The Apex Hero: Bioterror

Chapter 20

Izuku noticed a pattern in Iida's behaviour on day 2 of the internship. He peeked into every alleyway and peered into every dark corner he could find. He had the look of a predator in his eyes. It didn't suit him very well. And his method of hunting was poor. A bit of background research revealed that Iida's most likely target, Stain, killed or injured at least four heroes in every place he was seen, meaning he's most likely still here.

Day three wasn't too much better. Then the city was suddenly under attack and on fire. Izuku turns for but a moment to gauge the immediate threat, and when he turns back, his target is gone. 'Pariah damnit.'

Thankfully his enhanced sense of smell was more than enough to catch a whiff of citrus juice that marked Iida's presence. It was almost impossible to follow in the chaos, all the burning people running around smothering it. These Nomu certainly know how to cause as much chaos as possible in such a short time. He even lost it a few times before catching it again. And when he finally reached the end of the trail, he'd wished he hadn't taken his eyes off Iida.

The Hero Killer was perched over Iida's prone body with a blade held above his head. Clearly this was the time to reveal himself. He quickly transformed into his default costumed state. "Hey!" Stain looks up from Iida to see him. "Back away from the intern and no one gets hurt."

Stain simply raises a brow. "Should I be on the lookout for more teenagers?"
"Actually I have amnesia so I'm only chronologically a year old."
Iida recognises his voice despite the fact he can't turn around and see him. "Midoriya? What are you doing here? Go away, this is none of your business!"
Izuku's tone turns deadpan. "Yeah Iida, two people about to be killed in an alley is clearly none of my business as an aspiring HERO student."

Iida growls at that. "Shut up! This doesn't-"
"No YOU shut up! I don't care about whatever revenge quest you're on! I've seen very bad things happen to very good people who never hurt anyone a day in their lives and I couldn't do a thing about it, so if I have the power to make sure the same doesn't happen to someone right in front of me, you best believe I'm gonna save your lives whether you like it or not!"

Stain hums, still standing over Iida. "You have conviction. I like that. But these ones are still going to die."
Izuku puts a hand behind his back, morphing it into a whipfist. "Then I'm going to have to stop you."
Stain's smile grows unnaturally wide. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

The infamous serial killer raises his blade high up, intent on ending Iida, but Izuku is faster. He flicks out his arm, the whipfist grabbing Stain's hand before it can come down and kill his friend and quickly pulls him towards Izuku, who traps him in a bear hug. Although as their bodies meet, there is a wet shink sound.

Looking down, Stain's blade had actually pierced Izuku's torso and came out his back. "Thanks for the free acupuncture." The filter on his face starts releasing a purple cloud of pathogens as Izuku exhales. These pathogens would work their way through the bloodstream and into the brain where they would consume and mimic the chemical that causes fatigue and tiredness. "Now go to sleep."
Stain smiles as his eyes droop. "You're gonna be... spectacular."

Izuku exhales a cloud of green pathogens over the paralysed Native and Iida then dumps the unconscious serial killer next to them. The green bacteria acted like an upgraded version of Recovery Girl's quirk. Rather than simply speeding up the healing process, they read the DNA of their host and then rebuild their host's body based on the genetic blueprint, healing injuries, fixing genetic deformities and other such things. Rather than using the hosts' stamina, they burn their own energy during the process, leaving the host energised and ready to fight at a moment's notice, even if they were on the verge of death.

"Watch him for me." Izuku ignores the protests from the two of them. "Oh be quiet, it's not like he's gonna wake up and you'll be completely healed in a second. Wait here while I grab a pro. Don't go anywhere."

He exist the alley. "Excuse me! Any pros around to help arrest a serial kill-gah!" He was surprised and cut off by being swooped and picked up by a Nomu with wings, a lighter shade than the one from the USJ. "Oh great, another one. Alright ugly, you want a piece?" He uses his whipfist to grab the winged Nomu by the face and roughly pulls down. "Oh yeah, it's a Nomu rodeo!" Izuku cheers as he destabilizes the Nomu and it hits a few buildings before crashing in another alleyway.

Pinning its face in the dirt, Izuku drives his claws into its brain as feeder tendrils emerge to consume it. Just like the one from the USJ, it wasn't privy to any useful information and all he could glean from it was that it and the other Nomu in the city were released purely to cause chaos and destroy things indiscriminately.

The consumption of the Nomu was quickly followed by cellular indigestion, and although it left Izuku hunched over, it wasn't nearly as bad as last time. Whether that's because his body is already getting used to consuming regenerative cells or if something this Nomu was weaker than the other one, Izuku can't tell. But at least he doesn't need to let loose a Devastator this time, and the cancerous indigestion goes away on its own after a few minutes.

Before going, he decides to test out the new genes, and tendrils course over his body as he tests them out. His body becomes lean and aerodynamic, his hood solidifying over his head and his eyes become round and bird-like. The fastening of his hood moves over his mouth and forms a beak-like shape as talons form on his feet and massive wings covered in black and red feathers burst from his back. 'I think I'll call this form, Raptor.'

It was a good thing consumption also let him perfectly copy the skills of the things he killed, otherwise flying would have been a pain. As things stood however, it wasn't too bad. The eagle and hawk genes in his bio-bars made seeing the ground easy despite being so high up, but he still planned on seeing that support girl with the telescopic quirk when he got back to UA.

After a bit of flying he managed to catch sight of Iida talking to some pros while Stain was loaded into a police car. 'Well that solves that problem.' He sees Endeavour looking as disgruntled as ever while Todoroki stands nearby. 'Hmm, Endeavour was pretty low on the list I made. Odd choice.'

As he dives down, the flaming hero seems to catch sight of him. And his first instinct is apparently to throw fire at him. Izuku managed to get mostly out of the way, although it brushes his wing, destabilising him enough while it regenerates for Endeavour to completely engulf him in flames, sending him crashing into the street near them.

When everyone goes to investigate, they find Izuku rolling along the cement, his entire body on fire. "You big flaming asshole! Just because this doesn't hurt, doesn't mean it doesn't suck!"
Todoroki's eyes widened at the sound of his voice. "Midoriya!" He sends out a wave of ice that encases Izuku and quickly thaws him out, the burnt layers of biomass flaming away to be replaced.
"Thank you, Todoroki. Being on fire looks cool, but it's not exactly pleasant."

Endeavour steps forward. "I thought you were that Nomu."
'Wow, not even an apology.' Izuku sighs and points in a random direction. "That way. Try not to set a civilian on fire or something."

While Endeavour and Todoroki go on a wild goose chase, Izuku walks over to Iida while transforming back into his default state. "I hope you know I'm very disappointed in you right now."
Ida turns away. "I could care less about your opinion of me right now. You shouldn't have gotten involved. I was going to inherit the Ingenium name and-" he's cut off by his head suddenly turning to the side with a red mark on his cheek "...did you just slap me?"

"Yes, because you're acting stupid. You say you want to inherit the Ingenium name, well when I look at you I don't see Ingenium. I see Stain 2.0. I see a guy who was willing to chase a shadow to the ends of the earth with the sole intent of making sure he didn't walk away. You're acting like stopping your vengeance is more important than the fact you and Native are still alive right now. Do you know how psychotic you sound?!"

Iida steps back, taken aback by the aggression. "Midoriya-"
Izuku points a finger in his face. "Don't you "Midoriya" me, you know I'm right. Hypothetically, let's say you did what you came here to do, you did get your vengeance. What then? You won't be a hero, you'll be the high schooler who killed a guy and got expelled less than a month in. And then everything you worked for would turn into nothing. All you would have accomplished is proving to your family, your brother and your friends that they were wrong about you. Think about that, and until you do, don't talk to me."