ONE HUNDRED NINETY-THREE: Preview

[A/N: This chapter is written, but looking back over it tonight, it's so busy. Lots of characters moving around. I'm going to do another revision pass tomorrow to make it easier to read, then post the rest of it. For now, I've re-done the first 1500ish words, so these are ready for you all.

(For those of you who monitor Royal Road postings, that one is going to be going up tomorrow as well. I think it's fine and doesn't need much changing at all, if any, but I just need to be more awake than I currently am to read it. I'll go ahead and make that post public here for anyone who wants to enjoy it tonight.)

As always, if the delay makes you miss a chapter, shoot me a message. I'm always happy to email them.


If you don’t know the names of some of the less frequently occurring characters off the top of your head, let this be your guide:

In order of appearance:

Torsten Klein — Instructor Klein is an S-rank Agility Brute who teaches gym class. He is reluctant to have a Rabbit in the hero program. Alden doesn’t dislike Instructor Klein, but he’s also very aware that he doesn’t have Klein’s full approval. Catch Klein was the game they played in the first week of class that nobody ever succeeded at.

Hale Zhang-Demir —  S-rank Dura Brute. Haoyu’s mother. Helped the boys get settled into their new apartment and took them shopping for huntski lodge decor with her assistant, Molly. Summoned to the Triplanets with more frequency than most. Has commendations. Also works as part of a hero team called Omega Scorpii that is based out of Anesidora and used to respond to sudden upticks in violence or trouble elsewhere.  

Jianwei Zhang-Demir (Zhang Jianwei)  — S-rank Dura Brute. Haoyu’s father. Helped taste test food for Thanksgiving and pack up the coolers. Also a member of Omega Scorpii. Recently fought with the Matadero battlegroup. Esh-erdi admired his style. 

Aparna Sethi — S-rank Adjuster, type unstated. Former superhero, current grandma. Her grandson Ignacio is an S-rank Knife Meister in the class. He doesn’t speak up much because English isn’t one of the two languages he’s fluent in (Spanish and Hindi), and he often keeps translations turned off so that he can practice. He’s the one that sends flocks of knives flying around. Unless you’re weak, and then he stalks you with a single blade to make things fairer. At least one of the girls finds this far scarier than the alternative, and Alden didn’t like it much either when they dueled in a previous chapter.

Morrison Waker/Big Snake — S-rank Morph Brute. He has a small and fast mode and a big and strong mode. We almost always see him in big and strong mode. Currently workin’ on his pitchin’. By pitching things at students. 

Galecourse/Melanie Carisson — S-rank Shaper of Sky. Vandy’s mom. Blows stuff around. Was on a perfume commercial. Was on Matadero with Haoyu's dad and Esh-erdi.

Heloísa — an A-rank Strength Brute. Very athletic with a bright, competitive personality. Often challenges Mehdi to things. 

Mehdi — an A-rank Agility Brute. Kon’s roommate. Very athletic with a competitive personality. He is currently being more friendly than usual to Alden. Alden and Haoyu theorize this is because Mehdi beat him in a duel. 

Reinhard — an A-rank Meister of Bow. He shot Alden a lot during combat assessment. He has recently given himself a buzzcut. He helpfully tried to matchmake Astrid and Jeffy like a proper Cupid when the three of them ended up being left behind at the mall on the night of the Submerger disaster. Although he caused some friction on the team during the first day of the obstacle course, they ended up getting along well with him in the end. Alden didn’t want to partner with him for this gym class, though, because Reinhard likes to be in charge.  

Astrid — an A-rank Morph Brute. Alden quite likes Astrid. She’s almost always positive, and they’ve worked together frequently in gym. They have tentative plans to go see an animal cafe together because Astrid likes animals, and Alden wants to hold a chicken. As a beginner Morph, she doesn’t have a lot of fancy powers that are useful for combat, so she relies on basic Brute physicality and…in some cases…the most random surprise attacks she can think of. 

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“This is Lexi,” said Torsten Klein, the wanted poster behind him expanding to show the Meister. The video clip started to play, and the four volunteers saw a chain extend and bend in an ‘S’  shape to slice two different incoming tennis balls in half. “Wonderful student. He’s dedicated, takes instruction well, asks thoughtful questions after reviewing his footage—”

“So much praise! You didn’t have anything to say about Haoyu.”

“He probably didn’t say anything about Haoyu because you talked about him for three minutes straight,” Hale Zhang-Demir said to her husband. “There was nothing left to cover.”

Haoyu’s father laughed and waved Torsten on. “Tell us about Lexi! How’s he doing now that he finally made it here?”

“Well from the looks of it,” said Aparna Sethi, an interested expression on her face. “I know Meisters have an advantage in combat, especially these young ones. I told my Ignacio he’d be cheating with those knives of his. But that’s impressive, and…I think I’ve seen that weapon before.”

“Then you’re in rare company,” said Klein. “Lexi is only the second known Meister with a Mind Writher. The first was an unregistered who died decades ago after causing some trouble with his. You might remember it from new weapon reports released back then?”

Aparna nodded. “It’s harder to keep track now, with so many more exotic options being given to our Meisters. Back then, anything that didn’t closely resemble human weaponry stood out more and caused a stir.”

“This one caused a stir among the faculty. It’s got very obvious potential. He can cut a car in half with it and thread a needle, theoretically at the same time. And it gets hot, sometimes randomly.”  One of the tennis balls on the video was smoking. “Fittingly for a whiplike weapon, it’s capable of supersonic speeds. That’s part of the trouble with it. For us and for Lexi. It’s overly responsive to him, in a way. Even his idle thoughts, or his moods, seem to change its motion. When he’s consciously controlling it, it’s actually much easier to fight him. Slower. More predictable.

“As he switches from conscious control to a more spontaneous, reflexive state in the heat of a fight…things get a little more interesting.” 

The clip shifted to a new one, showing Lexi in a duel against Tuyet. 

“This is a fast enough reaction to deal with anyone in the current class,” said Torsten, as he zoomed in to show the whip slicing a dart out of the air, its tip already coiling toward another one and just missing. “If that first dart hadn’t been a decoy, Lexi might not have lost this fight. However, he can’t respond this quickly deliberately.”

“Poor Lexi,” said Hale. “I’m sure that frustrates him to death. He’s not someone who enjoys being out of control.”

“He’ll get there,” Klein said confidently. “We’ll get him there. For now, though, don’t let him kill you with this thing, Aparna. It has two very different paces.”

The Adjuster smiled. “Controlled,” she said.  “And <<mischievous>>.”

“Yes,” Klein agreed. “Now, moving on to Reinhard, we have a student who…”

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“You chopped my girlfriend in half.”

“I am so sorry, Everly. I don’t know why…I can’t believe I—”

“It’s fine,” said Haoyu, holding Everly’s stiff form out toward Lexi as if to offer proof. “Look. Fine. You’re fine, right, Everly?”

“I’m not mad or anything, but I’ve been better.”

It had only been a few seconds, and the team was recovering from the attacks. Alden’s shoes crunched on a shard of the lamp Big Snake had thrown that hadn’t yet blown away. He was still holding his shield of woven webbing between Galecourse and the team. 

We can’t stay here.

His heart was pounding. An attack from Klein had a tendency to do that. Thinking about the fact that if this were real, Everly would be dead, just like that from a simple accident—that would get your adrenaline going, too. 

And who knew how long they had before something else came their way?

Instructor Klein had left their team and pelted toward one of Heloísa’s teammates, a Vocal Brute who was running toward the middle of the gym. She seemed to be making a solo break for the finish line…unless she was just freaking out because Mrs. Zhang-Demir had barreled into her team and grabbed their captain.

Klein took the running Brute down in a similar fashion to Kon. Apparently it was leg-breaker day for him.

Is his arm stiff? It’s kind of hard to tell. At the rate he’s moving, he’ll be back here in a minute to hit us all again. 

“We take Everly back to the start and see if her suit goes back to normal,” he said. The wind stopped. Galecourse repositioning, thought Alden, glancing over the top of the shield at her. “Kon needs to be healed, too, if possible. It’s really early in the class for him to be working with one leg, especially if this is the pace we’re going to be dealing with.”

“I don’t know how it happened,” Lexi was saying. “Klein was just so hard to attack and he was right here in the middle of us all and…”

Kon, Haoyu, and Alden exchanged looks. In Haoyu’s arms, Everly’s face was pointed straight up at the ceiling, the neck of her suit not allowing enough freedom of movement for her to do much else. And Lexi was too busy staring at her to notice them; his expression was devastated, and the murder weapon hung short and limp from his right hand. 

“I could take her back by myself while the rest of you press forward,” said Kon.

“All together,” said Alden. “What if someone attacks you? And don’t you have to hop on one leg?”

“I hop like an S-rank. And I’m not the most useless S-rank despite what certain people on the internet—”

“What are my parents doing to people?”

At Haoyu’s question, Alden looked around again. In the past few seconds, Heloísa had somehow ended up back at the starting line. Her remaining teammates were scattered like chickens. One of them seemed to be trying to join up with Mehdi’s team. 

And Mrs. Zhang-Demir, who’d been grabbing Heloísa the last time Alden had looked at her, now had Astrid tucked under her arm like a stuffed animal with a surprised look stitched on its face. She was running toward the starting line with her Astrid doll while Max was dragged along behind them, clinging to Astrid’s ankle like he hoped that might make Haoyu’s mother let go. 

Meanwhile, Jeffy was rolling across the floor from some attack Alden hadn’t seen, and Finlay was grabbing the heavy lifematter bag Jeffy must have dropped when he fell, snatching it up and glaring toward Winston Heelfeather, who was out on the floor now, still without a team. 

Possibly for the purpose of bag theft? “What the—?”

Before Alden could get the words out, his eyes skimmed past Winston and over to Reinhard’s team at the corner opposite from them, still very close to the start. He saw the archer raising his bow in defense as Haoyu’s dad ran toward his team.

Mr. Zhang-Demir was currently in between their two teams.

“Possible arrow from four o’clock.” 

Haoyu shifted Everly to one arm and lifted a fist. 

Lexi turned to see the potential threat, but what he was going to do about it with his whip in embarrassed-mode was anyone’s guess.

Reinhard released his arrow. Haoyu’s father dodged, easily as Alden had expected.

He tensed, but although it had looked like the arrow might fly right at their team given the direction of the shot, a timely gust from Galecourse worked in their favor this time. It slowed and turned the arrow.

“Good call,” said Haoyu. “We need to watch the ranged people, too. When Marsha finally gets out here and starts swinging…”

“Enough chatting. Alden’s right. Time to run. All together,” said Kon. “Lexi, get your whip up.” 

He bonked his brother’s shoulder with his forehead. “Stop being dumb. Let’s go.”

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More to come...