His steps echoed in the halls and resounded clearly in his head, the first time he’d experienced something like that in this massive place. He thought it would have felt nice to be nearly alone in here, fewer eyes to look at him like he was a menace, after all. But the silence only made him feel as if he was constantly being watched, especially whenever another student walked past him. When he had woken up he had made absolutely sure that his arms and hands were covered, going as far as to wrap the hands up in the torn-up scraps of an unlucky shirt in his closet.

The fears had been unfounded though. No one in the school was looking at him, and this time it wasn’t because they were afraid.

…The school was almost empty today. Liam wasn’t sure what was happening as he walked around, only a few kids making their way to class at a time. It was as if the school had been cut down to a fifth of what it had been before. That would have been fine if there hadn’t been such a grim tone in the air, stifling to the point where barely a single kid was looking up… He understood the grim tone, but didn’t really get their feelings, though.

Even if they were all unsettled by the appearance of an Ego-death, did they really have to act so depressed when no one had died? Well, maybe the girl herself but…

Wait, that had only been his own view of the carnage, hadn’t it? He didn’t know what the hell happened before the monster had invaded, so for all he knew plenty of kids would have been killed in the process. Just because he’d seen his own corpse didn’t mean… Hell, there might have even been more than one Ego-death he hadn’t been able to take care of. But there had only been one body, so that couldn’t have been it…

Man, that couldn’t have been it, right?

His feet dragged a bit slower as he made his way to the classroom, the tense air finally worming all types of paranoid thoughts into his brain.

_______________________________________________________________

“Lidia! Wake up!” The girl was startled awake, shaking so much the line of drool snapped off her mouth and fell to the desk, much to the other girl’s disgust. It was Emily, one of her bestest, bestest friends. The girl had been running her hands through her hair, a nervous tick Lidia had caught on about years ago but refused to tell her about. “Jeez, how are you able to sleep right now? I barely even want to stay in this room.”

Lidia nodded, groggily sitting up from her desk and wiping the drool with her sleeve. The quiet air in the classroom and the safe feeling of being next to her friend had made her doze off. “I know… I just didn’t get much sleep last night.” She really hadn’t. She had closed her eyes and had a nightmare so bad she refused to close her eyes again. The thoughts of seeing that girl and the demon of noon high fighting in her dreams again…

Now she was back in that room, though instead of a broken window and steel walls, it looked almost exactly the same as before, if a bit cleaner. It almost made her forget where she had been. Almost. She yawned, stretching a bit as the fog of sleepiness finally started going away. “I just… I think I’m awake enough now.” Emily scoffed, wrapping her arms around the girl and squeezing her tightly. A green light shined around them for a second, and suddenly Lidia felt just a small bit better.

Just a bit.

“I knew we should have just taken the week off. Come on, you forced me to come to school, so you’re going to have to stick it out or I’m not coming tomorrow...” She smiled, leaning back and rubbing her head against Emily’s neck. “I wanted to go on my own. You just followed me.” She just scowled, shaking Lidia’s head around gently before moving back and making her way toward the door. “You knew what you were doing when you texted me. I wasn’t going to let you come alone.”

Lidia just stood, wobbly getting up and stretching. She turned to her friend and walked quietly behind her, wondering why she didn’t just stay home this week.

She knew the answer already, of course.

____________________________________________________________________

Liam hadn’t gone into class, waiting by the wall over on a corner for the teacher to come by. He didn’t know if the bastard would smell him out for being an Ego, but it was better to warn them before they made another big scene inside the classroom. There’d be no stupid Ego-death to save from the ‘jailtime’ he’d been warned of this time. He waited for a few more minutes until the door to the classroom opened, and out came two girls…

Ah, it was her… the Bag girl. The one he had made depressed a couple days ago.

Liam turned the corner and hid, instinct turning on before any actual rationality. He felt like a creep as he peeked at her from a corner. Still, it felt better this way, so he just continued watching as she went by. She seemed to be going through hell as she followed behind one of the other students in their class, who seemed to actually be doing quite well. A far cry better than the Bag girl, at least.

That poor girl’s eyes were sunken, and no longer nearly as vibrant as they had been before.

She had been leader of the group that had been the life of that classroom, to the point where Liam knew her loudmouth voice better than her actual face. He was honestly jealous at how easily she was able to make jokes and comebacks. It helped a lot to have her take the attention away from him, though, and that had just made him feel worse about what he had done. Eventually, the two turned a corner and he finally allowed himself to come out of the corner. Then a hand went onto his shoulder.

He turned in shock, finding Wyland with a big, goofy grin on his face.

“Stalking girls, huh? Well, you’re at that age so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” Liam scowled, and tried pulling away from the hero. Even with his new strength, however, he hadn’t even been able to move a finger. “Wyland, get off me.” The hero must have noticed the new force his body could muster, but didn’t reply, just putting their hands over their eyes in a tired way. “Look, I know this sounds bad as a teacher but… It’d be best if you just didn’t come to my classroom. People in this school were given a week off for a reason, Liam. I think you of all people need that kind of rest.”

This bastard didn’t get to tell him what to- Wait, what? There had been that in place? Why the hell hadn’t he heard about it? “I personally called your mother, kid. She must know what I’m talking about. I don’t know how you convinced her to come but I don’t think you’re gonna do the same to me.” Ah… well that sucks.” Liam shook his head, suddenly grabbing the man’s arm with bother hands to try to shove them off. “I ain’t got no phone, Wyland. Mom would kill me if I told her to come back here. Besides, she didn’t tell me anything about being kicked out of school so don’t come at me about it…”

The teacher just furrowed his brow, and Liam could almost see a vein pop from their head as they forced away a frown.

“You’re not… We aren’t kicking you out, kid. Just… We just think you, as well as the other kids, might need a break from all that happened yesterday. We don’t want something like…”

Behind them, Liam heard a screech, and the sound of someone dropping to the floor. He turned in curiosity but was pulled to the other side of the corner. He was able to see the disheveled state of the Bag girl and the other one looking at him in horror before he was pulled along. Wyland looked pissed and tired, and Liam was wondering why the hell they had looked like that. He looked up to Wyland for answers and all they did was sigh.

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“...Like that to happen. We need to get you the hell out of here-”

The sound of running came from the corner and, shockingly enough to both Liam and Wyland, it had been the bag girl who showed up. Her blonde hair had become a mess from the fall, and the skirt was hiked on her left to make her look more deranged. Her eyes were in tears as she looked at him, and it took a few moments before Liam realized that the red wasn’t natural. The girl’s pupils were a bright, colorful red, staring right at him.

Liam felt so uncomfortable he had to look away. It didn’t seem to deter her, though. “You’re really… I didn’t… I didn’t know that…” Her stuttering was silent, barely more than a mutter as she seemed to try to come up with the words. A few seconds passed of all of them wondering what the hell to do next, before Liam turned to Wyland in curiosity.

“Does… she know I didn’t die, or…?”

The look on his face was indescribable.

________________________________________________________________

What was he doing here? The teacher had said he had survived but they hadn’t been told of his condition. Everyone around them thought the demon of Noon high would have been at least missing an arm and bedridden by the end of all that… but right now? He was right here, right in front of her, with his body looking completely…

Completely intact!

He had turned to speak to Wyland at some point, but she didn’t hear what they had said. Her mind was too full of the image in front of her. He had been something everyone considered a natural disaster, something that couldn’t be helped even if there had been casualties. It was something so ingrained in her head that even after a full 7 weeks of nothing happening she had still felt that fear. That was just what the reputation of someone from the ‘badlands’ was, someone who showed no mercy and held no emotions…

So why had he come to save her when the girl who became a monster went to attack her? The way he had gone in with so little hesitance, so much bravery… She had wanted to become a great hero like that, so she had come to class the next day when she had heard he was still alive. Without an arm, she thought he’d never get to be a hero, too injured to even work as such a thing. Because of it, she had wanted to work twice as hard to become the hero he never could be, thanks to her hesitance…

And it all immediately had gone up in flames when she had seen him now, completely fine and looking stronger than ever… She thought he had been menacing before all this, but now he seemed to tower over her in a completely different sense. …Wait a second, that wasn’t it, exactly. He looked a bit different now, as if… as if…

____________________________________________________________

“D-did… Did you get taller?”

Both Wyland and the girl who had been following Lidia were dumbfounded at the question, so innocent and yet so out of place in the current moment. Liam was basically in a headlock at this point and even then he had stopped struggling to ask Wyland what the hell that was about. “Hey, you sure I’m the one that needs to go home, Wyland? Look at her, if she’s what you consider ok then- gerhk!?.” The hero held the headlock just a bit tighter, earning better purchase around Liam’s neck.

Shit, he couldn’t breathe.

“Head inside, Lidia. We’ll talk about… all this when class starts. Emily, you too.”

The girl nodded, but didn’t move until Emily tugged at her arm and gently pulled her to the classroom, which the girl shuffled her feet along like a zombie. It was an awkward, tense moment, and it was only until Wyland heard the click of the door that he finally let go, if only to nurse his headache. “This was exactly what I didn’t want. Now we’re going to have to deal with the consequences of- Hey where the hell do you think you’re going!?”

“...No swearing at school, teacher.” Liam was already going in the opposite direction from the classroom, hands in his pockets as if he had done nothing wrong. The teacher almost expected the damn kid to start whistling. No way was he off the hook now. “No way, kid. You had that chance, now that whole classroom is going to know about thi- Hey get back here!” Liam, understanding where this was going, broke into a run, no longer caring for appearances. If the girl had looked ready to pass out just by being in front of him then he was going to lose his lunch at what would happen when an entire goddamn class was on his ass.

Unfortunately, the damn teacher seemed to be quite competent for a high-tier superhero. Go figure. It hadn’t even been twenty seconds before the teacher had finally tackled him to the ground, and they didn’t even respond when he slammed his fist into their face. They just pushed their hand away with a look like Liam had been nothing more than a tantrumming child. “Come on, Wyland! You saw what the girl looked like! I don’t wanna kill her with a heart attack the next time she sees me!”

He didn’t seem impressed by the argument, grabbing the boy by the neck and dragging them back to class. “Doesn’t matter, brat. I’m not going to spend the entire listening to those brats ask questions I don’t have the answers for. You’ll keep their mouths shut at least, so you’re gonna have to take one for the team.” Liam went to argue again but this time their grip had tightened around his throat.

With far more strength than it’d have taken to kill him in his weaker form.

“And don’t think I didn’t notice the new strength, kid. We’re gonna have a talk about that later.” Liam groaned, though it sounded weak and strangled through the chokehold he was currently in. “I shoulda just sent my fucking clone…”

That made Wyland laugh. “Shoulda just not come at all, kid.”

They’d made it back to the classroom, and this time when Wyland had let go of him he’d only gotten three seconds before being caught, so he made sure to be on good behaviour the third time. Liam took a deep breath as his bandaged hands were over the doorknob, looking over at Wyland one last time. They had a look on their face like they were completely done with his shit, which honestly he completely understood.

He was sick of his own shit as well.

…but he still didn’t want to open the door.

“Wait, Wyland. Lemme explain something real quick just in case you know something I don’t about- Gah!” With speed he hadn’t yet seen the superhero move in, the door had opened and he had been pushed inside. It had been so fast he hadn’t expected it, almost tripping onto his own face in the process.

Most of the class gasped in shock, which wasn’t too bad because there were only six of them. He could see Lidia’s friend looking away guiltily, though. She must have blabbed to the rest of the class, but he actually felt grateful. It might have been much worse otherwise. It still was enough to make his stomach do a quintuple backflip, though.

He took a single wheezing, gasping breath, shakily looking back at the teacher in a desperate plea for help. The feeling inside him when he saw their smirking face was something completely foreign to him, but he soldiered on and walked to his desk with a strong, calm poker face. He wasn’t about to show his fear in a situation like this.

His eyes caught onto familiar faces in the class other than the two girls. Ezekiel was there for one, looking at him as if an actual ghost had come to haunt him. The… oh goddamnit, the flamer was there too, as well as some kid who was looking straight ahead without a care for what was happening. Their eyes were intense, filled with a strange energy that Liam couldn’t pin down. He had respected the fact that they hadn’t reacted to his presence, which made him wonder how the hell he had never noticed them before…

The last one was the kid who sat next to him, unfortunately enough.

They were the smallest kid in the class now that Ezekiel had grown from his powers. Darker skinned than the rest, and judging by their frazzled black hair and the shaky state they were in he seemed to be the one who wanted to be here the least. It was more than likely that they were already like this even before Liam had entered…

He turned to the teacher in another desperate attempt, and again they just ignored him, tiredly pulling out a binder from their desk and opening it.

“Alright, don’t speak, don’t ask. I know this is confusing but I’m sure Liam is just as tired as every one of you.” The room was silent, but he could see almost the entire class nod in agreement.

Pricks.

The teacher seemed to be having the same thoughts. “Yes, and while we can’t teach anything this week due to fear of other students missing out, we are allowed to practice our, or rather, your, powers on the training field” The kids ears perked up at that, and Wyland had a smile on his face for the first time that day. He pulled out a stack of papers, taking seven out.

“Now, I know that sounds great and all but things have to happen before we start letting you guys become superheroes.” Everyone visibly deflated, and Liam wasn’t sure why. Wasn’t this just normal study work? The teacher grinned, taking out a small black box with a hole in the bottom, Liam was still confused until the teacher opened it, showing a complicated mechanism with a sharp needle in the center. “Yep. We’re going to have to classify your powers, first. So get in line.”