Chapter 6: Trauma
As the dust settled down, Aries started to regain consciousness. The first thing he felt was an excruciating pain and a large weight on him. He opened his eyes and looked around, he was buried under the rubble, he started lifting the broken concrete blocks to get outside in hopes he could find his mother, but when he was able to see the outside world, he only saw destruction. Buildings were either leveled to the ground or burning. Screams could be heard everywhere while Bombard and Dard could be seen still fighting in a distance, flashes lighting up momentarily as the sun began to set.
"ARIES? ARIES WHERE ARE YOU?" Aries heard the voice of his mother calling for him, he ran towards the voice while calling for her
"MA! MA I'M HERE!" He cried as he saw her in a distance. He started running towards her but before he could reach her he saw Dart falling from the sky right in front of her. He looked up to then see Bombard charging up an explosion while falling towards them. "MA! RUN!" He screamed, but it was too late, as the explosion fell directly on her.
When the light from the explosion subsided, Aries could neither see his mother nor Dart, he could only see Bombard smiling sickly, he then created explosions to propel him upwards and he flew away. Aries then ran towards the place where his mother was standing, only to find it a flaming mess. He fell on his knees, his clothes burning from the heat of the ground, he could smell burnt flesh and feel his knees heat up, but the shock was all he could think of. He started tearing up, but his tears evaporated before it reached the ground. He sat in the same spot crying till the screams faded and he could hear sirens in a distance. The sun has already set and the light from the fires went out
"Hey kid! You alright?" an officer said while helping Aries off his feet. Aries just looked at him with eyes void of anything. The officer led him to the ambulance car while trying to console him, but with no success.
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"As you all can see, the destruction caused by the so called hero destroyed the whole area. Estimated damages are around 5 million currency points, and 849 casualties, 743 dead and 106 injured" A person wearing a cloak said in front of holographic pictures of the destruction, he was wearing a sun mask that covered his whole face. He turned around to see the 3 other people sitting on a round table, they were all wearing masks that cover their faces. "What do you think gentlemen?" The man said as he returned to the empty seat in front of him
"Well, Mr. Dawn" a man with a lion mask said "The incident which occurred yesterday was due to the fighting between Bombard and a member of the Nighttime guild, so shouldn't they take all responsibility?" He then turned to the lady wearing a crescent moon mask, "Isn't that right miss Nighttime?"
"Oh please" Nighttime answered "you know well that we didn't start anything. That bastard called Bombard was the one who hunted us down to gain some fame. As a matter of fact, Dart was trying to protect the civilians"
"Calm down both of you" said the last masked man "Miss Nighttime, Mr. Jungle, We're here to discuss what to do with the corrupt heroes, not fight between ourselves"
"Thank you Mr. Liberation" said Dawn "As Mr. Liberation said, we need to focus on the common enemy, which is the villains dressed up as heroes. That is why, I propose that a common base be created here on planet Ballok for the Anti-Hero alliance. All who oppose, please raise your hand" he then started looking around the room waiting for anyone to oppose, but when they all nodded in agreement and nobody raised their hands he continued "Great! We at Dawn will assess the details and alert you all once we have a proper plan. Thank you all, meeting dismissed"
Outside of the room, Nighttime was seen escorted by her guards who wore similar masks, they then escorted her to a white luxurious car, one of the guards then sat in the driver seat and the other opposite to Nighttime.
"Miss Nighttime" The guard opposite to her started "We got reports from a spy back at Terra that there is a boy with potential to be a good asset to us" he then handed her a glass tablet
"Tell me a brief about him" Nighttime said as she looked in the tablet
[Name: Aries Blackstone
Power: Item merge
Compatibility with orb: 98%]