Hayze, Zach, Jace, and Justus are sitting in the hallway of a hospital.
Hayze (Narrating):
The police arrived not long after we returned to the cabin from our respective battles. 22 of us were accounted for, 10 were unharmed, 9 were injured, 3 were poisoned, and 1 fatality. We were brought to a hospital not far from the cabin. Those injured were checked in while the rest of us stayed in the waiting area and tried to sleep. Principle Ewing, Recovery Girl, and others will be arriving later today to assess the situation and provide aid to the injured. Demetri brought back five of the needles that poisoned Blair and Mr. Walker; the poison was extracted and used for an antidote. Luckily, the remedy worked on Silver as well. The police know that it was a rough night for us, so they haven’t questioned us yet, but I’m sure that will come soon enough. We were finally allowed to visit everyone in their rooms, but Mr. Walker wanted to meet with all of us and hear about what happened after he was incapacitated.
Eve and Isaiah exit Mr. Walker’s room.
Walker:
Jace, Justus, Zach, you’re next.
Jace, Justus, and Zach enter Mr. Walker’s room, leaving Hayze with Isaiah and Eve in the hallway.
Isaiah:
I’m gonna go do my rounds and see how everyone is doing.
Eve:
Have fun.
Isaiah leaves.
Eve:
Mind giving an explanation?
Hayze:
Isn’t that what I’m supposed to give Mr. Walker?
Eve:
Yes, but
I
want one too. One second, you’re behind Silver and me, then the next, you’re gone, chasing after a masked lunatic that murdered Mr. EMD. I thought that was the last time we’d ever see you, and now here you are, with barely a scratch on you, and you somehow got Blair back in the process. How did you do it?
Hayze:
You sound concerned? Change of heart about me?
Eve:
You’ve got guts to chase after that bitch, I’ll give you that, but I seriously thought that you were gonna die. I’d be concerned for anyone in that situation.
Hayze:
I chased her for a while, she wouldn’t stop, and I didn’t understand why… eventually, she dropped the ball Blair was in and kept running. At that point, I had no reason to keep following. (Why did I just lie to her?)
Eve hesitates for a moment.
Eve:
(That story is hard to believe, but Hayze is no idiot, why tell such a terrible lie?) That’s strange… any idea why?
Hayze:
No, she never said a word to me. (Again, with the lies? What’s wrong with me? I have to explain myself to both Mr. Walker and the police, why am I lying about what happened? I owe that girl nothing…)
Eve:
*sighs* Well, all’s well that ends well. I’m gonna go visit some of the others.
Hayze:
Alright, I’ll be here, I guess.
Eve walks off.
Hayze:
(What’s wrong with me?)
After a little while, Justus, Jace, and Zach walk out of Walker’s room.
Walker:
Hayze, you’re up.
Hayze walks in and sits down in the chair next to Walker’s bed.
Walker:
Alright, tell me what happened after I passed out from your perspective.
Hayze:
Justus led a team of himself, Kevin, Gus, Angel, Jace, and Zach to fight the big dude, Adonis. Then, Aaron led Wes and Alexis into the woods to lure the magnetic guy away. Finally, Silver, Ash, Eve, Blair, and I squared off against the needle guy and the guy who hadn’t used his quirk yet. The girl standing by the trees carried the two guys you took out into the woods during the battle. I didn’t see them again after that. My team fought hard against the two we were fighting, but Ash was captured by the needle guy, and Blair was taken and handed over to the masked girl. Silver and Eve used a combination attack to take one guy out. After that, the needle guy got scared and ran into the forest, and the masked girl went in another direction. Silver and Eve chased after the guy.
Walker:
And what did you do?
Hayze:
I went after the masked girl; I couldn’t just let her leave with Blair, so I made a call, a call that went against your orders. So… I’m sorry.
Walker:
*sighs* While I usually would be angry, you brought Blair back, and you probably saved my job in the process.
Hayze:
What?
Walker:
I
made a call to only bring the minimum number of teachers on this trip. What happened last night hasn’t gotten out to the public yet, but it’ll be a PR disaster for the school when it does. If one of you were kidnapped, someone would have to take the fall… aka the guy in charge of the trip. I’m not saying I won’t take a lot of heat for this, but my job is safe partly because of your actions, so while I expect you to follow my orders, I’ll let it slide this time.
Hayze:
Thank you, sir.
Walker:
Now, time for the real question. What the hell happened between you and that girl?
Hayze:
I-
Walker:
Before you answer, don’t lie to me, I’ll know if you are.
Hayze hesitates for a moment.
Hayze:
I chased her for a long time. She eventually stopped and asked me why I was still after her. I explained that I was there to get Blair back, and then she asked a couple more questions. I told her if she wouldn’t give her back, I’d take her, so we started fighting. After a little while, though, I realized she wasn’t fighting seriously. I questioned why, and she wouldn’t really give me a straight answer. Finally, after a little while, she decided to leave. But I asked her why she wasn’t capturing me when that was her mission, which stumped her. She froze up and didn’t say anything for about a minute, then the needle guy showed up, beaten to a pulp with burn marks on his shoulder. He saw me and tried to get her to attack me, but she wouldn’t budge. At that point, he was so afraid that he made me an offer: He’ll give me Blair if I let them escape. The proposal was too good for me to refuse, so I took it.
Walker:
Good, that was the right decision. Do you have any idea why she was acting so strange?
Hayze thinks for a moment.
Hayze:
I’m not sure, but she did mention being caught off guard by my decision to chase after her. Maybe she let me go out of respect?
Walker:
Hm… perhaps. It doesn’t really matter; as long as you got back safely with Blair, I don’t care why she let you go.
Hayze:
Right.
Walker:
Well, Hayze, I appreciate you telling me your story from last night. You can go visit some of your classmates now.
Hayze:
Yessir.
Hayze gets up and walks to the door.
Hayze:
Oh, also, sir.
Walker:
Yes, Hayze?
Hayze:
What happened to the two guys that we took down?
Walker:
They won’t be of any use to the investigation.
Hayze:
What?
Walker:
The police stopped by to inform me of their conditions. Whoever sent them clearly is a careful person; they had a failsafe prepared.
Hayze:
What was it?
Walker:
The police don’t know exactly how it happened, but both of them suffered significant brain hemorrhages, to put it in simple terms: They’re unable to move any part of their body anymore and can no longer speak.
Hayze:
What!
Walker:
I know. Karma told me that it came out of nowhere; the guy just started screaming at the top of his lungs until eventually passing out from the pain.
Hayze is silent.
Hayze:
(That’s why Jagger was terrified of being left behind.)
Walker:
If that’s all you need, you can go now.
Hayze:
Right.
Hayze exits. Walker lies back in his bed.
Walker:
(Hayze omitted a lot of information, but he wasn’t lying. He mentioned the injuries on the leader, the same as Eve and Isaiah reported to me, so the way he retrieved Blair is probably true. He also noted that she wasn’t fighting him seriously, which would explain his lack of injuries. There’s more to what happened out there, but he told me enough to where I don’t see the need for me to pursue further explanation.)
Hayze walks down the hallway and knocks on one of the doors.
Aaron:
*muffled* Come in.
Hayze enters Aaron’s room. Aaron has his right wrist wrapped and a brace on his left wrist, alongside some bandages on his face.
Aaron:
Hey Hayze, I’m glad to see you made it back too.
Hayze:
Yeah, it was a rough night, but it looks like everyone’s okay/
Aaron:
That’s good to hear. I guess Karma didn’t see right. She told me you went after the masked guy.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Hayze:
I did.
Aaron:
Wait, what?
Hayze:
That’s pretty much been everyone else’s reaction.
Aaron:
Well, maybe he isn’t as dangerous as we all thought.
Hayze:
Maybe…
Aaron:
You alright, dude? You seem distant.
Hayze:
Sorry, my head isn’t really that clear, a lot happened last night, and I haven’t really taken it all in until now.
Aaron:
Eh, that’s alright. I’m feeling kind of the same way, mainly because of something Wes found.
Hayze:
Hm?
Aaron digs through his pocket, pulls out a piece of paper, and hands it to Hayze. Hayze grabs it and unfolds it.
Hayze:
Huh!
Aaron:
It was in the magnetic guy’s pocket. We grabbed it after we beat him. I thought you might want to see it before I give it to the police. If you look at the names, It seems like they were targeting the strongest members of our class.
Hayze:
It’s not the names I’m concerned with.
Aaron:
What do you mean? Those names clearly indicate their priority targets; I’m on there, which is a nice compliment and an eerie wake-up call.
Hayze:
Have you not noticed the order?
Aaron:
What? It doesn’t look like there is any particular order.
Hayze flips the paper around toward Aaron:
Aaron looks at it for a second.
Aaron:
It just looks random to me.
Hayze:
Think about the bracket.
Aaron:
What?
Hayze:
From the Sports Festival!
Aaron looks at the paper again.
Aaron:
I see it now…
Hayze:
It’s the order we fought in the tournament… whoever wrote this list used our fights on that day as a measuring stick for who they wanted to have captured.
Aaron:
Damn, then why are you last there?
“
Iota:
Just call me Iota. “
— Chapter 24
Hayze:
(If he’s the one who wrote this list… he must have written my name right after meeting me in the hallway… creepy.) They probably weren’t sure about me until after my second fight, but I’m more hung up on something else.
Aaron:
What is it?
Hayze:
If this person used the Sports Festival to judge us, that means they had this night planned over a month in advance.
Aaron:
I guess you’re right about that… But we only found out about this trip two weeks ago…
Hayze:
Yeah… I don’t know how they did it, but they broke into U.A.’s private files and found out about the field trip.
Aaron:
Damn…
Hayze:
Take this back.
Hayze gives Aaron the paper, Aaron takes it.
Hayze:
I’m gonna go visit everyone else.
Aaron:
Alright, man, it was good seeing you.
Hayze:
You too.
Aaron:
And Hayze?
Hayze:
Yes, Aaron?
Aaron:
Try chilling out, man; everyone’s safe and okay. We can be happy about that.
Hayze:
Right, I will.
Hayze exits the room.
Hayze (Naratting):
U.A. closed for the next week, in part to give us the chance to be with our families after a traumatic night, but also so that U.A. could handle the PR firestorm that was scorching the school. Mr. Walker gave a formal apology during a press conference. The principal swore to have more significant security measures to ensure that something like this would never happen again. Usually, the media would dig a lot deeper into a claim like that, but Mr. Ewing was able to put his money where his mouth was very quickly by announcing that Colossus would be joining the faculty. Colossus’ hiring was perfectly timed to look as though U.A. was going to extreme measures to secure the safety of its students, even though that decision was made nearly a month in advance. Even if it was just smoke and mirrors, it quelled the storm that besieged U.A. The incident wasn’t going to be forgotten, but Colossus’ addition changed the public’s perspective. The school got its criticism, but they showed commitment to their words, and that’s not something you always get in moments like these.
Inside a boardroom at U.A., Ewing, Fatal, Walker, Multi, Houston, Madame Mummy, Boom, Metro Mole, Spectre, and Colossus are all gathered. Ewing stands, and everyone turns their attention to him.
Ewing:
First, I’d like to welcome the new additions to U.A.’s hero course staff: Metro Mole.
Metro Mole:
Howdy.
Ewing:
Spectre.
Spectre:
Hello.
Ewing:
And Of course, Colossus.
Colossus:
It’s good to be here, everyone.
Ewing:
I guess we should start with-
Walker stands.
Walker:
I’d like to say a few words first if you don’t mind, sir.
Ewing:
Go ahead, Damien.
Ewing sits down.
Walker:
I apologized publicly for my negligence, but I wanted to apologize to all of you as well. I made a mistake in taking the bare minimum number of teachers on that trip. If I had been less selfish, we might have handled the situation without the students needing to get involved.
Madame Mummy:
Walker, I know you feel responsible for what happened, but there's a reason you only needed three teachers: this school was careless with its security, and that’s all of our responsibilities.
Boom:
Madame Mummy is right, you should have never been in a situation where you would have needed more than three teachers, the school is responsible, not you.
Ewing:
I have to agree. You had to apologize publicly because you were in charge of the trip. The media would have ripped us apart had you not done that. The truth of the matter is that not a single person in this room blames you for what happened, and we all feel equally responsible for not only the terrorizing of our students but also the death of our colleague.
Walker:
Your words mean a lot, but I don’t think I’ll ever shake this feeling away.
Ewing:
I understand, but it’s essential we move forward and not fixate on what’s behind.
Walker:
Right.
Walker sits down.
Ewing:
Now, with that said, we need to discuss the internship program.
Houston:
If you’re planning on canceling the program, that would be unfair to my students, and I would have to object.
Ewing:
On the contrary, I want it to happen as soon as possible. We can only teach the students so much in the classroom; I think it’s crucial now more than ever that our students get experience shadowing a pro hero.
Multi:
We’ve already been taking in offers for all 40 students.
Fatal:
And 40 agencies have agreed to take on students who didn’t get any offers.
Ewing:
Good, so the show will go on. The school will reopen on Monday, the students will be educated as usual and informed that the internship program will still occur. They will be given two days to choose their hero agency; Wednesday will be their travel day, with their internships officially starting on Thursday. The internships will go until the following week’s Saturday, with their schedule returning to normal on Monday. Is everyone in agreement?
They all nod their heads.
Colossus:
I have one thing to ask: Are we not going to be concerned with the fact that six of the assailants that attacked our students and faculty are still at large?
Ewing:
As much as I would like to be concerned with it, our job is to make sure this school continues to run at full steam. The police will handle the investigation. We will just have to boost our security and be more careful in the future.
Colossus:
Understood; I’m obviously new here and wanted to know how we would be handling the situation.
Ewing:
No problem, Colossus. I think everyone is looking forward to putting this mess behind us and working hard to ensure our students’ best education.
Everyone nods in agreement.
Ewing:
Alright, everyone, dismissed.
Later that night, Hayze is sitting at his computer, browsing the Quirk Registry.
Hayze:
(It’s too bad I don’t know her last name, but at least Ivy is a pretty unique first name.)
Hayze browses the website for a while.
Hayze:
(I can’t find her anywhere… maybe I should check the missing persons section.)
Hayze browses some more until he finds Ivy’s profile on the website.
Hayze:
(The profile picture… it’s her as a child. Hm… okay, her last name is… redacted? What?) *sighs* (Whatever, that’s not what I’m trying to find out information about anyway.)
Hayze scrolls down further.
Hayze:
(I’ve never seen someone with an S-rank quirk? What does that even mean?)
Hayze googles the term.
Hayze:
(“A quirk designated as S-rank is considered dangerous to the public. The wielder will be put under special watch by the government and/or seized from their parental guardians if deemed necessary. To fall under this category, a quirk must exude at least three of these four qualities: The ability allows the user to control an aspect of human life (such as depleting oxygen or the ability to destroy internal organs), the user is capable of injuring mass amounts of people with minimal effort (such as the ability to cause earthquakes), the quirk has no inherent flaw (such as the ability to create objects infinitely without needing to spend resources to do so), the quirk’s user is either a minor or has failed a psychiatric evaluation administered once every 3 months if they fall into two of the categories mentioned above.“)
Hayze recoils back in his chair.
Hayze:
(Holy shit… If you have one of these quirks, you basically get viewed as a criminal from the get-go. Her quirk easily falls into the second and third categories, so I guess now that begs the question of when she started developing her ability.)
Hayze returns to Ivy’s profile on the quirk registry and starts searching.
Hayze:
(Let’s see if that information is available to the public…)
Hayze finds the information: Quirk Manifestation Age: 2.
Hayze:
(Jesus Christ…)
Hayze leans back in his chair.
Hayze:
(I can’t even imagine that… the government sent agents to her house to check if she’s a psychopathic murder… and she was only two years old.)
Hayze gets back on the computer.
Hayze:
(Okay, now for my last question: Why is she a missing person?)
Hayze searches.
Hayze:
(Okay, here we go: Designation: Missing, Ivy [REDACTED] was last seen on December 15, 2008, when she ran away from her home in Trenton, Georgia. She fled from the house after her father attempted to smother her with a pillow in her sleep. She woke up and struggled for air until eventually using her quirk to launch her father into the ceiling, he broke his neck in the ensuing fall.)
Hayze sits back and takes in what he just read.
“
Ivy:
He says nice things to me that nobody, not even my own parents, ever said! “
“
Ivy:
When they know the monster that I am, the heartless wench that could hurt anyone she pleases… they all get afraid. ”
“
Ivy:
I’m a monster, a cold-blooded killer, and I don't deserve to be cared about. “
— Chapter 36
Hayze turns off his computer.
Hayze:
(School is back tomorrow, I should get to bed.)
Hayze lies down in his bed.
Hayze:
(2008, she couldn’t have been more than 8 years old… what kind of father tries to murder their own child? She still doesn’t make much sense to me, but I’m starting to see the bigger picture of who she is and what she has been through. It’s also pretty clear to me that guy, Iota, was involved with what happened that night. That symbol on Ivy’s hand… was the same color as the symbol on his ring, not to mention he wouldn’t tell me his real name. I can see through his plan; even though his team didn’t capture any of us, it doesn’t matter because that wasn’t the entire plan. He embarrassed U.A., and more importantly… he gave us a reason to be afraid.)
