“So, uh… What did we learn?”

“...Don’t go into people’s houses hidden like a cat.”

“And?”

“...And without their permission.”

Liam sighed, rubbing their eyes. “Ok, there we go, ‘Least we learned something right?” Liam muttered, patting the still sniveling kid on the back. It had been almost ten minutes since they had started crying, and only now did they finally run out of energy. They were just quiet now, and one of the clones had even gone so far as to hand them one of Liam’s shirts to blow their nose into.

He was going to kill that one later.

w“I’m really sorry, Liam. I didn’t think you’d get mad so I just… I acted like an idiot.” They sniveled again, and this time Liam just grinned, pulling them close. “At least you’re aware of it, kid. You don’t know how many times I’ve seen someone act like nothing’s their fault. You gotta be aware of these things if you wanna keep friends.” The kid looked up at him, their eyes suddenly wider. “So we’re still friends?” Their voice wavered, and for some reason, it made Liam’s heartache. This kid might’ve done something wrong, but they were still too good for him.

“Yeah, Elliot. We’re friends. Don’t worry about it. Now, let’s get you out of the house before mom gets on your ass.” Elliot nodded, hopping off the bed and running toward one of the clones. “Can you tell me what your power is, though? What did you get from the machine?”

Liam tilted his head confusedly. The machine? What were they, ah…

Damn it. He rubbed his eyes, hating the remembrance of that embarrasing memory. “Don’t… Let’s talk about that later. I’m tired and... Both of us need space right now, ya know?” Elliot realized what that meant, and their shoulders sunk. It sucked to say, but it was the truth. Liam was planning to knock out the moment they left purely due to the stress. “I… guess you’re right. Are you going to school tomorrow? Maybe I… I could come too?”

…Liam really didn’t want that. Not right now, at least. There was just too much bad blood between them right now, and both needed space to start again.

“I don’t wanna go tomorrow, I just realized they were doing this shit today, so I hadn’t even been given the choice to go or not.” It was technically not a lie, at least. He really didn’t want to be bothered getting up for class, and even though Mika would force him, that remained true. The kid’s shoulders sulked at the albeit obvious attempt to get rid of them. Meanwhile, Liam went to open a window.

The drop wasn’t too far down, but he was still worried for Elliot’s health. The last thing he wanted was to hurt them more than he’d already done. “You can turn into an angel, right? If you think you can’t handle it just turn into a cat and I’ll-.”

A small bird whizzed by him before he could finish, a pale white was all he saw as it disappeared into the sky. And then Elliot was gone.

Liam couldn’t fight the feeling he had messed up somehow.

___________________________________________________________

Today was another school day, and he was back in the training field with Ezekiel. He hadn’t bothered to argue with his mom, the thought of losing his new body leading him to that decision just a bit. He had brought his clones into the school this time, in an attempt to pawn them off to the Ms.Deus woman. She just hadn’t shown up, and neither had that Leonard bastard. It had been such a shit show for him that he’d been forced to take these clones for nothing. Now, all he'd been left with was this small training bit.

He dodged the swing taken towards him, wide and telegraphed so badly a dog would have gotten out of the way. “Keep your punches tighter. Wide swings just give you away, and you don’t have the speed or size to make up for that. More controlled, just like tha- Fuck, you can get out of stances when you move, Jit-meat!” The damn bastard kept his legs tucked when they went towards him, even when Liam had been a good ten feet away.

Damn it… this was worse than yesterday, somehow. The kid was better than when they started, but without any of the untrained aggression of before it was harder to keep them at a good flow.

He had to constantly remind them that they were invincible, which was a challenge in and of itself to remember with how cowardly Ezekiel would be. Unlike yesterday, Liam didn’t feel right kicking their teeth in while they fought, so it reached this sad stalemate where neither would try to deal much damage, Liam because of his guilt, and Ezekiel because the idiot couldn’t land a hit. It only made it worse that Ezekiel thought they were improving.

“I almost hit you that time! Let’s go again!” Ezekiel shouted, his breathing heavy thanks to the constant rounds they’ve battled. Meanwhile, Liam wasn’t too tired thanks to his speedy regeneration. But even that new strength of his was hitting him where it hurt. Even though it was useful, it did give the scene a sense of boredom he hadn’t realized was crushing his soul. If he had been able to grow tired then perhaps this would have been fun on both sides.

Right now just felt like easy training.

“Tighter! It forces me to dodge your hits closer, so there’s more room for improvement!”

Ezekiel simply nodded and continued the fight.

A half-hour passed before The big bastard finally fell to the floor in exhaustion. “Gah… Gah… Give me a seconds… Ah.” He was kicked lightly on the side by Liam, who had gone up to him with an unimpressed look. “Why didn’t you go crazy like yesterday? I wanted to go against you like that.” The kid went red and covered their face. “I wasn’t… crazy. I was just mad because you were giving me a hard time… Nevermind.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Liam’s head tilted a bit in confusement, and kicked Ezekiel again, this time actually earning their ire. “Stop that! I need to catch my breath!” Ezekiel shouted. Their breathing was less erratic now but they still seemed plenty tired enough to be unable to fight. Maybe Liam would just do something else for now… He turned to Wyland, who had been on their phone most of the fight. Bastard.

“Hey, Wyland! Didn’t they say phones weren’t supposed to be used in here!?” He shouted, earning an annoyed look from the teacher. “That’s just for the kids. We don’t want them getting angry about breaking their own phones in the gym. Teachers can break whatever they want.” Wyland smiled smugly, setting the phone aside as they stretched. “So… we doing this again?” Liam nodded, moving aside to let the poor kid on the floor beside him rest.

The last couple of fights with Ezekiel had been too little for him, so at some point he had asked the teacher himself for sparring lessons. He had just done it at first to ease his boredom, but he soon learned that Wyland had been as close to a specialist fighter as they came. They knew how to brawl, and better yet, they knew how to control themselves. That meant he could also use his other power…

The clones.

The ego copy, to be exact. The other two were in the background, sitting next to a wall doing not much else but watching the fight. One of them seemed more focused than the other, who looked ready to nod off into sleep… Well, it didn’t matter, as long as he had another companion to fight. The clone looked calm, even in the face of the high-tier super in front of them. He wondered if that meant they’d be better or worse in fights, but a second head was still better than one.

“Ok, keep at a distance and protect me if I’m getting tired… we switch when the other exhausts their strength, got it?” The clone nodded, and lowered its stance to something similar to Liam’s. Wyland just grinned, cracking their neck as they moved away from their leaning spot. “Ok, let’s go.”

The fight began.

They charged at each other, and even though Wyland had been far too fast for Liam to see, he was still registering hits on a realistic level. The clone was keeping Wyland hesitant, which made them just a bit easier to handle. That hadn’t been the case in the beggining, and Liam had gotten thrashed around as badly as he had done with Ezekiel. However, now that he knew how to fight them…

He was doing just a bit better.

Wyland sent a jab his way and he dodged, bringing out his claws to slash the man’s eyes. They saw it and dodged, even though Liam was sure it wouldn’t have done much damage. He hadn’t really used his ego appendages in the fight with Ezekiel, mostly because he hadn’t been pushed that far in the first place. With Wyland, though, he had to pull all the stops if he wanted to last.

He blocked a strike and slammed his claws into their chest, only barely fast enough to cut through the cloth before Wyland appeared behind him. Liam and the clone had the same idea because both swung at that spot moments before Wyland even appeared. Their claws almost sounded like they hit steel, and they saw that Wyland had been holding both their arms with one hand each. They had a frustrated look on their face, obviously not expecting this sort of pincer attack.

“Geez, kid. I know the third district is survival of the fittest but… What the hell does your mom teach you?” He pulled the hand away and jumped back as far as he could, twisting it to escape the grip despite knowing that Wyland had purposely let go. He wouldn’t had been able to escape otherwise. The clone was a bit more… eccentric with their choice. “I swear, you kids are- gah! what the fu-” They jumped and placed a hand around the super’s forearm, slamming their leg as hard as they could into the man’s face.

The leg wrapped around the hero’s neck, and by the time Wyland had realized what was happening, the clone had already climbed on top of them like a monkey. They wasted no time jamming the horn on its elbow into the teacher’s face, who only just barely managed to stop it before they went into his eyes. The teacher tried pulling the clone off, but stopped after seemingly realizing the clone would rather die than let go. Eventually, they had had enough. “Kid! Call the clone off! I don’t think I can pull it away without hurting it!”

Liam hadn’t been listening, already closing the distance into a flying kick, directly aimed at the arm of the clone. He had expected the horn that was so close to Wyland's eyes to finally strike its target, but it hadn’t even budged. Wyland was just that painfully strong…

And then the teacher had enough.

“Damnit it… Fine!”

No longer willing to act nice, Wyland grabbed hold of each of the clone’s legs around his neck and pulled them off him about as easily as shucking an ear of corn. He threw them to the side, and Liam couldn’t help but notice the way the clone tried getting up only to fall again as he charged at Wyland one more time with a powerful right. If he was going to get his ass beat, the best he could do was show the teacher a good fucking time.

“Hah!”

The result was what you could expect.

_________________________________________________________________

Ezekiel had never really thought about what it would be like to be a hero. He had been raised all his life in the concept, and he’d always participated in competitions and sports because he thought they were fun. Not once did he ever consider that any of that would correlate directly into his heroism, though. But looking at everyone in the training hall around him… it almost seemed like that was the case.

Everyone had been having some sort of fun, using their powers with a smile on their face or angrily competing on who would win against the other. But that was all it was. Friendly competition, friendly cooperation, as if getting superpowers was something completely natural to the world. He had probably thought that as well before meeting Liam, and that thought scared him a bit, made him feel lonely, but thankful. No one had seemed serious about the combat and hero training like Liam and Wyland.

And himself, he supposed.

He watched Liam fighting with their clone against the unbeatable Wyland. It was amazing how easily they could land hits on someone who almost seemed to blur whenever they moved. Teamwork was truly amazing when done right, Ezekiel thought. It was even more amazing when one of the Liams (Who was the clone, Ezekiel had soon lost track of.) pulled off an acrobatic chokehold on the teacher in an attempt to restrain them.

The other took that moment to land a hit that would have missed in any other situation, and the battle almost seemed to end with Liam as the victor, until Wyland had simply thrown the one on top to the side. The rest had been almost instantaneous, with Wyland dropping and sending a quick leg sweep that threw the kid into the air with insane force. Wyland was up almost immediately, sending a quick chop down onto the still-flying Liam, making them crash into the ground with a loud crash.

The arena was silent for a moment, all the kids in the area staring at the direction of the loud noise. They saw the demon of noon high groaning on the ground, and Wyland with wide eyes that looked as if he’d just realized what he’d done. It wasn’t until Liam raised a hand up and sent a thumbs up that the tension released, earning a couple relieved laughs around the arena. Eventually, people stopped watching and turned back to their own business, and after a half hour, Liam was even back up and moving again, though his clone was much worse off…

The three had eventually met up again, to converse about their weak points. Ezekiel stayed quiet as Liam laid onto his flaws, while always peppering a few obvious compliments to brighten up his mood. Eventually, though, Liam had stopped speaking to him and was talking with Wyland, strategizing about tactics as if the man hadn’t just attempted to kill them. It was insane, and Ezekiel couldn’t help but feel envious of such a strong willpower.

What could he amount to if he didn’t at least become that strong?