I'm back from the dead!

At first, I wanted to write a soulmate au and then I kept thinking about what the gang's quirks would be in HeroAca (because that show owns my ass now) and this thing was born. Honestly, it's extremely self-indulgent and my side project through the last couple of months. This could honestly become a monster like the obligatory Hogwarts au but I'm not that masochistic, so have this short thing instead. I hope you enjoy it!

(If you haven't watched HeroAca: the majority of the world's population has superpowers called 'quirks' and being a hero is an actual paying job. UA is considered the top hero school since it has produced the majority of the world's best heroes. That's what you'll need to know for this. I really recommend you watch the show, just because it has ruined my life and I want you to suffer with me.)

Magnus stood in awe in front of the school gates.

He was here. He made it. From this day onward, he would be a student at UA, the school with the best hero course in the country. A shiver runs through his spine at the thought. It was so surreal to stand in front of the tall, 'H' shaped building and think that this is where he'd come to for school every day from now on.

His acceptance letter had come some time ago, the video disk that would tell him whether he made it or not inside the envelope. It had been so light when he picked it up and yet it had felt so heavy in his hands.

He hadn't realized that his fingers had brushed against his soulmark until he felt a wave of reassurance spread through him from his palm, accompanied by the familiar warm feeling he got whenever his soulmate sent him their emotions through their bond. He had smiled down at his hand and sent back gratitude through the iridescent sun-like flower that sat at the fleshy bit underneath his right thumb, the stem following the path of his veins. They were only able to communicate with emotions through their soulmark, no words, but most school acceptance letters came that day, so they must have had guessed that's what had gotten him anxious.

He'd watched the video projected on his wall with bated breath, waiting for the words he dreaded to hear. You did not get in. But those words had never come, and what he heard instead was, Congratulations, Magnus Chase, you have been accepted into UA!

He'd screamed so loudly his landlady had come to see what all the fuss was about, but the frown had quickly fallen from her face when Magnus had told her the good news. The old lady had always had a soft spot for him, it was the reason she rented him the small apartment with a discount, and she had ruffled his head as if he was her own grandson.

Once she had left, Magnus had let his fingers touch his soulmark and allowed the ecstasy he was feeling to travel to his soulmate. The response had been instant; happiness, pride, and love had washed over him and Magnus had been hit once more with the profound desire to hug his soulmate tight.

Now Magnus walked to the front gates of the school, his soulmark still buzzing with the wave of positivity that had come through it that morning, the closest thing to good luck they could communicate through their bond. He smiled at the deja vu feeling it gave him. He had been standing here, that same feeling coursing through his palm to his entire body on the day of the entrance exams.

/

Okay, you can do this. This will be fine. You got this, Magus tried to reassure himself as he walked towards UA's entrance. You can't do this. It won't be fine. You don't have this, his brain yelled back at him.

What was he thinking? He wants to be a Hero, sure, but he has a goddamn healing quirk, how is he supposed to get into UA with that? This school is responsible for making some of the greatest Heroes that have ever existed, it's the best Hero Academy in the country, hell, the whole world, and only 2% of those who take the entrance exams actually manage to get in! How is he supposed to make it?

He must have accidentally brushed against his soulmark, or maybe his soulmate knew him well enough to realize he must be nervous, because a wave of reassurance and positivity rolled over him. It's okay, it seemed to say. You'll do great.

Magnus tried to hold onto that feeling. Even if he didn't get in, he had to try. It's alright to fail, his mother used to say when she was still alive, but not because you were too scared to try.

I may fail but it doesn't mean that I won't try. Magnus took a deep breath through his nose. I'll try.

As Magnus walked to the main entrance, he runs through possible ways the practical portion of the exam might go and how he could deal with them, since combat wasn't his specialty by a long shot. He brushed his fingers against his soulmark, sending back gratitude and as much positivity as he could master, though he knew his anxiousness slipped through too.

Magnus was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed the person in front of him that he walked into. They yelped when Magnus hit their back and he stumbled, falling on his butt. Some of the other students slowed their pace to look at what was happening and Magnus felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment.

"Are you alright?" The person he ran into asked. The girl in front of him had skin the color of bronze and bright brown eyes that looked at Magnus with worry and guilt, like she was somehow responsible for Magnus not paying attention to where he was going. A green headscarf wrapped around her head, hiding her hair from view, and a bag was slung over her shoulder.

"Ah, yeah, I'm fine," Magnus said as he pushed himself up. "I'm sorry I run into you. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"It's alright," the girl said. "I was spaced out too. I'm so nervous about the exam. Oh, I'm Samirah, by the way."

"I'm Magnus. Are you here for the hero course?"

Samirah smiled, her eyes glimmering, and as a fellow nerd, Magnus recognized the tone of voice one used when they were very passionate about something but didn't want to scare others off. "Yes! I can manipulate air." She spun her fingers around, creating a small ball of condensed air in her palm. Magnus looked on in awe, suddenly very self-conscious of his own quirk. "What about you?"

"I want to get in the hero course too," Magnus said flustered, a habit left behind from years of being told his quirk isn't suited for a cool hero. "I, um, I'm a healer."

"Oh, that's great! You'd make a great rescue hero!" They climbed up the front steps of the school building, kids their age everywhere around them, and Magnus realized once more that all these kids, all of them with their own lives, were here to pursue the exact same dream.

Magnus fidgeted uncomfortably with the hem of his hoodie. "Thank you. I should, uh, get going. I need to find my seat. Good luck!"

Samirah waved at him. "You too!"

Magnus found the auditorium quite easily, what with the huge sign over the door and the dozens of students rushing in. Inside, the room was absolutely huge, by far the biggest room Magnus had ever been in. Desks made a loose circle around a central stage, each row of desk higher up than the last, like an ancient Greek theater. He found his seat somewhere in the middle of the room and sat down, observing all the students who walked inside. Some of their quirks were easy to figure out just by looking at them, like a boy with large wings and an invisible girl. Others had weird features, like horns or muzzles or tails. His eyes landed on a kid a few rows in front of him with a mop of bright green hair that was black at the roots.

Magnus chuckled to himself. He found it very amusing to imagine how a person from the age before quirks would react to their society today and just how different humans could look.

Once the hall was filled out, the tests were passed around. Magnus may have sacrificed precious hours of sleep to study but it was worth it. The written exam was over before he even realized it and he handed his papers to the school employ who came by to collect them.

Chattering and whispering spread through the room as the tests were collected and the students didn't have to stay quiet anymore. Magnus noticed an alarmingly big amount of students just lying on their desks like they'd rather die after this than have to go through the practical exam too.

Next to him, a boy with dark skin tapped his fingers on the desk, looking much more optimistic than the majority of teens in the room. Magnus couldn't help but noticed the tapered shape of his fingers, a thin line running around them near the edge like a lid. He must have been staring for some time because the boy looked up at him and Magnus quickly averted his gaze.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare," he blurted out. The boy didn't seem to share Magnus's embarrassment.

"No, it's okay," he chuckled. "I can fire projectiles from my fingers, in case you were wondering." The lid at the edge of his fingers popped up, revealing the hollow inside.

"Oh, that's amazing!" Magnus all but yelled, his quirk nerd coming out. "Does your body produce bullets or do you have to load them?"

"Both, though I need time to create new bullets if I run out. It's kind of like reloading."

Magnus's mind was running a mile a minute with all sorts of different uses of this quirk, but his stupid mouth decided to voice the most ridiculous one. "Your quirk is literally finger guns."

Magnus flushed when he realized what he said, but the boy chuckled. "Yeah, it is."

"I've already made all the jokes," a voice said from behind them. A boy – more like a man, because no fifteen-year-old had any right to be this tall and muscular – was leaning over the desk behind them, his wild mane of hair flying in every direction. "I'm Halfborn, by the way. Gun guy is T.J and this explosive lady is Mallory." The redheaded girl next to Halfborn waved. Something about the way she looked at Magnus made him think she was thinking of the best possible way to kill him.

"What's your quirk?" Mallory asked. She had freckles everywhere and her hair was just as wild as Halfborn's.

"Um, I'm a healer. My name is Magnus."

"Oh, that's a useful quirk," the huge boy said. "I can make my body as hard as rock. It's why my mum named me Halfborn. I looked like I was half born and half carved out of rock."

"I can make explosions, if his horrible puns didn't give it away," Mallory said, jabbing Halfborn in the side with her elbow (which must have hurt if his skin was rock hard).

They kept talking among themselves until a large man with a long cape walked onto the stage. Magnus recognized him as the Thunder Hero, Thor, a popular hero with the quirk of creating and controlling thunderbolts. With his loud boisterous voice, he explained to the students how for their practical exam they would be separated into groups and fight against robots, each one worth a different amount of points they could win if they destroyed it. Their performance during those battles would determine whether they passed or not.

As the other students warmed up in front of the gates of testing ground Beta, Magnus was… freaking out, to say the least. He knew the practical exam would have something to do with fighting, he expected it, but it still came as a blow to him. Would he be able to destroy some robots with a quirk like his? Maybe he could lay out some traps? Would it count as destroying if he made a robot trip and smack face first into the ground?

Magnus was so lost in his worries he didn't notice the person stretching next to him. The green haired kid from the auditorium was studying him from the corner of their two-colored eyes, watching as this scrawny blond boy almost had an aneurysm from his nerves.

With a sigh, the green haired student stood up and walked closer to Magnus. "Calm down, alright? You're not doing yourself any favors worrying like that. Plus, I can feel your anxiousness from here and it's distracting."

Magnus flushed and looked away. "Ah, sorry. I'm just… nervous." Yes, obviously you're nervous, that's why they spoke t you in the first place.

"I noticed," the kid smirked. "Look, we don't know what this testing ground is like. Maybe it will help you use your quirk better. Maybe it won't. There's no reason to kill yourself with worry over something you can't control. Just deal with it when the time comes."

Magnus couldn't really argue with that logic. "Thanks, uh…"

The kid switched their weight to their left leg, their hip jutting out and their arms crossed over their chest. Their tracksuit was pink with green stripes running down the sides and coupled with the glint in their eyes it made them look like a man-eating plant about to attack."Alex. She/her at the moment."

"I, um, I'm Magnus. He/him always."

Alex smirked and Magnus felt like the previous man-eating flower metaphor was really accurate. "Well, guess I'll see you later if you pass the exam, Magnus."

Alex walked away, waving a glove-covered hand at him, and before Magnus had time to think about the exchange that just took place, Thor's booming voice came out of the speakers, telling the students to take their places because the exam was about to start.

Welp, here it goes, Magnus though as he got his place next to the other teenagers. His heart was beating so loud he could hear it in his ears as Thor counts down to the start of the practical exams.

"Three!"

Okay, deep breath. Don't panic.

"Two!"

Just stay calm and figure out the best possible plan. You got this.

"One! Go!"

Students rushed past him, activating their quirks so they could cover more ground. One guy ran super fast, the gusts of wind he created blowing Magnus's hair back; another one climbed on top of the nearest building and Magnus saw a fucking cheetah pass by him (he had the weird feeling the feline was smirking at him). Everywhere he looked people were using their powers – scanning the area for enemies from the roofs of buildings, running through the streets at impossible speeds, using the environment around them to use their quirk to move faster. They were hardly inside the faux city for three minutes when Magnus heard the deafening bang of one of the robots going down.

It's like a jungle, Magnus though, eyes wide with fear and awe. This is what they mean when they talk about survival of the fittest!

Magnus took off frantically. He needed to take down some of the robots and fast. Ideally the ones worth more points would be better but he couldn't afford to be picky now. He runs by people fighting, the remains of a robot littering the street as a boy with giant fists crushed another one close by. The sight made Magnus panic. How was he supposed to destroy a robot with a healing quirk?

He stumbled as his feet hit a piece of scrap metal and he fell down, someone else crashing into him. He didn't get to see who it was because they were gone immediately with an angry, "Watch where you're going, loser!" Magnus blurted out apologies to no one; he was so out of his depth and it made him feel weak and tiny. (And compared to some of the kids here, he was.) He got up, glancing back down for a moment before grabbing the piece of metal from the ground. Maybe he could use it as a weapon.

Yet even armed with his makeshift sword, he had to find an enemy to fight and with so many people looking for the same thing and his low mobility, that was almost impossible. His heart had rejoiced when he had seen the bright '2' on a lone robot, but it had been swiftly destroyed by Samirah's air spear, the rays of sun filtering through the condensed air making it look like it was made out of light. The next robot had been destroyed by a boy the size of a two-floor bus, the one after that by a girl with water for hair and the one after that by a girl with horse legs.

He ran and he ran and he ran down the street, turning down alleys and taking sharp turns, but each and every time a robot was before him, someone else took it down before he could even lift up his scrap-metal sword.

I'm never going to make it!

Fueled by animalistic panic, Magnus kept running blindly. He had to find a robot, he had to find a robot, one, just one!

"Watch out!" Someone yelled and Magnus had enough time to see the dismembered arm of one of the robots flying straight at him. Surprise had frozen him in place, the arm flying closer and before he knew it-

The arm hit the street, cracking the cement and creating a small crater at the place Magnus was standing at just seconds ago. Dazed and confused, he looked up to see a large lion holding him by the collar of his shirt. The lion put him down on the sidewalk, away from the commotion, then started to change, fur giving place to pink and mismatched eyes staying the same as the lion changed to Alex.

"Watch where you're going or you'll get crushed, Maggie," she said before switching into a cheetah and zipping away, leaving Magnus to star at her as he tried to wrap his mind around what just happened in those few short seconds.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. No time for that now! I need to pass the exam!

He took off running, taking a left at a crossroad and stopped dead in his tracks before he managed to run into the back of one of the robots. It's large, clunky arms were swinging at whoever was fighting it, and as it bent forward to attack at the dodging student, Magnus caught the glint wiring between the armored plates of its head and body.

Would it break if I cut those? He didn't mull it over for long, gripping his metal chunk tightly and jumping on the robot as soon as it bent to attack again. The sharp point of the metal wedged between the two parts of the robot as it moved around to try and throw him off. He wrapped his legs around its back and moved the metal sharply from side to side, damaging and cutting the wires with the metal's rugged edge. He must have hit something important because the robot went stiff suddenly before collapsing in a heap on the ground.

"I had that!" The student that had been fighting the robot yelled, but Magnus was running again towards the nearest robot to attack it from behind again. Maybe he could get enough points to pass like this if he was quick enough!

He was moving off the remains of his second robot, having collected four points thus far, when a scared voice yelled, "Run!" Shrieks and screams followed it as students rushed past Magnus in terror. Magnus understood why when he looked up and felt his blood run cold in his veins.

A robot, bigger than the buildings around them, was moving through the testing ground, destroying everything in its path. A large, blood red zero gleamed on its side and Magnus remembered Thor's instructions.

"The robots' points are written on their bodies. One is worth one point, two is worth two, and so forth. If a robot has a zero on it it's worth no points and you shouldn't bother fighting it."

I can see why! The robot was absolutely huge, there was no way a single person could take it down unless they had a death wish and an insanely powerful quirk. Magnus was about to start running away like the rest of the students when he heard a panicked string of curses.

"Fucking hell! Come on, move! Shit!" Alex was lying on the street, blood seeping into her tracksuit from a wound in her side as she tried to push the ruble that was keeping her legs trapped. But the ruble was too big, too heavy, and the robot was drawing nearer, turning everything it ran over to dust.

Magnus didn't know what happened, didn't realize what he was doing or why, but his body was moving on its own, running opposite the fleeing students towards Alex.

"What are you doing?" someone yelled at him. "Run!"

I don't know, I don't know what I'm doing! Magnus dropped to his knees next to Alex and started pushing against the ruble, the slab of concrete inching higher and higher under their combined strength.

"What are you doing? You're going to get crushed!" Alex yelled at him.

"So are you!" He yelled back as the piece of debris fell of Alex, revealing the broken mess that was her legs.

"Shit," they muttered together, and with half a glance at the approaching robot, Magnus pressed his palms against Alex's bruised flesh through a rip in her pants near the knee.

Come on, you can do it. Just heal her. He closed his eyes, tried to calm his head, and simply concentrate on the feeling of flesh and blood and bones underneath his fingertips, the hum of Alex's body under his hands as he willed the bones back in place, cracks mending and tissue reconnecting.

But not fast enough, not nearly fast enough. Alex was groaning at the pain of her bones being healed and the robot was coming nearer and nearer, the sounds of robot remains being crushed under its weight deafening.

It needs to stop, it needs to stop, it needs to STOP!

Magus was screaming and for a moment the world was still, burning as a fire seemed to spark inside him and spread outwards, consuming everything in its path and turning it to ashes. There was the sound of metal flying through the air and crashing into buildings as students screamed in fear, confusion, and surprise.

The last thing Magnus could remember was Alex's staggered expression before everything turned black.

/

Later, Magnus had woken up in one of the beds in the infirmary, head clouded as Eir, the Healing Hero and nurse of UA stood over him. She had run some tests on him to make sure everything was working like it was supposed to and Magnus asked her what had happened as she was writing something down on her clipboard.

"You overexerted your quirk and passed out from the strain," she said. "The other examinees said you screamed and suddenly they were made to drop their weapons as they flew out of their hands. They said that the Zero robot stopped dead in its tracks like it had broken down."

Magnus had blinked up at her, even more confused than before. "But how? I have a healing quirk, I couldn't possibly do something like that!"

Eir's eyes took in Magnus for a moment, calculating as if she was thinking of how to stitch up his wound. "What does it feel like when you heal something? What do you imagine?"

"What? It… feels like someone's body is coming together underneath my fingers. I just imagine everything going back to their place and they do."

Eir nodded. "Exactly. You don't have a healing quirk, but a body manipulation one. I am correct to assume one of your parents was a healer?"

Magnus nodded, still dumbfounded. "My mother."

Eir didn't seem surprised. "That must have been why you had an innate leaning towards healing, it was the genes from your mother's quirk at play. Your father most likely had some type of manipulation quirk, and the two combined and resulted in yours."

Magnus was speechless, obviously. He had lived his whole life believing one thing and suddenly it was proven wrong. "But then what about the flying weapons? They're inanimate objects!"

"Yes, however the majority of those affected were in part made of metal, which is a component of the human body. Your quirk went high-wire because of stress and resulted in what happened. I doubt you would be able to do something like that again unless you were trained or had your life on the line."

Magnus had nodded, quiet, and Eir told him that he could leave whenever he felt well enough to go home since his body was rested. Magnus had made some affirmative sound but said nothing more, lost in thought as he tried to make sense of this new information. If he could manipulate bodies, could he make someone faint or fall unconscious or even…die? Could he manipulate other chemical components of the human body besides metal? And if so, how much of it? Would it be easier for him to do that if the components were inside a body?

The possibilities were so many and he was equally confused and excited. Realizing he was going to stay here thinking all day unless he was made to leave, he swung his legs off the bed and started pulling on his shoes. He was about to leave when he stopped and let his fingers trace the flower on his palm. Pain tended to travel through a soulmate bond whether they intended it or not and Magnus didn't want his soulmate to worry too much about him.

Relief quickly washed over him, as well as an angry, scolding feeling that seemed to yell to Magnus that if he pulled whatever he just pulled again his soulmate would kill him for it. Over the years they knew each other through delicate touches and shared emotions, Magnus had come to the realization that whoever his soulmate was, they could totally kick his ass. (Which wasn't that hard to do in the first place, but still.)

Magnus took his backpack from where it was waiting for him by the foot of the bed and after a quick goodbye to Eir, he left UA.

/

Magnus found classroom 1A fairly easily and after marveling at the humongous size of the doorway – it was large enough to fit a giant though it, which made sense since some students might have a quirk that made them larger than the average human – he walked inside. Some students had already arrived, dressed in the gray blazers, red ties and dark green bottoms of the UA school uniform. Magnus didn't stand awkwardly by the door for long because T.J saw him from where he was talking to Halfborn and Mallory and waved him over.

"You got in!" T.J cheered as soon as Magnus came close, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "I'm glad to see you here!"

"Me too," Magnus chuckled, kind of nervously. "I didn't expect to get in."

"Well, you're in," Halfborn said. "And you know what that means? You're stuck with us for the next three years!"

"Good luck," Mallory told him cynically, but Magnus couldn't help but smile. They were exchanging stories from their respective practical exams when Magnus noticed a green covered head walk through the door.

"Samirah!" Magnus called out. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm great, thanks. I'm glad you're feeling alright, what you did at the end of the practical exam was insane."

"What did he do?" T.J asked curiously and before Magnus could respond, Alex was here, answering the question for him.

"He came back to help me even though that meant he was almost crushed by a robot and then he screamed so loud people's weapons got scared and flew out of their hands." Alex crossed her arms over her chest, the sleeves of her uniform rolled up to her elbows, exposing her toned arms and Magnus may have stared for a moment too long. "I can't decide whether that was brave or extremely stupid. Probably the second."

They talked for some more time until a short black man wearing an impeccably fashionable suit walked into the classroom.

"Sit down, everyone. My name is Blitzen, also known by the hero name Creator and I will be your homeroom teacher."

First chapter out of the way! The next one is next week (what do you mean I have most of it written and could post it all now?)

If you have any questions about the gang's quirks and such, please ask, though check the comments first to see if I've already answered it just in case. Until next time,

Go beyond! Plus Ultra!

(I really wanted to do that, okay, those of you who've watched the show get it)