Pietro scared the little chubby kid with a menacing glare, then gestured to Green that he'd be keeping an eye on him.
Seeing that fair-skinned Green had nearly been scared to tears, Pietro nodded in satisfaction. Then he swept his gaze over the group of little kids and said in a deep voice, "A lot of you won't make it to graduation."
Seeing how nervous the kids looked, Pietro raised his voice. "Your only problem is that you're not tough enough. We only need people with a backbone here..."
"Keep your hands to yourself."
Pietro smacked the little chubby kid, Gerald, on the hand as he fidgeted, making the other kids jump and clasp their hands behind their backs.
He gripped the chin of a little boy who was looking down and made him lift his head. "Head up, chest out. Don't look down. Don't make yourselves look scared. Monsters won't spare you just because you're afraid.
"Eyes on me, all of you. I'm your instructor for your first lesson here. You should know my name. What am I called?"
The bribed "security guards" stomped their feet, hands behind their backs, and shouted, "Pietro! Pietro the Quicksilver!"
The kids followed suit almost instinctively, shouting in their childish voices, "Pietro! Pietro the Quicksilver!"
Pietro nodded, thoroughly pleased. As he inspected them, he picked at their flaws, slapping one on the back and kicking another in the leg. "Suck in your stomachs. Stand straight. I had no interest in teaching you in the first place. You rookies are barely better than idiots.
"But we all started out as idiots, so I've decided to teach you a little about how to survive. Let me show you..."
As Pietro was speaking, the little chubby kid seemed to think of something particularly funny and suddenly