Chapter Twenty-Two

Versus

My alarm clock blasted in my ears, jolting me awake and sending me into a frenzy. My phone went flying across the room as I flew to dismiss it, hitting James's bed frame and waking him up too — a feat that I had never accomplished before. As he looked around the room in a daze, I leaped off my bed and grabbed my phone, shutting the alarm off.

"What's your deal?" James asked groggily as he rubbed his eyes.

"Exams." I said quickly as I scrambled to get dressed for class. Brutus had posted the matches for the exams on the whiteboard in the classroom, meaning that the sooner we arrived, the sooner we would know what we were up against.

"Right." James grunted, covering his face back up with his blanket.

Wanting to get to class as fast as I could, I stuffed my hero costume into its suitcase and sprinted out the door as soon as I was ready. I swung my backpack on and started quickly walking down the hall, long before most of the class had even started to wake up. I sped down the stairs and out of the building, quickly running over to the school building.

Brutus was only just unlocking the classroom when I busted in, much to his surprise.

"Jesus, kid." Brutus groaned, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun entering the classroom.

"Morning!" I exclaimed as I pushed past him and ran over to the whiteboard, where the list was posted just as I had expected. The list was short, only thirty-six people — the eighteen of us and the eighteen from class C — meaning my name was near the top, so I didn't have to look long to find my opponent.

Emmet Blake - Quirk: N/A V Tessa Reyes - Quirk: Deathstrike

I gulped and clenched my fists.

"Hey Brutus…?" I called over to him as he collapsed at his desk and closed his eyes.

"Eh?" He grunted, clearly not fully awake.

"Do you know anything about the person I'm fighting for today's exams?" I asked as I shakily walked to my desk. Brutus sighed before leaning forward and opening a large binder on his desk.

"Deathstrike, something, something…" Brutus deadpanned after flipping through the pages for a few seconds. "She has really sharp fingernails that she can extend and retract at will."

That didn't exactly calm my fears, but I tried to swallow my anxiety and look confident.

"Hope you brought a red suit." Brutus said flatly.

It didn't work.

Of course, I didn't let Brutus know that. I looked at him with the best smile I could muster and shook my head.

"Won't need it." I feigned confidence. Brutus smirked back at me and nodded.

It took a good while before the rest of the class began to funnel into the building, leaving me alone with Brutus for about the next half hour and allowing him to get a good nap in. Before my nerves could get even more shot than they already were I felt a buzz in my pocket, which may as well have been an electric shock because I jumped about a foot into the air. I shakily fished my phone out of my pocket to see Ri had texted me, which didn't really calm me down.

Copycat: good morning!

Copycat: im sorry for taking off last night

Copycat: i don't want to talk ab it rn but we should tell brutus about amy

Copycat: yeah?

I tapped my foot on the floor and absent-mindedly began to chew on my shirt collar before replying.

Emmy: yep!

Copycat: ill see you in class :)

I sent her a heart emoji and moved to my news app, checking to see if any of my key search words had returned any articles. A few months ago I had highlighted the words blood, villain, found dead, drained, and vampire — all so I could track any big moves from Voss. Yesterday returned a result, but that came after a long streak of even more murders by him, meaning it was more than likely going to be followed by more. What felt like a hot ball of lead formed deep in my stomach as I opened my feed and immediately got an article.

Retired Hero Henry Atkins - AKA Negative - Found Dead, Bystander Injured

I skimmed the article and knew immediately Voss was behind it. The M.O. was consistent with every one of his victims, blood entirely drained from the body — and eyewitnesses reporting Voss using the victims' quirks after their deaths. This time, the quirk he had stolen was quirk nullification, belonging to the retired hero Negative. According to Negative's neighbors, a good samaritan tried to stop Voss, but his quirk stopped working just as he entered the scene, leading to his partner knocking the man out.

I nervously tapped my foot and grabbed at the neck of my shirt as I read. Voss was getting bolder with his killings getting closer and closer together. I suddenly became extremely aware of my body, unclenching my hands and relaxing my jaw. My phone landed on my desk with a sharp banging sound as I leaned back, trying my best to assess the situation.

Voss was planning something — something big. I didn't know what that was, so I was already at a roadblock. It wasn't like I exactly had any direct line of communication with the guy, so clearly asking him what was up was off the table — not that I thought that was a good idea to begin with. I pushed myself to think harder, try to see something I hadn't seen before.

I tried to map out the location of every murder Voss had committed to try and find a pattern, maybe narrow his location down, but it all felt random. Negative had died on the south side of town in a residential area, Nobody had died downtown, Blackout in the boonies at a state fair. The only link between any of his crimes was the fact that they were on people with powerful quirks, but that wasn't as helpful as I had thought at first. A huge number of retired heroes and villains lived in the city and metropolitan area, making predicting his next move almost impossible to predict. I'd be camping outside of people's houses for weeks before I'd even catch a glimpse of the guy if I had gone down that route. If there was someone I could talk to about Voss, maybe I could get something to work with.

Immediately, I was hit like a truck with the solution I needed. I do know people who had come into contact, and at least one of them had actually worked for him in the past. Even if the others were as clueless as me, she would at least have something for me.

I had been brainstorming for longer than I thought because I didn't notice the class had started to fill in until I heard Tanner start hyping himself up after looking at his opponent. I also didn't notice my own girlfriend had been there until I felt her tap on my shoulder, sending me about a foot into the air.

Ri laughed at how goofy I looked before pulling up a chair and sitting next to me and putting her chin on my shoulder.

"What were you thinking about?" Ri asked quietly. I chuckled nervously and shook my head.

"Nothing." I lied as I slipped my phone back into my pocket. "Why, what's up?"

"You were making that cute little face you make when you think reaaaalllyy hard about something." She told me while wiggling her eyebrows. I felt my face heat up, leading to me pulling away and nervously putting my arms on my neck, which only made Ri fawn over me more.

The classroom door shut loudly, drawing my attention over to that side of the room. I glanced over to Amy, who had just entered, and immediately hid my face in my hoodie. Ri thought I was just embarrassed and stopped teasing me.

"Hey…" Ri said softly. I peeked my head out of my jacket and saw her with her head on my desk, just inches away from my face. "I'll see you at exams. You're gonna kill it."

Ri smiled at me and pecked me on the forehead before getting up and walking back to her desk. I slowly sat up, making passing eye contact with Amy and getting even redder. She glanced at me but averted her eyes quickly like I had scared her.

I must have been extra jumpy that morning, because Brutus scared me as well when he started hollering at us all to shut up. I mostly tuned him out, though, because as far as I was concerned, I had more pressing matters at hand. But for right now, all I could do was get through the day.

It was just after lunch when Brutus gave us the order to head on over to Imperium for the exams. Ri accompanied me on the walk over to the enormous glass monolith of a building to help calm my nerves. It wasn't exactly a secret that I was nervous about these exams, given that I had never won a fight in my life, but I tried to seem as calm as I could anyways.

Ri and I slipped into the school alongside a sea of Imperium students who avoided us like we had the plague, which made it pretty easy to navigate, but I wasn't a fan of having everyone's eyes on me. My suitcase became heavier in my hand as I traversed the building, causing me to grip it tighter with every step until my knuckles were white.

The place where our exams took place was all the way at the bottom of the building in the basement, but that made it sound way less grand than it was. Imperium's basement could easily be mistaken for a stadium if not for the lack of seating. I gasped as I exited the stairwell, overwhelmed by the sheer mass of the place. The entire portion of the basement we were in was about the size of a football field, with a huge arena in the middle elevated by three small steps. The walls were painted blue and gold and probably about fifty yards tall with a ceiling painted to match. All over the walls were pennants and flags representing hero agencies run by former students, along with fundraisers started at the school and competitions won by students.

I hardly even noticed when Ri slipped away from my grasp to go change, which she signaled to me by tapping her briefcase and following the other girls to their locker room. I shook my head and turned toward the boys' locker room, following my classmates.

Brutus and another man — probably an Imperium teacher — I didn't recognize with small red horns poking from his forehead stood to the side of the locker room doors, waiting for their classes to exit. I walked past the teacher with the horns, causing him to furrow his brows at me. His eyes bored straight through me, causing me to cower down as I walked into the locker room.

I was immediately greeted with faces I didn't recognize mixed in with my classmates. Some of them I recognized from campus, like a boy with the head and tail of a crocodile, or one with blindingly white eyes and hair, but most I had never seen before. All of the boys who weren't in my class started murmuring the second I entered, and while I couldn't hear them, I had a pretty good idea of what they were saying.

I inhaled deeply and walked over to James at the back of the room, who had already put his costume on. It was different from the last time I had seen it, now a darker shade of red with white armor instead of black. He had new brown straps around his shoulders which secured his shield to his back with a magnet, freeing his hands. He excitedly showed the costume off to me, including his new fingerless gloves to accommodate his quirk, as well as specially designed red and white combat boots.

"You're also gonna love this, dude." James said quickly before reaching behind his head and donning a helmet that attached to the rest of his suit like a cowl. He knocked on it, demonstrating that it wasn't just for show, but protective. I grinned and smacked it myself to get a feel for it.

"Badass dude." I said as I pulled my own costume out of my briefcase.

"Hell yeah!" James exclaimed. "I'll see you up there."

He patted me on the shoulder before jogging out of the locker room.

My smile faded immediately as I was once again alone.

It didn't take me long to get dressed, which was good because I didn't want to spend more time in there than I needed to. It felt like I was shoulder to shoulder with the people whispering about me, especially when everyone from my class had left before I was even halfway done putting my costume on. All in all, I was one of the last out. I grabbed my staff when I was finally dressed and jogged upstairs to meet everyone, which kicked off Brutus and the other teacher's instructions.

"Before we begin, I want to introduce myself to the class at Pathfinder," The man with the horns said from the entrance to the arena. "My name is Lucius and I'm the teacher of class C. And this is…"

Lucius gestured to Brutus and waited for him to speak up. Brutus looked at him like he was crazy.

"Brutus." He said flatly.

"Right." Lucius said, annoyedly. "Anyways, I want you all to familiarize yourself with the rules of which there are two. No serious injuries and no killing."

Class C started snickering when he said that.

"Win conditions are as follows," Brutus chimed in. "Your opponent is no longer able to move, your opponent is unconscious, or your opponent has exited the boundaries."

"You will each have two two-minute rounds in the ring, one with your equipment or support items and one without." Lucius continued. "Any questions?"

"How serious is a serious injury?" One student hollered over from Class C. I locked eyes with her from across the room and saw she was staring daggers at me.

Lucius stifled a snicker and cleared his throat.

"Non-lethal attacks." Brutus said loudly firmly, commanding the whole room and practically shaking it. The girl who asked the question — who I surmised was Tessa, my opponent — shifted her gaze briefly to Brutus before crossing her arms.

"And how do you define that?" She asked as she looked back at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I would hope that your teacher has taught you that much." Brutus fired back.

"And I have," Lucius retorted. "We've had extensive combat training, the kids are just giving you a hard time."

Brutus scoffed and turned back to our class.

"Anyone else?" Brutus asked. We all stayed silent. "Good. Now we're gonna roll for who fights first."

Brutus retrieved his cell phone and tapped something on the screen before showing it to both of our classes.

"Emmet and Tessa," Brutus proclaimed as my heart sank in my chest. "Take your places."

Lucius clapped his hands eagerly as Tessa confidently strode into the ring as her classmates cheered her on. It took me a firm push from my class to get me going, and when I did they all gave me a look of sympathy. I could tell they all wanted to be cheering me on just the same, but something was off. Everyone looked nervous for me instead.

Ri locked eyes with me and smiled as I took my final step into the ring, but Amy was also staring at me as I went. When I returned her gaze, however, she looked away like she was ashamed.

"You don't got all day, mate!" The boy with the crocodile head from class C hollered at me, which elicited giggles from the rest of their class. At that, I took a deep breath and continued walking to the X that marked my place across from Tessa. All in all, there were maybe thirty feet between us, but it didn't seem like any amount of space would have calmed my nerves.

"Are you both ready?" Brutus asked us. I closed my eyes for a moment to process the situation and gripped my staff with both hands so hard it felt like I was about to twist the thing in half. All of a sudden it felt heavier than it ever had, like I could barely hold onto it. My eyes snapped open as I exhaled once more, and I locked onto my opponent.

"I'm gonna have some fun with you." Tessa said from across the ring with a smirk. I scowled in response, which didn't rattle her whatsoever, and even got a laugh.

"Begin!" Brutus shouted.

Immediately and without even so much as a warning, Tessa began dashing toward me at full speed. Initially, I took a step back, but my mind went into slow motion as she wound her right hand back and her nails began to extend.

I received a flood of memories all at once that were almost too much for me to handle. School bullies who held me in place while they punched me. My mom's ex-boyfriends who would retaliate against me for trying to help. My encounter with Voss. My fight with Jason. All in the span of a microsecond my mind was overrun and I became overwhelmed with the situation at hand. I almost ran out of the ring, out of the school, and back home.

But then my body moved without thinking like all of those times before. Like every time I wanted to stop another kid from getting bullied, or my mom from getting hit, or when I wanted to prevent Casey from getting killed, or Jason from hurting Amy, I moved before I knew what was happening.

I swung my staff as hard as I could as soon as Tessa was within striking distance and nailed her directly in the jaw, sending her straight to the floor.

My eyes widened as I heard both of our classes gasp. I froze as Tessa spit up blood onto the ground, but I quickly leaped out of the way when she swiped at my legs with her nails. She quickly got to her feet and swiped two more times at me, which I blocked with my staff before jabbing her in the gut and sending her stumbling back.

I could hear mumbling coming from class C, but I ignored it and pushed on as I adjusted my grip on my staff and readied myself for Tessa's next attack. The girl wiped the blood from her mouth once more and eyed me up and down. She once again charged me, which I met with a whip of my staff, although instead of the crack of it hitting her in the face again, she grabbed it and yanked me forward. I fell off balance as she extended her nails and swiped them at my stomach, mostly catching my armor, but at the very tail end of the swipe, they grazed my side.

Tessa's fingernails were razor-sharp, which was evident by the sharp stinging and slow gushing of blood that began to stain my costume. My breath caught in my throat as I looked down. Seeing the blood seep through my costume distracted me long enough to let Tessa swipe immediately again at my face, drawing blood from my cheek and chin in three places where she made contact.

I bit my lip hard enough to draw even more blood as I yanked back on my staff and cracked it against Tessa's face, making even more contact than my first blow. I saw the clear look of shock on Tessa's face and seized the opportunity to drive my staff into her gut, sending her doubling over and gagging. In my moment free from attacks, I wiped the blood from my face to no avail and once again readied myself as Tessa struggled to her feet and stumbled forward. Expecting another slash with her nails, I was thoroughly caught off guard when Tessa hopped and kicked me in the face, nailing me in the chin where she slashed me, drawing even more blood and making me scream properly this time.

I stumbled back in a daze and fell on my butt, only to narrowly dodge an axe kick. Tessa had driven me back to the boundary lines, so I quickly rolled out of the way of another blow and hopped to my feet, holding my staff in a defensive pose as I walked toward the middle of the stage, never taking my eyes off of her. In an attempt to intimidate me, she extended her nails completely and struck a similar, but more offensive pose with a nasty look on her face.

It would be a challenge to take her on up close, the slashes in my face and side were proof enough. The most ranged attack I could pull off was throwing my staff, but I wasn't keen on giving her my only weapon, so that was off the table. We walked circles around each other as I tried to formulate a winning strategy, trying my hardest to focus on her while also wincing with every heartbeat.

Tessa lunged at me again, which I attempted to block with my staff, but she anticipated the counter and grabbed it. Before I even knew how to react, she threw herself backward and kicked me in the stomach to help her throw me back in an attempt to get me out of bounds. I inadvertently let go of my staff as I soared through the air and crashed onto the concrete floor just inches from the edge of the arena. The sound of Tessa's rapidly approaching footsteps got my attention and pulled me out of a daze, forcing me to throw my head and arms up to block the incoming swing.

The deafening crack of my staff smacking the armor plating on my forearms rang out in the facility, startling everyone including myself and Tessa. I used the moment of hesitation to grab the staff back and forcefully throw myself back, taking her along with me the same as she had done to me. This time though, when I threw her behind me with the aide of my feet, it was met with numerous gasps. I quickly turned around and hopped to my feet to see what had happened and I almost jumped with joy. Tessa was laying on her stomach on the stairs leading up to the ring with the wind knocked out of her.

"Round one goes to Emmet." Lucius said with some reservations.

"Emmet." Brutus waved me over. I trotted down the stairs with a hand on my stomach, putting pressure on my wounds. I scanned over the two classes quickly, seeing mine cheering for me and clapping while class C was mostly quiet and unimpressed — whether that was directed at me or Tessa was unclear. "Eat this."

Brutus handed me a small gummy, which I happily took and ate. A warming sensation overtook my body and all of my pain went away in an instant. My eyes widened and I moved my hand away from my stomach, seeing the slashes had closed and were now just faint pink lines.

"Badass!" I said loudly, earning some chuckles from my classmates.

"Language." Brutus said curtly. "Get back up there."

I nodded and locked eyes with Ri, who was jumping up and down excitedly. I smiled back at her and turned around to take my place in the ring.

"Alright, you know the drill, no equipment this time, throw your stick away." Lucius hollered at me. I obliged and tossed my staff behind me onto the steps.

"It's a bo staff." I corrected him, annoyedly.

"I do not care." Lucius responded. I opened my mouth to argue, but I just rolled my eyes and sighed.

Tessa took her spot across from me at that moment, and instead of looking cocky and confident, this time around she was just angry. Her face was contorted into a scowl unlike anything I'd ever seen — she wasn't looking at me, she was looking through me.

"You both ready?" Brutus hollered. I nodded and put up my guard just as Nathan had taught me, but Tessa didn't move a muscle. "Begin!"

Tessa sprinted at me much like last time, but this time was different. She was moving much more deliberately this time, like she could run through a brick wall. I took one step back and threw a roundhouse kick her way, but she easily dodged it and grabbed my foot, yanking me towards her. I yelped as I lost my balance and hit the floor, which made Tessa smile ear to ear. She went in to punch me in the face, but I rolled over and swung my feet around to sweep hers out from under her. As quickly as she went down, however, she was back up and swiping at me with her claws.

With nothing to defend me, I retreated and waited for my next opening. The little distance between us was quickly closed with one lunge from Tessa, and four of the claws on her left hand embedded themselves deep in my forearm, but they didn't stop there. I stumbled back as Tessa followed through on her strike, knocking me down onto my back and taking her with me. My vision went white as my head smacked the concrete, and everything went quiet for a brief moment

Both of our classes gasped loudly, and I had even heard a muffled yelp in the commotion. My head smacked the cement floor so hard I didn't notice the way she had fallen on me had driven her claws clean through my forearm and into my gut.

I looked down in shock and saw blood begin to drip from my arm and seep from my stomach, soaking my costume in a dark red, nearly black volume of blood. The sight of it caused me to gasp and nearly pass out, though that may have also been because my head had just hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Tessa smiled devilishly at me as she drove the claws in deeper, getting a guttural scream out of me that sounded more animalistic than human. This was it, this was the end. My mind flooded with possible outcomes, all of them ending in a loss for me. There's no way I could throw her off, the damage was already done and where I go, she goes. I could strike her with my free hand but my vision was clouded and there's no way I could get enough force behind it to do anything meaningful.

"Lucius, call it!" Brutus shouted as he rushed over to the two of us. My eyes snapped open and locked onto Brutus as I shook my head furiously, but he wasn't paying me any mind. I nearly laid my head down in defeat, but just out of the corner of my eye I spotted Tessa's hand, bracing her against the ground as she straddled me. This was my opening.

I groaned, almost driving another scream out of me as I took my free hand and gripped Tessa's arm as hard as I could in an attempt to free myself.

"... N-no!" I screamed before finally focusing and looking into Tessa's eyes. I tightened my grip on her arm and pushed up with all my might, pulling her claws out of my stomach slowly. The grin on her face quickly turned to a grimace as she removed her hand from the ground and grabbed my hand, attempting to pin me further. "Gotcha."

I shakily smiled as I drove my knee into her side. The blow pushed her off of me and onto the ground, ripping her claws out of my arm and stomach. The world went white once more and I felt a throbbing pain in the back of my skull but I bit my lip and rolled over onto Tessa, pinning her down with my knees on her arms.

"You slimy motherf-" She cut herself off as she tried to break free but I didn't exactly need to use my imagination to know what she was going to say. I grabbed the wrist of the hand that had impaled me and pinned it to the ground, her fingertips landing just over the boundary line. At that very moment, I gave in to my body's needs and collapsed as I applied as much pressure to my stomach as possible. A smile crept over my face as Lucius and Brutus came to terms with what had just happened, eliciting a very different response from the two of them.

"I… Emmet wins!" Brutus stumbled over his words before proclaiming me the victor.

"Tessa! Now!" Lucius hollered over the jeers of his students.

I closed my eyes as my class burst into cheers and Tessa hopped to her feet, confused by what had just happened. The excitement didn't last long before my breathing quickly became shallow and the cheers turned to gasps and screams. Part of me felt confused as to what they were screaming about, but then I remembered I had eight stab wounds and likely a concussion, I'd probably be pretty freaked out too.

Part of me wanted to sit up and assure everyone that I was alright, but I knew that I would never be able to muster the strength. The match was over. I won.

I barely won.

My eyes shot open as the thought flooded my mind. How was I ever going to take down Voss if I could barely win a fight against a student my age? I bit my lip and clenched my fist for a split second before Ri rushed over to me and picked me up, rushing me to who I can only assume is the nurse.

I think Ri spoke to me as she rushed me off, but I'm not entirely sure. The pounding sensation in my head combined with the increasing volume of my thoughts screaming I wasn't good enough was more than suitable in blocking everything out.

I finally let myself succumb to sleep when she exited the arena and my eyes instinctively shut to block out the blinding fluorescent lights.

I know this chapter took a long time, but I'm finally happy with it! Also, huge thanks to the readers who left the five most recent reviews, they're absolutely amazing and everything you said really helped me keep writing this. I hope to have the next chapter out sooner than this one. Seriously thanks for all the support