Benji's Bet
Purpose of a Hero
The sound of the crowd thrummed against Melody's eardrums. She hadn't anticipated just how loud the tunnel they emerged from would be nor how close it would be to the crowd. The cheers from spectators, the calls of various vendors shouting out their goods, and the overshadowed victorious music still playing from Narruk's victory nearly five minutes ago made the pit in her stomach deepen. Even Nathan looked apprehensive, staring at the ceiling and tapping his foot, as he usually did when he was nervous. It seemed as if all the positive energy they'd created with their talk just moments ago had been sucked away. Every attempt she made to banter with her partner died right before it left her mouth and, by the way he kept opening and closing his mouth, it seemed Nathan was having a similar problem. So, the two stood in silence until Mr. Holl's voice shook the foundation of the stadium. "Alright, folks. Time to get to our third match. This one will be between the team of Scarlette Phantom and Leo and the team of Rubato and Benji. Now, let's see whi–"
"Oh! She's in this one? Wahoo! Go Scarlette!" Oddball cheered over the microphone. Nathan raised an eyebrow and glanced over at his partner, who simply shrugged.
"He... did teach my mom," she said as an explanation, an exasperated expression on her face. Her childhood friend snorted and shook his head.
"So much for impartiality. Uh, anyway… this match will take place on the Plateau field. Elvira, take it from here," Holl said. As their history teacher began bellowing the rules in her thick southern drawl, the ground split and Melody got her first look at their battlefield. It was an uneven, gravel surface with a few dozen large, spear-like rocks protruding from it. 'Shouldn't impact our strategy too much. This is good for us,' she thought, not noticing that Nathan was walking out until he turned and called her name.
"You just gonna stand there all day?"
"Can't let you have all the glory. Your ego is big enough," she quipped back and, as one, they stepped out of the tunnel and into the arena. Used to the fluorescent lighting of the prep room and tunnel, the dazzling sunlight blinded her for half a second. When her vision returned she glanced at Nathan and nodded. In response, the feline grinned and moved several paces to her left. Across the field, partially blocked by the pillars of rock, she could see her opponents. Hazel stood off to the side of her partner, a mix of irritation and embarrassment on her face. Then there was Benji, standing tall with a smile on his face and looking as if he'd just gotten some very good news. Like Nathan, there was a bravado in his gait, though his was cockier while her partner was all confidence. The moment his eyes fell on her, his grin widened and he winked. Beside her, Nathan growled deep in his throat and she noticed his fingernails transforming into claws as his pupils turned to slits. "Calm down. Remember the plan."
"Right… plan," Nathan murmured back, though Melody could tell he hadn't really been listening. She rolled her eyes and turned back to glare at her foes. Ms. Whittaker, seeming to notice Nathan and Benji's anticipation, stepped forward and spoke loudly, her voice amplified throughout the stadium by the microphone in her hand.
"Alright! The third match is about to get underway! I want a nice, clean match. No hits below the belt and no attacking with the intent to kill. Maiming is frowned upon but not… not illegal." This announcement, much to the chagrin of Melody and the amusement of Nathan, was met with a booming chorus of cheers. "Yeah… alright! Let's get this match started, shall we?"
"This is it," Melody muttered. Nathan glanced at her quickly before cracking his neck and lowering himself into a crouch. Elvira blew her whistle, signaling the start, but before anyone could move Benji called out from across the arena.
"Scarlette! What'dya say we make this a bit more interesting?" He asked. Melody rolled her eyes and prepared to continue with their plan, ignoring the boy, but unfortunately, Nathan decided to be himself and shouted back.
"How so? Fight with our eyes closed? One arm tied behind our backs? Beauty contest?" Benji laughed and shook his head.
"A bet." Melody almost groaned. She knew where this was going. Her teammate, on the other hand, appeared oblivious and motioned for Benji to continue. "If we win, Scarlette has to go on a date with me."
"Wha–?" Nathan sputtered, his bravado evaporating. Melody sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. 'This is the twelfth time he's asked me out now. Seems he wanted an audience so I couldn't refuse his bet, not to mention… well, Nathan's always been protective. This'll put him off his game, which he'd have to be at the top of to beat Hazel,' her musing was cut off as her teammate huffed angrily and started taking a step forward, only to stop when Melody grabbed his arm. "No! What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you think we'd a–"
"What do we get if we win?" Melody asked, cutting him off. He turned and gave her an incredulous 'you cannot be serious' look as Benji shrugged his shoulders.
"Up to you. Won't matter what you pick anyway, there's no way we're losing this!" Melody rolled her eyes at his arrogance and thought for a moment.
"If we win, which we will, you have to clean the girl's dorm every Saturday for the rest of this semester. How's that?"
"What? You think that's a punishment?" Her opponent scoffed. With every word the boy spoke, the anger rolling off of Nathan grew. Soon, she'd have to physically hold him back from mauling Benji. 'Why is he so peeved? It isn't like Benji's asking him out on a date in front of tens of thousands of people. If anyone should be angry it should be me,' she thought, giving her partner a sideways glance to make sure he didn't do anything too rash. "You're on!"
"I'm gonna claw his eyes out," Nathan grumbled irritably.
"No, you will not. Focus on Hazel, you should be able to match her speed. Stick to the plan," Melody chastised. Her partner scoffed but appeared to relent as he began stalking slowly to the left side of the stadium, his gaze now focused on the short brunette, who'd largely remained quiet and was staring into the crowd with an unfocused expression. Once Nathan started getting closer, her attention returned in an instant and, before the feline could react, she disappeared in a blur and reappeared beside him. Only his superhuman reflexes allowed him to dodge her side kick and skid back across the rocky surface. 'What the hell? Fuck, she's faster than I thought,' he observed as the girl again rushed him at blinding speeds, however, this time he was more prepared and focused on using his other senses rather than his eyes. His brow scrunched up in confusion as he countered her next palm strike with a haymaker, which she dodged easily but averted her own attack. 'Her footsteps they're… off.'
Meanwhile, Melody ducked underneath Benji's fist and planted her foot squarely in his stomach, knocking him back. The boy coughed and shook his head before smacking his hand against a nearby stalagmite. For the briefest second, Melody noticed a dull glow between his palm and the rock. 'He applied a pole to that rock. His right hand is… north I think. So I have to avoid his left hand at all costs unless I wanna be stuck to a rock and unable to fight. Nathan better not be getting distracted,' she thought. Benji grinned cheerily at her, though it quickly fell back into an expression of concentration as she charged at him. The moment she entered his range, he thrust his left arm forward… only for it to go right through her ethereal chest. He gasped at the severe chill that spread throughout his body as Melody's Wraith passed through him with ease. The moment she was completely separated from him, she phased back and swept his legs out from under him. Benji hit the ground hard and had to hastily roll away from the redhead's heel. "You're tougher than I gave you credit for, Hallo- er Scarlette."
"I'm not really surprised," Melody replied sardonically as she avoided his next punch. As she spun away, Benji turned to face her again with a grin on his face. Only too late did Melody realize what was about to happen. The boy's left palm lit up with a faint blue aura and the sound of something shooting through the air registered just before that something slammed into the small of her back. The redhead grunted in pain but reacted quickly and shifted to her Wraith just as Benji attempted to capitalize on his successful attack. His face soured as the grapefruit-sized rock shot into his open palm. "When you were on the ground, you must've touched that rock. You're smarter than I gave you credit for."
Benji Wallaby
His Quirk: Polarize
Benji can apply a magnetic pole to a person or object by using his hands. His right hand applies a 'North Pole' while his left applies a 'South Pole'. He cannot apply a pole to himself, however.
"You'd be surprised. Although I can't take all the credit. Cammie did most of the research and spying on you guys, she's great by the way. Oh, and I was thinking Thai for our date, that alright with you?" Benji asked tauntingly as he charged her again. Melody grimaced and dodged to the side of his strike and attempted to kick him in his exposed ribs. Her kick landed but her opponent quickly countered by trapping her ankle between the crook of his elbow and his ribcage. Her ankle twisted uncomfortably, Melody grunted and again shifted into her Wraith form. Unlike before, Benji didn't allow her to get away scot-free. He relentlessly pursued her, making sure to stay right in her personal space and, at most times, have a body part recklessly flung into her ghostly figure. As his assault continued, the strain it was having on Melody became apparent. Her movements were getting more sluggish and her form constantly wavered. 'Crap, this is getting bad. Hazel must've told him about my time limit. At this rate, I'm not going to be able to fully recover for our next match… assuming we make it out of this one,' she thought urgently, leaping back as far as she could but to no avail as Benji mimicked her every move. Then, to make matters worse, Nathan glanced over at her.
"Mel!" He cried out as her form faltered again and she fell to one knee. This momentary lapse in concentration turned catastrophic as Hazel slipped past his guard and drove her fist into his chin. The blow sent Nathan reeling back, which his opponent took advantage of and delivered another palm strike to his solar plexus. "Shit!"
"Nathan!" Melody called. In a risky maneuver, she leapt back just out of range and, as Benji charged at her, shifted back into her human form. This resulted in her opponent barreling straight into her and sending the two falling hard to the rocky terrain. Thankfully for the redhead, it seemed as if Benji had gotten the worst of the charge as he took just a second too long to get back to his feet. In that brief moment, Melody delivered a brutal kick to the boy's chest before backing off and trying to catch her breath. When her instincts alerted her to another presence nearby, she wasted no time in turning and flinging out her fist at her childhood friend, who easily dodged and gave her a worried look.
"You good, Mel?" Despite the fact that she was breathing heavily with sweat pouring down her forehead, Melody nodded and then shook her head, trying to clear the building migraine. 'She's not really doing that well. Benji must be putting her through the wringer… ugh, that's a mental image I did not want to see. Come on, focus. We've gotta find a way to break through these two. So far we've just been matching them blow for blow if not outright losing ground. Mel is gonna have to rely on her combat skills instead of her Quirk while she recovers… which will slow her recovery time. Ideally, we'd need to take out Hazel first in order to gain any sort of advantage. She's too damned fast for Melody to fight, especially in her current state but she can't get hit by Benji or it's all over. We need to tip the balance somehow.' Nathan frowned at their opponents, who seemed just as keen as them to take this momentary breather. "They're uh… they're a bit more prepared than I imagined."
"Oh really? You think so?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me about how right you were later, for now, we've gotta figure something out." Melody took a deep breath and stood up straight, staring across the field to where their opponents were standing and talking in hushed tones.
"I'm guessing you can't hear what they're saying?" She asked, to which Nathan responded with a pained shake of his head. "Thought not. Well, I'm open to suggestions."
"Obviously we've gotta take out H– Mel!" Unfortunately, it seemed like their opponents were done with their own strategizing and didn't intend to prolong the match any longer. Right as he had begun talking about taking out Hazel, a spot on Melody's back began to glow a bright pink and she flew backward into a stalagmite, crying out in pain as the rock dug into her flesh. Nathan turned away from her just in time to block Hazel's flying roundhouse kick with his forearm, though the force of the blow pushed him back several paces. "Damnit!"
As Melody struggled against the unbelievably strong force holding her firmly to the rock, Benji sauntered forward, ignoring his teammate's calls for him to help her out, and grinned. "Sorry about that. Got a mark on you when we got entangled once you turned back into you. Now do us both a favor and just stay still? It'll make this a whole lot easier." Melody narrowed her eyes as the boy pulled out a long strand of the capture rope given to them while they were waiting in the tunnel. The second Benji got within her range, she lashed out and cracked her foot into his left cheek, making the boy stumble back. He grunted in pain as he brought his hand up to the red mark and glared at her. "I… probably should have seen that coming. Y'know I really wish my Polarize worked on the whole body. Say, a very annoying little 'quirk' of my Quirk. Which reminds me, why haven't you just phased and freed yourself? Time limit up?"
"Mel!" Nathan called as he attempted to charge toward her, only to be stopped by Hazel grabbing his leg and sending him face-first into the rocky ground. Melody did not waste the few seconds of distraction her friend's cries had bought her. While his voice had pulled Benji's attention away, Melody shifted into her Wraith and melted into the rock. When she emerged on the other side she hissed as her head throbbed painfully.
"Oh shit," her opponent muttered when he turned back and noticed she was gone. He quickly held up his right hand, the blue aura that accompanied the use of his Quirk appearing ever so slightly before swearing under his breath and taking a few steps away from the rock. 'His Quirk's effects are erased when I phase, good to know. Hang in there Nathan, we're in the endgame, just gotta get rid of this perverted bozo,' she thought, shifting back into her Wraith and sinking into the ground.
"Where'd she go?" Hazel inquired, appearing next to Benji in a blur. The boy shrugged his shoulders and glanced down at her.
"Where's your guy?" Hazel scrunched up her nose and glanced back over to where Nathan lay on the ground, breathing heavily. Scattered around him were frayed pieces of fabric and several deep claw marks.
"Indisposed, but he sliced up my rope. Apparently, they decided to make it Quirk restricting but not resistant. We can use yours to tie him up and then wear down Melody until she can no longer fight," the petite girl explained. The grin on Benji's face grew and he handed over his own length of rope.
"And then I can finally get my date!"
"Shouldn't we be more focused on the next round?" The brunette asked irritably, though her teammate ignored her. She sighed, turned, and began walking towards the downed Nathan, who was struggling to his feet and wiping his bloodied nose on the back of his hand. 'Fucking hell that girl can punch. Wait… where the hell is Mel? Don't tell me she… no, they'd have announced if she'd been beaten. She's probably just hiding around one of these damned rocks. Okay Nathan, get your head in the game. I got this, I'm the boss. Let's go.' With his words of self-encouragement breathing a bit of life back into him, he stood tall and got into a fighting stance as Hazel neared him.
"Your Quirk really is something. I can see why Melody thought it was super speed." Hazel stopped like a deer in headlights with her eyes as wide as baseballs. Nathan grinned and cracked his knuckles before his claws re-emerged from their sheaths.
"How did you figure it out?"
"Easily. If it were really super speed than I would still be able to hear everything, albeit blended together. Your footsteps, your breathing, your heart rate, I could even track you by your scent. You just seem to instantly move. Honestly, at first, I thought it was some sorta teleportation Quirk but the way you dodge is just a little too perfect. The way you hold your breath is another indication. Your Quirk has something to do with your perception of time, doesn't it?" Nathan asked confidently and, by the look on his opponent's face, he'd been correct in his assumptions.
Hazel Camellia Aria
Her Quirk: Time Trap
While she holds her breath, Hazel can change her own perception of the flow of time. Every normal second she holds her breath feels like five seconds to her, though she can only keep her Quirk active for three seconds in real-time.
"How the hell did he figure that out just from fighting her?" Benji mumbled to himself. As he watched, Hazel overcame her momentary shock and renewed her assault on the blond feline, though it seemed as if she had much less control over the situation than she did before. Right as Benji was about to walk over and help her, a chill went down his spine. In an instant, he felt the full weight of the lengthy battle hit him like a truck and an overwhelming sense of fatigue overtook him. Then, as he put his hands on his knees to steady himself, he saw the ground beneath him glowing a faint blue light. By the time he registered what was happening, Melody had already sprung from the earth and drove her knee into his stomach. "What the fuck?"
"Language!" She chastised, the ghostly blue aura of her Wraith form surrounding her. Her empty navy-blue eyes glaring at him through her goggles. The moment she transformed back into her human form, she charged. Benji grimaced and quickly moved out of the way of her next strike but the sudden heaviness in his muscles prevented him from dodging Melody's follow-up haymaker. Her fist connected with his chin and sent him reeling, stars dancing before his eyes. The redhead then delivered a hard kick to his sternum that forced him up against a stalagmite. Before she could advance on the boy and tie him up, something small slammed into her side and knocked her off her balance. Hazel, looking a bit worse for wear and donning a fresh-looking trio of cuts on her cheek, glared up at the taller girl before glancing over her shoulder and dodging out of the way of Nathan's roundhouse kick. The petite brunette slid back and would have fallen if not for her teammate catching her.
"What took you so long?" Nathan growled at Melody, though there was no anger behind it. The redhead spared him an exhausted look before tapping the ground with the toe of her foot.
"Took a while to right myself. Would've fallen into the abyss if not for the catwalk, then I had to wait for Hazel and you to move so I could get the drop on pervy," she explained, trying to catch her breath. Nathan nodded but then frowned and gave her an odd look.
"How the hell did you know where we were?" The girl tapped her goggles and a memory popped into Nathan's mind.
Purpose of a Hero
"What do those things do anyway?"
"The biggest thing is the infrared. Other than that, they're just advanced sunglasses."
Purpose of a Hero
"Advanced sunglasses, eh?"
"They did their job though, didn't they?" Nathan shrugged and took a deep breath before settling into a sprinter's starting stance. Without words, Melody followed his lead and lowered into her typical fighting stance. Then, again with no indication of his plans, her partner charged and pounced onto a stunned and unprepared Hazel. However, before he could do more than tackle her the girl wrenched herself from his grip and tried to gain some distance, only to have to activate her Quirk again to avoid Melody's fist. Benji chose this moment to intervene and come to Hazel's rescue but was stopped when Nathan, now back on his feet, performed a flip-kick, causing the boy's head to snap back. As soon as the leopard landed, he was forced back to back with Melody, who'd been hit hard by Hazel. The two exchanged a look before switching targets and restarting their previous fights. Nathan, now privy to her Quirk and it's nuances, played defense until he heard Hazel exhale then went on a quick offensive as she tried to steady her breathing. Meanwhile, Melody used the terrain and her opponent's own body to dodge his attacks before countering with her own, though she was really starting to feel the strain of her Quirk.
Purpose of a Hero
"GO FOR IT MY DARLING M– SCARLETTE!" Carlyle bellowed, his voice louder than even the announcer. As he watched his daughter and the Larson boy turn the tide and start to demolish the other two, the large man laughed and cheered and clapped his poor employee, who'd been struggling to run their food stand almost single-handedly, on the back. Passersby gave him odd looks but he didn't seem to care. The sight of his daughter's past three years of hardcore training finally paying off before his own eyes made everything else in the world seem meaningless. So meaningless that he didn't seem to notice two familiar whiskey-colored eyes boring holes into the back of his head, nor the sudden heatwave rolling over the concession area.
Purpose of a Hero
"We've gotta finish this soon, Nathan. I'm running on empty," Melody complained as she and Nathan were pushed back by their opponent's counterattack. The feline, who was now sporting a large bruise from a magnetically flung rock, scowled and parried Hazel's kick with his forearm, though the number of times he'd done so over the course of the battle had left the limb with an even darker bruise than the one on his head. Melody's eyes widened as one of the stalagmites broke apart and came flying at them. She quickly grabbed Nathan by the shoulder and, much to his chagrin, enveloped both of them in her Quirk. The rubble passed through harmlessly but Nathan growled once the chill disappeared.
"I hate when you do that."
"Oh I'm sorry, next time I'll let the rocks hit you. Duck!" Nathan heeded her words and ducked beneath another barrage of broken fragments of the field. Once he stood back up he was immediately put on the defensive by Hazel and separated from Melody. Though this didn't last long as the redhead came up from behind and grabbed Hazel around the midsection, instantly shifting both of them into her Wraith form. Before any of the other combatants could blink, the redhead lifted the smaller girl into the air and suplexed her through the ground of the arena. Her opponent now gone, Melody leaped back to her feet and shrugged at a clearly baffled Nathan. "She's fine. Pretty sure I got her on the catwalk."
"Pretty sure?" Benji protested. As if just remembering the other boy, Melody turned towards him and pulled out the capture rope, an uncharacteristically sadistic smile crossing over her face.
"You're gonna look cute dressed up in a maid's uniform." Benji's eyes narrowed and he raised both hands in an 'X' over his chest, his palms facing outwards. His palms began to glow blue and pink and, simultaneously, hundreds of pieces of rubble from around the arena began to fly towards him. He then made a sweeping gesture, sending the debris flying towards Melody and Nathan.
"Not again!"
"Your alternative is much more painful," Melody muttered as she grabbed her teammate's arm and, once again, shifted into her Wraith form. The vortex of broken rock shards shot through them, slamming into the opposite wall of the arena and the energy shield protecting the crowd from stray attacks. However, unlike before, the moment the redhead released her Quirk she cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground, holding her head in her hands.
"Shit, Mel!"
"I'm f-fine, finish him," the redhead strained.
"She okay?" Benji asked, jogging towards them with a genuine concern in his expression. Nathan gave the girl one last worried look before turning and sprinting towards a shocked Benji. The boy attempted to dodge the attack, but just like earlier, the strength suddenly left his body and he'd already fallen to one knee as Nathan delivered a brutal axe kick to the top of his head. The boy collapsed in a heap, completely unconscious and for a moment, the stadium was silent.
"Benji is no longer able to battle, he has been eliminated and since she is no longer in the stadium with no feasible way to return to battle I have no choice but to declare Rubatine eliminated as well. That means the victors of this match are Scarlette Phantom and Leo!"
Purpose of a Hero
"Hm? Vesuvius, what is it?" As it always did, hearing her master's voice soothed the Villainess' already frayed nerves. Just seeing the spawn of her former mentor was enough to drudge up feelings she'd thought have been long dead, not to mention how close she'd come to dousing a few dozen people with lava when she'd seen… Him.
"Nothing, Master Plague. I've just sat through the first three fights and thought I'd give a report of what I've seen so far," she said silkily. Plague hummed in agreement but stayed silent, an indicator that she had permission to speak. "The first match was fairly unremarkable. Clara Ramirez is everything we've been told she would be. A near carbon copy of her father with slightly better morals and a sense of restraint."
"I see. So then she's not useful to our cause then?"
"No. Her father on the other hand. Give me a little more time to work on him. Now, the second match featured that… wolf that Puppeteer has been so fixated with. I can see why now. He is strong even without his Quirk. If our contact is correct about his origin, then he may be a useful tool to exploit later on." Though she hated the young man Plague had brought to their hideout not a week prior who claimed to personally know the student, she had to admit his accounts seemed to be right on the nose.
"Ah, I see now why you sound irritated. Harmony Christenson's daughter, Melody Halloway. I do sometimes wonder how Carlyle is. He was a good man."
"HE WAS–"
"Right, right, sorry. No need to cause a scene. Anyway, now that your report is out of the way I'm glad you called. Good news on Prophet's end. Several councilors have decided to retire in the wake of the Yonkers incident. They will be formally announced next week. Once the second round of the tournament ends today, you are to come back to base and prepare for Phase Two." Vesuvius frowned.
"I thought Puppeteer was in charge of Phase Two. Why am I needed, Master?"
"I have a different assignment for you. There are some loose ends I need tied up on the West Coast."
Purpose of a Hero
Hey everyone, sorry for the wait. I've been a bit overwhelmed with life recently but there is some good news coming out of that. I've quit my job! Yup, this is my last week before I'm free (and have to find a new job). Also thanks to Hiatus for Beta-ing as usual. Anyway, let me explain why this AN is a lot longer than usual. Well, the discord decided it would be a fun idea to do some Q&A with the characters of this story. At the end of each chapter, I am going to have a section dedicated to one or maybe two characters giving their answers to these questions. This chapter has the Q&A for both Melody and Nathan (thought I'd group the childhood friends together). If you guys who are not on the discord want to send in questions for any character, just shoot them over to me in a PM. Now, let's get onto the preview
NEXT TIME ON THE PURPOSE OF A HERO!
Chapter 31: The Ace of FH1
Q&A
To Melody & Nathan: Do you guys have any embarrassing photos/videos/stories of each other?
Melody: With Nathan, there is no shortage of embarrassing things to say. Though if I had to pick one, it would be the picture I have of him when he got stuck in a tree when we were six. We had to call the fire department and everything!
Nathan: What? You still have that picture? Gah, that's embarrassing. Uh, for Melody… oh! I think her dad has a video of her in the fifth-grade Christmas musical. She can't sing for shit!
Melody: Language, Nathan!
To Melody: What is your response to the rumors of a relationship with various boys and girls in your class?
Nathan: Wait, what rumors!
Melody: Shush. Well, I dunno. It's mostly just the typical high school rumor mill. I don't really see any of my classmates in that light yet. We've only known each other two months afterall.
Nathan (to himself): ...thank christ.
Melody: Though there are a few guys and girls I think are attractive but nothing beyond that at this point.
To Melody & Nathan: If there was an apocalypse, which three of your classmates would you pick to be in your survival team and why?
Melody: Hm, Lyon because he can start a fire. Narruk seems like he'd have good survival skills. Uh, oh! Andi, so we could potentially communicate with other survivors.
Nathan: Hm… Uh, Payton because he isn't too annoying most of the time. Ryuken is pretty cool. And finally… I suppose Zach.
To Melody: A while back you mentioned almost losing your arm because of your quirk. Can you tell us the full story?
Melody: Oh jeez. Well, long story short my moronic friends, spearheaded by brainless here, convinced me to try and steal some comic books from a local store by sticking my hand through the window. It… didn't end very well. In those days I didn't have anywhere near the control over my Quirk that I do now but thankfully they were able to reattach my hand with only this ugly scar as a reminder. Luckily my dad knew a Hero who's Quirk was centered around repairing things.
To Nathan: Laser pointers, like or hate? And has Melody ever used them on you?
Nathan: When we were little she used to torture me for hours with those damned things. It was awful! I hate 'em!
To Melody: If you could pick a martial art to practice, what would you pick?
Melody: Oh, that's a good question. My fighting style right now is just a conglomeration of several arts that my dad taught me. I'd like to learn something like Muay Thai. Kinda broaden my style, y'know?
To Melody: Do you ever use your quirk in your sleep? Or wraith the bed if you will?
Nathan: Hah! I could tell you that. When she was younger she used to Wraith the bed (great phrasing by the way) almost every night to the point where her dad had to have her wear Quirk restraining bracelets so she didn't end up in the oven.
Melody: I don't know why he didn't just move the stupid oven. It didn't need to be directly underneath my room.
For Melody: From what we the readers understand, your quirk is way different than your mothers, and your father is quirkless, so is your quirk a random mutation? Or is it from a different ancestor perhaps?
Melody: That is a good question. From what my dad has told me, my Quirk is just like my grandfather on my mother's side. Though… we haven't spoken to them in years so I wouldn't really know for sure.
To Melody & Nathan: It's karaoke night! What are you singing?
Nathan: Some old school rock for sure!
Melody: I dunno, maybe classic rock or some indie song
To Melody & Nathan: Realistically, can you keep a small child alive for a week, without direct interference?
Nathan: Yes!
Melody: Absolutely you could not.
Nathan: What? Kids are super easy! Just sit them in front of a TV.
Melody: That's… ugh, I feel bad for your future kids.