Sternbild City, a megalopolis that's three tiers high and houses seven major companies. In the center of the city is Justice Tower. The tower houses the best aspect of the city, Heroes. Eight company-sponsored heroes protect the city from crime and their actions are broadcasted on their own channel, Hero TV.
It was midday in Sterbild and at the base of Justice Tower traffic comes and goes. A single taxi pulls up to the curb. A young man steps out. His only predominant feature is his red hair. He pays the driver and the trunk of the taxi pops open. As the young man goes to take out his luggage a black man in a suit approaches him.
"I'm glad you could make it." He said.
"Yes me too. The city is amazing. Mr. Jackson is it?" the young man asked.
"Please, call me Ben." He said as he helped the young man with his luggage.
After getting the two luggage bags from the taxi Ben escorted the young man toward Justice Tower.
As night fell the city lights turned on and Sternbild blemished the night sky. Riding his motorcycle through the city streets was Barnaby Brooks Jr. Sternbild's reigning King of Heroes two years running. Riding in his sidecar was Wild Tiger, Kotetsu Kaburagi, the senior partner of their superhero tag-team. Kotetsu was a hero before Barnaby, but he wasn't very popular due to his to tendency to cause major collateral damage. Because of the massive payments his sponsor had to pay, the company went bankrupt and was bought out. The new company paired Kotetsu with Barnaby and the first Hero tag-team was born. At first the two didn't get along, but this changed as they gained popularity. As they rode through the street the only sound the duo heard was the motor of the motorcycle until a voice came onto their earpieces.
It was Agnes, Hero TV's producer, calling all the heroes about whatever crime was happening.
"Bonjour Heroes, there has been two robberies recently. In the first robbery the criminals held up a bank and are now traveling in a van heading south on the main highway on Gold Stage. The second robbery the criminals hijacked an armored truck transporting the bank's excess money. They're also traveling on the main highway on Gold Stage. These criminals are heading north. Whether these robberies are connected or not has yet to be determined."
"Why would the thieves travel on Gold Stage?" Barnaby asked Kotetsu.
"Who knows, maybe they want to be captured by Sternbild's Dynamic Duo." Kotetsu joked as he elbowed Barnaby.
"Perhaps," Barnaby agreed, playing along with Kotetsu, "or maybe they have something planned."
"Either way we'll stop them." Kotetsu reassured. "But…"
"But what?" Barnaby asked.
"But this will be the last crime Wild Tiger stops a crime." Kotetsu explained, "You know my power's degraded to about 10 seconds now."
It was true. For some unknown reason Kotetsu's power had been degrading over the past two years. Sooner and sooner his power would time out. Most times Kotetsu could plan around this, but other times it became an inconvenience. Now that his power degraded so much, Kotetsu knew that it was now time to retire.
"If that's the case, then lets make the most of this arrest." Barnaby exclaimed.
"Yeah let's!"
Barnaby and Kotetsu were the first to arrive on the main highway and gained the corresponding 25 points. The duo ended up chasing the robbers heading south. In the distance was the other team of robbers coming up in their stolen armored truck. As they where gaining on the robbers traveling south, Blue Rose pulled up. She was riding her one wheeled snowmobile that left a trail of ice behind her.
"Which team are you guys going after?" she asked the duo.
"We'll slow down and stop the armored truck and you can take the van." Kotetsu said. "Right Bunny?"
"I would like to arrest all the robbers, but fine, we can just take half of them. Could you not call me 'Bunny' on your last day?" Barnaby complained.
"Oh yeah." Blue Rose remembered. "Hey Barnaby, do you have your 'towel' ready?"
"Yeah, but it's back in the conference room."
"Barnaby, why would you leave your towel in a conference room. Also, Blue Rose why are you concerned about Barnaby's towels?" Kotetsu asked, wondering why his fellow heroes were talking about towels at a time like this.
"Don't worry about it." Barnaby said, trying to cover.
"Yeah, don't worry about it." Blue Rose assured.
Blue Rose sped up to avoid further questioning and to keep up with the van. When the armored truck passed her she cut off the van by creating an ice trail in front of it. Five criminals got out of their van ready to fight the Heroine. Blue Rose got off her snowmobile and said her catchphrase, "My ice my be a little cold, but your crime has been put completely on hold!"
Kotetsu detached his sidecar and transformed it back into his own motorcycle. Barnaby and Kotetsu stopped the armored truck by stopping their motorcycles perpendicular to the highway. Four criminals came out of the armored truck and the duo got off their motorcycles.
"Barnaby, save your power unless you see a robber with a high caliber weapon." Kotetsu ordered.
"Agreed, but what about you?"
"I'm sure I can take out the rest of them in 10 seconds."
Barnaby started the fight by kicking the robber in front of him. The robber fell back into a second robber behind him. Barnaby followed up by tackling a third robber on the right into the armored truck. Kotetsu fired his Wild Shoot at the fourth robber's weapon and jerked it out of his hands. Then Kotetsu followed up by rushing in and grabbing the bare handed robber by the arm and threw him into the armored truck.
The same number of robbers appeared from the van and approached Blue Rose as she drew her ice pistols. The robber aimed their weapons at Blue Rose, but she acted first and fired at her opponent's weapons. The first robber dropped his gun before the ice froze over his hands. The rest weren't as lucky. Left and right the rest of the robbers were caught off balance and fell from the added weight from Blue Rose's ice. When she was doing this her focus came off the first robber. If she hadn't she would've seen him pull out a pistol and aim it at her. The sound of a gunshot rang out followed by Blue Rose letting out a painful scream.
Kotetsu immediately turned his head toward the source of the scream and saw Blue Rose on the ground clutching her arm and the robber holding the smoking gun. Kotetsu knew that being a Hero had its risks, but to see Blue Rose on the ground bleeding, he couldn't stand it. He felt somthing build up inside of him. He was angry, angry at himself for having to retire, he was angry that he lost his wife Tomoe, and he was especially angry at the robber for shooting Blue Rose. Kotetsu knew he was not going to let someone die on his last day as a hero. Activating his power, Kotetsu let out a Wild Roar that shook the ground below his feet. He lunged at the robber and punched him square in the stomach. The force sent the man flying down the highway until he slammed into the side of Fire Emblem's racecar, who had just now shown up. He had to melt the ice barrier with his NEXT ability. Back at his section of the highway Kotetsu turned his attention toward Blue Rose as he went to her side.
"Are you ok?" Kotetsu asked her.
"I'll be fine. The bullet only grazed me." Blue Rose said clutching her left arm.
"Let me help." Kotetsu offered. He picked her up. "Hold on."
Blue Rose put her arms around Kotetsu, careful not to let go of her arm for too long. After she tightened her grip Kotetsu jumped towards the closest building to him. He was able to reach the roof in a single bound. Up there Kotetsu put Blue Rose down as gently as he could in his super powered state.
"Have you lost much blood?" he asked.
"I don't know."
Kotetsu turned on his communicator with Agnes. "Agnes, I know you saw this. Send a helicopter for Blue Rose. Now!"
"I know! I know!" Agnes responded with concern in her voice, "I sent one the second I heard her scream. I wished you could have waited before you went after that one robber, I cut straight to commercial after Karina got shot."
"If you're so concerned about your ratings then why don't you come down here and deal with these criminals yourself." Kotetsu argued.
"No, I meant I didn't want people to see Karina like that."
"Nice to know you still care, but if you want your ratings get the cameras back on, I'm not finished."
Kotetsu turned off his communicator and returned to Blue Rose.
"Are you still bleeding?" he asked, concern in his voice.
"Yeah, I've kept pressure on it, but…"
"Try freezing the wound."
Blue Rose took her hand off her arm and focused her power to freeze the wound.
"It's so cold." She said as she realised this was probably the first time her power was used in such a manner.
"It should hold till the helicopter gets here, but for now stay here and stay safe."
"Ok." Blue Rose agreed. She turned her head so that Kotetsu couldn't see her blushing.
Kotetsu walked to the ledge of the roof and leaped back toward the highway. The force from his leap greatly damaged the ledge. Kotetsu turned his attention to the robbers Blue Rose incapacitated. They were starting to free themselves from their icy handcuffs. Kotetsu saved them time by breaking the ice himself before throwing them after the first robber he fought. These robbers were luckier than the first as they only fell short and merely rolled towards Fire Emblem's racecar. Now Fire Emblem was rounding up the more than defeated robbers into a group. When he was done Kotetsu saw that Barnaby was inspecting their van.
"What's wrong?" Kotetsu asked.
"Remember why I wondered why these robbers tried to escape on the Gold Stage?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"My concerns have merit, the robbers rigged their van with a bomb. By the looks of it the bomb can take out this section of the highway. They were most likely planning to cause a domino effect to destroy the lower stages by doing this."
"Is there anything you can do?"
"Not likely, there's only a few seconds left."
Going on instinct Kotetsu knew what to do.
"Barnaby, it's just like the bomb in the elevator shaft." Kotetsu remembered.
"Of course," Barnaby agreed. He activated his power and lifted the van by its front grill. Focusing his power to his legs Barnaby threw the van up as high as he could.
Kotetsu jump up after it in hopes of propelling the van higher. As he rose closer and closer to the van Kotetsu activated his suit's Good Luck Mode. 'Good Luck Wild Tiger, Over and Out.' the suit said as Kotetsu delivered an uppercut to the van. When the uppercut landed the van soared higher than Justice Tower. As the van reached its climax the bomb went off in a spectacular explosion. As Kotetsu started to fall he realized his power had run out.
"Oh no, not again!" he screamed
Luckily Barnaby had seen this coming and jumped to catch Kotetsu.
"Just like old times." Barnaby remarked.
"Yeah, don't remind me."
When the duo fell back down to the highway Kotetsu got to his feet.
"There are just some things that concern me." Barnaby said.
"Like what?" Kotetsu asked, already knowing the answer.
"Like how you where able knock a guy back half a mile, leap onto a building in a single bound, leap back, and uppercut a van to such an incredible height?"
"I don't know. It feels like that time when I chased that backstage thief." Kotetsu speculated.
"Really, but I thought you said that's when your powers started to time out sooner."
"Well, it's obviously been longer than 10 seconds, in fact I think it's been almost 5 minutes."
The duo looked up as the Hero TV copter shined its spotlight on them. "And there you have it folks." The announcer proclaimed. "You thought he was done, but Wild Tiger has made a very impressive comeback!"
After the police arrived and took the criminals into custody the Heroes returned to Justice Tower and changed back into their civilian clothes. Karina had received medical attention. The bullet didn't hit any major arteries, but for her to properly heal she was given an arm sling. Barnaby and Karina led Kotetsu to the conference room. Kotetsu suddenly remembered the conversation from before.
"Barnaby, why do you need two people's help to get a towel?" he asked.
"Don't worry, I think you're gonna like this towel." Barnaby teased.
Barnaby opened the door to reveal that the conference room was redecorated. Balloons were floating along the ceiling. Banners were strewn about and when Kotetsu walked in everyone shot a streamer gun at him as they yelled 'Surprise!'
"What is all this?" Koetesu asked.
"It's a party," Barnaby explained, "but I think the banner seems a bit much."
"What do you mean?" Kotetsu wondered. Then he saw the banner. It read 'Farewell Kotetsu' He now realized what the party was originally about. "So, this is why all you would ask me how much time my power had left."
"Yeah, sometimes we had to rush things when you lost more than 10 seconds." Antonio explained.
"And here I thought you were wondering how much longer your biggest competition would retire." Koetesu joked.
"We would never think that." Ivan said.
"Especially after what happened today, Handsome." Nathan complemented.
"Well then," Kotetsu said as he put his arm around Antonio, "let's party!"
A cheer erupted from the crowd and music began to play. When Kotetsu looked around he saw all the people who came, the other heroes, Agnes, Mr. Lloyds, various employees of Hero TV, even Kotetsu's old boss Ben came. For some reason even the judge Yrui Petrov was here. Kotetsu was touched by how much these people cared for him. He eyes started to water at the thought of retirement. Kotetsu thought that even if he retired, he couldn't leave these people. Amidst the party-goers Kotetsu walked over to Karina. She was scratching at her new arm sling.
"You shouldn't do that." Kotetsu warned.
When Karina heard Kotetsu speak to her she stopped scratching and put her good arm behind her back. "Oh, what do you want?" she asked.
"I just wanted to say, thanks."
"For what?"
"I don't know. I'm really sorry your got hurt, but when you were I felt something inside of me. It felt like some sort of power that I had to let out. I don't know if I'll be able to do that again, but I just wanted to say thank you for giving me that last incredible moment of being a Hero. So thank you, Karina." Kotetsu put his arm around Karina to give her a hug, minding her bad arm.
Karina blushed when she heard Kotetsu finally call her by her name. She wanted to hug Kotetsu back and never let go, but she resisted that urge partially because of her bad arm.
"I need some punch." She excused. Karina freed herself from Kotetsu's hug and quickly walked away as her face began to turn red as the punch she left to get.
"I hope your arm heals before the season's over." Kotetsu said.
In another corner of the room Barnaby looked out the window. He was contemplating on recent events. Antonio walked over when he noticed Barnaby's concerned look.
"What's on your mind?" Antonio asked.
Barnaby stopped his train of thought and looked at Antonio. "Nothing, it's just I was thinking about Kotetsu. No matter what, he always does something to surprise me."
"Yeah, he is a good man and a great friend."
"That too," Barnaby agreed, "can I tell you something?"
"Of course"
"You know how I was able to defeat Jake Martinez, but with Kotetsu's help."
"Don't remind me." Antonio commented. He had a flashback to when Jake defeated him; as a result, Antonio was hung up by chains for all of Sternbild to see.
"When he was killed by his own doing, I thought I could finally put that memory to rest. I also thought I could retire."
"What?" Antonio asked.
"Yeah, I thought I could retire now that my parent's killer was brought to justice. It was the main reason I became a hero. It's why I didn't hide my identity. I told Kotetsu my plans. You wanna know what he said?"
"What?" Antonio asked again.
"He told me," Barnaby deepened his voice to sound like Kotetsu, "'Bunny, you can't retire. You just defeated your parent's killer. People will look up to for this. If you quit now, then why would've you started in the first place?' him saying that changed my mind."
"That does sound like Kotetsu."
"That's not all," Barnaby continued, "he also threatened me that if did retire, he would call me every hour to ask me why I wasn't stopping crime with him. He also said that in his free time he would ask me in person."
"Now that sounds like Kotetsu."
"You know, after we brought down my parent's real killer I still wanted to retire. Kotetsu, even though his power was degrading, still went out there and caught criminals with his bare hands. Again he inspired me to never quit, to never give up."
"That's Kotetsu for ya," Antonio agreed, "He'll always put others before himself."
The party continued at a normal pace. Keith was his usual cheery self. Ivan kept photo bombing every picture he could. Antonio spent half the time staying away from Nathan's grabby hands. Mr. Lloyds and Agnes thanked Kotetsu for earning so many points and high ratings on Hero TV. Others congratulated Kotetsu on a job well done and if he started to tell of a story of his youth, people would listen instead of brushing him off as they used to do. When a good song started to play Kotetsu began dancing like a robot. He quickly jerked his body and limbs around while making robotic noises. The rest of the partygoers cheered him on and after some encouragement Barnaby joined him. Soon everyone was laughing as the duo were dancing like two out of control robots.
After the party ran its course people started to leave. Kotetsu was the last one to leave. He saw Barnaby off and Kotetsu went home to his apartment. He had taken the banner with him. When he got home Kotetsu looked it over once more. Again his eyes watered at the thought of leaving his life in Sternbild city behind. Kotetsu put the banner away and got ready for bed. A few steps away from his bed Kotetsu heard his phone ring. 'Damn,' He thought, 'who could be calling at this hour.' Kotetsu picked up the phone and an image of his daughter, Kaede, appeared. In the past two years Kaede had grown a bit. Mostly she had gotten taller and her facial features became more developed.
"Kaede, what are you doing? Calling me at this hour." Kotetsu complained.
"I'll say. I've been trying to call you since I saw what you did on Hero TV!" Kaede explained.
"I know right? What do you think of your old man?" Kotetsu boasted.
"I think you're stupid to try such a thing, you could have died," Kaede said, worry in her voice that Kotetsu knew all too well, "but I'm glad you were able to deal with the bomb. Also I thought it was nice that you helped Blue Rose when she got hurt."
"Oh really?" Kotetsu said, hoping that Kaede had forgotten the other thing that happened to him.
"The part I loved the most was when Barnaby saved you, again."
'There it is.' Kotetsu thought. One thing would always be sure of was his daughter's crush on Barnaby.
"You know, if you do retire, Barnaby's gonna have to find another Hero to save."
The idea made Kotetsu think of Barnaby trying to carry Antonio, only to struggle and get flattened by Antonio's bulky and heavy armor. The absurd thought made Kotetsu laugh.
"Hey, what's so funny?" Kaede asked.
"Oh nothing." Kotetsu said. "Was there anything else you want to tell me before we both finally get some sleep?"
"Oh yeah," Kaede remembered, "earlier today I finally learned to control my NEXT ability."
"What!?" Kotetsu was surprised. For the past year whenever Kotetsu had some time off he would visit Kaede. He would then spend his time teaching her how to control her ability. First they worked on how to control the abilities she copied. Then he would help Kaede learn a better way to copy abilities that wasn't so accidental. Kaede was able to master other people's abilities, but she could never seem to copy them on her own accord. To hear she could finally do it caught Kotetsu off guard.
"What do you mean?" Kotetsu asked.
"I mean that now, if I want to copy an ability, I just place my hands on the person." Kaede explained.
"Just like that?"
"Just like that. So…I was wondering. Since my school will be closed for a holiday next week, I was thinking I could come visit you."
"Why would you want to do that? I'm retiring so I should be coming home soon."
"Don't say that!" Kaede protested. "After what you did tonight you can't quit. Even if it was a fluke you're still a hero."
"I know I'm a Hero Kaede, but how can I protect others if I can't protect myself?"
"Then teach me! If you can't be the Hero I'll do it!"
"No Kaede you can't!" Kotetsu yelled. "I wasn't there when your mother died because I was a Hero. I'm not going to let being a Hero get you killed!"
When Kaede heard this she began to cry. "I'm, I'm sorry Dad." She apologized.
"No, no I didn't mean it like that Kaede." Kotetsu apologized. "If I let you visit and show you what I did as a Hero will you accept that I'm retiring?" he offered.
"O-Ok. That'd be nice." Kaede accepted as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
Kotetsu tried to think of something to cheer his daughter up. "If you're good when you visit, I'll let you meet Barnaby."
"Oh Dad!" Kaede blushed at the though before she hung up.
"Goodnight Kaede." Kotetsu said to a blank screen as he hung up his phone and headed to bed. He thought about what Kaede said. She was right; he couldn't give up being a Hero. Maybe he could still be a hero back in the small town he once called home. As his train of thought ran its course Kotetsu drifted off to sleep.