Chapter 25: The First Team Meeting
Tenya glared at the one eyed triangle that was floating in his dream world. He had taken to look at all of his spare glasses.
"Wow Tail Pipe, did you tell Sixer about these? It's like you were destined to take on that symbol." Said Bill.
"Will you please leave my dream?" asked Tenya firmly.
"How about no!" said Bill.
Tenya glared at the one eyed triangle in his dreams.
"Your brother's more worried than he let on." Said Bill.
Tenya didn't take the bait.
"Don't worry I don't expect you to owe me anything." Said Bill.
Tenya still glared at the triangle.
"As I told your brother. If you suffer it will be at my hands." Said Bill.
Before he could argue with the triangle and ask what he meant.
That was when he found himself in an alleyway unable to move.
And he would be forced to experience several possibilities where Bill didn't rescue his brother.
At the Todoroki residence. Shoto had waited for the Pines with a bucket.
He didn't know what the bucket was for, but knowing them it probably wasn't good.
His father had went to bed early as the day before was "His day off" he knew had an early day the next day.
Thankfully this did allow for the Pines to do some haunting.
That was when all four arrived.
"What do you need the bucket for?" asked Shoto.
"Remember how I could my pens to write with blood?" asked Dipper.
Shoto nodded.
"Well I can empty my pens into something too." Said Dipper, "And if you're wondering we found this out through experimentation."
Shoto nodded.
"Also about that blood." Said Shoto.
"It comes up as Dipper's blood." Said Ford.
"Which means if they run a DNA sample then it means that it will come out as a guy who's been dead for a century." Said Stan.
"The police knows about your existence." Said Shoto.
"Yeah, but haunting people isn't illegal." Said Stan.
"Just a word of warning it's going to be a bloodbath in there tonight." Said Mabel.
Shoto nodded.
"You'll probably want to get some sleep, the meeting is going to take a lot out of you tomorrow." Said Ford.
"Plus the whole trying to be innocent thing." Said Dipper.
Shoto nodded. And he'd know what they were doing once his father woke up.
The next morning… The entire Todoroki woke up to Endeavor's screams.
Shoto and Fuyumi both ran to the room to find his entire room practically coated with blood. There were two messages on the walls.
The first was "You will die sad and alone" and the other was "I know what you've been doing to your children."
"Should I…" said Fuyumi as this was worse than the last time.
"No I will investigate myself." Said Endeavor.
The siblings left not wanting to deal with his father.
Not too long later in the Iida house. Tenya was subjected to many possibilities… he watched as Stain did so many things. Kill a hero he couldn't determine, forced the hero watch as he killed Tenya and then there were the possibilities of Shoto finding him.
And those usually involved Shoto watching Stain either forcing Shoto to watch him maim or kill Tenya.
When it was done, he found himself in his room.
"See you tomorrow night tailpipe!" he heard Bill taunt him before waking up.
He was breathing heavily after waking up. He grabbed his glasses and cell phone.
He knew had to tell Izuku.
He looked at his phone.
HE was about to think about if he was waking him up but then remembered that he was awake.
He called Izuku and it only rang once.
"Are you all right?" asked Izuku immediately knowing that Bill must have visited.
"No..." Said Tenya deciding to answer honestly.
"It was that bad." Sighed Izuku.
"He said he was coming back tonight." Said Tenya.
"What do you want to do?" asked Izuku.
Tenya knew that Izuku coupled enter his dreams and stop Bill. But realized what he was really asking "Your place or mine?"
It did sound a bit dirty when worded like that…
He began to think about it and realized something…
"Your mother knows what's going on, correct?" asked Tenya.
"She does." Said Izuku.
"She wouldn't mind if I stayed the night?" asked Tenya.
"She'd actually be happy that I'm having a sleepover… even if the reason is because Bill is invading your mind." Said Izuku.
"I wouldn't want to impose." Said Tenya.
"It's fine… the Pines… uh… haunts here…" Said Izuku.
"I believe you mentioned that before." Said Tenya.
"Though who knows if he will show up." Said Izuku realizing something.
"You're right." Said Tenya, "But if he doesn't then it would mean I would get a good's night sleep at least."
"You're right." Said Izuku.
So they worked out details and it was decided that he would sleep over the night.
A couple hours later at the Todoroki residence Shoto decided to leave.
After finding the mess that was his room, Endeavor left to investigate what happened.
Shoto was leaving the house when his sister stopped him.
"Shoto." Asked Fuyumi, "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to a friend's house to hang out." Said Shoto.
Fuyumi was surprised.
"Really?" she asked.
Shoto nodded.
"You actually made friends?" asked Fuyumi.
Shoto once again nodded.
"I won't' tell him but have fun." Said Fuyumi giving a sad smile.
Shoto nodded, even though the gathering was really just a meeting about Bill.
Sometime later Ochaco was walking to Izuku's apartment.
"Uraraka!" called out Tenya.
"Iida!" said Ochaco.
She noticed his backpack.
"Cipher visited my dreams last night." Said Tenya.
"Oh and you're staying with Deku stop him." asked Ochaco.
Tenya nodded.
They found the apartment building and got to the apartment.
They saw the door open seemingly on its own but then noticed the puppet at the doorknob.
"Hey!" said Izuku, "Welcome in."
"Thank you for having us." Said Tenya.
"We really needed to have this meeting sooner or later." Said Izuku, "And you can put your stuff in my room."
They quickly saw where his bedroom was with an All Might themed sign at the door.
Izuku sighed as Tenya opened the door (as it would be less awkward than the puppet opening the door) and they saw his room.
Ochaco started giggling when she saw all of the All Might merchandise while Tenya was respectful and sat his backpack on the chair.
That was when the doorbell rang again.
"I'm going to get it." Said Izuku.
Turned out it was Shoto who had arrived.
He heard the laughing.
"Uraraka found my room." Said Izuku.
"Sorry it's just too cute!" called out Ochaco.
He looked and saw it was a room filled with All Might merchandise .
Shoto didn't comment and Izuku started to blush so hard the puppet was blushing too.
Either unfortunately the doorbell once again rang meaning the last member was there.
Izuku answered the door.
"Shoji." Said Izuku.
"Is your puppet blushing." Saud Mezo.
"It's about my bedroom." Sighed Izuku.
He walked towards the door and saw the room filled with All Might merchandise.
Really the only part of the room that wasn't covered in All Might merchandise were where Izuku kept his puppets.
"Come on Deku it's cute!" said Ochaco.
That was when the door to the rest of the house opened.
"If you're done making fun of Deku's nerd room, we have an important meeting!" yelled Katsuki.
Mezo glared at him.
They all went to the living room of the apartment where Inko making tea.
The Pines were all there.
Shoto eyed them.
"Too much?" asked Stan.
Shoto didn't answer.
"Too much." Laughed Mabel.
"This is my mom." Said Izuku knowing he would have to introduce them.
"IT's nice to finally met you." Said Inko.
"The honor is ours." Said Tenya bowing to her.
"You don't have to do that." laughed Inko, 'I'm just happy that Izuku has some friends… even with the circumstances…"
"Meeting." Muttered Katsuki.
They all took seats and of course there were various pieces of paper.
Including one with the entire Zodiac and the exact placement of where they had to stand.
"So these are the symbols." Said Tenya.
"Yes." Said Ford.
"The four we need are the Stitched Heart, the Llama, The Question Mark and the Pentagram." Said Dipper.
"You know the stitched heart looks familiar." Said Shoji.
Dipper groaned.
"Wait was that the symbol the of the guy Dipper didn't like?" asked Ochaco.
They remembered that there were two symbols they never worked with.
"Yeah, that's the one. The guy went on to be a moderately successful Rockstar." Said Stan, "And he turned that symbol into a trademark. You do seem like the guy who hangs out at places where the symbol would should up."
"There were two other symbols that were taken in your time as well." Said Tenya.
"The Pentagram and the Question Mark." Said Dipper.
"The Pentagram was taken by Gideon…" muttered Stan.
"He was the allied with Bill wasn't he?" asked Shoto.
"He was… tried to use Bill to break into my mind once and also Bill figured out ways to break out of prison multiple times." Said Stan.
"He was in prison?" asked Ochaco.
"He was a creeper anyways." Said Mabel, "Three of those breakouts involved him kidnapping me. It's a good thing we never formed it."
They noticed that the Shooting Star was next to the Pentagram.
"What about the Question Mark?" asked Tenya.
"It belonged to Soos." Said Stan, "He worked for me in my tourist trap."
"He was kind of like Grunkle Stan's son… but it was unofficial and he felt like this was an official Pines thing." Said Mabel.
"He was actually with us the first time we faced Bill." Said Dipper.
"How did you get involved with him?" asked Mezo knowing it something someone needed to ask.
"It's a long story. I won't give you all the details." Said Ford, "Not because I don't trust you but because of the fact that I don't know if most of you would believe it…"
"It can't be that unbelievable." Said Ochaco.
"Performing a ritual separate pieces of our souls to fight an evil world ending triangle was considered a normal Tuesday for us. You don't want to know the stuff he's talking about." Said Stan.
"I will say this though I was secretly a paranormal researcher. Everything my other else studied about Quirks were merely what I did publicly." Said Ford, "That's the main reason why I won't go into details…"
For told them the story about how he had met Bill and how he portrayed himself as friendly and personable. But it was just that he could build a portal to the nightmare realm. And thanks to an accident involing his assistant he learned the truth and during that time Bill turned around and showed his true colors.
"And you can tell the rest of us got sucked in because well… enemy." Said Stan.
"That's not the whole story." Said Ford, "But it's a unbelieve story involing other dimensions, family fighting, backstabbing and the reclusive 30 years."
"If you want to know he hasn't told us the whole story yet either." Said Katsuki.
"You've mentioned a few times that Bill possessed the same way as Midoriya." Said Tenya.
"Yeah…" sighed Dipper, "I would explain a few things but I recently got an e-mail from one of Mabel's great-great-great grandsons and they found something." Said Dipper.
He looked at Inko who had a laptop ready and clicked on a file.
"Oh no… oh no…" said Mabel.
They saw it was a video.
"Someone finally found a recording." Said Izuku.
"That fucking puppet show." Said Katsuki.
"Fast forward!" yelled Mabel, "Please!"
"Why what's so embarrassing about it?" asked Shoto.
Mabel glared at him.
"It's fine Mabel…" said Ochaco.
"You know what her deal is!" yelled Katsuki.
Inko did so, knowing that since it was about a boy she had a crush on who turned out to not only be a jerk but a weirdo who made out with puppets (thanks to girl talk) fast forwarded to a point in the puppet show where Dipper nodded.
For the few seconds they could tell it was Dipper doing impression of Stan and then there was a crash's a wedding cake prop fell to the strange and Mabel and what looked to be Dipper (but they noticed his eyes were Bill's very quickly) as the two recovered and fought over an old book, before Mabel managed to get the upper hand and run away from the possessed body.
Although they couldn't understand it very well. It was clear that the fight and ensuing chase was taking a toll on Dipper's body and collapsed and showed that Dipper regained control but was clearly in pain.
However the four who didn't know about a certain fact were all surprised by something.
Although it was clear about Katsuki and Inko (and Izuku but they couldn't see his face) that they knew about this fact but seeing was something different.
Once the video was over. They looked at Dipper and Mabel.
"How old were you?" asked Ochaco being the one to ask it.
"12." Answered Dipper, "And that was only the second time we faced off against him."
"You've been fighting him since you were 12?" asked Tenya.
"And he already set his sights on us because when we first met us he referred to us by the symbols." Said Dipper.
"Is that why you want to leave it up to fate?" asked Shoto.
"The three years between that and when we did the ritual." Said Dipper, "He figured out ways to make us miserable. It was hard for him at times because we have ways to stop him from doing things to us… but he still found ways to make us miserable… even did a few things to Soos, Pacifica and my best friend Wendy…. in fact he still did it to us after the ritual and our decadents."
"Most of you already seen what Bill can do." Said Ford.
"Being chosen for this means you have a target painted on your back… and even if we do go with plan A, he'll still target you just to mess with you." Said Dipper.
"That is why we can't tell anyone else in class about the other symbols." Said Tenya.
"Exactly…" said Mabel, "It needs to happen naturally…"
They were quiet. Letting it sink in.
After all they knew a lot of it, But never really thought about it, after all Dipper and Mabel were around their age when they did the ritual. But they never really thought about it.
Meanwhile in a cute shop, Hagakure was looking at headbands. She had liked the idea that Izuku told her the other day.
She found one with a cute little stuffed animal sewn onto it.
"Oh cute an alpaca headband." She said.
She looked at the price tag, it was a good price but it dd have some more information.
"Oh it's not an alpaca." She said, "It's still cute though."
She went to buy it, not knowing that that little headband would do.
Back at the Midoriya apartment, things were still tense, so Katsuki grumbled and deiced to play the puppet show video.
Everyone looked at what he did, however as the introduction (which involved Mabel's friend candy dressed like a glam rocker) was shown and the real show began they all stared at the odd sock puppet show signing about how awesome Mabel was.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" yelled Mabel.
She had managed to become corporal grab the laptop and tossed into a wall.
"I will have one of my decedents to send you money to replace the laptop!" yelled Mabel breathing heavily.
"Oh don't have to." Said Inko.
"Didn't you use up all your time?" asked Izuku.
"I had a couple seconds left." Said Mabel.
"But you were the one who did most of the "painting"…" said Stan.
"Still had a few seconds left." Said Mabel.
Everyone who weren't a Pines looked at Shoto.
"You don't want to know what they did." Said Shoto.
"Never bring up the puppet show unless we have to." Said Mezo.
The others agreed to that, because it was clear that Mabel didn't want to talk about it or even let them see it and would go to great lengths to show it.
"Whatever…" muttered Katsuki.
"Look I'm going to tell you now… it's a girl thing…" Stan told Katsuki in a low voice.
"Why the fuck didn't you tell me that before!" yelled Katsuki.
Inko caught getting everyone's attention.
"Have any of you had lunch yet." Said Inko.
"Oh you don't have to." Said Tenya.
"You're saying the night." Said Dipper.
Tenya blushed.
"Oh no I insist." Said Inko.
She made them all lunch which was very delicious.
"Thank you so much." Said Ochaco.
"Your welcome… I know that everything is well…" said Inko, "There's not much I can do… but there's some stuff I can do to help you…"
"Mom…" said Izuku.
Inko started to cry.
Izuku started to comfort his mom.
Shoto watched the two, and realized two things.
The first was clear to everyone.
"We have to stop Cipher." Said Shoto.
The others nodded in agreement.
The other things was far more personal and he realized he should have done sooner, especially after Izuku had saved him.
Sometime later… Ochaco, Mezo and Shoto were all leaving.
"Thank you for the left overs." Ochaco holding a bag of left overs.
"It's no problem at all. I couldn't eat it all myself." Said Inko, "And if any of you ever want to come over to dinner you can. Just tell me first."
"Really thank you." Said Ochaco.
"(I know that look…)" said Mabel.
"(A young girl shouldn't' have those eyes…)" said Ford.
Dipper only looked at Stan, which made him grumble realizing who they were comparing her to.
"Good luck tonight." Said Shoto.
"Hopefully he'll show and we won't have to do it again at my house." Sighed Tenya.
The three left, though Katsuki stayed but only until dinner.
They mostly played some videos games with Izuku, Katsuki, Dipper and Mabel all trying to get Tenya to loosen up and play the game (though it was kind of funny to watch Izuku play as he had to use two puppets).
They had dinner and afterwards Katsuki left.
"If Cipher shows up tonight his eye makes for a good target." Said Katsuki.
"Thank you for that advice." Said Tenya unsure how to really respond to it.
"Whatever." Said Katsuki.
Tenya watched a pre-quirk movie with them.
"So Dinosaurs or Ghosts?" asked Stan.
"I'm more in mood for a comedy mood tonight." Said Ford.
"Not in the mood to deal with Stop Motion." Muttered Mabel.
"What?" asked Tenya.
"Had an irrational fear of stop motion when we were little." Said Dipper, "Then Wendy came up with an idea on how to show her a how to video… now she just feels bad for the animators."
Tenya would have been more confused but then remember the type of person Mabel was.
"He's learning." Laughed Stan.
They let Tenya pick in the end after explaining the plots. He ended up choosing the dinosaur movie as while the ghost movie was a comedy it did deal with a group people beating an evil entity trying to destroy the world… and it was probably better to watch science goes wrong…
Afterward it was time for bed… well for Tenya.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay up longer?" asked Mabel.
"No it's better to go to bed sooner for multiple reasons." Said Tenya.
"He's got a point." Said Ford.
Though there was a small hiccup.
"Are you sure you're okay with me sleeping in your bed?" asked Tenya.
"I haven't slept in more than a year." Said Izuku.
"Oh right…" said Tenya blushing.
"How does he keep forgetting that?" thought Izuku.
Izuku put away his puppet to make it seem like to Tenya he wasn't in the room as he fell asleep.
And fortunately or unfortunately, either argument could be made.
Izuku watched as Bill's shadow decided on his friend and of course he started to toss and turn because of his presence.
Izuku touched Tenya and entered his dream.
He found himself in an alleyway. He saw Tenya was on the ground and Bill was hovering over him as well as Stain.
"Bill!" yelled Izuku.
Of course this image shattered and they returned to Izuku's room.
"What the!" yelled Bill, "Am I in your room Freckles?"
"You didn't notice?" asked Izuku.
Bill looked at Izuku the way he looked and the way he held himself.
"Should have known." Muttered Bill, "Of course something would get you out of it…"
But before he could continue, he got a high powered kick to the eye from Tenya.
"Gah! Fine! You win this round! But something happened today! And you won't know what happened for a couple days." Said Bill.
"What do you mean?" asked Izuku.
Bill didn't answer and disappeared from the dream.
Both Izuku and Tenya breathed a sigh of relief as Bill left.
The two of them were standing silence.
"He was showing me possibilities where he hadn't saved my brother." Said Tenya.
"Oh…" said Izuku.
"I would have tried to get revenge." Said Tenya, "But…"
"It wouldn't have worked." Said Izuku.
"No." said Tenya, "I could feel the emotions and thoughts during those possibilities… that I would have been blinded by revenge."
"Do you think that he's…" said Izuku.
"He knows I won't join him." Said Tenya, "After everything that happened, saving us like that wouldn't have changed anything…"
Izuku nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.
"So Midoriya." Said Tenya.
"Yeah…" said Izuku.
"Is that your middle school uniform?" he asked.
"I'm stuck wearing it." Said Izuku, "Even if Bill puts on something else."
"I see." Said Tenya.
That was when he saw that a katsudon appeared in Izuku's hands.
"Where did that come from?" asked Tenya.
"Um… well… I kind of wanted one to see if it would work…" said Izuku blushing.
"Oh right… we're lucid dreaming." Said Tenya.
That was when a book appeared his hands.
Izuku sighed when he took a bite and Tenya sighed when he tried to read the book.
"You can't read it can you?" asked Izuku.
"It doesn't taste like anything." asked Tenya.
"We can do anything… so what do you want to do until we wake up?" asked Izuku.
The two dorks ends up playing a bunch of boardgames because it was the only thing they could come up with. As Izuku figured Tenya didn't want to watch All Might fight dinosaurs and Tenya really couldn't come up with anything.
But they did have fun playing board games.
But still, Team Zodiac had learn more about Bill, the threat they faced and the fact that he was truly vindictive… Though they knew about this, learning more and seeing that video made them realize that it was true.
And they hoped that if there was another member that could handle Bill… and they didn't know that they would soon find out who would be the next member…
Next Time: Returning to school many in the class get their draft picks, with a couple surprises in store. Not only that but they discover that one of their classmates is wearing one of the symbols... who is it? Also picking names for their hero names. What will happen? Find out next time!
A/N: I have no idea what Iida's name will be. So if anyone have any suggestions I'd like to hear it...