Takehiro rushed inside his house, his nerves burning. "Mom! Dad!"
He found them in the living room. "Guys! You won't believe it! The shop! It's been attacked by a superhuman!"
"We know, dear," his mother replied. "Are you okay?"
"You…know?"
She gestured to the TV, which showed the news. "Of course we do. Miku has covered it all for us."
"We're glad you're okay, son," his dad said.
Takehiro's eyes locked onto the TV, where Miku was reporting. "This is Reporter Miku, live from the suburbs! It seems a poor convenience store, along with dozens of officers, has been attacked, but guess what, Justice and his team are here to save the day!"
"What?" Takehiro exclaimed. "When did he get there? And what team?"
Miku got closer to the store, but Justice stopped her. "Excuse me, Ma'am, but this place isn't really safe!"
"I know, but can you please tell me who your new accomplices are? Weren't you just fighting that girl not too long ago?"
"Heh," he rubbed his head. "Anyway, she's my partner, Xenova! And this right here is my other partner, erm…his name is…"
"Kita!" the smaller boy answered. "Call me Kita, new Utopia superhero!"
Justice just stared at him. "Yeah, that'll work. Kita!"
"So, Justice, Xenova, and Kita?" Miku wondered. "How did you guys come to form a team? How many missions have you three completed? What do you do if Xenova goes feral again?"
"We burn her," Justice answered.
"Hey!" Xenova called out, folding her arms.
"Sorry, sorry."
And just then, they were all hit by a large blast of lightning.
Takehiro watched the TV, utterly stunned. "There's a whole team of them now? What's going on? What is this?"
"Well, dear," his mother said to her husband. "It seems they should have it covered."
"Takehiro," his dad stated. "Let's go wash these clothes."
His dad got up and went to the laundry room, but Takehiro remained frozen in place for a little while longer before reluctantly following.
"What even is going on…" he thought.
Meanwhile, inside the shop…
"What the hell are you three?" Keisuke demanded. "Some snobby League of Heroes?"
"League of Heroes?" Justice scoffed. "Who would call themselves that? That's terrible. Trash. Non-creative."
He pointed his blade at Keisuke. "Call us Team Zero!"
Everyone went silent.
"The hell?" Keisuke mocked. "What kinda name is that? I thought I was crazy, but YOU…!"
"Mykhail," Xenova whispered. "Where did you get that name from? What's the zero supposed to mean?"
"I found it in a comic book!" he declared. "So now it's our official name!"
"Wouldn't that make you guys copycats?" Serratine pointed out. "What frauds."
"No, it won't!" Yasuda eagerly explained. "A copycat would mean we copy the style and identity of a certain group or faction! By taking the name of a fictional group alone, that's just inspiration, not copying!"
"See?" Justice agreed. "He gets it."
Chief Manabu was on the ground, bleeding. "Please…don't argue about names and help me."
"Enough of this," Serratine ordered. "Kirishima, grab the caped one. Kill the rest."
"Alright!" he said, steadying his nerves and firing a blast at Kita, who dodged while jumping up and down like a little kid.
"Danger!" he cheered. "Real danger!"
In the blink of an eye, Serratine charged at Justice and tried to stab him in the shoulder, but Xenova easily blocked her arm, grabbing it in mid-air.
"Aren't you strong?" she remarked.
"Aren't you rude?" Xenova replied. "How dare you try to stab my bestie without even telling him why?"
She threw Serratine back into a wall, but the assassin easily landed on her feet. "That's not your business. But this is."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bomb, throwing it right at Xenova.
"Xenova, watch out!" Justice called out. "That's an explosive!"
"Cool!" she said, grabbing it out of the air. It exploded right in her hands, blowing off half her body and the front wall of the shop as well. Miku fell over from the impact, and her cameraman pulled her back.
"My shop!" the shopkeeper cried.
"Sorry about that!" Justice apologized. "But you might wanna take that police guy and leave!"
After weighing the options, the shopkeeper took Manabu and hurried outside. Keisuke tried to blast him, but Kita punched him in the face.
"You hit like a child!" Keisuke taunted. "Well, I can't talk. I've been bullied for hitting like a girl."
"I am a child!" Kita confirmed. "I'm eleven years old!"
"They use kids like you for their team?" Keisuke asked. "How stupid can they be?"
He charged up another lightning blast, preparing to fire. "Well, sorry, kid, but you've gotta die!"
Kita watched the attack come at him in slow motion, side-stepping it before Keisuke even threw it.
"How—-?"
Kita took a nearby folding chair and whacked Keisuke with it. A loud crack came from his nose. "Ow! You broke my nose, twerp!"
"Your body is just like a normal person!" Kita realized. "So all you can do is shoot lightning! Awesome!"
He continued beating Keisuke with the chair while Justice checked on Xenova, who instantly regenerated her body.
"Impressive," Serratine noted. "They said you were strong, but to take a bomb like that at close range and immediately recover? You're dangerous!"
Xenova regenerated her head. "I am now! You've made me MAD!"
Her voice and demeanor changed, and without hesitation, she punched Serratine so hard she went flying into the street. Keisuke tried to blast her, but she impaled him through the shoulder with a tendril.
"Arrgh! That hurts!"
She lifted him in the air with her tendril and slammed him on the ground repeatedly before tossing him outside along with Serratine.
"Woah," Justice said.
Kita stood next to him. "She's awesome! Look how she took those bad guys down!"
"Yeah, she's sweet, but she's deadly," Justice acknowledged. "We should probably stop her before she kills someone."
"Okay!"
Xenova stepped outside, grabbing both Serratine and Keisuke with her tendrils and holding them high in the air. "Hey, guys! Look what I caught!"
Justice patted her on the shoulder. "Nice job, nice job! Now all we need to do is capture them! I think? I hope!"
"Put me down!" Keisuke demanded.
"Calm down, Kirishima," Serratine ordered. "I always keep a backup plan for situations like this."
"What do you mean?"
"We're not going to beat him and the girl, not by ourselves."
"Huh? So we just lose?" Keisuke began to freak out. "No! I can't go to jail! I can't! I'll get the death penalty!
"Haha," Serratine laughed. "Don't be so spineless. Oh, Fujio…? Come out!"
BOOM.
A giant figure landed behind her and Keisuke.
"That's that guy from the rally!" Justice recognized. "Woah. He looks like a tank. Why can't I look like that?"
Fuijo charged at Xenova without warning, punching her in the face and forcing her to drop the other two.
"Right on time," Serratine remarked. "I need you to keep Xenova busy. Me and our new recruit here will capture our target."
"Yes, Miss Serratine," he grunted, cracking his knuckles. "Leave it to me!"
Xenova shook off the punch, growling. "I just did my makeup, that's not nice, you big buffoon!"
"Cry about it, girlie!" he taunted. "What, are you going to tell your mommy—-?"
BOOM.
She punched him so hard that he crashed into a large office building, shattering all of its windows. Everyone inside quickly got out as she used her tendrils to pick it up, holding it above Fujio's head. As she did, a voice rang through her mind.
"Kill him…!"
"Will do!" she responded.
"Aww…crap," Fujio realized.
BOOM.
She slammed the building on top of him, but to her surprise, he managed to punch his way out of the rubble before leaping at her.
"You wanna fight? Let's fight!"
He punched her in the face, and she blinked for a moment before punching HIM in the face, and then he retaliated by doing the same thing.
"Take this! And this! And this! And this! And this! And THIS…!"
She stopped reacting to his punches, and he started getting nervous. Throwing one more punch, she caught it effortlessly and stopped his fist in mid-air.
"Die."
BOOM.
She punched him in his chest so hard he coughed up blood and fell to the ground, cracking the entire road in the process.
"Shit," Serratine worried. "She's a powerhouse in her own right. No matter. She can't fight three people at once."
Serratine launched a dagger at Justice, who blocked it with his sword. "Are you a superhuman, or just a crazy psycho knife lady?"
She chuckled. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Yes, I do! That's why I asked!"
"Well, if you're so curious…"
She clasped her hands together like a ninja, and suddenly, another one of her popped out from the first. And then another. And then another.
"What the hell are those?" Justice blurted out.
"Clones," the first Serratine replied. "Of me."
The four Serratines surrounded Justice, each holding their own dagger. "Well, all I can say is, I hope they know how to take a hit."
Two of them charged at him, and he jumped over them, his sword turning light blue as he hit them, knocking them out. The first Serratine absorbed them and spat out two new ones, which rushed him again, along with the third.
"I take it back," Justice said. "They can't take a hit!"
One dodged his attack, but the other two got hit and immediately knocked out. Serratine herself lunged at him, faster than any of her clones.
"Oh, you want some too?"
He prepared to hit her, but the moment he swung his sword, it turned DARK red, causing him to temporarily stop.
"What the—-red?"
Noticing his hesitation, it gave Serratine enough time to form a clone to use as a shield, and the moment Justice hit it, the blade slashed the clone clean in half, along with her head.
"WOAH!" Justice exclaimed.
Serratine jumped back as well, keeping her distance while he analyzed Justice's sword. "That's going to be a problem. My clones will have to keep him at bay for now."
Justice looked over his own sword. "Fatal strike? So light blue non-fatal damage, dark blue is crippling damage, and dark red is fatal damage? What has she done? She's worse than Jin? Who is this girl?"
He calmed himself. "Okay, it was a clone, so I have no blood on my hands, yet, but she's either going to kill me or I'm going to accidentally kill her; either way is bad!"
A blast of lightning nearly hit him, and Justice turned around to find Kita wrestling with Keisuke.
"Get off me, twerp!" Keisuke screamed, firing lightning in every direction.
"Haha, this is so fun!" Kita laughed. "I love being a hero! Yay!"
"Goodness," Justice remarked. "Well, at least he's got that covered."
Serratine threw a knife at him, but he caught it with even looking. "Really? Trying to sneak attack me? Don't you have any morals?"
"No, I don't," Serratine stated. "That's probably why your sword tried to kill me, didn't it? It's why it hurt Jin, didn't it? I get it now, your weapon can judge people, and hurt them accordingly. Well, since it's no longer a secret, yes, I'm a heartless, demonic, murdering psychopath. You and your sword should be very afraid."
"I knew you were crazy?"
"Crazy doesn't begin to describe it," she admitted, twirling her knife. "But I have a job to do. And you're part of that job."
She suddenly summoned hundreds of clones, all of whom began charging at Justice. "Here we go again…!"
He began moving in a blur, bashing through and knocking out dozens of clones per second, until he finally reached Serratine.
"Very impressive," Serratine commended. "You know, you would make a great member of our organization. We could use stronger colleagues. This is who we're forced to recruit."
She gestured to Keisuke, who was somehow tied up by Kita, and Fujio, who was lying on the road, bleeding, by Xenova. "What do you say? It's more fun this way."
"Nope," Justice declined. "Hard pass. Like alcohol."
She shrugged. "Fine. I guess I can wait until you see things my way. But until then, I think it's time to withdraw."
"Oh, no, no, no! You can't just mass murder and try to run away now! I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to take you to jail!"
She laughed. "You don't even know what you're doing. Until next time, Justice. The Villain Syndicate will be watching you."
The ground beneath them seemed to shake, and it swallowed up her, then Fujio, then Keisuke, before calming again.
"And somehow she got away," Justice groaned. "What is that? Villain luck?"
Xenova and Kita walked over to him.
"So, what now?" Kita asked.
"I don't know," he replied. "Why are you asking me? I just watched the ground move and swallow up three superhuman criminals that call themselves the Villain Syndicate. I think I need a minute to process the current events."
"Villain Syndicate?" Xenova wondered. "Cool name! What is that?"
"Don't know," Justice remarked. "But it'll be fun to find out."
Miku approached the three. "So, what should we call you three superheroes? The public has to have a name for your group!"
"Call us Team Zero!" Justice declared.
Xenova gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Why? Just why?"
"Team Zero it is!" Miku said. "Now, if I could sit you three down for an exclusive 7-hour interview, that would be amazing—-!"
"Gotta go!" Justice insisted, grabbing Kita and Xenova before jumping into the air and off.
"Aww, man."
Her cameraman sighed. "I'm going to quit this job! You're driving me insane!"
Later, in a mysterious chamber…
Serratine returned to her base, walking through the base until she reached a large metal door. Once she arrived at it, she knelt and bowed her head.
"I've failed the mission, Sir."
A voice, cold and mysterious, answered back. "That's fine. His sword is what made us. And we will have it. No matter the cost."
"Any new ideas?"
The voice waited for a minute before replying. "Only one. If force won't work, we'll take another approach. Find out who he is, and find out what makes him and his friends tick."
"Alright. What will you do?" she asked.
"It's simple. I have a plan of my own. But I'll need you to get me close."
"Close to where?" she questioned.
"Sato."
——