Where Were You?

“Inversion, look over here!” A shaggy looking, grey haired man told Inversion.

Inversion turned around, to see the man, who went by the name of Snapshot, Ace Detective, pointing at a blood spatter on the ground.

“One of ours?” Inversion grunted.

Snapshot kneeled down and brought his face close to the dried up blood, then took a big sniff. He shook his head.

“This one seems to be from before the heroes arrived here.” He said confidently.

“A boy,” he sniffed again, “around 14, maybe 15 years old.”

Inversion grunted and walked over to the wall near the blood.

“Claw marks.” He said.

“Yeah, I noticed them too,” Snapshot replied, “something big was here last night. Something very big.”

He noted down something on his notepad.

“You see anything like that?” Snapshot asked Inversion.

Inversion shook his head slowly.

“Not the kind of monster that would leave these.” He mumbled, feeling the claw marks with his hand.

“That boy you mentioned. Where could he have gone?”

“Hard to say,” Snapshot replied, “The trail leads to over there though.”

He pointed to a room, filled with policemen. The room where two bodies were found. Inversion gritted his teeth when looking in its direction.

“We’ll get them,” Snapshot said cheerfully, having seen the look on Inversions face, “I’ve never not solved a case.”

He tapped his pen confidently in the middle of his forehead.

“Shall we, then?”

They walked up to the room the King’s Sapphire was in, before it had been stolen the night before. It was now populated by some more policemen, and a few heroes helping in the investigation.

“This was found on the pedestal, sir.” A young officer said, handing Inversion a card, when he noticed him entering.

“Floodstorm, The Monster, 100-Metre Dash Man, and Duplex send their regards.” Inversion read out.

He crumbled up the card angrily and threw it on the ground.

“We could’ve used that as evidence.” Snapshot said, looking at the card sombrely.

Inversion grunted and walked off.

“You’re no fun to work with, you know that?” Snapshot called after him.

It seems Inversion intentionally ignored the comment.

“What’s gotten you so grumpy anyways?”

Inversion walked over to the molten holes in the floor, continuing to ignore Snapshot.

“What do you think could’ve done this?” He asked curiously. “Heat power, maybe?”

Snapshot shook his head.

“No, this is something else.” He said, contemplating.

He pointed at the edges of the holes.

“The cut-off is too clean, you see? If it were just molten, it would look different” He pointed out intelligently.

“Also, the shattered glass,” he pointed to the broken case, “heat couldn’t have done that.”

“Couldn’t have been a gadget?” Inversion asked.

Snapshot shook his head once again.

“The way it shattered indicates it was hit by a decent sized projectile.” He said, gesturing at the glass.

“Yet, there was no projectile to be found, right?”

Inversion merely scoffed.

“Either way, you were there, weren’t you? What’re you asking me for?” Snapshot chuckled.

Inversion gave him a stern look, upon which Snapshot begrudgingly stopped his laughter.

“I didn’t see him make this hole.” Inversion snarled grumpily.

He walked back over to the glass and grabbed a shard off the ground, inspecting it carefully.

“That villain,” he said slowly, “Duplex.”

He turned around to face Snapshot.

“I want him detained. Find out who he is.” He demanded.

“That’ll be rather difficult.” Snapshot deftly responded. “We have no previous record of him, or the other villains that were here last night. Most likely students of the portable school.”

“Then it is the school, we’ll find.” Inversion said sinisterly.

Kaden sprinted home, as fast as he could, then burst open the doors, when he arrived at his house.

“Where’s dad?!” He shouted out, the moment he set a foot inside.

Rowena, who was sitting at the table, bent over a bunch of paperwork, rose up in shock.

“K-Kaden, what are you–” She stammered.

“Mom!” He said, jogging over to here. “Where is dad?”

“He’s out working.” She said confusedly. “I just got back myself. What’s going on?”

Kaden slumped down into the chair opposite her and put his head in his hands.

“Why? What happened?” She said panicked.

“T-The news…” Kaden stammered worriedly.

Rowena let out a slow sigh and put her hand on Kaden’s shoulder.

“Is this about those robberies?” She asked carefully.

Kaden gave her a small nod.

“Yeah, the council received a tip that there would be several planned heists that night.” She recounted. “We were only sure of one place however, being the museum.”

Kaden gulped nervously, but Rowena did not seem to notice. How would the council know that?

“Axel had been assigned to lead the investigation there. I had offered myself, but they seemed to think I was suited better elsewhere. We work best together, as I told them, but they insisted on splitting us up for some reason.”

Kaden noticed she had a slight tone of bitterness in the last part of her sentence.

“So dad is–”

“Fine, I told you he was working.” Rowena interrupted Kaden’s question.

Rowena turned her gaze upwards a bit.

“Tragic, about those heroes. The ones that didn’t make it.” She said sombrely.

“I didn’t know them well. Only worked with them a few times, but they were good people.”

Then she looked at Kaden like she just realised something.
“Since when do you watch the news anyway?” She asked in a joking tone, though Kaden could sense a hint of suspicion.

“Well, my friend–” Kaden started quickly.

Then the door flew open, and a grumpy Axel Ryoman walked in. Kaden looked up at his father and fought back tears. He was alive.

“Welcome home.” Rowena said kindly.

Axel merely nodded in return, after he took off his mask. He was still wearing his suit, which unlike Rowena’s, was dark and greyscale.

While Kaden did feel immense relief at the sight of his father, he was also nervous at the thought of him bringing up his work. He knew full well what had transpired last night, and that he was the cause of most of Axel’s frustration right now.

Axel looked over at Kaden and formed a confused expression.

“What are you doing here?” He snapped.

“I just got home.” Kaden replied, taken aback by his father’s sudden and uncalled-for question.

“Right.” Axel grunted, diving into his notes.

Kaden had wanted to stand up and give his father a hug, but the coldness in which his father talked syphoned all the worry out of him. Instead, he stood up to leave for his room, now that he knew Axel was safe at least.

“Not so fast,” Rowena said sternly, “we weren’t done talking.”

Kaden gulped and sat back down.

“You said your friend turned on the news? What’s their name?”

“A-Amene…” Kaden said truthfully.

“Amene who?” Rowena asked, narrowing her eyes.

Kaden opened his mouth to answer, but remembered Amene saying her parents were “big shot villains”, and quickly closed it again.

Rowena stretched out her hand and laid it on Kaden’s.

“I don’t want to assume anything, but are you sure your friend is real?” She asked softly.

Furiously, Kaden retreated his arm and stood up.

“Of course she is real!” He shouted, offended she would even ask something like that.

“Oh, it’s a she?” Rowena giggled.

“What? Why does that matter?!” Kaden said irritably. “Besides, there were others there.”

“Others? So you went to a party and lied about it?!” Rowena shouted worriedly.

“No!” Kaden shouted more frustrated. “Why would I–”

“Wouldn’t be the first thing you lied about, would it?” grunted Axel, suddenly.

Kaden almost choked on his own words, trying to not shout at his father.

“What?” He said hoarsely, having realised what Axel had just said.

“Say, how’s it going at Postella?” Axel asked coldly, putting down his notes again.

Kaden gulped.

“Fine.” He said shortly, hoping that if his father didn’t hear him, he’d stop asking questions.

“Oh, fine!” Axel exclaimed in fake laughter.

“Yeah, yeah, I thought it would.”

He stood up and walked towards the table.

“Some of my colleagues work as teachers, you know that?” Axel asked rhetorically.

Kaden just stared at him, at a loss for words. This was the moment he had been dreading. They had found out.

He braced himself as his father continued.

“A few of them work at Postella Academy, you see.” He explained, getting closer to Kaden. “But of course, you knew that, right? Seeing as you go there.”

Kaden’s mouth was dry.

“I don’t.” He mumbled.

“What was that?” Axel said sternly, holding his hand to his ear.

“I don’t go to Postella.”

Axel scoffed.

“Well at least you’re smart enough to say it now.”

Kaden sat motionlessly, staring ahead of himself. Thinking of something to say. Anything to say. Nothing came to him, however. There was no way he could escape this situation. He knew this moment would come one day, but he hoped that against all odds he could evade it for longer. He felt his mother's eyes, fixated on him, but did not want to meet them.

“I should’ve known it from day one.” Axel continued, sounding progressively more heated. “I should’ve known from day one. How could you ever land a place in Postella.”

“Axel, don’t say that.” Rowena said angrily.

Kaden clenched his fists.

“I suppose it was on me. I should’ve trained you better. Trained you harder.” He continued, disregarding his wife.

Axel slammed down his fist on the table in front of Kaden. Kaden stared at it furiously, finally finding his voice.

“You think I didn’t try?” Kaden muttered, just loud enough so his father could hear him.

“I guess you didn’t try hard enough then!” Axel shouted out, now furiously.

“How could you.” Kaden thought. “How could you say something like that.”

“That is enough, both of you!” Rowena snapped. “It doesn’t matter–”

“You're right, it doesn’t matter!” Kaden interrupted her.

“Why do you think I didn’t tell you?” He shouted at his father, having stood up to face him. “It doesn’t matter where I go, or what I do, it would never have been enough for you anyway!”

Kaden wondered how he could’ve ever been worried about him. They looked into each other’s anger-filled eyes, neither of them knowing what to say. Kaden was so angry now that he couldn’t even form a cohesive thought.

Then Axel finally said,

“That’s right. It doesn’t matter.”

Kaden inhaled a deep quivering breath. He wanted to scream back. Tell his father how hard he had tried. That he should keep his big mouth shut, because he didn’t know anything. How scared he had been to tell them. How he felt after getting rejected by everyone. But nothing came out.

Wordlessly, Kaden grabbed his backpack and slammed the door open.

“Kaden, don’t!” Rowena called after him.

She stood up, but was too late. Kaden had left the house.

He ran away, his eyes starting to fill with tears of both anger and sadness. He had been so happy this morning. He had finally shown that he was good at something. Yet now, his happiness had collapsed, right in front of him.

Not looking where he was going, and deep in thought, he ran head first into someone. Someone, who upon a better look, Kaden recognized.