Villain Retirement

"What is Dark Millenium... doing in front of the Academy?"

"...Dark Millenium?"

"..."

With all the curious whispers and gasps echoing throughout the entire Academy, even the classes that were far and secured from each other could somewhat hear their neighboring classes murmuring– their voices were that loud.

Even Riley, who had just been waiting for the class to start, scooched over towards Gary and the others to try and see what was happening as they huddled to check on Gary's phone.

"...Are we sure this is in front of the Academy?"

"You think there's another gate as large and as identical to what the Academy has? Are you stupid?"

"...I'm just asking, why do you always have to be crazy," Gary furrowed his eyebrows, "You should just return to your cray cray state, at least you were easier to handle–"

"Shut the fuck up."

"You remind me of a character from Superstars of Yesterday, always so haughty and–"

"What is the leader of the Dark Millenium doing here?"

Silvie was happy that Hannah seemed to be much better than how she was yesterday, but before she and Gary could start bickering with each other for no absolutely no reason again, she decided to intervene with a question.

"The Academy could be considered the safest and most secured place on the entire planet right now," Silvie then muttered as her eyes slowly strayed towards Riley, "Could it be... she risked to come all this way for Riley?"

Silvie's words were almost a whisper; but even still, their classmates that number a hundred also all turned their eyes towards Riley.

This was not her fault, however, as even if Silvie did not whisper what she just muttered, their gazes would have still eventually found their way to Riley– most of them knew about the incident in Miami, of how Dark Millenium tried to invite Riley Ross into her organization, as there were dozens and dozens of videos surfacing all over the world wide web... again.

At this point, the Academy might as well give the Mega Student title to Riley again; as without a doubt, he was probably the most famous of them all besides Silvie, who was also recently all over their newsfeed.

And soon, their guesses were proven right of Dark Millenium's purpose; the vibration of her words, captured by all the camera pointed at her and the Hope Guild.

"Riley Ross," Dark Millenium started. But her address did not stop there, however, as she even faced one of the camera drones floating around her, "Students from the Potential Villain list, as well as the normal students of Mega Academy...

...I invite all of you to join my cause as–"

The students that were watching her, however, could only blink their eyes as Dark Millenium's words were abruptly cut short; as before she could finish talking, five white pillars plunged from the air, surrounding her as they pierced the hard pavement around her.

The students wanted to watch what was happening now even more attentively, but to their dismay, the lights within their classroom flashed in a flickering red. And soon, an announcement reverberated in the air, telling all students to return to their apartments as fast and orderly as possible.

"Move! Move!"

"Who is touching my butt!?"

"I can't see the news!"

This wasn't enough to stop most of their curious minds, however, as even though their feet were already moving out of the class, their eyes were still locked on their phones, carefully watching everything that was happening.

The pillars that suddenly surrounded Dark Millenium then started to emit a sort of spark, but the supposed prey did not wait to see what the pillars could and would do to her as she immediately flew up; slightly causing the ground beneath her to shake. And as soon as her feet floated above the top of the pillars, the sparks crawling out from them started to light up. And as if webs attracted to each other, the lights connected, making some sort of barrier to trap whatever was inside.

That process perhaps took less than a second; but alas, its prey was already gone.

"Your trap is useless, Whiteking."

Empress, who was standing in front of the Academy along with Butcher, Bulwark, and Tempo, could not help but slightly click her tongue as she watched as Dark Millenium escaped the trap they set for her.

[...I thought she would prioritize continuing her speech. The woman seemed quite talkative when we encountered her the other day.]

"You're the talkative one, Whiteking," Tempo let out a small chuckle; slightly shaking his head afterwards with a sigh, "So, what now?"

[It's a good thing we have another element waiting above.]

And as soon as Whiteking's words reached their ears, Dark Millenium's silhouette came shooting down straight from the sky. The ground, trembling as a small crater rippled and ripped through its surface.

And before the building cloud of dust could flourish, a grey silhouette followed– plunging straight towards where Dark Millenium landed and causing the crater she dug to expand even further.

Not giving Dark Millenium any chance to get up as Hera started raining down her fists, each strike digging the both of them deeper to the ground; each hit, causing thunders to erupt in the air, traveling in the form of static through the speakers of those who were watching from their screens.

Those thunders, however, were the only thing the viewers could make out from whatever was happening outside the Academy– as the curiosity of the people grew, so did the cloud of dust that lingered in the air.

But very soon, even that treat to their ears stopped. And not even a second later, Hera's silhouette suddenly shot out from the cloud of dust, leaving a trail of dust as she landed in an arc... straight towards the Academy's dome shield. And like a ragdoll, her body bounced and slid all the way back to the ground with the last thud.

"S... shit," Tempo then disappeared from his spot, only to appear beside Hera, "I... I think Hera's dead."

"You'll be the one dead if you don't stop telling everyone I died."

Hera, however, even with her feet trembling almost uncontrollably, stood up with her own strength. The trembling did not last long, however, as they stopped– taking with them the wounds on her body; any scratches or bruises, gone; only leaving her unblemished grey skin to flourish.

"Let's wrap this up fast," Hera then breathed out as she turned her eyes towards the dark silhouette slowly emerging from the cloud of dust, "I still have a modeling gig to go to later."

[...People still book you even with that old face of yours?]

A childish voice then echoed through their comms, followed by a flickering green that reflected in their eyes– flashes of light, thundering from above as they violently rained down almost endlessly upon Dark Millenium, not allowing her steps to continue.

[V, reporting for duty!]

A whirring sound then whistled in the air as a mecha suit landed in front of the Academy gates, slowly standing up from a kneeling pose as its pilot seemed to be assessing the surrounding area– and considering its size of almost two grown adults, it looked quite... comical.

And so, with V's arrival, as well as Bulwark's unexpected attendance...

...the members of the Hope Guild were once again complete.