Heroic Avenger

New Mission & New Memories

(Deku POV)

After finishing the test with Dr. Banner I decided to go to the gym in the tower to blow off some steam. I was running on the treadmill when JARVIS spoke up. "Mr. Midoriya, there is a New York City Police officer asking for you, would you like me to take a message?" Stopping my run on the treadmill I responded to JARVIS 'question. "No thank you JARVIS I have time. Are they here or are they calling?" "She is in the lobby." I think for a moment before I respond. "Alright tell her I'll be down in a moment." After JARVIS confirms my request, I start to change into my costume just in case, and then head to the elevator to speak with the officer. 'I wonder what she is here to talk about, maybe to warn me about vigilantism, no that can't be it Mr. Stark said I should be fine. Hmmm what could it be then.?' I barely notice that I'm on the ground floor due to how lost in thought I am. When the door opens I see a woman with fair skin black hair, and green eyes wearing black slacks, a white dress shirt with a grey suit jacket, grey flats, and just under her jacket I see a holster. "Deku right?" She asks as soon as I step out of the elevator. "Yes ma'am that's me, how can I help you." I say in greeting, stretching my hand for a handshake.

I hear her say something about being younger than she thought but let it slide as she shakes my hand. "Nice meeting you, I'm detective Rose Quin, NYPD. Before we go any further I must say this, while I am thankful for your help around the city I personally believe someone of your age shouldn't be involved in any of this." She says firmly. "I understand your concern, but with gifts like mine I should use them to help anyone I can." I say standing my ground, she searches my eyes for fear or something and sighs when she doesn't find what she's looking for. "Alright, Deku I am here to ask for help with multiple missing person cases." My eyes widen at the information. "Is there a time frame?" "Yes the earliest one was 2 and a half months after the battle of New York, at first we thought it was someone who was lost in the battle, but due to evidence of his last sighting that wouldn't make sense." She says while handing me a file containing pictures of all the people who have gone missing.

"The first person Richard Clark was last seen exiting his local grocery store at 3pm CCTV footage shows him walk into a dark alley after that he was gone. Many of these cases are identical, the only few outliers are the people that were possibly abducted from their own homes." After looking over the files and hearing her recounting I decided to speak up. "Do any of the people have any connections to the others, is there any noticeable pattern at all?" She looks thoughtful for a moment before replying. "Six of the twelve people did know each other, the six in question are Lawrence Sterns, Carter Graham, Mei Lin, Thomas Romero, Lyla Cramer, and Anthony Ross." She says while I flip through the files noting all the names she said. "These six are all scientists that worked together, we're not sure what it was they worked on or when but we do know they were all partners on some sort of project. As for any sort of pattern, we haven't seen anything that would stick out, all of their last sightings are spread around the whole city." She finishes after showing me a map of all the last sightings of every person, and I agree there isn't a pattern at all. "Listen, I can't let you hold onto these files, but if you figure anything out or find a lead pass the information to us at the station. Also I would prefer if you didn't get all of your superhero friends involved, this is already too much in my opinion." I nod in understanding while handing her back her file, she hands me her card to contact her and then she leaves.

'If I'm going to start looking for leads I should start with those scientists.' Thought to myself heading back up the tower to a holo screen to try and find anything on the scientists. "JARVIS do you have any intel on those scientists?" "One moment, the six scientists were all a part of an off the books project, known as project ascendance." I write down what JARVIS tells me as he shows me a logo for the project. "It looks like Icarus from Greek folklore. Hmm, JARVIS what was the name of Captain Rogers super soldier program?" "It was called Project Rebirth, Sir." I wrote the name down in my journal and had a sneaking suspicion that the two were potentially linked. "Um JARVIS, do you have a list of everyone who worked on this project?" "Yes sir, there are over fifteen personnel that were key to this project, although I should mention of those personnel only the missing six and one other are alive, but the other person is in a coma and has been for the last five years." After writing down all I could on the scientist I decided to look into the other six people. 'These people didn't know one another at all, age ranges are all over the place, there's no way that it was random, what do you guys think?' I asked the vestiges and not even a second later they all agreed that it could be random which made things more difficult. 'Look into it later 9, you're not going to solve a case that the police have been working on longer than you have in a day.' The first said sagely. I nodded solemnly and turned off the holo screens and went out on patrol.

(3rd Person POV)

After a couple of hours of patrolling, Midoriya was seen buying a hotdog from an elderly man with sunglasses. "You know your powers remind me of a guy." Stan Lee said with a smile. "Oh really who?" Midoriya asked curiously. "I don't remember, he had spider powers or something." Midoriya wasn't sure if the elderly man was rambling so he politely excused himself with his hot dog and sat on a bench. It was then that he was attacked from behind. "Hiya! I got you Mr. Deku." It was Mindy, his number one fan. After she showed Midoriya her handmade doll of him she would always try to say hi to him whenever he was patrolling, her mother always a few feet away with a camera. "Oh no, I've been defeated by the most powerful being there is." Midoriya played along acting like he was dying. In his head he heard giggles and unamused sighs. But Midoriya didn't care, Mindy was like a glimpse into his home, a reminder of what he was like when he was six, Mindy wasn't the only child who would casually approach him, but at this point he lost count of how many people would come up to him and converse with him.

"Hey Mr. Deku, do you think I can be a hero like you?" When Mindy's words reached his ears he froze up, what could he realistically say? He couldn't tell her to become a police officer her mother said Mindy is still traumatized by the officer aiming his gun at her, being a doctor or nurse wouldn't satisfy her, and giving her One For All was off the table quite literally, Midoriya had tried to see if he could pass the quirk down to anyone at the behest of the first, Midoriya had given himself a small cut on his thumb and collected the blood and Captain Rogers ingested it a day later nothing, he repeated the test with Mr. Stark, and Mr. Barton, and discovered that no matter what One For All could not be transferred or stolen in this universe. 'Is this what All Might felt like when I asked?' Then he thought of something quick. "You don't have to be like me Mindy, be better than me, if you work hard for your goal you'll be an amazing hero." Mindy smiled and hugged Midoriya, Mindy's mom mouthed the words "thank you" and Midoriya gave a thumbs up.

After Mindy and her mom went home A young woman approached him with panic and concern in her voice. "Deku I'm looking for my grandpa Earl, he kept talking about meeting someone here, and now he's gone and.... Can you please help me find him? This is what he looks like." Midoriya nods his head and says he'll help her find her grandfather. 'Could this be linked to the missing person's case, I hope not.' Floating into the air Midoriya pulls up his mouthguard that has HUD. "JARVIS can you help me find this woman's grandfather?" " Yes sir. I scanned the image that she showed and am now looking through CCTV footage to find a match." After Moment JARVIS displayed a map to the last location, "JARVIS, alert the woman that I found her grandfather." "Right away sir, she should be there in a moment." With all that said and done Midoriya walked up to the man.

"Hey there sir." "Deku, whatever you think I did, I didn't" Midoriya smiles and shakes his head. "No sir, your granddaughter sent me to look for you." The man gains a look of clarity for a moment "Granddaughter....huh.... Well, tell her I'll be back in a minute." Midoriya sat down with the elderly man as he started talking again. "I proposed to my wife here. Right here." He pointed just a bit in front of the bench. "Where we sit." "Wow, that sounds really romantic. How'd you ask?" Midoriya asked with genuine curiosity. "First off, we HAD to go to the zoo... Never met a soul who loved animals more than that woman, I was terrified. Meant to ask her at the meerkats. She said they reminded her of me... But my knees were knocking, man! I couldn't see straight! We left the zoo and just kept walking. Ended up here. She.... If you saw her, man. Just perfect.... But clumsy. Nearly fell into that pond there, face first. You ever been in love, Deku?" Midoriya thought for a moment before answering. "I'm not sure honestly." The elderly man smiled and continued. "It's beautiful. Nothing more beautiful. Can I tell you something Deku, I know I'm fading. It's scary as hell, thought I'd be ready but...nothing gets you ready. Nothing. But when I'm here, it's like she is too. Like I'm living it all over again, all nervous and what not, then I look into her eyes and... It's like I'm home. I was so nervous that day, I almost didn't even ask...and it's like I blinked and she's gone." By this point Midoriya was trying so hard not to cry, the vestiges all felt this man's sorrow, but Nana was the only one letting her tears fall. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss." "You said my granddaughter was looking for me. Let's go see her." And is on cue said granddaughter arrived and Midoriya let the two talk as he started to head back to Stark Tower, but Midoriya found it hard to sleep thinking of the man's question. "You ever been in love Deku?" That question bounced around in his head for a while before he fell asleep thinking of the other thing that the man said. "I look into her eyes and... it's like I'm home." And that night Midoriya let himself dream of his home reflected in warm brown eyes.