Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Danny was thinking about his bed. More specifically, about how he’d rather be in it fast asleep over what he was currently doing right now; floating through the air trying to dodge missiles.

“Whelp! Hold still so I can kill you”! The green tin-can named Skulker shouted at him as Danny barely dodged another missile, dodging to the side at the last second. Danny winced at the sound of the missile hitting the building behind him.

Great. More property damage for everyone who hates me to use as evidence while they’re calling for my permanent “removal” from the town. Danny was torn from his thoughts as he felt the heat of a missile’s exhaust go by much, much closer to his head than he was comfortable with. Right. The Tin-Can. Skulker was obsessed with the idea of being the greatest hunter to ever live, or uhh...die? Danny wasn’t sure, but he knew from how many times Skulker had shouted it at him over the years that being the greatest hunter apparently involved capturing Danny so that he could hang his pelt over his fireplace. Gross. You see, Danny is what’s known as a Halfa. Half-Ghost, Half-Human, and full-ly tired to Skulker’s hunting of him.

“Can we go ONE night. Just one night where you don’t try to kill me? You’re ruining my sleep schedule and I’m dead tired” Danny shouted, his exhaustion leaking into his tone to indicate that no; he was not very happy with the events occurring right now, even if he was making puns.

“The only dead you’ll be is dead after I kill you”! Skulker replied

“You really should try attending my English class instead of attacking it for once Skulker” Phantom sighed. It’s official. He’s even more over the fight. It’s not even fun to make jokes anymore. Skulker ruined it. Now wanting nothing more than to finish this quickly and get back to bed to try and squeeze in a few hours of sleep before his test tomorrow. Desiring to save his pelt, but more so his hours of sleep, Danny resolved to finish this quickly using the tried and true method of relying on Skulker being an idiot.

“Woah! Skulker check it out”! Danny stopped weaving through the air to point at the empty air behind the hunter. “It’s another Hunter! And he looks better than you! Wow, that gun he’s carrying is huge and terrifying!” Danny weakly faked.

“I’m not falling for that this time whelp”! Skulker indignantly shouted, having fallen for the trap three times this week already.

“No, he’s real this time! He’s wearing a necklace made of teeth and is carrying a huge knife!” Danny continued his performance. “I’m really scared! I think he might be able to kill me and take my pelt so he can put it above his fire-place before you can”! Danny said with an incredibly fake worried tone in his voice while he feigned cowering in fear at the “Hunter” behind Skulker. Skulker was pretty sure this guy was fake. But, Skulker couldn’t risk it. What if there really was another hunter and the whelp made fun of him later for not believing him? Keeping his eyes on the Halfa for as long as possible, he turned his head to check behind him.

“What? I don’t see him whelp”! Skulker began to turn around to face Danny again but was met with a glowing green fist to the cheek halfway. Grunting in pain as he tumbled through the air, Skulker saw a flash of light, then the metal walls of the Fenton Thermos™ and realized he’d been captured again.

“Really? You fell for that again? Skulker that’s, what, the 3rd time this week?” Danny said, clutching his side laughing as he floated down to the road beneath him. The earlier frustration went from his voice as amusement that Skulker fell for the classic “Another Hunter” routine again filled his voice.

“Fourth”. Came a very indignant response from the can quietly. Responded to with howling laughter from Danny.

“Skulker for someone who calls themselves the best hunter in the world, you have zero predator instincts.” Danny barely managed to say out as he chuckled every other word or so at how ridiculous this whole situation is. “I’ll tell you what. For making me laugh tonight I’ll get us home as fast as possible so that I can chuck you in the portal and go to bed instead of leaving you in the can overnight”. The flight home was uneventful, thankfully, and Danny did as he promised, releasing Skulker into the swirling, green void of the ghost portal in his basement, before flying directly through the ceilings of the basement and his living room, straight up until he stood next to his bed on the 2nd floor. With a flash of light, Danny reverted out of his Phantom form back into his human form. White hair to Black. Green eyes to Blue. Hazmat suit to the boxers he’d been wearing when his ghost sense had gone off earlier in the night, summoning him for the third time that night to go fight Skulker.

After setting his phone down on his nightstand and plugging it in to charge, Danny was getting ready for bed. After fighting Skulker, three ecto-pusses, and the freaking Box Ghost tonight, this sleep is gonna be out of this world awesome. Danny thought as he picked up his pillow to fluff it before laying down. Of course, nothing ever goes right in Danny’s world. As he stepped towards his bed, Danny fell. His foot missing the floor somehow and going straight through where the floor should have been, stepping instead directly into the swirling purple mass below him.

Mother Fu- Danny’s thoughts were cut off as the world dropped out from beneath him. Reacting on instinct, Danny switched into his ghostly form, the bright flash illuminating the purple void for him to see. Simultaneous thoughts of What’s going on! and Shit!  were Danny’s last thoughts before the portal swallowed him whole.

Izuku Midoriya knew things were dire. Today was supposed to be a day of training. As the students of 1-A boarded the bus that day, they were expecting a day of tiring, but possibly fun, training at the USJ. The Unforeseen Simulation Joint certainly both lived up to its name in that the situation the students of Class 1-A found themselves in was certainly unforeseen, and missed the mark of its name, as the villain attack was no Simulation. At first, they had thought so, but the way Aizawa-sensei reacted when the portal opened up above the fountain indicated that whatever was happening was no drill. These where real villians and the threat they posed was real.

Things weren’t going well. The villians had split the students up and tried to pick them off. So far, Izuku had managed to survive with the aid of a frog girl named Tsuyu Asui and a sticky purple boy named Minoru Mineta, just barely. They’d found themselves in the shipwreck zone of the USJ, where he’d almost been eaten by a shark, saved at the last second by the frog-girls tongue. They began working their way back to the central area, fighting villains the whole way, Midoriya’s fingers purple and hanging uselessly after he used too much power of his quirk “One for All” and shattered them.

When the trio finally made it back to the main area, Midoriya was greeted with a somber sight. His teacher, Aizawa-sensei, was being held against the ground by a purple beast while a man with Hands all over him cheered the creature on. Things were dire indeed. As the thing repeatedly bashed his teacher’s head into the ground, the purple mist villain appeared nearby the hand man, who Izuku realized was leading the attack. The purple mist informed the creepy hand man, whose name was Tomura Shigaraki based on the way the warp villain addressed him, that he’d failed to kill Thirteen.

“One of the students escaped” the warp villain, Kurogiri, as Midoriya learned from Shigaraki’s response, continued. Izuku watched as the other villain began scratching his face furiously before suddenly halting and nonchalantly stating:

“Well, I guess it’s game over. Let’s go home” What? Game over? Why is this guy talking in gaming terms? Midoriya wondered in his head, the two other students next to him excited that the bad guys were going home and that “They were saved”. Midoriya wasn’t so sure. Thoughts of Why would they come all this way to go home empty-handed? Were they trying to kill All-Might? He’s not here what are they going to do? raced through his head. Then, Shigaraki’s face turned to look at them, and his heart sank. Midoriya was too scared to understand everything the man was rambling, but when the words...

“Let’s smash his pride as the symbol of peace” left the man’s mouth, he realized the man was suddenly a lot closer than he was before, and about to grab Tsuyu’s head. Remembering what his quirk did after seeing it used on Aizawa-sensei, the skin gone to the bone on his sensei’s elbow with just a glancing touch, Midoriya realized what he meant: He’s going to kill us. Midoriya realized as fear shot through him.

Shigaraki’s hand landed on Tsuyu’s head. She’s going to die… and I sat here and watched it happen. Shigaraki’s hand rested there on top of the frog girl’s head for a few seconds and Midoriya waited for it to happen. The disintegration. Her death.

“Damn it...You really are cool” the man said, looking back at Aizawa-sensei who’s hair was flying, even as it was gripped by the Nomu, and who’s eyes were being held open in determination to save his student. His quirk, erasure, preventing Shigaraki from disintegrating his classmate's head. Midoriya chose that moment to come to his senses and break out of the fear that had kept him frozen.

Aizawa will have to blink soon. I need to act now! Midoriya exploded from the water, smacking the hand of the villain who’d turned away from him off of the frog girls’ head, and tackling him to the ground and sprinting at Kurogiri. Midoriya knew that he could die. He’s untrained and fighting villains who’re trying to kill them. But he can’t let them escape. He’d rather they be trying to kill him that out there, in the city, threatening who knows how many lives. I’m not gonna let you escape. All-Might will be here. I just have to hold you guys off, and hopefully not die in the process until then, It’s what a real hero would do! Midoriya’s mind raced as he sprinted at the warp villain. If he’s wearing the collar, he has to have a physical body! Maybe if I can knock him out!

The Nomu, seeing its master gets attacked, dropped the meat-toy it had been playing with and began lumbering after the new toy that just attacked its master.

Crap! Okay, bad idea! Bad idea! Midoriya cursed mentally as he continued to race at Kurogiri, who was just coming out of his stunned haze that the little twerp who was crying? had attacked them. He rushed to pull up a portal as the kid sprinted towards him, but he was too late.

Oh, crap is that kid’s fist glowing? Midoriya’s fist connected with his metal neck brace with the force of semi-truck, launching the villain back, his metal brace vibrating like a tuning fork against his head. The force of which caused him to lose control of the portal he’d been making. Where did that portal go? was all Kurogiri managed to think before his head connected with the ground a good fifty feet from where he’d been launched?

The first indication his day was about to be ruined more was that it was suddenly bright. Danny was sure the lights in his bedroom were off. That was also his first indication that wherever he was:

I’m certainly not in my bed right now.  Danny realized. The second was that as he connected with the ground, he landed on bricks; not the carpet of his bedroom.

The third, of course, was that there was a giant purple beast with its brain? exposed running after a kid with green hair, while a man with too many hands on his body was getting up off the ground and a purple mist monster was groaning lying on the floor next to him.

What the HELL is going on?

Chapter Text

Last time on Phantom: The Ghostly Hero…

The first indication his day was about to be ruined more was that it was suddenly bright. That was also his first indication that wherever he was:

I’m certainly not in my bed right now . Danny realized.

The second was that as he connected with the ground, he landed on bricks; not the carpet of his bedroom.

The third, of course, was that there was a giant purple beast with its brain? exposed running after a kid with green hair, while a man with too many hands on his body was getting up off the ground and a purple mist monster was groaning lying on the floor next to him.

What the HELL is going on?

Danny’s first instincts screamed ghost attack . One moment he was about to get into his sweet, sweet bed, the next he’s lying on the brick floor of a Dome? in the midst of chaos. Danny sprung up to his feet and immediately took flight. As his feet melted away into his ghostly tail, he took a look around. As he swept his eyes over what appeared to be a battlefield, his core lurched at the sight of a purple monster rearing back it’s fist as it was about to punch the green-haired running away from it. By the size of the muscles on that thing, the kid was about to be seriously injured.

Protect! Screamed Danny’s core. Without a thought, Danny threw up Ecto-Sheild between the kid and the creature’s fist, now rocketing towards the back of the kids at speeds that weren’t human.

Ghosts? No, my sense didn’t go off. Danny’s thoughts were cut off as the creature’s fist connected with his shield, nearly shattering it in one hit, forcing Danny to refocus on the creature in front of him. If something was throwing around enough strength to nearly break his shield with one hit then it was dangerous. 

I need to get whatever that thing is away from that kid . And of course, what better way to distract it from the kid than to take the heat himself. Danny charged an ecto-blast in his hand and did something stupid.

“Hey Ugly!” he shouted at the creature and released the ecto-blast he’d been charging. The green orb crashed into the shoulder of the beast, exploding on impact. The creature, to its credit, barely rocked back onto its heels and turned its head to look at the ghostly teen flying above it.

New Toy! The Creature’s grin got wider, if that was possible, and promptly sprinted at the teen floating a few feet off the ground.

“Oh shit!” Danny cursed because, damn, that thing was fast. The creature closed the gap between them in just a few seconds. Danny shot into the air to avoid the creature as it barreled towards him. Charging a few more ecto-blasts in his hand, he threw them at the creature, who shrugged them off.

Crap. I’m going to have to get in close to this thing huh? Danny realized as it seems his ecto-blasts were doing little to nothing. Shooting down to the ground, he prepared to fight the monster bearing down on him. Taking a deep breath, he reached into his core and pulled . His eyes began to glow an icy blue as he tapped into his ice powers.

“You want some! Come get some you stupid, ugly, fat-”! Danny cut off his shout before he could finish his insults. If he hadn’t had the creature’s full attention before, he certainly has it now. The thing sprinted directly at him; it’s only planned in mind to beat the toy in front of him to a pulp. Suddenly, it stumbled and then stopped in its tracks completely. As the creature looked down, it saw it’s entire foot covered in ice. It pulled and struggled against the ice holding it in place, but wasn’t able to break it free of it. 

“Hah! Frostbite slowing you down!?” Danny taunted the villain, who did not appreciate being joked at apparently. Danny’s humor turned to horror, as the creature, realizing it wasn’t going to get its foot out of the ice, proceeded to pull against the ice until its foot RIPPED OFF!

What the he- Danny could barely think before the creature regenerated his foot and continued its charge at the ghostly teen. Regeneration? Seriously? Why do I always have to fight the crazy strong villains? Danny asked the universe, who laughed at him back.  New plan.  Danny thought the beast continued charging him.  All I need to do is get him on the ground . Then I can freeze him fully.

The creature smiled! Its feet away from its Toy! Once he grabs his toy they can play together until it dies! Seeing its toy just a few feet away, and making no moves to dodge yet, it reached out its hands to grab the toy. The toy remained still. He was going to get his toy! As he reached his toy, it’s smile quickly dropped, its hands passed through its toy! Unable to stop itself, the beast tripped over Danny’s foot, which he had kept tangible. The second the beast hit the ground; Danny froze its limbs down, then continued cocooning it in ice.

Holy shit that hurt .  It might be broken. Danny realized that maybe his foot wasn’t the best thing to trip his opponent with when he could create literal unbreakable ice. His foot throbbing didn’t stop him from finishing the monster’s cocoon though. He wasn’t taking any chances that creature got loose. Deciding the creature wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, he looked back to the rest of the battlefield. Choosing to float over limping around on his foot, Danny took in the scene before him. There was the dark-haired man lying face-first on the ground, and the purple mist thing, which was starting to get up. \

I need to get the man to safety. Also, where did handsy and the kid go? Deciding to worry about the missing two people later, he needed to get the man to safety now. Danny flew over to the man, and Wow. He’s a little roughed up . Danny, having learned a little (a lot) about first aid from ghost fighting these last three years, was getting ready to assess the man’s injury, when he heard a shout.

“Watch out! Above you!” The green-haired kid yelled, popping up from behind the bush he’d run too!

As he looked up, he noticed two things. A purple portal opened above him in the sky and the man he’d dubbed Handsy dropping from it with his arm outstretched to grab him.

Danny turned intangible on instinct, and the man’s outstretched arm connected with the ground and HOLY SHIT THE GROUND DISINTEGRATED!  Danny realized he DID NOT want to get caught by this man. Handy’s palm covered head flicked up to meet his eyes.

“Our intel didn’t report there’d be a mini-boss on this stage. What mob are you?” The clearly crazy man asked. Danny was caught off guard, relaxing to stand up, yet keeping his intangibility because that little disintegration power was scary.

“Uh… My name is Phantom. What about you Mr. Bad-Touch?” Danny snarked back, before realizing that maybe pissing off the guy who could probably kill him with a touch was a bad idea. Handy man narrowed his eyes

“You’re dead” he stated simply, before flinging himself at Phantom in a whirl of limbs.

“Well yes. I’m a ghost, duh.” Danny replied, dodging a punch from the man and returning with ecto-blasts of his own.

“This stage isn’t supposed to have supernatural type mobs on it! It’s supposed to be kids and All-Might!” The man-child shouted. The man threw a punch at Danny. Danny, going intangible, let the punch go through him, before spinning around on his foot and kicking the other guys square in the head, knocking off the hand covering his face.

“Hehe, I guess feet beat hands in combat!” Danny teased the man, who froze.

“Father”. The man mumbled

“What” Danny was confused at this point. What is this guy’s deal with hands? Danny wondered. Noticing the kid had snuck out of the bush he’d hid in to retrieve the man on the ground, Danny knew he had to keep Handy’s attention.

“I bet girls hate going on dates with you because you get too Handsy with them! Or uh… Ooh. Hey, I think my sink broke, can you help me out Mr. Handy -man”! Daniel taunted. Of course, Daniel had yet to learn his lesson about making villains angry.

“Shut up! Shut Up! I’ll kill you”! The man suddenly launched himself up at Danny, who was taken by surprise as he was busy thinking up jokes when the man had popped up. Luckily, he turned intangible just before the man got to him. The man passed harmlessly through him.

“Hah, you missed m-”! Danny began to taunt, then noticed the man had not stopped running past him. In fact, he’d run… straight to the creature and was touching the ice.

“Shit”. Was all Danny could say before the creature exploded at him after its icy prison was destroyed. Danny dodged right but hadn’t reacted fast enough and got caught by the creature’s arm as it swept past him. Sending him tumbling through the air and into the bushes nearby… right, where the kid, and the man who looked to be beginning to wake up where hiding.

“Go! I can hold him off!” Danny shouted at the kid! He needed to end this fight here and now.  Danny brushed the creature’s thoughts, making sure it wasn’t sentient before he did what he was about to do.

As the creature, Nomu, if Handy-Man’s shouts were anything to go off of, reached the patch of bushes, it was surprised to find no one in them.

Danny’s fists rose up from the ground and pulled the Nomu down to its chest into the earth. The creature was trying to fight its earthy prison to no success. As Danny floated up, he saw the purple mist man grab a flailing Handy-man and pull him into a portal. Probably escaping now that their weapon was trapped. You should've stopped them.

Shut up brain, we did what we could But this creature can’t be allowed to escape. Who knows what destruction it could cause if left unchecked?

Checking to make sure the kid had moved away from the area that was about to be a crater, Danny floated up a few more feet, took a deep breath, mentally apologized to the Nomu, and…

Wailed.

Aizawa was pulled out of his near coma by the sound of death, and the sensation of being dropped to the ground. A sound like a thousand dying screams tore his ears apart, forcing his arms to shoot up and cover his ears. Looking over, he saw his favorite student (not that he'd tell anyone that) also covering his ears as well, and kneeling on the ground nearby him. He must of been carrying me away from something. Whatever it is making that terrible noise probably. He guessed.

Izuku, suddenly feeling dizzy, fell over and passed out. Aizawa almost joined him in the realm of the unconscious, until the wave of pain hit him.

Aizawa took account of what he could see. Midoriya had somehow escaped death by disintegration when the last thing the man remembered was using his quirk until he passed out to protect his kids. The same Midoriya was now passed out next to him. Tsuyu and Mineta were unaccounted for as well.

Did they die?  The intrusive thought burst into his head. God, he hoped not. But he had no way of knowing. For now, he had to find the villain that scream had come from. If Midoriya was anything to go off of, the other’s may have passed out and also be in Danger.

Aizawa was always tired. He was tired of waking up. He was tired while teaching. He was tired as he trudged home at the end of the day. But right now, with student’s lives at risk, he wasn’t tired.

Aizawa was wide awake and ready to defend his students with his life.

All-Might had gotten Iida’s SOS and had promptly sprinted out of the office, assuming his hero form. The second he found the exit to the U.A Building he was in, Yagi Tonshori JUMPED. His leap carrying his hundreds of meters. In just a few minutes, Tonshori could see the USJ, and could see smoke coming off the top.

Then, the roof of the building exploded. The metal twisting up and away as green rings slammed into it suddenly. What was once a dome was now just a circular and was horrified at the state it was in. What once was a dome was now just a circular wall without a roof.

What kind of Villain can cause such immense destruction? Of course, his mind settled on his Nemesis: All for One. If my nemesis is here, things may get ugly, if they haven’t already. Please be safe Izuku... Wait what if Izuku got hurt!? The fear that his successor might be injured, or worse, scared him. In just two more leaps, All-Might had reached the door of the USJ and ripped them off the hinges, throwing them behind him as he strode through the doorway.

“It’s fine now! I am here!” He shouted, praying that everything really was fine and that he wasn’t too late.  The first thing he noticed, was the villains cornering some of the 1-A students. The second was the white-haired villain floating in the air under the open hole of the roof.

But where is young Midoriya? He’s not with this group of students!  His mind asked him. Later, for right now, the students! All-Might rushed through the villains in front of him, barely holding back. Anyone who can attack kids doesn’t deserve a gentle takedown . He reminded himself as he beat down the villains as his students cheered. As soon as he was done with this group of villains, he rushed around the USJ taking down the remaining villains. The white-haired one who destroyed the roof, he noticed, was no longer floating in the sky and had vanished into the trees.

Then, he saw it. Barely. A dash of green hair amongst some bushes halted All-Might in his tracks. As he stood over Midoriya to pick him up and evac him, he was blasted with green energy and thrown back. The white-haired villain he’d been trying to find emerged from the trees and spoke.

“Get away from him. He’s mine” The words were ice cold coming from the villain’s lips.

Careful. This one’s powerful. You could get hurt. His instincts warned him. All-Might, ignoring his instincts, got into a battle stance and motioned the villain to come at him.  I don’t care. Not if it means protecting young Midoriya.

“Come get some”! Challenged All-Might.

The white-haired villain’s fists began to glow, and a smirk formed on his face.

“The others didn’t stop me, and you sure won’t either” The boy replied, and All-Might’s world erupted into green light.

Chapter Text

Last time on Phantom: The Ghostly Hero!

Then, he saw it. Barely. A dash of green hair amongst some bushes halted All-Might in his tracks. As he stood over Midoriya to pick him up and evac him, he was blasted with green energy and thrown back. The white-haired villain emerged from the trees and threatened him.

“Get away from him. He’s mine” The words were ice cold coming from the villain’s lips.

Careful. This one’s powerful. You could get hurt. His instincts warned him. All-Might, ignoring his instincts, got into a battle stance and motioned the villain to come at him. I don’t care. Not if it means protecting young Midoriya.

“Come get some”! Challenged All-Might.

The white-haired villain’s fists began to glow, and a smirk formed on his face.

“The others didn’t stop me, and you sure won’t either” The boy replied, and All-Might’s world erupted into green light.

Aizawa had managed to take down a few villains here and there as he searched for the main four villains of this attack. Shigarkai, Kurogiri, the Nomu, and whatever it was that was responsible for the attack that had woken him up and taken out Midoriya, but so far he hadn’t run into any of the three known villains, and none of the villains he’d come across had been enough of a challenge, even with a destroyed arm, for the sonic attack to have come from them. 

As he continued taking down villains, he heard a shout;

“It’s fine now! I am here”! Apparently All-Might had arrived. Good, makes cleanup easier for him. Wait . Weren’t the villains here to kill All-Might? And with the Nomu and the other 3 big baddies unaccounted for...

“Shit” Aizawa muttered as he sprinted towards the sound of fighting. 

As the first wave of his Wail hit the Nomu, the beast began freaking out. It certainly wasn’t smiling now. It fought against its earthen bonds fiercely, but between the force of the ground restraining him and the wail pushing him deeper still into the earth. The Nomu was destroyed within the first few waves of the Wail. The Wail kills living cells, which is why he would never use it on something he considers alive. The dead layers of flesh peel away from its body, as it’s regeneration begins, but the waves of the Wail come faster than its regeneration can handle. Eventually, the Nomu is reduced to nothing but a skeleton, it’s living flesh gone. 

The sight makes Danny sick, but it had to be done. 

Danny’s wail always took a lot out of him, and this time was no different. He fought just to stay in the air as he descended back to the spot where the kid had run off from. 

Wait! The kid! There are other villains! He might still be in danger! Danny’s obsession suddenly screamed. Whatever tiredness he felt was washed away as he panicked over the kid’s safety. He had to find him! Thankfully, the kid had followed his advice to run earlier before the wail hit. Looking in the direction he remembered the kid dragging the man off in, he quickly saw a trail of broken branches and crushed leaves he could follow. 

I’ll protect you! His mind shouted as he followed the trail flying as fast as he could without losing the trail. Luckily, the kid had mostly chosen a straight line.

The trail was starting to get fresher, the trail through the leaves less disturbed by the wind. 

There! On the ground! Oh god, he’s on the ground! Danny’s core suddenly was humming with energy. Why is he on the ground? Is he hurt? As Danny was about to rush into the clearing, a HUGE man crashed down next to the boy’s body. 

His core lept up into his throat. A villain! Did he hurt him? Is that why he’s on the ground? The man reached down to pick up the kid, and Danny reacted without thinking. The blast sailed from his hand and hit the giant, who was tossed into a nearby tree. 

“Get away from him. He’s mine”. The words slipped from Danny’s lips, he’s protected the boy this long, and he’s certainly not gonna stop now.

“Come get some”! the giant challenged! Waving his hand in a “come get me” motion.

A smirk found it’s way to Danny’s face. Never let your opponent have the first move in battle . Suddenly, his fists were glowing as ecto-energy poured into them. More energy than he’d normally use, sure, but he had a feeling this guy could take it.

“The others didn’t stop me, and you sure won’t either” Danny stated. He’d already defeated this guy’s other companions in the form of the Nomu, the handyman, and the portal man. What was one more strong man to the list of villains to fall at his hand today? 

Before the giant could blink, Danny ended their standoff and threw his ecto-blasts, the energy connecting with the man’s torso, blowing him back and off his feet and through the trees behind the giant.

“ Hah! That's all you got? Guess what they say is true! Size really doesn’t matter Mr. Bigman!” Danny joked at how easy the fight was. Danny and his big mouth. Danny heard it coming before he felt it. 

“DETROIT SMASH”! Came the voice of the big man, though not from the trees, but from directly above him. Phasing on instinct, Danny stared in awe at the crater where the man’s fist connected. 

Much stronger than the NOMU! Danny realized with panic that the hole in the ground would’ve been him if he hadn’t spent years having his reflexes sharpened by nightly ghost hunting.

“Okay. You need to CHILL!” Danny yelled, his ice powers flaring as he shot freezing blasts at the man. One blast hit the man in the shoulder, and he flexed until it broke. How strong is this guy? That ice is supposed to be near unbreakable! Another cry broke him out of his thoughts and Danny dodged instinctually!

“TEXAS SMASH”! The man yelled as he punched the air that Danny had occupied just a fraction of a second earlier. Danny through more ecto-blasts and freeze-rays, but he couldn’t get the guy to stay down! He just kept getting back up and throwing those scary punches!  

I don’t have enough in me for a wail! And nothing I have in me can keep this guy down! Wait… I may not, but he might. And then Danny had an idea. 

All-Might was starting to worry. All his strength meant nothing if he couldn’t land a hit. And my limit’s coming sooner, rather than later. This had to end now! Almost as he had read his mind, the villain suddenly spoke.

“Alright big guy! We’re getting nowhere here! Here’s the deal! I’ll give you one free hit! And then I get one on you! How’s that sound” the villain suddenly asked All-Might. The Villain stopped floating, touched his feet to the ground, and then turned, and opened his arms and spread his feet, exposing his chest and head to a punch. All-Might couldn’t risk this guy doing another one of those scream attacks, and he hasn’t been able to hit the guy yet! This was his chance!

“I’d never stoop to your level! Take this! BEYOND 100% DETROIT SMASH!”All-Might yelled, throwing a punch that could crack mountains. When the dust cleared, the villain’s head was hanging limply, and his fist...

Oh god. All-Might thought. I punched a hole through the villain’s chest! I killed him!

“All-Might”? Suddenly came a weak voice. Yagi Tonshori froze. He turned slowly and made eye contact with an Izuku Midoriya who was suddenly more awake than he was earlier. He watched the boys eyes flow from his face, down his arm, to his hand, coming out of the back of the villain- 

Oh god. Midoriya. I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to see that. I’m so sorry please, please forgive me! Yagi Tonshori was never angrier at himself at that moment. 

“Is… Is that Phantom”? He heard the boy’s soft voice ask. Before he could respond, Izuku passed out again, the shock of seeing his mentor elbow deep through someone slamming into him. 

 Phantom had a name. That’s what made it real to All-Might. He wasn’t fighting the white-haired villain anymore. He had fought and killed Phantom. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god, What am I going to do!? All-Might was full-on freaking out now. Then he heard laughing.

Aizawa was horrified. He just watched the number one hero brutally kill a villain but putting his hand THROUGH the villain’s torso. The villain hadn’t even tried to dodge, and All-Might killed him. A green liquid was dripping down All-Might’s hand falling to the floor in a steady plop, suddenly noticing All-Might was covered in the stuff. The villain’s blood he realized. Then things got worse. His sunshine boy woke up. 

“All-Might”? Izuku Midoriya’s voice suddenly broke the silence. 

All Might I’m going to kill you. If you’ve scared my favorite pupil for life I’m going to hunt you down and personally deliver you to Stain.  

“Is...Is that Phantom” Izuku asked? And then thank god passed out before he could be traumatized more.

Was Phantom . Aizawa’s mind helpfully chipped in. The world was frozen for a moment or two. Then he heard laughing. Was All-Might laughing? After he killed a villain! Aizawa was corrected sooner than he would’ve liked

“What’s wrong? First time killing somebody? A big guy like you scared of a little death?” A voice suddenly stated, and it certainly hadn’t been All-Might’s manly yell. The voice echoed like they were in a metal tunnel. Suddenly, Aizawa’s skin went ice-cold, on a hot summer’s day. Something was wrong here. Looking around frantically for who had spoken in case of another villain attack, Aizawa didn’t have to wait long to find out who spoke.

The villains- no, Phantom’s head suddenly whipped up, his eyes endless oceans of green energy,

“You got your hit in. My turn.” Phantom grabbed All-Mights arm, the one going through his chest currently, and vanished. As Phantom vanished, All-Might tensed up and kneeled over. The Symbol of Peace had fallen.

Danny saw the villain’s arm rear back had to push down the instinct to dodge or turn intangible. Instead, as his arm flew forward, Phantom opened a hole in his chest and let the Villain’s hand pass through, grabbing onto the man’s arm as his fist punctured his chest. 

He tried to overshadow the man immediately, but the raw amount of power burned him as he tried to enter the man’s body. Danny hadn’t let the man put a hole in his chest for nothing though. He was going to get through the man’s power, he just needed more of his own. He drew on every bit of energy he had left, letting the power swirl and churn within his body, begging to build. Soon, he’d have enough. 

The man’s rapid breathing snapped him out of his focussing trance. He had enough power to overrun the man’s defenses right now but paused. Why is he freaking out? Shouldn’t a villain be comfortable with killing? The others certainly were fine with trying to kill those kids earlier. He couldn’t help it. A big-bad villain, freaking out over killing? He laughed.

“What’s wrong? First time killing somebody? A big guy like you scared of a little death?” Danny teased, still holding his head low. Let the power charge just a little more . He was enjoying the show of the man freaking out a little when he couldn’t find the source of the voice. Before the man could respond, however, Danny’s power hit critical. Whipping his head up like in a cheesy horror movie, Danny made eye contact with the villain. 

“You got your hit in. My turn.” Danny chuckled. Then he unleashed the ocean of power he’d been hoarding. He broke through the man’s barrier of power easily and overran the man’s mind.

I don’t have much time, this guy’s probably going to be able to kick me out soon if his friends don’t notice first. As soon as he thought that he felt the first kick of resistance from his host. I’ve got to do this fast . Danny began pooling the man’s power and some of his together and duplicated himself, giving the duplicate just enough power to execute one command inside the villain’s body. Not wanting to be destroyed, Danny thanked his duplicate for its sacrifice and promptly got the hell outta the big guy’s body. 

His duplicate did what it was told. The Villain raised his hand in the air and with the combined power of the man himself and Danny’s own extra power, Swung and punched himself as hard as he could in the gut.

Danny was nearly blown back by the force of the punch, and he hadn’t even been on the receiving end of it. Luckily he’d raised a shield over the sleeping Izuku so the kid wasn’t killed as the world around him exploded. 

The villain lay on the ground, defeated, but Danny could definitely see breathing so he knew he hadn’t killed the guy. 

“What’s going on?... Phantom?... Why is All-Might injured”? Asked one Midoriya Izuku, who’d been awoken by shaking off the ground, and was now staring intently at the prone form of the big guy now small? guy’s body, who’s name was apparently All-Might. A sinking feeling entered Danny’s gut. 

“Is All-Might a hero?'' asked Danny to the kid, who was starting to panic more and more by the second at seeing his hero downed. 

“The greatest” The boy whispered. “What happened, what villain did this”? 

Oh god. I just took down a hero, this kid’s hero in particular.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize, I was trying to protect you” Danny stammered out. He’d messed up, big time. Now the kid was crying. 

“What do you mean?” The boy paused, before looking up at Danny with tears in his eyes. “Did you do this”? The boy accused.

“I’m sorry. I thought he was going to hurt you” Danny spoke quietly, trying to console the child. He slowly drifted back down to the earth. I didn’t mean to hurt you kid. I thought I was doing the right thing.

Realizing just how tired he was, and that he was about to change back to his human form, Danny realized he couldn’t let Izuku see what was about to happen.

This is getting too messy. I’m sorry Izuku.

Danny moved to pull the kid into a hug, and as he wrapped his arms around the kid, he sent one last duplicate into the boy. 

Sleep. Commanded the duplicate, and Danny caught the boy in his arms as his body and mind went limp. 

Exhaustion hit Danny like a sock full of butter, and he waived on his feet for a few moments. 

“What did you do to him! I’ll kill you!'' someone shouted from somewhere nearby.

And then his world exploded in pain.

Chapter Text

Last time on Phantom: the Ghostly Hero

Oh god. I just took down a hero, this kid’s hero in particular.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize, I was trying to protect you” Danny stammered out. He’d messed up, big time. Now the kid was crying. 

“What do you mean?” The boy paused, before looking up at Danny with tears in his eyes. “Did you do this”? The boy accused.

“I’m sorry. I thought he was going to hurt you” Danny spoke quietly, trying to console the child. He slowly drifted back down to the earth. I didn’t mean to hurt you kid. I thought I was doing the right thing.

Realizing just how tired he was, and that he was about to change back to his human form, Danny realized he couldn’t let Izuku see what was about to happen.

This is getting too messy. I’m sorry Izuku.

Danny moved to pull the kid into a hug, and as he wrapped his arms around the kid, he sent one last duplicate into the boy. 

Sleep. Commanded the duplicate, and Danny caught the boy in his arms as his body and mind went limp. 

Exhaustion hit him like a sock full of butter, and Danny himself waived on his feet for a few moments. 

“What did you do to him! I’ll kill you!'' someone shouted from somewhere nearby.

And then his world exploded in pain.

Aizawa watched All-Might raise his fist into the air, he watched as his hand began to crackle with lightning, and he watched as All-Might brought his own first down into his gut with the power of a collapsing star.  

Aizawa was sent tumbling through the air as the world exploded. But through all that, he felt no fear for All-Might. He did not fear that All-Might might die, he’s too stubborn for that . 

But Aizawa was afraid. Terrified even, as Phantom, seemingly fine even, if a little tired, after forcing All-Might to explode, floated down to a now awake Midoriya Izuku. He watched the villain wrap the boy up in his arms and then watched, terrified, as his sunshine child dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground. 

Without thinking, without hesitation, Aizawa engaged. Mentally, he took note of his state. His capture scarf  was torn to shreds by Nomu, his left arm next to useless and barely able to use his right, and his body screaming at him to stop.  Odds of success against a villain that just took down All-Might:

Not good. But if it means protecting Midoriya? No injury short of death would stop him.

When diving into hell, might as well go head first . Foregoing all efforts at subtlety or strategy, he lowered his head and bolted as fast as his body would allow him at Phantom and yelled, his voice overflowing with rage:

“What did you do to him! I’ll kill you!'

And then activated his quirk. 

He was ready to fight Phantom hand to quirk. He was ready to sacrifice his life if it meant young Midooriya could escape this villain. He wasn’t ready for Phantom to drop like a sack of bricks and start howling in pain. 

Phantom, from his spot on the ground, rolled, looking for his assailant, wondering briefly if the disintegration man had returned and gotten the drop on him when he wasn’t paying attention. Finally, his eyes fell upon the dark-haired man that Izuku had been protecting earlier.  

“Wha-what are you doing to me”? Phantom screeched. The pain in his voice terrified Aizawa, but now wasn’t the time to stop. Midoriya might be hurt or worse . 

“What did you do to him!” he shouted back at the villain, ignoring the villain’s pleas to stop. Phantom was too incoherent to understand the man at this point, but Aizawa didn’t let up on his quirk. 

Aizawa watched as Phantom shakily extended his arm towards him as if touching him would make the pain go away. Then Phantom’s hand started dripping, then the boy’s arm began to lose shape and start dripping as well. 

He’s melting . Aizawa noted. Then watched as Phantom’s arm vanished completely from where it had been extended, collecting into a puddle, and starting to join the other puddles that had once made up the rest of Phantom. The bit’s left of the villain, suddenly seeming wavier than they had as he fought All-Might seconds ago. And through it all, Phantom had yet to stop screaming.

“Please stop! It Hurts” Phantom begged.

The sight made Aizawa want to turn his eyes, to look anywhere other than upon what he was doing, but Phantom was a threat. Whatever was happening to Phantom, Aizaza wasn’t going to stop. Not if stopping meant Midoriya might get hurt. He was still too close to Phantom in case he reformed, though the chilling screams of the boy were quite hard to ignore. Phantom hurt Izuku though, he’d endure it.  

Then Aizawa’s vision went white, as Phantom, what was left of him, Aizawa's mind chimed in. 

    A bright flash of light forced Aizawa to turn his head and shield his eyes, deactivating his quirk. The screams stop as the light hit its peak. As Aizawa turned his head back, he was surprised to find an unconscious, non-melted young man in the place where the melting phantom had been. Completely naked except for a pair of boxers. Aizawa refused to take his eyes off him, his quirk ready to activate at the first sign of the villain sitting in case he attempted to use his quirk. If he tried to reactivate his powers, Aizawa would just erase him again. 

    Knowing he couldn’t stare at the kid forever, Oh god it’s a kid. Maybe 17? 18? He suddenly realized, Aizawa moved towards the kid, taking out a pair of Quirk-Erasure cuffs from within his costume. I just hurt a kid. His mind raced.

Let’s hope his reaction to these isn’t as bad as it was to my quirk. For his sake. Aizawa thought as he approached the downed form of the boy. 

The boy had fallen face-first onto the ground,  and as Aizawa rolled him over to access the boy’s arms. Phantom’s eyes shot wide open. Panic and fear, clear as day in his eyes.

Then the boy vanished.

Then he heard a voice behind him.

“Aizawa-sensei?” The unmistakable voice of Midoriya Izuku asked behind him. 

PAIN!PAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNN! was all Danny felt. 

The burning, the feeling of being torn apart, the feeling like he was going to die fully , was all he could think about. It was a pain he was familiar with, especially after the Guys in White had gotten ahold of him the summer going into his junior year and how they-

NO! DON'T THINK ABOUT IT DON'T THINK ABOUT IT DON'T THINK ABOUT IT.

Pain was all Danny knew. Unconsciousness couldn’t take him soon enough.

As he slipped from the world of the conscious to the realm of the unconscious, Danny’s last thought was how nice the cooling rings of his transformation were on his body. 

They say sleep is just practicing for death, and it scared Danny how accurate the statement was. The great nothingness that he experienced every night going to bed the exact same nothingness he’d experienced the night he’d walked into the portal. 

Danny was pulled from his death practice by the sensation of someone grabbing his arms. 

His eyes shot open to meet the eyes of the man who’d tortured him.

Instinctively he threw on his invisibility and sunk into the ground. Changing back into his Phantom form below ground. 

Picking a random direction, he flew.

Midoriya Izuku had passed out after watching his life-long Hero, All-Might, punch a hole through the man who’d saved his life from the villain minutes earlier.

Midoriya Izuku woke up in a puddle of something and was filled with horror as he realized the goop he was laying in, was the very same Phantom, MELTING under his sensei’s vision. 

He sat, stunned, unable to move, intervene, and stop what was happening, shock locking his muscles in place. 

Phantom’s begging for you to stop! Aizawa-Sensei stop!

He was still locked when a pool of material that had once been phantom flashed white, and a boy took its place. 

He was still locked as Aizawa prepared to put capture cuffs on the unconscious man who’d saved his life. 

Then Phantom woke up and disappeared. 

It was quiet. Aizawa stared at the ground where Phantom had been. Izuku stared at his teacher who nearly killed the man who’d saved his life.

“Aizawa-Sensei?” the words slipping from his mouth without thought. 

He just tortured a Hero, even after All-Might put a hole through his chest. Phantom was begging him to stop. What kind of Heroes did he look up to?

Aizawa let out a sigh of relief he hadn’t known he was holding as he realized Midoriya was ok.

I thought I’d lost you. Rang in Aizawa’s mind, as he rushed over to pull the kid into a hug. Relief that HE’S OKAY! rushing through him. 

Then, as he moved to wrap his arms around the kid, who was now kneeling on the floor, Midoriya did something that scared Shouta to his core. 

Midoriya Izuku flinched away.  

Then the hero’s arrived.

Detective Naomasa was having a great day. He’d gotten to the office early, got a ton of work done. Now just sitting at his desk scrolling through BookFace, switching back to a blank report every time Chief Kenji walked by of course.

Then he heard the noise. 

 Then the waves of emergency calls started pouring in. 

Detective Naomasa was having a bad, bad day, and he had a bad, bad feeling about whatever had just happened.

The USJ is under attack by villains! he remembered what the voice he’d heard on the other end of the phone line had panickedly said into his ear. 

By the time he'd gotten to the USJ,  the heroes had finished off whatever villains remained and had rushed the Pro-Hero Eraser head to the nurse's office. nurses office, leaving the students he’d gathered up outside the wreckage of the USJ. 

    “All-Might was hurt. Cementoss found him after talking to Eraser-Head as he was being evacuated ” he’d heard a whisper off to his side coming from the gathered heroes.

    True . Whispered his quick in his head. That’s not good. But what the media would do if they found out… that would be worse.  

    “Hey” He shouted at the gathered heroes. “As of now that information is confidential! Japan needs a symbol! And currently, that’s All-Might! We can’t let the public panic! Got that”?! The heroes, getting the message, nodded.  

    As the hero dispersed, he walked over to the students to get their statements, and to take a count to make sure we aren’t “missing” any   his mind chimed in.

Thankfully, after a quick count, they were all there, minus 3 who we’re already at the nurses office. The other students informed him that Minoru was being treated for his bleeding head, a big guy named Rikido was in for low-blood sugar content, apparently his quirk had burned through it all, and a girl named Kyoka had passed out and possibly had more intensive damage. 

Her quirk: Earphone Jack . The detective thought. The noise I heard. If I heard it miles away… oh the poor girl.

As he gave the students the same talk he’d given the heroes, he noticed one in particular hadn’t looked up from the ground once since he’d begun speaking to them. That one’s All-Might’s Successor isn’t it? He’s probably shaken up at seeing his Sensei get hurt.  

Naomasa, wrapping up his talk, sent the kids back to their class-room. As he turned to walk away, he felt his sleeve of his Trench coat get tugged back.

The green haired kid was no longer staring at the ground, instead staring directly up into the eyes of the detective.

“Phantom… he...he was protecting me”. The kid almost whispered, eyes watering at the edges, before dropping the detective's sleeve and following his classmates.

True. His quirk whispered.

This day just keeps getting worse and worse. 

Danny, in his Phantom form was currently relieving some stress from the day on the rooftop of a building he doesn’t know how many miles away from where he escaped.

That is, he was crying. 

Today was a bad day. He was tired. He’d fought villains. He’d accidentally taken down a hero, and He’d melted . Today was a bad day indeed, and to top it all off, it quickly had become apparent to Danny, that this certainly wasn’t Amity Park. Or his reality for that matter.

 Normally, he’d tear a portal back home and hop right back, but this time, wherever he was, he couldn’t even tear open a portal. For  there to be so little Ecto-Energy that even simple portals were possible, it meant only one thing:

Wherever he was wasn’t connected to the Ghost Zone. Ruling out his own universe and anywhere else in the Infinite Realms connected to the Ghost Zone. To make a long story short; he was a long way from home, with no way back.  The Ghost Zone’s ecto-energy is what fuels my powers though, but… he stared at his palms as his hand’s lit up ghostly green. I still have my powers… what’s going on?  

“WHO ARE YOU? HOW DID YOU GET UP HERE?” a voice broke him out of his thoughts. Danny turned his head and made eye-contact with a man on fire. 

Shit! He’s gonna burn!  His ghostly obsession screeched for him to save the man and put him out. So he did what he normally did to fight a fire;

 He froze the man up to his neck using his ice powers. For whatever reason though,the flames covering the man resisted being extinguished and even grew brighter under their cocoon of ice, and the man began smirking? 

“Foolish Kid! Do you even know who I am?” The man was now boasting? Even from under the ice?

  “No I don’t” was apparently not an answer the man was expecting, as the burning man, who Danny had guessed by now wasn’t going to burn alive, seemed to sputter for a second and lose what he was going to say next. Then the man’s flames began to glow even brighter under the ice, which didn’t appear to be melting even though the man was putting out as much heat like crazy; Danny could feel the heat even from where he stood across the roof.

“I’m Endeavor! Number 2 Hero!” The man shouted from his cocoon. “And you just used your quirk to attack me!” The ice glowed more and more as the man poured flames out of his body. Not that the ice showed any sign of melting.

“My what? What’s a quirk” Danny asked confusedly. He had no clue what a quirk was. If the man was surprised at Danny not knowing who he was, he was blown away by him not knowing what a quirk is. 

Is this something I’m supposed to be aware of?  Danny asked himself. I mean, I guess so based on hot-heads reaction over there. 

“Quirks! The abilities that you have?” The man tried to explain.

“Oh, my powers?” Danny questioned. Oh we’re talking about abilities. He realized.

“Yeah, your quirks. The abilities 80% of the world are born with alongside one-less pinky toe joint?  The next stage in evolution? The powers that Hero’s use to defend citizens from villains? The powers I’m pretty sure you aren’t licensed to be using right now?” The man launched into an explanation, his frustration growing. 

“License? For what?” asked Danny, who truthfully, had kinda figured out the whole deal already. Wherever he was, powers were common, and apparently heavily regulated. But he was having fun with the man now, watching him be beyond baffled at Danny’s lack of knowledge.

“Using your powers!” The man exclaimed as his face erupted in flames and his body glowed even more under the ice, which still wasn’t melting.

“Oh, gotcha. Powers are a no-no here.” The man’s face dropped at Danny’s words but picked right back up at the next.

“Uh… quick question. You’re a Hero right? Do you by any chance know a guy named All-Might? I...kindasuperaccidentallybeathimupearlierthinkinghewasa villain.” Danny said so fast his words overlapped a little. And with that, Endeavor exploded.

Guess I’m not letting him out of the ice any time soon. He’d kill me! Danny took that as his cue to get the heck out of here and choosing a random direction, flew away.

While flying though, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking…

If the ghost zone isn’t connected here… then what’s powering my abilities?  

Then it came to him.

There’s gotta be something powering these “quirks” the guy spoke off...what if I’m drawing off whatever is powering these “quirks” the hot-head had talked about.

That... was a theory he could work with.

The media had a field day when they found the Number 2 Hero: Endeavor stuck to a roof neck deep ice four hours later. The media went even crazier when they realized he’s been stuck there by Phantom, the mysterious new heavy hitter that no one could figure out whose side he was on. Then the media lost its mind when All-Might had to be called out to break the ice.  

The police say he’s a vigilante! He was protecting the kids!

“Well he showed up through a villains portal! He’s working with them! It’s all a plot to get the heroes comfortable around him before he strikes!”

The journalists argued on the news that night.

The police, during the press conference, had claimed vigilante, but the reactions of the heroes behind him, the first arrivals on scene, had given something away. After reporting that the hero Eraser Head was being treated for wounds, another reporter asked if any of the injuries had been caused by Phantom resisting arrest for vigilantism.

One of the Heroes standing behind the Chief of Police winced. And that was all they had needed. 

“Mysterious powerhouse Phantom Hospitalizes Pro-hero Eraser Head and Ices Number 2 Hero Endeavor! Vigilante? Or Villain?”

The newspapers would headline the story the next day.

Chapter Text

Last Time On Phantom: The ghostly Hero:

Aizawa let out a sigh of relief he hadn’t known he was holding as he realized Midoriya was ok.

I thought I’d lost you. Rang in Aizawa’s mind, as he rushed over to pull the kid into a hug. Relief that HE’S OKAY! rushing through him. 

Then, as he moved to wrap his arms around the kid, who was now kneeling on the floor, Midoriya did something that scared Shouta to his core. 

Midoriya Izuku flinched away.  

Then the hero’s arrived.

Midoriya Izuku had flinched away from him.

Midoriya Izuku had flinched away from him.

MIDORIYA IZUKU HAD FLINCHED AWAY FROM HIM!

The rest of the day, as the other hero’s arrived for the cleanup, as he gathered the rest of the students up outside the USJ, as he whispered to Cementoss that All-Might had gone down, as he was taken to the nurse’s office and treated by recovery girl, as All-Might arrived at the nurse’s office as well in near-critical condition, as the police had announced that a new vigilante, Phantom, had protected the students, as the media raised hell about a new super powerful vigilante who’d supposedly put him in here, Aizawa was numb to it all. 

Phantom wasn’t a villain. He was protecting Midoriya.

Midoriya Izuku had flinched away from him.

Midoriya was awake to see you torture Phantom. His mind taunted him. He watched All-Might put his fist through a vigilante. Then he watched you melt the kid who had just saved his life. What kind of hero are you?

The sound of movement made Aizawa look across the Nurse’s office, over to where All-Might lay in his own bed, recovering from critical injuries from a kid who was protecting Midoriya. Who you melted.  

All-Might sat up, wincing as his body protested the movement. 

Aizawa watched as the man remembered what happened, as All-Might realized he’d put himself (sorta) in the gurney he was on now. Then the man’s head whipped up to meet Aizawa’s eyes, All-Might’s eyes wide open in panic

“Izuku! Is he alright!” The man yelled across the room, forgoing all hospital etiquette as he remembered why he’d been fighting Phantom.

“Yes.” Aizawa answered, hearing the sigh of relief the other man let out.

“But...” Aizawa stopped his sentence halfway, as he thought about how to phrase what he needed to say next.

“I think we messed up. Big time.” He finished after a pause.

“What, what do you mean?” The man across from him spat out.

“Phantom was protecting Izuku. He told Detective Noamasa after I’d been taken here. The police are saying he’s a new vigilante who saved the student’s lives.” He explained to the man.

“But he was attacking Izuku! Izuku was unconscious when I found him!” The other man all but shouted as he began to raise his voice.

“Was he? Or was he rescuing a downed student?” And that’s when it hit All-Might; he’d had his fist through a vigilante. One that had probably saved Midoriya’s life that day. But something didn’t make sense to the symbol of peace. 

“But why did he attack me? Doesn’t he know who I am? Why wouldn’t he recognize the Number One Hero?”  He asked, his mind spinning as he tried to make sense of what was going on.

“We don’t know,” Aizawa stated. All-Might was officially confused, but it was a question, that seemingly didn’t have an answer yet. Both heroes sat quietly for a second, wondering what the heck was going on. Aizawa interrupted the ponderous silence

“You weren’t the only one who messed up,” he admitted. Lowering his head and looking away from All-Might he continued, “After taking you down… Phantom…. he grabbed Izuku and… I don’t know…he just, went limp in his arms. I thought he died . I, uhh, activated my quirk." he finished.

“So?” All-Might was confused about why that was a big deal; Aizawa used his quirk on villains all the time. But the way the other man was acting… something had happened.

“It...” he swallowed. “ It melted Phantom. Izuku woke up from his screams and saw me… melting-”  He choked on the word “… the vigilante who’d saved him. Phantom… he turned into a kid. In nothing but a pair of boxers. A kid. Thinking he was a villain, I went to capture him, but he escaped before I could activate my quirk again.” He paused, drawing in a breath. 

“That’s when Izuku called my name. I was overwhelmed with happiness that he was safe, so I went to pull him into a hug…” He trailed off, averting his face to look anywhere other than at the face of the hero across from him. 

“What happened, Aizawa?” The man questions.

“Midoriya flinched away from me.” All Might’s eyes shot open. Midoriya DID NOT refuse hugs. More than that, he’d always been comfortable around the Heroes. For Izuku to flinch, flinch as Aizawa approached him… 

“What have we done?” All Might asked.

“I don’t know,” Aizawa answered quietly. 

The two heroes sat in silence until their release from the nurse’s office hours later.  

“All-Might, you’re needed! Endeavor was trapped by Phantom!” reported one of the police officers who’d met them at the door.

Aizawa watched as All-Might lept away into the night, presumably towards wherever Phantom -the vigilante you melted in front of Izuku , his mind reminded him- had trapped Endeavor. 

If he noticed the lack of All-Might’s trademark smile as the man lept away, Aizawa didn’t say anything about it.

Danny had flown away as fast as he could from where he’d trapped Endeavor, assuming that, with his luck, more heroes were already on their way.  

As he flew down into an alley he felt it. He was about to change. The exhaustion of the day that he’d been fighting off for the last couple hours now was not going to take no for an answer.  

Just a few more feet! He thought as he could feel his rings starting to creep up his torso, even though he was still a couple hundred or so feet from the ground. 

100ft. The rings had almost completely washed over him. 

Just a little more! Just a few more seconds of flight . His core screaming at him in exhaustion.

20ft. The rings completed their trip, and Danny, who’d been flying head first down to the ground, was now in free fall. 

Aim for something soft! his brain screamed.

It’s an alley! There’s nothing soft in an alley! What am I supposed to aim for?  his brain screamed back at itself, choosing to argue instead of thinking about where to aim.

The dumpster! Aim for the dumper!  The rational side of his head shouted at him.

What? NO! That’s gross!  His brain screamed back at itself.

Do you wanna die? 

FINE!

And Danny flew headfirst into the dumpster of the next door WcDonalds.

Chiyo Shuzenji, U.A’s famous Recovery Girl, was leaving her local WcDonalds, a restaurant she’s ashamed to admit she visits fairly regularly. Hey! it’s hard to find the time to cook when you’ve spent all day taking care of all the injuries of Pro-Heros! her mind defended when she heard a bang from a nearby ally. 

Fearing she may have to use her quirk, Heal, soon for whatever had just occurred in the alley, she turned and walked into the alley…

And made eye contact with an almost naked kid crawling out of a dumpster, who froze like a deer in the headlights of a truck.

Great. It’s going to be one of those nights. She sighed in her head.

“Are you okay young man? The woman asked, leaning in a little closer to get a better look at the man crawling out of the dumpster. Black hair, icy-blue eyes, 6’4 or 6’5, Slim but muscular and hmm… Recovery Girl narrowed her eyes, suddenly much more intent on taking in as much of the sight of the young man before her. The boy's lack of clothes letting her get a good view of everything.

“Ahh!” The boy finally unfroze from where he’d been leaning over the edge of the dumpster, and tumbled out onto the ground, landing in a pile of himself on the bricks. 

“I’m fine! I’m fine!” The boy shot up from the ground to stand awkwardly and was holding his elbow funnily. He probably hurt it in that fall just now. Her Docter’s brain noted. As he moved, she continued her observations.

Enlarged biceps, triceps, rotator cuff, and obliques … She had seen this type of build many times in her days. This kid’s a fighter. 

Then she noticed them. Scars. A LOT of scars. They were faint and littered throughout his body. Their shape giving away what caused them. Bullet wounds, stab marks, acid burns , and an electrical burn that covered his entire left hand and forearm. And if she thought it couldn’t get any worse? She was wrong.

Her eyes drifted to some of the larger ones he had, and she gasped.

The scar was faint and almost imperceptible, but the shape was terrifyingly familiar. She had, after all, done a rotation in a morgue during her medical school rotations.  

That’s a Dissection Scar. 

Capt. Edward Murphy, If you ever come back as a ghost, I’m going to find you, put you in the can, shake it till my arms fall off, and leave you there forever  

Danny once again cursed the man responsible for his greatest enemy, Murphy’s Law, as he stared at the small old woman who he shared the alley-way and was eyeing him like a peice of meat.

“Uh, Miss?” he asked, praying she’d stop staring at him whatever way it was that she was staring at him right now. 

“Oh, I’m sorry!” she blurted out as the woman’s cheeks flushed as she realized how her staring might be interpreted by the kid. “I was just looking at your scars,” She said embarrassed.  Then she said the words Danny feared she’d say.

“Are you okay?” she asked, looking around the alley. “You’re holding your arm!

“Yeah! Yeah! I’m fine! My uh…” he rushed to say, then trailed off as he realized that he had yet to come up with a suitable lie that wouldn’t end him up at the police station. “Friends are just playing a prank on me. They uh... pulled me from my bed and threw me through a portal. One of my friends… James! he has an ability to create portals! I’m sure they’ll be back for me any moment!" he finished, hoping the woman would believe him without any further questions. Of course, however, Murphy doesn’t take cursing him lightly.

“Oh of course! Do you know when your friends are coming back for you? I’d hate for a passing police officer to get the wrong idea!” The lady continued talking, despite Danny’s mental pleas she’d go away.

“Yeah, they should be back any minute!” he lied. Please go away. Please go away. Please go away.

“Ok then! I’ll just keep you company until they arrive! Do you need to use my phone to call them or something?” The lady offered with a kind smile.

NO! GO AWAY, LADY! Danny screamed mentally.

“I don’t know their numbers! I just had them save their contact info on my phone." he rambled as he thought up a reason for why he couldn’t contact his imaginary friends that don’t exist. “That’s really not necessary mam. I’m sure they’ll be back soon!” he tried to convince her. No such luck.

Swinging back his arm to rub the back of his head, something he often did when nervous, he winced as his arm suddenly screamed at him to stop.

“OOH, YOUR ELBOW”! The lady almost screamed. “I’m a doctor! My quirk can heal you!” Before Danny could blink, the little old lady had moved from her spot almost 10 feet away and was now no more than 2 feet away and reaching for his arm.

WOAH SHE’S FAST,   Danny thought, and he and jerked his arm away, wincing as pain once again shot through his arm.

“Sorry, I’m just not really used to quirks yet” he said, feeling the need to talk more as she just stared at him he continued: “Really I’m fine, it’s just a little sore. I’ll be fine by the time my friends get here! I’m sure of it!”

“Nonsense! You’re hurt! And you wouldn’t have fallen if I hadn’t spooked you” 

Hehe, she spooked the ghost. Danny’s brain stopped worrying about the lady to laugh at its joke. Using his distraction, the old lady moved way faster than Danny thought her body should be able to, and before he knew it, he felt a pair of lips on his forehead.

“Woah,Lady!" He said as he dislodged her grasp on his arm and took a few steps back. “I’m sorry but you’re a little ol-” Danny started.

“Don’t you dare finish that statement young man!" She cut him off. “I was using my quirk! Look at your elbow!” she instructed him.

Danny, following her instructions, looked down and saw his elbow brightly glowing… and the rest of his body glowing slightly as well. Enough that his enhanced vision could see, but too dimly, he hoped, for the old lady’s. 

Wow, my arm doesn’t hurt! Danny noted!

“Thank you, it feels much better now. Sorry about the comment about your age. I didn’t mean it like that. I just thought that were kissing me for other re-”

“You’re good, deary. I would’ve warned you, but you wouldn’t have let me heal you otherwise. Now, I’ve got to go home and finish the laundry! Oh, and my quirk might make you a little tired, since it's just a little arm injury it shouldn't take too much out of you! It just speeds up the natural healing process, so it’ll use your energy!” The lady yelled over her shoulder as she walked away. The suddenness of her departure was strange, sure, but Danny wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, not when Murphy had been railing him all night. 

Watching the old lady as she began home, Danny decided.

All right, I guess it’s time to go clothes shopping. I don’t want the news to be all about a deviant roaming the city streets at night tomorrow. 

Then, he remembered what the lady said about her quirk making people tired, as exhaustion slammed into him like a truck. 

Huh, I guess accelerated healing plus accelerated healing takes a lot out of a guy. he thought as he passed out in the alley.

“Detective Naomasa. Thank you for coming” All-Might greeted him as he walked into their meeting, taking in the inside of principal Nezu’s office. 

“Please, call me Tsukauchui, we’ve been friends long enough I’d like to think," the detective replied, Taking up a seat on the couch next to All-Might, who was in his smaller, Small-Might the detective’s brain chuckled, form, he looked at the other members of the meeting distributed across the couches. 

Shouta Aizawa, the Pro-Hero Eraser Head as he was better known, had moved from laying down to sitting up as he walked in. Next to him on the couch, sat U.A’s Principle Nezu, the small dog-mouse-bear thing sat. 

Don’t let his appearance fool you. His quirk: High Spec, meant that the small man is probably the smartest person in the room right now, the Detective reminded himself, as he watched the creature finish taking another sip of his tea.

“Let’s start this meeting then shall we?" Nezu spoke. “So.” He looked between the two teachers under his employment, “What happened yesterday? And I’m not asking about the villain attack. I know more than enough about that. Let’s talk about Phantom, shall we? What happened?”  The principal asked, taking another sip of his tea as he finished.

“I thought he was going to hurt Izuku. I-” All-Might paused and looked away. “I might have overreacted." He finished. 

“Tonshori… Our camera captured footage of you with your hand THROUGH Phantom’s chest. Who didn’t even try to stop you!” The principal stressed, his normally calm demeanor starting to slip.

“He threw the first punch.. er.. energy attack! Besides! I was protecting a student. I thought he was a villain!” All-Might defended, his voice rising to match the principal’s intensity. 

“Tonshori! Do you know what the media would do if this video ever got leaked?! If the Symbol of Peace was seen punching someone, who wasn’t resisting, hard enough to splatter their blood all over you! And you weren’t protecting a student! You were protecting Midoriya! You took down plenty of other villains yesterday that were threatening other students and didn’t put your fist through a single one! What if people start questioning why you’re so protective of one student in general! Do you think villains wouldn’t make the connection?” The principal snapped at All-Might. 

“Hold on. What connection?” Aizawa asked. Naomasa had figured it out already, but that’s because he was actually close friends with All-Might and had been told the true nature of the man’s quirk, but it appears Shouta hadn’t been let in on the secret yet.

“Oh. Sorry, All-Might,” the Principal apologized sheepishly, his anger suddenly gone.

“My quirk: One For All, isn’t actually a strength quirk. It’s a power stock-piling quirk. It can be passed to other people, and with each holder, their strength is added to the quirk’s power. I’m the 8th holder, and Young Midoriya is the 9th. That why I’m weakening… my power is being transferred to him.” All-Might explained. The detective noticed Aizawa’s body stiffen slightly.

“You mean Midoriya is going to be running around with all the power you had?”  Shouta questioned, scared as he imagined Izuku running around the power of the man known as the strongest hero ever.

“He’ll have even more,” Nezu interjected into their question and answered for Tonshori. 

“But back to the topic. As stupid as it was, I actually understand why All-Might fought that hard to protect Izuku. You, on the other hand. Melted Phantom. As he begged you to stop! Do you know the definition of excessive force! What if he’d died! What example does that set to our students! Do you want the next generation of heroes acting as Judge, Jury, and Executioner Aizawa? So what’s your excuse for being so protective of Midoriya?” The principal lit into Aizawa, as Detective Naomasa started wondering if this was a meeting he really should be at.

“Izuku is… special,” the man said. “He’s the only student who wants to be a hero to help people. All my other students are either in it for fame, fortune, or because their parents are making them. Izuku has more potential than everyone else in that class combined. Izuku was born to be a hero! And I had just watched someone who’d just defeated All-Might, make him collapse with nothing more than a touch! I thought he died!” The man had not started off his words yelling, but by the time the last ones had left his lips, he was almost shouting. 

“It might’ve gone to waste anyway! The cameras saw how he flinched away from you when you went to hug him! Does flinching away from heroes sound like someone who still believes in them?!” Principal Nezu retorted. Detective Naomasa watched as the dark-haired man and All-Might both flinched. 

“Principal Nezu, while I understand they’re actions may not have been perfect, they didn’t break any laws in their use of potentially deadly force. In a battle like that, with student lives at stake, no jury would rule that their actions crossed the line, especially when Phantom didn’t die. Your teachers saw a potential villain possibly threatening student lives, and they reacted accordingly. I think they understand their mistakes by now. The real issue here is Phantom. Namely, that we know absolutely nothing about him.” The detective jumped to the defense of the teachers, who’d probably taken enough of a verbal lashing at this point. 

“Didn’t the police decide he was a vigilante though? Your quirk said Midoriya had been telling the truth when he’d said that Phantom had protected him?” All-Might asked in confusion, but also was eager to change the topic away from his failures. Though the look he received from Nezu told him this probably wasn’t over.

“My quirk tells me whether or not the person speaking thinks what they’re saying is true. That doesn’t mean that it always is. The guys at the station have been talking, and while he did fight the villains, he also showed up through the same portals that they did. While we don’t know why he fought the villains, we do know that he also attacked Endeavor in his escape. We can’t rule out the possibility that Phantom is a villain,” the detective stated, and let the other’s soak in his words before continuing:

“And it might be even worse than that. Phantom’s hair is white when he activates his quirk, and while that alone wouldn’t be of any importance… he is also recorded to have a multitude of very destructive quirks… the chief is beginning to suspect that Phantom may have a possible connection to... All for One." the detective finished, watching as Nezu’s eye’s widened, Aizawa stared at him blankly as his own mind processed the information it had received, and All-Might jumped up and shouted,

“Are you implying Phantom is All-For-One?!” The big man shouted, worried that his arch-nemesis had made a reappearance in such good health.

“No… We suspect he might be his son.” the detective corrected him.

All-Might was unprepared for the idea. That just as he had passed on his legacy to young Midoriya, there was a possibility that All-For-One had chosen to as well. 

 “The Cheif thinks that Phantom saved Midoriya in order to get him to trust him, in order to get close to him...and the only reason a villain has to get close to a hero...” the detective continued

“Is to stab them in the back.”

Then a knock at the door interrupted the four’s brooding.

Chiyo Shuzenji rushed back to U.A from her encounter with the mysterious boy in the alley, forgoing her trip home. 

Nezu needs to hear this now! she thought. The whole trip her thought were racing over trying to figure out who, and what the kid was. Whatever her quirk had felt… could barely be called human. 

Rushing through the halls of U.A until she’d found the principal’s door, she knocked, noticing as the other side of the door fell quiet.

“Come in!” The principal’s voice called, and she flung the door open and slipped in, noting that there were other people in the room, but ignoring them for now

“Sir… it’s about the Phantom kid. Perhaps we can talk in private?” she asked, however, Nezu just sighed and said:

“That’s who we were just talking about. Whatever it is, they can hear it too." The principal said. 

“I think I just had an encounter with him… Nezu… there’s something wrong about that kid.” she tried to explain, but struggled as she couldn’t even figure out what to say first.

“Tell us everything, Recovery Girl,” the man in the trench coat asked. 

“I was leaving the restaurant I ate at for dinner, when I heard a noise from an alley. I investigated, in case I needed to use my quirk to save someone and a young man in nothing but his boxer started crawling out of the dumpster. He lied and said that his friends were playing a prank on him and that they’d pushed him through a portal and dropped him there. But he clearly had made up a name for the friend who pushed him through the portal and-”

“Hold on, didn’t Phantom show up through a villain’s portal?” Aizawa interrupted, the cogs in his head turning.

“I was able to get a good look at him. He’s got the muscles of a fighter, developed to the point he HAS to be training or actually fighting something. But Nezu… he was littered with scars. I saw acid burn scars, lacerations, bullet wounds, electrical burns and… dissection scars.” The other’s gasped at her words. 

“Nezu, he’s been experimented on. There’s no other explanation for scars like that. And… that’s not all.” Chiyo felt the eyes of everyone in the room staring at her intently, waiting for her next words.

“He hurt his elbow falling from the dumpster, and I went to heal him with my quirk. He pulled away and said that he wasn’t used to quirks yet. How can a normal person not be ‘used too’ quirks yet? At that point, I had to heal him, just to see how his body reacted.” she said.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Ms. Chiyo, but what do you mean ‘see how his body reacted.' Sorry, I’m not incredibly familiar with your quirk,” Detective Naomasa stopped her.

“It’s hard to explain, but as my quirk heals someone, I get a ‘report’ I guess you could call it, of what it’s fixing, and when I used my quirk, two things became apparent… the first was that my quirk reported fixing ‘molecular misplacement and disorganization…” She explained, pausing to think of the right words to explain such a baffling experience.

“Like you quirk was fixing someone who’d been melted,” Aizawa said with a forced straight face. 

“And the other thing you noticed, Chiyo?” Tonshori asked.

“My quirk reported a failure to work on one of his injuries. My quirk always works. The only way for it to fail…” She trailed off, as she realized the implications of what she was about to say.

“... as if I was trying to heal a dead person.” She dropped the bomb, and the air was sucked out of the room. 

“Thank you, Chiyo. You’ve had a long day. You’re excused. Please have a good weekend and enjoy your rest.” It was the Principal that spoke first.

Chiyo excused herself from the room, heading home as thoughts about what had occurred that night swam in her head.

“That complicates things. Her statement that he didn’t understand quirks exactly matches Endeavor’s report. And everything she said had been 100% true. My quirk didn’t detect a single lie in her statement,” Detective Naomasa spoke first after the doors closed. 

“The details are too perfect. The first thing I thought when I heard Phantom’s sonic attack was ‘this is the sound of death.' For Chiyo to say the boy was dead… it matches perfectly,” Aizawa noted. 

“But how can he be dead! He certainly was alive enough to fight me! And Chiyo’s quirk worked on most of his injuries!” All-Might responded.

“She mentioned experimentation. I wouldn’t put it past All-For-One to pull something as wicked as that,” the detective noted.

“Experimentation would explain why he might’ve attacked the villains. If he’d been tortured and experimented on, he might’ve been supposed to be another weapon like the Nomu the villains brought. Another tool to kill All-Might. If the villains hadn’t lost control of him… well, I think we all know what would’ve happened,” Principal Nezu muttered out loud as his quirk went into overdrive trying to decipher the mystery that was Phantom.

“But does any of that rule out our “Villain pretending Theory?” Aizawa asked.

“No. It doesn’t,” the detective responded.

“So we either have a dangerous villain who’s potentially All-For-One’s SON trying to get close to us to strike close to home… or we have an escaped weapon on the loose,” All-Might concluded somberly.

“Correct. If he’s a villain we need to take him down before he can strike,” Aizawa stated.

“And if he’s just a confused victim of experimentation?” the detective asked?

“Then we need to get him in our custody before he falls back into the hands of the villains,” Nezu concluded.

Chapter Text

Last time on Phantom: A Ghostly Hero

“So we either have a dangerous villain who’s potentially All-For-One’s SON trying to get close to us to strike close to home… or we have an escaped weapon on the loose.” All-Might concluded somberly.

“Correct. If he’s a villain we need to take him down before he can strike” Aizawa stated.

“And if he’s just a confused victim of experimentation?” The detective asked?

“Then we need to get him in our custody before he falls back into the hands of the villains” Nezu concluded.

Danny would really like to know the license plate number of the bus that had apparently hit him. Danny’s eyes fluttered open, he found his eyes landing on a night sky. As he scanned the sky above him, he got his first indication of something being off:

What’s going on? I don’t recognize any constellations. That’s when the day's events came back to him. Protecting a small child, fighting the kid’s hero on accident, melting, and a little old lady who-

“Hey! The lady! She’s the one who did this to me!” Danny shot up from where he’d been laying. Oh nice, the floor of an alleyway. Danny looked around for a few moments, realizing that the lady was long gone, and he had no clue how long he’d been out. At least my arm doesn’t hurt, guess that lady’s quirk had actually done something. 

Danny felt a gust of cold air on his skin. Not that he was cold himself. Having an ice core did have benefits after all. But still, recognizing the breeze blowing on places that he normally didn’t feel it blow on, Danny looked down and remembered the fact he was in nothing but his boxers. 

“Right. Let’s get some clothes, then figure out just where exactly I am.”  He muttered to himself. Looks like I left my wallet. Guess I’ll be borrowing then . Danny thought as he felt the cool rings of his ghostly half wash over him. Flying into the air, he pulled his invisibility over him. 

I’ve had enough heroes for the night. Invisibility it is then. He decided as he flew over the rows of shops, looking for anything that might have the clothes he needed. 

Eventually, he found what looked like an outlet mall. The lights off and deserted of people, Danny realized it might be a little later than he realized. Flying into the first shop, a clothes retailer he didn’t recognize the name of, Danny hovered through the rows, looking for the men’s department. 

He wasn’t sure when he’d picked up the habit of not walking on his feet while in ghost form, but there were a lot of little things like that Danny had caught himself doing as he became more comfortable in his phantom form. Not needing to breathe had been weird to get used to at first, so he’d continued the practice the first couple of years as a ghost. But when your enemies all have advanced senses and can hear your breathing as you tried to sneak up on them? Well, let's just say he broke that habit quickly. 

Coming to a halt in front of the men’s section, Danny looked through the racks for something that might be his style. Sure he’s heard the saying that beggars can’t be choosers, but when his eyes fell upon a shirt that had... moaning girls faces? plastered all over it, Danny made the choice that the article of clothing was something he probably wouldn’t be wearing any time soon.  Finding the jeans, Danny went to go find his size and realized he had no clue what size he wore.

Well, I’m a Fenton-Works Jeans size 8? What is the equivalent of that? Danny cursed his parents for insisting he wore the family brand’s jeans because they were supposed “more durable with anti-shrink technology, and a special dye that’ll last 2 million washes guaranteed!” He remembered his mother’s explanation.

 Yeah right. His brain scoffed. The first pair they ever gave me turned my entire wardrobe permanently blue after I washed them with the rest of my laundry. After a few minutes of struggling and trying on pair after pair of jeans, HEY! It’s not easy to try on jeans invisibly! He defended against his own brain, Danny had found a pair his own size. Grabbing three more pairs, he turned them invisible and went to go find some shirts. 

After a few minutes, Danny had chosen out a couple of shirts that were his style. That is, they were darkly colored. Sam’s goth had rubbed off on him at some point sophomore year and he’s ditched his classic white shirt with a red oval in favor of some darker colors. Pulling on a dark blue tee, Danny flew over to grab a hoodie. 

Eventually, Danny had amassed quite a little pile of clothes. Now wearing a pair of red sneakers, Danny held a pile of invisible clothes and realized he had no clue what to do with them. 

I'll guess I’ll just grab a backpack! He flew around the store looking for a backpack. Eventually, he found a wall of them and…

“You’ve got to be kidding me”. Every single backpack had a hero on it. Every Single One. 

“Murphy. I’ll get you one day” Danny chose the most normal backpack he could- one that had a giant picture of the man he’d beaten up earlier, All-Might, covering almost half the backpack. Danny found the bag hideous, but compared to the one with… a dominatrix? on it, he decided that the All-Might bag was the most manageable of the bags. 

Flying back over to his clothing pile, he shoved all of his borrowed clothing into the bag, checking them for shoplifting detectors, phasing the ones he found off and leaving them in a pile on the floor. 

Throwing his backpack on his back, Danny flew out of the store and into a nearby ally, reverting back to his Fenton form and letting his invisibility drop. Stepping out of the alleyway, Danny admired his new look in the window of a now-closed noodle restaurant. 

Some Asian country maybe? His mind wandered from taking in his new outfit to reminding him of why he was looking for new clothes anyway.  Right. Mysterious portal with no way back. 

Danny started forming a plan in his mind. His first step was to find a place to hide while he figured this all out. Then, he was gonna need access to a computer. He needed to figure out as much about this world as possible before he could make any moves. 

Does this world even have computers? His mind asked. I really hope so, guess we’ll have to figure that out, won't we? He continued planning. Adding researching the portal he came through here and the known heroes and villains of this universe to the list of things he’d have to research. 

“First things first! I’m going to need a place to sleep for the night. What time is it anyway?” Danny wondered aloud.

“MEEEOOOWWW” Danny received an answer to his question. Jumping a few inches and turning so fast he almost tripped over, because CHRIST THAT SURPRISED ME, Danny found himself looking down into the large brown eyes of a grey cat sitting on its haunches just staring at him. 

“Um… hello Mr. Kitty-Cat.” Danny greeted the cat, who in return just kept staring at him . “Can I uhh… help you?” He asked the cat in a questioning tone, unsure of what he was really doing at this point. Why am I talking to a cat? He questioned himself. 

The cat, hearing Danny speak, rose up from its haunches, meowed once, and then turned and walked away. Danny stared as the cat turned its head over its shoulder and meowed at him once more at him, before turning around and once again sitting down and staring at him. 

Danny didn’t know why, but some instinct somewhere deep inside his core told him to follow it. As Danny took a few steps in its direction, the cat stood up, meowed one more time, turned, and walked away into the night.

Danny followed it. 

Hero Analysis For The Future

Name: Phantom

Description: 

Tall, at least 6’3 or above. Slender but toned build. Tends to make jokes while fighting. Possibly Protective, as he interfered with the Nomu at first sight of it while it was chasing me.

In his powered-up form, he has glowing green eyes, white hair, an echo in his voice, and glowing green blood. This form is clothed in a black jumpsuit with white accents. Phantom seems to be comprised of a glowing green substance in this form. (Note. Perhaps the same substance as his energy blasts)?

In his powered down form, he has blue eyes with dark blue hair. In this form, he was wearing nothing but his boxers, though I suspect he could wear other clothes. In this form, scars were visible along phantom’s body, with a rather large burn on his left hand. It could not be confirmed if these marks exist in his powered-up form under his costume. It could also not be confirmed if Phantom’s blood is also Green in his powered down form.

Quirk: 

Unknown, though Phantom shows evidence of having multiple forms. Possible Transformation type quirk, though Phantom is still able to access his quirks while powered down. (Note. Can he access all his powers? Or just certain ones? Are his powers weaker in his dark-haired form? More data needs to be gathered.) Documented abilities include:

• Flight- Phantom was shown to be able to fly at high speeds and still be able to maneuver easily. (Note. Top Speed unknown, but suspected to be high.)

• Cryokinesis (note. Ice appears incredibly strong, as only All-Might has been recorded as able to break it currently, and it was able to resist endeavor’s flames with no visible damage) 

• Permeation-like ability. Able to be accessed in both forms

• Energy Blasts- Phantom was able to throw glowing green blasts of an unknown substance. (Note. Look into whether or not it is toxic or radioactive. Glowing Green things tend not to be natural. Blasts seem to be able to also become sticky and restrain opponents. 

• Energy Constructs: Phantom saved my life by creating a glowing green barrier between me and the Nomu. 

• Durability: The barrier was able to withstand (barely) a punch from the beast. Likely high.

• Range: Unknown.

• Invisibility- Able to be accessed in both forms. 

• Sonic Attack- Devastatingly powerful. It sounds like pure pain. The ability was able to knock out most combatants at the USJ upon hearing it. Damage to the USJ indicates this ability was able to bend steel like paper. (Note: Nomu was not seen after this attack was recorded. Nomu had the ability to regenerate, so for it to disappear, Sonic Attack might have the ability to transport those hit by it). 

    Unconfirmed abilities:

• Enhanced Durability/ Regeneration- Phantom was not visibly harmed in any way moments after having All-Might’s punch through his chest. (Note. Maybe he was using his permeation ability?)  (Note. Phantom’s blood was splattered all over All-Might).

• Enhanced Strength- Phantom’s attacks against Shigaraki seemed to hold more power than normally Humanly possible.

• Mind Control- Phantom was able to force me to fall asleep with a touch. He may hold some ability to control people.

Weaknesses:

Confirmed:\

• Phantom melted had a very negative reaction to having his quirk canceled by Aizawa. Forced him to revert to his powered down form, and appeared to cause great pain. (Note. Do quirk suppressing cuffs have similar effects?)

• Phantom must not be able to permanently hold his permeated form, as the number of scars and wounds on him indicate he must be wound-able at least sometimes.

Potential weaknesses:

• Phantom’s durability might have a limit. All-Might seemed to be able to momentarily subdue Phantom and was able to punch him hard enough to put his hand through Phantom’s chest. (Note. Though Chest wound was not visible during his fight with Aizawa.)

• Most energy emitters are not invulnerable to their own energy. Phantom, being made of his energy when powered up, might have an increased susceptibility to energy-based quirks, potentially including his own energy. 

• Phantom may have a time-limit or energy reserve that he draws from. Most transformations type quirks either require stamina from the user or can only be used for a limited time duration. Both are unconfirmed on Phantom. 

Affiliation: 

Unknown.  Phantom saved me, but also got into a fight with All-Might, Endeavor, and arrived through the portal of a villain. The media believes him to be either a villain or vigilante. Despite arriving through the villains portal, Phantom appeared not to recognize the villains and engaged them. He can’t be a villain. 

Notes: 

Phantom remarked that he “was a ghost” while fighting Shigaraki. This raises many questions. Might be part of his theming, but his quirk also fits the description of a ghost too well. (Note. But how would this work between his two forms? How can you be both a ghost and not a ghost? But then again… his scars)

    Izuku Midoriya sat at the desk in his room, frenziedly writing in his journal. He was analyzing the day’s events. He’d come straight home after being released from the classroom that day. His mother had greeted him at the door with a crushing bear hug. She’d been worried about him after seeing him on the news and asked him all sorts of questions about the incident. Questions that Izuku wasn’t ready to answer, so he had just played off the day's events like no big deal, talking about how cool Phantom was! 

THERE ARE TOO MANY QUESTION MARKS! He thought. Phantom was a mystery that no-one could make sense of. Nothing about him made sense. Why had he shown up with the villains? Why had he saved me? Why did he fight All-Might? How did he survive his mento-... All-Might’s first going through his chest? What was the attack he used to take down the Nomu? Where had the Nomu gone? Why did Aizawa’s attack hurt him so much? What did he mean by “already dead? 

    Phantom made no sense.NOTHING about him made sense! Why did he fight the villains? Why did he fight All-Might? Why did All-Might and Aizawa… Midoriya’s train of thought derailed as he remembered what his Heroes had done to Phantom. Who was protecting him! His mind screamed in confusion. Phantom wasn’t the only thing that was currently concerning him. Why? Why did they hurt Phantom? His mind continued to race. Midoriya hadn’t realized how heavily he was breathing right now. 

“WHY!” Midoryia slammed his hand down on his desk, his fist shaking as it came to rest against the desk. His heart pounding in his chest even though he’d been doing nothing but sitting at his desk the last few minutes. 

NOTHING MAKES SENSE. WHY IS EVERYTHING SUDDENLY SO CONFUSING! WHAT TYPE OF HEROES W- 

Midoriya’s thoughts were cut off by a soft knock at his door. He turned his head to face the now opening door, and the locked eye’s with his mother. Her soft face holding a bright smile, but one that held a tone of concern. The type of smile that can vanish in a second if she needed to comfort her son. A smile that Inko had gotten all to familiar with making as she watched her son grow up.

“Is everything ok sweetie? I heard a shout.” His mother, god-bless her, softly asked. Izuku suddenly felt his face get red hot as he realized with embarrassment that he’d lost control there for a second.  

“Sorry… I was uhh…” He tried to think of a cover, not wanting to worry his mother. She’s dealt with too much for his sake. “working on my math homework. I just got frustrated. Exponent Rules and all that stuff.” He shot her a smile, praying she’d believe him. 

“Izuku. Your math book is over there on the floor by the wall.” She said, walking fully through the door and into his room before taking a seat on his bead. She motioned for him to come to sit next to her on his bed, smiling at him the whole time.  “Come here and tell me what’s really going on. Is it about that attack on the news today?” She asked, knowing her son had been avoiding the topic earlier. 

She caught us. Midoryia thought as he slowly walked over to his bed, plopping down next to his mother and just wrapping her in a hug without a word. Sitting in silence the two just hugged for a few minutes.

“Mom… I’m so confused.” Izuku finally spoke in a shaky voice. 

“Tell me, everything sweetie” His mother, ever a beacon of strength responded. And so he did. 

Izuku explained everything from almost dying, watching Aizawa-sensei get beat to the edge of death’s doorstep, to Phantom showing up and protecting him, to his fight with All-Might and seeing All-Might put his fist through him, to Aizawa melting Phantom thinking he’d been attacking him, to Phantom’s escape. He layed all his thoughts out for his mother. How confused he was. How scared he was. He might have cried, but if he did, Inko hadn’t said anything,

“Izuku, I get it. Seeing your teachers do that to the man who saved your life-” she spoke in a soothing voice as she held him in her arms, “was probably terrifying. I can’t imagine what it was like for you. But...” She pulled away from him and looked him in the eyes. 

“...I can’t be more thankful for your teachers. Izuku, you could have died today. When I saw the attack on the news honey…” His mother struggled with her words as she remembered how scared she’d been in the moment. “... I’d thought I might have lost you. I don’t know what I’d do without you baby. You’re the light of my life. Knowing you have teachers that would fight until their last breaths to keep you alive… I can’t explain how thankful I am.” She shuddered as she took in a deep breath.

“Phantom may have saved your life today, but so did Aizawa-sensei, even as he was losing to the Nomu. Honey, your teachers didn’t know that Phantom wasn’t a villain. From what you told me, I would’ve assumed the man that came from a villain portal was a villain too. While their actions were certainly terrifying baby, they were wielding their powers in defense of you. I would be mad if they’d fought as hard as they did try to protect you. They care about you, and only wanted to see you safe”  

Izuku pulled his mother back into a hug and just cried. Inko just let him cry on her shoulder, and if she was crying, Izuku didn’t notice.

    She’s right. And how did I thank them? By dodging Aizawa’s hug? By not checking on them in the nurses’ office?

Aizawa, All-Might. I’m sorry.

Danny was once again utilizing all his planning and observation skills to determine where he should go while lost in this strange city. That is, he was following a cat that had meowed at him in a very convincing manner. He’d been following it for almost twenty minutes at this point actually.

Well, no one ever said his skills in either of those areas were incredible. The cat had led him away from the city centers, into the housing district with sprawling rows of apartments. 

“Hey, where are we going?” He asked the cat he was following.    

Oh god, I’m following a cat. Why am I following a cat? He asked himself, grabbing onto the straps of his backpack.  The cat, for its part, just meowed and kept walking down the street.   Right, he was very convincing, and he seems to know where he’s going? Maybe he’s like a messenger or something. What if he was sent to retrieve me to meet up with someone important? 

“MEOW” The cat had stopped walking and meowed to get Danny’s attention. Danny, having been pulled out of his thoughts by the cat’s meow, watched as the cat jumped up onto the white fence of an apartment before jumping down into the yard on the other side. 

It meowed, probably to get me to follow, Danny assumed as he turned intangible and walked through the fence into the yard on the other side. He was met with the sight of a cat sitting and waiting for him at the sliding door of the apartment connected to the yard he was in. The door lead into the kitchen and living space of the apartment, and he could see the other door into the apartment inside.

Guess he wants inside. Danny thought as the cat meowed impatiently now. Danny walked up to the sliding door and finding it locked, phased his arm through to unlock it from inside. He watched for any sign of life inside the apartment, but seeing as all the lights are off, everyone was either gone or asleep. He slowly slid the door open, keeping his focus on the hallway that led to what he assumed where the bedrooms of the apartment.

The cat, seeing the opening door, darted and immediately hopped onto the counter in the kitchen, before reaching up to put its paws on one of the cabinets. Danny slipped inside, leaving the door cracked slightly behind him.  The cat was now screaming at the top of its lungs to be let into the cabinet. Setting his bag onto the ground by the counter, Danny moved over to the cabinet.

What might be inside? Maybe there’s a weapon! Or maybe there are blueprints for a doomsday letter! What if this is a villain’s apartment and the cat led me here to foil their plans?  Danny’s mind was racing as his hand reached towards the knob. Putting his hand on the knob, Danny pulled open the cabinet and found…

Cat food. He found cat food. Noticing the cat was no longer on the counter, he looked over to see the cat patiently sitting next to a bowl, it’s tail slowly swishing behind it. 

“Really?” You led me all the way here for dinner time?” Danny whispered at the cat.  I FOLLOWED A CAT. ACROSS TOWN. JUST TO FEED IT.  He really, really wanted to blame Murphy, but honestly, Danny knew this one was all on him.

Then he blamed Murphy, as he heard voices in the hall-way and a key going into the lock. 

Hitoshi Shinso was having a terrible day. As a student in the general department of the U.A, it was concerning to hear that villains had attacked another class at his school. But what really concerned him, was that it had been the class of one of his adoptive fathers.

He’d been mid-class when the news had broke, with all teachers being told to go on lock-down and to protect their students. The Pro Hero Ectoplasm, who’d been teaching his math class, had sprung into action immediately. Spewing foam from his mouth, he created clones and sent them out into the school to patrol the grounds and check in on the other classes. 

The All-Clear had come less than thirty minutes after they’d gone into lockdown. Whatever had happened, it hadn’t happened on the main school grounds. The relief washing through his system didn’t last long. The door to his math classroom exploded open, and his heart dropped.

Hizashi Yamada, the Pro Hero Present Mic, and one of his adoptive fathers had been the one to open the door and the look on his face…

Shinso had sprinted from the classroom without even bothering to ask for permission from Ectoplasm to leave. Not that he’d stop him. All of the teachers at U.A were aware of his relationship to the man he was currently sprinting after. 

Shinso’s classmates, however, did not. And he could hear them break into an uproar as he ran away. 

I’ll deal with that on Monday. For now, if whatever is happening is bad enough that it had wiped the eternal smile off of his father’s face, then whatever had happened was really, really bad, and probably involved his other father.

Shinso and Hizashi arrived just as they were wheeling Aizawa in from the ambulance. His father had not looked good. Is that bone? Shinso thought, catching a peek of his father’s elbow. Aizawa, for his part, had managed to nod and give them a quick “I’ll be okay” as the stretcher he was one rolled into the nurses’ office. 

Shinso watched as his eternally happy and upbeat father Hizashi nearly fought a nurse who refused him the privilege to follow his husband back into the operating room, before being calmed by Recovery Girl as she passed him and assured him that Aizawa would live. 

They’d waited for nearly 10 hours. The entire time, his loud and normally boisterous father had stayed silent while bouncing his leg. Shinso had spent that time in his own silence, thinking about the man who’d chosen to adopt the kid with the “villain” quirk from the orphanage. Who’d looked at him, the trouble maker who’d been in the system for as long as he could remember with all his issues and baggage from his parents abandoning him, and said…

 “Ah yes, that’s the one I want” Even as the caretaker of the orphanage had warned him that maybe first-time parents should start with an “easier” child, but Aizawa was unflinching. At the end of the day, Aizawa had told him he’d chosen him because he’d seen himself in the boy. A “potentially villainous” quirk and a habit for trouble. Shinso had loved him from that moment onward.

Now, seeing him beaten, but still unbroken, Shinso doubled down on his promise to become a hero like his father. Shinso had been crushed when he hadn’t gotten into the hero course, but his father’s words that day had stuck with him. 

“Shinso. You have a greater amount of potential in you than I have ever seen in anyone else. That’s why I picked you that day. Right now, it’s unrealized. You’re not fully trained yet, but one day, you’ll realize that potential, and be the greatest this world ever scenes. Go out there, and realize your potential.” He remembered the words his father had told him as he held the disc letting him know he’d missed the hero course.

Of course, he remembered the other words the man had said.

“What kind of stupid test doesn’t take into fu-” The man had said on the phone with U.A’s principal. But those were words he was told not to repeat.

Eventually, Aizawa had walked out of the nurse’s office, meeting them in the waiting room. 

    “OH MY GOD! YOU’RE SO PALE! ARE YOU A GHOST? DID MY AIZAWA-KUN PASS ON?” his father, Present-Mic had shouted and run to his other dad, giving him a hug. 

    “You idiot! He’s always pale! He’d probably be tanner if he was a ghost!” Shinso responded as he nearly tackled the two as he flung himself to join the family’s hug. 

    “I’m okay. I love you guys” Aizawa whispered into their little huddle. 

Aizawa had been admitted to the nurse’s office at 3 pm. It was now 1 am, and Aizawa, of course, was tired. They all were. 

Eventually, the trio had made it home. The drive home hadn’t taken to long. The roads weren’t too busy at 1 am after all. 

Eventually, Shinso slid his key into the door as Hizashi has his hands full, and Aizawa was busy being carried against his will. 

Opening the door, the three were surprised to see a cat appear. 

“MISSILE LAUNCHER! YOU CAME BACK!” Hizashi screamed as they realized their cat that gotten out a week ago had returned! 

“Hizashi, I love you, and I’m also glad Missy came back, but if you ever scream in my ear again, I’ll divorce you.” Aizawa reprimanded his husband as he rubbed his ear that had been next to Hizashi’s mouth as the man carried him. An empty threat for sure, but that didn’t stop Hizashi from apologizing profusely as he carried his husband to their bedroom, leaving Shinso alone with the cat.

“MEOW!” The cat was sitting next to its bowl demanding to be fed. 

“No! You ran away! Are you even sorry for your actions? You caused us a lot of stress you know!” Shinso said as he shut the door the cat must have slipped in through. 

“MEOW!” 

“NO.”

“MEEEOOW”

“Fine. Apology accepted.” Shinso said as he grabbed some cat food from the cabinet and poured some kibble into Missile Launcher’s bowl, cursing his father, Hizashi, for giving the cat such an unfitting name for the beautiful creature, though it’s personality seemed to be a perfect fit.  

“I guess I just can’t stay mad at you.” He fake lamented to the cat as he stared into its green eyes. He walked from the kitchen to the hallway with all the bed-rooms, and as he opened the door to his room, a chill went down his spine.

Wait. Missy doesn’t have green eyes. Her eyes are brown. Shinso rushed back into the kitchen, picking her up and holding her at eye level, and looking into her brown eyes. 

Must have been my imagination. Shinso thought, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of something being off. 

All-For-One was not having a good day.  No. His plan to end the Symbol of Peace had failed, all because of an unknown factor: This, Phantom, as the media had taken to calling him, was a piece on the chessboard that he hadn’t even known had existed. And worse, the piece appeared to be a queen.

He’d watched the footage they’d stolen from U.A over and over: Analyzing every frame for any bit of information they could gather about this rogue piece. 

“Sir. You’ve been looking over that footage for hours now.” His most loyal henchman said as he appeared through a warp into All-For-One’s room.

“Ahh... Kurogiri. Tell me. What’s your opinion of this Phantom.” All-For-One asked the purple mist man. 

“He’s dangerous. I’m sure you saw the footage, but it’s not the same. His attack that destroyed our Nomu, I could feel it even as I warped miles away. If we were to get it, I think we could very well have a shot at taking down All-Might for good.”  Kurogiri, in a rare moment of emotional articulation, stressed how powerful the Boy’s quirk had felt even miles away.

“Then it’s settled. We either get the boy and his quirk, or we remove him from the board entirely.” All-For-One stated. “The question is how.” All-For-One’s minds drifted into what he called “planning mode”. 

“Sir, before you space out like normal, may I point out something you may not have considered?” Kurogiri interjected, sass slipping into his voice. The breach of his normally perfect composure, something he only allowed himself in private with his sensei. Though now that the seal had been breached, there was no stopping it.

“Yes, Kurogiri? What is it that you have to so insightfully point out?” All-For-One challenged the sass of his subordinate. 

“Well… Perhaps we should consider a possibility. Phantom is immensely powerful, with white hair and a multitude of quirks. How old do you think he is? He’s certainly young. Perhaps a little large for his age. But…” Kurogiri trailed off, hoping he’d left enough bread crumbs for his Sensei to follow.  After a second it clicked in his mind, and he burst out laughing.

“You think he’s my son?!” All-For-One laughed. His ventilator was not pleased by the action, making unholy noises as its mechanics were forced to move in ways they hadn’t been designed to. Kurogiri hadn’t laughed with him though, and All-For-One got serious again immediately.

“You’re serious.” he realized out loud to Kurogiri.

“15 years ago,” Kurogiri said nothing more than a time frame, but it rocked All-For-One.

“You don’t think… But I stole his quirk as a child! If Phantom’s my kid he’d be quirkless!” All-For-One argued.

“Really? You stole one quirk from the child of a man with a million quirks. You know for sure that one quirk was all the kid had? Your child who could have inherited any number or mixture of your quirks?”  Kurogiri challenged, and All-For-One sat in silence for a few seconds. 

“Kurogiri grab me my phone,” was all that All-For-One said, refusing to verbally admit defeat.

He had a call to make.

“I knew you’d come around to the idea,” Kurogiri said as he produced a phone and handed it to his Sensei. “Though I must say I knew the second I saw Phantom, the family resemblance is uncanny,” Kurogiri mentioned.

“What do you mean? Aside from white hair and a ton of quirks, Phantom looks barely like me.” All-For-One questioned.

“I don’t know. If you pause at the right moment while Eraser Head melts him, I’d say his face is a dead ringer for yours, sir.” Kurogiri said with a chuckle.

“Get out,” All-For-One commanded Kurogiri, who excused himself the same way he’d come in. 

All-For-One glared at the space his subordinate had been in, before dialing a familiar number. Why he hadn’t forgotten it after so many years he had no clue. Hearing the phone get pick up on the other end, All-For-One spoke:

“Hey, Inko…”

Chapter Text

Last time on Phantom: The Ghostly Hero.

“Fine. Apology accepted.” Shinso said as he grabbed some cat food from the cabinet and poured some kibble into Missile Launcher’s bowl, cursing his father, Hizashi, for giving the cat such an unfitting name for the beautiful creature, though it’s personality seemed to be a perfect fit.

“I guess I just can’t stay mad at you.” He fake lamented to the cat as he stared into its green eyes. He walked from the kitchen to the hallway with all the bed-rooms, and as he opened the door to his room, a chill went down his spine.

Wait. Missy doesn’t have green eyes. Her eyes are brown. Shinso rushed back into the kitchen, picking her up and holding her at eye level, and looking into her brown eyes.

Must have been my imagination. Shinso thought, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of something being off.

Danny, having heard the key hit the lock, and now watching the doorknob of the house he was invading turn, did the first thing he could think of; he over-shadowed the cat. Great idea brain! Let’s possess the cat when we could have done literally anything else. Like, I don’t know, turned invisible and flown away? he chastised his panic thinking as the door opened and revealed a purple-haired teenager and a loud blond guy. Craning the cat’s neck up to see more, he froze when he saw who the blonde guy was carrying.

That him. That him. That’s him. Danny froze in the cat’s body, sinking into the cat’s deeper unconscious and releasing the control he had on the cat, though still hitching a ride in its body. Why here? Why did the cat lead me here?

Watching the dark-haired man- who melted me Danny’s mind interrupted- interact with the blond man who’d been carrying him, seeing the purple-headed teen interact with the cat he’s hitching a ride with, made the man seem more... human.

He was a hero… He was protecting the kid. Just like I was. Danny reminded himself. It was harder to judge someone after seeing their family, especially seeing how much his family loved him.

Noticing the purple-haired kid rushing back towards him, Danny chose that moment to dip. Falling invisibly out of the cat’s body, Danny stood up against the wall invisibly near the cat as he watched the purple-haired kid stare straight into the cat’s eyes, before shaking his head and setting the cat back down and walking away. Then he saw it.

Holy shit I’m an idiot. My backpack . he chastised himself as he looked down and saw his back-pack, still just sitting there undisturbed leaning against the kitchen counter. If they’d just walked around to the other side of the counter… I’d have been through. Danny picked it up, also turning it invisible as he threw it on his back. That was too close… I’ve got to get out of here. he thought as he turned and walked towards the door.

“Meow.” The cat, suddenly less interested in its dinner, was staring directly at him, even though Danny hadn’t dropped his invisibility.

The memory of how compelled he had felt to follow the cat, who led him here in the first place, hit him. The raw urge he had felt to FOLLOW IT resounding in his mind.

I think… I think I’m supposed to be here. he decided.

Class 1-A was quieter than normal the Monday they came back to class. Waiting for Aizawa-sensei to show up and start class, the students sat quietly at their desks in favor of their normal morning conversations: the events of the Friday beforehand still weighing heavily on most of their minds. Some of them had almost died after all. For many, this had been the first real glimpse into what real hero work entailed.

The media had always focussed on the image of the heroes standing triumphantly over the defeated villain. But Friday… Friday had been the real deal. The media hadn’t portrayed how terrifying villains could. How it felt to get hit so hard you were flung through the air. Most of the class had only dreamed of the fame or the power that being a hero held. For many of them, for the first time, they questioned whether or not all the glitz and glamour of the hero life was worth it.

However, some of them had gotten the first bite of the real hero world and loved the taste. The feeling of being helpless as they’d been manhandled by the villains before backup had arrived had left them with a thirst to get stronger. To be able to make sure no one ever felt the way they had in those moments.

Of course, peace and quiet can only last so long when you’re classmates with Katsuki Bakugo, who’d finally arrived just minutes before the bell rang to start class. His eyes made one pass over the classroom, and seeing it’s somber tone, bluntly asked:

“What the hell’s wrong with all you losers? Why so quiet this morning?” the living timebomb asked. Frustration clear on his face over his classmates' defeated attitude. Of course, he was met with silence as none of his classmates dared to answer in case they invoked his rage.

“What? You shit-heads all down-trodden because you got your first taste of what it’s really like to be a hero? Pathetic.” he taunted his classmates. Bakugo was one of the few who’d taken his bite and wanted more. He was going to be the best hero, and no-one was going to stand in his way or drag him down. Seeing that no one still had grown the backbone to respond, sparks started popping off of him as he grew even angrier.

“If you guys are scared that much of the hero world than you should just give up now and get the hell out of my way. I’m not going to have you shitter’s bringing me down because I’m stuck training with a bunch of wimps. So, if you’re that scared of being a hero, then just get the hell out!” he yelled.

“Bakugo! We almost died! Don’t you get that? Do you feel anything but anger?!” a normally sweet, but currently pissed Ochaco Uraraka erupted back at him, pushing back from her desk and slamming her hands on it before standing up to continue yelling. “We got lucky that there isn’t an empty seat here today! We got lucky that Phantom showed up before-”

“Phantom! That villain? Do you really think that bastard is a hero, you idiot? Phantom showed up with the villains and attacked us. I’d beat him to a pulp if I ever saw that shit-head again!” Bakugo yelled back.

“He saved Tsuyu, Mineta and Izuku’s lives! Not to mention how many more of us could have died after the Nomu was through with them! Phantom was a hero!” she shouted back. By now, the entire class was sitting in stunned silence as Uraraka stood up to Bakugo. Not that the hot-head was just gonna stand there and take it.

“Oh yeah?! If they were so useless they couldn’t protect themselves maybe they should’ve died so they’d stop holding the rest of us back! Phantom attacked All-Might! Kyoka’s still in the hospital recovering from his sonic attack! Does that sound like a hero to you huh? No! Phantom is nothing but a menace!” Katsuki yelled back. Their shouting match now more than audible from down the hall. Sparks were coming off in him waves at this point, pulsing with his elevated heart rate. Uraka opened her mouth to respond to the jerk’s comment and tear him a new one, but she was interrupted by two sounds before she could speak.

One was the sound of the kindest person she knew, Midoriya getting up from his chair as he exploded from his desk towards Bakugo.

The other was the sound of their homeroom door sliding open.

Aizawa was having a day. He was simultaneously over the moon, that his son Shinso had been transferred to the heroics department after a spot had opened up- and in his class no less, and dreading stepping into his classroom.

Where Izuku would be. His mind supplied, well aware of the guilt he’d been feeling over his actions towards Phantom in the whole USJ debacle. Well aware that he was nervous to face the young boy in his class after he’d potentially traumatized him.

But for now, as he and his son walked to his class, he wouldn’t let it show. Today was an exciting day for Shinso, and he’d be damned before he ruined it for him by not sharing in his son’s excitement. While most people wouldn’t be able to tell, due to Shinso taking after him perhaps a bit too much with the similarly tired demeanor and permanent bags under his eyes, Aizawa saw right through it all to see his son’s barely contained excitement. He’d overheard Shinso talking to the cat about it this morning thinking his fathers had still been asleep. He was practically vibrating with excitement as they reached his door.

Shinso’s gonna be a hero! his mind was basically screaming, even as his face remained its normal blank expression. Then he opened the door, and he and shinso stopped dead in the doorway at the sight in front of him.

Izuku Midoriya was on standing with his back turned to him over a downed Katsuki Bakugo, who was holding his face as if he’d been punched. Midoriya, not noticing the door open behind him, was screaming at Bakugo.

“Shut up! Just shut your mouth for once Bakugo!” the boy screamed down at his classmate, who was just laying on the ground stunned. “He almost died trying to protect us! How do you think you’re ever going to be the number one hero if you don’t even have a heart. The rest of us are here because we actually care about the people we might save as heroes! You just want an excuse to blow people up! Don’t you? If anyone’s a villain it’s YOU Katsuki!” Midoriya yelled, venom dripping in his voice as his body shook with anger.

He’s talking about Phantom. his mind assumed. Bakugo must have said something about Phantom… but to have Izuku react like that? Whatever it had been, I need to be careful. Aizawa’s mind concluded. He didn’t want to mess things up with Izuku any more than they already were.

“We’ve already wasted 10 seconds,” Aizawa said, his voice cutting through the silence in the class, Midoriya and Bakugo freezing as they heard it. Bakugo shot up and moved to his desk sullenly. Midoriya, instead of getting embarrassed at getting caught or sheepishly apologizing as he’d expected, only walked over to his desk keeping his head down the whole time. The realization that this may no longer be the same Midoriya he knew on Friday suddenly became a possibility in his mind.

“Class, this is Hitoshi Shinso. He will be your new classmate.” he introduced his Son- not that he’d tell them that- to the class. What a great first introduction to his classmates. his mind pointed out. “Shinso, you can take seat 19 over in front of Ms. Yaoyorozu over there.” He pointed his son to his desk, which also sat directly behind Izuku Midoriya. He watched as his son walked over to his desk, and as Hitoshi passed Midoriya, the seated boy waved at him and smiled.

Oh, thank God. he mentally sighed as Izuku’s smile spread across his face. A sight that relieved a pressure in his chest he hadn’t known existed. Maybe there is a chance things can go back to normal. he thought.

“Sir, Isn’t that Mineta’s seat?” Tenya Iida spoke up. Aizawa had forgotten why Shinso was even been able to transfer in. He’d been hoping to avoid having to address the topic of last Friday at all if he could.

Because of Izuku. his mind once again pointed out his guilt. Sighing, he prepared himself to give the class the news, knowing he’d have to discuss the USJ.

“I was planning to finish our lesson on rescue today, but perhaps there is something more important to cover today.” Aizawa addressed the class. “Friday was the first real taste of the Hero for many of you. I’m not going to lie. We did not have the situation under control at the time, but that’s part of hero work. That’s why we’ve been training you so hard. Hero work is dangerous. I lied the first day when I said my threat to expel on of you wasn’t actually a logical ruse. If I had thought that any of you wouldn’t have the potential to survive hero work, I would’ve expelled you right then and there. I’ve expelled an entire class before.” Aizawa admitted, the class’s eyes widening as they realized their futures at U.A were actually in jeopardy that day.

“That said, you guys aren’t just here because you have the potential to be a Hero. U.A can teach you to be great heroes but at the end of the day, we can’t make you. Mineta Minoru has decided to drop the hero course, and I don’t blame him. Heroes risk their lives every day, and that’s not something everyone is willing to risk.” Aizawa stated, watching the classes reaction at the news Minoru had dropped. Mostly somber expressions, though he saw some sighs of relief from the girls.

“The reality is, most heroes don’t live to retirement. The USJ incident made it clear that we can no longer trust villains not to go after you guys. As of today, just being enrolled at U.A means that you’re risking your life. We will do our best to protect you, but the reality is that villains are getting smarter and that we can’t watch over you every minute of the day. The money and fame you think might come with being a hero mean nothing if you’re dead.” the students listened as Aizawa spoke. Noting their worried expressions, he continued.

“So now you have to make a choice. You can walk away from all this, or you can choose to risk your life every day for the rest of your life until you either make it to retirement or die a hero. This is your chance to live a peaceful life without having to spend every day looking over your shoulder. This is your chance to know have a family and know you’ll be able to go home to them every night. I, nor any of the other students here, will judge you for making that decision. Honestly, It’s the smart one. U.A will transfer your credits to any other school you wish and you can go on with your life not worrying it might end every day” Aizawa stated, noticing that some of the student’s expressions showed they considering it, not that he blamed them.

“For those of you who stay, for those of you who want to be heroes to help people, understand this; The villain attack on the USJ proved the villains are getting smarter. As the villains grow stronger, we must so as well. Know that from this moment on, our training will be tripled. We will break you so that villains won’t be able to. We can no longer treat this class like we aren’t preparing you to go out and risk your lives... because we are. If you choose to stay, you are choosing to be a Hero, and that means accepting everything that comes with hero work.” Aizawa looked around the room, noting that some student’s eyes were down on their desks, but many stared back at him with fire in their eyes.

These students will be greater heroes than the world has ever seen. his mind said. Pride filled him as his locked eyes with his son Hitoshi, and relief as he looked into the eyes of Midoriya. I thought I’d ruined him .

“For now, think about it. You have until the end of the week to make the decision, but our training starts tomorrow. For now, class is dismissed. Think over what I said, and make a choice. Class Dismissed.” Aizawa dismissed his students less than 10 minutes into class, something he’d never done before. But these were new circumstances.

Turning to watch them go, he watched his class slowly gather their things and file out, noting happily that Tenya Iida had grabbed his son to “give him a tour of the hero area” as the boy had put it.

“Aizawa-Sensei?” He heard his name behind him. Rotating his body, his eyes fell upon the form of Midoriya Izuku, standing a few feet away from him with his backpack on. The kid looked as if he was about to cry.

“Yes, Midoriya?” He asked, his stomach dropping as his mind raced. Please don’t tell me you want to drop. Please say I didn’t ruin this child. I’m sorry for what I did. Don’t do this to me. his mind screamed as it ran through all the possibilities. He wasn’t prepared for what happened next.

Breaking what Aizawa was sure was at least 8 U.A rules, Midoriya rocketed forward before he could blink and wrapped his arms around him, giving him a hug.

“I talked things out with my mom. She said to tell you to thank you for protecting me. I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner.” the boy said as he broke the hug and looked a very stunned Aizawa in his eyes.

“See you Monday!” The kid spoke as he ran out the door after the other students, leaving a frozen Aizawa staring at the doorway.

Midoriya Izuku had hugged him.

The rest of the week went about as normal… well, as normal as it could. Aizawa was surprised to see that only two more of his students had dropped, the big guy Koda, who’d dropped at his mother’s insistence to see her baby safe, and Hanta Sero, who’d decided he might want a family one day. Aizawa was sad to see them go, but he’d have been more saddened if they’d forced themselves to stay. Hero work wasn’t for everyone, especially for people and nice as those two.

And speaking of hero work, the media had been absolutely buzzing with news about Phantom. Luckily, no video had gotten out of him melting Phantom, but still, he felt bad every time he’d seen him on the news. Phantom was, apparently, becoming quite the vigilante. Though his actions had been, thus far, not indicative of an insidious plan to get close to the heroes to betray them, considering how Phantom had run every time a hero had gotten close- Aizawa had considered chasing Phantom himself once, but not seeing a way to do it short of activating his quirk… had let the boy fly away.- but still, it was clear to Aizawa that something was off about the boy. The pieces still didn’t add up, but it was unlikely they would until some hero actually had a chance to talk to him. But back to other things that made his brain hurt much less.

He was happy to see that his son was fitting well into the class and even happier to see that Izuku had basically adopted him into his group. His son had come home raving on Monday raving about how Midoriya had corned him for almost an hour during lunch asking him questions about his quirk and talking about how cool it was. It warmed his heart to see his son making friends, not that he’d admit it. He wasn’t Hizashi after all.

But the thing that had made him happiest that week was still what had happened on Monday.

Midoriya Izuku had hugged him.

Danny stared at the villain below him, who was knocked out on the ground, and restrained with ecto-plasmic bonds. They’d melt eventually, but certainly not before the police got here.

Not after how big a scene that guy caused, besides, who robs a bank on a Friday? Danny thought as he looked down at the man, who had TURNED HIS HANDS INTO KNIVES and tried to hold up a bank, though he obviously hadn’t expected to get taken down invisibly before he could even react by a passing Phantom. Flying away, he away he already knew what the media would say.

“A villain was taken down mysteriously by another vigilante. Witnesses to the accounts all said the villain just dropped suddenly to the ground, and then was restained from a glowing green substance that appeared from nowhere. Now, we here at Channel 5 news noticed that the substance seemed oddly similar in color to blasts produced by the hotly debated Phantom. While many speculate due to his appearance alongside the villains that he has some connection to them, his repeated acts of vigilantism are starting to make some nay-sayers question their stance on him, though it seems some are doubling down. Let’s go to Ken, who’s on the ground interviewing our local kook, who suspects Phantom may be doing all this just to try and get the heroes to drop their guard around him…” Danny could see it play out in his head. They’d say he did something heroic, then say it’s all part of an evil plot. At least, that’s what always happened back in Amity.

Danny flew back to the apartment that he was crashing at the moment. After Friday night, Danny had decided to listen to his instincts and had stayed around the apartment of the black-haired man- whose name he now knew was Aizawa- and his husband Hizashi and their son Hitoshi. Luckily enough, the family had an extra bedroom that Danny had kinda, sorta claimed as his own. It looked like it was mainly used for storage and wasn’t actually used that often, and thankfully it had a computer in it that Danny had been using to get caught up on the world he was in.

It’s so weird that Heroes are registered by the government. he thought once more as he flew intangibly and invisibly through the wall of the room he’d been crashing for almost a week now. The whole fame and popularity thing of heroes had been a rather large shock to him as he had done his preliminary research into the world he now occupied.

He considered doing some more research on the computer but seeing as all of the houses actual occupants where still at the school they all apparently worked at and attended and wouldn’t be coming home for a couple of hours, he figured he’d use the time to nap. Sleep was something he’d not gotten to get a lot of. He, unfortunately, he wasn’t able to hold his invisibility while asleep, so he tried to stay awake or out of the house while the family was home. But seeing as they were currently gone…Sleep it was.

Danny closed his eyes, slipping into the realm of the unconscious, feeling the pseudo death wash over him. Then he heard the voices. The ones he'd been trying so hard not to think about.

“Danny! Is that you? Where are you?” an oddly familiar female voice rang out in his mind.

The gears littering the building turned, chugging away as they kept the hands of the clock at the top of the building turning ever faithfully. Inside, a floating being sat over a small screen, smiling.

Stay strong young one. All will be revealed in due time.

Chapter Text

Last time on Phantom: A Ghostly Hero

Danny closed his eyes, slipping into the realm of the unconscious, feeling the pseudo death wash over him. Then he heard the voices.

“Danny! Where are you?!” an oddly familiar female voice rang out in his mind. 

Danny was… well…. Danny was somewhere. As he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that he was not in the bed he’d been asleep in. Currently, he was floating, and all he could see in every direction was darkness. Danny began to panic as his eyes, naturally adjusted to be able to see in the darkest of nights, only picked up the darkness. He couldn’t see anything, a sensation he hadn’t been able to remember since before the portal incident. He’s already growing fear would soon spike, as he heard her voice.

“Danny! Where are you?” HER voice rang out, and Danny recognized it in an instant. 

Jazz! That’s her voice! She’s here! Danny thought as he searched for the source of the voice so that he could follow it, but something was off. Danny couldn’t tell where it was coming from, because the voice was seemingly coming from all sides, with an echo in her voice, making it hard to determine where she was.

But that didn’t stop Danny. He needed to get to her and flew forward as fast as he could, hoping to find his sister. As he did so, he heard another voice.

“Danny! Dude! Where are you! Hurry!” the voice, unmistakably Tucker’s called out, once again from seemingly everywhere. Stopping his flight, Danny threw his head in every direction, trying to spot them. However, it seemed that no matter where he looked, all he could see was the darkness, until- THERE! A LIGHT! Danny’s core screamed at him to follow the light, currently tiny and distant.

Danny’s body bent as he dived after the light, pulsing with power. The lights pulsing seemed to increase as he got closer to it; the lights original weak pulsing almost now a constant drum of beats. The intensity continued to grow. The light, once a tiny flicker, was now like staring into the sun. Then, as Danny got close to the light, the pulsing stopped and the glow of the light dropped to that of a tiny speck of light as if it were a firefly.  Then Danny was enveloped by the light as it exploded.

Blinking away the pain of the light, Danny’s stomach dropped as he took in his surroundings. He was in Amity. The Ruins of Amity. 

Everywhere Danny looked was another building destroyed, another house on fire, another body- Oh god. Oh god. Bodies. Danny’s core nearly jumped out of his chest, as he took in the destruction around him, not noticing as his body began to tremble.

“Where were you, Danny?”  Sam’s voice- came from behind him, and he stared in shock as his eyes landed on the forms of Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and his parents.  But something was off. Danny could see through them, and- their eyes. Their eyes are green, and their bodies- were broken and twisted, beyond what a human could survive.

“WHERE WERE YOU, DANNY?” The deafening voices of his friends and family assaulted his ears, the ghostly echo in their voice dropping his stomach further. 

“YOU COULD HAVE SAVED US, DANNY! WHERE WERE YOU?” 

Then, as quickly as his world had fallen apart, the vision disappeared as he woke up. His eyes flung open as he shot off the bed with a yell. 

“It was just a nightmare. They’re fine. They’re fine. They’re fine.” Danny mumbled to himself as he sat, shaking while trying to catch his breath. Nightmares were something he’d unfortunately gotten quite used to. Especially after the GIW- Danny cut off his trail of thought before it could trail back to that time. 

“I need to get home” Danny whispered to himself. They may have been nothing more than dreams but…he didn’t know for sure. Thoughts of what if? and how do I know for sure? raced through his mind. The thought that something might happen to the people he cares for most in his absence was not one he currently wanted to entertain. Steadying himself, he whispered to himself.

“And to do that, I need to find the villain that sent me here in the first place,” Danny said as he pulled himself from the now messy bed, and once again flew back out the wall towards the city outside, to resume his obsessive patrolling.

He was going to find that villain, and was going to get home- And no-one going to stop me.

“Oh, and you think that being busy grading essays that you assigned is a good enough excuse for being messy?” Aizawa accused Hizashi. The two were having… a conversation of sorts currently in the faculty lounge after school as they waited for Shinso to get done hanging out with Midoriya and his other friends, who’d insisted they go to a particular ice-cream shop to spend time together after school to  “get to know each other better”. 

Aizawa was frustrated with his husband, who had been apparently so busy that he’d been neglecting his tidiness all over their house, and the coffee mug, sitting in the sink of the teacher’s lounge, with coffee still in it, had been the last straw. Aizawa, upon seeing the mug, with coagulating coffee inside it, had grabbed the mug and had brought it over to where Hizashi was grading papers, and presented it to him, telling him, perhaps less than politely, to clean his mug. 

Ok, so maybe he hadn’t needed to be that harsh in his tone, but still, the other man had been dirtying up their house for a week now, and Hizashi’s response asking what his deal was, had certainly not helped his position. Aizawa’s deal, of course, was that he was incredibly frustrated over the Phantom case, but it’s not like he was going to admit that right now. So now they were arguing.

“It’s not just the coffee cup! You’ve been messy all week! Leaving dishes in the sink, dirtying up the guest bedroom, and leaving that tacky All-Might Bag laying around!” Aizawa snapped back at his husband, who’s face showed a look of confusion, though Aizawa hadn’t noticed, too caught up in his rant to actually notice the other man’s reaction “I don’t even know why you have that bag anyways. Is it a prize you’re going to give away on your talk show? You know what, I don’t care. Just get rid of it.” he finished.

“Shota, babe, I have no clue what bag you’re talking about, and I also haven’t stepped into the guest bedroom in months, not since I moved my talk-show over to the station.” Hizahsi returned with a hint of confusion in his voice, his voice low and calm.

Aizawa noted how the man thankfully never used his quirk while arguing- another reason you love him. his mind noted.

“Then who did? We both know Shinso would never wear a bag like that, and why would he be using the guest bedroom? He has his own room.” Aizawa said, his mind trailing off as he realized a distinct possibility. 

“You don’t think Shinso is bringing home any… friends -” he spat the word out, clearly implying he was talking about people who might fall into the more than friends category. “-Do you?” Aizawa asked, noticing how Yamada shivered at the thought, assuming that similar thoughts about their baby boy were running through the other man’s mind. 

“No. I think he’d trust us enough to tell us if he was dating someone.” Hizashi concluded, before another, somehow scarier thought popped into his mind. Aizawa noticed the other man’s demeanor changed immediately. 

“Aizawa, I didn’t say anything because it sounded crazy at the time, but last week I thought I saw Shinso sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night.  I was up getting a snack, and I saw him outside by the fence, his hair was sorta flatter than normal, but it had the same spikiness to it-”

“So you do think he’s sneaking around behind our backs! OH MY GOD, WE HAVEN’T EVEN HAD THE TALK YET WITH HIM HIZASHI! What if he’s not being safe, and he’s going to be moving into the dorm soon where we won’t be able to watch him and-” Aizawa interrupted his husband, as his mind jumped to conclusions about what their baby boy was up to sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night.

“No. That’s not it Shota. It’s just that when I went to go check Shinso’s room, he was still there. I thought it had just been my imagination… but what if it wasn’t Shota? What if instead of Shinso sneaking out…” Hizashi trailed off, not wanting to say the next sentence, unwilling to acknowledge the possibility that what he was saying might be true. “What if it was someone else sneaking in?” He finished.

Aizawa was almost knocked off his feet. The possibility fit too well with the evidence. His Hero brain activating immediately as his stomach dropped, he broke out of his stupor and spoke, panic slightly evident in his voice. 

 “Hizashi, call Ectoplasm and Midnight. Tell them to meet us in a half-hour outside our apartment complex. I’ll call Shinso and tell him not to come home for a little.” He ordered, the other man immediately whipping out his phone and starting to dial. 

Aizawa stared at his phone as he waited for his son to pick up his call.

Ring. Nothing.

Ring. Nothing.

Ring. Nothing.

Ring. Nothing.

Then he heard the sound of the ringing stop, and his son’s voice filled the phone. Flinging his phone to his ear, Aizawa almost shouted into the phone.

“Shinso. Where are you right now?” He asked, the panic in his voice not matched by the boy’s leisurely reply.

“Oh I’m with my frie-” Shinso’s voice dropped from the phone with a huge crash. And seconds later, Aizawa’s heart dropped at the unmistakable sound of screams coming from his son’s phone.

Then the call dropped entirely.

Then Danger Alerts started flooding his phone.

 Hitoshi Shinso was laughing and enjoying Ice Cream with Midoriya, Uraraka, and Iida- his ... friends? Yeah, I guess you could call the group of kids who spent the last week trying to get to know him that-  when he got the call from his father. 

They’d been out celebrating! They were getting moved into the dorms early! In fact, tonight would be the first night they stayed in the dorms, having moved the last of their stuff in this afternoon after school. 

Normally, U.A. waited till later in the year before moving their students into the dorms, but with the recent behavior of the villains, they were being moved in for their protection. Even if it was a shitty reason, most of the students were still ecstatic to be moving into the dorms. Where they’d be free from their parent’s control and could do anything they wanted… unless of course both your parents worked there, in which case you were screwed like Shinso. 

He probably wants to know what time I’ll be home. he thought. Picking up his phone and listening to his father’s question about where he was. The worry in the man’s voice, he assumed, was probably one of those “his parents are quite ready for him to be in High School and the dorms and out and doing stuff unsupervised” type things. 

“Oh I’m with my frie-” his response was cut short by the front door of the bank across from the ice cream parlor they were at exploding, knocking them all to the ground as Shinso dropped his phone. Getting up wobbly from his spot on the ground, Shinso took in everything around him. He watched as Izuku struggled up to his feet, noticing that Iida and Uraraka were also in the process of getting up. 

The previously calm street suddenly looked like a disaster zone. Car’s were crushed by rubble, people running away from the explosion, and a creature pulling itself from the hole of where the front wall of the bank had been seconds earlier. 

The creature seemingly made entirely of some dark goop seemed as if it was moving to escape, then it turned its head, its eyes landing on where he and the rest of his friends were laying on the ground. Its eyes narrowed harshly and its face contorted until pure hatred was all that could be seen. 

“YOU!” the creature roared and began crawling directly at their group.  

“OH SHIT!” he heard Izuku yell, and took off running without a second thought, the creature dropping the bags of money and following after Izuku blindly. Noticing his friend in a less than stellar spot, he acted without thinking.

“Tenya! Ochako! You two focus on evacuating civilians! I’m going to help Midoriya!” He ordered without a second thought before taking off down the street after his friend and the villain who was apparently after his life.

I’ve got to help him! Shinso thought as he tore down the road, eventually rounding a corner he’d seen the pair turn down. His heart paused as he took in the scene in front of him. Izuku stood facing him at the end of the alleyway he’d turned down- a dead-end! Shinso realized- and the villain was covering ground towards his friend rapidly. Not seeing any other possible course, he took a risk.

“Hey Ugly!” Shinso yelled, watching as the villain stopped in its tracks, and turned to face the person stupid enough to insult him, rage apparent in his face.

“What!?” The villain roared in response.

“Gotcha” And Shinso activated his quirk.

 Or at least, he tried to.

Danny was sitting atop the roof of a tall, stone building and looking out over the city, looking out for any signs of him when he heard the explosion. His core leapt up into his chest, and he immediately jumped off the edge of the building, letting his flight catch him as he soared towards the ground.

Flying up to a peak, Danny spotted dark smoke in the distance, and flew straight towards it.

Arriving on the scene, he created a duplicate, splitting his power in half, and sent the duplicate in to investigate the scene while the original him hid in a nearby building, reverting back to his human form to draw less power from their shared energy pool, a trick he’d learned from many years of dodging the GIW. They catch one, the other get’s away. It was a good plan... when he remembered to use it of course. 

Phantom invisibly surveyed the scene of the original destruction, a bank by the looks of it, but quickly realized that whatever had done this was big , and more importantly, not here currently , which meant it was still out there. 

What was somehow more worrying to Danny, was that he could hear police sirens closing in fast. Whatever he was going to do here, he needed to do so before the Heroes showed up.

Thankfully, it wasn’t hard to follow a very clear, and very large, trail of destruction. Flying down the street following the overturned cars, he rounded the corner of the alleyway and came to a sudden halt to avoid crashing into the purple-haired teenager in front of him. 

Oh, shit that’s Hitoshi. his mind recognized the boy who’s house he’d been crashing for the last week and a half. Phantom didn’t know much about the boy, except that, while his parents never mentioned exactly what it was, the boy’s parents talked about it as if it were quite dangerous. Of course, he’d find out what it was much sooner than he expected, as the boy pulled a move that would make Danny’s own inner idiot proud.

“Hey Ugly!” the purple-headed kid yelled, easily getting the attention of the monster, who, by his response, was apparently much less than pleased. Danny however, held off on intervening in case he accidentally became a victim of whatever the kid was about to release on the monster.

“Gotcha!” Hitoshi said quite confidently, and Danny decided he really needed to put space in between himself and whatever the boy was about to do, and flew above the two opponents facing off. If he’s that confident that this is game over for the sludge guy, then I need to MOVE. Danny thought. Then he watched as the smirk fell from the boy’s face. 

“What the hell? Why can’t I activate my quirk on you? Mind Control should be taking over you right now! Why can’t I feel your mind?” Danny wanted to facepalm as the boy admitted to his opponent his quirk wasn’t working. 

Oh, kid, you’ve got so much to learn. Namely, never admit to not having your abilities. Danny pitied the kid, thankful that he’d only been in the Hero course for a week. If he’d been there any longer than that and still made a mistake like that? Well, not everyone was meant to live to see sixty. Danny morbidly thought.

“Hah! You fool! Do you see a brain floating around anywhere in my body?” The sludge villain proudly proclaimed as he admitted to not having a brain, which of course, absolutely sent Danny into hysterics. The other three people in the alley froze as they heard his echoing laugh.

“Oh man, that’s a good one. A villain who’s literally a brainless idiot. Oh man, I haven’t heard a joke that good since The GIW claimed to be the best Ghost Hunters in existence.” Danny appeared, floating above the battle, his laughter making it difficult to complete his sentence.

“But still, even if you’re a comedian, I still think you need to chill out .” Danny stopped his joking, as his eyes began glowing their usual unearthly blue. Before the other three in the alleyway could react, Danny shot out his ecto-freeze ray, freezing the sludge creature solid before it could even react.

Floating down, Danny’s tail solidified into legs as his feet touched the ground. 

Then he got tackled to the ground.

Midoriya had been beginning to panic when Phantom showed up. He’d cornered himself in the alleyway, with a sludge villain who wanted to make him a meat puppet- Or worse. He thought. While he’d momentarily been excited that Shinso was about to take down the villain trying to kill him, it was both hilarious that the villain literally didn’t have a brain and terrifying as the villain’s attention now turned on a basically defenseless Shinso. 

Then he’d heard the laugh. The laugh that’d become famous on the news recently, and one that was incredibly familiar to him, as it belonged to the vigilante who’d saved his life - what? Three times already?

Of course, the always cool- excluding that one time Aizawa melted him. His mind interrupted- vigilante took down the villain in record time, all while smiling and with a joke.

A true Hero always smiles! And that freeze ray! It was so cool! I wonder if his quirk is somehow Ice based? And how does he fly? And- Izuku’s mind fell down the rabbit hole trying to decipher Phantom’s quirks. 

Of course, his mind is occupied trying to decipher Phantom’s quirk, which meant that he’d stopped paying attention to what his body was actually doing.

Before he realized it, Izuku had tackled the unsuspecting boy in a hug, and while both had hit the ground, Phantom had near instinctually slipped through his embrace and into the floor, before rising up in front of a now laying down Izuku. 

“Woah! Personal space kid! Oh! It’s You! You’re that Midoriya Kid I saved from the nomu and the handy-man!” Phantom’s voice pitched up as he recognized the other boy, Izuku loving how his voice echoed unnaturally. 

THAT’S SUCH A COOL HERO AESTHETIC! Izuku’s mind screamed, noting how he was getting recognized an awful lot today. But hey, if that meant he got to meet Phantom again, it was worth a sludge villain or two. Phantom reached down and picked Izuku up, before gasping and grabbing onto the boy’s shoulders. Then, Izuku’s mind exploded at the vigilante’s next words.

“Oh! You know what! You’re perfect! I got a glimpse of your brain when I overshadowed you at the USJ, and your analysis skills are exactly what I need! You see, I’m trying to figure out-” Phantom was pulled out of his excitement at the possibility of getting a better explanation of the world he was in, as Shinso yelled at Phantom.

Shinso was panicking. 

There was a possible villain grabbing his friend. 

There was a possible villain grabbing his friend. 

There was a possible villain grabbing his friend. 

“Hey! Get away from him!” Shinso yelled at Phantom, as his brain roared into action, trying to think of a plant to save his friend. And of course, it came up with the same plan as last time- Get the villain away from Izuku by getting its attention yourself. Smart one. He cursed his inability to come up with a better plan but now was not the time. Focusing on Izuku, he yelled.

“Don’t tell him anything! He may be a villain!” Shinso worried, as his brand new friend stood grasped in the arms of someone his father Hizashi, who had been breaking eight rules of confidentiality, had told him might be a villain posing as a vigilante in order to get closer to the Heroes before he struck, and how Hizashi had described as “ potentially beyond dangerous” He recalled his father’s words. 

Phantom was an unknown, and one that was potentially incredibly dangerous based on his Father’s warnings to just turn and run if he encountered him. Then, he did something incredibly stupid once more.

“Hey, Phantom! Don’t you have anything to say for yourself? Attacking Heroes the day you showed up?” Shinso hoped he’d take the bait he’d set.

“Wow. Rude. Just because someone gets pulled through a villain portal against their will and fights some people he doesn’t know are Heroes doesn’t make him a villain ya know. God, you really didn’t fall too far from the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ tree did ya?” The vigilante responded snarkily.

 Shinso only grinned, Phantom had taken the bait.  Shinso felt his quirk surge through Phantom’s mind, taking control over the other boy’s body., which went limp under his control. 

Then, for the second time that night, his smirk dropped as he felt his quirk fail. Something inside the vigilante’s mind slammed into his quirk power and wretched control from the purple-haired boy, the force of getting kicked out backfiring into Shinso’s throat, the source of his quirk, and choking him as if he’d been punched in the trachea. This was not going to plan. 

“You think you’re the first mind reader I’ve encountered? Do you think I don’t know how to get around a power like yours by now? It’s not very nice to take away someone’s free will ya know.” Phantom challenged the boy, the friendly tone gone from his voice. Phantom’s apparent distaste for mind controller’s leaking into his voice.

“I’ll give you three pieces of advice, Shinso, as payment for making sure my boy Midoriya here…” Phantom said as the aforementioned Midoriya stood wide-eyed at Phantom as he chastised his friend, caught between his loyalty to his friend, and the fact that Phantom had nearly died trying to save him multiple times. 

“Number One, and I speak from experience on this, NEVER TELL YOUR ENEMY WHEN YOUR POWERS AREN’T WORKING! The second your enemies know that you’re defenseless, they will go for the kill. It’s a good way to die Shinso, so don’t be stupid enough to do it again.” The boy exploded at Shinso, who was suddenly very conflicted as Phantom, who he’d attacked, was giving him advice on how to be a better Hero.

“Number Two. Don’t attack people who are trying to help. First off, it’s rude. Second off, it’s a good way to make enemies, and lord knows us Hero’s don’t need any more enemies.” Phantom continued chastising him, as Shinso’s confusion continued to grow.  Phantom wasn’t registered as a Hero, yet he talked so casually about being one. Surely he was aware he was a vigilante right? 

“And lastly Shinso,” This time the voice came from behind him, whispering in his ear. Spinning to find ANOTHER Phantom standing behind him, before walking over and merging into the original Phantom. 

“If you’re going to try and fight someone who can duplicate themselves, always make sure you take down the master copy.” Phantom seemed to joke as he grabbed back onto Izuku’s shoulder and the two of them vanished in a puff of smoke.

“Izuku!” Shinso yelled as he watched his friend disappear.

Danny and Izuku reappeared on a roof on the other side of town in a puff of green smoke. Danny immediately collapsed in exhaustion, laying on the ground as he tried to catch his breath from the strain of teleporting without a portal- WHILE CARRYING A PASSENGER . His mind screamed at him for being an idiot.

Of course, him laying on the ground wheezing did nothing to stop the fanboying of Izuku Midoriya, who was absolutely freaking out as he discovered that Phantom had even more abilities than he’d previously shown. 

“Oh my gosh, that’s so cool! You can teleport? OOOh, and you can duplicate? How many times can you duplicate? Do you have a limit or does each get weaker and weaker until they’re useless? Would you say that your ability is similar in nature to Ectoplasm’s or is it different?” Izuku rambled off at the boy, who was still laying on the ground but shot up at the mention of Ectoplasm.

“Hang on. Did you say Ectoplasm?” Danny was very much so now paying attention, assuming that this boy had already figured out his secret. 

“Yeah. The Hero Ectoplasm? The one who can create clones of himself?” The boy looked at Danny as if he was stupid for not knowing who a particular Hero.

“Oh. I thought you meant something else. I’ve never heard of this Ectoplasm guy, so I assumed that you were talking about something else.” Danny explained.

“How have you not heard about Ectoplasm? He’s in all the History Books with the battle of….” Danny stopped paying attention as the boy started rambling off every fact he knew about the other Hero, including the Hero’s height, an in-depth breakdown of how his quirk worked, and the man’s Blood Type? What the hell, why does he know that? Danny thought as he focused back in a little to what the boy was rambling about.

“...Didn’t your high school teach you anything about Heroes?” Danny caught the tail end of the boy's speech, unsure of what he might have missed.

“Actually. No. That’s why I need your help…” Phantom admitted to a now slack-jawed boy as he rubbed his neck. 

“I need your help in tracking down the villain who brought me here. It’s that portal guy that was part of the attack on the USJ. I need to know anything you have on him. Right now, he’s my only ticket home, and I can’t explain why, but I NEED to get home soon.” Phantom asked the boy, desperate for any information the boy might have. 

“Uhh… I’m sorry to disappoint you but we don’t really know anything about him. He’s a total mystery, as is the organization he works for: The League of Villains. The attack you showed up in was the first time anyone had heard of them, it’s why most people suspect you have something to do with them... ” Danny’s face dropped as the boy responded to him. Another dead end in his search to get home.\

“Not that I think that! I mean, you saved me within seconds of showing up! but uhh..Phantom? Can I ask you a question?” Izuku burst out before he timidly asked Phantom his question as he realized Phantom was disappointed in his answer. Phantom’s disappointment quickly melted off his face, however.

“Sure. Ask away. You told me everything you knew, even if it wasn’t a lot. You still tried, and that’s what counts.” Phantom smiled at him after erasing his previously down-trodden expression.

“I guess I just wanted to hear it from your side, but are you ok? During the USJ attack, my teacher got pretty protective of me, and I know that you got hurt and…” Izuku trailed off. Unsure of how to express what he was feeling.  

“My mom said they were just protecting me… but I don’t know. I watched them hurt you and it seemed excessive and-” Izuku broke off his sentence as he struggled with his own feelings,  leaving the two standing in silence. Danny however, understood where the kid was coming from.

“You’re wondering if what they did was right.” Danny finished, Izuku just sighed and nodded, confirming his suspicions. 

“Kid, if being a Hero has taught me anything, it’s that we sometimes have to get our hands dirty, to keep everyone else clean. At the end of the day, being a Hero requires sacrifice. Usually, that sacrifice is our body. Scrapes and injuries we get on the job. You know, the usual…”  Danny spoke to the boy, pausing as he pulled back the sleeves of his jumpsuit to show Izuku a fraction of his scars. 

“Other times it’s our relationships. Being a Hero means sacrificing time with the ones we love. It means risking that we may not come back to them one day." Danny spoke more quietly now, and his voice as he paused indicated there was more to that story. 

Danny wanted to tell him about Valerie, about living with his parents and having to see their growing disappointment with him as protecting the town meant unexplained disappearances and lowering grades. But those stories came with questions he couldn’t explain, no matter how much he wanted to. 

“And lastly, it can be our morals. It’s always the last option, but sometimes it’s the only one you have. When you have to choose- your opponent’s life or your’s, the villain's life or the life of the innocent bystander who they grabbed as a hostage. It’s shitty and it sucks, but that’s the truth about being a Hero.” Danny paused, watching as the words he spoke made Izuku twist uncomfortably, clashing with the boy’s unrealistic ideals of Heroics.  

“Your teacher’s made the right call that day. They were protecting you from someone who they thought was a villain, and it certainly didn’t help that I threw the first attack at All-Might trying to do the same. I’m not holding any grudges. I’ve had far worse done to me with far worse reasons. What they did was certainly not entirely right, but in the situation they were in, it was the only one they thought they had.” Danny explained, as the boy just stood silently taking in everything he was saying. 

“Besides, they didn’t even do the worst thing that day. Izuku, what do you think happened to the Nomu?” Danny asked. Izuku’s mind immediately reached the conclusion, but it was one he didn’t like, so he presented the one he hoped had happened.

“It… It got away with the villains?” Izuku stammered out, hoping he was correct, but knowing somewhere deep down he was wrong.

“No. It didn’t.” Danny stated the fact they both knew, hanging his head down.

 “When it came down to the choice of letting it escape, to go out and kill more, or stopping it there and then, I made the choice, and that’s something I can never take back. Now I’ve got to live with Nomu's screams as it tried to regenerate as my wail was killing it. It wasn’t peaceful, It wasn’t clean, and it was a choice I regret having to make, but it was necessary.” Danny spoke, Izuku having gone silent again. 

“Ah shit, I’ve gone and made you sad with the heavy stuff huh. Here, you wanna stick your hand in the hole All-Might made in my body?” Danny suddenly said as he separated the ectoplasm in his chest, opening up a gaping hole in his chest. Izuku’s mouth dropped as he watched the hole open up in Danny’s torso, especially when he realized he could see clean through the other boy. 

“I mean… Yeah, I do.” Izuku admitted, giving in to his morbid curiosity, Phantom’s proposition succeeding in distracting him from all the heavy stuff they’d just talked about. Izuku reached out and giggled a little as his hand passed through Phantom’s body, shivering slightly when he felt the cold goo that Phantom seemed to be made up a pass over his hand, then gasping as he realized something.

“WAIT! Did All-Might’s punch even hurt you?” Izuku asked, causing Danny to chuckle.

“Nope! I just used this hole trick against him! It’s not a trick I get to use often, as most of my enemies won’t hesitate to continue fighting at the sight of blood, but I picked it up while training with the-” Danny cut off as he realized he can’t tell Izuku that he’d trained with the far frozen, as that would spark a whole new litany of questions. 

“Oh, would you look at the time.” Danny acted out glancing down at his wrist, even though he wasn’t even wearing a watch. “I’ve got to go! I’m late for uhh…” He trailed off as he thought of a lie while trying to dodge the question of who he’d trained with. 

“....Hero things!” Danny shouted as he flew off into the night, scolding himself over the answer he’d just given Izuku. Hero things? Really? Is that the best we can do? Maybe Jazz was right, I should’ve picked that improv class back in high school.

Izuku, having been left standing on the roof, stood stunned at Phantom’s sudden and mysterious departure. Climbing down the fire escape, Izuku was already writing in his Journal as he walked away towards U.A. His first night in the dorms was already an exciting one. 

“Oh! Shinso!” Izuku suddenly exclaimed, before pulling out his phone to call the boy, who didn’t answer. Then he tried the house line number Shinso had given him for emergencies, and thankfully the other boy had picked up…. and then started yelling at him for being stupid.

“Yeah! Yeah! I’m fine, man!” Izuku spoke into the phone, trying to calm his friend. 

“Yeah, sounds good! See ya there!” Izuku said as he hung up the phone, before pulling his notebook back out to write as he walked.

Chizome Akaguro, who’d investigated the puff of green smoke on a nearby roof as he was out on his nightly prowl, was frowning.

Phantom had been the top of his list recently after he’d heard rumors of the vigilante having injured All-Might. Anyone who fought All-Might, let alone injured him, was as good as dead in Stain’s book. But the conversation he’d heard tonight between Phantom and the green-haired boy left him spinning. 

Stain had always thought All-Might was the peak hero, as All-Might was a hero because he wanted to save people, not because he was a greedy pig or an attention hog with a strong quirk. But Phantom… Phantom had given him a new perspective. 

Phantom was right. Being a Hero required sacrifice. It meant sometimes getting your hands dirty, just like he himself had chosen to do in his crusade to purge out the fake Heroes. 

I LIKE this Phantom guy… wonder if he’d be open to doing some “collaboration” with me? Chizome wondered. 

As Chizome slunk back into the night, he suddenly found himself frowning as his mind questioned something.

What did All-Might ever sacrifice to be a Hero? Phantom was right, a real Hero must sacrifice something. 

And for the first time, Stain found himself wondering how he could help a hero be better, not that All-Might was going to like his help.

“Ahh... It’s time we make you into a real Hero All-Might.”

Aizawa and Hizashi may be heroes, but right now, following the rules of the law meant very little to them as they sped towards their house in their car, ignoring the speed limit and rolling through every stop sign they came across until they pulled into the parking lot of their complex. 

Getting out of the car, he saw that Midnight and Ectoplasm had beaten them there, and were already outside their apartment waiting for Hizashi and him to arrive. Both of them greeted him as he jogged up to the front door. 

“So. What's the deal? Why the emergency call to your place?” Midnight, ever bold as she was, was the first to question everything going on. 

“Someone’s been sneaking into and out of our house, and no Midnight-” He cut her off as he saw her grin and prepare a joke. “It’s not Shinso sneaking out to see someone.”

“Fine. Alright then. I get it, you’re serious about this.” Midnight said.

“Hurry up! Shinso might be in danger!” Hizashi jumped in with a shout, tired of waiting, as he was standing antsy outside the door, eager for Aizawa to get the key and let them in. 

Mentally preparing himself for what may be on the other side of the door, Aizawa walked over to the door, his fellow teachers filing behind him in a combat formation, before unlocking it and pushing it open slowly. He was ready for a destroyed apartment, instead, he found Shinso standing near the couch packing some boxes.

“Oh! Hi Dads!” Shinso said, and then seeing the other hero’s file in behind them, jumped up and ran over to them, wrapping them in a hug. 

“Auntie-Midnight! Uncle Ecto! What are y’all doing here?” The boy said as he hugged his pseudo extended family.

“Oh, you’re Father’s were worried about you that’s all! They think there might be someone in the house.” Midnight said, before pulling him close to whisper in his ear.

“Though if you ask me, I just think they’re freaking out because they’re not ready for their boy to be moving out and leaving them here all-” Nemuri’s whisper was cut off by Aizawa cuffing her in the back of the head much like a sibling would.

“Kayama, shut up. Shinso, why didn’t you answer your phone.” Aizawa stated ice in his voice.

“It got destroyed in a villain attack! I swear I wasn’t ignoring you! There was this sludge monster and it attacked Izuzku, and then I went to help him but my quirk wasn’t working, so I thought I was going to die, then we heard this laughter, right? And it’s coming from everywhere all spooky-like, and then suddenly Phantom is floating above us, and he just freezes the creature before it even had a chance to fight back, and then Izuku tackled Phantom in a hug, but Phantom just slipped through the ground and started talking about needing Izuku for something, and I remembered what Hizashi said about Phantom might be a villain posing as a vigilante, and I tried to use my Quirk on Phantom-” Shinso’s mouth was flying a hundred miles an hour before he was interrupted.

“Woah, Woah, Slow down. Did you say Phantom saved you?” Aizawa interrupted Shinso who had started rambling a hundred miles an hour. His normal aloof demeanor went in front of those he considered family.  

“Wait. Hizashi, wasn’t that information about Phantom possibly being a villain confidential?” Aizawa turned to stare at his Husband as he spoke, who was suddenly looking much more sheepish. 

“Shinso! That was supposed to be our secret! Now you’ve gone and ratted me out!” Hizashi exclaimed over dramatically as he realized he'd probably be on the couch for a week with the way Aizawa was looking at him right now. 

“I’ll deal with you later,” Aizawa said while staring at Hizashi, hearing Ectoplasm let out a low whistle in the background while Nemuri just leaned over the dark-clad hero and whispered, “whipped”.

“But for now, Shinso. Explain. Everything to me.” He addressed the boy. 

“Hizashi, You, Midnight, and Ectoplasm search the house. We still don’t know what’s going on.” He spoke to the other three heroes in the room, who slowly spread out and started moving through the house slowly.

Shinso had just gotten to the part where Phantom had appeared when they’d heard the crash followed by what was clearly a yelp from Nemuri. Aizawa and Shinso shared a look and then both bolted for the room the yelp had come from.

Rounding the corner into the guest bedroom, Aizawa’s eyes fell upon what seemed to be a perfectly fine Nemuri holding their cat Missile Launcher, and a lamp knocked over on the nightstand next to the guest bed.

“Oh! Sorry! I was checking under the bed when this little guy came flying out and scared me!” Nemuri said, simultaneously explaining what happened and also scolding the cat as if it would apologize for frightening her. 

“I may have knocked the lamp over in my panic sorry. Though it doesn’t look like anything’s broken!” Kayama defended, hoping not to catch the infamous wrath of Aizawa. 

Aizawa and Shinso, just let out a sigh of relief. Both their minds concluding,

Oh, it’s just the cat. they thought simultaneously as relief flooded their system. They’d been ready for a fight. A cat being weird was a much more preferred outcome to the crash and the yelp. 

“Oh, Look at you! You’re such a cutie! How can I stay mad at you when you’re flashing those cute green eyes at me” Nemuri chuckled as she lifted the cat into the air to stare face to face with it. 

Missile Launcher’s eyes are brown… not green.

Aizawa and Shinso’s stomach dropped as they looked over and met the glowing green eyes of the cat Nemuri was holding.

“NEMURI! GET AWAY!  THAT’S NOT OUR CAT!” All that Aizawa was able to get out before limbs exploded from the cat in Nemuri’s grasp.

Chapter Text

Last Time on Phantom: A Ghostly Hero

Oh, it’s just the cat. they thought simultaneously as relief flooded their system. They’d been ready for a fight. A cat being weird was a much more preferred outcome to the crash and the yelp. 

“Oh, Look at you! You’re such a cutie! How can I stay mad at you when you’re flashing those cute green eyes at me” Nemuri chuckled as she lifted the cat into the air to stare face to face with it. 

Missile Launcher’s eyes are brown… not green.

Aizawa and Shinso’s stomach dropped as they looked over and met the glowing green eyes of the cat Nemuri was holding.

 “NEMURI! GET AWAY! THAT’S NOT OUR CAT!” All that Aizawa was able to get out before limbs exploded from the cat in Nemuri’s grasp.

Nemuri was currently regretting her love of cats, a trait she shared with her friends Aizawa, as the thing she had picked up and held close to her face was clearly NOT a cat. The limbs exploding from it close to her face made that very, very clear to her. 

Before she knew it, one of the limbs- a fist. she realized- was flying for her head. Now, being a Pro Hero, she’d certainly taken many a hit, and it was immediately clear that the owner of this fist was clearly enhanced. Very enhanced. she noted as the punch connected with her cheek, feeling as if she’d instead been hit by a truck as she felt her body fly across the room, dropping the cat as her body went limp midair.

From her spot on the ground, she was able to see the resulting explosion of activity. Aizawa and Shinso recoiling away and bumping into Ectoplasm, who stood in the doorway, having arrived just in time to see the Not-Cat attack. Then, she watched as the limbs sprouting from the cat continued to stretch, then a snow-white head of hair appearing from the cat, followed shortly by the rest of the individual emerging from the cat, as the man began to shed the limp body of the cat. Pulling herself up off the floor to her knees, she gasped as she recognized the invader. 

Phantom. her mind noted, suddenly sorry for doubting Aizawa and Hizashi’s claims that there was an intruder in their house. Phantom, the vigilante who may be earning the trust of Heroes in efforts, only to strike when they drop their guard, was in her friend’s house. Phantom was in the house of two Heroes, namely the only Hero to inflict lasting injury on the villain. 

He’s here for Aizawa. Trying to get the drop on him. she realized as she looked at Aizawa, who has stepped in between his son and the hovering Phantom, who was wearing a shocked expression of his own. But then, rather than lunging for Aizawa as she expected, Phantom bolted for the wall.

“Aizawa! Stop him! He’s going to-” Nemuri began to yell as she realized Phantom’s plans to escape rather than fight, but was interrupted by Aizawa doing exactly as she said, his hair floating up and the red of his eyes beginning to glow. 

Phantom’s scream of pain, followed by a flash of light, and the tell-tell thunk of what was clearing Phantom smacking into the wall rather than flying through it as he had probably hoped, pulled her attention back to the form of Phantom on the floor: the loud thump and the flash of the boy’s transformation sending a very distressed Missile Launcher running out the door. 

His now-black hair catching her attention as the boy began to pick himself up, before turning to face them, his face showing a clear panic and backing himself into the corner away from the heroes now inching closer.

“Ectoplasm! Midnight! Cuff him!” Aizawa yelled as the two heroes got closer to the trapped teen, the “ Before I have to blink ” implied. Nemuri shuttered at the thought of what would happen if Aizawa dropped his quirk even for a second round a foe as dangerous as Phantom. 

“I got him!” Ectoplasm yelled as he got closer to the powerless boy, who had drawn into himself now as if he’d accepted his fate.

 “Not so tough now that you don’t have those ridiculous quirks huh?” Ectoplasm taunted the boy. 

“None of you powerhouses ever know how to fight without your quirk anywa-” Ectoplasm was cut off by the boy exploding towards him from his corner, the Panic in his face gone, replaced by a cold focus. 

Nemuri watched as the boy’s body twisted sideways, leg lashing out and hooking onto the back with Ectoplasm’s peg legs, sending the man down towards the floor. Phantom pivoted onto the foot he'd just swept and brought his knee up deadly fast, meeting the surprised man’s head that had been on its way down. Before Ectoplasm realized it or had a chance to defend himself, he’d been knocked out and hit the floor. Nemuri instantly recognized the form.

Muay Thai. He went for his opponent’s weakness first. This kid’s trained. she realized. … and absolutely savage. she acknowledged the boy’s targeting of Ectoplasm’s head and his use of a banned technique in MMA. 

Though surprised, Nemuri didn’t suddenly grow scared to fight the teen. As someone who’s quirk didn’t do much to actually defend their body against opponents who managed to circumvent or resist her quirk, Nemuri had a little bit of martial arts experience herself; a lot actually. Though Phantom’s increased strength could be an issue if he maintained it in this form. 

In a small space like this, she couldn’t release huge amounts of her quirk’s sleep gas without also risking that Aizawa and - wait? Where’s Shinso and Hizashi? her mind froze as she looked around for the boy, who’d vanished sometime recently.

FOCUS NEMURI! If they’re not here they’re safe! Now, back to Phantom. her mind screamed as she realized the boy had moved again, barely managing to fling her elbows up in time to block the boy’s elbow that was currently flying at her, though now impact came. 

He bluffed me! she realized as she saw Phantom crossing the room towards Aizawa, and leaving her unmoving form untouched.

Going for the person limiting his powers; smart. She realized as she saw Phantom dashing for Aizawa, and realizing she needed to move to intercept him. Thankfully, Aizawa’s capture rope, now flying towards Phantom, forcing the boy to dodge, gave her enough time to close the gap between the two, tackling the boy onto the ground. 

“Ooh, Muay Thai? Pretty dangerous martial art for a kid like yourself- don’t you think?” She said as she wrapped her limbs around his neck while laying on her back, grabbing the boy’s arm as she moved to pull the boy’s arm into an arm-bar, a technique she learned from training in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu, a favorite form of her’s as it mostly involved “wrestling” with the opponent. 

Though it seemed the boy’s surprises never stopped that night, as the boy swung his legs over, rotating his body while pushing on her leg over and off from its position on her head before she could complete the bar; performing what was commonly known as a hitchhiker escape and matching her Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu instantly. 

Now, Nemuri found herself on the floor, with Phantom’s arm grabbing her leg while he rotated, pulling her off of her back and pushing her leg over her side until it forced her to roll onto her side. A master of BJJ herself, however, she countered the boy’s escape by rolling onto her knees and arms, in order to get height on the boy so that she could escape the return leg lock every year of her BJJ experience told her was coming. 

“A great defense if I only knew Jiu-Jitsu, but not very smart against someone who’s been training in Pankration since they were five.” Phantom, suddenly more talkative after Shinso left the room, remarked as Nemuri felt her arm get forced harshly behind her back and Phantom’s hand come to rest against her head before he pulled. The pain in her shoulder as it was forced against its natural rotation behind her back as Phantom pulled her into a shoulder lock. 

OUCH! THAT HURTS! I can’t escape that, at least, not without tearing every muscle in my shoulder. AND REALLY? PANKRATION?  Midnight thought over her current predicament, frustrated over the fact that the boy seemingly knew ANOTHER style of martial arts, begging the question of Just How Many Styles does this kid know? And Why?, though it was the fact that it was the boy’s use of Pankration that pissed her off the most. Of course, he has to use the wrestling style based entirely on the user’s strength, the one style that I could never match him in? Midnight scathed internally. Of course, all this left her two options: her Quirk and hopefully distracting Phantom through her other means. She chose both. 

“OUCH! That’s no way to treat a lady is it?” Midnight said as sultry as possible while pressing her body back against Phantom’s, alleviating some of the pain in her arm and hopefully distracting Phantom, giving her room to escape. While she moved, she released a little bit of her quirk, releasing just enough that it should knock out Phantom, but dissipate before it reached Aizawa, who was still doing his best just not to blink. Nemuri would have no such luck though.

“Eww. Gross. I’m seventeen, Lady.” Phantom coldly remarked, still wide awake as ever, her quirk seeming to not affect him. “And from what I’ve read, your quirk only works on people that have to breathe.” Phantom stated. Nemuri however, didn’t get a chance to react to the boy’s comment, as the boy followed ancient Pankration form, namely, beating the ever-living crap out of your opponents while you have them down. 

Nemuri’s vision swam as the boy’s fist that wasn’t holding her arm connected with the side of her head from behind. Feeling him release her arm as she fell off her knees and over onto her side, Nemuri forced her aching body to roll over, fighting off the urge to pass-out then and there.

Turning, she managed to roll over in just enough time to watch the boy standing over her’s expression suddenly change to one of shock as his eyes flung open wide, before vanishing in a puff of smoke moment’s later.

Danny knew he’d been caught as soon as the lady holding the body he was cohabitating currently mention the color of the cat’s eyes and saw how the members of the family who’s the house he was crashing expression’s change to dread as they locked eyes with what Danny assumed where his own glowing green ones where the cat’s brown eyes should have been. 

WHELP. SHIT. Danny thought, as he mentally cursed himself for being an idiot. His instincts, which had up until this point had been screaming for him to stay at this house despite the risks, had betrayed him and were now insisting very impolitely that he get the hell out of here. Danny, of course, pulled the escape method he so often used: the bait and switch.

Flinging a duplicate out of the cat’s body to deal with the heroes who’d burst in on him, the real Danny remained still, hidden in the cat. Waiting until the heroes were focused on what they assumed to be a powerless Phantom, as he watched his duplicate slam headfirst into the wall it’d probably tried to fly through- God. Do I always act that stupid? Danny thought as he watched the other him pick himself up off the floor like a fool- before sprinting out the door in the cat’s body hoping to put as much distance between himself and the heroes as possible. 

As soon as he was out of the room with all the heroes, he shed the cat’s body and shifted to his Phantom form. After giving the cat a quick “Thanks for letting me hitch a ride” / “Sorry for possessing you” pat atop its head, Danny grabbed his back-pack, hidden intangibly under the floor by the sliding door, and flew intangibly through the door and into the night.

That was too close! Danny thought as he thought over the events of the night. Of course, Danny’s relief didn’t last very long. No, Murphy would never allow him such a clean escape. 

“PHANTOM! HELP!” He heard the unmistakable sound of Izuku’s voice ring out through the streets, his core launching once again into its mantra of PROTECT. PROTECT. PROTECT.

“PHANTOM HURRY! IT’S THE SLIME MONSTER! HE GOT OUT!”

“I’m coming, Izuku! Hold on!” He shouted into the night, as he pumped more and more power into flying fast and faster, back towards the neighborhood he’d just left behind. 

“HELP!” Izuku’s voice rang out from an alley just on the edge of the Neighborhood. Phantom, fearing his young friend was in danger, dove straight in.

“I’m here! Where are you?” Danny shouted in a panicked voice as he dove down into the alleyway, searching for his friend in danger. As he felt his feet come to rest on the floor of the alleyway, it immediately became clear something was off. The alleyway was empty. No slime monster. No Izuku Midoriya. 

“Gotcha” he heard Izuku’s voice behind him. Turning to face the boy, Danny was not met with the sight of a short, green-haired boy who he’d managed to befriend in his time in this strange world. 

Standing under the pale moonlight in the entrance of the alleyway was Hitoshi Shinso, a mechanical-looking mask covering his face. Danny watched as the boy reached up, twisting a knob on his mask. Then Shinso spoke again.

“Always take down the master copy.” Danny heard his own voice spoken back to him.

Hizashi Yamada was not having a good day. So far, he’d fought needlessly with his husband, his son had been attacked by a monster and then snitched on him to his husband, he just watched his cat exploded limbs and punch his friend in the face, and now he was watching helplessly while Phantom beat the shit out of his other friend, knocking him out with a brutal knee.

His quirk was useless in close quarters like this. Sure, he’d absolutely wreck the teen intruding in his house if he threw out a shout, but he’d also make every one of his friends and husband permanently lose their hearing and would probably take a wall of his home out as well. He was already in trouble with his husband over the telling Shinso sensitive information thing, and he’d be sleeping out on the couch for a year if he did a little freestyle demolition of their home. 

And unlike Midnight, he was a ranged fighter, he didn’t stand a chance against Phantom, who evidently knew some sort of crazy martial art based on how fast he’d taken down Ectoplasm, and the fearlessness in his eyes as he stared down Midnight. 

So when Shinso grabbed his arm and pulled him from the room, he complied with the boy's urgency, even if he was confused as to why the boy was currently so insistent on getting him out of the room. He was even more confused as Shinso pulled him back into his bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

“Dad. I’ll explain later, but do you have the video I sent you on my first day of being in the Heroics course?” his son asked. Why he needed to know, Hizashi had no clue, but the urgence in the boy’s voice meant that he didn’t question its importance. 

“Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I have one of my most proud moments saved to my camera roll?” Hizashi explained, as of course, he had the video. That video of Shinso and Tenya Iida casually sparring, taken by one Midoriya Izuku who had wanted video footage of Shinso’s fighting style so that he could later analyze it and add more data to Shinso’s page in his notebooks, had alleviated the fear Hizashi’s heart had felt at the idea that the other students wouldn’t take kindly to someone with a quirk like Shinso’s. 

Of course, being filmed by the excitable Midoriya Izuku, the video was beyond shaky as the boy jumped and cheered his friends on in their match, then switching to almost three full minutes of nothing but Midoriya’s shoes as the boy rambled on and on about Shinso’s fighting abilities and potential uses of his quirk, forgetting the fact that he’d been recording in his rambling/analyzing state the boy often fell into. 

Shinso grabbed the phone from Hizashi’s hand as he pulled it from the pocket of his coat and offered it to his son. No sooner than Hitoshi had it in his hands, he took off to his room, leaving Hizashi stunned at the entire strange encounter he’d just had. Of course, his confusion only grew as his son emerged from his room holding a metal object Hizashi knew quite well. He’d helped design it after all. 

Shinso was holding his Artificial Vocal Cords.  A mask that utilized shifting metal plates to alter the sound of Shinso’s voice, and that allowed him to copy the voices of those Shinso recorded into the mask.  Shinso held the mask gingerly, as if afraid that dropping it would bring a sudden end to the world. 

Hizashi, a hero based off of sound as well and with an extensive history in music and sound design as well, had done a large amount of consulting with the support company that had designed it, and while a lot of that job was just serving as a test dummy while they figured out the extent and limitations of his boy’s quirk, he’d also been the one to recommend the metal plates when they realized his son’s quirk didn’t work through speakers.

Watching as his son played the video into the mask’s microphone, he knew logically that his son was copying one of the voices from the video into the mask, but he couldn’t quite figure out why. Phantom clearly knew about Shinso’s quirk and the mask only held to trick and confuse unwitting enemies. It didn’t make sense. Phantom was never going to fall for a trick he could see coming.

The sound of the sliding door opening and shoes hitting the ground pulled him out of his ponderance. Hizashi, still as confused as to what’s going on, wasn’t confused enough not to follow. He watched as his son’s form disappeared over their fence, following and climbing over the fence before launching himself over the side before continuing to follow his son until he ducked into an alleyway.

Rounding the corner into the Alleyway himself, he ran into his son, who’d stopped. Turning towards him, Shinso drew his hands away from where they’d been on his face, showcasing the black metal of the mask now sitting in the place where his son’s mouth had been and Hizashi remembered how much he hated that mask. The damn thing looked like a muzzle.

Hizashi had seen the case file on his son from the orphanage they’d chosen him from. He’d seen the pictures of his son, before he’d been in the orphanage, with his parents who he’d been taken away from. The parents who had muzzled him .  Shinso had been too young to remember it thankfully, but the photo’s Hizashi had seen, and which Shinso would never see, were burned into his mind forever. 

All Hizashi’s life, people had joked about muzzling him because of his quirk, and because of how early he had developed it. Thankfully Hizashi’s parents had never even entertained the idea, even listening to all the “concerts” he put on as a child and had even put him through expensive music lessons even though they themselves weren’t that well off. 

Hizashi’s parents loved him more than he could ever appreciate, but the thought had always nagged him. What if they hadn’t? What if they’d listened to everyone around them and just muzzled him? It’s why Hizashi had known Shinso was the only kid for them as soon as he’d read the case file and seen his photos. 

Hizashi had been scared of that very thing happening to him all his life… to see a kid going through it? Hizashi had sworn at that moment he’d make sure Shinso never had to fear being forced into another muzzle in his life, that he’d be just as good, or better, to the boy than his parents had been to him. He HAD to.

Seeing the mask covering the boy’s face… seeing the harsh shape over his son’s mouth, he couldn’t help but be reminded of the little boy in the case file photo, crying as he’d pulled at the cage over his mouth while the parents who’d brought that pain upon him smiled. 

“Quick! Dad! Hide!” Shinso’s voice interrupted his thinking, and he noticed the boy was now hiding against the wall of the alley, pointing to the dumpster across from him.  Shinso’s voice from behind the mask made it hurt all the more, but he listened, all the same, darting behind the dumpster and making himself as small as possible. He may not know what they were hiding from or why they were hiding at all, but whatever the reason, it was clear Shinso had a plan for what was about to happen. Nodding to Shinso as he got into position, he watched his son reach up to the side of his mask, taking in a deep breath as he did.

“PHANTOM! HELP!” The voice of Midoriya Izuku screamed from where his son sat across the alleyway. Hizashi sat stunned, as the raw FEAR in the voice his son screamed out. He hated it. Before he could question what was going on, his son yelled again.

“PHANTOM HURRY! IT’S THE SLIME MONSTER! HE GOT OUT!” Shinso screamed at the top of his lungs, the plates in his mask distorting it for a result of a terrified Izuku Midoriya. The thought of Izuku in a situation where he was calling out like that, for some reason, bothered Hizashi deeply. 

“I’m coming, Izuku! Hold on!” The unmistakable, and terrified, voice of Phantom called back quietly as if it were a great distance farther their house down the street, where Phantom was likely still fighting his husband and Midnight, and from the wrong direction.

But that didn’t make sense. How could Phantom have gotten so far away so quickly? He’d still been in the room as Hizashi had run out, and from the sound of it, the vigilante was FAR away currently.

“HELP!” His son called out again, and this time, the response a few seconds later was much closer. 

“I’m here! Where are you?” Phantom called out from directly above the alley, startling  Hizashi with how close the voice was to his hiding position. Hizashi watched as the white-headed man floated down, his feet gently touching down into the alleyway, before turning in a circle in the alleyway, trying to spot the source of Izuku’s voice. He watched as his son slipped out from behind the trash can he’s been hiding behind and into the opening of the alleyway, too which Phantom currently had his back turned.

“Gotcha” The voice of Midoriya Izuku spoke from his son, Phantom’s head whipping around to find the boy. Phantom’s eyes went from panic over the potential fate of Izuku, to fear as he realized Izuku was nowhere to be found. Hizashi watched as his son turned a knob on his mask and spoke to the boy down the alley from him.

“Always take down the master copy.” Phantom’s own voice came from where his son was standing, and he watched Phantom’s expression drop and his whole body tense. Phantom sprung into action, bending his legs as if he were about to jump and take off, but he was stopped with one word from Shinso.

“Stop,” Shinso ordered Phantom's body jerking and locking up as Shinso’s quirk activated. “Power Down, and drop the duplicate at the house,” Shinso ordered again, and Hizashi had to shield his eyes from the bright glowing rings that suddenly appeared and traveled down the vigilante’s body. Where Phantom had stood, was now a dark-haired teenager, absolutely glowering at Shinso. 

“Now, get on the ground, hands behind your back.” Shinso approached Phantom, standing mere feet away as the other boy got down to his knees, before laying down fully and complying with Shinso’s orders, shaking with anger but unable to ignore the commands from Shinso’s quirk. 

“Sleep” Shinso commanded once again, not willing to take the chance a conscious Phantom found some other way around his quirk’s powers, and the boy’s head immediately lolled over to the side, knocked out cold.

“Can you cuff him, please? He’s asleep for now, but not telling how dangerous he’ll be when he wakes up” Shinso looked at Hizashi, who realized he was still hiding behind the dumpster, having been too transfixed by what was going on to move. Shinso moved out of the way as Hizashi hurried over, and while Hizashi couldn’t be sure due to the mask, his son was clearly grinning under the mask.

Present Mic once again found a reason to dislike the mask. Between the mischievous grin his son was almost certainly wearing, the scary plan of using someone else’s voice against his opponent, and the terrifying metal mask he wore, Hizashi couldn’t help but be terrified at the thought of “What if Shinso had been a villain?”. The mask made his son, his cute baby boy, look dangerous, and Hizashi Yamada didn’t like it one bit.

Taking the power cuffs out of his pocket, he bent over and applied a pair to the boy’s wrists, and then another pair to his ankles remembering the vision of Ectoplasm’s face crunching into one of those knees. He waited for a second, waiting to see if Phantom would have another adverse reaction to the cuffs, as he had to his husband's quirk. From what he had heard from his husband… it hadn't been pretty. 

Luckily, however, the boy remained motionless on the ground with no sign of screaming or pain to be found. Stepping back, Yamada was surprised as he was suddenly wrapped up into a hug by his son.

“YEAH! We got him!” Hizashi was filled with pride as his son uncharacteristically cheered as he hugged his dad. Shinso then pulled away slightly and breathed out a massive sigh.

“Whew. I had no clue whether or not that would work. When I tried that earlier tonight Phantom just laughed and vanished with a puff of smoke.” Shinso exclaimed, and Yamada felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead.

“YOU MEAN YOU DIDN’T KNOW WHETHER OR NOT THAT WOULD WORK!?” Hizashi yelled as he realized his son had gone in and potentially risked his life on nothing but a chance that it would work. Thought of what Phantom might’ve done to him if Shinso’s quirk hadn’t brought him down without any violence flooded his mind.

“ALSO! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? HOW DID YOU KNOW PHANTOM HAS ESCAPED ALREADY?” Hizashi screeched as he remembered just how many questions he had about what had just happened. Shinso froze just a little before sheepishly responding.

“I was trying to tell you guys earlier, but then everything happened and… well, when Phantom fought the slime villain and had grabbed Izuku… I tried my quirk on him then, and it didn’t work.” Shinso explained while rubbing his neck. 

“Turns out, Phantom-” he gestured to the boy’s downed form, “can duplicate himself. The Phantom I tried to control earlier was a copy, and the original -who must have been hiding nearby invisibly or something- Phantom kicked me out of the copy's head. He then grabbed Midoriya and told me that if I went against someone who could copy themselves, that I should make sure I got the original.” Shinso continued his explanation, and Yamada was floored as he added duplication to the growing list of powers he’d heard Phantom might possess, the sheer length of which was slightly scary to the man.

“So when Midnight was attacked, I found it suspicious that we got Phantom trapped in the room so easily. It was too easy. But then I saw Missile Launcher run out of the room and her eyes were still green, and I knew that we were chasing the wrong Phantom. Phantom’s good at escaping. I don’t think anyone would deny he’s one of the smartest villains we’ve seen in a long time based on how quickly he adapts in battle, so I knew I’d have to trick him.” Shinso explained, but Hizashi was still confused as to one part. 

“But why Izuku’s voice?” Hizashi asked, confused as to how Shinso knew that Phantom would come to Izuku’s calls for help, and why Phantom was so concerned with the boy in the first place. Hizashi did not like his son’s answer.

“Phantom…” He trailed off as he tried to explain. “oddly concerned about Izuku. The first thing Phantom did when he fell through that other villain’s portal was protect Izuku, and then he fought All-Might over Izuku, and then he protects  Izuku from the slime villain, then he abducts Izuku to talk to him but doesn’t harm a hair on his head. Phantom has some sort of connection…” he paused as Shinso was explaining his logic as he thought it through. 

“or some sort of weird obsession with Izuku.” Shinso spat the word out as he tried to figure out why Phantom seemed to care so much about Izuku in particular. “He hadn’t gotten involved with any other members of 1-A at the USJ. He hadn’t stayed and talked to anyone else he had saved while posing as a vigilante. And now he shows up at our house, where the only hero to fight him away from Izuku lives…” Shinso was rambling at this point.

“So what? You think that he’s some sort of Yandere for Izuku or something?” Yamada asked, embarrassed that he even had to say something that sounded that ridiculous out loud, but it was the only option that immediately made sense to him, though perhaps that was due to recently reading a few of the “Sixty Shades of White” audio-books recently.

“No... Thankfully I don’t think it’s that” Shinso said with a shudder at the thought, glancing down at the still immobile boy on the ground.

“We thought that Phantom was pretending to be a vigilante to get the hero’s to trust him so that he could attack them when their guard is down… but what if we were only half right?” Shinso challenged his father, who wasn’t quite following along yet.

“Izuku has either been the target of, or involved with at least 3 villain attacks within the last month. Now Phantom is showing up and getting buddy-buddy with Izuku, trying to earn his trust by protecting him and acting like a vigilante. It’s just… what if, instead of going after heroes as we thought, he’s going after Izuku.” Shinso pondered aloud to his father. 

“But why Izuku? Why all of the students and heroes… why him?” Hizashi asked. What Shinso was saying… it made sense. Izuku seemed to be involved in every major public appearance of Phantom, and Phantom had come running at the possibility that Izuku had gotten hurt. But why did he? Hizashi couldn’t think of a  single reason that Izuku Midoriya would be special to Phantom. Then his phone rang in his coat pocket, looking at the contact info, he paled as he realized it was his husband, who he’d forgotten about in the excitement of the last five minutes.

“Shota! Are you okay?” He spoke into the phone as he answered his husband’s call and whipped it up to his ear.

“We’re fine, but Phantom got away. Where are you, and where’s Shinso?” Aizawa questioned him, worried over the disappearance of Phantom while his husband and son were nowhere to be found.

“Oh umm… about that… Shinso captured Phantom. We’ve got him here on the ground in the alleyway at the corner of the block.” Hizashi answered his questions and was met with a pause on the other side of the line.

“You mean I missed my son’s first villain take-down?” Aizawa asked. Seeing Shinso take down his first bad guy had been his dream ever since he’d started training with his son full time… and he missed it. 

“Whatever you big baby, just get the police down here as soon as you can. Got to go, love you, bye.” Hizashi ended the call before his husband could trap him in a wallowing rant, which he sensed coming based on the other man’s tone. As he hung up, the phone app minimized and brought back up the video that his phone was playing earlier, right in the middle of Izuku’s analysis of Shinso’s weaknesses in combat. Shinso’s gasp a few seconds later scared him, but what he said next did moreso.

“Izuku’s notebooks!” Shinso almost shouted. “He’s been analyzing every major and minor hero and every villain he’s come across or seen on t.v for years. Strengths, weaknesses, quirk limitations, personality, plans to take them down if they’re villains and plans to subdue in case a hero goes rogue! I met him a week ago and my section is four pages long! If a villain got a hold of  one of those notebooks…” Shinso trailed off, his eyes wide as he looked as his father, who shared his panicked look.

“They could bring down every hero in Musutafu,” Yamada whispered his terrifying realization.

Chapter Text

God this hurts me to do. I know you're excited to see a new chapter, and not an A/N but I've gotta do this.

Alright, you always know it’s bad when the author posts a note instead of a chapter. I’m going to be honest; I’m just not happy with the current story, and the way that it’s been told so far. I know I came back over a week ago promising an update, but in preparation for writing that updated chapter, I re-read my work, and it’s a no from me. 

The first couple chapters of this exist kinda separate from the others. They were created from the original plan and document I had, back before I was invested in this story. The process of writing new chapters has led me to finally do what I should’ve done in the beginning and actually plan out the story beyond the next chapter, as I was working chapter by chapter for the first few updates. Planning everything out, one thing became clear, I’d screwed myself over. 

Early on in the story, I made a choice that is now presenting massive problems for the story down the road. Not that it breaks it, but that the story has changed in ways that the choice has become very limiting to me and my work. I want to write the best story possible, and I can’t just undo the choice I made. Then I looked at the comments again, and I’ve noticed that a large majority of my feedback has a lot to do with this issue. I could work around this issue, and I really did try, but honestly, I don’t want to. I’m driven by passion, and I just don’t have passion for the story that I would be forced to tell.

Early on, I limited myself in other ways as well. Because of my original lack of familiarity with the MHA fandom, I made some really rigid choices, had a few major OOC moments, stuff like that. I was forced to try and write around the characters as I had portrayed them, not how I wanted them to be or like they were in cannon. I kicked Hanta Sero from the Hero program just because I hadn’t really seen his character for what it could be and didn’t know how to write him. I wrote the story out as Midoriya/Ochako because I vaguely knew they liked each other in cannon. 

I’ve used the last month and a half to really look into the characters and their personalities, into the world of MHA, and how I want that world to mesh with Danny’s. There are moments, scenes, choices, dialogue, and entire arcs that I wish I had written that would’ve occurred before where we are now, so I’m going to write them. In my original draft of the “apology for going radio silent for a month on y’all” author’s note, I wrote the phrase, “it won’t be perfect, but it’s going to be the best I can do with what I have written already. But that bothered me. It could never be the best story it could’ve been in the state, held back by the choices I made in the beginning.

As of right now, Phantom: A Ghostly Hero is under rewrite. I’m not cancelling PGH. 

A total rewrite. I’m going to keep this page up, but this story will be coming up on my page again shortly, under a new title and a different work, and I’ll make them a collection so it’s easier to find. I’ve got MASSIVE changes planned. Honestly, not even the first chapter is the same at this point. 

My biggest mistake early on though, was not listening to my audience more. The things I have issues with now, commenters noticed and pointed out when they were tiny issues. Issues that I let grow as chapters continued and now here we are. So, I want you guys to be a part of the rewrite. https://forms.gle/K28RmpAe1xApY4iX6 is a link to google forms I made for you guys to give me feedback on PGH as it is, and how you want the next version to be! If you want to trash me, trash me. If you want to worship the ground I walk on, do so. I don’t care, I just want to know how I can make this story what you guys want to read. 

Like I said, I really want to make this the best story for you guys as possible, so I’m going to start with a major choice, that I’m giving straight to y’all. Like I said earlier, I made a random choice to choose Uraraka as Deku’s pairing. It’s a fine pairing, and I could write it and do it justice, but I want to give you guys a say in the story you read. I’ve created a different google form, where you guys can choose Izuku’s pairing in the rewrite. https://forms.gle/dMAMXfGgmi7phb5r5 . Maybe y’all keep it the same, maybe you guys change it. I don’t care. I’ve included all the options that I feel comfortable writing, and that I feel I can write in such a way to do the story justice.  I’m going to keep this poll up and running until the day I actually get to a point where I’m ready to start sneaking in romance.  ((EDIT// Check bottom for more info// EDIT))

I think the biggest change you’ll notice straight away is I’m going to switch up my writing style a little bit. I used the early chapters of PGA to get back into writing after a multiple year break from doing so, and it really shows.I was using that same confusing writing style from my middle school and high school years, and I just sort of know that I can do better. Of course, that means that the first chapters are going to be a tad slow as I relearn writing essentially. 

But overall, I just want to thank you guys. For your support. For your views. For your comments. For the people who became good enough friends to actually go searching for me during my sudden break from posting. I love all y’all, and couldn’t do what I do without you guys. I’d really appreciate it if you guys could help me make this rewrite great by filling out those forms, but no pressure!

This has been Shaken-N-Quaken checking-in, and signing-out. 

Love y'all, thanks.

(( EDIT// I should mention, The Izuku x whoever y'all choose pairing, if y'all pick one at all, would be super minor. Alot of people where afraid I'd focus on that instead of the crossover story, but that's not my intention. This isn't going to be a rom-com anytime soon, and at most it would be like hints here and there, but I'd never have an arc focused solely around it or anything.  //EDIT))

((EDIT 5/28/2020) OK, so when the school year ended, I assumed I'd have like? Free time? I knew I was going to still be working over the summer, but I've never really picked up more than like 3 shifts a week at my normal job, so I assumed I'd have like at least four open days a week to mess around or write, but as of this last week, my mom has decided I will be working in her office on any day I don't have a shift. Considering I work weekends at my normal job, I'm essentially working 7 days a week now, and let me tell you. FUCK ME it's terrible. Long story short, rewrite is going to be MUCH slower than I thought, though it will still happen. Sorry for the inconvenience. Best wishes and stay safe y'all. ))

(( EDIT 10/2020, aight, school do be alot of work, and I'm also working a full time job now, but, but, I'm actually working on this thing now. It's going to be SLOW going, probably a chapter a month if that until the holidays, but even then I'll be working full time still, so who knows? A few changes are coming in to the story, but the key elements are going to remain the same. Very excited, @TheFriendThatDied is beta-ing for me, and their lovely when it comes to helping me write. I relearned the English grammar system while writing this the first time and have since forgotten it, so they're going to be a big help. As of now, the final decision that you guys made is that Izuku shouldn't have a pairing, and I am AOK with that, but it was a CLOSE one, but its final. If you have any last minute story suggestions now is the time folks. Also, a few brain bunnies and other short stories that have been floating around in my head are probably going to start coming out soon, so keep and eye out for those! BIG ANGST, BIGGER FEELS, BEST OF LUCK)))

Chapter Text

Today is the anniversary of when I last posted to this story! It's been a long, long year. I'm still working full time, going to school full time, and vibing full time! But that doesn't mean that I've been sitting here and doing nothing!

This story has gone through three more drafts revisions/ edits/ redo's since I decided to rewrite it. First I gave Midoriya a quirk, then I took it away, then I made Dadzawa a central factor in the story, then that was replaced by a focus on political intrigue. Then It became a slice of life, then a romance, then a thriller. Point is, this story has changed in so many ways since I first decided to rewrite it.

Finally, however, I believe I've found the story that I want to tell. I can't wait to share it with you all! It's been a long break since I've last written frequently, so just like last time, my first few chapters might be a bit iffy on grammar and length, but by the time I get a few chapters in I should be cruising along again!

I'll be posting the first chapter of the rewrite later today (it's 12:01 am right now)

Lastly, a big shout out to @TheFriendThatDied.  They've been helping me work through all my ideas for the last year, and they're the only reason I've managed to get this story to a place I feel I should post it! Another shout out to everyone that left a review and feedback on my google forms, your ideas have done wonders to this story!

So excited to begin again,

Shake N Quake

EDIT << It is done!  https://archiveofourown.org/works/31491905/chapters/77901017 Or follow the collection! Thanks a ton >>

Chapter Text

All things considered, Izuku was having a bad day. As it was, Izuku was no longer fighting to win. He was fighting to survive. It was supposed to be a training day. It was supposed to be a day spent learning rescue techniques for natural disasters and the like, but at the rate it's going now, it’s looking more and more like a body recovery training day. He’d barely avoided being eaten by a shark, His fingers were all purple and mangled as they hung uselessly at his side from using his quirk, Thirteen was critically injured, and now Aizawa was fighting the leaders of the villain attack all alone with an injured elbow and it looked like he was-

NO! AIZAWA-SENSEI! Midoriya stood shocked as he realized somewhere in his analysis of the day’s events that the thing the villains had brought with them was now gripping Aizawa’s face in one of its massive palms. The mutation quirk it possessed having given it an advantage in the fight with his teacher, whose quirk was, unfortunately, useless in a fight against mutations. To his horror, the monster slammed his teacher’s head into the ground with a sickening thud. Then it lifted Aizawa’s head up and slammed it down once more.

As the thing repeatedly bashed his teacher’s head into the ground, the purple mist villain appeared nearby the man covered in hands- the leader of this attack- as Izuku realized. The purple mist man informed the creepy hand man, whose name was Tomura Shigaraki based on the way the warp villain addressed him, that he’d failed to kill Thirteen. 

“I’ve put thirteen out of action, but one of the students escaped” the warp villain, Kurogiri, as Midoryia learned from Shigaraki’s response, continued. Izuku watched as the villain who’d been speaking in gaming terms began scratching his face furiously before suddenly halting and nonchalantly stating:

“Well, I guess it’s game over. All-might’s not here. Let’s go home” 

What? Game over? Are they leaving? Midoryia wondered in his head, the two other students next to him excited that the bad guys were going home and that “They were saved”. 

Midoryia wasn’t so sure. Thoughts of Why would they come all this way to go home empty-handed? Were they trying to kill All-Might? He’s not here, what are they going to do? raced through his head. Then, Shigaraki’s face turned to look at them, and his heart sank. Midoryia was too scared to understand everything the man was rambling, but when the words...

“But before we go...let’s smash his pride as the symbol of peace and leave a few dead kids for him to find” left the man’s mouth and Izuku realized the man had suddenly moved a lot closer than he was before, reaching out to grab Tsuyu’s head. Remembering what his quirk did after seeing it used on Aizawa-sensei, the skin going to the bone on his sensei’s elbow with just a glancing touch, Midoryia realized what he meant:

He’s going to kill us. Midoryia realized as fear shot through him. Shigaraki’s hand landed on Tsuyu’s head. She’s going to die … and I sat here and watched it happen. Shigaraki’s hand rested there on top of the frog girl’s head for a few seconds and Midoryia waited for it to happen. The disintegration. Her death. One finger landed on her head, then another, then the rest. Five-point contact, and yet nothing. 

“Damn it...You really are cool” the man, turning and glaring back at Aizawa-sensei who’s hair was flying, even as it was gripped by the Nomu, and whose eyes were being held open in determination to save his student. Midoryia chose that moment to come to his senses and break out of the fear that had kept him frozen. 

Aizawa will have to blink soon. I need to act now! Midoryia exploded from the water. Listening to All-Might’s advice, Izuku did the only thing he could: clench his butt-cheeks and yell.

“SMASH!” Izuku screamed as the power of one-for-all focused into his arm as he threw it forward to connect with Shigaraki. Izuku could feel the force as it connected, his arm snapping as it did, and watched as the wind kicked up dust and blew out lights clean on the other side of the building. As the dust cleared, his heart dropped, instead of connecting with Shigaraki, the Nomu had somehow moved and taken the blow. Despite the immense power in his punch, it just stood there, unfazed.  

Izuku glanced at where the Nomu had moved from, where Aizawa-Sensei was now lying face down in the dirt, hopefully, knocked out cold. 

If the sounds of bones snapping when the Nomu had slammed him into the ground were anything to go on, he could be a lot farther along than knocked out right now. Based on how the nomu had dealt with- his thoughts were interrupted by the shadow of the Nomu’s massive fist looming above him, rearing up to strike down. Throwing himself to the side at the last second, he barely avoided what was sure to be a gruesome fate. 

I mean, if it was here to take on All-Might, there’s a good chance it would only take one hit to uhh… kill me. Izuku swallowed as his brain ran a potential damage assessment of what that fist could do to him if it connected.

Bad things, really bad things. His brain decided. Dodging another fist, Izuku began realizing how tired he was becoming. Without the ability to access One-For-All without shattering his body, he was relying entirely on his own stamina, which while it had been developed by the last few months of training with All-Might, was certainly not enough to continue dodging these punches forever. 

“Come on! Kill the stupid NPC already What the hell did we build you for if you can’t even kill one lousy NPC!” The man covered in hands yelled at the Nomu, which thankfully paused to listen to what Izuku was assuming was his boss, giving him time to get a bit more space between himself and that thing.

Worrying about the connotation of how he said “what we Built you for” and the fact that it appears his brain is exposed entirely later, this really needs to end soon. Or I’m going to be finished soon.  

 The beast took off, bounding towards them at speeds that shouldn’t be possible. Does it have a strength quirk? Or maybe it’s just a general enhancement quirk? Midoriya tried to figure out what its quirk could be as it bounded towards him. But baffling quirk aside, he had to act. Now.

“Tsuyu! Mineta! Grab Aizawa and get him out of here! I’ll lead it away!” He yelled at his classmates, hoping his sacrifice would give them time to at least attempt an escape. He could only hope the rest of the class had escaped from whatever zones they had been sent to, and that he could distract the Nomu long enough for the others to escape or for the heroes arrived. 

“Hey Ugly! You want me?!” Izuku yelled to the beast, whose head whipped around unnaturally fast to lock eyes with him. “Come get me!” And Izuku did something that might be considered stupid. With Tsuyu and Mineta needing space to move forward and grab Aizawa, Izuku gave them that space, by charging directly at the beast, putting himself in between the monster and his fallen teacher. By now, the beast had taken the bait, bounding up to meet Izuku. 

As Izuku approached, the Nomu raised its hand up, the beast preparing to slam its fist down onto the pavement and squash this little kid once and for all. Seeing the first in the air, too close to stop, the beast likely too quick to dodge, Izuku did the only thing he could. Taking advantage of the flexibility that these brawn types normally lack, Izuku dove between its legs as the hand slammed down where he’d been a half-second before, its muscles tearing across its back as they extended farther than it should be possible. 

TOO CLOSE! Izuku’s mind screamed at him. He’d been wrong. Normal brawn types can literally tear themselves apart to try and hit him. Turning his head a second to check how far back the Nomu was behind him, Izuku’s stomach dropped once again as he watched the torn muscles ripple under the creature’s skin as they pieced themselves back together.

A healing factor? What the hell is this thing? I mean, they said this thing was built to take on All-Might himself. Izuku was mentally tallying the odds of getting out of this alive, and at this point, it wasn’t looking good. Sprinting towards the treeline, he was hoping he might be able to lose the beast in the trees, or at least take up a bit longer of its time. Alas, Izuku’s luck was up. The trees a bit too far. The beast a bit too fast. Izuku himself a bit too slow. He only made it a few yards before the beast caught up.

The beast struck the ground again just behind Izuku, the force launching him from the ground as the earth itself crumbled and gave way beneath the creature’s fist. Izuku struck the ground shoulder first, attempting to turn it into a roll but the sheer force causing him to lose the tuck he had pulled himself into. Eventually coming to a stop after rolling for a few seconds, Izuku found himself face down in the mud leading that surrounded the forest biome. Taking a second to push himself back up, Izuku was ready to turn around and see the Nomu standing over him, rearing back for another hit. The final hit. 

That was not the sight he was greeted with. Instead, the Nomu was standing perfectly still, staring at its hand. 

Ehh… Stump. It’s staring at its stump. The force of the creature’s punch apparently was enough to damage itself, but with a healing factor, that shouldn’t be an issue. It can just heal that right? Why did it stop? Izuku was wondering. The monster was staring at its stump as if confused that it wasn’t healing. Then the monster looked down, at where it had struck the earth as if looking for the culprit for why its hand wasn’t healing. Izuku’s eyes followed the monster’s, and instead of a divot in the ground, there was something else jutting out of the crater where the monster had impacted. 

The monster had struck a crystal? Obelisk? What the hell is that? Izuku was trying to figure out what he was looking at. The creature had apparently struck the bottom end of this structure, causing the other half to jut up out of the ground, like how stepping on a rake brings up the handle, only it was a rock and-

WHAT THE HELL? IS THAT A PERSON!? Izuku’s brain nearly shut down. There, inside the crystal. Eyes...glowing a toxic green and looking at him.

As he continued to stare at it, Izuku realized there was something vaguely shaped like a humanoid inside the crystal, but its hair was white and it’s missing legs? Its torso ended in what Izuku might dare to call a tail, but that wasn’t quite the right word for it. Trailing back up the crystal sculpture, Izuku’s eyes landed on what he’s starting to be able to make out as a face. 

With a snap, its eyes opened, and Izuku found himself staring into glowing pools of green energy. The Nomu sat unmoving, staring at the icy monolith in front of it. 

The glow from the creature in the rock pulsed once, twice, and then with a resounding crack, the crystal blew itself apart, knocking him to the ground.