Hero Super

A giant, furry, kinda cute, kinda deadly, demon bunny was furiously charging towards the group of students looking blankly at the daunting figure of the ebony beast. The final test given to them only had one word for its objective, 'defeat’, alongside one set of coordinates pointing directly towards the bull of a monster hopping right in front of them.

All the teenagers, despite every difference they had in gender, belief, class, background, and political agenda, thought of the same simple question: 'How the fuck?’

Whatever the answer might be, their first move was to stop the rampaging beast or get out of the way, the latter being the more popular choice.

Calvin was about to tell the others that they should dodge when he spotted Regina in his peripheral vision, looking straight towards the hopping beast. She rolled her shoulder and shoved both of her arms towards the front, palms pointed towards the rabbit. Not a second after, sludge-like ink started pouring out from her arms and her palms, coalescing into ravens that started flapping their wings and flying like arrows shot from a bow.

“Go!” She shouted, despite the birds evidently having already gone.

His eyes tracked the birds, following their path that aimed straight towards the rabbit’s only known weak spots— its eyes. She was trying to blind it again.

He had a suspicion that it wasn’t going to work this time.

True enough, the rabbit lowered its head and closed its eyes. The monster had wisely tanked the birds rather than hopping sidewards to dodge them, letting the ink splatter uselessly against its forehead while it continued to charge forwards.

“Figures,” Ina scoffed, standing beside Calvin while looking towards Regina with a mocking smile. “What did she think was going to happen?”

“She blinded it before,” Calvin defended the goth girl. “That’s how we got away.”

“So it’s learning,” Quinn nodded, looking at the rabbit.

“I literally said that earlier— why are you saying it like it’s news?” Calvin groaned, looking annoyedly at her. He turned back to Regina, who was summoning more birds as she ran to the side. “Keep targeting its eyes!”

“What’s it look like I’m doing?!” She shouted back, glaring at him. “Get out of the way, you idiots!”

Ina and Quinn gave a brief glance towards her as they instead moved closer to Calvin and nudged him forwards, fully aware of his superpower.

“You know we can just dodge, right?” He said, glancing behind at the two. “I’m feeling out of pebbles.”

“Too much work,” Quinn shrugged, snuggling his back. “You can do one more pebble.”

“I want to punch it,” Ina grinned, leaning an elbow on his shoulder. “We have to defeat it, right? I can’t do that without punching.”

“Yeah, because that worked perfectly last time,” The pink-haired girl gave her a judging stare.

“I— That doesn’t count. I won’t berserk this time— It doesn’t even breathe fire anymore!”

“It better not,” Quinn harrumphed.

“Guys, focus,” Calvin interrupted.

Quinn nudged him, “You focus, pebbler.”

“When will you stop calling me that?” His eyes rolled at their antics.

Turning back to the front, he first made sure that the rabbit was rushing blindly and was still getting harassed by Regina’s ravens before summoning a pebble on its path. He crossed his fingers, hoping that it’ll knock itself out again, making things much easier on their end.

While watching the rabbit, he caught glimpses of the others still around them.

Regina had climbed up a tree and hidden herself in the branches, constantly summoning ink birds to keep pressure on the rabbit’s vision. Helena was carrying Sharle, running to the side and looking like she was planning to flank the beast once it arrived. Sparky and Alden were beside her, the prior looking excitedly at the rabbit while the latter continued blabbering, probably with that terrible fake accent of his.

He gave a quick glance to the back, not seeing Mara nor Lonnie anywhere around.

Thump

A muffled thump shook the ground and signaled all of them to let loose as the rabbit stopped in its tracks, pressing against Calvin’s single pebble with its giant forehead. The rabbit screeched and reeled back, seemingly in pain, but unfortunately still conscious.

A boulder flew in the air, coming from where Helena was, hitting the rabbit on the side. The rabbit shrugged it off, not even budging from the impact.

“Cover me!” Ina shouted and immediately dashed forward, her skin turning pallid and her hands forming long and sharp claws as she pulled up the power of her contract with Rayth, the demon that wanted to tear Calvin’s face off.

“Cover her with what?” Quinn muttered as she stayed behind Calvin, watching as her best friend ran towards a giant monster. “We don’t have anything.”

Calvin shook his head, “She’s really just charging in, huh?”

“Why are you saying that like it’s news?” She chuckled.

The rabbit let out a weird groan as it pressed its head on the ground, sounding like a hungover drunkard on their first morning of sobriety after two years. At first, they thought it was because of hitting the [Impervious Pebble] full force with its forehead until the monster suddenly sprouted a horn.

“It grew a horn!” Regina shouted from the side while sending another couple of crows into the air.

“She’s quite the detective,” Quinn spoke, crossing her arms.

Calvin glanced at her, brow raised, “At least she’s doing something?”

“Fighting is your thing. Mine is shopp— hmm,” her head tilted upwards, brows furrowing from disbelief, “what the hell…”

He followed her gaze, similarly looking surprised as he saw Sparky sailing in the air towards the rabbit. He landed on its horn, cackling like a maniac, just as Ina arrived and clawed at its face.

A screech came from the beast as it jerked its head up in pain from Ina’s attack.

“Take this—woah woah!” Sparky, atop the rabbit, now clung on for dear life as the beast spun around.

“Calvin! Hey hey!” Quinn pinched Calvin’s arm, pointing to her friend about to be roundhoused by a rabbit.

“Stop! Ow ow!” Calvin pried her pinching hands while simultaneously summoning a pebble to block the rabbit’s kick.

“Shit! Fuck fuck!” Ina cursed, backing away from the enraged bunny.

“Go! Caw caw!” Regina shouted, cawing for some reason.

Thud thud

The rabbit kicked twice, both attacks fast and accurate, hitting a hastily summoned pebble with a heavy thud.

Ina got back beside Calvin and Quinn, punching the boy lightly on the shoulder, “Thanks!”

“Ina!” Quinn hugged the girl on the waist as per usual.

“You managed to hurt it,” Calvin commented.

“It’s the claws,” she raised her hand, showing each knife-like finger to him like she was someone named Edward, “these hurt even if I don’t draw blood. It’s really tough.”

“I said that earlier— I swear no one listens to a word I say.”

“I had to try,” She chuckled. Her eyes turned to the boy still clung to the rabbit’s horn. “What’s he doing? Why does it have a horn now?”

“Why are you asking me? I’m just watching here,” He rolled his eyes.

She flicked his forehead, “It was rhetorical, Cal.”

“Ugh!” Calvin flinched and reeled back, Ina’s claws nicking him. “Why?!”

“Ah. Sorry,” She muttered, retracting her contract. “You okay?”

“No,” He massaged his forehead, feeling nothing but his smooth skin despite the sharp pain her claws gave. “Ugh…”

“Heh~ rhetori-Cal,” Quinn nudged him with her elbow.

“Haah… somehow that’s more painful than her claw,” he muttered, looking back to Sparky. “Oh look, he’s vibrating now.”

It wasn’t just simply because the rabbit was thrashing around like a bull on a rodeo, the spiky-haired boy was literally vibrating like a cartoon alarm clock.

“It wasn’t me,” Quinn raised her hands.

“No one said it was,” Ina pinched her cheek. “Did he say his name was Sparky?”

“I think that’s a self-assigned super name,” Calvin muttered, watching as the boy started producing static and sparks all around him.

“Are you guys really having a conversation right now?!” Regina shouted.

“S’just a test, missy. Calm yerself,” Alden’s voice came from behind, the weirdo having come back with Helena and Sharle.

“Stop calling me missy, Alden!”

“Still don’t know what that accent is,” Calvin muttered.

“Should we do something?” Ina asked, watching the rabbit rodeo.

“Do what? He looks like he’s having the time of his life,” Helena said, amused. “I was wondering why he wanted me to throw him up there.”

“Bloody mad,” Alden muttered.

“Will he be okay?” Sharle asked, looking worriedly.

“S’just a test.”

All of them watched as the boy oscillated and sparked like a firework, producing a machine-like hum that could be heard even through the rabbit’s panicked screeches and angry thumps. A few seconds later, Sparky raised one of his hands in the air, grinning as he released whatever power he was preparing.

“Take this!” He shouted, slamming the raised fist down.

A flash of light. A loud bang.

Dust flew up in the air as an explosion similar to a lightning strike slammed down on the rabbit’s horn, aimed directly at where Sparky was.

There was a moment of silence as their view was shrouded by the cloud of dust, broken when the bunny’s monstrous screech rang out and made their ears tremble from the sheer loudness. A shadow suddenly appeared within the dust, flying out towards them like a child throwing a toy in anger.

“Sparky!” Alden jumped and caught the boy, somehow cushioning his momentum. “You okay, mate?”

“The rabbit has rubber skin!” He shouted with obvious fatigue.

“You didn’t hit his skin,” Calvin said.

“My Sparky Blast did nothing!”

“Sparky blast?” Sharle muttered.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Helena spoke, grinning as she pointed towards the front. “You did something.”

Two red orbs glowed from inside the cloud of dust, followed by the rabbit’s furious growling.

“Why are we doing this again?” Quinn asked, visibly tired despite the little amount of contribution she had made.

“To fight rabbits?” Sparky answered, confused by her question.

“Because it’s a test!” Regina shouted from her hideout.

“Three hundred points,” Calvin shrugged.

“Look forward!” Alden shouted.

The floor shook subtly as they all looked towards the dust.

A shadow appeared from within, quickly growing in size before revealing the bunny’s terrifying visage as it sped towards them twice faster than it’s previous speed

Calvin hurriedly summoned a pebble on its path, only for the rabbit to jump up and above it instead. He summoned another pebble in midair, trying to block the beast, but somehow the rabbit seemed to have expected it and spun around, kicking off the pebble to dash faster towards them.

“Dodge!” Alden shouted as he ran to the side.

Calvin was about to summon a pebble to block when he felt a familiar force striking his bottom, “Shit!”

Helena had spun her stick, using her power to fling everyone out of the way before dodging by herself, nearly getting squashed by the furry meteor.

“That was close— woop!” She backed away, dodging a kick from the rabbit. “Fast!”

The rabbit turned around again, opening its mouth with the signature acidic gurgle that preceded a green, gooey, possibly flesh-melting spit.

“No, you don’t!” Regina pointed to the rabbit’s mouth, sending a few of the flock she’d been summoning towards it.

“Nice!” Calvin shouted.

The gurgling stopped as the rabbit closed its mouth, reeling back from the ink suddenly flooding inside. It jumped and backed away, opening its mouth to vomit the black sludge forced inside it.

“Look at its forehead!” Alden shouted, pointing to the rabbit. “Sparky did a number on the bastard!”

Calvin looked and saw a hornless, furless, and slightly burnt patch with a small indent on the center that seemed to be oozing blank motes of light, “Holy shit!”

“Haha!” Sparky cackled, raising his arms. “I knew it did something!”

“We can beat it now,” Ina appeared next to them, Quinn in tow, before knocking Helena on the head with her fist. “Never do that again.”

“Sorry. I panicked~” She grinned, not sorry at all.

“Almost ruined my clothes again,” Quinn muttered, killing intent oozing out of her gaze.

“It’s rushing again.”

As Calvin spoke, the rabbit stopped puking out ink and turned its head straight towards Regina’s hiding spot. The goth girl gulped from the stare before jumping off the tree and running to the group. A crash rang out behind her as the rabbit tackled the tree, spinning around to kick Regina.

“Ink girl!” Calvin shouted, summoning pebbles to block the rabbit’s kick.

“My name’s Regina!” She shouted, running towards them. “Help me, you morons!”

“Calling us morons… this girl,” Ina shook her head, lowering her stance. “Helena, can you send me flying towards that thing?”

“You what?” Alden looked at her like she was insane.

“Ina?” Quinn looked at her knowing she was insane.

“That’s the spirit!” Sparky laughed, similarly insane.

“I thought you said never to do that again?” Helena raised a brow but took out her stick nonetheless.

“Can you?” She rolled her eyes.

“Of course!”

The tanned girl twirled her stuff and immediately hit her behind, sending Ina flying as she started embodying her contract once again.

“I didn’t mean right now!” She shouted as she flew to the rabbit, claws pointing straight ahead. “Pebble!”

“Gotcha!” Calvin shouted back, summoning a few pebbles to block the rabbit’s charge.

The rushing monster stopped its momentum, looking warily at the floating stones in front of it before noticing Ina as it landed on its forehead. The beast screeched in pain as her claws buried itself in the indent Sparky made, shaking its head roughly and pawing at its face as it tried to get the demon girl off.

“Shite, that ain’t enough,” Alden muttered, turning back to them. “Regina, can you keep harassing the bastard’s eyes? And, Calvin, hold it down with your rocks. We’re going to need to send something deeper into the shite’s giant skull.”

“I have an idea,” Calvin muttered.

“Oh, this is going to be good,” Helena chuckled.

“Shut up. Do you still have that spike?”

“Yeah?” Helena raised her shirt, revealing the metal spike tucked in her pants.

“Oh,” Alden blushed, looking away.

“You just have a metal spike tucked in there?” Quinn asked, bewildered.

Calvin briefly caught a glimpse of a large scar on her stomach, ignoring it as he put his palm out, “Can I?”

“Sure,” she grabbed and gave the spike to him.

He turned to Quinn, “Can you make this vibrate?”

“How much?”

“Enough to hurt.”

“That’s easy,” she poked the spike and made it vibrate like a jackhammer. He turned to Alden, “Okay, let’s go.”

“I ain’t flying like you maniacs,” He backed away, arms in the air.

“I ain’t askin’,” Calvin mockingly copied his accent, grabbing his arm and nodding to Helena.

“Clench your cheeks!” Helena shouted.

Like before, she twirled her staff and hit Calvin on the butt.

Unlike before, she felt herself flying in the air as Calvin grabbed her arm.

“You fuck!” Alden screamed as they sailed through the air.

“What are you— woah!” Helena looked at Calvin with eyes of surprise. “Hah!”

“Now you know how it feels!” He shouted vindictively, turning to the rabbit in front. “Incoming!”

The three crashed on it’s back, much less gracefully than Ina did. The demon girl was still clung to the forehead while the three of them grabbed onto whatever fur they can to stop themselves from getting flung off.

“You’re insane!” Alden shouted.

“Yeah yeah,” Calvin waved him off, taking out the spike and pointing the dull end towards him. “Can you push on this?”

“Can I what?!”

“Can you push on—”

“I’m not deaf, you maniac! I’m asking why?!” Alden glared at him.

“Just do it! Use your power!”

Alden looked at him suspiciously before pushing hard on the vibrating spike, brows widening as Calvin’s arm didn’t budge despite the force.

“Great,” he turned to Helena, giving her the spike. “You know what to do, right?”

“Ha! We should’ve done this before!” She grinned, taking it from him.

“Am I the only one lost here?!” Alden shouted.

“Look, on my signal, you two run to the front and drive the spike in its forehead. That clear enough for you?”

Alden paused, eyes widening before he nodded, “What signal?”

“I’ll shout or something,” Calvin muttered, looking forward. “You’ll have ten seconds, okay? I probably can’t do any more than that.”

“Ready!”

Calvin sighed and shook his head, preparing himself for the headache and the drain that’ll come his way after this. He looked at the rabbit’s thrashing head, narrowing his eyes as he visualized the amount and position of pebbles he had to summon.

“Fuck,” He cursed, raising his hands and instantly summoning more than six pebbles to lock the rabbit’s head and mouth in place. He turned to the rabbit’s body and summoned a few more to make sure it didn’t move at all.

“Bloody hell,” Alden muttered, amazed at the sudden stillness.

“Go!”

The two snapped out of the time-wasting daze and ran to the front, jumping over the rabbit’s head. Calvin stayed behind, counting down with a headache how long before he had to re-summon the pebbles to keep the bunny in place.

Just as he was about to, though, he heard a wooden thud from the front, followed by Alden’s screaming.

Finally, motes of black light bloomed in front of him, coming from the bunny’s head before propagating down its back and towards Calvin. He finally breathed a sigh of relief as he jumped down the rabbit and collapsed on the ground.

Notification!

Received 100 points.

“Fucking finally,” Calvin muttered, swiping away the notification as he gave a thumbs up to the three. “Personal kitchen and bathroom!”

“That was fun!” Helena grinned, unsummoning her staff.

“That was insane,” Alden collapsed too.

“You stopped it?” Ina said, running over to him. “How many pebbles did you use?”

“No idea—”

“Get the monster!”

The four of them tensed up as screaming suddenly came from the woods in front of them. Calvin was about to complain when two people emerged from the bushes, wearing pots on their heads and pans on their chests, dual-wielding kitchen knives.

“Ah— where’s the rabbit?” Lonnie asked, looking around.

“Bro…”

“Fuck… they weren’t supposed to beat that,” Lillian groaned, looking at the screens with both frustration and amazement. “Hundreds of points on the first day… how am I going to explain this?”