Klein and Cain slowly stand up. I see their outlines respectively teleport behind me and shout at me. When on their feet, Klein immediately teleports behind me as Cain shouts at me. I use my instant copy to copy Klein's blink to teleport on top of the dented metal container behind them.
I jump down and go to punch Klein; however, a bubble appeared around him. When my fist makes contact with it, I get sent backwards with the same force as my punch.
That last guy's power must be those bubbles. I assume whatever hits them gets sent back in the opposite direction with the same momentum they hit it with. But I couldn't tell the intricacies; that's just what I gleaned from seeing it twice.
I make a portal below me and appear behind the C rank with the bubble power and send two shadow tendrils straight through him. As he falls limp, I feel the pain as if I were the one pierced. I stumble a little. Cain turns around as if he were motioning for the others to retreat, but Klein yanks him back. He takes off his jacket and ties it around the remaining part of Cain's arm to stop the bleeding.
"We can get your arm healed at HQ! Look at him, he's on the verge of dying! We kill him first! He can learn and copy powers. If we leave him alive, he'll only get stronger and harder to deal with! Just a bit more and he's dead!" Klein yells.
Cain and the remaining C rank begrudgingly turn to face me. The three of them get in a fighting stance.
"How naive," I say.
"What? You're all bark, no bite! We hit ya a few times and you're dead!" Cain shouts at me.
"I won't die, and I won't lose. But I can't say the same for you three. I don't intend on leaving any of you alive." I tell them.
I see Klein teleport toward me, but I grab his leg with a shadow tendril and keep him suspended in the air. I jump up and kick Klein in the face to keep him disoriented while suspended. When I land on a metal container, Cain approaches me from the left, and the C rank approaches me from the right. I see the outlines of them before they move. The C rank is going to try and sweep me off my feet, and Cain is going to try to kick my head. I attempt to jump preemptively and let myself fall back to avoid the high kick. But when I do, Cain slams his leg down in an axe kick, his heel connecting with my neck.
But I grab his foot and make a portal below me. Dragging him down in it with me and making the other side above, dropping us both in the air as I punch him to the ground.
Before I land, Klein teleports in front of me, grabs my neck, and slams me to the ground.
Damn it! When I swapped to Mr. Eun-ji's power, it dropped Klein when I had him perfectly out of the fight temporarily!
Klein tightens his grip around my neck, placing both hands around it, strangling me. I repeatedly punch his face, trying to get him off of me. It gets to the point where his nose is bent and broken, and he's bleeding out of his mouth and nostrils, with the blood pooling onto my cloak below him. But he still persists and won't let go.
I feel my consciousness escaping me. I can barely muster up the strength to punch anymore. As a last-ditch effort, I send a shadow tendril at his arms, and it pierces straight through them, making him let me go. I stand back up and kick him across his face, knocking him to the ground.
I pick him up and start punching him in the face repeatedly, as I send shadow tendrils to pierce through his body, purposefully missing vital organs. I eventually toss him up and send three shadow tendrils at him, piercing his lungs, heart, and brain.
The moment Klein hits the ground, limp, I get sent flying back by a shout from Cain. My back slams against a metal container. "Klein! Klein! Get up!" Cain cries out, shaking his twin brother, who now lies dead on the ground. The C rank runs over to Cain's side and shouts, "We should go, now! We have no shot at winning. He's taken out too many of us! Ironhide can handle him when the day comes. You think that he will get strong enough to beat Ironhide in a few weeks when he was struggling with us? If you want to keep living, we need to retreat!"
Cain reluctantly stands up, and he and the C rank turn around and run. I try to stand up and run after them, but I'm too beaten up and worn out to chase them. "Get back here!" I shout before falling to my knees.
I fully fall over, slowly losing consciousness. Before I fully black out, I see above me a large, burly man wearing a black mask with a King of Hearts plastered onto it. "Chameleon, eh? Interesting. Let's see who you really are." He says in a thick Russian accent, removing my mask. "The Parker kid I heard so much about? No. I'd bet that isn't your real name either." He says, putting my mask on. "You interest me. I won't hurt you, but I'll sure be watching."
I reach up to try and take his mask off, but he swats my hand away and grabs my head. He slams it into the ground, and I fully lose consciousness.
Day 17/30, 13 Days Until The Rematch:
I awake on a very hard mattress. I raise my head and look around. It's a very tiny and cramped space, probably a studio apartment. It's riddled with dirty clothes and trash on the floor, the trash mainly being take-out boxes.
I stand up and put my hand to my face. My mask is gone? But I still am wearing my cloak.
Before I can take any further observations on my surroundings, the front door to the apartment opens, and in walks Mr. Eun-ji.
"Well, look who's awake, the little asshole who got me in deep shit with Claire." He says, not really mad, more exasperated.
"This your place?" I ask.
"It is. Welcome to my home. I would've cleaned up, but I wasn't expecting an unconscious kid to appear on my doorstep." He explains.
I suppose I can assume that the man in the King of Hearts mask dropped me off here after knocking me out.
"So, what did you do this time?" Mr Eun-ji asks.
"I reinvented myself, I didn't die," I tell him.
"Oh my god… Ray! Me telling you that was me saying what I did to survive that hero rehab. That wasn't me telling you to go purposely put yourself in a life-or-death situation!" He shouts. Now scratching his head.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, Miss Claire echoed your advice the other day. That's what really gave me the idea. I took your words with a grain of salt." I tell him.
He smiles at that information. "Oh really? Well, I guess she can't blame it all on me then. When Claire noticed you were gone, she was frantically calling me, yelling at me to go look for you, and that she was gonna do the same. We weren't able to find you. So I returned home, walked up the stairs, and there you were on the doorstep." He says, while grabbing my mask from the floor and tossing it to me.
I check my pants pocket under my cloak and grab out my phone. I text Jane, "Hey, I got a few ribs broken among some other things. Can you heal me before I return home?"
In response, I get a selfie from Jane, and a very unhappy Miss Claire next to her, wearing a glare on her face, a frown, and tear-stained eyes.
Damn. I was hoping to avoid this for a little bit. I then get a text from Miss Claire that reads: "Get over here. Now."
I sigh and take off my cloak. I crumple it up and shove it in my pocket. It's rather thin, so it fits. I toss the mask to Mr. Eun-ji. "Give this back next time you visit the lair. Miss Claire wants me back. I wanna delay the inevitable, so I'm gonna walk." I tell him.
He doesn't respond to me; he just allows me to walk out. Exiting the apartment and walking down the stairs, I see the gate to exit the apartment complex. I hop over it and walk out into the city. I'm not too far off from the northern Parlay docks. I walk in the direction that takes me past the docks. I should arrive at Jane's lab in about an hour. Walking past the docks, I bump into someone again and fall over.
Looking back up, it's the boy from two days ago. "Again? It must be fate." He says while standing up, reaching his hand out to help me up.
I take his hand and reply, "It must be. What are you doing out here? I heard the heroes left."
"Oh, more than just left. They were massacred by some unknown villain; three died. The two survivors are at WWSHA HQ right now giving testimony. One of em lost an arm. I'm out here about to meet Ironhide. Important business." He replies.
"Oh, well, don't let me interrupt this important business. I'll get going. Nice seeing you again." I say with a polite smile and wave, walking off.
"Yeah, you too!" He shouts after me, waving back.
I turn the corner and wait. I used precognition earlier and saw that Ironhide would arrive soon after I walked away. I overhear Ironhide say to the boy, "Bayani. Who were you talking to just now? I thought I heard you speaking."
"Some boy my age that I helped evacuate a few days ago. Coincidentally ran into him again, so it was just a hi-bye conversation." The boy called Bayani replies.
"And your sister?" Ironhide asks.
"You know her. She probably won't show up for a while, probably either napping, training, or demanding to spar with one of the other poor children living in HQ." Bayani says with an annoyed sigh.
"I keep telling Kara to quit that. She's too strong for them, and someone ends up getting hurt." Ironhide says.
"So what's this about anyway?" Bayani asks him.
"You know how, in thirteen days, I was going to ask you to accompany me to my mission?" Ironhide asks.
"Yeah, something about negotiations, what about it?" Bayani replies.
"The villain who killed the three heroes on the docks is a boy around your age. He is called Chameleon. He can copy powers. I thought it'd be a good idea to have you and Kara talk to him since you're both around his age, to see if we can resolve things without violence. But I've come to decide that it's too dangerous. I will handle him myself and take him in for rehabilitation. So expect a new apprentice alongside you and your sister soon." Ironhide explains.
"Got it. That sounds good. I won't tell Kara that. Because if she knew the reason why, she'd sneak out and go anyway." Bayani replies.
"That is true. Tell her I said it was because it would have conflicted with your two's training regimen, and the mission wasn't important enough to interrupt it." Ironhide tells him.
"Alright, I'll head back to HQ then. See you when you get back, Ironhide." Bayani says, before walking off.
I don't stay long enough to hear Ironhide's response, but I do hear his footsteps heading in my direction.
If I wanna avoid him, I guess I gotta use a portal to go to the lab. I quickly make one and teleport to the forest. I went over to a nearby tree and knocked on it three times. I then walk out three steps diagonally and stamp twice. Before walking to a tree across from the one I initially knocked on, and knocked on it four times.
I jumped back, and the ground opened up before me. I walk down the stairs and enter the giant mossy doors. The moment they close, Miss Claire runs over to me and hugs me. "Where the hell were you last night?! You had Eun-ji and I running all over the city just to find you, and we couldn't!" She shouts, hugging me tighter. I feel my shoulder getting wet from tears falling down her face.
"I heard that Cain and Klein, alongside three C rank heroes, were hiding out in the northern docks. So I went to get them alone. Chameleon killed all of them except for Cain and one of the C ranks… On the bright side, I can comfortably use the precognition aspect of Mr. Eun-ji's power now. And I think I'm over that mental barrier." I tell her.
"I was so scared that you were dead out there or something. I thought I told you something along the lines of, stop scaring me like this." She says.
I don't respond, I just hug her back. "Despite how stupid you can be sometimes, going behind my back like this. You're a sweet and hardworking kid. You know that?" She asks me.
"Thanks, Miss Claire." I softly reply.
Jane stands up and chimes in, "I really hate to interrupt this sweet moment between you and the kid, Claire, but I should probably heal him. You two still have a lot of work to do if he wants to stand a chance against Ironhide."
Miss Claire nods and lets me go. And Jane takes me to the operating table and begins healing me. "I've been working really hard lately. I think my healing has gotten less rusty since I've had so much practice on you lately." She teases, patting my head.
I stay silent and don't respond. Jane seems to be contemplating something whilst healing me. Eventually, she spoke up again, "Hey, how about this? After your fight with Ironhide, I'll teach you my power."
"No. It wouldn't be optimal for him to focus his efforts there. Healers are rare. It'd probably be a useless endeavor to learn it since he wouldn't be able to do it effectively mid-fight." Miss Claire interjects.
"Okay, Claire, I suppose it's your call," Jane replies.
In about an hour, Jane finishes up healing me. We said our goodbyes, and Miss Claire and I went back to the lair.
Days passed, and the day finally arrived.
Day 30/30, The Day of the Rematch:
Miss Claire and I walk into the parking garage. We walk up to the fourth floor and see Ironhide waiting for us, with a massive group of about one thousand people behind him. Probably more.
"What's with the large audience, Ironhide?" Miss Claire asks.
"They're here to make sure that you don't interfere with the fight. Every active D and C rank hero, alongside Cain, the second strongest of the B ranks. Well, I suppose he is the strongest now, after the young Chameleon right here killed his twin brother." Ironhide responds.
"I could use a nice little warmup. If you wanted to really wear me out. I would've brought every hero that is below your rank to jump me at once." Miss Claire says with a smirk.
"Wouldn't that mean having to fight your informant, Sonar?" Ironhide asks.
He knows?!
"And how did you figure that one out?" I chime in and ask him.
"It was obvious after he gave me information that he probably also fed to Claire. I assume the only reason he's doing it is because he wants you to be safe. He's already on thin ice with HQ, so I decided to keep that information to myself. It'll all resolve itself tonight when you start rehabilitation, Chameleon." Ironhide explains.
Miss Claire snorts. Trying not to laugh. She puts on a poker face and pats me on the back. "Well, kiddo. I gotta start my fight, you got Ironhide, yeah? Remember our training and the strategy we talked about." Miss Claire tells me. She then jumps outside of the parking garage on the empty streets, and all of the heroes follow her, leaving Ironhide and me alone.
"We can not resort to violence, and you can just come with me, you know," Ironhide tells me.
"No matter how many times you propose it, my answer is the same. No." I reply.
Ironhide pauses, before drawing in a very deep breath. After a moment of silence, he then speaks,
"Very well then…"