Manga Spoilers.
"Sir." A policeman walked into the office of one detective, Naomasa, gaining the detective's attention. "Eraserhead has arrived."
"Oh good! Send him in!" Naomasa told him.
The officer nodded and left.
After a few moments, Aizawa walked into the office. "Naomasa."
"Eraserhead, I'm glad you're here. Come, sit down." Naomasa gestured toward the chair opposite his desk.
Aizawa did as instructed, and immediately got down to business. "Spider-Man is a problem."
"Yeah, about that. Why are you so hellbent on taking HIM down of all people." Naomasa asked him. "Why take the lead on this case? Spider-Man is not considered a major threat, so why are you focusing on him."
Aizawa sighed. "Because the people that say that, aren't teachers."
Eraserhead took a sip of his juice packet, before continuing. "The main reason Spider-Man is not considered a major threat is twofold. Firstly, it's because of the minimal damage to persons and property that is caused during his fights."
"Right. Most vigilantes fall into one of two categories. Column A, they don't cause much property damage, but only takes on low-level thugs. Or Column B, they do take on higher threats but due to their lack of training, they cause massive amounts of property damage, as well as causing civilian casualties. However, Spider-Man falls into neither. He took down an A-rank villain who specialized in causing destruction, and when he arrived the only things that were destroyed were a car and a small chunk of the street. And that was the same villain who broke through two buildings fighting the pro hero, rising star, Kamui Woods."
"Right. And the second reason is complacency." Aizawa continued. "So many heroes see how hard it would be to capture Spider-Man and figure it's not worth the effort. That someone else will do it."
"Yes, Spider-Man's strong, but someone like Mirko, or Hawks, or All Might. Could take him down easily." Naomasa echoed the logic most pro heroes had in their heads.
"For now. And that's the main issue." Aizawa said. "Despite what some people may think, any experienced hero could tell Spider-Man started off as a rookie. With no real training whatsoever. As the first person to ever encounter him, I can confirm that. And even now he's still very much a rookie."
"Really? It's kind of hard to believe that considering what we've seen." Naomasa pointed out.
"He seems to be mostly relying on his impressive quirk to get results, however, that wouldn't have gotten him this far," Aizawa said. "No, the reason he got this far is that he's a prodigy."
"A prodigy?" Naomasa repeated.
"As a teacher, I've noticed that ninety-nine percent of students have some kind of impediment that slows the rate of their growth, and limits their potential," Aizawa explained, recalling several students he had in the past. "Some lack drive. Other's lack intelligence. Some have personal hang-ups that keep them from performing at their best. There are millions of different reasons. But then there is those one percent of students. Who has almost nothing holding them back. Prodigies. These students stand above the rest, sometimes very clearly, and make progress at an astonishing rate. Spider-Man is one of these students. Every time he goes out there he improves. He causes a little less property damage. Swings a little bit faster. Is a little bit more acrobatic. His movement becomes a little less clumsy. Right now, if he were to encounter Endeavor, that would very likely end the way most people think it would. However in a year or two, with that growth rate, and that quirk, I can see that encounter going very differently."
Aizawa leaned in and squinted. "And I know you know about All Might's condition."
Naomasa recoiled a bit at the mention of his friend's sad state. "Yeah."
"To put it simply, the reason I'm so concerned about Spider-Man is that if he sticks around long enough to exist in a world where All Might is retired, then he might never get caught," Aizawa explained.
"I see." Naomasa thought back to what he's seen of Spider-Man. All his feats and everything he's done. If what Eraserhead said was true and he improved that much, then the only person who he could see having a sure-fire chance of catching Spider-Man was All Might. And the window of time for that to occur was closing.
But that wasn't his main concern. And Aizawa knew it.
"Alright, now it's my turn," Eraserhead told him. "Why are YOU so concerned about Spider-Man? You were the one who called me here after all."
"Right." Naomasa started digging in one of his desk compartments. "Have you heard about the increase in P.V.A.'s?"
Aizawa nodded. "More and more heroes have been reporting phantom villain attacks lately, but there has been no evidence of them ever actually existing, still."
Naomasa nodded and pulled out a chart. "This is the amount of P.V.A.'s."
Aizawa looked at the chart. The spike was even worse than he thought.
"Did you notice anything about the date of the spike?" Naomasa asked Eraserhead.
"Can't say I did, but if I had to guess...was it the day Spider-Man webbed Kamui to a wall?" Eraserhead guessed.
"No, it was shortly after that day," Naomasa told him. "That was the incident that brought Spider-Man to people's attention. And then after that, is when the spike happened. Now, let's take a closer look at when the incidents happened. One was reported by Kamui Woods, that kept him from appearing to take down the Vulture. Another was reported that kept Crust from helping Mt. Lady and Death Arms against Shocker. Numerous incidents were reported that kept many heroes, all of them specializing in covert operations and stealth, from helping with the Molten Man incident. A few more heroes reported incidents that kept them away from helping with Scorpion. And many heroes, including All Might, reported P.V.A. 's that distracted them long enough for them not to have been able to help take down Rhino. Do you see a pattern?"
"All of these correlate with one of Spider-Man's major achievements. The biggest villain's he's taken down." Aizawa realized. "Except Kangaroo."
"Yeah, there weren't any P.V.A.'s when he was around, but that's part of my theory." Naomasa took a sip of his coffee, before continuing. "Ever since Spider-Man showed up, not only have P.V.A.'s spiked, they've been centered around him. If you've noticed, the only heroes that show up to fight these villains, have been the ones whose quirks match up badly against them. This allows Spider-Man to swoop in, and look good to everyone."
"So you are speculating that Spider-Man is somehow connected to these attacks? Coordinating with whoever's behind them to make himself look good?" Aizawa asked.
Naomasa shook his head. "While I'm not saying that's impossible, I don't think Spider-Man is actually in cahoots with whoever's behind these attacks."
Aizawa raised an eyebrow. "And why no?"
"Firstly, there were P.V.A.'s before Spider-Man appears. Spider-Man had also been doing smaller work, and none of that was connected to the P.V.A's." Naomasa explained. "And more so, if Spider-Man was only in it for the fame, why become a vigilante? With a quirk and potential like that, getting into U.A. would have been a piece of cake. He'd have gotten more popular as a hero than a vigilante, and it would have been a hundred percent legal."
"Maybe a lack of patience?" Aizawa suggested. "Many vigilantes suffer from those issues."
"I don't think so. If you look back at Spider-Man's greatest victories, many of them have shown his ability to think tactically." Naomasa pointed out. "And his tracking of Kangaroo, and his perfect handling of the hostage situation with Molten Man, have shown he possesses at least an adequate amount of patience. If he was only doing this for attention, then he would have become a pro hero. But he didn't. I don't have an explanation on why he would become a vigilante-"
"I do." Aizawa interrupted.
"Huh?" Naomasa gave him a confused look.
Eraserhead looked down, seemingly almost...regretful. "I was one of the first people to see Spider-Man, if not the first. And I think I saw him in his natural state. A scared, nervous child that's way over his head. He still is that, even now. He put on an act of confidence and bravado, but if you look close enough you can see the cracks in his facade. I don't think he had any intention of being a vigilante when I first found him. No. By the way, he acted, the way he talked, and even the way he was dressed. I think he was just a kid that heard someone screaming for help, and couldn't bring himself to just run away. I think he wanted to be a hero, but when I caught him, he thought all hope was lost and decided to be a vigilante instead. So in the end...you could say Spider-Man was my fault."
"And that's the real reason you feel so driven to catch him." Naomasa sighed. "You really couldn't have let the kid go? We could have had the next number one hero and instead, we have this."
"I don't make exceptions when it comes to enforcing the law. Especially not based on quirks." Aizawa said. "But if I had the chance to do it over again, I would have let him go."
There was a small moment of silence between the two men, as they reflected on what could have been.
"Regardless." Aizawa was the first to break the silence. "Spider-Man has to have something to do with this. The correlations between the two can't just be a coincidence."
"You're right. But I don't think it's about making Spider-Man look good. I think someone is using Spider-Man to try and destabilize hero society, by making heroes look bad." Naomasa speculated.
Aizawa gave him a skeptical look.
"I know it may seem like a bit of a stretch. But I have more proof." Naomasa told him. "Have you noticed that Spider-Man hasn't been receiving the normal amount of hate or disdain that many of the less subtle vigilantes receive?"
"Yeah. I wouldn't say a ton of people support his actions, but there are a lot fewer people calling for his head than usual." Aizawa noted.
"Well, you can thank someone online, going by the name of Screwball." Naomasa showed "Our social media trackers have found this person, gathering Spider-Man supporters, mostly people who've been saved by him, and under her leadership they've been going around the internet, drumming up support for Spider-Man while suppressing hate."
"Ok, so he has some eager fans. That's to be expected given that he is one of the most prolific vigilantes in history so far." Aizawa shrugged.
"But that's not the only thing she does. Screwball is also well known on the internet, for being against the hero system with a lot of anti H.P.S.C. sentiments." Naomasa revealed. "And she's been trying to get others to share her mindset. Although she's had little success so far in that department."
"Ok, so I'm starting to see a connection. Still, it's pretty weak." Aizawa told him. "While I'm sure there are lots of people who'd want to see hero society crumble, we need more concrete evidence."
Suddenly, Naomasa's door flew open, and an officer ran in. "Sir! There's a video! It's all over social media! You need to see it!"
"A video?" Naomasa quickly pulled out his phone and took one look on social media, and immediately figured out what the officer was talking about.
Right at the top of the feed, was a video, from Screwball, titled, "The Truth About P.V.A. 's" with two pro heroes in the thumbnail hanging out in an alleyway.
Aizawa leaned in so he could see it two, and Naomasa pressed play.
"Hey, boys and girls! It's ya girl! Screwball!" On the screen was a pink-haired, twin-tailed girl, with a white mask on that just barely hid her identity, as well as a white and pink jumpsuit. "Coming at you with my first video debut! Many of you may have seen me elsewhere on the world wide web! But now I am an official content creator! And what a debut this is! Because right here! Right now! I'm coming at you with concrete evidence that P.V.A's are all a load of baloney!"
This is not good. Aizawa thought.
"And there it is!" Suddenly the video switched, showing a phone recording of two pro heroes, Leather Man and 3-D man, leaning against a wall in an alleyway.
"Man these patrol routes are a pain in the assl!" Leather Man complained.
"And we have to do them, every day!" 3-D man sighed, before smirking. "Lucky we can take a break because of these phantom villain attacks."
"Ha! Can you believe anyone believes this crap!" Leather Man laughed. "Phantom Villain Attacks. Pft. I gotta high-five the guy who came up with that. Actually, I think we should just go home for the day, that phantom villain really gave us the ring around."
Well shit. Aizawa thought.
The video switched back to Screwball, who had a look of mock surprise. "Can you believe that! Two pro heroes! Admitting that they laze off during their patrols and saying it was because of a P.V.A.! Shocking! Wait a minute no it's not! Wake up, people! I've been saying these were fake ever since they were reported! Think about it, the reason heroes aren't doing their jobs is because of fake villain attacks that no one else sees and that they have no proof exists! They're treating you all like idiots and you're just letting them! We need to put pressure on the H.P.S.C.! And anyone who reports one of these fake attacks should suffer the consequences! Vigilantes like Spider-Man have had to pick up the slack for these assholes, this is what the world is coming to people!"
Suddenly, Screwball's posture changed from ranting and annoyed, back to peppy and excited. "Anywho! I'll be making more videos in the future showing everyone the cracks in the "perfect" hero society we live in! Until then! See ya!"
And with that, the video ended.
"Well, looks like your theory has a bit more behind it now," Aizawa said. "Although I doubt, she is the mastermind behind all this."
"No, she's either unconnected…" Naomasa paused. "Or she is a part of something much bigger."
XXXXXXXXX
Outside of the city, in the middle of nowhere. Was a large, yet unassuming house. Old, seemingly abandoned, and separated from the rest of the world by a brick wall covered in thick vines.
But all of this was but a ruse. An illusion projected to those outside. If you traversed past the walls, you'd see the place for what it really was.
The house was the size of a manor, and not only was it not old, but it was also extremely high-tech.
And it was definitely not abandoned.
Deep inside the mansion, in the study, was a man wearing a peculiar costume.
He donned a full green suit that looked like it was covered in high tech. But the two most notable parts of their costume were his big red cape, and the fishbowl he had over his head.
The man was sitting in an armchair, watching a projection that was being played in the center of the room.
"Anywho! I'll be making more videos in the future showing everyone the cracks in the "perfect" hero society we live in! Until then! See ya!" Said Screwball as the video ended, and the hologram cut out.
The man slammed his fist into the arm of his chair. "Damn that Screwball!"
Suddenly, the door opened behind him, and in walked a woman with dark blue and pink hair.
"Looks like you're in the exact mood I thought you'd be." The woman said, walking into the room and closing the door behind her, as she saw the man clench his fist and huddle over in anger. "I thought I would check up on you, make sure you didn't kneel over in anger after Screwball went slightly ahead of schedule."
The man took a few moments to recollect himself, before addressing her. "Nagant. What we are attempting to do-"
"Requires careful precision, patience, and all that." Nagant cut him off. "She was only slightly ahead of the plan. The only thing that had to happen before we released that video was Spider-Man's "Final test". It's not really a big issue. Stop being so dramatic, Mysterio."
"Oh, I disagree." The man, Mysterio, countered, as he suddenly vanished from his chair, and appeared in front of Nagant. "What Screwball just did, was announce us. She announced to the police and the heroes is that there is something bigger behind this. Because, someone, sometime soon I'd wager, is going to put together all the connections, with Spider-Man, my illusions, and Screwball, and no one is going to assume that SHE is behind everything. While they don't know anything crucial, they are now alerted to our existence, which will be an issue if Spider-Man fails the final test, and we're left without the key component to our plans!"
"But he's not going to fail." Nagant crossed her arms, looking a bit upset at the notion that Izuku would fail whatever they had in store for him. "As far as I'm concerned, the kid's proved himself enough. This whole Sinister Six thing is unnecessary."
"...Nagant. You're softening again." Mysterio warned her. "You know what we have to do. You know what's necessary."
"...Did it have to be a child?" Nagant's expression switched from slight annoyance to melancholy, as her eyes directed their gaze to the floor.
"I'm not fond of this either, Nagant. But we didn't push the boy to risk his life. He chose to be a vigilante of his own accord." Mysterio reasoned, putting his hand on her shoulder. "If he can't handle this, then he would have gone the way of ninety-nine percent of vigilantes. Either dead or arrested. Most likely the former given his personality."
"That doesn't make it better." Nagant scowled.
Mysterio didn't argue. Instead, he simply walked back to his chair and sat down. "Look at this way. Spider-Man so far has exceeded our expectations. I have no doubt that he will at least pass this trail."
"Don't lie to me." Nagant glared, intensely at the mysterious man.
"...I misspoke." Mysterio apologized. "I have doubts...but ultimately, I believe that he will succeed."
Nagant took a few moments to cool down before she turned away. "He's a good kid."
"I know," Mysterio said, somewhat remorsefully. "And that's why it has to be him."
Nagant didn't respond, instead just walking out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
After a few moments, Mysterio spoke. "Does Swarm have his eyes on Midoriya?"
"Affirmative!" Said a strange robotic voice coming out of the wall.
"Show me." He ordered.
The holographic image came back up, this time showing Izuku swinging through the air as Spider-Man.
"Izuku Midoriya," Mysterio repeated Izuku's name. "So long have I waited for you to appear. So many years spent lurking in the shadows. Biding my time. Gathering information. Preparing for someone like you to come, so my plans begin. Izuku Midoriya...you will be the one to destroy hero society."
Ok, so a few things.
First off, we have the reveal of one of the main villains! Mysterio!
Now you might be wondering. Really? Mysterio? Why Mysterio? Why not Kingpin, or Green Goblin, or Doc Ock, or Venom?
Mostly because those villains are all kinda overused, and Mysterio is very underused. The coolest Mysterio ever looks is when he's not fighting Spider-Man(I.E. the X-Men and Daredevil.). Really it seems like the writers just don't realize the potential of Mysterio most of the time, and he's often used in very uncreative ways. This is a shame, as he has the potential to be extremely cool.
Those more popular villains will all still be in the fic, but Mysterio is going to be one of the biggest looming threats in the story. As well as an ally on some occasions.
Also yes just in case I needed to confirm it, Mysterio was behind the P.V.A.'s and Izuku meeting Nikku.
Also, Lady Nagant is here! And not in jail! What's the story with that!? Well, you'll see.
Oh and Screwball...don't worry I'm not gonna feature her all that much, she'll mostly be in the background, and I have the intention of making her as annoying as she usually is.
Now before we go, let's talk about Izuku's potential.
Izuku's potential for growth is insane. Let's not forget, Izuku went from where he was at the U.A. entrance exam, to where he is now in the Manga, in less than a year.
Now mind you he does have a very O.P. quirk, but it was NOT easy to get to that point, and most of the other members of class 1A would not have made that much progress with a quirk that difficult to use. Note I said most, not all.
Izuku and Bakugo are both prodigies, and once Izuku got full cowling this became easier to see.
Now we give Izuku spider powers, which by themselves would be decently hard to use, except for the spider-sense, which makes literally everything easier. It's practically a cheat. It makes not only figuring out his powers easier but just learning how to fight in general easier.
Of course, the Spider-Sense has its own downsides, specifically becoming over-reliant on it. But that's for later.
Anyway, I wanted to address this because Izuku is going to get very skilled very fast. Not too fast, but still pretty fast.
Anyway, that's all for now true believers, please review and have a nice day.