June 23, 2317

"Good luck, Melody!" Kira said with an unenthusiastic wave, though she could tell the redhead hadn't really heard her. As they'd talked about their lives, Pro Heroes, their previous schools – anything to keep their minds off of the task at hand – she'd seen her new friend struggle to keep her nerves contained. 'Like I'm much better. I'm freaking trembling,' she thought, glaring at her raised arm, which was indeed shaking ever so slightly. In an attempt to quash the reaction, Kira brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly. 'This entire day has been a complete wash. I can't believe how easily that written test managed to stump me or how many times I tripped during the physical. Damnit. I really need to get it together if I want any sort of chance at making it in. I've just gotta really kill the Quirk Exam, show them how hard I've been training and –' The sound of the intercom crackling to life cut her thoughts short and sent a chill down her spine.

"Attention! Kira Kazani to exam room eight and Marion Kitchener to exam room ten. Kazani to five and Kitchener to six, thank you." A weight settled in the pit of Kira's stomach as she slowly got to her feet. She gulped and began the short walk to the large, gray exam building. It took her awhile to find the door marked with an '8', which gave her plenty of time to try and gather her wits. Unfortunately, once she found and opened the door, her entrance into the large gymnasium was not exactly inspiring. As she went to take her first step inside, her foot got caught on the frame of the door and she fell flat on her face. Her face was completely red with shame as she stood and walked into the center of the room. Once there, the speakers inside the room came to life. The voice that emanated out of them was feminine and marred by a heavy southern drawl.

"You are Kira Kazani, correct? Alrighty, let's see here… in your Quirk Assessment form, you've described yourself as a 'Close Combat Specialist'. Your Quirk allows you to create shockwaves from your body that burn incredibly hot, is that right?" The voice asked calmly. Kira nodded meekly and glanced around the room until she found a tinted glass window just underneath the metal ceiling.

"Yes, ma'am!" She answered, perhaps just a bit too loudly. The voice was quiet for a moment, though Kira could hear what had to be the woman flipping through papers. 'Did she forget to turn the mic off?'

"Ah, here we are. Says here that your father is a U.S.A.E.I. alumni. Has he been overseeing your training so far?"

"Yes. My father's name is Ranburu Kazani," Kira said proudly. Her father had been the reason why she even considered attempting to get into the Forge. 'Dad was almost as excited as I was when I got my letter. I swear, he almost cried when I got onto the plane. I can't let him down now,' she thought grimly. The voice hummed in surprise, the sound of papers shuffling echoed over the microphone.

"The Burning Hero: Ignitor. Currently ranked fifty-second on the N.A.H.P.I. and serving as the head of the Boston Garrison. As I understand it, your mother is also the Boston chief of police. How would you say that your parent's jobs have impacted your life?"

"Well, we're a pretty close family. My mom and dad aren't always home but I don't really mind. They're out there making the city a better place, and it makes the time we do get to spend together more special. I wouldn't have it any other way," Kira said, though there was a pit forming in her stomach as she worried just how deep the woman's files went into her past.

"Wonderful. It seems like everything else is in order. We will begin your Quirk Exam in just a moment, but before that, I have one more question. Why do you want to be a Hero?" The question stunned Kira into silence. She frowned, an image of a burning house flashed through her mind. She sighed, remembering that day, the look on her mother's face when she saw what had happened… and the nightmares she suffered for months after it.

"There's so much wrong with this world. The villains, the corruption, and now with All-Might gone, people need more real Heroes like him to step up. That's my goal… to be a Hero that people can look up to and depend on, even when everything seems hopeless."

Purpose of a Hero

"Are you okay, Kazani?" Kira flinched at the sound of her teammate's voice. They'd been standing in silence for five minutes, waiting for the match to begin. Any moment now and Oddball would introduce them and the fight will begin. To say that she was nervous would be a massive understatement because, in reality, she'd never been this psyched out in her life. Unlike the couple hundred times she'd made a fool of herself during both her training and her lessons at the Forge, she wouldn't have Melody's every cheery helping hand, nor Andi's enthusiastic reassurances, to help her in battle this time. She'd even face Clara's ridicule and contempt rather than looking like an incompetent ass in front of the whole country. All she had right now was her overly serious partner, Andrew Abrams. During their first two months at school, she hadn't really paid the boy much attention. She only really knew that he was a fairly easy-going dude that hung around Narruk and Lyle. Over the past week, however… she'd seen just how serious and competitive he could be.

"M'fine. Are you one hundred percent certain this is the best play? I'm almost entirely fireproof y'know. It'd be better for me to help you take out Lyon," she said, though her partner just shook his head.

"No, we have to keep them separate and, it's a better matchup for us if you go after Andi. Besides, I know how to take him out."

"Can't say I'm looking forward to throwing up my breakfast but fine. Just make sure you don't give him an opening. Lyon may be weird but–"

"Don't worry, Kazani. I can take him." She was about to rebuke this but was cut off as the fanatical voice of Oddball filled the arena. 'I wonder what happened to Mr. Holl. It seems kinda weird that he'd be gone so long.'

"ALRIGHTY, FOLKS! HERE WE GO, THE BIGGEST FIGHT OF THE DAY! Our first team, both from Freshman Hero Course Two – are Vulcana and Beacon; Beacon currently holds the second overall position in his class and the fourth overall position in the entire freshman class, and Vulcana is ranked fifteenth in her own class and thirtieth overall. And their competitors are Inferno and Megahertz; While Beacon may be strong, Inferno is one of only three students to ever achieve a perfect score on the Forge's entrance exam. Megahertz is nothing to scoff at either- ranked tenth in her class and twentieth overall; she's a real fighter! Let's see some bloodshed! Whittaker, get this thing started!" Oddball bellowed into his microphone. Down on the field below, Elvira Whittaker nodded and raised one of her hands emphatically above her head. The floor of the arena split down the middle and retracted. At the sight of the stage of their battle, Kira blinked several times before groaning.

"Seriously? A junkyard?" She bemoaned as towers of foul-smelling trash finally settled into place. Her partner didn't look very happy either as his nose scrunched up and he frowned. Unlike the previous battlegrounds she'd seen, their opponents weren't hidden out of view. They were standing a hundred yards away, unobstructed – Andi looking nervous but determined while Lyon simply donned his usual smile. As soon as the four combatants were situated at either end of the field, Elvira raised her arm again, smiling maniacally, before calling for them to start.

"So, as I understand it," Lyon spoke, his voice just barely audible across the field, even with the sound of the crowd almost completely muted. He took several steps forward and seemed completely oblivious to the fact that both Kira and Andrew had gotten into their defensive positions. The boy raised his right hand, the black tips of his fingers shimmering slightly in the sunlight, and pointed it in his opponent's direction. "This is a show of power, yes?"

"Get ready!" Kira cried as the sound of their opponent's snap reverberated throughout the arena. The small spark created by the action quickly grew into an inferno, reaching the size of a small house and engulfing everything in its path until it reached Andrew, who thrust both his hands out in response. From its half-submerged position within one of the many towers of trash, a full-sized school bus shot forward like a bullet and split the fire apart, the metal groaning loudly under the sudden onslaught of constantly changing gravitational pulls. Now ablaze, the bus slammed into the ground where Lyon and Andi had been standing and proceeded to dig a large trench through the dirt and rubbish until it slammed into the wall of the arena on the opposite side. Not wasting any time it might have bought them, Kira took off towards Andi, who'd dived out of the way of the bus and separated herself from her partner.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Andi had heard her coming as the smaller girl lithely leaped out of the way just before Kira's foot slammed into the ground, creating a small explosion. The antennae-eared girl managed to move her head out of the way of Kira's palm strike and slap a hand over her own ear. In the next instant, a high pitched whine filled the air, causing her opponent to stumble, her stomach performing somersaults. Satisfied with her Sickness Frequency's effect, Andi stepped out of arms reach and did a quick scan of the dump for her teammate, though with the plumes of coal-black smoke rising into the air from beyond a nearby junk heap, it didn't take her too long to find him. From what she could tell, Lyon was winning the fight simply by barraging Andrew with wave after wave of flames to the point where the only thing the Gravity Quirk user could do was defend himself with whatever he could find. 'I just gotta keep her unsteady until I find an opening. I hope Lyon's okay dealing with Andrew alone,' she thought grimly as her friend stood, looking pale, and charged at her.

Right as Kira pulled back her fist and Andi prepared another round of Sickness Frequency, they were interrupted as a torrent of fire swept past them, carrying with it a maniacally grinning Lyon. The boy leaped into the air just as a derelict pickup truck nearly slammed into him. With a flourish, he snapped with each of his hands and a massive ball of fire streaked at the gravity controller. Once again, Andrew pulled whatever large object he could, in this case, an old billboard, and used it as a shield. "You are quite stubborn! It'll be an immense pleasure to see you burn away!"

"You okay Andrew?" Kira called out as she managed to land a quick blow to Andi's chest, knocking the girl into a rusted washing machine. Her partner glanced over at her briefly, his forehead glistening with sweat, and nodded tersely. 'He doesn't seem tired, but even I can feel the heat from those flames. It's almost unfair how strong Lyon is. Still, Andrew can beat him if he just keeps his wits.'

"Ow, that didn't feel very good," Andi grumbled to herself as she got back up. She placed a hand against her hip, which had taken the brunt of the impact, and winced. Then, she glanced over at her partner and frowned. 'Jeez Lyon. There's no such thing as restraint in your vocabulary is there? Although I'm surprised he's managed to keep Andrew on the defensive for as long as he has. I have a bad feeling that this fight is just getting started.'

"Fiery Steps!" Andi's thought process immediately broke down. It was only due to her quick reflexes that she managed to turn a sure knockout into an admittedly very painful glancing blow. Kira, still airborne after her flying kick, managed to contort her body around and grab Andi by the collar of her costume. Using her own momentum, the black-eyed girl pulled and slammed her opponent into the ground, though she herself went sprawling from the awkwardness of her landing. "Damnit, thought I had you that time. You're pretty good at running away, 'Di."

"I wouldn't call it running away so much as… tactical dodging." Kira snorted and jumped to her feet, an action Andi mimicked and not a moment too soon. The second she got to her feet, a burst of white flames scorched a path over where she'd just been, leaving the stench of burning rubber and garbage in its wake. "Lyon!"

"I will apologize later. For now, focus on your fight," her partner growled back, for once his smile having dimmed as the tide of the battle began to shift. He quickly snapped his fingers again but the flames barely skimmed Andrew as he propelled himself skywards. While falling, the boy slammed his hands together and instantly Lyon was surrounded by walls of garbage that were quickly closing in. His smile now fully transformed into a sneer, Lyon crossed his arms over his chest in an 'X' and snapped. The fire blossomed around him in a series of small explosions, completely blowing Andrew's attack away. It was then that Andrew attacked once again, falling from the sky like a meteor and slamming his fist into the ground, sending a small tremor throughout the battlefield that split the earth.

Lyon grinned and held up his hand, the usually black blocky fingers on his right hand started glowing a deep red. The torrent of fire quickly consumed Andrew but – much to the pyrokinetic's surprise – a rusted refrigerator burst through the flames and crashed into him, knocking the air out of his lungs. He landed hard on his back, the appliance had hit him and kept going the opposite direction, before he immediately had to roll away to dodge Andrew's slightly more crispy gravity-enhanced heel. Before he could even raise an arm, intense pressure surrounded him. His arms were forced behind his back by something invisible, while his legs snapped together with almost enough force to break his kneecaps. Fully restrained, the orange-haired boy fell to the ground, and Andrew stood with his hands held out, a steady stream of sweat pouring down his face. "KIRA!"

Purpose of a Hero

"Now we will begin with the actual Quirk Assessment. Are you ready, Kira?" The woman – who'd introduced herself as Elvira Whittaker – inquired, as she pressed a button on the wall. Kira's jaw fell open as the ground below her split, and a very realistic city street rose from it, complete with cars and the facades of buildings on both sides. On the other end of the street stood a ten-foot-tall hunk of metal that vaguely resembled a human – but only if one of the human's arms had been replaced by a cannon. Beyond that was a test-dummy dressed in a blue plaid dress and a crudely drawn look of terror on its face.

"What am I doing?"

"Very simple. You've got three minutes to get past Cowboy over there and save Monica. Use your Quirk and any other combat skills you've learned. Clock starts when you pass over that white line," Elvira explained. Frankly, this all seemed far too easy for Kira. 'What's the twist? Does the robot literally just shoot? I mean, they wouldn't put live rounds in there for just a test so it's probably something like that beanbag riot suppressor thingy mom showed me.' Her confidence was quickly blown away as, not three seconds after she walked over the line, the robot fired. There was a deafening boom and the car in front of her went up in a miniature mushroom cloud.

"Oh fuck me entirely," Kira yelped and leaped aside as another round flew past both her and Ms. Whittaker – who didn't seem all that phased – and slammed into the opposite wall. Surprisingly, the wall looked no worse for wear, except for a few burn marks. Realizing she was still on the clock, Kira leaped onto the roof of a nearby car and began to charge using her Fiery Steps. If it weren't for her Quirk making her body fireproof, there was no doubt in her mind that she'd have been reduced to ashes just seconds in. Instead, the explosions only really managed to bruise and knock her off course. She hopped from hood to hood, the robot's blasts speeding up the closer she got until she was right in front of it, before crouching down with her fist glowing red. "RISING FUJI!"

Her fist uppercut the robot right in the jaw, quite literally blowing its head off. Her hand now bleeding; punching solid iron, even with a power like hers, was not exactly her smartest idea. She sped past the pile of scrap metal and grabbed the test dummy, throwing it over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. As she turned back to face the way she came, the storefront beside her exploded, showering her and 'Monica' in shards of glass and bricks. Once the smoke cleared, she glanced up and saw at least a dozen more robots lining the rooftops, all of them aiming directly at her. She wouldn't have thought that it was possible, but the run back to the starting line was even more chaotic and dangerous than the first. She was just about to start congratulating herself on a job well done when the thing she'd been dreading happened: her toe got caught on a piece of rubble. Maybe she'd have felt better if it had just been one of her regular, ill-timed trips but of course, this one had to be unique. While she had fallen flat on her face, she'd also lost her grip on 'Monica' who flew halfway across the gymnasium and crashed into the floor, landing with its limbs splayed out and its head bent at an odd angle.

"Don't worry so much about it. You did very well leading up to that and I've never seen someone take out Cowboy so fast. Buck up," Elvira told her as she picked up the nearly destroyed 'Monica' and sat it down on a chair. Kira barely heard her. She was so furious with herself and her clumsiness. It took all her willpower to not fly into a blind rage and start blasting the already destroyed city street. Elvira, it seemed, had picked up on this and sighed before telling her once again that she did a good job despite the trip and to expect the results of her exams in the mail within the week. The walk back to her hotel was uneventful, the entire time her face burned with shame, and when she got to her room she collapsed on the bed. 'Goddamnit. How the hell can you be a Hero if you can't even walk down the street without falling on your face? How am I gonna tell dad I failed because I couldn't just watch where I was going? I can't believe I was stupid enough to try and make it into the Forge. Why the hell would they want a failure like me. Why did I ever think I could be a Hero?'

Purpose of a Hero

"Damnit," Kira bemoaned as her opponent slid underneath her strike and tried, again, to put some distance between them, something Kira knew she'd have to put a stop to. After Andi had nearly been incinerated by her own teammate just moments before, she'd been forced back onto the defensive, though Kira wasn't entirely convinced it would stay that way. Despite her height, strength, and close combat disadvantages, the brunette had weathered the storm much better than she had expected. The smaller girl was covered in scrapes, bruises and she must have had at least one broken rib, but she still fought as if her life depended on it. Then there were the expectant glances over at her partner that she made no real effort to hide. 'What's she waiting for? No one can break Andrew's hold… well as long as he doesn't pass out from overuse. There's something else going on.'

As per usual – mostly because the universe seemed determined to kick her into the dirt at any opportunity – Kira's hunch ended up being right just a second too late. With her back to their respective teammates, she couldn't tell what Lyon had done to bring a smile to Andi's face but whatever it was made the girl's eyes light up. Andi hopped backward and reached a hand up to one of her antennae. "Paralytic Frequency!"

"Kira," Andrew's voice wavered slightly as he called out to her once again. She never got the chance to answer back or even look in his direction. There was a sudden and sharp whine that cut through the air and right away, Kira felt her muscles turn to jelly. She fell face-first hard onto the ground just as Andi stumbled and had to grab onto a mossy boat to steady herself.

"W-What the hell?" Kira sputtered as she tried to move her muscles, to no avail. Andi took a deep breath and righted herself before pulling out her spool of capture string. 'I have to do this quickly and go help Lyon,' she thought as she inched closer to Kira. Andrew cursed under his breath as he watched, helplessly. If he did anything to help his teammate, then Lyon would surely break out of his already tenuous hold. But if he allowed her to get caught, he was failing just as badly.

"I do admire it. The way you use your Quirk. The precision it takes to be able to control gravity on this magnitude is truly special," his opponent suddenly said, his amber eyes narrowed slightly. The boy showed no signs of trying to struggle free, which greatly unnerved the gravity controller. Lyon's smile widened and Andrew felt a cold chill run up his spine. He'd been around Lyon enough to know that the boy had always had pearly white teeth, which is why the sight of his now black canines nearly made him release his hold. "However, I fear that you've still underestimated me. You've shown your 'ace in the hole' as they say, now let me show you mine."

"Shit!" Lyon contorted his jaw and, like striking a match, jerked his top and bottom canines against each other. The small spark disappeared down the boy's throat before reappearing in a blast of white fire that seared Andrew's skin and set that entire section of junkyard ablaze. Andrew coughed as he propelled himself out of the blast with one hand while using the other to send Andi tumbling back away from his teammate. Before she could catch herself, Andi was surprised when Kira shot up from the ground and slammed a fist into her chin.

"RISING FUJI!"

"SONIC BOOM!" Andi countered as she flew through the air. There was an almost deafening crack and Kira was thrown backward by the shockwave. She gasped in pain, her arm twisting awkwardly as she bounced off the ground and up through the windshield of an old train car. She slammed hard into the wall and fell, vaguely aware that she couldn't hear the wave of coughs racking her body. Both of her ears felt warm and she knew for a fact that if she were to reach up and touch them, her hands would come away bloody. She shakily got to her feet and glanced out just as Andrew was blasted through a pile of trash and crashed into the ground hard. Kira didn't have much time to worry about that, however, as she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and ducked just in time to avoid the iron pipe Andi had picked up as a weapon. The smaller girl was clearly just as spent as Kira. She had a river of blood running down the side of her face, originating from one of her antennae, and from the wince of pain every few seconds Kira could tell that her broken rib was really starting to hinder her.

"Still going, 'Di?" Kira asked though she couldn't hear her own voice, nor her opponent's reply. She once again crouched beneath a swing of Andi's impromptu weapon and kicked the girl hard in the chest. She fell to the ground and clutched at her side, barely restrained tears in her eyes, and dropped her weapon. While she felt slightly bad for most likely injuring her friend worse by targeting her already broken rib, Kira also felt tremendous relief as she finally tied the girl's ankles together – she didn't want to leave the girl helpless to stop the blood flowing from her head – and stumbled out of the train window. Almost immediately, she was engulfed in a blast of white-hot fire, though to her it felt more like walking outside on a hot summer day. Once the flames cleared she saw Lyon had once again taken the upper hand on her teammate. As Andrew struggled to stand, Lyon snapped his fingers and proceeded to swallow the spark. "Andrew, get out of the way!"

"Greater Pyroblast," the boy murmured before releasing a massive fireball onto both of his opponents. The resulting explosion shook the very foundations of the stadium, sending burning chunks of debris soaring into the air before falling to the ground like meteors. Kira, still largely unharmed by the flames, coughed and stumbled through the smoke. The inky black cloud took several long, suffocating moments before it started to rise and Kira could see the outcome. It looked as if a bomb had gone off in the middle of the stadium. Even most of the trash was gone and replaced with blackened earth and a rather sizable crater. Once she saw the figure lying in the center of the crater, her heart leapt into her throat. Andrew was very clearly unconscious and covered with very extensive burns – judging from the scraps of metal around him he'd been able to divert a majority of the blast. "I must say, I forgot you were fireproof, Vulcana. That is quite a nuisance."

"You ever heard of the term 'holding back', Lyon?" Kira asked, secretly relieved that her hearing, still slightly muddled, was returning. The boy grinned at her and held up his right hand, the fingers of which glowed like embers.

"The point of this competition is to give it our all, yes? That is simply what I have been doing. I must admit, Andrew was quite a bit more of a challenge than I had originally expected but no matter. I'm sad to say that this is the end of the road for you." What happened next seemed to shock Lyon just as much as it did Kira. As he'd done countless times that morning, Lyon snapped his fingers. Only instead of producing a spark as they usually did, the fingers on his right hand cracked and then shattered like glass. Using his surprise to her advantage, Kira took off. Her opponent recovered enough to block her first blow – a straight jab aiming for his face – but was unprepared when her foot connected with his ribcage. Nor was he prepared when her second foot exploded, sending her flipping into the air while delivering a hard heel to his shoulder. Then, using the energy from that shockwave, she twisted her body around and landed a palm strike to the back of his head. She hit the ground briefly before using her Pyroclasm to again launch herself into a backflip and smack both of her hands onto either side of Lyon's head.

As soon as she hit the ground, she was off again with another kick aimed straight for her opponent's head, though this time he managed to grab her leg and swing her around, sending her skidding across the ground. There was another snap, this time with his left hand, and the fire encircled her once again. It took Kira just a second too long to realize that Lyon knew his fire couldn't hurt her and that the attack was a feint. As soon as the flames cleared, he was there grabbing her by the throat and slamming her to the ground. With him looming over her, Kira brought her knee upwards and caught him in the stomach, giving her just enough leeway to smack her palms against the ground and propel both of them up. In mid-air, she freed herself from his grasp and managed to twist their bodies around so that he was below her. She let out a warcry and slammed both of her palms into his chest, sending him hurtling to the ground. Practically seconds later, however, Lyon was right back on his feet and intercepted her before she could touch the ground, grabbing her arm and flipping her over his shoulder. Kira tried her best to get back up but her opponent jammed his knee into her spine and roughly forced her hands behind her back, aggravating whatever injury she'd already gotten from Andi earlier and making her cry out.

"THAT'S IT, FOLKS! VULCANA AND BEACON ARE BOTH UNABLE TO CONTINUE, THIS MATCH GOES TO MEGAHERTZ AND INFERNO!"

Purpose of a Hero

"Your arm won't be feeling the best for the next couple of days. You're very lucky that it's only a sprain. I hate this festival, you poor kids being forced into gladiatorial combat. It's sickening," Leena Holl growled as she finished wrapping a bandage around Kira's head. As if to prove the nurse's point, a sophomore student was brought in on a stretcher with a clearly broken leg and blood pouring down her face. "Stay here for a bit and relax. I have other patients to help at the moment."

"'Kay," Kira muttered half-heartedly. Leena gave the girl a sad look before turning and racing towards the girl with the broken leg. "I can't believe I actually thought I could stand a chance against Lyon. He even beat Clara during training and she's a thousand times stronger than I am. And I let Andrew down. He seemed so excited about this and I screwed up any chance we had of going on to the next round. I could've been smarter in that fight. I could've–"

"Self-pity doesn't suit you," Lyon said evenly as he swept open the curtain dividing them, making Kira jump in surprise. The boy looked about as well as Kira felt. He was covered in bruises, cuts, and bandages. She felt her eyes drifting down to his right hand, which was wrapped up in a large ball. Catching her gaze, Lyon chuckled and waved his hand through the air. "Don't worry. It was my own fault for not paying attention to my limits. Besides, they will grow back in a few days."

"Grow back?"

"Yes, I'm told they are like fingernails. They are not as sturdy as they seem but they grow back at a very fast rate. In any case, I'm glad to see you are doing well. Andrew and Andi are mostly fine, though the former is covered in second and third-degree burns that will keep him hospitalized for a few days until they can get the Pro Hero, Aloe, here from California and the latter has three broken and two cracked ribs while also having suffered damage to her right antenna from that Sonic Boom attack. All in all, I would say this has been a fairly productive day." Despite her own self-doubts and injuries, Kira couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity that was Lyon. The two talked for a few moments, mostly with Lyon complimenting her final rush and insisting that she should come up with a name for it ("All good Hero abilities should have a name, or so Mrs. Barthory says") before he left with the goal of finding something to eat that wasn't painkillers or jello.

Once he was gone, Kira sighed and reached over to the duffle bag containing all of her personal items, which had been delivered moments before by one of the school's groundskeepers, and pulled out her cellphone. As soon as she powered it on, it was barraged by nearly three dozen text messages from her family and some from her friends back in Boston. Each and every one of them was congratulating her and complimenting how strong she'd gotten. While the message from her father nearly brought tears to her eyes, there was one that caught her attention the moment she saw it. It was from the newest addition to her contact list and caused her head to spin before she smiled.

Well, well. Seems you aren't so clumsy after all, eh wannabe Hero?

Purpose of a Hero

Hey everyone. I am extremely sorry that this chapter took so long. While writing this I had the biggest strike of writer's block I've personally ever experienced so thanks for your patience. In other news, I'm sad to say that Hiatus is not going to be my main beta anymore for personal reasons on his end. He will still help out whenever I need him but he's going to be taking a step back. So, this chapter and all future chapters will be mainly Beta'd by ThalioTP (check out his D&D PoaH fic. It's really good so far and looks to be getting better). I would like to take a moment here to personally (in front of the like hundred people who read these chapters) thank Hiatus from the bottom of my heart for all he's done these past months as Beta. He's made the story not suck as bad as it could have (see everything pre chapter like 20).

Anywho, what did you all think of this chapter? Our first all FH2 battle between the top two students. Hopefully, it lived up to expectations. The next chapter will be the final chapter of Round 1 of the Halloween Festival and then the real fun begins.

Oh! Before I forget. We are less than three weeks away from the Purpose of a Hero's first anniversary. I'll be a lot more sappy and what not when that comes around but for now I just wanna thank you all for sticking with me through this. You all the real MVP (deadmemes=bestmemes)

Finally, the teaser for the next chapter and a Q&A with our favorite firebender.

Next time on the Purpose of a Hero!

Chapter 34: Eye of the Storm

Lyon MacAllister Interview

Q: Who is more evil: Clara or Lyle?

A: Hm, a very good question. While Lyle's Quirk could be seen as 'evil' to some he has proven time and time again that he has no interest in villainy. As for Clara, her attitude is a constant worrier for our teachers however I personally see it as her own insecurities and drive to become a Hero manifesting themselves into violence and insulting her classmates.

Q: Have you ever made S'Mores with your Quirk?

A: Interesting. Andi asked me that exact question on one of our first days here. She seemed quite shocked when I told her I had no idea what a S'More even was

Q: In a parallel world, if you were a Villain what would your Villain name be?

A: I've always found the idea of an infinite Multiverse very interesting. I'm sure there are versions of me that are, in fact, Villains. I would very much like to meet one of them someday. As for a Villain name, I would most likely either stick with Inferno or go with something less assuming to hide the nature of my Quirk from do-gooders.

Q: Realistically, could you keep a small child alive for a week without direct interference?

A: An odd question but yes I believe I could. While I may not be very knowledgeable in the field of children I have become quite adept at using the 'World Wide Web' since I started school. There are bound to be countless websites on how to deal with children.

Q: What is your favorite type of music?

A: Ah yes, music. Another thing I was not very knowledgeable about before I came to U.S.A.E.I. but Andi had made a point of introducing me to the classics. At the moment I would say that my favorite type of music is 'rock' music.

Q: Who is your favorite Hero?

A: Hm, a difficult question. Popular opinion would dictate that my answer be either Overgrown or Oddball since they are the two most popular Heroes. However, being the rebel that I am I will have to go with The Painting Hero: Pallet. She is a very interesting Hero, to say the least, and I've been told that she is just as eccentric as I am.

Q: To everyone who wants to answer, what is your Impression on your class? What student do you have your eye on? What student would you least want to fight?

A: So far I would have to say FH2 has not ceased to surprise me. Even students such as Kira and Oliver, the bottom two, are continuously proving that they earned their placement at this school. I personally have my eye on the latter. He is quite the strategist but never actually tries his hardest. Quite odd. As for who I'd least like to fight… Well, the answer is no one. I would like to test my might against each and every one of my classmates before the year is done. For any that read this: give me your best shot.