Speech:
Characters talking
Characters thoughts
Characters talking in deep/serious voices
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Narrators POV
The past.
Many people have their differing views on it, for Izuku however, he hated it. Many memories flooded his mind when he remanence about it, so much pain, so much misery, he couldn't bear the thought of it. He was a strong man on the outside, but at heart, he was still a young boy who had everything taken away from him at a young age.
He was force to grow so fast, force to kill for his own survival, whilst carrying the burden of his dead mother, Inko. When he really thought about it, the really suffering came after he was alone in the forest.
The smell of iron had filled his nose, blood surrounding his body. His dead mom and the man who killed her all within view, it was horrifying. Izuku wanted to hug his mom, but at the slightest touch, he only felt the cold emanate from her pale dead skin. The cold everlasting grip of death had taken her from him all too soon.
A mother is supposed to take care of their child, teach them, raise them to be a fine person in society. Izuku had no one, not anymore. Maybe his father could have taught him, but that bastard left them and because of that, Izuku was alone, left with a vengeance, a promise to kill those who had taken his mother.
Red Hood: what's a bastard like you thinking they can hold information?
Flashed forward into a scene where Izuku as Red Hood stood upon a wrangler and beaten criminal. This was the time when he was hunting for the villains who had lead to sending their lackey to eliminate Inko. Disappointedly, after Izuku had trained his skills as a vigilante Red Hood, it had been far too easy for him to track those loan sharks.
Red Hood: pathetic... I hate when villains like you try to be so honorable by not snitching on your pals, you've already been defined as a selfish bitch...
Grabbing a red canister from nearby, Red Hood splashed an oily liquid upon the villain.
Red Hood: since it seems you feel so decisive on being like that, let's see if you're willing to burn the rest of your sins away...
Brushing a match against a red ingrained box, the small wooden stick caught aflame at its red tip. The beautiful flame was so small and so weak, yet caused much when combined with its appropriate and most destructive partner, gasoline.
???: AAGH-!!! It hurts! It hurts!
The villain flailed across the floor, spinning around in an attempt to put out the flames, it was useless. Red Hood watched for a solid minute, in taking the scent of burning flesh engraving itself into his nostrils. It was a horrible stench, but Red Hood took pleasure in the smell of death.
Red Hood: burn until your bones ashes pay for your sins...
Walking away to let the villain suffer alone in the painful embrace of the fire, Red Hood would many years later regret this decision. For this act created the villain, Fire Fly, an arsonist hellbent on burning Izuku for his own acts of violence.
Izuku: fuck... I did screw that guy over...
He had a lingering sense of fear, not for the villains, but for himself. He was so heartless, it scared him so much, he was already so cruel without the Lazarus Insanity, he couldn't even imagine what would happen if he lost control.
???: NO-!
The buffering voice crackled in pain, the sound of flesh being teared, blood splashing across a rocky surface. The sound resonated in his mind, the incident was clear like glass to eyes, the day he made Muscular blind or as he's now known as "Bane". Izuku never regret disabling him, honestly, he should have killed him for his sins against Kota, the bastard killed the kid's parents. So why was he getting a blast from the past for that time? There was no particular reason. Fear being forced in the mind made the brain work in weird ways, even the slightest bit of emotion can trigger various memories.
???: help! Help! HELP!
A white room.
He had remembered this, early on in his career as Red Hood, he was racking down a line of fear inducing drugs being spread alone the districts of Tokyo. He vividly remembered how many drug dealers were murdered and tortured for him to get the location of the creator.
Red Hood: disgusting, a man so inscribed by chemistry should have used your talents for a better use...
Red Hood approached a man in a white lab coat, he was screaming for help, begging to not be hurt. Obviously his cries for such wishes weren't answer, instead, they were used like a magnet for anger for his past self to use to cope.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Every punch landing on the criminals face, a new bone shattered to pieces, nothing was left uncheck, no bone left to be intact. So much red stained the pure white room, it was odd and foreign to his past version, he had seen so much blood and horror in his childhood. Still, the purity of this room was gone, ruined for times to come. Why was he thinking this? He shouldn't fret about stupid shit like this! He used to be Red Hood! The Devil to villains, the hunter who preyed on villains who did harm to society, he was the necessary evil to cleanse this world, he had his meaning, he had a purpose in his life.
Izuku: AAAGHH!!!
Surging pain struck and cracked at his brain, he was remembering them all, every cruel criminal, petty thief, atrocious drug dealer, and every infamous villain. It wouldn't be wrong to say they didn't deserve to get hurt or killed, but the way he tortured them, made their last moments in this life a true hell. Izuku couldn't blame the ones that survived fighting him, if he were them, he would have gotten his revenge on himself too. That was his whole motto, vengeance. People who had wronged were his target of highest priority because if he didn't, his existence would be purely pointless, he would disappoint everyone, disgrace his mother's memory.
???: it hurts so much! Please, no more!
The origin of the mud made man who had trapped him from before, he was one of the most unfortunate of all. When Izuku had first I countered him, he was nothing but an actor who had gotten affiliated with some petty criminal organizations, apparently enough for Red Hood to treat him like scum of the earth. Even so, it wasn't enough to describe what he did him, the torture that forced the villain to be transformed into the abomination he is.
Red Hood: disgusting... a man like you affiliating themselves with drug dealers...
Lacerations spread across the actors face, a brown substance leaked from his weak wounds, effects of his quirk changing his biology. A special quirk that changed all his blood to a liquid clay substance, apparently it was to key to his success as a actor, allowing himself to change his body proportions to fit the looks of different roles. Unfortunately, if he took took much damage, his clay blood would spread to clog his wounds and replace damaged areas.
???: my face is already ruined! Bulging with clumps of clay! Please let me go! You've disgraced me to an endless shame!
Red Hood: shame? I'll show you shame when your skin is like your blood...
His bastardly self grabbed out a black and red cord with clamps attached to their ends, a car battery in sight connecting them to a line of potent electricity.
Red Hood: say bye to your handsome face...
???: no, no, NO-!
Clamps biting against both of the actresses ears, he didn't have time to react to their sharp pain when a shocking pain forced itself into his body. Thousands of bolts coursed through his body, burning each organ, skin cell, and ripping every limp that existed to bits and pieces. Damaged to limits unknown, the actor's quirk began to malfunction, drowning his rips tears in clay until he was a smudge of ugliness.
Red Hood: inside out, you're still as ugly then ever...
Izuku walked out on that actor, leaving them left as clumps of brown goo. Maybe the vigilante should have ended his life, it would have been a better mercy, the honorable thing to do. Much to the disappointment of many, Red Hood shed his birthright honor for his path of vengeance.
???: you used to be so ruthless...
It was dark.
Izuku: what...
The lack of light, it was so blinding to him, quite contradicting, yet it was the truth. The light, its warmth, it was something taken for granted, not for Izuku however. That calming warmth that shined or pressed against his skin, he longed for the warmth of genuine feeling, that was his true fear. Being alone, lack of content.
???: it's honestly pathetic how you died...
The dislocated voice echoed around, no body to be put in sight. It was so familiar, so alike, it vibrated throughout his body, a never ending wave of deja vu of madness and a hint of envy. In the dark ends of Izuku's conscious mind, there were so many horrors, but this was something different. It was not apart of him, it was given to him from the birth of his new life, his second start, the short stick that was the curse of his, the repercussion of his revival. The Lazarus Insanity.
Izuku: aaagh-!!!!!!!
A green liquid course through his body, a glow visible from his veins across his limbs and eyes. The skin under his eyes grew to a dark hue, blackening like an infection like none other before.
Izuku: huff huff, fuck...
His body was changing, he was still human, yet he didn't feel like it. Deathstroke had told him about revived people experiencing effects similar to this. However, the only difference was that unlike him, they hadn't gotten help, instead they let the insanity take their mind, leading to people like the past leader of the League of Assassins.
Izuku: fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK-!!!
More memories flashed his eyes, the white room, the straps, the isolation. Pain, torture, nightmares scared his body, he remembered the year he spent at Arkham Asylum. It was for his greater good, he appreciated Deathstroke taking the time to get his mental stability back on track before training him. Nonetheless, it still didn't stop what had happened in that one year, the thought was appreciated, but the method was hell. Syringes stabbed his body, his blackouts were frequent, his lack of consciousness, he wasn't treated like human. The only thing that had been good was his success, being cleared from Arkham Asylum, being deemed healed in the mind.
Izuku: my origin... his origin...
Maybe it was another mental illness of his, insanity lingering after all that, but Izuku had taken inspiration. Arkham Knight was born from the asylum, Red Hood wasn't, only replaced when this identity died. When Arkham Knight died, that is when he would return, become who he was once more.
???: it's time to return...
Izuku was confronted by a mirror, crack, shattered to small pieces on the ground.
???: let me take control, let us return to glory, to our truest self~
Compelled by a twisted truth, Izuku began to pick up the glass shards. Each piece cut deep into his skin, each representing a piece of his past. The death of his mother, his past friends being hurt, his own dreath, imagining the faces of those who grieved him. Drapes stained in a dark black, how many tears were shed, were any shed for him. These doubtful thoughts plagued his mind, he was just another page on the news, was this realism or pessimism? It was too similar to him, too painful to think of the possibilities.
???: you're fixed~
He had finished fixing the mirror, in the reflection was only himself. Green veins, glowing eyes, white striped hair ruffled in his head, this was him, was he this monster or was this the insanity in his mind. In the end, he was faced with only one option, to discover the truth, he had to let go, release the cage that trapped it, let the mask fall to ground.
???: good choice~
The Lazarus Insanity smiled at Izuku, he had made his choice.
-Present Time in Reality-
Two prominent figures stayed allure a burning warehouse, Fire Fly and another man cladding a gas mask.
Fire Fly: hey, Scarecrow! Why the fuck do we need to stay back!? We kill the bastard!
Scarecrow: I don't know, but Himiko was very adamant on us staying back to make sure that Red Hood was left as dust and ashes...
Fire Fly: there's no doubt he's dead! You injected him with that fear juice! He shouldn't have enough conscience to crawl of there, he's probably shuttering as the flames melt his skin off! Hahaha!
Scarecrow: probably, but you can never-!
Crack!
A wall crumbled at the ware, revealing the burning flames of the interior, mashing with waving green eyes.
Fire Fly: wait, is that-!
Scarecrow: dammit, he's alive-!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Three bullets pierced Scarecrow's face, his body falling short onto the ground. Life was more short than you could imagine.
Fire Fly: what the fuck!!!
Distracted by the seemingly lifeless corpse of his fellow villain in crime, Fire Fly would dash his sight back at where Izuku was. Gone. The undead bastard was gone.
Fire Fly: where are you!?!?? Come out!!! Fight me you bastard!!!!
Conjuring flames into his hands, Fire Fly would manipulate it as a ring around him, awaiting to use the 360 range of attack when Izuku came to sight. None to his knowledge, Fire Fly would never be able to predict a hand to grapple him from behind, pinning him to his knees.
Fire Fly: how the hell did you get behind me!? My flames-!
Bash!
His face forced into the hard concrete, Fire Fly felt the stinging pain of his nose being caved in.
Fire Fly: fuck bitch-!
Bash!
Before Fire Fly could bitch about his grueling pain of his nose being bash once more, the cold metal of steel pressed against his temple. He knew what it was, anyone could tell the feeling of a pistol being pressed against their head.
Fire Fly: h-hey! Don't kill me, p-please-!
???: I'm free...
Fire Fly: what-?
Bang!
The arson fell dead into the charred ground, not a single care was given to his life. Just like nobody, Fire Fly was a background character to the bigger picture, a mere pixel of least significance.
???: prison of the mind is the most cruel, but I can set my wings free~
This was Izuku, at the same time, it was his opposite, given form from his revival. The Lazarus Insantiy was free from the mind, given life in more ways than one.
Izuku: League of Villains... let round two begin!!!!!
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Not as short as I would have hoped, but I still got my point across! I like to imagine a character like Red Hood to be greatly affected, most likely traumatized from being revived in the Lazarus Pit. So I wanted to represent that in this story. I really hoped you liked the chapter and make sure to check my second account ValorInSoul. Anyways have a good night or day 👍