Chapter – 1 – The last lantern – Part 1
Having to be powerless, or quirkless, in a world full of people with powers, or quirks, as they were called, was a terrible existence.
To see everyone around you using their goddamn superpowers to make their lives easier, more fun or… to be superheroes. It was a living hell. One that Izuku had been in since the day he turned four years old.
Being a hero was all that Izuku had ever dreamed of, he had watched the videos of superheroes saving people on the internet a thousand times over. It was his dream, his determination, his only desire!
…A desire that was destroyed by a few simple words by an uncaring doctor to an innocent child. "You will never have a quirk" He had said. And that was it. The end of Izuku's dream. The end of his life.
But even with that, he would not let it stop him. If there was anything that Izuku had in pounds, it was his willpower. He would never give up on something g so great. Quirk or no quirk. He, would be a hero!
It was this line of thinking that lead Izuku to today, the day of the U.A entrance exam, no powers, no abilities, no skills or talents, just an extremely fit body –from years of constant exercise- and a will so strong that steel would faint out of shame.
Izuku ducked under a robot's fist and slammed his foot into its side knocking it back slightly. The robot rocked back onto its other three feet and stabilized itself before aiming a rocket in his direction.
Gulping, Izuku barely managed to jump to the side before the missile hit him, crashing onto his side against the ground; instead, the rocket crashed into the ground behind him, leaving a small, but no less terrifying, crater. It would have done some serious damage to Izuku if it had hit.
Not one to be put out by a bad situation, Izuku used the opportunity of the robot reconfiguring its aim, to roll to his feet and jam his arm through a gap in the metal armour and into the internal wiring.
Using all the strength he had available to him, he ripped out the inner workings with a scream of exertion. "ARRRGH" He yelled, as the sires came free in his hand.
Immediately, the robot sparked in from of him before suddenly collapsing on its face, dead.
"Three points…" Izuku breathed out heavily. This was only the first robot, but it had taken all of him to take it out. Izuku coughed into his hand, his screaming having damaged his throat. This was just the start; no stupid exam was going to stop him from being a hero.
Five minutes later, and the worries he hadn't let himself dare to feel came true. The exam was almost over and he had only gotten another two points. He grit his teeth, this wasn't happening, this wasn't going to happen.
A monstrous crash echoed around the arena and one of the buildings close to him exploded inwards, rubble rained down on his head and Izuku couldn't believe what he was seeing. The zero-pointer robot had arrived. And it was massive.
The robot, trudging through the examination zone on humongous black treads was more than seventy metres high, it easily towered over the mock-sky scrapers and apartment buildings they were fighting around, and with each swing of an over-sized green arm, it destroyed yet another mountain of concrete.
Nothing could stop this thing, and while Izuku wouldn't back down from anything, even he knew when to run away. He could barely match up to the smaller robots, what the hell could he do to this one.
But…
"HELP ME!" A girl's voice cried from behind him, the direction of the giant robot.
Izuku stopped running and turned to stare at the girl desperately trying to free her leg from under the rubble where it was trapped. Izuku knew her. She was the girl that had stopped him from tripping in front of the school. No way in hell could he run away now; Giant robot be damned!
Izuku twisted on his foot and started running back towards the robot, dodging out the way of the other, screaming, examinees. Finally, he managed to make it to the girl. But the robot was a lot closer now.
"Hang on!" He shouted at her, over the sound of the breaking concrete. "I'm here to help!"
"My leg" She cried "It's stuck"
Izuku nodded and got to work attempting to move the rubble, the first pieces came away easily, but the last one was far too big for his to even begin to move. "Gravity!" Izuku yelled.
"What?!" The girl shouted back, her face scrunched up in pain.
"You can affect gravity!" Izuku desperately strained himself more trying to lift the unmoveable rubble "I need you to make this rock light or I can't save you!"
Realization struck through her. "Right! Of course!" Quickly, she bent towards the stone, crying out in pain as her leg was moved slightly by her exertions, but she managed to touch the rock.
The rock suddenly moved and Izuku almost fell forwards before catching himself, he held it up in the air as the girl quickly scrambled backwards away from it. Izuku nodded at her and dropped the rock before helping her to her feet, supporting her with one shoulder and half-walked, half-carried her limping form towards the other teenagers, who at this point had stopped to gape at them. Why the hell weren't they helping?
As he thought that, one of the other students suddenly appeared in front of him with a burst of wind. Izuku immediately took in the exhaust-like protrusions on his legs and deduced that the hero-to-be had a speed-enhancing mutation quirk. Perfect.
"Hello there, my name is-" The blue haired teen started before Izuku interrupted him.
"Shut up and help me!" He shouted at him. "Pick her up and run, I can get out myself" The teen nodded and took the girl into his arms, bridal style, the engines on his legs revved up and in what seemed to be an instant to Izuku, he vanished, with the girl in his arms. Good, she was safe.
Izuku took one more look at the approaching behemoth and started running again. Hopefully there were more robots to break when he got to the rest of them. He definitely didn't have enough points to pass just ye-
"And that is it! The exam is oveeeeer. Thanks for playing" President mic, teacher and pro hero's voice echoed across the arena, signalling the end of the exam, and Izuku's chances.
The zero-pointer screeched to a halt behind him, a final piece of concrete smashing down as Izuku stood stock-still and stared at nothing.
It couldn't be.
A few weeks after the end of the exam Izuku stared at the rejection letter in front of him.
Thank you for your time, but we are sorry to say that you didn't-
Izuku crumpled up the letter and threw it into his wastebin. He had read the whole thing a few times over. It went on with the empty platitudes for quite a while before offering him a place on the general course for his Exemplary performance. Izuku huffed.
He should probably take it, but just the thought of that villain wannabe Kacchan being in the hero course while he was stuck learning regular things… It was horrible; there was no possible way that he could live with that every day.
Luckily, his mother had made him sign up for more than just U.A –He had taken the written tests before U.A and aced all of them- he hadn't agreed with her at the time but now he supposed that it was a good idea.
"Izuku, dinner!" His mother called through his bedroom door.
"Coming" He shouted back. Izuku took one last look at the letter in his bin before heading out the door. Maybe some katsudon would cheer him up.
"Mayday, mayday" Abin-sur shouted into his ships communicator, although he doubted that anyone was left to answer him, but there could be a chance of the world below having technology advanced enough to save him, or at least stop him from dying after he crashed!
The explosion that wracked Dagobah beach was immense. An interstellar ship of that size hitting the ground at just over four-hundred miles-per-hour could cause massive amounts of collateral damage depending on where it landed, luckily the beach it landed on was comprised of soft sand, that was immediately tuned into glass from the heat of the hull, and piles upon piles of unwanted junk that had washed up from off-shore.
These two things combined managed to cushion the landing and slow the ship enough to save Abin-sur's life from impact, but neither prevented the crumpling of the front of the ship, nor the large metal spike that embedded itself in his lungs, scratching his heart at the same time.
"Shit…" he managed to choke out as blood began to fill his throat.
The lantern knew that he was dying, and he knew what he had to do. "Ring…" he gurgled. "Download main-data- " A cough pulled itself from his throat, interrupting his speech and covering the destroyed front of his cabin with even more blood. He held a hand up and covered his mouth. This was important. "D-Download main-database… ac-co-colate artificial intelligence to main drive" Whoever got this ring next would need all the help they could get. After all. There were no more lanterns to help them.
The ring beeped in affirmation of the process finishing. Abin-sur managed out one last nod as his breathes became more laboured. "Good... you know… what… to do"
The ring flashed twice before slowly floating off the dying alien's finger and into the air through one of the many holes the cockpit sported. "Find someone… find someone as good as I was. This world, this u-universe… needs a hero"
The ring floated for a moment more before shooting off into the sky. Abin-sur watched the green glow with an almost nostalgic smile until it disappeared from sight.
"Good…" The word was almost whispered, his strength leaving him quickly now that his job was finally finished.
It would be another five minutes until the police arrived with heroes in toe to investigate the crash site, but by then, it was too late. Abin-sure lay dead in his ship with a small smile on his face.
Izuku threw his bag against the wall. It slid down onto his bed and flopped over lamely. He growled in frustration and sat down heavily at his desk and slammed his face into his hands.
One week into high-school and it was already just as terrible as middle-school. Already his quirkless status had gotten out –thanks to a few former classmates- and they ahd almost immediately started ridiculing him for it.
He sat back in his chair and let his arms flop down to hang by his sides. The bullying wasn't the worst of it. Not even close. The worst part was that he would never be a hero, that he was stuck in school with a mundane future and nothing he could do about it.
He laid he head down on the table and stared out the window.
Maybe he could do something else to help people? Yeah, that was it; heroes weren't the only people that could help others! He could be a detective, or a doctor, a fireman, even a soldier would do.
He almost laughed. How could he forget? The world couldn't take him down, no, he took on the world. And if he couldn't win, he'd just fight harder! He could do anything! He'd- Wait "What's that?" he questioned.
Izuku jerked upright to get a better view out of his window where a green glowing streak shot across the sky, was it a comet? But what comet was green… and what comet flew straight towards him?!
The… green thing had suddenly changed course and flew towards him, luckily it looked to be very far away, so he could get his mother out of the house before it hit them, could be some villain looking to hurt people!
He was about to run to go and get her before the green thing suddenly flew through his open window and started flowing in front of him. Apparently it wasn't far away, it was just small.
Before he could move the ring suddenly glowed brighter and sent out a flat beam of green light that moved up and down his body, a scan, but for what? Then it spoke
Izuku Midoriya, you have been chosen.
A/N And that's a wrap! Chapter one down! This will be a series of stories about Izuku becoming a hero through completely artificial means; He will be quirkless in every one. Some of these stories will be long, others short, this first one will be another few chapters at least.
Feel free to suggest an ability for me to write! Now, what constitutes as artificial is any ability that you're not born with, even things gained from training count. But other things, like superman's abilities wont, because he was born with them, get it?
Anyways that's all, as usual, follow, favourite and review :D