Title: The White Stuff
Author: Altairadactyl
Rating: PG-13/FR15
Disclaimer: New story, new disclaimer because new crossover! The ownership of My Hero Academia is relatively simple: the entire thing belongs to Kōhei Horikoshi. Snowflame, as obscure as he is, belongs to Warner Brothers Entertainment by way of DC Comics. Not mine, don't sue, and so forth and so on.
Summary: "You've come to think that you have a 'villain's quirk'. My good man, I snort cocaine."
Tara's Note: Third in the series of random bullshit that I've cooked up while logged onto Epsi's Hoard, we have Izuku with the powers of Snowflame from DC Comics. Never heard of him? I'm not surprised. He's existed in maybe three issues of the comics across DC's long and storied history. You're not entirely unfamiliar with his powers, though: Rikido Sato is based off him in My Hero Academia canon. Except... well, it's not sugar that Snowflame ingests to get his strength. And he's not just limited to superhuman strength. But I'm not going to spoil anything else about this particular crackfic. Enjoy.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patre0n, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.
"Alright audience, let's get to the good stuff and not delay these finals any longer! Welcome our first fighters! The girl with a notebook in one hand and a pile of white powder in the other! From the hero course, it's Midoriya Izumi! Versus! Shinso Hitoshi from General Studies, who... really hasn't done anything to stand out yet!"
Bouncing out onto the field excitedly, Midoriya Izumi turned in a slow circle as she made her way to her position, staring up at the crowd in undisguised awe. While sure, she'd competed in the first two rounds and been at the center of the crowd's attention then, she'd been there as part of a group. She'd been one out of a hundred-odd students in the first round, and one of forty-two students during the second. She'd been in the spotlight, sure, but it had been a broad, diffused spotlight shining on all of them. This was the first time that the crowd was completely focused on her. Well, her and Shinso, to be fair. It was... intoxicating. She couldn't wait to become a hero and really be the reason that all these people were smiling and cheering.
As Izumi reached the center of the ring, she came to a stop with her back to half the crowd. Having prepared ahead of time for this very moment - by having her girlfriend create a pair of scissors so that she could snip the legs off her athletics uniform and turn the pants into shorts - the verdette raised her hands over her head and promptly shook her ass at the crowd. The crowd made… a conflicted noise. There were some cheers. There was also some uncomfortable murmuring. She let out a snicker. Please. This was Japan. A fifteen-year-old sexualizing herself on national television was not the worst thing to come out of their media. Or for that matter, their heroics industry. Cough Midnight's original costume which she had worn at the tender age of 16, cough.
Speaking of Midnight, the woman looked faintly approving from her spot on the sidelines, offering Izumi a discreet thumbs up. Present Mic, on the other hand... "Why do my students insist on doing things that I can't unsee? Ahem. Well. Getting on with it. The rules are simple! Immobilize your opponent or force him out of the ring! You can also win by getting the other person to cry uncle! Bring on the injuries, because we've got our very own Recovery Girl waiting on standby! So put your moral aside, and don't be afraid to play dirty! But of course, no life threatening crap, folks. It's not allowed. Real heroes use their powers to throw villains in jail, not kill them."
From off to the side, Cementoss offered them a clumsy thumbs up as he took his seat in the heavy cement chair that he'd just finished forming for himself. "I'll stop anyone who tries to get too rough."
"So you can just give up, huh? In a way, this is a test of how strong your spirit is." The corner of Shinso's mouth curled up in disgust as he glanced up at the commentator's box and then back over at Izumi. "If you know what you want your future to hold for you, you can't worry about what other people think."
"Ready?"
Shinso shook his head disdainfully. "That monkey was going on about his pride earlier..."
"Start!"
"...but I just think he's an idiot for throwing away his chance like that."
The bright smile on Izumi's face became a little bit more forced at the blatant insult to one of her classmates. Especially because she so easily recognized it for what it was: an attempt to bait her into responding to Shinso so that he could activate his quirk. Which was a fascinating quirk to be sure, especially if Ojiro was correct about the activation requirements. Which Izumi was assuming that he was, because she had nothing better to work with at the moment. Bad intel wasn't necessarily better than no intel, but having any intel meant that she wasn't operating in a vacuum.
A voice-based quirk, where a verbal response to a question could put the person in a suggestible state that persisted until unknown conditions were met? It was a pretty damn cool quirk, with amazing potential for heroics. If he could actually get himself into the hero course and get trained up, Shinso could go far as an underground hero with a quirk like that. Possibly even a spotlight hero, if he could come up with a wide and flexible tool set for provoking people into responding to him once they knew who he was and what he could do. Or - failing that - the skills to take down villains who managed to have the mental fortitude to keep their mouthes shut no matter how Shinso provoked them.
On the other hand, given that she'd just finished snorting a tenth of a gram of her girlfriend's finest, purest cocaine out of her cleavage - a novel new development in an increasingly familiar ritual that Izumi was still faintly blushing about - in the tunnel leading out into the stadium? Izumi was feeling confident to the point of being invincible, and so she decided... what was the worst that could happen if she sprung her opponent's trap? She'd actually end up walking out of bounds and have to go back to sitting in the stands with Momo leaning against her as she provided commentary on the other students' fights? That wasn't a terrible way to spend the rest of the afternoon. "You would have been better off insulting me personally. Ojiro and I just... sort of coexist. Like, I think he's said five sentences to me all semester before warning me about your quirk today. You should have made a lesbian crack, or a druggy insult, or something actually directed toward me."
Uncertainty flickered across Shinso's face before turning into a wicked, arrogant smirk. "Thing is, that's still a response. And so now it's over. I win. Turn around and walk out of bounds."
Izumi reached up to play with one of her pigtails as she offered Shinso an awkward smile in response. "I'd rather not? If it's all the same to you, I came here hoping for a good fight. Most of the practice spars with my class turns into them trying to survive until I run out of fuel. With mixed results. Mostly, I end up punching people hard enough to take them out. Sometimes it takes like, eight or ten tries, but I get them eventually. Speaking of sparring, though, do you know karate or anything yet? What training do you have? Please tell me that you've put some effort into getting ready for the hero course and you're not just hoping to get by on your quirk? Aizawa really hates students like that."
"...why isn't this working?" Shinso took a step closer to her, pointing at Izumi and then pointing off to the side. "I said... walk out of bounds."
Giggling softly, Izumi took a step closer of her own, slightly closing the space between the two of them. "Have I mentioned yet that you have a great quirk? Because it is. It's incredibly cool. On its face, it might even be better for heroics than some of the quirks that made it through the entrance exam. And while I'm sure you've learned how to easily snare normal people with your quirk, and probably your garden variety druggies? I'm running on some one hundred percent pure Yaoyorokain and my mind is on an entire other plane of existence from what you're used to dealing with." She brought her hand up, gesturing from herself to Shinso and back. "Do you want to keep talking even though your quirk isn't going to work on me? Because I don't mind. Quirks are really interesting; I love analyzing them and learning more about them. But if you want to try something different, I'm okay with that too. I'm just here to try my hardest and do my best."
Well, that and show her ass cheeks on national television, but she'd accomplished that already.
Shinso's jaw dropped as he scurried over to Izumi, invading her personal space and causing the crowd noise to spike higher in anticipation. "Yaoyorokain? Are you... are you on drugs right now? In the middle of the Sports Festival?"
"You seem sort of bitter and jaded. A bit dead inside, if I'm being honest. So let me guess, you've probably been bullied for your awesome quirk with lots of heroic potential, right? Because when you were four, some doctor gave it a blunt, on the nose, vaguely ominous name like... ooh, I bet it's 'Brainwashing', isn't it? So after years of abuse from pretty much all corners of society, but especially your peers because holy shit are children cruel... you've come to think that you have a 'villain's quirk'." Izumi reached up and tapped a finger against her slightly dusty nose as Shinso stared at her in disbelief. "My good man, I snort cocaine. My quirk is called White Thunder. It's a multiple aspect enhancer that's literally fueled by how much cocaine is in my system. I don't get any less high, either. I'm just... high and superhuman."
Eyes widening, Shinso gestured up and down at Izumi's body. "Great, I thought you being the Battle Thot was bad enough-"
Izumi perked up at that. "Battle Thot. That's an awesome name. I mean, I have a name in mind already, but if I didn't I would absolutely try to name myself Battle Thot." Then something occurred to her and she slumped a little. "But that's probably too close to Kendo's Battle Fist, and I wouldn't want to infringe on her brand."
"-but you're actually like, Cocaine Chick? Oh good, so if I make it into the hero course, I'll have to measure up to two different classmates that get fucked up levels of strong on white powder. That idiot who's going to end up with diabetes was in my testing center for the entrance exam, and now I find out that you're a fucking cocaine addict? I... what... how do you even discover that's your quirk? Did someone give a four-year-old cocaine or something?" When Izumi opened her mouth to respond, Shinso cut her off. "If a doctor gave a four-year-old cocaine, I'm pretty sure he deserves to lose his medical license."
Izumi rolled her eyes. If she had a yen for every time someone found out about her quirk and immediately asked if she'd been given cocaine as a child, she'd be able to buy her own cocaine. Not that she would. Her and Momo had a very fulfilling arrangement these days. But she'd be able to if she wanted to. "Of course not, that would be ludicrous even by modern society's standards. And modern society forgives a lot. But no, when I reached five and had no sign of a quirk, my mother took me to see a doctor. And he discovered that I did have a quirk. A emitter-type quirk, specifically a powerful and efficient enhancer. One that should multiply my strength by ten times or more with minimal fuel, and last for longer than any fueled enhancer type on record at the time. The perfect quirk for a future hero. Except for one small thing. Can you guess what it was?"
"They couldn't figure out the fuel?"
"They couldn't figure out the fuel! And so I spent weeks eating the most random stuff I could find and shove in my mouth. I tried dirt. I broke a few baby teeth trying to eat rocks. I convinced one of my classmates with a minor electricity quirk to shock me. I let Kacchan fire explosions at me. I stuck my hand in a fire." Izumi began to walk in a slow circle around Shinso, forcing the purple-haired boy to turn in place to keep her in sight. "The longer it went on, the more desperate I got, until finally one day I realized... maybe my quirk was too good to be true. Maybe it required something rare to activate it. Maybe even something that didn't exist on Earth. So finally I just accepted the inevitable: I had a defective quirk. Which meant that I was functionally quirkless. Did you have any quirkless kids at your middle school, Shinso? Do you know what that's like?"
Nodding slowly, Shinso offered Izumi a pitying look. "My upbringing wasn't great, what with having the villain quirk and all. But the one person who had it worse than me was the quirkless girl I went to school with. People thought I was going to turn out to be a villain, which in a messed up way meant they expected me to do something with my life. That was more than she ever got. She just... disappeared one day in my second year. I like to think that she moved. The realist in me says the truth is probably much darker."
"So you have a secondhand idea what it was like to grow up without a quirk. It's pretty much exactly as bad as you think it is. The fact that I knew I had a quirk was the only thing that kept me going through years of abuse. Until one day when it couldn't anymore, and I went diving deep into the internet looking for something to take the edge off. Almost turned to crime to try and prove that I was worth something, but I chickened out the first time I tried to rob someone. So then I decided to try drugs. The first dealer I found specialized in cocaine, so I said 'why not?' and bought some. Someone caught me getting high and I threw them through a wall." Izumi closed the remaining distance between herself and Shinso, picking the taller boy up by the front of his athletics uniform and casually tossing him backwards. "The rest, as they say, is history."
Shinso hit the ground and rolled for several feet before coming to a stop, pushing himself up on his hands as he glared at Izumi. "So both of our lives have sucked pretty bad. But you've managed to fulfill your dream and now it's my turn. I'm not going to stop until I make it into the hero course. This bad matchup... it's just one more obstacle that I need to overcome!" Forcing himself to his feet, he raced towards her, rearing back and throwing a wild, untrained, almost hilariously telegraphed punch at Izumi's face.
Not seeing a reason not to, Izumi stood there and took it straight across the face. A look of triumph crossed Shinso's face, lasting a second or two before the pain registered. Hopping backward, he cradled his hand against his chest as he shot Izumi a frustrated look. "Ouch, are you okay? That's part of pretty much any enhancer quirk. Can't be super strong and super fast while being made of paper. White Thunder makes me significantly more durable for as long as my high lasts. Good try, though. I mean it: I honestly admire you for thinking that you could try and punch your way to victory despite pretty obviously having absolutely no training. Not that I have much. I mostly just All Might it. Superior strength and a modicum of training. I didn't really have an effective way to train my quirk before I came to UA. Because, well, cocaine."
"Because cocaine. I feel like that's going to be a meme after today. Just... shots of you with 'Because Cocaine' in Impact across the bottom." Letting out a frustrated sigh, Shinso scuffed his foot against the arena floor before turning and skulking toward the edge. "At least let me have the dignity of conceding instead of beating me senseless?"
Izumi furrowed her brow in thought before giving chase as Shinso headed for the white painted line at the boundary of the ring. "This might be the drugs talking, but wouldn't letting me beat you up show your dedication to your goal of getting into the hero course? You know, going down fighting against impossible odds like a real hero would?"
Pausing near the white line, Shinso shot an incredulous look back over his shoulder. "You're super strong. There is absolutely no part of you punching me that sounds like fun. Also, I know that I'll never be a spotlight hero with my quirk. Underground heroics is what I'm aiming for. So consider this a tactical retreat. Knowing your limits and withdrawing to fight another day." With that said, Shinso turned away and very deliberately stepped across the white line.
"Midoriya wins!"
Well that had been a waste of some perfectly good cocaine.