Villain Retirement

With all the noise thundering throughout the entire prison neighborhood, the prisoners that were once trying their hardest to avoid making contact with Alice's son could no longer contain their curiosity; their heads, all looking out of the windows of their fancy houses.

Most of the prisoners in the top 50 have been here for decades– they knew Alice and everything she did. All of them were hardened criminals or just plain insane; Alice, however, was a different breed.

She was like a little child with the power to destroy the entire world– and they all experienced it with all the pranks she did while in the prison. They don't know what Alice's son did to be imprisoned in the most secure prison in the world, but one thing they know is that involving themselves with him will only bring them troubles.

Even though they had televisions installed in their houses, they were actually only limited to Webflix– not being allowed to watch the news outside. Because of this, most of them had no idea what was happening outside, and had to rely on what the guards were telling them. And so, most of them usually had a friend or two from the guards.

They did try asking what Alice's son's crimes were, but the only answer they received from them was that it was confidential.

They would have probably tried to approach him if the one holding Rank 1 would at least show himself since he was also Alice's number 1 victim with her pranks, but it would seem that even he was trying to avoid her son as much as possible.

But now… someone was actually crazy enough to not only approach her son, but also fight him?

Something was wrong, however. If fights break out in the area where the top 50 is, warden Yakovich would usually show himself within seconds before the brawl escalates further. After all, although they were living peacefully here, they could still be considered amongst the strongest supers in the world– minus the S-Class supers, of course.

But still, at least more than a handful of them would be considered S-Class if they were outside– meaning, they were more than capable of leveling an entire city if they wished to. So if a fight escalated, then it would mean the prison would be destroyed faster than one could blink; this is the reason warden Yakovich immediately tries to break the fight.

So why… why was he not showing himself? Some of them had already thought of the reason– warden Yakovich also doesn't want to get involved with Alice's son.

And so, most of the prisoners started stepping out of their houses, seeing who it was that was creating trouble; and since their villas were almost lined in a circle, it was easy to see everything that was happening in their neighborhood.

"It's Fred," one of the prisoners quickly exclaimed as a somewhat short blur passed by him. Alice was already leaving when Fred was brought to prison. It made sense– most of the older prisoners thought; only someone who had not experienced Alice's full fury would react this way.

The prisoners then continued to watch, some of them even nodding their heads in satisfaction. They couldn't fight back when it came to Alice– but his son? This was free real estate. And since warden Yakovich was not doing anything, maybe they could actually bully him for all the times she caused them trouble?

And so, with these thoughts of unison, the prisoners that stepped out of their houses all actually looked at each other– all nodding their heads as if they actually understood each other.

As soon as they stepped out of their lawns, however, Fred stopped running; right in the middle of the subdivision as if to show everyone what he just did. And as victims of Alice, almost every one of them were excited to see what happened– and if they would have a chance to actually inflict pain.

Their steps, however, all stopped at the same time as Alice's son… was seemingly unscathed even after being dragged around everywhere. Not only that…

…he was now lifting Fred by the neck. And without even a second after… they saw both of Fred's short legs suddenly falling to the ground from the waist.

"Grah!"

And after that was a scream some of them have not heard for a very long time– pain. Excruciating pain. But even with Fred's intense scream, not even a single drop of blood flowed from his dismembered leg.

"..."

The prisoners once again turned to look at each other; all nodding their heads as they all took a few steps back to their lawn. Their eyes, just watching what sort of… thing Alice's son was up to.

And soon, they saw some sort of mecha suit floating in the air– landing straight beside Alice's son and Fred. Alice's son then let go of Fred; but still, he remained floating in the air, even ascending a few meters up.

The mecha suit then suddenly disassembled itself– its limbs also floating in the air and surrounding Alice's son. And right when they all asked themselves what exactly was happening, the legs of the mecha suit flew straight towards Fred…

…attaching themselves to him.

Once again, the only thing that Fred could do was scream as the little bits of metal from the robotic leg pierced his flesh… even grinding and attaching themselves to his bones.

"R… Riley Ross?" V, who initially thought that someone stole her mecha suit, could not help but let out a small but very tight gasp as she realized that it was Riley who took her suit. And not only that… he was now using it to torture his opponent.

"Riley!" V then rushed towards where Riley was, her steps heavy and the limiter on her back starting to light up brightly, "What… what did you do!? I need the mecha suit in case something goes wrong with the limiter!"

"You don't need it, Miss V," Riley, however, even with all the panic that was happening around him, just answered her casually,

"As long as you stay beside me, I will hold your powers in my hands… I won't let anything happen to you because you are my–"

"Argh!"

And before Riley could finish his words, Fred's screams once again echoed throughout the prison neighborhood. Hearing this, Riley gently floated Fred down– letting him go as soon as the robotic feet touched the ground, causing Fred to drop face-first to the hard ground; his screams, now muffled.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Riley then stared at him for a few seconds, before finally turning him around.

"You… you freak!" Fred quickly roared; trying to lift himself up but unable to do so, "What… what did you do to me!?"

"...I apologize, dwarf," Riley then let out a small but very deep sigh as he crouched beside Fred, "I thought you would get faster, I was only trying to help you."

V, who was watching from the sides, could not help but cover her mouth. She was used to violence, of course– that was her life ever since. But this…

…were they sure Riley was not Darkday?

*** *** ***

"...What?"

Weeks ago in V's chamber inside the Hope Guild, before Riley's trial, all of the members of the Hope Guild were present– all of them standing up except for their youngest member, V. Even Bulwark was there, standing with the rest of his former team.

Of course, how could he not when they were currently telling the youngest member of the team that her power ran wild and killed millions and millions of people?

Tempo just finished explaining and telling it to the team as… subdued as possible. But no matter how much he tried to sugarcoat it there was really no way that the deaths of more than 5 million people could be softened up.

"...What?"

What?-- V had probably repeated the word more than a dozen times throughout the story… and the story didn't even last 5 minutes. These 5 minutes, however, might as well have been V's entire life. Every word that came out of Tempo's mouth made every pore in V's body open up.

The temperature in V's chamber is always regulated to the optimal temperature according to her liking, but even then, V was currently sweating enough to fill an entire pool; and at the same time, she was currently trembling from the chill that was piercing every fiber of her being.

More than 5 million people disintegrated into nothing, because of her?

More than 5 million people that were just peacefully living their lives, gone because of her?

Families that were just going on about their days, laughing and sharing their days with one another… dead because of her.

Her powers have always been destructive in nature– not even fit in rescuing anyone. But she made it work. She trained under Empress in order for her to learn how to control her powers… and with Whiteking's mecha suit, any danger that she possessed dwindled almost to zero.

But this… how could she have allowed something like this to happen?

"Let… let me see," V then meekly stuttered as she stood up from her seat, "Let… let me see what happened."

"V… no," Hera, who usually had finesse and arrogance in her tone, could only embrace V as she saw the look of desperation and defeat on her face, "You don't need to–"

"Let me see!" V then let out a high-pitched scream, causing the lights in her chambers to flicker and go wild.

"..." Seeing this, the other members of the Hope Guild could only look at each other– Empress, eventually nodding her head as Butcher, who was hiding the remote of V's television, turned it on.

"No…

…No!"