Noel: "I see... so, everyone can have their power 'graded' by-"

Mr. Abrams: "No. You must have your powers receive a 'grade' from Hero Society. Anyone caught using their abilities without Hero Society's consent will be seen as a villain and brought in for questioning. Resist, and your punishment will be worse."

Noel: "..."

Rise: "Isn't that completely domineering?"

Mr: Abrams: "It keeps everyone safe, doesn't it? Imagine if you didn't need to make a recorded file of your power with Hero Society. Just imagine for a bit, what kinds of atrocities could easily be committed when a Hero goes rogue."

Scenes of violent murders being committed inside a soundproof barrier, freezing people and then disposing of the remains in an arctic ocean, or burning a loved one completely until even their bones have burnt beyond recognition: such images passed through the immature minds of Rise and Noel.

Noel: "I guess. It would be kinda..."

Rise: "Chaotic? I don't think so. I feel like it would be sorta peaceful."

{That's because you haven't lived outside of that Barbarian's village 'Villain Haven'! Or maybe he did, I actually don't know.}

Mr. Abrams: "(This brat.) Fine how about this: Say that somebody you loved was murdered by an invisible man before fleeing the scene. Normally you cannot enter Herotopia without entering the Hero Society's database, but say we didn't record anyone's powers... is there any way we could limit the search?"

Noel: "Find someone good with tracking and hire them?"

Mr. Abrams: "Let's say being invisible let's him mask his entire 'presence', that includes odors."

Rise: "What about hiring a time hero? Don't you all have one?"

Mr. Abrams: "We do, but due to the Watts incident, she's asked for temporary leave."

Noel: “And you can't just ask for another time person's help?"

Mr. Abrams: "Ahahaha! Do you think time users just grow on trees?"

Noel: "...Psst. How many villains in Villain Haven can wield time type of powers?"

Rise: "...No more than a thousand. The teacher's right, it is rare. 600 million villains reside in there and only a thousand utilize time? That's crazy..."

Mr. Abrams: "No. It's crazier that you know these sort of facts about Villain Haven when the Hero Society can't even manage that without suffering a few casualties."

Rise: "...I uhh ...learned it on the news."

Mr. Abrams: "(What kind of News Station is able to infiltrate Villain Haven and come away safe after broadcasting top secret numbers to the world?!) Oh, I see."

Rise: "...Phew. Safe."

Noel: "Aria is sure taking a long time with Ophelia and Ian. Maybe I should check on them and see where they've gone? Especially since they might've gotten lost."

Mr. Abrams: "Don't worry about them, Noel. They have Mr. Reeds as a guide. All they have to worry about is his extremely slow movement speed.

…

You're just trying to escape."

Noel: "!! N-No! that's not true, I—"

Rise: "Haha! Busted~"

Noel: "Sh-Shut up Rise! If I wanted to escape it wouldn't be due to the teach, but YOU!"

Rise: "Haha--! Grrr... What was that, runt?!"

Noel: "You wanna go—oh wait no. Ahem...AAAAH! HELP, HELP! A BULLY, THERE'S A BULLY-MMmph!!!"

Rise: "Stop, idiot! People are going to believe you!"

Random Parent #1: "Aww that poor child"

Random Parent#2: "Oh no! And look, that man is just standing there! Isn't he their teacher?!"

Random Parent #3: "How can he just stand there doing nothing while the mean – looking one hurts the poor and innocent little boy?!"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Rise: "He- mean looking?! How do you know this brat is even inno-humphmphmmph!"

Noel: "Hahahaha--"

Mr. Abrams: "Noel. That was uncalled for. Was your intention to outright embarrass me in front of all these parents? Because it worked."

Random Parent #4: "Aww, if he wasn't so darn gorgeous then I wouldn't be able to forgive him!"

Random Parent #5: "Hey! The REAL culprit is that other boy! NOT the teacher!"

Noel: "..."

{You call that embarrassing?}

Mr. Abrams: "Besides, did you forget, Noel? This is a good opportunity. What was it you said about your movement speed? That it was...Normal?"

Noel: "Yeap, but Mr. Abrams...are you still thinking about this? It's not healthy to brood over the same subjects, you know."

Mr. Abrams: "Just come with me and stop your nonsense(That's right. Wait until you see what being normal REALLY is)."

…

Oliviera: "Oh! You three sure took your sweet ass time getting here-"

Mr. Abrams: "Watch your language."

Oliviera: "... I'm sorry."

Noel: "Wow, you sure picked some nice seats! Everything on the field is really clear...kinda!"

Oliviera: "RIGHT?! I grabbed these seats like my life depended on it. I never thought I could move so fast before!"

Aly: "She's telling the truth. She was surprisingly quick, given her, uh, lack of strength..... from the jog here."

Rise: "Hm? What's with her? She's suddenly so happy, it's a little irritating, to be honest. Just a little."

Aly: "It's nothing. We only had a talk about some things."

Oliviera: "Yeah... just some things....

…

..

.

(I wanna tell them.

Oh my Leechums do I wanna tell them.

I

Have

To

Tell

Them!}"

…

The two girls were seated up on the benches second closest to the front. Technically you're allowed to sit wherever you want, but there are also assigned seats for teachers and their students. The dome itself could easily make enough space in the stands for the entire school if need be, so students and parents alike had no limitations to where they chose to sit down.

Well,

this only applied to normal students.

Noel is currently being 'escorted' to Mr. Abrams's class seating arrangements. This is for multiple reasons. 1) it's safer there. Noel DID just announce to the entire Freshman student body that he was their king after all.

2) Because it was Mr. Abrams's order. Rise was lucky enough to escape though. He met up with Wayne and the others seated a row in front of Alyandrea.

The expansiveness inside of the arena was just logic – defying. There was a single long and wide platform surrounded by smaller lands floating above crazy currents and a calm stream of water.

Atop the large platform was a wide variety of environments. There was mountainous terrain, barren wastelands and shifting desert sands. Meadows followed long patterns into the earth so that they'll be easier to locate. Treetops acted like umbrellas. Forcing the curious to 'wait and see' before being capable of actually bearing witness to the mini forest's inside.

At the very edge close to the calmer stream, three docks sat perched and ready for use. No boats were attached to them, which was odd. A bone – chilling graveyard was seen stationed in the wastelands, and firewood oddly resembling kindle or firewood was stacked throughout the land. There were more environments, but all in all: it seemed like a huge variety of territories fit for ANYBODY to take full advantage of.

And right now, Noel had just entered a private room for Mr. Abrams's class, the non-combatants, to sit back and relax as they please.

Being non – combatants truly did grant them the only actual pass available for freshman competitions.

Noel: "... Mr. Abrams."

Mr. Abrams: "Yea, what is it?"

Noel: "WHY is this ENTIRE place so big?!"

{Looking around was making me so dizzy! They even have monitors out there in the stands, probably to show what's going on down in the arena because the seats in the back are so far away! Thank the Gods above for this nice and quiet room.}

Mr. Abrams: "Well, naturally, it has to be this big. After all, it was designed to keep in mind that an entire school of Herotopia would want to comfortably watch any guest fighters that we invite, or even just enjoy a concert."

Noel: "Ah."

Mr. Abrams: "Shh the first fight is about to begin!"

Noel: "!!"

{Okay, let's see. Normally it'd take at LEAST 2 seconds to clash, so this is a pretty reasonable distance, but it seems quite unnecessary to force contestants this far away. Let's see how you two fare.}

?: "Hey! Adrian! No hard feelings, right?!"

Adrian: "Nope! And I return those words right back at you Maryanne.

Both contestants ready themselves. Before anybody could enter the arena, they must wait on a special floating platform until they find the mini pieces of land all lined up and ready for when they hop across onto the island.

Both contestants took their stances. Then the referee began his countdown.

10 seconds left.

9 seconds left.

8 seconds left...

7 seconds...

…

All the way down to 1.

And finally, the referee blew his whistle.

And the two combatants ran towards one another.

1 minute passed.

then 2. Finally, after 10 whole minutes of running toward each other, they clashed.

Noel: "Hm? Mr. Abrams, do those two fighters have some sort of anti – speed or 'slowness' power that they're using on each other? What Grade is it?"

Mr. Abrams: "No grade, because that's not a real power. THAT'S normal speed."

Noel: "..."

{...No way. No fucking way. There's NO way, that speed was real. This has to be a joke right...? Right?!}

Noel: "Mr. - Mr. Abrams: this can't possibly be... hehehe, You're...no. It's NOT true... you're lying right?!

...Right..?"

Mr. Abrams: "Heheh, this is what NORMAL speed looks like. Pretty fast, huh?"

---