AN: Yo! so this is a really heavy AU. The basic premise is that this is taking the BNHA cast and putting them far earlier into the quirk age. Roughly 50 year after the glowing baby is born and quirks began to appear. As such, most of the population is still quirkless, and most of the quirked people are under the age of 20. There is no hero system, and there sure as hell isn't a hero school yet. Most of the cast will have their same quirks (yes even All Might) as in canon. Ages might be different for some characters however as I see fit. Izuku's quirk is just Spider-Man. I opted to not give him bio logical web stuff for reasons that will become apparent later. Personality wise, Izuku is going Personality wise Izuku is a bit of a mix of MCU peter (tom holland) and Izuku himself. Because quirks are rare (and discriminated against) he doesn't have his quirk obsession... or hero obsession. Uhh... I think that's it for the pre-amble. if I missed anything I'll probably cover it in the fic.
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The first quirk appeared roughly twenty years ago, when a baby in China was born glowing. For approximately three weeks, that child was worshiped as the buddha reborn, then more and more quirks began to appear, bringing into question that brief religious explosion as people began floating and setting their heads on fire. Currently, that child is a monk somewhere in Tibet.
Only about 10% of the population have quirks, and of that 10%, half are under the age of twenty. Around the world, strict laws were placed on quirk usage once their destructive potential was revealed. Many people around the were against this, calling these new gifts a basic human right, but the vast majority of people—the 90%—wanted their lives to carry on as normal. But with more and more people developing quirks, normal was getting further and further away.
"The criminal known as Captain Nevi-greve was killed today, after having brought world trade to a halt for over a week after declaring that several dozen Croatian islands were under his sovereignty. This is just one of a dozen attempts after the South African crime lord Hadeon seized control of the nation. The U.S. president had this to say on the matter."
Izuku hummed as he slowly tied his red barefoot running shoes. He had never really been aware of how much his mother watched the news until a few weeks ago—when he made the news. Now he was pretty sure that it was all she ever watched. She spent most of the day worrying about the state of the world, which he did too. Quirk-based crimes weren't just on the rise, they were completely eclipsing quirkless crimes, and the police were often powerless against them.
"Hey, mom!" Izuku shouted back, smiling towards his mother. "I'm going out for a bit!"
"Huh?" Inko nearly jumped out of her shoes when Izuku spoke up. "So late? What on earth are you doing out there?"
Izuku just smiled and hopped on his shoes. "I like to hit the gym at night; it's really nice, y'know?"
His mother gave a long sigh, placing a hand to her cheeks. "Well, okay, but stay safe!"
"Always do!" Izuku headed towards the door.
"And stay out of any dark alleys!"
"No problem!"
"And keep your phone ready! Speed dial 911 if you—"
Izuku closed the door behind his mother and let out a sigh. He might have gotten used to the lying, but it never felt good. His mother would freak out if she found out what he was actually doing, though. Especially if he got arrested.
The whole thing had started a couple cities north in Tokyo when a lion headed-man calling himself King Leo showed up and beat up some quirk-using criminals that were trying to rob a bank. He was naturally arrested for assault and battery, and was still in prison now, but his actions sent a clear message.
Izuku turned down a dark alleyway no more than a few blocks from his home, his hand digging into his gym bag as he smiled. His heart was already racing, and he could feel his body tingling in anticipation to activate fight or flight mode. He acted quickly, first pulling his mask—a beanie with two holes cut for eyes—and then putting on his black and green sweater, making sure that it completely covered as much of his body as possible. He had gotten used to changing his costume, and could now more or less do it in a matter of seconds.
King Leo's message had rang loud and clear. "We can fight back!"
"Hmm." Izuku paused as he placed a hand against the wall, his hand sticking to it like velcro and giving him more traction than his soccer cleats ever did in middle school. "I should come up with a cool name too."
He slung his gym bag over his shoulder and began to climb the wall. It had taken him a while to figure out how exactly he was able to stick to walls so easily; his fingers and toes could grip anything because of the electrostatic force called the van der waals force, which was essentially how spiders and geckos climbed on walls. So long as whatever he was wearing on his hands and feet weren't too thick, they wouldn't interfere with this force.
Which was why he had saved up and bought those ridiculous ultra-thin running shoes that were basically feet gloves.
Climbing was a different story.
"Maybe King Gecko?" He hummed as he reached the top. At this point, climbing the wall was as easy as walking down the street. Part of the reason why he could climb so easily was because of his body: he was far stronger than a normal teenager was supposed to be. He got a few odd looks in the locker room since it was weird for a middle schooler to have visible abs, especially one that, a few years ago, was someone that would be picked last for every sport.
"Nah, too close to King Leo, they'd think I'm copying him." Which he was, but in a good way. "Maybe, The Gecko?"
He placed his gym bag on the roof, hiding it in a corner that wasn't visible from the streets or the nearby buildings, and began to stretch, a few of his joints giving a slight pop as he still hadn't adjusted to his new flexibility.
"Nah," Izuku twisted his leg behind his head in some advanced Yoga pose he had seen people do, and then rolled his neck. "I don't really have a tongue thing, and most people don't think Geckos are cool, just that they're kind of cute."
Which wouldn't be bad, since he's trying to save people, not scare them.
"Green Gecko?" He shook his head and started running along the ceiling, his feet moving faster than any normal person before he got to the edge and leaped. He cleared the street, aiming for another tall building that he ran along the side of, keeping an eye out for any crime.
His quirk was hard to define exactly, though he believed it fell under the mutation category. Increased strength, endurance, flexibility, agility, and reaction time, combined with his ability to climb walls like a gecko just felt like a hodgepodge of good stuff. To add to that, there was this weird sixth sense he had that warned him of danger. Any one of those things would be a quirk in and of itself.
But the weirdest part about his quirk?
Up until he was 15, he was unquirked. Then puberty hit, and he basically became a super human overnight.
His acne even cleared up!
Izuku stopped on the side of a building, his hand seamlessly sticking to the smooth glass of the office building, while he looked at the streets down below.
Being officially normal meant that no one treated him any differently; he wasn't bullied for having a quirk, he didn't have to go to a special school, and conveniently, no one would expect him to be a vigilante.
Though it was kind of hard to keep it a secret at first, especially those first couple of hours when he was sticking to basically everything.
His first time being a crime fighter had been a mess, and he had nearly been arrested. Fortunately, the police were still struggling with the concept of quirks, and didn't think it would be possible for anyone to climb the perfectly smooth side of a five story tall building in less than a minute.
Now though, he was getting pretty okay at it.
"At least, I like to think—" He stopped, a weird tingle in the back of his head pulling his eyes towards an alleyway not too far off. He could see a group of guys surrounding a girl. That wasn't good.
He weakened his grip, sliding down the building part way before he launched off of it and caught himself on another building. Using the various buildings in the area, he leapfrogged until he arrived just at the alleyway, and looked down at the crime in progress.
"What's with your eyes, freak?" one of the three men said. Physically, he looked like was out of high school and old enough to drink. Mentally, he probably never left. His head was shaved bald, and he was wearing one of those crappy leather jackets with spikes. The other two men matched his jacket, though they both had an obnoxiously large mohawk.
They looked like they taught 'how to be a street punk 101' at the community college.
"Huh? My eyes? Oh, it's my quirk! You see, I can zoom in really far, nearly two miles, and I use it—" The girl seemed genuinely excited about her quirk as she spoke. Her big smile gave Izuku no indication that she was in any actual danger, despite her back being against the wall. She was carrying a large bag across her shoulder that looked like it was filled with various things. Even from here he could tell that she was actually really pretty, if a bit on the dirty side.
"Shame they're so fucking ugly though," the second punk said, this one with the blonde mohawk. "And what's up with your hair? Is that even hair? It looks like fucking play dough."
He thought her hair looked cute. It was a nice pink that stood out to him, and her eyes were a really nice golden color.
"Oh! I got it from my dad! He had a quirk that gave him hair just like mine so—"
"Holy shit!" The third shouted. "She's a second generation freak! No wonder she looks so fucking ugly."
Izuku wanted to punch them, but right now they hadn't technically done anything to her. There was nothing illegal about taking someone into a shady alleyway and insulting them, and it didn't look like the girl was struggling in the slightest. Like, she seemed genuinely happy that people were talking to her. Even if it was insults.
Still, it felt wrong.
He placed his hands along the wall and began to climb down, getting close enough that he could jump down and stop them the moment they tried anything.
"Yeah, but look at her body!" The first guy laughed. "Even under all that grease, you can tell she's fucking hot. Hey, girl, what size are those melons?"
"Melons? Oh, my breasts! My three measurements are 93, 55, and 88." The girl answered like she wasn't sharing very private information. "What are yours? Measurements are very important for—"
One of the guys grabbed her by the arm. "What do you say you come back to our place? Never been with anyone over 90 before."
"We got a nice bag for ya."
"And a gag."
"What?" Oh, now the girl looked frightened. "Let go of me."
And that was his cue.
Izuku slammed down onto the closed dumpster lid, shocking the three delinquents into letting the girl go. "Hey, Madmax rejects, maybe you should take a hint."
"What the?" One of the guys asked and looked up towards the roof. "How did you—"
"His quirk, dumbass!" the bald man said, glaring at Izuku. "What the hell are you wearing, you dumbass? You look like you dress by dumpster diving in the lost and found."
"Says the guy wearing skinny jeans. I'm pretty sure I know middle schoolers that wear those."
"Whatever kid, this doesn't concern you, now just piss off unless you want trouble." The bald guy turned back towards the girl who was now wearing a fearful expression. "Now, back to you babe, let's—"
"Uhh, no," Izuku hopped down off the dumpster and looked up at the four men. Sometimes he hated the fact that he hadn't had a real growth spurt. "Let her go, unless you want trouble."
"Bahahah!" The third punk-ass bitch laughed, pulling out a rather sharp looking knife and pointing it towards Izuku. "What the hell do you think you are, punk?"
"Oh!" The guy with the blonde mohawk laughed. "I bet he thinks he's a crime fighter!"
Izuku shrugged, "Guilty as charged. Now, are you going to back away, or," he pointed towards the knife, "am I going to have to show you where you can shove that?"
"Pfft, whatever wannabe!" The knife-wielding dumbass shouted and lunged towards Izuku. "What can a kid like you even do?"
Lift a car, long jump across a highway, climb a building, all in less than a minute without even breaking a sweat?
Izuku shrugged and stepped to the side of the blow, giving him a light tap on his elbow and pushing him to the side, into the dumpster. "Calculus, for one."
"You little shit!"
His neck tingled as the other two joined in, one armed with a knife, the other with a metal pipe that had apparently just been lying around. It was almost like watching something happen in slow motion. Despite looking like he didn't know how to hold a knife properly, the punk was still going for the gut, aiming to not just seriously hurt him, but—if fate permitted—kill him. The lead pipe though was being swung wide, like a baseball bat.
He stepped back, his fancy shoes doing very little to protect his feet from the nasty alleyway puddle. With a slight push to the knife man's arm, he shoved him to the side, and then a quick jab to the bald man with the metal pipe's arm caused him to swing wide, and hit his friend across the stomach.
"Fuck!" The pipe-wielding man shouted as he dropped his weapon. His arm, where Izuku had struck, was completely broken. A shattered bone was breaking through the skin, and it looked like it was barely hanging on as the arm dangled there completely lifeless. "Fuck!"
"Oh shit!" Izuku held his hands out in front of him. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to break your arm like that, I just wanted to teach you guys a lesson and I'm not good at controlling my strength yet, and I'm so sorry I mean, you did try to stab me, but I—"
"Shut up, you fucking freak!" The bald headed man shouted as he grabbed his friend, bringing his good arm over his shoulders and leading him out of the alley way. "You quirked weirdos are fucking monsters!"
The other mohawk guy got up and followed after his friends while flipping Izuku off. "Freaks! Both of you!"
Izuku just sighed. He really shouldn't feel bad for breaking someone's arm that was attempting to stab him mere moments ago, but he was so much stronger than them. "Maybe I should only fight quirk crime?"
"Hey!" The pink-haired girl zoomed right in front of him, her expression roughly the equivalent of drugged out happiness. "You just saved me, right?"
"Uhh, yes?"
"Great! That's awesome! You're one of those uhh, what are they called again?" She tapped her chin and snapped her fingers until she turned back to him, her crosshairs zooming in and out as she looked at him. "A vigilante!"
"I prefer the term crime-fighter, but uhh, yeah, I guess."
"That's amazing!" She laughed and began to dig through her bag, revealing what Izuku could only describe as a lot of junk that bordered on crap. "What's your quirk? I call mine Zoom; it lets me zoom in and see stuff that's far away, though I mostly use it for when I'm making my babies!"
"Babies?" Izuku asked, looking into her bag again.
"Gadgets! Gear! Inventions!" she shouted as she showed off what looked like a grappling hook to him, and then a glove that looked like it was more than a normal pair of gloves. "People keep saying that technology has been stagnant since quirks showed up, but I'm going to prove them wrong! And I think that we can make super awesome gadgets that help people with quirks work!"
"Wow," Izuku smiled as he watched this strange girl dig through her bag. "That's kind of amazing."
"Thanks! Uhh, wait, what's your name?" She squinted at him for a moment before dove back into her bag and pulled out what looked like a wrist strap. "Oh, here we go!"
"Umm, I don't think it's a good idea for me to tell you my—"
"I meant your like, Vigilante name. All you quirk guys have one, right? I mean, that Heated Debate guy has been naming you all for a while. But I don't think you all call yourselves Menace." She blinked and then looked up. "Though, that is what my teachers called me."
"I haven't really thought of one yet, but, since I can crawl on walls, I was thinking something with gecko in the name?"
She blinked at him. "Okay Gecko-boy,"
He cringed so hard he might just die.
"Anyways, I'm Mei Hatsume, middle school, high school, and college drop out!" That was equal parts surprising, unsurprising, impressive, and underwhelming. "And I want to support you guys!"
"Really?" There were people that wanted to help out the crime fighters? That made him feel so much better than the police being after him.
"Yeah! So that's why you're officially my first customer!"
"I'm broke."
"You're officially my advertisement!" She handed him the wrist band and smiled. "Go around saving people, and if you find any other Vigilantes, tell them about me!" She gasped and then pulled out her phone. "Oh, and let me give you my number in case things break—oh! And my address in case you want new stuff, and to like, send me more quirked people!"
"Oh, uhh, sure," Izuku pulled out his phone and tapped it against Mei's, effectively exchanging their contact information.
Wait.
Did he just.
"Great!" Mei shouted and smiled at her phone. "It's nice to meet you Izuku Midoriya! I look forward to having a long and prosperous relationship with you!"
Fuck.
He got top marks on the high school entrance exam, how was he this stupid?
"Oh! And by the way, that—" she pointed towards the wrist band, "—is effectively a short range grappling hook and whip. Actually, you know those sticky hand things we played with as kids that you'd smack things with?"
"Yeah."
"It's basically a super one of those. I know you can climb walls and stuff, but it should help!"
"What?"
"Guh," She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand.
His tingles didn't warn him about the sudden aggression; maybe they didn't work on Mei?
That seemed like it was the most accurate.
Within a moment, she had the band around his wrist and was standing behind him. Her chest was pressed up against his back, and it was hard not to recall the 93 she had mentioned earlier. "Okay, so basically, what you have to do is pull back like…" She guided his arm back behind his head. "Kind of like you're getting ready to cast a fishing line… at least that's what I read, and then, you fling forward and aim where you want it to go."
He did so and watched as a snot-like substance flung out from the wrist brand and then stuck to the wall, a long trail connecting to him to the end. He gave it a light pull and found that it was sturdy. He pulled again, and realized that it was more than sturdy. He hopped up, pulling his feet to his chest and swung back and forth like a pendulum. It could easily hold his body weight.
"Mei! This stuff is amazing!"
"Thanks! I made it myself for the science fair a few years ago!" She placed both hands on her hips and nodded. "But I didn't win."
He laughed and put his feet down, stopping easily. "Okay, now how do I bring it back?"
Mei was silent.
"Mei?"
"You don't," she said meekly and pushed some of her thick pink hair behind her ear as she looked to be mildly embarrassed. "But don't worry, that's just the prototype! I'll make one that you can reuse soon! I promise! Oh, and—"
The sound of sirens echoed throughout the hall and Izuku felt his senses tingle.
"I think the police are coming."
"Useless spoil sports!" Mei stomped her feet and walked over, undoing the arm band and cutting the goo with a spray can. "Okay, bye Gecko-boy! Thanks for saving me!"
"No problem, uhh, thanks Mei." He waved and then blinked. "And don't call me Gecko-boy."
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Avoiding the police was honestly the worst part of being a crime fighter. What he was doing was technically illegal, and it was their job, but it felt like they were going after him and turning a blind eye to a lot of crime. Still, he had saved someone today, and even met a potential ally in the name of justice! That sounded weird.
Good thing it was just in his head.
Still, he wanted to see what else Mei would make.
He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "Maybe she can do a costume?"
He walked up the final few steps to his home and couldn't help but think about how easy it would be to just climb into his room. But that would be so obvious, and someone would probably see. Plus, his mom might get suspicious, since as far as he knew, she still thought he was just an unquirked overachiever that was going to become a lawyer.
She'd probably have a heart attack if she found out what he was really doing.
Especially if she knew that two people tried to stab him today.
"Hey mom, I'm—" He stepped into their small apartment and stopped as he saw what—or rather, who—was on T.V.
A large man in a very red suit was sitting behind a desk like he was at a news station, random numbers and images falling behind him like a cheap green screen effect. "Welcome to Heated Debate with me, your host, Enji Todoroki. Many of you may have watched my podcast, but as the quirked vigilante epidemic spreads, so too does my reach! Now I'm here on channel six news to give you the insight on these dangerous criminals that are not only putting their lives in danger, but yours as well."
Izuku walked up to the couch and found his mother watching the screen with wide eyes. "Izuku, come here and sit, watch the news with me. Enji was just about to talk about the dangerous vigilantes that have been popping up."
"Uhh." He really didn't want to hear this guy rant. "I actually have some homework I need to do."
"Oh, well, that's fine then." Inko smiled up at him and sat back in her seat. "I just want you to be safe out there."
"Don't worry mom, I can take care of myself."
AN: If you liked this consider following me on twitter or reading any of my other stories, like Blood Ink which has Izuku join the Yakuza!