Chapter 1: 1. The beginning after the end
*Flashback Start*
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Midoriya, your son is quirkless. Here are some pamphlets for support groups and counseling. I have other patients waiting. Please excuse me." The doctor said, leaving the room
"Mom….do you think I can still be a hero?" A boy, through tears, asked.
"I'm sorry, honey; I am so sorry. It would be best if you accepted reality," A mother sobbed.
"Stay away from him, Kaachan." The boy called out, still dreaming of being a hero.
"Stupid Deku, just burn." His tormentor sneered.
"Please give it back, Kachaan." The boy struggled as his tormentor sycophants held him back. Bakugo chuckled and tossed Hero Notebook #13 out the window with a blast from his palm as Midoriya watched his notebook burning, fluttering down past the window. "You want a quirk, Deku…Take a swan dive off the roof and wish for one in the next life."
"A-a-a-ll. Might you think I could be a hero even without a quirk?" The desperate question left his lips.
"No, young Midoriya, I do not," The last source of hope replied.
"Take a Swan dive off the roof and wish for one in the next Life." An echo of torment reverberated through his mind.
"Take a swan dive off the roof and wish for one in the next life." It called again.
The next life…. the next life…
*Flashback End*
-Izuku Midoriya-
Something broke in him at that moment. Something that would have been a long time coming if he were honest with himself. His mother had tried to sign him up for support groups, telling him to put his dream aside and start looking for one he could obtain. She had left to visit his father two weeks ago.
"Trying to save their marriage" is how she put it. He was 16 he could manage. He had a bank account to draw from; the apartment and bills were paid for. He knew she wasn't going to come back. Her closet was relatively empty.
His father (if you could call him that) disappeared after his 5th birthday. Izuku never heard from him again. He had sent him a birthday card, but it just returned to the sender.
He had no friends; no one cared about him. The only people who would care were the ones who would have to clean up his remains. His "parents" would probably sigh and then happily sell the apartment and his stuff and move on. No one cared…. the teachers didn't care…. the counselors didn't care. The only person that had shown anything was a girl with spikey black hair one time when he was 7. She had approached him after a particularly savage beating from Bakugo and his cronies and helped bandage him up. He never even got her name. He would dream about her sometimes, that she was his friend, but that all Izuku had were dreams. He stood on that rooftop for a few more minutes, just gazing up at the sky; the sun was retreating, bathing the sky in brilliant purple and oranges before it started fading into black. The lights on the street began to light up like constellations in the sky. He longed to see the real stars, wishing he could see them over the light pollution and the clouds. He knelt, pulled the burned notebook out of his bag, and scrawled a note.
Mom. Dad. Bye.
He added his name, address, and phone number so they can be notified more easily. He silently chuckled to himself. "Not they would even care."
He climbed up to the top of the fence and lowered himself down, his feet resting on the edge. Tears were beginning to flow.
Just one person, why couldn't just one person reach out to me? I asked for help, begged for help, and prayed for help. Why couldn't my parents love me and support me? Why couldn't they say for once that they believed in me? No one is born equal; it's all a fucking crap shoot. I wish I could have done something. I wish….I wish….I wish I had at least gotten her name. Fuck my parents, fuck the schools, fuck the system, and FUCK you, Bakugo. I hope to see you in my next life, and I will let you know what you put me through.
He turned, facing the fence, slowly spread his arms, and let it all go. He felt gravity take control as he felt the wind. He was watching the sky for a moment and saw the clouds break open, and he could see the stars. "Thank you," He whispered. Before closing his eyes, the wind was all he could hear. Then there was intense, sudden pain for the briefest of seconds, darkness, sweet darkness. Then there was light everywhere; it was white, blinding; it was the purest white one could ever fathom.
"You are an interesting one," a sudden hollow voice rang out.
"Huh…" he managed; suddenly, he could feel his hands, feet, and everything. His skin was heating up slowly, and he noticed the heat; he tried to open his eyes but couldn't; the heat was building, and he knew it. "Where am I? Is this hell?" He had heard about hell in movies as he was never a religious boy, even when he was sobbing on his hands and knees for a quirk.
A small chuckle erupted around him from the voice. He couldn't tell where it was coming from or whether it was male or female.
"Where am I? Who are you?" he managed as he gritted his teeth. The heat and pain were increasing, and his nose was beginning to be filled with the smell of burning hair. He fell to his knees as he felt his skin begin to burn slowly and painfully. His mind was flooded with images of his life; he saw the image of the girl from his dreams again.
He screamed as his nervous system began to burn, his blood was boiling, his eyes were exploding against his eyelids, and his organs were melting. He screamed and screamed. Then it all stopped. Suddenly no pain, no heat, nothing. He felt nothing around him. He could feel his extremities, but they were light and weightless. He could feel himself almost floating in a bathtub. He opened his eyes to see himself looking down on the earth, seeing lights all over the planet, blinking on, some pulsing, some flickering, and some going out. "What are those…. are those souls?"
The laughter returned this time, but it felt right next to him. He turned and saw…. something. It was like his mind could comprehend what he was looking at. "Are you a God?" he managed, only greeted with more laughter, and he felt the heat coming from the direction of the earth.
On the far side of the planet, he saw it, fire. It spread quickly, encompassing the whole of the earth. He saw some of the lights pulse brightly to form one light before they all disappeared, and there was no light, only the fire. Out of the fire rose a bird of flame, a PHOENIX. It let loose a great cry before rising from the planet and taking the fire with it as it flew into the darkness of space. Izuku looked down at the broken husk of a world, feeling sadness from deep within.
Before he knew it, the tears fell. He saw a single tear fall and strike the planet; then he saw it: a light appeared—a pulsing light, another, and more. Come on…. Come on; you can do it, He thought.
He saw the lights grow and spread all over the earth, but then he saw the firebird coming from the stars again. The planet being burned, life beginning again, only to be burned out, repeatedly, 20 times in total. Then he saw the lights again. Some were burning brighter than anyone had seen. Then he saw a light spark burn, flicker, and begin to fade. He focused on the light and saw himself. He saw himself jump and light burned out. He reached for the light, struggling to touch it, wanting to keep it from going out. "NO…. NOO... don't go out. "
"Why?" the voice asked.
"I don't know. I don't know," He sobbed. He didn't know why suddenly, he wanted to live; maybe it was looking down and watching his planet get destroyed 20 times over, watching the sparks form and grow, only to be snuffed out in the great fire. Over and over, he watched them struggle only to be cleansed. He could see it coming again; the Phoenix was coming. He thought of the girl. He thought of her. "I don't want her to die. I don't know her name, but she was the only one who seemed to care. I want her to have a chance."
"You would attempt to stop the Phoenix? You would attempt to stop me?"
Izuku whirled around. There before him was the bird of Flames. "Yes," he said.
"You can't." It rushed through him, and he felt himself burn again as it touched down upon the world.
"No, why? Why do you do this 20 times? Why do you keep doing this?"
"It has to be done. It needs to be purged. Maybe they will get it right... in the next life."
"No, please stop, not now. What are you trying to accomplish?"
"Evolution and advancement have come close but always falter and stagnate. Hundreds of years, they have been given after the gift's arrival. They have squandered it, wasted it. Now, it must be purged. From its ashes, it will begin again. Maybe they will get it right this time."
"They just need someone to show them the way, bring about change, and give them a chance. They need a chance," he pleaded.
"And who will show them, who will lead them, who will rise."
"I will just spare them… please."
"How you don't have any gifts, remember? Remember, you don't have any more dreams," It said almost mockingly.
"I-I. I don't know, but I will find a way. Give me a chance; give us a chance."
"Perfect," it cooed.
"Huh"
Suddenly, there was fire again, and there was pain. Then it slowly subsided, and he felt like he was lying down; the floor was hard, but his head rested on the most sublime surface ever. His eyes fluttered open, and he looked down at him, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. The most vibrant and brilliant head of red hair and green eyes, perfect pale skin. And he had his head in her lap. He was surprised in many ways. He didn't stutter; he didn't freak out.
"Who are you?"
"Hello, Izuku," she said as she gently tucked some of her hair behind her ear. My name is Jean Grey."
-Izuku & Jean-
"Hello," he said, calm, almost cold. He knew somewhere inside his mind that he should be freaking out on many levels. He was lying on a girl's lap. A beautiful girl's lap: she had even done the hair tuck like his books. He couldn't talk to girls; hell, he couldn't talk to anyone. But why wasn't this bothering him so? Why was he so calm? Why couldn't he stand up or move or anything? Why was she so damn warm?
"Um…. Why can't I move? And why am I not freaking out? And not to complain, why are you holding my head in your lap?"
She chuckled and gave him a dazzling smile that should have broken him, but instead, his emotions didn't flare up. "One. You can't move because we are not allowing you to. Two. You are not freaking out because your emotions are being dampened. Three. You had this image thousands of times, wishing to experience it once, so I gave it to you."
"We?"
"Yes, Phoenix and I."
"Are you two different beings or people?"
"Yes and No. I am, or was, a host for the Phoenix Force, one of its favorites. What you see here is an echo or a member of the person that was Jean Grey. Do you remember when you tried to look at the voice and your mind could not comprehend what you saw?"
"Yes"
"That is the true visage of the Phoenix. The firebird you saw is a physical manifestation of that shaped by reality when we enter it. I am a way for us to talk in a way that your mind can understand. How can you expect a mortal mind to comprehend the infinite?"
"So, what happens now?"
"As of right now, your body is cocooned inside your home being rebuilt."
His mind began to race in a small moment of panic before that soothing feeling started again. "Why am I being rebuilt?"
"You're dead," She said in a simple, matter-of-fact way. "You threw yourself off a building."
"Yeah, you're right… so couldn't you resurrect me?"
Smiling, "Yes, we could, but your body is not suited or ready for us. You wanted and dreamed of being a hero, but you did nothing to accomplish that goal except dream. No exercise, no training, nothing. Well, except analyze quirks like a madman."
If he could have blushed, he would have. "But no one believed in me? I didn't have a quirk."
"And?" she replied coldly. "You think just because you have a quirk that all of sudden everything is easier? That they don't have to work hard to make it better to control it?"
Images began to flood Izuku's mind. He saw Bakugo exercising and practicing. A girl with green hair and a frog quirk ran through a forest, jumping and using her tongue to lash out and hit flying targets her younger siblings were throwing around. Another girl with short brown hair floats around an abandoned building while touching objects, making them float and fall before she comes to the ground and throws up before beginning again. A boy, his face scarred with white and half-red hair, was sitting in a training room with ice all around, freezing the boy over as he continued to push and push. The images of kids, teens, heroes, and even villains practicing and training came faster before showing him his one-time favorite hero, All Might, in a gym, practicing and practicing for hours.
"A quirk is great, or it can be if you know how to use it and train how to control it properly. But are all the hero and villain fights you, see? Are they just using their quirks, running, fighting, or doing other things?"
He just lied there, and he knew she was right. Yes, he had been born quirkless, but he never did anything but wallow and did not try to improve or better himself physically.
"You never fought back. You just let him beat you down repeatedly. You tried to jump in and save others sometimes and then just let him beat you. If you are going to go down, go down swinging, for fuck's sake. You saw those lights gather to struggle against the flame of the Phoenix; even if they knew it was hopeless, they still fought."
Izuku wanted to cry. She was right. She was so damn right. He didn't do anything, didn't try to exercise, worked out to get stronger, didn't try to join a Dojo, or even watched videos online to try and learn how to fight. He would take his beatings as that was his lot in life. He was precisely what Bakugo had said he was, Deku.
Bakugo had helped beat that into him, but Izuku had never tried to improve his lot. I never took any steps to do well jack shit. He was angry; he could feel the anger; it wasn't muted like his other emotions. Yeah, he suffered, and he was treated poorly, but he never did anything. No recording videos of the assault and taking them to the police. Nothing, just covering for that piece of shit Bakugo all the time to his mother. No wonder she is fucking left. Could she have done better? Yeah, but he did nothing to help himself. He suddenly paused, noticing the anger, and looked up at Jean. "Why can I feel this but not the embarrassment of my head in your lap?"
"Because I am blocking the emotions that will hinder this conversation."
"So, what now? What happens now?"
She smiled with the warmth of a mother looking down on her son for the first time. "We are going to rebuild your body, I am going to train your mind, and you are going to rise from the ashes because you are the Phoenix. Either you will lead this world to change or bring it down in the fires of rebirth. This world is on the brink; I know you can see some problems, but there is more out there. Your mind is brilliant in some regards, but we will train it. I was chosen to lead you down this path because I was a type of "Hero" in my time; I fought to save the world, the galaxy, my friends, and my loved ones. I also made mistakes and destroyed an entire solar system. I failed more times than I could count, but I know that I made a difference in the end, and that is all that mattered."
Izuku saw flashes, a school of other strange people with different quirks, fights, tears, death, rebirth, lovers lost, and lovers found. The world raged against her and her friends, and they fought to save them anyway. A world that hated them, loved them, and hunted them. They were driven to the brink of extinction only to rage back. Mistakes were made, and forgiveness was taken for granted. Love: He felt love, familial love, love of friends, and love of the intimate sort.
He looked up at Jean and saw as things began to overlap in her form: a young, scared girl, a strong, confident woman, a leader, a wife, a lover, a hero, a mother, and the Phoenix.
"Wow," was all he could mutter as he gazed at her. He wondered if this was love for a moment. But he knew it was something else. It was admiration for the struggles, the perseverance, the simple truth that this woman had gone to hell and back and kept fighting. She kept training and getting firmer until the end of her days. She never gave up. "So, what happens now?"
Looking down at him, she lightly placed her fingertips on the sides of his temple. "Now Izuku," she whispered somewhat seductively. "This is really, really going to fucking hurt."
His brain felt like it exploded; no, it was engulfed in fire. He screamed out once before it all went dark.
-Mei Hatsume-
Mei Hatsume stepped onto the streets of Mustafa, exiting from Infinite Arcana Electronics with a small bag in her hand. She was bouncing in excitement to get this tiny bugger home. The latest processor is the Infinity X69. Usually, she would build her stuff with the scraps she would collect from Takoba Beach and some other scrap sites she had found. But not today. Today was special. The mysterious Infinity was the absolute best; his tech was beyond everyone. She had saved for this little thing and would take it home to reverse engineer it and make her baby's even better. Nothing was better than making babies. She couldn't wait to get home.
Pausing, she looked up at the sky, wondering if she needed to grab an umbrella. She usually wouldn't bother but had to protect this piece of precious tech until she could disassemble it. Her quirk kicked in. She could tell there weren't storm clouds, so she was confident she would be safe. It was then, as she was zooming out, she saw it, or more importantly, she saw him. A boy with messy green hair had climbed the fence of the Yaoyorozu building. "HEY," She screamed. "DON'T DO IT, DON'T JUMP. HELP! WE NEED A HERO OR SOMETHING." People around her stared as she ran. Then she saw him drop a slight smile on his face, and she screamed louder.
Running across the road, she didn't notice how close she came to being isekai'd, thanks to Truck-Kun. Darting down an alley to get to her target, she lost sight of him, franticly pulling out her phone and calling the police; as she burst from the alley, sure of the view, she was about to see only to see nothing. Nobody, no boy flying away, no hero swooping in to save, nothing but ash falling into a pile where the body should be. She stumbled across the street, narrowly avoiding traffic in her daze. Reaching the bank, she pulled a vial from her pocket and scooped up a sample. As she examined it, she could tell it was Ash, warm still. It took a moment until the sound from her phone and the emergency operator on the other end began to bring her back to reality. "Never mind my mistake," she said as she hung up her phone. She looked at the sky above.
-Momo Yaoyorozu-
Ms. Momo Yaoyorozu was sitting in the satellite building of a boardroom for her parents' company in Mustafa, listening to her father talk to someone named Sylvia from Infinite Arcana. Sylvia, as she was learning, was the CEO of Infinite Arcana. The two CEOs were finalizing a deal that would be a big boost to Yaoyorozu Corporation.
The Corporation that her parents were grooming her to run. The corporation she didn't want to run. She had different ambitions; she wanted to be a hero. Her parents were not happy; she had managed to convince them to let her apply in a few years if only that it would add a boost to the company and family if their future head were also, in fact, a pro hero. After all, if your company is known for its support gear, what better advertisement could you get than the pro hero and CEO Creati using those very inventions to save lives?
She knew her parents loved her, but she was the only heir. Her mother was forced to have a hysterectomy shortly after Momo was born. It was deemed a miracle that she was born in the first place: complex conception, difficult pregnancy, and incredibly difficult and dangerous labor. So, there was no second child to carry on the legacy. So, it was her responsibility. She knew her quirk was robust and versatile, being able to create pretty much anything as long as she knew the chemical composition was, to put it simply, extraordinary. This was how her family had risen to such great prestige; her distant ancestor was said to have a similar quirk back when quirks first manifested. Now, here was Momo expecting to carry on into the future.
She wanted to help people, save people, and be someone that people could look up to. A long time ago, she helped a boy in the park after some bullies had beaten him up. She had happened upon the scene after the fact. All she had done was make some simple gauze and help the poor boy. But the look of gratitude he had given her cemented it at once. She wanted to be a hero. She never got his name.
Momo was, in fact, lonely; she didn't have many friends. Well, real friends, she went to a prestigious academy for the rich. After learning an unbelievably valuable lesson in middle school about girls using her to increase their social status and her first "boyfriend" being a shallow douche whom she heard talking to his friends about how he was going to "score" with the rich girl. Puberty had hit her like a bomb; she was tall, curvaceous, with large breasts and great skin. It wasn't easy. She sighed quietly and thought about calling her only true friend, Mellissa, tomorrow.
Mellissa was an exchange student, and they had hit it off when Mellissa transferred to Momo's school for a semester. Mellissa was quirkless and the only daughter of David Shield, the genius inventor for I-Island. But she was brilliant, fearless, funny, and genuine. They had stayed connected and had even been to see each other a few times. She was lost in thought when suddenly, she saw a body fall through the windows. She screamed.
"SOMEBODY JUST JUMPED OFF THE ROOF."
She stood bolting out of the office, leaving her father and Sylvia stunned for a minute. Her father quickly excused himself from the meeting, allowing his secretary to reschedule. The guards outside were in a momentary shock but soon chased after their young mistress as she shouted instructions. Reaching the stairs, she yanked them open and raced downstairs, discarding her heels. The guards began yelling into their radios while one followed the Momo, and the other ran to the roof.
She burst from the side exit and hit the street, bracing to see a body of some sort. But she saw nothing before she was a pink-haired girl with cross-hair eyes standing near a pile of ash, looking up at the sky.
"DID YOU SEE THEM, THE PERSON WHO JUMPED?" she yelled at the girl. She ran up to her, trying to get her attention as people on the street stopped and stared at the site. The pink-haired girl turned to her, and whatever daze she was in seemed to disappear.
"Yeah, I did. It was a boy. He had green hair."
"Then what happened?"
"I don't know. I got here, and I didn't see anything, nobody, no one flying away, no heroes, nothing but this pile of ash where he should have landed."
Momo looked down at the pile. She could feel the heat on her feet through her stockings, realizing she was barefoot. Security came dashing to her side. Her father and more security emerged from the main entrance, looking around before he approached his daughter, demanding an explanation. As Momo was trying to explain, her father, while not saying anything, had a look of disbelief on his face. The pink-haired girl standing there turned and spoke.
"She is not lying; I saw it too. I was over there." She pointed to the alley. " I was on the street over, and I looked over and saw him fall. I even called the police." She is holding her phone up as evidence. "When I got here, all I saw was this pile of ash, though, which is weird because it's not dissipating. And it's still warm."
"How could you have seen it from way over there, young miss, if you don't mind me asking," Momo's father said.
The girl pointed to her eyes. "My quirk lets me see fine details like a super zoom function. I was looking at the sky to see if it would rain when I was zooming out; I saw him fall."
A sudden wind wrapped around them, and the ash spiraled into the sky and dissipated. Mei noticed that it wasn't actually dissipating but instead just disappearing. One of the security officers leaned in and whispered into Mr. Yaoyorozu's ear. Momo noticed he looked puzzled before asking the officer to have security start reviewing the footage immediately.
"Father, what happened?"
"We should probably discuss this inside." He turned to the pink-haired girl. "Miss?"
Mei turned to him and seemed to notice him for the first time. "Oh my god, I am Mei Hatsume. Jumping forward very abruptly. Your Mr. Yaoyorozu. OMG, I don't have my babies with me FUCK." She roared, grabbing her hair.
"Babies?" Momo and her father exclaimed, looking around suddenly.
"I should run home and get them. You will love them; then you can hire me on the spot, no U.A. for me."
"U.A.? You're planning on going to U.A. as well?" Momo asked. "Are your babies' inventions?"
"Yup, Yup."
"Oh."
Her father stepped forward. "Miss Hatsume was it. This is not quite the time. But why don't we step inside, and we can set up an appointment for you later."
Mei seemed to buy that logic and stepped inside. Momo leads her to the conference room, saying he will join them shortly.
-The Inventor and the Heiress-
Mei followed Momo with a spring in her step into the elevator, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the vial with the ash. Momo took a moment to turn from the girl and make a new pair of shoes. Mei saw the glow and immediately pressed forward, invading the Heiress's space.
"Holy cow, is that your quirk? You can make shoes?"
"No," Momo stammered momentarily, not used to strangers invading her space like this. "I can use the lipids in my body to create almost anything as long as I know the molecular structure."
"Are you fucking kidding me? Imagine what kind of babies I could make if I could do that. I would have endless materials. Hey, want to come back to my place and make babies?"
Momo felt a hot blush run through her for a second. "Not tonight, Ms. Hatsume."
Visibly disappointed, Mei's shoulders shrunk in momentarily before exploding out, "Mei, call me Mei. Then how about?"
The elevator doors opened, and Momo was never so happy about such a thing before. "We have arrived; let's go to the conference room." This girl was a whirlwind—so close and saying such crazy things without a care in the world. I wish I could be as free.
Momo led Mei to the conference room. As they entered, Mei began wandering around, looking at the tech in the room. Momo was glad for a moment before finding her seat; however, her respite was short-lived, and Mei bounded over to the seat next to her and pulled herself closer to Momo.
"Hey… Hey… wait. What's your name?"
Momo realized she had forgotten to introduce herself, so she put a slight distance between them so she could face the girl; she stood and gave a slight bow. "I'm very sorry, Ms. Hatsume."
"Just Mei works."
Momo paused. "My name is Momo Yaoyorozu."
"Hum. Yeah, is it too much, Momo or maybe Mo? No, Mo is too boyish. Momo, it is."
Part of Momo was slightly offended by this sudden declaration to call her Momo or Mo. She barely knew this girl. "Yaoyorozu works as well."
"Nope, too long. Its Momo. Oh, I should go. I need to get reveres engi… I mean, go home and comb my hair. Yeah, that's the ticket."
"Wait, Mei…." Momo couldn't let her leave yet. "You haven't had a chance to schedule an appointment with my father yet."
"Damnit, you are right. Hey, what's your number?"
"My number?"
"Yeah, your phone number so we can have you come over and make babies."
She was like an overly excited puppy on caffeine and sugar.
Before anything else could be said, the door swung open, and in walked her father with a few security members. One member slid a few forms in front of Momo and Mei. "Mei, if you would be so kind as to fill out a statement for us."
"I don't want to."
"Well, then you are free to go, but I'm afraid I won't be able to make an appointment with my secretary if that is your decision."
Mei looked across the table at the man before scrunching up her nose and grabbing the paper and the offered pen. She started to scribble down her statement. Momo glanced at her father. Seeing him nod to her, she began to do the same. "Did the cameras find anything?"
"No"
Momo knew he was lying. There had to be something as they finished the statements. Her father's secretary came in and made an appointment for Mei in two months. Her father had Momo escort Mei downstairs. As they were in the elevator, Mei kept trying to get Momo's number so they could make babies. When the elevator doors opened, Mei stepped out and turned to watch as the doors began to close.
"The ashes didn't dissipate. They disappeared."
"What?" exclaimed Momo.
"The ashes disappeared."
-The Yaoyorozu-
The elevator's doors closed, and it began its climb back to the conference room. When they opened, she saw her father's secretary. Before the woman could leave, Momo got Mei's number from her. Momo entered the conference room. "What did the cameras see?"
Her father turned to her and turned on the TV. She saw the screen come to life, and then it got fuzzy suddenly as the signal scrambled. After a brief moment, the camera shifted views and saw the door open. The static followed the unknown person down the stairs and out of the building, and the video feeds were disrupted the entire time. The camera shifted back to the roof. If what had happened before, it would have been even strangers now. The roof could be seen this time, but a person was standing there, but their entire upper body was distorted. All that could be seen were some generic school pants with red high tops. They saw a bag on the roof; it opened and dropped back down with a notebook sticking out. They saw the distorted image climb the fence and jump. Just as Momo was about to ask about the bag, they saw a portal open and a hand reach out and pull the bag into it before vanishing.
"What the Hell is that?" Momo spat out. "This is insane."
"Exactly, we are going to have main security come in; I already contacted the main branch, and we have some electronic specialists to review the footage and cameras."
Her father exited the room, signaling that Momo should follow him. "Are you going to keep your appointment with Ms. Hatsume?"
"No," her father responded, raising an eyebrow. "I just did that to get her statement. I will surely hear if she's any good from the scouts. Why?"
"Nothing, Father. I just wanted to ensure I followed the same train of thought."
"Good Girl. Now let's go home."
-The White Hot Room-
Midoriya awoke in the white room; his head and body hurt. He wasn't lying on Jean's lap anymore. He was lying on the ground. He stood slowly as everything broke, but at least he wasn't burning. He was alone. He just stood there, and then the pain began to fade. He looked down at himself. He was naked—holy shit, what is going on. Wait, where did all this muscle come from? He looked down; apparently, something else had increased. He felt a blush for a moment, but it wasn't as bad as he knew it should be. Where are my clothes, he wondered. Then, a thought began to form in his head, and suddenly, he had clothes. How did I do that? He pondered briefly, but he could feel the knowledge there. He could feel a lot of knowledge there.
"I knew you would catch on quickly."
He spun and saw Jean wearing a skin-tight white suit with golden boots and gloves and a stylized symbol of the phoenix on her chest. He found his eyes lingering over her body in a way that would have left him a sputtering mess. But instead, his mind just fired a mile a minute. The only outside tell was his pinky tapping rapidly.
Jean smirked. "Like what you see?"
"Yeah," he responded. Quickly, he put both hands on his mouth. He was stunned for two reasons: he responded so swiftly but knew he meant it and was not ashamed of it. The second, his voice sounded deeper. More like a man than a boy. His voice was already changing, but there were still more cracks than he would like to say due to his nervousness. He pondered it; he could remember everything: the abuse, the neglect, the shame. He even thought about Bakugo for a moment. Bakugo, not Kaachan. He thought about how he was treated, and there was anger and rage. No desire to gain acceptance from Bakugo. No need to be friends.
"Careful, Izuku, don't give into the rage."
"But… I want to hurt him so badly. I want to make him feel what he did to me. I want to break him." he stood there. He could feel the rage. He felt fire erupt around him, a dark red fire with a black at the tips.
Jean looked at him and raised her hand, and the fire disappeared.
Midoriya was stunned. Where did the fire go? Why wasn't he burning?
Jean smiled, placing her hand on his shoulder. "You must be careful if your "darker" emotions take too much hold on you. Things will go bad very quickly."
Midoriya's mind was filled with images of Jean filled with rage and the fires of the Phoenix reaching and snuffing a star. Oh shit.
"Yes, exactly; I haven't released you yet. We will work on controlling your emotions and your powers."
"My powers?"
"Yes, you may have some differences from me, but there are some that all members of the Phoenix share. Now tell me what they are."
"How would…" he started, but he knew it. It was in his head: telepathy, Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis. He knew he had it. He knew he could control them. He knew that he could back them with the power of the Phoenix. The Phoenix. He could sense it. It was a part of him but also everywhere. A sense of the Cosmic filled him. Powers, he was unaware of, danced just out of his reach.
She smiled. "Can you feel the Power of the Phoenix on the edges of your mind?"
"Yes. What is it?"
"Power, you must discover yourself. The power that will help you with your mission."
Before he could ask the question, he knew the answer. Jean had plunged knowledge into his head: academics, Battle Tactics, how to fight and dodge, scientific knowledge, History, art, how to drive—all kinds of things. His mind hurt so much, and he was engulfed in fire.
"So I just need to learn to control my emotions?" he asked as the fire and pain subsided.
"No, you need to understand and deal with them. If you only lock them away, you will explode and destroy everything. And you will need to learn your powers. You know them but need more practical experience. Knowledge of how to fight and the experience of doing so are two different things."
"So, how do I get the experience?"
A sadistic grin crossed her face. She spread her arms wide, the fire erupting around her, and lifted herself into the air. People began to materialize from behind her. He recognized them: her friends, allies, lovers, children, and enemies. "I am going to beat it into you."
He was scared, but something he didn't expect he was excited. Deku was dead. There was only the Phoenix. The fire erupted around him. "Bring it."
The fire erupted around him. "Bring it"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone