Once more we step back into the ravaged world of MHA and how those who once called it their home are keeping themselves alive in the hellscape that has become of their world...
I present to you: Hyde and Seek!
In the year since Cindy Moon took over, Japan and the rest of the world has become a living nightmare. Anti-Venom covers almost every part of the Earth's surface. Millions of Symbiote-infected creatures prowl the broken streets. The few left on the planet who haven't been infected are deep in hiding, desperately trying to scrounge up the food and supplies that they need to live.
Hagakure, Mineta, and the few former members of U.A.'s hero course who had left before the Anti-Venom takeover, can attest to this. Since the first mass exodus from U.A., the former members of Classes 1-A and 1-B have been keeping in touch with each other as they collaborated to look for new job opportunities and support each other in what their future ambitions might be now that they have left the world of heroics.
This amount of communication is what allows them to survive longer than most when the Anti-Venom Apocalypse begins, as they help to find each other shelter and hiding places to escape the possibility of infection, as well as leaving food stashes out for each other and sharing supplies and warning each other of Anti-Venom patrols.
But now, two years of endlessly fighting for survival has taken its toll. Most of their number have been lost, picked off one by one by the Anti-Venom zombies and either killed or infected. Now all that's left of their group are Reiko Yanagi, Shoji Mezo, Hagakure Tooru, Mineta Minoru, and Yui Kodai.
They have no families to go to, as they were all converted into Anti-Venom zombies at the start of this nightmare. All they have now is each other.
Shoji has taken up leadership of the group, but he is feeling the severe strain of it from having lost so many members over the last year. The others are also suffering from exhaustion, stress, and despair at their situation, especially with having to deal with Mineta's sense of cowardice and annoying tendencies to make perverse comments all the time.
However, they begin to hear whispers amongst the few survivors that they encounter of a sanctuary beneath the city, a place where those who haven't been infected by the Anti-Venom symbiotes can find refuge and safety from the hordes outside.
With no other options, the five decide to chase the rumours and find that sanctuary.
The group would go on to undertake a great journey across Japan, from Musutafu and across the countryside to Tokyo, avoiding all sorts of dangers such as Anti-Venom zombies, infected Nomu set to rage as Anti-Venom juggernauts, hostile survivors desperate to do anything to feed their families, former heroes and villains trying to restore their own statuses and carve out their own place of power in the new world, and so on.
Earth has become a desolate wasteland filled with people fighting desperately to survive, and the group are forced to make more and more difficult decisions along their journey, being forced to abandon people to the Anti-Venom hordes to save themselves.
(A lot of inspiration for this arc would come from the likes of 28 Days Later and other zombie films of that degree, with a bit of Mad Max thrown in as well.)
Along their journey, the group end up coming across a makeshift shelter made up by ex-heroes run by the former hero known as Toy-Toy, who makes herself a close friend to Mineta and treats him well, even subtly encouraging his perverse comments. Shoji and the girls can't help but feel uncomfortable around the ex-heroes due to the looks that they are giving them, but reason that they're heroes, and if nothing else, they're supposed to protect the innocent person, so they decide to take some time to rest in the shelter...
Only to wake up tied down and surrounded by the ex-heroes, with Toy-Toy dragging a confused Mineta behind with her.
Turns out, over the last two years of endless fighting and survival, along with the traumas of the previous year's endless crises, these heroes have devolved into violent and desperate Social Darwinists, who intent to kill Shoji for food and produce children for themselves and their future with the unwilling Hagakure, Reiko, and Yui. The female members of the ex-heroes, save for their leader Toy-Toy, had either fled or killed themselves to escape such a fate long ago. Toy-Toy herself has become increasingly deranged herself, having been grooming Mineta over the course of their stay to become just like the ex-heroes.
Mineta, however, is horrified by what he is seeing and freezes up, desperate to flee from the scene but torn between leaving while he can and abandoning the rest of the group. However, this pause is enough for Shoji to grab a nearby knife and stab Toy-Toy in the stomach, freeing himself and opening the floodgates, allowing the Anti-Venom zombies outside into the shelter.
The group free themselves in the chaos and makes a break for it, but not before they see all the ex-heroes either being killed or turned into more Anti-Venom zombies. Toy-Toy, rather than be turned into a zombie herself, calls the group murderers before slitting her own throat, allowing her to die herself rather than be turned.
The group flee and continue on their journey, further traumatised by what they have experienced. Mineta, meanwhile, is disturbed to know that the others, particularly the girls, hadn't expected him to betray Toy-Toy and her goons like he had. He is then horrified to learn that they had expected him to willingly join them and take part in their depravity, or at the very least abandon them all and save his own skin, the latter of which Mineta cannot deny, and the former of which he is shocked to learn that they had expected of him.
During their travels, Mineta and Hagakure begin talking with each other, and after the events with Toy-Toy and her gang, the invisible girl ends up becoming something of a confidant for the smaller boy.
During their travels, Hagakure confesses to Mineta about how uncomfortable he made the girls feel in U.A., as well as how he's been making the girls in their group feel now. Mineta asks why no one ever spoke out about it back in U.A., and Hagakure confesses that she doesn't know. The others never spoke up, so she didn't either. Group think, really. She supposed that she thought that the others had spoken up about it to the teacher when she wasn't around, and beyond that, they were all too busy fighting through the various crises that were hitting the country to focus on it.
This leaves Mineta with a deep internal conflict, as he is forced to look at himself, judge his behaviour, and do something that he really doesn't want to do and recognise his own flaws beyond his complex about his height and quirk.
Eventually, after a long and gruelling journey, the five ex-U.A. students finally make their way to the hidden sanctuary buried under Tokyo...
Only to learn that it's not a sanctuary. It is a trap.
And it's not one set by Cindy Moon.
It's by Aizawa, the Mister Negative of his universe.
Ever since his defeat at the hands of Momo, Mei, and S.I.L.K. two years ago, Aizawa, completely consumed by the Mind Stone and his Mister Negative personality, has been slowly building up an army of his own, luring hundreds of people to the dwellings of Tokyo and into its undercity (having been hollowed out by Kraven's Hunters over two years ago back when he was still alive to facilitate his hunts) and then use the Mind Stone to brainwash them into becoming his servants, much like he had done in U.A. before.
Now there is an army of Inner Demons under Aizawa's - under Mister Negative's - control, all ready to march out on their master's orders and take the fight to Cindy Moon - to Silk - and her Anti-Venom hordes and end her regime... and then spread out across the world and impose Aizawa's logic and rationality onto the entire world, which has only become more erratic and irrational over the last two years in exile.
It is one zombie apocalypse versus another, and the group of five are horrified by either threat. They try to talk Aizawa out of his mad plans, imploring him to give up the Mind Stone (recognising it as something that may be important to Cindy and her plans) and help them save the world instead of this mad, irrational plan, but Aizawa is too far gone now.
To him, everyone else is being irrational. He is the only one that can see things clearly.
Aizawa attacks them, and his army surges at them as well. The group flee, but the majority of them are cornered, unable to escape.
Mineta, meanwhile, is able to weasel his way through the crowd of deranged Inner Demons and find an exit out.
Here, he has the chance to escape to safety on his own... at the choice of leaving the others behind.
Mineta, in a split-second decision, turns himself around and attacks the crowd, allowing for the others to take advantage of the distraction and make a break for it themselves and sacrificing his own freedom and life to save them...
Only for Hagakure, at the last second, to grab him and haul him away from the Inner Demons, saving his life in turn.
Later, when they are fleeing Tokyo and skirting their way through the countryside once more, Hagakure confesses to Mineta that she hadn't expected him to save their butts back there. Mineta confesses that he hadn't been expecting that as well. Mineta then says that he hadn't expected Hagakure to save them as well, and Hagakure confesses that she hadn't been expecting that as well.
Soon enough, the group stop somewhere and set up a campfire for the night, and they begin to discuss their next move. The group is mixed at first, uncertain of what to do.
It is Mineta who tells the group that they need to fight back.
The group are stunned at first by Mineta's proclamation, but then he begins to explain. He's had a lot of time to think during this journey, a lot more than in the last two years of the constant struggle for survival, and he's decided that he's done living in the endless battle. He'd done living just to survive. How many of their friends and family have they lost along the way? How many have died? How many more are going to die?
This needs to end, once and for all.
The group are stunned to hear Mineta's declaration, as it is a complete reversal to what he's like at the beginning of this arc, constantly wanting to run from any fight that presents itself, and even more when Hagakure ends up taking Mineta's side in the conversation. Hagakure sees the good in Mineta. Whether it was always there or grew over time doesn't matter. It's there now, and she wants to see the good in everyone else as well. She can't do that when everyone is turned into mindless monsters and slaves to another person's will. She wants to see it, and she wants people to see her as well.
Besides, if it's not Cindy, then it's going to be Aizawa, and Hagakure doesn't know which option is worse.
With their resolve, Mineta decides to take up a new hero name: Trapster. Hagakure, meanwhile, takes up the new name of Ghost, making clear their intent to be the heroes that those that once wore that badge couldn't or refused to be.
And with Hagakure's backing, Shoji decides to back them, surrendering leadership to the two without a word. He's just as tired of the endless fight for survival as they are and wants to bring about its end, and he's utterly fatigued from the weight of those that have been lost under his leadership on his shoulders. Taking up the new hero name of He-Lix, he resolves to help Hagakure and Mineta save the world, no matter the cost.
Next is Reiko, who remembers the horrors that has befallen the world, from the Anti-Venom zombies to Aizawa's Inner Demons to the depraved monsters that Toy-Toy's band of ex-heroes and all the other raiders and survivors scattered across the world have become, preying on the weak and the innocent. She thought she used to know horror. She was a fan of it, after all, from books to films and so on. Yet now, she has seen and experienced true horror, and she has lost her appetite for it. She has no desire to see such things befall anyone else. Thinking up a new hero name, she decides on Psylocke, and resolves to end the horrors that have befallen onto the world.
And finally, there is Yui, who remembers the world that came before, all the saccharine sights and the corruption buried underneath, and decides that she wants to make a world better than what had come before. She wants to reclaim the meaning of the word 'Hero' and make something new out of it. She whispers the word Stature, and takes it up as her new hero name.
And so, in agreement, Trapster, Ghost, He-Lix, Psylocke, and Stature make their pact and begin their journey, making their way back to their old home and finding the allies they need to fight against the encroaching darkness, in the form of those who wear the symbol of the Spider in resistance of the black edge.
And then, with their help, they return to their old stomping grounds...
And set their remaining friends free from the vault that had imprisoned them.
This arc was inspired by an Ao3 comment that MadTitan9 left (at least I think it was MadTitan9) about the members of 1-A that now exist outside the system becoming vigilantes of their own with Mineta even taking up the name of Trapster like the Marvel character. Another part of this story was made because I wanted to give some light to some of the characters that haven't been given a lot of spotlight in this story as well as fleshing some of them out and giving them some much needed development, particularly the likes of Mineta (in this house we stan multi-faceted characters and character development).
Not only that, but I also wanted to remind the audience that Aizawa very much still exists, he is very much still Mister Negative, and he is very much still in the role of a villain with plans of his own. Oh, and he's very much still crazy.
The Mind Stone is still in play. All we need to do now is see to whom it falls to.
And then there are the hero names that the group pick for themselves, a mixture of heroes and villains from the Marvel universe. Trapster was an obvious choice for Mineta (another suggestion from MadTitan9, I think), especially when you see his old comic book costume. Ghost was an obvious choice for Hagakure as well, so much so that it didn't need much to any thought at all.
But the others were a bit more difficult. The problem with searching for an appropriate name for Shoji is that there are a lot of characters in Marvel with multiple limbs, and not a lot of their names were good enough to be used, either sounding too villainous or already being taken by characters already appearing in the story, and I didn't want to just turn him into another Spider-Person; I wanted him to have a goal and personality outside of the main circle of Spiders in this story. It makes the world feel bigger that way. I tried looking up characters based on octopuses and squids, but all I found was Squid, who I'm pretty sure has already appeared and died in this fic during the Kraven's Last Hunt arc. In the end, I eventually settled on He-Lix, a rather obscure character from the Mojoverse (according to the wiki, at least).
Reiko and Yui I wasn't sure about. I knew that I wanted to call one of them Psylocke, but I couldn't decide on who. Then I remembered that Reiko has a telekinetic quirk, and Psylocke is supposed to have telekinesis, so it was quickly decided that Reiko would become this universe's version of Psylocke.
After that was Yui. The problem is that is there are a lot of characters in Marvel who can change their own size, but not a lot (if any at all) can change the size of objects around them. In the end, I settle for Stature, as I saw her costume in the Ultimate comics (she's called Giant-Woman in the original Ultimateverse), thought it looked like a more stylised/simplified version of Yui, and from there it stuck.
And them taking on new hero names... it's not meant to be trying to bring back hero society as it used to exist. Our protagonists for this arc aren't blinded to the massive flaws that came with the past, not anymore. It's meant to symbolise them seeking to build something new, something better than what came before.
Also, I didn't write Mineta and Hagakure in this arc to be romantically inclined towards each other, but if you want to write them as such, then I say go for it. Who knows, it might be a fun ship to write about.
But, with all that said and done, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
Titanmaster 117 out!