3 More than dreaming

Yousuke stepped out of the plane and took in the sights around him. I-Island was certainly an amazing place. But he had more important things to do than to check out the attractions.

'Melissa said she'd meet me here. Where could she be? There's no way she forgot about this.' thought Yousuke.

After ending the conversation through Discord with Melissa, both teens went to their fathers to plan for this trip. David, Melissa's father, had no problem with Yousuke coming, since he was Sukeo's son. The two adults were currently both working on I-Island's development, with David himself overlooking the operations at I-Island and Sukeo managing the more financial side of business.

The man only asked that he doesn't post photos with I-Island on Facebook or whatever yet, since I-Island wasn't yet open to tourists and also because of the Non-Disclosure Agreement signed by him and Yousuke's father. It wouldn't be good for business if Sukeo's son ignored the NDA like that.

"Yousuke!"

The teen turned around when he heard his name, only to see a yellow blur heading his way at high speed. Not really thinking about it, he sidestepped out of the way, only realizing that the yellow blur was Melissa as she passed by him and that she'd slap right into the aircraft behind him.

He breathed a sigh of relief when she pressed some button on the remote in her hands and immediately started slowing down, leaving skid marks on the ground behind her.

Now that he could take a better look at her, Yousuke could see she was wearing a pair of roller skates with comically-oversized rockets strapped to their sides. Why Melissa would use such subpar equipment, Yousuke had no idea.

"Howdy." she breathed out, still reeling from the sudden deceleration.

The two teens stared at each other for a few long seconds, especially for Melissa, who was coming down with a bad case of fuck-I-can't-believe-I-just-said-that.

"I'll ignore that." said Yousuke, changing the subject. "Let's get to whatever testing area you got here."

"Yes, that would be for the best."

|Intermission|

Melissa's personal lab - Test #1

"For this first test, let's find out what those spheres can do while they're spinning. You said that when you shot one at the tree, the branch bent out of the way, right?" said Melissa.

"Yep. I really wanted it to get off at the time, so maybe it can do different things if it hits different things." reasoned Yousuke. After all, it wasn't as if he could just will the sphere to do different things, just like that.

"Alright, I put up these plates of metal for you to test on. Feel free to shoot at them starting... now!" spoke the girl as she pressed a button and started recording.

Yousuke raised his left hand and aimed at the first plate, a simple iron plate. Perhaps it was his childish side appearing, but he thought it'd be cooler if he was to shoot the balls from his fingertips. As such, he made a sphere on his fingertips and, pulling on his quirk, started spinning the thing.

It was easy to do something like that, bringing a smile to Yousuke's face. He hadn't quite played with his quirk while growing up, since he didn't find small balls interesting. But now that he could do more things with it, he was having fun. It was a good feeling, like finding a toy you'd enjoyed playing with after you lost it, or hearing a song, one you used to hear as a kid in your parents' car while you were heading to the beach, again as an adult.

Back in the present, Yousuke blinked once and shot the ball at the plate.

"Bang." he muttered.

Much like a bullet shot against a house in American movies, the sphere went straight through the iron plate, leaving behind a neat hole, as if it was perforated by some mechanism.

Nodding to himself, Yousuke continued to do the same with the other plates lined up, shooting holes through aluminum, copper, tin, titanium, lead and even things like ceramic, glass and wood, getting the exact same result on them as on the iron plate, much to the confusion of both Yousuke and Melissa.

"That's weird..." commented Yousuke, stumped.

"Hmm..." muttered Melissa, equally befuddled. Then, an odd idea came to her mind. "Maybe it's not about what it hits, but rather the intentions behind it."

Yousuke doubted how well that'd go, but decided to entertain Melissa's idea regardless. Making a sphere on his finger, instead of wanting it to shoot out like a bullet, he wished for it to simply stick to whatever it was shot at.

The sphere was launched with its usual speed, but when it hit, it just stopped. Almost as if someone pressed the pause button on a video. The ball was barely in contact with the plate, yet it somehow defied gravity. Not to mention it was also spinning.

Yousuke's eyes widened in shock. He couldn't believe it. Could the spheres just do whatever he wanted?

Just to be certain, he shot another spinning ball at the same plate, and instead of sticking, he wanted it to blow up, like the toilet bowl did.

Yet it was only after he shot the ball, that Yousuke thought that maybe making it blow up could be bad for him, who was standing somewhat close to the plate.

"Shi-"

He didn't quite manage to finish that word as he was hit smack dab in the face by a stray piece of metal, knocking him flat on his ass.

"Yousuke!" Melissa screamed, her voice laced with concern.

The girl rushed to her downed friend, checking his face for any wounds.

"Yousuke! Can you hear me? How many fingers do you see?" she asked, kneeling besides Yousuke.

The teen turned his head towards her and, after a few moments of silent staring at each other, Yousuke mumbled.

"Curse you, David and Strauss."

"Huh?" said Melissa, confused.

"Nothing. I'm fine." said Yousuke, standing up.

The teen couldn't help but look back at where the iron plate used to be. Seeing the smoldering pile of scrap brought out feelings and hopes he had long since discarded. Feelings and hopes he'd thought he discarded. Because you don't grow out of your dreams in this world, not really. And right there, at that time, Yousuke remembered that he'd once dreamed of being a hero.