Chapter 7: Adoption(01)

Earth

Saturday, September 10th, 0109 PA; 10:00(CST)

3020 silver crest students had left for the training exercise the academies referred to as the annual field trip. Only 1410 returned alive.

Most of the students were sent to the gulf to aid in defense of the coast. These losses were atypical in the gulf's annual beast wave that was known locally as the jelly wave.

In the past 50 years there had only been a total of 200 casualties throughout the defending forces from the US. However this year the Aztec Confederacy had pulled out all their troops the day before the beast wave hit land. They claimed it was due to an unusually high sea beast concentration on the southern continent's coast.

All the major powers to the south collaborated the Confederacy's story, but satellite imaging told a different tale. Three days before the beast wave would have made landfall a blast of golden fire erupted from just beneath the ocean's surface 200 km off the northern coast of southern Mexico. It was equivalent to a 100kt blast.

This caused the normally spread out beast wave to concentrate along the southern coast of the US. The southern coastal cities were decimated. If not for the intervention of Circle members the entire population of the southern coast would have been wiped out.

Eight of the US's thirty-seven academies had been completely wiped out and roughly a quarter of the students from the remaining academies had been killed in the jelly wave.

The internet was inundated with conspiracy theories blaming the Confederacy along with calls for war.

It wasn't just the US that was in turmoil though. Thirty-eight of sixty-two the Academies in Africa were destroyed and all of their S+ heroes and most of the S ranks had been killed with the exception of the heroes from Cairo. Ten of the European Academies and thirteen of the Russian Academies had suffered attacks as well. Even China and India weren't spared as their capital cities and numerous other cities were attacked by unknown S and S+ ranks.

Nearly a billion people around the world died in less than a week.

As fingers were being pointed in every direction most of the world's internet went down along with every satellite in orbit.

It was chaos.

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Training field, Circle Hero Academy, Central City, USA, Earth

Saturday, September 10th, 0109 PA; 10:00(CST)

The last of the ATCs landed in the training field. The Principal and faculty were directing students and medical personnel as hundreds of wounded students were taken off of the aircraft. They were taken to the makeshift emergency medical facilities that had been put up in the field near the auditorium.

Everyone in the craft with Vector and Justice stared open mouthed at the chaos as the boarding hatch opened. Supreme walked up to the confused students. He was stained in blood with a scorched and torn hero suit.

"You two are coming with me. A lot has happened. The rest of you find your homeroom teachers and they will brief you on everything."

He then flew up into the sky as Vector and Justice followed. They quickly arrived at the Circle's headquarters, which was located on the south side of the city.

The headquarters was a former children's hospital that had been renovated 30 years ago to accommodate the Circle's tactical and intelligence coordination teams and equipment. It was staffed with over 100 S rank Heroes and 3000 other personnel.

As the boys and Supreme arrived, Blockbuster and 4 people in suits were already waiting on the roof landing pad. Blockbuster's face looked haggard and forlorn. Her Hero suit stained with blood and torn in several places.

She immediately went forward and hugged the boys as they landed.

"I'm so sorry…" after those words crossed her lips she broke out in tears.

Both boys hugged her back while trying to console her. While Supreme came up to them putting his hand on Vector's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Kai. There was nothing we could do. We were ambushed by the terrorists. They had S+ ranks with them. We were completely blind sided when the attack happened…"

Vector stopped hugging Blockbuster and turned to look at Supreme with a look of confusion on his face.

"What do you mean uncle Mark? What happened? We just got back from the field trip. We've been on the ATC for the past 2 hours."

Blockbuster wiped her tears and stood up straight. Then she took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Kai… Your grandmother… She… She didn't make it back. The terrorists… They killed her.

Vector turned his head so quickly that it caused a sonic boom, blowing the four people in suits off their feet. His eyes went wide.

"Did you say they killed her? Grandma… Grandma's dead? No… No… That's impossible. She's S+... THERE'S NO WAY!"

Justice stood there in a daze.

Supreme looked down as he patted Kai's shoulder.

"I'm sorry son. It's true. I saw it myself. She got distracted by a beast roar to the west for a moment and the killer capitalized on that split second of distraction. We managed to take out the S+ ranks and caught some of the S ranks but they committed suicide before we could interrogate them. We think they were from the Block."

Vector looked up at Supreme with tears streaming down his face.

"Did you say the Block?"

Supreme nodded and looked down at Kai who was staring at him with tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry… There was nothing… we could do." His voice cracked as he said those words and he waved John over.

John walked over to Kai with red eyes, reaching out to put his hand on his other shoulder. As his fingers touched Kai's shoulder they snapped back broken as his friend vanished in front of everyone.

"AHHHH!!!"

Blockbuster looked up to the sky with a look of panic as John held his hand in pain. Supreme went to John signaling one of the 4 people who were on the roof with them.

The man with green hair quickly came over his hand glowing with green light as he took John's shattered fingers.

"Brace yourself, this is going to hurt." He then straightened The fingers as the green light healed them.

John looked over at his grandfather, still wincing in pain as the bones in his hand knitted themselves back together.

"ARGH!!! We have to stop Kai! There's no telling what he'll do!"

Blockbuster immediately flew up into the air and looked in every direction. Then she landed next to John looking him in the eyes.

"Do you know where he went?"

John responded at once.

"Probably the Block! Why would you tell him who did it, Grandpa? Why would you tell him? He's… OH, SHIT!!! Grandpa, we gotta notify their S+ ranks. Quick before he gets there."

A look of sheer panic covered his face.

Supreme looked at the four in suits.

"You heard him. I know the satellites are down but see if you can bounce a signal off the ISS."

He then looked at Blockbuster.

"Take care of Justice and fill him in on everything that's happened. I'll go after Kai."

Then he took off knocking the the four people in suits off their feet again.

Justice just stood there for a moment helplessly gazing to the east. Amy put her hands around his shoulders leading him into the building.

"Don't worry he probably just needs a little time to process everything."

Justice looked at her with tears in his eyes.

"You don't understand… Kai was the reason the dragon roared!"

Amy stopped in her tracks.

"Did you say dragon? What dragon?"

Justice looked into her eyes.

"The one he found in Hawaii. That's how he found out about the…"

Justice looked back at the four S ranks that were following them into the building.

"Do the sound barrier thing again."

Amy waved her hand bringing up the barrier. Justice then looked back towards Blockbuster.

"The trial takers… He found out about the trial from the dragon."

Blockbuster's eyes opened wide.

"Come with me to the briefing room. You need to tell me everything about this dragon and I still need to fill you in on everything that's happened."

She then let go of John's shoulders and headed down the stairs to the briefing room on the 6th floor. John filed close behind her as he began to explain what Kai had told him about his encounter with the dragon.