Katsuki, Ben, and Morimoto were walking through the Tatooin Shopping District, which had quieted down after the giant villain attack earlier. The three boys had already sent in their and Izuku's applications for UA High, arguably the best hero academy in all of Japan, which had funding from not just the SCP Foundation, but other worldwide hero associations as well.
"Excuse me!"
They turned to see Elle-Ate running over. From the looks of things, she seemed to searching for something.
"The hell's with the sudden rush?" Katsuki gruffly asked.
"Did you happen to see a villain with a Sludge Quirk run through this area?" Elle-Ate asked in response. "I was chasing him down, and I think All-Might was running after us as well, but I lost both of them when the villain hit the sewer system."
None of them noticed the bottle with said villain had fallen into a nearby alley, a sinister hand coming out of the wall through an inky black portal. The Sludge Villain's eyes widened when he saw it.
"It... It's you!"
The hand grabbed the bottle and unscrewed it, letting the villain free as the owner of the hand chuckled darkly.
Meanwhile, Izuku was freaking out, again, at the sight of All-Might suddenly becoming frail. Mayumi was in a similar spot, her cybernetics courtesy of Gyrfalcon sparking as she struggled to comprehend what she was seeing.
"WHAT-HOW-WHY?! I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIOOOOOOOOONS!"
All-Might sighed as he walked over and slapped both teens across the face, snapping them out of their panic attacks as they instantly relaxed.
"Thanks..." Mayumi awkwardly said, rubbing her cheek.
"Suppose I should start with the obvious; What you're seeing is the effect of my Quirk, Maximize. It increases muscle mass, and subsequently physical ability." All-Might explained with a sigh. "I can hold it for about seven hours at a time. It would have been three hours per day, but luckily a friend of mine was able to heal a few injuries I got battling a dangerous villain."
"I...guess that makes sense."
"Yeah, you know how guys at the swimming pool tend to suck in their guts to look more buff? It's kinda like that."
"That's... Kind of a letdown..." Izuku admitted. "But I guess not all superpowers are turned on 24/7.
"I think this is also the first time anybody has ever seen you without a smile on your face," Mayumi noted.
"I put on the smile for the sake of the people. There's a lot more fear behind it than you might think." All-Might explained. "And please, don't go spreading it around. Only close friends as well as the SCP Foundation and the higher-ups of Hero Association know how my Quirk works, and I'd rather keep it that way."
"Lips are sealed, All-Might!" Izuku said, nodding fervently.
"It's okay, you don't have to call me All-Might when I'm like this. Just use my real name; Toshinori Yagi."
"Okay. You said something about an injury fighting a dangerous villain. What did you mean by that?" Mayumi asked.
Toshinori sighed as he lifted his shirt and revealed a rather grotesque-looking scar covering the entire left side of his torso.
"Ugly isn't it? Five years ago, this had my guts spilling out of it. I was in a fight with the villain to end all villains. I still won, but it nearly cost me my life. Luckily I was teamed up with Hero-049, Depestilous. With his powerful healing abilities he replaced my missing organs. Without him, I'd be running on fumes by now."
"Five years ago..." Izuku frowned to himself. "Didn't Dad tell me he got into a really bad fight with a villain five years ago?"
"Something on your mind, kiddo?"
Izuku shook his head. "N-Nothing, sir.
"If this was five years ago, was it the fight with Toxic Chainsaw?" Mayumi asked.
Toshinori blinked. "Huh, you sure know your stuff, kid. But no, it wasn't him. While Depestilous and I did fight that low-life together, he was defeated without much incident. Sure, he got some licks in, but I've faced far tougher. This was a fight most of the world never even heard of. A villain known only to me, and a trusted few individuals. Even among Foundation personnel, it's a closely guarded secret, and they're usually quite open with anomalies and how they work."
Izuku nodded. "I guess even the Symbol of Peace can feel fear, huh?"
"That's the mark of being a hero; Smiling even through the tough times." Toshinori clarified. "This job isn't easy, and I have seen many good heroes fall, either dying to a lucky villain or even falling into villainy themselves when the pressure got too much. It's the lucky ones or the ones that keep a gray line, that make it to retirement with their careers, lives, and reputations intact. It's a job where you always put your life on the line."
"From the way you say it, it sounds like Quirkless people couldn't even become heroes without Objects of Power," Izuku said with a frown.
"Heroes can come from anywhere. It's not just about fighting villains. But fighting villains does require the power of an anomaly since they tend to have their own Quirks or even an Object of Power." Toshinori clarified. "So while a Quirkless person could become a hero without powers, they would mostly be limited to rescue and evacuation. When Thomas Jefferson penned that all men are created equal, what he meant was that all men, and women, are equally entitled to the same rights. They aren't necessarily born equally capable."
Mayumi bowed her head in understanding. Had she not suffered her accident, she would have simply settled for enlisting in the Support Course. But after getting Gyrfalcon, she felt like she was more capable to also becoming a Hero as well.
"Well...what about a Quirk like mine?" Izuku asked.
As Izuku explained his Quirk, Toshinori's eyes widened in recognition.
"A part of me thought you looked familiar! You're Tony's boy, aren't you?"
"Y-You know who I am?" Izuku asked in surprise.
"Tony was one of my childhood friends growing up!" Toshinori laughed. "From the look of things, the apple hasn't fallen too far from the tree!"
"Wow...Dad never told me he knew All-Might..." Izuku whispered in amazement.
Toshinori chuckled. "Speaking of which, I should get this guy back... To..."
Feeling around his belt, he realized the bottle with the Sludge Villain was gone. Quickly checking his pockets, Izuku suddenly got a bad feeling.
"Uh-oh... I think I may have caused him to drop out of your pocket..."
The three suddenly heard a loud explosion going off from the other side of the district.
"That must have been Kaachan!" Izuku realized.
"I got a bad feeling about this..." Toshinori muttered as he buffed up. "Don't worry, Young Midoriya. I don't blame you for this. Accidents happen all the time, and the only course of action we have is to clean it up."
All-Might quickly leaped off as Izuku and Mayumi looked at each other and nodded, the latter turning her legs into jet thrusters as she carried Izuku on her shoulders before taking off in the direction All-Might went.
Elle-Ate was currently expanding her body to its maximum potential, trying to hold off the now-released Sludge Villain. Mostly she was trying to keep him off Katsuki, Ben, and Morimoto since the villain couldn't invade her own body.
"There's no way you could have gotten out on your own! Who freed you?"
The Sludge Villain laughed. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Other heroes got to the scene, including Death Arms, Kamui Woods, and the Double Vision Hero: Foresight, Hero-187 of the SCP Foundation who possessed the Quirk Double Vision, which let her see the future alongside the present. She normally couldn't turn it off but could block it by using lenses or covering one of her eyes.
"We need to do something." Foresight said as she watched what was going on. "Elle-Ate can't hold the villain off forever, and when she falters, those poor boys will suffocate."
"You sure?" Death Arms asked. "The villain was only marked as a robber. I was under the impression that this was a hostage situation."
"I'm seeing the boy's skin turning blue, sludge coming out of their mouths," Foresight explained. "That villain wants to try body-snatching one of them in order to get away!"
Death Arms grimaced. "I can try getting one of those kids out of there. The only problem is all this fire obstructing my path."
"I don't think I'll be much help in this case." Kamui Woods added. "My wood is highly susceptible to fire. I'll risk getting myself killed if I try to get in there."
"So neither of you is the best option. I'm faster, I can try to risk it and charge through." Foresight noted.
"Where did all these damn flames even come from?" A minor hero by the name of Slugger asked.
"One of the kids has an explosive Quirk. He tried helping Elle-Ate fight off the villain." Backdraft explained, already on the scene to combat the flames.
Death Arms frowned. "Not good, Elle-Ate doesn't do well in the heat. It loosens up her body too much."
Indeed, Elle-Ate almost looked like she was starting to melt back into her normal shape. Fortunately, Izuku and Mayumi had shown up, already checking out the situation.
"This doesn't look good," Mayumi said as her cybernetic eyes scanned what was going. "Elle-Ate probably only has minutes before the heat and pressure wear her out. Katsuki, Ben, and Morimoto won't survive for long after that."
Izuku remembered how the Sludge Villain had tried to enter his body, and none of his friends had the benefit of a body that could repel outside invaders. His mind went into overdrive as he quickly started analyzing the situation.
"Wait a minute...HIS EYES!"
The eyes were big and obvious, and always remained solid no matter what form the Sludge Villain took, unlike Elle-Ate and Morimoto who could morph any part of their bodies. Mayumi noticed as well and quickly ran into the flames, turning one of her arms into its cannon form from earlier, Izuku following close behind.
"What the hell are you kids doing?!" Death Arms called out. "It's too dangerous!"
"Wait..." Foresight spoke up. "They started running into the flames, but I'm not seeing any injuries either of them will incur."
Sure enough, Izuku's skin became a granite-like substance as the flames didn't even so much as singe him while Mayumi's cybernetics created an invisible energy barrier around her that resisted the fire touching her body.
"TAKE THIS!" Mayumi shouted as she aimed her cannon forward. "AIR BUSTER!"
Charging up, she fired a larger blast of compressed air with perfect accuracy, nailing the Sludge Villain and managing to get him off Elle-Ate, who breathed a sigh of relief as she returned to her normal state.
"Oy, Deku! Mayumi! The hell are you two doing here?!" Katsuki called out. "We have this jackass on the ropes!"
"Speak for yourself!" Morimoto snapped.
"Great timing, you guys!" Ben said thankfully. "It was getting hard keeping this creep under control!"
The Sludge Villain started to get up, his eye swollen shut as he glared at the teens.
"Goddamn brats! I'll teach you to-!"
But he got cut off from a sudden impact, slamming into the ground. Everyone turned to see that All-Might had arrived on the scene.
"You kids certainly have what it takes to become heroes! Not just anyone would rush headlong into danger with a reassuring smile on their face, after all!"
"What the crap?! All-Might?!" Katsuki exclaimed.
"It's kind of a long story..." Izuku said sheepishly.
By now the Sludge Villain was enraged, creating a large volume of himself. However, All-Might was undeterred as he charged in.
"DAMN YOU, ALL-MIGHT!"
"DETROIT SMASH!"
With a massive punch, he created a shockwave tornado that blew the screaming Sludge Villain to bits, allowing Elle-Ate to spring into action next.
"TENDRIL ONSLAUGHT!"
Her arms and back manifested numerous tendrils, grabbing the Sludge Villain and the bottle, recapturing him, and sealing the bottle once more. A sudden rainfall occurred, created by the tornado when it caused the clouds to move.
"Damn, he's strong enough to change the damn weather with just one punch!" Ben exclaimed.
Izuku's mind was racing. Not even improving one's muscle mass and physical strength could account for what All-Might had just done. There was another force at work here. Still, with a smile on his face and his fist raised to the heavens, All-Might was able to reassure the people that the danger had passed, as the onlookers cheered.
As the police arrived to do damage control, so did the kids' mothers. Inko was hugging Izuku close while crying a torrential river while Mitsuki was berating Katsuki before pulling him into a hug, grateful that he was okay.
Mrs. Tanaka was checking on her son for any injuries while Ben was putting in a call to his own mother, who couldn't be there at the moment but he wanted to let her know he was okay.
"You kids really hung in there. Sorry if everything was so scary." Elle-Ate said to the teens.
"No problem, Auntie." Izuku smiled.
Elle-Ate was actually the younger half-sister of Izuku's father. As such, she was a very close family friend and always made time to visit when she wasn't on duty. It also helped that her Quirk's pheromone abilities brought some much-needed relief to the kids' anxiety from the situation.
Afterward, Toshinori wanted to speak with Izuku about something, gesturing for him to talk in private away from everyone else.
"By now I'm sure you've realized... Maximize alone cannot accomplish what I did today. I normally wouldn't be saying this, but there's a reason I'm explaining everything. You see... Five years ago, I decided to contemplate retirement."
"WHAAAT?! RETIREMENT?! THE SYMBOL OF PEACE?!"
"Say it louder why don't you?!" Toshinori winced before calming down and explaining more. "The villain who nearly ended my career and life has been fought before. And only I have ever come close to truly ending his threat. But Depestilous warned that he may not be gone for good. And I only barely survived against him the first time... Which means I need to pass the torch so that my successor might have greater success."
He pointed at Izuku, who was shocked by what he said next.
"And that is why I have chosen you, Young Midoriya, to inherit my true power!"
"True power..."
"There are stories behind every hero and how they become great. Rising up from adversity, or just finding a reason to fight evil. But most have one thing in common... Their bodies moved before they could have a chance to think." Toshinori said. "Tell me something... Did you have your Quirk in mind when you raced to save your friend?"
"No, it was just instinct, which my Quirk normally acts on regardless. The only thing I thought, the only thing on my mind, was how I was going to get that villain off of my friends."
"I thought so. Foresight mentioned how she saw no injuries on you or Young Goto in her future vision." Toshinori smiled. "I saw your eyes only seeing forward, towards your intended path. I need someone to take up my mantle when I retire, and I think you'd make the perfect hero to do so."
"You mean...?"
"Maximize is only a cover name. In truth, I was born Quirkless. The Quirk I use stockpiles power with each successive user. The strength I have is my own power, alongside the power of seven predecessors." He held out his palm, a glowing energy coming from it. "The name of this power... This ultimate Quirk... Is... ONE FOR ALL!"
That was the day that would mark Izuku's path. His path to becoming the world's greatest hero, and leading the world's greatest team. A future where not just one person was the Symbol of Peace, but an entire alliance composed of all of his most trusted friends.
Since I made Regenizard Izuku's dad in this story, it only makes sense that I'd have Elle-Ate be his aunt since they are half-siblings.
Also, Mayumi's Gyrfalcon here is based on the different Mega Mans and their arsenals as well as some additional robot heroes like Jenny Wakeman from My Life As A Teenage Robot, Cyborg from Teen Titans, and even Astro Boy.
Also, since mtnetsurfer based the original My Hero SCP on PopCross Studios' SCP Superhero concepts, I'm gonna go the extra mile and throw in all the other superhero concepts he made! Look them up on YouTube to get an idea on who may or may not be showing up in the future of this story!