Holding onto a strap at the back of the X-Jet, Izuku looked down at the ground far below. He didn't need to drop yet, but he'd needed some air. Storming a base specifically designed to trap him in the event this ever happened. But wasn't that why he was with these heroes? So he wasn't alone? Then why was he feeling so nervous?
"In the quiet misty morning
When the moon has gone to bed
When the sparrows stop their singing
And the sky is clear and red
When the summer ceased its gleaming
When the corn is past its prime
When adventure's lost its meaning
I'll be homeward, bound in time." He sang softly as the sun rose in the west, closing his eyes to feel its light on his face.
"You know, you shouldn't spy on the guy who can hear you from across the plane." Izuku spoke, opening his eyes to stare directly at the sun. It was beautiful, and his healing gave him an opportunity to do something not many other people ever got. To look God in the face and spit was a real treat.
"We weren't spying, dude. You were just singing loudly." Jubille told him, making Izuku chuckle as he turned.
"I suppose I was. What can I do for you?" Izuku asked, spotting Kurt hiding up in a luggage rack, Kitty leaning against the side of the plane, and Eloise standing there with another Asian girl with long hair with purple ends, the two holding hands.
"So, child soldiers. Whether we like it or not, that's our fate." Izuku mused, a voice calling into the device in his ear.
"Drop in approximately five minutes. Get ready." Storm, an omega level mutant with weather manipulation, told him.
"Make it quick. My stop is soon." Izuku told them, grabbing the mask on his costume and seeing a cigar inside. Huh. It was as sweet of a gesture he was sure his father could make.
"Perhaps we are, but you will die fighting for the liberation of others." The new girl told him, and he scoffed, putting the cigar in between his lips.
"What? You have some ability to see the future or something, so you ran to try and stop me?" Izuku questioned, putting his mask on.
"You don't need to bear zis burden alone. Ve're here to stop you from becoming your own worst enemy. Let us help you, mein freund." Kurt told him, but Izuku laughed, backing closer to the edge of the plane.
"My entire life, I expected to die a selfish death, after a lifetime of my soul hurting. Now, when my death is to be honorable, you try and stop me?" He asked, pressing the button to open the back of the plane.
"You're good people. I wish I was like you." He told them, his cracking voice hidden behind the muffle of the cigar in his mouth, jumping out of the back of the plane.
"Told you we should have used the power regulation cuffs. But that was "inhumane." Kitty spoke, moving to watch Izuku fall.
Treetops
Up in the trees, Izuku could move around freely, bypassing guards below as he approached the top entrance of the base. Once inside, he'd have roughly ten minutes to get the information and have the defenses shut down.
In the base
All of the advanced defensive technology in the world didn't mean anything when the person you were trying to defend against knew where the off button was. They trained him to avoid detection and perform missions like this, after all. Their great weapon of war wasn't just a loudmouth. He was also a kickass spy.
Dropping down into an office, he snuck up behind the lone person typing on a computer, grabbing him by the neck and growling softly in his ear.
"Download everything to this flash drive, then turn the defense system off, or my claws are gonna get acquainted with your spine." He warned, a soft snikt the last bit of warning Izuku gave before his claws pressed against the man's stomach.
"You got it. Honestly, I just work here. I hate this place." The man replied, typing into a computer and pulling a key from around his neck, putting it into a lock on the console and nodding, the flash drive quickly filling and sending everything directly to Stark.
"All the defenses are down." He told him, and Izuku pulled his head back, knocking it against the man's just hard enough to knock him out and give him a concussion at worst.
"Clawstrike reporting a success. Begin part two." He spoke into his combination device, a finger pressed to his earpiece.
"Roger that. I'm hacking the power grid now." Stark told him, Izuku moving the unconscious soldier, a lighter falling out, Izuku picking it up and putting it in his pocket before tying up the man and walking out. Now, it was time to make some noise. What good was a prison escape without a distraction?
As the main power went out, Izuku grinned before the backup power failed, too. Now, it was up to Cyclops and Nightcrawler.
"It's good to be back!" Izuku shouted in the dark, eyes already adjusted as someone shot in his direction, lighting up the lone soldier before he howled and began to cut through guns, making sure not to kill, just knockout, laughing as a man the same size as Colossus came out with a M134-A2 Vulcan mini gun and a light on his helmet, standing in front of him as he pulled the trigger, ridding Izukus body with bullets.
Bits and pieces of his flesh being turned into past and hitting the wall,until the gun was out of ammo, and Izuku slowly started to heal, bullets forced out of his body and falling to ground.
"Man. What's it like setting up camp with a river to your back?" Izuku asked once his teeth and tongue had healed, limping closer to the terrified man, who grabbed a grenade and pulled the ring.
Izuku sliced it in half and laughed, the flesh from his arm and hand blown off, but not enough to stop him, even as shrapnel exited his stomach.
"Don't you understand, big guy? A man like you could never kill me." Izuku told him, fully healed as he approached the giant man, who fell back, his arms held up defensively, but Izuku just stopped, offering his hand.
After a moment, the man took Izukus hand, and even though Izuku had trouble getting such a large man up, he nodded to the boy.
"I will not forget this kindness." The man told him, looking around at his injured comrades and starting to pick them up, piling them up on his shoulders like they weighed nothing.
"Then pay it forward, big guy. Oh, and there's a guy in the office there. Maybe take him too." Izuku told him, picking up his miraculously not destroyed cigar, putting it back in his lips as he ran off to help take out more of the guards.
When he found some, they had their guns pointed at Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Izuku jumped into action.
"I don't like the taste of bananas!" Izuku yelled as a distraction, leaping at a soldier and punching him in the stomach, tossing him towards another and taking the bullets meant for Eloise.
"Damn, this costume was brand new." He complained, most of the leg portion and and all his chest portion ripped to shreds. Thankfully, he got to keep his dignity, leaving him wearing very torn looking shorts.
"Thanks for the save, but i didn't need it." Negasonic Teenage Warhead told him, pointing to the girl she'd been holding hands with on the plane hiding in the shadows, shurikens in her hands.
"Weird. I didn't even smell you." Izuku muttered, touching his healing nose. Oh. It had been shot off.
As Negasonic Teenage Warhead and the girl Izuku assumed was her girlfriend ran off, Izuku heard a voice in his ear.
"Clawstrike, there's a mutant hidden near your location. The files here are harder to decrypt, but I think it's a young kid, probably with a powerful ability. Careful, she's bound to be heavily guarded. You're the only one who isn't currently part of our raid." Stark told him, and Izuku didn't like the tone of his voice, but he had a job to do.
"Guide me." Izuku told him, ready for whatever was waiting.
"Take a left. There's an elevator I'll route power to. Take it down to the very bottom floor. Unlike the other mutants, she's not being held in a cage. From what I can tell, her room is fairly normal." Stark told him, Izuku already at the elevator and headed down.
"So was mine. Weapons don't act up if you spoil them." Izuku told him, the call cutting out as the electricity came to a stop, and his claws popped out, just in case.
"Come in. Come in, anyone." Izuku spoke, getting static in response. Before growling angrily. He would have to handle this alone.
A man walked around the corner, stopping in the hallway to look at Izuku. A plague doctor mask on his face.
"So, you're the one I've invested so much of my time and money into? What a waste. But don't worry, I won't make the same mistake twice. Right now, my men are fighting those fools, the X-Men. I'll join them when I'm done killing you." He spoke, putting his hand on the wall, spikes coming out and skewering Izuku, holding him in place to the point he couldn't even cut his way out, the tips of the spikes in the antebrachial interosseous space of his arm bones.
"I will rescue that child, and you're gonna regret everything you've done!" Izuku yelled, his claws retracting and breaking the spike tips before popping them back out and cutting his way free.
"And when you do, what then? You become an X-Man? You? You're a mistake." The masked man told him, unfazed as Izuku ran at him, the walls making more spikes, Izuku cutting them and getting in close, the stranger grabbing his arm, using whatever power he had.
A small "No!" Came from below them, a young girl with a small horn on her head putting her hand on Izukus leg, revesing the damage as Izuku moved back, the stranger kicking the girl away angrily, and Izuku had an idea, rushing at the stranger again, dodging and slicing the changing battlefield, cutting the stranger and watching the cut be instantly.
"Yeah, that's what i figured." Izuku taunted, dodging a wave of spikes before moving to the child and picking her up.
"We're getting out of here. But first, I want you to understand that we can't let that man hurt anyone else." Izuku told her, and she clung to his hair as he put her on his shoulders.
"Right!" She told him, but he could hear the fear in her voice.
"All heroes get a codename. What's yours?" Izuku asked her, moving in close to the villain and swiping at his face. If he couldn't kill him, he'd overwhelm his powers until he passed out.
"My name is Eri." She told him, and Izuku felt rage and sadness. She was just a kid.
"What's your power do?" Izuku asked, stabbing the stranger as the masked man used his power on Izuku.
"Reversing time on living objects, but I can lose control and reverse things out of existence. All my power is stored in my horn. No more horn, and no more power." She told him, using her power to keep Izuku alive. They were gonna make one helluva team.
"Don't worry about that with me, kid. I heal fast." Izuku told her before taking a chance and cutting off one of the man's arms.
"Dammit!" He roared, fixing himself up, but Izuku could smell it now. Fear.
"I've got an idea of how to beat this guy. Save your power." Izuku told her, moving in close and taking another arm.
A spike came up from the floor, spearing the child in the shoulder as the stranger grabbed Izuku by the arm. Izuku turned, slicing through as the man activated his power, his hand holding on tight to Izuku even as he stood there, crying out in agony. There was no way to use his power. He couldn't hurt anyone else.
"Timed that just right, didn't we Eri?" Izuku asked, pulling the arm off his arm and throwing it down before cutting the girl down from her painful perch.
"Leave the tip in until we get you medical help, okay?" He told her, Eri nodding as she held him, crying into his shoulder.
"I know, I know." He told her soothingly, walking over to the masked man and pulling out the lighter, using his foot to keep him from squirming before cauterizing his arm stumps with the flames.
"You're lucky to be alive. Thank whatever god you want to when you're locked up in prison." Izuku told him, spitting on the man before picking up his dirty cigar and putting it in his mouth. It had somehow survived this encounter, a miracle among miracles.
"Can you walk, Eri?" He asked, looking at her tiny self and deciding it didn't matter if she could.
"Never mind. Come on, there's some friends I want you to meet." He told her, holding her as he got back in the elevator, up to the main floor, his comms working again as Eri passed out.
"Clawstrike to whoever can hear. I've got a child here, who's injured, and an incapacitated mutant guard downstairs. Fair warning, it's not a pretty sight." He told them, his focus moving to his arm, which was starting to glow now.
"I think I'm dying." He told them, falling to his knees as he grew weak, scared of death for the first time in his life, the glow spreading to his entire body.
But he couldn't let Eri get hurt, so he put her down, moving over and falling onto his stomach. Well, he'd had a good ride, hadn't he?
"I'm comin', boy, just hold on!" Logan told him, but Izuku could feel his body fighting the effects of the man downstairs power. No one in the world could save him now.
"Hey, dad? That guy got in one last shot on me. My entire body is fighting, but I'm losing." He told him, rolling over to his back and trying to get to his feet anyway. He had to fight. He had to get Eri to safety. But first, he lit the cigar in his lips. Might as well go out in style.
Once up on his feet, he stumbled forward, every step hurting like fire was burning him on a cellular level.
Finally, he couldn't move forward anymore, but he didn't need to. A hero was here to save Eri.
"Dad, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He gasped, handing Eri to him, Logan taking the girl with one arm and pulling his mask off with his free hand, looking Izuku in the eye.
"Kid, you ain't got nothin' to apologize for." Logan told him, and Izuku smiled, closing his eyes before, all at once, his body began to glow a bright pinkish-purple, and suddenly, he was gone.
Logan stood there a moment longer before Eri stirred in his arms, spurring him into action, walking out to where the roof had been destroyed, Storm using the wind to lift both Logan and the girl out into the open area above.
"Where's Izuku?" Cyclops asked, but Logan turned his head and handed the girl in his arms off to Storm, turning to fall back in the hole, going after the person who took his boy from him.
An unknown place, between space and time
Izuku shot up, roaring as he swung the claws. If God wanted to judge him, he could fight him for the right to do so.
"Calm, child. You are safe." A voice told him, and Izuku stood there, looking around for whoever spoke, before a large man with a giant head, long green hair, and a braided green beard appeared looking at the teen with emerald eyes that matched his hair.
"Izuku of Earth-616-1381. I am The Watcher, a member of a race who has made a sacred promise to watch events throughout the multiverse but never intervene. I am tasked with watching every version of Izuku Midoriya, but now, I must break my vow. Across the multiverse, your counterparts are disappearing, being erased from their histories, like they never existed." The Watcher told Izuku, who watched The Watcher with mistrust in his eyes.
Izuku couldn't sense any lies, but then again, if this watcher guy was telling the truth, then someone had to act.
"I have spared you from a death you would have suffered otherwise. You are the first of the Izuku Midoriya I have recruited, but you will not be the last. If you wish to decline, you will be returned to your home universe unharmed." The Watcher told him, and Izuku didn't need to think too hard about it.
"I'm in, but I'll need a cigar." The teen told him, and The Watcher gave him what he'd asked for, a whole box of cigars appearing in his hand, a lighter in Izukus' pocket.
"Nice touch." Izuku told him, pulling one out and lighting it up before taking a deep puff. Now that he wasn't dying, he could see why his father smoked these.
"You have been chosen to lead. Come, watch with me, and you will choose your team." The Watcher told him, Izuku walking with him, to an edge that seemed to drop off forever.
"I've picked out the best of you from the multiverse to choose from." The Watchet spoke, pointing to screens that seemed to appear from nowhere, showing a version of himself that had black, tendril-like vines shooting from his body, a version of him playing guitar in a recording booth, and a green version of himself flying around with a grin, among many others.
Izuku watched for a few minutes before making his choices and flicking the last of his cigar out into the void, looking up to The Watcher.
Izuku smiled before he spoke. It was time to go collect his counterparts.
"Let's get to it then. I've got some work to do, bub."
(This chapter is the last for this particular story, but this story isn't over yet. A massive crossover story is coming.)