Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I'm Not Sludge, I'm Goop!

Chapter 1

For as long as he could remember, all he knew was the sewers, drains, and the water he could move within. He was aware there was a world above, people and places just out of his reach. Many times he would try to pull himself out of the water, only managing to crawl along the walkways beside the streams of waste. But beyond that, he couldn't stand like those he could barely see through the grates above.

All his life he was restrained, not by a cage but by his own body. He didn't even realize his body wasn't a normal one until one day he came across some people in the sewers themselves. Walking on two legs, holding things with their hands, expressing their feelings with faces, and sharing words with their mouths.

As for him? He was just a pile of lime green goop. At least that's what one of the people called him when they stepped on him.

Years went by, and the goop that was him would spend his time slithering through the waters or crawling along the cement paths next to it to go to his many choices of people watching. Catching snippets of conversation, seeing buildings above with posters and other images above. Things would occasionally find their way into the sewers, things he would collect and play with, attempting to understand their purpose.

One time, someone dropped one of their phones down and he was so excited to try and use it like everyone else! But, he didn't know how to read, so he ended up just clicking many buttons and scrolling through the photos and videos that it had.

It was enough to gain a rough idea of what the world was like, but he wanted to see it for himself one day.

"Gah!" A man came running down one of the tunnels, his eyes bulging around their sockets and his teeth prominently resting on the outside of his face. He was panicked, torn boots splashing around in the sewers.

Desperate for any kind of contact, he slithered up onto the walkway and tried to lift himself high enough to be noticed. It worked, but not in a good way. The man tripped, his eyes and mouth falling off his face!

Attempting to help, he used what strength he had to crawl over, picking up the pieces and-hold on, the man already had his own eyes and mouth, normal looking ones too.

"Well, isn't this a surprise?!"

His body began moving on its own, coiling up into a blob of mass against his own will as the eyes and mouth swam in his body.

"I had no idea my quirk let me control a body like this! No way will the heroes get their hands on someone they can't grab!"

Before the goop could process how his body was moving and what this person was doing with his, they were moving at a new rapid pace. As soon as he broke up towards the surface, all he could do was be stunned by seeing it all for the first time.

But, it wasn't a pleasant experience.

Quickly his body was being used to abuse, rob, and hurt many people. It was thrilling and stimulating, finally getting to be among everyone and learn first hand what life was like.

Yet it wasn't worth this price.

Occasionally, he would have hope every now and then that a hero would stop the villain controlling him, but they couldn't. They couldn't hurt his body, they couldn't punch, grab, slice, or do any harm to him and the villain took advantage of that.

Weeks went by, and he was becoming very angry. He stopped caring that the villain had debts to pay to other villains, he stopped caring about when the villain complained in a drunken stupor about how his mother never loved him, he even stopped caring when he whined about never having a body of his own because eventually they all rotted away.

He didn't care, he just wanted the villain out.

So one day when the number one hero, who even this blob of slime and grime knew about, showed up to put a stop to the villain he was relieved.

Hope swelled within his heart, or, where he would have a heart, but it turned to horror as the 'sludge villain' had taken a boy hostage and began forcing the goop inside the green haired kid's body.

"Just need a meat puppet for a few minutes to hide!" He declared, choking the boy who desperately clawed away at the slime shoving itself down its throat.

No.

With as little control he had, the goop began to fight with the boy, straining the villain's hold over the sludge like body.

"Come on! Work with me here, All Might will be here any second to-"

"IT'S ALRIGHT NOW, WHY?"

"Ah shit!"

"BECAUSE I AM HERE!"

In a mighty punch, his body was splattered by the sheer force of winds generated by All Might's fist. His pieces scattered about, but he felt no pain. Free! He was free again!

And, he could still feel most of his parts even if they were a small glob off to the side. Slowly, he was starting to crawl towards the other bits, and they were slithering to him! This was a new discovery, but it didn't last as All Might saw what was happening and scooped him all up, forcing him into a bottle alongside the parts of the villain.

No! Don't put him back! He'll take control again!

But with no voice, no strength to stand up on his own, he was powerless as yet another person forced him in a position he couldn't fight against.

He was so tired of being powerless.

Pushing, pulling, constricting, expanding, he began to fight against his imprisonment before the villain could wake up and control him again. With enough effort, he managed to shake the bottle out of All Might's pocket as he was in mid leap above the city with the boy latched onto his other leg.

The bottle crashed harmlessly into an alley, where he continued to fight for his freedom. It came, but not because of his efforts, but from someone who kicked the bottle against the wall and spilled his body out.

By now, the villain was awake, and took another hostage.

He made that angry blond boy explode things with his palms, starting fires, attacking people, and several heroes had tried to fight him only to immediately back off.

"Two for the price of one!" The villain laughed in glee as he forced the slime body to pivot the blond's struggling hand to aim at a hero made out of wood, blasting away at his branches. "None of you can stop me now!"

The kid, he was yelling, screaming out as he kept fighting against the slime. He knew what that was like, to be controlled, to be used to hurt people.

No more.

With a targeted rage, he aimed for the eyes of the villain floating in his body, controlling the fluids around it as he tried to do something, anything to hurt him. If he didn't have the direct strength to harm the villain, he could change his slime to be something more painful.

Maybe, he still wasn't sure what his body was even made of.

"AH!" A sizzling came from the villain's eye, blinding him from the immediate attack of a school bag with pencils flying out of it.

Wait, it was that other boy, the one with green hair and freckles that liked All Might way too much! He was trying to help free the blond, and he would help as well.

With the villain's control slipping, he pulled away the sludge and villain's mouth away from the blond so he could breathe again. He messed up, he had stopped his attack on the villain and now he was mad. The villain swung a tendril of slime up, intending to crush the two boys under him.

He had to dissolve the villain now!

In an instant All Might arrived again, easily yanking the blond fully out from the slime and decimating the body with a mighty smash of his knuckles, disrupting the sky above and making it rain.

Now that the villain was no more, he did not waste any time pulling himself away from the scene in his many pieces, and following the water into the drains and back into the sewers.

It was time for a nap.

Almost a month has passed since then, and he had savored what good memories he had of the surface and seeing it all in person. It only made him crave it more, a life with people and doing people things. Like eating, walking, and talking.

But he was still too weak to leave the sewers on his own.

On the other side of the coin, he figured out how he hurt that villain. He can dissolve things! Not sure what he would do with that, but maybe he can mimic how people eat with that newly discovered skill.

He tried with some things here and there, empty sauce cans, half-drunk soda bottles, rotting foods that the rats were fighting over. All of it was the same to him, it all dissolved with ease.

But on his daily treasure hunt, he found something odd.

He thought it was a toy, because it looked like one. Was it a frisbee? He had a few of those but this was metal and had lights. A drone? It didn't have propellers like a drone.

It just, hovered there over the oddly still water in the middle of the stream. Dirty, and scuffed, but still floating. This was so cool that he just had to add it to his collection.

Then, a miracle happened, when he attempted to reach up to grab it there was no strain. He could easily push out a part of himself to latch onto it, like he didn't have to fight against gravity anymore.

Suddenly invigorated, he did something for the first time in his life.

He stood.

With the metal hover disc at the top of him, this pile of goop was able to stretch upwards, pulling together his body and twisting in on itself until at last he could mold his fluid form into a human.

At least, humanoid. With stumpy globs for feet and maybe miscounting how many fingers he should have, he can now at least stand. Walking was a tougher thing, he never had to think about controlling just a part of himself at a time, he always moved as one blob.

Making sure to keep the unidentified flying object tethered to the top of his head, he began to walk up onto the cement, and start moving to an exit he had longed kept an eye on.

Away from the major bustle and traffic of the main city, he slithered up a ladder with relative ease compared to before, and was met with a grate. Sure, he could easily slip through there, but his ufo couldn't.

Raising a hand, he grabbed onto the bars before they began to steam, melting into his form where the remains of the steel were broken down and dissolved into his gelatinous form.

Here is where he always wanted to go, a place filled with treasures!

Piles and piles of organized things were stacked around him, the sun brightening up the wide paths along the expanse of rusting and broken things. He wanted to take things one step at a time, because he didn't know how to interact with people yet.

They were exciting, but the thought of trying to talk to them was also scary. Not that he could talk, so no one would be able to listen to him.

Staring closely at his own reflection in a discarded microwave, he heard something shift behind him. Twisting around, he was about to try and grab the microwave and throw it at whatever scared him, but while the sludge villain could pick things up with ease he couldn't.

The microwave did not budge.

"Oooo! What a relic!" Something scurried through the rust and bolts, startling him so much that he retracted in on himself until he was a puddle again.

The thing, the person covered in grease and oil wiped away at her eyes with her gloved hand to clear out most of the mess. Her unwashed pink hair clumped together, as her weird yellow eyes kept rotating as she stared at his newly found ufo.

"I thought they discontinued these years ago! A quirked toy made by someone with a gravity defying ability! Though no one likes sci fi stuff much anymore, so they didn't sell well despite this baby being a marvel of easily accessible artificial anti gravity technology! Even if they did cheat in making it, this baby is amazing! What do you want for it?! I don't have money, but I can trade you!"

She tugged at it, his body responding and pulling with it, making the girl curious as she kept tugging it in different directions and seeing how he would follow. Having enough and not wanting to lose his ability to walk, he curled his body around the ufo until he surrounded it with a bubble of lime green slime.

Her hands were still on it, the gloves submerged in his body as she tilted her head at his reaction until she gasped. "Oh! You need this to move around don't you?! You're using a toy as a support item!"

She cheerfully spun him around, laughing as she stared even deeper towards the toy. "Imagine that! Repurposing a failed child's entertainment device as the equivalent of a wheelchair! No, a better comparison would be a car! You can go much faster with this and get around so much easier!"

She might be right, but she still had her hands on it and wasn't letting go!

"Why aren't you talking?" She gave him a few shakes as if it would provoke him to do so. "Wait, you don't even have vocal cords, so of course you can't talk! You need more than what this toy can offer you! A proper support item! And I can make it happen!"

Without consent she skipped along with him in her grasp, frolicking through the towers of scrap and junk others threw away but she found worth in. Bringing her to a garage, she plopped him down on a workbench, turned on a lamp to point at him, and set down a mess of tools around him. "Come on, I need you off it so I can fix it up! This will be a great test to see how quickly I can make a support item for a unique client! UA only accepts the best and I plan to prove I'm the best!"

She's going to make it better? That was kind, but he didn't feel like she was giving him a choice. He just got his freedom, he didn't want to lose it so quickly.

But, if she can help, maybe she could be the first person he can talk to. Even if she was scary.

Letting go of the ufo, he melted away from it as he slinked down the side of the workbench to be a puddle beside her chair. He tried to watch her work, but from this angle it was difficult to tell.

But as she kept working, he felt it easier to stand up, to more fully control himself, until he was able to stand right alongside her despite the ufo being a few feet away from him.

He was glad he trusted her.

As soon as she latched on one last panel, she held it up and presented it to him with a proud smile. "Here you are! The first baby by Mei Hatsume of Baby Makers Incorporated, name pending, to be presented to its client! Just put a little bit of yourself through this door here, and you can control its flight path and speak through the speakers installed here! Just make sure to recharge it otherwise you can't steer it or speak through it!"

He grabbed hold of it, dipping his finger into the open panel she pointed out, unsure how he was supposed to-

"WWWAAAAAHHHHH!" His gargling voice screamed from the ufo as it suddenly shot into the air, flying in sudden twists and turns while pulling his body with it.

"It's fast isn't it?!" Mei proudly watched as he screamed in panic as it zoomed back and forth in the garage. "It already has no gravity so it doesn't take hardly any force at all to get her moving! Such a shame they don't use gravity quirks in production more often, they could make such energy efficient babies!"

"AHHHH!"

He crashed down, splattered onto the floor as the ufo hovered over him. Very carefully, he rose up, barely touching the sensitive controls with the small part of himself inside it to allow him to stand back up.

"Ooooo." He groaned, reeling from the sensation he never got to experience before. He was ok, but he was not used to that. At least being splattered into a bunch of little pieces by All Might was instant.

"So!" Mei stood right up to him, beaming with pride. "How would you rate my baby making services? An A? A plus? Plus Ultra?"

Looking up at the device floating above him, he certainly appreciated the greater ease he now had to move around. If it let him talk, then that was even better. Giving a gesture he saw through a cartoon mascot on a big screen in the city, he held up his two thumbs to her with glee.

"I'll take it!" Then she darted back to her work station, writing down a few things before starting to design something else. "Make sure to tell everyone about me! Especially if they work at UA, or even I-island! Bye bye Mister Goop!"

Goop, she called him Goop too. Everyone had names they were called, so was his Goop? It must be, he's been called that a lot.

"Bye bye." He waved to her, but paused because he didn't just want to leave with just that. He wanted to do something in return.

The next morning Mei Hatsume would find a pile of "treasure" waiting for her on her desk. For most, it was trash, but coincidentally they were things she too would label as treasure.

Goop couldn't help but retreat to damp, dark, isolated places whenever he got nervous. All his life he was stuck in the sewers, and even though he had access to an entire world now with his mobility he had trouble bringing himself to actually be with people. Alone was his default state now, and doing the opposite took great effort.

If only his first time actually talking with people wasn't when he was controlled by a villain. On one hand, he was involved in hurting people. On the other hand, he quickly learned what was right and wrong. So he knew the only place he could get stuff, was where people dumped their trash.

Now that he had gifted away his collection of treasures, he was off in search of where he could find new ones. Preferably away from people and the hustle of watching eyes. It didn't take terribly long, because when watching where some people took truckloads of trash many ended up at the same beach.

Hardly anyone was ever here, so in the early morning just before sunset he helped himself.

Mountains and mountains of treasures! Some were so big he couldn't even lift them!

His warped voice let out a garbled giggle as he flowed over the trash, creating multiple tendrils to sift through it all to see what he could find. A tire? Awesome! Weird lump of metal? Awesome! Glowing green watch with an hourglass symbol? Meh, maybe he'll take it if he doesn't find anything better.

Woah! A cool rock!

Tossing the boring watch into the sea where it would never see the light of day again, Goop put all his focus towards rotating the rock, which was small and transparent with a unique cut shape, he recognized it as something some people would wear.

Putting it inside himself, he decided to hang onto it. It was a keeper.

A click sounded out, Goop perking up when he heard it and swiveling his eyes around his head to try and find the source. Where? Oh there.

Hey! He recognized that green haired boy hiding behind that broken fridge!

Goop gave a wave to the boy, who flinched before immediately running away from him. Ah, he must be shy too.

Spending a little more time digging through the trash, he made sure to keep his goodies tucked away inside of him as he decided to try and muster up the courage to venture a little further into the city today.

The ufo was proving very handy, because while he could walk this thing could let him fly around! It was like his body was anchored in its gravity, pulled along wherever he pointed it. It was easiest to fly in the sewers, a system he has long navigated his whole life and knew easily. Before when he wasn't collecting treasures or watching through the small openings above he would explore to see if he could find an easily accessible exit.

Now it was a short cut, allowing him to pop up anywhere he likes.

This day, he looked for a street that had only a few people, with no cars but a shop here or there. Just enough to try out before going into the real busy places.

Pushing up the manhole cover of an alleyway, he quickly ascended to the surface before putting it back in place. Hesitantly, he stepped into the open street, looking around at the few persons here and there. No one noticed him so far, but that would likely change, he knew he looked different from others but there were some people who looked more different than the average person.

He wondered if he was the most different, but that shouldn't be the case because everyone didn't seem to pay him any attention, instead looking at a rather big guy wearing a cloak around himself.

Wow he was big, but that guy took attention away from himself so that was ok for him!

Happy to 'blend in' Goop walked on the street like any other person, but everyone else was being weirder than he expected. They kept staring at the big guy standing over there like he was super scary.

He wasn't scary, just big.

"HEY!" Goop perked up looking around and seeing a boy with black hair and some spiky teeth yell at him. "You're a hero right?! Help them!"

Help who? Oh, those two girls crouched under the big guy. But he wasn't doing anything to-

The big man's fingers pushed against the building behind them, cracking its structure as he continued to loom over the two girls in matching outfits. "Are you not going to tell me where it is?"

Was he trying to be scary? If he was accidentally being scary but no one told him they should let him know. Before Goop could go over, he saw a girl running right towards them in another matching outfit! Why did all these girls around the same age have similar outfits?

But if the big guy was being scary, Goop knew how to handle scary. Darting ahead, easily passing the pink girl, he got in between the two young teens and stretched himself up to be eye level with the big guy.

"Stop it, please? You're big and I think it's scaring them." His warbled speech came out, and Goop was able to get a better look at the radio he hung around his neck.

"Do you know where it is?" The big guy asked in a gruff voice.

"Where's what?"

"The Springer Hero Agency."

"I don't know what that is. But I know some other places that-"

The big guy barely moved his arm, but the speed and force behind it sent Goop's upper half splitting into malformed streams of slime. He heard a scream or two, people now freaking out around them.

But easily pulling himself together, Goop was back to his usual self. "Why did you do that?"

A massive hand smashed Goop into a splattered puddle, the two girls screaming as pieces of him landed on their faces. The pink girl rushed in at that moment, and while she shielded the girls with one arm she pointed towards the other way. "There! If you take a left you'll-"

The ufo floated in front of her face, distracting her as it flew over to be above the man's hand still imprinting Goop into the ground. Between his fingers the green slime was yanked up, resolidifying into his humanoid form.

"I didn't like that."

"You're in my way!"

He punched right into Goop's stomach, but he coiled around his arm, and once he snaked around the man's neck he tightly constricted to pin the arm to his body. Goop's head popped out over his wrist, his bright green eyes narrowing at the man. "Are you trying to hurt me?"

Goop had a feeling that this man, was a bad man. He hated bad guys.

Instead of replying, the big guy slapped his hand over Goop's head in an attempt to silence him, but Goop's body only wrapped around that limb too as the ufo circled around him to spread Goop's hold.

He flexed his muscles, being way stronger than Goop realized and breaking out of his hold. Immediately upon him seeing Goop, he bore his fangs and lunged.

And so did Goop.

The blob leapt up around his face, having learned the brutal tactic to get an opponent to pass out when he was being controlled by that villain. Cutting off his airways, goop was just a ball of green around his head as he clawed through the slime, unable to get a hold of it.

After a minute or so of doing this, the man began to act more erratically, slamming his head into the ground in an attempt to get Goop off of him. How long was Goop supposed to do this before he passes out?

He began swinging widley, losing all sense of reason and smashing anything close to him. Goop felt the bubbles of air flow out from his mouth, letting only that escape as his foe had lost all ability to breathe not even the air he previously held onto.

Finally, he slowed, becoming sluggish until falling onto his knees and then his face. Satisfied with the scary guy no longer doing anything to hurt anyone, Goop's ufo pulled the slime up to stand atop his fallen opponent.

Then, something unexpected happen. People began to cheer.

"Thank you! Thank you!" One of the girls in the matching outfits cried out.

"Thank you hero!"

"That was impressive!"

This was very new, something Goop never had before but it softened the warming goo inside of him.

Praise, he was being praised by smiling faces all around him.

"That was awesome!" The pink girl came up, grabbing Goop's hand and shaking it vigorously. "Hey, are you a new hero? What's your name?"

"My name is Goop. What's yours?"

"My name's Mina Ashido! But I haven't decided on a hero name yet. I'm going to try and get into UA and maybe I can be your sidekick! We'd totally match with the whole alien theme!"

A coughing came up behind Goop, the green slime whirling around to face the bad guy again in case he was angry. But he wasn't coughing up air, he was coughing up a gray sludge that encompassed his body completely until he vanished

Could he do that with his Goop?

"So was that your quirk?" Mina asked, pointing to where they just saw the villain. "Please tell me you sent him away."

Goop honestly didn't know, his body was green but that stuff was gray. The texture was all wrong too.

"Excuse me!" A man with a metal headband came up to the center of attention, his outfit definitely flashier than the other peoples'. But when his eyes finally landed on Goop, he froze, tightening his fists.

Oh, Goop remembers him! He was one of the heroes who he was forced to attack!

"So we finally meet again Sludge villain." He got into a fighting pose, Goop taking a step away to get some space. "I got a report some villain was making a ruckus, I didn't think it would be you again."

"Villain?!" Mina cut him off, putting herself in the way yet again. "Goop just helped us from the real villain! Goop is a hero!"

"But I'm not a hero. I just wanted to help." Goop pointed that out, hoping to clear things up but it only seemed to make people mutter around them, already their praise turning to caution, worry.

What? They were so nice to him just a second ago? Why did they not like him anymore?

"Girl, step aside." The hero readied himself with his hardened gaze locked onto Goop. "This villain is dangerous."

"He saved us though! Goop is-"

And he charged, quickly yanking Mina away before throwing a fist into Goop's body, doing about as much harm as punching a pillow.

Goop didn't want to be around them anymore, most of the people had stopped being nice and he was ready to go back to his isolation. Ignoring the blows to his body, Goop's ufo quickly yanked him into the air, letting him fly between the buildings.

As someone MASSIVE stepped into view. "Hi there!"

The giant lady smacked Goop from his flight, turning him into a splat on the rooftop of a different building.

"Wow." The woman who stood taller than the structures around her poked the slime in some disgust. "That was a lot easier than last time."

"Mt. lady! Don't let him get away this time!" Cried the hero down below, but Goop had already acted. Slithering away with his ufo to pick up speed, he dove into the next alleyway and targeted the closest open gutter. Branches erupted in front of him, blocking his path to freedom as that other hero made of wood arrived.

"Disturbing the peace, kidnapping, robbery, attacking the innocent." The wooden man spoke as he kept his arm rooted over his path. "You're truly the scum of the earth."

But Goop was done being out in the open, and forced through the wood while burning it away with a quick dose of acid. Diving down, harshly swerving from one path to the other, Goop sought safety back into the understructure of the city.

After a few nights of remaining in hiding, Goop peeked through one of the gutters, gazing longingly at the city lights with people laughing, talking, spending time with one another.

For a moment, he was part of their smiles. He relished in that short time, but it was always ruined remembering what came right after. The moment he said he wasn't a hero, they stopped smiling.

Goop stared at the large screens that were mounted over the heart of the city, seeing All Might's smile happily comforting those around him. He remembered that time too, when All Might came and punched him away.

Everyone loved All Might. When he showed up he put a smile on everyone's face even before he actually beat the villain.

Goop wanted to be around people, to have them smile when he was around. He also liked to stop bad guys, and protect those they tried to hurt.

If Goop wanted to be accepted by the people above, he was going to have to be a hero of some kind. Now the question was, how can he be a hero too?

I don't really plan on writing more for this story, I just at the very least needed it to get out of my head. How did this story come to be? Well over in the discord for my stories we had a running joke about how Goop sweeps the competition, and that ended up making me think up a scenario where Goop alone is tackling the villains without any other omnitrix stuff.

Btw, no I won't be having the omnitrix or Ben in this story. This is purely MHA with a small twist that resembles a Ben 10 alien.

Wanna help make the next chapter? Join the discord where this idea came to life!

Discord Invite Code: S46dcywpfv

Chapter Text

I'm Not Sludge, I'm Goop!

Chapter 2

"Heroes aren't just for taking out villains, heroes help out their community! Heroes provide a service to those in immediate need, assisting their neighbor, and overall improving the quality of life for those all around them! Take it from a number one pro! Anyone can be a hero so long as you're helping someone!"

Goop was watching the many televisions behind the glass of the store, witnessing All Might, the best hero relay his message to the world. It was much needed news, because he didn't have to have a real job to be a hero, he could be one by just helping people around!

So who needed help?

While distracted, something slid across the sidewalk and fell into the gutter, sticking into his face.

"Oh no no NO!" A person in a suit came running over as Goop yanked out the smartphone from his head. The man was going into a hysterical fit, maybe this was someone he could help?

"Is this yours?" Goop extended his hand out with the phone, the man immediately snatching it.

"Oh thank you, thank you!" He immediately praised, reaffirming Goop that this was indeed a heroic action.

Then the man processed what was happening. "Wait."

Goop saw his shined leather shoes slowly back away, as the man began using his rescued phone to place a call.

"Yes, police? That sludge villain is here."

Uh oh.

Darting back through the tunnel below the streets, Goop made sure he was long gone by the time any authorities arrived. Being a hero was going to be a lot harder if people kept calling the police and the heroes on him. The only plan he had to prove to them that he wasn't a villain, was to show them he was a hero.

While observing one street, keeping an eye out for anything wrong, he saw a woman with two young children with her. They had odd faces, but not that odd compared to his own lack of one.

The children were running around the woman while she was at a crosswalk, cars zooming in front of them as she was carrying several bags of food with her. They looked almost as heavy as the bags under her eyes.

As Goop contemplated if this was a good time to help, he didn't have to second guess himself as the daughter ran blindly into her mother's legs, making her stumble towards an incoming vehicle.

With his ufo zipping out and pulling his body towards the woman, Goop stretched himself out into a wide net of sludge as he caught the mother and yanked her back onto the sidewalk.

Whatever exhaustion she was was gone, adrenaline kicking through her body as she croaked out in surprise. "What just-what ribbit?! Satsuki! Samidare!"

Her scolding tone was enough to make the children reflect on their action, realizing their fault as the daughter immediately rushed up to hug her mother's leg with blubbering apologies.

"Ummm." Goop gurgled out through his voice box, several groceries still lodged into his body. "Did you want me to carry these for you?"

"Oh!" The mother turned around, hesitating to reach into him to pull her bags out with some items like eggs and fruit swimming in his slimy torso. "One second ribbit."

Pulling out a packaged napkin from her pocket, she began to pluck the edibles from his body, making sure anything not packaged was in a separate bag. "I can't thank you enough for saving me ribbit. Here, take these. I was going to have to throw them away anyways ribbit."

She then handed him the bag of various eggs, fruits, and vegetables that may or may not have had a few of his droplets still on them.

Food?! They were giving him food! He always wanted to eat with people!

"Thank you! I've never had food before!" Goop wrapped his large globby hand over the bag, letting it sink into his limb before he began to dissolve it all. Stickers, egg shells, the grocery bag itself. It left the family staring oddly at him as they watched the items seemingly break into smaller pieces before vanishing in him.

"Come on ribbit." The mother saw the crosswalk sign indicator change and nudged her tadpoles along. "Let's go home."

"By mister slime!" The daughter waved to him as they left.

'I'm not slime, I'm Goop!" He corrected, but still happily waved back before stepping over towards the other crosswalk, where he immediately splattered over a car's windshield and made the little girl scream her head off.

Another day, Goop was moving under one area that had less roads and cars, wanting to avoid getting hit like the other day. Up above was a park, filled with a wide area of grass and trees, benches and picnic tables, and plenty of people walking around and getting their daily dose of sunshine.

Goop sought to do the same, but only when someone needed his help.

"Dad!" A boy yelled out in panic. "He's trapped in a box! I don't think he can breathe!"

Goop heard the danger, smacking away the manhole cover and launching himself into the air. There! He saw someone in a white and black striped shirt trapped in an invisible box with his cheeks puffed up like he couldn't breathe!

Goop flew to the rescue, ready to break the box and free the man with a really pale face.

Only when he braced to smash the box, he felt no resistance and smashed his gooey form into the person.

"A villain attack!"

"It's the sludge guy!"

"Call a hero!"

Goop sat up, reforming himself into his humanoid appearance as he quickly panicked. "Wait, I was just trying to help him out of the box! I'm not sludge I'm Goop!"

"GET ME OUT OF THIS THING!" The man who he had previously tried to help was screaming and trying to claw his way out of Goop's body. Grabbing hold of the back of his shirt, Goop yanked him out before setting him down, and when his feet touched the ground he sprinted away.

"No, wait!" Goop tried to reason with them, but they weren't listening. He just wanted to-

Streams of water blasted against his form, Goop's body scattered to the current and slapping against the wet grass.

"Stop right there villain!" A man in a red fireman getup, with hoses for hands aimed at Goop demanded. "You might have gotten away last time, but I swear I won't let anything distract me from-"

A ufo hit the back of his head as it rushed over to Goop's fallen form, lifting him out of the grass to stand back up as the hero rubbed his newly acquired bruise.

Goop recognized him, that was one of the heroes back when he was possessed by that villain!

"I'm not a villain! I was being controlled! I didn't want to hurt anyone!"

"Well you just hurt me, and that mime, so I can take you in for that much!"

"What's a mime? I just saw someone trapped in a box but it wasn't there when I tried to help him!"

"As if you don't know what a mime is."

"I don't! Mimes never came down to the sewers!"

The hero let two streams circle around their battlefield, a perimeter created to help keep the civilians out, but now that they knew they were witnessing a hero battle they treated it as a spectacle, taking phones out and streaming it to the world.

"Listen to me now." The hero stood his ground, bracing his posture and tightening his stance. "Either you come with me willingly or I clean the streets of your villainous filth."

"I'm not filth, I'm Goop!" The green slime began nervously looking around himself, fearful for what the hero was planning to do with him. With no way out but up, Goop flew up into the air in an attempt to make a quick getaway, only for powerful currents of water to collide against both sides of his body and throwing its contents out of the ufo's reach.

It swooped down, picking up parts of him but they were continually being blasted into soaked chunks. Goop was starting to panic now, he wanted to run away but he couldn't! He didn't want to hurt the hero, but he needed to get him to stop!

Feeling out for the larger pieces of his body on the grass, he began to identify the water gushing out from the man's hoses. Could he plug those up like he occasionally did to pipes in the sewers?

"This is Backdraft." The hero spoke into the radio on his shoulder and he tangled with the villain. "I've got the sludge villain at my position, restraining him now but-"

A glob smacked against his arm, cutting off the water to his quirk as the adhesion and tension of the goop was significantly higher than what he experienced before. Just as he realized the villain had projectiles of his own, Backdraft was pelted by dozens of sticky green balls that sealed off his quirk and left him fighting the newly made restraints.

Now with a moment to collect himself, literally, the ufo hovered into the center of the pieces before they whirled together to recreate his base humanoid form.

"I'm sorry, I never wanted to hurt anyone other than the villain making me do things." Goop turned his eyes away from the hero and back towards the crowd, seeing them flinch from just him looking at them.

Downhearted by their reaction, Goop flew back over to the open manhole cover before retreating to the only place he could find solitude.

Later at the scene, Backdraft was having the last pieces stuck to him washed off with a hefty amount of soap and other heavy duty cleaning agents that made his nose burn. With police tape marking off the area for now, the hero was approached by the detective who was watching the posted video of their fight.

"It was him right?" Backdraft asked the plain looking man in a suit and tan coat. "He didn't sound like the sludge guy, and wasn't acting the same. He didn't even have those creepy eyes floating around in his body or that mouth."

"DNA analysis shows it was the sludge villain." The detective held up a vial of what 'goop' they collected. "Or at least, his body was there. He's not in the registered quirk database so we still don't have a proper ID on him."

"You think there was a chance he was telling the truth about being controlled?"

"We don't have any hard evidence to suggest that, but I don't want to rule it out given major behavioral differences we've compared between the incidents. Either he's a good actor or he's telling the truth."

Brushing off the remaining cleaning fluids from his jacket, Backdraft stood up from the back of the paramedics vehicle. "So what's the call? We still trying to capture this guy?"

"If he's innocent from the sludge villain incident, he still evaded arrest, used his quirk unlicensed, and assaulted both a civilian and a hero. While he's slippery at least he's no longer posing an active threat, for now. The warrant for his arrest still stands for the time being."

Nodding along and agreeing with the man, Backdraft kept his thoughts to himself as he did his duty, not looking forward to going back to his agency and being the butt of a joke again for his failure to apprehend the villain. If 'Goop' even was one.

Though the detective was still lingering at the scene, pulling up his phone and scrolling the video back to play one part again. 'Mimes never came down to the sewers.' It was clear he was using the sewers to navigate, but the fact that they've known this for a while and swept through them many times hinted that he was very familiar with them. Yet the wording was strange, why emphasize the sewers as if that was his frame of reference?

How often was Goop down there?

Goop found himself becoming more vocal, even when alone. Many years of being unable to speak to anything or anyone made him a thinker more than anything, but now that he had the option he preferred to fill the noise of the sewers with his own voice. A warped, gargling voice that made him sound underwater at all times but it was still his.

Humming, or just vocalizing random notes, Goop's single performance as he navigated the long stretches of tunnels echoed along the concrete walls.

"La la la la laaaaaaa la."

Instead of flying around, or walking, he was a wave of brightly tinted slime that casually swam along the surface of either the water, the walls, or sometimes the ceiling. He was starting to enjoy sticking to things, and now that he had the extra help to give him strength to easily pull himself to whatever he stuck to he could get anywhere.

"Bum bum bee dum, bum bum bee dum bum."

Of course, it would be nicer if he had someone to sing to, or with. Even just talking. He's been working on being polite, observing a local tea shop with the occasional fancy person going in and out of it. The refined clothing, the elegance in their stride, and prominent dark circles under their eyes.

Actually, it was just those two, but Goop thought they were the marks of those with the highest of manners.

Every now and then he questioned if he needed clothes to better try and fit in, but people didn't seem to call him out on his nakedness. Maybe it was because he didn't have skin?

"Owa ah oh oooooohhhhh oh."

With nothing more to do other than wander and sing away, Goop kept an eye out for anything to help with as he passed under the streets. Things seemed to be getting harder for him to prove he wasn't a villain, and even the professional heroes were going out of their way to try and find him.

Even parts of the sewers were no longer an option, with traps or patrols laying in wait for him. Goop knew these tunnels very well, especially when someone was messing with them.

Perhaps he should change where his new treasure pile was.

With a new task in mind, the ufo let out a warble as it yanked upwards, Goop standing at his full height as he started a purposeful trek back to one of his dwellings.

Along the way though, he saw an arm sticking down the gutter, trying desperately to reach something below. Goop started walking closer, noticing that the arm was covered in, feathers? Fur? It was a bright white, which contrasted the muck and grime of the sewers.

"Gha." The person above grunted as they kept trying to reach further down, but the floor to the tunnel was still a good two feet away.

Stepping near the arm, Goop looked down to see what they were after. It wasn't a phone, it wasn't food, it wasn't clothes. It was a few coins, which most people would just shrug and give up.

Sticking the coins to his fingers, he held them up to the extended digits as they brushed along the metal.

"Yes!" A feminine voice cheered quietly. "I really can't afford to lose another yen right now."

"You're welcome." Goop said, making sure to work on his manners. His sudden words made the person above pause, before they retracted their arm and peered into the drain.

"Hello? Is someone down there?"

Goop stood a little taller to see who it was, his ufo hovering up right to the entrance. "Hello!"

The lady was very white, very fluffy, with two long fuzzy antennae sticking out from her frazzled shoulder length hair. While she wore a turtleneck sweater with the threads fraying around the ends of the sleeves and the neck, most notably around her chin, her wide wings with mesmerizing patterns stuck out from the back. Goop saw her larger golden orbs staring at his ufo, her eyes almost seemingly glowing as they stared towards him.

More specifically, the soft lights on his anti gravity toy.

"My name is Goop! What's yours?"

"O-oh." She blinked, quirking her head as she continued to stare at his helpful device. "I'm Fuwa Akaru. Thank you for helping me. What are you doing down there?"

"I live down here."

"In the sewers?"

"Yes! I've been down here for as long as I can remember."

"Ah." An awkward pause came over her as she reconsidered how much the yen in her hand was worth to her. "Do you need any food? Or eat at all?"

"I don't know. I had my first food about a week ago. How often do people normally eat?"

"About three times a day, sometimes more but-"

"People eat that much?!" Goop's ufo surged upwards, clonking against the roof of the gutter before leveling back down to her sight. "Wow, I never knew. I've seen them eat from down here but I just thought eating was a special occasion."

A whimper of sympathy escaped the girl's mouth as she fought against the twisting of her chest. As tightly as she was holding onto the coins in her hand, she felt her fingers loosening for the gentle little disc hovering in front of her. "I don't have much but, I think I have enough to get you some saltines if you want."

"Do you need more?" Goop asked, the girl sighing as she sat down next to the gutter and prying her eyes away from the lights on his ufo.

"I don't have much, and some days I have to be very careful with how I spend my money. But, I guess right now it feels like I have a lot more than what some people have."

Once she finished, a glob of green slime slapped itself in the space next to her, startling her before the fluid hand retracted, leaving several scattered yen in various states of rust beside her. "Where did you get this?"

"These fall down here all the time. I just picked up what's around me at the moment. Will this help?"

"Y-yes!" She opened up her shoulder bag, counting the coins as she put them in her zipper pocket for now. "This is enough to get me by with food till my next paycheck. Thank you!"

"You're welcome!" This time, things were going great! She wasn't calling the cops, no one around had noticed him and yelled for a hero, and Akaru was really nice to him!

"Let me get you something to eat in return!" Akaru stood up, still keeping her gaze towards where she could barely make out the lights of the ufo in the dark below. "Unless, you don't actually need to eat. What do you need?"

"I don't need to eat, but I want to learn how to properly eat!" The ufo twisted out, flying into the air and pulling its owner out with it. Keeping to the alleyway adjacent to Akaru, Goop stood at his full height as he warmly greeted the shocked woman.

"Though, I should probably warn you, not a lot of people like me. They might call the cops or the heroes on me."

"Wow." Akaru saw how the light shimmered through his body, almost making his entirely fluorescent. "How can anybody not like you? Is heteromorphic quirk discrimination getting worse? I know I get bothered by some racists here and there but most people seem understanding that I look more different than the average mutant quirk."

"It's because they think I'm the sludge villain."

That would do it. Akaru quickly looked back around, making sure no one was watching or calling anyone before making a decision.

Later that night, in a worn apartment with old stains littering the walls, Akaru returned home. Unlike many other nights though, she wasn't alone. Given the sketchy run down part of town she lived in due to a lack of funds, she was able to navigate through it with someone who was very adept at sticking to the shadows.

Literally.

Opening up her bag, the little ufo she tucked within it hovered back into the air, circling around her and yanking up the slime that was literally stuck to her heels and shadow.

Goop easily stood a head taller than her, before evening his height to be equal to her's.

"I know it's not much." She flicked on the lights, which were very dim spotlights hidden along the tops of bookshelves to project onto the ceiling where she wouldn't directly see them. "But, this is home for me."

"Oooohhh." He only saw homes and apartments from the outside, and only occasionally catching glimpses of insides through infomercials or bad tv sitcoms that some people played too close to their windows.

There weren't any curtains, just cardboard stuck to the windows. No couch, just a low coffee table in the living room. The stove seemed newer than the rest of the minute kitchen. Wait, was there a bedroom?

No, just a television and various media tucked into the corner.

"I think we have enough to order delivery." Akaru dumped a handful of coins onto the counter, letting the jingling metal crash onto the splintering wood top. "That might be the safest option."

"Hey." Goop turned over to her. "How come you're not treating me like a villain?"

"Well, you didn't seem like one." Akaru pulled out a flip phone, which surprised Goop because he never saw someone drop those in the sewers. "Does pizza sound ok?"

"Yep!" Pizza was popular, something that even made its way down to him on a frequent basis, but he knew that eating bad food could make people sick given the reaction he's seen of folks eating food off the ground before. To eat it fresh was the only choice, and here he got the chance to have it for the first time!

"Cool." She rummaged through a drawer, pulling out a stack of coupons cut out from newspapers and other mail ads before finding something not expired. "Anything you don't like?"

"I don't know."

"Right, ok. I'll just go with half cheese as the safe option."

As she dialed up the pizza place, Goop stretched his face up to look over the bookshelf, pulling out book after book and looking over their contents. Words, words, words, all of it words but sometimes they had fun images on the front!

He liked to imagine what kind of story it was, trying to determine what the characters on the front were doing and what kind of people they were.

Wait, this one had pictures all inside of it! Sure, he can't read but at least he could guess what they were saying based on their expressions! Now with the closest thing to his level of reading, Goop sunk into himself as just a blob with two tendrils for arms and turned the pages to see it unfold before him.

"You're reading it backwards." Akaru came over to sit across from him, awkwardly keeping her hands to herself and her posture straight.

"Oh, thanks!" Goop turned it the other way, but the story didn't make more sense to him. "I still can't read though."

"You can't read?"

"I never learned."

"No one ever taught you?"

"I never got to talk to anyone until about, a month ago? And only a couple weeks before that I never left the sewers." Goop said it as a matter of fact, that was just his life, but it didn't help to ease the pain the person across from him felt for Goop.

"I'm so sorry."

"For what? You're the nicest person I ever got to meet and talk to for more than a couple of minutes!" His cheery proclamation did the opposite towards making Akaru feel any better.

Still reeling from blow after blow of what might be the saddest life Akaru ever heard before, she tried to continue light conversation. "How could anyone think you're a villain?!"

"I was possessed by a villain who found me in the sewers, and he did lots of bad stuff using my body. That's why people look at me and think of the sludge villain. Don't worry though! I got rid of the real villain!"

Akaru clenched a hand to her continually aching chest, nearly collapsing on the spot from how such a happy innocent person was dealt such a bad hand in life and still retained his joy. Wait, got rid of him?

"How did you get rid of him?"

"I dissolved him."

Was he still innocent if he was never taught that killing was generally seen as one of the worst things someone can do? He does have a valid reason, and if anyone heard his story they could determine it was more self defense than direct murder. That's if they gave him a chance.

She watched as Goop continued to flip the pages of the manga, happily looking over the images drawn out on them. He seemed so satisfied with such the smallest luxuries, making her want to show him that there was more to life than trash that fell down into the sewers.

Though, she would have to figure out how to help with the fact that the police and the heroes were still after him. Later though, tonight she would let him enjoy himself with pizza and comics.

"I can read it for you if you want."

"You would? Thank you!" He slithered under the table, plopping himself on her lap as his very distracting ufo hovered near her face while holding up the picture book. "I'll make sure to find you lots of coins tomorrow!"

That would help, a lot if she guessed how often people dropped money into the drains or street gutters only to stay there for who knows how many years. Though, if he never really interacted with people frequently before, he might not know that he can't just take money from anywhere. "As long as you get them from the sewers."

It just occurred to her that sentient slime that routinely swam through human waste was on her lap. How was he so clean and shiny all the time?!

Another day, another dollar, or yen, coins and soaked paper or plastic strips of currency either sitting at the bottom of streams hidden in old waste or just on the walkways where they happened to roll down the openings above and land in an easy to access spot. For Goop at least.

Akaru has been incredibly nice to him, ordering him food, reading books for him, and he wanted to do something in return! Finding another wallet, Goop stepped on it, absorbing it through his body and dissolving away the id and leather until only the cash remained to float up into his internal pocket of collected change. If he knew money was worth so much he would have been collecting every yen he came across for years!

The other money from different countries? He would find out if it's worth something. For now he was gathering enough that could fit inside Akaru's bag. To try and speed up the process, he aimed to search under one of the biggest population densities that had a constant supply of change falling into his grasp.

How much did he have? Well, he could count but he didn't know how to add together such big numbers along the coins and bills.

Something a little further down the sewer stuck out to him due to how clean it was, Goop noticing it immediately and spotting a rather large stack of bills with a band keeping them together. They looked fresh, and had big numbers on them too!

He felt sorry for whoever lost this, but he was happy that he could bring this money to Akaru!

Zooming on over, Goop reached down with his hand and tugged the stack of bills up. Then, something clicked, several hatches all around him shutting in unison and blocking off his escape!

He knew the sewers had these, but they usually didn't activate so fast or in unison! Anxiety bubbled inside of him as he searched for an exit, seeing that even the gutters and manholes themselves all closed up with thick plates.

Before he could contemplate using his acid to burn through one of them, a spark fell down the only opening there was, with a flaming man standing over the manhole.

The air detonated all around Goop, a blast so strong that shook the whole city block. Right after, a team of heroes leapt down the hole, with one notable man leading them.

Endeavor, the number two hero, with red flames licking over his blue skin tight hero suit and a piercing gaze that could burn someone with just a glance.

"Geez." His sidekick, Burnin, a woman in a white outfit with bright green fiery hair examined the scorch marks all around. "You think he could have survived that boss?"

"No." Endeavor stated, but was still weary. This was the villain that managed to handle All Might's hits after all. While using a controlled explosion by lighting the natural methane in the sewers would wipe out anyone, they still don't know the full extent of the villain's abilities.

Still, if he caught the villain that evaded the number one hero twice, they would have to acknowledge that someone has managed to accomplish what All Might couldn't. While he had plans before on how to surpass the hero through his lineage, this was an opportunity to do it personally.

When he saw that old quirk toy floating along the water, Endeavor only saw a prize for accomplishing the impossible. He beat All Might, he would undoubtedly be crowned the number one hero personally.

Picking up the device, Endeavor examined it and confirmed it was as they previously researched. An anti gravity toy, that the sludge villain or more recently self named 'Goop' had used to assist in his maneuvers. Modifications had been made to it, but that wasn't the most noticeable thing.

Where were the scorch marks?

"You find him?" Burnin excitedly came to his side to exam the ufo. "Or, what's left of him?"

Instincts provoked him to act as the water below them erupted, pushing Burnin away from his body as he used his quirk to propel himself away as fast as he could.

His sidekick, as experienced as she was, was unfortunately not as fast as he.

A tendril managed to latch onto her leg, Goop's body sliding up her body and engulfing her entirely. She remained stuck, restrained, as Goop's head stuck out from behind her shoulder.

"I don't want to hurt you. Leave me alone."

"Release her immediately." Endeavor guessed that Goop must have hidden in the water at the last minute to avoid the methane blast. With his fists igniting brightly, he readied himself to take careful aim. "Otherwise I won't hold back."

The ufo he had tossed to the side earlier circled around Goop, the villain creating several new tendrils aimed at Endeavor. "I'm not a villain."

Sure, Endeavor read the report and studied it carefully. It was all but likely that Goop wasn't in control during the sludge villain incident, but his actions afterwards still considered him a villain in the eyes of the law. It was also still his body that managed to evade All Might both times.

"Prove it." Endeavor challenged. "Let her go, and we'll talk."

Goop thought about it for a second, before complying and releasing her. Burnin gasped for air as she fell down to her hands and knees, giving him the opening he was looking for.

With a flash fire fist, Endeavor punched with his quirk super heated to evaporate most of the villain in one hit. Charging after landing the attack, he readied another one at the ufo.

Only Goop recovered too fast from the initial blow, shocking the hero as not one flame stuck to his body. Goop didn't even show signs of drying out!

While Endeavor was suddenly pelted by globs of fireproof adhesive, he questioned what exactly this villain's body was made of. Acid, adhesives, immune to blunt forces, heat, and flames.

But daring to rip the slime off his face and all the hairs on his face with it, Endeavor snarled as his mind refocused to deal with the villain at hand. Goop got lucky, and he capitalized on that luck by running away in the brief window of escape he made.

Burnin was starting to pull herself up now, as Endeavor did not care for his costume as he continued to grip the substance on his body off of him, his hands coated in it.

As soon as he was about to give chase, he smelled rotten eggs, alerting him that methane was in the air again. Up ahead, one of the metal hatches had a hole burned right through it, the metal still dripping with acid.

With methane in the air, he didn't have the speed to give chase with his quirk, leaving him to pursue on foot with gunk coating his arms and a lack of eyebrows or beard on his face.

One thing is for sure though, he would not make the same mistake twice.

That evening, Goop was much more cautious of the sewers. He was doing better about navigating on the surface, quickly darting from alley to alley, shadow to shadow, rooftop to rooftop, all while making sure no one was watching.

But it was much harder to identify where he was without moving through the pipes and tunnels he grew up in. Occasionally he would slip back into the sewers, confirming no traps or tricks were waiting for him, before popping back up and confirming his route.

When he started getting close enough, he didn't see as much of a need to hide due to the lower foot traffic and individuals who looked as likely to be arrested as him. Still cautious and not waiting around in the open, Goop maneuvered up to the doorway, squeezing himself under it and recollecting himself on the otherside.

It only made Akaru who was sitting in the only room besides the bathroom yelp in surprise. "Goop! You have to knock!"

"Oh, sorry." He turned around, knocking on the door before opening it from the inside to let his ufo hover back over his head. "I brought you money!"

Feeling a little guilty, Akaru contemplated turning it down. "You didn't have to."

But when he spit up a pile of bills and coins from his gut, she didn't turn it away.

"I can bring you other stuff too! I know where to find all sorts of treasure!"

He was too pure for this cruel world. She would repay his kindness in full. "Actually, I grabbed some books from work today I think you'll like."

"Really? Ones I don't need to read?"

"Better, they can help you learn to read." Akaru pulled out a small stack from her bag, setting them on the creaky coffee table with a wobbly leg. "At the library, hardly anyone checks out early learning material so it's always available. Most of the time we just have bums we try to kick out for looking up porn on the computers."

"What were they looking up?"

He really was too clean for someone who grew up in literal sewage. So without knowing the kind of heat that was chasing down Goop, Akaru would provide this misunderstood soul with a chance to make a life for himself, even if she couldn't see a way at the time to help him get the law off his back.

Things have been a little more busy lately, so I ended up just adding some fun scenes here and there to the story. Yeah, I probably nerfed Endeavor a ton in that fight, but part of the fun I'm having in writing this story is not taking it seriously.

I say that but in the discord we kept coming up with all sorts of plots for Goop to get entangled with. If you want to participate in the discussions, join us!

https://discord.gg/S46dcywpfv

Chapter Text

I'm Not Sludge, I'm Goop!

Chapter 3

Once upon a time, there wasn't much for a sentient pile of slime to do other than ride the currents of the sewers. He would explore every nook and cranny, find small trinkets to collect, or watch the world above through his limited options. Now though? He could do so much more!

He could go up to the surface! Where anything and everything was.

It was rough at first, because people mistook him for the villain that used his body. But, now and then he would find those who needed help and sometimes they wouldn't care about his past.

Sometimes.

"Help!" A small and old woman cried out in fear as Goop stood near them, trying to give them back their purse. "It's a villain! They're robbing me!"

"I'm not trying to take it, I'm trying to give it back to you! You dropped it."

"Someone call a hero!"

"Just take it! Here!"

"He's attacking me!"

Goop couldn't tell if this person actually recognized him from the news or just assumed he was a villain because of how he looked. His new friend, Akaru warned him that life was a little harder if you didn't look like the average person. Most people seemed ok, but now and then it was possible to encounter those who were quick to assume that if you didn't look human you couldn't be human.

Goop wasn't sure why it mattered if he was human or not. He just wanted to give this person their purse.

"Please take it back." Goop extended his arm a little closer to the woman quaking in her shoes, as others watching simply stood and watched. They didn't come to help her, they didn't come to help him, they just observed with some of them on their phones to either record or report what was happening. "I'm not trying to rob you! I'm trying to help you!"

"Halt villain!"

Goop has learned not to stick around as soon as a hero arrived. They didn't seem to care what he said, even if they spent time to listen to him. All of them, still wanted to take him to jail. Goop wasn't sure what jail was like but it couldn't be good if no one wanted to go there.

With not a moment to lose Goop dived onto the sidewalk, rushing flat against the surface as his ufo weaved between the legs of the hero before snapping around the corner of the street.

By the time the hero caught up to Goop's last known location, he was gone.

With how good Goop has been at avoiding these heroes, he was starting to learn how to better squeeze through pipes, rain gutters, and all the little nooks and crannies that people often overlooked. It made Goop feel better knowing that no one would follow him back to Akaru's home.

Sliding down one of the gutters, Goop slipped out across the floor in front of a certain door. Squeezing himself between the cracks, he managed to stand up on the other side before opening the front door from within to allow his ufo to hover in.

Akaru wasn't home yet, she usually wasn't home by sunset anyways. First thing first, he emptied out his gut of treasures and money for her in the corner of the room. He only brought the best for her, but she didn't know what to do with a lot of it.

Goop walked over to the kitchen counter, where he saw various envelopes with big red words stamped over them. Picking one up, he attempted to decipher them.

He couldn't read.

He was trying though! It was just hard with so many letters and symbols.

Moving back to the bookshelf, Goop extended his arm as he picked up the book Akaru had checked out for him. He was going to get a head start and learn these words!

….

Only he didn't know how to sound out most of these. He needed Akaru's help to figure them out.

So, plopping himself down, he went over what he could remember while he waited for Akaru to be home any minute. It got darker outside, and it was dark for a while, Goop was used to the dark so he was fine as it was with the streetlights outside to help see the pages.

After a long time though, Goop heard a key click into the lock at the door before Akaru entered.

"Goop? Are you here?" She asked out in a hush.

Goop zoomed up to her, making the woman jump in fright as her wings fluttered about wildly.

"Hello!" Goop greeted as Akaru recovered from a heart attack. "I brought more treasure for you!"

"O-oh, thank you." Akaru rubbed around her eye, wincing before stepping in. Goop leaned in to inspect what was wrong, finding a notable bruise or two on her head.

"Are you ok?"

While flicking the lights on, she took off her shoes as she made herself home. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I just had to clean up a few more things at the Library. There was a break in. Nothing was stolen but a bunch of stuff was trashed."

"Did a villain hurt you?"

She got quiet, her hand stuck on the fridge door as she pressed her forehead against the cool freezer.

"No." She finally whined out in embarrassment. "Because I had to stay longer, and my special sunglasses broke a while ago, I….I saw a street lamp."

"The street lamp fell on you?"

She whined out even further, continually knocking her head against the freezer. "I, have a thing with bright lights. My head gets all fuzzy and I lose all focus. The most I can handle is my tv but even then I have a filter over it so I don't get too absorbed with it."

"You like lights?"

"I do!" She cried out as she whipped around, grabbing Goop by the shoulders and shaking him madly. "I love them so much but they make me do stupid things sometimes because all I can think about is how pretty they are! That's why I have such dim lights so they don't overwhelm me but even then I'll just stare at a lightbulb sometimes and-"

Goop unceremoniously dropped a pile of rusted and old appliances at her feet, digging through them before pulling out some various things. "I think these are supposed to light up! I don't know though. I couldn't find outlets before but we could try!"

Wanting a change of pace from all the headache of work, and the fact that she wouldn't be able to go back until they fixed the library enough, she had nothing better to do than to indulge in her guilty pleasure.

"This bulb is broken." She set aside what was cracked or damaged beyond duct tape repair skills. "This one is missing a cord but, oh this has such a pretty filament! I bet it buzzes beautifully when plugged in! Oh, this one is just a base for a lamp, but we need something to put over it to diffuse the light."

Goop looked at his hand, seeing how he could see some light bleed through his flesh. Looking over towards a glass bottle, Goop twisted off the cap of the clear bottle of powerful alcohol before shoving his finger into it. Once there was enough to have a thick layer on the bottom he twisted the cap back on.

"Try this!" Goop offered the bottle with globs of green slime floating down towards the bottom of it.

Akaru grabbed it, watching the thick lime gelatin crawl from one end to the other as she tilted the bottle around. "There is something special about doing mason jar or bottle lights. I got in so much trouble making them all the time as a kid."

Going over to the living room, she plugged the cord of the base to a nearby outlet, putting the bottle over it as the slime immediately lowered the light to a mesmerizing but more manageable level. "My parents were both mutant types but, basic ones. My mom had wings while my dad had some enhanced senses of an insect. When I was born, I was so different from them. Mutant quirks already existed for a while but I was just too different for them to understand my, em, impulses."

Her eyes seemed to widen as an orb of green began to rise from the puddle at the bottom of the bottle, refracting a small amount of light through its mass as it rose to the top, settling there before slowly diving back down to rejoin with the others, rippling the surface in slow motions.

Goop sat next to her, watching as she was so absorbed in the lamp before her as she continued to ramble under her breath.

"The other kids teased me with flashlights, sometimes throwing glowsticks at me. It didn't help how I liked to collect them anyways and couldn't resist when they pulled them out. Even when they understood, they didn't respect me."

Her eyes followed the next blob to rise, watching it stretch tall before detaching from the single glob at the bottom. "You don't mind though, right Goop?"

"I like pretty lights too." Goop answered as he glanced out the window to see all the wonderful lights the city had. "I grew up in the dark. The only light I ever had is what came through the holes or gutters. I liked to go to look at street signs at night, especially the neon ones."

"I love neon signs!" Akaru yelped in glee, finally finding someone to express her passion to with no judgement between them. "LED ones can be cool and easy to make but it can't match the raw reaction of light that neon can do!"

"I'll go look for one next time!" Goop promised as they went back to watching the lamp. "I can even check where I met someone with lots of treasure who fixed up my gravity disc."

"And maybe we can make more lava lamps." Akaru pointed towards their newest creation. "I never had the money to splurge on this kind of stuff, but maybe we can make them from your treasure!"

"Cool! Oh yeah! I put the money I found over there!" Goop pointed towards a pile of coins with crumpled and stained bills resting on top. Akaru didn't know how much it was, but she doubted it was enough to pay for a month of rent.

Glancing to the bills that were stacked on her kitchen counter, she hoped the library would be fixed soon so that she could keep her place. "More money would be good. I don't know if I can afford this place if I'm going to miss anything more than a week from my job."

"You need more?" Goop moved his face over to be in front of hers, Akaru immediately regretting her words but the lamp made her head all fuzzy and loose and Goop was just so easy to open up to!

"I'm sorry." Akaru brought her knees up to her chest. "You don't have to, I didn't mean to be selfish or-"

"Don't worry!" Goop rose up in a single stretch to his standing height. "I'll make sure you have all the money you want so you can stay here, and order pizza, with lots of lamps and lights all around!"

Well, that was the plan, but Goop was starting to run out of safe places in the sewers. He noticed all sorts of cameras, traps, and even a few explosions that he had discovered very directly. The money he was finding in his few safe passages was starting to become sparse, having already given most of it to Akaru already.

So, bracing himself for people to run, scream, or call for help, Goop was forced back onto the streets to find money. He knew that banks had money, and they gave it to people sometimes. There were lots of commercials about that.

Entering the clean environment with folks behind desks, others sitting down in chairs next to offices, and a line of individuals waiting to be assisted, Goop walked up to wait in line like everyone else. Idly he watched to see how people were being helped. They would walk up, say something, and either give money or checks to the person behind the desk, or they would receive it.

Sometimes they even gave coins in exchange for bills. Goop liked coins better, because the money got all soggy and crumply so fast.

Someone who was just helped left the front desk, looking up and seeing Goop in line. "EEP!"

They ran out immediately, Goop starting to grow tired of people being scared of him when he was literally just standing here. The man directly in front of Goop turned around at the noise, flinching when he saw Goop right behind him.

"Hello." Goop gave a wave, trying to be friendly and not scary.

The man didn't run, but he walked right out of line and straight to the front door while pulling out his phone. They were calling the heroes again, hopefully Goop would have time get money before they showed up.

"E-excuse me." One of the tellers, with a large man in a security outfit next to her and another fatter man in a suit, behind one of the main desks called out to him. "Please, we can help you. Just don't hurt anyone."

"Can I?" Goop looked at the line of individuals in front of him that kept stealing glances at him while shaking in their shoes. "I thought I had to wait like everyone else?"

"We'll help you here." The security guard told him, hand on his taser. "Just leave them alone."

"Ok?" Goop gauged the others reaction as he began to cut in line, none of them voicing disagreement as he walked up to the desk. Huh, he could get out of here faster than he thought.

"I would like money please." Goop asked nicely, the woman sweating as she began to empty out the register in front of her and sticking it in a bag. Huh, that was easy, but they didn't do that for anyone else.

"Excuse me?"

"YeES?!" The woman squeaked out as her glasses nearly threw themselves off her face.

"Is this normal for getting money? I don't think anyone else has gotten so much."

"W-well." The man in the suit rubbed his hands together as he couldn't look up towards Goop. "They're just withdrawing from their accounts, mister villain."

"My name is Goop." Goop corrected. "I'm not a villain. I'm just trying to get money like everyone else."

"O-of course you are!" The woman wobbly smiled and nodded along as she finished putting it in the bag. Handing it out to Goop. "Everyone needs money!"

"Oh, actually I don't need money. I'm just getting it for a friend." Goop accepted the bag, seeing the coins still in the register. "Can I also have those? They don't get as messy inside of me."

"PLEASE FORGIVE ME!" The woman nearly ripped out the drawer as she scrambled to collect the coins within it to put in a new bag.

"Are you ok?" Goop asked in concern because she seemed way more freaked out than the usual person. "Do you need a doctor?"

"We'll be fine." The security guard told him as he slowly let his hand off the taser. "Do you mind if I ask a question?"

"Sure!" Someone wanted to talk with him! Not a lot of people like to do that!

"Do you know that you're stealing right now?"

The other two let out gasps, rushing to get in front of him as they immediately bowed in front of Goop.

"Please don't hurt him! He didn't mean to insult you or your intelligence! We'll open up the vault if that's what you want!"

"Uuuuuhhhh, I just wanted some money, not a vault." Goop then stretched his head over the desk, making the two throw themselves to the ground with their hands over their heads as the security guard snapped his taser up to point it at Goop.

He knew what those were, they didn't do much to him. They just sort of tingled. "What do you mean I'm stealing? I thought people came here to get money, and you guys are giving it to me."

The guard lowered his weapon, eyeing Goop over with an astounded expression. "We thought you were robbing us, you know, since you're a wanted villain?"

"I don't think people want villains. I only know one person who likes me being around, so I guess I'm wanted. I'm not a villain though. I told you, I'm Goop."

The guard holstered the taser, looking back down to his fellow employees before speaking up. "I don't think we're being robbed."

"That's what I've been trying to say!"

The doors to the bank gently opened, as a hero Goop recognized entered. It was Backdraft! Goop wanted to flee immediately, but the hero didn't yell at him, didn't attack him, he didn't even call him a villain.

"Are they free to go?" Backdraft asked Goop, pointing to the group of cowering civilians on the other side of the bank that Goop didn't see huddle into a pile.

"Are they?" Goop asked honestly, because he didn't know what they were doing.

Backdraft sighed before waving to them. "It's ok, you can all leave."

They seemed to relax, mostly becoming confused as the hero didn't behave as they expected him to. Slowly, then comfortably, they all just walked out of the bank.

Backdraft looked between Goop and the employees still on the floor, before looking to the relaxed security guard. "Mind filling me in?"

"Sir, 'Goop' entered roughly ten minutes ago, waited in line, before he was requested to come to the front desk. He requested money, which we gave before he asked for the coins."

"Any threats?"

"No sir."

"Any aggressive body language?"

"Perhaps one moment but it's unlikely."

Backdraft let out a sigh as his shoulder relaxed before looking over to Goop. "Did you come here to steal?"

"No."

"Did you try to hurt anyone?"

"Of course not!"

"Did you think that you might have to hurt someone to get money?"

"I don't want to hurt anyone to get money! If I had to, I would just keep looking around in the sewers for more change."

"Uh huh." Backdraft looked back to the security guard, motioning with his head to the two bank employees. "Would you get them outside? There's an ambulance with some security blankets if that will make them feel better."

"Yes sir." The security guard helped the employees up, guiding them to get on their feet before casually walking them outside. Now it was just Goop, and Backdraft.

"I got to ask." Backdraft eyed the floating disc above Goop's head. "Have you ever been to a bank before?"

"No."

"Ugh." The hero put his hands to his hips, trying to come to terms with the situation. "Ok, look, I'm starting to see that you don't want to hurt anyone, and maybe your story about being controlled back then was true."

"You believe me?"

"I'm leaning towards the possibility, but I don't know for sure." Backdraft waved for Goop to follow him to the front doors, Goop walking behind the hero as they started towards the exit. "Look, whether you knew it or not, you ended up breaking some of the rules we have. A court might find you to be innocent, but you have to turn yourself in so we can clear this up. You beating up heroes alongside no one really knowing about the villain controlling you just makes you look like the same villain."

"But I'm not! And I didn't want to fight any of you!"

Backdraft held open the door, Goop hesitating to leave with him as he saw lots of cops outside.

"It's ok." Backdraft tried to keep him calm and compliant. "If you stick with me, I'll make sure they don't do anything to try to attack you."

"Where are we going?"

"Just to the police station, come on, I'll give you some treats while we ask questions and-"

Goop didn't exit despite the tempting offer, seeing all those guns, all those officers angrily staring at him with their weapons in hand. They didn't look as friendly as Backdraft was right now. "Are they going to put me in jail?"

"Maybe for a time." Backdraft honestly said. "I don't know if we can avoid it, but I promise to help get you out as soon as poss-HEY!"

Goop darted towards the inside of the bank, Backdraft chasing after him as the ufo flew into a room, where Goop found his escape. Backdraft slammed against the stall door as he looked to where Goop fled, seeing the cracked toilet washing away what was left.

"He got away." The hero shook his head as he wallowed in yet another hit to his reputation. Then it occurred to him, Goop still had the money bag with him. He'd have to have the cops review the footage to confirm, but the bank was going to be very upset to find out that they just willingly gave away tens of thousands of yen when a simple few questions would have cleared this up.

Goop had delivered the money and left it in Akaru's home, but he didn't know if it was enough to help. The bag was useful though, it helped keep the money dry in his body and it was durable enough to handle all the tight squeezes Goop had to go through.

So that's why he kept it, and hopefully he's fill it with more money soon.

"If banks can't give out more money, where can I get some more?"

Goop plopped himself off the wall where he was laying flat, looking towards both ends of the alleyway as he contemplated his next move. Maybe he should find someone to ask, but there were only so many people he could talk to.

What was that girl's name again? Hatsume! That's right!

Goop would go there, and maybe bring her treasure as well! But, the spot he would normally go to get treasure has been cleaned up recently, not a scrap left on that beach.

Something threw itself into Goop, the sentient slime looking down at himself to see a rather big knife was floating around inside of him.

"Ooooo, that's new!" A girl popped her head around the corner before spinning out, messy ash blond hair tied up into frazzled buns, golden eyes with slit pupils, and a wide grin with fangs. "Say mister, do you have skin?"

"I don't think so." Goop pulled the knife out, holding it up as the girl skipped over to him. "Is this yours?"

"It is! Thank you!" She accepted it, before stabbing him in the arm. "Wooooo, such a weird texture."

With her other hand she began to slap it against his arm, watching the slime ripple as she gazed at the knife embedded in him.

Goop wasn't sure what she was doing. He assumed she tried to hurt him, but she was too happy to be doing that. She seemed to enjoy how his body acted, so maybe she just wanted to play?

He never got to play before!

As Goop looked over her, he noticed that some of the red on her flushed cheeks wasn't on the inside. Reaching up with his other hand, she paused to watch as he used a finger to wipe it off?

Goop looked at the red on his finger, quickly realizing what it was. "Is this your blood?"

"It belonged to this cutie a little while ago." She smiled up at Goop with a weird glint in her eyes he couldn't place. "It's all mine now!"

And then she put her lips over his finger, and bit down.

She bit him.

She bit his finger off!

The girl pulled her knife away as she began to smack her lips, the slime in her mouth sticking all over as she worked on trying to find the best way to chew/drink the odd sticky and globby texture. "Ish kin oh lie ele rui ummie!"

"What?"

She closed her lips, gulping down the last of the finger before letting out a satisfying sigh. "It's kind of like melted fruit gummies!"

She then stabbed his gut, pulled the knife out, and stabbed again while giggling madly. "This doesn't hurt you?l

"No."

"And you're not upset that I ate your finger?"

Goop held the hand up, letting his body regrow the missing appendage. "No?"

"Yay!" She leapt onto him, giving Goop a full body hug while wrapping her limbs around him before clawing through him to wrap her arms around his neck, or where his neck should be.

"Hey hey, can we be best friends? And you'll let me stab you and eat you all up?"

"What are best friends? I know what friends are! Akaru is my friend."

"We're best friends!" She answered with glee as she climbed further up to sit on his shoulders, leaning over his head to stare at him face to face, with hers upside down and barely an inch away. "My name is Himiko Toga! What's yours?"

"I'm Goop! Thanks for being my friend Toga!"

"Boo." She pouted at him, stabbing her knife into the side of his head but getting no reaction. "We're best friends, so call me Himiko!"

"Ok Himiko!"

"Hurray!" Himiko threw her hands into the air, bonking his ufo to the side, which in turn made his body a lot less solid as they both fell into a puddle.

Himiko laughed as she began slapping around in Goop's body, the ufo floating over to pull up Goop's face near her feet so he could look at her. "Hey Himiko!"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where I can find money? I'm trying to help my friend but I don't think I can go to a bank."

Rolling onto her belly as she hummed in thought, kicking her feet up and down as she swirled her finger in his body, Himiko ran over the options in her mind. "Well, I know some guys were talking about a big pay for going to do a job at a hero school. I wasn't going to talk to them before because I don't care about money or heroes. I can show you to them if you want!"

"Thank you!"

"But!" She put a finger up to where his lips would be if he had any. "You have to promise to stay my best friend, and let me stab you more and sometimes snack on you."

"Ok!" This sounded like a great deal to Goop!

Lots of money, a new friend, and all she wanted to do was stab him a bunch!

Don't worry Akaru! Goop was going to get that money! And maybe the hero school would also tell him how he could be a hero!

I had some time, and here and there I added to this chapter. Here you go! Goop is on his way to trying to become a hero! All he has to do is find these random people that a stabby girl covered in blood told him about, and get a job that involves going to a school for heroes!

This story was created, discussed, and is still being written thanks to my fellow discord members. If you want to be a part of making Goop's adventure, come join us!

https://discord.gg/S46dcywpfv