Hayze wakes up in a bed inside the Stadium’s infirmary. He notices his leg is wrapped up, raised, and cast on.

Hayze: Wh…

Silver: Hey, man.

Hayze realizes where he is.

Hayze: *groans* Does this mean what I think it means?

Silver: Yeah, your quirk told you enough is enough, even if you didn’t want to listen.

Hayze sits up.

Hayze: Is the tournament over?

Silver: Judging by the cheers of the crowd, I’d say Aaron and Kevin probably just finished.

Hayze: You didn’t want to watch?

Silver: I’ve seen how they both fight. Slugfests can be interesting, but the final will probably be the same regardless of the winner.

Hayze: Yeah, that’s probably true…

Hayze looks distraught.

Hayze: I- I can’t believe I lost…

Silver: That’s how I felt; look at the bright side. At least you didn’t lose in the first round.

Hayze: Ha… yeah, I guess that’s true. Where is Recovery Girl? I want to get out of here.

Silver: She said that it’s gonna take her at least another try at healing you; your leg was pretty fucked up; she couldn’t get it all in one go. Her quirk accelerates your healing at the expense of your energy. An injury that severe required more than you had.

Hayze: *sighs* So, does that mean I’m going to miss the final match?

Silver: I’d say so.

The door opens, Kevin and Aaron are both rolled in on stretchers and taken to the other part of the room out of Silver and Hayze’s sight. They’re covered by curtains.

Hayze: I guess you were right.

Silver: Looks like it…

Recovery girl enters, she notices Hayze is awake.

Recovery Girl: Good to see you’re feeling better. I have to tend to your friends now, so you’re going to have to wait your turn.

Hayze: Take your time; they look pretty beat up.

Recovery Girl approaches Aaron and Kevin.

Silver: Did they draw like Alexis and Wes?

Hayze: If that’s the case, that’s an anti-climactic end to the tournament.

Voice: Oh, don’t worry about that.

Hayze and Silver turn to see the principal of U.A. standing in the doorway.

Silver: Mr. Principal, it’s good to see you.

Hayze: It’s nice to meet you, sir.

Principal: It’s a pleasure to meet the two of you as well. You two put on quite a show in your match. I’m glad to see one month at U.A. has already done wonders for you students.

Silver: Thanks sir, I’ve learned a lot in these short few weeks.

Principal: I’m sure. Anyway, the match between Kevin and Aaron wasn’t a draw; it resulted in a narrow victory for Mr. Bohm.

Hayze: Kevin won?

Silver: So, that means the final is Justus and Kevin. What a match-up.

Principal: You missed quite the exciting fight; I’ve never seen two first-years battle to such a high level.

Hayze: (Principal Ross Ewing, he reached as high as the 2nd ranked hero during his prime. His quirk is Chains, he can manifest chains from his body, but the more chains he creates, the weaker they are. He may be an old man now, but he’s no joke.)

Silver: So what brings you here, Mr. Ewing?

Ewing: I like to congratulate the losers of the semi-final round for making it as far as they did. It’s hard to come so close and not reach the final.

Hayze: Yeah… it is…

Ewing places his hand on Hayze’s shoulder.

Ewing: Chin up, my boy. I know your story; you should be proud to have made it to the Top 4; nobody thought you would defeat the boy sitting next to you.

Hayze: Yeah… I… I guess you’re right.

Ewing turns to Silver.

Ewing: And as for you, there will be plenty more chances for you to prove yourself. Don’t let this loss cloud your mind.

Silver: I won’t, sir, thank you.

Justus arrives.

Justus: Hello, I’m here to be healed for the final-

Justus notices Hayze and Silver.

Justus: Hayze, I’m glad to see you’re alright. I’m sorry our match ended the way it did.

Hayze: Yeah, you and me both…

Silver: I’m a little sad we didn’t get to settle the score Justus, but hey, that’s for another day.

Silver smiles.

Justus: Yeah, you’re right.

Recovery Girl approaches Justus with one of her gloves missing.

Recovery Girl: Sorry, Aaron’s injuries were very severe; he needed to be treated quickly. Kevin will take about 10 minutes, and then he’ll be good to go once he recovers his stamina.

Ewing: Well, you can heal Justus here in the meantime; we have a tournament to finish.

Recovery Girl: Yessir.

Recovery Girl places her gloved hand on Justus’ chest, closes her eyes, and concentrates. Then, her hand starts to glow, and Justus’ injuries disappear like they were never there.

Justus: Thank you, ma’am.

Recovery Girl: I’d sit down if I were you; the fatigue will set in shortly.

Justus: Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.

Hayze watches as Recovery Girl returns to Aaron and Kevin.

Hayze: (If she can use her quirk with her gloves on, why did she take one off to help Aaron?)

Ewing: You boys don’t go back there; Recovery Girl needs her space.

Silver: Yessir.

Hayze: I couldn’t if I wanted to.

Ewing: Ha, it’s good to have a sense of humor right now. I’ll be taking my leave now; I look forward to seeing how each of your careers progress. You’re a very promising crop of students.

Ewing leaves.

Justus: Well, it was good seeing you both. I will head back into the arena and prepare myself for the final match.

Silver: Good luck, Justus, you’re gonna need it.

Justus: Thank you.

Justus leaves.

Silver: (He seems different, I wonder what happened to him between his match with Tobias and the one he had with Hayze? Hm…) Well, that should be an exciting matchup.

Silver notices Hayze is in deep thought.

Silver: Hey, you alright?

Hayze: Sorry, I was just worrying about something…

Silver: Like what? What do you have to worry about?

Tara breaks down the door and leaps into the room.

Hayze: That.

Tara runs over to Hayze and grabs his hand, knocking Silver over in the process.

Tara: YOU’RE GONNA MAKE ME RICH FOR THAT PERFORMANCE!

Hayze looks worried.

Hayze: Huh?

Tara: I’M GONNA HAVE REQUESTS FROM TONS OF HEROES FOR GEAR NOW THAT YOU’VE SHOWN OFF JUST HOW POWERFUL MY GADGETS ARE! WOOHOO!

Hayze: So… you’re not mad I broke it?

Tara: No, I’ll just make a better one. That was a prototype; the EMILY 2.0 will be much more compact.

Hayze: Well, that’s good to hear.

Silver gets up.

Silver: Oh yeah… this is the crazy girl that made Blair have a mental breakdown.

Tara: It will amaze you what psychological torment can do to a person.

Silver is silent for a moment.

Silver: I like you.

Hayze: That makes one of us.

Tara: Shut up, you love me! Now it’s time for me to go field requests for gadgets and put up filers!

Tara begins to run out of the room.

Hayze: Wait! Tara!

Tara: Hm?

Hayze: Thank you… I wouldn’t have gotten as far in the tournament as I did without your help.

Tara smiles.

Tara: You’re welcome. HAHAHA!

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Tara charges out of the room.

Silver: That girl is nuts…

Hayze: Yup.

Kevin walks out from behind the curtains. Recovery Girl is right behind him with both her gloves on now.

Recovery Girl: You really should take a second and rest!

Kevin: No way! I wanna get this fight underway! I’m ready to win this thing!

Recovery Girl: I understand, but I just siphoned a large portion of your energy to heal you! You need to be careful, or you’ll pass out before you even reach the arena entrance!

Kevin: But I wanna get back out there!

Silver: Listen to her, Kevin. She knows more about her quirk than you do. Just take a few minutes and relax; Justus can wait.

Kevin: *sighs* But I can’t…

Recovery Girl sits Kevin down in a chair next to Hayze’s bed and puts an hourglass on the table.

Recovery Girl: When this runs out of sand, you can leave.

Kevin: Ugh, fine…

Recovery Girl walks back behind the curtains.

Silver: So, Kevin, what’s your plan this time?

Kevin: Plan?

Silver: Oh boy…

Kevin: I’m kidding: hit him hard!

Hayze: Sounds reasonable…

Silver: Yeah, except I’m not sure who hits harder between the two of them.

Kevin: Guess we’ll find out.

Hayze: You seem determined, not that you usually aren't, but you were in a real hurry to get back out there.

Kevin: That last fight with Aaron got me fired up. I know it's ironic, but my quirk kind of fits why I want to be a hero, the pure excitement of fighting is a high I always strive for. That’s why I was annoyed when Ash forfeited our match. I was looking forward to it.

Silver: The guy with an adrenaline quirk is an adrenaline junkie for fighting. You’re right; that is ironic.

Kevin: There've been a lot of good fights today, some of my own, others I’ve enjoyed. It’s hard to believe that this whole tournament has happened just today. It’s crazy when you think about it.

Silver: Yeah, but it’s almost over; who will take the gold?

Kevin: Me.

Hayze: Justus ain’t an easy opponent to take down, be careful.

Kevin gets up from his seat as the sand finishes falling in the hourglass.

Kevin: It’s time.

Silver: Good luck.

Hayze: Go get ‘em, tiger.

Justus is awaiting Kevin at the center of the arena.

Colossus: You must be proud of your students, Walker.

Walker: They’ve done well, but there are still some things they can improve upon.

Fatal: You can never just sound proud, can you.

Walker: Nope.

Houston: (Cocky son of a bitch, my students are all getting reprimanded and forced to do laps after this!)

Colossus: (Justus, bring this one home.)

Kevin enters the arena, and the whole stadium erupts.

Madame Mummy: (This is it, the final match.)

Justus: (Time for me to win this, I’ve defeated four opponents already, Karma, Tobias, Angel, and Hayze, Kevin, you will not be the exception.)

Kevin continues walking towards the center.

Kevin: (The only way I win this is by starting off with at least 50%, I need to match the incredible power that is Justus’ quirk, and starting off slow won’t do that for me... this fight won’t last long, but it’s gonna be a fucking blitz.)

Kevin reaches the center, and the two lock eyes, ready to begin. Madame Mummy looks back and forth at each of them.

Madame Mummy: (They’re both locked in, they don’t even want to waste time trash-talking, I’ll have to watch myself during this one. Well, here goes one last time.) Begin.

Kevin powers up, and the two both immediately run at each other and punch; their fists connect and create a shock wave that sends Madame Mummy back slightly.

Madame Mummy: (What incredible power out of two teenagers.)

They both stand there with their fists locked, trying to push each other back.

Justus: I guess we’re even at this level.

Kevin: Yeah… so let’s take it up a notch! 60%!

Kevin’s fist starts pushing back Justus’ as he uses his other arm to punch Justus clean in the chest, sending him flying backward.

Justus: (He’s powered up even further! But can he afford to do this?)

Justus grabs onto a tree branch and flips up onto it.

Kevin: FIGHT ME!

Kevin starts running at Justus.

Justus: (60% means his conscious thought is decaying, his strategy will be to punch until I drop.)

Justus jumps down from the tree and runs at Kevin as well, but this time right before their punches connect, Justus sweeps Kevin off his feet, grabs his leg, and starts spinning him around and around.

Kevin: LET GO!

Justus: With pleasure!

Justus releases Kevin, and the brute flies headfirst into a tree.

Kevin: *groans*

Justus: (That will be a concussion, no doubt.)

Kevin gets up and rips the tree out of the ground.

Justus: (He recovered so quickly!)

Kevin chucks the tree at Justus. Justus jumps over it, but then he looks up to see another tree soaring at him.

Justus: (Oh no!)

The tree slams into Justus’ chest. He starts falling to the ground, but Kevin runs at him, grabs him, leaps into the air, then pile drives Justus into the ground so hard that Justus’ top half of his body gets stuck in the dirt.

Justus: (When you can hit this hard, I guess strategy isn’t that important.)

Justus fights his way out of the ground, but the second his head emerges, Kevin knocks him over the back of the head with a tree.

Justus: (That’s a concussion, no doubt..)

Kevin picks up Justus by the leg.

Justus: (Looks like I’m gonna have to take a page out of Blair’s book!)

Justus punches Kevin in the nuts, but he doesn’t flinch or anything.

Justus: Oh right… pain tolerance, not good.

Kevin throws Justus into the ground creating a crater instantly; a cloud of dust shrouds them.

Zach: Goddamn, Kevin is even stronger than Justus!

Jace: Yeah… but can he beat him in five minutes!

Wes: I guess we’re gonna find out…

Karma: This is insane! Justus took me out in one punch, and Kevin is pummeling him into the dirt.

Alexis: Yeah, and he just took the vintage Blair attack from Justus, and it did nothing.

Ash: (He’s so powerful… I’m glad I forfeited.)

Justus coughs on the dust.

Justus: (He’s throwing me around like a ragdoll. I have to fight back, but he can’t feel any of the pain from my punches… How did Killian get around that when Kevin was at 60%?)

Kevin tries to jump on Justus, but Justus dodges, causing Kevin to slam into the dirt.

Justus: (If I remember correctly, Killian only got one attack off on Kevin after he escalated to 60%... an uppercut that sent Kevin flying. Moves that sweep Kevin off his feet seem to be the most effective, plus I need to aim for his internal organs. If I can’t stop him, I’ll stop his body!)

Kevin charges at Justus. Justus stands his ground, dodges a punch from Kevin, and sucker punches Kevin in the kidney. Kevin staggers back as blood comes from his mouth.

Justus: (Got him.)

Kevin brushes the attack off and charges Justus.

Justus: (What! He recovered that quick-)

Kevin tackles Justus to the ground, pins him, and then lays down a series of punches on Justus’ face.

Kevin: I WILL WIN!

Justus grabs Kevin’s fists before they connect and holds them back.

Justus: Looks like you’re slowing down!

Justus rolls around, pins Kevin to the ground, and begins whaling on his face.

Justus: Sorry, Kevin, but I’m the one who's gonna walk away from here, the winner!

Kevin lies limp on the ground, he can’t feel any punches, but blood still pours from his face from each strike.

Kevin: (I want to win… but is 75% enough? Justus is so powerful… I need to go higher… but I might seriously injure him if I use 90% or more… although… I might not be able to win without it… fuck!)

Justus just keeps whaling on Kevin.

Zach: What’s Kevin doing, man!

Jace: It’s like he’s running out of gas.

Gus: It’s been close to 5 minutes. He probably is.

Suddenly Kevin’s skin turns bright red.

Justus: (What?)

Kevin opens his eyes to reveal they are bright white.

Kevin: ...die!

Kevin punches Justus in the chest; he pukes instantly and gets sent flying 30 feet straight into the air.

Kevin: DIE DIE DIE!

Kevin jumps up next to Justus, puts his hands together, and slams down on his back, sending him straight into the ground.

Justus: AHHHHHHH!

Kevin lets out a blood-curdling scream midair; he then starts falling down toward Justus, ready to deal the final blow before Justus even has a chance to recover.

Justus: (His punches hit like missiles! Everything hurts! This is stronger than anything I’ve ever faced… but he has his limits, and I will exploit them!)

Justus rolls over right as Kevin collides with the ground. Kevin’s missed punch makes a massive crater in the dirt and a sound almost like an explosion that rings through everyone’s ears; dust covers the battlefield.

Madame Mummy: (This is insane.)

Justus begins hitting Kevin with a barrage of punches.

Justus: (Just a few seconds left! My entire body hurts, but I’m too close to let him win!)

Justus keeps punching Kevin, pushing him back as Kevin doesn't flinch or show a sign of pain from any of the hits.

Justus: JUST FALL DOWN ALREADY!

Kevin grabs Justus’ right arm and rips it out of its socket like it’s nothing; Justus falls to the ground writhing in pain. The crowd gasps.

Justus: AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Kevin kicks Justus, and he goes flying to the other side of the crater; Justus has blood pouring from his head, his mouth, his arm is flailing around, his back feels like it was hit by a freight train.

Kevin: DIE!

Kevin lets out another screech and starts running at Justus.

Justus: (Kevin’s strength feels… endless...)

Justus painfully gets to his feet.

Justus: (If this is where I lose, I’ll go down standing.)

Kevin’s body starts to emit steam. Justus’ eyes light up.

Justus: (This is it!)

Kevin’s charge loses speed, Justus easily uppercuts him with his good arm.

Justus: Take that!

Kevin starts getting up, but his skin and eyes return to normal; he falls to the ground with steam coming out of every pour in his body.

Kevin: Dammit… I thought I had a few more seconds...

The dust settles; the crowd starts cheering and applauding as everyone gets to their feet.

Justus: (I didn’t beat Kevin, I survived him… what a match.)

Kevin: Well… time for the finishing blow… congrats Justus… it was one hell of a fight.

Justus: (That was really just 5 minutes? Time flies when you’re fighting a goliath that can break you like a toothpick.)

Justus painfully approaches Kevin.

Justus: (This is what I fought for… to prove I’m the best… but why do I feel empty? Shouldn’t I be happy… no, it’s because this is only a tiny step towards my goal… I will feel good now, but I still need to focus on what’s ahead.)

Justus looks over Kevin.

Justus: You put up a good fight, my friend; I’m proud to call you a rival.

Kevin: Eat a dick.

Justus kicks Kevin in the head and knocks him out.

Madame Mummy: The winner of the first year Sports Festival is Justus Grey.

The whole stadium goes nuts. A stretcher comes out for Kevin.

Boom: The awards ceremony will be in 30 minutes, with a guest appearance from a hero you all love!

Later, all of the students are gathered before a podium. Aaron and Hayze on crutches stand together on the third-place spot, Kevin on the second-place area, and Justus with his arm in a sling on the first place spot.

Boom: Today, we congratulate the top finishers of the first-year Sports Festival with an awards ceremony. Here to present the awards is none other than the number 1 hero himself, Colossus!

The crowd cheers as Colossus jumps down from the top of the arena and lands directly in front of the podium.

Colossus: Hello, Everyone!

Wes (Man, he loves his entrances…)

Colossus gathers the four medals and walks up to Hayze and Aaron, and places a bronze medal on each of them.

Colossus: Be proud of finishing where you did. You both fought hard to get here; never forget that.

Aaron: Thank you, sir.

Hayze: We won’t.

Colossus approaches Kevin and puts the silver medal on him.

Colossus: 2nd may seem like a failure, but now you know how much you can accomplish and how much more road you still need to travel.

Colossus walks over to Justus and puts the gold medal over his head.

Colossus: I’m proud of you.

Colossus walks back to Madame Mummy as Justus cracks a slight smile on his face but tries to hide it.

Boom: And with that, the U.A. First-Year Sports Festival is complete! Thank you to all those who attended, and we will see you tomorrow for the Second-Years!

Hayze looks down at his bronze medal.

Hayze: (Today, I accomplished more than I have in every other day I’ve lived through, but this was merely the first step in showing the whole world that I am a hero.)