by Hayes, Drew
“Actually, Mary, I think it’s time we went our separate ways.” Vince stopped a few feet short of a sharp turn in the dark hallway. “Maybe it’s better we handle the rest of this on our own.”
“Come on, Vince. I know you’re feeling weakened, but together we can still—”
“I’m not sure what’s going on with you, Mary,” Vince interrupted. “And I trust you enough not to pry. But considering the battle against Professor Cole, refusing to take part in Roy’s and my fight, and now sticking with dragging me around… did you really think I wouldn’t notice? You’re holding back, working as support instead of going for the win. I’m not going to let you drag yourself down anymore by trying to help me. That’s not the kind of victory I want.”
“Vince, you’re down an arm and you’ve used up a tremendous amount of energy,” Mary pointed out. “Is this really the time to try and strike off on your own?”
“As I see it, this is the perfect time.” Vince turned from her, heading down a nearby hallway that split off from their current location. “Feel free to come at me, since we’ve dissolved the team. I can’t do much to stop you now. If not, then next time we see each other, it will be as opponents.”
Some part of Vince was braced for an attack—one good telekinetic slam that threw him into a wall or broke more of his bones—but it never came. Instead, Vince was allowed to keep walking down the hall, until another turn took him in the opposite direction of Mary. He really didn’t get what was going on with her today. All the same, he was glad she hadn’t struck when she had the chance. Broken and battered though he was, Vince hadn’t yet given up on victory.
After all, it wasn’t like everyone else would be unscathed by this point either.
* * *
Despite the effort claiming two points had taken, Alice was remarkably unhurt. She was feeling unexpectedly cheery about that as she floated along, glad not to be nursing wounds mid-battle for a change. There was something to be said for the Subtlety method, skulking around unseen and then striking from the shadows. In the constant run of Sim trials and city-wide battles, she’d almost forgotten the utility of stealth. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one employing such methods.
Alice had just entered a new hallway when the doorway behind sealed shut with orange energy, the same energy that began to run along the walls, all the way to the next doorway, which also sealed shut. It was like she was inside a tube of phosphorescent orange, with a lone man covered in the stuff a few feet away.
“This is new,” Alice remarked. “Usually, you just wrap yourself in energy.”
“I’ve been trying to increase my effectiveness in close quarters combat,” Thomas replied. “Although finding a suitable location and lying in wait did diminish the number of opponents I could engage.”
“And then you had the misfortune of getting me. That really sucks; I’ll buy you a beer when this is all over.” Alice shifted the nearby gravity, using enough force to slam Thomas into the ceiling without doing too much damage. To her surprise, he remained rooted in place, still looking at her through the armor of orange energy.
“Funny thing about gravity: if you have a firm enough grip on a surface you aren’t going to be thrown around by it. And the bond between the energy on my feet and the floor is unshakeable. So, Alice, I think it’s going to be me who owes you a beer when we’re done here.”
132.
Professor Pendleton had once told his senior class that a Subtlety Hero was often expected to see a hundred moves ahead—to know every plot, scheme, and trap the opponents had prepared and be ready to counter them all. He’d then gone on to explain that this was, of course, fucking idiocy. No one could plan for every possible scenario or know the schemes of all potential opponents. However, the fact that it was untrue didn’t mean that, as Subtlety Heroes, they shouldn’t play into the expectation. Not for the sake of their teammates, who would know better, but rather for their enemies. Being seen as all-knowing was a useful reputation to have.
Alice wasn’t sure how she was going to bluff her way out of this situation, unfortunately. It was obvious that she’d stepped right into one hell of a trap from pretty much all angles. The orange energy glowed along every surface, disorienting her as she searched for the concealed exits. Even if she knew where to escape to, it wasn’t as though she had worked out how to pull it off yet. Thomas’s plan was a good one. Scary good, in some ways. After lagging behind the rest of the others in growth for a while, he’d hit upon a technique no one else could pull off: total territorial domination. Everything in this hall belonged to Thomas, coated in his damned energy and completely under his control.
Dipping low, Alice barely dodged a fist that swung out from the ceiling toward her. Two more hands reached out from the wall, causing Alice to veer more toward the center of the hallway. She’d only just realized that she was being herded when a half-dozen orange tendrils shot out from Thomas’s hand and tried to wrap around her. Darting through the air, Alice backpedaled and avoided them momentarily, but the effort had driven her closer to the walls and therefore left her vulnerable.
It had been a long time since Alice had been on the ropes like this; between her flight and gravitational skills, there were precious few threats she couldn’t handle from a distance. But she had been pushed into a corner before, and she’d never forgotten how much she hated it: the panic, the fear, the sense of being useless. That was why she’d undertaken her summer training with Roy and Mary; sometimes she couldn’t fling an opponent through the air, and in moments like that she needed raw power as much as finesse.
Sliding away from the wall, Alice glanced over at Thomas’s glowing orange form. So far as she could tell, the suit of energy covered every inch of him, bonding his feet to the ground and keeping his body propped up. While she could, theoretically, turn up the gravity around him until it was too strong for his energy to support, depending on the amount of power it took he might die the moment his suit of protection failed. Against a real villain, it was an undesirable but potentially necessary move. Against a fellow student, however, it was far too dicey to risk. Luckily, Alice did have other options. It was just too bad for Thomas that they were going to hurt like hell.
“Hey, Thomas, just a quick heads up.” Alice spoke even as she wove her way through more limbs striking out at her from the ceiling. One caught her shoulder, imparting a powerful blow that she could feel starting to bruise immediately. “When you feel something start to give, please surrender. I don’t want to hurt you anymore than I have to.”
“Your concern is noted, and your warning is heard,” Thomas said. “But don’t presume victory just yet. You aren’t the only one with tricks up your sleeve.”
Alice struck then, because she knew she had to. While she had yet to see the exact form of what Thomas was planning, she knew he was preparing for a large assault. If she didn’t take this opportunity, there very well might not be another. She narrowed her focus, carefully examining every curve and angle of his energy-coated form to assess where parts of his body were. The world around her sprang to life. Dozens of hands surged from the walls, floors, and ceiling, surrounding her instantly. There was no way to dodge, no chance at escape. Some detached part of her was floored that Thomas could create so many pseudo-limbs at once. He really had come a long way since freshman year. But then again, so had she.
The glowing hands grabbed her arms and legs, yet Alice didn’t try to avoid them. This was no longer a match of dexterity; it was one of focus. The victor would be whoever had the greater concentration… and perhaps the ability to fight through pain. Keeping her attention at the spot where Alice imagined Thomas’s ankles to be, she let loose another fluctuation of gravity. This time, the area was tightly contained; everything was happening within Thomas’s skin. Twin forces suddenly manifested, pulling with extreme power in opposite directions, one slightly higher up than the other. With enough force, Alice could theoretically sheer bones in half or rip limbs clean off, although she’d neve
r actually attempted such a tactic. Today was no exception. Alice didn’t need to break a bone, not when joints were already much easier targets.
In the chaos around her, Alice couldn’t hear the ligaments tear or the joints dislocate, but she did notice the hands around her slow down. Good a sign as that was, with no call of surrender from Thomas she didn’t pause to presume victory. That proved to be a smart call, as moments later the orange arms redoubled their efforts. Inhumanly strong hands tightened their grips, until it felt like they were holding her by the bones. Some began to pull her limbs back, trying to put her into a submission hold. It struck her that, in a sense, she and Thomas were using the same strategy, just going about it in different ways.
Her right arm snapped at the same time she dislocated Thomas’s knees. Both of them screamed that time, and the orange walls warped and rippled. No doubt about it, Alice was weakening his concentration. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as though she were free of trouble herself. It was taking everything she had—and perhaps a bit more—to continue focusing on warping the gravity around Thomas’s body. Everything else had fallen away. She hardly even remembered why they were fighting or what they were doing down here in the first place. All she could think of, all she could see, was victory.
Then her left leg broke, and Alice nearly bit her tongue by accident as her jaw tightened. One more… one more, and she’d probably lose focus from the pain. But not yet. She could hit him again. Even if it was nothing more than a parting final shot, Alice refused to go down without getting in another strike. Blocking out the pain as best she could, Alice glared down at that damn orange body, which had to be the only thing keeping Thomas upright, and created one last burst of warped gravity.
There was no scream as Thomas’s legs dislocated from his pelvis, which seemed strange until Alice noticed the pressure holding her immediately lessen. All around her, the orange energy was fading, leaving her once again cloaked in shadows as the darkness returned. Thomas was the last source of light, and as his body-covering flickered out, he tumbled over. On instinct, Alice slowed his descent so he landed lightly rather than cracking his skull against the concrete.
“You passed out from the pain, didn’t you?” She lowered herself carefully to the ground, never quite making contact. Part of this was out of caution, just in case he was playing possum, but it was also due to the fact that her snapped left leg wasn’t going to hold her weight. “Credit where it’s due: you never did give up.”
With Thomas out, that gave her three points. She’d been hoping for more, but given her injuries, Alice had to face the possibility that she might lack the focus to win another. Still, the trial wasn’t done yet, so it was worth trying.
If nothing else, she liked to think she’d put on a hell of a showing for a Subtlety major.
133.
After a powerful opening set of matches, slowly but surely the students were beginning to fall.
Amber, Britney, and Violet got off a series of exceptional attacks on Professor Stone, but ultimately the woman once known as Emerald Hydra proved to be more than they could handle. Violet was the last to go down, stubbornly manipulating her density with shocking skill as she was pelted with attacks. Eventually, she too was knocked unconscious. It had been a good showing though, and that was what these trials were about as much as the actual results. Could a student learn when backed into a corner? Could they grow and show that their evolution was not yet complete? Could they prove that they would continue getting stronger after graduation, becoming the sort of Heroes who could carry on for decades?
Many of Dean Blaine’s students had done just that already, and the crowd clearly noticed. But the trial was nearly over, with only six students still in the labyrinth and all save for Mary and Camille injured in some way. There wasn’t much left to go. Yet the crowd stayed focused, because in some ways this was as vital to their evaluation as the first battles. After all, Heroes often went into situations tired, or hurt, or drained in every measure. Seeing who could push through, who could get the job done in spite of battered bodies and broken bones… well, that was as much the measure of a Hero as punching through walls or turning into fog.
Here, at least, Dean Blaine was unworried. Whatever fears he might have had about his students and their abilities, whatever rumors or nicknames might be circulating about the senior class, there was one thing he was unshakably certain on: this was a class with grit. They would fight until they were unable to move.
And even then, they might try to squeeze off a parting shot or two.
* * *
“Mary, Vince, Alice, and Camille. Mary is the closest, with Vince being the second.” Alex opened his eyes, ignoring the static swimming at the edges of his vision. Between manipulating all that fog and having his body shocked halfway to unconsciousness, it felt as though his entire head was stuffed full of cotton. Shane appeared to be holding it together well, but Alex could feel the pain radiating off his body. While Shane might act like he was fine, he couldn’t lie to himself, and that was the same as not being able to lie to Alex.
“Please tell me everyone else is at least a little hurt,” Shane said. It had been his idea to rest and let Alex assess the remaining opponents in the labyrinth. After walking for ten minutes without seeing a soul, they’d both been curious about how many opponents were left. And, though he hadn’t said it out loud, Shane was beginning to wonder if he and Alex were going to have to deal with each other.
Alex nodded. “From what I can tell, Vince and Alice are both in bad shape. Camille and Mary don’t seem to be feeling any pain, though.”
“Well, no surprise from the healer, but I was hoping Mary would be a little roughed up. If she’s still at full strength, we don’t stand a chance. Maybe if she wasn’t a telepath, and we could surprise her, but as is, she’d know we were coming and lie in wait.”
“Who should it be, then?” Alex asked.
“I think… I think it’s time we faced the facts.” Shane took a few steps away from Alex, not assuming an aggressive stance yet, but Alex already knew it was only a few words away. “We’re in pretty similar shape right now. Neither of us can handle another professor, and if we go after other students, only one of us would get the points for it. Plus, there’s no guarantee we’d even win those matches. Against each other… I’m not sure it’s right to say this is a fair fight, but we are both about the same degree of wounded. If you’re okay with it, we should probably square off.”
“And if I’m not?” Alex actually didn’t mind the idea one bit; he’d expected it would come down to this from the moment he accepted Chad’s invitation. If anything, this was better than he’d hoped for, since he wasn’t fighting Chad as well. He was curious to see what Shane would say if he declined the fight, though.
“Then we go our separate ways,” Shane replied. “As a teammate, temporary or not, we can give one another that courtesy. Walk off, do our own thing, and next time we see one another it’s as opponents. You had my back in there with Professor Pendleton; I’m not going to stab you in yours as thanks.”
“I appreciate that. I really do.” It was Alex’s turn to move, shaking his head in a vain attempt to clear the static and walking several feet away from Shane. He could barely see him in the dim halls of the labyrinth, but he could feel Shane’s existence, his tension, his every movement. “All the same, I think I’d rather have that match right here and now. It feels fitting, in a way. If someone is going to take me down, I think it should be my teammate. Besides, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit curious about who can win under these circumstances.”
Shane smiled in the darkness; already he was mentally shoving away his pain. “Tight quarters, minimal vision, and both of us with moderate injuries. No way around it; this is going to be a quick draw.”
“My thoughts exactly.” With nowhere to run or dodge to, it was going to be a matter of who got their attack off first. Either Alex would grab Shane by the spine, or Shane’s shadows would come close enough t
o score a hypothetical deathblow. “We agree to officially start the match on three?”
“Works for me.” Shane tensed as he began focusing on the myriad of shadows around them. Speed and precision: those were his strengths, the aspects of his ability he trained most diligently. Alex, on the other hand, had spent years working on control and increasing his power. From every conceivable angle, this match was in Shane’s favor, yet Alex said nothing in protest. When he was a Hero, assuming he reached that lofty goal, his fights weren’t going to be fair, or balanced, or carefully monitored. Taking on stronger opponents now was how he’d ready himself for when he faced the same situation later on, albeit with much more dire stakes.
“One.” Alex’s voice echoed through the nearly empty hall.
“Two.” Shane’s word was barely above a whisper, yet Alex could hear every last syllable and inflection.
“Three.” That time, they spoke together, and as they did both reached out with their minds and powers. Alex could feel the shadows around him springing to life even as he narrowed his focus. There was no time to be gentle with this; he just had to aim low so as not to disturb any of Shane’s more vital biological processes. Mentally grabbing a cluster of spinal nerves, Alex delivered a swift, careful blow, severing them completely.
He had just enough time to feel a thrill of triumph and hear the gentle thump of Shane falling over before the tips of several shadow-blades rested against his neck and chest.
“Death… blow.” Shane’s jaw was clenched in pain, but the blades never wavered. Somehow, he’d managed to stay conscious and land the winning attack, even as his back broke within his skin.
“Damn, I thought I had you, but there’s no denying this would be my death.” Alex raised his hands slowly, and the shadows evaporated from around him. Nearby, a portion of the wall slid open, revealing bright light and a stairway leading up.