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Spiderling

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Chapter 3

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"Safe!" Izuku yelled in relief as he landed on his chair, without falling this time too. He had promised himself not to repeat what had happened yesterday, but then those elementary school kids almost got ran over by a bus.

"Not quite," Aizawa-sensei's unimpressed voice surprised him so much, he fell sideways from his chair. Damn it, one of these days he will really stick the landing.

"One of these days I hope you'll use the door," Eraserhead said in a bored tone and Izuku immediately turned crimson at the laughter that followed. Damn it, mouth! "Make sure to come see me after classes today."

"Now that we're all here," the teacher continued, "I came earlier today, because I wanted to introduce your new fellow student, before classes started." Everyone tensed at the reminder of what had happened to Mineta yesterday and looked at his replacement. Interestingly, he had purple hair as well, although his was indigo, not ball shaped and sticking upwards. His face was rather plain looking, despite the dark circles under his eyes.

"The name's Hitoshi Shinso. Please take care of me," the boy said and bowed slightly. "My quirk is Brainwashing." He didn't seem to want to elaborate on his ominous statement, so the teacher directed him to his new seat, which happened to be directly behind Izuku. In all the commotion yesterday, Izuku hadn't noticed Bakugo was in front of him as well, until they had done their introductions. On the bright side, his seat was close to the window.

Lessons started afterwards. The schedule was quite simple really - before noon there were regular classes with various pro heroes who each seemed to have a subject they were good in and could teach. It was quite bizarre to be taught literature by Present Mic or math by Ectoplasm.

Then came lunch and even the school cook used to be a pro hero - Lunch-Rush. Izuku secluded himself to one of the corner tables and took out his "All Things Spider, vol. 6" notebook. He started looking at the sketches for his modified web-shooter. Despite yesterday's setback, he was determined to make it work and it'd be good to be prepared.

"So I heard an interesting rumour earlier," he was startled when Kaminari sat in front of him on the same table, followed by Ashido and some floating clothes. Wait, that's right, that was the invisible girl, Hagakure. "Apparently you paired up with some pink devil and blew up the workshop."

"Wha.. WHAT?!" Izuku stammered shocked. "Who told you about that?!"

"Wait, it's true?!" Ashido said excitedly and leaned forward. "That's impressive, on your first day too!"

"No-no-no-no-no-no!" Izuku waved his hands, "I did not destroy the entire workshop!" His spider sense tingled. Oh no..

"It was more like a corner. And it's not destroyed but covered in sticky webbing entirely," the pink devil herself made an appearance and plopped next to him. "I'm disappointed, I thought I'd be the first one to have an experiment go wrong in a hilarious way."

"Covered in webs?" an unfamiliar voice said. Since no one was visibly moving their mouths, Izuku figured it must have been Hagakure. "What did you do, sneeze?"

"It was her fault," Izuku exclaimed in his embarrassment, pointing frantically at Hatsume.

"Yes, apparently I dazzled him with my genius intellect and stunning good looks."

Izuku sputtered, his face completely crimson, which caused everyone to laugh.

"I'm disappointed in you, Midoriya," Iida said, seating himself on his other side. "How could you damage property of such a prestigious school as U.A. on your first day? And why are you wearing that glove while eating?"

"It was not intentional, okay? I just made some slight modifications to the formula I was working on, I did not expect it to blow up like that," Izuku tried to explain himself. "And this," he showed his hand wearing the web-shooter glove before glancing at Hatsume, "call it being prepared for surprises."

"And who are you?" Ashido asked her fellow pinkhead.

"Mei Hatsume is the name, future founder and owner of Tsume Industries," the other girl introduced herself.

Izuku wasn't sure what was going on. Why were people sitting with him? While he had some good acquaintances in his middle school, no one really wanted to have lunch with the nerd who went off about who the best heroes were and why, or gave various random trivia about spiders. And yet, he couldn't help himself be pulled into the conversation that followed. It was a new experience for him, being teased, joking around, and talking about random topics with other students.

By the time he got back to class and the bell rang, he was still reeling from completely filling his social interactions quota for the entire month during a single lunch break.

"I AM HERE!" All Might's voice boomed. "Walking through the door normally!"

A lot of his classmates yelled excitedly at seeing All Might, but Izuku had them all beat. In less than a second, he was hanging upside down from a web in front of his favourite hero. "Can you please sign this?" he squeaked, holding out his "All Things Spider vol. 7" notebook, right in front of All Might's face. Then he realized what he had done and prepared for the incoming onslaught of laughter and ridicule. Except there wasn't any.

Everyone in the class followed his example and crowded around All Might, each holding a notebook. Izuku even spotted Bakugo at the edge, although the boy was doing his best to look like he didn't really care if he got it or not.

All Might simply laughed merrily, before taking out a marker. After the impromptu autograph session, the class started.

"Welcome! To the Foundational Hero Studies class! Here you will learn the basics of heroics through different trials and exercises!" All Might yelled, striking out different poses. "And we will begin with the Trial of Battle!" All Might then took a small remote and pressed a button.

"Of course, it won't be a Hero class if you youngsters aren't wearing proper attire!" Panels from the side wall opened and various numbered cases appeared. "Behold! Here are the costumes and hero gear you've requested! Make sure to always properly inspect it and take care of it from now on, especially before going out on the field! Now get changed and gather at school grounds β!"

Izuku didn't even bother going to his numbered case. He knew it'd be empty. Everything he needed was inside his backpack. He smiled as he put it on, and headed for the changing rooms.

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Costume making was a family activity for the Midoriya's. Of course, it only started around 3 years prior to Izuku entering U.A. Before that, the subject of heroism occupied a rather sore spot.

Things weren't easy after Hisashi's death. The problems weren't so much financial, his father had had Accidental death by villain insurance. The hero agency of the hero responsible had also offered to pay them an incredible amount of money, so they would keep quiet about the incident and the hero's fault in it.

The Midoriya's had naturally refused such blatant insult. To this day, they had the option to go to the media and tell the story of how the pro hero had let a villain escape because of some petty spat, which had directly led to Hisashi's murder. Some may call it cruel or blackmail, to hang it over their head like that. Inko and Izuku called it motivation - to be a better hero.

Unfortunately, that point of unity didn't do much to bridge the chasm of disagreement that had opened between them.

"I found your notes again, Izuku," his mom was waiting for him after he came back from school. He noticed his "All things Spider", volumes 1 through 3 were laid out on the coffee table. "I thought we've talked about this, I don't want you to become a hero." Inko didn't raise her voice when she said that. She never did. Instead there was a sad disappointed tinge to it, that was actually much worse.

The 13 year old Izuku let out a sigh and took off his backpack and sat on the couch. He was silent for a moment, before he opened it and took out volumes 4 and 5, after which he put them next to the others.

Throughout the past 5 years, this was a frequent argument. Well, more like debate. Neither of the Midoriya's were really the type of people that raised their voices.

Izuku never really bothered to hide his research and notes into his quirk or his plan to be a hero. He couldn't lie to his mother for one, and he also felt he needed to convince her, that he should indeed use his powers to make the world better.

On the other hand, Inko never went too far in her disagreement. She was close to throwing away his notes once, but she made the mistake of reading some of them first. After seeing the amount of work, dedication, and passion her son had poured into them, she didn't have the heart to discard it all.

So she simply tried to appeal to him. That she didn't want to lose him like Hisashi, that just the thought of it made her heart stop; that it didn't have to be him the one to walk down that difficult path, that there were already plenty of great heroes in the world, like All Might; that he could help and save people in other ways, whether through being a doctor, a scientist, or something else.

Yet it always came down to those words Hisashi had told Izuku, before they had moved here. Words that she kind of agreed with herself, given how her husband had died. Inko was heartbroken and proud at the same time, that her son was so good and felt so responsible.

Izuku steeled himself for another familiar conversation. So he was really surprised when this time it started differently. His Mom picked up the paper bag he somehow hadn't noticed before and gave it to him, without saying much or looking at him. He opened it and stared at the contents in confusion. Then he took out a dark green hoodie with red sleeves, along with a pair of dark green pants. But it was the red boots at the bottom that finally clued him in to what this was - these clothes were the exact colour scheme of one of the costume sketches in his "All things Spider vol. 3" notebook. He stared at his mother in utter surprise.

"Unlike you, son of mine, I know when to give up," his Mom sighed. "Perhaps I've always known it was a losing battle to try and get you to have a different dream.. you never gave up, even when we thought you were quirkless, even when we didn't support you as we should have. If this is the path you've chosen," Inko took a deep breath, "then this time I've decided to support you completely. All I want to ask of you is to let me."

She looked at him, straight in the eyes, "Please be honest with me, when it comes to Heroics. Even if you're hurt or in trouble in the future, I'll feel a lot better if I know exactly what is going on."

Izuku couldn't help himself, he stood up and gave his Mom.. well, not a crushing hug, not even a tight one (okay, so he had learned how strong he could be), but a warm one.

"I promise, Mom," he whispered while doing his best not to cry. He had teared up, but he wouldn't cry!

"Good," she gently ran her fingers through his hair. "Now how about we work on your costume idea? I like the colour scheme, but I think it could use a lot of improvement."

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The school subsidy had been a boon, since he always felt a bit guilty when his mother spent her hard earned money on buying clothes, textile, and other supplies for costumes. It was why he had made his web-shooters from things he had found in a dump and why he didn't ask for his own chemistry set.

Of course, Izuku didn't use the subsidy like the rest of his classmates probably did. Instead of revealing the specifics of his quirk and abilities to a 3rd party company, he asked the school if he could just be reimbursed for the materials he used in the creation and maintenance of his costumes and gear. At this point the homemade feel of it was just as big a part in his hero identity as his powers and dogma. While an odd request, the school administration had agreed with the Principle personally signing off.

This costume was the latest iteration. It had actually been his Mom's idea to use a jumpsuit for the core, to maintain simplicity and for quickly putting on, instead of the previous two-piece combo of shirt and pants. The colour scheme was the usual - the front of the upper half and outer sides of the arms were red with black aesthetic webs, while the rest was dark green. There was a black spider symbol right on his chest that looked like it was resting on the webs and a bigger and rounder red spider symbol that had 4 stubby legs on each side on his back. After he had the jumpsuit on, he then put on a pair of red webbed boots with thinner than normal soles and a pair of webbed red gloves that had the web-shooters integrated within them. Finally came the mask and this one was a completely new design - it had the same red webbed aesthetic for most of it, except for the eyes that were white and had a big green outline. It had taken a lot of days to get the green outline to move accordingly with his facial expressions. Both the Midoriya's had felt it made the mask feel too cold or impersonal otherwise, which would sometimes be detrimental for hero work.

Because of the simplicity of his costume, Izuku was actually the first one ready and was already sitting on a lamp post outside the entrance to the area. His mask wasn't entirely on, but bunched upwards since he had opted to keep his face visible for now. He recognized these grounds from his entrance exam. That observation though was made by only a small portion of his mind. Most of it was too occupied with fan-girling over the fact that he was alone with All Might. He felt incredibly nervous, but also felt he should apologize.

"Um.. All Might-sensei," he said and cringed. He could feel the trembling in his voice and it annoyed him. This wasn't proper hero behaviour, he shouldn't turn into a nervous wreck just because he was talking with his idol who happened to be the inspiration to become a hero in the first place.

"Ah, I recognize this costume from the entrance exam. You are young Midoriya!" All Might said in his usual cheerful voice with his usual cheerful grin. "I must commend you on getting ready so fast and being here first! Being able to prepare quickly can sometimes be the difference between saving someone and failing!"

He was being praised by All Might! He was being praised by All Might! Why was he freaking out?! And why was it getting difficult to breath?! He also heard All Might chuckle. Oh Gods, he had said that out loud!

Okay, okay, deep breaths.

Izuku managed to actually calm down surprisingly quickly. "Thank you, sensei, I uhm.. I was thinking of the same when we designed it," he finally said when he found his voice. "But I wanted to apologize for earlier. About asking for the autograph, I didn't want to delay the lesson. It's just, you've been an inspiration for such a long time and I kind moved before I realized what was happening." All Might chuckled and Izuku felt a bit foolish. He had probably heard this excuse countless of times before, considering who he was.

"Nonsense, my boy! It is refreshing to see someone so earnest these days! And I must say the first impression I got from you during the practical portion of the hero exam was spot on! But tell me, why did you focus on helping your competition rather than fighting the villains?"

"W-well.. I've always thought that helping people out should take priority over having flashy battles," Izuku said bashfully, as memories of Bakugo laughing maniacally whenever he fought sprung to his mind. "I couldn't really help it, like with the autograph earlier my body moved by itself."

All Might laughed. "I like that attitude young Midoriya! Being straightforward and earnest are good traits for becoming a great hero! However, there is one thing I'd like you to consider for the future!" All Might said lifting a finger. "Perhaps if you had taken out more villain bots, less people would have been put in danger in the first place?"

Izuku's eyes widened in surprise and realisation. That was something he hadn't really considered before. All Might's grin seemed to grow more. "That's right my boy, Heroics isn't always an easy and straightforward path to follow! That line of thinking also carries a lot of pitfalls in itself! But sometimes, often most times a hero has to look at the big picture and consider a situation or a problem from multiple angles before committing to action!"

"Now, I can see your classmates finally approaching!" All Might motioned towards the large entrance to the training grounds from where almost all of the students from 1-A appeared in their costumes, walking very deliberately (and kind of slowly), before raising his voice. "Yes! Let's see what you're all made of, youngsters! The Trial of Battle is about to begin!"

The number 1 hero then quickly inspected everyone's costumes. "Oh there are some interesting styles! I like what I'm seeing, very cool!" he gave a thumbs up which caused a lot of the students to preen. He then noticed someone who was wearing the school gym uniform. "Ah yes, you're young Hitoshi Shinso! Apologies but due to your later acceptance into Heroics, it will take a bit of time for your costume to be ready!"

"No, that's not a problem. This will be sufficient for now," the indigo haired boy said simply.

"Sensei!" what looked like a shiny mech raised its hand earnestly. "Are we going to be using the mock-city from the entrance exams as the location for the trial?"

Izuku's mind finally came back from impromptu thinking session it had been in and he let out a sigh. I'll think more on this later, he thought and put his mask down completely. He then suspended himself on a web from the lamp post and gave his classmates a proper look. The costumes ranged from casual, to practical, to extravagant. He was incredibly grateful that his face was hidden, because he couldn't help his eyes bulge out when he noticed some of attire the girls were wearing.

"Good question! In fact, this will be an indoor trial!" All Might then went on to explain some of the basics of the job. While some fights with the stupider villains as well as disaster relief tended to be out in the open, in truth most of the Heroic work happened behind the scenes. Things such as thwarting nefarious villain plots, stopping drug and human trafficking, going up against organized crime - really any villain with some brain cells to rub together knew operating in the shadows gave them a much bigger likelihood of success. After all the best way to win against heroes would be to not get their attention in the first place.

"Now for this test, you'll be separated into "Hero" and "Villain" teams for a two-on-two team battle!"

"What about the foundational training?" Asui asked.

"This is the foundational training!" All Might made a fist. "Except this time you won't be fighting against robots you can carelessly destroy!" All Might was then peppered with a multitude of questions at once until he yelled out in annoyance for everyone to be quiet and patient for him to explain, which he did from a small crib sheet.

The premise of the trial was pretty simple - the villain team have a nuclear device they have to hide somewhere in a 5 story building. The hero team have to infiltrate the building and attempt to stop them by either incapacitating the villains or retrieving the device. However, if the villains incapacitated the heroes or managed to protect the device until the time limit passed, then they would win. All Might then went on to explain how the teams would be chosen and why it would be at random.

Something about the trial didn't sit right with Izuku so he raised his hand, although considering he was hanging upside down it actually looked like he was pointing downwards. Still, it caught All Might's attention.

"Yes young Midoriya?"

"Sensei, isn't it also important to capture the villains even if the nuclear device is retrieved? Otherwise they could just escape and plan another dangerous terrorist attack."

"Ho-ho! That is true indeed, Midoriya my boy! That exercise is a bit more complex and is usually saved for later in the school year! For example, if the heroes retrieve the nuclear device, then engage the villains, they can run the risk of being defeated, which would result in mission failure! Yet, you've raised an interesting point and I think we can slightly modify this trial!"

"If the heroes win by retrieving the device, then the villains can still make an attempt to escape! If at least one exits the building before the time limit, then they would earn some credit, despite failing! However! If the heroes manage to capture them before the time limit, then they would earn that extra credit! And if neither team succeeds in their secondary objective, then the exercise simply ends without any extra credit given!"

The students of 1-A agreed with the modification, some even exclaimed that it would make things more exciting and give the villains some hope to recover, in case they lost. Izuku didn't react much, when Ashido and Iida praised him for his idea, although that was due in large part to his mask.

The teams were split and Izuku groaned internally. The Universe really hated him. He swung on his web before releasing, did a flip in the air and landed with a crouch right next to his teammate.

"Hey can you believe this? We must be linked or something," Urakara said excitedly. "Pleased to have you!"

Oh thank God, Izuku was worried that yesterday's blunder would've made things awkward between them. He had thought about apologizing again, but after seeing her want to move forward as if nothing had happened, he decided to just follow her example with the slight modification of keeping his mouth shut for good this time. He stood up and gave her a thumbs up.

"I like your costume by the way, it looks simple, but practical! I wish I'd been more specific with my request, mine is pretty tight at certain places," she said in embarrassment making Izuku involuntary (honest!) look at those places.

Thankfully he was saved from his mouth by All Might-sensei who was about to draw the first battle participants.

"All right youngsters, the first two teams to go against each other are.. Team A as the heroes!.."

Oh, that's us, Izuku thought.

"..And team D as the villains!"

There was an audible slap and when the students looked around they saw Izuku with a palm against his eyes (or the eyes of his mask). Katsuki on the other hand seemed like it was Christmas, New Years and his birthday all at the same time.

"In this trial, the villains go inside the building first and have 5 minutes for preparation and getting into the true mindset for evildoing!" All Might-sensei continued as if nothing significant had happened. "The heroes meanwhile can prepare a plan of attack and once the prep time is over the exercise will begin! As for the rest of us, we will observe the clash unfold from the monitoring room which will provide feed from the surveillance cameras inside the building!"

The number 1 hero than spread his arms while his head faced upwards, "This is a practical exercise, so don't hold back! But remember, you are facing live opponents now, so if things go out of hand I will stop the exercise and disqualifications will be handed!"

Everyone split afterwards with the two teams heading for the building while All Might and the rest of class 1-A headed for the observation room. Bakugo and Iida silently went inside the building when they reached it, while Midoriya and Ochaco remained outside. The two of them were looking at the sheets given to them by All Might.

"A layout of the facility huh.. We should probably memorise this," the girl said. "But I'm relieved, it looks like we aren't under the threat of expulsion like with Aizawa-sensei. All Might-sensei really is a nice person like his image on TV."

"Urakara-san," Midoriya spoke seriously, addressing his classmate for the first time. "I may have a plan on how to deal with them."

"What, already? Wow, you must be so confident!" Ochaco said surprised.

"N-not at all," Midoriya stammered despite himself and took a moment to get his thoughts in order, "I'm actually quite nervous with facing Bakugo in open battle. His quirk is quite formidable."

Ochaco noticed for the first time that there were shivers running over her teammate's shoulders and hands. "Oh that's right, the two of you almost had a fight yesterday. So you really do know each other, what's the story behind that?"

"Know each other? I guess you could say that." Midoriya let out a sigh, "We used to be childhood friends. "Kacchan" has always been confident since everything he has tried to do always came to him easily. His ego got even more inflated when he manifested his amazing quirk."

"I on the other hand.. was a special case. I didn't manifest my quirk until I was 8 years old. By then I had the label of quirkless attached to me and he would call me Deku, which is another way to read the kanji in my name, meaning good for nothing. He always seemed to take pleasure during those 4 years in making me know I was inferior to him."

"When my quirk finally manifested, I naturally wanted to show him up, which lead to uhm.. An accident." Ochaco got the impression Izuku was probably blushing, even if she couldn't see his face. "Anyway, we haven't seen each other since then. Until yesterday that is."

"Wow.." Ochaco muttered, "I'm really glad I didn't call you Deku as well, now that I know the history behind that name. When I heard it yesterday, it reminded me of "You can do it!" rather than good for nothing." She heard a sharp intake of breath and noticed the eyes of Midoriya's mask had gotten really wide. How had he managed to make them move like that?

The boy then chuckled. "Oh I just imagined Bakugo's face if he heard you. He'd have probably burst a blood vessel in idgination. I'm half tempted to let you call me that just to piss him off."

"I think I'll stick with Izuku," Ochaco smiled not knowing how it caused her classmate to blush underneath his mask again. "But I'm amazed, you two really have it out for each other. So this must be a fated battle between men." She was surprised when Izuku let out a snort.

"Not at all," he said crossing his arms and looking upwards. "I may hate his guts, but I realized yesterday Aizawa-sensei is right. Our petty spat from the past is meaningless, compared to the reason we are here. I've actually thought of this plan because I want to properly capture both of them to excel at this trial."

Izuku then turned to face her once more, "And the key to that success, especially against Bakugo is you. So, are you willing to follow my plan? It will be quite risky."

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To be continued..

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In an Alternate Universe of this Alternate Universe

"Now that we're all here," the teacher continued, "I came earlier today, because I wanted to introduce your new fellow student, before classes started." Everyone tensed at the reminder of what had happened to Mineta yesterday and looked at his replacement. Interestingly, they couldn't see much of the boy, because he was wearing a red and black hero costume. And were those katanas on his back? Izuku's spider sense immediately began warning him of a catastrophic level of danger.

"Hey everyone, the name's Wade Wilson," the boy waved cheerily. How did the mask even move to show his expression like that? "But you can call me Kid Deadpool, or Kidpool for short! I'm your new transfer student from another dimension, mostly because the author knows every Spider-man needs at least one scene with a Deadpool."

A moment passed before, before..

WHAT?!

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Author's musings: Ah Kidpool.. it's almost a shame you'll only appear in a bonus gag scene. Almost.

I should make it clear, I'm not planning for characters from Marvel or other comic franchises to appear beyond a cameo in a bonus scene. Now if an established MHA character happened to start carrying a shield around or something similar, that's an entirely different thing.

Finding the right balance between Izuku's personality and Spider-man's personality is more difficult than I expected. I'm still not sure I'm getting it right completely.

Some of the reviews from last chapter gave me a good laugh. Thanks for that. I was also pleasantly surprised to read so many reviews of people who don't think Spider-man is OP.

I've been asked about pairings. All I'll say is this won't be a harem. More importantly, I don't think romance will be a focus of this story and if there is a pairing, the goal is for it to develop organically. We just have to see where it leads us. ~

Thank you for the wonderful support. Now double it! I needs moar, feed me!

Ta-ta~

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