Hero Ops: Close Quarters

Oh, great.

It looked like the contestants had arrived for the show. All three volunteers stood next to their starting line and awaited the starting signal, so the delinquent went ahead and pressed the button on his remote control after one more quick confirmation that everyone was where they were supposed to be. He made sure to give the hero team especially a short time to discuss any possible tactics if they haven’t already but didn’t want to have them gawking at each other all day. Akio was all by himself, after all, and his own path got harder with every delay that allowed the hero team to strategize. The red-haired boy may not be Alex’s favorite, but he wasn’t going to intentionally fuck him over. On the contrary, this course suited Akio more than anyone else that was currently participating.

Once the button was pressed, the delinquent lazily tossed the remote control to the ground beside him and watched the smoke all billow up at once around the entire field. The smoke wasn’t military grade or anything, but it was enough to really fuck up any long range to mid-range visibility. It was enough visual fuckery that the hero team almost certainly wouldn’t be able to see Akio until they were in the building itself and in forced close quarters. That was where this entire thing really got interesting, because it would be a clusterfuck where it would be almost impossible for both teams to avoid each other. It was giving Akio an intentional chance to shine, in other words, and see how he did when the scenario was essentially crafted to favor him against a new hero course student and a support studies girl.

Chise was actually the number seven ranked student in the first ranking, so it was possible he was underestimating her ability to contribute to the combat. If that was the case, he would give her a turn to play combat hero if she wanted to for any later simulations. His classmate had droned on and on to anyone who would listen about his intense training regimen after a villain tossed his giant ass in the emergency room via blunt force trauma… so this was his chance to show against the number seven ranked student and a newbie how well that training was working.

The method of approach for both teams was fairly obvious, but once they were inside things got pretty interesting. From Akio’s side of coming in through the big window, he would immediately be greeted with a wooden ladder knocked over on its side to his right. If he looked up at the ceiling at that point, he would be able to see a latch that he would be able to pull open to reveal an opening that led to a largely hidden attic. He would also see a wooden wall to his left that had a clear opening to another room, with something covered up with a big white cloth being obvious from his angle.

The heroes had it a little bit rougher, with nothing obvious being on their left and a look to the right that would yield no useful information unless one was looking very carefully. If they were perceptive, they would be able to see that part of the floor was raised up, and if they looked and focused on the right spot they would see the trap door fairly quickly in the other room. The wall that separated both rooms was flimsy, so flimsy that any of the participants could lower their shoulder and bust through if they recognized that possibility.

Both sides would notice two areas at the far east and far west of the house if they paid attention that was made of the same flimsy sort of wood. These were essentially windows that were covered over with very thin and destructible wood that could be used by a clever student who recognized the visual difference and found a way to exploit it.

The attic, with the obvious access of course being the ladder, had two exits and an obvious mannequin at the end of the room almost directly above the hero entrance point. One of those exits was immediately to the right of the hero starting area in the ceiling which would lead to an easy escape path. This exit would not be immediately obvious, but a very good scan by a very perceptive person could pick it up before making it up to the attic. The cloth in the other room that the villain side would be able to see immediately covers a bare bed frame which has a mannequin underneath it into a corner. Either the bedframe would have to be destroyed to get to the mannequin, or someone would have to crawl under it in order to pull the rescue target out. There was an exit route very close to this dummy as well.

The last mannequin would be in the basement area, with only one entrance and exit, making it extremely risky. The location of the mannequin in this room is toward the end, but the mannequin is standing up vertically to make its position completely obvious. The entrance to the basement was the last one that the villain team would see, but it was also the most dangerous because there was no immediately exit once the mannequin was in hand and the escape route could be blocked. Emi, if she came down there, could probably smash through the wooden ceiling above her with her quirk to make a makeshift escape route, but she was the only one he thought had a chance of doing that with any real success.

The hero team needed to save two in order to win, and the villain team needed to destroy two in order to do the same. The course was designed to be more of a combat heavy one that would really allow Alex and any teachers who wanted to look at the footage later really assess where the participants fell in that regard. There was one small camera in the corner of each room in the building, which would hopefully catch at least most of the action once the fight moved indoors. The quality of the structure was not the greatest, but it served its purpose. It was the first building that Alex had created for his new club, but hopefully would not be the last.