Principle Sharkhead

After what had happened, Kaden could feel every bit of his fatigue and pain, surging throughout his body. He couldn’t go on anymore, but he had to get back to the school. Kaden pushed on as far as he could, until he finally broke down. He leaned up against the side of a building and slid down, out of breath. Tears started rolling down his face, and he wasn’t sure whether they were for the pain or the sadness, or both. He already regretted everything he said, but regret wouldn’t take his words back.

He closed his eyes and sat there, not knowing what to do with himself.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps sprinting past him. Kaden looked up, but saw nothing there. He thought he must’ve been imagining things, and closed his eyes again.

A moment later, footsteps again. This time, when he looked up, to his surprise, he saw Satoku standing in front of him.

“Finally found you.” Panted Satoku.

“What are you doing here?” Kaden asked, surprised.

Satoku held up his finger, and took a moment to catch his breath. Usually, it seemed like Satoku could never run out of energy, but his wounds must’ve done a number on him.

“Looking for you, of course!” He said cheerfully after a while. “Took me a while, though, and I had to come around again, because my route was a while away from you.”

“I mean, what are you doing out of bed?” Kaden asked more urgently. “Aren't you hurt?!”

“Oh yeah, I can't feel my legs.” Satoku said surprisingly chipper.

“That nurse is so fast.” He added. “But hey, my best bud needed me, so I did what I had to.”

He gave Kaden a thumbs up and a wink.

Kaden let out a disappointed, but relieved sigh, and wiped away his tears.

“Now jump on, so we can get back to school and hopefully not die in the process.” Satoku said awkwardly, kneeling down, so Kaden could climb on. “You can tell me what happened when we're there.”

Kaden smiled weekly at Satoku’s back.

“Oh, wait,” Kaden reminded himself and Satoku, “I need to get rid of this.”

He showed Satoku the tracker.

“Can't we just destroy it?” Satoku asked.

Kaden shook his head.

“Who knows what'll happen if we do.” He said, looking down at the tracker. “Just take me to any body of water, I have an idea.”

Satoku nodded, and Kaden climbed on his back.

They found a small puddle of water, and Kaden kneeled down next to it.

“Shiro!” He called out, but nothing happened.

“Shiro, I could use your help!” He called again, but still nothing.

Satoku looked a bit confused.

“There’s uhm… this talking hand,” Kaden explained, “it only shows up in bodies of water, usually when I just call for it, but it must be shy.”

“Ah, alright, I'll wait over there then!” Satoku exclaimed, and made his way over to where he pointed.

Even to Kaden himself, what he just explained sounded crazy. Yet, Satoku responded without the faintest sign of doubt in his voice.

“Shiro!” Kaden called again.

“Do you only call when you need something from me?” A voice from the water said irritably.

“I'm busy, what's the matter?” It said, as Shiro popped up.

“Sorry…” Kaden said quietly.

“Can you get rid of this somewhere safe?” He asked, holding out the tracker.

Shiro sighed and snatched it from Kaden's hand.

“At least you’re not asking me to take you somewhere this time.” Shiro mumbled.

“That all?” It said irritably.

Kaden nodded and watched Shiro dive below water again.

“Stop bothering me at night, okay?” Could be heard faintly, before Shiro faded away in the puddle.

Kaden motioned Satoku back.

“Did you do it?” Satoku asked.

“Yeah…” Kaden responded, climbing back onto his back.

Together they proceeded towards the school.

They arrived to a very concerned Amene and Kaito. They had found the device a while ago and saw the tracker disappear suddenly. Kaden, however, could only half listen to what they had to say. Even if he wanted to pay attention, he didn’t think he could.

The moment he climbed into his bed in the hospital wing, he passed out.

Everyone’s recovery was swift, when they actually listened to the nurse and stayed in bed. Not that they had much choice, since she kept an extra close eye on them, after they had “escaped her sights”. Kaden was the last to get out, though he didn’t have much memory of the whole process. Everything had been a blur since that day. He didn’t have time to tell Satoku what happened yet either, since the others were always around too. Though, he appreciated that very much.

Kaden had requested a new villain suit in the meantime. His old one was still at home, and had a tear in it now. Kaito offered to stand guard during the process, and Haido, of course, offered to help him with this.

When Kaden got out at last, the school felt different. There was an air around it that felt off, but Kaden could not explain it. He justified it by being drowsy, from sleeping too much.

After school, he went straight to Our Spot. Without Kaden there, the place had remained mostly empty, and gathered an amount of dust again. Though his arms were still a bit sore, he resorted to cleaning the place to distract himself.

After a good while, he heard the familiar clicking noise, that indicated that someone from team Not-So-Bad was coming in. It was Satoku.

When he joined Kaden, Kaden finally told him about everything that happened. Talking about it made everything more real, which made him only feel worse. But on the other hand, getting it out finally was a relief. Satoku seemed the most mature when he was supporting Kaden.

A while later, Amene joined them too. It seemed she had caught on to the mood, because when she offered to check some of the old gadgets, she kept giving Kaden the ones he mentioned he enjoyed, instead of testing the unknown ones.

The next day, when everyone gathered in class, something happened that had never happened since Kaden entered the school. The intercoms turned on.

There was a static noise, followed by someone scraping their throat.

“Good morning students!” A deep and intimidating voice sounded. “I am sure all of you know who I am, but for those ignorant among you, I will introduce myself. They call me Sharkhead. I am your principle.”

There was a murmuring in the classroom. Even professor Slechtsnor seemed unsure of what to make of this.

“As you are aware, I have been absent for some time.” Sharkhead continued. “This is due to an event many of you know now as the ‘Big Fight’. This name is a lie.”

Everyone fell silent. Even through just his voice, which spoke calmly, Sharkhead exerted an intimidating aura beyond belief.

“It was many things, but a battle it was not.” Sharkhead continued. “It was a slaughtering. Until the heroes used dirty tricks to pull the tides in their favour. Let it be known that this is the only way heroes know how to fight.”

Sharkhead paused for a moment.

“The hero Inversion. He is regarded as one of the best, but he is a fraud. Many of you may not know this, since I’m sure the story has been spun in the hero’s favour. I will let you know the true story. Inversion barely contributed to the battle. When the hero Aer produced his mist, the heroes thought they would have the upper hand. I made short work of him. He couldn’t have done much on his own, so I made sure he could not do anything at all, anymore. After that, I knocked him out. Their biggest hero, Inversion. After he fell down, the battle was as good as won. The others simply had no effect on me, although they did try their hardest. Especially the hero Bliss. When she figured out that positivity had no effect on me, for I already had plenty, she resorted to regular fist fighting. Nobody has ever won a fist fight against me, of course, though she put up a good one. Mirror Boy reflected her, effectively making it two on one. Though this did not matter either. I crushed every mirror, and then her. That girl did not know how to give up, however. I would have taken her out, were it not for the speedsters. They surrounded me. That was their downfall. I broke one’s leg, like a fallen branch from a tree. The other was too cowardly to go on. Suddenly, it was me, who was mirrored. The clone surprised me at first, I must say. It held up a good while, but a false copy could never defeat me. But then, as if by magic, Inversion woke up. He used his dirty tricks to capture me, right before I landed my finishing blow. What happened afterwards? Who knows. Yet, I found myself behind bars, and the heroes had won.”

Kaden gulped. This was the first time he had heard anything about the “Big Fight”. Both his father and mother had refused to talk about it. Now he knew why.

“Or so they thought.” Sharkhead added.

Another ominous pause.

“Now, one might wonder how I got out. Out from the most heavily guarded prison in this country. Vectaiya. The story is quite simple. They thought my plan was to simply lure them into a trap, and then kill them, which indeed would have been a nice bonus. But no, my plan was much bigger than this. It was to sew the seeds of a bigger plot. Imprisonment was a hurdle, but it far from stopped what I had already set into motion. All I needed was a new way to guide the outside world into its right place. One of the guards, weak willed and easily manipulated, told me all I needed to know about the outside world. I used my power, known by none, to communicate with an outside source. I normally despise having to rely on others, but it was a dire situation and I saw no other choice for the time being. After a while, I got the school back up and running, this was vital to my plan. Every place it has landed since then, marks a new beginning. It is where I planted the seeds, if you will. With that set up, all I required was to plan my escape. I knew I could easily break out at any moment, it was simply a question of when the right time arose. That time is now.”

Everyone looked around at each other, waiting for something to happen.

“Now, you might be questioning why I would tell all of this to you, my students. The answer is simple.”

Tension rose in the air. Kaden could barely hear anyone breathe, and had to remind himself that he should.

“There is an intruder amongst you. Someone that has been feeding information to the hero council. How I know this is not of importance. Just know that you will not get away.”

There was a mechanical sound, and suddenly, Kaden felt his feet lift from the ground. He looked around, panicked, and saw other students rising to the ceiling with speed.

Kaden had a split second where he looked outside, and saw buildings rushing by them, before there was a deafening crash, and everything went dark.