Despite his best efforts, Izuku ended up going to the hero museum alone. Everyone he asked seemed to be preoccupied with work or plans made prior to him asking, or simply had no interest in going. Even Ochako, who normally was available for outings with friends, had replied back that she was busy this weekend. It made him wonder if he should have been working like the others, instead of goofing off to attend another All Might inspired venture. Sundays were usually the least crowded day, so he was pleased that he didn't have to deal with too many prying eyes on the train. However, it was still packed at the museum. He couldn't sit outside and wait for it to open, like he would have ages ago, since his job and training took priority over his hobbies- though in a way, his work was a hobby.
Standing above all of them was a tall figure leaning against the stone effigy of All Might, standing roughly at a daunting a four point five meters tall, quite a bit bigger than the actual Symbol of Peace himself. Even it was a statue, it fully captured the idea of how easily he dwarfed other people, both in his personality and physical mountainous physique. Of course, Izuku learned early on that the man behind the mask cast quite a few shadows of his own, some that were bigger than expected. Even after nearly a decade, he still felt like he was barely on par with the former number one hero, the shadow of the statue covering the toe of his favorite pair of red high tops. It stood out in an open courtyard in front of the museum entrance, standing in the middle of the two lane sidewalks that curved around it. It was a sitting area of sorts, a pop up garden for the general public to enjoy. Some were sitting out on it, waiting for their turn in line while others were casually resting their legs.
Since Izuku was a membership pass holder, he didn't have to wait in line with ninety percent of the museum goers who were only in it for the special event and one-day passes. He was moving past the crowd sitting underneath Stone Might when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, or rather someone. The only reason he noticed them was that the height difference was a huge contrast to almost everyone around them, save for a few mutant Quirk users that stood in-line. Was that... Alyssa?! He stared at the girl for a few seconds, as if to gauge whether or not he was imagining things. Her hair was thrown into a tight messy bun, dark eyes focused down at the pamphlet in her hand, but there was no mistaking it: it was her.
What was she doing here? She had said wanted to come but said she couldn't due to having plans. She would have texted him if she had changed her mind, right? Was that a lie? Had she maybe wanted to come but just didn't want to come with him? He should go over there and say something to her. But what if she didn't want to talk to him? Was she avoiding him? She seemed to be really busy too. He would just be a bother if he tried to talk to her. Oh, she was getting up and... coming straight towards him! Oh god, what was he supposed to do? Should he say hi or make a break for it? His head kept switching between these two options, unable to choose between them. He could make split second decisions in battle. Why was he hesitating now of all times?
"Izuku?" Realizing he had missed his opportunity for escape, Izuku froze and turned back to face her.
"H-Hey Alyssa."
"I thought I recognized that curly green hair. How're you doing, Freckles?"
"Umm... fine." He flushed, thrown more off balance by the nickname and the warm smile that had said it. "How are you today?"
"I'm good. Actually, I was hoping I'd run into you." His thoughts stalled. She was hoping to run into him? Why? Hadn't she been trying to avoid him? No, he had been trying to do that to her. Just now.
"You were?"
"Yeah. I've been sitting out here for like forty minutes trying to get in." She bit her lip, looking down towards her feet, looking like she was hesitating to say something. "You uh... wouldn't happen to still have any open spots left on your membership pass, would you? 'Cause I kept hoping someone had cancelled and that I could go in for some sort of wait-list if I stood outside here long enough, but they are iron-clad tight today-"
Oh... Izuku felt all the excitement rush out of him. Of course. She wasn't glad to actually see him. She was just hoping that he still had tickets left.
"-and since we're both here, you just wanna go in together like we originally planned?" Mistaking his hesitation for disappointment, she quickly doubled back, "It's fine if you don't! I didn't want to bother you if you didn't since you're probably waiting on people to show up and this is very last minute. Hell, you've probably been planning this longer than I have and... Well, you can see how well that turned out..." She chuckled, averting her gaze elsewhere.
"Umm no. I mean, I'm not waiting on anyone, so it's just- are you sure you still want to come? I mean..." he trailed off. She had suggested going in together, but she had also cancelled going out to see this with him in the first place. Was she just hanging out with him to humor him now that she got caught? "...don't you already have plans today?"
"I've got some time to kill before I need to be somewhere else. Plus, you've been here before, right?"
"More times than I can count." He blurted before doing a mental facepalm. Idiot. She didn't need to know that. Now she was going to think he was a bigger hero nerd than before.
"Great! Then you can give me the grand tour."
"Sure." He gave her a slightly strained smile, already hearing Kacchan reprimanding him for being such a pushover. What was the harm in letting her come though? It's not like anyone else had showed up, and he had offered for her to come.
While they stood in the significantly shorter line inside, Alyssa gave him an appraising glance and pointed at his black and red All Might shirt with a slight smirk. "Nice shirt." Izuku felt his face grow hot. Was she being sarcastic or genuine? It was hard to tell with her neutral expression and it didn't help that he was wearing some of his nerdiest gear. Was there a rock nearby that he could go crawl under?
"Thanks..?"
"That's an All Might t-shirt, right? His Bronze Age costume?" His mood perked up significantly at that comment.
"Yes! Originally, they had his costume changed so he could do more stealth missions, but there was concern that black looked a little too villainous, so he upgraded to the Silver Age costume. It's not very popular either, so it's really rare to find merch with his Bronze Age look on it."
"Whoa, I didn't know that. Such a shame, though. Black goes with virtually everything, plus it's really slimming on you," she commented with a slight hum, causing his face to warm at the compliment, "but I bet it gets hot when you wear a bodysuit covered in it during the summer."
"Y-Yeah, I've been collecting All Might merchandise for years and only really managed to find a small handful of things for his Bronze Age years." Rather than reprimand him for him basically admitting he had spent most of his life collecting rare All Might gear, Alyssa nodded in appreciation.
"I understand that. I find a ton of things with the Human Spider's design on it, but I'm not fond of the red and blue color scheme myself, so I try to find merchandise of one of his proteges, Arachnakid, since they're really similar in design, but they don't make a ton of stuff for him because he's a sidekick."
"But isn't the Human Spider one of your favorite superheroes? Why wouldn't you want more of his stuff?"
"I'm kinda picky when it comes to certain things. Sometimes I like a hero or character but don't want their merchandise 'cause it wouldn't be flattering on me or I don't like the color scheme, or I could like the costume of one hero but not really care much about their exploits or lack there of. It's a rare thing for me to like both aspects of a character, and even more rare to be able to enjoy indulging myself on their merchandise. Not only that, I'm not just going to throw my money at every potential cash grab. The item has to mean something or be unique in some way to me, like I would have an everyday use for it or 'oh man, I'm never going to find something like that anywhere else' kind of thing, ya know?"
"I see..." They were at the front of the line now and Izuku was handing his pass to the ticket vendor to scan with Alyssa bouncing excitedly on her heels next to him.
"Thanks so much for this, Izuku. You are a lifesaver!" Alyssa exclaimed with immense gratitude. "I owe you big time."
"No problem. I'm happy to help," he smiled, tucking the pass back into his wallet.
"Lead the way, good sir." She held out her arm, indicating him to go first as they stepped into the stone interior of the welcome center. It was filled with people walking through the various stone archways that lead into different exhibits, though the most notable thing there was an abstract statue of seven heroic figures standing together, representing the first pro-heroes.
"Oh wow, that is bright," Alyssa flinched at the dazzling display, trying to shield her eyes from the glints of light that shimmered off of the warped stainless steel.
"Well, they don't call it the 'Beacon of Hope' for nothing," Izuku smiled before squinting, "I think it's supposed to represent that anyone can become a hero, since you can see your reflection in the statue from all angles, but it can be bit much depending on the time of day."
"No kidding. Why would they put that in the room with the most open light? That's just bad floor design."
"I don't know. It's never this bad when I usually come, but then again I don't exactly come in during the mid-morning lunch rush."
"Lucky me," she muttered with a hint of sarcasm. "It's really cool how well the artist utilizes the negative space and the- oh god, it's just getting worse. My eyes! They burn!"
"Are you okay?"
"It's fine. I just won't... look directly at it. Remind me to bring sunglasses next time. Anyways, while my retinas recover, where do we go first?" Alyssa opened up the map portion of her museum pamphlet she had folded up in her hands and blinked owlishly at the text. "This says that there's a... a hall of... what's that word, heroes? What's that?"
"That's where they have life-sized displays of some of the lesser vigilantes that first popped during the new age of heroes."
"Ooohh that sounds cool. Let's go there first." And then they were off. The exhibit wasn't anything new to Izuku. He had seen the mannequin displays of some of the first Japanese heroes dozens of times- Rocket Boy, the Flying Musketeer, Flat Man, Ronin, etc. Which was why he spent most of time there being a trivia tour guide to Alyssa, who would always stop to ask him questions instead of reading the display. He found after awhile, he enjoyed telling her little details he retained from his many years of coming here on weekends and class field trips. Her eyes always seemed to light up when he decided to point out something new to her, gazing up in wonder at the gargantuan figures that towered over even her exaggerated height. Though for someone so tall, she was actually hard to keep track of. Any time he'd turn around, she'd be off in front of another exhibit or display, taking various pictures of it with her phone or interacting with the various audio tours and video-recording buttons. He wondered more times than he'd care to admit if she was doing it because she thought he was boring, but once he caught up to her, she would turn to him with more questions or general thoughts that she had.
'His costume had to be really chaffing him wearing that much faux leather.'
'Do you think this was an original costume or a replica?'
'How much of the original material do you think they kept of his shoes?'
A lot of the times, he didn't really have an answer for her, but she didn't seem to mind, enjoying speculating potential answers, and honestly neither did he. He just enjoyed the fact that someone seemed to be genuinely interested in what he had to say rather than absent-mindedly nodding 'uh huh' or 'oh yeah, that's interesting' without ever really meaning it.
"And over here, you can see the first pair of gloves Box-Spring wore," Izuku gestured to the dimly lit glass box containing red and black gloves. "If you look really closely, you can still see the original tear marks on the knuckles from where the springs would launch out of his hands."
"So cool... This has to be hundreds of years old. I bet they have to keep this out of direct sunlight to keep the fabric from unraveling." They were about done with the support gear section when they moved towards the basement of the museum. A large sticker standee of All Might in his Golden Age costume stood above them instead of the normally blank cream-colored walls, saying 'So You Want to Become a Hero? Test your might in this superhero course' in a large, gratuitous comic-book text bubble. It had to be one of the special events they were holding exclusively this weekend. Izuku could see Alyssa muttering to herself, slowly sound out the words as she read the text, stumbling a bit on a few of the characters before correcting herself.
"Oooh I think I saw this on the schedule. This is supposed to be that hero contest they're having at noon, right? The one where you get to dress up as superheroes and try saving the city like All Might."
"Yeah, I think you're right.."
"We should totally do it!" Alyssa exclaimed after looking down at her watch, shaking her fists with much enthusiasm.
"Really? Are you sure you want to?" Izuku asked, surprised that she was interested in doing something so... well, nerdy. Sure, it was something he wouldn't have thought twice about doing when he was younger, but he was older now and an actual pro-hero. He was supposed to be a model citizen and leave the dress up games to kids.
"Yeah! It looks like so much fun!" Technically, the activity was made for kids, but there was no rule that explicitly stated that adults couldn't participate, since parents nearby were actively participating with their kids. "Though I think we should hurry. We only have fifteen minutes to put together a costume before they start!" Not giving him much time to respond, Alyssa charged in towards the clusters of people gathered around the boxes containing costumes, Izuku jogging not too far behind her.
They began pawing through the different bins of costumes. Some of them were pieces belonging to famous heroes while others were non-descriptive costumes or accessories that claimed no affiliation to any hero, real or fictional. Izuku was piecing through the mounds of All-Might gear while Alyssa ran off more towards the heteromorphic sized section with some of the other mutant Quirk contestants. Since he was already wearing the Bronze Age version of All Might's costume, Izuku decided he would try and recreate it as best he could, since few other people would even try to mimic such an old and unpopular costume. He just needed a cape, a belt, the white boots and arm bracers- a task that proved to be more challenging than he thought. He wanted to go for accuracy, but most of the things he could find were for the Silver Age or Golden Age costume designs.
A few minutes later, Alyssa came back with arms full of clothes and accessories. Meanwhile, he was still trying to find the right belt. After scraping the bottom of the third bin, he was starting to become discouraged and about to give up before she tapped his shoulder. "Is this what you're looking for?" She held out with a white belt with a silver V-shaped buckle, the exact belt he was looking for moments ago.
"Yes! Thank you." He quickly snapped the belt around the belt loops of his pants. Next he moved onto the cape and found a red cape within seconds, a basic necessity for superheroes. Having nothing for the cape to hang onto, he simply tied it around his neck with a double knot and gave himself a once-over, giving a scrutinizing gaze over the cape and deciding he liked the look. Maybe he should revisit the idea of adding a cape to his costume with Hatsume-san.
Curious on how Alyssa was doing on her costume, he saw she now laying out her possible outfit choices and choosing which of them went with what colors. She had already shed her oversized black hoodie and was tying the sleeves of her long white t-shirt she wore underneath so that it was more like a tank top before strapping an elastic belt slash band around her waist, covering the colorful Disney and anime characters depicted on her t-shirt.
Izuku found that he was having costume malfunctions of his own. It wasn't like his support gear where it was fine-tuned towards his body type and had snaps and complex bracers to keep him from having to worry about his costume becoming more of a hindrance than an aid. This was a flimsy one-size-fits-all costume that had been stretched out by previous users. He could have just left them out entirely and went onto the next part of his costume that he needed, but he wanted the white boots. They made the whole look with his arm bracers.
He quickly took off his red shoes and slid the elastic band around the arches of his feet of the faux boot coverings before slipping his shoes back on. With his shoes, it was like he was wearing the full knee high boots, but the white fabric refused to stay up even after he had tried tucking his pants underneath it.
"Here," Alyssa said, pulling a black binder clip from out of nowhere. "Try clipping the edges of your boots and pants with these." She handed him one binder clip and helped him fasten them to his pants, moving his boot covers so that his pants were tucked into the fabric. She repeated the same process for herself, the only difference being her leggings were a metallic golden-colored fabric that was slipped over her dark purple sweatpants.
"Can you hold my phone up for me? I need to do my hair." She asked him before he nodded and took the phone from her, holding it out in front of her like a mini-mirror. She turned on her camera feature on her phone and switched it to self-portrait mode, leaned forward and then began fastening a golden strip of fabric attached to a plastic tiara slash headband around her hair, her face twisted in deep concentration. He had never seen such a strange variety of items being pulled out of thin air in his life. Was she getting all of this from her purse?
Now that he was forced to view her in such close proximity, Izuku couldn't help but look over the completed product Alyssa had been slaving over while he had been fruitlessly searching for a belt. She wore a wide velcro belt around her waist that covered most of her stomach, which gave her curves more added definition as it showed a shapely waist and pushed up her chest so that it was more pronounced and made her long white t-shirt almost resemble a mini-dress. Trying to avert his eyes from her more defined chest area, tucked by her wide hips was a whip and plastic short sword, along with cheap golden arm bracers wrapped around her wrists.
"Wow, are you supposed to be Warrior Queen?" Izuku said after realizing that save for the dark purple sweatpants and black tennis shoes, Alyssa was the spitting image of Selena Vitalis aka Warrior Queen, the first female pro-hero and one of the seven original heroes. She even had the olive-toned skin and dark eyes and hair to match.
"Yeah! She's one of my idols," Alyssa said, her voice muffled somewhat by the bobby pins tucked between her lips before she took them out to pin the last of her hair back. "Your Bronze Age costume looks really cool, by the way." He muttered a quick thanks right as she was about to take her phone back before she shouted, "Wait! I almost forgot!" She tugged at the messy bun bound at the back of her head, unleashing mounds of dark brown hair that went halfway down her back. Then she flipped her hair in a way that he had only seen in modeling commercials and gave her bound curls a quick tousle, loosening them up and giving her thick hair a bit more body to it. She then refastened her tiara headband, pushing stray bits of hair out of her face. "There! Now let's see what we look like."
She tilted the phone so that both of them could see and met their reflections stares with shock and excitement. Izuku stared at his full-body reflection in admiration. He had to admit it. For a cheap costume put together in less than ten minutes, he looked pretty close to the real thing. "Whoa, we look so cool! Here, let's take a selfie real quick!" Alyssa leaned over so that she was almost at his eye level and wrapped her right arm around his shoulder, causing him to immediately stiffen from the unexpected and overly-familiar contact.
She's so close! He thought, his heart suddenly pounding inside his chest as she edged her face in close so that she was practically leaning on his shoulder, their faces a few inches apart. He had no idea what to do, his arm merely floundering around behind her, unsure of where to put his hand before deciding to boldly rest it on her waist. "Say cheeeeese!" He smiled shakily into the camera lens as the timer counted down from three-two-one-zero before taking the picture. "So badass!" Alyssa marveled over the picture before she took a few steps backward and held up the camera again. "Okay now let's do a full-body shot. Strike a pose!"
"O-Okay," Izuku said with some hesitation before doing a couple of All Might's poses, placing his hands awkwardly on his hips or flexing his muscles.
"You look so nervous. Relax a little," she laughed. Was he really so stiff looking? "Come on, Izuku. You need to learn to be a bit more... flexible. Channel your inner All Might!"
Izuku then took a deep breathe and deepened his voice before declaring, "I am here!"
"Whoa... your face!"
"Why?! What's wrong with my face!?"
"It looks so much like him!" she gaped. "That's a really good impression you just did. You almost sounded just like him too."
"O-Oh thanks," Izuku relaxed somewhat and rubbed the back of his neck. "I've been emulating him for so many years, I guess I just got really good at mimicking him."
"I gotcha. My impressions aren't nearly as good, save for one."
"Really? Then let's hear it!"
"What? Here? Now?"
"Sure. It's only fair. I did my impression of All Might, so now you do one of your impressions."
"Well... I guess I do owe you one, so... Okay umm..." Her face began to turn beet-red, muttering something along the lines of 'god, I can't believe I'm doing this' under her breath. "Do you know the pokemon, Jigglypuff?"
Izuku thought for a moment. He hadn't really fallen into the pokemon craze when it had first come out, only picking up one of the games because his friends were all playing it before losing interest halfway through playing it, but it was such an iconic franchise that he couldn't go to Akihabara without recognizing some of the characters. "I think so. It's the round pink one that sings, right?"
"Yeah, that's the one. Okay..." she took a deep breathe before breaking out into nervous laughter, sporting a red-faced smile, the dimples in her face becoming more pronounced against her smile lines. "D-Don't look at me while I'm doing it! It's embarrassing!"
"O-Oh sorry!" He turned around, giving her a moment to compose herself. He then heard let out a bubbly high-pitched voice that was cute and full. It was spot on. "Wow, that was so good!" Now that he turned around to face her, the tall girl appeared smaller than she was as her shoulders hunched over and hid behind her hands and glared hard enough down at her feet that there should have been holes in the floor as kids who had overheard her stared in their general direction. What happened to all of the confidence she had been sporting earlier?
"Oh my god, I can't believe I did that in public," Alyssa flushed behind her hands in embarrassment, now noticing all the strange looks people were giving her. "I've only done that so many times in the bathroom mirror or unconsciously while I was watching the show. I don't really do it in front of people."
"Well, now I feel honored. Thank you for showing it for me."
"You're welcome," she mumbled, unable to look him in the eye until she took a breath and squeezed her eyes shut in a fierce grimace. "That is like my one weird talent. Tell anyone or post that anywhere on the internet, and I'll have to kill you."
"Ha ha, okay, I won't tell," Izuku chuckled uneasily, unsure if she was kidding or dead serious. Her twisted smile had him guessing it was the former, but he didn't want to risk it.
"Five minutes until it's time to suit up. All heroes have to change into their hero costumes at a moment's notice, whether it be in a phone booth or on the go quick-change underneath their clothes, so grab your gear and get going, young heroes! Time waits for no one!" spoke the announcer over the speakers. Oh shoot, the contest. Right! They were supposed to be suiting up for the hero competition.
"Hey, we're supposed to be a superhero team, right? Let's do one together too! Hey," Alyssa said, walking up to some random stranger who was helping their eight year old into a pair of Neptuna fins. "Could you take our picture real quick?"
"Sure."
"Thank you so much. You just do this," she instructed them how to use her camera feature, "and could you take a couple of them?"
"Certainly." Alyssa then took her place next to Izuku, striking a pose along with him, crossing her arms above her head in a X-formation as the man took their picture. Right after thanking him, she began going over the pictures, lowering her arm so Izuku could see her swipe through her gallery of photos. A lot of them were photos of the exhibits, while others were pictures of the general public walking around the museum. Why had she taken a picture of the Man of Steel mannequin's chest? He'd have to ask her about it later.
"Wow, those are really good. Be sure to send me those," Izuku said, liking how well they looked standing juxtaposed to each other in stature and color, before noticing her face had fallen somewhat, "Is something wrong?"
"No I just... forget how I look sometimes."
"What do you mean by-?"
"Welcome, young heroes!" The emcee staff member announced, interrupting whatever Izuku was about to say. "Today's recruits could be tomorrow's heroes. Your job today is to save the city from the imminent threat of a nuclear bomb. The groups will be done in pairs, heroes and sidekicks. First team receives medals of honor declaring them the number one hero and the key to the city- which is a coupon good for our museum gift-shop and cafeteria."
"You ready for this, All Might?" Alyssa asked, trading smirks with him as everyone gathered outside of the obstacle course.
"Ready when you are, Warrior Queen."
Author's Note: So I found out from the My Hero Academia Vigilantes manga that the first pro-heroes were based on the Justice League, so of course, naturally, I had to come up with profiles of them.
References include Astro Boy, Kingdom Hearts, The Incredibles, and the Justice League members from DC Comics.
Hero/Villain Profiles
Name: Xander Armstrong
Hero Name: Power Max
Quirk: Bulletproof
His Quirk gives him tough, bulletproof skin. However, due to it being a mutant Quirk, he is unable to turn it off and therefore unable to feel most sensations as a result unless they are extremes.
Fun Fact: Due to him having nearly indestructible skin, he has the highest water-heating bills of the WHA due to being unable to feel the hot water unless it's at a high temperature.
Name: Thomas Kane
Hero Name: Night Owl
Quirk: Shadow Cloak
By using his own shadow, he can disappear and reappear at will. Unfortunately, it is only good at night and dark places.
Fun Fact: His sidekick, Starling, has often subbed in for Night Owl on occasions where the former is indisposed.
Name: Selena Vitalis
Hero Name: Warrior Queen
Quirk: Reflex
Her Quirk gives her lightning fast reflexes, enough that she could deflect bullets.
Fun Fact: She was the first female pro-hero and first Greek ethnic superhero.
Name: Marlin Strider
Hero Name: Neptuna
Quirk: Tuna
The man has all the strength and fish-like attributes of a tuna fish, including breathing underwater. He often has to stay hydrated and has difficulty traveling in dry areas.
Name: Jack Turner
Hero Name: Lux
Quirk: Light Absorption
His Quirk gives him the ability to pull nearby existing sources of light and weaponize them.
Name: Maxwell North
Hero Name: Shotlock
Quirk: Lock-On
Using his Quirk allows him to gravitate towards wherever his gaze eyes a target zone and is then pulled there at a fast speed. He has to be careful which direction he is looking, 'cause he might accidentally activate it and be sent hurtling in another direction. It is a constant skill using hand-eye coordination of looking one direction and then choosing to look elsewhere.
Name: Nathan Johnson
Hero Name: Third Eye
Quirk: Brain Blast
His Quirk gives him the ability to shoot blasts of energy from his mind. Overusing it gives him a massive headache.
Name: Tobio Iida
Hero Name: Rocket Boy
Quirk: Rocket
His Quirk gives him rocket engines in the bottoms of his feet.
Fun Fact: He is one of the first notable pro-heroes of Japan and the ancestor of the Iida family.