Stanley returned like the conquering hero of a legendary foe. Everyone welcomed him back with cheers and signed his cast, except Desmona. The principal assured everyone that Desmona's mother called about taking her daughter on a world tour to get her back on her feet. She would be back by the end of the semester with a fresh set of experiences. When it was time for Hero practice, Stanley just watched as the others took the field and ran drills that Ben had found online. Katherine clapped him on the back when practice was over and congratulated him on being a real hero.

Ben was glad that all of this attention was dragging the team's growth down. As much as they didn't want to admit it, the hero wannabes were all overworking themselves so they would get a chance to be the next person in the right place. They were kids and had a good rebound period, but Ben could tell that they weren't getting adequate rest. If he could pile it on, they would be too tired to win the games, and therefore the tournament.

However, it wasn't even a full day before Katherine was caught roughing up Desmona's tormentors. She was suspended for three days and required to write a long apology, but her apology was half-hearted and mean, so she got another five days of suspension.

Life was glorious for Ben, who was having a field day making Garret, Michael, and Gary doing extra workouts to make up for Katherine's misuse of power. They were all doing jumping jacks while he read a boring speech from online about responsibility.

The entire week of Katherine's second suspension, Ben took a sadistic glee in the way the teens seemed too apathetic to continue the harsh training. Katherine was their big motivator, herself motivated by a free ride to college, and her absence was driving down the work ethic these kids had shown until now.

Finally, it was the weekend game before the tournament and everyone was almost broken. The lack of a proper rest time had the trio who weren't broken or punished exhausted mentally and physically. Even these young kids who had bodies like rubber couldn't bounce back from the extended exertion.

They drove an hour to an inner city football field situated between several tall buildings. The stands were rather steep, but people still sat dangerously close to the adjacent buildings edge to catch a glimpse of the game. Ben was watching the area carefully, counting twenty-six handguns total but only two still had their serial number. None of them had any identifying tattooes or color-code, so they weren't likely gang members or violent extremists, they were just careful.

Ben didn't judge. Most of his arsenal didn't have serialization.

The other team came out with a roaring cheer from all around, but Ben didn't see much threat with them. There was a fat girl who could burn her fat consciously for physical strength increase, but her efficiency was too low for a full game. A pair of indian brothers of different ages who both had electrical powers, but it required physical contact so it wasn't dangerous in most tag-type games. A short black guy who was the senior of the group that could mold his body hair into different shapes, but it only gave him a slightly longer reach and the hair itself was just hair, so Katherine's fire could take care of him. The final was a lanky white kid who resembled Slenderman and whose power was to stretch his bones, even though the rest of his body wouldn't naturally stretch with it.

If Ben was their coach, he would run them ragged testing the applications of their powers, but the coach on their side was a portly black gentleman who brought a bag of fast food and was eating it with such lust that it was almost obscene.

"Katherine," Ben called once they were situated on the sideline benches, "I'm going to make you team lead for this one. It's your play how you want to take this."

"What?" the redhead flustered, dropping her helmet in shock. "But-but-but I-I-I've never run plays! I don't know-"

"You read the field guide I wrote, right?" Ben challenged. "Just apply what you read and you'll do fine. I need to use the restroom."

That field guide may have been a mistake to give to children, but if they learned to apply it, they wouldn't need Ben anymore. He turned away from his team and walked under the bleachers where some porta-potties were kept for emergencies. Ben opened one, walked inside, gagged from the caustic fumes, then took out the pack of cards he carried around and emptied them into his hand.

From the other side of the door, a hispanic man approached wearing baggy trousers with a Glock 43 inexpertly holstered in the wasteband. He knocked on the door, resting on hand on his pistol grip and checking his surroundings. His driver's license hidden in his sock said his name was Victor Chavez, and he only carried twenty dollars in his other sock.

"Here," Ben said, cracking the door open and offering the deck of cards.

Victor took them in confusion, turning them over to see they were just a regular deck of cards.

"Three of diamonds," Ben announced from inside the chemical-laced lavitory.

He turned the deck over to see that the three of diamonds was the first card showing.

"Nine of clubs, king of spades, queen of spades, diamond, spade, diamond," Ben listed off from inside of the blue-plastic torture chamber.

"What the hell is this?" Victor laughed, rolling through the cards as Ben pulled his phone out and emailed himself the address on Victor's driver's license.

"A demonstration of my superpower," Ben stated. "Go ahead and shuffle them. You must play cards since you've got a pair of aces on your arm."

The gangster glanced down at the tattoo on his arm, then grabbed the pistol and held it low while pointing it randomly at the porta-potty door, throwing the cards aside.

"What the hell is this?!" Victor shouted, realizing too late he's in public and he shouldn't yell. "Are you a narc?!"

"My superpower is to see all sides of an object," Ben cautiously explained, careful not to be where the gun was pointing. "I can read those cards as if they were right in front of me, and I can see all the tats on your body, as well as the scraped off serial number on your 43. I like to demonstrate my power to make sure everyone knows who they're dealing with."

"How do I know you're not a narc?" Victor challenged.

Ben cracked the door open and stuck his phone out, "Because I don't like cops."

"Okay. What do you want?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"... What do you want? You approached me, right?"

"Yeah, j-just lose the game!"

"What? The hero game? That's going on now? That I'm not a part of? That game?"

"Quit," Victor threatened, shaking the gun to illustrate what was at stake.

"Y'know, I don't think your boss would appreciate that," Ben stated as he realized he was getting used to the smell of the toilet.

"What the hell would you know?!"

"I can see five people in the building west of us cheering for the home team because of how much money they have riding on this game. I thought you were related to one of the kids for a second, but you're just trying to fix your boss's gamble. Does he know you're here?"

"Yeah, he told me to do this!"

"Victor, Victor..., I can see your heartbeat and twitching muscles. I know when you're lying. Why are you even doing this?"

"I'm moving up in the world," he gloated, "and the boss is just another stepping stone. I've got plans, and I'm going to be running this city in a year."

"Is that what you told your daughter? The one tattooed on your back?"

Victor straightened up at the mention of his daughter, pressing the gun into the porta-potty door hard enough to bend the plastic.

"Is she okay?" Ben asked softly.

"She's fine," Victor growled.

"I told you not to lie to me," Ben said. "What is it? Cancer? Some disease? No? Is it a situation? I can keep guessing all day until I see your reaction."

"She... she's pregnant," Victor exhaled like a smoker. "I... killed the guy who did it. Mi hermanos hid the body, but it cost me and now... I just need the money."

"Was it consensual?" Ben asked, but Victor's reaction could have been shame from killing an innocent or rage at the killing the guy who raped his daughter.

"I'm gonna be an abuelo," Victor cried, "but I need more money! I'll be the boss! I'll work my way up!"

A whistle was blown for the game to start, and Victor's nerves almost squeezed the trigger. Ben leaned further away from the gun's trajectory as he considered how to deal with this petty hustler.

"I'm coming out," Ben announced, "I'm unarmed."

Ben pushed the door open and Victor stepped back, keeping the gun trained on the city councilman who was keeping his hands in view with his phone.

"Do you want to break into the big time?" Ben asked cautiously.

"Y-yeah," Victor said nervously as the guy he had at gunpoint grinned slowly and creepily.

"Great, then I've got an idea," Ben offered, shaking his phone. "Do you know the swamp east of the city?"

"Yyyyyyeah?"

"Would you happen to know about Con Creete, Sling, or Caustic?"

"Oh, they're the new super baddies," Victor hissed. "Think they can do anything just 'cause they've got superpowers."

"They have a hidden cache of weapons and gold in a run down building in the swamps," Ben said, looking down at his phone and pulling up an address. "I'll send you directions. You can go pick it up and keep it, or present it to your boss."

"What? What is this? How do you know?"

"I saw their murdered bodies for myself, and found the location on their bodies. You'll have a couple of advanced weapons you could pawn off, or become the new villain of the week and see where that takes you. Either way, this should get you closer to being the boss."

"Ahuh. And those villain dudes are just gonna be okay with this?"

"They're not in any position to complain."

"How do you know?"

"It's like I told you ," Ben said, then he whipped his arm out and grabbed the glock from his assailant. He pulled the slide back and popped the chambered round as Victor's grip broke. While the bullet was in the air, Ben pressed the magazine release and flicked it aside, getting it out of the way. Victor tracked the mag as it flew away, and when he looked back, he saw Ben catch and balance the chambered round on top of the gun. He flipped the gun a few times, balancing the bullet on its edge, then popped it back into the air and caught it in the chamber where it started.

Ben pulled back the slide, cocking the hammer, then pointed the gun at Victor so that he could look down the barrel.

"I don't like the cops," Ben reiterated, "and I saw the murdered bodies with my own eyes."

The city councilman flipped the gun around so the handle was towards Victor and offered the firearm. Victor took it, looking down at it in confusion as Ben walked off. He kicked the magazine with his heel so that it slid across the uneven pavement, skidding to a halt right in front of its original owner.

"A-a-an-and the cash?" Victor called.

"I sent it to you a minute ago," Ben called with a wave of his hand, returning to the coaches bench as Victor checked his phone. It was on 'Do Not Disturb' so it wouldn't go off while he was mid-stick-up, and sure enough, there was a text message from an unknown number with an address and directions.

Victor's mind had been so twisted in the last five minutes, he couldn't formulate a thought more complex than following the directions he was given.

The game went well, and Ben would have given more props to the other team, but it was unfortunate that their opponents were the rock to their scissors. Every single round, except for Stanley's, was like watching a master martial artist seriously fight an amateur. Michael's invisibility countered the strong chick, Gary's constructs countered the electric brothers, Garrett coiled around Slenderman's long appendages, and Katherine burned the hair of the senior the first chance she got.

Ben watched out for the gang leader in case he wanted to take revenge, but the guy was drinking heavily over the hundred dollars or so he lost.

The drive home was uneventful, taking almost a full hour from driving away in the school van to driving away in their own cars. When Ben finally arrived at home, he received a text from Victor. It was a picture of him and his hermanos smiling in front of a large trunk with oddly shaped hoses and cannisters of dubious liquids.

Ben called the number and the person immediately answered, high on their drunken revelry, "AAAAAAAAY! What's up, brother?"

"I take it you found the stash?" Ben asked politely.

"Yeah, it's got so much stolen jewels it filled my bro's Camaro!" Victor cheered.

"So you're happy?"

"Mas, brother!"

"Great," Ben cheered, then he dropped his voice into a husky whisper. "That was a gift of peace. Never bother me again."

He hung up, set his phone on the kitchen counter, then called Idet out.

"Did you need something?" the dimensional terrestrial synthetically asked in a sleepy tone.

"Destroy the phone that has this number," Ben pointed at the contact.

Idet floated down to the phone, than transposed herself inside of the device like a ghostly possession. Her glow could be seen through the cracks in the device as Ben walked around to the fridge and pulled up a menu for dinner.

"I've been eating fast food so often, some of this is spoiled," he mused to the alerts next to food items. "Let's gooo wiiiiiiiiiith, beef stroganoff."

Idet emerged from the phone dimmer than she went in, but quickly brightened again.

"It is done," she declared.

"Thank you, Idet."

The ball floated over to the fridge and said, "Ugh."

"What 'ugh'?" Ben called out, offended that a glowing ball of light would judge his culinary choice.

"Hannah said that many human foods can be categorized as 'Mac and Cheese of a kind', and I would like to disagree, but abstraction of the specific proves her correct."

"How the hell is Beef Stroganoff anything like Mac and Cheese?!"

"It's a noodle base with viscous sauce and additives, the beef being the additive. That fact that you change the shape of the noodle and switch the mustard base with cheese is the difference, but the noodle has the same consistency as Mac and the sauce has the same consistency of Cheese."

Ben could picture himself escalating this to a full debate he could have with Idet, and even a future where he was convinced of her premise, but he was too tired from the game taking all day.

"I had a good day," he chastised, "don't ruin it."

"What happened?"

"I got some idiots to clean up some evidence for me," Ben said, turning up the heat on the pot.