Spectacular World

Her Heroic Nature

Slowly, Sky began to speak while she held Hope. She started her tale and informed the raven-haired girl of everything that had happened while she was gone. Most importantly though, Sky told her just how it was that Paragon had become a hero to so many people.

It had all started only a week after the battle with the Beast.

Twelve days...

It had just been twelve days since the battle with the Beast happened. Not even two weeks after the world had been forced to witness so many Supers put their lives on the line and battle the greatest threat since the Shadow. Oleander City was beyond destroyed. Not a single building stood tall on any of the streets, and the area around the destroyed bridge was flooded with thousands of people all begging to be let in to Lillian. It was in the heart of the city that things truly looked grim, however.

Nearly every store that had once stood tall had been torn apart and picked clean of all its stuff. Thugs or gang members stalked the alleyways, and what little heroes were left in Oleander, such as the new Sub Enforcers group led by Myth, were struggling to keep up with it all.

Villains were typically the kind of people who thrived in situations like this. With the state of the city, it was all too easy to take anything you wanted, including people. So many civilians had been forced to pick sides when new villainous groups popped up. Many gangs from other cities had moved to Oleander once they were sure they could take advantage of it, and so now the destroyed ruin of the once proud city found itself reduced into a further battlefield as different gangs and thugs battled for control over the many destroyed streets and dwindling food supplies.

It was here in the twisting alleyways that Alice Ward found herself slowly stalking through.

"Damn it." The older woman let out a soft curse when she saw her phone was lacking a strong enough connection to broadcast. The streets were filled with hundreds of destroyed drones Boy Genius, or the Hero Branch created, and the sky would often have a few dozen flying around, but recently a new villain group had been quick to remove the airborne helpers. "The people need to know what's happening in Oleander. I just need to find a drone that gives off a strong enough signal for me to go live."

She knew it was dumb to be wandering around by herself. June would have a field day if he saw her now. The two of them had somehow managed to make it through the Beast attack, and she was currently one of the famous streamers in the world after she managed to capture the battle of Cinder versus the Beast. It didn't matter how famous she was though, because she was stuck in Oleander without access to any of her fanbase. So much for being a famous reporter...

Dean Ward, her brother-in-law and head of the Lillian Hero Branch, had made sure she wasn't able to get out of Oleander. He was likely mad at her for daring to go against his orders and film the battle with the Beast. She could care less what he wanted, though. The Ward family was just a means to an end for her.

She had married Matthew Ward several years ago in order to further her own career, and it was a mistake she still regretted, even to this day. The Wards were one of the main families that supported the Monarch Force when Lucifer was still considered a Calamity level threat. After Lucifer lost, they, along with four other families, all threw their support and riches at Sinicorp and helped create the Hero Branch. Now, in the present day, there were dozens of different Wards walking around. She had married Matthew since he was part of the main branch. Ace Ward, Matthew's father, had been the leader of the entire Hero Branch at one point. Despite coming from literal greatness, however, Matthew blew all his fortune instantly and was basically an outcast, his status instead going to his little brother Dean. And since she had been the one to marry Matthew, that meant she was also an outcast from the main Ward family now. All her effort and fame, her career on the news and in streaming—all of that had come from her own hard work and drive. She had gotten to where she was without the help of the Ward family, even after they set her back so much.