Chapter Text
“Cause of death is uncertain. Between the stab wounds, flaying, and eye removal, he could’ve died from the blood loss, the pain, or the shock alone.”
Brandon and Bakugo were standing in the single medical facility on the island, where Brandon’s friend, Maigo, had started work on the autopsy. Maigo was a rather plain looking Japanese woman with black hair… if you ignored the spikes jutting out all over her body and the blackened, almost armor-like, skin that covered some of her body. It made her look like a human-dragon hybrid.
Her glowing orange eyes were the only thing illuminating the lab after the power went out. Thankfully they worked well in the dark.
“Any ideas on what did it?” Brandon asked.
Maigo was sorting through the guts of the body. “Long metal blade… very wide oddly enough. It’s like a buster sword stabbed this man.”
“Any traces of Mana?”
“Hmm…” Maigo’s eyes burned brighter.
“What’s she doing?” Bakugo asked, trying to watch the autopsy in the dark. He was… strangely invested in it.
“Dragon eyes, she can see Mana.” While most Awakened Humans could sense Mana, there were very few in the world who could physically see it.
“Wait a minute…” She set aside her autopsy tools and just began using her claws, cutting into the corpse.
“Uhh… Maigo…? Please try not to mutilate the corpse we have yet to identify and gain permission to autopsy,” Brandon looked nervous by her haphazard cutting, but was soon quieted by a small purple gem pulled out of the chest cavity. The gem was actually split down the middle, two halves of a once beautiful ornament.
“This was encased inside the heart…” She whispered.
“It’s a Villain Core!” Bakugo exclaimed, rushing over to examine it, ignoring the disgusting fluids dripping off of it.
“Not quite,” Maigo responded. “It’s a core of magical energy, but it's not the same as standard cores.”
“In a human heart? Some sort of Frankenstein experiment?”
“Gross!” Setsuna shouted as she and Yui walked into the morgue.
Aizawa and Esil weren’t far behind. Esil no longer had her wings tucked up against her back or her tail curled around her waist. She had taken off the baggy clothing to move better during the search effort and hadn’t put it back on yet.
“Lights are out all over town,” Aizawa reported. “I guess that means something magical is behind this all…”
“Just our luck,” Yui sighed.
“Forget the search effort,” Brandon said. “Focus our efforts on surrounding Avalon. We need to be ready to protect the people if there really is a Gate somewhere on the island.”
“I dunno,” Maigo said. “I’m starting to think this isn’t a Gate… it’s something weirder.”
“Who’s she?” Setsuna asked.
“Maigo Hudson, the biologist friend I mentioned earlier.”
“Ah…”
“Just flew in to get stuck in the middle of this mess!” She said, smiling at the green-haired Setsuna. “I’d shake your hand but…” She held up her arms to reveal the guts and blood.
“What’s this?” Aizawa said, pointing to the gem.
“It’s a Villain Core that was inside the heart.”
Aizawa narrowed his eyes. “Was there a direct incision point for the insertion of the Villain Core?”
“Uh, we think a giant sword ran through his stomach but I had to use my Dragon Eyes to find the Core in their heart.”
“Then it wasn’t put there surgically?” He asked.
Simultaneously, the faces in the room became pale. They all came to the same realization. This wasn’t some madman stabbing people and trying to experiment with their bodies. In fact, these weren’t people at all. They were mimics.
At the same time that realization occurred, the group in the morgue could sense the rest of the class approaching. Once more, they had the same thought… “How do we know who is really human?”
*******
“You’re… the System?!” Izuku asked as Raia began walking through the woods, not waiting for Iida or Izuku to catch up. The metal Direwolves followed on their heels, but seemed to bear no ill will.
“I am the creator of the System, and I do monitor it, but I am not where your power comes from.”
“Well… can you tell us more?!” Izuku was practically running alongside the metal man.
“You cannot expect me to recount an entire universe’s worth of history at the moment,” Raia gestured to one of the wolves, who went bounding off into the forest. “Nor is your kind ready for that sort of information. Not at a time like this.”
“I thought you said you’d tell me since we were acquaintances?!”
Raia returned Izuku’s desperation with a disgusting grin. “I was merely mocking you. It’s not as if I care for biological entities, and I am not the one truly behind the System anyways. I merely monitor it as a job.”
“If you don’t care for biological life, then why are you here?” Iida asked. “I’m still unsure of the threat here, but if you can create Gates, then I’m sure you could have left this island to suffer the consequences.”
“Why?” Raia’s smile turned bittersweet. “That is always the question, isn’t it? Why?” He chuckled, causing Iida and Izuku to exchange a puzzled glance. “The threat to this island are the creatures known as Mosaics. They are… essentially bacteria of a very powerful entity in the universe, called Tetrax. They evolve rapidly to weaken and then supplant whatever species exists on the planet.”
“That thing was an evolution?” Iida asked in disbelief, and Izuku couldn’t fault him. He could only imagine that the being was in immense pain.
“Evolution is a process,” Raia countered. “They are slowly making their way to a more… potent state.”
“What does that mean?”
“Izuku Midoriya, what is the most dangerous species native to this planet?”
“Oh…”
“Precisely. These are not animals, they are not simple-minded beings. They will mimic human life, find ways into positions of power, and they will eventually weaken this world enough for the Gates to overwhelm it. If I were at full strength, I could easily lure it out and kill every Mosaic, but I spent all of my power on Europa and putting up the dome around this island.”
“Wait… that was you?”
Raia nodded. “Mosaics hide their Mana signatures very well, but they are still strong. If I hadn’t sealed off the island right away, they could’ve stolen a boat to the mainland and by then it would be too late to do anything about it. Nothing can enter or exit Catalina Island until the dome falls.”
“So then… people in Avalon could already be replaced?”
Again the Architect nodded. “It is conceivable. So the best course of action is for you to kill the inhabitants. Flatten the entire island with Gravity Magic. Scorched earth policy.”
“What?! There are still hundreds, if not, thousands of people on the island who could still be real!” Izuku shouted in protest.
“Yes, well, sacrifices have to be made at some point or another.
“We are not killing an entire city!” Izuku said, getting in front of the Synthetic Lord.
Raia made a noise similar to grumbling, but it was more like a garbage compactor than anything else. “Did you not just listen to me? I don’t have the power to do it myself. And the Mosaics will spread quickly once their evolutions become more complete. By the time I regain my full power, the entire island will be overrun, and regardless, I’ll have to cleanse the island myself.”
“Then I’ll stop you,” Izuku threatened, gathering Gravity Magic in his hands.
“My Liege, shall I kill this one?”
But it wasn’t a Shadow that was speaking, rather, it was one of those metal constructs of Raia’s. It was a swirling mass of liquid metal, like the T-1000. It was a changeling in the form of a machine.
“No,” Raia sighed and shook his head. “We are not here to weaken humanity, but to help it.” Raia’s summons seemed oddly familiar to Izuku’s Shadows, and especially similar to the new powers of Yaoyorozu. But before Izuku could ask a question about that, Iida interrupted.
“Excuse me, but surely if Izuku is powerful enough to flatten the island, then he is also strong enough to help save it before that becomes necessary, yes?”
“You’d need to find the Queen of the Mosaics and kill her, then, you’d need to kill every last Mosaic on the island before they have the chance to evolve into a new Queen and start the process all over again.”
“What if they don’t evolve into a Queen?”
Raia’s kingly facade was beginning to fade with the mounting questions. “They are connected to each other. When they realize the Queen is dead, they will evolve. Extermination is not so simple. You’d have to confirm the identity of every human on the island and slowly work your way across, sterilizing every inch of it. If you missed a single Mosaic, you’d have to start over. Even assuming you get it on the first try, it could take weeks, and clearly you are needed in Japan soon.”
Izuku’s entire body felt like it was turning to ice. “What does that mean?”
“I believe some scheme is brewing in Russia. The two countries will soon be at war, if they are not already.” He held up an exasperated hand as he noticed Izuku about to take off using Gravity Magic. “Not even you can breach the barrier. It was designed to prevent Gate travel so nothing could escape, and the strength of the shield is more than enough.”
“You need to let me go! I have family there!”
Raia nodded. “Yes I understand that. However, I cannot risk the Mosaics spreading.”
“But you’re fine with a war?!”
“If humanity is to destroy themselves I won’t intervene. Threats like the Mosaics are my duty to exterminate.” Now Raia was talking about his duty, as if he hadn’t brushed off their questions about his reasoning earlier.
“So you only handle supernatural threats? Then what about the Gates?!”
“Haha! Oh please, as if I’d involve myself in that mess. I do have my own people to think about. My own life. I offer help where possible, but I’m no God. Earth is practically the…” He put a hand to his chin and thought, “I suppose Florida… of the universe, right now.” Even the Japanese Iida and Izuku knew how low of a blow that was.
“What if you just open a tiny hole in the shield and I sneak out?” Izuku asked, ignoring the rather demeaning comment.
“The barrier is as strong as it is because it relies on the completed bonds of the Mana between spaces. I can’t just conveniently open a hole. I’d have to take down the entire shield. Not happening… unless you really want to see your world fall to ruin. Besides, the Shadow Empress will handle the war in Japan. Your task is here Shadow Monarch.”
“I’m not killing innocent people!”
“Fine then!” Raia threw his hands up in defeat. “We shall get to work… the moral way,” He spat out the last part, as if it disgusted him to save lives. “We must first start a quarantine zone to ensure all who are not yet a Mosaic, remain separated from the rest.”
“Wait… when the Mosaics copy people…” Iida trailed off.
“In the case of evolving into humans, they will understand the intricacies of human behavior and appearance. This allows them to mimic someone flawlessly. However, they only need a passing glance of someone to properly mimic them. The Mosaics’ brain evolves far faster than the rest of its body. It’s like a supercomputer determining the best outcome instantly. So they understand the need to be able to fool the uncanny valley of humanity. Because they don’t need to consume their mimicked target for food or knowledge, they do not always kill their prey, but they mostly do. So anyone who has been seen mimicked is likely already dead.”
“The body that Bakugo and Brandon found…” Iida exchanged a panicked glance with Izuku. “That was a Mosaic…”
“How strong are these things?!” Izuku asked quickly, prepared to sprint off in the direction of Avalon.
“Physically? In human terms they can range from between C-Rank and A-Rank depending on who they mimic. But their Magical powers are in the range of A and S-Rank. In other words, to you and me, they are fodder. But to this town and your friends, they are rather dangerous.”
“We gotta go!”
“You two run along,” Raia chimed in.
“You’re not coming with?!”
“This is a delicate situation, involving betrayal and confusion. Having an unknown party involved is… a dubious strategy.”
Izuku nodded. Raia was probably right. People might think it was some trick to get them all into one place to be killed or eaten or something. So, leaving the King behind, Izuku and Iida ran off.
“My Liege,” The blob of metal said to Raia, “Why did you not tell him?”
“I could see it in his eyes.”
“What?”
“When he said he refused to risk innocent people, I confirmed my theory. He’s not ready for this. The Shadow Monarch chose a weak host. He may be physically ready to handle it, but he is a child. He still believes in things like heroes. If we tell him too early, he may be naive enough to pick a side, rather than destroy it all. And if the Shadow Monarch chooses a side… we lose.”
*******
“Okay! Everyone stays where they are!” The class was huddled inside the morgue, everyone standing in a circle. “No one leaves until we figure this out for sure!”
“Yeah… I’ve seen this horror movie before,” Brandon interrupted. “It doesn’t end well.”
“Shut!” Setsuna yelled that single word at the blonde, who was taken aback by her ferocity. “There are Villains trying to look like people! We have to figure out a method to discover these creatures and know who’s real!” She may have been overreacting to some, but she was panicked because she did, in fact, know the movie Brandon was talking about, and thinking about everything ending like that didn’t sit well.
“And how are we going to figure that out?” Mina asked. “That body doesn’t even look like a human, how do we know they don’t all look like that?”
“Something killed it. Judging by the lack of skin, eyes, and teeth, I reckon it was still in some sort of developmental stage before someone shoved a sword in its chest,” Maigo, as a biologist, was rather helpful to have at a time like this.
“It’s not like we can just start cutting each other open!” Uraraka protested. The concept of surgery had always scared her a great deal. Just rooting around in someone’s body disturbed her.
“Will her Dragon Eyes work?” Bakugo asked, pointing at Maigo. But she, unfortunately, shook her head.
“That body wasn’t using Mana of any kind. Its heart was the only source. Everyone here has some sort of Mana coursing through them. It’d be like trying to look into the center of the sun. It’s all bright, there’s no difference. We don’t have any electronics, so we can’t do many tests.”
“Wait, where’s Izuku and Iida?” Aizawa asked, head counting his class as they discussed amongst themselves. No one said anything, so Aizawa nodded to Esil. “We’ll go looking for them. No one leaves here unless absolutely necessary.”
“Oh wait!” Kaminari chimed sheepishly. “I think I remember them heading down to the lower part of Avalon! By the docks!”
“Why would they go there?” Bakugo asked suspiciously.
“I don’t know, maybe they found something important down there?”
“When did you see them?” Brandon asked.
“On our way back,” Jiro responded.
“I gave you the GPS coordinates myself. You two were out past Iida and Izuku… and they’re faster than you… How’d you see them?”
Everyone took a subconscious step away from the duo, who looked around in confusion. “What?” Jiro attempted to look scared, but it was clear by the crackling of explosions in Bakugo’s hand that they weren’t going to escape suspicion.
“Oh well,” Kaminari lamented, before his fingers elongated into bony talons and he slashed at Kirishima, who was standing the closest.
Kirishima activated his Quirk on pure reflex, but he was still a B-Rank, and he was a Tank, slow by nature. He got off his Quirk just in time to keep the claws from slicing all the way through him… but they still got halfway through his arm, nearly severing it without much effort.
Bakugo and Maigo were the first to move. Bakugo couldn’t use very powerful explosions in the enclosed space, but he was still damn fast, and Maigo was closer to the mimicked duo, so they reached them at the same time.
Maigo had no hesitation, wrapping her hands around Jiro’s neck before she could even launch at one of her classmates. With a bit of effort, it snapped, and she fell to the floor.
Bakugo wasn’t as committed to such gruesome violence, instead placing his palm against Kaminari’s stomach and setting off a small explosion, sending the boy flying through the wall behind him and out onto Catalina’s streets.
“You killed her!” Mina shouted at Maigo, her pink face slightly paler than before.
Maigo scowled. “I’ve killed a lot of things… I didn’t kill her,” She said, backing away as Jiro, or rather, the thing impersonating Jiro, began to stand. It’s neck made several disgusting noises, snapping back into place.
Similarly, Kaminari stood from the asphalt he had been launched onto. Despite the burns on his stomach and chest, he didn’t seem concerned.
“Either destroy their brains or burn them!” Maigo shouted. Being the only biologist in the room, it made sense. Then, after thinking about the crystal in the heart, she added. “There might be a Villain Core in their hearts! Break it!”
Jiro and Kaminari made annoyed faces, telling the class that Maigo had hit the nail on the head.
Esil pulled the profusely bleeding Kirishima to the back of the room, tending to his wounds as the rest of the class readied themselves for the fight.
“How do we know these are mimics? They could just be the same person getting controlled?” Toru was thinking for the sake of her friends, but she wasn’t thinking very well.
“I don’t think Earphones could heal a broken neck like that…” Bakugo said.
“Did you kill them?” Aizawa asked, stepping forwards, his eyes glowing red. But the copies didn’t seem impressed by his Quirk.
“Stabbed the idiot pretty good in the heart,” Kaminari said, likely referring to the real Kaminari. “We left them with our brothers and sisters to examine. They’re certainly dead by now.”
“Bakugo, Esil, go find them!” Aizawa commanded.
“But-!” Bakugo tried to protest, but Aizawa cut him off.
“You two are the strongest, fastest, and can fly. GO!”
Esil passed off the healing of Kirishima to the less adept Uraraka, but her healing would be enough.
Bakugo growled, but let off an explosion, throwing the Jiro copy onto the street with the Kaminari copy. With the path clear, Esil and Bakugo took off into the sky, towards the camp that Kaminari and Jiro had gone to.
“Sending off your strongest like that was a big mistake…” Copy-Jiro threatened, growing claws of her own. “We’ve got more than enough to kill all of you by ourselves.” Her voice was identical to Jiro’s, down to the tone of voice she used and her mannerisms. It was for that reason that she seemed so creepy. Copy-Kaminari, as if to display this difference in power, began crackling with electricity.
“They can copy Quirks?!”
“More than that!” Copy-Kaminari responded. “I’ve evolved it!” He swiped his hand, a massive claw made out of lightning appearing above the medical facility. Sensing the attack, everyone dove in different directions, narrowly avoiding the center mass of the attack.
Most of the room collapsed in on itself, burying the corpse and several students in debris. But since they were all Awakened, no one got injured.
“If I have to handle one more goddamn horror movie of the week villain, I’m going to lose it!” Maigo shouted at Brandon, shoving the remnants of the building off herself. “Why does shit like this always happen to us!” Apparently the duo had more than enough experience with weird monsters and villains.
“You are creatures of sin,” Ibara whispered at the copies, ignoring the shouting behind her. Clutching her hands together in prayer, the nature of Catalina reacted around them.
Vines shot from trees and the ground, and everywhere. It was Nature Magic, which relied on the concentration of greenery to enhance itself. Catalina, while not magical in nature, had a lot of plant life for her to draw power from. Her Quirk even enhanced it further, covering whatever she created in hardened spikes and blades that could cut through most monsters.
The shrubbery rushed at the two copies, intending to surround them and cut them up, but they could only reach Copy-Jiro, as the lightning Kaminari was putting off was enough to cook the plants in seconds.
Mina, steeling her nerves, swiped her hands through the air, throwing a wide spread of her acid to cover the copies. This time, only Copy-Kaminari was hit. His skin melted and boiled, blood spraying onto the streets. But he didn’t stop moving, not even when his entire head was missing.
Using Sonic Magic, Copy-Jiro exploded out from the entangling vines, shredding them in the process and blasting away the acid as a result. Her clothes and skin were shredded, but slowly pulled themselves back together.
Copy-Kaminari took a bit longer, the acid slowing his regeneration, but it was plenty of time for Aoyama to shoot a beam of energy straight through his heart. The copy collapsed in a heap, his Core broken.
At the same time, Kamikiri and Tokoyami rushed Copy-Jiro. A black shadow welled up from Tokoyami’s chest, spitting forth a being not too dissimilar to Izuku’s Shadows. It was a bird of some type with clawed hands, reaching out to wrestle with the mimic, which attempted to use Sonic Magic once more. Fortunately, the shadow was unperturbed by the vibrations, drawing Copy-Jiro’s attention long enough for Kamikiri to get behind her, stabbing the blades on his forearm straight through her chest, dropping her as well.
The class was breathing heavily, not from sheer exertion, but from the shock of having to “kill” their friends and classmates.
“We need to start a quarantine…” Maigo said, crouching down next to the bodies.
“I’ll get on it,” Brandon started jumping through the air, heading for the center of the city.
“We shouldn’t split up…” Uraraka hesitantly reminded the group.
“If we don’t get the situation under control first, we’re gonna be dealing with thousands of copies,” Aizawa countered. He cursed his luck that neither Momo, nor Shoto were with the group. Her intelligence and variable abilities, as well as Shoto’s fire, would have been useful for this situation.
“We don’t even know how to identify them!” Hagakure said. “What’s he gonna do?” Referring to Brandon.
“He had… an idea,” Maigo simply said, her eyebrows furrowing as she heard approaching footsteps. The rest of the class heard them too, looking into the thicket of the trees, ready to fight.
Aoyama, perhaps carelessly, fired his Energy Magic into the woods, causing two voices to pipe up. It was Izuku and Iida. There was just one more question… how could they tell if they were real or fake?