Izuku took deep, measured breaths as he and All Might walked through the halls of the Commission facility. On the outside, it seemed like a normal building, maybe a little old and uncared for but ordinary in every sense of the word, but stepping inside was like stepping into an entirely different world. A shiver had run up Izuku's back at the strange feeling like he'd just stepped through a portal, and he'd had to fight to stay out of his own head and memories. He was wearing his costume, the green and red and black the only bits of colour in the whole building, seemingly, aside from All Might's formal clothes. It never got easier to see him in clothes that fit, a sign that he'd never again be the All Might everyone had thought they knew. The two of them walked in silence, Izuku too nervous to talk and All Might seemingly having nothing left to say. They'd gone over everything he'd need to know about the test, everything he was allowed to know, and then fallen into a silence, not uncomfortable but not completely relaxed either. Izuku had his cowl up prematurely, as it was apparently Commission protocol for all of their heroes to be in full costume when working or attending any Commission event, including their trainees. They wanted to fly somewhat under the radar, so Izuku had to do as the Commission trainees did.

They turned so many times, going down so many seemingly random hallways even after taking an elevator down as far as it went, that Izuku started to think they were lost. He was about to bring it up to All Might, but they came to a corridor that opened up into a wide area outside. There was no door, the hallway simply ended and there was an instant transition to cement from tile, and it was dark in that cavernous space compared to the well lit hallway, which gave Izuku pause. All Might stopped, too, and turned to face him.

"This is the point beyond which I can't follow you. You need to do the next part all on your own, and I'm confident you will be extraordinary. Good luck," All Might said, putting his hand on Izuku's padded shoulder.

"Thank you," Izuku said, putting on a smile just like All Might always did.

He turned and set off at a casual pace into the space beyond the hallway. It took his eyes a moment to adjust from the all white, well lit hallway, As it turned out, the hall opened up into an underground space that was modelled after what looked like ten city blocks, maybe more. Izuku could not even see the far walls of the area — or rather, the arena. He guessed that city was where the exam was to take place. The thing that struck Izuku the most was that the urban environment laid out before him didn't even look different to any city he'd ever seen, it just looked like a regular city. Somehow, he expected a simulated city testing ground to be destroyed, like a villain attack had taken place. Instead, it was a mundane cityscape, and that put him off more. What could happen in a normal city? Anything and everything. Izuku thought it could've been designed this way to prevent participants guessing at the contents of the exam before it started. That was smart, he supposed, but it threw him off enough that he didn't even process that there were people greeting him.

"Hey there!" a voice called, high and enthusiastic.

The person it belonged to was a girl, shorter than Izuku by a few inches, who was smiling brightly as she approached him. Izuku immediately began to dissect the aspects of her costume in his mind, falling back on his habits as he became overwhelmed by the slightest margin. Her costume was primarily a black bodysuit that made the cool grey of her boots and gloves, bulky like armour, stand out despite the subdued colour scheme. She had a cloth face mask that looked more like a scarf that wrapped around her mouth and nose, and her shoulder-length black hair was pulled up into a short ponytail that swayed when she moved. She looked closer in age to Izuku than the rest of them, which gave him some comfort, but not much when the rest followed her eyes and spotted him approaching their group as he entered the arena.

"Hi," Izuku said with a smile. He wasn't sure how steady a smile it was, but it was a smile, at least.

"My name's Echo. It's nice to meet you!" the girl said, putting out a hand for Izuku to shake when he got near, which he did.

"Thank you. My hero name is Nexus," he said. "That's an interesting name. Can you mimic voices?"

"Can you mimic voices?" she asked in Izuku's voice. He almost leapt out of his skin, and it didn't help that only her eyes showed due to her costume. Her dark eyes crinkled as if she were smiling.

"That's awesome!" he said, grinning. He didn't come across too many Quirks that let their user replicate sensory information, and thought Echo would be incredible at information gathering and espionage. He almost reached for his notebook in his pouch, but wanted to put his best foot forward with these people.

"I know, right? It's pretty awesome," she said, her voice switching without a pause into Izuku's as she used just a portion of what he'd said earlier to end her sentence.

Echo's Quirk was fascinating, and he wished he had time to think about it more, but the other examinees were approaching after seemingly letting Echo introduce herself. Izuku could immediately tell that these kids were at least one or two years older than him. They walked with a confidence Izuku had only seen in second and third year students back at school, and every one of the young men were taller and showed more muscle than him, and the girls weren't far behind the guys in that respect. Even Echo, upon second glance, though she was shorter than Izuku, looked like she could run a mile and then take him in a fight. That wasn't fair, he tried to tell himself, because these kids had had more years with their Quirks and perhaps more years training than him, so of course they were confident and athletic. He still hadn't technically finished his second term of high school, so Izuku decided, with great effort, to cut himself some slack. That didn't mean it didn't still initially sting that he was supposed to be showing off his skills against people that were probably so much better than him. A voice, which sounded suspiciously like Ochako, told him it was just insecurity and anxiety talking, but Izuku didn't have time to process these feelings before one of them began talking to him.

"What's up? I'm Skywalker," one of the tall boys said, grinning as he looked down on — at Izuku. Skywalker reminded Izuku a lot of a third year at UA he'd seen walking around the halls every now and then. Blond, blue eyes, a blinding smile, and a physique that reminded him of Shoji or Sato. He wore a costume that featured a blue visor, like Hawks' famous red visor, and a cape that billowed out behind him like All Might's earlier costumes. The bodysuit he wore was black with highlights running down his torso and legs, blue to cut against the black, and it reminded Izuku of Endeavor's look. This guy, Skywalker, looked like he was combining the branding of all the top three heroes to make the most iconic hero outfit ever. Izuku couldn't say it wasn't working.

The rest of the examinees introduced themselves, though they weren't as notable as Echo or Skywalker, even if they were certainly unique in their own right. Pointer was about two inches or so taller than Izuku, who also wore a visor, a red one that only covered one eye, like Shoda's back at UA. She wore a baggier outfit, a dark, forest green jumpsuit — not unlike Izuku's own — with maroon pockets, where it looked like she kept a lot of seemingly random tools and small weapons. That didn't make a whole lot of sense to Izuku, but figured that it likely had to do with a Quirk, like how Kodai from Class 1-B carried around a whole slew of random tools and items to enlarge.

Power Packer was the largest one of the group, well over six feet tall and as wide as a refrigerator, maybe wider. He had brass-knuckled gloves on and a short-sleeved, skintight black t-shirt on that showed off his All Might-esque physique. He wore cargo pants that were also black, and his similarly dark combat boots were steel-toed, which gave Izuku an idea for his own costume. He almost reflexively reached behind him for his notebook, but kept himself under control. If Izuku could get steel-toed boots, then his kicks would hit so much harder. He'd have to avoid going too hard on people if he didn't want to shatter their bones, but he was already having to do that, so he had practice. That was something to remember. Power Packer — Packer, as his friends seemed to refer to him — wore a helmet that covered his face in a glossy, smoothed over metallic material, like a motorcycle helmet shaped to the contours of his head; a shell.

Strider was interesting. She was of a height with Pointer, maybe a little shorter but visibly taller than Izuku, and was lean. She bounced around as she waited her turn, moving with such speed that Izuku knew it had to be her Quirk. She wore a red bodysuit with yellow gloves and boots, with highlights of yellow running all over the costume. It had to be an homage to some comic book, but Izuku was blanking on the name, even though he was sure he'd seen that kind of costume before. In a blur of red and yellow, she was on the other side of the group, and then back again, and then behind him, and then in front of him. She only stopped for a second or two each time, getting a good look at him from all angles before she resumed her movement faster than he could track. For fun, Izuku brought One for All up to twenty percent — keeping from using Full Cowling style to prevent the telltale green sparks that gave away when he was using his Quirk — and held it there, only using it to enhance his own speed. Everything slowed down around him, like he'd put a recording on twenty-five percent speed, and only then could he track Strider with his eyes, getting a shocked and excited look from her in return. Power Packer put a hand on her shoulder the next time she stopped, Izuku also releasing his Quirk, and she stopped, breathing too hard to be just exertion. He didn't think her power was one she could use like she seemed to want, but didn't ask about it, knowing the feeling.

After introductions were done, Izuku went to introduce himself the way they had on the first day of class at UA all that time ago, managing to give them his Quirk's name — Power Source, at least on paper — before they stopped him in shock.

"Sorry, Nexus. We don't do that here," Skywalker said. The others all nodded, and Izuku thought he was the closest thing they had to a central leadership figure, like how Izuku was his class representative. "The Commission likes to keep things under lock and key, so we don't just go around and talk about the details of our Quirks. I assumed you'd been briefed, since you used your hero name like you're supposed to, but I should've made sure. That's my bad."

"Wait, so you don't talk about your Quirks with each other? Do you even know what each other's Quirks are called?" Izuku asked, unable to grasp the concept. How did they expect to use peer review, the greatest kind of review if one asked Izuku, to its fullest?

"Nope. Just like we don't use our real names, it's protocol to not volunteer details about our powers. It's just a security thing," Echo said, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"You don't even know each other's names? How does the Commission expect you to collaborate?" Izuku asked, looking around at the examinees with what he was sure was shock and confusion written all over his face.

"It's just the way it is," Pointer said, her eyes trained on him as she flipped her visor up. Izuku realised with wide eyes that only one of her eyes was the same brownish red as her visor, the other being blue, and realised further that that must be why the visor was that colour to begin with. Her eyes were sharp, and calculating, like Chikuchi Togeike's eyes, but he got the feeling that she could actually see through him if she wanted to, somehow.

"Right," he said, trying hard not to frown openly.

"Anyway, we'll let Echo's little demonstration slide since you more or less figured it out. Try not to let your excitement get the better of you, okay?" Skywalker said, giving Echo one of his shining grins. She nodded quickly, unable to look up at him. Izuku got the feeling that he'd heard something like this interaction between them play out before, but couldn't place where he'd heard the tone Skywalker was using. "We all want to pass this test and get provisional licences, so do your best, yeah?"

"Oh, now that I'm thinking about it, I have a question. Why do you guys even need provisional licences? Surely since you're not part of a hero school, you don't do internships and work studies the same way we do, so why not just take the full licensing exam when you've completed your training?" Izuku asked.

"Oh, you know, the Commission has its rules," Skywalker said, smiling in a way that Izuku thought would be charming if he had actually answered the question.

Izuku startled himself with how he'd made that observation so casually, as if he was analysing these kids. Sure, Skywalker hadn't actually answered his question, but was that bad? Izuku didn't need to know anything he was asking about, and maybe it was Skywalker who didn't know and was trying to save face. He didn't suspect them of anything, so why did their demeanour have him acting in this way? After a moment of thinking, Izuku came to the conclusion that most of them, except Echo and Strider, just seemed kind of fake. They talked in a way that he recognised but couldn't put a label on, they acted like they were talking to a civilian, almost, and they were very clearly made to look like every iconic hero that had ever existed. It was like these kids had been trained to be the platonic ideal of a hero in the eyes of today's society, and it just felt wrong to Izuku. Like these kids his age, more or less, were just tools to the Commission. He didn't even know how Strider and Echo felt different. Maybe it was Strider's uncontrollable energy and Echo's enthusiasm that made this hypothetical conditioning stick less, but they were different from the others. Power Packer was simply mute, so he couldn't give away a secret or speak in a way unbecoming of a hero if he wanted to. Pointer was so severe that she reminded him of all his worst bullies during elementary and middle school, and the teachers that didn't care to stop them. Skywalker talked a lot but didn't say much of substance.

It was so unnatural to Izuku to see kids his age acting this way, that it took him a moment more than the others to react when a voice came over the speakers announcing that the provisional hero licensing exam had begun.

"Welcome to the exam, trainees. The test's parameters are as follows: the examinees are to work together to uncover and defeat villains, played by heroes who have already been planted in the arena, within half an hour. As well, the villains have placed a nuclear bomb in the city, which you must also find and deactivate. If you don't subdue the combatants and disarm the device, that bomb goes off, killing everyone in Tokyo. Those are the only two factors to this exam. Good luck," droned a tired voice over the speakers.

Izuku brought up One for All at eighteen percent, Full Cowling style, and watched how the others reacted through the shower of emerald bolts of electrical discharge that wreathed him as always. Strider immediately ran off, able to get down the street before she slowed to half-time like everyone else. Skywalker lifted off the ground and flew up into the sky, taking a few chips of dirt and concrete with him, as if he wasn't truly flying but carrying himself with a personal force field that could pick up other, small things. Pointer, Power Packer and Echo ran off as a group, seemingly unable to move faster than a regular human. Izuku made his decision, and leaped into the air alongside Skywalker, whose name was just beginning to make sense. He forced his perception back down to normal speeds and used Float to fly next to Skywalker, who looked over at him with surprise clear on his face.

"I thought you'd be a power type, given your support equipment!" he shouted over the air that roared in their ears as they flew.

"I can do a little bit of everything!" Izuku replied with a grin. "You all clearly have plans in place for these kinds of things, so what do you want me to do?"

"Since you can scout as well, we'll split up for now," Skywalker said as he stopped high above the city, Izuku using a light application of Air Force to counter his momentum and stop as well. "I'm assuming your costume's earpiece was fed into our frequency before the test." Izuku nodded. "Then we'll split up. We'll cover more ground that way, and we can report what we see. If you see the villain, or the bomb, call for us and Strider and I will be on our way as fast as we can. So, pretty fast."

"Got it," Izuku said, already swinging his arm out and using Air Force to generate the momentum needed to turn while he was stationary.

While Skywalker flew off in one direction, Izuku brought One for All down to fifteen percent. He didn't need overwhelming speed, just enough to fly fast and still be able to see. He put his hands out behind him, and flicked his fingers. In a blur of green and red, lightning flashing around him, Izuku soared over the city in the direction opposite the path Skywalker had taken, and the grin on his face only got wider. This was the part he loved about having One for All, lately. When he wasn't fighting for his life and his right to have his Quirks, Izuku revelled in being able to leap over cities in a single bound and fly over it all like a benevolent protector watching over his people. It was the best feeling in the world, one that he knew he could never give up. Not to All for One, not to anyone who'd use his power for evil. But what about a successor? Izuku thought he must've been pale as he considered that. All for One was in Tartarus now, defeated at last, so he didn't need a successor. Did he? He shook himself out of that train of thought. That wasn't what he should've been thinking about. The test. If he failed the exam, he'd missed Christmas and Ochako's birthday for nothing.

He had no idea how long he spent flying over the city and seeing nothing, but soon, Pointer's flat voice came through Izuku's earpiece.

"I'm seeing something weird, guys. Some of these buildings are unusually fortified. Like they're trying to either keep us out or draw my attention as a trick," she said. Izuku didn't know what she was talking about, but everyone else took it as good news.

"How many of these buildings are there?" Skywalker asked.

"Three, at complete opposite ends of the city," Pointer replied.

"We'll regroup, then, and storm these buildings one by one," Skywalker said, getting a series of affirmatives from the other examinees, Izuku adding his late and hesitantly. Pointer gave their location, and signed off for now.

Izuku put one hand in front of himself and flicked his fingers again, this time at twenty percent. It didn't just cancel his momentum, but launched him back the way he had come. Eventually, he saw Strider's red and yellow blur racing down a street about forty metres at a time, stopping for a few seconds between bursts of speed. He followed her, catching up and showing off his speed as he flew down the streets ahead of her, gaining ground whenever she had to pause, though they were more or less equal in speed when she could use her Quirk. That still bothered Izuku, but he could put it out of his mind easily enough. Some Quirks simply had limitations. He knew that better than most.

They regrouped close to where they'd split up. Izuku touched down a few seconds before Strider, who appeared in a blur of colour and immediately fell to one knee, gasping for breath. Power Packer was immediately on her, putting a hand on her back and getting her to stand, and Izuku let One for All's power leave him as he stepped closer to Strider. He was stopped when Skywalker landed right in front of him, giving him a grim look.

"Just let her breathe, Nexus," he said.

"Is she okay?" Izuku asked. Silence. "Right, probably another thing you can't talk about."

"I think we should tell him, Skywalker," Echo said in a shaky voice. "I mean, we know. It's for her safety."

Skywalker turned his eyes on Echo, and she silenced herself. Izuku felt One for All, more likely the anger-fueled Blackwhip, calling to him, but blocked it out. Something grew hot in his chest, and he looked at Pointer, who was decidedly not looking at Echo. He tried to peer past Skywalker to see if Strider was okay or not, but he was taller and wider than Izuku, so he blocked his view and stood over him without any effort on his part. That was, until he sighed and his shoulders sagged as all of the energy seemed to go out of him at once. He stepped aside, and Izuku could see that Strider was standing on her own now, still panting hard but giving the others a smile that Izuku had seen on Katsuki plenty of times.

"Strider can tell him what she wants after, but we have a test to complete right now. Just … don't overdo it, Strider. Pointer?" Skywalker said.

"There are buildings there, there, and there." She pointed them out, and Izuku was surprised that he could see the buildings clearly, as they were all a little taller than the others around them. "They have no weak points, which is unusual, since every man-made structure has what my Quirk counts as a weak point. That means one of two things; either the bomb is in one of those buildings, or they set it up to make me think the bomb is in one of those buildings, and waste time searching them when it's really not in any of them. What do you think, Sky?"

"We'll split up into teams of two. There should be one person with the ability to move fast on each team. Myself, Strider, and Nexus are those with mobility. We'll each take one of you three who can't move like we can. Pointer, go with Strider and make sure she doesn't push herself too hard. Echo, you're with me, since I can't carry Packer. Nexus, you said you can do a little bit of everything. Time to prove it," Skywalker said, grinning at Izuku toward the end.

"Got it," Izuku said.

"Alright, team. Move out!" Skywalker called.

Izuku looked at Power Packer, and estimated that he could carry the large boy and fly at the same time. It would be a struggle, but he could do it. He hoped.

Author's Note

ECHO — SUROHITO EKO

QUIRK: ECHO

Surohito can mimic any sound she hears, made by a human or not, on the first try. She has to use the sound quickly, though, or she loses it. To counteract this, her gauntlets can open up into a recording device so she can store and replay sounds however she wants.