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[ 𝑅𝒾 𝓁 𝑒𝓎 ]



Riley ignored Dahlia's words in favour of scrutinising the people before him. Of course, he knew who they were as well. It would be unreasonably ignorant not to. Albino and Jellyfish, members of the Fiendish Five—stupid name, by the way—with the ability to teleport and induce electric shocks respectively. Jellyfish wasn't that big of a deal, but teleporters were always annoying to deal with.

If nothing else, Riley was impressed by Dahlia's decisiveness, even if her actions weren't particularly effective. The mushroom man too, was quick to launch its own attack from underground, latching onto Albino's leg with purpose. How it knew what was happening above ground, Riley had no idea. Vibrations? Or maybe it was something else entirely. He never thought that he'd bemoan his lack of knowledge of fungi, but here he was. He had to rectify that soon.

What happened next was embarrassing in more ways than one. Sparks danced between Jellyfish's tendrils and for a moment, his eyes were instinctively drawn to them. By the time he realised what was happening, Albino had already left his previous position. Now, he was holding a knife to Dahlia's neck and threatening them.

Riley couldn't believe he just fell for that. His fingers twitched and another crystal crunched in his mouth.

Then that homeless guy showed up and tried reasoning with them as if that would work. And the giant lady apparently agreed with him. Riley was of a different mind. Sad backstories were an all too common excuse for turning to a life of crime. No one would ever catch him trying to justify his actions that way. Life sucked sometimes, but that didn't give anyone the right to take their frustrations out on innocent people. Everything they did was a choice, no one forced them into it. Riley understood that better than most.

"Negotiating with them is pointless," he said nonchalantly, "In my experience, the only language their kind understands is violence."

After letting his thoughts be known, Riley raised a finger and stepped closer to the hostage-carrying mercenary. He was curious to see if he could alter something from this distance at his current level of power, and there was no time but the present to learn. Fortunately, he was already pretty familiar with all sorts of knives, so it was easy enough to accomplish. There weren't a great many metals they were likely to be made from in his experience. Regardless, it would be child's play to simply cause the knife to decay in Albino's hand and restrict the aftermath to him alone. It would be a terrible look if he killed a teammate this early in his career, after all. All that would be left after that was to–

What the heck?

Before Riley could even decide on his next course of action, something that could only be called an abomination emerged into his range of vision. It was an impossible, bulbous, misshapen amalgamation of flesh warped beyond all logic. Its body was covered in twisted mockeries of teeth, limbs and chitin. When it spoke, its voice was a cacophony of sounds. It was horrifying. It was wrong. It was.... so. freaking. cool!

Riley shivered and his eyes widened, but it wasn't fear that had his heart pounding.

He wanted to take it apart.
Gauss


Location: Le'Nombril Restau, Shibuya, Tokyo Prefecture

After Gauss's interference, the battle proceeded quickly. A guy wielding a spear—Akira, his mind supplied—launched himself at the Nomu, only for it to slip right through his attack and then through the ground. That was going to be annoying to fight. A permeation Quirk was troublesome to deal with on its own, and the fact that it could also regenerate made it all the more difficult. The best strategy in this case was to target its brain, which was easier said than done.

He barely gave any indication that he received Mei’s message. It was the obvious solution, and everyone present already knew that.

As much as he would have liked to keep going, the others seemed to have it under control. Burning and freezing its body were good choices since they damaged cells and slowed regeneration. The heroes fighting the Nomu were well-suited to deal damage and if the way the battle was currently going was any indication, they were well on their way to winning. His intervention wasn’t needed yet.

Still, even as he watched the fight, he remained ready. It was going well so far, but he knew all too well that the tides could turn at any moment.

And turn the tides did.

It was a surprise, but only barely.

The Nomu had been killed, with only a single casualty, which wasn’t too bad, all things considered. Unfortunately, it wasn’t over quite yet. Faster than most people could react, something else emerged from the Nomu’s dying body. It was small, no larger than a toddler, but its speed caught everyone off-guard and Akira paid the price. Its razor-sharp wings sliced through him like butter and the ground was dyed red.

Time seemed to slow for a moment.

Too injured to do anything herself, Mei could only yell desperately for someone to save him.

But her words were unnecessary.

Gauss was already moving.

Quick as a flash, a siphon sphere was between his fingers, charged and ready. It shot from his hand like a bullet, aimed at the flying Nomu as he grabbed Akira’s fallen body. In an instant, his momentum was reversed and he was back to where he started in short order.

He glanced down at the boy in his arms as he guided his energy throughout his classmate’s body, stemming the blood loss and mending his wounds somewhat. It wasn’t perfect but it would have to do for now. That was going to take a while to get back. Gauss sighed ruefully as he cracked a grin underneath his helmet.

“And here I thought you were supposed to be invincible, Achilles.”
[ 𝑅𝒾 𝓁 𝑒𝓎 ]



Riley tuned out much of what was said after the assistant director’s explanation, keeping an eye on the mushroom man’s reaction to everyone’s words. It made its thoughts on the activity they were meant to do, and humans in general, quite clear. They weren’t very positive things, considering how it said they treated it, though it decided to take part regardless of its hang-ups. He couldn’t blame it, really. Humans could be quite terrible to each other, let alone things that weren’t like them. And despite some differences, heroes were human too.

The leftover’s disappearing act caught his interest and also gave him a bit of an idea. He would have to put it into action later, but he didn’t mind a little waiting.

His thoughts were interrupted by Rupa waltzing up to Stray and laying out the terms of a bet over.... twelve dollars, eighty-seven cents and a loyalty card? And the man took her up on it. He was watching a hyperactive teenage weirdo about to compete with a hobo for twelve dollars.

.... That was just sad.

Most of the gathered people left in short order after the declaration, including Ms. Duff, though Riley lingered around the area for a few moments longer. It was a good thing too, as he noticed something near the shore where the AD had just headed towards.

What was going on over there?

Riley’s question was answered in short order, but not in the way he expected. First, he watched as she conversed with a pale man he couldn’t quite see. His hands were covered with something Riley immediately recognised as a product of the woman’s power. A fact that didn’t bode well. His eyes widened as he watched something jump out of the water and attack Emily, dropping her to the ground with a touch of its tendrils.

The bag in his hand crumpled.

Ho? About time something happened. Maybe he’d–

Just then, the giant woman from before walked by with steps that covered more ground than an elephant's—at least, he thought she was walking. She was moving faster than he was in any case.

She got to the shore quite quickly, being ten metres tall and all, and proceeded to do.... absolutely nothing. Instead, she, rather obviously, asked the obvious strangers what had happened to the unconscious lady that they clearly didn’t care about.

Riley paused, his brows furrowing.

.... was she stupid?

“Are you stu–ugh, never mind,” Riley interrupted himself, sighing and dragging his eyes away from the oblivious giant. He fixed his gaze upon the two intruders, crunching the crystal ball in his mouth.

“So....” Riley dragged the word out nonchalantly, his eyes flickering between the two, noting the stark differences in their appearances. Still, dissimilitude or not, they both looked nefarious enough that they probably couldn’t make it any more obvious that they were the bad guys if they tried. It was almost humorous, if not for the implications. For a brief moment, the energy within Riley’s body spilt out, the air around him warping from the sheer heat.

“What are you two up to?”
-
Tokyo - Japan



Aoi was conflicted.

It wasn’t exactly an uncommon feeling for him, especially as of late, but this was different, in more ways than one. He was a thinker by nature, despite his father’s efforts to train it out of him. Thinking things through before jumping into any situation was only natural. Or, it should have been. He’d followed along with the dinosaur creature on a whim, but now that he had gotten over his wonder at the situation, he was faced with a sudden thought.

What was he doing?

Really, he probably should have asked that question before hopping onto a giant orange dinosaur. It was.... out-of-character for him to be so impulsive, and yet, it was almost exh–

“Hey, you’re being real quiet up there.”

Ah. He was, wasn’t he?

“.... Sorry.”

The dinosaur merely huffed and picked up speed, prompting Aoi to tighten his grip on the spike on its shoulder. Aoi was quiet for a moment, and then his lips parted to ask a question.

“.... What was that?”

The ceratosaurid grumbled before speaking, IceDevimon. I’ve been hunting him for a while now. Didn’t think my Digidestined would be there, though. We’re both lucky I found you first.”

Aoi stayed silent for a few moments more as the sentence registered in his mind. Most of what it was talking about flew right over his head, but he got the gist of things. Logically, he knew he should have a stronger reaction to the absolute insanity that was occurring before his eyes, but.... he was never very good at that. There was still one more thing, though.

“What’s your name?”

The dinosaur rumbled briefly and it took Aoi a moment to realise it was laughing. Had he said something funny? He didn’t think so.

“About time you asked.”

Was it?

A burning orange eye turned to him and Aoi was once again struck by the enormity of the creature he was seated upon. He supposed it hadn't quite hit yet, mostly due to the abruptness of the situation he'd found himself in. The very way he'd seen the world his entire life had been irreversibly altered in the span of five minutes. His eyes wavered, but he didn't have much more time to dwell on those thoughts.

“I’m GeoGreymon. And don’t you forget it.”

Aoi was quiet once again after the introduction. He took another long look at his new companion and blinked in confusion.

What was so grey about it...?

Another rumble quickly shook him from his thoughts. It was laughing again.

Aoi didn’t understand why.

Unfortunately, before he could ponder it any further, he felt GeoGreymon start to slow down, and a quick look upwards revealed why. There was a building with a hole in the back, which was strange enough on its own, and made even stranger by the sounds coming from inside. It didn't sound familiar, but apparently, his companion either didn't notice the difference or didn't care, as it barged into the building—which Aoi idly noticed was an arcade—without much care.

Aoi ducked his head to avoid the tumbling bricks as GeoGreymon burst through the hole in the wall, making it bigger on the way. Once the dust cleared from his vision, he took in the sight before him. A small group of people and some other creatures were being terrorised by a.... a.... a dragon? It was the best descriptor Aoi could think of at the moment, but it did seem to fit quite well. If only it–

“Ah,” Aoi uttered as GeoGreymon lifted him from its shoulder and placed him carefully on the floor. With him now out of the way, the ceratosaurid charged at the dragon thing to intercept its attack.

“HORN IMPULSE!”
[ 𝑅𝒾 𝓁 𝑒𝓎 ]




A scavenger hunt?

Ugh. If he'd known this was what they had planned, he would have still been passed out in his room. That would still have been a better use of his time than this, in any case. Why would he bother wasting time scavenging for irrelevant facts that he could easily learn by himself at literally any other time? Crystals crunched between Riley's teeth and he swallowed reflexively. Another chocolate bar followed in short order, dissolving like ice upon his tongue.

He crossed his arms and frowned, annoyance creasing his brow. If this was–

Oh?

Riley looked on with fascination as Emily brought out the "prizes". Mood plants were foreign to him, and while they didn't seem to have much use at first glance—detecting someone's mood held little obvious practicality—that didn't stop his interest. He wondered how they accomplished such a feat—chemicals, maybe? Or perhaps, something more esoteric. Leftovers were intriguing to him in more ways than one; beings mutated by the same event that cursed blessed humanity with godlike powers. As beautiful as they were terrifying. Maybe this scavenger hunt wouldn't be an entirely useless endeavour, if the prizes were any indication.

"You should have started with that. I almost walked off."

The AD's final request for no conflict went mostly unanswered, though not necessarily ignored. Riley had no reason or desire to start a fight, and hopefully, none of the others did either. It also wouldn't serve any real purpose beyond antagonising potential teammates. The last part of Emily's sentence, however, did not escape his notice.

.... Another day? Well, if that wasn't ominous.

The mushroom-thing among them didn't seem very enthused about the reward for the scavenger hunt, though. It had quite a strong reaction to the display of the mood plants, actually. It made Riley curious of what else could get a reaction out of it.

He gave the Leftover a glance, then his eyes fell to the spores it shed and he grimaced. Even inhuman monstrosities littered?

Again. Ugh.

A casual flick of a finger was all it took to get rid of the fallen spores, their very being dissolving like snowflakes in the sunlight. Then, he turned his attention to their source.

"Everything's made of the same thing. Far as I'm concerned, there is no difference between them and a dog."

A half-truth, but one that would hopefully satisfy his burgeoning curiosity.
[ 𝑅𝒾 𝓁 𝑒𝓎 ]




A pale hand rose to meet an equally pale face, stifling a small yawn.

Riley blinked the tiredness from his eyes as he sat up and stretched languidly, sighing at the satisfying pops in his joints. A dull ache spread throughout his body after the fact and he winced. That was surely a sign to start sleeping more like a normal person if he'd ever felt one. Easier said than done, though, as it were. Rest was a secondary concern at present, at least until he'd made more headway than just not having things blow up in his face anymore.

Especially when he was this close to a breakthrough. Close, of course, simply meaning he was a mere micrometre closer to accomplishing what he’d set out to do a few days ago in a fit of boredom. It sounded less impressive than it actually was.

Still, progress was progress.

His eyes drifted to the small, innocuous object lying on his desk. It was an unadorned, 5cmx5cm, cube of solid tungsten. For now, at least.

Riley heaved a sigh and tossed the cube aside, its visage shifting into oak wood as it fell. He kicked back from the desk, his chair teetering just shy of falling over. A frown tugged on his lips as he gazed down at the unfamiliar device in his hands.

Before being moved into H.E.R.O. One, everything he’d brought with him to Castleburg had been confiscated, including the smartphone she gave him. The replacement he’d been given was subpar in more ways than one, but he could deal. It was a small price to pay for keeping his promise, all things considered.

He had no intention of going back on his word, but he had to admit the idea was getting more tempting by the minute.

As if on some kind of cue, Riley’s smartwatch lit up with a message from Director Powers.

"Attention, heroes. I need a group of you to assist me at the Johnstone Convention Center. If you are available, please come and–"


Riley didn’t bother listening to the rest, switching off his smartwatch without a second thought. He rested his chin in the crook of his elbow with a soft sigh, gazing idly at the ticking clock on the wall.

Today was supposed to be his H.E.R.O. debut, but he wasn’t feeling particularly festive. He never did. He and crowds didn’t mix well, for obvious reasons. He knew he had a tight leash on things, but “twice the pride, double the fall“.... or something like that. Besides, showing off at the whims of his H.E.R.O. overlords didn’t exactly appeal to him, and it was optional, no? There was no reason to go if he didn’t want to....

....

.... Riley sighed again. He couldn’t keep avoiding everything forever.

Without much thought, he pushed himself off from his chair and glanced at his reflection in the full-body mirror.

Dishevelled. That was the first word to come to his mind when he saw himself; bags under his eyes, hair even messier than usual and the colour of his nails almost entirely faded away. The next word–

“.... Ugh.”

It took very little time for Riley to get himself perfectly in order, and he gave himself another once-over to ensure everything was in its rightful place before heading out. Indifferent to the chill of the winter season, he simply wore an oversized black hoodie with a cat logo emblazoned on the front over a t-shirt, dark jeans and sandals to let his nails dry. His eyes wandered and he considered the mask sitting on his bed for a moment.

It wouldn’t hurt.



Riley squinted up at the sky as he made his way out of the building. It was overcast today and most people would call it cold out. He couldn’t relate to that.

Shoving a tiny bar of chocolate past his lips, Riley turned his musings to more important matters as he chewed.

Whatever the director had planned for whoever decided to join him didn’t matter. The seminar that would take place on the island required the least amount of effort to attend, so that was the one he chose to attend. Riley had no real interest in either event, but that was the lesser of two evils in his eyes.

Then Riley laid his eyes on the eclectic group he was meant to join. And he used the term very loosely. They were basically just a bunch of floating atoms without even–

Hold on.

He blinked away the weirdness and gave the group another look, seeing them as they were supposed to be this time.

The first one was a girl dressed almost entirely in white, with dark hair and really green eyes. Her face looked carved from ice, and yet.... hm. He recognised her, of course, though he'd never met her in person. Dahlia, a former member of Death Bouquet. Riley wasn't one to curse people out, but they were a right group of witches. She was different, from what he had been told.

He'd form his own opinion on that.

The next girl was younger, with long greyish hair, but she had a similar air around her. They weren't related, as far as he knew, so it was probably just an odd coincidence. He knew of her too, though she was of a different sort. Her powers were familiar, but they didn't compare.

The third girl was interesting. It hit a little too close to home for his taste, so he had avoided that one. Her name was Rupa Sterling, as she'd just embarrassingly shouted to the heavens moments ago.

The fourth one was a guy, Joseph Moore. His powers were terribly interesting, but as much as Riley wanted to pester him about it, he restrained himself. There would be time for that later.

Then there were the others.

Standing out from the group of normies was a giant woman dressed in.... spandex(?)—well, something like it, at least—and a walking, talking mushroom thing—a leftover. He thought those were kill on sight.

What kind of freakshow did he just walk into? Riley couldn't help but wonder.

The irony was not lost on him.

Finally, his eyes fell on the woman of the hour, Emily Duff. And what a woman she was. In his completely unbiased opinion, of course. Riley sighed, popping another piece of chocolate into his mouth. If only she wasn't one of them.

"You're the AD, right? Let's get this over with."
Sylva

Town of the Undead


Sylva wasn’t exactly sure how much damage he’d be able to do with what was essentially a sturdy plank. It had been more of an afterthought than anything else when he’d taken it with him, but now that he was facing down a group of armoured zombies, it was starting to hit how woefully unprepared he was. It didn’t help that the undead weren’t nearly as “braindead” as he’d first thought.

His grip tightened on his makeshift weapon, his knuckles whitening, but it wasn’t fear that made his heart race, made his blood rush and his hands quiver.

Here’s to hoping his batting skills weren’t too rusty.

The first zombie that walked into his range earned a strike to its unarmoured shin. The limb snapped a bit easier than he expected, and the shambling undead collapsed to the ground. Of course, that wasn’t enough to kill it. Even without being able to walk, it was still crawling towards him unceasingly.

Sylva cocked his arms back and swung downwards as hard as he could, bashing its head in once, twice, thrice, to make sure that it was completely dead. Deader? Un-undead? He had to find a word for that some–

Sylva’s eyes widened and he hastily raised his plank just in time to block a slash from one of the other zombies and winced as the blade cleaved almost entirely through the wood in one hit. He immediately released the plank—farewell—and stepped out of range of the zombie’s sword.

Well, that sucked. Now, he was out a weapon.

Suddenly, Sora shouted something and the zombie approaching Sylva halted. It was just for a moment, but it gave Sylva enough time to grab the rusted sword dropped by the first undead—he hoped his glove was enough to protect him from tetanus!—and swing it up at the second one.

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