Chapter Text
“This loser is mute, he can’t even call for help,” One of the bullies said as he lifted his hands, cracking his knuckles. “And don't forget he’s quirkless, ao he can't do anything to us!.”A different bully said, blowing wind out of his hands and swirling through his body. This was supposed to be a regular day for the 8-year-old me, but most of the time, I got myself in trouble. As the three surrounded me, I heard someone yell out of the corridor, “Enough! , You four into my office now!” It was the principal. She was always nice to me and the students, but she had had enough of seeing me getting into trouble. And there I was, sitting with a lot of bruises and blue marks sitting at a principal office with some kids that decided to use their force on a defenseless practice dummy.
“It is not your first time here, Manny, calling your parents again. Sending you home here and there? You are an Ace student at our school, so why are you still getting in those fights? Is it a habit in your Kibbutz?” principal scolded me, looking straight into my watery eyes.
I grabbed a pen and paper from her desk and started writing, spilling everything out of my soul to explain to a wall about the situation. But as I finished writing, my mother Ayelet came, defending me like her occupation as a social worker. “What did my boy do now!” She stormed into the office in anger as she saw me with bruises and blue marks. I cannot hear their yelling anymore, I cannot hear them fighting anymore, I am just one boy that cannot defend himself.
After what happened, the other boys and I were suspended from school. “Like that would be of any help,” I thought to myself on the ride home, crossing my hands and leaning back with a sour face of disappointment.
When we returned home, we got inside, and mom started taking care of my bruises with experience from the army as a paramedic. By then, my dad Avi returned home from the ranch and said. “Oh Manny boy! Look who returned to us like the heroes that we love to see, you heard the news already of what happened in Japan?” he asked, with some coffee he brewed and our favorite hero magazine as he gave me a big hug, interrupting Mom as she laughed a bit from the unexpected entrance into the room. I shook my index finger from side to side, negatively answering the question.
He would then show me an article about that Japanese hero, All Might. Saying he was brutally injured because of the huge jailbreak that happened back there. In the article, it said he was paralyzed, with the doctors predicting that he’ll have to retire as he will be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. My eyes opened wide as I quickly snatched the magazine, almost making my dad spill his coffee on Mom. Ayelet, from the unexpected movement, would jump, lay her hands off me, and say, “Please stop with all of that movement, hun. I’m trying to take care of those injuries”.
She would then sigh and say as she looked at the mirror on my door, “What will I do with you two fanatics while All Might is severely injured? Our young hero is injured as well. Why won’t we sign you to some martial arts class, eh? Learn to defend yourself without me having to defend you?” We would then all laugh as it began to be normal for our family, picking me up from class to treat me, but I I didn’t laugh; it was time for me to stand up for myself and those who cannot do so as well. My name is Manny Trimplety, and this is my story, the story of the silent hero, Hornet!
Manny was born in Israel in a small unknown Kibbutz called “Kibbutz Ach’va” that is located near the city of Haifa by the shore, the Kibbutz is so small in fact that just for mail the citizens living there need to drive there, as he grew up, Manny’s parents were worried that he still didn’t said his first word, so he was sent to the doctor and they were told that his muteness could come from Autism and they sent him to a diagnosis, there, by the age of 4, Manny was diagnosed negative to autism and found out that Manny, was born without any vocal chords, making him mute because of it.
By that time, all the other kids had their quirks. I was a late bloomer; he didn't get his quirk, so they went to the quirk doctor, and he told them that it was because of his genes. Though Mom has a quirk of lifting things through singing, his dad is quirkless, and because of that, his quirk took time to show up.
It only happened by the age of 10. They all sat in the living room where, all of a sudden, Manny got on all fours and started barking and making dog noises. His parents were shocked when the boy with Dark Messy hair and a braid played the dog sound; they were in such shock that they stood there for an hour. “Rush to the doc?” Mother asked? “Yeah, let’s rush to the doc.” They said, after getting out of the shock as they grabbed him by the belly in a comedic way, not knowing what they even witnessed, got him into the car and went to the quirk doctor in Haifa.
There, Manny was quite board, so he decided to play with his new ability and make trumpet noises, little did they know that this action made his quirk get it’s name, “Ramcol”, which means a speaker in Hebrew, because the sounds come out of my mouth as if there was a speaker in his vocal cords. And there, he found out that Manny’s vocal cords look weird due to it being a part of the quirk
From there, the quirk doctor told the family that he has a friend who is an engineer by the name of “Mordechai” that volunteered to make a device for Manny to communicate through the quirk.
After a couple of months, there it was, the “Trumpetlator”, a device that fits his wrist like a watch and works by making the noise to the device’s microphone and from there, it translates his sounds into text, and that text is read out loud by a robotic voice that is coming out of it. As he looked up at his parents, they were crying, filled with tears of joy as they hugged each other and smiled, smiling that their son got an even more awesome gift that fills what he did not have.
At that moment, Manny’s dream became clearer than ever: Manny want to stand up for those who can’t and become a professional hero. Worked hard in his classes and achieved great grades, and by the end of the year, got accepted into a special school dedicated to aspiring heroes. There, he had the opportunity to learn Japanese, dive into some fundamental hero lessons, and even go on exciting trips to visit the agencies of famous pro heroes!
But when Manny finished Junior high, something else happened, there was a word on the Kibbutz that the highest ranked pro hero in Israel, Clay Emperor, came to the Kibbutz. One day, when he was 15 years old, he woke up from an afternoon nap, he would find his parents sitting down in the living room with Clay Emperor himself, wearing his Hero uniform that contains the colors of brown and gold, furthermore a mask that covers his whole head with golden eyeholes.
“Ah, here’s the chosen boy! Don’t be shy, come come, I don’t bite” Clay Emperor said as Manny stood at the hallway in complete shock, surprised to see a celebrity in my living room, furthermore in a Kibbutz so small it is not seen on the map.
After a small second, Manny realized what he said and sat near his parents, seeing the worried faces of what he just missed. “How about we’ll fill you up on what the Emperor had said to us.” Mom said as she took a deep breath before starting to explain the situation. “Well, it appears that you were scouted to a special plan called the FOH.”
Manny was a bit confused from her sayings, on the one hand, he got scouted to a special plan by the one and only Clay Emperor, but on the other, he didn’t know what it meant. So I lifted my wrist, recorded some trumpeting on the trumpetlator and then, the robotic voice started translating his trumpets. “Well mom, I might have to ask but, what is the FOH?”
As Clay Emperor heard the trumpeting, his eyes widened with curiosity and said with excitement. “Woah dude! What is that? Is this what Ayelet here said to me? That’s awesome!” Manny nodded in agreement as he continued. “Well anyways, if you’ve heard, the situation in Japan has begun to be dangerous. Villains are spreading quickly in the land and with All Might’s retirement a couple of years ago, the pro heroes are starting to get weaker and weaker as the threat gets big. The FOH, or ‘Flags Of Hope’, is a special project that is associated with the U.A high school, that calls students from worldwide to have their chance to study at the most famous hero school in Japan.”
As Clay Emperor said the word “U.A”, Manny knew he needed to get their approval. He didn’t care about the big threat, he didn’t care that it came with a big risk, all Manny sees in his eyes is the Pro-Hero dream he’s been looking for.
So Manny grabbed his father as he trumpeted a couple of sayings to the device, and soon enough, the robotic voice spoke up. “Dad, don’t you see what chance there is in front of us? After this you could see me in the magazine we love, I’ll accomplish my dream of becoming a pro hero and represent Israel in pride. Don’t you see it father? Don’t you see it?” The trumpetlator said as he looked at him, hoping that I could convince him.
As Manny’s trying to convince his dad, his mom was worried, so she said. “Honey, you need to understand that you’re our only child and the situation there is very concerning.” She would then say back to Clay Emperor “I’m sorry but we’ll have to deny the offer, we appreciate it a lot but the risk is too high for us.” As Clay Emperor understands what she says as a father himself, he said his goodbye and left the house, but that was just the tip of the Iceberg.
As Clay Emperor left the Kibbutz, a group of terrorists trespassed the Kibbutz’s alert squad and captured it, claiming all the civilians inside as hostages. They have splitted the Kibbutz into two different areas, the men were escorted into the dining room and the woman and children were escorted to a kindergarten at the other side of the Kibbutz.
They were in Large groups, threatening that if they didn't trespass dairy and eggs to shoot a man at the dining room. Furthermore, they’ve cut their Telephone cable and power so they won’t be able to use our phones to contact authorities.
At first the group was strong, the citizens were scared at gunpoint but then, Amit, a friend Manny used to learn with in Kindergarten stood up and said “I won’t let my dad die over milk!” as he rushed to the terrorist and tried to throw away his gun, but little did he know that the terrorist had a quirk that allowed him to shoot air bullets from his fingers.
“Bang” Amit was shot at his heart by an air bullet, dying from the loss of blood, furthermore, the terrorist guarding them said something on his walkie talkie which afterwards, the captured heard a shot from it and a lot of screams. Manny was so mad at this, he was so angry at the situation that he decided that he won't just stand there in fear, Manny has decided to prove himself to the Kibbutz and my parents.
By midnight, he inspected the area and understood what he saw. There was a guard at the entrance of the kindergarden, another that was with them and some that were patrolling outside. Manny took the plan to action, first, he wore off his shoes so he won’t make a sound on the wooden floor, then, he snuck around the guard that was with them, punched his head with a baseball bat sound playing, a sound that made the guard fall unconscious, then, he got the walkie talkie from him, putting it in the pocket of his Jacket as he knew it’ll come useful later.
After that, the guard at the entrance noticed someone fell down and went to the main hall, luckily for him, Manny used to be at this kindergarten as a child and know all the places to hide in for a hide and seek game, so he walked to the playroom and played a sound of a trumpet, enough to distract the guard, just enough to slip through and like that, Manny was out of the kindergarden running away from the patrolling terrorists.
From there he ran, ran to the tallest hill he knew, the Antenna hill. When Manny arrived, he saw two more terrorists at the Antenna, guarding the hill so no one would try to get a signal, but then, he saw a different thing. There was a loose chain at the gate, making Manny understand that the terrorists broke through it.
Understanding that this is not a good Idea, Manny has decided to do a different thing, by climbing on the tree nearby, he have pulled his phone out, lifted it up high and called the police. He struggled a bit with the trumpetlator, almost revealing his position as he tried to trumpet and holding the phone high for signal.
After an hour, a pro hero from the North Branch of Shooting star Agency came, her name was “Lula’a”, a sidekick of Clay Emperor with the quirk called “Cable” that allows her to release wires from her own palm which allows her to swing, set traps, grapple up buildings and more.
As Lula’a came into the Kibbutz, she noticed Manny hiding inside some tree branches, she would then pull out her cables, loop them around Manny’s leg and reel them in, making Manny be noticed as he fell from the tree, furthermore giving Lula’a the spotlight.
“You’re safe now kid, let’s get you out of here, the Army and us will take care of things from here.” Lula’a says as she looks at the kid she just saved, escorting him to a military tent outside the Kibbutz, blocking any journalists that came to report the event on the way.
As calls in Arabic came their way, terrorists tried to shoot the pair, luckily for them, Clay Emperor came to the rescue as he uses his quirk “Gummy” that allows him to stretch to any shape or form. By stretching into a wall, the Emperor had stopped the bullets, twisted them inside of his body and reflected them at the enemy.
“Hey Manny Boy! You made the call? Tell me what happened.” He said as he hugged Manny a stretchy and warm hug. After Manny trumpeted to him what happened, by the use of the trumpetlator, Clay Emperor understood what has happened and the says to Manny “Don’t worry young guns, we’ll rescue all those people from the Kibbutz and release it from captivity, for now, enjoy the heat here at the tent and we’ll fix it up at a swoosh.” He says as he returns to the commander he spoke and after that, they went out.
After a couple of minutes, the Shooting star agency in cooperation with the Israeli army, had raided the Kibbutz and freed all the hostages, with both of his parents being some of them. After the Emperor told them what Manny did, they hugged him once more and Ayelet said. “You are one brave boy, you saved most of us just by yourself.” she would then return to the Clay Emperor and state to him. “Remember what we talked about in the afternoon? I regret my decision, I want him to go for it.” As Manny looks up to his mom, he starts smiling, because he can finally start the journey of his dreams, the journey to become a worldwide hero.
After that event, Kibbutz Ach’va has decreased in its population, from the 50 families they were, they became 30 families, the event made the Kibbutz poor as business became less and less successful, as a result, a free loan fund has started for the Kibbutz, hoping that they can rehabilitate after the incident.
A month later, a letter came in the mail. As Avi came from the post office all the way from Haifa, “Oh Manny-boy! You got mail from the FOH”, the dad said excitedly as he called Ayelet over so the three of them could read it together. As the three sat down at the sofa, Avi opened up the envelope that had a Israeli flag stamped in a blue seal and handed Manny the latter, there, was written with a beautiful Hebrew handwriting:
“Dear Manny Trimplety:
Out of one thousand potential students, you and 99 more were found compatible to participate in the FOH Entrance exam. Where you take the same entrance exam a regular hero course student has to take in order to get accepted to U.A along with an extra stage and changes.
There are three main stages in the exam:
The first stage is the Language stage which will test your ability for the Japanese language, both in writing and spoken.
The second stage is the Physical exam, where you’ll be tested for quirkal abilities.
Finally, The third and Final stage is the simulation stage where you’ll be tested for teamwork and problem solving.
In each stage you will be awarded with a grade which will be calculated to an overall grade which will determine your acceptance to U.A's hero course.
To the exam, you must come with:
A water bottle
A document from your family doctor that
approves your participation in the plan
Comfortable clothes for sports
And the invitation that was sent to your mail.
The entrance exam will take place between 11:00 AM to 18:00 PM at the Wingate institute in Nathania. Failure to arrive in time or bringing any of the documents listed above will result in an automatic disqualification.
The results will be posted by an Email message with a video that contains a reaction of 5 pro heroes that act as judges at the second and final stages.
Best of Luck, Clay emperor, leader of the FOH Israeli Delegation.”
After reading the letter, Manny stood up and started trumpeting on his trumpetlator and this saying came out of the device. “Mom, Dad, I’m going for it, I know you were worried at first, but this is it, this is the moment I have been waiting for, I’m going to the backyard to train.” He says as he gives the letter back to his dad in its envelope, trusting him to keep it safe until that day will come.