Chapter 4

In the time since Izuku fought the robot, a few things had happened.

He registered his new 'quirk' under the name of "Polymorph", and used it as much as he could. It had ten transformations, each of them having their own unique, incredible powers. But it wasn't all he did, as he also signed up for the gym with his mother.

The first day he went to the gym, he was searching on his phone for routines and what to do first. He needed a workout for a hero, something to get him strong enough for UA.

He was so deep in thought that he didn't even notice someone walking up to him until they touched his shoulder. "Hey, you need some help? You looked confused." They said, surprising Izuku. He turned his head to look at the person who approached him. It was a friendly looking boy about his age, with slightly lengthy black hair, red eyes, and shark-like teeth. They were wearing a sleeveless shirt with the depiction of a somewhat familiar hero.

"Oh! Uh, yeah, this is my first time going to the gym, and I've never done much exercise, so I was looking for what to do." He explained, a little nervous around another kid his age.

"Oh! Don't worry, I was the same way when I started. I'll help you!" The stranger then began giving plenty of tips, all of them being quite helpful. He did pause for a second when Izuku pulled out a notebook, but he kept going, glad to see they were serious about this. When he was done, he smiled at Izuku. "Was that good?"

Izuku nodded excitedly. "That was great, thank you! My name is Izuku Midoriya."

"Eijiro Kirishima. Nice to meet you!" He gave a thumbs up.

"Nice to meet you too! So, who's that hero on your shirt? He looks familiar but I can't remember his name..." Izuku asked, and he could see Kirishima's face brighten as soon as he asked it.

"Oh, he's Crimson Riot! He's kinda retro, but he's always been my favorite hero! He's all about manliness!"

"Oh, really? I haven't looked at many retro heroes, but they're usually all so interesting! Well, anyways, I should really start exercising now. Thanks for the tips!" Izuku smiled at him, and went to go look for everything that Kirishima had mentioned in his advice.

"Okay! See you!" He replied, walking away to do his things.

At the same time, somebody was at Dagobah Beach.

"Oh my god, look at this thing! It must be a prototype for new kinds of robots at U.A! If they dump their stuff here, too, I'll be able to make all sorts of amazing babies! Hatsume Industries will have a head start!" Mei cackled, a wide grin on her face as she admired the headless carcass of a giant, brown-ish orange robot. She began gathering the shards of its head from around the beach, excited to bring all this brilliant stuff to her lab.

Over the next few days, Izuku and Kirishima kept talking while working out, quickly becoming friends. Mei was doing various experiments on pieces of the robot she had found, and another person, Toshinori Yagi, was searching for a successor.

One Saturday, Toshinori was on his way home, as he had exhausted his time limit for the day rather quickly. As he walked, he was frowning, and distracted, his mind wandering back to his encounter with Izuku Midoriya. 'I should've been more gentle to that kid... He was just like me at my age. I could have given it to him...'

A moment later, he heard the sounds of panic, and ran towards it. He couldn't change into his hero form, but he could still try and help.

When he got to the scene, he saw a massive, cloaked figure standing over two middle school girls, and another girl who slid between them, saying something he couldn't quite hear but saw that she had seemingly diffused the situation.

But then another person caught his eye. A young boy, the same age as the girls, who stood on the intersecting road from where the girls were. He was standing almost completely still and looked sad, with his head facing the ground.

Toshinori approached him before clearing his throat. "Excuse me, young man." He got the the boy's attention, making him turn around with wide eyes. "If you don't mind me asking... Are you okay?"

"O-oh! Me? I'm fine! But you shouldn't worry about me, they went through the scary stuff." The boy, Kirishima, deflected and pointed towards the three girls.

"They may have gone through more, but you that doesn't mean you should be ignored. You looked sad, so I wanted to ask."

Kirishima looked away for a few seconds, in thought, before sighing. "No... I wanted to help but I couldn't even move, like some damn coward. I can't be a hero if I can't even help someone right in front of me." He answered with a guilty look on his face The answer honestly surprised Toshinori.

"A coward would have run without even thinking about those girls. You don't sound like a coward. You sound like you were just scared. That's normal, especially for someone your age. Heroes feel that too." Toshinori comforted him, smiling softly.

"...Huh. Thank you." Kirishima looked up at Toshinori, smiling softly.

"You're welcome." He stated, and, when there was a noticeable pause, he went back on his way home.

'He's rather interesting... I need to keep him in mind, same with Midoriya.'

Mei was back at the beach as soon as possible, studying the robot closely. It was utterly fascinating. She didn't know that tech like this even existed yet!

As she got her tools and opened up the chest of the robot, her eyes were gleaming with excitement as she saw the advanced circuitry, wires of varying sizes all bundled together in a beautiful way only a mechanic like her could appreciate.

Until the wires began squirming and multiple of them shot out from the carcass of the robot, aiming for her. She barely had time to shriek before the cords and wires latched onto her, and releasing electricity throughout her body. But instead of the shock injuring her, it changed her.

In the Chimerian Hammer, floating in the Mesosphere, a computer pinged in a quiet room.

"Signal reconnected."

As it was done, and the wires seemingly disappeared, Mei fell down and looked at the robot in panic. What the hell just happened?! As she looked around, she noticed chunks of the robot were missing. The cannon on the nearest arm had disappeared, a significant amount of wiring in the chest was gone, along with most of the plating on the torso.

She got up slowly and noticed a dreadlock in her face. She moved the red strand of hair out of her face, and paused. Her hair wasn't red. She looked at herself, and saw it. Her body was different.

She had grown, with her clothes straining against her noticeably stronger body. Along with her body, her skin had had changed into a reddish-orange hue, her arms had spikes, and her fingers had turned into metal claws. "W-wait, what the hell?! What just happened?!" Mei panicked, backing away from the robot. As she did, she felt her hair raise unnaturally, and the next moment, a volley of lasers shot from behind her, destroying even more of the robot.

She waved at the back of her head, grabbing a dreadlock and pulling it to her face to look at it. It was red, longer, and had a bulb at the end. Oh god, she'd been turned into some sort of robot by that thing, that couldn't be good. What if it was a security measure? Was she going to be arrested?!

Then, a splitting headache filled her mind, making her clutch her head as she fell to her knees. "Listen to me, whoever you are."

Mei looked around, eyes wide with worry. "Who are you? Why did you do this to me?!" She asked, standing up slightly.

"NO QUESTIONS! You are here to serve ME!"

"N-no way!" Mei protested, shaking. In response, a painful shock ran through her body.

"You possess power beyond anything you could ever hope to accomplish. Comply, and you'll get to keep it. Don't, and I will destroy you."

Mei frantically nodded in agreement. "F-fine, fine! What do you want?!"

"A valuable piece of technology missing from my possession... But luckily, you're already programmed to find it." As if on cue, a target appeared in her vision, moving around her vision but pointing in one general direction. "Now go, get the Omnitrix, or else..." The voice threatened, going silent afterwards.

Mei stood there for a bit, in silence. "Holy shit..." She muttered, flexing her new, metallic arms. "I don't have any choice, do I?" She mumbled, trying to follow the target.

Izuku was at the gym once again, doing a bit of cardio while he waited for Kirishima to get there.

"Hey, bro!" Speaking of which, their voice got his attention, and he turned his head over to them, waving excitedly.

"Kirishima!" He said, stopping his workout and walking over to them. "How are you doing?"

When he asked that, he noticed Kirishima looked away for just a second. "Oh? Well, I'm doing pretty good, thanks. Though, y'know... I've been wondering, what's up with the watch? I've not seen anything like it, and you never take it off." Kirishima asked, pointing towards the watch on Izuku's wrist.

Izuku was shocked by the question, looking at his watch. "O-oh! Well, you see, it's a support device for my quirk!" He said, thinking back to the cover story his mother had helped him make.

"Oh, huh. What even is your quirk, anyway?" Kirishima asked again, looking interested.

"Well, it's a transformation type, called Polymorph. Without the watch, it's entirely random, but with it, I have a few pre-set forms I can choose." Izuku explained, activating his watch momentarily and scrolling through some of the forms before deactivating it, as a demonstration. Hopefully it was believable enough.

"Woah, that sounds pretty cool! My quirk is a lot less interesting." He seemed to fully believe it, his eyes wide with surprise.

"All quirks are interesting! Even the ones that are simple on the surface can be complex. What's your quirk?" Izuku asked, while they walked over to a bench.

"Well, it's called Hardening, and, well, unsurprisingly, it hardens me." Kirishima said, flexing an arm that got slightly more . When Izuku saw this, his eyes lit up.

"Wow! That's a great quirk for a hero! Most heroes struggle with taking hits from powerful villains, but with a quirk like that, you could take those hits and keep going! And the sharpness, that could be good for offense, though it looks like it could limit mobility... If you made it tough enough, it's definitely something that could get you pretty high on the hero charts!" Izuku ranted and pondered,, pulling out a notebook from seemingly nowhere and writing down notes about the quirk excitedly.

The honest, complete interest Izuku showed in his quirk shocked Kirishima, and the praise felt... nice. "O-oh! Thank you, but really, it's not that great! It's not that flashy, and I'm barely any tougher than a normal person. It's really not hero quality, especially U.A quality..."

"I definitely think you could do it! We can be in the same year, too!"

"Thanks, bro." Kirishima replied, entirely genuine.

"No problem!" Izuku said, standing up and stretching. "Would you like to hang out when we're done... here?" His voice trailed off when he noticed something on the opposite side of the room. A large girl, with metallic skin the same color as the robot he had fought just days ago, and eyes that looked just like it. It was as if the robot had fused with a person.

And they were walking towards him.