Hello again!
It was said that, before the Quirks, humanity was just a few steps away from taking to the stars. But with the emergence of Quirks, the dreams of people living on other planets had to wait.
Even if there was no shortage of resources or qualified specialists, hundreds of thousands of people suddenly gaining the supernatural powers left the world in a state of chaos that required all their attention and effort on the Earth itself rather than any distant stars.
Once the dust settled, the world started picking up the pieces. It wasn't enough for Quirks to be simply contained. The society and its people needed to change and adapt to the new norm.
From something as big as the creation of Pro Heroes to something as small as the clothes that would need to be manufactured for the countless new body types, every aspect of the pre-Quirk society needed updates and adjustments to bring things back to normal.
And that included the gyms as well.
Having finished his run on the treadmill, Tenya took a moment to admire the level of advancement made to the equipment. His grandfather once showed him the old models people used to run on before the Quirks. The difference was like between night and day.
Some might say that building treadmills to withstand hours of supersonic running was a waste of resources. But Tenya instead saw the investment in foundations. What good was technological advancement if they didn't use it to benefit as many parts of the everyday life as possible?
The well-made equipment was a sign of the prosperous and wise community.
"Oh, I am so sorry!"
Still… It was a shame when someone tested the durability of the machines for no reason.
Tenya wasn't the only one looking at the strange green-haired kid that joined the gym just a few weeks ago. Ever since Midoriya Izuku started coming to this place, the destruction of the gym equipment became a regular occurrence around here.
The blue-haired speedster would've accused the other boy of being some kind of hooligan if it weren't for the absolutely mortified look on his face every time he did it. At the very least, he seemed sincere in his embarrassment every time he broke something.
"It's fine," one of the instructors waved the thing off. "Just help me carry this thing out of here, okay?"
"S-Sure!"
The administration hadn't banned the boy from the premises or done anything to prevent him from continuing to come here. So Tenya believed there was some kind of arrangement between the boy's family and the owners. And that was enough for him to leave the matter alone.
Not everyone shared the same sentiment.
Tenya was not one to engage in a locker room talk. He preferred to focus his mind and energy entirely on the exercise while at the gym. However, as of recent, more and more of the conversations seemed particularly centered around the newest member.
While it was not a requirement, a lot of people coming to this gym were all related to the various pro heroes. So when someone found out that Midoriya came from a seemingly normal family, that raised several questions surrounding the kid.
Especially when one looked at how powerful the other teen was.
Quirks were part of one's body. While it was easy to imagine them as just powers, they were no different than one's limb or skin. Tenya knew from personal experience how pushing one's limits too much could possibly do more harm than good. Everyone in the gym knew that as well and so they always restrained themselves from to an extent.
Midoriya Izuku had no such problem.
Their gym had the unofficial rankings and list of records for various age groups. It was started by one of the former members as a way to motivate others and show how much progress a person could have made.
If Midoriya's recent feats of physical abilities were added to the list, he would have broken a good half of the records across all age groups.
He didn't seem to get tired like the rest of them had. Any attempts to find out what his Quirk was ended in failure as the boy would quickly change the subject. That led to more than a few people suspecting that the boy didn't have a Quirk at all and had some other power not unlike the Guardians of the Globe.
Tenya loved to believe that he held a healthily open mind towards powers outside the Quirks. Despite not agreeing with the fact that the Guardians were technically vigilantes, he still recognised the amount of good the team and its individual heroes had done over their careers.
As long as they all worked to help their fellow man, what difference did it make? Sadly, that was not the sentiment everyone shared. While nobody officially condemned or ostracised people for having the non-Quirk powers, those were often considered a higher risk compared to the Quirks.
And judging by the harsh whispers and odd looks thrown in the boy's direction, more than a few members wanted to test how "dangerous" his power would be against their Quirks.
He recognised a guy that approached Midoriya as Nameoka Sho. He used to attend Soumei Junior High before being forced to transfer out. It seemed that the boy learned nothing from the experience and he was eager to show off his strength by unnecessary antagonising Midoriya.
Tenya should've intervened. He knew how brutal Nameoka could get within the sparring ring. And yet he didn't.
Because before the speedster could step in, Midoriya accepted the invitation for a spar with an awkward but eager smile.
/I/
It was almost a month since they came back from I-Island. A month since Izuku rejected an offer to join the GDA's Guardians and chose to focus on his dream of attending and graduating from U.A.
It was… weird, to say the least.
He didn't have any real allegiances or duties to either GDA or HPSC. But now that they were back in Japan, the latter had offered to cover the costs of his training. They even offered him private tutorships but mom and dad shut that idea down.
He understood their suspicions and concerns. It was unlikely that HPSC was just offering him on a whim. As much as he hated thinking of himself that way, his powers made him an asset. And while he wasn't quite sure what either of the group wanted from him exactly, he didn't want to either cross or burn the bridge before even getting to it.
Moments like this? They were a welcome distraction. A chance to get lost in the fight and focus only on his superpower.
As the instructor listed off the rules for the match, Izuku took time to size his opponent up. Nameoka Sho reminded him a bit of Kacchan.
Just like the blonde, the teen was strong and knew just how strong he was. His name wasn't in the upper ranks for no reason. He hadn't activated his Quirk yet - the other boy didn't see any need to.
Because Nameoka saw no threat in him.
"Both of you are to stop the moment I announce that the match is over," Her tone indicated the lack of concern for any factors outside the ring. "Ready? Begin!"
Izuku charged forth, moving to tackle the bigger teen to the ground. With a smirk and almost mocking ease, the teen moved out of the way before kicking him back. The subsequent attempts to repeat the tackle proved just as fruitless.
And that made Izuku smile from the bottom of his heart.
Izuku could use his speed and flight to grab the boy and drop him out of bounds. Or he could just stand in place and let Nameoka break his fists over and feet as he tried to punch him out. All in all, Izuku could finish the fight effortlessly if he wanted or needed to.
But that would defeat the entire point of coming to train here.
So instead he focused on honing his techniques. It was hard to keep himself from using his powers. Limiting himself to a list of particular moves helped him focus on controlling the output of his strength and speed. And thanks to his durability and stamina, he could fail and retry as many times as he wanted to.
Once he no longer had to worry about seriously hurting the other person, Izuku would start his martial arts training with way more confidence and freedom to use his powers.
The only problem was that he didn't have any sparring partners until now.
The instructors were good and did their job well. But they still treated him as a student. And so they held back while he did the same. They gave him good advice and corrected his technique. But they didn't give him the same pushback he felt he needed.
Nameoka Sho was perfect.
His Quirk - Amp - allowed him to hit and kick harder with every consecutive move. From what he heard, the main weakness was that his punches and kicks needed to connect with the target in mind.
And while it didn't do anything to improve his durability, he seemed to get the boost in energy the longer he continued to move. That meant that the guy was not only stronger but also faster. And because Nameoka hated his guts, he was giving it his all as they fought.
From the outside, though, few people would call it a fight.
Izuku was just doing the same five or six moves again and again only to get kicked and pushed back. What started off a potential beating now looked like a fight between complete amateurs. He would rush at Nameoka. Nameoka would push him away.
Rinse.
Repeat.
"Screw this shit!"
He was caught off guard when Nameoka tackled him instead, pinning him down under his weight. He saw his fists glow with the power he seemingly accumulated over the course of the fight.
And then he saw nothing but the boy's gloves as he started to pummel on him.
To Izuku's surprise, these punches actually hurt. Not as much as Nameoka probably wanted them to but it was still more than Izuku had felt in any of his sparring matches so far.
The entire thing lasted less than a few moments before Izuku pushed the guy off. All it took was one light shove to send Nameoka rolling over the mat. He was ready to continue with their fight. This time, he could practice blocking and then-
"… The hell is wrong with you, freak?," Nameoka spat. Throwing his hands in the air, he stepped out of the ring.. "Screw this, I forfeit!"
Huh?
All that fire in the other kid went out in an instant, leaving Izuku confused and more than a little disappointed.
Did he do something wrong?
In the end, he didn't get any answers. Neither Nameoka nor any of the other teens seemed interested in talking to him. He wasn't blind to the odd looks and or deaf to the whispers aimed in his direction.
It wasn't much different from how school was nowadays for him. While nobody mocked his dream of going to U.A. anymore, there was the air of tension whenever he was around. Part of it was because he was still refusing to fight Kacchan.
But most of it came from the fact that the others suspected that his power wasn't a Quirk. While the powers like his were not an unknown, they were much rarer in Japan than in the countries like America. And since the majority of the pro heroes used Quirks, the non-Quirk powers were still seen as an oddity among the population.
Izuku could only wonder how people would react to knowing that he was half-alien.
From what Director Stedman and Zack told him, the GDA and other agencies did their best to keep the contact between the humanity and aliens as controlled as possible. It sounded wrong but Izuku hardly had any way to counter their arguments that humanity was not quite ready.
The amount of times Earth encountered the alien species on a massive scale could be counted on a single hand. The majority of them were attempted invasions from Flaxans and a couple other would-be invaders. Those few experiences soured the majority of the population on extraterrestrial relationships.
Even Martian Man was considered a controversial figure among the Guardians despite his social and humanitarian work. There were even calls to get the hero to resign and turn himself in to the authorities. All because people suspected he was a spy for his home world.
I want to make things better.
It was a childish and simple thought. But the more he mulled it over, the more he liked the sound of it. Yes, it was naive and more than a little unrealistic. But then again, so was the idea of "superheroes". But people like All Might made that unrealistic thought a reality.
So would it really hurt him to try?
Mom said that Viltrum always tried to reach out their hand towards the others. And though Viltrum was no more, perhaps he could carry on the legacy of his other home by doing what the other Viltrumites would do in his place.
It was scary to imagine the future when he would come out and reveal his heritage. But if he did everything right, then he could help so many people. He was sure that there were others like his mom or himself - aliens or their children scared of revealing themselves due to the risk of attracting the wrong attention.
So he would do his best to make them feel safe.
Once he got home, he started writing down the ideas running through his head. While he didn't want to make plans way too into the future, he could at least work on the general outline of things that he could do. It also helped to find out what things he didn't know or understand beforehand.
That way, he could come to U.A. and consult with the pros on their opinions and experiences. Using that information, he would be able to make the necessary adjustments to his plans and-
"What are you writing so intensely?"
Someone was in the room with him.
He turned around, half-expecting to face thin air and dismiss the voice as his imagination.
Instead, he saw a girl dressed in black and grey suit, her teeth bared in a wide grin.
"Hi!"
"Hello?"
The awkward (on his part, at least) greeting melted into an awkward silence as the two stood quietly in his bedroom. It was his luck that mom and dad were out on a date night and he didn't have to worry about them finding a strange girl in his room. On the other hand, not having his parents around just made the whole thing that much weirder.
He would have fled already if he didn't recognise the girl after a few minutes of awkwardness.
"You are Nite Bite, right?"
"The one and the only," she smiled. "Always happy to meet a fan!"
He wouldn't call himself a fan. Not because he disliked the vigilante but because she was almost an unknown to even hardcore hero nerds like himself.
Even though she appeared on the scene around two years ago, there was almost no physical evidence of her. Just some rumours and blurry photos circulating on the forums about the underground heroes and vigilantes. And with how much disinformation and misinformation surrounded Darkwing and Night Boy, many dismissed the rumors of another sidekick as just that.
But here she was, standing before him in the flesh.
"What are you doing in Japan?" And more specifically, his home. "Did GDA send you?"
"We don't work for GDA," she scoffed, not quite answering his question but making her feelings towards the organisation quite clear. "As for your first question, I am here on a mission. Well, two missions but I think I can combine the two."
"Is observing me one of those missions?"
"Yup."
Figures.
When Robot explained the details of how GDA's Guardians would operate, Izuku felt that there was a possibility that the team would operate alongside the Guardians of the Globe. So it was would make sense that the Darkwing would try and learn about them.
It was flattering, to say the least.
Concerning, too.
"Wouldn't admitting to it kind of compromise your mission? I mean, if I know that you are observing me for Darkwing, why wouldn't I try to act different from what I usually am?"
"Oh, no worries. I've already got the general idea about you. Any deviations from here would not affect my report that much."
It sounded like a bluff. Maybe it was. But he hardly had any means of verifying her claim. Calling it now wouldn't do much for him either. So he decided to leave this matter alone.
"And what is your other mission?"
"Ever heard of Understudy?"
"Yes?"
"She's been obsessing over this new movie. A live action adaptation of some anime she liked as a kid," Nite Bite sighed. "Apparently, she wanted to star in it but didn't get the part. And she's been buying a lot of bombs since she escaped and came here."
Bombs? She was seriously going to kill people over a rejection?
"Why isn't Darkwing here, then?"
"Sorry, that's confidential. He sent me here to handle her in his place."
"What about pro heroes?"
"Let's just say we have would like to handle this without alerting your government. Midnight City isn't exactly in the position to be involved in an international scandal."
It made sense. He didn't get much into the politics around it but he heard the news. Midnight City was often the source of unrest among the general population. Many have even suggested tearing the whole city down over the years. The fact that it was the only city with no official hero offices due to the fear of curse infecting them certainly didn't help.
Izuku knew that this was a wrong move. For all he knew, this was some sort of test set up by GDA or HPSC. But if it wasn't?
"Do you need help?"
/I/
Himiko breathed in the night air of her home town.
She didn't miss it as much as she thought she would.
Two years passed ago, she attacked her classmate and crush. Two years since got her first taste of human blood that wasn't her own. She hated thinking back to that day - it filled her with guilt and regret.
Because a small but strong part of her still loved what she felt as the warm blood dribbled down her throat.
Her parents wanted nothing with her after that. So when some doctor from America came offered to fix her, they were more than happy to see her shipped off. She held onto the hope that if she played along, they would come back for her.
She'd spent a whole year at Dusk Groves Institute. No visits, no calls and no letters. Eventually, it became clear that she was all alone. She wasn't the only one, she soon figured. There were others like her in that place - kids that nobody wanted around for one reason or another.
Which made them all perfect test subjects for the crazy woman running the institute. Doctor Dusk, as Darkwing told her later, was enamoured with the curses and dark magic. She believed that by experimenting on people like her, she could crack some mystic code and gain the power over darkness and evil itself.
Himiko didn't help Darkwing and Night Boy that day because she was a good person. She did it because she wanted to pay back the woman for all the pain she suffered at her hands. She expected the pair of vigilantes to throw her back into her cell once they were done.
Instead, Darkwing offered to mentor her.
She still didn't know why he did so. But she didn't care. All she knew was that someone was willing to give her a place she could call home and help her. Not fix her like she was broken. But find ways she could live with her Quirk without being driven into the madness that once took her.
Which is why she would follow Darkwing's orders no matter where they took her. Even if it was the town she wished she could forget.
"So this is the place?"
"That's where all the explosives were transported to, at least," Himiko confirmed. She took a brief look over Midoriya. He seemed anxious but determined nonetheless. "Remember the plan?"
He nodded before heading off towards the warehouse. Darkwing's protocols prioritised the safety of civilians above all else. And normally, Himiko would refuse Midoriya's offer of help as he wasn't supposed to be involved.
But then she remembered her conversations with Night Boy. How he talked about GDA's plans to create their own Guardians. About his suspicions about the organisation's real plans for the team and how they could possibly go after the real Guardians of the Globe in the future.
Midoriya didn't seem like a bad person. But if he could become a threat to her mentor in the future, she would rather not take any chances. She needed to see more of who he was as a person. And thrusting him into the environment like Understudy's hideout was guaranteed to do just that.
Sneaking inside the warehouse, she stuck to the shadows. And there weren't a lot of those with how many projectors and lights were on, all but filling the entire place with the artificial light.
She was grateful to Midoriya for providing a distraction.
"Seriously, guys? How hard is it to kill one kid?" The woman dressed in bright gold dress huffed as she sent more of her goons at Midoriya. He was stronger and faster than them, though, easily tossing grown men away like children. With a heavy and theatrical sigh, she aimed her gun at the boy. "Fine, I'll do this myself then!"
Himiko swooped in from the shadows, kicking the gun out of the woman's hand. She doubted that a normal gun could hurt Midoriya. But one of Understudy's Spotlight Shooters? It was better safe than sorry.
"… Nite Bite," the woman gave her that hollow smile that made Himiko's skin crawl. "I wasn't aware you were allowed to wander unsupervised. Did Darkwing and Night Boy decide that duet was better than a trio?"
"Nope," she returned the smile. "I just decided to give you my undivided attention for tonight."
Despite what many believed about her, Understudy was not some two-bit crook. Yes, she was a criminal obsessed with movies and being a star. But she was also vicious and ruthless fighter who had some very experimental procedures done on herself.
Darkwing taught the style that prioritised quick and stealthy moves. He had no superpowers unlike his teammates. And so he couldn't afford to get too close with whoever he was fighting most of the time. But if he had no other choice, then controlling the direction of the fight was the only way he could win.
Thankfully, there was plenty of space for her to move around.
As the sadistic starlet chased after her, Himiko made sure to keep her on her toes and away from her heavier weaponry. Part of it was her need for personal touch in her murders. Another was Understudy's viciousness towards other (and younger) girls. Some might call it manipulative of Darkwing to have sent her after the criminal. But Himiko saw the strategic value in being someone that the villainess would hate more.
Hate was a fuel that killed the engine, Darkwing would say.
Let the villainess chase after her. Let her waste her shots and energy. Let her grow angrier and more distracted so every strike against her lands cleanly and quickly. Death by thousand cuts was a gruesome name but it was the best way to describe the style she and Night Boy learned from their mentor.
But sometimes, a thousand cuts just wouldn't cut it.
"Not so fast!" Understudy growled as she grabbed Himiko by the ankle and smashed her against the ground. She could see the skin tearing as her muscles bulged out and ripped through it. Damn it, she didn't know anything about these new enhancements. "You like to dance, little brat? Let's see you do that without a leg!"
She started pulling at her leg with all her force.
She was trying to rip it off!
Himiko reached for the hidden capsules inside her wings and launched them into the woman's face. The capsules exploded in her face and caused her grip to loosen. Himiko fought through the laid of a twisted ankle and continued with her attack. She couldn't attack from the shadows now - that would only exhaust her and aggravate her injury.
So she would take her down with everything she had on her instead.
"Do you have any idea how much my dress costs?"
The silly question was followed by the woman bursting right through the smoke and ash, her skin all but gone and replaced with bulging red muscles. Himiko would have been horrified if she didn't recognise those as the result of the Burnout drug. Looks like the Pharmacist was back in the city. Darkwing would need to hear about that.
Hopefully, she would be the one to tell him and not her mauled corpse.
"No more running, little brat!"
The woman's fist hit like a sledgehammer, knocking the wind out of her and forcing a cry of pain from her lungs. She was about to use more weapons from her wings but the villain tore those off from her back and crushed them. The explosion must have burned her hands a bit but not enough to take her out.
"Got any more tricks?"
Just two.
Himiko gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to use the blades hidden in her gloves. The equipment Darkwing gave her cost a small fortune but her best weapons were still the knives. It made no sense, really. But she knew that getting those out would finish the fight.
Just a little bit of metal and she could take the woman out. Cut her. Slash her. Stab her. Pick away at her body with her knives like a bird at the bread. She could do it. She could do it quick and easily!
"Excuse me? Mind if cut in?"
Midoriya stood above both of them, his disguise torn to shreds - exposing his brilliant white spandex. A poor idea since he wanted to stay off the radars but it was the only piece of clothing he had that wouldn't be destroyed if the things went south for them.
"I am afraid that's not your scene, child," Understudy smiled condescendingly. "But if you want to lay corpse number two, be my guest!"
It was over comically quick. One second, Understudy charged at the boy. The next, she was being swung around by said boy in the air like a toy. Disoriented and exhausted, it took less than a few minutes for Midoriya to use some of the metal debris to restrain her.
Upon closer look, he did the same with Understudy's underlings. Himiko would be a liar if she said she didn't feel a little envious of the apparent ease the teen handled all these men while she struggled with the boss. It must have been what Darkwing felt whenever Immortal lifted entire tanks or giant robots.
"Should we inform someone about all the explosives?"
"I got this," she said as she activated the alarm in her gloves. "Our insider at the Japan's police will take care of this. We should move, though."
"Sure. Wait, you got an inside in the police? Do you just have insiders everywhere or something?"
Despite the pain and exhaustion, Himiko found it in herself to chuckle at the sincere surprise in the other teen's face.
"Wouldn't you just love to know?"
She would take this as a small win.
Yup, we are doing a Hero!Toga here. I guess she is more of a vigilante, though. Just a bit of a general information on her in this AU:
Himiko Toga
Age: 15
Residence: Midnight City (USA)
Alias: Nite Bite
Affiliation: Darkwing (mentor), Night Boy (fellow assistant/sidekick), Midnight Watchers
Powers and Abilities:
- Quirk: Transform
Her Quirk allows Himiko to take on the physical appearance of anyone whose blood she ingested. The duration depends on the quantity and quality of the blood consumed.
Due to ongoing therapy, Himiko restrains herself from utilising the Quirk in combat.
- Combat training
Trained under Darkwing, Himiko combines her natural agility and acrobatics with the unique fighting style developed by the Midnight City Crusader.
- Acrobatics
- Stealth
- Bladed weapons proficiency
- Investigative skills
Equipment:
- Nite Bite Suit
Designed and built by Darkwing himself, the suit is built to withstand a variety of weapons such as knives, bullets and acids.
The helmet connects Himiko to Dark Archives that provide her with the information and act as a recording device.
Her gloves contain the hidden blades made up of the experimental design alloy. Strong enough to tear through titanium like paper while weighing twice less than a normal knife.
Her wings allow for gliding through the midnight sky of the city and serve as the girl's own "utility belt". She has a preference for throwing capsules that vary from explosives to air-hardening foam. Additionally, there are empty capsules that can be used to store evidence and samples from the crime scenes for further investigations.
If you wanna see what she looks like in her costume, you can look it up on the SpaceBattles forum for this story.
Till Next Time!