Work Text:
Groudy Holloway's hands trembled as he stood before the gates of UA High. Not from nervousness—though he was pretending that's all it was. No, his hands shook because the shadow of the gate stretched across the pavement like grasping fingers, and shadows meant darkness, and darkness meant—
He forced himself to step forward. The King of Terror, they called him. Funny, how the thing you embody can be the same thing that destroys you.
“Welcome to UA high,” a short dark skinned man said. He had white curly hair and a bracelet on his wrist.
“H-Hi,” Groudy stammered ducking from the shadows at the guy’s side. “I’m Groudy Holloway.”
“Name’s Cosmo, nice to meet you Holloway,” Cosmo said, extending a hand to Groudy.
Groudy shook Cosmo’s hand shyly. “I’m in my f-first year, what about you?”
“I’m in my final year. My Boyfriend is actually already a pro hero. Ranked number #6”
“O-Oh that’s nice. My siblings are pro heroes. T-They’re actually pretty high in the r-ranks.”
Cosmo's eyebrows rose with interest. "Oh yeah? Which heroes?"
Groudy hesitated. This was always the tricky part. How did you casually mention that your siblings included the #1 and #2 heroes in the country? That another brother was #4? That your sister leads the League of Villains?
"Um, Astro Nottivile," he said quietly, watching Cosmo's face carefully. "And Bassie Bloomington. And Dyle Clocksworth."
Cosmo's jaw dropped. "Wait—the Dreamer? Mother Nature? Clockwork? Those are your siblings?"
"Y-Yeah." Groudy's hands trembled again, but this time it had nothing to do with shadows. "It's... complicated."
"Dude, that's not complicated, that's legendary! How many siblings do you—" Cosmo stopped mid-sentence, his expression shifting to something more careful. "Wait. Holloway. I've heard that name before. You're the kid who was..."
Kidnapped. The word hung unspoken between them.
Groudy's quirk flickered involuntarily. For just a moment, Cosmo's shadow stretched and twisted, taking on shapes that shouldn't exist. Groudy slammed his eyes shut, forcing it back down.
"S-Sorry," he whispered. "I don't... I don't like talking about it."
"The Dreamer is your brother?" Cosmo's eyes went wide. "And Mother Nature? Holy shit—sorry, I mean—that's incredible! No wonder you got into UA!"
Groudy winced. "I got in on my own merit," he said, a bit of steel entering his voice despite the stutter. "My quirk is... it's strong."
"Hey, hey, I didn't mean it like that!" Cosmo raised his hands apologetically. The bracelet on his wrist caught the light—Groudy noticed strange symbols etched into it. "I just meant, you know, must be cool having family already in the field. My boyfriend's a hero too—he helped me understand what I was getting into."
"Who's your boyfriend?" Groudy asked, grateful for the subject change.
“Sprout Seedly.”
"Wait—your boyfriend is Father Medicine? The healing hero?"
“Yeah a total softie under that tuff hero exterior,” Cosmo answered.
“What’s your quirk?”
"Shadow manipulation. I do night patrols with my boyfriend sometimes—helps with crime in low-light areas."
Shadow manipulation. Of course. Groudy felt his chest tighten.
"You okay?" Cosmo asked, noticing Groudy's reaction. "You went pale for a second."
"I just... I'm not great with darkness. Or shadows." Groudy forced a weak smile. "Ironic, right? They call me the King of Terror but I'm scared of the dark."
Cosmo's expression softened with understanding. "Trauma's a bitch like that. Come on, let's get you inside where there's more light. I'll show you to 1-A."
“T-Thanks.”
The two walked through the hall of UA passing kids starting their training just like Groudy. The two talked a bit. Bits and pieces about their personalities and personal life. Stopping in front of a class Cosmo sighed.
“Class 1A… I remember my time here. Trust me the teacher is amazing.”
Groudy looked up at Cosmo, a smile tugging at his face. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” Groudy walked into the classroom. A gush of air swooped by him as the door slammed shut.
“Welcome to class 1A!” a man with rainbow colored hair yelled, throwing himself onto his desk. “My name’s Professor Dandy! And if you couldn’t tell by the clothing I'll be y’all’s teacher for the next four years.
Groudy flinched at the man's yelling as he made his way to the back of the class to find a seat. The back corner—farthest from the windows, where the afternoon sun couldn't cast long shadows across the floor. Safe.
"Now, now, don't be shy!" Professor Dandy bounced on his heels, his rainbow hair catching the fluorescent lights. "We're all friends here! Well, not YET, but give it a week or two of near-death experiences and you'll be trauma-bonded for life!"
A nervous laugh rippled through the classroom. Groudy counted fifteen other students, all looking various degrees of terrified or excited. Most seemed to lean toward terrified.
"Let's start with introductions!" Dandy clapped his hands together. "Name, quirk, and—here's the fun part—tell us what scares you most! This IS hero school, after all. Gotta know your weaknesses!"
Groudy's blood ran cold.
A boy in the front row stood up first, his hair shifting colors like oil on water. "I'm Gilsten. My quirk is Light Refraction. And I guess I'm scared of... being forgotten?"
"Existential! I love it!" Dandy scribbled something on a clipboard that definitely said "THERAPY NEEDED" in big letters. "Next!"
One by one, students stood. A boy with steel-like skin feared drowning. A girl who could create things feared being trapped. Standard stuff. Heroic fears. Conquerable fears.
Groudy sank lower in his seat as the introductions moved closer to his row.
"You there! Brooding in the back!" Dandy pointed directly at him with a grin that was somehow both friendly and terrifying. "Your turn, King of Terror!"
The room went dead silent.
Someone whispered "That's him? The Holloway kid?"
Another voice "I heard his sister is a *villain*—"
"AHEM!" Dandy's voice cut through the murmurs. "We don't do gossip in my classroom. We do *trauma*. There's a difference. Go ahead, kiddo."
Groudy stood on shaking legs. Every eye in the room was on him. The shadows from the other students seemed to stretch toward him, reaching—
"I'm Groudy Holloway." His voice barely carried. "My quirk is Fear Building. I can... I can turn people's fears into reality. And I can become them."
Silence. Someone's pencil clattered to the floor.
"And what scares you?" Dandy asked, his voice surprisingly gentle now.
Groudy's hands clenched into fists. "The dark."
"The King of Terror is scared of the dark," someone muttered. It wasn't cruel, just... confused.
"Makes sense to me," Dandy said brightly, cutting off any further commentary. "The people who embody something often understand its true horror better than anyone. Excellent! Now, let's talk about why you're all here—"
A loud alarm blared through the school.
Dandy's expression shifted instantly from cheerful to confused serious. "Everyone stay calm. That's the intruder alert."
Groudy's quirk flared. Just for a moment, every shadow in the room came alive.
And somewhere in the hallway, someone screamed.
“What was that?!” a girl yelled, her face draining of its color.
“Relex everyone, probably just a test. They do these kinds of things to scare the new kids.”
“What if it isn't?" a boy asked.
“Then that’s why a pro hero is always on campus. Just in case the league or anything else gets antsy.”
“A-Act-actaully Dandy the league hasn’t started an attack since m-my sister be-became leader.”
The classroom went completely silent. Even the alarm seemed to fade into background noise as every student turned to stare at Groudy.
"Your sister," Gilsten said slowly, his color-shifting hair going pale white. "Your sister is the Mother of Dinosaurs?"
Groudy's hands were shaking again, but he stood his ground. "Sh-Shelly doesn't attack people. She only... she only defends herself. And us."
"She leads the League of Villains," a girl with crystal-like eyes said, her voice somewhere between terrified and awed. "She defeated All For One and Shigaraki. How is that 'defensive'?"
“S-She wanted to make sure they c-cou-couldn't hurt us. She is really kind if you actually talk to her.”
“Groudy brings a great point. The league hasn't attacked as a solo since the mother of dinosaurs took over,” Dandy said rubbing his chin.
“H-Her name is shelly.”
The correction hung in the air. Groudy's voice had been small, but somehow it carried more weight than if he'd shouted.
"Shelly," Professor Dandy repeated, and something in his rainbow-haired teacher's expression softened. "You're right, Groudy. That's an important distinction. Villains are people too. Sometimes people who've made different choices than—"
The alarm cut off abruptly.
In the sudden silence, they could hear it clearly now: footsteps. Running. Multiple people moving fast through the hallways. And underneath that, a rhythmic clicking sound that made Groudy's heart leap.
The classroom door didn't open—it froze.
One moment the handle was turning, the next it hung suspended in time, molecules locked in place. Then reality rippled, and the door simply wasn't closed anymore. It had always been open. Time rewrote itself.
A hero stood in the doorway—tall, covered head to toe in armor made of shifting clockwork gears. Every few seconds, the gears would spin, and time around him seemed to stutter and skip. Behind the helmet's visor, Groudy could see nothing but darkness and the faint glow of moving clock hands.
But he knew that clicking sound. Would know it anywhere.
"Dyle?" Groudy whispered.
Clockwork—the #4 hero, Dyle Clocksworth—stepped into the classroom. His clicking intensified as his head swiveled to take in the scene: the terrified students, the shadows that still writhed slightly at the room's edges, Groudy standing in the center of it all with his hands clenched into fists.
The clicking slowed. Calmed. A reassuring rhythm, like a heartbeat made of clockwork.
"False alarm," Dyle's voice came through a speaker in his armor, translated from his clicks. The voice was mechanical, but Groudy could hear the concern underneath. "There is no intruder. The alarm system malfunctioned due to... unexpected energy fluctuations."
"Energy fluctuations," Professor Dandy repeated slowly, his eyes moving between Dyle and Groudy. "From a quirk?"
“The place of origin is still unknown but we’re working on it.”
"Clockwork, sir!" Gilsten leaned forward eagerly. "Is it true you can—"
"Forget that!" The steel-skinned boy interrupted. "Did you really stop a meteor by aging it to dust?"
A girl with horns raised her hand politely. "Mr. Clockworth, what was your entrance exam like?"
A fury of questions were launched at the pro hero as the kids went from scared to excited.
Dyle's clicking stuttered—his equivalent of being caught off-guard. The #4 hero stood frozen as fifteen eager faces waited for his response, their earlier fear completely forgotten in the presence of a top-ranked hero.
"I... appreciate your enthusiasm," his mechanical voice translated, slower than usual. The clicking picked up speed—Groudy recognized it as his brother's 'overwhelmed' pattern. "But perhaps we should focus on—"
"Is it true you can stop time completely?" Gilsten interrupted, his hair shifting to excited gold. He was half out of his seat now. "Or do you just slow it down? The forums have like fifty different theories and—"
"Can you age things forward or backward?" The steel-skinned boy—Groudy realized he hadn't caught his name yet—stood up too. "Because I read this article that said you reversed a building collapse by aging the rubble back to before it fell, but that doesn't make sense scientifically—"
"Do you ever use your quirk to get more sleep?" A girl with small horns asked, completely serious. "Like, stop time and take a nap? Because that would be so useful during exam season—"
"Can you time travel?" someone else called out.
"What's the biggest thing you've ever put in a time field?"
"How fast can you make time go?"
"Do you age normally or does your quirk affect you too?"
The questions came rapid-fire, overlapping, students talking over each other. Professor Dandy made no move to stop them—in fact, he'd pulled out his phone and was recording, a huge grin on his rainbow-haired head.
Groudy watched his brother's helmet swivel back and forth, trying to track all the questions at once. Dyle's clicking had gone nearly arrhythmic—pure stress. His gauntleted hands came up in a placating gesture, and for a moment, everyone's voices seemed to stretch and slow, words turning to molasses.
Then time snapped back to normal and the clicking became something almost sheepish.
"One at a time," Dyle's speaker translated. "Please."
"You heard the man!" Dandy called out, still recording. "Let's be civilized about our hero worship! Gilsten, you first since you asked fastest."
Gilsten practically vibrated with excitement. "The time stop thing—is it actual stopping or extreme slowing?"
Dyle's helmet angled toward the boy. "Extreme slowing. True time stop would require infinite energy. I can slow time to approximately one millionth normal speed within my field. To those inside, it feels stopped. To those outside, it appears stopped. Functionally, the difference is meaningless."
"How big can you make the field?" the steel-skinned boy asked.
"Maximum tested range is two hundred meters radius," Dyle said. "Though I suspect I could go further if necessary. I've... never had reason to push the absolute limit."
The way he said that made Groudy wonder: had Dyle ever gone further? In an emergency? The vague phrasing felt deliberate.
"And the aging thing?" Gilsten pressed. "Can you actually reverse time on objects?"
"Not reverse. Accelerate or decelerate." Dyle gestured with one hand, and the air around his palm shimmered. A piece of chalk on Dandy's desk suddenly aged—going from white to yellowed to crumbling to dust in seconds. Then Dyle gestured again, and the dust reformed, the aging reversing until pristine chalk sat on the desk again. "I can manipulate the rate at which time passes for non-living matter. Living things are more complicated."
"Why?" the horned girl asked.
"Because living things fight back," Dyle said simply. "Consciousness creates resistance. A human's perception of time is part of their quirk signature. I can slow or speed a person's external time, but their internal experience..." The clicking became uncertain. "It's harder. More dangerous. I don't do it unless there's no other choice."
Groudy thought about the kidnapping. About waking up in a hospital with gaps in his memory. Had Dyle tried to use his quirk to help? Had it not worked because of Groudy's nature?
"Do you sleep?" A quiet girl near the window asked.
Dyle's helmet turned toward her. The clicking slowed to something almost sad. "No. I experience time differently. When others sleep eight hours, I experience those same eight hours. I can't skip past them. I just... exist through them while the world rests."
The classroom went quiet. That was a lonely existence.
"He doesn't sleep," Groudy said suddenly, and everyone turned to look at him. He felt his face heat but pushed through. "But he still rests. Sometimes. He'll sit in a room with a clock and just... listen to it tick. Says it's meditative."
Dyle's clicking shifted to something warm. "My brother knows me well."
"You really are his brother," the crystal-eyed girl said—not a question, just acknowledgment. "You know stuff about him that's not in any interview."
"Yeah," Groudy said softly. "We're family."
"That must be weird," the steel-skinned boy said, not unkindly. "Having siblings who are famous. Do people treat you different?"
Groudy's hands started to tremble again. "Sometimes. People expect things. Like I should automatically be as good as them, or that I got into UA because of connections, or..." He trailed off, glancing at Dyle.
"My brother got into UA on merit," Dyle said, and there was steel in his mechanical voice. "His entrance exam scores were in the top five percent. His quirk assessment ranked him as potentially S-Class threat level. He earned his place here."
"S-Class?" Gilsten's eyes went wide. "But that's the same rating as—"
"As me," Dyle confirmed. "As my siblings. Groudy's quirk is fear manifestation. In terms of raw power, he could theoretically manifest and control anything anyone is afraid of, with no upper limit on scale or number. The only restriction is his own control and imagination."
A loud silence washed over the room as all eyes turned to Groudy.
“But he won’t. My brother is a kind soul. I remember once he used his quirk to help a kid get over his fear of heights so they could ride a rollercoast,” Dyle said, reassuring the class. "He only uses his quirk to harm when it’s needed. My brother wants to be a hero. Someone who saves people. Someone who makes them feel safe, not afraid."
"Even though you embody fear?" the horned girl asked Groudy.
"Especially because of that," Groudy said quietly. "I know what fear feels like. How it can control you. Make you small. I don't want anyone else to feel that way. So I want to be someone who makes fear go away."
Professor Dandy had stopped recording. His expression gone soft. "That," he said, "is the most heroic thing I've heard all year. And I've heard a lot of hero origin stories." he said, wiping imaginary tears from his tears.
A buzz came from Dyle’s phone. Pulling his phone out Dyle’s clicking sped up a bit. Unnoticeable to the others but extremely notable to Groudy.
“Pardon me children, I have hero duties to attend to. But don’t worry I'll be watching your guys' entry exams and I'll even be one of the judges so make sure to bring your A game,” Dyle said. The clicking accelerated to a frantic pace. Then Dyle vanished—not gradually, but all at once, as if he'd simply stopped existing in that moment and started existing somewhere else.
The classroom felt smaller without Clockwork in it.
Groudy watched the space where his brother had been standing, that specific spot where time had folded in on itself and carried him away. To what? To who? The clicking pattern had been an emergency, but what emergency Which emergency?
His hands started trembling again.
"Okay, kiddos!" Professor Dandy's voice cut through his spiraling thoughts. "I know that was exciting, but we have actual school to do. Shocking, I know."
Groans from the class. Gilsten's hand was still raised.
"Yes, Gilsten?"
"Is Groudy's brother going to actually judge our entry exams? Because I have SO many questions about—"
"Yes, he is, and no, you cannot use exam time to interrogate a pro hero," Dandy said cheerfully. "Now, everyone, take your seats. We have a LOT to cover before your first training session tomorrow."
As if on cue the school’s bell rang. The intercom crackled to life. “Attention all students. A mandatory student training exercise is taking place in the school training field. All students must report to Training Ground Beta in fifteen minutes. I repeat, fifteen minutes.”
The class erupted into nervous chatter.
"A training exercise on the first day?" Gilsten's hair flickered between excited gold and nervous yellow.
"Maybe it's because of the alarm earlier," someone muttered.
"Or maybe they do this every year," the crystal-eyed girl said, though she didn't sound convinced.
Groudy's hands started trembling again. Training meant using his quirk. In front of everyone. What if he lost control? What if the shadows came back?
The steel-skinned kid walked towards Groudy bumping him on the shoulder.
Groudy looked to his side. Looking up to see who bumped into him. “Huh?”
The steel-skinned kid smiled at Groudy. "Name's SoulVester, but everyone calls me Ves. You settling in okay? You’re Groudy right?”
"Y-Yeah, that's me." Groudy managed a smile. "Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too. My sister’s also a pro hero just like your brother. Her name’s Connie. I think the public calls her specter?”
"Specter... is her quirk ghost-related?" Groudy asked, sheepishly. Groudy looked up—way up. He'd thought Vee was tall at 6'8", but SoulVester had at least two inches on her. Maybe more. The guy was built like a skyscraper with steel-skin to match
Yeah! She can phase through stuff and go invisible. The total opposite of me." SoulVester rapped his knuckles against his steel-skinned arm. "I'm the tank, she's the assassin. I saw how you looked a bit nervous. So I thought I’d introduce myself. I know a few kids here… ooo like her!” SoulVester said, pointing at a girl with horns. “That’s yatta. She loves candy but she bites a lot.”
Yatta spun around her pink, yellow, and blue dyed hair, hit her face. “HAII!” she yelled jumping up and down. Rushing over to SoulVester and Groudy and practically jumping on top of SoulVester. “SOULY!”
“Hi Yatta," SoulVester said, patting Yatta’s head.
“You must be Groudy!!” Yatta squealed, giving Groudy a hug. “It must be super duper fun to have not one but three siblings as pro heroes?!”
“Y-Yeah. It’s pretty c-cool. They bring me with them o-on the low risk mission sometimes,” Groudy said quietly.
“That's SOOO cool! I wish someone!” Yatta said loudly, looking at SoulVester. “Would bring me on missions.”
“Yatta you’re too loud for me to bring you on the mission me and my sister go on,” SoulVester said, his tone like this is the hundredth time he’d explain this.
“Yeah, yeah I can be sneaky.”
“Sure you can.”
“Y-Yatta what’s your q-quirk?” Groudy asked, his hand shoving deeper into his pockets.
“HYPE SURGE!” Yatta yelled. The other students turned around, some looking annoyed. “Sorry it’s been awhile since anyone’s asked me that question. Actually it's been a while since anyone other than Souly has talked to me.” Yatta said quieter, almost sinking into herself.
Groudy looked at Yatta and he could see tears forming in her eyes.
“She’s afraid of being hated.” Groudy thought to himself. “Hey w-well you got me now so that gotta count for some-something.”
“Yeah… You know what? Yeah! I don't need anything else, I got you two!”