Quirks

Chapter One - Oliver's Horrible, No good, Very Bad Day

The ringing in my ears was becoming louder with every second. My legs ached and my breathing was shallow. My mind could hardly focus on one thing.

5 points.

What form was I in? Am I even human anymore?

1 point.

Where am I?

10 points.

Breathe, I just need to breathe. Focus on something, on anything.

My body was working by itself, I felt completely detached. It was like I had stepped out of myself, becoming nothing but a numb consciousness.

"Oliver?"

3 points.

What are all these random numbers? I could have sworn they were important...

"Oliver!" I knew that voice. It was sweet and lilted, and she pronounced it so smoothly, like honey. She kept repeating it, becoming more angry with every second. The girl traveled closer and closer, until I felt something again. And that was pain. A sharp pain.

My consciousness slipped back into my body.

"Oliver, are you insane?" Aviana screamed. Her hand was raised from slapping my cheek, and sweat dripped down her face. "You can't just zone out like that! I thought you said you were past this!"

Everything rushed back at once, explosions whistling in the distance while I tried to piece everything together. Aviana noticed my confusion, eyes softening. "You, my useless best friend, are at the UA entrance exams, and overused your quirk to the point where you literally zoned out on a battlefield." I whispered "shit" under my breath, remembering everything clearly now. By the time I could form coherent thoughts, she had turned on her heel to continue the battle I had forgotten about. "Remember what we practiced, stick to three different shifts. No more, or you'll end up like that again." With that, Aviana disappeared into the chaos.

Right, so the points came from the robots we had to destroy, each with five levels of difficulty. Level one was one point, two was five, three was ten, four was fifteen, and five was twenty. Part of me was too worried to check my current amount, so going for level two or threes might be best. Not too difficult, not too easy.

Aviana's slap still burned on my face, along with her words. Only three shifts... bear, leopard, and eagle. I wasted no time in changing to the only animal with flight, since in my moments of disassociation I had lost vulnerable time to travel to the next section of the arena. My skin burned and stretched, feathers replacing my own flesh until I was completely shifted, the form of a Golden Eagle stood proudly in my place. Years ago this sensation might have terrified me, but now it filled me with exhilaration, and reminded me of countless opportunities for greatness.

The cold air was fresh against my exhausted mind, though I couldn't allow myself to get too relaxed. I soared above the arena that easily resembled a city block of Musutafu, Japan, almost too exact in my opinion. Except, however, for the gigantic test robots being instantly destroyed in increasingly brutal ways by superhuman teenagers. The replicated buildings were broken and most were piles of rubble, while one section, about a block of cityscape, was engulfed in violet flames. If that was someone's quirk, I stand no chance.

Just my luck, the south side of the arena was reasonably untouched.

Almost instinctively, I soard towards that area, spotting a patch of four or five robots practically on top of each other. Once I close enough to the ground, my body tingled again as I felt my talons morph into paws. I grew at least twice my usual size, brown fur covering a snout and twitching nose. My newfound claws tore into the metal of an unsuspecting robot as I landed on top of its head. This one was huge, easily the height of a two story house, and I assumed it was a level four. The piece of junk groaned and squealed as it was torn apart, almost crushing the bot beside it.