Chapter Sixteen

The Case of Erik Voss

Erik Voss stands back as his right-hand woman, Titania, turns into a dull silver color via her quirk. In a matter of seconds, all of the skin on her body is replaced by tungsten, and she is preparing to open a house's front door by force.

Titania - Quirk: Metallic Structure. She can transform her skin into any metal she is currently touching.

Erik looks around the neighborhood one last time to make sure no one is looking just before Titania slams two fists into the deadbolt and doorknob, snapping the doorknob clean off and destroying the lock. All that was left to do was go inside.

Erik turns his head to the brains of his operation, a small man named Hugo, and nods. Hugo returns the nod and enters the house with Titania and Erik to search for the occupant, which didn't take long. The resident and target of the break-in, a woman named Casey Williams, steps out with her hands outstretched and uses her quirk to fire thick black smoke from her hands, which doesn't affect Titania, who handily takes her out with a punch to the head.

"That was easy." Titania gloats as she sheds her metal form and bends down to pick Casey up, who is still conscious, but very clearly in a daze.

"Casey, I'm disappointed in you." Voss growls as Titania brings Casey to her living room and ties her to a rocking chair.

She's taken the quirk for herself. A voice in Erik's head tells him.

"You've taken his quirk." Erik continues. Casey's eyes widen as she shakes her head.

She's lying.

"You're lying." Erik says simply. Before Casey can get a word in, Titania grabs a bandana and gags her with it. "You're gonna listen to me."

Casey struggles, but Erik steps forward and gently traces his finger over her cheek. The gears on Erik's chest start to spin up as one of the vials on his back slowly starts to fill with a deep red liquid - blood.

Erik Voss - Quirk: Lifesteal.

It's not there.

Erik's eyebrows raise as he steps back, the gears in his chest spinning down.

"She hasn't taken it yet, it's still in the house." Erik says as he straightens the cuffs on his pristine black and red suit. "Hugo."

"On it, sir." The man says as he starts to rummage through every drawer he can find. Erik then turns his attention back to Casey.

"Casey, I understand, and I admire your courage. Not many people could double-cross someone… Well, of the Allfather's caliber." Erik says. "But, you're stupid."

Casey whimpers and struggles even more.

"The men that were found dead at the deal all died of smoke inhalation, hell, half of them were covered in soot." Erik continues as he gets down to her eye level. "The funny thing is, though, there was no visible evidence of any sort of fire. Isn't that something?"

Casey shrinks down into her chair and shakes her head.

"So, I guess it's only logical I conclude that you took the quirk that I worked very, very hard to get - gathering and then combining those two other quirks is not an easy task - but you also took the hard-earned money that the quirk was being traded for, correct?"

Casey shakes her head furiously, tears streaming down her face. Erik chuckles as Hugo returns from rummaging through the house with a small vial of blood. Erik turns and grabs the vial, slipping it into his pocket.

"That was a mistake." Erik whispers. "You think you can lie to me like you did?"

Casey whimpers again, her eyes darting to the hallway leading to the front door for a split second.

Kill her.

"I wish I didn't have to do this, Casey. I really don't." Erik continues. "Don't take this personally."

Erik is about to place his hand on Casey's face to begin the process of draining her blood when she becomes laser-focused on the hallway, beginning to scream and plead to someone he could not see.

Age fourteen, quirkless.

"Kill that guy." Erik gestures to Titania, who happily obliges. Titania's skin quickly turns to a bright shade of gold as she takes two big steps and rounds the corner, grabbing the kid and slamming him onto the ground. Titania steps on the kid's throat, keeping him in place.

"He's just a kid, Voss." Titania hollers.

"He's a liability, he's seen our faces." Erik tells her as he walks over to them. "Finish it, he's quirkless anyways."

The kid's face turns purple as he punches Titania's leg in a state of futile panic.

"Listen, kid. It's nothing personal. Just make sure in your next life, you try not to be a hero." Titania gloats prematurely. The kid grabs the rug and yanks it, sending both Erik and Titania tumbling as he runs out the door clamoring for his cell phone.

Titania groans, but Erik just gets right back up.

"Get him, now." Erik growls as he turns back to Hugo in the house. Titania nods and runs outside. "Hugo, you find out everything you can about this kid and you track down every living member of his family, you hear me?"

"Of course, sir." Hugo says meekly.

"Voss, we need to get out of here, the cops are on the way!" Titania yells from outside.

"I'm coming back for you." Erik says to Casey as he begins to leave to Titania outside.

"Do you wanna kill him?" Titania asks, but Erik doesn't answer - he had already given the order. When Titania turns her head, the kid kicks the back of her knees, taking the opportunity to run away. Erik's eyes widen. Before he knew it, the kid had also thrown his backpack at Erik, hurting him and temporarily stunning him. Titania runs after him and grabs the collar of his shirt, which he responded to by punching her in the face. Of course, Titania activated her quirk and even from his distance, Erik heard a loud crack as the kid's hand broke.

Titania scoffed and tossed the kid back onto the lawn where Erik was now standing.

Erik headed this advice and kneeled next to the kid, placing his hand on his face.

"Goodbye." Erik said as he began to drain the kid of his blood while he writhed in pain. Titania put her foot on his chest as he struggled and eventually started to fade out of consciousness.

The real trouble began when something big crashed into the ground next to them. Erik pulled his hand away and stood up to lock eyes with a hero; Launchpad.

Age thirty-three, the power to create jet boosts from any part of his body.

Without hesitation, the hero threw a right hook at Erik with a jet-powered fist, which was intercepted by Titania, who had jumped in front of it. They were both knocked back, but Launchpad boosted forward and into them, tearing up a section of the lawn in the process.

"We have to-" Erik gets cut off as he grabs Titania and disappears into thin air with a loud crack, reappearing inside the house to grab Hugo and disappear once more.

The three land in a bright, white room filled with lab equipment. They all land in a heap on the floor, but Erik gets to his feet immediately and pulls up Hugo with him. Erik groans as he reaches onto his back and pulls free a vial of the kid's blood that he had collected and shoves it into Hugo's hands.

"You find that kid, right now." Erik growls as he shoves the other man away, who scurries off to do lab work and search for any matches on the blood.

Erik screams in frustration as he knocks every piece of equipment from the nearest table, destroying almost everything on it. Titania watches as he does this, looking amused.

"What's your deal?" Titania asks as she crosses her arms. Erik turns to her and takes a step forward.

"You were there." Erik fumes, putting a finger in Titania's face. She uncrosses her arms and shrugs.

"You're overreacting." Titania tells him. Erik balls up his fists in rage, ready to punch Titania in the face, but at the last second turns around and takes a deep breath.

"How do you figure?" Erik eventually asks after cooling off.

"The Allfather can track the kid. We all saw his face, and he's going to be in a hospital tonight. We'll just kill him there and get out." Titania suggests.

"We can't exactly kill him in the hospital, he's gonna be monitored and probably surveilled by heroes or police." Erik argues.

Titania thinks for a moment.

"We could get him to kill himself." She suggests. Erik scoffs.

"How would we…" Erik pauses and fishes into his suit pocket, retrieving the quirk vial that they had stolen back from Casey. "How easy do you think it would be to get him to take a quirk from us?"

"You wanna just give him a quirk?" Titania asks, causing Erik to smirk.

"That's what he's gonna think." Erik says. "After we give him that, it'll just be a waiting game."

"That still leaves the Casey and Launchpad as loose ends." Titania brings up.

"Launchpad will be easy, how many heroes have we killed?" Erik asks, which Titania answers by nodding. "Casey is probably with the police, we can wait that out."

"And what about new buyers?"

Erik thinks for a minute before shaking his head.

"What?"

"How do you feel about the big one we've been talking about?" Erik asks Titania, her eyes widening.

"You mean the big big one?" She runs her hand through her hair.

"It'll be worth more money than we could ever hope to spend if we pull it off."

"That's a big if."

"Any job can be done with enough prep work." Erik tells Titania.

"Yeah, but hitting a school like Imperium? That's like maybe a year of prep."

"No time like the present, then." Erik says. "Just think of all the good quirks those kids must have."

Titania rubs her neck, deep in thought.

Good.

"The Allfather wills it." Erik smirks as he twirls the vial between his fingers.

Hugo suddenly runs back into the room, returning from his lab with the results Erik had asked for. Erik turns to him and gestures for him to step forward.

"I found a DNA match. The kid's name is Emmet Blake, he's fourteen, and he's quirkless. I've got his home address, phone number, school, everything." Hugo announces, fiddling with the papers in his hands. "I've even got a ping on his phone's location, he's at the Mercy General Hospital downtown. Have you decided what you wanna do with him yet?"

Erik and Titania both smirk.

This chapter has gone through about three iterations and I'm sorry that it's mostly a re-tread of stuff we've seen, but I think so far that this is what I'm most proud of, and I have more coming soon (and not in like three months hopefully). I'm super proud of where this is going and I hope I see it through to the end.