Chương 4: Rise of the Green Hood
"Who do you think you are?" Mr. Dancer demanded of the people who had inflitrated the school. Situated on the first floor right across from the office, his classroom was the first in the line of proverbial fire for the invaders.
"Shut your face, grampa" the leader of the villains replied with a dismissive tone. "You can't do anything to stop us anyways. Why don't you just stay quiet and wait until we are done? When we are finished setting up, I promise we will make things quick and painless for you and your charges."
"You aren't allowed in here!" Mr. Dancer protested. "I'm afraid I will have to ask you to leave."
"That's precious, Boss. This old man things he can tell us what to do." The getaway driver replied with a chuckle. "He obviously doesn't know who we are."
Mr. Dancer pursed his lips. Things were not looking good. Thadeous Connell Middle School wasn't known for having a large number of powered teachers or staff. Of the entire faculty only the Principal had any ability and his strength was barely near that of a Rank D hero. Unfortunately, Principal Jefferson was away in Granite City for a conference. Not that a Rank D hero would have been able to take on these three.
While he didn't want to admit it, he actually did know who was standing in his classroom. The man in charge of these hoodlums was the supervillain known as the Green Hood. Starting off life as nothing more than a petty thief, the Green Hood had taken a sharp turn towards notoriety when he had caused an explosion in the industrial sector of the city. Despite the chaos and three superheroes on the scene, he had managed to escape capture. All that he had left behind was a single video of him staring into a security camera with a smirk on his face.
Little was known about the Green Hood, other than the fact that he was always five steps ahead of law enforcement. Even the Alliance of Heroic Societies had started to take notice of this supervillain's rise to infamy. It was only a matter of time before he flew too close to the sun like the myth of olden times.
But until considerable help, there wasn't much that could be done to stop him. Considering the fact the Green Hood and his merry men were armed with pistols. With the thirty defenseless middle schoolers in the room around him limiting his actions, Mr. Dancer couldn't risk going for the sidearm that he kept in his desk. It was his job to make sure that these kids made it home safe to their families.
Frustrated by his predicament, he had not choice but to surrender. His head bowed low in shame, he said, "Fine, I'll do whatever you want. Just don't hurt the kids."
"Look who finally decided to be reasonable." The Green Hood smirked with a twisted sense of delight at how easy it was to subdue the rebellious teacher. That was the problem with good guys, they had to protect the weak. The reason that evil would always triumph in the end was that villians never had to worry about people getting hurt. There was just something liberating about that fact.
No matter how hard things may have gotten in recent years with the constant influx of new superheroes to thwart the best laid plans of honest, hardworking villains, if there was a will there was a way. Today would be the first step to the fulfillment of his ultimate plan. No one was going to stop him. There wouldn't be a pesky hero to swoop in and save the 'innocent' this time. People would never forget today. The dawn of a new age was just about to be born.
"Is the device almost ready, Blazer?" He asked his second-in-command for an update.
"Almost ready, Boss. The force-field is in place already. Give me two minutes and thirty six seconds for the energy to gather and phase two can begin."
Despite his ridiculous nickname, Blazer was the coolest person when under a tight deadline that Hood had ever met. In the whole time that he had known the man, there wasn't a single time when he had failed to accurately deliver on his promises. This room would soon be ground zero to a new day and there wasn't a damn thing the Alliance could do to stop it.
"Tiny, make sure that you do a sweep of the perimeter" the Green Hood ordered his wheel-man. "I don't want any nasty surprises before our big moment."
"Got it, Boss" the dolt said. Pausing as he was about to exit the room, he added, "What do you want me to do if I find a complication?"
Hood smiled with an evil grin. "Why get rid of it of course."
"Bastard!" Mr. Dancer swore under his breath. There were hundreds of innocent kids and staff in this building. If one of them crossed that brute's path they were going to get hurt or worse. Yet there was nothing he could do about it. All he could do was hope that the time that his class had bought for the rest of the school was enough for them to have implemented the Category IV evacuation plan.
With the threat of a potential terrorist attack akin to those that had plagued the Era of Globalism in mind, the Nation of Superia had taken steps that would have been unprecedented in the United Republic of States had they been proposed during that era.
Before it collapsed in 2137 , the URS had suffered from near weekly attacks on public areas. Unwilling to infringe on their citizens' liberties, they had been forced to constantly react to heart-wrenching disasters. While technology had allowed for some decrease to the risk of the average citizen, the threat had never been properly contained.
Superia, refused to allow its citizens to go through something similar. In an attempt to allow for first responders to have more time to react, the Category IV Protocols were established in 2156. Originally meant to deal with terrorist threats, Category IV was eventually co-opted into anti-supervillian measures.
When it came to protecting a school or other such public place, the first thing that would happen upon the alarm siren activation would be a full evacuation of the area into the nearest Vault Security Shelter or V.S.S. for short. The Vaults were impenetrable to any sort of attack short of a hydrogen bomb. Luckily, such weaponry had been outlawed and the technology to create them hadn't existed since 2278.
While he had been unable to get his class to the V.S.S. in time, given how close his classroom was to the front of the building, Mr. Dancer had been in the process of getting the Titanium reinforced backup shield system online when the supervillians had approached. Unfortunately, one of his students had been out in the hall and he had been given the choice of stopping his keystrokes, or watching an innocent middle schooler's life end.
Unwilling to let even one of his students die when he could prevent it, he hadn't had a choice. The door had remained open and now it looked like none of them would be making it out of here. While he knew he had made the right choice at the time, Mr. Dancer couldn't help but curse his bad luck. If only the Green Hood hadn't picked this school, this classroom to execute his grand scheme.
With the brute of the trio gone, there might be a chance to do something, but he would need to time it perfectly. Even one wrong move and someone who not be going home to their loved ones tonight. Looking around the room, Mr. Dancer tried to figure out how he could use this momentary weakness of their captors to his advantage. Yet try as he might, he couldn't seem to find a blindspot in the villains' gazes.
"Don't even bother, old timer" the Green Hood remarked, calling him out on what he was doing. "Tiny may be gone for a couple of minutes, but Blazer and I can more than take all of the people in this room out without him. Need I remind you, if you so much as move your hand without permission, someone's mommy will have to bury their child." The heartless supervillian made a wide, sweeping gesture with his gun to emphasize his point.
It was in that moment, when the gun was moving horizontally, that Mr. Dancer saw his window of opportunity. Unfortunately for him, one of his students was quicker on the draw than he was. Seeing that their captor was making a tactical error, one of the starters on the school's basketball team leapt into action. charging for the Green Hood, he tackled the supervillian, trying to get him to lose his balance.
Grunting in surprise, the supervillian tumbled backwards onto the floor. While he had been threatening the teacher, the Green Hood hadn't expected one of the snot-nosed brats to pull anything. However, before the kid could manage to do anymore damage to his carefully concocted scheme, the sound of a gunshot put an end his little insurrection.
Tommy let out a shriek of agony and collapsed on the floor. The gunshot had pierced the center of his left foot, making it impossible to stay standing.
"If you don't want to have the next one between his eyes, I suggest you get him away from the Boss" Blazer remarked with a cold, unamused tone. The tech hadn't even bothered to look away from what he was doing yet he had managed to score a perfect hit on the crippled boy. "I have enough to deal with without any of you powerless dolts thinking that you can play super-zero. Just sit tight and maybe, just maybe, you will make it out of here alive."
"Do what he says, class" Mr. Dancer interjected. The wound in Tommy's foot showed that the Green Hood and his men were serious. Any thought of fighting back against them vanished the second his student's blood stained the floor of the classroom.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry" Tommy moaned as a couple of his fellow classmates moved him out of the way of their captors. A trail of dark, crimson blood flowed out of him and pooled at the point where his foot met the ground. While he was trying to stay strong for his fellows to keep them from panicking, from the pained expression on his face, it was clear that he was barely staying conscious.
"You should be, kid" Hood replied. "You're just lucky that I'm feeling merciful right now. If I wasn't, I'd let Blazer make an example of you." The supervillian got to his feet and dusted himself off. "Try that again and I won't be as forgiving."
"Please, let me stop his bleeding!" Mr. Dancer begged. His student was bleeding out right in front of him for trying to step up and protect his classmates.
"Fine, just don't try anything. Don't want the little bugger to die just yet."
"Thank you" he replied gratefully. While he couldn't change the situation that he was in, at the very least he could keep his charge safe. Help would come, they just had to live long enough for it to arrive.
"Yeah, sure, whatever." The Green Hood kept one eye on him, and the other laser focused on the door. "This thing will be over any moment now anyways. I don't need to bother wasting anymore energy on mere distractions."
While his specialization was in teaching the rules of society and not mechanical engineering, Mr. Dancer knew trouble when he saw it. Whatever the cold assassin, Blazer was working on, that was definitely trouble waiting to happen.
It seemed like his fingers were flying around in a random blur, but at the same time there was a deliberation to each moment as if he knew exactly what he was doing. The cold, detached way he was handling the whole situation was disconcerting. Most people would be at the very least showing some expression given how stressful the situation was, but not him. There wasn't a single sign that the tech was even in the least bit concerned. He was in complete control of the situation, and it was frightening. This was not going to end well for any of them, was it?
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Master_Sentinel
Master_Sentinel The Green Hood's plan has just begun. He won't be easily disuaded from what lies ahead. How do you think Kyri is going to fight against such ruthlessness? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.
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