In some Laboratory in the middle of nowhere
"There! Get him!"
The roaring sounds of my assailant's footsteps loudened, the sound of their stampede only loudons as they approached my location.
"Should've never come here"
I mutter, as my own footsteps start to drown out the others behind me. My little moment of contemplation was soon cut short, as 4 bullets impacted the wall next to me. Running even faster, my legs scream in protest, as I turn the corner and grab the door handle in front of me. I was greeted with a long corridor, with a few pipes and industrial crates along the corridor. Running behind a set of pipes, I check my tactical rig, 2 grenades, 2 full 5.56x45 STANAG magazines, a trauma kit, some morphine, and 2 5.7x28 FiveSeven magazines. Hearing the pursuers breach the door, I grabbed a grenade from the pouch of my rig, pulled the pin, and tossed it.
The whole corridor went silent as the grenade went off, the cries of my pursuers cut short, as their bodies became riddled with shrapnel. Breaking the pregnant pause, I inspected my weapon, checking if a round had been chambered properly as I rose from my hiding spot. Approaching carefully, guns drawn, I walked towards the fragment riddled corpses. There were 3 of them. Checking the corpses, the corridor booms to life again, as 3 more gunshots ring out.
Walking out the other door, with my backpack a few kilos heavier, I trudged further into this accursed laboratory. The logo of a square tilted 90 degrees, with the top left, bottom left, and bottom right triangles colored solid blue. Opening a blue colored door, careful for any one else on the other side of the door, much to my dismay, there was a large square staircase looking back upon me, as I sigh, and take the first step.
Reaching the top of the stairs, I tentatively open the door, and lean out, checking the immediate area around me. Clear. Standing up, my weapon poised for action, as I cross the door, and walk out into the wide room before me. From where I am, I can see the faint fluorescent lights illuminating a meeting room, while looking down upon what seems to be a ground floor. Deciding to stick in the less illuminated area, a Green colour door draws my attention. 'Experiment room #1'. I silently walk up to the wall next to the door, careful not to silhouette myself against the cracks of the door. Taking a deep breath, I kick the door down, only to be greeted by an empty room. Looking around, there was a solid glass box in the centre of the room, with an empty gurney in the middle. The faint bloodstains against the floor and the gurney being the only clue to what happened here. Upon closer inspection of the room, several small injectors could be seen. I recognized some of these, while some were completely new to me. Checking the floor around the gurney, there were 2 that seemed unused. A purple and yellow one. Pocketing them into a special temperature controlled case designed for carrying medicines, I stand up and turn to the camera facing the glass jail cell. Checking for a SD card, or cassette tape, it turned out to be empty. Whatever happened here was not pretty, but I have no time to think about it. I don't close the door when I leave.
Turning back into the blue area, a sign of a warehouse provided the hope for exfiltration.
Opening the door to the control room, there was some trash lying around the room, disposable cups, crumpled post-it notes, and other remnants of activity. What drew my attention was a rifle sized weapon case, and a control board on top of a desk first opening the case, inside there was something very interesting. It was a set of night vision goggles. I recall my previous monocular night vision device was crushed after some piece of human waste decided it would be funny to shoot at it instead of my head. Finding an appropriate mount was already in place, I took off my helmet, and carefully attached the set of night vision goggles to the mount on top of my helmet. Thankfully, the colour of night vision goggles blended in with the colour of my helmet. Turning my attention to the controller on the desk, I pushed a green button hoping it would open the warehouse doors. Relief floods my body as I see the large metal garage door slowly crawl open. That relief soon turned into panic, as the voices of other people rang out. Hostiles approached from the opening warehouse door. I was pulled back into reality as a bullet rips through the glass of the observation window. I needed to run.
I dashed back through the door of the control room, and into the large central room, breathing heavily. My backpack was heavy, and It weighed me down. I could not ditch it however, and my legs got ready to run as the hostiles approached.
"Rat! Shoot him!"
I turned tail and ran as they caught up to me. Pain erupts through my body, as a bullet grazes my unarmored arm. Running further, I spot another green door similar to the one I entered earlier marked "Experiment room #2" throwing the door open and closing it after me, I look down at my bleeding arm, my dark green fatigues turning red. Grabbing my first aid kit, I nearly tear the zipper open as I grab my hemostatic gauze and hastily stuff it into my wound. After grabbing a painkiller from the kit, and ingesting it, the sounds of my pursuers loudened, amplified through my earmuffs. Darting up from my slumped over position, I frantically looked for a way out of the room that wasn't the door I came in from. I internally chastised myself for being so careless, to not have an escape route. I was certain I was going to hell for my mistake. I was panicking as my foot stepped down onto a small pile of papers. My adrenaline spiked as I realised there was something below the papers. In my state I tripped and fell forward and into the centre of the room. Suddenly, it looked like the ground was turning into putty, as the walls began to drip and melt. It felt like I was sinking through the floor, ever accelerating away from that accursed laboratory. In my fever dream, it |felt like disembodied hands tried to close my eyes, and in my exhaustion, I did.
—-
U.A Observation room
I observed this year's entrance exam participants through the monitors on the wall. There is 1 screen for each testing zone. The test is quite a simple one. There were robots worth 1, 2, and 3 points respectively. However, in front of me, there was a button that would unleash the zero pointers that were hidden around each mock city. Snickering at the thought of humans struggling and squirming brought a smile to my face.
My whiskers perked at the sight of something interesting on one of the screens. A red light seemed to emanate from one of the streets within the faux city. Moving the observation drone closer to the source of the light, it disappeared just as it appeared. An anomaly. From the red light, a boy could be found, dressed like a soldier, but the mis-matched uniform and equipment quickly threw out that theory. My grin grew wider, as a new variable that not even I could not have foreseen will affect this test.
—-
U.A Exam Area
Waking up from my slumber, the rays of the sun pierced my eyes as I groggily sat up, and assessed the situation around me. The familiar sounds of combat rang around me. Looking around, there were other kids my age! I haven't seen someone my age in years. My mind shudders as memories threaten to bubble to the surface, but I have to suppress them. Right now, I have no idea where I am, there's somehow people my age around me, and there are robots here?
Putting my hand on the ground, I push myself off the ground, as ever familiar weight of my backpack and my gear weigh upon my shoulders. Raising my MK18 I scanned the streets,
The buildings looked purposefully derelict, like they were never meant to be lived in. Hearing the sounds of struggle near me, I rush to the site. Turning the corner, a robot stood before me. Quickly assessing its design, it was bipedal, about 4 metres, and seemed to have no visible weapons. Its attention is currently focused on the girl before me. A girl like her is truly a sight for my scorched eyes, as her clean, chocolate brown hair and unblemished skin brings my mind back into the past, but I shake my stray thoughts away, and take aim. The sound of armour piercing rounds ripping through metal was a familiar sound, and surprisingly, the robot fell with 1 well placed shot, but I failed to take into account the girl's lack of ear protection. She immediately held her ears in protest, as her legs buckled.
"You okay?"
I call, arm outstretched as she seems to get to grips with herself. Her shaken demeanor immediately turns to terror, as she looks at my weapons and gear.
"How-"
"Don't ask, just get up."
Letting her grab my arm, I hoist her up onto my feet, where she stumbles a bit before looking around and finding me missing.
Questions bubbled to the surface of my mind. Where am I now? Where and who made these robots? Who are these kids? And many more were questions my mind pinged back and forth through my mind like ricocheting shrapnel. Deciding to focus myself on helping the others around me, time seemed to blur. Robot after robot, round after round, and every time I helped someone, they all gave me the same face with different words. Time seemed to slow as the ground beneath me began to shake, the ragged roads tearing under the stress of the vibrations. My eyes widened at the sight of the absolute behemoth that seemed to rise from thin air, as it slowly powers up, and its monocular eye stares down onto the others.
The panic in the air was so thick I could almost taste it, throwing my pack over my shoulder, I rummage through the contents. Spare headset? No, spare set of clothes? Later, Condensed milk in a can? No. Finally finding what I wanted, a sinister smile graced my lips. My thoughts were the contrary, in a frantic haze trying to figure out how to take down a metaphorical Goliath. The people watching didn't need to see my internal panic though, as my smile hardened.
Heaving my backpack over my shoulder, I ran towards the giant robot, garnering more strange gazes from the other kids fleeing. My hands gripped the homemade explosive charge, knuckles whitening. My eyes squint at a peculiar piece of rubble, most likely broken off from the surrounding buildings with all the fighting. No, what made this whole idea worse was the same head chocolate hair pinned underneath the rubble. Picking up the pace, I also noticed another boy running towards the fray. His unruly green hair and eyes were truly a standout feature, but focusing back to the task on hand I call out to him;
"You, help the girl, I got this."
"Alright, I will leave it to you but be careful!"
Having a green light, rushing towards the mechanical monster, my lungs heaved in protest, but I pushed myself further. Tucking my explosive charge under my arm and grabbing the last grenade from my rig, I pull the spoon and throw it at the foot of the monster. As expected, it didn't succumb to a mere hand grenade, but It was my intention. The giant mech's enormous footsteps released shockwaves through the ground, threatening to knock me over. Seizing the opportunity, I hastily push the explosive charge into the grenade-made hole within the mech. As soon as I placed the charge, my priority was to find cover. Hiding behind a faux shopfront, I yell.
"Clear!"
A thunderous explosion rang through the city as heads were turned to the giant robot that seemed to stumble. Much to my horror however, the giant did not fall. I racked my brains trying to figure out a solution. Small arms fire seemed to do jack against such a large and armoured target. My attention was soon drawn by what looked like a green lightning bolt. Even more questions pounded my brain, as I realised it was that green boy earlier is now almost flying through the air. Looking at his pose, he doesn't think he can punch the thing to death can he? My jaw agape as I watch this monster punch a massive hole through the mech, disabling it, but at the cost of a literal blackened limb. As he fell through the air, I could only watch as he fell faster and faster, his chance of surviving plummeting as he did. His fall was a mystery, as the girl proceeded to paw at him once and seemingly nullified gravity.
More robots flooded the scene, but I quickly noticed they were medical robots. Turns out detonating an explosive in a run down city tends to kick up a lot of dust. Ridding myself of the dust, an old lady proceeds to walk, 'march?' towards the three of us as her body language allowed me to infer her anger as she approached.
"Seriously, do you young'uns have no self restraint?"
She chastised as she tended to the other 2.
"I swear I'm going to kill that martyr of a mentor"
She whispered under her breath. The other 2 didn't seem to pick up on what she said, but my headset allowed me to pick up her voice better. Focusing back to the task on hand, she kissed the both of them on the cheek, and miraculously, their wounds started to heal. Now, the green haired boy's arms were still completely busted. Turning to me, her eyes hardened at the sight of my gear, but also the bullet wound from earlier.
"You boy, and your green accomplice, follow me."
Her voice emitted authority, and I was not one to piss off whoever was running this show, I followed her. Walking towards a large concrete archway, she swiped a keycard along a reader, and the chain link fence blocking the way began to move. After walking for around 7 minutes, we reached a massive building. The sight of clean roads, mowed grass and cut hedges seemed such an alien thing to me. The interior was just as pristine, the white ceramic tiles showing my reflection. A couple people in what seemed like school uniforms passed our merry little convoy, as I received the same looks I've had since I first woke up in the faux city. Opening a door to what seemed like a medical clinic, she set Green Boy down onto a bed, and closed the curtains and turned to me.
"He wants to see you, follow me, little one."
He sounded like an important person if this little old medic before me was speaking with such a serious tone. This building seemed to be a massive maze, with seemingly endless flowing halls, numberless wings and infinite floors.
"What is this place?"
I voice, breaking the silence between us as we walk the seemingly endless halls. She hid her inner feelings well, as she turned to me with an incredulous look.
"Do you seriously not know where you are right now?"
She questioned, with a light frown, and furrowed eyebrows. I shrug as we both slip back into comfortable silence, with only the sounds of footsteps resonating through the hall. After what seemed like aeons, we finally reached a rich mahogany double door, beautifully engraved and with a slick finish, I was momentarily taken aback. What kind of place is this, to be able to afford such frivolous vanity? Opening the door, I turned to see the short elderly nurse had left me out to dry. Slick. The office was truly a decadent one. A dark wooden floor which didn't creak, a large reinforced window overlooking the entire building. A laptop, monitor and a small stack of papers with a pen on top sat neatly upon the large desk in the centre-back of the room. Behind it was an imposing black leather swivel chair. This felt just like a scene in a movie, as the chair slowly turned to reveal a…. Rat? Bear? Dog? Nevertheless, my surprise was apparent on my face as the little critter before me smirked before proceeding to speak.
"It was nice of you to crash my entrance exam."
He prodded. Quashing my curiosity, his tone immediately sent sirens ringing through my head. I have dealt with his kind before, smart, charismatic, powerful and manipulative. Donning a similar smile, I fire back at the talking animal in front of me.
"What entrance exam?"
Much to my surprise, he seemed to laugh. A high pitched, cackley laugh that reverberated through the bookshelf-lined walls of the office.
"I like you, you're sharp. Let's cut to the chase. We both have questions for each other, so why don't we just get on with it."
"Sure. I'll start, what is this place?"
I question, as the little rodent before me lit up like a christmas tree, seemingly guessing my question.
"This is U.A high school, the best hero school in Japan."
This doesn't help at all! How am I in Japan, and why are there 'hero' schools? Sensing my confusion, the smug bastard in front of me grinned even harder as he spoke.
"Here at U.A we foster young children with potential, to expand their knowledge, prepare their bodies and quirks for the life of heroics."
"Alright, alright, what do you want?"
I prodded. This rodent was trying to pry information out of me. Not a chance in hell.
"I want you to enrol in this school."
"No" I flatly answered
"No? But you have nowhere to go, look at you, bloody and dirty, do you have money? A place to stay?"
This rat had a good point. I had no idea how I would earn money, find a place to stay, or even just find a job. He got me good, however I'm not going down without a fight.
"I have no place to stay, no money and no connections here. Unless you are giving me a full scholarship and a place to board, I can't accept your offer."
His stupid grin widened to a inhuman degree as he lifts a piece of paper from the desk. Realising I got played like a fiddle, I had to at least try to salvage the situation.
"Fine, but I want regular resupplies, guns, ammo, parts, a lab, and a workshop to fix my gear."
"Of course, that could be arranged. Just sign here."
Grabbing the pen from his miniscule hands, his black beady doll eyes stared back at me as I scanned the contents of the contract. I hold the pen, resolute as I signed my 'name' onto the contract. The rodent smiled back at me, sincerely this time.
"I believe it is a deal"
He cements, as the both of us shake hands.
