Chapter 20 - New Instructor

"Well, this is an unpleasant sight...you there, tell me why you're all just watching while there's a literal murder scene taking place right in front of you?" Inquired the kid, with a frown.

Haughty little brat, isn't he. Wait, hold on a sec, his face looked kinda familiar, where did I know it from...anyway, the person he'd picked to question was Seila Khan, who flinched when he spoke to her.

" U-um, well, I...this is, uh...," She stuttered nervously, unsure of what to say.

"Oh, forget it. Hey, you with the red glasses, what do you think you're doing?" The kid demanded, marching towards me.

I'll see where this goes before using my ability, this was getting kinda amusing.

"Hey there, little guy...don't you know that you should talk to your elders with respect?" I replied patronizingly, and admittedly, hypocritically.

I mean, I don't respect my elders unless they've earned it, and in my experience, there were more than didn't deserve it than those that did.

"Hm, right back at you...brat," He responded, emphasizing the last part.

Okay, now that I was looking at him closer, I could say for certain that I had seen his face somewhere...

"Hey, timeout for a sec...do I know you, little guy?"

"Don't think you can distract me-...wait, your hair...," He suddenly trailed off, staring at my hair with a frown, particularly the long blonde streak by my ear, before his eyes widened, "That reminds me of...Kilella..."

Wait, what did he just-...hold on, I do know who this midget is, not personally, but I knew of him...

"Crap, you're-...! Yeah, I think I've pushed my luck just about far enough...<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Load>."

.

.

.

.

Tch, I forgot that my foot had felt a bit sore when I set my last Save point. Whew, that was a close one. Wait, was he supposed to be our teamwork training instructor...? Well, this should be interesting. He should be arriving a couple of minutes from now, except this time, he wasn't going to walk in to the sight of a guy with his balls blown off. Well, I was pretty satisfied with letting off steam against Tairo, so ignoring him this time around was simple.

"Heh, pussy," I heard him mumble condescendingly, as he walked away.

...I kinda wanted to blast him again. But let's not, I'd have to use my Load ability to go back again, and I don't want to do that too much. Guess it doesn't hurt to take the high road every now and then, I suppose. And besides, I already got my fill of satisfaction.

Anyway, a few minutes later, the little guy arrived, entering the training hall and shutting the door behind him. This should be amusing. As he began approaching us, confused murmurs began echoing around the room.

"Uh, hey, little guy...are you lost? How did you get here?" Alex asked in a gentle tone, squatting in front of him with a friendly smile.

"Huh, excuse me-?" He began to reply in indignation.

"This is no place for a kid, it's dangerous here. Why don't we get you to the staff room, I'm sure someone there can get you home," Andre chimed in, walking over and patting him on the head.

"Why you-!" He snapped, slapping away his hand, "Stop calling me a kid, you brats! I'm-!"

"Quite a character, this little guy...hey, you've got a big attitude for a half-pint, maybe you need to be taught a lesson," Smirked Tairo, cracking his knuckles while walking over to him.

Should have expected him to jump in, he was a bully by nature, so a situation like this had to be irresistible to him.

"Well, aren't you an unpleasant piece of work," He responded with a look of disdain.

Hm, looking around...I don't think anyone else knows who this guy is. Well, I guess it was understandable, he was more known by name than by face, but still, it's not like there weren't any photos of him available. I should explain, the short guy with the childish appearance was named Kumar Silva, an Ace X-Warrior...and he was about six years older than me.

He had longish straight black emo hair that covered his right eye, his eyes were purple, I'd say he was just barely five feet tall, and he had a light brown complexion. I'd looked up the details available to the puplic regarding the Ace X-Warriors, that's why he looked familiar. Most of the Aces were very well known, they were practically celebrities, including my sister, but this guy preferred to fly under the radar, he hated doing interviews and making public appearances, so he was probably the least well-known Ace in the entire Sanctuary.

My sister had mentioned him a few times, they knew each other pretty well apparently, he was extremely self-conscious about his height and appearance, and it didn't take much to piss him off. And she'd also mentioned another thing, that his-...

"Enough! I won't stand for this disrespect, you ungrateful little shits...I guess I'll have to put you all in your places, show you who's boss, so to speak...<Primary Manifestation: Colossus>!"

Right, the other thing that my sister mentioned was about his X-Ability...

A mass of yellow XFE surrounded and wrapped around him, before rapidly expanding with him in the center, taking the shape of a humanoid figure with long, sharp fingers. It was a good fifty feet tall, and barely fit in the training hall despite the massively tall ceiling.And with that, he silenced the entire room, no one saying a word. Right, so back to what my sister said about his ability...whenever he uses it, his personality changes, like so...

"Who's the half-pint now, you tiny little shit!? I can barely even see you down there! Hope I don't accidentally step on you!"

Of course, he was specifically addressing Tairo, but that didn't mean that the others were any less terrified. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel kinda intimidated myself. I mean, I was confident in my skills, but I don't stand a chance against this literal mass of power...

"Tch, you'd think a little recognition wouldn't be too much to ask for...hey, you little midgets down there, I'll give you a choice...say who I am and I'll forgive the disrespect you all showed me, but if you don't know who I am, then I'll stomp on you all!"

He was just trying to scare us, I'm pretty sure that was just an empty threat, but the others definitely looked plenty scared. They all began muttering amongst each other, but no one seemed to know who he was...seriously? You'd think Prodigies aspiring to be X-Warriors would be aware of the identities of the highest ranked X-Warriors. I should probably chime in since I knew, I was ninety-nine percent sure that he was just bluffing to try and scare us, but it wasn't worth risking the one percent alternative...

"Hey, over here! I know who you are!"

"Huh!? Did you say something!? Speak up!"

...you've gotta be kidding me, he's too far to hear me. That's as loud as I get. Oh, I have an idea. I walked over to Alex and tapped his shoulder.

"Hey, could you fly me up there? I can't shout any louder than I already did."

I didn't really like asking people for help, but this situation was getting out of control.

"Huh? Oh, uh...sure, I can do that," He replied, after initially looking a bit dazed, "<Secondary Manifestation: Foot Rockets>."

Most of the others seemed to be in a daze too, guess they felt overwhelmed by the situation. Rex grabbed hold of my shoulder and began hovering upwards, at a really slow pace, he was probably worried about giving Kumar the wrong idea. Once we got to a height that was close to where he was positioned in his Manifestation, I cleared my throat and addressed him.

"I'm assuming that you know who I am, considering you took the trouble to approach me like this, you little ants," He remarked with a smirk.

Man, he sure had it bad with his size-complex.

"Yeah, I do. You're Kumar Silva, one of the Ace X-Warriors, right?"

"Oh, uh...good, looks like at least one of you knows who I am. Fine, I guess I'll switch this off," He replied with a sigh.

Huh, he seemed disappointed...he must have been looking forward to scaring us some more. That was annoying and stressful, but I guess I'm glad I did it.

"Crap, he's an Ace? How old is he?" Whispered Alex, as he hovered back down.

"He became an X-Warrior six years ago, so...," I answered.

"Seriously!? I thought he was like, twelve or thirteen at most."

Anyway, Kumar deactivated his Manifestation and got back down to the ground, as everyone stepped back and got some distance from him. Alex quickly spread the word of who he was, so everyone was quiet now.

"Alright, well that was anticlimactic...though I suppose it wouldn't do to kill a student on day one. Moving on! Let's begin the teamwork training session. I'll randomly divide you all into groups of four and each group will take turns fighting me for twenty-five minutes. Now, then, how to divide you all up..."

"Huh!?"

"Wait, what-?"

"Hold on...!"

He ignored the cries of protest as he began dividing us up into four teams, while struggling to keep himself from smirking gleefully...I could clearly see his lower lip quivering while he bit down on it to keep a straight face. This guy's a total sadist. Well...this should be fun...

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