"This battle's over, Alpha and Solar are both unable to continue. Elisnore, Clyde, and Bonnie are the winners." Even over the grainy audio of old computer speakers, the difference in the crowd's cheers after this announcement as opposed to all those that came before it was startlingly clear. Even miles away and through an old laptop, the difference could be felt.
"Oh my, he is a treat. Wild and uncontrollable. I can see now why he's my mission." A woman with powder blue hair sat in a dark room with a wide, devilish smile on her narrow face, illuminated only by the faint glow of the computer screen that was laid in front of her. The video on-screen was frozen on an image of a young man, covered in fur and blood, looking towards the camera with frightened eyes full of despair. The woman leaned back in her chair and giggled to herself, her brown eyes locked on to the boy's image. "I can't wait to get my threads wrapped around him. I'll make him into such a wonderful, feral marionette. Soon, my precious."
"M'lady?" A new voice asked as the room's door slid open, allowing just the faintest slice of light to leak into the room. Standing in the doorway were two individuals, a very petite girl with red, diamond-shaped eyes and a man standing about average height and holding an orange in his left hand.
"Doll, Sandman… look. He's everything Vesuvius' spy told us he'd be. Oh, if she were here I'd kiss her. Being able to recruit a student is so~ much better than having to rely on that sentimental idiot Holl for information. Don't you worry, my friends. Our time is coming. That brute Spitfire may have introduced the Black Order to the world but we get the honor of being the first to meet the next generation," the woman stated, her voice dripping with glee. The newcomers' reactions were mixed, to say the least.
The girl, Roneve, grinned just as maniacally as her master and raised her head to look at the drab gray ceiling to proclaim: "Does this please you, O' Goddess of Despair? We're servants to your will!" She cried, outstretching her arms.
Doll Master
Black Ops Division: Rank Four
Beside her, the man's expression turned pained for a moment as he glanced at the young man on the screen with pity in his eyes, then his face hardened and he seemed to slip into silent contemplation. While he hadn't been as easy to coerce into their ranks as Doll Master, the former kingpin was perhaps her best subordinate. Intelligent, useful, and always challenging her decisions – his apparent fearlessness was an attribute she really admired. Clearly having gathered his thoughts and come to a decision he glanced up at the blue-haired woman with steely eyes. "If this is what it takes to dismantle this society of Heroes, I'll do whatever it takes."
Sandman
Black Ops Division: Rank Three
Seemingly pleased with both of their answers, as different as they were, the blue-haired woman turned back to staring at the screen with a fond look in her eye as she caressed the image of Narruk Mondronen.
"I'll be coming for you soon, my puppet."
Purpose of a Hero
"Get me the fuck out of this hospital or I will rip it apart," Clara snarled at her nurse. With a sigh, Leena Holl stood up from her chair and frowned down at the girl.
"There is such a thing as too headstrong. No matter what you say, you're in bad shape. If you want to be in fighting shape for the next round tomorrow, I suggest you lie back down and let me and my assistants get back to work," the pink-haired woman spoke calmly. Her words appeared to have at least some impact on her patient because Clara, instead of tearing the place apart, grunted angrily and leaned back against the cot's metal frame. Leena's tense posture relaxed and she went back to work stitching up a rather deep gash on the girl's leg. Silence, other than pained groans and cries from the twenty or so other students inhabiting the hospital room, reined over the two for several minutes until the privacy curtain rippled and the one face Clara really didn't want to see appeared with his usual grin.
"My, my, you're becoming what they call a 'regular' around here aren't you, Angry Girl?" Just the sound of his voice caused Clara to grind her teeth and try to stand once again, this time to forcibly expel him from the room. Instead, a ripple of pain flared in her chest and she fell back coughing violently. Leena exhaled and stood, grabbing her medical bag as she did so. As she began to make her way towards the opening in the curtain where Lyon stood, she turned back and gave Clara a warning look.
"You're patched up about as well as I could manage. I'll have Sophia come in after dinner and give you another treatment with her Quirk, but I believe you will have to stay overnight if you want to be ready for tomorrow's final eight." At her patient's grunt of acknowledgment, she then turned to Lyon. "I'm heading over to help out Miss Ena again. Don't you dare rile her up too much or you'll find yourself in one of these beds before you can say 'Forge'."
"Understood. Though I promise nothing. I don't particularly understand why but it seems my presence aggravates her," Lyon explained, his tone betraying that he found this concept slightly amusing, which seemed somewhat odd to Leena and outright infuriating to Clara. After giving her patient one more warning look, the school nurse ducked out of the curtained off area, leaving the two alone. As soon as she was sure Leena was outside of earshot, Clara growled and chucked her pillow as hard as she could at the smiling teen's head, scoring a direct hit. However, as it was just a pillow, it fell to the ground and only seemed to fuel Lyon's amusement. "Someone's testy, and after I went out of my way to come and visit you."
"Bullshit. You're only here because you want to provoke a reaction," Clara snapped as she leaned back against the monotone gray wall. Lyon simply shrugged and took over Nurse Holl's chair, though he made sure to drag it outside of the girl's kicking range.
"I admit, I do enjoy seeing the different facets of our class. Andrew's tenacity, Melody's resolve, your stubbornness. Nevertheless, today you seemed to have pushed that stubbornness over the line into pure stupidity, wouldn't you agree?" While his face was still split by that ever-present smile, his eyes were hard and although she'd never seen him glare at anyone in the short time they'd known each other, Clara could tell this was his equivalent. "Well, regardless today was a wonderful insight into your true character. Who would have thought you'd be more than 'angry screaming and daddy issues', as Lyle puts it."
"What the fuck are you talking about, Fire Idiot?"
"As misguided as it was, I'm assuming that you did what you did to try and help Narruk. You see him as weak and dangerous as he is now, with minimal control over his Quirk and sought to help him in the only way you could. That being said, you may have done significant damage to both his confidence and mental state with your actions today." Clara answered by snorting and folding her arms behind her head.
"You've lost your marbles, haven't you? The only reason I tried to get him to use his Quirk is that I wanted a good fight with a strong opponent. He was a bit stronger than I anticipated, I admit, but in the end, I still won, didn't I?" Clara replied haughtily. Lyon chuckled at this and motioned with his hand to her heavily bandaged body and the clearly visible black bruises that covered much of her exposed skin.
"But at what cost? Isn't the essence of a Hero to give up your own well-being to help others?"
"Tch, now you really sound like Halloway. Dumbass, actual heroes require strength. The strength to beat anyone that breaks the law. Today was just two fighters throwing everything they had at one another. 'Sought to help him in the only way you could', my ass," she mocked, turning over to her side – trying to hide a grunt of pain as she did so – and facing the opposite wall. Taking this as a sign their short conversation was at its end, Lyon stood and flexed the broken tips of his fingers.
"Well, I really must be going. My match is coming sooner than both Andi and I would like and I could use the rest to recover from my bout with Andrew. I'm glad you made it to the next round Clara, I really can't wait for the opportunity to face off against you again so make sure that you keep winning until we meet." And with that, the firestarter exited the curtained room and his footsteps gradually faded until they were swallowed up by the ambient noise of the room. The moment he was gone, Clara sat back up and grit her teeth, both in pain and thinly veiled anger.
"Damn fool, who the hell does he think he's talking to?"
"Aw, so you do care. I knew you were a big softy." At the sound of her least favorite ghost girl – the past week had ensured her a spot at the top of the list and kicked Halloway down to second – Clara growled.
"Next time I'm asking for a private room. I'm guessing pissant is on his way as well?" Epiphany, who had taken Lyon's seat, pointed towards where Clara guessed the entrance to the hospital wing was and sure enough, she heard quick falling footsteps approaching. Just when she thought her opinion of her former teammates couldn't get any lower, Sirius burst through the curtain and promptly fell flat on his face. "Nice one, dumbass."
"Clara! You're okay! Well, I mean you're obviously really hurt but you're awake and insulting me so that means it isn't as bad as I thought. Narruk really messed you up out there," Sirius said, his voice filled with relief.
"What the hell are you doing here? You know the next round is one versus one, we aren't partners anymore." Sirius had the gall to look offended by this, while Epiphany seemed almost elated by the idea.
"Well… I was, um, worried. I knew Narruk was strong and stuff in his wolf form but that was unbelievable. You could have been really badly hurt. And besides, the final eight doesn't start until tomorrow so we're technically still partners," he protested. Clara glared at him for another moment before she sighed and tried to rub the weariness from her eyes. 'Holl did say her Quirk affected your energy by how much pain it's blocking out. These injuries better be fixed by tomorrow or I'm gonna lose it,' she thought. It took her a moment to realize that the incessant buzzing in her ears was really just her partner continuing to prattle on about her fight against Narruk. "–lly tough. I don't know how you managed to fight back, let alone land some attacks. Our fight with Kenny was nowhere near as intense… or scary."
"Our last minute training was nearly wasted I noticed," Clara remarked, her tone sharp. Sirius froze and snapped his mouth shut, looking at his partner like a deer caught in a car's headlights. "You both got cocky and let the idiot escape. Never turn your back on an opponent until you know the battle is won, or it will burn you."
"Yeah, you're right," Sirius said dejectedly.
"Sirius? No one's ever broken out of that attack… except for Melody but she cheats. Not our fault we didn't expect it," Epiphany said, throwing a scalding glare at Clara. In response, the Howl Quirk user shook her head and scowled.
"And that's why you almost lost. If pissant hadn't used his actual fucking brain for once and grabbed Narruk's ax handle, we'd have lost. It was obvious you had your hands full. If you'd let up even a little for just a fraction of a second Phillips would have attacked Sirius and that would have been the end of it. It took him attacking his opponent head-on for once to actually make a difference in the battle. Thanks to the fact that Narruk knocked himself out, that could have been the turning point of the whole fight," Clara explained. For a moment, Sirius just stared blankly at her until understanding overtook his expression and a grin split his face.
"You just complimented me."
"Don't get used to it pissant. For every smart thing you did in that battle you did ten things wrong," Clara shot back, though it didn't dispel her teammate's smile. She glanced at the pair for a moment and then growled. "Both of you piss off, I'm going to bed."
"Wait till we tell everyone Clara can say something nice," Epiphany taunted as she and Sirius were leaving.
"Go ahead, who'd ever believe a clumsy little shit or a knock off Halloway?"
Purpose of a Hero
"Come on, Mel! You gotta stop being so uptight," Nathan whined as he flung his arm over the redhead's shoulder. He was quickly shoved away and given a familiar glare from Melody.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize I couldn't be worried while one of my friends is grievously injured," she shot back sarcastically. Nathan let out a dramatic cry and leaned back against the cool cement wall of the preparation tunnel. After a moment of his pouting, Melody groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Sorry, Nathan."
"I suppose it's okay. I'm used to your snappy retorts by now, as unoriginal as they may be," the feline responded cheekily before his expression turned serious. "I know you're worried but Narruk's in literally the best care on the East Coast. The Forge just doesn't hire any old doctor to be their nurse, Mrs. Holl is like, a prodigy in the medical field. He'll probably walk out of there healthier than ever."
"You're right, I know you are but I can't help it. Ugh, and we'd made so much progress. Stupid Clara," Melody grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. Since his near-miss in the relay race, she and Narruk had been trying everything they could think of to help him get better control. Everything from meditation to sparring until he was on the brink but they'd only made very meager progress. 'And everything we accomplished was completely undone in less than half an hour. Ugh, why did she have to do that?'
"MEL!" At her friend's irritated shout, Melody was snapped out of her thoughts and stared at him with surprised wide eyes. "Good, now that I have your attention… what's our play?"
"Well, Marcus and Eris don't really have much chemistry and their Quirks are more physically powerful than Benji and Hazel. I think we should stick together for this fight," Melody said, her voice growing steadier as she spoke. "Besides, their teamwork was sloppy in the last round. If we could get them to fight close together, we may get them to trip over each other's feet."
"There's the Mel I know and… tolerate!" Nathan beamed, smacking the girl on her back and receiving a withering look from her as a result. 'Smooth Nathan… real smooth,' the blond thought. Even though he knew that she wouldn't have thought much into it, he couldn't bear to finish that saying with its actual ending lest he die of embarrassment. "So… Plan C, then?"
"What? No! We made Plan C when we were six. There's no way it could work now." Nathan contemplated this for a moment before snapping his fingers in realization.
"I've got it! Plan K!" Melody's expression turned deadpan and she motioned to the battlefield that had been selected for this fight. A miniature shipyard, complete with the facade of a large tanker and artificial waves lapping at the dock's concrete supports. After a moment Nathan sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, you're right. Let's see… Q?"
"This is a friendly competition, Nathan! We can't use lethal force, moron," Melody snapped back. The boy moaned dramatically and hung his head in mock dejection.
"Fine! What about… fuck, I dunno Plan T?"
"Language. Plan T could work, given we play it by the book," she added with a sidelong look at her partner. Nathan scoffed and placed his hands on his hips, giving the girl a scrutinizing glare.
"Are you accusing me of something? I'll have you know I always perfectly follow the script!" He complained, feigning outrage. Instead of responding verbally, Melody simply gave him an unenthused and disbelieving stare. The two locked eyes for a moment before Nathan dropped the act and waved his hand dismissively. "Come on, when have I ever let you down?"
"Do you want that list in chronological or alphabetical order?" Melody responded in an innocent tone of voice as their code names were announced and the iron bars rose. Unlike their last fight, it was Melody who led the pair onto the field. As she stared across the field at her opponents, her goggles began to pick up a weird interference whenever she looked at Marcus. Instead of the vibrant warm hues that her thermal imaging picked up from Eris, Nathan, and the massive crowd of people, Marcus' body was made up of a nearly solid bright orange color. 'That's odd. These things must still have some technical problems, there's no way his body temperature is that high,' Melody thought with a frown. She reached up and switched the infrared off but noticed nothing different between Marcus or his partner. "Remember Nathan, by the book."
"Yeah, yeah I heard you the first time. Let's just get this over with quickly, shall we?" He replied far too flippantly for her liking. As she had expected, the exact moment the fight was officially started, Nathan sprinted off at their enemies, apparently having forgotten the finer points of Plan T which stated quite explicitly to do the opposite of that. The redhead sighed and took off after him, though due to his Quirk's speed he made it across the field in no time. Looking somewhat surprised, Eris raised her hand and pointed it at him. However, Nathan ducked under the sharp black bone spear that protruded from her wrist and raked his claws across her stomach. To his surprise, the fabric around her pelvis tore open and he was nearly impaled on another spear. As he stumbled away he nearly knocked right into Marcus. Before he could react and take a swipe at his new target, some unseen force slammed into him and sent him flying. He landed hard on the damp concrete and slid to a stop near some shipping containers. "The hell?"
"It's his Quirk, he can manipulate, absorb, and release energy… which you'd know if you ever listened when I talked to you," Melody said pointedly as she crouched down next to him and examined the small gash on his shoulder from Eris' second attack while trying to watch their opponents out of the corner of her eye. Nathan flushed slightly and quickly tried to get back to his feet, only to nearly headbutt his teammate in the process. Once he was back upright he gave Melody a sheepish smile.
"Sorry."
"Teamwork is the whole point of Plan T, Furball. Besides, against these two, teamwork will be the deciding factor." Across the field, Marcus grabbed Eris by the hand and dragged her behind a stack of lobster cages – not the best cover but perfect for keeping an eye on their enemies. Next to him, Eris made a noise of triumph as she inspected the four horizontal scratches on her stomach.
"Body armor for the win! Man, I was not expecting the lover boy to be so fast. He even dodged my sneak attack," she said, poking a finger through the newly opened hole right above her hip bone. Marcus fought to control his annoyance at the girl and turned to look back at their classmates, who had apparently also taken cover whilst he was preoccupied.
"The only reason he was able to rush us like that is that you were too enthralled by the crowd." Eris' enthused expression quickly soured and she turned her head away from Marcus to look at the large, metal tanker bobbing in the water not fifty yards from them. The gray-haired boy took this as a sign that he was now being ignored and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. 'On paper, we should have the advantage here. Our Quirks counter theirs pretty well and neither of them has any sort of ranged attacks. Though…' His eyes trailed over and caught the pout on his partner's face. His shoulders slumped slightly as he turned back to look at the shipping container their adversaries were behind. 'She's going to be the death of me.' Suddenly, a chill went down his spine and his head snapped to look over his shoulder just as Nathan slammed a foot into the center of his back. The flimsy lobster cages crumbled under his weight as he fell and he heard a surprised 'eep' from Eris as she brought up her arm to block the feline's next blow. "What the–?"
"Plan T can't possibly fail!" Nathan shouted triumphantly as he brought his heel down towards Marcus' head, only to once again be thrown backward. While his eyes followed the boy as he hit the ground, he caught sight of a clearly winded Melody leaning against a light post for support.
"I never would have been able to phase two people for that long last year. Looks like I've taken my first step towards getting stronger," the redhead muttered as she watched her partner flip back onto his feet and charge in blindly once again. 'Thanks for buying time, Nathan. Just hold them until I can breathe correctly again.' Almost as if he'd heard her thought, the blond continued his boundless assault, switching targets every time either Eris managed to block one of his attacks or he was again thrown back by Marcus.
"Phew, you guys are a pretty good workout, gotta say," Nathan said as he hopped away from Eris' kick, landing just a few feet away from his recovering partner. While he hadn't done too much damage to their opponents, he had at least bought Melody the time she needed. He relaxed his posture slightly and raised an arm to brush away his hair – which always seemed to like trying to obscure his vision – then smiled confidently. "You're looking pretty heated Marcus. Need a breather? Maybe an ice pack?"
"You kidding? That was barely a warm-up," he shot back. Nathan's eyes narrowed and he turned back to look at his partner.
"He is looking kinda red, isn't he? I'm not just seeing things?" Her breathing somewhat stabilized, the redhead rolled her eyes and strode forward to stand next to him. Without giving her a chance to respond, Nathan waved her off and shook his head. "I know, it's his Quirk. I do tend to listen every now and then. Just trying to keep things light."
"You and listening go together about as well as forks and electrical outlets." Feigning offense, Nathan held a hand over his heart and gasped. However, before their banter could continue, a sharpened black bone sliced through the air towards them, leaving the feline just seconds to step out of the way of the attack, one that would have surely left him unable to continue. "Pay attention!"
"Right," he grumbled back. It seemed to him that their foes weren't eager to give them any time to relax. Within seconds of the first bone being shot, Eris followed it up by leaping at Melody with black bone baton about the size of her forearm, Nathan growled and attempted to go to his friend's aide but was stopped by Marcus getting in his way. 'Seems like they're trying to keep us separate. They must have actually done some strategizing before this… or Marcus is just adapting to his teammate. Either way, Mel can handle Eris easily. No need to worry,' Nathan thought as he charged at Marcus and, just like every other one of his attacks during the battle so far, was knocked back and off-balance slightly by an invisible force. Taking advantage of this, the gray-haired teen lunged forward and planted his fist into Nathan's gut, which knocked the wind out of him far easier than it should have. He coughed and stumbled back, barely avoiding the boy's roundhouse kick in the process. 'That must be what Mel meant when she said he can absorb and release energy. This is gonna be a pain.'
"I have to admit, I was expecting more from the guy who got third in the entrance exam. Continuously charging when you were buying time for your teammate was understandable, but this is just disappointing," Marcus taunted, though Nathan could detect just the slightest hitch to his breathing.
"His defense is strong. If we go against him our best chance is your speed or my Wraith. I can negate his attacks and if you can get past his shield we stand a good chance," Melody had said during one of their strategy breaks during training – something Nathan had hated over the past week despite his partner insisting their importance. Taking a deep breath, Nathan cracked his neck and got down onto all fours, looking like he was about to pounce. Sensing a change, Marcus braced himself and the moment Nathan kicked off the ground, he prepared to redirect the attack. What he'd failed to take into account was his foe's drastic rise in agility. Instead of the straight charge he'd been doing, Nathan – still on all fours – darted from side to side and struck Marcus' shield with enough force to make him wince.
The heat was becoming unbearable but his defenses held strong. In an effort to get himself a quick breather, he put a good amount of energy into redirecting another of Nathan's kicks. He'd been so focused on his opponent's legs that he didn't notice his claws until they were raking across his chest. Agony bloomed as the new wounds sizzled and the smell of burning flesh filled Nathan's sensitive nose. As he stumbled away from his foe, he gagged slightly and looked on with wide eyes. The four diagonal scratches – the longest of which only being around three inches – were smoking and the skin surrounding them was an angry red. 'His wounds… cauterized themselves?'
Purpose of a Hero
"Come on, Mel! Fight back!" Eris cried, sounding annoyed as she swung her baton at the redhead, who ducked beneath it and stepped out of the way of the immediate follow-up. The brunette was beginning to get frustrated. She'd originally gone after Melody because she'd really like the way she fought against Hazel and the pervy dude from FH2. Unlike that fight, however, Melody seemed very content to stay on the defensive, either dodging or shifting into her Wraith to avoid all of Eris' attacks and it was starting to grate on the girl's nerves. Not to mention that her earlier attacks had left the skin around her wrists bloody and aching. She once again lurched forward with her baton but it passed straight through the pale blue face of Melody's Wraith. "Gah! Stop doing that!"
"Sorry Eris, but I'm not going to let you hit me," the redhead replied dryly, which only served to further annoy her opponent. Seemingly forgetting that her wrists were already a mess, Eris ejected yet another small baton – though this one was not as dense as her other one – and came at Melody with both. The other girl just furrowed her brow and focused on dodging, ignoring Eris' tirade of taunts and challenges. In an attempt to gain some semblance of an advantage, Melody slipped into her Wraith form and, to the shock and disgust of her foe, phased right through Eris before shifting back. The brunette shivered as a deathly chill passed through her and hissed in pain as Melody's foot connected with her shin. However, judging by the girl's pained gasp the attack had hurt her more.
"That's more like it! How'd kicking steel feel?" Eris mocked as she turned to the redhead, who was trying not to put weight on her right foot. Before the girl could react, Eris retaliated with her own kick right to the girl's chest, knocking her back several yards before she hit the ground hard. With not a second to spare, she shifted into her Wraith as her opponent brought down her batons right through her ethereal head. Just then, a blond blur slammed into Eris' side and sent her flailing to the concrete.
"You okay, Mel?" Nathan asked, his expression concerned as he looked down at her. Melody returned to normal and sat up before wincing at the pain in her ankle.
"Fine, just a sprain I think. Doesn't hurt too bad," she said, her eyes drifting over to where Eris was getting to her feet next to Marcus, who despite looking exhausted had a fire in his eyes. After taking another moment to compose herself, she accepted Nathan's hand and got shakily to her feet. "Any ideas on how to end this quickly? Seems like we're all hitting our breaking points."
"What are you talking about? I'm perfectly fine!" Nathan protested though the myriad of fresh bruises poking out from under his costume pointed to the contrary.
"You look like you just got hit by a bus. Come on, there has to be so– Watch it!" Melody said suddenly, pushing Nathan aside as Eris brought down her baton. There was an audible crack as the weapon slammed into Melody's arm and she cried out in pain, though that didn't stop her from once again trying to punch the brunette in the face. While it still probably broke at least one of her fingers, the result was markedly different from kicking her ankle as Eris grunted in pain and stumbled back. From the corner of her eye, Melody watched as Marcus absorbed one of Nathan's punches on his arm, released the energy to knock the feline back and then deliver a hard kick to her partner's solar plexus. "Nathan!"
"Damn," the blond grunted as he shot back to his feet, despite the pain in his torso, and charged past Marcus to bodyslam Eris as she attempted to get the jump on Melody. He helped the girl to her feet and glared at her blackened fingers. "This is not going as I imagined."
"Marcus! Keep cat-boy outta my way!" Eris called, to which her partner responded with a glare.
"Any bright ideas?" Melody whispered, figuring that their enemies were too busy hating one another to pay too close attention. Nathan frowned slightly and then his expression darkened.
"I've got one but… damnit, I wanted to save it for when we got to fight in the finals." Melody stared at her partner in confusion for a moment before her expression turned annoyed and she smacked him on the back on the head.
"Hey Furball, we've got to actually make it to the finals first. What's your plan?" Nathan pouted and looked ready to argue but the glare from his childhood friend silenced him. He sighed and glanced at their opponents, who seemed to be finishing up their argument and getting ready to turn their focus back on them.
"There was a moment during our fight where I was able to get past Marcus' defenses, I'm guessing all the heat he's been generating has slowed down his thought process. Though, it seems like expending some of it as he did in the second half of our fight kinda helped improve his response time. We can't just keep chipping away at him until he's at that point again, we just don't have the energy," Nathan said, motioning to the both of them in turn. Melody frowned, still not quite understanding his reasoning. "But we may not need to do the whole process over again. See those wounds on his chest?"
"Yeah? Looks like a scar," she said, looking at the jagged scratch marks. Nathan grinned and shook his head, holding up his clawed hand.
"Nope, I did that no more than five minutes ago. His body heat must be so fuckin' high that his wounds are cauterizing themselves. Add to that the fact that Eris is nearing her limit with how many bones she's used. She is just as much at her limit as we are." Melody frowned as the brunette in question turned her back on her partner and faced them. While her attention had earlier focused on the girl's wrists, she was sporting a few cuts and bruises from when the few times Nathan had gotten to her.
"Your plan better be good, Nathan." Nathan grinned, taking this as her agreement to his plan and walked a few steps closer to their opponents.
"His defenses are too good for my normal speed. Ergo, in order to break through them I've just gotta go faster, right?" Melody was about to demand that he tell her his plan and tell him off for his nonchalance, but the words died in her throat. Nathan was… changing. His hair, already reaching his shoulders, grew longer and wilder, while his tail lengthened and flicked through the air in agitation. In an instant, all the special training he'd done with his father during the months before the entrance exam made sense. His father had passed on his signature ability – the same ability that had been in the Larson family for generations.
"Beast Mimicry."
Purpose of a Hero
No excuses. Next chapter will be out on time.
Next time on the Purpose of a Hero!
Chapter 38: Beast Mimicry
Q&A with Narruk Mondronen
To Narruk: Finish the Lyric: "wake me up _"
Narruk: When this is over. (I Refuse by Five Finger Death Punch)
To Narruk: if someone farts in class would you be able to smelt out who dealt it
Sadly, yes. [Glares at Clara]
To everyone: Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away you're coming right to me?
Narruk: Gotta stomp a mudhole in your ass somehow and from a distance doesn't cut it.
To Narruk: What happens when one rubs your belly?
Narruk: Ladies get off easy and my leg kicks like a dog. Guys get punted like a football.
To Narruk: how do you feel about Lyle and Andrew
Narruk: Good people I'd be honored to fight beside, but it's hard to call anyone friends recently due to personal reasons
To Narruk: after you go hunting and make a kill, do you just keep the meat and leave everything else, or does nothing go to waste?
Narruk: I make jewelry or gifts from the bone. Antlers and horns for decoration or to mark where they died. The fur I sell or keep for clothing. It's a Tressig thing.
To Narruk: Have your parents or friends ever taken you out to play fetch?
Narruk: Used to.
To Narruk, do you have to replace the clothes you rip when you transform
Narruk: Yes, but I put in orders for clothes to work with the transformation so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
To everyone: What's your favorite kind of music?
Narruk: Rock, outlaw country, and instrumental/orchestral stuff
To anyone who cares to answer: what's your favourite sport? If you care at all in this age of quirks.
Narruk: American football, hockey, boxing, and mixed martial arts
To everyone: Who's your favourite hero?
Narruk: The Moonlit Hero, Lunarch and Lupine Hero, Howl
To Narruk: hey big boy ever had a girlfriend?
[Takes off mic and leaves interview]