Chapter 2: Beginnings part 2

"Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, WAKE UP!" Marie's alarm sounded. She growled and hissed as she grabbed her phone turning her alarm off.

"Damn iiiiiiittttt," she whined getting up, yeah she may have been a cat-person, but she wasn't a morning person, "get used to it marie, you're gonna need to get up this early to stay ahead of the game."

She got out her suitcase and pulled a black and blue tracksuit, with a hole in the back for her tail, out. After about half an hour in the shower, 5 minutes taming her hair and 23 seconds getting dressed, she looked at herself in the mirror, "alright, marie, you got this! Time to prove you're the queen of this jungle!"

She finished her little self-esteem speech by donning a grin, "you're never dressed without a smile!"

She had time to kill, so the cat-girl found an empty lot a couple blocks away. She had listed all her known quirk abilities in order to test them all.

"Alright, Claws?" she said bring said built in weapons out through her finger tips, "check."

Marie then moved and stacked some wooden crates that had been lying their, climbing to the top of her rudimentary tower, "acrobatics?"

She lept off of the stack, did a backflip and landed on all fours, "check!"

"Super senses?" the cat girl focused all of her attention on the noises around her, blocking out everything.

"Would you like some waffles?" she heard.

"Yeah I d- awe," she said opening her eyes. Sometimes she got confused on what was near or far in her sense of sound, but at least she could say her earshot was twice that of a normal person's.

Marie ran through the entire list of her powers ending with carving her initials into a fence as if she were puss in boots.

"U.A. U. 't ready!" Marie said, before mentally cringing at her own horrible pun, "ugh, that was bad. Wait, what time is it."

She took out her phone which read 8:34, "oh, crap gotta get going!"

The cat-quirked girl took off running toward the highway. She skidded to a halt as she hit the curb, "TAXI! Common! I gotta get to U.A! What's a chick gotta do to get a cab around here!"

"Probably speak japanese," she heard a male voice.

She turned around to see a thin boy with dark hair and eyes, with a slight accent to his voice, "ya gotta talk to them in a way they understand, eh."

"Uh… I accidentally spoke in english, didn't I?" Marie blushed.

"Yeah, ya did," the boy said yelling the japanese word for taxi, "going to U.A. eh? Same here."

"Cool, name's Marie," the cat-quirked girl said.

"Johney, take it you're not from here?" the boy said as a cab pulled up.

The two entered the taxi as Marie said, "Yeah, I'm from the U.S. actually."

"Well would do ya know, we're neighbors, I'm from Canada!" Johney said, "U.A. please."

"You got it, chief," the cabby replied.

"So, planning on being a pro-hero?" Johney asked.

"Yeah, figured it make a nice living," Marie replied.

The canadian boy laughed, "well good luck, I heard only one or two kids with animal quirks get in a year."

Marie's eyes narrowed, "hmph, well I guess that'll be me, what about you, what's your quirk?"

"Ever hear of Wind Rush?" Johney asked.

"Course I have, it's an emitter quirk that lets you control air molecules to make the air thicker or thinner at will as well as commanding it's trajectory," Marie replied, "not gonna lie, that does sound like a quirk a pro would have."

"Thanks, dudette, and I was kidding about the animal quirk thing, no need to be triggered," the canadian said.

"Whatev- wait, did you just reference a meme?" the girl questioned Johney

"Perhaps," he replied with a strait face.

"Will you stop?" Marie asked again, losing patience.

"No, I don't think I will," Johney replied.

"That ones been dead for months!" the cat girl yelled in frustration, "are you gonna do this the entire way there?!"

"No," Johney replied.

"Oh thank go-" "but actually, yes" the wind rush-quirked boy cut her off.

"DAMN IT!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. About 20 minutes later the cab into the parking lot of U.A. high. Marie burst out the door at the first chance, Johney following after paying for the cab.

"Last call for U.A. submissions, if you want in, you'd better get in here!" a voice said over the speaker, trying way too hard to sound cool by the way it was said. If Marie recalled correctly it belonged to a former pro-hero called, "Present Mic," one of the school's teachers.

The cat-quirked girl jumped on all fours and began running cat style to make up for lost time, leaping back onto her feet when she reached registration.

"Name?" the one running the booth asked.

"Marie Spade," She replied taking out I.D., "my parents filled out the application online."

A few seconds of verifying and printing later...

"Alright, then, here's your pass, and here's a pamphlet with all the information you need, Mr. Yamada will be giving a speech to all candidates in the auditorium in about 15 minutes," the man said handing her said items.

"Thanks," Marie said taking off. She was thankful she had extra time to find the auditorium because this school was huge! The cat quirked girl had just enough time to find a seat before the lights dimmed and a blond man dressed in almost all leather walked on stage.

"Greetings U.A. applicant's, I am former Pro-hero, radio star and potentially your future teacher, Present Mic! How we all doing today?" the man announced being met with silence, apart from one kid clapping…then stopping when he realised no one else was.

"Uh, well, anyway we've received and read through all of your written exams, but as most of you know, that's only part of the entrance exam," Present Mic said as a projection behind him began to show an urban area, "the second part is a practical, we will separate you into one of 5 training grounds on campus, from there you will have to battle for points by defeating simulated villains, each villain you defeat will grant you one to three points based on difficulty, there are three villain types available so keep an eye out for the heavy hitters."

Marie, who was reading the pamphlet, couldn't help but question something. Yes it did mention the villains, but it said four, not three, "must be some kind of typo."

"The more points you score, the higher your odds of acceptance are. But remember, we encourage heroic acts so if you intentionally hurt another applicant, you are disqualified," Present Mic finished, "Outside are five busses that will take you to your assigned training ground, your passes will tell you which one you're taking."

before long, the many teenagers began to clear the room. When she got outside, the cat-quirked girl saw everyone bunching up into five groups.

"Bus D, Bus D, come on, where is it?" she said to herself looking among the crowds. The bus marked "D" stuck out to her and she immediately ran toward it. Among the group sorrounding it were a wide variety of quirks, muscular teens, someone who looked half dragon, a girl telekinetically reading a book, it was quite the gallery… and quite the competition.

Marie was confident in her own and her quirks ability, sure, but experience had taught her to always think highly of your opponents, unless evidence proves otherwise. When you compete with someone you don't know, you don't know what tricks they could pull, or how they handle an obstacle. With every new opponent came a number of things that could potentially go wrong, because of this, Marie didn't plan anything out in advance, she was gonna have to role with the punches.

The group began to pour into the bus, one of the staff members ushered everyone into their seats. She directed Marie to sit with a blond boy in a suit who looked like he was ripping off Best Jeanist's haircut.

"Not exactly the best thing to wear to a battle," Marie thought to herself, "must have some kind of quirk that doesn't need him to move much."

"Really, you're pairing me with this ruffian?" the boy asked the staff member, who ignored him and moved on, the boy turned to Marie saying, "you could've at least tried to look presentable."

"Looking presentable isn't above maximum movement and agility," Marie shot back.

"'Always leave an impression,' that's what mother always said," the boy said, "Gorudo Daichi, but of course you wouldn't know that."

"Marie Spade," the cat-girl replied, "So, what's your quirk?"

"It's far superior to your pathetic cat quirk, I can say that much," Daichi said(for those who don't know, in japan your given name comes after your family name).

"What, is your quirk a superhumanly large ego?" Marie retorted causing the boy to growl.

Before he had the chance to react, the staff member said, "alright, we'll be at the training ground in about 5 minutes, If I were you I'd get ready, you're gonna need every once of your skill to make it through."

The american cat-girl smirked, "Bring it on."

"I intend to," Daichi quietly replied.