Spectacular World

Chrysanthemum's People

"Kevin! What are you doing here?" She was a little glad to see the little red blob but also massively grossed out.

Kevin let out a series of weird chirps as his body expanded a bit. He got a little bit bigger every couple of seconds, though he was still far smaller than he normally was. He was also still partially attached to the giant bird he had busted out of. It was like a scene in a horror movie or something, the animal's corpse still twitching a bit as Kevin slid out of it.

Alexander let out several gasps, catching his breath, as he rested in his daughter's arms. "I- I vomited him out." The man finally managed to say.

"What!" Hope stared down at her father as she helped ease him back onto his own feet. "Why was he in your belly? Did you try eating him?"

Kevin finally pulled his way out of the pile of dead birds and plopped onto the grass, letting out a huff. "I know what happened." The monster spat out. "I was with the other Enforcers when this guy just decided to blast me to oblivion. I thought I was done for, but then the next thing I know, I woke up in that guy's guts!" A tendril poked out of Kevin and jabbed at Alexander. "Like on the island, with that one girl, I must have left some cells in him on accident. To be honest, I'm a little ticked off that that's what saved my life."

"Why are you ticked off?" Hope asked, raising an eyebrow. It was pretty useful being able to respawn. Especially with how many strong people existed in the world that could seemingly kill a person with a wave of a hand.

"It was the same way Wish would negate death."

"Oh..." That made sense. "I can see why you'd hate it, then... Sorry."

"You're not the one to blame. The one who killed me is." Kevin grunted. "I thought that one girl was your friend? She ordered my death, and without a thought, that bastard blew me up!"

"Whisper is the one who killed you?!" Hope suddenly felt a chill go down her spine. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope! Looked me dead in the eyes and smiled as she said it! Seriously, what's with all the psycho girls I keep running into? Am I cursed or something?"

"Hope?" Alexander looked to his daughter, who had gone silent. Her shoulders were tucked down a bit, and she had brought a thumb to her lip, biting on a nail, seemingly deep in thought.

She stayed like that for several moments, her mind racing. "I don't care what happened to Whisper; I know that killing someone innocent isn't something she would do. She kept talking about the Paths and said it was the only way when I confronted her about Dad. If she wanted you dead, she'd know that killing you there wouldn't work. I bet she did it to get you into this area. She sent you, so you could help me."

"I think you're giving her too much credit." Kevin hissed a bit. "And to be honest, I don't care what her reasons are or if she even had any. If she wanted my help, she could have just asked. Heroes don't do things like that, even for the greater good. None of them have been acting like heroes."

"They've focused entirely on beating the villains," Hope said quietly. "'There's more to being a hero than fighting bad guys. Heroes that focus only on defeating villains aren't actually heroes. They're just soldiers with silly names.'" She repeated something she had heard a while ago. Mr. Larison had said that to her at one point. In a way, so many of the current heroes really were just acting like soldiers.

They didn't get to say anything else as the pile of birds shifted slightly, and a weak groan came from it. A hand stabbed out and began to shove the dead animals away. Druid was an older woman and, at one point, might have been considered a dangerous bad guy. She had long been outclassed, though, and after a bad loss to Ocean Empress, the villain had vanished only to reappear today. Druid's costume was a mess and had been stained red, and the woman's hand was placed over her missing eye. Her other hand clutched at her staff as she glared at the three of them with pure hate and malice.