And with a gargantuan show of strength, the formerly scrawny man crumpled the subway door with his grip and completely separated the two panels violently, lodging them open. They all were hit with the cool breeze and stood in shock at the show of strength from a scrawny guy. Izuku didn't waste any time, he leaped into action and tripped a few times before blasting forth into pure momentum.
Shooting up the stairs 5 flights at a time, Izuku exited the subway tunnel at escape velocity, Gravity be damned.
"Wo-WOAH!" The formerly quirkless man shot into the air at fast speeds, his legs and hands flailing in the wind while he panicked.
Izuku quickly noticed how close that building was getting to him, 'Crap!' he thought to himself, the building still getting closer. He shot out his hands and feet to brace for the impact, but…
Slowly but surely, he opened his eyes. The green eyed man was met with his own face, interestingly, his jaw got more angular since he last saw himself.
'wait…'
He was stuck to the wall like a spider.
"What the… I can really stick to walls?!" Izuku yelled, his feet and hands were completely suctioned to the building.
'Okay Izuku, breath, you can stick to walls now, nothing new haha…' he lifted his hand up and down several times to inspect, it seemed he could stick to the wall akin to a spider or insect.
'This is incredible, after all this time??' Izuku could almost feel the incredulous look of his old childhood friend, if he could see this now…
Deciding to test out this little ability, Izuku almost instinctively began crawling up like he'd been doing it his entire life. A massive grin appeared on his face as he did so, going faster, faster, Izuku quickly realized this was really happening to him and let out a cry of joy.
Izuku stopped, instead trying to stand on the side of the building. His body stood perfectly horizontal to it, naturally too, it felt comforting. He began to run with a grin on his face reflected in the glass he stepped on, his speed growing every second! Each step defied gravity, it felt completely natural to run so quickly against the force of this world that pulled everyone down. He blurred up the building, faster than any olympic runner could hope to go.
Reaching the top, Izuku climbed over the ledge and landed on his behind. The adrenaline from the activation of his power still thrumming in his heart, Izuku cheered loudly into the sky with his arms raised before laying flat.
Huff
Huff
Huff
"Haha, heh."
"I actually, did that just now... like I actually just did that, what is happening."
Izuku sat up and looked at his hands in awe, he could traverse walls so quickly! And he'd never run that fast before in his life, he… Really had a quirk now. All this time, all these years crying because of his defect, all his life spent comparing himself to others...
"I have a quirk now." He said emotionlessly, his eyes swimming with motion, watering.
"I…"
He began to break down, his tears coming freely out like a river, alone and by himself and without anyone to see his weakness, he wept to the sky after years of repressed sadness.
Izuku sat there for a while, thinking to himself. For his entire life he was powerless and unable to achieve anything related to being a hero, his performance at the entrance exams three years ago landing him with a mighty score of one point, and that was a fluke. But now?
'I actually have… a power, a quirk, but… I'm too late to become a hero, a license is only attainable by getting education from a hero highschool or college, and I'm too old to enter the former and I definitely have nowhere near the credentials to attend a college overseas…' he sighed hard into his palms and rubbed his temples, what would he do?
He slammed his fist into the ground lightly, not feeling any pain but unbeknownst to him, the concrete cracked slightly. "Damnit, I got powers YEARS after I could've used them… Just my luck." The number of heroes has reduced since the battle of Jaku, 2 years ago, a large number of heroes and villains battled it out there in an all out war, those gangs back there wouldn't have dared attack so publicly before… back when heroes were around every corner.
His mind suddenly thought back to that spider bite at Shield labs, "Wait a minute…" he said to no one, his eyes furrowing.
He began counting with his fingers, "I can stick to walls, I can jump higher, I can move faster…" His eyes widened, his face contorting and squeezing into a thinking position. He placed his fingers around his chin and thought for a second.
Nodding, Izuku came to one conclusion. "That has to be the answer, that spider bit me, a few hours later I pass out and wake up with powers like a spider, but how the heck did I manage to get powers from it?" It's not like he could go and ask the spider itself, and obviously it wasn't an experiment by Shield industries… Or was it?
Shrugging, Izuku sighed as he laid flat on the roof of the building, he looked at the moon for answers but found none.
"Crap, I have to get home." It was 9:43, his mom was probably worried sick about him. Izuku quickly latched onto the side of the building again and began walking down towards the street. Still giddy about his powers, he was smiling the entire way down. He'd think about what to do with them later.
'Now, can I turn off my wall stick???'
Without warning, his feet did just that.
He fell.
"AHHHHHHH, SOMEONE HELP!" He screamed as he hit terminal velocity, the ground coming towards him fast. Falling feet first, Izuku shut his eyes to brace for the impact.
THUD.
He felt the energy from landing disperse in his body and through the floor below instantly, the concrete cracked. But he? He was spotless.
Raising one eye lid, Izuku began to practically hyperventilate when he realized he was unharmed. Patting his legs down and checking himself repeatedly for injury, Izuku was absolutely astonished.
"That had to have been at least 50 stories!" There was no way even a quirked human should've survived that, and yet he did it seamlessly. It made him curious as to the extent of his powers, his true ability.
Recalling the dispute with the gangsters moments ago, he remembered how fast he went up those stairs, how far he jumped into the sky. Izuku looked at his hands once again, his emerald green eyes glazing over them with a trepid excitement. Curiosity laced his gaze and he hardened his resolve.
He dropped into a runner's position, "Just how fast can I go now?" Izuku could see it now, running across the buildings with agility and precision. With a single step, Izuku SOARED into the air.
The green haired man leapt onto the side of a building with his arms flailing for a second before he instinctually caught himself and stuck to the building, latching a single hand against the wall, Izuku began to run sideways like a parkour master.
Izuku slammed his soles against the side of the building as he blurred across. His muscles contracted and he leapt into the air again, this time going into a free fall down towards the street. Shooting down like a bullet and with the wind shooting past, Izuku shot his arms out and wrapped his hands tightly around a lamppost in order to propel himself further. Swinging from the lampost Izuku shot into the air once again, touching his soles with another street light, Izuku used it as a trampoline.
"YEAHHH!" He roared loudly as he soared through the air, his image being reflected in the glass windows as he passed by in a flash. Rolling to break his fall, the newly powered man began to jump across the roofs of cars, upon seeing an overpass Izuku squatted down and with a single bound, he cleared the gap with ease.
His legs pumped, dashing, vaulting, spinning and flipping over obstacles and pipes, his hair parting in the wind as the newly powered man leapt through the air cityline at speeds faster than most cars. The winds tore against his body but he didn't care, everything came naturally to him now like he was born to move like this. Each step injected dopamine into his brain, each move made his heart soar, each leap was cathartic.
He just KNEW how to move!
With a small twist as he vaulted off a building, he swung himself onto the side of the building and Izuku awkwardly fumbled a little before standing perpendicular to the building and looking to the sky, his heart soared for a second as the cosmos reflected in his emerald green eyes, he nodded. Like a spring he coiled his body into itself before firing out like a bullet from a rifle, his body facing the moon as he fell backwards in slow motion, his heart truly felt at peace as he did so.
Cheering as he went, Izuku never once lost the grin on his face as he blindly rushed against the wind, "WOOOHOOOOO YEAH!" He grabbed onto an electricity line to slow his descent, tearing it out and using it to swing over a few cars.
He ran through the semi empty streets with glee, jumping and flipping over cars in his glee without a care in the world. Grabbing onto the shaft of a lampost, he swung himself twice before bursting out in an energetic launch. For a small moment, he forgot what it meant to be Midoriya Izuku, right now? He was free.
He landed on the highway, there were no cars in sight at this time of night. He grinned and dropped into a sprinters position, his body tightening like a spring ready to erupt into motion.
He counted down in his head.
'3.'
'2.'
'1.'
The concrete below his feet splintered, within three steps he was already outpacing the speed limit of the highway and then some. Reality blurred around him from his perspective as he pushed further and further, Izuku slammed his soles against the concrete and with each stride he broke the human speed record. After 10 seconds, Izuku felt the strain, but he was only lightly sweating. Where did this stamina come from?
Izuku grinned as he saw a car speeding down the highway, even with his warped sense of speed Izuku knew he was going faster than 80 MPH. The idea was insane to him. And he didn't even feel tired yet. The man in the car couldn't believe what he was seeing, a person was outrunning his baby? His prized car? Insanity, quirks or no quirk there were few people who could do that. He decided to tone down on the sake after seeing that, his eyes must have been playing tricks on him.
Sign after sign he passed instantly, barely having time to read the kanji. Taking a swirling exit onto another highway towards Shizuoka, Izuku vaulted over the highway barrier and felt the wind catch his descent, the green haired man skidded to a stop before continuing his sprint, cracking the pavement once more. Explosively bursting forward, Izuku pushed himself as much as he could with his newfound speed.
"This is, INCREDIBLE!" Izuku yelled into the night as he surpassed 150 MPH. He'd make it home in no time!
He was… Strong! His life was finally taking a turn for the better!
A/N: (I'm taking a more comic route with his power level, Spider-man actually runs way faster than this in the comics as well. Not very proud of this chapter, but the origins aren't something that need much emphasis.)
