I don't own a thing
"speech"
'thought'
'Tenno thinking'
emphasis/sounds/other such things
ps: if you see any mistakes please inform me
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Izuku listened to the TV playing in the living room while sat at the kitchen table, eating with his mother and surfing hero forums on his phone.
He was talking to Inko about a newly graduated hero or an old hero that retired when they both heard the breaking news from the TV about a villain attack that happened earlier in the day, saying that the villain was thankfully stopped by a local hero and the police, and that the police had found evidence of quirk enhancing drugs in the villains possessions as well as a blood test proved that the villain had also used said drugs.
Izuku didn't pay it much attention at first, until the news played a clip of the event where he heard the laughing and yelling of the villain as well as the drumbeat of his quirk, wasn't that the villain he took down today?
'Taken down by the local hero and police? But didn't I take him down, also what was that about the quirk enhancing drugs?' he questioned.
'I doubt that the news would give any accolades to a criminal, which, if you remember our old discussion, vigilantes are.'
Meanwhile Inko had noticed the conflicted expression on Izuku's face and asks what's wrong.
Distracted Izuku mentions that he had heard that a vigilante captured the villain unlike what was said in the report.
Inko nods and says that vigilantes don't really get mentioned in the news, and when they do its only when they have an arrest warrant out for them.
Humming at his mother's words, Izuku remembered all his time religiously following hero forums and news, never once hearing much about vigilantes, though those thoughts are for another time, as he has more important matters to think about, focusing back on the news report that warned about the Quirk enhancing drugs.
'People will really do anything for power, other than actually work for it'
Absentmindedly nodding at Tenno's words Izuku thought back on the villain encounter to recall any details he had ignored at the time.
After a moment he remembered that before the villain used his ultimate move that nearly destroyed the city block, he had reached into his pocket and took something out which then he struck into his stomach, it must have been the drug and his analysis of the villain starting the rampage strong and getting weaker turned out to be because he must've started off with the drug and its effect had gotten weaker as he rampaged until it ran out.
As he was analyzing the villain's behavior the reporter mentioned the signs of the drug use for civilians to keep an eye out and stay away from them.
'So we need to look for people who behave erratically and enraged with blackened tongues?'
'That seems about right, though that is a pretty broad description.'
'You are right, there are countless minor mutations within the human population due to quirks such as my green hair, so black tongues aren't that incriminating, as well as erratic and enraged behavior, which can be caused by many things such as alcohol or even just a bad day.'
'Still, both of them together, alongside an abnormally strong quirk would be a clear sign of the drug's use. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, it's highly likely that any future villain encounters will be much more dangerous due to the Quirk enhancing drug.'
Izuku nodded, the only solution to the problem was to get stronger.
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A day later Izuku, the still nameless vigilante, was giving directions to some tourists when he spotted dark smoke beginning to rise in the sky, 'Fire?' giving the tourists a quick apology he rushed towards the smoke.
After a minute or two of running and flash stepping across the streets he finally made it to the where the smoke was coming from, there he saw a building and multiple cars on fire with civilians being evacuated and a few heroes chasing down a villain, thankfully it didn't seem like the fire spread far from the initial area yet.
Ignoring the villain, Izuku focused his senses to listen to the cries of help coming from the burning building narrow down where they were coming from amidst the sound of roaring flames.
Taking a deep breath he jumped through a broken ground floor window and headed straight towards the person nearest to the flames.
Getting the people near the bottom floors where the strongest flames were, he took a moment to breathe fresh air away from the smoke before rushing back it to rescue the people from the top floors, but as he was clearing his lungs, there was a crash as the fire destroyed the stairwell causing it all to come crashing out, leaving no way for people to climb up or down.
He watched as the fire slowly climbed up to the upper floors as the people trapped there cried for help, he frantically searched for a fire truck as he had no way to climb up due to his movement techniques only allowing movement on the ground.
His thought spiraled, people's lives were in danger and he could do nothing, if only the fire fighters got here faster, if only a hero with a suitable Quirk was here, if only he was faster, if only-
'Its no use, Izuku, the firefighters wont make it on time. Snap out of it, you have to improvise.' Tenno's words knocked Izuku out of his spiral.
'You don't need a new movement technique to let you fly or anything of the sort, just kick off the ground and use your environment to get where you are needed!'
Sparing a moment to give Tenno's words a thought, Izuku scanned the area around him. Taking a steadying breath, his heart calmed as he flash stepped towards a street lamp with all his speed, grasped it as he moved by it and swung towards the building aiming for a broken window, keeping up most of his speed.
The moment his feet touched the window sill he kicked off with all his strength skipping past multiple floors and hit another window, doing the same there, he practically skipped sideways up the building towards the apartment window that held another person.
Jumping into the smoke filled apartment, Izuku dashed to the lone elderly woman, grabbing her and jumping out of the window.
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Once all the apartment were cleared of civilians Izuku, covered in soot and struggling to breathe, focused back onto the source of these fires, climbing onto a nearby rooftop with the help of his new technique, Izuku spotted the villain being chased by a few heroes.
Slowly but steadily getting near them to get a better look, Izuku spotted a discrepancy, the villain didn't seem to possess a fire based quirk.
The villain had six arms on his elongated torso, two of which he used to clutch something to his chest while he used the rest to crawl onto and hop across buildings.
Meanwhile of the few heroes chasing the villain one of them stood out to Izuku, a figure in a red outfit resembling a sports car driver, with the helmet to boot. Every time he jumped after the villain, flames erupted from his spine and he curled into a ball that spun mid air and launched at the villain, erupting In a fire ball at every impact but due to the villain's quirk, he managed to escape the hero's attacks every time.
But it appeared that the hero was unable ('or unwilling') of controlling his trajectory after launch, thus whenever he missed the villain, he would strike something in his path, a car here a building corner there, a tree here.
Izuku didn't join the chase from the rooftops choosing to follow behind steadily, instead, finally able to take in a proper breath due to the clear air this high up, he decided to observe and plan.
He intended to take out the villain in one fell swoop as quickly as he could, so he could end the chase and limit the damage the hero caused.
Finally an opportunity presented itself as the villain slipped during one of his jumps between buildings, causing him to tumble through the air uncontrolled, Izuku dashed with all his speed to grapple and take out the villain but it seemed he wasn't the only one to spot the opportunity as the flaming hero also begun to spin up his dash attack.
Izuku's eyes widened, if he were to grab the villain they'd both crash into the ground harmlessly but if the fire hero were to use his quirk and dash at the villain, it would plow straight through and due to the angle, it would continue downward taking both of them towards the street packed with civilians, if the hero's quirk were to erupt at ground level it could harm if not kill all the civilians nearby.
Calculating the trajectory, Izuku used a movement technique to catch up to them, swung on a nearby lamp post to change his direction same as he did before, flinging himself at the hero and catching his ball form into a grapple directing their momentum into crashing into a parking building.
As car alarms blared and powdered cement rained down on them Izuku rolled across the ground trying to put out the fire that caught onto his clothes and arms when he grabbed the hero. Meanwhile the hero rolled onto his back and started to stand up, his mask cracked from the impact revealing parts of his face.
"yo- you! YOU IMBECILE!" the fire hero suddenly shouted. "Mine! That villain was MINE!" flames begun to dance across his back as he continued shouting. "My capture! My bounty! MY GLORY!"
The flames begun to recede from around him and into his body, his spine lighting up with a yellow glow visible even through the suit. "DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I'VE SACRIFICED!?" he suddenly stopped as the glow expanded from the spine and spread to his ribs.
Izuku watched from his position on the ground as the hero monologue, as a devout hero fan boy this was the first time he was seriously reprimanded and yelled at by a pro hero.
"heheha Ha HA AHA HA HA! I see now, yes… yes I know what you are. Hahaha!"
The hero not caring for Izuku to respond tilted his head back and laughed.
"You are a villain, that's what you are, that's why you stopped me from reaching my destiny."
'Izuku, his mouth, did you spot it.' Tenno called out to Izuku as the hero begun to glow brighter and brighter.
'Yes, yes I did.' Izuku grimaced as he took a step back, clearly spotting the blackened tongue through the cracked mask when the hero laughed.
'I really should've expected that. Doesn't matter, think about corruption of the pro hero's later Izuku, take him out now before he does anything rash.'
Izuku didn't waste a moment to give Tenno an answer, using his movement technique he dashed towards the hero intending to knock him out before he had a chance to charge up his spin attack.
And yet, before he could do anything about it, without any spin up the hero ignited into plasma releasing a shockwave, catching Izuku within it.
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As he came to consciousness, all Izuku remembered was a flash of light and an agonizing heat.
Groaning he took a breath only to choke on smoke and superheated air burning his lungs. Trying to move his limbs proved futile as he was stuck under something that was both heavy and smolderingly hot.
He tried to hear what was happening around him but all he heard was high pitched ringing and the bass of roaring flames in the background. He didn't dare open his eyes, fearing what the heat and fire would do to them.
'-ey!' weakly struggling, Izuku couldn't do much to move whatever was trapping him, 'D-'t gi- up!' he was running out of energy quickly unable to take a breath.
'Kid! Don-' he was unable to for a coherent thought as his body started to ache, not only due to the heavy weight sitting atop him but due to the heat literally boiling the blood inside of him.
Suddenly he felt a hand grasp his shoulder, as a wave of clarity washed over his mind. 'Focus.'
Neither the pressure nor the heat had disappeared, he still couldn't breathe but his mind was clear.
'Izuku, I need you to lock the fuck in!'
He knew he didn't have much time, so using his new found clarity, Izuku focus turned deep into his body.
No movement technique enhanced attack would be able to free him due to being unable to move his limbs, No amount of meditation would help with recovering from this nor overpowering the debris.
He was running out of oxygen but breathing in would be detrimental… or would it? What if he took direct control of his lungs and manually filtered out all the smoke? That would still leave the heat but a bit of burning in his lungs would be bearable for a moment.
If he can get some oxygen, he will get his energy back and overpower the debris holding his limbs down. all he need to do is breathe.
Finally deciding on his plan of action, he focused all his attention on his body and took a breath.
Immediately heat erupted into his lungs, and as the blood flow dragged away the blazing oxygen, it traveled throughout his body, causing his already heated blood to nearly boil and erupt out of his veins.
A single moment of lost focus would kill him, so he focused all his intent at the task.
The boiling blood traveled through out his body, transferring the heat everywhere, his muscles, organs, brain. The pain was unbearable but he didn't lose focus, he felt like he was close to reaching something.
Taking another breath of burning air that blazed through out his body, Izuku finally opened his eyes and looked around the burning wreckage around him. He appeared to be stuck under a burning car and concrete debris, as the building was a car park, it didn't have anything flammable other than cars, so the fire seemed to be contained to the small area he was trapped in.
Feeling the air burn his lungs, he decided that he'd gotten enough oxygen and flexed his body to move the wreckage and slide his limbs out. The burning car and debris groaned but he was able to free both of his legs.
Bringing his knees as close to his chest as he could, Izuku pushed the car with all his might intending to pull it up and away from his upper body, only to stare in amazement as the car was tossed a meter or two away from him.
Though he didn't have much time to stare as the removal of the car caused the other debris to become unstable and come crashing down on him. Quickly taking another quick but still painfully burning breath, Izuku flash stepped away to safety.
Looking around, Izuku didn't spot the hero, letting out a sigh that shot a spike of pain through his chest and a wave of vertigo, he took a moment to steady himself after which he put out the fires and left.
Due to all his focus being on saving himself, it appeared that both the rouge hero and the villain had escaped.
Letting out another painful sigh, Izuku headed to an alley to change out of his burnt outfit and head home
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AN: sorry for the lower quality. Yes, its not just the villains that would want to enhance their quirks, some "heroes" really want to raise their popularity rank by any means necessary. Also yes, the hero's quirk was basically Sonic's spin dash but fire based. (also green goblin quote)
The technique displayed in this chapter will be explained and expanded upon in later chapters.
Also also as I was finishing off this chapter I almost had a heart attack cuz I misclicked something and the whole text disappeared, even after I hit undo nothing happened. It was only after I freaked out a bit that I noticed that I had somehow opened a new document and everything on this one was still were I left off.
~ Expect next chapter around September 27-30th ~
If you like my work and have the ability, please support me on Ko Fi (/rottensarcophagus) or Patreon (/RottenSarcophagus)