8 A Storm Brewing

The remaining 9 representatives glanced at each other seeing the noise and clamour of the crowd. They were unsure of what they should do next. At this moment the Prodigium representative turned to the woman sat at the end of the row with a gentle appearance and look of faint concern on her face.

"Carol can you please go and heal Doug?"

The Angelis Sanitas representative carol, nodded her head and stood up to head over to The Deus representative: Doug. Walking across the stage to the small crater where Doug lay, the look of concern on Carol's face only deepened. She was well aware of how strong Doug was and how much battle experience he had. To be able to cause this much damage with one move, exactly how powerful was that girl? Carol thought to herself as she kneeled down beside him.

A bright white light enveloped her hands and began shining down onto the unconscious Doug. In a matter of seconds Doug's bruises cleared up and he was quickly roused from his unconscious state. He sat up abruptly and looked around him. Seeing the mass of people around him looking down on him, his face twisted in anger and humiliation.

He turned to Carol and with a fierce look on his face barked the question:

"Where is she?!"

Carol leant back swiftly at the aggressive nature of Doug's tone of voice. She stuttered for a moment before answering him.

"She left with her two students just a few minutes ago."

Doug couldn't believe it. Never in his life had his lofty reputation ever been so neglected. He was furious, however he had made a fool of himself earlier and was now determined to keep a calm demeanor in front of the crowd. He vowed in his heart to pay back this mysterious girl back for his humiliation that he had suffered today. However he had experienced Yui's power first hand and knew all too well that he couldn't handle her alone. He turned and looked at the representatives sat at the table. He knew a number of them were just as proud as himself some of them if not more so. A plan began to form in his mind.

He stood up and faced the representatives sat the table.

"Fellow representatives, today we have been shown a great disrespect. This new academy has appeared out of nowhere and dared to drag the reputation of our glorious establishments through the mud. We have stood for over 5 centuries keeping the peace of the Galaxy and we have shed blood and tears in this noble pursuit. Yet despite this, Yui Shiro has dared to disregard our brave efforts and insult us to our faces!"

Doug laid it on thick, attempting to evoke the emotions and also the egos of the representatives. Not to his surprise, it seemed to be working. He noticed that the Prodigium representative and some of the more higher ranked school representatives were nodding their heads at his words. Seeing this gave him the assurance he needed to carry on with his speech.

"Yui Shiro needs to understand where she stands in this world. Please look around you, the whole Galaxy is watching, will you allow your reputation to be tarnished so publicly without so much as an apology from the other party?"

At his question 6 of the representatives nodded in approval and began to stand up. However, all of a sudden, a rough sounding woman's voice rang out through the hall.

"You can carry on, but I sure as hell ain't interested."

At this moment the representative from Ranshao Zhihun: Aeryn spoke up. Not hearing the reply he wanted a frown appeared on Doug's face. He wasn't happy hearing Aeryn's abrupt tone but he knew that their overall fighting power was lowered significantly without her. So he decided to keep a straight face and approached this opposition with a calm manner.

"You aren't interested? Aren't you concerned with the reputation of your school? Your own personal pride? She insulted us all to our faces!"

Doug was calm but firm with his speech and even the audience was beginning to nod in agreement with him at this point. Doug praised himself internally, he had manipulated the hearts of those listening to his speech flawlessly, bringing the large majority of them over to his side.

"Insulted us? How do you know that you weren't wrong? We live in a world where the guy with the biggest fist has the final say. If that crazy powerful chick says those kids have potential then how can you be sure that we ain't wrong? The only thing I'm annoyed about is that I didn't pay closer attention to those kids."

Aeryn crossed her arms and sat back in her chair with a frustrated look on her face. It looked as if she was sulking and that she wasn't going to be moving anytime soon.

Hearing her words Doug nearly lost his temper again. In his mind there was no way that he was wrong, and he was about to angrily let her know that. After a quick look around though, Doug quickly calmed himself down. He just resigned himself to the fact that he would have to do this without Aeryn, but looking at the people who had joined him on stage and stood around he felt very reassured. The 7 people that stood around him were the best of the best, a collection of some of the strongest superhumans in the Galaxy. He smiled to himself "this will be enough." he thought. Enough to crush that outrageous girl Yui Shiro.

The energy of the crowd stepped up another level at seeing this group of incredible superhumans working together to teach that crude girl a lesson in manners. The TV crews were also working in overdrive to make sure they caught every detail of the spectacle about to happen. Extra staff were brought in and air crews were called to track their position as they proceeded through the city. The TV station to capture the best scenes of the drama about to unfold would undoubtedly gain the highest viewer count today.

The Prodigium representative turned to Doug at this point and asked

"What's the plan then Doug? How shall we go about finding them?"

Doug let out a smug smile at the question.

"We won't go looking for them, we will have them come to us."

One of the representatives replied to Doug's strange response to their question.

"What do you mean by that?"

Doug's smile grew wider as he explained his grand idea.

"Please listen closely. From here, we will race to the space port at maximum speed. We know for a fact that their new academy isn't in Morningstar city and I also doubt it is on this planet, if it were we would have heard about it a long time ago. So that means at some point they will have to catch a spaceship out of here. Yui Shiro has her two students with her which as you saw, barely possess any power, with these two by her side slowing her down she won't be able to move too quickly. If we leave now we can beat them there and between us we can cover the 4 entrances to the spaceport, then it is simply a case of waiting for our friends to show up."

The rest of the representatives faces lit up with understanding at hearing Doug's explanation. Doug had a look of smugness on his face, exceptionally pleased with himself for thinking up this plan and getting the majority of the other representatives on his side.

At this moment the representative from Yongheng de Yu spoke up:

"Well then, we have no time to waste! Let's leave immediately!"

The other representatives spoke up with words of approval and Doug too nodded his head. The group of eight set out quickly, all of them keen to restore their lost honour. Although they weren't hurting as bad as Doug who had been handed such a public beat down, none of those who were heading out were particularly happy to have heard Yui's words earlier. They were all representatives of some of the most prestigious organizations in the Galaxy, they were important people with respected positions. Yet before Yui Shiro that all seemed to mean nothing, as she was more than happy to call them all stupid in front of the millions of people watching.

They naturally weren't fooled by Doug's overly righteous words earlier, but after being insulted like they had been they were more than happy to team up with him and teach this rude girl a lesson.

Aeryn sat and looked on indifferently as the overly proud representatives went to go and try regain face before the excited masses. The TV crews were constantly reporting the situation to the teams in the air in order for them to keep track of the representatives as they made their way to the space port.

Aeryn turned to her side to see the one other representative who had remained quiet and chosen not to go with the group. He was the representative from one of the lowest ranked schools Sinbihan Angae.

"Hey Chung Hyeon, are you not going with the other idiots to restore your lost pride?"

Aeryn questioned, disdain dripping off of her every word. Sinbihan Angae's representative Chung Hyeon laughed at Aeryn's crudely worded question before narrowing his eyes and answering her with a serious look on his face.

"As a representative of one of the weaker schools who regularly rank near the bottom of the list, I often deal with disrespect towards myself and my school, from a variety of different people too. As a result of this I have become very good at picking my battles and avoiding trouble wherever possible. In the case of that girl, Yui Shiro, my gut is telling me to avoid tangling with her whatever it takes."

Aeryn frowned as she considered Chung Hyeon's words.

"How strong exactly do you think she is Chung Hyeon?"

Chung Hyeon paused for a moment and gazed into the crowd before answering

"I can't say exactly, but I don't think that Yui Shiro is a fool. She wouldn't have said and did what she did without being sure that she can handle the consequences of her actions."

Aeryn tapped her finger on the table in irritation and furrowed her brow.

"So what you are saying is..."

Chung Hyeon smiled calmly despite Aeryn's prompting and rested his chin on his hand.

"What I'm saying is that I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg with Yui Shiro. I think so far we have only seen a small fraction of her power."

Aeryn's frown deepened as she considered the implications of Chung Hyeon's words.

"There might be a storm brewing."

Aeryn thought to herself as she fell deeper into her own thoughts.