Chapter 12
[23]
Ren Amamiya sat at his desk reading a book during study hall. Normally he’d be in gym class right now, but since the gym teacher was fired, this hour was now utilized by most students to go on their phones or socialize.
His focus was hardly on the book in front of him, instead he was thinking about the former gym teacher, Kamoshida, still on the loose after murdering innocent bystanders, he had to be stopped before his crime spree would take any more lives.
He had decided that tonight, he would take to the streets in search of the lightning wielding maniac. He even had a change of clothes and his Spider-Man mask from the night of the vigil, packed in his bag. Now, all he could do was wait with anticipation until the school day came to a close.
Ren suddenly felt a wet wad of paper hit the right side of his head. Looking over to the other side of the room, the perpetrator didn’t make themselves clear. ‘Huh, I guess it only warns me if there’s a threat.’ He thought to himself, wiping the spitball out of his hair. He looked over the classroom around him, Ann was texting, Ms. Kawakami was asleep at her desk, and a couple of students were picking on Mishima.
Yuuki Mishima was a short and meek boy with a talent for technology but poor social skills. Ren had worked with him on a history project before and got to know him a little. He knew Mishima was one of the top of the class and wanted to make movies when he graduated, he also had a massive crush on Ann’s best friend Shiho. He was devastated when the poor girl was hospitalized.
While Ren thought it’d be a stretch to call Mishima a friend, he didn’t want to see him be bullied. Ren stood up and walked over to Mishima’s desk. The boys who had been teasing Mishima looked up in fear at the transfer student standing before them. The rumors surrounding Ren were completely fabricated, such as that he had ties to the Yakuza and always carried knives with him. These rumors usually annoyed Ren more than anything, but in this instance they worked to his benefit, the boys backed off of Mishima immediately.
“If anyone starts pulling shit like that again, let me know alright?” Ren whispered to the meek boy.
Mishima nodded his head. A small smile formed on his face and he mouthed the words ‘Thank you’ to Ren. Ren nodded and headed back to his seat, ready to spend the rest of the hour finishing his book.
Before he could make it back to his desk however, the sound of tires loudly screeching against the pavement could be heard from outside. This sound was immediately followed by what sounded like screams of terror. Everyone got up from their seats to look outside, Ms. Kawakami woke up from her nap.
“Class! Everyone! Take your seats!” She yelled over the sounds of the class speculating the origin of the noise. The teacher made her way to the window and everyone saw a strangely dressed man standing in the middle of the street outside the school. Garbed in green and yellow the man’s hands appeared to be glowing. When two civilians ran to get away from the man, electrical arcs shot from his hands into the fleeing civilians and they dropped to the ground, dead.
“Lock the doors! Everyone, get to the back wall of the classroom and close the blinds!” Her orders went unheard as students rushed out the classroom in fear. The hallways became flooded as students tried their best to escape as fast as possible, jamming the doorways with the amount of bodies trying to leave.
Ann Takamaki searched the classroom for Ren, she saw that his bag was missing from his desk and presumed he must have been one of the first to leave. She however, was stuck at the back of the crowd, unable to move due to the foot traffic in the halls.
“Ann! What the hell’s goin’ on?” Asked Ryuji Sakamato. The only two blondes at Shujin finding each other easily in the crowd.
“There’s a supervillain attacking outside the school!” Mishima answered, appearing next to the blonde duo.
“For real?”
“Students please, return to your classrooms in an orderly fashion and follow procedure!” Came the voice of one of the teachers trying desperately to regain control of the situation.
“Where’s Ren?” Asked Ryuji, concerned for his best friend.
“He must’ve gotten ahead of us! I can’t see him in the crowd.” Ann responded standing on her toes to try to see ahead.
“I didn’t take Amamiya-kun to be the type to run from danger, but in this situation I can hardly blame him.” Mishima said to no one in particular.
Ann turned to her classmate “There’s a guy outside trying to fry everyone with electricity, you’d have to be an idiot to run towards the threat.”
Meanwhile on the school rooftop, Ren Amamiya was stripping out of his Shujin uniform and into his makeshift ‘costume’ as fast as possible. “Or I guess he’ll just come to me then! Saves me the trouble of searching for him I guess!” He said to himself sarcastically, hopping around on foot as he slipped his pants on, his mask held in his teeth. As he finished concealing his identity, Ren tossed his bag with his school uniform under the desks and leapt off of the rooftop.
Kamoshida blocked off the main entrance to the school with his classic grin on his face, ready to electrocute as many students as it took to find his target. “MISHIMA!” He called out. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, the high he got from standing on the Olympic podium was nothing compared to what he was feeling right now. The power this device gave him, last time he was at this school he was a king, now it made him feel like a god!
Before Kamoshida could step into the building, he was grabbed from behind and thrown back out onto the street. Landing on his back, he felt the air leave his lungs and he sat up gasping in a breath. He looked up at his assailant standing protectively in front of the building.
“You again?!” Kamoshida couldn’t see the boy’s face behind a crappy Spider-Man mask, but he didn’t need to in order to know it was the same kid that got in his way the first time he used his device.
“Me again.” The boy replied readying himself to fight as Kamoshida stood back up.
[24]
Ren ran right into the fight, trying to knock Kamoshida out as fast as possible. In retrospect, it may not have been the greatest idea to put distance between himself and Kamoshida, who excelled in long range fighting, but it was necessary to get him away from the school where he could do the most damage. Now that the two of them were out in the streets, students were using the main entrance to flee to safety.
As Ren tried to land a punch on Kamoshida, the man ducked and let loose a bolt of lightning that sent Ren crashing onto the hood of a car.
“Huh, normally that much would kill a person, but I guess you’re a special case aren’tcha?” Kamoshida taunted as he sent another bolt at Ren.
This time, Ren was able to dodge, rolling back onto the roof of the car, the hood was engulfed in flames as the battery overcharged. Ren used the smoke produced to his advantage, concealing himself behind it and leaping out with a kick to the villain’s chest. Kamoshida fell to the ground and struggled to pick himself back up.
“Why’re you doing this Kamoshida? Attacking a school full of kids? Are you really that full of hate?”
“It’s Electro now, I’m here to kill a fuckin’ kid who got me fired.” Kamoshida reached for the dial on his harness, he cranked up the wattage as far as it could go, he’d need all the power he had to kill this ‘New Spider-Man.’
“You got yourself fired, you were a monster to those kids.”
“Bad children need discipline.” He chuckled. “It’s actually lucky that I found you here, After I was done here you were next on my list. This saves me the trouble of searching for you.”
“Y’know, it’s funny you should say that-” Ren’s head suddenly went crazy with buzzing as he leapt out of the way of a large blast of lightning, way bigger than any he’d previously used. The side of the building it hit had a large hole in it now. Even Kamoshida seemed shocked at the power he’d just sent out. Staring at his smoking gloves with awe.
“Oh you’re fucked now kid.” Kamoshida fired off another large blast, as Ren dodged, the blast hit a parked sedan and sent it rolling across the street on its side. It was only thanks to the warning in Ren’s head, informing him of when Kamoshida would fire, that Ren was still alive right now. He may be faster than a normal human now, but he was definitely not faster than lightning, he just had to avoid Kamoshida’s aim, not the lightning itself.
Ren managed to get in close and tried to strike Kamoshida in the chest, however it seemed Ren underestimated Kamoshida’s fighting prowess. Kamoshida leaned out of the punch and kicked Ren in his left calf, the same calf that he’d been shot in two nights ago by the police.
Along with Ren’s new powers apparently he had enhanced healing now, the gunshot wound he had suffered less than 48 hours ago had stopped bleeding after a short while. And while it still hurt like hell, Ren was able to conceal it throughout the day, however being struck in the same spot he’d been shot in caused the pain to shoot throughout his leg once again.
“Agh!” Ren collapsed to the ground, nursing his leg.
“Damn, didn’t think I hit you that hard.” Kamoshida taunted before stomping on the injured leg, a small cracking noise could be heard coming from it. He readied his hands to launch another attack, but nothing came out. “What the?” In all of his showboating, Kamoshida had forgotten that he had a limited supply of power and would need to recharge. “Shit! You stay right there, I’ll be back.” He gave the downed boy another kick and went in search of a power source.
Meanwhile in the school, the halls were finally emptying out as students were free to escape through the school’s main entrance without fear of being shocked to death by a costumed maniac.
Ann and Ryuji were moving through the halls at the back of the thinning crowd when a voice called out to them. “Lady Ann, you’re safe!” Morgana came down the stairs from the first-year hallway.
“Morgana? Yeah I’m fine, look let’s just focus on getting out of here okay?”
“Of course Lady Ann, I will guard you with my life!”
“Whatever.”
The trio were among the last of the students to exit the building. When they made it out onto the road they spotted the man who had started the attack. The villain in green and yellow was hunched over a damaged van, the hood open, he seemed to be doing something with the battery, the group didn’t watch long enough to figure out.
“Shit! Hide!” Ryuji whispered loudly. The group ducked into the alleyway across from the school, vanishing from sight right before the man finished whatever he had been doing.
Kamoshida looked out onto the street around him as he finished siphoning power from the car battery. He thought he’d heard voices, but dismissed it as he walked back to his target. Unbeknownst to him, the three students who had narrowly avoided his wrath watched him from behind their cover.
Ren was able to slowly stand up, putting almost all of his weight on his right leg, he prepared for the incoming assault from Electro. ‘I’m not gonna be able to dodge fast enough like this.’ He thought to himself. He looked around for anything in the environment that could help him, out of the corner of his eye he saw something.
Kamoshida approached the spot where he’d left his foe injured. “Sorry for the wait, you wouldn’t believe how bad traffic was.” He looked to find the spot he’d left moments ago empty. “You didn’t run away did y-” His sentence stopped short when he saw a large black object hurtling through the air towards him at high speed.
Kamoshida was thrown off of his feet for the second time in this fight as a car tire, rim and all, smashed into his chest. He was lucky that the harness that gave him his power was heavily padded, otherwise who knows how bad the damage could have been. Kamoshida did still suffer a few broken ribs from the impact, he groaned in pain as his body begged him to stop, but he slowly stood up anyway.
Ren was incredibly tired. The blows he’d suffered were really weighing on him as he limped over to his injured opponent, mentally preparing to continue the fight. That was when the police sirens came into earshot. Ren picked up on it before Kamoshida, and he limped to get out of sight before he could be arrested or shot… again.
“You’re leaving?! Coward!” Called Kamoshida, clutching at his injured ribs. But Ren knew he didn’t have the strength to continue the fight, neither of them did. If Ren could just escape, then Kamoshida would be caught and sent to jail.
Ren began to climb the wall of the building he’d approached, his extra sense went off too late as an electric shock hit him in the back and sent him falling back down. This shock wasn’t nearly on the power level as before, Kamoshida must be conserving the power he has remaining. Ren knew the police were close, Kamoshida wouldn’t be able to escape their custody when they arrived.
He set to work scaling the building again, this time making it to the top before he could be shot again. He pulled himself up with a large amount of effort. He looked down and saw the squad cars surrounding Kamoshida who looked desperate, scared even.
“You won’t take me! I AM A GOD! I AM ELECTRO!” Kamoshida turned the dial on his harness to maximum once again. He opened his palms in an attempt to blast the police away, but something went wrong with his equipment.
Whether it was the wiring or the battery, something shorted out, and instead of sending electricity outward, Kamoshida’s body became encased in his electricity. A light shined so brightly throughout the street that it was like staring at the sun, everyone present had to look away, lest their eyes burn. Over the loud hum of electricity came an even louder noise as Kamoshida screamed in pain.
After a few seconds, the light died down and all that Ren could see of Kamoshida was his scorched body. The police handcuffed the now unconscious man and carried him back to the squad car for transportation to the nearest hospital. Ren felt bad for the man, even if he was a monster.
Once upon a time, Kamoshida had been a star, but like every star, he eventually burned out.