Zik sat in the school courtyard, the afternoon sun casting long shadows over the cracked pavement. The tournament matches were on break for the day, giving students a rare moment of calm between fights. His body ached from his last battle, but the pain was manageable—his Regeneration had taken care of the worst of it.
What lingered wasn't the soreness, but something else. A nagging thought that had been bothering him ever since he saw how people reacted to Tobias.
Fear.
The way they whispered. The way they stared. The way some of them acted like Tobias had done something wrong just by existing.
Zik clenched his fist. That wasn't fair.
---
Across the courtyard, a familiar voice broke through the background noise.
"Man, can you believe that freak made it to the next round?"
Zik's head snapped up. A small group of students sat at a table nearby, laughing among themselves.
"Yeah, I mean, what kind of hero spits poison? He should be in a villain school."
Zik's jaw tightened.
Aiden, sitting beside him, exhaled through his nose. "Don't listen to them," he muttered, shifting in his seat. "They're nobodies."
Tobias, who had been sitting on Zik's other side, didn't react. He just stared ahead, his expression unreadable.
Zik could see the tension in his shoulders. Could see the way his fingers tightened around the half-eaten sandwich in his hands.
"They're not worth it," Tobias said, voice flat.
But Zik wasn't sure he believed him.
---
Aiden leaned back, crossing his arms. "Man, I'd love to just clock one of them in the face."
Zik sighed. "Yeah, and then what? You hit them, they cry about it, and suddenly we're the bad guys."
Aiden exhaled sharply. "That's what pisses me off the most. They get to say whatever they want, but if we hit back, we're the ones in trouble?"
Tobias finally spoke, his voice quieter than usual.
"That's the 73rd Hero Code."
Zik blinked. "What?"
Tobias turned slightly, looking at them both. "The 73rd Hero Code. Punish in an equivalent manner to how you were harmed, or be patient."
Aiden scoffed. "Sounds like an excuse to do nothing."
Tobias shook his head. "No. It means you have a choice. You can hit back with the same force, nothing more, nothing less. Or… you can let it go."
---
Zik frowned, considering the words carefully. "Equivalent punishment or patience…"
He looked back toward the students laughing at their table. If Aiden punched one of them, that wouldn't be equivalent—that'd be escalation. But if they just let it go, they were letting those guys get away with it.
He rubbed his temples. "Man, morality is exhausting."
Aiden snorted. "Welcome to being a hero."
---
Tobias stood up suddenly, tossing the rest of his sandwich into the trash. "Come on," he said. "Let's go."
Aiden blinked. "Where?"
"Anywhere but here."
Zik and Aiden exchanged glances before standing up to follow. As they walked away, Zik took one last glance at the group of students. They were still laughing, still talking, oblivious to the fact that they were being watched.
Maybe Tobias was right to walk away. Maybe patience was the better answer.
But something told Zik this wasn't over.
As they walked away from the courtyard, the tension still clung to Zik like a second skin. His thoughts swirled, replaying the conversation over and over. Then, he frowned.
"Wait a second," he said, glancing at Tobias. "Wasn't I the one always talking about the Hero Code? Since when did you start preaching it?"
Tobias huffed out a small laugh, his shoulders relaxing slightly. "I know some of them," he admitted. "The ones I actually like, anyway."
Aiden smirked. "So basically, the ones that aren't annoying?"
"Exactly," Tobias said.
For a brief moment, things felt normal again. The weight of the whispers, the judgment, the frustration—it all faded into the background.
Then a brick flew past Zik's head.
CRACK.
The three of them stopped in their tracks as the brick slammed into a nearby wall, dust crumbling from the impact.
Aiden slowly turned, his jaw tightening. "Oh, hell no."
---
Behind them, the same group of students was now standing, their grins gone. One of them—a taller guy with slicked-back hair—cracked his knuckles.
"You think you can just walk away?" he sneered. "That lizard freak needs to learn his place."
Zik's fingers twitched, a familiar fire building in his chest. So much for patience.
Tobias exhaled slowly. "And here I was, actually trying to follow the Code," he muttered. "Guess we're doing the 'punish in an equivalent manner' part now?"
Zik rolled his shoulders. "Well, technically, they escalated things first by throwing a brick, so if we escalate it back…"
Aiden cracked his neck. "It's justified."
Tobias sighed, stepping forward. "Alright then. Let's make this fair."
And just like that, the patience part of the Hero Code was over.
The courtyard air grew thick with tension. The group of students who had been so smug just moments ago were now posturing like they were the main characters in a bad action movie. Zik couldn't help but tilt his head.
"Just to be clear," he said, pointing at the guy who threw the brick. "You do know who we are, right?"
Slick-Back scoffed, cracking his knuckles again, as if that somehow made him look more intimidating. "Yeah. You're the charity cases the school let in so they could pretend to be progressive."
Aiden let out a slow whistle. "Wow. That's the insult you're going with? Dude, that's embarrassing."
Tobias, who had been standing unnervingly quiet, finally spoke. "So you threw a brick at me."
Slick-Back smirked. "Yeah, what about it?"
Tobias blinked slowly. Then, in the calmest, most rational voice imaginable, he said:
"You should run."
---
Zik barely had time to register the sudden shift in energy before Tobias vanished.
He didn't even activate Super Speed. He just moved, faster than he had any right to, straight at Slick-Back.
The guy barely had time to flinch before Tobias grabbed him by the front of his shirt and—
CRACK.
—chucked him clear across the courtyard.
Slick-Back hit the ground hard, skidding to a stop right at the feet of his own friends.
The other students stood frozen, their fight-or-flight instincts short-circuiting. The ones who had been grinning just moments ago were now very, very aware of how bad their decisions were.
One of them let out a nervous laugh. "Haha, okay, yeah, that's cool, we're cool, right?"
Tobias didn't answer. He just started walking toward them.
---
Zik sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "Man, I really wanted to have a break today."
Aiden grinned, stretching his arms. "C'mon, we've got, what, five guys? That's barely a warm-up."
One of the students, a lanky kid with overly spiky hair, turned to his friend. "Uh, dude? Didn't that one"—he pointed at Tobias—"fight in the tournament? You know, the one everyone's scared of?"
Slick-Back groaned from the ground, his face pressed against the pavement. "Yeah. Yeah, I forgot about that."
Spiky-Hair swallowed hard, then looked at Zik. "And that guy… he beat Ethan!"
The shortest kid in the group, who looked like he regretted every decision that led him to this moment, pointed at Aiden. "And he's the fastest guy in school! Why are we here again? Why did we start this?"
Silence.
Then Aiden smirked. "Hey, look at that. You guys are fast learners."
That was all it took for two of them to bolt, abandoning their so-called leader.
Zik watched them go, slightly impressed. "Not bad. They really are faster than I expected."
Aiden grinned. "They got motivated. Fear is a hell of a drug."
---
Unfortunately, that still left three students who were either too dumb or too stubborn to take the hint.
One of them, a guy with lightning sparking at his fingertips, finally shook off his hesitation. "Screw this! I've got an ability too!"
Aiden lit up, his grin widening. "Oh, thank god someone wants to fight back. I was getting bored."
The lightning guy let out a war cry and threw a crackling bolt straight at Aiden.
Aiden moved.
Or more accurately, he wasn't there anymore.
The bolt of lightning struck the pavement where he had been standing. The moment the guy realized he missed, it was already too late.
Aiden reappeared behind him, tapping him on the shoulder.
"Yo."
The lightning guy barely turned before Aiden's Blitz Barrage hit him.
A series of rapid punches to his back and sides sent him spinning like a ragdoll, his body flopping onto the ground in a heap. His electricity flickered out.
"Guess he wasn't that charged up," Aiden quipped.
---
Meanwhile, the last two students—one with a minor wind ability and the other with absolutely nothing going for him—were left standing awkwardly.
Zik sighed. "Guys, you don't have to do this. Seriously. Walk away."
The wind guy clenched his fists, trying to hype himself up. "You think we're scared?"
Aiden, standing over the twitching lightning guy, grinned. "Yes."
The wind guy hesitated. Then Tobias, who hadn't even done anything serious yet, cracked his knuckles, his Dragon Scale Armor rippling across his arms like shifting stone.
That was the final straw.
Wind Guy let out a panicked "NOPE" and ran, dragging the last student with him.
---
And just like that, it was over.
Zik sighed, shaking his head. "Well. That was… something."
Aiden wiped imaginary dust off his jacket. "Yeah, I'd rate that a solid three out of ten for difficulty. Barely worked up a sweat."
Tobias just crossed his arms, watching the last of the troublemakers disappear into the distance. "That took longer than I expected."
Zik stared at him. "You threw a guy across the courtyard in the first five seconds."
Tobias shrugged. "Should've thrown him further."
---
The three of them turned and started walking away, leaving behind a courtyard full of unconscious or humiliated idiots.
Aiden stretched his arms above his head. "Sooo… does that count as 'punishing in an equivalent manner,' or did we go a little overboard?"
Zik snorted. "Overboard would've been dropping a building on them."
Tobias smirked. "We still have time."
Aiden chuckled. "Alright, let's go get some food before someone blames us for what just happened."
Zik sighed, but a small smile pulled at the corner of his lips. "Yeah. Let's go before Tobias gets ideas."
And with that, they left the mess behind, knowing full well that tomorrow, those same students would have a very different opinion on who they should and shouldn't mess with.
Tobias had been feeling different lately. Lighter. Freer. Like something had finally clicked into place.
For years, he had spent his life keeping his head down, avoiding fights, letting things slide—not because he was weak, but because he knew how fast things could spiral if he really let loose. If people already feared him for looking different, what would happen if he actually fought back?
But now?
Now he had friends who didn't treat him like a ticking time bomb. Friends who didn't tell him to hold back—instead, they stood beside him, laughed with him, fought with him.
It was freeing in a way he never expected.
---
Of course, there was one major downside.
His bad luck had somehow gotten worse.
Which, honestly, was probably Zik's fault.
Tobias eyed the cursed yellow shirt with barely concealed contempt as Zik strutted ahead, completely oblivious to the cosmic disaster he carried on his back.
"At least you wash that thing," Tobias muttered. "I'm convinced it's actively making my life harder."
Aiden chuckled. "Man, you should've known what you were signing up for. Zik refuses to take that thing off."
Zik turned around, grinning. "Of course not! Bad luck makes you stronger!"
Tobias deadpanned. "I think it just gives you head trauma."
Zik ignored him. "Besides, the way I see it, if I'm absorbing all the bad luck, you two should be grateful. I'm basically your human shield."
Aiden snorted. "That you get hurt more often than both of us combined says otherwise."
---
Tobias sighed, shaking his head.
But truth be told… he didn't really mind anymore.
Sure, his bad luck was a constant nightmare, but with Zik and Aiden around, it didn't feel like such a burden. If anything, they made the worst days bearable.
Maybe, in some ridiculous way, they were his good luck.
That thought made him pause.
Zik—who had absolutely no sense of self-preservation—was bound to get himself into real trouble one day.
And when that happened?
Tobias smirked.
He'd be right there, ready to break whoever tried.