18. A Hero's Pride

"All right students calm down. I SAID CALM THE FUCK DOWN!" a female teacher, seemingly in her mid thirties yelled as she entered the classroom.

The murmuring and gossiping among the students quickly died down as everyone took their seats.

The teacher's name was Iroha Eastfolk. She was one of the best well known international level superhero belonging to the warrior class. Her rank was [SS] but the versatility she uses her ability [Teleportation] with could give even a [SS+] rank a run for their life.

"Her temper is as bad as ever I see." one of the student muttered underneath his breath.

The comment of course didn't escaped Iroha's ears. She took a chalk and threw it up in the air, the students were all puzzled by her action however when the chalk began to fall down, the boy who spoke earlier was swapped with it and fell down on his ass instead of the chalk.

"Aaghh!" a short groan escaped his mouth as soon as he landed back first on the ground. He groped his bottom and tears of pain filled his eyes to the brim as he looked up to see the face of the teacher responsible for his humiliation.

"Were you saying something about my temper, Mr. Ross?" Iroah asked with a eerie smile on her face.

Even in her thirties she was a beautiful woman to say the least. A blond buxom mademoiselle with a triangular face and azure blue eyes.

However for the boy infront of her, who was currently grabbing his own ass to numb the pain, she was nothing short of a demon.

"No mam!" He answered instantly.

"Then get back to your seat you filthy maggot."

"Mam yes mam!"

"Oi Anthony get up, mate" Sam said in a hush voice. Upon seeing no response from the flaxen haired boy, he shook him to wake him up.

"Five more minutes..." Anthony grabbed his hand and placed it under his head to use as a pillow.

"Da faq" Sam snatched his hand back in disgust and slapped the back of his head.

"Mmmm" Anthony finally opened his drowsy eyes and looked around. "Oh yeah class, it started?"

"No the teacher just came, what happened last night for you to get so wrecked? You look like shit."

"Yeah Kiara said the same." Anthony replied with a mirthless smile.

Sam clenched his wrists upon hearing that reply. If it were someone else, they would've died there at that moment. However no matter how much he tries to alter or control his biology, Sam couldn't. It's like Anthony was just... not human or something.

(Talk Sam talk, take info out of him, you can try to burst his heart later.) Sam cleared his thoughts and spoke again.

"It's because you really do. Anyway, what happened?"

"Didn't you saw the news?" Kiara whispered and joined in on the conversation.

"No I didn't actually. I told you guys I was at my friend's. I didn't return until this morning to just change clothes and then I directly came here." Sam replied with a shrug.

"Ah, so you were gone the whole night? I didn't notice sorry." Kiara said before nodding in understanding.

'Of course you didn't...' Sam felt a clutching pain in his chest. He had felt this way sometimes before too and he never liked that mysterious feeling.

"Last night-" Anthony's explaination was cut short as Iroha yelled again.

"You boys in the back, I said SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Anthony and Sam quickly zipped their mouths at that fierce roar.

"Ahem, now then, let's start with the announcement I was about to make. You all know what happened last night. Another terrorist attack, our intelligence believe it was the same supervillain as the one who killed Tanya Fireforged. Last night we also found the dead body or rather, the remains of the burnt dead body of Rose Bluespring at the crime scene.

"Heroes who were dispatched to capture the the villain, unfortunately were also caught up in the explosion. Few of them did survive but before they could reach at the scene of crime, Starboy had beaten them to there. However, we were still too late to capture the terrorist. The killer is in hiding in this very city that is said to be the heart of all hero alliance.

"67 people lost their life to the explosion last night. Most of them were students, few of them were their guardians who came here to meet them. Although shameful to say but it's a wound to our pride." Iroha took a dramatic pause to let all that sink in.

Most of the students had a fearful look on their face. Why wouldn't they be scared? Academy city is said to be the heart of hero alliance. No villian in the past has ever tried to commit a crime there, even if they did, they were caught within a day or two. However, this new villain didn't leave any trail to follow.

No one, not a single person witnessed the action. Not even the people who were present near the crime scene. It's as if their memories were wiped out because they didn't remember a single thing that happened during that time span.

But such a large scale crowd control ability is next to impossible for a person to have especially when they possess a large scale destructive ability too. So the possibility of the villain in question possessing a memory manipulation ability was discarded.

When the CCTVs and satellites were checked for recordings in hopes of finding the culprit's indentity, the officials were left in shock.

The face that was revealed in camera and satellite footage was just a distasteful joke. The face that was revealed belonged to a person who was supposed to be long dead... Adolf Hitler.

This villain definitely possess a shapeshifting ability, that or it was really Adolf Hitler. Maybe he reincarnated, who knows?

There was nothing, absolutely nothing the intelligence could track the crimes to. It's as if they were trying to track a ghost.

"It is a wound to our pride sure, but a wounded lion is more dangerous than a hungry one. It runs after it's prey not to satisfy it's hunger but to gratify it's anger. We'll catch this new villain not because it's our duty, we'll catch this villain to avenge those who have fallen, we will kill this monster in the name of revenge! So don't you children worry about it, because now it's the matter of a hero's pride." Iroah finished up her speech, her eyes burning with anger more clenched in determination.

"Yes! For the fallen!"

"We believe in you all!"

"I forgive you for slamming me on my ass!"

Cheers like that resounded throughout the class. Everyone was fired up, it was a replay of the welcoming ceremony.

The spirit of these young and aspiring heroes were burning with a newfound passion and faith in their heroes.

However, Sam couldn't look more bored about all this talk for the fallen and revenge and whatnot. He didn't care in the least. Why should he? The life of the woman who gave that nonsense speech is at his mercy.

An elephant doesn't care about the dogs barking at him. It wouldn't even take a snap for Sam to kill everyone present in this class, everyone except one person.

Sam glanced at him sideways before quickly turning his eyes away. 'Just you wait Anthony Willburn. I'll kill you and then she'll be mine. I'll kill you and then this world will be mine!'

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"Just look at all these heroes. They're sentries aren't they?" Drake commented while looking at the people in blue uniform patroling the streets.

"Yeah, looks like they're taking this very seriously." Sam replied with a curious look. In reality he expected something like this to happen.

"I think we should do something to take our minds off you know. It's just been one day and so much happened, besides we're gonna be living together for next four years so let's enjoy our college lives." Kiara suggested as the group exited the gates of the academy.

"Good idea! Let's explore the night clubs!" Robin practically started bunny hopping at her own suggestion.

"Woah woah calm down there darling, night clubs are for night activities and there's still time for that." Drake held Robin by the shoulders to stop her from jumping again.

"How about cafes? I heard academy city features the best cafe, they're so famous that people even go to the extent of counting it in 'The top ten places to visit before you die' or something like that." Sam suggested.

"Whaaa~ isn't that kind of an exaggeration?" Kiara frowned.

"We'll never know if we don't try it first." Sam shrugged casually.

"Okay let's go to a cafe. Though which one?" Drake asked while flicking his neck long red hair. It seems like it's his habit to play with his hair.

'A bit weird habit for a guy to have but who am I to judge, I hear a voice in my head for god's sake.' Sam mentally commented.

"The best one duh. Let me look up the one with the highest ratings online." Kiara replied in a 'isn't that obvious' tone before taking out her phone.

After searching up for a few seconds she tapped the screen twice and her phone projected a holographic map in the air.

"There, that one have the highest rating." Kiara said while pointing at one of the marked location.

"Ouu nice. So let's go there, any problem guys?" Drake asked while looking at everyone.

"Not me" Sam shook his head.

"Nah let's go, I kinda wanna see what's so special about them" Kiara shook her head.

"Sameeee less goooooo!!! Let's fly like a bird!" Robin instantly replied, by the looks of it she didn't even seem to get what the plan was but agreed anyway.

"Aww you poor thing. All that travelling took a toll on you huh?" Drake hugged Robin from the side. "And you? Anthony?"

"Huh...?" Anthony replied with a blank face.

"What do you mean 'huh' dummy, you don't have any problem right?" Sam placed his arm around Anthony's shoulders.

"Um... You mean... I can come with you guys?" Anthony replied with a same blank face.

The group instantly stopped walking and looked Anthony with a dumbfounded expression.

"Is he dyslexic?" Drake broke the awkward silence.

"Drake! Don't be disrespectful!" Robin said in a hush tone as she pinched his elbow. "Is he slow on the uptake?" she whispered before looking at Kiara.

"Shush you two. And of course Tony you're coming with us." Kiara replied in an obvious tone.

"I mean hey if you don't wanna hang out with us coz we're not upto your standards then it's okay, though I would feel a little hurt since I thought we were friends." Sam dramatically clenched his chest and took a sorrowful sigh.

"No no no! It's the opposite, I was never invited to hang out so I was just surprised that's all!" Anthony hurriedly started shaking his hands in the air as he tried to explain his point.

"Hey hey calm down mate," Sam grabbed his hands and said, "Do you have any problem with the plan?"

"Ahh... N-No I guess? No." Anthony replied with a confused look.

"Great then let's go, weirdo." Sam placed his hand back around his shoulders and began to walk.

"Ah yess I forgot to ask, how many rooms do we have?" Drake asked.

"30, Kiara has already taken the best one though." Sam replied with a scornful look.

"Hey come now Sam, you lost the toss." Kiara replied, holding back her giggle.

"You cheated! She cheated! The coin had heads on the both side! And poor Tony here didn't even get to participate in the toss!"

"Not my fault you fell for the oldest trick in the book muahahaha!"

"You two are funny lol."

"I'll take the manliest room available then."

The group was too busy in thier talk to notice the warm innocent smile that Anthony had on his face right then.

'I guess this is what being with friends feel like.'

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***Somewhere in 82.8628° S, 135.0000° E,

12 people, 5 women 7 men, all hailed as the greatest heroes of this century were sitting around a round table. Although they were supposed to be the symbol of power, strength, unity and whatnot, the expressions on their faces was anything but strong.

"It's impossible Starsuper, nothing could've touched her! Even if she did die in the explosion, she should die from lack of oxygen not from the burns! Also her head... she was beheaded! It's impossible!" EagleClaw slammed his hand on the table in frustration, tears about to roll down his eyes any second now.

"Eagle, I know it's hard to believe but that's all we have..." even though he said that, Lightbringer himself didn't knew what to make of this.

For Rose Bluespring to die with a physical attack is simply absurd. There's a possibility that her corpse was tempered with afterwards her death but it's impossible too because according to the forensics report, she definitely died from decapitation, but how?!

"Starsuper, tell us what it is?" a woman in red costume spoke and looked at Starsuper for answer.

Everyone followed her gaze and looked at Starsuper to get some clearity on the situation.

With a deep defeated sigh Starsuper leaned forward in his chair and spoke in a dead serious tone, "It's the Progenitor. He has returned."