Villain's Rising

“Why are we here Starsuper?!” A woman in a red costume asked. She was Scarlet Vampire. There’s not a boy in existence who doesn’t have her poster in his room.

“Yes, Starsuper! I was about to do it with my wife today after so long!”

The one who revealed that super private information was none other than the principal of Hero Academy, Lightbringer.

“Yeah Lightbringer, no one is interested in your dead marriage’s love life,” a girl in a red and gold costume said. She was Liberty the strongest American Female Hero. “I stood a good guy up on a date to come here!”

“What? You’re dating someone?” A man in an Italian suit asked with a frown. He was Deadeye. His ability is to create Guns out of thin air. That’s not it though, the more he’s backed up against the corner the stronger his bullets become.

“Yes, and he’s a good guy unlike you!” Bursted out Liberty.

“I’m a good guy!” Deadeye retorted.

“You slept with my mom for fuck’s sake!” Liberty slammed her hand on the table.

“And I said you both look the same!!” Deadeye tried to defend his unspeakable behaviour.

“Shut up you two! Not again!” A guy in a lab coat yelled at the pair. He was Professor. No, that wasn’t his profession that was his Hero name.

“Sorry” the duo apologized in unison.

“Done all of you? Now can I speak?” With an expression clearly stating ‘I’m done with all this’ on his face, Starsuper sarcastically questioned.

“Y-Yes, let the man speak!” Lightbringer said, trying to act modest._.

“Sigh…” with a sigh of frustration, Starsuper began his explanation for why he had called everyone there.

He told everyone about where he was gone and what he found on his little trip.

He told them how he visited the area that was reporting the sighting of a Demon and how he inspected the dungeon that the Progenitor used as his last dwelling.

And finally he told them about Heya.

As expected, everyone reacted like Rick. Some were stupefied, some were lost, and some couldn’t believe it.

The one who broke the silence was Liberty.

“So, you were hiding a Demon General under our nose?” She asked with her head down.

“I wasn’t hiding anything, I was protecting all of you-“

Before Starsuper could even finish defending himself however, Liberty shot up from her seat and her body instantly started transforming.

In an instant, her skin turned into the darkest shade of blue and her body bulked up twice its size, it grew both in size and width. She was looking like a bulky 7′ feet tall monster.

With an astonishing speed she jumped on the table and shot at Starsuper. The latter didn’t try to move or even defend himself. He just sat there.

Liberty, however, did not hesitate. She pulled back her arm and threw a punch with every single bit of the strength she could muster.

Although, before her punch could reach the man in the golden cape, a flash of light hit her from the side, sending her flying a few meters away.

No, it wasn’t Lightbringer as one would’ve expected it to be. It was Deadeye.

In his hand he was holding a golden sniper rifle and golden smoke was lingering at the end of its barrel. The flash of light that had hit Liberty just a few moments earlier was one of Deadeye’s ability gun’s bullets.

“Calm down Liberty,” Deadeye said while standing up on his spot. “Let’s hear him out before killing him.”

It’s not as if anyone present there, alone or joined, could kill him but Deadeye spoke everyone’s mind.

Starsuper had not only betrayed the Hero Association by hiding a Demon General but he had also endangered humanity by doing so.

“Now speak, why shouldn’t we kill you?” Deadeye spoke, turning his aim at Starsuper.

“Well, for starters because you can’t kill me,” Starsuper responded with a cheeky grin before turning serious. “Do you all know that 300 years ago we wouldn’t have won if not for that Demon General.”

“Why? What did she do?” Liberty asked while standing up. Her voice was much deeper and scary compared to her previous melodic one.

“She broke through Progenitor’s mind control,” replied Starsuper.

Again, everyone was left stunned again.

“But a Demon can’t break Progenitor’s mind control! After all, the Progenitor made them all!” The one who stated the obvious was Professor.

“Really? You don’t say?” After sarcastically replying to that comment, Starsuper continued. “I know it’s impossible but she did it anyway. And besides, we live in a world where people can fly and breathe fire, do you guys really need logic?”

His point was valid yet a Demon breaking through mind control was unheard of.

“Also, all of the original 12s knew about this matter and they all agreed to keep her alive in return for what she did for us.”

“The original 12s knew about it?!” Widening his eyes, Professor turned to Lightbringer.

The original 12s or ‘The Protectors’ were the 12 Heroes who joined forces to defeat the Progenitor along with Starsuper.

They are said to be by far the strongest people in all of history.

Lightbringer was the only alive member left of ‘The Protectors’ beside Starsuper. So if anyone in this room could testify to the validity of Starsuper’s words then it was him.

“Yes, 300 years ago we chose to let Wrath General live. Happy now?!” Feeling their gazes on him, Lightbringer, who was quiet up until now, revealed.

“What?!” Turning back into her human form, Liberty furiously reacted. “And you didn’t think it was important for us to know that?!”

“We were afraid you all would react… exactly like how you all reacted now. Or you would stupidly try to kill her.” Lightbringer replied while averting his gaze.

“So you didn’t tell us! And how did that turn out for you?! The problem solved itself! She died without us having to kill her!” Deadeye snapped.

“Calm down Deadeye,” Professor spoke up. “I won’t ask why you didn’t tell us, but I will ask why did you let her live at the risk of endangering humanity?”

Before Lightbringer could even open his mouth to answer that question, Starsuper began replying.

“Because we feared that the Progenitor could return, so we took some measures to ensure that if he does we’ll know about it. Though it looks like he did return and we were too late to notice.”

“Wait, letting that Demon live was your measure?” Liberty questioned with a ridiculed face.

“Yes. She was not under Progenitor’s control and she had already proven her loyalty toward us in the Last Battle of Melbourne.”

That was another sound point. Although she was a Demon created by the Progenitor, she was not under his control. If Progenitor were to ever return then she would’ve felt that with her connection to him.

But in the end she didn’t. Because the Progenitor was two steps ahead of everyone. Instead of formulating his resurrection plan in case of his death, the Progenitor passed down his abilities to his bloodline.

So because the Progenitor didn’t return himself and it was Sam who ended up inheriting his ability from his father, who inherited it from his forefathers, Heya wasn’t able to feel the connection.

Thus, no one was notified until Sam became a little reckless.

“Besides, all of you are focusing on the wrong part.”

Breaking the silence that had descended into the room, Lightbringer spoke.

“Yes,” said Starsuper. “The part you all should be focusing on is that he has returned. And Heya told us that we can’t stop him. It’s not the same man, it’s someone else with his abilities.”

“Oh come on, I don’t believe in Fortune Telling abilities!” Deadeye shot up. “Future is ever-changing, if we didn’t defeat him in this timeline then we’ll change this timeline!”

“True!” This time it was Liberty. For once she was agreeing with Deadeye. “The fact that he hasn’t revealed himself yet means that he isn’t strong enough yet!”

“Yes,” Professor nodded. “Even if it’s not the same guy, he still has the same ability as the Progenitor! So as long as we stop him before he creates his Demon army, we will win!”

“Indeed, I agree. Even the real Progenitor wasn’t a big threat without his Army!” Lightbringer said standing up.

However, Starsuper just shook his head. Everyone was fired up but he wasn’t. Because no one, not even Lightbringer, knew how accurate Heya’s future reading was.

Her ability was not simply to look at the future, her ability was to see the ‘Time Tree’.

Every action that we take creates a separate branch in time. A separate universe if you may. According to Heya, the timeline started as one but diverted later on, taking the shape of a tree.

While other fortune tellers only looks at their own branch, their reading is not 100% accurate but Heya, who looks at the whole Tree, could never be wrong.

In this Time Tree, everything has happened and whatever has happened will happen. That means everything is fixed. Every action that one can take has already been taken. Every decision that one can make has already been made.

The Time Tree was fully grown and it couldn’t expand anymore. Because everything was already done.

If in any timeline they were going to win, Heya wouldn’t have wasted her last breath by not telling him that. But she saw the whole Tree and still said they will lose.

That just means one thing, they lost in every timeline.

While everyone was firing up in enthusiasm, Starsuper only softly mumbled to himself.

“We’ve already lost.”