I don't own BNHA or Marvel
Izuku POV
The clinic, Izuku found, was both professional, and well equipped to deal with quirks of all kinds. Nurse Anzu's quirk, who Izuku had learned was going to be his personal nurse while he was learning to control his quirk, was perfectly suited to help him.
She called it heartbeat, and it was a simple as it sounded. She could affect a person's heartbeat when she looked at them. She couldn't speed it up and slow it down to harmful levels, but she could set it to a stable 75 beats per minute. Incredibly useful to help calm down a potentially frantic patient, and perfect for keeping Skaar locked away.
Just like his father, Izuku's quirk came out when his heart rate accelerated for any reason. Anger, fear, nerves, excitement. Any of it. And given his habit of growing overly nervous and excited for any number of reasons, the poor nurse had to use her quirk on him multiple times an hour.
Because his constant need to have Nurse Anzu alongside him, even for simple things like bathing, which was rather embarrassing for the green haired boy, he wasn't allowed to meet any occupants of the hospital except for his assigned 'big brother', Toya.
Toya was rather apathetic towards Izuku. He would lead him around, eat with him, and answer any questions Izuku asked him, within reason. But Izuku could see the boy was actively trying to keep a level of distance between the two of them. And Izuku hadn't worked up the nerve to ask the teen why.
It was only after a month of observation that Izuku was brought into the heavily fortified training room, pro-hero Midnight behind him, that he was allowed to use his quirk again.
The goal was to see how much control he had over his second form, over Skaar, when he voluntarily transformed instead of transforming in a moment of desperate rage.
To say that the test went poorly was an understatement. Izuku was able to bring Skaar to the surface easily enough. Without Nurse Anzu's quirk to hold his heartbeat steady, Izuku had more than enough anxiety to trigger the transformation. He felt the same bubbling sensation build in his stomach, felt it expand into his muscles and skin, then he blacked out.
When he awoke an hour later, he learned that once he transformed, he had flown into a rampage that put dents into the 2 foot thick steel walls almost instantly. On top of that, it took longer for Midnight's quirk to knock him out, which led the doctors to believe that even after only a single exposure, he was building a resistance against it.
The next test was to see how mental quirks interacted with him while he transformed. A doctor with a mind reading quirk was brought in to try and read his thoughts while he transformed.
He passed out after only a few seconds in Skaar's head while he rampaged through the sealed training room, and upon waking declared that Skaar was a savage manifestation of Izuku's rage given form, his Id. And that under no circumstances was he going anywhere it ever again, nor did he believe that Izuku would ever have any level of control over it.
With that disheartening news, Izuku slowly made his way to lunch with Toya, who was fresh from his own testing session. Izuku could always tell when Toya had one from the shaking in his hands, the red in his face, and slight scent of burnt flesh that accompanied him.
The two ate in silence for a short while before Izuku broke it, his eyes shining with emotion that Nurse Anzu was forced to slow with her quirk from the next table over.
"Toya, do you think I can be a hero, even if all my quirk does is lash out and hurt people?" Izuku asked his assigned older brother.
Toya paused in his meal, clearly thinking over the question as he chewed his mouthful of food before setting his sandwich down.
"Lash out you said? Then just point at what needs a beating. Don't even have to worry about collateral damage either, god knows heros break just as much as villains in a fight." Toya said, his voice lacking emotion as usual.
"But how do I do that, every time I try to use my quirk I black out." Izuku countered, looking for any kind of reassurance in Toya.
"Exposure and experience. Only way to get good at using a quirk is to use it. Once you've been here for a few years you'll realize that all this place does is give you a place to do that without endangering others, and a weakness in your own quirk to exploit and work with instead of against. The doctors are more like scientific wardens honestly." Toya's response was dry and blunt, his features as flat as his tone as he spoke.
"Is that what you do, practice your quirk to control it?" Izuku asked, wishing he had a notebook to take notes on Toya's quirk. His building excitement forcing Nurse Anzu to use her quirk on him again.
"I'm a little different." Toya drawled, dragging the words out, his eyes falling away from Izuku and focusing on his food again. The green haired half of the conversation waited until Toya continued.
"My quirk isn't suited to my body. My parents have vastly different emitter quirks, and I got stuck with my old man's emitter quirk but my body is suited more to handle my mother's. Toya said, being intentionally leaving out most of the information. "So when I use my quirk, it not only hurts like hell, but slowly kills my body the whole time."
"So you're trying to learn to use it without damaging yourself, to be a hero?" Izuku asked, his tone picking up with excitement even as the Nurse kept his heart rate steady.
Toya let out a throaty cold laugh at Izuku's enthusiasm behind the question.
"You sound like my little brother with all the hero talk. You two would probably get along if you ever met." Toya said, rising from his seat, completely ignoring Izuku's question and walking back to his room.
Izuku took his lack of answer as determination for himself and put his full effort into controlling his quirk. To at the very least stay conscious while he was transformed. But no matter how hard he tried, no matter how much effort he put in, from the moment he transformed, he completely blacked out.
But no matter how many times he tried, no progress was made. Every test was the same. Enter reinforced room, transform and lose control, Skaar gets knocked out by knockout gas that kept rising in potency each time he was called in.
Until, shortly after Izuku's seventh birthday, just over 2 years since he had first awakened his quirk, change came. Not in Izuku, but to the facility as a whole.
Izuku was resting in his room after another Skaar test when the explosion shook the building. Instantly Nurse Anzu was by his side, calming his heart beat before it was too late and he began to transform.
Even as the staff did their best to keep the patients away from the blue flames that ravaged half the building, that couldn't stop them from speculating what had happened. And it was Izuku who knew. It had only been a week ago when he had convinced Toya to finally show him his quirk, the heat he had felt at seeing the powerful blue fire Toya held carefully in his hands as he smirked at Izuku's fascination with his quirk.
Izuku had been happy, he finally got to see Toya's awesome quirk, until Toya was handed a letter. Izuku watched Toya's face fall into sadness, anger, and finally acceptance before he burned the letter with his fire, his face set in an expression Izuku didn't recognize on the apathetic older boy.
That had been a week ago, and Izuku hadn't seen or heard anything about Toya until this.
"Toya." He muttered as he watched the blue fire spread as more people were evacuated from the burning building.
"Sooooo, you know what happened, care to spill?" A cheerful voice from behind him cut off Izuku's inner rant as he felt someone jump onto his back, their voice tickling his ear.
Izuku had a moment of panic and Nurse Anzu once again kept his quirk down with her own.
"That's enough Toga, we won't get any answers if you give him a heart attack." A second more serious said, causing the owner of the first voice to jump off of Izuku's back with a pouty groan.
Now that he was free to move again, Izuku turned to face the two voices.
The first was a boy with a bird's head. Black feathers like a crows spiked backwards and a yellow beak dominated his face, although his hands were perfectly normal. He was a little shorter and thinner than Izuku, but he was clearly more confident standing his ground.
The second voice, the one that jumped on his back, was a girl with cat like features. Izuku could see her yellow slitted eyes gleaming with mischief and her wide grin showed off her large pointed incisors. Her messy sandy blonde hair was held in a short hime cut.
Both seemed to be his age. And both had hospital wristbands like Izuku's own, marking them as patients like him.
"Soooooo." The girl repeated, poking Izuku's shoulder, likely hoping it would get her an answer sooner.
"The blue fire, my designated 'older sibling' Toya's quirk was blue fire." Izuku said softly, the shock of seeing Toya's quirk out of control like this finally fading as the implications settled in. Toya had always said even using his quirk hurt him. If that was true, just how much damage did Toya do to himself to create this firestorm?
"I see, it wouldn't be the first time a patient has lost control, but this is to a scale I thought impossible." The bird boy said, his voice even despite the circumstances.
"I'm Himiko Toga, the cutest person in the whole hospital, and you might be second." The girl greeted Izuku, her fanged smile seeming to widen at his discomfort even as she stuck out her hand to him.
"Izuku Midoriya." He said quietly, somewhat put off by Himiko's forwardness, his lack of experience talking to people and nerves shining through.
"Forgive her, her quirk means she isn't quite all there sometimes. I am Fumikage Tokoyami." Unlike the overexcited girl, Fumikage's personality was much more toned down.
"Aw, don't mind Fumi, he gets a bit grumpy when his schedule changes." Izuku was thrown off as a bird shaped shadow emerged from Fumikage's stomach and spoke to the green haired boy.
"And this is my troublesome quirk Dark Shadow." Fumikage continued, ignoring the protests from the shadow.
"He doesn't seem too bad." Izuku said carefully, watching with fascination as the shadow turned and acted autonomously from Fumikage.
"I know right, I'm an angel." The shadow agreed with Izuku.
"Until it gets dark and you start trying to eat people." Fumikage countered, glaring at the shadow until it retreated into his chest.
Well, that escalated quickly.
"And I drink sweet sweet blood and turn into different people, it's so much fun." Himiko chimed in, pulling Fumikage into her side with a cheer.
"It also gives you a disproportionate fascination with blood." Fumikage added in a bored voice, clearly used to Himiko's antics.
"What about you, what makes you go tick tick boom?" Himiko asked Izuku, ignoring Fumikage as he extracted himself out from under her arm.
"Uh...I kinda sorta lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Izuku admitted, rubbing the back of his awkwardly, retreating into himself slightly. The only thing keeping himself calm at this point was the presence of Nurse Anzu behind him, ensuring Skaar was locked away.
Izuku shuffled awkwardly for a moment, becoming increasingly aware of the chaos going on around the three children as emergency responders and heroes came and went from the building. Before the silence could grow to the point of being awkward, Himiko's smile widened, if that was even possible, before she responded.
"You know what Freckles, I think we'll get along just fine."
A grunt and nod from Fumikage lifted Izuku's spirits as he looked at the duo.
It seemed like, for the first time in a long time, he had friends.
All Might POV
It had been a few years, but Toshinori Yagi hadn't forgotten about his old friend's son.
After the recent fire from another patient's out of control quirk, he figured he had waited long enough.
Almost a month after the fire, he made an appointment with the hospital to see if Izuku could control Skaar with a live target present.
All Might watched as Izuku was led into the heavily reinforced room and had the situation explained to him. All Might watched as Izuku's expression went from interested, to worry, to pure awe as he stared at All Might's muscular form grinning at him from across the room.
"When you are ready young Midoriya, I will only defend myself if you cannot control Skaar, but have no fear, I can most assuredly handle him." All Might told the boy, subconsciously setting his feet in a ready position as Izuku took a deep breath and held it.
Izuku's skin rippled as he grew before All Might's eyes. Like Izuku, Skaar had grown over the years.
Compared to Izuku's natural lanky 4 foot frame, Skaar towered over that at almost 6 feet of pure muscle, but still shorter than All Might's own seven plus one. From the footage All Might had seen, he had originally assumed that Skaar's skin was a grey green, but he could now see that, while one might see shades of grey, Skaar was a pale olive green. His hair was long and hung loosely past his neck as a simple flex of his muscles shredded the shirt Izuku had been wearing.
That was the only warning All Might got before Skaar launched himself forward at All Might, letting loose a berserker yell as he tried to deck the number one hero in the face.
All Might was more than capable of ducking under the wild blow and landing a few soft strikes of his own into Skaar's chest and gut.
Soft as in they didn't break any bones. The green berserker was still sent flying across the room.
"Control it young Midoriya, try and at least direct Skaar as he strikes." All Might tried to get through to Izuku as Skaar rose and charged again.
It was all for naught though as Skaar continued his blind assault on All Might, who used increasingly stronger and stronger blows to fend him off.
After almost twenty minutes had passed, All Might decided to call it quits, it was clear Izuku wasn't making any kind of progress controlling what the hospital referred to as his 'Manifested Id'.
Shooting forward much faster than he had been moving earlier, All Might landed a knockout punch into Skaar's stomach, causing him to hunch over onto all fours. Surprisingly, Skaar managed to stay conscious for a moment as he looked up and glared up at All Might, his green eyes shining with rage.
"Next time blondie."
Skaar's voice was deep and gruttal, clearly not often used for much more than raging yells. But the fact that Skaar could talk, string together words in a manner that made sense was a shock for most of the doctors as they rushed into the room to check on Izuku as Skaar's muscular form faded into the seven year old child.
All Might wasn't nearly as shocked. Once again, Izuku's quirk proved to be very similar to his father's. Skaar wasn't some manifestation of his Id and anything like that. Skaar was his own person, one with his own goals and strengths. A sentient quirk, the most troublesome kind of quirk.
"Well, that was progress." The lead doctor said to All Might as the two watched Izuku get carried out of the room.
"Yes, and hopefully the understanding that Skaar is sentient, not an Id, will help him control him eventually." All Might agreed.
"I know you are very busy as the number one hero, but would you mind coming in the future All Might?" The doctor asked as the duo left the room. "I have a feeling Skaar will only work with us, with Izuku, if he can fight, it seems to be his only purpose right now. And you are one of the few heroes who I can think of that can out match Skaar physically."
"I'd be happy to, young Midoriya wants to be a hero, and if he can learn to control Skaar, then he'll grow to be a damn fine hero." All Might agreed before heading out of the quirk hospital.
What he didn't say was he was concerned. He had to use 50% of One for All to keep consistently with Skaar, and the only reason that wasn't higher was because all Skaar did was blindly charge.
That kind of power drew interest, and while only the government knew about it at this point, that wouldn't last. Leaks existed, and eventually, HE would hear about where Izuku was kept, if he didn't know already. He would come, and All Might wasn't going to let him get his hands on young Midoriya's quirk.
Well, that chapter took forever.
Not like I wanted it to. Honestly if I could I'd write a chapter a week, I just can't seem to find it in myself to get past roadblocks in each chapter. Like for this one, I had no clue how I wanted to portray Toya. We know nothing about him in canon, so I was basically working from scratch. Eventually I settled on jaded preteen with a heap of apathy towards most and a hate for Endeavor.
Also, I know the whole Id vs sentient thing is a little obvious, but I just want to reinforce and introduce the idea, development and human stupidity etc etc.
No clue when the next chapter will be out, kinda only have a rough idea for what I want to do until canon starts, but it'll get done. Eventually. Fav, follow, review, all that good stuff.
Happy Reading -Centurion Africanus
