I don't own BNHA and Marvel
All Might POV
The stomach, Toshinori Yagi decided, was a much more important organ than he ever gave it credit for. Realizing this now, after most of his own was torn from his chest, along with bits of his liver, large intestine, and left lung, was not exactly the best time to have this realization.
He also had the fleeting wish that All for One had targeted less important organs, like his gallbladder, or maybe his appendix.
His musings aside, he waited as patiently as he could in his hospital for Recovery Girl to deliver the final verdict. Based on how he was feeling and the sheer amount of stitches he had on his chest, he already knew this wasn't something that he was just going to recover from.
"You've done it this time Toshinori, gone and really messed yourself up something nasty." Gran Torino's angry voice sent a shiver down his spine. An angry Torino was not a Torino he ever wanted to face, much less when he couldn't run away. Before he could defend himself, a second voice came from the entryway, cutting him off.
"He's right you know." Recovery Girl added, entering the room behind his mentor. "Although given the circumstances I suppose it was the best we could hope for."
"Exactly, see Gran Torino, it was All for One, and now he's dead. I avenged Nana, so everything will be All Might." Toshinori piped in, puffing up into his full All Might form from his normal muscular stature.
Almost instantly, he could feel something was wrong. His stitches tore slightly and he could feel liquid rising in his throat. With a bloody hacking cough, he was forced to return to his original form, Recovery Girl already at his side pressing fresh bandages into his reopened wounds.
"What I was going to tell you, you great oaf, was that shifting between you normal and hero forms shifts your organs, organs that are currently a complete mess. And even if you were to wait until the scar tissue completely formed, you would still be damaging yourself every time you shift because your body is trying to arrange and expand your organs in a set pattern, a pattern that doesn't account for damage like this!" Recovery Girl's voice got steadily louder as she berated the number one hero who was busy trying to keep himself from choking on his own blood.
"You got two choices Toshi, neither of them get you back to 100%." Gran Torino as All Might finally felt the blood rising in his throat. "You either have to take the next few months off for scar tissue to form and we can get a baseline for your injuries and see if there is something we can do about the damage, a transplant or something similar, or we can operate now, before the full tissue forms, which will put you on your feet in a few weeks, but there might be side effects, I am already certain you won't be able to do as much for as long anymore. You finally fully broke your limits brat." Gran Torino explained as his student took in the information.
As much as All Might wanted to be back on his feet and helping people as soon as he could, he knew both his mentor and Recovery Girl would chain him to the bed and have Aizawa watch over him to make sure he couldn't escape.
"I'll wait and let the scar tissue form." All Might decided, getting nods from both older heroes, not that they were going to give him much of a choice. He could already feel the damage that activating One for All had caused on his body. While he wasn't a small man by any means, Toshinori Yagi was not as large as All Might, the muscular form was something he had stumbled upon just before graduating from U.A., and he was grateful for it giving him a way to hide from hordes of fans and the press. He enjoyed working with people, but dammit, he needed time without them too.
"Rest well for now Toshi, Nana would be proud of what you accomplished."
And with that, Gran Torino left, All Might smiling softly at his mentor's back as he left. There would be consequences in the aftermath of his fight, the clock was on for him now. He always knew one day he would retire and pass down One for All, but it had always seemed so distant. Now that deadline was going to keep in his every waking thought until he found someone he felt fit the bill, someone who could take all the strength and become the next Pillar.
But those were thoughts for another day, Toshinori decided as he settled back into his hospital bed, faintly noticing several doctors reentering his room to check on his stitches, for now, the number one hero would sleep in assurance of his victory.
Elsewhere, hidden laboratory
It had taken most of Dr. Ujiko's considerable skill and a great many regenerative quirks to ensure All for One survived the damage All Might had dealt to his body.
He did survive, miraculously enough, but he would never be the same. Regrowing the top half of his head from the pulp All Might reduced it to had been near impossible, doing it completely correctly was never going to happen. Both his eyes and nose had improperly formed, making it impossible to see and very hard to breathe. But his brain was safely restored without lasting damage done.
As he lay with tubes connected directly to his lungs, he pondered the future. After years of ruling over the underworld, his crime empire lay in ruins just as his body did. All Might had taken everything from him, his little brother's legacy had stripped him of almost everything he held dear.
But there was still the future to plan for.
He wasn't going to make a come back from his injuries, not unless a god like healing quirk stumbled into his lap, and even then, he would have to have the doctor cut away all the scar tissue that was rapidly forming over his many wounds. But while his time as the king of villains might be coming to a close, so too was All Might's time as the Symbol of Peace.
He knew he had damaged the man greatly, probably not enough to kill him, the great brute was far too stubborn to die from something like a fist through the chest, but he was just as crippled as All for One was now.
The two had maybe one big battle left in each of them before their bodies simply couldn't hold the power they contained any longer. And that was all there was to it.
For All Might, that meant finding the next inheirator of his quirk. The next hero determined to end him, the next pain in his ass.
The idea of a successor of his own had long stewed in All for One's mind. To pass his own quirk down to a student. But with his quirk, it just simply wasn't possible. No human except himself was built to handle as many quirks as he had acquired. Not even the few spawn he had produced over the years could hold more than a few quirks before their brains turned to mush.
It had been years since he determined that despite the rapid evolution of humanity, the body could only handle so much. Even those with extremely adaptable bodies could only handle three quirks total their mind began to break down. All for One was the exception, allowing his body to adapt and hold as many quirks as he wanted. One for All was another exception. Instead of allowing the user to use the quirks stored within, it converted them into raw power for the user to apply in their own way.
But the idea lingered, despite his past dismissal of the concept. A successor, a villainous figure that stood above the rest, a soul that wanted nothing more than destruction for destruction's sake, backed by the power to crush his foes underfoot. Another chance to rule Japan without his greatest mistake running around yelling smash like that great green American brute….
All for One felt his memory spark as he remembered a report the doctor had brought in years ago.
The Hulk, the quirk strong enough to defeat All Might in his prime, had had a child, one with a similar quirk. A body adaptable and strong enough to handle any force thrown at it.
His first thought had been to use Shimura's grandson as his successor, his warped view of the world fit his needs perfectly, but the prospect of twisting a destructive force like the Hulk. It would bypass his need to find a way for his successor to handle his quirk. Oh the deliberation.
Gesturing with his hand, All for One got a notepad from Dr. Ujiko and wrote his instructions for the man.
Shimura Tenko, now Shigaraki Tomura, would be their plan for now, but he wasn't the optimal choice, not that he'd ever catch wind of that until it was already over with.
They couldn't be direct in their approach, All for One was far too weak now for heroes to actively be hunting him, but he could set things in motion.
The last he had heard, the boy was in quirk therapy to try and control his quirk, to use his mind in the beast's body, and he was slowly making progress with All Might's help.
But there would be no more All Might to help him, his failing body would ensure that, which meant the boy's progress would halt, and any interested party could pull him from under the nose of the brute. All it would take to get the ball rolling was a few messages sent to the right people. Old General Ross at the top of that list. The man had been hounding the Japanese government to get his hands on the child. And it would be much easier for All for One to slip him away from the...looser… system the Americans used.
So Dr. Ujiko sped off, his instructions written out for him.
By the end of that week, General Thunderbolt Ross was flying to Japan with a mission. To acquire the spawn of the Hulk.
United States Black Ops Facility- Location Classified
Bruce Banner knew he was a great many things. And while those close to him called him a genius and a hero, he knew the truth. He was a fool, a hypocrite, and a failure as a father.
He had cursed his only child, his son Izuku, with his quirk. He had cursed the world with a second unstoppable ragebeast lurking just beneath the surface of a brilliant mind.
When he was younger, Bruce had wanted to go into the sciences, he wanted to explore the world beyond quirks. His father, a small-time hero who had been forced out of the business by his lack of success, was less than encouraging of the idea. He had been extremely disappointed and angered when Bruce hadn't revealed a quirk even after he turned four. In fact, Bruce himself wasn't aware that he had a quirk until he was 16, his mind far too focused on learning science and graduating from college early.
The first thing to truly make Bruce Banner angry was coming home from his college classes to see his father finally cross the line. For years he tolerated the man's harsh attitude, taking the beltings and verbal abuse. He even knew that his father would occasionally turn his abusive hand on his wife, but Bruce just endured, his mother's soothing words keeping from hating his father.
But coming home and seeing his father, standing over his bleeding mother, bloody knife in hand, had been too much for Bruce. Years of patience finally ended and anger, true anger, dominated the mind of Bruce Banner for the first time in his life
And with his first time becoming greatly angered came the first activation of his dormant quirk, and the Hulk...broke… almost an entire block of downtown before over a dozen heroes cornered him with suppressive fire from their quirks.
After he woke up after transformation, life for Bruce was completely changed. Unlike other countries, the United States was far less forgiving of accidental quirk activations. And despite it being the first time his quirk had manifested, Bruce found himself on trial for killing his father with his quirk.
It was General Ross who had swooped in and kept Bruce from ending up in a prison for the rest of his life. He had proposed that Bruce finish his schooling in a secure government location, and then use his knowledge to research for the government. All the while the resources around him kept the Hulk from killing again.
It was as fair a deal as Bruce could ask for, and he accepted. But it was only a few months into that arrangement that the Hulk was seen again.
A new villain had stepped up and publicly defeated every hero that tried to challenge him, going as far as to expose himself and crush any who opposed him. The Abomination was more than the States' normal lineup could handle, so they turned to international help, Japan's rising star All Might, touted for his extreme strength, the government hoped he could defeat the monster of a villain.
General Ross, however, put his own plan into action. Stealing Bruce Banner from his lab and dropping him out of a helicopter in front of the Abomination to force the Hulk to face off against the beast of a man.
For only his second transformation, the Hulk fought tooth and nail against the villain. The brawl further devolved into a three way slugfest when All Might showed up to intervene. The fight lasted several hours until the Hulk stood alone over his defeated foes, giving a single roar of victory before collapsing back into Bruce Banner's much smaller form.
It was in the hospital after the fight that Bruce made his first friend in a great many years, in the form of the muscular Japanese man who fought both with and against the Hulk. It was also a day that Bruce created a new goal for himself, to destroy his quirk.
It had taken years of study and several more Ross ordered deployments of the Hulk before Bruce finished his serum, one capable of destroying the part of his cells that triggered his transformation. After injecting himself, he passed the tests put forth by the government's doctors to show the Hulk was gone, much to Ross's great disappointment, and took his first vacation in years, to visit his friend in Japan.
The one thing he did not expect to happen on that trip, was to fall in love and get married before he was forced back to the states, leaving his new wife behind. The shocking news that she was pregnant forced a new fear into Bruce Banner's mind. Would his child inherit his quirk, had he just created a new Hulk.
He had waited four years in suspense, taking every vacation he could to visit the bright eyed green haired child he called his own. And while it hurt his child, and upset his wife, Bruce couldn't be happier that his child was confirmed as quirkless.
That relief lasted a little less than two weeks before a news report came through that a green rage beast had shredded a park in Japan and had Ross loaded on the first flight he could to Tokyo.
He had been relieved when his friend Toshinori had called to assure him that Ross wouldn't get his hands on his son, that Toshinori would teach him to control his quirk the way Bruce never had. Ross coming home fuming mad was one of Bruce's favorite memories.
And he had left it at that, letting Toshinori work with his son, never reaching out once to his own child, whose whole world was probably just rocked by his quirk's awakening, and realizing just who exactly his father was. It was cold of him, but it gave him peace of mind that everything would work out.
And now, going through Ross's emails after the man had once again left in a hurry for Tokyo. All Might was injured, his friend had been crippled, and Ross was going to use that to try and get his hands on Izuku once again. To turn his son that wanted nothing more than to be a hero into a weapon.
For the first time in years, Bruce Banner felt the stirrings of the Hulk within him. And for once, he didn't disagree with him. He would do whatever it took to help his son, as he should have done years ago.
Pulling up a fresh browser, Bruce copied a series of files from his computer into the email before sending it off to Toshinori with a quick note. The injured hero could handle it from there.
With a deep breath, Bruce pushed away from his laptop, removed his glasses and made his way to the freight elevator at the back of his rather expansive lab.
Once he had reached the reinforced panic room, Bruce took a meditative seat and, for the first time in his life, reached out to the beast within him.
He had let Izuku down, he had been kept away from his son for years, he wouldn't even know what his son looked like if it wasn't for Toshinori. That ended now.
It might be years before he could see his son in the flesh again, but he could do his best to make sure he could become a hero if that was still his goal. And while Izuku had made progress working with All Might, that was going to be halted now. So it was his turn now, Izuku and he had the same quirk, the same strengths and weaknesses. And while he might have destroyed his body capability to turn into the Hulk, the beast was still there, lurking within the back of his mind.
And for the first time in years, Bruce Banner's glowed a powerful green, filled with determination to make up for his past mistakes.
OK…...This took way too long to get out.
I had the first two thirds written months ago, but the third part fought me. At first I wanted it to be from Ross's POV, then Izuku getting the news, but I finally settled on Bruce, giving a little more explanation to him in this story.
Also the appearance of three traditional Hulk villains for the future, and while two are rather obvious, the third is much more obscure. I'm tossing around the idea of including other Marvel heroes in the BNHA world, but I'm not sure if I should. I could go for one traditionally from Japan and add them to UA, or I could just say Spiderman came from the US for better schooling, I'm sure there wouldn't be too many complaints with that either.
I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, next week is my finals and the quarantine finally caused a major breakdown of relationships at my home today, so I'm writing this as I wait for the dust to settle to see what happens next.
I hope everyone is staying safe and maybe doing a bit of writing of their own to pass the time. Happy Reading -Centurion Africanus.
