It was a real struggle deciding whether or not I should "write" the accent, so I let fate decide with a coinflip. I'm so sorry

It felt good to get back into the groove of his old routine. Even if he was meeting someone new today, the prospect of studying a new quirk up close was enough to push aside most of his social anxieties.

During the summer, Izuku got into the habit of getting off the bus one stop early and jogging the rest of the way. It felt weird to spend all day at a gym and not get much exercise done, and he already enjoyed jogging so it seemed like a good compromise.

"Ah, Izuku! You heading to Sugi Gym?"

Izuku turned to see one of the regular gym goers catching up to him. "Hey, Mr. Goda," Izuku greeted cheerfully. "Yeah, I've got a consultation today. What about you?"

"Of course!" The man flexed his arms, nearly tearing the tight white shirt that was already hanging on for dear life. "Hey, how about a race to get our blood going?"

It was framed as a question, but Izuku had interacted with the man enough to know that it was more of a warning that he was about to start a full-on sprint. So he just nodded and got into a ready position.

/ / / / / /

Izuku panted as he finally reached the gym entrance, his lungs burning like they were trying to betray him. He ran often for exercise, but he was more suited for endurance running and he had just learned the hard way that it didn't translate well to sprinting. It wasn't a long distance between where they started and here, but it was more than enough for the two of them to work up a sweat.

"That was great kid!" The man let out a thunderous laugh. "You should consider joining your school's track team."

"I'm already-gasp-in a club." Izuku managed to say between gulps of air.

"Oh? I'm surprised. Guess your finally escaping that shell of yours." He gave him a friendly pat on the back, almost knocking out what little breath Izuku had managed to catch. "So, what caught your interest? They have an "analyst" club or something?"

Izuku blushed, not knowing how the older man would react to his answer. "Actually, I joined the art club."

"That's great!" Izuku never realized how much this man yelled when he talked. He was kinda like Kacchan in that regard. "The world always needs artists. I love seeing the murals around the city as I run. Hey, maybe once you graduate Gekido will let you paint the side of the gym."

"I doubt that. I think he likes how grimy the place looks." Over time, Izuku had noticed that the gym had gotten busier since he started doing his consultations here. There were plenty of new faces, but more than a handful were former clients of his buying memberships of their own. He had even heard Gekido complain in his office over the possibility that he may have to hire more staff if business kept increasing.

Though the idea of Midnight leading a bunch of high schoolers to paint a mural out here did make Izuku smile. Maybe he should ask?

Izuku followed the man through the door, Goda already lost in his own head as he seemed to be planning his workout. The gym was as rugged as ever, the sounds of clanging metal and the scent of sweat in the air even though it was still early in the day. Walking in he was greeted by the sight of the owner, Gekido, and a couple of other regulars all searching for something in the lobby. Noticing him enter the building though, Gekido gave Izuku his full attention.

"Well, well, well. If it ain't the big shot coming back down to our side of the city. So, how's the great UA from the inside?" The older man tried to put up an angry front, but he couldn't stop the subtle twitch in the corner of his lips betraying his smile.

"It's pretty great, I can't lie." Izuku answered. "Though I think I underestimated how intense the courseload was going to be."

"I bet, was pretty sure you abandoned this place with how long it's been." Gekido continued to talk as he returned to his task, searching around his desk for something.

"Is something wrong?" The young teen asked.

"Ah, nothing important. Had a deck of cards for our poker match but it just disappeared."

"At this point I'm pretty sure you forgot and just don't want to admit it." One of the other men called out.

"Shut your yap, I had it right here." Gekido shot back, his search growing more frantic.

Izuku couldn't help but smile. Yeah, it was good to be back.

Izuku walked down the hall to the private room he would be using today. Gekido told him that the client he was seeing had actually arrived early and should be waiting for him in the hall. Getting closer to his assigned room, he noticed that the door was already open. 'That's odd.' Izuku thought to himself. These rooms only open when you have the keycard, and Gekido was pretty strict about keeping these doors shut when not in use. Not only that, he had never given a client a keycard, always giving it to Izuku directly.

Izuku just shrugged, the door was either broken or the last person here just didn't shut it all the way.

Entering the room he saw a boy about his age, maybe a year or two older, standing in the middle. He had unkempt brown hair, was wearing a pink t-shirt, even from this distance Izuku could tell he was in great shape, and his most striking feature was his eyes. The whites of his eyes were pitch black, like Mina's, and his irises were a deep red. He seemed to be relaxing as he waited for Izuku to show up, entertaining himself with some fancy card tricks. Izuku paused once again. Those cards couldn't be… no, it had to be a coincidence. Besides, Izuku wasn't going to accuse someone he just met, let alone someone who he would be spending several hours with, of stealing.

Noticing him standing in the doorway, the boy stopped messing with the cards and addressed him. "Hey, you Izuku, right?"

Izuku finally fully entered the room, closing the door behind himself. "Yea, sorry for keeping you waiting. It's Remy Lebeau, right? Am I pronouncing that right?"

"Jus' call me Remy." The boy came over and took his hand, shaking it with enthusiasm. "Glad I caught yo' attention on dat site o' yours in time, I'm shippin' out back to America in two weeks."

His accent was thick and obviously foreign, but Izuku managed to understand what he was saying. "I'm glad I caught you to." He said with a smile. "So, what is it you're hoping to gain from this? Any goals you want to work towards?"

Izuku had learned to ask this question fairly early on in doing consultations. At first he just assumed everyone wanted to be a hero, and to be fair a lot of his clients did, but just as many wanted to work towards other goals or just wanted a better understanding of their quirk.

"I wanna understand my powers more. Missed my chance to get inta a real hero school, but if I can get better at usin' 'em, dere's other paths I can take t' get my license."

"Well hopefully I can help with that. I like to start with a general physical check up to get some baselines, so why don't we get started?"

The two started to go through Izuku's standard list of exercises while he recorded the results in a notebook. Pushups and sit-ups, how much he could lift, testing his endurance with the treadmill, Remy seemed to be above average in just about every category. But what he excelled in was his flexibility. The way he moved through the stretched Izuku asked him to perform, it was as if his bones were made of rubber.

While Izuku was writing everything down, the brown-haired teen shouted, "Hey, if ya wanna see what I'm capable of, watch dis." He then proceeded to run towards the pull up bar and jumped upwards, grabbing the bar as his momentum carried him into a swing until he was completely upside down. He hung in that position for a few seconds before he let gravity push him back down, once again using his momentum to perform three more flips. At the climax of the final flip he launched himself into the air, performing several in air somersaults before landing on his feet. "How's dat for physical fitness, eh?" Remy asked, not even slightly out of breath.

Izuku just stood there with his jaw open, not at all ready for such a display. "I, uh, think that's enough for a baseline." Izuku lead them to a spot where they could each sit down on a machine. "So, in your own words could you describe your quirk to me? I've read over what you sent but it was pretty vague."

"Quirk?" He lifted an eyebrow. "Oh, you mean my power. Well, t' be honest wit' ya, I don't really understand it myself. De docs all say it's some sorta energy manipulation, but all I ever done is make things explode."

"They didn't say what kind of energy?"

"Family ain't exactly swimmin' in cash, mon ami. We got de bare minimum testin' done t' get me registered."

"Hmm, explosions aren't an unusual application of energy manipulation. Though it could be caused by a multitude of factors. Is it effected by what you use your quirk on? Is there a weight or material requirement? Do you have to physically touch something for your quirk to take effect? Is there a visual effect when your quirk is taking place? Are you immune to your own quirk? Muttermuttermuttermuttermutter…"

Remy just stood in shock at the barrage of questions he was receiving, answering as best he could when Izuku stopped to take a breath. "Kinda, no, yes, purple light, I seem t' be explosion resistant, but dey still hurt… Didn't catch de rest o' dat."

"Sorry," Izuku apologized with a sheepish smile, "I get over excited sometimes." He opened up his notebook and started going through all the possibilities of what this quirk could be. There were so many different energy manipulation quirks and most of them could create explosions so there wasn't a lot to narrow down what to look for. "It would be easier to work out if I saw an explosion in person." He said out loud, talking to himself more than anything.

Remy, not understanding that wasn't a request, just shrugged and took a single playing card out of his pocket, lazily tossing it upwards to the center of the room.

BOOOOM

Izuku was knocked back into the ground by the unexpected force. Slowly getting up, ears ringing, he managed to get back on his feet right as the door swung open to reveal a wide eyed Gekido. "What the hell happened?"

Izuku started waving his hands in a panic. "It was completely my fault sir! I started talking without thinking, said something I shouldn't have, I swear it won't happen again!"

Remy calmly stepped in front of him. "Don't listen t' him, it was me. Shoulda known better than to throw a hand grenade in de middle of a room. Dat's completely my fault."

The bald man looked around the room, seeing that nothing was visibly damaged and just knocked around by the force. That and seeing that the two kids were uninjured let his heartbeat settle back down to normal. Taking a steadying breath he spoke to Izuku. "Kid, you know damn well we have a room designed for explosion quirks, just grab the key from the desk and get in there before you two destroy my gym!"

The bomb room at Sugi Gym wasn't used often: even Izuku had only been inside twice before. It was larger than the other private training rooms but contained only half the equipment. One side of the room was reinforced with a specialized metal designed to contain shockwaves, its dull sheen absorbing the overhead lights. A sturdy, chest-high wall separated this blast-resistant section from the rest of the space, giving the entire setup the look of a shooting range, except without any targets.

Remy let out an appreciative whistle, apricating the slight echo the room created as they walked. "So I can use m' powers in here, an' it won't mess nothin' up?"

"That's the plan." Izuku took a few steps back, just in case. "Just step up to the that wall and toss something to the other side."

Remy did as he was told, taking out another playing card from his pocket and giving it a proper toss, timing it just right so that it exploded when it reached the center of the metal chamber.

"Hmm, I didn't hear anything before it exploded, so it's not frequency based. It definitely exploded and didn't implode, hard to tell without a slow-motion camera but it seemed to be evenly spread across the card. Could it be chemical? But if he can make anything explode it would need to be a chemical, or a set of chemicals shared by everything. Muttermuttermuttermutter…"

"Thought you said you was an amateur?"

"I have a lot of experience with explosions." Izuku said dismissively. "Did a lot of research on different ways to cause them and how effective they could be in various situations."

"I won't lie, dey can be helpful. But I sure would like t' do more than jus' dat. Not exactly de best power for stealth, eh?"

Izuku thought hard about what they could be dealing with, going through a mental list of all heroes with energy-based powers and trying to weed out the ones that didn't seem to match what he had seen. Suddenly, he got an idea. "Can you throw one more card for me?"

"Sure thing."

Izuku watched closely at the card being charged in Remy's hand, and how quickly it released when he tossed it to be detonated. "I have an idea!" Izuku quickly ran out of the room to the general lobby, being careful not to bother the other patrons during their workout routine. He went to an unused bench and grabbed the weight bar and a five-pound disk before returning to the bomb room.

"Ok, take this bar and charge it, and then hit this weight into the chamber."

Remy looked at him as if he was crazy. "Ya know bigger objects go bigger boom, right?"

"I assumed." Izuku paused. "Oh, sorry, I get what you're saying now. Throw the bar after just in case I'm wrong and take cover."

The foreign teen just let out a sigh of defeat, taking the bar and weight from Izuku. He propped up the disk so that it would be easier to hit, taking a few practice swings with the bar before finally giving it a charge. Bar glowing purple, he took a swing at the disk before letting go of the bar and letting it fly as he hit the deck and covered his head, waiting for the inevitable. But it never came. No loud bang, no shockwave from something that large, the only noises he heard were the sounds of the bar hitting the floor and a strange metallic thud across the room.

"I think I was right." Izuku said, a proud smile on his face. "You have power over kinetic energy."

Remy stood up and looked over to see that the disk he had swiped at was all the way on the other side of the chamber, much further than it should have been with how weak and awkwardly he had hit it. "Remy don' get it."

"I believe that when you use your quirk, you are converting an objects potential energy into kinetic energy. Until now you haven't been focusing that new energy though, not giving it a purpose. So when the energy had nowhere to go it had to release in the form of an explosion. But if I'm right, you can perform a wide range of unique abilities."

Remy looked over to the weight at the other side of the room. "Huh. People always tell me I'm full o' potential. Didn't know dey meant it literally."

Izuku however was in another mutter storm, now having a clearer image of what he was working with his mind was going into overdrive. "The potential of such a quirk is insane. Depending on the amount of control, theoretical uses could be nearly unlimited. Charging self for better physical feats, speeding up or even slowing down objects, redirecting momentum, with enough finetuned control there's even the potential to make forcefields."

/ / / / / /

Remy sat on the floor as he watched Izuku gather materials and go over his checklist for what must have been the fifth time now. "I still don't get how you figured out it was kinetic energy."

Izuku perked up. "It was the playing card. When you tossed it, it moved way too fast and precisely for the way you threw it. If I made that wrist movement, the card wouldn't have gone more than two feet. But since it was charged with kinetic energy, it just sliced through the air with no resistance."

"So, where you learn all dis?"

"Oh, I guess I'm technically still learning at UA. I signed up for a class called Quirk Theory and Application and it's been helping a lot. But I've also been doing these consultations for about a year now and I've learned a lot about how different quirks work by studying them up close."

"Must really love dis gig. Don't think I ever committed dat hard t' somethin' in my life." Remy admitted. "Why you do dis?"

Izuku had been asked that question numerous times by now, but still the answer never seemed to get any less important. "I used to want to be a hero. I guess a small part of me still does. But doing this, helping others reach their potential and putting them on the path to their goals, it just feels right. I really feel like I'm supposed to be doing this. I don't know if I'll keep working with younger people when I start working professionally, or if I'll start working cases with the police, but I know that this is the field I'm supposed to be in."

The two sat in silence a little longer, Izuku still prepping his notes while Remy sipped on a water bottle. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you want to be a hero?"

The brown-haired boy looked away, for a second Izuku swore he saw shame across his face. "Let's jus' say I done things I ain't proud of. Would like to even de scales."

Izuku was now beyond curious, but he knew better than to pry into someone's personal life too hard.

/ / / / / /

Izuku returned to the bomb room carrying some supplies he had gathered from the storage closet. The owner had long since given him a key, getting annoyed every time Izuku had to search him out to get something new. "Alright first test. I'm surprised they even have these here."

Izuku handed Remy a thin pane of glass. "What'm I supposed t' do wit' dis?"

"This will allow us a more visual way to perceive how much control you have over your quirk." He explained. "Go ahead and give it a light charge. And don't throw it!" He added quickly.

Remy was still confused but he had yet to be steered wrong. He took the glass in both hands and focused, trying to send as little charge as he could, something he had never done before. Before long the glass started to melt in his hands, dripping onto the floor and yet it was still solid. "What happened?"

"Glass isn't a solid. Technically. It's kind of a middle ground between solid and liquid, it just moves so slow we perceive it as solid. By giving it a charge your essentially sped up its time and allowed it to flow. Now you can use this method to train your control, finetuning how much charge you give an object."

Remy took another sheet of glass and tried again, this time purposefully putting in more charge than before, watching the glass melt twice as fast. "Wait… is dat why de windows in old buildin's look de way dey do?"

Izuku was caught off guard by the sudden question. "Huh? Oh, yeah."

"I always thought dat was a stylistic choice." Remmy muttered.

/ / / / / /

"I really don't get dis one." Remy called as Izuku continued to throw tennis balls at him. The two were standing on opposite sides of the room, Remy with his hands stretched outwards in front of him as Izuku tried to throw tennis balls at his palms. Emphasis on tried. The green-haired teen had zero hand eye coordination. "How we s'posed to tell if dis is workin'? Wouldn't dey bounce off anyway?"

Izuku threw another ball, managing to get his right palm and watched it bounce back across the room. "They do, but when you time it right you change their momentum in such a way they fly further and faster than normal. This is just a proof of concept, you'll need to find a way train this more consistently if you want it to be a useable skill."

Izuku threw one more ball, hitting Remy's palm only for the tennis ball to fly at highspeed directly back at his face.

/ / / / / /

"Alright, this one might take a few tries." Izuku set up a board as carefully as he could. He had to make to stacks of weights to hold it properly, but it was better to do this than risk holding it himself. "You know those videos of people karate chopping boards and cement blocks, right? Well, you're going to do something similar. Try to charge a card but instead of throwing it, try to slice the board in half with it." He quickly stepped back as Remy took another card out of his pocket. "They idea is to see if a charged object increases in strength and durability. And if it doesn't, all this should do is transfer the momentum to the board. So theoretically, there shouldn't be an explosion."

"You seem t' say theoretically whenever somethin' sound like a bad idea." Remy called out as he got ready. He took a deep breath and charged his card, wasting no time swinging his arm down. To his surprise he felt no resistance as the card sliced through the board like butter. He held up the card to inspect it, seeing that it wasn't damaged in the slightest. "Might have t' start carryin' a deck wit' me everywhere I go. Dese more useful than I thought."

/ / / / / /

Izuku watched as Remy attempted to use his playing cards like shuriken, trying to find the right amount of charge to give them the durability and sharpness to penetrate the wood while not enough charge to explode. Results were… varied.

BOOM

"Too much," The boy could be heard muttering as he started setting up another board to practice with.

Izuku couldn't help but laugh a little at the display. It wasn't too different from a child playing with a new toy they had been given. "I guess this is something else you'll have to practice yourself when you get home. Sorry I couldn't help more, there's only so many tests we can try in this gym."

"Help out more? Mon ami, I don't think you understand how much you done for me today."

Izuku blushed, still not used to people praising him even after all this time. "Well regardless, the only other test I can think of is to see if you can also charge organic matter. Theoretically, if you are able to charge yourself you could enhance your physical feats to near super human levels." Izuku quickly added, "But don't try that by yourself! That kind of test should be done with medical supervision in case something goes wrong."

"Don't worry, I don't plan on blowin' m'self up anytime soon."

Just then Izuku's phone went off, and alarm alerting them that their time was over. "Wow, have we been here four hours already?"

"Time flies when you workin', I guess." The foreign teen said as he took out his wallet. "I got your payment right here, mon ami," Remy said with a lazy grin, flipping it open with a practiced flick of his fingers.

Izuku blinked. "Wait, is that…" The wallet was unmistakable. Deep blue sturdy denim, with a discreet silver logo stamped in the corner, Best Jeanist's signature branding. The edges were trimmed with a gold colored and intricate stitch pattern. "Wow, how did you get that? That line isn't even out yet. I only got one early from my Aunt Mitsuki because she works in the fashion industry."

Remy caught the look on his face and smirked. "Funny story. Found it lyin' in the street earlier. I guess someone out there oughta be less careless wit' their belongings, eh?"

He tossed the wallet lightly to Izuku, who fumbled a bit but caught it. "Wait," He noticed that the wallet looked a little too familiar. Digging in his pockets he realized, "This is mine!"

"Yeah, figured." Remy reached into his back pocket and pulled out a thick roll of bills, held together with a rubber band that had seen better days. He peeled a few notes off the top—more than Izuku would have charged, honestly—and handed them over.

"Fair's fair," Remy said with a wink. "Good advice costs good money."

Izuku stared at the cash in his hand, still confused but too polite to argue. "Uh… thanks?"

With a casual wave, Remy strolled out of the room, singing to himself, "~Is she is or is she ain't my baby~"

Izuku watched the door swing shut behind him, still holding the wallet in one hand and the money in the other. It took a full ten seconds for the pieces to click into place.

He looked down at the bills again, then slowly opened the wallet. Empty.

His eye twitched.

"…He paid me with my own money."

Authors notes;

Don't worry, I'm not turning this into a massive crossover fic, I just thought it would be fun to have Izuku study some of our heroes instead of trying to create a new oc for every consultation. Let me know if yall like this change or not.

I've started using / / / / / / to indicate minor time skips. Thought it made the format cleaner than adding a bunch of "10 minutes later"s

So, something about myself. I am a HUGE x-men fan. COUGHmagnetowasrightCOUGH Cyclops is my favorite hero, with Rogue and Gambit tied for a close second.

Long live Krakoa!

Everything mentioned above is something I have seen in a panel or read a comic of Gambit doing with his powers. (or read on the wiki, im not perfect) Theres a reason an alt version of him is a literal god!

Sometimes I have weird dreams, so after rewatching a few eps of mha and xmen97, I somehow dreamt up the absolute crack pairing of Nightcrawler x Midnight. Not even crack at that point. That's a meth pairing

I know izuku figuring out it was kinetic so fast is kinda bullshit, but I needed the meeting to get a move on.

The title was between full of potential and ragin cajun, I think I made the right choice.

As always, please leave a comment. They tell me what I did right, what I did wrong, and I just enjoy getting them.