Chapter 4: America and an Exam
Marie
They landed at the airport without incident and got off of the plane, but that was when all Hell broke loose. Loads of reporters, social media influencers, and people with too much time on their hands were waiting for Chargebolt, the Number 11 Hero of Japan, and Wolfheart II, the Number 12 Hero in Japan and returning daughter of the Number 1 Hero of South Carolina and Number 25 Hero in America.
"Were you always planning to return home?"
"What's it like in Japan?"
"Are you going back to Japan?"
"How do you like America?"
"What are you wearing?"
"What's it like marrying a Japanese guy?"
"What's it like marrying an African American woman?"
All of these questions and more bombarded Marie and Denki as they struggled to make their way through the airport, phones and cameras flashing the entire time. "This is crazy!" Denki muttered in Japanese.
"I know, I didn't think it'd be such a big story," Marie said in the same language, "Do you think we should do an interview now just to get them off our backs?"
"I think so," Denki replied, and the two of them stopped outside of the airport. Marie transformed, her skin became covered in dark purple fur that was nearly black while her nails were replaced with two inch claws and her teeth turned into fangs and she yelled at the top of her voice, "ALRIGHT EVERYONE! INTERVIEW TIME! THREE QUESTIONS FOR EACH OF US!"
That got everyone assembled to calm down enough to raise their hands even if they were still loud, at least the volume level was down enough for Marie to think. "You go first, Denki," Marie told her husband. Denki looked and pointed to a male reporter with a four-foot-long neck and said, "You first."
The long-necked reporter asked, "Chargebolt, was moving to America part of the arranged marriage with Wolfheart II?"
Denki answered, "We are a husband and wife, we are together for better or worse. Marie always wanted to return to America after graduating from U.A., and I am here supporting her decision, there was no 'arranged marriage', just a husband supporting his wife." Denki looked and pointed to a young podcaster who looked like a shark girl with blonde hair, "You next, Miss Shark Girl."
The Shark Girl smiled and said, "So, uh, Chargebolt. What's Wolfheart like in the sack?"
Denki smiled, he and Marie knew that someone would ask that question, it was inevitable when the fact she was the daughter of Eighteen Plus Only Hero Midnight got out that people would be curious about their intimate life. Their prepared response was this: "She is one of the most fantastic lovers that only I will ever know." Denki didn't follow up, and pointed to one last person, a female reporter who had three blue horns sticking out of her forehead, "You, reporter lady with the horns, last question."
This reporter took a deep breath and said, "Chargebolt, did you come to South Carolina to help with its rapidly rising crime rate?"
Denki got a serious look on his face then and said, "I am a Hero. No matter where I am, I will always be a Hero. I might not know the numbers or statistics, but wherever I see someone in danger, I will always help them, and wherever there is evil that needs to be stopped, I will fight to stop it. I'm not here because of the crime rate, but I am here to help however I can."
That was when they turned their attention to Marie, luckily Denki bought her time to mentally prepare herself. She pointed to a young podcaster with pink skin and fins, "You first, Pink Kid."
The Pink Kid smiled and asked, "What's it like to be back home, Wolfheart II?"
Marie smiled at him and said, "It's louder than I hoped, but it feels good to be back in the humidity." She looked and pointed at a male reporter who had camera lenses for eyes, "The reporter with the camera eyes."
The camera-eyed reporter asked, "Wolfheart, is it true that you are going to join the Frightening Four and change the name to Frightening Five? We've heard that they are all childhood friends of yours."
Marie nodded at this and said with a smile, "Yes, that is part of the plan. We would have always been the Frightening Five, if it weren't for the death of my father and stepmother and my adoption of my biological mother. Now that I'm here, I am looking forward to fighting by their sides." Marie gave a look and spotted one young podcaster girl who had wolf-ears and a tail like her when she wasn't transformed and she pointed at the young wolf girl, "To the little sister in the back, I'm all yours."
The little wolf girl shyly stepped closer, and Marie kneeled down and smiled at her. The girl asked her, "Wolfheart, do you think that someone like me could be a Hero like you."
Marie's smile could have lit up a night sky as she told her, "Yes, sweetheart, you can. It wouldn't be easy, but if you put all your heart and soul into it, and study hard, I think anyone can be a Hero, no matter who your parents are, or what your Quirk is." The little wolf girl smiled at Marie, and then Marie heard the sound of Francesca's car horn. Marie reached out to the little wolf girl and gave her hand a small shake before saying, "As long as you work hard, you can do it." Denki and Marie then turned around and got into Francesca's car with a million phones and cameras going off behind them.
Joey
He looked up at the campus of U.A. High with new eyes. He had come here many times over the last six years as a guest, a boy visiting his adopted mom. Now he was a potential student, if he could pass the Entrance Exam. Both he and Eri had tried to ask the former Class 1-A about it, and their parents, but no one said anything specific about it. All he knew was that it would involve points. Hundreds of students in their middle school uniforms were heading inside, and Joey followed them.
He then saw a slim, average height boy with purple hair and pink eyes and ran over to him, "You ready for this, Jougo?" he asked his childhood friend. Jougo shrugged, "I hope so. I've seen some tough looking folks around her, Joey. Competition will be insane!"
Joey put his long arm around his friends' shoulders and said, "We'll make it together, man. We've been practicing hard with our Quirks. Just remember that." Jougo nodded, and they spotted Eri and their fourth friend, Rukia. Rukia had changed the most of the four of them, where once her Mud Quirk had made it look like she was constantly melting, she had learned to control it enough that she could make her body as solid or liquid as she wanted, the only reason she didn't look like a 'normal' person was because her skin and hair looked dark brown, and her eyes were all black.
The two girls were already seated, and they waved the boys over near them. "Alright guys, anything happen?" Joey asked. Eri shook her head, her long hair was in a ponytail and she looked ready for anything.
"Is this seat taken?" a boy asked, he was a head shorter than Joey and looked solidly built with short, spiky black hair and eyes that seemed to have a perpetual scowl. "Go ahead and sit," Joey told the Scowling Boy. "Thanks," the Scowling Boy said and sat next to Joey. No one said anything after that, everyone was anxious about the Entrance Exam.
Suddenly, the lights went off, except for the ones on the stage, and Present Mic walked onstage with a smile and said, "HHHHHEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYY! WELCOME TO UA HIGH! LET ME HEAR YA HOLLAH!" To Joey's surprise, everyone actually cheered at Present Mic's cheesy entry, and he had to cover his ears to block the sudden noise. Present Mic continued, "ALRIGHT! NOW TIME TO EXPLAIN THE ENTRANCE EXAM." A screen turned on behind Present Mic and he said, "YOU YOUNG LISTENERS ARE GOING TO GO THROUGH TWO STAGES OF EXAMINATIONS, FIRST A PRACTICAL EXAM AND THEN THE WRITTEN EXAM!
"THE PRACTICAL EXAM WILL INVOLVE YOU ALL BATTLING AGAINST THESE ROBOT VILLAINS FOR POINTS, EACH DIFFERENT ROBOT TYPE IS WORTH A DIFFERENT AMOUNT OF POINTS, THE EASY ONES ARE WORTH ONE POINT AND THE HARDER ONES ARE WORTH TWO AND THREE POINTS. AND THERE IS A FOURTH VILLAIN THAT IS WORTH ZERO POINTS! TO PASS THE PRACTICAL EXAM YOU NEED TO SCORE AS MANY POINTS AS YOU CAN!
"NOW I'M SURE THAT YOU GOT YOUR CLOTHES READY FOR THE PRACTICAL EXAM, JUST CHANGE IN THE LOCKER ROOMS, LADIES ON THE LEFT, BOYS ON THE RIGHT, AND WE'LL TAKE YOU TO WHERE THE PRACTICAL EXAM WILL BE HELD AFTER YOU'VE CHANGED!"
Everyone went to the locker rooms and Joey changed into his exercise clothes, black shorts and a sleeveless shirt with no shoes. "No shoes?" the Scowling Boy asked, he was dressed in a green tracksuit and red sneakers like Deku wore. Joey transformed, his body was covered in white fur as a tail grew out his back and his feet turned into the back legs of a wolf while his teeth turned into fangs and his nails turned into two inch long claws. "There's no shoes that stretch with my legs," Joey explained before turning back into his human form.
Scowling Boy nodded, "Cool Quirk. I'm Izumi Kota, you?"
Joey stretched out his hand and shook Kota's hand, "Joseph Freeman Jr. you can call me Joey, Izumi-san."
Kota nodded and said, "I hope we both pass. You look like a cool guy, Joey."
Joey nodded, and he, Kota, and Jougo left the locker room and were led to a bus that took them to one of the barracks on the UA Campus.
Everyone disembarked from their busses and entered the barracks to the inside that looked like a mockup of a city. "Sheesh," Jougo commented, "How much money does this school make!?"
"Look alive guys," Joey said, "I can hear the robots coming!" Joey quickly transformed as Kota raised his hands while Jougo lifted his shirt and yelled, "SHINING KNIGHT!" A spectral looking knight in full armor emerged from Jougo's navel, just in time as an army of robots started rolling on treads towards the students. And all Hell broke loose!
Joey and many other students charged at the robots, dodging pellets and clay balls and lasers before reaching the robots. Joey tore the head off a three-point robot and destroyed another one by throwing the first one's head at the second one's head. He then lifted the body and used it as a shield before ramming into two more robots before the first one broke.
He focused on destroying robots but caught glimpses of his friends. Jougo's Shining Knight was slicing up robots left and right, while Rukia had turned one of her hands into a Morningstar and was smashing up robots and protecting herself with one arm that was now a shield. Eri was using an arm from a destroyed robot as a club to destroy others, whenever one arm was destroyed she grabbed another one. And Kota was blasting heavy duty water out of his hands like a firehose, short circuiting the robots.
Joey lost track of time as he fought, focusing only on destroying robots and avoiding being captured by the same robots. But then the ground shook, and everyone watched as a massive robot as big as a skyscraper emerged, making the ground shake and destroyed a building near it. "WHAT THE HELL!?" Jougo screamed at the top of his lungs.
But before the giant robot could do anything else, a giant black and red portal appeared next to it, and then moved to its center, and closed. The giant robot was sliced in half vertically by the massive portal, and the half that was still there immediately fell to the ground like a felled redwood tree, sending dust and debris everywhere. Joey was just far enough away to only feel a strong updraft from the collapse of the giant robot, and looked around, "What the Hell was that?" he asked in English.
"That…was…MY…Quirk…" a tired, hard breathing voice said behind Joey. Joey turned around and saw a tall Japanese teen, about five foot eleven if he had to guess. He had a slender, pretty boy look to him, except that his eyes had red irises and black sclera, and he was soaked in sweat as if he'd just run a hundred miles. Joey then smelled something bad. Blood. A lot of blood.
"I smell blood, somebody's badly hurt," Joey said and ran in the direction of the bloody smell. He tracked it to a large pile of debris near the sight of the giant robot's collapse, that was where the smell of blood came from. "Is anyone in there!?" Joey yelled at the pile of debris. "Help…" a weak voice said, Joey couldn't tell if it was male or female. He looked around and saw Rukia running to him. "What's wrong, Joey?" she asked him. "There's people trapped under here, but I'm not sure if I can remove the debris or not," he told her.
"I'll test it," Rukia said, and her entire body turned into a mud puddle. Rukia left behind her exercise clothes like a slime creature and moved around the debris, checking for any weak spots. After a minute she slithered back into her clothes and reformed her normal body, "It's all good, it won't collapse if we start moving it." Jougo and Eri ran up to their friends and Joey quickly told them, "There's people under here, and someone's bleeding bad. We need to get them out!"
The four friends quickly climbed onto the debris and started tossing parts of robot and building away from the pile. After four minutes, it was clear enough for them to see three fellow students were trapped underneath, one of whom had kept most of the debris off with what looked like a large bubble. Once the debris was off the bubble popped, and a blue skinned boy sighed, "Thanks. This guy took a hard hit before I could make my bubble." He pointed to a tall boy with green skin and claws like a dragon who was unconscious and bleeding from his head, while a girl with pink skin and hair and green eyes was trying to stop the bleeding.
"I can help him," Eri said as she walked over to the bleeding boy. Eri's horn started to glow, and then her whole body as she touched the Dragon Boy where he bled. The blood quickly disappeared, and he opened his eyes. Eri stopped her Quirk and sighed. "What happened?" the Dragon Boy asked, but then a loud siren went off, and they all heard the voice of Present Mic, "AAAANNNNND THHHAAAATTTT'SSSS AAAALLLLLL! THE PRACTICAL EXAM IS OVERRRRR! ANYONE WHO HAS INJURIES REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE, AND THE MEDICAL STAFF OF UA WILL COME ASSIST YOU, EVERYONE ELSE, RETURN TO THE STARTING POSITION TO TAKE YOUR WRITTEN EXAM!"
"Well, I'm not injured…anymore?" the Dragon Boy said and looked at Eri. "You'll be fine, my Quirk lets me rewind living people and things to previous states, it's like you were never even hurt," she told him. Joey and his friends returned to where they had started the Practical Exam with the Bubble Boy, Pink Girl, and Dragon Boy. After all of THAT, the written exams were a breeze, and all they could do then was go home, and hope they had passed.