It was only a few short years ago that Scott Everett was a teenager in high school, before he dropped out and became another New York low life. After class his friends were planning on skipping the bus ride home and instead meeting behind a paint shop, where scores were settled with fists. The owner of the paint shop would usually come out the back door and scream at them to get lost, but by that point someone was already laid out and they’d all just run away laughing.

Thomas was a newer friend Scott made at the time, he was a socially inept nerd but Scott didn’t mind hanging out with him. When the subject of an after school fight was brought up Thomas wanted to come too but Scott was apprehensive. Thomas talked in a nasally voice and acted like he was the smartest kid in the room at all times. Scott didn’t mind that though, because they both loved superheroes and could bond over that. This fight though? It was a different crowd of people, the type that would make fun of Thomas. Despite his attempts to turn him away, Thomas persisted. “Fine, what’s the worst that could happen?” Scott thought to himself.

“Okay, you can come along.” Scott relented. “But before we go to meet with everyone, first we have to get the goods.”

“The goods?” Thomas asked curiously.

“Yeah dude, the one and only!”

Scott pointed towards a local gas station with a little store connected to it. The words “UNI-MART” were painted in bright red.

“This is the go to place.”

The two boys walked into the corner store and grabbed bottles of soda and bags of chips, they paid the clerk and hurried out to make their way to the paint shop a few stores down the street. By the time Scott and Thomas arrived at the meeting spot there was a circle of teenagers getting ready for the battle between boys. On the one side was Xavier; the de facto leader of Scott’s friend group. Against him was Michael, a bulky kid on the school wrestling team who didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut. The crowd was bigger than Thomas expected, he hesitated as Scott walked over to greet his friends.

“Hey guys.” Scott said with a mouth full of chips.

“Scott!” Jon and Eric’s excitement went to confusion when they saw the chubby kid with glasses next to him. “Why did Thomas come with you?”

“He wanted to tag along.”

“Oh he’s got friends now?” Eric mocked, causing Jon and the others to laugh at Thomas’ expense. Scott bit his tongue, not sure what to say. He felt bad for Thomas and didn’t want his friend to be the group punching bag - but his reputation with the group mattered too.

“I’ll go.” Thomas interjected, as he turned around to walk away. Scott followed after him.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“Dude, it- it’s chill. They say mean shit from time to time but they just act like that. They’ll grill you up a bit but that don’t mean anything.”

Thomas kept quiet, still embarrassed by the joke.

“You came all the way over here, you probably missed the 3:30 bus anyway. Just stay.”

Scott gave a big dumb smile and it worked. Thomas and him might’ve liked the same things but they weren’t the same, Scott wasn't a “nerd” like him, he was a bad boy that the girls wanted. He was handsome, and he could talk to people. Thomas knew he wasn’t any of that, but Scott didn’t look down on him for it. He wanted to be a popular kid too, so despite his embarrassment, Thomas chose to stay.

The fight started just as their conversation ended.

“Come on! Let’s not miss anything!” Scott said as he rushed back to the crowd. Thomas followed him.

Xavier was a foot taller than Michael, who charged at him like a raging bull. He stepped out of the way of Michael and threw a jab that missed. Despite his husky size, Michael was quick on his feet and dodged the punches. The two danced around the circle trying to get a hit on one another.

“Deck him Xavier!” Scott shouted from the sideline.

Michael went for an attack and Javier landed a clean hit to the nose, blood started to trickle down his mouth and chin but it only seemed to piss the wrestler off. He charged at Xavier, wrapped his arms around him and lifted the taller kid up. In mere seconds Michael slammed Xavier to the ground and was punching him from on top.

Scott rushed over and grabbed Michael, throwing him off his friend. “Okay that’s enough dude!”

Michael’s friends ran in to join the fight, but Scott had his own friends behind him. In an instant the two sides clashed. Scott stood over the bruised and bloody Xavier and decked the first kid that got close to him. The rumble was a storm of bodies punching and kicking each other. A fist came out of nowhere and hit Scott in the cheek.

On the side Thomas saw the paint store owner shouting at the boys.

“Take this somewhere else!” The old man yelled.

The crowd didn't notice, they were too caught up in the heat of the action. The old man grabbed a telephone and began dialing. Thomas shouted at the top of his lungs; “The owner is calling the cops!”

That was enough to stop the fighting. The boys got off of each other and ran in different directions. Scott looked at Thomas and motioned for him to follow as he ran away. “Come on Tom! We gotta go!”

Thomas followed Scott and his friends the best he could, the group hid behind a white van.

“Good call Tom, that was great.” Scott remarked, still out of breath and with a bruise forming on his cheek.

“Great? You think that was “great” Scott?” Thomas snapped.

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“What’s your problem dude?”

“My problem is you and your friends just beat each other to a pulp and almost got the cops called on us!”

“Yeah, but you warned us.”

“You don’t see the problem here?”

“I don’t see what you’re whining about. You chose to come here Tom.”

“Yeah, and I’m done here.”

Thomas adjusted his backpack around his shoulder and walked home. Scott looked at his friends confused.

“The f**k is his problem?”

“You shouldn’t have brought him here Scott. He’s not like us.” Jon remarked.

Scott sighed, he understood what that meant. After that day the two boys didn’t speak much. And later when Scott dropped out of high school, he lost touch with Eric, Jon and Xavier too.

——

The sky turned gray after Hydro Man kicked Scott’s ass halfway through Queens. The man who called himself “The Vulture” put his green armor and metal wings in a duffel bag and tossed the bag into the trunk of his car. Scott entered the passenger side seat and The Vulture drove off.

The two drove around New York, through neighborhoods Scott wasn’t familiar with. He was told not to get into vehicles with strangers but this time he didn’t care. There were all sorts of little cuts and bruises across his body, and now the pain was setting in. Scott rested his head on the car window as it started to rain.

“Where are we going?” Scott asked.

“My headquarters.” Vulture responded.

“Why couldn’t we just fly there?”

“You think that wouldn’t draw attention? Besides, I don't want to carry your ass across New York.”

“Point taken.”

The Vulture reached over and opened the glove compartment. He grabbed a pill bottle and handed it to Scott.

“Take that. It’ll help with the pain.”

“Is this like some super medicine? Gives you a healing factor?”

“Yeah, it’s called Advil.”

Scott rolled his eyes and downed a couple pills.

“So… What makes a guy decide to fly around in uh, a bird costume?”

“The same thing that has you robbing gas stations and tussling with superheroes, kid. Money.”

“You know who that guy was?”

“Nope. Just another superhero. They’re a dime a dozen these days.”

“Yeah.”

“So I’m just going to be frank with you kid, I’m putting together a group of criminals with talents and abilities like the kind you got.”

“So like, the Legion of Evil?”

“Who said anything about evil? We’re thieves not super villains. The point is, I’ve seen what you can do and it’s impressive.”

“Thank y-”

“But you act like a dumb criminal, and dumb criminals get caught.” Vulture cut him off.

“Oh.”

“That’s why I think you should meet the guys and see if you want to join us.” Vulture looked at Scott as he drove the car. “You interested?”

“Yeah. Of course I am.”

“Good. Do me a favor, reach into the glovebox and put the blind fold on.”

“I’m sorry what?”

——

Everything was black under the blindfold. Scott could feel the car turning left, right and then left again but didn’t know where he was going. It made sense why The Vulture had him do it, can’t just let anyone know the location of your top secret underground lair.

“Put this blindfold on Scott, let me just lead you into a place you don’t know and you can meet my friends.” Scott thought to himself. “Hey we don’t have any money on us, at least we know he isn’t gonna rob us! Probably just torture us for fun!”

The car came to a stop and the ignition was turned off. Scott heard Vulture open and shut his car door. He fumbled trying to open his door, when it swung open on its own. A hand grabbed his arm and escorted him out of the car.

“Watch your head.” Vulture warned.

Scott stepped out of the car and walked in the direction that Vulture asked him to, it sounded like some kind of parking lot. He noticed how good his balance was, despite being blind, he felt like he could walk upright without falling over.

A heavy sounding door opened and Scott walked through.

“There’s stairs up ahead, watch your step.”

Scott walked down the stairs with surprising ease, it felt as if his body instinctively knew where to step. Vulture stopped Scott and pulled the blindfold off of him. It took a second to adjust to the light, but then Scott saw a large room that looked like a garage or a warehouse. Inside were three men of various ages.

“Boys, this is a new guy that wants to join us.”

Scott waved at the group. “Sup, I’m Scott.”

The first to speak up was the youngest of the trio, a teenage looking Hispanic kid with curly brown hair pulled back in a ponytail with the sides shaved. He was short and skinny. “I’m Jamie, but you

can call me The Shocker.”

“Oh we’re using our villain names. Then I’m Spider-Man.”

“We’re not villains.” Vulture interjected.

“He’s right.” A white man in his forties said. He had brown hair, a strong jawline and wore a white t-shirt and khakis. He didn’t strike Scott as the criminal type.

“Who are you?” Scott asked.

“I’m Flint.”

“He’s The Sandman.” Jamie added.

“Cool name.”

“Sorry to disappoint you but I don’t have a fancy nickname.” The last man, an elderly white guy with glasses and white hair, spoke. “But I am Phineas Mason.”

“Nice to meet you sir.”

“Don’t call me sir. I’m not your grandfather.” He joked.

“Right.” Scott chuckled, “What do you do exactly?”

“I pay for this building and build the gear you see everyone wearing. Well, except Adrian’s. He won’t let me touch his stuff.”

Scott turned around and looked at The Vulture, who looked proud of himself for not letting Phineas touch his equipment. “So it's Adrian?”

“Correct.”

“Good, I was gonna start calling you birdman. So with introductions over with, what are we doing and when do we start?”

“We aren’t doing anything yet.” Adrian cut Scott off. “You still have to do your initiation.”

“Initiation?”