Everybody wants to be a superhero. Having superpowers, your name plastered on billboards, millions in brand deals and best of all, the people love you. Unfortunately, not everyone is born with superpowers, not everyone can become a hero.
Superhumans have been around for the last two centuries, no one knows where they came from but they managed to cross their genetics with enough to populate the world. Some people even develop powers without powered parents. The ability to fly, have increased strength, anything really. All those powers exist and I'm still forced to take the public bus to school.
In some cruel irony the bus to school drags a carriage full of regular teenagers, people who look up to heroes and want the powers they have, past the very institute charged with raising these heroes. The "Institute of Powers and Public Wellfare" aka the stronghold they chuck anyone with powers in if they're caught out. They get a good education, learning the basics while figuring out the best way to use their powers for the betterment of human kind.
Free food, free bedding, free education; sounds like an amazing deal. Just use your powers for the government and allow yourself to be tracked and monitored for your entire life. If your powers present a danger to society, the best thing it can do is milk that power for its benefit instead. It's ok though, you'll make millions in brand deals, exploiting the kids to use all their parents money on merchandising. Fuck that.
Compared to the institute, a glorious steel mansion like building, a regular highschool is much more boring. We don't have fancy training rooms, nothing here is blast proof. If anything everything is on the verge of being broken. It's nice. I couldn't imagine what super bullying looks like. I only have to deal with the occasional shove and verbal barrage, that's easy. Imagine waking up knowing your going to get a wedgie from someone who will fly into the air. I wonder how far underwear can stretch?
All of a sudden I feel a leg trip my own as I am sent to the ground, slamming my shoulder into the ground as I turned for impact. Here we go. My earphones fall out and immediately I hear the sound of conversation flood my ears. What people did on the weekend, how they hadn't done their task due first period and other bullshit. No one even took a pause at the scene in front of them.
"What's up Dick, need to watch where you walk"
Ahhh Dick, a funny use of my name (Richard) masking him just calling me a dick. Great excuse to the teachers.
"Will do James." That's where it ends. I'm lucky that I get so little compared to others. The thing with bullies is they do it for a sense of strength, to make them feel better. I'm lucky that I'm not some kid who is as weak as a twig, those guys get treated like shit. All I get are nudges and name calling. Benefits of your parents being martial arts instructors I guess.
How do other peoples parents meet through dating apps, work, or at the shopping centre. Mine met through my mum slamming my dad onto the ground in a mixed practice training. Fell in love immediately. I think they hope I find a girlfriend that way. That would explain why they force me to train all the time, go to tournaments and even work part time as a teacher for the kids.
As conflict averse as I am, it's fun. More fun then any class I take. Still I pay attention, my parents want me to have as many options as I can and I'll do my best to please them. I wonder how this life of mine looks to a supe. Boring most definitely, it's a repetitive cycle of school and practice. It's a plain life, but it's mine and that's all that matters.
As the final school bell rings I walk out onto the front courtyard and see a commotion. Dick and his friends are locked in a conversation with some dude in a trenchcoat near the entrance.
"Dude if you're here to pick up high schoolers I'm afraid to say you're a bit too old for that." One of James' friends laughed out. Jesus these guys had some sense of dumb obliviousness to danger I guess.
James joined in as their laughter settled. "Hey man my dads a cop so you may not wanna kidnap in fro-." In a flash a punch to the jaw sends James flying along the ground, slamming into a bench. The people scatter and run, we all know what's going on.
It's a villain.
The man takes off his trench coat, revealing bulging muscles popping out of a muscle tank shirt and a pair of sweatpants. If he hadn't sent James flying I'd suspect that he was just some roided up junky. Though I guess that's basically what super strength is, to a lesser degree.
Everyone knows what to do here, people flood out the exit onto the pathway, running in the direction of central Hampton where the institute was. Even if it was tasked with raising super heroes a lot of professionals taught there. This dude is either a dumbass or caused a commotion here, at a public school close to the institute on purpose.
As I went to run back into the school, looking to take shelter and hide, I saw James still hunched over near the bench. He obviously had fractured bones and was struggling to get up and walk properly.
I looked back over to the pile of muscle arranged in the shape of a human near the entrance. He was simply walking past everybody running around him, eyes set on the poor kid hunched over from a punch he gave. As much as I don't like James, seeing someone die wasn't really something I wanted to experience.
As I ran over to the mysterious villain, I saw musculore written on his tank. At least I knew what to call him now, even if the name was shit. His obliviousness to the people around him seemed to transfer even to me as I jumped on his back and put him in a rear chokehold. From this vantage point I saw James from above, looking up at me with a mix of fear and regret as he took this moment to half run half stagger away until a teacher helped him away.
I felt a hand grab my back, as musculore pulled at me in an attempt to get me off of him. I could feel just strength tug on my back as his hand could nearly reach around my entire upper back. He pulled at my shoulder and I could feel my shoulder start to move within its socket. While painful it was not the right move in this situation, his brain was being cut off from oxygen. His strenght was more than what was humanly possible, but it wasn't so much that he could immediately break my body with a pull on my shoulder, and if he continued to ignore the choke he'd simply pass out.
He tried wiggling around and pulling at my shoulder, like he was wild bull and I was some bull rider. His movements while emphatic were ill thought out, he didn't try to pull me up above his head. Instead he was trying to pull me sideways, only helping me tighten the hold. He moved in a way that ignored human survival instincts. Most people would of tried flipping me over their head by hunching over and pulling on me. If this guy did that with his strength my back would shatter onto the concrete.
Instead his grip on my shoulder loosened, as it was obvious his brain was giving out due to a lack of oxygen. As he crumpled to the ground, all that had resulted from his fight back was my shoulder popping out of its socket, which while painful was not the most painful injury I'd been through. As I stood up, holding my arm in a way that supported my shoulder and looked down at him.
Was that it?
I heard a loud commotion from behind me as two superheroes made their appearance. One was an obscure hero, in a tight bodysuit that was a mix of pinks and purples. The other was more well known, a B class hero known as Recall. She was a hero who was making rapid progress up the ranks and was dressed in a white compression long sleeve top with recall printed in blue along with leggings that matched the colour scheme.
"Hey kid are you alright? You look like you hurt your shoulder." The girl in pink said to me in a gentle voice, obviously trying to be soothing.
"Yeah I'm fine thanks." I'd probably have to walk around with an arm support for a little but that was more then well off compared to other people who encountered villains.
"What happened here?" Recall was scanning the area, obviously trying to analyse the order of events simply from the environment.
One of the teachers who had come out as soon as the hero's got here tried to talk to her but she simply put a hand up silencing him.
"You, tell me." Her eyes were like daggers into me, she was obviously smart enough to see I was able to take the threat down and was pressing me on it.
"He caused a ruckus at the entrance and tried to beat on one of the kids. I choked him out."
"You seriously expect me to believe that."
"No, but it's the truth. I shouldn't have been able to beat him but I did. I was lucky."
I was being truthful. Any other superhuman beats me there 99 times out of 100. But this guys wasn't acting like a normal person. He was oblivious, single minded and lacked all survival instincts. It's like his mind was scrambled.
"Well I hope you don't mind coming with me for questioning. Because you're coming."
I nodded. I knew I'd have to give an account of what happened to the police and the hero organisation.
"Good, let's go. Pheromone you take care of the villain here." As she turned around I saw vehicles park out of the courtyard, hero department written on the side of a black van with two ambulances behind it.
"Recall coming in, this situation was another easy one. Some civilian beat the guy before I even got here. How many more have come in?" She talked with her hand covering her ear, obviously on the line to some techy who worked for the hero organisation. I couldn't hear the other side but from the way recall stood to attention I could tell the answer.
This wasn't the only agitation cause by a superhuman, they were happening on mass.
"Get in the van!" Her voice was sharp and rushed, the gravity of the situation weighing on her vocal tone. As I approached the van, armoured with tinted windows, more of a truck then van, I looked to my right. I looked east, towards central Hampton, towards the institute. Pillars of smoke billowing into the sky.
This was planned.