2 Bystander

"Oh, shit. Look, monster sighting."

Kilian's studying came to a halt at those words. He didn't turn his head, since it wasn't his conversation to begin with. Though, listening in never hurt. If they wanted privacy, they wouldn't have talked about it behind him.

His classmate was holding his phone and showing it to another. What were their names again? Couldn't remember. They were two guys that were always loud, so their voices were distinct enough.

"Really? Where?" The other asked, obviously curious. It seemed he wasn't the only one, others looking at their phones to see if there was any talk about it online.

"One of the roads leading into the city. Said he was trying to sneak in."

Sneaking into a city with one of the densest populations of Preservers in America? He assumed the guy had to have been an idiot or desperate. Both dangerous in their own right, but he had no doubt he was already stopped.

"Did you see? Apparently Star Cloak stopped it."

"Was it strong? They might have gone up a rank."

Star Cloak. A Preserver group that had formed last year. People are just now starting to see them as more than rookies, due to how fast they've gone up the rankings. There's a decent amount of Preserver's who don't participate in it or aren't relevant enough to be ranked in the first place, but it's still a good point of reference for how good a team is. The higher you are, the stronger you are. Simple enough.

Kilian didn't put much thought into it beyond that. Listening to his classmates bicker about their favorite teams and who would win a fight, it irked him slightly. Talk about Preservers always did that to him.

"I'm sure all of you are aware of the original Preserver team."

Of course, that meant he got agitated quite a lot.

The class would have made it to their destination, and the tour began. The guide began at the front of the building, and it seemed they were going to go in a circle. It made sense, considering how it was laid out. Kilian was somewhat familiar with the place, most probably were. If you grew up in Everstand then you had to have come here as a child for a school trip.

They were sorted by class and walked together as the guide spoke. She seemed tired, and it made sense. Probably had to have given this talk hundreds of times.

"There has been evidence that shows Preservers to have existed centuries ago, perhaps being the source of some of the various myths throughout human history. Though, in the modern day, the first Preserver team made their debut nearly 80 years ago." She would stop and point at some pictures showing a group of 5 standing together. Red, blue, yellow, pink, and black. The standard really was set with them. "Though, even now we don't know what their name was."

"Of course, we've gotten more groups as time went on. The total number of recorded teams has increased drastically in the last 30 years, to where the recorded number of teams that appeared in the first few years don't even make up a percentage of the number we have now. Outstanding, right? Though, it's still a relatively small number compared to the population overall." It was hard to see it that way when you lived in a city full of them. Kilian would just listen along while keeping to the back, wondering why he even bothered to come on the trip. It was always better than sitting in class, and he already had enough absences for one year.

"As we've gotten more groups of these Preservers, we also got to learn more. Each team is selected by an Entity, some sort of being that grants the group the power to transform into a more powerful state. Though, as all Entities aren't equal this does mean not all teams are equal in strength."

Everyone was pretty quiet as she spoke. Either they were taking a look at the interesting pictures on display on the walls, or not paying attention at all. Minutes passed, and he found his focus being drawn elsewhere. There was a hall that broke away from everything else, blocked off with the usual red rope that anybody could step over. Kilian read the sign, stopping in his tracks.

"Entity exhibit...?" He muttered under his breath.

That was something he didn't recognize. The last time he was here was when he was younger, so it made sense there might have been some additions in some way. Now that he thought about it, there wasn't anything specifically about entities. In the more recent years a lot more has been learned about them, so it looked like they were putting something together. It was at an angle that made it hard to get a good look at what was inside. Didn't seem like anybody was in there, though. Unless they were just standing in darkness.

He hadn't realized that the group had started to move.

"Interesting, right?" Train of thought interrupted; he turned his head to see one of his classmates still standing next to him. She was a bit shorter than him, maybe by an inch or two. Her dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, and her light brown eyes looked up at him expecting a response of some sort.

It was hard to see her expression though, with her wearing glasses. Being this close made it so they actually blocked her eyes a bit. It caught Kilian off guard slightly, half expecting her to move past him to continue her conversation with someone else.

A brief glance around him made it clear that wasn't the case. "I..." He hesitated for a second, looking back at the wall of Preservers they had initially stopped back. "...no, not really."

Before she could respond, he gestured to the group that was moving ahead.

"Oh, yeah..."

Pushing up her glasses, she'd give a bit of a nod before scurrying awkwardly away. He waited a moment, glancing back at the unfinished hall. Not wanting to hear any lip from his teacher, he picked up the pace slightly to catch up with the class.

It was a museum, after all. There were objects significant to Preserver history laid out throughout that were free to look at. Kilians eyes would glance at a Preserver helmet of someone he wasn't familiar with, though that wasn't what really got his attention.

It was the fact that it was shaking slightly. Once he noticed that, he could sort of notice it with a few other smaller objects. It was feint, but as he stopped walking, he could sort of feel the ground vibrate as well.

THUD

THUD

Two muffled sounds that sounded like something breaking. There wasn't much time to speculate about it, but he didn't have to, as he heard something a lot more familiar.

Screams.

It was close, and it seemed he wasn't the only one who noticed it now. He looked forward at his confused class, the classmate walking toward him...and then behind him. There weren't any windows along the side, though there were some in the front of the museum where they had entered. It was quick, but something would fly by the window. A car.

"Shit.." He cursed under his breath, turning and darting forward as he heard a crash. These people, they didn't recognize it. It wasn't engraved in them, a fear. Of what, exactly?

As he grabbed onto the arm of the girl who spoke to him before, it was made clear. It was like time slowed in that moment, the wall to the right of them cracking. As it collapsed, he would pull that girl away and dive with her behind one of the thick pillars that held up the buildings.

Debris would fly, chunks of brick of varying sizes slamming into those not fast enough to move out of the way. The screams of agony in that brief moment spoke for itself, only to be muffled by footprints as people started to run. The girl he dived with obviously was confused as well, moving to get up. It made sense to run as well, given what everyone else was doing.

Kilian would pull her back behind the pillar, a hand covering her mouth.

It was made clear what exactly he was afraid of. A barrage of black sludge would be slung almost faster than the eye could see, slamming into some of those who ran in a panic. The force was enough to knock them to the ground, their bodies stuck and even sizzling a bit.

A freak of nature, standing in front of the broken wall. It was wide and its form was barely something that could be considered humanoid. The thing looked as if it was actively melting, falling apart only to put itself back together. A hand was outstretched, and a gurgled noise escaped the hole that resembled a mouth.

It made sense people reacted poorly. A monster attack, in Everstand? The Capital of Preservers? It was rare, this might have been most people's first time even being in the same vicinity of a monster. Memories flashed through his head, a time when he was younger. It was the same thing. Screams, chaos, the scent of blood filling his nose. It tightened his chest, making it hard to inhale any hair.

The mess in his head was suddenly brought back to the moment as he felt his classmate tremble against him.

He looked down, seeing her face without glasses. She was terrified. Was...was that what he looked like? Listening to the sound of the monster a bit away, he could hear him still splashing sludge. It seemed he was still firing at humans running away.

Biting his lip, he made the choice of peeking. Monsters are motivated by instinct, a desire to destroy as much as possible. Grabbing his classmate by the arm, Kilian would push himself to move.

This wasn't who he wanted to be. Someone who froze in the face of danger. It was infuriating and was a driving factor that let him put one foot in front of the other. Instead of running toward an exit, he stayed moving straight for the most part. Using the pillar as cover and staying out of the monster's view, he stayed that way for a few feet.

"We're dashing for the exhibit." He said in a low tone, looking back to see the monster was pulling some of the hit people toward him. His form opened, and the bodies would be dropped and...oh.

Turning his head, he'd look away and finally duck into the dark exhibit. It wasn't too large, a single hall filled with boxes and some sizable objects that they seemed to have started to put up. They looked sort of like creatures, in a way. It made sense, considering it was an Entity exhibit. The beings that gave Preservers powers, they probably went into detail about some of the more notable ones here.

Sighing, he'd make the two of them duck behind a collection of boxes. At least now he could afford to think. Letting go of his classmate, he'd peek back for a moment and see they weren't followed.

He tried his best to stay calm, taking a quiet exhale due to him holding his breath during the brief move.

What now? Well, there were a few seconds of chaos that he could hear before the thing charged through the wall. Somebody had to have called for help by now, the people closest to the entrance probably ran out the building before it could have gotten them. Really, they just had to wait a few minutes a most. A preserver had to have been close to take care of things. Star Cloak had taken down a monster, right? They were some of the faster teams. If they got a call, it would only take a few minutes.

It was a double-edged sword, being stuck here. Other thoughts creeped into his head. He remembered the situation a bit before freshman year. It was the same. The freezing, the panic, the overwhelming fear. He could have saved a life if he wasn't just so.... pathetic.

"Please! Please, no-" A familiar voice. One of his classmates? It was one of the guys who sat behind him on the ride there. Unfortunately, he couldn't get a good angle to see anything from here. His eyes glanced back at the girl he pulled in here, curled up against the wall. She was probably stuck in here own head too, and it wasn't like he was in a position to judge her.

But he did. It was because he could see himself, and so he'd grit his teeth slightly. "Stay here." He muttered, before moving. Kilian didn't leave the exhibit but did peek around the corner to see what was going on. And there, he could see one of his classmates on the ground. He was trying to crawl backwards, the monster stepping toward him as he pleaded for his life.

He might have been mistaken, but did it look different? More defined, more humanoid. It was similar to that of melted ice cream before, but there were some parts of him that looked solid now.

It's hand that dripped with black tar would extend, gripping at the leg of his classmate. As it started to pull him toward it, that weird maw would open up. "No! No, please!" The guy didn't have anything but the floor to try and hold onto, meaning that it was useless. Though, as he lifted the student off the ground and was about to raise him over his mouth, a blur of red appeared.

His classmate would fall to the ground, now stuck from the sludge sticking him to the tiled floor.

Without a moment to react, the sludge monster would be sent flying. Its body would slam into the pillar Kilian and his classmate hid behind before, resulting in a collection of cracks. The figure would sharply wave his blade to get the sludge off it. They'd take a flashy stance, gripping their blade as they let out a cry.

"No need to worry, everyone! Stay put, i'll take care of this."

It wasn't like a lot of them could move anyway....

He had the voice of a young man, and as Kilian stared for a moment it did look like he had the build of one. He was donned in a red spandex, black and white accents spread across his gloves and boots. The accents would meet, sort of forming a spiral shape across his torso. His red helmet had a black visor that sort of had a spiral look to it as well.

Kilian's face would turn to an expression of disappointment. In fact, it was the same for most of the civilians. Why? It was because they all recognized the clown that stood to defend them.

"Spiral Force Preserver, Red Spiral, is about to kick ass!"

The leader of an unranked team. Though, everyone knew them because they were famous for being one of the worse teams in the country.

They were screwed.