Unpacking, trying on, and in some cases adjusting the suit's various components and specialized modules, such as the rebreather, was a tedious experience that took the better part of an hour. Yet it was simultaneously novel in every way. Bruce suddenly couldn't help but feel like a child on Christmas. There was a note on the right gauntlet that said, "read the instructions," in Fox's clean handwriting, somewhere between cursive and print. Bruce had spent countless hours designing the suit with Fox over Skype, ultimately they had gone through 8 generations, and almost ten times that many individual models before settling on this design. At first they had based it off of a nomex survival suit developed for the army, but discovered it was too rigid, and made the decision to focus on armor plating attached to a more flexible undersuit. Bruce was just putting on the helmet when Alfred entered the dimly lit workshop with his breakfast, which was on the floor within a second of the butler's arrival.

"Goodness Master Bruce! Are you quite certain it's a hero you're trying to become?"

"You said it yourself Alfred, I don't have a quirk," Batman replied. His voice had taken on a subconscious growl as soon as the cowl fell over his face. "If I want to last more than one night, they have to be afraid."

Alfred knelt to collect the shattered dish. "Well make sure you're scaring the criminals and not the children they threaten. It wouldn't do for an operation to go sideways simply because a hostage or some such is too scared of you to cooperate."

Batman took off the cowl, his entire body relaxing as he did so. "Hopefully that won't be a problem," Bruce said. "Let me get changed and we can go."

8:00 AM, UA Academy

"Wait, wait, wait. He had you eat his hair?"

Midoriya somehow managed to squirm and walk at the same time as he answered. "Just a strand."

Clark was trying very hard not to laugh as he imagined Midoriya choking down a strand of hair while All-Might just stood there grinning. "Okay but seriously? Why would it work like that? I just don't understand man!"

"And I don't understand how you could possibly use solar radiation to fly but here we are," Midoriya said.

"Yeah, fair enough. So. You feel anything yet?" Clark asked.

"No, All-Might said it would take a couple of hours though. I hope there's enough time before the practical exam though. I'm not sure there's any way I could do this without a quirk."

"Powers aren't exactly a necessity," a new voice came from behind them. Clark and Midoriya turned to see another young man, also American, who could easily have been Clark's brother. "Bruce Wayne," the newcomer introduced himself as if they should have already known this.

"Clark Kent. What do you mean by that? 'Powers aren't a necessity.'"

"Most fights can be won without them. If anything they reduce one's ability to analyze a given threat."

"What about Midoriya-san here? He has a book full of notes on every major hero."

Bruce nodded approvingly, "A habit I imagine he picked up before he was given All-Might's quirk. Unless I'm mistaken and that's not what you've been discussing for the past five minutes. But we both know that I'm not." Bruce kept going even as both Clark and Midoriya protested. "You're trying to keep it quiet, good move. I won't say anything, but my silence won't matter at all if you two keep talking about this in public."

Bruce walked on ahead of them as Midoriya pondered what he had said. His eyes widened and he stopped in his tracks as he stared at Bruce's retreating back. "Did he just imply he's quirkless?"

Clark froze as well as the entire conversation registered at once. "I... I think so." "How can he possibly expect to get in without one though?"

Clark started walking again as he replied, "He seemed fairly confident, probably has a plan of some kind."

Midoriya nodded as he followed. "It sounded like he has similar practices to my own. Maybe he's adapting a strategy used by one of the weaker heroes?"

"I mean it's possible, but planning could only get him so far."

U.A Written Exam Hall

Bruce moved quickly to his seat, toward the front and left of the room. He found himself next to a well dressed boy with glasses and blue hair.

"Morning, I'm Bruce Wayne."

Of course Bruce had no interest in socializing, but Alfred put great emphasis on him making friends. Might as well honestly be able to say he tried.

"I appreciate your intent, but I am not here for socialization! We both have an exam to finish, and I suggest you focus on that!"

"Very well. My apologies," Bruce said, even as he thought, "Excellent."

The other boy saw fit to respond only with a curt nod.

Across the room, Clark and Midoriya had also found their seats, next to a blonde boy. Clark could feel the tension between the two without even using his powers.

Finally Midoriya glanced over at the blonde one time too many.

"Eyes to yourself Deku!" He snarled out under his breath.

"Deku? Doesn't that mean-"

"Please don't Kent-san. I'd really rather we didn't make a scene."

The blonde smirked over Midoriya for a moment before returning his eyes to the front of the room.

Whoever this jackass was, Midoriya was afraid of him. There were only a few reasons there could be for that.

"HEY BOYS AND GIRLS!" The exuberant voice bellowing over the speakers seemed to split the air. "THIS IS YOUR DJ LETTING YOU KNOW YOUR TWO HOURS HAVE STARTED! GOOD LUCK!"

Two hours later.

"ALL RIGHT LISTENERS! I HOPE YOU REALLY ROCKED OUT ON THOSE TESTS BECAUSE IT'S PENCILS DOWN!" A blonde man sauntered to the front of the room. "NOW WELCOME TO THE SHOW! EVERBODY SAY HEY!" He was greeted with an uncomfortable silence. "What a refined response… NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE PRACTICAL! ARE YOU READY?! YEAH!" Again, the room was silent. Clark heard over 80 pairs of eyes simultaneously roll, just as Midoriya started his fanboy routine. "It's the voice hero! Present Mic!-"

"Shut up, quirkless little shit."

Clark had to consciously make the effort to keep his eyes blue. He glanced over at the Blonde kid. School ID from Aldera in his breast pocket. Katsuki Bakugo. Clark already disliked him.

"You're going to be participating in ten minute mock battles, to be scored based on how many enemies you can defeat in that time. NOW WE'VE GOT SOME GROOVY BATTLE CENTERS FOR YOU, SO HEAD ON DOWN ONCE I'M DONE! OKAY?!"

At this point Bruce was wondering why he kept trying to elicit a response. It obviously wasn't working. The kid with the glasses evidently agreed based on the way he was rubbing his forehead.

"NOW TAKE A LOOK AT THOSE SHEETS IN FRONT OF YOU, AND I'LL GIVE YOU THE RUNDOWN ON YOUR EXAM! THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF ROBOTS WAITING FOR YOU IN THE BATTLE CENTERS, OFFERING ONE TO THREE POINTS BASED ON DIFFICULTY! BUT YOU LISTENERS WON'T HAVE A PROBLEM AT ALL AM I RIGHT?!"

At this point Mic seemed to give up on getting anything out of them.

Blue hair stood up next to Bruce.

"My apologies for the interruption, but I have a question sir!"

Present Mic's face lit up so much Bruce could have sworn it was actually glowing.

"OH?! FINALLY SOME AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION FROM LISTENER NUMBER 7111! LET'S HEAR IT!"

"On the printout there are four targets but you only mentioned three! If this is a misprint, then U.A should be ashamed of itself! This is no way for the finest school in our nation to operate! AND YOU!" Blue hair bellowed pointing at Midoriya.

"You've been muttering this entire time like a simpleton! Have some consideration for your peers and be quiet!"

Clark started to stand up before Midoriya grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. A faint red haze seemed to drift from his eyes as he settled back into his seat.

"OKAY LET'S ALL CALM DOWN LISTENERS! EXAMINEE NUMBER 7111! THANKS FOR YOUR SUBMISSION! THE FOURTH TYPE IS WORTH NOTHING! IT'S AN OBSTACLE DESIGNED TO GET IN THE WAY AND IMPEDE YOUR PROGRESS! I'M SURE A FEW OF YOU COULD TAKE IT OUT BUT THERE'S REALLY NO REASON TO DO SO!"

Bruce listened as the competition began comparing the practical to a video game.

"They're right. There are too many similarities for it to be unintentional. Likely it was designed this way to make it easier for middle schoolers to understand, using concepts they'd have become familiar with on their own."

"Thank you sir! Understood!" Blue hair said as he returned to his seat.

"ANYTHING ELSE?! THEN LETS GET TO IT PEOPLE! SAY IT WITH ME, PLUUUS ULTRA!"

Outside Battle Center B

"As expected," Bruce thought. "the written test was never going to be a notable challenge, and most of my potential classmates seem to be treating this as more of a formality aside from the one in the glasses and the kid with the green hair. I should easily score highly there. The practical will undoubtedly be the most difficult part of this entire plan. All intel I've managed to gather indicates that these simulated enemies have tolerances comparable to a high-end armored car. Difficult if I didn't have the belt, though not impossible. Robots are effectively computers with legs, so I should be able to take advantage of the A.I. given that they likely won't be particularly smart, not to mention that there's almost guaranteed to be some kind of control panel on each one. None of them should be able to take more than a single charge of explosive gel with proper placement."

Bruce was pulled from his thoughts as the doors to the battle center opened. Immediately upon entering the area Bruce grappled to the roof of the tallest building in range, spending less than a second there before swinging in behind a three pointer and throwing four batarangs as he passed. One in each of the three eyes, and one in the right missile launcher. Unable to clear or even notice the jam without vision,the robot attempted to fire, blowing itself apart in the process. The first piece of wreckage had barely hit the ground before Bruce had landed on top of a two pointer, applied explosive gel to its head, and jumped clear. And so the ordeal began.

Clark meanwhile had taken a very different approach, blasting around the battle center at about half the speed of sound simply flying through any robots he found that weren't already being engaged by others. Every once in a while he'd slow down long enough to block any stray bullets about to hit the other examinees before accelerating back up to speed. Clark considered helping Midoriya, but knew that in the end it would just give the kid imposter syndrome. For his own sake, Midoriya had to do this on his own.

Midoriya couldn't do this. He should have known from the moment he found out he was quirkless that he couldn't be a hero. Even as he sprinted through the streets Midoriya couldn't think about anything but what he'd say to All-Might. To his mother. No. He wouldn't disappoint them. He would not fail.

In the exam control booth.

The judges were in disarray. From the moment they had realized that one of the examinees was quirkless they had been debating what to do.

"He's scoring, and he's scoring well, by all rights he should be accepted!" Ectoplasm yelled over the protests of the other heroes.

"That doesn't matter Ectoplasm, don't think for a moment he could do this without all that gear!" Eraserhead retorted.

"You act as if anyone could be doing this with it! Already he's shown agility on par with some related quirks, already he's shown the ability to think more critically, and faster than most police officers! Don't let the fact your quirk wouldn't work against him cloud your judgement!"

Ectoplasm was growing more agitated with every word he spoke until Eraserhead jumped back in. "You think that's what this is about?! He doesn't have a quirk! He'll be killed, and it'll be our fault!"

"GENTLEMEN!" All-Might interjected in his powered form. "young Wayne has as much right to be here as any other examinee. We will admit him if he qualifies, but he will be given no special accomodations in terms of scoring. Does that satisfy you both?"

Ectoplasm nodded as Eraserhead huffed out a "Fine."

"Excellent," All-Might said as he powered down. Throughout all of this however, Nezu had been completely silent as he watched the young man on the screen destroy three more two pointers without even touching the ground, before grappling away again.

In the battle center.

Twenty-seven, twenty-nine, thirty-two. Bruce kept counting even as he dodged between barrages of rubber bullets and metal limbs. As suddenly as the swarm had appeared the false villains dispersed. BOOM! At the end of the street Bruce was on, a leviathan of steel emerged, entire buildings collapsed as it moved. Movement at the base of it. Someone was trapped. Bruce forgot where he was, what was happening, as he walked into Crime Alley again, did nothing but watch, AGAIN. "NO," Batman thought as he forced Bruce to the back. "NOT ONE MORE." Batman disabled the grapnel's safety protocols and shot forward at forty miles an hour, before hoisting the girl over his shoulder even as he took aim again in the opposite direction and pulled them away as two blurs blasted through the air. One green. One blue. He landed about a block away as the robot fell, putting the girl down.

"Are you injured?" Batman was still at the front and his voice had taken on the growl.

At Batman's tone, the girl seemed to briefly freeze in place before regaining her senses. "I… I don't think so."

"Good," Bruce said, voice reverting to his usual, more amiable cadence as Batman retreated. "I have to go check something. See you later."

THOOM! Clark passed through the machine's chest like it was made of tissue paper as Midoriya crushed its head like a soda can, and hurricane force winds trailing after them sent it careening backward. Then he was falling. Midoriya had fallen about twenty feet when Clark caught him without thinking, causing inertia to jolt his broken bones.

"Damnit," Clark thought. "Good thing he's drunk on adrenaline or that would've hurt like hell." Clark began to look over Midoriya more thoroughly as they descended, using his x-ray vision to see the true extent of the damage. Every bone in his legs, and his right arm, was completely shattered. Some internal bleeding, in his right bicep. His femoral arteries appeared mostly untouched. "Thank God. That could've been much worse." Upon landing Clark had set Midoriya down.

By this point the adrenaline had worn off and he was starting to feel everything at once. "Kent-san… why does everything hurt so much?"

"Okay, don't freak out, but you may have several broken bones."

Midoriya winced as he shifted on the ground, "That li-ow- that lines up."

Bruce appeared by their side as if out of nowhere. "How bad is it?"

"Not good," Clark said "his legs and arm are all broken."

"I haven't had time to get used to the power yet. Can barely hold it," Midoriya said.

"Very nice, good job!" A voice rang out. Bruce and Clark turned to see an old woman making her way through the crowd handing out candy as she went.

"Medic!" Bruce called as he waved the old lady over. "Midoriya-san has multiple shattered bones and potential internal bleeding!"

"Medic?" Clark asked.

"Former hero by the name of Recovery Girl. Healing powers," Bruce explained, quieting as she approached.

"Oh my… did one of the robots do this?" "No," Bruce said. "It was backlash from his own quirk."

"I see. We'll have to work on that," Recovery Girl said, at the same time thinking, "Toshinori, you moron."

She leaned down to kiss Midoriya on the forehead, as he began to lose consciousness.