Tartarus prison burned.
Muscular hurled the guard at the nearest concrete wall, relishing in the snap and crack as the guard's body fell to a heap on the ground. He licked a spray of blood from his lips with a shiver of delight.
The dark shapes of Noumu darted on the walls and slicing shrieks revealed Moonfish at work to his east.
Massive steel doors barred the prison's main entrance from the bridge. Between Moonfish and the Noumu, no guards or automated defences stood in his way.
Metal wrenched as he ripped the doors apart, barely an inconvenience.
The hallway inside was dark, dry and disappointingly empty.
A lone figure stood at the end of the hallway.
"Bare chested and masked?" Muscular smirked. "You must be a hero."
"I don't need to ask if you're a villain." Snatch did not react.
"Ready to die?" Muscular cracked the floor as he slowly strode forward, tendrils of muscle wrapping his limbs.
"Comes with the job."
A grin split Muscular's face as he leapt forward, muscles massing and coiling.
With a single strike, he punched right through the hero's chest.
No blood splattered his face. No bones turned to dust under his fingers.
There was only sand.
Snatch expanded his torso and arms, kicking backwards until he went over the hulking villain. Columns of sand wrapped around Muscular's torso, arms and legs.
"Two other prisons have been raided tonight." Snatch growled, increasing his sand generation. "You can't fool me. The others were small fries. Your real target is Tartarus. Shigaraki is my guess. Your break out stops with me!"
"You think you can hold me?!" Muscular laughed, easily breaking the sand around his arms and legs.
"Not a chance." Snatch admitted. "But I ain't trying to hold you. I just needed to distract you while I got a good grip."
Muscular's eyes widened as sand engulfed his head. He ripped and clawed at the teeming mass desperately, futilely tearing out massive fistfuls of sand. Desperate, he ran, trying to get out of range as his lungs began to burn.
Snatch held on wordlessly, forcing sand to pour from his body and keep himself on the villain. Muscular whirled his massive enhanced arms around, tearing clumps of steel from the walls, but couldn't even see Snatch, let alone hit him. He fell onto his chest, writhing, then stilled.
Snatch kept the sand in place.
"Four minutes." He groused. "That's riskin' brain damage, but you can never be sure with enhancement types."
His torso reformed as Muscular remained unmoving.
"Impressive." The voice rasped like a broken radio.
Snatch spun around, facing the dark masked figure in the door. He screamed in pain as both his legs were pierced by black and red tendrils boring through his legs into the floor below. His arms flared outwards of their own accord, spraying sand to his limit at the walls.
"What a fascinating quirk…" All for one mused. His dress shoes clicked as he walked slowly through the corridor.
He kept Snatch's quirk activated to its maximum output, feeling the hero begin to shake from the strain.
"Yes…" He purred as Snatch's eyes narrowed defiantly. "Difficult to control, exacting focus. I think I'll keep it."
Snatch screamed.
When Class 1-A returned from the training camp, the world had changed.
Three major prisons had been broken into with all inmates confirmed missing.
Japan entered a lockdown while villain attacks grew more frequent by the day. It took weeks for the Pro Heroes and Law Enforcement to get the situation under control, but over half of the escaped criminals still remained at large.
Izuku clutched the bag of groceries under his arm, keeping his right hand on the Omnitrix. His neighbourhood had remained relatively untouched by the escaped criminals, but he still felt uneasy. He could swear he was being watched.
He climbed the stairs up to their apartment and breathed a sigh of relief, shifting the groceries to carry the bag more comfortably.
"Hey mom." He called outside the door, pushing it open with his back and stepped through. "They didn't have white eggs so I got brown. I hope that's-"
His mother lay on the carpet, bleeding from a wound on her head. A white haired man lazed on the couch, a gun held casually against her head.
"Izuku Midoriya." A deep voice rumbled. The man was massive, with the head of a shark. He stood in the kitchen next to a thin man in a white suit.
"What do you want?" Izuku demanded, trying to edge his hand slowly towards the Omnitrix.
"Just a chat." Tigershark grinned. "Don't try to activate your quirk. Kikukami has a terribly slippery trigger finger. Put the groceries on the table and take a seat."
Izuku did as the man asked, careful to make no sudden movements. His mind raced. He would listen to the villains talk until he could find a moment to act.
"You're in UA, yes?" The man in the white suit asked as Izuku sat down.
"No use lying." Tigershark smirked when Izuku hesitated. "We've been watching you since the sports festival."
"What do you want?" Izuku asked again, trying to keep his voice steady.
"I want you to work for me." Tigershark said simply.
"No thanks." Izuku snapped. "You can go now."
"Maybe you should listen before you talk, kid." Kikukami sneered, pressing the gun's barrel harder against Inko's head.
"As I was saying," Tigershark continued, unaffected. "I want you to work for me. One of my associates requires information only someone in UA could get. I want to pay you generously to do this for me."
"And if I say no?" Izuku narrowed his eyes.
"Then you will give me what I want anyway." Tigershark leaned onto the counter casually. "After all… I know where you live. And I can clearly get to your loved ones."
"H-how will I be able to tell you what you want?" Izuku stuttered. "The school is probably watching me all the time."
"I'm going to make this very easy for you." Tigershark grumbled, then moved over to the couch, placing his foot on Inko's head. "Don't move, hero."
Kikukami tucked his gun into his belt, then sauntered towards Izuku, as he plucked a strand of white hair from his head. He flicked the clump of hair, and Izuku flinched as it flew onto his head, settling as a wisp of white in his fringe.
"My quirk is called emissary." Kikukami explained with a sneer. "It allows me to see and hear everything you can see and hear."
"In other words," Tigershark bared his teeth. "You tell anyone about this, and I will know. You write any notes, and I will know. For now just continue your first week of school as normal. Consider it a trial period. You will receive new instructions the coming weekend."
With that they stood and left. Kikukami paused in the door.
"Be seeing you, kid." He winked. "And don't try to get rid of it either. If you do… I'll know."
The moment they left, Izuku dashed to the phone mounted on the wall.
"Hello? I need an ambulance! My mom has been attacked by villains!"
Izuku felt sick.
His mother was resting in her bed, her head wound patched.
He'd told his mom and the hospital staff that it had been a simple break in, and that the villains recognised him from the sports festival, then fled the scene.
Once the shock wore off, Izuku felt a cold fury settle in his body.
Even before the Omnitrix, he had a knack for studying quirks. If anyone could find a way out of his situation, it would be him.
He couldn't write anything down without risking the Villains seeing, but writing helped him think. So he started doing his summer homework.
The villain could see and hear everything he said at any moment. He scratched out a poorly shaped symbol.
He could not write a message without risking the villain seeing him do it. He also couldn't tell anyone about the situation directly.
He chewed on the end of his pen as he reread his last line.
A feeling like a cold fist formed in his chest as he continued doing his homework, every idea he came up with seemed to have some issue to make it unworkable.
He wouldn't give up. He knew he would find a solution eventually, he just hoped he didn't give too much away while he did.
The further the train sped towards UA, the more a tight knot grew in his stomach. He didn't know what to do.
He saw Bakugou board the train and, maybe as some small expression of rebellion against his situation, made sure to stay far away from his classmate and kept himself from looking his way.
"Good morning, Midoriya." Tokoyami greeted as he got on the train himself. "I see you've styled your hair."
"Oh, you noticed?" Izuku awkwardly touched the white streak of hair the villain made on his head. "Do you like it?"
"Not really." Tokoyami deadpanned. "But I respect that you are trying something new."
"Thanks, Fumikage." Izuku didn't know whether to smile or frown, so he settled for rolling his eyes.
"How has your last week of vacation been?" Tokoyami grinned. "You have not responded much on the class group as of late. I'm sure some of our classmates would have advised you against the haircut."
"Oh, y-yeah." Izuku kept his voice even. "Just been trying to catch up with my homework."
"Have you finished that English essay?" Tokoyami winced. "Yamada sensei sure doesn't make our lives easy."
"Oh crap!" Izuku felt flushed with panic. "I thought I still had time!"
"Don't worry too much." Tokoyami reassured. "You have until the end of the week to hand it in."
Izuku sagged with relief.
"Take care when writing though." Tokoyami warned. "Yamada-sensei has high standards. At least he is more forgiving than Aizawa when it comes to spelling errors."
Izuku's eyes widened as an idea came to him.
"Midoriya?" Kaminari asked, red in the face from holding back a laugh. "What- what happened to your hair?"
"It's really not that big a change!" Izuku protested, tucking the lock of white back out of his eyes. A small crowd of his classmates were gathered around his table.
"Why is it so… straight?" Jirou poked his head with a finger.
"Is it an extension, ribbit.?" Tsu asked. "I think it looks nice."
"I like it." Kendo beamed. "I think it's great that Izuku is trying something new."
Izuku felt blood rush to his ears.
"You do?" Momo lifted an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah." Kendo asserted, cheeks reddening as she avoided looking at Izuku. "I do."
"Good morning everyone." Aizawa monotoned, stretching as he got up. He rolled up the bright yellow sleeping bag and stuffed it under his desk. "We've got around three minutes until the bell rings, but we have a lot to do today and even more tomorrow, so let's begin.
"First of all, I would like to officially welcome you all back to UA." He applied a few eyedrops as he spoke. "There may be some changes to your living conditions later in the semester, but I will properly notify yourselves and your parents if these changes come to pass. Just know that we as the staff of UA are concerned about the prison breaks, and we will be taking active steps to keep our students safe."
"Well, that's reassuring, ribbit."
"It's good to know they're not ignoring the situation at least."
"As mentioned during the training camp," Aizawa spoke clearly over the whispers. "We'll be focussed on preparing you to take your provisional hero licence tests. I planned on having a month to get you all ready. Unfortunately, due to the delay in school starting again, we have much less time. So first of all, if you have finished any of your assignments due later this week, it would be best to hand them in as soon as possible. We might be too busy in the week ahead."
The day passed. Despite Aizawa's warning, it felt more like an orientation day than anything else. A time set out for the students to get back into the routine of school.
Izuku had been focussed the whole day, keeping his eyes away from anything he thought might give the villains an advantage, such as the locations of emergency exits or cameras.
He really hoped it wasn't obvious.
Izuku sat on his knees in the living room. He tapped his pen against his thigh, mind racing. He intermittently looked up from his mock essay to look at the TV screen, pretending to watch.
He had a mental list of ideas on how to bypass the villain's quirk. He thought about learning and using a combination of sign language or braille, since he didn't need to speak to communicate to someone using JSL, and wouldn't need to look to read braille.
The only problem is that he couldn't do either.
With his nearly eidetic memory, learning wouldn't be a problem. He only needed one long look to get it all in his head.
But he needed a way to do so without the villain noticing.
He had a few ideas, specifically, pretending to do research on the computer or watching a documentary on TV.
That would solve the problem of how he could communicate.
He didn't know if any of his classmates could do either, and couldn't trust them not to react to him suddenly breaking out hand signs out of nowhere.
Which is why he was pretending to write an essay for Present Mic's English class. He looked down, reading his last line.
…WhIlE ENgAGing IN A confRoNTAtION IN AN UrbAn enViRoNmEnT iT IS cRUciAL TO AvoId daMAge tO iNFraSTruCtuRe, BuT ALso To CivILLIAN POSsESsIOnS sUcH aS cARs ANd bicyCLes…
He smiled.
His handwriting was truly awful, but it was readable. Which meant he could write messages without being seen.
He continued writing his essay, enacting the first stage of his plan.
The second day of school dawned to a sky full of clouds. It wouldn't rain that day, but the storm would break soon.
Izuku thought he was going to faint.
He felt his hands trembling as he dismounted the train, nearly jogging in his anxiety to get to UA.
The class was mostly empty, with only Momo and Shinsou there. Aizawa sat at his desk reading from a book as he sipped a cup of coffee.
Izuku's stomach clenched.
"Good morning, Aizawa-Sensei." He did not smile. This would be the most important part of his plan. "I was wondering if you could proof read my English essay?"
"Midoriya," Aizawa did not look up from his reading. "It's not my job to make sure you know how to write."
"Please, sir." Izuku didn't let his voice shake. "It's really important to me. This could determine my future as a hero."
Aizawa looked up to tell his student off but his eyes widened at the expression on Midoriya's face. Despite Izuku's voice seeming almost casual, his face was wrought with stress and fear.
"If it's that important to you…" Aizawa narrowed his eyes. "I'll take a quick look."
"Thank you, sir!" Relief flooded Izuku as he bowed. "I promise it will be worth your time."
Aizawa's eyes followed Izuku to his seat where the boy immediately looked down at his desk, keeping his eyes off of the rest of the classroom. Izuku pulled a book out of his bag and began reading, all without so much as a glance in anyone else's direction.
A strange feeling began to form in Aizawa.
Suspicion.
The morning passed slowly. The second page of Midoriya's essay was a message addressed directly to him. It explained that a villain used their quirk on Midoriya, resulting in him unwillingly relaying everything he sees and hears to the villain.
Midoriya also explained his ideas of communicating through JSL and Braille.
He needed to let Midoriya know that he understood, but had to think of a way to do so without tipping off the villain. The rest of class A was settled in their seats, so Midoriya would have to wait for now. As long as he acted natural, the villain would be none the wiser.
"As I mentioned yesterday," Aizawa silenced the class. "Our primary goal for the time being is to prepare you all for the hero licence exams. Considering the licence would allow you to freely use your quirk in public to an extent, naturally, the test is incredibly difficult. Even with quirks constantly getting more powerful, the usual pass rate is under 50 percent."
"You've gotta be kidding."
"What kind of test even is that?"
"Obviously we can't train in the classroom." Aizawa continued. "So please change into your costumes, then make your way to Gym Gamma. Midoriya, stay behind please."
Izuku felt his stomach twist as he walked as casually as he could manage to Aizawa's desk.
"Your handwriting is terrible." Aizawa deadpanned. "But I think you got your message across."
"Do you think you could help me?" Izuku's throat tightened.
"You realise that hairstyle is against school regulations, right?" Aizawa leaned back in his chair.
"I'm sorry, sir." Izuku fought to keep the excitement out of his voice. "I'm very attached to it."
"I see." Aizawa focussed on Izuku's fringe. "Well, there isn't anything I can do about it."
Izuku didn't trust himself to speak.
"We should continue with our class for the day." Aizawa got up from his desk. "Just remember, Midoriya, it's very important for a hero to be able to communicate clearly. You never know who might notice what you say, even if it is just an essay."
Izuku nodded, following Aizawa through the halls.
Gym Gamma had no equipment inside. The whole area was made of stark, off-white concrete.
"Welcome to Gym Gamma." Aizawa leaned against the wall by the door as the students looked around curiously. "Also known as the Training Kitchen Lab or TKL."
"That's not a very cool name."
"So unmanly."
"As I was saying in class…" Aizawa smiled over his scarf. "As of today…"
"You'll be working on creating Ultimate moves!" Midnight barged in, followed by Cementoss and Ectoplasm.
"Did she say Ultimate moves?!"
"That's so cool!"
"It's the perfect middle ground between Hero and School skills!"
"Ultimate moves," Ectoplasm emphasised. "Aren't simply moves you're comfortable with or use regularly. They are your finishers, your most iconic and powerful techniques."
"Combat is all about making use of the skills that are unique to you." Cementoss added calmly. "Internalise these moves, make them your own in an unparalleled way."
"Pro Heroes without ultimate moves are a dying breed." Midnight proclaimed. "Your ultimate move symbolises who you are, and are an equally important part to your recognition as your costume or Hero name."
"Your extended vacation during the lockdown set us back." Aizawa reminded them. "The provisional licensing exam will test a lot of factors, and you can be sure combat prowess is a major part of that. Use this opportunity to test the limits of your strengthened quirks, and take note of any alterations that will be needed for your costumes. Now, let's begin."
Izuku desperately wanted to watch his classmates work with the various Ectoplasm clones while Cementoss altered the gym, but he kept his eyes focussed on the Aizawa.
"Excuse me," Izuku said, thinking quickly to formulate his question. "I would like some advice on what to work on for my ultimate move?"
"Oh, right." Aizawa scratched his chin. "Just find a quiet corner to work. Your quirk doesn't have much scope for an ultimate move in and of itself, but you could probably work out an ultimate move for two of your more popular transformations, like Four Arms and Way big."
"Got it." Izuku nodded. He sincerely wanted to work on improving his control over his transformations anyway, and by working in a corner by himself he could avoid giving away any information on his classmates.
"And I'll speak to Kayama-Sensei about your essay." Aizawa added. "She could help you, even if I can't. But I want you to look up other languages as an extra credit assignment. And not just spoken languages either. Look into things like Sign Language and braille. Kayama-sensei is fluent in JSL, so start with that."
Izuku nodded, new determination building.
The week passed.
Despite his eidetic memory, learning two other languages proved a challenge. He could remember with nearly perfect clarity the signs and symbols, but distinguishing and forming them correctly turned out to be difficult nonetheless.
Izuku held the note in his hand, every ounce of his focus keeping him from looking at it. He ran his fingers slowly along the bumps, forming the words letter by letter.
Make a big show tomorrow. Everything is in place.
Izuku couldn't sleep.
He suspected that the villain's quirk didn't carry over into his alien transformations, since his transformations with hair didn't show any sign of the white streak.
He activated the Omnitrix dial.
His forearm writhed with pulsating tentacles pushing behind his skin. White veins stood out starkly against the skin around the dial that was slowly turning an inky black, up to his wrist.
Izuku wondered if his whole body would change to the same colour, as his future self's arms and legs had been.
He twisted the dial back and forth, debating internally as the slime holograms warped.
The villain had to sleep some time, but he knew he shouldn't be taking such a big risk.
Not when his freedom was so close.
Izuku didn't care. He needed to clear his head. He slapped the dial down, disappearing in a flash of green light.
Ghostfreak floated gently through the night sky.
He was lighter than air and as silent as death. His bright red eye pushed through the seams between the folds of his skin, twisting up to his head. He was invisible, intangible and completely free.
The sun raked him with painful rays in the day, but on this clouded night, with just the light from the city illuminating the world around him, he was truly free.
A scream.
He turned slowly, his eye sliding in the direction of the sound. A man was alone, clutching his bag as two figures slowly approached him.
A sharp toothed woman swung a metal bat in her third arm, while her porcupine-like companion extended his quills menacingly.
"Give us the money, Daisuke." The woman folded two of her arms as the bat rested by her side, held by the third. "Consider it insurance."
"We don't wanna get rough." The porcupine snickered. "Ok, that's a lie. I wanna hurt you. Bad. But if you give us what you owe, we might just let you go."
"I-I don't have it." The man pleaded. "I swear! P-Please, don't!"
"Don't raise your voice." The woman growled, pushing her bat under his neck.
"Excuse me," Ghostfreak rasped, directly behind the woman. "Is this a private party, or can anyone cut in?"
"What the hell?!" The woman swung her bat blindly, narrowly missing her partner.
"Say…" Ghostfreak ran a spectral bone claw down the porcupine man's spines, still invisible. "Don't I know you?"
"How about you show yourself then I'll tell you!" The man snapped, quills quivering.
"Okay." Ghostfreak turned himself visible again, but reactivated his intangibility. "Boo."
The porcupine man screamed in fear and fell backwards.
"I do recognise you, yes I do!" Ghostfreak cackled. "I really enjoyed cracking your skull… Shouldn't you be in a nice uncomfortable jail cell?"
The metal bat swung through Ghostfreak's head, causing him to warp and twist like smoke, then reform.
"Oh my, oh my…" His eye slithered to the back of his head, pinning the woman with his gaze. "Where are my manners… I nearly forgot we had a spare…"
He didn't know why he did what he did.
It just felt right.
Still intangible, he passed into the woman, then pulled with his mind.
Black streaks spread from her eyes as her face contorted in a silent scream, her head snapping backwards. She slumped, still standing, then, like a puppet on loose strings, her head swivelled towards the porcupine man.
Her eyes were bright red.
Ghostfreak's eyes.
Her mouth twisted into a smile that wasn't hers.
"Much better." Ghostfreak spoke from the woman's mouth. "Where were we?"
The porcupine man screamed, sending a burst of quills into his partner. She toppled to the ground.
"That was rude..." Ghostfreak drifted from her unconscious body like smoke from a corpse fire. "She and I were getting to know each other. I felt a real connection."
"Stay back!" The porcupine man squeaked, filing quills desperately.
Ghostfreak floated towards him unperturbed.
He had no mouth, but his whole body grinned.
The porcupine man stumbled and thrashed as Ghsofreak passed through him. He scrambled on all fours, bolting from the street where his partner lay unconscious.
"Why are you running?"
He spun around, eyes wild.
The street was empty.
He was alone.
His heart vibrated from how fast it beat.
"I see you…" Ghostfreak spoke in a sing-song voice, coiling around the man's legs.
The man's eyes rolled up in his head as he collapsed.
"Really now." Ghostfreak scoffed, poking the man's heaving chest with an ethereal skeletal claw. "How unprofessional. They just don't make villains like they used to."
He flew away, leaving the man sprawled in the street without bothering to check if he was still alive.
As the dull moonlight illuminated the edges of his body, Ghostfreak realised he was cackling.
AN:
So as of posting this chapter, And then there was Deku has over 50 000 views.
That's insane.
It's by far my most popular fic, and I am constantly overwhelmed by the engagement on the story.
Seriously thank you all.
To the people who read this fic right from the start and stuck around for my nearly 2 year long Hiatus, I don't think you can imagine how much you mean to me.
I love writing this story. I may not update very consistently, but I am dedicated to seeing it through.
We've come a long way since Izuku first won the Sports festival, and I can't wait to show you what comes next.
Plus Ultra.
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Review review
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TheRealD3lph0xL0v3r
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Basically, as I hinted at in earlier chapters, the Omnitrix's energy and functions are directly tied to Izuku's health and physique. The fitter he gets, the more the Omnitrix gets 'fitter' too. It also converts all the food he eats into both repairing itself and converts the excess into energy.
Ben didn't have that ability until basically Alien Force, when he could essentially stay an alien as long as he wanted.
Omni-Ben is definitely trying to help Izuku out. He doesn't have a lot to work with yet, but we'll get there. :)
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Laitou
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More worldbuilding for the Original characters and plots this chapter. Hope you like where I'm taking it. :)
From the get go I wanted this Izuku to feel different from both Canon Izuku and Ben. I wanted his limits and obstacles to be unique, even though he has the same general powerset as Ben.
I kinda feel like I should have shown more about him experimenting with them, but I'm hoping to show them all more love as the story goes on.
Ghostfreak feels off you say? Surely not… He seems totally stable. No Zs'skayr plotline here.
I'll never tell. ;)
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CCSakuraforever
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I'm glad you liked it. It was a slower chapter, but it was very necessary to show Izuku's new aliens and limits for what is gonna happen next.
Ghostfreak is going to be a problem for a good while. :)
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Guest
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Believe me I am working on it. I barely have time to even write so the art is unfortunately a secondary priority for now. My art has also changed and, I hope at least, improved a lot since 2021, so I redrew a lot of the old designs as well.
I have 12 done already, but I would like to get Heatblast done before creating an updated cover post, since he's such a pivotal alien.
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