Shisu's Plan

Over the days, Kaden started cleaning up Our Spot. Occasionally, Amene would help him organize the various gadgets and weapons that were still there, by usefulness and danger. Though Amene, being absent-minded as she is, sometimes accidentally set one off, causing more mess to clean up.

Most of Kaden’s days, after school, were spent dusting and vacuuming, however. While there was some furniture still, like couches and desks, Kaden had a hard time really moving them around, with him not being that physically strong, so he resorted to that. Satoku also came by often, and Kaden urged him to do the heavy lifting.

Satoku, Amene and Kaden were the ones that hung out there the most. While Kaito and Haido only occasionally swung by after school, or to walk there with them.

There were five beds placed on the third floor of the storage, even though, thus far, Kaden had been the only one that slept there. He had no idea how Satoku even managed to get them up.

The second floor housed a sort of lounge. They had placed all the couches there, and Amene had brought the “smallest TV” from her house, which still was larger than any television Kaden had ever seen.

The first floor was largely empty still, only having a few cabinets and a fridge filled with snacks, while the basement housed all the gadgets and weapons.

The place was really coming together nicely, Kaden thought.

Satoku, however, did always press Kaden to go home again. Kaden did miss his mom, and wondered how his uncle was doing, but he had no desire to return to his father just yet.

He finally had a moment avoid of stress. No nervousness when leaving school. No worry when he arrived home. There was a certain sense of guilt, still lingering inside him, but he managed to suppress it whenever his friends were there. Even Shisu had left them alone since the heist.

That was until, one day, when he strolled up to them in the Square Cavity.

There was a small moment of intense staring when everyone noticed him. Kaden could hear Kaito give a little whimper, from beside him, though he quickly subdued it again. Haido made a sort of growling sound, and Satoku cracked his knuckles. In that small moment, Kaden could see a glint in Shisu’s eyes. The same glint as he'd seen before, but had forgotten all about.

“Miss me?” Shisu said smugly.

Kaden exhaled through his nose sarcastically.
Shisu swept his hand through his hair, before he spoke again, in a hateful, condescending voice.

“Did you think I'd have forgotten about it?”

He pointed at Kaden specifically.

“Did you think I would let your little stunt slide?”

He spoke calmly, but the air around him was terrifying. Kaden noticed that Shisu had dark circles under his eyes. It wasn’t the natural darkness you'd get there from a lack of sleep, it was coal-black. Like pure darkness started leaking out.

None of Team-Not-So-Bad said anything. It seemed like they all prepared to fight if they had to.

“Ever since that day we met, I've despised all of you.” Shisu said hatefully looking around at everyone. “But especially you, Panda.”

His eyes landed on Kaden.

“I didn't know what it was at the time. It was just something about you that felt… wrong.”

Kaden gulped, but did not break his eye contact.

“I'm the one that will be the number one villain, Panda.” Shisu seethed. “That means I can't fail.”

Shisu's voice suddenly shifted.

Kaden stood up and jumped out of the square to face Shisu.

“You lost, Shisu. Whatever you intend to do won't change that.” He said.

Shisu chuckled heavily.

“No, maybe it won't.” He said calmly. As he lowered his arm, so lowered the tension between them.

Kaden gulped, and the rest of team Not-So-Bad stood up too.

“You know, I found out something interesting the other day.” Shisu said conversationally. “See, I've been following you, Panda.”

Kaden tightened his fist. He felt his breath become heavier as Shisu spoke.

Shisu pulled a device out of his pocket.

“As useless as that Tomime is, he does have some valuable… connections.” He said as he played with the device in his hand.

Shisu looked like he was debating something in his head, but eventually continued to speak.

“When it was announced that we would get our suits, I got an idea.” Shisu told Kaden calmly. “A stroke of genius, really.”

Shisu chuckled.

“All I had to do was find a good opportunity to get to your suit unnoticed while it was being made, which honestly was quite simple, even with all of you watching me. There I had the idiot plant a tracker in your suit.”

“That’s how you found me in the museum…” Kaden whispered under his breath.

A grin formed on Shisu’s face.

“After that, I just had to look at this thing, and I could find you anywhere.” He chuckled.

“But then you had to make me sink through the floor at the museum,” he said through gritted teeth, as the grin faded, “and the device got all gunked up.”

Shisu threw the device up and caught it again effortlessly.

“I commissioned a new one, of course. Took that idiot a few days, but he delivered after some careful persuasion.”

“Why?” Kaden asked. “What’s the point?”

Shisu chuckled loudly.

“I'm sure you heard… about those two heroes.” He asked smugly.

“The ones that…” Kaito whimpered, unable to control it now.

“Were killed. Yes.” Shisu finished the sentence with a sinister grin on his face.

“See what happens to the things that get in my way?” He said darkly. “I don't care about finding you, the tracker is just to make sure you're in an opportune position when I activate it.”

Shisu slowly tightened his grip on the device. Kaden could feel a cold sweat drip down his neck. Whatever the device did, it couldn’t be good.

“When I finally got this thing, I noticed something.” Shisu continued.

“At first I thought it must be broken, but Tomime assured me it worked as intended. He wouldn't dare give me anything broken in the first place, but then why was the tracker not moving?”

Kaden inhaled sharply, trying to hide his nervousness. He hadn’t thought they needed their suits for a while when he left home. That's why he just left it there, in his hiding place.

“I know you weren't smart enough to figure it out on your own. After a few days, I grew suspicious, however. I decided I should go investigate before I activated it.” Shisu said coldly.

Kaden’s heart was racing faster than ever.

“And when I did…”

Shisu paused to take a good look at Kaden.

“I found out something very interesting.”

Kaden did not think. He couldn’t think. Without realising it himself, he had raised his arm and shot a Solid Air Bubble straight at Shisu. The bubble hit him, right across the right side of his face, making it jolt back slightly upon impact.

Shisu grabbed the side of his face with one hand, as his cold, evil laugh echoed through the cafeteria. The lights seemed to dim, and Shisu's scarlet eyes almost began to glow through his fingers.

“You did not just do that!” He thundered in an almost unrecognisable voice.

Satoku, Kaito, Haido, and Amene shot forward, and joined at Kaden’s side.

The next moment, several things happened in such close succession, that it was hard for Kaden to make out what was happening.

Shisu stretched out his arm, and Kaden felt the cold feeling wrap around his leg, before he was thrown; Satoku ran forward, Haido following closely behind while shooting an array of needles past him towards Shisu; Amene flipped her hair and a portion of the cafeteria flooded, so that nobody could come closer; Lastly, Kaito turned into the Monster and roared at Shisu.

Kaden flew through the air, and felt himself getting caught by a spout of water. While it may have been a softer landing than the ground, the surface tension still made for a hard impact.

“Careful.” Amene said, surprisingly calm for the situation.

Kaden nodded and jumped out. He looked over and saw Satoku running around Shisu, occasionally going in for a punch. Meanwhile, Haido was throwing needles rapidly, bigger than Kaden had seen them before. Shisu, however, didn’t look bothered by this at all. In fact, he was laughing maniacally during all this.

Kaden looked closer and noticed that none of Satoku’s punches or the needles even touched Shisu. He hadn’t moved to avoid them, he hadn’t even moved at all. Yet, the punches and projectiles seemed to fly straight past him.

Kaito ran forward, and Satoku and Haido jumped out of his way. With big extended claws, he swiped at Shisu, who finally moved, out of the claw’s reach. Kaito growled and swung with the other arm, this time just barely grazing Shisu leg. Shisu exhaled sharply, and his laughing stopped.

Seeing Kaito in his monster form clearly for the first time was shocking. If Kaden had not known that it was a small, shy and kind boy, just moments ago, he would’ve been terrified. Though, as terrifying as Kaito’s monster form was, it was not as terrifying as the evil look in Shisu’s eyes, when he executed his next attack.

“It was you!” He shouted, as he directed both of his hands toward Kaito.

Kaito charged at Shisu, alongside Satoku and Haido. Suddenly, all of them stopped and were slowly lifted into the air by an invisible force. Kaito’s arms and legs began to spread out, abruptly. He was fighting against it, hard, but the force was too strong. Kaito growled out in pain.

“Hands… off my… baby brother… you maggot!” Haido said slowly, struggling to break free.

Kaden tried to run forward, but felt a sudden horrible sting in his leg. He kneeled down and grabbed it. It was the same one that Shisu had clutched before.

Amene flipped her hair again, and the water from it shot at Shisu. It hit his back at full force, making him slide forward. Shisu’s grip on Satoku and Haido held strong, but Kaito had enough power to break free in the small moment Shisu lost concentration.

Kaito jumped forward and snatched Shisu from the ground.

“Let’s see how you like it!” He roared, as he began squeezing Shisu.

Satoku and Haido dropped to the ground. Kaden inhaled deeply.

“Come on, come on, come on!” He repeated over and over in his head, as he shot two bubbles below them, intending to give them a soft landing.

They fell down into a small sludge puddle.

“Enough!” Shisu’s echoing voice thundered.

Suddenly, Kaito was flung backwards with such force that even Amene couldn’t catch him with a wall of her water. A few other students jumped out of the way quickly as Kaito flew towards them and hit the wall, after which he reverted back to his normal self. The loud crash this caused was deafening and made the room rumble.

Now, Haido’s eyes, matched the fury that was in Shisu’s. She screamed as she charged at Shisu, covering herself in spikes. The way she ran, combined with her now thorny exterior, made her look almost as monstrous as Kaito had been before.

Shisu just barely caught his breath. He stretched his hands out to stop Haido, but as if she was reading his mind, she shot out a barrage of needles while she still had mobility. The needles flew like bullets and some hit Shisu, one of which piercing through his shoulder. He groaned in pain.

Kaden had to duck down, to avoid getting hit himself, and while he did, he saw something dark moving below Shisu. A moment later, Shisu thrust up his unharmed arm, and the remaining needles bounced away from him.

“Kaden!” Satoku called out.

Kaden’s eyes quickly darted around, looking for Satoku. He was running around Shisu again.

“Like the fire!” He yelled, wiping off some of the floor sludge that was still on him.

“Fire?” Kaden thought, confused.

Satoku flicked the sludge at Shisu, who did not seem to care about it. Then Kaden remembered. He shot out a Negative Bubble at the floor sludge, which turned solid once more. Chunks of concrete hit Shisu, as Satoku flicked more at him, and Kaden turned them solid. Meanwhile, Amene shot out small bursts of water at Shisu too. He was being bombarded with projectiles from all sides.

“All of you are so annoying…” Shisu seethed.

He let go of Haido and stretched his hand in Satoku’s direction. Now that Kaden had noticed it once, it was hard to miss again. Something dark moved on the ground, below Satoku this time. Satoku tripped forward and flew into Haido. They rolled backwards, and Satoku let out a painful shriek as the spikes inserted his body.

“Oh no!” Amene gasped.

She ran forward to try and help them, but without looking at her, Shisu made a grabbing motion toward her. Amene grasped toward her throat.

Kaden stood up, forgetting the fact that there was a searing pain in his leg. He wanted to run forward, but before he could Shisu threw her at Haido and Satoku, and all three of them stopped moving.

Kaden formed two Negative Bubbles around his hands and limped over to face Shisu.

“Just us, Panda.” Shisu said calmly, forming a slight, evil grin on his face.