Encroachment

Chapter 4: Invasion

Midoryia felt his heart hammering between his ears, racing against his lungs. The sludge was sitting at a café, a coffee placed precariously on the edge of a rickety glass table. Large, round sunglasses rested on his face, shielding him from the intense sun. A baseball cap rested on his head, concealing his distinctive hair and covering his face in shadow. A notebook rested in one hand, a pen in the other. The large town square he was seated in was buzzing with people everywhere. Children, parents, elders, couples. It was vast, with many cafes and markets with open seating areas resting in the sun. A large red umbrella was spread over Izuku's head, blocking off a small security camera that was nestled into the wall of a nearby building.

The sludges attention wasn't focused on the kid with an ice cream twice the size of his face or the hooded teens that discreetly slipped into a stingy alleyway a few feet away from him. No, he was intently watching the hero who was patrolling the square. A long black cape flared out behind him, his metal armour glinted in the midday sun. A long red feather protruded from his midieval helmet, which concealed his whole face. A few side kicks scurried hurriedly behind the Knight like hero. Izuku could hear the clink of his sword hitting his armour every time he took a step from the other side of the square. "How about we give this quirk of yours a little test run, runt?" The sludge murmured gently under his breath.

What? Izuku felt his voice echo in his mind as a startled squeak.

"That hero over there is called Valiant. A right asshole if you ask me." The Sludge snorted, readjusting the glasses on Izuku's face. Midoriya's heart had stopped in his chest. Goosebumps erupted all over his skin and a cold shiver wrapped around his spine. It felt as though the sludge had placed lead weights in his stomach. "The only reason he got into the hero game was for the fame and money." The Sludge hissed. "Look at him, strutting around like a proud cockerel. No shame." He tutted. "Definitely not a true hero. He sullys the name."

Izuku felt anger spark in his chest. Valiant had a few pages in volume 11 of Izuku's hero notes. He has saved hundreds of people. Even if his motives are not pure, he is a good hero. Izuku argued, his internal voice sterner than he thought he could produce.

The sludge snorted, earning a few cautious stares from nearby people. "If that was the way the world worked runt, then everyone would be a great hero and a great villain."

Izuku reeled back, uncertain of how to respond. "Take a person who can play piano for example. If you give him a new piece of music and he can hit most of the notes, that doesn't make him a musician." Izuku was puzzled and uncertain where the sludge was heading with this metaphor. "What makes him a musician is how he plays the piece. If he plays the quite bits quite and the staccato short and snappy. If he can pour his heart into his fingers and capture the true essence and feeling of the piece." Izuku supposed he could add musical connoisseur to the profile he had been mentally building the sludge. "You cannot be a hero if you simply bash out the motions." The Sludge added. "A hero is someone who wants to help and do good from the bottom of his heart. A hero is selfless. Just like All Might."

If Izuku had been in control of his body, he would have been gritting his teeth. Before he had time to reply, the sludge cut him off, "now little runt. Lets give your quirk a test run, shall we?" The sludge checked the cheap leather watch secured to Izuku's wrist.

DON'T. IT'S NOT RIGHT! Izuku screamed inside his mind. There was no response. The sludge had already focused his attention on Valiant. STOP! He roared, but his plea fell on deaf ears.

Within seconds Izuku was overwhelmed with the vaguely familiar sensation of his quirk being activated. An intense buzzing harassed his brain. Despite his best efforts to restrain it, his mind zeroed in on Valiant. Everything else around him became incoherent chatter and hazy coloured shapes. Izuku could see everything. The day Valiant discovered his quirk. The knight's strengths and weaknesses. Where he lived. His first love. His first kiss. His mother. Everything. Izuku had access to every memory stored within the hero's brain. Midoryia let out a trembling whimper. The knight continued to strut around, completely oblivious to the small green haired teen prying open his mind on the other side of the square.

Izuku was vaguely aware of his hand flying across the notebook in his lap. A pen clutched tightly in his grasp. The longer he remained in the hero's mind, the clearer his surrounding became. Soon Izuku could pick out faces, words, people. Minutes ticked by for what seemed like an eternity. The teen strained with all his might, trying to reel in his quirk and unhook his mind from Valiant's, but it was no use. No matter how hard he pulled, the sludge had complete control over everything Izuku's body did and could do. Including using his quirk. After using it for so long, a sharp ache had developed between his temples and pounded at the back of his skull. The teen let out a strangled cry that never graced the open air. Just as he was beginning to make out sentences and conversations, something hot and thick trickled out from his nose. Izuku snapped out of his connection to Valiant. All the information that had been in his head vanished, taking with it his memories of the last few minutes. The boy was left startled because it seemed as though everyone in the square had magically shifted places.

The sludge raised one of Izuku's hands, wiping the liquid at his nose and leaving a hot, scarlet trail on the back of his hand. At the same time, the sludge checked the watch. On the blood splattered notebook in Izuku's lap, information was scrawled in messy handwriting that took no heed from the lines on the pages. There was so much detail. As the sludge flicked through them, Izuku counted six pages of information all on Valiant. Midoryia's stomach churned and a queasy pain poked at his abdomen. "How curious. I could only maintain the connection for five minutes." Sludge huffed. "Not only that but I completely forgot everything that took place whilst I was in that darn Knight's mind. It is much easier to go into someone's mind with preprepared questions instead of having to drag through all that garbage, isn't it?" Izuku hissed, earning him only a chuckle. "You don't use your quirk very often, do you runt?" The sludge chuckled. "Your mind is unfit and your quirk untrained."

It's not right. Izuku murmured. He shouldn't be able to know everything about anyone.

"What's not right? Using your birthright?" The Sludge asked, voice cracking with unsupervised shock whilst he scanned the information he had collected. What Izuku saw made his stomach turn. It was very similar to the documents he made on heroes, except it contained all the information necessary to defeat Valiant. A raw numbness began to ebb away at Izuku's mind. "You were given a quirk for a reason, it would be a waste not to use it." The Sludge tutted.

Izuku could barely hear him. All the teen's attention was focused on the information laid out in front of him. Untamed panic knotted his insides and he broke out into a cold sweat. The more he studied the scrappy handwriting, the more intense the sensation became. Warmth pricked at his eyes and he drew in a shaky breath. When Izuku's gaze landed upon a home address, those tears sprung from his eyes and trickled down his cheeks. "Not this again." The Villain grumbled, wiping away Izuku's tears with the same blood streaked hand as before. A few more people stared at him from the corner of their eyes, but the teen payed them no heed.

A cold chuckle escaped the sludges lips. "I have to say though, your quirk is so much more powerful than you think." The sludge stroked Izuku's chin. "Aptly named too. I don't think anything suits it better than Invasion."