Chapter 6
It’s been two weeks since we ‘borrowed’ money and guns from the local crime scene to fight them, and it’s been going smoothly. Foldup got to work on the guns, and the prototypes are looking pretty slick. With the money we got equipment for her and some weights so I can work out at the warehouse without having to lift literal steel beams.
The only problem I have right now is that I’m wasting time I could be using for something useful sitting in class, listening to something I already know and generally being useless. I could be fighting crime now, for crying out loud!
“Now class - today, we’re going to have a special visitor for our metahuman studies class. As per the cities agreement with the Hero League, we have one of their junior members here today speaking about how it is living as a hero in Brownell City. I want you all to welcome
Maneater.”
And this is what I get for not listening to what my teacher is talking about. A visit from a junior at the Hero League is pretty awesome, and Maneater is one of the newest additions to their roster. Having the power to drain other people is extremely versatile – making her a powerful asset for their team. Walking in and draining someone that you can’t hurt physically is extremely useful, since heroes generally avoid using mental assaults unless they absolutely have to.
Then she walks into the room. Her costume is almost entirely white except for some red splashes on her arms, while she herself is short with brown hair.
“Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing well! My hero name, or Cape as it’s sometimes called, is Maneater and I work for the Hero League in the junior department. I am here today to tell you about some of the less known things about metahumans, so let’s just get started right away. The most basic thing are names for people with powers. Can anyone here tell me some of the names used for people with powers?”
A boy next to me – I think his name is Josh – answers immediately.
“Metahumans, Extras, Superhumans and ,uh, Boosted”
“Good, but I’m not here today to tell you about boosted, so we’re going to skip that today.
But as this young man said, Metahumans and Superhumans are the two most common names when talking about people with powers. Both coined in the 1990’s, they’ve grown to be the most common names is about thirty years. Extras on the other hand, is an older word for people with powers, coming from the military after world war two. Other than different names for people with powers, there are some common traits when talking about powers. When it comes to the powers themselves, they are very open about some information. What I’m here to talk with you today is something called resonance. Resonance is the phenomena when two powers work with each other and increase their powers exponentially. Like how a person with fire-related powers will be exponentially more powerful if they team up with someone what has the power to focus gasses in the air, powering their fire. There is also hyper-resonance, when both abilities benefit and grow incredibly powerful when interacting.”
I open my mouth, fighting off my rising headache trying to get my question out.
“Have you ever fought someone that was resonating?”
“No, I have not. I just got cleared to do missions for the Hero League, so I have virtually no real life experience. That’s the reason I’m here really, all members of the Hero League have extensive training, both physical and mental. It’s a lot like school for metahumans where you learn about being a hero and using your powers. That’s why I’m not talking about fieldwork and only theory.”
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After this, it kept up for a while. There were questions about her private life and what she was working on, when suddenly a signal went off.
“I’m sorry that we have to cut this short. The case my team has been working on had an incident so I have to leave. I hope you learned something today and that you don’t think this is completely pointless. And remember, if you have powers and want to help people, we at the Hero League will accept and train you to be a hero.”
***
Later that evening, I walked into base.
“You called me Takeover, what’s up?”
She turned around abruptly and stared at me for a second.
“Jesus christ John, you scare me so badly. When you’re shifted I can’t feel you like I can feel others and you sneak around like a thief, I thought someone was coming to kill me!”
“Well, I’m – uh – sorry I suppose. So what’s the deal, why did you call me here? Something up, or can I just go home and sleep, we have school tomorrow.”
“I called the Poof and Shocking over as well, Foldup is in the back building, but I suppose we can get to business.” She took a deep breath, looking like she wanted to stabilize herself before saying the next part. “White Light are making their move on the Tigers, right now. “
Oh.
“Oh. That’s not good. What made them move so quickly? Why now? They were not supposed to do anything for weeks from what you’ve gathered!”
“I actually think it’s our fault this happened – our interfering in White Light’s day to day business might’ve pressured Purifier into moving. So we’re going to group up and move out, go for them tonight.” In the middle of her sentence Poof and Shocking came into the room in a cloud of smoke.
“Sup people, what’s up?” Shocking said, waiting for the smoke in his face to dissipate before taking another breath.
“White Light are moving on the Tigers, our fault, have to do something before someone gets hurt.” I shot back quickly.
He suddenly looked a lot more serious, taking a look at Poof through the holes in his mask and they both went back into Foldup’s workshop.
“You going to need your Balaclava?” Takeover said, still face away from me, attaching small gadgets to her belt.
“Do you honestly think I need one now, you seen me these last two weeks?” I shoot back, jokingly.
She turned around and looked at my current form. I was still the same length, but my skin had turned grey and was more flaky, almost reptilian, in its design. I looked stronger as well, and I was, I could throw a man across a room no problem now, my muscles looking toned and compressed, so I didn’t look like a giant freak, more like a guy that had been hitting the gym for quite some time. I’d almost call myself hot, but it’s hard when you’re grey and scaly.
She actually smiled and laughed at me.
“You’re right, no one is going to recognize you right now. How about a name, you got one?”
Now it was my turn to smile.
“Yeah, I sat around a while, and I figured out something that I think fits me.”
She waited a beat before looking at me funny, sighing when she realized I was waiting for her to ask.
“So what is it?” She finally said, looking at me expectantly.
“Savage.”