A Bad Guy

Over the next couple days Mary taught me about being a hero and it’s been tough. The first she tried to teach me was how to hold back and her words “I said toss me the watermelon not throw it hard enough that nearly gave a black eye!”. It’s very hard to control my strength and I’ve tried a lot but just said that in the moment maybe I’ll subconsciously hold back.

I hope she’s right. I'll get some lawsuits in the future. She’s also been trying to convince me to talk more or even make quips. She gave me some old comics and made me watch some old movies with examples of how heroes talk. Most of it was bullshit but there were some good things like learning how to manage your tone of voice.

She did teach some things she learned from mom and dad. Heroes should be selfless but also caring and inspiring there supposed to bring hope. She said that if I become a hero I should be able to be nice and show that I care, show I’m genuine about helping people and to be hopeful even in the darkest situations because if you're still hopeful the people are still hopeful.

she hasn’t really been the best teacher but hey she’s at least trying. I did ask if one of her hero friends could help me but she said that she had to be the one to help teach me. Even if she hasn’t been the best, she's still helping and I’m learning some stuff more than I can say about most teachers in my life.

I did figure out after my right hand fully healed I can turn both my hands fully into steel claws but it causes the headache to come faster. I can also turn other parts of my body into steel but say I turned most of my head into steel I might not be able to use the full claws if not at all.

Anyways I was sitting on the couch reading a book about a zombie shoulder who got back up and kept fighting. Untal the book was taken out of my hands.

“Hey mole rat, we have some stuff to do to help you on your hero journey” she beams with pure joy.

“I was reading that”

“Well you aren’t now”

My eye slightly twitches “whatever, what's the next step?”

“We're going shopping!” kill me.

We headed to several stores as Mary bought a leather jacket with a hood, leather pants with padding, some fingerless gloves, some dark black still tipped boots and fingerless gloves. We walked out of an army store where we got the boots “and that should be everything we need”.

“Why do we need all this?”

“Well we're making your prototype costume”

I nod “but don’t you know someone who can make costumes?”

“Yeah but that's with the Vanguard and mom and dad said that I gotta figure out my costume”

I nod again “ok but how am I gonna hide my face?”. I only have so many face masks.

“Well I got some stuff at home you can use so don’t worry yourself” we head to the car as we start driving. “So where are we heading next?”.

“Were gonna get you some tools”

“Explain”

“Well you don’t need anything to help you move or climb or even pick lock hell you might even know how to do that with those weird instinct abilities of yours what you really need help with is to stop you from nearly killing people with your strength as least people who can’t take it”.

I nod as eventually we drive to a self defense store, these stores have well self defense items that can range from pepper spray and tasers to a magnum that can knock any evolve on there ass.

“The people here know me so I’ll head inside and grab some stuff, be good and stay inside the car, I'll even turn on the radio”

“I’m not a child” I cross my arms

“You are” She closes the car door leaving me inside for several minutes as I listen to radio music, yay. She eventually comes back with a bag but when I try to look inside she smacks my hand away. We get a quick bite to eat at some burger place and we eventually head home.

As soon as we head inside Mary tosses the bags on the table and dumps the one with my tools. The first item is a belt with several pouches and holsters. along with that there are several bags filled with metal ball bearings. Finally there is a pair of solid black Escrima sticks.

“So the belt is obvious, lets you hold items and any weapons. The ball bearings are for range attacks and are less lethal against normal people then most of your breath attacks plus are a lot precise and can be used just as quick especially with your insane precision” she then grabs the Escrima sticks and tosses them to me.

“Those will give you an extra edge in a fight giving you some extra options along with that they can help you control strength because if you hit with them hard they will break with how strong you are” she smiles as I stare dumbfounded at everything she got me.

“How did you pay for all this?” I don’t think she has a job well, one that I know about.

“Oh Mom gave me a card before she left to attach to an account that I could use to buy stuff I need for any hero stuff” Smart.

“So what now?”

“Once again, very simple My dear brother tonight, we're gonna go on a patrol” she gives me a big grin.

“Didn’t Mom and dad wait a couple weeks before they took you out on a patrol?”

“Yes” she said with so much pride

“Then why are you going on patrol where you have experience or even know what to do?”

She grabs me by the face “because we both need field experience just like any newbie hero” she lets go as she walks to her room “will be heading out tonight”. I will be generally surprised if this goes any form of well.

It had been a couple hours of me relaxing as Mary eventually barged in my room and told me to get ready. She also gave me a pair of goggles with black lenses and a red bandana to cover the lower part of my face. She wore pretty much the same outfit as me except she had no goggles, a blue bandana and had a storm cloud painted on the back of her jacket and lighting bolts painted down the sleeves.

We headed out of the horse through the back door as we got to the rooftops and started running. As we got closer to the Middle class district Mary had to manipulate the wind around her to help keep up.

“I fucking hate that your able to run so fucking fast” she says as she uses wind to propel her self forward to catch up with me again.

“So what exactly are we looking for?” I jump on a sign and use it to propel me to a wall and I propel off that onto another building.

“Crime obviously” As Mary uses the wind to launch herself into the air and propel herself near me.

“People who commit crimes usually make sure no one knows they're committing crimes, hell even the crasier villains try to at least be a bit discrete with what they're doing” I dash across several buildings making precise jumps.

“I don’t know, try using your senses to find something” Mary is just using the air to help her glide and propel herself across the rooftops.

I nod as I Tune my senses and start listening. I hear someone proposing in a restaurant, I hear a man complaining about his dead job, I hear a dog barking at a cat and I hear a party going on top of a building. I eventually start to hear wood crackle and I start to smell ash. I open my eyes and zoom my vision into the distance and spot smoke rising.

I point to where the smoke is rising “Fire going on over there just follow me”. Mary nods as she follows me as we dash towards the tower of smoke.

I hear sirens in the distance, I hear hoses being fired and people yelling. I smell smoke, ash and burning wood. As we enter the area and spot a hospital on fire. The flames roar as coats the building, the fire fighters try their best as they try to douse the flames but the flames rage on. I see several firefighters run out of the building as the entrance collapses.

Mary takes a deep breath as her eyes glow as she lifts up her hands as clouds start to form above the hospital and then they start to rain. The rain causes the fire rage to quiet down a bit but the building is still on fire.

“Hey I’ll try to put out the fire, you use your senses to see if anyone inside?” I immediately tune my senses to where my hearing is heightened but all my other senses are lower as I start listening. The world around me goes dark as I tune out all other sounds around me as I listen. I hear the raspy breathing slight sodding a father comforting their kids, I hear around 6 people.

“There's 6 people I'm gonna get them out of there just keep the rain going Mary” she nods as The fires rage against the rain as if it was alive and would do everything it could to keep going. I hop across several buildings as I get several buildings as I get closer to the hospital as when I’m close enough I turn my feet into steel and jump. I feel the air rush past me as I fly through the air as I get drenched with rain then it quickly evaporates from the heat. I brace myself as I collide into the wall breaking through covering myself in burnt stone.

I’m hit with the overwhelming smell of ash and sulfur. I feel my bandana keeps most of the smoke from entering my lungs. The flames covered both ends of the hallways. I pull down my Bandana as I spin around letting out a stream of water dousing the flames around me. I pull my bandana up as smoke still covers the area causing my eyes to water.

I focus on my hearing as I listen again as I hear the sobbing as it around as I hear the sobbing around 40 feet north east from me. I follow my ears as I have to dodge falling debris and put out more flames along the way.

I eventually get to a room where there is a large amount of flaming rubble covering the exit. I hear the voices and breathing the loudest from this area. Smoke blinds as it bellows in from other parts of the hospital nearly blinding. I pull down my bandana getting in a nice lungful of smoke as I breath out a blast of air pushing away the sea of smoke. I start coughing as I feel most of the smoke leave my lungs but the damage is still there luckily being healed but I can use my chaos breath for a bit.

I need to put out the flame rubble but I can’t use my chaos breath, I need to improvise. I jump to the ceiling as I solidify my right hand into steel and with all my might I punch the ceiling. The ceiling collapse covered me in dust and rubble as I heard the rain pour in, thank god I’m related to weather manipulators. I knock the ruble off as I see the rubble covering the door is no longer on fire. I ran over to pull the rubble away from the door. I kick the door open, shattering it as I enter the room.

There stands a father in his late 20's I estimate holding a young boy and girl, next to them was a doctor and nurse taking care of what I assume to be the mother as I could smell the blood. They all stared at me. I could tell they all were scared without even seeing their faces as the smoke made it hard to make specific details about them.

“I’m here to get you all out of here please follow me and you won’t have to deal with this hell anymore” I tried to say with a more cheerful tone “Don’t worry I’m a hero you don’t have to worry anymore”. Eventually they all got up and the nurse and doctor tried to help the women up. I walked over and gently held her up and I could hear her heartbeat well heart beats, she was pregnant. They quickly followed after me. I could hear the building slowly collapsing and the structures slowly breaking down from the flames.

I walk over to a wall as I feel my throat and lungs fully heal up. I pull down my bandana as I open up my mouth and with a Volley of rocks blast open up the wall. I feel wind and rain hit against me as I could spot Mary near several firefighters talking to them as her eyes glow more probably making the t more wind so the rain can get into the building more. I spot a life net set up as I turn to the father handing him to his wife.

“Thank you” I heard say as I saw him jump out and wind help him fall onto the life net. The doctor and nurse follow afterwards as they land fine with Mary’s help leaving me and the kids. They stood there scared as I kneel down.

“Hey I know it seems scary but you’ll be fine my friend out there will make sure of that so can you please be brave for me?” They both contemplate for a bit but nod as they both close their eyes and jump through the hole as they gently land on the ground as Mary gives me a thumbs up.

I go to jump but I hear the flames roar behind me “ARIC” I turn to see the flames have seemed to form into a humanoid figure as they step forward I feel my body freeze. Mason you're supposed to be dead how? The flaming figure lifts up a hand as the flames around them shootout and ram into me.

I get launch several hundred feet away as I slam into a bill bored getting embedded in it. I lay there, luckily my clothes are mostly fine, just toasty. I definitely got a lot of broken bones but nothing too bad. After a couple minutes I saw Mary hop in front of me.

“You ok?”

“Amazing” as with a tug, Mary pulled me out of the billboard as I fell onto my feet as Mary dusted me off with a bit of wind.

“That actually went well”

“I got launch like a cannonball”

“You're fine” I feel my rips piece themselves back together.

“Well you wanna end it here tonight and head home or do you wanna keep patrolling?”

I want to go home and get some rest already filled out my good deeds quota today but there's a little voice in the back of my head. It tells me I need to feel that rush, I need to feel that adrenaline pumping in my blood, I need that rush I get from a fight from cracking skulls and feeling the blood on my hands, I need it.

“I can keep going”

“That's what I’m talking about! Let's try to find a crime this time” Mary beams with joy as I tune my senses once again. I listen throughout the city as I news reporters talk about what happened with us at the hospital. I hear some officers talking about why we're here while their police sergeant yells at them about something about a donut. I then hear something a couple blocks away on top of a construction building.

A weapons deal is going on between gangs there negotiating how much they should get for the weapons.

“We got a weapons deal on that construction building over wanna bust it?”

“Do I even need to answer that?” I can feel her grinning under her bandana as she cracks her knuckles

We both run the building as we have to climb up it well. I have to because Mary just floats up. Eventually we both get a metal construction beam as we both sit there. There's around 30 something guys, each one holding a gun or knife or some sort of weapon. In the middle lies several boxes of odd looking guns and glowing blue vials.

“So how are we gonna handle this?”

“Well I’ll stun them with some lighting and we run in and knock them around as quick as possible”

“Aw yes the best plan” I snicker

“Don’t worry we got this now we start on the count of 3”

I take a deep breath as I feel everything slow down as adrenaline pumps through my veins.

“1”

I pull out the Escrima sticks as I hold them tightly

“2”

Mary's hands spark with electricity as her eyes glow a electric blue.

“3”