Chapter 8 8. A Defeat From Four Years Ago

***FOUR YEARS AGO***

“I’m almost to the coordinates Medusa. This will be our victory.” Sam spoke through his comm device.

Dressed as his alter ego, Night Crawler, he was headed towards the centre of Toronto city.

He had bleached his hair white beforehand because black hairs are extremely rare in today’s world.

“Nice! Go get the relic and let’s get the hell out of this city. I’ll keep the heroes busy, at most we have 20 minutes before Starboy shows up and ruin our plans…again.”

Medusa answered from the other side of his comm device before cutting off.

“Hah! 10 minutes are more than enough.”

Crawler announced arrogantly and rushed into a tall building to get a hold of the legendary rank relic hiding somewhere inside.

After a few minutes; an explosion occurred inside the skyscraper and Crawler casually walked out of it, while everything around him was going down in ruins.

“GgEz guys, I am just better.” he scoffed before laughing maniacally like a madman.

“What’s so funny boy?” a voice called out to him from behind.

“Tsk” Crawler clicked his tongue in frustration.

“Why can’t you guys just give up?” he spoke before turning around only to find a flock of birds swirling around a man dressed in eagle outfit.

Crawler didn’t need introductions to know who he was, EagleClaw, the sixth best Initiator class superhero after White Walker and four more.

His ability; Telepathic link to all kinds of birds and superhuman agility.

“Haha funny I was going to ask you the same thing! By the way, mind returning me that thing in your hand.”

Without even waiting for a reply, like a bullet, EagleClaw launched himself at Crawler, to tackle him down while the flock of birds still kept on swirling around him, blocking Crawler’s vision on him.

However Crawler jumped up and dodged the incoming tackle with ease.

As if waiting for that move, EagleClaw quickly came out of his bird flock cover and redirected himself to leap at Crawler and engage him from behind while he was still defenseless in mid air.

“Got ya!” EagleClaw shouted as if announcing his victory.

“You are a fool.” Crawler disappeared from sight and appeared right behind EagleClaw.

However even before EagleClaw could react, Crawler grabbed him by the nape and pushed him down on the ground from mid air; making a small creator at impact.

“Wha- You can’t have superspeed! It wasn’t mentioned in your profile!” EagleClaw exclaimed in shock before Crawler pushed his head down more into the ground to shut him up.

“I can have anything I want, afterall I am a God! Besides why are you relying on something so unreliable like a profile anyway?”

Crawler scoffed again, before making EagleClaw look him in the eyes. His eyes then emitted a violet hue as he spoke;

“Now you will forget what happened here and let me go. When the media arrives you will tell them you couldn’t handle Crawler alone and he escaped.”

He let go of his head and got up on his feet before walking away, leaving the superhero in eagle outfit down in the dust.

***PRESENT DAY***

“So you actually don’t want to be a superhero?”

“Yeah I suppose, I’m being dragged here actually.”

“…”

“…”

The 5 Superheroes that were supposed to be counciling Sam, couldn’t help but turn their heads at each other in the awkward silence that followed after that strange answer.

Who don’t want to be a superhero?! They are cool, they are good, they make a fortune and most of all, public loves them… and they make a fortune!

But this boy that was sitting in front of them just outright announced that he doesn’t want to be one of them.

“May I ask you the reason?”

“No reason, I just don’t think that I would be good at this job.” Sam replied with a casual shrug.

“I see so you’re doubting yourself then. Well anyway, since you’ve cleared your assessment test so now we have to discuss which class to assign you. And whether you’re good enough or not, let us decide that for you.”

One of the superhero spoke calmly, completely misunderstanding what Sam actually meant earlier like everyone else present in the room.

He wasn’t in his costume, none of them were, but just from the way of speaking Sam could identify each and every one of them.

The one who spoke next however was a superhero Sam knew very well… it was EagleClaw;

“Your ability have potential but there are way too many Electrokinesis users who shows more promise than you. I think you should join the initiator class.”

If it was just any other superhero who’d suggested it, Sam may have gone with the idea but, it was EagleClaw.

‘No way in hell I’m gonna listen to you, you bastard!’ his eyebrows twitched as Sam cursed EagleClaw in his mind.

“I object. I think he possess the skills to utilise his ability properly without wasting a single movement. You can see the video recording, that movements alone should put him in Warrior class.”

One of the superhero spoke up, she was seemingly in her late twenties with light brown hair. Her voice was melodious, so much so that it captivated all of the people present inside the room, even Sam.

“Oh I’m sorry, I used my ability again.” she lightly laughed in a coquettish way.

‘Damn this bitch! I can’t use my ability or they’ll sense it, but that means I have no protection against her voice!’

“Ahem…” EagleClaw cleared his throat before speaking;

“Anyway as I was saying earlier, even though he can use his ability efficiently, I don’t think he’s strong enough to be on the front lines as other Warriors. Thus I think he should be on support class, he’ll be much better as an Initiator.”

“But he has met all the requirements for a Warrior. You want him as an Initiator because that class is under your supervision, you just want to steal talents.”

“No I want to hone talents. This kid has a talent for supporting, I can’t tell you how I know this but I feel like he’ll be a great supporter!”

‘Of course I’ll be a great supporter, I’ve been supporting a calamity rank villain for almost four years now!’ Sam scoffed in mind.

There are 5 classes in which Superheroes are categorised;

Warriors: The superheroes who specialises in taking on duels and combats head on.

Initiators: The are like Superheroes’ henchmen. They support Warriors in their combat by watching their flank and going in to the dangerous areas first to bait out the enemies.

Sentries: They are what their name suggests; defensive experts who priorities the safety of civilians and superheroes from the back.

Lurkers: They are experts in concealing their presence and creating an opening for Warriors to rush in and combat the villans. They rarely fight head on and are expert assassins.

Special Class: Sometimes there are people who don’t fit in any aforementioned categories, or maybe sometimes they fit in more than one. Those people are called [Special Users]. Mostly people with more than one ability fits this class.

The 5 heroes who were sitting around Sam in a semicircle, belongs to one of these aforementioned classes each, and everyone supervises their respective classes.

“Okay! If you both want him under your class, why don’t you let the kid decide?”

A lady in her mid thirties, belonging to the Lurker class spoke, ending the argument going on between, EagleClaw of Initiators and NightAngel of Warriors regarding the black haired boy sitting in the middle of the room.

“Nice idea! Okay boy you decide.” spoke NightAngel, with her same melodious voice, a voice so pure that it could be considered magical.

“No cheating.” the lady belonging to Lurkers spoke again.

“Fineeee!” NightAngel pouted before rolling her eyes and calling off her ability.

“I…” Sam spoke before taking a dramatic pause “will choose to join Warriors.”

“Yes! Suck it you damn Eagle!”

.

.

.

“So what did you get?”

Kiara asked in a curious tone after approaching Sam, who was getting out of the council office.

“Actually, I got to choose.” Sam smirked arrogantly.

“Ouuu that’s rare, so what did you choose?”

“Warriors of course. Starboy will be in warrior class too, so I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Y-Yeah”

“By the way, EagleClaw is supervising Initiators starting this year, you know since White Walker is dead and all.”

“You always hated that bastard didn’t you lol.”

“No Kia I don’t hate him, I loathe him! They lied about our defeat in Toranto 4 years back! Surely we didn’t get the relic, but we won!”

“Lol it’s okay Sam, chill.”

Kiara patted Sam’s shoulder to calm him down.

“Hey you guys! Are you guys done too?” a voice called out the duo from behind.

“Ahh Robin it’s you! You startled us.” said Kiara after turning around to greet the blonde haired girl.

“Haha, did you guys safely got home last night?” Robin asked with a bright smile.

Last night they all went to explore the city. Sam sent his duplicate with them as he was having some real ‘fun’ during that time.

“No actually, we both are supervillains in disguise so after we were done last night, we went on a killing spree.” Sam sarcastically replied while Kiara nervously laughed.

“Haha, very funny Sam, very funny.” Robin rolled her eyes before bursting out in laughter herself.

“Anyway, so where is mr. showoff?” Kiara asked.

“He’s not coming today, his family has already made preprations so he doesn’t need to go through the counciling process, he’ll directly be joining the Warrior class.”

“What!!! That lucky bastard!”

“Haha I know! I had the same reaction lol.”

The girls kept on chatting as the trio walked out of the academy gates, Sam however couldn’t help but recall that night again and again. The night when he fought EagleClaw.

That night he thought he had won. But EagleClaw stole the relic from him before he mind controlled him.

Media came and interviewed EagleClaw on why he let go of Crawler.

He replied exactly what Sam had ordered him to. However the relic that was supposed to be stolen by Crawler was found in his possession.

According to reports EagleClaw didn’t remember what happened that night or how he got that relic, all he remembered was that Crawler got away because he was too weak to stop him alone.

When the general public started questioning the situation, hero association launched an investigation and after few days they announced the most absurd thing Sam has ever heard.

They announced that, Crawler was defeated by EagleClaw and that’s how he came into the possession of that relic.

However before he could arrest Crawler, Medusa came to his rescue and they both attacked EagleClaw together and escaped.

EagleClaw suffered from concussion and forgot what happened.

This false story skyrocketed EagleClaw’s reputation. Not only he survived against a calamity rank villain, he also recovered a stolen relic!

However only two people knew the truth about that night and the absurdity of that false story.

“I was the one who defeated him! He dare spread lies about me!” Sam furiously screamed as he entered his hotel room.

(I told ya, should’ve killed him back then.)

“I didn’t saw him as someone worth killing! Getting killed by my hands is an honour, not just anyone can have that!”

(Ahh you and your God complex!)

“It’s not a complex you ignorant fool! How many people can revive the dead?!”

(You can only revive someone who has only died within an hour though.)

“That isn’t the point you idiot. I mean I can manipulate biology! I can turn someone into a bird! I can kill hundreds with just a snap! I can create deadly diseases! I can take life and I can return it! I can shapeshift into the most deadliest of beings! I have absolute immortality; for I am a God walking among men!”

(Yeah yeah calm down dear God sir. So if you don’t wanna kill him then why don’t-)

“Who said I don’t wanna kill him? I said he is not worthy of dying by my hands, but I can always kill him whenever I want. And now that I’ve seen his face and knows who he is, he’s completely at my mercy.”

(Ohh are we gonna play that game where you make someone from their family kills them?)

“Ahaha yes indeed.”

(Hahaha I love that game, so who will it be? His mother? His brother? Or maybe his father?)

“Boring!” Sam rolled his eyes.

(Okay mr. intresting, then who will it be?)

Sam grinned maniacally before answering in a low, almost inaudible tone;

“His fiance, Rose Bluespring.”

(Woah! Talk about a twist! Although let me remind you before you go on a hunt, tomorrow is your first class.)

The grin disappeared from Sam’s face and it was replaced by a grim pale expression.

“Fuck.”