"And so each line on the map represents altitude, as you can see here…"
Ms. Collins breezed through the revision class. She was teaching entry level geography information to a class about to sit their exams. They weren't listening, and she was well aware of that. As she sleepily gazed around the room, most were either studying for the exams or goofing off.
"Right, if anyone wants to end this class early, feel free to pack up."
Everyone did as instructed, and when the bell rang, she was left in an empty classroom.
Alison was dead. That was confirmed in the news reports, even though nobody in the school mentioned it. It wasn't even said that you couldn't mention it. They were probably just deciding to be cautious about the whole thing. She looked at her arm. She focused on it, clenching her fist and flexing her muscles. Until the blue crystal returned.
It formed instantly. Not smooth at all, incredibly jagged and unwieldly looking She swung it around for a little. It didn't feel like anything was attached to it. She grabbed an old orange, already kinda moldy, from her bag. She set it on a table that belonged to one of the more rowdy students, and positioned her arm. She put in in a karate chop motion just in case that would do anything, and sliced straight downwards.
The table was in two, with the top having several dents in it. Well, the principal knew one of the games hosts enough to get updates, so she could explain it away, right? That or it just never gets mentioned like Alison's death.
She didn't have any classes for the rest of the day, so she left. Didn't bother checking out, either. And why should she? If that note was to be believed, she'd have to compete for her life tonight. She didn't give any assignments and just told everyone to study, which was the beauty of the end of the year. So she had what felt like the first free evening in years. And when pondering what to do with it, her phone buzzed.
'HEY SIS LET'S GO TO THE BAR MY CHECK CAME IN!!!!! IM PAYING!!!!!'
Her sister. Offering a trip to the bar. Which meant at least five bars. Screw it, not like she had any other plans.
'sure'
Tedros schooling was finally finished, and he had a week off. Space Piece was on break, so all he could do was study and play some video games once he got home. So he waited for the bus. He checked his phone to see what the wider Space Piece community was up to. It was mostly 'cosplays' of the characters, which consisted of a wig that vaguely resembled a haircut of a character and then a bikini top. Visually amazing, but terrible from a lore and character accuracy standpoint. And yet it continues to hit the sites front page, because the mods refuse to do anything.
But he was shaken awake by a random cry of pain. He looked up, and two men were circled around a young woman. Looked a little older than him, clearly not wanting whatever they were offering. So he approached the two.
"Sorry, what's going on here?" He asked.
"What's it matter to you?" One of them asked. He looked older than both him and the girl. Should definitely be like, in college. Or working a factory job, or something. Not harassing women outside of a high school.
"She seemed uncomfortable." Tedros replied. "I mean, do you not have a job or something?"
The man responded with a punch to the gut. Tedros keeled over after that, and his sidekick sneered as he put a boot on his back. The woman escaped, and Tedros came to the conclusion that this might have been a bad idea. Regardless, he placed a dot on the ground with a single finger. Then another below it. And a final one besides the second dot.
The pillar erupted, grazing the nose of the main thug and freezing him in fear, which gave his friend a chance to run away. He himself eventually ran away, leaving just him and the girl, still breathing heavily.
"Are you okay?" She asked, reaching into her purse.
"I'm fine." He replied casually. "It's…my duty."
He walked away before she could respond or pester him with more gifts. After all, heroes didn't accept those from everyone they saved. Although the issue arose of the games rules. Outside of self defence, he wasn't allowed to use the new powers on people not in the games. So if he wanted to help, he'd have to take a hit first. Dangerous indeed. But that's the idea. His new name? The counter. The hero who can only attack after being provoked, but bounds back with righteous fury, countering both his opponent, and eventually the evils of society.
Latrell skated by the old basketball court and to one of the abandoned buildings that lay before it. Place was mostly abandoned outside of a single apartment building and a few stores and food trucks. And it seemed like a place that needed to be livened up with one Latrell original.
She got her spray cans ready and found a wall of suitable size, and began moving. The piece came together in her mind almost instantly. All the colours blended together perfectly in her mind as she rapidly sprayed across the walls, each line perfectly planned, without needing to take a single error into account.
The final piece was of a bunch of stuffed bear looking creatures dancing around a mushroom cloud. Human triumph in the face of adversity, seemed like a good enough message for a place like this.
As she hopped on her board back home, she couldn't quite place her finger on why everything was so easy for her now. Even the subjects like math she previously struggled with were a breeze in school, to the point that her exams didn't even seem like an issue at all. Granted, she was still gonna try for the art scholarship instead, but having academic achievements to fall back on was pretty nifty.
But as she left, another idea for a piece hit her mind. So on second thoughts, decent chance this place had another wall that needed to be spruced up.