Day 4: Mask. Superhero AU
Ace was excited, maybe a little too excited as he couldn't quite keep still in his seat, eyes flickering to the clock every other second. But who could really blame him? It was, after all, the year that his been waiting for all his life.
It being his seventeenth birthday today his super power would be developing at midnight and he couldn't wait to finally be able to suit up. He waited all his childhood wondering what his power was going to be after watching his grandpa's super strength kick butt for years. "The Fist" was one of the world's greatest heroes and Ace couldn't wait to be considered one of them in just a few more minutes. When the clock struck twelve his power would unlock for use just like every other super being in the world.
"Are you nervous?" Asked Sabo as he finished the last minutes touches on Ace's consume. His brother had been working on it for months now and even though they both didn't know what Ace would unlock, they had agreed that black could go with anything. Ace had been sure to throw in a hat, mask and a splash of red though. He wasn't quite sure what his blond brother had in mind as he refused to let Ace even catch a glance at what his suit look like, claiming it had to be a surprise. He did know however that it involved a black cowboy hat and spandex after the items arrived in the mail which he sign for as Sabo had been at a Steam punk convention.
Ace glanced over at him just as his brother closed the box holding his suit. "A little but I'm so ready for this. I thought of a name. What do you think of Sticker?"
Sabo hummed then shook his head " It's good but not…I don't know it just doesn't seem to fit you. Maybe something to do with your powers would be better?"
Before the freckled man could respond his youngest brother, Luffy, suddenly came barging down the stairs like a storm. He was still in his blue pajamas obviously skipping out on his ten o'clock curfew. Not that the oldest really cared, he wanted his precious little bundle of sunshine there for when he came of age Even if he was a little…enthusiastic.
"Ace! Ace! Did it happen? What you get? Is it cool?" The boy shouted at the top of his lungs. Both older teens winced at the ringing in their ears which was cause of said shout. The raven hair seventeen year old swears Luffy would have something like a sonic scream based on past experience. The kid was too loud not to be. But that was in another three years when the lad turned seventeen.
"Not yet Lu, I still five more minutes to wait for" Ace answered patiently.
"I bet it's going to be awesome! Cause Ace is awesome!" The thirteen year old claimed as he sat down at the table where his brothers were. Sabo hummed in agreement before leaning over and tapping Ace on the arm. His older brother's face was beet red but it was ok since Luffy had that kind of effect on people. The blond could still remember Luffy's cheering at his first showing. He had been a nervous reek but he still entered that clothes design contest to win the cash prize. His brothers had been there and Luffy's voice had been the loudest in the whole crowd.
Luffy was the most emotionally stable one of them and sometimes they needed a little extra love. Both older brothers still got flustered though when he did.
Ace took a calming breath after his blush went down. "T-Thanks Lu."
"Shishishi your welcome!"
"three more minutes guys" Sabo announced as he glanced at his wrist watch. "We should move in case his power causes damage to the house. Let's go to the training room"
Both dark hairs males nodded in agreement before dashing down to the basement where their training room was hidden. Every superhero family had one, as each needed a place to practice with their super power without giving away their secret identity. The room was simple, resembling a dojo more than anything else, but still had some random weights here and there. The walls of the training room were made out a special material known as Sea Stone that made it possible to practice safely without endanger anything beyond it or give away that super beings were living there. The three boys had spent a lot of time in that room training with their grandpa in case a villain ever learned about their existence, and wanted to get revenge on the family tree.
Now that training would finally be used for more instead of just self-defense.
With a grin Ace sprinted to the middle of the room while his two brothers stayed behind the "danger" line at a safe distance. All three were grinning widely but none could deny that the freckled teen was the most excited. It was too bad their gramps was handling a hostage situation somewhere in the New world district and wouldn't be able to make it in time for Ace's awaking but at least they were and that's all that mattered in the end.
" twelve seconds." Sabo said as Ace's heart speed up. It was time.
"Count down?" Luffy said rocking on his heels.
"Sure."
"Ten!"
"Nine!"
"Eight!"
"Seven!"
"Six!"
"Five!"
"Four!"
"Three!"
"Two!"
Ace took a deep breath
"One."
And the room busted into flames.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marco growled as one of the guns was slammed into the back of his head again. The three idiots that decided robbing the bank where he worked at were having fun smacking the hostages around especially him it seemed. This had been the third time Idiot One had hit him unprovoked. Maybe it was because he didn't whimper in fear at their appearance and more in annoyance. But he couldn't help it. Why did villains have to be so cliché and try to rob a bank? Most of the money wasn't here! It was all done by computers now days to avoid this exact situation.
Honestly they were just wasting their time. And Marco's. His shift had just ended before they showed up. He wanted to go home and relax dammit.
If there weren't so many people around he would have called his siblings over to deal with this mess. Then again even if they knew about the situation they probably wouldn't be able to get here in time.
Sadly the Whitebeards Team Force were out in space somewhere fighting an meteor that was hurling to earth about a hour ago. It was pretty simple to handle but would take time to destroy because the pieces that broke off of the rock could still ended up in the pathway of earth. It was apparently a pain to deal with but it didn't change the reality.
They had their hands full at the moment. And Marco, though he wished it wasn't so, did not have super powers to deal with the situation himself. He wasn't on the Whitebeard Team Force even though he was the oldest because when he had turn seventeen his powers had not unlocked. There were many cases where this happened, as only one percent of the world had powers, but he had always believed he would be part of it. Even after his seventeen birthday he waited for his powers to come. As some did appear latter on, they were classified the "Devil Fruits" because they needed time to ripe like a fruit but were usually so dangerous that most who gain them become villain, hence devil.
He spent nine years waiting for it to happen. He was sure he would get them.
It wasn't until he saw the pity on his family's faces that he knew he wasn't though.
With a grunt he was slammed against a wall where all the other hostages had been herded. There were about fifteen in total, ten workers and five guests. He tried to help calm some down but his captors would have none of that and shot at their feet in order to scare them. Most of the people in the room were crying and a little girl of four had peeped herself. Her cries were the loudest and getting louder by the second. Her mother was trying her best to calm her down and quite her probably knowing that the three men's patience would run out soon if she didn't.
"Shut up that brat before I do it for you!" One man screamed as he kicked the woman in the back.
Marco grinded his teeth, but he couldn't do much about it. Sure his train with siblings and could probably take out two of them; the last one would be a problem. The third one was on the second floor, gun pointed at them in case anyone tried anything. The blond would be able to move out of the way of a mere bullet but he couldn't say the same for the others in the room. No. If he wanted to keep everyone alive for the moment he needed to sit down and wait. Either for his chance to do something or for a hero to show up. Whatever came first, he wasn't complaining.
A thumping sound grabs everyone's attention distracting everyone from the woman and child.
The third man dropped from the second floor unconscious.
Everyone blinked confusely.
Wha-?
A man gasped on his right. "I-It's the Flame Fist!"
Marco watched as a young man dress in black tights and a red tight sleeveless shirt jumped down to the floor with his hands positioned in guns. His eyes were covered by a domino mask that was attached to a black cowboy hat which somehow hid his identity perfectly. A smiling and frowning face sat comfortably on his hat: his hero mark. He wore a cocky smirk as he stood up from his crouched position, fingers aimed at the two stun thieves. "Hello there gentlemen. I'm going to ask you nicely to let these kind people go."
That snapped the two men out of their surprised before shooting at the youth who let out a chuckle. He raised his hands and shot fire from his fingertips. The flames hit the guns out of the two man easily as they tried not to get burn, then when both males were distracted the hero shot forward and dropped kicked Idiot One then gave a nasty hand chop to his friend. Both went down to not move again.
With that done the masked hero turned to the hostages and gave a boyish grin. The red fire running up and down his arms like a cat caressing it's master. He looked dangerous but fun in a morbid way, yet still somehow manage to seem gorgeous. His freckled cheeks were pulled wide apart and the blond swear they resembled stars. Then he made the whole picture better by opening his mouth and saying "Well I did ask nicely didn't I?"
Marco might be in love.
The people by his side busted into cheers and sobs of relief.
Fire Fist gave a short bow then burned away Just as the police broke down the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X
That night as Marco was cooking for his exhausted family, he day dreamed about the young hero. Sure it had been three years since Fire Fist first busted onto the hero scene with his fire ability he was still a young hero. It was only recently that he stop being considered a rookie (adamantly a strong one) with a wanted rate of five hundred million hire rate. He was rising in city protection fast and rumor had it strong enough to be considered one of the Seven Warlords just a few weeks into his debut.
Not so bad for a kid.
The rumors also said he was dating Blue Gentlemen, the steam punk dress blond hero with the ability to shift into a dragon. He had shown up not too long after Fire Fist and the two seemed to have formed a partnership right off the bat. That usual meant they knew each other outside the suit and that they were closer than just friends. There were a whole webpage directed to the two. He knows because he just spent the last four hours reading anything he can get his hands on that involved Fire Fist on his laptop.
Marco scowled at his spaghetti
Sure the two complemented each other were well while fighting and sure they acted without having to plan anything among themselves, like they knew what the other was going to do before they did it but it didn't mean they would be a good couple. Didn't even mean they were dating while he was at it, after it was based on rumors.
And even if they were, the Whitebeard knew it wouldn't last. Just because Blue Gentlemen was unique it didn't mean he was good enough for fire wielder. The guy was way too….something, and it wouldn't work out. How could it when they were so obviously wrong for each other? Hell who even came up with the rumor, they needed to go get their head's check.
A sigh escaped his lips while he mixed the tomato sauce.
Who was he kidding? The two were practically married.
He tried not to think about them kicking butt together, clapping each other on the back in a job well down, going home after a long day of saving the world, them kissing each other good night and the stupid whispered "I love you"s, probably makinglove right at this moment-
"MARCO!" Izo's terrified scream snapped him out of his dark thoughts. He wondered what was wrong with his brother but something blue caught his attention before he could question his brother. It was on his sleeve, the one right over the still on stove, that was blue.
Why?
Simple.
His arm was on fire.
He stared at it for a few seconds not understanding what he was seeing and then it registered in his head.
HIS ARM IS ON FIRE!
With a scream he dropped the wooden spoon from his hand just as the rest of the family busted into the kitchen all wielding their powers, ready for a fight. Izo had run to get the fire extinguisher and started blasting the white foam at his arm all while making strangled cat noises. His siblings started screaming too when they realized the oldest whole body was covered into blue flames, as he rolled on the ground screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs. Hey Marco was on fire,, so obviously stop, drop and roll was the way to go. At once all tried to use their powers to help.
Jozu used his super strength to left the table and turn it into a makeshift fan to try and get rid of the flames.
Fossa, an actual fire wielder himself, tried to coat the flames away from his brother but was pushed to the side by said flames.
Jiru ran circles around the oldest, doing his hardest to stop create a vacuum to smother them out.
Atmos at the same time force large amounts of wind from his hands tripping the speedster in the process and sending his brother flying into a wall.
Haruta use her plant ability to get the plotted plaints to grow and try to smother the fames out.
Kingdrew's power was light based so he just stood in the background helplessly knowing he just make things worse.
Curiel had already run out to get the first aid kit, since gravity shifting was also useless .
Blenheim throw ice from his arm but missed (as Marco was still rolling around screaming and not staying still) and hit Kingdrew in the face.
Namur chooses that time to flood the kitchen by bending the water from the taps into bursting and spraying everyone in the room.
Rakyo just stood there wide eyed: his power to fly more than useless.
Blamenco was screaming his sonic scream for who knows what reasons and took out Fossa, Jozu and Namur in the process.
Vista just shrugged before taking a seat by the wall. No one was sure why.
Thatch was forcing his darkness to wrap around the fire consuming his brother even though he was laughing loudly while doing so.
Somehow the whole kitchen started on fire as well in the confusion.
This was the scene Whitebeard himself came upon. He took one look around the room before landing on his oldest and a happy smile blossomed onto his face at the sight of the blue flames. The large man strolled over to his screaming children and took a seat in the biggest chair that had survived the madness magically.
"Huh. Marco you're a Devil Furit? Who's the person you fell in love with? Do I know them?" The large man asked casually as everyone froze.
Marco who was covered in his sibling's powers and white form sat up. Blinking up at his father with confused eyes, not paying mind to the fact the fames weren't doing anything to him. "Fell in love yoi?"
The strongest hero in the world nodded as if it was common knowledge. "Falling in love causes the Devil Fruit users to unlock their powers. Didn't you know that?"
Marco flushed as he pictured a certain hero and his flames grew up his arms into his whole body. He shifted into a bird before he knew what was happening. So, he was a phoenix? That was cool he guessed mind not working right after finding out his power was unlock because he apparently fell in love that afternoon and holy shit it was with Fire Fist!
"This mean Marco can be a hero now!" Thatch whooped as he side hugged said brother. "Let's celebrate!"
His siblings started cheering for him while simultaneously teasing each other on who had freaked out the most not even a minute ago. Vista was clearly winning.
The oldest didn't hear them though, not when they talked about his power, not when they discussed his suit, not even when they talked about him joining the team.
He was too busy daydreaming about a freckled masked face.
Somewhere on the other side of the city, raven hair twenty year old sneezed.
