All right, before going all in with Chapter 2 of Future Shock, I want to say how sorry I am for not being able to continue the story in such a long long time. Life is full of distractions and things to make you busy and moments of stress and writer's block, as other writers know all too well. And at least I didn't give up on it, right? The new chapter is right here, so hopefully all the fans of chapter 1 will still be interested enough to enjoy it. I promise the next one will not take as long. Seriously, it won't. I'm still working it out, but I have a new planning system for finding time to write. It may not be fast, but I definitely won't let it get as late as before. Anyways, on with the show. Reread chapter one if you need a refresher, or just jump right in and enjoy. Maybe leave a review if you like. Just remember that the story is told from Deku's point of view as he's living it.
As my fist makes contact with the Lynx duplicate of Eraser Head's face, it crumbles into bits of flying debris before regrowing and reshaping itself into a face once more. The students of class 1-A are undoubtedly confused right now, seeing their teacher as a monstrous creature, but I mustn't let them try to fight alongside me.
"Just be a hero, Deku, and stand down," he tells me. "No need to let the kids get caught up in this."
"They won't be caught up in anything" I answer back. "Because I'm going to defeat you myself."
"Deku, what's happening?" Ururaka asks me. "What's happened to Aizawa-Sensei? Who is the Lynx?
"He's a villain from my time" I tell her, never breaking my gaze on Aizawa. "His quirk allows him to control inorganic material, but thanks to some major upgrades and help from Seiji Shishikura, he can absorb people and their quirks."
"Shishikura? From Shiketsu High?" Denki Kaminari asks.
"That high and mighty meathead loudmouth becomes a villain?" reacts Bakugo, in an angry yet immaturely excited way.
"Not exactly, he's being brainwashed" I interject with. "Still, they took down my entire team. When I escaped by teleporting myself here, they must have followed somehow, and captured our homeroom teacher."
"Not just Aizawa" another voice says. "Don't be taking me for granite!"
The voice belongs to Cementoss, and I don't appreciate the lame pun. Why do they even need to speak anyway? Time to get my head back in the game. Suddenly the ground starts to rise toward me almost like columns of rocky liquid. I charge my arms with energy, punch two and grab a third and pull it from the ground. His quirk is even more effective with the Lynx's added power, he doesn't even need to touch the cement anymore to manipulate it. If that's the case, what about Eraser Head? If he's trying to use his quirk, it isn't working on me. One For All must be too much for him.
"I can't use my quirk!" says Mina Ashida.
Iida tries to crouch down to a mounted position to open his leg jets, to no avail. "Mine is not activating either!"
"My tail has gone limp" says Mashirao Ojiro.
"That's what she said?" responds Mineta.
"This totally sucks!" remarks Eijiro Kirishima.
Eraser Head's quirk in the Lynx's hands is enough to render the entire class powerless. I'm a little relieved by that, as I didn't want them to enter the battle to help me. Reasons for affecting the future aside, I can't let them be put into danger.
"Everyone, I'm going to take this fight outside. Once we're gone, go find Principal Nezu and any other teachers. Warn them about the Lynx, and even if they don't believe you, also tell them I am here." That last bit wasn't meant to compare myself to All Might, it just came out that way.
I extend my arms to shoot a black tendril in both directions, one stabbing Mr. Aizawa through his artificial body and the other doing the same to Cementoss. I lift myself off the ground and whip both tendrils around, hurling my foes around in the air. I jerk them around as I spin my body for momentum, and then launch myself upward. Dragging them along, I crash through the roof of the facility and land on the reverse side. I land on my feet. Okay, I roll back onto my feet, but it's my story and I'm sticking to it. Either way, my foes crash to the ground as the tendrils disengage. Hopefully my old friends aren't feeling any pain through these artificial bodies.
I hear Aizawa make some low-level grunting sounds as he rises to his feet and hurls his capture cloth at me. I use my reflexes to block it and several other attempts. He rises off of the ground courtesy of a platform conjured by Cementoss. I sprint over and punch it to bits. Some walls of stone pop up around me, and I blast them with green lightning. My foes are hiding from me now amidst the debris. I circle my body to try and spot them. Still can't see anything moving except my own shadow. I sense something near though. They could be hiding in a camouflaged form. I stop moving to regroup. My shadow on the ground is still moving, despite my body now standing still. I lunge my right arm diagonally at just the right moment to catch the duplicate Eraser Head as he solidified his form hoping to catch me by surprise. It won't work any more than Cementoss about to lunge at me from behind will. I pull Aizawa down by his artificial throat and slam him to the ground, then shift myself around. Cementoss is riding a wave of concrete towards me. I charge up my body with power quickly, then lunge my arms forward with all my might, striking the concrete like two energy drills. It cracks before causing damage, and it's maker again falls harmlessly to the ground.
I suddenly hear a familiar voice coming from right behind me.
"You don't belong here, loser. You never did"
It's Bakugo, the Bakugo from my own time. Sneering at me from his slightly greying blond hair and beard covered face. Dressed head to toe in black just like the last time I saw him, black trench coat, black sweater and black denim pants. I see his left arm hanging helplessly as his right arm clutches the cane he uses to remain standing, both remnants of his final fight as an active pro hero. How can he be here? In my head it feels too strange to be real, like I drifted off to sleep but am awake enough to realize I'm dreaming.
"I don't know how you're here right now Kachan, but I don't have time for this. You made your own choices in your life, now you're left disfigured and bitter from them. I already washed my hands of you."
"You made a promise to me, and you broke it! Some hero you are…"
"What are you talking about?"
Another direction. Another voice.
"Oh Deku…."
If there was anyone I wanted to see less than Bakugo right now, it's the voice I'm hearing now. Actually that's a lie, there's no one I dislike more than Bakugo right now, possibly apart from Lynx. At least this enemy was once my friend.
I turn around and call her by name. "Jabberwocky?" Her villain codename is based on a dragon-like monster from an old poem.
I can't bear to face her, but there she is just like Bakugo, in all her disfigured glory. Tsuyu Asui, formerly known as Froppy. Her features have only grown more reptilian as she aged into adulthood, and her eyes are dripping with black energy courtesy of the Dark Shadow entity.
"Now haven't I always told you to call me Tsu?"
"I will never call you that again."
The Dark Shadow was the manifestation of our classmate Fumikage Tokoyama's quirk. Tokoyama and Tsuyu fell in love and became a couple as our class was nearly ready to graduate, and like the old teenage trope goes, they wanted to lose their virginity together. I wasn't present for that, obviously, but the story goes that during the throes of passion, Tokoyama lost control of the Dark Shadow. It entered Tsuyu's body, twisted her mind into something evil, and they killed him like a praying mantis that murders it's lover after mating. Unfortunately he wouldn't be her only victim. The Dark Shadow was too much for Tsuyu, warping her mind and making her unstable. She became a serial murderer and supervillain Jabberwocky. It was honestly devastating to all of us. We couldn't imagine her ever going through such a drastic change. None of this matters though. My attention needs to go back to the situation at hand.
Bakugo raises his cane at me and utters "What about your son? You won't be able to protect him from me."
That's the proof I need that these two aren't physically here. Those words were taken right from our last conversation with each other (and he wasn't actually threatening my son, but he might as well have been). Doesn't make me any less enraged, but I have more pressing concerns. The ground under me starts fluctuating and moving around. A shallow crater widens at my feet and I stumble. Then the bottom rises to intentionally pummel me when I'm off my feet. It's Cementoss, he's keeping me off balance with his quirk. I try to shrug it off and I see him and Eraser Head lurching forward towards me. I look backwards and see the Lynx and Seiji doing the same. Four on one, huh? I can handle that. Suddenly in the space between the two pairs some more inorganic soldiers spring to life from out of nowhere. Okay, I can still fight back against a small army.
"How long do you think you can stand against me?" inquires the voice of Dr. Garaki, speaking through the Lynx's body. "You must know how ultimately futile your efforts are!"
"I will never give up, and never stop fight-"
My words are cut off mid-sentence as my mouth forces itself shut. By answering his taunts, I played into their hands. Lynx still possesses Cortex's telepathic quirks, that was how the images of Bakugo and Jabberwocky were brought to life using my own memories. Now by addressing his taunts, he's using the brainwashing aspect to keep me in a paralyzed state for the time being. I've gotten out of this before, but it isn't instantaneous. They're coming at me, to attack while I'm vulnerable.
Suddenly as all of my foes swarm around me, a wave of sound can be heard coming closer to us.
"GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The inorganic drones to my right suddenly blow apart like dirt and confetti.
"GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The ones on the opposite side blow apart as well, with Eraser Head and Cementoss trying to hold their ears as their faces vibrate. I can see who's responsible for this loud, powerful noise. My classmates have returned, having done what I told them to do: find teachers, specifically Present Mic. He is bombarding my foes with weaponized noise.
"What is this now?" Lynx's artificial voice exclaims as his body lurches around for a better look.
"I'm the voice of justice!"
Present Mic moves his lips and fires off some invisible sound projectiles.
"GeeGeeGeeGeeGeeGee!"
The Lynx moves his arms to shrug them off as they enter his space.
"GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The Eraser Head and Cementoss clones' heads vibrate and explode, after which their bodies crumble into debris and goo. Lynx and Seiji decide to make a tactful retreat, and my former peers rejoin my side along with my saviour Present Mic, UA's mouse Principal Nezu and my hero and mentor Toshinori Yagi (That's All Might!).
"Jolly good job, chum!" Nezu exclaims complimentary to Mic on his work using his sound quirk to disperse my enemies. "Now what's all this about then, Deku? You seem to have grown into an adult proper overnight, but the children's claims about time-travel being responsible frankly sound like balderdash! I hope you can explain yourself."
Toshinori steps forward to meet me face to face, practically beaming with pride. "I believe him, sir. Young Midoriya" he says, turning his attention to me, "You've really done it. I never doubted for an instant that one day you would unlock your full potential." He extends his hand and I shake it. He reverts into his larger All Might form, which he has still been able to do on occasion even after letting go of One For All, and we stand together finally eye to eye with one another. This one moment makes the whole ordeal with the Lynx worth it.
"It was all thanks to you," I tell him. "Thank you for choosing me."
Unfortunately I have to interrupt this moment to explain everything, as Principal Nezu has asked me to. We all go into a classroom large enough for all of us and I basically repeat the events that have led me to this point in time, starting with the Lynx's power upgrades and attack on the Justice Collective, to my attempts to get to safety by accidentally hurling myself back into my own past, and finishing with the battle I just went through after learning my enemies were able to follow me.
"So that's the whole story" I relay. "Does that clear things up for everyone?"
"I have a question about the Justice Collective" asks Hanta Sero. "You mentioned the girl with sand powers was a member with you, but who else was on the team?"
"You can't ask him direct questions about the future!" exclaims Iida, waving his arms. "It could inadvertently change our futures in catastrophic ways"
"Actually, I'm not sure I believe in all that", I answer. "The things in my life have happened because they needed too, and I don't think sharing some minor details with you all is going to change much when I return to my present. In fact, I'm looking to make it so I get back relatively quickly once I locate and put down Lynx. So I guess there's no harm in fielding a few questions."
"Are you sure about that, Deku?" Nezu asks cautiously.
"I'm sure, as long as the questions relate directly to me." I won't spoil too much for them, I mean some of them have much worse fates than others, but I feel like not answering anything would be a form of lying and that's no way for my time's number one pro hero and role model to be acting.
"So I'm not really a member of the Collective actively anymore ever since my wife had our son, but it had a full roster besides Dune, including several of you: Iida, you still go by Ingenium. Momo, you currently lead under the name Suprema. Todoroki, you go by Endeavor-"
Shoto Todoroki interrupts. "My father's name?"
"It's your name now" I assure him. "Your father is retired, and you made your peace with him enough to realize the weight of his influence was a burden and move past it."
He isn't one for smiling, but Shoto forces off half of one for me. This proves that knowing a positive aspect of your future can be a good thing.
I continue. "Shoji, you use the name Law Arms. It started out as a play on words when a reporter called you the "long arms of the law" and you liked the sound of it, and Jiro, you still use the name Earphone Jack, even though I once advised you to change it to USB."
That's true, I did. I suggested a name change so that she wasn't always connected to sound and music and could expand her quirk's capabilities into other facets, but just as then, the Jiro I know values that connection with music. I withdrew my suggestion based on that.
"And the other members are Hitoshi Shinso, who has all kinds of telepathic powers now, Kota Izumi, who you might remember as the water powered boy from our training adventure, and Family Jewels Man."
Mineta starts chuckling and trying to suppress his laughter. I wonder how he'd feel if he knew that Family Jewels Man started out as one of his students in Class 1L. There's a whole story behind that, but I shouldn't get into it now. I believe an account can be found online on a fanfiction site if you want to know more (or relive it).
"Wow, sounds like a lot of us grow up to be pro heroes in your time" Toru Hagakure says.
"That's right," I confirm. "Some even move to the states or other countries to do hero work there." Toru, as the Invisible Woman, is one such hero. She lives in New York as a member of a super team of four. Or is that too on the nose?
"Deku, you gotta tell me! Do I lose my virginity?" Mineta asks me.
How best to phrase my answer. "Well, it's not like I was in the room with you or anything, but word around school is that you do."
He beams with pride at my seeming confirmation that he will one day be intimate with a woman. It's just a shame that the woman was Tsuyu, who as Jabberwocky tempted many into joining her in close quarters, and would go on to murder them right afterwards. Regardless of what people thought of him, he didn't deserve to die so young.
"Speaking of … that" Momo remarks as she shifts the subject, "You said that you have a wife and son."
The girls in the group subtly look in Ururaka's direction, and she pretends not to be aware of this.
Tsuyu comes right out and says it. "Who do you marry? Is it someone you met here at school?"
Ururaka's face starts to turn a shade redder. I can't help but find it cute. I should deflect the question, but I can't help but enjoy this.
"Yes actually, I did meet her here at the school. I'll just say that she does go to this school, she is even in this class, and it has been my understanding that she… really gravitated towards me before I even knew it."
Ururaka turns bright red and slinks down into a comatose state. I feel a little bad to embarrass her just now, but I know she loves me and will forgive me for it. More importantly I am confident that both as a kid and an adult I love her. We end up together and our future will not change.
"Has there ever been a moment where you questioned being a hero?" asks Rikido Sato. Funny that he should be the one to ask that question.
"Yes and no. When it comes to protecting people and preventing crime, I've never wanted to do anything else. But there have been times when the job has been more difficult. I've lost friends, partners, even my Mother due to tragedy. I've tried to live up to the example All Might set by being a symbol of peace that everyone can know is fighting for them, but even that came with sacrifices along the way. Not long after I became number one, the Hero Public Safety Commission reformed itself to be bigger than before. Their focus was protecting civilians from criminal quirk users and I gave them the benefit of the doubt. They developed a serum for immunizing the population from the effects of blood quirks, for example if you took it then Stain tasting your blood would not activate his quirk or have an effect on you, same with Himiko Toga's transform quirk, and others like it. Unfortunately they didn't do enough testing on the serum and even worse, they released it into the country's drinking water without even considering the consequences. As a direct result, an ally lost his life."
It was Rikido. An unintended side effect of the serum purifying his blood was that it also saw foreign substances like sugar as harmful, nullifying the effects of his quirk to gain strength from the consumption of a lot of sugar. Without it he could not only not use his quirk in battle, but his health would decline from an advanced form of hypoglycemia that proved fatal.
"I wanted the commission to be held accountable for this, and when they denied responsibility, I took it upon myself to have it disbanded for good. When it came to some members of the public, I was branded a radical for wanting this. But I would not waver and would convince more people to believe in me."
"Did that create a superhero civil war between rival groups with different ideologies, like in that movie from a few years ago?" Yuga asks.
"Thankfully it didn't. Due to so many of us having quirks, the commission was smart enough to not try to instigate everybody. They agreed to back off and let the pro heroes regulate themselves. At first I think they assumed we couldn't make it on our own and would come crawling back to them, like the King of England's song in that broadway musical, but they were wrong and the rest is history."
"Young Midori… I mean Deku, in light of what you have just shared with us, if you wish to go around the commission and appeal directly to the heroes for help against the Lynx and his armies, I will be with you every step of the way."
"Thank you, sir, but I don't think that will be necessary."
"Are you sure it's wise to be recruiting reinforcements yourself?" Nezu adds. "They might not believe your story unless we are there to vouch for it."
"What I mean is, I wasn't going to ask any pro heroes for help against Lynx. I brought them here, and we are both anomalies. It's my problem to fix."
"They nearly overwhelmed you last time though" Present Mic points out.
"I won't let that happen again. Honestly, it's been really great to see all of you, but the longer this goes on the more potential damage there might be."
"But you don't even know where to find Lynx," says Koji Koda. "We can help you track him."
"I need to do this myself. I can only ensure you don't get hurt by keeping you out of danger."
With that I leave the room. As I go through the halls I think about how they aren't wrong. I don't know where to find him or what he might be planning. I'm not one without my resources, but it will be difficult to operate in public. The commission still exists at this time, and all they would care about is that I'm technically an unregistered hero who is supposed to be 16 years old.
"Deku, hold up a second"
I turn around and find Bakugo, leaning on one of the stair bannister posts with crossed arms. He called me Deku instead of dumb nerd or some other insulting term? What's he up to?
"I didn't expect you to want to talk to me, Kachan. In fact you were pretty quiet up there in the classroom." He will one day have control over the entire school, believe it or not.
"Yeah well, I like your costume."
"...You do?"
"Sure. It looks like a nice suit to wear for your job."
I have to admit, this is a surprise. Still, I don't believe it.
"Assuming your job is a professional cosplayer, because there's no way you beat me to become the number one pro hero. So what's the deal, am I dead?"
"You are very much alive. But you're retired."
His anger rises. "That's not possible! I have to be the best!"
"You were one of the best. Dynamight was the name you went by, and we fought at each other's side on numerous occasions. We even called each other friends."
"Oh yeah? If you were such a good friend of mine, why didn't you stop me from retiring? What happened to me, did I go all soft like you and marry a chick after getting her to carry my kid?"
Now my anger is rising. "All right, you really want to know? You get so badly injured that you are forced to quit being a hero because you were in trouble and I wasn't there to help you. That's what you want to know, right? About how you can blame me or somebody else for your defeat? Now sure, I wasn't there because I was at that moment dealing with both All For One and Tomura Shigaraki, and nobody certainly had any idea that they had sent Gigantomachia IV specifically after you for the sole reason of making you unable to help me. But it still doesn't stop you from taking out all your frustrations about your broken arms and legs and the permanent nerve damage in your left hand on me, does it?
"What the hell are you getting upset about? If I'm the one crippled and have to give up my life's ambition, then you have no right to whine about your feelings getting hurt! This friendship was probably all in your own head to begin with! Why would I want to be friends with a nerd? A loser? A wannabe who joined the UA just to ride my coattails?"
"Always resorting to your childish insults. I can't believe I wasted all that time when I was younger thinking that you were some diamond in the rough with the potential to be the best. But you're no hero! After your retirement as a pro, you get called upon to become UA's new principal and within weeks you completely revamp the hero course curriculum to punish your students just because they have promising hero's journeys ahead of them while yours is over."
"Is there a point to this, or are you just getting all high and mighty?"
"The point is Sporim Saboro, one of your first year students. I will never stop remembering his name. His quirk to recall every moment of his life might not have been the most useful in combat training, but you should know as a former student that hard work and character is what can make a hero. But instead when he came to you for guidance in dealing with his anxiety, you told him the same thing you once told me: to take a swan dive off the roof to see if he could have a better quirk in the next life. You killed him!"
I slap him in his face. He recoils back with an explosive ball at me. I shrug it off.
He talks back. "Look, future me was out of line saying that to a kid, and so was I when I said it to you. I guess I usually say what I want without thinking of the consequences. But you just proved my point."
"What do you mean?"
"Yeah it was a tragedy what happened to that kid, but would it have made you this angry if it didn't remind you of what I told you back in middle school?"
"You always make it all about you! This proves you never had the heart and mind to be a hero."
"That's not what your younger self would say if he were here. Even when I started a fight with him after hours on school grounds, he still went along with it to help me deal with what happened at Kamino."
"I was more naive in those days. I had to grow up."
"It sounds like both of us grew up too much. Did you hear yourself back there? You said you scaled back on your crime fighting because you have a wife and kid? People with ordinary jobs don't have the luxury to do that, in fact it would make them want to work harder. And you wouldn't accept help from other heroes or even your own friends?"
"Yeah, so since when do you care about being a team player?"
"What I care about is doing whatever it takes to win against evil forces. The Deku that I know understands that."
Damn, I hate it when he's right.
"You do make a good point. I guess I should go back up there to talk to everyone. I just wish I had a way to track the Lynx. Unless he comes back to attack me again, he could literally be anywhere by now.
Suddenly a portal of light appears in our side background that starts to take a humanoid shape.
"I may be able to help you with that" a voice coming from the portal says to me. Soon the light effect wears off and this individual's sleek orange and gold armoured suit comes into focus. "It's been a while, Deku."
"Hey Ghest" I greet him as we exchange a high five. "What brings you to this world?"
"I've been looking for you. I come bearing a message."
