『No. 10 - Crimson Flames』

I ran away from Three thanks to Luke and Chris, who bought me some time. I ran as quick as I could, not looking back. At the time, I was clearly terrified. None of the teachers that had some legit hero or combat training lived on campus, and the only people that had the approval to use their Quirks were us. There was tons of stress piling on. Too much, even. Particularly since I didn't have much sense in combat myself. But my primary goal was finding Elizabeth, and I wouldn't let my doubts get in the way of that. I didn't run too far, but I noticed a person moving in my direction.

I promptly stopped. "W-who's there?!" I shouted. The person also stopped.

Then, a familiar voice came from them. "Tucker...?"

It didn't take me long to recognize who it was. "Elizabeth?" A wave of overwhelming relief washed over me as I ran over to her. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "But what was that loud crash I heard? And what's with this green box around the school?"

"It's villains," I said bluntly.

Elizabeth's anxious eyes widened. "Wha...? Villains...?" she asked.

I nodded. The genuine fear emitting from her body was intense. I noticed her starting to shake and sweat nervously, a typical reaction in a crisis.

She gulped. "Is... is everyone okay?"

"No, not at all, actually. Luke and Chris are back at the dorm courtyard trying to hold off one of the villains," I explained.

Elizabeth reached and clenched her shirt where her heart would be. "'One of'...?" she muttered. Her movements were stiff and heavy. Her breathing was unusual, too. Honestly, I felt the exact same way she did. Terrified. Despite that, I didn't want to make her worry more by acting the same way.

Suddenly, she directed her gaze to me. "If Chris and Luke are back there... then why aren't you with them...? They could use all the help they can get..." she questioned.

"I came to find you,"

"Huh...?"

"Well, I knew you were still out. Then that villain attacked, and I instantly thought of the worst-case scenario. I was worried," I explained. "So, Chris and Luke bought me some time to get out of there to look for you."

Elizabeth stared at me for a few moments, then smiled. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me,"

I smiled back. "Good. But, I do have a question,"

"What is it?" she questioned.

"Did you see any other suspicious people while you were walking through the campus?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, none that I can remember,"

I placed my hand on my chin and began thinking. "Alright, well the villain back there definitely didn't have a Quirk that created a massive green box, so there has to be more than one. And from what I can remember the villain's name was "Three." There's a high chance of there being at least three of them here,"

Elizabeth started shaking again. "This is really bad... What are we going to do...?" she asked.

I sat in silence for a bit, trying to think of something, anything, to get us out of this mess. Anything I came up with had at least some flaws since we didn't know the number of villains or all of their Quirks.

I opened my mouth to speak, then paused for a moment.

"Tucker?" Elizabeth asked.

"I... I don't know," I said. "I don't know what we can do..."

A gloomy silence filled the proximity. Elizabeth and I simultaneously stared at the ground, unable to fathom our current situation.

"...W-well, we shouldn't sit still like this. It's the last thing we should be doing," I said.

Elizabeth nodded.

We began to run back to the dorm buildings to check on Chris and Luke. However, an authoritative voice calling out from behind halted us.

"Hey! What are you kids doing out here so late?" a deep, unrecognizable voice shouted.

I stopped dead in my tracks and gradually turned my head around. There was a person about 25 or 30 steps behind us. "W-who are you?!" I asked nervously.

"Answer my question first, kid. What are you doing out here?" the man said as he got closer.

I completely turned around and took a step forward while Elizabeth took a step back in fear. "It's none of your business," I said. Suddenly, a single red flash seemed to come from inside his body. "What the...?" I questioned.

"Heh... How stupid are you?" the man asked again. But this time, his tone of voice was more... intense.

"What?" I questioned. He flashed red again. "What is that Quirk...?" I muttered. At that moment, I realized that there was a significant chance of this guy attacking me at any moment. I promptly placed my hand on the brick sidewalk and kept it there, waiting.

The man took one more step and then stopped abruptly. "Two charges should be enough to take you down," he said.

"...Charges...? What do you-?"

In the middle of my sentence, he charged at me at a speed faster than the average human. Before I could even react, he made it up to me and kicked me in the stomach, propelling me back.

"Tucker!" Elizabeth shouted.

I skid across the sidewalk and came to a stop. Coughing and clutching my stomach from the pain, I wasn't able to move. It was the first time I suffered a major hit to the stomach like that, and it was definitely more powerful than a normal kick. After a few more seconds of coughing, I slowly lifted myself up.

The man shrugged. "Huh, I thought one hit would be enough to take a weak-ass kid like you down. Guess not,"

I struggled to stay standing, but I knew I had to at least try to stand my ground. "Is... is that all you got...?" I muttered.

The man chuckled. "Sadly, yes. That's all I have for now. But he isn't done..." he said.

"...He...?" I asked.

Elizabeth's eyes focused on something behind me and widened. "T-Tucker! Behind you!" she screamed.

I twisted my head around as fast as I could and saw it. Three. He was standing right behind, looming over me.

'How did he...? But, Chris... and Luke...?' I thought.

Three smiled and aggressively gripped the back of my shirt. He thrusted me up and pulled back his arm.

"Wait-!" I shouted.

Before I knew it, I had been flying through the air towards the main classroom building. "Shit! Cover, cover, cover!" I shouted while covering my entire body in brick. Not even a second later, I crashed through a wall on the second floor.

"You just had to go and steal my thunder, Three," the man said.

Three scoffed. "That kid was my target to begin with, Four. I was just a bit delayed by two other good-for-nothings,"

After a few seconds of silence, both Three and Four shifted their focus on Elizabeth, who was still standing near the two.

Four pointed at her with his thumb. "Let's take care of this one, too,"

Three smirked and cracked his knuckles. "Gotcha,"

"Just don't kill her, alright? The boss advised us to get out of here with no student casualties, just injuries," Four explained.

"Yeah, I remember," Three muttered. He started to walk towards Elizabeth with an enormous smile on his face.

Elizabeth clenched her fists. "How... how could you..."

Three stopped walking and stared at her, confused. Then, Elizabeth let out a blood-curdling scream and her body became engulfed in roaring crimson flames.

"What the hell?!" Four shouted.

From the flames, a voice could be heard. "How could you hurt my friend like that!?" Elizabeth screamed with all of her might.

『No. 10 - End』