Chapter Text
Izuku is drowning.
Drowning on the slime flooding his lungs and fruitlessly fighting against the darkness trying to pull him further under the surface.
He’s drowning and regretting.
Regretting not having a backbone and standing up to Katsuki or the rest of his classmates — instead only bowing his head in shame as the teacher announced his aspirations to try for UA High University.
(He had thought that things would get better with time, that his classmates would mature and stop mocking him, and start caring about their own future, but it had been wishful thinking. The physical aspect and shoving might have stopped, but the jeers and whispers were just as cruel.)
Regretting not having seen more of what the world had to offer — only always focused on heroes and quirks, running himself ragged with studying them.
And yet — the only thing he can think about — the only thing he is wishing for right now as his consciousness fades to black, is a hero.
Izuku stirs awake with a groan and rolls onto his side, pressing against the concrete as he sits up, coughing.
“Am I in hell?” Izuku asks blearily, blinking as he tries to get his bearings.
“Not quite,” a voice hums and Izuku turns around, seeing a man standing above a green, sizzling puddle retrieving something from within it and holding… vinegar?
The man notices his gaze on the bottle and shakes it with a smile.
“Acetic acid. A bit of a gamble on my part,” he explains, as he shakes off the liquid of the thing he pulled from the sludge. “He reminded me of the Raxacoricofallapatorians. Don’t think they have another sister planet though.”
Izuku stands up, shaking his head.
“Who are you?” he questions. “And where is the villain?”
“Oh, I’m the Doctor,” the man replies, suddenly taking out a small gadget and scanning Izuku, looking at it after a while.
“Seems I was just in time,” the Doctor adds. “Nothing major injured, just some slime in the lungs. Will be fine in a couple of days.”
“The Doctor?” Izuku asks. “Is that your hero name?”
The Doctor raises an eyebrow at Izuku, pocketing his gadget.
“I’m not a hero,” he replies, already starting to walk through the underpass.
Izuku finds himself subconsciously following the man.
“But you saved me,” Izuku says. “That’s what heroes do.”
The Doctor sighs and Izuku watches on with piqued interest as the man pulls out his gadget again, it whirring as he scans the buildings they walk past.
“I was just here at the right time, at the right place,” the Doctor refutes. “One small question: What year is it?”
Izuku frowns but answers the question easily.
“We have the year of 2308.”
“That’s strange,” the Doctor says. “The buildings are way too outdated. And I have been in Japan before, mind you! Although that had been with a different face.“
Izuku nods along, eyebrows knitted together.
“They look like they were stuck in time,” the Doctor continues. “You should be a lot farther than this… All over space by now.”
They turn a corner, right into a busy street, and the Doctor looks at the people with mutant quirks with wide eyes.
“I see space has come to you.”
“No that’s just mutant quirks,” Izuku says with a sigh. “Please tell me you aren’t quirkest.”
“Quirks?” the Doctor repeats with a confused frown, pointing at a woman with insect mutations. “She’s clearly a Tritovore.”
The woman lets out an angry series of clicks at the Doctor as she walks by him, and he raises his arms in surrender.
“Sorry.”
Izuku tugs at the man’s coat.
“You can’t do things like that, it’s rude.” Izuku takes a look around. “Come on, you are attracting too much attention.”
He drags the man away from the busy street, ducking into a side street, and the Doctor seems to be lost in thought.
Before Izuku can chide him again, he speaks up.
“Those quirks,” he starts, looking Izuku in the eyes. “When did they first appear?”
“2018,” Izuku recalls, knitting his eyebrows together. “At least that’s what they say in school.”
“2018,” the Doctor muses, grabbing his own face as he squeezes his cheeks. “That’s barely after I left. Something must have gone wrong.”
“What?” Izuku questions, and the Doctor perks up like he has an idea.
“Sorry to bother, but you wouldn’t have a computer I could use?”
The Doctor walks through Izuku and his mother’s small flat without a care, Izuku shaking his head.
“I don’t get why I even trust you,” Izuku mutters as the Doctor sits down in front of the computer, once again pulling out his gadget.
“You said so yourself, I saved you,” the Doctor says, and the screen suddenly changes from black to some sort of search engine in English.
“What’s this anyway?” Izuku asks before the man can pocket his gadget again.
“Sonic screwdriver,” the man replies, tapping away on the keyboard.
“Sonic screwdriver?” Izuku repeats, only more confused, and the Doctor smiles at him.
“I know it’s cool isn’t it?” the Doctor boasts. “Although it can do more than a screwdriver. A bit of everything really.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Heard that too often,” the Doctor says before clapping. “Alright here we have it. The first quirk — in the past referred to as meta-abilites, manifested in 2018 in China with the ability to radiate light from its body. Subsequently, more meta abilities appeared all over the world, spreading over Earth.”
The Doctor leans back, looking at the screen.
“Sounds like a failed experiment to me,” he throws out and Izuku raises an eyebrow. “Or a virus.”
“But our teachers say they just naturally appeared.”
“Never trust a history book,” the Doctor chides. “So many inaccuracies.”
Izuku only gives the man a pointed look.
“If an experiment or not, the genes must have mutated and something dormant got activated,” the Doctor theorizes. “At least it's not a horror man-eating spider again.”
“What?” Izuku looks at the man like he has grown a second head — and at this point it wouldn’t even surprise Izuku anymore.
“Long story, maybe the Lazarus Experiment rings a bell,” the Doctor says. “So you started getting abilities, huh. What’s yours?”
Izuku lowers his head in shame.
“I don’t have one, I’m quirkless.”
“Nothing I’m not used to,” the Doctor says simply. “The human race didn‘t survive until the end of the universe with quirks…”
He trails off, shrugging his shoulders.
“Well at least they used to,” he continues. “Times seem to have changed.”
“You talk like you are not from here,” Izuku hesitantly brings up, and the Doctor only stares at him expectantly.
“Britain?” Izuku guesses, and the Doctor groans.
“Seriously?” he says. “You lot used to have more imagination than that. I’m not human.”
“And?” Izuku tilts his head, confused.
“I’m not from Earth,” the Doctor corrects himself, seeing his confusion. “I’m from another Planet.”
“And so are some of those people with supposed Quirks out there,” the Doctor continues before Izuku can get a word in. “Some species must have used the chaos of quirks appearing to integrate themselves slowly into your society.”
“If,” Izuku emphasizes the word, “you are not from Earth, what are you doing here?”
“Just passing through really,” the Doctor says. “I can’t shake the feeling there was more to that guy back then though. He was talking like he was trying to get to someone else. And there‘s also this.“
He takes out the thing he fished from the sludge during their first meeting, at first glance some sort of mechanical part.
The Doctor clicks his tongue, before tapping away on the keyboard again.
“What are you doing now?” Izuku questions, the Doctor looking at the screen in concentration.
“Trying if I can track if something extraterrestrial landed on Earth a few days, possibly even weeks ago, and where they would be,” the Doctor exclaims. “Right now I‘m landing on a no.”
The Doctor seems lost in thought.
“If they wanted something from here, where would they go?” the Doctor asks himself, before directing his attention to Izuku, “What are the strategic points of this city? Important buildings or landmarks?”
“There‘s UA High University?” Izuku says with uncertainty.
The Doctor unlocks his blue box and steps inside, Izuku just standing outside, blinking at it. For some reason, Izuku had found himself dragged along by the Doctor.
The door opens again and the Doctor looks out of the box, waving him inside.
“Come on, get inside,” he urges and Izuku hesitantly steps inside, eyes widening as he realizes the sheer difference in volume compared to outside.
“Is that your quirk?” Izuku asks excited. “Some kind of spatial dimension or manipulation?”
“Really haven’t heard that one yet,” the Doctor remarks, before taking off his coat and throwing it at one of the railings going up to the middle part which looks like some sort of console.
He pats it with a proud look, flicking a few levers as he rounds it.
“No this is a TARDIS,” the Doctor explains. “Short for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. The epitome of Galifreyan technical development. We can practically go anywhere.”
“Gallifreyan?” Izuku asks. “Is that where this is from?”
“Yeah I stole it,” the Doctor remarks and Izuku only blinks, before raising an eyebrow
“If this is your sort of spacecraft, where are we going?”
The Doctor messes around with the console in the middle, peeking around the cylinder.
“UA High University like you said,” he says as he comes around to the side, pulling the big lever.
The machine in the center starts to pump and whir and the ground vibrates, almost tearing Izuku from his feet, until it suddenly stops after a few seconds.
“We can‘t just break into UA, we‘ll be detected and arrested on the spot!” Izuku complains, following the Doctor as he retrieves his coat.
The Doctor opens the door to the TARDIS, ushering Izuku outside.
“Yes we, evidently we can,” the Doctor says, opening his arms wide, the building of UA looming behind him. “If anyone asks why we here we have this.”
He searches in his coat and shows him an ID Card, saying that he is the assistant of All Might.
“You‘re the assistant of All Might?” Izuku questions, and the Doctor looks at it with a raised eyebrow.
“Apparently yeah,” he says as he pockets it again. “Psychic paper. Shows a person what they want to see.”
The Doctor takes out his sonic screwdriver, and it whirs as he scans the building.
He snaps it into place, looking at it for a minute.
“There’s advanced non-human technology on the roof,” he says. “Let‘s go.”
They walk into the main building and Izuku is very glad that the students seem to already have their afternoon classes so they don’t get noticed.
They are about to head up the stairs when they walk past the teacher’s office and a dark haired man steps out, eying them with a bored facade.
Izuku ducks his head, hoping he doesn’t stop them, but of course, it’s not that easy.
The Doctor doesn’t seem to be bothered or worried though, as he shows the man the psychic paper when he asks what they are doing here.
“You are All Might‘s assistant?” the dark-haired man questions before his gaze lands on Izuku. “And who might that be?“
“Ehm,” the Doctor stammers slightly. “He‘s... He’s my own assistant.”
“All Might‘s assistant has his own assistant,” the dark-haired man sighs. “Why doesn‘t that surprise me. I‘m guessing you are here to discuss All Might‘s employment with Nedzu?”
The Doctor leans to Izuku, whispering.
“Who‘s Nedzu?”
“The Principal,” Izuku hisses, internally cursing himself for not giving the Doctor a rundown of UA.
“Ah right, yes the Principal,” the Doctor exclaims, straightening again. “We‘ll be there in a moment. We have to ehm… check if the building is acceptable for All Might to work at.”
“All Might graduated from here,” Izuku mutters, and the Doctor’s smile is tight as he quietly answers.
“How am I supposed to know?”
“I‘m not paid enough for this,” the dark-haired man murmurs before shooing them away. “Alright go along.”
They pass the man and nod at him, heading up the direction of the roof.
“How do you get away with shit like that,” Izuku laments with a groan.
“Language,” the Doctor chides. “Also, it comes with age.“
“Can you teach me?”
The Doctor gives him a side glance.
“You’ll learn it soon enough.”
Before Izuku can answer, the Doctor pushes open the doors to the roof.
The first thing Izuku sees are three students who startle out of their skins. The purple-haired student with pale skin flinches at their sight, hiding between the blonde student, who strangely reminds Izuku of All Might, and a pale-blue haired girl.
“What are you doing here?” the blonde student asks, guarding his friend protectively.
The Doctor shows them the psychic paper.
“Here for an inspection of the building, mainly the roof,” he says, tucking it away after they all had a good look at the ID. “You‘ll have to go back to your classes now.”
The students look at each other hesitantly but nod and file out.
The Doctor doesn‘t waste any more time, door barely closing behind them, and takes out his sonic screwdriver, scanning the roof as they walk on.
“Perception filter,” the Doctor muses as he looks at the readings. “No wonder they didn‘t notice.”
They break through the filter and get greeted by a massive sight. On half of the roof, a spaceship stands, upright, almost looking like a rocket. At the bottom of the ship, a man is tinkering with the engines.
“Looking for this?” the Doctor calls out, holding up the mechanical part he retrieved. “From what I can tell it‘s part of the engine, probably to give enough energy to kick start them?”
The man turns to them and growls.
“How did you get that?” he questions. “And where is my brother?”
“It‘s always the families,” the Doctor sighs, before saying louder, “Met him on the way here. What planet are you from? Raxacoricofallapatorius?”
“Don‘t compare us to these defects!” the man says angrily. “We are far more evolved than they are!”
“What are you doing here then?” the Doctor questions. “Trying to steal bodies, searching for mechanical parts?”
“We crash-landed here,” the man admits before he gets down right furious. “Imagine our surprise when we pulled ourselves out of the wreck and saw other species just mingling in peace with the humans.”
He spits the last word out like it‘s a curse.
He shakes his head and connects something to the engine.
“You can keep that,” he continues. “It doesn‘t matter. I found something better anyway. Did you know that this building is connected to all major electricity lines? It must suck up tons of energy every year — maybe even every second.”
The Doctor's eyes widen.
“You can‘t do that! You will overload the system and blow the whole planet up!” the Doctor exclaims, and the man laughs deeply.
“Exactly!” he shouts. “And then we can harvest the scraps!”
The man doesn‘t regard them anymore and climbs up his ship.
“For not wanting to be associated with the Raxacoricofallapatorians you sure think like them!” the Doctor mutters, before turning to Izuku and throwing him his sonic screwdriver.
“Setting 9,” he tells Izuku. “Try to detach whatever he connected to the engines.”
Izuku nods and the Doctor starts climbing up after the man.
“Wait,” Izuku calls out. “What will you do?”
“Try to stop him from starting them!” the Doctor shouts back.
Izuku fiddles with the sonic screwdriver, setting it to 9, and takes a deep breath.
“Alright here I go.”
The Doctor swings himself onto board, shaking out his hands as he takes a look around.
“You’re too late,” the man calls from where he is sitting behind the cockpit. “In 30 seconds we will start and Earth will burn!”
The Doctor lets out a sigh before he promptly knocks out the man.
“Sorry, don’t have time for that,” he says as he sits down at the console, trying to find a solution.
“Come one give me something,” he mutters to himself, eyes flying over the different displays when suddenly a warning pops up.
WARNING: LOW FUEL. DEPARTURE CANCELED. ENGINES CRITICAL.
“Good job boy,” the Doctor praises, still tapping away on the keyboard. “Now only the engine will blow up in my face if I don‘t stop this and not the whole Earth.”
“Think Doctor,” the Doctor says to himself, biting his lips, “Think.”
He pats his coat, mentally counting through the stuff he has.
“No sonic screwdriver,” he starts, “But we have psychic paper, a ball of string, anti-radiation pills, yo-yo…”
His hands grasp something he almost had forgotten about.
“The mechanical part!” the Doctor shouts. “Of course!”
He opens up the control panel, pulling out some wires, and attaching the mechanical part.
“Please work,” the Doctor mumbles as he looks up from the floor to the display.
ENGINES STABILIZING.
He lets out a big sigh of relief, falling into himself until he remembers who he left downstairs.
He hurries down to the engines, another stone falling from his heart when he sees the green-haired boy unharmed — which makes him realize that he doesn’t even know his name yet.
The boy perks up when he sees him, raising the sonic screwdriver with a big smile.
“That was crazy!” he shouts, giddy. “You were awesome!”
“No,” the Doctor says with a small smile, “You were.”
The boy looks at him with wide eyes, looking like he wants to refute, but he shakily nods his head.
“Now that this is out of the way,” the Doctor continues. “Notice something we have forgotten about?”
“The alien still on board?” the green-haired teenager asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes!” the Doctor says before realizing what the boy said, “Wait no!”
He pauses for a bit.
“But also yes.” The Doctor shakes his head. “I actually meant your name.”
The boy flushes, standing a bit straighter as he introduces himself.
“I’m Midoriya Izuku,” he says, holding his neck sheepishly.
“Izuku then!” the Doctor says with a smile. “Now, come on. Let’s wrap things up here and then go back.”
The TARDIS whirs as they land, the Doctor opening the door to Izuku, letting him out in front of the apartment complex where he lives.
The Doctor lingers in the doorway, and Izuku hesitates before he decides to be truthful, smiling at the man.
“Thank you, Doctor,” he says. “Thank you for finally making me feel normal.”
“No, thank yo,u, the Doctor replies. “I couldn’t have done it without your help.”
Izuku smiles in response and asks the question that has been burning in his mind.
“Where will you go now?”
“Continue with what I've always done,” the Doctor says with a small smile. “Being a Doctor.”
“Alone?” Izuku asks, slightly hopeful.
“Well I have the TARDIS,” the Doctor drawls. “But yes if I must. Loads to see. People to save.”
“And still you claim to not be a hero.” Izuku shakes his head.
The Doctor gives him a small smile.
“I‘m just a madman in a box, really.”
“And does the madman need someone to travel with him?” Izuku outright asks, deciding to stop beating around the bush.
The Doctor‘s face lights up, splitting into a big smile.
“Yes he does,” he says, clearly excited until he suddenly gets serious, staring him into the eyes. “You could get hurt.”
But Izuku only pushes past the man, leaning at the railing as the Doctor takes off his coat and steps up to the console.
“Where do we go?” he asks with a small smile instead.
And the Doctor beams at him, pulling the lever of the TARDIS as he answers.
“Everywhere.”
“All Might‘s assistant and a building inspector you say,” Nedzu muses as he zooms onto the man‘s ID which appears blank on the camera.
“What a curious man.”
His gaze heads to the teenager next to him, inspecting his school uniform.
“Now why do you look familiar?” Nedzu continues, smiling to himself. “Midoriya Izuku. Oh how I love a good mystery.”