I still do not own anything.

Chapter 3 - Following The Flow of Lightning

It had been three months since Izuku got hit by lightning. Three months of being on quirk leave from school. Three months of experimenting with his quirk. And three months of trial and error.

Izuku spent all his time either at home, studying up on anything related to electricity in general or lightning in particular, and filling his newly christened 'Hero Analytics For The Future: Living Lightning' notebook. Or at his training facility. If you could call it that.

After selling most of his All Might merchandise, he had been able to rent an old, abandoned factory floor for the months leading up to the U.A. entrance exam. Since the laws forbade the use of quirks in public spaces like parks and beaches, he needed a place to practice. And he figured that unleashing pure electricity in his room at home was a bad idea.

That was were Izuku currently was. And he was hitting a wall. Both literally and figuratively.

After researching electricity related quirks and experimenting on his own, Izuku's understanding of his power had increased by leaps and bounds. But while the understanding of his ability had grown quite considerably, he could not say the same about his control. He knew of at least a dozen applications of his power which, at least in theory, he should be able to produce. But his quirk seemed to be an absolute mess in what it allowed him to do.

While he was now able to turn his entire body into lightning on will, he was not able to change the shape of it. His muscles and organs would be made of electricity, but they still had the same shape and function. And while they would be enhanced in terms of strength, speed and durability, he was not able to alter their form.

Another problem he had was controlling the electricity. He was able to regulate his power output, which allowed him various moves like his 'Stunning Strike', where he released between 500 000 and 1 million volt in a short, concentrated burst. Just enough to either incapacitate someone by overriding the bodys muscle-triggering mechanisms, or straight up knocking them out. But the second the electricity left his body, he had very little control over it. And the further away it got, the less control he had.

The only time he had any control over the released electricity was when he was fully transformed, and his entire body consisted of lightning bolts. His body would charge the air surrounding him and he was able to keep the electricity from getting too far away from him, forming a protective barrier around him. Which he had dubbed his 'Lightning Armor'. It was not a physical shield, but anyone who was near him, would be hurt by it.

But once again, that was all the control he could exert over it. He could not shape it into anything else. Like a sword. He had tried to do that for 3 weeks straight. With nothing but frustration as his reward.

But, while in that state, his body also seemed to receive the biggest boost. Almost as if it kept charging itself with the surrounding energy. While in his full elemental state, his wounds seemed to rapidly mend themselves. Which meant he had some sort of healing ability somehow connected to his quirk.

All in all, he was heavily geared towards close quarter combat. With no ranged abilities whatsoever. Which meant that he needed to be in close proximity to villains and be proficient in hand-to-hand combat, in order to take them out.

Which was why he was currently hitting the aforementioned wall. He was training various fighting techniques, into which he tried to incorporate his own quirk related moves like his 'Stunning Strike' or his 'Flash Hit'. The latter was a combination of his enhanced speed and released electricity. Combining them, he was able to generate a short bright burst of light. Which was aimed to simultaneously blind his opponent and deliver a devastating blow to them.

He had learned at the start of his training, that he could somehow numb himself to most of the pain. It was like a switch he flipped that allowed himself to ignore the pain that his training or fighting would lead to. It was always accompanied with a slight buzzing feeling that seemed to resonate through his brain. And the more pain he suppressed, the more prominent the feeling got.

For some reason, it never really seemed to completely go away. Even when he was all healed up and should be in no pain, the feeling remained. Only noticeable when he was specifically looking for it.

Izuku was no idiot. He knew that he had changed since the thing inside him had broken that night. And he figured that his quirk was somehow responsible for the change in his personality and his emotions. But since he had no problems with how he changed, he did not bother to investigate it further.

That was how Izuku spend the next eight months leading up to the entrance exam. Training himself both physically and mentally. His training regime had to be cut back for the first five months, since he could not stay on quirk leave forever and he had to go back to finish the school year.

His mother had transferred him to another school for the remainder of the year, though. She had refused to send him back to where he had been belittled and beaten for years. Without anyone doing anything about it.

Izuku fell into a routine for the remaining months. He would spend his mornings and afternoons training his body and quirk. And continue to expand his knowledge on anything hero related and his own abilities in the evenings.

The more he read about heroes, both newly emerging and already established ones, the more irritated and disgusted he was with it all. Both were infuriating in their own way. And both, as far as Izuku was concerned, were no heroes, but merely pretending to be one. He was not sure which ones were worse.

The established ones, who seemed to have stopped trying to better themselves, and often seemed to just wait for All Might or one of the other 'Top Ten' heroes to resolve most crises, rather than push themselves and try to do it themselves.

Or the newcomers, who appeared to be more interested in good publicity, merchandise contracts, and fame, than actual hero work.

He tried to channel the resulting anger and frustration into his studies and training. But he could not stop himself from becoming cynical or angry whenever the subject came up. Be it in passing conversation or his own personal research.

Sure. There were exceptions to the pretenders. But they were few and far between.

Of the established ones he could only really stand Endeavor. The Nr. Two Hero seemed to be the only one left who tried to get stronger, tried to go further, and tried to surpass the false idol All Might.

The newcomers at least had heroes like the 'Rabbit Hero: Miruko', who seemed to constantly try to push herself further.

But for every Miruko and Endeavor, there were uncountable others who were mere pretenders. Like Mt. Lady who was more interested in how to market herself than saving lives.

U.A. was massive. Like really. The area belonging to it was several city blocks wide. It was rather mind-boggling.

Izuku stood in the middle of the path leading up to the entrance hall with a hand on each strap of his backpack. He eyed up the massive building in front of him, while all around him hundreds of people made their way up to it to take the famed and feared U.A. Entrance Exam. To possibly be accepted into the best hero school in all of japan.

This was it. The first step of many towards becoming a hero. And more importantly for Izuku: The first step towards hopefully fixing the broken and rather fucked up state of hero society.

Izuku made his way up the stairs and was about to enter the building when shouts further down the path behind him made him turn around.

"Get the fuck out of my way you damned extras!" A blond teen with short, spiky ash-blond hair and sharp blood-red eyes yelled while pushing his way through the mass of students who made their way towards the entrance. Katsuki Bakugo. His childhood friend and all-around asshole.

"Nope. Not gonna deal with THAT right now!", Izuku muttered under his breath before turning around again and walked inside.

The lecture hall he found himself in was massive. He quickly made his way towards his assigned seat and sat down. It should still be a few minutes until the exam officially started.

Izuku was about to look around and see if he could spot any interesting quirks, when he heard the all too familiar voice again. This time directed towards him specifically.

"What the FUCK are you doing here Deku?!", Bakugo all but yelled.

Yeah. Figures. Out of hundreds of people, the idiot manages to make his way towards me. Im one lucky guy. Izuku thought sarcastically before turning towards the explosive bully. He could feel his temper rise and his eyes had a barely noticeable shine to them.

"Bakugo. Fancy meeting you here. Its nothing special, really. Im just sitting at the moment." He could hear several people snicker around him.

"What the FUCK did you just say to me Deku?!"

"Ah, so it is not just your eyes you have trouble with, then? The ears as well?", Izuku replied before adding in a stage-whisper:

"Or do you have problems with whats between the two?"

"Im going to show you what a problem is, Deku! I meant what the fuck are you doing here, at the entrance exam?"

But before Izuku could respond the light in the lecture hall dimmed and a loud booming voice echoed through the room.

"Test. Test! One. Two. Three. This thing on? Great! Whats up U.A. candidates? Thanks for tuning into me: Your school D.J. Come on let me hear you!", the Pro Hero known as Present Mic shouted.

He was met with stunned silence.

"Keeping it mellow, huh? Thats fine. I will skip straight to the main show! Let us talk about how this practical exam is going to go down, okay? ARE YOU READY?!", he yelled while striking a dramatic pose, obviously waiting for a response.

And was met with silence once again.

"Tough crowd, huh? Anyway. In this years practical exam, you will be facing different kind of villains, which will be represented by robots. Designed by last years graduating Support Course. You will be awarded points, depending on how dangerous said villains are. There are 4 different categories. The 1 Pointers, the 3 Pointers and the 5 Pointers."

"Alright then. With that done, you will now be split into multiple groups and be brought to your designated sites."

A black-haired teen with glasses stood up.

"Excuse me, but didnt you say there were four categories of villains? You only mentioned three. And could the two of you back there stop muttering and talking? It is rather distracting and very unbecoming of such a prestigious school as U.A." The last part, to Izukus confusion appeared to be directed at him. Which was rather weird, since Izuku had not said a word since Present Mic started talking.

Bakugo on the other hand had apparently not stopped quietly threatening him. How that was supposed to be Izukus fault, was anyones guess, though.

Izuku did not have the time to respond, as Present Mic started to answer the teens question.

"Ah, yes. I knew I forgot something. You are right. There IS a fourth category. The Zero Pointer. But rather than gaining zero points for defeating him, you will lose all the points you accumulated up until then if you do so. So, I would recommend avoiding it."

The test site that Izuku and around 100 other participants were brought to was modeled after an average city district. And, like everything U.A. related, was massive in its proportions.

Izuku was clad in the standard U.A. sport attire that had been given to them on their way to the exam-site. But he also wore a tight fitting shirt and boxers made of rubber-like material, which would hopefully preserve his modesty if he burned through the other clothes with his power. Maybe. He really would prefer to not run around stalkers while in public. He had also taken off his boots. They would never survive all the abuse he would put them through.

Izuku was about to take a closer look at the other examinees when the voice of Present Mic loudly announced the start of the exam.

His eyes began to shine with white-blue light as his body partially changed into its elemental state. He took off running before the others even realized what Present Mic had said.

Robots. That should not be a big obstacle. He could just fry their circuits or straight up melt parts of them if he had to.

The first robot he came across was around 2 meters tall, human-like in its appearance and had guns instead of arms. And a big 3 painted across its chest. Bolts of lightning arched all around Izuku as his body fully changed.

Picking up his speed, he ran towards his enemy. He jumped with a twist of his lower body, and landed crouching atop its shoulders, with both his hands atop the three-pointers head. He focused on his hands and feet and sent a dangerously high electrical charge through them, before pushing off and immediately start running again.

The whole thing had not lasted longer than two seconds. And left a smoking and smoldering pile of metal behind.

The next couple of robots he found, two 3-Pointers and a single 1-Pointer, were disposed in a similar way.

Ten points in under five minutes. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself! Where to now?

Looking around and not seeing any more machines to take down in his immediate vicinity, Izuku ran towards the highest building in the street and started to scale the outer wall. Using his heavily boosted physical abilities, as well as melting footholds for himself where needed, he managed to reach the top in a matter of seconds.

He ignored the slightly more prominent buzzing feeling in his head as he crouched on the ledge of the rooftop and studied the surrounding area.

The fake-city had turned into a war zone. Dozens of explosions and what appeared to be laser-beams shook the buildings all over the city and smoke slowly enveloped more and more of the streets beneath him.

Spying two Five-Pointers emerging from an alley not 200 meters away from him, Izuku got up and jumped from rooftop to rooftop, swiftly heading towards his new bounty.

He was about to jump down and engage the two heavily armed robots, when a short purple haired girl ran between the two Five-Pointers. She wove between the attacks of the robots with elegant movements and plugged, what to Izuku surprise appeared to be earphone-jacks that were connected to her ears, into the first Five-Pointer.

The machine began to vibrate violently before its whole upper body exploded.

Interesting. Some kind of sound-based quirk?, Izuku's eyebrows rose in respect. If she was able to manipulate and receive sound waves, her quirk would be very versatile. Easily on par in destructive power with his own, but also capable of scouting and locating enemies or endangered civilians in rescue operations.

Versatile and powerful indeed.

While Izuku had been thinking about all possible ways to utilize her quirk, the petite girl had swiftly dealt with the second Five-Pointer and looked at the destruction before her with a satisfied smirk.

She was so caught up in her achievement, that she did not seem to notice the three Five-Pointers that came around the corner behind her.

Izuku jumped down without hesitation and three-point-landed right between the engaging robots and the fair-skinned teen. Lightning impacted all around him as he used all the strength he had in his legs to catapult himself towards the enemy. He had to act fast. Two of them had already locked on to the girl behind him and were about to fire their weapons.

Izuku twisted his body while still being airborne and with the thought of having to destroy all three of them at the same time, resorted to drastic measures.

I have to use Supernova. No way around it. Well, here goes my clothing. Lets just hope my rubber underwear will hold.

Still in the air, Izuku pushed pure electricity out of his entire body. The air around him exploded with electricity and giant arcs of lightning impacted all around him. Annihilating everything and anything in a five meter radius.

He twisted his upper body and pulled his feet under him as he once again three-point-landed in a small crater of his own making.

Small pieces of burning clothing fell from his legs and shoulders as he slowly righted himself and stood up, with his back towards the vibration quirk user. His upper body was completely void of any clothing, the rubber-like material not being able to withstand the amount of energy, had evaporated. His boxers thankfully had largely withstood the abuse and aside from a few burn marks here and there were still intact.

Good thing I pushed less lightning from my lower body, or I would be standing here naked!, Izuku's eyes closed briefly, thanking whatever deity that had deigned to bestow him with this small mercy.

He looked back over his shoulder and saw the purple-haired girl look at him with wide, shocked eyes. He nodded to her once before channelling his speed and taking off in the direction the three Five-Pointers had come from.

In a room somewhere in the massive compound that was U.A. Academy, the teachers and benefactors of said institution were watching the exam with curious and calculating eyes on multiple screens. One of them currently showed Izuku as he was battling with an already heavily damaged Three-Pointer.

A very tall, wide-set man with a bulky, muscular build and lightly tanned skin, who was known to the public as Vlad King: The Blood Hero, was one of many who were currently focused on Izuku's battle.

"With that one down the kid should have around 90 points on Villain-Points alone. Impressive."

"He is, isnt he? Izuku Midoriya. Quirk: Living Lightning.", responded Principal Nezu. He received grunts and head movements in acknowledgment from the men and women around him. From all but one.

In the back of the room a skinny man with sharp, angular features, long spiky blond hair and a slight trickle of blood at the left corner of his mouth eyed the screen with his eyes narrowed in suspicion. The Nr 1 Hero: All Might.

He knew that boy. He had met him before, and if he was not mistaken, the boy should not have a quirk.

Izuku was just finishing off a Three-Pointer, when Present Mics voice once again boomed around the exam-site, informing everyone that the exam would end in five minutes.

Izuku had, as of now, destroyed seven 1-Pointers and ten 3-Pointers and 5-Pointers respectively. Bringing his points to a total of 87. Which he figured was rather impressive.

He made his way towards the exit, still looking for more robots to demolish, when the ground beneath him started to shake. He did not have to look long for the source of the commotion, as a thirty meter tall and ten meter wide robot straight up walked THROUGH a building ahead of him. Throwing debris in every direction. The Zero-Pointer they had been warned about had emerged.

Izuku was about to turn around and head in the opposite direction of the thing, when he heard a high-pitched scream of pain. He followed the sound and saw a brown-haired girl with a bob-cut laying in the middle of the street, her left foot appeared to be stuck beneath a wall-sized piece of rubble. And she was right in the way of the steadily advancing Zero-Pointer.

Izuku's body moved without a conscious thought. He ran towards the injured girl and came to a stop right in front of her. Her large and comically round brown eyes were filled with pain and panic as she desperately tried to free her leg.

Izuku went down to one knee and with every ounce of strength he possessed, tried to slowly lift the giant slab of stone.

It was too heavy. He could melt parts of it off to lighten the load, but that would take too long. And he did not dare to melt too close to the girl, or he might hurt her even worse.

"Hey, we need help here! Someone help me free her!", Izuku shouted to the other examinees who were sporadically running around them and tried to get away from the Zero-Pointer. Most of them did not even give them a second glance and straight up ignored his repeated cries for help.

The black haired guy who had accused him of besmirching the prestigious name of U.A. earlier on, stopped running for a moment. His eyes darted between Izuku and the trapped girl to the massive robot that steadily approached them, with a conflicted expression marring his face.

Izuku was about to address the teen directly, when the left leg of the gigantic robot came down between them. The glasses-wearing boys eyes widened in shock and he too ran away towards the exit.

Izuku scoffed. Disgusting pretenders. Every last one of them!

"Y-you should leave. There is no point in both of us dyeing here.", came the shaky voice of the girl in front of him. Tears were slowly running down her face.

"No."

"N-no?"

"No. Im not leaving you, and you wont die here either. Dont worry. You will make it out alive!"

It did not escape either of them that he had said 'You' and not 'We'. Izuku's eyes began to shine as small lightning bolts escaped them.

He turned away from the girl and slowly made his way towards the gigantic machine in front of them, before turning more and more into pure electricity once he was at a save distance to the girl and began to start accelerating his speed. If he couldnt get the girl out of the way of the robot, then he had to get the robot out of the way. By any means necessary.

Izuku twisted his body to the right in full sprint and barely managed to dodge the gigantic metallic fist that impacted the ground right where he had been. He jumped atop the arm and ran up its length, leaving footprints in the form of molten metal in his path. Izuku made his way around the giant's left shoulder to its neck and with powerful punches, started to melt holes into it. It took him a few seconds to make them wide enough to reach inside of the machine. He came in contact with countless cables and grabbed as many as he could with both of his hands.

He pushed every ounce of power he had through his arms and hands and into the giant monstrosity that was threatening a girls life. And had taken her smile. He would not let that happen. He might not be able to smile himself anymore, but he would be damned if he let that happen to anyone else.

For the second time that day, Izuku used Supernova, and the world around him was once again filled with white and blue lightning bolts that tore apart and violently destroyed anything they came in contact with.

When the light of his attack faded, the robots head and parts of its shoulders had turned into a puddle of molten metal and the rest of it slowly tilted to the side, as it lost its balance and began to fall.

Just as Izukus sight began to darken, two thoughts made its way through his brain:

Good, now she can smile again. I dont think my boxers survived this one.

And everything went black as he fell backwards, away from the giant robot.