The group of villains lounged about in the open room of the building they had appropriated for their temporary hideout. By now, word of the kidnapping of Viserion's daughter was probably reaching his ears. That would most certainly put him on edge. From there, they simply needed for the rest of their plan to go smoothly and the pro hero would be no more.
The blonde woman in charge of the group rose from her seat. "That should be long enough I think. Time to move onto phase two."
"Finally!" Ripper said. "I've been waiting too long to make Viserion pay for-"
Suddenly, a loud bang was heard towards the entrance to the building. Each of the villains immediately went onto high alert.
"What the hell was that?!" Cobra exclaimed.
"The pros couldn't have pinned us down this quickly, could they?" Clay questioned.
The leader glanced at Ripper. "Go check it out."
"Tch, fine." Ripper said. He walked over to the door that led to the foyer. But just as he was about to open it, the door burst open and the trio of Marcus, Sarah, and Daiki emerged.
"It's those brats from earlier!" Cobra gasped. "What the hell are you doing here?!"
"Taking back our family." Marcus glared. "This is your only warning. Surrender, or we take you in by force."
The leader of the group stepped forward. "Marcus Cersy. Son of our mutual hated enemy Viserion. You've got a lot of balls, I'll give you that. But if you think we're going to give up just because a trio of brats like you managed to track us down, you're sorely mistaken."
"And just who are you exactly?" Marcus asked.
"I won't bother giving you my actual name. You can just call me by my villain name. Princess."
"Geez, someone's full of herself." Sarah muttered.
"I was only planning to kill Viserion. But since you're so insistent on getting in our way, I suppose I'll just have to make Viserion suffer a little more by seeing the dead corpse of his son before we kill him." Princess told him. "Get rid of the others. Viserion's brat is mine."
As if on cue, Cobra stretched out both of his arms and wrapped them around Daiki and Sarah. He swung them each into separate areas. Cobra followed after the direction he threw Daiki with Clay, while Ripper and Mimic went after Sarah.
Marcus stood alone as he stared down Princess. He wasn't worried about Sarah or Daiki, he knew they could handle themselves. If anything, splitting up the villains would make it easier to focus on the leader in front of him. And he was eager to get some payback for them kidnapping his sister.
Not bothering to hold back, Marcus went straight to his full power as he fully transformed his body. "Ultimate Move: Full Wyvern!"
"Heh, a dragon transformation Quirk. As expected of Viserion's son." Princess said with a smirk. "Unfortunately for you, mythology is not on your side."
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Marcus questioned.
"Aren't you familiar with fairy tales?" Princess said. Suddenly, a gust of wind swirled in-between her and Marcus. A second later, an apparition began to materialize from the feet up. Before long, a hollow armored knight was standing tall with a sword in hand. "The knight always protects the princess and slays the dragon in the end."
[Princess. Quirk: Knight. She can create a ghostly knight to fight for her.]
Marcus stood ready to fight. "Bring it on."
Daiki picked himself up off the ground. Cobra's throw had tossed him into a separate room from the others. But before he could get back to help his friends, it was clear that he was going to have to get through the roadblock currently in front of him.
The roadblock being Cobra and Clay.
"You kids must not have a lot of brains if you thought it was a smart idea to storm a villain hideout." Clay said with a smirk as he cracked his knuckles.
"I'm not that worried. We've dealt with villains way more threatening than you small-timers." Daiki said, electricity crackling from his body. "The dumb ones are you guys for kidnapping my little sister."
"The fox girl? Can't really say I see the family resemblance." Cobra said. "Her wailing was really annoying earlier. I would have strangled her to shut her up if the boss hadn't forbade it."
Daiki tensed up as he heard this. His eyes narrowed to a glare. "I suggest you keep your mouth shut."
"Oh? Did that strike a nerve?" Cobra said with a chuckle. "Well how's this sound? We'll beat you within an inch of your life. Then you can watch helplessly as I squeeze the life out of her. I wonder how her screams will sound, hahahahahaha!"
Unable to tolerate Cobra's taunting any longer, Daiki sprang forward. He transformed his fist into electricity, planning to electrocute Cobra and take him out with a single punch. But as he moved in, Clay intercepted him. Daiki swung his fist forward, planning to take Clay down since he was in his way, but to his surprise, just before his punch connected, Clay's fist became covered in stone. As the electric punch connected but did nothing due to the armor, Daiki gasped as he saw a similar substance covering the rest of Clay's body up to his neck. And on top of that, it looked suspiciously similar to the material the floor seemed to be made out of.
"An electric Quirk, eh?" Clay smirked. "Sucks to be you, buddy. You just found your worst matchup."
The next thing Daiki knew, Clay's other fist slammed hard into his gut. Daiki felt the air rush out of his lungs as he was knocked back and sent tumbling along the floor. As he picked himself up off the ground, he saw Clay and Cobra looking confidently at him.
From what Daiki could tell, Clay's Quirk allowed him to cover his body with any material he was touching like armor. Indeed, it was a bad matchup for him since his electricity would have little to no effect. Cobra could still be electrocuted, but between his slippery Quirk and Clay acting as a human shield, his chances of actually hitting him were slim. He needed a plan if he was going to make it through this.
Clay charged at Daiki, swinging punch after punch at him. Daiki managed to dodge each swing skillfully. What Clay had in power and defense, he lacked in speed. But unless he could find a way to break through that defense, this would only turn into a battle of attrition that Daiki knew he couldn't win. As Daiki dodged, he was blindsided by a long right hook from Cobra's stretched out arm.
"Where's all that bravado you had, kiddo?" Cobra asked with a laugh. "I thought you said you were gonna take us down. Seems that was all just a bunch of hot air."
Daiki continued staying on the defensive, dodging attack after attack from Clay. He was wary of Cobra this time however and when the villain tried to attack from behind Clay again, Daiki reacted quickly. He evaded Cobra's punch and grabbed him by the wrist, turning his hand into electricity and shocking him. Unfortunately, this left him open to a punch from Clay, which knocked him onto his back.
"Yeoch!" Cobra exclaimed as he nursed his hurt wrist. "You're gonna pay for that one, punk!"
Daiki tried to attack with his signature Voltage Web move, transforming his arm into electricity to trap Clay. But the muscular villain simply batted it away with his armored arms before the electricity could touch his exposed head.
"Well that didn't work." Daiki muttered to himself. He was quickly running out of options. But he couldn't give up. Not when Jasmine's safety was at stake.
He still remembered finding the beaten little girl out on the streets all those years ago. She seemed practically broken. As if all of the will to live - or do anything at all for that matter - was sucked out of her. Even after his family adopted Jasmine, it had taken a long time for her to fully recover from what had happened. She still didn't remember any of her life from before Daiki had found her, and he didn't want her to remember. She was no longer that little girl on the streets that seemed on the verge of death. She was Jasmine Izumi, his little sister that he would protect with his life.
And he'd be damned if he gave up that role now.
'I haven't had much practice doing this without my costume to help, but I've got no choice.' Daiki thought. He readied himself. It would all come down to this last move. A fierce look of determination burned in his eyes.
"Let's end this already!" Clay said as he charged forward.
Daiki met his opponent head on. As the distance between them closed, Clay swung a punch at him. But just as it was about to connect, Daiki transformed the top half of his body into electricity. Caly gasped as his punch went right through Daiki's body, knocking just his shirt and jacket away. Daiki slid behind Clay, changing the top half of his body back to normal. He placed his hand on Clay's head.
"Tag. You're it."
In an instant, Clay felt a painful surge of electricity course through his body. A couple seconds later, Daiki removed his hand and Clay fell to the ground unconscious. As Daiki watched Clay lie on the ground, he felt Cobra's arms wrap around him. The villain laughed as he squeezed Daiki tightly.
"Hahahahaha, got you now, loser!"
Daiki rolled his eyes in response. "And here I thought your friend was the dumb brute of the group."
Before Cobra could respond, he felt electricity crackle from Daiki's body. He realized his mistake too late however as Daiki shocked him, the electricity flowing through his arms and to the rest of his body. Soon, he collapsed onto the floor just like Clay.
"That was for threatening my sister." Daiki told the two unconscious bodies at his feet.
Ripper laughed wildly as he attacked Sarah with a flurry of slashes from his long nails. The teen girl was forced on the defensive as she desperately tried to dodge slash after slash from him.
"Hahaha, better be careful girlie! One wrong move and I'll turn you into a shishkebab!"
"With your moves, I don't see that happening." Sarah commented.
Sarah continued her consistent efforts in dodging Ripper's slashes. As she evaded another one of Ripper's attacks, and went in for a counter, but just before it could connect her body froze up. It didn't take her long to figure out the cause. Standing in the distance behind Ripper was Mimic, the same person that had kept them frozen and prevented them from stopping Princess's group from kidnapping Emma and Jasmine in the first place. She soon found her body trying to match Mimic's odd pose on its own.
'His Quirk seems to force me to match his movements. Not very threatening on its own, but since he has allies, it can be really dangerous.'
"Heh. Good job, Mimic." Ripper said. He licked his long nails as he slowly walked towards Sarah. "Now then, where should I make you bleed first?"
Sarah grit her teeth as Ripper approached her. "You're not going to get away with this."
"Oh I beg to differ." Ripper chuckled. "I've cut up plenty of people in my life. And I'd still be doing it too, if it hadn't been for that damn Viserion."
"Marcus's dad put you in jail cause you were a villain. You've only got yourself to blame for what happened."
"Well then, let me throw those words right back at you." Ripper said, raising his arm to cut Sarah down. "You've only got yourself to blame for what's about to happen here. Now die!"
At the last second as Ripper's nails came for Sarah, she used her Quirk and warped away, popping over to the side. She tried to see if she could move again, but she was still in the grip of Mimic's Quirk.
Trying a second time, Sarah warped away again, this time appearing behind Mimic. And unlike before, this time she found herself able to move freely again.
"So that's it." Sarah realized as she turned around. "You can make people mimic what you do, but they have to be in your line of sight."
"Look out, Mimic! She's behind you!" Ripper warned.
The mime-like villain gasped as he turned around, but he was too late to use his Quirk on Sarah as her fist slammed into his face. The hit knocked him off his feet and he fell to the ground unconscious.
"One punch is all it took to knock you out? You clearly rely too much on your Quirk." Sarah commented before bringing her attention back to Ripper. "Now then, let's see how well you fare without your partner."
"D-Damnit…" Ripper cursed, stepping back in hesitation. His eyes went to a door in the hallway. "Let's see if you're still acting so cocky, when those brats' lives hang in the balance!"
Kicking off the ground, Ripper sped for the door to make a beeline for the room the hostages were in. However, just as his hand grabbed the knob, Sarah appeared right in front of him with her Quirk. She delivered a painful kick to his head, knocking him away from the door.
"I figured that's where they were. Thanks for confirming it for me." she smirked.
"Grrr… damn you…" Ripper growled as he glared at Sarah. He lunged at her in desperation. "Goddamn you!"
Not flinching for a second, Sarah evaded Ripper's slash as she warped behind him. "As thanks for this whole ordeal, I'll treat you to something special." she said. She swung her leg up, kicking Ripper in the gut and knocking him in the air. As he flew through the air, Sarah warped right next to him and delivered another hit that sent him flying in another direction. She kept this process up, hitting Ripper over and over again, warping to where he was headed as his body helplessly flew around in various directions. She finished it up with one last upwards kick to the gut, knocking him straight up and hitting the ceiling. He hit the ground with a painful thud.
Sarah smirked as she stood over him. "Ultimate move: Blink Barrage. Hope you enjoyed it, villain." After waiting a few seconds to make sure both Ripper and Mimic were out cold, Sarah walked over to the door Ripper had gone for earlier. "Now, let's hope they're here."
As she opened the door, Sarah was greeted by the sight of the trio of girls they were here to save. Emma, Jasmine, and Kione's faces all lit up with relief as they saw Sarah.
"Sis!" Kione exclaimed. "I knew you could beat those villains!"
"As if there was any doubt." Sarah said. "Now come on. Let's get you all out of here."
Marcus charged in with his talons against Princess. However, the knight created from her Quirk proved to be much faster than its heavily armored appearance would suggest. The knight swung its sword at Marcus, who blocked the blade with his talons as he was knocked back.
"Hmph. So this is all the son of the mighty Viserion can muster, is it? How pitiful." Princess smirked.
Marcus winced in pain. He couldn't afford to use Full Wyvern in this setting. They were in an old abandoned building. If he put too much power into his attacks, he could collapse the entire structure on top of them. Not only would that put himself in great danger, it would put the others in danger as well as they did not have any Quirks to protect themselves against such a thing. So he would have to fight with a handicap.
Marcus wasn't sure if Princess controlled her knight directly or if it was able to act somewhat autonomously, but regardless he couldn't get close to Princess so long as it was in the way. He slashed at it with his talons, but the attack seemed to have no effect. After easily shrugging off the teen's attack, the knight shoved its knee into Marcus's gut, making the air rush out of his lungs.
Princess laughed as she watched her knight assault Marcus. "Hahahaha, I never would have imagined how cathartic it would be to beat the son of my most hated enemy to a bloody pulp! This is great!"
"I don't know what your big plan is." Marcus grunted. "But you wouldn't stand a chance against my dad in a fight from what I've seen."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Princess sneered. "See, since escaping prison, I managed to get my hands on a small bit of a drug. Ever heard of Trigger?"
"Trigger?"
"It's a Quirk enhancing drug. Highly illegal, and extremely powerful." Princess explained. "I remember the first time I fought Viserion, back when he showed up to stop a robbery I was in. He tore right through my Quirk like it was nothing." Princess's hands shook with rage as she recalled the event. "But Trigger has boosted my Quirk beyond what I could have imagined. Now my knight is virtually indestructible! An invincible shield that will protect me from whatever anyone throws at me! That means you can't beat me, you brat! Just like your father can't anymore!"
"Then I guess I'm just going to have to prove you wrong." Marcus said.
Marcus charged forward, meeting the knight head on. It became a fast-paced battle between the two, but true to what Princess had said, her knight seemed to be indestructible. It wasn't long before Marcus found himself pushed back and put on the defensive.
"Did you honestly think you stood even the slightest chance at beating me, you little brat?!" Princess laughed. "You're nothing more than a cheap imitation of Viserion! A fake like you is nothing against someone like me!"
Seeing the knight swing its blade again, Marcus desperately guarded against the blow, getting sent flying back and slamming against the wall. He knew he couldn't let this drag on. He needed to end this quickly. But with Princess's seemingly indestructible Quirk, it wasn't going to be easy.
'But even if it isn't easy, that doesn't make it impossible.'
Marcus readied himself for another round. Princess smirked confidently at him. "Still haven't learned your lesson yet, son of Viserion?"
"You're right about one thing. I'm a far cry from my father." Marcus said. "He's a hero many look up to. One who has the complete trust of all sidekicks in his agency. Compared to him, I'm weak." He glared at Princess and took a fighting stance. "However, I'm still more than enough to take a second rate villain like you down."
"Oh is that so?" she said. "I've grown tired of playing with you. So be a good little boy and DIE!"
Marcus watched as the knight came at him, blade ready to cut him down. Marcus met the attack as he kicked off the ground. The distance between the two of them closed quickly. The knight swung its blade down.
However, rather than clashing directly with the knight, Marcus turned his arms back to normal, instead transforming his legs. He used the extra strength they now had to lunge under the knight. With the familiar being in the middle of an attack, it was unable to cut him off in time. Marcus rocketed right towards his true target. Princess herself.
The female villain gasped in shock and disbelief. "What?!"
"Your fighting style shows off your weakness way too much." Marcus said as he moved in. "You rely on your Quirk completely. Which means you aren't experienced fighting directly!"
Transforming his arms once again to bring out his talons, Marcus swung a devastating punch to Princess's face. The blow knocked her off her feet and she hit the ground with a satisfying thud. A second later, the phantom knight evaporated, leaving no trace of it behind.
"One more thing. I'm not just the son of Viserion." Marcus told Princess, knowing she was already unconscious. "I'm the hero-in-training Wyvern Lord."
After double checking to make sure Princess really was out cold, Marcus reverted back to normal and prepared to check on his friends. But just as he was about to, both Sarah and Daiki returned to the room. And with Sarah were all three of their sisters.
Emma ran up to her brother, who embraced her with a tight hug. "Marcus!"
"Emma." Marcus said. "I'm so relieved you're alright."
"Thanks to you." she said. "I knew you would save me Marcus. Because you're my hero."
A soft smile came to Marcus as he heard those words. "Thanks sis."
After restraining Princess and her gang, Marcus and the others called the nearest pro hero agency. Heroes arrived on the scene in minutes and the group explained everything that had happened to them.
Due to the situation, Viserion had been called and briefed on the situation. He hurried to make sure Marcus and Emma were both safe and was relieved to see them relatively unharmed. He scolded Marcus and his friends slightly, but from their explanation for their actions, he was willing to give them some leniency.
Once the situation was fully resolved, Viserion brought the trio of teens back to school. As he parted ways with Marcus, Viserion left him with one final message.
"I'm proud of how much you've grown in such a short time, my son."
Hearing those words made Marcus happier than he could have ever expressed through words. After returning to the dorm, they were briefed on everything they had missed. There was no time for them to relax. After all, they still had the School Festival coming up right around the corner.
It wasn't easy finishing everything up within the coming weeks. But with all of their effort pooled together, Class 1-C had managed to get everything for their event set up in time. Now all that remained was to see if their idea inspired by Fujino would work.
And they wouldn't have to wait long to find out, as the School Festival came just a few days later.
It wasn't as big as past years, as only students and staff were allowed to attend, with the exception of a few special guests. Class C wasted no time in handing out stamp cards to everyone that came by. Things were slow at first, but once people went around to some of the various attractions, such as Class A's concert and Class B's play, more and more people started coming to Class C to enjoy the various festival attractions such as the dunk tank and whatnot.
It turned out to be a big hit. Despite its simplicity, or perhaps because of it, everyone was able to kick back, relax, and enjoy themselves. Even the students that had been showing disdain for the hero course were seeming to have a fun time.
And then later on came another big attraction. The beauty pageant.
All of the hours of practice Fiona and Dan had put in had been worth it. When it came time for Fiona's turn, everyone in the crowd was dazzled by her graceful swimming. The special dress she had gotten tailored for the occasion also helped people keep their eyes on her as she seemed to be like a mermaid swimming through the ocean. And of course, no one could resist showing a smile with how much fun Fiona seemed to be having.
With the beauty pageant happening in the middle of the afternoon, it was one of the final events of the day. Unfortunately, Fiona had failed to win first place, the top spot going to Nejire for her stunning fairy-like performance. But she was still glad that she entered. With how stressful the past few months had been for her and her classmates, being able to focus her mind on the festival and the pageant was a welcome change of pace.
As the end of the festival came, and people began taking everything down however, Fiona felt a hand tap on her shoulder. She turned around to find Alicia standing behind her.
"Can we talk?" Alicia asked.
Fiona nodded her head. "Sure, I guess."
The two girls walked over to a quiet corner of campus where no one else was around to disturb them. Fiona couldn't help but be confused as to why Alicia had called her out here. Had she done something to upset her? She couldn't think of any such incidents among her recent memories.
But Fiona found herself surprised when Alicia bowed her head to Fiona. "I'm sorry!"
Fiona blinked her eyes in confusion. "Huh?"
"These past few weeks, I've been avoiding you a lot." Alicia explained. "I think it had to do with you entering the beauty pageant. I didn't mind it at first, but whenever I saw you practicing your routine with Dan, I couldn't help but feel jealous. I don't really understand why, but that was the emotion that always came to me when I saw it. I thought I had conquered my feelings about my looks, but I think seeing you and how beautiful you were when swimming made me think why it couldn't be me representing the class instead of you. And those feelings… made me think some very bad things about you."
"Alicia…"
"I'm so sorry. I swear I didn't mean to. You've been such a good friend to me. And yet I… I…" Tears formed in Alicia's eyes. "I hate how much I was hating you. I'm sorry."
Fiona let out a sigh. "That's what this was all about? Seriously?" Fiona shook her head. "Alicia, I think I understand the real reason you were feeling jealous."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Come on, isn't it obvious?" she said. "You said those jealous feelings came when I was practicing my routine, right? But I wasn't the only one who was a part of my routine."
"I don't understand. What is it you're trying to say?"
"Do I really have to spell it out for you?" Fiona asked. "Alicia… I think you like Dan."
"Well sure. Of course I do. I mean we're friends and all."
"No, not that kind of like." Fiona said. "I mean like like."
Fiona's implication slowly dawned on Alicia as her cheeks gradually turned red. "Wh-Wha?!"
"Don't act so surprised. It's kind of obvious." Fiona told her. "I think it was all the time I was spending with him that was making you jealous."
"B-But I… I m-mean I… Uh…"
Fiona let out a giggle as she placed a shoulder on Alicia's shoulder. "Anyways, you don't have to worry about me in that regard. Dan's a fun guy and all, but I'm not interested in him that way." she said with a carefree smile. She leaned in and whispered into Alicia's ear. "Good luck though, Alicia. I'm rooting for you."
Alicia was left stunned as Fiona walked away and back to where the rest of their class was. Her entire head was a maze of thoughts right now. This talk had supposed to be her chance to confess things after feeling that she had finally figured everything out.
But now she felt more confused than ever.
A/N: Well readers, that's the finale to the School Festival mini-arc. Hope you all enjoyed it. Next chapter will be moving right along to the next arc. Look forward to it.
