Puppeteer Hero

The Basement

From the tender age of four, Izuku had dreamt of nothing but becoming a hero. His wide eyes sparkled with admiration whenever he watched the heroes on TV, their capes billowing behind them as they soared through the skies, saving the day with smiles on their faces. It was a dream that lit a fire within him, a dream that seemed so attainable, until one fateful day when his world came crashing down.

At the age of four, Izuku was deemed quirkless, a diagnosis that shattered his hopes and dreams like fragile glass. His mother, stricken with fear and anger at the thought of being ridiculed for giving birth to a quirkless child, locked Izuku away in the basement of their home. It became his prison, a dark and lonely place where the walls echoed with his silent cries.

Life in the basement was a torment that Izuku could never have imagined. His mother's wrath was relentless, her beatings leaving him bruised and broken both physically and emotionally. She allowed him out only for school, and even then, he was a target for ridicule and abuse. The teachers, instead of nurturing his dreams, sabotaged his grades, ensuring he never rose above mediocrity. The other children, fueled by their own insecurities and prejudices, bullied him relentlessly, using their quirks to torment him until he could barely stand.

As the years passed, Izuku's once bright spirit began to dim. The fire within him flickered and waned, smothered by the weight of his mother's cruelty and the taunts of his peers. With each passing day, his dream of becoming a hero seemed more and more out of reach, a distant fantasy slipping through his fingers like grains of sand.

But on his eighth birthday, something changed. As Izuku sat alone in the darkness of his basement prison, the faint sound of music drifted down from above. Curiosity sparked within him, and he followed the sound, climbing the stairs with hesitant steps until he reached the surface.

What awaited him was beyond anything he could have imagined. Before him stood a towering figure, a larger-than-life animatronic hero, its eyes alight with a warmth that Izuku had never known. It reached out to him, its mechanical hand extending in a silent invitation.

With trembling hands, Izuku reached out and took hold, feeling a surge of electricity course through him. In that moment, he felt a connection, a sense of belonging that he had never experienced before. It was as if the animatronic saw something within him, something worth saving.

From that day forward, Izuku's life would never be the same. With the animatronic he later learned was named Suzy by his side, he would embark on a journey of self-discovery and redemption, determined to prove that even the “powerless” could be heroes. And as he stood there, bathed in the warm glow of Suzy's gaze, Izuku knew that no matter what challenges lay ahead, he would face them with a smile on his face, ready to save others just like his newfound hero had saved him.