Chapter 64 - 4-6

Chapter 4: Waiting to be Buried

The next morning started with Izuku being force fed the dinner he hadn't eaten the night before. Puppeteer quickly learned to get him to chew when he choked on the vegetables. 

After that he was left alone again. Normally the solitude was a blessing but the game had changed and Izuku was drowning in his anxiety.

The guard rotation switched indicating it was lunch time but instead of a bowl of food being shoved through the slot in the door Were and Buff came in and grabbed Izuku by the arms. 

The anxiety Izuku had been holding just under his skin bloomed into a full panic. Izuku dug his feet in and pulled against the two hulking thugs. The result was simply being lifted by his arms between them. He kicked at their legs, aiming for their knees.

Were squeezed Izuku's arm so hard it creaked and the child was forced to go limp or be brought to the clinic with broken limbs. 

Except they weren't going to the clinic. They bypassed the stairs and went deeper into the basement. Another metal door opened and Izuku was carried into a room that looked like it had once been a workshop. 

Now it was an operating theater.

A gurney was set up under bright lights. A few medical trays were prepped along with an IV drip, a blood bag and a heart monitor. The doctor and his nurses were waiting in full medical scrubs. 

Izuku began to struggle again. He cried and begged to be let go, for them not to do this. He said he would do anything just to be let out of that room. 

The two augmented strength users lifted the six-year-old onto the bed and held him still as the nurses strapped him in. 

The IV and blood bag were inserted in his arm and the heart monitor leads put in place.

"Now calm down Subject 11. This is for your own good," the doctor fiddled with a tray of tools as he spoke. They glinted in the harsh white light. "We adjusted phase 2 after Subject 8. He had a hidden mutation and caused the data for phase 3 to be corrupted. We had no use for him after that." 

Izuku choked on a sob. "Please," he begged, daring to look the doctor in the eye. "Please let me go."

"But you're our most promising subject yet. I'm giving you, a worthless Null, the chance to be part of something wonderful."

Izuku's vision swam with tears. The gurney rattled as his body quaked in fear.

"Start recording please. This is Dr Nikuya commencing phase two. Subject 11 has been prepped. Purpose of biopsy is to determine if the subject has any hidden mutations that would compromise phase 3. Making my first incision now."

No force in the world could have stopped the scream that ripped out of Izuku as a scalpel dug into his skin just under the tattoo. The heart monitor empathized with him, its beeps becoming loud and rapid. Izuku hadn't really felt the quick cut that had caused the deep scar along his throat but this time he felt his skin separating as the blade was slowly dragged at an angle downward toward his sternum. 

When the doctor reached the center of Izuku's chest he stopped. The child's scream quieted to a gut wrenching sob. The absence of white hot pain allowed Izuku to feel the warm stickiness of the blood pouring down his chest. 

"How are you feeling, Subject 11? Anything strange? Any new sensations outside the incision?"

"Stop, please stop. It hurts. Please, please, please make it stop."

"No changes," the doctor stated for the recording before digging the scalpel into the skin under the opposite collarbone and mirroring the previous cut. 

Izuku's scream was hoarse, he tasted blood. The doctor stopped when the two cuts connected. The violent shivering of Izuku's whole body caused the incisions to burn with pain creating a horrible feedback loop of agony. He felt a tight ache deep in his chest just above and left of where the incisions met. 

"We're in the danger zone for cardiac arrest," one of the nurses warned.

"Push adrenaline. I want to see how far he goes."

The scalpel dug in again at his sternum dragging down toward his belly button. When the blade reached the soft flesh of his stomach Izuku felt bile rise in his throat. He choked on the acidic fluid and felt one of the nurses turn his head so he wouldn't suffocate. 

"We're going to lose him Doctor."

"Push the sedative. He lasted much longer than our past subjects did."

A blissful cold began seeping into Izuku's body. The pain faded and his muscles relaxed. The incessant beeping of the heart monitor slowed to a soothing rhythm that lulled the child into merciful unconsciousness. 

—-----------

The doctor let Izuku rest for a week. 

The day after the procedure Stretch escorted a dead eyed Izuku to the clinic where the nurses performed the normal physical exams. Izuku compiled by muscle memory alone, his voice barely a whisper. 

His meals went uneaten for two days before Izuku was threatened with force feeding again and he began picking at his food slowly. The rest of the time he lay on his bed in a daze, his mind far away.

He was a walking corpse.

He already looked like he had been to the morgue with the white Y shaped scar marking his torso.

He was just waiting to be buried.

—---------

Three days later the doctor announced the start of phase 3. 

Izuku was shackled to a chair in the clinic. He hadn't even fought this time. Only one nurse was present, the one with the diagnostic quirk. There were no trays of surgical tools, just the three of them in an empty room. 

"This is Dr Nikuya proceeding with phase 3. Subject 11 is prepped. The purpose of this stage is to test the effects of trigger on the quirkless."

Izuku slumped and whined softly. He now desperately wished he didn't know anything about trigger. 

"We will be injecting 15mg of trigger intravenously. Subject 11 will be monitored at all times by a diagnostic quirk. Let's get started."

Izuku pulled against the restraints, trying to get away from the approaching syringe of red fluid. 

"Injecting now," the needle pinched as it was inserted into the cruck of his elbow. When the plunger was pressed there was a sensation like electricity running through his veins. Izuku's breathing picked up and he began to sweat. His heart was beating out of his chest.

"Subject is exhibiting symptoms of an adrenaline rush."

Over the next hour Izuku felt like he would vibrate right out of the restraints. He was soaked in sweat and his muscles felt coiled tight like a spring ready to launch. The nurse kept ahold of his hand, occasionally announcing that she was detecting no changes. Just when Izuku was sure he would come apart at the seams the pressure suddenly let up. He immediately felt dizzy and put his head between his legs with a groan. His vision was spotted with black and the floor felt like it was tilting.

"Subject crashed at the one hour nine minute mark. No adverse effects detected. Quirk factor remains dormant. Phase 3 session 2 will commence after two days to allow the drug to purge."

Izuku was carried back to his cell. He shivered through the night and woke with a splitting headache.

The next two sessions were the same as the first but he crashed a little earlier each time and it was taking longer for him to detox.

The doctor canceled the fourth session when Izuku was brought to the clinic swaying drunkenly and damp with sweat. 

When session four did happen both nurses were present. After the 18mg of trigger was injected Izuku began to notice the signs that he was adapting to the drug. The intense energy burst that had felt like being electrocuted the first couple times started to feel like a pleasant buzz. It chased away the bone weary exhaustion that had been his constant for the majority of the last two weeks. 

After session five Izuku stopped being able to hold down food and was constantly thirsty. He spent the first night of detox strapped to the gurney and hooked up to an IV. 

While he shivered through his fever and closed his blurry eyes against the migraine that was pounding against his skull, Izuku couldn't help thinking about how all his pain would go away during the next session.

The euphoria Izuku felt during session six when 20mg of trigger was injected into his arm made him cry with relief. He was down to a little less than an hour before he would crash. Until then there would be no headache and his fever would feel like a warm blanket rather than an inferno under his skin. The diagnostic nurse continued to monitor him. A familiar buzz settled in Izuku's veins. Today it felt particularly strong on his right side.

"Doctor, he's having a stroke."

Izuku's head began to spin. His vision was tunneling. The healing nurse's hand was on his forehead in an instant, the cool feeling of her quirk seeped into his brain. Izuku crashed seven minutes later. 48 minutes into the session. 

He immediately passed out.

After two nights hooked to an IV Izuku was returned to his cell with a scratchy gray blanket to help with the fever chills. He collapsed on the mattress. 

It was storming outside and the cold wet wind made the ache in his bones sink deeper. He was starting to let himself drift when movement just under the window distracted him. Izuku looked up and saw a small lizard, only a little longer than his hand, clinging to the stone and tilting its head to take in the space. Thunder boomed and a particularly strong wind blew rain into the room. The lizard seemed to decide that the cell was better than the outside so it scurried down to the floor. It headed straight for the only cover it could see but paused when it noticed Izuku watching from atop its chosen hiding spot. 

Moving slowly Izuku picked a piece of chicken from what was left in his bowl. It wasn't often they gave him protein but he was thankful for it tonight as he broke off a tiny piece and offered it to the little green reptile. To Izuku's surprise it scurried right up to him and took the meat without any hesitation, even crawling to settle on Izuku's palm as it chewed. 

"I must feel nice and warm to you on a night like this," Izuku said, his voice rough from exhaustion. "You can stay here tonight. Until the storm passes."

Izuku lifted the lizard up to his hair where it wiggled into the green curls. Izuku giggled, the sound making his chest feel looser and his limbs lighter.

"It's just like grass, I hope you like it," the boy whispered and he quickly drifted off to sleep. 

A couple nights later during session seven the dose was raised to 21 mg. Of course, the six-year-old had another stroke. The doctor seemed disappointed in the results. 

"No shit I overdosed again! You gave me even more drugs!" Izuku wanted to scream but the right side of his face still wasn't completely under his control. The trigger had just worn off and Izuku had managed to hold onto consciousness by the skin of his teeth. He was slumped over, his eyes closed as he fought off a wave of nausea. The doctor was speaking into the recorder nearby.

"We appear to have reached the limit of Subject 11's tolerance for trigger. There has been no change to the subject's quirk factor. After a few days of rest we will move on to session eight. By testing Subject 11's absolute limits we will either prove our theory correct or have to abandon the project."

As had become routine Izuku was kept in the clinic for the night on an IV drip. Usually Izuku dozed and let his mind drift while one of the nurses did some menial task nearby. He had never tried having a conversation with the nurses outside clinical questions and answers during physicals. Izuku watched the woman with the healing quirk inventory bottles of medication.

"I won't survive another dose."

The scratching of the woman's pen stopped.

"No, you won't," she answered.

"Why? What was the point of all this?"

"The theory was that with no quirk available to boost the drug would attack the quirk factor itself. We hoped it would destroy it. It would have made you truly pure."

Izuku looked down at his arm where the IV was taped down. A month's worth of track marks stood out on his pale skin. Izuku felt anything but pure as he lay enveloped in the smell of antiseptic, detoxing again and trying to ignore the little itch in the back of his mind telling him all his aches would go away if they just gave him more trigger. A bitter laugh bubbled out of the child.

"Was it worth it? Whatever price you paid for this higher calling of yours?"

The woman was silent. Izuku knew she wouldn't have an answer. She, the other nurse and the doctor, they were fanatics. They had sacrificed nothing on their path toward their vision. They paid the toll with other people's lives. 

"I am unloved, homeless, nameless and quirkless. Personally I hope that's a heavy enough price to pay for some peace."

Izuku let his exhaustion take hold, leaving the woman with her thoughts. 

When Izuku was returned to his cell the next morning he collapsed on the mattress, startling his little lizard friend out of hiding.

"You're still here," Izuku said, holding his hand out for the reptile. It crawled up his arm and settled in his hair again. "Don't you want to go find some real grass?" 

The creature shimmied around and settled in. 

Izuku shrugged. The lizard could get out whenever it wanted but Izuku was thankful for the company. Tears quietly spilled from Izuku's eyes.

It had almost been two months and Izuku's hope was all but gone. He didn't even have the skeleton of a plan to escape. The heroes weren't coming for him, they probably weren't even aware he and the past ten test subjects were missing. The doctor would just find Subject 12 and continue his sick experiments.

It was that thought that suddenly swept away Izuku's exhaustion. The thought that some other poor soul would be dragged into this hell. That they would feel just as scared and hopeless as Izuku. Maybe it was Izuku's need to help, to reach out a hand or maybe it was selfishness, a desperation to be remembered as someone other than Subject 11. 

Pulling his bed away from the wall Izuku settled in with a crayon and began to write in vivid green. When he was done Izuku replaced the mattress, hiding the words. It was probably the best burial he could hope for. 

As the day wore on the guards kept patrolling and his lunch was delivered at noon as always. The lizard had entertained itself by crawling across Izuku's body, its favorite pastime seemed to be weaving itself through Izuku's fingers.

When dinner arrived Izuku stood to grab the bowl and was hit with a sudden bout of dizziness. A headache washed over him so suddenly he gasped. The mural of drawings on the wall seemed to start glowing like neon, rainbow halos appearing across his vision. 

Izuku collapsed to the ground writhing and jerking. He had no control of his limbs, his consciousness seemingly hovering just a hair to the left and he couldn't summon the will to reel it back in. 

Izuku regained control as fast as he had lost it, it felt like he had been slammed back into his body. He had scrapes everywhere from the rough floor. Turning his head Izuku saw his lizard friend watching from the edge of the mattress.

"I'm okay," Izuku assured the creature, reaching out his hand. 

As soon as it stepped on Izuku's palm there was a sensation like a ripple rolling over the heel of his hand up to his fingertips. His fingers widened and his skin wrinkled into fleshy ridges. Izuku jumped and dropped the lizard back on the mattress. His hands immediately went back to normal. 

"Sorry," Izuku apologized to the reptile. "Can we try that again? I don't know what happened."

As always, his little friend didn't hesitate to crawl onto his hand. The sensation returned and this time Izuku felt it in his feet too. Pulling one leg over his knee Izuku saw that the same thing that had happened to his hands had also happened to his feet. He put the foot down and felt skin on the bottom tighten. When he tried to lift it again he had to pull hard to peel his foot off the ground. 

Izuku sat in shock, his mind racing to explain what was happening. The lizard got tired of waiting to be moved to Izuku's head and scurried up his arm. Izuku felt the slight pinch of its feet on his skin. 

It suddenly all made sense. He snatched the lizard off his arm and held it up to his face.

"Did I borrow your sticky feet?" He asked in awe. The lizard flicked its tongue out. 

"A quirk! I have a quirk!" Izuku scrambled to stand, forgetting about his new super grip and nearly falling again. 

"Okay, okay," Izuku tried to wrangle his reeling mind into analysis mode. 

"It only works as long as I'm touching you," Izuku found himself talking to his little reptile friend. "Does it only work if I use my hands?"

Izuku placed the lizard on his head where it happily scurried through his curls. Izuku's hands and feet didn't change.

"Just needs skin contact. Can I choose what abilities I borrow or does the quirk just choose the most useful ability? Does this work on other animals or just reptiles or small animals? Does the ability automatically adjust its strength to my size and weight?" Izuku approached the wall and reached up as high as he could. His hand automatically gripped the stone. He lifted his opposite foot and dug his toes in. Carefully lifting his other leg Izuku found himself hanging from the wall. He laughed happily, placing his other foot and hand on the stone so he was stuck to the surface with both palms and twenty toes. 

After a minute Izuku tried to jump down but his grippers refused to let go. 

"This is an issue," Izuku whispered. He peeled one of his hands off with some difficulty and studied his finger pads. Bending his fingers didn't seem to do anything but flexing the muscles in his hand caused the spaces between the ridges to tighten. Trying it on his still stuck hand it released easily causing him to fall backwards into the mattress because his feet were still stuck. Trying the same technique with his feet they detached as well. 

This was awesome! Izuku had a quirk. As long as he had his lizard friend safely tucked in his hair he could borrow its sticky feet to climb walls. 

Izuku could climb walls.

The greenette looked up at the window. He had studied that window many times. It was latched at the bottom but not locked. If he could reach it he could escape.

The sky was dark but a hint of soft orange indicated the tail end of sunset. He had about 10 hours until morning. If he practiced for a couple of hours and carefully timed the patrols he could get out.

Hope surged through Izuku. 

He was going to get out. 

Wasting no time Izuku started walking around the cell. Slowly at first, having to pause slightly between steps to flex his feet but soon he was walking normally, getting used to the rhythm of step, flex, step, flex. Next he added his hands, side stepping along the wall and walking one hand over the other. It took a little longer to get used to coordinating all four limbs but he eventually got it. 

Izuku waited for the patrol to pass before attempting the next step. Climbing up the wall about half a meter Izuku scuttled sideways. He quickly got into the habit of always having two points of contact. He tried climbing up and down a few steps too but soon he had to stop when his arms and legs began to burn. He would have to do some strength training when he made it out. 

Resting for a moment Izuku started thinking about what came next. He didn't know where he was and had nowhere to go. He needed shelter and food. What about school? What if he got sick? Izuku's mood took a dive. He would be all alone on the streets. 

The lizard dropped down to Izuku's shoulder. 

At least he had one friend.

"Will you stay with me?" Izuku asked. The lizard wiggled under his collar and settled against the warmth of his chest. Izuku smiled. He had survived worse than homelessness. He could do this. 

Once the patrol rotated at midnight Izuku waited for a couple of passes before readying himself against the wall under the window. The lizard, who Izuku had decided to name Kiseki, was back in his hair. 

As soon as the guards passed again Izuku scurried up and unlatched the window. He pulled the bars toward himself, thankful the hinges didn't squeak. It was barely big enough to let him through but Izuku managed without making any noise. 

He was outside.

After over two months he was finally outside.

Keeping to the shadows Izuku headed toward the fence at the end of the alley. He wanted to get something solid between himself and any guards that may come by. 

As he snuck along the building Izuku's eyes roamed wildly. Looking up he froze when he made out the silhouette of a guard crouching on the roof of the warehouse next door. In the dim moonlight Izuku made out a pale face and dark hair. Something was bunched up around the person's neck. A hood? A scarf? 

They didn't seem to have noticed him so Izuku continued until he reached the fence and scrambled over.

Subject 11 disappeared into the night.

Chapter 5: Crayons and Case Files

Damn the Hero Commission.

Shouta sat on the couch while Hizashi silently wrapped his hand. The blonde hadn't even scolded him for punching a hole in the living room wall. Even with his jaw clenched to the point of cramping both Shouta and Nao could hear a low static like an untuned radio. The detective was slumped in an armchair, his work clothes still on. He stared at the ceiling.

Naomasa had come through the door just as Hizashi was placing his share of dinner in the fridge. Neither hero had expected him home tonight. In fact, the three of them hadn't all been home together in a month. 

Since the meeting all of them had thrown themselves into work.

Nao had contacted every police station in the surrounding cities asking them to be on the lookout for a green haired, green eyed boy. He dug through every scrap of information anyone had on the Shie Hassaikai looking for any hint of where they may have taken Izuku.

Following the car had been a dead end. As soon as it left the city they lost track of it. Days of scanning street cameras in the surrounding cities had yielded nothing. Eventually the task force concluded that they had switched vehicles somewhere in the countryside. 

By now Nao was involved in nearly every human trafficking investigation in Masutafu and 5 surrounding cities. Nothing was overlooked, nothing was forgotten.

Shouta had alerted every underground hero he knew and put the word out through his network of vigilanties and underground informants. He spent days on patrol in every slum, crime alley and red light district he could find. He only ever slept at home if he was patrolling Masutafu, otherwise he crashed at the local underground hero agency or some seedy motel. 

Hizashi was doing the same with the limelight hero network. He took a hiatus from his radio show and traveled from agency to agency, working with other limelight heroes to collect intelligence from everyday citizens. 

Their first break had come almost a month after Izuku's disappearance. Trigger was growing in popularity and the supply was meeting demand. On the surface it was being dealt by local gangs but the amount of product being moved was cause for concern. Even the dealers the limelight heroes were catching selling to students had felony level amounts of the drug. Shouta broke up a trigger deal just about every hour and his underground network was reporting even more. 

A hunch on Nao's part had him and Sansa investigating when the spike in trigger had started. It was a mere month before the first missing quirkless person was taken so they followed the money and found the supplier. It was the Shie Hassaikai.

"They're bankrolling something big," Naomasa informed the task force at the next meeting. "I don't think it's a coincidence that the biggest influx of trigger since its introduction started at the same time as the quirkless kidnappings."

Nighteye took a file from Centepeder. "They're stacking the deck too. In several districts the normal drug supplier has been ousted by someone associated with the Shie Hassaikai. We ran background checks and the ones that were permitted to keep their empire have their hands in human trafficking. The ones that shied away from it were replaced."

"So the trigger trafficking and the human trafficking are connected somehow," Sansa concluded.

"It's not just quirkless people now either," Midnight spoke up. "My contacts in the club scene are reporting an increase in traffickers looking for specific quirks."

"What kind of quirks?" Shouta asked.

"Your kind of quirk actually," Midnight replied. "They're looking for people that can manipulate quirks. Erase them, strengthen them, weaken them. Whatever they can find." 

"We have to find the importer," Centepeder said, his mandibles clicking. "They may have information on the human trafficking. If not we will at least cut off their funding. It may give us time before a new round of kidnappings occur."

"Any news on the kid?" It was always Fat Gum that asked. Always fearful that they wouldn't have an answer and terrified that they would. 

"No news. We're positive he's not in Musutafu. The car disappeared to the north west. There are two cities that way but they could have swung around in any direction once they weren't being watched."

There was heavy silence. Each one of them wrestling with that endless darkness that threatened to overtake them when they weren't fast enough, weren't smart enough, weren't strong enough. Trying to grab it by the throat and tell it that they hadn't failed yet. Unless they found the kid cold in some alley he was still out there, he was still alive. 

"I'll warn the Hero Commission that they may have to authorize a raid in the next month and that we need more heroes," Nao said.

Nao's meeting with the commission was a few days later. That night the detective walked into the apartment he shared with Hizashi and Shouta and told them that the commission had authorized the raid. Upon its successful completion the task force was being dissolved, effective immediately. 

Shouta had punched the wall. 

"Why would they do this?' Hizashi asked as he finished tying Shouta's bandages. "There's still so much to be done after the raid. Who is going to investigate the human trafficking?"

Nao ran his hands down his face. "The commission doesn't care about quirkless human trafficking. They want the drugs off the streets and that's all."

Shouta balled his fists until he could feel the sting of his split knuckles. Hizashi gently grabbed his hands

"Stop that Sho. We can figure this out."

"Quirkist bastards," Shouta growled. "How could they see people suffering, a child suffering, and decide to do nothing?"

"They told me the kid was likely dead and I should move on to something more important."

Hizashi and Shouta's eyes snapped up to their third. His gaze was misty, they hadn't seen him break down like this since his rookie days.

"Oh Nao," Hizashi cooed. He hurried over and sat on the arm of the chair, rubbing soothing circles on his back. 

Nao's phone rang, vibrating across the tabletop. Shouta saw "Sir Nighteye" flash on screen and picked it up.

"Nighteye."

"Eraserhead. Where's Tsukauchi?"

"He's right here. I assume you heard?"

"The commission sent out an email to the whole taskforce," Centepeder's voice came over the line.

Nao's phone vibrated again. Midnight's name popped up.

"Hold on, Midnight is calling. I'm going to conference her."

"Put it on speaker Sho," Nao said softly, his eyes were alert again even as he was clutching Zashi's hand.

"Midnight, it's Eraserhead. You're on speaker with Tsukauchi and Present Mic. Nighteye and Centepeder are conferenced in."

"Hello boys. I have Sansa and Fat Gum here."

"What are you all doing together?" Hizashi asked.

"Fat and I were patrolling near the station. When we got the email we stopped by to talk to Tsukauchi but he wasn't here."

"I came straight home after my meeting," Nao explained. 

"I assume they said some awful quirkist things to justify abandoning the search for our green bean?"

"You assume correctly."

"We can't stop looking for him," Fat Gum insisted.

"We won't," Hizashi assured him. "But the commission won't allow us to keep the evidence from the raid. We'll lose our only lead."

As everyone in the apartment and at the police station fell silent they could hear a hushed conversation happening between Nighteye and Centipeder. 

"Care to share with the class?" Shouta asked, his usual grumpiness getting a healthy boost from his frustration.

"What if I could give you time to make copies of the evidence?" Nighteye asked.

"Then we would continue the investigation on the down low," Nao answered.

"Are you sure Nao?" Sansa asked. From anyone else it would have sounded like disapproval but Sansa had always been Nao's extra layer of reason even as he stood solidly at his side. "This is evidence tampering at best."

"I'm sure. I won't ask any of you to join me but you'll be welcome."

"You know Eraser and I will help," Hizashi assured him.

"Sounds exciting," Midnight said.

"I'm in," Fat Gum agreed.

Sansa didn't answer, he didn't need to.

"Centipeder and I will likely be moved to the trigger task force after the raid. We can feed you what information we can," Nighteye offered. 

"Okay, what's the plan?" Nao asked.

"We narrowed down the import city to a couple places around the bay," Nighteye reported. "It will take more investigation to narrow down the exact location. Once we have the main base we'll tell the hero commission we narrowed it down to two places. We'll raid them both at the same time and make sure the commission is looking at the wrong one."

Everyone was silent, surprised that the logical, rule-abiding Sir Nighteye had just proposed lying to the commission. 

"Very devious Sir," Midnight commented. "What happened to your no nonsense, by the book reputation?"

"Naomasa played his game well," Nighteye answered causing Nao to squint at the phone in confusion. "I have an All Might action figure on my desk. It's a little worse for wear but it helps me remember that while logic gets the job done, emotions give you the strength to get there."

—------------

It took a few more weeks to find the head of the snake. A warehouse in an abandoned area. They found it by following a truck that had picked up some crates from a pier controlled by the Shie Hassaikai. The pier would be their distraction.

Nighteye, Centipeder, Midnight and Fat Gum would hit the pier with their new team. Sansa, Tsukauchi, Eraserhead and Present Mic would take their team and hit the warehouse. Shouta and Hizashi had filled their team with heroes they trusted. If asked, they would look the other way and forget. With the commission convinced that the warehouse was simply the closest distribution center they hadn't assigned any of their people to it. 

Eraserhead and a couple other undergrounds had been watching the building for most of the night. Present Mic, Tsukauchi and Sansa were hunkered down in nearby warehouses with some limelight and twilight heroes waiting for the go signal. 

Eraserhead watched for the patrolling guards to circle again while cataloging the entrances on his side of the building. A rusty door beside a padlocked loading dock provided access to the alley. A few low, bared windows were spread evenly across the wall. 

The patrol made another pass. It was an unknown thug with a leather jacket and Stretch. When Eraser had seen the gangly man he had to grip the edge of the building or risk discovery by delivering death from above. 

The pair disappeared around the corner. Eraser checked in with the under watching that side of the building.

"Night Jumper, patrol incoming. Same guys as last time."

"Roger Roger," was the reply.

Looking back down at the alley Eraser suddenly had the feeling something had changed. Some minute detail was taunting him but he couldn't put his finger on it. The alley was quiet, the dumpsters and assorted trash hadn't moved and there was no way anyone had opened the door without the rusty metal protesting loudly.

His comms crackled. "The patrol has returned to their post at the front entrance. Nothing has changed in the last couple hours."

"Ground team is in place. Roof team, get ready," Tsukauchi ordered. 

Jumping over the alley Eraserhead silently made his way over to the maintenance hatch. He was soon joined by Gran Torino, a legend to the few heroes who knew of him. He had been a Pro longer than most could dream of and was gearing up for retirement. 

"Ready to go zygote?" 

Eraser nodded. The old man hummed thoughtfully. 

"I don't know what you and your pals are up to but I trust you've pulled the wool over the commission's eyes for a good reason?"

Eraserhead looked the older man in the eye. He knew at least a few of the heroes they had recruited would realize that the warehouse wasn't what they had said it was. 

"The best reasons," Eraser replied just as his comms crackled. 

"We are go, repeat, we are go."

Ripping the hatch open, Eraser dropped to the catwalk below with erasure activated. Gran Torino zipped in after him, quickly bouncing his way to the floor and kicking the closest thug in the head, dropping him immediately. The limelight and twilight heroes poured in from every entrance.

Present Mic released a scream toward where several people were gathered at a card table sending them flying into the wall. Eraser used his capture weapon to repel down and dispatch a few who were just stunned. Night Jumper materialized out of the shadows and secured a couple more. 

"They could use you on the other side," Eraser said, his eyes roving over the action, erasing quirks wherever there was resistance. Night Jumper ducked back into the shadows and disappeared. 

"Eraser! The basement!" 

Turning to where the blueprints had indicated the stairway was Eraser saw a hulking beast man disappearing around the corner.

"Were," Eraser growled and gave chase. 

Leaping down the stairs Eraser dashed after the thug he most wanted to get his hands on. The basement was mostly open but there were several storage rooms and workshops around the perimeter. Were was hurrying toward where Eraser knew there was an emergency exit but was surprised when the wolf man stopped outside one of the storage rooms and fumbled with a key. It was all the time Eraser needed to land a flying kick into his ribs. 

Were gained his balance fast and charged at Eraser. The hero ducked under his claws and delivered a few devastating haymakers to the wolf's gut. 

Were kicked at him and Eraser was forced to jump back into a fight stance. He was ready for another charge but Were had turned back toward the door. Eraserhead sent out his capture weapon, stopping the thug in his tracks. Spinning around with a guttural growl, Were grabbed the capture weapon and pulled. Expecting resistance, he wasn't prepared when Eraser used the momentum to fly forward and punch him square in the nose with a satisfying crunch. 

A weaker man would have been too stunned to retaliate but the wolf man grabbed Eraser, shredding his jumpsuit but unable to penetrate the armor underneath. He threw the hero against the wall, jaws wide and going for the throat. Thinking quickly, Eraserhead drew one of his knives and buried it in the thug's furry shoulder. The man howled and released the hero, stumbling back.

Using an overhead pipe Eraser pulled himself up with his capture weapon and delivered a solid kick to the side of Were's head finally knocking the beast man out. 

Breathing heavily Eraser produced a pair of heavy duty cuffs meant for criminals with mutation quirks. If he stomped on the man's spine while securing them that was no one's business. 

Reaching for his ear to call for assistance Eraserhead's eyes were drawn to the set of keys Were had dropped. He glanced at the door the man had been so determined to access.

What the hell was in there? 

—--------

Present Mic was assisting his fellow heroes with securing the last of the thugs. The element of surprise had caught the majority of the criminal off guard and made the fight easier than expected. 

Naomasa was taking photos of everyone they had arrested as they were escorted outside, jotting down what information he could gather in a notebook. They would look them up in the police database later. 

As Mic was cuffing a woman with wire for hair Gran Torino approached him.

"I'll take her. You should go to the foreman's office. Kitty Cop found a lot of documents, you'll need all the time you can get to make copies of everything."

Mic stared at the elderly hero for a moment, not entirely surprised that the underground legend was onto them.

"Thanks Gran." 

Mic waved to get Nao's attention and jerked his head toward where the foreman's office was. 

Inside would have looked just like a normal clinic if it wasn't for the gurney and chair fitted with restraints. Sansa was going through the drawers of a neatly organized desk in the corner. One of Shouta's unders, Night Jumper, was slouched nearby on a plastic chair. He stared at the floor with unseeing eyes. 

"What happened to him?" Nao asked.

Sansa paused and took a deep, shaky breath. He pointed to a voice recorder on the corner of the desk.

"There were a few files and tapes on the desk. They were obviously important enough to keep in reach. We thought it would be helpful to listen while we searched," Sansa visibly shivered, his fur standing on end. "I never want to hear anyone scream like that again."

He handed a file to Nao. It was marked "Phase 2 - Subject 11", the same as the label they could see on the tape through the little window of the recorder.

Looking over Nao's shoulder Hizashi saw a medical report with the outline of a human body printed on it. A red Y was drawn across the torso. Notes were written on the side. 

Phase 2 - June 16th 

12:10 - Subject 11 arrived 

12:20 - Surgery start 

12:23 - Nurse R detected oncoming cardiac arrest. Pushed 2mg of adrenaline. 

12:25 - Surgery resumed 

12:27 - Subject 11 began vomiting. Due to the possibility of asphyxiation Subject 11 was put under anesthesia. 

Biopsy findings: 

Heart - Normal 

Lungs - Normal 

Liver - Normal 

Appendix - Removed 

Kidneys - Normal 

Spleen - Normal 

Digestive tract - Normal 

13:11 - Incisions closed and healed. 

Subject 11 approved for Phase 3. 

Mic looked over to the dissociating underground hero. If that recording was made during the surgery and the patient hadn't been anesthetized until seventeen minutes in he couldn't imagine how agonizing those screams had been. 

Mic walked over and crouched into Night Jumper's field of vision. 

"Jumper, go get some air. You've done enough."

The man finally focused on Present Mic's face. He nodded slowly and left on unsteady legs.

"You alright Sansa?" Nao asked his friend.

Sansa nodded. "Let's just get this all copied so we can find these bastards."

Nao and Hizashi nodded, they both understood using work as a distraction.

"What else did you find?"

Sansa pushed a stack of documents toward them. There were four files total. 

Phase 1 - Subject 11 

Phase 2 - Subject 11 

Phase 3 - Subject 11 

The last simply said Subject 11 

"This last one must be Subject 11's medical information," Mic said. He picked up the file and opened it. 

He didn't realize what he was seeing at first. He didn't register the green hair or the recognizable scar on Subject 11's cheek. The image of the child unconscious on an examination table was so far removed from the smiling boy they were looking for that he went right on reading. 

Subject 11 - Midoriya Izuku 

DOB - July 15, XXXX 

Quirk - Quirkless 

Hizashi didn't realize his quirk had activated. A high pitch whine filled the room making the furniture vibrate. Sansa flattened and covered his ears. Nao pulled the file from his partner's hands and threw it on the desk. He grabbed Hizashi's face and forced him to look at him. 

"Zashi, take a deep breath and hold it."

Hizashi obeyed and the whine cut off leaving only a static sound that indicated he was trying to control his quirk. 

"What got you so upset?"

Hizashi took a few more deep breaths but when he spoke his voice still crackled.

"It's him Nao. Subject 11 is the green bean."

Nao froze for a split second before he was turning to snatch the file off the desk. His eyes widened, coming to the same horrific realization as Hizashi when Shouta's voice came over the comms on their private frequency. 

"You're going to want to see this."

—----------

After passing a still unconscious Were off to a couple fellow heroes Shouta finally approached the door.

He didn't know what he would find inside as he turned the key but it was not this.

It was a small concrete room with a thin mattress off to the side. There was a single window up near the high ceiling. Someone had been in here recently, a partially finished bowl of rice sat beside the bed. 

Even more confusing were the colorful drawings decorating the walls. Doodles of outdoor scenes, swirls, patterns, planets, stars, flowers. Heroes. 

It was the drawings of heroes that made Shouta call out on the task force's private frequency. He recognized some of those drawings. 

Nao and Hizashi arrived a minute later. Stepping into the room and finding Shouta running his fingers over a portrait of Selkie.

"Izuku was here," he said quietly.

"We know," Nao replied.

Shouta whipped around. Hizashi looked pale as he drifted over to study the drawings. Nao was clutching a few files to his chest like a lifeline. Seeing where his partner was focused Nao held the files out to him. 

"Sansa is copying the rest but we're taking these with us."

Shouta opened the file labeled Phase 3 - Subject 11 

Phase 3 

Patient: Subject 11 

Quirk: Quirkless 

Status: Quirk factor present but dormant 

Session 1 

Date: June 23rd 

Dose: Trigger, 15mg 

Subject 11 exhibited symptoms of an adrenaline rush immediately upon injection. Monitoring via Nurse R's diagnostic quirk detected no harmful health effects. Subject experienced an adrenaline crash 1 hour and 9 minutes after injection. Subject's quirk factor remains dormant and undamaged. 

Session 2 

Date: June 25th 

Dose: Trigger, 16mg 

Subject 11's baseline health and vitals returned to normal after 2 days of detox. The experiment was repeated with similar results. Subject crashed 1 hour and 6 minutes after injection. Subject 11's quirk factor remains dormant and undamaged. 

Session 3 

Date: June 27th 

Dose: Trigger, 17mg 

No changes to report. Subject crashed 1 hour and 2 minutes after injection. Subject 11's quirk factor remains dormant and undamaged. 

Session 4 

Date: June 29th 

Dose: CANCELED 

Subject 11 failed to sober during the two day detox. Subject will be returned to his cell for two additional days of detox. 

Session 4B 

Date: July 1st 

Dose: Trigger, 18mg 

Subject 11's baseline health and vitals returned to normal after 4 days of detox. Subject has begun to show signs of drug dependency. The adrenaline rush symptoms are not as intense and his vitals show a significant improvement when compared to Session 1. Subject crashed 58 minutes after injection. Subject 11's quirk factor remains dormant and undamaged. 

Session 5 

Date: July 4th 

Dose: Trigger, 19mg 

Confirmation of drug dependency. Subject became emotional upon injection followed by immediate relaxation. Prevailing theory is that trigger masks Subject 11's underlying pain and lingering detox symptoms. Subject crashed 53 minutes after injection. Subject 11's quirk factor remains dormant and undamaged. 

Session 5 (Continued) 

Date: July 5th 

The morning after Session 5 Subject 11 refused to eat claiming nausea. An attempt was made to force feed the subject resulting in vomiting. Subject 11 has been moved to the clinic for IV nutrition. The subject has a low grade fever. 

Session 6 

Date: July 7th 

Dose: Trigger, 20mg 

Subject 11's fever has not broken. Experiment will proceed regardless. 

41 minutes after injection Nurse R detected an oncoming stroke. Nurse H immediately administered healing. Subject crashed 48 minutes after injection. Subject lost consciousness but is otherwise stable, he will be moved to the clinic for IV nutrition. Unfortunately Subject 11's quirk factor remains dormant and undamaged despite the overdose. 

Session 7 

Date: July 12th 

Dose: Trigger, 21mg 

Subject 11's fever broke after 5 days of detox. 34 minutes after injection Subject experienced another stroke. Nurse H administered healing. Subject crashed 44 minutes after injection. Subject 11's quirk factor still remains unchanged. 

Shouta didn't know when he had slid to the floor, leaning up against the crayon covered wall. 

"Subject 11?" he asked, not really wanting the answer.

"It's Izuku," Nao confirmed. 

Shouta wanted to rip the files to pieces.

"Did you read this?"

Nao shook his head. "We read Phase 2. They operated on him without anesthetic."

The edges of the paper crinkled in Shouta's white-knuckle grip. "They put him on trigger. They overdosed a six year old on trigger twice," he wasn't even going to get into the fact that they had gotten a six year old addicted to trigger. 

"Hey, over here," Hizashi called. He had wandered over to the mattress and kicked it aside revealing writing in dark green crayon. The trio gathered around to read.

For Subject 12 

Hello! I'm Izuku, I was Subject 11. I slept here before you. Sorry to call you Subject 12, they may not have given you that name yet but if you're here that is who you will become. 

I've been here for two months. For the first month they focused on making me healthy enough for their experiments. They called this Phase 1. If they have you in Phase 1 do whatever you can to keep them from moving you to Phase 2. 

I'm in Phase 3 now. In a couple of days I'll go for my eighth injection of trigger. I won't survive. 

There is hope for you. The heroes may not come for us but the trigger operation they're running is growing. It's only a matter of time until someone comes to break it up. 

Until then, survive. Fight however you can. I'll be rooting for you, wherever I end up. 

Good bye. 

"Poor sweet boy," Hizashi said softly. "He didn't think anyone was looking for him."

Shouta skimmed over the message again. "There is no Session 8 in the report."

Nao referenced the file. "Session 7 was two days ago. The detox time between injections was up to four or five days. It wouldn't have happened yet," he informed them.

"Then where is the green bean?"

The three of them looked around the room. Shouta's eyes wandered upward toward the window. It was small but a child, especially a small, skinny child, could have fit. Looking closer he noticed it wasn't closed all the way leaving a couple inch gap between the wall and the bars.

A gap he would have been able to see from outside.

"Son of a bitch!" He swore.

"What is it Sho?"

"He escaped, just before the raid. He slipped out right under my nose."

Chapter 6: From the Ashes

Izuku stayed hidden the first few days after his escape. After running between hiding spots for the rest of the night he had hunkered down in a dumpster for the day. Thankfully it was full of packaging so it didn't smell too bad and a few cardboard boxes kept him hidden from anyone who may peek inside. 

He did the same the next day, sleeping in a locked shed he had snuck into through a loose metal sheet in the back. 

The next day it was a culvert near a dock.

Then another dumpster.

After that he made it into a city far enough away that Izuku felt he could truly disappear. It must have been the weekend because there were more people around than he thought there should be that early in the morning. Most of them laughing loudly and stumbling. 

Izuku moved away from the noisier streets until he found an abandoned apartment building. The front door was chained and the boards on the lower windows looked secure so Izuku scurried up the wall and crawled into one of the empty rooms near the top where he collapsed.

Izuku felt awful. When he had woken up in the shed his detox symptoms had been gone but last night he had started to feel achy and he shivered constantly. Izuku felt absolutely ravenous, despite having eaten the day before, but the mere thought of food made his stomach roll. Every little noise made his heart race, his eyes flitting around the room. He was sure something was there, in the dark bathroom or in the shadows up in the corner. It made it difficult to sleep even as his body screamed for rest.

Through it all Izuku had to keep pushing away the craving, just the thought of the floaty feeling he would get during a session made him feel infinitely worse. 

He shouldn't have run away.

Izuku's brain stuttered, utterly horrified with himself. 

What the hell was he thinking?

Forcing himself to take a few deep breaths Izuku pulled the cloth sack he had found at the dock toward himself. Inside was a few granola bars he had snatched from a truck and a crinkled plastic water bottle. Izuku drank the water and munched on one of the granola bars, having to stop between bites to fight down the nausea. 

Kiseki crawled down onto his shoulder. Izuku picked her up and put her on the ground. He filled the bottle cap with water.

"Drink up, there has to be a few cockroaches around here for you. I'll be okay, gonna try and sleep."

The lizard studied him for a moment before taking advantage of the water then scurrying off into the building. 

Izuku pulled a blanket from his bag. Stealing it from someone's clothes line hadn't been his finest moment. Shuffling into the corner Izuku lay down and wrapped himself up, it did nothing against the phantom cold making him practically vibrate but it made him feel safer.

Izuku succumbed to unconsciousness in a few minutes. 

Izuku and Kiseki spent a couple more nights in the apartment while Izuku wrestled with withdrawal. When Izuku woke to the sunset the first day he had felt a little better. Until he ate and had to rush to the bathroom. 

Waste of a perfectly good granola bar. 

After that he sipped his water and dozed on and off. 

When he could finally scarf down another bar without his stomach protesting Izuku planned his next move.

They couldn't stay there. The apartment may be a good shelter but the area had nothing useful. He would have to go deeper into the city to reliably find food. Maybe he would get lucky and find a change of clothes. He tried not to hope for shoes too. 

They headed out after dark. His stealth skills came in handy. He always had a hiding spot or an escape route planned and he stayed near walls so he could climb if he needed to. Izuku had figured out how to turn sticky feet off and on early in their journey.

After scouting around for a few days Izuku found the perfect area. It wasn't too busy but the mix of homes and businesses meant he would find useful things in the trash. 

The first good find was a yellow backpack. It was old and well used and the zipper on the front pocket was broken but Izuku was happy to ditch the sack. 

—---------

Things were not going well.

Food was becoming an issue. He couldn't always find something safe in the trash and he couldn't afford to get sick. Thankfully water was more plentiful, he knew of several houses that had garden hoses. 

He had found some clothes. The dumpsters behind the small outlet mall were a treasure trove. He snagged some pants close to his size and a couple of t-shirts. The best was the sweater with the bleach stains on the front. No shoes unfortunately but he was used to going barefoot now. 

Izuku's biggest problem was that he hadn't found a permanent shelter yet. Most nights he found some small hidey hole or a dumpster to sleep in. He had quickly realized being out in the open was dangerous. Just a week after moving into the area someone had tried to steal his bag. He was able to trip the man up to give himself enough time to climb the wall but he was attacked four more times in the coming weeks. 

Now it was raining. 

The downpour had caught him off guard so he was huddled in the rear delivery door of a cafe. Normally he would be searching for food at the convenience stores a few streets over but the pre-packaged sandwiches and bruised apples he had gotten from their trash smelled off and had a bitter taste. The cafe's dumpsters hadn't had much to offer either but at least they had a small awning above their back door. It didn't look like the rain would let up so Izuku settled in for a sleepless night but soon felt exhaustion creeping up and his eyes drooped as he fell asleep.

When he woke in the morning he was warm and cozy, something soft was laying against his arm.

The soft thing moved.

Starting awake Izuku found himself buried in cats. Curled up in his lap, under his legs and nestled between his arm and his body. One was perched right on his chest. A large calico. Her yellow-brown flecked eyes bore into him and she yowled when she noticed he was awake.

Izuku figured he must have trespassed on their territory. There were more cats laying nearby, lounging around the steaming vent at the raman place next door.

Turning his quirk on Izuku felt the familiar ripple under his skin but this time it was in different areas. His vision and hearing were suddenly sharper. He yelped and shifted slightly when a fluffy, deep green tail grew from just above his tail bone. He looked at his hands, he had ten white, slightly curved claws. Running his tongue over his teeth revealed that they were sharp, his canines noticeably longer than the rest. 

The calico meowed, this time sounding more friendly as she came forward to smell him. Soon enough she was purring and headbutting his face. She put her front paws on his shoulder and started grooming his new furry ears. 

The cat's presence startled Kiseki who crawled down Izuku's neck and scurried under his collar. The calico reached out to bap at the lizard but Izuku twisted his body and shocked himself by releasing a deep growl. The cat paused before going back to purring and grooming him, seemingly getting the message that the little reptile was off limits.

The colony quickly adopted Izuku. The calico was the leader so Izuku started calling her Queenie. It became clear pretty fast that Queenie had decided Izuku was her kitten.

The first thing the cats taught him was how to access the tunnels. Most of the city had a maze of sewers, service tunnels and old cellars that created a convenient way to move around as long as you didn't get lost. It was dry most of the time and the cats knew where the warm spots were so Izuku didn't have to worry about shelter anymore.

He soon didn't have to worry about food either. After a couple weeks of following the colony Izuku had learned the patterns of the restaurants and grocery stores in the area. He knew when delivery day was and what night they purged old inventory or cleaned the fridges out. 

Not having to worry about basic needs anymore meant Izuku could train his quirk. So far he had only ever borrowed lizard and cat. Using cat was awkward since he had to be touching one. The claws and advanced senses would be great for defense but it's hard to fight while carrying a cat.

He stumbled on the solution by accident. 

Sometimes the colony found food their human kitten couldn't eat, like raw meat or cans of cat food some good samaritan had left out, so Izuku would go off on his own. One night he was scrounging around a bakery for bagels when some muggers blocked the alley. 

"Hey! What you got in the bag kid?"

Izuku hissed and quickly activated lizard to scurry up the wall but one of his attackers grabbed hold of his ankle and pulled him back down. Izuku kicked him away and scrambled back. He yowled and spit at them angrily.

"Fucking kid is feral," one of the men commented.

"I know this brat. It's the cat kid. Runs around with a bunch of alley cats."

At the mention of his colony Izuku instinctively tried to reach out and borrow claws even though he knew he couldn't do anything without Queenie or one of the other cats. 

To his surprise Izuku felt the ripple of his quirk.

Izuku hissed again, the effect was much more impressive with his fangs and green eyes flashing in the street light. He swiped out at the closest mugger who backed away from the razor sharp claws and tripped over his companion. Izuku took his chance to vault onto the closest dumpster and leap for the fire escape where he activated lizard and started crawling along the wall back to the street. 

He got another surprise when he heard a slight click with each step and realized he still had claws. 

He was using lizard and cat at the same time. 

When he rounded the corner he headed up and pulled himself onto the roof. One of the men dashed out of the alley and looked around.

"Where'd he go?"

His friend followed more slowly. "Who cares? That's not a child, that's a demon. We're not fucking with that kid."

He walked away. His buddy looked around one more time. When he glanced up he jumped upon seeing Izuku watching him and hurried after his companion. 

Safe on the roof, Izuku chittered softly to check on Kiseki. The lizard scurried around in a circle before settling in again. Izuku took the hint. 

Izuku looked down at his hands with both sticky feet and claws activated and started analyzing.

"How did I use cat?" Izuku wondered. "I thought I needed to be touching the animal but there aren't even any cats around. Maybe it's something else?"

He looked himself over but nothing was different. It was all the same skinny kid wearing dirty, ripped jeans and a cat hair covered hoodie.

Wait...

That was it!

Izuku rolled up his sleeves and found bits of fur caught in the fleecy inner lining. 

"I don't have to touch the whole animal, just a part of them," he realized. "My quirk probably only requires a DNA source. I can work with this."

Izuku made his way back to the alley where the cats had been eating scraps from a butcher shop. He was soon following the colony down a storm drain to settle in for the night. Laying out his blanket in one of the off-shooting pipes, Izuku cuddled up with his family. He gave attention to each one as they drifted off, collecting any fur that came loose. When he had a healthy pile he started rolling it between his hands until the hair became a tightly coiled cord. Pulling some loose threads from his jeans he braided it into the cord just to make it more durable and secured it around his wrist. 

Izuku smiled, now he could use cat whenever he wanted. 

"I should do the same thing next time Kiseki sheds," Izuku thought as he drifted off, lulled by the warmth and soft purring. 

The next morning Izuku headed to his favorite place. The great thing about the sewers wasn't just the ability to travel under the radar but all the places you could access. There were several old buildings in the city that were still connected to the tunnels via their basements. One was the public library. It wasn't well funded so it had basic security. As long as he didn't open any doors or windows then he wouldn't set off the alarm. 

Izuku had spent many nights there researching. He was determined to keep studying. He wrote everything he learned down in the notebooks he had shoplifted and went through all the practice books he could find. Izuku was most fascinated with zoology, he figured he had to be because of his quirk but he truly did enjoy learning about amazing creatures from all over the world. 

Izuku couldn't wait to explore the limits of his quirk.

—-----------

The boy ran. 

He didn't know where he was but he didn't want to stay in that little room tucked away at some kind of run down medical facility. 

When he had woken he tried to take a deep breath but choked and coughed painfully. There was a tube in his nose. He clawed at it with stiff fingers and succeeded in grasping it. Pulling out the seemingly endless length of plastic made him gag. He threw it away and reached for the IV in his arm. When he moved his skin felt too tight, it pulled in weird places. 

The boy stopped.

That wasn't his hand.

His hand didn't have purple, almost black skin on the back.

And it definitely didn't have fucking staples holding it together. 

He pulled back the sleeve and saw that the deep plum colour continued down his arm. He followed it to his shoulder and across his chest. He was finding it hard to breathe as he looked under the collar of the gray t-shirt and found another line of staples.

How far up did it go?

He ran his fingers up his throat.

He couldn't feel it.

He couldn't feel his chin.

Or his bottom lip.

There were more staples along his cheeks all the way back to his ears.

What the fuck was going on?

The boy remembered the mountain.

His father screaming at him to move faster. To be better. 

The trees wrapped in blue and red flames. 

He remembered his anger. 

His loneliness. 

His desperation for someone to please help him.

He remembered not dodging in time.

He remembered burning.

The unbearable heat.

The smell of charring flesh.

Then he remembered nothing.

The boy Touya didn't remember removing the IV or crawling under the bed. He curled up so tightly he felt the sting of the staples along his shoulder blades and across his lower back. The boy sobbed but no tears came. His body wouldn't stop shaking.

He should be dead.

He should be a pile of ash blowing away.

What hellish power had kept him alive?

It was that need to know that coaxed the boy from hiding. There was a clipboard hanging from the bed. The boy had to hold the mattress as he walked, his legs felt like pudding. The medical report was just a single page written in messy, hurried handwriting. 

Specimen ID: Dabi 

Acquisition: Specimen was found on the road outside Sekoto Peak forest in November XXX3 severely burned and comatose 

Project: Dabi is the perfect specimen to test the prototype bio engineered skin. Approximately 50% of the specimen's body is covered in third to fourth degree burns. The burns on his lower jaw appear to have reached bone. 

December XXX3 

Removal of the burned skin under the specimen's eyes went well but the damage to the tear ducts is severe. The removal of the burns on the lower jaw revealed a chunk of bone is missing. Perhaps I should test bio engineered bone while I'm at it?Removal of all skin burned beyond second degree from the neck down has gone smoothly. Specimen has been wrapped in bandages soaked in a quirk strengthened antibacterial solution. 

February XXX4 

All grafts excluding the lower jaw are complete. The new bone will take more time to engineer. The specimen has been rewrapped in the antibacterial bandages. I will check back in a couple weeks to see how the foreign skin has bonded with the living tissue.  

March XXX4 

The grafts seem to have bonded quite well to the dermis and hypodermis but the connection between the living epidermis and the edge of the grafts is fragile. It appears additional precautions will need to be taken to ensure the new skin doesn't peel off. Stitches? Tape? Staples. 

June XXX4 

The new jaw bone is in place. Developing the skin grafts to maintain the shape of the cheeks and chin and restore the specimen's bottom lip was a delightful challenge. The prototype of the bio engineered skin and bone is a success. Dabi has shown himself to be highly compatible. If he regains consciousness it would be foolish to not use him to test version two. 

May XXX5 

The specimen has begun breathing on his own and is finally showing signs of waking up. The breathing tube has been removed.  

The boy, Touya Dabi, could barely read the final notes on the chronicle of horror in his hands. He shook and he kept having to force his eyes to refocus as he began hyperventilating. Even as the words swam, the dates were in clear focus. 

He had been here for a year and a half. 

The skin over half his body had been scraped off and cut away and replaced with some sick bastard's science experiment. Stapled together like a shitty mosaic. 

And they planned to do it again. 

This time while he was awake. 

He had to get out. 

Tossing the clipboard on the bed Tou- Dabi staggered to the door. It was unlocked. The hallway was dark and smelled musty, the drywall was yellowing at the edges. He kept his hand on the wall as he walked. His muscles burned with every step.

He made it to what used to be reception. It was like everyone had just left one day and didn't come back. There was a jacket on the back of a chair, it was dusty and worn but he grabbed it anyway. As he threw it on Dabi felt one of the staples snag. It stung but thankfully had only pulled out on the scarred side. He poked it back into the numb skin with little pain. 

This was going to be a problem. If he lost staples he had no replacements. He would slowly start coming apart at the seams. 

Dabi remembered passing a storage closet so he backtracked and rummaged through the supplies until he found what he was looking for. A box of medical staples and the stapler to go with it. He grabbed a pillow case and stuffed everything inside, adding a blanket and some basic first aid supplies while he was at it. 

Throwing his makeshift bag over his shoulder he made his way back to reception. He burst through the front door and squinted in the fading light.

Dabi ran. 

—----------

Dabi didn't know what he was doing. 

When he had run from the facility he hadn't thought about what to do next. He couldn't go home to his family, his father had left him to die and his siblings had probably already mourned him. Besides, it hadn't been home for a long time. 

Living on the streets was hard. Food was scarce but he had discovered that it had taken him a few months to actually wake up and it was already August so the weather was nice enough to sleep outside. Unfortunately, it didn't take him long to realize that there was more to worry about than some rain. 

One night he was spooked awake by a couple of drunks stumbling into his alley. He hoped they would ignore him. 

"Hey kid!"

Guess not.

"What's a pretty boy like you doing in a place like this?"

Oh, they were drunk drunk. There was no way anything about him could be described as pretty. Matted, off white hair, pale skin between ugly scars and so malnourished you could see his bones. 

"Want to have some fun?"

One of the men stepped forward unsteadily.

Dabi ran.

He seemed to be doing that a lot. 

Over the next couple weeks he only managed to doze for a couple hours at a time, too scared to actually fall asleep. He did manage to find some food by going through the trash behind a bakery. The stale muffins he found were the best thing he had ever tasted and the bag of cookies would keep for a while. 

Of course his luck had to run out. 

He was rummaging through the garbage in an alley, not finding much of anything, when someone grabbed him by the back of his jacket. 

"Look what we have here, a grubby little street urchin. Got anything interesting in that bag of yours?"

Two men had managed to sneak up on him. The one holding him was tall and broad. His buddy, standing a little behind, had gray eyes and hair. Dabi reached for his quirk, he felt the lick of flames seep through the seams of his scars but the man was too close to burn. Dabi couldn't afford to damage what little he owned. 

"You saw a kid digging through the trash and thought they would have something worth stealing?" He snarked.

"Mouthy brat. We'll be the judge of that and if you don't have anything we'll just have some fun and carve you up a little."

Dabi's mind went back to the little room. His imagination conjured an image of his unconscious body lying limply as some shadowy doctor removed his skin.

Dabi twisted and shrugged off the oversized jacket. He tried to dash away but one of the men grabbed his wrists. Dabi cried out as he felt the staples rip. The next moment he was frozen mid step, he could still move his eyes but the rest of him refused to cooperate. 

"Little bitch! We'll teach you to run away." Dabi was punched in the side of the head. It knocked him to the ground causing the gray man to release him. He could move again but the tall man kicked him right on the staples along his stomach causing them to dig in deeper. 

A rumbling growl filled the alley making the men stop and look around. Dabi looked around too despite his pounding head and all three of them caught sight of something clinging to the alley wall. It was human shaped but the big toxic green eyes had slits like a cat. Sharp claws made a scraping noise as they were dug into the brick. It wore a leather mask over its mouth and nose. Most striking was the huge bat wings that matched its ears folded on its back. 

"Shit! It's Kaijin."

"No way, it's just another kid. Kaijin isn't real."

The creature hissed, seemingly offended at the denial of its existence. 

"I'm telling you-"

"I'm done with this, we'll just have some fun with this one too." 

The tall man reached out and touched the wall causing it to distort in a wave toward the thing. The gray man ran forward and Dabi tried to take the opportunity to escape but he got dizzy and fell again. 

He heard a surprised shout and something landed beside him. He looked up with unfocused eyes and saw the creature crouched over him. Its wings were gone but its legs looked wrong. Its feet had elongated and become covered in green fur. The thing was standing on its toes, poised to pounce.

It hissed again and chittered like an irritated cat. Dabi heard running steps and watched in growing horror as eight long appendages erupted from the thing's back. The bottom two struck out at the men and the remaining six curved around it, pointing threateningly toward the attackers. 

They turned and fled. 

Black was encroaching on Dabi's vision as the creature leaned over him. Its legs were normal again and the sharp limbs were gone. Only the eyes and the ears remained. It had dark hair with a couple feathers braided into it, a pair of aviator goggles around its neck along with a few necklaces and a nasty scar across it's cheek and around its eye.

The creature chirped curiously as Dabi finally passed out.

—-----------

Izuku had started simple when testing his quirk. He had access to the bones of most farm animals thanks to the restaurants in the area. Most were disappointing. Chicken, cow and pig didn't do much, just a few cosmetic changes. Growing feathers was a weird sensation, so was walking on hooves and the noises he could make with a pig's snout made him giggle but it was nothing useful. 

Some more research at the library revealed that most animals killed for consumption were the female of the species. He would have to find rooster, boar and bull to get anything useful from them. 

Then he came across rabbit. He was surprised that the long green ears actually had weaker hearing than his cat ears so he switched them off but the legs were a huge improvement to his agility. The feeling of his feet elongating and his calves shortening was strange but he could run faster and jump higher. Leaping between walls and across rooftops on his strong, furry legs was the most fun Izuku had had in a long time.

Izuku's first experience with wings fell into his lap. Literally, one of the cats had caught a pigeon. The sensation of something erupting from his shoulder blades felt like someone pulling out a huge splinter. Thankfully it was uncomfortable rather than painful.

Flying was such a rush! It was even better than roof hopping with rabbit. Gliding high above the city he could see everything and no one could get to him. Flipping and turning in the air, diving between buildings and flitting through trees was Izuku's favorite way to travel when above ground. A few weeks later Izuku spotted a falcon nest and was able to snatch a feather. Pigeon wings had nothing on the strength and aerodynamics of falcon wings. Izuku had to start wearing goggles and a mask just to counteract the wind speed.

Izuku also started noticing changes outside his quirk. At first he had thought his hair only looked darker because he was using store windows as mirrors but eventually he couldn't deny his hair was now so dark that it was basically black. You could only see the green in direct light, the effect wasn't unlike his feathers. His ears had also become pointed like an elf. Was it a quirk side effect? Would other things change as he collected more animals?

There was only one way to find out. 

Bat ears were no joke. He could hear the grass rubbing against each other. Izuku had to spend weeks getting used to the sensory overload before he could wear them for long periods. When he finally tested sonar Izuku was amazed by how much he could see. Navigating the sewers was a breeze when he could map out all the nearby tunnels with a few low frequency clicks. Sleeping upside down was pretty comfortable too. His toes grew hook-like claws with an iron grip. 

He finally found rooster when he started exploring the outskirts of the city. A family was raising chickens and all it took was some food and he was able to pluck a feather. Izuku grew a sharp spur just above his heel that curved upwards. The perfect hidden weapon for emergencies. It could be deployed without anyone noticing as long as he didn't also manifest the green and brown feathers around his neck and shoulders. 

It took longer than it should have for Izuku to remember bugs existed. Specifically, spiders. When he caught one of the little jumping spiders that lived all over the tunnels the sensation of eight long thin limbs growing from his back between his shoulder blades and hips was just as uncomfortable as growing wings. He could control each leg individually and they were plenty strong enough to suspend him off the ground but Izuku thought he could do better. 

Next time he went to the library he dove into researching spiders. He found the perfect specimen. Wasp spiders were one of the largest non-poisonous spiders in Japan and most importantly, they spun webs. Izuku found and trapped several wasp spiders and started harvesting their silk. He had struggled to find a way to keep the spider ability close without actually having a spider on him. A book on strange facts about animals had clued him into spider silk thread which was pretty simple to make. In no time he had a new bracelet beside the braided cat fur and the ribbon with a bit of Kiseki's shed stitched under it. Wasp spider's legs were much more sleek and durable than the soft, fuzzy jumping spider's legs. His new limbs were so sharp they could cut deep gouges in concrete. 

As hard as Izuku tried to stay hidden, his quirk experiments had drawn some attention. 

Of course, the muggers and other lowlifes that tried to mess with the kid had spread the story of a demon child roaming about at night. After that there were a few sightings of him practicing parkour or just rummaging for food. Soon news of a shape shifter lurking in alleys made its way around town. Once students got a hold of the rumors the stories became pretty fantastical. He was a monster, he was a villain, he was a yokai, he was a vigilante, he was an escaped experiment. Eventually someone managed to get some shaky footage of him the night he tested climbing and roof jumping with his spider legs. The images landed him solidly in the realm of the supernatural for most people. 

Over time he became Kaijin, a shape-shifting cryptid that haunted dark streets at night and could disappear in an instant. Izuku didn't mind being Kaijin. No one bothered him anymore except the occasional teenager that had been dared to hunt him down. They were easy to avoid and the ever evolving tall tales were amusing.

"I heard it steals children."

Izuku's ears swiveled toward two older kids walking down the park path. He was perched in a tree near the playground.

"No way, that's just a story to make sure kids don't wander around at night."

"It's true, my sister's classmate says their cousin's friend saw it while walking home after dark. It tried to snatch her."

"Really? Did she say what it looked like?"

"She said it had black fur all over and huge fangs and claws and glowing green eyes."

Izuku huffed. He supposed he could use a haircut but his fangs and claws weren't that big and his eyes didn't glow. That would be horrible for his stealth.

Izuku was distracted by the sound of something scrambling up the tree trunk. Glancing down he saw Kiseki climbing onto his branch after a successful hunt. The lizard hurried up Izuku's leg and sat patiently on his knee, waiting to be moved into his hair. 

The students had walked too far down the path for him to hear, even with his bat ears on, so he supposed it was time to get back. 

Putting Kiseki on his head Izuku jumped down and turned off his quirk. Normally Izuku kept his cat abilities and bat ears activated at all times but school had just let out and there were a lot of people around. If no one paid attention to the dirty clothes and his grungy appearance Izuku would look like just another kid released back onto the street after class. 

He made his way to a quiet neighborhood, found a sewer grate and climbed back into the safety of the tunnels. As he hurried back to the colony he thought about what the girl had said.

… their cousin's friend saw it while walking home after dark. It tried to snatch her. 

Most tales about Kaijin were entirely made up but Izuku actually knew where this one had come from.

A few months before, he had spotted a girl who missed her bus being harassed by a couple of drunks. He had pulled her into an alley to hide. She thanked him once she realized he wasn't going to hurt her and ran to catch the next bus. 

That night had rekindled something in Izuku. His old dream of being a hero rose to the surface. He knew it could never happen, he had probably been forgotten or presumed dead by now and he had committed dozens of crimes for the sake of survival but a part of him longed to reach out and help in any way he could. 

It was time for Kaijin to come out of hiding. 

Donning his mask and goggles he had started patrolling the area that had become his territory. It started small. Scaring away drunks harassing people and breaking up muggings, but he soon started going after bigger prey. Criminals feared the demon while regular citizens felt safer knowing their resident cryptid was watching over the neighborhood. 

He loathed drug dealers the most. Any deals he came across were dealt with harshly. The first time he came across a trigger sale he had to push away the nasty little craving that would probably never fall completely silent. He dragged the criminals out to the street for the cops and smashed the vials. 

Fighting crime paid too. Any criminal he caught had the cash in their wallet stolen. Izuku enjoyed fresh food and new clothes for the first time in forever. He even upgraded his vigilante costume. His mask and goggles were leather now and way more comfortable than the medical mask and old safety goggles he had been using. He wore a black hooded and cropped sweater that only covered his arms and shoulders with a deep green tank top underneath. He had altered it to have an open back for his wings and spider legs. The tank top was tucked into black tactical cargo shorts he had found at a surplus store. The pockets were full of useful things like first aid, snacks and a couple knives he had confiscated. Izuku still went barefoot, after years of being without shoes the thought of wearing any now made him antsy, it would feel unnatural.

Izuku was snapped out of his memories by a loud cry from street level. He hurried to the closest storm drain while pulling in his mask and climbed into the mouth of an alley. 

"- teach you to run away," someone yelled followed by a thud and a gasp. 

Izuku scurried up the wall to get a better view and found two men beating on a skinny boy with purple scars. He recognized the teen, he was new to the streets and struggling to adjust. Izuku had hidden behind some dumpsters to watch him one day, the boy had looked so happy when he found muffins that Izuku wasn't even annoyed to miss out. 

Turning on his claws and adding bat wings for intimidation he growled at the men. One instantly recognized him but the other denied he could be Kaijin.

When the taller man touched the wall the brick ripped and rushed toward him. Izuku jumped to the ground as the gray haired one ran to intercept him. He wasn't fast enough. Turning off the wings Izuku activated rabbit and lept over his attacker. He landed in a protective crouch over the teen chattering a warning. 

When the men turned for another attack Izuku activated spider and cut them off by spearing two legs into the concrete at their feet leaving sizable craters. 

They quickly retreated. 

Izuku turned his attention to the older boy. He was looking back at him with awe and a little fear in his eyes. 

Izuku chirped. He hadn't used his voice in years but hoped the soft sound would be soothing.

The boy passed out.