A/N: Nearly 100 follows after only 3 chapters? That's gotta be a record. Thank you, everyone!

Tom2011: Well, I guess that'll happen soon enough.

NERO1002: There will be similarities, but not entirely the same. Partners, not sure. Honestly haven't thought about that. And probably not.

THEGHOSTOFSPARTA100: Well, I haven't the slightest. She'll probably be rather excited, though.

Omnipotent X: I tried to give him a new mentor because All Might wasn't really relevant early in this story. And like I said, I'm not sure how violent this'll get. I might have him kill off a few here and there, but no promises, honestly.

LordZarcon: Hope you keep enjoying it!

No, I don't own MHA or Marvel. Wish I did.

It had been five months since Izuku's and Kamui Wood's first meeting. Throughout that time, Izuku gained skill with his tendrils at a remarkable pace. By using them in everyday activities, he not only was able to control them better, but developed more control in the fine motor skills.

Not only that, but after a suggestion from his mentor of sorts, he discovered the tendrils were not just limited to his arms. He could grow them from his legs, chest, and even his back, all the while leaving his hands free to do other tasks.

"So just add a pinch of pepper…"

One of the mentioned tentacles extended from beneath his shirt and slowly reached towards the nearby stack of ingredients. Three finger-like growths emerged from the end and wrapped around a pepper shaker, which was dropped into Izuku's hand before it retreated into his back.

Learning how to use the appendages was difficult at first. He had to quite literally learn how to control extra arms, like he was transferred to the body of an octopus. But as time passed, the feelings became more and more natural to him.

"Stir well and add to rice… when was the rice mentioned?"

As he flipped through the cooking magazine, two tendrils grabbed one pot each and lifted them off the stove to prevent the contents from burning.

"Oh, here we go. Shouldn't be too bad. Hope Mom doesn't mind slightly overcooked vegetables."

Recently, his mother had been working later and leaving home earlier. Ever since he told her about how he still wanted to at least try to get into U.A., she doubled down on her efforts to financially support her and her son.

To make up for the stress he had indirectly caused, Izuku had only felt it fair to pick up as much slack around the house when he wasn't busy with schoolwork or out training with Kamui.

He gently placed the two pots back and reached for a clean one with a tendril while measuring out the necessary rice with his hands. Not even a minute later, a third pot was on the stove. The water was not quite boiling, so he read a few pages ahead while using two tendrils to stir the other two pans.

Clump thud

Izuku spun on his heel and was met with the shocked face of his mother. Two bags of groceries laid on the floor with some of the items spilling out.

"Mom, I can explain," he softly offered. The woman's eyes widened in panic as the three tendrils pointed towards her.

"What-what's going on? Are you Izuku? You look like him, but he's never been able to do this before. Who are you?" Her questions, laced with fear, sputtered out as Izuku made the tendrils disappear into his back and slowly approached his frightened mother.

"I'm sorry, I should have told you sooner. But, for some reason, I can do… well… this now." To make a point, he reshaped his left hand into a red, foot long version of itself for a few seconds.

"I was going to tell you once I had a better understanding about why I can do it, but I guess it's too late for that."

Inko stared in silence. Did Izuku have a quirk that required a very specific set of circumstances to appear? Or was this some kind of freakish result of that sludge that entered his body almost half a year ago?

"I'm sorry, but this is so much to take in. You've known about this but never told me? What if you got hurt with those? What if you accidentally hurt someone else?"

"I promise, I've never hurt anyone. That's why I've been meeting with Kamui Woods so much recently; he's been teaching me to use these. And I didn't want to get you worried until I actually knew how these worked."

Inko walked to the kitchen table and carefully sat herself down before taking long, deep breaths. Izuku fetched a glass of water, which he placed in front of her.

"Th-thank you."

Izuku stepped back to give her some space, and realized the rice was ready. Once he made sure everything else was prepared, he turned off the stove and dished out two servings of what he had been working on.

"Here. It's a simple stir fry with rice." Inko smiled and dug in.

"So, those things. How did you discover them?"

"I was at the beach and someone accidentally threw a ball in my direction. When I went to block my face, one of them emerged from my arm and caught it. That was also the same day I first met Kamui Woods."

"Do they hurt?"

"No. They just feel weird, given I'm growing extra limbs, basically."

"Well, I guess it's okay as long as no one's getting hurt. But if anything remotely bad starts happening, you need to tell me and we need to let Mister Tanaka know. This isn't normal, even in the world we live in."

"I promise, I'll tell you if anything bad starts happening."

The two ate and when they finished, Izuku washed the dishes while his mom turned on the news. Thanks to his new abilities, it only took half as much time as usual.

He opened his eyes and was greeted by darkness. Why did he wake up? He wasn't drenched in sweat, so chances were it wasn't a nightmare. He didn't feel sick despite having a full two and a half servings of dinner.

Maybe he needed to use the bathroom and he just didn't know it yet?

The trip from his bedroom to the bathroom was one he had made several times. He didn't even need to turn on the light in the hall. When he finally got in, he closed the door and turned to the toilet.

For just a brief moment, he saw his reflection in the mirror. But it wasn't him. He didn't see enough to tell what was different, but a basic instinct in his mind was telling him that the reflection was wrong.

When he looked back, he was instead face to face with his own reflection. Those green eyes, freckles, and mostly green hair stared back, perfectly mimicking anything he did.

"Hello there."

Naturally, he jumped back with a yelp at the voice. It was inhuman, nearly demonic, to put it mildly. But what scared him more was he had felt it come from his own throat. His own mouth had moved to speak.

The voice came from him.

He was shaking like a leaf. Most of his instincts were telling him to get out of the bathroom and rush to bed. But he was curious. He had to know more about what was happening to him.

Much like one would approach the edge of a crumbling cliff, Izuku slowly stepped back to the sink to look in the mirror. Once again, his own face looked back at him.

"H-h-hello?"

Suddenly, small red dots formed in his left eye. The spots swirled and grew until the entire left iris was a dark crimson. At the same time, all of the hair on the left side of his head darkened into a similar shade, almost like the color was bleeding from his scalp and into the strands.

Much like the other features on the left side of his head, his leftmost teeth slowly extended at the ends, which stopped and formed triangular points at the tips.

His fingers, which had been gripping the sink hard enough to go white, detached from the surface and slowly raised to his mouth, where they slowly traced the new teeth.

Just grazing the tip of his canine almost sliced his finger open.

"Wh-what the hell?" he muttered. This couldn't be real. There was absolutely no way this could be anything but some kind of dream.

"But it is real. And so am I."

Once again, he felt as his own mouth and throat moved without his will to produce the voice that was not his own.

"Wh-what are you? How are you doing this? Where did you even come from?"

Both sides of his face moved in accordance with his speech, but it felt like he only had control of the right side.

"Truthfully, I do not remember. All I know is I needed a body to share, and was given you."

"What does that even mean? I wasn't the first, right? There were others like-" He stopped when a certain memory came to mind. That one nightmare where he saw someone die from their point of view. The feeling of choking, the excruciating seizing; it all came back to him.

"You're not a 'cure', are you? You were some kind of creature that was experimented on? And I was a subject that lived, right?"

"You say 'experimented' like they were actually trying to learn about me. And I do not recall much from the others. I just know that you are suitable and I must remain attached. Otherwise, I'd be nothing more than a puddle with no real purpose."

Izuku took what he was told and put together what facts he could. First of all, this thing inside him was an actual, living being.

Everything Mister Tanaka had told him and his mother was a lie.

And apparently, this thing needed to stay with him.

"Why me? Why did I survive when everyone else died?"

"They were inadequate. You were viable. But I did not intend to kill them."

Despite the "kindness" behind the words, the left side of Izuku's mouth turned up into a sinister grin.

"But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it a little."

The blood in Izuku's veins froze. How was one supposed to take that?

"But… you're not going to kill me? Are you?"

"I have said multiple times that I need you. And you need me. From what I have seen, you are kind of a loser."

"I'm not a los-" Izuku nearly shouted before the words clicked in his mind. "What do you mean when you say 'what I've seen'?"

The left side of him produced a cross between a gurgle and laugh that came out as a hellish chuckle.

"I see through your eyes. I hear through your ears. I know everything you do, and more. You cannot hide anything from me."

"So, what do you want? You have a host that you don't kill by inhabiting. You have some kind of shapeshifting ability. Or at least, I'm guessing that's a result of you being in me. What're you going to do now?"

At his question, the being tilted their face down, like it was contemplating something. Izuku forced his focus to return to the mirror, and the thing spoke.

"I am not sure. Normally, I would seek prey and feast; it is in my nature. But you, Izuku, are special. You have so much empathy and care that it conflicts with my own desires. Part of me is disgusted by this emotional weakness of yours, but another part of me is intrigued by this new feeling. For now, I shall observe. But there will come a time where you will need me. Just as I need you."

Before Izuku could respond, the left side of his face returned to its original state. Two green eyes stared in disbelief as he waited for the reflection to change, but were rewarded with nothing.

For the first time since he was subjected to the slime in the facility, Izuku felt genuine fear. He wasn't alone in his body; that thought alone was enough to make his stomach uneasy. But something that apparently enjoyed watching previous intended hosts die?

"I have to tell Mom," he muttered to himself. He only got two steps out of the bathroom when a new thought hit him.

He lived. For whatever reason, he lived when the others died. If, by some miracle, Mister Tanaka actually managed to extract the thing from within him, chances are it would just be used on more people. How many more would die?

And that was if Mister Tanaka didn't lock him away in some observation cell. At this point, he could no longer trust the man, nor could he trust the Life Foundation.

And his mom, what would she think? She'd be utterly terrified if he told her "Hey Mom, I'm currently sharing my body with a potentially psychopathic life form that could take over me at any moment.'"

"I can't do anything. Or at least right now," Izuku whispered as he came to the rather dreadful realization. No matter how he looked at it, he was stuck in this situation.

So, he went back to bed. It was the only thing he actually could do at the moment.

That, and hope things didn't go south like birds in the winter.

To say he had trouble focusing in class the next day was an understatement; he was hit with a double whammy of mild sleep deprivation and constant fear that the one inside him would decide to pop out again.

Every time he saw his reflection, he ended up doing a double-take to make sure it was him, and only him, that he saw.

"Izuku Midoriya? Would you solve question four?"

The teen in question was rather violently dragged from his thoughts by his teacher.

"Uhm… three plus or minus the square root of 17, all divided by negative 2?"

"Very good. For a minute, I thought you weren't paying attention."

Izuku let out a quiet sigh of relief. Underneath his textbook, he had his personal notebook opened and was filling in any questions that came to mind regarding his body's new co-host.

Fifteen minutes later, everyone's favorite bell rang, indicating the end of the school day.

"Well, see you all tomorrow. Remember, the school year ends in just under a month and a half, so keep up on your studies," the teacher advised before packing up his own belongings.

Izuku, like every other student, merged into the halls and made his way to the front door. However, just two hallways short of freedom, he was roughly grabbed and pulled around a corner. Whoever grabbed him less than gently pushed him against the wall.

"I dunno what's been going on with you recently, you Deku, but whatever you pulled on Bakugo ain't going to work on us."

Three of his classmates; the one with large, sharp teeth, the guy with extendable fingers, and the one with ridiculously long eyestalks, stood in front of him like prison guards.

"I say we make up for lost time. If he still thinks he can be a hero, that is. Maybe Bakugo's giving him a break because he finally realized how worthless he is," the one with the long fingers sneered. He cracked his knuckles for emphasis, which the other two copied.

Izuku, not feeling as scared as usual, just looked down.

"Wow. He doesn't even have the guts to at least make eye contact anymore," the eyestalks one joked. He slithered his eyes just low enough to look upwards to meet Izuku's.

"The fuck...?"

Izuku's head shot up, revealing a frightening new look. His eyes, always so green, were just finishing an unnatural transition to a nightmarish red. Large chunks of his hair were going through similar changes, and his teeth had already reshaped into razor sharp fangs.

"What the hell?" the one with long fingers screamed. "When did you get your quirk?"

"Yeah! And why is it so freaking creepy?" the pointed tooth classmate added.

This wasn't how things were supposed to be. They were always better than their quirkless victim. But if looks were any indication, he was just about ready to turn the tables on them.

"How cute. Are the big bad bullies scared?" a raspy, gurgly voice mocked. Izuku, or whatever was piloting Izuku's body, turned to the one with the large teeth.

"Nice teeth. But I think mine are better. Shall we put that to the test?"

Izuku's body lunged forward and tackled him to the ground. Fleshy ropes wrapped around his body and pulled. The red-eyed kid looked at the source, which was obviously the classmate with the extendable fingers.

"That's a neat trick. But I have this…" Two dark red tendrils emerged from beneath the boy's shirt, and each grabbed one of the other bullies before pushing them against the nearest wall. All three kicked and thrashed, but none of the limbs holding them up budged in the slightest.

"I know class is out of session, but I think you boys could use a quick lesson."

Izuku's right hand wrapped around the throat of the boy that was still on the floor and picked him up with disturbing ease. At the same time, the two tendrils brought their captives in front of Izuku, whose face was giving off a pleased grin.

"Please don't hurt us! We'll leave you alone! We swear! And we'll never tell anyone about this!" the fingers classmate pleaded. His eyes were wide and tearing up, which was a close match to his two co-victims.

"Oh, but what if I want to hurt you? After all, you've put him through so much over the years. Personally, I think retribution is due."

"Look man, we're sorry. It was only because Bakugo told us to! Right?" the one with the eyestalks reasoned. The other two quickly agreed, knowing full well even Bakugo would probably be more forgiving than the being holding them up.

"And if Bakugo didn't tell you to, you would have left him alone? I call bullshit on that," the being questioned, his already threatening voice dropping to an even less unfriendly tone.

"But because I don't want to gain too much attention, I'll just let you off with a light warning this time."

All three boys' faces suddenly changed from terrified and pleading to thankful. However, the warning they were promised turned out to be tossing them into a row of lockers hard enough to leave three individual indents.

Without so much as a look back, Izuku ran out of the school at speeds he never would have dreamed himself capable of and quickly found himself bathed in the afternoon sun. The two tendrils on his back shot forward and grabbed a nearby building and pulled Izuku up into the air.

From there, the tentacles shot up and pulled in intervals until the teen was standing on the roof of a five-story building.

"You're welcome," the voice offered as if expecting thanks. The right half of Izuku's face returned to its normal self, leaving him with an asymmetrical set of features.

"'You're welcome'? For what? If they tell a teacher or the principal what I… what you did, I'll just be in more trouble. And Mom will freak out because I just told her that nothing bad was happening to me, and I'll probably be sent back to Mister Akio, who may or may not lock me-us in some kind of cell and experiment on us!" Izuku retorted with both fear and anger.

The entire experience had been weird. He saw, heard, even smelled everything like normal. But at the same time, everything was kind of a haze. He didn't feel any control over his body, only his mind. He had felt the sludge's urge to maim and possibly kill the bullies, but just managed to protest enough to stop that from happening.

"Well, then stand up for yourself next time. Remember, whatever happens to you happens to me. And I'll be damned if I have to live in a damaged body, even if I can heal it quickly" the other side spat, causing Izuku to groan. He slid off his backpack and pulled out a pencil and a notebook.

"Whatever. But while you're here, I have questions. What's your name? What do you eat? How can you even grow the tendrils and change my appearance?" Izuku listed off.

"Nosy guy, aren't you? But I'm not completely unreasonable. Let's make a deal, if you let me roam free with your body for at least thirty minutes a day, I'll answer any and all questions you'll ever have to the best of my abilities. How does that sound?"

"Absolutely not. Not until I can be sure you won't pull anything like what just happened. Remember, you may be able to take control of my body, but there are still rules and laws everywhere. If you try that on a stranger, you'll get us both arrested unless we can prove that it was necessary self-defense," the teen scolded himself.

"Fine. I promise I won't hurt anyone unless absolutely necessary. Do we have a deal?" The left side of his face irritatedly offered. Izuku's left arm lifted without his control and held the hand open for a shake.

"This is probably a bad idea," Izuku thought to himself. But if he was going to be stuck with this thing for who knows how long, he needed to be able to get along. He brought up his right hand and shook his left hand, and felt the left side of his face twist upwards into a smile.

"Pleasure doing business. Now, as promised, I'll answer those questions. First off, I do not have a name. My kind is sort of like the single-celled organisms of your planet. When we reproduce, the spawn just goes about doing its own thing. No parents to please, no siblings to argue with, no one but ourselves. However, I would not be fully opposed to using a word from your language as a name. Secondly, my diet is anything alive. When we bond with a host, we need to keep ourselves and said host satiated. However, we require a more… raw… selection."

"Wait, so you kill and eat fresh, living things?" Izuku asked in shock. Maybe he shouldn't have made that deal, knowing what the creature in him might do if left unchecked.

"Don't act so surprised. Everywhere on your planet, there are predators that hunt and prey that is hunted. No matter where you go, there is a food chain. And we intend to stay as high up on the chain as we can. Now, your last question. Our species has slight control over our forms. As you saw when we first met, I was but a puddle that could crawl. But when we bond, we gain the host's biomass, which we can manipulate mildly. However, you and I are a special case. When we first made contact, I entered through your bloodstream via an opening on your finger. I am now intertwined in your DNA. Because of that, we can do so much more than if I merely permeated into your being like my kind usually does."

"But that doesn't explain where the spare mass comes from. The basic laws of conservation state that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Why don't I shrink or deflate whenever you or I transfer part of my mass to form the tendrils? Not to mention the fact that combining with my DNA should have left more changes than what's showing."

Izuku paced across the roof as he spoke, completely oblivious to anything else around him. All he was focused on was writing what he was told and the logic behind his questions.

"And quirks do? From what I've seen in your memories, there are plenty of instances where quirks stray away from those laws of conservation. Your idol, All Might, for example. How can he be so strong when he has relatively little muscle mass? Sure, he has big, beefy, tasty looking biceps, but even they should only have an upper limit of, say a ton and a half if his muscle density is thrice that of yours. But even if his muscles are abnormally dense, there should be a limit to his strength before other factors come into play, like weight, flexibility, dexterity, bone strength and density, and so on. Or what about your friend Bakugo? You mean to tell me that you're perfectly fine with how his hands have specialized glands that only serve to produce an explosive substance? Natural evolution would never end with that result. And even if it could, it would take millions, maybe billions of years for the genes to match up perfectly to allow a human to do that."

As much as he hated to admit it, the other him had a point. Quirks were weird, and really were just getting weirder as time went on.

"Fine, fine. It's already late, so I should be heading home." Izuku put away his notebook and pencil before throwing his bag over his shoulder.

"You know, we could take advantage of that deal and get home faster."

Two tendrils emerged once again from beneath Izuku's shirt and lifted him off the ground before proceeding to walk him to the edge of the building.

"Fine. But absolutely, positively no hurting anyone. If anyone so much as speaks to us, you give me control and let me deal with it," Izuku demanded.

"Spoilsport," his left retorted before spreading to cover the right side of his face as well. The twin tentacles bent like legs and pushed upwards at an angle, launching Izuku into the sky. Building after building passed by Izuku's vision as he watched his body traverse the city with ease. On the rare occasion that a vantage point wasn't available, the tips of his fingers would turn red and a familiar red substance would spill out of his pants and cover his shoes. When put together, they gave him the ability to crawl completely parallel to walls without worrying about slipping to the ground.

Only seven and a half minutes later, the two tendrils lifted him up and over the railing and landed him right in front of the apartment door. Moments afterwards, Izuku felt himself gain full control as his face reverted to his usual appearance.

"This time, I'll actually thank you," he whispered to himself before walking into his home.

"That couldn't have happened. Deku doesn't have the balls to stand up to anyone in the first place. And even if he did, that doesn't explain anything else."

Katsuki Bakugo, on his way home, had realized he left his math book in his locker. Sure, the teacher couldn't do too much to punish the soon-to-be first student to attend U.A., but his mother would have his head if she found out about a missing homework assignment.

The possibility of that statement being literal was a bit too high for even him to risk, so he begrudgingly turned around and returned to the school.

What he saw though also could have taken his head in a physical sense. Izuku, or at least someone that looked like Izuku, not only fought against three of those extra classmates, but seemed to scare them shitless. At first, he thought the tentacles coming from under his shirt were admittedly frightening to a degree, but his voice soon took the honor as "Izuku's scariest new feature".

Then, there were those eyes. Red pools filled with malicious intent that Bakugo could sense even from peering over a corner. He watched and listened as the three extras babbled excuses and begged for mercy, only to be thrown against the lockers with three quick bangs that died just as fast as Izuku ran off.

Izuku "Deku" Midoriya, the quirkless freak he had known for his entire life, had suddenly become something completely different.

"Guess I'll have to talk to the damned nerd if I want any answers. Either way, there's no way he's taking my spot as the number one hero," the blonde told himself as he too found himself entering his own home.

Well, same as always, hope you enjoyed! Leave a review if you wish! And have an awesome day!

Later!