Zone 2
Aritage really was making them work for it, huh? Still warm and comfortable on the heated leather seat of the bus, the child-proctor continued to multitask between examining the separate zones and marking up new dummy-saviors as they came it. There was the slightest wince when she noted that the tanned girl had sustained an injury on her foot, emboldened perhaps by the musician’s power-up, but before she came to a conclusion whether or not to call in some external help or not, the two of them worked to come up with a temporary solution for that injury. Good. She couldn’t comment on their skill at first aid, but that sort of self-reliance was what she wanted to see.
Switching over to the residential area, she pursed her lips slightly at the decision the trio of Sumi, Goro, and Taro made. Not bad, but not totally good either. There was always a line, wasn’t there, between ‘heroes’ and ‘professionals’. Still, points were points, and when the three made it into the bus, they all looked a little worse for wear. None of them had attempted any of the herculean feats that Hikari, Minami, or Houki did, but the second trio came in winded regardless. She offered them a smile, then shooed them off to carefully monitor the situation with Shun.
No one was in the area, but the Dragon could make it there fast if something went wrong, at least.
And as for the group that was growing right in front of the bus…well, guess the Mastermind would have his hands full as well.
@Stern Algorithm@Lugubrious@vFear@KoL@TheWindel@Sho Minazuki@AdmrlStalfos19It would have been an exaggeration to say that Mari’s foot injury was crippling, but she was certainly favoring her uninjured foot by the time she scrambled over the mounds of rubble in Zone 5 with her dummy. The extra weight and the injury had made her the last to arrive at the bus, where a surprising amount of other students had gathered. Some were still catching their breaths, while others were just about to set off once more, but it was clear that they have all found success one way or the other. Only the trio that had set off to fight villains had yet to produce any concrete results, it appeared.
Karmic retribution? Perhaps.
But the sight of the goal sped up her own steps, and there was even a spring when she climbed up into the bus…just in time to see one of the adult-sized dummies twist and contort. It grew in size, its pearl-colored body shifting into flesh and fiber, and it crackled as complex joints too bothersome to replicate within an artificial body popped into existence, bone and cartilage and flesh and hair sprouting out. And, with all the magnanimity of a child, the
human being that formed from the body of a dummy, yawned. Blinked. Looked out the window. Scratched his head.
“Wow, guess I picked a bad time.”He stood at a daunting 6’5, and his body was sculpted like a Greek God, all rippling muscle and might, constrained only barely by the smart three-piece suit he work. His hair, dark as the blackest dusk, was slicked back, while his eyes shimmered with the gold of a cruel sun, and with three great steps, he closed the distance between himself and Mari. Glanced to the window again, where so many others were outside. Placed a finger against his lips.
“Shhhhhhh.”Zone 5
@zelosseKaito was now alone and with no one he could benefit with his quirk, the masked youth was noticing that he may have been just a little bit too carefree. He could have come with Mari, helped her out, maybe carry the dummy for her, and then bring it up the bus and ‘accidentally’ take credit for it. He could have even come along with her just so he wasn’t so alone in the Zone, where dummies still played their audio tracks of pain and agony. But no. He didn’t. And now here he was, doing…whatever the hell he was supposed to do in a disaster zone with a quirk that actually literally did nothing to help himself work.
Shuffling through a mound of rubble, he skirted past the large gap that lead to the underground system and was just about to turn the corner to try his luck with one of the bent-over cars when the youth caught a glimpse of movement past the fog. Another student to help? Naturally drawn to the shape, Kaito headed over only to encounter…
“Geh.”As their eyes met, both Kaito and the strange woman froze. With auburn hair and storm gray eyes, she was certainly on another dimension compared to the exam-takers, simply from her dimensions of her figure and the outlandishly lavish outfit she wore. Dressed in a frilly outfit that looked like it came from the 1900s, she held a parasol in one hand and an embroidered handkerchief over her mouth, while silk gloves covered her slim hands. The coloration was a bold (but hilariously edgy) red-and-black, and her hair itself was done up fashionably with a decorated hat worn slanted to complete the faux-Victorian design. She looked at Kaito, then around him, and finally let out a sigh.
Maybe she should have stayed holed up after all. Shoulda brought a book to read. Alas, mistakes riddled her career no matter where she went…
Thrusting her hip out sideways, and bringing up a splayed hand over her eye, she ignored the reddening of her ears as she said, boldly, dramatically,
“The Terrors of the Abyss Calls, and the Black Banquet Begins! Look Upon the Trumpeting of the Apocalypse and Despair, Foolish Heroes! What Stands Before You is Naught But the Obliteration of All That You Cherish and Glorify! The Half-Fallen Ruler of Hell’s Gates! The Queen of Shadow and Sin! The True Symbol of Villainy and Plunder!”She flourished her parasol and opened it, casting red sparkles around her.
“I Am The Maiden of The Sundered Bell! Bow Before Me and Abandoned Your Unfated Ideals!”Zone 6
@Scribe of ThothIt was claustrophobic and tight, and as he shimmied through the small spaces that only he could enter, Shun definitely felt the shelves groan and shift. Dangerous. So dangerous. If he was pinned, would they be able to distinguish his own screams for help from the screams of the dummies? Would anyone even notice him being gone until the exam ended? And even if he could possibly pixelate himself out, what injuries would he have sustained simply by having all these hard, wooden masses fall down upon him?
Twenty minutes had passed since the exam had started, and he was doubtlessly now in the minority of students who hadn’t managed to save a single dummy. Sweat dripped from his back, and not all of it was from exertion alone.
But he pressed on, and after two of the crawlspaces ended up in disappointing dead ends, Shun finally struck metaphorical gold, his hand grasping onto the leg of a child-sized dummy that he could forcibly pull out from between the tight gaps of the oaken bookshelves. Some more effort, some more scrapes, some more of that dreadful groaning from the pile above, and he popped out.
The first dummy.
He’d done it.
It was only then did Shun notice the bloody scrapes on his knees, the burning scratches on his palms and knuckles.
