Two
The next day, James got up at four in the morning, way before the morning light. He began to do a routine of 100 pushups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats, and a 10 kilometer run. However, he could only do 30 pushups, 27 sit ups, 12 squats, and then ran a mile. Still, he was going to improve. He then hit the gym. He tried to lift 130 pounds without somebody spotting him and almost decapitated himself. He resigned himself to doing light yoga until the training grounds opened.
Remus got into work at 8:00 AM, where James immediately challenged him to a sparring session. Remus, having gotten only a few sips into his coffee, made James wait at least twenty minutes; in which James tried to do pull ups on a bar and could only manage 10 (not the 100 he was aiming for). Once Remus finished his coffee and croissant, he beat James twice in a sparring session.
James was frustrated and Remus sprayed him with a fire extinguisher before he could light up the training grounds.
The day after that was exactly the same, and the day after that, and the day after that. James was pushing himself as hard as he could, but he just wasn’t improving. His resolve was starting to slip and he could feel the hopelessness creeping in, surrounding him. That was, until the monthly meeting where Dumbledore gave out the new assignments.
“Alright everyone, gather round. It’s time we go over our new assignments.”
There was some rustling as all the heroes made their way to their seats. Sirius was sitting with Remus in one of the front rows. James was sitting next to Lily in the back. He prefers a seat in the back, always has. To James it feels more secure somehow. He can see everyone and could easily get to an exit if need be. As he looks over the crowd at all the other agents, he sees Mary sitting with her head high. She has such perfect posture. Maybe everything about her is perfect. James hates being jealous. He hates that that is how he naturally reacts to someone being better than him or getting something that he wanted. He hates it, but it’s in his nature. It’s not as if he could change that.
“I know there are procedures we usually follow in these meetings, but we are going a little off script today. A select number of you are to go on a very important mission. We have received intel regarding an ancient energy robber called the Etas. Though we are not quite sure on the specific details of this item, we know that in the wrong hands it could prove to be extremely dangerous.”
There was a shift in the area as everyone took in what Dumbledore said.
“If the COV, for instance, were to get their hands on the power source, they would easily be able to shut down our entire operation. Think of how the facility relies on technology. We use it to pinpoint missions, to deploy heroes, to stay in contact with HQ while on the field. Not only that, but the mythology of the item states that it is capable of stealing energy from humans too. That means the COV could take down anyone that they can hit, even once. Short range fighters would be left vulnerable and it is very possible they could lose their lives. I hope you are all starting to grasp the true gravity of the situation. Now that we’re on the same page, this particular operation will include separate mission teams. There will be one mission team per hero Tier. The first set of teams will be dispatched in ten days to search for the Etas and- if all goes according to plan- retrieve it before the COV is able to get their grimy little claws on the most powerful artifact any of us will encounter in our lifetime. We will call the first set of teams Group A. Going down the list, there will be different names for each Tier of heroes. Tier 1 heroes will be Team Alpha. Tier 2 is Team Beta. Tier 3 is Team Gamma. Tier 4 is Team Delta. Tier 5, our last Tier, will be Team Epsilon. Then there is the second team, Group B. Their mission will be to confiscate the Etas after it is retrieved. For this team, there will only be Tier 1 heroes on it, nobody else is permitted to touch the artifact. Group B will be sent in as soon as we are signaled by Group A, letting us know they have found the Etas. We cannot be sure of the timeline for this. Group A could be deployed for any amount of time, ranging from a single week to months. Simply put, they will remain on the mission until they are able to report that they have a definite location of the Etas. Now, the operatives for each team have been carefully selected based on experience, power level, and their ability to work as a team. We chose what we think are the best people to make sure the job gets done. Mission leaders for Groups A and B will be disclosed later on, as well as the members.”
———
Later that day, Sirius, Remus, and Lily got a letter inviting them to Group A Team Epsilon, with Mary as the Team lead. James was shocked. Not only were his friends chosen to find an ancient and deadly artifact, but he wasn't trusted enough to back them up. He had ten days to prove himself, but none of the work he had been doing had drastically improved himself like he had hoped. He needed to join Hero Tier 5 and be with his friends on the team. James decided then and there that maybe following the rules wasn’t going to get him where he needed to be.
———
At lights out, James went back to his dorm. It served the same function as a college residence hall. Since agents were to spend all hours at HUF, the heroes slept there. Because of this, the HUF was huge and had many different locations all around the world. There were different types of Hero Organizations in other countries. But the HUF had locations in nearly every first world country. There was an old peace treaty that went back to when powers were just beginning to manifest that each country signed, declaring the HUF as their country’s selected hero organization. Each person was assigned a dorm at first and their living location changed depending on any promotions the person received. For example, James was the last of his friends to still be in the training dorms. Lily, Mary, Remus, and Sirius had all already proved themselves- so much so that they were assigned to Teams one and two- and thus were in dorms in Section 2, Hero Tier 5.
James did his nightly routine. He took a shower, brushed his teeth, put on his pajamas, and went to bed. What nobody knew was that underneath his pajamas he had slipped on his training clothes. Since he has not gone on missions, he couldn’t be called a hero yet. As soon as he completed his training course and moved into Sector 2, and in turn Hero Tier 5, he’ll get an actual hero costume, something he has been dreaming of since he was a kid.
At one in the morning, James got up and took off his pajamas. He then took off into the night in his training suit. He’s not quite sure why he wore his pajamas over it, as nobody was watching him. He guesses it just set the mood of doing something sneaky. He kind of felt like a spy. It was pretty easy to sneak out of the dorms, since everyone is an adult and it’s not that heavily monitored. James felt a little stupid for having hyped it up so much in his mind.
James was only allowed to take the Organization’s car out when he was in Sector 2, and he didn’t own a car yet, so he was forced to either walk or be picked up by Remus when he wanted to go somewhere. And since Remus probably wouldn't approve of what he was doing, he was left to walk. He tried to run to the nearest seven eleven but it was too far away for a consistent sprint, so he jogged the majority of the way there. As he approached, he saw 2 homeless men sitting outside. He asked them if they wanted anything, then bought himself a slushie and the two men their own cokes and hotdogs. Heroism does not stop at just saving people, you must do acts of kindness for everyone, no matter their financial status. James works for the people.
James began drinking his slushie, a mixture of blue and red, and patrolled the areas. He decided to avoid the normal night patrols for fear of being caught and also that any possible bad guys would get apprehended by them. He had to find something big. Maybe he could uncover a conspiracy about a shadow government. Or stop the biggest weapons dealer in the area. Both of those things usually took place at one AM, right?
James used the pressure of the air to boost him up a house. He proceeded to jump from building to building using the air flow to keep him steady and afloat. He would have reminded himself of Aang had Avatar the Last Airbender existed in his universe.
He thought he saw the shadow of somebody walking behind him, following him. But it was just a cat. He thought he saw somebody go underneath a car, but it was just a cat. He heard somebody scream, but it was just a cat. There sure were a lot of cats out tonight. He checked each one to make sure it wasn’t McGonagall. He went about this by saying, “Hey, you’re not McGonagall, right?” And then sprayed it with water. He assumed that Minnie would have scolded him if she had been one of them.
Just as James finished spraying and then apologizing to the fifth cat of the night, he finished his drink. He went to throw it away in a dumpster (because real heroes don’t litter), when he heard a man’s voice.
“Come now, I’m just playing.” The man said. “A pretty little thing like you shouldn’t get upset over such a small thing. Hell, you should be glad that a man like me even wants you. I have a refined taste, you know.”
Nobody answered the man, so James thought that maybe he was talking to himself. But he looked around the corner just in case. What he saw was a man towering over a woman on the floor. She wasn’t moving at all. James knew she wasn’t unconscious, because he could hear her scared and labored breathing. And she wasn’t tied up. Her arms were at her sides, and he saw a single tear run down her cheek.
The man bent down and began to slip his hands up her shirt, “I’m going to have fun with you. Aw, no need to cry. I’ll be gentle.” The man said it with such a quiet and calm voice that it sent shivers down James’ spine. How could anyone be so composed when doing such an evil deed. He heard the woman’s breath hitch and she let out a muted groan. James knew he had to step in.
“Hey fucker!” James shouted. The man turned to look up, obviously caught off guard, and James hit him in the face with a large rock. It hit the man’s nose, and his entire face turned upward at the force. James ran at the guy and pushed him against the wall, away from the woman. He punched the guy twice before the man snapped out of it and shoved James off.
“She doesn’t look like your type. I’m sure you could have a much better time with me.” James remarked. He used his powers to pull out a piece of the Earth and attempted to crush the man with it. “I could give you the pounding of a lifetime.”
The man yelled and looked over his head. A sonic scream came out and broke through the earth above him. “I’m not into men, but I won’t pass up a chance to put a boy like you in his place.” The man stepped closer to James and threw a punch. James dodged it and kicked the man in the side, using his ability to control the wind to give a greater blow. The man stumbled a bit and as he did James kicked him square in the nuts. The man screamed and a sonic burst came through his lips, aimed directly at James. James managed to avoid it just in time and he threw a punch at his foe. The man caught the punch and looked James right in the eye.
“Ooh, getting a little intimate, are we?” James tried to say, but nothing came out. He tried to move his arm away from the man but found it impossible. He couldn’t move his legs, either. Nor a single inch of his body. The man laughed and raised his hand that was holding James high above his head. He brought it, as well as James, down hard into the ground. The breath left James’ lungs.
The man dealt blow after blow, incinerating James’ face. He felt his teeth shatter after the fourth hit and he tried to cough up blood, but his chest couldn’t move to form the cough, so the blood simply trickled out of his throat and down his chin. The man kicked James in the balls and laughed, but James could hardly hear it because his brain was turning to mush from the pain.
Eventually, the man stopped. James’ couldn’t tell if he left or was simply hovering above him. James’ vision was nearly black, except for the white stars moving behind his eyes. One of the times the man had punched him had caused James’ head to move to the side. It was now the only direction that he could see in. His entire body was paralyzed, to the point that he couldn’t even close his eyelids. He hadn’t noticed that they were open the whole time, tears pouring out of them on instinct. It was such a small pain compared to the rest of his body that James’ couldn’t even feel it. He sat there, looking in the same place, hoping for the pain to dull.
Only after some time did James realize that he was staring exactly where he had left the woman. She was still laying there, alone. James, despite his pain, felt his heart ache for her. James knew the risks of becoming a hero. He knew that he could be badly hurt, or killed, out on missions. It was James’ choice to come out tonight, knowing what it could entail. The poor woman didn’t know all that. She wasn’t prepared. All she had done was live tonight as though it were any other night of her life, and she had paid dearly for it. James’ at least took solace in the fact that she was safer now than she was when he arrived.
Suddenly, from the shadows, the man appeared again. James couldn’t even close his eyes in terror upon the fact that the man was coming to beat him up again. But instead of walking up to him, he stopped at the woman. James’ eyes would have widened if they could. The man was going to resume his business with the woman. That was worse. James couldn’t look away if he tried. He watched the man run his hands over her once again. He wormed his way down the woman’s pants and whispered in her ears something James couldn’t make out.
James watched helplessly as tears ran down the woman’s face, and upon hearing her anguished cry, he suddenly didn’t feel distressed. He felt mad. Angry. Livid. James was furious. He watched the man pick her up by her torso and lick down from her cheek to her neck. James couldn’t stop his frantic thoughts. How dare this man hurt that woman. How dare he come into her life and act as though he were a part of it. James needed to stop him. She needed a hero and how could James go around pretending to be one while watching this injustice take place. James felt a warmth flow across his body and before he knew it, he was ablaze.
James made the loudest noise that he could, but the man did not look his way. James called upon the wind and threw himself face first at the man. James couldn’t feel anything but rage as his stomach hit the man in his broken nose and flung him away from the woman. This time, James had the man’s attention.
“Shit! You little- I’ll put you down for good this time.” The man growled. But James wasn’t in any state to give a response. Thankfully, he did not need his body to control his powers. He focused on the man and envisioned a swirling mass around him. A tornado began to form and the man was trapped in the middle. The man tried to scream his way out, but James patched up any rips in the wind. He then propelled himself through the center, above the man, and the entire formation erupted into flames. The man screamed. Again. And again. He couldn’t break through. After a certain point, the screams stopped being a superpower and started to simply be the sound of a man burning alive. Then, the screams stopped.
James’ body went completely lax, out of its paralysis. It took no effort to get up and approach the woman, as he was running on pure adrenaline. The woman got up and took James' hand. She stared at him, blankly.
“Are you alright?” James asked, but the woman didn’t reply. Her entire body shook. “Let me call the police.”
The woman sat down and stared off into space as James pulled out his cellphone. Its screen was shattered from the punches, but he could still call the cops with it. He started with their location before briefly explaining what happened. Halfway through explaining that the man could paralyze people, James’ eyesight gave out. All he could see was black as his body hit the pavement.