As the two hunting teams quickly dispatched their foes, on the football field Salvatore was dominating the game much to Alaric's dismay. It all started when someone made a joke about Gil's grandpa, and he lost it. "(The entire team must be humiliated to the fullest extent of the law)" Gil thought. It wasn't just Gil either after he made an over-the-top run that involved flipping over several of his defenders in one bound and burning everyone by a long shot (leaving jaws all over the floor), Salvatore's Stallion's morale shot through the roof. Everyone played their roles perfectly like a well-oiled machine, but they couldn't help going harder watching Gil. Although everyone showed out, Gil himself was clearly the star. He didn't even need the sharingan's help him learn a skillful play or two immediately, it was looking like he was getting better with every play. No matter what Alaric said to him about holding back Gil would simply remind him he's using human abilities, so this isn't cheating. He's just that great. Everything Lizzie threw dropped perfectly into his hands and his acrobatic grace allowed him to out-maneuver every defender. They started to call him the ninja god of Salvatore after that. Touchdown after touchdown and it was quickly becoming a blowout, but Gil wasn't greedy, being able to play every position saw he could just as easily deliver a gorgeous pass. Kaleb scored, MG scored, Raphael scored, Lizzie scored, even Penelope and a couple of Randoms too. Fumbles and interceptions were everywhere on the opposing side, they couldn't avoid Gil's quick eyes and deft hands. There were actually more rips than tackles that game. It was just awful to watch for the fans of Mystic Falls High. Ending the game at ninety-six to twelve, The Timberwolves marched off the field in utter defeat and shame, tails tucked between their legs. No one could even come up with any kind of trash talk after that ass whopping…what would they say? On the other hand, Gil was laughing like a madman enjoying such an overwhelming victory. "(Sports might actually be kind of fun)" He thought.
"So much for holding back eh Gil? Alaric walked up to Gil after the game.
"That guy insulted my grandfather, and I still didn't hurt anyone. Well maybe a few egos" Gil brushed it off.
"No normal high school student beyond an Olympic level track star and gymnast either…you were supposed to –"
"I have a question. What's the point of being a school for the gifted if we don't stand above our peers? Seems a little on the stupid side to me to hide even the most basic of our gifts. Salvatore IS the best school in the area. I thought you knew that, you helped found the damn place." Gil slid his eye mask down and walked away with nothing more to say.
He had a good point, but Alaric was more concerned with the rumors that could spread drawing more attention to the school. Noraa's grand entries every time he visited didn't help much either. He was starting to remember what he liked least about the tigers….none of them had the slightest idea what words like 'low key' or 'tact' meant. Even Gil's cripple façade did little to keep him out of trouble. While he was standing there thinking about the situation the other stallions poured Gatorade all over him in celebration.
Since his duty as an athlete was now over Gil was free to have the human house to himself (with Hope of course). The two of them decided it'd be the perfect time to go buy some snacks and watch a movie in the common room since everyone else was gone. But their missions were long since over with. The rest of the squad were already taking up the common room discussing their recent missions. "What the heck? Isn't there somewhere else you guys could be?"
"I thought we agreed this was our meeting place. It's very comfortable and some of us do live here." Hercules answered reclining on his usual couch. Gil had the legs removed to prevent him from scuffing up the floor every time he plopped down.
"Not one of the other houses even have a PS5 yet, and you expect me to just not be here?" Ilpyo added.
"Yeah… phoenix house isn't really a thing at the moment" Landon said.
"(So much for a movie night alone)" Hope whispered to Gil who could only sigh in frustration.
"So how much did we lose by?" Josie asked.
"We won by eighty-four points," Lizzie answered triumphantly.
"What?! Eighty-four points! You know you aren't supposed to cheat right!?" Josie exclaimed.
"Running faster than everyone else is in no way cheating," Gil replied proudly "but why are you all in here before me?"
"I have a key you know (unlocking spell)," Lizzie answered "I was going to set up a movie night (for me and Raf) but they beat me here."
"Oh ok so this is the freak spot huh, dim the lights, put on a cheesy movie, grab a blanket and –" Before Ilpyo could finish a shuriken planted itself in his forehead. "OUCH DAMMIT!"
"My house is not an empty theater…do not even go there." Gil stopped him immediately.
"Moving on...what happened on your missions?" Hope asked.
"We saw an arachne and Herc splattered it with one slap," Josie said.
"Eww gross," Lizzie scooted her chair farther away from him.
"What? I washed my hands after and we were able to save a few people before they were devoured."
"It doesn't make the spider guts any less nasty. You could have used anything in there as a weapon, even your newly remembered ninjutsu, but you splattered the giant spider…. with your bare hand" Josie pointed out. "But good job though. I hardly had to do much."
"Nice but still pretty nasty Herc" Landon added.
"Fine one of you can kill it with your fancy magic next time." Hercules pouted rolling over to face away from the group.
"I planned to…" Josie sighed. "How did things go on your end?"
"I kicked the shit out of a supped-up Gargoyle, he didn't stand a chance against me," Ilpyo blurted out.
"Until it paralyzed you and Landon had to come save your ass…loser" Kelly scoffed at him.
"Hey, no one said gargoyles had stun claws!" Ilpyo defended himself.
"That's the point of being careful. No one is going to show their full hand off the jump. Even that big oaf Hercules knows that." Kelly shot back.
"Thank you…I think." Hercules said.
"So the general consensus is that everything you've faced today was really weak," Gil summarized.
"That seemed to be the case." Ilpyo agreed "This Tartarus stuff might be easier than Minerva let on."
"Maybe he's just getting warmed up, we should note each attack has drawn closer to Salvatore than the last. It'd be a problem if something like a titan showed up at our doorstep." Hope said.
"True… that would be worrisome. There is something I don't get though."
"What's that Herc?" Raphael asked.
"Both of today's monsters were fairly weak, so much so I could finish them in one attack, probably even simultaneously. If Tartarus really wanted us dealt with quickly why not send a stronger foe? The azure dragon was on an entirely different level than his other soldiers, and I doubt I could defeat my father or any of his siblings as I am right now. If we were really meant to be killed it's possible considering he's devoured entire pantheons. Do these lackluster enemies have some sort of pattern to get us to let our guard down?"
"That was actually a good observation Herc. I noticed it too, the only thing the authorities probably could not handle was Seiryu. Even the wyvern would've gone down with a big enough gun. Something must be stopping him from sending out the top-tier creatures…maybe he can't control the stronger ones fully yet." Hope agreed with Hercules.
"Also why does it keep targeting our town?" Lizzie asked. "Thanks to that date nights end pretty early- ouch!" Gil chopped her in the head.
"You don't need to worry about date nights anytime soon sis-sis" Gil said coldly.
"(You get the nerve to ask out a girl you've been friends with for years, and now all of a sudden you're grown…)" Lizzie muttered under her breath. "ANYWAYS, is there something in Mystic falls these creatures want?"
"Well, Tartarus wants everything right? Maybe we're just too much of a problem to let run loose." Raphael guessed.
"Sure, a primordial deity is scared of a group of super teens," Gil said sarcastically.
"Trigon had to worry about the Teen Titans," Landon said.
"He's got you there…" Hope agreed until she noticed everyone was staring at her "What? It was a good show. Drama, romance, comedy the fights were good too."
"Hmm, I'll have to check that one out," Ilpyo noted. "But then again I don't think he'd waste so much time and low-level resources on us…we are related to the tigers after all. Who's going to half-ass that battle?"
"So either he's an idiot god-" Lizzie said.
"Primordial deity" Josie corrected.
"Primordial whatever…nerd. Or there could be someone else after us too?"
"Lizzie might actually be on to something, I spoke with Seiryu in his last moments and he seemed to be freed from some sort of mind control after he was defeated." Gil said. "The others usually die like mindless beasts normally would."
"Ok well if that's the case, we have to figure out who villain number two is, and why they also have such a big army" Kelly stated. "Plus, we need to find out their motives."
"How do we go about finding out?" Hercules asked.
"Doesn't dad keep all the good books for himself?" Lizzie suggested.
"Soooo we're going snooping through Alaric's stuff?" Ilpyo suggested.
"Sounds about right." Gil agreed.
......
In the forest on the outskirts of town, Noraa sparked a joint while sitting down in the woods. His seat? A massive cyclopes' body lied beaten bloody and half dead. Their battle tore the area up as trees and boulders were smashed to pieces and craters were everywhere. "You put up a good fight big guy, but I think I'll let the kids take it easy today. They've got a bigger challenge to worry about coming up.