The Many Lives of One For All - An MHA Short Story

Chapter 4: The Multiversal Machine

"Deku? Can you read me?" Uraraka asked as she tapped her earpiece that fit snug between her helmet and the opening of her ear canal.

"Uraraka? What's wrong?" The green-haired boy replied through the radio frequency.

"Just wanted to tell you before we got in too deep: good luck." She said.

In his tunnel, Deku smiled. "Good luck to you too, Uraraka."

"Radio silence." Stars n Stripes spoke out through each of their earpieces.

Iida nodded in silent agreement and looked at his partner in the dark sewer.

"Sorry!" Uraraka mouthed to him.

Each hero, plus the duo, silently made their way through the straight network. On their wrists, they had small watches with simple radar on them, courtesy of Star's hero agency sponsorship: the United States Air Force. Blue dots indicated anyone else wearing them while the red dots, once shown up, were enemies or hostages.

Deku's tunnel was exceedingly long and, admittedly boring. After a while, he decided to pick up the pace and jog through. But his feet froze when he heard voices in the distance, and saw light around a corner. The light came from a split off of the straight path. Star never mentioned this. Still, it looked too easy to get lost in.

The teen crept over. His gloved hands at first hugged the wall before he remembered where he was and swiftly yanked them away.

He peeked his face around another corner and found the open center of the sewer system. Several tunnels all connected in to a large chamber that was well lit with LED lights and technology. So much technology. Large machines that stood in a circle and at the center was a raised platform.

The more Izuku looked, the more questions were answered about this investigation all in one room. The hostages, at least most of them, were all here too. Men and women sat in front of the machines, also circling the platform. They looked sedated, or unconscious, as they sat slouched over with many tubes and wires poking out of their bodies. And in front of a particularly bigger machine with a mounted laser gun of some kind, sat the seven year old boy from the poster.

Izuku was so shocked by this revelatory scene that he nearly drowned out the voices that drew him here. On the other side of the room from him stood the very Doctor Souter from the hologram. He was speaking to a team of four men all dressed in black tactical gear. Most of them were carrying guns but only one actually had his equipped. The rest must have had Quirks that they were more comfortable fighting with.

"I'm not sure how much time we have so let's make this one count." The doctor told them as he approached a control panel that stood at his standing level off to the side of the machines. "Keep them off me!"

After tapping some buttons, the machines began humming and buzzing to life. The kidnapped groaned as their bodies twitched. The platform at the center started glowing as the biggest machine pointed its laser gun toward it. Doctor Souter smiled. "So far, so good!"

"Hold it right there!" Izuku shouted. He didn't have time for a plan. He knew that his body would react without him anyway. All he knew was that the machines were hurting these people and he had to get them out.

The four henchmen pointed their guns at him now exposed from the tunnel wall.

Doctor Souter's smile dropped and he tilted his head. "You look a little young for a hero."

"It's cause he ain't alone." One of the henchmen stated as he never dropped his gaze from Izuku's green suit.

Izuku knew how fast One For All could carry him, but he couldn't afford to break any of his limbs yet. Or preferably, at all today. And there were too many hostages.

"Don't wait for the others. Do what you have to do!" The doctor ordered his men.

"Fire!" The one who spoke before shouted again, assumedly their leader.

But before any of them could pull their triggers, Ingenium rushed into the room from a tunnel and straight-kicked one of them in the back, knocking him down and pinning his chest to the metal floor.

Popper's arrow flew out of another tunnel and burst through two more henchmen through their collarbones, completely breaking them and splattering blood as they fell. The arrow whipped around and landed in his hand as he entered the room with a frown on his face.

Lastly, Uraraka rushed the final henchman, the leader, and tapped his bare arm before kicking him off his feet. He floated helplessly as he cursed in heavily accented American English.

Star marched out of her tunnel and straight to the doctor. "Shut down the machine, doc. Let these people go."

"You don't understand! None of you do! I'm not doing this for money or power! I'm not some criminal!" He protested as he clutched the control panel.

"I don't care why you're doing it. But what you're doing is hurting people." Star told him. "Shut. It. Down... Now."

The doctor looked back at Izuku, and to the others. "For my family..." Before Star could open her mouth, he slammed his fist on a larger red button on the dashboard. It completely crushed it all and sparked as the hostages began to yell in pain. The machines went into overdrive as the laser gun powered up.

Izuku knew he had to save these people even if it might hurt them. He ran to the first hostage he could grab, which happened to be the little boy in front of the cannon. The tubes and wires were too tight on him and no matter how much Izuku pulled, they wouldn't budge. The boy opened his eyes and cried in pain in the green-haired teen's arms.

"Wait. Stop!" The doctor shouted.

"Izuku get out of there!" Star ordered.

"I have no choice. I need One For All." Izuku thought to himself as his veins lit up. Green lightning flashed around him.

But before he could do anything, the cannon fired, hitting him in the head and knocking him on to the platform. His own conscience repeating "One For All" echoed through the room. Everyone heard it, not knowing what it was. It repeated a few times, suddenly changing into different voices. None of which Izuku recognized.

Then the platform shattered as a bright light filled the chamber at its center. Izuku was thrown back and everyone fell to their knees as they could feel the intense energy physically pushing them back. Uraraka reached out for Izuku but couldn't see him.

Then the light went away. The room was dark. For a moment, nobody knew what to do. Even Star was frozen in awe at whatever just occurred. "What have you done?" She asked toward the doctor.

"More like what have you done?! I didn't intend for this to happen!" He stood up and remotely activated the LED lighting again.

As the lights came on, everyone's attention quickly went to the new body in the room. Where the platform used to be, a tall muscular man with ghostly long, white hair, a wrinkled and scarred face, with red eyes starred at each of them before locking on to Izuku, still on the floor.

"Hello, Izuku." He said with a small smile.