Chapter Eleven

Encounter

It took me until six in the morning to find my way back to the school. I was gone for eight hours. By the time I got back, Brutus was standing outside the dorms, wearing hero pajamas. Hardpoint, to be specific. He looked like he was going to lay into me, but when he saw my face he just grabbed my arm as I went past. I needed to get to my room, to what I knew sat there, packed away in my suitcase.

"Who did it?" Brutus asked quietly, though I could tell he was extremely angry. I didn't answer, instead shaking free from his grip and walking inside. Amy was waiting in the common room as well. When she saw my face all she did was gasp. I scoffed and walked upstairs quickly, trying to avoid her.

"Emmet!" She called out to me. I didn't answer. I only acknowledged her when she ran after me and grabbed my arm. By that point, tears were running back down my face. "I'm sorry…"

Amy threw her arms around me, but I pushed her back.

"You knew." I said through the tears. "You told him that I was trying to-"

"No I didn't." Amy defended herself. "I promise you, I didn't."

"You're a liar." I accused. "He told me that I was trying to… And the night before, you accused me of it too."

My voice broke as more tears started to flow down my face.

"Emmet, I swear to you, I didn't say anything to him." She continued to deny it. "You don't know him like I do. This isn't…."

"I think I know him well enough. I think I know you both, so thanks." I turned around and started walking back to my room.

"Emmet, you were right." Amy called after me.

"About what?" I turned around. "Please, what was I right about?"

"It wasn't a misunderstanding." She told me. "You were afraid of him hurting me, right?"

I scoffed, but nodded. Amy lifted up her sleeve, revealing nasty yellow and purple bruises all up and down her arm. I paused.

"He did this?" I whispered, not wanting anyone to hear. Amy nodded.

"After we got back from the real party we got into a fight over what he did to you and…" Amy started crying in the middle of the sentence. "He thinks I'm trying to have-"

"I know." I said quietly. "Is it okay if I hug you?"

She nodded as she choked on a sob. I slowly wrapped my arms around her as she did the same to me.

"I didn't know…" She whispered with her face in my chest.

"It's okay." I said. We stood like that for about five minutes before Amy pulled away.

"I need to go do something with my family today, so I'm gonna go, okay?" Amy told me. I nodded.

"If he ever hurts you again, you can come to me." I said. Amy half-smiled.

"Okay." She said as she turned around to walk back to her dorm. I sighed and turned around as well.

When I got back to my room, James was sleeping still. I took the opportunity to get on the ground and reach under my bed for my suitcase. I fished it out and unzipped the compartment that held the vial with a quirk that Voss gave me. My hands shook as I twisted the plastic cap off of the end, revealing a hypodermic needle. In one movement I would no longer be quirkless. I'd be powerful. I'd be useful. I'd be someone worth looking at. Someone worth anything.

I moved the needle down to my forearm and pressed it against a vein, but hesitated. My heart was beating a thousand times per minute, I was excited. But I hesitated nonetheless. This was what Voss wanted. He kept this with me in hopes I would break and use it. Who's to say it isn't a trap? It could be anything, poison, acid, anything. I almost plunged the needle into my skin. But I didn't.

Quirkless doesn't need to mean useless.

I set the vial back down in my suitcase. Voss wasn't going to get what he wanted out of me. As I stood up, I kicked my suitcase back under my bed and flopped onto my bed, falling asleep instantly.

The next day most people were at home, leaving me alone with pretty much only a couple people for company. Them being Adam, Jordan, and Scott, all of whom I'd only talked to a handful of times in class. We all sat in the common room for a good chunk of the day just so we'd have someone to talk to.

I spent the rest of the day either texting Ri or practicing with my bo staff. Both of which helped to take my mind off of Amy, who I was worried about. Thinking about her also made me train harder than normally, because imagining Jason's face as what I was hitting made me not want to stop. I didn't tell Ri about what happened to me and I wasn't really planning on it. She'd find out when she came back.

Ri wasn't happy when she saw my face later that day. She tried to get out of me who did it but I lied, telling her it was just from training with Nathan. I got her to believe me after about ten solid minutes.

The next day in gym class we did more fight training, this time against dummies. I used my bo staff for most of the lesson, but switched to hand-to-hand so I wouldn't get rusty.

The class passed by while I went through the motions. While everyone else was training their quirks and building their tolerances, all I could do was punch. Jordan's hands were on fire, Tanner's glowed with light, Max ripped apart his dummy with his claws, and Adam was punching his dummy faster than I could even perceive. How could I compete with that?

The rest of the day went by in a blur, like I wasn't even there. I didn't even know what I was feeling. Maybe it was sadness, maybe it was anger. I just felt empty.

Every second of the day was just more nothing. That night just kept repeating in my mind. Every kick landing against my face came back again and again. And again. And again and again. The venom in Jason's words was loud in my brain. It kept repeating, fueling whatever I was feeling. Whether it was sadness, anger, or emptiness, it grew inside me the more it replayed.

I was back in the common room of the dorms, staring at the wall when I lost my train of thought. The entire afternoon passed me by while I sat there, completely devoid of any feelings. Ri sat by me for a bit and we talked about training tomorrow, but she went up to her room to do some homework she didn't do over the weekend, leaving me alone again.

It was around eight at night when his car pulled up. I recognized it from that night. It was Jason, probably here to pick up Amy, seeing as Claire was here tonight and he couldn't go in their room. My fists clenched and my brain exploded with anger. Brutus hadn't gone to bed yet, but I couldn't help myself and jumped up from the couch. I busted out of the building and walked over to Jason's car, where he sat on his phone, not noticing me until I opened his car door and ripped him out of the car. He yelped as he hit the ground, and I delivered a swift kick to his stomach.

"Yeah, you like that?!" I yelled. Jason rolled onto his stomach and jumped to his feet as he swung a fist at me. I dodged, but electricity arced off of his hand, hitting me and causing my body to seize up, sending me right back to the ground.

"You're an idiot." Jason growled. He was about to kick me back, but I hopped to my feet and delivered an uppercut to his chin, sending him stumbling back. I stepped forward to deliver another blow, but he reached out and grabbed me by the neck, shocking me the entire time. "You ever try shit like this again, I will kill you."

My entire body spasmed as he continued to shock me, not letting up until I felt like I was going to pass out, at which point he grabbed my shirt collar and dragged me into the parking lot, where he dropped me like a sack of bricks. I tried to get up, but my body was completely limp, and I was drifting in and out of consciousness. In between the world going black I saw Jason's car peel out of the parking lot, followed by another car taking its place what must have been hours later, evident by the sky being much darker, along with many more dorm lights being off. I couldn't tell what car it was, only the color. That color being bright red.

I felt my body being picked up, which for a second made me think it was an ambulance, but I opened my eyes and saw the face of the woman Voss was with all those months ago, the woman who could turn into metal. She tossed me into the back seat of the Hummer and got into the front seat. The world faded into blackness as I realized what had just happened, at which point I couldn't do anything about it.

When I woke up again, I was on a linoleum tile floor in a sterile looking room, lit entirely by bright fluorescent lights. I sat up and looked around. The room was filled with all types of lab equipment, but I was completely alone. For about five seconds. A door opened at the opposite side of the room and out stepped Voss, wearing the same suit he wore the first night I saw him. I hopped to my feet and got into a defensive stance.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Voss said. I didn't falter. "I want to talk."

He stepped closer, which made me step back in turn.

"I take it you haven't taken me up on the offer for that quirk?" He asked. "I suppose if you had, you'd have made a move, wouldn't you have."

I stayed silent.

"Come take a walk with me." Voss told me. I still didn't move, instead staying with my guard up. "It wasn't a question."

I clenched my fists and reluctantly put them at my sides as I walked forward. Voss moved his hands in a circular motion, which opened a glowing circle in the room, which led to another room. Inside of the portal was a dimly lit room, occupied by a large chair facing the opposite direction with an oxygen tank hanging off the side of it. Voss motioned for me to step inside. I stepped in, very slowly, and had a look around. The only things in the room were the chair, a lamp, and a bedside table. Voss stepped into the portal as well, closing it behind him.

"Is it him?" A voice from the other side of the chair wheezed.

"Yes, Allfather." Voss said militantly. My eyes widened. I thought Voss was part of some weird religion when he mentioned him at the hospital.

"Let me speak to him." The Allfather said. Voss nodded and created a portal, which he stepped into, closing it behind him. "Emmet."

"Uhhh… Yeah?" I said awkwardly.

"Are you familiar with the concept…" The Allfather took a deep breath. "Of survival of the fittest?"

"Yes?" I questioned.

"Where do you think you lie on the power scale?" He asked. I opened my mouth to answer, but he cut me off. "It doesn't matter what you think. I know where you are. You're a forty."

"What are you-" I began, only to get cut off.

"The average C-rank hero is a seventy-five." The Allfather continued. "How exactly do you think you're going to be able to become a hero like that?"

"I'm just getting started." I said confidently.

"You've got drive, young man." He told me. "But you need much more to become a hero. Pitiful things. I'm going to give you a proposition."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Join us and you will be blessed with power beyond belief." He rattled on. "I'm sure Erik has offered you something similar, but trust me when I say I save the best quirks for myself. Even all of his quirks are just appetizers."

"I already told Voss no." I told him. How many quirks did Voss have?

"I surmised as much." He said. "Emmet, I'm two hundred years old. Trust me when I say they always take the offer sooner or later. You're no different."

"There's a first time for everything."

"Not this." The Allfather told me. "Erik."

Another portal opened up in the room, from which Voss stepped out of.

"Take him around the lab." The Allfather told Voss. Voss then motioned for me to follow him back into the portal, which I obliged. Inside the portal was another lab, this time occupied by a single person. He looked like a normal guy, wearing a button down shirt and khakis. He looked up at us briefly before looking back down at his work.

"This is my head scientist, Hugo. He outfitted me with my modifications." Voss told me before opening another portal to another, even more different lab. This one housed several piece of exercise equipment that was currently being used by the metal woman, who was on a treadmill with an oxygen mask on. "This is Titania. She's my battering ram."

Voss opened another portal, not to a lab, but to a dark, cement hallway. We stepped in and turned to see a metal door, behind which was the sound of heavy breathing. There was a dim light on inside, which I could see through the four metal bars on the door. I peered inside and saw a large, black, humanoid creature with an animalistic face. It was at least eight feet tall and built from almost pure muscle. It looked at me as I peered in, sending me reeling back in fear.

"What the hell is that?" I asked as I stumbled backwards.

"We don't know." Voss said flatly. "One day he was one of my test subjects, the next he was this. We were trying to see how many quirks we could fit into a human so I guess it's not unreasonable they didn't play nice with each other. We call him the Beast."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked.

"Emmet, let me be clear. Every breath you take is mercy from me." Voss said, sending shivers down my spine. "The Beast will not show you such mercy. Do with that information what you will."

"You're not driving me away from this. You're just giving me more reason to fight back." I told Voss. He scoffed. "I'm not afraid of you. Or your pets."

"Then you'll die braver than most." Voss opened another portal behind me and shoved me in. I fell backwards, leaving me unable to re-enter the portal. The portal closed in front of me, leaving me in my dorm. I turned and saw James snoring on his bed, waking up briefly to see me on the floor after the racket I made.

I stood up and clenched my fists.

"God damn it." I whispered to myself through gritted teeth so as not to wake James. I put my hands on my head and turned around, trying to think about what I just saw.

Voss's lab worker was working on something, his muscle was training, and he had a huge monster that could probably punt me across the west coast. I cursed under my breath and sat on my bed. This just got a lot more complicated.

First, I want to thank Rill for the first review on the story, thank you for giving me constructive criticism on some stuff, those typos in the summary completely went over my head. Second, I'm excited the story is getting to this point because I finally get to write some of the stuff that I have planned out in the most detail. I hope you guys are enjoying it if you have this in your followed list or even your favorites list, you guys are the best. Don't be afraid to leave a review.