CHAPTER 52: POPULARITY

They both landed on the first floor. Silva shot forward like a bullet and Peter gave close chase. Silva’s eyes burned with rage, veins bulging on his head and neck.

One of the men sensed something and turned around, only for Silva to come in with a terrifying punch right to the face. The face caved in under the force, nose, jaw, and parts of his skull cracked from the impact.

His body shot through the air like a sack of potatoes and slammed into the glass of a store, shattering it.

Peter rushed at one, but the robber turned fast and looked at him, then pointed the gun at him. Before he could fire, Peter blasted his arm away with wind and threw a punch, breaking the jaw of the robber and freeing the girl.

The commotion caused the man with Ella to turn in panic. Ella took that exact moment, lifted her feet, and stomped down as hard as she could, shattering his toes entirely.

"Arghhhhh!" he screamed and released her. As she ran, he looked up with vengeful eyes and pointed his gun, hands trembling. He was about to end her.

BAM!

He fired, but at the same time, Silva got in the way. The bullet lodged deep into his abdomen, but he didn’t falter. He stood there, a glow in his eyes, the mark on his hands glowing as well.

"How dare you?" he asked in a deep voice. He took a step forward. The robber instinctively tried to fire again, but Silva launched forward, grabbed the hand, and twisted it so hard it broke. The gun fell to the ground and the guy began screaming.

He collapsed to the ground, pain filling his body, but Silva wasn’t done. He grabbed him off the ground and slammed a kick right into his side, so hard that the robber coughed an enormous amount of blood.

"P-l-lea-se," the robber tried to beg. Those words infuriated Silva, and he slammed the robber so hard into the ground that the sound echoed through the mall.

Then he slowly turned. Two were left. He and Peter looked at them. The hands of the robbers were shaky, but they held onto the hostages.

Silva took out his spear, and before anyone could take a breath, he threw it with crazy precision, penetrating right through the shoulder of the robber and pinning him to a concrete wall.

The last guy, seeing he was alone, immediately raised his hands and let go of the hostage. He went down on his knees, hands stretched out, showing surrender.

"You think it’s that easy to get away with it, you scumbag?" Peter yelled and kicked him in the guts, so hard that the robber coughed blood and collapsed.

When all the robbers were taken care of, the mall was quiet for a moment before it erupted into cheers and clapping. The sound was explosive, but Silva didn’t care. He turned around and found Ella.

She ran to him and hugged him. "I’m sorry," she said.

"It wasn’t your fault. Get your stuff and we’ll leave here."

[...]

The news of what happened spread like wildfire. Videos of exactly what had happened were on every platform.

Tags like, "This is what Awakened are meant to do with their abilities," were the order of the day.

But Silva, he turned off his phone. He didn’t want to be a part of any of that for now. He simply had dinner with his sister and went off to bed.

The next day, he got the mail he had been waiting for: the temporary permit. He got ready, putting everything he could possibly need into his inventory, and then heading out.

Only when he hailed a taxi and got in did he finally turn on his phone. Immediately it was blowing up with texts from unknown numbers, over two hundred and fifty missed calls.

He stared at all of it with a mix of surprise and confusion. Then suddenly, a call came through. He was about to cut it when he noticed that it was Elena.

"Hello."

(The hero himself.)

"I see you’ve heard."

(You’d have to be under a rock to not hear.)

"I didn’t think something like that would blow out of proportion."

*(Well, you should have, ’cause they do. Organizations and guilds want to make the public view them better, so they jump at any opportunity to do that.

What you did in the mall was a risk. Many people have videos of you literally getting shot, and to add to that, you are eighteen with that speed and power. You might be a prodigy, that’s what is going through their heads.

It’s possible that it may die down in the future, but not for the next week or two. If you want the public eye off you, you need to hide a bit. Also remember, the Rising Phoenix guild is who you are in partnership with.)* she said.

"I didn’t forget. We still have a deal. Either way, I’m headed for the lizard gate. I don’t know when I’ll be out though."

*(Alright. When you get out, give me a call. For some reason, the disappearances have become more rampant and gates have started appearing more frequently.

There is a need to clear out more gates and close them before it becomes an issue, so I might need your help soon.)*

"I’ll do my best."

’After all, I do plan on clearing this gate entirely.’

When Silva arrived, he tried to pay, but the driver refused.

"You get a free ride, hero," he said and winked at Silva.

’It’s gone this far already?’

When he had saved kids at the academy, it wasn’t a big deal, but now added to the mall, it had gone beyond what he expected.

He kept his head low and made it to the guard, handing his permit and card.

"Hey, did you hear? Someone from your Rising Phoenix group discovered that one of the dudes from the mall is going to enter a C-ranked gate, and they were sure of it. They passed the information underground," one random Awakened walking past said to his party.