A hero walks down the street, he is wearing a completely yellow outfit, and several civilians are seen taking photos with him, calling out his name and asking for autographs. One of the pedestrians shouts out to him, “Aciddica thank you for protecting this street every day”. He smiles and waves at them then feels a tug on his trousers, he looks down to see a little boy. “Hey is it true you’re a superhero” he laughs and bends down onto one knee “well I don’t know about super but I try my best to be a hero”. The boy questions him again. “If you’re a hero why are you just walking up and down this street every day?”. “Well my job is to roam the streets, I’m just a C class hero, most of us and all of the D class heroes usually walk around to patrol the streets and keep an eye out for anything that may require our help, that way we’re always ready to take action”. The boy stops and thinks for a few seconds, then asks another question. “Are you as strong as Titan” the mum smiles and lightly apologises “Sorry he’s obsessed with Titan at the moment”. Aciddica laughs back “no that’s fine who wouldn’t be” he then addresses the boy, “unfortunately no, I’m not as strong as Titan, but maybe if you’re lucky you’ll grow up to become a strong hero like him, if not maybe even stronger” the boys eyes light up. A man is heard shouting from behind. “Ha, don’t make me laugh” the hero turns around to see a couple of withered standing there. The hero turns to the mum “go… now” the mum picks up the boy and starts to run away.
The Villain laughs, “Hey where are they running off to, I thought the kid was supposed to grow up to become some superstrong hero like Titan. If that’s going to happen maybe he should fight me himself”. Aciddica shouts out to him, “Hey there’s no need to frighten little kids and civilians” the villain takes a step forward. “I don’t think he was the only one that was scared, did you piss yourself or was your suit always that colour?” The other villain laughs. “Is there something I can help you both with today? If not can we please move along and not scare anyone else.” The villain takes another step forward “ohhhh so self-righteous, what just because you put on a fancy suit and call yourself a hero you think you are stronger than me and can boss me around”. The hero replies, “no that’s not the case at all, I just want to make sure everyone is safe, that’s what my hero licence is for.”
The villain looks at the hero “you didn’t answer my question”. “Huh, what question?”. The villain smiles “do you think you’re stronger than me?”. “You do realise if you start a fight with me that it’s considered breaking the law and I will have to arrest you?”. “That’s hilarious, do you really think you could arrest us if you tried”. “Listen this is your final chance, I’m going to walk away now, please for the sake of everyone, do the same” the hero turns and starts to walk away, but as he does a sharp projectile is fired straight past his face above his shoulder. He turns around and the villain is seen completely covered in spiked needles. Aciddica walks towards him “ok that’s it you’ve crossed the line, I’m placing you under arrest” the villain turns to his friend “don’t interfere I’ve got a point to prove” he fires more spikes at the hero who then shoots a large pool of acid at the needles, dissolving them. This happens a couple of times as the gap between them closes. Eventually, Aciddica gets close enough to the villain and shoots a large amount of non-lethal acid in his face, he then punches him knocking him backwards. “You’re under arrest” the villain wipes away the acid and smiles. Suddenly an incredible amount of spikes appear from his body.
A few hours later footsteps are seen walking down the street, as the footsteps continue you see a pool of blood on the floor, the footsteps follow the pool of blood which leads to Aciddica laying on the floor completely dead, Titan bends down to reveal that the feet are his, “poor guy”. He stands up and sees the area around is completely sectioned off by PA officers, there are some officers around taking photos and notes and pushing back bystanders. In the crowd the mum from earlier is covering her child’s eyes as they are being questioned. A man dressed in military clothing approaches him. Titan stands up and turns to face them. “Sargent Izanaki it's good to see you again, if only it was under better circumstances, what happened here?”. The Sargent responds “It’s good to see you too, 10 attacks in the same night on 10 different heroes ranked C and D class, all on patrol, 6 found dead, 2 critically injured, however 2 managed to fight off their attackers and arrest them. The attackers have been taken in for questioning.” Titan sighs “Damn it”. The SGT continues, “that’s not all, all 6 victims were found with one of these on them, a calling card, all the apprehended attackers were also found with one of them on their body” the SGT hands a card to Titan,
Titan looks down and reads the writing on it out loud ‘what makes a hero stronger than a villain… the illusion that they are stronger. Hotaka turns the card around and on the back is a picture of a chess board with the words ‘your move’. Titan looks up at the Sargent, “what is this some kind of game, who’s behind this?”. “We’re not sure, none of the bystanders saw or heard what happened here after the actual fighting began. The injured heroes are lucky they got away with their lives as backup arrived just in time to get the bastards that attacked them, but still they aren’t in any condition to speak to us just yet. Which means we have very few leads leads, except of course for the captured withered but the interrogation didn’t go too well last time". Titan sighs, “where are they? I’ll speak to them quickly this time”. “Downtown, they’ve only been there 5 minutes but you better hurry”. Titan jumps up and flies off.
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He walks into the PA station and is approached by one of the officers, without saying a single word the officer shakes his head. Titan walks into a holding cell to see all the withered are laying dead on the floor. Titan turns to the officer, “did it happen the same as before?”. They nod, “yes sir, all of them died at the same time before any questioning could be done” Titan gets out his phone and makes a call “Hey… we need to meet”. Later that day Hotaka and Minita are in their home and Toshia appears in their living room. “I heard on the news, 6 heroes dead, 2 injured… another planned attack possibly by the same group as last time?” Minita walks up and hugs Toshia “So you’re not going to say hello to your old sister?”. He hugs her back, “Hey sis it’s good to see you” he walks over and shakes Hitoka’s hand, Hotaka replies “good to see you as always, yes you’re correct this has got to be linked to the attacks a few weeks ago and what’s worse is this was found with the bodies”. He shows the card to them.
Toshia takes it and reads it “what is this?”. Hotaka replies “I’m not sure, a threat, a challenge, some kind of sick game” Minita interjects, “so far all the targets have mostly been D and C-rank heroes, plus one or two B-rank, if they are trying to prove they are stronger than heroes, why go for the lower ranks?”. Toshia replies “because all the withered were D and C-class as well”. Hotaka pauses for a second and thinks. “Exactly but I don’t know, I feel like some of these guys could hold their own against low-level withered like these, it just doesn’t make sense, and the deaths, all the withered that were brought in for questioning died at the exact same time.” Toshia replies “so you think there’s someone behind all these attacks, using these pawns to do their dirty work for them?” Minita holds her finger to her mouth “yes but we’re missing something. If there is some mastermind trying to prove he’s stronger than us, why use low class withered to do that”. Hotaka looks as if something has clicked in his head “because they’re the pawns, it’s like you said Toshia they’re just pawns, this guy whoever he is, thinks he’s playing some game of chess but with peoples lives” Hotaka looks at the card “I guess we’ve also got to play the game as well and try to save as many people as possible. For now, it’s our move”.
A TV switches on, Titan is holding a press conference and approaches the stand. “Today again, we face another tragedy that has cost us the lives of 6 good heroes, and unfortunately a 7th who passed away in hospital not long ago. All these attacks were down to someone we have yet to identify, however, we have reason to believe these sick and heinous crimes are mere games to him, his ideals are to prove that heroes are weaker than villains, and in doing so he has caused incredible loss to our community. But no more, I will not allow this to continue, if he thinks that he needs to prove villains are stronger than heroes then do it, whoever you are I challenge you… tomorrow, at noon, I will be at the hero statue on 53rd street, a statue that was made 20 years ago in honour of a large accident costing 12 heroes their lives in order to save tens of thousands of civilians. There I will remind you why heroes are called heroes, not because we are stronger in body or mind but because we are stronger in heart". The tv turns off and Checkmate is smiling “looks like I’ve got a date tomorrow”.
The next day Titan is standing in front of a large statue with a very large crowd of people surrounding the area, they are all behind a large taped-off area being held back by PA officers. A single entrance is open towards Titan with a large number of armed officers on either side. A civilian steps out into the middle of the entrance and they all aim their guns at him. Titan puts his hand up “Stand down, please this is between me and him”. The civilian walks up closer, however, is wearing a hood and can’t be seen. The civilian speaks out to Titan “Well this was very brave of you… challenging me without knowing a single thing about me”. “I know everything I need to know about you, you’re a coward that hides behind hoods and henchmen making them do your work for you without ever showing your face”. The hooded man smiles “but I’m here aren’t I”. “But covering your face”. The hooded man begins to laugh, “oh you really want to ruin the surprise early on..well here you go” the civilian takes off his hood to reveal its Aciddica, the dead hero from earlier, however, he looks deceased and sickly.
Titan looks confused “that’s not possible, you died yesterday, we saw your body”. “That’s correct you did, and I am dead, I guess you could say this is just a vessel for me to speak through” Titan scoffs “so you didn’t show up in the end”. “What, walk into a trap and show you all my moves at once, I don’t think that would be a smart way to play at all”. Titan gets angry “this isn’t a game, you are playing with people's lives!”. Aciddica laughs “but only the lives of heroes and pawns, you’re all sacrificial, you heroes believe yourselves to be immortal, that by being deemed a hero you can risk your life every day in the confidence that you are strong enough to cheat death. You believe that being a hero makes you stronger than people like us, unfortunately, I’m here to prove that isn’t the case, you tried to move to the end of the game but you played a very dangerous move, you tried to put me into checkmate but in doing so you took your eye off the board, I’ll show you what underestimating your opponent means, you made your move now it’s time I make mine” as he says this a large explosion is heard in the background, The bishop of death is seen in the crowd, he smiles and walks away. Hotaka lunges towards him but suddenly Aciddica starts to expand. An officer shouts out. “He’s about to explode”. Hotaka turns around grabs the corpse and throws him into the air, as the body reaches the sky it explodes and everyone is saved.
Titan flies over to where the explosion came from. On the floor, he sees another C-rank hero is found on the floor dead, blown to pieces. Titan looks confused. “How the hell did he get access to the body”. He overhears something on his ear piece. “Hotaka, the ambulance carrying Aciddica’s body was hijacked, as we’re all the heroes that were killed. They were then left on the street until a hero found them”. Hotaka stands up and suddenly 4 more explosions are heard through the city. Checkmate turns to his chessboard and knocks a pawn over on the opponent's side.