Archive of Our Own ^beta

Denki pressed his nose to the tiny window. “It doesn’t look that bad?”

“Then why did you phrase it like a question?” Jirou absently replied, her brow scrunched as she focused on the fight data.

“Uh, I can’t see that much.”

“Go figure.” She sighed, falling back into her chair. “At least it’s got water we can filter.”

Their zoologist, Bakugou, tapped a few buttons, bringing up the long range scans on the main display. The monitor booted into life, a 3D model of the planet rotating on the screen.

Almost the entire globe was covered in water. A few islands stood out here or there, but blue was by far the most prominent colour. Trenches criss-crossed across the oceans, some reaching deeper than the scanners could pick up.

Which, wow, that was kind of scary.

“It’s fuckin teeming with life. Eijirou would bust a nut thinking about the environment of this place.” Kirishima was waiting for them back on earth, as only one biologist was needed for this trip.

And that was Denki.

“Aw, is Blasty McSplode missing his husband?” He teased, spinning in his seat (hey, they made them swivel chairs for a reason).

To his disappointment, he didn’t take the bait. “He’s my husband. I’m fully entitled to miss him. So fuck off.”

“You’re such a charmer, Bakugou.”

“Damn right I am.”

Jirou rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “Well, it looks like this is the one. Sure it’s not perfect, but I don’t want to risk going further and running out of fuel in deep space.”

“Smart move, headphones.” No one blinked at the nickname, everyone used to the terms of endearment (because that’s what they were). And, sure enough, thick purple and black headphones were nestled around her neck.

What she listened to, what a very different question. The top contenders were death metal and indie rock.

Yaoyorozu studied her screen intensly, interpreting the endless streams of data that scrolled along in front of her. “There’s a landing space near the northern pole, but if we go now we’ll be landing blind in a snowstorm. The instruments predict it’ll last a fortnight.”

“So that’s out. Anywhere else?”

“Yes. One near the equator. It’s smaller, barely enough to fit the ship, but the climate’s perfect and the area is low in predators.” Yaoyorozu answered confidently, pointing to one of the spots on the map. It glowed yellow on the monitor, and Denki noted with a spike of irrational panic that one of the deepest trenches ran just a few kilometres away.

Jirou nodded, twirling her hair around her finger absently. “Alright. We’ll play it safe. Can we build underwater?”

“The tools should work perfectly. All the rooms were designed to be airtight, and generate their own oxygen. The only question is power.” Bakugou supplied, tapping his fingers along his armrest in thought.

“Can we scan for-“

“Already on it. It looks like this planet is full of resources, all things we can use or McGyver into using.” Denki blinked at Yaoyorozu’s pop culture knowledge, but didn’t call it out.

“Perfect.” Jirou’s fingers wrapped around the joysticks gleefully. “Down we go then.”

“The plants here are fascinating. I’m going out to collect samples.” Denki practically bounced through the newly built base. Everything here was so awesome, from the vibrant flora to the view from their windows.

“Fine, but scan anything bigger than your dick. And take pictures.” Bakugou tossed him a camera from where he was wiring up the fabricator.

Denki adjusted his rebreather, checking it was secure. “Sure! Will do!”

The airlock opened with a hiss, a stream of bubbles floating to the surface not three feet away. Despite their lack of depth (or perhaps because of), the world around them was so stunningly beautiful.

The seaweed glowed, the creatures were unlike anything he’d seen before. He dutifully scanned everything he came across, for himself and for Bakugou.

Everything here was just... so impossibly interesting.

Why didn’t we come to study this place?

Well, he’d never know. What he did know, however, was that most of these plants weren’t edible.

Which was kind of a problem.

Yes, there was some bland-looking rope plant, but they were going to be here for months. Personally, he’d go insane unless he had something that didn’t taste like cardboard or fish.

Oh, and like, it didn’t have the necessary vitamins and stuff, but whatever.

Anything remotely nutritional would probably develop above water, or maybe in colder waters.

The point was, they were screwed.

The repair ship wasn’t going to come for months, and that was a generous estimate. They had to survive out here for as long as possible, potentially a year or more. This was just not going to do.

Something colourful flashed in his peripheral, but when he turned it was gone.

Huh. I wonder what that was.

Probably some deadly man-eating shark.

Unhooking his scanner (because Denki was nothing if not an adrenaline junkie), he swam closer to investigate.

Bakugou did say to scan anything he came across…

Biting his lip, he peered around the rock.

Damnnit.

He pouted, swimming forwards a bit to double-check.

He wanted to discover something really cool. Something that would make the others actually take him seriously.

The peepers and boomerang fish swam past happily, but Denki sighed mentally.

Whatever. It’s not like I was actually going to do anything.

Cutting his loses, he swam back to base.

“This is it?” Jirou stared at the disappointing length of seaweed, poking it.

Denki curled up on the chair. It was the only one they had so far, but no one had objected to him occupying it.

She sighed, sharing a look with Bakugou. “Well, it’s better than nothing. It’d be much worse if we were forced to live off just fish, right Momo?”

The raven-haired meteorologist (and a lot of other things) perked up at her name. “Yes, that’s true. While it may not have all we need, it’s certainly increased our life expectancy.”

That was true, he supposed. Just fish would have been a nightmare.

Bakugou waved his datapad in the air, catching his attention. “And these scans are nothing to scoff at. You did a good job, sparky.”

Something warm rose in Denki’s chest hearing that from him.

Yeah. Maybe he had.

“Well, anyways you can always try a new direction, or go further. There’s got to be something out there that suits us.”

“Right.” He nodded, letting Jirou convince him.

He’d find it.

He would.

“I’m going out again!”

“We fucking get it sparky, no need to yell it loud enough for the stalkers to hear.”

“You love me.” Denki winked, pulling on his gloves.

He rolled his eyes, turning back to his desk. “Hell yeah I do. Now go get me more info.”

“And some plants!”

“You got it, boss!”

He was picking up some more rope plant when the shiny thing came back.

Denki’s head whipped up, determined to see this creature. He got a brief glimpse of a long powerful tail before it darted out of sight.

It was definitely bigger than him, probably by quite a lot. Normally, he’d be worried it was some sort of predator (god knew the stalkers were enough to deal with on their own), but for some reason he trusted it.

Maybe because it was shiny.

Whatever. He’d talk to Bakugou about it.

“Relax, it’s definitely not a predator.”

Relief burst through his body. “You’re sure?”

“Dead sure. If it runs when you look at it, you’re fine.” Bakugou looked at the sketch he’d tried to draw for him. “And besides, with a tail like that it just ‘aint built for it.”

Denki released the breath he’d been holding. “Alright. Thanks!”

“Yeah, yeah. Try to get a picture next time! Or a scan if you can. Partial is better than nothing.” Bakugou reiterated for the millionth time.

He nodded. “Of course.”

He shook his hair out, meeting their hopeful stares. “Still nothing.” Their faces fell, but he noticed how they tried to hide it.

“Saw this big fucker though, like big-“ Denki pulled up the slightly blurry photo he’d taken of it. He’d taken if from a distance, convinced it was going to kill him if he went any closer. Because of that, it was just a shadow, but the front half was visible through the murk.

White with red patterns, it stood out like a sore thumb in the shallower waters. You could vaguely see some lines protruding from it’s jaw, and Denki shivered as he remembered seeing them.

Bakugou pointed to them, eyes narrowed. “Are those-“ He stopped, looking up at him.

“Uh, they’re like… mandibles? They have joints, but kinda look like crab claws except red. It was creepy man.” He shivered again.

“Interesting… especially that colouring. Normally you’d see that on deep-sea dwellers. It’s an evolutionary disadvantage this high up.”

Jirou tilted her head questioningly. “So… What does that mean?”

“It could mean a bunch of shit. The most likely thing? It was forced out of it’s usual hunting grounds. That, or it’s just so good a hunting it never evolved to a different colour because it didn’t need to.” The ash-blond scribbled some notes in his notepad, sketching some details that the picture didn’t pick up.

Denki decided he didn’t like these things. “Both of those are equally terrifying. Is there a not scary option?”

Bakugou sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Not really.”

Damn.

Denki was now beyond paranoid.

He flinched at any glimpse of red or white, or just anything really.

Which is why he was now searching far away from where he’d seen the reaper leviathan (a fitting name, and surprisingly provided by Yaoyorozu).

And closer to the trench.

Which was scary, but not nearly as scary as the prospect of running into that again.

But, for the first time in three weeks, he was successful in his search.

Kind of.

It was a silvery-white thing, reaching towards the surface far above with long thing tendrils. Scans revealed that the plant itself was poisonous, but it’s roots grew some sort of tuber that was significantly better for their health than the rope plant.

Scans also revealed a long life expectancy and a low rate of reproduction.

It wasn’t sustainable, wouldn’t grow fast enough. Not with the amount they would need to eat.

He pulled as many as he could hold out, making sure that plenty remained.

Fuck.

He turned to lighter waters, being careful with his extremely important cargo.

He’d actually stab himself if he dropped these.

As focused as he was, he nearly swam right past it.

He jolted backwards, praying he hadn’t-

Oh thank fuck.

There, in all it’s purple and shiny splendour, was the thing he’d been seeing since day one.

First thing’s first, take a picture.

He whipped out the camera (carefully placing the tuber plants to the side), and spammed the button furiously.

One of them would be clear, that was just logic.

Now, start recording.

He looked up, (mission: I’m Not Seeing Things accomplished) only to find it staring back at him. It had purple irises, which shone brilliantly in the light. A vaguely human-ish torso led to that long shining tail, as thick and muscled as he remembered.

It moved, and his eyes flicked up to its torso, its arms out of proportion and skin a purplish hue. Fins and other protrusions littered it’s body, each adding to the elegance and alien nature of the creature.

What are you?

Whatever it is, Bakugou’s gonna have a field day with this footage.

It produced a handful of some sort of... rock? He couldn’t really see, but he didn’t move in fear of scaring it off.

Oh my god, it’s coming closer, how is this the most awesome thing that’s ever happened to me-

It stopped right in front of him and opened its fist.

Denki gasped, unable to help it.

Lying within its palm (could you even call it that?) were seeds.

Actual, honest to god seeds.

A quick once over revealed that, yeah, these probably grew on land. Which meant they were definitely what they needed.

Very slowly, he reached up to take them. It didn’t react, rather watched him with amused(?) eyes.

His fingers closed around the life-giving objects, hope and relief and so many other things swirling around his brain.

This, this could be perfect. It’s a miracle, honestly-

He blinked, and it was gone.

“What?! Fucking-“ He cut himself off, looking at his hand.

Seeds.

He swallowed his sinking heart, and looked at them again.

Seeds.

Putting away the camera and grabbing the tuber plants, he set off, a smile on his face.

Maybe we’ll make it.

Maybe we'll actually make it home.