Mark of the Multiversal Pretender

*Wee Woo!*

After a few minutes, the response of the police station was quite quick, mostly thanks to the advance announcement of the 'villain'.

Inside the already ruined McDonalds, both Lucius and Bob noticed that they were out of the golden protective bubble, quickly approached the nearby civilians and started helping them.

Meanwhile, Leo noticed the frozen look on Helen's face.

"Helen? Are you okay?" Leo slowly approached her and tapped her on her shoulders.

"D-Dead people, Leo. T-They're dead. W-Why aren't they moving?" Raising her shivering finger, she pointed at the nearby charred corpses that Leo failed to engulf in a protective bubble.

"Helen, Helen look at me. Look at me, Helen. They're dead. Breath in." Cupping Helen's face, Leo made her face him and with the help of his various templates, he helped her calm down.

It's normal to experience breakdowns after witnessing death, especially the death of someone who you just saw as someone alive before.

After all, Leo also experienced the same thing back before he got reincarnated.

What? You think he's an innocent person just because he only scams the bad guy?

No matter where you are or what you do in life, it's near impossible not to witness death in front of you, or in other people's cases, see a dead person's body.

"Huff....Huff..." Thanks to his words along with his face blocking Helen from seeing the dead bodies, she finally started calming down.

"You okay now? Just inhale and exhale." Despite already relaxed, Leo was still calming her down.

Breakdowns are known to randomly pop up in a person, so it's best to keep doing this just in case.

"I-I'm okay now, Leo. Thanks but..."

"Hmm?"

"Why....are you calm? Aren't you scared that you failed to save a person?" Helen expressed her concern, in her mind, Leo should be the one having more intense breakdowns.

"Oh I'm not calm alright. I'm just good at holding it back." Leo smiled, assuring her.

"I-I see. What now? There's a new villain out there and I don't think we should stay idle from it." Helen asked, changing the topic. Although she was worried on what Leo meant by holding it back but seeing the look on his face, Helen decided against asking him about it.

If such an attack truly angers Leo, and he could manage to hold it back, it means that his anger isn't that strong, right?

Right?

"Of course we won't. We'll find the one who did this, but first. We'll settle this matter here first." At the same time as Leo said this, the sirens of the police were getting closer.

*Wee Woo!*

"What do you mean?"

"Identity hiding, remember?" While saying this, Leo's form has already transformed into his panther habit suit.

"Oh!"

"Should I also suit up then?" Helen asked hesitantly, not because she doesn't want to but because she doesn't have a suit yet.

"You don't have one yet but I know someone who can make you one." Leo smiled and winked at her, referring to the cape-hater Edna Mode.

"Really?"

"Yup. I'll recommend you to her, I'm sure she'd be happy to have another hero as her customer." Leo then continued.

"Now then. Pretend to be a normal citizen while I handle these from here." Caressing her cheeks which made her blush, Leo smirked under his mask before standing up, gathering the attention of all the survivors, including Bob and Lucius.

"Everyone! The police are on their way! If you're injured or you think you're injured, please don't hesitate to inform me!" Using the speaker amplification function, Leo's voice was heard throughout by everyone.

"Look! It's the Black Phantom!"

"Wrong! It's only Phantom!"

"Phantom then."

"Look people, I th-."

Before Leo could finish his words, the police had finally arrived and everyone started running outside with tears on their faces, as if they were elementary students crying after their parents left them to their school.

"And there they go." Leo whispered under his breath as Bob and Lucius finally approached him.

"It was you, right? The one who made those golden bubbles that protected everyone from the explosion." It was Lucius, the freeze hero who asked.

"Yes. It's me. Is there a problem? Did someone die while inside the bubble?" Leo crossed his arms and asked, raising his eyebrow.

"No no no. No one died inside the bubble. I'm just here to....thank you. For including us in the bubble. Although we're also heroes like you but our chances of surviving are low, I'm not sure about Bob here though haha..." Lucius then chuckled, lightening up the somber mood.

Unfortunately for him, Bob and Leo remained serious, making it awkward instead.

"Haha~..." Seeing that no one was laughing with him, Lucius retracted his laugh with an awkward stop.

"I'll find out whoever is behind this, that man that appeared on the television is the first clue." Bob said, interrupting the awkward atmosphere, clenching his hand into a fist, displaying his anger right now.

It is just the first month of him being a superhero and now this kind of thing happened?

Bob will make sure this 'villain' won't succeed in his plan to bomb the entire Metroville city!

On the other hand, Lucius nodded his head, agreeing with his friend. Although this isn't the first time he failed to save someone, it still hurts his heart to see people due to his own weakness.

Meanwhile, Leo saw the determined look on Bob and Lucius's faces and came to a small realization.

'Maybe....this is the operation that turned Bob as the strongest Superhero of Metroville city? I can already see Bob taking down the villain that threatens to bomb Metroville city, making him famous.' Leo felt like this is something that came out of a cliche superhero fantasy novel back in his world.

"You two won't be alone. That man took someone from me." Leo closed his eyes and said, clenching his hands similar to Bob.

Lucius confusedly stared at Leo and replied.

"Uhm, I don't know if you know but your date is over there safe and sound. I don't think she died." Lucius pointed at Helen standing outside among the crowd of fellow survivors.

"I'm....not talking about her. I'm talking about my...." Without continuing, Leo simply looked at the parking lot, where a black charred car resides, burnt out tires, broken windshield and windows, along with it's entire body mostly into pieces from the explosion.

Lucius and Bob also noticed where he was looking.

Bob was the slow one as Lucius was the first one to get it.

"O-Oh! I see. Condolences my brother, I hope it wouldn't be too rude to share this but I can feel the exact pain you're feeling now. When I first started my career as a Superhero, I had this neon blue superbike that I always use as my ride whenever there's an ongoing crime." Without Bob being able to stop him, Lucius started narrating his own experience, leaving the two to listen to him.

"I love that superbike. It was myself that modified her, showered her and even used most of the money I earn from sponsors just to make her look good. It wasn't until that day. It was supposed to be a normal day of me riding her from place to place, looking for crimes to bust when suddenly, t-there's this villain who has the ability to turn anything he touches into an explosive that detonates after 5 seconds. He threw several marbles at me that he kept in his pocket while I was on my superbike. I can't freeze it all, so I can only protect myself and watch as she exploded like firework...." 

"That was the first time I was killed. I don't know what went over me, everything was blue and before I knew it, I froze him to death. Freezing his every organs and cells."

"I'm sorry for ranting like that. All I just wanted to tell you is to not let your anger control you. Take this from me as a fellow but more experienced Superhero. Never ever let your emotions get a hold of you. Never."

"Alright now, Lucius. Thanks for sharing that. Look, the police are entering now, we should join up with the other survivors. Don't forget we're not wearing our costumes." Before Lucius could go on and on, Bob quickly interrupted him, patting his shoulders while rotating his at the same time, making him face the police officers that just entered. At the same time, he reminded Lucius. As his best friend, Bob knows him best and he knows that Lucius tends to accidentally reveal his identity through slip ups, especially if he's drunk.

"I'll....take note of that." Leo raised his eyebrow and muttered, waving goodbye to the two.

'Did I just gain two strong allies on taking down this villain?' Leo whispered under his breath.

At the same time, a panel screen flashed in front of his eyes.

[• Quest Title: Usurp the Number one Superhero of Metroville!

Main Quest: A man from behind the scenes has orchestrated to plant several bombs across Metroville, take the villain down along with the true villain!

Bonus Quest: Expose the true villain's plan and face to the public!

Reward: Completion of Daredevil's template, 15% of Jimmy Neutron Template, 100,000 Reputation Points, 10 Normal Gacha Tickets, 2 Golden Gacha Tickets

Bonus Quest: Title: Superhero]

Leo's eyes almost flew out of its sockets.

'Holy shit! Genesis, since when did you become so generous! Should I change your name from Genesis to Generosity?' 

[Sigh....just do the goddamn quest, Leo.]

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[Next Chapter: Ch. 120 - Investigations]