Lozen reclined peacefully on her seat while surveying the test grounds. Right now, she was situated in an overhanging room which had a general view of the four ongoing exams, and thankfully, all of them had started around ten minutes ago with no prevalent issues. All of the examinees got to the testing facilities on time and had received instructions from their examiners.

Still, this was only the beginning. Lozen and the other four judges assigned to these tests needed to keep their eyes peeled for any possible dangers. For that, all judges were given private communication channels with the examiners, access to the medical facilities, and even direct contact with The Board of Heroes. Also all of the tests’ judges panels were also fitted with a state of the art surveillance interface, which received signals from the many hidden cameras spread throughout the testing site. All of which Lozen could access from a tablet HOC gave her.

Still, she had to give it to HOC: both the view and the room were awesome. The chairs were more comfortable than the ones in her office, and cool air coming from the AC was all the more sweeter. This bliss of the moment felt even greater knowing that upper management finally fixed the air conditioning last week.

Still, Lozen still had a job to do. She really needed to stop basking in this devilish comfiness. Begone lazy thoughts!

"Oi, Lozen." A gruff man in an electric blue costume interrupted her thoughts. This was Keff, a mid-ranking hero and one of the other judges. "Check up on the feed of camera 34. Your guy is doing some weird things."

"I'll be on it." Lozen was about to settle down but the current feed displayed on her tablet caught her eyes. "Keff, I just checked camera 12. Get Gosmag or Loup to stop Driveway's exam; Upstream disqualified him."

"Whatever you say." Keff waved her off as he went to do his own thing. On the other hand, Lozen swiped a bit on her tablet until her screen landed on Camera 34, where she saw two figures she recognized walking straight towards the entrance: Wattz and Yata.

The surprise that Yata was Wattz's examiner went away quickly as she noticed Yata's attitude. His face had darkened, while his left hand was slowly balling into a fist. This anger left Lozen a bit nervous, yet it was to be expected from Yata. By the time he had reported to her that he was partnered with Batoon, the fight had already happened. Still, she didn't want Yata fighting other heroes for her sake, so she had prohibited him from retaliating.

As the examinee seemed to be planning on how to tackle the exam, Yata started doing his own thing. His brows were furrowed and his hands were trembling. She knew that look. That godforsaken idiot was disregarding his orders, again!

Lozen's eyes were glued to her tablet, as she swiped the screen for a better look. Camera 41 showed Yata climbing the stairway inside the exam grounds, only for him to come face to face with a waiting Batoon. Even if she wasn't there, she could feel the animosity between them. Lozen placed her shaking hands on her legs as she continued watching the feed.

"Stop with that creepy ass smile. You know what you did!" Yata growled. Batoon didn't seem to care as he kept leaning his back on the end of the hallway.

"I didn't do anything," Batoon shrugged, "However, I do have some things to say to you."

Yata remained still, but Lozen noticed how agitated he was. Batoon smiled eerily. "Your boss abused me this morning, I bet you want to finish what she started?"

"Bullshit!" Yata spit. "You hurt her! She had bruises all over her stomach!"

Although she was touched by Yata's words, this was not the right time to bring up personal issues!

However, this was not what worried the heroine. If Yata broke protocol first, HOC would have an excuse to go after him again. And it was her responsibility to stick for him, something she would gladly do if it meant not losing another close friend. Even if that man involved himelf in this mess after this morning’s blunder.

She tried to calm herself down, pushing those intrusive thoughts away and prying her eyes away from the tablet. How would she make it up to the newbie taking the exam? And how would she justify this to the Board?

No matter, this exam must be stopped!

"Gosmag! Keff! We need to stop one of the exams, right now!" Lozen called to her fellow judges.

"Lozen, I can't right now! Upstream injured her examinee. We were called to take him to the medical facility!" Keff responded. Gosmag was already out of the room by the time Keff responded.

"Damnit!" Lozen cursed. "Where are Loup and Coggy? It’s urgent!"

Keff hurriedly took a few medical kits. "Coggy is reporting to the board, while Loup is briefing the next set of examiners. Both won't be back for at least twenty minutes."

“Damn it!” Lozen cursed. She slumped in her chair as Keff dashed out of the room. Without the authority of the majority of the judges panel, an exam couldn’t be stopped, not even by the higher ups. The only thing she could hope for was for Loup or Coggy to finish early. By then, Yata would be sustaining serious injuries, and that was the last thing she needed to see.

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Lozen felt helpless as she watched the exam through her tablet.What she saw left her despairing. Yata was sent sailing to the other end of the hallway. Batoon slowly approached him and choked her subordinate's throat.

A whimper escaped Lozen as she saw Yata spit in defiance. She shook as Batoon raised his fist. She was about to lose someone again...

"Argh!" Lozen released the tablet with the feed as she felt a sting coming from the silver bracelet in her left wrist. The tablet fell to the floor as her pain grew more and more. She immediately felt a layer of moisture leave her body as a second sting pierced her right arm.

Her power had activated itself? How? She had her limiters on! It shouldn't be possible to activate them by any normal means!

Despite the pain and confusion, Lozen quickly picked up the tablet to check the feed of the cameras, and what she saw left her mouth agape. An ice pillar grew from one end of the hallway to the other, throwing Yata and Batoon out of the testing grounds.

Of course! That's how her powers activated! Someone caused a change in the temperature while in her power’s range!

She switched the cameras until she landed on camera 7, where the feed showed a clear view of the front of the ice pillar and the hole it made. She stood still, not daring to breathe. It was only when she saw Wattz walking out of the hole nonchalantly while carrying the hostages that she remembered he was the examinee for this exam.

Yet, his figure sent a chill down her spine. That seriousness... how could a newbie have this much killing intent?

As she mused over the implications, Wattz leaped off the ice pillar and landed gracefully on the ground. He set the three hostages under the pillar and then proceeded to send a chilling smirk towards Yata and Batoon.

On her end, Lozen could barely stare at the feed. With each step he took, Lozen quivered. That simplistic yet gracefully maddening way of walking captivated Lozen through pure fear. She didn’t know what happened, but one thing she knew was that both Yata and Batoon had pissed someone they shouldn’t have.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Now then, have you finally cooled off?" Shindo quipped sarcastically. His tactic had succeeded in stopping their fight, and with came a bonus too, as he had finally gained their attention.

"That was you?" Batoon pointed at the ice pillar. The hero was understandably surprised by the RTC's power output.

"That's none of your concern," Yata interjected. He lowered himself a bit, ready to fight again. However, he was breathing unsteadily thanks to the injuries he sustained. "We still have this fight pending."

Batoon face contorted into a smirk. "Oh really? You really want to be crippled, eh?"

Yata growled in a cat-like manner. "Fuck you."

Oh hell no! Shindo was not going to deal with this again! He quickly drew six darts, three in each hand, and threw them at the two heroes. They stuck to the floor right in front of them, drawing their attention back to Shindo. If they had been a bit quicker, those darts would’ve drawn blood.

"Do you two idiots know what you're doing right now?" Shindo’s voice could barely contain his disgust. "Because of your personal quarrel, you are risking my chances to gain a job!"

"You." His glare went straight to Yata. The cat-like hero stared back at Shindo, releasing a subdued growl. Shindo didn't care. He wasn't about to give respect to someone who bailed on him. He pointed his thumb towards Batoon.

"We were supposed to do this shit together. I don't care what person he insulted or how dear they were, you are fucking up my chances here. And not only that, but you bailed on me and then threw me after I helped you. Is this how you treat your allies? By throwing them to the enemy?"

Yata was glaring at Shindo now, but Shindo carried on with his verbal assault. "I don't care if your boss fought this asshole and you want to get back at him, but you chose the wrong place and the wrong time to do this shit. Stop being butthurt for one second and try to focus on the role assigned to you."

Shindo didn't entertain Yata any longer as his gaze swept towards Batoon. "And you." Again, Shindo didn't have an ounce of respect towards Batoon. In his eyes, both idiots where equally guilty of fucking up his day.

"Could you stop whining for a bit? Just because someone decides to not use their power is not a valid reason to attack them." Batoon's twisted smile contorted into a frown of pure disgust. Again, Shindo couldn't care less.

"News flash, dumbass! People aren't going to do what you want only because you told them to! But, ah! You're salty because his boss beat you without powers! Who could've guessed that a hero would be pathetic enough to take their anger out on another person, all the while he whines like a bitch!"

In his frustration, Shindo took out an RTC and Static from his belt and gave the heroes his coldest sneer. "I've already finished the main objective and rescued the hostages by myself. Could you leave your issues for later, or are we going to continue this petty feud and give me the full marks on the second objective too?"

The two heroes looked at Shindo for a while. The venue wasn't silent due to other exams going on around them, but the three of them scanned each other, waiting for someone to do something. This was when Batoon opened his mouth.

"I haven’t met someone as crazy as you, but now one talks to me like that" Batoon's body started receding but at the same time growing muscles in an oddly perturbing manner. “I'm "Million body" Batoon! A nobody newbie won’t tell me what's right or wrong!"

Shindo looked a bit over his shoulders to check up on the hostages. Good. They were at a safe distance. He could go all out. Shindo twisted the top of the two controllers, the familiar hum indicating they were prepped.

"Oh? So, I'm crazy now, eh? Well if I'm crazy, you are an idiot!" Shindo gripped his controllers with more strength.

"Plus, I don't care who you are. I really don't. From my point of view, you are a retarded, discriminatory, piece of shit that is screwing up my exam. And you, piece of shit, aggravated a hotheaded dumbass who casually throws his allies into danger."

At that comment, Shindo heard Yata grit his teeth. Shindo had to give him some credit for remaining calm during his verbal assault. However, Shindo could not say the same for Batoon. Shindo's words were hitting a lot of sore points, indicated by how Batoon's frown deepened.

Both heroes had also raised their guard, finally recognizing Shindo as a threat. An action Shindo found pathetic. If his words alone were enough to intimidate them into raising their guard, then that spoke a lot on how they act in a fight. And from all the things he has gone through as a villain, Shindo knew full well how to deal with their type: He would blind them with anger.

"Now then, Mr. Idiots, I have around fifteen minutes to thoroughly beat your asses." He declared, a mocking grin spreading through his lips. For how long could he make them forget that this exam was timed?

"Let's see how many fucks should I finally give to the two assholes who thought their high school drama was more important than their job."