"Luck is the greatest superpower."
There was something that the old man at the comic shop near his place loved to say.
"The best power a superhero could have is luck."
It was such a simple statement, but it was one that stuck with him.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Especially as he stood at the edge of one of New York's tallest skyscrapers in his PJs with an unknowable technological horror bearing down upon him at a rapid pace.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!"
WHIRRRRRRR!
It did not.
The machine leaped forward as he fell back-
"Ahhhhhhh!"
-plummeting to the busy streets below.
Though we appear to be getting ahead of ourselves.
Let's take a quick step back, shall we?
Several Days Earlier…
"Alright, one last check, okay?"
A sigh, "Okay."
"Suitcase."
"Check."
"Transit pass."
"Check."
"Permission Slip?"
"Check."
"Phone."
"Check.
"Wallet and ID."
"Check and check."
"Personal alarm."
"Mom, I really don't think that I-"
"Personal. Alarm."
Another sigh, "…Check."
Clap!
The initial speaker, a stout woman with green hair and large, round green eyes smiled as she clapped her hands together.
"Alright, all set!"
"Do we really have to do this every time?"
The lightly exasperated question came from the frazzled green-haired young lad, no older than fourteen, in front of her.
The woman's eyes trailed over his face. Her gaze glinted with a gentle fondness as they reached the boy's freckled cheeks and traced up to his green eyes.
She laid a hand on his shoulder and ruffled his already messy hair.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic. We've only done this twice. And now that I think about it, you're still forgetting something."
She smiled and tapped her cheek.
The young man rolled his eyes, but leaned forward and pecked the woman's cheek nonetheless.
The slightly shorter greenette wrapped her son in a tight embrace, which was reciprocated, and whispered into his ear, "I'll see you on Friday."
"See you on Friday."
The pair let each other go and the younger of the two made his way to the door, bright yellow backpack slung over his shoulders and a battered brown leather suitcase rolling at his side.
He looked back one time, offering a small smile and a wave, and stepped through the door-
Queens, New York
-only to be assaulted by the bright, vibrant culture of Flushing.
The moment he stepped through the door, he was enveloped in a kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, and aromas that reflected his neighborhood's diverse character.
Even so early in the morning, so early that the sun just began to peek through the clouds, the streets were alive with a symphony of languages, spoken by the diverse community that called Flushing home.
"Arigatō gozaimasu!"
"Jega mueoseul dowadeurilkkayo?"
"Xià cì zài jiàn!"
"Spider-Man merch! We got hoodies, t-shirts, posters, mugs, and the Christmas albulm too!"
Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese, English. Whatever the language, they all blended harmoniously, a unique linguistic tapestry that filled the air.
Aromas wafted from recently open storefronts, enticing passersby with promises of culinary delights.
Restaurants representing the rich gastronomic heritage of China, Korea, India, and beyond lined the street, their facades adorned with vibrant neon signs, each beckoning visitors to sample their delectable offerings.
The steaming baskets of dim sum, sizzling Korean barbecue, and spicy Sichuan hot pot were enough to make a man drool…
"Izuku, zǎo chen!"
The greenette, Izuku, smiled and returned the greeting from the egg tart street vendor, "Zǎo chen!"
From a Chinese restaurant front, he heard, "Izuku, chī le ma? Lái chī diǎn bāozi bā."
Waving at the kind older woman in the door as he moved along, he responded, "Duìbùqǐ āyi, wǒ gǎnshíjiān. Wǒ xīngqīliù huí lái."
Anywhere the green-haired teen looked there were at least three faces he knew and they would greet him, he would respond and move along, all the way to Main Street.
And just as Izuku turned onto it-
Tap! Tap!
-he felt a tapping on his left shoulder.
Which means… I should look to my right.
As when he did, he was greeted by a smiling face.
A face with narrow eyes and notably small pupils, lightly tanned skin and black hair worn in a low braid laid over his shoulder.
He was two years older than Izuku, and as such, loomed over him a bit.
Izuku couldn't help the smile that crossed his face as he was quickly engulfed in a tight embrace.
"Rin!"
The younger boy heard Rin chuckle as the older teen patted his back.
"Háojiǔ bújiàn, dìdì."
"You're telling me! It's been over a year, you didn't even call after you left."
Izuku felt the older boy tense slightly, before he loosened up.
"Yeah. But I'm back now." He pulled back and looked the freckled youngster in the eye, hands on his shoulders, "Yǒngyuǎn rúcǐ."
For good…
Pat! Pat!
Rin patted his shoulder and let the boy go, gesturing to him to follow.
"Now, what do you say we walk and talk? You've got a bus to catch, yeah?"
Izuku grabbed his suitcase up and fell into step with the older boy.
There was a comfortable quiet, underlined with an air of bubbly excitement from Izuku, as they walked.
"So, Visions, huh?"
And of course the first question's about school.
"Yeah. It's… nice. Made a friend. Well, I think he's a friend. Not sure actually. I mean he's my roommate and we talk, but I'm not sure if that makes us friends, per se. Honestly, when you get into what makes a friend-mutttermuttermuttermuttermuttermuttermutter-"
Flick!
"Owwww."
The freckled lad rubbed the stinging skin on his forehead as he glared at the whistling youth walking to his side.
He was well aware of his troublesome motormouth anxiety, but he couldn't help it.
And he definitely didn't appreciate his friend's straightforward way of making him stop when he got started.
Though if Rin cared anything about his irritation, he didn't show it, simply saying, "Well, I'm happy you made a friend. Nobody's picking on you, right? No Jackie Chan comments, knocking your books outta your hands, or anything like that?"
"Mm-mm. Outside of class, people barely even notice me."
"Alright, but if that changes, you come see me. Flushing Boys look after our own, alright?"
"Yeah."
Rin and a lot of the older boys in the neighborhood liked to say that a lot. They meant it, too.
Izuku could remember seeing Rin and a couple of the other boys end up in detention or on suspension more than a couple of times because they got into fights on his behalf back when he was in sixth and seventh grade.
"Back again, Hiryu?"
"You already know what I'm gonna say."
"You're right. Three days suspension."
He heard at least several variations as he sat outside of the principal's office, waiting for the older boy to come out so they could walk home.
And it was because of that, that Izuku could remember sticking to Rin like glue until the day he left.
"On that note, though. When are you gonna learn to fight?"
That snapped the greenette out of his reminiscence, "Huh?"
"You heard me. When you gonna start throwing hands, man? Or are you gonna Officer Noodlearms on the beat?"
To demonstrate his point, the older teen slapped the back of his hand against Izuku's bicep.
"What's all this flab, guy? Gotta put some muscle on. Might get you a girlfriend too."
"Riiin!"
Rin chuckled, reaching out and ruffling the younger boy's hair.
"I kid. I kid. But for real. If you want, I can get you hooked up at this one place in Chinatown. Guy there's a real Sifu-type. Teaches real Kung-Fu. Taught me some stuff a while back."
Izuku see a shine in the dark haired youngster's eyes as he looked at him. That made what he was about to say all the more difficult.
"I… think I'm good, Rin. Thanks though."
Izuku could see the ponytailed young man visibly deflate.
It almost made him want to take back what he said…
But, almost immediately, Rin sighed, shrugged and perked back up.
"Aiyaaaa. Nothing for it then. Think about it, though. You gotta learn how to protect yourself, little bro."
"Mm."
It was a thought. One that he didn't have much time to think on as the bus came around to the stop.
Rin gave him one last smile, and waved him off.
"See you on the weekend, man!"
Izuku smiled back.
"Yeah. See ya."
And he got on the bus, destination-
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn Visions Academy was a prestigious private school in- as one might guess- the New York borough of Brooklyn.
It boasted an impressive interdistrict ranking of #10, with most of its students entering a lucrative business in STEM after graduation.
It promoted excellence, it produced excellence- simple as.
And to any parent whose child was accepted into Visions Academy, it was only a sign of good things to come.
As for the children, however-
"'That's a copy.'"
"Dude, that's spot on!"
Please get me out of here…
-it was merely the entrance to the Thunderdome.
Granted, it wasn't nearly as violent as it could've been, but it was still a special kind of hell to Izuku.
The kids around were either obnoxious or indifferent.
He walked past another pair of boys doing impressions as he left his dorm room.
"'I love you, dad!'"
Who are they even making fun of for that?
"'That's a copy.'"
You guys don't have any original material, do you?
Apparently not so, he heard it at least three different times after that.
In the dorm halls, class halls, even in the math classroom as he found a seat.
No variation either.
Maybe it's a meme.
He wasn't really caught up on socials for anything that wasn't Spider-Man or Spider-Man-adjacent, he thought about changing that, but-
Screeeech!
"Hey, Izzy."
He was snapped out of his thoughts, by a call of address, along with the sound of a chair being pulled out from right next to him.
He looked up, seeing his first friendly face since he stepped on campus.
A dark-skinned kid with short black hair styled into an afro. His eyes were brown and wide, though they looked a bit tired that morning.
"Hey, Miles. Your shoe's untied."
"You didn't even look at my feet."
"Yeah, but your shoe is untied, isn't it?"
Miles just stared at him for a moment before looking away with a sigh, rifling through his backpack.
"It's a style."
Seems more like a tripping hazard…
Izuku shrugged and turned forward again.
What did he know about style?
The day passed by in a blur after that.
"I'm giving you a take-home quiz on volumetric pressure."
"I want you to solve pages 37 through 40 in your workbooks tonight, there-"
"-will be a quiz on Friday. Don't forget to hand in-"
"-your permission slips. The field trip is tomorrow, we leave during lunch. So be prepared. If you're not at the stop, you will be left behind."
One class faded into another as his workload piled up.
"Work-
Trigger-
Make-
Change-
Yourself."
Until eventually-
Thump!
-his bunk caught him as he began to free fall.
"Ughhhhhhhh…"
And his pillow muffled his anguish.
He could hear his roommate drop his bag somewhere off to the side.
"Tough day?"
Izuku made a sound that could be interpreted as human.
"Yeah, sounds about right."
He didn't respond.
Slip…
Something slid next to his downturned face.
He lifted his head to assess it.
A slip of paper that read-
PDNY Junior Ride-Along Application
Applicant: I. Midoriya
Supervising Officer(s): J. Davis, Y. Watanabe
He looked at his roommate, who had just plopped down in a seat at the desk across the room.
Izuku grabbed up the paper, looking at it and then Miles before looking back at the paper.
A memory of a conversation that occurred just before the weekend began flashed in his mind.
"Well, if you're serious about the whole cop thing, I may be able to talk to someone about taking you on a ride-along or something."
"I mean, I'd appreciate it, but there's no need to put yourself out."
He stared at his roommate, who had just begun chipping away at the massive workload they'd been given on their first day back, and then looked back at the paper.
He laid back down, staring at the bunk above in silence.
The room became quiet, filled in by the tiny scritch of pencil on paper.
Though, a moment later, that quiet was broken.
"Hey, Miles."
"Yeah?"
"…Are we friends?"
The scritch stopped, a pause in the air expanded rapidly, filling the room like outside oxygen into a burning house.
"Yeah, why?"
Only to dissipate just as quickly as Izuku felt a small tug at the corner of his lips.
"No reason."
He could practically hear the eyebrow raise, but in the end, the quiet returned.
And to the sound of pencil on paper, the greenette felt his fatigue hit him at full force.
Moments later, he was off to dreamland, smiling still.
Izuku couldn't remember attending a school that took the students on a field trip during the second week of classes, but he certainly wouldn't complain about being exempt from afternoon classes for a day.
It was honestly a shame Miles forgot his permission slip.
He might've enjoyed a trip to a university research building more than an Alchemex documentary in a dark room.
"Welcome to Detnerat Collegiate Research Institute, Visions! My name is Miyashita, and I work in the development wing. I'll be your guide today."
The beady-eyed man stood before Izuku's class approached them with a certain vim that the young man didn't expect.
It was honestly something that he could respect, especially in the face of his classmates' apathy.
"Now let me tell you a bit about what we do here before we get this tour started. Now you see, Detnerat is a lifestyle company that has begun branching out into tech and pharma in recent years. They're based out of the Aichi Prefecture in Japan and after establishing themselves here in the U.S., they set up this research institute to give young minds a chance to enrich themselves-"
As much as Izuku appreciated the man's excitement and vigor, that appreciation didn't stop his attention from waning at the first hint of what was sure to be a lengthy lecture.
Instead, his eyes trailed the room. Bright and white and incredibly clean.
Scanning his classmates, he saw that the majority of them were just as invested in their guide's homily as he was.
A few were striking up conversations, others were on their phones, and one…
He didn't recognise.
It was a girl.
A girl that was standing next to him at the edge of crowd.
With dark hair cut short, big warm brown eyes, and soft, rounded features.
If Izuku were to describe her in one word, it'd be… cute.
Or bored.
Like, incredibly bored.
So very bored that Izuku would swear that her eyes were glazing over.
It was, in a way, so much like Miles that it made him snicker.
And that seemed to be enough to snap her out of it, her eyes clearing and snapping to him in an instant.
She raised a brow.
And suddenly, Izuku felt self-conscious.
"Uh… sorry."
"What were you laughing at?"
"Huh?"
"You weren't looking at your phone and you weren't talking to anybody, so what was so funny?"
"Uhhhh…"
How am I supposed to tell a girl that I was technically laughing at her?
Luckily, he was spared the burden of doing so.
"Shhhh! Unless you two wanna lead this tour, keep quiet."
The teacher chaperoning shushed them with a quiet fury.
It was odd to Izuku, since he knew that he and… the girl whose name he didn't know weren't the only ones talking, but at the very least, it saved him from an awkward social interaction.
And as the tour got started, he had one thought in his mind that lifted his spirits tremendously.
I talked to a girl!
Never mind that the only intelligible word he said was 'sorry.'
"Here we have our Biotech division. Believe it or not, a good number of the people here are on a dual enrollment program. Some of them from Harvard, others from MIT and Stanford. They were practically chomping at the bit to get a hold of the bright minds here. As a matter of fact- Ms. Shield!"
Miyashita called out to a blonde woman who happened to be walking by in a group, who turned to see them.
She was wearing a lab coat and glasses that covered a pair of captivating aqua-blue eyes.
Telling her group that she'd catch up, the woman walked over with a smile.
"Hey, Mr. Miyashita. This the Visions tour?"
The beady-eyed man smiled back, "Indeed they are! I was just telling them about our pride and joy here in the institute. And who should walk by but our best student?"
Ms. Shield chuckled, "That's a nice compliment, but I wouldn't say I'm the best. Everyone here works hard. Compared to a lot of the people here, I'm just a girl who really likes spiders."
"That's just her being modest, kids. Ms. Shield here works harder than anyone else. First one in, last one out. She's actually found a number of ways to synthesize spider silk for different uses."
"It wasn't all just me."
It continued like that for a while.
Miyashita singing praises for the blonde woman, while Ms. Shield humbly sidestepped.
It was interesting for a few seconds, but Izuku quickly found himself growing bored after that.
So he found his eyes wandering again.
Just wandering, not looking for anything or anyone in particular.
Like the girl he had talked to earlier.
Definitely not searching for her.
His eyes were just taking a stroll, not looking for, not finding a girl who he might've thought was pretty cute.
Especially because as his eyes wandered, he noticed that that girl wasn't there or anywhere amongst the group.
He was pretty sure that he didn't imagine her, seeing as the teacher called them both out when they were talking but where could she have-
"Tch, ow!"
A harsh pinching sensation exploded in the back of his hand.
His eyes shot down and what did he see, but a little spider taking a bite.
Really, of all the people here, you bit me?
Frowning slightly, he gave his hand a quick jounce and watched the little spider fly off somewhere into the distance.
And he still couldn't find that girl.
"Alright, Ms. Shield, thank you for your time. Now let's get moving. We're moving to the Mechatronics wing next. And if you're lucky, a few of you may get to fly a drone or two."
The class began moving again. If Izuku didn't move with them, he was going to be left behind.
Nothing for it then.
With a small sigh and a slight throbbing in his hand, Izuku followed.
The rest of the trip was normal enough.
They visited a few more wings, talked to a few more people, the institute gave them pens as souvenirs and then they all piled back onto the bus to go back to Visions.
Izuku didn't see the girl from earlier for the rest of the trip.
And for some reason, he started feeling off on the way back.
He was warm, so very warm.
Sweat poured off of him in buckets.
His mouth was dry, like he had just swallowed a bag of sand and cotton.
He looked at the back of his hand. It was red and splotchy.
The sleeves of his uniform brushed against his wrists.
Every time they did, it felt like someone was constantly knives against his skin.
What's happening…?
As he moved through the rest of his day, he was vaguely aware of the things happening around him.
Vaguely aware of the surrounding scenery changing around him.
It twisted and shifted and blended together, bus into Visions into the dorms into his room.
Something in the shape of Miles sat at his desk.
Why was the beating in his chest so loud?
"-ey, m—. — -k—?"
He could barely hear anything.
"F-fiiiine. Nemu-"
His mother tongue came to him more easily than English at that moment.
He heard the faint sound of something scraping against the floor.
Flinched as he felt someone lightly grab his shoulder, gently guiding him into a seat.
Everything after that was less of a blur, and more of a broken kaleidoscope.
At some point, he had put on his pajamas.
At some point, he had ended up in bed.
At some point, he had fallen asleep.
His dreams that night were only barely more coherent than his afternoon.
He didn't know where he was.
The place where he was wasn't familiar to him at all.
Everything was indistinguishable from one another.
He was running.
To where or what, he didn't know.
He was just running, occasionally he'd jump.
Wind rushed past him, whipping his hair about.
Crash! Crash! CRASH!
There was something behind him.
Getting closer at a rapid pace.
CLANK! CRASH! CRASH!
It was gnashing at his heels.
He could feel it.
So… he jumped.
And climbed.
Just climbed straight up.
He climbed and climbed and climbed.
He climbed up and onto something.
And then, he blinked-
BEEP! BEEEEEEEP!
-and just like that, he was back in New York.
But not in his dorm in his bed.
No, he was…
Oh, god. Oh god, that's really high…
Just looking down made him feel sick.
The rooftops looked about as high as the street from where he was.
"What am I-"
He felt a slight tingle in his skull.
CRASH! CLANK! CRASH!
And from across the rooftop, there did appear a mass of metal that crashed and clanked and grinded as it pulled itself up over the edge.
To Izuku, it looked almost like a dog, if not for the sharp steel instruments in its maw, heavy armored frame, and eight legs, all of which in some rather serious looking paws and claws.
Worst bit of it was, it seemed to be locked onto one target and one target only.
Him.
It began stalking toward him.
He raised his open hands in front of him in a disarming gesture.
"Ummm, nice puppy. Good puppy."
It was in fact not a nice puppy.
BORK!
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
With a bark that sounded like their shriek of a dozen gears grinding together, it began bounding forward.
There was something that the old man at the comic shop near his place loved to say.
"The best power a superhero could have is luck."
It was such a simple statement, but it was one that stuck with him.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Especially as he stood at the edge of one of New York's tallest skyscrapers in his PJs with an unknowable technological horror bearing down upon him at a rapid pace.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!"
WHIRRRRRRR!
It did not.
The machine leaped forward as he fell back-
"Ahhhhhhh!"
-plummeting to the busy streets below.
His arms were flailing searching for something to grab, so he could break his fall, but he found nothing.
The ground was approaching quickly, as if in a rush to greet him.
The wind howled in his ears as he fell.
He reached his hand out, just in a random direction as if something would save him.
And, luckily for him-
THWIP!
Something did.
Anyone who can guess where I stole the summary from gets a cookie.