Wish Upon a Star 2 (MHA Star and Stripe SI)

Cathleen Bates’ Guide to Mastering the Weirdest Quirk Out there #1

My pen tapped across the edge of my desk as I was deep in thought, a full sheet of paper in front of me. My power has to work on what I name and touch. Yet it can propagate through a surface. When I ‘touch’ the air, it can affect other air molecules out further away. I can’t use that to affect something else entirely, however. I could smother the flames by affecting the air the fire could consume, but I haven’t been able to affect fire or anything else itself directly from that.

“Cathleen.”

I continued to jot down my thoughts. How similar in atomic makeup does something have to be to something else? If I had something made up of different materials separated in bands, would I not be able to affect the whole thing? Or would I because it all fell under one name?

“Cathleen!”

More potential avenues were noted for what I could try in the future, with some hypotheses too. I think the latter. A cabinet might be predominantly made of wood, but it has metal for the hinges, often glass panels, but I could probably affect the whole thing. In that case, is it just them being connected that makes it count as a whole? Could I stick something onto something else, then affect the first thing by treating it as part of a greater whole? Would it let me get around Shigaraki’s bullshit cheater pants-

“CATHLEEN BATES!” 

The shout snapped me out of my thoughts and brought my attention up to the class we were having. A few students were snickering at me while the teacher, a portly man with a shark fin sticking out his head was glaring down at me, annoyed. As he got out from his desk and stomped over, I whispered, “Paper will remove writing.” Then, as if I had been clearing my throat, I looked up brightly. “Yes, sir?”

Mr. Peterson marched up and held a hand out. “If what you’re working on is so interesting, I’m sure the rest of the class will be delighted to hear it.” I made a show of being reluctant to hand over my journal before passing it to him. He flipped through the pages, slowly at first, then faster, confused.

“It’s blank!”

“So it is, sir. Is there a problem?”

“You were writing in these pages just a second ago, I’m sure of it!” He shouted, spittle flying out, a few globes sticking onto his bushy mustache. The man waved the book around accusatorily, revealing it’s now blank pages.

I gave him my best considerate look. “Maybe you need to get your eyes checked?” He just looked enraged while I did my best to project an aura of pure innocence - which only angered him further since we both knew it was complete bullshit. But he can’t prove a thing. The fact that the kids were now laughing at him didn’t help matters either.

He slammed my notebook down on my desk. “Alright then, if you’ve been paying so much attention what is-”

“X is six,” I interrupted. “You were going to ask what X is, right?” I said, gesturing at the chalkboard, where there was an equation which read ‘X x 4 = 24’. My answer earned a few ‘ooh’s from the class. It’s hardly impressive, but for a bunch of seven year olds, that seems quite smart.

Being reincarnated like this came with more benefits than just New Order. I was much more intelligent and mature than my peers. Of course, the downside means having to put up with this class. For some reason the staff are reluctant to let me skip ahead in grades, which is frustrating.

“Why must you act up in class?” He asked rhetorically, not expecting I’d have an actual answer on the tip of my tongue.

“Because I’m bored.”

“Miss Bates! Go to the Principal’s office!” The teacher shouted, scandalized.

“What? You asked,” I pointed out as I slunk out of class and off to the principal’s office. There I waited for fifteen minutes, well over the time before the end of class bell. Great, now I’m missing out on free time I could be spending studying my Quirk and all its idiosyncrasies.

Eventually I got called up to the principal’s office proper, not just the waiting area by the receptionist. It was a fairly bland office, with a bookshelf, desk, and a small lounge and coffee table. I took the seat in front of the desk, staring at the woman behind it.

The principal was an elderly woman, her grey hair tied up in a tight bun atop the back of her head. “Do you know why you’re here?” Principal Evergreen asked.

I withheld the first few responses that came to mind, mostly mocking my 2nd grade teacher. “Because Mister Peterson took my words the wrong way?”

“According to him, you were being disruptive in class.” 

“I don’t see how, I simply answered the questions he asked of me.”

“You were being sarcastic and mocking him, that’s not appropriate behavior young lady.” If I was actually the age I appear to be and I didn’t have godlike power, her stern disapproval might be intimidating. Maybe.

“Neither of my answers were sarcastic, or mocking. I was quite serious about being bored in class, but if he has such a problem with me, wouldn’t it be better to move me ahead a few grades?”

She sighed heavily, as if I was asking some impossible task of her. “You’ve been noted as not hanging out with your peers - even before you got your Quirk you didn’t socialize with them, and now you disappear during every break period off who knows where.” Giving myself the ability to fly has been quite useful in slipping away to practice my powers in secret. It looks like no one has noticed how I’m leaving yet, but even if they did, it’d fit with the cover story I gave of ‘Double Cool’ being an aerokinesis Quirk.

I wasn’t sure what that had to do with why she was reluctant to move me ahead in grade, so I gave her a quizzical look, prompting the principal to continue. “You’re a smart girl, so I’m sure you’ve realized that school is more about learning, it’s about giving kids a chance to interact and connect with their peers. If you don’t get along with your classmates now, how much harder do you think it will be to do that with older students?”

“That’s a fair point, but it might even be easier for me. Yes the age difference may put off some, but finding people that are more mature and on my level intellectually would help,” I said. Technically true, it could help… if I had any desire to make friends here. But I need to learn, and learn fast.

I had decades ahead of me before that fated meeting, if it would happen at all, but hadn’t the original Cathleen Bates spent every waking moment (or nearabouts - she didn’t become  the top hero and military secret for nothing after all) since the day All Might saved her into becoming a hero? Fighting threats just like Shigaraki? And it didn’t get her any further in the end.

The worst part is, as bad and as short as it was, it did kinda need to be done. Shigaraki probably would have pulled out a victory without her sacrifice. It was still really badly done and there’s at least a dozen ways she could have just outright killed that bastard had she still been willing to give up her life in the end, but I don’t want to die. Not even thirty odd years from now. Winning a fight against Shigaraki would be harder, and moving things before that threatened shifting the timeline and disrupting some of my meta knowledge, but I was determined to find a way.

Evergreen continued. “Moving you up in grades won’t let you apply to a hero Academy sooner, you know. They have a strict sixteen year age limit and-”

“Huh? But I don't want to be a hero,” I told her bluntly, causing the old lady to pull back in her seat in shock.”

“Bwuh? But- why? You have such a strong Quirk, not to mention your sharp mind.”

“My sharp mind is exactly why I don’t want to waste it on becoming a hero. Humanity has fallen literal centuries behind where it should be scientifically. Medically, technologically, et cetera. Arguably sociologically as well - we’ve reverted to an era of rampant criminalization where the disenfranchised are pushed towards crime without the means for healthy alternatives when safety nets are ripped away, a process which only glorifies law enforcement and feeds into itself further with a broken criminal ‘justice’ system.”

“What.”

“Criminality is correlated most highly with low income situations. Rather than run social programs however, the government pushes for more punitive measures, increasing jailing. These are often for profit institutions that benefit the rich and actually increase recidivism-”

“I- I see you have a lot of strong feelings on this.” She said, holding up a hand to get me to stop, her other hand gently massaging her head.

“I also… don’t think pro heroes should be called that. Heroes,” I added in a softer voice. Yeah, they’re law enforcement and they help people but the title of ‘hero’... it feels like something only the people should be able to give, not something controlled and regulated by the government. That might be too fanciful a view, though.

“Alright.”

“Alright?”

“You can be moved ahead a few grades,” the principal said, and I jumped out of my seat with joy. “We’ll have to schedule some tests to properly assess you and place you ahead for the start of the next year, but if this is what you want and you’re this bright and inquisitive, I’m sure you’ll manage.” Those words were laced with as much exasperation as they were praise, but I still smiled broadly, thanking her before zipping out of the school to tell my parents the good news.

They were thrilled to hear it (especially since I left out the part about getting in trouble with my teacher that led up to that conversation), with my father offering to grill some burgers on the barbeque to celebrate. With that done, I headed off to the small creek nearby our backyard, secluded, yet close enough that my parents wouldn’t worry about me running off too far.

Pulling out my notebook and pencil from my backpack, I rescinded my previous Rule so what I’d written could return… but it didn’t. After a small moment of panicking, I realized that even with my Rule no longer in effect, the change remained.

I still did some empirical testing, placing a new Rule down to return the writing, and the ink blossomed onto the page. When I took the Rule away to experiment in other ways, the writing disappeared again, no longer sustained by my Quirk. What is the difference here? The duration the Rule was in affect? No, can’t be that, otherwise Cathleen ‘s canon power would have given her an enhanced physique with that long lasting Strength Rule, and then had two more variable powers on top of that.

Grabbing a stick from the park floor, I began a new test. “Stick, sharpen.” The commands can be shorter, if I can visualize the result clearly. The knotted, ragged stick’s tapered end grew sharp, bark peeling off as it tapered into a fine point. Letting go of the Rule had no effect - the stick remained the same.

“By removing matter, the transmuted object remains even when the Rule ends.” Then, holding my notebook, I added, “Paper, dictate my words. Double Cool can permanently reshape matter. Previous tests have shown that giving matter different physical properties beyond the norm, like making a stuffed animal lighter than air, end when the Rule is rescinded, but changes that don’t require that may stick around after.”

I took a moment to look at the words on the page, grinning wide. “This is gonna make writing fanfic soooo much easier.”

Limitations and potential applications of Double Cool:

• Double Cool has certain limits in strength on the Rules it can enact

  • Can these grow with time? Will investigate

• The second Rule has no affect on the first - attempting to enact a singular Rule sees no increase or decrease in strength regardless of if I have the second one active

• Rules can only be set on things I touch and correctly name. 

  • Inanimate Objects can be named with basic nouns; stone, rock, pebble, etc. all work on a small rock. A person must be called by the name they most identify with

  • Mispronouncing a name or the Rule itself can cause it to fail. I should take enunciation classes to decrease the odds of this happening in a life or death situation

  • I can touch the thing with any part of my body. I can even touch two different things with the same part of my body for both rules. My body always counts as touching myself for setting Rules on me

    • … Phrasing

  • I can’t set a rule to propagate an effect beyond the original state of matter I touched. Essentially, I can touch air and affect a certain volume of air nearby me, but I can’t affect a bird within that volume of air with a rule I set on the air

    • I.e. I could increase the friction of the air to slow down or burn a bird inside the air I touch or turn the air into a neurotoxin, but I couldn’t simply declare the things within the air to be slower or dead.

      • Therefore studying science makes my powers stronger. I shall endeavour to study as much as I can.

• Affects of Rules may revert when ended. This varies based on the Rule.

  • Removal of matter always remains after the Rule is ended.

    • Caveat; directly ‘shrinking’ a living organism, does not do so - the subject will return to full size when the Rule is ended.

  • If the Rule creates an unnatural physical state or property, when ended it will cease.

    • Giving myself pyrokinesis ends when the Rule ends. Setting myself on fire does not.

  • If something is healed or restored directly by Double Cool, that restoration will end when the Rule ends. However, if a body is healed by increasing it’s regenerative abilities, then even once the enhanced regeneration ends, the effects (being healed and hungrier/more tired from the recovery) will remain

  • If I teleport something somewhere, it will remain in it’s new location when the Rule is ended.

  • Given these factors, I’ll take a page out of Mutants and Masterminds, and categorize effects as either ‘Instantaneous’ or ‘Continuous’

    • An Instantaneous effect happens immediately, the Rule taking effect and then freeing itself up immediately

      • Why wasn’t New Order destroying Shigaraki’s Quirks from the inside immediately affecting all of them at once? Vestige bullshit maybe?

    • A Continuous effect only lasts so long as the Rule does, the thing touched losing those properties when the Rule is removed.

• If a Rule is given a time limit, the duration will end prematurely if the Rule is rescinded before the time is up.

• An improper Rule (due to mispronunciation or failure of strength or possibility) will not override existing Rules.

• I can choose which of my existing Rules I’m overriding when enacting a new Rule. If I don’t consciously choose one, one will be picked randomly.

• I can rescind Rules without needing to touch the target, or even needing to speak aloud. I don’t need to place a new Rule down to remove an old one if I simply want it gone.

• Likewise, if I don’t think with intent when stating a Rule, even if I name the target and an effect, a Rule will not be placed.

• I can control what the effects of a Rule are when stated by will, to a degree.

  • When holding a stick and saying ‘Stick is on fire’ and enacting it as a Rule, the stick will burn, no matter how I will it. However, I can control how much of it is initially on fire and how hot the fire is.

• How I view things affects the Rules I can enact. Trying to give a bird ‘pyrokinesis and complete loyalty to me’ is in my mind, two Rules, so I can’t enact it as one.

  • In that regard, I must name the thing each time I place a Rule on it.

• I can give people (including myself) powers with Rules, but note the limits on strength and certain abilities.

  • These powers don’t function as Quirks; They cannot be trained, they do not come with drawbacks. They do come with any secondary effects needed to function (like not destroying your own bones with superstrength).

• There are certain feats I simply cannot achieve.

  • I cannot travel between dimensions

  • I cannot travel backwards in time. I can send things only a few seconds forward in time (strength limitation on more?)

    • Note: Sending things through time is not the same as sending them through space. Therefore, any object sent through time risks being left behind as Earth orbits the Sun.

  • I cannot stop time

  • I cannot see the future

  • I cannot erase matter from existence entirely

  • I cannot control people’s minds or read their thoughts

    • Caveat: Rules can be placed to this effect directly upon the person in question. I cannot give myself mind controlling powers and then use them from a distance

  • I cannot give myself the power to control dreams

  • I cannot give myself the power to see or interact with souls

    • Do souls truly exist in this world? What are the Vestiges if not souls? Do I have a-

  • I cannot directly increase my intelligence. I can increase my cognition speed and improve my memory, though these are Continuous effects

  • I cannot bring back the dead

  • I cannot speak to the dead

    • Caveat: I can give myself psychometry to attempt to view the past, but this only gives me an outsider’s perspective and not their thoughts

  • I cannot duplicate myself

    • Caveat: I can create a body that is physically identical to mine, but it will have no life; see next limitation)

  • I cannot create life

  • Double Cool cannot affect itself

    • This means no tricks like using Double Cool to increase it’s own power or ignore limitations.

  • I cannot create something I can’t conceive of

End Notes:

Despite these restrictions, I should take this as an opportunity not to rage at what I cannot do, but marvel at what I can. I won’t stop looking into loopholes or other ways to achieve things my power has difficulty with, but even with those limits, my Quirk is, quite simply, amazing. I can do practically anything I set my mind to with this Quirk, and I have a lot of plans in my mind. The future may be fraught with potential dangers, but as long as I think and use my power to its fullest, I’ll win.

A/N: Not my best work, I feel, but I figured there needed to be a step in between the previous part and the next part. I think I’ve got four of this series in total in me and I’ll try to get out the next two soon.

What do you think of the different rules/limitations on Double Cool? I tried to keep it in line with the limitations that New Order had in canon, to not make canon Cathleen Bate a blathering idiot to have missed using those against Shigaraki (even if I do think she did somewhat unnecessarily limit her potential by emulating All Might so much). Still, it should give her plenty of options to play around with.