The Tick vs... MY HERO ACADEMIA! Issue #1

When I was four years old, I thought my life was over. Everyone else in my class had developed their quirks, but not me. My mother, kind soul that she is, took me to a specialist, to see why I hadn't developed my quirk just yet. I still remember his words 'Sorry, kid. Ain't happenin'.' I was one of those few people in this world of quirks that was... quirkless. 1 out of every 5 people. Of course, finding out that placed me among some one hundred and forty million people did nothing for my broken heart.

But my dad coming home from work overseas? To check in on his little guy? That was... that wasn't so bad. Until a few days later and my life really was over. We were at the park when a villain attack happened. My dad, he... he didn't make it. And there was nothing I could do about it! Even when the villain came up to me, all smiles and laughter. 'Hey, what's that behind yer ear? Oh, wait. It's nothin'! Just like you!' The doctors called it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Depressed Anxiety. Which is a special way of saying that I was blaming myself for not having a quirk that could save my dad.

Eight years of therapy, special schools, and so many many many drugs and I was... not better, but I was well. I was no longer considered a danger to myself. I still took one day at a time, but I was cleared to go to a regular middle school. Meeting kids my own age, kids that weren't broken. You could imagine my excitement to find that the same middle school was the same that my best friend from childhood, Katsuki Bakugo went to this school. And you could imagine how my heart fell when he turned out to be the school's bully. And the first thing, after 8 years of being apart... he calls me worthless, useless, nothing. I heard that in my own head enough times. I didn't need to hear it from him.

It was after that first, grueling week, though... that my life changed.

Izuku Midoriya was passed out on his bed. The mental, physical, and mental exhaustion of the week had taken his toll and he was out like a light. To think that his best friend since... forever, turned into a monster. It was enough to make him weep if he had any tears left to cry. A conceit from his mother was a cellphone. If he ever felt like he wanted to go home or needed to talk, she was only a number away. Or if he was ever in danger, to call for help. Or needed to contact his therapist.

It was not supposed to receive phone calls, and yet here it was. Ringing loud enough to wake the boy, half asleep he picked it up, wincing as the light burned his eyes and looked who was calling.

"What? Unknown number...?" In his daze, he answered the phone. "H-hello?"

'I have a collect call for Izuku Midoriya! It's HEROISM, son! Do you accept the charges!?' The voice on the side of the call excitedly stated.

"W-what?" Was this real life? Was he getting pranked?

'C'mon, kid... get outta bed and meet me outside! This town has a mighty need for JUSTICE!'

"I don't know who you are, and don't call me again." He promptly hung up his cell phone and fell back to sleep.

Outside, at a street corner, at a payphone, a tall man in a bright blue costume hung up the phone.

"Literally hung up on his literal call to heroism... literally." He clicked his tongue a few times. "Plan B it is!"

Not ten minutes later, as Izuku Midoriya finally reached the deep slumber he needed... only to be awoken again with a start as icy cold water was splashed upon.

"No need to thank me, old chum!" And standing there, at the foot of his bed... was a seven foot tall man in a blue suit. The same voice that called him on his cellphone.

"I... am the Tick. Have the fine tuned reflexes of an Olympic level jungle cat. The strength of 15 or maybe 20 men. Imagine that, a crowded bus stop of men. But my most important power... is that when Destiny talks, she talks to me and I listen." He let his words sink in. There was a super hero in his room talking to him. "She says Hi, by the way."

Wait, what? "Wait, what? What are you talking about?" Not as dazed but still just as confused, the soaking wet boy looked at the man that woke him.

"Izuku, my boy, Destiny has sent me here to this Land of the Rising Sun. And Destiny had decided to make you my guide! Come, friend, there is a storm of evil and villainy brewing, and only we, the Weathermen of Justice, can forecast it!" He suddenly leaned in too too close. "Look at that, a regular three pound universe between those ears. With your smarts and my everything else, we'll go far!"

And that was how I met the Tick. At first, I fought every step of the way. I thought I was going crazy, insane, that I finally broke again. 'Ha! You're not going crazy, you're going sane in a crazy world!' The Tick... was... unusual, his approach to heroics was off the wall, but the fact was, he was Nigh Invulnerable. I still remember that first night... staring at the Yakuza safe house.

"Wait, wait, wait! You can't just go in there... look at that! There's like 12 guys standing out there." Izuku pointed out to his kidnapper. He was being... hysterical? He wasn't sure what to call it, but he needed to use logic on this... person.

"Really? Neat. A baker's dozen of wickedness, ready to satisfy the hunger of the righteous!" This was not working.

"If you go after them now, the boss isn't here, right? So he'll just have 24 guys here and whatever they're doing will still continue." There was a moment, as the blue man stopped, and pondered.

"Hmmm... so, my young friend, you counsel... finesse. Hmmm, finesse." He thought about it, and thought about it some more, as Izuku held his breath.

"I've thought about it and... oh, look... a limo!" And like he said, a limo did show up and out of it looked like... well, Izuku didn't watch many gangster movies, but that did look like a Yakuza boss. "Excellent! And so with a mighty cry of justice on his lips, the hero makes the first move!" And Izuku watched in HORROR as the Tick leapt towards the safe house, shouting, of all things, spoon!

All of the sudden, watching the Tick work, I was 4 years old again, watching that same video of All Might saving all those people. Gun fire. Quirk. Weapons. Everything bounced off of him and laughed the entire time. He was as beyond those gangsters as a person is beyond an ant. He left them tied up in re-bar. He asked me to call the police, as he made sure all the drugs and weapons were out and open for them. 'A hero's work is never done, old chum! Let's see what else this night has to offer!'

And so it happened. The next night and the night after that. I went out with the Tick, helped him figure out a tactic and approach, or at least told him about what I could deduce of a villain's quirk. The Tick's tactics seemed to boil down to punch it now, punch it later, and punch it some more after your done. It... worked. And the speeches, the speeches that didn't make much sense, but inspiring all the same.'Fighting evil and villainy is a basic ham and cheese sandwich! Once you start piling on watercress and avocado and low fat veganaise, you take away from the core truth of the sandwich! JUSTICE!'

Two weeks into this... glorious madness, my choice was made for me. If I was to be a partner to the Tick... if I was to keep up with him... if I was to be a Vigilante, then I needed a costume. I needed a name. I needed so much more then what I had. There were no options open to me, the Tick certainly wasn't capable of creating a super suit for me, he couldn't even tell me where his costume came from or whether it was a costume. 'Am I never naked... or am I always naked...?' That was... an odd conversation.

But Destiny, as the Tick said, had worked her powerful hand to make my bed of the future. It always sounds cooler when he says it, but long story short, one weekend of patrolling left us on a train headed out of Mustafu. Other then having to deal with other villains and having to get back home before my mom was too worried, I did meet with one Mei Hatsume. An... interesting girl to say the least and after the two of us helped rescue her parents... was more then happy to at least set me up with a pair of spring heeled shoes so I could keep up with the Tick.

"Is it weird that we're taking the train back home?" Izuku Midoriya asked, sitting next to the Tick. The train car wasn't empty, this was of course, Japan, but it was early early early morning and honestly, everyone was avoiding the two of them.

"What? Nonsense! Trains are the lifeblood of a nation! Bringing people and goods from one end to the other! We sit in one of the red blood cells of this great nation!" Everyone was looking at them, causing Izuku to sink further in his sleep, his brand new pair of shoes in his lap.

"And besides, you made a new friend! If you're to continue on this path of heroism, someone both brilliant and eccentric to provide your gear will be exactly what you need!" He looked over Izuku. "Because lets be honest, my young charge, your might is located in that three pound universe behind your eyes and in your heroic heart!"

"I know that, Tick. It's not the powers that make the hero, it's the hero that makes the powers! It's just... I've been thinking... do you think I could go to a hero school? UA is the top school in the country and I live in the same city." He looked up at his... mentor? His hero!

"PFFFFT! Hero school? Of course not! Why do you need to go to school to be a hero? You think I went to some fancy shmancy super power prep school? Nah, you don't need that. You got the best teacher one could ever ask for! Lived experience!" He ignored everyone staring at us still.

"Besides, we still have to talk about your hero costume and name, chum! I'm thinking Aphid! It's thematic, and like an aphid, you're green and suck." The tick crossed his arms and nodded once.

"I... I... suck?" Izuku could feel the tears coming. That was the worst thing he was ever told by the Tick. It was right up there with worthless and useless.

"Absolutely, my boy! You suck up all the bad and deliver the sweet, sweet nectar of JUSTICE!"

And so I became Aphid. The Vigilante Partner to the Tick. We were the crew at the Hero Cafe, serving up double sized portions of Righteousness! I kept in touch with Hatsume, and she sent me a few more gadgets to compliment my shoes. A hooded sweatshirt made out of bullet resistant cloth, a pair of gloves with a taser function. Even a mask that would totally deflect a baseball bat. 'Just don't make it a habit of getting hit in the face, and you'll be fine.'

Little did I know where this vigilante life was going to lead when not two months later, we ran into our first Professional Hero...