X
Standing outside the front gate of U.A, Eraser Head and Present Mic, stood outside scanning the streets waiting patiently for the students and guests to arrive, the sun was beginning to disappear from the sky turning into a warm orange. No pedestrian was in sight neither was a car parked or driving by making the streets seem dead until finally a city bus came to a hissing stop in front of the gates, the collapsing doors folding open to let off its final passengers.
"Here they are," Mr. Aziawa spoke out as he watch Izuku, Momo, Uwabami, Endeavor, and their guest Bram boarded off the bus.
"Get inside," Endeavor instructed the students.
"What's going on?" Momo asked.
"You'll know soon enough," Endeavor lead them in.
As they made their way across the court yard Izuku glanced back to see Bram still standing at the gate looking up to the building itself.
"Bram?" he called out softly.
"Can't believe I'm back here," he said aloud walking up to the row busts statues to spit on them shocking the enthusiastic hero in training, "I freak'n hate this place."
Continuing forth the halls of the building were empty, save those we are following, their steps echoing off within these walls, no other students, no other staff, not even the janitors. But what was the most off putting was that the PA system playing music to drown out everything that it felt like it was being drilled into their heads.
"Where is everybody?" Izuku asked feeling unease.
"Principal Nezu sent most of the staff home the rest are waiting at the basketball court," Mr. Aziawa informed them.
"What's with the music?" Momo followed up.
"It's for the eavesdroppers," Present Mic answered.
They would've made it to the basketball court without complication, but Bram decided to make it harder for them as he was starting to tip over every trashcans they came across, luckily the janitors already replaced the bags so Bram wandered off into the cafeteria.
"Where the hell is he going?" Endeavor spoke out of the unexpected inconvenience.
"Hey, that's the wrong room, this is the door to the court," Momo tried to correct the dishonored pro, but was ignored when Bram disappeared into the cafeteria.
"We'll fetch him," Aziawa simply told them.
"You guys just go and wait with the others," Present Mic advised them as both he and Aziawa went after Bram.
The remaining group all made it to their destination and when opening the door Izuku and Momo were astonish to see that not only their teachers were present, but the top pro heroes of Japan were also present. Heroes like Hawks, Best Jeanist, Gang Orca, Fourth Kind, Ryukyu, Mirko, Wild, Wild Pussycats, ect. Even Ochaco was present. They were all centered at the court with chairs and tables to accommodate them all not just under the same roof, but the room too.
"Whoa, it's almost like every hero in the city is here," Izuku said in disbelief.
"Midoriya," All Might beckoned him, "Come sit here next me and Ms. Uraraka."
"What's going on? are we in trouble?" Izuku asked in concern as he walked to his seat at the table.
"Not quiet, but all will be revealed soon," Nezu assured him.
"As soon as our guest of honor finally decides to show up," Best Jeanist commented.
As the guests were starting a side conversation Ochaco tugs on Izuku's shirt to grab his attention leaning in closer to whisper in privet.
"Izuku, what did you do?" she asked in worry.
"I don't know," Izuku replied til finally the doors open with Aziawa and Present Mic escorting Bram to his seat, as the stench from Bram's clothes assaulted the heroes' nose they kept their eyes trained on him until Midnight glanced at her fellow co-workers. Mr. Aizawa with a clear black eye and Present Mic with bloody tissue papers plugging up his nose.
"My god! what happened to you two?" she exclaimed.
"Bram what happened," Aziawa put it in a growl wanting to just brush the matter away.
"You two should get patched up, for right now we have more urgent matters to tend to," Nezu instructed to two U.A professors turning his attention to a former student, "Mr. Bram do you remember some of the people in the room?"
"Of course," Bram replied almost sounding joyed until he addressed them in his own way, "If it isn't my old principal, Rat Face," he insulted before turning to Midnight, "bargain bin Bayonetta," Cementoss, "Blockhead," Snipe, "Wanna be Client Eastwood," he would gone on further, but the more seasoned veterans weren't having it.
"Enough," Gang Orca stopped Bram's childish name calling, "We all came here on urgent matters."
"Um, excuse me," Izuku politely interrupted holding out his hand over the table, "But why are you all here?"
There was a moment of pause when asked that, but Fourth Kind was the one to bring it up.
"Young man, whatever you did for the past couple of days stirred up a lot attention," he stated.
"What! what'd you mean?" Izuku stammered.
"He means that you stuck your nose somewhere we all didn't know was there in the first place," Endeavor phrased it.
"After you left for your search for Bram a lawyer from his former agency came by the school and forced us to relinquish all documentation of him," Nezu informed Izuku to his dumb found shock while Bram hardly paid them any mind.
"Not just that, but including photos too," Hawks noted.
"Doesn't matter if it was a posing for the picture or he was just a small speck in the background, every picture, physical or digital, was censored," Ryukyu explained.
"They even took our scrapbook that had him in the background," Ragdoll complained.
"They claimed that all of his appearance was copyrighted and any photograph was infringement," Mandalay explained the agency's claim was, but of coarse none of the pros buy it, so they all turned their sight on Bram.
"It's no doubt that your agency is hiding something, so they're trying to erase any link to you," Nezu figured.
"But we don't even know what IT is yet," Hound Dog brought up their small problem.
"If you wanna know what's the big deal is... " Bram interjected everyone's attention, "It's in that kid's pocket."
Next thing Izuku knew he had all eyes were on him, almost glaring, at his presence feeling in his bones shaking until he finally found the courage to reach into his pocket to fetch the strange triangle piece out. Setting it on the table every hero in the room directed their attention to Izuku's hand as he slowly slides the item to the center with his palm still covering over it before removing it.
"This is what all the fuss is about?" Mirko questioned with a raised brow.
"What is it?" They all started to ask with only Endeavor remaining silent until the item in question just flew into the hands of Bram.
The strange piece landed into his open hand finally freeing it from the tiny bagging that stored it, Bram handled it like a pirate would handle a gold doubloon flicking it between his fingers into the light before just holding it like he was trying to look through a lens.
"Mr. Bram, can you tell us what this piece of evidence is?" All Might requested not too far from where he sat.
"Yeah, like where it came from?" Hawks follwed.
"It came from that kid's pocket," Bram remarked.
"He meant where did it came from in the first place, smartass," Mirko explained it clearer.
"This thing. This thing right here... it came from right here," Brame pointed right above behind Bram's ear leaving the heroes confused, "This little thing was implanted into my cranium long ago way before I ended up in this city."
"Who put the implant in you?" Best Jeanist asked.
"And what was it for?" Gang Orca added.
"I don't know who did it. All I know is that they're all dead now," Bram answered the first question looking all across the room with stern looks waiting with anticipation, "Next thing I knkw I found myself wandering the streets. Confused. Hungry, so I ate a cat. You were there." He went on pointing to Endeavor leaving the group very uncomfortable as the hesitantly glanced his way.
"Huff... " he sighed.
\Back When/
By the time Endeavor watched as child services arrived he noticed that a young Bram was picking his finger into an open cut on his scalp. No seems to catch what he was doing as he sank deeper under his skin blood trickling out from the cut. Pinching down what he was looking for the boy slowly pulls out the same metal triangle, blood soaked the boy just tosses it to the street curb.
"Hello there little guy," one of the agents walked up to him not seeing what he just did, "We're here to take you to a new home."
Bram didn't say a word, Endeavor just watched as they took the child away, he glances back over to the strange object that the boy chucked away, finding it just an inch away from a sewer drain, kneeling down to pick it up with his bare fingers. Holding it... whatever it's made of... weighed absolutely nothing, but firmer than stone, the surface was still coated with a thin lair of greasy blood.
"I... see... you... " a voice whispered.
At that moment the piece in Endeavor's hand burned him. The strange piece BURNED him. Endeavor winches at the sudden sting dropping the piece and falling right into the drain disappearing from his sight for good.
\Present/
"It... spoke to you?" Ochaco repeated to see she heard clearly.
"I know it sounds crazy," Endeavor stated the obvious, "But why would I make something like that up?"
"So it came from Bram's head," Izuku noted first.
"Than Endeavor dropped it in the sewers," All Might followed up.
"And now it found its way back here," Hawks finished.
"Hold up," Ryukyu stopped them, "We're missing a step here, like how did it ended up in this angecy's records?"
"Hmm," Gang Orca grunted in agreement, "And why it's so important to them?"
"... I could tell you how... " Bram spoke out so everyone turned their head to hear Bram's tale this time.
\A Few Years Ago/
It was dead of night as most parenting adults and children were safely tucked away in their beds at home peacefully drifting away to sleep, but some people can't afford to call in for the night as the nightshift came around. Rays of lights just stream from the building's windows lighting up the streets bellow, inside Bram gathers walks himself through the office getting ready to put in the over time, but as he just about to make it to the elevator.
"Hey, Bram, wait," Hiroko stopped him right when the doors slid open, "Are you leaving?"
"On petrol," Bram corrected as Hiroko assumed he was leaving as he notices a brand new face he never met before, "Who's this?"
"Bram, my good friend, I like to introduce the newest member to join our agency," Hiroko personally announced pulling in a young new hero than themselves. This young man was shorter than both of them, or maybe Bram & Hiroko were just oddly tall individuals, either way his skin was fair and hair a pitch black matching the spandex suit he wore with white gloves and boots to contrast it, and a chrome belt wrapped tight around his waist. "This here is Ichi, he just transferred to our agency today," she added with the new guy weakly waving at him.
"That's nice to hear, but I gotta get going," Bram tried to leave stepping onto the elevator, but Hiroko stopped the door from closing.
"Actually I hoping you take him with you this nightshift," Hiroko asked him, "Besides he just gotten his hero career started, top of his class, top in the final exams, he even beaten my record."
"Is that so," Bram lead on.
"Yes!" Hiroko confirmed, refraining herself from exclaiming, which was something Bram found off about her behavior, always looking strain and shaking if someone ever out preform her in anyway. "But right now he needs the experience so why don't you let him tag along with you down town."
"Downtown isn't for beginners," Bram detested.
"Nonsense," Hiroko deflected his claims, "Whatever he meets out there will only make the superhero star stronger with age."
"... Fine," Bram gave in and at that moment Ichi stepped to eagerly extend his hand to greet him properly.
"Hey, it's nice to mee- Ah!" the new hero was caught off guard as Bram just yanked him into the elevator, he was already wasting precious moonlight.
The elevator descended down the building passing the floor level and into the office's garage, the fluorescent lighting up in concrete ceiling upon the bland grey concrete floor, walking to a section where a row of company owned cars. Pulling out a remote Bram locates the correct sedan that beeped out the moment he pressed the button with the headlights flashing.
"We're actually going in a car!" Ichi said with growing excitement, "Cool, I'm driving!"
The new hero was eager to begin his first nightshift heading towards the driver's side, but was yanked back again, this time by the back of his collar.
"I'm driving," Bram clearly told him as he shoved him to the passenger side, "Besides you don't know where we're going."
"Oh... !" Ichi responded climbing into his side in sequence with Bram as they fasten their seatbelts, "So where are we heading?"
"... " there was no response only for the moment to trade an annoyed glanced as Bram turned the ignition before answering, "... Downtown."
"Downtown? alright I'm willing to mingle with the clubs, and shops," Ichi listed in excitement for his nightshift to begin only to have the cranking of the gear shift interrupting his uplifting mood.
"Wrong downtown," Bram vaguely corrects him as the sedan pulls out from the parking spot.
Later on as they drove through the streets Ichi was dazzled by the sparkling lights of the city, with giant billboard screens, and flashing colored signs on storefronts which Bram compared his reaction to a child's.
"You're not a local are you?" he asked his eyes still glued to the road.
"No. Was I that obvious?" Ichi asked.
"That face you're making says it all," Bram told how he figured it out.
"You're good," Ichi complimented.
However before the young man could try to make a connection with Bram the car comes to a stop as he pulls to the curb so suddenly that Ichi found himself being thrown around as his guts were squished against the seatbelt.
"We're here," Bram announced as he set the car on park.
Stepping out Ichi was surprised to see that the area in the city they arrived in was nothing he would ever came across. This part of town was unclean with piles of trash piling up in alleyways spilling into the sidewalk, homeless men and women either lying right up against the walls of storefronts while rats scurry alongside, or just wandering aimlessly, obviously high off narcotics or just too hungry to even sleep. Ichi was in shock of how a city like, Musutafu, have a section that's clearly struggling.
"Now here's a part of town the brochures leaves out," Bram remarked as he strolled further in with Ichi catching up, "This district has the least hero presences in all of Musutafu."
"How can it be?" Ichi asked dumbfounded as he watches his steps.
"It's obvious," Bram stated broadly as he drops a couple of bills for a homeless holding out his hand to him, "Dragging your ass through these streets is destined for bad publicity. Cops will hardly ever make a pass here because these guys aren't even afraid of them and so they just chase them away, unless a hero is here. So in the end the normies are too afraid to come here."
"So why are you here?" Ichi asked him personally, "Are you afraid you might damage your reputation as a hero?"
"First of all... " Bram was about to begin, but not before being interrupted be smaking a would-be mugger down, slamming his fist upon as if it were a mallet down onto his. An improvised knife knocking free from his unmoving hand, "I don't care. Second... " he lead on as picked up the mugger and tying him to a thick steel pipe, "People just pretend I don't exist. And third: it pays. So shut up and get to work."
"Come on, you graduated from one of the best hero academies in the country," Ichi noted his education, "I heard you took first place in the school's sports festival. But I don't get why say they'er shocked that someone like you won. I wish I knew what they mean by that."
"... Reason number two: They pretend I don't exist," Bram reminded stumping Ichi, "And when they mean someone like ME... they mean the type of people with quirks that make them... uncomfortable."
Ichi fell in silent never knowing that Bram was the type of people being kept on watch, even hearing rumors that there's a list full of people like him by the government, although it is just a rumor. But at that moment a hooded man sprinted out from one of the shops with a fist full of cash and the owner screaming after him. The thief ran in the opposite direction from our two professionals, Ichi almost getting into sprinting position to chase down the crook only to see the same man slam against the wall before he could get any further by some unseen force. Looking over to his side Ichi sees Bram with his fist raised up his first two fingers pointing towards him, and each time he moved his hand the thief would move with him.
being slammed over and over again until the thief fell unconscious letting go of the cash in which bills seemingly reorganize themselves into a neat stack that flew into Bram's hand and reaching behind his belt Bram hands Ichi a pair of cuffs.
"Call this in while I give the money back," Bram ordered as he pulls out a handheld radio from one of his pouches.
Ichi was stunned at the brutal display of law Bram presented, pulling the thief up Ichi zip ties the man behind his back bring him over to the car waiting for the police to come, and pick up the would-be thief. After dropping off the stolen money and police office coming up to take away the criminal, in a speedy fashion as they did not wish to linger in the area for long, the two continued their petrol on foot in the unsafe district.
"So what was that... what you did just there when catching that thief?" Ichi asked curiously.
"... My quirk?"
"... Yeah!" Ichi confirmed, but was only met with untrusting gaze, "Well if you don't trust me, I'll tell you mine. You never really asked me when we met, but I'm gonna tell you anyway," Ichi than sprinted up front to get ahead of Bram to demonstrate his powers. Hovering his palms close together without touching summoning a strange violet light as it danced between his fingers, "I can generate plasma, kids really like it, but people seem to forget how dangerous this pretty light is."
"I know how plasmas works," Bram told him.
"So why did you come here when so many try to avoid it?" Ichi than asked moving from one topic to another.
"Despite it's... abrasive exterior it's nice and quiet. That's why," Bram told him straight the sound of anger growing in his tone hinting Ichi that he was annoying him, but luckily duty calls to ease the tension on his radio, "Hmm... we have a disturbance a few blocks down, come along or get lost, I don't care," Bram gave the younger hero a choice marching down in the direction of trouble and Ichi following closely.
Later down a few city blocks the two began to hear a man roaring in the closing distance soon coming across small groups of residence watching the scene from a safe distance.
"So what's the situation?" Ichi requested for a report.
"Some called about a man in a failed car jacking," Bram explained as they approached the area.
As soon as they made it the two found a car completely turned over with broken glass scattered across the asphalt with blood spotted trailing a man with his bare feet bleeding, the driver side door was ripped off with the actual driver still fasten in the seat. The driver's arm hung down, his face covered in his own blood covered in human bite marks. The driver was dead. Bram and Ichi kept his distance at the pure gruesome scene of the man that is hunched over, snarling and his mouth watering red, and most disturbingly the eyes were leaking fluids blinding him.
"Holy shit," Bram calmly uttered holding Ichi back even though he had no intention on getting closer, "I'm calling this in now, just make sure the people around don't get any stupid ideas."
"What are you gonna do?" Ichi asked maintaining his cool.
"I'm gonna try to bag him, make it easier for the guys in blue," Bram told him as he already had the cuffs out as he slowly inches towards the man like a cat stalking a bird.
The man was darting his head around, his nose visibly flaring as he sniffed the air, the man was basically an animal, something that Bram was too familiar with, Bram barely made a sound slowly planting each step until he set his boot on a large piece of glass snapping it to pieces. The feral man snapped his sights on Bram staring him dead in the eyes and like a game of red-light green-light Bram froze in place. He does not know what this man will do, if provoked, unfortunately a bystander decided to give their advise.
"JUST GRAB HIM ALREADY!" someone yelled out in frustration.
The man suddenly gives a blood curdling scream, the insides of his mouth still soaked in blood, he then lunges forth with startling speed, the man leaps up managing to climb on top of Bram's shoulders using him to launch himself further towards the person who yelled. The people screamed, the man who yelled ducked out of the way, but a woman who stood behind him wasn't so lucky as the vicious man tackles her to the ground, and started clawing her. The people who were watching scattered in terror as the man was mauling the poor woman, Ichi held up his hand a surge of plasma glowing from his hand as if he were holding a gun.
"Stop! get off her!" he ordered.
"Don't just yell at him! DO SOMETHING!" Bram scorned him running up to kick the attacker in the face sending him flying down the street.
Bram kneels over the woman now riddled with cuts and bite marks while Ichi looks back to the man who simply pulls himself back up, his jaw clearly broken as it hung unnaturally only for the jaw to put itself back in place.
"Bram, what do I do?" Ichi asked getting scared, he wasn't expecting something like this to happen on the first night of his job.
"Do your freak'n job! I have a woman bleeding here!" he yells at Ichi as he scrambles to prevent the woman from dying.
Ichi holds up his hand again, pointing it towards the man.
"Alright man, I'm giving you to the count of three to- "
"RRAAAAAAH... !" the man roared as he charges forward.
Ichi flinches which causes him to fire off a shot dead center in the man's chest burning the clothes he wore to his skin, but even when fist sized hole through the man kept on barreling down on Ichi, tackling him to the ground as he started to swipe at him. Ichi flails one arm up and starts blasting at the man in a panic to get him off, but his powerful shots didn't bother the crazed man as he continues to claw, and snap his teeth right at his face. Ichi tries desperately to fight him off only to have one of his arms caught in the man's grip giving him the chance to sink his teeth into his hand and bitting off, not just one, but two of his fingers. His pinky and his ring finger. And instead of spitting them out the man was instead he began to chew on them to Ichi's horror, he was completely swallowed up in terror.
But Bram steps in to end finally end it, he swiftly slips his hand around the man's neck, effortlessly lifting him up into the air to slam him back down to the street, then finish it all with one powerful stomp to the man's head he stopped moving entirely. Ichi laid there holding his now blood covered three-fingered hand seeing Bram stand over broodingly over the lifeless attacker after.
"Wha- what did you do?" Ichi stumbling asked.
"He was gonna kill you. I did what I had to," Bram firmly told him reaching into one of his pouches to toss a roll of bandages to him, "He already killed one and attempted to kill another," he followed up as he knelt down to check the man's pockets.
"What are doing now?" Ichi asked as he wraps up his wound with Bram fetching his mangled up fingers from the mess red puddle that used to be this man's brain.
"No way this man did all that while being sober," Bram theorized believing drugs were involved.
However as he searched the man's pockets he found nothing, but the man's keys, wallet, and some lose change, but one of the coins scarred him. The strange triangle coin has somehow managed to find itself back into Bram's hand all these years later. And Bram can't throw it away as Ichi sees him holding it.
"I guess all that is going into evidence," he commented and before Bram could say otherwise the police showed up along with the crowd that ran away earlier now taking photos of the aftermath.
\Present/
"I heard of that happening," Hawks brought up, "So that was you?"
"I had no choice but to file this thing away, hoping no one messes with it," Bram told the rest.
"What possessed that man to kill?" Ochaco asked frightenly.
"The man turned out to be a family man, no record of mental breakdowns, drug use of any kind," Bram told them all, "He was completely loving father and loyal husband, but this little thing turned him into a complete monster, shrugged off all his shots. Family's still pissed though."
"What about that pro hero, Ichi? the other hero with you," Izuku asked clearly concerned of the man's fate.
"He can't make a fist anymore," Bram remarked, "But his reputation sank drastically after that, the public viewed him less favorably, so after the incident Hiroko was made the face of the agency while Ichi and I were snubbed for public exposure of any kind. They wanted people to forget the whole thing even happened."
"You Think your friend had something to do with it?" Mirko brought up the idea that Bram and Ichi was setup.
"No one ever noticed this about her, but she's quite the... envious figure," Bram politely implied, "She likes to be the center of it all."
"I noticed," Endeavor spoke up, "I scanned over her and the agency, she's on nearly every magazine they publish before she took over."
"But what does she want with this "coin" that turns people into psychos?" Midnight asked.
"... " Bram sat there holding the thing that caused so such trouble in his hand silently, contemplating to himself before slipping the item in its bag, "No idea."
Everyone stared at him in distrust knowing too well that he wasn't telling them the whole truth.
"Now that your former employers are on the search maybe you should leave it with us for safe keeping?" Nezu offered peacefully.
"I don't think- "
"We'll feel a lot better if you just left that thing here, don't you think young man?" All Might stopped him hoping to persuade Bram, "You know for the greater good."
Everyone stared at him with high tension, Izuku and Ochaco, look almost feeling helpless to do anything, what can two children do. Bram stared off with every professional hero in room. Despite it looking like they would all gang up on him Bram maintain his focus, but at last he had to give up the piece.
"The greater good could kiss my ass," Bram told All Might straight to his face dropping the triangle on the table, "I'm done here. I'll see you outside," he finished looking over to Endeavor before leaving.
"What'd he mean by that?" Tiger asked aloud.
"Ugh... " Endeavor groaned before lifting off his seat to follow Bram out.
As everyone looked in confusion that all switch to the new topic of how to store away the item in question, but Izuku looked on in disappointment that Bram wanted no part in it.
\Outside/
Just standing idlely by the sidewalk waiting for Endeavor to give what he promised if he accompanied him and Izuku to the school, there Endeavor came to meet him as the sun was gone from view, but the light still glowed warmly.
"... You don't wanna stick around?" Endeavor asked awkwardly, but Bram ignored it, "You know despite what happened in the past I still think you can make a great hero."
"I don't care," Bram plainly told him completely uninterested.
"But what about the agency? don't you want to stop them?" Endeavor asked further wanting to know the purpose of the agency's schemes.
"Not my problem," Bram brushed off without a care in his tone, "I came. I talked. Just give me the money so I can leave this shit-hole."
Endeavor sighed in defeat as his talk with the disgraced hero failed, Bram was in no way intending to reclaim in dead career now just holding out his hand to claim what Endeavor promise. The seasoned hero fishes out a check and a pen from his coat, writing the number and the date, but as he glances down to Bram one more time he thinks back to the boy he once was when he first met him. He just brushed him aside to be someone else's problem, and where has it gotten him now, a man with nothing to look forward to in his life, and when trouble arise Bram brushed it off like he did. He stopped before he can finish the check with his name, he made so many mistakes as a hero, a husband, a father, and as a man in general.
"... No... " Endeavor said stopping himself from finishing the check and confusing Bram before crossing out the check completely, "I'm not letting you give up on your career like this!" he then erupted completely burning the checkbook and pen in his hand, "If you want that paycheck then you're coming to work with me from now, It's time to be a hero!"
"And if I just walk away empty handed?" Bram suggested saying he rather live in a cardboard box than work for him.
"Then I have turn you in to the authorities for your assault on Mr. Midoriya earlier," he threatens,
"Are you black mailing me!" Bram accused him in growing anger.
"... Yes," Endeavor hesitantly answered to the shameless attempt of persuasion, but in his mind it was for the greater good.