Hero Super

The two rankers were promptly booted out of the arena as soon as the black curtains were sucked back underneath. No wounds, no blood, there wasn’t even a drop of sweat on either of them. It was like time was turned back to when neither of them had even used their powers.

Although it was obvious that exhaustion was still affecting them. Essence couldn’t be rewound.

“Where’s he going?” Regina asked, her inky gaze looking towards the running back of their friend in confusion.

Calvin ran off. Not a word, not a signal. He didn’t even take a look at their direction. He muttered some words towards Lonnie before immediately bolting towards the dorms like he was holding onto something unholy and was itching to sit on a porcelain throne to purify himself of the filth— i.e. he ran like he was about to shit his pants.

At least that’s what it looked like to most people.

Me: you oksy?

Quinn’s eyes lingered on the dormitory’s entrance that swallowed up Calvin, her gaze not leaving the doors as she typed the message. She turned promptly towards the boy awkwardly going up the stands and towards them. Brief glances from him were also directed to where their friend ran, evidently cluing to the fact that he had no idea why either.

Nevertheless, they still had to ask, “Why’d he run like that?”

“I— don’t know? He just ran after mumbling something to me…” Lonnie scratched his cheek. “Did I do something wrong?”

“I don’t know, maybe you stabbed him or something?” Alex jeered with a smirk.

“Yeah, you do have a tendency to stab your friends,” Ivan spoke with a tired chuckle. “I’d be like him if I didn’t surrender immediately.”

“I— I— he broke my spine! I was hurt too,” Lonnie complained, sitting down next to Ivan with a disappointed look.

“You stabbed him twice, bro.”

“He broke my spine twice too…”

“You can’t break something twice.”

“It sure felt like you could,” He massaged the back of his neck.

“So… is he okay?” Regina asked, tossing the question towards Quinn and Ina.

“I think he’s just too tired,” Quinn said with a shrug. She turned to Ina who had a similarly concerned expression on her face, “He’ll be okay.”

Ina nodded, “I’ll message him just in case.”

“Fuck. I was looking forward to lunch,” Alex sighed, leaning back with disappointment. “I don’t want to go to the cafeteria.”

Lonnie sighed, “Yeah, Calvin cooks better.”

“I don’t even remember the food there,” She chuckled. “And I really wasn’t complaining about the food part.”

There was a moment of silence in the group as they all realized most of them had been relying on one person for meals. It didn’t feel weird at the time, but the dependence born out of trauma was probably something they had to get over with sooner rather than later.

“Well, that was good while it lasted,” Ivan, despite only grabbing food and leaving immediately, was also in a bad mood at the realization.

Quinn chuckled at their dark expressions before taking out a few lunch boxes from her pocket, “Cal cooks a lot more than we eat.”

“Oh thank god,” Alex grabbed one of the boxes. “Holy— it’s steaming? Your pocket’s fancy, huh.”

“You know it,” She nodded, opening a box of her own.

“So… Marlon,” Ina spoke, lifting her gaze from her holowatch.

“Ugh…” Lonnie literally shivered after hearing that, “Just— call me like usual. I don’t… please just call me Lonnie.”

“Mmm... Wha? Mawwon sounds cuuute,” Alex spoke with a mouthful of rice.

“It’s… personal,” He shook his head.

“Okay, Lonnie,” Ina shrugged, acquiescing, “Didn’t you say you could only summon cutlery?”

Ivan looked at her, “Since when was sponge considered cutlery?”

“That’s what he said six months ago,” She shrugged. “Just forks, knives, and spoons.”

“Six months ago?”

“We were in a workshop together,” Regina answered, giving her a look. “That workshop.”

“Ah— right,” Ivan nodded. “Speaking of cutlery, do you mind?”

“Well…”, Lonnie summoned a pot of spoons, forks, knives, and chopsticks in front of them, “that was true… at least until a couple of months ago.”

“A couple of months ago? What happened a couple…”, Alex’s voice tapered off before she immediately put her box down, jumped over to Lonnie’s side, and then grabbed his shoulder, “Evolution?!”

He nodded weakly, blushing and turning his head away, “Just happened by chance.”

“What happened? What were you doing? How did it feel? Tell me everything!” Alex spoke, her face getting uncomfortably near his.

He was flustered by the questions. Understandably so.

Quinn’s eyes darted around the area. It wasn’t just their friend group that was suddenly interested in what he had to say, not many had gone through evolution after all. Most people around were blatantly eavesdropping and there were even a few that straight-up stared in anticipation.

She herself wasn’t too interested, having no skin in that particular game. Her power’s grindstone was a different beast.

Still, she was interested, if only to clear her suspicion.

“I— uh,” unused to the attention, Lonnie stammered.

“How long have you had your power?” Regina asked in a bid to help organize his thoughts.

He swallowed his spit, pausing to think before giving an unsure answer, “E—eight to nine months? It was at the beginning of the year when I got it… I think.”

Quinn narrowed her eyes and studied his expression, 'Flustered, but he doesn’t seem like he’s lying. The timing makes sense as well, it was just after the previous workshop. But why does he sound unsure?’

“And you already evolved it?! How?!” Alex spoke with an unusual amount of flabbergast. “Not even a year?!”

“Ugh. Stop shouting, you’ll make my ears blow out,” Ivan groaned, massaging the back of his ears.

“Are you not even surprised or amazed with this?” Alex looked annoyedly towards him. “It’s evolution!”

“I know it is,” he shook his head, “and I am surprised. I’m just not shouting about it.”

“What were you doing?” Regina brought the conversation back.

“I was just— doing as usual? Using my power, you know. Summoning forks and knives to— well… to do stuff. And then, suddenly, it hit me. It felt like a wave of… I guess, relief? Relief is the best word to describe it. I can’t really explain it other than feeling relief.”

Alex’s head tilted, “Relief?”

Seeing pretty much everyone around him looking curiously, he thought for a moment to find a description, “It’s like… like you’ve been getting cooked in a pressure cooker all your life, and just now the lid was suddenly opened. I— like I said, it’s hard to explain.”

While they were talking, Ina leaned into Quinn’s ear and whispered, “I’ll check on Cal. He still hasn’t answered his watch.”

“No need,” Quinn grabbed her wrist, “I’ll check on him.”

“You… will?” Ina looked suspiciously towards her.

“I know you want to ask questions. I’m not really interested in it… if you remember why,” She wriggled her eyebrows.

“Cheater,” Ina whispered and pinched her cheek.

“Never on you,” she joked hugged her for a moment before leaving.

Me: cal?

Another message was left unanswered, her worry only grew with every step she took to his room. It only just hit her that her friend might have developed some form of trauma from the encounter. It was only last night, after all, and he wasn’t like her who had all the security of having one of the Seven as a parent. She wouldn’t blame him if he was scared right now.

Trauma. And Lonnie’s weapon might have just triggered it.

'Almost forgot,’ She raised her watch.

While walking, she sent a command to her contact in her mother’s team. If the boy was hiding something, there might be something they could dig up. She was sure it wouldn’t be him, it was too blatant and obvious, but being careful never hurt her.

Me: marlon herdengirr

Me: asap

Minion #23: busy

Me: youre fired

Minion #23: i work for ur mum, not u

Me: she says youre fired too

Me: pleas its important

Minion #23: how important?

Me: cloudlighter incident important

Minion #23: on it

Minion #23: ten mins tops

Me: asap

Minion #23: thats what asap means kid

Quinn closed her watch as she arrived in front of his door, frowning to herself while in thought.

'Was I taking things too lightly? Why didn’t I even think of how it would affect him?’ She berated herself, biting her lips in anger. It took some time, but she eventually steeled herself and knocked on his door, “Cal?”

There was silence for a few moments, making her chest throb with each passing second, before the door finally opened, “Huh? Quinn?”

“Are you—,” her brows raised in surprise, “you’re okay?”

Calvin was leaning on the door frame, taking long and deep breaths and occasionally pinching the hem of his sweat-drenched shirt and pulling it away to let some cool air in. He looked more tired than when he fought in the arena. However, oddly enough, he looked fine. Not just fine, he looked elated.

Quinn leaned to the side and peeked into his room, her gaze narrowing after seeing the state of it. Clothes were on the floor, cutlery scattered around, and other small pieces of house stuff were littering one side of the room— like he threw them there.

“I’m okay?” Calvin returned the question with a similarly confused tone.

She narrowed her eyes towards him in suspicion, “What were you doing?”

“Uh—”, he subtly glanced to the side like he was looking at something It was a thing he did randomly, either due to a habit or an even weirder twitch, “—stuff.”

Quinn decided to let it go, crossing her arms and looking annoyedly towards him, “You ran off. Everyone was waiting for you.”

“Ah— yeah, sorry. Something came up—”

She interrupted him, glancing at the people passing by the hallway, “Move, let’s talk inside,”

He looked back to his room before giving her an awkward smile, “My room’s kinda messy right now—”

“Don’t care,” She pushed him in and closed the door behind her.

“Wha—”

“Shh.”

With a thought, she took out another cone of silence and activated it with her watch this time. Using the much more complicated controls, she set it to 'room-mode’. The orb lit up for a moment, scanning the entirety of Calvin’s room, before flying to the centre and affixing itself in the air.

The walls shimmered as an anti-surveillance barrier was set up.

“Huh, it can do that?” Calvin looked at the orb in wonder.

“Just connect it to your watch. It has a button—,” she stopped herself, “Why are we talking about this? I activated the cone of silence for a reason.”

“Not really much of a cone now,” Calvin muttered before turning serious. “Is this about Lonnie?”

“Yeah, literally what happened not even half an hour ago,” she rolled her eyes. “Did you literally forget about it?”

“…something came up.”

“Something more important than this?”

“Yes— well, no. Just—”, he took a long breath to collect his thoughts, “It’s the same. The 'chopstick’ Lonnie stabbed me with? It’s the same as the one from last night.”

“The thing that literally stabbed you,” she nodded, “it looked suspiciously similar to the one the other person was twirling around last night.”

“It did… wait. You saw that from that far away?”

“I have good eyes,” she nodded, “it’s— it’s exactly the same.”

Calvin scratched his chin in thought, “Exactly?”

“I remember it like it was just last night,” she spoke with a flat tone. “It’s not a gut feeling. I recognize it.”

“It is for me,” he smirked, “it literally was in my guts— ow.”

“Be serious,” she frowned. “He’s suspicious.”

“I thought that too… but doesn’t that feel too obvious? Almost stupidly obvious? It’s literally just a nondescript polished metal spike. I don’t think it’s too far out there to assume anyone could make something like that… I mean it’s literally just a pointy piece of steel? It’s the modern equivalent of a neanderthal’s hunting spear. It’s just a sharpened stick.”

“Neanderthal?” She echoed, finding the word unfamiliar.

“That’s— primitive hunting spear. The point is, it’s going to be hard pinning suspicion just because of that,” He sighed, sitting down on his bed.

“But we’re both here talking about it,” Quinn reasoned.

“Like you said. It literally just happened last night, ” He said with a shrug, taking out a bottle of water to drink. “Recency bias.”

She saw his point, letting a disappointed sigh out before chuckling, “I keep telling you to relax yet here I am.”

“We’re both frazzled in different ways.”

“You say weird words sometimes, Cal.”

“I’m tired.”

She chuckled, turning her attention back to the room, “What were you doing earlier?”

“I— uh, nothing?”

Quinn said nothing, only staring at him with a gaze of disbelief.

“Look, I’ll tell you guys once I something out, okay? I just— it’s a surprise, just let it go for now, please?”

Her eyes narrowed, “Fine, but you get some rest first, okay? Don’t overwork yourself or Lonnie might challenge you again next week and he might just beat you. Also I already— hm?” She was interrupted by a message on her watch.

Minion #23 sent a file

Minion #23: you should open this asap, kid

Minion #23: its weird

Her brows furrowed at the ominous message before quickly tapping on the file sent to take a look. She sighed, shaking her head in disappointment.

“What’s wrong?” Calvin asked her

“Well,” she flicked the file towards his watch. “I had someone check out our friend’s presence in the network. Take a look.”

He opened the file in his watch before looking back towards her with an odd expression, “it’s empty?”

“Not just empty— it’s erased.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we were probably right to be suspicious.”