Chapter Text
Izuku had been planning to tell his friends about his quirklessness that day. How the doctor said he had no chance of developing powers. He remembered being scared of how they would react.
He recalled they had all been playing hide and seek together. A kid he simply remembered by the nickname ‘Kacchan’ had been the finder. He couldn’t remember what this kid looked like now.
He remembered he’d been hiding in some nearby trees. But after a bit, the memory cuts off. Nothing but black.
The memories began again when he woke up, finding himself in a strange, unfamiliar place. He was in a small room with nothing but a single uncomfortable bed. The mattress was nearly rock solid, the blankets thin, and the pillows flat.
Then he’d met the ‘doctors’. Men who told him he was in good hands. Izuku didn’t believe that for a second and asked to go back to his mom.
Mom… Her face was but a distant memory now. Nine years really made it hard to remember anything exactly. Anyone from his past life was practically just a blur of color in his mind, no faces to associate with them anymore.
As he grew within the lab, the doctors would conduct experiments involving lots of genetic manipulation. Izuku had gone through many modifications, most involving dragon-quirk DNA. This DNA gave him red horns on his head, one dragon eye, patches of red scales, fangs, wings, a tail, and claw-like hands.
A burn scar covered the right side of his face, with three uniform stripes of red scales on top of the scar, right under his eye. That eye was the original emerald green he knew he had before the lab. His left side had a patch of red scales around the eye, which was golden in color with a diamond-shaped iris. The sclera around it was gray.
He had many abilities due to the infused DNA. He was able to breathe fire, but also control it with his hands, like telekinesis. Weirdly enough, if Izuku focused enough, he’s almost sure he can remember his parents’ quirks, and if they were mixed, that could have been exactly what it would have been. Just without the dragon features.
Experiment 0094. That’s who he was here. Everyone else had names like that, too. The number represented the order in which they came to the lab, 93 others having arrived before Izuku.
Most of them didn’t even remember their real names anymore. Izuku had consistently practiced his silence at night, hanging on to it. He didn’t want to lose that one connection he had to his old life. He just couldn’t/
Izuku dreamed of freedom; they all did. But those who had tried to ask for help? Those who tried to escape? Well, after getting caught, they’d be led into a mysterious room in the back of the building. And not one of them had ever come back out.
Izuku’s only view of the outside world was a hole in the wall near the courtyard. He often covered it up with the overgrown plants, so most experiments didn’t even know about it, let alone any of the doctors.
He couldn’t even see the sky, for even areas outside the main building had rock ceilings. The courtyard ceiling was large enough for him and others to practice their flying.
Usually, Izuku hung out with Experiment 0043. The guy was his age and was his similar. What that meant was the same DNA was used for this experiment as was for Izuku.
0043’s hair was mainly electric blond with cyan highlights, along with a black patch that looked like lightning. Most of his hair was kept in a braid, as it was pretty long. Under his bangs was a patch of turquoise scales above his eyes. One eye was golden yellow, but that seemed to be his natural eye. The other had a black sclera with a bright cyan iris and no pupil. He couldn’t really see out of that eye. Under his eyes was a pattern of circular scales. His face had some lightning-shaped scars due to his electrification quirk. His claw-like hands had black scales, different than his teal wings and tail. The guy’s left foot was missing, replaced with a peg-leg like those of pirates Izuku read about in books.
0043 had similar abilities as well. He could breathe fire and control it with his hands. He could fly. But he also had his quirk. He was able to shoot out massive amounts of electricity, though if he did too much, his brain would quite literally short-circuit.
Izuku didn’t know 0043’s real name, and 0043 didn’t know his. However, they both knew they remembered their real names. They were roommates, as they usually roomed similars together, and talked about whatever they were allowed to.
Telling their real names was not allowed. If they even tried, electric shock collars would zap them. Well, 0043’s collar made a high-pitched noise only he could hear, which was effective because 0043 wasn’t exactly a fan of noises. Plus, electrocuting him didn’t affect him much.
Asking for help was also banned. Most of them stopped trying after the collars were implemented. Nobody had had to go to that mysterious back room for a long time.
“I sometimes wish I were a bird,” Izuku whispered to 0043 one day. They weren’t allowed to be too loud, so the outside world couldn’t hear them. But screams would still sound through the facility, so there were probably already rumors about this place.
“Why?” 0043 asked.
“Because they get to fly free,” Izuku replied.
“Not all birds do. Some of them live in captivity. So maybe in a way, we’re already like birds,” 0043 responded.
“Yeah. I guess we are like caged birds.”