"I think I finally cracked it!" Mei said excitedly, lifting her goggles from her head and stepping away from the Petri dish.
"Got what exactly." Izuku asked, arms folded and staring at the screen in confusion.
"That glass thing that we got off your costume. I think I know what it is Mini-Scrub." She said. "Look at the screen and tell me what you see.
"Looks like a bunch of random colors jumbled up." Older Izuku said, lifting himself once more on the pull up bar. A heroes training was never done after all.
"Of course it does to you two, you have silly human eyes. Watch what happens when I zoom in." She tapped in a few commands on her keyboard and the colors got closer and clearer as they did. "Look again."
Suddenly, the image looked less like a blur of nonsense, and more like a broken mirror. Izuku looked at himself, well, himselves in the strange mirror-like image. He could see a couple versions of himself doing various things. One of him playing video games with his classmate Mina Ashido, another of a younger him training with All Might, Another of him swinging through a city with strange webs shooting out of his arms, yet another of him working in a forensics lab studying samples of... something, another one with him seemingly lifting objects with his mind, and one more with him studying a golden gauntlet with brightly colored stones adorning the metal glove. All him.
"What... is going on?" Izuku asked in bewilderment.
"Those," Mei pointed to the screen, "Are you. More specifically, you from another dimension. Each and everyone of them are Izuku Midoriya from another universe, each with their own problems, and goals, and lives. Each of them could have lived completely different lives than you, but they all bear your likeness, and probably your name too. I have to admit, I am a bit disappointed its all just you, but oh well."
Izuku continued to stare at his counterparts with wide eyes. He had to be dreaming. This couldn't possibly be real. But then again... the older him currently doing crunches was real. It stood to reason these could be. But how? Why? Why would any of this exist? It was clear to Mei that he was having trouble wrapping his head around it, and she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I know its a lot to take in, but this is exciting news. Not only is the multiverse real, but you exist as living proof. The only one to ever make it through. Which I guess, is not very helpful to your current predicament but its still cool nonetheless." She said. "Of course, this is not the only thing I've been working on. If we can figure out some way to harness this residual energy, I may be able to create a transporter that will send you anywhere you'd like to go. Well, scratch may, I might already have a prototype, but I have no idea if it works but..." She stopped rambling as she saw young Izuku stare at her with very confused eyes. "It might be easier if I just show you."
The trio made their way to the testing room as Mei brought out the device. It looked like a digital watch cobbled together with various techno junk. She handed it to Izuku and he placed it around his wrist.
"Now I should warn you that this is untested and, like all my devices, has a small chance to explode, but-"
"EXPLODE!?" Izuku asked, immediately panicking and looking at the watch nervously.
"Relax, mini-me, I don't even remember the last time one of her devices blew up on us." Older Izuku said with a chuckle.
"Honey, that's because the last time one of them exploded, you got hit on the head." Mei said sheepishly, before regaining her composure. "However, this one shouldn't blow up. I haven't blown up a device in months."
Izuku tried calming his nerves a bit before attempting to speak. After a deep breath, he spoke. "So how does it work?"
"Well, your supposed to give it a destination by saying something like 'Dimension Whatever Whatever' or something like that, but we only have two dimensions to chose form, and you're kinda in this one. I've designated yours as Dimension Prime, and ours as Dimension 2. I'm sure there are a lot of others, but without any solid way to get there, the watch can only send you to places its been before."
Older Izuku spoke up. "How is it supposed to send him home if it's never been there? Also, why is his Prime. I wanna be prime."
"Well, the watch specifically hasn't been there, but the energy has, so it should just open to there anyways." Mei said. "In theory. Again, not tested."
Izuku swallowed hard. Here goes nothing. "So uh... Dimension Prime..?" He said while bracing for impact. When nothing happened, he opened his eyes. "I don't think it worked." They all stood there blinking like idiots for a second before Mei snatched the watch from Izuku.
While she mumbled things about how it should've worked, older Izuku turned to talk to his younger counterpart. "It was a long shot anyways. There isn't exactly a science to these things. Not yet anyways. Besides, the device is in early testing anyways. I'm surprised she was able to whip together a prototype in such a short time anyways... Hey, you good? What are you... staring..." Midoriya saw what he was staring at.
In the middle of the chamber, a blueish green portal had opened up, almost looking like a tear in reality itself. The other side was dark, save for one figure that was making its way to the portal. They could see him now. Dark green vest with black dress pants. A white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows. A dangerous glint in his green eyes. A golden gauntlet firmly attached to his left arm. One of the versions of himself from the screen earlier had just stepped through the portal, and stared right at the dumbfounded trio. His gauntlet was raised to his chest as a blue stone glowed brightly before dimming as the portal closed.
The new character scanned over the group with absolute delight, seeing not one, but two of him selves, along with one his most trusted allies staring in amazement at him. They didn't even appear outwardly hostile, which meant this conversation was going to go smoothly. If there was one thing that Apotheosis valued, it was a captive audience.
"Welcome to hell. We have cookies!" Twice said in a bizarre fanfare-ish tone. Looking around the shelter, if it could even be called that, Bakugo took in exactly how the people of this universe lived. Not well was the answer.
It seemed of the various warehouses that the resistance lived in, this was both the nicest and the most crowded. Boxes upon boxes of munitions were piled high in the first room, as well as enough barricades to put nuclear bunker to shame. Entering the second area was a lot of tables, seemingly making up a mess hall of sorts. Among the tables a handful of refugees ate and spoke in hushed voices, all staring at his older self and himself. There was a big map that made up an entire wall with various marking scrawled on different location. Safe houses were marked with house icons, and shelters were marked with shield icons. There were also X's dotting the map, covering over some of the previous two icons, marking them as compromised.
The next area was filled with metal bunks for the survivors to rest. There had to be hundreds of bunks in this area, so to see so few occupied was concerning. Bakugo hoped that just meant the survivors were out scavenging or something. In the next are, there was an infirmary. This seemed to be the most occupied area in the whole complex, with many survivors lying in beds and several that were tending to their wounds. Their grievous, horrendous wounds. Bakugo had to stop staring and avoid throwing up.
Finally, he was brought into a smaller room, seemingly a strategy room where they planned tactics. He jumped at the sound of the door slamming behind him, before he realized he may have just walked into a trap. His older self stood guarding the door, arms crossed and a deadly glare focused on him. He could see the other three poised to restrain him if needed (Twice wasn't really ready to attack, more just excited to be in the room). He heard a voice call to him and whipped back around to see a familiar pair of gray eyes staring at him intently.
"Give me your hand." She called out. Bakugo stared at her dumbfounded, before her expression grew stern. "Give me your hand. We wont be asking a third time." Hesitantly, Bakugo gave her his hand and she took it in hers. A knife popped out of her palm, and she made a quick cut across his palm. Bakugo winced in pain and was about to shout protests, but she put a finger to his mouth. She looked up at the others and said, "He's clean," Before producing some gauze from her hand and wrapping the wound shut. "Now, explain yourself. Who are you, and how did you get here?"
Bakugo gaped like a fish before gathering himself. He didn't remember Momo being so cold. It was kinda badass. He focused up. As straight faced as he could say, he told her who he was.
"My name is Katsuki Bakugo, I am a student at UA Academy. I was searching for my friend de- er... him when we got ambushed by a villain with strange powers. I believe he has the power to send us to other dimensions, and I ended up here. I do not know where he is but I'm trying to find him and bring him home." He noticed her eyes stiffen a bit at him, making him gulp. "Er- I know my story sounds far fetched but that's as true as I can say." He held still, sweat dripping from his neck as he tried his best not to feel intimidated.
"He's telling the truth." A new voice called out, causing Bakugo to sigh in relied. Momo finished her cold dejected stare and her expression changed to more of a soft acceptance. They both turned to the new voice. It was Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, friendly detective and confidant to All Might in his universe. This one looked more tired, and his facial hair looked much more scraggly. Bakugo had briefly met him in a couple mission briefings and didn't really know the guy, but the others sure did.
Momo turned back to Bakugo. "I can't argue with a lie detector quirk. What a strange truth to be told, though. And to think you look so closely like my Kachin." Wait, my Kacchan?
"Ugh, please stop with that nickname. You know I hate it." The older Bakugo said walking up to Momo and take her into his arms. This was such a left turn for his younger counterpart that he had to do double take, which required him to take a look at Twice, literally doing a double take. "Well at least that corroborates your story, it does not fully explain just how the hell you got here." He said, keeping a stern eye on his younger self. "But I guess at the very least you can stay. Twice take him to processing."
"Maaan, I always get the boring jobs. Yay! I love paperwork!" Said Twice, the ever optimist (?) "Come along mini Bakugo, we've got a paper trail to leave! Ugh, this is gonna suck."
Bakugo, too awestruck by the everything that just happened, just followed him. Processing the past minute was going to be difficult. Luckily, the 'monotonous paperwork' that Twice had him fill out was just a single form documenting who he was and that he was there. Finally, Bakugo came to his senses as he finished signing his name, he decided to ask Twice something.
"How did I-er- how did the other me end up dating Ponytail?" He asked.
"I know right, never would've expected them to be into each other. I shipped them since the day they met!" Twice said. Bakugo rubbed the bridge of his nose, irritated with Twice's continuous, inconsistencies.
"I'm gonna hate myself for asking this, but how did you end up here? In fact, how did any of this even happen?" Bakugo asked, cringing at Twice's potential responses. What he hadn't expected was what Twice said next.
Running through the streets, Jin Bubaigawara, A.K.A. Twice was running out of breath. He could remember the last time he got a wink of sleep. His drones were everywhere, and right when he thought he was safe, that damn monster would crawl out of the darkness and start the chase again. The chase was all he could remember anymore. He would get close to escaping, have to sacrifice a clone, rest for not enough time, and then run again. He was tired. He was hungry. He wanted to die, but he couldn't let himself get taken by him.
The monster whispered to him in his down time. All the horrible fates he had in store made it worth just staying alive, even if living in this hell was worse. He missed his friends, but he saw what happened to them. Spinner with his shell cracked open. Mr. Compress' limbs in marbles scattered across the ground. Magne impaled on her own magnet. Kurogiri torn to shreds. Their fates were too horrible for him to imagine, and yet their lifeless bodies were ingrained in his brain. Only Toga had managed to escape with her life, if you can call the life she lived now a life.
He'd heard there was a resistance underground, but he never believed they'd existed. He'd seen entire armies wiped from the earth by his hand in an instant, there was simply no way that anyone could stand up to him. He had made it a couple months by just blending in with the crowds of lifeless corpses that roamed the earth now. It was easy when you could make as many copies as you wanted. But all it took was for one of them to break character, and then he was in trouble.
Finally, he turned the corner of an alley, only to be met with one of his monsters. He tried to turn back, but another stood there trapping him. Was this it? Was this Twice's unceremonious final stand. Suddenly, the monster behind him was blown away in a powerful explosion. He could see... it was that Bakugo kid. The one they'd snagged all the way back at the training camp. He could see a few more faces burst out of the alley. There was that teacher guy, Eraserhead he thought, some guy that fell through the floor, and a girl with a black ponytail. They fought off the monsters, managing to take down the fakes.
The black haired girl spoke to him urgently. "You need to come with us if you want to live."
"...And then they took me back here. For the past... ten years? Yeah, ten years I've been living here at the shelter." Twice finished his reminiscing. Bakugo stared at him a bit shocked at the story he was just told.
"And I thought this would couldn't get any weirder. I just found myself feeling sorry for a villain." Bakugo said with a blanch.
"Hey! Don't call us that!" Twice scolded. "We don't do that anymore. There aren't such things as heroes and villains anymore. It's just us and him, don't make us the enemy as well. And especially don't let Shiggy catch you saying that either. He hates being called a villain." Twice said with a huff, crossing his arms and turning his masked head to the side.
"Shiggy? Who's that?" Bakugo asked, not really taking the message to heart.
"Tomura Shigaraki, he's my best buddy here. After the league joined with the heroes to fight against him, me and Shiggy were the only ones that made it out alive. Well, Toga is alive as well, but she kind of..." Twice trailed off as he repressed the harrowing memory. Bakugo didn't hear that part. He didn't hear the part about the villains defending against Izuku as well. All he heard was that wretched name. The man who ruined Izuku's life. The man who currently held Japan hostage. The one who kidnapped him those months ago. Tomura Shigaraki.
Bakugo was seeing red. Through gritted teeth, he managed to speak. "Where. Is. He."
"Oh, well he's... uh..." Twice saw the bloodlust in Bakugo's eyes. "Maybe that's not a good idea. That's a great idea, I'll lead you too him. I mean, uh, no. Stay away from him. Violence in the shelter is outlawed, and you don't wanna go back out there."
Bakugo had already stormed off however. He was going to find Shigaraki and he was going to make him pay. He had no idea what this Shigaraki had done for this world. He had no idea this Shigaraki was nothing like his. All he wanted was revenge for his friends.
Three Izuku's sat at a table at Hunter Midoriya's Hero Agency. One was dressed in a normal workout uniform. One was dressed in a remastered vigilante costume. One was dressed in a nice suit and a golden gauntlet. The owner of the agency and his younger counterpart were exchanging concerned glances while the third maintained a polite and non-threatening demeanor. Mei was also there, but she was completely unaware of the tension in the room.
"Three Deku-Scrubs!" She shouted, looking at the three in her room with stars replacing the usual crosshair irises. She shouted again. "Three Deku-Scrubs!" She said with an award winning smile, turning to her partner. After seeing the look she was giving him, something between genuine concern, and that subtle bit of love he always had when he looked at her, she reigned herself in. "I mean, professionalism. Right. I own a business. Nice to meet you Mr. Uh, Midoriya. Welcome to our hero agency, though you could've just used the door."
The gloved Midoriya let out a laugh, returning the extended handshake. "In any other circumstance, I would've been more than happy to. I do believe this counts as a special circumstance, however." He said in a charmed tone. "And you are correct in assuming I am Midoriya. I am indeed Midoriya Izuku. I assume you are Hatsume Mei, and your friends are both, well, me?"
Hunter Izuku chimed in. "Er, yeah, we are. Um, going back to that door thing, how exactly did you get here. We checked but that watch didn't work I thought." He said gesturing to the technological watch on the table.
"So that's what that was. Some sort of dimensional travel device. My gauntlet possesses similar capabilities, hence why I'm standing in front of you. I am curious though, I did not expect to run into two of you. Ahem, us. Why might there be another here, I wonder?" Izuku pondered, stroking his chin with intrigue, flashing that golden gauntlet of his.
Prime Izuku chimed in. "Maybe you can help us with it. A villain named Kaleido sent me here using his quirk. We believe it can send people across the multiverse." He explained. "Though, how did you get here? Is it the work of your quirk?"
"Haha, no, I don't possess such a thing. If I'm correct in my assumptions, neither do you." When he was met with 'its complicated' instead of a no, his interest was piqued yet again. "Interesting. Well, I'd better explain myself."
"You see, I believe I've met this Kaleido that you speak of. He did not present himself as a villain, I guess not to me anyways. He did go on about some ravings of an evil somewhere in the multiverse that was going to attack my dimension soon, and that if I wanted to defend my world against it, I would need to seek out others who could help me in this endeavor. Now normally I would dismiss this, but then he showed me that he was telling the truth via briefly allowing me to visit the world that threatened my own. After seeing the situation, I knew I couldn't ignore his warnings. I would've rather done it myself, but by borrowing a power of his, I have gained my own ability to travel the multiverse. I looked through potential places to go, but then I found you two. The thought of meeting not one, but two of my selves. Well, that was too intriguing of an offer to simply pass up."
"What are we up against?" Hunter Izuku asked.
"That's the funny part." Gauntlet Izuku spoke. "Its me."
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. More universes are crossing over, and we haven't even met half of the stories characters yet. What could Apotheosis mean by him being the threat. And what exactly is Bakugo going to do to Shigaraki. We'll have to find out next time.
Speaking of, from now on, to avoid confusion when there are multiple characters in a scene that are technically the same guy, I will refer to them by their universe monikers. For example, Prime Bakugo and Apocalypse Bakugo, or Prime Izuku, Hunter Izuku (Deku the Hunter), and Gauntlet Izuku/Apotheosis. I think this will help keep scenes concise without artificially extending the word count of a chapter.
Until next time, I thoroughly look forward to your thoughts on the story. See you in the next chapter!