With the reflection of the short neon tubes buzzing above, James grunted out when the clock began to tick closer to zero. The deep green robotic numbers started to count down closer to zero.
He whipped around to Lloyd who was also frozen in contemplation. His heart chugging like a chainsaw in his chest, he clutched the crucifix at his neck and saw the numbers get smaller. His arms tensed up, and his head was groggy in distilled confusion. What had they just stumbled into? Martel was not a real person? A clone? Robot? What was Project Daedalus? Why did this lady want to take quirks away and give them to others? Just for money? A perverted sense of justice?
Also, what was this "One For All" concept that this crazy lady mentioned all about?
As he drowned in his thoughts, a shout shook him out of his reverie.
Swiveling on his toes, Lloyd saw Deku scrunching his face in pain. The tube over his head alit into a current of electricity and traced its way down into the metal helmet over his head. Green and red buttons blinked and the lights trickled around the rim of the half helmet. His back scrunched in a wicked curve, and his eyes clenched shut as hot flames seemed to course through his bones. His insides vibrated, and his hands gripped onto the sidearms of the chair with his fingernails digging small divots into the metal.
"Mister Deku!" Lloyd shouted. He rushed over to his side and hovered his hands over the edge of the chair.
"I'm okay," Deku wriggled in his seat. "Just get out of here!"
"Oh, you not going anywhere, homeboys!"
James spun and buckled his knees to brace himself. From the bottom of the stairs rose up Raimundo who was riding what appeared to be a mechanical robot guard. He sat on the shoulders of the tall metal robot that had no face other than black sockets and a white bar that was the robot's mouth. The hydraulic grinding of the chunky steel limbs stepped up onto the black stage.
The robot towered above James, his head only reaching the midsection of the machine's torso. The width of the robot was about two of him put together; it appeared that the monoliths of computer towers and modems had come to life as it matched the same color of the other equipment. Behind the robot, James saw that the closest tube with Martel began to glow as well; the liquid inside bubbled faster with the body beginning to shake inside. The lights surrounding the tube began to blink with a velvet tint that reflected off of the slick robot that Raimundo screamed on top.
Behind Raimundo, a whole row of similar robots climbed up to the top of the platform. The rumbling of the mechas stumbled up to the top right behind Raimundo, and the black sockets suddenly lit anew with a deep scarlet glow. They locked gazes onto James.
"What the fuck are you doing, you hyena," James dipped down and ignited his hands into lilac balls of energy. His eyes glinted with a bloodthirst when he saw the line of robots advancing. His body grew warm, and he licked away a bead of sweat from the corner of his mouth.
"Time for you to see how we do it on the streets, you basic bitch," Raimundo shouted.
James took a step back as the robots advanced towards him. The line of the mechas advanced, and then they rose up their arms. The ends of their arms opened up and revealed black sockets. Then, the darkness gave way to an orange light that fizzled to life. Soon, the whole row of robots pointed titian beams that whirled in the holes.
Once they did so, James gasped when the balls of neon on his hands sputtered like a dying flashlight. He stared at his hands, and then he hit them together. A small shockwave emanated from beyond his hands to the sides, and his energy ignited back to full strength. His heart skipped a beat, realizing that he was beginning to overheat and his energy was starting to get depleted.
"Oi, manatee," James strained his eyes towards the side as he backed towards the center of the stage. "A little help."
James squawked when his back hit the bare back of Lloyd. "I have my own issues, currently. But I will assist as soon as I can."
With a swivel of his neck, James saw another row of robots right in front of Lloyd. They had surrounded them on both sides with energy being zapped through Deku on the chair right before them.
James peered up at the clock. Only ninety seconds left to go.
In front of Lloyd, Cletus stood up on the shoulders of the center robot. Pointing out at the students, he spat on the floor and wiped away the spittle. "You about to go down, you poutine-eating bitch. Robots, attack!"
The robots suddenly charged at the students. Without a break in their stride, they jumbled and bobbed over their thick trunks of mechanical legs and darted for the center of the stage.
As they rushed towards him, James pulled back his arm and attempted to shoot off a beam at the first row. However, once he hung his arm, the neon shuttered off. James guffawed in shock and shook his arms to get back the light. He cursued under his breath, jamming his hands together to try and pick up any remaining neon energy in his body.
"Shit," He shouted. "I used up all my neon." He looked up at the charging line of robots.
"Don't you have some extra?" Lloyd asked with a tremor in his voice.
"Oh, sure," James shouted. "Let me just pull out the neon energy from my pocket. I need a light source to convert it, dumbass."
"There's barely any light in here!"
The robots lowered down their arms, ready to strike with their own laser beams.
Lloyd, seeing his hands were empty of any material, looked around for anything he could use to turn into dust. The robots appeared to large for him to turn into dust in a short amount of time. Also, based on the heat that waved over his face from the burning tips of their laser arms, they would not let him get close.
He faced back towards Deku. With every passing second, the green luminescence started to change the tint of Deku's skin. He began to light up, and his body vibrated further. The computer modems and screens flicked on, the screens showing different numbers and graphs that showcased the amount of energy. Rows of numbers funneled over the screens, and the heart rate of Deku crescendoed in a raucous beat.
Lloyd, seeing no other alternative, shook his head.
"Fine," Lloyd said. "Fire with fire."
Lloyd slapped his hands down on the thighs of his dress pants.
With a loud pop, Lloyd's pants disintegrated into a manageable cloud of dust. He folded up the dust into a small ball in front of him, and he pushed his hands out into the ether. He formed the dust into a thin slice and shoved it forward. The black layer shimmied through the air like a samurai sword and lunged its way right towards Cletus who was on the center robot.
Faster than he could fathom, Cletus roared when the spire of dust pierced his shoulder. He fell backwards and smashed onto the stage. The robot directly behind him could not stop and trampled down onto the chest of the man. He screamed out as the robotic metal smushed him and pressed further into his chest cavity. His bones cracked, and the vessels in his lungs popped from the pressure.
He continued to get pummeled by the stampede with the robots slamming down on the stage and on Cletus's body.
Lloyd whipped around, clad in only his Maple Leaf Flag boxers, and lunged himself in front of James. He took the thin layer of dust and extended it over him and James. Placing his hands wide apart, he slammed his arms forward. The dust layer flew ahead and brushed over the robots wt the speed of a stock car. Even with the robust weight of the robots, they slowed for just a few seconds. Their legs struggled over the quick and blustering breeze that gusted past them.
Raimundo gripped his arms around the head of the robot he was on, but he neglected in covering his eyes. Particles of black soot lodged into his eyes. The sting blinded him, and Raimundo screamed out as his head cocked back in a neck-splitting crack.
"Oh, Lord," Raimundo shouted. "My eyes! My sinuses!"
With the small pause in the robots, James saw his opportunity. Turning back to Deku, he saw the other line of robots advancing behind him and Lloyd as they stampeded over Cletus. Digging into the pit of his stomach, he crouched down on one foot and held back his hands.
Kicking his arm in a violent smack, his final strand of neon blew itself up and rocketed James right towards Deku. The Pro-Hero was still struggling in the chair, his teeth grinding as he felt more of One For All's energy being sucked through him into the machine above his head. From the small crack in his eyes, he saw James ricochet towards him, his hands stretched out at Deku.
"James, what are y-?"
Contact.
James screamed in agony as the small snippet of One For All energy that left Deku seeped into James's body. A stark white heat erupted through him, and just the split second of contact made the energy in his body wrack his spine. His muscles clenched and twitched. The pupils in his eyes widened and then contracted with a maniacal glint that shined at the wall of robots that charged at Lloyd.
Letting go of Deku, James saw that Lloyd had no choice but to brace for the impact of the other line of robots. They reached out their arms, the orange laser beams starting to ignite. All of them pointed right at the red-haired boy.
James, small spurts of neon bolts charging and sputtering off his body, had never felt this level of power in his body. It made his insides wrack with the unstable force of just a small siphoning of Deku's power. Feeling the heat squeeze around his brain, he expelled a shout and powered himself forward. This time, James shot himself directly in front of Lloyd and blasted off two spheres of neon from his hands.
The robots fired, orange lasers bounding down on their target.
One more roar, and he blasted them forward.
The neon erupted forward and collided with the orange beams. The crash erupted into a blinding white light that crashed backward into the firing robots. The shockwave made them waver and collapse onto the ground, the mechas collision with the floor causing a uproarious tremor that walloped the ground of the stage.
The robot closest to them skid on its back destroyed with sparks spitting out of its amputated robot arms. The thick orb of steel, battered and smoldering from the blast, came to a halt right underneath James's feet as he stepped on it.
"Lloyd," James shouted from his back. "A minute left! Dust time!"
With a terse nod, Lloyd dived for the dead robot's chest and grabbed onto it. Within a few seconds, the hunk of metal dissolved into a wide coat of dust that Lloyd could know weaponize. Lloyd, the amount of mass he had to change, cringed at the pang in his head from the energy he had to utilize.
Whipping his head back, Lloyd saw a few more robots attempt to shoot out the lasers from behind James on the other side of the stage. He shook of the pain in his head and spindled his dust around James to envelop the lasers. Lloyd's arms shook with the strain of holding together the dust curtain. His shoulders beat themselves back as the beams died within the protective wall.
The laser shots absorbed themselves in the dust, the robots coming from behind the barrage to run and attack the two head on.
James, peering over Lloyd's broad shoulder, saw the next row of robots heading over.
With a flick of his eyes at the line behind him, Lloyd got the hint and lowered the wall of dust. Lloyd dived downward as James leapt up, using a small spurt of neon to clear Lloyd's body. Switching sides, Lloyd tumbled in a front somersault and caught himself right side up at the advancing troupe of robots. On one knee, he whipped the line of dust to the side and manipulated it to the right side. The line of dust flew with the speed of a jet airliner into the wall of mechanisms. The heavy mechas were pierced by the beads of dust, some of them shortening out from the invasion of the particles. The one at the very end smacked into the wall closest to it. All of them rumbled off balance.
The dust tightened into a spear, and Lloyd swished his arms around like a conductor. Every flourish of his arms, the dust would slice into the metal finding a weak spot. Occasionally, one of the bots would break through and approach him. Pulling back the cloud of debris, Lloyd plowed himself upward. Using the momentum, he fell down and used gravity to his advantage. He grabbed onto the arm of the robot and shouted out when he pulled at the arm and launched it backwards. The robot stumbled, and Lloyd assisted it by pushing it back with more dust. It fell back and collected a few more of the bots.
James placed his back onto Lloyd's when he landed and shot off more rays of neon. The purple ribbons smashed into the robots and dismantled them one by one. With a few of the bots preparing to shoot another laser beam, James formed a disk of the energy inside him and flung it with the flick of his wrist. Like an electric frisbee, the neon erupted on impact and sliced through the arms.
As this continued, Lloyd took down more of the bots. James cooked the other side.
Deku, still feeling the power seep through him, raised his eyes to see his two students mowing down the enemies. Before he could register any more emotion, he doubled over again as a shock pummeled at his heart.
The monitor on the computer showed his rate increasing to dangerous levels. The beeping was deafening to Deku as the ringing energy screamed through his body.
With only a couple bots left, Lloyd lassoed back the grey ribbon by his side and ran forward towards the last robot. It reached back a mechanical arm to punch him, but Lloyd dipped down and avoided the block. Reaching up at the socket of the shoulder, he chopped down with the dust and separated the laser arm from place. Using his adrenaline, Lloyd simply pushed with his arms the robot to the side and tackled it towards the ground.
Losing his concentration, the dust disappeared from Lloyd's mastery.
When he saw James, two more robots were advancing at him. They both stopped ten feet away and ignited the lasers in their arms.
James, exhausted and overheating, tried to summon two more bolts to waste away the bots. However, the purple glow in his arms sputtered away and fizzled out of existence. The boy, realizing he had used up his energy again, stared back up at the robots. If they were locked onto him, he would have no recourse in escaping.
"James, duck!"
James, without even knowing what is happening, leaned himself forward and face-planted right into the ground. The robots, confused by these actions, looked up at the source of the shout.
Lloyd stood with the cut off laser arm that he had just separated from the last robot. Pressing a button on the side of the arm, he flew backwards from the recoil of the laser.
The orange beam exploded at the two robots. Miraculously, it crashed into the chest of the right robot. The impact caused it to swivel on its hips and malfunction, causing the bot to shoot off one last beam at the mecha right next to it. Both of the cyborgs stood for just a second, both of their torsos smoking from the impact of the lasers.
A hole stretched through the whole body of the robot appeared in both of the bots midsections, smoking and exposing dead wiring that popped and sizzled.
Then, they both fell onto their backs in finality.
When the last robot fell on its back, it fired off another laser shot. This one shot right at the tube that connected to the helmet on Deku. The tube ruptured, and the entire mainframe of the machine began to shut down. The electricity baring down on Deku ended, and the plastic of the tubing fell and draped over Deku's exasperated face. Once the connection was severed, the lights all around Deku and the chair devolved into darkness.
The computer blinked a final number: 00:02.
Then, it flashed off into black.
Only the sound of harsh breathing from Deku, James and Lloyd as well as the buzzing of the dull lighting above filled the room. An occasional beep from a machine. The hum of the bubbling tube of Martel by the side.
Lloyd, who had crashed into the tube of Martel closest to the stage, fell onto his backside clutching the robot laser arm. Smoke billowed out from the end as Lloyd's migrane began to pound into his skull. He had over-utilized his quirk, and he groaned out from the impact of his bare back onto the glass.
In fact, the cracks he put into the tube began to leak out some of the green sludge that dripped right by Lloyd. The liquid burned a small whole into the floor beneath them.
Not noticing the liquid, Lloyd got up and dropped the laser arm to his side. He rushed over the stairs back up onto the stage. Skipping around the wretched debris field of wires and stainless steel, Lloyd felt the soft breeze of him rushing to James who had risen back up to his knees.
Once sneaking past the puddles of motor oil and fluids, Lloyd reached James's side and looked down at the boy. His face flushed, he panted as his hands rested on his thighs.
"Do you have any injuries, James?" Lloyd asked.
James caught his breath and looked up. "Please. J-just the...ones I had before coming in here."
Lloyd, not helping the soft grin that brightened up his face, reached his hand down towards James. The boy examined the hand like it was a poisonous sea slug. His flushed face resolved into one of mild annoyance at the boy standing above him.
James smacked the hand away, but much more gentle than he had envisioned, and roiled his muscles to lift himself upward. "I'm not touching when you're practically naked."
Lloyd, realizing his state of undress, blushed. "I had no other avenue for acquiring dust."
James rolled his eyes once he achieved his full height and gestured to his boxers. "And seriously? Canadian flag boxers?"
"There is nothing wrong with having pride in your country."
"You're right," James said. "As long as it doesn't suck."
James and Lloyd hobbled over to Deku who had finally gotten back his strength. With a huff, he looked up and saw his students walking towards him. Seeing that the machine was disrupted, he slumped back in his chair and ignited just a small sliver of One For All's power. He snapped through the wiring that went around his wrists and bobbled up to his feet.
"Wow," Deku said while he brushed off his pants on his uniform. "We got a little lucky there, didn't we?"
"Lucky?" James said. "Aren't you supposed to get out of shit like this?"
Deku blinked and avoided the gaze of his students. "Would you believe it if I said...I just wanted to see if you could do it yourselves?"
"Of course!" Lloyd said. "Clearly, you wanted to be put in danger in order to see if we could work together."
James rolled his eyes again. "Sure you did."
Deku chuckled. "I gotta say, though. You two make a pretty good team."
At this, both of the boy's blushed. When both of them made eye contact for a split second, Lloyd hitched his breath and turned away. James, feeling a harsher, different heat beam over his face, avoided Lloyd's gaze like it was the plague and held his cheek. "No way! This wet blanket isn't worth the trouble."
"I-I agree," Lloyd stammered. "This rule breaker is too careless to collaborate with in non-emergency situations."
Before Deku could illicit another chuckle, a chink of glass broke.
At the tube Lloyd cracked, the liquid smashed through the rest of the glass.
The surface littered with broken glass that shimmered through the green slime that churned through the smashed surface. Detaching itself from the robotic umbilical cord, the lifeless body of Martel plummeted out of the surface and slid down over the wave of sludge that crossed over the threshold.
Once the boy hit the ground face down, he lifted up his face and gasped for air as if he were drowning. The boy coughed out some of the liquid and cleared his scratched throat.
"Where am I?" Martel asked. "Mom?"
Edith blinked with the speed of a flying cicada when nothing happened.
She looked down at the wrist watch by her right arm. Her left arm pressing Fyodor's face into the hole left by the smashed lever, she mushed Fyodor's lifeless face further into it. Hoping it would do something, she tapped her foot in annoyance when the machine simply hummed without any extraction.
"To be honest," Edith said out loud. "I expected a lot more screaming on Fyodor's part."
The other students looked around at each other. The loud hum that had whirled through the room had ended. The podium that was illuminated previously now lay dormant. Abel, who was still on the other side of the podium opposite the other students, stared with strange apathy at what was happening. Him and the rest of the class had basically looked around at each other for two minutes, scrambling to figure out how to beat Edith. Drake tried to burn down the bubble to no avail. Every attack the other students used just bounced off the bubble like nothing had happened.
"So," Robyn asked to the class. "Should we try and stop her now."
"No," Edith said. "It will come back on in a few seconds. Just wait."
"Oh, well, since you asked so nicely," Austin said in a deadpan voice.
Blake popped up behind Robyn and tapped her on the shoulder. "You know, we could probably do that thing that we did during the exercise! You could stab me and i could probably make that lady feel pretty bad about all this!"
Robyn shurgged. "I guess we got no better ideas. Maybe this will work."
"Wait a second," Megan huffed. "You didn't think of this before?"
"Neither did you," Blake said. Then, he narrowed his eyes into a more steely stare. "So, maybe you should just let us do the job, okay?"
Megan, surprised to find herself chilled over the sudden turn in Blake's attitude, gulped and stepped back.
Blake and Robyn walked up to the podium and got within a few feet of the surface of the oyster-coated bubble.
"Miss Edith Void," Robyn said in a dramatic tone. "You have ten seconds to leave this bubble and surrender yourself!"
Edith let out a hiss from her lips. "And you're gonna do what? Arrest me?"
"If you don't," Robyn pulled out her sword and jabbed it right at the surface of Blake's chest. "I'm going to stab my classmate."
Edith blinked. "What?"
"It'll really hurt," Robyn warned.
"No," Edith shouted. "The machine is going to work any second!"
Just before Robyn could make another threat, a small tremor began to shake the room to its core. The rafters above swung like pendulums, and the steel beams bolted into the rings of the walls for support started to creak and groan from the shaking.
A few pencils fell over on the desks that were not smashed, and the remaining debris poured out onto the floor.
"Yes, this is it," Edith said. She pressed her arms down into Fyodor's face. "My machine is now alive! I am...the future!"
The shaking increased into an all out earthquake. The students fell down to their knees and shouted out when the entire building shuddered. Glass rained down from the ceiling and pebbled down small shards that bounced around the backs of the students. A few of them sheltered themselves under desks. Hunter grabbed onto the wall and tried to spin a big web to catch the debris. Unfortunately, some of the big glass shards cut through the webs and still rained down on the students.
A few chunks of the wall dislodged itself. Steel rebar tumbled down over the sloped corners of the walls and shoved its way downward. Hunter sailed upward and tried to grab on a few of them, but a major piece smacked right into his back and popped him like a tennis ball all the way to the other side of the wall.
"It's too much," Hunter said. "Brace yourself."
Anton grabbed onto Robyn's hand. "Let's go!"
Robyn, more than happy to follow Anton, felt her feet lift off the ground when Anton used his adrenaline to throw her underneath one of the mahogany desks by the entrance. He dived in behind her and put his body up over hers.
"Don't move," he said towards her as he closed his eyes and hugged her close.
Robyn, however, was surprised by the quick decisions for Anton to shield her. A small stuttering in her heart grew, and she was certain it was not from the fact that the entire building was about to collapse on them.
The rivets on the steel by the support beams above squeaked out of their holes. The bolts rained down and clattered on the tile.
Edith lost her balance and fell backwards. Letting go of Fyodor, the man collapsed limp onto his side with blood still gushing from his middle. Edith, when she hit the floor, lost the remote for her protective bubble and saw it clatter over to the edge of the small dome. However, the button hit the lifeless knuckle of Martel, causing the bubble to accidentally turn off.
Now, the pebbles and debris pelted Edith. She let out small coughs and chokes as nails and pieces of rebar rained down upon her. She waved her arms around, eventually trying to crawl over to Martel. A rock nearly smashing her head into the ground, she let out a yelp and continued over to his body.
Once she got to Martel, she pulled the boy's corpse over her head to shield herself of the falling ceiling. The boy's frame was only enough to shild her head, but the oter debris pelted her legs and left small cuts and gashes through them.
Then, with a violent shake, the entire glass ceiling shattered. The glass, shimmering like diamonds in the afternoon sun above, revealed the clear sky as a kaleidoscope of shining fragments poured down.
The glass smattered into the shaking rafters and support beams above. Those, weakened by the lost rivets and failing foundation, snapped off their wires and hinges and plummeted downward towards the ground. The rafters, placed only towards the center of the room, raced down right at the central podium where Edith cowered under her dead son.
Hearing the roar of the steel crashing down, Edith looked up and saw the parade of destruction and debris about to plaster her into the ground.
Edith screamed and burrowed her head into the corpse. She slammed her eyes shut and prepared herself for her reckoning.
Then, nothing.
A strange calm eased over the rest of the room as the debris rained down. Katsu stared up from behind the desk and saw that Edith was about to be smushed into nothingness. He got up and prepared to pivot himself over the desk and try to save her. For as bad as she was, she was a villain that needed to see justice versus taking the easy way out.
Before he could jump over the desk, another eruption.
This time, a golden light exploded from the floor underneath them. The shockwave blew back all of the students and the equipment around them. They tumbled around with the other bits of tile and concrete that erupted from the impact towards the center of the room. The blinding light scalded Katsu's eyes, and he shielded his vision as he felt his back smatter into the wall.
Using that energy, he absorbed it and blasted himself forward. Not seeing what was occuring, his only goal was to reach Edith and push her away from being crushed. He felt his body sail over the destruction of the floor and the overturned gashes of tile in the ground.
He felt his body race forward. From his closed eyelids, he saw the light dim from its pronouncement. Katsu took a gander as he soared mid-air towards the center of the room and gasped when he felt an arm wrap around him.
His frame jolted like he just ran into a wall, and he grunted out when he felt an arm lasso him into what felt like a few more pair of bodies. Katsu opened his eyes fully and realized that he was floating in mid-air. Looking down, he saw Edith gaping at the sight above her.
Katsu, noticing the strong, thick arm that clutched around his neck, turned to see who had caught him.
Deku, in all of his overpowering glory, held up a beam of steel in his hand while clutching Katsu in the other. Wrapped to his torso, it appeared his otehr classmates, James and Lloyd, were enraptured into a bear hug as well as what appeared to be Martel.
Wait, Martel?
"Deku!" Abel shouted from hiding his head underneath a microwave. "Fuck yes!"
Deku lowered himself down to his feet and rested them right at the podium. The shaking of the building ended, being caused by Deku breaking through the basement into the main laboratory. A beam of sunlight draped down onto him, giving him a heroic expression as he glared down at Edith.
Once landed, he released the students in his grasp. James and Lloyd fell on their stomachs as Katsu steadied himself onto his feet. The other Martel, a towel draped over his hips, stared in disbelief at the sight before him.
Edith crawled away from them, looking back as Deku stepped towards the woman. With a light heave, Deku threw the steel bar towards the side of the room nobody occupied like it was a toothpick. She scooted herself backwards as Deku neared her.
"Edith Void," Deku, an ominous look beating through his eyes said with his quirk dissipating down, the energy of One For All spazzing off his shoulders. He looked quite dangerous in this situation.
"Mister Deku," Edith asked. "How...how did you get out here so quickly? I was hoping you were okay after your fainting spell, so we put you in an infirmary to-."
"Some infirmary, bitch," James grumbled under his breath.
"Please," Deku said. "I have this under control."
James ticked to himself as he crossed his arms.
Edith, with a gulp of her thick saliva, preened up at the sight of Martel. She held out her arms and plastered on a fake smile. "Oh, Martel! You are awake. How is my baby boy today?"
Martel was fixated on the dead version of himself that Edith had cast off to the side. Seeing a dead copy of his own body, he turned back and surveyed the destruction of the lab. "Mom," he said. "What's happening? Who are all these people? Why does that dead guy look like me? Why is Deku here?"
"All will be explained, Martel," Deku said. "But first, I must take care of this monster."
Edith held out a hand. Behind Deku, the rest of the class rose up and started to surround the lady. Hunter swung over and crawled down the wall that Edith began to shelter herself by. Megan threw up and down a glass apple paperweight she found on the desk perfect for throwing at a very fast and damaging speed. Robyn flashed her sword. Austin pulled back his sleeves to reveal the thick poisonous prickles on his forearms.
"Wait, you wouldn't do this to me, would you?" Edith asked. "I'm just a quirkless lady? I...I surrender. But no need to use any quirk on me. Also, California State Law states that you can't use your quirk to apprehend a surrendering person!"
Deku, realizing the lady was telling the truth. He lowered down his hands and gestured back at the class to stay put. He waved them off, and they took a step or two back. Some of the students were slightly disappointed, but Deku brushed off some dirt from his shoulders and stared back down at Edith.
"Miss Edith Void," Deku said. "You are under arrest for...well, I guess for a lot of things."
"Wait," Abel chimed in from the side. "I thought only cops had to say why they arrest people."
"You dimwit," Megan said. "Heroes need to announce why they are arresting someone."
"But I though we didn't have to follow all the cop rules," Katsu said. "At least, Shoto never did."
Deku turned back towards Katsu. "Shoto always followed procedure. He even got warrants, which is something more Pro-Heroes need to do."
"But Mister Ground Zero never used warrants," Blake said with a haughty grin.
"Do they even have warrants in Japan?" Abel asked. "Aren't they just allowed to come in and search?"
"No," Deku said. "And in our next class when we get back, we are going to go over Hero Law. You do need a warrant, even when you are a Pro-Hero. Furthermore, you also need to have a reason fro arresting people and cite the specific codes for wh-."
Edith, seeing he was distracted, reached towards the back hemline of her pants and cocked back the hammer on her pistol. She lashed out the handgun and flicked her wrist right towards Deku's face.
"Mister Deku," Lloyd shouted. "Look out!"
Her finger pressed down on the trigger.
Just as Deku turned around, a flash of light. All he saw next was the glint of steel, and the face of a vindictive woman who wanted nothing but revenge.
Bang!
"Oh, sweet Tiffany! Why?"
Edith's scream pierced through the thickest glass of the Void Industries building. A blast of blood spurted out from her midsection, which made the lady keel over and yell in agony random curse words. The sudden bullet smashed into her stomach, and a pool of dark blood stained her shirt. It oozed out and soiled her clothes as she dropped the gun to her side. The weapon clattered away as Edith involuntarily threw it and clutched the wound around her.
A taste of her own medicine, she gurgled out in pain and let out an ear-splitting shriek.
Deku, inwardly cursing himself for not noticing Edith about to shoot him, turned his head to the right.
Just over Deku's shoulder, it was Moxie.
Standing in a braced position, her arms locked in and her legs shoulder length apart, she stood clutching a smoking revolver clutched in her hands. Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates as she looked at Edith screaming in agony.
"Moxie saved Deku!" Abel shouted in celebration. "Whoo! Class 1-A rules!
Moxie, however, was not celebrating. Not only did she shoot somebody again, but Deku glared at her a look that would make any villain run for cover. If a look could be a weapon, then the one Deku gave her was a bazooka to the face.
"Moxie," Deku grit his teeth. "Please tell me why do you have a gun?"
"Uh...heh heh," Moxie gave off a nervous chuckle and tried to stretch a grin. "Surprise?"
When the authorities arrived, they could not tell who was screaming louder: Edith with a bullet in her stomach, or Deku at one of his students holding a gun.
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