Calvin ducked behind the student in front of him, whispering towards Quinn with a face full of panic, “Why is this guy here? Are we running out of supes in the city or what?”
“'This guy?’” Alex turned to him, feeling a mix of offense and flabbergast at his words.
“You're speaking like you know him,” Helena remarked, equally intrigued.
“He’s Calvin’s bestest friend,” Quinn answered with an assured nod.
“What?!—mph!”
“Shush!” He covered Alex’s mouth and sent an unamused look at the pink girl, “Like you and Alden?”
She froze, glaring at him, “Shut up.”
“Glass houses, Queenie— ow,” He felt a pinch at his side.
“Shut up and listen,” Ina shushed.
“You don’t think it’s weird he’s here?”
“Yeah, but that’s good. I can fight him again.”
“Again?” Helena and Alex almost shouted, both in differing temperatures of surprise.
“Long story,” Quinn shook her head. “Actually, no, not that long. But I don’t feel like telling you all right now.”
“Shush!”
Both of Calvin’s brows raised as the semi-vivid memory of Ina dancing around the 'hero’ played in his mind’s eye. The demon girl, in the pre-demon era, had already beaten the hero, using only two sticks and a dream. There were handicaps, and Ina was a beast in close-quarters combat, but it’s an undeniable fact that she wiped the floor with him at the time.
Or at least that’s how he remembered it.
'So, if Ina can beat Lightspeed, and I can beat Ina… using the transitive property of inequality that I just learned like an hour ago,’ “I should be fine,” he nodded to himself.
He let out a relieved breath after practicing a simple exercise in mental gymnastics, standing back up with less cold in his veins.
Paying attention to the front, Lightspeed was still addressing the class on the topic of the upcoming lessons, “—a week-long trial or an introduction of what this class is going to be about and how you’ll be learning the topics. Since it’s an introductory class, we will only be going into general and the most common of common tactics and techniques to be used in combat situations. But, most important of all, we’ll be focusing more on how to survive a fight—”, he clapped to get their attention, “—okay, first of all, uniforms. It’s going to prevent most injuries inside the Academy’s modular rooms, so make sure to wear it before anything. But only inside the rooms, so don’t try doing anything stupid wearing them outside, they’ll be useless.”
After saying that, he grabbed a tablet from his pocket and started fiddling with knobs and buttons. Small changing rooms popped out from the ground, complete with everyone’s names and a grey tracksuit that looked suspiciously like Ina’s [Training Tracksuit], only with the Academy’s name sewn on the back.
Calvin jogged towards his own tracksuit, humming in surprise.
Super Equip
Super Gear: Training Tracksuit - Academy detected. Equip? Yes No
“It’s tinker tech,” he whispered, seeing the panel. “These rich people.”
He dismissed the window and stored the tracksuit in his pocket, using [Automatic Wardrobe] to change faster than the human way. White light surrounded him, covering his entire body, disappearing a second later to reveal him already wearing the tracksuit on top of his normal clothes.
“Nice,” Calvin stretched and checked the fit, feeling none of the stuffiness he was expecting.
His eyes started looking around, watching as a few of the other students did the same thing as him, using their pockets to change instead of using the changing rooms. A surprised hum escaped his lips, the self-created illusion in his head about the [Automatic Wardrobe]’s rarity was immediately dispelled after seeing that— although it might have to do with the fact that most of them here are probably rich kids.
After a while, Lightspeed got their attention again with another loud clap, “Everyone’s done changing? Good.”
Using his tablet again, he fiddled for a moment before blue light started to surround every person in the room. Space warped and everyone found themselves in an indiscernibly large space, darkness consuming the distance like the room went on for infinity— except the floor.
“Ah!” “Woah!”
Screams of surprise rang out as people started realizing there was no floor. Or, if there was one, it was made of something more transparent than glass.
Below them was the Colosseum, a large empty dirt field surrounded only by marble stands.
“What’s the most basic and arguably one of the most important tactics that can effectively be utilized in every combat scenario?” Lightspeed’s voice boomed. “Anyone? A point if you can answer— you?”
“Punching,” Helena answered.
“No,” He shook his head.
“Exploding!” Sparky appeared again, only to be chucked away again by Alex.
“That’s— also a no,” Lightspeed glanced at the kid flying away, using the teleport to bring him back. “Anyone els—”
“Kicking?” Helena asked.
“Still a n—”
“Ah— hitting. Or bashing?”
“Anyone else?” He looked at the other students. “No one? Does everyone here think the only thing involved in combat situations is 'attacking’?” After a pause, he answered his own question. “Maneuverability. Or, more basically, running.”
The crowd of students had an obvious look of suspicion after he said that. Calvin thought it was pretty obvious, given it was also something that’s recommended in every self-defense tutorial he watched and read about when he had the Internet. Not that he would ever answer that here. His common sense didn’t always work in a 'super’ setting.
“The most basic combat tactic that all of you will inevitably utilize during your tenure as a superhero, no matter your rank. Running to the scene, chasing a villain, dashing to save a civilian, sprinting to dodge an attack— the most basic technique of maneuverability. I don’t just mean running in a straightforward sense. I mean going from point A to point B as fast as possible, no matter what’s in between the two. And so, for the entire week, we’ll be learning how to run as heroes do.”
“That seems boring,” Helena muttered. “Ah, you little shit—”
“Shut up you musclehead,” Alex spat after punching her.
“Quiet,” Lightspeed warned them. “But of course, before learning, we need to know what you know. So—”
Their watches vibrated, and a couple of notifications from the network popped up for everyone.
Pre-test Examination - Hero
Objective: Catch your designated 'villain’
Reward: 5pts
Pre-test Examination - Villain
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Objective: Run away from your designated 'hero’ for five minutes
Reward: 5pts
“You’re all going to pair up for the mission and each pair will take turns chasing each other for five minutes down in the field. Ah, wait— let me just,” he pushed a few more buttons.
A rumbling caused everyone’s attention to go downwards, watching as the once-empty filled was now slowly being filled with obstacles. Ruin-like but stable structures, low and high walls right next to each other, and even cliffs and valleys with footholds to climb up and down from, an environment that’s like a parkourist’s wet dream sprouted up from the ground and decorated the barred dirt field.
It didn’t make sense, as a real environment, but it did look maneuverable.
“No killing, no maiming, and no tinker tech. Anything else is on the table, just don’t do things a villain might do,” He nodded, pulling up a list of students. “Hmm… there’s twenty-nine of you, which means one of you might have to partner with me.”
“Oh yeah!” Alex clasped her hands in prayer.
Calvin’s heart dropped, “Oh no.”
“Let’s see here…” He started looking at the list.
“Good luck,” Ina looked at him with a sympathetic smile.
“Calvin. You. You’re with me,” Lightspeed smiled brightly, although to Calvin that was anything but. “Everyone else, partner up by yourselves, we’ll start in three minutes.”
“Aw…” Alex deflated.
Helena tapped his shoulder, “You really do know each other?”
“I told you? Best friends— oweh~”
----------------------------------------
A bright blue light surrounded Calvin, the uneasy feeling in his stomach from the teleport was compounded by the uneasy feeling of having to face the 'hero’ in front of him right now. The three minutes of wait from earlier was enough to ruminate on the reason why he had to be avoiding the man at all.
And the conclusion he arrived at was simple. None.
The first time was because he was escaping the evil lab. The speedy hero had slammed him against the wall, made him vomit, and then looked like he was about to murder him. It was to escape an unknown and scary situation.
The second time was his paranoia of getting caught by the government and experimented on after being the only conscious survivor in the evil lab situation. But the six months of government-mandated therapy proved that to be what it is— paranoia.
And thusly, the third time, when he was rescued by the hero. The first time he’d seen him be a hero out of the other two times.
There was nothing to run away from. But somehow, he still felt like he had to.
A static buzzing caught his attention. Above and around the colosseum sprouted gigantic holographic screens, showing the two of them currently in the field with a timer in between and a symbol on the bottom saying which role they were in the current round.
First Round
Villain: Calvin
Hero: Martin Rodrigo
Timer: -0:10 / 5:00
“Long time no see, Calvin,” He spoke, catching his attention. “You’ve been hiding yourself properly for the past six months, huh?”
“Hiding?” Calvin’s echoed, confused.
“I still have a mission from Destructoman himself to find out what you know, you know?”
“You could also just ask my shrink, you know? I tell her everything.”
“I can also ask you now.”
A loud horn blared from above as soon as the timer reached zero. Immediately, Lightspeed turned into a blur and dashed towards him.
Calvin stepped backwards, already expecting him to rush and hit the [Impervious Pebble] he summoned in front of him.
Unexpectedly, that wasn’t the case.
“You thought I was going fall for that again?” The hero spoke as he stopped abruptly right in front of his pebble. “I remember your ability.”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t,” Calvin said in fake disappointment before backing off as fast as he could.
“You literally just told the class earlier.”
“I could’ve lied?”
“It’s in your profile.”
“Damn,” He tsked.
Lightspeed looked at him for a second before nodding, “Don’t worry, I’ll give you a handicap. Wouldn’t want this to look like a teacher bullying a student, right?”
“You mean like what’s literally happening right now?”
He scoffed, setting a timer on his holowatch, “Thirty seconds good enough as a head start? I also won’t use my full power, how about that?”
“Are you sure you’re a hero, man? You sound so much like a comic book villain right now it’s insane,” Calvin chuckled grimly. “Why are you even angry at me? What did I do?”
His face fell flat, “You gave me a concussion.”
“You gave yourself a concussion. I just made a pebble.”
“You also vomited on me.”
“Blame clockhead for that. It’s not like I intentionally vomited on you.”
“You fought back against heroes doing their mission.”
“So hero missions involve assaulting a literal minor in an enclosed space? Noted.”
“And you’re suspicious,” His eyes narrowed. “Very suspicious.”
“How am I suspicious?” The multi-superpowered otherworlder that doesn’t have any history but also somehow has multiple friends in very high places asked innocently.
“The only kid alive and conscious in a very suspicious place?” He raised a brow. “Somehow evading all that security, escaping from not just one, but two superheroes, and one way or another evading hundreds of enforcers, one sovereign-level supervillain, and one omega-level superhero. Adding to that, you were able to hide yourself from the system for months on end, only popping up by chance.”
Having it all spelled out in front of him, even Calvin thought that was suspicious, “I’m a victim?”
“You sure don’t sound like one.”
“I was lucky?”
“Luck’s ran out, Calvin,” Lightspeed cracked his neck as his timer vibrated. “Time’s up.”
Calvin summoned a pebble in between the two of them, expecting another dash forwards. Unexpectedly, Lightspeed appeared to the side instead, having run laterally.
“Shit,” Calvin cursed, dashing backwards and creating a line of pebbles to cover all paths the hero might take.
Lightspeed just scoffed at his attempt and started chasing him without using his power to go faster. As soon as he passed the line of pebbles, he started blurring again, going side to side unpredictably.
“Tsk,” Calvin frowned. 'Can’t lure him to a corridor… where can I— oh yeah.’
An idea came to mind, remembering the giant rabbit that also liked to charge forward.
Using all his leg muscles, and some of his [Jumper] muscles, he flew a few meters in the air and dodged the blur that was Lightspeed.
He jumped again after summoning a pebble as a foothold, hanging off of another one in the air before looking down at the surprised hero.
“Neat trick,” He looked up at Calvin.
“You’re acting like you’re about to beat me up,” Calvin shouted. “Isn’t this just tag?”
“Careful. I might just tag you a little too hard—” he turned to a blur, going up a nearby wall and running up it before kicking off to reach Calvin, “—got you!”
Calvin let go and let himself fall back to the ground, dodging the hero who was sailing in the sky above him. A heavy thud shook the air as he also left another present for the cocky hero, making him bounce back to the wall he jumped from.
“Oof—” He winced, watching the man fall down.
“Ugh, damn…” Lightspeed groaned as he stood up, glaring towards Calvin.
“Feeling some déjà vu?” He taunted.
The man stood up and stared at him for a second, his veins visibly bulging. A short sigh later, he dusted himself off and rolled his shoulder, “Fine, I’ll get a bit serious.”
“Another classic comic book villain line.”
He turned into a blur and disappeared.
Before Calvin could even think to look for him, he felt himself flying forwards, an impact from behind catching him off guard. He instantly activated [Vigilant Aegis] and prepared himself to use [Jumper] to minimize the impact as he hit a ruin in front with tremendous force.
“Shit!” He heard Lightspeed curse and immediately come near him. “Fuck! Calvin! Are you okay? I didn’t— ugh!”
He stumbled backwards. Calvin punched the hero as soon as he saw his face.
“I’m reporting you, asshole,” He grunted, getting up.
Unsurprisingly, he was completely unscathed from the impact. And it wasn’t just because of [Vigilant Aegis]. The [Training Tracksuit - Academy] was solid enough that not even an ounce of force punched into power.
He was still pissed, though.
A horn echoed in the air twice, a vibration on his holowatch ringing simultaneously.
Pre-test Examination - Villain
Objective Failed
Second Round
Villain: Martin Rodrigo
Hero: Calvin
Timer: -0:10 / 5:00
“My fucking points,” Calvin growled, a heat in his chest rising up.
“Ugh— I guess I deserved that,” Lightspeed stood back up, surprisingly taking the sucker punch in stride
“It’s my turn to chase you, right?” Calvin smiled darkly towards the man.
“What?” He looked up at the timer, seeing two seconds left. “Sure, you can try.”
“I will,” he nodded.
Lightspeed’s eye twitched, “You sound confident.”
“How about this—”, Calvin brought up his holowatch and started a timer, “Thirty seconds should be good enough of a headstart, right?”
“You’re pushing it, Calvin.”
“And you weren’t?”
The horn signaling the start of the next round rang in their ears. Despite that, the two remained rooted on the spot, leading to the confusion of those watching the screens from above.
“You’re really waiting?” Lightspeed scoffed.
“You can start running if you want,” Calvin taunted again, still feeling angry.
“You’re like a kid lashing out.”
“I am a kid, moron. You’re the adult taking revenge on a kid.”
“It’s a mission, not revenge.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” Calvin grunted.
They waited the seconds of Calvin’s timer, standing on the spot and not wanting to yield to the other’s arrogance. The heat in Calvin’s chest only grew hotter with every second that he waited, with every moment he saw the man’s face in front of him.
'Goddamned cape…’ Calvin thought as he seethed. “Five seconds, you better start running.”
He frowned, “You really think you’ll catch me?”
“I don’t think I can,” his holowatch vibrated, “I know I can.”
----------------------------------------
'Three hundred meters to the other end of the field… there should be a straight somewhere behind me,’ Martin planned in his head.
The boy in front of him was still looking at him with angered eyes, and he couldn’t really blame him. For months, he’s been looking for him at the request of Destructoman. His inability to find him after so long felt like a stain in his streak, like a failure he should correct as soon as possible.
But there was nothing on the boy, even after getting rescued from the kidnapping. He didn’t exist in the network, he wasn’t in the records, and there wasn’t even any mention of him in the reports.
It was like he was an enigma.
Now that the enigma was in front of him, hindsight played its part and made him question the reality of his own suspicions.
If he really was in hiding, why would he appear in the most surveilled location in the entire city? If he really wasn’t on the records, how was he able to come here without getting apprehended? If Destructoman really wanted to look for him, why wouldn’t he just have asked Oracle? If he really was suspicious, why would he be worsening that suspicion every time they met?
Everything in the lab could just be a coincidence. Security was on them the whole time, freeing the kid to escape. The elevator fiasco was more or less their fault as well. And he wouldn’t put it past an ex-supervillain to mess with everyone and let him escape as soon as he got topside.
'He’s just a kid,’ Frostbloom’s words echoed in his head, making him sigh in frustration. “Mission was done half a year ago.”
A vibration brought him back to the boy’s wrathful glare.
“Times up,” the boy said.
“Yep,” He nodded, activating his power.
He might be wrong on many accounts, but he wasn’t about to be beaten by a student.
Martin felt his vision blur as he used his power, accelerating instantly to his maximum speed as he ran backwards for a fraction of a second. Using his power again to decelerate back to a standstill, his brows furrowed in surprise as he found the scenery unchanged.
“What?” He stumbled backwards, finding something pressed up on his back. Trying to walk to the side yielded the same result, an immovable object locked him in place.
“Clench your jaw, fucker,” Calvin’s voice rang in his ear before he felt a fist hit his face.