Chapter 243 - 2-5

Chapter 2: Oa

Izuku supposed he should be resentful and annoyed, really.

After all, the pro heroes, who hadn't done anythingto save Kacchan and his two lackies, had seen fit to give him a long, angry lecture about how reckless and foolish he'd been to try and help them. Meanwhile, they had praised Kacchan, the guy who'd set the area on fire in his panic and made it more difficult to rescue him, for his powerful Quirk.

Still, he didn't feel angry. Maybe it was because of the wild rollercoaster of a day he'd had, maybe he was simply too used to getting the short end of the stick. Whatever the reason, he just felt tired.

Not too tired to wonder about the ring he'd mysteriously gained during the villain attack, though, or the voice he'd heard then.

Which was why, as he walked through quiet side streets on his way home, he found himself looking down at it, twisting it slowly around his finger.

"What are you?" he muttered.

He nearly jumped a foot in the air when it answered, taking on an emerald glow. "I am a power ring, sent by the Guardians of the Universe."

"I…what?!" he stammered, eyes huge. "Are you speaking aloud or directly in my head?"

He didn't know why he asked that. It was something he found himself wondering, but he had so manyother, more important questions.

The ring ignored him, its glow intensifying and spreading until Izuku's whole body had a green halo around it. Emerald flames swept over him a moment later, getting a yelp of surprise and fright from him. They caused no pain and didn't even seem that hot, but everywhere they touched, his clothing was transformed. His school uniform seemed to vanish, replaced by a tight, one piece outfit of black, green, and white. Looking down, he saw a large white circle on the center of his chest.

"We will now travel to Oa. There you will be trained as a member of the Green Lantern Corps," the ring announced serenely, as Izuku felt his feet rising off the ground.

"Wait, what?!" he exclaimed. "I can't go to this Oa place! I have to get home or Mom will worry!"

The ring ignored him, and Izuku was suddenly careening upwards into the sky. In seconds, he broke through the still lingering clouds. The blue sky above the cloud layer quickly gave way to the star speckled blackness of outer space, yet he found he could breathe normally and wasn't even the slightest bit chilly.

"I am programmed to follow your mental commands," the ring went on, either not knowing or not caring about how much distress it was currently causing its new wearer, "provided that they do not conflict with the code of the Guardians."

Izuku, who'd finally finished screaming at this point, looked down at it peevishly. "Would taking me home be a conflict? Because I do not want to go to outer space right now!"

"Affirmative," the ring answered.

Izuku sighed. "Of course."

"Welcome to the Corps."

Meanwhile, back down on Earth, All Might burst onto the scene, landing on the sidewalk that Izuku had been walking down moments earlier. "Never fear! Why? Because I am here!" he proclaimed.

Then he realized he was the only person in sight and deflated, both literally and figuratively.

"But you are not," he added, even as he waved away the cloud of steam that had emerged when he'd returned to his normal form. "And I was so sure the young man had come this way, too…"

"Deku! Where the hell are you?!"

All Might looked up to see the very same blond boy who'd been caught up by the ooze monster appear from around a corner, face set into a dark scowl. The pro hero arched an eyebrow at the sight.

If looks could kill…

He mentally shrugged. The boy had nearly died today, and he knew from years of hero work that people reacted in all kinds of ways after they were narrowly saved from certain doom. He would hardly be the first to get angry after a brush with death.

"Damn it, you shitty nerd, I know you're around here somewhere!" the boy yelled, ignoring the emaciated older man. "Quit hiding and come out!"

"Excuse me, young man, but weren't you just wrapped up in a villain incident?" All Might asked.

The boy—Bakugo, if he remembered correctly—whirled around to glare at him. "How the hell do you know that?" he demanded.

"I was one of the bystanders who saw the whole thing," All Might answered calmly, internally wincing at how close to being the truth that less than fully honest statement was. "Don't you think you should see a doctor after that? Or at least go home and rest?"

"I'm fine," Bakugo snapped. "Paramedics already checked me out and gave me a clean bill of health. Not that it's any of your business."

"Ah, that's good to hear," All Might replied, unfazed by the boy's hostile demeanor. "That being the case, would you happen to know the whereabouts of that young man with the green hair who rushed in during the attack?"

Bakugo's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Why the hell do you want to know that, Skeletor?"

All Might actually snorted a laugh at that, but he quickly clamped down on his amusement, mainly because he was afraid he'd start spraying blood from his mouth if he didn't.

"I wanted a word with him," he said, knowing the cryptic answer didn't exactly make him seem less suspicious. "He assisted me with something today, and I just wanted to convey my thanks."

If possible, Bakugo's scowl darkened further. "Your guess is as good as mine," he growled. "I can't find the idiot anyway. Asshole must be hiding or something."

"Hard to blame him too much, if you're looking for him with such rancor," All Might remarked.

"Tch, like it's any of your business," Bakugo scoffed, then turned and stalked off.

"Excuse me, would you happen to have his name, then?" All Might asked. "You clearly know him."

"Fuck off, old man," Bakugo snapped before disappearing around a corner again.

All Might allowed himself a sigh.

Izuku had started screaming again when the ring had taken them to hyper-speed, overwhelmed with the blazing colors and lights, but even he could only stay terrified when nothing changed for so long, and eventually fear had given way to boredom.

He was actually a bit proud of himself for maintaining his calm when the ring took him out of hyper space and he found himself floating above an alien world, a desert planet by the looks of it.

"Is this Oa?" he wondered aloud.

"Affirmative," the ring answered. "This is the center of the universe."

"I…I thought there was a black hole at the center," Izuku stammered.

"There is a black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, not the universe."

Izuku blinked. "Are…are we not in the Milky Way galaxy anymore?"

He supposed it made sense, assuming the ring was actually telling the truth about them being at the center of the universe, but to think that he'd left the galaxy…

"Affirmative," the ring replied as it started taking Izuku closer to the planet.

As he drew nearer, Izuku saw that the planet wasn't as lifeless as it had looked at first glance. The ring took him toward a sprawling city, and from above he could see that the buildings, while clearly recognizable, were different than what he was used to, far less angular and more curvy. Sitting at the center of it was a massive edifice of green metal the same shade as his new ring, one that looked like a very old train lantern. Emerald light blazed from its core.

He saw little points of green light flying around the city. At first they looked like little more than luminous gnats, but as he got closer, he soon realized that they were people, many of them stranger than any human with a mutation Quirk.

"Aliens," he breathed, wondering if they all had a ring like his, and if they'd all been hijacked here the same way he had been.

"You are the alien here," the ring spoke up, and though its voice was as flat as ever, Izuku felt a brief spike of embarrassment. "It would be wise to remember as much."

"Er, right," he agreed.

This felt like another situation where he should probably be angry but just couldn't muster the emotion, though this time it was more about being overwhelmed.

After what felt like a very long time descending but was probably only a couple of minutes at most, Izuku found himself flying through the massive front doors of an even more massive citadel that was situated next to the giant lantern. A tall, thin alien with four arms and a long, oblong head was standing in the entrance hall and briefly looked up from his clipboard to appraise him. He wore an outfit that was fairly similar to the one Izuku had on, except the white circle in the middle had simple symbol inside of it, a green ring with a horizontal line on the top and another on the bottom.

"Translation protocol active," the ring announced.

"Greetings, new Lantern recruit. I am Lantern Salakk, chief administrator here on Oa," he spoke to Izuku, his tone polite but vaguely distracted. "Name, home planet, and sector of origin?"

The ring answered before he could. "Izuku Midoriya of Earth, Sector 2814."

That last bit got Salakk to fully look up from his clipboard. "Abin Sur is dead?"

"Affirmative."

Salakk lowered his head, and Izuku was struck by how human the gesture was. "His remains?"

"Left on planet Earth. He did not instruct this ring to do anything with them before he became deceased,"the ring answered.

"I'll have a team sent out to retrieve his body and bring it to the crypt, then," Salakk said, seemingly to himself.

Which was good, since the ring didn't bother to reply, and Izuku certainly didn't know what to say in response to that.

Then Salakk raised his head, and suddenly he was all business again. "Recruit age and age of majority on his home world?" he asked.

"Lantern recruit Midoriya is currently 14 Earth years of age. Age of majority on planet Earth: 18. One Earth year is equivalent to 0.87 Oan years."

"Definitely going to start off as a junior Lantern, then," Salakk said, turning back to his clipboard. "Follow me, Recruit Midoriya. I'll introduce you to your trainer. You'll begin learning how to use your ring immediately."

"Um, wait, hang on," he said, causing Salakk to look up again. Izuku wasn't able to tell for sure, but he got the sense that the four-armed being was mildly annoyed. "What is this place? What's going on here? Why did this ring bring me here? What even is it for that matter?"

Salakk appraised him silently for a moment before speaking again. "You really don't know?" he asked. "Your world has never heard of the Green Lantern Corps before?"

Izuku shook his head.

For a moment he thought he'd actually get an answer, but Salakk just said, "I'll need to inform your trainer that you're in need of learning the basics, too, then."

"Oh, okay," he said faintly.

"Follow me," Salakk said crisply, walking off without looking back to make sure Izuku was following.

Not that Izuku even considered not following Salakk. He did not want to be left all alone when he was an unfathomable distance away from his home and everything he'd ever known.

The four-armed alien led him out into a huge courtyard, and Izuku almost did a double take at the sheer variety of beings there. Aliens of all shapes and sizes were milling about, flying around, or sparring with one another, all of them haloed by a green corona of light. Compared to them, humans, even those with the most exotic Quirks, looked all the same.

An attractive blond woman who could've passed for a human with no Quirk mutation at all if not for her elfin ears flew over. Izuku quickly noticed that she had the same symbol that Salakk wore on her collar. "You called, Salakk?"

He nodded, his unusually shaped head making the familiar gesture look very unusual to Izuku's eyes. "Lantern Raab, this is Lantern Recruit Midoriya," he introduced them. "The new Lantern of Sector 2814."

The blonde's eyes widened. "Wait, does that mean Abin…?"

"Yes," Salakk said softly.

"I see," she replied, gaze dropping to the ground.

"Recruit Midoriya, Lantern Arisa Raab trains young ones such as yourself to become junior Green Lanterns," Salakk said, putting the solemn moment behind him. "If you are still a member of the Corps when you reach the age of adulthood on your planet, your skills will be evaluated and, if found wanting, you will need to undergo training again, this time with Lantern Kilowog. I suggest you try to avoid that."

Izuku swallowed.

"Lantern Raab, you should be aware that Recruit Midoriya is from a distant, primitive world that has never heard of the Corps," Salakk said. "You'll likely need to explain a great deal to him before you can begin training him in earnest."

Izuku felt vaguely like he should've been insulted at the description of his home world as primitive, but he was way too overwhelmed to actually take offense.

Arisa chuckled. "Better that than someone who thinks getting a power ring means they've been chosen to become a god or something," she said. "You can leave him with me, Salakk."

"Very good," Salakk said, giving Arisa a brief nod before turning and walking off without another word.

"Don't let Salakk get to you, kid," Arisa said once he'd disappeared from view. "He can be very stiff and formal, but he's a good Lantern."

"Oh no, he's fine," Izuku said quickly.

He meant it, too. Alien and abrupt he might've been, but Salakk was still warmer than a lot of the schoolteachers he'd had.

"Hmm," Arisa hummed skeptically, before turning to one of the other beings present. "Cadet Cholog, I need to explain some things to our newest recruit! You're in charge until I get back!"

"You got it, boss!"

She turned back to Izuku. "Come fly with me, Midoriya," she said, as her feet lifted off the ground.

"I, um, I don't know how," he admitted sheepishly.

Arisa smiled kindly at him. "It's easy," she said. "You just need to will yourself into the air. Imagine it, channel your will into the ring, and it'll happen."

Izuku wasn't quite sure how to do that, but he tried anyway, imaging himself taking off, then imagining the ring like it was a kind of power wire, one he could siphon his mental energies into and get results.

"Whoa, I'm doing it!" he exclaimed, as he slowly began to rise into the air, somewhat unsteadily.

"See, I told you it was easy," Arisa said. "Pretty soon it'll be second nature to you. Now, follow me!"

She took off into the sky, and he followed after her, slow and uncertain at first, but with quickly increasing confidence. Flying really was easy, and after only a minute or two felt surprisingly natural.

I could be a pro hero with the ability to fly, he thought suddenly as a rush of elation at the complete freedom he was experiencing filled him. Plenty of people have gone pro with less.

He didn't realize he was laughing delightedly until a few seconds after he'd started. He clapped a hand in front of his mouth, embarrassed.

"It's okay, Midoriya," Arisa reassured him with a chuckle. "I imagine you've had a very rough, confusing day, so I'm glad you can enjoy yourself for a bit. Plenty of time for hard work in the coming days."

Izuku laughed weakly, realizing that she didn't even know the half of how crazy his day had been. "Thanks, Lantern Raab."

"You can call me Arisa," she said. "Unlike Salakk, I don't like to stand on ceremony."

"In that case, please call me Izuku."

"Sure thing, Izuku," she replied. "Now, we can't really start your training until you know what's going on here, so let me lay it all out for you."

"Thank you," Izuku said, maybe a bit more emphatically than he'd wanted.

He was used to having very little control of any given situation, thanks to his Quirkless status, but even he found himself exasperated at being spirted halfway across the universe without anyone explaining why to him.

Arisa smiled. "This is the planet Oa, home world of the Guardians of the Universe, a group of immortal beings who've made it their mission to bring peace and order to the universe. Eons ago, they founded the Green Lantern Corps to further that goal," she said. "Using their super advanced technology, they created the Central Power Battery."

She pointed, and Izuku realized she was indicating the massive green lantern-like object he'd spied earlier.

"A little bit of the willpower from every living being in existence is collected by the central battery, which then transmits it to smaller power batteries," Arisa went on. "Every Green Lantern has one, and we use them to recharge our power rings as needed."

"Um, do I get one of those?" Izuku asked, suddenly nervous about being so high in the air now that he knew the ring could run out of juice.

"Of course," Arisa chuckled. "Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, the Guardians created the Corps to serve as their peacekeeping force throughout the universe, and they allow us to use the Green Lantern power rings to do that."

"So…the Green Lanterns are like a group of people chosen to be professional heroes?" Izuku asked in a soft, awed voice.

Arisa smiled again. "That's one way of looking at it," she said. "As you'd expect, the Corps is a very diverse bunch, and we have a lot of different ways of viewing the exact role of the Green Lanterns. Some people see us as law enforcement, others as soldiers, and yes, some view us as a bunch of superheroes."

Izuku looked down at the ring on his finger, eyes growing moist. No one on his home planet, from his own mother to his idol, believed he could be a hero, but a group of aliens from the center of universe thought they were wrong.

"Are you okay, Izuku?" Arisa asked with concern.

Izuku realized abruptly that tears were streaming down his cheeks. He quickly wiped them away, not wanting to come off as a crybaby to the first group of people who'd ever believed in him. "I'm fine. Better than fine," he assured her. "Arisa, how are people picked to be Green Lanterns?" he asked.

Her eyebrows went up. "You didn't hear the ring when it chose you?"

"Um, a lot was going on at the time," he said lamely.

She looked suspicious but answered anyway. "The rings only choose people who have the ability to overcome great fear."

Izuku was taken aback. "And it picked me?!" he couldn't help the incredulous yelp. "But there are so many people on Earth who are braver than I am!"

He didn't know why he was protesting, considering he was being offered what seemed like a second chance at an otherwise doomed dream. He just couldn't believe that a courage-seeking magic ring would pick him, out of everyone.

There had been pro heroes there. Kacchan, who Izuku still viewed as amazing despite his growing hostility and cruel streak, had been there.

All Might had been there. The number one hero. The hero who hid his fear behind a wide smile to reassure others that everything would be all right.

And the ring had chosen him?

Arisa gave him a look he couldn't quite decipher. "Out of all the sentient beings in the area, you were the one most able to overcome your fear at the time your ring was looking for a new Lantern, Izuku," she said firmly. "No force in the universe could've put that ring on your finger otherwise."

He looked down at the ring with wide eyes. Part of him, the part that had been trained over the course of the last decade to think of himself as useless Deku, still wanted to protest. Yet…hadn't he been the only one to charge in to try and rescue Kacchan and the others?

Maybe he wasn't the bravest person on Earth, but perhaps, in that moment, he had been the bravest one around?

"Willing to accept now that a hyper advanced piece of technology like an Oan power ring didn't choose you because of a filing error?" Arisa asked him.

"I…I think so," he said uncertainly.

"Good enough for now," she said. "Now, let's get down to brass tacks for a moment here. You're technically a recruit right now, though as soon as you officially start your training with me, you become a Lantern cadet. Once I'm finished training you on how to use your new ring, plus all the rules and regs of the Corps, you get your badge," she pointed to the empty white circle on his chest. "Back in the day, that was it, you were a Green Lantern. However, the Guardians recently established the junior Green Lantern designation. You'll be a junior Lantern until you reach the age of adulthood in your society."

"Why?" Izuku blurted out. "I mean, why did they create the junior group?"

For the first time since she'd learned of Abin Sur's death, Arisa looked grim. "Being a Green Lantern has gotten more dangerous than it used to be, which was already pretty dangerous," she said. "Other groups have found out how to forge their own power rings, ones that draw off of emotions other than willpower. Often darker emotions. The junior Lanterns are never sent to combat them, and often take over the more traditional Green Lantern duties when the senior Lanterns in the area are dealing with these other Corps."

"So it's a way to protect us?" Izuku asked.

"Yes, but…" her lips pressed together to form a thin line. "I'm not going to lie to you, Izuku, it's also a way of making sure there are experienced Lanterns in the pipeline to replace the ones who fall against the people wielding these other power rings. We don't know everything about these other Corps yet, but from what we do know, a lot of them hate the Guardians. And some have good reason."

"I see…"

"So, still want to be a Green Lantern?" she asked, giving him a smile that only looked a little forced.

"Yes!" Izuku said at once.

Arisa's smile looked more genuine now. "Spoken like a true Green Lantern, Izuku," she said. "Now, any questions before we head back and get your training started?"

"Um, yeah, actually…is there a way for me to call my mom?" he asked, blushing.

It seemed like such a silly thing to bring up after all that talk of heroism and the universe, but while he wasn't exactly sure how much time had passed since he'd gone careening into space, he was quite certain he should've been home a long time ago.

Arisa laughed. "Yes, as a matter of fact, there is," she said. "So, lesson one: how to use your ring for intergalactic communication."

Inko Midoriya kept telling herself that crying wouldn't help anything, but she was having a very hard time making herself stop.

She had grown extremely concerned as it got later and later with no sign of her son, and her worry had only grown when her phone informed her that her texts and calls to him weren't being received.

When Mitsuki had called her to ask how Izuku was fairing after the villain attack both he and Katsuki had gotten caught up in, she'd been apoplectic.

The first thing she'd done, after more or less pulling herself together for a bit, was to call the police, but they'd immediately become a lot less interested in her son's fate after she'd told them he was Quirkless.

She was pretty damned sure that it wasn't necessary to wait twenty-four hours before reporting a person as missing when that person was a minor. Doubly so when they'd just had an encounter with a villain!

However, there wasn't much she could do about it when the cop working the phones flatly insisted otherwise, then all but laughed at her when she'd threatened to file a complaint.

So she tried calling and texting him over and over and cried a lot. Occasionally she criticized herself for not organizing a search party or something, but she knew that it would most likely consist of her and possibly the Bakugos.

I'm so useless as a mother! She thought as tears welled up in her eyes again. I can't support my baby's dream or keep him safe!

The next wave of sobbing was cut off as an orb of green light flew into her apartment and settled down on her kitchen table.

"What…?"

"Hi, Mom," the orb said, suddenly changing, taking on the form of her son, all in green light and no more than 15 centimeters tall.

"Izuku!"

"I'm sorry I'm not home yet. It wasn't exactly my choice," he said. "Things…happened. I'm going to need you to call me out of school for the next few days."

"But…why? Where are you?" she asked.

He laughed weakly. "I'm not sure you'll believe me, but I'll tell you," he said. "The important part, though, is that I finally have a real chance to become a pro hero."

Chapter 3: Changing Paths

"Um, hello?"

The chief administrator of the Green Lanterns looked up, mildly surprised to see young Midoriya standing across from his desk. Most trainee and rookie Lanterns tended to avoid him, especially those headed for the junior ranks of the Corps; Salakk knew he came off as cold and overly strict to most of them.

"What do you need, Cadet Midoriya?" Salakk asked, pulling up his data with a mental command to his ring.

Hmm, looks like Arisa's impressed with this one. Top marks in innovative use of constructs, Salakk noted. It was a good sign, though he hoped Arisa was being unbiased. He'd seen evidence in the past that she sometimes had trouble remaining truly impartial with the cadets she took a liking to.

Or felt sympathy for in some way, he mentally added, spotting some additional notes and recommendations that Arisa had made in his file.

"I heard you were the keeper of the Book of Oa," Midoriya said, referring to the massive tome that contained the history of the Corps and its laws and edicts, among other things. "Is that correct, Lantern Salakk?"

The chief administrator was secretly pleased at the cadet's use of his title. Too many Lanterns came to view such things as trivial formalities before they even completed their initial training.

"Yes, I am," he said. "Why?"

"Um, that means you know all the details of the rules for the Corps better than anyone, right?" Midoriya asked.

"Better than anyone but the Guardians, of course," Salakk amended. "They have the final word on all such matters, and can indeed rewrite the Book of Oa, if they deem it necessary."

"Right, but, uh, I have a question about the rules, and I haven't even seen one of the Guardians," Midoriya said. "I guess they have more important things to do than to talk to a white circle like me."

"It's exceedingly rare for the Guardians to address the matters of rookie or trainee Lanterns," Salakk agreed. "What question did you have, Cadet Midoriya?"

"Well, the regulations say that it's forbidden to use the ring for personal gain…"

"Indeed. Otherwise excellent Green Lanterns have been stripped of their rings for selfishly abusing their powers, and rightly so," Salakk said sternly.

"Right, of course," Midoriya agreed quickly. "It's just that, on my planet it's illegal to use any special powers unless you're a licensed pro hero. I mean, well, it's illegal for people to use any innate super powers, called Quirks, without a pro hero license, but nobody on my planet ever heard of the Green Lantern Corps before, so everyone will assume that everything I do with the ring is just a Quirk. And lots of people use their Quirks anyway, but that tends to be really minor stuff in daily life. Someone who goes around saving people and stopping villains without a hero license is considered an illegal vigilante and—!"

Noting that the speed of Midoriya's speech was rapidly increasing as he went on, Salakk held up a hand to stop him. "You're rambling, Cadet Midoriya."

Midoriya's face turned bright red. Salakk wondered if the color change conveyed embarrassment the same way it did with Arisa or whether his physiology was entirely different. "Um, sorry," he said, taking a deep breath and visibly getting a handle on his racing thoughts before he spoke again. "I've wanted to be a pro hero on my world since almost as long as I can remember, but it's a job as well as a calling. Pro heroes collect payments from the government and also often from sponsorship deals. Would doing that kind of thing violate the rule against using the ring for personal gain?"

Salakk was silent for a moment. "Ring, connect to the central data repository," he ordered. "Pull up the relevant information on the pro hero system on planet Earth, Sector 2814."

"Complying," his ring responded as it projected green holograms in the air before his face, the knowledge he was looking for neatly displayed there, accompanied by the occasional illustration.

Not very surprisingly, Cadet Midoriya's description of the circumstances was accurate.

Which meant he was facing a gray area. Salakk had never liked those. He had always preferred it when things were orderly. Neat. Tidy.

However, the universe teemed with life, and the Corps had a million million civilizations from which it could recruit, each with their own cultures, values, and nuances. Salakk never could've hoped to do his job if he was incapable of dealing with situations that weren't as clear cut as he might've wished.

He studied Arisa's reports on Midoriya again. It was clear she believed he could become an exemplary Green Lantern someday, and though he felt the other Lantern could sometimes allow her emotions to affect her thinking, he ultimately trusted her judgement.

Oa knew the Corps could use all the talented recruits they could get, these days.

And maybe, just maybe he was a little moved himself at the clear desire to help people that practically radiated off of Midoriya. Salakk strived to be dispassionate when it came to executing his duties, but he didn't pretend to be perfect at it.

"It is one of the Guardians' edicts that Green Lanterns never use their rings for personal gain," he said, noting how Midoriya seemed to deflate, only to seemingly steel himself a moment later, possibly preparing himself to become an illegal vigilante on his world. "However, it is also one of their commands that we Lanterns obey local laws and authority when possible and within reason. This is the way your world has structed their society, so it would be allowable for you to act as a professional hero on Earth, so long as you don't seek excessive profit from it, or place it above your duties as a Green Lantern."

The immense relief Midoriya felt at that was plain to see, even to Salakk, who regarded the cadet's face as alien and strange.

"Thank you, Lantern Salakk."

"Merely doing my duty to help a new member of the Corps understand the nuances of the regulations," the chief administrator said dismissively. "Oh, and do remember that if any of the Guardians decides that my interpretation of their edicts is incorrect, they have the final word on the matter."

Midoriya nodded vigorously. "Of course!"

"Very good," Salakk said. "Now, run along, Cadet. I'm sure you have some training to get to."

"I'm very glad you finally agreed to meet with Mirio, Toshi," Nighteye said.

"My apologies for missing our initial appointment," All Might said, doing his best to conceal how ill at ease, unenthusiastic, and generally awkward he was feeling at the moment.

He was walking through the lobby of the Nighteye agency with his former sidekick, currently in his skinny form to avoid attracting too much attention. The media would have an absolute field day if they were given any reason to speculate that he and Nighteye were teaming up again.

The truth of the matter was that he didn't really want to be here. All Might was sure that whoever Nighteye had selected was a fine young individual, but he'd had his heart set on making the Quirkless boy who'd charged in to save that other young man from the ooze monster his successor.

Unfortunately, he couldn't find the boy. He'd spent more time searching for him that day than he'd care to admit, but it was like he'd disappeared off the face of the Earth.

All Might had never gotten the young man's name during their brief meeting, so he was very limited in what he could do to find him.

Well, that wasn't strictly true. As the number one hero, he could've brought quite a lot of resources to bear on the task of finding him, but not without subjecting the young man to a deeply uncomfortable amount of attention from both law enforcement and the public at large.

Since he wasn't willing to do that, his best bet for finding the boy would've been searching for him among the applicants at the UA entrance exam, but he'd probably managed to talk the lad out of ever taking it.

Which was why he was here, despite his instincts telling him that it was a bad decision.

He'd listened to his instincts once, and it had led to him becoming this emaciated shell of a man, so perhaps it was time to ignore them. 

That's what he kept telling himself, anyway.

"Please, come inside," Nighteye said, entering his office.

All Might held back a chuckle at the collection of his merch that was present. For as much as he came off cold and businesslike, Mirai had always been, and remained, a massive fanboy.

A muscular young man with blond hair and blue button eyes was sitting in one of the office's guest chairs, waiting for them.

"Hello, Sir," he greeted Nighteye cheerfully, rising to his feet. "You said you wanted to see me here?"

All Might was immediately struck by how much Nighteye's protégé reminded him of a young version of himself. He wondered if that had factored into Mirai's reasons for recommending him as the next holder of One for All, his feelings of unease increasing.

He was proud of the work he'd done and the people he'd saved, but he wasn't sure if a near carbon copy of him was what the world needed now.

"Indeed," Nighteye said. "Toshinori, this is Mirio Togata, one of my interns. Mirio, this a dear friend of mine. We're here to make you an offer."

Togata blinked. "What sort of offer?"

Nighteye looked at All Might expectantly. Donning his trademark smile with practiced ease, he activated his Quirk, body rapidly expanding with muscle. "An offer from the number one hero!" he exclaimed in his typical booming voice.

Poor Togata was so shocked he fell back into his chair. "All Might?!" he exclaimed. "What's going on?"

The number one hero explained, with the occasional interjection from Nighteye, that he was looking for a successor, why he was doing so, and about the transferable nature of his Quirk.

"And you want me to inherit your Quirk?" Togata asked when they were done.

"Indeed," All Might said. "My old sidekick has told me that you're an outstanding up-and-coming hero student, and from everything I've seen, I must agree! So, young Togata, do you accept my Quirk? Will you bear this burden for the next generation?"

"It would be an honor," Togata answered at once.

"Well spoken, Mirio," Nighteye said with a small smile.

"In that case, Young Togata…" All Might reached a hand up to pluck a hair from his head, doing his best to ignore the sinking feeling that he was making a mistake.

Yet no sooner did he touch one of his blond strands than his eyesight went blurry, dark shapes appearing at the edges of his vision. He gaped as he recognized the seven shadowy figures; he had seen them before, but it had been years—decades—since they had last appeared to him.

He gasped aloud as one of those ghostly forms abruptly sharpened, taking the shape of Nana. All Might desperately tried to speak, to reach out and take her hand, but he found himself paralyzed and mute. Tears streamed silently down his face at the sight of his long dead mother in all but blood.

Her expression was serious, unlike the cheerful guise she'd worn all the way up until the last day. He knew that whatever was bringing these shades of the past users to the fore again after all this time had to be extremely important.

Their eyes met, understanding flowing between them without the need for words.

Then, just like that, the moment ended. All Might realized that he was now seated in Nighteye's chair and was back in his skinny form. His former sidekick was desperately trying to speak to him.

"I'm okay, Mirai," he said.

"Thank god," Nighteye breathed. All Might had seen the other man looking just as frantic in the past, but not many times. "What happened, Toshi?"

"I'm afraid," All Might said, "that I won't be giving One for All to young Togata after all."

Nighteye did a double take. "What? Why?"

There was a note of anger beneath the shock, All Might noticed at once, but he didn't care. Even if he weren't secretly relieved to have an excuse to not hand the Quirk to young Togata, he never could've done it. Not now.

"It seems that possessing One for All would lead to an early demise for young Togata," All Might said.

"Um, what?" Togata asked, looking justifiably apprehensive.

"The past holders of One for All just communicated with me," All Might explained. "Apparently giving One for All to someone who already has a Quirk will shorten their lifespan. For previous holders it wasn't a huge issue. One for All was less powerful then, so the negative effects took significantly longer to kick in. With the exception of one, they all fell in the line of duty before it became a problem. But if I were to give it to you, young Togata, it's likely you wouldn't make it to thirty."

He could tell that Nighteye was extremely disappointed by this turn of events, but even with how clearly set he'd been on Togata becoming the next holder of One for All, he could hardly argue that they should just forge ahead anyway.

So All Might gave his apologies to young Togata for offering him the Quirk only to snatch it back, as well as needlessly burdening him with the secret of One for All and his injured state, then said his goodbye to both Mirai and the young up-and-coming hero.

Despite feeling guiltily relieved at not having to pass the Quirk to Nighteye's protégé, All Might's mood was grim as he left his former sidekick's agency. The pool of potential candidates for his successor had just shrunk enormously, and he'd told the perfect one that he should give up on becoming a hero.

Part of him wanted to hold out and hope that he encountered the young man again, but with the amount of time he could spend in his hero form down to such a small portion of the day and still dwindling, he knew that that would be pure foolishness. He still had no real reason to believe he would ever see the boy again unless he unleashed an uncomfortably aggressive search for him, after all. Even if he did find him, there was no guarantee that the young man would even want One for All.

He needed a new successor, and he needed one from the relatively tiny ranks of young Quirkless people.

All Might knew exactly the right person, even though a big part of him hated it.

Deciding he needed to act now before he found a way to talk himself out of it, the number one hero took out his cell phone and scrolled through his list of contacts, finding one of the oldest but least used entries. 

Grimacing, he tapped the call button.

The courtyard of the Guardians' citadel was easily the prettiest place in a city that seemed more concerned with being either grand or utilitarian everywhere else. With a lush green lawn in the shape of the Green Lantern Corp's emblem, and a small cluster of trees occupying where the circle at the center of it would be, it was a lovely place. According to Arisa, it was one that could've passed for a peaceful little park or the equivalent on any of a million worlds. It certainly wouldn't have looked terribly out of place on Earth, in Izuku's estimation.

So it was as good a place as any for the "graduation" ceremony for the latest crop of junior Lantern cadets.

"You may have had some struggles and some stumbles, but in the end, you all completed your training," Arisa spoke, addressing the gathered trainees standing before her. "You've earned the right to become junior Green Lanterns and wear the symbol of the Corps with pride."

A spot of green light materialized in the air before her. Arisa reached into the subspace pocket and withdrew her power battery, which looked a miniature version of the Central Battery. The cadets all did the same, and soon every last one of them had their battery in hand.

"So let's light them up!" Arisa said.

As one, she and the cadets raised their rings to their power batteries.

"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power…Green Lantern's Light!" they chorused.

Emerald radiance flared around all of them as they completed the oath, and for every cadet, the symbol of the Green Lantern Corps blazed to life on the previously empty white circles on their uniforms.

"Congratulations, junior Lanterns," Arisa said. "You are now true members of the Corps."

A cheer went up, though the festivities were brief. 

Izuku wasn't surprised. He'd seen some of the veteran Lanterns hanging out with each other or going to places that seemed to be for recreation, but for the most part, Oa seemed to be an extremely businesslike sort of place. The general wartime atmosphere probably had something to do with it. He suspected the other Lantern Corps out there were viewed as a more serious threat than anyone wanted to admit to the cadets.

He wondered if they were free to leave now. Despite having communicated with his mother several times since arriving on Oa, Izuku wasn't quite sure how much time had passed. The system's multiple suns ensured it never got dark out, which made keeping track of the days a nightmare.

"Izuku," Arisa spoke, and he started, abruptly realizing that she'd walked over to him.

"Oh, um, what can I do for you, Arisa?" he asked, trying to suppress the sudden spike of anxiety having her come over for a one-on-one conversation sparked.

Quirks were, as far as he could tell, a phenomenon that only existed on Earth. Certainly, plenty of races in the universe had superhuman abilities or powers, but in those cases, it was the same power across the whole species, unlike with Quirks, and so wasn't viewed as special at all by the species in question.

So it made no sense for them to view his Quirklessness as a severe defect, but that didn't stop him from expecting them to kick him out of the Corps because of it.

If they were going to take your ring away and send you home, they would've done it before the ceremony, he told himself, the bit of logic calming him down somewhat, if only a little.

"I'd like you to make a stop on your way back to your home sector," Arisa said.

Izuku knew at once that it couldn't be a mission. Unless the Guardians summoned the entire Corps to face a grave threat, only the members of the Green Lantern Honor Guard were allowed to operate outside of their home sectors.

"Is there some kind of extra training you feel I need?" he asked, feeling strangely caught between surprise and like the other shoe had finally dropped.

He was used to being told he wasn't good enough, but he actually was good at ringslinging.

His constantly racing mind, his head full of hero fanboy facts and trivia, his overpowering need to become a hero all served him remarkably well when it came to utilizing a Green Lantern ring. Indeed, if he didn't know better, he'd suspect the ring had been developed with him in mind.

Weird though it felt to even think it, he was probably one of the best among the newly minted junior Lanterns. He was the only one who had gotten to the point where he could consistently overcome the yellow weakness that tended to plague rookie Green Lanterns, anyway.

"It's not like that," Arisa was quick to tell him. "I think you might benefit from a visit to Mogo."

Chapter 4: Mogo

It was a perfectly ordinary morning in Aldera middle school, one that was practically interchangeable with any other throughout the school year. Indeed, only the smallest, most insignificant detail was different from the norm.

"Hmm, looks like Midoriya's absent again," the homeroom teacher noted before moving on with the roll call.

"Psst," Fingers leaned close to Bakugo's desk. "Why has Deku been out for so long?"

"How the fuck should I know?" the explosive blonde hissed angrily.

Fingers shrugged. "Aren't your moms friends or something?"

Bakugo scowled churlishly but silently conceded the point. "From what I heard, his mom has been calling him out to give him a chance to recover from the run-in with that villain."

The other boy chortled softly. "Of course Deku's so damned fragile that he needs at least a week to get over that."

Bakugo responded with a noncommittal grunt. That…actually didn't feel right to him. Deku was useless; he was a worthless loser and a mere pebble in the road, but even the explosive teen never would've described him as the delicate sort. Indeed, the idiot always displayed a stupid amount of resilience, like a boxer who clearly had no hope of winning a fight but lacked the common sense to just stay down and spare himself needless hits to the brainbox.

He shook his head, suddenly wondering why he was even devoting this much thought to the shitty nerd.

Sure it felt…sort of weird to not have Deku around, but he'd probably never see the loser again once he went to UA. Besides, it was nice to have a break from the creepy mumbling and stalker tendencies.

"Yeah," he agreed. "The worthless shit will probably need a month with some quack therapist to feel like he's over all his emotional crap."

"Um, hello?" Izuku called out as he landed on the surface of the planet Arisa had told him to visit.

The place was beautiful, teeming with verdant wildlife and practically bursting with vividly colored flowers, vibrant forests, and lush grasslands. However, he couldn't detect any sign of civilization, or even any other person, for that matter.

He would've thought he had the wrong planet, but the massive band of forests that encircled it and formed the Green Lantern symbol made it obvious that this wasn't just some random world.

"GREETINGS, LANTERN MIDORIYA."

He looked around frantically but saw no sign of another person. "Who said that?!"

"I DID."

"…where are you? What are you?"

A deep rumbling laugh sounded. Izuku suddenly suspected that he wasn't the first rookie Lantern who'd been confused by Mogo.

"I AM THE PLANET ITSELF, LANTERN MIDORIYA," Mogo answered. "HERE, PERHAPS THIS WILL BE EASIER FOR YOU."

"You…you're the planet?!" Izuku exclaimed. "That's incredible! How does that work? Are there more like you? Where's your power ring?"

The laugh sounded again, the air and ground seeming to tremble with it. "IT IS ON A STAGLIMITE INSIDE ONE OF MY CAVE SYSTEMS," Mogo replied, as though that was a perfectly normal thing.

Izuku felt like he had a million questions, but before he could launch into them, a point of green light appeared in the air before him, quickly taking on a simple humanoid form. "Many Lanterns feel more comfortable taking to an avatar such as this," Mogo's voice came from it, quieter and much less seemingly omnipresent than before.

"Whoa," Izuku breathed.

"If you prefer, I can take on a more familiar guise," Mogo said.

The construct suddenly shifted and warped, becoming a perfect duplicate of his mother, albeit one with a corona of light around her like a Green Lantern with their protective aura up.

"Is this better, Izuku?" the avatar asked, in a perfect imitation of his mother's voice.

"Uh…"

The construct quickly changed again, this time becoming All Might. "Or how about this?" it asked in an equally flawless recreation of the number one hero's booming voice.

"Um, maybe just go back to the first one," Izuku said.

"As you wish," Mogo replied, his avatar reverting to the featureless humanoid form.

"Thanks," Izuku said. "So, um, sorry but I'm not really sure what I'm doing here. Arisa just asked me to stop here on my way back home."

"I see," Mogo said. "Tell me, Lantern Midoriya, do you know what trait I look for when guiding the rings to find a new Green Lantern?"

"Wait, you're the one who does that?" Izuku asked. "That's so cool!"

Another rumbling chuckle came from Mogo, though it wasn't nearly as loud and deep now that it was being emitted by the construct. "Thank you, Lantern Midoriya, but we're getting off topic," he pointed out.

"Oh, right," Izuku said sheepishly. He cleared his throat. "The rings, er, you select people with the ability to overcome great fear."

"Indeed," Mogo agreed. "By the very nature of the selection criteria, Green Lanterns are beings to whom overcoming fear comes naturally. However, when it comes to things like the trauma from abuse and depression…even Green Lanterns struggle with those."

Izuku was silent, not knowing what to say to that.

A construct of a chair appeared before him.

"Have a seat, Lantern Midoriya."

"Um, thanks," he said. Even after all his training at Oa, he was still a little reluctant to sit in a chair that looked like a hologram, but he forced himself to ignore that and took a seat, finding it unsurprisingly solid. "Also, you can call me Izuku."

"So, Izuku, tell me about your world," Mogo prompted him.

Izuku barely even knew where to begin with that. He'd had no idea that this was what was in store for him when Arisa asked him to travel here, but if this was required for him to be a Green Lantern and thus a pro hero, he supposed he'd just have to do it.

Finally, after a long moment, he took a deep breath. "We---er, humanity, I mean—live in a superhuman society…"

He spoke for several minutes, talking about the Earth and his place in it. Mogo occasionally asked a question or nudged Izuku back on topic when he'd begun to go rambling off on a tangent, but for the most part the sentient planet was content to listen, despite clearly already knowing a lot about Earth from the Corps' central knowledge repository, judging by its infrequent contributions to the conversation.

It was…sort of nice to be able to just talk, without being told to shut up because he was being long-winded and creepy, or worrying that a stray word might get back to Kacchan and spark an explosive fury in the other boy or something.

"So, that's about it," Izuku finished, eventually. "Earth and hero society and everything."

"You come from a unique world, Lantern Midoriya," Mogo remarked.

Izuku nodded. "Yeah. Quirks don't seem to be a thing outside of the Earth," he said. "Not so far as I've seen, anyway."

"Mm," Mogo grunted in agreement. "It will be interesting to see what your world's society looks like when it fully gets past the upheaval brought about from the emergence of those powers and adjusts to having them."

Izuku blinked. "But…the age of chaos ended before I was even born. We got past the upheaval from Quirks appearing a long time ago."

"I'm sure it would appear that way to a member of your society, yes," Mogo replied.

Izuku didn't know what to say to that.

"In any case, I want to talk about you, rather than your world's society," Mogo continued.

"Me?" Izuku asked. "Why?"

With the exception of his mother, nobody ever cared to talk or think about him, unless he was the target of their ire.

"You're a Green Lantern now," Mogo replied, as though that explained everything. "I've noticed that you have an enormous admiration of professional heroes and an intense desire to save people. That's a good thing for a Green Lantern to have, but you seem to care far less about your own life, judging from the way you speak of yourself and how you rushed in to save that other boy on the day you got your ring. It seems you would sacrifice yourself without even giving it a thought to save another person. Any person."

"Of course I would!" Izuku said at once. "How could I not do that if I could? I'm nobody special."

Mogo's avatar seemed to tsk, though it was hard to tell with the ring construct. "I don't guide power rings to just anyone, Lantern Midoriya," he said. "Even if that were true, though, you'd still deserve to live. Your life would still have value."

"I...I don't..." Izuku stammered, unsure of how to reply. "I mean..."

"From what I've heard of you, Lantern Midoriya, you possess an incredible will to help and protect others," Mogo said. "But it seems your will to live yourself is lacking. That is one of the most fundamental aspects of any sentient being's willpower. You won't be able to realize your fullest potential as a Green Lantern unless you address this."

"…you must think I'm pretty screwed up," Izuku said quietly.

"I think," Mogo replied, "that you've been poorly served by too many of the authority figures in your life. It's not your fault that your world taught you that you're worth less than your peers because you were born without a Quirk, but it is something you need to address."

Izuku wanted to protest against that, to say it wasn't everyone else's fault, that he was just Deku. It was normal for everyone to act that way around a Deku.

He didn't, though. His main reason for that, the one that really mattered, was because he still didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize his status as a Green Lantern, and thus his only real chance at becoming a pro hero.

Izuku would be lying if he said there wasn't a part of him that really wanted to believe Mogo was right, though.

"How do I do that?" he asked.

"For now, think on what I've said, and do try to remember that out of everyone on your whole world, you were the one chosen to become the next Green Lantern of Sector 2814. That's not something that happens to someone pathetic or useless," Mogo said. "We can discuss it further next time you come to see me."

Izuku blinked. "Next time?"

"Yes," Mogo replied. "I'd like you to come visit regularly, or at least as regularly as your duties as a Green Lantern and your responsibilities on your world will allow."

Izuku wanted to ask if him making these visits was a required for him to keep his ring—it seemed logical to assume that if Mogo could guide the rings to people, the sentient planet could also take them from people—but that struck him as a bad idea.

"Um, okay, then," he agreed awkwardly.

"Wonderful," Mogo said. "For now, I think I've taken up enough of your time, and you must be eager to return home after spending so much time on Oa. Have a good flight back, young Lantern."

"Thank you," Izuku said weakly, before taking off into the air.

He was eager to be away, though he was surprised that he didn't entirely hate the idea of coming back and talking to Mogo again.

Inko Midoriya was, by her very nature, a worrier. She always had been, at least to a degree, even when she'd been young.

Needless to say, this tendency had only been supercharged when her son had been labelled as Quirkless. Having to raise him alone certainly hadn't helped, of course.

Yet she'd always carried on as best she could, doing everything she could to provide for him and be there for him. Over the years she had long been torn between wishing he'd give up on his dream of becoming a pro hero and hating herself for not telling him he could do it.

She had figured that he would take the UA entrance exam, and possibly the entrance exam for a few other hero schools, and likely fail. Inko had been prepared to comfort her son when this happened and ultimately help him find a new dream to pursue. She'd been determined to support him regardless of what he chose next, to make up for her failure to support him the first time.

What she had not expected was for her son to get attacked by a villain and then basically abducted by aliens in the immediate aftermath. She definitelywouldn't have expected said aliens to give Izuku some magic ring that would allow him to achieve his dreams.

Inko had been highly tempted to order Izuku to come home immediately when he'd sent that little green hologram of himself in order to communicate with her the first time, and not just because she'd feared it was some villain using his Quirk to trick her at first.

Ultimately, she'd done as Izuku had asked and called him out of school, telling them he was recovering from the villain attack. After all, having the police and the heroes looking for him would be a waste of time if he was literally out of this world, and having him declared missing would just make things very uncomfortable when he returned. 

However, with each day that passed, she worried more and more that a villain really had tricked her with his Quirk, despite how the green holographic version of her son had known things only Izuku would. If he didn't return soon, she would contact the authorities.

Inko was yet again having an internal battle as to whether this evening should be the one where she finally called the police when the apartment was suddenly flooded with green light, the source of which was obviously coming from behind her.

She spun around just in time to see the green, black, and white outfit her son was wearing transform back into the same ensemble he'd been wearing on the day he'd disappeared in a puff of what looked like green flames, the emerald light winking out once his clothes were back to normal.

He gave her a nervous smile. "Hi, Mom."

"Izuku!" Inko exclaimed, rushing forward and embracing her son in a crushing hug.

She burst into tears a moment later, releasing a stream of relieved but largely incomprehensible babble for several long minutes as she simply held Izuku and rocked him back and forth.

By the time she had (mostly) composed herself, Izuku was teary eyed and sniffling a little himself, something that made her smile a bit. Her son had always taken after her in how quick he was to turn on the water works, and the two of them had bonded over a good cry many a time. It probably wasn't exactly helpful to him to have inherited that from her, but she had to admit she was glad to see something of herself in her son other than their shared hair and eye color.

"So, it's true then?" she asked. "Everything about this green ring? Being chosen for some interstellar hero group? All of it?"

Izuku beamed. "It's all true, Mom," he said, holding up his hand to show her the ring. It was big, almost like a class ring from a college, but lacking a stone. Instead, a symbol with a circle and two lines was on it. It started to glow, and then projected a hologram of a cube, a sphere, and a pyramid. "I can use it to fly, shoot energy beams, and create solid light 'constructs.' It's like I have a powerful Quirk. I can finally be a pro hero!"

Seeing the sheer joy radiating off her son, Inko's vision blurred with fresh tears.

Izuku must've misinterpreted her renewed crying. "Mom?" he suddenly sounded uncertain. "I'm sorry about disappearing like that. I—!"

"No!" Inko cried, startling him. "You were offered a chance at achieving your dream. Of course you took it. You don't need to be sorry for that, Izuku. I'm the one who's sorry."

"What?" he spoke, sounding confused.

"You shouldn't have had to wait until people from another planet noticed you before someone believed in you!" Inko exclaimed.

"Mom, it's all right!" he insisted. "You were just doing what you thought was best!"

"But I was wrong!" Inko insisted. "Never again, though. I promise, from here on in I'll never forget how amazing my son is!"

There were a lot more tears in the Midoriya apartment that evening.

Despite the fact that he hadn't been gone for all that long, readjusting to life on Earth still took some doing.

His first day back at school, he forgot both how easily he could attract unwanted attention and that he was supposed to have only just recovered from the trauma of a villain attack. The result had been Kacchan cornering him in the hallways right after their last class had let out, demanding to know what he was hiding.

Izuku might normally have confessed the truth immediately, except that he knew full well that the explosive blonde had a tendency to start assuming that someone was keeping something from him the moment a situation didn't go the way he expected it to. So he'd just pled ignorance, claimed he was glad to be back, and taken it when Kacchan had grabbed his shoulders and triggered his Quirk.

Of course, part of him desperately wanted to reveal to his class that he now "had a Quirk" as well, but he and his mother had agreed that it would make more sense to wait until after he'd finished with middle school to reveal that. He couldn't truly make a fresh start at hero school—at least, not if he went to UA, since Kacchan would certainly get in as well—but it would still save him a lot of trouble and questions if most of the people at Aldera didn't learn of his "Quirk" until he was a pro hero.

Once he'd finally escaped school, Izuku had headed to Dagobah beach. 

"Wow, this place is even worse than I'd heard," Izuku remarked to himself as he gazed out at the mountains of scrap metal and general trash that covered the sand. "Ring, guide me to where Abin Sur's ship crashed."

"Acknowledged."

A tiny orb of green light emerged from the top of his ring and then headed a short distance into the beach turned dumping ground, hovering in midair as it waited for him to catch up.

Izuku carefully picked his way through the mountains of old appliances, old cars, and other garbage, climbing over unsteady piles of trash when going around wasn't an option and following the emerald point of light as it led him on.

Of course, he could've simply flown to his destination, but the last thing he wanted to do right now was attract attention to himself.

Eventually, he found it. The vehicle that had carried Abin Sur on his final journey was battered, half crumpled, and scorched in several places, but it was still identifiably a space ship. The wet sand beneath it suggested that the water got very close to it during high tide. Izuku felt sure someone would've spotted it by now, if it was closer to the street. As it was, it could remain largely unseen for a century, or it could be discovered by someone next week.

Abin Sur's remains were gone, as Izuku had known they would be. Something—no doubt a Green Lantern's power ring—had cut a clean hole into the cockpit, and the pilot's chair lay empty, though dried blood stained it and the walls, the color too pinkish to be from a human.

"Ring, is there anything dangerous in this ship?" he asked.

"The contents of the fuel tank have potentially mutagenic properties to the native species of this planet," it answered.

Well, that settled it, then. Izuku had been leery of allowing Abin Sur's ship and it's alien technology to remain on Earth to begin with, and in fact he had half a mind to mention to Salakk that the team he'd sent to retrieve Abin's remains hadn't bothered to do anything about the downed craft. Now, allowing it to stay was completely out of the question.

Looking around to confirm no one else was about, as unlikely as that would've been, Izuku sent a trickle of willpower into his ring. His school uniform immediately changed into his Green Lantern suit, and he sent a beam of energy outwards at the ship, enveloping it in a jade cocoon.

"Ring, keep the light levels to a minimum," he commanded as he slowly took to the air, bringing the ship with him.

"Acknowledged."

He and the ship still would've been blazingly obvious at night, of course, but in the bright orange glare of late afternoon sun, they weren't the most easily spotted thing for kilometers around.

Or at least, Izuku hoped that was the case. He still ascended as quickly as possible, and in only seconds the sky had become star spangled ebony.

"Just because you can do something the hard way, doesn't mean you should," he recalled one of Arisa's lessons. "Don't give a huge push when a little nudge will do."

With a thought, Izuku sent the destroyed spaceship heading away at a leisurely pace.

"Ring, confirm the ship's course."

"The ship will impact the surface of this system's sun in approximately 539 Earth years."

"Perfect," he said.

His task completed, Izuku returned to the beach, his Green Lantern uniform being replaced with his normal clothes again as his shoes met the sand.

Izuku briefly checked to ensure that there weren't any significant pieces of the ship that he'd missed still kicking around, and he was about leave when he caught a good look at the ocean. With the ship gone, he had an unobstructed view of the water stretching off to the horizon, the afternoon sunlight sparkling on it.

"Wow, the view here is so beautiful," he muttered to himself. "It's such a shame this place has become like this."

He was tempted to clean it all up, knowing he could manage the task in mere minutes with his ring and send all this garbage heading to the sun as well. However, he also knew that was a bad idea; everyone would notice that the beach had been instantly cleaned, and someone would see him at it, bringing him the attention he'd just been so careful to avoid.

Still, he hated the idea of just shrugging and walking away from the ruined beach.

"Just because I can't use the ring to clean it up overnight, who's to say I can't do anything about it at all?" he mumbled, thinking aloud.

Smiling, he took out his phone and sent a quick text to his mother, letting her know he'd be later in coming home than he'd initially expected. Then he rolled up his sleeves.

He couldn't properly execute his duties as a Green Lantern until he had his pro hero license, at least not on Earth. The lower demands made of junior Lanterns and the Guardians' edicts about obeying local laws where possible meant that wasn't a big deal, but he still felt like he'd be derelict in his duties if he basically ignored his own home planet for so long.

A little community service seemed like just the thing. He could haul most of the trash away the old fashioned way to avoid any accusations of illegal Quirk usage, reserving the ring for the really big stuff. As an added bonus, it would help him train his body in the runup to the UA entrance exam. Arisa had suggested he take steps to try and get physically stronger, warning him that having a power ring run out of juice at a bad time was something that happened to just about every Green Lantern at some point. Now was as good a time as any to start.

No hero worth their salt was just their Quirk, after all, no more than any decent Green Lantern was just their ring.

Chapter 5: Entrance Exam

The next ten months passed with both agonizing slowness and incredible speed for Izuku.

School was, if anything, even more unpleasant to deal with than it had been before, with only the knowledge that there was light at the end of the tunnel allowing him to resist the urge to let everyone know he now had a "Quirk" early. Meanwhile, clearing the beach felt a lot more productive, and entailed way less harassment, but it was still a difficult, brutal slog.

He also received a few missions from Salakk as the days and weeks crawled by. All of them were quite simple and were finished in only a couple of hours, usually involving things like preventing old satellites from crashing onto planets or helping lock down space ports so some interstellar criminal could be apprehended, but Izuku still welcomed the excuse to get off planet and get real experience using his ring. He rather wished he was given more missions, though he supposed he should be thankful at the same time. He was pretty sure that his superiors in the Corps wouldn't be nearly so considerate of his time once he was old enough to be a licensed pro hero and a senior Green Lantern.

Aside from these missions, Izuku also took several trips back to Mogo. It was always interesting and exhausting to talk to the living planet. On the one hand, Izuku couldn't deny it was nice to be able to just talk about things with someone who wouldn't belittle him or try to beat him up, or be worked into a frantic worry like his mother might. On the other, Mogo had a way of looking at things that regularly threw Izuku for a loop and had him defending or explaining things that he'd always viewed as immutable facts of reality.

At times it was confusing or frustrating, and at others it was cathartic and enlightening. 

That didn't mean he was quite ready to take the sentient world's advice in regards to Kacchan quite yet, though.

Still, Mogo did make some good points, Izuku grudgingly had to admit, and he found his patience with the explosive blonde growing shorter as a result. Which was probably why he didn't quite react like normal when Kacchan cornered him in the hallways of Alderra, mere days before the UA entrance exam.

"Listen, you useless Deku, I'm only going to say this one more time!" Kacchan snarled as he shoved Izuku against a locker. "Don't you fucking dare take the UA entrance exam!"

Not too long ago, Izuku would've unleashed a frantic mutter storm about how he wasn't trying to compete with the volatile boy and they could both become heroes before quickly dissolving into incoherence. Kacchan would get annoyed, hit him or use his Quirk on him—or both—and then stomp off, his lackies laughing at Izuku as they followed him away.

"Why do you care if I do or not?" he demanded instead.

Kacchan actually recoiled a bit, he was so surprised and taken aback at Deku talking back. "What?"

"Why do you care if I take the exam or not?" Izuku shot back. "If I'm as weak and useless as you're always saying, I'll fail miserably, everyone will forget I existed in a few years, and you'll be the only person known for having gone from this school to UA. It won't mess with your perfect origin story at all. So why do you care?"

"I don't!" Bakugo snapped.

"Good," Izuku retorted, quickly slipping away and rushing down the hallway before the blonde teen could recompose himself and chase him down.

He didn't quite know why he was feeling so angry after that encounter, but he cleared trash from the beach with much more aggression than usual that afternoon.

He did know one thing, though.

Kacchan wasn't going to be the only one from Aldera who made it into UA.

Despite how badly Izuku had wanted the day of the entrance exam to come, he'd still found himself a ball of nerves when it actually arrived.

"I swear, this place is bigger in real life," he said as he gawked up at the UA main building.

He found himself reaching down to grab his power ring and twist it around his finger, an anxious habit he'd developed in the months since it had chosen him and pulled his hand back. After quite a lot of practice, he managed to figure out how to use the ring's powers to bend light around it, rendering it invisible, but it wouldn't do much good if he was constantly seen playing with something on his finger.

I should probably get a hero costume with gloves and keep the ring underneath them so I don't need to worry about it, he mused. Would that work, or just destroy the glove?

"Move the hell out of my way, Deku!" Kacchan snarled, shoving Izuku aside. The green-haired boy hadn't even realized he was there, or that he'd been lingering in place.

"Good luck to you, too," he muttered in response, not quite loud enough to be heard by the volatile blonde.

Then he tripped on an uneven stone in the path and the ground rapidly rose up to meet him.

A halo of green light appeared around his body and his fall came to an abrupt halt a fraction of a second before someone reached out and placed a hand over his shoulder blade.

"Oh!" he heard a voice squeak behind him, and he quickly righted himself and let his protective barrier fade. "I'm so sorry!"

Turning, Izuku found himself suddenly face to face with a cute brunette with rosy cheeks. "Uh…"

"I saw you trip, and I thought it was bad luck to fall right before an exam, so I went to use my Quirk on you!" she quickly explained. "But you already had it handled! I wouldn't have done that if I'd known!"

"Oh, that's okay!" Izuku somehow managed to will himself to speak, and the volume of his voice was only a little too loud. "I don't mind, and it was nice of you to try to help me!"

He wasn't sure if it was having been around Arisa—who was very pretty and looked more human than many people with mutation Quirks, despite being an extraterrestrial, even if she did seem too grown-up to fully register as an attractive girl to him—or some hidden power of the ring that was allowing him to seem almost normal while conversing with a girl his own age. Izuku didn't really care, to be honest, he was just glad for the minor miracle.

It seemed like a good omen.

"Well, guess we'd better get going!" the girl said. "See you inside! Good luck!"

Izuku waited only a little too long before managing a response. "You too!"

Yes, a very good omen, he decided as he headed inside after having lingered only a bit too much after bidding the girl goodbye.

A couple of hours later, Izuku and the other would-be future heroes had finished up the written exam and were on buses heading out to the testing grounds, which were faux city sections, populated by robots that the would-be pro heroes would soon be unleashed upon.

Seated near the back of the vehicle, Izuku tried to keep his nerves down as best he could, telling himself over and over again that he had powerful abilities at his command, even if he was still technically Quirkless.

It didn't help that the sour taste of recent events still lingered. Getting to see Present Mic and having the practical portion of the entrance exam explained to them by a real pro hero were amazing, but getting growled at by Kacchan and then called out by the loud guy with the glasses in front of everyone else in the auditorium for his muttering had been just unpleasant. Also mortifying.

Though things could be worse. At least measures meant to prevent people who knew each other from being able to cooperate on the test meant that he and Kacchan were going to different testing areas.

The bus pulled to a stop just outside one of the imitation urban sections, and the students got out, a voice crackling over the bus's PA system alerting them that the test would begin shortly after they all disembarked the vehicle.

Izuku used the breathing exercises that Arisa had taught him to try and keep calm and focused. Looking up, he spotted the brunette from earlier and wondered if it would make him seem weird if he wished her good luck again.

A large hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. Izuku turned and suddenly found himself looking up at the bespectacled boy who'd loudly scolded him in the auditorium.

"That girl is trying to center herself for the test," he said sternly. "Were you planning to go over there to disrupt her focus?"

"W-What?! No, of course not!" he frantically denied, thrown for a loop at being accused of such a thing out of the blue.

"Then what—?"

"And go!" Present Mic's booming voice shouted out, startling everyone.

For a few seconds, the assembled applicants just stood there, surprised and maybe a little disoriented.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Mic asked. "There are no countdowns in real life! Go, go, go!"

Izuku powered up his protective aura, green light encircling his outline. "Excuse me," he said to the other boy, before taking off into the air.

Flying above the fake city, he briefly considered asking his ring to locate the robots for him, but it quickly became clear that wasn't necessary. There were a ton of robots, they weren't trying to hide, and from the air they were especially easy to spot.

"Let's do this, ring," he whispered as he descended toward a large cluster of them that none of the other applicants had come across yet.

The robots turned toward him as he approached, weapons quickly moving to point directly at him.

Izuku didn't give them a chance to fire, unleashing a barrage of emerald blasts from his currently invisible ring, quickly disabling the whole pack of mechanical opponents.

"Huh, I guess they really made those things to be broken," he remarked to no one in particular. "Ring, how many points did I just score?"

"Twenty-two," the ring answered into his mind, silent to everyone but him.

"I won't even need to use constructs for this," he muttered to himself, actually a little bit disappointed.

Nevertheless, he zipped around the testing area, targeting robots he found, though after the first couple of minutes he started to only attack the ones that other students weren't dealing with, not wanting to steal anyone else's points.

Foolish, maybe, but he was confident he'd have enough points to pass at the end of the exam.

Izuku could barely believe that this didn't count as using the ring for personal gain. After all, it had turned a task that would've once been insurmountable for him into one that now felt, if anything, too easy.

Meanwhile, up in the control room, the assembled teachers were watching the test play out on a bank of monitors, which kept cycling from one camera feed to another.

"Good crop this year," Present Mic remarked.

"Indeed, an exciting display of youthful passion and vigor," Midnight agreed, licking her lips.

"Hmm, they look good so far, but they haven't encountered the real test yet," Snipe rumbled in his usual drawl.

All Might, currently in his skinny form, took in none of this exchange. Though he'd been paying close attention to the other teachers at the start of test, clearly hoping to gain some insights from their observations of the applicants, that had come to an end when something on one of the monitors caught his attention. Now he was staring at the screens, the intensity in his sunken blue gaze unmistakable.

It didn't take long for Nezu to notice. "Are you all right, Yagi?" the chimera asked.

"That young man there," All Might said, pointing to one of the monitors, which currently showed an applicant haloed with green light. "Who is he, and what is his Quirk?"

Nezu tilted his head, curious. However, even he wasn't about to play his usual games with All Might, not when he was like this. Even in his emaciated state, the man was imposing, with intensity radiating off of him in waves. Nezu tapped his paws on a small keyboard.

"Izuku Midoriya," he answered. "His Quirk is registered under the name Green Light."

"May I speak with young Midoriya after the test is over?" All Might asked.

Nezu hesitated for only a moment before answering. "If you like," he said. "What is this about?"

"Something I need to look into it," was All Might's cryptic response.

"…very well, but I expect you to inform me if you come away from your meeting with any suspicions that Midoriya may be a danger to this school," Nezu said.

All Might nodded. "Of course."

"Very good!" the principal said cheerfully. "Now, then, let's begin the most fun part of the test!"

At the back of the room, a sleepy, disheveled looking man sighed wearily.

With the end of the test drawing near, Izuku was confident he had enough points to pass and actually wasn't entirely sure what to spend the remaining time on.

There were still robots running around the faux city, of course, but there were few that weren't already engaged in combat with other applicants, and while Izuku had blasted a few that were clearly overwhelming his fellow test takers, he hated the idea of potentially stealing points from any of the others.

It only took a moment for everything to change.

Izuku couldn't feel the ground shaking, since he was in midair, but it didn't take him long to see the buildings trembling as though in the grip of an earthquake.

Before he could even properly wonder what was happening, a massive robot, easily the size of one of the fake city's modest skyscrapers, erupted out of the ground, a great plume of dust rising up as it knocked over some of the buildings in its way.

"The zero pointer," Izuku whispered.

Nothing in Present Mic's description of it had even hinted that it would be so enormous.

The logical part of his brain told him he should make a beeline in the opposite direction of that thing, get as far away from it as possible without leaving the testing area entirely. After all, the thing wasn't worth any points, and in any case, he was confident he had enough already. The smart play in his situation was just to retreat and wait out the remainder of the time in safety.

Yet he hesitated. Something felt wrong about the whole thing.

Izuku's brain started racing, trying to reason out the point of unleashing this thing so late in the test, when most people wouldn't be able to take out that many more of the smaller robots anyway.

A cry for help brought his train of thought to an abrupt halt long before he was able to reach a conclusion. Gazing down, he was just able to spot someone pinned amidst the rubble, the zero pointer bearing down on her.

The nice girl from the entrance, his breath stopped dead for a second as he managed to identify her.

Izuku's willpower flooded into his power ring.

Uraraka couldn't die here.

She still had so much to do. She had to become a pro hero, make a bunch of money, and allow her parents to retire early and comfortably. And while she didn't consider it a must-do, it would be very cool if she could become the first pro hero to travel to outer space.

So, dying was definitely not something she was willing to do right now.

Unfortunately, with the zero pointer bearing down on her, it looked like she wasn't going to have much choice in the matter.

No, this is just a test! She thought, even as she made increasingly frantic efforts to be able to get all five fingers of either hand onto the piece of rubble pinning her down. The thing is going to stop! It hasto stop…doesn't it?

If the zero point robot was supposed to refrain from delivering the final blow to the applicants, it looked like no one had remembered to tell it that.

Uraraka squeezed her eyes shut.

Then…the end didn't come.

She opened her eyes and gasped at what she saw.

Mt. Lady had gotten between her and the zero pointer and was holding the massive robot back, but the giant heroine was enrobed in green from head to toe and ever so slightly transparent.

A hologram? The gravity girl wondered.

Then the green Mt. Lady's fist slammed unto the zero pointer's blocky head, leaving a huge dent in the robot's armor. The sound of shrieking metal was deafening.

A very solid hologram, if it was one.

She felt the weight of the rubble being lifted off of her and turned to see the pro hero Death Arms, just as green as Mt. Lady, doing the lifting. She tried to get to her feet, but her right leg gave out the instant she attempted to put weight on it, sending her tumbling back down again.

A jade tendril wrapped around her waist, and she was almost unsurprised to see an emerald Kamui Woods picking her up before he extended his free arm to grab onto a nearby building and swing away.

As he was carrying her through the air, she finally noticed the green tethers of light that the luminous duplicates of the popular new pros shared, all of them leading to a single glowing green figure hovering in the sky.

Is that the boy from the entrance? She wondered.

Then a thunderous crash pulled her attention away, and she turned just in time to see the green Mt. Lady deliver a roundhouse kick to the zero pointer. It was obviously a lethal blow to the mechanical titan, which collapsed to the ground, unmoving, just as the horn signaling the end of the test blared.