Hero Super

Earlier

“A—are we far enough?” Sharle asked in a hushed whisper, her deep green eyes trembling and glancing nervously between the others in the group and the snoring giant rabbit in the distance. “Won’t it still hear us?”

“No idea. I’m tired. I just want to sit down a bit,” Calvin spoke with an obviously fatigued sigh as he sat down and rested on a tree. “Damn. That was crazy. You guys okay?”

“All good,” Helena gave him an energetic thumbs up, with the other two nodded lightly.

“Did you even feel anything in the cage? That rabbit must’ve been jumping around like crazy.”

“We could hear what was happening, but nothing else,” Regina explained, scratching the back of her ears with a grimace. “That thing roars a lot.”

“It did…” Sharle nodded, muttering to herself while sitting down on a felled tree.

“How did you guys end up in the cage?” Helena threw out a question to the two as she walked over and sat beside the meek girl.

“I t—tripped…” She spoke shyly, turning red and shrinking from their gazes.

“Aw, that’s okay, cutie,” Helena reassured her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Sharle froze from the unexpected skinship, but the athletic girl didn’t seem to notice or just blatantly ignored her reaction. “Everyone trips. I did too, you know? But don’t worry, you won’t trip anymore. Big sis here will take good care of you.”

Calvin watched her wink like a forty-year-old man trying to pick up a girl, “You couldn’t have said that any creepier if you tried.”

“Bleh,” she stuck her tongue out at him.

He retaliated with an eye roll before turning to Regina, “You?”

“Too many rabbits,” Regina interjected with an annoyed tsk, “too fast too.”

“Ah,” He nodded, sympathizing with her.

“A question, pebble boy,” Helena raised her hand, looking towards Calvin with a face half-filled with curiosity.

“Go on, ball girl,” he gestured towards her.

“Ball girl?” Regina muttered.

“Why were you getting chased by a hundred rabbits?”

“A h—hundred?!” Sharle tensed up and looked around like a shell-shocked veteran.

Regina similarly got uneasy, unconsciously scratching her arms with a subtle glance towards their surroundings, but she shook it off with a deep breath and leaned against a tree while crossing her arms.

'First day of class and we already have trauma,’ Calvin thought grimly as he watched them. “I was bait. Had to lure rabbits away so the other three could reach the cage.”

“How’d you lure them? You banged your pebbles together and shouted obscenities or something?” She snickered, already imagining him wearing a dead animal’s hide like a caveman.

Calvin didn’t want to bother explaining how immovable pebbles can’t be banged together. Instead, wordlessly, he unholstered the [Annoying Megaphone] he strapped to his pants and tossed it over to her.

Helena caught it, her eyes glistening with curiosity as she scanned the gadget.

“So that’s why you have it,” Regina muttered, her eyes softening as she looked at the device.

“You know what it is?” Calvin asked

“It’s… I knew the person who made it,” She nodded.

“Then can you ask that 'person’ why they made the button labels so goddamn vague?” He complained, banging his head on the bark of the tree. “'Super, ultra, and mega’? Why not just 'one, two, and three’? Or 'low, mid, high’? Or even just pictures? I could’ve used pictures.”

A subtle smile raised the corner of her lips as she started chuckling at his complaints, “That’s just how it is.”

“I think it’s pretty clear,” Helena cut in, pressing a button before looking at Calvin like he’s the weird one. “Super is obviously the weakest setting.”

“Obviously,” He rolled his eyes, “Oh yeah, don’t press the trigger, it’s really annoying—”

The four of them covered their ears as the most annoying sound they’d heard in their lives blasted straight through their ears and into their skull. Calvin quickly jumped up and dashed over to Helena, grabbing the microphone from her iron grip and ending the torturous experience.

“Ow…” Sharle moaned, massaging her temples.

“Why did you do that?!” “You fucking dumbass!” Calvin and Regina shouted.

Helena’s face was scrunched, cringing as she met their gazes, “Aha— sorry? I didn’t know?”

“You didn’t— you said it’s 'pretty clear’!”

“I said I’m sorry,” she shrugged, tossing it back to Calvin.

Regina scoffed, “Ugh, still as bad as I remember—”

Everyone shut up and froze.

A shadow started looming from the horizon, slowly, like a mountain walking over and hiding the sun behind its titanic stature. Calvin craned his neck up, gulping as piercing crimson orbs stared down at him. The other three around him did the same thing, drawing a sharp breath as eyes emanating anger appeared in their vision.

“Aha… maybe we should run,” Helena broke the silence, grabbing Sharle’s waist before sprinting away.

“Run!” Calvin shouted to Regina before bolting off to follow the purple-haired girl.

The giant rabbit let out a roar as they ran, a piercing shriek that made their spines shiver and their legs faster. There was no better motivation to run than an actual demon monster chasing you down to flatten you or melt you.

Not knowing which option the piece of fluff would pick, he glanced behind. The rabbit was gone.

“Where—”, he looked up, seeing the rabbit’s underside as it started falling towards them. “To the side! Dodge!”

Thankfully, the three were receptive to his callout.

The ground shook as the rabbit crashed right where they were at. It then hopped back, as if to look at the damage it did, before noticing no splattered student on the ground. Expectedly, this enraged the creature and it let out a louder roar before turning to look for them.

The four were already running away, headed in a different direction.

“Haah… We can’t outrun it!” Regina shouted as the rabbit’s furious hopping grew closer.

“Holy shit,” Calvin shouted as he glanced behind. “What the fuck is this test?!”

The rabbit was now charging like a bull towards them, head first, straight through, and without any regard for whatever obstacle was in its way.

Calvin summoned a couple of pebbles right in front of its forehead, wanting to knock it out like last time. Bafflingly, the rabbit’s eyes widened as soon as he summoned the [Impervious Pebble]s, immediately hopping sideways to dodge them instead before continuing its charge.

“How?!” He shouted, equal parts amazed and annoyed. He tried summoning a few more, in a way that cages in the monster, but it similarly failed as the rabbit hopped over, under, and around his pebbles instead. “Shit… it’s dodging!”

“We have to fight it!” Regina panted, stopping to turn around and summon a handful of ink birds that shot straight at the rabbit. As was expected, it was ineffective.

Calvin, stopping beside her to help, saw the ink splatters left behind by the bird bullets. An idea came to mind and he immediately gave a suggestion to Regina, “Eyes!”

Understanding quickly, she summoned another barrage of ravens that flew straight towards the rabbit’s eyes. A few of the birds landed their attack before the rest were blocked by the rabbit swiveling its head away and closing them. The giant black furball screeched like a banshee and looked back, its red eyes now covered in splodges of black.

It twisted its head left and right, evidently now blindly looking for them through the layer of ink embedded in its eyes.

“Nice,” Calvin whispered to Regina.

Helena came up to them, still carrying the pale and now-catatonic Sharle like a piece of luggage, “Hey! Why aren’t you running?”

“Regina blinded I think— shit!”

The rabbit was looking directly towards them, paw raised to the sky.

Calvin immediately summoned a line of pebbles above their heads, right where the paw should land. A gust of wind and a heavy thud, the wrathful paw slammed down and was stopped by the pebbles, too close for comfort.

The rabbit lifted its paw afterwards and glared at the site of impact, pawing lightly towards the pebbles in confusion, like a cat nudging a shadow on the ground.

“Should we run?” Calvin asked while the three of them backed off slowly.

“Wait…” She shushed, looking at the rabbit with focused eyes. “Look at its ears.”

The rabbit stared at them for a moment before moving its gaze, seemingly confused at something.

Regina raised her hand and summoned an ink crow, letting it fly in the distance. The rabbit’s ears twitched and turned towards the flapping bird as it circled around in the air, its head turning to it before it swatting it down like a fly.

'It can hear us?’ Calvin thought. 'Wait, it’s a goddamned rabbit with giant ears. Of course, it can hear us.’

He narrowed his gaze and turned to Helena, mouthing 'shut the fuck up’ to her before kneeling down to pick up a rock. He found a sizeable one and stood back up, eyes glancing lightly at the rabbit before turning to the horizon. Afterwards, he took a deep breath, rolled his shoulder, wound his arm, and finally threw it towards the distance while fighting the urge to grunt at the effort.

Seconds ticked by, the three non-frozen students waited for any sign of the rabbit turning to where Calvin threw the rock.

Nothing.

“So it can’t hear us?” Helena asked, a bit too loudly.

Immediately, the rabbit’s head honed towards them like a dog smelling treats, sending a wave of chill up everyone’s spine. Without a word, they started running to the side, luckily dodging the rabbit’s foot that slammed down.

“What part of 'shut the fuck up’ don’t you understand?!” Calvin shouted to Helena as they ran.

“I’m sorry!” She apologized, although still smiling like it wasn’t a big deal. “What now?!”

“I don’t know?!” He shouted back.

“Just keep shouting you two idiots, let the thing know where we are!” Regina shouted, panting heavily.

“You’re shouting too!” Calvin said. “Ugh, why is this rabbit so annoying?! What is this test even— annoying…”, he turned to the ink girl, “I have an idea!”

“I love those!” Helena gave a thumbs-up before pointing to the rabbit. “It’s jumping, by the way!”

Calvin summoned pebbles on the rabbit’s path, blocking and slowing it down as they ran.

“Hey, can you—”, He turned to Regina, noticing her barely conscious from fatigue. “Are you okay? I can carry you if you want.”

“I— haah… I’m fine,” She waved him off. “What’s your plan?”

“Can you summon a bird?”

“Can you use your brain?”

Despite the sass, she waved her hand and summoned a raven made of ink.

“Great,” he grabbed the [Annoying Megaphone] and handed it to the bird. “Have it carry this and make it squeeze the trigger.”

Catching on to his plan, the bird grabbed the megaphone by the handle before flying up. After getting to a certain distance, the tinker tech’s effects echoed out and reached where they were, making their ears hurt from the sound. And, more importantly, making the rabbit’s ears hurt from the sound.

The rabbit screeched, turning to the raven and then bouncing off towards the distance.

They waited for a moment before collapsing to the ground, sighs of relief coming from everyone else. Before a word was spoken in between the four, their watches vibrated.

Pre-test Examination III

Objective: Defeat

Reward: 100pts

Penalty: All the points rewarded so far

Notification!

Map Downloaded

Calvin looked at the map and then at the rabbit, letting out a frustrated sigh as he turned to Regina, “You’re gonna need to turn that bird around.”

Presently

“Whose idea was this again?!” Regina asked while holding onto dear life.

“Not mine!” Helena cackled.

“Aaaaaaah!” Sharle screamed.

“Shut up! I can see people!” Calvin shushed the other three.

Right now, the four of them were holding onto the giant rabbit’s collar as it leaped enormous distances across the entire homeroom-slash-forest. How it hadn’t hit a wall or a ceiling yet, Calvin couldn’t understand, but that was the least of his concerns right now.

“Help!” He shouted, waving towards the group of people as the rabbit jumped over them.

“Help? What can they do?” Helena chuckled.

“Get us off this rabbit, for one?” Regina grunted. “Seriously, did you even think before getting us on this thing?”

“No! If you remember, I was too busy running for my fucking life while carrying your emo ass around!” Calvin spat out. “Stop whining and get ready to jump off, it’s just a few meters… I think.”

“A few meters?! Fix your eyes, that’s at least twenty floors!”

“Wow, calm down, you two,” Helena punched his shoulder. “Look, someone took out a blanket.”

“Blanket?” He looked down, seeing a certain pink-haired girl waving back at him before gesturing to the pink blanket laid on the ground. “It’s Quinn.”

“One blanket. Wow, that’ll help. Where’d she even get it?”

“It’s Quinn. It’s probably tinker tech,” He looked to Helena. “You got Sharle?”

“I got her,” She gave a thumbs up before grabbing the frightened girl in a princess carry.

He nodded, turning to Regina, “Need help?”

She narrowed her eyes, at him, glancing to the ground. “I’ll manage.”

“Okay,” He turned around and looked at the pink landing zone. “Get the rabbit to head back.”

The raven stringing the giant monster along clenched its claws, triggering the megaphone it held. The annoying sound reverberated as it made a U-turn, making the bunny turn around and start hopping furiously towards it.

“Ready?” Calvin asked as the rabbit was about to pass by again.

Regina summoned a couple of birds and sat them on her arms and back before nodding towards him. Helena just twirled and unsummoned her stick before hugging Sharle tighter.

He waited until the large pink blanket was close enough before tapping their shoulders, “Jump!”

The jumped. They landed.

All in all, it was anticlimactic. Two stories wasn’t much of a height, comparatively. Regina’s birds were strong enough to slow her descent that she didn’t even bother to land on the blanket. Helena and Calvin landed on the blanket, feeling no force despite the height of the fall.

Super Help

Fluffy Pink Coverlet

A bed cover designed to negate every and all weight to make the user feel like they’re sleeping in mid-air. Additional functions include; Automatic Cleaning, Minor Fatigue Reduction, Minor Odor Removal.

Super Help

Fluffy Pink Coverlet

A bed cover designed to negate every and all weight to make the user feel like they’re sleeping in mid-air. Additional functions include; Automatic Cleaning, Minor Fatigue Reduction, Minor Odor Removal.

“Holy shit,” Calvin spoke, heart beating from the fall and from the amazing blanket.

“Welcome back, Cal,” Quinn greeted him, offering a hand.

“Welcomed,” he grabbed it and stood up.

“I’m here too!” Helena jumped up and grinned, putting Sharle down.

Quinn ignored her, “Did you get the mission too?”

“No, I was just riding that rabbit for fun. Ow.”

Ina came to punch him in the shoulder, “Glad to have you back here.”

“Thanks,” he nodded, turning to the crowd behind her. “Lots of people here.”

“There were three in the cage,” She explained. “Weirdo, Cutlery guy, and Sparky.”

“It’s Lonnie!” Cutlery guy shouted from the back. “It’s not that long!”

“Hey,” He waved to the three. “The more the better, because that monster—”

The rabbit roared from the distance, still chasing the raven.

“—is fucking invulnerable,” He continued.

“What’s the bloody giant furry shite chasin’, eh?” Alden asked, walking closer.

He glanced between him and Quinn, giving a relieved sight after seeing no friction between them, “A bird. By the way—”, he turned to Regina, “How much longer will your summon last?”

“Five minutes or so, I’m not sure,” Regina answered, looking at her watch. “Not long.”

“Wanna bet on it?” Ina smirked at her.

“Bet? It’s my summon. Are you dumb?”

“I wanna bet!” Helena raised her hand, running to the circle.

“What are we doing?! Sparky wants to join too!”

“Who the hell is this guy— never mind. Can we focus? Please?” Calvin clapped to get their attention. “Everyone has a mission to defeat that thing, yeah?”

“'ppears be the case, mate,” Alden nodded.

“Good, here’s what we know: its skin tough as hell, its speed is fast as fuck, and its senses are sharp as shit— except for its sense of touch. Probably from the thick skin.”

“It breathes fire too,” Quinn reminded them.

“Fire?!” Sharle, having just woken up from being too scared from sensory overload, was once again tensing up.

“It’s a different giant demon rabbit, this one spits acid and can’t phase.”

“There are two?!” Mara blurted out, paling.

“Pft—” Helena stifled a laugh, seeing Sharle and Mara’s similar reactions. “I only saw one giant rabbit.”

“We only have to fight one,” Lonnie pitched in, looking at the map on his watch. “That one.”

“Let’s shoot it down!” Sparky said, pointing a finger and letting a spark out of its tip.

Calvin glanced at him with narrowed eyes before turning back to Lonnie, “We can’t go through its skin but we did knock it out once. Although, now it’s dodging and protecting its head.”

“It’s learning…” Regina muttered, looking shocked. “How strong is our homeroom instructor?”

“That ain’t matterin’ right now, missy.” Alden spoke up.

“Missy?” Mara muttered.

“What we’re needing is to do nough’ damage to the thing that it unsummons. Now we either bludgeon it like you’s did or do somethin’ else.”

“I don’t even know what accent or character you’re going for now,” Calvin said as he stared at Alden. “What do you mean by something else?”

“I’m working on it, okay? Just— please?” He spoke out of character for once. “Anyway, somethin’ else means somethin’ else. Sparky 'ere might be able to fry it with e’s power, and missy 'ere might be able to drown it in ink. That’s what I mean by somethin’ else.”

“I can’t drown it in ink, I think,” Regine immediately shook her head. “I can blind it, maybe. But if it’s learning, it’ll do its best to avoid getting blinded again.”

“Maybe we can attack it from the inside?” Lonnie suggested.

“It spits acid. How tough do you think its insides are—”

The rabbit’s roar shook and interrupted their discussion, sounding much louder and fiercer. Everyone collectively turned towards the rabbit and took a deep and nervous breath, seeing it stare back at them with glowing red eyes— it could see again.

And it’s probably seeing red.

“What’s the plan?” Calvin asked, turning to the others.

Helena grinned, summoning her staff, “Win.”

“That’s not a fucking plan!”