Day One- Task Completion and Tension
Author's Note: Hello again, kiddos. I am here with another chapter of this fic. I am still sick, of course, and I have not really been allowed to sleep, but at least I can concentrate better for longer periods of time today. Maybe I can get out this chapter in a decent amount of time without losing focus. As usual, don’t be afraid to comment your thoughts, opinions and other things of the such, because I like to read them, even if I don’t get to reply to them all.
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After everyone had situated themselves, and rested for a couple of minutes, they got ready for the second trial of their exercises. Sandra tapped her shoes on the ground, smirking to herself as she felt confident and energized. She knew it was not going to be as much of a cakewalk as it was the first time, but she was pretty tough, and she adapted to situations pretty well.
The way the exercise was situated was simple; all of them went one-after-the-other, in an orderly fashion. One person steps forward to traverse an obstacle. The second said person made it to the first checkpoint, the person behind the subject traverses the obstacle next. This was set in place to keep training timely, and organized. All of them single-file going over a challenge, waiting for the last person in line to complete that challenge, and then moving on to the next one.
Nightmare was the first one in line, her focused gaze scanned the training fields, trying to mentally time when she could pass by moving obstacles with minimal use of her newfound ‘quirk’ that she had discovered while she had done that exam in the training area. She knew she had to train while using the power as well, but it was good to know how to be resilient, that way she did not exhaust herself or her powers before they were actually needed.
Placing a foot back, and narrowing her eye, she rushed forward as soon as the timer let out a small beep, letting her know to get moving.
All of the others cheered for her as she easily dodged her way around flying obstacles, and small pit-falls. The objects started out small, making them easier to evade. However, as she continued, more sinkholes appeared, and the obstacles became smaller and smaller. Most of the movement was dodging, ensuring she did not get hit at all. It became clear, though, that she needed to use her tentacles as a shield. Something that would not harm her, because they were made up of dark matter, and not of actual muscle tissue. She would feel no real pain.
Powering forward, the girl brought up the appendages on her back, and wrapped them around herself, continuing forward at a steady, strong pace. It would have likely been a bad idea to try to place her tentacles on the ground, they had a hard time supporting her weight on unlevel surfaces that were not concrete, or at the very least, solid.
After a few more seconds of tedious dodging, and quick shuffles, she passes the first checkpoint, stopping to turn around and wait for the next person in line to start on the exercise.
Epic was the next participant in line, the girl thought very briefly, before looking over and noticing one of the workers that were associated with Sosei drinking a fountain soda. She thought for a moment, before beckoning him over “Hey, bruh, you see dat drink dere?” She gestured to the cup, and the man nodded, mostly confused at this point. “Yeah, uh, can I borruh a couples cubes, please?”
The man, still confused, obliged, and removed a couple of the cubes from the cup, before handing them over.
“Thanks bruh, dis is gonna help me out.” Epic ran back to the line, dropping the cubes on the ground, before jumping on them. “Ice, Ice, baby!” She called out. After a few seconds, frost starts to form under her feet. “Whoo, it’s workin!”
Epic dashed forward, before concentrating her thoughts on making the ice thicker. The ice forms steading under her feet, and she skates over the first obstacle at a radical speed, making it to the other side. She needed to continually dodge the oncoming objects, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Upon touching the checkpoint, it goes off, signaling the next person in line to go.
Error steps forward, concentrating on the obstacle with a firm gaze. After a moment of thought, she just started to make her way through the sand. Her default abilities, such as forming the blue strings, would not put her at much of an advantage, seeing as the weapons do not have souls. It seemed the best option for this here would be to just run the course and use bone attacks to the best of her ability.
Another deep breath, and she went forward.
The rest of the day passed like this, all of the girls learning to use their quirks to defend themselves without completely avoiding tasks. Overall, no one had too much trouble, however, it seemed everyone had their own little array of weaknesses, as most people would.
Sandra had the least amount of power compared to her counterparts. After all, she was the only one who had not received a personalized ‘quirk’ that the others seemed to have gotten. Gaster Blasters, Bone Attacks and Soul-Wielding were all something she had ever since she got here. The other Sans variants all had the same thing (if not similar versions) of this same power. However, quite a few of them had their own abilities that they maintained. Nightmare had her tentacles and shape-shifting like abilities. Error could still grab people by their life force. Cross could still ‘overwrite, and Dust! Paps remained around when Dust had come here too.
However, somehow, all of them were still confident that Classic could still beat them out in combat, if she had really tried. Something about her was just really hard to keep track of, especially when she was fighting you. Classic knew what she was doing whenever she retaliated in attack. Provoking, joking, getting people to sit down and think. It was all so strange. Most of the time, her talking to you, just saying what she had to say, made you rethink all of your choices.
Another thing that Classic had on a lot of other foes is that, if she gets the chance, she will talk to you. Not as a friend, nor an enemy. She talks to you as a person, even if she resents you, because she is a firm believer in something being hidden under all of that violence. She was keen to secrets, she had a lot of her own as well.
The obstacle course, now having been completed, rests behind the girls. All of them discuss different strategies they used, and how they could improve for timeliness, and convenience. Overall, it was actually Cross and Horror who had gotten the highest scores of the bunch. Cross had a huge knife that she used. It wasn’t a killing weapon, so the school had to go through and give her certain permits to use such a potentially dangerous weapon. As for Horror and Killer, they also had to get permits. Killer would not need to use her knife that much, and Horror’s quirk revolved around her weapon.
There was a signing of an agreement they had reached. If any major stab wound were to be found on a villain's body that had been done by those blades, the permissions for the weapons would be revoked.
Horror had an advantage over most of the other Sans variants, because she was used to having to dodge arrows in her own world of HorrorTale. Everything in that world is dangerous, and she had no doubts that Queen Undyne still had it out for her. Weapons and traps were set at all corners of the forest, ready for some poor human soul to go tripping through them.
Fresh and Error both did the least well, but that didn’t mean they did bad. It was just something for them to improve on. Before the weapons and other objects could hit anyone, they stopped themselves, and plopped down on the ground at the course-attendees feet.
Sosei walks up to the group of girls, a small smile on her face. “You girls all did really well. You seemed to be coming up with strategies for yourself, which is good. It helps me remain confident that you all will be able to cover each other’s backs, and come up with plans if one fails in battle.” The red haired woman came up to them, a tablet in hand. “Here, place your fingers under your name for the course. It is confirmation that the course has been completed for this assessment.”
“So, are there going to be more open activities, or are all of these going to be set up for more closed environments?” Killer asked the woman as she placed her finger on the screen. “I am not complaining, I am just curious is all.”
Before Sosei could say much, Sandra pipes in. “I am sure there are going to be more open opportunities when we get into the second or third days. This one was just testing us on small factors that feed into training exercises.” Sandra pats her friend on the head, grinning. “I say that we are doing a really good job, guys. None of us had too much trouble.”
Fresh walks up to Classic, extending a hand for a high-five. “Putt-er there, broseph. So fa’ we been doin’ pretty well. Let us jus’ hope it stays as such, yo.” The colorful-clad Sans grins, her glasses forming the words ‘HIGH-FIVE’ in the process.
Sandra grinned, giving the other what she had requested, before looking over to the teacher. “So, what else are we going to do?”
Sosei watched the girls with interest, happy that they all had handled everything so well. All of them chattered, just happy to be around each other. “I think we should call it a night, girls. Tomorrow, I will have a couple more activities planned for you, but for now, this was a good day.” She gestured back to the building. “Come on in, we can all get something to eat, and I will introduce you to the indoor training room for in the morning, or evening hours.”
All of the girls walk inside, making sure to keep close together. Moderate chatter followed them on the way. Sandra and Dust had decided to have a thumb-war on their way inside, seeing as they were toward the back of the group. Killer and Cross cheering on both sides with enthusiasm.
“You are going down, Dust. I am the champion! Undefeated!” Sandra grinned to the other, her thumb moving around to evade the others own oncoming digit. Dust frowns playfully before smirking. “Oh no you don’t get back here, you!” She and Classic duke it out for a few minutes, before Dust wins, laughing to herself.
Sandra made a dramatic gasp before leaning back, pretending to suffer true defeat. “I have been double-crossed, betrayed, beaten! I can’t go on!”
Epic stands off to the side, looking down to the other with a smirk. “Yo, you been bamboozled, bruh.”
Sandra huffed before looking to the side. “I will have you all know, I meant to do that. I, too, am extraordinarily humble.” she crossed her arms, and looked to the side, giving a stubborn face.
“Look who da thief is now, bruh! I know a meme when I smell one. I smell dat meme on yer breath! Give it to me!” Epic quickly takes out a pea-shooter, popping Classic in the head with it once. “Meme stealer!”
All of the girls and the teacher all laugh at their antics, before settling down, and continuing on their way inside.
It was the end of a pretty good day.
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Somewhere, in an unidentified location, a lankh, dry-skinned man sits at a bar table, a man made out of shadows sits in front of him. The man looks at a picture in his hands, glaring at it. The picture was of Sandra, standing on the second place podium, next to the explosively outrageous teen that had only made it into first place because the girl had voluntarily stepped out of bounds.
“You have been obsessing with that picture for a while now, Shigaraki Tomura. What is on your mind?” The voice of the clouded-man extended a natural means of concern and calmness.
“I need to find a way to kill this girl.” The chap-lipped man curtly stated. “She is obviously a danger to our plans. She played a major role in destroying that Nomu, and she can fight in several places at once. Her quirk doesn’t make sense. It feels like she has more than one, as well, which is also a problem.” Shigaraki stated.
“I guess that is true.” Kurogiri trailed off for a moment. “All of those abilities did not seem to stem off of one power alone. They were too different.” He sighs, before looking to the side, putting down a cup he had just cleaned out. “However, I don’t think anyone in the populous should be able to have two quirks, or more. The only person we know that does, is right in the back room.”
The crusty-skinned man lets out a groan of frustration. “We will be going to release those Nomu tomorrow, seeing as we failed to gain the loyalty of Stain. I think I can leave that to you, though, Kurogiri. However, on to the next plan in mind- I am planning on trying to apprehend that Katsuki kid in the future He could make a powerful villain.”
Kurogiri stares down to the other, knowing well that it was a bad idea already. However, he was not here to tell the other what he should or should not do. The other didn’t always listen to him when he was there to give him advice.
Tomura took note of the other looking away, a common sign that Kurogiri thought the plan was going to fall on its face. Usually, the other was right. “Spit it out, what do you think is wrong with the plan?”
After some moments of contemplating what he was going to say, the shadow-encumbered man looks back to the younger man. “That kid you are planning on apprehending is unruly, and unable to be controlled by his teammates and teachers. I don’t think it is a good idea to try and bring him here, of all places. All for One wouldn’t have a use for him, he has several explosion based quirks already that are far more lethal than that kid's quirk. As stated before, the kid is also very unruly, he would never agree. Even if he did, he would be impossible to keep in line.”
The younger man thought about it for a moment, before letting out a sigh, mostly in defeat. However, he sat up straighter, thinking of something else. “I have a different proposal.”
“I am all ears.”
(To be Continued)