---

Today was a day that every kid dreaded, for one reason or another. Some were more nervous than others, but for every student, it came with an underlying sense of anticipation and hope. It was...

The first day of school.

For the student body of New Heights Academy, these feelings were all heightened. The humid tropical air felt even thicker with the collective excitement of more than a hundred hero hopefuls. But more than just the start of the school year, today was the first day of many students' lives, the newest arrivals to the academy already awake and ready to begin! Not that they had much choice - the faculty had been very adamant that they be at the East Track Field by 8-o-clock.

Down a narrow pathway around the school's main building, the East Track Field was apparently kept among the island's lush forest just behind the academy proper. Whether or not this reflected the gathering students' rank was hard to tell. The entirety of the Bottom Ten found their way towards the East Track, trudging along the path with varying enthusiasm. Not every student that were asked to come were so low in the school's ranking, however; apart from the Ten, just as many where a handful of ranks higher, and some where even from the Top Ten! 25 kids exactly, if anyone bothered to count, of largely distinct rank groups.

Then the group got to the field, it was empty. A flat dirt clearing, surrounded by trees, with the usual white stripes denoting where the actual track was. A small, foot-high wood stage sat in the middle of the field, and the whole track had a dozen small areas devoted to a specific athletics test. But apart from all that, nobody else was around, not a teacher, not the other students, not even a janitor.

So... what do they do?

Mark, admittedly, was in an embarrassing position. He'd not been saddled with the lowest possible rank he could, or even within the lowest 10% of the year group... but some comfort that was when he was lumped in with them anyway. It wasn't called the Bot Five, after all. Bottom it was, anyhow: he'd not been properly prepared, and he had paid for it with few robot kills, not to mention that turbine asshole's dick move screwing him over, and now the other students had even more reasons to isolate him than before. He was already a gross fly person, why did he need to be considered academically inept too? What a pain.

And they, along with what looked like just over a dozen other students, had been called out to the East Track Field. Where there was fucking nothing. No teachers, no equipment, just the Bottom Ten in their uniforms- he'd made damn sure his own armour was properly put on, so he could at least make a better second impression than first- and a bunch of other poor sons of bitches, inexplicably including at least a couple of Top Ten students. No doubt they were there to... he didn't know, "bolster morale" or something. More likely to tell them they all stunk, if he was right on the money about their being cocky.

Either way, they were devoid of teachers. Maybe they'd be left alone for fifteen minutes, and get to skip the rest of the class. For now, though, he'd be a flipping dumbass and make himself obvious: flying upward a couple of meters just to get over the other student's heads, he hovered roughly in one spot, trying to look about and see whether anybody else was about at all. Maybe hidden in the treeline or something?

Sunha

Hajoong stared off into the nothingness. It was the only reasonable response as they were standing in, well, the middle of nothingness. It was just a clearing among the trees, just them and the nature. All the students just chilling, no supervision to keep things in order. Imagine the possibilities of the chaos they could bring! The boy looked around at the students, looking for someone to talk to to keep the boredom away. He looked around, and found someone to talk to easily. As there were approximately 25 people, there were plenty of people to talk to.
Sunha approached the pretty fly person carefully, trying not to creep them out or make a bad first impression. When he was in a good distance to start a conversation-2 meters, give or take ten centimeters or so- the big boy finally opened his mouth.
"Hey there."

@BCTheEntity

---

Han

One thought went through Han's head as he stood there like a generic npc in a game that didn't even have anything to say if you interacted with. 'They could shoot something out of a cannon at us and we'd be sitting ducks.' Be it a big ball of paint or a big ball of pain, they'd not notice until they hear the cannons fire and the projectiles fly. The big ball of paint idea sounded fun, they could run around dodging it. Or get hit and get their clothes ruined.
Han's head proceeded to derail into a chain of meaningless, not really heroic thoughts. Such as how much ranch sauce he'd like in his sandwiches and more. The boy just stood there staring off into somewhere. He was waiting for something to happen, for someone to come and tell them what to do other than stand there and wait for something else to happen.

---

A heck of a thing to hear right at the start of the school year.

The short athletic kid with the flight googles and jacket did kind of stand out. He had blue skin for starters, bulbous forearms as if he’s wearing giant metallic pieces of plate armor, and he was LOUD!

Most would know the kid. When the evaluation first started, he literally blasted out of the gate, his quirk literally making his arms into jet engines, and woah to those nearby as a ROAR of the engines and a blast of wind was enough to knock several students off their feet. He had a combination of ribbons and robots since he could dash around them like a speedster, completely uncaring if another examinee was attempting to get it. ”Too slow Duster!” was a common phrase examinee’s would hear as he rushed by stealing their points.

Then his turbines got clogged. The intake ports needed for them to function suddenly got hit with a bunch of sticky slime. He spent a few precious minutes trying to get them to work, and failing that, his quirk was more or less nullified, and he had to spend the rest of the fight using his legs like a sucker. Thankfully he was athletic but he couldn’t compete against others quirks when he was handicapped. Over the rest of the exam, he just got more and more frustrated, and then he flat out attacked the one who happened to make the slime at the end of the exam when he saw them completely unprovoked.

To be honest, it was a wonder why he was even still here.

Needless to say, he didn’t have many friends, and to be quite frank, he seemed to be pretty okay with that. He puffed out his chest, hands on his hips as he stood in the middle of the field and walked towards the edge of the group. While Hiroki fought them, the particular person he hated went overlooked. ”Too scared to show your face!? I get it! I’d be scared too!” He just seemed to be shouting at no one now, until he pointed towards the bulk of the forming crowd. ”Just remember that before any of you losers decide to get in my way! Whoever thinks one their first in this class, watch your back, because I’m coming for you! My name is Hiroki Sakimoto!

”NUMBER ONE HERO! NOW AND FOREVER!!!"

Yes. Very loud.

---

”Omigosh omigosh omigosh! I can’t believe it! I’m going to be a hero!”
To be completely honest, Amelia Adams was doing this cause of her family’s suggestion. She dreamed about being a hero, but it was just that- a dream. She knew she was going to be spending alot of time at home helping out around the house and doing her best to finish school or find a job.

When she got that acceptance letter, whe she got into the top 20 for her exam score, that’s when she realized that dream could become reality. Her quirk was stupid and made her look weird. She had 5 Snappers and a bit of stretching power. 5 dumb mouths that acted like dogs literally attached to her. She never even tried actually using them like that, and when she ripped off a robots aluminum paneling and dodged alot more hits then she thought she would, she felt cool. She felt really cool! She felt like this is something her dumb quirk could actually be used for than eating her family out of house and home.

She was nearly sprinting to the field, getting lost only once or twice before she arrived in her handmade hero outfit, basically a thematically cute long dress hoody. She smiled, her big eyes standing out against her black pigmentless skin, clefted mouth open in a huge grin. She was so excited, she knew she was going to make so many friends. She charged!

Then slowed.

Then stopped.

She had flashbacks of what happened in school. She thought of the stars, the mockery. She wanted to pull up her hoodie, hide her hands. She wanted to crawl away into some corner where she couldn’t be seen. Then she felt something brush her cheeks. Her head snappers, Munchie and Crunchie had licked her with their tendril like mouths before they panted like the dogs they were. Her snappers were dumb, had a mind of her own, but they were always there. She felt a bit better, nodding as she reached into her pocket for the little milk bone treats she had for them, tendrils reached into her pockets and she fed them, who crunched away happily. ”You’re right.” She concluded. ”These are heroes too. They’re different. They care about people. They want to help, just like me.”

Then she heard the claims of Hiroki and she made a face. Well most of them wanted to... she hoped.

Kudo Akeno

East Track Field

It was only the first day and they were already planning on seeing what they were made of, huh?

Looking around at the empty track field, the wooden stage at its centre and the collection of small stations that looked like they were designed to test various athletic abilities that was the only conclusion Akeno could come to. It certainly looked like they were planning to conduct the kind of benchmark tests that would give the faculty an idea of their physical abilities. Not that it came as any surprise that this was happening, Akeno just didn’t think the school would arrange this so soon after the entrance exams.

Well, so long as they didn’t want to test her Quirk then she would be fine; her physical abilities were the only thing she had after all and she was reasonably confident she was above average in a few areas compared to people without enhancing Quirks. And if they did want to test her Quirk, well… at least she was dressed the part, still wearing as she was the tracksuit she had put on for her usual early morning run, albeit with the jacket now tied around her waist as a concession to the rising heat and humidity.

Whatever they were here for, however, they wouldn’t be doing anything until a teacher showed up. Despite being very insistent that they arrive at 8am sharp there was no one to meet the group of student as they arrived; no teachers or other staff, leaving roughly half of the newly accepted students to their own devices with no supervision and nothing to do.

Some of them were getting a little antsy.

One boy in particular, with blue skin and large, cylindrical forearms was being particularly noisy and rambunctious, shouting and raving about something or other before declaring himself the number one hero. Akeno recognised him, which was unusual because she didn’t recognise many people in her class; sure, she recognised a few people from the entrance exam in the sense that she could remember their faces of their Quirks from their distinctive appearance, but she actually remembered Hiroki’s name along with his face.

When the school had posted the results of the entrance exam for all to see, Akeno had really only been looking for her name on the list. She had started at the bottom, assuming that she would have scored closer to last than first, and stopped once she found her ranking, then she had taken a look a the top five out of curiosity; in light of this the fact that Akeno recognised Hiroki’s face meant one of two things and since she could remember everyone in the top five it really only meant one thing.

“Aren’t you ranked lower than me? You’re in the bottom seven, right?”

@ShwiggityShwah

---

---

With the wind blowing through his red mane in the late autumn breeze, Leon and his two feline partners all yawned, both lions baring their sets of four-inch-long canines. He was dressed in his uniform, foregoing the jacket as he found it too stuffy for his liking, and the tie had to go too. So it really just came down to a school shirt haphazardly buttoned up with the sleeves rolled up his unusually thick arms. Ignoring the uniform code aside, he'd now found himself in the middle of a clearing that was surrounded by the treeline, along with some other students who he couldn't possibly put a name to any of them.

"Nigh waat do yer tink they 'ad us cum 'ere for? Oi don't see any teachers or nathin' raun 'ere, boys." One of the lions, this one being Aslan, sniffed the air and turned up and around but couldn't smell out anything of note in the area. "Though oi don't nu waat any av de teachers 'ere smell loike so... Oi, yer dare!"

He called up to the student who was hovering up in the air over the field, though really it was more like the roar of a king of the jungle announcing his claim than a casual call. Sometimes he just had to give in to his wild animal instincts. Looking more closely, he saw that the airborne student was another Mutant Quirk user like himself, his physical appearance resembling that of a fly's. Now that was a face he wouldn't have forgotten from the entrance exams, not at all!

"De guy who looks loike a fly! Yer see anythin' up dare? At dis point oi-" Leon was cut off by the sudden, fierce roars let on by his two lions, as they both snapped their heads around at the loud and unreasonably blue kid whose shouts had set them off. Startling a whole flock of birds that would escape into the air from the treeline as the lions more than surely met and matched the blue one's volume, the sheer sound echoing throughout the area. "'ey naw. Down, boys, down."

@BCTheEntity@ShwiggityShwah

Kaison
You woke up at the break of dawn with what felt like pure espresso running through your veins. You felt jittery all throughout your morning routine, as if you were in a race against time and didn't just wake up two whole fucking hours before school starts. You don’t typically wake up quite this early, but you couldn’t go back to sleep if you tried. You wouldn't describe yourself as excited, nor nervous, but both are pretty accurate descriptors when you get right down to it. It's like they've cancelled each other out and left you with just a looming amorphous anticipation of things to come. When you leave extremely early for school, the explanation to yourself you settle on is that you're merely doing so on a whim. Whim or not, The crisp morning air does a lot to help clear your head, so you certainly don't regret it.

You eventually come to sit on a bench in front of New Heights. Even now, there's still an hour before school starts, so you decide to whip out your sketchbook and go over the drawings you prepared. You've thought about this for a long time, and it’s going to be difficult to have your sketchbook on you at all times, so perhaps you should start carrying some drawings around with you. Maybe it's not going to be relevant during school life, but it'll probably be good to get in the habit of keeping them on your person. Like every prepared student, you brought in some basic school supplies, and your dad understandably went a bit overboard with paper. Because of this, you have plenty of materials to transfer drawings onto and subsequently stow away within your clothing. You prepared several drawings in advance, some of animals, some of fictional characters, some of real people, and some of helpful everyday objects, such as explosives or limb-sized sentient chinese finger traps. You spend quite a while moving them onto loose paper before carefully folding them up and placing them into your various pockets. It takes quite a while, though you suppose the time-consuming part is animating them one by one. Still, putting a bunch of paper in your pockets isn’t exactly an elegant solution. You’ll have to think of a better way to carry them around in your hero outfit when you eventually get around to designing one. Or, at worst, you’ll have to design an outfit with a ton of pockets.

As you take stock of your drawings, you occasionally feel lacking for a particular obvious application of your quirk and stop to do a quick sketch. By the time you’re finally satisfied with your repertoire, you realize that other students have long since shown up and have recently started making their way towards class. You check the time and find that you should really get going already.

A quick trek through the forest behind the academy and you come to the East Track Field where you were told to meet. There are several students waiting here already, but when you realize there isn’t a teacher to be found anywhere, you can’t help but let out a quiet sigh. An hour early and yet the teacher seems to be running late. Not much to do then, you suppose. Expecting the teacher to show up momentarily, you begin staring absently at the clouds in the sky, wondering if you should try looking for your educators. Before long though, some of your classmates break you out of your reverie with a series of loud and unnecessary proclamations and/or roars. Well, as long as the teachers aren't here, you don't see why you shouldn't try to meet your classmates.

You walk up to the girl dressed in green, figuring you at least have something in common. "Excited to become a Hero? I can relate. What do you think your hero name would be? I've been having trouble coming up with mine."

@ShwiggityShwah

So right away, he got singled out. Yeah, go figure, right? Fuckin' hell. First off, some fat kid tried to get his attention, forcing Mark to look down at him. Or was that just a coat... no, no, he was definitely chunky as shit.

'...hey,' Mark replied sullenly, only to be immediately cut off by- oh goody, turbine douche was loud and way too proud! Seriously, fuck that guy, and fuck his speeches. At least one of the fitter girls pointed out that, yeah, he ranked lower than her. Oh, hang on... didn't he rank lower than Mark, too? He couldn't help but let out a grim chuckle with that realisation, before again getting distracted by... some loud, muscular guy, with lions for hands- okay, what the hell was he trying to say? Something about whether he saw anything up... dare? Dare, dere- oh, "there". If he had the features for it, Mark would have looked genuinely confused. Instead it just looked like more of a grimace than anything. The, uh, actual roaring lions didn't help, either.

'Er, yeah, I did see something, actually. The field.' He folded his lower set of arms, tilting his head as if to say "stupid question". Because it was. 'But I mean, if I saw anything important, which I guess is whatcha meant, I'd have said I saw something, man.' Was he being a bit rude? Yes, and furthermore, fuck that guy. He was stressed, he could be given a break.

"That sort of arrogance is probably what got you stuck with us bottom few."

Jamie finally spoke up after Hiroki's little speech, unamused. The otherwise unphased healer was thinking over what to do with a teacher being absent. Or atleast, that was what it seemed like. As the others talked, he patted Amy on the back, having noticed her reaction. "Don't mind him. There's always that one person in the group." He reassured her with an apologetic look. Well, more like an "I'm sorry you had to hear that" look if anything. Jamie walked over to the middle of the track, looking around.

"So, anyone wanna do a practice run?" the healer looked back to the group, doing some stretches. He concidered going to look for their teacher, but who knew? Could they be late? Or could they be hiding? This could be a test as far as Jamie was concerned, might as well keep an eye on everyone.

This could be a long day...

---

@Metastability@King Cosmos

Some girl called him out on his current rank. Yeah, when he was gooped up he fell behind, but then he was almost kicked out for causing that fight. He had no idea that it was providence a few good words that got him here in the first place. Great skill, bad attitude, combined with crap and extremely good luck allowed him to be here to mouth off. He gave a the girl a raised eye and a bit of a growl, teeth clenching. "Yeah, cause of some crap luck! Don't think its going to save your sorry ass forever! He crossed his arms, throwing his shoulders back. "Enjoy the false sense of superiority while it lasts." Pot calling the kettle black a little bit.

Then there was a bloody roar from... lets face it, probably some of the strangest quirk he's seen. It made Hiroki make a bit of a double take as he saw the lion heads on the guys... hands? He blinked. "What the-" But actually the lion did its job, by essentially breaking the train of thought in the blue skinned narcissist. It made him notice that there were some other weird characters about. "Hmph. Looks like we got a couple of weirdos in class. Hmph good. You got to stand out sometime. Especially if you're gunning for number two." Stand out, the buisness is a popularity contest sort of.

---

@Ryik

"Excited to become a Hero? I can relate. What do you think your hero name would be? I've been having trouble coming up with mine."

"Myah?" Sometimes she can't help making sounds, the snapper on her heads start panting because of the excitement. Someone talked to her, and it sounded friendly. What a great start.

She reflectively hid her oversized sleeves behind her as she stood up straight to give him her undivided attention. He was a pretty cute boy so maybe she was a little nervous too. He had those normal teen protagonist looks that gave him a charming air. She wasn't quite swooning yet, but it definitely painted him positive at first glance. "Oh- y-yeah! Really excited!" She said, her snapvine tail wagging. "Name? Oh well..." She rubbed her chin with a sleeve. "Well, I matched my name to my quirk... which, well- kind of obvious." The snapper on her tail made a biting chomp to make the sound. "So I was thinking... Venus Fly Snaps!" She kind of made a 'Sailor Moon' pose on one leg, her sleeves still hiding her 'hands'

"Maybe I can help. My name is Amelia, but you can call me Amy. What's your quirk? Maybe I can help." She said, talking fast and trying to be helpful.

Kaison

"Well, I matched my name to my quirk... which, well- kind of obvious." The snapper on her tail made a biting chomp to make the sound. "So I was thinking... Venus Fly Snaps!" She kind of made a 'Sailor Moon' pose on one leg, her sleeves still hiding her 'hands'

You can't help but laugh, pleasantly amused. "Hahaha. That's so cute!" From every angle, Venus Fly Snaps is a perfect hero name. It's suitable to her and her quirk without being plain or dull, and it's memorably catchy.

"My name is Amelia, but you can call me Amy. What's your quirk? Maybe I can help." She said, talking fast and trying to be helpful.

"I'm Kaison, and my quirk is Animation." To demonstrate, you reach into your pocket and bring out a folded-up piece of paper. After straightening it out, a picture of a butterfly is revealed. It's one of your more detailed drawings made in an attempt to pass off as a real (albeit monochrome) butterfly. It promptly begins to lift itself off of the paper and take off, coming to flutter about above Amy. "My quirk lets me animate my drawings in both meanings of the word. A name like 'Animator' would be a bit too on-the-nose, wouldn't you say?" The butterfly eventually comes down to land peacefully on Amy's shoulder.