Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“So Midoriya, how do you think your training is coming along?” A man asked the teenager sitting across from him.

“Oh, my training? It’s been fine, I suppose…” Midoriya poked at his ramen. He didn’t want to mention to his mentor that he’d been deviating from the plan they had established to get some more training in than was recommended.

“Great! The Entrance Exam is only a few months away at this rate, your progress has been astounding!” The man cheered.

“Are you sure the plan is going to have me ready for the exams, All Might? It’s only ten months worth of training for One- I mean my quirk. Others who’ll be at the exam have had years to cultivate theirs.” Midoriya asked, unsure of his own capabilities. All Might, the number one hero, chuckled lightly before taking a small bite of his own meal.

“Don’t fret. You’ll do fine. I’m sure you’ll fit alongside the future generation of heroes at U.A. You possess the heart of a hero! When your training is done, you’ll be well along your path for greatness!” All Might cheered for him. Midoriya looked around the small ramen shop they were in to distract himself from the high praise from the hero. It was quiet and almost empty with only a few employees behind the counter, which is why Midoriya assumed All Might was more comfortable talking about the training than usual if they were in public.

Midoriya thought for a second, thinking about his school and how everyone was talking about their desire to be heroes as well. A question formed in his head and he turned back to All Might. “Sorry to ask this but what do you think the people at UA would be like?” He asked.

All Might was quiet as he thought of the question. “Hmm, are you asking about the students or are you asking about the teachers?”

“Oh, I suppose the students.” Midoriya quickly clarified.

“Well, it’s usually a mixed bag. From the few I’ve met over the years while in the field, there are many who have brave and noble dreams of heroism, much like you, but there are usually an almost equal number of students who may want to be heroes for reasons beyond self sacrifice. I’d say, prepare for anything. Both in quirk and personality.” He told him.

Midoriya nodded. His mind drifted to Bakugou. He’d definitely make it in. But if he made it in as well, then they’d have to interact with each other on a larger scale than what they ever had before. He had a mix of emotions from that thought. On one hand, he did admire Bakugou’s strength and drive. On the other hand…

Bakugou wouldn’t hesitate to send him six feet under.

“Heheh, yeah. Well, I think most will be serious about being heroes and be great people!” He nervously chuckled. All Might nodded to his assessment, proud of his student’s growth from when they first met.

“Yes, I’m sure they’ll be pretty serious about the road ahead of them!”

…

“Aww, who’s a good puppy? Yes! You are! Yes, you are!” 

“Kaminari, put them down and get back to work.” An old man behind the counter said over his paper. 

“Aww, Mr. Hiroshi! Just look at them! You really want to say no to these eyes?” Kaminari raised the puppy in his arms, who only happily yipped in response. Mr. Hiroshi lowered his paper and raised an eyebrow. He leaned over and glanced at the clock on the wall before scoffing, going back to his paper.

“There’s 5 minutes left in your shift. 5 minutes left to work.” Kaminari’s demeanor changed and he groaned.

“Really? Five minutes? What else is there to do? I’ve fed the fish, cleaned out the snake containers, refilled the water bowls, restocked the food and swept. What even is left for me?” He complained. Mr. Hiroshi only dramatically flipped the page and gestured his head towards the glass door in front of the store in response.

“Fine, I’ll guess I can clean the window.” Kaminari groaned. “Maybe then Water Hose will leave you alone for a day or two.” He quickly teased, putting the puppy back in its pen. Mr. Hiroshi just grumbled.

“It’s our job to clean the windows. Don’t those damn heroes have something else to do? Thought using quirks was illegal for that kind of crap…” Kaminari rolled his eyes as he grabbed some cleaning spray and a rag from the back room. He personally liked the hero duo. They were nice to him and they had occasionally helped out the store by cleaning the windows on the outside with their quirks, which was one less thing Kaminari had to do in a shift so that was always a plus.

Especially since he hated cleaning windows.

“Hey, at least one less thing to do on our chore list, huh?” He voiced his thoughts to Mr. Hiroshi. He scoffed before grumbling as he turned the page once more. “Still not liking heroes?” Kaminari asked as he began to wipe down the window on the door.

“My opinion on pros doesn’t matter. End of story.” Kaminari rolled his eyes again. He never understood why Mr. Hiroshi hated them so much. Maybe it was because he was an ancient fossil and came from a time when heroes and quirks were still uncommon. Or maybe he was just a grumpy old man.

There was a small part of him that worried what would happen if he actually did manage to become a hero.

The rest of the cleaning went by quietly, only the chatter of the animals and occasional turning page breaking the silence. Soon, the chime of the clock rang out just as Kaminari finished drying off the window.

“Well, I guess I’m done now. See ya next time.” Kaminari folded the rag in his hands while walking back towards the counter. 

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Mr. Hiroshi held up an envelope without looking away from his paper. Kaminari took a glance at it before getting excited.

“Ah man, I forgot! Payday!” He cheered. He reached over to grab it but Mr. Hiroshi just held it higher. “Hang everything up first, then you get your pay.” He said. Kaminari grumbled to him and begrudgingly walked into the back room.

The back room of the pet shop was rather small but it was utilized effectively through several shelves and drawers. A shelf for various foods, another for maintaining the various containers with bedding and several drawers that housed the various products and cleaning supplies for restocking. The only things in the room that weren’t connected to the store was a single table in the back and the door next to it. 

The table’s surface was covered in various papers and Kaminari’s other belongings for the store. The drawers that came with the table held the aprons and more personalized cleaning supplies for the store, such as the rags and spray Kaminari just used.

And by all things great to Kaminari, that table was probably the thing he hated most about the job.

For reasons beyond his comprehension, Mr. Hiroshi refused to get rid of it despite its horrible condition. The table top had small indents from all the various heavy containers placed on it and the paint was chipped in various places, exposing aged wood that had turned dull from time. The entire table creaked from rust when you put any form of pressure on it or moved it and by far, the drawers were the worst. From the rust, they would frequently jam or not close all the way.

The door on the other hand, was the only thing he wasn’t allowed to touch in the entire store. It remained closed at all times and even when Kaminari tried to sneak in, it was locked. He once asked Mr. Hiroshi about it and all he got was that it was apparently like that when he got the store and he had no idea, nor any intention of finding out, what was on the other side.

Kaminari quickly made his way to the desk and tugged on the drawers, luckily they didn’t jam this time. He quickly folded the rag and placed the spray alongside it in one drawer, while he took off the apron and placed it in another. 

He shut the drawers closed and flinched from the scraping sound of the metal drawers. He quickly grabbed his stuff and walked out of the back room. “Alright, all done. See you next time, Mr. Hiroshi.” Kaminari walked up to the front desk, grabbed his envelope and waved Mr. Hiroshi good bye. He only nodded to Kaminari as he walked out of the store.

One of the best things about the end of the day was this moment. The breath of fresh air was invigorating, smelling somewhat clean air that wasn’t carrying the smell of fur or some other bodily odor from the animals. The open space took pressure off his shoulders, giving him the chance to unwind.

The street was lined with shops that sprawled all the way down the road. There were pedestrians going on their way but rarely did Kaminari interact with them, which was a downside he supposed. He’d really like to interact with others beyond the animals and Mr. Hiroshi.

He wasn’t really a talking person after all.

“Alright! No more work, so let’s see what to do first. Go grab some food? Oh, actually, what about Danger Zone? I haven’t been there in a few weeks. Wonder if they’ve got anything new.” He spoke to himself as he walked down the road.

“Hey! Kaminari! Could you come over here?” Kaminari stopped, turning to a man waving him over. 

“Oh, Mr. Shinoda! What’s up?” Kaminari walked over to the man. Mr. Shinoda was a shop owner and was Kaminari’s go-to for electronic help. He stood before the man as he seemed embarrassed about the entire situation.

“I know this isn’t the right thing to ask you, but I was wondering if you could give me a hand real quick?” Kaminari thought for a moment. Mr. Shinoda always helped him whenever he had any trouble so it’d only be right if he returned the favor, right?

He nodded to his question and the man was relieved. He gestured for Kaminari to follow and the two entered the store, the store was lined with a magnitude of computer products for sale. The man brought Kaminari to the counter where a computer tower was sitting.

“So, this is something that was sent in from one of the hero agencies. They need it to be tested for external surges for whatever reason but I don’t have anything that can test it out to the degree they want. So I was wondering if you could help?” He seemed embarrassed to ask but Kaminari smiled.

“No problem! Just how do you want this to work?” Kaminari held his hands out as a surge of lightning covered his hands. Mr. Shinoda gestured towards the entire thing before stepping away. “Just blast it! I think that should test it overall.” Kaminari nodded before stepping close and slapping his hands on the side of the tower. 

The sparks flew through the air with an electric hum, coating the tower in a yellow glow. After a few seconds, Kaminari took his hands off, stepped back and waited. 

“Did it work?” He asked. Mr. Shinoda walked closer but the smell of smoke from the tower answered his question. Mr. Shinoda sighed in defeat. “Well, that was what I expected. Now I’ve gotta figure out how to fix this and maybe get better parts.” He moved over to the tower and tried to examine its exterior.

“Sorry for that Mr. Shinoda. I probably put too much juice into it.” Kaminari quickly apologized. 

“Why are you sorry? You did what I asked. Plus, if I sent a product that wasn’t up to the demands they want, who knows? Maybe someone could have gotten hurt because of my negligence and I could have been sued! If anything, I should thank you.” Mr. Shinoda turned to Kaminari and smiled.

“Is there anything else you need?” Kaminari chimed. Mr. Shinoda thought about it for a second before shaking his head and shrugging. “No, I think I’m good for now. I’ll ask you if I ever need help.” He snapped his fingers at that moment as he seemed to remember something.

“I forgot to ask, but how’s the old man? Has he croaked yet?” He joked. Kaminari just scratched the back of his head, not really wanting to answer that question.

“Ah, so he’s still the same old grumpy man. Well, if you ever need something Kaminari, either one of you, my doors are open.” Kaminari nodded and waved to him as he left. He really liked Mr. Shinoda. Maybe if Mr. Hiroshi doesn’t approve of him becoming a hero, maybe he can go to Mr. Shinoda for a job.

Nah, he thought to himself. Mr. Shinoda was too nice, so he couldn't work for him. Random assistance works for Kaminari.

He kept traveling down the road. The distance between Danger Zone and his job wasn’t far enough to warrant something beyond walking. It took a while but he did it. He stopped on the side of the street, staring at a large neon sign that overlooked an open front of the establishment.

There it was, Danger Zone. The greatest arcade known to man.

Kaminari stepped inside and the sounds of games rang in his ears. He walked around the arcade, walking the same route he had gone many times over and seeing the games he’d played before. Claw machines, ticket lottos, racing games, fighting games, Kaminari had played them all a thousand times over.

He moved towards the quieter part of the arcade, where most of the newer machines that didn’t really have a group were placed until more came in. And as luck would have it, he saw a machine he had never seen before. Judging from the sounds and the person playing it, it was on.

“Score.”

He moved closer and examined the machine. It was a large navy blue box with a wide screen facing a set of plastic drums that the person playing was hitting. Judging from that, Kaminari assumed it was a rhythm game. He stood behind the seated person, who was too engrossed with the game to notice him and watched the screen. He watched as they made their way through an muggy ocean shore, the beats of the drums destroying large birds or fish that slowly approached the center of the screen. 

Kaminari remained silent as he observed the game. The beat got faster and the creatures in turn moved faster towards the center. What started as something that was a breeze for the player quickly became a struggle. Soon, the mistakes added up and an abrupt horn stopped the music. The game froze and the player took a second to process the end.

“Damn, well then.” The person stood up. He looked like a teenager around Kaminari but was a few centimeters taller. He had jet black hair with sharp points at the end that reminded Kaminari of something but he couldn’t recall what. The more interesting part to Kaminari was his elbows, as they were pronounced and had a divet inwards.

The boy turned around and finally noticed Kaminari for the first time. “Oh, what’s up? You want to play?” He pointed back at the machine with his thumb but Kaminari was more distracted by his grin.

“Uh, yeah. I guess. I was just watching you play for a moment to figure out what was going on.” Kaminari explained. 

“Ah, no problem. It’s pretty reasonable for a rhythm game. Have fun.” He walked away from the seat to allow Kaminari to sit. Kaminari stared at the machine for a split second before he patted his pockets.

Of course, he forgot to go get some tokens when he came in.

“Yeah, just hold on a second.” Kaminari mumbled to himself. 

“Oh, you don’t have any tokens? You can have a few of mine. I don’t think I was going to stay here for very much longer anyway.” The boy handed him a few tokens from his pocket and Kaminari stared at them in his palm.

“Uh, thanks.” He chimed. He turned back to the machine and inserted them, the machine flared to life.

“Now, I’ve played this a couple times already. The drums are still sensitive so you don’t need to really hit them hard to play so just keep that in mind.” He told Kaminari. Kaminari nodded and turned his attention to the screen. The game started out slow but he got the hang of it as it sped up.

“Huh, you’re doing pretty good.” The boy commented from behind. Kaminari shrugged as he slowly let reflexes take over.

“Once you get the hang of fast paced games, it doesn’t really bother you. Plus, I played a lot of Sumo Slammers: Drums of Tranquility.” Kaminari mentioned.

“Wait, Sumo Slammers? I love those games. What’s your favorite?” The boy asked.

“I liked the original one. It’s a classic that didn’t have a lot of gimmicks to carry gameplay like the others later on.” Kaminari blurted out quickly.

“Oh, I like the third one more personally but I get it.” Kaminari began to have his own reflexes start to get beat by the game as the visuals turned to a starry night in-game. Quickly, the game stopped as Kaminari came down from the adrenaline. He breathed heavily as he stood back up, keeping his eyes on the screen.

“Oh, well, you did better than me in that. Good job.” The other congratulated. Kaminari nodded as he put down the drumsticks and looked at the other person.

“Kaminari. Nice to meet you.” Kaminari held out his hand. The boy looked down at his hand and looked unnerved. Kaminari glanced down and noted his sweaty hand. He quickly took his hand back and tried to laugh it off. “Never mind that then!” He nervously chuckled.

“Well, if we’re giving names, Sero. Nice to meet you, Kaminari.” Sero smiled. After that, there was an awkward moment of silence as the beeps of games broke the silence.

“So Sero, you got anything else for today? I just got off work so I’m going to be here if you just want to play more games. I know the Sumo Slammer arcade game here is two player.” Kaminari offered him. Sero thought for a split second before laughing for a moment.

“Wait, you have a job? I doubt it. You don’t really look like the working type.” Sero asked.

“I do! I work at the pet shop down the road. They’re open for the rest of the day if you want to go see some of the animals.” He offered. Sero considered the idea for a few seconds before he smirked.

“Alright then. Two conditions. One, only if they have some cats and two, you get into something clean because you’re starting to stink and I don’t think it’s from the pet store.” Kaminari took a whiff of himself. He couldn’t smell anything that was revolting but he never knew.

“Eh, that’s fair. I’ll just give you my number so we can easily get back together. I’ve got a while to go to my house.” Kaminari pulled out his phone and a notification sat in the center of the screen.

“Warning, a criminal has escaped captivity…” Kaminari mumbled to himself as he read it. He looked at the general area that the warning was for and sighed in relief when it wasn’t anywhere near them. He looked at Sero who was mashing his On button, he sighed before he showed his dead screen to Kaminari.

“Sorry, my phone’s dead right now. Maybe later?” Sero proposed. Kaminari smiled briefly before holding out his hand. 

“What?” Sero asked. Kaminari just gestured again to give his phone to him. Sero paused but slowly handed his phone over to Kaminari. Kaminari looked down at the phone to see what kind it was. It looked similar to his own so this should work. He moved his finger to the charging port and took a quick glance around.

Alright, no cops around or officials to get mad at him. 

He focused his quirk into his finger, the electricity dancing to life at his fingertips. The electricity leaped into the phone and after a few moments, the screen turned on. The spark died at Kaminari’s fingertips as he smugly handed back the phone to an impressed Sero.

“I should have guessed you had an electricity quirk given your hair.” He joked. Kaminari smiled with a quick nod. “It’s pretty great. I plan to go all the way with it!” He cheered. Sero lifted his own elbows, showing a small slit across them.

“My quirk’s pretty cool too. I can create tape!” To prove his point, small strips of duct tape crawled from both openings. Kaminari stared at them blankly.

“I don’t get it. So you just create tape?” The tapes retracted as Sero chuckled. “Of course, you don’t get it but I can do a lot of cool things with them. Just you’re going to have to wait and see!” He yelled aloud.

To Kaminari, he didn’t know if he was just trying to save his own ego or if he was really that confident in the power of tape of all things.

“Alright then, so now the numbers.” Kaminari held his phone out and the two quickly shared their numbers. Beyond that, they didn’t say much to the other as they left after a short time in the arcade and went their own ways.

Kaminari quickly made his way towards the train station. He quickly boarded and the train went on its way. He didn’t live far from the city, about 30 minutes away by train. On the way there, he stared out the windows and kept himself entertained with the rolling hills of the outer city.

A buzz from his pocket brought him out of his daydream. He looked at the screen of his phone and saw that there were two notifications. One, a message from Sero, and the other, an update from that escaped convict. He figured the pros had it under control so he ignored it.

“ Hey, where are we going to meet up? ” Sero texted. He thought for a second before typing.

“ The shop in an hour? Avoid the windows if early. Boss doesn’t like it. ” He hit send and waited. A few moments later, Sero sent a thumbs up. He slid his phone into his pocket and continued looking outside to the rolling horizon.

…

“Mom! Dad! I’m home!” Kaminari yelled as he took off his shoes at the front door of his home. 

“Denki! How was work?” His mom yelled out. Kaminari walked out of the opening hall and into the main room with his mom in the kitchen. The smell of dinner wafted in his nose, making his stomach growl.

“It was pretty good. I’ve just gotta change since I’m meeting up with someone in a bit.” He yelled out as he made his way to the stairwell.

“With what clothes? You left your laundry in the washer.” Kaminari stopped climbing the stairs. He left them in the washer?

“What? I thought you would have swapped it over!” He yelled down the stairs. He heard an agitated sigh from his mother as he rushed down the stairs to the basement door.

“You think I’m going to do your laundry? You’re almost done with middle school, you can do it yourself now! Plus, I just got back from work so I would have been able to anyway.” She explained. “If I were you, I’d tell whoever you’re going to meet that you'll be late.” She warned him as he closed the basement door.

Kaminari grumbled as he made his way down the gnarly stairs. At the bottom, he flipped the light switch on, illuminating the basement. Shelves and boxes made up most of the room besides the washers and other laundry equipment on the right side of the room. 

He crept to the washer and opened it, hoping for the slight chance his mom was messing him. He groaned when he saw his clump of damp clothes. He grabbed a handful of it and quickly threw them into the dryer, slamming the lid shut. He just twisted the dial to the quickest time that seemed reasonable to him and the dryer began to hum and shake.

“Great, just great. What am I going to do in the meantime?” He looked around for an idea, looking at some of the old boxes in the room. 

He moved towards the boxes, maybe he could just look through some of them for something interesting. He briefly scanned them to see whatever ones weren’t taped close or were labeled. He grabbed the closest one off the shelf and opened it. All that was inside were small old pocket books. Kaminari closed the box and set it aside, probably not a good thing to snoop around in.

“What else…” He mumbled to himself as he dug deeper. He pulled out another box and looked into it. A sense of dread filled him as he stared at young children's toys that he vaguely remembered. He pulled out a small hero figurine of All Might. It was very obviously marketed towards a younger child audience and based on some earlier costume of his but Kaminari couldn’t place what it was called.

“Ok, this is the only thing I'm fine with, everything else though.” He moved some rubber ducks and figurines and then saw the truly most horrible thing in the box.

His old pre-school uniform.

“Oh god, I thought they got rid of that! Why did they keep it…” He embarrassingly  groaned, putting most of the box back together, minus the All Might figure. He stared at it, there was just a feeling that he couldn’t place. Something inside told him to keep it. Probably nostalgia.  He looked back up at the shelves and scanned them.

He didn’t see any other boxes that could be easily opened until he looked deep into the shelves. In the opening he created from pulling out the box full of his old toys, he saw another box, hidden beneath the others. He set the toy box down and pulled that one out carefully, surprised about its heavy weight.

It wasn’t labeled and the tape used to keep it closed had worn away, so the box itself was pretty old. But the weight of the box peaked Kaminari’s interest too much at that point. 

He sat down and opened the box carefully. Inside, it was full of carnival prizes. Keychains, glasses, tickets and other memorabilia. However, the box was largely taken up by a dark metal box. Kaminari carefully took the box out and examined it. It looked to be a small safe and it was the source of most of the box's weight. He shook it to see if he could hear anything inside but nothing rattled. 

He looked at the top where the door was and all that was on top was the handle and a small black pad. He twisted and pulled on the handle to attempt to see if it was unlocked but it didn’t budge. He looked at the black pad and wondered if that was how one opened it. He tapped the pad and nothing happened. He thought for a second before an idea popped in his head.

He charged his hand with electricity and tapped the pad again, giving it a shock. To his surprise, nothing happened. The safe seemed all right, the pad didn’t respond and the handle was still locked. Maybe it wasn’t electrical? Kaminari took a look around for another way to open it before seeing a nearby broom, the one he had to use to sweep for chores. 

Maybe the safe was just too strong for him to open so what if he tried with a lever? Science class had said something about it being easier. Maybe that’ll work? He got up and reached for the broom. He then jammed the handle of the mop into the safe’s handle and pushed. 

Nothing.

He pushed down harder. Now, he was putting his foot on the safe to keep it in place as he pushed all his weight onto the broom. 

“Come on, this thing has got to be old. How good can this safe be-” A sharp snap from the broom handle jarred Kaminari. The snap made Kaminari stumble off the safe and almost trip. He barely managed to catch himself but the shattered handle in his hand made him worry. 

His mother’s fury would be unmatched.

He scrambled to take the remaining bits of the handle and put the broken parts slightly together in the corner in an attempt to make it look like it wasn’t broken, but it slumped against the wall. Kaminari gulped. Maybe he could replace it before his mom came downstairs and noticed.

But back to the safe, he was stumped as to how to open it. He didn’t think it was something important, given where it was, but now Kaminari’s interest had reached its peak. He looked at the pad again and placed his finger onto it. If it was one of those ID pads that they have in the movies, he might not be able to open it but it was the only thing he hadn’t thought of at this point.

CLICK!

Ok…guess that was the answer. 

Kaminari brought his hand up and went to the handle. He brought it down without any resistance and pulled it open. Steam escaped from the edges, surprising Kaminari even more. He closed his eyes and waited for the warm air to pass. He glanced down moments later, curious on what would be inside from such a secure safe.

He wasn’t expecting a small device to be what was locked inside. 

Kaminari looked at the interior of the safe. It looked high tech with a circuitry pattern adorning the walls. The back wall was closer than the actual wall of the safe and it held the small rectangular device.

Kaminari tilted his head in confusion. Why would such an advanced looking safe be holding that? Why would his parents have it? They were electricians but that didn’t resemble anything they used to him. He slowly grabbed the device and pulled it. As he took it out, bands came out with it, making it now resemble a wristwatch. He quickly examined it in the dim light.

It was white in color and had the feeling of warm plastic. Light gray lines covered the side of the bands and crawled up the black faceplate of the watch, forming a silhouette of an hourglass. There were three green buttons on the side of the faceplate, which is how Kaminari assumed the watch was modified.

“This seems like a lot of work for a carnival prize. Although, it looks cool.” He mumbled to himself. He stared at the watch for a moment and an idea popped into his head. “Well, Mom and Dad aren’t using it so why can’t I?” He said to himself.

He placed the watch on his left wrist and pressed the two bands together underneath. There was a magnetic snap as they connected. Kaminari looked the watch over now that it was on him. It was reasonable size and looked sleek for something that was probably older than him and out of date at this point. 

“Now, let’s see if those cheap batteries they put in are still working.” He pressed all the buttons at once but nothing happened. ‘Maybe it needs to be specific?’ He wondered.

He began pressing them all. Random variations and different timings. And just as he was about to give up, he heard the start up of a computer. He was excited as the gray bars finally lit up. They started to rapidly flash before settling into a deep blue color.

A little weird given the color scheme of the buttons but whatever.

“Alright, I guess that’s how you turn it on. Go me! Now, to find out how to get the dumb time set on this thing. Or just the ability to do anything with this.”

 He almost went back to using the buttons before the dyer chimed. He looked over and smiled in excitement. That was fast. He quickly closed the safe and put it back into the box to set everything back as quick as he could. He haphazardly threw the boxes back onto the shelves before quickly moving to the dryer.

He grabbed his laundry and briefly examined it. A little damp but he’d doubt that’d be an issue. He tossed on a long sleeve and some shorts before running up the stairs with a bundle of clothes in his hands. He walked out of the basement and ran up the stairs to his room, the sounds of the kitchen and his footsteps filling the empty void of noise. 

He darted down the hall and ran into his room. Without a second thought, he threw down his clothes onto his messy bed and rushed back down the stairs towards the door. He hopped to try and get his shoes on quicker but it was more of an embarrassing act than anything else.

“That was fast. Where are you going? A friend? Wait, oh no. Please don’t tell me you tried looping another poor soul into a date.” Kaminari deadpanned towards his mom’s comment before rolling his eyes.

“I made a new friend named Sero. I was going to meet him at work to show him around and some of the animals there.” He explained. 

“I see. Any shared interests I need to look into?” 

“Mom! I just met him! Please don’t do anything weird.” Kaminari pleaded. His mom hummed in her own merry tune. “I’m assuming he’s a fan of those Sumo games huh?” She asked.

“Mom! Please!” Kaminari embarrassingly stomped his foot down as he finally got the last shoe on. “Uh, sorry about that…I’ll be back in maybe two hours.” He stated slowly.

“Alright, Dinner will be ready around that time. Your dad should be back soon so don’t expect anything funny business when you get back.” His mom chimed aloud before Kaminari left the house. He took his phone out and quickly went to his messages with Sero as he ran down the street towards the station.

“ Thing came up. Will be there in 30. ” He tapped away.

A moment's pause before a blurb came up. 

“ Ok. ”

Kaminari pocketed his phone and tried to push himself harder in his sprint. Sadly, he wasn’t the physical powerhouse he was pushing himself to be so he eventually had to slow himself down to a jog in order to recover from the dead sprint he tried.

The train station was busy as people marched off the train in a hurried state. Work was starting to get out, he assumed, which likely meant he didn’t have long before Mr. Hiroshi closed the shop for the night.

He went past the turn gate and boarded the train. Since most people appeared to be leaving for work, the seats were opening up easily. Kaminari took a seat on the opposite side of the train and waited for departure.  It took a few moments but the doors closed and the train began its lurch towards the city.

“Ok, an easy train ride then a hangout tour of work. No big deal.”

…

The trip back to the store was agonizing. Every minute that passed made Kaminari feel more and more guilty over leaving Sero waiting. His overthinking made him tap his foot on the floor of the train, increasing in speed as he thought more about it.

‘Ok ok ok, maybe I just need to think about something else. Uh, let’s see…’ He looked around the train in desperate need of something weird. None of the passengers had interesting quirks to look at nor did they have anything else weird about them. He sighed. He lifted his arm and pulled the sleeve back. The watch was still blue but nothing appeared on the face plate. 

‘Maybe I can finally figure out how to put the time on this thing.’ He began to press the buttons again. Maybe one will bring up a menu. He fiddled with the buttons but no matter what, nothing happened. He sighed. Maybe it was just a lost cause. He rolled up his sleeve as the train began to reach the outer edges of the city. He’d probably just take it off when he gets back home if it won’t work. 

‘The watch is cool enough to keep, I guess.’ Kaminari thought to himself as he stood.

Kaminari walked off the train and out of the station, seeing people glued to their phones. He heard the sounds of fighting from most of them so they were likely just watching some hero defeat a villain somewhere. He’d have to check it out when he got back home.

He walked his normal route towards the pet store. As he got closer, he saw Sero standing nearby the store, talking to Mr. Shinoda. Sero had his back to him so Mr. Shinoda was the first to see Kaminari get close.

“Hey, there you are! This young lad was looking for you.” Mr. Shinoda gestured to Sero who turned around to see Kaminari walk up to him. Sero examined Kaminari before making an obvious sniffing sound.

“Yeah, you got new clothes I can tell. You smelled horrible before.” He joked to Kaminari. Mr. Shinoda laughed to Kaminari’s embarrassment. 

“Well, that’s Kaminari for you! Kid is a bit scatterbrained but he’s good when it counts.” Mr. Shinoda turned away from Kaminari towards Sero as he explained.

“So how did you two meet? Because talking about someone behind their back is usually rude.” He chimed with annoyance. 

“Ah, I met Mr. Shinoda when trying to find the pet store. He gave me directions and then we just talked while we waited for you. He gave me some pointers on building some electronics. Mainly computers.” Sero explained. 

“You want to know how to build computers?” Sero shrugged at Kaminari's question. “Who knows, if I don’t make it into school for what I want, maybe I can get in with something else.”

“I see then. It’s a neat thing I suppose.” Kaminari mumbled. Mr. Shinoda nodded.

“Learning new skills is a great thing. If you want Kaminari, I could give you some pointers and lessons another day, how does that sound?” He asked. Kaminari thought about it. It sounded interesting and maybe then he can get the transfer if Mr. Hiroshi hates his career plans.

“Sure, that sounds fun. Count me in.” Mr. Shinoda smiled. “Why don’t you stop by next week for those? So you’re out of school and can spend as much time as you’d need to get the basics.” He offered.

“Sounds good to me then. I’ll see you then.” Kaminari responded. Mr. Shinoda smiled before looking at the two of them.

“Well, it’s best for me to head off. I’ve got to close the shop and look to fix the counter. A thing from earlier left a small scorch mark on my counter. Whoops!” Kaminari understood what he was mentioning and slowly nodded with small amounts of shame.

“Well, see you guys at some point!” Mr. Shinoda waved the two bye and turned around to leave. The two stood there for a few moments, watching him walk down the street.

“So, shall we go see the pet shop?” Kaminari offered as a way to change the conversation.

“Sure, lead the way.” Sero responded. Kaminari nodded and led him to the door. The two entered the shop, the door chiming. Mr. Hiroshi looked up from a new newspaper and gave a look to Kaminari.

“Your shift ended almost 3 hours ago. Did you forget something?” He leaned towards Kaminari, who only gestured toward Sero. Mr. Hiroshi looked at Sero who just waved back.

“Hanta Sero, at your service sir.” Sero bowed to him and he only scoffed in response. “Well, just don’t steal anything.” He stated. Kaminari nodded before turning towards Sero.

“You wanted to see the cats right?” He asked. Sero gave a thumbs up and Kaminari gestured to him to follow. He led him towards a series of containers on the wall. Inside were a number of cats, each in their own clear container. When they saw Kaminari approach, they all started to purr and meow to gain his attention. He opened one of the containers and began to pet one of the cats. Sero came over and leaned in to do the same. 

“Good cats. What other animals do you have here? ” Sero asked. 

“Oh, we have dogs and fish. We got things that aren’t really common.” Kaminari explained. He was about to continue before the door opened. 

Kaminari looked towards who had entered and was moderately surprised. They resembled a tall humanoid plant, with red and yellow petals that resembled hair and green grass covered their body akin to clothing. They looked confused as they examined the animals around the front of the store.

Kaminari walked towards them and lightly waved to them. “Hello, looking for something?” The person looked surprised at him, trying to process something. At that moment, Kaminari got a whiff of something that smelled foul. The sudden disgust seemed apparent enough towards the customer to slightly bow.

“Sorry about my smell, my quirk makes me constantly produce methane. While I can contain most of it, some of it leaks. Are you a worker here? I had a question about a pet.” They asked. Kaminari looked at him over again. He did have that sickly green color that he would associate with the smell so that made sense to him.

“Uh, not right now. I’m off right now but I can help you if you need.” He told him. He turned around to see what Sero and Mr. Hiroshi were doing quickly. Sero seemed distracted at seeing some of the fishes while Mr. Hiroshi for once was observing the entire situation. Maybe he just hated the smell or was disgusted at them not wearing any clothing.

“Oh, thank you. My daughter’s birthday is coming so I wanted to get something for her.” He asked. “Although, do you have anything that could survive in a swamp? I don’t want to suffocate them with our odor.” Kaminari blanked on that question. He tried to process what he was asking and what fit before Mr. Hiroshi sighed.

“We have some frogs and some reptiles. Any preference?” Mr. Hiroshi got up and walked around the counter towards the customer. The two walked off towards another section of the store as Kaminari walked back towards Sero, who was now watching them.

“Do you get customers often?” Sero asked.

“Not really but Mr. Hiroshi rarely helps out people finding a pet.” Kaminari mentioned to him while keeping his eyes on the pair. Sero thought about the whole thing for a moment before turning back to Kaminari.

“He probably just wants to put more effort into this given how serious they appear about getting something specific.” Sero reasoned with him. Kaminari turned back and thought about it for a second. Yeah, that made sense to him.

“Well, I don’t want to get in the way so why don’t we see the front? I saw a dog pen there.” Sero suggested. That seemed like a good idea to Kaminari so he led him there. Because they were larger and needed more room, they had their own pen in the front of the store. As they moved closer, the puppies became more active.

The two leaned over towards the dogs and their excitement towards them was evident in their wagging tails and happy yips for attention. Kaminari put his hand in and the puppies flocked to him.

“They really like you, huh?” Sero chimed. Kaminari nodded, scratching behind their ears. They began to move their noses upwards, pushing his sleeve up and sniffing the watch Kaminari found. 

“What’s that?” Sero pointed towards the watch. Kaminari looked down at the watch and then turned to Sero.

“Oh, it’s just some watch I found when I was getting-”

“YIP!”

The two stopped and looked at the single puppy looking up at the window. The two followed their gaze and looked at the window. Outside, people were frantically running down the street. Panic was etched in their faces, utter fear from whatever they were running from. Kaminari and Sero stood up, the conversation between Mr. Hiroshi and the customer dying down with their own curiosity in what was happening. Kaminari slowly edged his way to the door. 

BOOM!

A rumble shook the shelves of the store. All the animals all started to panic from the explosion, causing utter audible chaos in the store. Fear had started to bubble up in Kaminari’s stomach as he remembered that notification about the criminal. Kaminari turned to Sero, who had lost his smile and was as worried as he was. 

“What the hell is going on?” Sero asked, terrified. The customer reached them in the front and was the one who stepped forward first, opening the door and stepping out. The store was almost instantly filled with the sounds of screams and the smell of smoke. The customer turned towards the direction that everyone was running from and everyone followed them out, looking in the same direction.

“Oh god…” Sero mumbled. Smoke plumed into the sky from down the road, cars were flipped over and fires raged. Down the road, they all saw it. There was something large, something almost monstrous was raising blocky arms and bringing them down. Each strike made the ground below them shake and rumble. Whatever it was, they could hear it laughing maniacally. 

It enjoyed this chaos.

“Uh, maybe we should leave!” Sero panicked. Kaminari and the customer nodded, albeit Kaminari nodded in a much quicker fashion. The only one who stayed silent was Mr. Hiroshi, who kept his eyes forward.

“No. I have to stay.” He mumbled. The three of them looked at him bewildered.

“WHAT? Do you not see that? I don’t want to die! I don’t want you to die! Let’s just go and let the pros handle this! Please sir!” Kaminari pleaded. He tried to grab Mr. Hiroshi and pull him with them but the man’s strength was beyond what Kaminari expected. He couldn’t pull him away or even make him budge.

“And wait for what? That thing to see my store and destroy it? My work! I’m not going to leave them!” He yelled aloud. 

“So what, some animals are better than your own life?!” Kaminari retorted.

“Yes! I won’t turn my back on them!” Mr. Hiroshi turned around and yelled at Kaminari's face directly. 

“Uh guys?” Sero weakly spoke up, slowly pointing towards the direction of destruction. They turned just to see whatever was causing the destruction to leap far up in the air. Their form appeared humanoid but it was too bulky to make sense. But that form was getting larger in the air…

“MOVE!” Mr. Hiroshi acted before Kaminari could process that the mass had leapt towards them. He turned to the three of them and pushed them back. Where they stood was obliterated almost instantly. The cracking of the pavement behind them boomed in Kaminari’s ear before the dust kicked up and obstructed his vision, then he fell onto the hard pavement. The group slowly recovered as the shadowy figure stood and chuckled towards them. Kaminari watched as its bulky form slowly devolved into a slew of slithering ribbons retracting into the body of a tall and built adult.

“Well, some morons didn’t get the memo. Perfect.” The figure stepped out of the smoke. Kaminari couldn’t tell if it was his fear or something greater but he could just feel the malice emanate from him. He had spikey blond hair, wild red eyes and a malicious grin. His frame was well built, wearing only a sleeveless red shirt and baggy cargo pants. 

The villain looked at the four of them as they watched him. Mr. Hiroshi stood and got in front of them all, whether it was an attempt to defend them or sacrifice himself first was beyond Kaminari. The villain tilted his head, clearly amused at that.

“Ah, I see. You got that fire in ya. Great! I can’t wait to see that blood splatter!” The villain threw his hands out and Kaminari watched as ribbons of red muscle exploded from his arms and legs. They wrapped around him like a suit, forming that bulky mass that they had seen earlier.

Mr. Hiroshi took a step back. He clearly didn’t see that as a result of whatever he was going to do regarding the villain but whatever he was going to do in response didn’t happen. Something whizzed past them and whatever it was, it took a chunk of the villains of the upper arm off. The villain looked down at his injured arm, bewildered, before that sadistic smile appeared.

“Oh, some heroes, huh?” He turned around and his arm quickly recovered by growing more ribbons to replace what was lost. The turn gave Kaminari a quick glance at who had come to their rescue. His heart fluttered when he saw Water Hose standing there. Their faces were etched in anger, water forming spheres in their hands.

“Muscular! You’re going back to prison and you’ll answer for the crimes you committed here!” One of the pair, Mr. Izumi yelled out. Muscular only laughed in response.

“Is it really that bad to kill a few people? Seriously, who’s going to miss out on some lonely computer store worker or a few couples? If you want to stop me, try then.” He offered the pros but Kaminari focused on the words he said to them.

Computer store owner? Could that Mr. Shinoda? But he directed Sero here only a few minutes ago! There’s no way he could be gone. Sure he was further up the street but there was no way he didn’t run, right?

Fear took its grasp over Kaminari's entire body. To think that some villain took out someone like Mr. Shinoda, his friend, turned his legs rigid and created a gaping hole in his stomach.

“Is that how you see it? Human life is something so fickle that it's just for your amusement?!” Mr. Izumi yelled once more. Muscular only continued his laughter.

“Of course, haven’t I proved that? They died after I got to ‘em.” Kaminari felt sick from the conversation. The prospect of being a hero didn’t seem so grand right now if this is going to be the situation he’d encounter. He wanted to flee but his fear stopped him.

“You’re insane. We’re going to make sure you’ll never see the light of day again.” The venom coming from Mrs. Izumi chilled Kaminari. He never knew they could be so vengeful. They were always happy whenever they went by the store. He remembered how ecstatic they were about their son and how they planned to come back with them to show them around the store.

“Alright then, let’s play a game. Your goal is simple. Put your money where ya mouth is and stop me. But ya gotta stop me from killing you and them!” Kaminari didn’t like that and neither did Mr. Hiroshi. The speed of most of the group was astonishing to Kaminari. Before him or even Sero could react, everyone else moved. Muscular moved to try and smash them all in an instant, Mr. Hiroshi managed to somehow get the two of them out of the way and Water Hose managed to leap into action, sending a torrent of water to grab Muscular.

“YOU TWO NEED TO GET OUT! RUN, GET THE CUSTOM-” Mr. Hiroshi stopped his scream as he looked around haphazardly. “Wait, where did they go?”

 Kaminari and Sero looked around to spot their accomplice but the large man was gone. When he managed to get away, he had no idea. Kaminari couldn’t even smell him anymore. Something grabbed Kaminari’s arm and began to pull. Kaminari’s brain panicked and thought the villain had grabbed him but it was Sero. He took Kaminari to hide behind a car that had managed to avoid the chaos and remain preserved as Mr. Hiroshi went somewhere else to hide.

They collapsed to the ground when they finally got their entire body behind the car. The two began to hyperventilate at the situation unfolding behind them. Each yell, each blow, every time the fighting made itself apparent made them flinch.

“Dude, what the hell? I wasn’t expecting this!” Sero cried out. The two held their heads, bracing for each rumble that came from the fight raging behind them. “We haven’t even graduated middle school yet.” He complained.

“I’m going to die young without ever getting a date! There were so many things I wanted to do! Get world records in some games, eat at every restaurant! I wanted to apply to UA! Now, I’m going to die before that can happen!” Kaminari groaned in desperation. Sero looked over to him, slightly confused.

“You want to go to UA too? Heh,  that’s ironic.” Sero seemed calmer but his form and face  remained stressed and rigid. “Just look at us, huh? We want to go to the top school for heroes and here we are, hiding behind a car from a villain.” He sarcastically joked as cackling rang out behind them, silencing them.

“Where are you brats!? I know ya haven’t gotten far!” Muscular yelled at the top of his lungs behind them.

Kaminari and Sero looked at each other slowly, terrified. The sounds of the conflict had quieted down, leaving Kaminari to start overthinking.

‘Did Water Hose fail? Were they dead? No, they couldn’t have died right there. It was a two versus one fight! They had powerful quirks. There wasn’t any way they could have died.’ Kaminari told himself. Against his better judgment, curiosity wanted to know what happened.

He slowly raised his head over the edge of the car. The other side looked like a warzone. Instructure was cracked or just ripped out of the ground and bent. Everything was dripping in water with puddles forming in the cracks and indentations of the ground. There were darker puddles and stains dotted across the area but Kaminari would rather ignore those and their origins.

Musucalar stood in the middle of it, himself dripping with water and blood. Water Hose was nowhere to be seen. 

“Where did you go? Come out and fight me, you cowards! Show me that strength you were boasting about!” Muscular yelled out. “You fled? Maybe then I was right! I’ll just kill those brats to prove it!” Muscular began to turn around but Kaminari quickly ducked back down. Sero stared at him in bewilderment and confusion.

“What are you doing!? Trying to kill us? He’s looking for us now!” Sero quickly hushed. Kaminari’s mind was racing. Hopeful thinking began to slow his heart and calm his nerves. He looked at Sero with a happy but worried glee.

“I don’t see their bodies! Water Hose must still be alive! And if they’re alive, maybe Mr. Shinoda is too! They probably saved him earlier! We’ll be fine, I bet they're just using the chance to ambush him and stop him in one fell swoop!” He gushed.

Beepbeepbeepbeeeep!

The two fell silent as a series of beeps resonated from them. Kaminari slowly raised his arm and pushed his sleeve back to the watch. The blue lines were rapidly flashing now as the beeping was speeding up. It was cultivated in the watch glowing a bright green on every part of it. Kaminari watched, and felt, the watch morph out of the sleek watch. It grew in width as the face plate grew to accommodate for the larger size of the watch. The material turned from a plastic to a coarse leather as two straps grew along the edges, creating some excess material on the top. The light died down and Kaminari was utterly bewildered.

The watch went from something he’d believe techy upstarts wore to something he’d see on motorcycle riders in those really old American movies he’d occasionally find and watch. The lines forming the hourglass changed from a blue to a light yellow color, contrasting the dark leather.

“What the actual heellll?” Sero slowly said. They didn’t have time to process the event before the car was lifted up, a dark shadow looming over them.

“THERE YOU ARE! I was wondering where you brats were hiding! You should really keep your phones off if you don’t want to reveal where you are.” Muscular taunted them as he held the car well above his head. Kaminari and Sero were paralyzed in fear with him looming over them.

Water began dripping off Muscular onto Kaminari as he shifted his hold on the car. “Shame I guess. After you, I just have to find the old man. Now, killing him will be great!” Kaminari’s brain went into overdrive as his instinct and more likely, his fight or flight, took over. He slowly raised his hand and opened his palm. He jabbed at the stomach of Muscular before he could bring down the car onto them.

‘The water should make this hurt a lot more! Water Hose’s quirks with mine should be enough to win!’ He told himself, his mind in a frenzy. He waited and searched for that spark he felt deep down to pull forward.

But wait, why couldn’t he find it?

He waited on his sparks to fly. He waited to feel the similar tingle from a current leaving his fingertips. All he felt was the disgusting wet muscle fibers writhe underneath his palm. Everyone else was puzzled as well.

“Eh? Are you trying to do something? Heh, pitiful. Guess I’ll just put you out of your misery then. And oh, don’t think about running from this. I want to move on from this and get to the old man.” The muscle fibers around Kaminari’s hand extended out and wrapped around his hand, securing it in place.

‘Why isn’t it working?’ Kaminari thought. The world around him faded away as he focused on his hand under wraps. ‘I’ve never had trouble activating my quirk, it was only control that I had problems with. Am I just that terrified? No, that’s not it, is it? Wouldn’t this be a perfect time to activate?’ Everything was going dark. Maybe it was the car lowering onto their heads. 

‘Is this what death is like? Nothing works?’ He begged to himself.

He could feel something happening. He felt something else collide with him, ripping the muscle fibers containing his hand. In the split second he regained his senses, the car collided with the pavement. Kaminari blinked, realizing he was standing safe in the arms of Mr. Hiroshi.

He looked bewildered at him but realized something was wrong. He was panting heavily from the exertion. He was more amazed at his speed and strength for an old man but perhaps that was a result of his quirk. Whatever it was, it seemed to be the thing keeping them from dying but it didn’t look like Mr. Hiroshi could keep it up.

“Why did you run? Why did you reveal yourself! Why did you put your hand on him!?” Mr. Hiroshi yelled at them. Kaminari waved him off to defend himself.

“I- I tried to use my quirk and…” He looked down at his hand, trying to create a spark. “I just can’t. I can’t create anything.” The idea of his quirk stopping started to feel almost as terrifying as death to him now.

“What’s that?” Mr. Hiroshi asked, ignoring his plight. Kaminari followed his gaze and stared at the watch. He turned his wrist over to see the faceplate and an idea dawned on him.

His quirk stopped working the moment the watch changed. There wasn’t any way that was why his quirk stopped, right? 

He began to tug on the straps to release the watch but they didn’t budge. He began to try to push the watch off his wrist but that didn’t budge either. He tried to physically pry it off but all he felt was the sensation that the watch was pulling his skin.

“I can’t get it off… I can’t get it off!” He began to panic and frantically tug it off. “It won’t budge!” Sero leaned over and tried to help but it didn’t move either with both of them pulling on it.

“Kaminari, what the hell is this thing?!” Sero asked. Mr. Hiroshi stared more and pushed the two aside to try himself. “I think this watch is what’s stopping my quirk from activating.” Kaminari quickly explained. Mr. Hiroshi nodded as he tried to remove the strap. Kaminari felt his grasp on his arm. Besides the wrinkly and somewhat papery feeling of his hand, the strength he felt reminded him of his father or someone who was an athlete.

“Old man! There you are! I was wondering where you went! Good, I don’t have to put much more effort into killing you!” Muscular turned to them but paused. Kaminari and Sero saw him and tried to move but Mr. Hiroshi had an iron grip on Kaminari. He seemed oblivious to Muscular, fully devoted towards Kaminari’s leather manacle.

“Oh what, a damn watch is more important than me? Ignoring me is a biiig mistake.” He smugly raised his fists above them once more. “Well, this is goodbye.”

“Yeah, for you!” 

Almost everyone was surprised as Mr. Izumi slid between them and Muscular. He was much worse for wear but his hand had a bubbling sphere of water. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as Muscular tried to get out of the way but he acted first. He raised his hand abruptly, launching the sphere upwards with the motion twisting it into a spear.

The spear skyrocketed but with Muscular trying to dodge, all it did was graze the left side of his face. The azure blue of the water was quickly replaced with the crimson of blood as Muscular howled in pain. He stumbled back as Mr. Izumi rose.

“Now honey!” He yelled. Mrs. Izumi leapt above them, equally bruised from the fight and landed on Muscular’s back. They watched as she raised her hands up and a sphere of water formed in her hands. Just as quickly as she created it, she thrust it downwards onto Muscular’s head. Soon, the bubble turned crimson as Muscular moved to try and take her off his back.

But Mr. Izumi worked faster, shooting out lines of water that pierced the arms of Muscular. He rushed forward and began to create a large bubble around Muscular’s chest, however the bubble quickly lost its clear and smooth appearance as raging currents began to ripple across it, with the same blood color taking over. 

There was a moment's pause as Muscular stood there, unable to move as he slowly started to drown and had his torso constantly ripped from strong currents. Everyone waited for a reaction. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Water Hose slowly looked at them and the two smiled.

“I think we got him. You three can rest easy now.” They told them. There was silence before Sero erupted in excitement.

“We’re saved!” Sero cheered and Kaminari sighed in relief. It was over, they were alive. He looked to Mr. Hiroshi, who was still working on getting the watch off.

Kaminari was about to say something when Mr. Hiroshi pressed all the buttons in unison. Kaminari watched, marveled, as the faceplate slid back and a cylinder popped up from seemingly nowhere. It had the same circuitry as the safe and the hourglass carried over to the core, only this time filled in with yellow.

“Aha! There we go! I found the lock switch.” Mr. Hiroshi cheered. Kaminari just looked at it puzzled. There was something inside that told him that may not be the actual release but he couldn’t think of a reason beyond gut instinct.

“Sir, I don’t know if that’s the release. It doesn’t feel right.” Kaminari remarked.

“What else is it supposed to be then? Why don’t we just try it?” He reasoned, letting Kaminari go. Kaminari nodded and looked down at the watch. Well, he had no other ideas to get it off beyond using knives. He walked down the road a little bit and sat down on the curb, with Sero and Mr. Hiroshi following suit. 

“Well, here goes nothing I guess.” He mumbled to himself. He looked over at Water Hose, who was still containing Muscular in the two bubbles. He exhaled briefly before looking back down. 

Freedom and quirk, here we come.

He brought his other hand up, closed his eyes and pressed the dial down. A warm glow erupted from the core that he could feel even without seeing it but there was something that felt off about it. While he did lose the feeling of the watch on his hand, he didn’t feel or hear it fall off. 

It was only a brief flash but Kaminari felt different. The air felt colder on his skin and he couldn’t really explain it but he just had the feeling of multiple arms. He felt like he was holding his wrist, his side and the pavement of the road all at the same time.

“Kaminari? You uh…You uh… Hmm, how do I say this? You uh, might want to get professional help on getting rid of that watch thing. Or not, who knows?” Sero mumbled. Kaminari slowly opened his eyes to look at the duo. Sero was both amazed and terrified while Mr. Hiroshi was contemplating something while staring at Kaminari.

Kaminari’s eyes slowly drifted downwards and his breathing stopped. That feeling of multiple arms? It was because he DID have multiple arms. Except they weren’t arms. They were tentacles. His legs and arms turned into translucent blue tentacles while a third pair of tentacles sat by his side. His entire torso was replaced by layers of blue skin. Along his body ran white jagged markings that were reminiscent of lighting. Kaminari slowly moved, at least what was, his hands up towards his head and felt his face.

All he felt was a metallic badge where his mouth would be.  The only other thing he could feel on his head outside of his eyes were a series of frills that went down the middle of his head. No nose, no hair and no ears. As far as he could tell, there was nothing human left with him.

“What in the ever loving!? What did that watch do to me!?” Kaminari tried to stand as he shouted out in disbelief but his whole body wobbled. He moved his arms around in frightened curiosity, each one felt fluid and rubbery. Perhaps the worst part is that it didn’t feel all that awkward to move them. It was as if he had been this way his entire life.

“Well, it appears to have turned you into some sort of sea creature. Judging from your movements and tentacles, I’d assume you turned into a humanoid octopus.” Mr. Hiroshi concluded.

“O-Octopus!? Does that mean I’m going to suffocate? I don’t wanna die like that. I’d want to die in a different way! Like reaching old age!” Kaminari complained. Mr. Hiroshi sighed in annoyance.

“Are you breathing now?”

“I mean, I guess?” Kaminari thought.

“Then you’re amphibious likely. You’ll be fine.” Mr. Hiroshi reassured him. Sero turned towards him after his reasoning.

“You think it’ll be reversed? Not to be mean, but this form is kinda eh looking.” Sero lightly pointed at Kaminari. He rolled his eyes. “Wow, thanks for those great words of encouragement and faith bud.” Kaminari bluntly said. The two chuckled at his antics while Kaminari’s eyes drifted towards Muscular again.

His heart stopped.

Muscular’s hands had Water Hose’s upper bodies in their grasp, making them seem small, akin to dolls. They struggled to free themselves as their bubbles slowly dripped away, leaving a maniacal, panting Muscular to gleefully smile at his accomplishment. His torso was able to recover quickly from the torrent bubble being dropped but the left side of his face was stained in red with a deep purple gash running up the left side of his face and over his eye.

“You know, that was a pretty good move. You almost got me. That was so damn painful but you damn pros, should have gone for a kill instead. If ya did, I wouldn’t have had the ample time to figure out where exactly you were on me. So, you’re just idealistic morons huh?” Muscular taunted as he brought the two of them close to him.

“P-Please don’t…” Mr. Izumi choked out. Muscular brought him up close and leaned his ear towards him. “Hm, what was that? I didn’t catch that. My ears are a little clogged with water right now, so why don’t you speak up?” 

In a twisted sense of humor, all Kaminari heard a sick crack as the two heroes locked up with expressions of immense pain etched into their faces, unable to speak from the pain. Muscular waited for them to say something despite knowing they couldn’t and smiled.

“Hmm, maybe my grip is a little hard. Why don’t I change it?” Muscular asked before grinning. His arms shot up and the two heroes were flung up. Kaminari watched in horror. He knew what was going to happen but he felt motionless to stop them. Muscular adjusted his hands and when the pros fell past them, he slammed them down.

Hard. 

He raised his hands and admired his handy work. The heroes didn’t move. They all watched in paralyzing fear as a puddle of blood seeped around the heroes, solidifying their deaths to the three of them.

Every hopeful thought Kaminari had was gone. The form of Muscular loomed over them. He stepped over their bodies, slowly making their way towards them.

“They put up a good fight but now it's your turn.” He looked at them before becoming slightly confused. “Huh? Where’d the yellow haired brat go?” He stared at Kaminari before smiling again. “Ah, so this was your quirk. You just turn into some dumb fish?” He scoffed at him.

“I’m getting hungry after all this. Why don’t we go for a spin?” Kaminari or Mr. Hiroshi barely reacted as Muscular surged forward and grabbed Kaminari off the ground. Muscular’s grip began to crush Kaminari. He struggled to move as Muscular leaned in, grinning. Kaminari got a good view of his damaged face. His left eye was almost completely glossed over and bloodstained. If Kaminari had to guess, he couldn’t see out of it.

The smell of blood and wet hair wafted into Kaminari’s nose. He grunted, trying to free himself. Muscular chuckled at his struggles. “Hey hey hey, you don’t have any bones to crush. I wonder if you’ll just explode into a puddle of goo!” He cheered in excitement. 

“Rather…not find…out.” Kaminari slowly spoke out. Muscular opened his mouth to speak again but something entered his mouth. Muscular’s eye widened as he instantly tried to spit it out but couldn’t for whatever reason. He tried to turn his head towards his left but another item flew through the air and landed on his working eye. 

Kaminari twisted himself over to see Sero standing there with a smirk and raised elbows. “Told you my quirk was cool.” He remarked. Kaminari didn’t know if he had a mouth but he was definitely smiling. He turned back to Muscular and thought for a second. How was he going to get out of this and escape?

He closed his eyes and focused. Maybe he could do some cool octopus stuff? He didn’t know what they could do but maybe if he focused like his quirk, he could just feel some untapped potential.

He focused, ignoring the pain and the idea of Water Hose. He tried to feel his entire body and then there was a sensation that was just irreplaceable.

A spark.

He could feel it in his skin, the tingle of electricity. He could sense it in every fiber of his body now, the feeling of a current. He opened his eyes and stared at Muscular’s soaked body and he knew what to do.

‘I don’t care if I go over my limit, I gotta fry him! At this point, using my quirk has gotta be legal right? For Water Hose, for Mr. Shinoda!’ He focused on that spark and forced it to grow. The feeling intensified and soon it erupted. The yellow electricity he had grown to become so attached to was now blue and covering every inch of Muscular. His body locked up as he howled in pain.

Kaminari felt it too. The sensation of pain. He never felt it from his quirk or any other electricity for that matter, maybe a blessing from his own quirk. Maybe the water was altering the current but inside, Kaminari didn’t care. Inside, he felt hot. Anger was taking over, increasing his output. The glow of electricity grew, far brighter than he ever produced before. He didn’t care about his shortage that’ll follow. He just wanted to put Muscular in his place.

His electricity continued until Muscular’s grip on him lessened. Kaminari stopped his output and Muscular collapsed to the ground motionless, his ribbons of muscle slowly peeling and retracting. Kaminari crawled from his grasp, the last remaining sense of adrenaline pushing him forwards. The three waited for another twisted joke in Muscular’s endurance.

Moments passed and Mr. Hiroshi walked forward. Kaminari held his breath as Mr. Hiroshi leaned down and examined Muscular’s face. He moved around the face, checking the eyes, nose and throat. He looked over at Kaminari before standing.

“Good news, he’s knocked out. Bad news, he isn’t dead. Although, I’d rather you not have blood on your hands kid…” Mr. Hiroshi said. Sero looked back at Water Hose with sadness etched into his face.

“They died, protecting us…” Sero mumbled to himself. Mr. Hiroshi lowered his head in shame in guilt. Kaminari laid his head down, staring at the sky. His body felt sore but there was another thing he noticed.

He didn’t feel dumb.

His body outputted anything beyond what he was capable before but he’s still stable. He didn’t short circuit. He began to chuckle as the realization dawned on him. The watch, while turning him into a monster, gave him a stronger quirk.

“So Kaminari, how are you feeling?” Mr. Hiroshi took a seat next to Kaminari as he laid there, sirens filling the air.

“Like I don’t want to come to work for a while.” Mr. Hiroshi silently nodded, looking off into the distance. “You know, the store didn’t take much damage and you’re fine. I would say that’s a win but,” He looked around before sighing and looking down. “I guess that would be a little vain for me to say.”

“So how are we going to explain this?” Sero leaned over Kaminari, blocking out the sky from him. “I don’t think we can explain to your parents that their son turned into a giant octopus and-”

“Jellyfish.” Mr. Hiroshi corrected.

“Sorry, jellyfish. How are we going to tell the cops that you got a watch that turned you into a weird animal?” Sero asked. Kaminari tried to think for a moment but was interrupted by some beeping. The badge on his face began to flash red, surprising everyone with Sero backing off. Kaminari braced as the speed of the beep increased and cultivated into a red flash.

He kept his eyes closed but could feel something different. He could feel clothes on his body and hair sway on his forehead. He opened his eyes to Sero examining him up and down. 

“Well, guess that solves it. It’s only temporary it seems.” Kaminari struggled to raise his arm and was greeted by a human hand. He looked at the watch to see if it was still there. He immediately noticed that the stripes of the faceplate had changed color to red. That probably meant something specific but he didn’t know. He turned his hand over and focused, searching for that all too familiar spark.

Nothing happened.

“You know, on second thought, I don’t know if I wanna mess with this thing for now. I’m tired.” Kaminari groaned as he dramatically dropped his arm on the pavement. 

“Yeah, I think I want this day to be over too…” Sero quietly agreed.

Chapter Text

No matter how long he stared at it, Kaminari’s ceiling didn’t change.

He laid on his bed, motionless, staring up at the ceiling. His mind was drifting as it had been for the last few days. A few days ago, the most revolutionary event happened to Kaminari. He thought back towards that day. It started off well but ended in blood.

Shortly after he transformed back from that jellyfish body, the authorities and medical professionals arrived on the scene. He was taken on a stretcher to the hospital from some of the blunt force trauma he had received. As he was taken to the hospital and wheeled into the main lobby, he remembered seeing them cart away Water Hose’s bodies to attempt to save their lives.

Later that night, he saw the report where they were officially declared dead. Severe head trauma, shattered spinal cords and internal bleeding is what was declared to have killed them. They were praised over the television as it seemed the impact Kaminari had in defeating Muscular wasn’t recognized by the authorities and it wasn’t like Muscular was in a condition to reveal that to the public, as he was carted away to a far more secure prison than he was in before.

On his side, Kaminari’s recovery was fast but by the morning of the next day, the police wanted his side of the story. So, Kaminari gave it. He told the events of the day almost word for word, excluding the part of him turning into a jellyfish. When the medical doctors heard, they couldn’t believe their ears.

It seemed like a fairy tale to them to learn for some device to not only be unable to be removed by someone but to also stop someone from using their quirk in it’s entirety. So, they did blood work and tests. 

For starters, they managed to confirm Kaminari’s suspicions. The watch couldn’t be removed. He watched them do everything. They tried removing it in the conventional way. Didn’t do anything. They tried using quirks. No reaction. They even moved onto using scalpels and scissors. The silence that followed from the tools either bending or full on shattering was deafening. Following that attempt, they did an x-ray on Kaminari’s arm to see what needed to be done.

And they confirmed another thing Kaminari had a feeling of, the watch was actually bound to his flesh at a molecular level. When he asked them if they’d be able to actually remove it, they theorized it was possible but it’d result in permanent damage to Kaminari’s arm.

That was terrifying news to receive.

But then came the blood tests, which basically confirmed his worst nightmares.

They searched high and low on Kaminari’s DNA and could not find any of the strands that were responsible for his quirk factor. While that was heartbreaking, they revealed something else.

They discovered unknown genetic material in those missing spots that they stated was close to what the quirk factor was. While they had no idea what it could mean, Kaminari worried if that meant he’d die. He was relieved to hear that regardless of the genetic anomaly he had, his DNA was currently stable so he didn’t have to worry about any genetic mutations or any other damages.

Kaminari asked what would happen to him without his quirk factor besides just being labeled as quirkless. He remembered the doctors giving him a long lecture, something about how most electric based quirks functioned through the nervous system and how with how his quirk was stated on official records, it was possible his nervous system could suffer from not properly sending out electric impulses?

Whatever it was, it wasn’t something he thought sounded good.

For the next day or so while Kaminari made his final stages of recovery, the doctors visited him constantly. They were testing around the clock with varying sets of tests. Some were normal, like hearing. Others were weirder, like them having him block an eye and say what an item was that they held out in front of him.

On the fourth day, the doctors deemed him fit enough for his parents to make a decision. Either Kaminari could stay at the hospital for longer to receive more care should anything arise or he could return home and resume life.

His parents decided that he’d return home.

And that was how the last few days had been. His parents would periodically check in on him, the worry from the villain attack and hospitalization stopping them from seeing him ate away at their souls. He had gotten time off from school and work to recover from the event so he mostly just laid there in bed, contemplating everything.

He hadn’t gotten in contact with Sero since that day, nor did he get into contact with Mr. Hiroshi. He’d imagine they had their own issues to deal with over him.

Kaminari still had his own issues.

He lifted the watch above his head before dropping his hand on the bed in exhaustion. He hadn’t dared deal with the watch since he turned back. It removed his quirk, it bonded to him and the temporary transformation made him feel turned off about the whole thing. He didn’t really want any part of it now since it seemed more of a glass cannon than he had felt when he had his own quirk.

Not that he really knew how to work it beyond just pressing all the buttons and pressing the core down.

“Kaminari? Can you come down for something to eat?” His mom’s voice echoed from downstairs. 

“Yeah, I’m coming.” He replied.

He got off his bed and walked out of the room. He slowly walked down the hallway and made his way downstairs. There, his dad was sitting at the table with his mom preparing some small meal in the kitchen. Kaminari made his way to the table but there was a knock at the door.

His dad looked up and his mom stopped her meal prep. They were quite before the door knocked again. “Kaminari, could you go see who that is?” His dad asked him. Kaminari slowly nodded and made his way to the door. He slowly reached down and pulled the door open, leaning out to see who was there.

And he almost had a panic attack if he did see the whole form of the person in front of him.

Standing before Kaminari was a mountain of a man. His form nearly filled out the entire door frame with muscle and height. If it wasn’t for the tanned complexion and neat dark hair, Kaminari would have thought it was Muscular here to finish the job.

“Iis this the Kaminari residence?” The man asked in a deep tone. Kaminari slowly nodded. “Salutations. My name is Yosuke, I’m the medical investigator in charge of your case from the Best Jeanist agency.” 

Kaminari looked at his clothing, a dark leather jacket and equally dark jeans. Yup, fits.

“Wait, Best Jeanist is in charge of the case? I didn’t know that.” Kaminari questioned.

“Yes, he took over the case as part of the carnage caused in your situation and a few favors he owed to the heroes. If you have any doubts in my words, here is my license to compare.” He held out a plastic card to Kaminari, a hero’s license. Kaminari scanned it over to double check. The school system grilled into their heads how to identify faulty hero licenses so vigilantes and villains could flaunt around fake licenses to escape the law.

Everything on it looked legit to Kaminari, nothing jumped out as off.

“Who is Kaminari?” His dad appeared behind him and saw Yosuke. “Oh. Hello sir, anyway can we help you?”

“Are you his parents?  I’m in charge of your son’s case and I would like to talk to you and your partner about your son.” He asked.

“Uh, sure. I’m sure we have enough food.” His dad gestured for him to come in and Kaminari almost laughed at the prospect of the man having to duck to enter the house. The three entered the main room as the mom questioned the tall man.

“Greetings, my name is Yosuke and I’m in charge-”

“Of Kaminari’s case. Yeah, I heard the first two times you said it.” His mother replied. Yosuke looked defeated but regained his composure. He stood while Kaminari and his father sat down at the table.

“Would…Would you like to sit down?” His father asked.

“Only if you would allow it.” Yosuke stated. Kaminari kinda blinked in confusion. They all stood in silence before he got the idea. He awkwardly sat down on the opposite side of the table, seeming to take up the same amount of space at the table as the two of them.

“Would you like any food or are you fine without anything?” Kaminari’s mom asked as she headed towards the table.

“Your hospitality is greatly appreciated but I am fine. Now, I would like to talk about that day the villain attacked. Would you be fine with that?” Yosuke asked Kaminari. He gulped and slowly nodded with his mother taking the other side of him.

“Then let’s get started.” He opened his jacket and pulled a folder. He opened it up and pulled a few papers from them and neatly stacked them near him. He pulled one out and scanned it over.

“Now, the damages from that villain attack have almost been completely fixed, with only some of the electrical and piping infrastructure being needed to allow the resuming of business.” He blandly rambled on.

“What about Mr. Shinoda? Is he fine? Please! Tell me he at least made it out safe.” Kaminari pleaded. Yosuke blankly stared at Kaminari before switching what paper he was reading. He scanned the sheet over before setting it down.

“I’m sorry to say this to you, but this Mr. Shinoda appears on our missing person report from the accident.” Kaminari’s heart sank.

“He really is dead? Not even a body?” He asked.

“They are slowly identifying the bodies. But the damages caused by the villain were so extreme, that without any physical identification of their person, we need to either use medical practices or quirks to identify bodies.” He explained.

“How many do you have to identify?” Kaminari’s dad asked.

“In our reports, we have 34 confirmed casualties, 7 missing and 26 injured. So far, we’ve identified 30 of the casualties and are still searching for 2 of the missing people. We’re expected to have the remaining bodies identified by the end of the day.” Yosuke solemnly stated.

“And what about the villain?” His mom asked.

“He’s placed in one of the top facilities in the country and is waiting to stand trial. In the meantime, his ranking has increased to A for easier identification of danger.” Kaminari blinked as a question formed in his head.

“Sir, when did Muscular start his rampage?” Kaminari carefully asked, dreading an answer he knew was coming.

“It would be about three hours before his capture.” He responded. “Are you asking because you may have been able to avoid the danger from the alerts?” Yosuke took the words out of Kaminari’s mouth.

“Do not blame yourself for the destruction he caused, Kaminari. It was not your fault. You were a child in a situation you did not have a grasp on. You mustn't blame yourself for the death of the heroes. They gave their all to stop that villain. Honoring their legacy by moving on is all we can do now.” Kaminari was silent, processing those lines. Sounds like something Mr. Shinoda would tell him. Kaminari could feel his throat getting scratchy as his eyes started to water. He felt the firm hand of his mother on his shoulder, comforting him.

“Don’t cry Kaminari. You did your best. Especially with the lost of your quirk. I’m sure those who lost their lives would have been more saddened if you were the one to pass instead.” His mom reaffirmed him. 

“On to the next topic, your quirk. The blood tests from the hospital have been studied by quirk specialists and they’ve figured out what happened to you.” Yosuke mentioned, sliding the paper he had to the folder. Kaminari looked up, feeling more grounded from the prior information to process what was going to come next.

“So what happened? We heard the story of how this watch he wears now is the reason he lost the quirk, I assume that’s not the full story?” His dad asked. Yosuke put his hands together and nodded.

“Quirk specialists have studied your blood and come to the conclusion you’ve experienced a rare mutation called Quirk Forced Mutation. It is an exceptionally rare condition in which the quirk factor is damaged through intense stress and deliria. It doesn’t remain damaged as the quirk factor would then rapidly regrow and change from the increased adrenaline in the body.” He explained.

“Like cancer?” Kaminari’s dad asked. Yosuke nodded.

“Yes, in the very few cases we have of this situation happening, the victim of Quirk Forced Mutation will suffer fatal growths and quickly die as the rest of the body would not be adapted to handle the new quirk factor.” 

“I’m sorry, what?” Kaminari asked.

“However, it’s reasoned by the quirk specialists that the watch your son is bonded to stabilizes this condition into something that can be controlled. May I ask, how did you come into contact with this device?” Yosuke gestured his hand towards Kaminari, who was getting the attention from everyone.

Well, time to spill the beans. Hope he lives through this.

“Wellll, I was looking through some old boxes because I was bored and I found a safe. Inside was the watch but it didn’t look like this! It looked like a sports watch before then it changed in a green flash. Other than that, they’d probably know.” Kaminari pointed at both of his parents who looked shocked.

“Wait, you actually managed to open the safe? Damn, uh, I’ve been trying for years to open it!” His dad said. Yosuke then turned to them.

“Would you like to explain how you discovered this watch?” He asked the two.

“Well, uh, we won it at a carnival when we were still in college. It was a really tough ring toss game being hosted by this American scientist. I managed to win the jackpot and he gave me the safe, saying what was inside would be useful!” His mom quickly explained. “Trust me, we have never been able to open the safe so we had no idea what was inside. But, I guess if it saved our son, I’m glad we got it.”

“So wait, some scientist just handed you this?” Kaminari asked.

“Who knows? Maybe he had an insane precognition quirk. Maybe that was why we couldn’t open it. He wanted someone who’d be affected by the Forced Quirk Mutation to have it so they’ll be safe.” His dad reasoned.

“Well, I guess. It still feels weird.” Kaminari mumbled. Yosuke only nodded as he moved to pull out a paper. He slid it towards the three of them and folded his hands.

“In front of you is an apprenticeship offer. As part of this case, we’ve looked into your case and come to learn you’ve put in an application to U.A. a few months prior, is this correct?” Yosuke asked Kaminari.

“I’m sorry, U.A.? We haven’t heard ANY of this, Denki.” His mom growled at him.

“It was uh, a personal decision.” Kaminari mumbled. His dad only sighed in some form of disappointment but his mom was more annoyed at the revelation. Kaminari felt slightly discouraged from that but he continued the conversation with Yosuke.

“I mean, I did but I don’t have a quirk anymore that I can really use so I don’t- Wait, did you say apprenticeship?” Kaminari’s heart skipped a beat with the realization. Yosuke only nodded and smiled.

“Wait, you guys are offering to teach him?” Kaminari’s mom asked.

“Correct. In light of your pursuit to become a hero and the bizarre condition surrounding your quirk, the Best Jeanist agency has extended an offer of an apprenticeship under me, where the next few months will be spent learning your new abilities and preparing you for the exam to enter U.A.”  Yosuke explained and offered towards Kaminari.

Kaminari couldn’t believe it.

‘Training under a pro! Not only that, but a pro connected to Best Jeanist! This is so cool!’ Kaminari could only help but excitedly nod to Yosuke’s offer.

“One more thing, we have reports of another potential attendee at U.A., Hanta Sero. Do you know anyone by that name?” He asked Kaminari.

“Sero? Oh yeah, I know him. I haven’t been able to talk to him for a few days though.” He stated.

“Would it be possible for you to give him the message? If your parents agree to our offer, we’ll meet at the quirk training ground in the Chiba prefecture in two hours. Both you and Sero.” Kaminari nodded before turning to his parents.

“Please, could I? This is like a one in a million offer! Maybe I could learn how to use my new abilities!” He begged his parents. They didn’t seem as sold on the whole offer. Yosuke butted in before his parents could say anything regarding the offer.

“Pardon my rudeness, but if your parents are having any doubts, I would gladly give more information to them while you contact Hanta Sero.” Kaminari smiled before pushing himself away from the table. He eagerly made his way upstairs while his parents and Yosuke started to talk. He ran to his room and picked his phone off the desk. 

Now that he didn’t have his quirk, it was weird to remember that his phone had to be on a charger now. He quickly unplugged it and opened the idle conversation him and Sero had.

“ Hey. Are you there? ” He typed. He paced around his room, waiting for a response. Then, his phone buzzed. 

“ Yeah, I guess. What’s up? ” Kaminari relaxed. He wasn’t sure Sero was ever going to respond after all of that.

“ A pro is at my door. He’s offering to teach us because of the incident.” He sent another reply, waiting for Sero to respond. 

“ Really? Sick! When? ” He asked.

“ Two hours at a quirk training camp at Chiba. ” Kaminari said. He waited a few moments, leaning near his door to see if he could hear anything regarding the conversation between his parents and the pro. Whatever they were talking about, they were keeping it quiet.

Bummer, he’d like to hear how it was going for his favor.

“ Sure. Be there then. ” Kaminari pumped the air in excitement. 

“Yes! Sero said yes!” He yelled down the stairs. He rushed down the stairs to his parents and Yosuke looking at him. “Uh, he said yes.” He reiterated. Yosuke chuckled and returned his attention towards his parents.

“I should get ready for later. Thank you for your time.” He stood up, leaving Kaminari worried that the talk had gone south. He watched the tall man leave their home and he slowly made his way to the table.

“So uh, how did it go? You said yes right?” Kaminari questioned.

“Kaminari, is being a hero the path you want to walk? You’ll meet villains like Muscular, you’ll lose people like Mr. Shinoda. Are you sure you’re ready for that path?” His mom asked him. Kaminari thought about it for a second. While it’s true there was a fear he had of meeting someone like Muscular again, there was something else for Mr. Shinoda.

“Yeah. I can’t just stand around when I had a powerful quirk. You know, being a hero is cool, plus, I can help people. Maybe prevent something like that from happening. I’d love to receive some training from a pro before I attempt to attend U.A.” He argued for his case. His parents looked at each other before smiling.

“You know, he reminds me of him.” His dad said. His mom slowly nodded.

“Who?” Kaminari asked. His dad looked at him.

“An old friend from college. He isn’t around anymore but he had that same train of thought.” His dad explained. 

“Oh, is he uh, is he, you know?” Kaminari stumbled.

“He moved abroad. We haven’t heard a word from him in the last 12 years. But beyond that, if that is really what you want, then I guess my approval won’t go to waste.” His mom said. 

“Wait, you said yes? Oh my god, thank you guys! You don’t know how much this means to me!” Kaminari cheered. His parents only chuckled. 

“Well, don’t die again!” His dad cheered.

…

Kaminari expected more from something called a quirk training camp. He expected something like a building but standing in front of something that could have easily doubled as a park wasn’t what he had in mind.

“So how does this work? I’ve never gone to one of these before.” Sero chimed. 

“Well, how it works is simple. You sign a few waivers at the front and then you go into the camp to practice your quirk. Can’t be harder than that.” Yosuke explained as he led them forward.

“Yeah, but what’s stopping someone from using their quirk like a criminal?” Sero asked.

“Well, the waiver. There’s also a few personnel on the grounds who are registered pros so they can deal with any action that violates the waivers. They also serve as instructors if you need it.” He finished as the three made it to the front gate. There was a small building nearby and the three headed inside. It looked like a normal waiting room to Kaminari, just lacking the televisions to keep you entertained. 

A person at the desk looked up from behind bars and waved them over. “Hello! Welcome to the Chiba Quirk Training Grounds, raising the future of Japan. How may I help you?” 

“Greetings. I’d like to bring in me and these two young men for some instruction.” Yosuke handled the conversation. The person nodded before ducking below the desk, rummaging through something. They came back up and placed three papers on the desk and slid them under the bars.

“Name please?” The person asked as they turned towards a computer sitting near them.

“My name is Yosuke. I’m registered with the Best Jeanist Agency.” He pulled out his hero license and slid it near the bars. The person leaned over and scanned it before nodding, typing something into the computer. They tapped the paper and Yosuke quickly signed it before moving out of the way.

“Alright, and the other two?”

“Hanta Sero?” Sero stepped forward and gave his name. They typed away on their keyboard and scanned the screen.

“Your quirk is Tape?” Sero nodded and they slid the paper towards him. Sero picked up the pen and looked it over before signing his name. He moved away and Kaminari finally stood before them.

“And what is your name?” They asked.

“Denki Kaminari.” He stated. There was a moment of silence as they typed. They only stopped to examine the screen and to look back at Kaminari.

“Did you recently change your quirk on the public records? Your name isn’t appearing on here at the moment.” 

“Uh, yeahhhh.” Kaminari slowly said, unsure of the actual answer. He didn’t know what would be there but he just hoped Yosuke would have had that all sorted out.

“Alright then, just sign these papers and you three are good to enter.” Kaminari looked down at the papers in front of him. He scanned it over, noting the notable terms of not harming other people that would be in the park, no illegal weapons unless it’s tied to your quirk and just general agreements that the privilege given to them at this moment was something that could be permanently revoked at any given moment.

Now that he was reading it, it seemed like common sense to be honest.

He quickly signed the papers and the trio moved out of the building towards the training grounds. Immediately, it seemed like something Kaminari had never seen before. While he never went to one of these places because he never thought his quirk was something he had to practice with, he saw all sorts of quirks getting used.

He saw those with mutant quirks training their bodies to their limits through flying and lifting. He saw those with emitter quirks expelling their elements out over dirt patches. Walls of fire, waves of water and gusts of wind danced throughout the field. As Yosuke walked through the field away from all that, Kaminari’s eyes drifted towards a black haired student who was just repeatedly punching a single boulder, over and over.

‘Huh, weird.’ He thought to himself as they moved on. Yosuke marched towards a treeline that surrounded them all. Kaminari and Sero looked at each other as Yosuke entered. Both of them shrugged and followed after him, walking over exposed roots and small brambles that grew on the forest floor.

After a few moments of walking, Yosuke brought them to a more secluded area of the training grounds, a clearing in the woods. From that point, Kaminari couldn’t see outside the clearing and it was very likely others couldn’t see into it.

Yosuke turned to them once he reached the center point of the clearing. “Alright, so before we can begin, have you figured out how to transform, Young Kaminari?” He asked.

“I mean, yeah. I pressed the buttons and pushed the thing that pops up. Then I turned into a jellyfish.” Kaminari explained. Yosuke slowly nodded.

“Have you done anything else with the watch?” He asked. Kaminari blinked in confusion.

“Huh? What do you mean?” He asked Yosuke. Yosuke brought his wrist up and tapped it with his other hand. “Perhaps a reason why you seem to lack any knowledge on the watch is due to you failing to explore every possibility. Have you tried to see if there is a touch feature?”

Kaminari thought about it. He never thought about it like that so he looked down. The faceplate was smooth but he didn’t think it’d be able to do anything. He shrugged, why not? 

He pressed the faceplate and held his fingers there. To his amazement, a hologram popped up. The main focus was a holographic 3D form of the jellyfish form. But the part Kaminari was more focused on was the ring surrounding it.

It was a ring that was divided into two parts, a darker top part and a lighter half with a square in the center. Inside that square was the face of the jellyfish form but on the sides of the jellyfish were other faces.

‘No way, hold on. Is there more on this thing?’ Kaminari slowly swiped on the face plate and the entire interface changed. The ring rotated to a form possessing a crown and the 3D image changed into a large insectoid.

“Hold on, I can turn into multiple things!?” He shouted in disbelief. He looked at Sero, both of them having wide eyes. 

“Do it!” Sero egged on. Kaminari nodded eagerly and pressed the buttons. He brought his arm up and slammed the core down. The watch flashed a bright yellow, engulfing the group.

Kaminari felt different, mainly because he felt a little taller. When the flash died down, he looked down at himself. His skin turned hard and sickly green, forming a hard exoskeleton. His legs greatly lengthened with his feet gaining sharp claws.

“Wow, this feels strange. Kinda off in a way.” Kaminari chirped to himself, moving his legs up and down while observing his thin arms.

“Hmm, this might be a result of the Forced Quirk Mutation. The watch can control the specific mutations your quirk undergoes to create transformations. At least, that is the working theory.” Yosuke chimed. 

“From emitter to transformation? Aren’t transformation quirks rare? That sounds cool, to be honest.” Sero said. Kaminari nodded and looked himself over. “I wonder what I can do with this one! Maybe he can do some cool plant stuff!” Kaminari exclaimed.

“While you figure that out, Young Sero, could you use your quirk?” Yosuke asked Sero.

“Sure, you want me to swing around the trees or perhaps try to hit things accurately?” Sero responded, raising his elbows to show his determination.

“No, I just want you to constantly use your quirk. I’d like to know your limits before I try to teach you any technical skills.” Sero blinked in confusion.

“What? But that’s boring! I thought I was going to learn some cool tricks.” He complained. Yosuke raised a finger to silence him.

“Discovering your limits is the first step to strength. Then, discover ways to circumvent your limits. Only then will you learn where your true strength lies.” Yosuke explained slowly. 

“So I need to figure out my quirks limits before I can learn how to do fancy tricks?” Sero asked, confused. Yosuke nodded. “Yes, failure to learn your limits and circumventions will ruin the potential you otherwise have and bring dishonor to yourself.”

“Oook then, I’ll get to work.” Sero slowly walked away from the two. Kaminari looked at Yosuke with excitement. 

“What should I do?  Figure out what this form can do?” 

“Exactly. I would like you to try to become familiar with your powerset in this form. Then, I want you to spar with me.” Yosuke finished. 

“Wait, spar? Why?” Kaminari asked. It didn’t seem reasonable to try and fight. Wasn’t Sero just told to use his quirk? Why wasn’t he told the same thing?

“Sparring with me will allow me, and you, to learn what your ingenuity and individual limits are. Think of it as a more applied approach to what young Sero is doing.” He explained to Kaminari.

“Ok, that makes sense. Now, to figure out what this form can do.” Kaminari told himself. He closed his eyes, searching inward. He felt nothing. He tried searching deeper, maybe it was just actually deeper in his being.

Nothing, it felt like his normal appearance.

‘Maybe it isn’t something like a quirk ability?’ He opened his eyes and looked at his legs. It all clicked after that.

“Oh, I’m just dumb.” He realized. He looked upwards as he prepared to jump. He was some grasshopper so he probably just could jump really good. He braced himself and jumped.

He certainly wasn’t thinking he’d jump THAT high up.

He heard the ground break from underneath his feet as he quickly soared above the treeline. The weightless feeling of the leap made Kaminari’s stomach churn. He looked down when he reached the apex of his leap. 

‘Oh, the ground is really far. I’m probably going to die.’ He thought as he began to fall. 

“WAIT, NONONONO!” He yelled as he began to flail to find some way to brace for impact. He put his arms out and legs, in just any way to save himself. He closed his eyes. Maybe this form was durable enough to survive this fall! 

He did feel him hit something, but it wasn’t the ground. He slowly opened his eyes and looked up. Yosuke was staring him down in his arms but his face was just disappointed.

“Grasshopper’s legs typically have the strength and durability to resist the shock from the leaps they can take. Please remember that the next time you jump.” Yosuke told him flatly. Kaminari chuckled nervously as he got out of his arms. Yosuke walked back a few meters and then gestured to Kaminari to come. But it wasn’t an invitation to follow.

It was a taunt to attack.

Kaminari looked at the ground from where he leapt from, there was a small crater that was created from the sheer force of his initial jump. “Uh actually, are you sure sir?” He pointed to the crater and Yosuke nodded. 

“Worry not, I’ll be fine. You’ve come to realize your ability so now we’ll give you some practice in applying it.” Kaminari nodded. Well, if he said so.

He brought himself low and prepared himself to leap forward. Maybe if his legs were that strong, maybe he could get a good kick in? Yeah, that seemed like a good idea. Yosuke watched his movements but he didn’t take any stance in preparation.

“Here I come!” Kaminari yelled as he lunged forward. He brought his leg up to see if he could deliver his kick. Yosuke remained still and Kaminari flew closer. He smirked as he got closer. This has gotta hurt him.

There was a moment of silence as Yosuke turned to his side as Kaminari got closer. Kaminari flew past him, awkwardly catching himself.

“Try to not make your movements so obvious.” Yosuke pointed out. Kaminari grumbled as he got back into form.

“Try to use your head, your form in jumping makes you slower in flight.” Yosuke advised. 

Did he actually mean his head? Usually that’s a metaphor but he didn’t know what else he’d do with his form. Alright then, maybe his head is strong enough to really hurt something. He poised to leap headfirst and Yosuke prepared for the attack.

Kaminari leapt forward in a burst of speed. Yosuke easily dodged once more and Kaminari soared to the tree line. There was a crunch of tree bark as his head collided with a tree. He caught himself in his leap as the tree collapsed by his side. He looked down at the tree in shock while rubbing his head. He saw the destruction his head caused with the leap but he didn’t feel any pain in his head, only a slight tingle on his crown.

‘Oh, so I can do that.’ Kaminari began to smile. That was kinda cool. Instead of just having some cool ability, he has pure physical power. He was like a battering ram that just happened to chirp when he talked.

He turned back to Yosuke, who lowered his guard but invited Kaminari to attack once more. Kaminari’s grin grew. He revved himself up for another leap, his high making his mind lapse over the potential damage he was about to cause the pro.

He leapt forward anyway.

And was that a mistake.

Instead of hitting something he thought would be squishy with a hard interior, it felt like Kaminari just slammed himself into a solid concrete wall. His skull erupted in the most painful headache he had experienced in forever as Yosuke grabbed Kaminari’s shoulders. He barely had time to process Yosuke not only being unfazed by his attack but also Kaminari being thrown over his shoulder and onto the ground behind him.

Kaminari collapsed onto the ground in a painful thud as Yosuke loomed over him in a shadow. “Are you alright?” He asked Kaminari. Kaminari groaned as he rolled over to get up.

“As well as you can feel like smashing your head against a wall. How are you so durable? I just went through a tree without feeling anything!” Kaminari chirped as he stumbled, trying to get the world to stop spinning around him.

“Well, to your credit, you did knock me back a meter or two.” Yosuke chuckled. “But that would be a result of my quirk, Duraskin. Makes my skin as tough as diamonds. I figured you finding the limit of your strength as soon as you found it, would lead to your growth. My apologies if that did greatly injure you.” He told Kaminari.

“Wish you told me from the get-go so I didn’t do that…” Kaminari mumbled. Yosuke let out a hearty chuckle at that comment. “Well then, let this be a lesson to you! Learn your opponents strengths and use that against them!”

“Uh, sir?” Sero croaked behind them.

The two turned towards him standing before a small pile of his own tape. His arms were shaking and his face was starting to turn red. Kaminari began to worry that he was hitting his limit and it was a more painful downside for Sero than it was an embarrassing downside for Kaminari’s old quirk, but Yosuke only gave a thumbs up.

“You’re doing great, Young Sero. Take a break if you need it but I would like you to try and reach that point again to solidify this discovery. Otherwise, try to push through until you truly can’t continue anymore.” He asked Sero.

“You know, I think I'll take that break. So, how’s this cricket body? I heard you leap and make a tree fall down.” Sero questioned while walking away from his mess.

“Hmm, perhaps we need a name for your form, don’t you think?” Yosuke pointed out. “They are your quirk so giving these many forms titles might help with identification.” 

“You really think so? I think saying Jellyfish or Grasshopper is alright.” Kaminari asked.

“Well, it’s the same issue with quirks. Without the user’s unique title towards it, how hard would it be to refer to a specific hero's fire quirk? Why don’t you come up with names for your forms?”

Names? He can do that. He thought about it, tapping his foot to think. Maybe he could make a pun name? Puns are fun. Plus, being an edge lord wasn’t fun anyway.

“Hmm, how about Krickett! Get it, because it kinda sounds like kick and cricket at the same time.” Kaminari cheered.

“Kaminari, with all due respect, that name sucks.” Sero deadpanned. 

“What!? That’s a great name!” Kaminari retorted.

“Hmm, I see what you’re going for. A pun on the animal and it’s ability. Then why not the name Crashopper? Sounds similar to Grasshopper but is easier to hear the joke you want in the name.” Yosuke said.

“You know, actually.” Kaminari thought about it. “I like that name. What about the jellyfish? Hmm, what would be a good name? Jellyfritz? Feedback? Surge? Amps?” Yosuke looked disappointed at the name choices but snapped at the end. “Actually, that last one could work. What other traits does this form have?” Yosuke quickly asked.

“Well, he’s blue? I don’t know if you could do anything with that.” Kaminari slowly said.

“You’re a moron. Uh, I remember your boss said you’re amphibious right? Uh, wait, that has amp in the name. Why not that?” Sero realized. Yosuke pounded his fist into his palm as the message dawned on him at that moment.

“Ah! Ampfibian! That would be a fine name for your form.” He reasoned. 

“Wow, a lot better than what I was going for. I was just going to go with Amphibious.” Kaminari bluntly stated. The two stared at Kaminari before turning to each other and sighing.

“There is a good reason they always say a pro should help the students with naming. Guess this is what we learned today.” Yosuke said to the two of them.

“Who would have guessed my physical strength would increase at the expense of my mental health?” Kaminari sarcastically chirped.

“My bad, Young Kaminari. I did not mean to degrade you. Now, why don’t we try some more training for the both of you?” He asked them. The two looked at each other, Sero taking a glance down at his shaking elbows.

“I guess. This is going to suck.” Sero grumbled beneath his breath.

The next few minutes were relatively similar to what they were trying before. Kaminari was trying to hit Yosuke, although now a good chunk of him missing was a result of not wanting to give himself a migraine again. Sero was behind them, slowly spraying more and more tape.

This went on for several minutes. Kaminari began to tire when he began to hear a beep again. He looked down at his badge as the yellow interface flashed red. The beeping led to a flash of red, where Kaminari felt his body revert to his normal human self. Yosuke relaxed from his defensive stance as the wave of exhaustion hit Kaminari like a truck.

“Hmm, perhaps there is a time limit to your quirk now. Or perhaps it’s based on your endurance. We should look into it.” Yosuke commented. 

“Maybe I could fight through the soreness, ya know? I don’t feel that bad.” Kaminari said. He began to reach for the watch as Yosuke raised his arm to interrupt him but something on Yosuke’s person began to ring. 

“On second thought, let’s see what this is.” Yosuke told him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. He raised it to his ear and went silent as the call began. He mumbled in agreement to a few things that came from the other side.

“Alright, I’m on my way.” He replied before quickly pocketing his phone. He looked at Kaminari and Sero and bowed his head.

“My apologies but I must cut our time short. I’m required to report for Best Jeanist as soon as I can. Something came up. I’m sorry I’m leaving you two.” He apologized profusely.

“I mean, you have work to do. I guess we can find ways to train ourselves.” Sero concluded. 

“I will find a way to contact you later, perhaps when our timing can be uninterrupted by others. Have a good day.” He bowed to the two before making his leave with haste.  

When his hulking form faded into the treeline, the two stood there awkwardly.

“So uh, want to go see what the other people are doing?” Sero asked. “I don’t really want to work on just shooting tape right now and I don’t really know how I can help with your own thing. Maybe we should get with someone else to practice.” He suggested. 

“Sure, I wouldn’t mind. I’d think Yosuke would probably want that above anything.” Kaminari responded with a nod. The duo began to walk out of the treeline and made their way into the open area where everyone else was training.

Kaminari scanned the area more closely this time, looking at everyone else in the park. Sero poked his side to get his attention. When Kaminari turned to him, he gestured towards the closest person, the black haired teen punching the boulder.

Kaminari and Sero made eye contact. Sero only shrugged, seemingly to say “Hey, it’s the best I got.” Kaminari rolled his eyes and the two approached the teen. As they approached, Kaminari got a closer look at the teen. He saw that their knuckles, while red, were more rigid than what should be possible. Underneath each blow, Kaminari could see each strike was making the cracks on the surface of the boulder lengthen.

The teen noticed them as they got closer. He turned his attention away from the body to look at them. “Uh, hi?” He questioned as they stopped. Sero was the first to wave.

“Hey! My name is Sero and this is Kaminari. We came here to train with an instructor but he left to go deal with something. We were wondering if you could help us, or help you, train!” Sero offered. He seemed to think it over before he straightened his posture.

“I mean, I guess. Do you have quirks that allow you to be… tough?” He questioned the last part as Kaminari watched the hardened knuckles retract into something normal.

“Oh, you got a transformation quirk! Just like Kaminari!” Sero cheered before gesturing towards him. Kaminari didn’t even have time to process that before he was put on the spot. The other looked at him with a small smile, showing rows of jagged teeth.

“You do? What can you do?” He asked Kaminari.

“Oh, watch!” Kaminari pulled his sleeve back and moved to press the buttons for the core to pop up so he could turn back into Crashopper but he was met with a beep that sounded like a denial. He looked down and pressed the button again to see if he had just done it wrong.

“Are you kidding me? Why isn’t this thing working? It worked a bit ago.” Kaminari grumbled.

“Did you recently just transform?” The other teen asked. Kaminari looked up and nodded.

“Oh, well, with me, sometimes my quirk just has a limit for how long I can hold it for so you’re probably on a cooldown before you can use your quirk. Although, I haven’t heard of a quirk that needed a watch to transform.” He reasoned.

“Oh, that watch allows Kaminari to focus on his forms, I think.” Sero stated.

“Forms?”

“Yeah, I can transform into a few things. So far though, all I’ve learned is that I can turn into a giant jellyfish and grasshopper.” Kaminari explained. The other teens' expressions became somber as he looked at the two of them.

“Wow, that sounds cool. My quirk is kinda bland in comparison. I can just harden my body. It’s not really the flashiest.” He held up his hand and the two watched as his fingers developed edges and came to a point. “I can’t harden very much so far or is it very durable enough but I’m trying to work on it getting better.” 

“Oh, that looks cool, uh, wait sorry. What’s your name?” Sero asked.

“Oh, my name’s Kirishima. Eijiro Kirishima. And you really think so?” Kirishima asked.

“Yeah! I mean, I can only shoot out tape so I guess in appearance, your’s is cooler.” Sero reassured him. “Plus, I mean, Kaminari turns into a giant bug. I think getting sharp skin is cooler than that!” Sero joked.

“Oh, very funny. Remember, I could have more forms!” Kaminari remarked. Kirishima looked at the two puzzled.

“Is this something you guys always do?” Kirishima asked.

“Nope! That would be the second time.” Sero chimed.

“Wait, how long have you guys known each other?” He asked the two quickly.

“This is the second day we’ve hung out.” Kaminari mentioned. Kirishima looked at them before smiling. “Sick. That’s real friendship right there!” He cheered. Kaminari and Sero looked between themselves before turning back to Kirishima.

“I guess.” Kaminari shrugged. 

“Hey, how long do you have for your cooldown?” Kirishima asked. Kaminari looked down at the red interface. “Uh, no idea.” He answered.

“Oh, well, then could I see your tape?” Kirishima asked Sero. Sero nodded, producing a small piece from his elbow slowly. He handed it to Kirishima, who took it and observed it. He hardened his finger and brought it across the side, slowly cutting it in half.

“Well, I can at least practice cutting if that’s needed.” Kirishima shrugged. Sero seemed to not like that idea given how bad his elbows felt but he didn’t need to pray for help because that moment was when there was a chime from Kaminari. The three looked down as Kaminari checked the watch. The interface had changed from red to yellow, exciting him.

“Ok, now it’s working! So, Ampfibian or Crashopper?” Kaminari asked as he pulled up the holographic interface, surprising Kirishima. 

“Wow, I’ve never seen that before with really anything!” He leaned over and glanced at the faces on the ring. “Ten faces. Wow, you really got lucky.”

“Well, not really.” Sero said. Kirishima looked at him but Sero only shrugged. “Listen, it’s a long story and I was just briefed with it on the way here.” Kirishima seemed to take that as a reasonable answer so he looked back at the ring.

“Hmm, what about that one?” Kirishima pointed to a face on the ring that had a cone shaped head and a reptilian face. Kaminari turned the ring towards that one, landing on a form of something that resembled a humanoid dinosaur that was leaning forward.

“That one? Sure.” Kaminari pressed the buttons and let the flash envelope him once more. His body hunched over as scales, claws and a tail grew on him. His skull hardened into something that resembled a helmet. When it died down, he opened his eyes and looked at the amazed Kirishima.

“See? Pretty cool huh?” Kaminari blurted out. Kirishima looked him over and gave a thumbs up. “Yeah! So what can this form do?”

“No clue!” Kaminari cheered.

“What? What do you mean by that?” Kirishima asked.

“He only got this like a week ago.” Sero explained. Kirishima turned his head quickly as Sero shrugged again. “As I said, long story.” 

“Well, we can always figure it out!” Kaminari cheered. He turned around and looked towards the treeline. He walked over as far as he could towards the treeline in an attempt to create distance between him and the others. “I think I’ve got an idea on how to use these forms now so let's see.” He focused to see if he could feel the same spark that Ampfibian had.

All that happened was something slid down onto his face.

“Ack! What is this?!” Kaminari tried to touch his face to remove whatever slid down but it seemed locked in place and his own claws made it difficult. He struggled to try and pry it open but to no avail. He sighed in defeat and tried to reason what it could be. It seemed to be a visor, with everything tinted yellow. He turned back to Sero and Kirishima and gave them the best he could for a thumbs up.

“I’ve got a visor thing!” He cheered.

“Hey Kaminari, I have a theory about your ability like this.” Sero pointed out. “Try to run to us.” Kaminari nodded and got what he assumed was the most effective position to run. 

‘Ok, whatever he’s thinking, it’ll be fine. I’ve got this.” He told himself. 

He started his sprint towards them. Even though the distance between him and the others wasn’t great, it took him a second to get to the two of them. He stood in front of them and waited for them to say something.

But then he noted that they were still staring blankly ahead. He didn’t have time to ponder as suddenly, chaos seemed to erupt at once.

He felt an intense wind rush over them and dust basically exploded off his feet. It created a cloud that enveloped the three of them but Kaminari’s visor kept all of the dust from hitting his eyes. When the dust settled, Sero and Kirishima’s hair were messy and dirt covered their faces. They were coughing as Kaminari tried to ponder what he even did.

“Wait, what happened?” Kaminari asked as he looked behind himself. Sero’s cough was the first to die down or at least he was the one who decided to fight through it.

“Figured. You got super speed. You were moving way too fast to try and move your visor off.” Sero coughed out.

“Wait, he’s got super speed?” Kaminari asked.

“Wait, I heard this. Don't those who have super speed have faster perceptions? I think I remember Ingenium talking about that once.” Kirishima pointed out.

“Oh, that explains why you guys didn’t react to me getting to you.” Kaminari reasoned. Kirishima looked at Kaminari and then looked at himself.

“Actually, how strong do you think you are?” He asked, raising hardened arms. Kaminari got the idea and he looked at his arms. While his upper arms were thinner, his forearms were thicker. He also had those sharp claws, he guessed.

“Uh, I think I can do something?” He answered. Kirishima rose his arms and braced himself.

“Hit me.” 

Kaminari nodded and brought his arm back. He struck Kirishima, sparks flying off as they met. Kaminari waited for a reaction from Kirishima to continue.

“Again!” Kirishima shouted. Kaminari nodded and brought his arm back.

He stuck again, again and again. Every time, he waited to hear any confirmation that he needed to stop. After several blows, there was a moment of silence as Kaminari watched Kirishima’s hardening soften on his arms. He looked down at them and sighed.

“I hoped I could do a few more hits but, I guess thanks for that. It’s really helping out.” Kirishima said calmly, although he seemed a little disappointed in himself.

“Hey, don’t be hard on yourself. You’re doing great.” Sero reassured him.

“You really think so?” Sero nodded. “Now, I was thinking we should spend the next hour messing with Kaminari.” He smirked.

“I’m sorry, what?”

…

The trio walked out from the park to the streetside. It was a few hours after Yosuke had left but they were all laughing.

“Cellophane? What even is that?” Kaminari chuckled.

“No, it’s a real thing! It’s like plastic wrap. I thought wrapping something up with tape would need some name to fit that!” Sero laughed along. Kirishima tapped his shoulder.

“Dude, your quirk is a lot stronger than I thought. Those tapes are hard to pull apart.” He complimented.

“Yeah, I was surprised. Crashhopper barely had the strength to pull them apart. I get it now. I get why you boosted your tape back at the arcade.” Kaminari said.

“Oh, yeah, that reminds me. Why didn’t you try out a fourth form? You had the time.” Sero asked Kaminari.

“Huh, with how long the transformations and cooldowns were, it never occurred to me to try another beyond the three I know. I was just trying to show Kirishima the ones I knew.” Kaminari shrugged. Kirishima turned around, sniffing the air. The conversation stopped as the other two turned towards him.

“Hey, do you smell that? Smells like rotten eggs.” Kirishima asked. The three stopped to smell the air. Kaminari got the small whiff of something foul but he couldn’t place it like Kirishima had could.

“Hey, who’s that?” Kirishima gestured. The three saw someone approach and Kaminari immediately recognized them.

It was the customer from the store.

“Wait, it’s you!” Kaminari shouted. The man got closer to them and stopped a few meters from them. He smiled and bowed his head to them.

“Hi, we meet again,” He said. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again. But, I’m glad you two made it out.” He seemed to notice Kirishima when he finished but he smiled towards him.

“Hello, are you a friend of these two?” 

“Uh, yeah. Do you guys know each other?” Kirishima asked the two.

“I mean, we met each other a while ago but the circumstances weren’t really ideal…” Sero trailed off, thinking about the situation.

“We didn’t see you after a bit. Glad to see you made it out alright.” Kaminari continued. The man nodded.

“Yes, although I still stayed close enough to observe everything. Before I continue, may I uh, have you name kid?” The man asked Kaminari.

“Oh? Kaminari. Nice to meet you.” Kaminari nodded.

“Ah, Kaminari. I must say, you used the Omnitrix well!” Kaminari blinked. The what now?

“I have to repay you for helping to save my life, so why don’t you two come down to Undertown? I mean, if it’s no problem for you guys. You can even bring your new friend!” He offered. The three looked at each other confused. Undertown? Kaminari had never heard of a place called that.

“Uh, sure sir. I guess we have the time.” Kirishima said for the group, who only nodded in response.

“Great! Uh, if you follow me, I’ll show you the entrance I take. It should get us into the main part of town.” He rambled on, turning his back to them. He walked forward, and the trio walked slowly behind him, keeping their distance.

“So, if he tries anything, you transform and we just use self defense to beat anyone in a  fight, right?” Sero whispered. 

“Yeah, he can’t be worse than,” Kaminari paused. “You know what, he can’t be that bad. He’s just a smelly plant person. We could take him. How awful could this get?” 

Chapter Text

Being taken to the woods from a stranger was starting to get weird and suspicious to Kaminari. The distance they were walking while the man was trying to find something to generate small talk about weird topics was too far for Kaminari to consider this to be a kidnapping. At least, from what he heard at least.

It cultivated in the group arriving at a large tree with a gnarly trunk that casted a large shadow from the setting sun. The man that was leading them stopped abruptly. The trio braced themselves for something as he turned around towards them.

“Well, here we are! It’s just down here.” The man said, walking towards the tree. Kaminari held his breath in preparation but he lost it in confusion as he watched the man just walk into the tree in a blue shimmer.

“Whhhaat? Maybe it’s his quirk?” Kirishima whispered. Sero slowly approached the tree and reached out. His hand sunk in with the same blue shimmer. Sero slowly pushed himself in, vanishing from their view entirely. Kaminari and Kirishima waited for what felt like an eternity.

It was a few moments but Sero’s head popped back out but he was amazed with what he apparently saw. “Guys, you might want to see this.” The two looked at each other and nodded towards Sero. They walked towards him and slowly walked into the tree.

Walking into the false bark didn’t have the feeling Kaminari was expecting. He thought it’d feel like walking through a stream of water but his skin just tickled and felt fuzzy. On the other side, Kaminari saw what Sero was talking about.

While inside the tree, the entire thing acted like a window from the inside, a clear view of everything around them as if the tree wasn’t even there. In the middle of the tree though, was a stone staircase that descended downwards, covered in dirt and various foliage that wasn’t fooled by the illusion of the tree.

“Oh. This isn’t suspicious at all.” Kaminari said.

“Yup, this isn't going to lead to a lair.” Sero responded. 

“Hey, you guys coming?” A voice yelled down the stairs. The trio looked at each, sighing and starting to walk down the stairs. Only a few steps down, Kaminari began to look at the walls. He noticed that there was some weird looking technology that looked jury rigged together embedded into the wall that hummed in power.

‘Is that what’s making the tree?’ Kaminari wondered. ‘I didn’t even know something like that could be possible without a quirk. Maybe it is actually part of a Quirk?’

 “So, how is this place?” Sero cautiously asked. Kaminari didn’t know what he was trying to do since It made sense, atleast to him, that the person wouldn’t willingly disclose whatever this area is.

“Oh, it’s great. The Farmer’s market a few days ago went well and there’s a puckel game in a day. I’d recommend you guys see that.” Kaminari and Sero gave each other a puzzled glance at that. Puckel? What in the world is that?

“Yeah, that sounds fun.” Kirishima chimed in.

The two looked at him after his response. He shrugged in response, seeming to be genuinely interested in that offer. The plant person lightly chuckled.

“Yeah, it’s a small team but they put their all into it. Gotta admire that.” He told them. “Ah, looks like we’re almost there.” He informed them. Kaminari peered over his large form and saw that one of the walls ended, leading into what Kaminari assumed would be a hollowed out room.

Oh, how wrong he was.

It was safe to assume the three of them had their jaws drop when they walked past the opening and saw a cavern housing a sprawling town inside. A river ran through the middle of the cavern, splitting the town in half. Kaminari’s eyes drifted, spotting several houses and ledges built into the walls of the cavern, increasing the sheer scale of the town they found. 

The three remained in quiet awe as they finished their descent down the stairs. The buildings were now within arms reach and towered over them. The man led them through streets that were barren and silent. A few vehicles were parked alongside the road, having weird names etched into the sides. Although, there weren't any wheels on them that Kaminari could see.

They walked towards an open area next to the river, where there were two bridges, each leading towards a different direction on the other side of the riverbed.

In front of them was a large building with a clock tower. It was far more decorated and ornate than the other buildings they had seen on their walk here. Kaminari glanced at the clock. It looked to be almost five.

Meaning his parents would soon be returning home. Probably should find a way to wrap this up soon.

“Well, now that we’re in the town’s square, it’s only a short walk to my residence. Then, once we become acquainted, maybe we go to Ms. Muzu’s bakery. You guys like her food, right?” He asked them. 

“Sir, I don’t know what you’re thinking but I don’t believe we’re on the same page here.” Sero pointed out. “We didn’t even know this place existed.” The plant man blinked.

“Wait, what?” 

He didn’t even get a chance for a question before the clock tower chimed as it struck the hour. They all turned to it and the plant man groaned.

“Great! I didn’t check the time! And I brought people who are outsiders! Wonderful! Great timing Eric. You grimebark.” He cursed himself. Kaminari almost questioned that last part before the sound of people got loud. He turned around and had his jaw drop once more.

He watched in horror as what appeared to be a wave of people began to walk out of buildings and walk towards them. The roar of voices got louder as the wave advanced towards them, a senseless chatter of unknowing chaos.

“And here comes the closing hour. Stick together.” The man told the three. Kaminari braced himself as the horde got closer.

They began to get swarmed as people began to make their way past him towards the other bridges. Some stopped to speak with others, some just continued on their path. Kaminari felt himself being pushed by the swarm. Elbows were pushed into him from those big and small. It was like he was trying to fight the current and was being pushed along no matter how hard he had tried to resist it.

And man, some of those pushes really, really hurt.

“Guys? Guys!?” Kaminari yelled out. He didn’t know which way he was getting pushed, or which way the others really were. It wasn’t long but the numerous shoves and jabs eventually ended almost as soon as they started and Kaminari stumbled his way out of the crowd.

Kaminari gasped for air, mainly in an attempt to recollect himself from that experience. “Guys?” he quietly asked around him. Only the numerous mutant quirk users who flooded the streets moments before were around, the entire chaotic moment having quieted down.

He looked around. He was at the edge of a street that most of the people were filing out of. He looked behind him into the massive crowd and then back to the street ahead. Maybe he could find a place to leave from? Or someone to give him directions? It was worth a shot. He didn’t want to hurt the feelings of the plant man but Kaminari was far too creeped out about the entire situation at the moment to care.

So, he turned down into the street.

As Kaminari walked down the street, he felt all the stares directed towards him from the passersby. No one around him seemed to have anything other than a mutant quirk, making him feel alienated.

Everyone was avoiding him, he could hear hushed whispers around him that he couldn’t make out but as they were looking at him as they spoke, he didn’t have to think very hard on who they were talking about.

He hurried his pace after that, pushing forwards.

The amount of people around him started to dwindle as people made their way towards the center. He seemed to have entered just a normal neighborhood, if any of this could be considered normal. 

It was still weird to him, an entire subterranean city full of mutant quirked people. Maybe they just wanted safety? He knew there were a lot of issues regarding how people with mutant quirks were treated but he didn’t know that it was this bad. To hide an entire subterranean town near a city seemed a little extreme.

He looked at the buildings around him as he walked down the barren street. They looked to be carved from stone rather than built out of any materials. Although, with the way they were carved, it made it look more like one solid shape. If it wasn’t from the small imperfections in the buildings, he wouldn’t have even thought they were carved straight from the stone.

“Hey.” A voice called out from behind Kaminari, stopping him in his tracks. He turned around to see a humanoid mantis walking out of one of the buildings. The figure wore baggy jeans, an old looking t-shirt and a long coat with boots to follow. As they approached Kaminari, he quickly noticed how hostile they seemed towards him and how they were able to tower over him even with a slight slouch.

Oh, he definitely wandered into the wrong part of town.

“What’s a human doing here? You lost?” They growled at him. He held out his hand and Kaminari watched as a blade slowly protruded out of the backside of it, growing long and wickedly sharp.

“Hey! Uh, I mean no trouble here! I’m just lost! If you can just give me some directions, I’ll be out of your hair.” Kaminari raised his hands to try and show he meant no harm but the other looked at him as if he just insulted his family name.

“Yeah, no way you found this place without help. How’d you find us? You with the human pros?” He questioned, getting closer.

“Wait, what do you mean by human pros? Aren’t we all human?” Kaminari asked. The other blinked in confusion.

“Either you’re playing dumb or you’re a moron, and I’m inclined to the second one. Now, how did you get here?” He asked again.

“I mean, if you want the story, some plant guy with a weird smell brought me here.” He looked at Kaminari as if he was trying to play a joke on him. “I swear! I’m not lying.” Kaminari added in a panic. The mantis thought for a second before squinting his eyes.

“Did you mean a Methanosian? Then why are you all the way over here? The only ones I know live on the other side of town.” He asked, pointing in the general direction that Kaminari came from.

“Methanosian? What’s that?” Kaminari asked.

“That “tall plant guy” that brought you here. Those are Methanosians.” He explained to Kaminari. He started to have the wheels in his head turn.

“Wait, are you implying that everyone I’ve seen here isn’t a- well, I don’t know what the scientific term is but human?” He asked. The other sighed in exhaustion. 

“In very basic terms, everyone here is an alien. Not human. You, an actual human, walked into a town full of aliens. Not a human lives here.” He explained. Kaminari just stopped and thought about it.

“I thought aliens were little green guys? Big eyes, small arms and big heads?” 

“Ok, you have no idea how much I’m resisting the urge to hurt you.” He said. Kaminari took a step back, showing the watch in a defensive response. 

“Don’t try me! I’ve got a quirk and I’m not afraid to use it here, buddy. Crashhopper will make quick work of you! Don’t test me.” Kaminari bluffed. He hoped he would manage to put the other on edge to leave him alone but all it did was leave him confused.

“Crashhopper? Is that the name of your quirk?” He asked.

“Well, it’s a part of my quirk. It’s the name of one of my forms.” Kamianri replied, keeping up a tough guy persona.

“Oh yeah? What does it do?” The other smirked, trying to call his bluff.

“He can hop around. And, uh, he’s got a strong head.” Kaminari faltered. Ok, now that he said it aloud, it sounded pathetic but the other guy only blinked. He looked at the watch and then back at Kaminari. Something seemed to click for him.

“Wait, hold on. This sounds familiar. Does this “Crashhopper” form have a three point crown on his head? Are they around my height with most of the height being in the legs?” He asked. Kaminari stood silent. He was kind of shocked at how well the explanation of Crashhopper was from him. It seemed he was there in the training ground to witness him using it, which was not at all creepy.

“Uh, yeah?” Kaminari responded, puzzled. 

“Have you ever heard the term Omnitrix?” He asked him. Kaminari nodded slowly. 

“Yeah, the guy who brought us here said that.” Kaminari stated. His eyes widened and the blade he produced retracted. Kaminari paused, waiting for a response.

“I thought it was just a legend. Holy shit. It’s real. I’m standing right before it.” He mumbled, slowly approaching Kaminari. He quickly took a step back and raised his hand in response, ready to activate it if he needed.

“Explain! A lot of weird things have happened today and I don’t know what is going on. I also wouldn’t mind not getting carved into next year.” Kaminari yelled. The other raised his own hands to calm him down.

“Relax, I’m not going to kill you. At least to me, you just described an Orthopterran. They’re similar to the grasshoppers you find here on earth.” He explained before gesturing towards himself. “I’m a Mantithar, a species similar to your praying mantises. We Mantithar and Orthopterrans come from the same planet.” He said.

“If what you’re saying is true and- actually, are you wearing an ID mask?” He asked Kaminari before continuing on.

“What?” Kaminari blurted. What in the world was an ID mask? The other just rolled his eyes.

“Pull on your nose. Just- just do it for me.” Kaminari slowly reached for his nose and tugged downwards. Nothing obviously happened and the other nodded.

“Alright, so you are a human. So, I’ll give a little story then, maybe this will help clear up a few things. Potentially.” He said.

“When I was younger, my mother told me stories about a device. It was something that could be worn on your body, and this device could allow one to become various life forms around the universe. This device is called the Omnitrix. Does this sound familiar?” He gestured towards Kaminari’s wrist.

“No? This is just something to help my quirk.” Kaminari explained.

“Well, explain another form you have turned into.” He asked. “Don’t give me any ability, just a physical description.”

“Uh, well, I can turn into this blue dinosaur with black scales. They got a black cone-like helmet that gives me a visor?” Kaminari loosely explained.

“Oh, a Kinercelerran? You have super speed in that form?” Kaminari blinked.

“Yeah, he does, but how did you know that?” He asked the stranger. “What sounds more plausible, coming up with a reason for the unexplained ability with quirks or having a device that allows you to turn into different species?” There was a moment of awkward silence between the two after they had finished talking.

“You know what? Forget it. Let’s start over. Hi, my name's Kamakiri. Nice to meet you.” Kamakiri held out his hand towards Kaminari. He hesitated for a moment before shaking his hand. 

“Kaminari. Nice to meet you? This is all just really weird. A weird day, I guess.” He sighed. Kamakiri chuckled.

“I’m sure you’ll get used to it soon. You said a Methanosian brought you here?” He asked Kaminari. 

“Yeah, but I got separated from him along with my two buddies.” Kaminari said. There was a look of worry that appeared over Kamakiri’s face when he said that.

“What? Why are you making that face? Wait, are my friends dead? There isn’t an alien here who’ll eat humans right?” Kaminari panicked.

“Nono, there isn’t any species here that eats humans for their primary diet.” Kaminari sighed in relief. “But there are species that consider humans a delicacy.” 

“WHAT?” Kaminari yelled in shock. Kamakiri gestured to him to bring his voice down. “Just hope your friends were found by the nice people here. As for you, you don’t need to worry. You got the Omnitrix.” He pointed towards his wrist and Kaminari looked at it.

“I can bring you to where I know the Methanosians live but since you’re a human, you’re probably going to get looks or taken aside for food. So, if you can turn out of a human form, you won’t get as many eyebrows raised when you walk past people.” He explained.

“Oh, so I’ll just turn into Crashhopper. No problem.” Kaminari opened the hologram interface to select them but Kamakiri leaned over to look at the face plate. 

“What?” Kaminari asked him. Kamakiri shrugged. “Just wanted to see what you can turn into.” He said. He examined the other heads and nodded his head. He raised his hand and pointed towards them as he spoke to himself. 

“Hmm, I don’t know what those two are. And for that one, I don’t know how that one works here if I remember. Oh wait, is that what I think it is? Kaminari, turn to that one.” Kaminari obliged, slowly turning to a hulking form that Kamakiri wanted to see.

He quickly started laughing, which was a series of clicks and chirps, when he saw it. “Oh man, you can turn into one of those? That’s great. Oh, that’s funny. But that’d be a disaster. Hmm, oh wait! Try that one!” Kaminari turned a few more and the large humanoid form of a plant appeared.

It was the same as the person who brought them there.

“Man, what are the odds you can transform into a Methanosian? That’ll work perfectly. Try that one.” Kamikiri gently pointed downwards at it. Kaminari hesitated. Maybe there was some way, some way that with the truths behind presented were all some elaborate joke set by a magnitude of people. This guy being able to identify and find amusement in his forms? Had to be a ploy.

Maybe it was a coincidence?

Only one way to find out.

He pressed the dial down and had the feeling of light wash over him. It was starting to feel less foreign and natural now. He felt his form bulk up as his hair flared up into an array for flower petals.

When he was done transforming, he felt taller, stronger. He took a sniff, maybe as a way to confirm his suspicion or to find a way to refute everything.

All he could smell was the same rotten gas from before.

‘Ok, ok, so I lost my quirk and got the ability to become aliens. Admittedly, that’s actually,’ He thought about it for a second while Kamakiri gestured him to follow back to where he came. ‘Pretty cool? Cool? Yeah, that’s it. I can turn into aliens. Why was I freaking out about this?’ He slowly questioned himself as he walked a few meters behind Kamakiri.

‘Maybe it’s because it all happened so suddenly? But wait, then how did mom and dad actually get this thing? If it’s an alien thing, why did some American scientist have it? Was he an alien? Did he make it? Maybe I’ll ask them.’

He thought that line over for a few moments. 

‘Actually, I rather not. Mom would probably flip.’ He shuddered to think what his mom would do if she found out. He’d know what his dad would do. Probably not something a parent should do but he knew what he’d do.

“So, how does it feel?” Kaminari blinked out of his daydreaming to Kamakiri’s question.

“How does it feel? Transforming?” Kaminari said hushed.

“Yeah.” Kamakiri affirmed. Kaminari thought about it for a second, rolling his shoulder and then his wrist. Thinking about the feeling. “Hmm, I don’t really know. I’m still new to it. All I can really say is that it feels weird.” He concluded.

Kamakiri scoffed and shoved his hands into his coat. “Lame.”

There wasn’t anything beyond that in their conversation as Kamakiri brought Kaminari across the town towards where they had originally started. Kaminari noticed that no one was staring at him anymore despite the weird badge burrowed into his skin. 

Was that even the proper term now that he thought about it? Well, that’s going to hurt his head to think about now. 

Kaminari distracted himself by looking down into the river as they crossed it on one of the two bridges. The edges of the river were a sea foam green but the large center was almost pitch black.

“Hey uh, how deep is this river actually? Like 3 meters?” He nervously asked Kamakiri.

“I think it’s 30 meters. Why?” He turned back to Kaminari, who turned his head away from the river and was now firmly focused on the floor of the bridge. “Oh, of course it is.” He grumbled to himself.

Kamakiri kept his eye on him and shrugged it off as they got off the bridge. Kaminari glanced up off the ground to pay attention to where they were going as they walked through streets. To Kaminari, they didn’t look that different from the street that he met Kamakiri on from the other side.

They walked a short distance before coming onto a lone house that sat on the edge of a river bend. It was a small two story stone house, but unlike all the other houses on the street, every window was directly boarded up and seemed more abandoned than a house someone actually lived in.

“You sure this is the house?” Kaminari asked. “Looks like no one has lived here in years.” Kamakiri nodded.

“To my knowledge, this is where a few Methanosians live. Chances are, this is where the guy you met lives.” Kamakiri reasoned. “Yeah, but why does this place just look,” Kaminari paused for a moment to think of the right word to say here.

“Abandoned?”

Kaminari nodded and Kamakiri sighed. “Well, when you are a species that most other species consider to smell like shit, yeah, it’s very plausible you’re going to choose to live in the spot where you don’t have neighbors.” He theorized.

“Wait, then why aren’t you bothered by me?” Kaminari pointed to himself as he looked down to Kamakiri.

“Just like the insects here on Earth, most insectoid species aren’t bothered by bad smells. If you want to know what true rancid smells like, meet a Lepidopterran. Now those guys, those guys stink.” He said as he started to walk away. 

“Wait, where are you going?” Kaminari turned to him as he left.

“Errands? I don’t know why you’d think I’d stay.” Kamakiri told him over his own shoulder. Guess that makes sense to him. He did leave his house already to travel, he supposed.

“Well, I’ll see you again?” Kaminari asked.

Kamakiri shrugged. “I suppose. Don’t die, you moron.” He waved him off before walking away, leaving Kaminari to stand by himself in front of the door.

“Well, he’s probably expecting us, so can’t keep them waiting.” He took a deep breath and walked towards the door. Now that he was closer to the door, he could definitely get a whiff of the same smell that was coming off himself. 

“What’s this going to smell like when it opens?” He mumbled to himself as he raised his knuckles to the door. He tapped on the door a few times, listening in. He heard something stop on the other side and someone walk up to the door.

The door opened and Kaminari blankly stared into the house. He blinked for a moment before looking down, locking eyes with a child version of what he was. They looked at him with wonder for a moment.

“Dad!! There’s a guy at the door!” The child yelled into the door. Kaminari heard someone move behind them and the man that brought them to the town rounded the corner.

Kaminari just slowly waved as the man inspected him. His eyes drifted until it settled on the badge on his chest and it dawned to him. “Oh, Kaminari. I didn’t…” He paused before sighing.

“Mura, could you pick up your toys so Kaminari doesn’t trip?” He moved out of the way as the child nodded and moved past him. “Why don’t you come in? I think there is some talking we have to do, don’t we?” 

…

“Whoa.”

Kirishima slowly wandered store fronts, admiring the signs that were a mix of something he couldn’t read and Japanese. The people on the street were giving him some looks but he assumed that was an aspect of the staring.

“Who knew such a cool place was near home?” He said to himself. To think, he wouldn’t have gotten here if it wasn’t for those guys, Sero and Kaminari. He was trying to train his Hardening quirk to get its strength up to par with someone who’d be in the Hero course by trying to break stone but then those two guys popped up.

They were interesting. Kaminari had a flashy quirk but it was weird to him. He heard quirks that needed support gear to properly function but he never heard of a quirk that functioned like Kaminari’s before. Maybe it was because he preferred heroes like Crimson Riot and Fourth Kind, who were more focused on civil duties and recuse than combating villains. 

The quirk was flashy too, a transformation quirk that not only gave multiple forms but also allowed him to get even more quirks? That was so much cooler than his own. But there was something that slightly nagged him about Kaminari’s quirk.

He was inexperienced with his quirk, to a degree that was way too weird for Kirishima. Even if he only got his support gear about a week ago, wouldn’t he have some idea on what his quirk could have done or some of its limits? Maybe Kirishima just didn’t get it. Quirks were weird.

Then there was Sero. Kirishima thought he was cool. His quirk seemed way more useful to him than his own and it’s strength was surprisingly something to not scoff at. Sure, he could cut it after hardening but he was surprised that it was hard for him to pull his arms apart after they got taped together. He had to harden in order to weaken it for himself and Kaminari struggled to pull his legs apart as his Crashopper form.

Now, that was an impressive quirk.

“Wait, what is that smell?” Kirishima sniffed the air. The warm smell brought him out of his thoughts and made him remember some holidays when he was younger. Warm days and joyful times.

It was the smell of freshly baked bread and pastries. A bakery must be nearby.

‘Didn’t that plant guy say something about a bakery?’ he thought. ‘Maybe that’s where everyone else got rounded up too.’ He walked towards the smell and stopped when the smell was the strongest. He turned and glanced up.

Muzu’s Bakery.

‘Yeah, that’s the name of the place he mentioned, right?’ He glanced into the window of the small shop, various pastries were on display in the window with wooden chairs and tables creating a cozy atmosphere inside. There was a larger display that served as the counter further on inside, filled with even more pastries and breads. Behind that counter was a door that led into a backroom and a large menu that covered the back wall.

It was hard to read from the window but Kirishima was pretty sure some of those letters weren’t kanji.

He slowly moved to the door and walked in, a bell above the door chiming as he entered. “Coming dear.” A soft voice came from the back room. Guess there was someone here. Kirishima walked towards the counter, eyeing the walls as they had several planks of wood that had various imagery carved into them. Forests, mountain ranges, rivers, and seas were some of the few they had. The rest had wooden caricatures of people who had mutant quirk qualities to themselves, perhaps the town folks that visited the shop.

“Oh my, such a young fellow. What can I do for you, deary?” Kirishima looked to the counter as an elderly woman left the room. Besides the baker's apron and gray hair tied back, she had features that Kirishima wasn’t honestly expecting. Although it was wrinkled, her skin was a shade of crimson that reminded him of Crimson Riot’s hair. She had two sets of yellow eyes, although that wasn’t the only thing she had another set of as she possessed a second set of arms underneath the ones Kirishima would find normal.

But maybe the weirdest thing to him was how lean she looked to Kirishima. Even through the age, Kirishima could definitely make out some muscle mass. 

But Kirishima, that just made her look like the sickest grandma.

“Hello miss, I’m just a little lost. I was wondering if I could stay here for a moment?” He politely asked her. She gave him a kind grin and nodded.

“Of course dear, take the time you need. Would you like anything to eat?” She asked him. Kirishima patted his pockets. He didn’t have his wallet with him and he could only feel a small bit of yen in his pockets. 

“Sorry, I don’t really have any yen on me, miss. I’m good.” The elderly woman looked shocked at him. Kirishima almost felt bad because he worried that he had accidentally insulted her.

“Nonsense! You look so thin. You must have something to eat. I insist!” She began to move to the display case and scanned the shelves inside for something. “Nonono, I’m good. You don’t need to give me anything to eat.” His plea was met on deaf ears as she placed a small loaf of bread on a small piece of wrapping paper on the counter and smiled at him.

“Here, it’s small but it’s one of the freshest batches I’ve made for today!” She proclaimed. Kirishima sighed and grabbed the bread. He felt guilty about taking it without pay so he dug through his pockets for whatever yen he did have.

“No no no, it’s in the house. Consider it a gift.” She waved one her hands at him to stop digging in his pockets. “Just enjoy the meal.” She told him.

“Are you sure? I feel wrong with not paying for it.” Kirishima said. She winked at him, which was a little weird for Kirishima because half of her eyes did it, and smiled. “It’s the small things that help the world, isn’t it?” She asked him.

“I suppose so.” Kirishima replied. She flicked her hands at him in a shooing manner. “Go on, sit and enjoy it. You can relax while you wait for whatever you are waiting for.” 

Kirishima gave a small nod and sat down in one of the chairs. He looked at the bread in his hands. It was warm in his hands and felt firm. He brought it up and took a bite.

It was probably one of the better pieces of bread Kirishima had in a while. 

He sat there in silence as he looked around the bakery, at the walls and the other empty seats. “Is it usually this empty here?” He asked.

“Oh, no. In the afternoon, it gets a lot quieter. You’re the first visitor I’ve had in a few hours.” She responded. Kirishima nodded before looking back to her.

“Is it just you? I don’t know much about baking but isn’t it stressful?” 

“Oh, you’re so considerate. But, no, it’s not a problem for me.” She flexed her palms at Kirishima in unison. “It's far easier when you have a second set of hands to help you multitask.” She chuckled.

“But, I do occasionally get help from my son on the weekends when the rushes are the most extreme. He’s such a kind man.” She boasted to Kirishima. He nodded as he took another bite.

“He’s a plumber, you know?” She told him. Kirishima just slowly nodded, she was probably just boasting about her son. He knows his mom had similar moments before.

“But,” She started again, but this time with a somber tone. Kirishima’s attention was grabbed as he looked back to her as the bread in his hands was one good bite away from being finished. “I wish he chose another career path.” 

Kirishima couldn’t think about that before a voice started to speak outside. He turned to the window to see two figures pushing each other around and laughing loudly to each other. He heard a sigh from behind him.

“Those hoodlums again!” Kirishima looked back at the two in the window and watched as they just seemed to mess with each other. 

“Is there a problem with them?” He asked, setting down his bread.

“Yes. They’re always awfully loud and always pester anyone who’d want some food! I always wonder what their parents are doing to allow their children to behave in such a disruptive manner.” She complained. 

“Do you want me to go ask them to stop?” Kirishima offered. 

“Oh no, dear. You don’t have to do anything. You’re just here to wait. Let them be, they’ll leave eventually. They always do.” She reaffirmed him. Kirishima slowly stood up from his table. “Oh, it’s no deal. I’ll just ask them to be quiet at least. They are quite loud anyway.” He told her as he walked towards the door. 

“Well, be careful.” She told him as he opened the door. Kirishima stepped out, the volume from the two being exemplified by standing next to them. They didn’t seem to notice his presence as they were too absorbed in messing with each other to take note of him.

‘Ok, just going to ask them to quiet. Should be easy.’ He told himself. He slowly walked towards the two and he immediately realized something.

Both had blue and black scales while one had a pointed cone head and the other had black claws on their hand.

‘Wait, are these guys related to Kaminari? They look exactly like his fast form.’ He thought before clearing his throat. The two stopped their roughhousing and slowly turned to Kirishima, piercing white reptilian pupils staring deeply into Kirishima’s soul.

‘Ok, not related.’ He concluded. “Hi, I was just wondering if you guys could quiet down?” He kindly asked. The two looked at each other and slowly smirked.

“Heyyy buddy. Whatcha doing here?” The one with the helmet chimed as he slowly approached him with open arms. Something was telling Kirishima that he wasn’t opening his arms in a buddy manner. He was acting like the bullies that littered his middle school.

“Just asking you to be quiet. Nothing else.” The tension was building from the two, Kirishima could feel something was coming from that. He slowly hardened his torso as the other two seemed displeased in his answer.

If he was able to take Kaminari’s blows for a bit, he should be able to withstand most of their blows, even if for a bit.

“Well then, we’ll leave.” The one with the helmet closed the gap between them, standing over Kirishima, in an attempt to be threatening. Kirishima’s fist tightened. “But,” They trailed off, clenching their own fist.

‘This is it. The first test. The first time you’ll see if you’re ready to be a man. No backing down, no surrender.’ Kirishima tightened his body as the first blue blur of a blow struck, faster than he could perceive. The helmeted one recoiled in pain after striking his stomach, gritting his teeth as he staggered backward.

Kirishima expected to feel that blow, he felt the ones from Kaminari but the punch he just got barely tickled. His eyes drifted to his hand, the knuckles scraped and raw.

Kaminari had claws like the other one, right? That must be why, maybe it helps striking.

“Oh, I see. Hey Trey, want to help me out?” The helmeted one cracked the knuckles in his other hand, wincing from the feeling. The other, Trey, nodded and brandished his claws. Despite their speed, they slowly approached him, trying to impose some sort of fear into Kirishima.

‘Don’t bend here. They’re just some punks who are causing trouble.’ Kirishima reaffirmed himself, hardening his body to its limit. The others just snickered at his appearance.

“Heh, that’s rich. You’re really in for it now.” The unnamed one said. Kirishima tightened his body, raising his arms to block his face. Even if he can harden, he can’t harden everything so compiling his defense to increase its effectiveness is the best course of action for him.

They began to strike him. He could feel himself buckle under the amount of blows they were giving him but he held his ground. Whoever had the claws, he could definitely feel the blows coming from him but they weren’t as hard hitting as Kaminari was earlier. 

Even with their being two of them, Kirishima was sure he could hold his own here.

“Come on! Just fall already!” Someone yelled. Kirishima grunted, trying to keep his composure. He was starting to reach the point where he could feel it through his armor but, if it means they’ll leave the area for her, he can endure.

No chance he’ll buckle like last time.

It took a bit but their punches stopped. Kirishima lowered his arms as the two took a few steps back, panting frantically. “What…the…hell?” Trey panted through his breaths. “How is he still standing?” 

“I don’t know, but he can’t stand straight for very much longer. Come on, let’s try again.” The other suggested. Kirishima gritted his teeth and tried to harden again but there was a chime of a bell that stopped the three of them.

“Alright you hooligans, scram!” The baker came out of her bakery, carrying a wooden spoon in one hand. 

“Oh god, it’s the baker! Run!” One shouted. Trey turned to Kirishima and growled at him. “You’ll regret this someday.” And at the moment that sentence ended, the two sped off with the patter of their feet hitting the stone and dirt ground beneath them. A dust cloud was kicked off as they sped off into the distance and Kirishima took the time to relax and soften.

“Oh dear, are you alright? Oh my, your poor shirt!” She slowly approached Kirishima in worry. Kirishima looked down at his shirt, now tattered and ripped from the claws on the unnamed thug. Kirishima patted his body down, nothing felt wet or broken. That was a good sign.

“Ah, it’s fine. I’ve got other shirts. This was just a work out shirt.” He reaffirmed her.

“Nonsense, I can sew that together. I’m sure it can be done by the time your friends meet you.” She told him. “Who are you waiting for actually?” She asked him.

“Uh, my two friends and excuse me for this, but some plant guy who smells.” Kirishima told her. She took those words and processed them for a short moment. “Hmm, I think I know who you are trying to find. I believe that man you’re looking for is a Methanosian right?”

“Methanosian?” 

“An alien deary, you didn’t know that, did you?” She asked him.

“Aliens exist? Huh, that’s cool.” Kirishima smiled. She only chuckled at him. “My, you are quite the fellow. About that Methanosian, there is one who lives nearby. He’s got the cutest little daughter. It’s a shame they can’t visit here more often.” She reminisced.

“Thank you, Miss Muzu?” Kirishima asked.

“Yes, Muzu is my name. Don’t ware it out, you know? Now, let’s go fix your shirt.” She began to turn towards the door. “That’s good but could I just have the directions?” Kirishima pointed towards the direction he came but there was a hand that rested on the top of his head. Ms. Muzu was staring at him, with one hand on his head.

She smiled at him. “When someone offers you a service like this for free, you accept it. You hear?” The smile slightly grew as Kirishima started to feel intense pressure build from underneath her finger tips.

Suddenly, Kirishima knew all the reasons that those muscles weren’t at all for show.

“Yes madam!” Kirishima quickly cheered, albeit there was a tingle of pain in his voice. Her smile faded back into a kinder one. “Good, now, let's get that shirt all fixed up and you’ll be on your way.”

…

“God, what even is this place?” Sero mumbled, marveling at the sheer scale of all the scrap around them. He seemed to have stumbled into a junkyard on the edge of the cavern when he was split up from the group, how that happened is beyond him.

He was walking along what appeared to be a self made trail in the heaps of junk, surrounded by mountains of scrap and garbage that seemed to be waiting for any moment to collapse onto him.

Some of the scrap looked new, maybe just broken in a spot or two. Other’s looked like they’d be a health code violation and bring a business down under.

He continued walking through the valleys of the mounds that loomed over him. As he walked into the heart of the scrapyard, something began to echo through the crevices. Sero slowed, keeping himself quiet as he moved on towards the echoing noise.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang, followed by the sound of something large and metallic collapsing in on itself. Its abruptness made Sero flinch. Ok, maybe someone else was in this scrapyard with them.

“Let’s hope they're friendly.” He told himself. He reached a clearing in all the mess and he seemed to find the source of the noise, and whoever caused it.

Inside the clearing were three things of note. Firstly, the rundown small house on the other side of the clearing, that seemed to be slowly being engulfed by the junk. The other was what Sero assumed was the source of the loud sound he heard. It was a large block of metal, assorted with metal pipes, wheels, dials, even a few other pieces of junk was built into it.

However, Sero could tell that the ice that was growing from the inside out was very obviously not an intended effect and what likely destroyed the machine, ripping it apart.

Near the contraption was the last thing of note, two red goblin-like creatures that seemed to be arguing. While both had salty gray hair, one had all their hair on their head and the other had a full beard. Both were dressed in conventional mechanical outfits, fit with what looked to be grease stains and various burn marks.

“I told you! You overloaded it!” The bearded one yelled. Sero slowly crept into the opening and got closer to the two of them.

“I did? I thought we made it to handle producing a ton at once!” The other replied. That seemed to confuse the other for a moment before he started to laugh uncontrollably.

“We did, didn’t we? Haha, that was fun!” The bearded one said again. “What’s next on the list?” The one with the head full of hair was going to say something but that was when Sero’s presence was discovered. They looked at him and pointed towards him, awestruck.

“Great scothy! A visitor!” One cheered. “That never happens!” The other said. Before Sero could say anything, the two rushed him and started to actually climb all over him. 

“HEY! Get off!” Sero tried to swipe one of them off but they were too quick for him to get them. 

“Hmm, he’s got weird elbows!” Sero shuddered as he felt cold, scaly hands poke at his elbows and push the inside of the reels.

“Hmm, no horns so he isn’t one of those guys.” One mumbled as they rummaged through his hair.  Sero’s annoyance was starting to hit an all time high, especially when one of their tails dragged itself across his face.

“Oooo, what’s in his pocket?”

“NOPE! That’s it, get off!” Sero began to swipe wildly at whatever red he saw on his body and the two managed to get the message somehow. The two scampered off of him and stood a few meters away as Sero recollected himself.

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you any manners?” Sero snarked as he fixed his clothes and hair, making sure they didn’t swipe his phone or anything else he had on him.

“Oh, Mama Grit? Yeah! She taught us DDF!” One chimed.

“Discover, Disassemble, Fix!” The two said in unison. Sero blinked a few times. “What?” The two snickered at Sero’s confusion.

“Have you never met a Planchaküle? Hehe, this is one weird human Lathrop.” The one with a head of hair remarked.

“You said it, Emmett!” 

“Wait, why do you guys have English names? Are you guys from the United States?” Sero questioned.

“Nope! Spent most of our lives here.” The one named Lathrop said.

“So then why the English names?” Sero repeated.

“Oh, English is the most common language here right? Gotta learn the most common language before you learn the smaller ones!” They said, causing Sero to realize something.

“Wait, what do you mean by here? And you said human earlier.” Sero paused for a second. They’re referring to humans as if they aren’t that. But they have qualities that would suggest quirks. So, are they some kind of animal with a quirk? They did say something about English being the most common language here, but not in Japan. Maybe they were referring to the world as a whole? That lines up with the English thing. 

But they referred to themselves as a planchaküle, and Sero had never heard of that animal before. Was it German? It somehow sounds familiar.

“Oh, we’re aliens.” Emmett bluntly stated.

“Oh.” Sero replied. Aliens. Aliens were right in front of him. “Wait, wait, you’ve got to be tugging on my leg. No way you guys are aliens.”

“Well uh, don’t know what to tell you buddy!” They answered.

“Well then uh, what were you even doing? What’s just, all this?” He gestured towards the machine that was killed by the ice swelling inside.

“Oh that? We were trying to make a machine to make smaller ice! Uh, what did we decide on the shape?” Lathrop asked Emmett.

“Cubes! Because it’s easy to build with!”

Sero blinked.

“You guys tried to make an ice maker, and somehow blew it up.” Sero slowly said. The two looked at each other before snapping back to Sero. “Humans have something already for that? Incredible!” They seemed marveled at that revelation, making Sero deadpan.

“Yeah, we made it like 600 years ago! How did you not know that?” Sero questioned. Ok, he can believe they aren’t humans if they seem this arrogant with human culture.

“Well, we don’t really talk to people and you’re the first human we’ve talked to!” Emmett said, with Lathrop nodding. “Most people avoid us!”

Sero glanced at the machine next to them. “Gee, I wonder why.” He sarcastically mumbled.

“Wait! What about that human at the scrap yard we take stuff from?” Lathrop realized. Emmett turned towards him. “No, we avoid him, remember?”

“Oh yeah. Well, it’s been easier these last few months at least!” He chuckled.

“I’m so confused. Are you guys taking from somewhere up on the surface?” Sero questioned. “Yeah, we took some new scraps from a dump! The human running it has been busy the last few months because of some old guy in a cart bringing new stuff every so often.” Sero slapped his forehead.

“Don’t you have enough stuff here? I mean, what have you built here that hasn’t collapsed?” Sero questioned. That seemed to perk them up. “One moment!” They said in unison. Sero watched them scamper back to the rundown shack and enter. Sero stood there for a moment, hearing something crashing inside. They soon exited and stood in front of him.

“Here, we have our greatest invention!” Lathrop held up a cube towards Sero. “We call this our puzzle cube, trademark pending. Marvel at the many colors and squares!” Sero took the cube from him and looked at it.

It was just a Rubik’s cube.

“This… this is something we also made. Like 600 years ago.” Sero slowly told them. He looked down and tried to turn one of the sides at least to demonstrate he knew what it was.

The entire cube crumbled into multiple pieces in his hands and fell to the ground.

“Wait, you can turn it? We always just break it and assemble it.” Sero watched as Lathrop picked up all the pieces and without much warning, saw his hands fly and bring the cube back to its original state, colors lined up and all.

“Wait, how did you do that?” Sero asked. 

“Like this.” He crushed the cube again, all the pieces falling to the ground, and with the same speed, reassembled it back to perfection.

Sero pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “That’s- Ugh, ok. Anything else?” Sero asked the two.

“Oh yeah, we made this.” Emmett brought out something metallic that was the size of a brick. Its plates were a mix of a creamy beige with stormy gray with a few bolts of the same colors holding it in place. He took a step back and brought the brick up, aiming towards Sero.

There was a click and Sero watched as there was a mechanical whirring coming out of the brick. The plates slid back and something swung out and expanded outwards. Sero was silent as he watched plates folded out from themselves and click into place, turning the brick into something that resembled a gun.

“What is that?” Sero’s interest had skyrocketed. He’d never seen anything even close to that in terms of well, anything! He doesn’t know anywhere that would have something that seemed advanced, not even support gear for pros.

“Oh? This is our homemade Prototool version 3! You humans don’t have this?” Emmett asked.

“Duh, of course not! We had to make our own. Earth just became a level 3 planet. This thing is like level 7.” Lathrop smacked the back of his head for what seemed to be such a simple statement for them.

“What does it do, beyond that?” Sero asked, curious.

“Oh, we primarily use this to weld and jumpstart whatever we have on hand.” To demonstrate their point, they pulled a trigger and an intense flame flickered out of the nuzzle of the tool.

“Wait, so it’s not a gun?” Sero questioned.

“Yeah, you can have it shoot energy blasts and other things. You’d just have to program it but we don’t know how you do that.” Emmett said, retracting the tool back into a brick in a smooth manner.

“Don’t you have to connect to a database?” Lathrop pointed out. They were silent for a moment before they erupted into laughter.

“We definitely don’t have clearance to do anything like that! Hehehehe.” They chuckled among themselves for a bit while Sero stood there. He looked at the frozen machine next to them and all around. There was a bubbling sense of curiosity in him, if these guys really were inventors that could somehow do something that defied the laws of physics and space, creating something that seemed so revolutionary…

“Hey, do you guys think you guys could show me how you guys make this stuff?” Sero asked them. They looked between themselves and grinned.

“Sure! We can even teach you how to make something!” They claimed. They rushed to Sero’s side and began to drag Sero’s hands. Despite their size, the two of them were easily able to overpower Sero’s attempts to not get dragged by them.

“Wait, I just wanna watch! Not learn. I gotta leave to go find my friends!” Sero complained aloud.

“Eh, we know the tunnels better than most. We can probably find your friends with ease.” Emmett brushed aside his complaints as the three entered the house.

…

“Why don’t you have a seat?” He gestured towards a table to the left of the room they were in that had three chairs. Kaminari took a glance around the room he was in as he slowly made his way to the chair. It was a small singular room that was split into a dining and cooking area, but the walls in the living area were adorned in cases that housed terrariums of plants he couldn’t even identify. 

The farthest wall only had two of them, but they were far larger and in a specific case. One was a tree that seemed to function just fine and to the right, the other was a series of vines that were growing alongside the left side of the terrarium.

“So uh, you have the Omnitrix. I’m just going to assume you don’t know what that is, Index?” He asked, taking the seat that was closest to the stove and counter. “Index? Who’s that?” Kaminari asked as he pulled out the seat nearest to him.

His brain seemed to register what he had said and he sighed. “Sorry, Index was a nickname of an old buddy. I must have slipped up. Anyway, how did you get the Omnitrix? I’m not mad but just curious, you know?” He asked him.

“Well, uhm, I just found it in the basement of my house. My parents won it at a fair from some American. I opened it and put it on.” Kaminari explained. “Originally, I thought it had allowed me to control my quirk after it mutated…” Kaminari paused, thinking about something.

“Wait, then why did I lose my quirk?” He questioned aloud.

“Well, I’m sure it was devastating for you, given how much importance humans place on quirks. But you have to think past that now.” He tried to point out to Kaminari, who nodded.

“Yeah, I basically have ten quirks now with these alien forms.” Kaminari looked at himself and then back at the man. He started to realize some differences. For starters, the man looked ever so slightly greener than himself, and his plumes and petals were more pronounced. There were also his shoulders, which were slightly more pronounced and had swirls to them. The only major difference Kaminari had from him was his hands. 

For Kaminari, his fingertips were covered in a singular thick yellow petal that resembled a fingernail, but the man didn’t have anything unique on his own hands.

“So wait, if we are the same alien, then why do I look different from you?” Kaminari asked.

“Well, humans aren’t the only species that has variation among their own populus. Plus, you seem to be a young Methanosian. There’s obviously going to be differences between me and you.” He explained lightheartedly.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Kaminari guessed. “Now, I have a question for you, Kaminari.” The man leaned forwards towards him and Kaminari could feel the atmosphere change.

“What are you going to do with the Omnitrix? What’s your intentions with it?” He asked.

“Oh, I want to become a hero. Is that bad?” Kaminari blurted out loud. The man seemed surprised with his answer and was taken aback before he began to chuckle, placing his finger towards his mouth to hush him. “Good good, I was worried for a second. Are you already at a hero school? You’re old enough for that, right?” He quietly questioned again as he leaned back.

“Oh, I was going to try to go to U.A.” Kaminari replied. “It is the top school so it’s gotta be great, right?” The man thought about it for a second before laughing.

“Wow, you really do remind me of Sparky! Sorry, it’s amusing. So, you’re aiming high, huh?” He asked him. Kaminari nodded eagerly. The man was silent before he sighed, the excitement dying down.

“I should let you know a few things then. It’s going to be hard, I hope you know that.” Kaminari nodded. “And I don’t mean academically. I don’t think I need to explain why?” Kaminari tensed, thinking about that. He exhaled, pushing the thought of that day out of his mind.

“Yeah.” He wearily whispered. The man nodded and held up two fingers.

“Secondly, I’d recommend you keep the story of you having a weird quirk for as long as you can.” The man paused to have Kaminari process that before continuing, “Most people don’t know about aliens and it’s a good idea to keep that a secret. I don’t know about you, but how would the general population learn that aliens also live here?”

“Oh, not well, right?” Kaminari answered, and the man nodded to confirm his assessment. 

“Remember, quirks were such a revolutionary change for humans that what do you think the revelation that they aren’t even the only sentient species on their own planet would be?” He proposed to him. 

“Oh. Yeah, that’d be pretty bad. But there has to be some part of the world that knows aliens exist, right?” Kaminari asked.

“Well, yes but I’m referring to the public at large. But regardless, I think it might be wise to keep the secret for as long as you can.” He reiterated to him before raising a third finger.

“The final point I want to add is to just inform you about some things down here. Even if you come back here, whenever you become a pro, you can’t be doing pro work here. No heroing.” He whispered the last part.

Kaminari blinked. “Wait, why?” Wasn’t the point of pros to do that sort of thing?

“We might take some things from human society and have it be a part of our own lives, but that doesn’t mean everything. We have our own laws, our own law enforcement. And pros, well they aren’t really a thing down here.” He explained.

“So, even if I become a pro, if I tried to be a pro down here, I’d be a vigilante?” The man nodded to Kaminari’s guess. “Pros are mainly a human thing, there really isn’t the concept, at least at large, in the larger part of the galaxy. So, I just want to tell you so I don’t hear any rumor of some human in a cell here, please don’t engage in vigilantism here.” He placed emphasis on those words towards the end and Kaminari nodded.

“Oh, yeah.” Kaminari’s eyes slowly glanced around, anything to change the conversation. He looked down at himself and got an idea. “Hey, what can I do as a methanosian?” He asked him.

“Ah well, uh, we can all do one thing but I’m not really good at it, but we can do some plant things I suppose.” He held out his palm and a few seed pods grew from his palm, falling flat once they finished growing. They stayed in his palm and Kaminari could hear what sounded like a soft hiss and a sweet smell. The seeds resonated with the hiss and smell, slowly growing into a small vine in his hand.

“Oh, we have plant powers!” Kaminari said. “Wait, that makes sense.” The man chuckled before crushing the seeds in his hand. “Hmm, what else?” He said. 

“Oh, we can do this, I suppose.” He opened his palm again and a brown liquid started to bubble in his hand, consolidating into a blob that had this rancid aroma. The smell only really bothered Kaminari as the man moved the slime through his fingers. 

“We can create this mud substance from consolidating some gasses. Sticky to something that isn’t a plant, hardens at extreme temperatures. Cold temperatures though, makes it brittle though.” He explained.

“Consolidating gasses?” Kaminari asked.

“Yeah, Methanosian isn’t just a name. We can create some forms of gas from our bodies. Methane, fertilizer, sleeping gas, that sort of thing. Gasses that’d be a byproduct from natural plants.” He turned his hand over and the mud plopped onto the table. Kaminari poked it, noting it didn’t stick onto his fingers but was firmly stuck onto the table.

“Anything else?” Kaminari asked, glancing up from poking the mud.

“Well, I suppose we can also modify our bodies to a degree. I’ve never really been able to do it though so I don’t know how to really show you. Other than that, not really much.” He shrugged. 

“Guess you’ll have to figure it out on your own.” He concluded.

“Yeah, I suppose. I’ve gotta figure out a name for this form though. How about Bramble?” Kaminari waved his hand, as if to sell the prospect of his name to the man.

“Name? You’re naming your transformations?” The man chuckled. “Seems a bit weird, doesn’t it?”

“Well, this pro who took me in recommended I come up with names for my transformations so it’s easier to refer to a specific one in a situation, plus, it’s pretty fun I suppose!” Kaminari said.

“Oh, who’s the pro? I must have missed them walking out.” The man questioned.

“Oh, his name’s Yosuke. He’s a part of the Best Jeanist agency.” Kaminari replied. The man was confused for a moment but seemed to realize something before nodding. “I see, well, I suppose getting a mentorship from the number 4 hero is a good way for you to train and learn your transformations.” He concluded.

“Yeah, It’s kinda cool. Getting training from such a high ranking pro.” Kaminari said, envisioning the idea. “He graduated from U.A., right? I used to know someone who graduated from U.A.” He commented.

“I guess? I don’t actually know. Wait, you know a pro from U.A? Who?” Kaminari asked curiously. The man chuckled before leaning back, staring at the ceiling. His smile weakened and became somber as he sighed.

“Not a pro. It was someone who went there for the general education course. But, I haven’t heard from him for many years. But,” He straightened himself and forced a smile. Kaminari got a sense that whoever he was talking about was probably a bad topic. “I think you’d do fine at U.A. You want to be a hero right?” He seemed to emphasize the last part after seemingly avoiding it but a loud gasp came from Kaminari. 

“Hereo?!” Kaminari turned and jumped as the child ran up towards the table, barely being tall enough to clear the tabletop. “You’re going to be a Hereo? Like all those guys on the tv?” She cheered.

“Heh, Mura loves heroes. Maybe a little too much.” He explained. 

“Yeah! They go bam and pow. They’re awesome.” She cheered again, throwing up her hands. 

“I’m going to be honest, I forgot for a moment she was here.” Kaminari mumbled. “But you watch heroes right? Do you like anyone in particular?” He asked her.

“Nuh uh, they’re all cool.” She dramatically shook her head. “I like it when they fight the bad guys.” Kaminari looked at the man who nodded. “Well, maybe one day he can be a hero. We’ll just have to wait and see.” He told his daughter.

“Yay!” She threw her arms up in celebration before running back to the otherside of the room.

“She really likes pros, doesn’t she?” Kaminari whispered after turning around. The man nodded tiredly. “Yes. It’s a little bit of a hassle to try and to appease her fascination. I’ve tried a few ways to see if there is a way to get her attention directed towards something else.” He explained.

“Like at the pet store?” Kaminari remembered. “But, aren’t you supposed to encourage stuff like this? I mean, with the way you’ve presented this,” He gestured towards his body “and how you managed to fool Mr. Hiroshi, I think she could be a he- I mean, uh, pro?” He guessed.

“Well, I’m a little worried. All of the pro content she watches is, well, both pre-recorded and filtered. Because, well, I guess this is some human that’s spilled onto me but,” He sighed. “I want to keep her safe. And maybe when she’s older, I’ll let her see more of that but for now, I kind of want her to be happy.”

“Ah, that’s sweet.” Kaminari remarked. The man nodded, prodding the mud on the table. 

“You know, Kaminari, could I ask you a personal question?” He asked him.

“Yes, Mister?” Kaminari asked, not actually being sure of his name.

“Eric. Eric’s fine. But, I was wondering.” He continued. “If you can get to U.A, and start the path to becoming a pro, could you help Mura learn what a hero is beyond those, sort of child friendly moments?” He asked quietly.

“So a role model?” Kaminari concluded.

“Yeah, I trust you. I mean, you have the Omnitrix so you can kinda understand what it means to be us, right?” Eric asked him.

“Yeah, I suppose. But I have a question.”

“Yeah?” Eric asked. Kaminari pointed to something that he’d assumed was where a nose would be. “Is there any reason why my nose feels stuffed?” 

“You’re asking the wrong person. I don’t really know how the human nose feels beyond what I've heard of the common cold.” He bluntly told Kaminari. He couldn’t help but laugh at that one. 

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.” Kaminari said. He paused for a moment, thinking about it. 

It kinda felt a little heavy now.

“Yeah, I guess.” He repeated. Eric nodded, before standing up. “Well, we should probably talk outside. I don’t know how long you’ve been here but it’s not going to be fun for you to be here when you transform back.”

“Why? I mean, it smells off here but it’s not that bad.” Kaminari reaffirmed, his badge starting to beep with the timing. 

“Yeah, but you’re a Methanosian. A species adapted to live on Methanos, a planet whose atmosphere is mostly methane.” He walked past him and opened the door. 

“The air in here is ever so slightly toxic to anything but us.” 

Chapter Text

“Are you ok?” Eric leaned over a hyperventilating Kaminari, who was sprawled on the ground. 

“I just thought, that I was, that I was going to die!” He spoke between breaths. Eric slowly nodded. “Yeah, the plants, even sealed, do leak some methane. They’ve been there for a couple years now so the build up has gotten to the extreme.”

“How can you live like that?! I mean, how does anything work in there?” Kaminari sat up as he gestured towards the door frantically.

“Well, everything is electric so there isn’t much risk of a fire. And it just reminds me of home.” He reminisced to Kaminari, offering his hand to him. Kaminari took it and was practically thrown up by Eric. Kaminari stumbled slightly when he landed on his feet.

“Well, what now?” Kaminari asked, slightly startled from Eric’s strength. Eric’s head turned to the side, gazing down the road. 

“Well, I guess the best thing is that we try to find your friends before anything happens. Plus, it’s getting late and your parents will get worried.” Kaminari gulped. Oh no, he forgot about his parents. What’s he going to say? ‘Oh hey, turns out the watch you got from the fair is actually this alien device thing!’, like that’s going to go well!

“Sssooo, you know a way to find two humans and uh, the closest route to a train station?” Kaminari nervously chuckled while rubbing his hands.

“Nervous? I guess you are, not everyday this happens to someone, huh?” Eric joked. 

“I guess? I’m just worried about my parents, man. They think I’m just training my quirk with Sero.”  He sighed. 

Eric hummed in agreement. “ I see. Well, I don’t think you have to worry about that. I think I can see your friends from here.” Kaminari followed the gesture of Eric towards the distance. The smiling faces of Kirishima and Sero were growing in the distance. 

“Guys!” Kaminari hollered at them, his legs breaking into a sprint to meet them halfway.

“You- You won’t believe it, Kamianri!” The three of them finished their sprint, standing around each other in a close circle. 

“Al-Aliens! Aliens are-” Sero panted between recollected breaths, having to hold himself up off his knees.

“They’re real? Yeah, I kinda figured that out by myself.” Kaminari chimed. The other two glanced at each other quickly and then back to him.

“Even the fact that you’ve turned into them?” Kirishima asked. Kaminari nodded quietly. They eyed each other and sighed in defeat.

“Well, guess there goes the surprise. Heh, guess we all learned a few things by ourselves, huh?” Kirishima said.

“Yeah, weird things but I guess they are things.” Sero exhaled quickly. “So, I assume we’re heading back?” He turned his attention towards Eric, who nodded. 

“I can take you back through where we came. It’s not a far walk from here.” Taking a few paces in front of them, he waved them over. “Come, follow me.”

The trio trailed behind him in silence. The weight of everything that had happened that day started to settle on them. Kaminari started to feel slightly tired. His stomach, however, growled. Oh yeah, it would be time for dinner.

“Hey Mister Eric, I have a question.” Kirishima cut the silence of the group with his question. Eric twisted his head towards them, waiting for Kirishima to continue.

“Is there a problem with gangs here? Like, thugs or bullies?” He asked curiously. Eric’s eyes widened for a moment. He sighed before slowly nodding.

“Nothing major. A few unsavory folk. Every town has that. And I guess, there is the Carpenters.” He muttered.

“Carpenters?” Sero piped up.

Eric flinched. “Ugh, grimebark.” He quickly mumbled before sighing loudly. “Yeah, I guess they’re the closest thing we have to a formal gang here. They don’t really do much. They mostly just harass and threaten people.”

“What? Don’t the Pros do something about that?” Sero asked.

“Pros don’t exist here.” Kaminari informed him. Sero stared at him in bewilderment.

“Yeah, long story short, Pros are a human concept. While a few may know of aliens or even have family here, they don’t really have the jurisdiction to do something here. We have our own law enforcement and the Carpenters don’t cause enough trouble to warrant any look into.” Eric quickly explained to the other two.

Silence fell over the group.

“Wait, there are alien pros?” The three asked in unison. 

“Yes, there are alien pros. Only a sparse few of them though. They usually team up with other alien pros or go solo. Unless you show them that you know aliens exist, they won’t ever show that to you or the public .” Eric replied.

“You three have any other questions? I’ll be glad to help if I can.” Kaminari pondered it for a moment. He thought about the conversation they had before, racking over each statement. He did note a few things that seemed weird to him, it wouldn't hurt to ask.

“Well, I have three. Or, I guess two questions.” Kaminari started. “Do you have any idea on how I could have lost my quirk?” 

“Your guess is mine. Maybe your body is just adjusting to having the transformations. I’m sure you’ll probably get your quirk back soon.” He reaffirmed Kaminari.

“But I mean, in the meanwhile, you basically have ten quirks. So, it’s a great trade off.” Sero joked.

“Ten flashy ones.” Kirishima specified. 

“Yeah, I suppose so. But I guess with my other question, and you don’t have to answer this if it’s too serious, but who were Sparky and Index? You mentioned them in our conversations.” Eric’s smile faltered. His eyes glazed over, reminiscing on the past. 

“They were old buddies of mine. We went our own ways a few years ago, I don’t know where they are or how they’re doing. Well, I hope.” He pulled a tired smile for them. The message was clear to them, all of their heads going straight ahead towards the staircase rapidly approaching. 

“Well, sorry for being such a downer. We’re here now.” Eric picked up his tone quickly. Kaminari was honestly surprised at how quickly he could recover from that. Guess it was a perk of being a father to such a cheerful kid.

“I’m sorry if I brought up any bad memories. I didn’t mean to do that, you know?” Eric looked at Kaminari and smiled.

“No, it’s fine, Kaminari. If anything, you reminded me of the cheerful times I had with them. That’s a good thing.” He placed his hand on Kaminari’s head and ruffled his hair as any cheerful father would do. “Thanks. Now, you three better get going. I don’t know much about your parents, but I know for sure I wouldn’t want Mura missing any curfew I set.”

“Right, thanks. Maybe we can see you again?” Sero asked, leading the group to the stairs.

Eric shrugged. “I can’t stop you guys anymore.” 

The three of them nodded with bright smiles. They all began their march up the stairs in new quiet excitement. Kaminari, at the end of their train, took one last look over the cavern. The lights of housing began to flicker on and there was a faint sound of laughter echoing over the buildings. He smiled before returning his attention upwards to the surface. Towards home.

…

Kaminari slowly opened the door, slinking into the house. The smell of food wafted through the air, maybe he made it in time. He crept towards the opening of the main room.

And into the sightline of his mom.

Both of his parents were sitting there, a set plate in front of them. His mom was definitely cross, while his dad was nervously sitting there like he was the one who was suffering from her ire before he walked in.

‘Ok, let’s try to survive this without dying.’ Kaminari took a deep breath and gave them a smile.

“So, dinner seems ready!” He chimed.

“You’re late. Why?” 

“Well uh,” Kaminari stuttered. Ok, figure out a reasonable lie here. If he can’t default back onto something, he’s going to never see the light of day again. “Me and Sero met a friend! We just practiced with each other and hung out! I just lost track of time.” He blurted out.

His mom raised an eyebrow. “Is that what happened?” Kaminari sheepishly nodded to that. It was true, he just omitted most of what happened. Just, ignoring all the alien things and the whole subterranean city that just was a car drive away.

“Eiko, maybe we should just leave him be. I mean, what kid gets a chance like this? I’m sure he just got distracted. You know how he is.” His dad leaned over and put his hand on her shoulder. His mom sighed, turning down at her own plate and nodding.

“Alright then. Why don’t you get ready for dinner? I’ll heat your plate up.” Kaminari nodded and slowly made his way upstairs. It was only when he got to the top step did all the tension in his body release. 

“We did ittt, let’s gooo.” He hyped himself quietly, slinking towards his room. He entered and gave himself a silent fist pump. He did it. Managed to actually get a lie past his parents. The last time he tried that he couldn’t leave the house for anything other than school and work. 

He quickly took off what he had, there was an ever so faint smell of methane on them. He quickly grabbed another pair of casual clothes, stuff he couldn’t care about wearing for only a few hours at most. As he progressed into changing, the whole situation dawned him and made him more giddy.

He actually managed to keep the secret of aliens from his parents. He managed to tell a story and they didn’t seem all the wiser. Maybe if he could fool his parents, who are like living lie detectors, maybe he could keep aliens a secret for years!

He could keep his promise to Eric. And with his abilities now, there was no way he couldn’t pass the UA exam with flying colors, right? Ampfibian, his kiner whatever form and his Methanosian form probably could probably solo the entire exam!

He slipped out of his room, with some pep in his step. He made his way towards the staircase, ready to join his parents downstairs.

“I’m just worried about him.” 

Kaminari stopped on the stairs. His breathing and body immediately became rigid, not daring to move.

“I know you are. I am too.” His dad replied. They were talking about him. They must’ve not heard him leave his room. He did ignore his door so maybe they were trying to listen to that. Listening is rude, but he’d be lying if there was some part of himself that was curious about this.

“It’s just, you know how I worry about what he wants to do.” His mom said.

“I know. We’ve had this conversation before, you know?” They had this conversation before? His parents may have had conflicting feelings on him being a hero, but he always chalked it up to his quirk’s drawback. Now that he somehow lost it, and arguably has an ability that is thousands of times better. But, they’re having it now?

“I know, but now, things are different. He’s got that thing now and he’s already crossed paths with a villain. My main worry now is that he’s going to get himself into trouble with someone that he can’t handle.” She vented.

Oh, they’re worried now about him that way. Now that he has power, they’re worried he’s going to encounter someone- someone like…

He shook his head. Nope, not that again. 

“Hey hey hey, it’s fine. It’s fine. His heart is in the right place. You need to remember, he’s your son. Our son. If we were able to tackle anything that came our way, he’ll be able to do it.” His dad comforted her. Kaminari slowly exhaled, feeling his shoulders relax. 

There was something about that. He didn’t know what the feeling was, but he liked it.

“Yeah.” His mom took a pause. “At least he’s making friends to help him on the road ahead.” Kaminari looked down at the edge of the stairs. Maybe it was time to stop listening in on this. He slowly made his way to his door, avoiding making any creaking on the floorboards of the hall. He grabbed his handle and pulled the door closed, the click of the latch silencing the conversation downstairs.

“Alright, that work has worked up my appetite. I’m hungry.” Kaminari said with a forced smile. His parents didn’t seem any wiser to him eavesdropping on their conversation, judging by their smiles towards him.

“Well, better eat because if I recall, you’ve got work tomorrow and I don’t think Mr. Grouchy is going to be excited if you can't function from hunger!” His dad joked to Kaminari.

“I have work tomorrow?” Kaminari blanked. His mom sighed and facepalmed before smiling. “Yes, it was only a break for a few days. You’re also going to school in the next few days.”

“That part I wish I didn’t learn.” Kaminari grumbled as he sat down.

…

“Welcome back.” Mr. Hiroshi greeted him over the paper as Kaminari slowly walked back into the store. He inspected the shop out of concern, seeing how the attack a few days prior had impacted everything.

Compared to the outside, that still had some construction going on to repair the infrastructure and roads, nothing seemed to have broken here. The pens for the pets did change in other ways. Some of the pens now included stuffed animals or additional props for them to run on and alongside. The rest were empty, the animals inside nowhere to be seen.

Including the puppy pen in the front.

Kaminari turned to Mr. Hiroshi for an answer. The man sighed, setting his paper down. “After the whole incident, some of the animals couldn’t deal with the stress. So I had to relocate them temporarily so they aren’t worked up by any customers.” He calmly explained.

“Wait, then where are they?” Kaminari asked.

“My own place. I don’t-” He paused for a moment, sighing. He picked up his paper and went back to reading it, hiding his expression. “How have you been holding up?” He asked. 

“Good, I suppose. A pro is offering to train me with my new quirk.” He explained. He held up the Omnitrix and shook it towards Mr. Hiroshi. He only grumbled in response, leading to Kaminari chuckling.

“Oh, you haven’t changed! That’s amusing.” Kaminari laughed. “Nice to know you’re doing well.” Mr. Hiroshi nodded in silence. His arms lowered, his face different from his normal scowl. His eyes followed Kaminari as he made his way towards the back.

“Kaminari.” He stopped in his tracks.

“Yeah, Mr. Hiroshi?” The man looked guilty, as if he was pondering something he regretted a long time ago. He sighed, setting down the paper.

“Could you do me a favor?” He asked. 

“Yeah, what kind of favor?” He questioned. Mr. Hiroshi closed his eyes and shuddered. His hand slowly rubbed his eyes before they opened again. “Do you think you could transform into one of your forms? Maybe one you haven’t been before?” 

“Uh, but that’s illegal?” 

“Yes Kaminari, it is illegal. But not for you.” He pointed out. Kaminari nodded, bringing up the Omnitrix. He guessed, if it’s just inside the shop and he doesn’t turn into something that causes damage by just existing, it should be alright.

Wait.

The little voice in his head is picking up on something here.

“What do you mean by it’s not illegal for me?” There wasn’t a chance that he knew, right? Maybe he’s inferring that he’s working under a pro now. 

Mr. Hiroshi sighed again. He leaned back and crossed his arms. “With age, comes wisdom. Wisdom like knowing we aren’t alone in the world.” He answered. He turned to Kaminari and they stared at each other in awkward silence.

Really long awkward silence.

“Aliens, Kaminari. I’m talking about aliens.” Mr. Hiroshi folded with an agitated grumble.

“Wait, you know about aliens? How? Oh crap, wait, please don’t tell my parents. See, I lied about this and if I’m caught, I’m on a one way trip to the afterlife.” Kaminari begged. His plea was only answered with a chuckle from Mr. Hiroshi.

“Trust me kid, your secret’s safe with me. I’ve got plenty of my own, what’s one more?” He proposed. 

“I guess that makes sense but why do you want to see me transform? I mean, if you know aliens exist, why would you want to see me become one?” Kaminari asked. 

Mr. Hiroshi shifted, his eyes distant on what they’re focusing on. “When I was younger, there wasn’t much for me.” He started to wearily tell. “There wasn’t really anyone there for me. No parents, no siblings, just me. The only companions I’ve had are the animals around me and the stories I’ve heard.” He took a deep breath, not to calm his nerves but to recollect his thoughts to continue.

“The legends of the Omnitrix. Heh, such wild tales. Ones of marvels, wonders and miracles. Who knows if all or even a few of those are truth? It’s those that helped me get through those times with my animal companions.” He was starry eyed as he talked, but that started to fade.

Kaminariwas far removed from the moment. He couldn’t believe it! Mr. Hiroshi was actually opening up? This is the longest they’ve ever talked since he was hired! But, then again, the whole conversation was bringing him down. “But what happened? I mean, something good happened right?” Kaminari cautiously asked.

He desperately wanted to hear something great. Maybe Mr. Hiroshi got a job working with aliens who all united under the fairy tale of the watch. Maybe he somehow fell in love. As much as a crotchety old man like himself could love in that way.

“I suppose. But, that’s a story for another time.” He regained his composure and Kaminari felt like the rug was pulled under him in an instant.

“What? That’s it!? Man, I wanted to hear more. Like, why don’t you like heroes? Did you work with others who liked the stories? Did some poor soul date you?” The stern and dead glance Mr. Hiroshi had told him he was pushing it. He sighed. Well, if he doesn’t get in trouble from this, guess it’s ok.

He opened the hologram and scanned his options. He was already four of these guys so six remain. He still needed to come up with names for a few of them but he could figure it out later. He remembered that Kamakiri knew most of the aliens and found one to be amusing. In his experience, that one was the embarrassing one. Probably best to avoid it.

After some consideration, he settled on a cyclops, whose body was fluid and without structure. They didn’t appear bulky so Kaminari didn’t worry that they were going to destroy the shelves with their size. Their appearance also didn’t have something that seemed to be a hassle like how Ampfibian had multiple arms. In fact, they appeared rather boring with their skin sporting a pattern similar to a circuit board.

Other than that, they appeared to be one of the more boring forms he could see. Shouldn’t be an issue here.

He activated the dial and slammed down. He felt the shimmer of the transformation taking place but this one, it felt a little different. He hadn’t really figured out how transforming felt beyond it feeling off but this one felt weirder to the others. 

His entire body began to break down and unify into something foreign. The flesh, blood, and bone shifted into something foreign and definitely alien. Kaminari didn’t know what was actually happening but for a split second, he could feel every cell in his body. His thoughts and senses in that infinitely small moment divided and echoed into a formless choir before coming back together into a singular entity, him.

When the feeling passed over, the pets that remained in the store began to cry out after being startled by the sudden flash and newcomer. Kaminari studied himself, something that’d likely become common practice when he becomes a new alien.

There wasn’t much difference between what he saw from the hologram and what he was now but the singular eye was strange. Kaminari was expecting everything to appear weird given what he had heard from his games and shows on having one eye but if anything, it seemed clearer to him. Granted, everything was tinted in a shade between green and yellow and visually styled after a security camera, distortions and all.

He moved his body and shivered at how weird it felt. There wasn’t anything that resisted him moving his arm. No bone, no muscle, no skin, nothing. Flexing his arm and rolling his shoulder felt fluid and easy. His legs felt the same but they were sturdy enough to function like normal.

“ Whoa, this one feels weird. ” He mumbled to himself. He paused for a moment, feeling his face, or at least what could be his face.

“ My voice doesn’t change with this one? Well, it’s coming through a filter but still. Bummer. That’s a kinda cool thing they do. ” He commented to Mr. Hiroshi. He looked down and spread his arms out, to let Mr. Hiroshi see his entire form.

“ What do you think of this one? ” He asked. Mr. Hiroshi scoffed. “I was hoping for some animalistic one but I suppose this one is fine.” 

Kaminari flexed his fingers to get used to the feeling of this form. “ So, what can this guy do? ” He asked.

“Well, you’ve become a mechamorph. They can,” He stopped himself before groaning aloud. “Oh great. This is actually a horrible alien for you to pick.” Mr. Hiroshi facepalmed and rubbed his face.

“ What? I didn’t choose something that irradiates radiation, did I? ” He questioned.

“I didn’t know you had that word in your dictionary but no. Mechamorphs can improve technology. The problem is, young Mechamorphs, such as yourself, possess poor control over that, resulting in mechanical monstrosities of weapons and science fiction.” Mr. Hiroshi said.

“...”

“I realize telling this to a teenager whose attention span is comparable to a goldfish was a poor idea on my part. Please, for the love of all the minds who devoted themselves to the advancement of humanity, don’t destroy my shop.”

“ Sooo, what is around for me to upgrade? A vacuum maybe? ” Kaminari asked, rubbing his hands together in excitement, the possibilities flowing through his head. Mr. Hiroshi groaned, knowing he unleashed something horrid on his shop. 

A sound clang scooped up Kaminari’s attention to the desk. Mr. Hiroshi had placed a small desk lamp on the counter and gave him a glare.

“Start small.”

“ That little thing? What’s that going to do? Become a giant heater? ” Kaminari remarked.

Mr. Hiroshi rolled his eyes at Kaminari’s joke. “Raise your hand if you have experience with Mechamorphs.” He waited for Kaminari’s response before raising his own hand with heavy sarcasm and emphasis.

“Alright then, start small.” He returned to his paper, leaving Kaminari to stare at the lamp. As Kaminari slowly approached with hesitation, Mr. Hiroshi leaned back. He stared at the lamp, trying to tap into that similar feeling in his gut to try and activate the upgrading power Mr. Hiroshi told him he had.

Nothing was happening, despite the gut feeling bubbling within. The lamp remained the same.

“ So, how does this exactly work? ” He relented to ask.

“Well, you need to touch it and then cover it. It’s hard to explain. You just need to try it.” Mr. Hiroshi advised. 

Oh, this one works by touch? Ok, that makes sense, Kaminari guessed.

He reached out and placed his large hand on the lampshade. There was an immediate response in his palm, it felt like an electric hum that tickled. He didn’t know how to explain it but he could feel the lamp in its entirety as the buzz trickled into his hand. The feeling stopped in his palm but if Kaminari had to guess, this was the feeling he had to allow to travel in order to do this upgrade.

He closed his eye and let the feeling wash over his body. The electric hum soon took over every other feeling, the feeling of his feet on the floor and the still air of the shop. It was for a brief moment but the feeling died down and Kaminari couldn’t describe what he felt now. He didn’t really feel anything now.

Kaminari slowly opened his eyes to see what happened but he was amazed to see what appeared to be a screen in front of him with the same grain he had in his vision. The screen had a scaled down view of Mr. Hiroshi’s desk so Kaminari had to assume he actually became the lamp itself.

But the space he was in was like a pocket dimension. Yellow tinted green static and circuitry surrounded him as if he was in that one really old American action movie. He took a glance down and was surprised to see his human body, although it was composed of static fuzz.

“ Woah…” Kaminari’s voice echoed as he mumbled. One source was his own body in this space and then from the screen. He went back to the screen and thought for a moment.

Just as he thought, the screen shifted towards Mr. Hiroshi, who was eyeing down at him and watching his movements. He could feel a tingle in his neck, as if he had done the exact same action. He looked down at his hands as another idea popped up. 

He slowly lifted his hand towards his face and watched as a claw rose up in a similar fashion to the screen.

“ Sick! It’s like I’m in a mech! ” Kaminari cheered with vigor. 

“What do you mean by that? You’re more crustacean than mech.” Mr. Hiroshi curiously asked. Despite him being from the outside, Kaminari could perfectly hear what he was saying as if Mr. Hiroshi was standing right next to him. 

“Is that how it works?’He thought to himself. No, wouldn’t it be a speaker system if he was here?

So maybe this place he’s in doesn’t actually exist. It’s probably just some mental area he’s in and his real body is part of the lamp right now.

“ Well, it looks like I'm in that piloting room you see in the shows. But I guess this is just a visual thing for me? How do I look?” Mr. Hiroshi scanned him over real quick.

“As I said, you look like a crustacean. You’ve got four legs and two claws with some cylinder based tool. Other than that, you’re a lampshade. Maybe a more science fiction kind of lamp shade but a lamp shade nonetheless.” He told the boy, before turning his attention back towards his paper. 

“You can see yourself without this,” Mr. Hiroshi paused for a moment. “Screen? Fairly certain mechamorphs can still project their original bodies off of the tech they enhance.” 

Kaminari glanced down at his virtual body. How would he even do that? Maybe try reaching for the feeling again? It worked getting into the lamp so doing it again will get him out, right? He closed his eyes, grasped onto that feeling again and pulled on it. 

“HEY HEY HEY!” A frenzied choir of yelps and cries accompanied Mr. Hiroshi’s hollers of panic, jolting Kaminari from his trance. The low hum of fire came from his claw that was now acting as a blowtorch.

Now, Kaminari wasn’t proud of what his immediate response was. Sure, he had covered his body in electricity before, which can equally be as much of a fire hazard as actual fire, especially when he wasn’t thinking with his quirk beforehand. But he never produced another element before. None of his other forms had. 

So at the moment, waving his claw to try to get the fire put out seemed logical to him.

“ OH GOD, FIRE! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT! ” Kaminari screamed in utter fear. 

“KAMINARI, STOP MOVING! YOU’RE GOING TO SET MY COUNTER ON FIRE!” Mr. Hiroshi screamed, failing to grab the frantic lamp. 

“ I’M ON FIRE!! ” Kaminari lashed out, as that seemed reasonable to shout at someone in this situation.

“Just stop!” Mr. Hiroshi finally succeeded in grabbing Kaminari. His surprising strength showed its head again, even though Kaminari probably weighed like nothing. Kaminari stared at him as his claw hissed.

“Do you feel any pain?” Mr. Hiroshi slowly articulated each word, trying to get a message through Kaminari.

“ No- I just feel a weird static feeling? Like ambient charge in the air. ” He responded. Mr. Hiorshi nodded.

“Disregard that.” He blurted. “Is that feeling pain?” He asked again.

“ Noooo? ”

“Then it’s no problem. Control yourself, and focus on turning off the gas to the blow torch. Think you can do that? Think of it as a circuit. You’re just turning the flow of electricity to that function off. Can you see that?” Mr. Hiroshi instructed.

Kaminari slowly nodded and Mr. Hiroshi released him carefully. Kaminari looked at his claw and thought about that. It’s a circuit. That was already in line with what he usually thought about his alien forms, relating it to his quirk. That feeling in his gut that he tapped into to try and use whatever power the aliens had.

But if he thought of it as a circuit, maybe that’ll work better? Think of that gut feeling as the battery and its use as the circuit. Well, his hand is burning so this might be a way to try that idea.

He envisioned the circuit, from his gut feeling to his claw. It was as simple as flicking the switch. The hiss began to quiet with the flame growing smaller. The warm glow from the exhaust  slowly turned back to the yellowish green of his skin. He couldn’t help but feel giddy.

“Sick. Um, sorry about that. I, uh, panicked.” He chuckled.

“I can see that.” Mr. Hiroshi’s eyes rolled before settling on the front.

The chime was what got Kaminari’s attention. He turned his head to see Yosuke standing awkwardly halfway in, taking up the entire door frame. He was blankly staring at them, confused why there was a lamp looking directly at him.

“Is this a bad time?” 

“ Yosuke! It’s me! Kaminari! ” He hopped off the desk and landed with a loud clunk. “ I was just, uh, using my quirk! I can take over electronics with this one! ” He scrambled to the colossal hero who crouched down to attempt to even the distance. 

“I see… is there a reason why you’re breaking the law and using your quirk here?” Yosuke questioned. Kaminari’s mind blanked. 

“ Uhhhh. ” 

“I gave him permission to use his quirk here. I know he doesn’t have the legal permissions to do so but he’s not using it to help with my business so that clause doesn’t fall onto him. And before you bring up public use, I don’t receive any assistance from the government so he using his quirk here has the same freedom as he would in his own home.” Mr. Hiroshi spoke up, giving Yosuke a glare that would stop a bull in its tracks.

“Is that enough legal protection for Kaminari here?” He spat out. Yosuke could only stare at him with a confused face.

“My apologies, but have we met before? You look familiar.” Yosuke asked. Mr. Hiroshi paused briefly before taking his paper and burying himself in it.

“You must have confused me with someone else. We’ve never met.” He grumbled. Yosuke paused, sighing in defeat.

“Perhaps so. My age might be starting to catch up to my memory. Apologies.” Yosuke bowed his head in respect to Mr. Hiroshi. He remained silent.

“ Wait, why are you here then? ” Kaminari raised his claw to grab the hero’s attention.

“Ah, yes. I was here to request if I could take Kaminari and Sero out for some more quirk training. I had asked his parents where he was and they told me about this address. But, it seems you have already been doing that.” He guessed.

“Knock yourself out. My mood’s been ruined.” Mr. Hiroshi grumbled.

“ Sir, I didn’t even clock in yet. ” Kaminari pointed out.

“Consider it a work vacation. Not much I can do against the law, now can I?” Mr. Hiroshi remarked. Kaminari thought about that. He guessed that made sense. 

But it was Mr. Hiroshi’s reaction that made him pause. He couldn’t see his face from the floor but the way he was holding his paper and how close it was to his face were weird for him. His fingers were tense and his face was hidden, opposed to his usual glean over the pages and loose fingers for easy adjustment.

He never got that mad when Water Hose came by.

“ Alright then, I guess I can come. ” Kaminari meekly said. Yosuke nodded with a smile to him, holding out his hand.

“How much longer do you have in this form?” He asked him.

“ Uh… ”

“About two minutes.” Mr. Hiroshi chipped in from behind. 

“ Two minutes then. ” Kaminari confirmed, clipping onto Yosuke’s hand. It felt a little weird climbing onto his skin but Kaminari was going to have to get used to feeling weird.

“Till then, I think it’ll be the best if I just carry your, uh, small frame till then.” He joked. Kaminari looked up to him as Yosuke brought his hand up.

“ So, where are we going? Back to the quirk training grounds? ” He asked as the two left the store and Mr. Hiroshi behind.

“Even better.” Yosuke egged on.

“ Oh god, are we training with All Might?! ”

“What? No. We’re going on a hike!”

…

“Remind me why we're going on a hike through the woods?” Sero asked as the three of them exited Yosuke’s car. They had parked on a well worn grass patch before the entrance to a trail into ever-expansive woods. It was a serious drive to get there, at least by Kaminari’s standards. The nearest human settlement was like 20 minutes away.

Maybe if he can ditch, his Kine- blue velociraptor form could make it before he turned back.

He really needs to get a name for that one soon.

“It’s simple. It’s just simple endurance training. Plus, seeing the scenery of Japan is never a bad thing. It’s quite a lovely country.” Yosuke had changed before they arrived, or more so he literally tore off the outfit he had on when he grabbed Kaminari and threw it into the back with the lamp Kaminari took over. He was thankfully wearing conventional hiking gear underneath, thank god, but Kaminari was concerned for his clothing.

Apparently, whenever Yosuke needs to do a quick change, he just rips his clothing off. He told Kaminari he doesn't really spend his paychecks on anything so buying new clothing wasn't a hassle for him.

“So, what's the idea? We just hike?” Kaminari questioned as they stepped closer to the opening.

“Well, yes. More specifically for you however, we’ll eventually have you transform and see if your endurance transfers over, due to the change in strength your forms seem to have.” Yosuke explained as he was the first one to start the trail.

“Don’t most, uh, transformation quirks run on stamina essentially?” Sero asked, pausing over to make sure he didn't say the wrong thing.

“Yeah, we met a friend who has a transformation quirk. We can just ask him.” Kaminari pointed out. The area around them became darker as the forest’s canopy blotted out the sun. The air seemed to become fresher and crisp, as Kaminari could smell the faint smell of bark and dirt around him.

“That’s true, but your quirk is a special case. Due to your mutation and regulator, we need to see how much variance there is to what is already believed. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will be the key to your growth.” Yosuke explained.

Sero and Kaminari took a worried glance at each other. With what they know now, it’s going to be a miracle if they can keep this up and explain everything with it being a quirk.

“Ok, just a hike in the woods. Gotcha.” Kaminari mumbled.

The three of them walked in silence for who knows how long. Kaminari didn’t. Sero wasn’t saying much, nor was Kaminari. It was kinda hard when the two of them had to push themselves in order to keep speed with Yosuke’s long and energetic strides. Whether he noticed that the two were struggling to keep up, it was beyond them. He was more focused on humming a tune to a song that Kaminari didn’t know.

It was a okay song though. It had an upbeat tune to it but it didn't sound like anything he heard recently.

“What are you humming?” Kaminari asked, breaking the silence. Yosuke’s humming paused as he cranked his head back to look at him.

“Oh, it’s just a song from an old American band. I’d be surprised if you knew about them.” He smiled with glee. 

“Oh, you’re a fan of American media?” Sero asked, but his tone was dry from the growing exhaustion.

“Yes, you could say that. The job I had before being a Pro had me deal with the United States frequently for travel.” Yosuke explained to the two of them.

“What did you do before being a pro?” Kaminari questioned in response.

“Ah, I was all over the place. Doing work here and there. My quirk is versatile in being able to handle a lot of situations. I got the idea to return to Japan and go for my hero license from someone in America’s west coast. So, I came back and took a job with Best Jeanist.” He reminisced. As their conversation began to continue, the ground beneath them began to rise and form an incline. Soon, their trail started to climb up a winding hill. Roots formed steps that were worn down from the weather, animals, and people tracking over them for many years.

“Oh, I didn’t know you traveled so much.” Kaminari remarked in surprise. Yosuke chuckled.

“There are a lot of things you don't know about me. But, those aren’t as appealing to someone like you.” He turned away shyly. 

“Aw, come on! Entertain us on this boring hike!” Kaminari spread his arms out wide as the trees to their side began to thin, exposing a scenic view of a cliffside that towered over an expansive forest.

“Well, let’s see.” Yosuke thought, bringing his finger up to his chin.

“Oh! I was once a delivery boy! That was fun.”

Kaminari’s body slowly deflated in disappointment. Oh, he wasn’t kidding. That’s incredibly boring. Kaminari was expecting something like he was dangerously plunging his hands into molten metal to forge steel beams, since Yosuke’s quirk apparently gives him nigh indestructible skin. Which he decided to name Dura-Skin.

How can you come up with a cool name like Ampfibian and Crashopper and then come up with Dura-Skin?

Well, he apparently isn’t much better but Kaminari still stands that Krickett was a cool idea.

Yosuke kept going on about some of the odd jobs he did here and there, something about working in some factory as a member of IT but Kaminari wasn’t paying attention anymore. He just started to drift, his attention overlooking the cliff side view. His hands were fiddling with the Omnitrix, nothing that would make him transform though. He was rotating the dial and rubbing the leather of the wristband.

Maybe he should think of a name for the forms he has. He’s turned into five of these guys and only two of them have actual names. Is Yosuke saying anything interesting? No, he’s still talking about the IT thing.

Ok, so he has a speed dinosaur, a rancid smelling plant man, and a tech blob. Kinetic? Velociraptor? Wildthorn? Swamp Thing?

Actually, that last one is a thing already. Probably not that one.

What about the robot blob thing? He can just upgrade things so what does he have to work with? Update?

Actually, that doesn’t sound too crummy now that he said it to himself. But it’ll probably need a little work. 

You know what, why not Upgrade? It sounds cool enough to be a name and plus, it’s not like it’s rare for pros to name themselves after their quirk. He’s fairly certain Ms. Joke’s quirk is named Joke so it’s not insane.

Kaminari was moments from turning to Sero to ask for his opinion before he saw a shine of something from the forest below out of the corner of his eye. His feet slowed to a stop while Sero and Yosuke kept walking, unaware he stopped. He crept to the edge closer, his curiosity over taken him. He peered down the ledge. Maybe it was just his imagination. It’s a cliff side with no railing. Maybe someone dropped something down there.

“That’s my foot, you bonehead!”

Oh, it wasn’t his imagination.

Below there was a clearing in the forest but it was filled with a group of trucks and crates. Several people were moving the crates around, shifting them from the trucks onto bizarre vehicles. What Kaminari saw and heard were a pair of them, with a crate of some weird funnels spilled out onto the floor. They were bickering at one another and everyone else was visibly annoyed with how they were acting but paid no mind to the two screaming at each other.

“What in the world?” Kaminari twisted his head to Sero, questioning what he was seeing as well. The two must have noticed he had stopped or heard that one guy presumably got his foot smashed by the crate on the floor.

“I don't know. Looks like they’re trading something?” Kaminari reasoned.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem legal. I’ll contact the local authorities. You two, stay quiet and step away from the ledge.” Yosuke quietly ordered as he pulled out his phone. Sero and Kaminari nodded with Sero retreating from the edge but Kaminari lagged behind.

“You moron! Do you know what you could have done! I just, ARGH! I could just throttle you!” The injured one yelled.

“Well I’m sorry! How was I supposed to know the crate I was carrying had laser lances in them?” The other yelled in retaliation. There was an audible click from behind Kaminari, the sound of a phone hanging up. He turned to Yosuke pocketing his phone and twisting, his face becoming a scowl.

“Kaminari, Sero. Stay here. There’s been a change in plans.” Kaminari barely got a question out before he witnessed Yosuke launch himself off the cliff. Sero rushed to the edge with Kaminari in awe. They watched as Yosuke’s large frame landed on the ground with an audible thud. Everyone was too shocked in order to respond to this giant man landing with no visible injuries out of seemingly nowhere but Yosuke wasn’t. The two watched him move forward with precision and immediately knock the two who were bickering out onto the ground cold.

“Holy crap…” Sero mumbled before turning to Kaminari. “Did he ever do that in training?” 

Kaminari watched Yosuke move forward, his element of surprise wearing off. They began to act, some grabbing weapons like clubs or electric prods and the others just went forward to him. Lasers soon began to fly through the air from the ones who picked up weapons but Yosuke dealt with them all the same. Whatever fool decided to engage with him head on was knocked to the ground with efficiency and weapons shattered when they struck him.

Guess that is a versatile quirk after all.

“Did you catch what the hell they were saying?” Sero asked. Kaminari turned to him confused.

“What do you mean? They were talking about laser lances.” Sero shook his head confused.

“No, they were just speaking gibberish. How did you get anything out of that?” Kaminari thought about it for a second. Did they not hear what he heard? It sounded pretty clear to him.

Wait, if Sero didn’t know what they were saying, then how did-

“Wait, is he in trouble?” Sero’s panic brought Kaminari out of his stupor. The amount of lasers were dramatically higher now as everyone had realized how futile attacking Yosuke was. Kaminari was about to disagree before they witnessed someone bring up a tube and point it at Yosuke.

“Wait, defensive quirks like Yosuke’s generally have one weakness…” Sero mumbled. 

It happened so quickly. The sudden rip of a rocket going off caused Kaminari to flinch and the rumble of the impact against Yosuke caused Kaminari to nearly stumble off the cliffside. Yosuke’s body went flying, crashing through one of their trucks and piercing through it as a human projectile.

“How strong was that rocket!? It was like a nuke!” Sero yelled in panic with his hands going through his hair. Kaminari looked at the fight. It didn’t seem like Yosuke could pull through this with their vast numbers and with whatever technology they had.

That’s when a dumb idea reached Kaminari’s head. He took a few steps to the edge until his toes were looming over the edge. He prepared himself to press the button on the Omnitrix and slam down on the dial. Sero stared at him in shock.

“What are you doing!? Yosuke told us to stay here!” He said in fear.

“I don’t know if he’ll be doing well for much longer. But don’t worry! I’ll just go Upgrade, take over one of their things, and then be some weird robot. It’ll be cool.” Kaminari boldly claimed with a smile on his face.

“Who!?” Sero shouted.

“You’ll see.” Kaminari smirked. He pushed off the cliff and gravity soon took over. He could feel the wind rushing through his hair as the ground and sounds of chaos grew closer.

‘It should be okay if I hit the ground as Upgrade, he doesn’t have any bones.’ He reasoned to himself as he pressed the button and slammed the dial down, the yellow glow overtaking him.

Hitting the ground however, hurt.

It hurt a lot.

Kaminari felt horrid pain as his knees felt the impact of him hitting the ground and even worse, he could feel his entire body just compress down. It was so severe that he couldn’t help but collapse.

But something was off. He could feel a weird tingle on his back that felt unnaturally heavy for Upgrade. He could hear everything having died down in curiosity of whatever just landed in the area but whatever happened kicked up a lot of dust for Kaminari. 

He pushed himself off the ground slowly, the ebbing pain becoming a slow tickle. He immediately noticed that the world wasn't a shade of greenish yellow and his arms were definitely not Upgrades. They were chubby, or muscular, Kaminari didn’t know. His forearms had some sort of yellow plate on them that was outlined with black scales and his hand was incredibly chubby, if you could even call it that. The only thing that resembled a hand were his fingers that were now black claws.

He slowly stood but whatever weight was on his back and the pain made him stumble backwards. He barely caught himself before he fell backwards. Whatever happened, he was not liking this form at all.

He somehow managed to regain his balance and quickly took a quick scan of his new form. Whatever he was, it wasn’t Upgrade. His skin was pure white with a singular black stripe running on his torso. He stumbled briefly when he turned his head down, giving a long look at his stubby legs that were similar to his arms. He touched his head, feeling the dial of the Omnitrix square on his forehead but nothing else. 

Why was this one so top heavy? This sucks.

“What the cosmos is that?” Kaminari’s attention was jolted up to everyone staring at him in confusion. The dust cloud he kicked up had died down enough to show everyone where he was and they were equally as confused as he was.

Kaminari chuckled before taking several slow and planned steps backwards, raising his hands in a gesture of peace. “I’m just as confused as you are.” He joked to them in a gravelly voice.

“Eh, whatever it is, it’ll die.” Someone reasoned. Everyone nodded before raising their weapons to him.

Well, what a great plan this was.

Kaminari barely had enough time (or the dexterity really) to turn around and try to run to avoid being shot. Lasers were whizzing around his head as he screamed in terror. He could feel some of them hit him and they stung. Not crazy but with the amount of shots he was getting, it was like just being repeatedly getting hit with kickballs in some twisted game of dodgeball.

“WHY? WHY THIS ONE? I DON'T EVEN KNOW THIS ONE! WHY DIDN’T I GET UPGRADE!?” Kaminari screamed at no one in particular. He tried to think, sure he has used this thing a lot but he never-

It was because he was messing with it while he was ignoring Yosuke earlier, wasn’t it?

 ‘Great, this thing works even without the button. Just my luck.’ He deadpanned. Now he has to survive for 10 minutes to even turn back to human, let alone the recharge needed to try something new and someone he knows! Great, had to get maybe the worst alien he probably has and ever will have.

Kaminari was so deep in his own thoughts, he didn't even realize the one who had fired the rocket at Kaminari had reloaded and fired again. He only realized when the blast barely missed him and launched him forward.

It seemed to be slow motion for him as he flipped in the air. He could see his feet nearing his face and he was ready to just eat dirt.

Except, his body just kept going. His feet kept approaching his face as he could feel his muscles contract in his arms, bringing them in for a tuck. Kaminari’s mind blanked as his eyes closed out of instinct, not sure what was really happening.

He hit the ground, he could definitely tell that but it didn’t hurt. Weirdest of all, he knew where he was. He could tell that the tree line wasn’t that far away. He felt that there were people turned to him as he rolled forward but he didn’t feel nauseous. 

Did he just roll into a ball like an armadillo?

Wow, that’s lame. And Kaminari turned into a glorified human grasshopper.

‘Can I even do anything about this?’ Kaminari thought. He tried to force himself to move and was mildly surprised that he actually turned, feeling a slow shift in his body towards the gunners. 

“What the fuck?” Someone angrily shouted in shock.

At that exact moment, it was extremely hard for Kaminari to not start laughing. The small numbing pain he felt and the fear for his life he was experiencing were pretty good distractions.

“Just shoot it!” Kaminari pushed himself forward, rolling out of the way of blaster fire. Now that he was a ball, moving seemed far more natural and his weird vision not only helped him but strangely didn’t seem to rely on his eyes. Whatever he was seeing, it was like radar.

But Kaminari didn’t know what to do. Sure, now he could avoid fire and whenever he did get hit, he didn’t even really notice it like last time but he still had no clue what to do. All he could do right now was stall while he literally rolled circles around these guys. 

For the love of all things, please have Yosuke be all right and come in to save the day.

“LOADING ANOTHER SHOT!” Kaminari gulped. That sounded like it came from the guy with the rocket launcher. He should be fine with his shell.

Right?

“Backblast clear! Aimin- AGH, plfff.” Whatever happened, the man suddenly just stopped speaking. It was like something got into his mouth-

“BFFT!”

Kaminari paused his rolling and unfurled onto his knees. He saw a poor soul slumped into the door of a truck with their eyes rolled back and a smoldering shirt. Kaminari’s eyes followed the path and they landed on Sero, standing triumphantly over one of the trucks with a smoking technologically advanced rifle in his hands. He had his wild grin on his face but the sweat and shaky eyes and hands perfectly portrayed how terrified he was of this moment.

“Oh man, these things are cool. I gotta get me one of these.” Sero admitted to himself, raising his rifle for what would be an action shot for several movies.

Kaminari took a look at the one with the rocket, as he ripped out tape from his mouth. His gaze must have alerted Sero who quickly whipped around and fired.

You’d imagine that for how Sero has presented himself to be smarter than Kaminari would realize that shooting a rocket with an energized beam of light wouldn’t be a superb idea.

But I guess when adrenaline is working, Sero’s logic goes out the window and his accuracy gets pretty sharp.

Sero’s shot hit the rocket just shy of dead center and shredded the metal frame of it. Which then led to the ignition of whatever was inside. And the rocket went boom while still loaded.

Kaminari was pretty sure that if he didn’t see the guy getting thrown back somewhere in the woods, Sero probably would have started a kill count for himself.

“Oh…” Sero lowered the rifle with a soft expression on his face. Well, that’s probably going to be etched into his psyche for a while.

Sero turned to Kaminari, everyone being equally stunned at what occurred. “I was not expecting that.”

“And I thought I was dumb!” Kaminari yelled at him.

“Oh my creator, they killed Ly’Thann! You monsters!” Someone shouted from behind. Kaminari saw them reach for one of those laser lances the initial pair had dropped earlier.

His mind raced. If that pair was scared of them, then what could they do in their hands?

Kaminari tucked back in and rolled forward as fast as he could towards Sero. He practically almost fell over when he unfurled to wrap himself around Sero. He felt so small when Kaminari plucked him off the truck and brought him in close to shield him as much as possible. 

Compared to whatever they were using before, the laser lance was so much more powerful. If it wasn’t for the truck, Kaminari would have fallen to the ground from the force and probably crushed Sero under his weight. He could definitely feel it through his shell. Kaminari was fairly certain he was still alive and could feel himself still in one piece so it probably didn't pierce his shell.

But it was fairly clear why they were so scared of them being dropped.

He braced for another shot. Or for gun fire to resume but nothing followed. Not even a shout. Sero began to shift in Kaminari’s arms, trying to get out. Kaminari opened his arms and Sero let out a dramatic gasp, dropping the rifle to the ground for thankfully no consequences.

“Ok, this one smells horrid. Your skin smells like a faint shoe.” Sero gave an exaggerated gag to prove his point. Kaminari raised an eyebrow and took a whiff of his armpit. He didn't smell anything.

“Great, am I two for ten with smelly aliens?” Kaminari groaned.

“For two? Just what have you done without me?” Sero questioned. 

“I could ask the same thing.” The two froze from Yosuke’s tone. They slowly turned to pro standing over many unconscious bodies in a smoldering outfit that thankfully still kept him decent. His scowl pierced through them with no remorse, waiting for their answer.

“Heey Yosuke, looks like you got the rest of them. How did you even do that?” Kaminari jokingly asked, trying to deflect some of the tension.

“Those who work for Best Jeanist strive for efficiency and speed. Now, I expect the same from you two as well. Why did you disobey my orders?” Yosuke asked again. The two teens glanced at each other with panic.

“HE DID IT!” Sero immediately pointed to Kaminari. “It was his idea to jump. I just followed so he wouldn’t die!”

“Sero, you bastard!” Kaminari shouted at him.

“Is that so? Then, let’s hear your story Kaminari.” Yosuke waited, slowly tapping his finger on his arm.

“I thought you could use the help. Just the problem is that, I uh, didn’t get who I wanted?” He braced for reprimanded but all that came from Yosuke was a sigh. 

“This was reckless behavior, if it was not for your form's durability you would have surely died. That is what should be known.” Kaminari’s shoulders deflated and Sero just snickered in his suffering.

“And for you Sero.” Sero stiffened up as Yosuke began to walk forward, raising a finger in disappointment.

“What you did may have ended in either your own death, another's, or your own. Had you actually resulted in someone’s death, I would be within legal grounds right now to place you in custody and send you to a cell to await trial.”

“Oh…” Yosuke loomed over the two, even with Kaminari’s additional height from his taller frame.

“And that is what you two need to think about going forward. Being a hero is a constant life and death battle. For yours, for your foes, and for bystanders. Remember that. Ingrain that in your mind. People can get hurt. I trust that between the three of us, you two know that more than most, don’t you?” He sternly questioned them.

“Yes sir.”

“Now, I am not mad you took the initiative to assist me. I am proud you two had each other's back and enough ingenuity to keep each other safe. But, I’m severely disappointed in how brash and careless you two were here today. I never want to see this again while I mentor you, understand?” Yosuke asked the two. They could only nod in agreement, leaving Yosuke to relax just a hair.

“A verbal agreement please.”

“Yes sir.” The two said in unison. That seemed to take the tension away from Yosuke and he fully relaxed. 

“Now then, I suppose I should place a call with Best Jeanist. These criminals are going to need to be processed, along with whatever they are doing here.” He explained, turning. “Although, whatever language they speak is going to need to be interrupted.” He mumbled to himself, walking over to one of the first criminals he took out. He crouched down and examined them for a moment.

“Hmm? What’s this?” He reached down to their face and to Kaminari’s surprise, peeled it off. A blue shimmer waved over the person and his form distorted to a lean insectoid purple form. In Yosuke’s hand was a blank mask with a singular crack running through it, blue static crackling around it occasionally.

“Wait, he has a mutant quirk?” Kaminari asked.

“It appears so. But I've never seen something like this before. I wonder…” Yosuke trailed over, moving over to another body. He did the same process, peeling off the person’s face only to expose a blue humanoid cat.

“Hmm, it seems they might all have this strange mask. I’ll have to check with Best Jeanist if there are any criminals with these heteromorphic traits. But, this could be concerning. Where did these come from?” He asked himself. Kaminari was moments from saying something before he felt a jab from Sero.

He looked down to his friend, who was staring at him with wide eyes. Kaminari was only confused at whatever he was getting at. Sero’s eyes rolled before he tapped his forehead. Kaminari stared at his forehead before Sero just aggressively pointed to him.

Oh, his forehead. Does he mean the Omnitrix? Why would he be-

“Oh…” It just clicked to Kaminari. They were all aliens. They were using whatever the tree was using to appear as humans. Whatever they were doing was alien technology. That’s why they shot lasers. 

Sero could only facepalm in Kaminari’s lapse in judgment.

“Is there a problem?” Yosuke asked.

“No sir, Kaminari was just giving me name ideas for this new form.” Sero deflected. Suddenly, Kaminari was put on the spot. The thought didn’t even cross his mind.

“Uh, The Worst.” Kaminari blurted, earning a sigh from both of them.

“Dude, you’re a rolly polly with an indestructible shell. That’s the best you got?” Sero verbally and sarcastically judged aloud.

“This guys got nothing else! At least with Yosuke's and Kirishima, they can attack and stuff! I just roll around!” Kaminari raised his arms in protest, wondering what they wanted him to do about being dealt a horrid form.

“Kirishima? I assume he’s a friend?” Yosuke asked.

“Uh yeah, we met him at the quirk training camp.” Sero quickly answered. Yosuke only nodded, lost in thought.

“Well, I have an idea for a name.” Kaminari could feel the bubbly rush of excitement.

“Really?! What is it?”

“Well, you want my idea so bad? Fine then, it’ll be your punishment.” Yosuke said. Kaminari blinked in confusion.

“What?”

“No power is useless. As punishment for that comment and this stunt, I won't give my name idea until you find a way to turn this form into one that isn’t “The Worst”. Do you understand me?” Yosuke commanded. Kaminari’s shoulders slumped in disappointment, kicking dust from the ground like a disappointed toddler.

“Fine, I guess.”

Chapter Text

“So, you guys found some aliens trading weapons? And Laser Lances no less. That’s concerning.”

“Aren’t they laser guns? No wonder it’s concerning. Although, it’s cool you guys gotta fight some criminals. Wish I was there.” Kirishima reminisced between a series of bites of his soba.

“Nope. They hurt like nothing else. Even with that stupid alien's durability, it still felt like I took a cinder brick to the head.” Kaminari grumbled, poking his own food with his chopsticks. Sero grinned at him.

“Still haven’t gotten a name from Yosuke huh?” Sero remarked.

“Don’t even start. I don’t get it! I’ve turned into him two more times but I can’t figure it out! He’s just a top heavy rolling ball! How useful is that?” Kaminari complained.

“I mean, Kirishima is so much better with his durability. At least he looks cool with his, but he can actually use it for things beyond defense!” Eric was silent in watching Kaminari complain. Unlike the other three who were eating take out, he was content with eating some strange red fruits. The four of them were sitting outside of his home with the door slightly ajar to let Eric see Mura playing inside.

The three of them have gotten used to the smell coming from Eric and his house. It had been about a month since the three of them met him and this wild world. They periodically would come down to the city to hang out with Eric and Mura, but Sero and Kirishima would sometimes venture to visit others.

It was just that this time was when Kirishima had asked about their training with Yosuke, which brought up their excursion from a couple weeks ago.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say that about this form. No race in the universe is useless.” Eric pointed out.

“Yeah, I suppose. It’s just that this one is so boring compared to Ampfibian, Crashopper, and Upgrade.” Kaminari sighed, taking another bite.

“And you still haven’t named your other two forms.” Sero pointed out.

“Shut up.”

“Oh, you haven’t named your Methonosian form? Do you think I could name it?” Eric began to glow with excitement. Kaminari quickly perked up.

“Go for it. My current work progresses for names that aren't that great apparently.” Kaminari leaned towards Sero, who just shrugged.

“Not my fault they’re lame.” Sero said slyly.

“You want your hero's name to be Cellophane, don’t you?” Kirishima asked. Sero nodded.

“Tape doesn’t have much going for it. But it’s better than going the copyright route and deciding on Swamp Man.” Sero joked, much to Kaminari’s embarrassment.

“You promised you’d never mention it!” Kaminari angrily said to him. Sero gave him a cocky grin before taking a rather large bite of noodles.

“Well, let’s see.” Eric brought the attention back to him as he glanced up with his finger scratching his chin.

“We Methonosian’s do have a legend. It was pretty popular with all the sprouts while I was still on Methanos. It is relatively new however.” Eric reminisced.

“Go on…” Kaminari began to lean forward in anticipation.

“A while ago, there was an ecological disaster happening on Methanos. The methane contents on the planet were starting to dwindle from external races siphoning it off to heat their own planets up to maintain a healthy atmosphere.” Eric started.

“But it was like taking oxygen from Earth. With the methane dwindling, species were beginning to die out and we were on the brink of a mass extinction event.” Eric somberly continued.

“But then, a Methanosian who wasn’t born on Methanos arrived. He carried with him technology that allowed for the revitalization of so many species. In just a few cycles, Methanos had returned. Species that had been extinct were suddenly abundant. We Methanosians went from facing our doom to actually living and thriving.” Eric smiled thinking about it.

“Wait, the whole planet? One guy did all that?” Kirishima asked. Eric nodded, quickly eating another fruit.

“Yup. The swamps before he arrived had been reduced to covering less than two thirds of our planet's surface. By the time he was done and left, they rose to cover almost all of our planet's surface.” Eric informed them.

“Wouldn’t there be a huge imbalance from raising the methane content that high so fast? Surely the planet heated up at an insane rate.” Sero questioned.

“While that was true, this Methonosian and the rest of my species worked diligently to maintain that equilibrium. Without him, me and Mura wouldn’t be here with you.” He admitted.

“What was his name? Was it some really legendary title or was it your equivalent of a common name like how the American’s have John?” Sero asked. Eric raised his finger.

“Swampfire.” He finally said. The three could only stare in confusion.

“The plant guy was named fire?” Kirishima asked.

“The swamp part I get but fire? Doesn’t your species and planet constantly produce and consume methane, the highly flammable gas?” Sero pointed out but he paused as another idea swirled in his head. “As a plant species?” He quickly added. Eric shrugged to them.

“Don’t ask me, ask his parents. The legends do say he did have an explosive personality so that was probably why.” Eric reasoned. “Plus, even if we are plants, we are quite durable. Thank you very much.” He smugly told them.

Swampfire. Kaminari thought about it for a bit. It wasn’t exceptionally far-fetched from his loose ideas. The fire part was weird though. He eyed Eric’s colorful petals. Oh, they were red and yellow like actual fire. Maybe that’s where it came from because naming a child that is just weird.

“Well, I’ll take what I get I guess. Uh, suppose you don't have a name for a Kinercerelian?” Kaminari asked sheepishly.

“A Kineceleran?” Kirishima corrected.

“Yeah, that.” Kaminari nodded. Eric thought about it for a second before shrugging. “I would ask them yourself. Kinecelerans have a particular naming convention.” He told them.

“Liiiike?” Kaminari rolled his hands to emphasize continuing. Eric sighed before nodding, taking another bite.

“As a species where speed is the most important part of their society, that translates to their names. Even if they might sound right to you, on paper they’re likely no more than 5 letters long. For example, a name like Nathaniel will be shortened to Nate, and then shortened to N8.” Eric explained. Kirishima raised his hand for a question and Eric nodded to him.

“I’m sorry for asking but what’s with aliens having English names? I don’t mean to be rude but if most of you guys live here, wouldn’t most have Japanese names?” He asked.

“Yeah, that’s been bothering me a bit. Why is that? Is it something to do with English being a common language?” Sero questioned.

“Actually, yes. That is the primary reason. For many older folks here who might have immigrated, they had to learn one of two languages. English or Japanese. For most though, they learned both but chose English names due to reasons.” Eric explained quickly.

“Such as?” Kaminari asked.

“Well, here on Earth there are two major sites for alien activity. Here in Japan and over in the United States. While there is activity elsewhere such as Egypt or Scotland, that’s where the most aliens live.” Eric continued. “As you can guess, I went to the United States first and moved here afterwards. The United States is a more common place for Aliens simply due to the larger area and more diverse biomes to allow for species to adapt to your planet.”

“Then why move here? Doesn’t America have swamps? Surely that’d be better for you.” Sero pointed out.

“Yeah well, I made friends with people who lived here so naturally, that kind of followed.” Eric went on.

“Oh, that makes sense then.” Kirishima explains. “So then I assume someone like Ms. Muzu came here first and just stayed?” Eric nodded.

“What was America like? Did you get to see some of the pros there?” Kaminari asked, leaning in.

“I wouldn’t know. I mainly stayed near where I was working in South Dakota.” Eric shrugged. Kaminari leaned back and deflated. Oh, of course. That’s basically in the dead center of the country. Most of the pros were in the coasts or in the southern states. Well, there goes some potential to learn more cool things.

Eric glanced down at his little dish that he was using to hold his fruit, now barren. He sighed, before slowly standing over them.

“Well, I’m all done. I’ve got to go. You three stay out of trouble, alright?” His attention appeared to land on Kaminari and Sero, given the tale they had just told him. He gave the two a glare that oozed a response a parent wanted and they nodded with their mouths full of food.

“Don’t worry sir, we’ll stay out of trouble.” Kirishima reassured him with his toothy grin. Eric seemed relieved and nodded. He started to walk towards the house, turning before he closed the door.

“Why don’t you say goodbye Mura?” She looked up from her toys and turned to all of them. An imperfect smile rapidly grew on her face before she stood up and began to dramatically wave to them with enthusiasm.

“BYE BYE! See you soon!” She hollered. The three of them lightly waved to her as Eric slowly closed the door behind him. There was muffled chatter from the otherside of the door, likely Eric asking Mura to take care of her toys, as the three of them lowered their arms to their food.

“Well, that was nice, I guess.” Kaminari admitted.

“I’m still really hung up about the Swampfire thing. That’s such a dumb name.” Sero said once more to them. Kaminari groaned.

“Let it be. It’s better than what I’ve been coming up with.” Sero nodded in silent approval. The three just stood there in silence, the ambience of the town echoing off the cavern around them filling the empty void.

“So, who wants to go find where those weapons were being brought?” Kirishima suddenly blurted out.

…

“Kirishima! Kirishima! Where in blazes are we going!?” Kaminari said in a hushed tone as he and Sero trailed Kirishima pushing through back alleys in the depths of the town. Kaminari had no idea where they were at the moment. Granted, he only really travelled between Eric’s house and where Kamikiri lived once so most of the town was a mystery to him anyway.

When Kirishima mentioned the weapons, Kaminari and Sero had no idea what he meant. He had just gotten up and motioned for them to follow. He left before the two could object and could only be concerned as Kirishima led them deeper and deeper into the back alleys and hidden depths of the subterranean town.

“How do you know all this? We’ve known that this place existed for like a month! Not even!” Sero complained.

“Oh, I come here sometimes without you guys and just walk around and talk to people. Helping carry and working with this alien stuff is a better workout than every gym I’ve ever been to.” He explained while leaning around a corner to peer down a street, quickly ducking back in just as fast as he had leaned out.

“Wow, having fun without us. I see how it is.” Sero sarcastically joked to them. Kirishima just rolled his eyes before taking one last quick scan outside the alley before turning his attention to them.

“What’s this even about? If this is about stopping the laser lances or whatever, then it’s not going to happen. We already got out butts chewed out before about it. I don't want to snoop around to stop them like some insane vigilantes. I’m too young for jail!” Kaminari spurted out in a hushed tone.

“Relax, we aren’t doing that.” Kirishima assured. “I’ve heard rumors that if there is any, unsavory information that you wanted to get, there was this bar to visit and if you ask around, you can get it.”

“But we’re underaged.” Kaminari pointed out.

“Yes, because that’s what we should be focusing on.” Sero smacked the back of Kaminari’s head, earning a muffled yelp from him.

“Ok so what’s your plan we just get information and then give it to the pros? Can we even give it to the pros?” Sero asked. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, processing what Kirishima’s plan could be.

“And how would we even do that? There’s no way they would talk about something like that to three hu- Oh, you’re a moron.” Sero groaned.

“It’s perfect! I mean, what are the chances this goes wrong?” Kirishima responded with cheer.

“I mean, have you met him?” Kaminari slowly gave confused glances at the two. The gears in his head were shifting, slowly picking up what they were saying.

“Wait, do you want me to go in there as an alien?” He finally asked Kirishima.

“Yup! I mean, you have, what, four more forms you haven’t become yet? Then the chances of being recognized are almost zero! Just go in for a few minutes and book it before anyone is any the wiser!” Kaminari thought about it. It seemed sound enough to him.

“You realize this is Kaminari right? He thinks Swampfire is a great name for a plant guy.” Oh, well, Sero didn’t think so it seems.

“And plus, all of Kaminari’s forms have the badge. That’s going to be a clear sign. What do we do? Cover it?” Sero questioned further.

“Yeah?” Kirishima paused. “I don't know what you were expecting me to say.” Sero could only respond with a face palm while the other two flashed a grin to one another. Kaminari started to shift through his list. Out of the four he had left, only one really appeared practical for this kind of thing to him. Didn’t have some sort of crazy body and didn’t seem short. Just tall and lanky.

He pressed the button and pressed the dial down, the flash taking over the alleyway. Kaminari’s body began to be stretched thin to add onto his height, arms becoming unnaturally lanky and his torso giving him a subtle hunch. His entire body started to pull itself as if it was dehydrating. Hair receded and muscle mass started to shrink. Instead of the tight stretching that would come with a process, his skin slowly grew off his body in cloth-like strands.

They seemingly gained a mind of their own as they began to weave and wrap themselves around him, adding even greater height and length to his lungs. Sparse strands of the cloth wove into even finer weaves, creating clothing on his body. The last bit of bone structure he had left in his face hardened and projected outwards onto the cloth. They wove into the newly created mask and Kaminari could finally feel everything coming to end.

The flash died and Kaminari looked down at his body. He saw the transformation preview before but there was only one thing on his mind with this one.

It was just a mummy.

Just an abnormally tall mummy.

“You know, some aliens out there are not that interesting in concept.” Sero concluded after analyzing Kaminari.

“Does this mean all the conspiracies about aliens in Egypt are true!?” Kirishima quickly asked the two.

“I don’t know…” Kaminari muttered, shifting his arms around. He noticed the many loose strands of fabric that were coming off of his arms, although it seemed like he didn’t have hands for some reason. That’s going to suck.

“Alright, but what can this guy do? Something with sand? Oh, magic maybe? That’d be cool!” He said, flapping his arms out dramatically. Sand didn’t shoot out but the extra strands did with a depressing float down onto the ground. The three remained silent, staring at the strands on the floor in front of them.

“Or I can shoot out my wraps. That too.” Kaminari said. He thought about him curling his fingers and the strands slowly pulled themselves back to him.

“You’re like a weird Sero.” Kirishima pointed out to Kaminari.

“And his rolly polly is just a weird you. What’s your point?” Sero questioned. Kirishima thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “Anyway, here’s the plan. You just go in there and maybe drop a few subtle hints that you want a laser lance and see where that gets you.” Kirishima explained.

“Ok, but what if they discover who he is? Or get suspicious of him? They tried to kill us.” Sero said.

“Well, I hope you can figure out how to run in that. Plus, we can help if it really comes to it.” Kirishima assured Sero.

“I guess but we don’t know what they have. I’m not going to be shot at by lasers again.” Sero remarked in a sarcastic tone.

“Well, just wait here. I'll be back before I turn back. Promise.” Kaminari told them.

“Gotcha.” Kirishima nodded in confirmation and Sero gave him a weary thumbs up. Kaminari walked past them towards the street. Walking felt weird in this form, like how he’d imagine being a wind sock would be. He kept his feet close together to try and limit that weird feeling as much as he could as he approached the doors of the bar.

He took a deep breath and tried to steel himself for whatever was on the other side.

When the doors opened, Kaminari braced himself for whatever smell would have hit him. While he had never been in a bar before, he could only imagine what it’d smell like. A bar at this dusty place must have reeked of something like strong vinegar and disinfectant. Something foul enough that he’d throw up in an instant.

But, it actually smelled sweet?

As he entered, he saw what he would expect. Booths, high chairs and tables, a bar that was filled with patrons, a wall of containers of various liquids, and a dainty tv lodged onto the wall. But the smell was far beyond that sickening and gut wrenching expectation he had. It was sweet and savory, reminding him of honey and caramel. Maybe it was a little too sweet actually. The longer Kaminari focused on it, the more he was reminded of the late nights where he’d do nothing but consume vast amounts of sweets and soda while playing Sumo Slammers, landing himself a ticket to bed rest for the next day.

Maybe he shouldn’t think about that. Just push it aside, get a general idea of what they were doing with the laser lances, and leave before he transforms back.

He shuffled forward, turning his attention away from the smell to focus on not tripping on his strands. Several people turned their attention to his slow movements and just as quickly whipped their heads away from him in shame. Great, he’s already outcasted. Might as well try to recover it.

He shuffled to the bar and took a seat, shifting uncomfortably. Sitting down felt weird as this one, something to make a mental note of. The bartender eyed him briefly before nodding.

“Usual sir?” Kaminari blanked. Usual? He’s never been here before. Was he getting confused for someone else? What are the odds of that happening?

A little light bulb clicked in his mind. Wait, he could salvage this. If he played his cards right, maybe he could use whoever this guy thinks he is to get his info.

‘Alright, just play it like you’re a spy Kaminari. Play this right and they’ll talk.’ He nodded and the bartender turned to dunk behind the counter. Kaminari leered over to watch him, only seeing the shifting of him digging through the bottom shelf, pulling out a purple crystal that was shaped as a bottle. Kaminari watched in silent admiration as he watched the bartender pour a glass of a viscous purple liquid. Kaminari stared in confusion when it was slid to him and the bartender left him.

It didn’t even occur to him what he just did. He ordered a drink. He slowly picked it up, focusing intently on not dropping the glass. Whatever he was given was something fancy he guessed. How could he even drink this? Could he even drink this? What if it was some super potent alcohol that instantly knocked him out and exposed him?

But if he didn’t drink it, would that blow his cover?

Kaminari panicked. Everything was racing through his brain so he just let his instincts take hold and took a cautious sip.

Whatever it was, it burned. He could feel a warm feeling seep into his mask and through his bandages, as if his entire body was a throat. It took a lot of willpower for him to not spit it out and to push it down. He didn't know if he wanted to make the mental note to avoid alien alcohol or just alcohol in general now.

“You ok, boss?” Kaminari turned his head to someone who he immediately clocked as the ugliest creature he’s ever seen. The warts on his disgusting trunk were caked with some vile crust and snot slowly condensed in his nostril. He didn’t smell great either, he almost completely overpowered the sweet aroma of the bar.

It almost made Kaminari consider if he wanted to try and throw up to get rid of the liquor.

“I’m,” He briefly paused. How should he go about this? So not only is he being confused by someone else, but he’s apparently a boss. Maybe, if he plays this well, he can get them singing like songbirds.

“I’m fine. I was just thinking about those laser lances.” He lied. Now he’s gotta hope that not only is his persona connected to the lances, but they know about them and know enough to give him what he wants. Or drunk enough to give it up.

The patron burped, spewing spit on Kaminari. His will was really being tested here but he was screaming internally. The bar remained eerily quiet, tension building in the air. He could feel the laser hawk vision of everyone staring into the back of his head but he pushed it down. He felt he was too far into this now.

“Da laser lances? Don’t worries, we gots enough dat we can get a surplus from da factory!” He slurred, briefly leaning towards Kaminari. Creaking came from behind them but Kaminari focused on pushing the man off him slowly and readjusting himself. The creaking was likely the building settling. It was probably old so who knows!? His anxiety starting to spike meant nothing, right?

“Oh yeah, which one? It’s hard to keep track of them. So many of them.” Kaminari nervously questioned, moving his clothed finger back and forth to channel some of his jittery energy.

“Oh, the abandoned car one about 2 kilome-”

He was immediately cut off as a bottle was smashed into his head from behind, instantly knocking him out onto the counter cold. Kaminari himself was grabbed from behind and thrown off onto the floor. Peering up, a group of angry patrons were staring down at him. Some held small handguns while others held onto their glasses with violent intent. Kaminari gulped. Appears like everyone else caught on.

“Heheh, Hi guys. How’s it going? The weather, am I right?” He nervously chuckled before grunting as one of the patrons stomped on his chest, leaned down, and pulled his head up.

“Who the hell are you? Because you sure as hell aren’t Kane! Kane would have killed someone if they ever spat on them! So who are you? Plumber scum?” He yelled in Kaminari’s face, spitting all over it.

“Why is everyone spitting on me? And what about me says Plumber? Do I look like I know how to unclog toilets? I’m better suited to be an electrician.” Kaminari’s response seemed to have made them blank. Were Plumbers some sort of hot commodity here? Well, that made sense. Most of the houses were stone so they probably didn't have any form of decent plumbing.

“There is no way you’re this dumb. Check him, he must have a badge or something on him.” He barked at the others around him. Kaminari briefly wondered if he had his phone or wallet on him in his forms. This is the only transformation he’s become that actually could have pockets.

Wait, what even happened to his stuff when he transformed? He was pretty certain they didn’t have pockets.

“Wait, I found his badge!” Someone yelled directly behind from the one pinning him to the ground. The only thing Kaminari could think of that would be that around his waist was the-

“Wait, that’s not a badge. It’s just a buckle! I swear!” Kaminari pleaded. The man snapped his fingers and pointed to him. “Cut it off. Then smash it. We’ll take him to Kane. He’s going to want to know the bastards are after him now.”

“What about Sileen?” A voice asked in the back.

“Eh, we’ll bring him too. Kane will probably beat him senseless. And best case, kill him.” The one who pinned him shrugged. Kaminari was fairly certain he heard someone thank god behind them under their breath.

‘Great, now I feel bad about him.’ Kaminari deadpanned. ‘He was just friendly.’ He thought, before he snapped to the man pinning him down, getting off while another got on their knees with a shard of glass from the broken bottle, poised towards the Omnitrix badge.

‘Right, I’m about to be carved into.’ Kaminari began to panic as the glass's edge got closer towards the badge.

“Hey so if you wanted to know more about me, I’m actually a teenager so reconsider your choices!” Kaminari blurted out to the crowd but the glass was jammed underneath the edge of the badge. While Kaminari could feel his ribbons being pierce and luckily not his body underneath, the immediate beep and rapidly illuminating glow surprised everyone.

Except that curiosity quickly became worry the moment yellow energy began to arc off and grow.

Before anyone could react to whatever was happening, the energy exploded into a shockwave, pushing Kaminari firmly into the floor and everyone else off him. Tables and chairs were flung across the room, glasses shattered, and the TV in the corner was promptly broken. Dust was thrown into the air as Kaminari pulled himself up.

Kaminari’s everything was sore, but everyone else was in infinitely more pain. The bartender was nowhere to be seen, Sileen got knocked over the counter and remained unconscious, and everyone else was groaning and twitching lightly from sudden pain inflicted on all of them.

Kaminari slowly regained his composure, hunched over in a mixture of pain and caution. Since when could the Omnitrix do that? Why didn’t it do that before? Would have helped out so much more than mister ball in the woods. He really needs to find the manual for this thing.

“Uhgg, what the hell was that?” Kaminari’s head snapped towards the one who had him pinned to the ground. He appeared to be the only one who wasn't knocked out from his detonation besides Kaminari, only suffering from damaged clothing and rapidly swelling welts. They locked eyes and his dazed confusion shifted to unrivaled anger.

“What was that? A self defense protocol?! You damn plumbers. I hate you so much.” He spat out. Kaminari threw his arms out bewildered.

“Again! I don’t know what the Plumbers are, man. I just got this thing! I didn’t even know it could do that!” He yelled in exasperation. He reached down and pulled off something from his belt that wasn’t knocked off. He twisted his hand, showing a rectangular brick. It clicked in his hand and two sharp tipped prongs slid out, locking into place. He brought it up to his chest and pointed it at Kaminari as the prongs began to hum with a searing orange glow.

“Oh, that looks painful.” Kaminari pointed out. A twisted and cruel smirk grew on the other’s face.

“Yeah, I hope so. I don’t think Kane will care if you come to him a little charred, right?” He asked. “Consider this, as a little treat to myself for ruining my day off, you brat.” He lunged forward and jabbed with a speed Kaminari couldn’t believe from someone who was likely buzzed and heavily injured. He should have reacted but his body froze.

Why couldn’t he move? He was moving fast but there was no way Kaminari couldn’t dodge him. Sure he had that drink but he didn’t feel drunk. That couldn’t have been the reason. Was this something the other could just do?

As he got closer, Kaminari’s vision was locked onto his eyes. Twisted and maniacal. He must have had a short temper that was exaggerated by the alcohol, fueling him even further than his loyalty. He was ready to maim. He was ready to make Kaminari suffer.

He was…

He was going to enjoy this.

Like him.

At that moment, with the weapon just inches from piercing his chest, he was back there. The walls of the bar melted away to a damaged street. Smoke and fire overtook the smell of liquor. Kaminari felt smaller but just as defenseless. The person before him turned, his form bulking up and his weapon twisting into an outreached palm.

Oh god, he’s going to die. Muscular was going to kill him.

He felt his chest cave in from being stabbed with the searing prongs. He could smell the burning of his bands, the snapping of their bonds. His heart was racing but he was guessing that was going to stop soon. His arms felt weak. He wanted to drop down. He didn’t want to die.

He could feel the heat, the ripping. He waited for it to fade. That’s what death was, right? That’s how all the movies, books, and games described it as.

But it didn’t happen.

He rapidly blinked, the memory of the Muscular fading back to the bar. He was just standing there with the other’s hand plunged into his chest. His anger and psychopathic enjoyment was gone. He was questioning the same thing Kaminari was. How was he still standing? He had had like a 200 degree weapon stabbed directly into his chest. How wasn’t his heart or lungs ruptured and bleeding out? His heart was still beating. That shouldn’t have been possible, right?

Kaminari slowly drifted his attention onto his chest. His bands were caved slightly inwards with charred edges shifting along the wrist of the other. He tried to steady his breathing and unravel his chest, maybe he missed. Maybe his organs are lower. Anything to calm himself.

His torso began to expand with his bands unweaving themselves from themselves, freeing themselves and standing out like the feathers of a majestic bird. The burnt bands grew out longer than the others and slowly began to grow new ends, the charred ends becoming nothing more than just a smudged streak. When his torso finally unraveled to reveal the inside, his breathing hitched.

Nothing.

His entire torso was empty. No organs, no bones, and no muscle. The only thing that seemed to make up his body were the bands that covered him. He had no mummified body that piloted his body underneath. He was just the mummy wrappings without a human body.

“Aw crud, of course you have nothing under there. That’s my luck.” He sighed before twisting his arm and shifting his stance. He smiled once more and took another swipe at Kaminari. The strands that made his lower abdomen fell to the ground with a sizzle that reeked of burning hair.

“Luckily, the rest of you can still burn. That’s enough for me.” Kaminari took a fearful step back, his torso interweaving back to normal. Ok so, he’s psychotic like Muscular and just like then, he’s in a form he barely knows. He leapt back again, barely getting nicked across his chest. His back was against the counter now and his attacker was getting closer.

‘Ok ok, I need a plan. Real fast! Ok, what do I have that’s going to stop me from becoming a burning t-shirt? I mean, this form can regenerate but it still hurts! Alright, just think. Calm down and think. A hero can’t panic. You aren’t there anymore. Heroes don’t panic. Just think. Think of some way to get out of here in one piece.’ He frantically thought to himself, twisting to the left to avoid a hit.

So he was a mummy. What can mummies do? Well, earlier they talked about sand and magic but magic isn't real so that’s out of the question. He couldn’t feel the gut feeling that Ampfibian had so that canned the idea of sand. It seemed his only option were his bandages.

Before the other could make another swipe at him, Kaminari threw his hand out and pushed his fingers out towards him. He imagined his fingers grabbing the alien and wrapping around him, forming cuffs around his arms and legs. His attacker fought back against his ensnarement but Kaminari focused harder, the bonds and weaves constricting. They began to spread up his arms and legs, connecting themselves to their other paired limb.

“Let go, you brat!” He struggled harder to free himself from Kaminari but to no avail. Wait, was Kaminari actually overpowering him? As a pile of sentient clothes? So was he just an Egyptian version of Edgeshot?

Oh, that works for him.

“Yeah, I can do that.” Kaminari smugly claimed, immediately throwing his arms up with all the strength he could muster. If he could easily restrain him, carrying him doesn’t sound that far fetched, right?

Well, his guess was correct.

The other was flung up into the ceiling, smashing into the stone ceiling. His short and startled panicked yells were immediately silenced with his body going limp. Kaminari held him there for a few moments. He didn’t accidently kill him, right? He really hoped he didn’t just fracture his spine and simply just knocked him out.

“Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease…” Kaminari quickly mumbled to himself. He brought down the alien and swiftly unwrapped him. His eyes were rolled back and there weren't any apparent signs of bleeding or broken bones. Although, Kaminari wasn’t an expert on alien biology just yet. Or ever will.

He carefully kneeled down and dangled his fingers above where he guessed their nose would be. He held his own breath, waiting to see his fingers sway.

A few moments of overbearing silence passed. He was beginning to worry before he saw the faint bend on his fingers. He leaned down just to confirm he wasn’t imagining it. Faintly, Kaminari could hear the sound of exceptionally weak breathing.

“Oh thank god.” Kamnari slunk back with unbearable weight being lifted off his shoulders. He just stared at the ceiling in eerie silence. The only sound in the bar now was his labored breathing. His body shook lightly but it couldn’t have been from exhaustion, right?

He cradled himself in his arms and focused on his breathing. It was just adrenaline. Wound up from the fight. It’ll pass. Just, focus on the breathing. He just needed to calm himself down. He’s going to deal with many of these in the future as a hero. This time, he was just inexperienced. Yeah, that’s why. He’ll be better in the future.

He took a final scan around the bar. The only noteworthy source of interest for him was Sileen. He peered over the counter to see them sound asleep on the ground. Well, they seem well. But what about later?

Kaminari shuffled over the counter awkwardly and scoured the contents of drawers and shelves for a pen or something to write with. Maybe he can leave a note. He did just kick all their butts so maybe they’ll be more weary in throwing Sileen in front of whoever this Kane is.

Was he looking to leave a threat to these people? That was a cruel and evil idea. That didn’t sit well with him when he found what he assumed to be a pen. Maybe it’ll be a reminder or a promise. A first step to heroism.

He grabbed a napkin and went back to Sileen’s body. He stared at the napkin and thought for a second. He needed something cool. Something to remember.

“Sileen shall not be harmed” He started. “Wait, no. That’s cheesy.” He crumbled the napkin and threw it onto the floor.

“If anything happens to Sileen, I will come back.” He mumbled to himself after scribbling it down. Yeah, that sounded fine.

“Kaminaaa-” He stopped himself. Did he almost just write his name down? Wow, that’s a dumb one for even his standards.

He crumbled it up and tossed it. He scribbled down the message again and stared blankly at the signature. What was he going to call this one? It had to be a cool pun, better than whatever Swampfire was. Um, it had to be a mummy pun first off. Threads? No, that is just boring. Pharaoh? Nah, that is too basic but maybe on the path he needed.

He quickly scanned over the unconscious attacker and how he wrapped him up in their fight. He pondered that, thinking how he ensnared him in his own wrappings.

Oh, there it is.

“Signed, Snare-Oh.” He set the note on Sileen in a place he was confident that someone would see. He stood there, proud of himself. And now that he has the idea of what is happening with the laser lances, the three of them can-

Oh god, Sero and Kirishima. He completely forgot about them.

He leapt over the counter and quickly ran as fast as he could without tripping over himself towards the door. He darted through and across the street towards the alleyway. As Kaminari saw the faces of Sero and Kirishima staring at him in astonished concern, the Omnitrix began to beep to signal to him his time was up. Just as he dived into the alleyway, Snare-Oh melted away and left Kaminari standing in front of his friends.

“What was that Kaminari? We heard some huge boom and then nothing! We were about to barge in there to try and pull you out, wait, are you ok? You look horrid.” Sero initially started to verbally rail on Kaminari but swiftly changed when he got a better view of him.

“What? I feel normal. Don't I?” He looked down at himself. Everything seemed in order. He didn’t have any burn marks so that was a positive sign that it didn’t transfer.

“You smell like alcohol and burnt hair.” Kirishima chipped in before Sero scanned him. “No, you seem off. Are you sure you’re ok?” Kaminari scoffed and waved his hand at him.

“I’m alright. Turns out the Omnitrix will just sometimes explode.” He nonchalantly joked to them.

“I’m sorry, what?” Sero blinked.

“Was that the boom we heard? We thought it was some weird gunfire.” Kirishima admitted. He chuckled before rubbing his black hair out of his face.

“We were worried for a minute there.” Sero swiftly turned to him and stared at him in disbelief.

“So, am I the only one concerned about the fact that Kaminari exploded?! And we know for sure it didn’t come from the mummies powers?”

“Snare-Oh.” Kaminari corrected.

“Oh, Snare-Oh. That fixes everything. That doesn’t change that you went boom!” Sero argued.

“Hey, it’s fine. Kaminari’s ok and I trust him.” Kirishima placed his hand on Sero’s shoulder before turning his attention back to Kaminari.

“Did you find anything out before you went boom?” He asked.

“Oh yeah, the laser lances are at a car factory about two kilometers away apparently. I don’t know which one that is though.” Kaminari admitted to them.

“Yeah, I know which one you’re talking about. There is one south of here that closed a couple years ago because they suffered severe damage from a robbery by villains because they were far off from the nearest patrolling hero and police. Sounds like a great place to pile up deadly weapons.” Kirishima said, reminiscing about the past with his hand on his chin.

“Ok so then what’s the plan? We just report this information to someone like Eric?” Sero asked the two. The three of them were silent, thinking about the consequences of what lies ahead.

“Why don’t we just investigate from afar? Not to infiltrate or attack like that but just watch from the bushes to get an idea on what they’re doing. Give the most we can to Eric or someone so they can actually get them.” Kaminari suggested. “I really don’t want to get in trouble with Yosuke again.” He added quickly. The other two took a quick glance at each other and nodded.

“That sounds like a good plan. How long do you think it’ll take to get us there?” Sero questioned Kirishima. He thought about it for a second and shrugged.

“It shouldn’t be too crazy long. It is only two kilometers away.”

…

Behind the cover of trees and foliage, the three of them spied on the building complex in front of them. A single road exited out of a moss covered brick wall that would bring them back to the main roads. Inside, two large buildings that were connected through a smaller building were bleached in an array of dull colors from weathering and constant exposure from sunlight. The exceptions were patches of vibrant repairs, evidently made by the many aliens that were walking around carrying crates and carts filled with laser lances.

Well, they found their main base.

“There’s so many of them.” Kirishima pointed out in a hushed tone. The other two nodded in agreement.

“Why do they need so many though? There is no way they need this much with how many there are.” Sero questioned. Kaminari watched them move, seeing them load the crates carefully into trucks and push the carts into the buildings. The crates seemed to be significantly smaller than what was in the carts so maybe that had to do with something.

“You think they’re trying to supply villains with weapons?” Kaminari asked the two. Sero seemed to think about it for a second before tilting his head.

“I don't know. What are they doing with them that needs separate transport?” He raised a question that Kaminari had to think about. Maybe they were modifying them somehow? Making them more powerful? Less? Maybe adding some sick scopes or braces to them to make them snipers?

A snap came from behind them. Kaminari quickly turned his head to see behind them, seemingly the only one who noticed. He saw nothing behind them. No one was hiding behind a tree or in them. His search seemed to get the attention of the other two, both turning to look behind them as well.

“What’s up? You hear something?” Sero asked cautiously. He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to see further. Nothing seemed out of place to him. He turned back towards the factory with an uneasy feeling. Like they were somehow being watched by something. But there was no way they were. No one was there. It must be paranoia from what they’re doing. They weren’t close enough that they had to be concerned for their safety, in part to his wants, but there was still a creeping feeling he couldn’t shake.

“I heard a snap but it must have been some animal. There’s no one there.” He whispered to them. They took one last glance behind them before slowly turning back towards the factory. Everything felt tense now but there was no way it could have been.

“Alright, well, we can see the trucks at least. If they have to transport them, we can give a tip to the police right? They’re going to wear those mask things right?” Kirishima asked.

“ID Masks. And yeah, if we note the license plates, we should be able to just tip the police off. But shouldn’t we tell Eric? I mean, they’re aliens. I don't know what Yosuke and them did with the ones before but we should keep aliens a secret for as long as we can, right?” Sero pointed out.

“Yeah, I don’t want Ms. Muzu to be kidnapped by the government.” Kirishima remarked.

“Are we forgetting there are apparently alien pros? If anything, there’s a chance that the government or at least someone in there knows aliens exist.” Kaminari mentioned.

“You think All Might knows about aliens? Endeavor? Maybe even heroes like Hawks or Best Jeanist?” Kirishima asked again.

“No, Best Jeanist couldn’t know. He’s in charge of Kaminari’s whole thing and they think it’s a quirk thing. If anything, All Might would know.” Sero shifted to talk towards Kirishima and explained briefly. Kirishima considered it and nodded.

“Yeah, that makes sense. He is the top hero.”

“See, makes more sense than Best Jean-” Sero’s statement was just abruptly cut off. Kaminari barely had time to turn to Sero, collapsing into the bush before he felt something sharp in the back of his neck. The world immediately felt fuzzy and a wave of exhaustion took over him. He couldn’t fight the urge as everything went black.

He was expecting to just feel the sharp pain of sticks and thorns into his face but it felt coarse, cold, and solid. Like a stone floor. He fought to open his eyes against the exhaustion to see what was going on. Everything was dark at first but Kaminari’s eyes adjusted with the aid of a weak light.

He tried to push himself up but his arms were stuck. He tried to move them but he quickly became acutely aware of thick rope that strongly bound his hands together. He tilted his head up to look around. He was in some dark room with boxes and unknown machines stored away on the sides. Above him was a single dingy light bulb that hummed with age.

“Oh, so you’re up now.” Kaminari twisted his body towards Kirishima sitting upright with his own arms tied behind him. He blinked in confusion, still processing what was happening.

“What happened?” He asked Kirishima. Kirishima turned away and Kaminari followed his gaze. On the other side of the room was a metal door with an apparent separate panel welded to where a handle would be, leaving a smooth facade.

“Wait, were we kidnapped!? How?” Kaminari shouted after the idea finally dawned.

“I suppose. That sound you heard must have been someone who was coming to us. Whatever they did, they swiped us in the back of our necks. I guess it has something like chloroform on it. Knocked the three of us out and brought us in here. I woke up first somehow, then you. Sero is over there.” He gestured his head over to Sero. He was laying on the floor sound asleep with his own arms tied behind him.

“Alright, okokokokok. So what’s the plan?” Kaminari’s tone was speeding up. Kirishima rolled his eyes at him and shifted his arms. He was confused about what Kirishima was doing before he heard the snaps of Kirishima’s ropes. He brought his hands forward, clearly jagged with his quirk.

“Oooohhh.” Kaminari watched Kirshima walk over to him and felt the ropes loosen before falling to the ground. While Kirishima went over to Sero to free him, Kaminari stood up and rubbed his wrists to regain feeling in them. The skin above the Omnitrix on his hand was raw and chafed similar to his other wrist. That bothered him a bit. But being locked in a mysterious room was more concerning at the moment.

He went to the door while Sero was starting to groan from waking up. The door was a solid slab in front of them. He couldn’t see anything like hinges or something to open it. He pushed on it on the off chance it wasn’t locked. Felt like he was pushing on a wall.

“Kirishima, do you think you can break it?” Kaminari asked aloud. He turned to him as the two went up to him. Sero was still groggy from waking up so he was just blinking blankly. Kirishima got up to the door and examined it.

“I’ve never broken through metal before but it shouldn't be too hard.” He claimed. He brought his fist back, hardened it, and slammed it into the door. There was a solid clang followed by an immediate recoil from Kirishima.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, son of a gun, ow, ow, ow-” Kirshima repeatedly cussed, flicking his hand back and forth. He put his hand in his mouth for a moment and stared daggered into the door. He got closer to it and crouched down to the welded panel where the door handle would have been.

“Maybe I can break through this.” He grumbled. He placed a hardened finger and began to twist it. He increased the speed that he was twisting his impromptu drill but nothing was budging. He brought his hand back and the only sign of his efforts was scratches on the metal.

“Ok, so this door is solid. Any plan Bs?” He asked the others. Sero peered around in his stupor in the room they were in.

“I don’t see any ducts. This looks to be a storage room that was repurposed as a makeship holding cell. I think some of the machines on the wall are used in the assembly of cars here.” He mentioned, moving closer to them. He examined them closely with as much as he could with the light in the room.

“I don’t think we have anything in here we can do something with.” He guessed.

“So are we stuck here until they come to finally pick us off!?” Kaminari panicked. The two stared at him with dry expressions on their faces.

“Kaminari, which one of us has an alien watch that basically gives them ten quirks?” Sero coldly remarked. Kaminari looked down at the Omnitrix and felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him. It seemed so obvious now. He opened the dial and flipped through his forms.

“Alright, let’s see here. Who can get out of here easily..” He mumbled, studying them. He landed on a form that seemed liquidly similarly to Upgrade but just a little more fluid.

‘Wait a minute.’ He took a quick glance at the door and saw the gap underneath. An idea popped into his head. He activated the dial and slammed down.

His body began to heat up, becoming a translucent yellowish green color. Parts of his body began to drip and splatter on the ground. The rate that his body was melting was rapidly increasing, leaving nothing more than a large puddle on the floor. The Omnitrix was the only thing that remained solid, shifting into a cone that hovered briefly above his formless body. At the moment, he could feel nothing. It was as if his muscles completely relaxed. But when the Omnitrix hovered above, he could feel himself tightening up again. He pulled himself up, gaining a vaguely humanoid body.

Even though he had legs, moving to the door was akin to a glide similar to how liquids will just move on their own. He reached the door and literally squished down to crouch to get closer to the bottom crack. Now, if he was correct, he should be able to just slip under and reform on the other side.

‘Alright, let’s try this one out.’ He imagined he was trying to slide under his bed, his gooey body sliding through the door. Everything became large as he became a puddle. Even the Omnitrix cone above his head liquefied into his body. As he spread onto the other side, he could feel the Omnitrix travel through his body onto the other side. It began to help him pull his body underneath from the other side. His vision quickly became covered by the slowly rusty bottom of the door before being pulled up to his normal height on the other side.

He reached for the handle that was on this side and pushed the tab down. The door clicked in response and Kaminari pulled it open, his body stretching and snapping back to place once he opened it fully. He leaned on the door, trying to appear as cool as you could being a sentient pile of goo.

“So, did somebody order an escape? Wait, is that my voice? This sounds worse than Upgrade!” Kaminari recoiled at the sound of his voice. It was incredibly high pitched and squeaky for lack of a better term. The other two stifled their laughter before staring at him with varying emotions. Kirishima looked confused and Sero was annoyed.

“Kaminari.” Sero started.

“Yeah?”

“You have Upgrade, a form you claim can take over technology. What is surrounding us?” Kaminari sheepishly turned his eyes left to right, staring at the machines on the walls.

“Oh…” Sero pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

“Come on man, you could have been some sick mecha and you chose to be a pile of boogers!? Why would you do that?” Sero complained loudly. Kaminari shrunk in shame.

“But you know, that was actually kinda cool so no harm done, I guess.” He said exhausted. Sero quickly rubbed his temples and the base of his neck.

“God, whatever they did sucks. I feel like I slept on a slab of stone.”

“Technically, that is what happened.” Kirishima said, pointing out the obvious. Kaminari twisted his head to see where they were now. They were in a dank corridor with chipped paint and piping on the walls. It seemed to be a service tunnel before the factory was closed down. He vaguely pointed in a direction down the hall.

“Let’s pick a direction and go. We have ten minutes or so before I turn back. Think we can cause damage here now that we’re inside?” He asked.

“I’m game. Let’s punch their lights out.” Kirishima grinned, scraping his hardened arms together that let sparks fly off. Sero sighed before nodding with a grin. “We can always claim we acted in self defense this time.” He suggested.

Kaminari nodded and began to run down the hall. The other two followed behind the disgusting sound of his feet popping off the ground. The tunnel led up to a winding staircase upwards and the trio began their ascent. It wasn’t long until they found another door, this one not damaged or modified in a way to prevent entry. Sero stepped forwards and peeked through the small window in the frame into the room ahead. Kaminari tried to stretch himself to see if he could see through it as well but the window was too small to see through with Sero glancing closely through it.

“Ok, so.” Sero peeled himself away and crouched low. Kirishima and Kaminari followed his example before he started to speak again. “It seems that this is the main room in the factory. On the other side of this door is probably a majority of the aliens in this place.” He stated.

“Ok, what else? You got a plan?” Kirishima quickly asked.

“Yeah. It seems that the laser lances are being modified on conveyor belts through worker stations and moved to some collection bins. So, I think our best bet is to somehow make the machines backfire or to disable the laser lances entirely.” Sero suggested.

“How are we going to do that?” Kaminari asked. Sero smiled and pointed to him.

“That’s where you come in. If you become that puddle again, you may be able to slink your way into the machines unnoticed.” Kaminari nodded slowly.

“Then what? What will you guys do?” Sero lightly shrugged.

“Do whatever you think will work best. Destroy the conveyor belts, destroy the lances without blowing yourself up, who knows. As for me and Kirishima, if I had to guess, there is a second layer to the main room.” He pointed upwards into the spiraling staircase. “If me and Kirishima can get to the second layer, there is a high chance they have some sort of control panel or room. There always is. If we can sneak in there, we can probably break everything so they have to figure out how to repair the main computers before resuming. Hopefully by then, the heroes and police will be here to stop them.”

“Gotcha. So I’ll go into the main room and mess with something and you guys will sneak your way upstairs. Sounds like an epic plan.” Kaminari held his fist out, inviting a group fistbump. The other two exchanged disgusted looks with each other.

“I don’t, I don’t really want to touch you.” Kirishima admitted. Sero nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, no offense buddy.” Kaminari’s hand dropped onto the ground after dropping his shoulders.

“Aww man.”

“Sorry bro. Maybe when you aren’t goop.” Kirishima stood and started to walk up the stairs with Sero following in tow. Kaminari sighed before completely puddling himself once more and sliding under the door.

Now that he was in the main room, the hum and churning of the machines drowned out everything. He could hear the sounds of drills and clanking metal as the conveyor jerked forward periodically.

He slowly made his way to the conveyor, hoping to not be spotted. The closest aliens were busy in their work but from this angle, Kaminari couldn't tell what they were doing. They didn’t notice Kaminari slowly slid behind them and then past them, making his way underneath the conveyors. He crawled up the supports and slowly flowed through the lines of conveyors, trying to reach as close to the midpoint as he could estimate.

‘Alright, so what’s going on here?’ He slowly peered around once he was nestled deep into the assembly line, subtly shaking from the machines. He looked towards the end of the line where the crates were and noticed something that Sero didn’t mention.

It seemed that the conveyors had two exit points. From here, he could see one line spitting the laser lances out into a crate but the other line was depositing something smaller into a different crate. That seemed confusing. What byproduct could they be making from the lances?

He slowly continued towards the end, drawn in by the curiosity of what the byproduct was. When he reached the end, he slowly pooled into the crate and brought as little as his humanoid form into shape.

Whatever they were, they were small cylinders with prongs at the ends. A small window on the side showed a swirling and sparking energy inside. It felt warm in his hands somehow. As more plunked into the crate, he blankly stared at the possible hundred or so capsules in the crate.

Then it dawned on him.

‘Wait, these are the batteries to the lances. They’re removing the batteries to the lances and just separating them into different crates. But why? If they want to sell these, wouldn’t you want these together?’ He thought. Laser lances were powerful enough that damaging them were terrifying to those handlers from before. So now he’s sitting in a pile of them now.

Wait, if these were the ammo or batteries for the laser lances, then these are what have the explosive power to them.

Kaminari’s mind raced. He grabbed a few batteries before slinking back underneath the conveyors. He studied at the ones he had grabbed. They weren’t too different from actual technology on Earth. If they were batteries, one side was the negative terminal and the other was the positive.

Then that means he knows how these work. His dad is an electrician. Hell, he had an electric quirk. Without these, the laser lances are useless. So if Kaminari can fry these, then he can make them into duds and just make everything a waste of time for them.

He eyed at his hands holding the batteries and a dangerous thought popped up. He turned his hand around and held his breath as he slowly opened his hand. The battery began to hang off of his palm like gum that got stuck in hair. He pulled the battery up and scanned around for one specific thing. And in the distance, he saw it.

A control panel.

He looked back at the crate and then to the panel. If his body was adhesive and stretchy, then he could theoretically create an exceptionally stupid circuit connecting the batteries in the crate to the conveyors using himself as wiring. The only problem is that he had no idea if he could even conduct electricity in this form or if he would survive with the electric current in his body.

If this did work, then he’d imagine that sudden feedback into both the conveyor and batteries wouldn’t be good for its condition and maintenance.

He slowly began to stretch his arm towards the panel, stretching as far as he could without exposing himself. He could start to feel the strain when his fingers touched the cold panel, made more extreme when he started to seep into the panel's cracks. He could feel the tingle of electric hum even from here as he instinctively began to cover what he could tell were the fuses.

‘Well, now or never.’

With his other arm, he reluctantly reached over towards the bin. Even if it was closer, the strain was becoming overpowering. He was being stretched too thin now. It felt that he was just moments from having his body fall apart or more violently snapt for a more accurate feeling.

‘Come on, just a little further…’ He reached the edge of the crate and pushed himself further to push his hand further in, spreading throughout the crate and seeping into the crevices from the uneven storage. The charge from the batteries made Kaminari feel like he was hit by a truck. The immediate voltage that he could feel coursing through himself was intoxicating to the point of unbearable pain. It gave him flashbacks to his quirk when he was moments from hitting his limit. The most unimaginable migraine before blacking out but that feeling was coursing throughout his entire body. Pain being straight ejected into his veins.

He wanted to yell, to scream, to do something. The supports began to shake as the excess charge was pushing the conveyors to their limits but Kaminari could barely feel that over the charge flowing through him. The pain had shifted to something else. They didn't exist but his muscles felt like they were being ripped apart, not even pulled. He also was starting to feel really hot all of a sudden.

Then he started to hear pops.

He strained to focus on what the sound was coming from. On his outstretched arms, bubbles were starting to rise to the surface and pop.

Oh, so he’s boiling now.

The rampant curses that were flooding into Kaminari’s head as he struggled to keep the charge together to fry everything were in full force. He was shaking violently now, a mixture of the conveyor and himself starting to destroy themselves from the inside out.

He just had to stay conscious enough to outlast the conveyor. He can do this. He can do this.

Then, he heard a boom.

Kaminari collapsed onto the floor as his arm connecting to the panel snapped with the conveyor system crumbling onto the ground. Steel, rubber, and copper wiring encased him in a tomb of disaster of his own doing. There was a wave of almost immediate relief with the circuit breaking and the current coursing through him dissipating.

Even under all the rubble, he felt better than he was moments before. His body was convalescing after essentially becoming wiring for Japan’s most explosive battery. He could feel himself puddling together and everything just felt right in that moment. It was like he had taken a warm bath. Released muscles and his body rapidly cooling back to normal.

He heard the sounds of rampant panic. Footsteps racing around him and confused yelling of orders as everyone who was just working witnessed their job spontaneously crumble under its own power. He waited for the sounds to quiet down as everyone evacuated. The crates were thrown on their sides, a good sign that he did his job and fried most of those batteries in the crate.

It must have been only a minute or two but Kaminari felt that it was taking forever. He heard total silence at last. The coast seemed to be clear. He slowly pushed himself up through the cracks of the debris and reformed into his natural body. He had to admit, his handy work was impressive. The conveyors around him barely resembled what they were before. Sharp peaks and valleys of frames and ejected belts that were flung around the room made the factory floor appear that no one had ever been here since it was abandoned.

He was proud of his work. Sure he probably almost died with enough voltage coursing through his body to support a city block’s power needs for a month but at least he didn’t accidently cause a strong enough feedback loop that caused the batteries to detonate into a fiery ball of death.

All and all, he did his side of the plan well. He glanced up and saw the overlooking room that must have served as the control room before. That should be where Kirishima and Sero were. There was a catwalk that connected the room to a door that was only a few meters above the door he entered from but with his stretching, he probably could just hop up there.

Or even with his stickiness, just climb up the wall like a slug.

He started to move there but there was an immediate tug that flung him backward. He splat on the wall behind him and collapsed onto a puddle on the floor. He pulled himself up and frantically spun around. What was that!? No one was here so how did he just get flung?

He felt another tug on his head as he was pulled again. His gaze was turned upwards at his disk as it moved unnaturally, tugging him with it. He melted into a ball midair before splatting on the floor again.

Was there a ghost attacking him!? Are ghosts even real? No, if he was getting grabbed than it had to be something real, right? So then it was something that he couldn’t see. Someone with psychic or whatever that power was that allowed you to move things with your mind. He couldn’t think of it’s name at the moment but if that was the case, how’d he even fight that?

He puddled down, trying to keep himself unable to be grabbed while he thought. Whoever was attacking him was attacking his disk, which seemed to be what controlled his movement or at least, was the support that allowed him to move like a human.

Nothing happened, so whoever was attacking him was also waiting for him. That gave him a few moments before he transformed back. Ok, so just figure out what to do.

He focused, trying to find a glimpse of something that was off. He scoured the steel beams attached to the roof, maybe someone was up there that could hit him from down here.

A quick glance at the wall made him pause. He was flung into the wall that was parallel to the windows in the building's facade that let in the little sunlight that the sunset was giving them. The sun’s rays cascaded weakly onto the wall, giving Kaminari a perfect view of a strange shadow that was ever so slightly being projected on the wall.

Invisible. Then that means whoever was attacking him now was whoever had found the three of them earlier and captured them.

And if this invisibility allowed for shadows, then he had a plan.

He stood up and flung his arm forward as hard and as fast as he could towards the vague area of the shadow. A jet stream of goo shot out and the shadow moved away as it splattered on the wall. The shadow traveled forward towards him, evident of a leap at him to grab his Omnitrix badge again. Now that he knew what he was up against, Kaminari had an idea.

Moments before the shadow reached him, he ducked down. He could feel something pass over him with the brief shadow covering him so he tried his own grab. He twisted and flung his other arm out towards the general area that he’d thought that the shadow person would be at. His aim was true as his slime hit something and rapidly wrapped around a long and thin form.

They collapsed onto the ground with a gooey squash and Kaminari witnessed a shimmer of color, exposing some finely dressed light purple lizard with red, blue, and green eyes. They struggled to get out of their new cocoon that stretched and molded to their body with stronger bonds. They tried to move their tail where a thin and long black stinger poked out but Kaminari’s hand had restrained him enough that he couldn’t move his tail enough to free himself. He twisted his head to Kaminari and snarled with teeth sharper than Kirishima’s.

“Should have known that rat Thep Khufan that got word of here was the Omnitrix user. I should have killed you kids when I found you arguing in the woods.” He snarled at Kaminari with venomous vigor. Kaminari just shrugged and disconnected his arm from the cocoon. He felt snug now, seeing whoever and whatever this person was writhing around in his trap.

“Well, you’re the dummy. I barely know how to use this guy!” Kaminari raised his fingers to his nose area and wiggled them mockingly.

“You’re kidding. There is no way a brat who doesn’t even know what a polymorph is was able to restrain me! I should have just ripped your throats out and been done with it.” He shouted in anger.

“Welp! Have fun sticking around! I've got better places to be. Later loser.” Kaminari snarked before turning around and leaping towards the catwalk connecting to the main control room. The lizard behind him started shouting threats and other words that Kaminari had never heard but if he had to guess, they were profanities that the alien knew.

Not really effective when you have no idea what they mean.

With a mixture of stretching and wall climbing, Kaminari slowly made his way onto the walkway. He slipped through the door like he had done before and entered the control room. There were several unconscious aliens that had welts the size of rocks on their bodies, all taped to the floor, strung around with Kirishima and Sero already focused on him, sitting in front of something that vaguely resembled a computer on a table that was connected onto the wall.

“So, how’d it go?” Sero asked before turning to the computer and typing something onto a holographic computer. Kaminari rolled his eyes and gestured towards the destruction.

“Painful. I almost blew up again.” They turned to the floor and slowly panned back to Kaminari with disbelief.

“This better not be a recurring theme with you.” Sero remarked.

“I could start a counter if we need to.” Kirishima offered. Sero and Kaminari stared at him in a disapproving manner.

“Please don’t. No wait. Actually,” Sero paused before smirking. “Do it. Every milestone means he owes us lunch. I’m thinking about every five detonations. Sound like a ”

“Deal!” Kirishima instinctively shouted before excitedly going for a high five with Sero, leaving a deflated Kaminari behind them.

“I didn’t- I didn’t agree to this.” He weakly piped up for his own defense. The other two gave him toothy smiles at his expense.

“Two to one. Sorry buddy, you’ve got an explosion counter now. Three more and you owe us lunch.” Sero chimed, twirling back to the computer and sighing.

“Anyway, disregarding that, we got in here while they were checking the files here so luckily nothing needed a password and thankfully, they’re using Japanese for communication so I can actually look through them.” Sero opened what appeared to be the files for the computer and rolled his shoulders confidently.

“And they seemed to be exceptionally well kept with their notes.” He quickly opened a file and it appeared to be a ticket for delivery from Kaminari’s perspective.

“So, looking through these, it seems that they’ve been dealing with laser lances for about the last five months. They get brought here in discrete shipping containers, have their power cores removed, and then…” He paused, leaning forward towards the screen.

“They get shipped to whatever this address is. Um, where is this?” He leaned backwards to allow the other two to see the final shipping address on the bill. Kaminari didn’t recognize it, it was just a string of random numbers or some sort of code.

“Could those be coordinates? Like they have in the military monster movies?” Kaminari guessed. Kirishima pulled out his phone quickly and tapped on the screen, frequently looking up at the numbers to put them in correctly. He held his phone out when he was done and the map he was using put a dot smack dab in the middle of a forest.

“I don’t get it. That’s just woods.” Sero brought his fingers to the screen and slightly zoomed out. He tilted his head before his eyes widened. He swiftly turned back to the computer and began to frantically scour the files and archived emails on the computer. He landed on one file and after briefly reading it, he raised his fist and shook it in celebratory victory.

“I knew that looked familiar! They have coords because the delivery isn’t an actual address.” He explained to the other two.

“Yeah, it’s just forest. What’s in the woods that they need to bring, like, hundreds of batteries to?” Kirishima asked, putting his phone back into his pocket. Sero wagged his finger in the air similar to how one would scold a child for incorrect behaviour.

“It’s not what’s in the woods. It’s what’s under it.” He turned his body and tapped the screen. “According to this, the whole operation is run by the Carpenters.”

“The Carpenters? But they’re just street punks. Why do they want batteries?” Kaminari asked, confused.

“That’s because of what they found.” Sero clicked again in the file and several photos with schematics appeared on the screen. Kaminari leaned in for a closer view. It was a giant metal door that was embedded into the stone walls of the cavern. The door looked rather new and there was something that Kaminari couldn’t shake that felt off. He felt like he had seen this door before. Something about it was giving him deja vu. It should be impossible, he’s obviously never seen something like this before.

“According to this, 5 months ago they found this vault while creating tunnels to be used for smuggling contraband. The vault is unrecorded in every database and record system they had access to. On top of that, nothing they do can crack it. Drills, thermal charges, even getting the assistance of alien abilities to try and break it.” Sero explained.

“So they found an impenetrable vault? So they’re trying to use the batteries to break into it?” Kirishima guessed. Sero nodded in confirmation and tapped the screen.

“It seems that they tried everything in the first month but for the last four months, they’ve been amassing laser lance power cells to power a charge that should be able to break through the doors. And it seems that they have gathered enough to follow through now.” Sero’s excited tone died down saying that last line. It pulled him back from the computer while Kaminari tilted his head in disbelief.

“Wait, so you mean to tell me that I didn’t just need to almost explode?! These batteries are just spares!?!?” He shouted.

“Yup. And the reason they’ve been using laser lances is because it was the least suspicious thing to smuggle and amass without raising large questions to the authorities. Oh, apparently, they’ve actually paid off a few with bribes for the ones who got close. So that’s cool.” Sero remarked.

“So then what’s the plan? Tell Eric?” Kirishima asked.

“I don’t know how well it’ll work out. They’re going to try and break in tomorrow.” Sero rubbed his chin as if he was still thinking about something. “What I don’t know is why? Why are they going through all this effort to open this vault? It’s found here on earth and hasn’t been recorded. So why go through all this effort to break in for something that’s likely useless?” He asked the two.

“Well, if the vault hasn’t been broken into yet, surely it has something of value? Right?” Kamiari answered. Sero thought about it for a moment before nodding.

“I guess but what are we going to do now? Go and bust some heads?”

“I’m down for that.” Kirishima said in agreement.

“The problem is that we probably don’t have any way to get there. I mean, unless you happen to know the town and caverns on the back of your hand, I don’t know if there is any way we can get there in time and have the manpower to do anything to stop them.” Sero raised. Kaminari took one more glance at the screen and thought for a moment.

“I may have an idea…”