Chapter 8 - Hidden Man Event, PT.2

"-ey.. Hey! Wake up." Cracking an eye, I follow the voice. A man sitting opposite of me in the Van glares at me with a harrowing annoyance. I hum, sighing as I wake up. The man sucks his teeth and growls a bit, but nothing more out of him. "Why are you here, brat? This isn't a game; It's life or death." I raise an eyebrow.

"I could ask you the same. Why bother with me?" I shoot back, closing my eyes once more. I hear the man grind his teeth before he sighs. "The reason I'm here is to win and get that money. Obviously." I crack a smile, something I sense he doesn't appreciate.

"You think I'm here for a different reason?" I technically am- Being here for quirk testing and all. But he doesn't need to know that. "Snappy aren't you? You might want to get your act together cause' no one here- in either one of these vans are going to go easy on you." He states, leaning back with a prideful smirk.

My eyebrow involuntarily raises- 'Is he trying to threaten me… Or embarrass himself?' "Uh huh… Alright, I'll keep it in mind…?" I drag; He gets my intention and smirks.

"Quin Smasher." I nod. Closing my eyes, remembering and imagining his form in my mind. Medium length brown hair, tied back with a black hockey mask stuck to his face. His body protected by a thick layer of black armor platings, most likely has a black long sleeve muscle shirt underneath; Green cargo pants and black combat boots brought his outfit to life.

He wasn't a big guy; Maybe in his forties or thirties. Definitely older than me by how deep his voice was. I didn't bother to touch him to try and understand his inner-workings. If I had to guess, it's probably some enhancer quirk since his armor gives him the appearance of a brawler.

'I could be wrong though.' I mentally shrug, feeling the van bounce before coming to a screeching halt. My eyes opened and the other four people in my van looked around confused, but Quin Smasher was just fine. Dead calm like he was when I first saw him in that alley way.

The van doors slid open and immediately got bombarded with the shouts and cheers from a whole warehouse full of people. As I got out, I could see fancy, multi-colored lights flashing ostentatiously with no concern about the outside world.

"Wow~ How exciting!" Kirk, the weird bastard that put something on my glove the last time we met. I still don't know what it is, I don't want to touch it either because it could be a bomb.

'On second thought..' I frown, taking off my glove and tossing it away, now revealing my right hand fully. The others looked at me weird, but I didn't pay them any mind. Kirk locked eyes with me and smirked.

I ignored him, knowing he was up to something. 'Man I hope I go up against him first.' The green riddler inspired man hopped out the van soon after we all lined up. He fixed his tilting hat and presented us to the front door of the warehouse.

"Okay~ From now on, everybody is an enemy! The brackets are simple, but I'll explain it some more when we get there! Now, chop chop! We don't have much time till the event starts!" Motioning for us to enter the building, we did just that.

I found it odd that we all trusted the man with no hesitation. We followed his every word like it was the normal thing to do. 'Is it his quirk?' I asked myself but I had no clue.

The room we were led to was dark, the hue from the lights in the next room were the only thing we had to use as a light. There were four benches on each side of the room, the hulking man took up one whole bench so the rest of us were left to fend for ourselves.

Me and the brown haired girl ended up together with Quin Smasher sitting on the bench in front of us. To my right was a boy who seemed around my age- Maybe older.

He didn't bother to hide his identity. Medium length, shaggy black hair with a streak of white on one of his bangs, he had soft facial features; one could say he was pretty. I was prettier though.

He wore a black skin tight sleeveless shirt with combat pants and boots to match. Around his waste was a silver belt, the buckle being golden, matching his eyes.

Sensing my gaze, the boy looked up at me. "..Hello." He said, his voice softer than I imagined. It caught me off guard, 'Is this a girl?!' I was ready to scream trap and avoid him at all cost- Not that I have anything against- Nevermind, I'm not going to bother.

"Hi. Are you older than you look?" He raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?" He asked, frowning a bit. "You look young, are you?" His frown shifts into a knowing nod.

"Oh~ That. Yeah, I'm fifteen." I nodded slowly. 'A year younger. Guess we're in the same boat.' Reaching out for a handshake, the boy takes it. "Angel. You?" I introduce myself using my middle name, not that they would know this unless they see my birth certificate sheet or something. Even if they do, tying it back to me would be a stretch.

"..Mm, Jester." He says, and instantly my quirk activates. His muscles aren't that strong, loose but can pack a little punch. He's most likely an agility special. His quirk is an emitter type as well… Jeez, I guess I have my work cut out for me.

I nod, wanting to continue our conversation but the door to our waiting room burst open and in came a man dressed in a classic tailored long coat with a black and white suit.

He had a masquerade mask on but his white goatee was out for us to see. He had dark skin, and was pretty tall.

"Alright listen up. I'm going to explain the brackets real quick and then you all are up? Got it?" We all nod; Though the big hulk grunts. 'Is that how he communicates? Interesting.' I muse. Focusing back on the man in front of me.

"It's quite straightforward. You lose, you die. There's no exception. Only one of you will be leaving this place tonight so I hope that gets you all pumping and raring to go." With a shit eating grin the man pulls out a mobile white board, flipping it to the dry erase marker side, he gets busy drawing some unnecessarily complicated bracketing.

"Round 1. Six of you will fight against each other in a one versus one format. After we get our three winners, we move on to the next six, and once we get our three winners from there." He pauses, drawing lines to connect the format.

"We move onto round 3. There, the six from the last two rounds will fight, leaving us with three participants left. The participant of the game will get chosen to fight an additional match to get rid of the third party, and whoever wins will leave us with our last match. Round 5.

A simple one versus one to the death, the winner of that one takes all and gets to go home twenty thousand dollars richer." He grins, showing off his nonsense of a drawing. "Capiche?" He finishes.

"Why's it so complicated? You people are idiots." Someone new this time spoke up, a tall lanky woman, ass length straight black hair. Pale skin comparable to snow with bright gemstone teal eyes. She too was dressed in an all black suit, though hers was skin tight; Showing off all her curves and lack thereof.

"-The moment you've all been waiting for~! The Hidden Masked Man Event of the evening! We have twelve participants all raring and ready to beat each other to death! Anything for money, am I right!?" A blaringly loud voice exclaimed. Catching us all off guard.

The man who was in charge of explaining stuff to us, smiled wildly. "Seems like y'all are up!"