Riley Ross-Chapter 79: Danger Zones

"What... was that all about, Riley?"

Several minutes after Riley made his presence completely known to the public, the Baby Crew and the rest of Class 1-V were now on the bus, riding through the city while the people outside on the streets were trying to snap photos of them.

Unfortunately for the people outside, the buses they were riding might look like normal buses, but every photo they took would only show the reflection of the windows. Of course, the bus was also bullet-proof, fire-proof, shock-proof, and any other proof you could think of as long as it served to protect the students inside.

As much as Mega Academy or anyone wants to think that the students were safe—the truth is, nowhere and no one is safe.

They weren’t even safe inside.

From me.

The Baby Crew were at the back of the bus, with Hannah making sure Riley was sitting in the middle as he always wanted to see what was ahead whenever they traveled. But of course, he was also in the middle as everyone was curious as to why he did what he did.

"What... did you say to Steph’s mother?"

It wasn’t only the Baby Crew, everyone’s ears were pointing at Riley. The students who were at the front were even pretending to stretch their backs just so they could see the back—even the bus driver was looking at the mirror from time to time.

As for Riley, well—

Why am I getting this much attention? I understood why earlier since I approached and talked to Stephanie’s mother, but that was already over. I did that to stop Stephanie’s mother from trying to dig in deeper, but it would seem I might have attracted... something else.

Riley was trying to focus on the road ahead, but the stares of his classmates were too intense and too obvious for him not to notice.

He looked at Hannah, and she and the others were staring at him too. And so, Riley did not really have any other choice but to stray his focus away from the road and place it on her and the others.

"I said a lot of things to Stephanie’s mother, Sister." He sighed, "But I suppose the main subject matter I talked to her about is how sorry I am for Stephanie’s death."

"That’s... why?"

Hannah narrowed her eyes, not really knowing what to feel at her brother’s words.

"Because I am responsible for her death, Sister. If we had not met her when we did, then she would still be alive."

"Riley..." Hannah sighed, slightly groaning as she looked at the other Baby Crew as if quietly asking for help on what to say. But alas, they all just shrugged.

Bella raised an eyebrow at her. Gracey was just confused. Pauline nodded to her. Victoria was also confused. Tomoe was... well, Tomoe.

And so, Hannah just scooched forward on her seat and faced Riley, gently holding his hand while looking him in the eyes.

"...Ugh. This isn’t the time or place to have this talk but... ugh. Mom should be the one doing this. But Riley... people—people die all the time. I know that this might be the first time—"

"Sister, we saw someone die right in front of us when we were on our way to Mega Academy during the entrance examination."

"Oh."

"And my biological mother also died within close proximity of me.

"Right."

"Ryan—"

"Okay, enough. Enough. We know, we know. You’ve experienced death a couple of times," Hannah pinched Riley’s nose through his holographic mask, shaking it while pouting at him, "Why would you even—"

"Wait a minute..."

And before Hannah could continue her already failed "big sister talk", Gracey interrupted the conversation, pushing Victoria and Tomoe away as she leaned forward to look at Riley.

It was weird—the Baby Crew, that is. There were two empty bench seats in front of them, and yet they chose to sit altogether in a line at the back-most seat like they were trying to fit themselves in a jam-packed Filipino commuter bus.

And it didn’t help at all that Gracey was only turning fifteen, and she already stood almost six feet.

"...You guys didn’t tell us the two of you aren’t related by blood?" She gasped.

"Huh?" And Hannah quickly raised an eyebrow at her, "I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it like a gazillion times. You just forgot."

Gracey narrowed her eyes at her, before shaking her head and pointing at Riley.

"It doesn’t matter. But what matters is who your real mom is! Who is it?!"

"Ayo!" Bella pushed Gracey back, causing Tomoe and Victoria to also lean back, "That kinda tea don’t come cheap, okay?! We need some of that equivalent exchange... like why you really out here dressin’ up like a whole ass ni—"

"Guys, I need you all to focus on me a bit."

Katherine cut the Baby Crew’s conversation off as she stood up from her seat.

"Guys, I said eyes up here, not on the local celebrity," Katherine clapped, releasing a burst of wind from her palms which caused all the students’ heads to forcefully turn toward her, "Okay. Alright? Focus. What I’m about to say is very important."

Some were still a little hesitant as they still wanted to listen to whatever Riley had to say, but since Riley was now also focusing on Katherine, the only thing they could all really do was focus on her—only the driver was looking somewhere else as he finally resisted looking at Riley.

"Okay...?" Katherine snapped her fingers to make sure that everyone was looking at her, "In about several hours, we will be entering a Danger Zone. Does anyone know what a Danger Zone is?"

Everyone looked at each other at her question, their eyes and eyebrows narrowing as if asking each other who didn’t know that fact.

Because—who doesn’t?

"It wasn’t a rhetorical question. I want someone to answer me," Katherine sighed as she raised her hand. And at the same time she did, Riley also raised his.

"...Of course," Katherine sighed, "Little Bunny."

"Danger zones are areas with high frequencies of monster activity, Ms. Katherine," he answered, "Although the government and most superheroes have tried to secure the said areas, they have deemed it uneconomical and wasteful to do so as monster activity remains high."

"That is correct," Katherine nodded,

"The monsters, wherever they may come from—from botched experiments, underground, from the ocean, from space rocks, one way or another they will always find a way to terrorize people. Even with the growing number of heroes we have now, and even with the help of the military, the most we could really do is push them aside. So, just fair warning to all of you—although highly unlikely, once we enter the Danger Zone, something might happen, and this is not me trying to scare you."

Of course, she had full intention of scaring these people younger than her. Her senior before her also did this back when she was a freshman—it was practically tradition. She was able to scare most of the students on the bus. But of course, Riley already had his hand raised.

"Yes, Mr. Riley?"

"Most Danger Zones are at the far edges of the countryside away from major cities and the middle of the states, Ms. Katherine." He stood up when she pointed at him, "Why would there be a Danger Zone when we are moving across major cities?"

"Hah!" Katherine jabbed her finger toward him, "So, there are some things you don’t know of. Well then, freshie, that’s because of Ms. Phoenix. She leveled a large part of Ohio that most of it has become unlivable—there are still a lot of people trying to live there, but they are... well, you’ll understand. How many here have been to or traveled to the Phoenix Wrath memorial before?"

Katherine glanced at all the students, but none of them raised their hands.

"Uhm... my parents say that I shouldn’t go there because I’m a super."

"Well..." Katherine sighed while shaking her head, "They kinda have a point. But you’ll see. I want all of you to prepare for what’s about to happen there—because while yes, you will have some free time and you might even enjoy them a lot... but you have to remember that there’s a reason why Mega Academy is taking you all there. But enough me yapping...."

Katherine drummed her palms on her seat as she sat back down. She then leaned to the side, glancing at Riley and the rest of the Baby Crew and winking at them,

"I suggest you guys rest up...

...You’ll need it."

***

"It’s him. It’s really him!" And while the freshmen of Mega Academy were about to go on their first live adventure, in a dark corner of a room somewhere, someone was hugging a television. His eyes, almost stuck onto the pixels in front of him with the way he ogled and stared at Riley’s image on the screen.

The man lightly slammed his arm on the TV, literally—he had no hand and a forearm.

"Where are you going, huh? Why... why are people praising you?! They don’t know what you’ve done. I’ll show them...

...I’ll show them all!"

Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om