Deciding to follow the guy with red, spiky hair, you run in his direction. Once you pass the concrete walls that separate the simulated city from the outside… you can't see the difference between this place and a real one. There is just too much detail. You are getting closer to a street corner. You can see shops, cars, street signs… Everything looks like if this was just another city block, but devoid of people.
At least around you. People already went ahead while you were deciding what to do. In the distance you can hear fighting and see flashes of light. An explosion to the east and a building crumbling to the north. Seems like these people have more firepower than you thought.
You keep running in the direction that boy went, having to stop for a second. Closer to you than the rest of participants, a boy your age was fighting against two robots… And losing. They were three pointers, rolling on tank treads and with something like missile launchers on their backs. They certainly looked intimidating. At least intimidating enough for that boy to be scared. He was taking steps backs and jumping to dodge the missiles while launching metal spikes from his hands. The missiles weren't dangerous enough to really wound someone, but they would hurt a lot, releasing rubber balls in all directions with each explosion. His attacks were hitting the most armored parts of the robots, doing not much more than just scraping the paint.
He will never pass this test. He can't defeat the robots.
You stand still, watching him from afar. Not everyone will get enough points to pass this test. Not everyone will be a hero. Too many people with the same dream, not enough chances to acomplish it.
He will go home empty-handed. That's how this test works.
…
Inspiration and Teamwork. SOUL roll. DC 70: 71 (66+5), 101 (96+5), 99 (94+5)
Pass x4
CRITICAL PASS!!
But you refuse.
You refuse to let others fail while you succeed. To act as if your dreams are more important than theirs. What makes this better than leaving an innocent behind when they are in danger? No. This test will decide who gets to be a hero... But you don't believe in this kind of system. A hero shouldn't be picked like this. The smartest? The strongest? The weak deserve to be used by the strong to show how superior they are in comparison?
No.
You will be a hero, and it will not start when they give you a license… It's going to start now. You are not going to be happy just protecting everyone's lives.
You will protect everyone's smile too.
Your wrist and arms start to get covered in shiny red scales as your muscles bulge slightly. As you run in the boy's direction, each step makes you soar through the air for a moment, your body more powerful than normal. You reach him in seconds as he fires another of those metal spikes. It impacts against the armor plating of one of those robots.
With a quick push of your will, you change the quirk you are using. Your scales receding and your eyes turning green like your sister's. The spike that was bouncing back gets surrounded by a green glow before shooting back against the robot, entering one of its missile launchers. That makes the weapon malfunction and explode, damaging the robot greatly, but not destroying it. Each one of them has two launchers.
The boy turns around to look at you, surprised. Shorter than you, with black hair and a slightly sad face. Probably believing his hero career was over. "What are you…?" He starts to say, only to be interrupted when another missile flies his way. You use your telekinesis to deflect it easily. Adjusting their direction is not too hard.
"Don't worry…" You say with a smile that would soothe even the most fearful hearts. "I'm here to help. Let's beat them together." Your words seem to have an immediate effect as he turns around and starts to shoot spikes again with renewed vigor while you are busy deflecting their attacks.
"I… I can't! My spikes aren't strong enough!" He screams almost in a desperate tone, doing everything he can. One of his spikes embeds itself in the robot's joint, blocking the movement of one of its arms. Then you have an idea.
"Their weak points!" You shout over the sound of more missiles exploding all around you. The robots detected two participants together, so they called for reinforcements. "Joints, Weapons and Lenses. Aim at those!" You say, seeing another one of these robots coming around the corner. Just how many of them are here? You have to keep your concentration in deflecting the missiles, or you will be overwhelmed as soon as you stop to attack.
Then you hear an explosion behind you, where the other boy was aiming. "I… I did it!" He shouts. You look for just a second. One of the robots stopped working, something inside it exploding. A spike embed in one of its red lenses similar to eyes. "I can do this!"
The next minute is frantic. As you focus on the defense, the guy you helped shoots spikes at the robots with surprising accuracy. Inspired by your words decides to help you, disabling some of them and letting you give the final hit, not caring about the points, wanting to share them with you.
You end up getting ten points in total when robots stop appearing. It took two minutes to start, get here and defeat them all. You might be behind in points… But you helped someone. Time to find others. You still want to find the redhaired boy. As you walk away, you are stopped by the person you just helped. "W-wait! Where are you going now?" He asks.
You turn around to look at him with a smile "You already know how to defeat them and can keep going on your own. I will only hold you back. I'm going to help others accomplish their dreams." He says nothing, so you keep walking. Then you hear his footsteps following you. You look at him, curious.
"I'm not strong enough." He says calmly. "I'm not strong enough to be a hero on my own, but I know others are. I thought I could do it… But if I can't, I will at least help others." His eyes shine with determination instead of sadness. He is willing to not reach his goal to help others do it.
"...What's your name?" You asked, not expecting people to think like you.
"I-Ito. Ito Chigusa!" He says, trying to sound cool in front of you for some reason and feeling embarrassed the second he stops talking. You smile again.
"I'm Shinso Daiki. Come on Chigusa, let's help others!" As you start running, it takes him a second to follow, surprised by you directly using his first name. He wants to follow you even if it means not getting enough points to pass.
You, of course, are not going to stop him from being a hero.
Points: 10
(7/10 EP)
…
Two girls. Twins. Together since birth and inseparable. They were arguing with each other ready to go their separate ways for the first time since this started. Mad at each other, a rift forming in their bond.
"T-That one was mine!" One of the girls says. She used her quirk to fuse the robot legs to the ground, incapacitating it. A capture was still a point, but her sister wanted those points too. Her sister used her power to divide the robot in half, cutting the power and destroying it.
"I'm sorry sis, but fusing them to the ground isn't enough. You should find a way to actually destroy them." She replied smirking, arms crossed. Finally feeling like she was better at something.
"B-but… But you know I can only fuse things together! I need those points…" The usually meek sister's hands trembled with anger. Without her knowing, her body was getting ready for a fight. How could her sister be so mean to her…? She needed the points to be a hero like her!
"What?" The other sister asked, watching her meek sister's hand trembling. She felt a little bad. "Are you going to cry or something…?" She bit her lip. Maybe she was being mean, but she needed the points too!
As they talked, they failed to notice the robot walking up to them. It was more silent than others. A 1 pointer getting ready to fire a round of rubber balls at them. When they noticed it was too late. They both were in the line of fire.
As the balls flew in their direction, they closed their eyes, trying to protect themselves with their arms… But the hit never came. In front of them, a sheet of metal from one of the other robots, surrounded by a green aura. The robot that was attacking them now on the ground with a metal spike embed in what should be its head.
You get closer followed by your new friend. He seems a bit tired and pale from using his quirk too much. "Don't worry. I'm here to help." You say at the two girls with a smile. They are twins. Both white haired and almost identical if it wasn't for they eye color. One blue and the other brown. As you smile at them, they start to blush. They probably are also tired from fighting robots.
"W-we don't need your help!" Says the blue-eyed girl, stepping in your direction. "We already destroyed a ton of them on our own!" She is glaring at you, hands on her hips. She isn't feeling actually angry, at least you don't sense that. Maybe she is trying to look more cool and strong in front of the competition?
"Well, YOU destroyed them…" Her sister mumbles behind her, looking down. Just loud enough for all of you to hear. Now you can feel a slight pang of anger in the blue-eyed one as she turns around.
"That's because I need the points to be a hero!" She shouts. Her sister instead of shouting back just stares at the ground, biting her lip. Not wanting to get into a fight. You decide to get in the way. You are an expert in mediating between two bickering sisters.
"What's the matter?" You ask. The blue eyed one glares at you for getting in the way while the other is just silent.
"We both want to be heroes, but we need every point we can get for that. If one gets too many points the other will be left behind…" She says, surprisingly saddened. Seems quick to anger but has a deeper reason for all of this. Why is she…? Oh. You get an idea.
"Why don't you just… Share the points? First the weakest one gets the points and the strongest will have an easier time later. Who is the strongest?" You ask with an innocent look. They seem unsure about your plan but answer anyway.
"Her." Both say at the same time, looking surprised by each others answer. You smile as it's going like you expected.
"Well… then who worked the hardest to be here? To be a hero?" You ask, now looking from one side to the other, still in the middle of the twins.
"Her..." Both say again. This time you take a step back, letting them look at each other in the eyes before talking.
"You are sisters and this is an important moment for both of you. It's not the time to fight and bicker. You need to help each other…" They look at you and then at each other again. Silent for a moment.
"Uh oh." You hear Chigusa say. He was keeping watch, making sure nothing sneaked up on your group. When you look to see what was the problem, you see a group of robots coming from each street, cutting any sort of retreat.
"Speaking of helping each other… Do you mind helping us here?" You politely ask, even knowing they are as trapped as you are. They both nod and get ready. That's a lot of robots, but you are now four people.
The battle is intense and you can't block every attack. You had to start using ruble and robot parts to block as much as possible but moving heavy things tired you out even more. Luckily for you, with the twins help you managed to completely block one of the streets fusing robot parts together. The rest was a bit easier once there were fewer enemies.
You are proud of your ability for teamwork, fighting together with your new friend like a well-oiled machine… But it pales in comparison of how the twins fight together. Some people say twins can read each other minds. Is a myth, but with how they fight you almost believe it. The blue eyed one touches parts of buildings cutting sections to make obstacles or make them fall on the enemies. The brown eyes sister fuses together enemies or fuses them to the ground, making them much easier to defeat.
When the fight is finally over you stop to rest. It seems like they are sending these robots in waves, probably sending more where people are together. You pat Chigusa's back encouragingly as he sits down to rest for a second. He is definitely not used to fighting. You aren't either of course, but you've been mainly using your telekinesis so you are more tired mentally than physically.
"Why did you help us…?" You hear next to you. The blue-eyed girl got close to you without you even realizing. "You are strong. Why aren't you searching for robots on your own? Don't you want to pass the test?" She asks. She seems confused and slightly annoyed, trying to understand your reason to do this.
"Well…" You say, smiling again like the first time you saw them. "It's because I want to be a hero. A real one. Look at you two… this test made you angry at each other when you should work together. I know that helping others might make me fail, but if I need to trample other people's dreams to be a hero… I prefer to be one on my own terms." You stand up straighter, looking at the sky where a drone with a camera was watching your little group. "I refuse to stop others for accomplishing their dreams, even if that means I will not be an official hero."
The twins stare at you. They were not sure if they stared in awe of your determination or at how weird your reasoning was, but they were unable to stop looking at you. At least until you looked back at them and they had to turn away to avoid your gaze. A blush on their cheeks.
Chigusa is quickly on his feet again, so you start to walk away focused on looking for more people to help. The twins look at each other before nodding and move to your sides. You are a bit surprised by this.
"We will help you." Says the brown eyed girl. "We want to be real heroes too. We can't just use other people as a ladder to reach our dreams." She smiles shyly at you.
"And we can't let you run around being more of a hero that we are!" Says the other girl. "I'm Yamakage Syouin, by the way." She keeps walking next to you. Her sister then realizes she didn't introduce herself.
"I-I'm Yamikage Akane, nice to meet you."
You and the other friend you made introduce yourselves, but have no time to talk. You see more people in danger in the distance.
Points: 20
(5/10 EP)
…
From there things escalated quickly. People started to help each other and talk about your idea of true heroism and how they should be all working together. The weakest participants quickly joined and some of the strongest felt like your message was true.
Soon you had almost 30 people in your group, working as a team. Defeating every robot on sight and sharing points with each other. You felt so proud of them… Even if this was much less than one-tenth of the people in this simulated city. Even the sentient floating clothes joined you, but there was no time to talk.
Less than five minutes left.
That's when the giant robot was released. A huge beast made of metal appeared from the center of the city, destroying buildings as it moved. It was terrifying, so you decided to order everyone to retreat. You would find a place away from that thing to get more points. It seems like everyone was doing the same so it would not hurt others.
But of course, like it always happens in these cases, someone was hurt close to the thing. A girl that was with your group was on the ground, touching her leg. It didn't seem broken, but it hurt too much to stand. The girl's quirk was one for healing, so she was trying to heal her leg quickly. It wasn't enough.
You rushed forward jumping on top of a bit of rubble, using your telekinesis at its maximum potential to launch yourself in her direction, landing next to her using Shirohime's quirk for protection. Your head hurt a lot after doing that, but you had to get here quickly. The girl was really small, like a kid, so she was light enough. You used your telekinesis to help her float away from this place as fast as possible.
Others were coming to help, but the giant robot was already too close. It toppled a building with one of its huge claws. The building almost falls on top of you, blocking your way to your companions. No going that way, the giant robot was too close, so you ran away.
That's how you reached a plaza filled with robots. Some broken, some still fighting. In the center a guy with red spiky hair. His skin seems rough and blocks the robots attacks, allowing him to punch them with surprising strength.
Oh, right, you kind of wanted to follow him at first. Maybe you should go help him, but he seems to handle things well on his own even if he is getting tired. You could go back or...
A robot is approaching you from the side and it gives you an idea.
Points: 20
(4/10 EP)
3 minutes left
[] Turn back and try to find the others.
[] Go help the redhaired boy, he seems to be getting really tired and the robots don't stop coming. (SOUL roll)
Optional:
[] Try to mount and control the robot. Make a good entrance to impress t he boy. (MIND/BODY/SOUL depending on how you do it)
This time write ins are encouraged and even required for the last option.
So... Yeah. Wasn't expecting a crit in a roll like this one. Crits will be pretty rare with this system, even more on rolls with a high number of dice and almost no bonuses. You almost even get double 100s. This deserved something special so... Here, a small army and I made 4 new OCs because I went a bit overboard with this post... Maybe a bit too much. Imagine all of Daiki's smiles with shoujo sparkles everywhere. He went from "charismatic" to "School Idol" tier in one roll.
