Chapter 37: Fail, Fail, Fail

Failed.

Bella Jackson; Desired Superhero Name: Black Bell-- Failed.

Like Gary, she was given 3 attempts to try and save the hostages. True to her assumption, the hostages were being confined in the wooden cabin, protected by the villains that were outside.

What she did not expect, however, was that there were more villains guarding the hostages inside. No matter what she did, some of the hostages would always die; shot accidentally, or executed by the hostages inside.

She tried controlling the guns that the non-supers were holding, but ended up causing the trigger to be pulled; causing mass hysteria as the sound of thunder echoed throughout the forest.

At her last attempt, she tried what Gary did-- stealth. She tried sneaking from the windows, using whatever metal there was in the cabin to her advantage; even killing one of the villains using a nail. What is a minus point, after all, if she ends up rescuing all of the hostages in the end?

But alas, the end did not go as she expected. As soon as the one she killed dropped to the ground, chaos once again erupted inside-- causing a barrage of bullets to fly out. She tried to stop them, but some ended up flying towards the hostages, as well as towards her.

Of course, the bullets weren't really lethal, and Bella's body was sturdier than that of a normal human; but it was still painful, of course. It was made obvious by her incessant curse that was seeping from the elevator as she was brought up.

Her screams, however, were instantly gone as soon as the elevator doors opened up; causing the other students to pretend they didn't hear her yelling all sorts of profanities just seconds before.

She was not alone in her woes, however. Gary had already failed, and the ones that followed after her were no better.

As most of them already realized, the trials that they were facing were specifically designed for them to fail. Each of them saw how their classmates failed and failed again; even the most noticeable ones and the ones who came up on top of their respective power categories failed.

Bella's brother Ben Jackson, or as he called himself, Metallerina; from the word Metal and Ballerina, also failed miserably. Unlike her sister, he was placed in a scenario with an abundance of metal-- a ship; with parts so massive and weighty that he was not able to move anything due to his lack of raw power. He had the right idea at the end by unscrewing some of the bolts and tiny parts hidden deep, but the sheer noise of doing so caught the attention of the villains.

Cedrick Atkinson; Hypnos, was put in a position where if he puts any of the villains to sleep, a bomb would go off as a trigger was attached and hanging from their bodies.

Tomoe Reynolds; Dark Frost's scenario was slightly interesting; not just for her, but for everybody and especially Riley. She was faced with Darkday, who had held several superheroes hostage.

Perhaps she could have done something, perhaps she could not have, but each of her 3 attempts ended up with her just ogling and following Darkday. Probably out of all the students that were in the Potential Villain list, she was the most far down; probably even a psychopath, Scarlet Mage thought.

"Mega Girl, are you ready for your final attempt?"

"Y… yes."

"How… is that scenario even fair?"

"I thought mine was hard."

"I guess things are different if you're the Mega Student… I'll just remain as an unnamed side character, I guess."

And now, it was Silvie's 3rd attempt at her scenario.

Her scenario was quite different than most; violent, perhaps one could even say brutal. The robot did not have his appearance, but all of the people present knew that the robot floating in the air was supposed to be Darkday, again.

As for how they knew?

3 vehicles were floating around him; 2 sedans, and a school bus, all of which were filled with the rest of the robots, or in this case, civilians. Like all of the scenarios, this was once again a hostage situation.

But unlike most of the scenarios of the previous students, where some of them had thought of a solution on how to solve their scenario after they failed the three attempts; Silvie's seemed to be a lost cause.

At her first attempt, she flew towards the school bus, prioritizing the children; but as she did so, the two sedans collided with each other, effectively killing anyone inside.

At her second, she went with what everyone was trying to do-- stealth. However, as she got inside the bus, the civilians started panicking; pushing each other so that they would be the first to be rescued by her-- this, of course, was quickly noticed by the floating robot villain.

And now, in her final attempt, her erratically moving eyes showed the state of her mind-- completely in chaos as it scoured to think of a solution on how to save all of them.

"You need to move, Mega Girl."

"Y… yes!" She once again repeated as Scarlet Mage's voice reverberated in the hall. The vehicles were almost 4 floors up in the air, if they fell, there could still be a chance that the civilians would survive as the vehicles would suck up most of the impact.

"..." And as soon as the thought came to her mind, her eyes immediately locked on towards the floating mannequin; and with only a blink of hesitation, she screamed and flew towards it. If the robot truly was Darkday, then this was nothing short of a sacrifice; but still, if there was even a sliver of a chance to save the civilians, she would do it.

"!!!"

"N… no!"

But alas, halfway through her forceful flight, half a dozen civilians suddenly flew towards her path. Her arm, which was stretched and ready to make contact with the floating villain, instead hit through the civilians.

Suffice to say, her fist easily penetrated through the civilians' 'flesh', and since they were lined up in the air, they were skewered like a barbecue.

"N… no… no!"

The simulation was not real, of course; but still, the holograms were as life-like as they get. Silvie looked at the eyes of the civilian in front of her, slowly fading as the blood oozed from its mouth.

It only lasted for a second, of course, as Scarlet Mage quickly turned off the holograms, returning the robots to their mannequin-like exterior. Silvie, however, was still floating in the air staring at the barbecue of mannequins stuck around her arm.

"...That's enough, Silvie. Come back up," Scarlet Mage then muttered weakly. That part of Silvie's scenario… was not supposed to happen. As their class' advisor, she was the one responsible for picking and reviewing each of their scenarios-- and that last part was truly not included in that.

True, if Silvie chose to rush towards the floating villain, even if she managed to subdue it, she would have still failed because most of the civilians would have died from the impact… but the civilians blocking her path? That was too traumatic for someone of Silvie's temperament to handle; Scarlet Mage would never include it.

That was something that only a truly heinous supervillain would-- !!!

As soon as the thought came to her mind, her eyes instinctively landed towards the only one in the room that fits that description to a tee; and true enough, there was a weird expression on Riley's face as he stared through the window.

Even the others that were in the Potential Villain list had slight expressions of shock on their faces; Riley, however, had this look of clarity in his eyes-- as if they were saying that is what exactly would happen if Silvie charges at Darkday in real life.

Silvie was his sister's friend, and judging by his words and his actions throughout the past week, he was protective of her. So why would he do something like this?

Was this… some sort of skewed way of making Silvie learn?

With that thought, she was mostly right.

Riley could truly see Mega Woman through Silvie; and if there happened to be two Mega Women roaming around the world in the future, wouldn't that double the fun he would experience once he comes out of retirement?

But of course, her strength and facial similarities alone were not enough for her to become Mega Woman; she needed her resolve and determination as well… and getting it is not supposed to be easy.

The whole room became quiet as soon as the sound of the elevator whistled in the air; with not even a single one of them looking at Silvie as she entered the observation room. Silvie was always filled with this sense of authority and hope; but right now, her eyes were only looking at the floor as she returned to Gary and Riley's side.

"H… hey, Mega Champ. No need to be so sad," Gary stuttered, his hand waving in the air as it did not know whether to pat Silvie on the shoulder or not, "No one could have cleared that scenario… fuck, no one has cleared a scenario so far."

"Black Bell could have saved most of them, Gary."

"S… shut the fuck up, man. We're supposed to be comforting her!" Gary quickly hissed at Riley, "And that's the point of the scenarios, man… we're not supposed to win. Fuck this fucking shit. You alright, Silv?"

"I… I killed them."

"What… they are just robots, dude," Gary breathed out, "Just think of-- Bro, where are you going? Don't leave me behind here!"

Gary could not help but violently gesture to Riley as he saw him suddenly escaping this somewhat awkward situation.

"I am the only one left, Gary," Riley casually said as he walked towards the elevator doors. "It's my turn," he then said as he turned his attention towards Scarlet Mage.

"Are… you ready, Riley Ross?"

"I suppose."

"Then step on the elevator," Scarlet Mage nodded as she moved to the control unit, swiping her hands until Riley's profile came up, "Do your best but do not overdo it; as you can see, all of your classmates have failed. It is better to learn from the scenario… and I'm sorry."

The last words of Scarlet Mage were almost a whisper, with no one but herself able to hear it.

"Thank you for the advice, Scarlet Mage," Riley nodded before getting on the elevator. Most of the students were excited to see his scenario; however, most of them had also not recovered from the violent end of Silvie's test.

If the Mega Student herself couldn't pass the exercise, then there truly was no way of passing; even for their mysterious and somewhat cool classmate.

As for Riley, well… He would lie if he said that he wasn't even just a tiny bit excited about his scenario. Katherine knew his true identity, so whatever she came up with would surely be something distressing.

...Maybe even a scenario with Mega Woman?

And as soon as he thought of that, the door of the elevator opened-- quickly causing the orange light razing outside to reflect on Riley's bright eyes.

"..." Riley curiously stepped outside, looking at a destroyed city surrounded with nothing but fire and ash; and right in the middle of it, was a young woman.

"R… Riley?"

"...Sister."