Chapter 3: We Are Mega Man

For once, Izuku regretted never coming to school. He didn't know where any of the rooms or stairs were, so the building felt like a maze. His mind only briefly lingered on that thought though, as he was still running on an adrenaline high.

He knew for a fact that he couldn't face the Villain at all. Even if he had a Quirk, it was illegal for anyone without a Hero License to fight Villains or get involved in national disasters. Besides which, the Heroes were struggling just to hold him back, so he must be very dangerous.

The hallways alone were an indicator of how serious the situation was. Lockers had been smashed, floor tiles cracked, and doors were held in place by half their hinges. There were also snapped roots and blobs of slime around, too.

Maybe he could be a distraction, so the Heroes could rescue the rest of the hostages? No, that would endanger him and make their job harder. Any overeager bystanders trying to do that would only cause more trouble.

The only real action he could take was to find and get anyone out without the villain noticing (and maybe the heroes too, preferably). But… could he do that if they were being held captive by the villain?

BOOM!

A loud explosion of brute power shook the building and tripped Izuku mid-run. He could still get out, he realized. Still escape. He would get reprimanded by the cops for being reckless of course, but he would be safe.

But then who would make sure Ushijima and the others were safe? That thought alone kept him going.

Drip.

A blob of gunk landed on the tile next to his foot. Slowly, Izuku fearfully raised his head, almost expecting the villain in mid-leap. But it was just a large pile of sludge splattered over the ceiling. He nearly choked down a scream upon seeing a wide-eyed student staring right back at him. His mouth was gagged but he looked so scared that he would blend in further with the muck if it would help him hide. And he wasn't the only one. It was almost like some sort of horror movie… No, no time to think about that.

As Izuku turned the corner of a hallway, he ducked back. He could see the heroes fighting the villain further down. He recognized the backs of Kamui Woods and Death Arms right away (slender with black and brown and a bodybuilder with yellow-black striped construction equipment respectively), and he didn't need to be told that the big imposing figure of dark green sludge was the bad guy.

Okay, there they are.

There was a rising, sinister laugh that he could assume originated from the sludge villain. Against his better judgment, Izuku peeked back around the corner to see what was happening. "Your Quirks suck! Not even worth a warm-up!" the sludge villain boasted. His voice was as gargled and warped as his intended motives.

"Keep talking like that, smart guy," Death Arms growled back. "It'll make the satisfaction seeing you behind bars that much sweeter."

"'Behind bars'? You and every other heroic wannabe haven't caught me in years!"

"Big talk, coming from a guy that ran from All Might like a whipped dog yesterday," Kamui Woods said. "You may defeat us, and may even slip away from All Might again, but sooner or later justice will see that you pay for your vile actions!"

The sludge villain chuckled. "That's what a lot of brats and heroes said to me too… before I killed them."

"BASTARD!" Death Arms roared, charging with one of his thick arms reared back.

The sludge villain recoiled, his entire body rippling as if ready to disperse. But then something started to emerge. A black uniform, then arms and hands…

Izuku nearly gasped. Kamui Woods flinched and Death Arms stopped dead in his tracks. Ushijima!

"Go ahead and hit me! Unless you want to put a hole through this brat's fat gut too!"

"You monster," Kamui Woods muttered darkly, already extending his arms into long-reaching branches. "You kidnap children and then hide behind them?!"

The wooden appendages skewered the villain's body and around Ushijima's. They clenched together as if forming a fist to pluck him out.

"Not this time!" the villain shouted. His body pulsed as he formed an enlarged slimy limb shaped like a hammer with a curved edge over the face. Then he swung down and effortlessly snapped the limbs like they were mere twigs.

Kamui was shocked, but his partner luckily gathered enough wits to jump at the boy while the arm was down. Seeing this, the villain pulsed again like a vise, and was suddenly covered with large spikes that skewered out. A good number of them pierced Death Arms just before he was in arms' reach.

Izuku fought the urge to scream as he saw the hero lose blood and make an awful sounding cough. Kamui luckily pulled him back to keep a safe distance between them and the villain, but the situation was looking very dire now.

"Even if you somehow manage to rescue the rest of the brats, there's no way I'm not letting this one go!" He stomped menacingly towards them, flinging chunks of goo at them.

Kamui Woods was too tired to dodge in time, and Death Arms was already down and injured. In no time, the villain had pinned both of them in his gunk.

The wood-based hero scrunched his eyes and tried to break free, but only his head seemed to react. "Can't… move!"

"I would hope not! I need to properly digest you first!"

"D-Digest?!"

"You want to know a little secret about my Quirk?" he smirked, allowing Ushijima to sink back inside him. "It breaks down anything it touches over time and absorbs it into the mold. It's useful for cleaning up scum and shit, although it leaves me stuck with the filth later. But then I had a thought. If I could take on properties of filth, could I do the same to people with their Quirks?"

"No… you didn't!"

Gel Devil's grin was simply malicious, in spite of Kamui Wood's scowl and increased struggling. "It's never easy, as it takes forever to break down a human being, but I find it easier to just…" He moved an arm-like appendage over to his face. "Suffocate them first."

Clang.

His arm stopped. Gel Devil looked up but didn't see anyone else in the hallway. Not anymore anyway.

"Well, looks like another brat escaped," he said, still grinning. "I'll be back for you two later."

The villain then left to stalk his new target. He was in no rush to find him; he relished the anticipation, of giving them the hope of escape before he took that and their Quirk away.

This was bad. This was very, very, very bad!

Izuku didn't mean to, but the shifting of his foot into a broken piece of pipe had caught their attention, and now the villain was going to find and kill him! All he could do was run through the halls and try to find some kind of hiding spot; the upper floor helped with that. It didn't occur to him to try and pry the other students out from their cocoons, for what good his Quirkless hands would do.

Even so, he could only run for so long before he was found, and the pro heroes would have their hands full trying to fight the villain while protecting civilians. And Backdraft was not going to do much in a fight spraying down a muck monster!

No, that's not right, he thought. Heroes learned to adapt their Quirks to any situation. A bad match-up didn't mean they couldn't do something. They'd figure something out, like… like finding a weak point.

His mind was reeling back to that conversation, and his pacing stopped as he formulated a plan. This villain… he was afraid of All Might. Most villains would be, of course, but the fact that it was a common fact didn't refute it being a weakness. It wasn't like he could disguise himself as All Might on a dime though. All he had was his backpack full of junk like his…

…like his plushie and his Hero Cards!

A loud stomp shook him out of his epiphany; the villain was looking for him but was being deliberately patient to instill more fear in him. That meant he had time, and Izuku set to work immediately.

"I hope this works…!"

"Come out, come out, wherever you are~!" Gel Devil sang. He caught a whiff of the boy trying to go to the upper levels, which was stupid. It meant less places to escape back outside.

"Aha!" Kid wasn't very bright it seems; he was still running through the halls and even balked as soon as they made eye contact.

To his credit, he tried doubling back where he came from, but Gel Devil extended his arm to hurl a chunk of his bulk out that blocked the hallway. Amazing what possibilities one could do with Division and Hive Mind Quirks working together. "Nowhere to run now, brat!"

The green haired boy stuttered, still trying to put distance between them as he held his hands out in surrender. "Pl-Please don't eat me!"

"'Eat you'? Oh, that should be the least of your worries, kid. Because eating you means I would kill you right away. I'm just going to digest you whole, and then take your Quirk for myself!" At that declaration, his arm started to reform and extend out to pluck him up from the floor.

"But I don't have a Quirk!" he blurted out.

Gel Devil paused, leaning closer to give the boy a better look. He'd assumed based on the brat's appearance that he'd be an Emitter or Transformation type, but did he really have no Quirk to speak of? "Seriously? I've never actually seen a Quirkless schmuck before." After a moment of deliberation, he moved his slimy limb closer to the scared boy. "I've never digested one either. If nothing else, you'll make for another bargaining chip."

"Fear not citizens! Hope has arrived!"

Gel Devil stopped. The sudden powerful voice came over from the window, leaving a silhouette of a very familiar figure. The muscular form, the confident pose, the long hair antennae making a V-shape.

No… it couldn't be!

"Because I am here!"

Gel Devil trembled and bubbled, slinking down from his imposing form. "A-A-All Might? All Might's here already?!" No, he hadn't get stronger yet! He had no chance of fighting All Might like this!

Maybe he could have taken him with a surprise attack, or having properly digested a new Quirk, but that moment was gone. And he couldn't hope to escape this time with three or four heroes in the school. Dammit, this wasn't supposed to happen at all!

"Fear not citizens! Hope has arrived!"

Huh?

"Because I am here!"

Gel Devil looked up. Why would All Might repeat his catchphrase like that? Slinking closer to the Number One Hero's figure, he now saw there was not All Might, but a stuffed plushie in his likeness in front of a flashlight. Right behind it was a brick-shaped media player set on repeat with the iconic sound coming out.

"Fear not citizens! Hope has arrived! Because I am here!"

"A Hero Card…?" Not only some sort of plush doll, but he had been fooled by a Hero Card Player on a ten-second loop?! He'd gotten worried over nothing but a… a crude distraction!

"Fighting Fefnir, execute!"

Gel Devil turned to see the boy from before holding his Transer out in front of him, suddenly with a determined look in his eye. The Transer hummed with an orange light and shot out dual flame exhausts forward, just barely burning the villain in the process.

"Gah! That hurts, you brat!" Wait, was he trying to burn him? With a puny Hero Card, at that? Did he not have Endeavor, or something?

Gel Devil would have scoffed and absorbed the stupid brat, but he found it hard to move his arm. In fact, his entire body was hardening up from the heat, spreading the most from where the heat was. And as cracks formed, slime started to leak out.

"Wh-What the hell?! I can't hold— my— form…!"

Izuku didn't know what the compound of this villain's viscous form was, but he estimated it to be mud gelatin of some sort. Mud was essentially dirt mixed with water, and while gelatin remained solid at room temperature, it melted into a liquid when the heat broke apart the bounds in the water molecules. If brute force couldn't stop the villain, and he could shape his mass freely, the best way to achieve victory would be to catch him unaware and hope that water cycle physics applied.

Which they did.

"GAAAAAAH!" With a final scream, the Gel Devil popped like a water balloon, covering Izuku and the floor in his gunk. Consequentially, this meant the captive inside him was now free.

But Izuku was frozen in shock from what he had just did. He didn't think his plan would work so well. Well enough to actually kill the villain, anyway. No… he had a theory that if the villain could freely detach parts of his body out like that, then he couldn't die. Just now he could see parts of the sludge starting to move on their own and slide off his body, trying to reform.

Good news? He wouldn't bear the guilt of murder. Bad news? The villain wasn't going to be as lenient.

Shaking those thoughts aside, Izuku turned off the fire from his Transer, and helped the other boy up. "Ushijima! Ushijima, wake up!"

To Izuku's relief, Ushijima was still barely conscious, and loudly coughed out remnants of the sludge. "Ah… D-Deku? No, Midoriya. What are you—?"

"No time, we have to get out of here before the villain comes to."

Ushijima's eyes shot open, noticing the gunk starting to form. "Uh, yeah, good plan!"

Izuku pulled his arm to help Ushijima up, struggling to do so with his own scrawny arms. He was barely able to pull the Bison boy up, who then easily plucked Izuku up with his thick arm and sling him over his shoulder like a bag. Mild shock and embarrassment aside, Izuku was impressed at not how strong Ushijima was, but how fast he was too. He barely had enough time to grab his things as they left the scene; plushie and flashlight aside, the All Might Hero Card inside the media player was an Ultra Rare collectible. He couldn't imagine losing even a common card, though.

But there was still a problem. "W-Wait! We need to take the stairs! We're on the second floor!"

Either Ushijima didn't hear Izuku or ignored his complaint, for he kept running straight down the hall, with a T-intersection wall coming ever closer to them.

"Ushijimaaaa-!" Izuku wailed, but the bovine boy kept running head-first forward.

And then suddenly started to skid across the floor, while also pulling back his free arm for a punch. He stopped just in front of the wall, with enough momentum behind his punch to blow the entire window clean off.

After that, Ushijima set Izuku, frozen stiff but blinking, back down to the floor. Curiously, Izuku looked outside to see a drop to the side road by the school, which looped around the back field without going through the building.

"The stairs would take too long," the bigger student said. "We'll jump out from here."

"Are you crazy?!" Izuku cried. There had to be a better way than this! But no, Ushijima just jumped through the hole in the wall and fell like a lead weight.

To Izuku's surprise, he landed squarely on the ground no worse for wear, causing a bit of an impact with his feet sinking in. He looked up back to the second-floor hole he had made and called out to Izuku with cupped hands over his mouth. "Now it's your turn, Midoriya!"

"I can't make a jump this high!" Rushing into a danger zone was one thing, but he didn't have enhanced muscles from a Quirk to withstand a two-story jump.

"I'll catch you! Trust me!" Ushijima insisted, with arms wide.

For some reason, Izuku flinched back. "Trust me." Those words struck a sudden fear inside him. He barely knew Gonta Ushijima and thought him to be kind of a muscle-bound bully, but was he really a nice guy deep down? Or trying to repay him for rescuing him?

But before his train of thought completely overtook him, Izuku shook his head and focused. No time to analyze all this. Even if he didn't completely trust Ushijima, it was better than being stuck with the villain. With that in mind, he stepped back for a running start, ready to jump—

BLOMB!

Only to skid to a halt when the opening on the wall was suddenly blocked by a giant green-grey blob. His only escape was gone, but he had no time to dwell on that.

STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP!

Izuku barely had time to duck and roll away before a mass of slime splattered where he once stood. Without looking back, he pushed himself away and ran through a different turn in the hallway, adrenaline forcing himself to keep going.

"You little shit! Do you know how hard it is for me to find a strength-augmented Quirk anymore?!"

The recovered Gel Devil was furious. If it didn't show in his raging tone, the reckless abandon of shooting gunk as he ran certainly did. With how malleable the slime was, Izuku didn't know if they were meant to stop him or kill him, but he sure didn't want to find out. He made sure to zig-zag left and right as he ran, anything to make the villain's aim that much harder.

But his luck ran out as the end of the path he took was a dead-end, and not a door or flight of stairs in sight. In vain, he tried punching the wall, hoping he could break through it like Ushijima. Nothing happened… except hurting his hand.

Gel Devil grew larger, blocking the ceiling and sides of the hallway with his slimy visage. "I could take getting most of the good kids with Quirks taken away by those D-listers, but not losing that Bison boy! Not to some damn Quirkless nobody!"

So, this is how I die, Izuku thought: trying to be a hero and paying for it in blood. He had always knew that this was the reality for him, but he felt a bit happy regardless. He got to do something he always wanted, even for a moment. Be a hero.

At least Ushijima was safe. That had to count for something… right? Would he even remember him? Or think he was an idiot for getting himself killed? Maybe not, but that was fine in the end.

Slimy appendages all closed in on him, intent on pulling him into the larger body. "I'll make you my hostage to get those damn 'Heroes' off my back, lay low, and try again in another city. I've worked too hard to lose everything I've got, and if I have to start over just to survive, so be it."

No… he was going to keep killing? This villain wasn't going to stop, was he? Would All Might stop him in time? The fear of a villain hurting others scared Izuku more than his own mortality. This couldn't be the extent of his actions! A mere roadblock! But he could do nothing but shake pathetically as it grew darker and harder to breathe.

"Shooting~ BUSTER!"

As sudden as the faint battlecry only Izuku heard, a beam of cerulean light pierced through the villain from a diagonal slant. The force was so powerful that it caused Gel Devil to explode again. "GROAUAAAAA!"

Izuku blinked, barely registering a trace of gunk splattering on his cheek before wiping it off. Where did that light come from? It had to be from a Hero, but he had never heard of a Quirk that could phase light through solid walls, let alone an ultimate move phrase like that. He felt like he had seen that attack somewhere before though.

"And THAT'S how you properly rescue someone, kid! Now we're even."

Gawking, Izuku slipped his Vizualizer on to see a familiar figure hovering where Gel Devil once stood. Confident, arms folded, and a tad bit of smugness gave him a perfect heroic image. "Omega-san!"

The grin slipped a bit. "Hey now, I told you it's 'Omega-Xis'. At least get my full name right, or just cut off the honorifics."

"S-Sorry! It's just improper to say otherwise, and—!"

"Compared to getting it wrong? Next thing you're going to do is call me Mega for short."

"I wouldn't do that, I swear!"

"Hey, I'm just saying. Not that I would mind, anyway."

They would have kept arguing, but the gunk of Gel Devil's remains started to move. Izuku flinched while Omega tensed, ready to flee and attack respectively. But the sludge completely ignored them and zipped down the hallway, not even reforming yet.

"He's… gone?" Did the Gel Devil seriously just leave him alone like this? Izuku felt relieved, but also confused. Did the villain suddenly decide that he wasn't worth killing and escape?

"Whatever, we don't have time for this," Omega said as he turned to leave. "Follow me. I know where the stairs are."

An epiphany struck the boy as he called out to the alien. "Wait a minute! We can't just leave him!"

Omega barely offered him a glance as he kept moving. "You do know he tried to kill you, right? Not to mention how he left first."

"But someone has to stop him! Otherwise he'll go and hurt other people!"

"That's what heroes are for, aren't they? There're hundreds of them all around the world doing this kind of thing, every day."

"That's just it, though! The heroes Kamui Woods and Death Arms! They're still stuck in his gunk!"

Omega hummed, recalling that he did see some men in costumes indeed stuck in the villain's muck. He still shook his head. "They knew what they were getting into when they became heroes, and they have safety in numbers now that some fire hose hero showed up too. They can handle this—"

"No, they won't!"

Omega stopped, and fully turned around. He saw Izuku shaking and fighting back tears with a frown. No… he was scowling with anger and determination.

His hand reached to the rim of the Visualizer, almost cradling it. "I know I'm Quirkless, and that I'd never be able to rescue someone. But I'm tired of just waiting for someone to rescue me. Just this once, I… I want to be a hero!"

If his words were supposed to be a moving speech to sway or pity onlookers, Omega felt neither. His glare was still piercing as he casually retorted, "But you're not a hero, Izuku."

He flinched at the words. They were blunt, spoken so casually, but… not spoken out of disbelief or pity. They were stating a simple truth, to make sure he knew.

But he always knew deep down what he wanted.

"I know but… I just can't stand by and let other people die if I can't help it, can I?"

For a long moment, Omega stared at him, his deep red eyes peering into his soul as if calling him out on a bluff. Izuku stared right back.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but I guess I'll have to keep an eye on you," he said finally, to Izuku's surprise. "I just need you to be clear with me: are you sure you want to do this? To walk the path of a hero?"

Izuku hesitated, but only for a moment. He didn't need to think back on All Might's smile, or his dad's encouraging words. He thought that he had given up his dream years ago, but deep down he never did, and he knew the answer in his heart. "Yes!"

"Then here we go," the alien said, before flexing his arms back. "EM Wave Change!"

In the moment Omega flew into him, Izuku felt a shocking prick from contact, before the rest of his body turned numb and his senses were overloaded with a bright blue flash.

When the light faded, Izuku felt like his body was in a constricting vice with weights. He looked at his right hand, outfitted with a light blue gauntlet around the wrist and forearm. Looking down, he noticed a dark blue bodysuit with a plate over his chest and green lines running along his sides. Further down he now wore light blue greaves with knee guards. Yet everything looked off, like he was wearing jade colored glasses… or a green-tinted visor over his eyes. It was attached to a round blue and white helmet with ear guards and covered only the front of his head, as most of the back hair on his head was exposed.

Izuku could scarcely believe it. Why did he suddenly look like a Pro Hero? "I… what happened?!"

"We synced wave lengths and changed into this form."

"'We'? Omega, where are—" Izuku paled as he looked down to his left hand. Instead of a matching blue gauntlet, he saw a scary looking head sticking out where his hand should be, with an eerie green flame obscuring part of his arm.

Then it turned without his input and stared at him with beady red eyes. "Now Izuku, if we're going to do this, we must—"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Naturally Izuku panicked and screamed. With some rapid flailing of the arm for good measure. "GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!"

"STooOOOooop iiIIIIIttt! IIiI aaaAAMM GeeeETTiiinG DiiiiIIIIZzzyyyYYY!"

"O-Omega?!" Izuku blinked, finally realizing who it was. But that just raised more questions and concerns. "WHY ARE YOU ON MY HAND?!"

"I'm not on your hand, I am your hand," Omega-Xis explained flatly, partly from the shaking. "Trust me, I'm as put off by this form as you are. This is so demeaning."

"Yeah, but, why the hand? Why my left hand? Why in this form?" Izuku asked, before he trailed off looking absently down at his free dominant hand. "Maybe it was subconsciously aware that the right hand was my dominant hand and split the control to my left. It's like an overlayer fusion with your metal and composition over mine, but not a complete fusion where we share all the same traits to become a hybrid. Does this mean we are half human and half wave? Phasing and stability could be a problem if we're not compatible—"

"AHEM." A loud "cough" from Izuku's hand stopped him from getting too sidetracked. "As much as I appreciate how serious you're taking this Wave Change, we have time to go over it later. Unless you're having second thoughts about the villain, that is."

Gel Devil didn't know what the hell that kid did to him, but he wasn't going to stay and find out. He wasted so much time just trying to scrape up some new Quirks and got deformed twice for his troubles. By the same Quirkless brat. And the worst part, most of the reformed gel he called back had no kids to speak of, so the cops and heroes must have rescued them all while he was distracted.

Well screw it. He knew when it was time to run like hell. The kid was a mystery he didn't have time to deal with, and if he was going to get any Quirks out of this, it might as well be from the D-listers. For that, he recalled all of the still sizable chunks of his gel mass around the school to come back. He couldn't leave any trace behind for the cops or heroes to track him.

But just as he reformed enough to reach the bottom floor, he saw another hero spraying them off with water to try and blow the muck off of them. The wooden hero was nearly free, but the foreman guy's lower half was still bound.

Fine. One out of two would do.

"He's back!" Kamui Woods cried out, noticing the villain first.

"Hold him off until All Might gets here!" Backdraft said, turning his hose to him.

"I don't have time for this shit!" Gel Devil roared, putting most of his mass into his right limb and swinging it in a wide arc forward. The attack was enough to knock both heroes away easy, giving him just enough time to drag the foreman hero closer.

To his credit, he used his titular arms to smash through the tiles in an attempt to stop the gel pulling him, but it was a stalling tactic at best. This was fine; no one else was going to take Gel Devil's consolation prize.

But just as he was about to grab Death Arms and bind him inside, his arm exploded courtesy of a piercing blue light.

"SONUVA-!" Gel Devil roared, more in shock than pain. He had Pain Inhibitor to thank for that, but the attack still came out of nowhere. No, it came from behind him… and he saw a small boy wearing a blue helmet with two white marks (a hexagon and a thin arrow underneath) with a wolf-like glove and matching helmet marks, smoking and pointed at him.

"You… you won't get away with this, villain!" the boy shouted. It was weak as far as any heroic banter went, but the intent was clear; he wanted to fight. A part of him thought the boy sounded familiar, but Gel Devil was too enraged and stressed to think on what-ifs.

It was one thing after another. Setback after setback. Constantly losing his well-deserved rewards because some moral glory-seeking heroes just had to keep getting in his way. And he had finally lost the last vestiges of his patience.

"Fine! You want to die so badly!?" Gel Devil roared, expanding to a rounder, bulkier body. "I'll kill you myself!"

Izuku's legs nearly buckled as the villain changed form. A malleable villain like him could potentially survive any kind of blow, so what chance did he have?! What could he even do? That blaster attack had come from Omega's mouth!

"Focus and dodge, boy!"

Omega's sharp instruction snapped him out of his anxiety, just in time to see several lumps of Gel Devil's body flying towards him. On instinct, he rolled forward just before the part of the hall he stood on was wrecked by sludge. If he could close the distance and punch this villain—

No, he was a living muck monster, and not even Death Arms' punches could get through his defense. What else was there?

"Stay back and keep firing!"

Oh, right!

Pew Pew Pew!

It was odd firing from his left arm, but whether it was luck or Omega's own guidance, his shots were true. Light blue lasers were fired with the force and recoil of a revolver, out of his makeshift "gun arm", towards Gel Devil's body and blowing out portions of his body. Izuku had to admit that it felt so awesome to be strong enough to do this to an evil villain.

Only for Gel Devil's body to regenerate just like before, and only succeeding in making him mad enough to roar. Then it was just scary. "It's not working!" Izuku cried to his possessed hand.

"Not every battle is won in a decisive hit!" Omega said. "We'll win through attrition!"

"We still need to hit him with something harder!" Izuku argued. "But don't you have something better?!"

"Hey, I'm the one pulling our weight here! I need more fuel to convert into energy, like radio waves or circuitry!"

"Circuitry?" Izuku echoed. One thing immediately came to mind when he heard that word. It was a long shot, but was it possible to—?

"DODGE!"

Izuku stopped thinking and jumped to the side, barely avoiding Gel Devil's whole mass being morphed into a misshapen orb and lunging towards him. As expected, it landed on the floor with a splat. But then the villain's upper body reformed, and he swiped his hand towards Izuku as the boy leaped back.

"A ranged hero, huh? Well take THIS!" Gel Devil growled as blots of his body flew out towards Izuku like bullets.

"Keep firing!"

Pew Pew Pew!

Izuku felt like he was on autopilot; whatever order Omega barked, he followed right away. He couldn't think of a better strategy, much less anything else, so he shot at any blot he could while dodging the rest. His reaction speed felt so much faster in this new form, so it was surprisingly easy for him to stay unharmed.

Finally, the barrage stopped. And Gel Devil was nowhere to be found. Did he do it? Had he destroyed enough of the blots that he couldn't reform in time?

WHAM!

"GAAH!" Izuku slammed into a row of lockers after a heavy blow smacked him across the back.

"Ha! Gets 'em every time!"

Izuku looked up to see Gel Devil looming over him with an enlarged, hardened fist cocked back. He'd attacked him from behind, but he couldn't have gotten there so fast from across the hall.

Unless… the villain split his form intentionally bit by bit to reform behind Izuku.

"Okay," Omega groaned from their downed position. "Maybe we do need a stronger attack."

"I got an idea, but we need him blasted, or even distracted, for a few seconds. Can't you use that Shooting Buster move from earlier?" Izuku whispered back, almost worried that he couldn't do that same miracle again.

But Omega's grin put those worries to ease. "Exactly what I was thinking to do. Aaaaand FIRE!"

PEWWWWM!

Izuku's clawed arm shot up and fired a larger, stronger energy blast. Gel Devil immediately guarded, putting most of his gel bulk at the front to form a thick shield in front of his now thin body. It punched a big indent in the shield, but it didn't pierce through and left him still standing.

It was all the time Izuku needed as he reached for his bag, still on his person despite the EM fusion, and pulled out his card player. "All Might, execute!"

Without thinking, Izuku tossed the ejected card into the air, and Omega snatched it in his maw. Electricity flowed through them almost instantly, and power swelled inside beyond a mere Net Battle simulation. Izuku knew that All Might was strong, and that this card could never truly match up to his eclipsing strength, but it amazed him to feel just a fraction of his power like this.

Power that in anyone else's hands could have crushed them from backlash.

"Yeah, now this is what I'm talking about!" Omega roared. "We only get one shot at this, so make it count!"

"Right!" Izuku nodded, already channeling the power into his clenched right fist. And then he dashed forward.

"Is that all you—" Gel Devil taunted, only to stop as he looked past his shield. "…got?"

The villain expected him to stay back with more energy shots, so he was taken aback when Izuku rushed towards him instead. There was only one hero he knew that had the power to punch through such dense mud, and this brat was now channeling him. He leaped forward until he was above Gel Devil, and reenacted his hero in action—

"Detroit…"

– just thrust his fist down, harder than any punch he'd made before.

"SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!"

From the other side of the hall, a strong gale of wind blew towards the heroes. If not for them bracing in time, they would have been sent careening all the way to the end of the hall. And quick as the wave came, it ended.

It came from where Gel Devil was fighting that blue gunner hero. In mutual agreement, the heroes rushed to the scene, prepared for the worst.

What they saw was nothing they would have expected. Gel Devil was slumped into a caved crater in the floor, now a slump with most of his upper body exploded and covering the walls next to him. Whatever that last attack was, the blow was so hard that it not only splattered him to pieces, but it seemingly gave him a concussion and left him vulnerable.

But there was no one else there.

"Is it… over?" Backdraft asked, looking warily for anything else. Almost hesitantly, he lifted his hose to spray the villain's body, but he did not react. "We'll need to contain him before he wakes up."

"Did All Might finally show up?" Kamui Woods asked. "That last attack felt like something he would do."

"I doubt it," Death Arms grumbled. "He always announces his appearance by shouting 'I am here'. We don't know anything about the blue guy, though, and he was the one last seen fighting this villain."

Suddenly, a weak cough echoed in the room. "S-Someone…?"

The heroes dropped everything and rushed to the source. Death Arms tossed aside gravel and lockers to reach it. Hiding from within the debris was a green haired boy lying on his side. He was gritting his teeth and clutching his right arm, bruised so badly that the skin was almost completely brown.

"What happened?" Backdraft asked.

"I… I got hurt trying to get away," the boy explained. "The villain tried to kill me until a blue hero came in."

"What blue hero?"

"Uh, Oh…mega-san—" the boy started, before stopping and trailing off.

Kamui Woods blinked. "What was that? 'Mega Man'?"

"Uh… yeah! Th-That's what he called himself!" the boy nodded vigorously, as if in recognition of the name.

Woods exchanged glances with both Death Arms and Backdraft, neither of whom had any idea of who this kid was talking about. "Was there another Pro Hero transfer here or something?"

"Could be someone from the Maverick Hunter Agency," Backdraft pondered.

"We'll look into it later," Death Arms promised, before turning back to the kid. "Do you know where this 'Mega Man' is now?"

"He… he said his work was done here so he'd let the other heroes handle things."

"One more question," he asked, kneeling down to look him in the eye. This whole attack was scary to the students being in the middle of it all, and part of a Pro Hero's job was to make sure they were all right, physically and mentally. One didn't simply become a hero without some case of empathy, after all. "Are you all right?"

"Y-Yes sir, I'll be fine."

Arms sighed with relief, standing back up. "That's good," he said softly. Before he banged his construction knuckles together and stared angrily down on him. "Because you are in so much trouble, you little dumbass!"

"H-Huh?"

"Don't 'huh?' me! You were the kid that ran through the police barricade outside! What the hell were you thinking?!"

"B-But I'm a student! I didn't run in, I was stuck inside!"

"Then where's your uniform?" Woods pointed out dryly.

He had no answer to that, which was telling enough, and they soon got a name out of him. Izuku Midoriya could only panic and utter weak apologies as the Pro Heroes, and later the police force, gave him a thorough dressing down.

In the end, All Might never showed up. And the one who stopped Gel Devil, Mega Man, had vanished without a trace. The day was saved, but it was hard to tell if Mega Man was a true hero as he didn't even stay to announce himself like any other Pro would. A Pro Hero lived and died by their fame, and even obscure ones at least left behind their name or some kind of calling card.

Leaving after the fight was over was something a vigilante would do.

As everyone gossiped about what that could mean, Izuku quickly left the school premises before he got any more unwanted attention, especially from someone like Kacchan or Shirogane. He would have left sooner, but the arguing, questioning, and first aid on his arm dragged things out longer than he thought.

At least Omega-san and I are safe.

He didn't mean to let such a name slip out like that, but the similar sounding alias might throw them off. If everyone was mad enough just for endangering himself, then he could only imagine the reaction of learning he was the mysterious hero.

With the sun setting and on the familiar route home, Izuku was about ready to put this awkward day behind him.

"'Mega Man'… you couldn't think of anything else? Like Rockman?"

Izuku flushed, glancing down at his Transer on his good arm. "I-I panicked! It sounded better than any name I could think of on short notice!"

Omega-Xis stared back at him through the plastic screen, humming in thought. He'd latched onto Izuku's device as soon as the fight ended for some reason, almost acting like a NetNavi of old. It relieved Izuku that he didn't leave again right away, but what did that make them? Partners?

"Well, as far as hero names go, it's not a bad choice, I guess," Omega said. "But you need to think twice next time before using a Hero Card that powerful. If it weren't for me, your entire right arm would have exploded."

Izuku only weakly nodded, looking to his cast in a sling. It was convenient to excuse the injury as a run-in with the villain rather than self-inflicted. He felt guilty about lying, but it wasn't like anyone would believe a Quirkless boy would suddenly awaken to a Quirk, no matter how short-lived the experience.

But if it hurt that much just using an imitation of All Might's power… maybe he wasn't cut out to be a hero after all.

"So… what now?" he asked to his Transer. "Shouldn't you go out to find All Might?"

"I told you already, didn't I? I need a mediator to help the meeting out, and that's you."

"And I told you I'm not cut out for this. I'm just a Quirkless loser."

"You know, for a 'Quirkless loser', you did some amazing things back there. Rushing to save a kid you didn't know, distracting the villain with a toy and video, you even stood your ground and fought him head on.."

"But… that was only because I had your help."

"And in turn, you helped me. We made a good team out there," Omega said. "But more importantly, it was the fact that you acted not because you thought you could handle it, but that you had to regardless. You should be proud of yourself, Izuku."

Izuku stopped walking. There it was again; that unsettling feeling back at the alley. "Omega… how do you know my name?"

"Your dad told me."

Omega admitted to that so casually, but it rocked Izuku to his core. "You're lying," he uttered softly. So numb, so used to having his hopes crushed before, he scarcely refused to believe there was still a chance. "There's no way you could possibly—"

"No, really," Omega told him. "Hisashi Midoriya. Black spiky hair, big stupid grin on his face, obsessed on astrology, and he has a fire-breathing quirk. Calls it 'Kelvin Plus', I think."

No way... there was just no way. Could it-?!

"You… you know my dad?!" Izuku's eyes widened, leaning as close as he could to the Transer screen. "Tell me! What happened to him and the other astronauts? Where is the Peace station? Is… is he still alive?!"

Omega stared back for a long moment. The silence was killing Izuku inside, and he felt a lump of unease grow in him. Finally, the alien looked away. "I can't say for sure, since it's been a while since I last saw him."

"Oh…" Of course. It was pointless to hope. His dad would be dead by now, lost for three years in space.

"But chances are… yeah, he's still alive. They all are."

Still alive… his dad was still alive? Was it really possible? He couldn't think of what to say, but tears welled in his eyes.

"Tell you what," said Omega. "If you help me find All Might, I'll tell you everything I know about Hisashi."

"You'd… you'd really do that? Promise?" Izuku asked. All of this felt too good to be true.

The alien still refused to look him in the eye, but his angular face softened as he replied, "I promise, Izuku. I owe your dad that much."

Izuku nodded, slumped down to his knees, and started to cry. He couldn't help it. He had all but given up the last three years. But so long, in this simply miraculous moment, things were looking up.

For once, he felt what it was like to be a Hero.

For once, he had someone he could confine to as a friend.

And for once, he had hope he could see his dad again.

A/N: and thus the dynamic duo is formed. It took a while writing this up and setting up the starter villain Gel Devil (made to be an homage to Yellow Devil, right down to the botched civilian name I gave him), but things from here should be a bit simpler.

Also, this story gets a cool new cover courtesy of The Aeon Offspring. Hope you guys like it as much as I did (and I waited until the new chapter to share this as a cover too).