CHAPTER 177: CHAPTER 177: PANIC AT THE DISCO

"Don’t try to be a hero. Don’t even try to do anything, I will find out."

The music in the club was completely gone, replaced by a synthetic voice that seemed even more tuned than the songs before.

The synthetic robotic voice didn’t matter, however. With how animated and exaggerated the movements of this Darkday were, everyone knew just exactly what he was feeling, even with the helmet on.

And he was having fun.

"Let’s just all lunge at him at the same time. How difficult would that be?" Back in the Baby Crew’s booth, the Baby Crew, Katherine, and Hera were all huddled together. "He’s not even paying attention. I bet we could take him. All the strongest freshmen are gathered here, and Bella."

"Excuse me, ho’?"

"Can you guys take this seriously?" Hannah shushed the two before they could start arguing again. "We don’t even know if that shit’s really the Darkday that’s been on the news. That stupid outfit could be worn by anyone."

"Very astute observation, Sister," Riley quickly said. "Darkday’s outfit is darker, and does not reflect light at all."

"Huh..." Hannah and the rest of the people in the booth turned their heads at the fake Darkday on the stage. And true enough, the colorful lights of the club were being reflected on his helmet. "...I see. That makes sense, maybe even premeditated," she said, placing her hand on her chin as she looked at her brother. "Submit a student’s name through the website in a traceable way. Then have a spy that’s already inside the Academy dress up as Darkday so they could use him as cover. In that way, they could target anyone they wanted in this school and just blame it on the new guy. And assuming this is the only place they revealed themselves, that meant that their target is currently in this club."

Everyone stared at Hannah and Riley, blinking several times before Hera raised a finger.

"There’s... just no suspense with the two of you, huh?" she said. "At least let the situation marinate a little until you try and guess the entire situation. That’s what makes a good story."

"You know what else makes a good story?" Gracey smirked. "A—"

"So, what’s the plan?" Hera didn’t let Gracey continue at all. She glanced at the supposed Darkday impostor, and then back at Hannah.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Uh, you’re the one who looks like she has a plan."

"You’re the oldest one here. That responsibility should go to you."

"Uh. First of all, Kath’s older than me. Second, age doesn’t matter here. It—"

"I have a plan." Silvie raised her hand, and Hannah didn’t seem to mind at all that she was interrupted and even urged Silvie to speak up. But before she could even actually speak her mind, their entire booth slowly turned their heads toward the stage all at the same time, or rather, in front of it.

...And Riley was there.

"Jesus..." Hera shook her head. "...You Ross siblings have a habit of going off-script."

[Oh, what is this now?] the fake Darkday said, chuckling as he looked down at the boy in front of him. [If it isn’t one of Bernard Ross’s children. How lucky for me.]

The fake Darkday slightly leaned down, placing his hand on his knee as he tilted his head to the side. He then placed the microphone even closer to his helmet.

[I don’t know what sort of special treatment you’re getting here for you to think you can just come up to me, but you’d better do the same thing as everyone else and walk back to your little group. Okay? It—]

Riley calmly opened up his palm right in front of the impostor’s helmet, and the helmet instantly cracked and then opened up into a thousand little pieces.

"What the?!" The impostor quickly leaned back—and that was a mistake. The bits and pieces, the shards of the helmet that were floating around his head, didn’t fall at all, no. Instead, they remained frozen in the air, and they shredded his scalp and cheek when he leaned back.

"Fuck!" The man covered his face, but it was already too late, as everyone had already seen it. He turned his focus back to Riley, but before his eyes could even land on him, he found his vision darkening.

The last thing he saw was everything going up. Or rather, he went down as he felt a sudden weight crash down on him.

Everyone saw it too, how he just flopped and then went through the platform. It started with a crack, and then a heavy thud—he probably didn’t just go through the stage, but also cracked the floor beneath.

Riley was done with him, but he was far from done with everything else. The shards of the helmet still floated above him, and then, with a twirl of his fingers, he glanced at Katherine.

"Which ones, Katherine?" he asked. Katherine squinted at first, confused at what he was trying to ask of her. But soon, her head slightly tilted to the side, and then she quickly rushed out from the booth.

"You take the one in the blue cap!" she screamed, pointing right as she ran left.

Riley quickly glanced to where Katherine pointed, focusing on the only person wearing a blue cap. And when he saw the woman flinch, a tiny smile crept onto his face, and the bits and pieces of the helmet floating above him shot straight toward her.

The woman clicked her tongue, and then removed her cap and swung it toward the shards coming at her. The cap grew bigger, but it didn’t do anything to stop the shards at all, and everything just went through it.

But as the cap was blown away, the woman who was supposed to be hiding behind it was nowhere to be seen.

Riley tilted his head to the side, but before he could start searching for the woman again, the entire stage cracked open and the fake Darkday lunged toward him.

His face was already mangled, and his eyes were completely red. Still, he wrapped his hands around Riley’s neck. And without any hesitation, he flew up, completely destroying the ceiling.

"Shit! Riley!" Hannah was about to fly up, but she felt herself being thrown away; a fist slammed onto her cheek out of nowhere, along with its owner, who just popped up right beside her. The very same woman who threw the cap and avoided Riley’s attack.

Silvie was going to grab the woman, but she once again instantly disappeared from their sight. She squinted, tilting her head to the side as she said,

"She’s... still here. I can hear her!" Silvie got up from her seat, hovering in the air as she looked at the floor.

"Whatta you mean, Sis?!" Bella also got up, standing on the table as she looked around. "She invisible or some shit?!"

"No, she... she’s smaller! Gracey?!" Silvie pointed at Gracey. "Can you hear her?!"

"I don’t have super-hearing!"

"How?! She’s here some—"

"Right there!" Pauline screamed. She had her eyes closed, but she pointed right over Tomoe’s shoulder.

Tomoe’s small eyes widened. She was about to cover herself in crystal, but she felt a weight suddenly fall upon her shoulders—and the next thing she knew, a foot was already on her cheek. She did, however, still manage to slightly protect her head with a crystal helmet.

"Come here!" Gracey didn’t waste any time at all and lunged toward the woman, but she once again instantly disappeared. "Oh, no you don’t!"

Gracey sucked in a deep breath, and then, with a smirk, she let out a large breath that almost blew Tomoe away if it wasn’t for the fact that she grabbed her.

Her smirk widened when she saw a small dot flying away. Her eyes reddened, licking her teeth as she released a beam toward the small dot.

To her surprise, however, the small dot completely dodged the beam. And like a mosquito, she was gone from their sight.

"The bitch can fly?!" she hollered.

"What are you doing?! You’ll kill her!" Silvie bellowed.

"And?!" Gracey raised an eyebrow. "Don’t tell me you’re one of those with the no-kill rule! They’re literally after one of us and will kill us without any hesitation!"

"No!" Silvie shook her head. "Villains have forsaken their right to live. We need them alive for questioning!"

"Hardcore. You like torture, huh?"

"What? No!" Silvie looked around, and then she saw a tiny dot flying toward V’s position.

"V!" she quickly warned V, but she didn’t need to. Before the microscopic woman could even approach V, the trickles of electricity surrounding her body shot toward the woman.

Silvie watched as the dot fell.

"Is she—"

And before Silvie could even ask if the woman might be dead, she returned to her normal size and then swept V off her feet before spinning in the air and slamming her knee straight onto V’s chest.

Hannah, who had recovered from being kicked right on the head, lunged toward the woman... but she disappeared again.

"Uh..." Bella raised an eyebrow as she watched a single woman play with the entire Baby Crew. "...are we getting humbled by a fuckin’ size shifter?"

Meanwhile, outside the club, a loud crunch whispered in the air as Riley broke the fake Darkday’s leg without any hesitation... right in front of a large crowd of students.