I really want to thank Egotistical Casual so much for this. I really mean this. For trusting me with a story that he told me was his honest favorite, I promise to do it just.

I mean, I first came across this story when I was in the tenth grade and I just instantly fell in love with it from the dynamics of Jocelyn and Mist, to Emmy just being a badass, Kiku being so lovable, Aaron being a jackass, and Coretta (aka Aki) being so...likable. It helped me through death in my family and my own depression, so it sort of left me to forgetting about the entire fanfic. I picked it back up like in November around chapter 24 with the Christmas special and the way Kiku kissed Mist was so beautiful. So you can understand why I was so sad when after a few chapter it was abandoned. Not like I got any ill will toward Ego as I understand IRL stuff is importent, but the story was getting so good. I mean REALLY good. With the "death" of Mist and his new resolve, Aki(I didn't care much for her bloodlust, but the fact that I hatedloved her was a sign of a great character), the backstory of Jocelyn. Everything was just so great.

I remembered that he tried to reboot it, but that didn't last long...

And while there are other MHA SYOC that I like on this website- in fact I love them, IMO, I could not find anything like Our Steps. After a month or two of having tantrums about how Ego abandoned(There's really no hard feeling), I...kinda...started...writing a few things for the story and how this Quirk could evolve and how this and that... this kinda turned into a 40,000 word thing that I sent off to Ego after a talk with him. After a week or two, I just asked if I could adopt the story and Mist(Possibly Emmy too) so I could start my own story with him...

And that's how this was created...

My Hero Academia: Separate Steps

Prologue

Location: Unknown, California

Time: ?

The frenzy...

Everything was just in a frenzy from the echoing of horrified screams that bounced around the walls of his head, to myriad of footsteps that made themselves known on the other side of the door.

The noise, the screams, the bloodcurdling howls of fear and anguish as the reoccurring sounds crashing and things shattering against one another entered his ears without warning.

Roars of a monster not even near himself caused the child to shift and scoot away from the falling mops and broom sticks until his back his the furthest wall of the broom closet.

In his eyes, all he could see was red besides the door separating both himself and what was happening on the other side of the door.

And all he could do was stare, stuck...motionless, no attempt to move, and no thought to help. He was paralyzed with absolute fear that was enough to cripple him to the very point that helping or actually escaping had remotely no correlation with what was going through his mind at the moment.

What flooded his six-year-old brain was him dying now. There was nothing that could prevent this due to how lackluster he was and how little he could help.

Though he was not thinking much, it was clear that he was afraid, shown by the expression he held, eyes completely wide and dialated, both his pure white irises and his pupils. Tears stremmed from his eyes and down the cheeks of his cocoa brown skin, dropping down to the tiled floor, but this made no sound in his ear. His breathing picked up, chest heaving, wanting to be able to close his eyes and he'd wake up in his bed, but this wish never was granted for him.

All he wanted to do was curl himself in a ball in hopes of things vanishing, but the world didn't work like this.

He was only six, and the world he saw at this age was cruel, unforgiving, and cold. And this was what scared him, because this could change the kindest of souls if they bore witness to those around you dying.

Curling up in a fetal position, his arms hugged his knee, he tucked his head as he rocked like a chair, silently chanting "They're alright, they're alright, they're alright" in nothing more than whispers.

It was impossible for him to know how long he did this, but he knew something made him stop this altogether.

Crack

His head lifted to the ceiling of the small room, and due to being just barely lit, he could the splitting of the walls and what was over him, this ultimately causing chunks of the building to fall around him.

"Ah!" Was his petite sounds of surprise as a slab of the building crashed down beside him, doing whatever he could to avoid it...even if that bubbled down to him haplessly falling over to his side to prevent it.

But it didn't stop there, and his eyes could attest...

Hurriedly shifting up, what his eyes widened at was the sight of a slab of the ceiling falling down on him, it over the size of his body.

With the sheer fact that he was frozen in place from absolute fear, all that he could do was scream and ssqueeze his eyes just as his left hand raised...

...

The concept of time meant little in the pool of darkness that surrounded him to no ends. How he knee it encased him was with the fact that he felt his eyes were open, but he could not see anything but darkness as his body was stuck stiff.

No matter how much he wanted to, he could not move or even speak, so calling for help was off of the table. All he could muster seemed to be muffled groans as it felt that he lacked an entire mouth altogether.

Yet, the strange thing was that, despite that he could not feel, hear, smell, or even move, he could hear the distorted sounds of earth crumbling around him. Aside from this, his "ears" picked of on highly choppy and distorted voices that he connected to voices just from the pitch of each.

Without thinking much on if they were truly voices and who or what he would attract with what he had on his mind, he did what could do to move, it coming off as him half barreling side to side. To accompany this, his only source of producing sound came from himself, muffled moans and groans coming to life to grab the attention anyone.

"Hey, I think I hear someone trapped over here! I'll check it out!"

While he could not understand what was being said, something akin to hope rose in him when he heard the choppy noise of footsteps approaching in his direction.

Marching over the rubble that was once a super mall built in the City of Los Angeles, a well-built man in jean overall and a long sleeve plaid shirt approached where he hear the noise. The man was older, gruff, wearing a yellow protective hat, having grown a fiery red beard over his chin that was fit for some blacksmith in the medieval age.

His black boot caused the rocks the crumble under his feet as he stepped, his dirty blue eyes searching for where the muffled noises was coming from. Sweat dripping from the brow of the man, he was shown to be worried as his eyes frantically searched for the area.

"Could've sworn it came from..." Pausing for a moment just to let his ears listen and his eyes to scan, his ears perked when he spotted a large slad of the building about the size of a seven-year-old child. "There!" The man showed little hesitation when he buckled down and went to life the slab of concrete. With his larger muscles on his arms that he commonly called his pythons, the man pretty much babied the slab, carrying it as if he was carrying a woman.

But when he looked to the space the concrete slab covered, he didn't see not a single person. Now that he thought of it, it a person had been covered by this, he doubted things would be so clean when he approached.

With his confusion, his ear finally picked up the noise near him, but it was not just near him as he was holding it. Eyes darting to the grey slab of concrete, the muffled screams came from it, and this caused his eyes to widen. "What on Earth?" His accent had a strong southern side as he spoke.

But just in the moment that his lips parted, he grunted, surprised, almost wanting to toss the slab of concrete away from him as it gained a rainbow color aura that covered the slab of concrete completely.

"What the hell is happenin'?" His voice was evidently perturbed to see this, but the breaking of the concrete itself caused his mind to go into a frenzy.

With the aura having had the shape of the slab it covered, the man's eyes couldn't help but enlarge at the shape the aura was taking, it smaller from before and in the shape of a child. Next, the aura died from around and taking it's place was a child, a six-year-old boy to be exact, his body not containing a single bruise whatsoever.

It was a cocoa-skinned boy, his hair having been twisted tightly in jet black dreadlocks, his lips just slightly fuller, but the fact his eyes were closed was a sign of overusing his Quirk. He was not physically prepared to move, so the child laid there in his arms, the stress evident in his features.

(Mistletien "Mist" Yuéliàng Li. Quirk: Fusion - Fusion is something that allows Mist to become anything he wants to be by physically merging with someone or something! While he can fuse with humans, he can also fuse with things living and nonliving such as merging with a fire hydrant to put out a fire. When forming with another human, their personality, brain power, and overall skill gets combined and heightened, but with things as powerful as these, theres always a requirement, so I'll let the writer explain it later!)

And all the man could do was stare in shock, the fact that a Quirk like this belonged to a child. But what erased his awestruck look was the groaning from the boy, this causing him to blink.

"Mom...D-da-Dad...Aki..."

When these words left the child's mouth, the man could not help to but squeeze his eyes shut as if dust flew in it, sorrow flowing over him as to the fact that everything that occurred a little over two hours ago.

"Whachu got over there, Kanner? You find one?"

As his surname was called from across the field of nothing but rubble, the man looked over to see the foreman in charge of them. The mall had taken up three city blocks itself, so it was a surprise for most to see that it was levelled to nothing but rocks. Ambulances littered the scene along with police tape and cop cars that prevented the public from entering as this was something not everyone could see.

Red and blue flashed over the scene...

...

*It has been nine years six the Los Angeles Supermall incident that took over a hundred lives in the process.* On the TV he was watching in his small apartment, the boy watched the newswoman speak on these events even as he thought about it. *It began with the Jungle Hero known as "Ape" losing all control of his Quirk and going on a rampage through the entire mall, indiscriminately taking lives of old and young.* As he watched, his white eyes finding it hard to do so, the boy's eyes shut down.

In his head, he felt that if he could see her, he would not be able to hear her, but this did not prove to be the case.

*Taking approximately 132 lives in a single day, the Hero was imprisoned in an advanced Prison where he was questioned on his motives and why exactly could he cause such harm to those that did not deserve it. His response was, and I quote, "I have no memory of it". A sad day in history indeed, but we shall not forget the life that was spared that day: Mistletien Yuéliàng Li.*

At the mention of his name, the boy flinched.

*Found by construction worker Seth Kanner, the boy was moved to a foster home where children with extraordinary Quirks are taken to hone their abilities. We've kept up with Mister Yuèliàng Li after his departure from the home at the age of twelve where they set him up nearby and a apartment, and currently lives there. They kept him feed and clothed, so the only thing he had to do was go to school where he, believe it or not, is very happy with. Our last session with him can show you.*

In just a flicker of the TV screen, it was taken over by a new image of the same woman sitting beside Mist in a empty class, void of any students or teachers. Where they sat was in the front of the room and at the head of the class, the first two seats with the woman on the left side of the young boy and the cameraman watching their every motion in front of them.

"And since you have moved out and on your own, has life been fine for you?" The newswoman inquired, her voice soothing to the ears of both the audience and the receiver.

Sitting in the seat next to the woman, against popular belief that the boy would never be able to crack a smile again, one was lit up on his face, his lips touching together as he looked over at the woman. "Of course." Was his simple answer as he fully turned in his seat to face the lady. Both his eyes were shut as he gleefully sent his own smile that lit up his face, there being no hints of pain in him. "But, "

Though something instantly changed, his lips forming into that of a frown as his eyelids raised to show his pure white eyes. Looking to the woman, she could see his composer alter as he held his hands on his lap, his brows curving upward.

"I'm afraid that people don't believe me." He admitted rather dolefully, but aside from the answer, he still found it in him to smile, if though it was weak.

"Care to explain?" Came the query from the woman that was focused solely on the younger boy, her hazel color eyes on him, legs crossed over the other.

Keeping the weakened smile on his face, Mist gave all of his attention to the woman, the fact that he went through his life smiling weighing on him. "I'm someone that lost his family in one day...in less than a few hours...so I commonly hear from those in this school that..." Scratching his cheek, he continued. "...I'm fake."

"Hm?" Her eyes widened, blinking.

With his eyes closed now, the boy giggled lightly, smiling deeply as he scratched the back of his head. "As I said, I was six when I lost my family, so some people think there's something wrong with me to be able to smile in spite of this." He stated quite meekly as his eyes opened back, but was shown that he was looking toward the ground, eyelids held lowly. "They say that I'm in denial, but...I try not to let it bother me." Eyes shifting back to the newswoman, his face beamed with that of a smile that could calm an average of five heart. "Because I know my friend Levy want me to be as great as I can."

"And she's the one from the orphanage? The one who wants you to become a Hero?" Going further into this, the woman wanted to know. Her depiction of the boy...was sort of...well, she did not understand the boy, but not for the wrong reasons. Mistletien was a kind boy, and the more she got to know him, the more she could see he was hurting.

"Yep, Lavender O'Priskey!" Enthused, Mist's voice had raised at the mention if the girl. "But I just call her Levy as a pet name." Speaking about the girl, the boy only continued to smile. "She's the one that became my bestfriend at the orphanage after I arrived."

"And where is she now?"

Click

"..."

With the remote pointed at the TV, it now blackened after shutting it off before the memories could return fully to his head. At this point in time, all he wanted to do was get to school and finish the last of his few days.

He sat there on the couch, dressed in all black as it was the attire for his school uniform, and though he had the lowest of smiles on his face, there was still this...hint of joylessness that doubled as mild joy.

His eyes were set only on the TV, thinking on what would happen when he got to school today. That broadcast had been airing all morning, so it would be fresh in the minds of everyone, so all eyes would be on him and the murmurs would be at an all-time high. Even if he smiled, they'd talk, so what was the ppoint of going today?

"Even if I'm nice, why do they mistake it for an act?"

End

And as just a prologue, I'll end it there. I didn't want this to be too long, but I did want to showcase Mist's personality just a bit.

As you can see, I changed a LOT about Mist as the only thing reminiscent to that of the boy is his name and skin color. Ego gave the go to change whatever I wanted with him, so I altered his Quirk, his backstory, and his personality. All this along with his Appearance too. I wanted to changeMMist, but also give him a sort of surprising personality despite what occurred to him.

I really hoped you all enjoyed this although not much happened but I can assure you that things will pick up since this is only a prologue

Rules

1. And I think this is obvious. No characters through the review section, so send them through PM and title it [*Character full Name, Gender, Quirk*] - Steps

2. We're in the US OF A, so send in any race you want

3. While I do have this story happening in the Canon universe, I wanted to change a few things and have the students be the age of 16, two year older than the usual.

5. While creating your character, please be descriptive when your doing the personality, the appearance, quirk, and their History. Do not rush as this is not a first come, first serve deal.

6. Again, when making your character, try not to make their Quirk to OP, leave room for development as that is one of My Hero strong points. They shouldn't be stronger than the number 1 hero at the start of the story, though there can be characters like Todoroki and Bakugo who are noticeably strong at the start.

7. No Gary Stu or Mary Sue. Simple

8. You are allowed to send in up to 2 characters at the most, but make sure if you do send two, they'll have two be of either gender

9. Taken from Ego, please don't make me have to go on the internet to show me an existing character and tell me that's how he looks. Make your character unique. I'll deny it if you tell me to look.

10. If you can, try to review as much as you possibly can if I accept you character. That doesn't mean I need you to review every chapter, but show me you're around and still reading.

11. I'm accepting 17, so that makes 18 in total including Mist

Character Creation

Name:

Nickname:

Age:

Gender:

Sexuality:

Personality

Personality:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Hobbies:

Fears:

Personality Strengths(Three at least):

Personality Weaknesses(Three at least):

Appearance

Appearance(I really want you to go deep into detail hair, so that means at least a paragraph on how they look so include Hair, hair color, hairstyle, Eye color, Eye shape, skin color, Height, Weight, Build, piercings and accessories, etc. I want to look at your character and see a sort of uniqueness)(Please do not do this: Blue t-shirt, blue jeans, Brown eyes, short hair. I just want some detail.):

Standard Clothes(Much like above, I'm not accepting anything simple. Five their outfit a little flavor of they have flavor and make it unique to you character):

Swim:

Sleep:

Winter:

Formal:

Background

History:

Personal Life(Where they life, their parent, what they like to do in their free time):

How do they feel about Mist?(I'm asking this because Mist is more of a public figure this time around, so there's no doubt that they've heard about him. I don't mind if you leave this blank, but this gives the story more depth. If you want, you can even put him in your characters backstory if you want.)

Plot Points(Want an arc dedicated to your character as the protag? Fill this out):

Quirk

Quirk Name:

Quirk Type(Emmiter, Mutant, Transformation):

Quirk Description:

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Statistic

From A(Best) to F(Worst), choose the statistics for your character accordingly and try not to have A for each one as it's kinda a level for Paragon. Currently, Paragon is The wielded of One for All. The only thing I'll allow is an A that makes sense. Just no A on power because it means they are as strong as the "number one"

Power: A measure of your characters physical damage dealing ability, and to a lesser extent their athletic capabilities. Try not to think about their Quirk while doing this

Speed: How fast can they run without the usage of the Quirk

Endurance: This statistic determines how well your character can take pain, injury or discomfort in both physical and mental forms. Don't think about the Quirk.

Quirk: This statistic represents the power or applicability of your characters quirk. Please factor in not just the quality of the quirk, but the user's knowledge of the ability.

Intelligence: This represents your character's brain function, unsurprisingly. This can mean their knowledge, apprehension skills and importantly their ability to strategize and make use of tactics in a fight.

Technique: Now, with this I want to know how well they can use their Quirk and how they apply it to everyday training and exercises.

Teamwork:

Extra

Musical Themes (optional):

Quotes:

Other:

Mist's Brief Description

Name: Mistletien "Mist" Yuèliàng Li

Sex: Male

Age: 16

Appearance: Mistletien, usually known as Mist, is a boy in his teens, having a rather athletic build that shows he either moves a lot or exercises often. He stands at a solid 5'3 in total, having defined muscles, this being one of the main display that broadcast that he is quite athletic. He has a healthy, cocoa brown skin tone that is clear of any imperfections beside a etched version of a nuclear fusion symbol in the middle of his forehead. It looks as if someone had physical pressed it into his skin. Taking a bit from his mother's heritage, his lips a bit fuller, but not by too much, a dotted beauty mark at the upper corner of the left side of his mouth. His eyes are large and rounded, irises a pure white color. His hair is a jet black color that he keeps braided in four dreaded braids: two side by side at the top of his head and a single one on both sides of his head with the lower part letting the dreads hang loosely down to cover his shoulders down to his mid-back. Acting kinky and wildly, there is a dread separate from the others, it at the front of his sharply pointed hairline, his hairline more of a minor widow peak. It defied gravity, but arches down in front of his face and commonly bounces when he walks.

Standard Clothes: When not in his school uniform, his outfit consist of his vibrant orange and zipperless hoodie that is split down the middle, the fabric quite thin as it is lightweight. Angled upward in the back and above his hips, the front sides of the hoodie come down to the middle of his thighs. The hood is usually kept left down due to his mane of hair. The hoodie has no sleeves at all. Under the hoodie, he wears a rose red, short sleeve T-shirt that matches his eye color to a tee, the hem reaching just lower than his belt loop of his black, loose fitting jeans, faded to a grey color by both knees. The hem of the pants legs were tucked behind the tongue of his orange sneakers.