Chapter 3: The Leap
The next month was the busiest one in Izuku's entire life. Never had he done more than that first week after learning he had failed the exam. For starters, he went over everything he could do since he couldn't get into UA. Turns out, there weren't really any other hero schools nearby, and all their testing had already happened. Also, what normal schools that were left for him were...undesirable to say the least. None were what he wanted, and he knew most would have no challenge for his intellect. Seeing this, he ended up going for online classes, which considering what he looked up, he knew he would easily finish them.
However, that still left him with no hero school. The online classes were for basic education, so he decided that instead he would use this time to figure out what kind of hero he would become with this spider quirk. And so, he started looking up more stuff on spiders. As he found that none of them could make bioelectricity or become invisible, he also saw that a ton could make their own webbing, though mainly from their butts. But he knew he couldn't make any, mainly because he had used the bathroom plenty of times since the spider bite and got nothing, so the teen thought that it might be best to make his own. What followed was half a month of experimentation. He went over several formulas, dubbing them 'web fluid' as he tried them all out. It was about two weeks in that he figured it out, making a wrist band styled shooter that he fitted to his hand. He wanted to make it automatic in terms of refilling the fluid, but didn't have the parts, so he decided to make himself a small belt as part of his future costume to hold both the fluid and other things he knew would be useful.
"I'll have to make this thing less clunky in the future." He commented to himself as he tried the fluid a half-month in. He started by testing its tensile strength, soon going to the nearby Dagobah Beach and used a few left over fridges, dryers and washing machines for testing. He found they could lift all of them with the webbing, and it would stick around for about two hours, and was highly biodegradable.
And as he tested this, he also began to make a hero costume for himself. He had spent years drawing and making designs on what he would want his hero costume would be. Granted, he now switched it to a spider design, but also felt he should at least have a costume, even if he had failed to get into hero school. That and when he figured out his hero school situation, he could at least give their support department something to work with. He had experience with sewing thanks to his mom teaching him, saying it would be useful in the future for any situation, something he found himself glad to have done. The costume was dark green in color, his favorite color, and had a black web-like design over the green on the mask and down his chest and back, along with his gloves and boots. The rest was just pure dark green, though he had a white eight-legged spider on the chest and back, along with big white lens for the eyes.
His mother didn't completely like the design, saying it was a bit too scary for a hero, but Izuku didn't care. He felt that for a first costume, it was great. He then began to work on the lenses, giving them a zoom-in function, though he found that was all he could add at the moment. This was followed by making a green hoodie over the initial costume, complete with big long green bunny-like ears, in honor of his love of All Might.
And as that month was about to pass, Izuku decided to go for his first test run. The run would be a simple test with his web shooters, as over his time inventing them, he watched several videos on how spiders use their webs to swing around and decided that if his webs could hold dryers and washing machines, they could definitely hold him. However, despite thinking this, he found himself doing what he considered to the be the worst way to try this out.
By going to the tallest building he could find in Tokyo.
To be fair, he went there not in costume, instead hiding the suit under his clothes. He also brought a small backpack for his clothes when he changed, making sure that he could easily change back, which he was glad that that ending up being the easiest thing to make. The problem was that he was now being reminded that he was afraid of heights. That, and he knew he still didn't have a full grip on his powers, especially the bioelectric powers (He needed a better name for that!) which he couldn't even summon, or his invisibility powers, which he had a strange feeling that he would need to understand them very soon.
"Okay Izuku...you're really doing this, huh?" He told himself as he finished changing into his costume, stuffing his clothes in the small bag before hiding the bag in his hoodie. He then slowly slid down the side of the building, muttering to himself as he did this. "You can do this Izuku. Sure, its terrifying and it looks like you're two hundred stories up, though you know its less. Also, you've only had a little over a week of testing the web fluid and you probably should have tested a bit more...though you know it'll hold you. You already tried it at the house and mom got scared seeing you upside down that one time. You can do this...you can do this. And if you don't, guess Kacchan was right about taking a swan dive off a roof."
Those last words that came out of his mouth made him tense up, the words making him feel like he had sand in his mouth as he said them. He still couldn't believe Katsuki had said that, but also knew that was Katsuki being Katsuki. He took a deep breath next, his eyes staring at the streets below, the sight looking like it was a thousand miles away, but at same time being like two steps away. He closed his eyes next, feeling the glass that his fingers were stuck to slowly begin to release from them.
And then, he let go.
His feet kicked off the building, his fingers feeling them take off some of the glass as he released himself from the side of building. His whole body tensed up for just a second, only to loosen. His whole world flipped as he did a backwards flip in mid-air, his eyes closing for a second as he felt it.
There was no fear. No anxiety. Nothing.
And as he opened his eyes, he saw the night sky above him and the street below. The sight made him go wide-eyed, fear now hitting him again as the wind began to smack his face. He glanced back up next, his raising his palm at the building he had just leapt from and pressed the web shooter trigger. A web line instantly shot out, hitting the top of the roof. And with a single yank, he felt it.
The wind. The pressure. The gravity. The fall.
It was all gone.
All that was left was the rise.
His body zipped up at this, the teen just now releasing the breath he didn't realize he was holding. And with his second hand, he pointed to another building and shot a web. Instantly hitting, he let go of the first before pulling along, swinging down wide as he felt the wind smack his face again.
It felt amazing. Like he was on top of the world.
And that fear he felt come back, the anxiety, the tenseness...it all faded away. It was all gone. It was...freedom.
Pure and simple freedom.
The boy let out a scream, "WOOOO-HOOOO!" before he swung again, his body zipping across a street. Block after block zoomed by as he did another web line, and another, and another. The biggest grin was now on his face under his mask as he swung past an office building, the people inside seeing the sight and all going wide-eyed. He then did a flip, soon staring at the stars above him before back at the city, the lights flooding his vision. The sight made the grin under his mask grow as he flicked his arm and shot another web. Again and again he thwipped the web, each swing syncing with his body.
"WHOOOO!" He exclaimed again, "THIS IS AWESOME!"
He then did a wide-arced swing, only to let go and do two flips, screaming with joy as he did so, "YEEEEAAAAHHHHH!"
The people below all glanced up, gasping at the sight. He was the center of attention, the world was watching. He had never felt more alive. More real. He...had done something amazing. Spectacular.
But as he shot the twentieth line, his spider-sense went off.
Danger!
"Huh?" He glanced back, only to see a certain hero he had seen a lot on the news lately: Kamui Woods.
"Come back here! You are under arrest!" he roared as strains of wood shot out of hero.
"What?!" Izuku yelped as a line of wood shot past his left side, the teen barely dodging the lumber before firing another web line, "Wait! Don't! I'm not a criminal!"
"You are!" Kamui barked back as he retracted a strain of wood before firing two more, both thrusting out to Izuku's sides. He then tried to pincer them on the teen, Izuku letting go of the web. He fell like a rock, only to fire another web, yanking himself back up as the wood from Kamui slithered back onto his body, "Stay still!"
"But I haven't done anything wrong!"
"You've committed the crimes of public quirk use and disturbing the peace!"
"Disturbing the peace?! I'm not doing anything to disturb people!" Izuku yelled back as he kept swinging away. "I'm just having some fun!"
"Liar! You're under arrest villain!"
"Villain?! I'm not a-"
"Take this, villain! Lacquered Chain Prison!" Several strands of wood shot instantly at this, Izuku's spider-sense blaring as he glanced back and saw the attack. And as he tried to speed up his swinging, he saw two strands shoot pass him again, only for Kamui to yell, "What the-where'd you go?!"
"Huh?" Izuku whispered, only to look back ahead as he shot another web line, but then saw his hand was missing. He had turned invisible again. 'Oh. Guess that works in danger. That's good to know.'
He then took a turn, making sure to miss Kamui's wood strands before swinging down two more blocks. He glanced back down and saw he was still invisible, a grin on his face before taking another turn and seeing his home now somewhat in the distance. "Nice." he whispered to himself before swinging over to the rooftop of his home. And as he landed, he looked down at his hands and saw they were still invisible, the teen telling his brain to turn off the invisibility...and it worked. Blinking at this, he closed his eyes and tried again, only to open his eyes and see his hand was mostly gone.
'So that's how it works. Guess I just needed some danger to make me learn how to use it...though I might need a little practice. I still gotta figure out the bio-electric stuff though...which I need a better name for.' He thought as he hopped off the roof and wall-crawled over to his room's window. Opening it since he had left it unlocked, and snuck in while panting and feeling the sweat in his hair.
"That...was...awesome!" He cheered before flopping onto his bed, taking off his mask and letting out a long sigh. A few seconds later, he pulled out his phone to see if any social media had picked up his joyride. There wasn't much, just some posts, but nothing really. Definitely not enough to present him as some dastardly villain like Kamui Woods has said he was, though he hoped he didn't make that bad of a first impression. He honestly felt he hadn't done anything, he just showed he was some kid having fun. That or a kid with a death wish.
And as he stared at his phone, he thought back to all he had done today. "That was so cool. The webs worked, and I'm no longer afraid of heights." he whispered to himself before glancing down at his web-shooters, "And it didn't take too much fluid. About half a cartridge at the end. I might need to make them a bit bigger though."
He looked back at his phone one last time, a new post showed up. Izuku blinked at it, only to see that the report was made by Kamui Woods. He stated it was some hooligan, making Izuku roll his eyes. But as this happened, a reporter had asked him if it was a villain or a vigilante, the teen raising an eyebrow at that statement. 'A vigilante? Me?' He put a hand to his chin, 'There's an idea. I mean, if I can't get into a hero school, I guess I could skip all the learning and just fight villains...but I'd be breaking the law.'
He didn't smile at the idea, but he felt it was something to consider. He looked back at his phone one last time before turning it off, his mind going over the idea and again and felt that it might be the right solution, telling himself to ask his mom about it tomorrow before taking the rest of his costume off and falling asleep.
And sleep never felt so good.
