It was going to be a lovely day. The sun was barely touching the tip of the horizon, only a few small, yellow rays shining the east, struggling to greet the city with its light. The city itself was still bristling with noise and activity. But over those sounds, Hachi managed to sigh in content with her comfy blanket, forgetting where she was and maybe even who she was in the fogginess of her mind. Yes, it was going to be a lovely day.
Then she was scared awaken with the words, "RISE AND FUCKING SHINE!"
Hachi screamed and fell from the edge of the couch to the floor with a thud. An attempt at running was made, but that only resulted in stepping on the blanket and tripping, falling on her face again. But one option was still left open, which had her crawling under the coffee table, where she was still seen through the glass.
KaBoom stood at the open doorway of his office, dressed in his hero suit, though incomplete without his signature grenade gauntlets. A mug with white steam floating up from the mouth was held in his hand. He lifted the mug to his lips and sipped bitter coffee.
Hachi peeked from under the coffee table and, upon realization of who he was, greeted with a salute, "Good morning, KaBoom sir!"
KaBoom lowered the mug from his mouth. "Mornin', dumbass. We have a long day ahead of us, so get ready as fast as possible. I'm timing you." He lifted his other hand to reveal the stopwatch from before.
The brunette gasped loudly and struggled to leave the safety of the coffee table. She clawed her escape on the carpet and scrambled to her feet as the button of the stopwatch was clicked.
She was halfway to the bathroom when she realized she forgot her glasses that she placed under the couch the night before, hurriedly spun on her heel and sprinted back. To explain her sudden change of course she screamed, "Glasses!"
At the couch, she partically flopped on the ground and quickly spotted her glasses. Grabbing the spectacles, she scrambled around the couch to her feet again and sped toward the bathroom again.
One sun room and hallway later, Hachi slammed the bathroom door- again- and spun around to her luggage waiting in the corner.
"Okay, Hareta Hachi, new day! You can do this!" she told herself as she stuffed her hand in the side pocket and pulled out a hair tie. "You're training with KaBoom of all people! Ka-freaking-Boom!" She tied her dark hair into a flat bun at the back of her head.
"All you gotta do is not be dumb," she explained as she threw her pajamas into her backpack and slipped her body into her spandex suit, "gotta think fast, don't get tunnel vision." Sfit into her Kevlar breastplate while struggling to slide her foot in the left boot, then the right.
Quickly, she began strapping on the elbow, knee, and shoulder guards into place. "I'm gonna get abs and impress them!" Hachi squirted a glob of toothpaste onto her tongue from the bottle and used her tongue to spread it across her teeth while she slipped her triangle skirt around her waist.
Throwing her glasses in her case and grabbing her helmet, she squeezed her head through the hole with a grunt. "Don't let the world eat your face, Hareta Hachi!" she screamed as she yanked the door open and sprinted to the sun room.
KaBoom had moved from his spot at the office doorway and now stood in front of the coffee table, waiting for Hachi's arrival with the stopwatch in hand. When she ran in and stood at attention in front of him, he clicked the button and consoled the time once more.
"You're late, one minute off."
"Sorry, KaBoom sir!"
"Save the sorrys, if you wanna be a hero, you can't be late. Time is money, and while you're late, someone could be dying or the villain could be getting away," KaBoom explained with an edge in his voice.
"Sor-Right, KaBoom sir!" Hachi caught herself before she could finish the word "sorry." She couldn't afford to get dumb today.
The man huffed. "Besides, you gotta apologize to that janitor you bulldozed yesterday."
"Yes, KaBoom sir!" she exclaimed. It took a moment for the hero's last words to sink in, with three dots popping in her brain, and when they did, the girl's eyes blew wide and she instinctively gasped. Her mouth snapped shut and she stiffened with the realization that her actions from the day before did exist. She gulped and struggled to ask, "What do you mean?"
"I mean the janitor you got the vacuum from sent me an email saying you fucking attacked him and stole his keys. And don't you dare try and deny it, it's all on tape. Yeah, you think I wouldn't have security cameras?" the hero questioned as he folded his arms across his chest.
The girl gazed at the floor and cursed herself for her previous stupidity. "I-I got tunnel vision. And I said sorry-"
"As you were running away with his keys?"
"M-Maybe. . . ?"
"Well, congratulations, you got the not-as-much-of-a-little-shit-as-you-could-be award. That's not gonna cut it, so after today's over, you're gonna get your dumbass self to the janitor's office and apologize. Is that clear?"
Hachi sniffed quickly. "Y-Yes, KaBoom sir," she murmured.
"What was that?"
She forced herself to look up, and almost looked back down at the angry expression painted on his face. True, it was the one that was usually seen on the media, but it still left her shaking in her boots. "Yes, KaBoom sir!"
KaBoom's glare softened a smidge, from steel to iron. He huffed again before saying, "Better. Now, we're going to the junkyard. What?"
Hachi lifted her hand slowly as he explained, and lowered it when she was given permission to speak. "Um, when are you gonna go on a patrol?"
The man sighed heavily. "Just be patient. Being a hero isn't all about going on patrols. Most of the machinery broke down and the junkyard needed to hire heroes in order to break their shit. If you have a question, just ask it, don't raise your hand," he said as Hachi was raising her hand again, "we won't be going over the entire junkyard, just where they put the metals, and we're staying for only an hour."
This seemed to answer Hachi's question, and the last sentence already had her excited. "So people are paying us to break stuff?"
"Weren't you listenin'?"
Her usual grin spread across her face anyway and she hopped out of excitement. "Nobody ever lets me break stuff!"
"Great. This is the job for you," KaBoom grumbled as he strode off to the hallway. Hesitantly, Hachi turned and followed him down the hallway.
The hero walked to a door across from the bathroom, twisted the knob, and opened it to reveal an almost completely stainless steel kitchen. KaBoom flipped the switch and every shiny object reflected the overhead lights dimly. The left wall was occupied with a granite counter and silver sink, only a microwave littering the clean surface. Closed cabinets hung above the counter and a stove resided a foot anyway from the microwave. Many drawers made up the wall of the counter. Where the counter ended, a gray refrigerator stood at the edge with a cool air about it. At the right side of the room, a lonely dishwasher stood with a bare wooden table accompanied by three metal chairs. An island stood at the center of the kitchen, looking as clean and lonely as the counter.
Hachi stood at the entrance staring at the crisp dining area. She couldn't help but think that you could eat off the floor.
"Fix yourself something to eat. Don't take long, we leave in ten minutes, and I better not come back to a mess," the man said as he turned down the hall again and around the corner.
When he was out of sight, Hachi switched her attention back to the kitchen and hopped across the doorway. She pulled off her helmet, dropped it on the counter, turned to the cabinets and opened each one by one. "Nope, wait, yep, gonna need a bowl, and a spoon. . . ." she pulled a drawer out to find it full of knives. "Nope, not a spoon," she stated as she closed it and opened the next drawer, which thankfully held a tray of spoons and forks. She picked a plain-looking spoon and opened more cabinets for oatmeal.
If she were honest with herself, she would say that this was not what she was expecting. Vacuuming and making oatmeal were not on her How-To-Become-A-Hero To-Do List. But she was not honest with herself, so she kept on convincing herself that it would all make sense, like it that one movie where the kid had to wash a car for martial arts.
Hachi had just poured the milk in and placed the bowl in the microwave when KaBoom walked in, with his hero suit complete with the signature grenade gauntlets. He strode right past her to the fridge, opened the door and grabbed a bottle filled with a off-white substance with bits of green floating inside. He popped the top off and chugged it all without fear as he walked off out the door.
Little beeps sounded from the microwave as Hachi pushed the buttons for one, three, and six, and it turned on. Hachi knelt in front of the microwave and watched the bowl circle around inside until the timer went off with a bleep.
She took out the bowl and figured that she didn't have time to let it cool, so she hurriedly swallowed the oatmeal plain and hot, scalding her tongue in the process. She threw the bowl in the sink before pulling her head through her helmet and running back to the sun room.
When she got to the sun room again, she saw that KaBoom was standing at the elevator doors. Hachi skipped to the elevator doors after him, but the hero stopped her. "Nope. You lost the elevator privilege today. Since you like the stairs so much, you're taking those instead." He emphasized this statement with a finger-stab to the elevator button.
"Wha-" she stammered but ended the word with a mix between a groan and a whimper.
The elevator doors opened to an empty compartment and KaBoom stepped in. He pressed the button for the ground floor and said to Hachi as the doors closed again, "While we're young, kid."
When the doors closed and the hero was out of sight, she realized after three tense seconds that his last words meant for her to start running at that moment.
Her body dramatically twisted to the direction of the stairs and her feet hurriedly caught up with her as she sprinted to the hallway and down to the door that led to the stairs. Hachi threw open the door and sped down the cement flights. Her breathing became ragged as her feet stamped every step, but after five flights, she decided skipping a few wouldn't be so bad. Each fall was short-lived as her foot quickly met the gray step and left it just as fast.
Her legs began to burn at the repetitive motions and her soles ached from constantly hitting cement. She glanced to the floor number at the next landing and it read 13. She groaned loudly to herself and she pushed her legs harder to continue down the endless steps.
At the landing for the ninth floor, she turned sharply from the last flight, her foot slipped on the cold cement, and her body fell with it. First falling down on her side, then hitting the jagged ground, and tumbling down to crash into the wall.
"Damn it!" Hachi shrieked as she hurriedly staggered up and resumed her running.
At the seventh step down on the sixth floor, the tip of her other foot caught the edge, which sent her head-first to the fifth floor landing. Her skull would have cracked if it wasn't for the helmet protecting her head.
"Stupid stairs!" she cried ruefully as she lifted herself off the ground and stumbled down the remaining flights.
Angels sang in her mind as the door to the ground floor finally came into view. She jumped the last five steps and threw herself to the door, bursting through into the lobby.
Her head swung left and right in search of the explosive hero, and it took only a moment for her eyes to spot the familiar spiky head above the other heads. She straightened her back and marched her way through the crowd to KaBoom.
As she wove around employees, she heard an angry voice yelling above the crowd. Hachi stepped around another person in a business suit to see a woman standing in front of KaBoom, yelling in his face.
Hachi's brain soon recognized her as the woman from the day before. She was dwarfed against the tall frame of KaBoom, but still rather tall. But the next thing that Hachi noticed about the woman was her hair; the sea green hair reached all the way down to her ankles.
The teenager's eyebrows slanted at her brown eyes, forgetting her previous thoughts to understand that this woman was yelling in KaBoom's face. The KaBoom.
The girl strutted to the two, glared daggers at the lady with the sea green hair, stood at attention next to the hero, but still in his view, saluted and stated loudly, "I made it down the stairs, KaBoom sir!"
The woman continued screaming, but KaBoom turned to Hachi and said, "About time, kid."
The woman, clearly offended, yelled louder, "Don't you ignore me! You should rot in hell! You threw my brother in jail unjustly and you should pay for your crimes! What gives you the right to beat him half to death?! Huh!"
"It's my job, dipshit," the blond man replied curtly. Hachi stood at the side and made a shocked "ooo" noise with her lips.
The woman almost seemed at a loss for words, but replaced it was a faked look of astonishment. "Wow! How selfish can you get?" she asked as she rubbed her forehead, as if that would bait him into repenting for his supposed sins.
"Incredibly. I have to be at the junkyard, unless you want to come with and throw yourself in the nearest garbage heap," he said without skipping a beat. Hachi threw her hands to the sides of her head and made a louder "ooohhhh" noise behind him.
"The junkyard's where you belong, asshole!" she tried to retaliate, but he was already walking off to the front doors with a proud teenager following closely behind.
The woman started stomping after the duo, but stopped dead in her tracks when the hero declared, "Follow me for a mile and I'll have the right to arrest you for harassing a hero. I'd personally put you in the same cell as your brother." Hachi turned back to see the shocked expression on the woman's face and shot her a smug look as the glass doors closed with a click.
Through the glass, Hachi could see the woman's face morph into an expression of rage, but an employee walked by and Hachi turned away to follow KaBoom like a duckling.
The sun started to rise higher than the tall buildings. Cars and trucks beeped and honked on the street and sped away as quickly as possible to their errands. Civilians walked up and down the sidewalks, not enough to make it crowded, but enough for it to be noticeable that they were stirring out of the hero's way; mostly to not keep him from doing his job.
Then, she wondered what time it was. "Hey, KaBoom sir, what time is it?"
Without looking back, he answered, "Around seven."
The girl's eyes widened and she all but whined, "Man, why do we have to get up to early?"
KaBoom glared back at her. "You think heroes spend all their time sleeping? The answer is fuck no. So stop whining and act like a hero."
Hachi's mouth snapped shut at the last statement. Her eyes instinctively shifted to KaBoom's heels and the gray sidewalk and murmured so softly only a fly could hear, "Act like a hero."
The duo marched a countless number of blocks, and Hachi questioned to herself how KaBoom wasn't tired while her calves were burning, but answered herself that he was a hero, of course he wasn't tired yet. She lost track of how many crosswalks they crossed, how many sidewalks were traveled, and how many people pointed in their direction, grinning and smiling. Hachi marveled at the fact that she wasn't one of the civilians for once.
The buildings were becoming more spaced and smaller and it took Hachi a moment to realize they must be nearing the edge of the city. This made Hachi straighten her posture and peek around KaBoom's form to spot the junkyard. One block later, the junkyard's entrance came into view, and she hopped in joy at the sight of metal shining in the sunlight. Metal that she would be able to destroy.
Chain link fence guarded the junk inside, but an ning built in allowed them to enter and walk down the dirt path to a short white building in front of the many piles of unwantables. KaBoom swung the down open and walked in while Hachi almost had the door hit her.
A man in a yellow jumpsuit sat on a stool behind the counter. He stood from his seat at the sight of the famous hero and held out his hand to shake. "Hello, nice to meet you, sir."
KaBoom quickly shook the man's hand once before pulling his hand back. "Where do we get started?"
The junkyard worker seemed slightly put off by his attitude, but still said, "Just start wherever you'd like. But sign this before you head out." He pulled out a clipboard from under the counter, the clipboard holding a white paper covered in lines for signing your name and phone number. KaBoom took the clipboard and snatched a pen from a tin can on the counter and wrote his name on the next available box.
The worker noticed Hachi standing awkwardly to the side and inquired, "Huh, are you his new sidekick?"
Hachi looked up at the sudden question and mumbled, "No, I-uh, I'm just here for an internship."
"Uh-huh, well, I still got to have you sign this," he said as the hero handed the clipboard back to him, which he handed to Hachi.
The girl held the clipboard close to her face and squinted at the written words, only to have them look jumbled. She turned to KaBoom and nervously asked, "Do I write my real name or my hero name?"
"When you're on the job, always use your hero name," the hero answered gruffly.
Hachi nodded and took the pen from the counter and quickly scribbled "Plasma Cannon" in the box under what she presumed was "KaBoom", but the letters barely looked like any known language. She shoved the clipboard back to the junkyard worker and stabbed the pen back into the tin can.
"Great, now go crazy," the junkyard worker chuckled. KaBoom walked out, throwing the door open, and Hachi hurriedly followed.
The hero walked out to a secluded spot a fair distance away from the little building. Hachi trotted behind and gazed at all the metal, either rusted or shiny like it was brand new. An excited smile spread across her lips and each four steps was combined with a tiny hop.
KaBoom stopped and looked over a clear area surrounded by piles of metal. "Alright, this is my spot. Go find your own. I'll come check on you in half an hour. Remember, only break it down, don't completely destroy. They still need the metal to compact into cubes later."
"Okie-dokie," Hachi said as she inched away. She didn't really want to run off on her own, she wanted to see cool explosions, like on TV.
He raised a brow and grunted, "Move it."
"Right," she muttered and ran off around another pile of metal.
She ran in search of the perfect destroying ground but jumped at the sound of a telltale explosion. Hachi turned in time to hear another explosion and smoke rising up to the sky. She grinned. "So cool."
A minute later, Hachi settled on a wide circle ringed in rusted, old, new and questionable metals. The sun stood at an angle, slowly but surely rising, casting long, dark shadows over the many metal hills. She stood in the shade of one of the taller piles, so that the sun didn't blind her and make her aim horrible.
Hachi giggled to herself. "Here we go!" She raised her gloved right arm over her head and a magenta orb grew into life above her palm. She laughed as she threw her arm and it sped away like a comet into the nearest metallic pile with a giant CRASH! Giant dents and holes appeared in various pieces of metal as they jumped up and fell to the ground. Hachi swiped her arm back to the pile and the orb attacked the metal again. Again she swung her arm and the ball of magenta swan-dived the metal before dispersing into sparks.
Her orbs could only stand three hits of a solid object before dispersing, then Hachi had to create a new one. But today had to be her lucky day, because it just so happened that her orbs were attracted to anything magnetic.
She raised her left arm and threw her orb to the pile until it dispersed. Hachi repeated throwing the orbs until the pile she was attacking ended up as a beaten metallic pulp. Satisfied, she turned to the next hill and pummeled it into the ground.
She beat each piece of metal into shiny and rusty floorboards over the rocky dirt. Her arm was about to go down on another metal mountain when KaBoom came striding into her makeshift clearing. She stopped and stood at attention while he gazed over her work.
He only nodded. "Nice work." And he walked back to his area to continue his explosions.
When he was out of sight, Hachi squealed and pumped her fist to the sky in victory. Her first accomplishment of the day, getting okay praise from KaBoom.
She continued throwing her arms to the next pile reflecting the sun's rays. For how long? She had no clue.
At the umpteenth pile of metal, Hachi was raising her arm to the sky when it felt like she was stabbed in her palm with a needle. She flinched and drew her hand back down to check her palm, but nothing seemed wrong. She tried to create an orb again, but the same needle-stab came back.
"What? C'mon," she growled as she forced her palm to create another orb. The needle-stab sensation came back, but the familiar magenta ball appeared. "There we go." She threw her orb at the pile and continued further, but the needle-stab pain persisted each time she kept an orb together or created a new one.
As she worked onto another pile, her other palm also felt the needle-stab. Again, she forced her palm to manifest another orb. Hachi continued creating and throwing her orbs, but the needle-stabs gradually moved into her fingers, and it became painful to bend them quickly.
Hachi was finishing off another metallic pile, the pain snaking its way to her wrist, when KaBoom walked back into the clearing. "Oi, our shift's done. You can stop now."
Hachi immediately let her arms drop, turned to the hero and grinned. "That was fun! What are we doing now?"
"I'll tell you on the way. C'mon, we have to the let the next guys come in." KaBoom waved his hand for her to follow as he turned and started striding back to the little white building to sign out. Hachi hurriedly trotted after him with pride, and she noticed that the stings in her hands almost entirely went away.
After the two signed their hero names on another piece of paper and the junkyard worker making a joke that Hachi didn't understand, they walked back to the fence.
But before they could pass through the gate, another pair walked through. Hachi recognized the taller one to be Blowtorch, any two objects he touched he can fuse together.
The shorter figure she didn't recognize immediately, but when her brain rung up the memory, she stiffen. It was Best Kamen, her self-appointed enemy. She instinctively glared at the fellow Yuuei student, and when he noticed, he only shot her a quizzical gaze before turning his attention back to the little white building. She stared burning holes into his back until she walked into the chain link fence.
"Watch where you're goin'," KaBoom said.
"Right, KaBoom sir!" Hachi yelled as they walked the many blocks back to KaBoom's agency building.
Angelfishcake back from the dead.
Goodness gracious, I spent forever on this. I'm sorry it took so long. School has been really stressful lately and I plan to be more consistent. Again, I'm sorry.
Anything you would like to declare, please say so in the reviews.