Chapter 31: Radiance Is Here
Zero slowly broke away from the crowd and made his way towards one of the buildings, one that seemed to lead into the maintenance building.
According to the comics, this was the building that houses Dr. Crew’s lab, a character that was important to the splinters, after all, he was the one who made them dangerous.
And if the events happening so far were anything to go by, then today was the first step to that.
Unfortunately, though, he couldn’t stop that event from progressing since the two splinters that held the amusement park hostage had ensured that the rest of the Factor boosting tech was sent back to their base.
Not that he had any intention to stop the events of the comics anyway.....not unless it was a necessary step in getting closer to Radiance or the events directly put his siblings in danger.
Unfortunately for the splinters, their current attack just happened to interfere with Zero’s time with Radiance and his siblings.
So he had no choice but to interfere.
Zero walked into the building with both hands in his pockets, but he suddenly stopped when he heard the sound of talking.
Fortunately, the maintenance building had a lot of stuff that provided the right amount of cover for him, so he took advantage of that.
***
"Do you think the HA will take us seriously this time?" One of the splinter henchmen spoke.
The two were currently standing directly in front of a door that seemed to be an elevator door.
"Perhaps," the other henchman said, "but in the end, they’ll probably just dispatch a Gamma or Beta-ranked hero to deal with this."
The first henchman chuckled as he looked at the man to his left before asking, "You think the HA cares enough to send a Beta-ranked hero?"
"Well, they still have an image to uphold," the second replied, "especially since the bosses have summoned the media."
"Either way," the first turned back forward, "with the tech Hypnos currently has, I doubt any hero below Beta rank will be able to resist his control."
The second man didn’t say anything in response, but it was obvious enough that he agreed.
The two silently continued looking ahead when the second man suddenly felt a slight sting on his neck.
"The hell," he muttered as he moved his hand towards the spot.
He grabbed whatever was the cause of the sting, brought it towards his face and immediately identified it as a dart.
"Huh?"
Was all he could let out as his vision suddenly darkened, causing him to immediately fall forward, completely knocked out.
"Hey, what’s —" he didn’t get to finish his words before he also felt a sting to the neck, and he immediately fell forward.
A second later, Zero walked out of his hiding spot and calmly walked towards the elevator, paying no mind to the two unconscious men.
The elevator door opened to let him in and immediately closed behind him as he leaned on the wall.
[Ah, just in time,] Hypnos’ voice came again, resounding in the entire amusement park.
Zero calmly continued leaning on the elevator wall as he listened to the villain speak.
[It seems our guests from the media have arrived,] he continued, his tone still sounding pleasant and unhurried, [welcome, welcome. I do hope your cameras are ready, because what you’re about to witness is history.]
***
Outside the maintenance building and just above the amusement park was the helicopter of the invited news station.
They were floating above the amusement park, confused as they watched the people walk like zombies, making their way towards the plaza.
{Breaking news,} the reporter suddenly lifted her mic and looked into the camera with a blank expression, {the former Delta-ranked villain group are now holding the Arcadia World hostage.}
{They demand that the HA listen to and fulfill their demands within two hours, or someone dies every thirty minutes.} The woman paused and, with a blank expression, gestured towards the Ferris wheel, {observe.}
The camera slowly panned to the top of the Ferris wheel, where a man with a completely blank expression was standing.
The door of the cabin he was in was wide open, and the man was standing right at the edge.
The next second, a command suddenly came from the park’s speakers,
[Jump.]
The viewers watched in horror as the man, without the slightest bit of hesitation, stepped out of the cabin, and gravity immediately took hold of him.
His body continued plummeting towards the ground, and the cameraman, also under Hypnos’ mind control, zoomed in on the body.
But right before the man’s body could reach the ground, he suddenly disappeared.... completely.
There was no splat or anything; he just disappeared.
The entire park went silent, with only the sound of the helicopter blades being heard as most watched in confusion.
Erode, who was responsible for the initial explosion and was on the lookout for any hero that the HA might send, also looked towards the Ferris wheel in confusion.
As far as she could tell, no hero had made their way into the Park, so what the hell was going on?
Before she had the chance to ask, though, a voice suddenly came from above, causing her to look up.
"Why would you put normal civilians in danger if you intend to have a civil conversation?"
Erode suddenly smiled as she noticed the man who was previously falling into the hands of a hero with a white and gold costume.
"My my," She started, "I knew the HA would send someone, but I didn’t think we were important enough for them to send the Beta-ranked hero, Radiance."
Radiance looked down at the villain who had spoken with a frown on her face.
From the pragma she sensed, the Villainess before her was nothing but a Gamma-ranked....the problem was the gloves she wore.
Radiance didn’t know what they did, but she was certain that they weren’t only for decoration.
"Tell your partner to release all these people, and I’ll act as your bargaining chip against the HA," she offered, looking directly at Erode.
While invisible, she had managed to tag most of the people here, but for some reason, she couldn’t find Liam or his siblings, and she had to ensure they were safe before attempting anything rash.
Besides, the tag on these people would take a while to activate, so she somehow had to buy time.
"Quite the offer, Radiance," Erode said before taking a stance that made it very clear that she wasn’t going to accept,
"But first, I want to see how well these babies fare against a Beta-ranked hero."
===
A/N: I’m sure most of you want to know how much of a baddie Radiance is...Well, fret not, I will try generating a couple of images for her and all our other characters.
But.....
Members of the discord will get first view of all the character images and they’ll get to vote their favorites, which will be what the rest of you will see, so join the discord if you want to be part of the voting. (Link in my profile and Author’s thoughts)
PS: I’m writing this here because basically no one reads the author thoughts, but don’t worry, this Chapter is well over 1.1k (without the author’s note).
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