Principal Arie looked up from his paperwork as his door opened. It was already dark and quite late and he didn't expect Ophelia to still be around, so it could only be one person.
"Helios," Principal Arie said with a smile, "I see you're back already"
Helios entered the office, dragging a dead body behind him. He shrugged his bare shoulders, "I just thought to come see you before taking this idiot to the morgue,"
Principal Arie looked at the body with a raised brow, "You killed him?"
"Did you expect anything else?"
"Of course not. Forgive me," he then turned back to Helios, "I thought you would have at least called for assistance"
"I did call for assistance," Helios said while taking the charred body and setting it down on a chair. He sat down beside it, "You're the one who decided not to send any"
Principal Arie smiled and then his expression turned serious, "So, how serious have things become?"
"I don't know," Helios said, "I don't think he's one of his, but he was pretty strong to just be another lackey"
"He was strong?"
"For a little devil, at least"
"So you don't think 'he' is on the move yet?"
"No," Helios said, "He wouldn't send this fool to me, he knows better than that. The only person he might send to me would be Pyrros, and even then it would only be a minute distraction at best"
Principal Arie smiled, "You're still as scary as ever, Helios"
Helios' smile made Principal Aria blink in surprise, "Am I?"
-----
The next day, Damian, Adrian, and Perseohnoe stood in the same empty platform they had been dropped off at, waiting for their helicopter to arrive. Thalus stood a few meters behind them, leaning against his car.
Damian saw Persephone wring her hands together for the tenth time in less than two minutes and he sighed. She had been like this all day, and it was obvious what the problem was.
Damian hoisted his bag over his shoulder and turned around, he ignored Persephone's sudden squeak as he moved towards Thalus.
"Hey," he said to the older man. Thalus rose a brow.
"Can I help you?"
"Yeah," Damian said, "You're a dick"
Thalus' brow squeezed in surprise, "Excuse me?"
"I said you're a dick -"
"Now listen here you little -"
"But you're not a bad person," Damian continued, ignoring Thalus, "So please," he begged before bowing at ninety degrees, "Please talk to her. Anything at all will be worth the world to her"
Thalus looked at Damian's bowed form for a moment before looking towards Persephone. She was staring at them, looking shocked at Damian's action. He knew she couldn't hear them, but she would be a fool to not know what this was about.
"You know, most wouldn't think you to be this daring. Especially from your appearance"
Damian straightened with a hard look on his face, "I've been told"
Thalus sighed, pushed off his car, and walked towards Persephone. Damian watched him stop in front of the shocked girl and say something to her before he brought up his right hand and put it on top of her head.
Persephone's face was filled with complete shock. Her entire body was locked up like a statue, so tight that she might as well have been carved from stone. Thalus nodded and turned around, he put his hands in his pocket and began walking towards his car again.
"Take care of her," he said as he reached Damian.
Damian nodded and Thalus hummed while looking down at him, "I suppose you're not all useless, after all." he said and then he entered his car and drove off.
-----
Damian opened his eyes to a familiar white ceiling. He sat up in bed and ran a hand through his face before looking around his dorm room. He couldn't believe he was back here, especially after all that planning.
He stood up from eh bed and walked over to the mirror in his room, he then decided that he looked like shit and moved to take a bath. A few minutes later he came out and then wore his black trousers and a shirt with the symbol for Hades on it. He headed out from his room and made his way towards the elevator leading to the ground floor.
There were far fewer people on the ground floor than he was used to seeing. Today was a Sunday and he didn't know what sort of things they did on the weekends. So he decided he would simply go for a walk around the school, maybe he could even run into Persephone.
"Look Out!!!"
"Huh?"
BANG!
Damian grunted as a body slammed into his own and forcefully pushed him to the ground. He rubbed at his tailbone as he sat up, "Ow," he said.
"Damn it! I'm sorry!"
Damian opened his eyes to see a boy with black eyes and blue hair standing in front of him. He was wearing the same outfit as Damian, only that his outfit was gray with silver lines going down the side. The symbol on his chest was a hearth with a hammer in front of it.
A hand suddenly appeared in front of his face and Damian blinked at it, surprised by the gesture. He took the hand and the boy helped him up while sliding backward fluidly. That was when Damian realized that the boy was wearing a pair of rollerblades on his feet.
They looked to have been modified with extra mechanical parts. They had lights traveling across them regularly and an exhaust at the back. Damian wondered how fast it could go if it needed an exhaust.
"Sorry about that," the boy said while balancing himself properly, "Still getting used to it"
Damian nodded, "It's fine, just be careful though"
"No worries," the boy saluted with a laugh. His eyes then trailed over to Damian's shirt, "Oh, you're from the Hades faction?"
Damian scratched his cheek, "Yeah,"
"That's so cool!"
Damian looked back at him in shock, "What?"
The boy looked like he was in absolute awe, "I don't think I've seen anyone here in Hades before. I wonder what sort of things you can do!"
Damian couldn't give any response to that. He wasn't used to people not being repulsed by his presence whenever he was around them.
There was a shout from down the hall and Damian turned around to see a girl running towards them.
"Paris!" she shouted, "Get back here right now!"
"Oops!" the boy said and then saluted as the skates began shaking and releasing smoke, "Gotta go!"
He bent forward and then rocketed out the front door and onto the bridge. Damian simply kept his hand up as he watched him go, "Paris, eh?"
"You there!" The girl that had shouted came up to him. She had blue eyes and white hair and was quite short. She had on the female version of Damian's clothes, but it was light green with a bow and arrow as the symbol, "Why didn't you stop him!?"
"Uh.." Damian was short for words. He didn't know he was supposed to.
The girl growled and stomped her foot, "That idiot is going to break his neck one of these days!" her eyes then trailed towards Damian's shirt, and her face squeezed in distaste for a microsecond. She was able to bring her face back to normal quickly, but Damian saw it, "I have to go," she said, "Before that idiot does something stupid"
She turned and walked out the main door, moving in the direction Paris had gone.
"Well," Damian said as he watched the short girl go, "At least some things never change,"
"Hey, Damian," someone called him from the elevator, and Damian turned to see Helios standing there with his sunglasses and earbuds. Damian began walking towards him. He noticed that many of the girls kept pointing in Helio's direction shyly and giggling like crazy people, "What are you doing down here?" Helios said once Damian came close enough.
Damian shrugged, "I don't know what to do on the weekends"
Helios smiled, "Oh really. I guess you still haven't heard of it, have you?"
"Heard of what?"
Helios shook his head and then waved Damian into the elevator. He pressed the very first button at the top and Damian rose a brow as they began going up. Were they going to the cafeteria?
They arrived at the top and Helios began walking down the hall. He stopped in front of the gym door and turned back to Damian, "Whatever you see from now on is confidential, you understand?"
Damian felt very skeptical about this, but he decided to simply go with the flow of things, for now. He nodded and Helios smiled in a way that made him think he had just signed a deal with the devil.
Helios slotted a key into the gym door and clicked it open and Damian was immediately assaulted with noise.
"YYAAARRRGGHHH!!!!"
"Welcome," Helios said over the noise as he opened the door, "to fight club"
On the boxing ring in the middle of the room, a boy slammed his fist into the cheek of another one, sending the other boy to the floor like a bag of rocks.
"YYYAAAAARRRRRGGGHH!!!"
Close to a hundred boys surrounded the ring, screaming at the top of their lungs while waving pieces of paper around. Damian was shocked into silence as he watched a boy wearing a tuxedo come onto the stage and announce the winner of the match. Helios locked the door behind him and then began leading him towards the ring.
"What is this?" Damian wondered out loud
"You probably know this already," Helios said, "But fighting is in our blood. Our essence. This is a place for us to release that fighting spirit in the form of glorious combat. Well, once every week, of course"
"It's a secret fight club?"
"It's glorious combat," Helios corrected him, "But yes, it's also a secret fight club"
"But is this legal? Aren't you a teacher?"
"Hey everyone! It's Helios!!"
"WWWOOHHH!! Helios, you're amazing!!"
Helios smiled and waved at all his adoring fans, "Being a teacher has nothing to do with fighting, Damian. When I came here, I saw the despair in the eyes of the students. The beasts inside that simply wanted to get out, I had no other choice but to give them an outlet"
"You formed this club!?"
"Huh? Of course, I did. What kind of teacher do you take me for?"
"A horrible one!"
Helios shrugged then turned towards the boxing ring once more. The boy wearing the tuxedo was another student and he was smiling like a loon as he grabbed a microphone that lowered from somewhere above.
"And now for our next fight. On our right corner, we have a new contender. A short stack that thinks he has what it takes to become champion… Milos!!!"
The crowd cheered and booed for the boy. He had orange hair and his green eyes were focused intensely on the other side of the ring. He was shirtless with only a pair of black joggers on, his hands were taped with white bandages. Damian saw a rather tall girl with red hair - the only girl in the room - throw a water bottle at Milos. He caught it with a nod.
"And on our left corner!! We have our man! Our defending champion! The king of the ring!"
Before the announcer even finished off his announcement, the crowd had already gone crazy. Their shouts were deafening and Damian wondered how in the world Helios was able to hide this from the crazy principal.
He looked towards the left corner and he felt his eyes widen in shock. That was…
"ADRIAN!!!!!"
Adrain wore only a long pair of pants and no top. His hands were taped with white bandages and his body was sweaty. Once his name was called he rose his hand into the air and the crowd screamed.
"YYYEEAAARGGG!!!"
Damian was still as a statue and Helios laughed, "You probably didn't know this did you?"
"A-Adrian fights in these as well?"
"No, he doesn't just fight in it. Adrian wins these things"
And Helios was right about that. The match started and Damian suddenly realized that he had never seen Adrian fight seriously before. His form was immovable. His stance was perfect and his blows looked like they could break rocks.
"Street fighting is very different from the organized fights that the school promotes," Helios said, "Thats why the students love this so much. It's in our blood, you know. We want to go crazy in a competition where there are no rules. And Adrian… Adrian is the perfect definition of a street fighter"
Adrain jabbed Milos' shoulder and Milos stumbled. He recovered quickly and retaliated with a kick, but Adrian turned around the kick at the last second and sent a knee into Milo's abdomen. He turned around, grabbed Milos from behind, and took him to the ground with a heave.
A perfect German suplex.
BOOMM!
The crowd went crazy and the announcer came forward to check on Milos. He put his hand to his pulse and then cunted down from ten.
".…THREE! TWO! ONE! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!"
The announcer took Adrain's hand and rose it into the air. Damian couldn't help his smile as he saw the expression of contentment on Adrian's face, there was a strange feeling in his body, something that made his entire being vibrate in place, like he had too much energy and simply wanted to get it all out. What was this?
"You're feeling it, aren't you?" Helios said with a smile, "That's your birthright, Damian. The feeling going through you right now. It shows you are the descendant of a warrior"
Damian looked at Helios in surprise: he had never really thought of things like this before. For the longest time, all he had thought about was getting out of this place. It was only now dawning on him that he was somehow related to one of the greek gods of old. He was a child of Hades.
"It seems we have a new challenger!" the announcer shouted from atop the stage as a new boy walked up.
Dennis stood opposite Adrian with a scowl before looking away from him and turning towards the crowd. He scanned through the faces of everyone present before he finally landed on Damian.
"Him," he said while pointing to Damian.
Damian took a step back in shock and Helios' smile widened.
"Hey," Adrian said, "What do you think you're doing?"
"You know exactly what I'm doing," Dennis said, "I have a right to choose my opponent"
"Only when he agrees to it!" Adrian said
Dennis looked towards Damian, "Come up here," he seethed, "Don't tell me you're scared"
Damian squeezed his hands into fists, "What did you say?"