Chapter 3: First Impressions
"Yaaaaaaaaawnnnnnnn!" Ben exclaimed as the plane finally landed on Japanese soil. Honestly, he did want to go back to Bellwood for holidays and whatnot but he really wasn't looking forward to doing that 14 hour flight one more time.
"So… Where do we need to go again?.." Ben was exhausted to his limit and could barely remember the procedure his mother told him about after arriving.
"Uh… We need to… Wait, I think I had noted this down somewhere."
From the looks of it, the person in question wasn't fairing much better. His parents' jobs mostly had them stuck in Bellwood and travelling abroad wasn't a go to option for them to spend their downtime . He couldn't even remember the last time they went out of the country for a vacation.
Through sheer willpower and Ben's mother's notes, they managed to get out of the airport with their bags at hand. However, this was only the beginning of their problems.
"How is there not an english translation available in a train station?" Ben's mother says as she tries to understand the map.
While she's busy with that, Ben puts his hand on the writing and moves his finger along as he reads it. "We're going to Mustafu, right? Then we need to take… this train." as he points to a certain track.
Or at least it would have been the beginning of their problems if it weren't for some late night studying sessions.
Ben's mother is impressed. Seems like Gwen really worked her magic on his boy during those 8 months.
They arrive at the hotel room they booked and before they can even unpack, they collapse onto their respective beds.
"Ugh..." Ben groans as he lifts his head from the bed and tries to open his eyes as the sunlight overwhelms him. Was the sun always this bright?
He reaches out to his phone to check the time. 12 o'clock right on the dot, ah. So the hotel's lunch had to become his breakfast. Not that he minded too much anyway.
He gets up from the bed and after washing his face and having a change of clothes, Ben immediately makes his way to the hotel's restaurant. Apparently his mother was already here, currently struggling with the menu.
"Hey!" his mother signals him by waving her hand and Ben does notice her. He then takes a seat right across her.
"You sure took your sweet time."
"Yeah, but how did you wake up so early?"
Ben's mother shrugs. "Eh, work hours. Not all of us had the vacation you had kiddo."
"I wouldn't call it a vacation…" Ben adds sensibly.
"You didn't go to school now, did you?" Ben's mother remarks as Ben opens up his menu.
He lifts up his hand and calls for a waiter. As he arrives, Ben points to the dish and orders in Japanese. The waiter does ask for a repeat once or twice, but in the end, Ben seemingly gets his message across. And as the waiter walks away, Ben turns to his mother and says: "I don't think a vacation can do that."
"Ha! Maybe so." Ben's mother says with a smile. It was always nice for her to see Ben applying what he learned. However she didn't have the same luxury as Ben as she continued to struggle with the menu. There were English translations this time but she had barely any idea what the foods were, they were all Japanese cuisine.
"Maybe you should have studied with us. After all, aren't you going to go and see some houses today?" Ben asks concernedly. "How will you communicate with the seller?"
Ben's mother tries to think up an argument but she can't. She admits defeat and says: "Yeah, I might need your help with that but look on the bright side, we'll get to see the city before your school actually begins."
As soon as he hears of it, Ben's upbeat attitude slightly drops. It was just still so surreal to be in Japan, and to think that the school would begin… putting the Omnitrix to use once again for the public.
His gaze then falls on the said device. He then replies to his mother: "Yeah, it's going to start in a week, right?". At least he would see some other students, also aspiring to be heroes like him…
"Yep. Oh!" Ben's mother springs up like she had an idea. "What if we went to see your school this afternoon? We could sort of… get used to it beforehand, right?"
Ben's heart sinks but he does his best to not give it away. "I guess we could…" he says. "It would... beat staying in the hotel room all day."
And just then, Ben's salmon sashimi arrives at his table. As he's about to demonstrate the chopstick skills he acquired from Gwen, his mother interrupts him.
With an embarrassed manner, she asks "Umm… Can you order my food as well?"
With his enthusiasm picking back up, he says "Sure, what are you looking for?" as he grabs the menu from his mother's hands, setting it down on the table. Swiping the pages with one hand and eating the rice with the other Ben thinks: "I wonder if I can find an American restaurant here like I find an Japanese restaurant back home."
Inside the rental car they got, they go from house to house and as they drive by the streets, Ben thinks that maybe he would have been better off wishing for something else…
"KFC… Dominos… Oh look, McDonalds..." Ben says as he gazes outside the window.
Ben's mother briefly throws a gaze at him. "Don't even think about it Ben. I'm not letting you eat all that junk food while you have Hero courses. Remember, a healthy body is a..."
"...healthy mind." Ben says as he pouts. He was expecting more, you know… something else.
"Wait a minute, is that?.." Ben gasps.
"What is —?Oh no…"Ben's mother says as she also stops the car.
With big bold yellow Japanese letters on a blue backdrop in their view, Ben and his mother draw their attention to the English translation just below it and it spells out: "Burger Shack"
"Alright!" Ben thinks as he is about to celebrate the existence of his favourite chilli fries in the same city as him. However, he then notices the disheartened expression of his mom. If there was one fast food that his mother had a hard time limiting him on, it was chilli fries.
"You don't need to worry mom, I won't go there much." Ben says and then adds: "After all, no type of fries can beat your home cooking."
This line makes her smile. "Aw shucks…"
She then starts the car back up and gets on the road again. She then takes a quick glance at Ben though. Almost half the day was gone and unless they were on the road to the next house, Ben had to stick close and be the translator between his mom and the estate agent…
She was sure that he was tired. "I guess one pitstop couldn't hurt…" she thinks and starts entering another destination to the GPS.
"Destination: U.A. High."
Ben's ears perk up. "Wait...Where are we going?".
"To your school." Ben's mother says. "I'm sure you are sick of playing translator for me so we might as well do something you're interested in. There is only like… 1 or 2 houses remaining on the list so..."
"Yeah but…" Ben struggles to finish his sentence. "Let's just finish them first…" Ben finishes. "It's not like the school is going anywhere."
"Oh, are you sure?" she asks concernedly. Something was definitely up.
"Pretty sure." He swiftly replies, leaving little room for argument.
"Okay then, next stop is…" she says as she checks the navigation. "Somewhat close to the hotel. It is also in Mustafu."
"Great.". Ben says, trying his best to fake some enthusiasm.
"Can you ask the size of the living room, sweetie?" his mother asks.
"Sure mom…"
They had arrived at the final apartment and Ben was slowly getting burnt-out by all this travelling around. The sun was about to set and the sleep that he had gotten from the night before wasn't exactly doing him any favors.
He was yawning and stretching, just waiting to get back to his hotel room. The worst part was that he could see his mother not being satisfied at the end of each trip.
"Hey, sweetie..." His mother says as he taps his shoulder. "I just asked if they knew English and they said they did."
"When did she ask that?" He wonders. No matter…
"If you want, you can go and grab yourself some coffee." As she hands over some money to him.
"Huh…" he says internally. This was what he wanted, to get away from asking different people the same questions over and over again. But now…
"Oh! No no, I can continue." Ben says as he straightens up. "You don't need to worry."
"Sweetie. You are literally on the brink of sleeping."
Worst part was that she was right.
His mother ruffles Ben's hair and says: "You worked enough, now rest up and leave the REST to me." She says as she can't hold herself back from snickering.
Even the estate agent had his head in his hand. At least he now knew that he really understood English.
He fake laughs and…
"Alright, I'll go, stop…" Ben says as he tries to stop her and fixes his hair.
He then takes the money and goes out the door.
"Now, where were we?" Ben's mother asks the estate agent.
Thank Ishiyama, he was out of there. He didn't know if his mind could take another pun like that.
"Now let's see…" Ben mutters as he looks around for a store or…
"What are the chances that I can also find a Mr. Smoothy's around here?"
Turns out, not very high since everyone he asked around did not know what a Mr. Smoothy was. "So uncivilized…" he thinks as he shakes his head.
Well, coffee had to do then. He walks over to a grocery store, buys a bottle of ice-cold coffee and starts wandering in the streets. "Might as well explore the city of UA."
He takes a big sip from the bottle. "Yeesh!.." Maybe I should have gotten a diet cola after all.
As he walked around, he took in the experience of a Japanese city. It was honestly less crowded than the videos would lead him to believe. He thought that with this being the school of All Might, the area around it would be more populated. Guess not…
Everything seemed pretty familiar to him, except for a couple of things. Like the comparatively smaller buildings, the more frequent billboards, the sports car that was speeding right towards him… Wait what?!
"Hey!" He says as he dodges right. "Student drivers!"
However, as the car continues along by crashing left and right, Ben quickly realizes what's going on.
"That's no joy ride…" He says as he tosses the coffee to a nearby trash can and dashes to an alleyway. He pushes on the rims again but first, he takes a second.
This was not the USA, the regulations for heroes and quirks were far more up to date, detailed and consequential...
The sky had gotten darker and the sparkling moon was slowly but steadily rising to the big black sky. "It IS risky…" he thinks. Ben then looks back at the street he came from. "But it is riskier not to."
He then makes his selection and slams the dial.
Starting from his hand with the Omnitrix, a grey fur envelops his whole body and his fingers and toes turn into razor-sharp claws. Some parts of his elbows and shoulders get spiked up and his usual brown hair along with the area around his head turns into a dark-grey mane. A large bushy tail grows out from his rear end and finally with his mouth becoming akin to a dog's and with his irises becoming completely glowing green, his transformation is complete.
"Benwo — I mean… Blitzwolfer!"
He quickly jumps between walls, and as soon as he gets on top, he smells the air and perks up his ears. "Burning engine, crashing sounds… It's coming from… Right ahead!"
He gets on all fours and starts running on rooftops, jumping from building to building all in an effort to get to that car."If it's still going along the streets, then there's sure to be some bystanders and I can't risk being seen…"
He sighs in frustration: "Maybe I should have picked my flier after all. Anyway…"
He gets a visual lock on the car and his jaw then opens up in four directions, and just like his eyes, starts to emit a green glow. "I'm going to have to time this right if I don't want to hurt the passengers…"
"SLOW DOWN!" The man in the passenger seat cries out.
"I told you I can't! THE BREAKS DON'T WORK! AHHHHHHH!" as the driver makes a break left, dodging a car in front of him.
"Stop screaming!" The passenger shouts, however the driver does not cooperate.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
As the passenger gets ready to shout to his friend once again, he looks out of the windshield and realizes where they were about to crash … into a gas station!.
"HEEEEEEEEEEELP!"
"SOMEONE HELP US!"
Blitzwolfer's keen senses pick up on the screams. "Don't worry! I'm on my—"
Just when he was about to leap into action, two heroes from across the street act first.
"Backdraft, put out the engine!" One of them shouts as he gets ready to slow the car down.
"You got it!" replies a firefighter with hoses as his hands as he sprays the front of the car with water.
The other then grabs and stops the vehicle completely, preventing it from hitting the station.
The driver immediately gets out and grabs one of his hands. "Thank you so much Death Arms!"
And the passenger immediately follows suit. "Yeah, you saved our lives!"
"It is all in a day's work." Death Arms replies. "Plus I wasn't alone…" as he gestures to Backdraft.
With one hose behind his neck, Backdraft says: "Don't look at me, I just sprayed some water over your engine."
"Fair enough." Death Arms replies and… "Now if you'll excuse us, we have to go back on our patrol."
"Of course, thank you very much once again." The passengers then leave the car behind and start moving to the streets.
The two heroes then wave back and go back to their patrol as well. All the while, a certain lone wolf watches this unfold…
"Oh…" He thinks as he closes back his mouth. "They are okay…"
Blitzwolfer then takes a look around from the high vantage point. "Guess I'll…go back."
He starts hopping between buildings again and all the while, he feels… dissatisfied.
"I'm glad that they are safe…" he thinks. "And, on top of that, I didn't have to expose myself…"
He looks at his hands, or more accurately, his claws.
"But then why can't I shake this feeling?"
He had an itch in his claws. He should have jumped, stopped the car with his howl and gotten away without being caught at anyone's cameras.
He had taken a risk and it shouldn't have turned out so…so... meaningless.
Blitzwolfer sighs… Perhaps there was someone else that could use the help. Someone else... that could use the help of alien heroes once more...
The more he thought about it the more he got into it.. Maybe it was the feral DNA or the nostalgia getting to him but… alongside it all, he was feeling kinda excited. You know, the good old days, where… the world wasn't at stake and… he still had…
He shakes his head. "Focus, you're on a time limit here."
"The hunt…" he says as his eyes glow green in the pitch black darkness at night. "is on!"
He stops dead in his tracks and looks down to the streets. A store robbery, a car chase, hell even the good old stealing of a purse would do to justify his transformation.
However, the streets seemed safe, everyone was just going on with their lives. So, he turned his eyes elsewhere and saw… the beach.
"Huff… puff…"pants a greenette as he grabs and tries to lift-up an old TV while burrowing into the sand. "C'mon Midoriya…Just a bit more…"
He had messy green hair, freckles and… just a plain-looking appearance complemented with a blue jumpsuit and red boots.
"There is only a week left… I must do more…" he thinks as he goes up the stairs and tosses it onto the pile outside. "
He swiftly runs back down the stairs, grabs a pair of old tires and puts them around his arms. He then starts walking back to the pile, but he shortly turns around. Biting his lip, he additionally grabs a thrown-away weight. "If I am to get into U.A… If I am to become a he—"
"You want some help with that?" someone asks with a feral and ferocious tone.
"AHHHHHHH!" Midoriya screams.
"Wait, stop! I'm sorry!" says the same voice, begging him to calm down.
Midoriya then turns around and sees the giant werewolf standing right before him.
"I saw you struggling with cleaning the beach." He says as he gestures to the beach with his hand. "Just thought maybe I could help out."
"O-oh, sorry, umm…" Midoriya says as he struggles to put a sentence together. From the appearance, this person must be a pro-hero.
"No sir, I'm fine like this Mr.…" Midoriya can say before realizing one important detail about this hero: He didn't know him at all! Not even his name!
"Uh…B-Blitzwolfer." the lone wolf replies while having a struggle of his own.
When it came to his old hero work, he never had to talk like this before. Some one-liners and gestures were usually enough for the people whom he was helping. He never held a conversation this… awkward.
In the meantime though, Midoriya was having his own episode about the situation. For the first time in a long time, he had no idea who this person was. Unless…
"Are you a new pro hero in the area, Blitzwolfer?" Midoriya asks curiously.
"Well…" And this question was even harder to answer, considering the circumstance. But thankfully, he wouldn't have to.
The Omnitrix dial on his chest starts to blink and a flash of green suddenly engulfs the area.
Midoriya shields his eyes and when it subsides, he gets to see another teenager.
"Not exactly a pro-hero…" Ben finishes his sentence from before.
Midoriya's expression goes blank for a second before everything clicks into place.
"That's… so awesome!" Midoriya says, with a spark in his eyes. "Was that your quirk?!"
"Yeah, it was…" Ben says as he looks at his human body again. With one hand behind his neck, he says: "Guess that 'helping you' plan is out of the window now, isn't it?"
Before Midoriya can answer though…
"Speaking on that, why DIDN'T you want my help?" He gestures to the trash and… "It all seems too much for one person to do."
"Yeah, it probably is…" Midoriya says as he looks at the edges. The stranger was probably right. After all, he had cleared more than All Might wanted him to. "But, it's important for me… I must become stronger."
"Oh?" Ben grunts, as he notices the conviction in the greenette's voice. "And why is that?"
"I-I, umm…" He doesn't know how to quite say this. People HAVE made fun of him for it before…
But that doesn't mean he can just hide it forever.
"I'm... going to take the entrance exam for U.A. in a week!" He answers, trying to channel all the bravery he had.
He then looks up at Ben, to gauge his reaction.
"Same here." Ben says with an optimistic smile. He lends his hand forward and…
"Tennyson Ben. What's your name?"
Midoriya is surprised. Honestly, he wasn't expecting another examinee to drop down from the sky tonight…
He then shakes his hand and introduces himself: "M-Midoriya Izuku. Nice to meet you, Tennyson." In his head, he considers the name once again, 'Tennyson?'
"By any chance, are you a foreigner Tennyson?"
Ben was expecting this, after all his name and accent weren't exactly the most subtle when it came to the Japanese norm. "Yeah, I arrived yesterday from America."
"Oh really, from which part?" Midoriya asks with his curiosity piqued.
"Just a small town called Bellwood. You probably haven't heard of it."
Ben was right, the greenette hadn't heard of it but for the sake of continuing the conversation... "Why did you come to Japan then, Tennyson? I thought that America also had really prestigious hero schools."
"Well, U.A. is the best school when it comes to heroics and I don't remember America having any high schools that All Might went to. I kinda…" he starts as he holds his arm with the Omnitrix. "…admire him."
Midoriya knows the feeling. He adopts a hopeful smile and says: "Y-Yeah, me too."
As Midoriya then crouches on the ground to pick up the tires from before, Ben has a weird feeling. Almost like he had to meet up with someone…
"Oh shi—" Ben says as he hits his head. "Midoriya, it was real nice to meet you, but I have to go help my mom with one last house. I guess I'll see you at the exams."
Midoriya raises his eyebrow. "One last house?"
"Well, since we arrived from America, we have to look for a place to stay."
"Oh." Midoriya says. "O-Our apartment has a place for sale..."
"Really?".
"Y-Yeah…" Midoriya says. "Mrs. Watanabe moved out last year and it has been empty ever since... It's close to here if you want to check it out."
"We'll think about it. Thanks for the suggestion!" Ben says as he runs for the stairs and makes his way back to his mother.
After running like hell for what felt like forever, he managed to get back to the car. And just in front of it, stood his mother with a particularly irritated gaze. One that could easily burn a hole on his forehead if he continued to stay still for any longer.
He walks to the car and his mom immediately says: "This might be a new record Benjamin…"
Yep, he was sure in trouble if his mother was calling him by his full name.
"I'm really sorry mom…" he says as he opens the door of the car but…
"Where were you this whole time? I was sure that you would be back in 5 minutes, especially while not having a Mr. Smoothy around!"
"Ah, so there really was no Mr. Smoothy here in Japan…" Ben thinks as he gets inside.
After his mother gets inside too and as they close the doors…"I was coming back but I met someone who was also attending the exam next week."
He had gotten his mother's attention. "A friend?"
She then asks with a smirk: "Oh, were they a girl?"
"No, mom!" Ben yells in an embarrassed manner which is met by laughter on his mother's side.
"Okay okay, what was his name?" his mom asks.
"Izuku Midoriya."
"Well, what is he like?" She asks impatiently.
"Let's see, he was a fan of All Might, he seemed hardworking, nice and umm…"
He twiddles his thumbs but nothing else comes to his mind. "That's about it. We didn't talk too much anyway. I guess he was also stuttering a lot."
"That's nice." She says. "Sounds like a good friend…"
"Guess so…" Ben says as he starts looking out the car's window, specifically... at the rooftops.
"Am I really going to ignore that?" he asks himself. "SHOULD I really ignore that?"
He had the most powerful device in the universe, strapped to his wrist, but he was sidelined by two common heroes?
And on top of that, he spent the rest of his time basically doing nothing… Was this really how it was going to be for the next 3 years? Him just taking the crash course again while others deal with the REAL problems?
That's just…no… He can't stand by and—
"So this friend of yours… I forgot to ask but what did you talk about?"
"Huh…" Ben replies, snapping out of his thoughts. "Oh, you mean with Midoriya and yeah…" he rambles briefly.
Guess that makes sense, without him talking, his mother must have been feeling pretty alone in that silence.
"Nothing much." Ben replies. "I told him I came from America and we talked about U.A. a bit…Oh, and also he mentioned something about an empty apartment space in his building."
"What did you say?" His mom swiftly asks.
Ben could feel that she had something brewing inside her mind, but didn't think much of it.
"I said maybe we could check it out."
"Did you get the address?"
"No, but he said it was close by to the beach. We could come and look, it shouldn't take too long."
Little did he know, his relaxed attitude would have its consequences...
...consequences that would favor him.
Tomorrow, with his son in tow, Ben's mother would search and actually find the apartment Midoriya told them about. It was a nice 45 m2 apartment with a kitchen, two bedrooms and one bathroom, originally designed for 3 people.
The cost was a bit less than ideal since it was fully furnished but they could make do with it. Especially since Ben's time here wasn't permanent.
As they looked around and Ben played translator for his mother and the real estate agent, the young hero quickly realized that his mother had her guard down way too much compared to her usual attitude.
"What's going on, mom? You seem… uncharacteristically carefree."
"It's just… I think we found the one."
"Huh?.." Ben replies. This was his mother talking… The one that tended to drag him through all the clothing stores in a mall just to buy him a pair of jeans…How could she decide on their home for the next 3 years so easily?
"Uh… alright. I should have said: 'extremely carefree'." Ben quips to himself. He then asks out loud: "But why this one?"
His mother just sends him a glare and Ben's eyes widen as he realizes the mistake he just made. He had just broken the golden rule of shopping with your mom: 'If you want something to get bought, you don't question anything.'
"I-I mean I'm not complaining or anything but I want to know how you decided so quickly." Ben rambles.
"Oh come on sweetie. It's close to your school, it is… a bit more spacious than the other houses we went to and the best part is that you'll have a friend as a neighbour."
"Ah, so that's what this is all about..." Ben thinks.
"Back home, I know you didn't really have the best of luck with friends. Especially with what happened between you and J.T..."
"Yeah, I get what you mean. We didn't talk a lot but I can tell. Midoriya is nothing like J.T."
"Exactly and I just… don't want you to have a repeat, okay? Besides sounds like he could use some friends too."
"Yeah." Ben replies. It was always nice to see his mother care about and help others like that even without having a quirk. With a smile on his face, he says: "Thanks mom."
With a similar smile: "As long as you make the money that's going to go for this place and your school worth it..."
He chuckles and replies. "I'll give it my best."
"Great." she says and tells Ben to talk to the real estate agent. Yeah, they were going to buy.
At the end, he didn't want to quite show it, but he was nothing short of overjoyed that the house hunting finally came to an end. With the estate agent leaving to follow the standard procedure, Ben takes this time to open up the window and look at the view.
Granted it was just the usual street view, his gaze was stuck on something else. Something that was much further off into the distance...
His right hand slowly makes its way to the Omnitrix, not to transform but to hold it one more time. "We really are finally here, aren't we..."
He takes a deep breath and tries to calm his nerves. This was what he had trained for, for 8 months and he had gotten a lot better with the omnitrix but…
...that didn't mean the weight decreased in the slightest bit from his wrist.
"Only 1 week to go..." he thinks. One week that would blitz on by...
"Before the start of... my hero academia. "
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet…
A light brown humanoid figure with black hands and feet runs across a hallway towards a metallic door, with a metallic grey and blue disk in his hands. His brain was seemingly exposed, and only a small mouth hole and a green eye covered his face.
Inside he gets greeted by a giant machine with a mirror-like screen and dark-colored support beams that were structured akin to a web.
He kneels before it and soon a taller and more imposing figure shows up on the screen before him. Unlike the figure from before, this humanoid creature was mostly white in color with black hands and feet, purple face and red eyes.
"You may speak to me, half-breed vermin..." the figure on the screen says with a deep and commanding tone.
"Gratitude master." The first figure lifts his head. "F-For months now, our sensors have been picking up a new and unique energy signature from this planet."
"I have information of interest. Two of our agents from the area called Japan, have conducted an experiment by simulating the crash o…"
"I HAVE no interest in your full report..." the opposing figure says, uninterested by his explanation.
"Absolutely master. My apologies." He says as he bows before the screen. "We have finally found the source of it." He takes out the disk and pushes on the button on the side.
A hologram appears with Ben slamming down the Omnitrix and turning into Blitzwolfer in that alleyway.
"Our suspicions were true master, the legendary Ben Tennyson has wielded the Omnitrix once more… And is currently on active duty."
"Hmm..." The imposing figure says, clearly irritated by this recent development.
"Then let this be the final time he troubles us…"
The master points to him and says: "Proceed with informing the other pests…"
He puts his hands together and hardens his glare. "…and carry on with the plan as scheduled."
Author's notes: Yep, Blitzwolfer is the second alien I chose for the Omnitrix and is one of the three classic aliens that I promised. Personally, I was always a huge fan of him and thought he never got the screen time he deserved. Especially that howl... that howl is beautiful.
But enough about me simping for a werewolf, moving on...
Like I said before, I'm still experimenting on how to write Ben. I am going for something in between AF and Omniverse where he is a fun person to hang around with and quippy when the situation isn't too serious. But he doesn't have that big ego, overconfidence, immaturity, etc and is more humble, supportive and grounded like his AF counterpart.
So I hope this chapter did justice to that idea.
Also, should I keep the honorifics? I started to write with them but if it seems distracting, tell me in the reviews and I can stop doing them in the future.
Also also, I don't know if I could imply it well enough but, the next chapter will be the entrance exams so I hope that's exciting.
Finally, I hope you have a good day and see you in the next chapter!
Chapter 4: Strong Showing
It was the morning of February 26th in Japan. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and no villains were attacking. It was truly a peaceful day...
...If you weren't in the Tennyson household that is.
"BEN... TIME TO WAKE UP!" Ben's mother yells from the kitchen. "YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"
The star of the show however, can barely open his eyes. And even then, the sunlight dazzles him immediately. He rubs his eyes and does his best to get up from the bed. "I'm coming!"
As soon as he's on his feet, he can feel his eyes closing, begging for more sleep."What time is it anyway?" he thinks as he reaches over to his phone. "7.30? Why would she get up at…"
It all clicks into place. His eyes shoot open and he immediately sprints to the bathroom. Today was the exam day.
He washes his face, and then runs back into his room to get dressed. With his prepared backpack, he storms over to the kitchen and sits down at the table. An all american breakfast greets him as his mother slides one last bacon onto Ben's plate and takes her place across him.
"I didn't want you to be too full before the exam, so I only made eggs and bacon today. I did put a sandwich or two in your backpack though in case you get hungry."
"Uh-huh..." Ben grunts as he shoves a piece of bacon into his mouth.
"Don't miss any questions from the written exam, Ben. Remember that, you can still get points if you manage to write something, anything, down. "
"Mom." Ben says with an amused smile. "The exam is multiple choice."
"Oh…" She pauses and tries to get her thoughts back in order. "Well, then don't forget to guess whenever you don't know. You could always guess right and gain more points."
Her eyes fidget around and land on her son's backpack. "Are you sure you packed everything? Clothes for the practical, pencil case… Oh! Did you make sure to sharpen your pencils?"
"Relax mom. I got it." Ben interrupts her. "I won't let those 8 months go to waste."
He pulls back his sleeve. "And I have a good feeling about the practical."
Upon seeing the watch however, his mother turns her head. "Ben..."
He sees the concern in her face. As she puts her hand over her view of the watch, she says: "I don't…"
She can't complete her sentence. "Just be careful in the practical."
Ben rolls his sleeve back up. He knew that look. "Yeah, I will."
"Now finish your breakfast, you still have to go to school young man."
Ben checks his phone. It was 7:45. "Oh god..." He thinks as he starts blitzing through his breakfast.
"Not too fast Ben, you'll get a stomach ache!"
"I'm going out, mom!"
"You sure you don't want me to drive you there?" She asks.
Ben checks the time again, 8 right on the dot. "No mom, I think I can make it on my own."
"Alright, good luck." his mother says but she does give something to Ben.
He opens his hand. "Chocolate?"
"I heard it improves concentration before exams. Make sure to eat it at 8:30."
Ben laughs, he had never heard of something like that before. "I'll make sure of it. See you tonight."
"Bye!". She then waves after his son as he makes his way to the stairs.
"Alright Tennyson, you got 1 hour. You must not miss that train." He thinks as he runs down. "Oh! Actually, note to self, start looking for a new bike as soon as you get home."
As he reaches the ground floor, he sees another figure making a move towards the stairs. "Hey Midoriya!"
Midoriya almost jumps at the sudden greeting. "Oh.., I-It's just you Tennyson. Sorry for my reaction."
"It's cool." He waits for Midoriya to make his way down. "Didn't get a good night's sleep, I'm guessing."
With a slight sleepy expression, he says: "Something like that. Is it that obvious?"
"With that jungle of a hair you always have? Barely." he says as he grins at his own joke and Midoriya does the same.
"Come on, we'll miss the train." Ben says, gesturing to him to follow.
"Right!" And the pair run towards the station with all their might.
To their luck, they manage to make it with some time to spare. The two pause at the gates though. They need to take in the fact that… well… they were here.
"Well… this IS it… You nervous?" Ben says as he adjusts his backpack. However, when he takes a glance at his friend, he sees that Midoriya was, in fact, nervous. "Oh wow."
"W-wh-what?" Midoriya replies as he also gets a grip on his backpack.
"You're shivering like it is 30 degrees out here." Guess standing in front of the gates was different than talking about them on the way.
Midoriya then looks at his own trembling legs. "Y-yeah sorry, I just c-can't believe..."
"That it's finally here?" Ben completes his sentence. "Relax Midoriya, you told me you've been working for this for 10 whole months, and from what I saw, I'm sure you'll do great."
"I-I hope so..." Midoriya replies, still not fully convinced.
Ben thinks for a second: "Come on, don't you remember pushing that van up the stairs?"
"HAAAAAAAAA!" Midoriya screams out as he continues to push from the back of the open van.
"Are you sure that you still don't want any help?" Ben asks, while he continues to sit on a fridge and watch his friend endure hell. He had his aliens to do the literal heavy lifting for him so watching a human try to do this just hurt to watch.
"We must let him do this on his own young Tennyson." said a man that looked like a skeleton with skin. He had blonde hair and blue eyes but for some reason his sclera were colored black instead of the usual white. He was also right beside him and was watching Midoriya struggle. "Otherwise, he can't improve now, can he?"
"I know that but… sigh… It's always annoying to just be on stand by and watch." Ben says as he gestures to Midoriya. "Even in anime, how can people just stand still while there is someone clearly in need of help?!" Now that he knew Japanese, you could say that he was putting it to good use.
"That's good!" Toshinori says as he points to his heart. "It shows that you can't stand to see people struggling, you want to help them in whatever way you can. And THAT, makes for a great heroic spirit."
Ben beams. "Wow, um, thanks Mr. Toshinori."
"Don't mention it." Toshinori replies as Midoriya once again drops to the ground, panting from exhaustion.
"Okay young Midoriya, let's take a small break!"
"N-No! I- I can still do this!" Midoriya says as he gets up and exerts one last effort to push the van.
"That's enough, young Midoriya..." He pauses mid-sentence as he gets off the fridge and starts walking over to him, however he was about to see something most unexpected.
"I WON'T GIVE UUUUP!" Midoriya cries out as the van starts to budge from its original spot and moves a bit. "Huff...puff..." he breathes heavily right before collapsing to the ground.
"Midoriya!" The two rush to his side and while they check to see if he's okay, something else catches Ben's eye.
"Toshinori." he says.
"What is it, young Tennyson?.." as he follows his gaze and sees the back of the van.
It was filled with all kinds of trash that the greenette could get his hands on but not too filled that would make the pile visible.
Toshinori puts his hand over his face and shakes his head. "I really wish he would learn to not overdo it sometimes..."
"I think it's good..." Ben says which earns him a questioning glare from the blonde skeleton. "Not him passing out of course. But… I think it shows how much he cares about it all, you know… Becoming a hero." Ben adds. "You were the one that told me how much of a go getter he was."
Toshinori faintly smiles and thinks: "You're telling me..."
"Well, you got it outside the beach sooner or later at least..." Ben says as he tries to make the best of a situation. "Now c'mon!" he says as he walks through the gates and right at the three main doors.
Midoriya follows him shortly, but as he once again catches up to his friend…
"Yeah, I did… I know I did but, I-I don't know. U.A has one of the toughest entrance exams out there and I-I don't know if pushing a van will be enough." Midoriya says melancholically.
"Well, to be honest, I'm also very stressed about this.. That written part… I don't know if I can pass that." Ben then lifts his hands and says "But a bit of confidence can also go a long way, especially when it is backed up by hard work."
Midoriya lifts his head from the ground and says: "That sound...p-pretty reassuring."
"It should. It's what my grandpa used to say after all." Ben says with a faint smile.
As only one half of the walkway remained, someone came from behind them and had his shoulder hit Midoriya's.
"Outta my way, Deku!" he says as he continues to walk to the entrance.
The person in question had ash-blond spiky hair with a pair of bright red eyes to match it. He had also been wearing black clothes, similar to Midoriya.
"Hey!" Ben yells after him, only for the examinee to turn his gaze back to meet Ben's. His gaze was fierce and full of aggression, surprising Ben that even someone like him could apply for a HERO course.
"M-Morning Kacchan, l-let's do our best o-on this exam!" Midoriya rambles, trying his best to break the tension as he clearly looks scared of the ash-blond.
"Hmph!" Kacchan grunts as he turns around and continues on his way.
"Kacchan?" Ben asks Midoriya.
"H-He is my umm...friend, Bakugo. We go way back…"
Ben raises an eyebrow. "He doesn't seem like a friend."
"He plays a bit rough but, j-just believe that he has a good heart."
Unfortunately for Midoriya, Ben knew exactly what "playing rough" meant and wasn't about to let this go. "Let me guess, he is your bully?"
Midoriya stays silent, only confirming Ben's suspicions.
Ben sighs..."Look Midoriya, you don't have to take anything from him." "If I learnt anything from middle school, it's that guys like him don't have much going up here..." He points towards his head "...other than satisfying their large ego."
Midoriya looks at Bakugo and then back to Ben. "I-I… don't think you've met Kacchan, Tennyson."
"I guess we'll see." Ben says as he crosses his arms and puts on a stern expression. However, with a day as important as this, that expression doesn't last.
"Anyway, I think I need to head up to the transfer student area. So, see you at the practical exam orientation." Ben cheerfully says.
"O-okay. Good luck Tennyson!"
"You too, Midoriya!"
And the two friends part ways for the time being. Midoriya looks up at the entrance one more time. He shakes his head and hits his cheeks. "Focus, Midoriya. Remember what Tennyson said about confidence, remember the past 10 months!"
He puts on a confident smirk. "You are ready. Now take the first step..."
He takes one step closer to the entrance of the school, without Ben to stand by his side...
"...to being a hero!"
Only to trip up and start falling face first into the pavement. "This is it!" he thinks as his gaze is stuck on the door but his face is about to meet the ground.
But suddenly, he stops falling…
"Are you alright?" says a girl as she holds onto his backpack, preventing him from falling. Midoriya panics for a second. He was literally floating mid-air with a few inches between his face and the floor for crying out loud. The girl drags him back up and then presses her fingers against each other.
With a sheepish smile, she says: "It's my quirk. Sorry for using it without asking first." She then tilts her head. "But it'd be bad luck if you fell, right?"
"Just how big is this school?!" Ben thinks as he sprints around the building. He could swear that it looked smaller from the outside. The hallways were big, the doors were big and even the names of the classes were written big. Back in his middle school, the school seemed like it was trying to make use of every corner it had whereas U.A. felt like it was exploding with land. "So this is an elite school…"
In the midst of his internal monologuing, he had arrived. The exam area for American transfer students: Class 2-A.
"9:00 am for entry, huh…" To check the time, he instinctively looks at his left wrist… which now had the Omnitrix.
"Classic..." He thinks before taking out his phone from his pocket and checking the time there instead. 8.50 am. The exam was close but he still had a bit of time.
He sits down at one of the chairs set up next to the door and starts surfing the internet through his phone. Ben wasn't lying to Midoriya, even with Gwen's help, he wasn't sure whether he really had what it takes to pass. So he really needed to relax before going in.
To his "surprise" however, all that the country was talking about was the entrance exam. "Thanks for literally nothing, internet."
He puts his phone away and just settles for looking around and going over some formulas that he memorized, just in case. Those angular momentums and the simple pendulums weren't exactly… memorable.
As he was counting them down, a high-pitched feminine voice interrupts his thinking.
"Hi!" she says in English before sitting down next to Ben. "It didn't start yet, right?"
The girl now sitting beside him was short, had long blonde hair with two horns coming out from her head and big blue pupils. She also seemed to have a slender figure and hooves instead of feet.
"Oh no, not yet. It shouldn't have at least..." he says as he brings out his phone again. 8:56 am. "Yeah, we still have 4 minutes."
"Oh good." She replies in a relieved manner. "I really thought I was going to miss it."
"Heh, well, you didn't." Ben adds.
"I know right!" The girl continues with an upbeat tone.
"My name is Ben by the way, Ben Tennyson. What's yours?"
"Uh… Tsunot...no...Pony. Pony Tsunotori."
Ben catches Pony's brief pause and says: "Still struggling with the name & surname placement?"
"Yeah, to be honest it still feels a bit weird to switch between English and Japanese."
"Tell me about it… I still forget how to form some phrases."
"Then I hope they don't ask a lot of phrases!" She says with a humorous optimistic smile.
Ben liked her attitude and even though this was UA and they wouldn't send any easy questions their way, he wasn't about to bring Pony's mood down.
"Ha ha-Yeah, let's both pass this." Ben says as he palms his fist. "After all, us Americans have to stick together."
"Yeah!" Pony replies, as she mimics Ben's action.
"If both of you are finished..." a dead Japanese voice says from the door. "You have 30 seconds to take your seats..."
If the zipper of the sleeping bag was any less visible, Ben would say that a yellow caterpillar just talked to them. But before he could get a better look at the individual, Pony rushed inside so he opted to follow her.
"Let's hope the exam isn't too bad..."
"And that's it students! Pencils down and pass the tests forward." The teacher in the sleeping bag tells them as an alarm rings within the classroom.
Pony puts the exam aside and says:"Umm, Mr. Aizawa, right? There are only two of us here."
"Oh yeah…" Aizawa sleepily replies. "Then wait there, I will be right there to collect the papers myself." he says as he ditches the sleeping bag.
Out of it came a tall pale-skinned man with messy black hair. He also had black eyes but the thing that took Pony's attention were the bags under those eyes. Along with the unkempt facial hair, it was obvious that he wasn't getting enough sleep.
But Pony had bigger things to worry about right now. Did it really go well? She was shaking in her seat with anticipation. How was Ben doing?
As Aizawa collects her papers, she leans over to Ben and sees his head on the table, sleeping to his heart's content.
"Tennyson!" Aizawa raises his voice with a strict tone, which promptly wakes Ben up. "The exam is over!"
As he walks over to his desk to collect the exam, Aizawa eyes up this American transfer student with a stern glare and Ben notices it.
He had been on this side of the glare before and he had a real good idea of what it meant. But there was something else to it, curiosity maybe?
Aizawa then turns around and says: "The orientation for the practical exam is in 10 minutes. If I were you, I wouldn't be late."
Even though he was turned around, Ben could tell that the message was directed at him.
"So, can we leave?" Pony asks with an innocent expression.
"Yes, you can..." and as soon as the words escape from Aizawa's mouth, Pony rushes outside with her bag in her hand.
"Wow..." Ben utters. "Guess she really took your words to heart huh..."
"I doubt that, she's probably going to the bathroom. After 3 hours of constant stress, that speed is understandable."
Ben briefly looks back at the door before turning back to Aizawa and asks: "How could you tell?"
"She went left after exiting the room, didn't she? The stairs for the orientation are on the right."
"Oh..." Ben replies. That was… surprising. Throughout the entire test, he always felt like putting someone this sleepy to oversee the exam was just cruel. He wasn't dozing off or anything but it really felt like only the coffee he took this morning was holding him up and he used the term "holding up" loosely. Guess he was paying attention...
Anyway, he cleans up his pencils, water bottle, etc and manages to catch Aizawa before he leaves.
"Ummm...I wanted to say I'm… sorry for sleeping in the exam." Ben says with one of his hands on the back of his neck. "I was just… really tired from last night and—"
Aizawa lifts up one eyebrow and cuts him off: "Could you fill in all your answers?"
"...Yeah." Ben says, semi-unsure since everything from the exam was already starting to blur together.
"Then there shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"Yes..." Ben replies. He was just instinctively adapting to the intense aura of Aizawa at this point.
"But you better work on keeping your head up, if you really want to enroll here."
"Yes... Aizawa-sensei, I'll try my best."
"It's san, not sensei. You aren't a student here yet."
"Yes, sorry, Aizawa-san..."
With that little exchange, Aizawa just walks away with his sleeping bag on one hand and the exams on the other.
Ben then goes the other way, thirsty from just waking up. "I could really go for a smoothie right now..." He thinks as he descends the stairs.
He arrives at a big, well lit auditorium with many seats surrounding three big screens and basically a whole podium for the presenter. However a lot of the seats had already been taken. He looks around to spot Midoriya, he does… but he sees that nevermind the seats around his friend, the entire middle section has already been filled up.
"Then how about..." he thinks as he tries to spot Pony instead but sees that she hasn't made it here yet. "Guess, I'll have to choose myself."
He makes his way to the right side of the room and finds a seat next to another student. He asks "Can I sit here?"
The girl dismissively replies with: "Knock yourself out."
Ben takes his seat and sets his bag between his legs. He looks at the presenter coming onto the stage. Apparently the orientation was about to start.
"For all you examinee listeners tuning in, I am Present Mic and welcome to my show today!" a booming voice calls out to the room. "Everybody say 'Hey'!"
"Yep… I know I won't be sleeping during this one..." Ben sweat drops. The owner of the voice was a tall slim man with long blonde hair, a mostly black outfit, orange sunglasses but more importantly a stereo-like equipment around his neck.
He then looks over to Midoriya, sees him internally screeching and then turns his own attention back to the presentation. "He is a pro hero as well then..."
"What a refined response." the presenter replies, breaking the silence that fell upon the room ever since he last spoke. "Then I'll quickly present to you the rundown on the practical exam!"
"A 10-minute battle with 3 kinds of robots, huh…" Ben thinks as Present Mic continues to give the details. "It's almost like this was designed for me."
"Too bad I lost Upgrade to the reboot though… Let me see who would be best for this..." He thinks as he lowers his hand under the desk in front of him and hits the rims of the Omnitrix again. The dial immediately pushes back up and even though it is a bit hard to see, he starts to cycle through.
"Hey…" someone whispers as a slender hand taps on his shoulder. "Can you turn the brightness down on that?"
Ben immediately springs back up, it was the girl that was sitting next to him, guess he couldn't cover Omnitrix's green glow all that well.
"Sorry, I was…um. I was strategizing."
"Uh-huh..." The girl says as her eyes drift down to his wrist. "Cool watch by the way."
Ben nervously covers it up and says: "Thanks."
Before this awkward conversation can go on any further though, someone from the center of the auditorium pipes up. "May I ask a question?"
A light turns on above the examinee with the question and with permission from Present Mic, he says: "On the printout, there are four types of villains instead of three. If that is a misprint, then U.A., the most prominent school in Japan, should be ashamed of that foolish mistake!.."
"Okay , any chance for you to calm down?.." Ben mutters, which does garner a small nose exhale from the girl sitting next to him. "That was meant to be inside my head."
The kid continues.
"We examinees are here in this place because we wish to be molded into exemplary heroes."
"In addition!" He continues with no intent to stop. "You over there with the curly hair! You have been muttering this whole time. It's distracting! If you're here on a pleasure trip, then you should leave immediately." He says as he calls out Midoriya.
"Oh come on!" Ben thinks as his head falls into his hands. "Do you really need to do that?" He looks over to the now embarrassed Midoriya, covering his mouth and feels bad for him.
Ben turns his gaze to the examinee with glasses. "Please let me be in the same group as him..."
He then continues to listen to the rest of the orientation.
"So he's strict and lucky. That's rare."
After a decently long bus drive, Ben had arrived at his practical exam course: Battle Center J. He had also changed his outfit from a more proper uniform to a black t-shirt and jeans. "And can someone please tell me how much money this school makes?"
He stares at the giant gate standing before him. It would be tiny compared to Waybig for sure, but nothing else he ever turned into would come close to it, not to mention the whole fake city behind it. And to think there were 7 of these throughout the school grounds...
It wasn't looking like it before but U.A. had finally gotten his attention.
"Hey..." someone says from his side. It was the girl he sat next to during the orientation. "Good luck." She says nonchalantly.
"You too!" Ben replies with confidence in his voice.
He then activates the Omnitrix again. Despite being cut short in his thinking during the orientation, he already had an idea on who he wanted to try. He sets the dial, and then starts to stretch.
After the 3 hour long written exam and the orientation, he just needed to stretch those muscles if he was going to move around as much as he was thinking.
He then looks over to the girl. The alien hero hadn't gotten a good look at her during the orientation, mostly because he didn't want to stare so obviously. From what he could see now, she was pretty slim, fair-skinned, had short dark-purple hair and black eyes. But the thing that really caught his attention this time was the girl's earlobe. It was very strangely designed, it seemed like… an earphone jack?
However, what he failed to notice was that he was only seeing one of those earphone jacks. Suddenly, a burst of vibrations sprung up from his leg and spread to his entire body but it didn't last long.
"Sorry if that was a bit extreme, but I don't really like being stared at." the girl said unexpressively as she retracted her second earphone jack back from Ben's leg.
"You… could have… told me so." Ben says, still feeling a bit of the aftershock. "I'm Tennyson Ben by the way."
"Jiro Kyoka." She swiftly replies.
Ben points to her earphone jacks and says: "I'm guessing that is your quirk?"
"Yeah." Jiro says as she grabs the one on her left. "I'm guessing THAT is your quirk." Jiro then replies as she points to the Omnitrix on Ben's arm with an alien's hologram already present. "Is it a transformation quirk?"
"Yeah, it allows me to—"
"OKAY, START!" Present Mic suddenly shouts from afar!
"What's wrong?" Present Mic calls out. "There are no—"
He tries to continue but the boy in black and blue sprints forward, jumps into the air and hits the green dial on his wrist.
Just like the green flash enveloping the area, Ben's appearance also changes in a flash.
He suddenly grows in size and adopts a hulking appearance, with his arms and legs becoming more stubby and his fingers turning into blunt fangs.
A pure white short fur grows throughout his entire body, with orange armor-like plating also starting to spring up from his shoulders and completely covering his back. With black lines connecting the plating and the Omnitrix dial taking its proper place on his chest, his transformation is complete.
"CANNONBOLT!" he shouts, falls to the ground and rolls into action.
"What… was—?" Jiro says as her mind is blown. However she can't afford to waste time. She immediately follows after Ben and from what it sounded like, the rest of the examinees were also following after her.
It doesn't take long for some of them to either dash, jump, fly or even swing by her. "Show-offs…"
"They might have better mobility, but I've got the superior surveillance..." She thinks as she runs to an empty alleyway and plugs her earphone jacks to the ground. She closes her eyes, covers one of her ears and listens…
It was all barely in range but from what she could tell, a lot of shockwaves were bunched up in the center of the stage, probably because of the fighting that was taking place.
She could likely go there and snatch some points but she could also hear some other vibrations. They were really faint but they seemed to be moving to the center through the right side of the city. She would love to search the left as well but it was out of range.
She unplugs her earphone jacks and starts sprinting through the street. She jumps over a trash can and as she cuts the corner, a 2-point robot shows up right in front of her.
"Target acquired. I'll kill you!"
"Yeah, sure you will!" Jiro yells and immediately plugs one of her earphone jacks into the bot and disables it with a sonic attack.
She takes a deep breath. "That was… honestly a bit scary. But I can't afford to get hung up."
She then continues her run towards the right side.
"That makes 18, 19..."
She had arrived at the right edge of the city and the robots were now almost lining up in front of her. Maybe they were still deploying robots to the battle center…
"And that makes 20!" She yells as she's about to disable another robot.
However, an orange and black wrecking ball acts before her and smashes it to the side of the wall.
The ball unravels and the figure says "And that makes 45.". He then notices Jiro who seems pretty unhappy.
"Sorry, didn't mean to steal your kill there." Cannonbolt remarks.
"It is fine..." Jiro says with an irritated voice.
Cannonbolt scratches his head and says: "The fighting in the center is dying down, so everyone is spreading out to find more points."
He then nervously makes an offer, "If you want... I can give you a lift."
Jiro puts her hand on her chin and plugs one of her jacks into the ground.
From what she could tell, there were other participants coming closer to them, probably because they were also starting to search the edges and corners for points.
But what they weren't seeing, or more accurately hearing, was that the center wasn't exactly a ghost town. A good amount of the leftovers were on their way to the center and there were still some robots left in the main street corners.
"I think I'm goo—" Jiro can say before Present Mic interrupts her with his announcement.
"LESS THAN 5 MINUTES LEFT!"
Cannonbolt looks at his friend again.
"Yeah, maybe I'll take that lift—" Jiro says before being encased within Cannonbolt.
Inside, she can barely see anything, only hear the sound of the rolling, it's almost like driving a car in pure darkness. But there is something unique to travelling by Cannonbolt...
"Eww… Do you have any idea what it smells like in here?"
"Blame the form..." Cannonbolt replies.
She then notices the sound of sudden impacts coming every now and then. "By the way, what are these shockwaves?"
"We are...taking a detour… through the buildings."
"As long as it gets me there faster." Jiro thinks right before her alien ride stops in his tracks.
"We're here." he says as he unravels again. Jiro has to take a second to get her balance back.
With robot parts pilling up on the ground and the walls over every visible structure being damaged, the center had become a warzone. There were still some participants batting robots but there were substantially less people from both parties.
"You said your score was 45, right?"
"47… Yeah, two of those shockwaves weren't from walls..." Cannonbolt cheekily remarks.
"Real original..."
"Okay okay, fair enough. I guess I can go easy for the rest of this." Cannonbolt says before rolling off to another robot in his sights.
And before long, Jiro gets her own share of action too. One 3-pointer robot and one 1-pointer coming right at her. She takes a deep breath…
"I will not fail. I will get into this school."
"Well well, they are a promising bunch, aren't they?" Present Mic says as he leans back on his chair.
"Surveillance, mobility, discernment and combat… Seems like they did their homework before coming here." another teacher says, wearing a cowboy getup with an old-school gas mask. "These are all traits that heroes must have once they are facing the real deal. But they are not all that is to be a hero..."
"I agree, Snipe. Their true test is yet to come." another pro hero answers who looks like a block of cement.
The casing behind a red button opens and as he's about to press it, he turns to yet another pro hero. This one looked like a small mouse-like chimera with white fur and a suit.
The cement-looking hero asks: "Do I have your permission, Nezu?"
The chimera answers: "Yes, Cementoss. Give our young heroes a true challenge." And with that Cementoss hits the button.
"32..." Jiro exclaims as she has to sit down for a breather. All this moving around and exploding robots had depleted her stamina.
"53! You are falling behind, Jiro!" Cannonbolt exclaims as he goes by the exhausted Jiro.
Jiro scoffs."Yeah, well..." She says in between her panting. "I'm just... letting you w—"
Suddenly the whole city starts to shake and an explosion occurs not too far from where they were. Jiro tries to shield her eyes from the resulting dust, but in the process loses sight of Ben.
As the cloud disperses, Jiro notices the giant shadow now cast over her. She looks up and sees… the 0-pointer.
Towering above all of the participants with a height that exceeds the buildings, the 0-pointer looks down like it wants to choose its next victim. Jiro is petrified. "Isn't this too extreme?!"
The 0-pointer draws his fist back like a crossbow and sets its target to the ground.
Jiro gets up and starts to run back but the robot doesn't give her much of a chance. It punches the ground and the resulting shockwave and smoke cover the area. The ones closest to the robot were the most affected but Jiro was a bit further back.
However, this doesn't save her from being blown back and falling down.
The shockwave also breaks parts of the buildings and the debris starts to fall towards the street, the very same street that Jiro was standing on.
She tries to get back up and outrun it but it's no use.
As she closes her eyes out of fear, her remaining senses feel an impact on her side as if something covered her from her untimely demise.
"You okay?" Cannonbolt asks as he unravels and lays on his back.
They were now inside of a deserted building, with sunlight seeping into the room from the hole they came from.
"Yeah… Thanks."
"Don't mention it." Cannonbolt replies as he tries to get up but fails… "Can you help me now?" Cannonbolt cheekily asks which Jiro returns a disappointed glare.
She helps him up and Ben looks out of the hole. He sees the examinees running away from the giant mech, with none of them turning back to fight it.
He puts his claw on his chin and asks: "Jiro, can you check if anyone is stuck under the debris?"
"Uhh…yeah." She was still a bit stunned from that experience. "Let me check..." She says both of her earphone jacks plugged to the ground. She closes her eyes and tries her best to focus. "I don't think so but I can't tell… It's hard to properly listen with that thing stomping around."
Ben thinks for a second and says: "Can you check across the street as well then? I'll cover you."
Jiro walks over to Cannonbolt and first looks across the street, and then at the 0-pointer between them. "Do you really think sticking around is a good idea?"
"No, I don't. We should probably retreat like the others. But I have to make sure…"
He turns to Jiro and says: "Make sure that no one needs my help now."
She is taken aback by Ben's serious outlook. Where did he get this attitude from?
"Sure… I can check." she says.
"Thanks." He then rolls up and gets back on the street, facing the robot. He waves his hands and says: "Hey toaster! Over here!"
"You want someone to pick on? Try me!"
Almost like it heard Cannonbolt, the robot readies up another fist, this time with its left hand and punches but Cannonbolt rolls out of the way. "Strike 1!"
"Now!" Jiro yells in her head and rushes into the street. She runs as fast as she can and before she knows it, she's already on the other side. "Well, that was anticlimactic. Now then..."
She plugs her earphone jacks to the ground and listens. Suddenly the ground shakes a bit and some gravel falls from the ceiling. She can even hear Cannonbolt saying "Strike 2!"
"Can't you keep it down a bit, Tennyson? I'm trying to—"
Just then, she hears someone squirming. It is very faint. She gets up and plugs her earphone jack to the wall. Yeah, there is definitely someone up there.
She walks over to the way she came from to call Ben.
"Get back Jiro!" Cannonbolt yells out, sensing that she's coming towards him. "It's dangerous! I'll handle this one!"
"Welp, he's no help." She thinks and looks around to find a way up there. To her luck, she spots some stairs on the far left side of the building...which meant getting even closer to where the robot was…
"Let luck be on my side just this once..." she thinks as she runs up the stairs.
From the outside she can hear Present Mic's most recent announcement: "LESS THAN 2 MINUTES REMAINING!"
Meanwhile on the outside, Cannonbolt also hears the pro-hero's most recent announcement.
"Time to wrap this up..." he thinks.
"C'mon you bucket of bolts, punch the ground one more time..." He keeps his distance from the 0-pointer but still stays in range of his attacks.
And his wish comes true. Like he's trying to stomp a bug on the ground, the robot punches the ground yet again.
"Strike 3!" Cannonbolt arrogantly yells before rolling at his maximum speed to the robot's arm. Since he was sufficiently far away, the angle of the robot's arm wasn't quite as steep and allowed it to act as a ramp.
He rolls up, right towards the head of the bot. "I will not let you put people in danger any longer! Take this!"
"BATTER OUT!"
"Come on, come on… It's like a warzone out there..." Jiro thinks as she uses her earphone jacks to carefully break the rocks surrounding the participant.
"Is Tennyson really that stupid?! Taking on the 0-pointer by himself? Just what is he thinking? She rants in her head. "And why is he so serious? It's just an exam..."
She recalls Cannonbolt's attitude and starts to ponder, but as she's doing that the participant that she was saving raises his head and…
"Aha-haha-Yay, yay! "
With brief sparks of electricity and the dumbest expression, the examinee was doing a thumbs up with both of his hands which managed to get Jiro to chuckle...
"He-ha ha!-Guess HE really fried his brain, ha ha! Anyway, let's get you out..." she says as she helps the examinee up and get back to the street together.
As she gets out, her gaze then wanders off to find Ben. "Tennyson! Where are you?!"
"Ughhhhhhhh..." She gets a reply but it is very faded and is coming from… above?
"Wow..." Jiro utters as she sees the 0-pointer leaning back like it was headshot with a bullet hole-like crater on its face. She yells: "ARE YOU OKAY THERE TENNYSON?"
Right on cue, Cannonbolt falls from its crater back on the ground and uncurls up.
"How are you holding up? Those impacts gave you a concussion yet?"
"I'm beat..." Cannonbolt replies with his eyes starting to close.
Then suddenly, with a flash of green light, Cannonbolt leaves his place to Ben.
"TIME'S UP!" Present Mic shouts from afar, just before a siren confirms his statement. "THE PRACTICAL PORTION IS NOW OVER!"