Zero Hero || MHA ||

7. The Sing Off

Once the smoke cleared, I saw a young woman standing on the platform. She had on a fancy masquerade mask that had white jewels on them. Her outfit looked like something straight out of a magical girl or idol anime, as it was very girly and frilly. Her curly hair was pulled into a high ponytail. She had on bright pink lipstick. In her hands was a sparkly microphone.

On the platform was Strawberry Shades who was somehow still unconscious. Seeing that, the idol girl pulled out a tiny remote from her dress pockets and pressed a tiny red button. That set his bracelet off, and he immediately woke up. The shock must've been strong because he let out a high shriek. The girl kicked him down the stairs with her shiny, thigh-high heels like a soccer ball. He tumbled down each step before hitting the stage.

"Yeouch! What was that for?!" Strawberry Shades exclaimed, trying to pry the bracelet off. That only set it off again, and he got shocked a second time.

"Alrighty! All the contestants are up!" the idol girl announced, ignoring his screams. She was staring directly behind me, at the camera. "Welcome, everyone! Although most of you watching know who am I, my name is Sonnet! If any of you want to make it out of here, you gotta woo the audience and receive enough votes to escape!"

I raised my hand, and said, "Uh, there isn't an audience. We're the only ones in here."

She let out a shrill laugh. "Silly girl! There's a camera over there," she remarked. "Right now, all three of you are being live-streamed online."

Crap. That means they saw me hit the invisible force field then. That's embarrassing!

Dad stepped forward and pointed at her. He demanded to let us go.

Sonnet stifled out a snort. "Or what? You're going to call the po-po? Just to inform you, I confiscated all your phones. Also, if any of you try to do anything, I'm going to have to electrocute all the contestants."

"I've had enough of this!" He charged up the stairs but only got a couple of steps up when a burst of electricity erupted from his bracelet. He shook uncontrollably; it looked like he was trying to do the Harlem Shake. He nearly fell off the stairs.

Sonnet let out a weary sigh and told him to "chill the beans". Dad gritted his teeth. He opened his mouth to say something when I cut him off.

"I think we should listen to her," I suggested. "It'll make the whole process easier. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we get to leave, and the sooner we get to my doctor's appointment."

"That's what you're concerned about?"

Strawberry Shades stood up from the ground. He shrugged. "Well, look at her. She looks like a train wreck," he commented. "I feel like if she touches me, I'll get the Coronavirus."

Our kidnapper let out a dramatic gasp. She turned toward the camera and said, "Did one of our contestants just make fun of the Coronavirus? And did you assume she had it because she's Asian?! You just lost 10 votes!"

"Wait, what?" he said frantically. "Votes? G-give it back!"

She shook her head sadly. "Sorry about that. You brought that upon yourself. Now you have 0 votes."

"Z-zero?!"

I raised my hand again and spoke, "How many votes do we start off with, exactly?"

She peered down at me. "10! Each contestant starts off with 10 votes! But because Contestant Number 1 not only made a joke out of a deadly virus that was also racist, he lost all his votes."