Chapter 11 Running Fuse
Izuku in his Ant-man suit made it to what remained of the buildings on a small flying ant, 'What happened here, did something blow up in between both of the buildings?' Thought Izuku, 'In any case, I need to check for survivors,' as Izuku ordered his ants to look for people while he scanned the rumble when suddenly some of it started moving, Izuku regrew to full size as he started digging through the rumble, he then saw something red before it opened to reveal someone inside. "HAWKS!"
Hawks looked up, "Ant-man," he said as the vigilante helped him up "Now that's two I owe you."
"You okay? What happened here?"
"I was following two criminals when I got into a fight with one while the other one turned the wall of the building into a bomb, I acted quick and used my feathers to shield myself but damn did that hurt. Felt like I got slapped by All Might, I don't think anything's broken but damn does it hurt."
"Wait you said, one of them turned the side of the building into a bomb." Izuku started to look around.
"Yeah, he was willing to kill his associate to bury me, he said his name was-"
Suddenly a huge chunk of the rubble was cut and launched upward as the dusted and ragged form of Sir Dazzle appeared. "TIMEBOOOOOMB!" he roared.
"Timebomb!" said Ant-man. "Wait Timebomb was here?"
"Yeah, he was the one that blew up the building. Wait, how do you know Timebomb?"
"Yeah, he used to work for a sex trafficking's a hole."
"EXCUSE ME!" yelled Sir Dazzel interrupting their conversation.
"Oh right this guy," said Hawks as he noticed the man with pure rage in his eyes. "Careful this guy isn't some goon." as he remembered Sir Dazzel's fighting experience. 'Shit, cause of the explosion, I only got a few good feathers left, some of them I can still use but no one i am using them to fly.'
"Wait a minute," as Izuku recognized the man, "Aren't you that one guy that killed the other heroes because they stopped your ice skating performance."
Hawks looked at Ant-man in disbelief, "What?"
"THOSE BASTARDS STOLE MY SPOTLIGHT," yelled Sir Dazzel as tears rolled down his eyes, "I had been practicing that routine for months and then those c list heroes had to barge in and stop some bomber from blowing up the ice ring, they got on the front page of the newspaper and had an extensive interview, not me!"
"Wait, so your whole motivation for becoming a villain is because some heroes ruined your performance to stop a bomber."
"Oh no, I performed before that all happened and won first prize," He said with a smug smile. "But what they did was far worse, they stole my spotlight, they made everyone forget my prefect performance, they-"
"Got more attention than you and you killed them when they tried to apologize, right?" said Ant-man as he remembered the story, but to be sure he took out his spare phone.
"YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP! It's my story and I'm the one telling it," yelled Sir Dazzle like a toddler. "But yes, they did come and apologize because they realized their inferiority. Killing them was a mercy and their deaths gave me a thirst for blood."
"No, they went to go and apologize to your manager for almost destroying the place," said Izuku as he showed Hawks the phone. "Yeah right here, former gold medalist Sir Bazzel lashes out and attacks heroes when they came to apologize to the event manager. The hero dies later in hospital due to prior health issues, causing the skater to leave the world of figure skating in shame."
The disgraced figure skater started to shake as he was filled with rage, "Those uncultured idiots called me Sir Bazzel!"
'That's what he's angry about?' Thought both Ant-man and Hawks.
"I'll kill them, how dare they screw up my name. I'll rip them from limb to limb." vowed Sir Dazzel as he started making plans to find and kill the reporters, but first he had to deal with the heroes and then Timebomb, "TIMEBOMB!" as he remembered how the man tried to blow him up. "Where is he, where did that fucking bastard go?" down the street watching him from the distance was Timebomb waving at him from the distance. "TIMEBOMB!" Dazzle then used his quirk to skate on the ground after his former boss.
"Shit," said Ant-man as he shrunk down and hitched a ride on a flying ant.
"Wait Ant-man don't, ah" Hawks clutched his sides, 'Shit that explosion did more damage than I thought, how did that guy not get hurt,' Hawks then summoned his remaining feathers to fly into the sky. "Good I still got enough feathers to fly. I might be injured but I'm still in this game."
~o~
Dazzle skid to a halt as he followed Timebomb to an old warehouse, "Come out you traitorous bastard," yelled Dazzle. 'I'll make your death quick and beautiful if you do."
"Well, you're a bigger idiot than I thought."
Dazzle looked up to see Timebomb standing above him on the catwalk, "Die!" as Dazzle sent a kick blade at Timebomb.
Timebomb remained calm and tilted his head dodging the attack. "Well you at least served your purpose, you brought Ant-man to his death."
This confused Dazzle and Izuku who had just flown in. 'What is he talking about?' Thought Izuku before Timebomb threw several stones at the small roof windows above them. "Evasive maneuvers." as Izuku's ant started flying dodging the shards of glass as the shards flew past Izuku, he saw small digit numbers on each shard of glass. "Oh, shit" Yelled Izuku as the shards exploded causing Izuku to fly off his ant and to regrow to full size.
Dazzle saw Ant-man suddenly reappear. "Ant-man! He was here this whole time!?"
Timebomb watched as Izuku struggled to stand. "Of course he was, this is his grave after all." as Timebomb taps the railing of the catwalk.
Izuku looked up and saw as a spark ran across the rail of the catwalk to the wall above Izuku. It was small but against the fading red bricks, Izuku could see a strange series of lines across the wall, using his helmet, Izuku saw that the line was made of a bunch of zeroes. 'He can turn his timer into a long fuse!' Izuku turned and jumped away.
The spark reached the decimal causing the wall to explode at the same time Izuku shrunk down hoping his small body would be able to dodge the shrapnel. Though to his surprise, it was not necessary as a feather caught him and flew him upward as Hawks came in through one of the roof windows. "Ant-man you okay?"
"Yeah," said Izuku catching his breath, "Thanks for the save."
"No problem," Hawks then looked down at Timebomb who stared back. "That guy ain't some scrub, he's trained."
Izuku agreed. "I thought this guy was just some nobody goon but he planned this, using a pawn to lure me here where he had the window and the wall set up to kill me." Izuku kept his eyes on Timebomb who had not moved. "We can't underestimate him."
"You're ignoring me?"
"Huh?" the three of them looked down to the ground level to see Dazzle glaring at all of them.
He was glaring at all of them with a look so heated you would have expected his eyes to light on fire or shoot beams out of his eyes. "I am Sir Dazzle, the best figure skater in the country, I was one of the most handsome bachelors a few years ago, now I am the most handsome villain across the country and you all have the audacity to ignore me!"
"Okay what the hell is with this guy?" asked Ant-man.
This was the last straw for Dazzle as he screamed and did a front flip, sending a massive blade upward destroying the roof and causing chunks of the ceiling to fall to the ground.
Hawks moved out of the way with Ant-man still on his feather. "Look as ridiculous as that guy is we should probably deal with him, he's got some weird quirk that allows making wind blades out of his kicks."
Izuku thought it over for a moment, "Then he's a perfect opponent for me. You handle Timebomb, I'll get the skater reject." Hawks was about to disagree. "Timebomb can turn objects like the ground into bombs, I don't think he has much of an anti-air arsenal, and the moron down there can't hit me if he doesn't see me coming."
Hawks smiled at the idea. "Alright, tic tac let's go."
Hawks sent the feather with Ant-man on it towards Dazzle, Izuku jumped right before Dazzle sent another blade kick at him taking the feather out but Ant-man turned back into his regular size and kicked Dazzle hard enough to send him tumbling backward to the ground.
Dazzle slowly raised his head, "You piece of-huh where did he go?" Dazzle looked around trying to find Ant-man but couldn't see him until Ant-man jumped and punched him in the gut. "Aw, you stop you distrusting insect." as he sent a kick randomly hitting part of the wall, hoping to hit Ant-man but those hopes were dashed as Izuku punched him in the face. "How dare you!"
Timebomb watched this from above. "Moron has no chance," as he took several coins out of his pocket, "I'm guessing that means I'm fighting you?" as he looked up at Hawks.
"Oh don't sound too disappointed," as Hawks manipulated one of his feathers turning it into a blade. "I'll make this quick."
Timebomb threw the coins between them causing a small smoke screen as he turned and ran down the catwalk.
"You ain't getting away from me." as Hawks flew after him, sending some feathers at him. Timebomb saw this and jumped off the catwalk onto some boxes before jumping down to the ground left. "Not bad parkour, but that won't help you."
Hawks sent two feathers down at Timebomb, the bomb man saw this and then tapped two boxes causing several sparks to form on the boxes, the sparks followed a trail down below the boxes before making an explosion, causing the boxes to fly upward at Hawks.
"Oh crud," as Hawks maneuvered out of the way of the boxes, as he was rolling in the air he saw Timebomb touch the wall making a new spark that followed a trail of tiny zeroes. "Enough of that." as he redirected his two feathers hitting the line the spark was following and the other at Timebomb who dodged at the last second. Hawks floated in the air and looked at the wall where the line of zeroes was. "So it does work like some kind of fuse, cut it before it gets to the end, and no boom."
Timebomb just smirked. "Yeah, your right. When I realized my quirk had a decimal point it made me wonder what would happen if I add a whole bunch of zeroes to it and who would have guessed it, my quirk gets a fuse of some kind."
"Interesting," said Hawks as he eyed Timebomb. 'He's quirk is much more unique than I first thought, not to mention with a fuse that means he could have boobytrapped the place, he was using this place to kill Ant-man after all.' Timebomb then held a coin in his hand before flipping it into the air, as it landed it rolled for a moment before causing a small explosion, like a firecracker but it was enough to set off several other lines of Timebomb fuses. 'What! His bombs can set off his fuses!'
"Pay attention," yelled Timebomb as he threw several playing cards at Hawks.
Hawks quickly batted them away with his feather blade as Timebomb started to throw other objects at Hawks. Hawks kept moving but small explosions kept happening all around. "Okay, I'm getting tired of all this random bullshit." Then something caught his eye as he saw part of the railing of the catwalk had a fuse wrapped around it that was almost about to blow, quickly using his feather blade to cut it from the catwalk. "Here, have a taste of your own medicine." as he kicked the railing towards Timebomb.
Timebomb moved but not away from the railing but towards it, catching it. Hawks waited for it to explode but it didn't. "Bet you thought it would explode in my hand," said Timebomb held the railing showing as more digits were being added. "As long as I can touch the timer I can manipulate it."
"Well fuck."
"Let's kick it up shall we," Timebomb throws the railing past Hawks into the ceiling igniting several timers on the ceiling causing it to rain dust, and dirt. "Don't lose sight of your opponent."
Hawks' feathers picked up movement to his side as he brought off his feather blade in time to block Timebomb's knife. "That won't work." Timebomb then grabbed Hawks' arm bringing him down. 'Shit I don't have enough feathers to stay afloat with a passenger.'
"Good, now hand-to-hand combat." Said timebomb before spitting out a small rock that was hidden in his mouth.
Since it was a small rock it didn't cause a big explosion but enough for Hawks to lose focus and fall to the ground, 'Shit' Hawks quickly recovered and rolled to his feet but to his surprise so did Timebomb, who followed up on the attack with quick jabs from his free hand and adding knife swipes when he saw an opening. With his training Hawks was able to either block or dodge each attack but wasn't able to counter. 'What the hell, this guy is trained like a soldier.'
"Keep your head in the game and don't forget your footwork just because you can fly." Timebomb swept Hawks legs but the winged hero didn't fall as he used his feathers to float back.
"What the hell is this?" asked Hawks as he clashed blades with the man. "A lesson?" The man just smiled at Hawks. 'Time to end this.' Thought Hawks as he focused on one of his remaining feathers that were on the ground. 'I'll go for his leg.'
"Going to try and hit my leg." Said Timebomb smirking causing Hawks' eyes to widen. "Or did you forget I grabbed your coat when we fell?"
Hawks eyes went down to his arm where he saw four digits, 0.001. 'He turned my jacket into a bomb, I'm wearing a bomb.' Hawks then grabbed Timebomb and held him close. "Go ahead, make it a big one take us both down."
"HAWKS!"
Hawks looked over to see Ant-man holding an unconscious Dazzle. "Stay back. This bastard turned my Jacket into a bomb, but if he wants to pull the trigger he'll just take both of us down."
Timebomb smiled. "Not bad, It's been a while since I've had to really put my back into a fight. I'm rusty as hell, but at least it was you who took me down."
"Me?!" Hawks just stared at the man. "Who the hell are you?"
"You made me proud today, little bird."
Hawks felt his blood freeze. "Wha?"
"Ow" as a young Hawks was hit to the ground again after a long session of training.
"Come on, little bird. You have to do better with close combat." said an older boy with a bow staff. "If you want to roll with the big ones you got to learn to handle yourself."
Hawks slow lifted himself up in a sitting position. "I'm doing my best and all the adult are telling me to focus on my quirk."
The boy spun his staff around. "I admit you do have a kick-ass quirk, but you're never going to make it into the big leagues just by focusing on your quirk. Take Endeavor, for example, you think he got that big bulking body just by focusing on his quirk?"
Hawks thought about it, "I guess not."
"See, all of the greats don't just rely on their quirk. Hell I'm pretty sure when they make her sidekick, she'll have me running through hand-to-hand combat exercises all day." said the older boy with a grim expression.
"Well with your quirk that should be easy."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" The older boy was clearly confused.
Hawks pointed to his weapon. "Your bow staff."
"Oh this has nothing to do with my quirk," said the boy. "Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever shown you my quirk."
"What? Then why are you always practicing with that thing?" asked Hawks. "I see you practicing with that thing all the time."
The older boy gave a small laugh before looking at his staff, "Well for one, it give me a good workout, and secondly, my hero used a staff like this."
"Your hero?"
"Yeah, to be honest when I was younger than you I thought my quirk was the kind that a villain would use, but when my parents brought me to America to visit some relatives I saw footage of a hero who had a quirk similar to mine, he was so cool. The way he fought the way he talked, everything about him was just so cool."
"So you practice with a bow staff so you can be like your hero."
The older boy nodded. "Yeah, well that and I think it works well with my quirk. I hope when I become her sidekick I can take up his name and be a hero like he was."
"Oh yeah, what was his name?"
The older boy smiled "His name was..."
Hawks stared at the man in front of him. "...Gambit..."
He smiled, as he raised his hand. "Keep flying, little bird." He then flicked Hawks' visor off of his face, using his quirk to make it explode above them. Timebomb used the distraction to kick Hawks away before running away.
"WAIT STOP!" Yelled Hawks as he sent his feathers at Timebomb. "GAMBIT!"
Timebomb dropped a coin that exploded and caused several lines of his fuse to ignite, one that quickly exploded making an opening in the wall to the outside. "Keep flying, Hawks."
Hawks was about to try and run after him but Ant-man stopped him. "We need to go now." as several parts of the warehouse started to explode. "Come on."
Ant-man and Hawks turned and ran through the warehouse as it started to explode around them. They quickly jumped through the main doors as the warehouse collapsed behind them covering them in dust, "Ant-man, you okay?" asked Hawks as he coughed out the dust from his lungs.
"Yeah, I'm fine," as Izuku stood up and stretched, "but what was that back there?"
"This may have just gotten personal." Hawks stood up and dusted himself off, "Hey what happen to the other guy?"
"Oh, I knocked him out and tied him-"
"FREEZE ANT-MAN!"
The two turned to see several police officers pointing their guns at Ant-man, behind the officers the two saw as they placed an unconscious Dazzle in the back of police transport. "Oh look they got him right over there."
"Oh, you dragged him out beforehand."
"Kind of, knocked him out, tied him then more or less threw him outside with my ants keeping watch, dude was surprisingly light," said Izuku as he started stepping backward. "Anyway it seems you guys got it covered, I'm just going to head home now."
"Don't you dare move," For a moment Izuku thought one of the police had said that until he turned to see Endeavor's sidekick Burnin standing right behind him. "Don't even think about trying to escape, you're surrounded by police and Endeavor's sidekicks." as she grabbed Izuku's shoulder. "Make any sudden moves and I got permission to give you one hell of a burn."
Izuku looked at the hand then at Burnin, 'Does she really think this is going to work?'
"Nice work Burnin." They all looked up to see Endeavor descending from the sky. "I came here as soon as I heard. We have you now vigilante."
'I'm really starting to hate this guy.' Thought Izuku.
"Endeavor, hey buddy," said Hawks stepping between Ant-man and Endeavor. "I've wanted to talk to you, but I know we got other business at the moment so let's put a pin in that for now." As Hawks turned to Ant-man and grabbed his free hand. "Despite what this guy about to arrest you, it's been fun teaming up with you."
Izuku felt something in his hand and gave a slow nod to Hawks. 'What is he doing?'
"Now on to the important stuff here." As Hawks got serious. "Burnin, you wanna go on a date?"
"HUH?!" Burnin blushed so hard that her flames turned pink. "What now is not the time for a date."
"What are you talking about, I just caught a bad guy and survive a very tough opponent I think now is the perfect time to celebrate," said Hawks as he wrapped one arm around Burnin. "Come on what do you say?"
"I..uhhhh." Burnin was so caught off guard she couldn't help but let go of Izuku.
"BURNIN! DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE" Yelled Endeavor as he lunged at Ant-man.
"Bye Endeavor, see you later." as Izuku shrunk down and escaped.
Endeavor looked around the ground before turning and glaring at Hawks. "What the hell are you thinking?"
Hawks gave him a blank look for a moment, "Oh I'm sorry." He then turned to Burnin. "Endeavor's right, I can't take you on a date like this."
"huh?" as everyone just stared at him.
"Look at me, I'm dusty and probably look like a mess." He started walking to the prison transport. "Give me an hour or two to get cleaned up and I'll take you out to dinner tonight, my treat."
"Wait what?" as Burnin's flames turned pink again.
Endeavor marched after Hawks. "Hold, we're not done yet."
"Sorry Endeavor duty calls," as Hawks jumped into the prison transport. "I need to take this guy in, you can handle the rest right." as he shut the door.
"HAWKS!"
Above them sitting on a rooftop, Izuku couldn't help laugh at Endeavor getting pissed. "Hawks you are now officially my favourite hero aside from All Might." Izuku then looked at the card Hawks gave him that had the hero's number on it. 'Maybe I will give you a call, I still have some questions about Timebomb and if it's personal, I will definitely be seeing you again.'
~o~
Timebomb ran through the alley, clutching his side, stopping at the entrance before a van stopped in front of him as the door opened revealing the military woman he's been working with. "Perfect timing Camo." as Timebomb got in, wincing as he sat down.
"What the hell chewed you up?" she asked.
"Hawks, he got be good, with two feathers as I ran." Timebomb felt his wounds. "I ain't going to die but this is going to take a while to heal."
"Madam Aka won't be happy about that," said the Soldier. "What happened to the idiot?"
"Oh Dazzle he got captured and I'm not going to rescue that idiot. He ain't worth the trouble."
"Good he was getting on my nerves." Asked Camo as she started driving down the road. "So what the plan now?"
"Rest up for the moment, the Trash Pit has gotten quite loud recently. While our goal of killing Ant-man shall remain the same, we have to be careful of the other heroes that are now running around the Trash Pit," said Timebomb as he looked out the window and saw a payphone.
A younger Timebomb was running down the street in a hoodie trying to hide his face. He sat down at a bus stop to catch his breath for a moment even though it was the middle of the night and he was sure that no one was following him, he was still on edge. A sudden ringing got his attention as he turned to see an old payphone ringing. After a few rings, he stood up and answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Reji, stop running, you're only making things harder for yourself." said the voice of the new president of the public safety commission.
"So you can kill me or lock me up as you did her," said Reji with anger. "You told us we could be heroes, you said we could be symbols of hope and protectors for others heroes. You lied to us, you used us like tools and after everything we did you stabbed us in the back and told everyone were criminals even though we were just doing what we were told."
The president sighed. "Yes we did, we pushed you all too far and it got my predecessor killed. I admit what we did was absolutely wrong but we can't change the past, we can only do better moving forward. Turn yourself in and I promise you a light sentence of five years, you'll even be able to have visitations if you promise to not tell anyone."
"Bullshit. that's a load of Bullshit!" yelled Reji as he punched the side of the payphone.
"I'm sorry but that's the best I can offer, even if you go public with your knowledge it won't do you any good, we've already scrubbed you from our records and your parents will be deported if you do so. They may have raised you here but all of you are also American citizens."
"FUCK!"
"Reji, just come back, theirs's no place you can run that we won't find you," she said with sincerity in her voice.
Reji closed his eyes for a moment before finding his resolve. "You're right there is no place for me to hide, but there is one place I can go where you can't catch me."
The woman was silent for a moment. "You wouldn't dare."
"You've known about that hell pit for years but been too afraid of what would happen if it spilled over to the rest of the country."
"Reji listens to me, if you take a single step into that place you will become a prisoner in hell on earth. Please don't do it, you'll be throwing your life away." Pleaded the president. "Isn't it your dream to be a hero?"
"You people destroyed that dream a long time ago."
"Reji"
"I'm done listening to you." as he walked away from the payphone as it blew up, not looking back.
"That sounds like a smart move, we can't be reckless," said Camo getting his attention.
"No, we can't," said Timebomb as he noticed something. "What is that?"
Camo followed his eyes, "That shouldn't be here."
~o~
Sarah flipped the card in her hand, "So Hawks just gave you this before giving you a chance to escape."
Hanah looked at the card over her shoulder. "This can't be tracked can it?"
"I don't think so," said Izuku from his computer room at the Ant-Hill, it was located right above the garage. "I gave it a look over and there nothing on that can be tracked, I even had my ants check it if it had a unique sent but I found nothing."
"So does this mean we're working with Hawks?" asked Hanah.
"No," said Izuku quickly. "If he didn't act weird near the head of that fight then maybe I would have agreed to work with him, but now until I know who Gambit is, that ain't happening."
"Is that what you've been looking at?" asked Sarah.
"Yeah, take a look." as Izuku showed them several pictures. "This is an old American hero, named Gambit, I surprisingly can't find out a lot about his early career or schooling but apparently he worked with a few American teams, he died almost two decades ago."
"So he can't be Timebomb." stated Hanah. "So how does an old American hero have anything to do with Timebomb and Hawks?"
"No idea," admitted Izuku. "That's why I'm a bit iffy about working with him but I am willing to hear him out. He's stuck his neck out for me today and that is worth something in my book."
"We that's good to at least know we have one ally in the hero community." Said Sarah looking at the positives.
"That aside, there's something else we need to talk about," said Hanah getting serious. "What did that little girl and you talk about today outside of the Ramen shop?"
Izuku frowned before grumbling. "Oh, that?" Izuku then sighed. "It was a job request from-"
"IZUKU!"
"Huh?" The three looked out the window to see someone enter the garage. "Kenta?" Izuku walked to the garage with the girls. "Kenta what's going on, why are you freaking out?"
"He's freaking out because we got a problem." Yelled Genta as he and Benta ran into the garage breathing heavy, "Oh shit man, you can run Kenta."
Benta was breathing hard, "My lungs feel like they're on fire."
"I told you I've been working out," said Kenta with pride.
"Guys what the heck is going on?" asked Izuku as he was now on alert. "Is someone after you guys?"
"No," said Genta. "America is after you."
"What?"
Benta stepped forward, shoving the RC controller in his face. "Take a look at the video we got."
Izuku took the controller and ran back to the computer room, plugging the controller in and playing the video.
"What is this?" asked Sarah.
"Two guys in a van," said Hanah.
"Shush, listen," said Genta as the video played at the beginning.
Izuku listened to the first part. "These guys are from I island and they are looking for me."
"Keep watching man, it's about to get to the crazy part," said Kenta.
After that Izuku turned up the volume of the video as the two men got a video call from a man Izuku knew well, "David Shield!"
"Have you two found anything about Ant-man?" asked David shield.
"No sir," said one of the men. "Me and Jeff have been looking for a while but we can't pick up a trail."
"He's been jumping all around this place, shrinking and growing a lot of things," said the one named Jeff. "We can't get anything."
David Shield frowned at the information. "I expected as much but it is imperative you two find some way that will lead us to Ant-man, that technology is key to solving some of the world's biggest problems, medical, technological, it could even solve world hunger."
The two men looked at each other. "Sir is that the only reason?"
"Yeah, we're both scientists sir, why did you send both me and Travis to Japan," asked Jeff. "Why not just contact All Might, I'm sure he would have plenty of friends to track down one guy."
David looked conflicted for a moment, "I'm sorry, I sent you to another country without telling you just how much this with affect the world."
"The world?"
"You see one of the reasons that suit was buried was not only how much power it had on its own but the mysterious power behind it. The Pym particles are so revolutionary, its founder Hank Pym didn't want anyone to have it unless they could figure it out on their own, It is why the formula for the particles was the passcode for his computer. No one knows what was on that device, no matter who we asked or what quirk they had no one could get into the computer or copy its data. That's why it has been a rumor that Dr. Pym figured out a way to control people's quirks or cancel them, with the recent news we can confirm now without a doubt that Pym particles can somehow manipulate other peoples quirks." Explained David Shield shocking everyone.
"Wait, are you saying that Ant-man can take quirks away?" asked Travis.
"I'm saying that whoever Ant-man is right now has a hundred terabyte computer with the knowledge to change the world as we know it. He may very well have the power to take, change and alter any quirk he so chooses." Explained David "Part of me prays that the only reason he can make that suit work is because he has some strange quirk that allows him to use it."
"Wait then sir, shouldn't we really tell All Might," asked Jeff. "If Ant-man is so dangerous then shouldn't we report this."
"No!" David shot back immediately, "the more people that know about this the more dangerous the situation will become, the fewer people that know about this the better. Right now Ant-man is just using the suit to be a hero, I don't believe he understands the value of what he has right now. If you find him first talk to him, if he gets caught first I'll call All Might."
"Uhh sir," Travis raised his hand. "What happens if we're attacked?"
"Well you two both have extremely powerful offensive quirks but if you feel that you are in any danger, here is the emergency number for All Might." as a series of numbers flashed along with the screen. "Call him and say your on a job for David and he'll come running." Jeff wrote down the number on a notepad and held it as if it were gold. "Please, don't use it unless it's an emergency, I don't want to hear from All might that two of my top scientists used the emergency line for an autograph."
Izuku paused the video. "Does...um...does he say anything else important?"
The three wombats looked at each other for a moment. "No that's about it."
"Good cause I'm about to freak out." Izuku then took a massive deep breath.
Hanah and Sarah looked slightly alarmed. "Izuku, Izuku calm down deep breaths, okay."
"Yeah, didn't you already figure a lot of that stuff out before?" Sarah pointed out. "We kind of already knew some of this stuff."
"I have All Might's number."
Both Hanah and Sarah froze. "What?"
Kenta was the first one to un-freeze. "Oh yeah, I forgot how much of an All Might fanboy you were." This caused Genta to facepalm and Benta to hold in a laugh.
Izuku scratched the back of his head. "What can I say old habits die hard."
Both Hanah and Sarah raised their fists before bopping Izuku on the head. "Don't scare us like that!"
"Sorry," Said Izuku as he rubbed his head. "Yeah but I kind of suspected that much from when we tried to shrink all of you guys." he then turned to the corner of the room where an Ant farm was, inside was Hank Pym's Laptop being guarded and cleaned by a horde of Ants. "Every time I go through that Laptop I find more formulas than answers, research notes that I barely understand, he was truly a genius. His knowledge could change the world and then some."
"Why not call Meg," asked Kenta. "Doesn't she already know about the formula, can't she figure the rest of it out?"
Izuku slowly shook his head. "No, theirs a limit to her quirk and she doesn't remember the formula. I checked up on her and Yamada not too long ago, apparently using her quirk on the formula alone was enough to keep her bedridden for days and she doesn't remember the formula at all. Her quirk might help her figure it out but it also and I'm quoting her here, 'Shove a rusty knife into her skull and drill her brain out sideways.' Translation it hurts a lot to the point that it affects her physically afterward. If I ask her to figure out the formulas or any of the other notes on the laptop it might make her comatose." explained Izuku. "Not to mention I don't want to put them in any more danger and I want to figure it out on my own. Now that I know this was all done so that no one but someone who can understand Hank Pym's research can get in, I want to live up to that. Unlock the secrets that probably no one but Hank Pym has."
"Izuku, that's nice and all but that doesn't change the fact we got scientists from I island on our ass now." Pointed out Genta.
"That's the least of our worries." as Izuku then explained to everyone his day.
The others were silent as they just stared at Izuku. "We got Turk asking for our help and to top it off, Timebomb is back and has some weird connection to Hawks."
"Yep."
Genta sighed before grabbing the RC car off the table and grabbing Benta. "Kenta meet us in the gym, time to get serious."
"Uh okay," said Kenta before turning to Izuku. "Meeting adjourned I guess." Izuku nodded. "Okay, then I'll work with the guys and get back to you."
"Thanks and tell Genta I'm going to make his car is a priority," Izuku yelled at Kenta as he left. "Those came through today. We now know others after us and we got All might's number for emergencies."
"Yeah they sure did, So what now?" asked Hanah.
"Well I need to go talk to my mom right now," said Izuku as he got ready to leave. "Need to calm her down about working with Turk again."
Sarah gave Izuku a small smile. "I'm guessing she has issues with you working with a notorious gang leader."
"Not at all," said Izuku before trying to look on the bright side. "But it does give me a good excuse if I ever need to head somewhere to be Ant-man."
"Well good luck," said Hanah before catching Izuku off guard and kissing him on the lips.
Hanah then released Izuku as he looked at her in utter shock. "uhh?"
"My turn," Said Sarah as she kissed Izuku as well making his brain go blank. She then let him go giving him a warm smile. "Well don't just stand there go talk to your mom."
Izuku was a statue for a moment before turning to the door. "Right...cool...cool cool cool," he muttered as he left to go talk to his mom along the way his brain unfroze leaving him one question. What just happened?
Chapter 12 School and LoveTalk
'That was too easy,' Thought Izuku as he walked out of the testing all of Mustafar University, Izuku had gone in to do the final test he needed to do to skip high school and head straight into college. 'Though now with this out of the way, it shouldn't be too hard to get a lab and mimic the Ant-man tech and make it legitimate. Now I just need to make sure I don't get caught until school starts.' Izuku thought as he felt his phone buzz slightly and saw that his mother was calling him. "Hey, mom."
"Hey Izuku, so how'd it go?" asked Inko somewhat excited.
"I think I am officially a college student, said Izuku with confidence.
"Well as much as I believe in you, you really shouldn't rush these things, you never know," warned Inko.
As this happened Izuku felt another buzz on his spare phone that he used for his Ant-cam, he quickly turned it on and saw two professors talking, he quickly hit a button that turned their speech into text. 'Well, it looks like Izuku Midoriya passed.' 'You sure?' 'I was told to run his first into the computer the second we got it back and he scored with a 91% and that's before checking the written portion which worse come to worse will bring his score down to 86% or might even raise his score to 95%, either case he passed the 85% thresh hold to pass.'
"Izuku..Izuku, you still there?" asked his mother.
"Oh yeah, I'm here, mom," said Izuku as he put away his other phone. "And mom I'm pretty confident that I passed."
"Well in any case I'm just happy to hear that your doing better, you've been pretty out of it for the past few days," said Inko reminding Izuku of his little encounter with the girls. "Did something happen?"
"Nope, nothing," Izuku said quickly a little too quickly.
Inko who was in the back of the ramen shop glanced at Hanah and Sarah for a moment, "Izuku, I have caught you coming back from spying on gangsters, villains, even crazy CEOs. You have never acted like this before."
Izuku couldn't deny that he's put himself in life or death situations before and none of those loomed over him for so long, but two girls on the other hand have thrown him off more than he could imagine and he didn't know what to do about it. "It's nothing mom really."
Inko sighted, "I know you're lying but I'll leave this be for now but you better make sure your butt is in gear, a lot is happening around here and it's going to bite you in the ass if you're not careful."
"Yeah, I know. Trust me I know," said Izuku. "I'll see you when I get home."
"Take your time," said Inko. "Explore your new campus."
"Sure," said Izuku as he ended the call with a sinking feeling in his gut, 'I really need to figure this out soon or a villain is going to get the best of me.'
As if on cue Izuku felt something hit him, causing him to fall down with several loose papers falling around him. "What the?" came a teenage voice, Izuku turned to see an older high school boy with white hair looking at him. "I am so sorry," said the teenager as he quickly bent down and helped Izuku up. "I am so sorry, totally my fault, I wasn't paying attention."
"It's all good, it's all good," said Izuku as he tried to calm him down. Izuku then looked down and noticed the papers and grabbed them while giving them a quick glance. "Here, by the way, the second problem is incorrect, you forgot to carry the two and use the area of the triangle to solve the question." as Izuku started walking off.
The teenager quickly double-checked the paper and brought out another with the answer sheet. "He's right," He quickly ran after Izuku. "Hey wait a minute, wait up."
"Hm?" Izuku looked at the older boy. "Yes?"
"How did you know how to solve the question with a single glance?"
"Oh, I just got done solving a similar question, during the test."
"Test? Wait are you here for the practice test as well?" asked the boy.
"Oh no, I came here for the real one," said Izuku shocking the boy. "I'm smart."
"A Brain quirk." said the boy before getting on his hand and knees. "Please you got to help me and my friends."
"Huh?" Izuku blinked for a moment, "Buddy, I have no idea who you are and I got a lot on my plate so I don't really have the time."
"I'll pay you."
Izuku sighed as he rubbed his face. "Okay for starters, how about you tell me your name."
"Oh my name is Natsu Todoroki."
"Todoroki?" Izuku blinked for a moment, 'That name sounds familiar, where have I heard that name before.' Izuku looked at the older teenager. "Okay, my name is Izuku Midoriya."
"Hi Izuku," said Natsu as he stood back up. "So can you please help me out?"
"For starters, why are you so desperate?" Izuku asked.
"Desperate?"
"You just dropped down on your hands and feet begging me to help you, so there's got to be a story behind that." Izuku's words made Natsu nervous. "Look either you give me a good story or I'm walking."
"It's a bit of a long story," muttered Natsu.
"You don't have to tell me everything and I got time," said Izuku.
"Okay, let's find someplace to sit down."
~o~
"Yes sir, he just woke," said the officer as he followed the hero Hawks, "We were about to transfer him to the prison."
"Okay just give me a minute, I just need to talk to him real quick," said Hawks as he gave the officer a warm smile.
The Officer looked nervous, "Um sir, we were given orders to not let anyone speak with him until he is at the prison."
"Don't worry about it, it will only take a sec," said Hawks as he walked past the guards standing by the door, who looked conflicted about letting in Hawks but didn't have time to react as he opened the door and quickly closed it behind him. "Wow, I guess you hitting one of their prison transports really pissed them off." He said to Dazzle who was strapped down to a medical table with his feet in specialized boots that prevented the use of his quirk, all standard issue but one thing, "An electric collar, huh." as Hawks spotted the collar around his neck preventing him from speaking. Hawks eyes wandered upward as he saw the cameras in the room. "Now that's a little excessive, but not too expensive." as he used his feathers to block the camera footage and then sent one at Dazzle's neck-breaking the electric collar, "There you go, now let's talk."
Dazzle slowly twisted his neck as he stretched for a moment before glaring at Hawks. "How dare you, me, si-" A feather embedded his pillow right next to his head, clearly saying I can and will kill you and Hawks' dead glare was enough to back it up. "So what did you want to talk about?"
"Let's start with your boss, shall we." said Hawks as he sat down in the other chair in the room, "Who do you work for?"
Dazzle looked at Hawks for a moment before forgetting all of the fear that the man just put into him and started laughing, "Are joking, do you think it would be that easy, I would just spill my guts without a second thought, the people I work for have kept this entire town a secret for decades and I'm not suicidal."
"We could protect you."
"No you can't, there's a reason why that the trash pit was a secret for so long, why do you think they put all this security around little old me, because they know that if I talk or speak I'm the one that's going to die. Someone is either going to get bribed to kill me or one of the shadows will kill me."
"So what can you tell me?"
"Nothing, only that you're fucked if you try anything. You'll just die and become trash like everybody else," said Dazzle who was already done with the conversation.
Hawks hummed for a moment, "Well damn that sucks and I wanted to kick Timebomb's ass."
"Timebomb!" said Dazzle now paying attention, "That fuck head is not my boss he's a trattorias scumbag."
"Wow you must really hate the guy, if you have anything to say to him I'd happily pass it along," said Hawks putting on a charismatic smile. "I just need to find him is all."
"Good luck with that, while I hate to admit it he's good, prepared for every scenario, I wouldn't be surprised if he was trained by someone. He's probably found a new place to be his hideout, but I do know what he's after," said Dazzle with a smile.
Hawks now felt like he was getting somewhere. "Oh, and what might that be?"
"Ant-man."
~o~
"So let me get this straight, you need help to raise you and your friends' grades so all of you can get into the same school because you screwed up and listened to your dick and followed your crush here," said Izuku as he and Natsu sat down at the outdoor table.
Natsu blushed bright red, "Hey I wouldn't say I followed my dick, I met her at the first practice test and I really like her," Natsu's face then returned to normal, "But I agreed with my friends that we would all try and get into the same school together."
"But you're all dumb as bricks."
Natsu gave Izuku a look. "Why do you need to put it like that?"
"I know I'm exaggerating a little but am I wrong?"
Natsu hung his head, "No..., I know if I focused I could get in no problem but my friends on the other hand are struggling a bit and are too stubborn to ask for help."
Izuku thought over the information quickly, "So all of you are related to heroes aren't you," Natsu looked up in surprise. "You came to me for help which means all of you are willing to accept help but not from teachers or regular tutors, you guys are trying to get into the regular college of the city so either you guys are struggling from the streets or you want to try and get into this school on your own, and you don't look poor, in fact, you give off rich kid vibes, so that left me with one answer one of your parents is famous and you got into high school by their name alone, similar with your friends, they must also be related to famous people as well and your all trying to get into average joe school to prove to yourselves you can make it on your own in the real world without relying on, let me guess dear old dad."
Natsu looked down at the table, "Yeah, my dad is...famous and for a while, I have been trying to step out on my own which isn't hard, he ignores everything I do, to be honest, I have pretty much been on my own for years. It helped inspire my friends, we all go to a private academy currently and our names alone have gotten us scholarships for big universities but when I refused the scholarships they did as well."
"Because they realized by watching you that they have nothing but a name to back them up," concluded Izuku with Natsu confirming him. Izuku let out a big sigh, "I'm pretty busy at the moment but I'm not opposed to the idea. I have no problem helping tutor others, currently, I've been tutoring a few others that live in my apartment complex."
"If money is the issue, we can pay you." offered Natsu.
Izuku eyed the older teenager, "Look I'll think about it but before I agree to anything, I am going to need to know who your parents are, I need to make sure I'm not stepping on anyone's toes."
"Stepping on their toes?" repeated Natsu slightly confused, before saying who his father was. "My dad is Endeavor."
Izuku had to force himself from looking utterly shocked, 'This guy is Endeavor's kid, now those are some big toes I could be stepping on...or mess with.' Izuku cleared his throat. "Well damn wasn't expecting that."
"Yeah not many people do," said Natsu as his eyes darkened.
'Okay theirs something there,' Izuku thought as he noticed how Natsu's demeanor changed at the mere thought of his father. Izuku shrugged that off for a moment and brought out his phone, "Here let's exchange numbers, I'll think about it and get back to you whether or not I can help, I'm currently doing my own thing but if I can make the time, I don't mind helping you guys for a small price."
Natsu took out his phone and exchanged numbers. "Thanks."
Izuku stood up. "No problem, I'm more than happy to help you out but don't expect me to be able to help you out with whatever issues you have with your family."
Natsu gave a dry laugh, "Yeah there aren't many other people who have the same problem I have, I would love to compare notes."
Izuku paused. "Wait what was that?"
"Oh well, I was just saying if someone had a similar problem as me or knows something similar I would love to meet and talk to them." Izuku stood there thinking for a moment as it gave him an idea, but his lack of words or movement made Natsu slightly worried. "Uh, you okay?"
Izuku looked at Natsu as he came back to reality, "Yeah, in fact, you might have helped me with another problem of mine." he said before he quickly ran off. Izuku found a well-hidden area before quickly changing into his Ant-man suit and summoning an Ant to fly him back to the Trash pit.
~o~
Izuku landed in an alley before changing out of his suit and quickly running down the street where he found the people he was looking for, but to his surprise, they were loading boxes into a truck. "Are you two moving?"
A tall man with green skin and small horns on his head turned to him, "Izuku?!" said Yamada.
A girl with blonde hair looked over, "Oh hey Izuku, long time no see." Greeted Meg.
"Hey, long time no see to you guys as well, so what's all this about?" as Izuku gestured to the truck and the boxes.
"We're moving," said meg happily, "We got green lite for a new apartment across town."
Yamada puffed his chest out. "And I got a new job as a security guard at a fancy hotel."
"Wow so you guys are finally getting out of here," said Izuku happy they were moving on.
"Yep, though we'll definitely come back for the ramen," said Meg with a smile as she thought of some good ramen. "Mr. Ramen's ramen is still the best."
"Maybe we should grab some before we take this stuff to the new place," suggested Yamada.
"Um actually can you guys put a pin in that for now," asked Izuku. "I actually stopped by because I need some help."
Yamada then immediately locked the truck before standing straight and slapping his chest, "Say the word Izuku, you saved Meg, I owe you, what do you need."
"Actually Yamada, I just came to talk to Meg."
"Me?" Meg pointed to herself in surprise, "Uh if this is about my quirk I haven't exactly been studying."
"No, I actually, well, I need you for some... dating advice." He said sheepishly. Yamada and Meg both looked at Izuku before blinking and then looking at each other, "Look I need your perspective on this since you're kind of the only other person here who was born outside of the pit."
"oh...ohhh," as Meg realized what he was asking. "One sec, let me grab my purse and we can grab some coffee."
~o~
Soon Izuku found himself and Meg sitting down have some coffee at a small cafe just outside the Trash Pit. "So, how's your head doing?" asked Izuku.
"Not bad, for the first few days it hurt like a bitch, couldn't get out of bed and it made everything really fuzzy, luckily Yamada was there to help take care of me," explained Meg.
"Do you even remember anything that happened that day?"
Meg shook her head, "Not really. All I remember was meeting that guy and activating my quirk after that, just the feeling of my skull getting bashed in by a sludge hammer, and somewhere in the middle of it you help me back home." She then rubbed her head as she remembered the pain. "But that's not what you wanted to talk about."
Izuku slowly shook his head, "You know Sarah and Hanah."
"The Hea sisters."
"Yeah, they both kissed me," said Izuku plainly.
"No shit huh. Wow, now that's something." Said Meg as she thought it over. "So what's stopping you."
Izuku stared at Meg for a second, "Well for one we're all kids."
"No you're not," said Meg, quickly shooting down his argument. "You have been doing shit that would make grown men shit themselves, you're far mature than everyone else your age, in this scenario they are younger than you." Meg paused for a second to take a sip of her coffee but made sure to raise her hand to stop Izuku from responding. "Aw that's good stuff, now where was I, right you. The kid that has some CEOs by the damn balls, you were one of the few people that were actually able to pay off your debt through ligament means. You and your big ass brain could make more money than anyone here, you can afford it now more than ever. Not to mention odd relationships aren't uncommon in the Trash Pit."
Izuku looked at her in shock for a moment, "Wait are you telling me to go for it."
Meg thought for a moment, "Ya, you're a great guy, much better than almost everyone in the pit, I know you will treat them right. Face it the whole reason you came to me was that the only real thing we have in common is that we're both born outside of the Trash Pit."
Izuku sighed, "Yeah and that's why-"
"It's crazy," interrupted Meg, "It's crazy cause a part of you is telling you that you aren't from the pit, you were born outside of it. I was born in America, one fuck up and I try running to Japan only to get scammed into the pit, if it wasn't for Yamada I would have been screwed. He was one of the only men there trying to make an honest living and his family got tossed to the pit before he was born cause his dad was the leader of the Red Ogre gang. He survived and lived an honest life despite the rules of the trash pit, people like that don't live long, but he did and so did you."
"What are you getting at?"
"The Trash Pit rules are much different than the rules of everywhere else, for example, what is the legal age for an adult?"
"Eighteen"
"Izuku!" snapped Meg not happy with him dodging the answer.
"The Trash Pit rules don't exist anymore, now kids don't have to be adults when they turn thirteen, okay a few months ago, yes, but now the Trash Pit is going away, those rules don't apply anymore."
"Do you really honestly believe that," asked Meg with a serious face. "The rules of the Trash Pit still exist, because we still exist, Izuku. No matter where we go people will remind us of where we came from, no matter what university you go to, they will know that you came from the hell pit the same goes for me, Yamada, Hanah, Sarah even your own mother, we're all from the Pit." Meg stopped to give Izuku a chance to think over her words. "Though I will not lie things are changing, back a few months ago if this happened I would have told you immediately would have told you to date both of them to just protect them, back then the only protection you would have would be if you were a child and the church would protect you until you were thirteen unless you, of course, crossed a gang, but now there are heroes and Ant-man protecting us, actual real heroes, that aren't our jailers. None of that will change everything overnight, none of that will change us that quickly, none of that will change the big question now." as she locked eyes with Izuku. "Do you care for them?"
Izuku thought for a moment as he went back to his life now hanging out with them, helping them with their homework, then he imagined his life would be like without them, and it gave him an empty feeling in his stomach, "I don't want to lose either of them."
"Then don't, if theirs one thing I've to learn from living here, is that you have to keep the ones you love as close as possible." said Meg as she took a second to sip her drink, "So what do you think brought all this on, I mean why did they suddenly kiss you?"
Izuku groaned, "Well it most likely had something to do with the fact I was talking to this girl I kind of saved."
Meg's eyebrows went up, "You were flirting with another girl."
"I wasn't flirting, we were just talking at the ramen shop."
"Was she flirting?"
Izuku was silent for a moment, "No, I don't think so, but I did agree to help her get into UA."
"That would do it," said Meg. "So what are you going to do about the new girl?"
"Ochako, I have no idea," said Izuku, "But I need to talk to Sarah and Hanah first."
"I suggest you do that sooner rather than later."
Izuku nodded, "Yeah, thanks for the advice and the talk."
"Don't mention it I owe you a lot, if you need anything else just say the word." said Meg as she got up and started to leave, "And don't be afraid to visit us.
"Thanks, I will and tell Yamada I said good luck on the new job," said Izuku before he took a deep breath and took out his phone, "Time to make the call."
~o~
"Do you think we screwed up?" asked Hanah as she and her sister were walking home from getting food, "He hasn't really said anything to us in the past few days."
Sarah grumbled a little before she started getting annoyed, "He should at least say something to us." Sarah was getting annoyed, she wasn't expecting Izuku to act like this she was more less expecting him to be ecstatic about dating them but instead, he was acting weird. "Any normal guy from the pit would just jump right on board."
"Izuku isn't a normal guy you know." pointed out Hanah.
"Yeah your right," said Sarah slightly defeated, before stopping, "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" asked Hanah before they heard a scream, "Okay I heard that."
"Come on," said Sarah as she ran off into the alleyway.
In the alleyway two men cornered a woman, "Now now, sheep, come on back nice and easy." said one of the men.
"Trust me when I tell you, I will die before I go back there," said the girl with the sheep horns on her head.
"Come on let's just grab her." said the other one.
"Hey assholes," one of them turned in time to see Sarah slam a metal baton collide into his face. "Eat shit!"
"What the hell," said the one who wasn't hit, "What a minute you were the last girl that was brought in."
"Huh?" Sarah looked at the guy, "You're one of the sex traffickers." she then looked at the girl, "You!"
"Oh hey the new girl," said the girl with the horns, "LOOK OUT!"
Sarah didn't have time to react as an elongated arm stretched out and grabbed her by the hair. "That hurt you damn bitch," said the man on the ground as he had one hand on his head.
"Let go of my sister!" Yelled Hanah as she rushed forward with her own baton, the other man stepped forward attempting to block her, "Out of my way!" Hanah's hair then brightened quickly as her hair shined so bright it blinded everyone like a flashbang, Hanah was also blinded but quickly adjusted her aim low, since the man used his arms to cover his eyes he left his lower region vulnerable. His loud high pitched scream was proof enough that she hit her mark. Hanah's hair calmed down to a regular shade of yellow, "Let go of my sister now."
The man with the long arms saw his partner was down, "You bitch!"
"You heard my sister," said Sarah as her hair turned bright red. "Let go of my hair!" as her hair ignited on fire burning the man's hand.
"AH, my hand!" yelled the man as he let go giving Sarah a chance to hit him in the face once more with her baton. "Stop hitting my face."
"Then you should take a nap," said the sheep girl who was standing behind him with a loose brick raised above her head that she quickly shattered over the man's head, knocking the man out. "Thanks for the assist."
Sarah touched her hair making sure it wasn't still on fire and that her hair was still there. "Yeah, no problem, uh we never actually introduce myself, names Sarah."
"I'm Hanah," as she introduced herself while walking up to the other girl, "Are you okay?"
"Oh yeah I'm fine, names Uruji." said the sheep horned girl.
"I don't give a shit," the three turned to see the man Hanah had hit between the legs was getting up and his arms were changing into large wrecking balls. "I don't give a shit about the pay now, I'm going to smash your faces in." said the man unaware that someone was walking up to him from behind, "You all better start prayer cause I'm about t-"
He wasn't able to finish as a combat boot hit him right in the face slamming it hard against the alley wall. The three were stunned as they saw a woman with long dark black hair wearing a thick army jacket and black camo pants.
"Whoa that was awesome," said Hanah who was impressed by the woman's display, the woman then gave her a look before quickly walking up to the girl and getting uncomfortably close. "Uh, what are you doing?"
The woman then closed her eyes and then started sniffing the air. "Uh what is she doing?" asked Uruji.
"I have no idea?" said Sarah before the woman switched to her and started sniffing in front of her, "Okay this is weird."
"Kazuri!" They all looked to see a new girl walking into the alleyway wearing a similar camo jacket and combat boots, with a yellow bandana around her neck, she had short black hair with a red visor sunglasses on her head. "What are you doing?" Kazuri gave her a look before closing her eyes and sniffing again at the girls.
"Uh is she your friend," asked Hanah. "Why is she sniffing us."
"Yeah, sorry she does that, uh did you guys have anything unique to eat?" asked the new girl.
"Well me and my sister just got back from having lunch." said Sarah, "So she might be smelling the sandwiches or maybe the ramen from yesterday."
Kazuri's eyes shot open at that before turning and walking away. Her friend stumbled a little at the sudden change, "Kazuri...Kazuri hey wait up a minute." said the other girl as she ran after her friend.
"What was that about?" asked Uruji.
"I have no idea," said Hanah.
"But she at least helped us with this guy." as Sarah poked the knocked-out man with her baton, "Yeah this guy is out cold."
"What do we do with them?" asked Uruji
"Call the police," suggested Hanah as she pulled out her phone which caused a weird moment of silence.
"Oh yeah we can do that now." said Uruji somewhat surprised before laughing, "Man so many things have changed around here, it's actually kind of ridiculous."
"Yeah no kidding," said Sarah. "So what have you been up to now that you're free?"
"Been working," said Uruji. "Been working at a second furniture store in town."
"We have a furniture store?" said Sarah surprised.
Uruji nodded, "Yep, a friend of mine opened it not long after Ant-man saved us, she hired me and several of the girls that were down there with me," as she pulled a small business card out of her pocket, "Here, come and check it out when you can, we'll cut you a good deal and we'll keep you safe in case these morons try to get you." as she gestured to the two on the ground.
"Thanks." as Sarah took the card before looking at the two guys, "So let me guess they're trying to recapture us."
The horned girl nodded, "Yep, it looks like the big guy in charge is pissed that we got away."
"You're not talking about Shirio are you."
"Nope, believe it or not, there was someone much higher than him in charge, the one who would give out the red tags, is one of them. Now those people are the ones you avoid."
"Noted," said Sarah before her sister started to tap her shoulder. "What did you call the police?"
Hanah shook her head. "No, it's Izuku."
"Eh!"
"Who's that?" asked Uruji. "You're boyfriend?" The two girls blushed slightly. "I'll take that as a yes." they both looked at the woman. "Hey don't mind me, none of my business and I'm not exactly looking for a guy right now, well unless it was Ant-man of course." That didn't make the sisters feel any better.
Sarah took the phone from Hanah, "Hey Izuku."
"Sarah are you okay?" was the first thing he asked witched causing her to get a warm feeling in her chest.
"Yeah, me and Hanah are fine."
Hanah leaned towards the phone "I told you we are okay." as Sarah put the phone between the two of them.
"I know Hanah but when you told me you two got into a fight I got worried," said Izuku. "I have already alerted the police there on the way and I already have some ants nearby to make sure those two don't go anywhere."
"Wow you work quick," said Sarah impressed.
"Yeah, um, can you and Hanah hear me because I want to talk to both of you in person," asked Izuku.
"Sure," said Hanah quickly. "We can meet you on the way to the an- to the hangout." she corrected herself as she realized someone else was there.
"Great, I'll see you guys there."
"See you there Izuku," said Sarah as she hung up the phone and handed it back to her sister. "Hey, Uruji...Uruji?" repeated Sarah as she saw that the girl was lost in thought.
"Huh, oh sorry, are you done with your phone call," said Uruji. " I was just wondering, who were those girls in the camo jackets, I've never seen any group wearing those."
"Now that you mention it," as Hanah looked at the guy the one girl kicked. "That kick wasn't normal."
"Who are they?" asked Sarah.
~o~
"Hey Kazuri, where are you going?" asked the girl as she continued to follow her friend. "Look if you keep wandering around like this then I'm just going to leave."
"Julie," said Kazuri before pointing out in front of her, "Ramen."
Julie looked out and saw the store, "Mr. Ramen's Ramen...What the hell does that have to do with anything?"
Kazuri then turned and started walking away again. "Come, we must tell the boss."
"WHAT?!"
~o~
Izuku, Sarah, and Hanah made their way back to the Ant-hill, "I'm happy you two are okay."
"Ah you don't need to worry about us," said Hanah. "We did say that we can take care of ourselves, no ones taking either of us."
"Yeah," said Sarah as she held her hair, "But it's strange, I was able to set my hair on fire, and Hanah, your hair shined like a searchlight, that's new, that's never happened to us before."
Izuku thought it over for a moment, "it's most likely an effect of the Pym particles. They might be making your quirks evolve."
"Really, I never thought something like this could happen."
"I guess we should start working on our quirks," suggested Hanah.
Izuku opened the door to the Ant-hill. "We can work something out but before that, I kind of want to show you guys something." The two girls followed him upstairs to the room that Izuku had claimed as his own.
Izuku opened the door to reveal a room that was mostly bare inside as the bed had been lifted and leaned against the wall and all other furniture was pushed to the corner except a table with several objects and models on it and a giant box in the middle of the room that got the sister's attention. "What is that?"
"An elevator," as Izuku hit a button on the side of the box, opening it before gesturing them both inside. "Come on." as all of them got inside, once inside, Izuku hit the button for the second floor. "Going down." as the elevator activated, shrinking down in size with them as well. When they had stopped shrinking Izuku hit another button on the panel that opened up several windows outside the elevators that showed the outside, as the whole world was bigger now that they were small and moving sideways to the table. "Welcome back to the world of the small."
The elevator then stopped as it made it to the table, the elevator opened up showing a model house. The sister stood in awe as they saw that the model on the table they saw was now a full-sized mansion. "Oh wow."
"Izuku did you make this?" asked Hanah.
"Ah no," said Izuku as he lead them to the house. "I kind of stole this on a job a few months ago, a guy had me follow his wife to get evidence that she was sleeping with his son's teacher, this was actually the prototype to the son's school project, a fully functional model mansion, he couldn't get the wiring right but he got the plumping down." as Izuku opened the door to the mansion. "Though he didn't really finish the inside," Inside the mansion was pretty bare with almost nothing inside but a bunch of Knick knacks, like a button or Legos in various positions as markers for other objects to be placed later.
"Wow, it's still nice," said Hanah as she looked around.
Sarah was also poking her head around as she saw the kitchen and decided to test the faucet, "Whoa the waterworks," before she put her hand over the water as she noticed that the water felt different at the tiny size, "This kind of feels weird like I can feel each droplet but it's warm."
"Yeah," said Izuku as he went over and flipped a switch on the wall, "I added in the wiring to make the electricity and heat work, so this place does have lights and hot water, it was good practice for working at this size."
"Whoa, just out of curiosity did the kid win the contest?" asked Hanah.
"Oh no the contest was canceled after a pinked hair girl's homemade ark reactor started going off and blew off the roof of the gymnasium," explained Izuku. "Though it did give me a chance to slip away."
"You know even before you became Ant-man, your life was pretty crazy, even by Trash Pit standards," said Sarah.
"Yeah," said Izuku as he started walking up the stairs with the girls following him, "Ever since we set up shop here, this has been where I've been crashing." as he opened the door revealing a master bedroom with almost nothing inside but a big bed a table and a small dresser with some clothes inside. "It's not much, I only really use it for sleeping." as he then sat down on the bed.
"Well it's more than what we got in our rooms," said Hanah.
"Yeah the most I got is some workout gear and a change of regular clothes," said Sarah. "Maybe we should steal more furniture from the next gang."
"Ooh and if we don't like what we steal we can just sell it to Uruji."
Izuku chuckled. "Well, either way, feel free to decorate this place as you please."
Both sisters looked surprised for a second, "Wait do you mean..."
Izuku nodded, "Yeah, I care about you both way too much, when you told me you both were in a fight I was scared, even when you told me you both were okay, I was still worried about you two. I know you guys can take care of yourselves and today proved that but it defiantly made some things clear to me, so if you guys still want, I don't know how well it will go and we all have responsibilities but I want to be with both of you." The next thing Izuku knew he was tackled to the bed as both girls hugged him on either side. "So is that a yes?"
"Of course, it is you, dummy," said Hanah as she kissed his cheek.
"Me and Hanah talked about it shortly after you helped us get jobs, we both realized that we have feelings for you and we also understand that between Ant-man and work that your busy but we can figure some way to make this work, together," reassured Sarah as her hair turned pink.
Hanah's hair then started to turn pink as well, "We're here for you, Izuku and you won't be getting rid of us anytime soon."
Izuku smiled and pulled them both closer to him as they rested their heads on his shoulders. "I love you both."
~o~
Kenta, Genta, and Benta walked into the Ant-hill's garage door, Izuku and the girls saw them through the office window, before heading down to greet them. "Hey, guys."
"Izuku, what up," said Kenta. "You called man."
"I did."
"Whatcha need?" asked Genta.
"I need Benta," said Izuku getting the bi-spectacled man's attention. "For an undercover mission."
"ME!?" as Benta pointed to himself in surprise. "Cool, I get to go on a cool secret spy mission."
"What? Why does he get to go on a super-secret spy mission?" asked Kenta. "I want to go on a super-secret spy mission."
Izuku chuckled at that. "It's not a super-secret spy mission, Kenta."
"Well what is that job?" asked Genta.
"We're sneaking into Endeavor's house."
Benta's smile instantly disappeared as he instantly turned pale before squeaking out a "What?"