2 Chapter 2: Special “Quirk”
What happened?
This thought still reverberated in Izuku's mind as he explored the towering spire. He had begun walking around the rooms walls, peering inside the empty alcoves to see if he could find any markings, or exits. So far, the search had yielded nothing of use, each alcove appeared to have a small platform inside it - similar to the large one's in the room's center - and nothing else. Izuku contemplated trying to climb up to the second level of alcoves and see if they were any different, but intuition told him that they would likely have nothing of value either. Plus, he highly doubted he could climb the seamless walls, or jump high enough to pull himself up.
Sliding down against the wall, Midoriya hunched over and tucked in his legs, taking deep shuddering breaths. Fear was starting to creep into his thoughts, the initial haze when he woke up had worn off and searching for an exit was no longer keeping his mind distracted. Hot fresh tears began to fall from his eye's, a very familiar sensation.
What if I'm trapped here? What if I can't go home? What did I do to deserve being sent to wherever this is?!
His mind, the one thing Izuku had that he could rely upon, was turning against him. Though thankfully for him, not every part of it had fallen yet.
Think Izuku, think! You have always had to rely on your mind to get anywhere, and now is no different! So, what do we do?
The thought struck Izuku and pulled him out of his doubt's and despair, for it was said by the part of him that stood tall and proud, stronger than any villain, and afraid of nothing the world could throw at him. That thought came from the part of him that wanted to be a Hero.
That's right, I need to break this down, and figure out what's going on. Wiping tears from his face, Izuku stood. Ok let's think about this like a game, I'm trapped in a level with no apparent exit, and I need to find the way out, what do I do first?
He began going through a checklist: the alcoves had yielded nothing, the floors and walls had no obvious hatches or buttons to press, and the sky above could not be reached, which left only one thing unexplored.
"The pedestals!" Izuku breathed.
Walking back to the center of the room, Midoriya endeavored to better investigate the pedestals than when he had first woken up. Looking at the one containing the DNA strand, Izuku began running his hands along the pedestals surface, feeling for any kind of interface or switches, something to help him interact with the display. It was while doing this that his hands brushed over the part projecting the holograph, and for the briefest second that they did a small green screen popped up, before disappearing once more.
"Wait, what?"
Putting his hand fully on the lit-up surface, Izuku watched as the screen appeared before him once again, only now could he see that it was displaying white text as well.
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[QUIRK SEQUENCE ENTRY #1]
Type: Emitter.
Explosion: allows user to secrete nitroglycerin-like sweat from their palms and detonate it at will to create explosions.
Details: The more the user sweats, the stronger the explosions become.
Uses: Can be used to blow away enemies or propel user forward, further uses require more [data]; Combat potential extremely high, rescue potential average to minimal.
Weaknesses: User can become dehydrated if Quirk is over used due to reliance on modified sweat as fuel, further weaknesses require more [data].
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Izuku read it once, then twice, and even a third time for good measure. The info displayed looked exactly like what he had written in his notebooks, although formatted differently. He wanted to explore this further, let his mind wonder why the pedestal before him was displaying this information specifically, but right now this room was the puzzle that needed solving, and clearly, he didn't have all the pieces if he couldn't put the picture together yet.
Taking his hand off the display, Izuku attempted to make other screens or more info appear: he waved first his hands, then just fingers through the light. He tried placing both hands on the display, dragging his fingers across the surface, even trying to reach over and touch the floating DNA strand, nothing worked.
Ok, theirs more than one pedestal in here, lets see what's behind door number 2.
Turning around, Izuku walked over and began taking in the pedestal with the large floating red X. It was no different then the first (aside from what it was displaying), with no visible buttons or interfaces. So, hoping to repeat his previous discovery, Midoriya placed his hand on the red lit surface. Another green screen popped up, but this time instead of the white text….
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[QUIRK SEQUENCE ENTRY: NEGATIVE]
[Sample Required Before Further Data Can Be Given]
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The information was in red, and apparently some form of a sample was needed.
"A sample of what though?" Izuku began mumbling to himself. "Why does the first display Kacchan's Quirk info, but this one has nothing? What does it need a sample of to display the info? Is this place some kind of data library for Quirks, if so then why does it only have the one entry? Perhaps it can do something when you get a second sample of a different Quirk? So, both can display Quirk info theoretically if the green display is any indication, which means that if somehow a second set of data is acquired something will happen, but what? Maybe the third pedestal ca-" Izuku's head shot up as he realized that he had yet to investigate the final pedestal.
As before, he turned from the one he had been studying and headed for the next, which now that he was thinking about things clearly, was the odd one out of the three. For starters, if you were facing the final pedestal, you would see that it sat at the center of the spire, while the others were placed parallel to each other behind it, like the three points of a triangle. Secondly, it seemed to be bigger than the others, by about half. And perhaps the most important difference: it was neither displaying nor emitting any symbols or light.
Having success so far, Izuku placed his hand on the pedestals surface, praying that this one gave him the answers he was seeking; however, nothing happened.
A frustrated sigh escaped Izuku's lips, but he had sworn to figure this out and not panic! His head hunched over as his left hand partially covered his mouth, while the right settled on his left forearm. Without anything else to really inspect, Midoriya decided now was the time to review what he knew.
Going by the video game analogy, I've inspected everything in this room (I think) and read all the text boxes provided. The first two pedestal's display Quirk info, of which I only have one sample apparently, which is why the second one only has a red X and no info. Meanwhile the third is dark…...
Izuku gazed up at the third pedestal, before beginning to mumble, "Hmm, that must mean the last one requires the other two to be active to execute its function, whatever that is. Well that's all well and good, but this doesn't answer the question of how I leave."
It then occurred to Izuku, he hadn't even thought about what brought him here!
Doing his best to recall what had happened, he remembered that Kacchan had been stealing lunch money before his intervention. He had then had the "shit kicked out of him," as Kacchan would put it, before standing once more to stare down his abuser. But what happened after that?
Izuku gasped, he socked me across the face!
Izuku remembered feeling his "friends" fist slam into his jaw and impact his teeth, even the thud of hitting what he assumed was the ground, before everything went black.
Wait, if Kacchan did all that, then why does nothing hurt?
A quick inspection confirmed his suspicions, no bruises, cuts, marks, or blood, even his green shorts and white T-shirt were completely clean and fresh. He looked like he had woken up, gotten changed, and then came to this place, no school or beatings involved.
Izuku would have to shelve those questions for later, regardless of why he looked pristine, it seems that a possible solution to why he was here had presented itself. Bakugou's punch was the last thing he remembered before waking up here, and maybe if he repeated the process it would let him out. With that in mind, Midoriya balled his hand into a fist and raised it to just below jaw height.
This is going to suck, but if theirs one thing I'm good at it's taking a hit, right?
A small chuckle escaped his lips, before Izuku went back to the task at hand. He needed this to work, so he focused, dragging up every memory of the times he had ever been hit, the stares of all his classmates, eyes filled with either pity or contempt.
Kacchan's words resounded in his head, "Worthless Deku, has no quirk, a fucking loser who doesn't know his place!"
No…
"Trash!"
No.
"Useless!"
No!
"WORTHLESS!"
NO!
His fist reared back, eye's burning with fury and determination, as he swung as hard as he could.
*SMACK!*
Nothing. The fist impacted with every bit of force Izuku could muster, and nothing. He stood still, his hand slowly falling from his face, as he realized that not only had his "solution" not worked, but just as he felt no lingering pain from his earlier fight, his punch had not hurt at all.
I felt it land, I know my fist hit my jaw just like Kacchan's did, but I felt no pain? Does this, place keep you from hurting?
Maybe from physical pain perhaps, but as Izuku began curling into himself, it was clear emotional pain was still very real. It didn't take long for it all to come rushing back. Trapped in some strange room, with no exit, no plan (that worked), and no one to help him, he cried. Choked sobs echoed around the room, as Izuku visibly shook. His mind had failed, the one thing he could rely on in life to deal with his problems, and when he needed it most, it had failed him.
Time passed, but nothing existed there to measure it: minutes, hours, days, Izuku didn't know, all he did know was that he had cried himself dry, and was now lying on the smooth white floor, red eyes puffy and lidded. The room faded away as exhaustion took hold of Izuku, sleep finally finding the tired boy.
