-Chapter 4: How Things Started-
"Tennyson! Don't touch the car! After getting it back from Legerdomain, it's been a pain and a half to keep it from falling apart." A built young man with an unkempt mullet wearing a black tee shirt over a striped grey and white long sleep shirt and jeans called into the depths of his jet.
"Don't worry, Kev, I left something in the Proto-TRUK. I'm not getting close to your ride." Ben called out to his foe-turned-friend. When Kevin Levin and Ben met as children, the noirette tried to kill the Omnitrix user multiple times. Luckily for the two, Kevin was able to gain better control of his powers as he aged and learned from his previous mistakes. Ben, Kevin, and Gwen, Ben's cousin and Kevin's girlfriend, formed The Alien Force. The three of them gained two new team members in the last year.
"He's right, Benjy. You do have a tendency to break things when you touch them." a familiar voice to Ben cheekily commented.
The sudden voice caused Ben to jump slightly as he snapped around, activating the Omnitrix. Seeing who had snuck up on him, the brunette groaned in annoyance. "Damn it, Kai! Why do you have to sneak up on me all the time?!"
"It's not like I try to." The athletic Navajo girl was wearing a red tightfitting tee shirt and short green shorts; she also had a harness around her thighs similar to what would see cave jumpers wearing. Kai Green wore her thigh-length hair in a high ponytail, making it one of her more noticeable features. She is the most recent addition to the Alien Force, joining only a few months ago when Ben convinced everyone to go on this galactic-wide road trip. "I'm just surprised. After facing the likes of Aggregor, Zs'Skayr, and Vilgax, I won't expect you to be scared easily." Kai said with her hip cocking to the side as she smirks at her boyfriend.
"You are lucky that you are cute," Ben said as he grabbed his old green jacket from when he put the Omnitrix back on.
"So what is our next stop?"
"I have a feeling you are going to like this next stop. We are heading to Luna L-"
"BEN!" Rook slammed open the door to the cargo hold. "Go to Gwen's room! Kai, you should probably hold onto somethING!" The space jet, also known as the Rustbucket III, backed to the side hard, forcing everything that wasn't strapped down to be thrown to the side, including the trio. The blue-furred, feline-like alien caught Kai to break her fall.
Without missing a beat, Ben transformed into Spidermonkey, a blue-furred monkey with four large eyes and four arms. The Arachnichimp began to sprint down the hall, clinging to the wall as he ran. The ship continued to jostle and shake as Kevin finished his sudden U-turn and accelerated like they were trying to escape a black hole, but due to his sticky fur, his path was uninterrupted.
…
Blazing through the hall, Spidermonkey barged into his cousin's room to see his cousin floating in the center of the room with her eyes glowing pink and her shoulder-length hair flowing in an ethereal wind alongside a trench coat she was wearing before collapsing to the ground.
"Gwen!" The Arachnichimp caught his redheaded cousin. Reaching into the coat, Ben grabbed a note that appeared in her pocket with one of his lower limbs.
Since they all left Earth for their road trip, Ben and Gwen's grandmother Verdona, an energy being called an Anodite, have telepathically communicated with Gwen. From a young age Gwen was able to use magic from a young age and later learned how to manipulate mana, the universe's life force, due to her Anodite heritage. Verdona has been persistent about the group visiting Anodyne, but it seems like this last telepathic call was not the greatest.
Folding open the note, Ben's expression turned to panic. It held only four words but was enough to spike his adrenaline. "Earth under attack, invasion."
"Don't worry, cousin, get some rest." Ben placed the unconscious halfbreed onto her bed before sprinting down the hall to the cockpit.
…
"Rook, what's going on?" Kai asked as the two were bracing themselves against the walls.
The Revonnahgander, taking a steady step, gestured for Kai to follow him. "I am unsure. I heard Gwendolyn calling for Kevin to head back to Earth. Once I relayed the message to him, I found you and Ben."
The automatic door to the cockpit opened, allowing the duo to strap themselves into a seat. Ben wasn't too far behind them as he sprinted in, transforming back to human as he sat in the co-pilot seat. "Kevin, Earth is-"
"I already know Tennyson!" Kevin cut off the Omnitrix Weidler, "Gwen's gotten pretty good at creating a psychic link while in college. If you want to be useful, grab the nav computer and find us the quickest route home."
"I have a better idea," Ben said, activating the Omnitrix. The brunette scrolled through the hollow wheel, finding his alien of choice.
Kevin noticed the look in Ben's eye as he finally found the alien he needed. Recognizing the icon, the half-Osmosian attempted to stop his best friend. "Don't you think about it, Tennyson I'll-"
A sudden flash of green cut off Kevin as Ben was replaced with a primarily black tar-like alien with a green circuitry pattern across its back, arms, and head; the belly and the front of the legs were the inverse, with green being the primary color while black made the circuit pattern. "Upgrade!" The Galvanic Mechomorph called out in an electronic version of Ben's normal voice when he spoke, the green ring that made up his face lit up. "I'm sorry, Kevin, but we are in the universe's outer rim and need to return now. I'm giving this thing a boost."
Without saying another word, Upgrade became amorphous as he merged with the ship. The coloration changed to match the Mechomorph's body. The ship's exterior morphed to become less streamlined but more robust as the engines and thruster became more prominent and more powerful. The ship began to pick up speed, causing the whole thing to shake because of him pushing the ship's hull to its limits.
"Ben, you are going to kill us!" Rook called out, holding onto his seat. "If we continue at these speeds, we will either hit something, or the ship will fall apart!" To his surprise, a new computer terminal appeared in front of him with a map of the universe.
From the ship, Ben's voice bellowed. "Then pick a flight course for me."
…
The green space jet that is the Rustbucket III made Earth fall a few hours later. The Alien Force was both surprised and found what to be expected. The invasion was localized to a single town, Bellwood.
Ben transformed back to human when they passed Mars to allow the Omnitrix to recharge a little, not knowing who decided on invading Earth this time. When they entered Bellwood's airspace, Kevin had to bank hard to the side to avoid the cannon of the lead ship of the invasion.
The cargo bay of the Rustbucket III opened up as an orange and cream-colored box truck drove out, beginning to free fall. The back end upped as the truck plummeted to the ground, revealing Ben and Gwen. Ben's jacket was flapping in the wind while Gwen's hair couldn't stay still.
Over the roaring wind, Ben called out to his partner. "Rook, you know the plan?!"
The Revonnahgander reached into the back end to give the duo a thumbs up from the driver's seat. "Check on your guy's parents before, quote, 'kick bad guy butt.'"
Kai rolled her eyes from next to him. "Ben, how many times do I have to tell you? It's kick their ass?"
"I don't know. We will just have to wait and see." Ben said before leaving out of the truck, winking at his girlfriend.
"Be safe, you two," Gwen said before her skin shifted to violet while her hair turned into pure mana, a raw, ethereal pink. Her clothing shifted to be a blue cloak with a form-fitting black uniform over her form, and a blue and pink feline mask formed around her face. The mask's eyes glowed with the same pink energy as her hair. In her Anodite form and calling herself Lucky Girl, Gwen flew after her cousin.
As the duo left the falling truck, the vehicle began to shift. The undercarriage folded outwards, forming a pair of wings that had the hourglass symbol of the Omnitrix acting as joints mid-way up the wings. The cab tilted downwards as it became concaved, and the rest of the truck became streamlined as tailfins grew out the top and back of the vehicle, transforming into a spaceship.
Rook and Kai, in the transformed Proto-TRUK, took off across Bellwood's airspace to check up on the Tennyson family. Meanwhile, Gwen caught up to her falling cousin, who had yet to transform.
"You know falling out of a spaceship could be bad for your health, cous." The Anodite commented
"I know, I know it just feels so good to feel the wind whipping past you," Ben said with a confident smirk. The green-clad teen reached for the Omnitrix to transform, finding a thin head icon with a large beak; he slammed down on the watch.
Blinding Gwen momentarily, Ben morphed into an orange-scaled pterosaur-humanoid with a thruster on its back. It wore green suspenders, black shorts, and fingerless gloves on its hands and prehensile feet; The Omnitrix rested on the Ptorbisorian's left shoulder. "Astrodactyl!" The newly transformed alien declares, activating his back thruster; a pair of rigid wings extend wider than Ben could reach. "Bwak! Let's kick some can!"
…
Everything was going perfectly to plan; Ben and Gwen were flying past swarms of flying enemies and blasting them apart. Kevin was distracting the lead ship in the Rustbust, allowing the flying duo to make their way inside.
Just as they were about to break inside the flying fortress, they received a frantic call from Rook. "Every-Everyone get to Be-Ben's house." It was unclear whether it was static that caused the repetition or Rook's inability to catch his breath. "Th-Things are bad here. He-He's here, let's kick his ass."
"Did, did Rook just use a contraction?" Ben questioned, knowing that contractions for a Revonnahgander were the equivalent of swearing.
"He used two of them," Gwen said wide-eyed, coming to the same conclusion as her cousin. With a snap of her fingers, she created a sphere of mana that both flew through, teleporting them across town.
…
"NO!" Ben sprung up from his bed. His hand hovered over his activated Omnitrix, ready to transform into a random alien. The teen was in a cold sweat as he panted; his eyes were frantically scanning through his room, trying to find the cause of his nightmare.
The door to his room suddenly slammed open as Hizashi rushed in to check on the otherworldly teen. His long blonde hair was disheveled while his classes were half on his face. "Ben, Ben, are you okay?" The sound user looked ready to either collapse from exhaustion or ready to throw hands.
Even though Ben was at Aizawa's place, Hizashi chose to stay the night so he and Aizawa could take turns sleeping just in case Ben needed anything during the night.
Taking a deep breath, the Omnitrix user finally calmed down. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just had a nightmare." The core of the device retracted as the faceplate slid back into place when Ben went to rub his forehead.
Hizashi sat down on Ben's bed next to the teen. "Want to talk about it?"
"I was back to that day, Zashi. I couldn't stop him." Ben emotionlessly stated, his eyes staring into the void. They started to water for a moment, forcing the damaged teen to shut his eyes forcefully and look away from the blonde man. "I-I can't talk about everything yet; it's too soon."
"No worries, bud; Aizawa and I are here for when you are," Hizashi said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Despite his public appearance as a hero and radio host being a goofball who couldn't take a moment seriously, Hizashi knew that he needed to distract Ben from his nightmare. Searching the room for a new topic to talk about, the pro hero, Present Mic, found the boxes from Ben's car.
"Hey, you said that those boxes had souvenirs from your adventures back home, right? Mind if I look through some of those boxes?" Hizashi asked, turning on the desk lamp on the small desk.
"I guess, just don't break anything, please," Ben said, still unable to look at the boxes.
Opening one of the boxes, Hizashi found a pocket-sized purple book with golden trim around the edge and a golden circle cut into quarters on the front cover. Hizashi took the book out and opened it, flicking through a couple of pages and seeing everything written in some kind of runes.
"Hey, what's this?"
Looking over, Ben saw what the hero was holding. Getting a nostalgic grin on his face, Ben slipped off his bed and sat on the floor next to Hizashi. "That would be Gwen's Grimoire; she stole that from a villain-turned-ally when we were kids."
"Grimoire? You telling me this is a spell book?" Hizashi was surprised by what he was hearing. "Quit pulling my leg. Magic isn't real."
"Magic isn't real in your universe, but in mine, it is," Ben said, reaching out for the book with a smirk. He began flicking through the pages, noticing he could read some of them. Muttering to himself, Ben sounded surprised. "Guess my Anodite side is working a bit."
"What was that?" Hizashi was confused as to what Ben meant by that.
"Oh, sorry, let me explain. My grandmother is an alien, an Anodite, to be specific. Anodites are beings made of mana and life energy, and magic is the manipulation of life energy."
"Wait, you are part alien?"
"Technically, yes. I'm a carrier for the Spark of the Anodites." Ben began to explain. "To be an Anodite, I need to have the spark itself, but at times, I think some of the remnants of one affect me from time to time."
"What do you mean by that?" Hizashi said with a cock of his head.
"I can't explain it, but whenever I meet someone new, I can always get a read on whether or not I can trust them. It comes in handy when traveling the universe." Ben said, looking out his window into the night sky. He looked back at Gwen's grimoire. "I think the same thing happened to Gwen when she got her hands on the spell book; when I was looking at the pages, it looked like the runes were morphing into English: not everything but a word here and there."
"That's amazing! I wish I had that ability to read people; it would make undercover work so much easier." The sound user said, exasperated.
"Yeah, someone like you can stay long enough to be undercover." Ben joked with a smirk on his face.
"I can be quiet!" Hizashi half shouted indignantly.
Ben just rolled his eyes before looking deeper into the box of memories. He began digging through the box, not finding what he was looking for. "Where is it?" Ben muttered to himself as he went digging in a different box.
After a minute of searching, the Omnitrix user finally found what he was looking for. Ben pulled out an ovular grey and black disk. "I knew it had to be in here somewhere."
"What's that?"
"This is an old gift from a friend of mine. Tetrax, an alien bounty hunter, gave me this after I trashed the original one he gave me when I was ten." Ben explained.
While Ben didn't get any more sleep that night, he kept his mood from souring by talking about his souvenirs with Hizashi. They ended up decorating the teen's room with some of the items.
-Chapter 5: Getting ready-
"MORE!" Bellowed a deep voice, it almost came out as a growl. The owner of the voice is a large, red, humanoid with two extra arms, in a black sleeveless shirt with a green stripe going down the center performing a back squat with large chunks of stone on a platform. Ben calls this form Four Arms. A broad-shouldered man with skin that looks like steel places another large stone on the platform bringing the total weight to 500 pounds.
With a flash of green the red behemoth transformed back to a human wearing a green tank top, and black gym shorts letting the weight land behind him. "Thank you again for the warm-up Zeek," Ben called out. The large metal man just nods in response.
Over the last month, Ben found a gym that allows people to use quirks while they work out. Ben has been a regular at this gym since that first night. Aizawa is now wanting as much information as possible about Ben's transformation height, weight, lifting strength, abilities, etc. This way Aizawa could help him with a proper training regimen for UA. Speaking of the black-haired hero he was walking up to Ben holding a notebook
Flipping to a new page Aizawa states "I see you wanted to work on…Playlist One?"
"Yeah, the Omnitrix sorts my forms into playlists of 10."
"That makes things convenient. I want you to go through those 10 on the treadmill and find their top speeds."
A couple of hours later Ben just finished his eighth transformation. For the most part, it wasn't too difficult besides for the six-inch tall frog humanoid named Greymatter for obvious reasons. Ben is currently sitting on a nearby bench drinking some water and waiting for the Omnitrix to recharge.
"Hey, Green!" Came a brash voice "Your quirk is amazing how do you transform like that?! My quirk is a transforming type too!"
Ben looks over to his right to see a fairly plain boy with ruby red eyes and sharp teeth. "Oh, it's because of my support item," Ben explains while holding up the Omnitrix with red in the middle compared to the normal black. "My quirk is unstable and the watch allows it to filter through the jumbled mess of DNA and allows me to choose a singular form instead of all at once. Essentially I am a walking nuke when it comes to DNA."
"Damn, I bet you can hit pretty hard!"
"Yeah, I can but I'm working on my speed right now. But if you would like, I can show you one of my fastest forms."
"That sounds AMAZING! Show me!" exclaimed the excitable teen.
A high-pitched beeping brought Ben's attention down to his wrist. "Perfect timing we are in the green! The Omnitrix just finished recharging and I can transform again." Activating said watch Ben brought up head icons. Finding the one he wanted Ben slams down on the dial, engulfing him in emerald light. In his place was a blue and black velociraptor-like creature.
"I call this form XLR8," Ben states in a raspy voice before zipping to the treadmill and setting the machine to the maximum speed. When Ben got on his legs became almost invisible due to how fast they were moving.
"Dude, how fast are you going?"
"The machine says 1,000mph but I'm having to hold back a lot."
"How fast have you gone?"
"So fast I stopped time relative to me."
"Stop pulling my leg."
"No, I'm being serious I was at a baseball game and-"
"Tennyson! Enough chit-chatting and focus on your training!" Can the tiered voice of Aizawa.
—-
Whenever Ben wasn't at the gym with Aizawa he was with Hizashi working on his Japanese. The Omnitrix has a cool feature that allows Ben to speak and understand any spoken language but when it comes to reading it doesn't do anything. Ben was currently at a smoothie joint nearby the apartment.
Looking at the menu Ben recognizes the kanji for his favorite smoothie flavor banana grape. Wanting to change things up Ben he attempts to read what available fruit flavors they have.
"Could I have the tomato almond smoothie?" Ben asks confidently
"Still trying to learn Japanese?" asked the cashier in accented English
"Yeah, I've focused too hard on the speaking end of the language and not reading," Ben responds sheepishly and fluently in Japanese
"I can see that, your accent is amazing." the cashier compliments Ben slipping back into Japanese. "Were you trying to order the plum smoothie? The kanji for it is a little hard for some people."
"Yes, I was, thank you." The American says scratching the back of his head.
—-
After an intense day of both training and learning, Japanese Ben decided to take a small nap on the couch. He has been going non-stop for the last four months now. Dozing off to sleep Ben finds himself in a similar dream, better described as a nightmare.
Ben was running into what was left of a one-story building, it seemed to be the only house destroyed on the block. Shock and horror were the only things on the teenager's face. Inside the building, Ben found nothing but rubble and corpses.
With a scream outside the green-clad hero turned around to see him, a large silhouette with glowing red eyes holding a figure with a large ponytail.
"No!" was the only thing the teen could say before he was forced awake. When Ben regained consciousness though he wasn't human in the teen's place was a broad crystal being with large spikes protruding from his back and his right arm was currently shifted to be a blade.
"Ben. Ben. Ben!" Came to a voice snapping the transformed teen out of his mind. Ben looks down to see Aizawa clutching his scarf/capture tool with a panicked look on his face. "Ben, are you ok?"
Transforming back to human Ben sits back down on the couch "I'm sorry about startling you. I just had a nightmare." He says trying to calm down.
"Ben," Aizawa starts before kneeling in front of the teen to look him in the eyes, "What was in the nightmare?"
"It was him. He killed them all. I failed to save them." Ben's eyes begin to water "It's my fault, I wasn't able to-" he abruptly stops talking before he lost control of his emotions.
"I'm assuming you've had this nightmare before?"
"Every time I sleep," Ben states dryly
"I understand you are not ready to talk about what happened that day, but I am here for you when you are ready ."
"Thank you," was all the teen said in monotony.
—-
A month before the entrance exam, Ben was back at the gym once again. This time he was a hulking dinosaur-like creature easily ten feet tall, with a beige hide and elephantine feet and a large tail, this form was called Humungousar. The brown behemoth was currently bench pressing 40,000 pounds fairly easily.
"Come on, one more rep!" Yelled a large man with the head of an elephant, "You got this!"
—-
At a new restaurant with Hizashi and Shota, over the months Aizawa became comfortable with Ben to start calling him by his first name, the teen looks over the menu before telling the waiter he would like the katsu don.
"You've gotten pretty good at reading kanji, Ben." Shota complimented the teen.
"Thank you, I wouldn't have been able to do it without Hizashi's help."
"All I did was teach you the basics. You will be learning the more complex stuff once you make it into UA." exclaimed the loud blonde.
—-
A week before the entrance exam Ben received his papers for his new life in this crazy world. Going over everything Ben noticed something off.
"Shota, why does it say I was born in XX96? It's supposed to be XX95."
"You are going to be a first year at UA, the average first year is 15 turning 16, not 16 going on 17 so Nezu changed your birthday to fit better with your new life here. You will be just turning 16 going into the school year because 'the American system doesn't line up perfectly with ours' or something like that. I don't know the specifics but that's what the mouse told me." Shota explained.
Ben sits on his bed the day before the exam staring across his room at his green jacket on the desk Aizawa got him.
"Hey, Ben, how are you doing? Excited?" Hizashi says, somewhat barging into Ben's room.
"Sorta, I'm not sure if I'm ready."
"Ready for what?"
"To put on that jacket again."
"What do you mean it's just a jacket?"
"It's more than that. That jacket belongs to a hero and I still don't feel like one."
"If that's the case then let me put it on,'' he says, reaching for the leather but is stopped by a strong grip from Ben.
"I would prefer it if you didn't," Ben says with a hint of malice in his voice.
"See protecting things that are important to someone. That's a trait of a hero."
"If that's the case, then I failed. I couldn't protect what was the most important to me"
"You see Ben," Hizashi says sitting down on the bed. "With great power comes great responsibility. With great responsibility comes great sacrifices. That is something that comes with the job."
"I guess you're right, but I've been able to go so long without a loss that when I did lose it-it…"
"You don't need to finish, I understand. Just don't give up, from the last couple of months I can see that you have the heart for it. Well, dinner is going to be here soon, see you."
"Yeah, see you soon," Ben says absent-mindedly, staring at his jacket. A couple of minutes later, Hizashi knocked on the door to tell Ben that his food was there, but before he could knock, Ben opened the door wearing the green jacket.
"So did you guys order my chili fries?" Ben says with a new vigor that the blonde hasn't seen from him at least not to this level.
With a smile, Hizashi responds "Not only that we got some smoothies. Come on, let's go."
-Chapter 6: The Start-
The next day Ben is walking up to UA wearing his normal hero gear, a green jacket, a black tee-shirt, and jeans. This was in contrast to everyone else who was in a school uniform of some sort. There was a green-haired kid in a black school uniform muttering to himself but Ben ignored him for now.
Ben takes the written test without too much difficulty; the only thing he struggled with was history. Things are chill for the most part when he enters a large room filled with other students and Hizashi, now called Present Mic, in front of everyone behind a podium.
"YO! Are y'all excited for the physical part of your exam?" the loud blonde yells. Crickets were all he got to the point where Ben thought there was a person with a cricket-related Quirk in there. "A bunch of sour sports we got here," Mic says to himself "Anywho the physical exam will be a 10-minute mock battle in an urban environment! When I get off the mic here you all will go to your specified arenas." Ben looks down at his index card which says site B. "Now that you know what you are doing, time to see your targets!" The display behind Mic showed four robotic outlines. Your goal in this test is to raise your score by destroying as many robots as you can! The harder the bot the more points it is! The max points you can get from a bot is three! You have free reign of your Quirk during this time. But remember we are all trying to be heroes so no attacking other testers! Ya-dig?"
"Excuse me sir but I have a question!" a random blue-haired kid with glasses called out.
"Hit me!"
"You mentioned three robots but there is a fourth on the printouts and your display behind you. If this is a mistake this is most shameful. This is UA and we are exemplary students and only expect the best from the school as you expect from us. Also you with the unkempt hair!" turning around to point at the green-haired kid from earlier "You have been muttering this entire time. Stop that. You are distracting the rest of us. If you can't be serious about this then leave." As he finishes the nearby students start to laugh at the greenette's discomfort but Ben interjects before the blue-haired kid could have the chance to sit down.
"You are shaming him for being distracting as you stop the entire presentation to point out a mistake that Present Mic most likely had zero control over. How do you know that his muttering isn't a way for him to cope with stress or something? Now stop being a hypocrite and sit down." Ben sternly announces to the glasses-wearing boy.
"Well then Thank you for calling in with your concerned examinee 7-1-1-1. The fourth robot or "villain", as I will be calling them from now on, that you will encounter is worth ZERO points. This one is just an obstacle that we put in to be in your way. There is one in every battle center. Think of it like a hurdle you should avoid. It's not because it can't be beaten but there is no point in fighting the Zero-Pointer. That is all I have for you all today, so I will be signing off with our school's motto. GO BEYOND PLUS ULTRA!"
Cutting to about ten minutes later Ben is outside of site B with a group of students that are all in their workout closes. Ben recognizes a few faces including the greenette and the bluette who both seem to be coming over to talk to him for some reason.
"Th-thank you for standing up for me in the auditorium," the greenette says with a slight bow.
The bluette on the other hand delivers a deep bow bending at the hip "Sorry for my interruption during the presentation and thank you for calling out my mistake!" he says very quickly.
Looking uncomfortable Ben says "It's good guys. I think we should get ready for the test."
The bluette then asks "How come you are still in your casual wear then? Shouldn't you be wearing something that would allow you to move around more freely?"
Being prepared for this Ben states "You got me there blue but when I activate my Quirk my clothes change to fit so I don't need to wear something else."
"How does your Quirk affect your clothes?" the greenette asks
"My Quirk itself doesn't change my clothes; my support item does. It allows me to select a single transformation instead of trying to transform into them all at once. Since the transformations have a different body type than mine, the watch makes clothes for that transformation or "alien" as I like to call them."
"That is so cool that your support gear can do that!" The greenette says excitedly "I've never heard of something that does that. The scientist that made the watch is something else. He was able to use nanotechnology to create the cloth. It's cool."
The booming voice of Present Mic stops all further conversations Announcing "Right, let's start! There are no countdowns in real battles. Run, run, run, listeners! You're wasting airtime here."
With that said every student taking the test was off except for two. Ben and the green-haired boy.
"I take that as our cue to go. See ya!" Ben yells to the greenette "Time to go with an old favorite!" With that said Ben slams down on the Omnitrix dial transforming him in a flash of green light into a six-foot fiery creature with oversized four-fingered hands, rocks for skin with magma coursing between them, and a head engulfed with flames and the Omnitrix rests on the chest. "Heatblast!" The newly transformed Pyronite announces in a raspy voice as he takes off like a rocket spewing fire from his hands and feet.
Ben always loved flying and it allowed him to feel free. It was nice for him to be in the air once again but he could speed too much time to go sightseeing he needed to get points. Looking ahead he spotted a scorpion-like robot with two painted on the side. "At least it's easy to tell how many points we get." Ben thinks as he dives down and melts a hole clean through the two-pointer. Once he is on the ground he is surrounded by more robots, all around 12 feet in height with three noticeable designs a one-wheeled robot with two arms and a one painted on it, the scorpion design, and a quadruped robot with a three painted on it, charging his flames Ben released a torrent of fire at these bots scoring 15 points from this one attack.
Wanting to change things up Ben slapped the Omnitrix dial transforming him into a lean blue Mothman with the dial on the chest. "Big Chill!" The necrofriggian calls out before becoming translucent and proceeds to phase through the wreckage as he takes back to the air.
Not too long later the transformed teen saw a blonde-haired student with a black lightning bolt in his hair about to get shot in the back by one of the one-pointers. Just as the bot fired its projectile Ben dropped right behind the student and breathed out a gale of freezing air that froze the projectile, and now it's not moving the ice-powered teen could see that it was a beanbag the robot shot. This action earned another point.
"Whoa, dude thanks for the save!" the blonde-haired student called out
Saying nothing Ben just nodded and flew to a new location. A couple of minutes have passed and Ben has been racking up points left and right taking out mock villains, giving a helping hand to students, and transforming into a couple of other forms. Ben is currently a red-skinned four-armed creature wearing a black tank top with a green stripe going with it; the Omnitrix dial is acting as a belt buckle. He just threw a three-pointer a block away looking for more mock villains to destroy only to see a large number of students suddenly start stampeding towards him.
"Is the test already over?" Ben asked a nearby student with purple balls for hair.
"No, the zero-pointer showed up. Run!" said the frightened boy with a slight lisp.
"The Zero-" Ben lost his train of thought when he looked back the way they came only to see a robot that towered over the nearby buildings. Without saying a single word Ben leaps onto the side of a nearby building and then jumps even further to get behind the giant robot. Once he landed Ben slapped the dial and in a magnificent flash of green, a large white and red alien with elbow blades and a fin on his head, standing at eye level with the bot, the Omnitrix dial staying on the chest. "WAYBIG!" came the booming voice of this form forcing the robot into a double chicken wing bringing the bot's elbows together.
"Ok, I only have to hold it for just a minute longer before the test is-" Ben's thought was interrupted as a high-pitched "SMAAASH!" was called out as Ben sees a green line come from the crowd of students.
A millisecond later Ben felt his body rock backward slightly as something connected with the face of the zero pointer caving it in. Feeling that the bot was no longer operational Ben let go to see the greenette from earlier falling from the front of the bot but with his arm and legs looking like jello as they flapped in the wind. Ben went to catch the student but the Omnitrix timed out in a flash of red he became human.
The boy was looking at the ground seeing his impending doom only to get slapped across the face right before he collided with the pavement by a brown-haired girl looking like she was on the verge of vomiting.
"Green!" Ben calls out for the injured student only to be ignored
"One, I just need one." the broken child mutters to himself digging at the ground with his non-broken limb.
"Dude stop moving I'm going to try and get some help," Ben says looking around to see a small old lady with an oversized syringe as she shuffles over to them. "Mam, he broke his legs and his arm. We need to get him to a hospital." the green clade teen told the woman.
"Nonsense, just one kiss and he will be fine," she says as she kisses his head. Almost like magic the green-haired boy's limbs reform. "He is going to be knocked out for the next couple of hours. My Quirk uses the body's stamina to heal. You should go back to the testing center and get some water."
One week after the exam Ben and Hizashi were playing a racing game of some sort. Coming close to the end of the last lap the race was getting close. Ben was in the lead with the loud blonde close behind with only 200 feet left.
"Yes, yes, NO!" Ben exclaims as the screen turns off.
"That is enough gaming for now," Aizawa says while holding both a tv remote and an envelope. "This came in the mail for you." tossing the envelope to the teenager.
"Who would send me mail? I only know you guys."
"Just take a look."
"What are you talking- Oh crap it's from UA!" Ben exclaims when he sees what is written on the paper.
"Ben, you should go to your room and open that," Hizashi says knowingly
Walking into his room Ben opens the envelope to see a disc-like device that is about the size of a hockey puck. Not seeing an on switch on the device Ben throws it onto his desk. This activates it revealing that it is a holorecording.
"Hello Young Tennyson!" came the inspiring voice of the mountain of a man known as All Might in English with a surprisingly amazing American accent.
"Damn I knew he was the number one but I wasn't expecting him to be that big," Ben muttered to himself
"I am here to inform you that you have passed the practical exam and have made it into UA! You were able to get the highest score getting 70 villain points and 60 rescue points. You see Young Tennyson you were only told about the possible villain points but there were hidden points that you could have earned. These were the rescue points that were given to students by a board of heroes depending on how selfless an individual is. Not only did you score more than any student this year you were able to beat my score when I was a student. You truly have what it takes to be a hero. Welcome to your hero academia!" the powerful man exclaimed before the video ended.
"Holy Crap I did it!" Ben yells running back out of his room to see Hizashi with a giant smile on his face and Shota Aisawa holding a green backpack with black accents to it.
"I think you may need this." The black-haired man says as he tosses the bag to the newly enrolled UA student.
-Chapter 7: The First Day-
After a month of anticipation, the day finally arrived.
"Man, I never thought I would be this excited for school of all things," Ben mutters to himself while walking into UA with Aizawa known as Eraser Head on campus. Ben is now wearing the UA School uniform albeit the tie doesn't look the best.
"Why do you say that?" Aizawa questions the teen
"Well," Ben begins while rubbing the back of his head, "I never was one to enjoy school and everything came easy so it felt like a waste of time."
The gruff man doesn't say a word, only just gives Ben a sideways look.
"What?! It's not my fault I have an eidetic memory."
"Anyways this is your classroom and my homeroom, take a seat while I take a nap since we are here early."
Not even ten minutes later another student comes karate-chopping into the room.
Looking up from his phone Ben sees a familiar glasses-wearing teen "Blue? I wasn't expecting you to be in my class."
"Ah yes, the changeling. Let me properly introduce myself. I'm Tenya Iida from the Soumei Private Academy," The newly introduced Iida states while offering a hand to Ben.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ben, Ben Tennyson from America" Ben introduces himself while shaking his classmate's hand.
"America you say. Your Japanese is impeccable. I would have assumed you were born here with that accent."
"Thanks," Ben starts to rub the back of his head, "I've been practicing."
"That is good to hear and is there something in your eye. It's twitching."
Covering his left eye Ben blurts out, "It must be an eyelash. Enough about me, why are you here so early it's," he checks his phone "7:30. Damn dude."
"Ah yes," adjusting his glasses "I have made it a good habit to always arrive an hour early on the dot. I didn't believe there was anyone else in this class that would hold the same standard even if I don't approve of the language."
"I'd normally get to school a half-hour early but my guardian is a teacher here so he dragged me here when he got here."
Over the next hour, 17 other students came in each one with their own unique look. One had a bird head, another had a tail, and one looked familiar especially when he smiled with his sharp teeth at a girl with these cute little horns and a pink skin tone.
One student oddly enough smelled like burnt caramel but had a bad attitude and kicked up his feet onto the desk only to have a certain bluette cause a scene.
"Take your feet off that desk right now! It's the first day you are already disrespecting this academy by scuffing school property, you cretin!"
"You're kidding me, right?! Your old school put a stick up your ass or were you born with it." The ash-blonde student responded.
"Let's start over. I'm Tenya Iida from the Somei Private Academy."
"Somei, huh? So you must think you're better than me. I'm gonna have fun tearin' you a new one."
Before things could go any further the Omnitrix welder tried to defuse the situation only for the two bickering students to look over his shoulder to see a familiar greenette.
"Let me introduce myself I'm Tenya-"
"Yeah, I-I know. I'm Izuku Midoriya. It's super nice to meet you"
Just as the green-haired boy could finish talking, a new person entered the conversation from the hall. It was the girl from the entrance exam that saved Izuku from falling to death. The brunette and the greenette started talking to each other as a figure in a yellow sleeping bag appeared from behind the teacher's podium.
"If you're just here to make friends then you can pack up your stuff now." the yellow figure says tiredly, surprising the whole class while pulling out a juice pack. "Welcome to UA's hero course." Standing up sounding more annoyed "It took eight seconds before you all shut up. That's not gonna work. Time is precious. Rational students would understand that."
A quizzical expression goes across Midoriya's face as the tired man was speaking.
"Hello, I'm Shota Aizawa. Your teacher." He introduces himself going back to his tired tone of voice. "Right, let's get to it. Put these on and head outside." pulling out the school's PE uniforms.
Skipping about ten minutes, all the students now in the PE uniforms and Aizawa are by the school's track.
"Ok so you are all going to be taking a Quirk assessment test," states the tired teacher.
"What about orientation aren't we going to miss it." interjects the girl from earlier now known as Ochaco Uraraka.
"If you really wanna make the big leagues, you can't waste time on pointless ceremonies. Here at UA, we're not tethered to traditions. That means that I get to run my class however I see fit. The standardized test you have taken throughout your life you will be taking one more but with one exception. You will be able to use your Quirks on this test. The reason for this is I want to see the full capabilities of your powers. Since the school system wants to pretend that everyone is made the same, still this is the only way I can do so. Tennyson, you got the most points on the entrance exam. I would have you throw the ball right now but I'm assuming American physical testing doesn't have this ball throw. Correct?"
"Yeah you'd be right" the teen responds.
"Which brings me to second place on the entrance exam. Bakugo that would be you. How far did you throw the softball in middle school?"
"Sixty-seven meters, I think." says the ash-blonde
"Right. Try doing it with your Quirk now. Anything goes, just stay in the circle."
"Ok, you asked for it," Bakugo says while starting to stretch.
Walking into the circle the teen picks up the ball and gets into a throwing position. He pulls back his arm to throw and when he does he releases a massive explosion that sends the ball flying all while yelling "DIE!"
Aizawa gets the class's attention from the explosive teen saying, "All of you need to know your maximum capabilities." The ball then lands, bringing up a number on Aizawa's phone "It's the most rational way of figuring out your potential as a pro hero." as he raises his phone to show the class that Bakugo threw the ball 705.2 meters.
This number shocks the whole class. Some students pipe up saying that this test looks like fun and that is going to be awesome since they can finally use their powers. This excitement is abruptly brought to a halt when Aizawa interjects.
"So this looks fun, huh? You have three years here to become a hero. Do you think it's all going to be games and playtime? Today you will be taking eight physical tests to gauge your potential. Whoever comes in last has none and will be expelled immediately."
"Whoa, Shota, I mean Mr. Aizawa isn't that a bit harsh. I get hazing new students but this is too far." Ben buts in
"I get to decide how this class runs. If that's a problem, you can head home right now."
"Yeah, I'm with the American here! You can't send us home! I mean, we just got here! Even if it wasn't the first day, that isn't fair!" Uraraka pipes up
"Oh, and you think natural disasters are or a power-hungry villain? No, the world is full of unfairness. It's a hero's job to combat that unfairness. If you wanna be a pro, you're gonna push yourself to the brink. For the next three years, UA will throw one terrible hardship after another at you. So, go beyond. Plus Ultra-style. Show me it's no mistake you made it here."
This speech brings a new drive to the students, each one wanting to do their best.
"Shota you have no idea what you just got yourself into." Ben thinks to himself already flicking through the Omnitrix thinking of a strategy to get the top score.
The first test was the 50-meter dash. The goal of this test run is extremely simple: run 50 meters in the least amount of time. Of the ten heats of students running, Ben was in heat seven with a student that looked like he had tape dispenser teeth for hair and these weird growths on his elbows. This student was named Hanta Sero.
"You ready to lose?" the black-haired teen questions while stretching
"Na, I'm ready to win." was Ben's only response as he activates the Omnitrix transforming into a blue and black velociraptor-like creature with a striped tail, claws for fingers, and a ball held between the toes, keeping the dial on the chest, "XLR8!" the transformed teen announces catching almost everyone by surprise.
"Wait, that Mothman was you?" called out a blonde-haired student with a lightning bolt
"Maybe." the Kineceleran responded before lowering his natural visor.
With that said the starting gun was fired and in a blur of blue and black Ben was on the other side of the track all before Sero could even take a step. The robot who was giving times looked surprised as it gave him his time of "0.44 seconds."
Coming in at five seconds Sero comes swinging in from a tape strand coming from his elbow "Whoa, dude when you said you would win you were right."
The next test was the grip strength. Everyone was scoring about 30 kg. Izuku surprised a lot of people when scoring 56 kg but was blown out of the water by a six-armed boy who scored 540 kg.
Ben seeing that score was up to the challenge. He dialed up a transformation that surprised the class. This new form was standing over 10 feet with tan skin, elephantine feet, and a dinosaur-like stature. "Humungousaur!" roaring out.
Walking up to the line of grip test meters he picks one up and accidentally crushed the device with his index finger and thumb. "Oops."
The long jump came after the grip strength. When it came to jumping Ben knew which alien to choose.
"Crashhopper!" called out an insect-like alien that looked like a cross of a grasshopper and a mantis. He then proceeded to leap over the sandpit and the fence surrounding the school.
After some other events where Ben didn't need to use his aliens the day finishes with the final event, the ball throw. The goal of this one is to throw the ball as far as you stay in the starting circle. For this event, Ben threw the ball a good 800 meters as a six-foot-tall yellow armadillo-like alien with a head looking like a corinthian helmet for a head with little silver ears sticking out, and large jackhammer-like protrusions coming out from his elbows. This form's name is Armodrillo. In this form, he used his jackhammer appendage to launch the ball instead of throwing it.
Everyone threw the ball and everything went as expected but that changed when Midoriya threw. The green-haired boy looked like he was going to send the ball over the moon but didn't it just plopped out in front of him barely making it 46 meters. Seeing this Ben looks over at the teacher to see that his hair and scarf are floating.
"Shota used his Quirk?" Ben thought to himself
"I erased your Quirk. The judges for this exam were not rational enough. Someone like you should never be allowed to enroll at this school." The scruffy teacher announces to the green-haired teen.
Seeing the Quirk activated Midoriya recognizes the goggles that were hidden under his scarf and the glowing red eyes of the teacher. This sends his mind into overdrive to finally remember who this hero is. "Those goggles. I know you! You can look at someone and cancel out their powers. The Erasure Hero: Eraser Head!"
That declaration from the superhero fanboy, sent the rest of the class into a muttering fit trying to figure out what Eraser Head was known for. "He works on the down-low. Mr. Scruffy doesn't like cameras." Ben whispers to the group in a joking manner.
"I heard that!"
"Oh, and what are you going to do about that?!"
"No video games for a week."
A blonde hair student with a black lightning bolt in it leans over "What's going on?"
"Oh yeah, Mr. Aizawa is my legal guardian."
"What? Why him?"
"Long story."
"Enough!" declared the teacher activating his Quirk once again causing his hair to start floating again and eyes to glow red. This action caused the whole class to become dead silent. "You're not ready." Focusing back on Midoriya "You don't have control over your power. Were you planning to break your bones again? Counting on someone else to save your useless body?"
"No, that was what I was trying to do!"
Aizawa pulls the green-haired teen close with his scarf. "No matter what your intentions are, you would be nothing more than a liability in battle. You have the same reckless passion as another overzealous hero I know. One who saved 1,000 people by himself and became a legend. But even with that drive, you're worthless if you can only throw a single punch before breaking down. Sorry, Midoriya. With your power, there's no way you can become a hero." With that said, the teacher lets go of the startled teen. "I've returned your impractical Quirk. Take your final throw. Hurry and get it over with." before walking away.
"Hey, Sho," Ben calls to his guardian as he walks up to him "I get telling him that he needs restraint but going that far. The only thing you did was knock the wind out of his sails."
"I did what I had to. I've seen several students with that drive but zero control like this young man. He needed that lecture to get it across the thick skull these students tend to have." the older man stated as he dropped eye drops into his eyes.
Looking over to the greenette Ben can see that Midoriya is a little shaken as he walks back to the circle staring at the ball in his hand. Once he is there the boy gets ready to throw the ball again with all the force he can muster and as expected he rocketed the ball into the air yelling "SMASH!" but surprisingly he was able to make a fist as he looked back at Aizawa.
"Mr. Aizawa. Do you see? I'm still standing." the boy calls out as he shows the class a broken and swollen pointer finger just as Aizawa's phone reads out 705.3 meters.
"Well shit, looks like instead of focusing on his arm he focused on his finger," Ben mumbled to himself.
Ben wasn't the only student in the class to be impressed by the throw but only one was angry. That one was the blonde bomber Katsuki Bakugo. After staring at the boy in disbelief for a couple of seconds he started to release small explosions from his hands that caught Ben's attention leading him to activate the Omnitrix.
"Hey!" At the shout, Bakugo went charging at Midoriya in a fit of rage with his hand extended. "Deku, you bastard! Tell me how you did that or you're dead!"
After a flash of green several vines rushed away from the class to entangle the explosive boy's legs in his tracks at the same time the fabric from Aizawa's scarf wrapped itself around his arms.
The class, surprised by this turn of events, looked over to Ben to see a seven-foot plant-like creature with a single eye, a venus flytrap-like appendage on either side of its head, and five tendrils for legs, leaving his arms extended stretching actually along with its 4 fingered hands that caught the fiery student.
"Stand down." was all that Aizawa stated before looking back at Ben. "I appreciate the help but you didn't have to transform into Wildvine."
"It's no problem, I just ran on instinct I guess." states the Florauna as he transformed back to a human leaving the problem child to the teacher.
"Why the hell is your damn scarf so strong?" The boy grunted fighting against said scarf.
"Because it's a capture weapon made out of carbon fiber and a special metal alloy. It'd be wise to avoid making me use my Quirk so much. It gives me serious dry eyes.
With all the tests now completed the class grouped up in front of the main gymnasium to see their scores. Ben got second place on this test only getting beaten out by Momo Yaoyorozu, a taller black-haired girl that can create objects from her body.
"By the way, I was lying, no one's going home. That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all during the tests." Aizawa states with a manic smile
This revelation shocked the entire class causing one person to faint.
"Wow, I'm surprised you didn't get first," a pink-haired, pink-skinned girl with little horns on her head and black scleras named, "Name's Mina by the way," she said excitedly walking up to Ben
"Nice to meet you, Mina. Yaoyorozu got me beat in the seated toe touch, but she was able to summon a moped for the distance run and the 50-meter dash."
"Before we continue, would you like to be called Ben or Tennyson? Since Americans typically call each other by their given names and not their family names."
"Ben is fine. I was wondering what your Quirk is? I saw you sliding around on some goo. It looked like fun."
"Well, acid skating is really fun. But to answer your question my Quirk is called Acid. I can create acids from my body."
"That's so cool I have a form that can do something similar to that. I call him Goop, I become a living slime where my stomach acid beats anything man-made and I can move it around as I see fit."
"That. Is. Amazing! I got to see that form. Show me! Show me! Show me!" Mina exclaims while jumping in excitement.
"Maybe after school. There is a nice coffee shop near where I live and Shota keeps on telling me that I need to get friends my age."
"That sounds like fun. I need to introduce you to Eijiro, you guys will make great friends!"
-Chapter 8: Close Encounters-
After school, Ben was ordering coffee waiting for his new friends to show up. He was still wearing his school uniform with one difference he was a green leather jacket with a ten on the left side instead of the standard UA jacket. Sitting down Ben could see the excitable pinkette, and the sharp tooth redhead walking in.
"Mina over here," Ben called out waving his classmates over.
"Ben!" exclaimed the excitable teenager. She was dragging along the red-haired boy from their class. "This is Ejiro Kirishima. We have known each other since middle school."
"Nice to meet you man." the green-clad teen said. "You look familiar."
"Yeah, I'm surprised you didn't recognize me sooner. Considering you threw me through a stack of weights a month back."
"Wait? The black-haired kid that- How in the hell did I miss that!" Ben exclaims dumbfounded that he didn't recognize his new classmate. "Dude way to go in making it into UA."
Surprised by this conversation Mina looks over at Kirishma dumbfounded "How do you two know each other?"
"Beast Man has been stopping by the gym I go to ever since he got to Japan."
"Yeah, and Rock Head has been training with me now and then insisting he can take my stronger forms in a fight."
"In which I can!" the ruby-haired teen interjects.
"Want to say that to Rath?" The emerald-clad teen taunts
"I'm down to go tiger hunting," he says leaning forward hardening his arm and making it look like a flesh-colored rock
"That's enough for you too." Mina proclaims pushing the two boys apart before the two could start brawling.
"It's fine Mina I have enough restraint to not actually start a fight unlike that blonde-haired kid from class," Ben says, sitting back down.
"Bakugo? That dude's manly. I was talking to him before she grabbed me." Ejiro states nudging a thumb over to the pinkette only to get a stuck-out tongue in response. "Bakugo seems just to have anger issues."
"Just anger issues? That dude has an ego bigger than Texas, I'm betting he has never been told no and is just a dick." Ben said while counting on his fingers
"I mean you're not wrong," Mina said, nodding over to Ben.
The three teens spent the next half hour talking about the lives of two Japanese natives growing up before changing the topic to Ben to compare the differences between Japan and the US.
"Ben, what do your parents do for a living?" Kirishima asked
"My parents…" Ben started looking into the empty cup that once held his beverage. "They used to work freelance. Dad was more of a handyman while Mom did interior design." the green-clad teen states somberly
"You say 'did'. What happened to them" Mina asks
"They died right before I came to Japan. I wasn't," Ben clenches his fist making his knuckles white, "I wasn't able to save them." The boy is starting to get teary-eyed.
Realizing the gravity of the situation Mina tries to cheer Ben up. "Hey, you came to Japan to have a fresh start right?"
Ben doesn't say anything just looking up into her yellow eyes fighting back the tears.
"You will make them proud at UA. Right, Ejiro?" She kicks him under the table hoping she can get through the hint.
"Yeah, you will become a great hero that will make sure no one else will have to deal with that loss. Man, that's manly."
Grabbing Ben's hand "If you don't mind me asking. Why did you decide to come to Japan instead of a school in America?"
"I didn't really have a choice. My parents weren't the only ones who passed. The rest of my extended family was also in the accident. We were taking a road trip across the states. My grandpa used to take my cousin and me on this trip every summer. On this last trip, we took the whole family along with some close friends. About a month in there was a villain attack and Grandpa Max had been out of the game for too long.
"He was a hero?" Ejiro buts in
"Back in the day, he was. He was a small local hero before he retired. I just got my support item from an old support firm he was partnered with." Ben continues revealing the Omnitrix. "I didn't have much time to practice with it before the trip. Grandpa did everything he could to stop the villain. I was able to help just long enough to get civilians away but my family… Let's just say Tennysons will stop at nothing to do the right thing. By the time I got back to help they had all laid down their lives to make sure no one else was hurt. With no one else I-I," Ben finishes shaking and holding back tears.
"You had to move in with a family friend." Mina finished Ben's thought. Grabbing the boy's hand she looks into his emerald eyes. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that. If you ever need to talk to anyone I am- I mean we are here for you. Right, Ejiro?"
"Yeah of course man. If you need us let us know and we will do what we can to help."
"Thank you, guys. I appreciate that." Ben said, giving the slightest nod. "I think I should probably get going." Wiping his eyes with his sleeve the teenager stands up to leave.
Before Ben could take a step Mina stands up and gives him a piece of paper. "Here's my number. Text me when you get home. Please."
Ben only gives her a blank stare and a nod.
Walking through the front door of the apartment Ben drops his bag next to the couch and collapses on the floor in a teary mess.
"DAMN IT!" The young man proclaims as he starts punching the ground with everything he has. "DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!" With each shout another punch. Just as Ben was about to deal another blow to the tile floor a hand caught his wrist.
The owner of the hand kneels next to the broken teen and wraps him in a hug.
"Everything is ok." A raspy voice.
The boy's knuckles start to bleed as he breaks down.
"I couldn't save them, I couldn't, I could-, I-I"
"No need to speak. Just let everything out." came Aizawa holding the boy in his arms.
"Shota I-I don't know if I can do this. I can't-" the broken teen starts to sob as he holds his bleeding hand
"Ben, just let it out."
The next day Ben is sitting at the kitchen counter with a bowl of cereal and a bandaged hand. Aizawa walks in holding some papers for his class.
"I'm sorry you had to see me like that last night. I-I just couldn't hold it in anymore." the teen mutters staring into his breakfast.
"Don't apologize." Aizawa states dead seriously staring at the boy, "You never need to apologize about needing a shoulder to lean on. I will always be here for you as your guardian I will do everything in my power to make sure you are ok."
"Thank you, thank you."