Chapter 3

An Unexpected Visit

I woke up in the hospital after what seemed like no time at all, but I knew it had to have been at least a day. I woke up a few times to nurses checking on me, and I saw it had been night time once before. I looked to the clock on the wall and saw it was three in the morning, so I sighed and reached for where I thought my phone would be on the table next to me, but my reach got cut short by a hand grabbing my wrist. I looked up and saw the man in the suit from my neighbors house standing in front of my bed.

I breathed in to try and scream, but I felt a hand clamp down over my mouth and silence me before I could. I squirmed to try and get away, but another hand slammed me into my bed. I looked to my left and saw the metal woman from earlier leaning over me to keep me pinned down.

"Don't feel bad. You never saw us coming." The man, Voss said to me. "They never do. You know, people like you, you're pests."

I struggled against the woman's grasp, but to no avail. She just pushed me further down.

"But you don't have to be." Voss reached onto his back and grabbed a vial, handing it to me. I squinted and looked at it, seeing it was filled with a dark red liquid. Blood. "Do you know what this is?"

I shook my head.

"It's more power than even the average hero has their hands on."

"And you can take it. If you want." My brows furrowed as he said that. He raised his eyebrows and set the vial of blood on the table next to me. "It's a quirk."

I looked over at the vial of blood and then back to Voss. How could he have a quirk in there?

"I'll let you speak if you don't scream. If you scream, I'll kill you." Voss told me. I vigorously nodded my head and Voss motioned for the woman to let me go. She let me go and I sat up in my hospital bed.

"Why are you here?" I asked. "How did you escape, I heard you guys get beaten up?"

"We're here because we want to offer you something you long for. I was going to kill you, but the Allfather ordered me not to unless you were a threat. Which you aren't. He told me specifically to give you that." Voss pointed to the vial of blood. "And we were… Incapacitated by the hero who saved you. But with the Allfather's guidance, escape is simple. We don't even have to lift a finger."

"How do you have a quirk in that vial?" I asked next, eyeing the small glass tube, skeptical it was anything but a disease. Voss looked to the woman before taking off his suit jacket and slowly unbuttoning his shirt, revealing complex machinery and technology fused into his flesh

"Countless hours of research. Using my quirk, combined with these… upgrades, I can suck blood out of a person to extract their DNA. Using this complex machinery, I can extract their quirk and diffuse it. And I can inject a person with a compound I stole from the yakuza on my visit to Japan to nullify a person's quirk." Voss told me while buttoning his shirt back up and putting his jacket back on. "I can steal and transfer quirks."

I was stunned at what I was hearing. He reminded me of All for One, some guy from Japan we read about in class. I almost couldn't believe it… But when he showed me his bare flesh, it all but confirmed it.

"I don't know what the yakuza are doing, but they're good at it." Voss said.

"What about that... quirk?" I asked, pointing to my side table.

Voss nodded.

"I stole it." He started. I heard mechanical whirring from underneath his clothes during the silence. "Everyone thinks they're the protagonist of their own story, and they think they'll be the ones to stop the villains and have a happy ending. You're not the first person to interfere with my business, a boy very similar to you decided he was going to play the hero and tried to stop me. I killed him, but not before the Allfather spoke to me, telling me to steal his quirk because I would need it. He had a very run of the mill quirk, but don't be misled, it's very powerful. He was very strong and managed to put up a good fight, even managing to put dents into the lovely Titania, who I believe broke your hand. That's not easy. I'm not quite sure how strong he was, but he didn't even break a sweat. I didn't know why the Allfather wanted me to take his power then, but I think I do now. I'm going to give it to you."

I paused, only realizing now that tears were dripping off of my face.

"You want to give me that quirk?" I asked, my voice trembling.

"I do." Voss said matter-of-factly. "The Allfather wills it."

There it was again, the Allfather. I wanted to ask who it was, but I figured that he had some sort of weird religion.

"I'm not going to force you to take the quirk." Voss added. "It's your choice. But if you do, I take that as your pledge to me and a pledge to the Allfather. You will be my associate and right hand man working under the Allfather. If you step out of line or disobey, you will die at his hands."

My breath caught in my throat.

"And if I don't?"

"Me and my associate will leave. But we'll watch you. We'll keep you in our peripherals, making sure you stay away from me and my business." Voss looked at the woman.

I looked at the vial, then back to Voss. I thought about all the power I could have, should I accept the quirk. I could finally see what it would be like to be like everyone else. I could train it, make it my own. I could leave my mark… I thought more about it after that. I wouldn't be allowed to be me. I'd be a puppet to Voss and his religion.

"No." I answered. "I'm not taking it."

"Okay. Goodbye, Emmet." Voss said without hesitation as he reached for the door and held it open for the woman, who walked out.

"Are you gonna take this?" I gestured to the quirk.

"No. I think I'll leave it up to you in case you change your mind. If you do, we'll know."

"Why?" I asked.

"Insurance." With that, Voss walked out and closed the door behind him, leaving me alone in the dark with the vial. I picked it up and saw a needle on one side, presumably to inject the user with. I ran my fingers along it, inspecting it.

This belonged to a kid my age that Voss murdered. I shouldn't be here. I thought about what Voss said. He made this, and he had dozens of these vials on his back resembling spikes. This can't be his only super quirk he's created. And he's out there, killing and stealing quirks. If someone truly evil got their hands on a quirk like this, or maybe something more powerful, they'd be able to do anything they wanted. I made a decision that night. I wasn't going to give in. This power isn't mine, and I wouldn't let it tempt me. I'm going to make a name for myself with what I can do right now.

I'm going to become a hero.