Chapter 7: TOP SECRET CONVO at the Ramen Shop

The aftermath of Beacon's debut battle came just about as anti-climatic as it gets, as Beacon failed to destroy all of the evidence of his involvement in killing all of the mind-controlled experimental subjects and Pethant kept on holding onto the structures until the search and rescue team is able to retreat all of the bodies of the teenagers from within.

At the same time, the body of Beacon is also nowhere to be found, and some recalled seeing him running for his life away from the underground factory area and disappearing from the street level. Putting the two and two together, it is easy for people to speculate the connection between all of the dead teenagers and the disappearance of Beacon on his first day, despite the defenses of professional heroes like Tunnel and Rockpaperscissors's for his character.

With Beacon's death at Jon's hands during the quiet hours in the morning, it appeared that the footage that Jon has had in his hands also became obsolete, as the agency subsequently gave in pushing the hero that's nowhere to be found as their new rising star, and the day abruptly comes to an end.

Most of the cameraman from the subbranch of the Cameraman's Association located in the Eastern part of the city all cried out in agony over the fact that they won't get paid due to the fact that nothing much of publishing value is captured while Jon, Pethant and a few others from the main branch can enjoy at least the most basic of daily fees.

While it's more like Jon enjoying it and Pethant tagging along.

Of course, articles can still be written about the tragedy happening here, but nothing glorious about a budding professional hero coming to the rescue of teenagers.

'Master!' Pethant waved his hand towards Jon when he returned to the underground compound, 'did you get the shots you needed?'

'Not here.' Jon tossed the metallic ball towards Pethant, who caught it with one hand. Most of his suit of armor has already been broken down, and he looked like he went for a swim in the concrete, 'let's go.'

'Where are we going?' Pethant asked, following after Jon closely away from the anxious crowds that are stagnant and waiting for further updates, 'aren't we going to hear what is happening?'

'We already know what HAS happened, don't we?' Jon said without looking back, and Pethant felt like something's weighing on his master's mind for sure.

They went past a ramen shop and got a table for two. Jon went for plain ramen while Pethant ordered a spicy pork bowl with double sides of eggs, seeing as Jon would be treating him 'ONLY FOR TODAY'.

As the orders went ahead, Jon grabbed and placed his roll of the camera on the table.

'What did you know about today's mission?' Jon asked.

'As far as rescue missions go, it is the worst.' Pethant said honestly, 'Beacon wasn't a hero for real, was he?'

'He was killing all of the teenagers.' Jon said, 'and all of them were barely mind-controlled, which gives him an excuse. However, it was almost like he wasn't really trying to debut as a hero, but rather use the entire set up as an excuse to...'

'PLAIN RAMEN, PLEASE!' A thunderous voice from the waiter interrupted the conversation as a bowl of freshly made ramen was slammed down onto the table.

Jon and Pethant glanced over at the waiter who waddled away fro a moment before continuing.

'.....to clean up.' Jon said.

Pethant's eyes widened at both what Jon said as well as the plain bowl of ramen. The lighting of the shop made the soup appeared golden with the floating treasures on top. The aroma of the spring onion mixes in perfectly with the atmosphere of the room, heightening the umami all around.

'To clean up, yeah.' Pethant said half-heartedly before swallowing a lump of saliva.

Then, Jon covered up the entire surface of the bowl with a table towel, and the explosion of flavor was cut off. Pethant felt as if his lifeline had been cut off, but at least now he is able to focus on their prior conversation.

'To clean up...' With his conscious mind back in his own control, Pethant thought back to what he said before coming to a terrifying realization, 'no way.....'

'There is some organization behind all of this.' Jon said, 'the kidnapped teenagers that all turned out to be the heightened generation, the excuse that is a debut for Beacon to clean up the factory, the random agency in Superhuman Association that came out of nowhere...'

'There has to be someone behind the scenes.' Jon said, scratching his head, 'but there are too many unknowns. Like what the hell even is the heightened generation?'

'Ah.' Pethant blinked his eyes a few times and pointed his fingers up in the air, 'I know, I know! I can't believe you don't know though, master, perhaps it's time for the Naruto to surprise the Jiraiya?'

'...'

'The heightened generation refers to those that are able to power up from their normal state multiple times rapidly. The more layers of internal power-ups they can do, the more heightened they are.' Pethant said, turning into an exposition machine all of a sudden, 'for example, we all started at our base or NORMALITY, then most of the superhumans can get to ESCALATION 1, where we utilize our superpower. The heightened generations can go all the way up to ESCALATION 3, and even beyond.....'

'What lies beyond?' Jon asked.

'ABNORMALITY.' Pethant said, 'So far, the only records of anyone going beyond ESCALATION 3 is on the Ten Fingers. And the term of ABNORMALITY is referred to their absurd strength. Though it is never specified to be a singular state, but rather their ability to push beyond the superhuman limits of 3 stage power ups...'

'You didn't come up with this, did you?' Jon rolled his eyes at his apprentice, but he actually appeared annoyed by this remark.

'One of the key reasons I am a cameraman is so I can witness the greatest fights ever. Of course I would know about the power scales!' Pethant said angrily as he was about to slam his fist down on the table. But the waiter beat him to the punch.

'SPICY PORK BOWL WITH DOUBLE SIDES OF EGGS, PLEASE!'

'What I am surprised about is how you didn't know about it, master.' Pethant said, grabbing the bowl that is the size of his head, splitting the chopstick up and whirling it around his fingers before digging in. Droplets of spicy soup were flung into the air by the elastic bounces of the noodles as Pethant sucked on it, making a loud but socially respectable slurping sound.

'Does it really matter?' Jon said underneath his breath, 'if you are strong, you are strong.'

'What was that?' Pethant asked through his loud slurping sound, and Jon shook his head.

'Lesson 1, the principle of non-interference.' Jon said, removing the towel over his own bowl as the flavors of both bowls of ramen clashed in the air, 'you ready for the talk?'

'Principle of Non-interference was the rule put in place ever since the advent of the Cameraman's Association, and it is to prevent any undesirable interactions between the cameraman and the other superhumans. This is just an extension of normal journalism principles in a superhuman setting, and certain significant events drove the implementation and application of this rule in official cameraman missions.

'However, there are certain exceptions to this rule, such as when there is a need for humanitarian intervention, which is why Beacon threatened Jon with his very own footage, instead of using the principle of non-interference. At times, the case of humanitarian intervention is up for interpretation, and hence a cause for debate for sure.'

'Yup, yup.' Pethant said, 'you totally beat the shit out of the dude though.'

'NOT THE POINT!' Jon said, smacking Pethant over the head, 'focus when I am actually nice enough to teach.'

'Yes...master...' Pethant said with teary eyes, 'sorry...master...'

'As cameramen, all we can do is our best in each of the scenarios. As you will see, the higher tiered cameraman will get missions that are more difficult and dangerous, and hence there is a higher likelihood of facing such conundrums.'

'Master, you know what?'

'???'

'You are actually surprisingly thoughtful at times, though it doesn't show.' Pethant said with a genuine smile, 'thanks for that.'

'I am not the only one like that here...' Jon looked at the one in front and shook his head slightly. How can someone be so insightful in some areas of life while being so oblivious in the rest?

'But tell me...you totally beat the shit out of the dude, haven't you?'

'SHUT UP! I was just being a cameraman!'

Despite Jon's resistances, Pethant still insisted to check back on the footage captured on his camera, and to his disappointment and Jon's pleasant surprise, it captured none of Jon's movements, only Beacon's reaction.

'It just kinda looks like.....he freaked out.....' Pethant said, 'you totally didn't beat the shit out of the dude.....'

'Why did you sound disappointed?' Jon said before trying to maintain his composure, 'as professional cameramen, it's always important to maintain our composure and stance, at least on camera.'

'What was that?'

'...NOTHING!'

'Say, master.' Pethant said, shutting off the camera, 'if you could have beaten him up, would you have done so?'

'Who wouldn't after learning about what he has done.' Jon replied, picking up the piece of narutomaki with his chopsticks.

'Why did you become a cameraman then?' Pethant asked, 'doesn't the very principle of non-interference prevent you from taking action?'

'Because information, narrative, and beliefs are far more powerful than fists.'

Pethant didn't say a word after as he tried to process what Jon has just said. If there is anything such as a dropped golden nugget, it is the one right here.

'Plus, you can always swing it after.' Jon said underneath his breath, and Pethant didn't hear it at all.

The rest of the meal went through without further lecturing from either party, and Jon and Pethant parted ways soon after, both submitting their share of footage towards the internal footage examination committee at the C Institute and waited for the results.

A few of the pictures obtained from Jon's and the murdered cameraman's footage as well as Pethant's footage shot by Jon are taken to frame a narrative of Beacon going mad after seeing the atrocities occurring during the underground raid, ultimately painting him as a tragic victim of the situation.

This only confirms the fact that someone within both the Cameraman's Association and Superhuman Institute is in on the whole conspiracy.

With yet another full payment received in his pocket thanks to the footage Jon captured, Pethant appeared happily to work a few days later with a brand new set of battle suit, an upgraded version for his upgraded camera that he bought using the salary.

In the meanwhile, Jon also fixed up his camera too.

With the wheels of timing turning, a new mission found their way towards the pair. This time, instead of a pre-arranged outing, Jon was summoned for an emergency mission, one that involved a prison break over at Purgatory, the prison for the world's most dangerous superhuman criminals.