Chapter Twenty-Three
Internship Preparations
The next day at school was painfully slow. Ri and everyone else in class congratulated me on my performance in the exams the previous day, leaving me in an awkward spot for most of my classes. I answered all the praise with an awkward thumbs up and a smile.
Ri never left my side, even scooting her desk next to mine to keep an eye on me. Brutus reluctantly allowed it as long as we didn't show any affection to each other, which was fine with me. My head felt like it was splitting apart, so the only thing I was able to do anyways was rest my head on my arms and pay half attention to the front of the class with an ice pack on my head. Ri changed the pack out every now and then, leaving the classroom to fetch a new ice pack from the teacher's lounge — more accurately Brutus' lounge given that he's the only teacher in the building — leaving me all but writhing in pain without the ice on my head.
Ri had left me for the last time that day just before lunch, so I was alone at my desk when the bell rang. The ringing pierced my skull, driving me almost mad. My classmates flooded the hallway almost immediately, leaving me alone in the classroom save for Brutus.
"Emmet." Brutus called over to me, being careful not to make my headache worse. I raised my hand without making a noise, indicating that I had heard him. "We've got internships coming up, you hear about that?"
I raised my head slightly to meet his eye line from across the room, giving him a quizzical look.
"You mean like going on coffee runs?" I asked, getting a chuckle out of the man.
"Not exactly," Brutus explained, retrieving a packet from his desk and strolling over to me. "You'd be working with a professional hero for a week, basically shadowing them. It's an Imperium program, but I weaseled my way into getting our class in on it."
I took the packet from him, my hand shaking uncontrollably, and flipped through it, seeing my class listed on the front with a letter grade, along with a list of names belonging to heroes in bullet points under each classmate. Everyone in class but me, who had 'N/A' printed in large letters under my name.
"No one in class has seen their grades or internship offers yet, so keep this between us." Brutus told me after I got a good look at the papers. I scanned the rest of the packet, a plan formulating in my head almost immediately. "I'm letting you know now because the nurse told me to have you off your feet for the next few weeks and you'll be with me for the internship week."
I raised my head despite the aching, exploding pain in my skull.
"No." I protested. "No, I can't, I'll be miles behind everyone by the time they get back. Who gave me an offer — I know I got an offer."
"Son, you only got one offer—"
"I'll take it!" I exclaimed, wrenching my eyes shut and grabbing my head with both hands.
"You're concussed — badly." Brutus argued. "If I let you do this internship then I'd be risking you getting hurt even worse. That's on me."
"No, it's on me!" I said quickly, almost cutting him off. "I can't sit in here while they're all out there."
Tears began to run down my face as I tried to convince Brutus otherwise.
"Who sent me the offer?" I asked through tears.
"8-Ball." Brutus said as I wiped the tears from my face aggressively. I paused before responding. "Ellie, Amy, and Drew got offers from him too."
"I'll take it." I asserted. The last time I had seen 8-Ball was that day last year, the day I had met Voss at Casey's house. The day that sent me on this path. "8-Ball is technically the reason I'm here today."
Even though he had told me I was a liability, there had to be a reason 8-Ball sent me an offer. Surely he remembered me, why else would I have an offer from him?
"Emmet-"
"No." I interjected. "I'm here for a reason, I'm not going to let something like this stop me."
Brutus paused.
"I can't stop now." I said through the tears. I almost wanted to tell Brutus exactly why — that Voss was planning something and more people would die if I did nothing or told anyone about it — but I knew that it would only lead to more trouble. "I'm done being useless. I can't go back."
Brutus sighed and balled his fists up. I was almost afraid he was going to hit me, but he quickly calmed down.
"Listen," Brutus leaned in closely. "Low-intensity everything. You're going to go easy on yourself, think of it as a learning experience rather than training. I am going to send 8-Ball very specific instructions on what to do with you so don't bullshit him, he won't be as lenient as me."
I sighed and dropped my head onto my arms, finally relaxing.
"You got it." I bit my tongue as the words left my mouth.
"Go to lunch, you're bad for my blood pressure." Brutus deadpanned as he walked back to his desk. I nodded gently and struggled to grab my backpack, eventually giving up and leaving it there.
I rushed as fast as I could out of the classroom, bumping into who I assumed at first was Ri, but I was dead wrong.
"You want these?" Amy asked, reaching out her hand and offering me a pair of sunglasses. I stopped in front of her and opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out. She raised an eyebrow at me and gestured at my head with the sunglasses. "For your head?"
"Oh, right." I said quickly as I outstretched my left hand to retrieve them, shaking the whole way.
"What's up with that?" Amy inquired, pointing at my trembling left hand.
"N-nerve damage." I stuttered as I put the glasses on, finally able to open my eyes entirely without getting blinded. "The wounds healed but when Tessa stabbed me her nails went through my radial and u-ulnar nerves. It'll heal eventually."
"Mmm." Amy reached into her pocket and handed me a pair of foam earplugs. "Take these too."
I slowly reached over and took those too, slipping them into my hoodie pocket.
"So what was all that about?" Amy asked as she leaned against the hallway wall. My face turned bright red and heated up as I realized she had just heard me bawl my eyes out.
"Oh, uh, we're doing internships. Brutus wanted to cut me out of the program but I didn't want to miss it." I explained.
"That's it?" Amy continued.
I nodded gently.
"Nothing to do with….?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "I wasn't eavesdropping but your crying isn't exactly quiet." I furiously shook my head.
"You're the only—You and Ri I guess are the only ones who know." I admitted. "I'm working on it, I just need more time and training, that's why I got so worked up about the possibility of missing the internships."
"Mmm." Amy nodded along. "Let me know how it goes. That, and you and Ri."
"Yeah, w-will do. I'm sorry for getting involved, by the way. I just acted without thinking." I admitted. Amy kicked her feet at the ground and stopped leaning on the wall.
"Do some thinking next time. That quirk stealing guy won't wait for you." Amy told me. "Otherwise you'll need saving too. Oh, and you can keep the sunglasses."
"Oh…." I muttered quietly. "Right…. Are you sure?"
"Yep." Amy said as she turned to walk up the stairs to go have lunch. "Just a gift for a friend."
I watched as Amy walked up the stairs, kicking myself as my heart began to speed up. Ri burst into the building as I leaned against the wall, ready with a brand new ice pack.
"Babe, I'm so sorry." Ri told me as she put the ice pack on the back of my head. "We ran out so I had to get a new one from my dorm."
I grabbed the ice pack myself and held it myself, pulling Ri's hand away from my head and kissing it softly.
"Thank you, baby." I said gently. "You wanna go get some food? I'm practically withering away here."
I feigned weakness as I began to climb up the stairs, getting a giggle out of Ri.
"Come on, old man." She said as she pulled me along. "We gotta feed you."
The rest of the week was slightly more tolerable thanks to the earplugs and sunglasses gifted to me by Amy, but it came with the added drawback of looking like an absolute tool. It didn't help that I wasn't allowed to do any sort of training, so I was unfo relegated to sitting off to the side during gym class, which made me look and honestly feel like a stranger.
I did what I could to prepare for the internships that were coming up in the next week, mostly just curling my dumbbells and squeezing a grip strength trainer, but I had also made plans to pay the support department at Imperium a visit to upgrade my costume, something that was more daunting than it should have been considering no one should even know who I was here. I guess news traveled fast around there, though, because I was receiving nothing but icy stares as I walked the pristine halls and climbed the twelve entire flights of stairs to finally reach the workshop.
The workshop looked about how I'd expected it to — spotless and state-of-the-art. Even without the blinding fluorescent lights, the walls were lighting up the room with how white they were. Everything in the room seemed to have a place and as far as I could tell everything was in its place.
"Uhh… Hello?" I asked the seemingly empty room as I rapped my knuckles against a workbench, setting my costume's briefcase up on the same bench.
"No, no, no, no, no." I heard a voice say as a boy about the same age as me emerged from a side room attached to the main workshop. "Don't touch anything, alright?"
He berated me as he waved a wrench in my direction from across the room. I quickly swiped my briefcase from the table, making sure not to disturb anything.
"What are you here for? Costume? Support items? Come on, I don't have all day." He asked as he snapped his fingers rapidly.
"Uh-I mean, all of the above?" I shrugged. A smile crept over the guy's face as he walked over to me.
"Finally, someone who can keep me busy." He said as he thrust his gloved hand in my direction. I reluctantly shook it briefly before he hopped onto a workbench and sat on it like a chair. "The name's Collin, what do you got for me?"
"Hi, I'm Emmet — are you in charge?" I asked incredulously, cutting myself off in the process.
"Yessir, everyone in class gets a week of the workshop to themselves and this is my week." Colin explained, fiddling with the huge welding gloves on his hands. "So what do you got?"
I awkwardly set the briefcase holding my costume onto the workbench next to Colin, opening it to reveal my battered and bloodied costume.
"Christ." Colin muttered. "You want me to wash it with some lemon seltzer? Make the whole thing red?"
"Why does — no, I want an overhaul." I explained myself as I balled up the costume in my hands before displaying it out on the table to get a good look. "You see this?"
I shakily traced my fingers along the slices Tessa had taken out along the sides of the costume.
"You into fighting mountain lions?" Colin remarked as he removed his welder's gloves and ran his fingers over the bloodstains, which I gave him a brief rundown on the history of. "Yeah, I am very familiar with her work, trust me. Should be an easy fix, you want some more armor plating? I'm assuming a new weapon, maybe another support item?"
"I need a new costume. Systemic upgrade, top to bottom. Something that can prevent something like… this, more armor plating, maybe some head protection." I winced as I remembered smacking my head on the concrete floor.
"There's a couple things I can do about this whole business," Colin waved his hands over the slashes in my costume. "But one of them is chainmail and you don't strike me as much of a knight, so I can just put some slash-proof fabric on backorder."
Colin whipped out a notepad as we continued to go back and forth about each of the pain points with my current costume.
"Alright, I think I can work with this." Colin nodded after I finished talking his ear off. "You sure you don't wanna re-use the bodysuit?"
"I'm pretty sure." I said as I gazed over at the bloodied and torn-up costume.
"I mean I've got some magic erasers." Colin gestured to the side room he emerged from earlier.
"I promise I just want a new suit." I said with a polite smile as I started to walk towards the exit.
"Alright then, this should be ready by like Sunday for your internship on Monday." Colin called out to me.
I gave him an awkward salute as I walked out of the workshop and began the long journey down to the ground floor. The halls were empty this time through, thankfully saving me from the glares of the other students.
Almost as soon as I exited the building my phone buzzed. I retrieved my phone from my pocket and saw a news alert with information on Voss's latest activity. The headline wasn't of the 'good news' variety.
Two men were killed and one woman hospitalized after alleged gang altercation, victims found drained of all bodily fluids, newest in a long line of 'Vampire Murders'
I quickly skimmed the article and found that the police think it was a deal gone wrong, but they weren't sure exactly what they were selling — but my experience with Voss tells me it probably wasn't drugs or weapons. My phone nearly fell out of my hands as I slipped it back into my pocket and I continued to walk toward the dorms.
My phone started to buzz almost as soon as I put it away, putting me more on edge than I already was. The phone nearly fell out of my hands as I answered it.
"Hello, Emmet." An unfortunately familiar voice uttered from the other end. A grimace immediately crawled over my face.
"We haven't talked in a while, you've got some great timing. I was just reading about you." I said sternly. "What are you planning, huh? The trucks, the guns, the murders? I know you stole their quirks, that can't all be so you can come after me."
*click*
I groaned as I saw he had ended the call, and when I tried to call back whatever he had called me on was already a disconnected line. My phone nearly exploded in my hand as I gripped it and slowly slid it back into my pocket.
Now I knew Voss hadn't forgotten about me, which wasn't something I'd expected him to do but it wasn't an amazing feeling to be on his shit list. I needed more information, and fast. If Voss felt comfortable enough to poke and prod at me, I'm sure he was comfortable enough to do worse. There was only one place I could get any kind of information, one person if anything. The two people I knew who had come into contact with Voss had been Nathan and my neighbor Casey. I doubted that Nathan had actually shared a word with him, leaving just Casey for me to work with.
That then left the problem of how I would even get into contact with her. She had moved since the incident, her socials were all gone, it was almost like she'd never existed. The only people I could think of who would be able to contact her would be pro heroes, and it wasn't like I —
"Shit!" I exclaimed out of the blue and put my hands on my head, scaring a couple of my classmates — Tanner and Drew — who were walking past me into the dorms. "Sorry!"
A plan immediately started to formulate in my head and I had made my mind up before I had even begun to relay the information to Ri. After months of nothing to work with, my journey was finally continuing.
I'm glad more people are finding this story, it really means a lot that anyone has anything to say about this story, even if it's negative. I totally get some of your criticisms by the way, Josue Cabrera, and I really do encourage you to write your own fic like you said if you feel so strongly about it. I hope everyone had a good Halloween and I should have a new chapter out relatively soon, I'm really feeling it lately. If you've gotten this far you've probably already followed or favorited so why not leave a review?
