Chapter 158 Traitor Within

Back to the Present,

Splatoon blamed himself for not noticing the crowd gathering right behind them, but then again, who'd have noticed them within the business of the Port? And it's not like Splatoon had the leisure to be suspicious of each and every person passing through. 'Should I use my robot army now?' He asked himself, fully knowing that the timing couldn't get any worse. He needed to save up as much energy as he could in order to hold down the submarines. But now he's forced to engage in combat which is sure to deplete his energy.

'They planned for this.' Satoshi muttered in his mind.

There were about two dozen or so villains surrounding them, each with their own unique abilities, of course. Merman and Flexor readied themselves, raising their fists as the group closed in on them. Even though there was still a chance for them to escape, they knew it was out of the question. If they couldn't stand up to the villains right now, then everything will fall into chaos. The submarines are arriving as well, if they get to the shore, then things will take a more unpleasant turn.

"I can't believe you'll fall into one of the oldest tricks in the book, Gerik," Someone spoke from behind the growing crowd of villains. He was wearing a monocle, and a cowboy hat was balanced on his head. A smirk was spread across his wrinkly face, and he walked with a weird gait towards Satoshi and the others. He specifically eyed Satoshi, examining him from head to toe as if he was a specimen in a science project.

"What is a kid doing here?" He asked, diverting his gaze towards Gerik.

"Crow Russel, you! Since when... " Gerik Axor clenched his fists in frustration.

Gerik Axor felt a mix of rage and sadness as he saw his best friend standing on the other side. They grew up together, graduated together, and became interns together. They've been through thick and thin, their bonds solidifying even more. He was even his best man during his wedding a few years back.

And yet... and yet this very same man that has spent his life with him since their childhood has joined the dark side, and he only became aware of it because he wanted to do so. What changed him? What made his transition from being a hero to a villain? To Gerik, he's heard a lot of stories regarding that but his best friend has never shown any of his villainous sides. He was family-oriented, so much so that his son was even in the famous United Superheroes Academy albeit being a second-rate high schooler and all.

"What happened to you?" Those were the first few words that escaped Gerik's mouth. "You'd never do this, and yet... why?"

Before the group of villains attacked the group, Crow Russel raised his hand, demanding them to stop as he explained himself. "And yet, here I am, you really can't tell what the future holds, huh." Crow sighed. "I have my own goals and ideals, and somehow they aligned with them. So now I'm here."

"Sigh, change of plans. Satoshi, you take care of all the villains. Merman, Flexor, and Plume, I'll be assigning all of you under Satoshi. Right now, he's the only one who can buy some time." Splatoon commanded. While he believed that the trio had enough strength to probably hold them all off, he knew that Crow might have a few backup plans in his sleeves. He understood his best friend well enough to perceive what he was thinking. If Satoshi was the one to buy them some time, they knew he'd be able to carry it out, even without their assistance.

Splatoon didn't just assume such was the case, after all, he saw how Satoshi fought with one of the Slime Alien who slipped past Earth's defense during the recent Space War. What took three or more superheroes to defeat, Satoshi took down by himself. That's how he knew that Satoshi was more than enough to keep them at bay.

Satoshi nodded.

"Let's go." Crow Russel smirked, signaling for everyone to charge. Crow Russel has the power of lightning, or rather, he could summon lightning from the skies and freely manipulate it. Because of his rivalry against Splatoon, he was able to improve his precision when it came to his lightning superpowers. That's why he could somewhat disrupt Splatoon's metal manipulation. He could also turn into a lightning bolt himself, an invincible streak of pure energy. However, that form of his has a weakness, he could only use it high above the ground, otherwise, the ground would suck him right in, and then he'd have depleted his energy— or worse, he'd suffer serious injuries.

Without further ado, Crow Russel charged at Satoshi, his hands, lightning sparks coming out of them. Satoshi immediately summoned the White Lion to take care of him though and then he began dealing with small fries. Their superpowers are pretty diverse, but one could tell only Crow Russel was a threat. But then again, it's not like the group came here to fight, rather, they came here to buy some time until the goods come, and to also weaken Splatoon so he'd have problems dealing with the submarines. This was also the reason why there were three submarines instead of one.

What the group wasn't aware of was that only one submarine has the goods. The other submarines were just decoys. They did that because they knew Splatoon was coming. Had it been any other superhero, they'd have dealt with them differently.

Merman and Flexor started close-quarters combat with the other villains as well. As for Plume, she began circling at the top of the place, shooting her feathers at anyone who tried to get near Splatoon. There were so many of them though, and although their superpowers were just subpar, they weren't below average either.

"They're here!" Splatoon roared, sensing the submarines who were about to ascend from the water.

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