Hero Super

Earlier

Soon after Calvin had shot off back towards his dorm, Ina and Quinn headed to the cafeteria with little to no grumbling from the latter. In fact, the pink-haired girl was actually eagerly leading after her best friend had reminded her about today’s menu.

“Wipe off your drool,” Ina chuckled, looking at Quinn.

“Wha—”, she quickly grabbed a handkerchief and patted her mouth. “Wait, there’s no drool— Ina~”

She smirked, “You look like you were about to, though.”

“It’s all-you-can-eat-breakfast!”

“It’s always all-you-can-eat during breakfast?”

“But it’s during lunch. It’s different.”

“If you say so?” Ina spoke but she didn’t really get it.

The two arrived in the Academy’s cafeteria. It was a large building equidistant to nearly all other buildings on the campus, right next to the administration building, which made it easy to get food from anywhere.

Entering it and going through a lobby, they were greeted by a giant room that was almost the size of the building itself. It was a massive open space, like a mall cafeteria, only ten times larger to fit all students at the same time.

Of course, it was barely populated at the moment, since only one year’s worth of students were enrolled. A year’s worth of students was still a lot, though.

“Hey! Over here!” A familiar booming tomboy-ish voice caught their attention, and everyone else’s in the cafeteria.

Helena, with her nearly two-meter-tall stature, stood atop one of the cafeteria tables in the middle of the room. She vehemently waved towards the two, grinning like a maniac while a little girl slumped on the seat next to her, shrinking and muttering as she shot a glare towards the audacious girl.

“Ina! Pink girl!” She called out to them.

“I’m pink girl now?” Quinn grunted.

“You’ve always been pink girl,” Ina chuckled, grabbing her arm.

The two walked over after Ina gave a wave back, scooching over a bench to sit opposite Helena and the unidentified little girl. Quinn immediately grabbed the menu tablet and started checking out the dishes.

Ina looked the little girl up and down, her eyes narrowing in confusion. She was nine years old at most, judging from how she looked, and was wearing a pink and purple dress that Ina wouldn’t be surprised if she saw in her best friend’s closet.

The girl was currently slouched, looking down on her holowatch while scowling like a disgruntled old man.

“Hey~ Where’s pebble boy?” Helena asked, looking around.

“Left for the dorms. Said he had something to do,” Ina shrugged. “He might join later, though. Maybe.”

“Something to do?”

“Maybe shower or something? I don’t know, he woke up late.”

“Aw,” she sighed, “well, whatever. He’s going to miss the fun I guess. Oh! By the way, this is Alex,” she gestured to the little girl, “we went together to the pretest yesterday. She got caught instantly.”

“Got tripped up by a piece of shit root and then got swarmed by the furry fucks,” Alex grunted, putting down her holowatch and glaring at Helena in annoyance. “Had to sit in a dinky-ass cage for hours, twiddling my thumbs like a dumbass.”

“Didn’t you say the teacher… what was her name?”

“Miss Lillian.”

“Yeah, her. Bunny woman—”

“—fluffkin.”

“Uh… yeah, fluffkin woman,” Helena gave an odd glance to Quinn, “anyway, didn’t you say she gave you stuff to do in the cage?”

“Gave us fucking questionnaires after a few hours then gave us access to the cameras so we can watch you guys beat up her fluffkins,” her eyes suddenly widened, as if remembering something, before turning towards Ina and giving her a thumbs up, “loved your claws, by the way. They looked freaky as hell.”

Ina tilted her head, unsure of what to make of the little girl, “…thanks?”

“Were those like long nails? Or do your fingers grow and become sharper? Or do only your bones grow and your skin stretches? Is it painful?”

“I— it’s fingers… I think?” She looked down at her hands, not actually sure. “I don’t really think about it past the 'I can claw people now’ part.”

“Cool,” she nodded, giving a small smile. She then turned to Quinn, her eyes actually glimmering as she paused to stare at her hair, “W—what about the pretty pink girl? What’s your superpower?”

Quinn looked up from the tablet, pausing to stare at her for a second, “How old are you?”

Alex’s eyelid twitched, “Eighteen. I’m eighteen.”

“You don’t look eighteen?”

“That’s just how high she can count— oof,” Helena caressed her chin after getting an uppercut from the little girl.

“Shut the fuck up,” she grunted, sitting back down. “I’m eighteen. I only look like this because my goddamned power— ah, fucking damn it,” she looked towards Ina, “hey, uh— Ina? Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure?”

“Great. Punch me.”

“…what?”

“That’s new,” Quinn muttered, turning to her best friend. “You like punching stuff.”

“I like punching stuff too!” Helena volunteered, raising her hand.

“Not you, I don’t like you,” she glared at the tanned girl before looking back at Ina, her face still serious, “Just punch me. It’s my power. I can explain, but that’s no fun—”

“Here you go,” Helena stood up and served her a knuckle sandwich, sending the little girl flying towards the other, thankfully empty, table. “Not as good as the rabbits.”

“Fluffkin,” Quinn corrected again.

“What the hell?” Ina stood up and was about to run over to check on Alex before she felt her arm getting grabbed. “Queenie?”

“Look,” She smiled, gesturing to Alex.

Disgusting sounds of cracking bones and stretching flesh started coming from the girl’s body as she groaned and sat up from the table. Alex shook her head and cracked her neck, grumbling as she stood up and did some upper-body stretches for a moment. It was gradual but unmistakable.

She grew older.

“You fucking weak-ass cunt. This is why I didn’t want you to punch me,” She stopped stretching and glared at Helena.

The previous nine-year-old was now looking more like a fourteen-year-old. Her clothes, thankfully, grew just as much, although that was less unusual than a person literally aging from a punch.

“She’d at least have gotten me full size!” Alex angrily gestured towards Ina.

“But you look cuter like that,” Helena grinned, resting her head on the table. “That’s why I pulled my punch.”

“Fuck you,” Alex cursed and gave her the bird. “Punch me again.”

She shook her head, “No, stay cute.”

Alex ran back to Helena and pounced on her, straddling her back while doing her best to strangle the tall girl. Unfortunately for her, her strength was similar to her body’s current age, making it simple for anyone to pry her off and forcefully sit her back down on the bench— which Helena did.

“That’s your power? You grow older whenever you get hit?” Ina asked, looking intrigued and already trying to imagine how to use the power herself.

“Not exactly, just a part of it,” she sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose, “still hurts like a bitch getting hit, but I don’t take as much damage so it’s fine. But that’s usually why I’m okay looking like a little brat, no one usually cares too much. At least, no one outside this fucking place did. Everyone and their fucking mother in this academy has been asking me all day where my fucking parents are and I have half a mind to bury the fuckers with them in the dirt outside of the city walls.”

“Have you tried not wearing 'little girl pink’ clothes? We have uniforms,” Helena suggested.

“It’s not 'little girl pink’. It’s 'ballerina’ pink. 'Little girl pink’ is a few tones higher,” she corrected, dusting her dress off. “And fuck you again.”

“I like her,” Quinn smiled brightly, turning to Ina.

“Good for you,” Ina chuckled.

“I like you too,” she gave her a big grin, leaning over the table and offering a hand to shake, “I love your hair.”

Quinn reached over and shook it, “Your dress is adorable.”

“It is, isn’t it? I can’t wear the uniform because I don’t want to be butt fucking naked when I change sizes,” She complained, slumping back in her seat.

As they were talking, a blue-haired boy suddenly jumped up on the table, posing with his arms crossed and his chest puffed. He was wearing the standard uniform but had elected to tie the coat’s arms around his neck to make it into a makeshift cape.

“Don’t fear! Sparky is here!” He exclaimed.

“You annoying bloody shit, get your ass down here,” Alden came with him, still in character, but looking like he was about to break from Sparky’s antics.

“Oh great,” Quinn muttered, slumping in her seat.

“Hey look, there’s Mara,” Ina stood up and waved towards her.

Soon enough, more people poured into the cafeteria, some of them their classmates. Regina and Lonnie arrived, as well as another familiar but unknown boy. It was the first person Calvin fought in the ranking challenges, the one who wore a pair of handcuffs on one arm and immediately surrendered after Calvin charged towards him.

“Name’s Ivan,” the sleepy-looking boy muttered as he took a seat and nestled his head in his arms. “Just… ignore me.”

Food came minutes after, carried by drones from the kitchen. Most of the other students around the table looked oddly as Quinn’s multitudinous amount of plates arrived, although the girl herself looked like she wasn’t bothered by the stares.

“Woah, what happened to you?” Ina asked Mara, seeing bags barely concealed by makeup.

“I don’t know, I just don’t get a lot of sleep. Might be the excitement,” sighed, tired.

“Where’s voice changer?” Ina asked Mara.

“Voice changer— ah, James,” she shook her head, “he didn’t want to come. 'Why would I go? I’m an introvert and there’s not one person there that I like enough to make the effort.” She explained, mimicking his monotone voice.

Ina smiled, “Aren’t you an introvert too?”

“I— need better friends,” she glanced towards Alden who was currently feeding Sparky a bottle of hot sauce while being egged on by Helena. “I really need better friends.”

“Everyone can see that,” Quinn smirked, taking a bite out of a burrito. “Both of the only friends you have will not hesitate to run away by themselves.”

“Queenie…”, Ina sighed.

“I still don’t know why you hate them—”, Mara paused, remembering James leaving her behind, “I mean, I understand, but what happened?”

“Long story short, they ran away and left us by ourselves,” Quinn explained.

“That’s not the whole story, is it?” Alden suddenly butted in, looking straight towards Quinn. He glanced at Ina, “She was fucking hatching.”

The group went quiet, hearing Alden’s out-of-character voice clearly. Their attention turned to Quinn who was glaring daggers back at the boy.

“What are you guys talking about?” Mara looked between the two of them.

“She’s not a hatchling now, is she?” Quinn ignored her, eyes locked on Alden.

“I never said she was. I said she was hatching. Balls of light, heavy feeling, hard breathing, feeling like your entire existence is being sucked out of you, the whole fucking party was there. Ask Regina and Knifey, they were there too.”

“My name’s Lonnie.”

Regina said nothing, continuing to watch from the side.

“She was hatching.” he continued, his tone growing angrier.

“Calm down, Alden,” Mara gestured but was ignored.

“This is getting good,” Helena muttered, watching from the side.

“Read the room, bitch,” Alex kicked her shin.

Quinn smacked the table, “You don’t know any—”

“We know what it looks like,” Alden interrupted, “You know what it looks like. Everyone knows what it looks like. It’s practically drilled in everyone’s head, every year from pre-school to now, I’m even willing to bet they’re going to have a class on that too because that’s just how dangerous it is,” he breathed deeply in an attempt to calm himself, “and you know what the second lesson is going to be? After identifying what a hatching is? What to do after. And it’s not 'stay and make sure they’re okay’. It’s 'run the fuck away’. So we fucking ran.”

“Queenie,” Ina held her hand. Even she knew he was right.

“But you just had to keep that childish grudge—”

“Alden, stop—”

“No!” He snapped, smacking the table. “You want to know why I got caught early yesterday? It’s because of her! That bitch shook the ground underneath me and tripped me up! I know she fucking did!”

Mara stood up, “Alden!”

“Can we not do this here?” Alex muttered.

“Ugh, what is that buzzing,” Ivan suddenly got up and started looking around. “What’s happening?”

“Something embarrassing,” Regina helpfully explained.

“I was tolerating everything because I get it, you two are best friends, and blah blah, whatever. It was just words so I took it in stride, but that was too fucking far. Sabotaging someone like that? Really? Are you sure you’re the daughter of one of the seven? Are you sure you even want to be a hero—”

Alden paused, eyes widening as he looked around. Ceiling lights started to flicker and sparks started to appear as some of the electronics toppled over and opened their circuits.

The building was shaking.

“Earthquake?” Alex looked towards the window, seeing nothing else shaking.

“Something’s wrong,” Ivan shouted, looking up.

“No shit,” Helena spoke, grinning.

Sparky jumped on the table, “Sparky will make it safe!”

“Queenie!” Ina shouted, looking worriedly at her best friend. “Stop it— ugh.”

A low droning buzz suddenly assaulted everyone’s ears. Like the sound of a bee, if the bee was literally the size of the building they were in.

The building's shaking stopped, but another problem arose.

“Fuck!” Quinn shouted, standing up and disintegrating the table. “You don’t know anything about me!”

Alden stood up and backed away, turning around to sprint after seeing the table turn to dust, “Shit!”

“Oh n—no,” Mara sat down in a fetal position. “Not in real life. Please… no… I just want to sleep…”

“Sparky is—” The boy who jumped in the middle was interrupted, flying away after getting hit by Helena’s staff.

“You know, the way you talk is so goddamn annoying! I just want to— ah!” Helena shouted, twirling her staff to send furniture his way.

“What the fuck are you doing you maniac?” Alex shouted at Helena.

“You too!” She hit Alex and sent her flying. “So annoyingly cute!”

On the other side of the table, Regina was making her way towards Ina who was still slumped over and covering her ears.

“Marina? Are you okay?” Regina spoke worriedly. “Marina?”

“Get… away…” She managed to speak through gritted teeth.

“What? No, I’m worr—”, she recoiled as Ina turned to her with a face full of tattoos. “Tattoos? Oh, Marina, you shouldn’t taint that beautiful face—”

“Grah!” Ina growled and charged her.

Presently

”What the fuck happened here?” Calvin asked as he watched the chaotic scene play in front of him.

Quinn chasing, Alden running, Ina berzerking, Regina summoning, and Mara crying. Helena and Sparky were also there, maniacally laughing and battling each other while shouting corny lines, but that was on par with how they were.

It wasn’t just his classmates, though they were the ones that seemed to be in the limelight.

“And what’s this noise? Ugh… it’s making my head—”

“Take this!” Calvin heard a familiar grating voice shout from behind him.

He immediately leaned to the side and turned around, grabbing the handle of a frying pan that was flying to where his head was. His eyes traced the source, seeing a familiar face looking at him with anger in his eyes.

“Lonnie?” He was more confused than angry. “What the fuck?”

“You think my power’s shit too? Huh?! How about this?!” He summoned two gigantic butcher’s knives, one in each hand, and started charging Calvin with red in his eyes.

Calvin focused, using the same move he used for charging idiots, and summoned a pebble right in front of his forehead.

“Ah!” Lonnie’s head reeled backwards after hitting the pebble.

Normally that would be enough to dissuade any further attempts to blindly rush towards Calvin, but it wasn’t this time.

“You!” He looked back up, forehead bleeding and bruised, charging towards Calvin once more.

“What’s wrong with you—”, Calvin noticed bulging veins in his temple as the boy got closer. “Something’s wrong here.”

Knowing it was an emergency, he used [Colour Control] to blind him for less than a second while using [Jumper] to quickly maneuver behind the boy and put him into a chokehold— just like Ina taught him.

“One Mississippi,” he started counting until Lonnie went limp. He laid the boy on the floor before checking his pulse to make sure he didn’t just become a murderer. Thankfully, he didn’t. “Fuck, is everyone doing this?”

He looked around again, noticing more and more students having the same bulging veins on their temples.

“Shit, what the fuck do I do…” He panicked before slapping himself. “I can’t knock everyone out… but I can knock some of them out.”

He grabbed silver chains from his pocket and headed towards Ina.

“Hey! Cute boy! Can you wait your turn? I’m still dealing with my friend here. She’s a little mad, ” Regina shouted towards him while shooting him the kindest smile she could.

“What the fu—” Calvin almost tripped, “What are you saying? Just… keep her occupied!”

“Already on it,” She nodded, summoning more ink birds.

He ran closer, waiting for an opportunity to bind Ina with his pebbles. The moment came after she noticed him and charged, subsequently getting a pebble on the face. He summoned a ring of rocks around her waist and on her joints, pinning her against the floor.

“This is so much easier with someone else,” he muttered, wrapping the silver chains around her neck.

He watched as her tattoos retreated and the berzerk ended, finally stopping her merciless bird murder.

“Haah… you good now—”, he instinctively dodged to the right, feeling pain as her sharp claws nicked his cheek. “Ina?!”

“Ragh!” She growled, clawing at him for a second time.

“Shit!” He ducked and dashed backwards, grabbing a bucket of salt from his pocket. With a single practiced set of motions, he summoned a pebble behind Ina and poured the bucket on her face.

“Ugh…” Ina fell over again.

Calvin caught her and took this chance to splash her with water, just in case her third contract also came in berzerking.

“What’s happening?!” He turned to Regina who was jogging over.

“Stuff, I don’t really care. Is she okay?”

“What the fuck do you mean—”

“Something’s affecting them.” A voice from the side.

Calvin turned, seeing the boy he beat on his first day in the arena, “No shit— why are you okay?”

“No idea. Might be my power, might be the dampeners,” he raised his arm and showed the cuffs, “Either way, I’m fine. But they’re not.”

“You know how to stop it? Whatever it is?”

“Nope,” he shook his head. “I’m thinking it’s the buzzing. You hear that?”

“Of course, I fucking hear it. Where’s it coming from?”

“No idea, I’ve been looking for, like, two minutes.”

“You’re useless— holy fuck what is that!”

An ear-piercing roar rang out as a monstrosity came crashing out of a wall. The hideous creature in front of him looked like an extremely roided-up guy about to burst like a balloon from their massive and unnatural musculature— wearing a pink dress.

Everyone paused for a moment, looking at the monster, before going back to what they were doing a second later.

“Helena! You bitch!” The creature roared again, much quieter this time, running towards Helena with her stick.

“Uh-oh,” she grinned, running away.

“Come here!”

Calvin just watched everything play out in front of him in utter disbelief.

“That’s a classmate, I think,” the boy beside him commented.

“The buzzing stopped for a second,” Calvin realized. “You said it was the buzzing, right?”

“It might be?”

“Okay, let’s try this—”, he looked through his pocket and took out a familiar-looking tech.

Super Help

Annoying Megaphone

A device designed to create the most annoying sound in an area of up to three kilometers. Intensity can be adjusted.

Super Help

Annoying Megaphone

A device designed to create the most annoying sound in an area of up to three kilometers. Intensity can be adjusted.

“Fuck… which one was louder? Was it super or mega?” He muttered, looking at the controls.

“It’s obviously mega, bro.”

“Oh yeah, obviously,” he rolled his eyes, pressing the option and aiming it in the air. “Cover your ears.”

The sound of chalk scratching against a blackboard rang in the air, covering up the buzzing noise that was making people go weird and crazy.

Everyone snapped out of their insanity and collectively covered their ears in pain.

“Everyone out!” Calvin shouted through the [Annoying Megaphone]. “Now!”

Thankfully, no one questioned him. Everyone ran out of the building as fast as they could, some even making their own exits through the walls or out the windows. Calvin was the last one to come out, having to keep the megaphone turned on until he was sure there was no one else inside the building.

“Haah… my head… at least I got something out of it”, he groaned, massaging his temples before glancing to the window that popped up. “I don’t remember the last time I checked this one,” Calvin muttered before pausing his steps. “Huh? What’s happening?”

In front of him was a crowd of people, some muttering complaints as they glared at a member of the staff who was standing on an elevated platform.

“Everyone, please, calm down. That was a test in a controlled environment, all of you were never in any danger—”

“Hey, pebble boy,” Helena greeted him. “Thanks for the save.”

“What is this? Where are the others?” Calvin looked around, trying to spot a bushel of pink hair in the crowd.

“Went back to the dorms, I think,” she shrugged. “They’re saying this was a test, and there’ll be more in the next three months. Although it won’t be as much of a surprise as this one, I’m guessing.”

“A fucking test?” Calvin felt his anger rise, his eyes glancing towards the window, “that wasn’t a test.”

“Yeah, well, take it up with them,” she pointed to the staff. “Classes are canceled for the rest of the day though so I’m heading back to the dorm. You probably should too, bet your ears are ringing after that.”

“They are. You go ahead, I’ll sit here for a bit,” He sighed, his attention still on the Super Quest. He listened to the staff repeatedly explaining what they knew to the other students before turning his attention back to the windows, “That wasn’t a test.”

Super Quest

Road to Heroism III Save 41/25 people

The road to heroism continues with relatively larger steps! Prove yourself as a hero, rescue or otherwise save those who cannot protect themselves.

Quest Rewards

+5 Super Point(s)

Super Quest

Road to Heroism II

The road to heroism continues with relatively larger steps! Prove yourself as a hero, rescue or otherwise save those who cannot protect themselves.

Save 41/25 people

Quest Rewards

+5 Super Point(s)

Super Quest

Road to Heroism IV Save 16/100 people

The road to heroism continues with normal steps! Prove yourself as a hero, rescue or otherwise save those who cannot protect themselves.

Quest Rewards

+10 Super Point(s)

Super Quest

Road to Heroism IV

The road to heroism continues with normal steps! Prove yourself as a hero, rescue or otherwise save those who cannot protect themselves.

Save 16/100 people

Quest Rewards

+10 Super Point(s)

A dark room of stone bricks, a circular wooden table, ten seats around the edges, and a single lamp to illuminate everything. For anyone who didn’t know where this place is, or who the people sitting around it are, it would look like the most comic-book place for a consortium of villains to discuss taking over the world.

Unfortunately, this was just a meeting room in the administrative tower of the Academy. The interior designer just had tastes misaligned with the people actually using it.

“Someone tampered with the tech,” a portly man in front of Sandra slammed the destroyed remains of a piece of tinker tech on the table.

“Careful… this is Northern Blackwood, Dean Coln,” Sandra sighed, tapping on the wood, “this is worth more than your yearly salary.”

“Please. I’m a tinker, Principal. Put it on my tab,” he grunted. “This all but confirms it.”

“We already knew the Empire would have spies in the Academy,” a sultry voice cut in, her tone almost mocking the man for saying the obvious, “What we needed was to find out who they were, Coln.”

“And that was what this device was supposed to be for, Honest,” he gestured to the destroyed tech. “Just make them slip out small truths. But someone has weaponized my work. Turned it into something that spilled out their subconscious like it was a waterfall.”

“Is that possible?” Sandra asked, looking at the mess.

“I wouldn’t put it past the Empire,” Dean Honest nodded.

“Ger?” She looked to the other Dean of the Tinker Department.

“Huh— oh, wha—”, Dean Ger jolted, obviously not paying any attention, “forgive me, I’m in fever. It’s hard to focus.”

“Haah… what do all of you suggest, then?”

“Find the person who bastardized my work,” Coln smacked the table.

“That would be… counterproductive,” Another voice pitched in. “Seeing as one of our attempts to sniff them out has been found, it’s not a far-fetched assumption that they already know we’re looking for them. I could even assume— forgive me if this offends anyone— that one of us works with the Empire.”

“That’s reasonable.” “Hear hear.” “Someone here?” Everyone around the table nodded, sneaking glances towards one another. Except for Dean Ger, who was busy imagining his next piece of tinker tech.

“I suggest this, we continue with our efforts, albeit individually,” he gestured to everyone before pointing to the device, “And not to the scale of this particular event.”

“So… do just as we’ve been doing?”

“But don’t tell anyone here. Yes,” he nodded. “Is everyone in agreement?”

Everyone around the table agreed since not much had changed, outside of not being able to meet up like they were doing right now and discuss.

“Alright, let’s end the meeting here,” Sandra nodded, standing up.

“Did we need a meeting for this? This could’ve been an email.”

“Yes, but Dean Coln insisted,” She gestured to the tinker.

“I needed to show everyone the device,” He muttered.

“See?”