A New Hero
On Hero TV
"This is the final episode for this season of Hero TV and it is incredibly exhilarating. A NEXT Calling himself the Minotaur has taken the entirety of the Williamson Bridge hostage. Civilians are trapped in their cars terrified that this Giant Next will find them. Police are on the scene but where are our city's heroes?" The Minotaur was a giant of a man standing at nearly 8 feet tall and built like a bodybuilder. He wore a bull helmet and carried a large omega shaped axe. His torso was bare, and he wore simple jeans most likely believing that his strong powers would protect him from most if not all harm. The coops had the bridge closed off and where trying to get the civilians to safety, but they were hesitant to fire at the next because they did not want to hit any innocents.
Suddenly A hero flies out from the clouds, "And the first Hero to arrive is Whirlwind we expect nothing less from our King of Heroes!"
Whirlwind rocketed out of the sky and created two balls of concentrated wind in his hands throwing them at the villain. When they collided with the giant of a man, they pushed him back a little but did nothing except make him mad. The Minotaur roared and waved his axe at the flying hero.
"Whirlwind leveled two attacks at this villain but they did nothing to stop him. How powerful is this NEXT if he can shrug off two blows from our King of Heroes?"
The other heroes of New York City were starting to arrive at the scene. Phantom, Charm, Shifter, Lady Lightning, Gem, and Shadow King have all arrived at the bridge. Each of them were trying to figure out the best way to take down this NEXT.
Suddenly the Minotaur found a car that still had civilians in it. There was a mother and her two young children. The villain picked up the car and started to walk over to the edge of the bridge. The family was screaming, the mother held her children and tried to alleviate their fears. Telling the children, it would be okay. When the Minotaur got close enough to the edge, he threw the car without even hesitating. The heroes lept into action but it was too late. The car was falling, and no one could reach it. Until out of nowhere a figure shot out of the water and grabbed the falling car. It looked as if the water was pushing him upwards. He landed on the bridge and placed the car down gently. When he laid the car down it allowed everyone to see him. This new hero, for that was all he could be was tall and powerful, while Whirlwind and Shifter had the physique of football players this man was a swimmer. He had wild jet-black hair that was tousled in the wind and while he had just come out of the water, he wasn't even wet. His costume rippled the torso of the suit looked like it was made of a pattern of blue scales. His pants were simple and black with what looked to be fins at the heels, his feet were barefoot. His arms were bare accept for a pair of simple silver bracers that adorned his forearms. He wore a mask that covered the top of his face and outlined his jaw but left his nose to his chin bare and allowed his hair to be free.
The Minotaur looked on in shock that someone new had come out, but his shock quickly turned to anger. He charged at this new hero, head down trying to impale this hero, however this new comer quickly sidestepped the behemoth and grabbed onto one of the horns. With planted feet the hero turned using the villain's momentum against him and with all his strength pulled. The Minotaur's feet left the ground and the villain circled around the hero like a twister. After a few seconds the horn snapped off the helmet and the villain crashed into a support beam. Within moments of landing the new hero landed one last punch and the beast was down.
The announcer of Hero TV cried out, "Who is this new mystery hero who handled this situation so well? What an exciting finale to this season of HERO TV!"
And with that the cameras went dark.
Percy's POV
I watched as everyone started to come towards me. I wasn't actually technically supposed to make my debut right now, but I saw on the news that there was trouble and I couldn't just do nothing. So, I did the only thing I could think of before the heroes came over to me. I jumped off the bridge and into the water. Now I will admit that it probably wasn't the best idea but whatever. As I went over to the side the heroes started to yell for me to come over, they wanted to talk to me. I quickly jumped into the water as they rushed to stop me. Whirlwind went down to the surface of the water to find me but by the time he got down there I was already miles away. I swam until I got to an old abandoned warehouse that had been outfitted by my dad to serve as my sort of secret base and HQ, besides the training center that all the heroes used my dad wanted me to have a space that was all my own. When I arrived at my base, I saw that my dad was already there. He was smiling the moment I got out of the water he hugged me. "Percy that was incredible, you handled that situation so well I am so proud of you."
I smiled, that was one of the nice things about living in the city, I was able to see my dad more. Ever since we had moved to the Jersey Shore, seeing dad had always been work. As the CEO of Poseidon Inc., he worked a lot and was usually needed in the city. I mean it had been awesome to live at the beach, especially with my powers and all but in all honesty, I was a city boy at heart.
My dad was still smiling as he continued, "Remember now tonight you have to go to the ceremony that crowns the King of Heroes. It will also be where we introduce you and you can meet the other heroes. Tomorrow you will meet them all on a more personal basis. But remember not to stay too late at the party tonight, you have your first day of school tomorrow, don't want to be late."
I sighed, I knew I had to go to school and I accepted it, but it was so boring and besides I didn't want to have to make new friends just to lie to them and cancel on plans constantly because of being a hero. At least though Grover would be there, and I could actually talk to him about all this. But I made a brave face and said, "Of course I won't be late to school tomorrow."
Dad laughed he could tell the thought of my first day was going to suck, "Don't worry about it, one more year of school and then you can devote your time to be a hero and other pursuits." His cell phone rang, and he read an email, "I have to go Percy, but I will see you later tonight, though I won't break your identity, so I will keep things to a minimum. I love you, and you did great." He gave me a final hug and left, and I looked around my HQ. I had been here before, but it still was awesome to see. The colors were my favorite, everything was blue and white with some black and it just looked cool. There was a lounge area that had a huge tv, a sweet gaming system a super comfy couch along with a mini fridge. There was a fully stocked kitchen because heroics was hungry work. There was a large computer that I could use to run diagnostics on the suit and keep track of leads on criminals and files on them. Oh, the suit that reminded me that I hadn't taken it off. I laid my hand across my bracer and the bracer scanned my handprint. When the scan was finished the nanobots that comprised my suit crawled over to my left arm and recreated the watch that would release the nanobots on my command. Now I had no idea how on earth this worked but my friend Beckendorf created this and his NEXT power was Technopathy, so I didn't ask any questions.
I looked at the time and saw that it was nearing 5 o'clock and my mom would kill me if I didn't make it home for dinner. I quickly left the warehouse and started a brisk walk home to our apartment near the Queensboro bridge. It took me nearly half an hour to get home, but it wasn't a big deal, dinner was at 5:30 and the Hero Ceremony wasn't until 7. When I got home the delicious smell of pasta filled my nose and I saw that my Mom had made lasagna. I was glad because after today I was hungry. My abilities were incredibly powerful but at the same time they taxed my body more than a regular NEXT, so I had to eat a lot in order to keep up the energy. You see all NEXTs only had one ability I somehow have two. That sort of thing is kind of unheard of and I don't know why or how but somehow it happened. You see ever since I was a baby, I could control parts of the natural world, I have full control over water, being able to freeze it melt it manipulate it, create it and so much more. I have partial control over the earth, mostly being that when I'm feeling really raw and powerful emotions, I can cause earthquakes. Small ones where a common occurrence when I was really young and had very little control. I can't use fire, but I can see in infrared and pretty much can't be burned. And wind is a bit like the earth I can create it but I don't have the nuanced control of Whirlwind, basically I can whip the winds into a frenzy and make a storm but that's it. Now that power is incredibly powerful but when I was 15, I learned that I had a passive ability as well, I was invincible, and that power increased my strength, speed, stamina, agility, eyesight, hearing and basically all my physical abilities to awesome levels. I learned this by getting hit by a car, not a fun time.
Shaking my head out to clear my thoughts I walked into the kitchen and saw my Mom, (Sally Jackson, pretty much the best person on earth) playing peekaboo with my baby sister Estelle (Ok well half-sister but whatever, also she's the awesome baby on Earth.) Estelle is a year and a half old and the daughter of my mom and my step dad Paul who is also a pretty cool guy. My mom came over and hugged me when she saw me, and Estelle started to make grabbing motions and saying, "Pewcy, Pewcy" She couldn't yet say Percy and it was adorable. I hugged my mom and picked up Estelle, automatically going into an easy rocking motion. "So, I saw you on TV," Mom said to me rather matter of factly. "You were so brave saving that family from that villain. But please be careful. You don't want to give your mother a heart attack do you." I felt guilty I really did. I knew that doing this would make my mom worry about me constantly, but I had to do this. Ever since that group had sent that guy calling himself Nemesis to my house, I had to find out more. Something big was going to happen soon and I had to act. Besides I was powerful, and I could handle this, I wasn't going to let people get hurt because I didn't act.
I smiled at mom to try and alleviate her worries, it didn't work but I know she appreciated the effort. We set the table and by the time everything was ready Paul had returned home from work. He worked as an English teacher at Goode High School now which coincidentally (or really not so much) was the school I was starting at tomorrow. Dinner was a fairly quiet and quick affair just because my parents knew that I had to get ready for the ceremony.
I got dressed quickly though I don't think it really mattered I would be in costume the whole night. I went to HQ and got my suit on from there I hopped on my motorcycle Blackjack (I needed a bike because not everywhere was accessible from water. And awesomely enough I could call my bike to my location from pretty much anywhere in the city. Now I needed to use it to get to Madison Square Garden. I had to be introduced to everyone.
On my drive over to the Garden I thought about this whole thing. I honestly wasn't sure how i felt about the whole commercialization of heroes. I mean companies sponsored us and I trust my dad and I get the reasons for it but should heroes really be at the whims of others or should heroes stand apart from that and be symbols of only justice. It was a difference between practicality and ideology. Companies had the money for heroes, but that also gave them leverage over them. But this wasn't the right time to think about this so I focused on making it to the Ceremony.
When I arrived, I waited backstage for what felt like forever. I listened to the Announcer of Hero TV talk about the courage displayed this season and a bunch in the preamble, then he went on to announce who this Season's King of Heroes was and to no one's surprise it was Whirlwind. I had to admit he was a good hero, but he came off as too stiff, Whirlwind was very rigid and kinda seemed a little too perfect. Finally, though the announcement of the King of Heroes was done and my dad stepped onto the stage.
"Now I know everyone here must be surprised to see me up on this stage tonight considering Poseidon Inc has never had its own Hero. That changes tonight though, and it is with the greatest pleasure that I introduce our first hero Riptide!" Well that's my cue I thought, and I walked onto the stage I could see that all eyes were on me. The heroes were all looking at me and there was a seriously beautiful blonde hero who caught my eye. Before I let myself get too distracted, I made my way up to the podium. I stood there next to my dad and the cameras started to flash everyone was taking our pictures. "Riptide is an incredible young man who I know will protect this city with everything he has. He has just recently been approved by the Justice Bureau and granted a license. I believe that together with the other incredible heroes gathered here Riptide will help make this city even safer. His power is called Natural Control. This ability allows him to control the elements in the natural world. I would explain more but that would take all the fun out of it. Thank you everyone and I look forward to all of you seeing what I see in Riptide." With that my father and I walked off stage. The other heroes quickly exited the stage as well.
I thought that I was going to see the other heroes, but they ended up going a different way. Oh well I guess I would meet them tomorrow. I started to walk away when I came face to face with one of the heroes, Phantom the beautiful blonde who if I wasn't mistaken had the power to turn herself and anything, she touches invisible. Like really face to face, I almost walked into her. Now that I was close, I could see that her eyes were a steely gray like they were analyzing me, searching for the best way to take me down. She was also tall and very fit, I'm 6'2 and she was probably around 5'10. Before anything else I offered up my hand, "Hey I'm Riptide, it's nice to meet you." I smiled.
She looked me over once more before accepting my hand, and smiled back, "Phantom, nice to meet you too. We can exchange real names when there are no cameras and all around." I was surprised when I realized how strong she was. For a person who didn't have any strength powers she was pretty strong. Before we could talk anymore, we were both shuffled off to the party.
This party was super boring, and I didn't even get a chance to talk to any of the other heroes. I actually cut out pretty early because I was just bored as hell.
I got back home at 10 o'clock and passed out in my bed. I was not looking forward to starting school tomorrow.
