I do not own anything. I wish I would, tho.
Chapter 1 – To become something else
Izuku Midoriya was no ordinary 14-year-old kid. He wasn't ordinary because he didn't have something to make him stand out. To make him special. To make him be able to be a hero.
For in a world of quirks and superhuman powers being without one, made him an abnormality. An outcast of society.
It had been a rough day for Izuku. He was currently sitting on the ledge of a skyscraper's rooftop somewhere in Musutafu. His tear-stricken face only illuminated by the occasional lightning of the furious thunderstorm that was raging all around him.
Izuku's eyes were a hard contrast to the seemingly everlasting storm. Where the downpour was full of energy and movement, his eyes were empty. Void of any emotion. He did not understand why he took todays belittlements and insults so hard. He was used to it. Since the fateful doctor visit 10 years ago all he was met with was pity and insults at best. And beatings or burn marks from his own personal tormentor at worst.
But when his old childhood-friend-turned-tormentor Katsuki Bakugo had told him to take a swan dive off the roof and hope for a quirk in his next life, something inside him had started to fracture. Like a mirror that was hit with a hammer that something had shattered into thousands of pieces. But the final blow came from his idol All Might. Who had told him straight to his face, that he could not become a hero. When Izuku heard those words, the already fractured thing broke completely. And he did not know if it could ever be fully repaired again. Be whole again. He honestly did not think so.
Another flash of lightning rocketed threw the darkness and illuminated the rooftop for a second or two. Izuku took a deep shuddering breath and moved to stand up. His whole body was shivering. His muscles refusing to work properly. They were stiff from the hours he had been sitting there. Not moving an inch, except for the occasional shivers and tremors that had wrecked his entire body. He did not know if they were related to the coldness or the shattering of the thing inside of him. But it did not matter to him now. Nothing did.
He stood up stiffly and tilted his head back so he could gaze into the darkness that was tonight's sky. Another shuddering breath and he took a step backwards towards the rooftop exit.
'What time is it? How long have I been up here?', Izuku thought as he slowly and stiffly worked his way forward.
He hugged himself and rubbed his arms in a futile attempt to rid them of the lingering coldness that had invaded his whole body. He did not even know why he had stayed up here in the first place. He just wanted to get away from everything. From all the eyes that judged him. All the mouths that insulted him. And all the people who hurt him.
Another couple of lightning bolts rocketed through the night. Immediately followed by a booming thunder.
'Looks like the storm is directly above me now. There wasn't even half a second between the thunder and the lightning strike.'
The storm seemed to grow even wilder. Where before he had only seen the occasional lightning bolt that disappeared into nothingness, there where now increasingly more of them arching through the air.
Izuku was jolted out of his musings when a lightning bolt impacted into the other side of the roof.
'Shit. I must get off this roof. This has just turned into a lightning storm and I am standing atop the highest building in the city!'
He forced his stiff legs to move faster as more and more lightning bolts impacted all around him. Leaving small smoking dents in the roof.
'Come on! Only a couple more meters to go!' Izuku reached forward, ready to turn the doorknob as soon as it came into his reach. He did not dare look back, as the hairs in his neck started to stand up from the electricity in the surrounding air. More and more lightning bolts impacted with the rooftop all around him as he finally reached the door and turned the knob.
Nothing happened. The door did not budge. It was locked. And thus, remained tightly shut.
Izuku frantically rattled the doorknob and pulled with all the strength he had. Just as he looked over his shoulder to see where the lightning was colliding with the roof, he saw a giant arc of electricity work its way towards him from the darkness above. The lightning bolt illuminated the area around him as if it were day and with a gigantic thunderclap that threatened to deafen him, impacted into him and Izuku's world turned dark.
- Of thunder and lightning -
The first thing Izuku felt when he regained consciousness was a lightness in his whole body, as if something was boosting him upwards. The second thing was the soreness that permeated his whole body. He could hear the distant sounds of the city life beneath him and the swirling wind all around him. Izuku hesitantly cracked an eye open. He was met with impenetrable darkness.
He forced his sore limbs into a sitting position. Shaking his head to clear his mind, he tried to make sense of his surroundings. He abruptly stopped moving as the events of the last 24 hours rushed back into his mind. It was like a sucker punch to the gut, as all the pain and misery filled his mind again. He buried his head in his hands attempting to shield himself from the painful memories.
A bright light suddenly lit up his surroundings and startled him out of his own thoughts. He blankly looked at the source of the light. Where his right arm should have been, he was met with millions of white and blue arcs of lightning, that now formed his arm and illuminated his surroundings.
Izuku slowly turned his glowing appendage from one side to the other, waving it in front of his face.
It was definitely his hand. It had to be. He could move it around easily enough. He hesitantly pressed his left index finger into the palm of his right hand. And sure enough, he could feel his hand, as if it wasn't currently made up of electricity. But he could feel that too. The evermoving and powerful arcs of lightning. He could feel them. And they did not hurt him. They felt somewhat nice. Warm and soothing.
'Is… is this my quirk? Did I finally manifest my very own quirk?' Excitement began to bubble up inside him.
'I can be a hero like All Might!' As soon as the thought entered his mind, his excitement died down again. A hero like All Might? Izuku scoffed at the thought. Why would he want to become anything like All Might? After everything that had happened to Izuku he couldn't stop himself from resenting the very idea that someone like All Might was considered a hero. That HE had considered him a hero.
Sure, he was strong and powerful and fought villains. But Izuku now knew that everything the man supposedly stood for was nothing more than a farce. A blatant lie he told the world. No, All Might was not a true hero.
Izuku's train of thought ended abruptly, when he was once more enveloped by darkness, as his hand reverted to its original state.
Had he imagined it? No. His right hand was made of electricity just a couple seconds ago. He was sure of it. Had it been only temporarily? Was it gone for good? No! He would not allow himself to think like that. If this was his quirk, then maybe it had a trigger, like so many other quirks he had catalogued and analysed over the years.
Yes. That had to be it. So what was the trigger? Thinking back to when he first noticed it, he was in deep thought about what had happened to him, and….
'Emotions. A lot of quirks get activated accidentally under extreme emotional duress. Like when dad got that call from work years ago that made him so mad, he started breathing fire and melted the phone. So far that's the only lead I have. I can't really control it yet. That's something to figure out later. After I get down from this roof.'
Izuku slowly righted himself and stood up. He tried to recall how it had happened the first time around and tried to deliberately get himself into another emotional rollercoaster.
It turned out to be easier than he originally thought. While still focusing on the emotional anguish and self-pity that he had been in for years on end, he also willed his right hand to revert back into the millions of bolts of pure energy that he had seen before.
Nothing happened. He stood there in complete darkness for several minutes. And nothing happened.
He had to be looking like quite the idiot. Standing there with his right arm outstretched in front of him. His face scrunched up into an anguished expression.
'GOD DAMN IT!', Izuku screamed.
'I can't get anything to work! But why would I? I'm nothing but a pathetic idiot. I'm nothing but a… a deku.'
The moment the last word escaped his lips his whole body was glowing. He could see his right arm, still outstretched in front of him, formed by countless bolts of electricity. He could feel his whole body transform into evermoving white and blue bolts of power.
'YES! I did it! I really did it!' Izuku couldn't stop himself from screaming from the top of his lungs.
He walked the last couple of steps towards the now brightly illuminated door. His every movement felt more powerful. While he was still sore, he could feel the new element his body was now formed of radiating with pent up power. Ready to be released. For the first time in Izuku's life, he felt powerful. In control.
He reached for the doorknob and twisted it.
The door was still closed. Obviously.
Izuku mentally facepalmed. How did he forget the fact, that he was still stuck here? Wait. He had power now!
He focused on the hand that held the doorknob and willed it to transfer some of the pent-up energy into the cold, wet metal.
He watched as some bolts of electricity started to arc around his fingers. But that wasn't enough. He needed to emit more, or he wouldn't be able to escape his momentary prison.
'Just MELT! I'm soaked to the bone, sore from being sucked up by a sludge villain, flung across several city blocks by All Might, sore from being hit by a GODDAMN LIGHTNINGBOLT and I'm ready to be DONE with today! So just MELT!' Izuku used all his pent-up rage and frustration to try and push energy into the doorknob. And with a hissing sound the metal in his palm turned from a bleak grey to a dark red and then into a white-red as it slowly turned into liquid and melted away. He pushed his index and middle fingers into the newly formed hole and pulled the door open.
