Tales to Astonish

--ten months ago-

Izuku's, eyes opened looking at the classroom around him. he had fallen asleep in class and had no real idea what was going on.

"Since you're all third years, it's time for you to think seriously about your future." Oh yeah, it was registration time, meaning school was almost over, izuku would've jumped in joy at that if he had the energy to jump. 

He looked down at his shaking hands as he thought back on the events of last night. The smell of fire and blood, the feel of broken stone and sawdust, yet another rampage he couldn't stop.

"Teach!Don't lump us all in the same group. I'm not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects!" Izuku sat up after hearing the voice of his adopted brother, he zoned out for a minute, forgot where he was. 

"Oh, if I remember correctly, you want to go to U.A. High, right, Bakugou?" Of course kacchan was aiming for ua, with his power he could more than make it in. though his attitude would need some work. Izuku looked out through the window, wondering if making it into ua was possible, or if it was just a dream. Well at least he had options, as if he couldn't make it into ua, I- island was opening up a new school in Japan and he had gotten an invitation to join the school so he could probably go there if ua doesn't work out.

"Oh yeah, Midoriya wanted to go to U.A., too, right?" Midoriya braced himself mentally for the mockery that was no doubt coming his way.

"Huh? Midoriya? No way!"

"You can't get into the hero course just by studying!"

"Who does he think he is!"

"You can't possibly get into ua without a quirk, why are you even trying you loser" 

Izuku didn't flinch at any of the insults, not even once, he had gotten used to it, he had called himself even worse. Izuku sat there for a second, waiting for kacchan to come over and blow up his desk or something, but bakugou didn't leave his seat, which was weird, though izuku could take a guess that he was probably just waiting. 

As if to prove izuku right, the moment the clock Struck three, the explosive blonde had made his way to izuku's desk, along with his friend tsubasa.

"Yo deku, what's the deal? I thought I told you to forget about becoming a hero, do I need to re explain why you couldnt save anyone even if you wanted to?" Bakugou asked as explosions burst in his hands. It was clear he wasn't entirely pleased with izuku's continued defiance of him.

"Sigh. No kacchan you don't need to explain again, I got the message the first time" izuku said in a monotone voice.

"Then why'd you still apply for ua deku?" Bakugou asked as he grabbed izuku by the collar. Izuku's eyes didn't show fear or anticipation, because he wasn't afraid. Izuku doesn't know when he'd stopped being afraid of kacchan, but at some point in his life he realized that while yes katsuki was scary with his explosions and hairpin temper, kacchan couldn't bring a building down with the stomp of his feet, izuku wasn't anywhere near as afraid of bakugou as he was of himself.

"I can at least try can't I?" Those words got bakugou to loosen his grip a little, before gripping even tighter.

"You insignificant little bug-" bakugou was about to blast izuku's face in, but his friend had stopped him.

" Woah, Calm down bakugou, if you leave a scar your mom's gonna know you did it" tsubasa said causing katsuki to think further before carrying out his actions.

He released izuku's collar "congratulations, you got off lucky this time, but if you ever even think about going to that entrance exam, I'll fry you" bakugou said as he and tsubasa walked to the door. He stopped before looking back in on izuku. "If you wanna be a hero that badly, I know a quick way to do it. Pray that you'll be born with a Quirk in your next life, and take a swan dive off the roof of the building!"

That one sentence got izuku's eyes glowing green. How could bakugou say that? In front of a teacher no less? Oh wait, he forgot, he didn't care, nor did the rest of this school, or the world. This was just something bakugou could say because in the eyes of the world, izuku was quirkless. society never cared for people like him so they allowed people like bakugou to do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. Izuku was usually good at restraining his anger, good at making sure he didn't rampage, but what bakugou said, how could he ignore that, how could he control himself when bakugou could just go around saying that to people with no consequences. Izuku didn't even notice his clothes ripping or his chair breaking, nor did he notice the numerous people staring at him dumbstruck.  

How dare bakugou say something like that, how dare he act like his words don't have power. He needs lessons in speech, he needs to shut his mouth, he need to learn what it mean to be weak. Izuku burst out of his chair, not noticing the massive jump in height that he had gotten in mere seconds, nor did he notice the people in the room screaming and running away from his general direction. 

He need lesson, he need hurt, izuku need hurt him, no, izuku need smash him, izuku, no izuku,he not izuku, he not puny deku, he hurt puny bakugou, puny deku could never, he smash bakugou, he smash puny bakugou. 

"HULK SMASH PUNY BAKUGOU"

-present day-

Izuku backed away from the man who definitely wasn't jimmy Darnell. How did this guy know his secret? Only one person knew, how did this guy figure it out? And why did he keep calling him deku? 

"Really deku? You don't remember me? I feel so insulted." The man said as he circled izuku, like a predator circling prey. Izuku couldn't help but be afraid, not because of the imposter In the room with him, but because everytime the imposter got closer it seemed to make him angrier for some reason. "Though, I guess it does make sense, you're a quirkless reject, of course you wouldn't remember the actually important people. Although I guess I can't call you quirkless anymore right?" 

"Who are you?" Izuku questioned as he stepped back to his table, he was seconds away from pressing the button to call security, but unfortunately the imposter noticed him "hey, what do you think you're doing huh? Calling security ain't gonna help you" he said as he zipped Infront of izuku before picking him up by his collar and throwing him accross the room into a wall "how dare you even think about ruining this reunion. Maybe I just need to take you to some of our childhood hangouts, maybe that'll jog your memory" the imposter said as he picked izuku up by the shirt. Electric energy seemed to gather beneath his feet before he started floating, he blasted the window out before flying through it with izuku in tow.

-elsewhere-

Aizawa found himself at Carl creel's apartment. He had found the address after looking through some files on him.  

Aizawa knocked on the door, no one answered. He knocked on the door again, and once more, no one answered. He knocked on the door again, but it bore the same result, nothing. Aizawa was starting to wonder if he was even in there, if he wasn't home yet then it would be better to leave and come back in the morning. Aizawa was just about to leave when he noticed someone coming out of the room neighboring this one. "Are you looking for Carl? He hasn't been back home in months, you're not gonna have any luck finding him in there" said the old woman who walked out.

"What do you mean he hasn't been home in months? Did he move?" Aizawa asked, but the woman shook her head.

"No, he didn't clear out his apartment, everything's still in there, the landlord was just about to throw out all his stuff Tomorrow." The woman explained.

"Do you have any idea where he went?" Aizawa asked the woman, but she just shrugged. 

"He didn't tell anyone where he was going. I do recall overhearing him talk about some kind of leader on the phone, but that's all I know." The woman explained.

"Okay then, thank you for the information mam, this'll be very useful to me" aizawa thanked

"Oh don't mention it sonny" 

Aizawa walked out of the building, it was clear he wasn't gonna find Carl here. He looked back up at the apartment building before noticing Carl's window. Just cause he wouldn't find the man himself, that doesn't mean searching his apartment would be a fruitless endeavor.

Aizawa pulled himself up to creel's window using his scarf, aizawa slowly slid his scarf through the cracked window, using it to open the window so he could get in. As he climbed through the now opened window.

He looked into the room, it was very messy with clothes scattered throughout the room and other objects laying in places they shouldn't have been. He wasn't all that interested in keeping tidy rooms, but this was just disgusted. 

He walked into the room and looked for something, anything to give him an idea of where the man could be. He searched the man's bed, the sheet was almost as messy as the rest of his room so It was quite difficult to find anything.  

Aizawa sifted through the cluttered sheets and tossed aside random papers as he meticulously searched for anything of interest. Amid the chaos, he finally spotted something that seemed worth checking—an envelope tucked under a pile of old magazines. He grabbed it and tore it open, finding a handwritten letter inside. The messy handwriting was barely legible, but Aizawa squinted, trying to make sense of it.

"Meet me at the location, we will be moving forward with the plan, zzzax is already in place" aizawa was suspicious of the letter. Zzzax It sounded like a code name, a trigger or something, it couldn't just be a random string of words, that would make no sense.

He slid the letter into his pocket and moved swiftly through the rest of the apartment, searching for more clues. He pulled open drawers, rifled through cabinets, and checked under the cluttered surfaces, his sharp eyes scanning for any further hints. A crumpled piece of paper fell from one of the drawers, catching his attention. He picked it up and unfolded it with care. On the piece of paper was a photo of a kid he had never seen before, the kid had green hair and was relatively scrawny, he couldn't be creel's son, they looked nothing alike. So who was this kid? Aizawa put the thought away for now and after a few more minutes of searching the apartment he decided it best to leave, at least for now. He had gotten alot of information and he now knew that maybe creel wasn't what he had initially thought. 

-meanwhile- 

Izuku was thrown down onto the cold concrete of some playground he had been brought to. He pushed himself off the ground before looking around, the place looked kinda familiar. 

"Remember this place midoriya? It's the same place we used to come to so much back when we were kids. It's also the one of the first places you ever decided to rampage through." The imposter said as he sat on a swing.

"I wasn't in control of any of that, I can't control it, I-" izuku was cut off

"Oh yeah, how could I forget, you can't control that power of yours, you're even more pathetic than I first thought." 

"Who are you really?" Izuku asked as he stood up, trying to get away from the boy "and what did you do to Jimmy's body" 

"Ug fine, I guess I'll just have to explain things from the start"  the imposter said 

-ten months earlier-

bakugou and tsubasa walked through the halls of aldera junior high, they were just going home after some harsh words were said to deku.

"Yo bakugou, are you sure that was okay to say? I mean, what if he actually does it?" The winged boy asked, but bakugou quickly dismissed it. 

"He's not gonna do it, he's not that kind of person" bakugou said 

"But what if-" before tsubasa had the chance to ask his question, the building started shaking. "What the hell is going on?" The boy questioned, he hadn't expected to get his answer right away, nor does he really know if he wanted this answer. 

"Hulk smash!" Came a loud roar through the hallway as they heard loud stomps.

Tsubasa immediately froze up. there's no way that was the hulk right? Somebody had to be playing a prank right? 

Unfortunately it proved to be the real deal as the jolly green giant itself ripped through the walls to stare bakugou down. 

Tsubasa ran, he ran like the wind, and unexpectedly, so did bakugou. Tsubasa had expected the explosive blonde to try to stay and fight the thing which wouldn't have gone well for him but still tsubasa didn't expect him to run. 

The two boys weaved through hallways and dodged into corners, but nothing was enough to keep the hulk off their tail. The hulk caught up to the two before grabbing at tsubasa. It held him up crushing him with one hand. 

Was this it? Was he about to die? Tsubasa had never expected this to be his end, he thought he would live till maybe the age of eighty, or that he would atleast die in a villain attack. He never expected this to be how he went out. He didn't wanna go out like some random extra though, he refused. He bit into the hulks finger, but it didn't do anything more than force him to inhale the jolly green giant's sweat

Hulk slammed his body into the fluorescent light above, electrocuting him. The hulk dropped him, like he was a broken toy, it rushed after katsuki, leaving the boy on the ground, near dead.

He tried to crawl away, but he couldn't. Moving hurt too much. He tried to call for help, but he couldn't. Speaking hurt too much. It felt like he was still getting electrocuted, sparks of electricity arced off him as if he was generating it. His sweat slowly turning green. 

He blinked. The paramedics were here. He blinked. he was in an ambulance. He blinked. He was in a hospital bed. He could feel needles going in and coming out of him. They were yapping about something he didn't understand, something something gamma radiation. Wait wasn't gamma radiation the type that deku said hulk let's off? He must've gotten irradiated when he inhaled hulks radioactive sweat. It doesn't matter anymore, he was going to die now and it was all the hulks fault. He closed his eyes one final time. he had expected this to be it. He had expected this to be his very last moment on this mortal coil, however it seemed that wasn't the truth. He was still conscious, and still capable of thinking, but he couldn't open his eyes for some reason.

He pushed himself up, and he was able to get up, except his body felt exceptionally lighter. He looked down at his hands to notice that they weren't exactly hands, they were just electricity. He looked down and noticed that his entire body was made out of electricity. He looked back to the hospital bed to see his body still on the bed, eyes closed. He tried to touch his body, and he was able to, but he repulsed back from it, something about his body was repulsive to him and he didn't know what.

"Who are you!!?" Screamed a shocked nurse from behind him. 

"Wait no no I can explain!" He tried to tell her but she tried to run away. He quickly ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm. For some reason when he touched her, he started feeling way smarter. He let her go from the shock of the feeling, only to see her drop to the ground, eyes open, foaming at the mouth. It looked like she had been labotamized. He backed up in fear after he noticed what happened to her. "D-did I do that?" He didn't expect his question to be answered, but to his surprise, it was.

"Yes, yes you did that." Came a voice from inside the hospital room. 

"W-whos there?" Tsubasa questioned as he took a step back.

"Just someone who wants to help you. You see after you were radiated by the hulk, you're DNA fused with your neural network, you are living lightning that cannot exist without a constant recharge." Said the voice 

"Who are you?" Questioned the boy as he backed away from wherever the voice was coming from. 

"I have a lot of names, and a lot of nicknames. Many people see me in many different ways, however. If you need help in getting revenge on the hulk, then you can simply call me. your leader" 

-later- 

The boy walked down the streets of musutafu, where hulk was most recently spotted. He was walking in the body of the lobotomized nurse, this was disgusting he would admit, but it was a necessary evil. He made it to the location where the hulk should've been, but he found nothing. He was close to just walking away out of disappointment. But he was stopped by a sound. He looked into a nearby alley to see the hulk. But he couldn't believe his eyes, the hulk was changing forms, shrinking, down to the size of a human, before fully turning human. Tsubasa had never expected the hulk to have some kind of transformation quirk, he thought it was just a mutation quirk, just like everyone else did. 

But an even bigger shock came to him, when he saw who the hulk really was. Izuku midoriya, deku.

-later- 

The boy watched as izuku layed on the bathroom floor. he never expected midoriya to actually try to kill himself, but he also never thought deku could ever be the hulk, so there's always something to learn.

He followed the greenette as he exited his home. He watched as he bumped into a carrot haired girl, he watched as the two talked, got to know each other. He didn't like it.

- much later- 

He woke up from an extended stint of unconsciousness on the side of the road. He didn't have the intelligence to question what happened. His consciousness was slowly starting to fade and his thoughts were growing more and more silent. He couldn't really tell what was happening, he looked around at the few people who were out. It was night but there were still quite a few meals- people left. Why was he thinking that?

He got up off the road and walked. He didn't know why but for some unexplainable reason, he was following behind someone. The person didn't see him, too busy texting someone, they didn't see his hand grabbing the back of their skull till it was too late. Tsubasa backed up, traumatized. he hadn't expected that, he didn't wanna do that, he was just following his basic instincts, he never wanted this to happen. He looked down at the man who was now foaming at the mouth, it was the same effect his touch had on the nurse. His thoughts were storming back in, but honestly? He wished they weren't, he was supposed to be a hero in training, he was supposed to be better than the villains. He fell to his knee's in shame. 

How? How could he let this happen? He then remembered what the leader said to him earlier. This wasn't his fault! He hadn't asked to be turned into some thunder freak! This was hulks fault! This was deku's fault! Deku was the reason he became this way, deku was the reason this person died, deku was at fault for all of it! He's a villain, and as a hero, was it not his duty to stop him? To put him down? Yes it was, it was his duty, to put the hulk down for good.

-much later- 

The boy watched as izuku and his carrot haired girlfriend had their first kiss, it was a beautiful scene, for anyone who wasn't him. Tsubasa let go of his most recent energy snack as he watched the two from a rooftop. It was disgusting, how could anyone love that monster? How come deku got to live a normal life, with a beautiful girlfriend, while he was stuck feeding off humans to survive? It wasn't fair. Hulk was the cause of all his problems, hulk was the cause of everyone's problems, he didn't deserve love, he didn't deserve anything, he was a monster. 

He had to try his hardest not to go down and attack. It wasn't the right time yet, he had been assured that he would get his chance. Soon. Soon he would save the world, soon he would be the hero he always wanted to be, by taking out the monster in his way.

-much later- 

It was time, to start phase one. The boy made his way into the I island Japan branch's main building. He glided through the copper wires, looking for someone to wear. He eventually did happen upon someone, a pretty important looking meat suit. He crawled through the electric wiring before zapping the boy who looked to be about the same age as him. He made his way up through the boys nervous system, spread himself out through every nerve, every ligament, every neuron, until this body was completely under his control. 

He walked towards the door of one izuku midoriya, before knocking on it.

-flashback end-

Izuku looked up at the imposter, now known to him as tsubasa. He couldn't believe that he was the cause of all this. actually, no, he could believe, the hulk always caused him problems, this wasn'tfr entirely unbelievable. 

"Ts-tsubasa. I am so so sorry for what happened to you. I-I I can try to fix my mistake, I can try to cure you-"

"I don't want your cure! Not from you. not from the one who made me into this monster" the electrical boy barked at him.

"But, but I can try, we don't have to fight, please I don't want to fight you" izuku said, continuing to back up.

"Too bad, cause I really want to hurt you" tsubasa said as he sent a stream of electricity at izuku, frying him.

Izuku's body convulsed as thousands of volts of pure energy ripped through his nerves, searing his muscles with unbearable pain. His vision blurred, his knees buckled, and for a moment, he felt himself slipping away.

No.

Izuku clenched his fists, his breathing ragged. His heart pounded like a war drum, faster and faster, harder and harder, until—

BOOM.

His body expanded in an instant, muscles swelling, bones thickening, skin turning a familiar shade of green. His shredded clothes barely clung to his monstrous frame. 

"HULK SMASH!"

Tsubasa barely had time to react before Hulk lunged. The sheer force of his movement sent shockwaves through the room, cracking the walls and splintering the floor beneath his feet. Tsubasa tried to bolt, jumping into a nearby wire socket to escape, but Hulk was faster than expected. His enormous hand swung through the air, catching Tsubasa’s stolen body mid-jump.

The moment Hulk’s fist connected, Tsubasa was sent flying. His host body was flung across the playground like a ragdoll, crashing into a thick three trunk with a deafening BANG. The impact was so forceful that cracks webbed through the bark.

Tsubasa, now a crackling mass of raw energy, hovered in the air, his shape unstable, his body fluctuating between a humanoid form and an amorphous surge of electricity. His crackling eyes locked onto Hulk with pure, unfiltered rage.

The body he’d stolen collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

"You IDIOT! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a body that works?!" Tsubasa's voice was distorted, layered with static.

Hulk’s glowing green eyes narrowed. His massive chest heaved, nostrils flaring as he stomped toward Tsubasa’s flickering form. “Hulk not care! You hurt hulk. Hulk SMASH!”

Tsubasa snarled, his body crackling with voltage. “Oh yeah? Try smashing something that isn’t solid, big guy!”

In a flash, he surged forward, his entire body dispersing into a stream of lightning. He zipped around Hulk at blinding speed, bolts of electricity zapping into the monster’s thick hide. Sparks danced across Hulk’s skin, muscles twitching involuntarily as the energy coursed through him.

But Hulk barely flinched.

Instead, he grinned.

Tsubasa’s charge faltered for a split second. “What the—?”

Hulk clapped.

A deafening BOOM rippled through the air as the sheer force of the shockwave disrupted Tsubasa’s form, scattering his electrical essence like a broken circuit. The playground shook. Windows shattered. Leaves tore from their branches and spun wildly in the wind.

Tsubasa reformed midair, sparking erratically, struggling to keep his shape. “You—” He growled, flickering in and out of focus. “You just—”

Hulk slammed both fists into the ground. The impact sent a massive shockwave rolling through the battlefield, a ripple of raw, unrelenting force. The ground cracked and buckled, the air vibrated with power, and Tsubasa was launched into the sky, his unstable body dispersing into the atmosphere like a short-circuited power surge.

For a moment, there was silence.

Hulk huffed, his breathing heavy, his fists clenched. He stood amidst the wreckage, waiting, watching.

Then—

A voice echoed from the distant sky.

“You think that’s enough to get rid of me?”

The clouds above darkened, and a massive bolt of electricity struck the ground just a few feet away from Hulk. The pavement sizzled and melted into slag.

"You don't deserve anything you have!" The boy yelled as he shot himself towards hulk.

Tsubasa's eyes widened in disbelief as his body collided with Hulk’s, a jolt of electricity coursing through the air and straight into the monster's thick green hide. He had expected the impact to at least stagger Hulk, maybe even cause some visible sign of damage. Instead, there was nothing. No flinch, no reaction. The attack seemed to fizzle out against the Hulk’s enormous frame like a mere spark against a storm.

Hulk stood there, as still and solid as a mountain. It was then that he made the objectively correct decision, he decided to run away. He had already succeeded in his goal, anything else was unnecessary. For now, it was best to retreat. 

he hadn't accomplished what he had set out to do. The anger, the resentment—it still burned inside him, a fire that wouldn’t easily be extinguished.

Tsubasa’s distorted voice echoed down from above as he disappeared into the horizon. “This isn’t over, Hulk. I’ll be back. And next time... you won’t get off so easy!”

-later- 

Izuku found himself unconscious in a ditch somewhere. Probably couldn't control himself again, he hated that fact. He pushed himself out of the ditch to see he was pretty close to musutafu still, he was close enough that he could probably grab some clothes and walk back home. 

He dropped himself back in, out of exhaustion.he couldn't help but think about the interaction he just had with tsubasa. Someone he knows had lost everything, all because o

f him. It was difficult to not feel guilty.

"I promise, tsubasa. I will cure you."