Chapter Text
The ride to the Hero Public Safety Commission’s “temporary housing” was long.
The boat trip had been quiet.
Eri sat in the back of the transport vehicle, hands folded neatly in her lap. The seat was too big for her. Everything was too big, too sterile, too white, too quiet. The agents assigned to her didn’t speak unless spoken to, and even then their words were curt, too practiced. They didn’t smile. Not like Mr. Aizawa. Not like Mirio. Not like Mr. Deku.
She missed them already.
(Flashback)
"You can't be serious right now." Aizawa said voice stern
"We are," Madam President "her quirk is unstable and way too dangerous and with the League of Villains stealing the bullets from the transport truck it's likely they'll make a move on Eri for more."
She looked to Eri still in her hospital bed
It was only a few days after the raid only 3 days
"Until we can be certain the league isn't interested in Eri, she shall stay in protective custody." Madam president said
Aizawa took a deep breath in
"Fine, but as soon as it's safe you bring her to UA." Aizawa said
"Of course." Madam president said "We'll first let her rest up, once she's cleared She'll come with us."
(Flashback End)
That was 5 days ago and now instead of being with mr.Aizawa, Mr.Mirio, and mr. Deku she was in a transport boat heading to a building
They said That this was just temporary. Safer. Better. Heroes don’t lie.
Right?
Speaking of which, they were here.
The building was massive. The entrance bore the golden insignia of the Hero Public Safety Commission. Inside, clean steel walls stretched into the distance, polished floors reflecting overhead lights like mirrors.
The Hpsc president greeted her at the door
Eri didn't know much about her except that she was very important.
"Hello Eri, it's good to see you again." Madam president said with a faint smile Her turquoise eyes were kind, but hollow "Now you are a very special little girl. That's why you're here. It's a more stable place. UA has seen too many attacks. You’ll be safe here, Eri.”
Eri didn’t trust smiles like that they reminded her of Overhaul and could tell she was hiding something...
But what?
"Come I'll show you where you will be staying." Madam president said
They first started going down an elevator
But eventually, they had to start going down stairs
"We didn't want too many buttons on the elevator," madam president said "That's why invested in the stairs."
The further they went, The fewer people she saw.
They took her down.
And down.
And down.
Deeper and Deeper
Every floor lost a little more color. Posters of heroes vanished. Then the lights dimmed. Then came the old door — not glass, but rusting alloy, marked with a symbol she didn’t recognize.
G.U.N.
"What's that?" Eri asked curiosity getting the better of her
"That is...What the HPSC used to be called." Madam president said "You see all the hero commissions around the world used to be one entity called the guardian unit of nations or G.U.N. For short but when quirks appeared in 2317 and then years later heroes started becoming common place G.U.N. Was forced to adapt, divide and become the the hero public safety commission and other similar organizations."
She smiled and said
"Now in the year of 3570 we are here we fund so many heroes and help so many people ."
A scientist walked next to the president looking nervous
"Ma'am unfortunately we are out of rooms with the needed equipment we need to use a room that's old ." The scientist said
"Do we have any old spaces we can use?" Madam president asked
"That's just the thing the only room we can use is...the one with Project Shadow." The scientist said
Madam president scoffed
"That old thing? I'm not sure why the Americans are so scared of that thing, It hasn't moved in 1613 years. Set up the room in there." Madam president said
The scientist nodded and left
"What's project Shadow?" Eri asked
"Project Shadow is some old experiment from the 1950's way before any of us were born. It used to be at the American hero commission but when our crime rate hit zero thanks to All Might the American hero commission gave him to us believing All might could take him down if he ever escaped." Madam president said "Unfortunately we don't know much about it, It's purpose, it's abilities and even who made it, Have been lost to time."
Eri looked fascinated at that
Soon they reached a thick metal door
The HPSC president unlocked it with biometric scanners and dual keys. It groaned open to reveal a cavernous chamber, the ceiling darkened with the exception of a few small lights, walls lined with obsolete machinery, racks of dust-covered weapons, and one massive containment tank in the center connected to the wall by thick cables, humming with dormant energy.
Within it floated a figure.
He was unlike anything Eri had ever seen black and red fur, long quills, heavy rings on his wrists and ankles, feet clad in strange shoes that looked more like engines than footwear. He didn’t move. He didn’t breathe. He might have been dead.
But something about him felt… alive.
Like something was playing on loop...
Also, inside the room was glass window that showed a monitor room
"That room is where we monitor Project Shadow." Madam president said lookingat the monitor room "It may look dead but it's very much alive, it's basically in a very deep sleep."
"What is he?" Eri asked
"A hedgehog, If we let him loose he would be indistinguishable from someone with a mutation quirk." Madam President said "We're not sure why he's a hedgehog, It looks like something someone would make for their granddaughter rather than a weapon."
She turned elsewhere
"Now let's get started."
Eri was so focused on Shadow, she didn't notice the scientists in the room setting up the table
She turned and saw:
Overhaul's notes
The table, the syringes
No...No no no-
Eri immediately tried to get out of the room, but was grabbed by a guard and strapped to the table, struggling the whole way
"Please! No! I don't want to!" Eri said, thrashing and panicking
"We're really sorry Eri, like I said earlier, you're a very special girl, but with the league having the bullets we can't risk not having the antidote, we need it because we can't risk such a disadvantage. but don't worry, We don't have Chisaki's quirk meaning we can't drain you dry and reassemble you, we'll take breaks, give you numming agents, and then wipe your memory with one of our agent's quirks after it's all done. We aren't heartless." Madam president said
"And if we ever need more, we'll just rinse and repeat."
She then left the room and headed to the monitor room, intent on watching to make sure nothing went wrong.
A few minutes later her voice appeared of the speaker
"Okay, You may begin." She said calm and focused "Remember don't kill her we don't have Overhaul's quirk."
The moment the needle for numbing went in, Eri's quirk flared up
What happened next would be considered the world's worst series of Events
One of the scientists backed away to avoid getting rewinded
But he backed into then generator powering Project Shadow's pod and that scientist had a electricty draining quirk
The power in the room failed, but in the monitor room...
(Beep...Beep...beep)
A pulse...
Shadow's pulse
Inside the room Eri screamed for help
And in that moment
It sounded like someone only one person in that room knew
And that person...
Was Shadow
(Inside the Shadow's mind)
The memories of that day ran through Shadow's mind like a record
But over the thousand years the memories decayed
He couldn't remember how maria looked
But he remembered her voice
"Please...Shadow, Give the people of earth a chance to be happy, to hope." Maria said her hands on a lever but Shadow couldn't remember her face
"Maria! What are you-" Shadow began
Then The G.U.N. Soldiers burst in
"Freeze! Don't move! Step away or we'll shoot!" The leader said, holding a pistol
“Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog.” Maria said, as she pulled the lever
(BANG!)
Shadow watched Maria fall
An angel...Snuffed out
“MARIA!” Shadow yelled
And then the pod was launched, sent to earth.
Despite the decay, despite the 1613 years, in kept playing on loop in his subconscious
Until in that very moment...
"HELP!"
...It suddenly stopped..
Inside the pod Shadow began to stir
"What's going on!? Get the power back on!" Madam president said
"We can't! That shock destablized the containment field!" An agent said
"Meaning!?" Madam president demanded
"...He's waking up."
The look on the agent's face was one of pure terror
"Get guards in there now!" Madam president yelled
"We can't the door is shut! The shock fried it!" The agent said
Inside the tank, for a moment, nothing happened.
Everyone took a sigh of relief as the power in the room was restored
Then two crimson eyes snapped open, glowing like embers.
Then one punch.
One punch was all it took to break the glass that had held steady for over 1600 years
The tank exploded.
Glass and red fluid flew in all directions. Cryogenic steam hissed into the room like a living fog. From within, a figure stepped out soaked, dripping, furious.
Project Shadow... no The Ultimate Lifeform, had awakened
And he was absolutely livid.
His eyes darted around the room
He saw the horrified scientists, the people looking through the glass, the guards who just burst in rifles raised...
And her, the girl strapped to the table, syringes clearly having been just used and the look of absolute terror on her face
"...Maria?" Shadow asked voice scratchy most likely from lack of use
Due to Shadow's fractured memories he couldn't remember Maria's face and general head properly and any inconsistencies were in his mind, caused by the experiments currently being done on her
In his eyes
This girl WAS Maria
"...Let go of her...NOW!" Shadow yelled chaos energy crackling
And then he vanished
And one movement
He knocked out 3 guards, 2 scientists in one movement
The rest of the guards opened fire, but Shadow was too fast
In blinks of movement and bursts of speed he knocked out each guard one by one until one remained
Shadow appeared in a blink and knocked him out in one punch
He then walked over to "Maria"
“…What did they do to you, Maria?” Shadow asked
She was smaller, skinny, but not in a sick way more of a...Starving way...
In fact she didn't look too sick at all.
"Maria did they...cure you?" Shadow asked
Eri couldn’t respond. She just reached out, eyes begging.
Shadow gave a small smile
She was cured
His sister, could finally walk the earth at long last.
"Come on Maria," Shadow said "We're leaving."
Eri didn't say anything, didn't correct him,
She just wanted out
Madam president snapped out of the trance of seeing Shadow in action
"Hey! return her immediately! Just who the hell do you think you are!?" She demanded as she activated the emergency lock on the door
Shadow turned to face the monitor room glass, frown back
"I am the ultimate lifeform."
He put Eri on his back and he then smashed through the steel in a single punch
"...I go wherever I want." Shadow said
He began skating with his air shoes out of there.
"What the-??!" Madam president said, shocked at the utter disrespect
"Get every guard we have! Block every exit! Get Hawks here too!"
"Ma'am what about Endeavour?" An agent asked
"Hawks knows what we're doing and understands the necessity of it, Endeavour doesn't. If we get Endeavour he will tell the public, regardless of how much dirt we have on him." Madam president said
"And... if Endeavour dies fighting this...thing... any hope we have of winning is gone."
Shadow began tearing his way out before spotting a familiar logo:
G.U.N.
"G.U.N. I should have known they were behind this." Shadow said "Hang on Maria, I'll get you ot of here."
Eri held on tighter
Shadow kept moving before spotting something on the G.U.N. "Worldwide hall of heroes."
Commander Walters's free olive garden food card with no expiration date rewarded to him for something Shadow doesn't remember, next to a photo of the commander
He does remember Walters talking to the professor about it something about "never ending breadsticks" and "when you're there you're family."
Maria could use some food she's so light, too light.
And family is something they could both use
"Maria after this I'm taking you to olvie garden." Shadow said
"...Olive garden? What's that?" Eri asked tilting her head slightly seemingly intrigued despite what she just went through
That made Shadow pause
Maria alwats wanted to try fresh olive garden
Why doesn't she remember
Had G.U.N. Taken her memories?
How...dare they...
Shadow smashed open the case and grabbed the card
"Maria I'll promise, I'll fix this...and then I'll crush every last one of them. No mistakes! Everyone working with G.U.N. will pay!" Shadow said
Shadow began moving again
The escape had begun.
Shadow didn’t know who she really was.
Eri didn’t care what he was.
She clung to the only one who fought to save her from this place.
Like Mr. Deku did like Mr.Mirio did
Another hero
Meanwhile Shadow has no clue how long he was out for
But now he was awake
And no one was going to put him back
Never again.