Chapter Text
Keefe felt free. The wind whipped his hair around his head and stung his cheeks and the cold November air stung his throat as he took a deep breath, closing his eyes and letting a smile become a grin that bubbles up in his chest and escapes in pops of laughter like fireworks. He opened his eyes again, spreading his arms out and spinning slowly, taking in the scene in front of him. Keefe stood at the edge of a cliff. He looked out upon the Hudson River below, the Tappan Zee bridge shining in the sunlight that pierced through the clouds, tiny specks crawling across it and along the river in streams on pavement. Puffy white clouds cast shadows across a quilt of reds and oranges and yellows that covers the rolling hills, only interrupted by the towns and suburbs of Westchester County and the jagged rock face of the palisades. The shining glass towers of New York City are visible even from where Keefe stands miles away, tall blue figures in the distance. He takes another deep breath, and a self-indulgent smile still plastered across his face. Keefe has never felt so free in his entire life, away from the sparkle and vanity of the lost cities, from his father and the neverseen, away from the burdens of the life he had once known. And as much as he missed his friends and fresh air and a roof over his head, sometimes Keefe didn’t mind life as a lone wanderer.
Of course, abandoning the lost cities had its down sides, when he had first leapt to the human world, he couldn’t get within 10 feet of a human without getting a piercing headache from the overwhelming emotions. He eventually figured out how to put up a mental barrier, kind of like a telepath would, but it only muted the emotions so that instead of a piercing roar in his ears, it felt more like a consistent droning. It was still annoying as all hell and it took up most of Keefe’s energy to keep it up for just a few minutes so he spent his days wandering the wilderness, stopping by small towns in the dead of night to pick up food and supplies. It was on these journeys that Keefe stumbled upon moments like these, alone with nature, free to do as he pleases and just enjoy the moment. These moments were always fleeting, but a photographic memory and sketch book were really handy to have. Other than that, life away from the lost cities was tiring, tedious, and unbearably lonely. The sound of his inner voice reminding all the reasons he couldn’t go back, that everyone would be safer with him gone, that it was all for the best, was growing all too familiar.
Hitoshi Shinso was annoyed. Not surprised per say, just really fucking annoyed. He was elated to have been invited on class 1As trip to New York City, a chance to relax and hang out with his friends and future classmates, free of the worries of villains and the craziness they had to deal with. But alas, he had no such luck. Their plane from Japan was delayed by four hours, and they had to make an unplanned stop in Canada for some fancy plane science reason. He was too tired to even try to understand, and by the time they had finally touched down in JFK airport, it was almost 1am and the place was strangely quiet. They got on the first shuttle bus they could get, which somehow managed to get them so lost that he ended up in the middle-of-no -where Long Island, standing with the rest of his class on the side of the road, waiting for the bus driver to fix the engine.
“Uggghhhh!!” Mina Ashido groaned and threw her phone in to her backpack, “stupid flippin’ bus! And the driver is sooo annoying, he’s always looking at me like I grew two heads!”
“To be fair, you do have pink skin and horns,” Hitoshi deadpanned
“I know but like, no one looks at me weird back home!”
“There do seem to be less people with transformative quirks, everyone looks at me weird too, ribbit,” Tsuyu Asui chimed in. Satou, Tokoyami, and Shoji nodded in agreement
“I have heard that quirks are less common in the west, in fact, I haven’t seen a single person use a quirk since we got here,” Yaomomo added.
“Wow, we must look so weird,” Ochako said with an awkward chuckle.
“Those losers are just jealous!”
“Bakugo!” Kirishima and Midoryia chided in perfect unison
“Alright here’s the situation,” Shota Aizawa walked over to where the class was sitting in the grass, “the bus needs to be towed, so we’ll need to find some other place to stay the night, and we’ll head into the city in the morning.”
Groans and complaints filled the cool night air as class 1A picked up their bags and prepared to get moving.
“We’re stuck out here?!?” Denki Kaminari wailed, “are we gonna have to sleep in the woods?!? And survive off grass and tree bark?!?”
“We might if we don’t get moving.”
And that was how Hitoshi Shinso and class 1A found themselves trudging along a highway somewhere near Montauk, in the dead of night, the only ones around for miles…or so they thought.
Keefe felt them before he saw them. A blob of annoyance, frustrating, exhaustion, and exasperation, trudging along the highway towards him. He froze in his tracks, debating what to do. He could sneak into the shadows of the tree line, but if they had already seen him that could be too suspicious, but he really wasn’t feeling like an awkward convo with a bunch of annoyed humans right now, so bushes it is. Keefe was about to make a silent dash for the trees when someone called out to him and the beam of a flashlight illuminated his silver rain jacket.
“Excuse me, are you from around here?”
Keefe froze
“We were wondering if you knew a motel or some place we could crash for the night? Our bus broke down.”
“Um…” Keefe’s brain reeled, there is no way the man who had just spoken to him wouldn’t think something was up, and nothing he could say would seem completely normal, but he could find an excuse to get out of there and get them off his back.
“I think I saw a little inn about a mile back, just off exit 53.”
The man paused. It was too dark to see the man’s face but he could feel the suspicion and concern wafting off of him.
“Could you lead the way? I’m bad with directions.“
“Sorry, I’m kind of in a rush.”
“I’m sure whatever you’re chasing after will still be there in the morning, besides, you look like you could use some rest.”
The man walked forward with surprising speed and before he knew it he was swept up by the group of teens. At first Keefe was overwhelmed by the surge of emotions, but he was snapped back to reality by a zapping sensation that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
“Hello? Are you alright?”
A boy about his age with fluffy green hair and large green eyes had a hand on his shoulder, concern and confusion wafting off him and the others.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just spaced for a sec.”
Keefe couldn’t feel most of the boy's hand through his sweatshirt and rain jacket, but his pinky just barely brushed his neck. He shook off the boy's hand and as he drew away, his pinky brushed his skin again, and the zapping was back. Maybe zapping wasn’t quite the right word for it. It felt kind of like Sophie’s enhancing, but instead of power surging through him, it flowed just below the surface, insane energy just out of reach. This boy was an elf, there was no other explanation for the power Keefe had felt within him, and as he led the strange group towards a nonexistent inn, it didn’t feel right to leave as soon as he could like he had previously planned. No, he was going to find some way to lead the green haired elf back to the lost cities, he shouldn’t be kept from his home against his will.
“Hi there! What’s your name?” a voice piped up from behind him, making Keefe jump. The brown haired girl didn’t even wait for him to respond before adding; “I’m Ochako Uraraka, it’s nice to meet you!”
“Keefe.”
“That’s an unusual name.” another voice said.
“That’s Tsu,” Ochako said, motioning to the girl who had just spoken to him. “And over there is Jiro, the girl next to her is Momo, the green haired guy is Midoriya, and over there is Mina-”
“Wait, is she pink?”
“Yup, anyways, the blond angry one is Bakugo, and the guy next to him and Kirishima, the black-haired guy is sero, and the whinny one is Denki.”
“He’s an idiot.” Tsu commented. Keefe got a better look at her, and wondered why she looked half human, half frog. Must be some weird human fashion statement, right?
“The tired one with purple hair is Shinso, and the bigger version of him is our teacher, Aizawa.”
“Is it just me, or does that guy have six arms?”
“Yup, that’s Shoji, his quirk lets him grow new body parts, like arms and eyes.”
Keefe was officially confused. What were quirks? They must be another name for special abilities, but the abilities Ochako was describing were like nothing he had ever heard of. Then again, Keefe was a walking example of when abilities weren’t what everyone thought, and it seemed like this class was too.
“Hi there, I’m Izuku Midoriya.” The green haired elf started walking next to him, and Ochako went back to talking with her friends.
“Oh hi, I’m Keefe.”
“So, where are you from?”
From the concern, determination and mild curiosity Keefe felt coming from him, he decided it would be best to choose his words carefully.
“Oh, ya know, just a tiny town ‘bought a mile from here, you’ve probably never heard of it.”
“You mean Green Hills?”
“Yeah, actually, how did you know?”
“I saw a ‘Welcome to Green Hills’ sign on my way over here”
“yeah, I’ve lived there my whole life.”
“Wow, I didn’t know you could live in a video game.”
“Huh?”
“Keefe, Green Hills doesn't exist, it’s a fictional city from the Sonic games.”
Izuku turned to look Keef in the eyes, and he could feel the satisfaction emanating off of him and he paled. He was busted.
“Is this the place?” Aizawa asked, saving Keefe from a very awkward interaction, and pointed to a farm house that was just visible over the crest of a hill. Keefe’s inability to think ahead had caught up to him yet again, which meant it was time for some good old improvisation. He was about to say something when the sour sting of panic penetrated his senses.
“MOVE!”
A boy with spiky red hair, Kirishima, jumped in front of a blurry mass that looked half man, half bull, and got pushed all the way to the other side of the highway, leaving skid marks in the pavement. Keefe wondered how the hell he hadn’t been trampled by the huge beast.
“Kirishima!” Bakugou surged forward, his hands popping with explosions that launched him across the road. The Beast ignored Kirishima in favor of charging towards him. He grabbed one of it’s horns, using it to swing around and slam a thunderous explosion into it’s back. The beast roared and flung an arm around to grab him, but Bakugou had already launched himself away and was helping an injured Kirishima. The beast roared again, but before it could attack again, thick white tape wrapped around its limbs and froze, forming icy bonds that kept the creature in place. The beast roared yet again, shattering the ice with one foul swoop, but instead of fear filling the air like Keefe had expected, determination swelled, and the class sprung into action. Acid and bullets of air pelted the creature, the whole class attacking the thing as one unit, working in perfect unison. But no matter how many times it got speared with ice or whacked with the metal pole Momo seemed to have pulled from nowhere, the creature stayed standing, only getting more and more angry, and annoyance and confusion slowly seeped into the air.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a spike of realization penetrated the frenzy. Someone had a plan. Midoriya and a boy with red and white hair exchanged a look, and Midoriya zipped up the hill, green energy zipping around him. The beast charged after him, gaining on him until he took a sharp turn, and the creature slammed into a wall of ice. It stumbled back, shocked and dazed, and ochako took the opportunity to dart forward, her fingertips brushing the creature's fur. She leapt out of the way before it could attack her and steepled her fingers, causing the creature to shoot up into the air like a rocket. It flailed it’s arms and legs, roaring it’s head off, but it stayed suspended.
“Now what?” Sero voiced the thought everyone was thinking as they watched the floating creature.
“I can’t keep that thing suspended forever.” Ochako said between breaths, “we need to kill it somehow.”
“But how?”
Mina’s question was promptly answered by a golden streak that whizzed through the air, piercing the creature right in its heart. The thing had barely enough time to let out another roar before exploding into a puff of dust that rained down on the surprised on lookers. A figure stepped out of the tree line. He looked about 16, with dark, curly hair and blue eyes. He stepped into the light, revealing a bright orange t-shirt with the words ‘camp half-blood’ and the bow he had used to shoot the bull-man-thing.
“Hi, I’m Apollo, but you can call me Lester.”