A/N: Another month, another chapter. This time, our heroes go out on patrol with their new ally in search of the villains they encountered earlier.
An update for my FictionPress account, D. M. Frost: I've got 2 chapters up of my original superhero story, The New Age of Heroes, so check that out if you're interested.
No more preamble this time; let's just get right into it.
My Hero Academia: Heroes Across Dimensions – Part 1
No. 3 – Friendly Neighborhood Heroes
Just as Mr. Stark said, Spider-Man met up with them on the balcony of Avengers Tower a few minutes after their Quirk demonstration had ended. After planning a starting route, the four heroes dove between the skyscrapers of New York City, before setting down on the empty rooftop of an office building that had a good view of the ground below.
"I can't believe you're really a student like us," said Deku, curious about his new, arachnid-themed ally.
"Actually, I'm already a second year in university, so I'm a few years older than you guys; but yeah, I've been doing this Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man thing since high school."
"Wow, that's amazing!"
"How did you wind up becoming a hero at such a young age?" asked Todoroki.
"A big string of coincidences, mostly. I got bit by a genetically engineered, possibly radioactive super-spider, got super powers, then had some bad experiences, and then realized I had to use these powers to help people now that I had them."
"Wait, you weren't born with your powers?" asked Deku, becoming particularly interested.
"Nope. Most people in this world aren't born with powers; those that are tend to face some pretty bad prejudice depending on their circumstances."
Deku was practically floored by this revelation, mostly because it was the complete opposite of how their own world functioned. He could hardly imagine how his life might've been different had he been born into this universe instead; his own Quirk was, after all, not something he had been born with either.
"If most people aren't born with powers here, how do they get them?" asked Bakugo.
Spider-Man thought about the question for a minute. "Hmm. Some of them by accident or coincidence, like me; others build their own powers, like Mr. Stark; and others are deliberately enhanced with super serums or cosmic artifacts."
"I think Mr. Stark also mentioned something about a wizard," added Todoroki.
"Oh yeah, there are wizards; they study how to draw power from other dimensions to power magic spells and stuff."
"Whoa!" shouted Deku. "Maybe that's why Mr. Stark said his wizard friend could help us get home!"
"That's still a ways off, though," said Bakugo. "Anyway, enough about that; tell us about the powers of these villains we're fighting!"
"Right, the Sinister Six; basically, a collection of six of the biggest villains I've ever faced."
"They all seemed so different," added Deku, "I wonder what they're after."
"Their leader is Dr. Otto Octavius, or Dr. Octopus, or Doc Ock; whichever you prefer, really."
"That's the guy with the big metal tentacles, right?" asked Bakugo.
"Yeah. They're bionic arms grafted to his back that he created to help him with a fusion experiment, but the experiment went horribly wrong and damaged the arms; now they're permanently fused to his spine, and their AI has warped Dr. Octavius' mind to pursue his research with reckless abandon. From what I've heard recently, Ock is trying to build a new type of cold fusion reactor that can rival Mr. Stark's Arc Reactor technology."
"How do the rest of them fit into that?" asked Todoroki.
"Electro, used to be a nice guy until he fell into a vat of genetically engineered electric eels, probably wants the reactor to give himself a near unlimited power supply, making himself stronger. Rhino and Scorpion are criminals who got their hands on suits of mechanized armor, as well as some biological augmentations like mine; they're probably in it for the money; they sell that tech to other countries and they can get real rich, real quick."
"Depending on what countries they sell to, that could cause major geopolitical fallout," added Todoroki.
"What about that lizard guy?" asked Deku, "He was throwing chemical bombs around, what's his story?"
"Right, the Lizard, originally known as Dr. Curt Connors; he was also a scientist researching cross-species genetics, and was backed into testing his research on himself. He probably wants the money and energy supply to continue his own work."
"How 'bout that guy flying around making all the illusions?" asked Bakugo.
"That's Quentin Beck, a.k.a. Mysterio; he's an inventor who was wronged by both Stark Industries and Oscorp; if I had to guess, he just wants revenge on both of them."
The UA students took some time to process everything they had just learned. The group they were up against had a varied history and skill set – they wouldn't be easy to defeat; but they had what seemed to be a concrete goal, which would at least make it easier to track them.
"You're sure this reactor is what they're after?" asked Deku.
"Yeah. That building you caught them robbing earlier was an Oscorp-funded biochemical lab; I scoped it out while I was on patrol, and it turns out they stole numerous chemicals that they'll need to complete the reactor."
"Okay, so we know what they're after and where they've been," said Deku, working out a plan in his mind, "now we just need to know where they're going."
"Most likely science and engineering labs all around the city," said Spider-Man. "Physics labs, nuclear research labs, Oscorp, and Stark Industries are probably our best bets."
"Alright, but we'll probably need to split up to cover more ground in a city this big," said Todoroki.
"Couldn't agree more!" exclaimed the slightly older hero. "We'll patrol the city, dealing with any crimes we see as we go, all while keeping an eye out for the Sinister Six!"
"Alright!" said Deku, excitedly. "Where do we start? This is your city, so we're better off leading the breakdown to you."
Spider-Man considered it for a moment, remembering the powers he had seen them use against the Sinister Six earlier, as well as what Stark had told him. "I'll take Queens and Brooklyn, since I know them best; Deku, take the Bronx; Todoroki, take Manhattan; and Bakugo, Staten Island."
"Okay."
"Roger that."
"Got it."
"You guys got those communicators Mr. Stark gave you, right?"
The UA students pointed to the small devices now nestled within their ears.
"Perfect. We'll meet back up at Avengers Tower at sunset."
And with that, the young heroes went their separate ways.
A woman walked down the street frantically, eyes constantly on her wristwatch. She looked around in a panic, surveying the streets around her.
"Dammit, I'm gonna be late," she said under her breath. "Guess I've got no choice."
She slowed down and hesitantly walked over to an alley. She looked down the narrow passageway, checking to see if there was anyone waiting inside. Satisfied that the coast appeared clear, she began walking through at a brisk pace. She only got halfway through, however, when a hooded man appeared at the other end; she made to turn around, only to find another waiting for her back the way she came.
"Oh, no. Please, no!" she stammered in a fearful tone.
"Purse and phone, lady," demanded one of the men. "You're work bag, too."
"Don't make this harder than it has to be," said the other.
"No, please; I'll give you my purse, but I need this bag and my phone for work; I'll lose my job without them!"
"Not our problem," said the first man, as the two quickly closed in on her.
"No! Please! Someone, help me!"
A flash of green light swung down from above, crashing into one of the muggers and sending him falling back; before anyone else could react, the light bounced off the walls of the alley and slammed into the second man, knocking him down as well. Wrapped in the sparking light was a young man in a green costume, with a metal breathing mask and a green hood shaped like two bunny-ear-like spikes covering his face and head.
"I think the police will like to have a word with you two," said the boy, as black tendrils of light extended from his hands and pulled the men towards him; he pulled some kind of tape out of one of the pouches on his red belt, and used it to tie the men's hands together. "Are you alright, miss?"
"Um, yes," she answered, nervously.
"Don't worry, I'm a hero; you're safe now."
"Oh, um, t-thank you for saving me. If you'll excuse me, I'm late getting back to work."
"Oh, where is it; I can help you get there faster if you'd like!" said the boy, cheerfully.
The next thing the young lady knew, she was holding onto the boy as he swung between the buildings at high speed with the same black tendrils he used before. She was a little scared, but somehow could tell the young man was a lot stronger than he looked and wouldn't drop her. Before she knew it, they had landed in front of her office building with time to spare.
"Thank you so much!" she exclaimed, as she left the boy's grasp.
"Always happy to help."
"So, are you, like, a new Spider-Man or something?"
"No, nothing like that, though I am working together with him right now; you can call me Deku."
"Okay; thanks again, Deku!" she said cheerfully, before running into the office.
With another citizen assisted, Deku shot a Blackwhip onto a nearby building and took to the air again.
"Deku, reporting in; I've stopped a few crimes already, but so far nothing on the Sinister Six. How are you guys doing?"
"Dealing with police trying to stop some gang of thugs from getting onto the island!" said Bakugo's voice through the earpiece.
On the bridge to Staten Island, a line of squad cars was blockading an angry mob from crossing onto the island. Bakugo walked menacingly toward the scene.
"Let me get back to you," he said, before using an explosion to jump into the middle of the standoff. "Alright, you punks, time to go home!"
The gang members did not take kindly to being shouted at by the new arrival and all began to charge him.
"Hey, get out of there, kid!" yelled a police officer.
"Heh," was the only sound the blonde boy made, before a bomb went off around him, covering the area in thick black smoke.
All that could be heard within the plume was fighting and shouting. More explosions rang out, illuminating the silhouettes of flying bodies against the canvas of smog. When the smoke began to clear, about half of their number were lying in crumpled heaps on the asphalt. The spiky-haired teen that had provoked them was flying through the air with fiery explosive force, punching each thug that got in his way with his large grenade-shaped gauntlets. A few of the gangbangers tried to draw handguns on him, but quickly found themselves floored by a long-range explosion before they could pull the trigger. It only took a few more minutes for all of them to be taken down.
The lead officer met the boy halfway, as he walked back towards the line of cop cars. "That was some impressive work, kid. You a new superhero in town?"
"Yeah; call me Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight!"
"So, Dynamight, then; got it."
"Dammit, why doesn't anyone say the whole thing!?" he screamed in protest, before pressing a finger to his ear. "Grrgh. Dynamight, here; gang's all cleared out. I'm heading to the industrial park now to see if I can pick up the trail of the Six; labs here have been a bust so far."
"Same here," said Todoroki over the comms.
High above the streets of Manhattan, Todoroki flew through the air on a slide made of ice. He kept a bird's eye view of the ground as he traveled.
"Maybe they're lying low for the rest of the day, or maybe their plan requires something other than what they can find in labs," he continued to his allies.
"Hmm. They would probably need power and raw materials, too," said Spider-Man's voice. "I think Bakugo's got the right idea; expand the search to industrial zones."
"Got it, I'll start heading in that—" Todoroki cut himself off. "Hold on, there's a situation on the ground."
"The Six?" asked Deku.
"Probably not, just looks like a normal car chase; moving to intercept!"
Todoroki angled his ice slide downward, sending him flying towards the streets below. He cornered around the skyscrapers flawlessly, all while keeping his eyes locked on the police cruisers down below chasing a red sedan that had gunfire coming out of its rear side windows.
When he closed in on the criminals' vehicle, he froze their guns first, to prevent them from firing, making them less of a threat to himself, the police, and the innocent bystanders. The criminals reacted by pulling out replacement firearms, only to have those quickly frozen over as well; when they realized they could no longer shoot their pursuers, they resorted to flooring the gas and driving recklessly to throw off the chase. They didn't get very far, as the next thing Todoroki did was end the chase by getting closer to the car and freezing its wheels to the road, stopping it cold. The police quickly surrounded the now immobile vehicle with their squad cars and apprehended the men inside.
"Thanks for the help, kid; but who are you?" said one of the officers.
"I'm a hero visiting from Japan," replied Todoroki, figuring that would be a more sufficient explanation than detailing his full situation. "I'm currently helping Spider-Man track down the Sinister Six; have you heard any reports recently of industrial areas in Manhattan being attacked?"
"Oh, you know Spider-Man? Sure, I'll help you out; is what I would say, but I haven't heard anything like that today. Sorry, kid."
"That's fine. Thank you for you help," said Todoroki, before he used his flames to melt the ice he had left on the road, then took off back into the sky with his ice slide.
"The police here haven't heard anything," he said into his communicator.
Over in Queens, Spider-Man finished webbing a pair of petty crooks to the walls of a building. "Don't give up just because its quiet; keep looking," he said, encouragingly, as he swung back up to the top of a building. He looked around and saw a strange shimmer in the air a few blocks away. "Hey, wait a minute; I think I got something."
The friendly neighborhood hero swung over to the disturbance; it was surrounding a Stark Industries laboratory. At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but Spider-Man's eyes were sharper than most; every once in a while, he could see a slight shimmer or a minute twitch in the air, like reality itself was glitching out in front of him. He probed the space in front of him with a finger, causing the empty sky to spark and ripple; he stuck his whole hand in, and then his entire body, pushing through a sort of digital wall.
Inside the projected image, the Stark lab, which had seemed perfectly normal from a distance, was flashing with red lights and ringing with alarm bells; Spider-Man looked down at street level and saw hologram projectors on either side, putting up the virtual curtain. He swung down and kicked each projector, destroying them. The way the holographic illusion distorted in the sky above implied that there were two more on the other side of the building, but only taking down half of the digital diversion would do for now. With the reality of the break-in exposed to the outside world, Spider-Man rushed into the lab to investigate.
The inside of the facility was on high alert – the hallways were dark from the power being out, but the auxiliary-powered alarms were drenched the blackened halls in blaring bells and strobing red lights. Spider-Man ran through the halls and looked around for any sign of the intruders. He made his way fairly deep into the lab when his senses shifted; time seemed to slow down and everything around him became hazy, save for one single point right behind him. Near-instantly, Spider-Man turned around and caught the thick, green tail that was about to collide with his spine; he twisted his body and threw the Lizard against the wall.
"Dr. Connors!"
The Lizard leaped forward to attack once more, but Spider-Man used his webs to pull himself forward and slide under his reptilian adversary. He kicked off of the wall into a backflip and kicked the Lizard in the back, then shot some webs at his hands and feet to bind him in place. They didn't hold long, as the mutated scientist pulled himself loose.
"Dr. Connors, stop! You don't have to work with them!"
"On the contrary, boy," responded the anthropomorphic reptile, "this is the fastest way for me to acquire an adequate facility for my research."
"We can help you! You can still atone for everything!"
"No, it's far too late for that. Now, I'm sorry, but I've been assigned to stop you from interfering."
The Lizard leaped forward once again. Spider-Man caught him in midair, but the two fell to the ground and began grappling for the advantage. With both of their strength far beyond human norms, neither was giving up without a fight; they switched positions on the ground, and put each other's limbs into various holds, as each struggled to restrain the other. Things got even more complicated when multiple Lizards appeared in the hallway, followed shortly by Mysterio, who was holding a case.
Spider-Man managed to break free from Connors' grasp and stood to face his now two enemies.
"That what you guys're here for?"
"That's right; specialized metals and a stabilizing agent," replied the Lizard.
"Do you have to tell him what we took?" asked Mysterio with an exasperated tone.
"He's a smart boy; I'm sure he's already figured out what we're planning to do with them."
"Yeah, and a smart guy would also tell his team when he's found what he's looking for," continued Spider-Man, putting his finger to his ear. "Guys, I've got Lizard and Mysterio in a Stark lab in Queens!"
Back above the streets of Manhattan, Todoroki responded first. "I've got something happening on my end, as well; moving to investigate."
He slid down to the intersection where a massive traffic jam was occurring. Cars where honking at each other to get out of the way, fists were raised in anger, and several curses could be heard shouted over the din – drivers in New York City were every bit as aggressive as Todoroki had heard. He approached one of the calmer-looking motorists and knocked on the man's window, and asked him why the traffic suddenly intensified.
"Dunno. Looks like the traffic light up ahead is out."
Todoroki made an ice platform to lift himself up for a better view. It wasn't just this intersection; every traffic signal as far as he could see was turned off, as well as several digital advertisements lining the walls of the buildings.
"It looks like power is out around the whole city," he relayed to the driver when he got back down. "Do you know where the power plant is located? I'll look into it and see if there's a problem there."
"Sure, super-kid; it's over on 74th Street, can't miss it."
"Thank you."
His new destination set, Todoroki took off in the direction of Central Park. When he got closer, he could see the pylons at the power plant below alight with electricity; it seemed the entire plant was completely covered in lightning. At the center of it all floated a blue figure in the shape of a man, all of the lightning seemingly being drawn toward him. It was a risky move, but Todoroki shot a blast of flame at the figure to interrupt what it seemed to be doing; the fireball was instantly deflected by a spark of electricity.
The blue figure rose into the sky, as the electricity surrounding the power plant dissipated. The humanoid lightning coalesced into a more solid shape and changed from blue to yellow, before discharging to reveal a dark-skinned man in a black suit with yellow straps.
"Oh, the new kid, with the fire and ice," said the man, "You up for a rematch?"
"I've encountered Electro siphoning electricity at the Manhattan power plant," said Todoroki into his comms. "Preparing to engage."
Over in Staten Island's industrial park, Bakugo found himself staring down two men in mechanized armor; they had been operating a large flatbed truck hauling a large amount of metal. The one in the green, scorpion-like armor got out of the driver's seat, while the large rhino-armored man jumped off the back of the trailer.
"I've got the horn-head and the bug-man at the Staten Island Industrial Park!"
Deku, meanwhile, was following up on a lead he had received about a lab that made use of radioactive isotopes located in the Bronx. He had arrived just in time to see a man in a trench coat blow out the front door with a pair of mechanical tentacles, before "walking" out on a second pair of them, yet another briefcase in his hand.
"And I've got Doctor Octopus here in the Bronx!" said Deku, as his body glowed with power.
With their targets found, the heroes all prepared to fight.
A/N: And so, our heroes have found the Sinister Six. Tune in next month for an action-packed battle.
My fantasy novel is making good progress; one more meeting with my editor and I'll be ready to hit the ground running on my final draft. If you haven't followed me on FictionPress yet, check it out, as I will be posting the first three chapters of every novel I write on their for free as a preview for anyone to see if they'd be interested in buying the full book.
Until next time, stay frosty.