Chapter 5: Response
As the exam came to a close, people started to make their way to the center of the stage before leaving the exam area for good. There, they would notice the defeated 0-pointer and one sleeping Ben Tennyson.
"Dude, did you see that?!" One examinee from the center starts.
"Wait what happened?"
"BRO. You needed to be there! He just went up the 0-pointer's arm and crashed right into his face!"
"What the f—"
"I know right!"
"That's some transformation quirk!" as a third onlooker joins the conversation and glances at the sleeping Tennyson.
"So he already has a fanclub going… Good for him I guess..." Jiro thinks as she sits down on one of the rubble piles, waiting for someone to come so that she could hand off the examinee.
"And what's wrong with you..." she thinks as she looks at the examinee with the dopey grin. She tries her best but she can't keep herself from laughing. "Ha ha-other than your face-ha ha!"
"Good work, good work..." an old lady says as she approaches the participants. "Here you go. Here are some gummies."
Her gaze then falls onto Ben who was sleeping inside the crater.
Jiro gets up with the examinee at hand. "He exhausted himself, Recovery Girl. I don't think he has any injuries though."
"Oh good. That means I don't have to do anything." She says with a satisfied grin. "What about him?" pointing to the blonde leaning on Jiro's shoulder.
"I have no clue." she exclaims. "He was like that when I found him."
"Then just in case..." Recovery Girl says and purses her lips.
"Kiiiiiiiss…!" and smooches the blonde examiner's forehead and all the while Jiro's snickering starts to break into laughter. However, the examinee does not return to normal and Recovery Girl sees this.
"Hmm… Then it's most likely a drawback of his quirk." She says and two robots with a stretcher immediately arrive on the scene. "He just needs some rest."
Jiro puts him down and manages to get a good look at him. He was tall, or at least taller than her and had golden eyes and hair to boot. There was also a streak of black hair within the gold that looked like a lightning bolt. Other than that, he also seemed a bit skinner compared to other examiners.
"Examinee identified: Denki Kaminari. Transport to infirmary: In-Process." The robots declared and slowly started moving to the infirmary.
"Thanks for looking out for him dearie." she then points to the building in which they came out from. "You really took a risk with the 0-pointer to do that, huh?"
"It was no problem, after all HE did the heavy-lifting." Jiro says as she points to Ben.
"Speaking of him..." Recovery Girl goes over and lightly smacks Ben in the face. "Hey, wake up."
"Huh?!" Ben springs up. "What did I miss?
"Nothing. But I can't have you sleeping in the middle of the school's battle center, young man."
"Oh..." Ben exclaims as he looks around. "Sorry about that..." he says as he lifts himself from the crater.
Recovery Girl goes back up and hands out some gummies before heading back. Jiro looks in her hand and sees the colorful jelly bears. "Thank you."
Ben gets up and, after stretching a bit, goes next to Jiro.
She asks: "You feeling okay?"
"Yeah, I've just been tired the whole morning, that's all…" Ben replies. After all, Cannonbolt didn't have that armor for nothing.
But he just wished that his stamina would get restored as well. "You just couldn't add that in, huh Azmuth?"
He looks at the watch again. "At least now, it works right..."
"Want some?" Jiro asks as she brings her hand forward with the gummy bears.
"Sure, thanks." He then picks up a red one and tosses it in his mouth.
The two then start walking back to the entrance of the battle center. "Sooooo… Was there even someone there?" Ben asks.
"Yeah actually." Jiro replies as she starts playing with her earlobe like it is a strand of hair. "His legs were stuck under some rubble or something so I got him out of there."
"Nice… I'm glad that it wasn't for nothing." Ben says in a reassured tone.
With that, Jiro's eyes widened. "Speaking of that, you want to tell me what came over you back there?"
Ben raises an eyebrow at that. "You mean Cannonbolt?"
"No, I'm not talking about your armadillo quirk or whatever. You were...just... acting so serious. Like this was life and death or something..."
"OH…" Ben exclaims. "Umm, about that…" Ben rambles as he tries to form an answer. "Sorry if I came off a bit harsh."
"Nah, it's cool." Jiro says as she scratches the back of her head. "I'm just glad to work with someone who can actually man up."
"Well..." Ben stretches again. "Glad that I could help..."
"You really better find some coffee before I find you sleeping in another crater." Jiro adds with a self-satisfied grin.
"Ha ha-" Ben sarcastically laughs.
But he does give credit where it is due. "But yeah, you're right. I knew I shouldn't have watched another Sumo Slammers episode..."
"Wasn't that made for children?" Jiro deadpans.
"No!" Ben remarks like a salty fan. "It can be enjoyed by kids but that doesn't mean it was made for them! And in the new series, Sumo Slammers Hero Generation, it has many adult themes! "
"Suuuuuuuure." Jiro says as she rolls his eyes while having a visible smile under all of it.
The two then make it to the bus and decide to hop on.
Ben then adjusts his voice and stretches his neck. "Anywho…" as he folds his hands behind his head. "I really hope both of us pass."
"Don't kid yourself Tennyson. You meant to say: 'I hope you pass.' and we both know it."
Ben gets ready to defend himself but as soon as he sees Jiro's satirical glare, he just stops. "Okay, you win..."
"Yeah, with 53 points, there is no way that you wouldn't pass. I'm just worried about myself."
"Oh come on, you got 32 points. You'll pass, we believe." Ben says assuredly.
"Thanks… I really hope you're right." Jiro says as the bus finally gets a move on with all the exhausted examinees inside.
Ben and Jiro had made it to the gates of UA, ready to part ways for now.
"Well, to meet again in the hero course." Ben says as he brings his fist forward.
Jiro looks at his fist. "To meet again in the hero course." she says with a faint smirk and fistbumps.
She then looks at the passing cars. "So, I'm going across the street from here."
"Oh, I'll go left but I'm waiting for a—" Ben utters as his gaze meets the greenette and sees him looking into oblivion. "...friend."
Despite not saying a word, the pair could easily guess what happened from that blank expression. As he passes by them, he continues to stay silent and immediately starts walking home. Both of them are left uneasy.
"He looks horrible..." Jiro remarks.
"Yeah... I better go after him, make sure he's okay."
"Okay..." she says as she pushes her hair aside. "I'll head out then. I hope he gets better.
"Uh-huh, thanks. I hope so too."
As she walks across the street, she waves "See you later, Tennyson!"
"See you!" Ben says as he waves back. "Now for the matter at hand..."
He then immediately turns left and runs after his friend. "What happened, Midoriya? You were fine during the orientation, so what did you do during the practical?" Ben wonders.
After catching up to the greenette, he taps on his shoulder and…
"Midoriya..."
Midoriya doesn't respond. "Midoriya..."
He still doesn't respond. "Midoriya!"
"Huh!" Midoriya blurts as he snaps back to reality.
"Are you doing alright?" Ben asks rather genuinely.
"O-Oh sorry! Yeah, I'm doing alright!" Midoriya replies with a jumpy attitude.
"Are you sure?"
"Y-Yeah, why w-wouldn't I be?"
"Call it a hunch..." Ben internally says as he stares at the fake expression on the greenette's face. "You just looked down, that's all..."
Midoriya doesn't follow up on that and neither does Ben. He didn't want to force a conversation if the other didn't want it.
Within silence that was only broken by the suburban life around them, the pair continue to walk home.
After waving goodbye at Midoriya, Ben exhaustedly goes up the stairs. "Why couldn't we have an elevator?.."
He opens the door and immediately starts taking off his shoes.
"Welcome back Ben! How did it go!?" his mother yells from the kitchen.
"It was good!" he yells back.
"How was the written part!?"
Before he answers, he comes into the room and instantly collapses onto the couch. With his face covered by the pillow, he answers: "It was fine too, I guess."
"I guess?!" Ben's mother asks rather aggressively. She didn't like it when you gave vague answers like 'I guess' or 'It was good'.
"Some questions were difficult."
"But you answered them, right?"
"Ugh..." He puts another pillow on top of his head. "Yeah, I did..."
"Good." she says satisfiedly. "How was the practical?"
"Crushed it with 53 points."
"What?!" Her mother angrily says. "You barely passed?!"
"No, it wasn't out of 100. We had to… "
"Then, how many points did Midoriya get?!" his mom cuts him off.
"UGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ben screams internally.
Trying his best to recompose himself, he says: "Mom, I'm really tired right now. Can't we talk about this later?"
She was still uneasy but…
"Sure..." His mother says as she goes back to cutting up some vegetables.
From what he could hear, and smell faintly through the pillow, it was another one of those "healthy meals" that his mom was fond of. "Yuck..."
As much as he was trying to go to sleep, his mind was still on Midoriya. "How many points DID his friend get?" He had no clue. Just what could make him upset like that?
He lifted his head from the pillow and rubbed his eyes. "Mom.."
"Yes sweetie?"
"Do you mind if I go out right now?"
"No, but be back by 7. I'm making your favourite for tonight."
"Okay." he says as he grabs his favourite jacket and puts on his shoes. "I might as well treat myself from that Burger Shack..."
He fell for his mother's "Your favorite" tricks one too many times to be tricked again. The golden rule was to always trust your nose first.
Ben walks out the door and quickly goes down the stairs.
Inside the Midoriya household, Midoriya's mother, Inko Midoriya, was trying her best to hold it down...
"The results should arrive in about a week, right?" She asks nervously.
"Yeah..." Midoriya answers with a monotone tone. His stare was locked to the coffee table and all he did was use a hand strengthener with his right hand while having his phone on the left…
"Jeez, I think it's amazing that you even applied to U.A.!"
"Yeah..." Midoriya says in that same monotone tone.
Her mother hesitantly leaves to go pickup the mail while Midoriya is left to his thoughts.
"What am I supposed to say..." he thinks. "What am I supposed to do..."
He places his phone on the coffee table and picks up a weight from the ground.
"All Might." He starts lifting the weight. "After you saw potential in me, I'm sorry I didn't live up to it..."
"But I did what I thought was right… Can that count for anything, by any chance?"
Just then, the door suddenly opens and a familiar figure with a green jacket enters the room.
"Tennyson? What are you doing here?"
"Hi Midoriya. Get dressed, we're going out." He then turns to Mrs. Midoriya. "If it is okay with you Mrs. Midoriya."
"I think it is a wonderful idea." She replies as she brings her hands together in a relieved manner.
"Wait where?" Midoriya asks. He was still a bit perplexed from getting cut off from his thoughts.
"Outside. We might as well celebrate the end of that training from hell." He then asks: "Are you coming?"
Midoriya looks at his mother. Seeing as she seems happy by the prospect, he puts down the workout equipment and says: "I guess I am…"
"Great, I know just the place we can go..."
"Burger Shack?" Midoriya says as he reads the sign.
"Yeah." Ben then sees the blank look on Midoriya's face. "Wait...Don't tell me... You have never been here before?!"
"I am not really a huge fan of junk food..."
"Well, let me help your taste buds with a permanent revolution." as he opens the door and heads to the cashier. "I'll admit that the burgers are kinda average here but THIS!"
He points to one item in the menu above them. "THIS is an era-defining cuisine, an absolute delicacy!"
"May I take your order?" says the cashier with a dead tone in his voice, even kinda surprising Midoriya by the sudden intrusion. He had blue skin, tentacles instead of hands, a bald head but most distractingly a huge nose...
"Yeah, one large chilli fries with Cheese." Ben says with his mouth already watering. "You want some too?"
"No… I'm good." Midoriya hesitantly backs off.
"C'mon. It's already a 'sometimes food' Midoriya. You have to try it."
Midoriya was still on the fence though, the All-American Dream Plan wasn't so in favor of fast food joints and just because the exam passed didn't mean he should abandon the plan altogether...
However all of this gets ruined with Ben's next line: "It's my treat."
"Tennyson..." Now he feels like he has to order… "I'll have umm… no umm..."
"Are you planning on ordering today sir?" The cashier impatiently asks.
"Sorry umm... I'll have a medium chicken burger..."
"How original."
"And a medium soda." he adds.
"Daring today, aren't we?"
Midoriya feels kinda embarrassed but Ben quickly breaks the tension. "Oh, a medium soda for me too."
"Is that here or to go?"
Before Midoriya can say anything, Ben answers first: "To go..."
The cashier jolts it down to a notebook, rips the paper and hangs it before the small window. "One large chilli fries with extra cheese and a medium chicken burger to go!"
Midoriya throws a questioning look to Ben. "What's wrong with eating here?"
Ben sees it but doesn't reply. From across the counter, the pair hear the frycook going: "One cryin chicken and one set of flamin potatoes COMIN UP!" with a hyperactive and high pitched voice.
Perhaps in record time, their order was prepared and the duo left the restaurant with an entrancing smell coming from their paper bag.
Seeing as they had gotten a decent bit away from the restaurant, he asks: "So, Tennyson, why did we take this to go?"
"Well...We could eat our fast food at the restaurant, but I think I have someplace better in mind..."
He then points in front of them with his thumb.
Midoriya thinks: "In that direction, there is..."
"I was serious when I said we were going outside Midoriya. Plus I think the fresh air would do us a lot of good."
He was pointing to the beach… The very one that he cleaned up…
Ben goes ahead while Midoriya just looks at him from behind. Did he perhaps… choose the beach on purpose?
They arrive at the beach and sit down on the stairs.
Thoughts pass by Midoriya's head. "I… didn't expect to be back here so soon." He melancholically looks into the horizon. "Where I trained with the number 1 hero, All Might..."
Ben opens the bag. "Here is your burger."
"Oh, thanks." he says back as he gets rid of the wrapping.
He looks at the burger but his stare soon goes down to his muscles… To the very same muscles that he built up for One for All…
He exhales and wraps the burger again, putting it aside. "What am I doing here..."
"Now for the main course..." Ben says as he takes out the bag with the fries. And as the smell of the melting cheese made its way up his nose, Midoriya had to admit that it smelled good… but not good enough to distract him from his thoughts.
"I failed the exam, I failed All Might…"
"I didn't even get one point from the practical portion. So what was it all for?! Was it all to waste All Might's precious time!"
"And now…" he looks at Ben downing his portion of Chilli Fries. "Can I really just enjoy myself?"
"I knew something was wrong..."
Surprised by the interruption, Midoriya turns and sees Ben directly looking at him with his Chilli fries sitting on his lap.
"Seeing this place only got you more upset." Ben says as he tosses a fry into his mouth. "The exam didn't go well for you, did it?"
Midoriya turns his stare to the beach. He doesn't reply. He doesn't WANT to reply. But… "Yeah."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
He really doesn't… He didn't even tell his mom what happened.
But this feeling wasn't just going to go away… He knew… because he remembered…
11 years ago
"He's such a cool hero..." young Midoriya says, looking right at his monitor.
On it, there was his favourite video of All Might playing one more time…
Turning his chair to look at his mom, he points to the screen and asks: "Can I… be a hero too?"
The sorrowful answer of his mother after that... Apologizing to the best she can, trying her best to make him feel better. But the despair he felt then… never faded away.
But, maybe talking about it, taking the chance that was sitting right beside him, would make a difference… After all, what did he have to lose?
"I..." he starts. "I..."
He looks at the ground. It was high time to bite the bullet. "I got 0 points… from the practical exam..."
Ben's eyes widened but he was clearly trying to not give too much away from his shock.
"Why? What happened?" he asks.
Midoriya bites his lip but persists in sticking to his guns. "I-I don't know. When the exam began, I was so nervous. Seeing those robots up front… I just… froze."
Midoriya then looks to check Ben's reaction but he doesn't say anything. He was just listening.
"Other examinees were running, g-getting points. Time was counting down but all I could do w-was watch."
Midoriya squeezes his fists. "T-Then came the 0-pointer..."
This part was awful. Not because he regretted what he did but because of what he didn't do...
He was almost reliving it and from his face, Ben probably picked up that for himself. However, Ben's expression wasn't changing even slightly.
He starts with: "It was so tall, so powerful…" and refuses to stop. After all, this was the final stretch.
"I was supposed to run..." he admits. "But I didn't... I chose... to rush in."
Ben raises his eyebrows, probably out of curiosity to see where this is going.
"There was this nice person stuck under some debris…I jumped up and..."
He looks at his right hand and: "..smashed the robot."
"You did what?!" Ben says with a surprised tone in his voice . "Midoriya had that kind of power under his belt?!"
"I destroyed its head but…"
Midoriya makes his hand into a fist and sorrowfully looks at it. "You see Tennyson...every time I use my quirk… my bones break."
"And after jumping that high..."
Midoriya's friend connects the dots and realizes what kind of mortal danger his friend was in. "Oh no...Then how did you..."
"The nice person used her quirk to save me and then… the time was up."Midoriya quickly eased his worries.
As soon as he finished, both sides had nothing to say. Ben had his hand on his chin, probably thinking about what he could, what he should say in this situation. "Midoriya, I..." he starts but can't finish it.
"A 0 from the practical?.." Ben thinks. "What could I even say to that..." He couldn't just say: "There are other schools out there." Like he was his mother or something.
Lost for words, he looks over to his friend.
Midoriya was clearly torn up but, at least to Ben, he did seem… a bit relieved. "I guess… talking about your failures does help..."
He instinctively grabs the watch with worry but also lets it go pretty swiftly. "I have to help Midoriya's situation first..."
Ben crosses his arms, trying to think of something that would cheer Midoriya up. That's when he sees his answer…
"Midoriya… You destroyed that robot's head, right?"
Midoriya… wasn't expecting that. He is surprised that Ben would still ask about that but he answers nevertheless. "More like, I crushed it, but yeah..."
"Well." Ben says as he throws some more fries in his mouth. "So did I. Personally, I smashed its head but still, disabled the robot."
"I have no doubt that you could do it Tennyson. Your werewolf quirk is amazing."
That was the line that Ben was waiting for.
"Who said I was a werewolf?" and pushes down on the rims, revealing the hologram on his watch.
Taking a huge breath, he says:"I never told you about my quirk, did I?" and cycles through them, giving brief glances to Midoriya.
In the meantime, the greenette was super confused. Who were all these holograms? How did his watch make these holograms?
Everything clicks together, when he sees a familiar wolf in the selection...
"What?!" The person in question immediately got mesmerized. "But you transformed into… You have more than one transformation?"
"Ten to be exact, but yes."
"TEN?!" Midoriya made a move towards the Omnitrix. "May I?"
"Suit yourself."
Midoriya turned the faceplate and marvelled at the aliens that were before him. All the while, Ben sported a very satisfied smile. "He was pretty psyched when he saw one of my forms, so, might as well give him a sneak peak."
Midoriya raises his head to Ben, takes a deep breath and...
"What is your quirk?What is itcalled?How doesitwork?Istherealimiter?ohatimeoutthatmakessensebuthowlongareyoutransformedfordoyourparentsalsohavedifferentforms..."
"Uh..." Ben's brain freezes. "Maybe I should have started a bit lighter, like saying I had two forms or something..."
"Uh, Midoriya?" He waves his hand, trying to snap the greenette from his intense muttering. When he gets his attention, Ben says: "One at a time?" quippingly.
"Oh s-sorry." Midoriya says as he puts his hands over his mouth. "I-I'm just really into other quirks. It's a hobby of mine to learn about them."
"I can tell." He sees the anxious greenette continuing to sit next to him with his eyes still on that device. "Now what…"
"Well…" he scratches the back of his head. This was the hard part.
Back home, he, Gwen and Grandpa Max had put their heads together for a cover for the Omnitrix.
Since they barely knew how the watch worked anymore with it deciding to reset his aliens after getting put back on and all, they couldn't make it that elaborate. It was made to utilize their past knowledge but most importantly be flexible when needed.
But the idea of testing it with, practically a Quirk enthusiast, was less than ideal...
"It's called... Omni Gen and it allows me to go into one of those forms that you saw.
Like he forgot to add, he says: "But it's only for around 10 minutes. After that, I have to recharge before I do another transformation."
"But the drawbacks don't end there..." He then points to his wrist. "This watch here is a support item I need to be able to choose my transformation. Otherwise, I can't really control what I turn into".
"Yeah Ben, that was a great addition. The watch TOTALLY doesn't do all the work..." He quips to himself inside his head.
Thankfully the Omnitrix did not come off from him, because he really wasn't looking forward to seeing someone test that theory.
"And… that's most likely it… Yeah."
"That's an insane quirk Tennyson. And that wolf was one of them?"
"Yep, I call him Blitzwolfer."
With his eyes beaming with light, Midoriya asks: "Can you transform into something else?"
"I...could." He then looks at his watch where the holograms were still visible. To be honest, he didn't like to transform when it wasn't necessary, it didn't make him… comfortable.
At least not anymore...
But, he could let it slide just this once… for his friend. Ben starts turning the dial and he soon gets an idea.
"You know what?" He brings his wrist forward. "You choose."
"What?"
"You choose." Ben says nonchalantly. "Pick whichever one you want."
"O-Okay." Midoriya says as he scrolls one more time and really starts looking into each figure. "Which one, which one..." He was surely not going to pick Blitzwolfer so…
After landing at a new one, he says: "This one."
"Final answer?"
Midoriya looks at his choice again and nervously says: "Final answer."
Ben gets up and walks over to the beach and slams down the dial.
His skin turns black and a red armor-like suit starts to form over it, completely encasing him. On his hands, portholes appear on the palms and he is left with 4 fingers that now resemble claws. The grey part in his lower body gets concentrated into black and with the dial on his chest, he yells out: "WATER HAZARD!"
Hearing the yell, some people do turn their heads to see him and Ben does wave back. "Hi there… First time with the name shouting, I'm guessing..."
Midoriya stands up and runs next to his friend. "Wow, it's even cooler in person, Tennyson."
"Tennyson?" He moves his finger from side to side. "Nu uh, call me by my hero name now." he flexes his muscles.
"Oh, i-if you say so, Water Hazard."
"Thanks."
Midoriya impatiently starts to fidget around the alien, trying to catch every little detail. "So, this guy does...?"
"Exactly what you're thinking, probably." Ben attempts to complete Midoriya's sentence and puts his hands forward. Ice-cold water immediately shoots out from his palms and completely skips over the sand, landing into the sea and mixing into the salt water.
"Highly pressurized water. Trust me, you don't want to be on the opposite end of it."
"Uh-huh..." Midoriya says.
He gets back into his usual form and stops the water. "I can turn it up to boiling hot..."
"Uh-huh..."
"My shell protects me from attacks..."
"Uh-huh..."
With the third 'uh-huh', Water Hazard draws the line. "Alright, I give. What are you—?" That's when he turns around and sees a curious and excited Midoriya writing up a storm to his journal. There was even a rough sketch of him on there.
"Where did you get that notebook?"
"Oh, I always have one on me." He then shows the cover of it.
"Hero analysis for the future? No.13?!" Water Hazard thinks. "Yep, he's a hero geek alright."
"Can you propel yourself with that water? How strong is it's output?"
"Well, I tried once or twice but it doesn't do me much when I'm not close to the ground. Especially when I can also do this." He says and jumps relatively high into the air and does a superhero landing.
"Aha… So, he also has enhanced strength on top of that. Combined with the robust exoskeleton, hand to hand fights would be his environment. Also the pressurized water..." Midoriya tells himself as he continues to jolt stuff down into his notebook.
"At least someone's having fun..." Ben thinks to himself. He was glad that Midoriya was happy and all that but… using the watch for this... was frustrating him.
Yeah, it was to cheer up his friend but standing around and just answering his questions… it wasn't what he was about.
It wasn't what the watch was about...
Ben then looks over to Midoriya. "He said his quirk broke his bones, right? What kind of a quirk does that? Can he just not control it?"
Ben crosses his arms. It was weird, he had never heard of someone injuring themselves that badly as a quirk side effect. "It's crazy to think that he can kill himself just by using his quirk…"
"And from the sounds of the exam, he almost did."
He then cheekily thinks to himself… and aims one of his palms to near Midoriya's foot.
"Hey!" Midoriya yells and lifts up his notebook as Ben sprays water. "What was that for?"
Ben then squares up. "Hero training."
"What?"
"You said your quirk broke your bones, right?" He then throws a light punch that Midoriya barely manages to dodge. "Aren't you planning to do something about that?"
Water Hazard then shoots a stream of water, one that Midoriya dodges.
"I-I don't know about this Tennyson. If I hit you with my quirk, you might die."
"Then try testing that theory!" as Water Hazard shoots another stream of water. Midoriya dodges again but this time he hesitantly… goes for a counter.
Midoriya side steps the stream and aims a punch at Water Hazard's chest. "Don't let your arm break Midoriya! Control it!"
Midoriya can see his arm lighting up with red veins of energy...
However, before the punch can reach its target, Water Hazard grabs his arm, preventing the punch.
And the red energy dissipates immediately. Ben then asks him: "Did you use it? I couldn't tell."
"Yeah."
"That's good. Let's try that again then." Ben takes position.
"A-Are you sure that this will work Tennyson?" Midoriya asks hesitantly.
"Hmm, I don't know either…"
Water Hazard takes aim to the sea again and starts spraying water. "Maybe it's because of the form... but the way that I'm thinking about your quirk is like a dam."
He starts to change the output of the water, decreasing and increasing the pressure on a whim. "Just like my water and portholes. If we could get you a better control over the hatch, you can get better control over the amount of water (a.k.a. power) that you output."
"Rather than just opening or closing, we could try to get you to half-open it, kinda like stopping midway and keeping at that point."
Ben then stops with the water and looks over to his new found student. "However, since we can't get you to punch for real, we'll have to improvise… by having you activate it as you go in for an attack but then stop."
"Huh… Maybe..." Midoriya ponders, following his new teacher's instructions. The logic did seem sound.
"Also we need to work on your punching…" Water Hazard interjects. "I don't have a professional technique with it either but you just seem too inspired by anime."
"Manga..." Midoriya corrects Water Hazard. "And other pro heroes..." he embarrassedly admits.
"Well, trust me when I say we need to work on that too."
Water Hazard then gets back into form. "Now. Take the ready position."
The two start again but unlike last time Water Hazard wasn't taking it that easy.
"What happened to me just going in for a punch Tennyson?!" as he dodges another stream of water.
Water Hazard however doesn't stop. "I might have armor but I never said I would be your punching bag!" as he continues to take shots against Midoriya. "Now dodge left!"
"Dodge right!"
"Duck!"
"Jump!"
Water Hazard continues to spray water and Midoriya continues to dodge.
"I can do this all day Midoriya!" He then realizes what he said. "Well, more like another 5 minutes or so but you get my point!"
And Midoriya most definitely does. "I need to close the gap and get in close..."
"There!" He runs to Water Hazard and ducks under his blast. With his hand making a fist again, he goes in for the punch that Water Hazard has to grab.
And he does.
"That was really good, Midoriya." He lets go of his arm. "Maybe I should start taking things seriously." he says as Midoriya continues to pant.
"Please don't..."
Ben laughs. "Yeah you might be right."
Midoriya looks at his hand. "Maybe this could work…"
"Tennyson, a-any chance that we can go again?"
Seeing Midoriya getting into position, Ben smiles. "Sure."
"And the name is Water Hazard!" and shoots at his target.
Little did they know however, they weren't the only ones eager for a fight.
On top of a nearby rooftop, a well-built redhead was watching them. She had pale skin, black eyes and was wearing a high tech full bodysuit sporting a red and black color scheme and a skull symbol on her chest.
As she put down a mirror in front of her and refreshed her black lipstick, she pressed her earpiece.
"Report." says the person on the other line with an expressionless tone.
"Alright, but tone down the voice changer chief." she says quippily. "I got another one of Tennyson's aliens here. It has armor, can shoot water, uhhh… that's kind of it. It looks like a shellfish now that I'm thinking about it."
"Upload your visuals to the main computer, bounty hunter."
"Sure thing." The bounty hunter says and shares the feed from the camera in her helmet. Water Hazard suddenly appears before the master's screen.
"Biometric and the visual scan indicate an Orishan from planet Kisusana." a nearby underling states.
"Looks like a crab to me..." The bounty hunter continues to crack jokes and readies up her arm cannon. "Want me to put the brat down for good now?"
"Our orders are clear, bounty hunter. It's surveillance on the target, not action."
"Speaking on giving orders... " she says as she lines up her shot. "Why isn't the big man calling any of the shots?"
"We cannot have our master sully his hands in a trivial matter like this."
"Uh-huh, so I'm guessing he doesn't care if I do this." She takes careful aim and gets ready to fire. This could have been it, her moment, however fate had other plans.
Suddenly an electric shock envelops her entire body.
"We do appreciate your assistance, bounty hunter Rojo…"The voltage continues in full force and Rojo can barely keep herself from screaming."But you aren't a unique specimen in your field of expertise."
The voltage dies down and the light brown and purple figure continues to make his point.
"I think we made ourselves clear, did we not?"
It didn't take a genius for Rojo to know that his associate had his finger sitting on the shock button as he said that. "Yeah, I guess."
"For now, hold your position and keep watching him." the subordinate says.
"Okay..." Rojo saltily replies. "Now, about my payment..."
"Payment?" The voice on the other line asks.
"Yeah my payment. That's the 2nd Tennyson alien I've shown you this week and trust me I won't be doing this for free."
"I think you had our deal confused."
"What?!" Rojo asks in a fury.
"The Arburian Pelarota was a test of the quality of your services. Your full payment will be given once it has been proven that there is nothing further to observe..."
Rojo could see a scam when she saw one and this one was utter bullshit. She was about to raise her voice but… she just saw where that would get her.
Gritting her teeth, shey says: "Understood..." and hangs up.
"ARGHHHHHH!" She yells and kicks a nearby vent with her foot going through it. ""If I don't rip open that brat in the next 2 seconds, I'll…"
What would she do exactly? Her suit was wired into their database. Any fight she gets into would shut her systems down, just like that.
She sits back down. Just when I was ready to go at this solo…" she looked down at her symbol. "While being free to do what I want to do..."
Seeing as Tennyson was continuing to have fun with Midoriya, Rojo gets an idea.
"They might be watching everything I do… But what if I called in a bit of support…" She smirks to herself.
She presses some buttons on her left arm brace and boots up the extranet. She tries to head into several websites but the screen occasionally goes static. "Right… Earth doesn't have a proper transceiver for Tachyon burst transmissions."
She continues to look around and surf the web with the shitty connection however her eyes do briefly glance down to Ben. "Believe me Tennyson. You deserve everything that's coming to you..."