A Bad Guy

The place that Blake and the rest were staying at was well kinda what I expected. It was a massive hotel made from red and gold stone with a couple expensive cars in the parking lot. I kinda figured they would stay at a fancy hotel much better than that old hospital, It’s what I would do.

I walked through the sliding doors as the interior of the hotel is made from that same red and gold stone. The carpet was a nice ruby color and the walls were a nice light yellow. Elevator doors were on the right and the stars were on the left, weird both were were on separate sides but I didn’t build the place.

As soon as I got to the receptionist I noticed something: the receptionist here is nearly identical to the one at Whale sharks tower. The only difference was that he was wearing a red suit and had no goatee.

“Hello sir are you here for the night or are you staying” he even sounded the same. It was weird this guy and the one at Whale sharks tower had to be twins.

“Just coming to visit some friends”

“Oh you must be Richard” oh I’m hoping Blake or Ryan told them I was coming or what he said will be a lot creepier, kill him, no.

“Yeah that's me”

“Well Richard your friends are on the top floor, the penthouse actually” huh penthouse fancy.

I walk towards the elevators as I walk in and give one last look to the man as he gives me a large grin. I lean against the elevator wall as I click the button for the penthouse as The elevator shakes a bit and it starts going up.

I turn a dial in my head as everything becomes see through and I start looking around. I looked throughout the building seeing what other people were doing as I saw some interesting things. I saw a couple arguing about getting their bed covered in candle wax, kinky. I saw some kids dragging crayons against the wall trying to make rainbows. I saw some cleaning lady cleaning a room covered in foam with what looked like thoughts of quitting in her eyes. I saw some guy in a lab coat messing around with different vials and some weird device until he slipped on a blanket and the devices fell to the ground and exploded into a flash of light………is he dead?.

There was one room I couldn't see through just below the first floor, I guess it was lined with lead for some reason. I stop snooping around and turn the dial back to normal as I hear a ding. The elevator door opened and the first thing I saw was a bowl flying towards my face. I tried to grab it but I moved my hand too fast and it shattered against my hand.

I stepped out of the elevator and looked at the scene in front of me. The penthouse was pretty large, had three couches in the middle, a large tv, a balcony with a pool and from my best guess what seemed to be a snack bar and a literal bar. I saw Aiden and Martin both wearing gray shirts and pants on the couch, Aiden had Martin in a headlock and I could see another bowl of cereal on the table.

“Just say captain crunch is better and I will stop choking you out” Aiden started squeezing harder.

“Never, because cinnamon toast crunch doesn’t shred my mouth when I eat it” Martin was able to choke out some words as his face was turning purple.

“THEN YOU SHALL DIE!!!” Aiden proceeds to stop choking Martin but then grabs him by the waist and suplexed him into the floor.

Markus was on the other couch wearing some jeans and a large white hoodie. He was messing around with a jigsaw puzzle as he gently picked up a piece, took some time to look at the pieces and placed with another one slowly completing the puzzle bit by bit. I did notice something either from bad light or not really looking at his hands before I didn't noticed a set of scars on his hands. They were circular and it kinda looked like he grabbed a giant sea urchin with his bare hands. Also the skin on the scars seemed to be more callused like when it grew back it grew back more resistant.

I could hear groaning as I saw Ryan slowly rise from behind the snack bar wearing a black shirt with a giant metal bat on the cover and steel bat below it along with some torn jeans. It looked like he had a hangover as the snack bar might also be a normal bar as my suspicions are confirmed as Ryan lifts up a bottle of wine and lets a couple droplets fall into his mouth before tossing it into a trash can. He turned to look at the twins fighting with annoyance but that then disappeared when he spotted me.

“Hey you actually came, that's great come over here and take a seat but uh don’t be too loud We all partied last night Sam cannot handle her alcohol” I nodded as I walked over to the third couch and sat down. Ryan hopped onto the couch the twins were on. They stopped fighting and they sat at the table as they were debating on how much force you would need to cook a chicken with a punch.

“So it seems you’ve been busy,” Ryan pointed at my bandaged arms.

“Yeah got pretty messed up while on a patrol” once again an understatement.

“So you really are a hero” yes no.

“Guess so, I just like helping people and fighting is pretty fun”

“Well I think fighting is a waste of time and I only help people close to me” this guy is so similar to me it’s uncanny

“To each their own” I tape my fingers against the tables as Markus put his now completed jigsaw puzzle away”

“Your different” Markus was looking at me, his eyes seemingly studying my every detail, Well ain’t he a smart cookie.

“Really?”

“Yeah, can’t put my finger on it but you’ve definitely changed”

“Well I did get some new upgrades” I summoned the commander's magnum from my inventory.

“Well I’ll be damned you got some new powers so I’m guessing some sort of pocket space or something” Ryan grinned showing off a couple golden teeth.

“Yeah and I’m apparently a developer too” I stored the magnum back into my inventory.

“You're just a bag of constant new tricks aren't ya?” He's not wrong.

We sat there for a bit as Ruan grabbed the tv remote and flicked through different channels and Markus put on some headphones and listened to some audiobooks. The twins walked over and sat next to Ryan as they both started suggesting channels to watch.

A very relaxing vibe filled the room as everyone just sat and relaxed. After around fifteen minutes I heard two doors open and I saw Blake and Sam walk into the living room. They both wore pajamas Sam wearing a set of pajamas covered in dynamite while Blake wore a set of shark pajamas.

“Hey Richard” Blake gave me a massive smile as Sam just gave me a nod as she went to get some milk.

“How was your morning? Mine was pretty good. I mostly stayed in my room in my pajamas. It was really comfortable but you seemed like you had a long morning especially with all those bandages. Wait, did you get hurt? Let me heal you!” She reached out at me with a glowing hand as I grabbed her hand and put a finger up to her mouth.

“You have way too much energy but my morning was fine, help a farmer and yes I got hurt but I’m fine now” I let go of her as she hopped next to me on the couch as her shark pajamas had a little shark hood on them, adorable.

“Who did you fight” Sam asked as she laid against the couch

“Some criminals, most likely mercs with some high tech gear and their leader were pretty strong and messed me up badly. That's the short version at least” didn’t feel like getting into the long version.

“So you got hero name yet” Blake ask as I could see anticipation in her eyes

“Nope”

“Aw get one soon your not a full hero unless you got a name”

“Give him a break Blake he’s still staring out” Martin spoke up as he was messing around on his laptop.

“So Blake, you called me to hangout. Are we just hanging out here all day?”

“Well we were gonna check out the carnival and I decided you would have fun if you came with us right?” I hate carnival to many people. Most of the games are rigged and the food is good but by the time you're done you can feel your arteries being clogged.

“Well actually I” I saw Sam and Markus glare at me as Blake gives me a questioning look.

I sigh “sure I got nothing else better to do”

“Great, I’m gonna go take a shower, will be going soon” she scuttles away into her room as I look at everyone.

About a half hour later everyone was ready Blake and Sam changing into new sets of clothes. Blake was wearing a very large red hoodie with little devils on it trying to build a hospital along with a set of red shorts and long black and red polka dots and some sneakers. Sam was wearing a white crop top along with a pink bomber jacket and shorts and still tipped bots like me. Everyone else didn't change only putting on some boots but well except Ryan who put on sunglasses.

We huddled into the elevator as Markus was still taller than me but I was closer in height to him by an inch. Classic elevator started playing as we stood there in silence until we got to the bottom floor. We walked outside as The receptionist waved us off. Ryan led us to the parking lot as we got the van we all got inside. Once again I was in the back of this old van but this time I won’t be doing any criminal activities, I hope.

“So Richy” I turned to a smiling Aiden.

“Don’t call me that”

“Ok Richard I have some questions for ya big guy?” they're either gonna be personal or stupid.

“Sooo do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend?”

“No”

“Ok well do you have any pets?”

“No”

“Ok lonely much” I glared at him

“Ok I’ll stop asking questions now” good

“Hey I got a question” I looked at Sam as she was tossing a ball between her hands.

“Ask away”

“Why do you have so many powers?” here we go

“Couple weeks ago I got caught up in a train crash found some silver container had a dead body inside I touch and ever since then I’ve been just getting new powers” It’s better not to tell them the full truth since I don’t whale shark wants them to know what's going on with everything.

“So like a comic book character that's super cool!” Black yell

“yeah really lucky to just get all those powers without having to work for them” I can feel the passive aggression from Sam.

“Well it has its upsides and downsides” like I have a group of people with a lot of resources and high tech gear who want to kidnap me and probably experiment.

Eventually we stopped as I could see the massive carnival outside in all of its arteries clogging and rig games glory. Aiden kicks the door open as we all get out of the van.

“Ok everyone remember lets try to have fun and not cause too much trouble and Mark and Richard when we get to the carnival games please use your powers to beat the rigged games I love seeing look in the carnies eyes” I give a thumbs up to Ryan.

As soon as we entered the carnival I had to tune my senses immediately as I faced sensory overload. Hundreds of people talking, laughing and screaming. Dozens of bright lights, some were flashing, some were neon. The smell of hundreds if not thousands of different greasy meals made me wanna vomit. I turned my senses down as I realized something: my senses were even stronger now and the original base level I had for them was too high.

“You Ok?” I turned to see Blake as I noticed everyone was ahead of us talking about what to do first. “I’m fine” she gave me a questioning look before shrugging as we caught up with the rest of the group. By the time we got over there Ryan convinced everyone to start off with some carnival games.

The game was pretty simple: you have three tries to knock down a set of stack cups on a tree stump with a baseball. When The carnie asked who was going first Ryan nudged me forward and whispered “The cups are glued together and to the stump”. The carnie grinned at me as he handed me a baseball “you have three tries, I hope you have a good arm” He gave me a toothy grin with shiny white teeth, Huh they got dental here neat. I grip the ball as I let my instincts take over and I pull my arm back similar to a baseball player as I look at the stack cups trying to find the spot where there was the least amount of glue. I toss the ball with not that much force as it hits the stacks of the near the bottom left knocking them down.

Ryan gave a small clap as the carnie whistled and handed me a large stuffed dragon, I’ll name it Douglas. “Can I have it?” I turned to see Ryan and I shook my head as he shrugged “guess I’ll just win my own in the next game”. The next game was the classic slam a hammer onto something and try to get it to hit the bell game and Sam step forward grabbing the hammer.

“My dad taught me that this game yes involves strength but not a large amount of it, no more like a precise strength” She lifted the hammer up and looked at Blake before slamming the hammer down. She didn’t use too much force but just enough to have an impact on great strength control. Maybe she could help me learn how to control my strength better. The bell shot up and hit the bell lightly as the Carine who was a middle aged woman with fours eyes smiled and as she showed off a set of plushies Sam could pick through.

Ryan smirked “ah you figured out the little trick with this one” I gave Ryan a questions glance. “Essentially these high striker games they made so that you have to strike with just enough force or the mechanism would stay locked”. Well aren’t you just the perfect teacher” Aiden commented. “Well someone got to make you guys know how to deal with everything this crazy world has to offer” Ryan replies as he then Ruffles Aiden hair.

I saw Sam finally pick a plushie, a shark one as she walked over to Blake and gave it to her. Blake got the largest smile I’ve seen her have so far as she hugged Sam as Sam's face turned a slight red. I didn’t need super hearing or X-ray vision to know Sam’s heart was beating faster, Can’t blame her. Markus also got the same idea as we looked at each other and nodded as Ryan dragged us to the next game.

The next couple games were pretty fun, Aiden and Martin competed in a game where they had to use water guns to make several horse moves, they tied and Ryan did some ring tossing. He didn't miss a single one and had a giant Rat plushie now.

“So I think what the first attraction we should try out” Sam asked as Aiden got a devious smile.

“How about the t-cup one?”

“Really?, Aiden I thought you would say the roller coaster immediately”

“Trust me Sam” Aiden gave a look at Markus.

We got the t cup ride as Blake sat next to me and Sam as Aiden sat next to Markus and Martin and Ryan were the last ones to get in. The conductor turned on the ride as everything started to slowly spin as Aiden stood up and whispered something to Markus as he nodded and grabbed the wheel, oh no. Before any of us could react Markus started spinning the wheel as the T-cup we sat spun with it. Everything blurred around us as we spun as I had to dig my fingers into the cup to keep myself from falling forward.

Aiden was laughing like a maniac.

Markus had a bored expression.

Ryan was using every curse in the book.

Sam was having to hold back Martin from ending his twin.

Finally Blake was turning green and was holding her mouth as I grabbed her and aimed her at Aiden as horror filled his eyes as he realized what was about to happen.

Everyone but me and Makris stumbled out of the ride well except Aiden who ran to find towels to get rid of his new green look. “Asshole” Sam yelled as she punched Markus in the face, doing nothing to him as he just smirked. When Aiden came back from cleaning himself off we all Sam and Martin glared at him as we all sat down at a bench.

“So what's next?”

“Ryan please no more” Blake groaned

“Come on, we got so much more to do!”

“I feel like if I do anything else in the next twenty minutes I’ll vomit again”

“Well we'll go on a couple more rides and you can stay here with I don’t know Richard since he’s not really into Carnival rides and when we come back we can do the roller coaster” Blake nodded as I shrugged as I could feel Sam glare at me. Ryan quickly grabbed Sam as he had a shit eating grin on his face as the group quickly went to the next attraction.

“Hey question Blake?”.

“Yeah?”.

“Why don’t you use your power on yourself?”.

“Oh I can only heal injuries, I don't know how to get rid of sickness and stuff like that”.

“Oh that's inconvenient”.

“Yeah most powers are like that but that's what makes them cool seeing people with limitations getting creative with their powers that's why I like the simpler heroes”.

“Did you always like heroes or did someone get into that stuff?”.

“Oh it was my mom she was a nurse specifically one for heroes she got to meat a lot of them in person and she told me so many of the stories she heard from them when I heard about them I became a fanatic always hunger for hero media hehehe my mom always said if I ever got a power I would become a great hero”.

“Well, do you want to be one?”.

“Obviously! I just don’t really have the power for it, not super strong or can phase through walls or lift things with my mind. I know I can help a lot of people with my power but I want help with villains and criminals too” She pouted a bit.

“Well you can heal yourself just need a bit of training and some weapons and boom you could fuck shit up” lets just hope she never becomes a mouthy mercenary in black and red.

“Yeah I just don’t think that's enough no one just has healing it's usually a part of another power or got other ones” she looked down at her hands.

“True but hey you’ll never unless you try”.

She smiled a bit “your right corny but right” I found myself smirking.

“So how did you meet the rest of that rag tag group of yours?”.

“Oh uhm not that much of a crazy story”.

“I still wanna know that’s why I ask the question”.

“Well it started with When My family moved from the Nova central to some town named black thorn” She paused a bit as she was deep in thought trying to remember everything.

“It started when I met Ryan. He was an older kid who lived by himself and provided for himself. Well, I found out how when he tried to pickpocket my mom until she broke his wrist, superhero doctors need some combat training”.

“Well at least something we have in common is that we have badass moms”.

“Heh yeah but anyways instead of calling the police she decided invite him for dinner and he was a charming guy and not long after my mom forgot he tried stealing from her and he came over more and more and we talk a lot and we just became friends he’s a bit of a jerk sometimes but he’s a cool guy”.

“I can see that”.

“Not long after that, just before I started high school my mom convinced me to go with her to one of her friends birthdays and I met both Mark and Sam there. It was kinda hard to talk to them, Mark being not really shy back then and Sam being more like a rabbit wolverine then a person, heck she nearly pummeled me when I asked why she had pink hair?”.

“It’s natural?”.

"Yeah gets it from her dad apparently”.

“Huh neat”.

“Anyways after a bit Mark convinced Sam to actually try to talk to me and still a bit for her to be less of a uh”.

“Bitch?”.

“Rude but yeah after the party I found that they both lived close by and I came over a lot and eventually when they came over to my place they met Ryan and he immediately tried to get us to help him steal some snacks from a conveniences store still Still don’t why I agreed but I always trust Ryan”.

“Ok what about the twins, how did you meet them?”.

“Oh, they were in my PE class in high school. I asked if we could be friends since Aiden also read comics”.

“I have another question”.

“Oh uhm ask away”.

“Does your mom know what's going on with everything?” She immediately went quiet. She just sat there as I could see her eyes water a bit, once again Richard amazing social capabilities.

“I uhm sorry I didn’t mea”.

“It's fine” she sniffs a bit as she wipes her eyes with her sleeve you didn't know just still hurts”.

“Wanna change the subject?”.

“Yes please”.

“Uhm well who's your favorite hero?” Her tone immediately changes as her eyes light up.

“It has to be the Steel drake no beatdown maybe shatter point wait it’s definitely primal I love animals powers plus there such a nice person and actually love helping people and acts like a normal person there just so freaking cool!!” she was filled with so much energy it even made me smile fully instead of just a smirk.

“So who's your favorite hero?” welp time to be honest.

“Well it was Whale shark until”.

“You found he was a crime boss”.

“I found out he was a crime boss”.

“Yeah that took away brownie points away from him” I finding out he was a psychopath and a power hungry one at that also he threatened my family took the whole fucking bakery.

“Well who's your new favorite?”.

“Oh Nosferatu”.

“Oh for what reason?”.

Because she is really hot, cool and I have had a crush on her since I was a kid “I like the vampire theme”.

“Oh really?” she leaned forward as she had a smug look on her face

“Yep” she's not buying it ABORT ABORT.

“Well I got a couple more questions if you don’t mind”.

“Shoot”.

And we sat there for I don’t know how long just chatting it was the most I ever talked to someone and enjoyed talking to them in my life it was refreshing. Blake was just fun to talk to, very energetic, honest with her thoughts and it was kinda fun talking about different heroes with her. Eventually I heard footsteps as I could see everyone walking towards us. Aiden had a black eye and Sam looked annoyed.

“What happened to Aiden?” Blake asked, sitting up.

“He tried to pull more bullshit and I decided to give him a warning”.

“That was a warning” Aiden asked while rubbing his black eye.

“Yes”.

“Ok ok everyone no more violence it's time for the main event” Ryan eyes sparkled at that last part.

He Started marching to the massive roller coaster named velocity named after most likely named after the velocity family, Family of speedsters but that's not important right now. It was pretty massive reaching pretty high as I could hear the screams of joy and fear as people got on and off the ride. We got into line as I could see excitement in Aidens eyes as I could see the opposite in Blakes as she was nervously. I put a hand on her shoulder. I try to give my best reassuring smile as it seems to work as she calms down.

When it was our turn to get onto the ride I tried to sit next to Blake but Sam jumped into the seat next to her as she had a look of triumph in her eyes. I shrugged as I saw Ryan patting the seat next to him as I took the seat next to him.

We got fashioned into the seats as we slowly started moving up the rail and went up and up and up. We went higher and higher as the Carnival below us got farther and farther away, everyone was dealing with this in their own ways.

“Hey I have never been on one of these, is it supposed to go this high?” Ryan was nervous.

“I wonder if they made sure the track is up to tip top conduction because if something is broken we can be stuck at this height even just fly off” Aiden was making things worse.

“That wouldn’t happen since they probably have had this thing checked almost daily for any faults to make sure everything was in order so we are completely fine I hope” Martin was correcting Aiden.

“It's not that bad” Sam was trying to act tough but I could see she was sweating.

“Just keep your eyes chut and everything will be fine, just keep them shut and don’t look down” Blake was scared out of her mind and made it worse by not following her advice as she looked down.

“I could see the hotel from here” and Mark was fine.

We got to the top as we slowly moved closer and closer to the drop building tension to what seems to be a straight fall but eventually we moved forward as we dropped. The wind shot past us as I felt my hair fly through the wind as we got close to the ground we shot forward then up then down again then we went into several loop de loops. I could hear everyone Screaming in fear but I was screaming in joy as we started moving in spirals now. Finally we went up once more and dropped back down as I could see flashes as eventually we stopped where it all started.

After I had time to calm down I noticed Ryan was holding onto me as we just stared at each other as we both silently agreed to never speak of this. We all slowly got off as Blake went to the trash can to vomit once again, How much did she eat before coming here? After the excitement that was the velocity we all got the picture that was taken of us as we went down and got some funnel cake and just relaxed at some empty table.

“We should do this more often” Ryan was digging into his funnel cake.

“Agreed” Mark didn’t get any food but did get a big thing of lemonade.

“I’d say today's hangout session was a total success” Aiden Smiled as he tried to sneak a bite of his brothers funnel cake but was smack away.

“Yeah his pretty fun” Blake was on her third funnel cake guess she made a lot of room.

“It's been a while since I did the carnival and it will never get old” Sam was smiling as she laid against the table.

This was fun, it was good to just have a normal day with no bullshit and I could just relax and be normal for a bit since that damn train accident. As I was about to start a conversation I felt my phone vibrate. I pulled it out and saw that it's a unknown caller and I answered it.

“Hello?”

“Put the phone on speaker” of course it’s fucking Whale Shark.

I put the phone on speaker “hello everyone I hope you are enjoying your time at the carnival” Everyone went silent.

“Ah is everyone surprised I’m calling so soon after you accepted my deal” guess he was right about them taking his deal.

“Well you know why I’m calling so let's cut to the chase. I got another job offer and this one is both sweeter and more dangerous than the last one ". It's always constant escalations of jobs with him that just keep getting worse.

“This is pretty simple, I need you to steal a special bit of tech from the forge” The forge gang from Nova central it's filled with tech fanatics who are always trying to stay at the top of the tech market no matter what.

“Now don’t worry it’s not the full group I wouldn’t send you to deal with them no there trying to expand their territory to other cities and a small group was sent here and there gonna be fighting against some new group now during this chaos I want you to sneak into their base and steal this item I want and take to a specific location so my men can pick it up. He talks too much.

“This will little heist will be happening tomorrow night so you have time to prepare and don’t worry I sent you all the information that you will need now I hope things go well and call me when the job is over”. He hung up as we all sat in silence trying to deal with the information.

Yeah I’m gonna fucking kill him.