A/N: Wow! I didn't even think the fandom was big enough for all of the support I got for this story, thanks to everyone who sent in an OC, and while I can't fit everyone in the main class, those who didn't make the cut will appear as part of Class B. I can take three or four more Class B, but no more Class A spots are open at this time, and teachers, villains, and pros are welcome too. Seriously, I need all of those.


"Well, you're free." Sighed the prison guard, as he unlocked Jennifer's cell. "Grab your personal effects and leave."

Jennifer complied, walking out, and making her way down the hall that felt all too familiar. Since she was 14, this had been her home, and though she thought that she'd have some kind of sentimental mixed feelings about missing the place, she could only feel relief. To her, all that release meant was that she could finally learn to be a hero, and better yet, she could learn it in a hurry. The next four years would be a grind to be sure, but it would find her on the path to gaining her hero license, and two years ahead of schedule to boot. There was little to miss. Soon, she would have her freedom, her future, and maybe some money courtesy of her mother. This was freedom, and she loved it.

"All right, Jeans, a leather jacket, Misfits t-shirt, hockey mask..." The guard sighed, as he excavated Jennifer's possessions from a locker in the prison's exit room.

"Thank you." Jennifer said, as she ran off to a secluded area to change.


"So, I hear you got accepted into the accelerated program" Ruby said, from the driver's seat of her car, a new supercar of some kind from Italy, Jennifer wasn't sure, as her mother had acquired it while she was imprisoned, and that wasn't what they really talked about during what visits her mother could manage to fit in her busy schedule. Jennifer wasn't quite sure whether her mother made the three years better or worse with her sporadic visits, but ultimately decided not to think about it. That was behind her now, and before she knew it, she'd be staying in a dorm in Toronto's suburbs, away from her mother and the other shitheads who never gave her the time of day.

"Yeah, I was top of my class in grades 9 and 10, I guess the second I had a chance, it was all I could think of, managed to learn to fight with the quirk. Not sure if I can kick your ass now, but I'd probably do better against you than last time.

"Watch your language, and fine, let's see you try." Ruby laughed, doing her best to relate to her daughter. She wasn't quite sure what to do. She loved Jennifer. After all, she'd given birth to her, but it was hard to relate to someone whom you only saw a few times a month, and the rift had only grown larger since that fateful day. Never mind that Jennifer's contempt for her had grown to the point where she'd attack the latter out of sheer pride. It was difficult, but she knew she had to relate to Jennifer some how. Maybe a friendly spar would help diffuse the tension.


Noon, June 1st, Rosedale, Ontario.

The car pulled up to the Amano family home, and Jennifer was immediately hit with a rush of nostalgia. She remembered this house. It looked like it had been designed 60 years ago, yet included more modernized sensibility. The house was built long and wide, with sharp angles and a minimalist sense of style. It was also huge, with five floors, a massive porch spanning the entire house, which was raised a good ten feet above the road. Around the back, Jennifer could see the familiar sight of Balsam Lake. No doubt about it, Hero work paid the bills. Jennifer sighed. At least her life had been comfortable.

"I don't even know why you had to commit those petty crimes? What did you want that we couldn't afford?" Ruby sighed, feeling a bit frustrated. Forgiveness would take some time.

"I didn't see a cent, it was the rest of the gang that took it." Jennifer explained, as she'd done to her therapist many times. "I figured it wasn't right for me to take it, but for them, it was a different story."

"Well I'm glad I didn't raise a glutton." Ruby sighed. "Now, about sparring."


Jennifer threw a glob of plasma at her mother. No radiation. It didn't matter. Neither of them would be hurt by radiation at all. Ruby felt the sting, and sustained a bit of damage, but she was ready. She saw her daughter ready another dose, and saw her opening. Ruby surged forward, and knocked Jennifer off balance with a quick strike from her shoulders. Jennifer fell to the ground, and quickly came back up with her hand coated in plasma. She hit Ruby's stomach with a devastating palm strike, but the latter sustained the blow and kneed Jennifer as she ascended, which seemed to take the latter out of the fight.

"You win mom..." Jennifer gasped.

"Pro heroes tend not to lose." Ruby laughed, as she took her daughter's arm and walked inside with her.


10:00 PM

"Good night." Ruby sighed, as she shot her daughter a look, still conflicted about the girl.

"Good night to you too." Jennifer answered, before adding "asshole" under her breath.

"I heard that." Said Ruby, though she was too tired and conflicted to do much at all. "Your dad should be home tomorrow, I suggest you become more pleasant before then."

Jennifer felt a bit chilled, but she dutifully sauntered up to her bedroom, untouched for three years, and fell onto her bed, too tired by the strange world she found herself in. It wasn't supposed to be like this, she had a future and a solid way forward, but here she was, full of hate for her mother, and unable to fix it. What if she was cut off? She'd already been a gang leader, and who knows, could she go down that dark path again? Maybe she was a monster. Her mother just couldn't stand to admit it...


June 2nd, 9:30 AM

"Jenny?" Ruby called, from the doorframe of Jennifer's room.

"What's up?" Jenifer asked, halfway out of bed, and fearful for her mother's reaction.

"Your dad should be downstairs, go talk to him, and we can go from there."


Genta Amano was hardly an intimidating man. Quite the opposite in fact. He was a bit on the short side, and had disheveled black hair and thick glasses over green eyes, and a simple outfit that included a sweater vest, a white shirt, and gray pants. That said, Jennifer was terrified of him now, as her father.

"Jennifer." He said, grimly.

"Yes?"

"I'm proud of you." He sighed.

"Wait, you're proud?" Jennifer asked, a bit taken aback.

"You dedicated yourself to reform and rehabilitation for three years, and now you're going to Toronto Accelerated High School to be a hero, that's admirable. You're turning your life around, and even if we may be on tenuous terms now, we can grow together, as a family."

"Thanks dad." Jennifer muttered, confused, relieved, but still distant. It felt like the rift was bridged, but it wouldn't be healed for a long time. The damage was done. She had been denied the thing she wanted most in life, and to her, her parents were still at best funding, and at worst oppressors. It would take more time for that to change.

"But she's already proven herself irresponsible, and she's without direction for the rest of the summer, how can we expect her to keep following the law?" Asked Atomica.

"You can do that. Take a brief hiatus, and keep an eye on her." Genta said, thinking quickly. He wasn't going to have his wife and daughter destroy the kitchen. He'd worked hard on appointing it.

"No! Mom's done nothing for me, and I need some fucking space, I'm 17, not 5. Give me some room." Jennifer demanded. Her mother was in no way her friend, and she was not about to let her take over her life, not right when she was almost free.

"I think it's a great idea." Said Atomica. To her, this was the last chance to get something right in her daughter's life. It had been a never ending parade of neglect, stress, and paranoia, and the punchline was that she was right. Her daughter was a delinquent, and now, all she could think to do was live with it, and give Jennifer the attention that she deserved, and keep her out of that trouble.

"All right, you take care of Jennifer until August." Genta sighed, a bit disinterested. "Now I need to get back to my latest project..."


"Listen, I don't want your help." Jennifer said, from the passenger seat of their car.

"You might not, but you need it." Ruby remarked, giving her daughter an authoritative look.

"Need it? I just spent three years learning hero stuff, plus enough therapy for three people. I'm reformed, and I'm ready to take on anything."

"But how can I trust you? I set you back, and for that I'm sorry, but that doesn't change that your first instinct was to rob people and beat up rival gangs. What's to say you won't do the same the second you get a setback at school?

Jennifer was speechless. Her mother had changed too much. Instead of of no attention, now there was too much. She had no space, no room to move, and nothing to think about besides her mom's latest whim. "Fine." She sighed, unable to fight it, and certainly unable to outfight her mother.

"Good, we can build trust when we get there."

"Where is 'there?' asked Jennifer."

"A place I haven't been in a long time."


Pickle Lake, Ontario.

"Where the hell are we?" Demanded Jennifer, as she looked out from the window, and noticed a slight chill in the air, as they pulled into a small cabin.

"Pickle Lake, my home town." Ruby explained. "This isn't the house I grew up in, I just needed a rent, and this was open so...

"Whatever." Jennifer sighed. "What do you want to teach me?

"Everything." Ruby smirked. "Everything."


The Next Day, 6:00 AM:

"All right, wake up sleepyhead!" Declared Ruby, as she shook the cot Jennifer had taken.

"Fuck mom. It's six in the-"

"No language." Ruby said.

"All right, what's up?" Asked Jennifer.

"We're hiking."

"Hiking?"

"Trust me." Ruby sighed, as she led Jennifer by the hand and out into the woods.

"This is... Interesting." Jennifer offered, as the two hiked along the trail, and came to a clearing.

"Now, we fight." Ruby said, giving Jennifer a confident look.

"Again?" Asked Jennifer, but she was never without some desire to fight, so she prepared her hands to generate plasma all the same.

"Yes, I think I need to fight you out a bit, see a thing or two about your style, and figure out what I can from how you do it." Explained Ruby. "Before, I just saw it in short bursts, but now, I'll go easy, to see what we might need to work on, and what you're doing well in."

"All right, bring it!" Shouted Jennifer, as she began the fight with a quick shot of plasma.

"And so I will." Ruby laughed, dodging the projectile, and forcing herself in close. That was her style, if she couldn't take out her opponent from afar with her qurik, she'd do it up close. It never felt quite comfortable to use anything but radiation from afar, so that was her style. She brought up her knee-more slowly than usual-and Jennifer responded in kind, with a quick plasmatic punch, which hit her mother's shoulder, and struck her off balance, causing the latter to fall down.

Ruby surged upward, ready to strike with a harsh chop, which Jennifer quickly countered with a palm strike to the stomach, which sent the latter down again.

"All right, I've seen enough." Ruby said, getting up. "You tend to rely on close up attacks the second long range fails, and you act without much care for taking damage. You're good at the fighting, but your preventive game needs work, and you need to be able to keep some distance between you and your opponent, especially considering the fact that you don't have an excessive defense.

"You-you're going to make me a better fighter?" Asked Jennifer, her spirits lifted. Was her mother finally going to help her learn to use her quirk?

"Yes, and teach you a bit of discipline and empathy along the way." Ruby said, with a smile. She was finally reaching her daughter.


June.

"Go Jenny! Kill it!" Ruby shouted, as her daughter threw bolts of plasma destroying stumps, targeting the roots, and disintegrating it as it connected.


July.

"Great Work, keep the eggs in tact." Ruby encouraged as the latter ran through a field of radiation, that was marked by smoldering campfires, doing her best to avoid the fires and keeping the case of eggs in her hands.


August.

"Jenny, I'm proud of you." Ruby said, as the two boarded their car.

Jennifer was taken aback. Pride was never something that she thought her mother thought of her. "All right, dad will have my stuff at the dorms, right?" Jennifer felt conflicted, she wasn't used to the idea of love and compassion from her mother, and this was starting to feel a bit unsettling.

"Yes. That's been the plan." Ruby said, confused, but endeared. She did love her daughter. It just took a while for her to realize that. She just hoped that they could build on this. The last three months was the most bonding the two had ever done in 17 years.

"There's just one more thing..." Jennifer offered, giving her mother an encouraging look. Fuck it, she'd try her best to relate to her mother.

"Go right ahead." Ruby said, with a smile.

"You know all about branding yourself, and everyone else will have a costume and motif when I get there. They never taught us anything about that in Juvie. What can you tell me about the look and attitude of a hero?"

Ruby's face lit up. Her daughter was finally coming to her for help. "Okay, I know all about that, I have an agent who specializes in it, but I like to think I've picked up a few tricks too. You need to be sure that your hero gimmick fits your own personality, and not only that, but you need to figure out what to accentuate about your past. For example, I emphasize that I was from a poor fishing village, and that I became a hero through hard work and perseverance. You'll have to think of your own.

Jennifer considered this for a few minutes.

"How about, I used to be a criminal, but I fought my way back into the system, and taking what I learned from criminal behavior, I fight crime?" She offered.

"It's a start, now what of the name?"

"I'm thinking Rebel Rat." Jennifer said. "In tribute to my old life."


"All right, you can call us at any time, and we'll expect you to try your hardest." Ruby said, beaming with pride.

"Great." Jennifer sighed, as she surveyed the room. It was a decent size, nowhere near as large as her room back home, but it filled its role. She had a full bed lofted on the far wall, a desk beneath it, and some chairs situated around a table, and a contoured seat positioned on the ground, facing a tv. Jennifer's favorite music and movies were represented by posters on her wall, and the ensemble was completed by a closet containing outfits that made her look like a beatnik from decades ago.

"Now, orientation is tonight at 5?" Jennifer noted, as she walked out into the common area.

"You just get here?" A masculine voice rang out from Jennifer's left. The latter looked over and saw its owner. The voice belonged to a tall polynesian boy with long black hair in a ponytail, and a carefree appearance, which was conveyed in his outfit, an unbuttoned floral shirt, light blue shorts, and black sneakers. Jennifer had to wonder if he felt the slightest bit cold, as it wasn't exactly getting up to 30-40 celsius in Canada.

"Yeah... This is exciting." She said, with a smile. "I'm Jennifer Amano, Rebel Rat."

"Kaponi Lei, but you can call me Kap, or maybe 'Endemic.' I'm from Hawaii." He explained. "Kinda cold up here." He finished, in a relaxed, laid back tone.

"You get used to it." Laughed Jennifer, as they were joined by a few others.

"Hi, I'm Lillian Gardner, or am I Jayla Tucker? Trista Ferrous?" A petite girl with gray eyes and golden-blonde hair in a frilled white dress said.

"It's Lillian." Sighed another girl who approached from behind her, and your hero name is Amnesiac." She was also quite small, and wore a black turtleneck dress along with purple leggings and black buckled shoes, which complemented her black eyes and hair, the latter of which went down to her waist, and was tied into two pigtails. "Memoire Blanc," she said, her Quebec accent becoming noticeable, or if we're doing hero names, Mindslip." She finished, as she stared Lillian down, which seemed to clear her head.

"Oh, yeah I am Lillian." The latter said. "And I just came from Juvie to-"

"The fuck!?" Jennifer shouted.

"She picks up other people's memories." Memoire explained. "I can shut down memory production, so we stick together. She wouldn't remember much at all otherwise, at least not her own memories..."

"I'm actually Jayla Tucker, or Mainframe, the Cybernetic Hero." A dark-skinned girl sighed, as she strode into the group. She was a bit taller, though not as tall as Jennifer or Kap. She wore unassuming clothes, a simple pair of sweatpants and a plain gray t shirt. Apart from that though, her appearance was anything but typical. She had blue and purple lights coursing around every visible part of her skin, cyan blue hair that was short and messy, and eyes that glowed blue. "I'm a human computer, that's what's with the eyes."

"Damn you! Next time will not be so lucky!" Shouted a feminine yet angry voice from a few feet away. She had just lost an arm wrestling match with another boy, tall and lanky.

"Ah well." The boy said, with an indifferent disposition about him. "Another victory." He was dispassionate, with his light blue eyes giving off a sunken expression, and his shaggy blonde hair, which was currently covering the left side of his face, most of which was covered under a beanie printed with the Canadian flag.

"Moon not yet full!" The girl complained. Jennifer did a double take after getting a good look at her. She didn't look like the hulking monster she expected, quite the opposite in fact. She was fit enough, but not massive, and by all appearances was a normal girl in her late teens. The booming voice and apparent high strength just seemed off, not least thanks to her highly professional look. She wore her long black hair in a simple braid, and was dressed in all black, tank top, jeans, shoes. She also had silver bangles lining her arms.

"Alex, Selene, stop fighting." Another girl shouted. The third voice belonged to a girl of average height, who shot both of them a look. She was oddly 'cute' with a slightly athletic build, voluminous red hair reaching the shoulders, and an odd sense of style. She wore overall shorts along with a red t shirt under it, and completed the outfit with mismatched socks and white tennis shoes. "Sorry about those two, they tend to fight all of the time."

"You act like you're their mom." Jennifer said with a laugh.

"Well I'm the closest thing those two have to one."

"Is that girl all there?" Asked Jennifer, confused as to how she managed to be in an accelerated class.

"It's her quirk. Selene, or Artemis as she calls herself, gets smarter as the moon wanes, and stronger as it waxes, but she loses all of the other trait in the process. She actually scored a perfect on the written exam. Alex, or Berserker, gets stronger the more sleep he gets, even if he is kind of weak powered down.

"Oh, okay, and you are?"

"Lizette Collyer, or Bullseye. Or Iz, or Colly. Call me what you like."

"All right, should we be going to orientation?" Jayla asked, looking at a digital clock that manifested in her own eyes.


The accelerated Academy's principal was a sight to behold. Not many heroes could make the claim that they fought crime while nearly naked, but Benjamin Ancel was one such person. In nothing but a pair of white briefs and a red cape with black spots, the administrator walked down the aisle and up to the podium, where he prodded at the microphone before quite literally shouting into the device.

"Welcome! I am principal Ancel, but you all can call me 'Brief,' that was what I was called back in the day. It's great to have a new class of shining faces and... ah fuck it, I'm not very good with rousing speeches. Basically, you're here to make hero quickly, and that's what we're here to help you with, it's brutal, but you'll love it as soon as the initial shock wears off. Anyway... I think it's time for an honored tradition here. As Canada's premier hero program, we often find people curious about the strength of the new classes. Consequently, we set the new class up in a friendly exercise of hero and villain."


A/N: Well, I feel like the last thousand words or so could have been better, but I wanted to get this out somewhat quickly. It's never a great idea to wait too long before posting a second chapter, so here we are. I'll introduce the rest of Class A in the next chapter. I hope this was an enjoyable appetizer, and think of chapter 3 as more of a main course. Until next time!