Mike was a great partner and we had chemistry, but it was not optimal. Both our powers were about travel and support. Using our weapons was one thing, but there was no real inherent offence there. That meant that it was a choice between Jack and Kyle. After what went down with Kyle I was not in the mood to be too close. We still never resolved it. I was never going to apologize because I said what I meant. He was relaxed around me, but I could see that he did keep his eyes on me at all times. It was just inviting drama into things that did not need to be there. That really only left one option. I wrote down Jack's number and waited. I was able to see them and we all sat together. We were indeed paired up and Kyle and Mike were a group as well. We were not in the same group of applicants though. The task we were assigned in this part of the tryouts was to navigate a office building, defeat the bad guys, find the hostages and extract them from the area. We only had an hour to do it. There were also 10 other pairs of students that had the same mission.
Since we had a way to navigate the facility with little detection, we used it to our advantage. In every room with enemies, I fought them with my sickles while Jack blasted the others from the middle of the room. From there, we would go to the next. We cleared out several floors before we found a room with three hostages. We took out the main guards and led them out the building while looking around to prevent any ambushes. It took us about 20 minutes from the start. That would be a great thing when they decided to consider who would get accepted. It was half an hour later when we were approached by some administrators. They needed volunteers to be hostages for the next session. "You would need to take a medicine to depower you and sign a waver as anything could happen. However, we do think fondly of team players. Are you in?" one asked. I said "We're in. We can go for two sessions if you want." They smiled and gave us the waivers to sign. We had to take a shot to make us unable to use our powers for two and a half hours. It stung a bit.
We were both bound and gagged. We were taken by some guards and places on the fifth floor. We were eventually rescued by a pretty arrogant pair of students. One of them had acid spit and the other could liquefy and move around on the ground and wall. They were not the first to reach us, but they were able to free of from our bonds and gags. They did not let us forget that we were saved by Oswin, the acid spitter, and Karl. They were a bit annoying, but I let them take us down to the safe zone. The two got us out in 45 minutes. The next scenario had us on the top floor and no one was able to get to us. Some made it, but were defeated by the goons guarding us with their weapons. Time elapsed and we were let go. Our powers returned about half an our later. "That was fucking horrible. If I felt like this everyday, I'd be like those emo freaks that kill themselves." Jack said stretching as he charge blasts in his palms and dispelled them. I blinked behind him and said "Well, count your blessings. You could be a Sub and powerless or even a Dom and powerless."
That made Jack flinch and said "That's not funny." I shrugged and we walked along. We caught up with the others. They were able to get out some of the hostages as well. That was pretty good. That was all that we needed to do for the tryouts. On the way out, more administrators came to see us. "Dustin Owls. Jack Reis. As representatives of Heroic College, we have seen your skills and appreciate you going above and beyond to help with the tests we administered. We would like to offer you a full scholarship in our Hero course class 2." That was everything we wanted. We accepted it and signed the paperwork right on the spot. Jack called his parents and told them the good news. They were very happy for him. As far he was concerned, we were going to be heroes regardless of whether or not he was a Sub. Kyle got in front of them and said "What about us? We're available too." They looked at their notes again and a look was shared between them. "We were on the fence on whether to offer a scholarship to Mikah Ivanovic for the sidekick course. It would be a full ride, but we don't normally give them out on the day of."
