Greetings prospective readers, and welcome back to By Green Lantern's Light: Emerald Dawn! Now then, I'll keep this opening author's note brief. First off, I have successfully commissioned the incredible artist phil-cho to create custom cover art for this project, which is of course, Izuku Midoriya as a Green Lantern, as there is so little artwork of that concept, with a good hunk of the art that does exist having been made by robots aka AI. The art should be ready before long, if it isn't already by the time of this chapter's posting.

Secondly, my thoughts on the big finish of the MHA manga. Personally, I am very okay with it. I had a hunch that Deku would be able to continue to chase his dreams thanks to advanced technology, and him becoming a teacher I think is very fitting for someone with his intellect. Not that that'll be happening here, as, to quote Hal Jordan, "Once a Green Lantern, always a Green Lantern," except under certain circumstances. Whether Izuku will meet those circumstances in this AU, I'm not at liberty to say.

As for Ochako and her gal pals, it's nice to see them working to ensure situations like Toga's never happen again, and I'm happy for Gentle and La Brava tying the knot. And of course, Bakugou being Bakugou hurts his public image as a hero, because of course it does. My one complaint with the ending is that we don't know with absolute certainty if the IzuOcha/Green Tea ship, or any other ship from among the Class 1-A Students or even outside of them save for Gentle and La Brava, has actually set sail, though we do get a few breadcrumbs that suggest IzuOcha is canon, but still, it'd be nice to have something definitive. Then again, the fandom might implode if any ship outside of Gentle and La Brava ever became canon, so maybe that was a good call.

Well, that's enough from me. Let's get started! Oh, and if you find the Injustice 2 reference in this chapter, you win all the lint in my pockets.

UPDATE: Well what do you know? Literally the same day that I post this chapter, my commissioned cover art is completed! If anyone is interested, the link to the commissioned art piece by the incredibly talented phil-cho will be availble on my profile. Be sure to give him your support!

Chapter Five

The Entrance Exam

The next ten months passed by with both an agonizing slowness and an alarming swiftness for Izuku. However, considering that he had spent several months on an alien world that had actually been only a mere few days in Earth time, Izuku supposed it was only natural that his sense of the passage of time would be a little off-kilter. Then again, he supposed that was just something he would have to get used to with his new duties as a Green Lantern.

During those ten months, Izuku had his "Quirk'' registered with the government under the name "Will Power," the teen really liking that description. After all, it was basically the truth, as that was the function of his ring, minus the part of the ring speaking into his mind, as that would indicate his "Quirk" was sentient. Granted, sentient Quirks did exist, they were among the rarest sort of Quirks out there and their bearers were very closely monitored. Now that he had been chosen to be a space cop, having that sort of attention on him could spell disaster. As such, he decided it was best for his "Quirk" to appear extremely powerful due to the age he obtained it, rather than it being exposed as also being alive.

While no one at Aldera was aware that he had finally gotten a "Quirk" and despite being sorely tempted to reveal his newfound power to Kaachan and his classmates, going to school was nonetheless far more tolerable. Thanks to the military-like training from outer space, he found it really easy to stand his ground as far as Kaachan and his cronies whenever they tried to corner him. They looked like nothing compared to some of the bizarre and monstrous beings he had been shown while in training. Though he had to admit, he couldn't help but shift uncomfortably underneath the death glares his former friend gave him or the curious stares the rest of the class gave him as they gawked at him like he was an exhibit in a zoo. He also knew this was because of his new height and physical build, which as far as they knew, had only happened in a matter of days.

Didn't mean it didn't feel any less uncomfortable though.

However, those ten months weren't all spent going to school and standing up to his childhood friend-turned-bully and his lackeys. For one, the Green Lantern Corps slid several missions his way. Nothing too major, intercept a slaver transport here, escort prisoners to Oa there, capture some enterprising space pirates who were pillaging, plundering, and being an overall menace to the denizens of his sector. Simple stuff. Granted, by some miracle, none of these excursions had happened while he was at school. People already thought of him as a troublemaker at Aldera thanks to the teachers' lies about him, and he didn't want to add credibility to those lies by cutting class to go play space cop. However, he knew that likely wouldn't be the case forever, especially once he became old enough to become a Pro Hero and a full member of the Green Lantern Corps. Admittedly, the thought of that scenario filled him with no small amount of anxiety. Thankfully, he had the support of several other Green Lanterns from neighboring sectors to help pick up the slack due to him being a junior member of the Corps.

However, those ten months eventually did pass, and the day of the U.A. Academy Entrance Exams arrived…

U.A. Academy - Front Entrance

Izuku could not help but feel as though he had entered sacred land as he walked along the pathway leading to the main building of U.A. Academy. After all, a veritable who's who of heroes and idols were alumni of U.A. including his hero, All Might, among many, many others. Of course, with such a distinguished alumni, that also made it almost, but not completely, impossible to actually get in. In fact, part of Kaachan's dream of becoming the greatest and richest hero who ever lived involved being the first and only person from Aldera to graduate from U.A.

Izuku shined a small smile as he looked down at the currently-invisible Power Ring on the middle finger of his right hand. 'Well, Kaachan may be one of the lucky ones to make it into U.A.'s Heroics Course, but he's not gonna be the only one to do so,' the green-haired teen thought, only to be yanked quite viciously out of his thoughts when he tripped over an uneven piece of the path and nearly fell flat on his face…only to suddenly come to a complete stop. A moment later, Izuku realized that he was floating in mid-air, and that a girl with brown hair in a bob cut was standing right next to him.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked. "I stopped you from falling with my Quirk, sorry I didn't ask first. I figured you wouldn't mind me catching you."

Almost immediately, anxiety raced through Izuku like a raging flood as his feet came back down to Earth while the girl released him from the effects of her Quirk. For all his newfound confidence in standing his ground against Kaachan and his cronies, there were some things that even his Green Lantern training couldn't help him overcome. One of those things was talking to girls his age.

"This is all really nerve wracking, huh?" the nice girl said as Izuku's anxiety began to overwhelm him.

"I-I-I, uh-" Izuku stammered as he began to feel a little wobbly in the knees thanks to his anxiety. Admittedly, this was the longest conversation he'd ever had with a girl, even if she was the only one actually doing the talking.

The nice girl smiled at him. "Well, I'll see you inside. Bye!"

She began to walk away at this, Izuku now feeling his nervousness dissipate. Once he calmed down again, Izuku breathed a sigh of relief.

'I…I can't believe that nice girl actually stopped to talk to me. Me, of all people! And she helped keep me from falling! She was kinda cute too… Too bad the only thing I could do was stammer like an idiot who'd never seen a girl before, but still,' Izuku thought to himself while staring at his invisible Power Ring with a fond smile.

'And to think, I wouldn't be standing here right now if it weren't for my ring and the Corps…I won't let them or the people of my world down! I'll pass this exam with flying colors and become a real hero to all the people of the universe once I graduate U.A., become an official Pro Hero, and a full member of the Green Lantern Corps!'

A new found determination burning within him, Izuku held his head high, and made his way into the U.A. building.

U.A. Grounds - Practical Exam Training Course - A Few Hours Later

Now clad in a dark green open hoodie with a white t-shirt underneath, black jeans, and black and white sneakers, Izuku stretched as Present Mic, the U.A. teacher and Pro Hero in charge of overseeing their Entrance Exams, explained the four different types of robots that they would be going up against. He was now talking about the Zero-Pointer, a robot they were to avoid, though Present Mic did not specify why exactly. In his personal opinion, Izuku thought he did pretty well in the written portion of the exam, thanks in no small part to his talents in Hero Analysis. It was this part of the exam that would be the first true test of what his ring was really capable of here on Earth. He couldn't afford to mess things up for himself now, not when his dreams and his destiny were on the line.

And as Present Mic continued his explanation, Izuku caught sight of a familiar head of brown hair. 'Hey, it's that nice girl from the entrance!' Izuku thought to himself before taking a deep breath to steel himself. 'Okay Midoriya, stay calm. You're just going to go over there, and wish the nice girl who saved you from looking like a complete buffoon at the front entrance of the school good luck on her Practical Exam.'

Before Izuku could take so much as a few steps toward the nice girl who'd saved him from falling, another boy with short black hair and glasses moved in front of him, glaring at him disapprovingly. Izuku wasn't exactly the best at judging people, his "friendship" with Kaachan was proof enough of that, but if he were to hazard a guess, he would say this guy came off as one of those stuck-up bookish snob types that seemed to think they were the self-appointed chaperone of everyone else. That and Izuku's assessment of the boy in front of him proved correct when he spoke.

"That girl is trying to center herself for the Practical Exam," the boy with glasses growled, disapproval in his voice. "Were you planning to go and disrupt her focus?"

"What? No, of course not!" Izuku defensively waved his hands. "I was just gonna-"

"AND GO!" boomed Present Mic's voice as the doors leading into the exam grounds proper flung open and all the applicants went surging through the gates.

Izuku groaned in annoyance. "Doesn't matter now anyway." His green protective aura surrounded him a second later and he took to the skies, leaving the boy with glasses behind. And as he took to the skies to scout out the robots, Izuku couldn't help but smile, enjoying the liberating feeling of flying through the air under his own power.

'Alright ring, this is where the fun begins. Let's do this thing!'

Meanwhile, in the Teacher's Monitoring Booth…

"Pretty decent crop of new recruits this year," commented one Shouta Aizawa, better known as the Underground Hero Eraserhead. His perpetually tired demeanor belied his satisfaction at the performance the applicants were displaying on the monitors. Were this a couple years ago, he likely wouldn't give a rat's ass about his students, what they did to each other, or even what they did in general, so long as they made rational decisions. However, this had changed when he began dating Emi Fukukado, better known as Ms. Joke, who had helped him come to realize just how irrational his old rational mindset had actually been. Thanks to her, Aizawa had become a much better teacher for it, though he still put up a facade that suggested otherwise.

"Indeed," Midnight added with an appraising look in her eyes as she watched the applicants pummel the robots into submission. "Such a wonderful display of youthful passion and vigor. I certainly hope they don't end up burning themselves out when they have to go beyond plus ultra."

"Only time will tell, Nemuri," Snipe continued with his usual drawl. "They haven't faced the real test yet. I wonder how many will retreat, and how many will stand their ground and help their comrades when that beast Power Loader put together comes out to play and the Rescue Points are up for grabs."

All Might, present in his thin form and clad in a bright yellow suit and tie, said nothing as he watched the various monitors on the screen. Indeed, these new applicants had an abundance of potential, each one a gem waiting to be shined to perfection. Especially that one flying through the air, enshrouded in a green aura that was conjuring objects that leveled several robots. Not only that, the teen was able to easily switch the green objects into other things as he continued to destroy the robots…

With an abrupt bolt of shock and an explosion of blood from his mouth, All Might went wide-eyed as the monitor zoomed into the teenager for a second, allowing him to recognize the teenager.. As this happened, his colleagues turned to him with looks of concern.

"All Might, are you all right?!" Midnight asked, concern in her voice.

"That boy there," All Might said with an intensity in his eyes that was reserved only for the most dire of situations as he wiped his mouth. He pointed to one of the monitors, this one showing Izuku surrounded by his green protective aura as he hovered in the air, firing a pair of miniature ballistic missiles made of green hard light energy on a couple of robots, blowing them apart. "Who is he? What's his Quirk?"

Nedzu noted the intensity in All Might's eyes before typing away on the nearest keyboard, soon pulling up the teen's file. "His name's Izuku Midoriya. He's the current record holder for World's Oldest Late-Bloomer." A few in the room raised an eyebrow at that, only for Nedzu to continue, "His Quirk is called 'Will Power.' It harnesses his ability to overcome great fear, or his literal willpower, determination, and courage, to allow him to generate a protective aura. This also allows him to discharge green energy beams, use a form of pseudo-telekinesis, fly at supersonic speeds, generate barriers, and create green hard light constructs of virtually anything he can imagine. It also has a stockpiling element to it and should his stockpiled energy run out, his Quirk becomes unusable, and if he becomes afraid for any reason, his Quirk is severely weakened. It requires a good night's sleep in order for his energy to recharge," Nedzu chuckled at that last bit. "Amazing. I've honestly never seen a Quirk quite as versatile or powerful as this, though Miss Yaoyorozu's Quirk is indeed a close second. May I ask what sparked your interest in him?"

All Might shook his head. "It's nothing," he said as he returned to watching the monitors.

Young Midoriya's Quirk was indeed extremely versatile and powerful, there was no doubt about that. This Quirk though, despite it being something that would more than likely be one of the crown jewels of his old enemy's collection, it seemed much too oriented towards heroism to be of any real use to that man. Though the more he thought about it, the more All Might thought that perhaps his initial assumptions had been wrong. Perhaps Young Midoriya truly was an exceptionally late bloomer, likely having gotten his Quirk after the incident with that Sludge Villain, if All Might were to hazard a guess. All the same, he would need to keep an eye on Young Midoriya to make absolutely certain he wasn't a pawn, either willing or unwilling, of his old enemy.

Nedzu hummed in thought. "Well, I suppose now it's time to begin the true exam. Release the Zero-Pointer!" he declared before he slammed his paw down on a big red button.

Back Out On The Training Grounds…

"Grand Slam!" yelled Izuku as he smashed a Three-Pointer into a dented and broken lump of metal with a construct of a baseball bat. Admittedly, Izuku was having a lot of fun during the exam despite suspecting that he had more than enough points to successfully pass the exam and make it into U.A. And as he destroyed one more machine, Izuku saw no issue in continuing to increase his score.

Suddenly, a shadow fell across Izuku, prompting him to fly up and spin around, only to see a massive, hulking, brute of a robot that was almost as tall, if not taller than the entire training course trudging its way through the course. "The Zero-Pointer…" breathed Izuku as he now understood why he and his fellow applicants were instructed to avoid it. The thing looked like it was designed to level small countries rather than be a part of a Hero School's entrance exam.

A desperate cry for help reached Izuku's ears next, prompting him to glance around. It wasn't long before he identified the source of the cry. It was coming from the nice girl who had helped him at the front entrance. She was cornered by the Zero-Pointer, and it was about to crush her underneath its foot! 'I have to help her!' Izuku thought as his willpower surged into his ring like a raging flood before yelling, "Hey, Buckethead!"

A giant mechanical leg emerged from Izuku's ring, which crashed into the Zero-Pointer's own leg, knocking it off-balance. This was followed by a matching leg, making the giant robot stumble and causing the nice girl to look up to see where the legs had come from.

'It's that boy from the entrance!' the girl mentally gasped as the two glowing green mechanical legs landed underneath the boy. A giant mech's head suddenly manifested from thin air before it slammed down on top of the Zero-Pointer's head, creating a large dent in the giant robot's own head. It then joined the legs above the boy from the entrance's location as the rest of a giant mech suit rivaling the Zero-Pointer formed, connecting the three pieces together. The giant mech was composed of green hard light energy, and it soon raised its arms, both revealing large blaster cannons. They both pointed at the Zero-Pointer and opened fire, blasting the Zero-Pointer to pieces.

The giant mech disappeared a second later, Izuku landing softly on the ground before walking up to the nice girl he'd met at the entrance. He held out his hand to help her up, only to feel heat rising in the back of his neck as a number of their fellow applicants gathered around them, speechless at what Izuku had done.

In The Teacher's Monitoring Booth…

Everyone present was stunned speechless by the display of Izuku Midoriya rescuing the girl. It was…astonishing to say the least.

"That's got to be the most overpowered Quirk I've ever seen," Midnight commented.

"So it would seem…" Eraserhead added before a sadistic smirk crossed his face. "I call dibs on being his homeroom teacher, by the way."

"Wha-hey! What if I wanted to be his homeroom teacher?!" Midnight yelped.

All Might on the other hand, just frowned and rubbed his chin in thought. Any remaining doubts about Young Midoriya having nothing to do with his old enemy had been driven clean away. There was no way in hell that All For One would ever willingly give away a Quirk that powerful, no matter what he would have wanted in return. That meant that young Midoriya truly was an exceptionally late bloomer. The sight made him smile. He honestly couldn't wait to teach him in his class, and see just how great of a champion he would become.

"And… send!" Present Mic exclaimed as he sent the video he took of what had just happened to Power Loader. He then made his way over to the loudspeaker microphone and declared that the practical exam had come to an end.

In the Support Class Exam Area…

Higari Majima, better known as Power Loader, felt his jaw drop like a sack of potatoes as he saw the video Present Mic sent him. His Zero-Pointer had just been obliterated like it was nothing, and it was by a giant mech suit composed entirely from green hard light energy. It… was incredible.

What kind of Quirk could possibly have that much power behind it? What were its limitations, its weaknesses, its strengths? How did it even work in general? And to have assembled that giant mech so quickly and so easily…it spoke volumes of the mind of the person who wielded it. This Izuku Midoriya…if by some fluke he didn't make it into the Hero Course, then he'd be more than happy to have him in the Support Course.

A loud explosion pulled Power Loader out of his thoughts, causing him to heave a sigh. He had a funny feeling that whoever caused that explosion would be a handful to deal with over the next three years.

Back With Izuku…

As he and his fellow applicants left the Practical Exam Grounds, Izuku never felt both so happy and overwhelmed at the same time. All around him, people were asking him questions about his Quirk and about himself, clearly eager to get to know him better. It was crazy with the number of people present, and filled him with happiness. After all, he'd never had anything like this happen to him back at Aldera, or at any point in his life thanks to his being Quirkless. That stuck up guy from before the exam, who Izuku learned was named Tenya Iida, also came to apologize to him for accosting him earlier, apparently having initially assumed Izuku was a troublemaker, which Izuku brushed off as water under the bridge.

And then a certain Katsuki Bakugo passed him by. The teen stopped at the sight of the group around Izuku, only to growl, shake his head, and walked away. For his part, Izuku couldn't help but smile. It was next to impossible for him to not have gotten into U.A., not with the number of robots he had destroyed. Not only that, as it turned out that once the acceptance message came in the mail a few days later, his rescue of the nice girl he'd met at the entrance had netted him a ton of Rescue Points. He was on the path to making friends, real friends, not just abusive bullies like Kaachan or colleagues like his fellow Green Lanterns, but real, actual genuine friends.

After a lifetime of nothing but suffering, misery, and pain, things were finally starting to come up Izuku Midoriya. And it was all thanks to being in the right place at the right time, with the right set of personality traits. If only young Midoriya knew just how complicated and dangerous his life would become from there…

And that's a bingo! If you liked what you saw here, then be sure to fave, follow, review, and join us next time as the saga continues! See you then!