Riley Ross-Chapter 81: My Bad

"And perhaps one day, hundreds of years from now, they would scatter and be swallowed by the ground, and that way... the hands that were meant to hold them finally could."

"Why... do you always seem to have the best lines?"

Gracey truly wanted to read some of the letters that were scattered near the monument, but upon hearing the last of Riley’s words, her hands that were still trying to reach for them slowly retracted and hid behind her pockets.

"Is... is that included in being on the spectrum?"

"I do not think so, Gray. But perhaps you would know that since you are also on the spectrum?"

"For the last time, I am not on the—"

Before Gracey could defend herself from the absurd accusation, a voice suddenly resounded from above them. All the students quickly turned their heads to the sky, only to see a bright and white silhouette descending near them. And as soon as they realized who it was, they all started clamoring and looking at each other, pointing at the man in the sky.

"It’s... Whiteking!"

"This is the first time i’m seeing him! Which... is kinda weird since he’s supposed to be an instructor at our school!"

"W-Whiteking! Don’t... don’t let whatever they’re saying get to you! We believe you!"

The rays of the sun shone across Whiteking’s helmet like a cloud of smoke, literally. It scattered around him, distorting the air within his reach, and almost made it seem like he was invisible—but everyone knew he was there.

He slowly descended in front of all of them, his left foot landing first and creating no noise at all despite how heavy and solid the armor looked. Everyone even went silent, and even then, not even a single whisper or hiss escaped from his armor.

The students started to become nervous when he started to walk without saying anything, and the only thing they were getting from him was the pulsing streak of lights that lined his armor. Even Bella, Pauline, and Gracey were holding their breaths, as this was the first time they were seeing a superhero that was currently in the top 5 in the Hero rankings in the flesh.

V, who already knew Whiteking’s identity and was close to him, only smiled as he passed by them. As for Tomoe, she also glanced at him for a moment before looking away—out of all the members of the Baby Crew, after all, she was probably Whiteking’s biggest fan.

She knew. She knew that if she so much as looked at him with even the slightest of micro-expressions, he would know that she was hiding something... dark. She might even figure out that she knew his real identity.

That was how abnormally intelligent Bernard-slash-Whiteking was to her.

As for Riley and Hannah, well, Hannah was just rolling her eyes out. As for Riley, he was the first to break the silence by clapping his hands.

The others followed suit after that, clapping for Whiteking until he finally stopped walking and extended his palm to all of them.

...And still said nothing.

It wasn’t until one of them was about to say something did he finally spoke.

"I know all of you are tired from traveling hours, only to stop in the middle of nowhere."

There was something obviously synthetic about his voice, and the way it echoed caused some of the students to tilt their heads. His voice wasn’t uncomfortable, but it also made them feel... awkward for some reason.

As if their minds were trying to automatically recognize the voice, but failing to do so.

"But I want all of you to remember that this nowhere was once filled with people like you. Some of them were even younger than you are—and the truth is, you might be stepping on someone’s corpse right now."

Those words quickly caused all the students to slightly raise their feet, with most subconsciously grabbing onto the people beside them as they imagined actually stepping on someone. The only one who didn’t really react was Riley, who even looked and slightly curled his toes in his shoes.

"It’s good that that makes you uncomfortable," Whiteking nodded as he saw the disgruntled look on everyone’s faces, "Because it should, you are standing on the largest graveyard on the entire planet. Throughout the years, the number of people who died here have been obscured—even the names on that list have faded away."

Whiteking pointed at the colossal monument.

"So, I would remind you—the real number of the people who died here is 9,243,116. All those lives lost in an instant. And this was done by someone who I considered one of my closest friends."

Whiteking started walking again, this time stopping right in front of the Baby Crew but not looking at them directly.

"After this tragic accident, Ms. Phoenix turned from one of the most beloved superheroes in the world to one of its worst villains, and that’s right—I am calling it an accident. An accident that could have very well been prevented. It didn’t have to happen, but it did. And I am saying this in record now, I am as guilty as Ms. Phoenix...

...I am guilty because I didn’t see. I didn’t see that she was facing a nemesis that was so strong and evil that it attacked her from the inside out."

Whiteking went quiet for a few seconds, subtly looking down at his children before turning around to continue his speech.

"She was attacked by her illness. Now, what sort of friend was I, were we... that we couldn’t see it? Because I firmly believe, even now, that the only ones who could have stopped this from happening were us—her friends. It was her own battles, yes. But we could have joined the war and at least gave her the chance to win. Because no matter how strong you are, no matter how god-like you think you are...

...you can’t do it alone."

Whiteking raised his hand, and a long white cape suddenly flew out from the back of his shoulders. And almost as if on cue, a huge blast of wind blew across the flat desert of nothing and caused his white cape to dance wildly in the air.

"And you’re not alone," Whiteking said, his head glancing at each of the students, "That is what Mega Academy is. Yes, you can be scared to show who you are to the world. Yes, you can be afraid of what you could do. Yes, you can feel different. Yes, you can feel alone—you are allowed to do all of that. You are allowed to be that. But I want all of you to know that you can do all of that with your friends. You can be scared, hesitant, different, and even alone. You can do that with your friends too."

The students became even quieter as Whiteking’s speech came to an end. Gracey was crying again, but Hannah quickly pulled out a bag of napkins and immediately gave it to her so that her makeup wouldn’t smudge.

Everyone was inspired by Whiteking’s words, having different effects on different students.

Victoria and Tomoe, however, narrowed their eyes as they both stared at Riley. They finally realized where Riley’s flair of suddenly becoming poetic out of nowhere came from. The only one that wasn’t really impressed was Hannah, as she knew how different his father was to his public persona.

"Now..."

Whiteking then placed his hands on his back and stood up straight,

"Do you know what else you can do with your friends?"

Everyone’s eyes lit up as they looked at Whiteking, expecting more wise words to come out of him. Contrary to their expectations, however, the only things that came out of him was a pair of brooms when he removed his hands from his back.

"Cleaning," he said.

"You can clean with your friends."

"...Huh?"

And so, the official annual visit of Mega Academy to Phoenix’s Wrath has officially begun.

"Seriously...?"

Yes, their goal was to clean the monument and its surrounding area.

***

"Man, this some bullshit."

"Pick that shit up."

"Yes, Ma’am."

Not even ten minutes have passed, and Bella threw the broom she was holding on the smooth ground. But of course, she quickly picked it up as soon as Katherine pointed at her.

"Man, this some straight-up bullshit," she repeated, this time only within the ears of the Baby Crew, "I’m already doin’ chores at home, and now y’all got me doin’ chores here too? I thought we was supposed to be fightin’ monsters and shit, not takin’ out somebody else’s trash."

"Girl, relax."

"What you mean relax?" Bella rolled her eyes at Hannah, "Girl, you saw my brother sittin’ there all smug just ’cause he on food duty? He chillin’ while we breakin’ our backs out here! And what’s up with all this trash? I thought ain’t nobody livin’ here no more but some dead people!"

"There... are," Pauline joined in on the conversation, her glasses already clouded with dust and completely covering his eyes, "I heard that there’s like some sort of settlement not far from here?"

"Then why we the ones cleanin’, huh?!"

"I... kinda agree with you." Victoria raised her hand.

"Thank you, someone with some sense!"

"I also agree with you," Gracey sighed, "We need to be seeing some action here. Like, if this was a novel, nothing’s been happening for the past few Chapters and the people would start dropping it."

"Girl, what you even on about? But yes, we do need some excite—"

BOOM!

"Uh..."

Bella blinked a couple of times as a sudden explosion thundered in the distance in front of them. The mushroom of smoke, quickly creeping into the clouds and covering the sky in darkness.

"...My bad, guys. My bad. I ain’t wish for that."

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