Izuku Midoriya was not having the best day.
To be fair, it had started out wonderful. He and the rest of class 1-A were going to the USJ to get some rescue training in, and everyone was excited, especially Izuku. After all, rescues were a big part of being a hero, even if it wasn't necessarily as glamorous as fighting villains. But before they could actually begin their training, they were interrupted by people who were, according to Aizawa, real villains. Real villains!
Honestly Izuku wasn't sure whether to be terrified or somewhat excited. He decided on mostly terrified, especially after the black, misty villain announced that they were the league of villains, and that they were there to kill All Might. The next thing Izuku knew, he was surrounded by darkness, and falling, falling…
Then he hit something hard.
Izuku groaned, and got up onto his hands and knees. There was a hardwood floor beneath him. One of the training grounds? It didn't seem like it, it felt too….clean. In fact, a glance around revealed he was in a kitchen. Messy, sure, but not a place where one would need to be rescued from.
What if that guy's portal dropped us off in some person's kitchen! Oh man, that'd be so embarassing!
A small moan next to him pulled his attention away from the scenery and towards his companions. Uraraka was pulling herself up next to him. So she was here too! At least he wasn't alone. Looking the other way showed Ashido and Todoroki were there as well. Uraraka noticed Izuku and her face lit up.
"Midoriya! You're here! And you're okay! What happened? Where did that guy drop us?"
Todoroki sat up and scanned over the room with cool eyes. "Wherever it is, it doesn't look like the USJ. It could be that he scattered everyone as far away as he could, but that seems to conflict with their agenda. After all, the villain was obviously trying to keep us from leaving, so why would he send us somewhere else? It doesn't make sense."
"We should try and look around, see where we ended up. Maybe this house has some clues that'll let us know where we are," Izuku suggested.
Ashido grinned. "That sounds like a great idea! Let's do it!" They pulled themselves off the floor when-
"Holy - Did a bunch of teenagers just drop out of the sky and into my house?! Also, why is one of you pink?! What's up with that?"
Well that answers that question! We really did fall into someone's home!
Izuku flipped onto his back and looked at the man who spoke. He seemed to be in his 60s to 70s, wrinkles covering his face, wearing a black suit and carrying an eight-ball cane. A red fez covered his hair. He glowered at the four of them. "Well? I want an explanation right now!"
Izuku jumped to his feet. "We're really sorry sir! We were attacked by a bunch of supervillains, and one of them apparently could open portals and he sent us here! Again, we're really sorry-"
"Supervillains? Ha!" The man slapped his knee. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! You better have a better explanation than that."
Izuku frowned. A better explanation? Even for civilians, everyone all over the world knew there was always some problem or another with a supervillain. A villain that could create portals might be rare, but it wasn't that surprising. Something turned inside his gut, The whole situation felt off.
Ashido crossed her arms. "Hey, I'll have you know we're all students at UA high school. Superheroes in training have to deal with supervillains all the time!"
"That might be stretching the truth a bit," Uraraka muttered.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. If you could help us get back there, we'd really appreciate it." Ashido finished. Izuku looked back to the man. To be honest, he was kind of expecting a Oh, you're UA students? Wow, of course I'll help you! Or something like that. It was what he would have done. But to his surprise no recognition flashed across the man's face. If anything, he looked even more skeptical.
"UA? Never heard of it, sounds dumb. And what do you mean, dealing with supervillains? Those don't exist. And superheroes in training? What, do you think you guys have superpowers or something? You do have the weird outfits to match."
"Of course we have quirks!" Uraraka shot back. Izuku ignored the awkward feeling in his stomach at the mention of that. "I mean…." She trailed off, frowning. Slowly, her expression became one of absolute horror.
"What is it?" Izuku asked.
"I-I can't feel my quirk," She said softly. Her voice rose into a panicked shout. "I can't feel my quirk at all!" She reached out and gripped Izuku. He braced for the feeling of weightlessness that came with her touch, but to his surprise it never came. "It's gone! It's gone!"
Shaken, Izuku focused in on himself. Sure enough, he couldn't feel One for All at all! It was like he was quirkless all over again. He could hear Ashido's cry and Todoroki's shaky intake of breath. All four of them had seemingly lost their quirks. How was this possible?
The old man's gaze softened slightly. "Look, if you kids need a ride back to wherever you came from I can help you. You guys might want to go to a doctor or something though for whatever this is."
"No," Todoroki said through gritted teeth. "We need to use a computer. There's something I want to check out." Izuku glanced at him. Todoroki's expression was almost as stoic as always. He seemed to be taking this fairly well, or as well as anyone could take it.
The man shrugged. "I don't have a computer, but I've got a bunch of newspapers I haven't gotten around to throwing out yet if that helps." Todoroki nodded.
"Yeah, that's fine." What was he thinking? Maybe they were in some alternate universe or something? Or in the past? It sounded totally fake, but Izuku had a borrowed quirk and this man didn't know about UA. At this point, anything was possible. He, Uraraka, and Ashido followed Todoroki and the man (he needed to find out his name) into another room, where the man pulled out a stack of newspapers. Todoroki nodded his thanks and flipped through them. He paused on one of the papers. "Here."
Uraraka glanced over his shoulder. "What is it? Wait, is that in English?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" The man asked. Uraraka frowned.
"Well, I know English and all, but not super well. But I can read this as easily as if it was Japanese."
Ashido glanced down. "You're right!" Izuku looked down and sure enough, it was easily readable. Very weird, and adding the list of things that were wrong with this situation. The man seemed confused. Did he not realize they were from Japan? He was speaking Japanese, after all. Or maybe not, maybe they were speaking English and didn't realize it! This was so confusing.
He took a good look at where Todoroki was pointing, and it immediately clicked. "This is - this is in the past! But I know that date, it's about a week after the first quirked person was born, that baby who glowed."
"And it isn't mentioned at all!" Ashido finished. "Weird!" She looked up at the others. "Do you think we're in some alternate world or something?"
The man stiffened. "A different world? You guys are seriously from another world? That portal thing came from another world?"
"Yeah," Izuku said. "Why, do you know anything about that?"
The man coughed awkwardly and looked away. "Well, a bit, sure. Not much, I mean. But yeah, I've seen some other world stuff before. Never been in one though. So! You guys have superheroes and superpowers and all that junk?"
"Yup," Ashido answered. "And it looks like this world doesn't have any of that. We - we can't even feel our quirks." She shivered slightly. "You know anything that could help us get home?"
"Nope, sorry. I mean if you guys need a place to stay while you're here or whatever, I can help you guys find a room at the local inn. There's not much for a while outside this town."
Uraraka twirled her hair around her finger. "Thanks for the offer, but ah, do any of you three have money?"
Oh no.
And so that's how the four UA students ended up sleeping in the attic of the old man, Stan Pines, whose house was a tourist trap called the Mystery Shack. He had agreed to house them there as long as they worked in his Shack. Pay to stay and everything, which made sense, although he did mention they would have to make due with two beds and two sleeping bags for now. Izuku laid his somewhat dusty sleeping bag next to Todoroki's, while the girls tested out the beds. The attic wasn't huge, but it did give off a somewhat cozy feeling. Stan had gone to the store and come back with a jumble of second hand clothes so they could change out of their costumes.
As it turned out, Stan was hearing the four of them in English, and they were hearing him in Japanese. Just another weird thing to add to the list.
Uraraka flopped down on her bed. "So. we're stuck here in this small town in this shack until we can find a way home, or until someone from our world finds us. As far as we know, we're the only ones who ended up here. We totally missed the rest of the villain invasion in the USJ, and we've got no idea how it ended. For all we know our friends could be seriously hurt, and we couldn't help them."
"No way, I'm sure Aizawa and Thirteen beat up those dumb villains," Ashido assured her. "But even so, who knows how long we could be stuck here! It could be weeks, or months, or more! We could totally miss the sports festival, and lots of our hero training. We can't even - we can't even use our quirks." Her voice cracked at that last part, and she pulled her knees to her chest. A miserable expression covered her face.
Izuku looked down. Ashido was right. After everything he had gone through to finally become a hero, it could all have gone down the drain due to one villain's quirk. And not just that, but what would happen to One for All now that Izuku couldn't use it? What would happen to All Might? All Might had chosen him to receive his power, and now Izuku was trapped in another world with that power that wasn't working. What if One for All was lost forever?
No, I can't think like that. We will find a way home!
"What concerns me is Stan," Todoroki said. It was weird, seeing the stoic boy in red flannel pajamas. It clashed with the image Izuku had of him. He thought Todoroki would protest to them, but he didn't seem to mind. "He's obviously hiding something. I wouldn't be surprised if knows more about this alternate world mess than he lets on."
Izuku couldn't help but agree, after seeing how fast Stan had changed his tune upon hearing they were from another world. He tapped his fingers against his leg. "So we stay here and work at this Mystery Shack, figure out as much as we can about this world without heroes or quirks, and work on how to get back. See if we can earn Stan's trust so he'll tell us what he knows."
"Sounds like a plan," Uraraka yawned. She laid down on her pillow. "For now, let's just get some sleep, and see what happens in the morning."
After the day Izuku had, he couldn't agree more.
The next morning, Stan set them to work at the Shack. They met his other two employees, a handyman in his mid to late twenties named Soos, and a teenage redhead around eighteen named Wendy who manned the cash register. Ashido and Uraraka took out the trash then took a walk through the town, apparently named Gravity Falls, while Izuku and Todoroki restocked items.
"Stan wasn't kidding. There's really nothing here," Ashido said when the girls returned. "Only weird thing was that for a world without quirks, no one seemed that bothered by me being pink. A couple glances here and there, but that was it."
Izuku rubbed his chin. "That is odd. There must be more to this town than meets the eye."
"We should talk to the people who stop by the shack," Uraraka suggested. "They might know if there's anything going on around here." Ashido waved her off.
"Nah. What we need is to make pals with the locals. They'll probably know what's up more than tourists will."
So there they were, busying themselves in the shop, waiting for the afternoon to come when they could get out and explore. Eventually, Stan walked back in the gift shop, having just finished another tour.
"Alright, look alive people," he called out. "I need someone to go hammer these signs in the spooky part of the forest." The four students exchanged glances. This could be their chance!
Izuku stepped up. "I'll go do it. You can count on me." Stan looked down at him in surprise.
"Well, sure, go knock yourself out kid." He tossed the wood signs to Izuku, along with a hammer and some nails, which he barely caught in time. Izuku took that as his cue to go and hastily walked out the door.
Izuku wandered the forest, putting up signs. So far the town and its surroundings had seemed normal, but he had a feeling there was more to it, a feeling that was only intensifying the longer they were here. It wasn't one he could explain, but it was there all the same, and it certainly wasn't being helped by this walk through the woods.
As he rose the nail to a tree and tried to hammer it in, Izuku heard a metallic clang. Curious, he rapted the hammer against the tree. There it was again! A secret compartment maybe? He felt around the tree until he came across what could be a hatch and pried it open. Inside was a rusty machine with a few switches. He flipped them, and one opened a hole in the ground behind him.
Peering in, Izuku found an old, leatherbound book. Picking it up and dusting it off, he discovered that on the cover was an outline of a six fingered hand with the number three inside. He opened the book and inhaled in surprise, before coughing out some dust. Finding a way home might not be as impossible as it had originally felt.
Todoroki glanced over the back of the chair Izuku was sitting in, Uraraka dangling over the edge of the armrest. Ashido was out, trying to make friends with some of the locals. "So, this author talks about all these magical mysteries of Gravity falls? And mentions something about a dimensional portal for his research?"
"Yeah! Although it seems like he stopped writing about halfway through. Maybe he vanished, or really was able to reach another dimension." Izuku couldn't help but feel excited. This could be the big breakthrough they needed to go home!
"Then we should definitely look into it. Good find Midoriya!" Uraraka smiled and checked her watch. "I wonder when Ashido will be back so we can tell her the news."
As if on cue, Ashido burst through the door. "Hey guys, I'm back! And I made friends with a local! Say hello to Norman."
"So, we're in agreement that Norman is not a normal man in the slightest?" It was two hours later and the group, minus Ashido, were gathered in the attic going through video footage. Soos had been the one to suggest gathering evidence, even mentioning that he thought the mailman might be a werewolf. Izuku would have to see that one to believe it.
"I think that's obvious, even if Ashido refuses to see it," Todoroki said, motioning towards the camera. "In a world with no quirks, this guy sticks his arm through a glass window like it's nothing, got hit in the head with a frisbee and fell down flat, again with no injuries, and…. Hang on, did his hand just fall off?"
Izuku hastily rewound the tape, and sure enough Norman's hand had fallen off, and he had hastily put it back on. Nothing to strange in their world maybe, but in this one…
"You know," Uraraka said slowly. "I'm beginning to think we made a mistake in leaving Ashido to head into the woods alone with him."
The three of them stared at each other in silence, then at once shot up and ran down the stairs and out the door. Stan seemed to be entertaining a bunch of tourists with a rock that looked like a face(?) and they decided to leave him alone. Izuku looked around frantically, spotting Wendy driving a golf cart. He pointed her out and they raced over. The older teen didn't even ask for an explanation, just smirking and handing over the keys, telling them not to hit any pedestrians. Izuku took the wheel as the three piled in.
Soos walked over to them. "Dudes, this is for whatever creature that Norman guy is." He handed Uraraka a shovel, and she thanked him. He then handed a baseball bat to Todoroki. "And this is for if you see a piñata." Todoroki had no response to that, merely blinking, and they drove off.
As they speed into the forest, Izuku could hear Ashido calling for help. "Hold on!" He called back. Panic started gripping his chest. He just got dumped in a whole different world with only three other people that he knew! He couldn't lose one of them! They followed her voice to find a bunch of-
"-A bunch of gnomes," Todoroki said flatly.
Ashido was kicking them off her. "Guys! Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes that want to make me their queen! And they're total jerks!" She punched another gnome away, but more jumped in and shoved her down. "Dammit! I could really use my quirk right about now!"
Uraraka jumped out of the golf cart and brandished her shovel menacingly. "Hey! Let go of our friend you tiny jerks!"
One of the gnomes turned to face her. "You think you can stop us girl? The gnomes are a powerful race! Do not trifle with-" She picked him up with her shovel and pushed him aside.
"Sorry, but Ashido comes before gnome threats!" She wacked the ones surrounding Ashido, who jumped to her feet and kicked the rest away. The scrambled into the golf cart and Izuku stomped his foot on the gas. They zoomed away to the sound of screaming gnomes.
"Whew, thanks guys! Those things were creepy!" Ashido gave a nervous laugh, like she was trying to play off the fact that a bunch of small old men had just tried to kidnap her and force her to marry them. Todoroki's eyes narrowed.
"Don't be so sure we're clear. There's always a chance they have more tricks up their sleeves."
Uraraka chuckled. "Well how much can they do? Did you see those guys? They were tiny!" Of course, just as she said that, large stomping shook the ground beneath them.
Izuku, riddled with apprehension, glanced behind them, and his heart almost stopped. "Uh guys…."
Sure enough running after them at breakneck speed was a giant tower of gnomes, forming a huge gnome monster like some unholy supervillain trying once again to destroy them. Izuku, Uraraka, and Ashido all screamed, and Izuku swerved to avoid a giant hand slamming down where they just were. The monster sent a bunch of gnomes flying at the cart. Uraraka and Todoroki knocked them away with their shovel and bat respectively.
Ashido smirked at the white and red haired boy as she pulled a gnome off the back of the cart. "This isn't exactly a pinata, you know."
Todoroki shrugged and swatted another away. "I don't care."
The cart hit a bump, and Izuku lost control. The four went flying, and landed right in front of the mystery shack. Izuku groaned and pulled himself to his feet.
The gnome at the top looked down at Ashido. "Alright honey, you ready to come back into the forest with us?"
Uraraka glared at him. "Like hell she would-"
"Nah, it's okay." Uraraka whipped around to face Ashido, who was walking forward. "Alright Jeff, you win. I'll marry you."
Izuku gaped at her. "Ashido? What are you doing? You can't marry him!"
Ashido turned around to face them and whispered, "It's okay guys, just trust me. I know what I'm doing." Izuku gulped. It was true that she was a hero in training like the rest of them, but could they just let her agree to marry the gnomes like that?
Think. This isn't like Ashido, from what I know of her. She must have a plan of some sort.
Jeff climbed down through the rest of his (friends? Family? Izuku wasn't sure). "Well alright then! See, that wasn't so hard now was it?" He popped open a box to reveal a ring with crystals on it, which Ashido let him put on her finger.
"You may now kiss the bride!" She declared. Jeff reeled back in surprise, but quickly recovered.
"Well, don't mind if I do!" He leaned in…. And Ashido pulled out a leaf blower which sucked him in, much to his apparent surprise and dismay. She turned to the others and grinned.
"I found this when I was taking out the trash for Stan this morning. Guess it really came in handy." She turned to Jeff and glared. "Of course I won't marry you, you creep! You can't just expect to kidnap someone and have them be okay with it!" She aimed him up at the rest of the gnomes. "This is for messing with me and my friends."
"On three?" Uraraka asked cheerfully. Ashido nodded and beckoned them closer. The four of them pulled the lever back. "One, two, THREE!"
The shady gnome went flying into the monster, and it collapsed like dominos, tumbling over one another. The parts that made it up scampered away.
Ashido brushed her hands off. "That was awesome! And we defeated those guys even without our quirks. I'd say that makes us pretty good heroes."
Izuku nodded thoughtfully. "You know, if all of Gravity Falls is like this, than even though we're stuck here, we might get some pretty good hero training in. N-not that it makes up for actual training, or that we shouldn't get out of here as fast as possible, of course," He added hastily. "Just that our skills won't dull as much as they could've while we're here."
Todoroki looked like he was going to disagree, but Uraraka and Ashido were smiling at him. "You're right!" Ashido said cheerfully. "And we did an awesome job right now." She held out her fist. "Hero fist bump!"
Uraraka laughed and bumped fists. "Hero fist bump." Izuku smiled, warmth flowering in his chest as he added his fist and words in. After a lifetime being bullied and alone, it was so nice to have friends to do things like this with. They all looked at Todoroki, who looked in thought for another second, but reluctantly fist bumped them, without any words. They all headed into the shack, Izuku feeling light despite their predicament.
Inside, Stan was his counting cash. He snorted at them as they walked in. "Jeez, you guys look like you got hit by a bus or somethin'." Izuku ignored him, determined not to let the old man's sour attitude bring down his mood. However after a moment, Stan added: "You know, you boys overstocked the shop this morning, so you four can each take something, on the house."
Uraraka blinked at the seemingly out of character comment. "Really?"
Todoroki frowned. Izuku could understand, from what they had seen of Stan, he wasn't one to ever give things away for free. "What's the catch?" Stan scowled, but it had no heat.
"The catch is do it before I change my mind, now git." Izuku took the opportunity to look around for anything interesting. He saw Todoroki grab an interesting looking pin and putting it on his jacket, Uraraka holding up a necklace with some crystal on it, and Ashido grabbing a - a grappling hook? What? Stan didn't seem to mind at all, so he turned his attention to what he would get, deciding on a nice pen. After all, he now had a journal to write in.
"So from what I'm getting from this, the author eventually realized his dimensional portal was too dangerous, and shut it down without ever using it," Izuku told the others, now relaxing in the attic. He was exhausted from the day they'd had, and they weren't any closer to finding a way home. "Although, he did mention he was calling someone to help him hide the evidence."
Uraraka fiddled with her star adorned pajamas, watching Ashido as she aimed her new grappling hook around the room. "That's a good thing, isn't it? If the author didn't go through the portal, that means there's a good chance they're still here. If we can find him, we can ask them if they know a way to get us home." Now that Izuku thought about it, she was right! The author obviously knew at least some about travel between worlds, which was more than their group knew. They could help them. "Who knows? Maybe we've already met them and we don't even know it."
"Maybe they're Stan. Or maybe he has a secret sibling who wrote the journals."
"Todoroki! Don't joke about that!"
"Sounds like a plan." Ashido sat down. "You know, I've been thinking. We're stuck together in another world, living in the same room together for who knows how long. We should probably bond and stuff, that could help whenever we run into problems." She smiled. "So, you guys can just call me Mina." Huh, Izuku wasn't expecting that, but bonding together did make a lot of sense.
"Well then," he rubbed the back of his head. "You guys can call me Izuku!" His eyes flitted to Uraraka, who smiled at him.
"In that case," she said, "Just call me Ochako."
Todoroki's expression didn't change, but that was nothing new. If anything, Izuku was getting used to it. "Call me Shouto, I guess. Can someone get the light?"
"I got it!" Ash- Mina aimed her grappling hook at the lamp and fired. The lamp shattered and blew away, but the light was definitely out. "Got it!"
Izuku laughed. In spite of all the terrifying and confusing things that had happened the past few days, it was comforting to know he wasn't going it alone. The author of the journal might have said there was no one in Gravity Falls that could be trusted, but when you fall into another world due to a villain attack, then fight off a hundred gnomes with a group of people, you know they've got your back. And soon, we'll all find our way home together.
Sleep came surprisingly easy that night.
Hello, and welcome to Academia Falls! This story starts off following the Gravity Falls timeline, but will start to deviate soon enough, once some things are established. Also important to note is that all the GF characters have been aged up to meet the MHA characters. So the twelve/thirteen year old's are now fourteen/fifteen, and the teenagers are now in their last summer before college. I hope you enjoy!