Chapter Text
Just because he could regenerate in a matter of minutes did not mean that Katsuki’s stomach followed the same rules. It was unfortunate, really, because for someone that couldn’t die by conventional means, he could still feel hunger pains all the same. The science behind that? Fuck if he knew, but man he wished it didn’t exist.
Maybe he was being a bit dramatic, especially when he had much bigger, more important things to focus on such as being stuck in another reality and fighting a bad guy that had followed them from said reality. But hey, honestly, he’d skipped breakfast and found that being thrown into another reality right when you’re supposed to be eating lunch didn’t do anything to satisfy him. This is probably why he starts fighting more aggressively than usual, and as usual, Izuku calls him on it.
One of his knives is about to be plunged through Doc Ock’s left calf when he hears him yell: “Deadpool! Restraint only!”
Katsuki rolls his eyes but listens because of course he does. He keeps the knife where it is and instead opts to hit his elbow behind his left knee, attempting to bring eight-arms to the ground. “The hell is our goal here then?”
This Aizawa didn’t seem as keen with his fighting style either. “You know as heroes, we do not partake in this much cussing or stabbing while in front of civilians.”
Katsuki scoffed. “It wouldn’t be a big deal if those extras weren’t standing there gawking at everything we do!” He spared a glance to the crowd that had formed around their battle, some mindless idiots even getting out of their car to get a better view. Didn’t they know his job was made harder if they just stood there?
“It’s good publicity,” This reality’s Todoroki chimed in as he shot ice and fire from right and left sides respectively. Katsuki had half the mind to wonder if he had dyed his hair to match the half-and-half stick. “It makes our jobs harder, but it also gets higher rankings.”
“Y’all and these damn rankings.” Katsuki grumbled under his mask. “Ain’t the point of being a hero to not care about the recognition for it?”
“Could we please have this conversation later?” Kirishima interjected. Katsuki did a double take because his (alternate) best friend’s body was now covered in a layer of rough, rock-like textures that blended in with his skin. It wasn’t hard like toned, though this Kirishima boasted more muscles than the one back home, but actually physically hard, like his skin had turned into bedrock. “I’m guessing you two know this guy?” He used his bedrock skin (this is what Katsuki had decided to call it, even if there was a cool name for it, which he highly doubted) as a shield for Todoroki, who in turn took advantage of Katsuki’s knee shot, snatching one of the six remaining arms of Doc Ock and lit his left side up. He began to burn furiously, the flames growing as he put more effort into trying to melt the metal beneath his fingertips. All the while, Kirishima and Aizawa took on the brunt of trying to keep it in place.
Izuku used his webs to mimic the restraint these two were attempting on Doc Ock, wrapping around a robotic arm as he answered Kirishima’s previous question. “Yeah, we know him.”
“A little too well at this point,” Katsuki added. He stood back from the harsh onslaught of Todoroki’s fire, taking a place next to this universe’s version of himself. Oddly enough, after the initial attack, this Katsuki hadn’t moved beyond the sidewalk, taking the role of pushing the annoying on lookers to safety. Every now and then he’d hear an explosion come from other-Katsuki’s area, but he wasn’t granted the time to check out what he assumed was his power - or quirk.
Spidey didn’t seem to pay as much attention to the explosions. Maybe it was so in-character it didn’t phase him. “We were fighting right before the portal opened up!”
“Thought we’d locked him in that cop car.” Katsuki added because he distinctly remembers kicking the door closed and flipping eight-arms off because he delayed their lunch.
“You aren’t that lucky today!” While trying to pry a sixth of his metal arms from their grasp, Doc Ock spoke up for the first time. “Who’re your new friends here? New metahumans?"
Katsuki unsheathed a knife from his belt and threw it to strike where the mechanical arms were protruding from the back of Ock. The knife landed right where he intended, lodging into the crease to help the others pry it free. He smirked. “Vigilantes, Ock! We’ve been over this. The Avengers won’t let us on the team.”
Three arms down. Five to go.
The good news was that he and Izuku had faced Ock before - Izuku more so than him - and they knew where to target the guy. The bad news was that Izuku hated facing Ock. Long story there, and it is not a fun one to recount so Katsuki is not going to do it for y’all. At least not yet. The story’s not there yet; be patient, jeez.
The more important thing on his docket was where to target Ock. With Todoroki, Kirishima, Aizawa, and both Izuku’s working on taking the remaining five mechanical arms out, Katsuki decided to focus on the large, octagon shaped glasses that covered most of his face. Taking them out wouldn’t take him down, but would slow him down greatly. After their first encounter with the eight-legged weirdo, Izuku had told him that Ock’s eyes were damaged in the same accident that made him deranged. It’s why the glasses were a necessity for him, especially in broad daylight like this. Izuku hadn’t been sure what parts of his eyes had received the damage, but after only getting a close look a few times, he assumed it was directly to his retinas. The same way Izuku’s web shooters support the production of web fluid in his body, he had said, these glasses support Ock’s line of sight.
“Smaller me!” He called.
“The fuck?!” The response was.
He ignored it but smirked. “You done corralling the fans over there?”
“Pool!” His Izuku’s shout cut through their conversation and he acted on instinct, turning to receive whatever it was his partner was sending his way. Hands raised, he caught the other side of Izuku’s web and pulled it taut, tripping Ock over the line Izuku had set up. With him down, the team managed to get one more off with green flashes of lightning Katsuki assumes comes from the other Izuku. Talk about flashy.
He turned back to the other him, who was watching him work like he’d never seen heroes in action before. “You finished with the civvies, or what?”
Whatever flash had been on the other him’s face earlier was whisked away with an eye roll. “Sorry for doing my job. No wonder they don’t call you a hero.”
Katsuki decided to ignore that comment. “We need to take his glasses out - it’ll disorient his vision.”
“Why didn’t you say that earlier? Coulda made things here go by a lot faster!” The sidewalk behind him seems to be cleared out from the extras with their phones out, so he’s done his job.
“We need to be discreet about it. Look at his arms; he’s protecting his head ‘cause he knows Webs and I know where to go.”
His other self glances at Ock give him a once over. “Thought he might’ve hit his head or something, the way he’s got his arms up like a boxer.” After learning that his version of himself had an almost aversion to dating Izuku in this reality, he wasn’t too sure he was competent. It was a relief to hear that at least he had a grip on the field.
“Can those explosions get us close fast?”
“Of course they can. You think I’m incompetent or something?” Katsuki would have the mind to laugh at how grating this conversation was if he wasn’t aware that he was talking to another version of himself. Considerably smaller, but still himself.
Without another word Katsuki was propelled into the air, a short warning coming from the other him as they spun around in a flurry of what looked to be calculated fireworks.
“Impact!” Katsuki was pushed off with a sudden rush, smoke trailing behind him in lines. It felt like the few times Izuku had swung him around, the way the wind filtered through his mask and into his growing smile. He snatched his katana from his waistband, grasping the hilt tightly. Before Ock knew he was there, Katsuki had whizzed by and slammed the butt of his sword on the top of Ock’s mask, successfully cracking it down the middle and taking his glasses with it. He hadn’t quite calculated his landing, but didn’t worry too much as he continued moving forward with insane force. His trust in Izuku lead him to stick his arm out for his webs to grab on to. The familiar feeling of the webs came only a moment later, overtaking his arm and going as far as to wrap around his torso in a tight grip. The strings of webs felt tighter as they let him down softly, and actually thrumming with a heartbeat of their own, but Katsuki was quick to realize that was because it wasn’t Izuku’s webs. At least, not his Izuku’s.
These tendrils were a deep blue, almost black, that glowed a dark turquoise around their edges. They were thicker than Spidey’s webs, wrapping around his entire midsection with ease, and they were a bit colder at the touch than Izuku’s webs. Katsuki looked up and found this reality’s Izuku standing across the street from him, eyes wide and worried. His mouth was parted, about to speak, but Ock’s strangled cry beat him to it.
Ock was a smart man, Katsuki knew that. He could see it, really, in the impressive hand-made technology he’d fought against a few times. He knew that the only reason Izuku was able to dismantle two of the eight arms so quickly was because of his spidey sense and his experience fighting, and winning against, this foe before. Izuku knew that taking out the man meant taking out his weapons, the same way Katsuki had targeted the man’s glasses. No matter how smart, though, Katsuki was suddenly hit with the realization that he wasn’t sure if Doc Ock knew where they were or the situation they were in. Their worlds looked eerily similar - the same skylines framed by buildings stretching into the clouds, roads on the ground previously busied with everyday people walking by. While he had flown through the air, Katsuki noticed a few smaller neighborhoods that offered nice paths for students to walk to their respective schools and parents to commute semi-quickly to their 9-to-5’s. There were less flashing lights in these areas, more natural and muted tones to match the calm ambiance of it all. It really looked like home. The only thing that stood out in comparison to their own reality was the numerous amount of hero merch (propaganda, Katsuki dubbed it) everywhere. Billboards, convenience shop items, tee shirts on children, flyers strewn about, even down to the bumper stickers on some people’s cars. A Honda down the street proudly displayed a “FAST AS HAWKS” one.
He’ll give them that one; Hawks was a cool as shit name.
Katsuki didn’t want to doubt the guy (because doubting the enemy means giving yourself a disadvantage) but he really thinks that if he and Izuku hadn’t teleported here right in front of their counterparts, there would’ve been a significant amount of time before they pieced the reality-jumping puzzle pieces together. And if Doc Ock hadn’t found a counterpart of himself from this reality yet, then chances were that he wasn’t aware they were not in their home reality. And now with his vision compromised, Ock didn’t have much of a way to piece the puzzle together. Not that they would’ve given him much time, anyways.
His eyes exposed, Ock was forced to shield his face and gave the heroes the moments they needed to take the remaining five arms.
“Spider-Man!” Doc Ock wailed, but Izuku was already on top of it. Literally, Katsuki noted, because Izuku was perched on his feet on Ock’s shoulders, using his body weight to bring him down. Kirishima caught the falling body with his bedrock skin as a cushion - well as much of one it could be, anyways. This reality’s Izuku used the same tendrils he’d used to save Katsuki earlier on the three mechanical arms that were closest to him, grunting with force as he extracted them from their places. This reality’s Katsuki came in to take the final two mechanical arms out, carefully placed explosions at their tops making them detach and clatter with the rest to the ground.
“Put the quirk nullifying handcuffs on him.” Aizawa instructed. Katsuki hadn’t realized but he didn’t see much of their sensei during the fight. Turning to see where he came from, the road they had been taking was now blocked off with the same white cloths that were wrapped around his neck earlier.
“Already done.” Todoroki reported back, snapping the cuffs together. Kirishima and both this world’s Izuku and Katsuki were crowded around him as well.
“I don’t think those cuffs will do anything but keep his hands behind his back,” Spidey stepped up next to the group. He turns to Aizawa. “He has no quirk to nullify. We just took out his largest weapon.”
The others looked confused as Aizawa sighs. “I fear you’re right. My quirk didn’t stop a thing during this fight.”
“Really, Sensei?” Kirishima’s eyebrows softened from their bedrock form as they raised. “You couldn’t stop him?”
“I couldn’t stop any of them.” Aizawa crosses his arms over his chest.
Katsuki furrowed his eyebrows. “Any…” He turned to Izuku, who also seemed to be adding things together. “You tried to stop us?”
Aizawa nodded. “My quirk is erasure. I can take other’s quirks away by looking at them.” Well, if anything, the man was honest.
“And you tried to do that while we were in action?” Katsuki’s voice raised, hands finding his hips to squeeze so they didn’t go to the man in front of him.
“We already told you we don’t have quirks, Sensei.” Izuku chimed in. “That’s not how we work.”
“I know-” Aizawa’s sentence halted when Ock lifted his head, a wheeze breaking through his mouth.
“Young Midoriya?” Katsuki’s blood runs cold for a moment, turning towards Spidey. Beneath his mask, he can see Izuku’s eyes have widened. As far as they knew, Ock wasn’t coherent enough to recognize Izuku. Especially behind his mask. But turning to the man cuffed on the ground, Katsuki found that he wasn’t looking at his Izuku. He was looking at this reality’s Izuku, clad in his green suit and red shoes, who had now tensed all the way up to his shoulders.
“What-” With his green hair exposed and face out for the world to see, this Izuku started tugging on his curls as he took steps closer to Ock. “There’s no way.”
“Izuku-” Katsuki heard his other self call out, frazzled but grounded. “Don’t, hey, c’mon-”
“All Might?” Izuku tried running the rest of the way towards the cuffed man, but his Katsuki stepped in front of him, hands taking his shoulders. He was saying something to that Izuku, but Katsuki couldn’t quite hear it because sirens were rounding around the corner. Finally. For a world of heroes, their response time was shit.
Aizawa directed Kirishima and Todoroki to help him load Ock into the back of a van, its windows stuffed so tightly with bars that it wasn’t possible to see in. This reality’s Izuku was still until they started to carry him away. He began pushing against the other Katsuki. “No wait! We just hurt All Might! We’ve gotta-”
“No we didn’t, Izuku. We took down a villain from their world.” His words were strained.
Looking towards his Izuku, Katsuki’s heart clenched. His mask still on, he couldn’t tell what face he was making, but Katsuki knew by the way his shoulders tensed the same as this Izuku’s that he wasn’t fairing much better. Still, Spidey stepped forward and took the other Izuku’s arm to help guide him away from the scene.
Katsuki could only follow.
–
“So, are all those firearms of yours registered?”
Katsuki looked up from his meal - finally, he was this close to blowing a fuse without any food in his stomach - and raised an eyebrow at his other self. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s odd that a hero in your world carries around so many bullets and knives.”
Despite the harsh comment, Katsuki knew himself, and he knew this was his way of being curious. “Like I said,” he paused for a bite of curry that he wouldn’t admit is really damn good, “I ain’t a hero. I just do what others are too afraid to do.”
This seemed to take his other self by surprise. He takes him in, slowly chewing his own bite of curry, then swallows.
Katsuki didn’t know how to explain it, but the person in front of him was so eerily him but so far from the person he knew himself as. Not only was he at least six inches smaller and not as wide in the shoulders, but his hair was lighter. His eyes were more cautious, no, alert - like there was something waiting to jump out at him.
Before the other him can speak up, he asks, “How old are y’all?”
“Seventeen.” This Katsuki says it obviously, like he knows something the other doesn’t. “Y’all though - you’re older than that. Your world must feed you creatine every meal if I look like that before eighteen.”
At that, Katsuki laughs. “Nope. We’re seventeen.”
The other him glares. “I don’t believe you.” The spoon he was using to eat the curry he’d made a CLANG against the bowl as he threw it down against the bowl in defiance. “You’re fucking with me.”
Before he can further bask in the glory of being the better Katsuki, Aizawa marches up to them with both Izuku’s on his tail.
“I hope you’ve saved enough food for two more,” the sensei says pointedly, “I’m finished questioning them now.”
Katsuki gets that this whole situation is weird - another dimension is something far from possible in most people’s minds - but given the past few years they’d had in their own universe (some would say it went by in a snap!), he didn’t feel as disoriented as he should be feeling. His Izuku seemed to be the same, more focused on gathering facts and information about this world that can help them get back home.
Their counterparts, and everyone else from this world, on the other hand - well, they were having a really hard time coming to terms with the whole multiversal travel thing. At least the other Izuku now looked like he was curious about it. Aizawa was more cautious than curious, which was in character for him, Katsuki thought as he wordlessly got up to fill two more bowls with rice and curry that was still simmering on the stove to keep warm.
Aizawa watched him as he moved. “All four DNA tests came back. Each double matches the other.”
“We are not being called doubles, thank you very much.” Himself from this word says from behind his bowl.
Katsuki’s Izuku shrugged as he looked at Aizawa. “At least he said thank you?”
Katsuki chuckled. He handed both bowls to each Izuku, his first (of course). This world’s Izuku lit up brightly. “Thank you! Kacchan’s curry is the best!”
He smirked proudly. “Damn right it is.”
“You didn’t make this shit, asshole!” The other him is steaming.
Katsuki only smirks harder. “Yeah, it’d be that much better if I had.”
“You piece of-”
“Alright!” Aizawa interrupted, “This is not how I want to spend my night.”
Katsuki’s Izuku stepped closer to him, a warning in his eyes to stop poking the bear. All he can do is shrug, as if to say he can’t help it.
Aizawa took a deep breath. “‘Kay. We know that you’re not imposters, so our next step is trying to figure out how to get you home.”
Izuku nodded. “We can do that,” he turns to his Katsuki, “right?”
Katsuki nods, once. “Sure. Given any thought as to how we’d get home?”
The shorter man bites the inside of his cheek quickly, stopping before Katsuki can tell him to stop. He hates when he does that shit. “I’m thinking our best bet is the person they got locked up. Sensei said his powers - his quirk - aren’t fully understood, but they are multiversal. Somehow.”
Another nod, and Aizawa doesn’t disagree with them, so Katsuki figures that’s the best option they’ve got. “We’ve dealt with weirder.”
“How on EARTH has anything been weirder than this?” the other him interjects, and the other Izuku looks at him like he agrees. He also is looking at his Katsuki like he's about to burst a blood vessel.
Katsuki doesn’t pay them any mind right now because that is a story for another chapter. Probably. We'll see if he feels like it.
“And if the person they’ve got doesn’t cooperate?” He asks his Izuku.
Izuku is thoughtful with his answer, hands crossing over the Spider emblem on his chest stiffly. “I don’t think that’s an option for us.”
It’s quiet for a beat as the statement falls on the group. Katsuki can only breathe and nod once again, agreeing. There was no telling what repercussions, if any, were going to happen because of them being in a reality that wasn’t made for them. Izuku definitely knew more about this, as theoretical as it all was, but Katsuki wasn’t stupid. Science liked to have things as they were for a reason. And currently, they were way out of place. Was time moving in the same way? Were they missing a day of their own world? If they found a way back, would they appear during the same time as they left? Is it time travel, too, then?
Katsuki realized his train of thoughts sounded more like one of Izuku’s ramblings and turned to find him mumbling to himself. It was interrupted by the other Izuku, who was soft with his words.
“Um, I don’t really know how to ask this-”
“Is it something you should be asking?” Aizawa cuts him off, eyes warning. This world’s Izuku looks towards his teacher and back to the other Izuku. He breathes.
“That was All Might we fought.”
Katsuki’s Izuku sucks in a breath, almost too quiet to catch. Almost. In lieu of an answer, he nods.
This world's Izuku looks to his Katsuki, eyes searching, asking. There’s a conversation happening, one that Katsuki feels a bit weird to be watching since it’s himself and Izuku and he knows that they can do these types of wordless exchanges, but not being a part of it feels wrong. Before he can speak, the other Izuku finds what he wants to say. “Why?”
Katsuki turns to Izuku, who seemed prepared for the question. Of course he was, it was himself he was talking to.
“It’s…” Izuku trails off, glancing towards Katsuki and Aizawa, who is watching cautiously but curiously, as if he too wants to know the answer but wasn’t going to ask it himself. “It’s complicated. I -” Izuku runs a hand through his hair, tangling a few curls together. “I was his student, but something went wrong and now Toshinori’s…”
Katsuki takes a step and grabs the hand out of his hair, gently putting it at his side instead. He turns to their doubles. “I’m guessing your All Might is doing well?”
It’s the other him that speaks, surprisingly. He’s looking at where Katsuki and Izuku’s hands are touching between them. “He is now, yeah.”
Another silence follows as this new information is processed, but Aizawa is quick to step in. “Perhaps we only talk about multiversal differences when necessary.”
All four heroes (or vigilantes, whatever) nod.
“Good.” Aizawa nods in return, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “We’ll start with preparations for the interrogation tomorrow morning. For now, go to bed. It’s been a long day.”
“Yes, sensei,” All four say in tandem. Both Izuku’s chuckle a bit.
Aizawa shakes his head, though it’s more fond than not. “Always with you two problem children.”
Katsuki barks out a laugh at that. “What have y’all done to get that nickname here? We had to blow up like three labs before he called us that.”
“Don’t tell them that!” His Izuku seems embarrassed, shoving his shoulder with one hand and using the other to hide his face. “They were all accidents!”
"Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.” He bumps him on the shoulder back. Izuku only glares at him, though the dusting of pink under his freckles tells Katsuki he’s not as mad as he’s trying to look. “Watch it, Red. You’ll sleep on the couch.”
Beside them, Aizawa clears his throat loudly. “Yeah, I’m going to bed. Midoriya’s, you share a room, and Bakugo’s you share a room.”
Katsuki throws his head back dramatically while Izuku nods like the good student he is. “Yeah, that’s probably for the best.”
Katsuki glares at him. “Just finish your damn curry, nerd.” He turns to the other Izuku, whose face is bright red. He chuckles a bit; it’s been a while since he’s seen that color. “You, too, other nerd. It’ll go cold.”
That Izuku sits up a bit straighter. “R-Right.” This world’s Katsuki watches him as he eats a bit faster, then glares at Katsuki.
Katsuki throws his arms up, the bright red of his suit flailing in the fluorescents. “What did I do?”