In one moment, one single moment, all Izuku felt was desperation.
There were people who needed his help. People who needed anybody's help. They were dying right in front of him, and no one, not even the Pro Heroes on scene were doing anything to help them!
Somebody had to do something!
And then, in the next moment, all Izuku felt was determination.
He didn't even realise when he had made the decision to help, but his body had already started moving on its own.
He ran.
He ran so fast and far, before he knew what was happening, he was stood in front of his schoolmates, and he did everything he could to free them from their oozy container, sacrificing his backpack to blind the monster, but he was taking too long.
Slushh was already reforming, regaining control of himself, sending a wave of sludge their way.
And in the moment after that, all Izuku felt was warmth.
It was fast, the heat spreading out, emanating from the middle finger of his right hand; warm, bright, and comforting, all at once, but it seemed to be for naught, as the sludge of Slushh washed over him, encasing his body, even as he reached out his hand to help.
Then he heard it.
The voice.
It was soft and warm, and yet also clinical, almost mechanical in a way, as it whispered directly into his ear.
'Izuku Midoriya of Earth, you have the ability to overcome great fear. You have been chosen. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps'.
"Wh- what?"
Beneath the sludge, his eyes squeezed together tightly, he misses the moment that a green light explodes out from his body, unable to see the giant green hand that in front of him and as blinded by the sludge that he was, Izuku was blind to the moment that same hand reached out and squeezed.
Slushh's partially liquid body exploded, the shock leaving him unable to maintain his form and freeing those trapped within.
Behind them, contained within the relative safety of Backdraft's water barrier technique, a single camera flash activates quickly in succession, lighting the moment up, as a shutter works overtime to grab every image it can manage: a civilian running out to help; the giant green fist appearing; the explosion of sludge; a young man standing tall, haloed in green light, slowly lowering himself back down to the floor.
They'll have to blur the faces out and they can't publish the names of the minors involved, but the cameraman already knows that this is a headline worthy of a front page.
And though he doesn't know it yet, he's just captured the image that will one day serve as proof, of the day the world changed, and planet Earth stepped out into the wider universe.
The day that the Green Lantern of Earth was born.
=== === === === ===
When Slushh's body exploded, the heroes on scene were quick to finally act, and in a matter of moments, Izuku found that he and his classmates had been pulled out of the sludge that had surrounded them and were being bundled off towards the emergency services that had arrived.
Izuku was given a cursory look over by paramedics, while Bakugo and his usual squad of cronies: Freaky Fingers, Wings, Eyeballs, (yes, they had actual names, but right now, Izuku didn't much feel like using them), were all ushered away into ambulances and taken to the nearest hospital for more intense examinations. He heard one of the paramedics talking about having their stomachs pumped after Bakugo began emptying out the contents of his stomach onto the floor, and the resulting puddles were made almost entirely of brown goo.
Izuku was just glad that he hadn't managed to swallow any.
The police brought in a special containment unit, one which was designed to contain people with Quirks similar to Slushh's, and Izuku watched on, fascinated, as it slowly vacuumed the villain up, before safely sealing him inside of the cylinder of glass and metal.
Fire and Rescue Services arrived on the scene almost immediately after and wasted no time in taking over the firefighting efforts. With the scene secured from the villain, the police were also able to take over Backdraft's crowd control efforts, leaving him to assist with putting out what remained of the fire.
He just didn't know what he was supposed to be doing, now that everything was over, and was considering just walking away, as a shadow appeared overhead.
"Hey kid", Izuku looked up, to see Death Arms standing in front of him, and the new Pro Hero, Kamui Woods standing coming to stand beside him, "we need to have a little talk about what just happened".
"Oh", he blinked; he supposed that made sense, after all, a villain had just attacked, "okay".
"Look, err…"
"Midoriya", he supplied.
"Midoriya", Death Arms nodded, "look, I'm not gonna stand here and say that you didn't do a good thing, but, well…"
"Use of a Quirk in public is against the law", Kamui Woods told him, "unless you have the appropriate licence".
Izuku nodded. That was pretty basic information.
"So, that means", the Arbor Hero continued, "that while well-intentioned, we're sure, what you did back there was quite illegal".
He blinked.
"What?"
"Using your Quirk the way you did", Kamui Woods said, speaking slowly, "is against the law".
He stressed the final word, dragging out its pronunciation, as if he was speaking to someone, who he thought was particularly dim, but Izuku just shook his head.
"But… it can't be".
Death Arms looked uncomfortable, while Kamui Woods scoffed, crossing his arms, "I assure you, public Quirk use has been illegal for quite some time".
"But…"
"No 'buts', young man. Given your age and everything else that has gone on today, I've decided to let you off with a warning-"
"But-"
"-and you can be grateful that we aren't doing anything further. Right, Death Arms?"
The more experienced Pro raised an eyebrow at the newcomer, but nodded reluctantly, "Right, kid", before turning to look at Midoriya, "you did good-"
"Death Arms".
The Pro Hero ignored the man dressed as a tree, resting his hand on Midoriya's head, ruffling his hair, "But you could have gotten yourself hurt. Try and be more careful in the future", he warned him, "you could have gotten seriously hurt - or worse".
He nodded absently, "Right".
"Cool Quirk though".
"Death Arms".
Almost in unison, the two heroes turned around and walked away, no doubt looking for someone else to help, but as preoccupied as they were, they ignored the boy sitting before them as he gazed downwards, his eyes locked onto his right hand, his voice barely a whisper.
"But I don't have a Quirk".
=== === === === ===
The police officers on scene repeated the warning given to him by Death Arms and Kamui Woods, before telling him that he was free to go. He had to give them his contact information, just in case they needed to speak to him again, but otherwise, he was free to go.
Collecting his fallen backpack, he did his best to wipe away the brown sludge that was already horribly staining the comforting yellow fabric of his backpack, before slipping away and joining the crowd, as they began to disperse.
More than one person tried to stop him, to ask him questions that he didn't want to answer - or that he couldn't - and they didn't want to take 'no' for an answer.
He'd never been less grateful for his green hair in his life. He wasn't the tallest guy, or the shortest, or the prettiest or the ugliest person around. Aesthetically, Izuku thought that he was pretty plain, average even, but he was also the only person in the area who had green hair. Normally, he liked that he shared that with his mom, but right now, it was making him stand out too much.
He just wanted to be alone.
Maybe he should have been angry with the Pro Heroes for what they'd said to him. Maybe he should've felt resentful or annoyed by how he'd been chastised and Bakugo had been praised, all while they'd stood around and done nothing, but he didn't have it in him.
Maybe it was because of the rollercoaster of emotions that his day had become.
Maybe he was just too used to being chastised for what he had no control over.
In the end, all Izuku felt was tired.
He wanted to go home and go to bed and wonder why he was hearing voices in his head.
Maybe he needed to call Doctor Akatani.
His medication could be acting up.
He did his best to duck and weave past people, waiting until he saw an opening and ducking down an alleyway that he knew would bring him out on the far side of the neighbourhood. He'd need to walk around the long way to make it home, but if it was empty as it usually was now, then it would be worth it.
Once he made it into the alleyway, he didn't hesitate to put his legs to work, racing down and turning out into the next street and then the one after that, until the muscles in his legs were starting to burn and he let himself slow back down to a walk.
"Good", he murmured, "I'm alone".
Then, for the second time that day, (unbeknownst to him), he exploded with green light.
It was unlike anything that he'd ever seen before, its glow intense and quite frankly, frightening, spreading out from his body until it formed a perfect sphere around him, enclosing him within.
Trapping him.
"HELP!" He yelled, "I don't know what-"
Then the ball of light took flight, rocketing skywards, vanishing against the low light of the setting sun.
=== === === === ===
Toshinori was busying himself looking for, if he was not mistaken, the very same young man that he had spoken to that same morning, and even now, he could clearly remember how his face had fallen when All Might had finally answered the question that had been burning with him.
"…no… sorry, but I don't think you can become a Pro Hero without a Quirk".
What an awful thing to say to a young man on the cusp of manhood. He was at the point in his life where he should have been preparing himself to chase his dreams, to spend the best years of his life building the memories that would last - not having them torn by the old man who'd been around for too long.
Yet, there was something in his gaze when he'd asked that Toshinori couldn't bring himself to lie to. Before him wasn't a young man asking if he could chase a dream for fun, no… there was the potential for a real Pro Hero hiding behind his eyes, one who would pursue it with everything he had, if he was given the push he needed.
But to do it without a Quirk?
No.
Perhaps history would call him hypocritical for his decision, but he couldn't imagine that he would have been able to survive even a fraction of his fights without the power of One For All coursing through his veins. Knowing that he was pushing someone else to try and do that would have felt like he was pushing them into a death sentence and he was too old now; he had seen too much death and had too much damage weighing on his conscience to knowingly think of adding to it.
If he'd only met the boy just a few months earlier, then things could have been different, but no, All Might had seen too many people die to add another name on that list.
Despite that, he still felt that he owed the boy an apology. He didn't know what had happened, but he'd seen the boy rush in, with no power of his own, to save another boy's life; and in that moment, All Might, from where he had been hiding at the back of the crowd, hoping to see another hero step up, only to be disappointed when no one did.
His time was already limited, and decreasing by the day, but it had been seeing that boy's movement that had spurred him into action once more.
Only, in the end, he hadn't had to.
It had been hard to see from his place in the crowd, and he couldn't push for answers without revealing himself as All Might, but someone had burst the villain open, only it was with a power that he knew didn't belong to anyone present. When he'd seen the boy, the green light a match for his hair, he'd had suspicions and promised himself that he'd find him and talk to him again.
Truthfully, he didn't know what he was going to say when he found him again; he only knew that he was owed an apology.
Because today, even if he didn't have a Quirk, that young man had still been a hero.
The problem was, however, that he couldn't find him.
He'd seen him duck and run down the alleyway, doing his best to follow behind him at a brisk walk, so as to not draw too much attention to himself. He was hoping to catch up to him after they were free from the crowds, but despite his best efforts, he couldn't find hide or hair of the boy.
It was as though he had vanished into thin air.
"Did I go the wrong way? I was certain…", his voice trailed off, as he spoke to himself quietly, thinking back on the steps he had taken, but there was no other obvious place for him to have gone and he felt his shoulders drop, "but… I never even got his name…"
=== === === === ===
"AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"
Izuku didn't remember opening his mouth, nor making the decision to start screaming, but he could hear how shrill his voice was.
He didn't know what was happening, or why, or where he was going, only that, so far today, he'd met All Might, been involved in two villain attacks, met All Might, heard a voice that wasn't his own speaking in his head, met All Might, and then been kidnapped by a glowing green ball of light.
Also, he'd gotten to meet All Might!
He'd crushed Izuku's dreams, but still, he'd gotten to meet the world's greatest hero, and not just the greatest, but the greatest hero of all time.
He'd even gotten his autograph and made a mental note to frame it when he got home.
If he got home.
There was no protection in the ball, so Izuku was stuck, rolling and screaming as it flew across the sky, which was growing darker by the minute as the sun set, and he realised that he was headed for the water.
He instantly felt more panic rise up - what if it took him out to sea - but he found himself grateful for the small mercies when it began to slow down as he reached the coastline. Izuku wasn't much of a beachgoer, nor did he or his mother come up this way very often, but even he knew of Takoba.
Takoba Municipal Beach Park, as it was officially known, was technically the closest stretch of beach to Izuku's home, only no one ever used it like that. Supposedly it had once been a 'go-to' public spot for dates and just for people to hang out, but the natural sea current had led to a lot of trash coming in and polluting the shoreline. The place had quickly become a junkyard and rather than regularly pay to have it cleaned up, the local council was content to leave it to become the local trash heap.
And it really was a trash heap.
Abandoned vehicles, general waste, loose scrap and Izuku wouldn't be surprised to find medical waste spread out among it, or a dead body.
It really was that bad.
And it was also why, when the green ball dropped him on the ground, Izuku scrambled back to his feet as quickly as he could, brushing himself down, making sure that nothing was sticking him in places that it shouldn't be.
"Okay", he said, struggling to catch his breath, but happy to see that he appeared to be fine, or at least, as fine as any kidnapped person could be, "what just happened?"
It really was getting darker, and Izuku didn't want to be stuck outside and on Takoba Beach when the sun finished setting, but he also didn't want to be kidnapped by the green ball again.
"The ring-"
"AH!"
He'd thought he'd used up his screaming quota for the day, but apparently not, as another voice spoke, (at least it wasn't the one in his head again), and he leapt into the air, his nerves already frayed to the point of breaking.
Landing awkwardly on his feet, his heart hammering out at a speed of a thousand miles a minute, Izuku looked around for the source of the voice, following it around the corner, where he found the purple man lying there.
He was a far from the oddest-looking person that Izuku had ever seen, looking mostly humanoid, but with a reddish-purple skin tone, but it was the weird craft behind him that really surprised him; after all it looked like nothing Izuku had ever seen before.
"The ring…"
The man spoke, moving his body as if to try and see Izuku better, and then Izuku caught sight of the wound on his chest.
"You're hurt!"
Moving quickly, he reached for him, pulling him free of the odd glass vessel and did his best to clear a patch of the beach with his foot and lay him down safely. He shrugged off his jacket and pressed it into the wound, which was horrible and vicious looking, as if someone had tried to rip it open and left him leaking out his odd, mauve-coloured blood all over the floor.
"Don't panic", he told him, "I'm going to get you some help, okay?"
He reached inside his pocket for cellphone, and given how his day was going, perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised to find that he had no signal, but that didn't make it less worrying.
"I need to get help", he told him again, "I promise that I'll be quick-"
"Your name", the man said, one of his hands clamping down around Izuku's skinny forearms, "tell me, your name".
"Izuku", he replied, "Izuku Midoriya".
"Izuku Midoriya, I am Abin Sur, protector of Sector 2814-"
"Don't worry about that right now", he said, still trying to stop the bleeding, "I'll get you to a hospital-"
"Show me the ring".
He blinked, "What ring?"
Abin Sur smiled tiredly, "The ring that brought you to me".
"Ring? No, that was a green ball of…", he trailed off, still absently pressing against his chest wound, as he noticed the emerald ring that was now sitting on the middle finger of his right hand.
"The ring has chosen you", Abin Sur told him, still smiling, "it is a great honour and a greater responsibility", he reached up, pointing towards the vessel, "take the lantern. Speak the oath. You are my successor now, Izuku Midoriya. Good luck".
Still smiling, he leant back against the sand, closing his eyes and Izuku didn't need to check his pulse to know that he was no longer breathing.
=== === === === ===
What were you supposed to do when you found a dead body on the beach?
Calling the police was the only thing that he could think of; it was the logical thing to do, he supposed, but that also meant he had to leave the body alone and that just felt wrong, but Izuku was also certain that he wouldn't be able to move the body on his own.
The body, he thought as he shook his head, already reducing Abin Sur from a person to a thing that needed dealing with.
Idly, he wondered where he was from.
The craft behind him looked like something that he'd expect to see from an I-Island exposé, which meant that it was something that he very much not expected to see near his home in Musutafu, Japan.
Also, what kind of name was Abin Sur, anyway? It didn't sound like Japanese, but his Japanese had been flawless, without any of the accent problems or odd ways of phrasing that usually came from the mouths of non-native speakers. His pronunciation and intonation had both been perfect.
"…the ring has chosen you… take the lantern…"
He looked at the craft, where a bright green lantern was sitting on what he assumed was the dashboard, before looking down at the ring that was now sitting on his finger, and then letting his gaze fall on Abin Sur, where he was lying in the sand.
He looked content, Izuku noted. There was a peacefulness to him that seemed to have persisted in death, and as loathe as Izuku was to leave him there, he did need to tell someone what had happened.
"…take the lantern…"
He knew that he wasn't supposed to touch anything, or move anything, but Abin Sur had been insistent that the ring and the lantern were supposed to be his now. How or why, they had 'chosen' him, didn't really matter to Izuku, but it had seemed to matter to Abin Sur, and it was technically his last request, so Izuku didn't see the harm in it.
He reached for his backpack, which was now not only half-brown, when it should have been completely yellow, but was also stiff and crusty in places.
It was disgusting.
"Ugh".
With a groan that he felt was completely underselling just how disgusting he realised that his bag was, he managed to unzip it, and as carefully as he could manage without disturbing his things more than he already had, he managed to cram the lantern in. it was building his bag at the sides, leaving him unable to zip his bag back up, as the top of the lantern was now sticking up, out of the bag, but Izuku was reasonably confident that it was secure enough to carry.
For the moment, at least.
Izuku nodded once, as he picked the bag up, carrying it in front of him, as he turned back towards the city and wordlessly, he promised Abin Sur that he wouldn't be long; he'd make sure that his body was returned to his family and that he would be allowed to rest in peace.
=== === === === ===
Izuku was hiding.
He hadn't meant to be, only, well…
He'd panicked.
He'd made his way out of the maze of debris that was Takoba Beach and had started walking back in towards the city, hoping that he'd get a signal on his mobile sooner rather than later.
He didn't like even the thought of leaving Abin Sur's body behind, but he knew that he had to tell someone. He'd only just managed to get a signal on his phone and was preparing to dial '119', when he heard the sirens. He didn't know what he was thinking, only that he'd panicked and ducked down, hiding behind a bunch of dustbins, in a nearby alleyway.
Then he saw them.
He'd assumed that they were police vans, each one of them bright white and with their sirens blaring, as they raced past, they were clearly responding to something.
It took him less than a moment to realise that they were headed straight in the direction of Takoba Beach, and without thinking, he gripped his bag tighter.
Had someone else had gotten to Abin Sur first and called it in?
It made sense, he supposed, after all, he had no way of knowing just how long Abin Sur had been on the beach before he'd found him and it made perfect sense that someone else had gotten to him first and gone for help.
But if that was the case… then why hadn't they taken the lantern with them, or, he looked down at his hand, been given the weird ring.
Something strange was going on.
And something, deep down in his gut, told him that he didn't want to be around it.
He waited for a solid, five minutes, each second feeling like an eternity, before he felt comfortable enough to do what he felt was the smart thing.
Run away.
Izuku wasn't in the best shape, so he shouldn't have been able to run the entire distance home, but the sheer terror at being caught at the site of a dead body somehow managed to spur his body into running the entire distance, and before he realised it, he was taking the steps up to his apartment, two at a time and all-but throwing the door open.
He slipped inside and did his best not to slam it shut behind him.
With his back to the door, he finally felt his legs beginning to give out, shaking wildly and leant back against it, before he felt himself slowly sinking to the floor, as he realised how tired he had become, struggling to get his breath back.
He sat there for a moment, before the soft noise of slippers moving across their hardwood flooring caught his attention and he looked up to find his mother, still wearing her pale pink nurse's scrubs, looking at him in confusion.
"Izuku, what are you doing on the floor?"
=== === === === ===
"Agent Kalmaku?"
"Not an agent", the man in question responded genially, as he stepped out of the plain black SUV that had collected him from Tokyo International Airport and brought him straight to the scene, "I'm a consultant, but yes, that's me", he held out his hand, "Thomas Kalmaku".
The agent didn't take even look at it, continuing to speak to him in English, "Please, follow me sir".
Thomas nodded, withdrawing his hand and tucking into the pocket of his borrowed windbreaker, "Right then, lead on".
His response was met with more silence, before the agent in front of him, (he was assuming that he was an agent, and given his bored, 'I wish I were anywhere else' expression, he felt it was a safe bet), and followed him beyond the safety line, ducking to pass beneath the warning tape and stepping onto the mass of mess that he was told, was supposed to be a beach.
He trudged on behind the agent, until he turned to follow him around a corner of debris and found himself looking at a field isolation station.
"It's just in there, sir".
"Thank you, Agent…?"
He nodded once before walking away.
"Good talk", he called after him, which went ignored, and still shaking his head, Thomas ducked inside, where he found a single man waiting for him.
"Mister Kalmaku?"
"I'm Agent Ro with the HPSC", he offered his hand once again in greeting, and Thomas was pleasantly surprised when he took it, "thank you for coming".
"Well, it's not everyday you get a top-secret invitation to consult on something that you can't even talk to me about over the phone", he shrugged, "and please, call me Thomas".
"You can call me Kai, if you like".
"Thank you", he nodded, "so what did you call me out all this way for?"
Agent Ro reached up, running a hand over the top of his bald head, his fingers twitching, as if he was passing them through imaginary locks of hair, "Tell me, Mister Kalmaku… do you believe in aliens?"
=== === === === ===
Author's Note
Takoba Municipal Beach Park is where Deku became All Might's successor and now where Izuku was named as Abin Sur's replacement. As per canon, it follows the Star Wars naming convention, being named for 'Dagobah', the planet where Yoda trained Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Jedi.
Musutafu, the name of the Midoriya and Bakugo homes, is taken from Mustafar, the birthplace and home of Darth Vader.
In case you didn't know, Japan is one of the countries that uses the term equivalent to 'mobile (phone)' in place of 'cell(phone)', and their accompanying emergency number is '110' for the Police and '119' for their Fire, Ambulance and Rescue Services.
The JIHS is the Japan Institute for Health Security and is a real agency. They are Japan's equivalent to the UK's Health Security Agency (UKHSA) or the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC).
Thomas Kalmaku, here appearing alongside the JIHS, is a character found in the Green Lantern comics and appears alongside Hal Jordan, as a friend working at Ferris Air as an Aerospace Engineer of Inuk descent. He also has a nickname, "Pieface", which was intended to be a joke at him having a round face and generally blank expression, but it's since been abandoned for perceived as having racial undertones. Showing up here, in Emerald Knights, he's now recognised as being one of the world's foremost engineers and an expert in his specialist field of aeronautics.
Kai Ro is also a character from the DCU but primarily appears in animated media as Kai-Ro and was based on the character of Thomas Kalmaku. He's usually seen as a future, child/teenaged Green Lantern of Tibetan origin, but he's being reimagined as being a young man of Japanese descent here, working for the HPSC. His name is using the Kanji "Kai" (海) meaning "Ocean" and "Ro" (朗) meaning "cheerful".