Riley Ross

"You are the one who should dodge, Sister."

"Heh. Fuck, no."

How the two were able to even have a small conversation as Hannah's flames waved in the air, no one would ever truly know. But they were, and they even had the time to think of a hundred other possibilities that could happen once their powers collided.

But neither of them cared.

What Hannah cared about was how much damage she could finally do. While Riley, well, he was only thinking of ways not to disappoint his sister. If he held back, that would surely disappoint her even more so than the fact that he could hurt her.

And so, Riley had no plans on holding back at all.

Raphael was there, and Riley had met him a couple of times whenever Bernard brought them to the moon HQ—and Riley knows exactly what Raphael was capable of.

Raphael's title, the Archangel of Life, was not an exaggeration at all. If he were already a member of the Hope Guild when Alice went on a rampage, then he might have helped the Hope Guild in dealing with the situation without having to kill Alice at all.

As long as their brains were alive, Raphael would be able to heal them.

That was what it meant to be in the top 0.001% of the superhumans.

Of course, Hannah knew of this fact too.

That was why she was so confident and happy to finally be releasing her powers—and she planned to release much more.

"I'm going to fuck you up, little brother!"

And then it happened, not fucking Riley up, not yet. But it happened—nuclear.

The colossal flaming sword started to fade away as the very air itself started to ionize, its orange hue hazed away into a pale blue. But soon, as the very source of life of many creatures, oxygen, also started to fade away, the flames disappeared completely.

The flaming sword no longer glowed, but it still existed—its physical form just became too weak for what it had become.

It became an element that would kill anything and all that it touched.

"Dodge, little brother!" Hannah bared her teeth, the distorted air pivoting around her now only meters away from devouring Riley. "If you don't, I'm going to be an only child!"

"Biologically, you are an only child, Sister." —were Riley's words. He still had his palms close to each other like he was holding a ball, his eyes beginning to redden as the strain in his body and mind had started to become unbearable.

But what he was about to do, he believed, was going to be worth showing Hannah.

"Sister…" He whispered, and a smile started to creep onto his face.

"Watch this."

The distorted behemoth of nuclear energy was now right beside Riley. Raphael was about to make a move and fly toward Riley, but he suddenly saw a sphere of… wind ripple out from Riley, with his hands as the epicentre.

The nuclear behemoth bent, unfolded, or perhaps evaded Riley. Raphael didn't really know what he was seeing, but he knew what was happening as he felt a radiating energy lightly prick his skin.

The colossal nuclear energy that Hannah wielded dissipated, no.

It started to scatter, blown away by the weird blast that rippled from Riley.

And by scattered, it truly did scatter.

The concentrated nuclear energy dissipated, redirected by the blast in every direction possible. In order to do something like that, Riley would have to control the very medium the radiation was traveling through—the air, the plasma, and perhaps even the tiny particles.

That much control from a young telekinetic, or any telekinetic for that matter, was extremely rare to see. But most importantly, one actually had to have the raw stamina and power to do so.

It was clear from Riley's face that what he did strained him, but the fact that he was even able to do it completely shocked Raphael.

Beyond the rankings of supers, there is another term that is used to call S-rank supers who were capable of enacting acts that could very well destroy cities in droves if they wanted to—and they are all on a watchlist by the Hero Association, as well as the collective World Government.

They are called the Cataclysmic-class.

Those in the X-tier, or Mega-tier, were automatically put here. Megawoman, the Terraformer, and Alice Lane. X-tier meant that you are above and beyond all and every other supers on the entire planet, while Cataclysmic-class meant that you are able to use these powers to inflict city-wide, or even country-wide, destruction.

Hannah Ross was officially listed in this class a few hours after she was born, and Bernard himself put her there. He could have very well may have kept it secret. This was Bernard Ross, after all. But he didn't.

For what reason?

Raphael had an idea. Much like everything Whiteking does, it was a card. A threat.

Raphael joined the Hope Guild in the hopes of stopping threats very much like this. Threats that are directed at humanity. Hannah, of course, wasn't a threat—she knew of her as valiant. Brash, yes. But she always had the very ideals that would make one a hero.

The real threat was Whiteking himself. It wouldn't be an understatement to say that he could control the world if he wanted to.

In fact, the Hope Guild had this conversation before—a conversation the world wasn't ready for.

Whiteking. Bernard Ross. He should also be on that list. Physically, of course, he wasn't even in the equation.

But he was a man who could cripple the entire world if he wanted to. Shut down all and every satellite, tower, electricity, bank, and turn the world back into more primitive times.

And now, if it were up to Raphael, he would also put Riley Ross on that watch list.

Because sooner or later, he knew that he was going to become just like his biological mother.

The Ross family as a collective was cataclysmic. The mother was probably the only one in the family who was normal.

Raphael looked at his hands and then closed his eyes as he felt the radiation now covering the entire mock city.

Hannah, who had her attack nullified by Riley, had her mouth wide open. She stared at her brother for a few moments before her wide-open mouth morphed into a smile.

She stretched her arms to the side, sucking in a deep breath… as she once again collected the scattered radiation.

Riley, whose face was even whiter now due to overusing his ability, closed his eyes at this. While he looked like he was about to faint any moment now, Hannah didn't look tired at all.

She was like a battery that charged itself.

She was almost… perpetual.

"I think that is enough for now, hm?"

Raphael carefully grabbed her by the shoulder before she could do anything, however. She instantly canceled out her powers, letting out a breath as she glanced and nodded to Raphael.

"How was it? Finally being able to stretch?" Raphael asked with a smile on his face.

"It… was fucking great, Sir." A smile also crept on Hannah's face, nodding once more to Raphael before turning her focus back to Riley. "Riley, you okay?!"

"No, Sister."

"Oh, shit!" Hannah quickly flew to her brother's side as soon as she heard that, leaving Raphael to just sigh and shake his head.

Hera, who had instinctively shielded Silvie from the scattered blast of radiation, stared at the dots in the sky.

This was supposed to be her trial, and yet it felt like it became all about Riley and Hannah.

No. At this point, it wasn't the candidates who were showcasing their ability—it was the monsters of USAMA.

"Are you alright?" she said, sighing as she extended a hand to Silvie, who grabbed her hand as she stood up.

"Yes." Silvie nodded, holding Hera's hand with both hands as she looked her in the eyes. "Thank you for shielding me from that blast. It is no wonder you are a candidate to join the Hope Guild, big sister."

"You didn't even need to be shielded."

"Even more commendable on your part. It is—"

"What was that?!"

Gracey's voice screamed from the side, causing both Hera and Silvie to slightly flinch as she landed right next to them.

"Was that a cancer blast?!" She bellowed. "Do we have cancer now? Bella, we have cancer now!"

"Say what?!" Bella, who was still approaching from farther away, also screamed. "Ain't no way we dying from that!"

"Oh, shit…" Gracey clutched her hair. "...We're gonna start losing our limbs now."

Hera blinked a couple of times, looking up at Gracey's face and clearly weirded out by her.

"You do know we literally have Whiteking and Raphael here, right?" She mentioned, shaking her head and sighing.

"Anyway, what happens now? I knew this trial was going to fail the moment I heard you guys were going to be in it."

And almost as if in cue, Benjamin's voice reverberated throughout the entire city.

[Uh oh! We apologize, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between—due to unforeseen but not unexpected events, we're being told that the trial will now be continued privately by the Hope Guild! May we ask all students to kindly head out of the city! Candidates, please all meet up at the bridge!]

"Oh… they're continuing it?" Hera blinked a couple of times in disbelief.

"I wish you the best of luck, big sister."

"Can… you stop calling me big sister?" Hera awkwardly chuckled at Silvie. "Just… sister is fine."

***

At the same time, back at Riley's developing Guesthouse, Replica Ricky was now free. Well, not exactly free… more like being used for quality assurance.