Chapter Two

The sky might be the limit, but now, riding on the bus, I was firmly aware of my feet on the metaphorical ground.

Denki, who's body I was inhabiting, and whose mind had merged with my own, in a way I didn't really understand, was originally physically fit in the manner that delinquents often were. No real training, but natural on the thinner side, and with some muscles, though less than I had at this age. Good enough to go jogging, or to run away from the authorities when he was somewhere he shouldn't be, but nowhere near what it'd take to fight a protracted battle.

With the Body Talent, however, he was in peak physical condition for his age, putting him in the same camp as Deku, allowing me to go full bore for the full ten minutes, which was forever in a fight. I'd be tired by the end of it, but I should be able to power through. The fact that, with Denki's original physique and the master plan of 'run in and shock a lot of robots', he'd somehow passed had helped my confidence.

The written exam had already been taken, which I knew I'd bombed, so this was going to be my one chance to shine. That said, I had an advantage, I knew the secret scoring metric. Not only were we being tested on our combat ability, but also on how 'heroic' we are, trying to save our teammates.

I mean, I would've done that anyways, but Denki wouldn't've, not because he wouldn't want to, but because he was worried about hitting innocents, which was commendable in its own way, so he'd stay far away from them. However, with Denki's memories, I was able to fill in the blanks on his power, and work out a better plan.

He could generate electricity, and channel it through his body and outwards. He needed an incredibly high voltage to get it to arc outwards in a circle to hit everyone around him, and he'd also learned to shoot it from his hands, but again it was an area of effect, not a line he could aim to shoot with.

He had trained that ability, going ever higher in voltage before hitting his limit, whereupon a mental fuse would blow, his power would shut off, and he'd be nothing more than a babbling idiot for about an hour. Luckily he was a nice guy, so it was amusing, and not the mix of dangerous and disgusting actual idiots could be if they got angry and decided the target of their ire needed to hurt.

But, despite having electrical powers like his father, Denki had learned very little about the nature of electricity and how it worked. While not an electrician myself by any stretch, my own father had worked as one for a while, and growing up I'd listened when he'd pointed things out.

I didn't have the time for experimentation, but what little I'd played with waiting to get on the bus, paired with what I knew about ionization, told me at least my first idea should work, and that'd be enough.

Despite how it seemed to work out in fiction, the battlefield was not the place to experiment if one could avoid it.

"What's a little kid doing here?" an angry, mocking voice asked.

My first thought was ' Oh god I'm running this test with Bakugo!', but looking over it was someone else, who'd stood despite the bus moving, towering over the minuscule form of Mineta, Class 1-A's resident pervert. "I'm not a kid!" the three and a half foot tall hero-in-training objected.

"Look like one to me," the, what appeared to be a full-grown-man scoffed, dressed in combat fatigues. He leered down at the midget, "Why don't you run home to mommy, before you wet yourself!"

The others on the bus just watched, not saying anything, other than to whisper to each other. Sighing, a mercenary part of me wishing this had happened during the test so I could do this in front of the teachers for bonus points, I called, "Bullying someone smaller in the middle of the hero examination? Yeah, I'm sure you'll do great. Little guy's got a better chance of passing than you do anyways."

"Screw you," the guy growled back, but, at the judging stares of the others as the silent majority considered what I said, he backed off, sitting down.

Mineta scurried over to me, taking the empty seat to my left. "Thanks! You think I'll get in?"

I shrugged, looking around. My eyes passed over the large amount of extras that wouldn't make the cut, seeing a few would-be members of class 1-B, the second stringers, but who were still better than the rank and file, and Mina, the pink-skinned, pink-haired, self described 'Alien Queen' of class 1-A. "More than I think that guy would. With Mutation quirks, ya can't really judge a book by their cover anymore. You might be weak, or you might be able to level a building with a single punch. The fact that you're even here tells me that you're probably not the first."

The little guy sat a bit straighter at that. "Thanks man. I can't really believe I'm here, ya know? And there's so many hot chicks!"

"Agreed," I started to respond to his first question, accidentally answering the second as well.

The girl who was sitting on my other side sniffed in disapproval, pronouncing me "Pervert."

Mineta started to respond but, knowing that whatever he'd say in my defense would just tar my reputation even further, I didn't hesitate to slap a hand over his mouth. "I'm appreciating the effort and skill others have put into their appearance," I commented, sounding mildly confused while the girl looked at me like she'd smelled something sour. "Not you, of course, you don't seem to care, but she looks rather nice," I stated, pointing over towards Mina.

"You're not bad yourself, hot-stuff!" the girl in question replied, and I matched her cheerful smile with one of my own.

"Teach me, oh sensei!" Mineta begged the moment I removed my hand.

Sighing, I dragged my other hand across my face. "Dude, not the time. We're going into a combat scenario, get your head in the game, and worry about the beautiful women, like her, that we'll hopefully be in class with later."

The bus slowed to a stop, doors opening as Mineta nodded rapidly, all of us departing in front of the walled off square of fake city we'd be tested in. Spreading out in a loose group, everyone was psyching themselves up, a few that seemed to know each other pairing up to chat.

I stretched out, finding Mineta copying me. "Don't follow me when we start," I advised. "I don't want to have to compete with you for points, and end up with one of us screwing up the other's chances."

The small teen looked disappointed, until I explained myself, then he nodded, seriously, walking away to the other side of the group. Taking a few breaths to center myself, I held ready, watching the doors, and the wall over them.

Sure enough, after a few minutes an inordinately buff, white haired man, though not on the level of All Might, climbed to the top of the archway. "Listen all!" he announced, the doors below him starting to open. "The test begins now!" I took off running through the doors even as he continued, "You won't have a warning in real life, so you're not getting one here!"

I could hear the others starting to follow me down the main street, so I turned, ducking through an alley, down another street, then down another alley, trying to put as much distance between myself and my fellow examinees as I could.

Exiting the second alley, I stumbled across three villain robots: two of the one point 'weak villain' machines, humanoid shapes balanced on a single large wheel, and one of the two point 'medium villain' bots, a scorpion like machine with two 'stinger' tails.

Denki's first reaction would be to move in the middle of the three and let loose a blast of electricity before moving forward, but he'd only be able to do that about ten times, and I could take these down with a fraction of the power and only another couple of extra seconds.

Or, at least, I hoped I could.

As the robots turned to assess me I charged the first one-pointer. Charging my electrical quirk through my hand, I pressed it against the red optical lens it had just above its wheel at waist height, and used a tiny fraction of my allotment of power to deliver a shock directly to its electronics instead of trying to power through any electrical resistance its armor might have.

It sparked, and twitched, but still moved so I shocked it again, causing the entire thing to smoke and fall over while the other two started to move, finishing their moment of 'oh, I have now seen you' all three robots had had.

Two more steps and I was in front of the scorpion, hand out and pressing on one of the several lenses that were its 'eyes'. Ramping up the power of my electricity to match its larger size, I let the lightning flow, a sudden shock that made me glow just for a moment. Smoke billowed from its joints as it dropped and I could hear the squeal of tires as the last one charged for me.

Clambering over the two pointer's legs, the one pointer had to drive around, its single wheel support making it unable to follow me, which gave me enough time to get ready. Coming around, it shoved a large arm for me, the blow incredibly telegraphed and letting me dodge, stepping aside as it sunk it's metallic hand, really just two hinged plates of metal, into the downed two pointer, getting it stuck.

Darting forward, I once again put my hand on its lower lens, pushing power into it, more than the first shock, but less than I'd done against the scorpion-bot. A quick shock and it slumped, downed, and I kept running, not having the time to appreciate my victory.

Running through another alley I found a girl fighting two scorpions, a glowing chain held in her hands that she spun, deflecting their strikes, as a one pointer lifted its arms towards her, hands folding back to reveal something that looked dangerously close to a mini-gun.

"Get down!" I yelled as they started to spin, and she just turned to look, the one pointer's guns slowly spinning as it fired at her with a slow fwoom-fwoom-fwoom cadence, bean bag rounds slamming into her, throwing off her chain's spin and letting a scorpion's tail clip her, sending her sprawling.

Coming up from behind the one-pointer, it slowly turned to shoot me as well but took to long as I closed, shocked, and kept going for the scorpions as they both raised their tails. They wouldn't kill her, but the staff could fix broken limbs in a second and that'd take her out of the running completely, and she still seemed dazed from the hit.

Charging my right hand with twice times as much as I'd used to take the scorpion down through it's sensor, I yelled "Roll!" right as the robots finished raising their tails. She listened, and twisted to the right, the tails slamming down where she was a moment ago cracking the concrete.

Coming behind one, I grabbed it's armor plating and let loose, causing it to crackle and twitch, but start to turn around, dragging me with it. Shocking it again turned it's spin into a sprawling fall, insides fried, sending me rolling and scrambling to my feet. The other scorpion turned to face me, tails rearing back, only for a glowing chain to wrap around both of them, the metal it touched starting to glow with heat.

"I got this one!" the girl replied, either to tell me not to worry or to claim the kill, I wasn't sure. Either way I nodded and kept moving, checking my phone to see that I had eight minutes left, a fifth of my time gone.

Down another alley, a one-pointer dropped down, half-filling the space. As it slowly raised itself to its full menacing, eight-foot-tall height, I didn't break stride, zapping its sensor and ducking under its arm, leaving it to drop, getting a handle on this, my breath evening out from its hard, panicked bellowing into a steady beat.

Bursting out of the narrow corridor, I found myself in a war zone, wrecked robot parts everywhere and a dozen people fighting three times as many robots. Mina was sliding around a three pointer, which looked like a small walking tank, with a knight-like visor protecting its optics and two pairs of what looked like missile launchers on its back.

It fired, the projectile barely missing her, and slamming into a bit of wreckage, not exploding but denting the metal, a few feet away from me. Darting forward I grabbed the metal projectile and ran a bit of electricity through it, ready to try my idea of throwing a charged projectile but ready to abandon the concept if it didn't work, not having the time to troubleshoot it. Instead, my eyes widened as the end of it started to glow.

Tossing it as hard as I could, between a pair of one-pointers that were hosing down another teen, a guy with an armadillo shell, with bean bag fire, it detonated, blowing them both off their feet and ripping off the closest arm of each bot, disabling them.

Glancing around, I grinned as I saw close to a dozen more un-detonated missiles. Running for them, I cleared half of the bots in seconds, leaving the ones that were already in close combat alone lest I hit one of the students. With three javelin-sized missiles left, I called to Mina, "Need help?"

"Yes please!" she replied, having covered the robot with acid from her quirk, but it was still charging her, even with its launchers melted to uselessness.

"Pull back!" I yelled, charging and hurling a missile, which struck the robot dead-on, blasting it backwards and ripping off its face-plate and wrecking its optic lenses. Even with that damage it still struggled to its feet once more, exposed wiring sparking.

Mina swung around me, skating on acid she excreted from her feet, and threw a fist-sized globe of caustic fluid into the machine's innards, causing it to finally give out, dropping to the ground and smoking. Flashing me a grin and a thumbs-up, I returned the gesture before we both turned away in different directions and ran off, making sure to take my last two missiles with me, the announcement going off that we only had six minutes left.

Reaching an intersection, I saw several robots stuck to the ground by sticky purple balls, Mineta's work, while another group was buried under mushrooms, of all things. Turning, I found a tall guy running towards me, a dozen scorpions giving chase. "Dash!" I called, charging the missile in my right hand and hurling it into the group as he put on just enough extra speed to get out of the way.

"Hey, those were mine!" he called as he ran past me. Ignoring him, I ran forward, shocking the two that were trying to get back up. Turning to tell him too bad, I spotted another three pointer on a rooftop, launchers pointed towards me.

Charging the last missile, I tossed it as the three-pointer fired, my missile hitting one if its and detonating them all in a massive explosion that blew me off my feet. Rolling back up with a jump, the movement coming shockingly easily, the three pointer was nowhere to be seen, neither was the complainer, and I was off once again.

Dodging through groups, shocking where I could, I didn't see any more missiles but was making hopefully good progress, even as my legs started to feel heavy from constantly sprinting, my breathing getting heavier once more. Then, with a ground shaking boom, I stopped as part of the city exploded upwards and an enormous robot, towering over the surrounding buildings stood up.

The zero-pointer, I thought, getting an irrational urge to fight it, just to see if I could, adrenaline pumping through my veins. Shaking my head, I still ran for it, knowing the points to be had weren't from destroying it, but from saving people from it. A few bots got in my way, destroyed with an electric tap, my reserves still good, with over a third of what I could put out still in reserve, being miserly with it paying off in spades.

The giant robot slammed its fist and a strong gust of wind blew out from the impact, similar sounds echoing in the distance to my left and right, each training zone under attack by one of these things.

Following the screams, I turned a corner, only to have to dodge the stampede of fleeing students, Present Mic announcing that there were two minutes left. Scanning the area, breathing hard, I spotted the fallen form of a girl, who looked to be unconscious. Moving over to her, even as the Kaiju-sized robot started to move towards us, I picked her up, starting to carry her as I noticed it was the one who'd called me a pervert.

Shaking my head, I gave her a tiny shock and she twitched, eyes shooting open. She looked at me, scowled and started to say something likely nasty, then looked past me, eyes widening in fear. "Can you run?" I asked, feeling the strain of carrying her, not used to doing so. She nodded, and I twisted around, putting her down and pushing her down an alley. Stumbling, she took off, even as the zero-pointer continued to come closer.

However, as it started to close and I considered following her, it turned, moving straight through several buildings and setting off a new round of screams as those who thought themselves safe now found themselves under attack.

Taking off after it, the zero-pointer slammed the ground again, sending out another shockwave, dust and bits of masonry blasting at me in an enormous cloud. Tripping over a broken piece of robot, a long, thin bar, I grabbed it as I followed in the trail of devastation the giant machine left behind.

A sound like artillery firing went off in the distance, likely Midoriya pulling off his desperate attack, and I focused on the here and now. Coming up behind it, as it stopped, arm cocking back for another attack, I slid the rod into my belt and grabbed onto its treads, trying to climb up them like a giant ladder without much success, the treads just too large.

Using its body as a shield, the shockwave of the next ground-pound passed me by, with another cloud of dust and debris. The treads, however, started to move once again and carried me upwards. Nearing where the metal covered the top of the tread I jumped, barely catching myself on a handhold and pulling myself up the robot's metal base, arms burning with the effort.

Getting up to a spot I could stand on, I looked over, and down, at the top of a five-story building, and gulped, not realizing how high up I was, too focused on my task.

"Less than a minute remains!" shouted Present Mic, and I shook my head, ready to go.

Spotting a panel, I moved to it, pulling out the metal bar and shoving it through the space between it and the larger structure. I grit my teeth and pulled, the panel giving way as the robot pulled back for another blow, the 'ground' shifting under my feet, and I almost lost my balance. Arms windmilling, I threw myself forward with all my weight, burying the rod into the space the panel had covered, and into the exposed circuitry.

Electricity poured through it and into me, enough to seriously injure a normal person, but my Quirk handled it, giving me more and more to work with. Taking that energy into myself feeling my body strain to take it all, I reached deep, and prepared for a move that Denki Kaminari was well-practiced with. Knowing it'd fry my brain, but not really caring, I lit up with a brilliant light, grinning as I poured every last volt I had through my hands and directly into the robot's systems, screaming the only thing that seemed appropriate:

"UNLIMITED POWAAAAAAAH!"

The mecha twisted back and forth as I blew out its internals, both of us lighting up with blindingly bright yellow light. Finally twisting violently, my grip broke, sending me flying through the air. My thoughts started to slow as I realized just how fucking dumb that had been, hoping to god the teachers would step in before something they couldn't heal happened to me.

Watching, I laughed as the enormous robot fell as well, smoking just like the others had when I'd just managed to short out their systems. That'd been fucking close.

Feeling the air whip past my ears, I started to worry, though it was getting harder and harder, hoping I wouldn't hit the ground.

I did.

It was surprisingly soft.

Turning my head, I saw I'd hit some purple balls.

Heh.

Balls.

My arms ached, and my hands were raw and bleeding, palms raw from trying to hold the metal rod as I'd been yanked back and forth. I tried to worry about my injuries,but it didn't feel real.

My soft bed slowly dissolved around me,dropping me onto the asphalt. But it was okay.

Hearing someone run up to me, I turned, to see a pink face looking down at me in concern, as well as a little guy with balls for hair, bleeding slightly from the head.

Heh.

Balls.

"Are you okay?" Pinky asked, concerned, eyes wide in worry.

"Quirk too much. Brain go bye-bye. Good soon," I slurred, my thinkin' slow and plodding, like pudding, gettin' wors. . . worc. . . . gettin' badder. I smiled goofily, laughin'. "Pretty eyes."

I lolled my head over to the ball-guy, neck all loosey-goosey. "Thanks. Total hero. Great balls."

Heh.

Balls.