VILLAIN'S RISING

“Arhhhhhaa! Nooohhhaaa!”

Agonizing screams of a girl filled up the abandoned house while Sam simply stood there with an expressionless face.

It was actually Sam’s clone, and he just started the transformation process for Kiara as per Sam’s orders.

“Can’t believe it. We’re actually going with it.” The clone muttered to himself underneath his breath.

Although he wasn’t comfortable seeing Kiara in pain like that, he didn’t dare to raise his discomfort against his original.

Clones made by Sam will always be loyal to him. That’s how they were programmed. They’ll have a similar personality to his but would be leaning more towards the submissive side.

And, of course, they would also always be weaker than the original. Since Sam created them, he could destroy them with a single thought.

They couldn’t even resist since their abilities stem from him.

“Haa,” the clone Sam sighed and shook his head. “Sorry, Kiara. I really would’ve given you death over this.”

“Arghhhhaaha! Stopphh! Please stoppp!” Kiara couldn’t even listen to what the clone was saying as she kept screaming in pain in a beast-like voice.

“Well, at least for the first time, you’ll be of some use to us.” He shrugged before walking up to the fridge. He took out a pudding and started eating it.

A clone’s life was short. Sam could send him to be his bait or distraction anytime. He was going to at least enjoy his life till then.

And what better way to enjoy the moment while seeing someone suffer with a snack in your hands?

While this was going on in the living room upstairs, down in the basement was a very different scene on display.

Several clones of Sam were busy working on something with their lab suits on._.

In the middle of the basement was Rebekah’s body. Her naked body was submerged inside a glass container that was filled with a transparent green liquid.

Her body looked frailer than ever before, and she was wearing an oxygen mask on her face.

Sam was standing right in front of the glass container, gazing at her. Wondering about the alien race she and her family belonged to.

This was the only question that seemed to be on his mind nowadays since he had already figured out every other mystery surrounding the Willburns except this.

“Her heart rate is increasing again! She’s waking up!” Right then, one of the clones who was monitoring her vitals alerted everyone.

“She’s adapting to the toxin!” One of the clones reported from the sides. “Deploy Halothane gas from the oxygen mask!”

“We’ve already used that,” calmly replying to the clone on his right was the original Sam’s voice. “Deploy Novichok instead.”

“Yes, sir!” The clone immediately obliged and fulfilled his instructions without any delay.

“Haaa,” Sam sighed at that moment. “She’s even adapting faster than the last time.”

“On the bright side, we still have like, two days’ worth of new toxins left to subdue her.” Lucas, who was standing a few steps behind Sam, shrugged.

“That’s not a bright side. I’m only making her stronger,” Sam shook his head. “We will leave for the city of Angels, Los Angeles, tomorrow.”

“For the Dragons?” Shooting an obvious question, Lucas followed up with another question. “They might have expected it, sire. Are we still going to do it?”

“We don’t have much choice. At the rate this city is being searched, we will be discovered in a matter of days.” Sam responded.

“Laying low is still a viable tactic, sire,” Lucas suggested.

His suggestion wasn’t wrong. However, it sure as hell was risky. Doing nothing and hoping not to get caught is almost admitting your defeat for the time being.

Even if Sam were to come to terms with the latter, he would never agree to do the former.

His pride wouldn’t allow him to sit ideally and lay low. Not to mention how many risks it involved.

“It is,” Sam acknowledged. “But it is not suitable for us. We aren’t just any Villain group that could pull off a hit and run tactic.”

Taking a pause, Sam resumed. “Now that we have revealed our identity, every Hero in this world is out for us. If we stay still or stay low, we will be found out.”

Lucas wanted to refute, but Sam’s reasoning wasn’t wrong either. With every Hero out to get them, it was only a matter of time till they got discovered.

They couldn’t pull a hit and run because they were outnumbered. They had nowhere to run.

They would just have to keep hitting and keep hitting hard.

“As you wish, sire. Should I alert the others now?” Lucas asked with a fist pressed to his chest.

“Yes, do it. We’ll be hitting Los Angeles with full force.” Sam ordered. His eyes were still fixed on Rebekah’s body.

The thing that has been on Sam’s mind for the past few days was, what if he could turn an actual Willburn into a Demon?

Just a string of their DNA can enhance his mutated army considerably, so what if he mutates the source itself?!

However, that was impossible since his ability doesn’t work on Willburns.

Even after he studied their biology, they remained ineffective to his ability.

“Haaa,” heaving a short sigh, Sam cleared his head. It doesn’t matter now. He has come so far. There was just no way he was going to lose.

(Do not worry, Sam. Do as I say, and this victory is ours)

No matter how much annoying this voice in his head gets from time to time, Sam always knew he could count on it.

When no one was there for him, no one was there to support him; this voice was with him.

“I know,” Sam nodded in assurance. “We will win.”

*

“What?!” Anthony displayed his surprise. “Sam?! Are you sure?!”

“Yes,” Arthur confirmed. “So you did know him. I wonder, how did he avoid any suspicions from you?”

Anthony fell silent at those words.

Anthony wanted to roll in the academy for two reasons.

He wanted to experience everyday teen life, and he wanted to get the Hero license.

Without a Hero license, no matter how strong one is, one would never be considered a true Hero.

In fact, several laws bound individuals with abilities to use their powers.

Initially, Starsuper discarded these laws as trivial rules.

However, when Anthony couldn’t handle the bomb situation at a certain middle school, Starsuper eventually concluded that sending him to the Hero Academy might be for the best.

That’s when ‘incidents’ started happening in Academy City. A city that, in the past, was claimed to be the safest city on Earth.

So Anthony has then appointed a new mission. That was to stay in the city and unravel the identity of the criminal that was accountable for the past crimes.

So at first, Anthony was suspicious of many students. One of them was Samael Gracefell due to his background.

However, after interacting with him from time to time, he quickly discarded the possibility of him being a criminal.

Sure, he was a little cold and gave off mysterious vibes, but Anthony could tell he was a kind person at heart.

How did he misjudge him so severely? How was he not able to see through his act?!

“A-Are you sure, dad?” Anthony asked while desperately trying his voice to break or stutter.

Seeing this change of character, Starsuper quickly realized that Sam was someone close to his son.

But he still didn’t hold back. Anthony deserved to know the truth.

“Yes, he revealed himself, and he turned almost every first-year in the academy into Demons,” Starsuper replied.

Before Anthony, in his disbelief, could answer back with another question, Eve spoke up.

“About that, last time we checked in the records, it stated that the Progenitor needed at least four to five hours for turning a single person into a Demon. How was he so quick to turn all of them then?”

Nodding at that question, Starsuper replied, “It’s probably because our DNA must’ve enhanced the speed of transformation.”

“He can’t control your biology, though, can he?” Eve frowned.

“No, but our body composition is unique. Our building blocks, or DNA, are more of an energy code than inherit genetic codes.” Starsuper explained without hiding anything.

“Yaaa, you lost me, bud.” Eve replied with a blank face.

“Haa,” with a slight facepalm sigh, Starsuper proceeded to explain in simple words. “Do you ever wonder how we can not die? Even immortal people will die at some point if you keep killing them. Since body creation and regeneration needs energy.

“And energy can’t be created. It can only be transferred. That’s common knowledge. That means immortals will die too when they exhaust their energy source.

“But like every other rule, this rule has an exception too. The exception to this rule is my existence.” Starsuper concluded.

Eve, with a stupefied expression on his face, opened his mouth. “Wait, does that mean-“

“Yes, we can literally generate energy. We can use that energy to keep on regenerating forever. So unless you literally erase our existence, we can not die.”

Those words dropped like a bomb on Eve. It was his first time hearing something like this. However, soon dark lines took over his forehead.

“If I remember correctly, three people came to Earth from your planet, right?” Eve questioned.

Starsuper knew that wasn’t what he was asking. His question hinted at something else.

Three people indeed came to Earth from Starsuper’s home planet. But if that was the case, then how did two of them die if they can’t be killed?

“You get it now. That’s why we need to stop the Progenitor. His real power isn’t Biology Manipulation. Once he gets his limiters off, we will be killed… We will be defeated.”