Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

Chapter 1: Origins

Izuku

I knew that I was different from the others at a very young age. It was a hard truth embedded into me by the other neighborhood kids. The Quirk-less Wonder, they called me. It was true, in a sense. I was scrawny and weak, so obviously I wasn't born with a powerful mutant-type quirk. I couldn't manifest flames, or summon lightning, so we could cross out emitter-type too. Wasn't transformation-type quirk either, as far as I could tell, although I had tried countless times. Really, my quirk seemed to be the fact that I had no quirk. In this world of superheroes and supervillains, that was a rarity. Enough to set me apart from the others.

And, well, you know how kids are. I remember acutely how Katsuki Bakugou used to take advantage of my weakened status to push me around. I never blamed him for it. I still don't. Because beyond my hope to be a hero, I understood one thing very clearly: the weak have no say in anything. So I took the abuse and the scorn with my best watery imitation of the All Might smile, and always patted my dirty, muddy self off before coming home so my mother wouldn't worry.

Ah, my mother. She was a sweet woman, and I loved her to bits. She tried her best to cheer me up, but I suspect she knew what was really going on. She never said anything, but sometimes I caught her quickly dabbing at her eyes when she thought I wasn't looking. I hated seeing her cry, so I always gave her the biggest smile I could and a huge hug, telling her about my day and how much fun I had playing Hero with the other kids. We both knew it was a lie, but she played along.

My father… well.

Anyhow, I was different from the others. Then my fifth birthday came up. It… was kind of a traumatic memory, so to say. I had invited all the kids in my class to my birthday party. When the time came, no one showed. I sat there at an empty table, dumb paper hat on my head, waiting for the doorbell to ring. One hour, two hours. My mother called all the other parents, but they were either busy or just didn't pick up. I had never seen her so frustrated she was about to cry. I wanted to console her, seeing that. No one should ever cry on my behalf, especially someone as kind and loving as my mother. I wanted to give her a big smile, tell her it was okay. But there was a weight in my chest, like my heart was being gripped by a large fist. There was pressure behind my eyes, and a twinge of acid in my nose. I couldn't breathe. Why? Just… why? There was an acute pain in my chest, slowly getting worse. I gripped my chest, fingers clawing into my shirt, but it wouldn't alleviate.

"Mom…" I croaked, looking up at her. She made eye contact, and seemed to immediately sense something was up. "Izuku, what…" I didn't hear the rest. The pounding in my chest seemed to extend upwards into my head, like someone had taken a battering ram inside my body. Before long, I blacked out from the pain.

Green

When I came to, I was lying on a bed, staring at a white ceiling. Besides me, men and women in white lab coats and stethoscopes around their neck were busy talking in hushed, excited whispers. I strained my ears, but could only pick out a few words, "Second heart… hormone activity not seen in any… no quirk?... further tests…"

My mother was quick to notice my awakening, having stayed by my side the entire week. That's right, I was out for a week, during which time my body somehow managed to grow an entire new heart. There was a tiny, wrapped box on the table next to me. "Your friend Katsuki came over to visit you," Mom had said, " said he felt guilty for not coming to your party." Somehow I didn't believe that. Most likely Aunty Mitsuki found out and threw a fit at Kacchan. But regardless, I grabbed the gift and unwrapped it gently. There was a card attached to the ribbon that held the wrapping paper together,

Dear Deku,

Here's your shitty gift. I only grabbed it cause I thought only someone pathetic like you might still be playing with dolls. You're probably crying cause no one bothered to come to your dumb party. Anyway, if you die then I'll have to come back to get this. Which will be a huge bother cause I already have one. Got it?

Signed,

Fucking me

Within the wrapped gift paper was an All Might figurine, from his Silver Age. This was a rare collector's item. It wasn't in mint condition, though. I could tell the cardboard box had been opened before. And All Might himself had tiny minuscule scratches on his yellow boots. It was almost like… someone had put a toy they played with often back into a box and tried to pass it off as it was a new purchase.

My mom gently grabbed my attention away from the figurine,

"Izuku dear, the sensei has said you're all good to go, so put All Might away for now, alright?" She stood up from the chair she had been sitting on besides my bed, and exchanged an undecipherable look with the doctors in the room. We gathered our effects and left.

The next week, we came back. "Just a check-up," Mom said, "it's just procedure."

The week after, again to the hospital. Then the week after that. Eventually, the hospital visits became a weekly excursion. Once a week, Mom would drive me to the hospital, and we would be visited by a kindly old doctor named Dr. Ookado. He would run a bunch of tests on me that went right over my five-year-old brain. The process took maybe thirty minutes, and then we would leave. Before leaving, Mom would stop by the check-out counter, and the receptionist lady would hand her an envelope. A few years later I would find out it was money. She had been getting money from the hospital for letting them research my body. Now, before you freak out, it wasn't like she was using this money for herself. She had been saving it all in an account set aside for when I was older. Never touched a dollar of it.

Weeks became months, and before long, years. I was a child, but even I began to notice the changes in my body. Firstly, my height shot up like a bamboo shoot. I was heads and shoulders above anyone else in my class, including Kacchan. Wounds I got from scrapes and falls healed in seconds, and my blood was a brighter shade of red than anyone else's. Sometime around my eighth birthday, I stopped needing sleep. Well, sort of. I still need to, but I could go a long time without. From what Dr. Ookado explained to me, I was shutting of parts of my brain so I could function longer. Like a bottlenose dolphin.

At this point even the densest child would have questions. So I sought out my mother, one Saturday morning, ambushing her while she shuttled around the house with a laundry basket in hand. She took one look at my petulant face, hands crossed at my hips, and sighed. By this point I was already taller than she was. "I guess it's about time you knew the truth," she said.

For years I had, unknowingly, been the subject of a global study. Scientists from all over the world studied my case, the first example of a mutated human without the quirk metagene. It raised all sorts of questions about the nature of quirks, and other scientific mumbo-jumbo that went over my head. Ironically, I was known to the general public as the "Quirk-less Wonder." Kacchan would probably laugh his head off if he heard that one.I was a medical mystery because new organs were still popping up in my body, out of the blue. I dealt with this information like any normal person would: I immediately searched up myself on the internet. There were countless medical journals about me, and I begun to read about myself. Many terms flew over my head, but I persevered. It was exciting. My dreams of being a hero were inflamed once more. For the next six years, I spent pretty much most of my free time learning everything I needed to know in order to keep up with medical journals about myself.

At fourteen years old, I met my hero, All Might.

Green

I hummed a happy tune as I walked my way home from school. We had just gotten our career aspiration papers handed out today, and of course, I signed myself up for UA. One of two in my class, the other being Kacchan. No one was surprised at our decision, of course. We were easily the two strongest members in our school, him with his Explosion quirk, and me with my 'Power' quirk. The teaching staff regarded the two of us as shoo-ins for UA, even though some of them were a bit worried about Kacchan's personality.

I walked into a tunnel, the same tunnel I've walked for the past six years on my way home, ducking my head down a little to avoid hitting the "Maximum Height: 2 meters" sign, a few steps past a manhole.

I stopped. Something was … wrong. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck tingled, and everything was in sharp focus. I knew this feeling. This… danger sense, I felt it many times back in quirk training camp. I was being watched, and by someone with hostile intentions.

Unbeknownst to me, a dark green mud was rising out of the manhole cover behind me. Sickly yellow sclera emerged from within the sludge, as the villain bared it's sharp, ivory teeth in sadistic glee.

"Invisiblility cloak… size M." It mused.

The moment I heard the words, I lunged to the left, just in time to avoid the lunge from the villain. It looked like a mass of green mud with teeth. Lots and lots of teeth.

"And who are you supposed to be?" I asked, " A new villain?"

It bristled in anger. If mud could bristle, that is. "A new villain? How rude. I am the Sludge Villain. My quirk, Sludge, allows me to be immune to physical attacks and also hijack other people's bodies. Now, stay still. This'll only hurt for about forty-five seconds, and then it'll be all over."

Saying this, Sludge Villain shot a wave of sludge at me. I glanced around quickly while my mind raced, trying to find something that could help me. Immune to physical attacks, huh… this was bad. I was a physical attacker through and through. I need something to hold him off with until I can escape. My eyes naturally landed on the manhole cover Sludge Villain emerged from. It was a potential weapon… however, the problem was that it was right by Sludge Villain. I would only have one shot at this.

I dodged the wave of sludge, unslinging my backpack in the same movement, and chucked it at Sludge Villain's eyes. Midair, notebooks and pencils fell out of the bag, and luckily, the corner of one such notebook managing to nail right into the yellow sclera of Sludge Villain, causing it to roar out in pain and anger. I sprung towards the manhole, covering the distance in less than a second, and hooked a finger through one of the manhole holes, lifting up the metal circle with ease. I observed and roaring villain with a critical gaze, I noticed that when he attacks, the mass of sludge on his main body seemed to lessen. This means that the sludge he controls is finite. If so, I just have to whittle it down slowly.

I changed my grip on the manhole cover, holding it in one hand, like a fan, and started slapping Sludge Villain. With every strike, I gouged out a part of Sludge Villain's body, spraying sludge across the tunnel walls. It seemed to work, as Sludge Villain's mass decreased slowly. It wailed in pain and anger, lashing out at me with tendrils of slime, but those I batted away too with the manhole cover. To anyone else watching, my arm would have looked like a blur, gouging away at Sludge Villain at blinding speeds. Sludge Villain couldn't even react, all the way until it was whittled down to just a puddle of mud on the ground with two, pitiful yellow eyes staring up at me.

"Please, I'm sorry, just let me go…" It wailed. I ignored it, and continued batting away at other pieces of sludge that kept trying to recombine with the main body. That was the scene All Might arrived to.

"I AM HERE… observing a strange scene?" The giant hero glanced at the scene in abject confusion. A green-haired teenager batting away globs of mud on the ground with a manhole cover. I'd be confused too.

It took a bit of teamwork, but eventually the number one hero and I managed to trap the Sludge Villain in a plastic bottle. "Good work, young man!" The blond hero grinned at me, blinding white teeth included, "You should be proud of what you did. Not many pro heroes could've dealt with that villain. What's your name?"

I gulped. This was my chance to impress my idol. "Izuku Midoriya. Sir."

"Well, young Midoriya. You've impressed me. I'll be sure to mention you as a critical factor in the arrestment of this villain."

"Thank you sir."
"Remember, anyone can be a hero. If more people were to be like you, the world would be a better place. Goodbye!" With that said, the giant of a man jumped off into the distance.

"WAIT! I still… had a lot of questions." Well, that was a wasted opportunity. He was right in front of me, too. I should've at least asked for an autograph. Sighing in disappointment, I picked up my bags and left the scene.

Green

"Izuku! You're on the news!" My mom pointed to the TV in shock. On the screen was All Might speaking in an interview, "If it wasn't for that brave young man, I wouldn't have caught this villain. In fact, I arrived onto the scene after he did most of the work. As a hero, I'm ashamed, but I'm also very impressed." Having said that, the American Hero turned to face the camera directly, "Young Midoriya, as a reward for your brave deeds, you are invited to a VIP, all-expenses paid trip to I-Island, chaperoned by yours truly. HA HA HA!"

My jaws fell wide open.

This has got to be a dream…

AN: New Author. I've been browsing for a while now but I'm not sure how everything works. Looking forward to writing so R&R. Work is not beta'd.