Family Secrets

Chapter 1: Losing a Father

The transport carrying the three Heroes was a few minutes away from their destination. There were reports of a secret research site in the arctic under attack by…something. The reports were sketchy, and the only clue they had was a five second video of some kind of creature attacking the researchers. All were assumed dead. Their mission: search for and destroy the creature and rescue any possible survivors.

The Heroes were Inga Svensdottir, Hero Name: Frigga, from Sweden. Quirk: Foresight. She was able to see the future up to two days in advance, or predict her opponent's movements, giving her great capacity for battle. She was a six-foot tall, 215-pound blonde-haired blue-eyed amazon of a woman dressed in fur-covered armor with a helmet and wielding a large battle axe, she had the muscles to use it quickly along with her shield. Then there was Antony Aureli, Hero Name: Hercules, from Italy. Quirk: Godly Might, he could lift up to 3000 tons and had the fighting prowess to match his mythological namesake. He was a dark haired and bearded man with bright green eyes, standing a head taller than Frigga and weighing a powerfully built 290 pounds. Normally he dressed in ancient clothing with a fake lionskin helm, but today he was dressed in a heavy coat, pants and boots suited for the arctic, his lionskin helm was the only part of his normal costume visible.

And finally, there was Midoriya Hisashi, Hero Name: Phoenix, from Japan, Japan's current Number Two Hero. Quirks: Fire Breath and Super Strength, he could unleash a blazing inferno up to 2750 degrees Celsius, 4982 degrees Fahrenheit, from his mouth and lift up to 70 tons. He was the largest of the three standing at an even 7 feet tall and weighing 350 pounds of muscle, he was the least dressed of the three Heroes, wearing his normal outfit of yellow boots and gloves with a flame patterned red suit and phoenix shaped helmet with orange cape. His cape could harden into wings, allowing him to fly with the help of an in-built jetpack.

As they traveled, Aureli and Midoriya conversed, they had worked with each other a dozen times before; Phoenix was a famous Hero for traveling around the world to assist other Heroes and was sometimes called The Symbol of Unity, in contrast with the widely recognized World's Greatest Hero, The Symbol of Peace, All Might. "Aureli," Midoriya Hisashi said in English, the three Heroes' common language, "That recipe for chicken gnocchi was amazing. My boy said it was the second-best thing he ever ate."

Aureli laughed, "Only the second best?"

Midoriya smiled, "Yeah, unfortunately my wife's katsudon is his favorite dish."

"Nothing beats Mama's home cooking," Svensdottir said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, nothing much can," Midoriya said, with a faraway look in his eyes. "I think this is the last time I'm leaving Japan, for a few years at least."

"You are giving up being a Hero?" Svensdottir asked, concerned.

"No way," Midoriya said, "But…I missed a few things. Things I can't relive. Like my last anniversary, or my boy Izuku's first steps."

"The anniversary wasn't your fault," Svensdottir pointed out, "That hurricane near Japan redirected a lot of flights."

"Still," Midoriya said, "I shouldn't have missed it. I swore I'd be a better husband and father than my father, but…feels like I don't spend enough time with them."

"ETA is in five minutes," the robot driving their transport said.

"Alright, we need to focus now," Inga Svensdottir said, using the rough voice when she had to be the Hero Frigga. "Remember, the primary mission is to locate and destroy the monster. Preferably intact enough to study, but we don't need to die capturing it." Frigga pulled out an iPad and reviewed the footage. From what they saw, the creature looked like a giant white gorilla with four arms, a large fang filled mouth, and an exposed brain. "Go for the brain, that's got to be its weakness," Frigga said.

"Alright," Antony Aureli said, with the loud voice of the Hero Hercules, "Let's get this monster!"

Their aircraft landed, and they all saw the remains of the research facility. Blood and pieces of human remains along with lab equipment were everywhere. "Let's go," Frigga said, "I'm saving my Quirk for the battle, so I don't know what is going to happen. Be alert."

"Right," the other Heroes agreed, and the three of them cautiously moved inside. Throughout the facility there were more scenes of destruction and carnage, equipment and body parts scattered around. "Bastardo," Hercules cursed as they passed what was left of a woman who had been torn in half.

Suddenly, Phoenix felt like there were burning needles driving into his skull. He grabbed his head, he had felt this before, too many times. "Hello, son," the voice of his Father said inside his head. Phoenix groaned as his companions asked, "What's wrong?"

"What do you want, you monster?" Phoenix said inside his mind.

His Father laughed, "Well, consider this to be my way of warning you. This is a test for your abilities. The monster you're about to fight is one that I created. Just like you're something I made. I made you naturally, and I made this creature in a lab. Let's see which of you survives." The mental image of his Father laughed once more, then left, and suddenly, the white gorilla monster crashed through a wall.

"Look out!" Hercules yelled as he pushed Frigga and Phoenix away just as the monster pounced on him. Hercules grabbed two of the arms of the white gorilla monster and stopped it dead in his tracks. Suddenly, lasers blasted out of the gorilla monster's eyes, straight through Hercules' head. "Antony!" Frigga and Phoenix screamed as their comrade's dead body was ripped into four parts by the four arms of the monster.

Frigga yelled as she charged the monster, axe swinging. The creature swiped at her, but she had used her Foresight to dodge its attack, and swung hard, cutting off one of the gorilla monster's arms. The creature roared as it unleashed lasers from its eyes, and Frigga barely blocked it with her axe. Phoenix ran at the monster and used his Super Strength to slam a fist into the monster's side, making it stop its attack.

The monster swiped at him, trying to grab Phoenix, and he barely avoided the grab, jumping back faster than most would think a man his size could. Frigga swung her axe into the creature's side, but the axe barely dug into its side before it grabbed her arm. The gorilla monster tried to bite her arm off, but Frigga kicked its mouth hard. The monster responded by twisting her arm, shattering it until her bones tore through her skin. Frigga screamed in shock and was smacked away by the creature.

"Inga!" Phoenix yelled and unleashed his Fire Breath on the monster. The monster roared in pain and ran away from them. He went to his comrade and saw that she was alive, but her arm was shattered, and she was bleeding from her skull, possibly from a skull fracture. "I'm getting you out of here," Phoenix said as he lifted her up. He ran out of the facility and heard the gorilla monster roar behind him. He reached the transport and yelled, "Take off now!"

The transport began to fly off, but then something hit them. Phoenix looked and saw that it was the gorilla monster, it somehow flew. "Che cazzo!" Phoenix yelled in Italian; his dead friend had taught him some good Italian profanities. The hatch was still open, and Phoenix activated his wings and jetpack as he jumped out. Phoenix saw the monster trying to tear a hole in the transport and yelled to get its attention, "Vai a farti fottere!" He flew straight at the monster and spun around in midair to land a hard kick to its head, making it let go of the transport.

The monster started falling, before a pair of giant wings sprouted from its back, and it went after Phoenix, blasting lasers from its eyes. "Merda," Phoenix cursed as he flew to avoid the deadly beams. The two opponents flew around, Phoenix moving and dodging as fast as eh could to not get blasted, waiting for a chance to unleash his fire. He saw his chance when the monster stopped for a brief moment, and flames roared out of Phoenix's mouth, right into the monster's eyes, burning them.

The blinded monster roared in pain as it started to flail around, and Phoenix flew at it determined to avenge his fallen friend with his bare hands. He cursed in Italian and Japanese and English and a dozen other languages he picked up traveling the world as he landed blow after blow on the monster's head. That was his mistake, as the monster suddenly wrapped its three remaining arms around him and squeezed him tight. Phoenix screamed in pain as he felt all his ribs shatter at once, piercing his lungs.

The monster grabbed his head with one of its arms, and Hisashi felt as his helmet was torn off his head. Phoenix blasted the monster's head with fire, and it squeezed him tighter as they fell, landing into a crevice in the arctic ice. They bounced around the walls of the crevice before finally hitting the bottom. The monster's grip let him go, and Hisashi got up, and vomited blood. Everything in him was in pain, but he knew he had to finish this. Hisashi went to the broken monster and grabbed its head between his hands.

He yelled out as he tore the monster's head off, then put it on top of its body and finished by blasting it with his Fire Breath, as hot as he could make it. He let his flames loose until he finally vomited up more blood.

Phoenix, aka Midoriya Hisashi, fell back and groaned. "Shit," he said in his native Japanese, "He got me good." He could already feel his body growing weak from his pierced lungs and internal hemorrhaging. He painfully reached into a pocket in his suit and pulled out his phone. Miraculously, it was still intact. He dialed the number on it, and his wife Inko picked up.

"Moshi moshi?" Inko answered. "Inko," Hisashi groaned, "Listen to me. The monster…I got it…it's dead. But…He got me good. I…don't think I'm going to make it."

"Don't say that, just hold on, I'm sure the transport will find you!" Inko told him on the other end. Hisashi felt his vision fade and said, "If it doesn't…know that you and Izuku made my life…meaningful. Before we met…I only fought against…evil. You gave me something, to fight…for… Tell Izuku…be…brave…"

"Hisashi!? Hisashi!? Answer me!"

One Month Later

The search for Midoriya Hisashi, aka Phoenix, had never stopped. As soon as Frigga was recovered, rescue crews had searched the area. Days became weeks, but they found almost no sign of him. And yet, Inko and Izuku did not lose hope that he would be found. Hisashi had been through terrible fights before, and he always managed to survive no matter what the odds. Some people even said he was immortal because of how many battles he had survived.

Inko was getting dinner ready, when there was a knock on the door. She opened it to see Nezu, principal of the great Hero School U.A. High standing there, along with All Might. "Has there been any word of Hisashi?" she asked them at once. All Might had found Hisashi on the streets years ago. The young homeless boy had pushed a woman out of the way of a rampaging villain, and All Might had brought him to Nezu afterwards. All Might and Nezu had seen something in Hisashi, and Nezu agreed to act as young Hisashi's guardian.

"Inko," Nezu told her, "The search for Hisashi…has been called off."

"No, no, you can't, he can't…" Inko said as Izuku walked over to see his mother start to cry. "Mommy…where's Daddy?" Izuku asked.

"The snowstorms are picking up; they can't continue the search. And, that part of the Arctic Regions has very little shelter, or food sources," Nezu continued. All Might lifted up a battered helmet, shaped like a phoenix head. "His helmet is all they could recover," Nezu explained as All Might wordlessly handed it to her. All Might was filled with sadness as he saw Inko and Izuku's tears, and he was filled with guilt.

He had encouraged Hisashi to become a Hero, he had seen the spark of goodness within the boy, despite his origins. Hisashi had exceeded his expectations and became almost as famous around the world as himself. And now, this was where his journey ended.

One week later

The funeral for Phoenix was a grand affair. Many people around the world came to express their grief for the fallen Symbol of Unity. Heroes of a dozen nations attended, including All Might, Cathleen Bates aka Stars and Stripes and Joseph Freeman aka Wolfheart from America, Frigga, Salaam from Egypt, Big Red Dot from Singapore, Maureen O' Connell aka Fae Queen from Ireland, Símon de la Cruz, aka El Negra Santo from Mexico, and many others.

All of them expressed their condolences to Inko and Izuku. Inko had to lean on her friend Bakugo Mitsuki as she tearfully accepted their good will, while little Izuku held on tightly to his mother. After the funeral, the Heroes shielded the Midoriya's from the press, paparazzi, and any other people who tried to talk to them. They owed their fallen comrade that much, to let his family grieve in peace.

When they reached their house, Nezu got tea started, while Inko and Izuku held onto each other and cried their hearts out. Nezu swore he would look out for them, to the best of his ability.

Alright, here's a few spoilers: Izuku is stronger in this AU, he still gets One For All, Midnight lives, no Mineta, and Izuku gets a harem eventually. This will be a long fic that will go all the way through My Hero Academia, so buckle up, this will take a long time to get through. I'm aiming to add a new chapter every Friday until its over.