Location: Thailand - Abandoned Hotel RooftopTime: 4:27 AM (Local Time)
The air in Thailand was humid, thick with the faint scent of saltwater and rust. The city had been on edge ever since the Nomu started attacking more frequently, and today was no different. I sat on the edge of the rooftop, staring down at the street below, watching as the life of the city went on — unaware of the storm looming over it. The Nomu had gone silent for now, but I knew it was only a matter of time before they returned.
I hadn't slept in days. Too much was happening. Too many lives were on the line, and I felt the pressure weighing heavier with every passing hour.
I turned my gaze upward toward the stars, their dim light flickering faintly against the black sky. My mind drifted. It wasn't the first time I'd found myself here, isolated, staring into the abyss. The shadows around me felt familiar, like an old friend I'd never fully let go of.
Dark Phantom was the name they knew me by in the underworld. It was who I was, a vigilant force of reckoning, a soldier with powers beyond comprehension. But I wasn't just Dark Phantom. I was Anos Midoriya, the older brother of Izuku, the son of a family who didn't know the half of what I had become. None of them knew what I was hiding, not even Izuku.
I pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket, the screen lighting up with a new message. It was from Peter Parker.
Peter: "We need you here. New York is falling apart. I don't know how much longer we can hold them off. Please, Anos. We need you."
The words weighed on me. Peter never called unless it was bad. Real bad. The Nomu had torn through New York in the past few days, leaving the top heroes battered and broken. I had seen the reports, seen the devastation on the news. The heroes were barely hanging on, their spirit broken and their resources stretched thin.
But it wasn't just about the Nomu anymore. It was about something deeper. Something worse. A dark secret that haunted me, something Peter didn't even know about — not yet.
"I can't go back there," I muttered under my breath. "Not yet."
I had promised myself that I would never return to the world I once knew. To the people who thought they knew me. To the heroes, to my family. They all believed I was just a soldier fighting for the greater good. But the truth was far more twisted than that.
I had been born under a different name in a different life, one that was cruel, unforgiving, and full of experiments. My parents, the ones I had once believed loved me, had sold me to science when I was nothing more than a child. They had allowed me to be altered, transformed into something I could barely recognize. I wasn't Anos Midoriya then. I was just a weapon. A tool.
The night I had died... I could still feel it — the cold, metallic scent of blood mixing with fire and smoke. I had been betrayed, discarded, left to burn. And when I woke up, it wasn't as a child anymore. It wasn't even as a man. I was reborn. But not in a way that made me whole.
The sound of my phone vibrating in my pocket broke me out of my thoughts. Another message from Peter.
Peter: "Anos, don't make me come out there and drag you back here. This is bigger than all of us. Come back to New York. We need you more than ever."
A sigh escaped my lips as I stared at the screen. He had a point. As much as I hated to admit it, the situation in New York was getting worse. The Nomu attacks were no longer just about destruction. They were smarter, more organized. Whoever was controlling them, whoever had a hand in all this, was pulling strings far beyond my understanding.
And I needed answers.
The weight of responsibility I carried had always been heavy, but now it felt unbearable. The world was on fire, and I was caught in the flames, both figuratively and literally.
I glanced at the phone again, biting the inside of my cheek. Peter wouldn't stop. He was too stubborn for that. And deep down, I knew I couldn't stay hidden forever. I had to face it. I had to face the truth about myself, about my past, and about what I had become.
But as I stood up, a cold gust of wind blowing across the rooftop, I couldn't shake the feeling that returning would expose me in ways I wasn't ready for.
There was one thing I knew for certain: Once I stepped back into the world of the heroes, I wouldn't just be fighting Nomu anymore. I'd be fighting myself.
The Nomu were only a symptom of a much bigger problem. And it was one I couldn't escape.
I reached for my phone once more, tapping out a reply to Peter.
Anos: "I'll be there soon."
I took one last look at the sprawling city below before I turned and walked toward the edge of the building. The time had come to face my past, and nothing would ever be the same again.