Snippet #2675675

“Midori, eh? I like it. It’s got a certain ring to it.”

“Sir, we need the space to work.”

“I won’t leave my wife!”

“Mr. Castle, it is standard procedure in the event that-“

“She won’t have developed a dangerous quirk at birth. I’ll bet my life on it!”

“A 5% chance is enough for the government to pass laws, Mr. Castle.”

“THERE’S NO TIME, PERRY, JUST GO!” Gina interrupted with a pained gasp. The severity of the shriek snapped the doctors into third gear, Peregrine stood stunned as the sudden rush in movement left him in the dust. “I’M A HERO, DAMNIT! I’LL BE FINE!”

“AUGH!!” Peregrine paced swiftly outside of the delivery room. What he wouldn’t do to have some soft earth or stone to grind within the hospital. The consistently sterile corridors made him feel powerless, even more so than he did in the delivery room. For once in his life, his mind processed remotely selfish thoughts. What he wouldn’t give to be in the room as his daughter as she came into the world. What he would sacrifice. Some of the thoughts even frightened Peregrine. Was his daughter such a big deal to warrant such… villainous thoughts?

He caught himself, half-ashamed, but relieved that he never voiced any of those concerns aloud. However, he suspected that if he did, the people around him would have understood that irrational thought. Fathers-to-be often acted irrational at the moment of truth. He knew that Gina was correct. She was a hero, Peregrine’s other half, and both were the strongest Toronto’s ever known… but this was not taking down the Lake Ontario Terror. The Terror was easy. The Terror was held in a prison in the hottest desert, where the moisture was perfectly lacking.

As he paced, the red-haired, seven-foot hero stole a glance out the window. Police were barely keeping a handle on the reporters and camera operators on the other side of the street. Every one of them were there for the same reason, much to Peregrine’s annoyance.

Falcon Fortress and Werewolf were the mightiest heroes in Toronto. They were local legends, whose names reached out half-way across the province, and even partially into the states across the Great Lakes. They, along with The Grizzly, Jumping Jack, The Game, Nickel Son, and Chill of the North, were some of the biggest names in Canada. Jack and Chill in particular were close friends of Peregrine’s. They were keeping an eye on Toronto whilst the two were at this… admittedly enormous moment of weakness. No-doubt Peregrine would owe those two some serious favours. He did not care, he’d pay what ever dues they would demand. His child’s smile would be worth any favour.

The police also set up a strong perimeter, with spotters and snipers in every adjacent building, and several lesser-known heroes patrolling the areas beyond. At this very moment, the hospital Peregrine stood in was the safest spot on Earth, save for anywhere All Might, or any of the other Top Four stood.

The shouting of instructions and pain did not help Peregrine relax. His legs wobbled as he bit his lip. He couldn’t bear to sit down, else his spaghetti-like legs wouldn’t allow him to stand up again. He had to move. He had to do something. That’s what heroes do. They do something when all others could not. The shouting climaxed in a savage roar that left Peregrine dumbstuck, and his throat dry. The commotion was followed by silence, broken shortly after by tiny whimpering and crying. The voice was too small and too soft to be the werewolf-esque woman. The door opened a few seconds later. Peregrine clasped both hands together. His fingers squeezed, coming close to crushing each other. “Is she…?”

“Without a quirk at birth? Yes. You can come in, Mr. Cas-” Peregrine did not hesitate. His large frame almost bowled the doctor over. His blazing red hair flipped backward from the sudden acceleration.

“She’s got your eyes, Perry,” Gina said.

Peregrine laughed, “She’s… She’s got my everything, it looks like.” She looked the spitting image of Peregrine’s old baby pictures.

“I’m glad,” Gina’s werewolf-like mouth curled into a fanged smile, “I’d hate to raise a wolf cub. You remember those ancient documentaries? Those cubs bite!”

“Thank goodness for that, eh?” Peregrine chuckled. “Aw… look at you…”

“Midori… Castle,” the doctor started as he wrote down some notes on a clipboard. “Date of birth… 1:23PM Local time. May 19th… year…”

Peregrine did not hear the rest. He was in another world as he gazed upon the closed eyes of his daughter. When they would first open later on, he would see eyes that perfectly mirrored his own.

—

“Ca-astle!” Gina called. Her double-jointed hind legs tapped padded and clawed feet lightly across the hardwood kitchen floor. Her steps silenced completely when she crossed over the living room carpeting and towards the stairs leading to the elevated platform that was Castle’s bedroom. “Ca-astle, it’s time to get up!”

The apartment seemed to have jumped right off the storyboard of the old Superman cartoon. The main room was enormously spacious with a high ceiling. Mother’s bedroom was located in a rectangular “building” within the apartment, within the large main room The kitchen and bathrooms branched off the spacious living room, leaving plenty of space where huge floor-to-ceiling windows were framed at the far end. The view of Excelsior Valley was complemented with a balcony. In a fifty-year-old city, modelling it after a Golden Age-inspired Metropolis seemed like the only reasonable thing to do. Theirs was not the only apartment of it’s kind. Rather, it was technically one of the cheaper ones. If a simple journalist like Lois Lane or Clark Kent could afford an apartment like that, Werewolf certainly could with her earnings, combined with the inheritance left behind by Peregrine.

Castle’s plant-like hair accidentally got tangled up between blankets. She did not absorb that much moonlight comparatively, so she moved with an almost drunken sway. She groaned in annoyance. “I can barely move, mom…”

“That’s what you get when you roll around, You’re not doing yourself any favours blocking the light.” Gina called.

“It’s so hot down here…” Castle complained, “This bed’s like a furnace…” She had been tossing and turning to get cool air flow in her bed, and the blanket ended up covering her hair by the time she started snoring uncomfortably.

“Well, you’ll be moving to a dormitory where you can control the temperature,” Castle’s mother’s head poked up from the bottom of the stairs as she outstretched her double-jointed hind legs, “You know what today is?”

Castle suddenly surged with adrenaline as she threw off the covers. Her large green eyes shot open, and wavered as she strained to keep them open and focused. “No! Oh no oh no- am I late?!”

“It’s today,” Gina held up a plate with bacon, eggs, and toast. “Don’t worry, you’re not late… yet.”

Castle emitted a frightened “eep” as she tripped out of bed and hurried down to meet her mother. Without skipping a beat, she immediately wrapped her root-like fingers around parts of the breakfast and wolfed them down, starting specifically with the toast. Castle did not need to eat. Her roots and hair always could manage to provide her with the nutrition her body needs. As a redundancy, and especially in the event that she found herself in consistent darkness, ordinary food would keep her alive just like any other human.

Plus, every once in a while, it was nice for her mother to treat her. It helped soften the scary image of her wolfish face in the dark. Gina laughed, “At least you inherited something from me,” she joked.

Castle looked everything unlike her mother. Fair, pale, almost green skin, matching the cuffs of leaves erupting into root-like appendages along her hands and feet, and the green hair of leaves and stems that sat atop her head. Her green eyes were exactly like her father’s. Her hair used to be a bold red just like her father’s, before her quirk developed itself. Gina did not move as Castle downed every scrap of food on the plate. The greases left on her fingers were quickly absorbed through her roots. “Thanks, mom!” Castle chimed.

“I’m actually surprised you passed, to be honest.” Gina’s voice had the softest growling undertone, unsurprising considering her physique, “I remember my entrance exam at Paragon involved fighting robots. I beat your father’s score, I remember.”

“I actually disabled a few robots using some well-placed hair clippings. Clogged up the mechanics, eh?”

“Clever. But that seems like a double-edged sword.”

“Yeah, yeah, it was all I could come up with… Anyway, most of my score came from “Rescue” points, where I helped other examinees who were getting fatigued from the fight.”

“The Rescue points.” Gina smiled, “Not many remember those are a thing.”

Yeah… myself included… “Anyway, I gotta get packed u-”

Castle only just noticed that Gina had been holding the plate with one clawed hand. The other one was holding a hand bag and a duffel bag. A backpack would not suffice for her daughter, for putting it on would prove tedious when it came to brushing her relatively heavy hair out of the way every single time. The duffel bag appeared to be packed to the brim.

“Your things are already packed,” Gina replied, “You should know- you packed them last night.”

Castle took her bags and hopped in place. The energy provided by the ever-growing morning light through the windows began to fill her reserves. She slowed down as she admitted. “First day at Paragon… I know I managed to pass in the Department of Heroics, but I’m really nervous…”

“You’ll do fine,” her mother smiled a fanged grin as she lowered herself so her face was level with her daughter’s. In the daylight, the teeth were not so bad to see. In the dark, the things that tore many a villain still frightened Castle at night. “You have a wonderful quirk, and everyone will see that- if they haven’t already.”

Part of Castle wanted this promise of greatness as a hero to be a lie, if only so that she could leave. Then she and mother could return to Toronto, to bring back the old hobby shop, back to the way things were. However, that would be a greater lie. Father was gone, and nothing can go back to the way things were. She could only go forward. The Crumbler would not wait for Castle to get strong, after all. The Crumbler had to atone.

Gina then pointed to a personal gym that had not been in the corner last night. The gym was packed in a semi-transparent box for security to easily look through. “I’ll deliver that to the dorms later today. You’ll want to train your body when you’re in your dorm room. It’d be good to cover all the basics.” A clawed hand gently brushed over Castle’s fair, skinny arm. “You’ll need to be strong in order to survive the courses.”

After a quick shower in the corner bathroom and subsequent dressing, and with a tearful and proud farewell from Gina, Castle was out of the apartment. The roots of her bare feet absorbed nutrients from the carpeted hallway floor as she made her way to the stairs, down several flights, and out the door. The elevator was confined and dark, unlike the wide open windows of the stairwell Castle loved to use. The morning sun bled through the windows, filling the girl with energy as she walked. By the time she left the apartment front door, she was entirely the opposite of when she first woke up. She was energized, and ready for the day. She ran, barefoot, up and down streets and roads, through Excelsior Valley.

The relatively new city held a shiny, spick-and-span look compared to the cliffs and dusty wastes that surrounded the location. Much like the nuclear bombs generations ago, this location served as ideal grounds for testing and developing Quirks. It was very smart of the Founder, and Principal, to set the valley as the location of a Heroics Academy. Yuuei was probably envious of this spacious, sunny, and construction-friendly location, compared to the tight quarters the Japanese school had to work with.

Her green plant hair swayed as she jogged. Her breathing was perfectly even, almost as if she were standing still. Her legs did not easily feel fatigue. So long as her hair remained in the sunlight, she could jog indefinitely. Hard sprinting, or carrying heavier objects like her duffel bag, on the other hand, was a different matter. She could only sprint for short bursts before she needed to take a breather, a normal behaviour for a fifteen-year-old girl who did not compete in sports… though now she wished that she should have.

—

Logan performed his morning routine. A long jog around a section of Excelsior Valley after basic strength training. He sweat up a storm, turning his long black locks shiny and wet with sweat. He often wiped his forehead with an arm band. His jog continued, through his heavy, yet steady panting, as his music player blasted some ancient history, “rock and roll”. His run came to an end when he arrived at the Auto-body shop. Over top of the shop was his home. Much like ancient European houses, Logan’s place was a home upstairs, and workshop downstairs. He had built the place with his bare hands… holding power tools. Many Quirk-gifted citizens laughed at his relatively slow progress.

He was a young Quirkless man, probably the only Quirkless in the entirety of the town. Much like the Quirkless, he led a humble life. He fixed cars with skill and care few Quirk-gifted souls could properly match. However, that was probably because most Quirk-gifted souls did not specifically train to repair vehicles, especially not with their flashy quirks.

As he approached the front door to his home and workshop, he noticed a five-foot girl jogging by, emitting a trail of waving roots, stalks, and leaves. He got a good look at the girl’s face, though she did not notice him. Logan was suddenly filled with puzzlement. This girl was strangely familiar.

Peregrine…? he wondered. That was impossible. Even Logan knew the Falcon Fortress was gone. No, that’s gotta his daughter. That’s right, cousin Gina moved here, Logan hummed as he unlocked the garage door and entered. Jeez, she looks just like him.

He washed up quickly in the upstairs bathroom, and began unlocking the garage doors, ready to open for business. A Quirky woman with hair made of rattling gold rings stepped out of her car. Her husband appeared to have been pushing the vehicle with what appeared to be a directional forcefield. “Hey Logan,” the man greeted. He was twice Logan’s age, but half the size. The man could project a hard light shield the size of a dinner plate. It was hardly a suitable size to block attacks from villains, but the man discovered early in life that it ignored the laws of physics. It was discovered to be a perfect quirk for pushing objects with little effort. The woman’s rings seemed to emit music, calming like wind chimes. Neither were particularly hero-worthy quirks, but they were not without use.

“Horace, Pat,” Logan returned, “Got a problem?”

“Yep. The ignition is fine now, thanks to you, but now I think we’ve got a leak.”

Logan nodded as the garage doors finished opening. “A’ight, I gotcha. You guys gonna be alright heading to work?” He asked.

“It’s a beautiful day for a walk,” Pat replied, her hair rings clanked and sparkled in the morning sun.

Logan chuckled, “Well, you have a wonderful day. I’ll figure this out, and get it fixed in a jiffy.”

“You always do, Logan!” Horace barked a laugh as he and his wife strolled off, hand-in-hand.

Logan worked the shop alone for the first several hours in the morning. After that, the student interns arrived and pretty much finished Logan’s jobs, or practiced repairs on extra parts the Quirkless man had around. He brought the car into the garage and secured it to a hydraulic elevating platform. He’d determine the source of this leak within the first minute.

“Odd… it almost looks like…” Logan ran a finger lightly over the rather obvious tiny square hole. The edges curved inward, rather than outward, like someone punctured it with a nail. Logan produced his phone and snapped a few clear photos from different angles. He imagined he’d need them if this turned out to be sabotage. Until then, Logan had a job to do. “I’m not a hero,” he muttered like some sort of mantra. He then continued work. “They’re already gone anyw…

He paused... A minute was hardly enough time to lose them. Logan closed the doors and began running in the direction Horace and Pat strolled off. At the very least, they should see the photos.

—

Paragon Academy’s front gate was open. Dozens upon dozens of students and teachers from different departments were milling to and fro across the campus. Dozens more were more than likely simple visitors, or workers on-contract. The lack of obvious, hard-core security seemed to indicate that Paragon had no worry about villain attacks. Hardly a surprise, as Excelsior Valley had more good-hearted people with powerful quirks than dust clouds swooping in from the surrounding wastes. The only one who could possibly take on the entire city area and walk away in one piece would probably be All Might himself. Perish the thought of All Might going rogue. Perish the thought.

Castle’s relaxation ended when she noticed that she and many others could pass through the gate because of a barely visible forcefield. A reader detected her school I.D., and the forcefield shifted a Castle-sized hole for her to pass through. It wasn’t long before the crowds thinned into nothingness as everyone made their way inside the campus buildings. Being a Paragon alumni, Gina would have little difficulty getting the personal gym move sorted out.

Castle produced her phone from her hand bag. She resisted the urge to play Tetris in favour of pulling up the notes she had jotted down based on her acceptance letter. Castle was to make her way to her dorm room to drop off her stuff, and then to Class A-4, the Department of Heroics. The first day of truly becoming a hero, and the rest of her life. She relished the opportunity to make her father proud, were he still breathing. She still had time to spare, even after dropping her duffel bag off at her assigned dorm room, but she still jogged up and down corridors, weaving around students and personnel of any sort.

The classroom was sterile like a classroom would be at the beginning of a semester. The desks were perfectly spaced in a grid fashion. Each and every chair and table was sturdy; none of them had warped legs. At the front, facing away from an enormous wall-spanning blackboard, the teacher’s desk sat. The teacher’s desk, unlike the maple student desks, was made of solid oak. The edges were cut into form-fitting wedges. No screws were used to fasten this desk together. Every desk shone with a fresh coat of wax with a matte polish to dull the intensity of the shine. There were no windows to be seen. On the wall opposite the side with the door, many slots seemed closed off for reasons unknown. If Castle had to guess, the slots seemed to be… compartments of some kind.

Other students were already there. Only a few were familiar from the entrance exams. Castle skipped to an empty desk near the middle and took her seat. The uniform was uncomfortable and stifling, but she would have to make do… unless this school didn’t do with uniforms like her old schools.

Hey, there’s a thought, she smiled at nothing in particular, what if my hero’s costume becomes my uniform? Oh I hope the Support Class designed something wonderful.

The teacher- a huge burly man with a pet dog and a flask on-hand entered the room. Mr. Unbreakable was not quite as tall as Falcon Fortress. The man seemed very eager to play favourites, pulling aside a boy he called “Nephew”. The boy was slightly taller, with unusually coloured hair. Castle imagined that, like her, this boy’s quirk had something to do with his hair.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the boy performed a rudimentary task to retort against another boy seated at the front, using a long “rope” of hair to crack a desk in half. Using quirks indoors? Castle pondered as she stared incredulously at the unnecessary destruction. Her hand shot up. “Sir, using our quirks indoors seems irresponsible. Shouldn’t we be demonstrating our powers outside, where we have the space to let loose?”

“Who might you be?” a student a little farther to the back asked.

“I’m Castle,” the green-haired girl replied briskly as she crossed her leaf-covered arms. “You can probably figure out my quirk.” She flicked her plant-like hair as she turned to face the student in particular. “I can’t just show it off in a classroom where nobody’s hurt, though.

Castle set her hand bag on the floor. She heard Paragon was the place Peregrine and Gina had learned to become heroes. This was nothing like she expected. She was expecting… professionals…