He supposed that it wasn't really fair to feel surprised. He was almost eighteen now - he wasn't a child anymore - and it wasn't realistic of him to still daydream about becoming a Pro Hero.
Maybe it was time to get serious.
=== === === === ===
"…no… sorry, but I don't think you can become a Pro Hero without a Quirk".
=== === === === ===
He swallowed the lump in his throat.
It wasn't fair to be angry.
Or hurt.
All Might hadn't said what he had to be cruel to him, Izuku was certain of that. He was the world's number one Pro Hero. He probably knew more about the life of a Pro Hero than anyone else in the world, and when he'd asked his question, the older man hadn't laughed at him, or mocked him for what he said, or said anything in a way that sounded mean spirited. Izuku had simply asked him his question and All Might - the World's Symbol of Peace and Justice - had taken a moment of his time to give Izuku his honest response.
He'd seen the injuries on his side. All Might had told him how painful they were, and how much he was struggling with them, even with all of his power.
The man responsible for more lives saved than any other man in history had said that, in his professional opinion, a Pro Hero needed to have a Quirk, and it was obvious that it would be better to have a strong one.
Izuku didn't just not have a strong Quirk to begin with, but he didn't have any Quirk at all.
Izuku belonged to the small group of humans that currently made up less than a total of twenty percent of the Earth's population: Those born without a Quirk.
The Quirkless.
Those few that had no active Quirk factors in their DNA, and they were dwindling in number every day. Most of the Quirkless population belonged to the older generations, and the percentage of people being born without a Quirk decreased every day.
He belonged to a dying breed, and in just a few short years, they'd probably be extinct.
Izuku didn't know anyone else his own age without a Quirk, just himself, but for the moment, at least he still remained, still living, still breathing.
Still dreaming.
He'd always wanted to be a Pro Hero.
Ever since he could remember, all Izuku had ever wanted to do with his life was to become a Pro Hero; to be just like his idol, All Might. He wanted to show up on people's worst days, there to save it with a fearless smile, and announce his presence to the world and let them know that everything would be all right now, because, "He was here!"
Even now, the idea managed to warm his heart, before the bitter pain of All Might's honesty washed over him.
"…I don't think you can become a Pro Hero without a Quirk".
Besides, who was he joking?
Him? Becoming a hero?
It was almost laughable.
Heroes were those few courageous people that were dedicated to the act of saving others. To putting one hundred percent of their efforts into their work and finding the courage to see it through to the end.
Izuku couldn't even find the courage to join a gym.
He'd thought about it, more than once, but when he'd looked up the nearest gym online and clicked into the online application section, even just the task of writing 'N/A' into one of the forms under the section titled, 'Quirk', had left him feeling too anxious to continue.
If the people at the gym would be like the people at school, then he didn't think he wanted them knowing what his Quirk was.
He'd thought, (he'd hoped and dreamed), that when he'd left Aldera Junior High School behind to begin attending Aldera High School, that things would get better. Aldera High School had a wider intake area, which meant different people in his classes, and the high schools were more closely monitored and inspected, leading to higher standards, including standards for discipline.
To his relief, it had started out that way. The teachers were stricter, but they seemed fairer too, and his old school bullies were kept in check, at least for a few days, while they tried to find their bearings and understand the school's new status quo, but then, as creatures were wont to do, they managed to adapt.
For Izuku, while Junior High had been a depressing place, filled with bullies and teachers were apathetic - on their best days - with his escapes home being the highlight of his day, High School had become the exact opposite. Now school was the safe haven in between opportunities for his bullies to target him.
He might not have joined that gym, but he'd gotten a lot better at running.
But the worst of his bullies - by far - was Katsuki Bakugo.
A long time ago, they'd been in preschool together, and he'd called the other boy, 'Kacchan'. His mom had said that it was a cute nickname, but Izuku was pretty sure it was because he hadn't been able to pronounce Katsuki back then. Their moms had become friends and over the years, they'd stuck the two boys together, trying to foster a friendship between them, but everything had changed one the day when Kacchan gained a Quirk and Izuku didn't.
Izuku couldn't pinpoint the exact moment when their friendship had ended. It was something that had happened between the ages of four and fifteen, but all Izuku could remember was that one day he and Kacchan had been sitting in the sandbox together, trying to build a replica of the Mighty Agency, and on another, Bakugo had destroyed one of his notebooks, and pushed him over towards the window, telling him - baiting him - to jump out of it.
=== === === === ===
"You know, if you really wanna be a hero, there might be another way. Just pray that you'll be born with a Quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building".
=== === === === ===
He remembered the words he'd said perfectly. Every word down to the exact tone. He had them seared onto his soul, and when he'd heard them for the first time, and he'd been so angry: at the words themselves, at the boy who'd spoken them, at the bystanders who'd laughed.
At himself, for not doing anything to stop them.
He'd made it all the way home, wrapped up in his anger, clutching his burnt notebook to his chest, like it was the most precious of lifelines, before bursting into tears.
He hadn't even realised that his mom was home, when he made it.
Even now, he couldn't remember what else had happened that day; in his mind, it was all one long blur, but the day had ended with his mom shedding as many tears as he had, an angry phone call to her friend, (the details of which escaped him), and his mom making the decision to pull him out of school, making him finish the school year at home.
She'd complained to the municipal and prefectural boards about the incident, and while she'd done her best to keep all of the details from him about what had happened, Izuku did know that the school classrooms had cameras, with audio.
He didn't know what the fallout was, but his former homeroom teacher had been fired; the principal had been placed on a permanent review; some of his former classmates had also come forwards with stories of their own, about some of the things they'd seen and done, and some others had transferred to other schools in other districts.
When he'd eventually started at the same high school, Bakugo's attitude towards him had gone from cruel to outright vicious, but he was smart enough to not do anything stupid. His mom had told him to do his best to avoid him, and he did, and Izuku was thankful, knowing that she'd done everything possible in her power to get him away from his old classmates, including ensuring that they were in different homerooms.
He'd heard her complain to herself, more than once, about not having the money to send him to a really good private school, while for reasons unknown, Bakugo's parents, Aunt Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru, who both made a lot more money than she did, insisted on sending him to the local public one.
In fact, other than the lawyer mom had needed, the Midoriya Family's one big expense that had come from Izuku's breakdown, was his mom sending him to see a therapist.
It was her one, non-negotiable rule.
He'd argued against it, naturally: he wasn't weak; he didn't help; he could just do his best instead, but his mom had refused. She was so upset and afraid, especially after what had been said, that in the end, Izuku didn't have the heart to keep arguing with her about it, and had instead agreed to a single session with Doctor Akatani.
One session had turned into two, which had eventually become three and four, and now, three years later, Izuku still went to see him once a month.
It had helped too.
He hated admitting that, but they'd tried a combination of different medicines and behavioural treatments, including Izuku taking up sketching, and they'd that he'd not only liked drawing, but that he was good at it. Just last week, Doctor Akatani had been talking with him about his university applications, and had even handed him a few brochures for art schools, to see if Izuku was interested in taking his hobby in a more professional direction.
But even then, all Izuku could do was thank him politely for the brochures and place them in his bag, while still thinking about Yuuei.
The university specialising in the training of Pro Heroes and other hero and crime-based professions. The number one ranked school in the entire world.
Izuku's dream school.
And now, it seemed it would remain that way.
Just a dream.
It was hard not to sigh, as he ducked out of the alleyway he'd been using as a shortcut to skip out on whichever group of bullies would decide to try and harass him this day, and turned out onto the main street.
Only to immediately walk into someone.
For a moment, Izuku thought that he'd walked into a wall, with the way he'd bounced off of the mass of solid muscle that made up the man's chest.
"Sorry! I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking-"
"Be gone boy".
He looked up, swallowing nervously, as he took in the man's visage. He didn't even want to guess at what his Quirk was called, but it had left him standing at over seven feet of solid scarlet skin, crammed into ill-fitting blue jeans and a black hoodie, but leaving his feet on display, looking like a pair of solid rocks, as he left out the shoes, choosing to walk the streets barefooted.
Whatever response Izuku was going to give him died as a squeak in his throat, as their gazes met and Izuku found himself looking into the sharpness of his yellow eyes, and the man bared his fanged teeth in response to whatever apology he was anticipating.
The other man opened his maw, but before he could say anything, an explosion went off behind him.
"What the-"
The explosion had come from a nearby street, but it wasn't a single explosion. It was a series of explosions, the noise gaining the attention of everyone in the street, as the afternoon sky lit up with a series of flashes.
"Hmph".
The bigger man walked off, away from the explosions, and thankfully, Izuku himself, as he found his attention being drawn back to the bangs and flashes of whatever was happening. It could be a villain attack, and if it was a villain attack, then that could mean that there could be Pro Heroes on the scene.
Despite everything, Izuku couldn't help but want to check it out.
He didn't even realise he'd gotten back to his feet, before he ran off towards the source of the explosions.
=== === === === ===
Katsuki Bakugo was not having a good day.
It had started, as usual, with his alarm waking him at exactly six o'clock. From there, he'd began his morning with his usual routine of bodyweight exercises, before showering, dressing and eating his breakfast.
He'd worked out, years ago, what his ideal breakfast was for training. He started with a bowl of oats, fresh milk and a piece of fruit, along with a protein shake, before brushing his teeth and heading for school. At school, he only drank still water, before having another protein shake at lunch time, and then, a protein rich meal when he came home.
After he'd swallowed down his breakfast, he'd began the walk to school, keeping an eye out for Deku. That bastard might've already ruined his odds of getting in Yuuei with his whining bullshit, making it sound as though he was some kind of villain. Auntie Inko had refused to even see him since Deku had come out with his bitching, which wasn't really a great loss, he supposed, even if the idea of someone just not wanting to see him grated, and the old hag that he called, "Mom", had been weird with him ever since.
She'd gone quiet with him afterwards, barely looking at him whenever she needed to speak to him. She'd eventually found her volume again, but ever since, the way she looked at him had changed.
It was weird.
Still, it hadn't stopped his goal.
"I'm going to surpass All Might and become the greatest and richest hero of all time!"
The path to true fame and fortune; the path to greatness; to be remembered as the most famous person of all time, went through Yuuei. It went through that damn university, through the Pro Hero charts, through the Number One spot and eventually ended with him stood atop the entire world.
King Explosion Murder.
King of the World.
He grinned just thinking about it.
The university's written entrance exams were in January, less than nine months away, and you had to pass those before you were invited back to take the physical tests. That meant keeping perfect grades in school, (which he had), maintaining an elite level of fitness, (which he did), and acing the exams when the time came, (which he would).
He had it all planned out.
There were better schools out there than Aldera High School. Schools that already had proven links to Yuuei and other elite universities, but despite his parents' repeated offers of sending him to one of them, he'd declined them all. When he became the new Number One Pro Hero and parcelled up his life story to sell to the highest bidders, he wanted to be able to offer them something unique.
Why settle for being the famous alumni of a school that had produced several Pros, when you could design your own backstory, creating a situation where you were the greatest ever student of some no-name minor league school. Just like All Might, King Explosion Murder would come from nowhere, with nothing to his name, to be recognised as the greatest Pro Hero of his (or any other) generation.
And the damn Deku had almost ruined that for him too.
Now he had a discipline record with his old school. He'd kept his business out of the High School ever since he'd made the change, but there was a permanent note in his file about what had happened. That could be enough to make sure that he never even got to see the inside of Yuuei.
And it was all that Deku's fault.
Just the thought of it made his anger bubble up in his chest.
Gritting his teeth, he couldn't completely contain his growl at the thought of the unfairness of it all, as a passing stranger chuckled. He turned his glare on the man, some tall fucker with bright red skin, trying his best to hide his head under the hood of his black jacket, his as his hands cackled with his explosive power, but the giant simply continued, amused and unbothered by the display.
That made him angrier, and seemed to amuse the man even more, before he turned away and continued on his way.
He turned back around, letting some of the extras that usually followed him around catch up, as he ducked into one of the back alleyways, which would let him get home faster. He barely noticed them as they followed, only the sound of one of the flicking their lighter gaining his attention.
Still wound up, he felt his palms light up, as he turned his attention to them.
"Cut that out you idiots!"
His palms cackled, punctuating each word, as the duo rushed to toss the freshly lit cigarettes on the ground.
"Sorry-"
"-e forgot-"
"If you idiots get caught here, it'll go on my record!"
He huffed, as they ground them out beneath the soles of their feet, "Bad enough that Deku's shit got on there - I don't need you two idiots making things worse!"
"How about this…"
"Wha-"
"A meat-sack with a powerful Quirk?"
"Who the hell's there?"
His gaze moved from side-to-side, scanning the alleyway, only for his eyes to settle on nothing, as his missed the shadow beneath him slowly slithering upwards.
"I think I'll make you MINE!"
=== === === === ===
Whatever was causing those explosions had already drawn quite the crowd, by the time Izuku arrived on the scene. He could already see that the Pro Hero, Backdraft, was making good use of his Quirk, Water Pump, to help keep the civilians out of harm's way, while others were busy trying to fight the goo monster that was apparently causing the commotion.
It was an odd Quirk, he mused, a Quirk capable of creating goo that could then be detonated. It reminded him of Kac- Bakugo's Quirk, Explosion, with how he used his hands to detonate the sweat his body produced. Because of it, his sweat had properties similar to nitro-glycerine, which was itself a combination of his parents Quirks, Acid Sweat and Glycerine.
Combination Quirks like that were rare though, he knew from his studies, as most people inherited either of their parent's Quirks, sometimes with a slight variation, but it was very rare that the child inherited a perfect combination of both.
Bakugo really had won the genetic lottery on that front.
And so, apparently, had the villain in front of him.
The goo and ooze sloshed about, each motion using more and more firepower against the Pro Heroes on scene, and Izuku did his best to make note of them all. He recognised Death Arms, who seemed to be leading the hero's efforts, and who had been the local Pro Hero for as long as Izuku could remember. Getting to see Kamui Woods in action, one of the industry's fastest rising stars, helping to get people to safety.
"What's happening here?"
He didn't even realise that he'd spoken aloud, until one of the men stood beside him turned to face him.
"It's Slushh! He's back and he's taken some kid hostage!"
Slushh? Izuku frowned, because that simply didn't make any sense.
The Sludge Villain: Slushh was the local bogeyman. He was officially classed as a D-Rank Villain, barely worthy of a mention on even the local news, but he'd been causing havoc around Musutafu for several years now. The biggest risk that the police and Pro Heroes had with him wasn't in finding him, it was with containing him, not because he was strong, but because his Quirk, Sludge Body, gave his entire body the properties of a grey ooze. It was why he was so surprised that All Might had managed to contain him earlier, when he had a body that allowed him to constantly escape capture by slipping through small gaps, down sewer grates and on rare occasions, even into people in order to escape capture.
But none of his abilities allowed him to cause explosions.
Unless… the hostage he'd taken wasn't a hostage, but instead was another attempt at possessing somebody else's body.
Using the gaps, Izuku began to push his way to the front of the crowd, an uneasy feeling in his stomach, as he started to get a clearer and clearer view of what exactly was happening; of the random movements of the sludge that weren't random, but were a group of people trying to break free.
And worse than that, he recognised them.
One had Extending Fingers. Another had Bat-Wings. And from the palms of one of their hands, Explosion.
The Quirks of some of his schoolmates. They had the same gakuran uniform, plain black in colour, and even from where he was standing, Izuku could probably have made out the expressions on each of their faces.
As if in response to his thoughts, parts of the sludge opened up, and for a moment, Izuku found himself staring across the street, directly into the eyes of his worst tormentor. He didn't know what he expected to see, whether it was his usual level of disdain, his awful sneer or that snarl that made him resemble a rabid animal, but never would have Izuku have expected to find fear in his eyes.
It was anathema.
For as long as he'd known him, Katsuki Bakugo didn't do fear.
And yet, there it was, written in his face.
Katsuki Bakugo was afraid.
And no one was doing anything about it.
Death Arms was hanging back, alongside Kamui Woods; Backdraft was holding the crowd at bay; Mount Lady was stood above them, still a street away, incapable of using the narrower roads to pass through; and with what he knew now, All Might was at the end of his limits and nowhere to be seen.
Nobody was doing anything.
People needed help - needed saving - and nobody - not a single damn Pro Hero - was doing anything to help rescue anybody who needed saving.
Before he realised what was happening, he'd already moved to the front of the crowd and was through the barricade.
"Hey! Wait!"
"Kid, stop!"
"Stop him!"
He didn't need to think, his body just moved on its own.
He dodged the ooze as it leapt towards him with the skill of dodging a thousand bullies. He remembered everything he'd ever written on Slushh, including his biggest weakness, and as the villain came around to face him, Izuku drew his backpack from his shoulders, stuffed to the brim with textbooks, sketchpads and equipment, and hurled it with all his might at the villain's exposed eyeball.
His aim was true.
Slushh howled in agony, his form receding, even if just for a few moments, but that was all Izuku needed to grab hold of one of Bakugo's arms and start pulling with everything he had. The others did their best to latch onto Bakugo's shoulders, and free themselves, even as Bakugo forced his head free, allowing him to speak.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"I don't know", Izuku told him, terror and frustration in his tone.
"You idiot, you-"
He choked back a sob, "You just looked like you needed saving!"
Bakugo looked like he wanted to scream, but he never got the chance, as a fresh wave of the god awful sludge rushed up to meet them, recovering the three boys in its grip.
Izuku found a fresh wave of that awful muck rushing towards him, looking to bury him alongside them, but Izuku knew that he had to move. If he stopped now, then he was as good as dead.
He leapt forwards, reaching out, as he tried once again to free the other boys. He couldn't afford to fail now, not if he wanted to save them.
He had to do it.
As he leapt, his hand outstretched, the sludge rose up to try and stop him, and in the chaos of it all, Izuku, along with everybody else, failed to notice the tiny green light that was flying directly towards him.
'Izuku Midoriya of Earth, you have the ability to overcome great fear-'
"Wh- what?"
Izuku snapped his eyes shut, as around him, the area was bathed in a bright, green light.
And then, directly in front of him the body of the Sludge Villain: Slushh, exploded.
'-Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps'.
=== === === === ===
Author's Notes:
Welcome to the universe of Earth-2187, home to (among many other things) the Green Lantern Corps.
Keeping with the series convention of naming things and places after Star Wars, the Earth Designation comes from a recurring number across Star Wars universe, but I would say most recently and most notably, the designation of the stormtrooper FN-2187, also known as Finn. A trained soldier who stood out for his individuality and the desire and will he had to do things differently.
And for those of you curious about which Green Lantern's story that I'm basing this on, I'll tell you that it's going to primarily be Hal Jordan, but with a strong influence from Kyle Rayner's style and Jessica Cruz's mental health issues, with a few bits of the others scattered about, but enough for you all to enjoy something that's hopefully unique.
Mikumo Akatani appears in this story, continuing my plan of featuring him as a pseudo-OC in each of the different worlds of the Deku-Verse. This time, on Earth-2187, Doctor Mikumo Akatani will maintain his original planned appearance, which can be viewed on the My Hero Wiki page for Izuku Midoriya, and this time around, he fills in the admittedly, very minor role of Izuku's therapist.
So, as we know, the Sludge Villain in My Hero Academia is all he's ever referred to as. On Earth-2187, his real name is redacted, as all villain names are for legal and private purposes, but he's known to the world (and the media) as the Sludge Villain: Slushh. I've reappropriated his canonical name as his villainous epithet and given him the name Slushh. Slushh is a minor character from DC Comics, and was a member of the Sinestro Corps.