MidwayLives
"What's your favorite scary movie...?"
The first person to manifest a Quirk was a newborn baby in the city of Qingqing; their ability was to emanate light from their body. After that incident, many people around the world began to manifest different kinds of special abilities. While the cause of the Quirk phenomenon is unknown, it has been theorized that the development of Quirks was caused by the spread of a virus carried by mice. Currently, around 80% of the world population possesses a Quirk.
That means you! Some quirks aren't designed for combat or even any heroric deeds in general. Most people get by barely using them or just for day to day life. But you and others like you are different. You want to help others and the first step to that? Becoming a pro hero! The road ahead is dangerous and many have had their hopes crushed, their ambitions crashed against the jagged rocks of reality!
It probably wouldn't be too much of surprise for any hero in training worth their salt to know of U.A. High School. The top academy for heroics in all of Japan! Many great heroes have spent time in America honing their skills and training before returning to the country that they knew as home. One such example was the previous #NUMBER 1 hero in Japan: All Might! After a vicious battle with the criminal All for One, All Might effectively announced his retirement and others have stepped in to try and fill the huge muscle filled void he'd left behind. However, Japan's heroes are just one small slice of the equation...
Other countries understandably have dealt with the manifestation of Quirks in their populace in their own ways. One of the higher ranked academies is Held Academy in Berlin, Germany. However, not wanting to be shown up by anyone else, be it Japan or whoever, the US has their own hero training school based in New York City: KE High School.
Enroll in our school and see if you have what it takes to become a hero! But be careful, where there are heroes, there are also villains seeking to undo all the good that's been done around them!
(Retooled an old idea for a 1x1!
)!
~~~
"Joe" is just the current alias of one the best enforcers in the Gambino crime family. Or at least he had been. Having come to America as a child with his parents to try and live with some relatives in America after times had gotten rough in Italy, the young 'Joe' was awestruck by the sights and sounds of the Big Apple. Unaware of the grim situation his father had gotten him and his mother into by being forced to pay protection money to his father's brother-who happened to be part of the Gambinos, 'Joe' sought to become one of the best baseball players this country had ever seen. Not wanting his son to ever realize until he was much older how bad things really were, his father helped him pursue his dream and took him to the batting cages every other weekend. For the longest while, 'Joe' remained blissfully unaware and often went to sleep dreaming of crowds cheering his name.
It was around when he was four that his parents and by extension the mafia learned of his Quirk. At first 'Joe' couldn't really explain it(it seemed far too complicated to him as a child)but once he got the message across through crue illustrations demonstrating numbers appearing around people/objects he focused on, the gang was suddenly very interested in it. This is where the story starts to get grim for poor Joe. Refusing to have her son used as some kind of tool for the mob knowing that they likely had some unsavory quirk users of their own among their ranks, she attempted to take Joe away under cover of darkness one night to move to her sister's in New Jersey. His father had been become something of a severe alcoholic out of the growing debt he found himself in and the interest that the mobsters expressed in his son's quirk and when he caught his wife trying to escape with their son? He beat her viciously forcing Joe to step in with the closest thing at hand: his metal baseball bat.
Using his quirk which one of the Gambinos jokingly called '20/20', he noticed the 100% over his father's head and swung for the fences. It was a home run but the downside was that while he'd be staying 'home', his father was gone. In return for letting Joe and his mother move in with his mother's sister and disposing of the body, Joe would have to work odd jobs for them until he paid off his late father's debt. Feeling an immense guilt for what he'd done and not wanting any further harm to come to his mother, Joe agreed and as he got older, the tasks got more and more grim. At first it was simple drug dealing, theft, small time stuff like that. But as Joe matured, he continued to play baseball in his off time(in between visiting his constantly worrying mother and reassuring her he was ok)something that his superiors took not of. Offering to cut the debt in half in return for Joe becoming an enforcer, how could he refuse? The years continued to click by until Joe met....her.
Her name was Eliza and she was one of a kind. Tall, taller than him even like one of those Amazons, short black hair, muscled all over and her Quirk was a perfect supplement to his. It was called 'Lock' and she could manifest manacles out of her wrists and feet, the strength of said bindings depending on how much she was sweating. So, of course, Joe met her at the batting cages one time and from there the two proceeded to hit it off. She didn't exactly look the part but she was the kind of girl that you could bring home to mom. Still, Joe couldn't do that. His mother had been through so much that if something happened and she saw her little boy's happiness yanked away from him a second time, she might not have had the strength to go on and he wouldn't be responsible for the death of both of his parents.
She made a deal with him. They'd take his mother and run away, just run away. Maybe move to the UK or somewhere where the Gambinos couldn't touch them. Joe genuinely considered the idea but his mother for all that had happened to her loved it here. It wouldn't be right to go and leave her behind. At the same time, the two had been dating in secret, until one of Joe's superiors, a slimy beast by the name of Oscar Castellano spied on the two and saw them embracing. Confronting Joe later that night, Oscar made it very clear what he wanted. He wanted Eliza and if Joe wanted to keep his mother and his aunt alive and well, he'd back off. Higherups didn't reveal their quirks to grunts unless they were flaunting their position and Oscar saw this as good a time as any. His Quirk was known as 'Bulletstorm' and he could turn his fingertips/hands into guns. Knowing that Joe was his superior in physical combat and being wary of his Quirk, he threatened Joe's mother to get close enough to turn his left hand into the barrel of a shotgun and press it against Joe's stomach.
Joe reluctantly agreed.
His meetings with Eliza grew short and soon he stopped meeting her altogether. When she'd try to call him, he simply wouldn't answer. He loved Eliza with all his heart but the guilt would have eaten him alive if his mother was killed simply because her curse of a child decided to make the mistake of falling in love. After a while, he'd hoped that Oscar eventually just lost interest and went about his life. But things were never that easy, not in his life. One day after coming back from a particularly rough 'client' who gave Joe as good as he got(earning him a couple of bruised ribs and a black eye), he saw two goons dragging a woman into Oscar's office. It was Eliza.
He leaned up against the wall of the hallway and pulled his fedora down so as not to be spotted. But he'd forgotten about his baseball bat which was still strapped to his back. She called out to him and whatever he would have said was cut off as Oscar stepped out of his office and saw the two. He told Joe that Eliza had refused every single one of his advances, believing that he had Joe killed in order to try and hook up with her. So they were going to give her one last chance. Either date him or he really WOULD kill Joe. Forming his left hand into a 44. Magnum revolver, he asked Joe one question.
"Do you still love her?"
Joe said yes.
He killed Eliza right then and there. Joe was sure bits and pieces of brain landed on the brim of his hat. Everything after that was a blur. He activated his quirk and killed Oscar's bodyguards and smashed Oscar's fingers before he could shift his hands again. Whatever happened after that was a mystery to him. Well, most of it anyway. He could no longer stay as who he'd been before. The Gambinos would not take the murder of one of their own lying down. He'd be made an example out of and if not him? Then his mother. So there was only one option left for him.
Standing near the docks, ready to tie a cement brink to his leg, Joe paused as he heard footsteps behind him. Gambinos? No, they would have just gunned him down from the car. The three who approached him were Quirk users like him and they had an offer to make.
"Join us and we'll keep you and yours safe."
What choice did he have? He accepted and became the fourth member of the Bushwhacker Gang.
~~~
It'd felt strange, the whole 'joining another gang' thing.
Taking down the Gambinos wouldn't have been easy by himself, not at all. He'd go as far as to say it was impossible. But even though there were days his confidence this motley crew was anything more than a ragtag band of misfits, the man who simply went by 'Joe' these days kept up his end of the bargain as it were. Total loyalty to the cause: which was doing something about the corruption that lurked within hero society: the same people who'd turned a blind eye to Joe after he'd asked them for help.
'That's why I'm doin this.'
Walking down the sidewalk in downtown Manhattan, his metal baseball bat strapped to his back, Joe reached up and adjusted his similarly matched baseball cap. Looking at the two youths accompanying him, he sighed. 'Villians' though they were in the eyes of the law, Joe couldn't help but find that kind of reputation hard to stick on these two. The one to Joe's left: Peter Demme-17-villian name: Fly High and who had the quirk 'Butterfly' giving him the colorful wings of aforementioned insect and the ability to spew nectar to blind enemies. While others like Joe at least attempted to blend in by wearing a jacket and jeans over his baseball themed uniform, Fly/Peter's wings poked out through crudely cut holes in the back of his pastel sweater. The one to Joe's right was Alan Bradley-18-villian name: Endurance wore a plain red shirt that at one point had been a sweater only for Endurance/Alan to have cut the sleeves off. A key thing to note would have been his jean shorts which happened to tie into his quirk: 'Increasing' -one that allowed him to focus his energy in his legs allowing for faster movement, greater durability, and being able to perform such feats as kicking through concrete walls.
The three had been sent out by the gang's leader on a mission: Recruitment!
Hero society wouldn't exactly be forced to confront it's corrupt side with only four people after all.
'Joe...HEY JOE!"
"Huh??" Joe exclaimed, having been shaken from his thoughts by Fly calling for him. "What's up, Fly? I was deep in my thoughts for a second there. S'not too often that gets to happen when the Boss sends me out with you two."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Endurance/Alan questioned to which Joe neglected to give a response. Fly brushed it off and continued.
"What kinda person do you think we should even be looking for?? I mean, right now, we're barely breaking news here! I wouldn't even say we're smalltime! We'd need somebody that'd help give us that extra push, y'know? Really get us on the map!" Joe pulled up his cap and ran a hand through his greasy black hair. "Eh, all I think we need is somebody who can pull their weight. I'd leave anything else up to the Boss to figure out. S'not my place to make decisions on where or what we do."
"That's just Joe's way of saying he doesn't know shit."
*bonk*
The bat seemed to have somehow come loose from the straps holding it to Joe's back. Resulting in a swift knock to Endurance's head.
"Ow!"
"Oops." Joe mumured softly as he readjusted the bat. Totally an accident. "We'll find someone, Fly. Just gonna take some time that's all."
Rewind
That means you! Some quirks aren't designed for combat or even any heroric deeds in general. Most people get by barely using them or just for day to day life. But you and others like you are different. You want to help others and the first step to that? Becoming a pro hero! The road ahead is dangerous and many have had their hopes crushed, their ambitions crashed against the jagged rocks of reality!
It probably wouldn't be too much of surprise for any hero in training worth their salt to know of U.A. High School. The top academy for heroics in all of Japan! Many great heroes have spent time in America honing their skills and training before returning to the country that they knew as home. One such example was the previous #NUMBER 1 hero in Japan: All Might! After a vicious battle with the criminal All for One, All Might effectively announced his retirement and others have stepped in to try and fill the huge muscle filled void he'd left behind. However, Japan's heroes are just one small slice of the equation...
Other countries understandably have dealt with the manifestation of Quirks in their populace in their own ways. One of the higher ranked academies is Held Academy in Berlin, Germany. However, not wanting to be shown up by anyone else, be it Japan or whoever, the US has their own hero training school based in New York City: KE High School.
Enroll in our school and see if you have what it takes to become a hero! But be careful, where there are heroes, there are also villains seeking to undo all the good that's been done around them!
(Retooled an old idea for a 1x1!
)!~~~
"Joe" is just the current alias of one the best enforcers in the Gambino crime family. Or at least he had been. Having come to America as a child with his parents to try and live with some relatives in America after times had gotten rough in Italy, the young 'Joe' was awestruck by the sights and sounds of the Big Apple. Unaware of the grim situation his father had gotten him and his mother into by being forced to pay protection money to his father's brother-who happened to be part of the Gambinos, 'Joe' sought to become one of the best baseball players this country had ever seen. Not wanting his son to ever realize until he was much older how bad things really were, his father helped him pursue his dream and took him to the batting cages every other weekend. For the longest while, 'Joe' remained blissfully unaware and often went to sleep dreaming of crowds cheering his name.
It was around when he was four that his parents and by extension the mafia learned of his Quirk. At first 'Joe' couldn't really explain it(it seemed far too complicated to him as a child)but once he got the message across through crue illustrations demonstrating numbers appearing around people/objects he focused on, the gang was suddenly very interested in it. This is where the story starts to get grim for poor Joe. Refusing to have her son used as some kind of tool for the mob knowing that they likely had some unsavory quirk users of their own among their ranks, she attempted to take Joe away under cover of darkness one night to move to her sister's in New Jersey. His father had been become something of a severe alcoholic out of the growing debt he found himself in and the interest that the mobsters expressed in his son's quirk and when he caught his wife trying to escape with their son? He beat her viciously forcing Joe to step in with the closest thing at hand: his metal baseball bat.
Using his quirk which one of the Gambinos jokingly called '20/20', he noticed the 100% over his father's head and swung for the fences. It was a home run but the downside was that while he'd be staying 'home', his father was gone. In return for letting Joe and his mother move in with his mother's sister and disposing of the body, Joe would have to work odd jobs for them until he paid off his late father's debt. Feeling an immense guilt for what he'd done and not wanting any further harm to come to his mother, Joe agreed and as he got older, the tasks got more and more grim. At first it was simple drug dealing, theft, small time stuff like that. But as Joe matured, he continued to play baseball in his off time(in between visiting his constantly worrying mother and reassuring her he was ok)something that his superiors took not of. Offering to cut the debt in half in return for Joe becoming an enforcer, how could he refuse? The years continued to click by until Joe met....her.
Her name was Eliza and she was one of a kind. Tall, taller than him even like one of those Amazons, short black hair, muscled all over and her Quirk was a perfect supplement to his. It was called 'Lock' and she could manifest manacles out of her wrists and feet, the strength of said bindings depending on how much she was sweating. So, of course, Joe met her at the batting cages one time and from there the two proceeded to hit it off. She didn't exactly look the part but she was the kind of girl that you could bring home to mom. Still, Joe couldn't do that. His mother had been through so much that if something happened and she saw her little boy's happiness yanked away from him a second time, she might not have had the strength to go on and he wouldn't be responsible for the death of both of his parents.
She made a deal with him. They'd take his mother and run away, just run away. Maybe move to the UK or somewhere where the Gambinos couldn't touch them. Joe genuinely considered the idea but his mother for all that had happened to her loved it here. It wouldn't be right to go and leave her behind. At the same time, the two had been dating in secret, until one of Joe's superiors, a slimy beast by the name of Oscar Castellano spied on the two and saw them embracing. Confronting Joe later that night, Oscar made it very clear what he wanted. He wanted Eliza and if Joe wanted to keep his mother and his aunt alive and well, he'd back off. Higherups didn't reveal their quirks to grunts unless they were flaunting their position and Oscar saw this as good a time as any. His Quirk was known as 'Bulletstorm' and he could turn his fingertips/hands into guns. Knowing that Joe was his superior in physical combat and being wary of his Quirk, he threatened Joe's mother to get close enough to turn his left hand into the barrel of a shotgun and press it against Joe's stomach.
Joe reluctantly agreed.
His meetings with Eliza grew short and soon he stopped meeting her altogether. When she'd try to call him, he simply wouldn't answer. He loved Eliza with all his heart but the guilt would have eaten him alive if his mother was killed simply because her curse of a child decided to make the mistake of falling in love. After a while, he'd hoped that Oscar eventually just lost interest and went about his life. But things were never that easy, not in his life. One day after coming back from a particularly rough 'client' who gave Joe as good as he got(earning him a couple of bruised ribs and a black eye), he saw two goons dragging a woman into Oscar's office. It was Eliza.
He leaned up against the wall of the hallway and pulled his fedora down so as not to be spotted. But he'd forgotten about his baseball bat which was still strapped to his back. She called out to him and whatever he would have said was cut off as Oscar stepped out of his office and saw the two. He told Joe that Eliza had refused every single one of his advances, believing that he had Joe killed in order to try and hook up with her. So they were going to give her one last chance. Either date him or he really WOULD kill Joe. Forming his left hand into a 44. Magnum revolver, he asked Joe one question.
"Do you still love her?"
Joe said yes.
He killed Eliza right then and there. Joe was sure bits and pieces of brain landed on the brim of his hat. Everything after that was a blur. He activated his quirk and killed Oscar's bodyguards and smashed Oscar's fingers before he could shift his hands again. Whatever happened after that was a mystery to him. Well, most of it anyway. He could no longer stay as who he'd been before. The Gambinos would not take the murder of one of their own lying down. He'd be made an example out of and if not him? Then his mother. So there was only one option left for him.
Standing near the docks, ready to tie a cement brink to his leg, Joe paused as he heard footsteps behind him. Gambinos? No, they would have just gunned him down from the car. The three who approached him were Quirk users like him and they had an offer to make.
"Join us and we'll keep you and yours safe."
What choice did he have? He accepted and became the fourth member of the Bushwhacker Gang.
~~~
It'd felt strange, the whole 'joining another gang' thing.
Taking down the Gambinos wouldn't have been easy by himself, not at all. He'd go as far as to say it was impossible. But even though there were days his confidence this motley crew was anything more than a ragtag band of misfits, the man who simply went by 'Joe' these days kept up his end of the bargain as it were. Total loyalty to the cause: which was doing something about the corruption that lurked within hero society: the same people who'd turned a blind eye to Joe after he'd asked them for help.
'That's why I'm doin this.'
Walking down the sidewalk in downtown Manhattan, his metal baseball bat strapped to his back, Joe reached up and adjusted his similarly matched baseball cap. Looking at the two youths accompanying him, he sighed. 'Villians' though they were in the eyes of the law, Joe couldn't help but find that kind of reputation hard to stick on these two. The one to Joe's left: Peter Demme-17-villian name: Fly High and who had the quirk 'Butterfly' giving him the colorful wings of aforementioned insect and the ability to spew nectar to blind enemies. While others like Joe at least attempted to blend in by wearing a jacket and jeans over his baseball themed uniform, Fly/Peter's wings poked out through crudely cut holes in the back of his pastel sweater. The one to Joe's right was Alan Bradley-18-villian name: Endurance wore a plain red shirt that at one point had been a sweater only for Endurance/Alan to have cut the sleeves off. A key thing to note would have been his jean shorts which happened to tie into his quirk: 'Increasing' -one that allowed him to focus his energy in his legs allowing for faster movement, greater durability, and being able to perform such feats as kicking through concrete walls.
The three had been sent out by the gang's leader on a mission: Recruitment!
Hero society wouldn't exactly be forced to confront it's corrupt side with only four people after all.
'Joe...HEY JOE!"
"Huh??" Joe exclaimed, having been shaken from his thoughts by Fly calling for him. "What's up, Fly? I was deep in my thoughts for a second there. S'not too often that gets to happen when the Boss sends me out with you two."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Endurance/Alan questioned to which Joe neglected to give a response. Fly brushed it off and continued.
"What kinda person do you think we should even be looking for?? I mean, right now, we're barely breaking news here! I wouldn't even say we're smalltime! We'd need somebody that'd help give us that extra push, y'know? Really get us on the map!" Joe pulled up his cap and ran a hand through his greasy black hair. "Eh, all I think we need is somebody who can pull their weight. I'd leave anything else up to the Boss to figure out. S'not my place to make decisions on where or what we do."
"That's just Joe's way of saying he doesn't know shit."
*bonk*
The bat seemed to have somehow come loose from the straps holding it to Joe's back. Resulting in a swift knock to Endurance's head.
"Ow!"
"Oops." Joe mumured softly as he readjusted the bat. Totally an accident. "We'll find someone, Fly. Just gonna take some time that's all."
Rewind
