34: Younger Sibling Revenge

34: Younger Sibling Revenge

Called to the center of the pitch after a couple minutes, Nyssa followed the rest of Class Zero down. They didn’t have anything like a fancy entrance planned—it was just ‘walk down and don’t trip.’ A true high standard of excellence if she said so herself.

“Welcome, welcome,” Slade smiled while walking down towards the Class Zero students, “Nice to see you all. In fact, there are some familiar faces.”

Once in front of the Class Zero students, he began moving down the line and shaking everyone's hand while ignoring the murmurs breaking out due to the ambiguity of his statements. As for everyone in Class Zero, they knew of Nyssa’s family situation, but, out of consideration for her nap-filled school life dreams, they kept their expressions neutral.

Nyssa, herself, gave Slade her best ‘youngster sister scowl’ while squeezing his hand as hard as she could. Shapeshifting her arm to have an extreme density of muscle fibers for just a moment, she broke into a bright smile as Slade grimaced.

In the stands, those who could see her smile broke into fierce murmurs.

“Woah... the new Class Zero student is smiling so brightly...”

“Isn’t she pretty beautiful?”

“Maybe she’s not crazy like the other Class Zero students?”

“Bro, you have no chance, can’t you see the admiration just beaming off of her right now? It's clear Slade is the only man in her eyes. You’re not even a tenth as handsome as him!”

After Slade made his way through all the students, he rejoined his crew. Under Kaiser’s guidance, both groups began backing off; they had to keep the show on the road after all. Nyssa, surrounded by everyone else in Class Zero, tried to feign innocence as Celeste leaned into her ear. “You weren’t really showing Slade a smile of admiration weren’t you? Do you know why he was grimacing in pain?”

“No... not at all,” Nyssa coughed while looking away. “Maybe he’s developed some sort of illness.”

“I’m sure you’d know if he developed an illness though, Ms. Ravenstein,” Celeste teased while getting into battle formation.

“A... Ah... yeah...” Nyssa shook her head before looking down at her feet. “I may or may not have transformed only my arm to be extremely strong for a second.”

Covering her mouth with a hand, Celeste broke out into breathy laughs after Nyssa’s confession. The others, who had also been curious—and eavesdropped—also felt laughs escape under their breaths.

“Alright, let’s focus up though,” Ryker cleared his throat as everyone gathered around him in battle position. A serious expression appeared on his face for the first time in what everyone felt like forever. “Stop talking and calm your thoughts. We have a period of chaos coming up. Let’s dazzle everyone who doubted us.”

“I’m pretty sure no one doubted us,” Electra retorted while lowering herself to the ground. “It’s just some friendly competition.”

“MY GLORIOUS STEED! FLY FORTH!” Conrad roared, swept up in the moment.

Thump.

Conrad now laid face-down on the ground.

“Let’s go,” Electra sighed, patting the dragon below her.

“Sounds good,” Nyssa leapt off the ground, her wings pumping through the air as they soared first forward, then upward. As she ascended, she grabbed Ryker in one claw and Conrad in the other.

Kamikaze time.

“Are you ready, Ryker?” Nyssa asked as they soared through the clouds.

“Ready as ever,” Ryker cackled as he looked down at the stadium beneath him. “I was born ready. This is my dream.”

After taking a banked turn through the clouds, Nyssa broke into a wide grin of her own—one unsettling in her dragon form. Swooping downward, she hurtled back through the clouds and down at the pitch. She crashed through the weak attacks sent up in the air towards her as the crowd’s frantic shouts—and Conrad’s screams—entered her ears.

“Oh my god...”

“A DRAGON??”

“Who is this new girl...”

“A... Are we safe here?”

“SAVE MEEEEE... WHY COULDN’T I BE ON THE BACK? I’M SORRY FOR WHAT I SAIDDDDD...”

She tuned out the sounds as they neared the ground. Her now-golden eyes squinted. Once close, she let go of Ryker, like a plane would to a bomb, towards Slade’s group.

And Ryker soared. His adrenaline junkie shouts filled the stadium as he neared the ground. Before any attacks from Slade’s group could connect with him though, he raised two middle fingers, shouted “TAKE THIS,” and let loose an explosion using his entire body as fuel.