5 Identity Theft

Author's Note

Sorry about not updating for a while, I've had writers block on where I wanted to go. I've been reading Super Powereds again and really liked it's premise, so I thought why not return to this story and go to that world. If you read my other story, Osmosian Gamer, I'm still having a little trouble finishing the next chapter. Also, sorry if this chapter seems like a lot of exposition, Super Powereds is not a well known world so I thought I would need to include explanations. If you have read it, you will know this started off pretty canon compliant, which will change starting next chapter as I needed to set the ground work by following the start of canon.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Gathering up my belongings and storing them in capsules, I began to think about where it was I wanted to go.

'Percy Jackson doesn't offer many opportunities to get stronger, with the only real option being bathing in the River Stynx. I don't want to give myself a weakness for no reason, though, I'm durable enough as it is. Right now, I don't need a new power, I need to get perfect control of the ones I have and get actual combat experience. Two options stick out to me then, Super Powereds and My Hero Academia. Both are worlds where heroes are trained, both would give me an opportunity to learn about my powers in an environment centered on it. Each has their own problems, though. My Hero's quirk rules are extremely restricting, and I look a little too old to start at U.A. It also has a boy scout mentality most of the time, with a strict no killing rule which I would break. Super Powereds, on the other hand, is open to putting down villains permanently, and the power scale for that world is much higher than MHA. The only real problem is I'm not old enough to go to college and I have no history in that world. I think Super Powereds is the better option, so I need to find a way to age myself up and create a history.'

With my decision made, I first moved to solve my age problem, through the use of one of the best deus ex machina's in anime. I jumped to the Dragon Ball world at a time before Bulma and Goku ever went to look for the dragon balls, before quickly collecting them and summoning Shenron.

"I wish to have the power to change my physical appearance" My wish was granted, most likely, with me once again appreciating how useful Shenron was. He probably couldn't grant really powerful abilities, but if immortality was an option for him then shapeshifting shouldn't be that hard. With that done, I used the Kaleidoscope to go to the world of Super Powereds. There was no effective way for me to create a background in no time, so I resorted to more brutal methods. The time period I had chosen was right after the 5 Powereds had undergone the experiment. I teleported to the facility they were recovering in, and used my vector control to bend the light around myself, before locating Vince Reynolds. Once I found him, I walked up to him while he was recovering and used the Kaleidoscope to send him into a world identical to this one where he had died. I then used my new power to change my appearance to his, with my white hair staying but my face changing and my eyes turning blue, before lying down on the bed he previously occupied.

I mentally went over the information I knew about the world I had come to. 'The three classifications of people in this world are easily defined. There are Supers, Powereds, and humans. Supers are people born with powers, Powereds are people with powers who are unable to control them, and humans are self explanatory. People here are prejudiced against Powereds, seeing them as inferior, while Supers can go to secret Hero schools to learn to be heroes. Vince was part of an experiment to try to give Powereds control of their powers, and he along with 5 others would be successful before going to Lander, a college in California, to learn to be heroes. His power is energy absorption, but since I've taken his place I'll have to act like his power changed to vector control. I'll limit myself to just it, because people here don't ever have more than one power. I can take this time to really refine my control with it.'

The next two months passed with a series of tests, where the scientists were fascinated by the change in 'Vince's' power, but eventually just made the assumption I wanted them to. It took some getting used to, but I began to get used to responding to that name. Soon, those two months passed before I was making my way towards my dorm at Lander.

Once I entered, I made my way towards the door I already knew would be mine before using the fingerprint scanner to enter it. It was already stocked with clothes, as Vince had been a homeless orphan who spent his time traveling on the rails. I couldn't use my capsules without making questions, so I had only a backpack of some stuff that I set down in my room.

As I was settling in, I heard a knock on the door before going to open it, finding a sandy-brown haired young man standing outside wearing glasses.

"Hey, I heard the door open so I thought I'd come and check out who my dormmate would be. I'm Nick Campbell. I live next door."

'Nick was one of the most dangerous people in the series. He wasn't super powerful, but his intellect made him a threat and most of the reason the main characters survived till the end.'

Putting on a friendly smile, I said "Hey, I'm Vince Reynolds, why're you wearing sunglasses indoors?"

"Well the official reason is that my power gives my eyes a sensitivity to light, but I think they make me look pretty cool."

"Whatever you say, so have the rest of the people moved in yet?"

"There is one more still coming, the other guy left to go explore the campus and the girl has been holed up in her room all day."

"Alright well you want to go get some food before we have to go to that meeting at 7?"

'It'll be good to form a connection with him. Getting closer to him poses a risk of him discovering something about me I don't want him to, but he also becomes a major player, so it would be good to be friends with him.'

"Yeah sure, let's go find a cafeteria."

It took us a little wandering, but we found a cafeteria and had some lunch. Eventually the subject of our conversation was getting around to powers, but we didn't actual discuss anything about them due to a part of the rules of the Hero Certification Program, or HCP as it was known. Students had to keep their identity as a member of the program secret from the general populace, as a majority of the students at Lander were regular people with only a small fraction actually here to be heroes.

Eventually we made our way back to the dorm, before we made our way to the living room for the meeting. Once we arrived, we found the rest of our dormmates sitting there already. There was a relatively tall blonde-haired girl who looked at us with interest for a second before returning to acting nonchalant. Alongside her, there was a short girl with amber eyes sitting in a beanbag chair with a stuffed bear. The last person in the room was a husky boy who looked at us as we entered.

'Mary could be an annoyance. If I wasn't immune to telepathy she would be a much bigger problem. The telepaths in this world have no qualms with listening to everyone within their range and Mary spent most of the series trying to place den mother to the residents. I don't need to deal with that.'

Nick and I sat down, before waiting for the clock to strike 7. The minute it did, two men appeared out of thin air in front of us. One was shorter wearing a tie, while the other was taller and wasn't wearing a tie, but they were both wearing suits.

"Hello, students," said the shorter one. "Welcome to Melbrook Hall. You may call me Mr. Numbers. My friend, Mr. Transport, and I are here to oversee and assist you in your academic endeavors. Our apartment is what lies behind the steel door in the kitchen. You will not be permitted access. However, an intercom is on the counter next to the pantry for emergency contact. Do we have any questions so far?"

Looking around me, I could see that the two guys had shocked looks on their faces due to the two men appearing from nowhere. The girls, on the other hand, didn't seem surprised at all.

"I take your silence to mean that you understand. I want to be clear, we've already met most you when you were being selected to undergo the program. We acted nice and friendly and we will continue to do so, but we are still your administrators. We will enforce the rules to the utmost of our ability."

"And what rules would you be referring to?" I asked.

"You will receive a full copy of the rules. There are 3 principle rules that I will discuss now, however. First of all, keep your identities secret at all times. This is not unique to your group as it is a requirement for the HCP. Second of all, you are not to fight with other supers or regular humans outside of the combat classes. The last rule is one that is specific to your group. You must not lose control of your powers at any time."

"I thought the whole point of the procedure was we had complete control of our powers now?" Nick asked.

"You do have control of your powers, but that procedure was experimental and we are monitoring you to ensure that you do not relapse into your former Powered state."

"So what happens if we lose control?" the blonde-haired girl asked as a shocked look appeared on her face, until it was quickly hidden.

'Her power first showed itself as flight, so she would be worried about flying off into the sky and falling if her powers suddenly stop working correctly again.'

"Testing" was the simple reply received from Mr. Numbers.

"What he means is that you will be tested to see where the problem originated from. It could be that it was an individual case, or it could be possible that all of you could revert." Mr. Transport interjected.

"As I said, testing." Mr. Numbers said. "Any other questions?"

Silence answered him, before he continued "Excellent, then I will allow Mr. Transport to get started on some introductory activities."

"Well why don't we get to know each other better?"

Instead of receiving any sort of response, al her got was blank stares as we all continued to look at him.

"Ok, I want everyone to stand up, say their name, power, where they are from, what their major is, and one interesting fact about themselves. I'll start, my name is Mr. Transport. My power is teleportation of myself and others. My birth location is considered classified. I am not currently enrolled in Lander University, so I lack a major, and my interesting fact is that I collect bottle caps from sodas all over the world."

"They still make sodas in bottles?" Nick asked skeptically.

"Yes they do, in other countries as well as America." Mr. Transport answered. "Why don't you introduce yourself since you spoke up."

"Sure, name's Nick Campbell, and my power is creating and controlling luck. I'm from good old Vegas and I'm majoring in business. My interesting fact is I've been punched in the mouth by a senator."

'I'm not sure if his luck powers will affect me or not. Code: Unknown destroys powers, but his luck may be esoteric enough to not be affected, since it isn't tangible.'

"Want to elaborate on the senator?" Mr. Transport asked.

"You're not the only one with shit that's classified," Nick answered.

"Okay, who's next?"

The blonde haired girl took this opportunity to jump up and become the center of attention.

"My name is Alice Adair, and I have the power of flight. I'm from Los Angeles, California. While at Lander, I'll be in the communications program. An interesting fact about me is I've been riding horses since i was five and have won several championships."

'Alice likes to think she's good at reading people, but she's not as adept as she thinks she is. She shouldn't be that much of a problem and should be easy enough to manipulate.'

"Nice to meet you Alice, who's next?" Nobody volunteered so Mr. Transport pointed at the boy I hadn't been introduced to yet and said "Well we'll just start from this side of the room and go down."

The boy slowly rose to his feet and began speaking, "My name is Hershel Daniels, and I'm from Chicago. I'm majoring in creative writing, an interesting fact about me...is...um...well, I won a couple of writing competitions for my fantasy short stories," The boy now named Hershel spoke in a soft tone.

As he began returning to his seat, Nick spoke up saying "You forgot to tell us what your power is."

"Oh, um, well I guess that's because I don't really have any powers. I mean...I do, but... it's complicated."

"You clearly have a power if you had to go through the experiment, what is so complicated about it?" I asked.

"Well, it's more that I do something and I become super. Does that make sense?"

"He's a shifter," The amber eyed girl said.

'Three guesses how she learned that. I always found it strange that the only people with any problems with the mind reading seemed to be Nick and Alice, and eventually Alice stopped caring.'

"Oh, so you can turn into another form with powers." Nick said.

"Yeah, that's what happens."

Since Nick was sitting next to Hershel, he was skipped and it became my turn to introduce myself. I had been thinking about how I wanted to present myself and eventually settled on just acting normally. I didn't feel like putting up a ton of a front, I would just be nicer than I really am.

Rising to my feet, I began, "The name's Vince Reynolds. My power is vector manipulation, which basically means anything with magnitude and direction I can affect. I'm from New York originally. I'm currently enrolled as a Physics major. As for an interesting fact, I've been in forty out of our fifty states."

'I know enough about Vince from the books to confidently fake my way as him. Any personal questions I'll just answer based on his past and fill in the blanks with stuff I make up. It's not like anyone can really confirm it, considering Vince spent all of his time homeless wandering. It's the biggest reason I chose him to replace.'

Alice took this time to pipe up "How do you manage to get your hair that perfect shade of white?"

'She's trying to get information about me. It's a clumsy method, but I don't really care all that much.'

"The hair's natural, my power reflects UV rays, so my hair is white and my skin is pale."

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know."

"No point being sorry, I like my hair the way it is." I said a little annoyed she just assumed I didn't like it. Some people disliked the physical markers of being a Super, I was not one of those people. People without powers were ordinary, boring.

Mr. Transport took this opportunity to speak up "Why doesn't our last student introduce herself."

The short, amber eyed girl continued sitting as she introduced herself. "My name is Mary and my power is an advanced brain which gives me telekinesis and telepathy. I was born in Louisiana, but I've been in the forests of Colorado for about eight years now. I'm double majoring in psychology and biology, and an interesting fact about me is that I know how to turn beavers into hats."

Alice didn't react because she had already met Mary beforehand. Nick had a good poker face and didn't show that he was unnerved by her power, but I knew from his personality that he was thinking of counter plans to deal with the fact that he was living with someone who could read his mind.

"What's your last name?" Hershel asked.

Mary seemed surprised at the question, before petting her bear. "I don't remember, it's been a long time since I've even needed names."

"Thankfully, we did need to know," Mr. Numbers jumped in, "and your last name is Smith."

"Thank you Mary, does your bear have a name?" Mr. Transport asked.

"No" Mary said.

"I see, that was a stupid question."

"Why?" Mary asked.

"Well because you're old enough to not give your bear a name."

"You misunderstand, my bear's name is No."

"Why did you name him No?" Mr. Transport asked.

"Why not?" Mary countered.

"Fair point" I chimed in.

"One last thing before we adjourn, the classes for the HCP all take place in an underground facility. We were not able to get the special elevators hooked up to this dorm, so I will be taking you to those classes and you can take the elevator back up."

With that said, Mr. Numbers and Mr. Transport both left to their room. As soon as they were gone, Nick took the opportunity to speak out, "Taking Bets, Gay couple or just really close friend who wish they were a gay couple?"

Everyone stood up, heading back to their rooms, with me leaving some parting words to Nick. "My money's on heterosexual life partners."

I didn't spend much time in my room before falling asleep.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The next day Mr. Transport took us to the HCP campus, before leaving us with the assembled group of students. A man came up to stand behind a podium and began speaking.

"Welcome, freshman! It is my pleasure as Dean of the Hero Certification Program to be the first to congratulate you on making the cut and being enrolled in our very elite little academy." the Dean began.

"My full name is Blaine Geffries. However, I want you to call me Dean Blaine. It is my hope that each and every one of you grow stronger in the years ahead, and that the best of you graduate from here with full certifications, and go on to become acclaimed Heroes."

Nick muttered something, but I wasn't really listening to what he said. I was excited because the first day they have placement matches to decide the rankings of the freshman class. I was sure I could win, but I hadn't had a fight by myself in a while. It would be fun to work by myself again.

Dean Blaine continued talking, but I tuned him out as I already knew most of what he was saying from the book and none of it was all that important anyway. Somewhere along his speech everyone around me let out a groan, which meant he had just mentioned they had to keep their secret identities at all times.

'This world was always so much more realistic than My Hero. The school festival in My Hero was broadcast publicly, which confuses me on how anyone manages to maintain a secret identity when it's not that hard to match a power to a person. There is a competition here, held senior year, but it only is shown to other heroes.'

I tuned back in when Dean Blaine said "With that settled, let's go over today's activities, shall we? Since regular classes don't start until tomorrow, today will be used to form our combat ranking. We do rankings at the beginning and end of every other year so we can get a sense of where you start from versus where you end up. Everything about the fight will be taken into account, not just who wins."

A smile formed on my face at the prospect of some fights. They might not be able to make me really try, but I was going to still have fun seeing the different powers and how my vector control interacts with them.

"I'd like you all to come down now and meet the professors who will be overseeing the first battle of your college careers, the freshmen combat coaches: Coach George and Coach Persephone!" Dean Blaine continued before two people came up next to him. One was a dark-haired man who was extremely muscular. The other was a lean, blonde woman who was built like a supermodel, with curves in all the right places.

Nick shared my thoughts, saying "Damn, look at the tits on her." I just whistled while nodding in agreement. Even if I wasn't some idiot like Issei who would let woman distract them from everything, I could still appreciate them.

We walked up to the stage along with the rest of the class. Once we got there, Coach George spoke up. "Nice to see you, fresh meat. I'm a professor to the upper years, but to you chumps I'm Coach George. You're going to hate my by the end of the year because I'm going to tear you down and build you back into something resembling competency."

'I remember he turns out to be a traitor at the end of the year. It doesn't really matter to me, he was an excellent teacher and that's what I need right now. Someone competent to teach me to fight and for me to practice on.'

Persephone stepped forward in place of George and said "First off, yes, eyes up at my face gentlemen. While George teaches your bodies, I'll be teaching your minds. You will discover new ways to use your power you never thought of before, ways you never imagined. You will be broken down and remodeled into capable heroes."

Dean Blaine asked if there were any questions and when no one had any, he told the girls to get on one side and the boys to get on another to be paired off.

"Isn't that sexist" came the inevitable question from someone.

"And what is you're name miss?" Dean Blaine asked.

"Julia."

"And you're a woman's studies major, aren't you Julia."

"Um, yeah."

"There's always one. I'll tell you the same thing I tell people every year, the purpose is to find how you do against opponent who are relatively equal to you. Boys are naturally physically stronger than girls, so to make the placement as accurate as possible, you are split up. You can be at ease in the knowledge that this is the only time we do this, as after the training you have here you will be put back together."

"That make sense." Julia responded.

"Good, now let's get to the matches."