Chapter 18: Job description

On Earth.

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"What??!!"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA YES!!!"

Dave repeats himself as Calanthe asks in disbelief. Ambrose simply laughs in glee.

"News that a plane was saved and safely put down on the Ascension Academy Campus reached my ears. It only happened yesterday during the very early morning, and the cleanup was quick so word got delayed. Your son saved an entire plane Calanthe. He's trending on all the social media sites. Luckily he's off world or he wouldn't be able to have peace."

Ambrose lifts Calanthe up as they both cheer.

"Our son is a superhero!!!"

"HAHAHAHAHA he's done what we could never do!! I'm so proud!"

Dave, however, doesn't cheer and they notice. Calanthe hesitantly asks.

"What's wrong Dave?"

Dave releases a painful and shaky sigh.

"3 passengers were unaccounted for. Authorities found them as piles of mush a couple kilometres out, somewhere in the forest. Official reports say that they were sucked out of the plane long before Godfrey got there, when the villain shot out holes on the side of it..."

Calanthe covers her mouth and Ambrose frowns. Calanthe breaks the long silence.

"He'll blame himself."

Ambrose sighs and gains a faraway look.

"We both know, that no matter what anyone says, we will blame ourselves even if it wasn't our fault in that situation. Our boy is the same."

Calanthe looks at her tablet and hesitates.

"Do we...tell him?"

Ambrose notices her shaking hands and gently takes the tablet from her.

"I will tell him, darling. Get some rest."

Calanthe shakes her head and simply sits next to him. She looks at Ambrose and nods.

Mars. 3:35 a.m.

Godfrey opens his eyes as a call appears on his tablet.

'Hmm, Father.'

He accepts the call and his parents show up on the screen.

"Son. We need to tell you something..."

Godfrey completely wakes up as he notices the somber tone.

"What happened?"

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Earth.

"...He never spoke."

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Mars 3:40 a.m.

Godfrey makes his way to the gravity room and a voice appears in his head.

Please select your preferred gravity.

x15, x20, x25, x30

Godfrey immediately picks x30 and is slammed into the ground.

"GRRRR damn you."

He forces himself to crawl towards the gym area. A few early morning goers see him and try to help him up, but Godfrey snarls at them.

The Orc from earlier in the cafeteria just so happens to be there. He gets offended and kicks Godfrey in the face, causing him to roll across the floor. He laughs in glee.

"Got overconfident I see. Thought everything would go your way? Pathetic!"

Godfrey's anger peaks as the comment hit a nerve. He pushes himself off the ground and mocks the orc.

"Is that all, whelp? Put some muscle into it!!"

A few orcs surround Godfrey and wail on him. 30 minutes pass as heavy blows resound throughout the room and they manage to draw blood from Godfrey's nose. He is fully standing at this point, as his body adapts to the gravity and thus strengthened itself.

Godfrey grabs an incoming fist and holds it in place. He looks at the fist's owner and asks a single question.

"Are you done?"

Lightning explodes forth and the group of orcs are electrocuted.

"AAAAHHHHKKKKK!!"

A few seconds pass and the screaming stops. By then only Godfrey remains standing. He slowly walks towards the gym and pushes his body to the limit. His bones break, his muscles rip, and his tendons tear, yet Godfrey remains silent.

2 hours later

Godfrey is calmer now and helps the unconscious orcs into a sitting position against a wall. He looks at their battered forms and feels horrible for what he did.

'YOU SEE? YOU COULDN'T CONTROL YOURSELF. YOU JUST LASHED OUT AT WHOEVER WAS CLOSEST.'

'It was a period of weakness.'

'BUT THEN IT'S ALWAYS WEAKNESS WITH YOU ISN'T IT? TOO WEAK TO SAVE YOUR WORLD. TOO WEAK TO SAVE A FEW HUMANS. HAHAHA AND YOU THINK YOURSELF A HERO.'

'...I promised.'

'PROMISED WHAT YOU FOOL?'

'I promised to push through the setbacks. So that is what I will do.'

'YOU'LL SUFFER, YOU'LL BLEED, AND SLOWLY LOSE MORE OF YOURSELF! THERE'S PROOF RIGHT NOW. YOU AGONISE OVER A FEW HUMANS. WAIT UNTIL TRAGEDY REALLY STRIKES. WHY BOTHER??!!'

'Heh. It's in the job description, you git.'

'...'

Godfrey silences his thoughts and exits the academy. The base is silent as nothing but silence occupies the streets. Godfrey walks aimlessly, hoping that life would throw him an opportunity. And throw it did.

"HEEEEELLLLPPPPP!!!"

Godfrey explodes into action as he takes to the skies. He uses his enhanced senses to pinpoint the location of the scream.

'Where are you?!'

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In an alleyway, a beast man is being thrown around by three human "heroes". He is beaten down, picked up, and beaten again. He desperately tries to crawl away as he asks why.

"Please, I'm just an old man. This is supposed to be a city filled with heroes!! Why are you doing this?!"

A "hero" grabs the old man's leg and tosses him into a dumpster.

*BANG*

"AHHH MY BACK!! PLEASE STOP!"

Another "hero" laughs and steps on the beast man's back.

"Why do we need a reason to step on a mongrel? You animals ask such stupid questions."

Another keeps kicking the old man and mocks.

"My back he says, HAHAHAHAHA!"

The old beast man gains some life and snarls at the humans.

"I helped create this place as an engineer. As a sign of goodwill to your people, I worked day and night. This is ho--mmmpphh!"

One human grabs him by the jaw, while another picks up the dumpster. The last of the three records the whole ordeal with a sadistic smile.

The human who is recording urges the others to finish the job.

"Come on already! I want to see some blood!!"

A voice from above sends their hearts to their mouths.

"HOW ABOUT SEEING SOME OF YOUR OWN?"

As they look up, the man with a dumpster disappears. The recorder frantically looks around but there is no sign of his friend. He shouts at his other friend.

"James!! Where the hell did Tommy go?!?!"

James moves to answer but is taken away by a blindingly fast white and gold blur.

"I don't know Blake-"

"AAAAAAHHHH-thud*

James' screams pierces through the night but is cut off.

Blake then looks up into the sky and sees a large silhouette with glowing eyes. He then screams for dear life.

"KYYYAAAAAA MONSTER!!!"

The "monster" descends in a brutal knee drop and slams into Blake's chest.

"GAAAHHHHH!"

Blake slams into the ground and gasps for breath. Not a second later, he is picked up by his leg and the world blurs. The next time he opens his eyes, he realises that he is high above the city.

Godfrey stares at the stars as Blake struggles in his grip. Alas, Godfrey's strength is overwhelming. He lifts Blake up and asks him.

"What drives your rage? Why attack a man who has done no wrong, and instead has helped humanity advance to Mars?"

Blake hurriedly answers as if his life depended on it.

"They're just animals man. We were just having fun, nothing else. I swear we weren't gonna do much!"

Godfrey's anger flares and he crushes Blake's ankle bone.

"AAAAHHHHHH WHY??"

Godfrey squeezes even tighter and smiles as he replies.

"That old man asked you the same thing didn't he? Besides-"

Godfrey looks into Blake's eyes and his face morphs into a snarl.

"THE ONLY ANIMAL I SEE IS YOU."

Godfrey releases his grip and Blake plummets.

"NOOOOOO PLEEAAASSEEE!"

Blake nears the ground and Godfrey slams him into a dumpster. Blake drops like a sack of bricks, alive but unconscious. Godfrey looks to the old man and sees that he is slumped up against the alley wall and watching him.

Godfrey slowly makes his way next to the old man and sits down on the ground.

"I am sorry old man. I would have thought that these racist ideas would have disappeared by now. I do not know yet of the full situation here on Mars, but they should never have laid hands on an Elder."

The old man chuckles and waves Godfrey's apologies away.

"You are not the one at fault young man. I just wish there were more like you."

Godfrey laughs depreciatively and hangs his head.

"Brutal and Vengeful wannabes?"

The old man puts a hand on Godfrey's shoulder and replies.

"Good people who are willing to help an old man. That's all heroism is at the end of the day. Thank you."

Godfrey is taken aback by the heartfelt words, but smiles to himself. He helps the old man up, but elder insists that he is fine and goes off into the night.

After making sure that the 3 "heroes" were taken to jail, he goes as high as he can and stares at the stars once more.

After a while, Godfrey flies back to the academy and checks the time. Seeing that there is only 1 hour left until the mixed introductory class starts, he decides to find his classroom in advance. He arrives after walking around in circles for 20 minutes. He opens the door and sees that he isn't the first to arrive.

Sitting at a corner seat is a youth of average height, with a large build. His features bear some resemblance to Long Aotian and Godfrey deduces who he is.

The youth sees Godfrey and a look of anger and jealousy slowly take over his face. The youth stands and points his finger at Godfrey to shout.

"I don't need your protection!! Begone plebian!"

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Godfrey stares impassively for a few moments and speaks up.

"Are you mentally ill?"

The youth bristles in anger and summons a sword of flames.

"I, Long Batian, challenge you to a duel."

Godfrey smiles.

"No."

Long Batian grits his teeth and strikes.

"You have no choice!"

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END