Eric spent the next week training his powers and going to various interviews.
On the last day of the week, Eric received a call from Nathan.
“the school has started construction, and the investigation firm has been established. d called in some of his old superhero buddies from back in the day. Sherlock said to tell you to check your mail.”
Eric nods and thanks Nathan before checking his mailbox. Inside was an earpiece, a piece of paper, and a pair of contact lenses.
Eric grabs the items and puts the earpiece in. “deity is this you?”
Eric replies. “yup. What’s all this stuff for?”
“the paper is a private investigator license I had made for you, and the contacts allow us to see through your eyes. I need you to become well respected among the police. Just go through a few cold cases, and ill solve them for you with my power.”
Eric went to his private investigation firm and looked through the police and FBI’s cold cases.
Try as he might, Eric couldn’t make heads or tails of anything. “I can barely read half of these words, let alone solve the case.”
Sherlock chuckled. “that’s why I’m here. The killer was his wife. Her alibi is a lie. She was never at the bar. she put her sister in a wig and had her stay at the bar while she did the murder. You can tell because the footage of her from the bar has a freckle on her shoulder, but if you look at her social media, she has no freckle.”
Eric was surprised. “how did you notice something so small?”
Sherlock explained. “my power is like super speed for my brain. I can do in milliseconds what takes most entire organizations years. Now open the next one.”
Eric opened the next cold case on the stack. It was only opened for less than a moment before Sherlock spoke. “it was his neighbor. he claims he couldn’t have poisoned the victim because his power only allows him to make medicine, but all medicine can be poison if the dosage is wrong. or right depending on how you look at it. next.”
The rest of the day was spent going through dozens of cold cases at a breakneck pace.
Eric closed the final file. “all right now, what?”
Sherlock smiled. “you’re going to turn this into the commissioner as a concerned citizen. And once the superhuman generals start dropping like flies, who else would they want to investigate besides the person who solved a hundred cold cases in a day?”
Eric smiled. “sounds good.”
Eric left the pi firm and went to the police station. “hello, I would like to meet with commissioner silver tongue. I have some crimes to report.”
Eric was brought to the commissioner’s office. “I promised never to darken your doorstep, and here you are darkening mine. What do you want?”
Eric smiles. “I’ve solved some cold cases. Come take a look.”
Eric showed him all the cases he had solved and explained each and every one.
The commissioner was shocked by the sheer number and obscurity of the cases. “Didn’t you have an f in every class? How on earth could you solve this many cases? Your firm only opened a month ago.”
Eric smiled. “since when did bad grades make someone dumb? Just do me a favor and make me even more famous. I like having a good reputation.”
The commissioner nodded. “that won’t be a problem but keep in mind if I find out you’re involved in any illegal activities, I won’t hesitate to arrest you.”
Eric laughed. “you are welcome to try.”
Eric left the precinct and went to D’s place to discuss his next fight in the Colosseum.
The moment he walked in, he saw Z and D fighting like their lives depended on it.
Eric walked forward, confused. “what’s going on?”
the two stopped fighting abruptly.
Z stepped forward. “oh, I was just training with D. I’ve been meaning to get back into underground fighting.”
Eric smiled at Z. “your hands are way too soft for hand-to-hand. I would focus mainly on using your powers more accurately, and you don’t need to worry about durability due to your power.”
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Z smiles at Eric. “I knew you were smarter than you let on.” he booped Eric’s nose. “I’m gonna make myself something to eat.” Eric blushed hard before turning to D.
Eric smiled with clear malice on his face. “D I will say this in the nicest way possible. If you turn my cute femboy into a big muscular bear, I will dedicate my life to finding a way to kill you permanently.”
D shuddered for a moment. “Don’t worry. The acid training is off the table. I tried throwing him in, but he just turned into energy.”
Eric sighed. “that’s good.”
Z came back with a few sandwiches. “I figured you guys must be hungry, so I made extra. I hope you like it.”
Eric covered his eyes for fear of being blinded by the sentient ray of sunshine. “thanks, Z,” Eric said, bushing so hard that D feared he might have a heart attack.
Eric ate a bite of the food. It was so good he almost considered abandoning his goals to settle down in the countryside with Z.
He quickly snapped himself out of it. “this food is so good it nearly fixed my darkened soul. It nearly gave me a moral compass. This kind of thing should be fed to people on death row so they can feel empathy. Food this good is illegal in 14 states.”
D laughed. “is it that good, or do you not know how to cook, so you only eat awful food.”
Eric, still in ecstasy, spoke. “both.”
D had a bite of his sandwich. “I sat next to Jesus during the last supper, and the food wasn’t half as good as this. How many orphans did you have to sacrifice to the devil to make this sandwich?”
Z smiled. “4.”
Eric smiled. “a small price to pay.”
D nodded in agreement.
After they finished eating, Eric spoke. “do you have the information on my next Colosseum battle?”
D nodded. “his name is earth king. He’s a geomancer, and it will be pretty hard to beat without using your powers.”
z speaks up. “why don’t you use your powers? If you use just enough kinetic energy, people won’t be able to tell that you have powers.”
D smiles. “great idea. The issue is using your powers with that level of precision.”
Eric nodded. “then I should practice.”
Eric spent the next two weeks practicing precise control of the energy in his body.
The day of the fight came around, and Eric went to the Colosseum.
He mentally prepares himself as he hears the announcer speak.
“on the right, we have the unbreakable warrior Rocky.”
he was large in both length and width.
The announcer spoke again. “On the left, we have the powerless powerhouse Primarch here for his first battle as a fully-fledged gladiator.”
Eric stepped into the ring and waved at the crowd warmly. Unlike when he first entered the rookie tournament, people actually cheered for him.
He looked at his opponent.
The large intimidating man spoke kindly. “I hope we can have a fair and honest fight.”
Eric looked at the large man and smiled. “of course.”
Eric felt a little guilty. He had to lie to a kind person, but he quickly overcame it.
The announcer spoke again. “3…2…1… fight!”
Eric knew what rocky would do as he had researched his previous fights. Eric ran forward as fast as he could while dodging rocks left, right, and center. as Eric got closer to the man, the speed and frequency of the rocks grew. But it wasn’t anything Eric couldn’t handle.
Eric closed into close-quarters combat range. he threw a punch only to strike a solid rock. He looked up and saw a wall of rock.
Eric focused a small amount of energy into his fist and struck the rock wall. His fist stopped halfway through. “damn, not enough.”
He took his remaining hand and struck with more energy. His fist went a little deeper before getting stuck. Rocky quickly pushed Eric to the other side of the arena and resumed his assault with an even greater pace.
Eric quickly directed a little energy into his arms to remove them from the rock. Quickly he dodged the onslaught of rocks that came toward him.
Eric ran forward and placed more energy into his arm. as he got close, a massive wall of rock appeared in front of him. “as I predicted.” he thought. He punched straight through the rock and grabbed rocky by the neck. Almost immediately, the rock wall receded, and rocky put his hands up.
“you win. I surrender.”
Eric had looked at Rocky’s previous fights and saw that he always spared his opponents. Eric wanted to kill somebody soon, or he would get cravings, but he knew that killing a surrendering man would tarnish his reputation, so he sucked it up.
Eric smiled widely and took his hand off the man’s throat. “you gave me a run for my money, friend.”
rocky smiled and laughed. “you should have seen the look on my face when you broke through solid rock. I nearly pissed myself.”
the announcer spoke. “it appears Primarch has chosen to spare his opponent, rocky. what a turn of events!”
Eric waved toward the crowd as he left the arena. Z Nathan and D met him.
D laughed. “fair and honest, fight my ass. I’ve met con artists more fair and honest than that fight.
Nathan smiled. “but you did good, kid. Nobody could tell that you were using your powers.
Z smiled arrogantly. “it was all thanks to my ingenious idea. Hold your applause.”
Eric chuckled. “holding.”
D spoke up. “I hate to interrupt your cringe-inducing half-flirting, but Nathan has something to tell Eric.”
Nathan nodded. “Sherlock has contacted us. Apocrypha has discovered the location of one of the superhuman generals.”
Eric grinned madly, not bothering to hide his malicious intent. “I’ve been waiting for this for a while. I’ve always wanted to kill one of the most powerful people in the world. Tell me, which superhuman general is it?”
Nathan had spent enough time with Eric not to be put off by his malicious intent. The same was true for D. Z, who had never seen this side of Eric before and had only one thought in his head. “hot.”
Nathan spoke. “the superhuman general you’ll be fighting is sunspot. He shouldn’t be a problem as you can absorb his fire. His personality is the most aggressive of the ten superhuman generals. He is obsessed with fighting and arson. Sherlock has tied him to 8 different forest fires this year alone. The leading theory is that he uses his position in the government to prevent people from finding the truth. And that’s just the forest fires. Sherlock believes that as many as 10% of all unsolved arson cases are done by him.”
Eric smiles. “I like fire as much as the next guy, but that seems extreme. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when I absorb his flames.”
Nathan nods. “this guy is a real piece of work. Sherlock and Apocrypha have determined that his next arson will occur in the parking garage on the 21st and 5th. he plans to melt the whole building down. Fortunately, nobody will be in the garage, so you’ll have unrestricted access. You need to be there by nine tomorrow night.”
Eric smiles. “how unreasonable of them to make me fight on such short notice. Well, I shouldn’t say that because I’m a pretty unreasonable person myself. I can’t wait.”