Preface: This story is written with the full blessing of RogueDruid to use his story, Locked In Digital, as the base idea for Solid State Stream. A huge thanks to him for allowing me to use his idea and to everyone who's reading this story. The following is the web address to his story, y'all know what to do.

h/t/t/p/s:/archiveofourown.o/r/g/works/17292761/chapters/40672001

I'm also going to use this moment to give you all a forewarning. I will be dealing with topics such as: suicide (both in-sim and not), depression, self-harm both intentional and unintentional, themes of addiction, torture of both psychological and physical nature, PTSD, as well as the garden variety of gore and violence. I will be implementing TWs when necessary, though, so don't worry too much.

Stay sane y'all.

~MindsandMirrors


Stage One: Pre-Production


Sugoh Akihiko stared down at a pair of green eyes, peering up at him like twin emeralds. And as the boy heard more about Sugoh's Quirk, the greater his excitement grew. In the background, Sugoh could hear his coworker- Hisashi- laughing good-naturedly as his son began asking dozens of questions, the boy's mother following suit a moment later.

The boy was only three, and yet he was already so interested in Quirk analysis? Astounding. Sugoh wondered if he would like to become a scientist for I-Island like his father when he was older.

Sugoh answered as many questions as he could, some with a hearty laugh as the boy asked absurd questions that simply didn't make any sense and others with serious answers.

"The longest I've ever held a person in digital-space with my Quirk is about a month, but I was forced to release them before the computer overheated. As computers get better I'll be able to keep people there longer." He told the boy, who's eyes sparkled just a bit brighter the more Sugoh indulged him.

Later, after the four of them had finished dinner, the boy asked one last question as he drifted off to sleep.

"Sugoh-jii-san, when I'm older, will you use your Quirk on me?" Sugoh gave a small chuckle and ruffled the toddler's hair.
"Of course, Izuku-kun."

Sugoh left the next morning, back to I-Island with Hisashi for another six months filled with work, projects and advancements in science! He felt a smile make its way onto his face as he thought about all of his research notes that he'd been forced to leave behind.

As Hisashi hugged his sleepy son and kissed his wife goodbye, none of them knew that it would be the last time the man would see his family in person.


For the first few years, Sugoh kept in contact with the Midoriya family on a regular basis, but eventually they drifted apart, his hours on I-Island becoming longer as he began work with the Project Training Ground and Lazarus team on various projects- revolutionary work, absolutely! But he couldn't help but feel they weren't doing enough, weren't bold enough in their endeavors- utilizing his Quirk.

But some five years after Hisashi's death, on a return visit to Japan he decided to visit his high-school-friend's grave to pay respects and coincidentally ran into the man's family on the way there.

"Ah, Akihiko-san!" The matriarch said, obviously as surprised to see him as he was to see them.
"Midoriya-san, and Izuku-kun!" He barely noticed the child behind his mother- who had put on some weight since they'd last met- as the young boy peeked out from behind her leg. He had an All-Might hoodie zipped up around him and he looked up at Sugoh without recognition, although his eyes still shined with that intelligence that made Sugoh think that he'd be a great asset to I-Island in the future.

'Who knows, at this rate he may very well be able to assist me on the project in person when he's grown.' He grumbled internally.

"It's been quite some time, hasn't it?" He asked rhetorically, a small chuckle escaping him as the woman gave him a soft smile.
"Yes, it has. Although I am glad you kept in contact as long as you did, I never did get the chance to thank you for that." He shook his head.
"It's fine, Midoriya-san. And I would like to apologize as well. But, hours at the lab have been getting... long." He sighed, shaking his head. Long, indeed.

They spent days and weeks in the labs, and his coworkers were all excellent scientists and coworkers even if they were a bit young- Sugoh himself was the oldest at a modest thirty-three!- but he couldn't help but feel that they weren't making enough progress! If that man just approved his grant request for another server bank, they could increase progress exponentially! They may even be able to solve the issue with the simulations destabilizing!

Sugoh shook his head. This was supposed to be a vacation, he wasn't supposed to be thinking about work right now. He began walking with the duo as they made their way to the Midoriya family grave.

"How have you two been these past few years?" He asked the the two, and a distinctly complicated look crossed Midoriya Inko's face as she hesitated to say anything.
"Well... it certainly could be worse." She gave a small chuckle. "But really, it wasn't anything to complain about. Izuku's doing good and so am I, now. How about you, Sugoh-san?" Sugoh chuckled at the woman's unfailing politeness.
"I've been... well, I suppose. The project we're working on has been slowing down as of recent. But even so, it isn't something enough hard work won't get us through; we're doing so much good work after after all!" He gave a laugh as he regaled her with a few stories from the lab, earning polite chuckles from her and giggles from the boy.

Eventually, they came across the stone pedestal that marked the Midoriya family grave and they all remained silent as they cleaned it up- although it was nearly immaculate, thankfully.

As they began the walk back from the grave site, Sugoh looked to the young Midoriya boy- who had grown used to his presence by now- and asked him a question.

"So, Izuku-kun, are you still interested in Quirk analysis?" The boy looked up and blinked at him rapidly in surprise, before nodding shyly. "I remember when you were just a few years old, you asked me so many questions about my Quirk, I was quite surprised at how interested you were with analyzing it." A small frown of confusion crossed his face for a moment before Izuku came to a realization.
"Sugoh-jii-san?!" He yelped, surprised as he recognized the man, earning a chuckle.
"That is what you called me. So, tell me, are you still interested in Quirk analysis?" When the boy fidgeted, blushing slightly and not answering his mother did so for him with a chuckle.

"Oh, you should see his journals. He's written 'Hero-Analysis for the Future' on so many of them, he's got them numbered since he can't just remember which one is which anymore. They're filled page-to-page with facts on heroes and their Quirks." Sugoh's eyes widened.
"That's impressive, Izuku-kun," he told the boy, "You must have an analysis Quirk or something similar in order to do that, huh?" He asked the boy, smiling, only for his smile to fall as both of their moods sobered. "I... apologize, did I say something wrong?" Inko sighed.
"Well, Izuku is... Quirkless, actually. We found out not long after his fourth birthday, you see." The boy nodded, kicking the sidewalk gloomily.

"Quirk... less?" Sugoh mused, something in the back of his head stirring.


The majority of the Project Training Ground team sat gathered around a table while Asuna slept off the workweek. Kirito angrily nursed a bottle of beer while he grumbled about the simulation's failure.

"Fucking... we've tried everything and we still can't run a sim for longer than a half hour." The androgynous man groaned, finishing off his beer and setting the empty bottle off to the side.

They had just begun human testing for the environmental engine, seeing how well it interacted with humans, only to find that the simulation would reliably crash.

"There was that one test that ran for a full hour..." Argo lamely offered, finishing off a beer of her own, and eliciting a frustrated sigh as her feline features twitched.

"And how exactly does that help, Argo?" He snapped. "Whether it's an hour or half an hour, we need to run a sim longer than that if we want enough information."

Before Argo could snarl back a response, Agil cut between them and slammed one of his large hands onto the table.

"Enough! Both of you." Agil sighed. "I get you're both stressed. But right now, we need to calm down and stop. Drinking. We've got a long day ahead of us, and we don't need anyone with a hangover."

Argo rolled her eyes and finished her beer, setting it off to the side while Kirito replaced to bottle he was about to open, returning to his tablet.

"... I still can't understand what's going on," he said. "The hardware is running properly, the CPU isn't overheating, the software isn't bugged and for the life of me I can't understand what's causing the problems."

As Kirito's face twisted in annoyance, his eye began to twitch.

"The simulations average about thirty minutes, the longest being an hour. Sex and gender seem to have no effect, although Heteromorphs seem to last the longest.

"The question is why?"


Sugoh gasped in realization, the pieces snapping into place.

"That's it!" He almost hollered, barely remembering he was in a public place. He turned to the Midoriya family with wide eyes full of slightly manic energy. "Izuku-kun, you've just cracked the mystery we've been trying to solve for weeks!" He laughed as a new drive filled him. "I'm sorry, but I need to get back to I-Island immediately, we need to put this into practice as soon as possible." He began to powerwalk away from the two, calling his colleagues on I-Island, leaving the confused mother and son behind.


It was Quirks! Of course it was, Quirks were the problem! They were unaccountable variables! How could a simulation proceed when it didn't have the ability to capture all of the elements of its user? And how could they account for the rapid, unexpected and unpredictable cooling of the air, or a sudden increase and presence of mass where there was none before? The only reason those with heteromorphic Quirks lasted as long as they did was that they were static, or predictable changes.

How they hadn't seen it sooner was beyond him, as it was the rest of his team. When they put a Quirkless person through the sim, it ran perfectly! They gathered so much data from just a single run, it threw their research forward by decades compared to their previous pace, although they were limited to just a few hours before the CPU reached dangerous temperatures.

But... he couldn't help but think what if they had more? More sims, more testers, more experiments. He was curious, it was part of being a scientist- of course it was, their job was to figure things out!- but apparently he was going 'beyond his duties' as a member of the Ouroboros team, wanting to see if the sim they developed for healing and medical applications could be used in other ways, or to see how far they could crank up the time-dilation factor.

He could imagine it, months of training or research completed in mere weeks! Or even experiments for support gear, carried out without risk of death, perhaps even improving the testers in the process, if he could implement the medical tech based off of that woman's Quirk properly.

And it was just a few short years later- as the newest servers were installed and Yui Cardinal was introduced, throwing their technology forward by years- that Sugoh saw his chance.


Izuku Midoriya grumbled, body aching with burns and bruises as he left school.

"Stupid Kacchan... what if I actually did jump, huh? What then..." He wiped some tears from his eyes and straightened up, raising a fist into the air. "Well I'll show you! I'll- MPH!" His cry was cut short as a gloved hand smothered his mouth and nose with a sweet-smelling cloth. His vision began to fade out and he tried to struggle against his captor, only to receive a knee in the back, making him go still. A few minutes later, Izuku was soundly unconscious, thrown into the trunk of a car as the man who kidnapped him chuckled to himself.

"Oh Midoriya Izuku... you will be my greatest creation yet, I'm certain." Sugoh Akihiko chuckled to himself, taking the boy to where he had set up a connection to I-Island's main server.

'What will you become, Izuku-kun?'