Chapter 13:
People were staring at Ben.
He knew that this would happen, and thought he’d be able to take it. After all, people looked at Heroes, right? Whether or not anyone recognized them, when people saw someone in a colorful getup wearing a mask, they ended up looking at them. Maybe just for a second or maybe they're trying to figure out if they recognize the Hero, but they look.
It was normal.
And yet, it felt so completely strange. Ben would have thought people hanging around or living on Haven Island would be used to Heroes already and wouldn’t constantly be looking.
But as he and Katie walked through Central Square, where most of the major Super organizations of Cascade had headquarters or at least major offices, he couldn’t help but feel like all eyes were on them. It was his first time in public and broad daylight in his Super outfit but there had to be something wrong. There was no way this was normal.
“Swarm, why are they staring at us?” Ben asked, leaning closer to his friend. “This can’t be normal can it?”
“They’re not staring,” Katie said, leaning closer to him as well. “And if you have to shorten my name, then call me Sovereign. Not Swarm.”
It was sometime after ten in the morning, but the square was already quite busy. Even still there was a noticeable distance between Ben, Katie, and the normal people in the square. They seemed to naturally flow around the duo. Which would have made sense, if Katie had brought all her Bugbot Carriers with her. But she just had the one and she had it moving along the rooftop paths. So that wasn’t the cause.
The strangest thing was that from what Ben could see, a lot of the people giving them room were Supers as well. They wore no costumes but had name and rank tags above their heads. Part of it was for emergencies so Heroes knew who might be able to handle themselves, but according to Katie, it was mostly a status thing.
“Sure, sure,” Ben said despite promising himself to never call her Sovereign. Katie’s ego was big enough. “But they are definitely staring. I can practically feel all the eyes on us. Like, we're in Central Square on Haven. Shouldn’t two random Masks be nothing of note?”
“We kinda are,” Katie said. “ Most are barely glancing at us. Only a handful might be barely staring. And they're just noticing us cause our costumes stick out. They’ll find something else interesting to look at soon enough. You’re just being over-sensitive.”
“Still, I thought we’d be able to blend into the crowd,” Ben said softly as they finally reached the building they were headed to.
It was one of the largest surrounding the square. A massive building of glass and steel that went up at least twenty stories. It took up nearly an entire side of the square. To the side of the entrance was a large statue of three heroes standing tall and proud. Two men and a woman. The original founders of the IHA which now had branches in every major city in America. On top of the entrance area, which had several double tall doors that led inside, were the words: Independant Hero Association.
Inside would be the main offices of the Association as well as venues for the various services they provided. In the upper floors were also other offices for really large guilds or other prominent independent Super organizations.
Katie sighed and shook her head. “Gem, we’re Heroes. We’re always going to stand out. Even if we forgo the costumes and went with less eye-catching masks we’d still be looked at. Just get used to it. Also, think about it like this. How many people do you think go on to be police officers, or EMTs, or firefighters? Like it’s a tiny percentage of the population. It’s the same with Heroes even if the numbers are probably skewed because powers make people braver and some people put on masks just for anonymity while leveling. But it’s the same principle. Most people, most Supers, won’t ever put on a mask. And because of that, we’ll stand out.“
“I guess you're right,” Ben said with a sigh. It seemed like he hadn’t given it enough thought. Sure there were a ton of Supers here in Haven, at least compared to the rest of Cascade. But even then most of them weren’t Heroes. So people all dressed up like them, even if they weren’t well known, really couldn’t just blend in. Not even in Central Square where there must have been a lot of Hero traffic even for Haven.
Ben tried his best to ignore what he still felt was an excessive amount of stares and focused on what they were doing here. “So how long do you think it will take?”
“Shouldn’t be long,” Katie said with a shrug. “They have a lot of receptionists and it’s not like they have to process all that many people normally for obvious reasons. You go in and get registered, while I check on the Incursion sign-ups. After that, we go to the Association Exchange too and see if you can get some better quartz here and maybe make an inventory of what else they have for you.”
“Well, alright then,” Ben said, heading towards the main entrance. He totally didn’t walk faster to get away from any gawkers. “Then let’s get it done so we can do something more interesting.”
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“Gemstone Legacy.”
The name felt weird on Ben’s tongue as he gave it to the receptionist. But given what his power was, there weren't that many options. Of course, he didn’t have to have a name fully associated with his powers, but he also couldn’t think of anything else that wasn’t either taken or sounded worse. So Gemstone Legacy it was.
He chose gemstone because if he went with another synonym for gemstone, then people might be inclined to shorten his name to something more feminine than he wanted. He did not want to go around being called Jewel or Crystal, after all.
As for the Legacy part, only Ben and Katie would get that for now but it felt appropriate to acknowledge Zelter in some way. Maybe in the future, when he was more secure in his place in the world, he would tell what little he knew about the alien to the world. Until then, he would just acknowledge Zelter with his name.
Even if it still felt a bit odd to him.
The name would probably fit better once Ben started to incorporate gems into the design of his costume. It might look gaudy if he wasn’t careful, but he’d have to do it so that he could have his gems ready to use while keeping his hands free.
The receptionist was sitting behind a large metal counter that was reminiscent of a bank or the DMV. It was divided up into sections with privacy screens that went from clear to opaque whenever someone came up to speak. The screens also created an area of silence that apparently made it so only the two of them could hear what was being said.
The receptionist was one of six people currently working, and only two of the others had anyone to talk to at the moment. After taking in his name, the bespectacled woman wrote down his rank, his class, and his System Chat ID—he gave his second one that wouldn’t be tied to his normal identity—before finally asking him to create a verification password in case he needed to use their banking services.
She did not need to have him verify that he was actually a Super, as she was one as well and could see his displayed Name and Rank. As for why she even had to ask for those two, apparently in the past people came into the Association with the wrong name for whatever reason, and they decided to avoid such situations and ask just in case.
Once all of that was entered into the system, his Independent Hero Identification Card was printed out and given to him. It had no picture since he was masked, and if it ever needed to get verified as his in the future, he would do so by sending a message from the listed System Chat ID.
As the receptionist had explained before he registered, the ID card would grant him access to the organization's banking system as well as other services they provided, such as the exchange, the Incursion signup system, and a whole bunch of other things that made it possible to be an Independent Hero in Cascade City.
What the ID didn’t do, was grant him any arresting authority or permission to go out and seek fights with criminals or Villains. If he needed to defend himself or saw something happen right in front of him and needed to intervene, that would be one thing. He’d have the same protections as a normal good samaritan. If he wanted more though, he would either have to join the Cascade League, one of the major guilds that have been approved for full hero work, or get a full hero license after taking the necessary classes and workshops.
The receptionist made sure to stress all of this as she handed his ID to him, making Ben wince internally. Everything they did yesterday, as well as what they had planned in two weeks was what she was warning him against doing. It didn’t feel all that Heroic to ignore the law like that, especially since he definitely planned on getting a Full Hero license or joining the Cascade League in the future. But at the same time… He couldn’t just leave the cube in the hands of Villains. Nor could he or Katie really stop Resolve from trying to track down the Villains alone again.
So he should probably talk with Katie about this later. After all, if they get the cube and take out that Blitz guy, they are going to have to turn the man over to the police. And while they can do the typical vigilante thing and dump them in front of a police station or somewhere for Heroes to find him, the Heroes could still get a description of who took him out from the Villain himself. If that happened, that could be problematic for them.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Maybe…
From what Katie said, Blitz was a pretty nasty Villain so maybe they would catch some slack. But that wasn’t a guarantee so it was best not to take chances. Hopefully, they could figure something out to make this less of a problem.
“Was there anything else you needed help with today,” The woman asked, giving him a customer service smile.
“No, that’s it,” Ben said, nodding to the woman. He did his best to hide his worries about essentially ignoring the warnings the woman gave about vigilantism. “Thank you. Have a good day.”
“You too as well sir,” the woman said as Ben turned to leave.
He looked to the right where the incursion signup was and started heading over, putting his new worry aside for the moment. Right in the IHA lobby was not where he should have a conversation about breaking the law with Katie, so there was no point in dwelling on it until they could get somewhere more private.
The signup board was a digital screen that took up most of the right wall of the entrance area. The big screen was divided up into two sections. The top portion which was most of the screen was taken up by a map of Cascade. The bottom portion was divided up into a bunch of signup screens where people could register for the Incursion queue.
On the map were detected incoming Incursions. There were three marks at the moment. One that would happen in two hours over in East Cascade, One in five hours in the far south of West Cascade, and one on the east side of Haven island in thirteen hours.
On the other side of the entrance hall was a similar screen, which was used for the Bestiary Board. That displayed information about the latest monsters sighted and what could be expected from incursions. The monsters on the list would change as Heroes encountered different monsters or stopped encountering old ones. The same information could be found online but it was convenient to have it at the IHA headquarters too.
Ben walked over to Katie who was frowning at one of the sections of the signup board.
She turned around as Ben got closer and gestured at the screen with annoyance. “Sign up for E or D Ranks. I’ll sign up as your escort. Looks like the wait time right now is estimated at four days for those ranks.”
“You seem a bit annoyed,” Ben said, moving up to signup on the touchscreen. It only took him tapping his new ID to the screen to fill in his details. After that, he chose E and D Rank and was given a new prompt. It said as a new E-Ranker he needed an escort to sign up for D ranks. Katie took care of that by pressing her own ID to the screen. “Is having to wait four days bad? I would have thought that it was longer since E and D Ranks are the easiest to level with the least amount of risk.”
“Maybe,” Katie grumbled before nodding to the big staircase down to the level below. They were large enough to allow six people abreast and had a big sign over them that marked them as the entrance to the Exchange. She made her way towards them and Ben moved to follow. “But the schools are out so the queue slots saved up for students should be opened up. Also, most people, even E and D rankers, rather take the slow and steady approach. I remember checking it when I was younger and the wait times were two days at most.”
Ben shrugged as the two of them made their way down the stairs. “Maybe there’s just more Supers nowadays? Like I heard there's been studies that more people are becoming Supers nowadays than the rate they appeared after the System Integration. And Haven Island is a big draw to Supers all across the western seaboard, so it could just be an influx of new Supers from out of state.”
Ben and Katie stepped off the staircase and into the large open expanse of the Exchange Hall. There were more people down here than above, though in the large open space, it didn’t feel like it. Around the hall were large digital kiosks with attendants standing by. On the three of the other walls of the hall were many-sized doors that were marked as employees only.
“That might be it,” Katie said, walking closer to Ben as they made their way deeper into the hall to the nearest open kiosk. “But did you hear about that whole guild controversy that happened last year? I doubt the news reached outside of Haven, but several guilds were paying off random Supers to sign up for the Association just to hog Incursion slots and give them to the guild members. It let them bypass the normal priority distribution and increased wait times for everyone else by a lot. It’s the reason why you can’t give away your Incursion slots unless you’ve been to an incursion and fought in the last month and why missing three incursions in a row means you get banned for a year.”
“Oh wow, that sucks,” Ben said with a frown. “Can’t believe any guild would do that. But if they got caught, and the Association made changes, then shouldn’t wait times be normal again?”
Katie scoffed. “Do you think those greedy guilds would just stop like that? The Association fined them but it was a slap on the wrist at best since most guilds have A-Ranker leaders who earn a lot from B-Rank and A-Rank incursions. And the only reason they were getting caught was they went extremely overboard. Now they’ve just toned it back down so the Association can look the other way while they power level more of their nepo Heroes while the rest just sit back and earn a paycheck. Meanwhile, they’re making it a lot harder on full independents like us. Especially for the lower ranks. Many of the guilds now are just full of power-hungry people eager to step on others to get to the top.”
“Now that’s certainly an uncharitable position to take about Heroic Guilds, Swarm,” A woman’s voice interjected from behind Ben and Katie.
Katie's whole body stiffened at that, causing Ben to turn and see who had spoken.
Standing behind them were several masked Supers. There were two women and six men. While it was hard to tell with the masks, they looked more like either older teens or maybe people in their early twenties. They all had their rank and names on display, and one of the women was actually an A while the other was a B. Out of the men, five of them were C-Rank while the last one was a B-ranker.
The most eye-catching thing about them though, was the extra part in their Display Names. Each one had a ‘CCRG’ in square brackets before their Hero names. Along with the iconic shield on top of a starburst they all had on their shoulder, it was clear that they were all from the same guild: The Radiant Guardians, one of the top Heroic guilds in the city and the state.
Despite that, Ben didn’t really recognize any of them. His focus for the last few years had always been on the few Heroes who earned access to the System. So even though an A-Ranker from a top guild should have been recognizable to most, he didn’t know much about any of them.
The one who’d probably spoken was the A-Ranker as she stood a bit in front of the rest of the group. She wore a gray and green form-fitting bodysuit that was the typical basis of most professional Hero costumes. Unlike Ben and Katie though, her suit cut off at the neck and left her long blonde hair free-flowing behind her back. Covering her face was a domino mask while running up and down the suit were circuit designs that glowed with a light green. Covering her body in strategic locations were metal armor plates with darker green accents, with the largest being the one covering her chest. Attached to her wrist were impractically small shields with glowing green orbs built into them that were either tinker tech, a cool decoration, or maybe something for her power.
If Ben had to guess, he would assume she was a Tinker with the circuit design and the sci-fi look of the armor. She was looking at Katie with a surprisingly similar smug look on her face. Maybe it was a Tinker thing.
Katie turned around to face the other woman with her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face. “Eavesdropping on other people’s conversations, Shield? And here I thought you had more manners than that. Guess I should have known better.“
“It’s hardly eavesdropping when you're talking so loud,” Shield said, crossing her arms as well. “Perhaps you should learn to control your volume. Especially when making such accusations about the guilds.”
Katie placed one hand on her hip and tilted her head. “So you’re gonna pretend what happened last year never occurred?”
“Hardly,” Shield—Or Shield Maiden as her name tag indicated—said, flicking some of her long hair back over her shoulder. She seems rather snooty and well… Kinda reminded Ben of Katie when she was being excessively formal… and catty. “Though putting it on all the guilds just because of a few greedy people seems rather excessive. You should consider things more intelligently like your friend over here. The Superpopulation of Cascade is ever-growing. It’s only natural that the wait times will go up since the incursions don’t grow to match.”
Katie tsked at that. “Seriously, Shield? Were you just sneaking behind us the whole time as we walked down the stairs? Are you ever going to get over your childish desire to surprise me?”
“Surprise you?” Shield said, putting one hand on her chest innocently. “I don’t know what you mean. It’s hardly my fault if you lack a certain amount of awareness of your surroundings. Perhaps you should try paying more attention if you think I’m sneaking up on you. Or perhaps your new friend can help you with that. Congratulations, by the way, Swarm. It seems you’ve finally convinced some poor young fellow to team up with you.”
Katie scoffed at that and crossed her arms. “I didn’t need to convince anyone. Gem came to me. And maybe you should try and rely less on having so much backup. Then maybe you wouldn’t have lost so badly in our last spar. After all, like you like to say so much, you’re an A. And I’m just a B. And yet, who won our last match?”
The smile Shield had on her face the entire time grew a bit strained at that. “Swarm, you make it sound like winning the final match between us of the school year means that much. I believe in total I’ve still beaten you a considerable number of times more.”
“Having two more total wins is hardly that big of a deal,” Katie said with a shake of her head. “Now let’s get on with it, Shield Maid. I doubt you came to us just for some small talk. What do you want?”
Shield gave a delicate-sounding hump at that and crossed her arms again. “Starting with small talk is just manners, Swarm. But very well. I do have something I would like to discuss. I happen to know some E-Rankers who won’t be able to use their Incursion slots today—”
“—Shocker—” Katie interrupted.
“—and after hearing you whine about it, I decided to be a good schoolmate and offer them to you and your new friend,” Shield Maiden said, ignoring Katie’s interruption.
“And why exactly would you be feeling so generous?” Katie asked, sounding exceptionally skeptical. “That’s hardly something you're known for.”
“I am a very generous person,” Shield Maiden said, holding her hands out with her palms up. “But since you need a reason, how about we make things interesting with a competition.”
“What, you want to duel, and if I win you’ll give us the E-Rank Slot?” Katie said, uncrossing her arms and placing both hands on her hips. She also had a grin on her face. “Cause I’d be happy to oblige and show you what I’ve been working on this summer.”
Shield Maiden though, just waved her away. “No, no, not that. That would be too boring. After all, as far as I’m concerned, who's better between the two of us is not in question. Instead, I thought it would be more interesting to see what your new friend can do.”
“Me?” Ben, who’d been getting more and more amused at the back and forth, was startled at suddenly being gestured to.