A Hero to Their Core
Chapter 2
This one may not be as long as some of my others but I wanted to get it done so people didn't think it was a one shot. Also I just dropped another new story. An Astral Chain crossover. So give that a look if you like this too. Also could a few fans of this give some of my other stories a look. 2 are personal projects from my own series of comics I'm working on. And I want to know if people really like my characters. But enough muttering. On with the show.
(No POV)
Joey and Lina weren't entirely sure what they could do or teach at the students at UA. But Aizawa and Present Mic had an idea on some of that. The students were given a day off after the attack, so after the two had slept (with Midnight offering to let them stay at her apartment) they came to Gym Gamma to get some ideas and practice with the teachers. Lina decided to go up first. Midnight wanted to see more of the girl's skills after the quick takedown she did on Bakugo yesterday. Both of them went in with some quick strikes and hand to hand blows first. Midnight while being older was impressed by the teenager's skill, even managing to get a strong blow in after she grabbed Midnight's breast and twisted. "That was dirty. But not only do I like it dirty, but I can appreciate a smart fighter." Midnight said with a sadistic grin growing on her face. She decided to ramp it up by using her whip, which struck Lina hard a few times.
Until the girl figured out her rhythm and caught the whip using a collapsible staff. Once she was disarmed, Lina got in close with a strong body blow before throwing Midnight away. "Damn. That hurt. It's been too long since I've faced someone who could actually fight. Guess I'm rusty." The heroine says, before she pulls off part of her costume to let her quirk slow the girl down. "It may not be as effective against women, but it should still slow you down." As she is saying that, Lina is moving away and pulls out a special grenade. Midnight doesn't even notice, because what is coming out is the same or similar color to her quirk. After a minute, Midnight thinks she has won and goes toward where she thought Lina had left. She scratches her arm since it was itchy after ripping of her costume, before turning around a pillar and finding….. nothing. While she is looking around, Lina got behind her and kick the older heroine hard in the back of the head. After crying out in pain, Midnight looks up and sees that Lina is wearing a gasmask to protect herself.
"Planning for possibilities, eh? It still isn't….. ach. Why do my arms itch so much?" Midnight says before she starts scratching more and more. Lina then grabs Midnights arms, pulls them away from each other before kneeing the woman in the stomach. And she finishes with a headbutt to Midnight's face. This in turn knocks the older woman out. All of the other teachers were impressed with Lina's skill and tactics. "Why did she start scratching so much?" Vlad King asks after the Sommilibust mist and Lina's grenade gas has dissipated enough. Midnight asks the same and Lina just replies that, "It's a special compound that leaves an itch on exposed skin. Works great against villains that like to show off." Lina then shows that even her suit didn't have much exposed skin. Much like Midnight her suit was lined with a material that covered any exposed areas. She then went on to say she had a few other types of gas or other grenades to disrupt enemies. From shock traps that could be placed or thrown to knock people out. To incendiary and flashbang and smoke grenades. Vlad was curious how strong the shock traps were, so Lina tossed one at his feet. After the rest backed away the trap went off, creating an electric shock field that knocked out the blood themed hero in a second.
Lina just smiled before saying, "Good enough demonstration?" Aizawa and Mic were a bit off put by how nonchalant she was about beating up or electrocuting people. But Nezu was impressed. "The way you fight. It's like secret agent or spy themed equipment. I'm guessing you were trained by the NIS in your world, right?" At Lina's acknowledgement, Nezu mentioned that Aizawa would benefit from some similar gadgets. It might keep you from getting into some of these more dangerous situations. The mummy bandaged man just grunted in annoyance. So, Ectoplasm decided to test Joey's skills. "I don't want to fight your robot. I want to face off with you. I want to see how good you are without the robot to back you up." Joey just nodded but didn't activate his gauntlet right away. Ectoplasm came at the teen with a variety of kicks from his peg legs. Joey blocked most of the hits and got in a few good blows to Ectoplasm's face and sides. But he also took a solid kick to the chin after another face hit.
Ectoplasm decided to take the gloves off and used his quirk to make a dozen copies. Joey looked around, before throwing a smoke grenade to the ground. This threw the clones off and gave Joey time to activate his gauntlet. Once the smoke cleared, Joey had already taken out 7 clones. So, Ectoplasm ramped it up and made about 20 clones and tried to rush Joey. But the boy was ready, and thanks to his super speed he can see each moving in slow motion. He struck each with a solid blow to the head, boosted by his increased speed. Within 2 minutes Joey had defeated all of Ectoplasm's clones. This impress and amazes the other members of the faculty. "He doesn't really need Heroman does he?" Mic says but Lina stops him. "Heroman and Joey are both great heroes. Joey may direct or give commands to him, but Heroman is the one who decides how he'll fight. No one else does." This surprises Power Loader as he thought that Heroman just had a fairly advanced AI. But to hear that it makes decisions on its own. This was more impressive compared to most robots in their world. All they could do was follow simple commands. "Do you think he'd mind if I looked at or….. well studied Heroman a bit? I'm simply curious about his level of sentience." PL asks, but Lina says he'll have to talk to Joey.
While they have ben talking, Ectoplasm decided to use his giant clone to trap Joey. The clone seemed to eat Joey, until the giant clone started bubbling and then seemed to explode. Joey had created his barrier while inside the clone and upped the electricity to shock the being from the inside out. Once he was on the ground again, he ran at Ectoplasm and punched him in the face with his gauntlet. This knocked the pro out and that was the end of their testing of the other world heroes. Nezu then spoke up and said he knew exactly what each could teach. "Both of you would be great hand-to-hand instructors. I hate to admit it, but that is something we either forget about or gloss over here. We're often so focused on just teaching students how to use their quirks, we forget to cover basic hand to hand. Especially if they have a person with a power like Aizawa's. They could cripple most heroes easily." The other teachers nodded acknowledging he was right about what they ignore. He then mentioned that Joey could be something of a 'heroic will' instructor. Everyone around Nezu was confused by that description, so he explained.
"You said it best yourself Snipe. Heroic will and intent is something we do not teach here. Or rather we don't know the best ways to gauge it. This boy has had a truly heroic will since he was a child. Even if he doesn't think about it, he still may see the more heroic option open to them. And I mean truly heroic. That is something that might just change how we handle quite a few things with heroes." The other teachers nod agreeing that they just don't know how to explain that part of what it means to be a hero. Lina and Joey can see what Nezu is getting at with this whole matter. They had looked up a few other things overnight and what they saw made them wonder if these people can truly be called heroes. Far too many were focused on gaining notoriety or trying to sell themselves as really being heroes. 'And that isn't what it means to be a hero.' Joey thought quietly.
So he and Lina accepted Nezu's offer to act as teachers for UA. Nezu then brought in his next group of people he wants to test. The Big 3 of UA. Hado Nejire, Amakiji Tamaki, and Togata Mirio. The first and last members have big smiles and are interested in the new teachers and heroes to their world. Amakiji though is just sulking in the corner. "So I heard you were a big hero from your world. You and your partner?" Mirio asks Joey, who says yes. He and Lina explain a bit of what Joey had done and how Lina had become a hero in her own right. Both Mirio and Nejire are amazed by the two newcomers. Joey's feats seemed to be on par with All Might and he did them when he was 14 years old. And Lina had taken down villains with and without powers to back Joey up. Let alone the fact she was extra stealthy. So Mirio wanted to face off with both of them. And Nejire want too as well. Mirio decides to face off with Joey first. Right at the start Joey goes superspeed and passes right through Mirio. When he turns, he notices that the older teen is wearing any clothes. As Lina is screaming, Mirio says, "Sorry! My quirk is kinda tricky." Joey managed to figure out what the older boy's power was after that exchange though. With that Joeys doesn't attack right away and waits for Mirio to make his move. So Mirio charges up and disappears into the ground.
Joey has an idea on what he'll do next to he gets as far away as he can, running to the top of the elevated pillars. Mirio comes out and of the ground right where Joey was originally. 'Whoa! Guess he figured out how I operate already. I knew he was fast, but he got away quicker than I was betting on. Guess I'll have to turn it up.' With those thoughts out of the way, Mirio dives back down again. Joey dodges the first few strikes before he decides to throw the boy off. When Mirio come out at Joey from above, he creates a barrier. Mirio thinks that he'll just pass through with his permeation. But when he impacts the field, he gets stopped. Then he gets shocked to the point all of his muscles tense up. Once he's down, Joey uses Shocklock again to restrain the boy. And he can't permeate through the bonds or ground either.
This shocks not just Mirio and the other Big 3 members, but also the teachers. When Joey lets up the electric binding, he explains what happened. "Your power lets you move through things right? Have you ever actually moved through energy though? Especially a super concentration of electricity and electrons. I've seen a power like yours before, but they were able to stay grounded. Not falling through it. So I knew how to stop you from phasing." This impresses all involved as they figured he wouldn't expect what Mirio could do. Lina then decides to show what she can do again. Mirio goes to get his costume pants at least so he doesn't keep flashing the girl. But Lina smiles at this. While Mirio is getting changed, Lina sets a few traps and comes up with a plan to beat the phaser.
When he returns, Lina is standing in the middle of the pillars with her staff out. She still has a smile. Mirio decides to take the first step forward. And is quickly shocked. Not as much as what Joey had used but enough it throws him off. He doesn't think to permeate when all of the sudden a different round goes off behind his back sending him flying forward. Right towards Lina, who swings with her staff. Mirio though recovers and passes through the staff. "Tricky. Almost got me too. But not now." As he says that he passes through the ground again and goes for some hits against Lina. She deflects a few of them and throws Mirio over her shoulder once, but he still lands some solid hits. After a big punch to her stomach, Mirio goes in to finish the fight. But Lina rolls to the side and a big flash painfully blinds Mirio. As he is reeling, Lina does a big golf swing right to Mirio's crotch. This stuns the boy and almost makes him pass out from pain. Then Lina uses another concussion grenade to blast him back, right into a few more shock traps she laid. With that set of hits, Mirio passes out.
"Man. I got my but kicked twice. And I know how you beat me Lina-chan. You prepared for everything. Instead of relying on a power like most heroes or villains, you made sure to take advantage of my reliance on my power." Mirio said and also praising her for her skill in martial arts and with her staff. Nejire gets up in the two's faces about their skills and then she notices them holding hands. "Wait! Are you two a couple?!" She asks, and when they say yes, she starts in on a whole new set of questions. "Hado. Come on leave them alone. Sorry about her. She's overly enthusiastic." Tamaki says in a downtrodden tone. With that done, the rest of the staff call it a day. Aizawa asks Joey and Lina to come with him so he can brief them on a few matters with their job. As well as helping them build some lesson plans. Because tomorrow would be their first day teaching at UA.
Lina's gadgets are slightly inspired from Alpha Protocol. I liked using some of the gadgets in that game for traps and similar. I also rarely tried to shoot my way out of things in that game. I could often win with just takedowns and bluffs before needing to put a round in 4 peoples heads. Been thinking on a funny one with that too. Leave a comment if you think I should. Or if you like the story so far.