Chapter 31 - The Hero's Mission

The ground shook and screaming civilians could be heard all around. The source of the terror was a rather thinly built man. His face was painted red as he stomped his foot on the concrete path and he tore his coffee stained shirt apart.

"THIS WAS MY FAVOURITE SHIRT!!!" Screaming, he threw it aimlessly and scanned the running crowd. "WHERE ARE YOU? COMPENSATE ME! COMPENSATE ME FOR MY SHIRT!"

Unfortunately for him, the man had already run the minute he started yelling and destroying the footpath. All he could see now was the backs of people running to safety and a couple of kids across the street eating ice cream and watching him with amused smiles.

"Sir, please calm down!" An officer dressed in blue was quick to arrive on the scene.

"ARGHHHHH!" The rampaging man screeched and swung the officer away. As more and more officers tried to stop him, he got more and more irritated and thus more and more aggressive.

"----Requesting back up! The target is a man with superhuman strength, he doesn't seem sane---!"

"Got it." From the other side of the radio, the officer heard a familiar voice. It was a voice of someone that had been appearing on television a lot lately...Hero Terra! The officer's eyes lit up. He'd be able to see his idol working from a close distance, what a dream come true!

Shortly after, the hero jumped down from the rooftop and landed with a classic pose. He looked up and found the villain was not even disguised. Many officers carefully surrounded him as he swung a broken street sign around like a crazed drunk with a twig.

After observing the chaos, Terra swiftly planted both his plans on the ground. His eyes that had been hidden behind his mask glowed and the asphalt road beneath the villain turned soft like mud.

"?!" The rage blind villain didn't even react before he swiftly sunk into the swamp-like road. As soon as he noticed, the road was returned to its normal state, trapping him in it. All the villain could do was squirm around as his arms were trapped and only his shoulders and head were above the surface.

"Thank you for the assistance sir!" The officer that radioed the situation turned to Terra and delightfully.

"No worries." The hero cooly said and added, chuckling, "It's rather nice to openly work with the police after doing it secretly all these years."

"Yes, it's my pleasure to be able to work alongside you heroes!" Before the establishment of the hero division, there were many times where heroes would help the police solve crime. This was all done behind the scene and without public knowledge. Now that heroes were legalised, they simply got more freedom to cooperate.

"Uwah! I-I'm sorry, officer. Please release me!" The villain suddenly stopped roaring and cried out in surrender. Upon closer inspection, Terra found that his eyes had stopped glowing. "I'm sorry for hurting you and I'll pay for damages! I...My ability just activates by itself when I get angry! I didn't mean to act like that!"

Terra sighed. He crouched in front of the offending man and spoke. "Even if you can compensate for all the damages, what if someone had gotten hurt?"

"I-" The man looked like he was on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry. I've been very stressed and under a lot of pressure lately so when someone bumped into me and made me spill my coffee on my favourite shirt, I just exploded. I'm usually very careful about keeping my emotions in check so I...I'm so sorry!"

Terra sighed and shook his head. "Whatever. This isn't my jurisdiction. The police officers will decide what to do with you after they take you in. All I can tell you is to be more careful from now on."

The hero placed both palms on the road again and released the guy for the police to arrest. Standing up, he saw that people had gathered around to watch the show. Even kids were watching, amused smiles decorating their ice cream stained lips. Terra's eyes landed on one child in particular. He had black hair and beady eyes, a gentle smile carved on his face, somewhat unsuitable for the current setting. Narrowing his eyes, Terra felt that the boy looked somewhat familiar but couldn't quite figure out why.

"---Terra, have you settled the situation yet?" The voice coming from his ear piece interrupted the hero's thoughts. He snapped out of his daze and touched the ear piece. Every on duty hero wore one while they were patrolling so that they could arrive on scene instantly when called for.

"Yeah. Was just someone who's ability went berserk."

"The detectives have confirmed the reliability of the information from the other day. They're requesting our cooperation to deal with it."

Just three days ago, someone had anonymously sent in a report to the police. It simply stated: There is a laboratory experimenting on spirit beasts and humans. They are at xxxx location.

No one knew who tipped them but after checking on it, they found that there were indeed many suspicious cases occurring in that area.

"Got it. Who's going?"

"We still have to discuss that but it seems that you're to be the leader of the operation."

He didn't say the reason but Terra understood that it was because he was a hero that was relatively well known. They wanted to use the opportunity to promote the hero division and solidify its reason for existing. But Terra didn't care. All he knew was that there were villains running amok and that he needed to stop them.

A week later, after discussing and making multiple plans, they finally found an opportunity to carry out justice. The laboratory would have food deliveries once a week. All they had to do was sneak a few heroes in to scout the area and afterwards, they would all collectively attack.

"---All clear! Attack!"