Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

DONG!

A piercing white light floods Pebble's view. It felt like he was floating. Wherever he was now it's no doubt complete purity. Is this what ascension is like? Have I finally solved the great problem!

The sign for max karma flickers in his vision. Very few ancients ever achieved this level of purity, only the highest ranking monks ever had the honour of reaching this level of enlightenment.

The bright yellow circle with a giant cross in the centre flashed yellow and red repeatedly. This is it! I, Five Pebbles, am about to do what every other Iterator has failed to accomplish. This is what they get for ridiculing me for so many cycles.

Suddenly, the floating feeling stopped and the max karma symbol vanished from view. It's time!

Five Pebbles fell,

And fell,

And fell...

The once pure light had vanished and now an inky black void began to consume him. The fluid seeped into his fans, halting his internal cooling system and making his mind foggy. Pebbles gasped for breath and flailed his limbs, desperately clawing for anything that could possibly slow his descent.

The void then abruptly vanished as fast as it came. Light floods his vision again, but this time he isn't floating around in a void. Instead, his ocular lenses are telling him that he's in the middle of a forest clearing.

The nearby foliage is unlike anything he's seen from his overseers around his can. There's no glowing bulbs illuminating their trunks and they don't seem to be carnivorous either. Their branches are filled with green leaves angled to catch sunlight.

This leads onto his second observation, the Sun. Either he was atop Iterator's can or there just weren't any iterators in this land at all. Considering how the Ancients had covered his world with Iterator cans, Pebbles opted for the latter assumption. But if there were no Iterators here at all, then where in the void was he?

Maybe if he can climb one of the trees he could get a better look at his surroundings. He pushes himself to his feet and immediately falls over. Maybe I should've listened to Sig when he mentioned doing walking lessons to prevent boredom.

After several minutes Pebbles finally stumbles his way over to a tree. He narrows his eyes in disgust at seeing how much dirt clung to his robe from all his tumbles. He'll need to find a way to clean it later though, as he now has a new challenge.

Thankfully, he had very good coordination when it came to his arms from flipping between screens his entire existence. Pebbles reaches for the first branch and hauls his body up. He continues repeating this motion until he reaches the uppermost branches of the tree.

Pebbles had successfully broken through the canopy. Looking around he sees nothing but trees for miles around him. Well this was a complete waste of time, Pebbles thought while crossing his arms, but he had made a fatal flaw. In crossing his arms he was no longer hanging onto the branches of the tree, and with his thin legs, he immediately lost balance and began to fall.

Just as Pebbles was about to collide with a particularly large branch he came to an abrupt halt. Pebbles dangled there stupidly for a few seconds before whipping around to see what had caught him. There, emerging from his back, was his mechanical arm and umbilical cord. It emerged from the tree a lot like overseers did from the ground.

This was when he realised that while falling he'd been instinctively calling for his arm to catch him. It seemed this was how it had appeared, but where had it come from?

He decided to shove these thoughts aside for now and instead focus his attention on getting out of this predicament. Pebbles cautiously sent a signal to the arm, commanding it to bring him down to the ground. Surprisingly, it worked. The arm snaked its way down the tree, guiding Pebbles out of the way of any branches before setting him on the ground.

With Pebbles now safely on the ground, the machinery retracted into his back. Pebbles examined where the mechanical arm disappeared into and found nothing, even the fabric of his robe was intact. This shouldn't be physically possible, unless Pebble's ascension had something to do with it.

Actually, now that he was thinking about it, he doesn't think he actually ascended correctly. Pebbles was clearly still alive, but this time he was actually part of the cycle... he thinks. Why had the void rejected him? Surely he'd proven himself from how he dedicated his entire existence to solving the great problem even after everyone else had stopped. When his peers tried to interrupt his work he locked down his facility to keep his focus entirely on the path to ascension. That should've shown his worthiness to void... right?

A noise abruptly stopped Pebble's train of thought as he swung his head to a nearby tree. More chirps partnered by the fluttering of wings sounded from behind the leaves. Could one of those pesky pipe cleaners have followed him here? Knowing their species, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

A bit more fluttering and the creature in question hopped onto a branch within Pebble's field of view. It was similar in shape and size to a batfly, but instead of familiar black, leathery skin this unknown organism was covered in light brown feathers. The creature gave another chirp before flying away on its feathered wings.

Despite how fascinating this new environment was, it only reminded him of how vulnerable he was now. Pebbles needed to make a new superstructure, and soon. He didn't want to be exposed for any longer than he had to in this new world.

Without wasting any more time, Pebbles got to work and did an in depth scan of his surroundings. The local materials that came up in his database were completely foreign, but seemed to be similar enough to his home world that he could still use them.

Pebbles walked over to a nearby boulder and used the laser built into his hand to slice it into more usable bricks. He grabbed a nearby vine and melted it with the same tool as before into sticky goo. He arranged the bricks into a small room and used the vine goo to stick them together. As long as nothing disturbed the makeshift building too much then the vine goo should solidify within a few hours.

Within a few hours Pebbles should be able to turn this building into a basic fabricator. According to his calculations, this would be all he needs to start work on his new superstructure. When the time comes for an upgrade, he'll be able to make a new one directly inside his can.

In the meantime, this will serve as a safe place for Pebbles to conduct his research on this new world he finds himself in. He sighs as he thinks about all the work that awaits him. Pebbles settles himself down as the sky darkens outside, signalling the end of a cycle. May as well start my research now while the world sleeps, Pebbles thinks to himself as he starts running the first thousands of simulations required to build his new can.

Chapter Text

Pebbles spins around in his chamber bored out of his mind. He'd finished building his superstructure a few cycles ago and was now waiting for the last few simulations to finish before he could begin working with full operation. He'd been in this world around a thousand cycles at this point working tirelessly on his new can. He was excited to start examining this world's inhabitants, but he needed his superstructure fully operational to begin constructing overseers.

With a sigh, he decided to go on a walk around his grounds to hopefully sate his impatience. Pebbles waved his hand towards a wall and it opened to reveal a passage. He had added this feature in building in case one of those scugs had managed to follow him to this world and decided to give him a visit. In the past, Pebbles had wished this design had been incorporating into the building of his original can so the rodents could stop crawling through his memory arrays. However, with his new can he was able to design it however he pleased because the taboos only applied to his original home.

He brought his arm back into his back and began walking. Pebbles approached the elevator he'd created and commanded it to the ground. Eventually, Pebbles would like to build something on top of his superstructure. It wouldn't be a city but he'd at least like a few paths up there in case any dangerous creatures were still on the ground. Pebbles highly doubted any such creatures were on his ground as he hadn't encountered any, but you can never be too careful.

The door pinged and opened to reveal a tropical forest. When he first arrived the environment had been temperate, but with the added rains from his can it had turned into a lush jungle. Lots of new feathered fliers had arrived in that time as well, these ones being more brightly coloured than the original brown ones which he still spotted around occasionally.

Pebbles walked along a well-worn path from his previous bouts of boredom. His frequent visits had resulted in no new plant growth invading his space. When first designing this path Pebbles had used his laser to slice away at the foliage, which resulted in the plants staying clear of that specific location. It always amazes Pebbles how adaptable organisms are, he will definitely need to invest more time into biological research in this world. He didn't know when it had happened, but at some point his previous disgust for biological material had turned into a fascination.

In the distance something started making a racket in the underground. It seemed to be slowly coming in Pebble's direction. Early on while making his new home, Pebbles had designed a cloaking device to cover his grounds. He didn't want any of the world's sentient inhabitants noticing his presence before he was capable of defending himself. But, it was only capable of blocking aerial sight, so it was all too possible for something to get lost and accidentally stumble upon his home.

Pebbles cautiously creeps forwards along his path. The creature will probably find the track soon and use it. He finds a tree with some low hanging branches partially covered with foliage and positions himself there. Hopefully, the plant life will hide his bright coloured design. If anything does poke through the greenery, the organism should just assume it to be some type of native fruit.

After a couple pips of waiting the suspect in question walks into view. It's wearing a loose kind of robe with a fabric rope tied around the waist. The floral patterns have been torn through and stained by branches and mud. It's holding something wrapped tightly in a soft fabric close to its chest. Pebbles almost missed the fact that it had hair because the green colouration blended in so well with the surrounding leaves.

The thing that caught his interest the most though was the fact it wasn't wearing a mask. Its species was clearly developed enough to fabricate quality cloth, but it doesn't see a need to cover its face. Pebbles could remember how culturally significant it was to the Ancients that they hide their facial expressions as a sign of respect and dignity. The better the Ancient could control their emotions, usually the higher the rank they would achieve in life. However, from the way this creature is acting so far, perhaps that it isn't as important in their culture.

While Pebbles was thinking the creature in question had walked further ahead and was almost out of view. I need to intercept it before it sees my can. He thought rushes ahead through the underbrush. From how long Pebbles has spent in this world, he's become quite accustomed with walking silently through the foliage.

Pebbles emerged around a bend in the path and decided that was the best place to meet the creature. He would be able to see it approaching through his sensors, it will not, giving him plenty of time to prepare. Pebbles watched it approach the corner. Thankfully he found no weapons of any kind from his scans. Deeming the unknown creature safe enough to interact with, he stayed where he was in the middle of the path.

The creature turned around the corner and upon seeing Pebbles, yelped in surprise and fell backwards onto the ground. Pebbles inwardly grimacing seeing even more mud get absorbed into its clothing.

A sigh echoed from his speaker as he began his speech, "Greetings unknown creature, I am the Iterator Five Pebbles. It appears you have stumbled upon my grounds and based on your... unsatisfactory appearance, I'm assuming it wasn't by choice. If you want to come back with me to my can, I can help you back to working order and send you on your way. I should be able to point you back to your species' civilization by then as well. I will not be offended if you decline this proposal, but you will have a higher likelihood of survival if you do."

After finishing he looked at the creature expectantly only to see a look of confusion in return. It appears his speech hadn't done anything to reassure the creature who was still eyeing up his antenna in fear. Pebbles antenna lowered as he grumbled to himself while thinking. He then slaps his head in frustration when he realizes the creature must not speak the Ancient's tongue. He should've known the sentient here spoke in a different tongue, he was in a different world for crying out loud.

Pebbles groaned in frustration as he thought of a work around because he can't install the mark of communication without his facilities. He quickly found a solution in the holographic projector embedded into his right eye.

Pebbles displayed a hexagonal hologram of his previous words through a series of images. It started with a waving hand as 'hello' which followed into a series of images showing the creature and himself going up the elevator to his facilities then him gifting it with supplies. Now he could only hope this world's symbolism was even remotely close to his owns.

Thankfully, after a couple of repeats the creature spoke a bit of gibberish to Pebbles before nodding. He nodded back, hoping nodding was a sign of agreement in their culture. He disabled the hologram and did a gesture to follow him. The creature walked behind him nervously, still cradling the bundle of cloth to their chest tightly.

After nearly thirty pips of walking they arrived at the clearing where he'd placed his elevator. He enabled the hologram and showed the creature going inside. It glanced between Pebbles and the elevator for a few seconds before entering. Pebbles walked inside and sent a signal to the machine through his antenna to bring them up.

The elevator whirred to life, floating up into the superstructure. The creature marveled through the glass at the structure which was previously hidden by jungle trees. Pebbles chuckled lightly in amusement as they both entered his can. Whirls of neurons swirled around the elevator, flashing colours of red and blue and they welcomed Five Pebbles back. The creature stared at them all in awe with stars in their eyes. Pebbles shook his head when they held the bundle of cloth up at the neurons, it's probably just some weird part of its culture.

The open spaces of his memory arrays vanish from sight as the elevator makes its way closer to his puppet chamber. With a whoosh the doors open once more to reveal a hallway. Pebbles starts walking down it as he hears the creature quickly hurrying after him to keep up. The wall ahead gives way to his pristine white chamber and they enter.

Not wasting any more time Pebbles extends his arm and hooks back up to the structure. He looks at the reports and is pleased to see that the final simulations had finished in his absence and his structure was now officially complete. Pebbles glances back at the creature waiting on the floor and decides to just get it over with.

With the newly installed gravity manipulation he carefully lifts the creature into the air. It panics, flailing around as it shouts unintelligibly at him. With a quick ping he installs the mark of communication into the creature and it falls to the ground. Something seems odd about the process however. He was only supposed to install the mark to a single creature, so why was there a report of two.

Pebbles quickly eyes up the bundle in the creature's arms suspiciously. He lifts it into the air away from the creature as it lets out a cry of despair. Pebbles floats over to the tiny bundle and carefully unwraps it with his hands. Inside is a second creature, much smaller than the one on the floor and clearly an infant. Meanwhile, the first creature was now yelling words at Pebbles that he could understand, begging him to not harm its child. With a sigh he floats the infant back down to the creature and it quickly cradles it to its chest protectively.

"It appears the procedure was a success, despite the... unexpected additional participant." Pebbles says as he rubs his forehead tiredly, already feeling the headache coming on.

"What are you?" The creature calls up nervously.

"I am the Iterator Five Pebbles. What I just did was install you with the Mark of Communication to make interacting easier for the both of us."

"What is an Iterator?" It says, growing more relaxed.

"In the simplest of terms, an Iterator is a massive supercomputer that's structure stretches for miles."

Suddenly, the creature stepped back in fear, "Are you some secret government AI? Please don't report me! Please!"

Pebbles floated down to the ground to hopefully make the creature feel calmer. "Don't worry, I have no connections to this world's government. I only arrived in this world just under a thousand cycles ago. I also have no intentions to bring you or your offspring harm." He said in the most calming voice he could muster. Pebbles was never good at interacting with other organisms, even Ancients. Most of the time he would just put up with listening to them for the required amount of time, say he will look into it, then shove them back out of his chamber or disconnect from the video call.

"How am I supposed to trust you? The military must already be on their way!" By this point tears were falling down the creature's face as it sobbed into the infant's fabric.

"And why would I do that? What crime has you and that infant even committed?" Pebbles said, tilting his head as he ran simulations on what they possibly could've done to be chased down by their civilization's authorities.

"My, *hic*, my child is a mutant." It sobs.

"It has a mutation? That doesn't make any sense, mutations are a natural part of a species evolution. How major is this mutation in order to be chased down by government authorities." Pebbles approached the creature carefully, trying to peer at the infant to see any abnormalities when compared to the first creature.

As he kept approaching the creature froze in fear. Once he was close enough he reached out a hand to the infant. All it did was giggle and hug one of his fingers. "It seems normal to me," Pebbles shrugged.

The first creature tears from its puffy, red eyes. "That's because it isn't one of the physical mutants, I saw her float one of her toys into the air."

"I still do not see how this is an issue."

"You... don't?" The creature asked in disbelief.

Pebbles gave another tired sigh, "I believe we got off on the wrong foot. Why not introduce yourself and tell me the full story." He used his arm to lift him back off the ground into the centre of his chamber. The creature nodded, sat down on the floor of his chamber and began its story.

Pebbles learnt that the creature's name was Aiko Midoriya and that she had run away from this world's  third global war. The war had began when children all across the globe had to started to be born with mutant powers, the first recorded case being a glowing baby from twenty years ago. Once the surviving mutants had matured they started fighting back against the discrimination they were facing. Soon enough it had erupted into an all-out war between the government and the mutants. Aiko had fled when her newborn child had started showing signs of being a mutant because she didn't want the government to take her away.

"I've been wandering through the jungle for days now, I have no where left to go." She finished, tears rolling down her face. 

Pebbles hummed in contemplation, choosing his next words carefully, "After hearing your sorrowful tale, I've been contemplating a few things. Seeing as you have nowhere else to go, I would like to extent the offer that you take up residence on my superstructure. For a while I've been contemplating what I should build atop it and it's not like I haven't managed a city before."

Aiko looked up at Pebbles, her eyes shining with hope. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She cried, hugging her offspring tightly.

Pebbles nodded and brought up a holograms, "It will take a few cycles to construct your new residence up there, so for now you will remain in my puppet chamber."

Aiko nodded slightly, her shoulders still shaking from her overwhelming happiness. 

Despite the circumstances of having another city on his can, Pebbles didn't mind too much. This time he can construct it exactly how he wants it without any administrators holding him back. Also, Aiko's arrival has given Pebbles the perfect opportunity to begin his research on this world's society. She will be able to provide with knowledge of her civilizations inner workings. This will save him a lot of time that would've otherwise been wasted trying to learn everything from his overseers alone.

Speaking of which, he should begin working on a new overseer blueprint. He already has the blueprints on how to create overseers, but now with his newfound freedom he wants to make a few helpful modifications to the design.

Pebbles glances down at Aiko and sees her sleeping on the floor, her arms wrapped around the infant protectively. I suppose the overseer blueprints will have to wait, he thinks as he starts designing a house for his new residents.

Chapter Text

Pebbles remembers how his neurons buzzed with activity when the news was first relayed to one of his overseers. He remembers how he had immediately dropped all his simulations and summoned almost every overseer to the hospital. It wasn't a secret that he was very attached to the Midoriya family, but this only proved to his city how close they truly are.

He recalls the first time he saw that small bundle of poofy green hair cradled in its mother's arms. Dozens of overheating messages had appeared, but in that moment he didn't care, dismissing them with a wave of his hand.

The very next day Pebbles had left his chamber for the first time in a hundred cycles just to visit that hospital. He chuckles as he remembers the expressions his citizens had made at seeing him just casually walking down the street. When Pebbles had entered the room the mother, Inko, presented him with the most precious creature the world had ever known. Pebbles knows that he thinks that every single time a new Midoriya is born, but this one fit that criteria exceptionally in Pebble's eyes. Although the infant was only a cycle old, Pebbles could see in his eyes that he would do great things someday.

Pebbles sighed happily as the recording ended. Every so often he likes to replay that memory and see at how much the boy has grown. It was difficult to observe a child's growth when you see them every day, and by see Pebbles means through his overseer. He hasn't been this attached to a mortal since the little Ruffian, so he's going to make sure nothing ever happens to this one.

It still surprises Pebbles how close he is to Izuku. He's always been close with the Midoriya family as they are descendants of his first citizen, but never this much. Pebbles has basically become the boy's father ever since he'd banished the man from his city.

Speaking of his city, ever since his first citizen showed up more have slowly been migrating over to his superstructure. Majority of his first settlers were refugees from the ongoing war that had heard a rumor of a massive structure that provided safe haven to any that could find it. Eventually, the war did end and the amount of new creatures encountering his can became less and less. Pebbles had asked his citizens if they wanted to return home because the war had now ended and society was beginning to find its feet again, but, surprisingly, none had wanted to leave. They told him that his superstructure was their home and that even if they did go back there was often nothing left for them there. 

It's been many thousands of cycles since then and all the original settlers have passed on from old age, but their descendants are still here living on Pebble's can. That doesn't mean they're completely separate from the rest of the world though. Pebbles has invested time into obtaining or manufacturing any of the latest technology that society invents. There are also those who choose to work and go to school in Musutafu, the closest city to his superstructure.

Pebbles is still quite secretive towards society and, luckily, that has translated onto his citizens as well. He just doesn't know how the world would react to a highly advanced AI from another universe, and that's a variable he wants to put off for as long as possible.

Speaking of his citizens, it's about time he gets back to working on that citizen ID drone blueprint. While scouring his neurons the other day he found an old blueprint of the drones which he's decided to refine and distribute to his new citizens. That way he doesn't need to manually open the gate whenever one of them wants to leave his can to do something in society.

The city atop his superstructure has also grown a lot over the cycles. Once the first dozen or so humans arrived they begun insisting that they should be the ones to build their accommodations. Pebbles wasn't about to refuse their request because it means less work for him. But after the first thousand or so cycles they began to build suspiciously ritualistic looking structures. The odd structure and mural depicting Five Pebbles began to pop up around the place at random. Also, at some point while Pebbles was particularly invested in one of his projects they constructed a church as well, with a giant glass painting of himself in the centre. At this point it was too late for Pebbles to do anything about it so he just left them be.

A quiet ping distracts Pebbles from his musing. Glancing over he sees a notification come in from Umi. A while ago when Izuku was visiting the beach for the first time the boy spotted Pebble's overseer. Since the boy was born Pebbles has always had at least one overseer watching over the child. Izuku took a liking to the little observer and named it after the ocean, which is 'Umi' in Japanese. The child even found a pretty beach related pin to pin onto the overseer. Knowing how attached the boy is to the camera Pebbles has assigned it as Izuku's primary overseer.

Pebbles selects the notification to view the footage of whatever adorable thing the device has captured Izuku doing this time. He has a whole gallery filled with captured clips of the boy's life. Closing the other holograms he has opened currently, Pebbles focuses all his attention on the overseer footage.

But, instead of seeing the usual short clip of Izuku playing with his friends at school, he sees a group of children laugh at and kicking Izuku. His chamber lights flash red as his steam output increases tenfold.

In an instant every overseer in Musutafu appeared from the ground forming a protective circle around the little boy. The bullies step back in shock and fear. They exchange glances with one another, "I thought Deku didn't have a quirk?" The winged one questions.

"Of course he doesn't!" A particularly loud blonde child states, "Obviously someone else is trying to protect the useless Deku with their extra-ass quirk."

The bullies begin to approach Izuku again. Pebbles' antenna lower is anger, how dare these children pick on Izuku like this. He sends a command to his overseers as the blonde brat starts emitting sparks from the palms of his hands. The whiskers of the overseers start searching the area for weapons. They each lock on small rocks scattered across the playground. A charged beam emits from their whiskers' and connects with their chosen rocks'.

The bullies pause in their advances and that's all the time Pebbles needs to begin pelting them mercilessly with rocks. They cry out in pain, trying to shield their heads with their arms. One by one each of them flees with tears welling up in their eyes. Satisfaction curls up inside Pebbles at seeing them run crying to the teachers.

The muffled sound of crying brings Pebbles back to his senses. Sending the surplus of overseers back to their previous locations he focuses on Umi's feed. Through the screen he sees Izuku curcled up in a ball with his face in his arms. His small body shakes with every muffled sob as he curls more in his arms.

Pebbles directs Umi in front of Izuku and nudges the boy with the overseer's head. Tear filled eyes peek above his arms as he glances up to see Umi. The boy doesn't have much time to prepare before whiskers start ruthlessly tickling his face to wipe away his tears. Izuku giggles through choked sobs and pulls Umi into a hug.

"Thank you, Umi." Izuku whispers to the overseer. The two stay like that for a few minutes, only separating when they start hearing yelling in the distance. Umi displays a projection, instructing Izuku to return to the Iterator's structure. The boy nods, nervously glancing behind him as the yelling slowly keeps getting louder.

Izuku weaves through side alleys and streets, trusting the overseer to direct him to the safest paths. Soon enough they're marching through a forest. No normal person would ever go out this far into the woods seeing as there's no signs of any kind of civilisation this far out. However, a dark shadow looms in the distance, blanketing Izuku in darkness the closer he gets. Just before everything turns pitch black, the light of an elevator appears before him. Without any fear the boy steps in and rides all the way up through the structure. Clusters of neuron flies dance around him, a significant amount of them are projecting the colour red, making the small chamber look as if it's bathed in blood. Soon enough the elevator comes to stop and the door opens to reveal a pure white room. Standing in the centre are his mother and Pebbles waiting for him.