Hero Super

Legs. Swinging back and forth. Pushing off the street in front of him in the apathetic rhythm of the morning rush hour. The streets were filled with people going about their day, heading to work, heading home from work, heading to someplace else that’s not where he was. He wasn’t alone, but he felt lonely.

His eyes darted downwards, looking at the empty cup that drew a harsh growl in his empty stomach. The view didn’t hurt so much as it just made him think that this was another mundane day, another day where he’d have to fight for scraps in the alleys, another day where he’d have to claw his way through to another more affluent district, another day where he’d get kicked out of a place for being what he was.

It was just another day.

He looked up for the unknown’th time today. Featureless faces passing by, unfeeling eyes unperturbed by his being here. There wouldn’t be much coming his way today.

His head turned to the side, towards the entrance of the alleyway that ran in between the districts. He hesitated, going through the dumps earlier would mean he’d have more of a chance to get a morsel of meat in him. If he timed it correctly, he’d get to the morning diners just as they throw away this morning’s trash.

Ultimately, he stayed. Not for hope, nor for pity, but for how undeniably useless it would be to make the journey. He wasn’t the smartest, but he thought of it. Which meant others would’ve as well.

The pain in his stomach grew, its silent grumble, an instinctual alarm to fight for survival. He ignored it. He had to.

Suddenly, the swinging legs paused, their movements stilled synchronously. He looked up, mirroring everyone’s head as their gazes were held like magnets towards a certain figure. Across the air, wearing a red cape and blue clothes, flying above without a care for everything underneath him.

A hero.

As he passed overhead, the majority cheered with gleeful shouts, some whistled and made noises to catch his attention, few grumbled and made their way through the crowd without care. But none were like him. None seethe in silent cold anger.

His vision darkened as the pain in his stomach grew, until only darkness was left to embrace his still-warm body.

“Fuck.” Calvin cursed, sitting up with his back drenched in cold sweat. He panted heavily, putting his hand up to his chest as he slowed his breathing and his heart. “So goddamn hot in here I’m getting nightmares.”

He gave himself a minute to curl up and massage his temples as he ruminated on the nightmare he just had. The nightmare that’s been plaguing him for some time now. He knew it wasn’t him, he wasn’t that poor. Neither in this life or the past. For all the flaws his parents had they never made him go hungry nor threw him in the streets.

“Haah… it’s just a dream.” He muttered, slipping out of his covers. He raised his left wrist, shaking it slightly to activate the display panel on the holowatch. “Three-thirty. I got like six hours of sleep this time, huh?”

He got up and started stretching his now less-malnourished body, making a cacophony of bone cracking sounds ring out of his room like popcorn in movie night. After a few cycles of basic stretches, he reached over his bedside table to grab his pocket.

Super Help

Eye-Socket Pocket Locket

A functional bionic eye connected to a rusty chain, designed to contain a pocket dimension that is accessible to its wearer. Contains a 10.3 meter-cubed pocket dimension. Accessing the pocket dimension has a delay of at least a second. Additional functions include; Automatic Wardrobe, Minor Bio-decay reduction.

He stared at the eye for a moment, not as creeped out as before but still a bit wary. Narrowing his eyes and looking more closely at the cyber-organ, he let out his suspicion, “I’m watching you. You better not move.”

Prodding and poking at the eye did nothing, as per usual, and so he jingled the gadget lightly and confirmed the Super Equip with a thought of affirmation. The [Eye-Socket Pocket Locket] turned into a string of light that swam quickly in the air and settled on his neck. A feeling of being able to will something out of the extradimensional pocket in the tech came to Calvin, and he pulled in this metaphorical muscle to take out equipment.

Chains strapped on weights dropped on the floor in front of him, with a noisy bang that hopefully did not wake up anyone else in the decrepit apartment building. He let out a strained groan as he picked up the weights, wondering if the weights were too heavy for him right now.

It was.

Still, he wrapped the chains around his waist and shoulders, letting the weights hang freely near his ankles. They used to hang freely much higher, but his family jewels had taught him a painful reminder about their fragility, especially when swung along with solid steel plates.

He grabbed a pair of headphones sitting on his study table, putting it on his head and connecting it to his holowatch. A simple gesture was enough to get music playing in his ear, one of the new albums Quinn had sent to him.

“Huh, it’s actually good this time…”, he muttered, hearing the pop rock rhythm through the headphones.

The colours in the room changed as he bobbed his head, his [Colour Control] changing the walls and objects into funky colours in-line with the beat.

Without looking, he used [Impervious Pebble] to summon a bar of pebbles to hang on to then jumped up with the help of [Jumper]. The weights clanged. Calvin felt the strain on his body, grunting the pain away as he started his exercise routine.

After half an hour of grunting and crying while pushing his body to the limit, he was covered in a mist of sweat. The new weights were straining him, but he needed them ever since he added that point in Super Body. He still hadn’t figured out how much a point in each status increased his strength, or whether or not it was multiplicative or additive.

Super Information

Super Name None Super Attributes

Super Status Alive,Slight-Fatigue(Physical), Spirit-severance Super Body 1 → 2

Super Quest Road to Heroism III, A True Hero's Name Super Mind 0 → 1

Super Points 0

Super Spirit 2.7 (-0.3)

Super Powers

Impervious Pebble Gourmand's Instinct

Color Control Jumper

Vigilant Aegis

“I really need to ask Dox to help me figure it out.” He muttered, removing the weights on his waist and grabbing a towel to wipe away the sweat.

As far as he could tell, Super Mind did nothing but make him react faster. It wasn't the instant genius-level intellect he was expecting(and hoping) for, but still it wasn't a waste of a point given he can summon pebbles faster when the need arose. Like when his skull is about to be smashed, which has almost happened way more often than he'd like.

After another few cycles of stretches to cool his aching body, he walked out of his room and into the barely-recognizable living room. A smile bloomed on his face as he breathed the clean and uncluttered air of the clean and uncluttered room. There was something satisfying about turning a pigsty into an adequately livable place, a satisfaction he wondered why he hadn’t bothered to get a few months after Sam disappeared.

‘Sam.’ He glanced towards the doorway to his room, feeling something in his chest. ‘Hope he doesn’t mind me stashing all that junk in his room. Maybe I’ll be gone before he comes back anyway.’

Remembering the ‘landlord’, he checked his holowatch for a message, or anything else. As expected, there was still nothing. Last he heard from him was six months ago, literally the day he left him here for a ‘job’. He asked Dox who only told him not to worry since the man is known to do this quite often. Calvin could only nod to her and accept that.

He clapped his own cheeks, getting the worry out of his system. Turning to the kitchen, his eyes curled with a grin, “breakfast!”

One good thing about having no one else to cook for was that everything you cook was yours for the taking. Also makes it less embarrassing when you inevitably fuck up a new recipe and hide the shame in your stomach or down the toilet.

After an egregious amount of eggs, bacon, and bread for breakfast, he finally left the apartment carrying a towel on his shoulder and coffee inside one of the automatic-stirring mugs from the workshop. He sipped the bitter drink with satisfaction as he headed downstairs.

“Vince.” He habitually sent a greeting to the actual landlord, who was currently manning the desk beside the sauna.

“Calvin.” Vince greeted back and looked up at him, making Calvin’s eyes widen in surprise before narrowing as he stared back.

‘Woah, he replied? He never replies, let alone look back... what’s going on?’ “Did I forget to pay the bill?” He asked.

“No.”

“Did I damage anything in the sauna?”

“You can try.”

“Hmm… noise complaints?”

“The walls are as thick as you, Calvin.”

“But… then what's with today? You'd never even notice if I was set on fire and running in front of you?”

“I do notice you, I just don’t care.” Vince said. Before Calvin could react, he threw a file towards his holowatch. “You’re leaving in a week, right? Read and sign that.”

“Maybe earlier,” Calvin corrected as he opened the file and started reading it, “someone’s buying the lease?”

“Sam’s friend. She’ll probably stop by before you leave.”

“He’s not coming back?”

“If he does, he’ll buy the place back. Happens often.”

“So people keep saying.” Calvin muttered, not sure about the feeling in his chest right now. Nevertheless, he signed it with his holowatch id and sent it back.

“Oh, and visit the old man downstairs before you leave.”

“Leave today? Or like, from the building?”

Vince rolled his eyes. “Guess.”

“Thanks, Vince.” He smiled wryly at him, drinking the last of his coffee.

He stored the emptied mug into his pocket before going to the showers then relaxed his aching muscles in the sauna afterwards. Laying his head back on the wooden headrest, his thoughts wandered arbitrarily with his conversation with Vince earlier.

‘I’ve been in this world for half a year now. Evil lab on the first day, dingy apartment for six months, a few hours in a supervillain base, and now moving to a dorm in the Academy. I mean, it’s an upgrade, but it feels… bittersweet. I feel like a kid moving out for colleg—’ His thoughts paused, it was exactly the same scenario minus the parents part. ‘Sam? Wouldn’t call him a father figure, not by a long shot. But still, could’ve used his snark now that I’m about to leave… it feels a bit’

Calvin sighed and went out of his thoughts as he felt a vibration on his wrist. He went out of the sauna and grabbed a bunch of clothes and a fresh towel out of his pocket.

Super Equip

Super Gear: Plain White Shirt detected. Equip?

Yes No

“Ah, ol’ trusty.” He said with a chuckle before putting it on. It wasn’t white right now, it actually had a kaleidoscope trippy design on it from his practicing of [Colour Control].

Despite his expertise with solid colours, he couldn’t get the trick of making something more specific. His attempt on the shirt was supposed to be a challenge of making different colours and shapes on a similarly multi-coloured background, and not whatever unicorn vomit it resulted into.

Dirty blue jeans from his shopping trip with Ina and Quinn. The red puffy jacket from his escapade out of the lab with Sam. A pair of red sneakers given by Dox for one of her favors. And a pair of socks he got from the bargain bin in a discount store.

Super Equip

Super Gear: Comfortable Red Sneakers detected. Equip?

Yes No

Calvin swiped away the panel, opting to put it on on his own like a typical neanderthal.

‘Dripped out and ready to go.’ He thought and went out to the street, saying goodbye to Vince on his way, and started his daily walk towards work.

The streets of Outer City, filled with people going about and minding their own business. A superhero and a supervillain could drop in the middle of the road and the most people will think about them is how much of an inconvenience they would be on their daily routine. Not that it wasn’t dangerous, but it was closer to seeing two rabid dogs duking it out in the middle of the street. Most would just rather veer out of the way then move on.

Of course, the first sighting would be an experience, danger and curiosity at how these almost-alien creatures interact through combat or a mating ritual. The second sighting would be similar, but by the third and onward even the most interested would just be looking at their watch and wondering when they’ll stop and go away.

In fact, just the week prior he had seen two low-rank heroes and two low-rank villains fight on the way to work. He may or may not have accidentally helped the villains escape because of how evil the heroes’ costumes looked.

‘What kind of hero wears a scarecrow mask uses a bonesaw?’ He wondered, remembering the scene.

A vibration on his wrist, a message received from his friends.

Ina: wen r u movin 2 dorm

Ina: nid hlp?

Quinn: class is startING! !! !!

Quinn: the taecher is staring aT US!!!!!!

Calvin smiled while he read the messages. He mentally sent back a reply, a feature Dox apparently had put in his holowatch since the beginning.

Me: Sometime next week.

Me: Why would I need help?

Me: I’m poor, so I don’t have a lot of stuff.

Ina: i saw ur acc

Ina: ur far frm poor

Quinn: stop sending messges!!

Quinn: chakl is going to come for us AGIAN!!!!

‘They still use chalk and blackboards?’ He thought idly, closing the display screen.

Ina was right, he wasn’t as poor as before. Odd jobs from Dox was where the bulk of the income lay at, the little girl was overly generous with her payments even with the smallest of favors. He even got a few tinker techs from the exchange.

Super Help

Comfortable Red Sneakers

Sneakers designed for comfort and stealth. Automatically conforms to the Super’s preferred dimensions.

‘Not the best, but it is the comfiest.’ He thought, checking out the sneakers again. ‘Still way more expensive than the favors I do.’

She says it’s for the danger, but most of the time it was just picking up packages and leaving them somewhere else. Not exactly smuggling, just delivering sketchy packages to sketchy people in sketchy places.

Ignorance is bliss, and is, by law, considered plausible deniability.

Calvin arrived at The Marina, Ina’s parent’s family restaurant, and walked in to the kitchen. Inside, there was a distinct lack of warmth and sweetness that usually lingered in the air, especially in the morning. Instead there was a musk, undeniably from someone who works with fish quite often.

“Where’s Calli?” He asked Marvin who was busy prepping ingredients.

“Sick.” He surly replied. “Just you and me today, kid.”

“Well, that sucks.”

“How’d you think I feel?”

“Glad that there’s a proper cook in here to fill in for Calli?”

“So glad.” Marvin spoke with a flat tone dripping of apathy. “Get to work, we’re already missing a pair of hands.”

“Sir, yes, sir.” He said, giving him a fake salute and grabbing an apron to join him with chopping and carrying ingredients.

The work day finished smoothly despite the lack of Calli in the staff. Marvin was grumpy, as per usual, but he never slacked on any of his work and was twice as fast this day to make up for the head chef’s absence. He even had the time to teach Calvin some of the recipes in the past few months, with much less snark than usual. The man was a good teacher, if nothing else.

“So, your last day here. How does it feel being unemployed?” Marvin started a conversation while they cleaned up.

“Freeing. Though I wish Calli was here for my last day.”

“Tough luck, maybe she hates you.”

“You’re the only one who hates me.”

“The only one you know. I'm sure there are a lot more out there, kid.” Marvin said and smirked. “Don’t steal the recipes and make your own restaurant.”

“Too much work.” Calvin replied with a shrug. He hung up his apron and waved to Marvin, “don’t poison the next help, Marvin. And say bye to Calli for me.”

Marvin only grunted in reply. Calvin chuckled, walking out of the back door and to the street in front of the restaurant. He felt a notification from his holowatch.

Ina: u free?

Ina: spar @ gym

Quinn: pleas come Ina is scary!!

Quinn: palese plaese pleseplsplease

Me: I have the thing today, remember?

Me: I’ll come by after.

Quinn: huRRY!!!

Calvin smirked at the conversation before moving on to the next destination of his weekly routine. ‘Erik did say I needed a therapist. Probably didn’t expect it for the same reason, but still it’s a therapist. A super therapist, even better.’