Anima Attack

"You're watching that memorial?" 

Arit said this while looking out the window at the side of the hallway to prevent Mark from seeing the irritated expression on her face. 

Mark shrugged at her words, and Arit asked him if they showed that statue of KING again. Arit might not like superhumans, but the only exception to this was KING. She had more respect for KING than for anyone else in her life because of what he did to help everyone years ago. There was even a large statue of KING erected in the center of the city where the inauguration was taking place, and Arit would always go to look at the statue whenever she was passing near there.

"They didn't show the statue yet. I think they're making some repairs to it after that large fight that happened close to it last time. The arms broke off, so they had to put it back on." 

Mark gave Arit the information she wanted, and she nodded just once before she suddenly reverted to what they had been talking about.

"Let's go to class. The teacher is going to punish you again because you're late, so don't you dare try to run away. This is the last time I'm going to come and find you! The next time something like this happens, I'll leave you to fail!" 

Arit shouted this in anger as she started to walk towards the class. She completely overlooked what Mark was watching because she knew that she couldn't be angry at him fo watching it. He liked superhumans, and she wouldn't force him to hate them just because she didn't like them! That wasn't what a friend did!

Mark placed his hands in his pocket and followed after his friend with a smile on his face. Even though she said that she would never come to look for him again, Mark knew that this was a lie. She was the sort of person that cared for her friends more than anything. She would come and look for him every time because she cared about him just as much as he cared about her.

Ring! Ring! Ring! 

Mark stopped in his tracks as he heard his phone ringing. He picked up and raised his hand placatingly as he saw Arit looking back at him with a heavy glare. This is important. He couldn't just leave this call!

The person on the other end of the call was Mark's other friend, Pat. Mark has known Pat for even longer than he has known Arit. They were in middle school together, and they would have gone to the same high school, but Pat managed to leave school faster than all the other students because of how intelligent he was. He finished compulsory education in only two years, and right now, he is a college student studying Cosmology and Astronomy at a popular university in another city.

But even with all these achievements, Mark and Pat have remained as friends all this while, and there was never any jealousy or irrational hatred, Mark just understood that his friend was smarter than almost anyone else in the world, and that was okay!

[What are you doing? No, that doesn't matter, I've tracked your location. There's an Anima attack happening close to you right now. The closest responders are almost an hour away. That would only end badly. Can you make it?] 

The voice on the other end of the call came out in a rushed and haughty manner, almost like the person was looking down on everything in the world because of how much better he was than them. But Mark didn't let that faze him as he frowned and looked out the window in the direction that Pat pointed out.

"I'm with Arit. I think she wants to kill me with the look she's giving me right now, so you better hurry. How many are there?" 

Mark said this while taking a single step away from Arit as she folded her hands and started to tap her foot on the ground in annoyance while waiting for him to finish his call. Arit was obviously pissed that he was making them even later for class, but she knew that she couldn't drag him with her even if she wanted to. She tried to drag him once and she almost ended up breaking her hand from how heavy he was! It felt like she was trying to push a slab of rock around with her! So instead of dragging him, she would just give him another talking to when he finishes the call.

[I can't believe you still haven't told her you're a superhuman. You and your wife should stop your disgusting flirting, and you should just tell her. In fact, forget that, you normies can just go die for all I care. The spot is two kilometers north of your school. There should be a large billboard close to that area so you can use that as a guide, so just… hold on.] 

Pat's couldn't keep his irritation at Mark and Arit's interactions out of his tone. He hated how easy it was for the two of them to act like a married couple while still not being together! Pat has never had a girlfriend in his life. He always stated that his reason for not having a girlfriend was because none of the girls he knew were capable of keeping up with him mentally, but Mark always teased him that he was just afraid of girls. Pat cursed Mark every time Mark said this. The bastard had no right to talk because he already had Arit!

Mark should first try talking to other girl and see how hard it is!

Pat stopped talking as he looked down at the laptop that was on his lap. Pat was sitting on a large chair with his legs drawn up, and he had a juice box in one hand as he typed away expertly on his laptop with his other hand. There was an almost permanent look of boredom on his face as he easily tapped into the CCTV cameras in the streets of the city. There was a prompt that came up on his screen, showing a warning of a firewall that protected the citywide grid from intruders, and Pat scoffed.

Do they think something this flimsy can keep him out!? They probably gave this to some sixty year old washed up programmer who made it in two days. It was so bad!

Pat broke through the firewall like it was wet tissue paper and redirected the feed of the camera to his large 500-inch TV that took up the entire wall in front of him. 

Flash!

He saw a blur flash across the screen as it headed in the direction that he just pointed out to Mark. Pat immediately narrowed his eyes in shock. Who in the world is that?

Pat wondered who it was as he froze the screen on the frame that had the blur. He zoomed into the frame by a hundred times and frowned as he saw that the blur was still not very clear. He pixelated the screen and then used a program to clean out the residue that was silhouetted out of the image. After doing this, the image became clear enough for him to see the face of the person. Once he saw who it was, Pat dropped his juice box in shock!

It was a beautiful woman who had long blond hair tied into a ponytail behind her. She was wearing a sleeveless black singlet and black cargo pants, and she had a long katana strapped to her waist! This was one of the most popular superhumans in the entire world! Her name was Matilda Lindsworth, but her fans and other people online only referred to her as Tilda. Tilda is one of only three A-class female Superhumans in the Federal Republic of America, and she was given the title Yellow Phantom because of how fast she could move. What in the world is she doing in a place like this!?

Her base of operations was in an entirely different city, and the only time she came down to City A was when she was receiving an award from the mayor for helping in a large subjugation. Pat was very curious about what Tilda was doing here, but that wasn't immediately important. He filed it away in a compartment in his brain, and he promised himself that he would look into it when he got more time.

Pat spoke to Mark again with that same bored tone. There's no need for Mark to bother going anymore.

[You can forget it. Someone managed to make it. You don't need to bother about it for now, but I think you should be careful in the meantime. Something seems off about this whole situation. There shouldn't be any issues with taking care of the monster since she's pretty strong. Just in case, though, stand by and try to answer whenever I call. Don't let your disgusting libido keep you away from your phone.] 

Pat didn't even wait for Mark to say anything in response, and he just cut the phone! Mark blinked down at his phone in slight surprise. He wasn't surprised that Pat acted the way he did, that was normal. Instead, Mark was surprised that there was someone who came to answer the emergency that quickly. They usually take at least thirty minutes because of how far the school is from the nearest Superhuman base. But they were able to make it in only three minutes?

Mark was sure that only an A-rank or above would be able to cover that distance in such a short time. There weren't any Superhumans with such a high rank available right now since they were all out on a mission and that was why Mark was certain that there wouldn't be any responders to the attack! But then, if none of them are available, who was the responder?

Mark was curious about this, but he decided to just let it be. Since Pat said it would be fine, then Mark was sure it would be fine. Pat was someone who always took everything into account, and he never left any stone unturned when trying to uncover something! If this was going to be a problem, then Pat would have let him know.