Hello again everyone!
Lord Terronus: Again, thank you for thinking so well of it. Admittedly, the quality of later chapters might go down, but I'll try to keep them interesting and relatively consistent.
Edinamabasi: IT IS HERE! (Just like a certain, smiley blonde we all know and love)
GiantPsychoGecko: Thanks! I read a few Venom Izuku and one Carnage Izuku fanfic before I started wring the second and third chapters, and all of them have him going vigilante or villain. I wanted to try something different. And truthfully, I never thought about the other quirks like that. But I really like your Kaminari example, and I might try to hint at others having "problems" with their quirks.
Omnipotent X: Glad you think so. And yes, I did.
Higgens: Thank you. And I will (See literally a few lines lower)
No, I do NOT own MHA/Marvel. If I did, I'm sure the movies would be a lot dumber.
Also, this chapter might (probably needlessly) drag on a little.
Izuku and his mother sat in a spacious lobby. The Life Foundation logo took up nearly half of the wall behind the chairs the green heads were sitting on. All around the other walls were either newspaper articles reporting Life's successes or generic stock photos of scientists with phrases like, "Here at Life, we spend ours to make yours better."
Inko had picked up one of the Persons magazines that littered the little tables around the room and caught up on recent events among celebrities. Izuku, on the other hand, found himself deeply interested in one of Life's own magazines. The article that grabbed his attention was based around their current space travel projects and how they hoped to make a commercial space trip program within the next two years.
"Hello Missus and Izuku Midoriya!" Akio greeted as he strutted up to the two. He wore a very formal suit with a tie and dress pants that went all the way down to his dress shoes. He shook the boy's and mother's hands before leading them to an elevator.
When he stepped in, Izuku quickly noticed the fact that there were eight floor buttons despite there being only three visible floors from the outside.
"I hope you guys haven't seen 'The Decline'," Akio joked as he pressed a button labeled B2. The elevator slowly descended, giving Izuku and his mother views of the underground offices through the glass wall in the back of the elevator.
Soon enough, the metal box came to a stop and let out a quiet ping, which was accompanied by the doors opening to a normal looking hallway. The man led the two down, occasionally waving to those he passed.
After the third turn, he grabbed a door handle and pushed the door inward to reveal a surprisingly large room with windows that looked outside, despite being well over a dozen feet below ground.
"Enjoy the view?" Akio grabbed a remote-like device from his desk and pressed a red button. Immediately, the view of the ocean and trees outside disappeared, leaving walls filled with paper documents and various photos.
"Please, sit down," the man said with a gesture to two chairs next to a large desk. The three sat down, and Akio opened a tab in his computer with the Life Foundation name and logo.
"I trust you brought your insurance cards and identification?"
"Yes, of course." Inko lifted her purse to her lap and dug through the bag. Eventually she pulled out a smaller zip up bag, and opened it to pull out a few cards.
Akio looked at the offered cards and typed the required information into his computer. For half a minute, the only sound in the room was the clacking of the keys.
A printer from his side of the desk began to hum and spat out a page, which the man took and reviewed before handing over to the visitors.
"Read over this, if you would. It's a waiver that holds us accountable for accidents on our end, but not for unforeseeable circumstances, such as citywide power outages, natural disasters, and so on," Akio explained.
After a quick skim of the text, Inko fished a pen from her purse and signed the paper, which was replaced with a new form.
"This one you can keep. It's an outline of what will and will not be allowed on the day of the procedure. It also lists any services we can provide in the case of an emergency like the ones mentioned earlier."
The green haired woman scanned the page, noting that video recording devices, aside from personal phones, were not allowed whatsoever. But even then, there were restrictions on where and when she could use it. There were other odd details, such as the listing of "30 days of rations" under provided emergency care.
"And lastly, I need Izuku to sign this sheet." Yet another paper was grabbed from the printer and slid to the visitors. "It lists the potential side effects of the treatment, along with a disclaimer that there is no guarantee that he will be better after this should you decide to continue."
The list seemed to include every imaginable health detriment from sore muscles all the way to death.
"I don't know about this. Are you sure Izuku? This could go much worse than we expected," Inko worriedly asked as she looked over the list. If this did indeed go wrong, Izuku probably wouldn't be around long enough to suffer from another coughing fit.
It felt like too much of a risk, even if it could cure her son.
But before she could voice any more complaints, Izuku scribbled his signature onto the sheet and slid it back to Akio.
"Thank you. With that out of the way, when would be the best time for you? We have an opening this Tuesday at one-thirty."
Inko, still taken aback that Izuku potentially signed his life away without answering her question, turned back to the dressed-up man.
"I-I think so. Izuku has school that day, but he's a smart kid. Catching up shouldn't be an issue. Right?"
"I don't think so," Izuku replied.
"Excellent," Akio cheered. A few mouse clicks later, everything the Midoriya family needed to be there for was completed.
Throughout the trip home, concerns and worries ran through Inko's mind. Sure, this was a new, practically experimental process, but there were so many fine details she noticed that raised some concerns, such as the rations she had read about and the expansive list of potential results to her boy.
She wanted him to live, which was the only reason she was willing to go through this far. But that didn't mean she felt comfortable.
"So, if you take the square root of B squared minus A and C times four, you'll see that the root is negative, so it has to be an imaginary number. Therefore, there are no real solutions to this question."
The green-haired teen quickly looked back and forth between the teacher's notes and his own notes, making sure to get everything down letter for letter. With his other hand, he brought the nebulizer to his mouth and switched it on long enough to get a large inhale of his medication.
Words could not express how thankful he was that the machine was silent; he would die from embarrassment if it made a loud hum every time he turned it on.
"Izuku Midoriya, you are being picked up. Please report to the main office."
According to the clock, it was just past twelve. The day had gone by a bit faster than he had expected. Regardless, he eagerly packed his bags and was halfway to the door when a few students piped up.
"Woah, check out the wheels on that one!" one of the boys exclaimed. Izuku stopped and looked outside, seeing a large, lightly armored car in the school parking lot.
Already figuring out what was going on, Izuku speed walked to the office, where his mom signed him out before leading him to the attention gathering vehicle.
"Uh, isn't...isn't this a little extreme?" Izuku asked. Two similar cars pulled up behind the first one. The one in the back was nearly identical, but the middle car had less armor and was closer to a normal vehicle than the other two.
Akio stepped out from the middle car and held the door open with a gesture for the two to get in.
"I hope you don't mind riding in style," he said nonchalantly. The door closed and the three cars immediately drove off.
The inside of the car was surprisingly empty. The trunk had been completely removed and the middle row of seats was reversed, giving the seating situation more of a train-like shape.
"I'm sure you both remember the rules for when we get there?" Akio questioned, almost like a warning.
"Yes," both replied in unison. Inko had nothing but the bare essentials on her, and Izuku had only brought what he had absolutely needed for his first few classes.
"You can leave your bag in the car when we get there," Akio offered as he pulled a phone from his pocket.
"Drake? We're on our way. Yeah, I know we're a little early. Just wanted to make sure we'd have enough time. Okay, good. Anything else? No? Then see you there."
He then turned to the two passengers.
"Remember what I said when we first discussed this treatment? How I mentioned that it was like a bundle of living nanomachines?"
Izuku nodded and Inko gave a "Yes".
"Well, just keep that in mind when we begin. It may look a bit odd, but what Izuku's going to go through is the same thing everyone else has gone though."
With the cryptic message out of the way, Akio quickly switched over to making small talk with Izuku. He listened intently as Izuku listed off his vast interest in heroes and how he had hoped to be one even after being diagnosed as quirkless.
Inko, on the other hand, spoke about her life, how quirks had changed from when she was a kid, and told funny stories about Izuku, the teenager blushing every now and then.
The Life Foundation building came into view. Instead of driving into the parking lot Inko had used to bring her and Izuku last time, they were taken through a ramp that led directly underground. Dim lights stretched down the concrete path that seemed to stretch for miles. Finally, the vehicles came to a stop, and the drivers hopped out.
All three were approached by guards that held devices resembling flashlights up to their eyes.
"All good."
"Good here."
"Same. Let's get a move on."
Each door was opened by one of the guards, who stepped aside to let the passengers get out.
"Mister Tanaka," the guard respectfully offered with a bow.
"Thank you, Rin."
Still followed by the guards, Inko, Izuku, and Akio were led through a plain door and into a suspiciously regular service desk. The man behind a computer noticed the man standing there and slid a small pad forward. Akio pressed his thumb against it, and the tiny device let out a friendly beep.
The man then pressed a button underneath the computer screen, and a soft click sounded from the door beside the desk.
"Izuku, Missus Midoriya. Are you ready?"
"Yes, I'm ready," Inko replied.
The man walked over to and pushed open the door, which led to another hallway.
"It'll be a little walk. I hope that doesn't bother you."
"If I may, why is it so far from the surface to here?" Izuku asked, hoping not to somehow offend the man.
"That's a good question. This area was designed for containment of more contagious substances. While none of them were much more dangerous than a bad cold, I think it was a good idea to keep this area as isolated as possible. Just in case something bad did happen. That, and security."
By the time Akio finished his answer, he had led them into a new room. Truthfully, laboratory was a more appropriate term. Except for the fact that no one had protective gear, it perfectly represented the labs Izuku saw in movies.
While looking at the various computers and whirring machines, Izuku noticed the obvious fact that one wall was mostly made of glass. On the other side of the glass was a bland room. No computers, devices, or even papers decorated the room. It was just barren, like a cage.
"We're ready. All we need is Midoriya."
Drake, a tall man with white hair and deep blue eyes, came up from behind the three and handed a checklist to Akio. In his other hand was a black suitcase.
"Good." Akio turned to Izuku. "If you're ready, Drake will lead you to the next room over."
"Come on, kid. Let's get this party started," Drake offered with a serious yet friendly enough tone. He and Izuku walked into a different connected room and away from Inko's view.
"There's no way to say this without sounding unprofessional, but I need you to remove your shirt."
"Ex-excuse me?" Izuku stuttered.
"Take your shirt off. Same for your shoes and socks. We'll need to attach monitor nodes to your body so we can keep an eye on your vitals."
As Izuku removed his shirt, Drake knelt on the ground and opened the suitcase. Each hand grabbed a small, circular object that was carefully placed on the boy's chest. Three more were added around his torso.
"Give me your hand," Drake ordered. The green-haired teen complied, and the man pulled two lancets from the suitcase. "This will prick a little. We just need a small sample of your blood to compare before and after the treatment."
The man quickly used both devices to draw blood, then returned them to the suitcase.
"Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess," Izuku nervously replied.
Inko watched as Izuku, sans shirt, cautiously stepped into the room.
"Uh, how are you going to treat him without any machines?" Inko asked.
"Remember what I said in the car?"
"Yes. You said something along the lines of, 'The treatment will be odd.'"
"That I did," Akio replied before tapping one of the computer managers on the shoulder. "Release the biomass."
The man quickly typed in a special sequence of commands on his computer, which caused a small panel to open inside the room Izuku was in. The green haired teen and his mom both focused on the hatch, and were equally terrified when a red puddle pulled itself from the shadows and crept towards the boy.
"Mi-mister Tanaka? What-what is this?" Izuku questioned as he pressed himself against the opposite wall. Regardless, the red mass continued its advancement, slowly but surely getting closer to the panicking boy.
"That is the cure I told you about. If you remember, I referred to it as a cluster of nanomachines. However, their first programming is to search out humans that may require assistance. I know it's scary looking, but please get closer to it. Maybe hold your hand out?" Akio spoke with a slightly unusual, near emotionless tone. Almost like he was much too interested in the results.
His entire arm was shaking, but Izuku reluctantly approached the red sludge. The moment his finger tips grazed the substance, it wrapped itself around him and slowly began disappearing.
"Initial contact has been made. Heart rate jumped a little, but that's not surprising."
Ever since Izuku had stepped into the room, a quiet heart monitor had started beeping. Inko held her breath as the red slime coated his hand and the monitor's beeping quickened in pace.
Suddenly, Izuku recoiled in pain. His hand felt like it was being torn apart from the inside out.
"Heart rate's skyrocketing!" the man at the computer announced. The peeps had changed from a consistent beat to a sound that resembled an alarm. Perfect for the situation in Inko's eyes.
Her boy started thrashing around inside the box. The red goo was completely gone, presumably inside him now.
Messing with his insides.
Stirring his internals.
Killing him from the inside out.
It hurt. It hurt so much. It hurt so much, he wanted it all to end. He couldn't feel his own body, but it still hurt more than anything he'd ever felt. The bullies' beatings, Bakugo's explosions, nothing he could remember came close to this level of agony.
He couldn't breathe. His lungs were doing everything they could to get oxygen into his system, but it was all expelled in his screams and thrashes. He couldn't even cough.
Through it all, one weak thought pushed itself to the front of his mind.
'Is this how I die?'
"Please! You need to get that stuff out of him!" Inko shouted. Akio and Drake together were holding her back, as she had started trying to break through the glass.
All around her, objects took a light green glow as they levitated or flew around the room. Everyone not out of the way ducked and hid beneath desks to avoid getting impaled by pencils or smashed in the head with staplers.
She didn't care. All she cared about was Izuku. He was in pain, so much pain. But she couldn't help him. His screams, even though muffled by the separating glass, rang like gunshots in her ears.
Not even a minute in, without a warning, his spasms slowed considerably, then stopped entirely.
'No…' He couldn't be… he just couldn't be…
But, he wasn't moving. He was just lying there.
"It worked," one of the men stated amazedly. His eyes were glued to a computer. Taking a moment to collect herself as much as possible, Inko realized that the bleeps from the heart monitor had slowed back down.
"Everything else is normal too. His heart rate is about the same as someone who just finished a workout, but he's fine overall."
He would be okay. He was going to live, albeit with a very traumatic experience behind him. He could go home and go to school and grow up and maybe get married later in life.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," Akio offered with a hand on her shoulder. No one should have to watch that, but I figured you would prefer to be here in case something went wrong."
"Can… can he go home now?" the woman asked after politely brushing his hand off.
"Not today. We'll need to keep him here for observation, but you can visit anytime. If anything remotely worrying starts happening, we'll call you and send transportation immediately. Drake? Would you be so kind as to escort her to the surface?"
"Can't I stay until he wakes up at least?" the mother begged. He would be scared when he awoke, and all alone unless he knew she was there.
"I am sorry, but we cannot allow that. Besides, he will need to be moved to a sterile, isolated room. Even if you stayed, you would not be able to see him."
Inko's shoulders slumped, and slowly walked up to the glass. Her hand gently touched the surface between her and her son.
"Goodbye Izuku. I'll be back soon."
Without another word, she and Drake returned to the parking lot, where the same vehicles awaited.
She was scared. The sight of Izuku's agonized spasms were burned into her memory. She wanted to trust that Akio, Drake, and everyone else there knew what they were doing and would keep Izuku alive, but something in her kept insisting otherwise.
Once she was dropped off at her apartment, she placed Izuku's bag on his bed and went to bed early.
She wanted it to be tomorrow so she could visit Izuku when he was awake.
Izuku groaned. His head ached and his muscles felt sore. He recalled the ordeal he went through… well, he didn't know how long ago he passed out.
"Mom?"
There was no reply. He finally opened his eyes and took in his surroundings, or lack thereof, in his case. It was another empty room, but the walls, save the one made of glass, were all white. He had been changed into a light blue patient gown at some point.
"Oh, good morning, Izuku." A new man stepped into view on the other side of the glass.
Glass walls, that seemed to be a constant in this place.
"How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Thirsty?"
"Tired. And really hungry," Izuku groggily answered. A small panel on a side wall opened and held out a tray of mush, plastic silverware, and a water bottle.
"Sorry we can't offer anything more savory, but until we can be sure your stomach can handle regular foods, you're going to have to live with purely nutritional blends."
Izuku took the tray and scooped a spoonful of mush into his mouth. As soon as he got the first taste, he needed more. Spoonful after spoonful was shoveled into his mouth.
In all actuality, it wasn't half bad. The texture reminded him of applesauce, but the taste wasn't the best. Still, he finished the "food" in a few minutes and downed the water bottle.
"Please slide them back under," the man requested with a point towards the hatch. The teen complied, and the little door closed.
"Where's my mom? Can I speak to her?" Izuku wanted to see her so she could see he was alright.
"She was told to leave shortly after you passed out, but she will be allowed to see you soon. For now, though, tell me how you feel. Do your lungs feel better?"
Izuku took a few deep breaths and focused. It was weird.
"I feel like I'm getting more air. Or maybe oxygen? I don't quite know what aspect of breathing was affected by the damage."
"That's good. I have to go, but before I do," the man started as he pressed a few buttons next to the room. The glass wall dimly lit up as a screen the size of a household television appeared. "To keep yourself entertained. We're not savages, after all."
The man left to do whatever he needed, so Izuku sat down and scrolled through the channels. Eventually, he found a station covering All Might and let his hyperfixation take over.
"What do you mean by 'I can't find it'?" Akio demanded. His face, usually serious but a bit kind, had turned into a glaring frown. "That thing was detectable in every other subject! Why can't you find it inside him?" the man shouted.
"I-I don't know, sir. It's like it just disappeared. There's no sign of it anywhere," a woman tried to explain. She showed him a multi-level x-ray of the boy in the small room, but nothing abnormal jumped out at him.
"God damn it!" Akio screamed. He grabbed a stack of papers and roughly shoved it off the desk. Some fell in a heap whereas a few from the top of the stack flew up and slowly descended to the ground.
"We finally find a subject that doesn't die and the fucking thing is just... gone?" The question, laced with anger, frustration, and general rage, was more directed at the air than it was any of the workers. He paced around in a small circle, grabbing and pulling handfuls of his hair.
'Calm down, Akio. You don't know what's going on, they clearly don't know, and the boy sure as hell doesn't know,' the man internally reasoned.
"Sir? What're your orders?" one of the men frightfully asked.
"We keep him here for three days. If something shows up, we find out what."
"And… if not?"
Akio quickly turned to the one who asked the question with a stare that sent a chill down his spine. "If, after three days of monitoring, there's still no sign of it, we let him go and finally consider this project a failure. Face the facts; we've probably just lost the thing that this entire project was created to study."
"So, you're feeling good now?"
"Yeah. Better than I have in a long time, actually. It might be this super clean environment, but I feel like I've never had more air in me, if you get what I mean."
Inko sighed in relief. She had awoken many times throughout the previous night. She was just too worried to stay asleep. But here he was, better than ever with that bright light in his eyes.
"I'm glad. They said unless something comes up, you'll be able to leave in two days. Think you can hold out until then?"
"As long as the television feature keeps working," Izuku joked, which got a light chuckle from his mom.
"I have to go. There are things I need to get done at home. I'll see you tomorrow. I love you."
"I love you too, Mom." Inko hesitated for half a second, but dragged herself away from the glass pane and away from the boy on the other side.
Had she stayed another second longer, she might have seen the green in his eyes briefly shimmer a crimson red before returning to normal.
"Before you leave, did you notice anything different about Izuku?"
"Not at all. He said he didn't feel any different besides being able to breathe more easily. Why do you ask?"
"Just making sure. If you saw anything worrying, we'd want to be able to check on him as soon as we found out."
"Thank you for your concern. And again, I'm so sorry about the mess I made."
"I understand. You're a mother who thought you were watching your child die. It's only natural you'd panic."
"Well, I'll be back tomorrow, Mister Tanaka. Thank you for everything you've done so far."
Akio nodded and watched as the car drove away.
She was a pleasant woman. Much better than some of the clients he dealt with.
On the way back to the lab, he braced himself for more bad news. What would it be this time? The boy's health was suddenly getting worse? The research team all quit for some reason or another? What was in store for him this time?
"Anything?" he asked the moment he entered the observation room.
"I'm sorry sir, but still no sign of it. There's been no new changes in the boy's health. I still don't know how to explain it. Every other subject showed signs of the thing inside them before dying."
Akio sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Was this really how Project Symbiosis was going to end? It had been over a decade since that thing had crawled out of an asteroid one of the space exploration teams had brought back.
A full eleven and a half years and millions, maybe billions of dollars, about to go down the drain.
The only thing he had to show for it was the fact that the boy claimed to feel better than before. The x-rays backed up his statements; the tumors and lesions had all but vanished overnight.
But what was the point in proving that it worked if they couldn't study it anymore?
He was in pain. The scientists on the other side of the glass watched in fascination and horror as his body twisted and contorted at unnatural angles. Despite his screams for help in a voice that wasn't his, no one moved.
He could feel something in his throat. It was like he was throwing up, but whatever was lodged in his trachea was taking too long to come up. His lungs burned in need of air, but he couldn't give them the air they desired.
Whatever was in his throat finally reached his mouth. It felt awful; the slippery, moving substance crawled around in his mouth before shooting out from his jaw.
The last thing he saw was the tip of that red sludge emerging from between his teeth before everything went black. Before everything went silent.
Izuku awoke with a gasp and shot up like a rocket. He was still in the little room. He felt all over his body, not finding a trace of the red slime that had been in his nightmare, and the same room as him before that.
"It was just a nightmare. It was just a nightmare."
He repeated the short mantra multiple times while doing his best to control his breathing. It was about to be his last day here; he didn't want to cause Akio and the others more trouble just because he had some bad dream.
But it was so real. He could remember in vivid detail sensations he never felt before. And that voice. It wasn't his, even if it was choked out by the thing that stuffed his throat.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and laid back down. Tomorrow was going to be fine. He would go home and return to school.
He was going to be okay.
A/N: Well, that's it. Please leave a review! Also, After the third chapter, updates will slow down considerably. I only had 1-3 done/in process, but college has recently started. With that being said, I hope you all have a good day. Stay safe!