The Flood Zone was in a state of bedlam.

Set up in such a way to create crashing waves and whipping winds throughout the maritime exercise site, the supposed "deep lake" that was generally used for water exercises was now far more comparable to that of a storm at sea. Dark, cold water and foam shot up into the air around the intended site for the particular entrance exam of the evening - a large cruise ship, or at the very least a simile of one, already tilting dangerously with the worrying creaks and groans of strained metal. Lifeboats were a hopeless endeavor, for this was not a regular storm capsizing this ship, but it was a villain attack - weather and hostile waters alike brought forth by the use of dangerous criminal quirks. No, the only suitable response to a situation such as this was the interventions of heroes.

Or at the very least that was the scenario that the to-be students of this particular exam had been given. The future heroes had been sent in to "arrive" at different set points of this precarious cruise ship, and the rules had been made quite clear - this was a crisis situation. With fatally dangerous waters and a ship at the danger of sinking at any moment, the many civilian guests and crew members of the ship itself had to be rescued, moved from the sinking cruise rife with villain activity and to one of the Hero Association boats surrounding the ship itself at a moderate distance. Every civilian taken from the cruise ship and onto one of those boats was, for the purposes of this exercise, considered a "rescue", rescues being worth points for exam purposes. More critically however, this ship also carried a handful of villains upon it, dangerous criminals who were responsible for this dire situation to begin with. The exercise did not end until all villains had been subdued, each villain defeat also worth a certain amount of points. The specific point values of defeating villains compared to rescuing civilians had not been specified to the students - it was a matter of allowing them to prioritize and make decisions on their own.

Finally, the exercise was timed - at set intervals, the length of which were unknown to the students, this simulated ship would continue to get more and more precarious. It would continue to sink and deteriorate, sections would be flooded with water, and things would get so much more difficult to manage. This exam was a test in a hero's ability to prioritize and to manage their time - weighing the values of rescuing individual civilians versus stopping the cause of the crisis situation, what had to be done in what order and how to adapt to a rapidly escalating situation.

Good luck heroes-to-be, and try not to drown!

Sebastian Sinclaire   Sada  Zenkai Hatake