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Half an Hour Later
The Sports Festival Stadium
Xandria's POV
A part of her didn't like the match she'd just had with All Might.
However at the same time she couldn't help but take pride in the fact that she'd managed to stay in the game against THE All Might for almost the entire fifteen minutes of the match. Indeed for the final six minutes of it she'd been tackling him head-on rather than continuing her 'fight smarter, not harder' approach.
There hadn't been a lot of skill just anger along with a determination to let All Might know that he'd made a mistake choosing to play a part in Principal Nezu's scheme.
In the end though her anger had gotten the better of her and set her up to be knocked silly by one of All Might's stronger techniques. She knew she'd said it was silly for Pro Heroes to call out the name of their attacks but somehow All Might had managed to do it and still land it despite her best attempts at evading. Then again maybe you needed to get to a certain rank of Pro Hero before you could safely call out your attack names without screwing up.
Whatever the case While she felt a measure of achievement for doing as well as she had against All Might she couldn't let that distract her from what she needed to do.
Striding down the hallway of the stadium she was heading right for the box seat room set aside for the U.A High School faculty because she wanted answers. For the most part she'd managed to piece together what'd likely happened but she wanted some blanks filled in and there was only one person she knew of that could do it. Based on what she knew so far the 'late paperwork' the top dog of U.A had brought to the cafeteria to sign must've been how they got her signature for the lottery. They'd probably counted on Mirko convincing her to give it a shot rather than insist on pulling out and then all that was left was to choose an opponent for her. Given how well she fared during the battle between All Might and All For One the number one hero made the optimum choice.
But what was the reason for making sure she won the lottery? When she'd theorized that it might've been other students the motivations had been easy enough to figure out but for Nezu it was a lot harder. She'd heard enough stories around U.A to know that the thing that made the dog being special was a seriously high IQ. Like twelfth level intellect high IQ! So it could be any one of a number of reasons even if she used his position as principal as a starting point to work with. She hated guessing so she decided to cut out that part and go straight to the source.
Seeing the door to the box seat she strode right up to it and with considerable restraint knocked on the door three times doing little if any damage to it.
"Open up Nezu! Ah've got questions and you better have some answers!" She yelled both to make sure she was heard and to make sure she couldn't be ignored.
She waited for three minutes and just as she was about to knock on the door even harder it opened to reveal the tiny tyrant.
She waited until the door was closed before speaking up.
"Ya want to tell me why the HELL you tricked me into this lottery match?" She asked doing her best to keep it to her indoor voice.
"I am sorry you had to find out like this Miss Claremont but I assure you that I only had your best interests at heart." Nezu replied sounding contrite but also hoping for understanding, "As you know it has has been our hope that even as you learned what you needed to in order to become an exemplary Pro Hero that you would also make friends amongst your classmates. By doing this you would allay certain concerns that have been expressed regarding your core Quirk by the Pro Hero community and the parents of other students. However much to our dismay you have only made one friend while at the same time the number of those who seek to drive you away only increases."
"And putting me in a fight against All Might helps how?" She asked imagining that it was only natural that the teachers would've noticed Roxy's antics as well as the others who took a verbal swing at her.
"It is often said that you can learn much about a person by watching them fight." Nezu replied sounding like he believed this saying, "It had been our hope that in seeing how you fought All Might they would see that you were not deceitful or without honour. Indeed if in seeing you fight they perceived qualities that could be considered heroic I believed that most of those that would oppose you would lose their motivation. It also wouldn't hurt that if you could prove your skill against All Might then some might choose to overlook certain concerns."
Pausing a moment she considered his words.
While not as profound as some people thought it to be there was some truth to the saying. By watching how someone fought you got a sense of their temperament, about their judgment and how smart they were. Did they fight using their brains or did they rely on brawn to win the day? Were they impatient or did they know the value of waiting for the right moment to act? Did they take pleasure in the suffering of their opponents or did they end the fight swiftly?
If the point of the fight with All Might had been to prove that she wasn't Villain material she could understand the logic of their approach.
"You could've just told me this. Mighta signed up without all the cloak and dagger bullshit." She said with comprehension taking some of her anger away, "Sure there're times when Heroes gotta be sneaky to take down the bad guy but there's always gotta be a clear line between us and them. We start letting that line blur and it won't be long before there's no difference between them and us.
"Besides…you're the Principal of U.A high school. EVERY student's got to be your priority not just me." She said firmly to drive the point home, "If word got out that you or any member of the faculty were playing favourites things'd get messy both during school hours and after. You better make this the first last and only time Nezu."
"It is a sorry sight indeed when a student proves to be wiser than the teacher." Nezu said ruefully before nodding his head, "You have my word Miss Claremont that this will be the last time such clandestine methods are used to unfairly aid a student."
A part of her was a bit suspicious at how swiftly the tiny tyrant was giving into her improvised lecture but at the same time she considered that perhaps it was because Nezu was a civilian not a Pro Hero. It took a certain personality type to be a Pro Hero and as she'd noticed the few times she'd been out and about that a lot of civvies tended to defer to the Pro Heroes. It was like 'why should we do anything when we can just wait for a Pro Hero to show up' and while it was often best to wait for a professional to handle dangerous stuff that didn't mean turning your back on a chance to help.
If you could do it safely and without making things worse you help.
If things were too crazy and the probability of screwing up was too high you vacate the area and hope the Heroes got there in time to make a difference.
While Nezu might be the principal of U.A high school that didn't mean that he used to be or was a Pro Hero. Most high school principals either desired to help educate the young or were good administrators nothing more. As such perhaps for all the skill Nezu might have running a school he lacked the backbone to put up much of a fight when his wrongs were exposed.
"Just so you know ah plan on rejecting the high profile offers ah get for my internship thanks to this." She said before beginning to turn away, "Make up a list of less used but still respectable hero agencies and I'll choose from one of them. Do that and we'll be cool."
"I'll get to work on drawing up a list as soon as the sports festival has concluded." Nezu said in a way that could be believed.
Nodding she began to make her way back to the open air because while she'd like to stick around she had a feeling she wouldn't get much peace and quiet. Everyone who saw her match with All Might would be crowding her asking questions and even if she got rid of her armour she knew Kaoruko was here. She was a good friend but the girl also had shown signs of having mood swings. One second she was as carefree and fun loving as any teenage girl and the next she was serious enough that you'd think that she had no room for fun in her life. She was worried that if she went out in her off duty clothes the girl would talk without thinking exposing her as the one that fought All Might.
Instead she decided she'd get some flying time in and find a place she could think in peace.
She had something important to think about after all.
Like how she'd suddenly known all the moves she'd used against All Might, how she'd heard what he'd been thinking and how she'd managed to put some telekinetic oomph behind some of her punches. Ever since Halloween night she'd only ever had the classic Rogue power set from the animated series she'd watched before high school. Super strength, super durability, flight and power absorption. Then when she'd gotten to this world she'd picked up the Quirk that let her coil her arms like springs before releasing them to hit with destructive potential.
It didn't make sense and she didn't think it'd be a good idea to ignore this development.
Unfortunately thanks to her cover story and uniqueness she didn't think that she could go to anyone else for help so the only thing she could do was help herself. That meant finding a quiet spot to think things through, meditate maybe and come up with some theories that only half sounded like it came from the pages of a comic book.
A few minutes later she exited the stadium and with a thought took to the air until she was high enough to soar over every building she could see. Casting her gaze about for some place that'd suit her needs she crossed off the possibilities almost as quickly as she spotted them. Mostly this was because she'd either get in trouble for landing on them or the roofs were close enough to he ground that civvies would spot her. Hard to think in peace if people kept yelling at you or tried to find a way up to you. It wasn't until she spotted a mountainous area not too far from the city that she made her choice to fly towards it. Thanks to flying she was never too far away from anything so as she flew towards it she knew that it'd only take her a few minutes tops to get there.
However just as she was about to begin her descent she began to see something that had her a little worried.
"AAAHHHH!" Exclaimed a male voice that gave off all the tells that someone was in a situation they couldn't control and it was scaring him shitless.
Acting on instinct, both from when she was a male and what she'd inherited from Rogue, she descended towards the blue flames that had originally caught her attention. As she got closer she could see that they were all centred around a guy that looked to be about her age with white hair. Was he making the flames? Was his Quirk flame generation or flame manipulation? She couldn't tell but the one thing that was pretty damn obvious was that he'd lost control of the blue fire and with every second that passed the guy's situation worsened. If he didn't clamp down on the fire the entire mountain was going to go up in flames and unless the guy's Quirk included an immunity to fire death would shake hands to him soon after.
"As much as ah like a nice fire to cozy up to ya mind dialling it back sugah?" She asked politely as she touched down just outside the ring of fire around the guy, "Don't think there's anybody outside of some crazies that'd like it if this entire mountain went up in smoke."
"I…I CAN'T! I don't know how!" The guy replied turning to look at her for a moment before he held up his hands to show that he was generating the blue flames.
"What? You're at least as old as me." She said with confusion, "Turnin' your Quirk on and off should be a piece of cake for you by now."
"Dad never taught me how to turn it off! Only how to make it burn hotter! ARGH!" The guy exclaimed his hands jerking as though they were being burned by the blue flames, "HELP ME!"
What she was hearing wasn't making a lot of sense because whether it was Quirks or mutant powers one of the first things on the teaching schedule should've been finding as well as mastering the on/off switch. What kind of father prioritized ONLY turning something on and intensifying it?
She didn't have an answer but the one way she could think of both slam on the brakes of the fire AND find out just how things had gotten this far. She could see that the guy was in trouble and doing nothing would only make things worse but doing something would definitely take her day down an unpleasant path.
She was beginning to worry that her 'interesting life' from when she was back in Sunnydale had somehow managed to follow her here.
"Sure. Just remember when you wake up later that you asked for this!" She said pulling the gauntlet off of her right hand exposing her skin to open air.
With the prep work done she flew towards the guy right arm reaching out to him and before he could do more than look confused she touched his neck.
CONTACT.
All at once her mind was assaulted by the memories, thoughts and emotions of the young man in front of her. Even without a PhD in psychology she could say for certain that the guy had been through hell and was dangling by the very last as well as very thin thread of sanity. The reasons for it became all too clear once the initial confusion of her power settled allowing her to make sense of the young man, Toya's, memories.
Memories of a prominent Pro Hero, Toya's father, training him from the day his fire Quirk manifested relentlessly. The innocent joy of a child given the dream of one day becoming a great hero and determined to live up to his father's expectations.
Catastrophe. Finding out from a doctor that because of a poor combination of DNA he could produce fire but did not have a body capable of withstanding it past a certain point. Abandoned by his father. Reckless denial! A determination to become a Pro Hero no matter what! Pleading with his father, with his family, to let him pursue his dreams in spite of the harm his Quirk could do to him. No one listened. NO ONE UNDERSTOOD! He wanted to be the best! Better than anyone else!
Training in secret from everyone. Ignoring them when they found out and told him to stop.
Cast aside, ignored in favour of trying again and again, despite meeting only failure while his father's desire to surpass All Might only continued to grow in strength.
Then…then outright REPLACEMENT when the PERFECT SON was born. His father ignoring him and stealing from him his dream to give to a mere baby! He knew he could become a Pro Hero! He knew he could overcome his genetic flaw!
Over and over his father told him to abandon his dream, a dream planted within by HIM, and look to the world beyond the job of Pro Hero. How? HOW!? How could his father not understand that there was no one, no 'friend', to talk to about 'other things' because everyone in his class wanted to be a Pro Hero as well. Indeed all other jobs were dismissed or seen as jokes when compared to the glory that camera with being a Pro Hero!
It's all his fault! He replaced him! TOOK EVERYTHING FROM HIM!
Years passed and he tried to take what comfort he could in the company of his brother and sister since in a way they too had been abandoned by their father. Replaced by HIM in every way that mattered! However despite all this he could never escape the emotional turmoil that came with losing his reason for being. Without guidance, without any help, he was left to his own thoughts as he tried to understand the reasons for his pain and suffering with no one around who understood.
Even his brother Natsuo, the one person he thought he could talk to about important things, had just brushed him off whenever he brought the matter up.
Fully alone with no one who understood him he focused on the only thing left to him: his training. His 'mother' tried to discourage him and even insinuated that his desire to become a Pro Hero wasn't really his and that he should consider abandoning it. He tore into her belittling her by claiming she was getting all her tips from self-help books and revealing that he knew the only reason she got married was because her family was poor.
It was her fault too that he'd been born and now lived in the hell he was trapped in!
He continued his training, working to find ways to increase what he could do while enhancing his tolerance for pain, and found that his Quirk was linked to his emotional state. If he got riled up then the intensity of his flames likewise increased. When he felt he'd made enough progress he sent a message to his father's phone to meet him at Sekoto Peak, a favourite training location for their family, so he could reveal the fruits of his training. Surely once his father saw how powerful he'd become, how the pain didn't bother him, the mighty number two Hero would see the greatness intended for him.
But he never came.
Not at the time requested, not an hour after that or an hour after that.
Before long it became clear that he'd been brushed off again. Denied EXISTENCE again!
Swept away by his emotional turmoil his blue flames manifested on their own taking him by surprise and causing him to try to fling it away from his body. However no matter how hard he tried to separate himself from it his body only generated more and with every failed effort the forest around him went ablaze spreading with every second that passed.
He wanted it to stop! He didn't want to die!
DISCONNECT.
"N-N-n-o!" She growled yanking her hand away from Toya's throat.
He…no SHE…couldn't risk touching him any longer than this! Any longer and there was a risk of a new echo being born. Floating away from him even as her gamble paid off she wrestled with the new baggage she'd willingly taken in to keep it from seizing control. Diligently she worked just like she had in the aftermath with All For One to set the mass that belonged to Todoroki Tōya to one side on her mental landscape. It wasn't that this stuff was going to be ignored or anything but rather that she wanted to stay herself instead of something else getting mixed in to become someone different.
She was fortunate that as much of a chaotic storm of feelings and thoughts as Toya was he didn't have the near overpowering presence that All For One's echo possessed. In the end she felt confident in saying that she'd only been unaware of the world around her for a minute but in seeing the spreading blue fire he knew that sticking around would be a bad idea.
Moving to put her gauntlet back on she was surprised to find that even with the exposure only being brief the heat generated by the blue flames had still been enough to damage her armour. Tentatively she went through the usual process of connecting the gauntlet to the rest of her armour and breathed a sigh of relief that it clicked together without trouble. Power Loader would still probably chew her out for the damage but at least this time the repair work wouldn't be as long.
Scooping Toya up in her arms bridal style she took to the air to take him clear of the blaze but that didn't mean she ignored the fire below her. Manipulating the controls in her helmet she activated the communications system and after a few slip ups connected with emergency services.
"Thank you for contacting emergency services. What is the nature of your emergency?" A woman's voice asked through the helmet's internal speakers.
"A fire has broken out on Sekoto Peak." She replied spotting a clearing a short distance ahead of her, "It's not too big now but it looks like it could spread pretty quickly."
"Understood. Do you have any idea what might've caused it?" The woman asked sounding like she was already getting to work contacting the relevant people.
"No but seeing as how the flames are blue I doubt it's anything natural." She replied not seeing any good from pinning the blame on Toya.
In her mind the blame for every moment of suffering and mental scarring Toya had gone through was the responsibility of none other than Endeavor. The man's obsession with either becoming the number one hero himself or vicariously through his children had turned the entire family into train wrecks of trauma. Some had managed to hang onto their innocence, their sanity, better than others but that was more due to the fact that Endeavor ignored them than their mental resiliency.
Odds were good that the reason why no one had found out the truth was that the bastard wasn't careless enough to do anything out in public and the others didn't want the shameful truth to get out. While it varied depending on the culture and the current societal norms getting the courage to reveal to the authorities that your husband/father was abusing you could be either very difficult or impossible. While she couldn't say she knew the ins and outs of Japanese culture and societal norms she'd heard the phrase 'losing face' used often enough in connection to scandals to fabricate a rough picture in his head. When the desire to avoid the shame that'd come from others was combined with what flakes of denial might exist in them that things were that bad and the truth could stay buried for quite awhile.
"Got it. Can I get your name for the report?" The woman asked as though part of a routine.
She only hesitated for a moment before providing Alexandria Claremont but was confident that no one would be able to make the immediate connection between her and Toya. It was a matter of record that she could fly and without them tracking her they would be clueless about where she'd been when the fire broke out or if she really knew what the cause was.
"Thank you Miss Claremont. Be aware that we may need to ask you further questions at a later date." The woman said sounding like she was reaching the end of her work.
"No problem." She said hoping to have enough time to come up with a believable set of answers for them when they came to answer their questions.
After polite goodbyes were exchanged she spotted a clearing that'd suit her needs and descended towards it figuring that Toya would be waking up soon. She didn't believe that her powers had done sufficient damage to make his unconscious state last for hours but more than that she wanted to talk to him as soon as he was conscious.
She needed to talk to him.
While she could not say that their pasts were the same there were enough parts that were similar that she felt a kinship with him that she hadn't felt since learning the truth about Willow's home life. Both of them had abusive parents and that abuse had played a critical role in shaping who they'd become mind and soul. The main difference between the two of them was that unlike Toya she'd had both Jesse and Willow to bring happiness into her life. For every dark cloud and nightmarish period her parents her friends had washed most of them away with their kindness and caring. The more times she got a reason to sneak out of the house or spend time with them the easier life became until she could believe that once she was old enough and had enough money she could leave it all behind.
She could pretend that Tony and Jessica Harris never existed.
For Toya though he had no friends to feed him some kind light and thanks to the seed Endeavor had planted in him at such a young age a chain was wrapped around the guy's neck. Toya couldn't conceive of a future where he wasn't a Pro Hero, the top Pro Hero, and he was willing to let his Quirk damage his body to make it happen.
She knew the truth though.
The truth was that Toya wanted his father's respect and acknowledgment both as his son as well as someone with the potential to become the top Pro Hero in Japan. Endeavor though only cared about becoming better than All Might so Toya believed that the only way he'd ever be acknowledged was to reach the goal his father had set for him after his Quirk first manifested.
Unless that goal was achieved or Toya stopped caring about what Endeavor wanted the guy's mental state was only going to get worse.
The question was could she herself do anything to help?
Remembering what'd happened during her match with All Might she felt a flicker of possibility that sent a feeling of hope through her body.
If the hope was well founded it would allow Toya to chase his dreams and maybe find new ones.
Seeing in her mind the chance to become source of light just like Willow and Jesse had been for her she made her decision in less than five seconds.
Inside a Troubled Mind
Why was he here?
What was his purpose?
Could something without a purpose even exist?
Could someone without a goal find happiness?
These were the questions that had tormented him ever since the one he'd once admired so much had turned his back on him. TOLD HIM that he would never achieve the magnificent dream that had been in front of his eyes for as long as he could remember! However every time that he tried to find answers all he got was a deep well of anguish that felt it could crush him entirely at any time. From a certain point of view his determination to continue his training and become good enough that he would be acknowledged by the one who'd planted the seed of his dream was a defence against this anguish.
However with his father never showing up he'd been forced to accept the truth that no matter how hard he worked that man, that so-called HERO, would never acknowledge him.
And as he'd stood in the training ground he'd spent so many painful hours working the pit of anguish that he'd tried so far to fight off had surged forth to swallow him whole.
It should've ended there for him.
Everything that made him who and what he was should've been shattered into a pile of ugly trash.
Instead someone descended from the sky clad in armour making her look like one of those pictures he'd seen once of an American Pro Hero who'd patterned her costume after the more armoured depictions of archangels. She'd spoken to him with concern for his wellbeing and when he'd asked for her aid out of a desperate desire to live she had not hesitated to give it.
He…wasn't quite sure what'd happened next but it'd felt like all that he was being pulled out of him at incredible speed. It didn't feel like he was losing anything but rather that copies were being made before being pulled someplace he couldn't identify. However as he floated within the void of unconsciousness that was his mind he couldn't help but feel as though some of the burden that'd been mounting on his shoulders over the years of his life had been taken from him.
It was not gone entirely but neither did it feel as though it would crush him the moment he stopped moving forward.
Was this…hope? Was this what hope felt like?
He didn't know since it'd been so long since he'd felt it but he had no trouble deciding that it was a feeling he liked.
Would she be willing to help him continue to feel it?
Could she help him keep the abyss of anguish at bay?
For the first time in so long he had new questions that he wanted answers to just as bad as the ones that'd revolved in his mind from the beginning.
Xandria's POV
~^This has got to be the stupidest idea you've every come up with and that's saying something.^~ Echo Willow thought at her even as she focused on her meditation.
~Does that mean you don't think it'll work?~ She thought as she delved into the depths of her mind for the two things that she'd need to pull her plan off.
~^I didn't say that!^~ Echo Willow thought at her before taking on a more serious tone, ~^It's just that analyzing and then altering someone's DNA isn't something you can just do on the fly even with the tech of this world. This…could turn out very bad for Toya.^~
~It wouldn't be any worse than what'll happen to him if I don't do anything.~ She thought continuing to descend like someone going to the centre of the Earth, ~You saw the 'download' the same as me. How long do you really think he'd last before something like this happened again?~
~^I'll help any way I can Xander.^~ Echo Willow thought to her, ~^Just be prepared for the worst if things go bad.^~
~If shirking responsibility for actions taken is what Tony would do then I'll burn in hell for eternity before I'd ever do the same!~ She thought with Adamantium resolve, ~But let's see just how far we can go first.~
~^Right!^~ Echo Willow thought before the essence began to help her in the search.
Her plan was born of a single theory about what'd happened during her match with All Might. She knew that the classic Rogue power set didn't include telepathy or telekinesis but she did know that since her mutant power first manifested the heroine had come into contact with quite a few people. Throughout her careers, both with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants as well as the X-Men, Rogue had been called upon to use her gift on ally and enemy alike. In the majority of those cases the powers had never stuck around for very long, usually some ratio involving how long skin to skin contact was maintained, before all that was left was the default powers she'd gained from Miss Marvel. It was her belief that somehow even if Rogue couldn't consciously call upon them the blueprints, the templates, of the powers she'd absorbed still resided within her.
This was supported by the manifestation of telepathy and telekinesis that could've come from any one of a number of heroes or villains.
If her theory was right then there were two specific templates that she could use to fix Toya and in doing so open a path for him that didn't involve madness or death.
The first was the template of none other than Charles Francis Xavier himself because out of everyone he could think of no one was more knowledgeable about mutant genetics than him. Not that she was willing to tap into anyway. No WAY was she going to risk accessing Mister Sinister's template! While she couldn't be one hundred percent certain she believed that Quirks were essentially the same sort of thing as the mutant x-gene albeit happening on a much grander scale. In the Marvel universe mutants were a small percentage of Earth's human population and while some thought them the next stage of human evolution this process was going to take a long time.
Here the percentage of people with Quirks was increasing every year with it currently being rated at about seventy-seven percent.
ANYway if she was right about Quirk genetics being like mutant genetics then the best person to help tweak Toya so that his Quirk wouldn't harm him anymore would be Professor X.
That led to the second template she'd need.
Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch.
It was in the daughter of Magneto that the means of changing Toya without the involvement of science came into play. Amongst the various magic users of the Marvel universe Wanda was amongst the strongest and most knowledgeable making her template a good choice. Sure she was a little worried that things might go awry given what'd happened with the Halloween spell but with a little luck Wanda's know how could keep things on track. With her experience, skill and power they'd be able to manipulate the Quirk aspects of Toya's biology and either give him the temperature combo that asshole father had originally been aiming for or make it so he gained a strong fire immunity. The latter was probably more likely than the former but she'd wait until she had both templates in her metaphorical hands before deciding what was possible or not.
~C'mon! C'mon!~ She thought as she brought her focus to even greater heights, ~Don't let what happened in the match be a fluke!~
~^Xandria! Over here!^~ Echo Willow thought loudly at her providing a location for her to head towards in her mind.
Willing herself towards it she soon realized what had the echo of her best friend was so interested in. The closer she got the more she felt concepts of knowledge, experience and a fatherly-ness that had the bits of Rogue she had instantly feel safe. Once she felt like it was within reach she extended her mind and made contact with the source of the concepts.
Instantly her mind became awash with knowledge, personality traits and instincts but she'd been expecting this so she was ready. Treating it like an armful of books she made sure to put a stronger grip on the large heavy ones while positioning the smaller ones so that they wouldn't come loose easily. So long as she didn't do anything to jostle the smaller books loose everything'd work out well enough.
~Interesting. It isn't a perfect fit but it'll be enough.~ She thought even as some of Xavier's attributes mixed with her own, ~And as a side benefit it should make finding the Wanda template easier.~
Tapping into Xavier's telepathy she cast a wide net across her mental landscape paying special attention for the flavour Charles recognized as Wanda's. With an ease that made it clear how amateurish her methods had been without the first template he found the Scarlet Witch's blueprint and reached out for while maintaining her grip on Xavier's template.
Again she felt the influx of essence but oddly enough it felt less like someone arbitrarily dumping a new stack of books in her free arm it felt…more comfortable. Like grabbing hold of a book bag that you'd been using since your first day of school and had broken in until it was like slipping on your favourite pair of shoes. Odd but she wasn't going to complain since it'd put less of a burden on her making it that much more likely that she'd be able to keep a grip on both templates long enough to get the job done.
With both of the tools that she needed she rose up from the depths of her mind and soon opened her eyes to behold the real world. It was surreal how different it looked now that she was essentially interpreting it through three different points of view at the exact same time. Nevertheless she did her best to focus on the task she'd chosen to complete and so looked down at Toya who thankfully was still unconscious from their earlier contact. As long as he was asleep he wouldn't know what she was doing and was less likely to complicate things due to his lack of comprehension.
~Now…let's see if Wanda's magic can tell 'us' what we need to know to fix things.~ She thought even as the templates vibrated in sync with her.
Breathtaking.
She had seen a lot in her life and through the memories she'd gained from Rogue she had 'seen' even more but the landscape that she was seeing that represented Toya. Both body and soul she could see the guy she was determined to save but while there were certain elements similar to scientific medical depictions of the human body but similar was as far as it went. Shaking her mental head she set aside her aesthetic appraisal of the magical representation and instead sought out the info the Xavier template would need.
It wasn't easy, even amongst the greats of the Marvel universe seeing things on a genetic level then doing something about it took some chops, but as grains of light began to emerge she knew she'd succeeded. Little by little the grains began to assume configurations reminiscent of DNA double helixes and with a thought began to look for the genes that in Marvel were responsible for mutant powers. She knew it was a guess since even with all she'd learned she hadn't read anything that pointed out genetic sources of Quirks but it was all she had to work with.
~Now where…where is the source of Toya's problems.~ She thought applying the knowledge she'd gained from the Xavier template.
Fortunately conflicts that are visible to the naked eye often have corresponding signs of conflict on a far deeper level be it internal organ damage or nerve damage. With this in mind she looked for these signs since she had a feeling that they would lead her to what she needed to change. Honestly it was feeling a lot like trying to find something in a chaotic room where only the person who used it the most knew how it was organized. It meant that there was a pattern, a logic, to it all but you had to learn what it was as you went so you had to wait awhile to find what you wanted.
Nevertheless she had to hurry because she had no idea how long she would be able to hold onto the templates before they either slipped her grasp or simply lost their potency.
After what seemed like hours but in fact only minutes had passed she found what she was eighty to ninety percent sure were the genes she needed to change.
The question now became: what to change and how to change it?
~^Keep it simple Xandria.^~ Echo Willow thought sounding distracted, ~^Try for too much and you might not finish in time.^~
~Got it.~ She thought focusing her attention on the genes that she believed had to do with Toya's immunity to cold resistance, ~If they're here then the fire resistance ones should be…HERE!~
From what she could see the genes for the fire resistance did exist in Toya but due to the randomness of genetic combinations between the DNA of the father and the DNA of the mother they weren't active. Comparing the inactive fire genes to the active cold resistance she gained a grasp of what she should see if she was successful and so she tapped into Wanda's template to make the changes.
What was it like? How did it feel?
It was like she became connected to hundreds if not thousands if not HUNDREDS of thousands of grains of sand before manipulating them all with skill to form a sand castle. Only she wasn't trying to make a sand castle but rather a complex configuration of spider silk threads while at the same time breathing life into every convergence point. It was meticulous work because if there was a mistake even once in the network of genes it could lead to serious flaws in the overall result she was trying to achieve. She had no real end image in her mind of what the final product was supposed to look like but rather was doing it more by feel and instinct. Even if she had knowledge from the Xavier template the match wasn't perfect between the x-gene and the genetics responsible for this world's Quirk powers.
Guesses could be made and so far they seemed to be right since there'd been no signs so far of a screw up or something that could lead to a screw up.
She was just about to conclude that her long shot plan was actually quite rational when cracks of pain crept into her brain. Sometimes it only lasted a split second but other times it felt like someone was sadistically dragging a white hot blade across a part of her brain an inch at a time. She clamped down on her confusion and bullheadedly maintained every necessary grip because she knew that if she lost control Toya would be the one to suffer the consequences.
~W-what's…happening?~ She thought even as she worked to gain control over the pain.
~^What I was afraid might happen.^~ Echo Willow thought even as the pain receded somewhat, ~^You're channelling two templates of two powerful mutants at the same time. Honestly it's a miracle you've managed to last this long. Hurry up! I'll try to keep the pain back as long as I can.^~
Thanking God that she had a wingman in this she went all in on the changes increasing focus to increase precision in order to accelerate the changes she was making. There was no time for consideration or the weighing of feelings forcing her to go with the first good instinct the moment she felt it before moving on to the next step. Stress rose in her like the water in that Houdini water box escape trick but she ruthlessly ignored it treating the feeling as a distraction she could not afford.
Second to second.
Gene to gene.
Echo Willow was no doubt doing her best but she was not a true mind but rather the reflection of one so as time passed the pain grew in strength slipping free little by little.
What would win in the end? Would the pain burn away her ability to complete her task or would her task be completed before she had no choice but to release the templates?
In the end Murphy must've been busy ruining someone else's life because with one final gesture of Scarlet Witch's power the last alteration fell into place before being sealed in. With her work done she finally released the grip she had on the templates letting them fall back to the depths that they'd come from and in reply her mind spasmed like a muscle complaining of overtaxation. As her eyes returned to normal along with her other senses she instantly felt so crappy that she would NOT being doing an encore in the foreseeable future. Honestly it felt like someone had used barbed wire as a pipe cleaner for every INCH of her veins!
~Now…all I can do…is wait.~ She thought laying down on her back before going completely immobile.
Hopefully Murphy wouldn't realize he forgot something with her and mess things up later times two because at the moment she could honestly say she had her fill of complications.
Five Blocks From the Foot of Sekoto Peak
One Hour Later
Enji Todoroki's POV
It was odd how sometimes it only took one image, one event, to completely change a person's mind.
He had just finished his match at the U.A sports festival when his wife had called him on his phone. He had contemplated simply ignoring the call since the woman no doubt only intended to ridicule him for his actions towards Toya but considering he'd left Shoto in her care he chose to answer. The first thing he'd been able to determine was that she was quite distraught over something but when he found out why he found himself taking the matter seriously as well.
Sekoto Peak was ablaze and the flames were an eerie blue instead of red.
In fear he'd demanded to know everything she knew even as he moved to where he'd parked his car in the stadium parking lot. According to his wife the story had first hit the news five minutes or so ago and emergency services had arrived on the seen twenty minutes before that. The reporters were saying that due to the intensity of the flames progress was slow in getting them under control never mind putting them out. Calls were already being put out to all Pro Heroes with Quirks that'd prove useful in both containing and snuffing out the forest fire.
Naturally his wife insisted he go there immediately to look for Toya but to him this was only common sense. While a failure Toya was still his son and it wouldn't take long for the press to make a connection between the blue flames and his child's flawed Quirk. When coupled with all the people who had seen him go to the Peak for training over the years and connections would be made that would inconvenience him and his goal.
People would want answers.
Questions would be asked.
If any of what went on in his home became known either to the police or worse to the public at large it was inevitable that they would cast judgment on him.
But they didn't know.
They didn't know the power of having a goal so all consuming that the rules of society were more annoyances rather than unbreakable chains. He was a Pro Hero and he took his job seriously as evident by the number of villains he'd brought to justice and all of the people he'd saved. If he'd done either carelessly or without the desire to see the task done he would not have accomplished nearly as much. Some might think that he did it to rise in the hero rankings but to him such things were worthless compared to achieving the title of 'The Strongest Pro Hero'.
A title currently held by the number one Pro Hero All Might.
He'd worked tirelessly to surpass the man only for it to be made abundantly clear that he never would no matter how hard he trained. That is why he'd chosen to achieve his victory through his offspring by deliberately choosing a wife with an Ice Quirk to act as a solution to the flaws of his own Hellflame. By producing a child that possessed both the two temperature extremes would serve to counterbalance one another allowing them to soar to even greater heights.
While he had learned his lesson with Toya he felt confident that Shoto would be his true masterpiece and would become a Pro Hero capable of surpassing All Might.
The police…the civilians…they would not care about any of that though.
All they would see should they dig deep enough would be him being too 'harsh' and possibly 'abusive' towards his family in the pursuit of his goal.
In order to prevent this he needed to get to the Peak quickly, locate Toya and then remove him from the area without being seen. Once the two of them were far enough away he would once more tell his son to abandon his dream of becoming a Pro Hero and seek a more feasible occupation. It was not that he did not understand his son's determination because it greatly mirrored his own but it was an unchangeable truth that Toya's own Quirk was flawed due to the lack of resistance to fire. There was no point in becoming a Pro Hero if the moment you tapped into your Quirk deeply enough for it to be of use it injured you. If the injuries became great enough or permanent enough it would only reduce field effectiveness more and more until permanent hospitalization would be the only result.
He might be determined to become the strongest but he'd never been so obsessed that he would permit his own Quirk to injure him either permanently or temporarily.
That would have been foolish and he was no fool.
SCREECH!
Turning off his car in an alley across the street from the forest he judged that he was far enough away from where the majority of emergency services personnel were that he wouldn't be seen. Getting out he pulled a baseball cap on and turned up the collar on his jacket of further obscure his head to make it harder for anyone to identify him from a distance. Sure he might be far from where the majority of people likely were at the moment but he was unwilling to chance a random individual who just happened to be along the path he'd take figuring out who he was.
Charging forward he knew that there was one advantage he had that few others had: he knew Sekoto Peak and the area around it well. The paths, the clearings, the rocky outcroppings and the few pools of fresh water that you had to hunt a bit to find. If Toya had any sense whatsoever than the moment it became clear that his flames would go out of control than his son would flee. There were only so many paths leading away from the training area his son liked to use and with what he knew he had a good idea of how the fire would've spread. With that in mind he began to move in the direction he felt Toya would've gone.
Was it possible that his son had already left the forest? Perhaps but he was betting that Toya's lack of control over his Quirk past a certain point had left him hurt and exhausted in the woods. All he needed to do was look for a burn trail leading away from the main blaze then follow it to its logical conclusion point. Quirks were organic things after all and they didn't draw their power out of thin air and there were limits to how long it could be used before the user's own body refused to obey. If Toya proved unable to reign in his Quirk it would still eventually go out once his son's body lost the ability to keep it going.
This outcome, exhaustion, would be preferable since it would make removing him from the area easier and if someone else got to him first there was a chance Toya would be mistaken for an innocent victim.
With an awareness born of many years of experience as a Pro Hero he looked about for any sign of Toya while also remaining alert for strangers. He did not use his own Hellflame Quirk since that would draw far too much attention but that did not mean he was without skills to aid him in his search. It wasn't until he reached the first intersection of dirt paths though that he heard sounds that were somewhat ominous.
He could make out two sets of feet coming towards him from one of the more ill travelled path and from what he could tell neither of them were well. Their steps were far from steady but at the same time he didn't hear enough to make him think that the pair might've fallen a time or two before now. Civilians escaping the fire perhaps? No. As they got closer he heard another noise that made him position himself behind a tree to observe the arrival of the newcomers in secret.
With every step they got closer but when they finally moved beyond the cover his eyes widened in shock.
Walking down the path, leaning on one another for support, was none other than his sone Toya and the U.A student that had fought All Might earlier that day.
"Toya." He said stepping out from behind the tree pinning his son with his glare, "I hope you're satisfied with your latest visit to Sekoto Peak because I intend to make sure it's your last."
He had hoped that Toya would've finally taken his words to heart but clearly they were at the point where words alone were not enough to make things go as they should. Perhaps he should consider sending Toya to a foreign school in a country with few Pro Heroes or Villains but still capable of providing an excellent education. If the problem with giving up on becoming a Pro Hero was that all of his classmates wanted nothing else but to be Pro Heroes then he need only put Toya with more open minded youths. Perhaps in their company he would consider other options for his future that could be just as fulfilling as the life of a Pro Hero.
"Ah don't think you've got the right ta tell him what he can and can't do 'Hero'." Miss Claremont said in a way that reminded him of the coldest winter, "Yer lucky that memories gotten from a Quirk aren't admissible in court or you'd find out what Tartarus is like from the INSIDE."
To this he narrowed his eyes recalling what he'd managed to uncover about the girl after he'd acted as the opponent for her team of students. She was an American that'd fled her country after the traumatizing activation of her Quirk to come to Japan only to get caught up in the middle of a fight between All Might and a Villain of great strength. After receiving treatment she had been granted a place amongst the students of U.A and was currently staying with Pro Hero Mirko.
Most importantly she possessed multiple Quirks but her core Quirk was one that allowed her to drain the strength from others and temporarily gain their Quirks. If her claim just now was true then it would seem that she also took into her some of the memories of those she touched. How clear were the memories? How detailed? He did not know but apparently she had seen enough to provoke her anger and contempt.
"I am not certain to what you're referring girl." He said choosing to give nothing away, "However Toya is my son. I am his father. Until such time as he is considered a lawful adult capable of making his own decisions he is my responsibility. NOT yours."
"Oh? Isn't meddling what Pro Heroes do?" She asked not sounding intimidated in the least, "As for responsibility ah'd say you abandoned yours a long time ago. Your responsibility as a father and as a husband. Now step aside! We can get down from this mountain without yer help!"
"You have nerve child but do not get delusions of grandeur." He said before turning to look at his son, "Toya, come! We will discuss your foolishness and the damage you've done to the Peak once we are home."
"No." Toya said with a strength that was different from what the boy normally displayed.
Before the strength was that of a petulant boy letting his anger rule him rather than using his head. Now…now he didn't know where the strength come from but apparently Toya thought it was enough to let him talk back to his Father. Snarling in anger he strode over to his son intent on dragging him back to his car. Toya would not resist for even if the boy's flames were hotter than his own the lad did not possess near enough skill or experience to defeat him.
The boy knew this and so he would not resist.
However before he could establish a firm grasp on his son's arm Miss Claremont aggressively stepped forward before thrusting his palm to his chest. It did not possess the strength he had seen her use against All Might but it did possess strength enough to send him backwards through the air to impact against a tree. Dazed and with a chest that was no doubt bruised he looked up to see the girl stagger somewhat from her exertion but with Toya's help she did not fall.
"He'll be coming with me." Miss Claremont said as they began to walk off, "If there's even a small part of ya that's actually heroic ya won't go anywhere near him unless he calls for ya."
Anger welling up within him at how disrespectful the girl was being towards him he aggressively began to get up intent on showing the girl what it meant to face the second strongest Pro Hero in Japan. However when a gust of wind blew up the burn edges of Toya's shirt exposing his son's back for all to see he saw something that made no sense to him. Since the day that his son's flames first began to harm him he'd had ample opportunity to see the damage done to Toya's body. Even with the medical aid he'd paid for some of the burn scars had never completely gone away and even earlier in the day when his son had asked him to meet him here at the Peak he had seen fresh burns.
Now all he saw was normal unscarred skin with no sign that there had been any burns there to begin with.
~How?~ He asked frozen in place at the impossibility that'd been presented to him.
It wasn't until he'd lost sight of the duo and could no longer hear their footsteps that he snapped out of it but he did not pursue them. There were too many surprises involving that Claremont for him to continue to charge ahead without thinking matters through. Unless he wanted to suffer yet another setback it was in his best interests to use the information gathering resources of his agency to search for more information as well as monitor the girl's development.
When he had enough only THEN would he act.
ABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABA
Before all of you canon-ists decide to string me up to get hanged let me explain. When I was writing this part I really did look all over the internet to try and find a website that contained a timeline of events that occurred before the first episode of 'My Hero Academia'. I wanted to use those events as a framework for Xandria's own adventures but no matter where I looked I couldn't find anything detailed/reliable enough.
It was then that I came upon a surprising future part of the manga that has yet to be introduced into the anime regarding Todoroki Tōya. Seeing an opportunity I tried to dig into canon facts to see if I could use this to my advantage but there didn't seem to be any conclusive facts. Sure there are Anime data books that have been put out involving the character but my browsing has left me wondering just how reliable these data books are. If they're the sort of thing that the manga/anime companies revise as the story develops then the 'truth' is pretty much whatever they want to be from one story arc to the next.
In the end though the only explanation I can give you is one of the following:
a)This is an AU or Alternate Universe version of the one depicted in the 'My Hero Academia' anime and manga where events and people are just different enough from canon for everything to work out as I've written them to.
b)Xandria's arrival in the 'My Hero Academia' universe had an affect similar to an event in DC comics called 'Flashpoint' and was later part of an animated movie based on the event. In both sources the Flash Barry Allen used his speed to travel back in time to save his mother from being murdered when he was young. However in altering the past he wound up setting off a temporal ripple that went both forward and backward in time. This nudged variables just a little but it was still enough to drastically change how key events went resulting in a new timeline/world different from what had been canon up until Barry went back in time. Bruce Wayne was killed instead of his parents, Thomas Wayne became a Batman who used guns, Martha Wayne became the Joker and Clark Kent crashed into Metropolis instead of near Jonathan and Martha Kent resulting in him becoming a prisoner of the military.
To put it in the words of the Reverse Flash in the animated movie "run faster than the speed of sound you break the sound barrier and create a sonic boom. Break the time barrier and you get a time boom. Ripples of distortion flowing out forward and backward in time changing things just a little but enough".
In the case of this story Xandria made a pretty big change when she intervened in the battle between All Might and All For One. In canon this is the fight that results in All Might getting seriously injured resulting in the decline of his power that necessitates him looking for a successor before he is no longer able to be the 'Symbol of Peace and Justice'. It's also the fight that nearly kills All For One and forces him to retreat into the shadows in order to recover from his injuries and adjust his plans. Thanks to Xandria All Might's wounds are not serious enough to cause his ability to use One For All to diminish and All For One might return to action sooner than in canon. Thanks to these changes brought about by Xandria a ripple was indeed created adjusting the past events so that what you've learned in this chapter meshes and makes sense.
Choose whichever one you find most satisfactory.