The Future Will Change

The armored woman rushed at Keiji with gauntlets made of light and started throwing punches at him which he blocked with his katana. Her attacks were rather hefty, and staggered him ever so slightly from the sheer force with each fist colliding with his blade.

Keiji retaliated by plunging his katana into the ground beneath himself, causing a wave of blood-colored crystals to rise up and form a quick wall of protection. The next time the knight woman threw a punch, she’d find her fist stuck in the wall of crystalized blood.

“...!”

Keiji broke through the wall of blood and performed two quick slashes with his sword. A downward slash that cut through the outer layer of her armor and stunned her momentarily, then an upwards slash that sent her into the air. Just before she landed, he leapt and dropkicked her into the nearest overturned police car.

“Gah!” she cried out as soon as her back collided with the vehicle.

“Kenotic Purge,” Keiji muttered, and swung his sword forward, sending multiple, blood-red ring-shaped projectiles towards the armored lady.

“!” She rolled out of the way just in time, and the bloody objects would collide with the car and cause it to explode with a--!

BOOOM!

“Dammit!” Keiji huffed as he glanced over and saw the woman trying to run off. “Hey!”

But before she could even round the corner--!

CLANG!

Rumble had kicked her so hard that her entire set of armor trembled, causing her to vibrate in place as he kicked her in the throat, then spun and performed a quick enzuigiri to knock her down onto the pavement.

With a flick of his nose, he scoffed at how easy the battle was overall. “Hmph. Class A threat my ass. If I were a teacher, I’d give you an ‘F’.”

“Hey dawg, where’s the chick that was in the shop?” Keiji ran up to Rumble and questioned him.

Rumble pointed to the paramedics that had recently arrived on the scene who were escorting the young woman onto a stretcher. “There. I think it’s about time we get outta here before the cops realize what’s up.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Keiji agreed as he stuck his sword in the ground and made it disappear into nothingness. "This battle is over."

Neither of them wanted to be on the news for being noticed by the public, so the two of them hurried off and would hustle back to the college campus to get back to their dorms before anymore time would pass.

And by the time the armored woman came to, a pair of anti-magic cuffs had been slapped on her as she was being shoved into a cop car.

“Ugh…” she muttered, completely dazed from the battle and unable to speak.

One of the officers commented, “Wow…I guess someone must’ve taken her out, huh?”

The leader of the group, the female officer who had been shouting earlier responded to her colleague, “...hm. Maybe. I wonder…”

The next morning…

After their first classes for the day, Keiji and Rumble watched a news report headed by Starlight Glimmer on one of the campus’ televisions.

“A Class A mutant has been detained after robbing and destroying the local jewelry store in Vanhoover. One of the Silver Family’s main outlets, this store was on the corner of 12th and Main where a woman clad in armor making use of magical abilities tried to steal various pieces of jewelry for smelting and making weapons. Thankfully, the police were able to apprehend the suspect and the young woman at the scene, 21-year-old Stream Chrome, was sent to the hospital where she’s currently recovering…”

Rumble scoffed, “Tch. Naturally. Kinda wish we could get some of the credit, but alas…”

“Yeah let’s not go that route,” Keiji urged him, “Come on. I’m looking to get some food that’s actually good for once. Where can we get some pizza?”

The boys left the campus. By the time they arrived at a nearby pizzeria, the same exact news report had been playing on a TV there as well.

There, Rumble would immediately be stolen away by a familiar face.

“Hey, you!” Scootaloo stomped up to Rumble and grabbed his arm, “I texted you like 20 times, what happened?!”

“Ohhh…sorry, I’m still not used to having my phone turned on,” he admitted sheepishly, “I have to keep it off during practice, so…”

“Well we’re now on a date together,” Scootaloo huffed and pulled him over to her table, “We’ve got some catching up to do.”

Rumble sighed and looked at Keiji. “...I’ll see you later, yeah?”

“No prob. I’ll just…” Keiji muttered as he grabbed a table in the middle of the room and sat at it. After placing an order with a waiter, a familiar face would eventually walk up to him.

“...Keiji? Thank goodness,” Silver Spoon greeted him as she took a seat across from him at the table, “Your classes are done for the day, huh?” She was now a young woman wearing a gray hoodie and matching sweatpants. When she tilted her hood down, her head of long, flowing silver hair was released once she got comfortable at her seat.

“...Spoon,” her presence immediately put a smile on his face, “Yeah, I’m--yeah. Nice to see ya.”

“You too. You heard about that attack last night, huh?” Spoon brought up the ongoing newscast, “They said a mutant attacked one of our stores, and I’m just coming back from checking in on it.”

Keiji scratched the back of his head. “...yeah, I heard about that.”

Having known him for so long, Silver Spoon could easily spot Keiji’s visual ticks. “...you got involved, huh?”

“Shit am I that easy to read?” he sighed, “Yeah. You know how that goes, Spoon. I’m not just gonna stand by and let someone cause trouble for you guys. Not when you’re trying to focus on your own life, ya know?”

Silver Spoon smiled and replied, “...thanks. That means a lot to me. Though for the record, it’s also why I’ve been working on my own skills, Keiji. I know you can’t be everywhere all at once after all…”

“...oh yeah, that’s right,” Keiji recalled the aether granting Silver Spoon her own powers as well when they were younger, “What weapon did you get?”

“Ninja tools. You know, stuff like kunai and shuriken?” she replied while folding her arms and crossing one leg over the other. “Still kinda confused on why I got that of all things. Does the magical mutation operate on the ‘rule of cool’ or something?”

“...I couldn’t tell you,” Keiji answered nervously, “But hey…you make anything look cool, soooo…”

Spoon giggled. “Now you’re just being a tease, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I mean no--?”

“What?”

“What?”