Ron Poisoned

"I can't tell, I really can't tell!" the breast milk seemed to be going crazy. "Sometimes I wonder if all of this is an illusion, if we're all just living in the same dream! You feel that way too, don't you? You all do! I'm even starting to understand Starlight— "

"Shut up, Marvin!" Butcher grabbed the breast by the neck and lifted it up. Jin Guang flashed in his eyes, which those familiar with the situation knew was just the prelude to a laser beam being prepared to fire.

"Billy Butcher," Mother Milk said with a mocking smile, "Don't you find it ridiculous that you've become the very freak you once hated most? What's the difference between you and Homelander? You're just a coward who can't face reality because your brother Lenny is still 'alive.' And how can you be sure that Homelander won't grow old and will forever restrain his godlike, ageless father?"

"No, Marvin," Butcher said, enunciating each word clearly, "In this world, as long as the Super High School exist, Soldier Boy won't always be the strongest heroes. Today is a perfect example. In the end, people like you and Starlight are the biggest freaks. Hughie, take him away."

"Hughie, you—" Looking at Hughie, who had suddenly appeared after traversing space, Mother Milk was incredibly excited, "You're awake too? Then you—"

Hughie raised an eyebrow. "Because my parents didn't divorce, Robin didn't die (A-Train, 'Sorry, I—'), my father knew I didn't like pizza rolls, and we were both superpowered, no, superheroes, the kind of people I always wanted to be."

"I won't be naked every time I teleport, leaving my clothes behind, like in my dream."

"Don't you find it strange that all the Awakened Ones are not ordinary people? They are all of great importance to this world and believe from the bottom of their hearts that reality is a dream? So why isn't it a supervillain who is plotting to overthrow this world and secretly using his superpowers to do bad things?"

"They want to destroy the world by influencing us."

"Our memories in the dream clearly reveal his tendency to discriminate against Superman, including himself."

"Those who can read the Mind Stone thoughts of others are indeed the most likely to turn to the dark side."

"They are not rare either; there are many who can do this."

"For example, Homelander's girlfriend, Kate Dunlap, is the strongest and most versatile of the registered Mind Stone."

"It is as versatile as a Swiss Army knife in matters of Mind Stone and spirit, capable of handling all Emergence single-handedly: it can pull multiple people into a realistic illusion, read minds, communicate with distant objects, erase thoughts, amplify willpower, recreate thoughts, and transplant emotions."

"If refined further, it can be differentiated into 3,000 different effects."

Hughie spoke logically, but Breastfeeding wouldn't listen, resorting to emotional tactics. "How can you do this to Starlight?"

"Only in this way can I live up to the Starlight." Hughie said solemnly, "In every memory of mine, Annie January is a kind girl from Iowa, with a dream of upholding justice."

"This only proves my point: she was influenced and hypnotized, to a deeper degree than we were."

"So she will go around Carnage and destroying."

"Because she is the strongest female superhuman, Homelander may have also had feelings for her."

"Her ability is to absorb electricity to strengthen herself; her palms and eyes can release light and electricity, and she can also fly. In the dream, she was brutally beaten by Xuan Se, and I even vaguely foresaw the future of that dream. She couldn't even defeat the Deep where there were no marine creatures around, and was almost killed. Don't you think that's too outrageous?"

"Well said." Butcher looked at his student with satisfaction, then looked at the breast with disappointment. "Marvin, how come you don't have as much sense as a student? Can't you even use your brain to think about the logic of that dream?"

"Homelander, the strongest superhero, is afraid of Edgar; A-Train, the most responsible superhero, is a bastard; The Deep- sea creature that hasn't been enhanced can join the Seven; Frenchie likes women, especially Becca, who cheats on him; Ryan is her and Homelander's son. How could this be true?"

"Becca is only beautiful in my eyes; to others, she is just an ordinary middle-aged woman."

"Would Homelander abandon the young and beautiful Kate and go for Becca?"

"Are you kidding me?"

The breast, which had been hanging its head, suddenly looked up. "That's possible. Homelander is the son of Soldier Boy. It's normal for him to like older women like his father, um~" Butcher punched the breast.

He wiped his hands. "Becca isn't an old woman, you know? And to be fair, don't be fooled by the appearance of 'Soldier Boy.' Considering his age, he just happens to like people his own age."

"Hughie, take Marvin to the therapy room. He needs to have another session."

Hughie grasped the breastfed man's shoulder and led him away, disappearing from the spot.

"Again?" Frenchie had been silent until now, asked in confusion.

"This isn't the first time," Butcher said. "In fact, you've been there at least three times, and so have I. Every time I find myself questioning reality, I go for treatment."

"If I weren't as good at using my brain as Hughie, I'd probably be like Starlight and Stormfront by now."

"What?" Frenchie was stunned. "Then why don't I remember?"

"Because you and breast milk are alike," Butcher said with a smirk, "Neither of you has developed a logic of completely denying dreams, so you can only be more thorough. But today you seem to be almost healed. Breast milk should probably have a few more rounds of treatment."

"Of course," Frenchie's eyes shone with happiness. "It's all because of my love for Colin. How could I like a woman and give up Colin!"

"It's a pity Starlight doesn't understand," Butcher sighed. "Her heart is only for Hughie, and the child in her belly with Hughie. She gave up her childhood sweetheart's Supersonic in real life for that, even though Hughie is more outstanding, but alas..."

"But the most regrettable thing is the Stormfront— "

The A-Train's expression began to twist. "Why did you bring her up?"

Butcher ignored him and continued, "From a glamorous superhero to a supervillain, A-Train, you even slept with her, didn't you?"

"That's because I don't know her age!" the A-Train said irritably. "And her identity!"

"Stormfront Witch, formerly known as Stormfront, Stormfront, and Liberty, was born in 1919. She was the first artificially enhanced superhuman in history, an A-class hero, possessing the same ageless physique as Soldier Boy, with B-level strength, B-level defense, and B-level regeneration. Her physical attributes alone are comparable to those of a B-class hero with body modification abilities. Her powers include releasing lightning that can stun most superhumans and also flight."

As Ron listened to the teacher's lecture, he complained from the audience, "I dare say she must have lost her mind from living too long. She was clearly a victim of the Nazis, and spent more than half of her life as an anti-racist superhero. In the end, she ruined her reputation in her later years and became the person she used to hate the most."

If there's anything good about this school, it's that they're not strict about academic subjects.

He was talking downstairs, but the teachers upstairs pretended not to see him.

The students below were all lying sprawled out.

This was a dream come true for Ron, who had long wanted to try eating and attending classes while lying down.

Why are you all taking this so seriously? Let's eat together!

He handed out free fried chicken legs from the cafeteria to Ralph and the others who were sitting upright to the side.

He could understand Kitty Pryde ignored him.

She's a girl, and girls are weird by nature. This morning, she discovered that one of the former members of the Seven, the Lamplighter, looks exactly like her boyfriend, the Iceman.

Loki could understand; after all, he was a proud Asgardian.

Magneto could understand it too; he was also supposedly from a concentration camp, so it was normal for him to be interested in Stormfront, who had a similar experience.

But Ralph

"Okay, I'll eat it." Ralph couldn't stand Ron's pitiful little eyes.

Emma, who was not far away, looked at him with admiration. How dare he eat the food offered by the Spider? Wasn't he worried about being poisoned to death?

Many other students, judging from their expressions, seemed to have the same idea.

It wasn't that they were being overly cautious, but rather that Ron, although already fifteen, had only just awakened his superpowers.

It's normal for a newcomer to have trouble controlling their abilities.

In other words, Ron may have unknowingly revealed his fangs and injected Venom into his food.

That is why, even though four new S-class superpowered individuals have emerged, only a few dare to approach them and say hello.

The four— Iceman, Magneto, Strong Spider, and Shadowcat —are all newcomers who, like the Spider, have only recently awakened their superpowers.

However, this does not include S-class superpowered individuals.

"Hello, Shadowcat, I am the Blur." Hughie teleported to the group's side without warning, choosing to greet Katy, whose abilities were similar to his father's, first.

"Hello, [The Blur]." Katy was not unfamiliar with the habit of addressing heroes by their names; many Mutants had this habit, abandoning their human names and using nicknames instead.

Her teammates [Blink] and [Warpath] are examples of this.

"What do you want from us?" Magneto, being an old hand, immediately saw that Hughie had other motives.

"Disciplinary Committee," Hughie said. "It's a security organization composed of outstanding superpowered students selected from within the school, specifically responsible for resolving various cases caused by superpowered individuals within Academy City."

"A case?" Ron stared in disbelief. "This is a school, isn't it?"

"Because this is also part of the school education," Hughie shrugged. "This is the kind of work we will be doing in the future, so this is to familiarize ourselves with it in advance."

"You mean there are people committing crimes intentionally?" Peter frowned.

"Some people think it's easier to deal with them by thinking like a supervillain," Hughie said. "But don't worry, it's all fake and won't endanger your life or health. But it's best not to become a 'victim,' as they will lose some Credit Points depending on the circumstances."

"Supervillains harm civilians and gain points, so the disciplinary committee members are, in other words, superheroes?" Ralph asked.

"By solving cases and catching supervillains," Hughie said.

Magneto discovered a blind spot. "Wouldn't the disciplinary committee members be more likely to become targets of supervillains?"

"Yes." Hughie nodded. "Disciplinary Committee members are already wealthier than ordinary civilians, and they also get extra points from the school for a successful attack. But I'm an S-rank."

"What's wrong with me!" Ron suddenly shouted.

Everyone looked over and saw that Ron's skin had turned green.

"You've been poisoned," Hughie said. "But it's harmless; it just shows that you're poisoned."

"A supervillain?" Ralph asked.

Hughie nodded.

"I lost 10 Credit Points!" Ron said with a worried look.

"Someone attacked the cafeteria on the very first day of school." Hughie's face darkened, as if someone had actually lost their life. "I'm going to bring this guy to justice." He turned to the others. "Want to come with me?"

"Of course I want to!" Ron, somewhat indignantly.

Magneto and the others exchanged glances but did not refute.

Disciplinary committee members, who have higher authority than ordinary students, may be helpful in completing their tasks.

"Shall we check the surveillance footage first?" asked Invisible Woman Susan who had come closer.

Hughie nodded, not ignoring Susan just because she was in the support class, "But you'd better not get your hopes up too high."

Three minutes later.

Looking at the security room with the "damaged" note pasted on it, Hughie wasn't surprised. "Just as I expected."

"Then why did we come here?" Ron's face had returned to normal, but his anger had not subsided.

Someone actually dared to poison a delicious fried chicken leg; this is even more vicious than Voldemort!

"The process of elimination?" Ralph guessed.

Hughie smiled. "Looks like you're quite talented. This at least rules out the possibility that the culprit is an invisibility user, or that his abilities are so diverse that he successfully poisoned the victim without appearing on surveillance footage."

"Why not just create a false impression?" the Invisible Woman asked.

"If he really hasn't exposed any information on the surveillance, destroying the surveillance room would actually expose more of it. The archives can't be destroyed by just sticking a piece of paper on them; only a few people can do that." Hughie projected the contents of the paper phone on his arm onto the wall. "This is information about the people with the ability to destroy the surveillance room. Those marked in red are supervillains who have been captured."

"Ah," Ron said in surprise, "That's how it works? But wouldn't it be harder to be a villain then? Anything can be found with a simple search."

"Because these were also collected by the disciplinary committee," Hughie said, "And after excluding those who were in class at the time, that leaves three."

"The culprit is among these three, the Transfiguration." Ron squinted, trying to see which bastard was which one.

"Not necessarily," Hughie said. "It could also be controlled by Mind Stone who only need to give an order and don't need to do it themselves."

"Controlled!" Ron thought of the wizards who were controlled by the Killing Curse during the war.

"Yes." Hughie nodded. "But that's rare. Most students keep their smart assistants online at all times, and it alerts the [The Boys Designer] in advance when it detects danger to the host, or when it is forcibly logged off and its main body is destroyed."

Loki had remained silent until now, was assumed by everyone to be unhappy about being given the nickname "Iceman." He raised an eyebrow and finally revealed his true intentions.

He had already realized that everything Hughie had done before was a setup for this.

Are they worried about them being controlled?