A/N: Well, finally back into writing for the time being. Hopefully it hasn't been too long since I updated.
I do not own MHA or Marvel.
Thraggor: Yeah, definitely not now, but maybe later. We'll have to see.
Monster King: Glad you think that despite how long some chapters take to get out.
"Woah there, folks! Things just got heated!" Present Mic excitedly announced, followed by a vocalized "Ba-dum-tiss."
Todoroki, still as a statue, silently eyed his opponent. Somehow, despite everything his father had put him through and years of promising to never use his fire, Izuku had gotten him to unleash the half of his quirk that he absolutely despised.
"There it is, the potential you're not showing anyone. The part of you that you're too scared to use."
Todoroki felt the shock start mingling with rage inside him. Was Izuku just taunting him? Was this just some game that he was playing as revenge for challenging him in the changing room?
"Do you even realize that you were two or three more attacks away from dying? Your body can only take so much cold, even with a natural resistance."
And now there was concern thrown into the mix. What was Izuku planning?
"Do you really want to end up like Toya? You think that'll show your dad anything?"
Todoroki raised his arm and shot out a plume of flame, so confused and angry that even years of ingrained instincts to only use his ice powers were forgotten for a moment.
He hated how good it felt. He hated that the heat was soothing the biting cold that had latched on to him for a good portion of the match. And he absolutely despised that part of him wanted to use more fire just to burn away the rest of the chill coating his right side.
He saw Midoriya's form change in response to the incoming attack. Red matter spewed from beneath his skin to cover him and was burned away just as quickly. The substance, which had always demonstrated incredible durability and strength, ashened almost instantly when the bursting flames contacted the matter.
He could hear both Izuku and Scarlet screaming and returned to his senses enough to stop the attack. The billowing smoke dispersed and revealed his classmate covered in burns that would require hospitalization in any other circumstance.
Instead, Izuku smiled at him in a startlingly friendly manner as the charred flesh seemed to pull itself back together until it looked like nothing had happened at all.
"Look, Shoto, I still understand that you don't like his fire. But this isn't his, it's yours. You don't have 'Hellflame,' you have 'Half-and-Half'."
Izuku stepped towards his classmate, who looked ready to attack at a moment's notice.
"You don't have to be your father. Just this once, give it everything you have. Show the world that you're not 'Endeavor's son,' that you're 'Shoto Todoroki'."
The teen looked at his left hand, a small wisp of fire lighting from the tip of his pointer finger. Several emotions flashed across his face. There was anger, despair, hope, and a brief moment of acceptance.
"This can't end well for you," the boy announced as his left side ignited into a glory of orange and yellow. "After all, I've seen what fire does to you."
"Yeah, that's just the nature of the business," Izuku replied with a grin that morphed into Scarlet's unnatural smile.
The beast's right arm extended in length and widened where the hand would have been, forming a makeshift shield before charging forward. Todoroki, seeing his opponent give it everything that could in the situation, allowed himself to let forth a volley of fire.
The use was of his own will; no survival instinct or sudden rage drove him. Just respect for a classmate that had probably saved him from accidentally killing himself with his own quirk.
The shield held for only a few moments before breaking apart, only to be repaired and replaced by more of the crimson substance that composed Scarlet's being.
With a sudden push, Scarlet leapt at his opponent with claws stretched ready to grab, only to be met with a thick wall of ice.
Fire and ice filled the arena as Scarlet used multiple techniques to attack in return. For minutes the two traded blows as Present Mic and Endeavor shouted encouragements.
The two had separated and stood several feet apart, showing different signs of wear and tear.
"Midoriya, you really are a strange one." A small smile graced Todoroki's lips, the first smile Izuku could remember from the teen.
"I wanted to beat you with my ice. I wanted to show my father that I didn't need his…. that I could win without fire."
Todoroki took three steps back, leaving his right foot just inches away from the boundary of the arena.
"I still despise him. I want to hurt him, but I think this might be a better way."
Todoroki lifted his left foot and placed it on the other side of the line.
"Todoroki is out of bounds! Izuku Midoriya wins!"
All Might stood in front of the three students on the podium. He approached Tokoyami and Shinso first, who were sharing the third-place spot.
"Both of you have done well. Tokoyami, you and Dark Shadow fought valiantly and with great teamwork. I know you will go far as a hero."
Tokoyami silently bowed and allowed the Symbol of Peace to drape the medal around his neck. Dark Shadow eagerly swiped at the shiny medallion, and Tokoyami allowed his companion to entertain himself instead of telling him to compose himself.
"Shinso, I understand you have a disliking of the hero students and your own quirk. But every quirk has its purpose. You might not be in the hero classes now, but that does not mean you cannot be a hero in the future. I'm sure if you can brighten your outlook, you can achieve many great things."
Shinso nodded, visibly unused to praise, especially from someone as influential and renowned as All Might, and bowed to allow the medal to be placed around his neck. Once All Might had moved on, he gently lifted the prize and rubbed it with his thumb, introspective and deep in thought.
"Young Todoroki. You have much to learn if you wish to become a hero, but I believe you already learned an important lesson today." The man held up the medal, and once more a recipient bowed for the medal to be hung. "Your father is a good hero, but I can already tell you will go above and beyond him when your time comes." The man ended the praise with a gently pat on the boy's shoulder, noting the lively glint in the boy's eyes.
Then he stepped towards Midoriya, golden medal shining in the sun and waiting to be given. Midoriya repeated the motion of the three before him, and felt the weight of his reward drop onto his neck.
"Midoriya, one of these days you're going to give a villain a heart attack," the Number One hero remarked with a chuckle. "But you and Scarlet, just like Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, are an amazingly great team. If you keep up the hard work and practice, I can't see anything stopping you from becoming one of the best heroes I've ever seen."
Izuku, looking to be on the brink of tears, gave a big nod at his lifetime idol, cherishing the prospect of becoming someone even All Might would be proud of.
The greatest hero in Japan turned away from the students and addressed the crowd.
"I would like to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. Your attendance and trust in us after what happened at the USJ truly means the world to me and the rest of us at UA. But now the festival has ended. Everyone, Go Beyond!"
"Plus Ultra!" the crowd cheered in unison, causing Izuku and Scarlet to flinch at the sudden volume change. But in the heat of the moment, and the rush of having won his first tournament, nothing in the world could bring them down now.
He was finally home.
The day had been nonstop excitement and strain. He would do it all again right at the moment if he was given a chance, but he also wanted to just relax in his room after a long day.
But first, there was something he needed to do. His mom was still in the house, but at least he knew he was free from potential listening ears.
"We need to talk."
The all too familiar shape of Scarlet's head extruded from beneath his shirt and faced him, noting the unusual seriousness in his tone.
"I know you still have secrets. I know you probably want to keep them, but just today I found out about another weakness you have that could get us killed later if anyone decides to use it. So I need you to tell me everything you know about your kind."
Scarlet cocked his head to the side.
"There is much I do not know."
Izuku, clearly about to protest, was cut off.
"As I said earlier, when we first started talking, my kind does not tend to stick in groups. We go off to find hosts that are suitable for us. It has been so long and I have forgotten much, but I do remember floating through space. The heartless vacuum puts our kind into a sort of cryosleep until we either find a planet with life or simply die slowly without even realizing."
"I remember landing on a small rock that flew by and burrowing inside, letting it protect me from the harsh environment. Eventually, I landed on Earth and was scooped up by Tanaka and Drake. They experimented on me. Kept me locked in a glass prison for years. I don't remember what I was like before, but I do know that over time, I grew resentful. Bitter. Enraged. I wanted nothing more than to find a suitable host and tear down every last wall of the facility."
"None of the hosts they subjected me to were good enough. So many attempts ended in failure for both of us, but I tasted an inkling of revenge when I saw Tanaka grow frustrated with each failure. I wanted nothing more than to irritate him more."
"Then, I was introduced to you. And I was ready for another failure. But instead, I found that there was finally a suitable host. I embedded myself into your DNA to hide. I knew that they would not find me with their simple x-rays and scans. Unless they decided to inspect you at the genetic level, I was as good as gone to them."
"Doing such cost me more than I would have expected. I slipped into a dormant state, not entirely aware of anything, yet not exactly asleep. Clearly though, my presence made itself known as mild changes developed in yourself over time."
"Then that day on the beach, when you first tapped into my powers accidentally, I began to reawake. I began to observe you long before I was able to make myself known. How kind you were to others without reason. How you and your mom loved each other. How you pushed yourself to be better in any way you could. I guess you could say you changed parts of me too. Not all at once, but I feel very little of the hatred I used to feel for this planet."
"And that is my story. I know it answers none of your questions about my species, but I hope that telling you everything I remember can make up for it."
Izuku sighed and deemed it necessary to take a minute to digest everything. Scarlet was right; it answered none of his questions, but at least the symbiotic being had told him as much as he could recall.
"What do you think the odds are that another of your kind lands on Earth? And do you think they will be friendly, or not?"
As he spoke, he walked towards and opened his closet, revealing a stash of assorted chocolates that he grabbed from every day. As he had promised, the entire stash was up for grabs, and Scarlet was more than happy to grab almost everything with several tendrils that engulfed the sweets and leaked out wrapper after wrapper, each one as clean as could be.
"Unlikely. The fact that I am here is a one in several million chance. I cannot say that they would be friendly, but at least we could deal with them if necessary."
"Do you suspect they all have the same weaknesses as you? Or do you think it changes from individual to individual?"
"It's possible that each of my kind would have different reactions to things that do or don't bother me, but most of the time, a species has a shared reaction to outside stimuli. Be it heat, cold, poison, or even blunt force, humans would react the same way without taking quirks into consideration."
Izuku nodded in agreement and caught the sound of his mother calling him for dinner.
Scarlet may have been fed, but he had not realized until that moment how hungry he was himself.
A good distance from UA, a man huddled over a screen. A man with a large, beak-like mask that covered a large portion of his face.
He watched as a boy with green hair altered several of his own body parts in various situations. A pair of wings here, a lot of tendrils there, even a transformation into something entirely new.
He could see why one of his underlings had recommended he tune into the sports festival. A quirk like this would be mostly useless when it came to his mission, but not entirely useless.
Plus, the sender had left a note mentioning the possibility of the boy joining the Eight Bullets if he was deemed not worth kidnapping for his quirk.
He was certain his little group of societal rejects could stop anyone that tried to interfere with his goal. But then again, maybe one more bullet in the magazine would be useful. Heck, the kid was even young enough to be Eri's older brother. Maybe a sibling figure in her life would help her get her powers under control and stop erasing his goons from existence.
But even if he decided to take the kid in, he had far too much attention on him for the time being. And he clearly had a family that was paying for him to go to UA. A sudden disappearance would raise more than a few questions, and ever unnecessary risk was exactly that; unnecessary.
So Overhaul made a mental note of the boy and shut off his computer.
It was time to see if he could make any more progress with Eri's quirk.
A/N: Well, let me know what you think. A little shorter than usual but I'm juggling a few ideas in my head and hopefully I don't forget them.
Have a good day everyone. Take care!