ARISE AND FALL

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| Micheal Darama. Quirk: Midas Control, Affiliation: K.I. Academy |

Once Chimney has left back to our safe zone at base, the rest of the team goes in pursuit of the blue team. The plan is to capture Miyala and his 5 points to win the game.

"How are we even going to find them anyway?" Lucy asks.

"Oh that's easy," Perci replies, flicking her tongue in and out. "Shrike and his team are close to the red team's base, over there." Perci says, pointing the way.

"And how the hell do you know that?" I ask.

"I can taste their scent in the air." Perci answers. "What?"

Everyone pauses a look at Perci, marvelling at the arsenal of abilities she has. If and when she becomes a hero, even I have to admit, she's going to be pretty unstoppable.

Just like Perci says, we stalk quietly through the trees and a large clearing comes into view, a wide and shallow creek dividing a field of grass and small boulders dotting each side.

Our team hides just on the edge of the tree line behind a fallen tree truck. There's a stream of water and we spot Shrike and Mandy on one side of the field hunkered down behind a boulder. On the other side, rather shockingly, is Miyala's huge frame wrapped in capture tape and lying on the ground a foot off the bank, one end of the capture tape leading to the hand of Morales' teammate Kul, a Lower with hairy demon-like hands. Kul must be trying to drag Peter back to his base, and Shrike and Mandy are trying to stop him.

"Mikey, something doesn't look right." Lucy whispers next to me.

I know what she means, this whole scene is odd. Miyala might be a big part of Shrike's' plan but he gains nothing by trying to rescue his own captain. It would make more sense for him to abandon Miyala and go hunting for the last remaining points to win the game. And what's more odd is how they aren't engaging. Shrike and Mandy wouldn't have a difficult time taking him down. So if they are determined to get Miyala back, why haven't they already, why the hesitancy?

How the hell did he pull that off. "Alright, this is—"

"I told you, you're not the boss of me." Mago interrupts. "I'm going to get Miyala."

Mago leaps from behind our log and makes a full sprint in the open toward, "No! Wait you idiot!" I'm yelling but Mago is already gone. "Damn it! Lucy you keep Shrike occupied!"

"What the hell!" Mandy is the first to spot us. "Shrike!"

Shrike turns his us and points his palm toward the others. Lucy points her own palm to him and fire's, the blast hits the ground but forces Shrike and Mandy back behind cover.

"Hurry up!" Lucy yells once Mago and I get to Miyala.

"Hi guys," Miyala says goodnaturedly.

"Not now Pete, and how the hell did Kul get you this far." Mago asks.

"I get dizzy if I roll too much, and he did have help." Miyala answers.

Before I can wonder what that means, I hear a heavy rush of air and a massive explosion flames toward us side Kul's side of the field.

Oh no! Lucy flies as quickly as she can between the team and the blast and holds out a shield that forces the flames around our bodies, the force is so strong I drop down to one knee. The water explodes into the air, then falls down like rain.

I know that attack, but it can't be. Morales.

"How in the hell is Morales still around?"

Sure enough, Morales has walked out from a tree on Jack's side, coming into the open and hurling flaming rings at us, capture tape still hanging off his shoulders. Kul must have rescued him.

That's why Shrike wasn't engaging and he's not here to rescue Miyala, he's here to capture Morales, and now we're caught in the middle of the crossfire.

Shrike spins out of his cover and sprints straight towards the other side of the creek towards Morales, palms forward and firing as he runs.

He's seizing the moment using us as a distraction in the chaos. He might be Lower scum, but he's smart, though it's a bit desperate—

Wait a minute!

If Morales is still in play? Shrike must have only managed to get the other two flags, which means Shrike's team only has four points, the yellow team has four and Morales has none.

We're in the lead!

As long as we hold Miyala and Morales doesn't get captured we could win when time runs out.

On the other side, Mandy seems to have disappeared and so has Kul on Morales' side. Shrike pops out and fires at Morales all the way across the field, connecting. With Morales momentarily on the ground, it gives us a window.

"Get Miyala out of here!" Lucy yells while covering us from projectiles. "I'll give you cover!"

Mago flies lines of ink while I a sheet of gold under Miyala's frame.

"Sorry, Pete. This is probably going to hurt." Mago and I both squat down and shove, throwing Peter's heavy from back and over the fallen tree we came from and he lands with a heavy thud that shakes the leaves off of trees.

"Let's fucking go!" Mago yells and it's the smartest thing he's ever said. We've moved him, but now my gold is out of hand.

Lucy manages fires a blast at Shrike to force him into cover while slowing back away.

"Lucy, you and Mago, cover our retreat!"

"Right!" Lucy replies and Mago holds his ground, so at least he's doing something useful just as Morales is back on his feet, a pair of burning rings appear on either side of his body.

Shrike pops out and aims right at us, he must know we're the closest to winning, trying to stop us is now more important than capturing Morales.

Morales gets in stance and hurls a string of fire rings at us, some crashing into the water. Lucy still holding up shields, Mikey leading support with his gold veil while Perci stands behind my body.

"You're getting in my way!" Shrike is still closing the distance to us on the other side where Mago has little protection with his ink cloud; which might just be trying to hide him from Shrike's aim. Shrike counters by firing a dozen or so shots at a time at us. We're getting pinned down, with Lucy shielding us from Morales to our right and Mago clouding Shrike's aim to our left.

"We're way too exposed. We have to get out of here."

"It's not all bad," Lucy replies, "as long as Chimney is still safe the worst we can do is still second place and if we capture Miyala then we win."

The four of us slowly back away while taking fire from both Shrike and Morales, were almost brought to a stop after Shrike inevitably manages to shoot Mago's target, but then suddenly, Morales just stops firing completely while standing out in the open, his palms out but not doing anything. Shrike notices too, and he has a second of hesitation before directing his attention to try and capture Morales, giving us enough space to turn and run.

Lucy doesn't follow, "The two of you get Miyala home I'll cover your backs."

Perci and I make a beeline for out of the clearing to get into some cover, we all hop over the fallen tree, finding Peter wrapped up body waiting for us.

I run over to him, "Let's get you out of—"

I reach my hand to grab him but it passes right through. "Oh crap." I swipe frantically at the image of Peter lying in front of me only to watch as my hands fly right through like he were a hologram.

"What the hell?"

"Calata, this is her quirk," the last member of Morales' team, Calata Intao and her quirk, "A letter to time." She can make a still 3d illusion of anything she touches that frozen in the position she comes into contact with them.

We took too long getting back here, that's why Morales stopped attacking, he was only stalling for his team to carry Miyala back to their base, but how long ago could she have left this? How far could she have gotten even if she had Kul to help her? But why leave this here unless…

"It's a trap!"

"And good night." Mandy says. We all turn to find her a few feet behind us. From this close, we'll be waking up in the hospital. Before Mandy can let go of her charge an amber coloured rod flies against the side of her head colliding her, and her body falls to the ground triggering her target to get her out.

"Hi, again." Chimney's high pitched voice erupts from the direction of the projectile.

"Chimney, what the hell are you doing here!"

"I… came to help."

"Chimney you have to go—"

"Look out!" Perci dives on me and pushes me to the ground before a prison of cross-cutting bones erupts from the ground around us, separating us from Chimney.

"What the—holy crap!" Perci's tail has been cut clean off. "Perci!" She looks completely calm somehow. "Perci your tail!"

"Oh," Perci says nonchalantly, "don't worry, it grows back, but look."

Elan has sprinted out of nowhere and already has Chimney wrapped in capture tape and slung on his shoulder.

"Sorry, Michael." Elan says.

"Yeah, sorry we're awesome!" Oak yells from further behind, pulling his skeleton arms out of the ground.

"Lucy's en route." Leon pokes his head out from behind a tree, his little drone high above him, "We should go!"

Elan waves before turning and sprinting away into the trees, almost too fast to track, and Oak runs follows behind a lot slower.

"No!" I get up, trying to summon any gold that might be nearby, but I don't feel anything, "No! Damn it! Damn it!" I pound my fists helplessly against the bone prison.

Even when Lucy shows up, I know it's already too late, we won't catch them.

We've lost, again.

– Time is up –

"Well wasn't that something," Mr Conrad says once we're all gathered together.

"Congratulations to all the teams, and specifically the yellow team, who won with a score of 9 points. Now as always, the best you can do on an evaluation is achieve a score of zero, today every team began with 10 points and the score you achieved in this game will be subtracted from that 10."

"Meaning the yellow team, who won with a score of 9, each receives 1 point. The blue team who had a score of four plus two more additional points for eliminating the most opposing players ended the game with a total score of 6, removed from 10, they each receive 4 points. The green team and the red team, who both managed to capture one captain each receive 5 points."

Rank. Name Current-Score

1. Morales Dotti— 14
2. Shrike Amuna— 14
3. Elan Tamanga— 18
4. Kapercia Kashana— 19
5. Jasper Sekai— 21
6. Michael Darama— 24
7. Mago Lemba— 24
8. Kay Kaladi— 25
9. Mandy Kuziba— 26
10. Oketeos Mumiya— 26

11. Leon Malite— 26
12. Samantha Amaka— 27
13. Frank Mishi— 28
14. Taiya Konkosha— 28
15. Peter Miyala— 32
16. Lucy Bruden— 33
17. Jack Tambo— 34
18. Chimney Akuguila— 37
19. Calata Intao— 43
20. Kul Makasa— 45

| Lucy Bruden. Quirk: Solar Aurora, Affiliation: K.I Academy |

At lunch I watch Shrike at his table sitting with his friends, I notice that Sam is almost always sitting next to him, today she's picking fries off of his plate and I can't help but feel—

"Why does Sam always sit next to him," Perci says from next to me, "I thought she was your girlfriend." She says directed at Kay who's across our lunch table.

"We're... she's not my girlfriend okay." Kay replies playing with her own food. "Anyway, why don't you just go tell Shrike how you feel instead of staring daggers at my... Sam."

"Anyone can be your yours if you stalk them long enough to find something incriminating on them." Mandy says, "Mago has something to hide, I know he does."

"I want to tell him, it's just..." Perci buries her head in her arms on top of the lunch table. "Ugh, I just want to be his girlfriend already!"

This is so uncomfortable.

"Lucy."

My attention is pulled back as Perci says my name. "Yeah?"

"You always know what to do, can you help me. Please."

Soo, soo uncomfortable. "I really wouldn't know what to do Perci, sorry."

Perci sighs, getting up from the table. "I'm going to use the bathroom."

After she leaves both Mandy and Kay stare at me.

"What?" I ask.

"And when are you going to tell Perci about you and Shrike?" Mandy asks.

How does she know about that, "Did you tell her?"

"Nope." Kay answers.

"Tell me what?"

"Shrike and Lucy kissed."

"Kay!"

"You kissed Shrike? Big bad scary Shrike, the love Perci's life Shrike? Pheww..." Mandy shakes her head. "I'd hate to do be the room when she finds that out, except I definitely would so please let me know when you intend to tell her."

"Would you guys please stop." This is stressful enough already. "I'm going to tell her."

"Why haven't you already?" Kay asks.

"Because… because…"

"It's because you don't want to lose Perci as a friend but you want to hold on to Shrike, and you think you have to lose one to keep the other."

Yeah, that about sums it up.

"It's a simple solution, just help Perci confess her feelings to Shrike, who probably already knows Perci is in love with him, and he'll let her down. Then—"

"Uh, I don't think Shrike knows Perci is in to him." Kay says.

"Oh please, not even a boy can be that oblivious." Kay and I share a look. "Wow really?"

Kay shrugs. "He's a guy."

"Well, that complicates things."

. . . . . . . . . . .

I return to my own room, trying to take my mind off things by writing Mr Conrad's assignment, padding paragraphs to try and get to the page requirement. I'm lost in it when I hear a knock on my door.

"Come in." Even after I hear the door open I don't turn around.

"Hey." Shrike's voice turns me around and I jolt in my chair when I turn to see him standing in my room dress in a t-shirt and gym shorts.

"Sorry, I thought you said to come in." Shrike says in response to my reaction.

"No, yeah I did. I just," Didn't think it was you. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you." Shrike answers. "Is that cool?"

"Yeah, that's..." That's so sweet. "Do you want to sit down."

Shrike positions himself on the edge of the bed and I try not to stare at how weird this is. Shrike is in my room, why does it look so messy all of a sudden.

The silence stretches out, neither one of us it seems knows what to say.

"How was your.."/ "So are you..."

"Sorry!" / "No my bad," Shrike says, "go ahead."

"I was going to ask how your basketball game went." I assume that's why he's dressed like that.

"Oh Mago and Sam got into a fight over the scores, so we didn't really finish."

"Oh, sorry." I'm not sure what to follow that up with. "What were you going to say?"

Shrike points to my desk, "Are you finished with this thing yet?" The ten page assignment.

"Oh, no, not yet. Just a couple of pages left though. How about you?"

Shrike shakes his head with a humoured smile, "I got over seven pages and decided I'd take my chances."

We both laugh at that, Shrike leaning back onto my bed.
"Yeah, I mean it's not going to change the rankings so."

Ugh, the rankings. I'm still stuck in sixteenth place. "Don't remind me."

"Oh right, sorry."

"It's okay, it's pretty good reading for you at least. You and Morales are neck and neck." And have been for a while, Morales might be the class' baddest but he's been living off the remains of his first win, Shrike has outpaced him in every evaluation ever since. Which is pretty amazing considering Shrike just has gun quirk.

"You'll move up," Shrike assures, "there's no way you're going down to the B class."

"Thanks, but I'm not so sure anymore." Honestly, the only evaluation I did any good was the mid-semester exams, I've choked on every practical, including the entrance exams.
"Can I ask you a question?"

Shrike nods.

"What am I doing wrong?"

Shrike sits up, looking right in my eyes, and I am more aware of how heavy my heart is beating.

"I think you hold back a lot."

Do I? "I do?"

"Yeah, I mean, if I had your quirk..." Shrike trails off in thought of what must be all the damage he could do. "Just stop playing it safe and be more aggressive. Go after what you want with everything you have, it's not like anyone could stop you."

"Even Morales?"

"Pssh, he got lucky against you."

There's no way he was lucky. "Morales wiped the floor with me and he's the strongest in the class."

"Morales is not the strongest. He has three moves, left then right or both at the same time. It's like he got his quirk yesterday." "You're the strongest in our class Lucy, probably the whole school. I wouldn't want to go up against you."

"Thanks Shrike." I have to bite down to not smile too hard.

"Yeah, sure thing." Shrike says smiling at me, "anyway, I should probably go now."

"Oh, yeah right." I get up and I walk him the two steps to my door. Before he opens the door he turns back, neither one of us knows what's the right thing to do.

I raise my hand to shake his right as he opens his arms to hug me, we mirror each other and end up in the same place and we both laugh out awkwardly.

"So." / "Yeah." Shrike scratches the back of his head and I stroke my arm.

I really hope he'll kiss me again. Should I ask? Do people ask to be kissed? Is that a thing?

"I guess I'll go now." It sounds like a question, he opens my door, stepping backwards through it.

Say something, anything, ask even. "Thank you for coming."

The door closes softly in front of his face and I collide my head against it once it clicks shut.

I'm such an idiot, why didn't I just—

My thoughts are interrupted when the door is knocked on from the other side. A little confused I pull it open and Shrike immediately steps forward, his lips meeting mine. My eyes shut and I kiss him back, my hands on either side of where his neck meets his jaw, his own hands resting above my hips, the barrels of his palm barely pressing.

After not enough seconds, we pull away but our hands stay where they are. We meet eyes and I realise I'm probably smiling like an idiot. Shrike doesn't seem to mind, with his own more handsome smile painted on his face, and for once, everything in the world feels a little better than it used to be.

"Shrike?"

We both turn our heads to the sound of Perci's voice in the corridor. She is staring right at Shrike and me under my doorway, her green eyes are pulled wide.

"Somewhere."

.

"Did he see it yet?" / "Probably, it's not like there's much he doesn't know." / "I still can't believe those quirked bastards had the nerve to blame us, how does that even make sense." / "I say we go out and make a statement." / "Our numbers are still too small."/ "Let's just wait to see what Marcus wants us to do."

"I'll tell you right now."

"Marcus, sir. We didn't mean to disturb you."

"Gather everyone. It's time for us to make ourselves known."

"Yes!" / "Sir, with respect, we're not ready. The yellow death is still-"

"I'm well aware, and it doesn't 'matter. It was my mistake for ever thinking the perfect moment would simply arrive at our feet. No one is ever ready when fate calls their name, but fate calls us all."

"What are we going to do?"

"The museum incident we're being blamed for, which hero resolved it?"

"It wasn't a hero sir, it was a student from K.I, a Bruden, a prodigy." / "Quirk royalty."

"Well then… let's give a little truth to their lies."