Synaes bashed the end of her walking stick with a loud shout, the plastic end digging into the nose of one of the smaller guards.

With a yelp, the man fell back and collapsed oto the ground. It was so weird how it seemed that only one hit could take these things down, but she was unimpressed when she jammed down the end onto the man who had stopped moving.

Sensing no footsteps near her, she craned her head upward with the sirens still blaring in the background. Based off the vibrations in the floor, she was in a corner away from most of the other students in the circular laboratory. The rest of the room had quieted down, and she would feel a wave of pride in her spine when the occasional moan from a defeated guard emanated through their cracked throats.

She turned back, the darkness of her sight being illuminated by the soft glow of an outline. That annoying Serbian man stood with a proud, stoic gait like a soldier prepared for battle. From having to smell his breath, she was able to capture his DNA and could now see the outline of the odd person. He stood inclined above her on a sloped platform. Towards the right of her, she saw the outline of Megan crouched down by another guard that she had taken down.

Some heavy breathing accompanied the lull in the action. Directly in front of the podium holding the device, Abel shut off his music, the harsh drum fills and tremos of Rush disappearing into the ether of the blaring alarms. Sweat matting on his long brown hair, he got up from one knee and took a step towards the podium.

"You won't win, Karen," Abel shouted. "We have the high ground."

"You moron," Megan paced towards him. "They're on that slope above us."

"I meant morally," Abel faced the trio by the spire.

The rest of the class congregated around the center incline. Facing no other guards, the alarms ceased leaving only the light breathing and the zaps of electric pops from the exposed wiring on the destroyed walls. The challenge defeated, they gathered as they saw Edith put her hand in her dress pants pocket. Fyodor, his arms crossed, smirked when he saw the gaggle of students surrounding the platform.

Edith adjusted the tie around her neck, then clapped when the class built themselves around her like a wall.

"Well done, students," Edith said. "You took those guys out in five minutes."

Megan furrowed her brow. "And you're congratulating us why?"

Synaes tapped her cane. "I'll cut you with axe."

As she finished her question, Megan startled when a green light illuminated the area around the spire. It glowed with a dangerous glint that zapped out small electrical shocks. A short rumble bubbled over the room, and light trickling from the broken glass rained down. The rafters above swayed, and Megan pushed out her arms to regain her balance. As soon as it came, the quake ended. In its place was the spire that now was aglow with a mold green tint and a mechanical buzz.

"Our machine...is alive," Fyodor said.

Edith sighed. She shook her head and scratched her nose. "Ugh. I guess it's time to make the hard decisions."

Fyodor, who had taken a step towards the device, turned back with his hands in his overcoat pockets. "Haven't we made those decision, Miss Void?"

Edith, with hesitation, gave a quick look at Martel. The boy had a sharp glare in his face, but there was a flicker of worry and dejection hiding in his eyes. The way his nose twitched, but the way his body betrayed no movement proved that Edith needed to do what had to be done.

"Martel," Edith said. "Why don't you be a good boy and join the rest of your class?"

The boy crossed his arms and peered upward to his mother. A tense string wound itself around his shoulders, and Martel felt his heart smack into his lungs. His breath labored, he fathomed his thoughts. He was still clueless about what his mother was trying to solve.

"You're trying to poison people, Mom," Martel said. "And you tried to attack my class."

"Please, Martel," Edith rolled her eyes. "Those guards were a bunch of anti-quirk protestors I found at the local community college. You alone could have taken them down."

"Mom, you're ruining my life," Martel said. "Worse, you're embarrassing me in front of the class."

"Oh, shut up."

"What? Mom, what a-."

Edith pulled her hand out of her pocket to reveal a handgun. Cocking back the hammer, she fired.

BANG!

Abel gasped out, his beady eyes as wide as the large bay glass windows shattered next to them. The blast of the loud gunshot rebounded off the tile walls, bounding between the ears of the students and traversing outward and up through the gigantic and cavernous room. A purple fluid spewed out from the impact, and a giant gash popped out from the exit wound of Martel's head. He fell backwards, his arms thrashing limp at his side when his entire body crashed onto the ground.

Martel's body lay face-up, his unmoving eyes unfocused upward into oblivion. The viscous liquid fumbled out of the bullet wound like a bucket of oil dripping onto the floor. Betraying no breath, the boy's dead carcass gave off one last twitch of his leg before laying dormant leaking away with a puddle of dark miasma oozing around his head like an angel's halo.

Abel gagged and fell down to his knees. Hearing the guffaws and shocked shouts from the other students, he covered his mouth and tried to avoid the vomit that rushed upward from his stomach. Suddenly, in the front of his head, he saw the quiet film shutter chug through his mind. Another event, one that actually happened to him played at the pace of a lightning bolt. His breath hitched, and he could have sworn that he saw the face of somebody other than Martel for a split second.

The rest of the class gazed upon Martel's lifeless body. An occasional snap of the electric wires. Smoke flummoxed from the barrel, and Edith had an annoyed sneer on her face when she examined the body. She kicked Martel on the side.

"God, that kid could be annoying," Edith rubbed her left temple.

Fyodor blinked and rubbed the light scruff of his angular face. This was not part of the original plan. "Did you...mean to do that?"

Edith sniffed and cocked back the hammer again. "Oh, right. Hold up."

Another blast.

Fyodor collapsed to his knees, a large gash erupted in his gut. The bullet lodged itself square through his middle. The Serbian boy smacked his side onto the ground. His large hands squeezed around the bullet wound, bright trickles of blood leaking onto his undershirt. His eyes wide, he flopped on the ground with involuntary writhes twisting his body.

Katsu stood with his and around his neck tie. His teeth bared, a righteous rage bristled over the boy's broad shoulders. Wincing at Fyodor's whines, he balled up his fists and crinkled his nose.

"Did you just shoot your own son?" Megan squeaked out.

"Oh, God," Robyn wretched. "Is he actually dead?"

Moxie pointed a rosary towards Edith. "Christ compels you to repent, you Satan worshipper!"

"All's fair in science and progress," Edith jabbed a foot at Martel's middle, her shoes slipping in the purple puddle. "But don't worry. It's all for a good cause."

Edith re-holstered her gun back into her pocket and held up her wrist to her mouth. Pressing a button on her smart watch, a beep crackled through the solemn air. "Cletus, Raimundo. Handle the battery."

"Hello, Crazy Lady," Katsu grabbed at his hair and pulled. "You just killed your own son! Aren't you at least gonna give us an evil monologue?"

"Calm down, kids," Edith said. With a tight grin, she took her foot and set it right on top of Martel's cranium. "Let me tell you a story."

James flickered a small plume of lavender light in his palms. Lloyd shivered from the warmth that it gave him; the air chilled and moist compared to the outside summer.

They had hiked through the cave for nearly twenty minutes. It was an odd passageway that was lined with mocha stalagmites and the echoing drip of water. An icy puddle rippled with a drop falling on it. The boys heavy footsteps sloshed on the wet floor, only the oasis of light illuminating the five feet before them.

The light from the bathroom behind them gone, they trudged down the soft incline further into the Earth. The soles of James's feet slipped on occasion, but he buckled his knees and leaned forward down the slope into the cave. The earth tunnel warped around them, a calm and quiet loneliness leaving only their footsteps and the beating of their hearts pumping through their ears.

"How could this be hidden by the bathroom?" Lloyd asked. "Surely, the county zoning laws don't permit a cave like this."

"Of course not, you sack of horse cum," James ticked his tongue. "They're hiding some secret shit down here."

After a few more minutes, Lloyd was prepared to turn back around. The tunnel seemed to repeat a pattern of jutted and razor-sharp stalagmites and frigid puddles that reflected the neon light that spurned in James's hand. Oblivious to anything happening up on the surface, the clammed breeze whistled past Lloyd's ears and bare torso making the boy shiver. He hovered closer to the ball of neon for warmth, only for James to grimace and take a step to the side of him.

The incline grew steeper, but based on the shadowing of the rocks, James saw that there was a level platform at the bottom of the steeper section. In front of them, the ceiling caved inward and dipped downward to hide whatever lay at the bottom. James crouched down and dug his shoes into the slick bronze peat. With a push from his back arm, he slid downward with his feet crossed over the other. The cool air brushing past his hair, he grounded his heels into the bottom of the slope and pushed himself back into a standing position.

Lloyd followed suit behind him. When they both stood on the bottom of the slope, James extinguished the energy from his hands. It was unnecessary; etched into the dead end of the cave was a metal door with white incandescent lights framing the entrance into some secret room.

The door was immaculate with no sign or crack within its bounds. With the door pristine and shining under the light, Lloyd reached out and tapped on it with a knuckle. The surface was smooth and clammy not unlike a sea-worn crustacean. A metallic ding rang out from the impact. To the side of it, a simple square with metal buttons was connected with ruby wiring to the frame of the door.

"There's a keypad," Lloyd pointed at the numbers.

James breathed to cool himself down. thinking about the next step, he blew a strand of hair away from his eyes. He had to admit his hesitance at trying to delve any further into the ruins of this strange cave. Turning around, he saw the steep slope that they had just slid down. It would be a hassle to climb back upward. Better to push forward and see what happened next.

"Let me try this," James said.

James pressed a couple of buttons in a deliberate fashion. Thinking back to a sign that he saw a the front entrance, he pushed the numbers that signaled the year Void Industries had been founded. Once done, he pressed the red button directly under the keypad.

Three beeps and a red light.

With a huff, James rubbed his thumb and finger together and tried to think through other possibilities. He figured that blasting through the door would not be an option if the strength of the bathroom door was any hint. Then, without any warning, Lloyd brushed past James and loomed over the keypad.

"I have an idea," Lloyd said.

With a flick of his wrist, Lloyd typed in another combination of numbers. This time, the beep was up in tone, and the light by the numbers glowed green. With a hydraulic bluster, the metal door ejected white smoke from the frames and descended downward into a thin ravine underneath. As it lowered itself, a monolith of darkness encompassed the space that was revealed.

With a loud chug, the door stopped completely held into the hole. Not a shred or particle of light or existence existed within the void.

"What was that?" James asked as Lloyd shrugged past him.

"Martel's birthday," Lloyd said. "I memorized all birthdays from our class. So no student's birthday is forgotten."

James choked out the chuckle from his throat. "Makes sense, you wet blanket."

The boys filtered their way through the frame into the room. Lloyd noticed that the floor was covered in some form of tile, and the air was much warmer than in the cave. With it, a light hum snuck into his ears, and James's breathing followed him.

Once inside the dark room, another quick hiss. Then, the door slammed upward and shut behind them. A giant blast rocketed through the cavernous walls, and the boys were plunged into dark. The instant night suffocated them, a deep wall of black imprisoning them into the room.

Then, a flash.

"You loser," Katsu shouted. "You're going to pay for all of this?"

"Oh, you and what army, wise guy?" Edith asked, her arms splayed out.

Katsu turned back towards Abel who was still on his knees. When Abel craned his head upward at Katsu, they made eye contact. With a quick nod, Abel looked down to his music player and tried to scroll through a song.

"You've been like this your whole life, haven't you?" Katsu said. "You've been trying to play both sides of the field. I've seen your support items used by both heroes and villains back in Japan."

"I'm a businesswoman," Edith put her hand back into her pocket. "I do what I need to for survival. You think someone like myself could survive by just being nice and going to brunches with a bunch of old and senile men? Out of touch with what our society needs? No, I want to create true heroes. Ones that will stand the test of time."

"We'll stop you," Katsu yelled at Edith. "We'll make sure everyone knows about what you are doing."

"Like I'm scared of some kids," Edith rolled her eyes.

"You should be!"

"If I were, I'd be afraid of something irrationally," Edith leaned herself on the platform by the glowing spire. "That would be paranoia, and I'm not a woman that gets paranoid, you boring block of styrofoam. Did daddy tell you to act this cliched and heroic."

Katsu squeezed his fists. "No, my parents have nothing to do with me anymore!"

As she spoke, Abel felt a surge inside him with the music pounding through his ears. His blood vibrated in warmth. His vision narrowed only to his palms that glistened in sweat.

"But Martel," Robyn flashed her sword towards Edith on the top of the platform. "You killed him in cold blood."

"You know," Fyodor coughed out some blood that dotted the corners of his mouth. "I'm still alive over here."

Edith looked down at the two boys, similar in age on the ground. She kicked Fyodor on his curved back and rolled him to face upward at her. Then, once he was on his back, she stomped down on the gash in his stomach. He yelled out in pain as the stiletto heel dug into his injury and more blood spurted out.

"You really think I cared about what you wanted?" Edith asked of Fyodor. "Giving the gift of joy to the world? Gimme a break. No, this next generation, they need a new avenue for heroes. And you, dearest Fyodor, you get to be the first experi-."

"Abel, now!" Katsu shouted.

With a golden flash, Abel felt his energy reach its maximum level. The mixture of the songs he played peaked into a permanent beat that ignited the muscles in his body. Perched onto his heels, he shot himself forward at an unintelligible speed. A bombastic pow blasted throughout the room as the class fell backwards from the sparks that shot out of Abel's shoes. Like a golden rod, he zipped forward and bounded right towards Edith.

Edith, still fast on her reflexes, pulled out her gun. With a tight grin, she fired away.

The bullet sliced through the air, her target perfect from years of practice. Abel saw the lead whistle right towards him. Without a care, he reached up his arm and pinched his fingers right towards the trail of the bullet.

The bullet froze in its tracks right between his fingers. Abel, catching the bullet, reared his arm back and flicked it back towards Edith. At the speed he was going, along with the strength of his arm, the bullet sailed back at Edith at the same velocity.

Abel smirked to himself as Edith's eyes widened with shock. Not expecting his counter attack, she fell down to her knees to avoid the bullet that screamed right towards her face. Letting her muscles fail, she collapsed down like a deck of cards. However, the speed of the bullet made a miss near impossible, and the projectile skimmed off the cheek of the lady.

Letting out a shout, Edith grabbed onto the line of blood that dabbled on her previously perfect face.

Using this distraction, Abel pivoted his leg back and took aim at the spire right in front of Edith. Thinking back to his time playing soccer with with his friends, he bit down on his lip and stuck his tongue out. Flipping himself over, he stuck his leg out and swung it, the wrecking ball that was his leg annihilating it into pieces of plastic.

The spire erupted into small bits of wire, and the light that ignited that circle around it went dark. The tip of the spire flew upward into the infinite ceiling.

Abel did a front flip with the grace of an olympic gymnast and dismounted right behind the podium. Sliding backwards, he dug his heels into the ground and placed his hand in front of him. Crouched a few feet behind and to the right of Edith who was hissing in pain, Abel halted right at the precipice of the elevated stage.

"Guess you should have been more...Paranoid," Abel said with the flourish of a Pro-Hero.

From above, sickly emerald tubes buzzed to life. The lights trickled and snaked down before the boys towards the end of the room about a thousand yards away. Once those lights finished their voyage, hot pink trailed it. Faster than they could fathom, the tubes of light collided with the end of this hallway that stretched to a very shadowed corner.

With the lighting design of a seedy nightclub, James and Lloyd made out the outlines of large glass tubes on either side. Then, with a final surge, stark ivory fluorescence popped above them. Soft electric buzzing rumbled throughout the long room.

The hallway finally exposed, it was as bright and clinical as any laboratory. The unfriendly feeling of the machinery on the walls and the silent beeps of computers creeped through the students. The long hallway, wide enough for Lloyd to stretch his arms out and touch the sides, grew into a broad platform at the end that was complete with a black surface and a few more pieces of equipment in front of them.

However, what followed the tall white walls to the end of the room was what made Lloyd shout.

When James squinted his eyes to adjust the assault on his vision, he held out his palms and examined the tube next to him. The transparent tube held a thick, lime liquid that bubbled and popped in place. However, submerged in the liquid was a human body.

Martel's body.

"Fuck," James yelped out in an unmanly fashion. He leapt back and collided with Lloyd's back. Bouncing off him, James swiveled his head around the hallway. It was not just one tube, but all of them that held the body of their classmate.

"What is this?" Lloyd asked in a horrified whisper.

James swallowed to moisten his parched lips. Martel, his eyes closed, bobbed in the tube with a metal arm attach to where his belly button would appear. The robotic umbilical cord ran from a hole in the otherwise covered top. Thick red extension wires came out from the cable and disappeared into the ceiling that almost kissed the tubes.

James felt the light row of hair on his arms stand up and goosebumps rib his body. Looking down the titanic hall, rows and rows of identical tubes headed from the other end of the room.

Igniting a small neon ball, James held out his arm and tipped down the hall. Lloyd, despite his eyes jumping around like a harangued deer, advanced next to him. Their shoes squeaked over the white tile flooring, and the reflection from the lights made their eyes water.

Sneaking to the other end, Lloyd could only make out a single metal chair with a green plastic tube draped down towards it from the ceiling. next to it, a few CPU units and motherboards blinked like a city skyline. Beyond the chair was a black computer screen, unlit and unused, that stretched across the wall.

"James," Lloyd whispered. "What is this?"

"Shit if I know, m-manatee," James stammered in an attempt to save face. His arms shook with a quiet anticipation of dread.

"Why are there rows of Martels?" Lloyd asked. His vision traced over the dormant faces of the Martel doppelgängers.

"It'd be fantastic if you just shut up right now," James talked through his teeth. "Maybe ask God what the plan was to bring us down here."

Once they got to the raised platform, the hallway opened up into a bay of large computer monitors and hard drive stations. Grey columns of technology and buzzing monitor towers clashed with the stainless steel chairs that lay abandoned and turned over as if there was a struggle of some kind. At the desk right in front of the raised platform, a river of papers printed out of the desk lay dormant and face down.

Lloyd walked over to the desk and pulled up the sheets of paper. Part of it was filled with rows of numbers and shapes hat he could not hope to translate. However, at the top of the paper in bold letters stood the title: PROJECT DAEDALUS.

"Project what?" Lloyd asked. "Is this some secret cloning project or something?"

James, standing right next to Lloyd, gasped when he heard a muffled whimper from the stage above them. In the very center of the stage was a single chair that obscured any vision of a person seated in it. The front of the uncomfortable silver chair faced the giant television screen away from them. However, the rubbing of rubber wiring and harnesses along with a quiet groan caused James to leap over the desk.

"Who is it?" He asked.

Another muffle.

Grunting out, James grabbed onto the ledge of the platform and hoisted himself up. Lloyd followed him from behind and rushed beyond the desk to meet him. James's feet collided onto the hard ground of the stage. The tile a strange obsidian compared to the rest of the room, James saw his reflection within the floor as if he were seeing himself floating in space. The ceiling material was also painted a stark black, yet the tile acted like a mirror as he saw the bumps and bruises Lloyd had put on him earlier.

Raising himself upward, James sprinted for the chair and approached the person held captive. As he neared it, he saw the top of the person's pointed hair, and he could make out the bottom soles of the man's red shoes.

With a final huff, James smacked his hands on the top of the chair. He rounded the edge of it and saw Deku bound to the seat with harnesses digging into his wrists. Spots of blood draping his hands, Deku struggled and wiggled in the captivity without making much of a budge. A thick brown rag was jammed into his mouth. Other than the perspiration drenching his forehead, he seemed to be in one piece. However, there was a strange tube attached to his head that ran upward towards the ceiling. Bolted in place, the metal apparatus jiggled with the twitches of Deku's frantic head.

"Mister Deku," Lloyd shouted once he made it to the other side of the chair. "Are you alright?"

Deku thrashed his head around on the chair. Lloyd reached down and snagged the rag out of his mouth.

Coughing out a dry heave, Deku captured air into his lungs and gripped the armchairs to make his white knuckles pop with anxiety. "What are you doing here?" He asked while flashing his green eyes at his two students.

"Mister Deku," Lloyd reached down to wrestle with the restraints on his wrists.

"No, don't tou-."

When Lloyd touched the ropes, the exploded into daggers of pain that rain up through his hands into his spine. Lloyd and Deku both cried out in agony. James jumped back and watched as the two collapsed in pain. Lloyd fell down onto one knee, while Deku slumped over with his chin kissing his chest.

The heat that incinerated Lloyd's insides disappeared almost as fast as it arrived, a dull throb pulsating in his veins as he tried to calm his breathing.

"These ropes," Deku said wriggling his wrists. "They disabled my quirk. This must be some new technology. And if I use my quirk, they electrocute you."

Lloyd regained his strength and rose back to his feet. His skin reddened and his face flushed, he licked his lips and grabbed at the crucifix around his necklace. He normally did this in tough situations, and this one appeared to be no different.

"What's going on here?" James asked.

Deku looked over the students and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you two so beat up? And Lloyd, why are you half-naked?"

James and Lloyd shared a quick glance at each other. Lloyd looked back down at his muscled chest and could not help the blush that grew over his face.

"Uh...Some guards attacked us," James said.

Deku stared up at James. "This lady is evil," He said in acceptance of his excuse.

"Mister Deku, we need directions," Lloyd said.

"Edith Void kidnapped me and led us here for some evil purpose," Deku grimaced. "You two get out of here. Call Ground Zero and get him over h-."

Boom!

The main lights cut off. Only the sickening green light from the Martel cannulas and the purple and green tube lightings that lined the ceiling gave off any luminescence. The faces of the three were shrouded in a dangerous mixture of lavender and emerald, and they peered around at the rest of the room. Outside of the lighting that draped their shadows of the black floor, it appeared that they were floating in an eternal void on the stage as the other desks and computers disappeared from view.

In fact, only one more tube that stood to the side of the stage was illuminated other than the lights. In particular, this Martel was in a fluid that boiled even faster and louder than the others. The wiring was different as well with this one column, the wires tracing their ways towards giant television screen that covered the entire wall behind them.

James looked down at the wires at the bottom of Deku's seat. Those traced over the stage towards the screen as well.

"Greetings, Mister Deku," A female voice echeod out.

Then, the television screen came to life. Along with Edith Void's face.

"Welcome to Project Daedalus."

A loud hum began to awaken the metal helmet over Deku's head.

Abel, before he could revel in his victory, stopped himself cold when he heard the laugh.

Edith's shoulders shook as the irony of the situation overtook her senses. As she cackled, the rest of the students paused and gazed upon the middle-aged woman. Either she had gone insane, or there was more to this story.

"You kids are so cute," Edith said. "You don't even know the extent of what it is we are doing here today."

Edith took out of her pocket a small remote device. When she pressed on the button, a translucent chartreuse bubble formed over Edith and Fyodor who had stopped writhing on the ground. Instead, he panted for dear life as he saw black creep up in the corners of his vision. Blood escaped the gap in his midsection, and his limps began to falter with strength erasing from them. Martel's lifeless body was also encompassed in the bubble.

Hunter, thinking the bubble was protecting them, shot out a web towards them. When the web hit the bubble, it evaporated into a spark and disappeared from existence.

"You like it?" Edith said within the protective bubble. "Just finished it yesterday."

Edith rose back up to her feet inside the bubble that also covered the hole were the destroyed spire was. She wobbled over, now barefoot, towards the hole that was revealed in the podium. Wading through the miasma that escaped Martel, her feet were coated in the dark sludge before she made it to the podium.

"Now, kids," Edith said. "You can behave and let me explain, or you can keep fighting."

The students stood in disbelief as the lady looked down into the hole.

"The spire that Mister Chevelle was so smart in destroying was not the device," Edith said. "In fact, it was a lever to activate the true device. The device that will revolutionize forever the world of quirks and Pro-Heroes."

From her other pocket, Edith pulled out a small, rectangular box. It was a baby blue and shook in her tremoring hands. "Imagine that we live in a world that gives everyone an equal opportunity to impact the world. It gives everybody a chance. And it gives everybody a choice to have power or to not."

In the basement, James glared upward with his arms crossed at the television screen that showed the entire plan. On the screen, a young woman, perhaps just a few years older than him, was in the corner of some garden. A wealthy looking place, a white picket fence surrounded her with bushes of oleander and chrysanthemums dotting the perimeter. A few honey bees and butterflies fluttered and buzzed past, but the woman was focused on only the task at hand.

She dug a miniature shovel into the ground, a blue and tiny box resting right by the mound of dirt that grew with every dumping of the dirt.

On the small box were words written into black marker: Martel Void. 2020-2020

"I had just finished college. Much faster than any of those other losers, of course," Edith said. The exact same box as in the footage shown downstairs in her hand. "And my dingbat of a husband decided to propose. Everything was going to plan, except for Martel. He was completely unplanned. At least, as planned as a drunken night in a truck stop restroom outside Portland could be."

Edith welded together parts of the cylinders that would be used for the small underground lab. After finishing one fo the metal bands around the tube, she climbed down from a ladder and looked at the different DNA maps on a blueprint by a desk.

Lloyd clutched his hands together as he viewed the footage on the television. The truth was starting to creep through like radio static that increased in volume.

Then, on the screen, a completed tube. A small embryo placed in the center of the liquid, bobbing up and down.

"I knew his story couldn't end there," Edith said with a harsh blink of her eye. "Martel, he was supposed to be meant to do so much. So much. It took me nearly twenty years to perfect the technology. I won't bore you with the science of it all, but the point is that Martel would become a living person with the power of Void Industries technology."

Deku, his mouth agape, cringed at the screen when he saw the first Martel fall from the tube. He slopped face first onto the ground. His hands clawed at the floor, and struggled to lift himself up with his noodle arms.

Edith stood above him, her shadow enveloping him.

Martel looked upward and stared at the woman. "Who...are you?"

"No, that's not it."

A gunshot.

"We tried harder and harder. Almost to perfection."

Another Martel. This time, he rose straight to his feet.

"Good evening, Miss Void."

"Wrong again."

Gunshot.

"Finally, we had it programmed perfectly. The right memories. The right quirk. Exactly how we envisioned. It was as if I had never lost him."

"Mom, what just happened?"

On the screen, Edith cried out and dabbed away tears at her eyes. "Nothing, honey. Everything's just fine now."

She wrapped her arms around Martel and hugged him right up to her chest, never intending on letting go. Some of the lab technicians around them applauded.

Back on the platform, Edith shook her head and rubbed another temple. "Except teenage boys can be quiet annoying. I had to get rid of three more versions before we got the final kinks out, and my version of Martel came to life.

"Mom, I think I'm allergic to peanut butter."

Bang!

"Mom, I think I'm gay."

Bang!

"Mom, I think I'm straight."

Bang!

"Mom, I just watched this news show. The Youthful Turcics? I think they have some good ideas abo-."

Bang!

Edith swallowed and gave off a sly grin. "And as you can see," she gestured at the dead body by her feet. "Martel never quite got to perfection that I wanted. However, I started to think about what we could use the other versions of Martel for. And then I came up with a brilliant idea. Mister Fyodor showed this to me himself. My dream, my vision.

Edith walked over to Fyodor and kneeled down right to his face. His lips puffed like a dying fish as he stared up at the lady.

"My dream of seeing my boy, my perfect Martel. The greatest Pro-Hero on Earth. A trendsetter. A groundbreaker. Why? Because this is the first in the Project Daedalus line."

Robyn raised her sword up and flashed it in the air at Edith. "But why us? What is this project?"

"How about we just go, guys?" Leo asked. "I'm sure this can be handled without anymore trouble."

Digging her bare feet into the puddle of Martel's fluids, Edith stood upright again and bubbled out another giggle. "If only it were that simple. No, children, this technology is for all to see and view as soon as the first trial is over. This device that Mister Chevelle helped me activate is Project Daedalus. A device that takes a person's quirk and re-assigns it to another user. So, using another version of Martel, he will awaken with his old quirk and with a brand new one. And I think you all know who the first volunteer will be," Edith smirked down at Fyodor.

Fyodor's ice blue eyes lit up with fear. This device was used to take away quirks and give them to someone else? That meant that he would have his power taken away. He tried to slosh his legs and roll over to escape, but he found his calves had no energy in them. His throat parched, and his vision reduced to that of looking through a thick drinking straw, he could only pant faster in exasperation.

"But...why?" Abel asked. As he wrestled with the newfound guilt of having inadvertently started this crazy machine, he had gathered himself and stood right behind Edith's bubble. His music off, he knew his music stacking that gave him the minute boost would render him unable to boost himself for the next hour or so. Helpless and a little guilty, he laid his eyes on the tall Serbian man struggling to escape. His spine shivered with the thought of having a quirk taken away. In his research of All Might, he had only heard of one thing that could have done that, and that guy was long gone. Was that quirk back?

"Why this guy?" Abel asked.

"Oh, it could have been anybody," Edith shrugged her shoulders. "But a homeless, family-less Serbian immigrant trudges into my office with an interesting quirk with no one to miss him or care about him? Sounded like a perfect volunteer. This sap truly did want to spread his quirk so the world could fall into some lackadaisical but happy stupor. Could be a scheme worth doing one day, but this is more important."

Edith slapped the podium. "And think! Once we prove this works on person-to-person contact, imagine what we can accomplish! Martel Void: the first person in human history to attain multiple quirks through the use of science! My boy will be revered for all time! Then, Mass production of quirks! Selling them and giving non-quirk people the chance to have them! Quirks you can gain by just ingesting a pill or a hot dog! The ability to have multiple quirks. Creativity will flourish, and people will feel more empowered than ever."

Edith grabbed Fyodor by the collar and dragged him over the brook of blood that oozed out of him. With a gurgle, he pawed at Edith's hands to no avail. She led him closer to the podium which began to hum louder.

"Just by touching this podium, when the battery is ignited," Edith planted herself next to the true machine. "That person's quirk will transfer into the person in the tube at the other end. My beautiful Martel. My pioneer, Martel!"

James and Lloyd gasped when the screen flashed towards Edith. This time, it was the Edith from earlier in the day. It was a live shot of Class 1-A in the large laboratory. Deku cried out when he saw Martel's body on the ground and Fyodor's collar in her hands. What made it even creepier was when Edith looked directly at the camera and smiled again.

"But there was one piece needed for this device to work," Edith said looking at Deku through the screen. "And that was you, Mister Deku. You and One For All. The only quirk powerful enough to generate the three thousand megajoules of energy to make this machine. So, thank you, Deku. You are ushering in a new era of heroes. To that, mankind will forever be in your debt."

The screen fizzed out into darkness.

"What the fuck!" James shouted. He was just as confused as anyone else in this scenario. His brow furrowed and wrinkles forming around his face, he looked around at the others. He could not read minds, but he knew they were all in agreement on the absurdity of this. What started as a simple field trip had been them walking into a crazy scheme of manipulating quirks and giving them to other people.

"Taking quirks?" Lloyd asked. "Putting them in other people? Copying them? This is playing God."

Before any of them could react further, a sign flashed on the computer in green font.

02:00

01:59

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