Chapter 1: There is no Gene for Fate
Tokyo was on fire. A massive monster, a red lizard creature with horns and fiery breath was raining destruction down upon the people fleeing. A shaky phone camera captured the beast as it spat a massive fireball at a helicopter before switching to footage from a news copter.
It turned to the fleeing civilians and raised its head high into the sky to unleash a massive roar to the heavens.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAWGH!!"
The beast turned to attack the nearest office building, but before it could, the lizard vanished, and in its place were five floating metal eyes, each one the size of an SUV and placed where its limbs and tail should have been. The four that behaved like talons had massive metal blades on the underside while the "tail" was covered in spiked armor. High above them all, where the head should have been was a similar orb, only this one had a pair of mechanical jaws and plasma cannons. Piloting the vehicle was a curious figure. It was a man, in a scaly green suit, boxy brass colored gauntlets and boots, a purple cape with eye clasps, and an opaque acrylic dome helmet.
Within the dome, the figure was panicking, pressing switches and buttons in a panic.
{Whoops, looks like ol' Mysty's having technical difficulties!} a cheerful voice spoke in English, the speaker emerging into view. He was a man in red & blue spandex with a web design and silver tear-drop shaped eyepieces, and hanging from his shoulder was a boxy device on a strap, an adhesive label marked SPIDEY'S JAMMING DEVICE helpfully explaining what it was.
The hero, Spider-Man, turned to the News camera. As he spoke, a translation appeared in the news feed.
{Don't worry about Mysterio here, your friendly neighborhood Spider-man, on loan from good ol' New York city, can handle this!}
With a salute and a distinct sounding *thwip!* from his webshooters, the man swung off the copter to fight the villain.
The video continued playing on loop in the background, not that anyone was really paying attention to it. The children near it were too busy focusing on their tour guide, to watch the footage.
"-and while the masked hero Spider-man, real name Peter Parker, fought many Japan-based villains back in the pre-quirk era such as Dakon and the Silver Samurai, his confrontation with the Quirkless supervillain Mysterio, real name Quentin Beck, remains among the most well remembered for the scope of the battle and for being the last time the two clashed before Beck died of brain and lung cancer."
The museum tour guide recited the speech with mildly bored disinterest, as she had repeated it to plenty of other tour groups before, probably hundreds of times.
The children were still enraptured by the story though. After all, in a world where everyone was born with powers, hearing about how a young man got his by mere happenstance was fascinating. After all, if a quirkless boy could get his powers through radiation and a spider, why couldn't it happen again?
This point of fact was especially noteworthy to a young 7-year old boy with red shoes and green tinted black hair, young Izuku Midoriya. The boy listened in awe at the tour guide's words. Hearing the exploits of one of the men who laid the foundation for the world he lived in was inspiring. Especially with the news he had been hit with at the doctor's office… three years ago?
Had it really been that long?
Three years since that appointment with Dr. Tsubasa?
Three years since he was diagnosed as Quirkless?
Three years that doctor said he couldn't be a hero because of it?
Midoriya forced those thoughts out of his head. He may have been born Quirkless, but there must have been a way he could get a Quirk! That's why he was here on this school trip. To learn about Spider-man, and see if there was any new information he could get about how he got his quirk.
"And here, we have the original pod used in the villain attack."
Pulled from his thoughts, Midoriya looked up at the next exhibit. Once upon a time, this machine was an advanced vehicle from which a Quirkless man brought Japan to its knees. And even though there was a chunk of the side missing and the plexiglass was shattered, it was still an impressive vehicle.
"Stupid vehicle! Looks like that dumb bubble-face ripped off Dr. Eggman!"
At least, to most people.
The derisive comment was spoken aloud by a boy with ashy blonde hair and a confident smirk. Katsuki Bakugou, preening from the snickers from his classmates, smirked as the tour guide continued on as if he had not shouted.
"I-I think it's cool…"
Midoriya had spoken before he could stop himself. Bakugo looked over with a sour look marring his face.
"What'd ya say, Deku??"
Ah yes, deku, Bakugo's favorite insult to Midoriya ever since he learned that his once best friend was quirkless. Midoriya idly wondered if Bakugo came up with it as a response to his own nickname of Kacchan, or if he would ever get sick of deku, but kept those thoughts silent. Instead, he turned to respond to the boy and explain himself.
"We-well, Mysterio, a quirkless guy, was able to do a lot just with some technology, smoke and mirrors, and-"
"He still got his ass whooped in less than three minutes by Spider-man!" Bakugo interrupted, keeping his voice quiet.
"B-but if a quirkless man could keep someone like Spider-man at bay with just his brain and gadgets, then maybe I could-"
"Quiet in the back!" their homeroom teacher spoke up. Midoriya fell silent, not able to meet his snickering peers' eyes. It was always the same. Bakugo would get away with interrupting the lecture, while midoriya was silenced. After all, how could the glory child with the amazing and strong quirk be in trouble? Midoriya knew it was unfair, but he kept silent and his face down. If he hadn't, he might have noticed the ugly scowl on his ex-best friend's face.
Not long afterwards, lunch break came. Most of the students were packed in the cafeteria, either eating lunches their parents had packed or overpriced food that was available at the counter. Most of them were, that is. Two students were in the bathroom… and it was not for using the toilets.
"Where do you get off thinking you can be a hero?!" Bakugo snarled, his hands popping with small explosions.
Midoriya was against the wall, shaking as he clutched his open backpack. "What?! I-"
"You're a quirkless deku! You can't be a hero! If you tried, you'd be squished like a bug!" Bakugo interrupted, slamming his palm against the tile. With his other hand, he reached into Midoriya's notebook, filled with childish sketches of gadgets and costumes to help him imitate All Might. "You saw how that Mysterio loser fared against someone with a quirk! His dumb gadgets couldn't help him for very long, and neither would any help against you!"
"But- I could-!"
"You're weak deku, useless! And I'll keep reminding you of that until it sticks!"
Bakugo reached for Midoriya's throat, and at that moment, Midoriya panicked. Instead of taking it like he usually did, Midoriya chose to act. He dodged Bakugo's hand and barreled past him, his skinny legs running faster than before. He sped out of the bathroom and ran down the hallways. He thought of running to the cafeteria, but Bakugo's friends, for lack of a better term, would be there to help him hold Midoriya down. So instead he ran back down the hallway the class had just visited.
"Deku!! Get back here!"
Midoriya quickened his pace. But the open layout of the museum, done to show trophies of past hero exploits, offered little in the way of safe havens. Taking momentary shelter behind a statue depicting All Might's debut to catch his breath, Midoriya glanced around, the gears in his head turning.
Bakugo was approaching fast, so the simulation room was out. The hallway to the next area was too far away. The All Might statue was too big for him to climb. The diorama of Wolverine fighting Silver Samurai wasn't too far, but one quick look would easily reveal him to Bakugo or his minions. The hologram of Fredzilla's monster avatar was just out. Same with the mannequin of Sunfire. That only left one place to hide.
Mysterio's robot kaiju head.
A quick look around showed no one was watching, so young Midoriya ran to the pod, ducking under the stanchion with little effort, and jumped into the cockpit. The inside was spacious, even with the mannequin of Mysterio in the cockpit. The once bright buttons were unlit, a colorful sprawl that once commanded great destruction. Midoriya held his breath, forcing himself to calm down, but upon hearing loud footsteps approach, Midoriya realized his mistake. The pod, left unrepaired, was still missing its side, exposing him to Bakugo, who, by some act of mercy, had yet to notice him.
Quiet as he could, Midoriya slid under the cockpit's control panel, backing up against the inside of the floor space with his open backpack to his chest when something small bumped up against the back of his head. That sensation gave way to a quiet *click* , followed by a small *thud*. Looking behind him, Midoriya was treated to something he had never expected. A loose panel had fallen in the side wall, and within it was an empty space. Curiosity getting the better of himself, Midoriya quietly moved the panel away.
Behind where the panel once stood was a small cavity of long since rusted wires and cables. Nestled between them was a thick rectangle of sealed plastic. Pulling it out, Midoriya looked over it. It wasn't heavy by any means, not much heavier than his textbook, in fact. Gently opening the seal, Midoriya pulled out a thick green notebook, well used judging by the scratches on the edge of the cover and faded english text. Confused, Midoriya flipped through it, only to find that all the pages, despite having been bent, torn, and dog-eared through repeated handling, were seemingly blank.
"What in the-" Midoriya muttered, when a massive fist grabbed him and pulled him out screaming. Dropping the notebook, he flailed in panic, only to come face to face with his very angry teacher.
Looking around, Midoriya saw a smirking Bakugo and two security guards glaring at him. Then Midoriya remembered where he was and what he had done in full sight of the building's security cameras.
"...s… sorry…?" he whimpered.
It took many apologies from his teacher and three weeks of detention, but Midoriya was let off the hook for his transgression… though he was not allowed back at that museum again. Midoriya was just glad that Bakugo was satisfied with what happened and wasn't going to pursue him again.
That night, his mother Inko Midoriya berated him for his foolishness, and sent him to bed early with no more hero merch purchases for a month. Midoriya was silent throughout it. It had been another bust on his mission. Midoriya was frustrated, and in that frustration he tossed his backpack on the floor with a solid *thud*.
Wait.
Midoriya looked at his backpack again. That wasn't the right noise. Being that there had been a field trip that day, his backpack only had his hero notebook, pencil case, and an All Might model he had bought at the gift shop. So why did it sound like there was something heavy in there?
Actually, now that he thought about it, his backpack had been heavier than it should have been on the way home. He had been too preoccupied with Kacchan's words and the anger of his teacher and mother to really think about it, but now that he had…
Midoriya went to his backpack and unzipped it. Inside was what he expected, his pencils, an eraser, some crumbled up scraps of paper, a bent trading card depicting Endeavor's original outfit, and his two notebooks.
Wait, two? He only had one on him, so where did the other..?
Midoriya froze. The notebook from the exhibit! Security must have thought it was his and put it in his bag! Midoriya took out the notebook, looking it over. 'It was so weird,' he thought. 'The book showed plenty of use, but it was blank from front to back. And yet it had been so well hidden inside that kaiju robot head. Why? And who would put such a thing inside of Mysterio's -'
Mysterio's…
Mysterio.
With this revelation, Midoriya began muttering, trying to logically reason out the unexpected circumstances before him.
"Mysterio's kaiju scheme had been his last major appearance before his death, and the villain was notorious for being motivated by fame and glory. Since he was diagnosed the year prior, Mysterio must have known he was dying. Therefore it stands to reason that he would leave something of his behind." Midoriya muttered rapidly. "The notebook must be how he wanted to put down his final notes and thoughts, but why leave it blank?" Midoriya sat on his bed, puzzling over the paradox, until he glanced at an old poster of the Fantastic 4. More specifically, he glanced as Susan Storm-Richards. "Unless he didn't! He must have used invisible ink to hide the writing! It makes sense, it's an old spy movie cliche, and Mysterio loved old movies like that! But how to make it visible?"
Checking his cell phone, Midoriya looked up ways to detect invisible ink and quickly found one involving heat. Going to the bathroom and grabbing his mother's hair dryer, Midoriya bolted to his room, plugged the dryer into his wall socket, turned to the open journal…
And paused.
'This… this isn't mine.' he thought. 'This is museum property, technically. it's a part of hero history, I can't just… ruin it like this! It should be turned in, given to.. to someone! A pro hero, or the police!'
Midoriya bit his lip. Reluctantly, he put the hairdryer away. He was about to close the window on his phone when he spotted a U-tube video.
BLACK-LIGHT DIY FOR CHEAP!!
'Well… it can't hurt to at least look… take a few notes. A black-light won't hurt the book or ruin it, so if I'm careful, it should be okay, right? And, it's not like the museum was aware of it, anyways.'
It took an old LED flashlight, a blue sharpie, a purple sharpie, and some All Might-endorsed All Stick tape, but Midoriya was able to whip up an improvised black-light. So, under his bed, wearing a cheap painter's mask and his mom's dish gloves, Midoriya settled down, and activated the light.
Lo and behold, upon the cover of the notebook (currently resting on a plastic garbage bag) was Mysterio's infamous eye symbol, gazing upon him as if it had awoken from an ancient slumber. In a way, it had.
Midoriya couldn't hold back the gasp as his excitement shot up. He was right! It was the late Mysterio's notebook! Ideas flooded through his head, images of super suits, gauntlets, animatronic monsters at his beck and call, him using the illusions to scare bad guys into surrendering, him commanding a legion of robotic monsters to save children, and him, flying above them on a cloud of smoke, his helmet under his head, laughing in joy to the in awe civilians.
'Do not fear, for All Mystery is here!'
Midoriya eagerly flipped open the cover and flipped the book open to the first page.
Then to the next page.
And the next.
And three more times, each flip making his smile fade.
In his excitement, Midoriya had forgotten one simple issue with his discovery. One that set back his daydreams by a good amount.
Mysterio… was American. And thus spoke English.
Which seven year old Midoriya could barely read.
Thank All Might for the Internet.
It had taken him the better part of two months, three weeks, and five days of painstaking translation, with detentions and classes thrown in but eventually, he did it.
Midoriya had translated the entire notebook to Japanese.
It wasn't a perfect translation. He was sure he got several words and his grammar wrong, but he was able to get the gist of Mysterio's words. Not that much of it was really usable. Mysterio apparently wrote the majority of the book with details of his early childhood in Riverside, California, his attending the Stan Winston School of Arts as a young man, his work in Hollywood as a Special Effects Artist, and his career fighting Spider-Man, sometimes alongside the notorious Sinister Six.
All Might above, this man hated Spider-man. He admired Spider-Man's genius in creating his gadgets, especially after Peter Parker was outed to the world following America's SuperHero Registration Act, but wow this man hated Spidey. Entire pages were filled with rants against him and his "Accursed sixth sense" to quote the notebook.
That being said, some of it was helpful to Midoriya. The man detailed his chemical formulas for his various gases, the circuitry lining of his domes, and even an improved form of latex that moved seamlessly with the face to create a perfect disguise.
The craziest part though was that in the back of the book, right before he detailed a plan to "put himself in the history books for good," was a hand drawn map. A map that, after some comparisons between a modern map and a map from that era, showed a lair hidden in what was now Mustafu.
Needless to say, Midoriya was in shock.
This… this had to have been a mistake. The chances of that should have been impossible! But… if it wasn't…!
But if it was…
Midoriya had to check.
So, one weekend, he packed his bag. Midoriya filled it with everything he thought he'd need. Money, his third hero analysis notebook, some pencils, his cellphone, a packed lunch, and last of all, the notebook, sealed in a new plastic ziplock bag. Midoriya had debated on leaving it home, but he didn't know if there had been a code or passphrase or something that he needed to use to safely enter a villain's lair. Throwing on his favorite All Might brand hoodie, Midoriya left his room.
"Mom, I'm going out for a few hours!" he shouted as he went for the door.
"Wait, where are you going??" she asked.
"The Woods!" he said with practiced ease. It felt bad to lie to her, but it was the only thing he could think of. It wasn't unreasonable. Only months ago he had gone with Bakugo to search for bugs to catch. Unfortunately, after that Bakugo had started to distance himself from Midoriya, not that he had told his mom that.
"Fine, just be careful!" she shouted back.
Midoriya left and made it to the train station. Pulling out his phone, Midoriya looked at the picture he took of the map. It wasn't as simple as whipping out the paper and following it, since street names had changed and buildings remodeled, but with the internet, he was able to follow the map to his final destination: Korellia.
Like most cities, Mustafu had its slums and "bad neighborhoods." Turns out that Mysterio had chosen one for his lair, though if it had been a slum when Mysterio put his base here, Midoriya had no idea. But as it was, the X of Mysterio's map led to a small street in the heart of the Korellia neighborhood.
Looking around, Midoriya saw nothing that immediately screamed hidden evil lair. 'Then again, if it had been obvious it wouldn't have been a very good evil lair.' Midoriya mused to himself. Still, Midoriya had been hoping for something that would have helped. All he could see was a run down apartment building, a boarded up DVD store, a filthy convenience store that had one person working the counter, and what looked like it had once been a family owned Korean store, now being used by some Burakumin as shelter. A few of them gave him some looks, curious about the unfamiliar boy walking on his own, but they didn't move from their spot, so Midoriya didn't feel too threatened by them.
Midoriya stopped to check his map for the fifth time. Seeing that he was indeed in the right spot and that there had been no other indicators about where to go, Midoriya sat on a cement bench, biting his lip in thought. The Map had been accurate, he was sure, but there was nowhere else to go, so one of these buildings had to be it. So for now, Midoriya thought about everything he knew of Mysterio. The man was proud. He was basically a magician. He loved old movies. He had a cousin who became Jack o Lantern. He once tried to drive Daredevil-
Wait. Movies.
Midoriya spun around to the DvD store and went to the front door. A few tugs proved it had been locked, same with the front window. Midoriya shook his head. 'Too obvious… I should try the back door! ' going around the back, Midoriya sidestepped a napping old woman and went to the back door. It was locked, but on the doorframe, in the bottom corner, was an eye carved into the wood. Mysterio's eye.
Midoriya smiled, he was on the right track!
But how to get in? Midoriya looked around, patting the walls, and tugging on the doorframe when he found it. On the wall near the doorknob was a hidden panel with a speaker, rusted over with age, but the button beneath flickered on. A good sign, he hoped.
Leaning forward, Mysterio stopped when he realized he had no idea what to say, so he hoped that there was someone else on the other end.
"Um, hello? I… found a green notebook? Written in invisible ink?"
No response, though it was possible that whoever was there was waiting for a password. So, recalling what little Midoriya knew of old movies, he tried the first phrase that came to mind.
"Um… Klaatu, barada, nikto?"
Nothing, though Midoriya thought that made sense. He had been very lucky so far, but there was no chance he'd get it on the first try.
"Open sesame." he tried again.
Nothing.
"The world is quiet here?"
Wasn't that either.
"I come in peace?"
No response.
"Walt sent me."
Nope.
"Swordfish."
Zilch.
"Alohomora?"
Nada.
".....password?"
The speaker made a sound suspiciously similar to a raspberry being blown, but otherwise did nothing.
Midoriya sighed and sat against the wall. Nothing he knew worked, so he returned to his favorite source of help, the Internet. But tapping the wall in specific spots didn't help. Nor did attempting to speak in Parseltongue. The boy was starting to get frustrated, but refused to give up. Thus, Midoriya decided that now was time to be smarter, so he pulled out the notebook, covered in sticky notes that translated the English words, and skimmed it. There weren't any passwords or phrases written down, and Midoriya was about to give up when he thought of something.
Mysterio was a fan of movies, so he must have had favorite directors. And seeing how Mysterio was putting him on an Indiana Jones style treasure hunt for his lair, he'd want the right kind of people to find it. Not superheroes, that much was obvious, but not supervillains either. He was very clear on his opinions of people who would "take up his act" without his permission. So, Midoriya thought of only one kind of person that could have gotten his blessing: Movie buffs.
So, with that in mind, Midoriya looked up the films of Stan Winston, Jim Henson, Roger Corman, Ray Harryhausen, and Peter Jackson, all of whom Mysterio mentioned in his notebook at one point or another. On that last one, he struck gold. Standing up, he went to the door, pushed the button and spoke with confidence.
"Mellon."
For two seconds, nothing, but then the door swung open. Shocked that he finally got it, Midoriya immediately ran into the building and shut the door behind him. It looked to be the backroom, near the offices and storage, but now empty of anything besides dusty furniture and webs. Snorting at the irony of spiders in Mysterio's home, Midoriya looked around and quickly spotted a shelf of DVDs. Genre savvy enough, Midoriya dragged an old chair to the shelf and climbed atop it to reach the top shelf. Scanning the movies, Midoriya spotted the movie Get Smart and, recalling the movie's intro with the secret doors, pulled it down. With a rumble, the bookshelf moved aside and the wall slid open, revealing a spiral staircase.
Midoriya gulped, and looked back. This was his last chance to back out. He didn't know what he'd find down there. It could have been a death trap, a mechanical monster, or a gaming room for all Midoriya knew! But he had come this far. So, pulling his All Might hoodie closer around himself, he carefully walked down the steps.
After a few minutes, Midoriya exited the stairs. Before him was a doorway, with three locks on it. Connected to it was a screen and keypad with three questions upon it.
In Jim Henson's greatest work, what was Chamberlain's true form's name?
In They Live , money talks. What does it say?
What do I consider to be the greatest trick done by Ray Bradhaus?
Rolling his eyes, Midoriya did a quick internet and notebook search, and typed in the answers:
SilSol
This is your God
The Wall Crawling Demon
With a hum and a groan, the door opened up, and the room beyond lit up.
He entered a room big enough to hold his elementary school. At one time, it might have been a tunnel to reroute floodwaters, but it had since been repurposed. The stonework reached up high, and hanging from the pillars were metal disks depicting Mysterio's eye design. All around him in sealed glass cases were disassembled robots and costumes of every kind. Heroes, villains, aliens, monsters, knights, pirates, dinosaurs, all were here, half assembled, the latex peeled back to show the inner workings. Hanging above, suspended from the ceiling were various monsters and machines, ranging from Chinese dragons, robotic animals, a stone Mayan warrior, and a lifelike Hulk. Under glass protection were dioramas and models of various Mysterio battles and schemes, including a carnival with a tiny spider-man, an elevator shaft depicting screaming people in hell reaching out to grab Daredevil, and a burning Symkaria with drones shining red light at three small figures of Spider-Man, Black Cat, and Silver Sable. Computers and notebooks, covered in plastic sheets, aligned a side wall, and on the other were laminated sketches for new monsters and equipment, pinned against a corkboard with now outdated blueprints of Tokyo's museums and banks. In the back of the room, behind glass cases, several costumes, all of which Midoriya recognized from the notebook as Mysterio's various suits, stood at the ready. All of the villain's costumes had been recreated, labeled, and backlit. Lastly, in the middle of the room was a massive stone chalice, surrounded by candles and strange runes.
Stepping forward, Midoriya didn't see the laser tripwire on the ground, and so yelped in shock when holographic fireworks suddenly burst out of the fake candles as the lights glowed neon purple and green. From within the stone chalice a pillar of smoke billowed out, and within it, spectral and see through, was a familiar figure. With a crackle of hidden speakers, the ghost of Mysterio spoke.
{Bwahahahaha!! Congratulations, intrepid fan! I, the ghost of the great Mysterio, applaud your intelligence, imagination, and resolve! You have deciphered the means of entering this secret lair, and thus, all of Mysterio's earthly possessions are yours! His armor, formulas, technology, all yours! Now, step forth and receive your...} the spectral figure, a hologram, Midoriya realized, stopped his monologue and looked around in confusion. At the same time, several security cameras in the room lit up and moved about until it finally spotted Midoriya, hiding behind a mannequin in a zombie costume.
{...are… are you kidding me?!} It shouted in anger, all grandiose posing lost. {A mere child solved that complex labyrinth of puzzles!?}
"Yo-you're him…? Mysterio??" Midoriya asked, staying behind the zombie in fear.
{Oh, right… Japan. One moment.} the hologram muttered, before suddenly speaking in Japanese. "How's this?"
"Yo-you can speak Japanese???" Midoriya asked in shock.
"Well of course. This IS Japan. Chances were, the fan who uncovered my lair was going to speak the local language." it quickly explained. "But to answer your question… technically yes. I'm an AI modeled after a brainscan of the original Mysterio, made by Dr. Octopus as a favor to the late Quentin Beck. You may call me Tsuburaya, after the man who brought Godzilla to life."
"Oh…!" Midoriya's eyes lit up in wonder as he stepped out from behind the mannequin. The hologram floated over, inspecting the boy who stared at him in awe. After a moment, the AI spoke up.
"So… you found Beck's old lair. Mind telling me the year?"
"Oh, it's 2123!" Midoriya said proudly.
"What?! It took that long for a fan to find me?!" the Mysterio-shaped hologram proclaimed.
"Yeah, but, uh… what… are you?" Midoriya asked. "Doing here, I mean."
"I told you, I'm an artificial intelligence based upon the late Quentin Beck, made just before his rampage in the Kaiju machine. My function is to watch over this lair, maintain the equipment via drones and robotic proxies, all until either the world discovers this place or the next Mysterio comes along. Oh, real quick, how did the robot kaiju scheme turn out, by the way?" the hologram asked Midoriya.
"You, uh… lost. Spider-man beat you on national TV…" Midoriya admitted. Seeing Tsuburaya slump in sadness, Midoriya thought of something that could cheer it up. "But the robot's head is in a museum! It's where I found this!" Quickly digging through his backpack, Midoriya pulled out the notebook.
"Mysterio's memoirs!" the AI cried out joyously. "I knew a fan would find it!"
"But… I'm not a fan." Midoriya admitted without thinking.
"What? But… then… how'd you get past the security?! Only a dedicated fan of Mysterio and cinema classics should have been able to get through!" it stuttered in confusion.
"I used the internet." Midoriya said with a shrug.
"...god damn it." Mysterio's AI grumbled, crossing his arms in annoyance. "I knew Beck should have contacted Beckhart's grandkids."
"But I did wanna talk to ya!" Midoriya stated, sitting in an old office chair.
"Oh, came to learn the secrets of Mysterio to continue the legacy??" the Mysterio AI asked, perking up.
"....kind of…" Midoriya began, before launching into a spiel. He explained to the AI construct the world he had activated in. How years after his death, super powers, or Quirks as they came to be known as, became commonplace, even moreso than the Mutants and their X-gene, and how heroism was a paying job. He told him how he wanted with all his heart to be a hero, to save people with a smile on his face, but also how everyone, even his own mother and former best friend, told him he couldn't due to lacking a quirk. But since he was a genius, he thought Mysterio could have some advice for him, since Beck was a Quirkless man who had fought heroes with Quirks. Tsuburaya held on to each word, but due to his lack of a visible face, Midoriya couldn't really tell what he was thinking. At least, until he spoke up after a minute of quietly studying Midoriya's hero notebook.
"....nice story. Really builds up the world, with a decent premise for conflict, and a relatable protagonist with nice, if simplistic motives. But you forgot to mention something important, boy."
Midoriya tilted his head in confusion, which the AI took as its cue to continue.
"Why should the audience, IE me, care about any of that?"
"Wha-what?!" Midoriya stuttered out.
"You're not a fan of Beck, and you don't look interested in being the next Mysterio, so why should I help you with your pipe dream?" The AI remarked bluntly.
"But… I wanna help people!" Midoriya said.
"Does this world have police officers? Doctors? Fire fighters?"
"Y-yeah, but-"
"Then go to firefighting school. Unless I see something in this that'll help my function, which I don't, then I don't see why I should help you." With that final statement Tsuburaya turned away, its back to Midoriya. "Oh, before you leave, do you mind hitting the reset switch? It's hidden on the pillar to the left of my original suit? I want to give the next person who finds this place a proper welcome. Maybe they'll be worthy of my service."
This wasn't good, not good at all! Midoriya hadn't considered that Mysterio might not want to help him. He was lucky that the AI didn't seem upset that a wannabe hero had found him, but otherwise things looked dire. But this was his only chance to become a hero as great as All Might! Surely there was something he could do to convince the AI. But what? Money wouldn't be of much help since he had so little, and Midoriya wasn't one to blackmail, and he doubted the ego-centric construct would be intimidated by a chi- wait.
His ego!
"If… if you help me, I'll be able to become a hero!" Midoriya said. "A FAMOUS hero!" he emphasized.
"....so?"
"Well… if I become the world's only real quirkless hero, then everyone's gonna wanna know the source of my gadgets and powers." Midoriya said quickly, but carefully.
Yes, Tsuburaya was looking at him! Seizing his chance, Midoriya went for the real meat of his argument.
"A-and, well…. I'll have to tell them of the legendary villain who stood toe to toe with the great Spider-man, despite lacking his own powers. The v-villain who inspired a hero will be great, legendary! I-I-I mean, Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin are famous baddies, yeah, but neither of them have any really memorable descendants modeled after them, so people only recall them as relics of the past!"
Struck with a sudden idea, Midoriya quickly spun another speech. "And… it'll be like those remakes of old movies! Where a once clearly evil villain is now much more complicated, or an anti-hero! Lemme be your remake!" For a good minute, the AI was silent. Midoriya held his breath in anticipation, not daring to interrupt the AI before him.
"....you're good, kid." Tsuburaya finally spoke up. "However, I know exactly what you're trying to do. You're playing on Beck's ego. Trying to tempt me with fame and prestige so I'd hand you my secrets on a silver platter.. "
Midoriya's smile faded, to one of fear… until the hologram burst out laughing.
"But that speech! That was truly wonderful! 'Let me be your remake!' How creative!" he clapped his hands. "It seems you ARE what I was looking for after all!"
"What?" Midoriya asked.
"Quentin Beck was not an armorer! He was an artist! He used his imagination and creativity to craft magnificent illusions that made Avatar 's special effects look like a kiddie's paint program! I was not going to give any old person his equipment! They had to prove themselves to be equally talented and creative! Your notes show you have the brains for this, and your speech… well, it wasn't perfect, but you have that spark of imagination that Beck did!"
"So… does that mean…?" Midoriya asked, his smile slowly returning.
"Yes, you've convinced me, kid. I'll help you become the next hero… inspired by Mysterio!" the AI proclaimed while Midoriya let out an excited cheer.
And so, the work began. Every weekend, Midoriya would hop on a train to Korellia, and would study Mysterio's designs under the AI's tutelage. He would spend hours studying the compounds Mysterio used to form his masks and various gases, and with him, found safer substitutes that didn't risk giving the young boy cancer. Midoriya learned how to disassemble, and maintain the Mysterio suit. Though the gauntlets were large for him, young Midoriya was able to eventually, with Tsuburaya's guidance, make a small one that fit his hand. The pride he felt at creating a hologram of All Might would stay with him for years.
But it wasn't just latex masks and engineering. As Tsuburaya told the young boy, Mysterio was fond of cinema, so once a month Tsuburaya would do some… questionably legal video downloads and show Midoriya the movies that the original Mysterio took inspiration from. Films worked on by Ray Harryhausen, Stan Winston, William Castle, Jim Henson, and plenty more were watched, studied, and memorized. Midoriya took notes on the animation techniques, the methods they used to project scale, and the way they seamlessly blended it with the actors. When asked why he didn't just use CGI, Tsuburaya explained that "unless they had a massive budget, a team of computer artists, a portable green screen, and time, realistic CGI couldn't work in a 3D environment, due to the "uncanny valley effect."
Though secretly Midoriya guessed that Mysterio, and thus Tsuburaya, just didn't like CGI, not that he would bring it up.
This all went on for seven years. Seven long years of chemistry, animatronics, and learning English. This last one was so that Midoriya could not only understand more movies in their original language, but so that he could encode his notes better. Seven years of learning acting, basic fighting stances, how to take a hit and keep going, and the importance of prep work. There were some bumps and disagreements, like when Midoriya admitted his reluctance to use hallucinogenic gas on people until Tsuburaya assured him that the gasses had no long lasting side effects once out of the person's system.
For seven years, Tsuburaya would occasionally question if being a hero would really be the best route for Midoriya. Each time the boy reminded him that this was the best route to making Mysterio famous again, which silenced the AI. Though Midoriya knew Tsuburaya still had his doubts. Nevertheless, he directed all his power into helping Midoriya with learning the tools of his trade, while also finding a way to obtain funding. In a legal way, at Midoriya's insistence.
And every day, for seven long years, Midoriya would pour his strength and brains into making Mysterio a hero.
Seven years of prepping to be the world's first Quirkless hero…
Which changed the day he met someone.
Someone… mighty.