Chapter 2 Research, Testing and Nemesis
Izuku opened the door to his room with a huge mug of coffee as he locked his door and quickly opened his computer, turning it on and opening up some video recording software. Izuku checked his cheap webcam, before turning it on. "Okay, okay. I know this is stupid to do as I am dealing with stolen equipment but this is also for the sake of research and science. SO this is somewhat needed." as he took a gulp of his coffee. " Also please forgive me for my jitteriness but this is coffee number… uh… I lost count after ten and I've been up for like 48 hours just freaking out about all the info I've got here cause this shit is crazy and I love it."
Izuku put down the coffee and rubbed his face. "Okay let me take you back to somewhat the beginning here, it all started a week ago. After I came back home, Meg and Yamada had a tearful reunion and I got paid, but the big thing was I stashed the suit in an abandoned apartment with cameras monitoring it just in case anyone was tracking it. While that was happening I was researching trying to figure out where the hell this thing came from. That wasn't so hard since I had the laptop that came with, and holy shit it is filled with so much, I will be working on that thing for quite awhile, but I'm getting off topic. I discovered that a lab in America, San Francisco to be specific, was robbed and lost several things including all of its database on all of its experiments and the destruction of an experimental suit. Well that's what the news says, in reality it was all stolen and from what I can piece together, that guy, Rubert, Rudy whatever his name is, stabbed his people in the back for the suit and everything else that was stolen. He probably wanted to use the suit to pull off several crimes, but he couldn't because the thing that powers everything that the lab was experimenting with, including the suit, is powered by these strange particles, Pym particles."
Izuku grabbed a vail and some notes he had on the vials. "Now these were a whole other monster to get information on. From what I could find a man named Hank Pym invented these particles after he retired and he apparently passed away before fully transcribing all of his research or he simply didn't want anyone to figure out how they were made. Make sense cause half of the stuff I found on the laptop is enough to make a doomsday weapon. Either way the formula wasn't completed and you couldn't properly use the suit or the equipment without knowing the proper formula, like a really complicated password, which leads me to believe that Mr. Pym really didn't want anyone to get their hands on his research, but he left enough of it."
"Back to the guy who brought it to Japan, he needed to find someone who can figure out the formula, he tries going to Meg's cousin who's quirk isn't good enough to figure it out but Meg's quirk was enough to do the trick. She unlocked it, and since the guy got his head blown off by Missile man and Missile Man is officially in a coma, no one knows who has the suit. No one knows I have the suit, no one knows I'm Ant Man."
Izuku leaned back letting those words sink in. "So the big question is what now? The moral thing to do is return the suit and forget this ever happened, but that could cause some issues since I've looked at the research and clearly people are killing for it, not to mention I broke the law by not only interfering with hero work but also pretending to be a hero,also I lied to All Might. Which sucks." Izuku didn't like lying to his hero. "So turning myself in might not be the best idea, not to mention on a personal level I don't want to. This here is my chance, a chance I never had before, a chance to be a hero, to do something right." As Izuku said the words he knew how selfish he was sounding but he pushed those thoughts down.
"Now I need to move forward and plan." Izuku brought some books about law. "Before I figure out what I can do with the research I need to cover my ass, one if the worst case scenario happens, how do I get out of it. One the worst case is death but aside from that if I get caught how to keep myself from getting into too much crap. Thankfully for once I'm quirkless, and every vigilante law I have seen all pertains to someone using their quirk outside of the law. Meaning there is no law against someone who doesn't have a quirk can do hero work. The only problem is when the suit comes into play cause that is definitely not legal equipment right there, so I need to figure out a way to make it legal, now how do I do that? Well one way is to get a mechanic license which is similar to a hero license, which I can get by going through school and getting into one of the support courses. There I would have the legal ability to make any equipment I want but I couldn't use it myself and all of it gets cleared by the teachers and they would obviously ask questions, questions that would lead me to get caught. So I can't do that, but I can do that if I was in college."
Izuku supn his pen in his hand. "Now that asks another question, am I smart enough to get into college early, and my answer to that is maybe, cause one of my part time jobs I did was tutoring and not just other kids my age, I have tutored several highschool students before. To be honest it's somewhat difficult to know what grade I should be in, several teachers have told me before I could skip grades into highschool and that with me barley focusing on school, I've been more focused on clearing my families debt, so I never have really pushed myself in school and I'm already ace-ing all of my classes. But if I was to get into college and into a support course, I would have the freedom to work on several projects in the open without any teacher telling me to stop, you know as long as nothing goes wrong. Not to mention then I can just chalk up all of my ideas to being a child genius."
Izuku then wrote some stuff down on a piece of paper. "I do believe the college route is the best to take because it also let's me work as Ant Man somewhat legitimately in the quickest amount of time. Get to college, get a support license, and make things similar to the ant man suit to give the equipment legitimacy. That would also, maybe, throw anyone else after the suit off of my tail. I have a few ideas how I can pull it off, I know a few teachers and deans that have been clients for me before. So if everything goes right I can legitimize the suit in four months, one month to study, take the test if passed I can enter in the fall quarter."
"After that all I need to do is figure out a way to become a legit hero, by either becoming a sidekick, going through an agency or get permission from a high ranking hero to take the hero license test. Which seems to be the easy part."
Izuku nodded. "Okay I have somewhat of a plan, now is the time to get started."
~o~
Izuku left his apartment knowing the first part he needed to do and that was to get some help. Little help. "Okay here we have the hall of insects." announced the tour guide.
Izuku was currently at the mustafa zoo. After looking through the ant laptop, the stolen laptop. He found blueprints for an earpiece that could pickup one's thoughts, originally designed to control machinery but Izuku had another idea. After having to hide in bushes for his spying gig, he made a sonic machine that would send signals that only insects could picku telling them to leave Izuku alone. Izuku was able to make the earpiece with the modifications from his sonic machine, if worked in theory he should be able to control the ants. "Okay test number one."
Izuku focused on activating the ear piece, and suddenly all of the insects in the hall became agitated and destroyed their habitats, freaking everyone out in the hall. Several parents began to freak out and run out of the hall. "Okay everyone please stay calm and head to the exits." yelled the tour guide as they led everyone out of the hall of the insects.
Izuku took the earpiece out, stopping the insects. "Okay that was not what was supposed to happen."
~o~
"Okay so test one was a failure and I realize now trying to control all of the ants at a zoo might be too big of a first step," said Izuku as he was giving an update to his computer. "So I went a little smaller and bought myself an ant farm with a small colony of ants." Izuku then showed the small glass pan of the ant farm with some ants crawling around. He put it down in front of the computer and put his ant controlling ear piece on. Izuku focused and had thought of all the ants moving to the top of the farm. Slowly but surely they all moved upward. "Still got some work to do, but it's a start. This will be my focus for a bit."
~o~
(Four days later)
"Okay with some few modifications to the ear piece, controlling the ants has become super easy, and I've gotten the hang of it." Izuku focused and the ants began to march out of their hives bringing Izuku creamer packets for his coffee. "See I've successfully begun to control them long range and it seems that when the ants receive the order they will follow through despite the distance and number of ants, further research is needed but I think they are ready for the next part." Izuku took a sip of coffee. "I guess I should clarify what exactly I mean, I had to figure this project out first before I get started on making Pym particles because I'm going to need these guys to get me the things I need pym particles. They're going to help me rob a lab." Izuku brought out some blueprints. "This is Kurosu labs, they've been accused for years for dealing in illegal tech and giving villains support items. So I'm going to do some community service and clean house. How am I going to do this," Izuku brought out his shrinking and growing disks. "I have 15 shrinking disks left and 18 growing disks left, and to make the disks and pym particles I need 6 different pieces of machinery, including ingredients. Lucky the machines needed aren't that big, most can fit on a desk and the ingredients I can get elsewhere but I need to make this look like a big heist so they don't expect me, also it would give more of a reason for heroes to investigate. Now how do I do all of this, moving and taking the machines will be easy, just shrink them down and take them, getting in however….is a lot more easier than I thought." said Izuku in a dead tone. "Yesterday I shrunk down a case of cameras and had the ants do some recon. I know I'm rushing a bit but I am on a deadline here. Anyway under the lab is a sewer which I can use to sneak in, literally no security whatsoever down there. I already had an ant enter the security room and confirmed they ain't monitoring the sewer whatsoever. I know this isn't one of Kurosu's main labs but come on, I kind of want to try and see if I could break in without the shrinking tech." Part of Izuku really wanted to try it, but he knew better.
Izuku then grabbed a small box of fireworks. "So here's the plan. Sneak in from below have the ants move in, sabotage the security system and the feed, while there doing that enter the lab and shrink the machines and blow the wall and the fence to make it look like someone broke in from the outside." Izuku knew the plan was simple but it worked for him. "Easy."
~o~
Izuku was below the lab in the sewer, "God, it reeks down here." said Izuku making his way through the sewers. He found the small pipe leading up to the lab, it was small but Izuku could fit into it at his regular size.. Izuku then brought out his phone and saw the security cams on his ants. "No scientists are in the building, and the two security guards on duty are, playing a video game and sleeping, and the last janitor is clocking out for the day. It's one am, let's get out by two." Izuku put his hoodie on and a gas mask. Right now he wasn't Ant Man, right now he was a thief. Izuku checked all the bomb ants were in position. "Bomb ants one through three, GO"
Inside the building Izuku had shrunken down explosives boxes to the size of sugar cubes and had a few ants carry them to key positions around the lab, one in the server room, one at the generator and one to destroy the main hallway leading to the lab. The ants used the blue disks and grew the bomb boxes, after waiting sixty seconds they went off blowing up.
Izuku quickly climbed the pipe, it was slippery but Izuku was able to get up to the metal lid separating him from the lab. 'Okay just need to cut through this and I'm in.' Izuku brought out his hand blow torch, ready to cut the metal. Izuku placed the torch onto the metal when he felt something off. Izuku pushed on the metal realizing it wasn't even locked, "Oh you've got to be kidding me, they didn't lock this." Izuku pushed up and was able to open the panel. "It's like they're asking to get robbed."
Izuku quickly moved and started using the shrinking disks and shrinking the machines he needed and putting them into a case. He looked around and stole a 3D printer as well, and ordered the ants to move around the room and mess with some of the things on the desk to make it look ransacked. Izuku then took out a small box before regrowing it, inside were several explosives, he then tossed three enlarging disks growing three ants. "Okay, put those bombs around the lab and let's get out of here."
Izuku then looked at his watch, 1:20 am, "Ahead of schedule, did I miss anything?" Izuku looked around and noticed his ants were making a circle around a desk, none of them were getting close to the desk, Izuku slowly approached the desk, looking over it to see what was making the ants act so weird. He found nothing, the desk had a single computer on it along with several papers and a small cage in the corner with a single red beetle inside, looking directly at Izuku. "Are you the reason the ants are acting so weird?"
The beetle twitched. "You speak insect human?"
Izuku's eyes went wide as his mind stopped for a moment before it fully registered that the beetle was speaking to him. "You can talk, a talking beetle, is this your quirk, is that why you're here?"
"Free me human, now." demanded the beetle in a very aggressive tone.
Izuku raised an eyebrow at the beetle. "And why should I do that?"
"I shall grant you human the swiftiest and painless death possible."
Izuku looked down at the beetle unfazed by the beetle's words, "Yeah I'm not going to do that."
The beetle then snapped his mandibles at the cage. "I am your superior human, you shall do as I say." Izuku just kept looking down at the beetle. "Please."
"Pfft" Izuku kept himself from laughing. "Wow way to cave in so quickly."
"Oh come on, don't you atleast want my help to kill the other human."
"Other human?"
Izuku wasn't able to ask any further questions when suddenly the lab door burst open revealing one of the guards with blood on his uniform. He saw Izuku and instantly drew his weapon. "Who are you? Are you with him?" Izuku was about to raise his hands and calm the guy down but it was too late, as a sword pierced the guards chest from behind, killing him.
"HOLY SHIT!" yelled Izuku as he saw the guard fall. Izuku looked up and saw a man in a white cloak, wearing a skull mask on his face and sword in his hand. Izuku also noticed that parts of the man cloaks were burnt. "Who are you?"
The man looked at Izuku. "They call me Taskmaster, are you the one that blew up the server room?" Izuku gulped. "Easy job, just steal some data and now it blew up in my face. You're going to die now." As Taskmaster raised his blade.
Izuku ducked down and rolled undered the desk. It gave little protection as Taskmaster cut it in half with ease. "You'll pay for burning me." As he stood overlooking Izuku.
"FREEEEEDOOOOOM!"
Taskmaster stopped as he looked around the room. "Who said that?"
"You will pay humans, vengeance will be mine," Taskmaster looked down to see the red beetle on the ground on top of a broken cage. "You all will bow down to the insect race."
"What the…" as Taskmaster was distracted Izuku took out his remaining disks forming a plan, as the beetle ranted on about his supremacy. "Shut up." He kicked the beetle towards Izuku, hitting his hand.
Izuku dropped the disks. "Oh no."
Taskmaster slammed his boot on Izuku, forcing him down. Prepare to...die…"
Izuku followed Taskmaster's sight and saw that the beetle had hit the enlarging disk and was now standing on its hind legs, seven feet tall and looking at them. "Now die lowly human." yelled the beetle as he expanded his mandibles, Taskmaster used his sword as a wedge keeping the pincers from crushing him. The beetle then tossed the sword away before hitting taskmaster with the outside of its pincers sending him flying toward the wall.
"Whao, way to go red beetle." said Izuku standing up.
"No, I will not accept being this red beetle, from henceforth you shall call me uh call me uhhh. One moment I need to think of a proper name for my grandeur." said the beetle.
While that was happening Izuku knew it was a bad idea to let this beetle stay big so he called his ants to pick up the disks he dropped without activating them, the only problem was that they were still trying to avoid the beetle. 'He has some sort of ability to make the ants to avoid him, even the big ones don't want to go near him, so keep him talking.' Izuku thought. "How about king beetle."
"Nooo"
"Bob."
"Absolutely not."
"The great insectoid."
"Oh come on now, that's worse than Bob, wait I got it, from now on call me the Scarlet Beetle." said the Scarlet Beetle causing Izuku to give the insect a deadpan stare under his gas mask. "Yes, I can see it now, the Scarlet Beetle topples man kind and leads the rise to the insect revolution. Now as thanks human, you shall be the first to die for my kind."
"WHAT?!" Izuku instincts took over and tried to kick the giant bug. Izuku's foot merely bounced off of the bug's exoskeleton. "Oh crap."
"HAHAHAHA. See human this is one of the many reasons why the insect race is superior. Your kick is nothing compared to my tough exterior." boosted the Scarlet Beetle as it grabbed Izuku. "Don't worry, human, I will remember you."
"Then you're never going to forget me." The beetle looked in time to see Taskmaster aiming a flying kick directly to the bugs head, causing him to drop Izuku and topple to the ground.
Izuku quickly got up and saw the beetle was having a bit of trouble getting off of its round back.. "You saved me, why?"
"I would never get another client if they heard I got tossed by a bug, not to mention I would not accept it, but don't mistake this as….YOUR A KID!" Izuku felt his face, realizing that his mask fell off when the beetle dropped him. "You're as young as my daughter, what the hell are you doing?" asked Taskmaster now greatly surprised by the turn of events.
Now it's Izuku's turn to be surprised. "Why do you give a shit?" As he grabbed his gas mask.
Taskmaster actually had to think for a second. "I don't, I'm just a little surprised by the fact a brat is here."
"Age does not matter" said the Scarlet Beetle as it rolled on to its legs, before standing back up. "You both will die for harming the future ruler of insect kind."
Izuku looked down seeing that his ants had grabbed his disks but were trying to avoid the giant beetle. "Okay game plan, you distract the big bug and I take it out from behind."
"No" said Taskmaster as he picked up his sword. "I do not need your help squashing this bug."
Scarlet Beetle eyed the two. "You are by far more skilled but," the bug jumped at Izuku. "You're the one that I must stop."
'Shit.' Thought Izuku as he jumped away, 'He knows the disks will shrink him down, so he's putting distance between me and my ants, and he knows my ants are avoiding him.' Izuku began to run avoiding the raging insect. Jumping over a desk that the bug just went through as if it was nothing. Izuku quickly grabbed a long broken chunk of desk and swung it at the bug who didn't even register the strike. "Oh come on."
"Your attacks are futile."
"Yeah but his isn't." said Izuku, causing Scarlet Beetle to turn to Taskmaster, who was just standing there, doing nothing. "Well aren't you going to do something."
Taskmaster just stared at Izuku. "Is that it?"
"Is what it?"
"Is that really all you got, cause that's just sad." said Taskmaster, feeling a little bit of pity for Izuku. "I don't believe, the person that was so close to blowing me up and killing me is a stupid child."
Izuku ran as the beetle began chasing him again. "Uh hello this thing here is planning on killing you as well."
"That doesn't mean I should help you," said Taskmaster who was right. "Honestly the best strategy for me right now, is to hang back and wait for you two to kill each other. Study your strategies and make a plan to counter the victor but, I'm dealing with a stupid child and a dumbass bug." causing Scarlet Beetle to stop. "I like my odds."
Scarlet Beetle slowly walked towards Taskmaster. "Are you looking down at me?" Stopping in front of Taskmaster. Izuku took this opportunity to go to his ants with his disks.
"How else are you supposed to look at a bug." Scarlet Beetle roared in rage as it tried to attack Taskmaster who jumped and kicked the large bug in the eye, causing the beetle to yell in pain. Taskmaster then made several quick strikes in between the exoskeleton, causing damage to the bug, who roared in pain. "If you think you can beat me then you're quite mistaken."
"You will die you insignificante human." Before the insect could do anything else, Taskmaster used his sword and cut across the bugs head, leaving a nasty scar.
My head!"
"You got lucky the first time, and it won't happen again." Taskmaster was about to cut the beetle's head clean off until it suddenly shrunk down to its normal size, revealing Izuku a few feet away. "You can shrink it, why the hell didn't you do that sooner?"
Izuku glared at Taskmaster. "Fuck you man, you could have ninja chopped this thing forever ago."
"No return me to my big size you filthy human." They both looked down to see a regular size Scarlet Beetle. "Restore my size and I won't kill you immediately." Izuku reached down and grabbed a beaker and put it over the beetle trapping it inside.
Taskmaster then pointed his blade at Izuku, who smiled. "Before you do that I should inform you that I can do more than just shrink things." Izuku focused his thoughts causing the ants he enlarged earlier to drop from the ceiling. 'So that's where they were hiding, with Scarlet Beetle trapped the ants are listening to me again.'
Taskmaster looked around at the ants, 'Three of them I could probably take them, but the police and heroes are most likely on their way.' He sheathed his sword. "Fine kid, just this once I'll let you go, but if I ever see you again, I'll have your head."
Izuku didn't want to back down. "If i ever see you again, i'll kick your ass."
Taskmaster eyed Izuku before laughing. "An untrained brat like you kick my ass, that's hilarious. You'll have quite a ways to go before you become a serious threat to me."
"I will thank you," said Izuku, causing Taskmaster to tilt his head in confusion. "You just set the bar, next time we meet I will defeat you."
Part of Taskmaster told him to treat Izuku like a serious threat and to take him out right then and there but 'I must be getting rusty if this kid is setting off my instincts. He's just a brat, there's no way he can become a threat.' Taskmaster then pressed a button on his arm causing part of the wall to explode, revealing an airship on the other side. "Farewell foolish child." as he boarded the airship and left.
Izuku watched him leave as he shrunk his ants down to their regular size as he ordered them to leave. Izuku hopped down the pipe and ran, pressed his detonator causing his explosive to cover his escape. "Next time, Taskmaster I will defeat you….. Did I just get a nemesis?"
Chapter 3 Suits and Red tags
Izuku was currently in his room making more Pym particles, he had successfully made more using an abandoned apartment as his work shop after he was able to reroute the power to the building which got a little too much attention and he had to quickly fit all the machines into his room, it took a lot of work and quite a bit of grease but Izuku was able to shrink the machines down to the point they still functioned and was able to make more Pym particles without any issues, he just needed to secretly bribe the landlord not to freak the hell out when the power bill came around. Though that wasn't going to be a big issue anytime soon as Izuku already made plans to add a few lines to the building to take some of the power from the nearby buildings so things can run smoothly but first Izuku had other plans.
Izuku put on the Ant man suit and stood in front of his computer desk, he briefly looked around his room that now looked more like a lab than a room in a crappy apartment. "Okay let's get moving. This is live test number one with home made Pym particles. I have already tried the home made disks on other objects and the machinery" as he looked at the shrunken oven and washing machine "so this should work or it should rip me in half." Izuku paused for a moment as that thought went through his head. "Well no pain no gain." Izuku raised his hand and hit the button. What happened next is exactly what he wanted as Izuku shrunk down to the floor. Izuku stood on the carpet looking up at his room as if it was the first time seeing it, the chair was now the size of buildings and his computer desk looked like a skyscraper. 'So much can change just by looking from a different perspective.' he thought as he saw some of his ants walk towards him. The ants now are the size of horses compared to him. He focused his mind and they stopped a few feet? Centimeters? Izuku realized such measurements might not work any more at this height, making a mental note to learn the more small increments of measurements.
Izuku pets one of the ants before telling them to move back as he regrows to his regular height. "Well that test looks like it worked, but just to be sure." Izuku walks to his wall where he taped a un rolled tape measure to and measured himself. "160cm, my height has stayed the same." Izuku couldn't help but jump for joy. "Okay okay okay." Izuku went over to his desk and looked at his checklist. "I now can safely and successfully make Pym Particles, meaning there is nothing stopping me from going out other than the law itself. Now that I can shrink and be Ant Man, I should be smart and start training. I need to be able to fight, because of my previous job I'm in pretty good shape but not good enough. Not if I want to be a proper hero. I also need to make my own fighting style, cause I can shrink. I can have my own unique fighting style but it needs to be good enough that when I face Taskmaster again, I can kick his ass. I guess the first thing would be to see what my limits are both shrunken and at full height."
Izuku was about to begin to plan his training when he heard a knock at the door. "Izuku are you still in there?" called his mother.
"Yeah mom, I'm here." replied Izuku quickly taking off the suit.
"What are you doing? Do you even know how long you've been in there?" asked Inko with a hint of worry in her voice. "Can you please come out and talk to me."
Izuku stored the suit and ordered his ants to go and hide back into the ant farms. Izuku then quickly opened the door enough to let himself out before closing it. He then paused as he looked at his mom. "Hey mom."
Inko paused herself as she thought of what to say. "Izuku what are you doing in there?"
"Oh you know college stuff." trying to play it off and trying not to lie or at least not tell the whole truth. Izuku could only imagine his mother's reaction if he told her what he was planning.
"College stuff," she repeated, earning a nod from Izuku. Even though Inko was happy about her son thinking of the future she was still a little surprised that he wanted to jump straight to college. "Are you really serious about this college thing?"
"Yes mom," said Izuku. "If I skip high school and go to college I can immediately start making money by making support items, making my own hours, freedom and flexibility."
"You're not doing anything illegal in there, are you?" said Inko, cutting Izuku's explanation short.
Izuku quickly knew where she was going with this. "Mom, I told you after the first time I was arrested it would never happen again and I would never go to jail." as he remembered spending a few hours behind bars, on the plus side he met Kenta.
"That does not mean that's going to stop you from doing stupid shit." said Inko and Izuku knew when his mom cursed she was in no mood for bullshit. Years living in the bad part of town has given Inko quite the backbone especially when dealing with her son. She was still lenient but she knew when she had to put her foot down. "So I'm going to ask you right now, is what you're doing illegal? Will it get you in trouble with the law?"
"...Maybe." answered Izuku earning a look from his mother. "Most likely." Inko did not like that answer. "Look mom, right now yes this is not looking good but I assure you I can turn this around. So I'm going to ask you to just trust me and be patient because when I get this to work and it is already work it's going to fix everything."
Inko did not like Izuku's answer but she couldn't say no, as she looked into her son's eyes she saw something that she hadn't seen in a long time. Hope. A bright vision for the future, whatever Izuku was working on, meant a lot to him. "Fine, you don't have to tell what you're working on but when the time comes I would like to know what it is." she said begrudgingly. "But could you please remember to take care of yourself and can you at least come and get some food at Mr Ramens, cause you look like you need some sun."
"Sure," said Izuku, happy to move the subject. "Breakfast sounds awesome."
Inko slowly turned to her son giving him a look that made him confused. "Okay you're definitely going outside right now and after we have food you're taking a shower. I'll meet you at Mr. Ramens." This made Izuku confused.
~o~
Izuku became less confused as he stepped outside seeing the sun was high above his head. "Oh crap, it's already past lunch isn't it."
"HEY IZUKU!"
Izuku turned to see Kenta in the parking lot standing next to his car. "Hey Kenta."
"Hey man what the hell happened, you kind of fell off the grind for a moment we all thought someone finally whacked you." explained Kenta.
"Nah just working on something."
"Ah, you okay man, your squinting a lot." said Kenta
Izuku realized his eyes were still trying to adjust to the sun. "Oh you know Mondays." he said trying to play it off.
"Mondays? It's Thursday."
"What?"
"It's Thursday man, That's why we all thought you were dead or something."
Izuku then realized that he hadn't been out of the house since Saturday. "Okay my mom was right I need to get out of the house more." He then made a mental note that after food, showering would be the top of the list.
"What have you been doing man?" asked Kenta. "Is it that school stuff your mom has been talking about."
"Yeah wait my mom has been talking about it?"
"Well when me and the guys went to Mr Ramens for some food she mentioned something about you going to college or something." explained Kenta.
"Uh yeah I've been trying to get into college early, how about you man what have you been up to?" asked Izuku.
"Oh nothing much, bought a few cat toys for Ms. Gato. You know to apologize for Snowball." as Kenta reminded Izuku about the cat he had unfortunately hit.
Izuku nodded in understanding. "You haven't told her yet have you?"
"Nooooo" he said admitenly, shaking his head.
"Sup guys," said a slightly tan tall guy wearing a simple jeans and jacket with a beanie on his head, walking towards the two. "Kenta, Izuku good to see you man."
Izuku nodded at the guy. "Sup Genta. What are you so happy about?"
"You," he then turned to Kenta holding out his hand. "Pay up."
Izuku saw Kenta pull out some bills and hand them to Genta. "Did you bet on me being dead?" asked Izuku. Kenta looked guilty as Genta smiled and nodded. "Seriously?"
"I never win good bets, man." said Kenta
"Asshole."
"Here man," said Genta holding out a few dollars for Izuku. "If it makes you feel any better, several people thought you got whacked."
That just gave Izuku more questions. "Why were everyone taking bets if someone off-ed me?"
"Well we heard you and the ghost man had a falling out or something and there's quite a few people who are scared of the ghost man." Said Genta, Izuku didn't know when people started calling him ghost man but that was what people called the guy who was spying on others and getting dirt on other people. Though that was behind him now, now he was Ant Man. "So when you ghosted people started talking that the ghost took you out or someone who hates the ghost. Me though, I knew no one had the balls to try something like that here."
Kenta nodded. "Yeah that makes since no one is stupid enough to break Switzerland." Because of all of the high profile clients Izuku had, several criminals avoided Mr Ramens, It was something that Izuku would admit he was proud of, he was able to create a small safe zone here and it's saved quite a few lives. "Man I really did make a bad bet."
"Of course you did, never bet against a guy with the name ghost." said Genta
Izuku could help but smile at his friend's luck, he was about to leave."Yeah yeah, shouldn't you be on some sort of hot date or something." said Kenta
Genta looked somber. "Nah dude, she got red tagged." he said, shocking both Kenta and Izuku. Genta looked down, "Saw it myself a red ribbon wrapped around her wrist. Yeah she had a bit of a gambling problem and apparently went into hiding, no idea where she is. Though she was kind enough to leave me a message."
Izuku stared at Genta with a hint of anger. "That rather casual, Genta. When you're talking about sex trafficers."
"Hey man these guys ain't normal. They got the police in their back pocket and not to mention they are technically legal too." said Genta with a bit of sadness as it was clear that he didn't like it either.
Izuku could understand what Genta was saying, and he was right it was technically legal, they would put their targets in debt and force them to pay it off in other ways but that didn't mean any of them liked it. "You guys think any of the heroes know about this shit?"
Kenta gave a dry laugh. "You know all the heroes around here are bought out, same with the police. Hell last week I saw that hero Tiger Claw get handed a bribe in broad daylight to walk away from a crime, he left a man to die for cash. You would have to go to the better part of town to find anyone who would give a shit about this. The only ones that gave a damn were the vigilantes and I haven't seen the Crawler in quite awhile."
"Like he or anyone else could do anything," said Genta. "They get people through debts and pay it off as temp work at one of them hostess clubs, and after that they have all that legal bullshit loop holes they can use. These guys aren't normal bangers you can fuck with, they smart and organized. It's why this place is such a shit hole, these gangs have the pigs in their pockets and the con heroes keep the real heroes out."
Izuku shook his head as he thought it through. "There's no way that can keep working, there has to be something…...Something that someone can do."
Kenta and Genta looked at each other, they both could tell Izuku wanted to do something. He was one of the few people in the district that actually gave a damn. Though they thought he lost hope a long time ago."Hey man you're the one with the big brain quirk, maybe you can come up with something." said Genta, somewhat curious to see if Izuku could come up with anything.
Izuku gave Genta the usual look he gave when people thought he had a brain quirk, though Izuku couldn't deny he had a few ideas. It was clear that the tags placed on people was some type of quirk that could track the victim and maybe kept them from leaving the district and that gave Izuku the idea of burning or using acid to deal with the tags. Though he knew if he wanted to get to the bottom of it he would need evidence to stop them and to get dirt on the cops that work for them, he might not be able to do it but Ant Man could. "I might have an idea." as he saw his mom coming towards. "I'll talk to you guys later."
Inko saw Izuku saying good bye to Kenta and Genta. "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah just got the update that it's Thursday." He said still in a little shock he lost track of the then noticed that his mom looked a little down. "How about you is everything alright?"
"Sorry," said Inko. "Do you happen to remember Katsuki Bakugo and his mother Mitsuki."
Izuku then remembered a child with extremely spiky hair screaming at his mother. After he had insulted Izuku to the point the teachers actually got involved. "Kind of hard to forget them. Why?"
"Apparently Katsuki was attacked by a sludge villain a few days ago, he's fine now but Mitsuki needed someone to talk to." explained Inko. "I'm thinking about visiting them maybe next week."
This made him wonder if the explosion user was as loud as he remembered. "That sounds interesting." said Izuku as they entered the Ramen shop and had a normal meal.
~o~
"Okay I can't keep doing all nighters. If I want to become a hero I'm going to need to make a schedule and stick to it." said Izuku after having some food with his mom he went back to work right after he had a shower. "Before I go to bed tonight, I'm going to put in some practice in my shrunken form and maybe explore a little." He said to himself as he put the suit on and shrunk himself. Soon he was running around his room as Ant Man.
Izuku looked up at his bed and jumped, he expected himself to jump to it but it surprised him non the less, he flew through the air landing on the softness of his bed. 'Just liked I suspected, I maybe small but all the power I have as a regular person is still there and even better now that I think about it.' Izuku eyed his desk across the room with his chair between them. He jumped onto the chair and then to his desk. 'Landing was easy, now that I'm small I'm faster and I can jump a lot farther than I could at my normal height. I am really like a bullet, powerful but small.'
Izuku looked up at the roof of his ceiling at one of the air vents in his room. He put all the power he could into his legs and jumped. Izuku then quickly realized he put too much power into his legs as he hit one of the bars on the vent denting it. Izuku grabbed one of the bars and hauled himself inside the vent, looking at the broken bar. Izuku then saw one of his ants nearby. "Don't worry I can fix that later." He said as he walked past the ant, "Come on let's explore a little."
Izuku began to hop through the vents seeing his neighbors doing various things. "There's Ms Gato sleeping covered in her cats." as he saw the sleeping woman with her cats acting like a blanket. Izuku then ran down the vents some more until he heard some pop music. "There's Kenta, watching some music videos. I guess he became a fan of that boy band."
Izuku continued his tiny adventure but stopped momentarily when he came face to face with a big rat. "Well I tried jumping, now lets try punching." The rat charged at Izuku who cocked his fist back and gave the rat an Ant man right hook sending the rodent down the vent. "HOLY SHIT." Izuku looked at his fist and then back to the rat. "Yeah I'm going to need to practice a bit or else I might go through someone in the middle of a fight." As Izuku imagined him jumping at a robber and accidentally went through the man instead of punching him. Izuku walked up to the rat and tapped it a few times. "Sorry Jerry you will be missed." Izuku then looked at his arm where the suit had a small screen display that showed many things, one of them being the time. "Alright looks like I've been here long enough. Time to head home."
"Oh yeah,"
Izuku stopped "Who said that?" Izuku out of curiosity followed the moans to a vent. When he looked through he saw a room that clearly belonged to a girl, it was covered in posters of boy bands, celebrities and models. Pink and other bright colors along with a few plushies on the bed. Though the person on the bed is what got Izuku's attention, it was Hanah wrapped in a towel with her hand between her legs, letting out small moans.
Though to Izuku this didn't really do much for him, Izuku had seen many acts like this in his old job, when he would spy on people cheating on their spouses, but now he kind of felt like a creep, since he not only knew the person he was looking at but also because he was not that person anymore. "Come on Izuku, you're trying to be a hero now, you can't look at your neighbor when she's doing this." He then turned and started walking away. "You've satisfied your curiosity, time leave."
"Thinking about Izuku again?" came a new voice stopping Izuku midstep as he heard his name.
"SARAH!?" yelled Hanah. Izuku returned to the vent to see Hanah's older sister Sarah standing in her doorway wearing a big long sleeve hoodie. Sarah and Hanah were both a year apart but they looked so similar you would think they were twins. Both had an hourglass figure and looked gorgeous with long silk like hair that went down to their backs. The only reason you could tell either of them apart was the fact they usually kept their hair color different with their quirk that allowed them to change their hair color at will. Currently Sarah's hair was purple while Hanah's hair was black. Hanah through her towel at her sister who leaned out of the way. "What are you doing in my room?" she yelled flustered and anger in her voice as put on panties and a T-shirt.
"You left the door open." said Sarah with little care in her voice. "I was just curious if you were thinking of Izuku again."
Hanah was red faced looking at her sister. "One time, one time and that was it. He maybe cute but he's two years younger than me."
Izuku couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'She thought about me, one of the hottest girls I know thought of me when she was…'
"Why the fuck am I even talking to you about this, get out." Yelled Hanah's face still red, now along with her hair.
"Hey there's no need to be embarrassed, Izuku's cute and from what I heard he's got a bit of muscle. He's also very smart, kind and able to provide for his family." said Sarah, oddly calm.
Hanah was put off by her sister's response. "He's in middle school. Why are you bringing this up, do you want to date him?"
"I don't know him that well and he did tutor you once before, right?" asked Sarah. "Even though he's in middle school, he's tutoring highschoolers. For free, that's nice of him."
Hanah stared at her sister. "Where are you going with this?"
"From what I heard he's going to skip highschool and go straight to college." Sarah paused for a moment. "Sis, out of everyone who lives in this district who do you think will get out of here?"
Hanah's hair turned dark red as she gave Sarah a shocking look as she started to piece things together. "Well this conversation started with Izuku so I'm going to guess Izuku."
"If you start dating him, he could take you out of here. Give you a life out of this shit hole and maybe eventually be able to get mom a better place to live." said Sarah clearly trying to make some good points, but Hanah wasn't buying it.
"Are you seriously trying to tell me to whore myself out to a middle schooler for cash. FUCK YOU."
Hanah tried to walk past Sarah only for her to grab her sister. "I'm telling you to think where you'll be in ten years." This stopped Hanah. "People in the city call this place the trash pit, this is where villains and criminals go to retire. There is no future here, me, you and mom all work dead end jobs to make enough money to where we aren't on the street and that's with mom working two to three jobs, and we are considered lucky cause we haven't had to whore ourselves out yet." Sarah waited as her words sunk in. "I want you to have the most out of your life and you can't do that here. Almost no college accepts students from our school, we are rejected from everywhere we go, we're stuck here." Sarah paused as the information sunk in. "This place is filled with shit people, with the exception of Izuku who can get out of here and give you a decent life."
Hanah was getting frustrated as she knew this and this wasn't the first time she had thought about this, the only thing that kept her and her sister being like the other woman around the district was their mother, who was tough and worked three times as hard as any other mom and she was reaching her limit. "Shut up, if you want out of here so badly then you whore yourself out." Yelled Hanah as she slammed the door to the bathroom shut leaving her sister where she was.
Sarah slowly reached her right hand to her left sleeve as her hair turned blue. "I wish I did sis, if I did then maybe we could have stayed together." Sarah pulled back her left sleeve revealing a red tag stuck to her arm.
Izuku has been watching the whole thing from the air vent. "Sarah's been tagged. Sarah's been red tagged." The image of Sarah's arm was burned into his mind as he realized. "They're going to come for her."
~o~
Izuku made his way back to his room, stopping right before he went in. Punching the wall of the vent out frustration, the force was enough to dent the wall and scare the nearby ants. "Why the hell am I panicking? I'm not useless anymore, I have power and if I can't save the people around me then I can't save others'' Izuku patted one of the ants on the head calming it down before jumping down into his room. Izuku enlarged himself, he booted up his computer and looked up the red tagged traffickers online. "Alright you sex trafficing assholes. I was hoping to take on something a little smaller but this little guy ain't sitting quietly. Your asses are mine." As Izuku formulated a plan of action. "Not just you but ever criminal in this cesspool better watch out cause I'm about to rip them a new one."
"I really should stop talking to myself."