An hour ago I was told by Puma herself that I was going to be her protege.
Now I am riding uncomfortably in a car with a maid that only seems a decade younger than Nana.
After Nana told Puma my story while I was asleep and resting, Puma called over her maid, Alice. I was imagining a young, blonde haired girl with a miad outfit.
What I got was a slightly wrinkled, brown haired woman, who still retains her grace despite her age.
"Are you alright, Master Emily?" The woman asked me. I nodded as I looked out the window.
I used to live in a small city called Oceanside, located about an hour drive North from San Diego, the city where Star Destiny is located.
They say SD is located there due to how consistent the temperature is year round, but we all know that Star Destiny and San Diego have the same abbreviations.
It's one of those jokes that everyone still uses even though it died ten years ago.
Supposedly there is another famous landmark, Michaels' Manor. Joan Michaels is the owner of the top support item company and the number two business enterprise, Michaels Enterprises.
I say this because we parked right in front of the building.
"We're here, Master Emily." Alice said.
I nodded and got my bags out. I looked around. The nearest house looked like a mile away.
"Uh, Miss Alice?" I asked. "Why are we in front of Michaels Manor?"
"Because it's your new home." Alice said. "Surely Master Joan has told you."
"Oh crap, I knew I forgot something." I looked to see a tired looking, but very professional looking, middle aged woman. She short black hair that draped and covered her neck. She also had brown eyes and red lips. She wore a black blazer revealing a grey tank top like shirt, and a business skirt. "Sorry about that Emily, I meant to tell you sooner."
This was Joan Michaels. I knew because I thought the next closest thing I would get to being a hero was developing support gear, and I wanted to be under her company.
Wait, does that mean?
"Your Joan Michaels, but your also-"
"Shh, the answer is yes, but don't yell it out here. Come inside and I can answer all if your questions."
I nodded and began to follow her.
"Alice, please take her bags into her room, and prepare some coffee for us."
"Of course m'am." Alice carried my bags up into the building, and me and Joan walked in. She showed me into a very fancy seat. When I sat in it I felt super comfortable.
"There you go." Joan sat down, clapping her hands. A fireplace near us went ablaze. "Sorry for the overload of information. I'm going a bit too fast aren't I?"
"No no, it's okay Ms. Michaels!" I reply.
"Please, call me Joan." She replied.
"J-Joan! Sorry!" I chuckled nervously. "Uh, I can't thank you enough! It's an honor to meet you in person, but your also Puma! I could've never guessed! But that must be why Puma has a lot of gadgets, because her own company makes them. Everyone knows your company endorses you, but you actually being that same person!"
"...Yes." Joan said, absorbing the burst of excitement I dumped on her. "But all my gadgets are of my design. Which brings me to my first test."
She then placed a device on the table. It looked like a mechanical worms with a connection port on one side. "Do you know what this is?"
I nodded. "It's Puma's tail."
"Good. Know how it works?"
I pondered for a moment. "From what I have seen during films of your fight it seems that you press zero buttons to have it move around, so a few theories come to mind. First one is that it runs on a supportive AI, but I already debunked it since the computer it would be on would be too small. With how you have Alice one would think an outside source would control it, but you don't have a camera on your utility belt. So the only remaining theory is that it connects to your nervous system, specifically your back."
"Bingo." Joan smiled.
"But I'm still confused how. I mean, unless your suit is made of a neural reader it would make sense, but I know that if that was the case when you fought Fearjacker your suit would have exploded."
"How perceptive." She smiled. "Would you like to see how?" I nodded, prompting her to stand up, and turn around, unbuttoning her blazer and shrugging it off her shoulders. I gasped at what I saw.
On her back was a mechanical device, running along her spine. "W-What is?"
"Spinal Neural Acceleration Device, or 'snade.'" Joan replied. "After a fateful battle my spinal cord became shattered, and while surgery healed most of it and cured paralysis I still had major jitters, so I made this to compensate."
"Wait, was that from Luchador Max, the wrestler that broke your back?" I asked.
"Smart connection, but no, it held no permanent damage. Very little people know about this fight, I paid a lot of people to keep it on the down low. The worst part is how often I need to charge it." At that she took the tail and plugged it into a wall. "That tail runs on my snade, but it also serves as a battery for it. While the tail isn't plugged in the snade can run for 24 hours, with the battery returning it to full charge within a few minutes and lasting a good hour. Of course the more stress I put it under the faster the power drains."
"Would you die i-"
"If the snade runs out of power? No. What would happen is that my body would be so slow to response that I would be essentially out of commision." She said, buttoning her blazer back up. "Only Alice, you, some people in SD, and a good friend know about this."
"I see." I said. "Is that why you asked me to be your protege?"
"More like I don't trust the snade fully. I've become unreliable. I'm getting old." She said. "And also because you need a fair shot. I noticed how you have problems with one Jocelyn Peterson. How she says that you will never become a hero without being evolved."
"Yeah." I looked down.
"She may be wrong, since all you need is strength to be a hero, she is also right, because you still need an edge." She said. "However, you have an edge all along."
I looked at her. "But I'm not evolved."
"You don't have to be. Because you still have gifts, like me." She said. "I looked at some of the small items you made. They are quite nice and useful. You would make a great support item inventor. But you want to be a hero no?" I nodded. "Well, I'm going to show you how to be a tech hero, a dying brand of hero in the US and more so around the world. A hero who uses gear and gadgets more often than they use their Evolution. Question is, are you ready to train?"
I nodded eagerly. "Good. We'll begin tomorrow, in the morning."
The child's now asleep. At least she goes to sleep at curfew. A habit that I so need to get going.
I sit on my desk and exhaled. I saw a notification buzzing on my desk, Toshinori wants to facetime? I pressed the button and saw the living skeleton of the man that I have the high honor to call a friend.
"Hello Joan-san." He said smiling. "Sorry that I've been gone for a while."
"It's understandable. Pretty soon we'll be adding something to our plates." I stated, smiling. "How was your week. Please tell me good friend."
"Well, I'll cut right to the chase. I found the next predecessor for One for All." He said. I raised an eyebrow.
"Gimme details Toshinori." I said.
"I know I know. His name's Midoriya Izuku. He's also quirkless like I am, you know without One for All."
"And you felt bad that he wasn't going to be able to complete his dream."
"Sorry, it's just that despite being quirkless, he tried to save a fellow student from a powerful villain. I saw a part of myself in him." He explained.
"You're way too nice Toshinori." I said. "Then again I can't judge. I found my protege too after all."
"Oh?"
"Emily Worcester. Not evolved, but has a knack for tinkering and has top grades. Shows signs of incredible lateral thinking. Her grandmother told me how she deterred a group of thugs with diy traps like you saw in Home Alone, in another peer's house. She also shows signs of wanting to become a hero, she just needs an edge."
"And you plan to do that by having her improve her tinkering skills?"
"And martial combat. And how to outsmart people, though she doesn't really need to learn that last one. But your gonna give him probably the most powerful ability ever?"
"He also needs that edge above everyone. He deserves to stand in the same ring as the others."
"Well, here's to teaching."
"To teaching." Toshinori smiled. "Go Beyond, Plus Ultra."
"Command Fate, Ad Astra." I said. We liked to salute with our school's mottos. Ad Astra is a latin saying that means "to the stars." Our motto takes the two parts of the school's name, star and destiny, and puts them together. "Good luck with Midoriya."
"Same to you with Worcester-chan." He said. "Perhaps we can have our students visit each other."
"It would definitely be a good experience." I smiled. "Night Toshinori."
"Night." I ended the call. I walk into my room and plugged my back into the wall. I sighed. Good thing I found my protege easily.
After waking up to Alice delivering me a very well made continental breakfast and figuring out how the shower works, I meat Joan in her study.
"Not many people will see this, Emily." Walks over to a chess board, switching the two pieces on what seems to be a chess game going on. Suddenly a wall opens up, and she motions me to come down. "Alice, close up the Puma Den entrance for me please."
Wait, I'm going into the Puma Den!?
I followed Joan down the spiral staircase, until we eventually got into a landing that opens into a wide room. I see a giant computer on one side, what seems to be the Puma Suit with an armory off the the other side, and is that the Puma Cycle!?
"Take it all in Emily. This is where we will be training." Joan replied. She shrugs off her business attire and puts on what seems to be a black tank top with grey workout pants, along with what seems to be very small looking boots.
"Go ahead and put on your workout clothes, and we'll get started." I nodded and walked over to change quickly.
"Okay, Miss Joan, uh, what will we be doing first?"
"First will be martial arts." She said, bouncing a bit. "Hopefully by the time the entrance exam takes place we can shape you into a professional MMA fighter. Hmm, tell me let's first try something out." She then walks over to me, Putting her hands up, then motioning to her face. "Come on."
It took me a second to see what she is talking about. "You want me to hit you?"
"I want you to try." She smirked evilly. I see that even outside her Puma outfit she still has a sadistic intimidation. The aura she is giving off reminds me sort of like Jocelyn.
I don't really want to hurt her I don't think, I never punched someone in my life. I breathed slowly, wound my fist back, and swung.
Joan used her left hand to simply smack my wrist, but that simple movement made me stumble a bit towards her, causing her to backpedal a bit before a fell onto my side, rubbing the red mark on my wrist.
"Again."
I stood up and rubbed my wrist a bit, before trying again. This time I didn't wind up and swung with my other arm.
She smacked it with her other arm. Thankfully it just made my fist fly past. "Again."
I try to use the momentum from the deflected fist to do a backhand, if she deflects it then I can swing my right fist using the momentum, right?
I began my plan, I heard yelling releases a burst of adrenaline and makes you swing faster, so I'll try that. As I swing I let out a yell. As suspected, she deflected my backhand, which means I am going to swing my right arm and connect with her.
That was when she duck, and my momentum made me take a step foward, crossing my legs. As Joan ducked, she stepped to my right,kicking my left foot from under me and making me fall, onto my face.
"Again, and do-"
"NrrAH!" I jump back up and swing my fist towards her fist at her face. Surely she does not expect me to strike while she's talking.
Except she did. And she deflected my fist, then jabbed me in the stomach.
And I felt like all my breath escaped my mouth, and I couldn't breath for a moment, making me double over, then start coughing as I am gasping for air.
"Slow the breathing, slow it down, shhh." She said. "And don't yell. You'll be open to counterattack if you yell, like I did there. And woman up, I didn't punch your solar plexus that hard."
I still feel like puking.
"Now stand up straight." She picks me up. "Stand up as straight as you can."
I trust that she knows what she is talking about, so I follow suit.
"Good job, now we have a lot to learn, but by the time you leave for the entrance exam you will be a black belt in at least one martial art. Now it seems you do know how to use momentum to your advantage and how to be unexpected, so that's a good start. Based on that, I think you will learn Jiu Jitsu first, since it will teach you how to take advantage of momentum based fighting, both for you and against your opponent. You will also be training your body so your strength will be tat of a football player at the least and you can be considered a world class gymnast. You won't be All Might strong or fast, but you will be able to keep up with basic power up evolutions."
"What about gadgets?" I asked.
"That will be after combat training, then once you learn the basics, I'll help you with gadget assisted combat. Now, let's get started."
Months have passed since I was invited to stay with Puma. Since then I have quote black belted not only Jiu Jitsu but also Aikido and Karate end quote. I have many gadgets in my utility belt as of right now, including but not limited to grappling guns with integrated stun technology, smoke pellets, a pair of thermographic goggles, and what I called my quote Tricky Darts endquote.
I can remember the conversation with Joan.
"Those are some nice darts." She commented. "You do need some form of projectile weapon, these are not only aerodynamic but you can easily integrate explosives or smoke or sound based attacks into them."
"Thank you." I smiled, stretching as she admired my handiwork.
"What are you going to call them?" She asked.
"Oh, uh, I dunno?" I said sheepishly. "I was hoping-"
"Pumarangs?" Joan questioned. "First of all these aren't boomerangs, second of all, you can't steal my product no matter how much you want to. You need your own identity." She then thought for a moment. "What's your favorite color?" She asked.
"Uh, white?" I said.
"Is that a question or a statement?" She asked, and I restated my answer. "Kay, now what's your favorite animal, other than-"
"It's actually a fox." I said. "Foxes are cool, and, uh, serene, especially Arctic Foxes."
"Ah ha, now what are foxes typically known for?" She asked me.
I thought for a moment, then answered, "Tricky?"
"Bingo. You also tend to surprise me a lot since you developed a tricky fighting style, so Tricky Darts."
Seems so simple, but I guess it will stick.
I woke up a bit early, doing some pull ups while I strapped some ankle weights, adding an extra 25 pounds. I want to get one last workout in.
"91...92…" I counted, breathing heavily as my muscles strain, did I mention I was also doing curls for my core? "93...94…" I could feel my arms screaming to stop, but my mind kept going. "95...96…" I was getting even slower coming up, but I refuse to give in. "97...98…" So close to the end! "...Ninety…" I could feel my body resisting. "...Nine…" I have one more to go, I can't give in. "...One…" Gotta get up, gotta push it. "...Hun…" I am almost to the top, so close! "...Drrrrrrrrr..." Come one come on come on come on come on come o-
"ED!"
I dropped to the ground, breathing heavily.
"You don't want to push yourself too hard." Joan reminded me. "Here, have this." She handed me what seems to be a protein shake-coffee mix. "Get your strength back. You have a big day today."
I smiled. Today will be the day I get in.
As I left the car and stared at the building in front of me…
…
... I realized how NOT ready I am.
So I want to address some concerns but still write an actual chapter first.
Yes, this mirrors a lot of the original MHA, because I'll admit it's really good.
Yes, I want to write it in a first person perspective. I may switch between different perspectives, but it may still center around Emily. Mainly because I do want to center it around how they feel about things.
I may want to try and expand on some things, call it impatience. I am still learning how to do that.
Also, some concerns about characters.
All the submissions I got are students, and only one of those (two if you count Raven Claw's in the reviews) submissions was female.
So if y'all want to submit, lt's say, three different characters, I won't have problems accepting them all. Make sure you submit them all in different messages.
And Raven Claw, I would appreciate it if you sent the character through a PM. You can copy paste it from the review, but I'd like to have a way to contact you if I want to talk about character growths and arcs for Lisanna.
Finally, since a lot of people are confused about the two different things for the same thing, "EVOLUTION NAME, TYPE, AND DESCRIPTION" in the FORM section and the CAPABILITIES section. The one in the FORM section is what the character thinks how the evolution works and how they explain it, and the one in the capabilities section describes how the government describes it, weaknesses and all. This is here to show what the student understands of their own evolution, because if they have a deep understanding of how it works then they are more likely to foster it's growth. Also, some people have no idea what their evolution even does or how it works, it just "does."
Anyway I think that is all.
Hope you like this update. I will start writing up the next one once I have more characters.
I will PM you of your character's role soon. Thank you all for submitting.
