Chapter Text
The Nighteye was an agency primarily devoted to tracking and gathering information on the various criminal and outlaw groups that popped up within the galaxy, as well as a few out of galaxy organisations. As a largely information-based organisation, the Nighteye was heavily protected, and its captain, Sasaki Mirai, was rarely seen.
This, naturally, was the man sitting in front of Shouta, a severe look in his eyes.
“So the Shie Hassaika i’s lead fighter ships have been spotted more frequently outside of their territory?” He asked, placing down the file he’d been given for review. The man before him nodded in acquiescence.
“Yes. Their movements have been… erratic, and highly out of the norm. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason, except that they do not cover the same area more than once.”
“Almost like they’re looking for something?” Shouta mused. “Or someone.”
Sasaki nodded again. “Much the same conclusion we have drawn.”
“I’m still not seeing what I have to do with all of this.” Shouta said, and Sasaki levelled him a serious look.
“We want to coordinate an attack on his base of operations while they’re distracted with trying to find whatever it is they’re looking for. We would like your help— the Eraserhead’s specialized EMP will undoubtedly prove to be helpful in taking down the Shie Hassaikai , and handling any of their fighter ships in the area.” Shouta could admit to having seen where this whole meeting was going.
His ships EMP was one of a kind in some regards, honestly not even properly qualifying as an EMP. It was just the easiest way to classify it. It was somewhat taboo, also, to try to investigate or replicate the unique qualities and personal designs of any pilots ship, and his ships capabilities were lesser known for a reason— an attack that disabled, however temporarily, the attacks of other ships would be highly coveted.
He, like many other upper level fighter pilots, had his ship coded to his unique biometrics so that others couldn’t access his ship without his say so. It was a common practice, primarily as a preventative measure for allowing criminals and rouges access to the specialised tech their ships were equipped with.
However…
“And how long would this operation last? When are you planning the attack?”
“As soon as we can, to take advantage of the distraction. We don’t know when they’ll find whatever they’re looking for, and once they do, our chance to strike is over.” Sasaki explained. “The operation itself shouldn’t be more than two days unless things go very, very sideways.”
Shouta ran his thumb along the edge of a claw. “That’s all well and good, but I do have obligations to the ongoing search for—“
“The thief that stole the All Might?” Sasaki interrupted wryly. “Yes, I’m aware. However, one thing we’ve noticed is that the Shie Hassaikai’ s strange movements only started shortly after the theft of the All Might . Indicating—“
“That they’re chasing the Trickster?” Shouta finished, and wondered how he didn’t realize that sooner. It seemed nowadays that his entire life revolved in part around the Trickster.
Sasaki nodded. “Though I find the name quite juvenile— the thief deserves a much more severe title, if any, given the scale of their… theft.” Shouta abruptly recalled that the man before him had once worked extensively in collaboration and partnership with Yagi Toshinori. He was bound to be more… affected by the theft than many others.
Shouta sighed. It wouldn’t do for the Trickster to be caught by a criminal organisation before the law. If that meant taking down said organisation…
“Count me in.”
-
The disorientation was about 10 times worse than any other wormhole he’d ever been in, and that was saying something. Izuku felt like his intestines were being used for rhythmic gymnastics ribbons while simultaneously being corroded with Nymmes acid. In other words, bad.
He wasn’t sure if it was the weird purple colour of the wormhole or the fact that he’d redirected the stability to protect Eri, but nonetheless he felt about three seconds from projectile vomiting.
Shouto wasn’t much better, his grip tight on the controls and chest heaving with barely controlled breaths. They shared a look before looking as one out at their surroundings, and Izuku promptly forgot all about his nausea.
“What… is this?” He murmured faintly, subconsciously tightening his grip on the back of the pilots seat.
Shouto shook his head, eyes glued to the sight before them.
It was… a different galaxy, is what he would say, but that didn’t do it justice. The universe, the vast never-ending space, it looked wrong . Off colour, was the easiest way to put it, but even that seemed iffy.
If the normal universe was a dark and rich nothing, this was a polluted copy, the space an odd purple instead of an inky black, and the stars all a strange gold instead of all the normal colours. The usual stats on the side of the main screen were wildly off from regular space, and it made Izuku’s skin prickle.
And within their immediate vicinity…
Buzzing about, several drone ships and cargo ships milled about lazily, enough that Izuku was vehemently glad they were still in stealth mode.
They seemed to be monitoring, mostly, though the cargo ships moved with more purpose, moving to and between various larger ships and what looked to be factories. A lot of factories.
The whole space, actually, as far as they could see, was filled with massive factories, seemingly attached to nothing, unlike the standard asteroid/planetary factories. It was as though the factories themselves were massive ships, though what exactly was being made was… unknown, though Izuku had a rotten feeling it had to do with the Abominations.
Speaking of…
“Where is it going now?” He murmured, though Shouto heard, turning towards him slightly. The Abomination they’d followed into the wormhole was steadily moving through the drone patrols, deeper and deeper into the strange new place.
Shouto readjusted his grip on the controls. “Let’s find out.”
They followed the creature, past several factories and drones, and the deeper in they got, the more unsettled Izuku was. The whole thing, really, was insanely unsettling, and Izuku could feel his hackles rising.
The ship, too, seemed to rumble anxiously in the back of his mind, and he grabbed his tablet to distract himself from the feeling, tapping away as he tried to access the server the Abomination was operating on. Hopefully, it would give insight into… whatever this was.
The proximity to the beast seemed to help his efforts along, and he tried to go as fast as he could with the extra time, cracking firewall after firewall as he tried to isolate the main base among several decoys and—
“Stars above, what the hell is that place?” Shouto hissed, and Izuku’s head snapped up from where he’d been getting closer to hacking the main network to see what warranted such an exclamation.
His eyes are first drawn to the Abomination they’re following, still moving forth with single-minded (…can he even say that, when the mind of the thing was of such a questionable state?) determination. They’d been steadily weaving around patrol drones and smaller factories, moving at a moderate speed to keep up with the beast.
The goal of said beast is made clear as they approach a massive ship, easily double the size of the Endeavour, intimidating even beyond its imposing size with the dark coloured metals of the ships exterior seeming to sap light from the rest of the space around it. The few lights visible from the mammoth of a ship glow a menacing, toxic red and purple that seems to almost pulse.
The whole thing is all hard angles and ominous looming, and something in Izuku shudders at the mere sight of it. Surprisingly, the ships model seems nearly antique from the components he can identify, but it’s wholly functional. Izuku snaps a few pictures, pausing momentarily in his hacking out of a desire to not forget what a sight this ship is. He can’t see any logo or emblem, be it from distance or a lack of any such thing, which is odd. This whole thing is odd, really, and Izuku feels as though his heart will beat out of its chest with how hard it’s pounding at all of this… this.
He’s never felt more under-qualified to be the one discovering something, and he finds himself almost wishing they hadn’t gone through the strange wormhole.
He shakes off that feeling, though. They’re here now, for better or worse.
Shouto slows somewhat as they draw nearer to the massive ship, and the Abomination does too, slowing to a full stop some ways away from the ship.
It’s made evident why that is as a red particle barrier shimmers into view, mere feet from where the Abomination has stopped. Izuku watches as it dissipates in a small section to allow the beast to pass through. The gap remains open for a few seconds before it begins to shrink.
“…Do we follow?” Shouto asks him, and Izuku is on the verge of responding ‘no’ when their ship hums in his mind and shoots forwards in a burst of unexpected speed, just barely making it through the closing particle barrier. Izuku almost loses his grip on the back of the pilots seat at the abrupt movement, and Shouto makes a surprised sort of noise.
“Shouto?!” He calls, because as curious as he is, this is bordering on very, very bad idea territory. Eri is still in the cargo hold, and they’re in extremely unknown territory.
“That wasn’t me, the ship just moved on its own!” Izuku blinks (that explained the hum), and asks the obvious question.
“But why?” Shouto shakes his head.
“I don’t know, but I hope it knows what it’s doing.” At that, Izuku hears the familiar rumbling in the back of his mind, both reassuring and unrelenting.
“Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
The ship seemed to have given control back to Shouto, who hesitantly brought them forward after the Abomination as it moved closer and closer to the top of the mammoth ship, where the beast settled down a large landing pad. Izuku jumped as another Abomination appeared near their side, followed by several more from different directions, all converging on the landing pad. Their ship hovered a little ways away, still within what he assumed were the limits of the particle barrier.
Congregated on the base were close to two dozen Abominations, all settled in a loose circle. They looked tiny compared to the absolute behemoth of a ship that the mothership was, and Izuku squinted at a few of them.
“Close up visual on the life forms, please.” He told the ship, and a secondary screen popped up, zooming in on the gathered beasts.
A good few of them were… carrying things. Parts. Both body parts and ship parts, held in clawed hands or mechanical grips, it was almost as if they were carrying parts of one another, a terrible mismash of pieces…
“Oh stars.” He whispered, and looked at Shouto, who seemed to have reached the same conclusion.
They were.
All the pieces, the odd body parts and mechanical bits, seemingly scavenged from all over the galaxy… they would be used to make more of the Abominations. Or perhaps add onto the existing ones.
“The factories…” Shouto murmured. “Do you think…?”
He had, but hadn’t wanted to think about it, not when they were still so immersed in danger in what he was quickly processing to be Enemy Territory. He was aware, painfully so, that no officiated government programs would be… creating these odd, weapon like creatures (he hoped), so the logical conclusion was that these were criminals. Criminals who dabbled in experimentation on people.
Izuku swallowed back the bile rising in his throat as he noticed that those of the Abominations carrying body parts seemed to be coated in blood.
“This is big. Bigger than we can probably handle.” He said, a sour taste in his mouth, the pit in his stomach growing as he took in the awful contorted features of the Abominations. The group of them, altogether, was visually repulsive, and he had to fight back the urge to throw up.
“What are they for? Why would anyone ever…?” Shouto asked, breathless as Izuku was at the gory sight. Izuku grimaced.
“That’s the question isn’t it?” Izuku replied softly. The ship rumbled in the back of his mind, soothing.
Their attention was soon grabbed as a cluster of beasts drifted in, carrying something large as one, using some sort of connective membrane to carry the larger item between them. The membrane reminded Izuku of the flexible skin of the Zerrdyn, and he pushed back the wave of disturbing thoughts that hit him with that realisation in favour of leaning towards the membrane retracted from the object. It was much larger than all the rest, and Izuku nearly gasped as he saw what it was.
“That’s a rare Xymillian energy crystal! It’s still in the mining ore, sweet stars!” The crystal glowed a soft pink, visible through the darker stone surrounding it. The beasts had most likely stolen it straight from an extraction point near one of the mining colonies, before they could even get to dislodging the crystal from the common stone.
He could feel the ships presence like a tangible force in his mind, honed in on the pinkish crystal. Those things were rare, so much so that seeing one in your lifetime wasn’t something the average citizen would ever experience. Tiny fractions were used to power many higher class fighter ships, so a crystal that big could probably power the behemoth ship they were hovering over thrice over with energy to spare.
“That crystal… it’s massive.” Shouto said, awed. “How did they even manage to grab it so easily?”
Izuku squinted.
“I wouldn’t say easy. Look, they’re all damaged.” It was true, those Abominations (and man, was that getting long, he kinda preferred calling them beasts) from the cluster that had brought in the crystal were battered and beaten to hell and back, one even missing it’s head, though it was hard to tell if that was intentional or not given the absurd way the beasts were built.
“Wait, Izuku, look at the crystal.” Shouto said abruptly, adjusting the secondary screen so it was zoomed in it. “Do you see that, in the shadow?”
Izuku squinted. The image was quality, but the lighting was poor, and he had to tilt his head to really see much but…
“That’s not… a person, is it?” He asked, already leaning forward to switch the secondary screen to thermal vision. This could be really, extremely bad news.
It switched. And there, nestled under the massive crystal, was a small life form.
“ Fuck .” He wasn’t sure if it was him or Shouto who said it, but damn if he didn’t wholly agree.
Before he or Shouto could do or say anything, the scene below them changed.
A hatch, it seemed, opened, all the Abominations turning in eerie synchronisation towards it.
On the thermal screen, the life form shifted minutely, still attached to the side of the crystal.
Izuku could feel the ship's presence again, the force building up in the back of his mind and behind his eyes as both he and Shouto leaned forward, enraptured with their own anticipation to see what— or who— emerged from the hatch.
He just barely caught a glimpse of the figure exiting the hatch before the ship moved.
In a display of speed so fast it made Izuku dizzy, the ship darted forward and down, simultaneously shooting at the Abominations and hatch figure with several plasma blasts, and extending cables (he didn’t know they’d even had cables) to latch onto the crystal before flying full speed at the invisible barrier.
“ HOLY SHIT —“ He heard Shouto yell, just as the ship shot another plasma blast at the barrier, hitting it with an explosion of light that made the barrier— and the new hole it sported— visible.
They shot out of the barrier, and at that point it was pure instinct that had Izuku shoving Shouto out of the way and claiming the pilot's seat just in time to dodge a barrage of drone ships that seemed capable of seeing them all of a sudden.
The crystal. It wasn’t in the ship— wasn’t cloaked. It was too big to pull in, too.
Izuku didn’t know why the ship— the sentient, conscious ship that had wants and desires of its own, goddamn— wanted to grab the crystal, but he wasn’t in a position to question it, really.
It was time for some risky manoeuvring. A plan started formulating in his mind, but first—
“Shouto, get to the cargo pit!” Izuku called. “I need you to keep Eri secure!”
Shouto didn’t protest. “And the person on the crystal?”
Izuku gripped the controls a bit tighter, cracking his neck.
“I’ll get you an opening to let them up— it’s a judgement call, but you’ll know when!”
Shouto, to his credit, didn’t question it or hesitate, instantly heading to the back. Izuku, similarly, didn’t hesitate to redirect nearly all the force nullification to the back, immediately feeling the effects as each evasive manoeuvre jarred him to the core, his body only staying seated through pure willpower alone.
He took a deep breath as he sharply ducked and turned under the mothership, gaining a few moments respite from the constant barrage of the drones. A few taps had the lower entry hatch opening, hopefully allowing Shouto to get the stowaway aboard. A ping in the corner of his screen. New passenger alert.
He didn’t question how the ship knew what he wanted to know. No time.
The hatch closed. Izuku grinned. Next step.
“Activate particle barrier!”
“ Activating particle barrier .” Just as he’d hoped, the barrier extended to cover the crystal, though he did eye the power levels for the ship anxiously.
He didn’t have the time to worry, though, as the drones caught up.
“Okay,” he said, adjusting his grip on the controls, “let’s do this.”
And he steered the ship straight at the squad of attack drones coming at them.
They opened up laser fire— he ignored it all, letting it bounce harmlessly off the particle barrier. He could hear alarm klaxons blaring somewhere, and just before collision, dropped the particle barrier, slamming down on the hyperspace wormhole button.
Moments later, they were flying free.
-
Kirishima Eijirou was having a downright miserable day.
It was a field trip day for his class, to one of the more valuable mines. Xymallians were mostly known for their stones, both the propensity to look like them and to eat them. It was… irritating, in some ways, to be seen as Xymallian— even if he was only half— and immediately be expected to work in the mines like most others.
Eijirou liked rocks as much as anyone else, but sometimes he got sick of how that seemed to be all he could ever have. His buddy, Kouda, agreed— Kouda always was more interested in the creatures that lived in rocks than the rocks themselves, and they both found themselves resentful, on occasion, of the expectation that they’d become miners or workers in some other mine-related field.
Not that there was anything wrong with the mines, don’t get Eijirou wrong! He could see the appeal, really— but it wasn’t… him. Or Kouda.
He’d been sitting in on a rare crystal extraction with the rest of his cohort, as a sort of demonstration of the types of important work they’d be able to do in the future, a shiny stone to lure in the Kyoomi’s of his class. He’d been interested, sure— it was cool, seeing the extracted pink crystals, in their rawest state.
The crystals had been spread out, cordoned off somewhat, the largest easily triple the size of the rest and placed in the centre of the exhibition room. It would be hauled off soon to be processed for ships, along with all the rest of those extracted from the pink mines, so the fact that he could see the crystals was something of a treat. Or so their guide said.
The mention of ships had him daydreaming again about being a pilot— flight school, now that would be cool— only sometimes tuning back into the tour guides words, mostly with the help of Kouda gently prodding him.
It was all well and good, if a little boring, until the Things attacked.
It was all very fast— an explosion hit the base, sending their whole class careening, and Eijirou remembered slamming hard into the biggest crystal. Unfortunately, in the war between his head and the crystal, the crystal won, and he passed out, clinging to the rock encasing the crystal.
When he woke, it was surrounded by a thick membrane, sort of like the skin of a Zerrdyn, and he was still clinging to the crystal. His head was pounding in tandem with his hearts, fear and pain the most prominent emotions he could feel.
The following series of events was a messy, dizzying blur— he was set down on some sort of landing pad, then grabbed alongside the crystal by a ship in some sort of ambush, then dragged along as said ship tried to escape drones, then hauled into the ship (not alongside the crystal) to meet mismatched eyes right before he passed out.
Now he was… here.
Here being the cargo pit of some ship (probably the one that grabbed him), staring at the missing Todoroki heir, a small child, and what looked like an Irridanyte boy (though you could never really tell age with them).
Eijirou felt dizzy.
“Am I… is this the All Might ? Where’s the Trickster? Why is there a child? What—“
The two older passengers exchanged a look. The Todoroki heir stepped forwards.
“You’re not anywhere. This is a hallucination. You are hallucinating.” Eijirou blinked.
“Oh. Okay.” His head really hurt. He also wasn’t sure the floor was supposed to be spinning like that.
The Todoroki heir waved again. Probably to catch his attention. He wasn’t sure when it had slipped. He waved back. The two big ones shared another look.
“Is there anywhere you’d like to go? Somewhere… safe?”
Safe? Safe, safe, safe… UA was probably safe. He bet the UA would be super safe.
“You want to go to UA?”
Now that he thought about it, yeah, that would be nice. Piloting seemed cool. Very manly.
“—can’t bring him to UA, we’d get shot on sight—“
“—no other choice—“
“— have a point. Fine—“
Eijirou waved a hand again, catching their attention. “I’m gonna go to sleep, if y’don’t mind?”
The Irridanyte kid blinked. “Sure.”
“Rad.” And with that, Eijirou went to sleep.
—
The attack on the Shie Hassaikai’ s base had been a success. While the Nighteye was compromised, losing a wing and an engine, the general consensus was that the attack was a win, even though they hadn’t managed to capture the Overhaul or its captain.
Nonetheless, the base was compromised, meaning it would be much easier to weed out the remaining forces tied to the organisation.
Shouta was pleased with their work— with this road tying up in a day's time, he had the ability to go back to teaching his brats and taking naps instead of leasing a strike force— which naturally meant something had to go wrong the moment it was over and the pilots began dispersing.
A ping on his communicator was all the warning he got before he was in a video call with Nedzu, who carried an uncharacteristically grim look on his face.
Steeling his nerves, Shouta spoke. “What happened?”
Nedzu looked shifty, though it was hard to tell over a call. “ Well, you see, last night UA had a visitor. They dropped off a few things that I think may concern you.”
Before Shouta could ask what he meant by that, the camera panned, and Shouta was faced with a young Xymallian boy— the very one who he’d recalled was in a galaxy wide alert sent out just a few hours prior as a missing child— carrying an even younger child, who looked to be a Kylwas.
“What—“
Nedzu interrupted. “ These two young ones were dropped off by the Trickster early this morning, as far as cameras show. Shouta, meet Eri and Kirishima. You two, this is Aizawa Shouta, pilot of the Eraserhead.”
“Nice to meet you. ” The Xymallian boy— Kirishima— chimed in, though his younger companion said nothing, instead clinging to him even tighter.
Shouta blinked.
“I’m sorry, what ?”