Hey dudes! Before this chapter begins I want to give everyone who submitted an OC, left a review, followed or favorited, or sent me a PM my sincere thanks for the support you've given to this story I thought of months ago and only three weeks ago decided to make an SYOC. I've received a ton of very interesting and unique characters that have planted so many ideas in my head and changed the very fabric of this story's universe.
Also sorry for this going up late, but I'm currently on vacation and haven't had too many opportunities to write.
Also also sorry if this chapter feels rushed or isn't up to par with the other two. My excuse is the exact same as the one above. Not much of one but I rushed this in order to get you guys a chapter. May rewrite this at some point as I'm not entirely happy with it.
Also also also...I really need a cover art for this story. I am not artistic and I hate to use a generic photo off the internet (but I will if needed) but first I wanted to ask if anyone reading would like to send in one. If so just send it to my email, which is at the end of the first chapter.
Anyway...
Oh! A wild OC appeared!
That's right guys, the time has finally come. The U.S.A.E.I Entrance Exams start….after this quick prelude!
Purpose of a Hero
"SPITFIRE YOU IDIOT!" A booming voice bellowed. In a small, very messy apartment in the dead center of Queens sat a man, with golden hair, on a light gray futon with one missing leg. The man, who appeared to only be in his late teens, snorted and leaned back into the cushions. Next to him stood a large computer monitor with four distinct squares on it. Within each square was the silhouette of a different person, two appearing to be female, one very straight postured, and the other almost unnoticeable. The shouting had come from one of the squares with a female figure.
"What do you want from me, Puppet? Lady waltzed right into the alley, what if she'd have followed me to the meeting place, huh? We'd have a dozen Pros breaking down our doors in a heartbeat," the golden-haired man, Spitfire, retorted. From the square with the figure with good posture came another voice, this one clearly male and sophisticated.
"Now, now. No fighting here, children." The female speaker was visibly irritated, which seemed to only satisfy the sophisticated one. "Spitfire, next time move with a bit more discretion. As you said, we can't have a band of Heroes following our moves before we've made our name known."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Sorry," the golden-haired man sighed, though he seemed more frustrated than apologetic.
"No matter. We may have had to test Puppeteer's abilities sooner than we'd planned, but in the end, it worked out. We managed to seriously nearly kill another a top twenty Hero and inflicted injury on the number two. I'd say that is a very adequate application of our time."
"Thank you very much, Prophet," Puppeteer said, the mocking tone in her voice clear as day. Spitfire opened his mouth to further agitate the woman but was interrupted by the second male voice.
"Indeed. So far we've made quite the name for ourselves without actually having our identity known. A top fifty sidekick and the number ten hero dead, while the number two and fifteen both injured? Sufficient to say that things are moving along nicely." The man's voice sent a chill down Spitfire's spine. "However, that's not why I called this meeting. I allowed your banter as a way to break the ice for this meeting, but it stops now."
"Yes, sir," Spitfire and Puppeteer muttered in unison.
"Now then, as you know the entrance exams for the academy begin soon. Is everything in place, Vesuvius?" The final member of the quintet laughed slightly and answered rather provocatively.
"Yes~, the seeds have been sown. This Hero world will soon come to an end," Miss Vesuvius purred, causing Spitfire to flinch. 'Talk about a kiss ass. All she does is kill people and fawn over Plague.'
"Good. Ah yes, I learned something you may be interested in. The child of Teardrop is one of those taking the entrance exams this year. I made sure her application was pushed through, though I'm sure she'd have got in on merit alone. Better to be safe than sorry, wouldn't you say?" At the mere mention of her former employer, Vesuvius tensed up.
"Yes, sir. Thank you for giving me this opportunity."
"Now then, Spitfire. Lay low, but stay in the area. We need someone close to the academy. Puppeteer, you and Prophet will head out west and continue 'recruiting'. Vesuvius...stay where you are and for the love of God don't let yourself be seen. You're the only one of us that is officially wanted by the U.S.H.A. and your face is everywhere. LAY LOW," Plague growled and cut off his connection, leaving the remaining four in silence. One by one the others each disconnected, leaving Spitfire alone in his apartment. He lied down fully on the futon and yawned, revealing a burnt black mouth and throat that clashed with his pearly white teeth.
"Plague is pretty intense. Ah well, at least he isn't killing me yet." He grinned at his statement, but that soon turned into a deep frown. "Entrance exams...around the time for her to start high school, isn't it? Can't believe I forgot...I'm a real shitty brother."
Purpose of a Hero
June 23, 2317
The United States Academy for Enhanced Individuals popularly called either U.S.A.E.I or simply 'The Forge' for its tendency to use 'trial by fire' methods to shape the next generation of Heroes. Amongst the most prestigious Hero training schools across the globe, it ranks second, only behind U.A. of Japan. Located just outside of New York City, the campus itself covers just over two square miles of land, with separate facilities either located off-campus or in the expansive underground tunnel network beneath the school. However, it was not always like this. The first iteration of U.S.A.E.I was founded in the year 2048 in the city of Yonkers. This school was much larger and had a higher annual acceptance rate than its successor. It stood as a shining standard for Hero training for nearly two hundred years before it was burnt to the ground following a villain attack in 2234. When the dust cleared, they rebuilt the school closer to an urban center so that Pro Heroes could rush to its defense in case of a similar incident. Not only that, but the school's overall image was also overhauled. It was made more compact, and consequently, its acceptance rate plummeted from allowing forty students for both the Hero and Support classes, to just thirty-two. While it may not seem like much, this greatly increased the amount of competition and the school quickly became one of the more exclusive. Every year the majority of its inductees were family members of well-known Pro Heroes and alumni, mostly due to these select getting the training they needed to pass the exam growing up.
One of these potential inductees was a girl by the name of Melody Halloway, the daughter of the former number three Hero, Teardrop. Just over a month previous to when her own entrance exam was slated to take place, she had her first brush with the real dangers of villainy and the Hero profession. After the villain, whose real name was discovered to be Aaron Bush, was defeated by Nathan, her childhood friend, taken into custody, everyone on the scene was relocated to the nearest hospital, where the seriously wounded, including Axel Larson, Nathan's father and the Hero known as Lionheart, who was back to business the following day, despite the doctor's orders. She and Nathan had both been scolded for their public use of Quirks, but thanks to Oddball taking the credit for the villain's defeat neither was prosecuted. The next month leading up to the U.S.A.E.I entrance exams had been full of nothing but training for Melody, whose father pushed her further than ever, right up the day of the exam. Unfortunately, his last-minute training had gone on a bit longer than either of them had planned. As a result, the redheaded teen was in a serious time crunch.
"Stupid old man. 'This is the most important day of your life! It's good to get started early!' he says. Okay...okay calm down. Even with the delay, I should be able to make it in time," Melody muttered to herself. She glanced down at the analog time on her phone's home screen, which read 8:36, and grimaced. 'There's still twenty-four minu...twenty-three minutes until the exam begins. I think there are four or five stops left, so if we don't run into any big problems I should get there on time. Unless there's traffic...or a villain attack again...or we run out of gas.' The redhead groaned and smacked her cheeks with the palms of her hands. "Dang-it Melody! Stop worrying!" By the time the bus finally pulled up to the large, metal front gates, the red-haired teen had repeated these words to herself a dozen times. With a great degree of hesitance, Melody glanced down at her phone's clock once again. '8:53! I've gotta go!' The doors of the bus hadn't even opened up yet when she leaped through them, having transformed into her Wraith for the second time already that morning. She was so focused on running towards the office building that she didn't notice the burly figure walking perpendicular to her until they collided, with Melody bouncing off. As she shook off her daze and muttered an apology, a pair of strong hands grabbed the front of her shirt and lifted her up.
"What's the big idea!?" A girl with almond-shaped red eyes growled, her unkempt magenta hair swaying as she shook the redhead violently.
"I-I'm sorry! I'm just late and I need to go now please!" Melody cried, nearly shifting back into her Wraith form, but stopped when she saw recognition dawning in the other girl's eyes. In an instant, her furious expression had turned to one of disgust.
"Oh, you. The crybaby's kid, right?" Melody's eyes widened at this, causing the other girl to laugh haughtily. "Yeah, you are. My father told me about you. I bet you're just as worthless as that wannabe Teardrop."
"What?" The teen grumbled, a slight anger seeping into her tone. This, of course, only caused the antagonizer's grin to widen.
"Huh? You gonna cry me into submission? How are people supposed to look up to a Hero whose always crying, eh?" She taunted. Melody bit her lip to keep from retaliating, but her patience was quickly slipping. At that moment, it almost seemed as if the weight of the world suddenly got placed on her shoulders. The magenta-haired girl grunted under the strain and turned her head to glare at the muscular, brunet boy who stared at the two with his right arm held aloft and one brown eyebrow raised. "Who the hell do you think you are?"
"I think I should be asking you that. Fighting despite the fact we haven't even gotten the chance to know one another. How about you let her go and I don't turn you into a pancake, then turn you in?" The boy threatened. The magenta-haired girl frowned and released her grip on Melody, who immediately fell to the ground. The brunet gave her a sheepish look as the other girl flipped him the bird and started to stalk off. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to get you caught up in my gra-"
"Thank you so much, but I've gotta go!" Melody screamed over her shoulder as she resumed her sprint to the administrations building. The boy blinked in confusion and watched until the girl's wild mane of red hair disappears into the large, colonial-like building that served the administrative staff as well as the teacher's personal offices and lounge. Inside the front lobby, Melody huffed and put her hands on her knees, taking a ten-second break, before running up to the nearest sign-in desk, much to the befuddlement of the staff member seated there. "Am...am t-too...late?"
"Huh? Oh, no! Nope, you made it just in time. Name?" The man, whose hair was dyed a dark blue, inquired, directing his eyes to the sheet of paper on the table in front of him.
"Melody Halloway." The man took a moment to search the sheet, nodded, and pulled a small piece of paper from beneath the desk.
"Exam hall five. Good luck, kid." Melody thanked him quickly, turned, and sprinted in the way he had pointed. 'Exam room one...two...three...four. There!' A sign marked with the number five sat anteriorly a large, wooden door. Without a second thought the redhead burst through the door...only to find herself in the front of the whole auditorium, its occupants numbering in the high hundreds. Standing directly to her right was a strict looking woman with gray hair tied up into a braid.
"Uh...hi?" Melody said unsurely. The proctor gave her a critical look before jerking her head towards the stands, clearly telling the redhead to take her seat, a command that she was all too happy to comply with. She managed to find an open spot about halfway up the aisle, sat down, and hung her head so she wouldn't have to look at anyone else.
"As I was saying. My name is Rosapast Barthory. I teach the Hero Etiquette class her at U.S.A.E.I. Today, however, I am your proctor for the first part of your entrance exam. The written portion of your exam will be worth three hundred points, a majority of the five hundred total. You must get at least one hundred and twenty to pass. Any questions left unfinished will count against your overall score, you will have two hours to finish. Any questions?" She barked. Surprisingly, to Melody at least, not a single hand went up. As if expecting this, the woman jerked her head in a stiff nod at several people waiting at the end of each aisle with a stack of papers. "Once you receive your exam you may begin."
Purpose of a Hero
Melody rubbed at her temples to alleviate a headache as she and the rest of the students in her group made their way down to the site for the physical exam. The written test had been both as bad and better than she had initially expected. While the science and math problems gave her trouble, which was something she assumed would go poorly, the literature and Heroics questions came easily. 'Even so, I have to be the best in the physical and Quirk exams. If I'm not then I don't know if my written score can carry me. Okay, time to focus and pass this frigging test!' Her eyes glinted in determination and she clenched her fists as the group reached a small running track. In the center of the track was a woman with messy white hair, and a black eyepatch covering her right eye, while the left stared dully at the crowd of students approaching. She wore a traditional red kimono with a long red scarf resting on her neck, at her sides were several sheaths, each with a different length sword inside. Once she started speaking it was clear she didn't want anything to the aspiring Heroes. "Alright. My name is Izanami Honoka. I am the combat trainer here at the Forge. You'll be doing tests today to judge your physical fitness levels. No Quirks. Separate into groups of three and these upperclassmen will be proctoring, while I observe. Dismissed."
"That was brief," Melody muttered to herself, though it seemed like the girl standing beside her caught it because she let out a quick bark of laughter. The two girls turned to one another and smiled. "Melody Halloway."
"Kira Kazani," replied the girl, who had waist-length hair that was a dull yellow at its roots, red at its very tips, and orange in between. Her eyes were her most striking feature though. The pitch black orbs, despite not having pupils or appearing very expressive, shone with a bright curiosity. "Alright! Let's go! We just need one more person and we've got a group! Who is going to be our ne-"
"Kira!?" Melody cried as the black-eyed girl tripped over her own feet and face planted on the ground. Her actions grabbed the attention of practically the entire hoard of applicants, many of which chuckled or outright laughed as the redhead offered her hand to her new friend. "You alright?"
"Of course!" Kira said, giggling lightly. She dusted off her faded blue jeans and resumed her look for another person to join their group. Unfortunately, most students were already paired up. Following a moment of searching though, Melody's eyes landed on a boy with purple hair, who was standing in a direct ray of sunlight, seemingly ignoring the squabble of students preparing for their exams. Unperturbed by his aloof appearance, Kira jogged up and patted him on the shoulder, causing him to turn and open his eyelids, showing off a pair of bright yellow eyes. "Hey, I'm Kira and this is Melody. We need another person, you wanna join us?"
"Well, I suppose there's not much choice. Okay," the boy said, nodding his head slightly. Kira leaped into the air, cheered, and promptly fell onto her behind. The boy stared at her in apparent shock, but an instant later she was back on her feet with a million kilowatt smile plastered on her face.
"Now we've got three!" Not long after the boy introduced himself as Kenny Phillips, or Ken as he preferred to be called, an upperclassman with bleached blonde hair waltzed over to them and held up a hand in greeting.
"Hey, I'm Dominick Coore. Nice to meet y'all," he drawled in a very distinct southern accent. The three took turns introducing themselves and then got right down to business. "First we've got the fifty-meter dash. Line up in lanes five, seven, and six."
The three followed his orders and, after another upperclassman shot a starting gun into the air, took off. With the exception of Kira's third fall of the day, a trend that would continue, the race went well for Melody. The next event was push-ups, followed by sit-ups, both of which all three did well on, and then came pull-ups, something the redhead had always struggled with. The rest of the physical events passed in a flash, but all in all, Melody was content with the results. Kira, on the other hand, was slightly depressed. When all was said and done, her clumsiness had undeniably hurt her score. Kenny was fairly hard for Melody to read, so she didn't know if he was satisfied or not. Dominick looked at them with a small grin on his face. "Well done, noobs! Hope y'all don't screw the pooch and make it in!"
"Uh, thanks Dominick," Melody replied, her voice uneven. Even though she was happy with her written and physical, she knew that the Quirk evaluation would require more than a passing grade, she'd have to excel. The applicants were given an hour for lunch, courtesy of the school, in the cafeteria and surrounding grounds before they would be called in one-by-one. Having gotten a tray ladened with hearty foods, a juice box, and a slice of cake to calm her nerves, Melody took a seat in the shade of a large willow tree around two-hundred yards from the school building. 'From what dad told me, the exam is going to be a mixture of practical use and questions fielded by the present teachers. In terms of combat, my abilities are limited. If I could only change the phase on one part of my body then Wraith would be far more useful. As it is, I can only dodge attacks but have to change forms again in order to land physical attacks. I'm not going for the conventional Hero License, so maybe they planned for that. That was part of the application. Crap, what if they make me do combat to show I can deal with any challenge that comes my way. No. Calm down, Mel. Jeez, I can't lose my head like this every time I'm faced with something difficult...but what if that's one of the things they're testing? Uhg, I'm my own worst enemy.' Her musings stopped a loudspeaker screeched to life above her head.
"Attention! Would Andrew Abrams please report to evaluation room three and Cody Adams to room seven. Abrams to three, Adams to seven. Thank you." Melody frowned and leaned back onto the trunk of the tree. 'Seems they're going alphabetically at least. I wonder which group Nathan is in. He was so nervous last night I'm sure he was at the gates before even the teachers. Silly goof, he's always been that way. Racing towards his problems before they even become problems. I really hope that even if I don't make it that he does.' Suddenly, another body fell against the tree beside her. Following a quick glance, Melody smiled at Kira, who appeared to be unphased by their impending doom. 'Maybe I'm being a bit overly dramatic. I sound like dad.'
"Pretty nerve-racking, eh?" Kira commented, contrary to her relaxed posture. Melody nodded slightly and gulped.
"You seem to be handling it well." Kira chuckled and waved her hand dismissively.
"I'm a fantastic actor. Anyway, looks like it's going to be in alphabetical order, so we've both got a bit to strategize, any ideas? I'm completely blank," the teen with multi-colored hair smiled sheepishly.
"I've got a few, but I doubt it'll be easy. Probably try to pinpoint our weaknesses and stuff like that." A few more names were called over the intercom, interrupting their conversation for a moment. For the next half hour, the two spoke about anything and everything to keep themselves distracted from the upcoming exam, though it sat just at the outskirts of their minds, making their attempts at relaxation even more difficult. Eventually...the time came.
"Attention! Melody Halloway to exam room two, and Christopher Higgins to exam room three. Halloway to two, Higgins to three. Thank you." Melody slowly got to her feet, barely registering her companion wishing her luck, and began to stiffly walk towards the large building located across the sprawling grassy area from the cafeteria. As she got closer she picked out the metal door marked with a freshly polished number five and stopped in front of it. 'This is it. Stay steady.' With her thoughts of encouragement to herself ringing in her mind, she grasped her door handle and pushed open the heavy iron door. The room inside was brightly lit, bigger than she had expected, and completely barren. She glanced around for a moment, worried she'd entered the wrong room. That's when a crackling voice came over a hidden loudspeaker.
"You are Melody Halloway?" The masculine voice asked. The redhead in question nodded meekly and he continued. "In your application, you described your Quirk as being one suited to a Search and Rescue Hero. Care to explain why that is?"
"O-oh, um, yeah. W-well my Quirk, as I'm certain you know, allows me to transform my body into an ethereal state. I can pass through walls, rubble, and even change the state of others I'm touching, but only for a few seconds at a time," she explained, gradually losing her stutter. The voice was silent for a moment before he resumed his questioning.
"A power that allows you to dodge any attack. Don't you think you'd be better suited on the front lines?" To this, Melody sighed and shook her head, remembering the day her father had explained why she should go after a Search and Rescue License as opposed to a General Hero License.
"It's too dangerous to use in actual combat."
"Care to explain?"
"While I can dodge any attack I can't counterattack in my Wraith form. At the moment changing my state is an all-or-nothing state. Either I'm ethereal or I'm not. Plus if I lose my concentration then my form slips, which is equally as dangerous. If there's an object, like a fist or weapon, inside the confines of my body when the form drops then it'll cause my skin, organs, and bones to shift in order to accommodate the new item. It can seriously mess with my body." During her explanation, she subconsciously grabbed ahold of her left hand. The man was quiet for a moment before a low rumbling shook the room. In the center of it, the ground began to rise up and revealed a platform with a ten-foot thick cement wall, a pile of rubble meant to look like something from a disaster zone, and the man who had sat at the sign in desk. He grinned at the girl and motioned her over. When he spoke, Melody recognized his voice as a less distorted version of the one from over the loudspeaker.
"Hey, I'm Derrick Holl. I'll be your proctor for this exam. Pretty straight up. Walk through the cement wall while carrying the 'civilian' you'll use your Quirk to save from that pile of rubble. Sound good?" He asked, his tone very laid back and calm.
"Yes, sir!" Melody cried, louder than she'd meant to. 'This test seems easier than I expected.' Derrick held up a small silver stopwatch and nodded at her before clicking the button. The redhead immediately took off to the stack of rubble and shifted into her Wraith form. The proctor raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in appearance. The girl dove into the rubble and, after a moment of searching, spotted a child-sized test dummy lying under a particularly large piece of concrete. 'There's a bit of space to transform back.' Melody grimaced as a burst of pain shot through her head, directly behind her right temple. She stopped in the small opening, rested for a moment, and grabbed the dummy, shifting its form as soon as she made contact. She then rushed back the way she came, dummy flung gently over her shoulder. When she exited the rubble, her expression turned from a pained grimace to one of surprise at the sight of the proctor's fist flying towards her. She nearly lost her composure as it neared, yet somehow managed to keep her ethereal form active. "What the heck!?"
"What? You expected this to be easy? Villains and disaster areas go hand in hand. You've gotta be prepared to fight or run away!" Holl proclaimed. Heeding his words, Melody darted over to the wall, only to smack headfirst into it as her Quirk failed. 'Crap! This can't end yet!' Gathering her strength and pushing the pain to the back of her mind, she stood up and forced her body to change. 'Ten seconds is all I've got!' She estimated before sprinting towards the large concrete wall. Holl stepped out ahead of her once again and grinned. "Not much I can do here, eh? Shoulda got someone with a Quirk more suited to this."
"Sorry!" Melody cried before darting through him and into the wall. Darkness overtook her and she felt a blinding pain shoot into the back of her eyes. With just a few seconds left on her estimated timer, she burst out of the other side of the wall and fell to her knees, her Wraith failing and head pounding. She placed the dummy on the ground beside her and lied down next to it.
"Uh...you okay, kid?" Holl inquired, one of his dark blue eyebrows raised. She tiredly raised her hand with one thumb up.
She'd completely exhausted herself and pushed her Quirk to its breaking points, but felt the satisfaction knowing that she'd done her best at the Quirk assessment. For the next week and a half, she was plagued by headaches ranging from a mild throb to a full-blown migraine. However, it was worth it when, just three days after the exam, she received a letter. A letter of acceptance.
Purpose of a Hero
There it is. Tell me what you think. I'm not too happy with it, but the main point of this chapter was to tease the OCs and show some more of Melody's Quirk.
ALSO! The numbers for OCs currently submitted has been updated on the first chapter of this story (not the actual first chapter, just the one you see first on fanfic)
NEXT TIME ON PURPOSE OF A HERO!
A Rocky Beginning!
GO BEYOND! PLUUUUUS ULTRA!
H-how was that?