Aaron wakes up in a bed inside the Nurse's office. Demetri, Wes, and Zach are in the beds next to him, all still unconscious. The nurse is sitting at her desk. She notices Aaron has awoken.
Nurse: Wow, you weren’t the one I would have guessed would wake up first. Good for you.
She gets up and walks over to Aaron.
Nurse: You took quite the beating against Mr. Walker; I’ve healed off your injuries to the best of my ability.
Aaron: You didn’t get the splitting headache.
Nurse: No, unfortunately, that's outside the realm of my quirk. I'm not surprised to see you’re concussed though, that was quite the powerful blast you were hit by.
Aaron: Yeah, I’m trying to remember what exactly happened… I remember thinking that I didn’t have any other moves left except the Howitzer, but how did it hit me-
Aaron slowly looks at Wes’ unconscious body.
Aaron: Hey ma’am, I’m thirsty. Do you mind getting me some warm water?
Nurse: Why warm?
Aaron: I just prefer it that way.
Nurse: Okay then.
The Nurse gets up. Aaron looks at her hand and sees she’s wearing a ring with an orange gem on it. It has the Greek symbol for Gamma engraved in it.
Aaron: That’s an interesting ring you have on…
The Nurse looks down at her hand.
Nurse: Oh oops, I usually wear my gloves, let me go put those on.
The Nurse walks over to her desk.
Aaron: So, is that for a sorority thing or something like that?
Nurse: No, but it’s very important to me; I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about it.
Aaron: Why?
Nurse: It’s private.
Aaron: Oh, okay, I won’t talk about it.
Nurse: That’s good, now I’ll go get that water.
Aaron: Please do.
The 8 students who participated in the exercise enter the control room.
Blair: Congrats, Lilith and Karma, on winning!
Jace: Yeah, Lilith, that was pretty sneaky.
Lilith: Thanks, guys!
Karma shudders a little at the congratulations. Fatal takes notice.
Fatal: Alright, groups A, B, C, and D, you'll be doing your rounds in a building about half as tall as the other group, and the briefcase will be on any floor, no creative message this time. Kevin, you inhaled a lot of smoke in that first fight. I noticed your movement wasn't as crisp at the end; head to Recovery Girl to make sure everything is okay.
Kevin: Ah man, I really wanted to see everyone else fight.
Fatal: Maybe next time. Keep in mind this is only the first day.
Kevin: That’s true; see you guys!
Kevin leaves. The other 4 groups head into the arena.
Fatal: You all did a pretty good job there; Angel, Gus, Hayze, Eve, and Alexis don’t fret over losing, you all showed what you were made of in there, and Karma, don’t sulk over not contributing too much to the overall win, Lilith wouldn’t have escaped without your distraction.
Karma: Yes, ma’am. (But I’m one of the students that got here by recommendation, I should be more than just a distraction, it was my poor planning that got us in that mess.)
Lilith walks over to Hayze.
Lilith: Hey, thanks for saving me from Alexis’ Origami army! I know you didn’t mean for it to backfire on you, but it was really nice.
Hayze: Yeah… I totally meant to do that.
Eve: He missed. I told him to aim for you.
Hayze: Okay, but… alright, I don’t have anything.
Lilith: Oh, it’s okay, all's well that ends well.
Hayze: (Is this girl just super nice or super oblivious… I can’t tell.)
Eve: (Hayze was more helpful than I was expecting, but I definitely could have won with a stronger partner, whatever I still got to showcase some of my skills.)
The loud horn goes off in the arena. Jace bounces up and onto the roof. Silver walks into the side entrance of the building.
Silver: (Divide and conquer is the best, besides Spring Boy would just get in my way. I fly solo.)
Cut to Alden and Jake.
Alden: Alright! It’s time for us to win!
Alden turns around to see Jake is taking a nap.
Alden: WHAT ARE YOU DOING!
Alden crutches over to Jake and tries to kick him, Jake teleports away, Alden crutches over to him again and tries to kick him, but Jake teleports back to where he was.
Alden: HE’S ASLEEP. HOW IS HE DOING THAT!
Isaiah and Ash are outside of the building still. Isaiah is adjusting his visor.
Ash: So, are we going to go inside?
Isaiah: I’m scanning the building to find where the case is. I already know what it looks like because of the other groups, so we can go in and grab it once I spot it.
Ash: That’s a great idea! Wait, so you’re using X-Ray right now?
Isaiah: Yup.
Ash: Can that see-through clothes!
Isaiah: No, it has to be set to fabric mode to do that.
Ash: Oh, okay… wait…
Blair and Justus have already entered the building and are running around searching for the case.
Blair: We haven’t seen any other teams, and only Jace could get the roof. What do you think they’re doing?
Cut to Alden still chasing a sleeping Jake.
Justus: They’re probably strategizing. They’re probably coming up with a sinister plot. We have to be careful, though; I’m worried about Sil-
Suddenly a wave of silver dust starts coming toward them.
Blair: What is that?
Justus: Trouble.
Blair incases herself in her Magma armor. Justus just takes the attack head-on. The wave rolls over them, and the hallway is filled halfway with silver dust. Justus emerges from the pile and climbs out of it; Blair soon follows.
Blair: Dammit! Some got in my mouth.
Justus: I knew his quirk would be strong.
Silver laughs as he approaches Blair and Justus.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Silver: I thought you guys would be my toughest competition, but taking that attack head-on wasn't the smartest.
Silver gestures his fist. Some silver starts to wrap around Justus’ arms and legs, attempting to bind him in place, but Justus muscles his way out of the hold.
Silver: Wow, maybe I was right. It’s not often someone is strong enough to break my quirk’s hold.
Justus: I’m not just someone.
Blair: Can you stop glaring at him and try to kick his ass?
Justus: He has the advantage here; we’re literally standing on a mound of his quirk. You see how his costume has a bunch of canisters attached to his belt. Those are to hold this dust, so he doesn’t have to create more all the time. As long as we’re in this pile, we don’t stand a chance of landing an attack.
Blair: Speak for yourself.
Justus: Are you saying you have a plan?
Blair: Hell, yeah, I do! My quirk lets me secrete lava from my pores, and I can harden it to create my armor, but my costume has these gauntlets to store extra magma and use it as a weapon.
Blair pulls out two gun-shaped objects from holsters on her sides. They’re attached via a tube to the gauntlets on her forearms.
Blair: Now, Magma Bullet Barrage!
Blair begins firing bullets of lava in Silver’s direction.
Silver: Cute trick, here is mine!
A shroud of silver dust shields Silver from the shots.
Blair: My magma shots will go right through that!
Silver: Maybe, but I have so much silver dust on the battlefield that I can make the walls thick enough to withstand your shots!
Blair’s shots are stopped dead by the dust wall.
Blair: Shit!
Justus: We only have one option then.
Justus runs straight at Silver.
Blair: What are you doing?
Silver: (What is he doing?)
Silver sends the silver dust wall he used to protect himself from Blair’s attack at Justus, but Justus runs straight through it.
Silver: (It’s not strong enough to stop him!)
Justus tries to punch Silver, but Silver blocks the attack with his arm.
Justus: You shouldn’t have tried that! One of my punches would break your arm!
Silver: Not my arm.
Justus: Huh?
Justus looks at Silver’s arm. It’s coated in hardened liquid silver.
Justus: Funny, you were acting all confident, but you had this armor on the whole time.
Silver: Better to be safe than sorry.
Justus: Interesting, but do you seriously think you can beat us two on one? We’re not pushovers!
Silver: I know, but I think of this as resource allocation; if I keep you two occupied, you have a 0% chance at finding the case while my partner is looking to complete the mission.
Justus: So, you just don’t want us to win? That seems like a defeatist attitude; you can’t reasonably expect Jace to find the case and get out on his own.
Silver: Who said anything about Jace finding the case?
Justus: What?
Isaiah is watching Silver, Justus, and Blair fight with his X-Ray vision.
Ash: What do you see?
Isaiah: There's a fight going on between Silver, Justus, and Blair, I can't see where Silver's partner is in all that, and I have no clue where Jake and Alden are.
Ash: Do you at least see the case?
Isaiah: No, it has to be in there somewhere, though.
Jace watches them from the roof.
Jace: (Man, Silver’s plan is crazy, he really thinks I can take down both of them on my own? I mean, I appreciate that he believes in me, but that’s a tall order, plus he isn’t even accounting for where Alden and Jake are in all this, or as he said, “Those two idiots will probably not even make it inside the building,” like come on man, I’m sure they can at least do that.)
Jake is still napping, one of Alden’s crutches broke, and he’s trying to stand up on his own but can’t.
Alden: This. Is. The. Worst. Day. Ever! AND MY NUTS STILL HURT, SCREW YOU, RECOVERY GIRL!
Recovery Girl sneezes.
Kevin: Hey, in Japan, they say that means someone is talking about you.
Recovery Girl: It might be that kid who came in with the other four, I used up most of my power on healing Aaron and Demetri, so I kind of half-assed healing him. Although it was his choice to rejoin the class, so he shouldn’t be complaining.
Silver tries to punch Justus but Justus lunges back.
Justus: (Silver does have a point, with me and Blair preoccupied with him, we can’t win this challenge.)
Blair: *Whispering* Justus.
Justus looks back at Blair.
Blair: It’s gonna take up most of my energy, but I think I can buy you a window to get away.
Justus: What? I can’t leave this fight!
Blair: Don’t give me that crap. You want to win, right? Well, to do that, one of us needs to retreat from this battle.
Justus: *grunts* You have a point.
Blair: Okay, then get going; I’ll hold him off.
Blair incases her entire body in a suit of her magma armor. It glows a bright reddish black color.
Blair: (Encasing my whole body isn’t something I can do for long instances, but I want to win this!)
Blair runs at Silver, he tries to stop her with a barrage of silver dust, but the dust melts instantly upon contact with her armor.
Silver: (Damn! The heat of that volcanic rock is too much for my dust wall, and even though she’s wearing all that armor, I can’t dodge her attack outright, my costume is too heavy!)
Blair reaches Silver and winds up a punch. Silver covers his face with his silver armor, Blair punches him, and her armor’s heat melts it, causing the punch to connect with full force. Silver gets sent flying back, but his landing is cushioned by his Silver Dust.
Blair: *heavily breathing* Take that! Justus run!
Justus hesitates for a moment but then runs off.
Silver: Nice hit but based on your breathing, I can tell that this isn't something you can do for a long time.
Blair’s armor starts to fall off.
Silver: Speak of the devil.
After all of Blair’s armor falls off, Silver restrains her with his dust. He then uses the capture tape to trap her.
Silver: Gotcha!
Blair: Dammit!
Fatal: *Over an intercom* Blair from Group B has been captured!
Isaiah and Ash are now inside the building, running through the halls.
Isaiah: I guess we know how that went.
Ash: So, shouldn’t Justus be captured too?
Isaiah: There’s a chance Blair sacrificed herself so Justus could get away. If they kept fighting Silver like that, they would have had zero chance of winning the exercise.
Ash: You might be right.
Isaiah: It’s okay, though; we’re almost to the case!
Ash: Sweet!
They reach the room with the case and run inside. Isaiah picks up the case.
Isaiah: Exactly where I saw it.
Ash: Yes! We’re going to win this!
Suddenly Jace whizzes by the two of them and snatches the case from Isaiah.
Isaiah: Where did you come from?
Jace: Silver was right! You led me right to the case! So now all I have to do is get to the front entrance, which is right below this window!
Ash: You mean an 18 story drop?
Isaiah: You’re not planning to jump, are you?
Jace: A bonus to this quirk is that I’m entirely immune to damage from falls as long as I land on my springs!
Jace jumps through the window and starts falling. Isaiah and Ash look out the window and watch.
Alden has finally rolled over on his back.
Alden: Crap, and here I thought that I might be able to win something today.
Alden sees something coming from the sky.
Alden: What is that?
The briefcase hits Alden right in the Nuts.
Alden: *High Pitched* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Jace lands.
Jace: Dang, I lost hold of the case while I was falling.
A loud air horn goes off.
Fatal: *Over the Intercom* AND THE TEAM OF JAKE AND ALDEN WINS!
Jace: Aw man, I screwed up big time!
Cut to Silver and Blair.
Silver: I guess I underestimated those two.
Blair: (We wasted too much time on Silver, we could have won otherwise!)
Cut to Justus.
Justus: (I failed… I’m sorry.)
Cut to Isaiah and Ash.
Isaiah: That should have been our win!
Ash: How… did… Alden and Jake win?
Jace walks over to Alden, crying and writhing in pain.
Jace: Hey… are you okay, dude?
Alden: *High Pitched* WHY COULDN’T YOU HAVE HELD ONTO THE CASE! WHY?
Jace: I’m sorry, man, the handle is slippery!
Jake wakes up.
Jake: Man, that was a good nap. What happened?
Jace: Wait, you were sleeping that whole time!
Jake: Yeah, Ms. Fatal said we had five minutes until we started.
Jace: (Who the heck is this guy?)
Jake: Oh, hey, did Alden’s balls get crushed again?
Jace: Yeah, I lost hold of the briefcase while I was falling.
Jake: Man, if only I was awake, I could have teleported Alden out of the way.
Alden: *High Pitched* WHAT!