Midoriya Izuku slowed to a stop. He delicately opened the door. Walked in slowly. Then, as quickly as he could while still being appropriately polite, he ducked around one shelf. Ducked down out of sight of the door.

There was a man behind the far counter, overlooking the door. He looked Caucasian, though it was hard to tell these days. He was fairly tall and slender. His hair was light brown, and streaked white with age. The proprietor leaned over to glance at the green-haired teen curiously.

Then the door burst open again, and three teens stomped in.

Kacchan, that was to say Bakugou Katsuki, had left school early, for a doctor's appointment. Without their leader and limiter, long-fingers had decided to engage in his favorite activity. Deku Hunting. Izuku personally didn't think Dudley Dursley was a role model, but the bullies had different thoughts on the matter.

The three other boys started looking around aggressively. The man's eyes narrowed, and he drew himself up.

"This is a store, not a gymnasium," he told them sternly, "Please leave."

"Shut it, fossil," long-fingers said, "Our... friend ducked in here, we need to find him."

Izuku flinched. And the man frowned. Then ominous purple-black energy began to roll down his shoulders towards his hands.

"I said leave," the man said in clipped tones, "Don't make me ask again."

The other two vanished. Long-fingers glanced around tentatively, but fled.

Izuku looked at the man cautiously. The man smiled slightly, and brushed the glow off his arms.

"It's harmless," he said kindly, "It just looks dangerous. Feel free to stay here until they get bored and leave."

"Thank you," Izuku said softly. And then he finally took a chance to look around. And his eyes lit up.

It was an antique store. Izuku loved old things. As someone without a Quirk, he felt a sort of connection to the past, to the relics that felt out of place and forgotten.

Behind him was an old TV, a large screen console. On top of it was a cassette reader. And a set of old tapes. Even though they were in English, he recognized most of them. Though he wasn't sure what a 'Beetleborg' was. He knew what a beetle was, of course. But he had never heard of a beetleborg. It sounded Scandinavian.

He strolled slowly down the aisle, full of ancient but still functional technology. Then he turned into a more open section of fine furniture. He walked through that more quickly, not as interested in things he couldn't use or carry. Mainly Izuku was looking for books, or maybe merchandise t-shirts or collectibles.

Despite that, Izuku slowed when he entered a row of jewelry, knives, and other metal items. Rings and bracelets. An old steel pen with one of the early NASA logos. A tsuba from the Edo era. Most of the items were locked in glass cases. But a few larger or seemingly less valuable items were resting on top of the cases. One caught Izuku's eye. It was an old coppery coin. It was locked in a plastic box with alarm tags. So he could pick it up and look at it, but it couldn't be easily stolen.

Izuku picked up the box. The coin was bronze and tarnished. The green patina sunk into the crevices, making the carving difficult to decipher. But Izuku thought it looked like a it was probably meant to be a dragon. A stylized, western dragon, standing on its hind legs.

He turned it over, and his eyes and lips narrowed in surprise and thought. Instead of green, the corrosion was white. Izuku wondered if the coin was made of two different metals, or had some sort of coating on this side. Under the white tarnish, there was a tiger carving, roaring and one paw raised.

Izuku flipped it again, both to get another look at the dragon, and to see if there was a clear dividing line between the white and the green. Only he wasn't looking at the green dragon. Instead, the coin was stained black, and the creature marking the surface was a brachiosaurus. Izuku barely looked at it for a moment, before flipping the coin again.

White tiger. Flip.

Green dragon. Flip.

Black brachiosaurus.

This time Izuku studied the dinosaur for a few seconds. Then he started flipping the coin again. There didn't seem to be a pattern. It was like the coin somehow had three heads, and each time he turned it over, he randomly got one of the two sides he had not been looking at. The rotation of the coin or directions of the flip didn't matter. And it seemed to just be an old bronze coin, not like some sort of hologram or tiny screen. He wondered if it might be the lingering effect of someone's Quirk, those could definitely be odd and unpredictable.

Something about the combination sparked Izuku's memory, but he wasn't sure why. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't think of what it was. Green dragons and white tigers were common motifs. The dinosaur much less so.

Izuku held on to the coin, and looked around a little longer. Then, both having looked at most of the store and judged the bullies to have left, the teen went up to the counter.

"Can you tell me anything about this coin?" he asked the shopkeeper.

"Not really," the man took the box and looked it and the coin over. If he noticed the three heads, he didn't react.

"It's not a collectible, not currency," the adult continued, "Not any sort of historic piece. Just an old bronze coin. Someone might have made it because they thought it was cool, or for some sort of old cosplay. I know the tiger vs dragon dichotomy, but that's more Asian, while the dragon is European."

"How much for it?" Izuku asked cautiously. None of the items in the store were priced. Which, in his experience meant one or more of three things. First, that everything cost so much if you needed to ask, you probably couldn't afford it. Second, that the shop owner was a collector type, trying to fit their items to the right person. And third, the man might like to haggle or offer deals to people he liked.

"Let's say 25 dollars," the man said, "No, sorry, twenty five hundred yen."

It wasn't terribly expensive, especially if it was a solid bronze coin. And Izuku had the money, he was saving up for the new 1/8th scale Miruko statue. If he bought the coin, he might miss the statue. At the same time, it felt like the mysterious old coin was calling to him. And was definitely more rare than the statue.

The Quirkless teen took out his wallet. He took out three one thousand yen bills, and placed them on the counter.

"You can keep the change," Izuku said, briefly looking around at the empty store, "As thanks for earlier."

"No need for that," the man smiled and waved it off. He took the money and the coin, and disappeared into the back of the store. Izuku heard the pop of an old, mechanical cash register. Then a bit of shuffling. The man returned. Placed a five hundred yen coin on the counter. And then the bronze coin. He had removed it from the box, and placed it in a simpler, cylindrical plastic holder. Izuku picked up the coin and took a closer look, now that it was out of the larger box. He flipped it over a few times, partly in his continuing amazement, and partly from the grain of cynicism and suspicion the world had drilled into him. But the coin still had three sides.

"Would you like a bag?"

"No, thank you," Izuku shook his head. He stuck the coin into his backpack, and his change into his pocket with his wallet. Then he waved goodbye to the shopkeeper, and left.

Had he looked back, he might have seen a satisfied, almost triumphant smirk on the man's face.

"Izuku, honey, why are you so late?" Midoriya Inko asked as her son entered their apartment. There was a hint of worry in her voice. There were generally three reasons the young man was late; bullies, Heroes, and shops. And she was never happy about her son being harassed or chasing after dangerous situations to watch Heroes.

"Sorry, mom," he said penitently, "I found new antique shop."

Inko sighed in mock dismay and legitimate relief. Then she said in a slightly teasing tone, "A new antique shop? Isn't that an oxymoron?"

"It's new to me," Izuku said, "Though it looked like it might have been there for a while. And technically, every day there are 'new' antiques that weren't considered old or rare enough previously."

"That's true," she admitted, "Did you find anything interesting."

"They had some neat vintage shirts, and some nice jewelry," Izuku placated his mother by appealing to her interests, "And I bought this cool bronze coin with a dragon on it."

"Of course you did," Inko said.

"So, can I borrow your jewelry cleaning kit? The coin is sort of tarnished, and I want to see if I can polish it a bit."

Inko studied her son for a moment, "All right. But only after dinner, you finish all your homework, and take your bath."

"Okay, thanks mom." He rushed to has room to start the second task she had given him.

Izuku opened his top desk drawer, and took out a plastic bag. He has already gotten the cleaning kit from his mom. Now in an old, threadbare All Might t-shirt that was only fit to sleep or clean in, and his sleep shorts, the boy was ready.

Inside the plastic bag was a pair of white, silk gloves. Extra fine quality, triple layered, high thread count. These were the archivist quality gloves Izuku used to dust or move his Hero statues, so he didn't get finger prints on them. Now he was going to avoid getting smudges on his new treasure.

Izuku spread a thick, cotton cloth out on his desk. He opened the plastic case, and delicately took out the coin. He spritzed a mist of the cleaning solution onto the first side of the coin. In this case, it was the white tarnished tiger.

He set the coin down, and took out the polishing brush. It was almost like an electric toothbrush, except for the size of the head and texture of the bristles. He turned in on, and ran it gently over the face of the coin. It worked the deoxidizer solution into the metal. Once he had gone over the surface, he took a coarser cloth, and scrubbed the coin. Small flakes of white came off. He was careful with the pressure, even though he doubted he was strong enough to damage the metal.

He flipped it over, and repeated the process on the blackened dinosaur face. Then he ran into his first problem, as he flipped it over again, and got the tiger a second time. It took three more flips for the dragon to appear. Izuku estimated it would take four or five passes for each side of the coin. Having to flip it repeatedly, and also keep track of how many times he had cleaned each face was going to be a bit of a bother.

But Izuku continued to work at it. And after a few hours of hard scrubbing, the coin's faces were mostly clean and the bronze shone. Only the deepest crevices of the engravings had hints of the tarnish. But now it served to accent the animal icons, rather than hide them, and Izuku thought it was a pretty cool, if unintended by him, effect.

Between the running earlier, and the polishing now, Izuku was starting to get tired. No, it was well past 'starting'; he was nearly dozing off in his desk chair. Looking are how dirty his gloves were, he threw them in the hamper to wash; unlike most boys his age, Izuku did his own laundry. Then he packed up the cleaning kit. Only then, did his mind clear enough to realize the coin was still sitting on one clean corner of the workspace cloth. He looked at his fingers. Rubbed them thoroughly on another clean section of the cotton pad. Then as lightly as he could, he grasped the coin by its edge with his pointer and thumb.

And nearly dropped it as a spark went up his arm. He wasn't too surprised that a static charge had built up in it, though the level of charge was... shocking.

Izuku cringed at his mental pun. Then he put the coin back into the holder and closed up the plastic. With a yawn, he rolled out of his chair over into his bed. Taking the coin with him, instinctively not letting go. He tucked it under his pillow, then reached up to hit the light switch. Izuku was out before the lamp turned off.

He was in an unfamiliar city park. He was surrounded by weird, grey, faceless figures. They darted around him, and he could feel their hostility.

Then one charged him. Very unlike himself, Izuku launched a perfect side thrust kick into its chest. The putty-like thing deformed around his foot. Despite it's soft structure, the attacker was sent flying back. The sole of his shoe was imprinted in its torso.

A second one moved in while it thought he was distracted. Izuku spun around, dropping low. He swept its feet. As it went down he kept the spinning momentum and drove his fist into its nose. Or at least were its nose should have been.

Two more of the creatures jumped towards him, and Izuku launched his next attack.

"Izuku, are you up?" Inko shouted.

Izuku lifted his head off his bed. He realized said head was not on his pillow, and glanced around through still bleary eyes.

He had his pillow in a headlock. The comforter was flung over the foot of his bed. The top sheet was wrapped around his desk chair and partially on the desk itself. He checked, and the coin was missing. It must have been flung somewhere in the intense dream.

But at least he was still wearing his watch.

Izuku wanted to look for the coin, but a glance at his alarm showed he had overslept. Seriously overslept.

"Crap!" he shouted and jumped out of bed. Only to feel that the comforter was still wrapped around one foot. He expected to go down in a heap, but instead jumped further than he expected, with enough force to pull his foot free and send the blanket flying. He landed perfectly. And then hurried to get dressed. He'd have to take breakfast with him, and still run to get to class on time.

Actually, he made it with time to spare. Maybe it was the dream, or just going to sleep earlier than normal and sleeping late accidentally. But Izuku felt empowered. His jog was almost as fast as he normally sprinted, and he wasn't even winded when he reached Aldera Middle School.

As soon as he entered the classroom, he received angry glares from the three bullies he had escaped yesterday. Bakugou wasn't there yet, so long-fingers stomped over to him.

"See you didn't get lost, Deku," he snarled. Then he looked at the shorter boy, "Since when do you wear a watch?"

Izuku blinked, and glanced at his wrist. In his morning haze he hadn't noticed, but when had he put on a watch? Especially this watch, which he didn't recognize.

"That's too nice for a worthless Deku like you," the bully said, "Why not give it to me?"

He reached for Izuku's wrist, his fingers extending. Izuku casually spun away, hiding his left wrist. He stuck out his right elbow as he turned. That knocked long-fingers' hand away. Izuku's eyes widened, both that he had challenged his classmate, but also that it had been so easy. The chatter of the class around them died down, and all eyes were on them now.

"What the hell is going on?" Bakugou demanded as he stepped into the room.

"Deku's getting too big for his britches," long-fingers whined.

"Oh really?" the blonde boy with the explosive Quirk and temper snarled.

"I was just stopping him from..." Izuku mumbled.

"Somebody grew a bit of spine, huh?" Bakugou taunted him. Then he threw a quick jab.

Izuku wondered why Bakugou was punching so slowly. It was not meant to hit him, just to make Izuku flinch. But if he was telegraphing it this much, it was too obvious.

Then Izuku's body moved on its own again. He juked his head just a bit to the right, making sure the fist wouldn't brush his ear. Then he brought his left hand up, blocking the punch and sending it further to the side.

"Oh, you want to go?" Bakugou lost it.

But again, Izuku acted on instinct. He dropped his weight and stiffened his legs. He turned his hand out, and caught Katsuki's wrist. Then Izuku turned the bully's hand outward. A moment later there was an explosion out of Bakougou's palm. Normally it would have went into Izuku's ear and down his back. Instead it splashed out onto the wall. That still should have sent the back of Bakugou's hand into Izuku's cheek, but the slighter boy managed to lock the exploding arm in place, not even twitching from the force of the blast.

Bakugou's eyes widened in surprise, which quickly turned to murderous rage. But before he could attack again, the door slid open, and their homeroom teacher clomped in.

"Later, Deku," Bakugou snarled under his breath, and took his seat.

The rest of the class just watched in amazement. And the other two henchmen of Bakugou and long-fingers broke into a nervous sweat.

That wasn't the only surprise Izuku had for himself and his classmates. Fourth period rolled around, and it was time for English class.

Izuku opened his textbook, and blinked. He could read it. Not that he couldn't read it before. It's just English wasn't has best class, and while he scored better than most of the second years, it wasn't like the foreign tongue had been as quick and casual to him as Japanese was.

Expect now, he turned the pages, and just knew what they said. No hesitation or thought. No uncommon words or sounding anything out. No struggling to remember, or tripping over the often weird letter combinations and exceptions.

"Mister Midorya, are you listening?" the teacher asked in English, sounding annoyed.

"Yes, ma'am," he answered in the same. Only with no accent, and he didn't even have to think about saying 'ma'am' instead of 'sensei'.

"Then please read the next paragraph."

He did. And again, everyone stared at him, as he did so flawlessly.

"Well," the cat-eared woman huffed, "It seems like you have been sandbagging, Mister Midoriya."

"No, ma'am," he shook his head, "It's like something... Just clicked. Maybe all the old movies I've been watching paid off?"

"We'll see," she said, "But keep this up, and we may have a new number one."

Pop, pop, pop. Bakugou's explosions sounded softly in the class.

Bakugou Katsuki took up position right outside the gates. He ignored most of the students leaving, who gave him plenty of space. And more than a few of them formed a semi-circle outside of his range, so they could watch.

"We should get a teacher," a slender blue-haired girl whispered to another student.

"The teachers only care what happens on school grounds," the other girl shot back, "Some of them not even then."

Then Izuku appeared. Their gym teacher held him back. Officially, to ask how Izuku did so well today. Unofficially, Izuku suspected it was to keep him from escaping.

"Do we have to do this Kacchan?" Izuku asked, "I was just trying to stop him from stealing my watch. You don't want to be associated with a criminal, right?"

Bakugou's eyes flicked to long-fingers, who flinched. Japan was still willing to ignore a certain level of bullying. But that blind eye did not extend to stealing, especially for items of value.

The glare only lasted for a moment, before Bakugou focused on Izuku again.

"It's not about that," he growled, "This is about you showing me up today, you damn nerd."

Izuku cringed, knowing he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of it.

The crowd tensed.

Bakugou took a step forward, then explosions out of each palm jetted him towards Izuku.

Again, the green-haired boy wondered why his former friend was moving so slowly, Had he learned to moderate his explosions for a more even propulsion?

Izuku reacted without thinking again. Like in his dream, he dropped low. Swept Katsuki's legs. As the bully flipped over him, Izuku caught his arm, so Bakugou only tumbled to the ground, rather than rocketing into the wall.

Then Izuku ran. Faster than he ever remembered being before. He picked the part of the circle with the shortest kids, and jumped over them.

"Dammit, DEKU!" he heard an angry howl behind him. And he didn't stop running.

Since he broke his All Might Hero Signal Watch™ when he was eight, Izuku hadn't owned a watch. And yet somehow, he had a very nice watch on his wrist right now. And had since this morning, without initially realizing it.

It had a black leather band with a bronze mesh down the center. It didn't have a clip or anything, so Izuku wasn't sure how he put it on or how he would take it off. The body was bronze, with three familiar engravings around the face. A green dragon, a white tiger, and a black brachiosaurus. The face looked mechanical, with three hands and bronze numbers set into a swirl of green, white, and black. But when he tilted his head and looked from an angle, there was no depth to the hands. The face was an absurdly high resolution screen that was just showing a projection of a mechanical watch. There were no buttons on the sides. Izuku wondered if it was a touch screen. But when he touched the watch face, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell onto his desk.

Izuku was in some sort of dojo. Tatami mats with padding underneath. Sunlight streaming through the window on one wall, illuminating all manner of wooden weapons on another.

There was another person standing opposite him. He was older than Izuku, but had the sort of young agelessness that made it hard to tell if he was seventeen or twenty seven. The other man was well built, with long, brown hair pulled into a ponytail. He was a westerner, and had kind brown eyes. He was wearing black workout pants, and a white tank top with a green insignia on it.

Izuku felt the man and the insignia were both familiar, but could not place them before the other person spoke.

"It is nice to meet you, Izuku," he said in English, "My name is Tommy Oliver. The Coin has judged you as worthy. It is my job to make sure you are ready."

Izuku's jaw dropped.

Three time zones east of Japan, very close to the International Date Line, was the artificial island known as I Island. Sponsored by, yet independent from, the US, Canada, Japan, and the Republic of Northern China, it was a haven of scientists and researchers. More than half of the adult population was dedicated to some form of research.

One of the foremost scientists on the island was David Shield, the former sidekick and gadgeteer of All Might. And living with him was his daughter Melissa.

Though fifteen years of age, Melissa could potentially pass for sixteen or even seventeen. It didn't hurt that she was a year ahead in one of the toughest schools in the world. And she was considered quite attractive by her peers, not that she cared or generally put much effort into her looks. No, she was more concerned with her studies, and like her father was considered a genius.

Melissa had a single pet project that only David and a few others knew of. Because most people would have scoffed at it. But Melissa was a true believer. And thus, on a shelf over her desk there was a long and thin display case. It was lined with black velvet and had seven recesses in it. In each circular indentation there were carefully set shards of bronze. Like pieces of shattered coins. Two of the coins were fairly close to complete, while four of the remaining five had less than a quarter of the original metal. Each of the coins seemed to bear a different carving, and each was accented by an unusual pink tarnish.

Melissa was deep in her homework when the shards began to lightly vibrate and softly glow. She might have missed it, except that the display case was also set with a wide array of sensors and scanners. So when the incomplete coins began to emit a faint energy, dozens of alerts exploded across her desktop. The blonde girl's head jerked up, and she stared at the coins in amazement and curiosity.

One day earlier, a certain antiques dealer, seemingly in his early fifties, returned home with a happy smile and a spring in his step.

Zachery Edwin Davis Dulles has been waiting years for this moment, and he couldn't wait to share it with his wife.

He walked into their home, and swept his beloved into a big hug. She looked too young and far too beautiful for him. She appeared to be of Asian descent, but had a casual and lovely blend of features that made it hard to tell where her parents might have been born.

"What's gotten into you?" she laughed happily as he set her down.

"The coin. A young man found it, bought it."

Her eyes narrowed, and her voice dropped half an octave and took on a harsh, scratchy tone.

"Ha, after two hundred years, we're free!" she cackled. Then she coughed, and blushed.

"You've been holding onto that, haven't you?" he asked, amused.

"It seemed appropriate," she sounded mildly embarrassed.

"So what are we going to do?" she prompted.

"I was thinking you could get the old RV ready," he said, "I'll have a fire sale at the antique store, then sell the store, too. Maybe sell the house. Donate all the proceeds anonymously to a couple of charities, and take off. Now that our duties and debts are settled, we could take a well deserved second honeymoon. Triforia is nice this time of year. Or maybe Aquitar. I haven't seen you in a bikini in decades."

She laughed, and kissed him. And the years seemed to literally melt away, leaving him no older than she was. Or more accurately, than she appeared to be. Then she sobered slightly.

"This boy, do you think he can do it?" she asked.

"I hope so," he said, "Or may the power protect us all."

Author's Note: Another plot bunny that wanted out.