Thunder Hero: Baraquiel 10

"Izuku, its here!" His mother called. Izuku, finished his sparring on the Wing Chun dummy, he finished with a strike that would have cracked a ribcage.

"On my way." He called, as he headed off the roof and down into the apartment that he, his mother and Aizawa co-inhabited. Izuku grinned at his step-father, in all but name; it was no secret that whilst Izuku had been learning at the feet of Baraquiel and Eraserhead, that the latter man had been getting closer to the Midoriya Matriarch.

After a swift shower, Izuku headed into the kitchen where Aizawa was sitting with surprisingly a proper breakfast and cup of coffee. There on the table was a letter addressed to him. With hands shaking, he opened the letter.

It was a disc, Izuku pressed the button. On the small projector was Aizawa "I'll tell you this in person." Then the projection cut off.

"Midoriya Izuku, you scored a total 30 Villain Points. That is unfortunately not good enough for an applicant for the Hero Course." Aizawa deadpanned, Inko fought to keep her face straight; her son paled. She began to giggle as Aizawa's face morphed into a maniacal grin, with emotional gag of 'fooled you' "We're a Hero Course. Heroes as Baraquiel said is not always about hitting the villain or idiot; but it also requires saving people. Your skill at saving people, whilst not the best did warrant you 98 Rescue Points. Welcome Midoriya Izuku, to your Hero Academia."

Midoriya grinned "I…I…I…got in!"

"The staff were of mixed reviews. Then Baraquiel showed us your…portfolios and said 'Let's drop these in the street and see what happens'…They shifted their stances."

Izuku sighed, Baraquiel was becoming a well-known name. Sometimes, not in the right way; he was known for his sarcastic comments, patronising nature and probably most importantly known to turn around to the HPSC and had clearly on camera told them to 'back up and fuck off'.

Currently in the background the tv was on. "Midoriya-kun, before you get lost in the debate on the tv; I want to ask you something." Aizawa murmured.

"That is?"

"I…am…intending to marry your mother."

Izuku stopped and looked at the duo "Aizawa-sensei, please…treat her right."

Aizawa grinned "I will. That I will. Before you ask its Endeavour, Mr. Brave, Baraquiel and someone by the name if Gaea and its being done by the HPSC."

"The HPSC are going to try and ignore the quirkless questions. I've got…three yen in my pocket in change, I'll bet that; that Baraquiel goes off script. Based on his body language…he's asleep? Seriously. In front of a live audience."

(Question time)

Pure boredom. Wrist slitting, eyelid closing and Umbitch Waterboarding preferable boredom. The only good news was that Mr. Brave, thought it was just as boring; considering the man was an Underground Hero and this was eating into his sleep, Brave was moments away from snapping.

"A question from the woman in a green jumper." Announced the tv person.

"What is everyones stance on those with what people call 'villainous quirks' or 'quirkless' and how can they be utilised in the workplace?"

Baraquiel twisted slightly, this could be an interesting…no this was going to be interesting, going to be fun. And the best thing was it was question he was going to answer honestly; he'd read what the media were saying about him 'inconsiderate', 'not child friendly' and even 'reclusive'. He objected to the second one, Fuyumi wouldn't have hooked up with him or even married him or even had his children.

He opened one eye as Endeavour gave his flatline hard-tempered stance of no; Mr. Brave and Gaea were in the middle "Baraquiel."

"Sorry, I fell asleep due to how wrist slittingly dull these other questions have been. Ma'am, can I get the question again?"

"Stance on those with what people call 'villainous quirks' or 'quirkless' and how can they be utilised in the workplace?"

Baraquiel stood up "Whoever coined the term 'villainous quirks' deserves to be given 'The Chair' which for those who don't know is 2200 volts at seven to twelve amps sent through them…death. There is no such thing as 'good' and 'bad' quirks, only scaremongers and politicians and honestly I don't know which is worse. A quirk is only as evil as the person wielding it. Is my 'Lightning' bad? Potentially considering I throw blasts of lightning and electricity that could hospitalise someone if I'm not careful it's all about perspective."

The woman in green stopped "And the quirkless?"

"Who are you asking for?" Baraquiel asked flummoxing the woman, everyone tensed; everything had turned, they hadn't expected this.

"My son and daughter; nineteen and twenty-eight respectively. One's an engineer and the other a counsellor; but no-one's willing to give them a chance."

"Due to them being quirkless…Alrighty, this is off the script and everything is genuine; how I like it. You got their CVs?"

"E-e-excuse me?"

"Have you got their CVs? Because…I'm going to do something high-risk."

"Yeah. And I have their numbers."

"Baraquiel…" Growled Endeavour.

"Endeavour, shut your mouth. You've had your turn. I'm having mine and mine is setting the record straight."

"You realise you're potentially upsetting society." Gaea stated.

"Screw society…" Everyone gasped "Screw society. Screw societal views and expectations; they're purely psychological and designed to categorise and divide people into 'us' and 'them'. If you're going to categorise me, categorise me as the Hero with the Avalon Dream. The Dream of the Everdistant Utopia; an idea, concept, dream so outlandish that it could never come true."

The woman called her home, the exchange was brief before Baraquiel took the phone "I understand the pair of you are at a disadvantage, due to something smaller than a grain of pepper? I'm Baraquiel, and I have an offer for the pair of you that's gonna change your lives. Want To Work For Me?"

There was stone silence 'You, want us to work for you? Even though we're quirkless?'

"Yup, got any skills that could interest me alongside your educational certificates?" Baraquiel asked, grinning like a loon.

"I have oxygen and laughing gas training as a first-aider?" came one response.

"I…make coffee."

Baraquiel paused "Coffee is good, coffee is great. I'll email you within 72 hours where you need to go."

With that he hung up, his quirk flaring as he eyed everyone "Does anyone have a problem with how I do things? If so, cool, awesome I've managed offend someone or upset their sensitivities. If I haven't, oh well, I'll get you later on. Now have we any more pertinent questions?"

"This…wasn't meant to go…" Protested the Announcer.

Baraquiel slammed his chair in "Go screw yourself. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got other things to do." With that Baraquiel turned to walk out only to be stopped by one final question.

A black-man in a suit stood "Baraquiel, why do you hate the HPSC so much?"

Baraquiel turned "They've turned the Heroes of Japan into effectively glamorized Police, they're understaffed and overworked and spend far too much time trying to turn Hero Academies into 'standardised' schools in order to turn out clockwork heroes. They're not above inviting themselves into a Heroes home and blackmailing them…So in a word; they're worse than the crooks that we, heroes, apprehend for stupidity. It would not surprise me if they're creating the 'villains' us 'heroes' have to fight. If you want true heroics, support your local vigilantes; they're more genuine than the most of us active heroes."

"Why do you do it then? Be a Hero? If you dislike heroes, then why do it?" Came the counter argument

"Because I'm too damn weak. I'm too damn weak to break the moulding of my conditioning, I'm too damn weak to realise that I never had the choice to be hero. My whole life was moulded so I could be a hero. Being a hero, it at least gives me a chance to prepare wide-eyed, hopeful and quite frankly idiotic teens for this thankless job."

"Can we depend on you? Can we, the public, depend on you to do your job."

"You'll not find a hero anywhere as blunt to rudeness, or willing to fight for your life than me. I might disagree with your lifestyle, your choices, beliefs in fact just disapprove of you as a person, but I will defend to the death, you and yours as no-one deserves to be killed in the street like a dog."

With that he left.

(Midoriya apartment)

"He didn't…"

Aizawa grinned "The more I watch my newest colleague, the more I find myself liking him. That's not to say, I didn't before but that…that takes some nerve."

Inko shook her head "I am still confused by him. He appears to be the most candid and approachable boss, I've ever worked for and then he does this."

"My brother-in-law, do something again Midoriya-san?" Izuku and Inko looked up to see Todoroki and Fuyumi at the door.

"He, disagreed vehemently about a question to the point where he walked out."

Todoroki grinned "Harry is what I call 'one of the last of the real ones', an old-school hero. One that tries not only win the publics opinions but also helps the public. Heroes get paid by the government for their duties, but Baraquiel at least does odd things; he pays into the local community. He donates to the local fire department, police, hospitals etc. As for why, he says 'Heroes can't do it alone' and 'Supers can't be everywhere so we need our emergency services to fill the gaps where we can't'."

Fuyumi grinned "Harry's a walking mass of paradoxes and contradictions but he enjoys what he does."

Inko sighed "I really do not understand how we don't get any subpoenas or even court orders."

Fuyumi chuckled "My father is Endeavour. Harry and Father have a good relationship out of uniform but in costume they have roles to play. My husband is the 'tempestuous upstart wanting to shatter the status quo' and my father is the 'Number Two Pro Hero; when I speak people obey'. Endeavour knows Harry won't jump to Endeavours tune unless he absolutely needs to and sometimes not even then." She decided not to let Inko know about the oncoming potential storm, that wasn't her job, Harry would fill her in when he needed to.

"Midoriya, you get in?" Asked Todoroki.

Izuku nodded "Yeah, 98 Hero Points, 30 Villain Points."

"It's also the third highest amount of Hero Points scored…ever." Aizawa commented.

"Midoriya, have you…designed your costume yet?"

Midoriya paled, he'd completely forgotten about that. Todoroki chuckled "Come on Hero-Otaku."

The adults chuckled at that as the twin-haired coloured teen dragged the green bean out of the apartment.

Todoroki entered his Sisters apartment and armed the duo with notepads "Midoriya, you're quirkless, I'm pretty sure your brain is already thinking of ways of evening the score between all of us. What have you got?"

"Some sort of energy storing under suit or suit, bullet-proof, stab-proof, utility belt and potentially a few weapons a bit like Eraserhead and Snipe."

Todoroki nodded as he idly began sketching, it turned during the time they'd gotten to know each other; Todoroki aside from wanting constantly push his quirk limits was a talented artist. Izuku was also a pretty decent one.

However, after fifteen minutes or so of bouncing ideas off one another Midoriya had sketched down ideas for Todoroki. "How hot or cold can you go?"

Todoroki shrugged "If I go too cold, I give myself frostbite and hypothermia."

"So you can drop your body to below 95 Fahrenheit or 35Celsius. Wait YOUR temperature? Have you even tried to manipulate the temperature around you?"

Todoroki looked incredibly confused as Midoriya's face slowly became much more manic. "Midoriya, I know your exceptionally smart but this…this is kinda scary."

"Todoroki, you have no idea of what you are capable of."

Todoroki's costume quickly became apparent it was a protective head, neck and tank top that flowed neatly into cargo or combat pants and black boots or alternatively a black bodyglove style design with the tanktop on top.

However inside all of the layers, woven in were coils of water attached to a small device designed to push the water around the body; at certain points in the body; mainly the hands, elbows and knees the water would pool allowing Todoroki to emit blasts of ice or fire. Naturally the water and the fire didn't quite mix but hey it was a prototype.

It ended up looking like something out of Mortal Kombat; an old series of fighting games that Baraquiel had managed to get some copies of. Todoroki had found himself rather attached to Sub-Zero and Smoke.

Midoriya was more of a Liu Kang and Kung Lao user surprisingly. Then again Baraquiel had been one to get Midoriya to use his legs more than his arms; lessons reinforced by Aizawa.

Soon enough the day came and it was their first day of UA Highschool and their training began.