The distance between Izuku's apartment and the Unforeseen Simulation Joint was roughly thirty kilometers.
For a commuter train, it was a forty-minute trip.
For a car on the highway, twenty minutes.
For All Might, jumping through the air, perhaps five minutes.
For Izuku Midoriya, it was a heartbeat.
He didn't run; he tore a wound through the atmosphere. The world around him was a smear of grey and blue, a tunnel of distorted light. The sound barrier shattered behind him a hundred times over, a rolling thunder that cracked windows across the city, but he was moving too fast to hear it.
The Negative Speed Force surged through him, a river of red hate. It felt electric, agonizing, and ecstatic all at once.
He reached the dome of the USJ. He didn't look for a door. He calculated the structural integrity of the glass ceiling, found the weak point, and vibrated his molecules to match the frequency of the barrier.
He phased through the glass.
Inside the USJ, time had stopped for Class 1-A.
Eraserhead lay in a pool of his own blood, his elbow disintegrated, his face smashed into the concrete. Shigaraki Tomura stood over him, manic and twitchy. Beside him loomed the Nomu—a monstrosity of beak, brain, and black muscle.
Shigaraki reached out a hand toward Tsuyu Asui. Her eyes were wide, paralyzed by fear. Beside her, Mineta was sobbing.
"Game over," Shigaraki whispered, his fingers inches from her face.
The air inside the dome suddenly changed. The humidity evaporated instantly. A sound filled the massive space—not a wind, but a vibration. A heavy, oscillating thrum that vibrated in the teeth of every student and villain present.
Vvvvvvrrrrmmmmm. Vvvvvvrrrrmmmmm.
"What is—" Shigaraki started to turn.
BOOM.
A streak of yellow and red lightning circled the Central Plaza. It moved with such intensity that the water in the shipwreck zone geysered into the air, and the fire in the conflagration zone flickered out.
The streak coalesced in the center of the plaza.
The wind from the sudden stop knocked Shigaraki onto his back. The villains in the background were blown off their feet.
Dust swirled. Red electricity popped and hissed, eating away at the concrete floor. Standing in the center was the figure in the yellow suit. The cowl was up, the face vibrating into a blur, the eyes glowing like two burning coals.
"Who the hell are you?!" Shigaraki shrieked, scrambling up. "You're not All Might! Kurogiri, who is this? Is this a glitch?"
"I... I don't know," the mist villain stammered, expanding his body to protect Shigaraki. "His speed... it exceeds anything in my database."
Izuku ignored them. He slowly turned his head toward the students. He saw Tsuyu, trembling. He saw Midoriya's old classmates, frozen like statues. He saw Katsuki Bakugo staring with wide, unbelieving eyes.
Then, Izuku looked at the Nomu.
"That thing," the Speedster's voice vibrated, a terrifying layered distortion. "It reeks of artificial life. A puppet."
"That is the Anti-Symbol of Peace!" Shigaraki yelled, regaining his composure. "Nomu! Kill him! Eraserhead is out of the way. Crush this speed bump!"
The Nomu shrieked, a sound like twisting metal, and launched itself at Izuku. The creature was fast—faster than the eye could track. It closed the distance in a split second, winding up a punch that could destroy a building.
To the students, the Nomu was a blur of death.
To Izuku, the Nomu was moving through jelly.
Izuku watched the fist approach. He saw the muscle fibers contracting. He saw the scarring on the creature's knuckles. He analyzed the trajectory.
Shock Absorption, Izuku analyzed in a microsecond. Blunt force won't work. It absorbs impact.
So I won't use impact.
Izuku didn't dodge. He stepped into the punch.
Just before the fist connected, Izuku vibrated his entire body. He became intangible. The Nomu's fist passed harmlessly through Izuku's chest, hitting nothing but air.
The students gasped.
The Nomu, confused by the lack of resistance, stumbled forward.
"Sloppy," Izuku hissed.
He materialized solid behind the beast. He raised his right hand, vibrating it so fast it vanished from sight, becoming a hazy blade of kinetic energy.
"Shock absorption requires physical mass to disperse energy," Izuku lectured, his voice calm and terrifying. "But what happens when I sever the connection between the brain and the muscle?"
He thrust his vibrating hand into the Nomu's exposed brain.
He didn't crush it. He simply phased his fingers through the grey matter and unleashed a concentrated pulse of negative electrical currents.
The Nomu went rigid. Its eyes rolled back. The electrical signals controlling its motor functions were scrambled, fried by the intensity of the Speed Force.
Izuku pulled his hand out.
The massive beast—the creature designed to kill All Might—collapsed face-first onto the pavement like a puppet with its strings cut. It didn't move.
Silence. Absolute, suffocating silence.
Shigaraki scratched his neck violently, drawing blood. "Cheater... you're a cheater! That's the Nomu! It's as strong as All Might! You can't just... turn it off!"
Izuku turned to Shigaraki. In a flash, he was standing directly in front of the villain leader, nose-to-nose.
Shigaraki flinched, falling backward.
"All Might is slow," Izuku stated, looking down at him. "And your toy was pathetic."
He didn't finish Shigaraki. He didn't arrest him. He simply turned his back on the villains, dismissing them as unworthy of his time. He looked up at the students huddled near the entrance and the ones scattered around the plaza.
He walked toward Class 1-A. The red lightning arced off him, striking the ground, leaving blackened scorch marks.
Kirishima hardened his arms. "Stay back! Who are you?!"
Bakugo stepped forward, his palms popping. "You think you're tough, extra? You think you can look down on us?" But even Bakugo's voice shook. He had seen what happened to the Nomu.
Izuku stopped ten feet away from them. He vibrated his vocal cords, pitching his voice lower, making it resonate in their chests.
"Look at you," Izuku mocked. "Future heroes. Trembling. Waiting for a savior."
"We aren't trembling!" Bakugo yelled, though sweat poured down his face.
"You should be," Izuku said. "I just dismantled the weapon designed to kill your god in less than a second. And I didn't do it to save you. I did it to show you the truth."
He sped up, appearing instantly behind Uraraka. She yelped, freezing in place. He whispered in her ear, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Heroes are reactionary. You wait for the villain to strike. You wait for the building to fall. You are always one step behind."
He vanished and reappeared next to Bakugo.
"You think power makes you special? You think a strong quirk makes you a god?" Izuku grabbed Bakugo's wrist before the boy could blast him. He applied pressure, just enough to bruise. "There is always someone faster. There is always someone who can take everything from you before your neurons even fire to tell your hands to move."
"Who are you?" Todoroki asked, ice creeping along the floor toward Izuku's boots. "Are you a villain?"
Izuku stomped his foot. The vibration shattered the ice instantly, turning it into snow.
"Villain? Hero?" Izuku laughed, a dry, rasping sound. "Those are small words for small people. I am not here to play your game of cops and robbers."
He spread his arms wide, the red electricity flaring up, illuminating the dark dome like a nightmare strobe light.
"I am the inevitable result of your society. I am the reaction to your action."
The doors to the USJ burst open.
"HAVE NO FEAR!"
All Might. He was finally here. He wasn't smiling. He saw the fallen Aizawa. He saw the unconscious Nomu. He saw the students terrified by the yellow figure.
"Get away from them!" All Might roared, launching himself down the stairs.
Izuku didn't flinch. He looked at All Might, then back at the students.
"Your savior has arrived," Izuku mocked. "Late. As always."
He looked at Bakugo one last time.
"You want a name?"
Izuku's body began to vibrate so violently he looked like a smear of yellow ink on reality. The red eyes burned brighter.
"Flash is the hero of the comics. The one who saves the day. I am the opposite. I am the tragedy that makes you stronger. I am the darkness that proves the light is failing."
He leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper that cut through the chaos.
"Call me Zoom."
All Might landed a smash right where Izuku stood. The shockwave cracked the floor.
But Izuku was already gone.
The only evidence he had been there was the defeated Nomu, the lingering smell of ozone, and the terrifying realization in the hearts of Class 1-A that they were hopelessly, utterly outclassed.