Power Misidentification in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- In Amazing Fantasy, Izuku starts growing hairs that stick to things on his hands after surviving a venomous spider bite. He tries to rationalize this as a latent Quirk that the venom awakened, since it would be impossible for him to be getting the powers of a fictional character like Spider-Man. But when he discovers his Super-Strength, Spider-Sense, and Wall Crawling, he soon realizes that this can't be a Quirk. He ends up trying to pass them off as one anyways to avoid unwanted attention. The police also mistake Peter's web-shooters for his "Quirk", when in actuality they're his only power not inherent to him.
- As N Approaches Infinity: Homura Akemi doesn’t want people to know that she has Time Stands Still powers, so she goes out of her way to make it seem like she’s moving around via some sort of teleportation. She’ll even briefly unpause time at certain points, to give the impression that she has a distance limit. Still, Urahara suspects that she’s hiding something, noting that what Homura is doing doesn’t feel like any kind of Flash Step technique.
- Birth of a Legend V2
:- Shirou Emiya gets summoned as a Servant to Arturia Pendragon, an Alternate Self to Saber who is an ordinary girl and lives in the Campione! universe. Shirou mistakes the Heretic Gods and Campione for Servants and their Authorities for Noble Phantasms, while they mistake him for a Heretic God and his Noble Phantasms for Authorities. Athena eventually lectures him about Heretic Gods and Campione, but she doesn't believe his claims of being a Servant and thinks he's a Heretic God with amnesia.
- Athena eventually makes a Master/Servant contract with Arturia and finds it stops her from going mad. She deliberately spreads a lie that Arturia is a Campione who got her powers by killing King Solomon to gain an Authority to control Heretic Gods and stop them from going mad.
- Boldores And Boomsticks sees Raven Branwen watch as Yang shows off her new moves that she learned on Earth to the Beacon staff and General Ironwood. Not being close enough to hear Weiss explain the moves used, and not knowing about the Pokémon world, she makes a conclusion that is logical, yet completely wrong.Raven: "That rat bastard Ozpin made the girl his new Fall Maiden!"
- brilliant lights will cease to burn: Even after Izuku admits that he's Quirkless and is using magic, the police continue to believe that he's got some kind of extremely odd Quirk that just happens to be immune to Eraserhead's power-canceling abilities.
- In Double Cross, Skitter initially thinks that magic is just a weird expression of superpowers. Similarly, Harry and Bob initially think that Skitter's a prodigy in Thaumaturgical arts.
- Fate: Kill: Shirou Emiya gets sent to the world of Akame ga Kill!. Though Akame understands that Shirou has magical powers, she thinks the secret of his abilities is that his family rediscovered the lost art of creating Teigu, with his usage of Danger Beast bones being raw materials to create the weapons, rather than as sources of mana that he uses to fuel his magecraft. Whenever he makes a Noble Phantasm, everybody thinks it is a Teigu.
- A Game of Cat and Cat: Soma Cruz is reluctant to admit that his real power is to steal the souls of his enemies and use their powers as his own, so he tells Kazuya that he can create weapons and fire. He later admits that he lied, and claims that his real power is to permanently absorb magic, rather than souls.
- God Slaying Blade Works: Shirou Emiya and Illya von Einzbern are sent to the world of Campione! and Shirou ends up becoming a Campione by slaying gods, gaining their Authorities. He still has his ability to copy weapons, especially Noble Phantasms, and use Unlimited Blade Works, but most characters assume these are also Authorities. The characters also assume that Illya is so powerful because she has divine ancestry. In reality, she is a homunculus who was modified to maximize her power output.
- Heroes of the New World; multiple people assume that Izuku Midoriya uses a Devil Fruit, unaware that he's from another dimension where Everyone Is a Super and One for All is far different from any Devil Fruit.
- Spytand Malice assumes that Izuku stole the Smoke-Smoke Fruit from Smoker (based on Izuku using Black Whip in the first part of their fight), so he pitches Izuku out into the ocean assuming he'll drown. He gets a Megaton Punch across Wano for his troubles, though he does survive to inform Kaido of Izuku's true powers.
- Both Whitey Bay and Whitebeard assume Izuku inherited the Float-Float Fruit from "Golden Lion" Shiki (based on Izuku's ability to fly with Float). Izuku only corrects Whitebeard because the Emperor is a Living Lie Detector and Izuku is trying to gain his support.
- Vinsmoke Reiju sees Izuku doing his thing and initially thinks its a Devil Fruit, but after talking with him for a moment she rules out Devil Fruit powers and instead pivots to technology or genetic enhancements courtesy of Dr. Vegapunk.
- In I'm Nobody, most of the Organization believes that Marluxia's powers have something to do with flowers. Then he reveals that his power is actually to sense life and death, including the ability to tell when something about to die... such as a star that's about to go supernova.
- Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger: Many people assume Jaune's Force-sensitivity is some kind of Semblance. At first, it's thought that Jaune has a telekinesis Semblance similar to Glynda's. After he unlocks several Force abilities like Force heal and the Jedi mind trick; it's assumed that he somehow possesses multiple Semblances. Pyrrha eventually concludes that Jaune has a Semantic Superpower revolving around the concept of control, while Ozpin and co. mistake Jaune's Force powers for magic, similar to what the Maidens possess.
- The Mist Has Fallen: SHIELD and the Avengers believe all these teenagers suddenly manifesting strange powers are enhanced people instead of demigods floundering because the Masquerade isn't effective anymore.
- In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Izuku passes off his Kryptonian Combo Platter Powers as an exceptional Quirk to avoid arousing suspicion. Given how common Quirks are in the setting, it works for the most part. It helps that he first got his Super-Strength when he was four years old, right after he'd been told that he was Quirkless, making it look like a misdiagnosis.
- The Parliament of Heroes: An unintentional example in the 16th A Summer Job snippet. When Pacifica first reveals her powers to Rose and Wendy, naturally, none of them have any idea of Pacifica's Kryptonian heritage. As a result, when Pacifica asks for some clue on what she is, Rose can only assume that she's a Metahuman and tells her as much.
- Point Me at the Skyrim is a crossover between The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Ward, a Fantasy and Superhero world respectively. Victoria Dallon, aka Antares, comes from a world where superpowers are given by Starfish Aliens and believes magic to be an alternative expression of that. The inhabitants of Tamriel simply believe her to be a very powerful Mage who focuses on Telekinesis and illegal Levitation spells. She's had many confusing discussions about the differences between the two abilities.
- A Quincy's Fairy Tail:
- When Bambietta and Gajeel fight during the Fairy Tail/Phantom Lord guild war, Gajeel initially wonders if she uses some combination of Requip and Light-Make Magic, referring to her Quincy techniques to form solid weapons and her Hard Light Energy Bow.
- When Natsu fights Soujirou Kusaka during the same war, he thinks that his ice-type zanpakutou that manifests as a dragon makes him some sort of "Ice-Make Dragon Slayer". Kusaka tries to dissuade him of this but then more or less gives up.
- In Refrain for Justice, Miss Martian takes a mental look at Reality Warper Alice's mindscape and quickly realizes it doesn't feel psychic or metahuman. Alice was actually a Homo Magi.
- The Secret Return of Alex Mack:
- Alex intentionally fakes having Super-Strength by reinforcing her punches with telekinesis. Compared to many of her opponents, she's Weak, but Skilled, but she succeeds in giving several of them the impression that she has more raw power than they do.
- Danielle Atrong gets the mistaken impression that Alex's electrokinesis is stronger than her own. The reality is that Alex's electrical blasts are weaker, but Alex also has significant electrical resistance, so when they traded shots, Alex was less affected.
- The Vasto of White: Shirou Emiya dies and his spirit gets sent to the world of Bleach and becomes a Hollow, later an Arrancar. He still has his ability to analyze and copy weapons, which leads several characters to assume he was a Quincy before he died, as the Quincy can also create objects out of thin air, but he does it via Magecraft, not by their techniques.
- War Games: When Coil hears that Taylor disappeared through "a doorway in mid-air", he assumes that Cauldron is involved and that he has no choice but to back off, when in fact it was the door of a stealthed spaceship — the very spaceship he was targeting.
- Worm Grand Order: Most of the Earth Bet inhabitants think that Taylor's power is to create projections, beings from her imagination, rather than her actually summoning Heroic Spirits as her Servants.
- In Lantern's Day, In Canary's Night: Due to Green Lanterns not being known to Earth yet, many people misinterpret the source of Laurel's new powers. Darhk and Malcolm think it's magic, and while Barry quickly figures out it's really advanced technology, he initially assumes it's from the future instead of from space.
- In Dragon Ball Z Abridged, Guldo uses his ability to stop time at the very beginning of his fight against Krillin and Gohan, and while time is stopped, he arranges to drop a steamroller on Krillin (to no effect). Afterward Krillin is convinced that Guldo's power is to summon steamrollers.Krillin: Gohan. Did you see it? His power?! He can-
Gohan: Stop time?
Krillin: Summon steamrollers!
Gohan: ... you... you sure about that?
Krillin: Positive!
- In Accidental Successor, when Izuku first manifests One for All, he has no idea of its history and true power; he, like everyone around him, assumes it's simply an ordinary enhancement Quirk. The Quirk itself actually appreciates this, since this means that Izuku is paying attention to it in its own right rather than being blinded or burdened by everything else that comes with it. This even spurs One for All to actively sabotage the Vestiges' attempts to share its history with Izuku.
- Angel on my Shoulder: After Kiri gets Mimi to join her as a vigilante post Defeat Equals Friendship, the Hero Association thinks that she has the power to 'assimilate' others and make them like her, since Mimi is able to use Aftermath's attacks. In reality, Kiri is using Izuku's One for All-enhanced Quirk to manifest a physical form for herself along with Mimi.
- In the Announcer AU, Izuku's observational skills are so acute the public assumes that must be his superpower, when he's actually Quirkless.
- Deconstructed in Quirk: Sequencer: Izuku deliberately hides the true nature of his abilities, not wanting to be misjudged as villainous due to how it requires him to ingest others' blood. Instead, he passes his power off as Plasma Cannon, pretending his other abilities are simply creative uses of it. This naturally causes problems when others pick up on the discrepancies, distrusting him as a result.
- With Confidence: Several people who lack Quirks deliberately fake having them through the use of support equipment, sleight of hand and other means in order to avoid the discrimination the openly Quirkless face.
- Son of the Sannin: When Shino first sees Fu's ability to sprout wings to fly and is told that it's an ability unique to her, he mistakes it for being a bloodline limit instead of her being the host of the Seven-Tailed Beetle. While he already knew that jinchuriki existed due to Naruto's identity as such never being made a secret, he had no reason to think that she was one at the time.
- In Coby's Choice, the World Government mistakenly believes that Nami's ability to control the weather comes from a Devil Fruit, not realizing that it's actually due to her Clima-Tact weapon.
- The Soulmate Timeline: Those who don't know that Homura can stop time assume she's a teleporter. Kyoko doesn't find out otherwise until Mami tells Homura to stop time so she can deal with a Witch more easily and was more than a little annoyed once told the truth for being 'the last to know'.
- In the Sailormoon Millennia Trilogy, Sailorvirgo has gravity-based powers; however, she initially mistakes them for telekinesis until Sailorpisces points it out to her.
- The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf claims that his longship can fly and make itself invisible. While it can fly, it can't actually turn invisible, it actually goes into the Warp and emerges where he wants it to. He also claims it needs large amounts of Human Sacrifice to do so, which has yet to be seen (in canon it supposedly won't budge if Wulfrik or the people aboard haven't fed it their blood).
- A Darker Path: It's widely known that Atropos can kill powers, with people like Void Cowboy speculating that she's like anime martial artists delivering a mystical death blow. In fact, she has no such ability. What she does have is a good working relationship with Riley, formerly known as Bonesaw, who is able to manufacture a prion that does the job, killing the corona pollentia and gemma in the brain. It's much safer for Riley if no-one realises that "Miss Medic" can do things like that, especially since it might give clues leading back to Bonesaw, so Atropos remains the public face of things.
- Here Comes The New Boss: Taylor deliberately conceals most of the Butcher powers by presenting herself as a Tinker. Powered Armor makes an excellent excuse for Super-Strength, Super-Toughness, and Super-Senses. Tock Tick, the actual Tinker in the collective, is quite pleased, too; his power hasn't been used so heavily in years, and fortunately his (clockwork) specialty isn't visually distinctive enough to give her away.
