“Since when were you 'Marlon’?!” Calvin shouted, gesturing towards the ordinary-looking boy in front of him while sporting a mildly confused expression on his face.
Lonnie, wearing a similarly bewildered and equally wry face, gave an answer even he was unsure of, “Uh… since I was born?”
“You know what I mean. You never mentioned that was your name,” He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
Still unsure of what to say, Lonnie apologized, “Sorry?”
Curtains as black as night interrupted their conversation, blooming from the edges of the arena and growing to the sky, enveloping the two in momentary darkness. Calvin shivered, now much more sensitive to essence, as felt a 'power’ wash over him in an instant.
The expensive tinker tech was making a 'save point’, so to speak, of their current state to bring back once the fight was over. That made it less likely for anyone to bleed out, burn to death, or get permanently maimed— it did nothing for trauma, though. Death was also still on the table but that was what Maxine, the dorm manager, was here for.
'This still makes me feel icky,’ Calvin thought, feeling the shiver climb up his spine.
“You look like you didn’t get sleep, man,” Lonnie suddenly said, “you sure you want to fight now? We can reschedule if you want, I don’t mind.”
“Let’s just get this over with. Thanks, though,” He replied with a shrug. He threw a question towards him, “How’d you get past Ivan?”
“He forfeited.”
“That does sound like him.”
“Because it is him.”
“Hey!” Maxine shouted from the side, “Time’s ticking, kiddos! Start fighting!”
They turned to the manager, nodding as she gave them a spine-shivering smile, before hooking their attention to one another.
Calvin took a breath, feeling his overexerted muscles scream in pain as he lowered his centre of gravity. He cracked his neck and did his best to ignore everything his body was telling him, setting one foot behind him and the other forward, focusing his eyes as he prepared to rush.
Lonnie did the same as him, preparing a stance to steady his balance, but the inexperience in his movement was obvious.
They stared and gauged each other for a few seconds, the tension in the air rising with every second, before Calvin brutally cut through the atmosphere with a sigh and a relaxed stance, “I feel awkward. This is awkward, right?”
Cutlery boy was stunned for a moment before letting a relaxed chuckle, “Yeah. I don’t get why either.”
“Can we just skip the staredown and start punching each other? That should be easier.” He asked, rolling his shoulder and raising his fists.
His opponent flicked his wrist, summoning a couple of palm-sized knives like a magician’s trick before nodding, “Skip the first minute too?”
Calvin smiled and nodded back, “Let’s go.”
He dashed as soon as his words left his lips, showing an inhumane speed powered by the rippling muscles screaming in pain.
'Slow,’ Calvin thought, feeling the massive strain in his stiff body as he ran towards his opponent who started backing away from him.
His opponent flicked his wrist, a metallic sheen sparkling in the air for a moment.
Calvin took a step to the side, feeling the wind whistle near his ear. The small knives thrown towards him had strength and accuracy behind them, much more than he had expected.
Cutlery boy raised his hands, his gaze focused towards the ground in front of the rushing otherworlder. Not a second later, meter-long knives and forks appeared from thin air, all embedded in the ground and pointing straight towards his opponent.
“That’s my move,” Calvin muttered, jumping over the obstacle with a grunt while simultaneously summoning a pebble to block Lonnie’s path. Immediately, he felt the massive drain of a single pebble hit like a truck into the already struggling amount of essence and stamina left in his body. A frown formed on his face, realizing the urgency, 'Fuck, I need to end this fast.’
“Ugh,” Lonnie let out a grunt as his retreat was abruptly stopped. The single point of pain was enough to clue him into what happened, his eyes refocused towards his rushing friend.
Using this small interruption, Calvin picked up his speed, ducking underneath a panicked volley of knives before finally arriving in front of Lonnie, his right arm already pulled back.
“Yo,” He said while punching with half his might.
A metallic clang in front and a sharp pain in his knuckles.
“Potlids aren’t even cutlery!” He complained, grabbing the edge of the makeshift shield to pry it to the side. He spun around, sending a back heel to the now-exposed Lonnie.
“Yes, they are!” Lonnie answered back, grunting as he barely summoned another pot lid where Calvin’s foot had landed. It mitigated the damage, but not completely, sending him stumbling backwards.
“It’s cookware!” Calvin shouted, running and punching with much more power this time.
Lonnie raised his shield, “It’s all in the same kitchen!”
The pedantic boy’s punch sent Lonnie stumbling and falling on his behind despite the shield.
Following through, Calvin ran towards his friend to try and mount him, hopefully ending the battle sooner rather than later. He was getting tired.
Unfortunately for him, a palisade of forks, giant and small, appeared from thin air and blocked his way. Calvin twisted his upper body, his running momentum was too much to stop immediately.
“Really, dude?” Calvin said after hitting the wall, tired and somewhat envious of how easily he was summoning a bajillion amount of cutlery without looking like a dying fish.
“You’re scary, man,” Lonnie chuckled from behind the forks, his breathing sounding haggard from inside his tiny fortress.
“Damn it,” he groaned, looking around to find something to bash the shield with. He sighed in relief, seeing the pot lid he pried away sitting right beside him.
He picked it up and immediately bashed it on the forks. It took a couple of hits before his effort paid off, the structure destabilized and loosened enough for him to safely pry it open without injury.
“Woah!” He suddenly bent backwards, dodging something metallic that Lonnie threw out. “Ugh… my back!”
While he was out of balance, he felt the fork fortress disappear from his grip, making him completely lose his footing and stagger backwards. He gained his balance a second later, raising his upper body to look towards Lonnie, only to be greeted by another piece of cookware.
A giant meat tenderizer.
“Holy—”, out of instinct, he summoned a pebble to block the blow while backing off.
A heavy metallic ringing echoed, and the hammer flew away and out of Lonnie’s grip from the impact, “Ow!”
Calvin steadied his footing before ducking again to dodge the knives flying towards him at short range, “Will you stop that?!”
Already ducking low, he kicked the ground and charged towards Lonnie’s waist with his arms open.
“Shhhit!” He winced.
A sharp pain radiated from his shoulder as soon as he made contact. The kind of pain that made you think 'I’ve been fucking stabbed’.
Gritting his teeth through it, he hugged as tight as he could and raised his friend up in the air before slamming him down with as much force as he could muster. The arena shook lightly from the impact, likely in a similar manner to Lonnie’s spine.
“That’s for my back,” He muttered.
“Ugh,” Lonnie grunted, getting the air knocked out of him.
He summoned a spatula in between the two of them, gripping the instrument and forcing it down in an attempt to pry Calvin away.
“Ouch,” Calvin calmly said as the metal smushed against his face.
He kept his grip, raising his opponent again and throwing him down, unexpectedly feeling a bounce instead of a thud.
A metallic sheen caught his attention from the side, making him release Lonnie and back up, narrowly dodging the sharp knife that almost stabbed the side of his face.
“Now you’re just making shit up. A sponge?” Calvin said, seeing what cushioned Lonnie’s fall.
Lonnie made a wall of metal forks before quipping back, “It’s part of the kitchen.”
“Your mom’s a part— okay, that’s kinda rude.” He stopped himself, turning his attention to the screen above.
Calvin
VERSUS Marlon Herdengirr
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱ 68%
89% ▱▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“What the— oh, right,” A sharp pain on his shoulder answered the question he was about to ask.
He looked towards the wound, seeing a couple of finger-sized metal needles poking out of it like thorns. He felt a little dizzy from the gore, but something like that was nothing new to him who lived in a hospital for most of his life. Still, it was unnerving.
He grabbed the needles and pulled them out, wincing in pain before throwing them towards the fork wall, “Toothpicks?”
“They’re chopsticks!” Lonnie shouted almost annoyedly, bringing down his wall and throwing a handful of said chopsticks towards Calvin. “Tiny chopsticks!”
“You’re a tiny chopstick!” Calvin dodged to the side before suddenly grabbing the air in front of him. 'Woah— that was close, I can’t believe I caught that.’
He was about to throw back the one he caught when he noticed something. The sharp piece of metal in his hand looked a bit familiar.
'Metal spike…’
----------------------------------------
A few minutes earlier. In the stands.
“Cal won yet?” Quinn asked as she sat beside Ina.
“No,” Ina shook her head, eyes still magnetized towards the fight in front.
“Huh,” She hummed in brief surprise before her attention was snatched by the bundle of cloth lying on the seats below them, “Who’s this?”
“Some bum,” Alex, sitting on the other side of Ina, chuckled. “Don’t mind them.”
Quinn shrugged, turning her attention to the fight in front. Marlon, or 'Lonnie’ as they knew him, was holding up well against Calvin. His power’s prefix, although much more suited for non-combatants, was still a force to be reckoned with, especially with his superpower class.
“Cal seems slower today,” Ina muttered.
“He’s really tired,” She blurted out reflexively.
“Did you know Marlon is Lonnie?”
“Yeah, we saw him on our first day. He was already fighting in the arena back then.”
“We did? Am I the only one that didn’t know?”
“Cal didn’t either— you have ink on your cheek,” Quinn took out a towel to wipe it off, glancing towards the perpetrator sitting behind them.
“That guy’s surprisingly decent,” Regina remarked as she watched the fight.
“He spars with the giantess and that other guy almost every day,” Alex, sitting beside her, replied, glancing up away from her game for a moment. “He also keeps challenging people in the arena when he can. To be honest, they’re pretty similar in a way.”
“'That other guy’?”
“The guy Pinky hates.”
“Oh, Alden Croftweld.”
“Did you just call me pinky?” Quinn turned to her.
She raised her hands, “Not an insult, pink is the best.”
“You know it,” She nodded, looking back to the fight.
“It’s also a bad match,” Ina commentated, “His pebbles are small. Cal can block a few big things, but not many little things. Cutlery boy’s permanence prefix makes it easy for him to keep spamming his power.”
“Such a cheat,” Quinn muttered.
“…” Ina turned and gave her a stare saying 'You of all people…’
“You guys are so noisy,” The 'bum’ lying down on the seat below them sat up.
“Who’s the genius who thought it was a good idea to sleep here of all places?” Regina huffed.
“It’s normally quiet here at this time of day,” He groaned, stretching his arms.
“How’d Lonnie get past you?” Ina asked, her curiosity forgoing any small talk.
“He just did,” he shrugged and gave a big yawn, “my power just makes people the laziest they can be… times, like, a hundred. And when I say laziest— I mean, 'potential laziness’. If that makes sense. It doesn’t work on people inherently who work hard or are just constantly restless. Like those two. And probably you as well,” he gestured to Ina.
“Huh,” Alex dropped her game, “Are you sure it’s okay telling us that?”
“What are you going to do? Even if you started consistently working hard now, you still were lazy before. So it’ll still work the same way,” He explained, smirking towards them. “Most people have the capacity to be at least a little lazy, you know? Some are just weirdos.”
'And some people can literally ignore telepath gimmicks,’ Quinn added. 'At least one person can.’
“Ouch,” Ina suddenly hissed.
Quinn turned her gaze back to the front, eyes quickly squinting as she watched Calvin’s stabbed shoulder bleed out. A bunch of what looked like finger-long needles jutted out from the wound, which the idiot promptly pulled out.
She hummed, brows furrowing as they continued the fight, Lonnie switching to throwing those same metallic spikes to keep her friend at bay, 'Marlon Herdengirr… I need to look him up’
Calvin stepped to the side, his hand suddenly snapping to the front and instantly grabbing one of the spikes that was headed towards him. He pulled his arm back, looking like he was going to throw it back like a tiny javelin, when he suddenly paused and stared at the needle.
Quinn watched his face scrunch up and show an expression of surprise and doubt, “Did he notice too?”
“Notice what?” Ina jolted her out of focus.
“Nothing— just, watching,” She waved her off, turning back to the fight.
Her best friend squinted suspiciously towards her before doing the same.
Lonnie shouted something while throwing a few more spikes at Calvin.
He rolled to the side, grabbing the pot lid on the way to block the 'spikes’ thrown at him before using it to rush towards Lonnie.
Ina tutted, “He’s just going to unsummon—”
Just as the words left her mouth, the pot lid disappeared from Calvin’s hands. In a panic, he quickly dove forward, miraculously dodging underneath the volley of thrown cutlery flying above his head.
As Calvin continued running and finally approached, Lonnie summoned his giant meat tenderizer once more and swung it towards him, making the boy step backwards to dodge. Lonnie let go of the weapon, summoning another fork fortress to block.
“How is he summoning so much?” Regina frowned.
“Permanence prefix,” Ina reminded her.
“I know I—”, she frowned. Her power was in a similar category, a Summoner Mystic, so it was obvious what she felt seeing Lonnie’s ease in summoning a monstrous amount of utensils, “It just looks unfair.”
Quinn nodded, “It is.”
“Oh, he’s picking up the hammer,” Alex noted.
They watched as Calvin pretended to rush the fork fortress before swerving to the side to pick up the hammer. He immediately turned around, hammer in the air, intending to slam it down and destroy the barrier.
“He doesn’t learn,” Ina frowned.
'He does,’ Quinn thought, smirking.
The hammer turned to thin air, unsummoned to nothingness. The fork barrier similarly disappeared, revealing Lonnie in a stance ready to stab Calvin with a spike, while the latter was unperturbed that his weapon disappeared, his fist still following through with the swing.
A short and quick stab. A heavy and arena-shaking punch.
“Ouch,” A few people winced while Quinn felt her precious friend’s grip crush the bench. “Wait, it’s not over?”
Calvin
VERSUS Marlon Herdengirr
▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱ 38%
1% ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▰
Regina gasped, “One per cent?”
“He’s really built like a Physic, how is that still just in thirty per cent? He got stabbed in the stomach!” Alex shouted, feeling both disbelief and awe.
“Why is he just standing there?” Ina muttered, brows curling as her eyes squinted.
Calvin was now holding onto both the object stabbed into him and Lonnie’s arm, remaining immovable despite the boy’s panicked attempt to pry his arm away. He stared at his stomach, an indescribable expression written on his face as he looked between his wound and his friend.
“Now he definitely noticed,” Quinn pursed her lips.
The two stayed like that for a few seconds before Lonnie finally had the bright idea to summon a knife with his free hand before driving it towards Calvin’s torso. Unfortunately for him, Calvin grabbed his wrist and twisted it, forcefully making him drop the knife. His other hand then grabbed Lonnie’s neck, immediately slamming him to the ground with a force that was a bit overkill to finally down that last per cent.
Calvin
VERSUS Marlon Herdengirr
▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱ 33%
0% ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱
The arena’s reset function immediately kicked in, covering the arena for a second to functionally heal the two injured combatants.
“Oof,” Ivan spoke sarcastically, “this is why I don’t like fighting friends.”
----------------------------------------
Relia watched with a tinge of worry as Memo kneeled down and turned into an unmoving still image, likely using her power to go back into the past and play people’s memories like a video on the network. Anxiety wormed into her head, her worry increasing both for her colleague’s safety and the mission’s integrity.
'I probably should’ve stopped her,’ She thought before shaking the regret out of her head. She turned to the other hero, wanting to fill the air with something other than the sound of her own nervousness, “Villains in the academy, can you believe it, Puffers?”
Puffer thought for a moment before shaking her head, waving her arm to make a cloud of smoke that coalesced into words, 'Villains, no. Terrorists, yes.’
“Who said anything about terrorists?”
'Kids scared. Almost hurt. Terrorists.’
“Villains do that too. You never know.”
'Not like this,’ Puffer shook her head, 'Not face covered.’
She furrowed her brows, a small chuckle escaping her lips, “Why are you writing like a caveman?”
'Smoke talk. Hard. With barrier. Annoying,’ Puffer thickened the last word while giving Relia a judgmental glare.
“L—look. Learning sign language is hard, okay? And I don’t have a lot of— I’m just always busy! It’s not my fault,” She huffed.
Puffer continued to stare at her with the same solid and silent gaze, removing the rest of the words and leaving only the last one, 'Annoying.’
“Just— shut up and make sure your smoke doesn’t go over my limit,” Relia looked away, turning her attention back to Memo.
Just like before, her eyes moved erratically underneath her eyelids despite the frozen state of her entire body. It was almost like she was dreaming. Relia could only imagine how her power worked, especially after what happened earlier.
Seeing her show every imaginable emotion in less than ten seconds before screaming in pain was a frightening experience, and it just went to show how dedicated the woman is to being a hero. She couldn’t imagine how she’d keep on going if her power had the same risk.
“Maybe we should’ve gotten backup first,” She started regretting letting the hero go under once more.
'Trust,’ Puffer wrote, gesturing towards Memo.
She looked to the hero, flinching as she noticed her brow twitch almost imperceptibly, “Memo?”
For a moment, there was no reply, until she started muttering, “I— I— B—”
“Memo?!” She called out again, pulling out the autoinjector, “Do you need water? What are you saying?”
“U—under,” she muttered before suddenly grabbing Relia’s collar, “Bench! Under! Bench!”
And then the screaming started.
“Shit!” Relia cursed, immediately stabbing the autoinjector on her thigh.
She felt the blowback from the pneumatic needle pierce through Memo’s dress and into flesh, followed by the gurgling of liquid flowing through. In less than a second, Memo lost consciousness, falling to the ground.
Relia caught her head before turning towards Puffer, “Call— what are you doing, Puffers?!”
The super had her eyes closed and was spreading smoke from her palms, covering the ground in a thick layer of fog. A moment later, she herself turned to smoke, travelling towards one of the benches and reaching underneath. Puffer grunted, pulling out something made of gold— a beetle.
“What’s that?” Relia asked as Puffer covered the beetle in a solid layer of smoke before taking out a metallic cube that absorbed the entire thing.
'Being watched,’ the words she was dreading formed in the air. 'Bug.’
“Shit… we need to tell Sir Sky.”
----------------------------------------
“And then Sky told you to come here?” Martin asked while he absorbed the information.
Puffer waved her hand, making smoke coalesce in the air and form a symbol, '✓’
“Pretty much,” Missmoke nodded.
In front of him were two of his colleagues, other fourth-ranked heroes that he wasn’t aware were inside the campus. The third one was behind him, sleeping peacefully in a medical pod he took from the campus medbay.
The four of them were inside his teacher's dorm, which was a wide space when he was alone, but unfortunately cramped with three people and a popsicle.
Nevertheless, he was glad there was actual hero work to be done now, “Did you put the beetle in an anti-transmitter?”
“Bagged and ready for takeout,” Missmoke nodded, gesturing to Puffer.
Puffer placed her hand on the table taking out a metallic cube from her pocket, 'Secure.’
“Can you not smoke in my room?”
“It’s not real smoke, dumbass.”
'Dumbass.’
“Just use your holowatch for crying out— haah,” Martin breathed and calmed down, “We need to get it to HQ for analysis.”
“That’s what I said,” Missmoke rolled her eyes, “You’re fast, right? Just take it and run there.”
“I know someone faster,” He tapped the cube and checked the seams. “Whoever these people are, they might be escaping now— if not already gone.”
“Might be escaping?”
“It’s obvious that they’re aware that we are aware, given that bug— I mean, I can’t imagine it being anything but a monitoring device— so let’s just assume with near certainty that they know.”
“I know, I’m asking why you said 'might be’.”
“I’m just saying, just in case they’re the type that will literally give their lives for whatever objective they came here for.”
“So you’re saying they might hide deeper?”
“And for a while,” He nodded.
Puffer let out some smoke and wrote, 'Lockdown.’
He shook his head, “This is a school full of teens. Super teens, sure, but still teens. And more importantly, civilian teens. That’s the one thing we can’t just do.”
“Panic, then desperation. Who knows what those psychos might do if we immediately cut off escape routes,” Missmoke added.
'Let escape?’ Puffer asked.
“Best case scenario, yes— well, no. Best case would be they get caught with no injured kid or civilian. Second best case, they just leave.”
“Worst case?”
“Hostage situation— or worse. They’re not supervillains.”
“Terrorists or criminals, take your pick.”
'Spies. Steel city.’
“Or that.”
“Doesn’t matter what they are. They’re here and we need to find out the 'where’ first before asking the 'why’,” He stood up and took the cube on the table, “I’ll get this to someone who can get it to analysis. Probably file a request for support— but it’s going to be hard for something like this. It’ll be too suspicious if heroes suddenly swarmed or patrolled near the Academy. It’s not just going to be the villains asking why after all.”
Missmoke let out a tsk, “Fucking politics. Lives are at risk and they’re going to bicker like children.”
Puffer suddenly snapped her fingers, looking like an idea came to her, 'Teachers.’
“I didn’t think of that,” Martin nodded, “There’s a bunch of ex-heroes and volunteer heroes like me on campus. Get in the network, check out who’s here and who can be useful.”
“'Volunteer’,” Missmoke scoffed, “you mean probation?”
“Volunteer,” he stressed. “You two go civilian mode, check out the campus.”
“Civilian-wear in a school. That’s not creepy at all.”
“Staff uniforms are in there— they’re one-size-fits-all,” he gestured to his walk-in closet, “Oh, and you have the picture of the two students who made the report, right?”
“We’ll check them out too,” Missmoke nodded.
“And, well—”, Martin wanted to make sure they kept an eye on Calvin, but he suppressed that thought. 'He’s just a kid.’ “—good luck.”