Here's chapter numero dos of my new story Origin of the Teen Force. In the previous chapter, we get introduced to the main characters, and what they can do. Here, we're going to see them training, as well as teach their leader how to behave like a normal teen.
Disclaimer 1: I do not own Total Drama, DC Super Hero Girls (2019) or Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Disclaimer 2: Rated T for strong language
Training Montage
Brick blinks in confusion as he stares at the place his new friends took him to. Apparently, they are at the shopping mall, more specifically, at a male-exclusive clothing store. He can only stare at all the colorful, bright and glaring pieces of clothing hanging from racks, folded and placed in shelves, or being exhibited on mannequins.
Pretty much the opposite of what the academy made him wear.
"Eh, guys, why are we in a clothing store?" he asks. Cody takes his hand to guide him.
"Modern Teenage Lesson N#1: You gotta update your slang, so don't talk like a soldier." he instructs "Lesson N#2: You gotta look the part." he says as he takes a big, blue sweater with a bright yellow number 1 etched on it, and puts it on Brick "Bright colors, big logos, be bold!"
Devin pulls Brick to his side, where the leather jackets are on display, and hands him over a bunch of them "Use leather, lots and lots of leather."
Cody brings the cadet back to him before showing him his cellphone, and shows every image and site "Lesson 3: your phone is your LIFE! Texting, mail, text-shopping, social media, every single bit of knowledge mankind has ever known!"
The quicker he moves the images and sites he is presenting, the more dizzy Brick starts feeling. The cadet is is starting to fell overwhelmed by the amount of information a simple phone can offer. This is why he relies more on walkie talkies, far simpler and more compact, as well as unlikely to be hacked by enemy forces. He is suddenly pulled away by DJ, who used a gorilla arm to do so.
"Uh, no leather." the gentle giant says before making Brick drop the leather jackets, and hands him some clothes "These were made only with organic cotton from Turkey!" He then pushes Brick to the dressers.
Dave then hands him a plain, baggy sweater "Dress and try not to draw attention to yourself, but not too much, or you risk drawing attention to yourself, ironically enough." he hands it over to the cadet, who is, quite frankly, feeling overwhelmed by the amount of clothing he is carrying.
Cody pushes Brick into the dressers "Now get in there and be normal!" he exclaims before closing the curtains.
He and the other guys wait anxiously for Brick to come out and show them what he's got. Once the wait is finally over, Brick slides the curtains, and the guys stare in shock at what he's wearing. What Brick is currently wearing can only be described as a fashion disaster. Brick himself is feeling awkward and stupid for what he is wearing, failing to understand why teenagers are obsessed with looking good in these outfits. He prefers his army clothes, more practical and less likely to catch the enemy's eye.
While the other boys continue staring in confusion, Tom can only feel disdain about how clueless these guys are in terms of fashion; it's clear that they must be colorblind. Why, he could do a much better job than these peasants, and he might as well. Maybe he should interfere before any of the guys makes Brick's outfit even worse.
Cody quickly gets over the shock "I know! Accessories!" he yells as he goes for said accessories. He runs back up, but Tom, who is not looking up from his hand mirror, decides it's time to intervene. He trips Cody with his foot, making the geek fall to the ground. "Whoa!"
Tom sighs as he puts away his coiff and mirror "Are you done tormenting this poor man?" he asks dryly before smirking as he pulls out his magic wand "Then allow me." he starts saying some magical words that make purple aura appear and directs it at Brick "Tada!" he exclaims proudly as the other guys stare at Tom's work in amazement.
"Man, you're good!" DJ comments. Cody gasps.
Right now they're seeing Brick wearing a maroon military shirt with green cargo pants and army boots with white socks.
"Gentlemen, may I present Brick McArthur, just arriving from Alberta, Canada." Tom announces. "No need to thank me," he says smugly.
"These clothes don't look too different from my uniform, but are you sure these give me the appearance of a normal teenage boy?" Brick asks, to which the guys respond in affirmation. The army boy smirks "Good, now it's my turn."
The guys can only stare at him when he says that.
We cut to the top of a building, where the six boys are standing. DJ, Cody, Tom, Dave and Devin are standing in line formation while Brick, in his superhero outfit, addresses them as if he was an army sargeant (in a way, he kinda is). Cody only squeals like an excited fanboy.
"If we are to be a team, I must know your strengths and abilities." Brick instructs, then turns to DJ "You, name, rank, skills!"
"Uhhh, hi. I'm DJ." DJ said, smiling nervously "I don't have a rank, I'm just a guy from Jamaica and... hoo boy." he sighs before explaining as he shows his amulet "Y'see, I was given this mystic amulet by my Nana, who came from a long line of people who were like warriors from Africa, and it's supposed to give me the power to transform into any animal species on the planet and…" he trails off when he sees Brick's confused face "Y'know what, the whole thing is complicated. Better if I just show you." he then taps on his amulet and, to everyone's surprise, transforms into a brown bunny.
"That. Is. So. Cool!" Cody exclaims excited "Turn into a chimpanzee!" he asks, so DJ turns into a chimpanzee "A rhino!" DJ transforms into a rhinoceros "A Tyrannosaurus Rex pterodactyl wings!"
DJ frowns at that ridiculous request.
Brick takes a closer look at DJ's amulet "With this magic trinket, you can transform into any creature to beat your enemies into submission?"
"Well, in theory, yes…" DJ says hesitantly before transforming back to human form "but I don't believe in violence. My Momma taught me that violence never solves anything, and that it should only serve as an absolute last resort."
Brick nods "Well, at least your mother taught you well. So how should you be known?"
"I don't know. Maybe… Beast-Mon?" the big guy says as his amulet produces a form-fitting spandex suit that is red, yellow and green vertically, along with white gloves and boots, and a lion-shaped helmet that covers most of DJ's head "Kinda comes with the amulet."(1)
Brick raises one part of his unibrow "Beast-Mon?"
"As a pun of 'Beast Man', and I know the last part sound stereotypical, but it's the first thing that came to my mind." DJ explains.
"Good, and you Badger?" Brick says as he turns to Cody.
"I can do all sorts of cool stuff, even though I don't have a magic amulet or anything, but I'm really good at figuring things out." Cody says rapidly as he lays down his backpack and starts pulling many stuff, including a yellow suit with a purple cape, gloves and boots that apparently belong to him, along with some gadgets "Lemme get through my gadgets, like this! Badger parameter, and this is called the Badger Staff, and these Badger grappling hooks, that I was totally THIS close to using when the Dark Paladin was fighting Dr. Dark Light at the top of his building!" he says as he starts putting his suit on "But then, Iron Gauntlet showed up," he says spitefully, pronouncing the name 'Iron Gauntlet' like it was poison "and stole Dark Paladin's finishing blow against Dr. Dark Light, and that's totally unfair! I mean, that asshole prevented my idol from saving the day, and I never actually got to show him how they work, and I never really got to meet him, but that's a whole different story, so I-" he says as he puts on his mask, being fully dressed, but Brick cuts him off.
"You lack focus." the teen soldier says plainly.
"Whaa?" is all Cody can say before Brick goes to Tom.
"How about you?" he asks.
"You can call me…" Tom starts saying before pulling out his wand and making aura appear around him, which changes his normal outfit into a white magician suit, and his glasses turn into a red domino mask "the mysterious… the fabulous… the awe-inspiring…" he announces before making a magician's hat appear "MASKED MAGICIAN!" he exclaims hammily before the hat lands on his hand, making sparkling lights appear,, to everyone's amazement.
"Impressive. Do you have other skills?" Brick asks.
Tom presents a full deck of cards, before settling on one Red of Hearts "I can turn a red heart black." he turns the card into a Black of Hearts, and then makes it disappear, to Brick surprise "Ever seen a jumping jack? Go ahead, check upon your ear."
Brick does so, and is shocked to see the card come out of his hear "What the?" he exclaims as he see Tom pulling out rags out of his hat while Cody looks on in marvel "I've seen enough." he says, making Tom stop "Though you possess great quantities of style, you must learn to channel your magic into a cause: our cause! And I'm afraid this uniform won't be enough. Think of another." he tells Tom regarding his outfit.
The male fashionista looks at his suit and gives a cry of outrage, feeling insulted at the way the cadet described his outfit. What does he know of fashion, anyway. Clearly, he doesn't know anything about showmanship.
"Try a cape." Cody suggests as he shows his cape. Tom looks on his back, seeming to consider that option.
Next is Dave, who is already wearing his makeshift suit, which appears to be clunky in design, and has the same color pattern as his everyday clothes. He is wiring the button panel to one of his suit's gauntlets with duck tape.
"What can you do?" Brick asks, which makes the shy boy gasp.
"I can, um…" he says nervously as he continues applying duct tape to his suit, but yelps in pain "I'm still sorta working out the kinks." he says before gulping. He presses one button, which makes him shrink to the size of an insect. He looks around and groans "Oh, not again!" Brick picks him up with one finger "I'm working on rocket launchers, but they malfunction. The whole thing's all messed up!" the small hero complains "I want to be big and strong so people will notice me, but… my growth tech backfired, and now I'm even smaller and more invisible than before." he says depressed "I'll just go home." he says with a defeated sigh.
Brick started feeling bad for Dave; after all, he himself knew what it was like being picked on for being small and weak, when he first came to the academy at age ten. He could still remember the times he was bullied in the academy, how he was picked on for being the smallest and weakest, as well as for being scared of the dark. His superiors did pretty much nothing about it; in fact, they encouraged said bullying because, in their words, "misery builds character". Brick wasn't a big believer in that philosophy, but was determined to become stronger to be able to defend himself, as well as others.
With that in mind, Brick decides to lift Dave's spirits.
"You mustn't quit just yet. You possess far more strength than you know. You simply lack confidence, little guy." he says encouragingly. This seems to lift Dave's spirits.
"Actually, I prefer the Magnificent, Incredibly Cool, Radical and Omniscient-" Dave starts calling himself, a little smugly, before Brick interrupts him.
"Micro." the soldier says, shortening that title into an acronym, before walking to Devin. Dave grows back to his normal size, but looks a little sad at being given such a name.
"Actually, that sounds better. Trust me." Cody remarks, hoping to make Dave feel better. It doesn't, really.
Brick turns to the final hero "And you. We've seen your incredible martial arts skills, as well as a small sample of your powers. Is there anything else you have to offer?"
Devin scoffs "That to you. I'm no hero, Private. I just want a normal life, that's all." he says turning away from the cadet.
"You could be one of the greatest heroes of our generation." Brick tells him "You simply lack proper… LEVERAGE!" he yells before grabbing Cody and throwing the tech geek to the air, sending him flying.
The other guys scream, surprised at what he had just done. Devin turns around and also looks shocked. Soon, he transforms, changing his normal outfit into a form-fitting spandex suit of lime-green with dark blue gloves and a domino mask. He jumps out of the building and goes flying.
The others stare in shock, not knowing what to say, while Brick watches stoically.
Then DJ breaks the silence.
"ARE YOU NUTS?!" DJ yells frantically.
Brick doesn't respond, he just observes calmly how Cody goes falling down, until Devin comes down to him. He makes an earth pillar come out of the street, and Cody lands on it safely. Above, Brick smirks as he and the others see Devin go up, using the wind currents to carry himself and Cody. Contrary to what you might think, Cody is actually smiling, a bit too much if we're being honest. Devin looks down on the boys.
"Okay, fine, I am a superhero, alright? Jeez." Devin says trying to make it sound like it's no big deal. "Dad's going to kill me for this, I just know it." he mutters.
"Again! Again, again, again!" Cody exclaims like a kid who just got out of a ride.
The others cheer as well.
"Oh, thank God." DJ sighs in relief.
We then cut to a junkyard, where our protagonists, now in their superhero outfits, are waiting for Brick's instructions.
Tom apparently took Brick and Cody's advice to change his outfit, and now he's wearing a white latex suit that exposes his chest in a V form, and he also wears a velvet cape while still retaining his mask. Also, his hair has become longer and is platinum-blonde now. His overall appearance resembles that of Seigfried and Roy.
He groans in disgust as he observes the junkyard "Ugh, I conjured a new outfit to hang out in a junkyard?"
Cody shushes him "He knows what he's doing." he whispers.
"Ten hut!" Brick exclaims, and all five boys stand up like soldiers "Alright soldiers, listen up! Our mission is to save the world from threats that no ordinary man can face alone."
"That's right!" Cody agrees.
"In order to do this…" Brick instructs.
"Way, bro!" Cody exclaims.
"…we must learn to save…" Brick continues.
"Who? Who?" Cody asks impatiently.
"…. Man himself!" Brick finalizes pointing to a group of mannequins, next to a huge pile of used cars.
"Um, I think those are ladies." Dave says pointing to the mannequins.
Brick then throws his shield at the pile of used cars. The impact causes the towering pile to start leaning towards the mannequins. Thinking fast, Brick runs, and after doing a pirouette, he jumps, kicking one of the cars away from the plastique citizens, which he then picks as more cars start falling. He starts climbing up the falling pile of cars, refusing to let go of the mannequins as he climbs to the top. When the final car falls, causing a cloud of dust to form, the boys gasp, and they look up to see Brick standing triumphantly with all the mannequins intact.
He turns to the boys "And now, it's your turn."
Save for Cody, the other four boys exchange looks of fear and worry, realizing just what they are getting themselves into.
"Oh shit," DJ, Dave, Devin and Tom think.
"Awesome!" Cody thinks.
Tradewind
The first one to try out is Devin, or Tradewind as he would call himself. Once Brick finishes piling up another mountain of cars, he looks down on Tradewind, who is surrounded by mannequins. The Asian hero looks around nervously, then steels himself and gets prepared. Nodding, Brick jumps off the pile, making it incline towards Tradewind. As the cars start falling down, Tradewind summons a gush of winds and flies towards the cars. He then forms huge fists of air and punches the cars, sending the destroyed pieces away. He smiles proudly at a job well done.
His teammates, however, only have looks of shock and horror, while Brick shows one of anger and disappointment, as he silently points to the ground.
Devin looks down and gasps in horror when he realizes that, instead of saving the mannequins, he ended up impaling them with the destroyed cars, looking like he had murdered actual people. He floats down and cringes at what he had done. He can only shrug sheepishly as Brick glares at him.
The scene changes to outside a comic book store, where Cody is guiding Brick.
"Normal Teenager Lesson N#4: pop culture." the geek says as they enter.
No sooner than they enter, does Cody immediately start shuffling among the comics, feeling like a kid in a candy store. Brick can only look in confusion at his friend's interest in such silly books. The other guys appear to think the same as they enter.
Tom in particular rolls his eyes as he groans in disgust "Culture? Are you kidding?" he says disdainfully as he holds a comic with two fingers. If Cody calls this 'culture', then Tom's the Queen of England.
Cody gasps as he looks at the comic and takes it away from Tom "Oh. My. God! No way! Is this a super-rare Dark Paladin Giant Super Special Edition with a whole Dark Paladin poster?!" he says as he opens the comic and unfolds a larger image like it was a playboy magazine "I'D KILL FOR THIS!" he shouts loudly.
"Haven't you learned a thing?!" Brick exclaims in shock "We must protect the innocent, not engage in senseless killing over material things!"
"Brick, It's just an expression, a figure of speech." DJ explains as the guys leave the comic book store "For example, if you're hungry, you might say 'I'd kill for a burrito!'" he says as he gestures to a burrito vendor. "Now try it."
Brick takes a deep breath, and walks up to the vendor "I'D KILL YOUR FOR A BURRITO!" the cadet exclaims loudly, which scares off the vendor. Said vendor runs in fear "Take my money or die!" Brick yells as he waves his money and chases after him. The other boys gasp in horror, and they run after Brick to prevent him from going to jail.
Masked Magician
Back at the junkyard, Brick activates a conveyor belt that is moving a few mannequins towards a compactor that turns garbage into compact cubes.
Brick pushes Tom forward. The young magician smirks as he gets ready. After making a few hand gestures, he generates a small purple sphere of energy, as his eyes also start glowing. Soon, he surrounds himself with powerful aura that covers part of the junkyard. The boys look impressed, except for Brick. While the coveyor belt is still moving the mannequins towards the compactor, Tom continues performing his magic routine, until he absorbs the sphere, and then unleashes a wave of energy towards the compactor...
... and pulls down the switch, turning off the compactor. When he goes down, Tom turns around and starts bowing down like any performer would, even summoning pairs of hands to clap for him. He was so enraptured in his own self-congratulatory state that he failed to notice the cringy looks his teammates were making, as well as the glare Brick was giving him.
Cody walks up to Tom and taps his shoulder, which makes the magician turn to him. Cody timidly points to a bunch of compact cubes... with the rests of the mannequins, meaning that Tom failed to save them during his showboating. Tom can only stare in shock as Cody pats his shoulder.
Micro
Devin is holding the vicious guard bulldog with a leash, struggling to keep it controlled. The dog barks while DJ is carrying a steak, showing visible disgust. The vegetarian puts the steak on the mannequin's face and ties it with a rope, holding his desire to puke. He walks away.
Dave, or Micro, is standing between the dog and the mannequin as his teammates watch from behind the fence. He is shaking like a leaf; as if being chased by a vicious dog in normal size wasn't bad enough, imagine how awful it would be if he was the size of an ant. Micro looks at his friends worryingly. Brick says nothing, he only gives him the 'go' signal. The Indian boy gulps fearfully as he presses down a button and shrinks in size, being much smaller than the bulldog. Micro pulls out his grenade launchers from behind his back and prepares to aim. The dog continues barking, until Devin finally lets it go.
As the canine runs towards him, Micro activates both grenade launchers...
...except neither of them works.
In fact, one of them fires, on reverse. Micro looks in disbelief, before he starts running away from the bulldog. Next thing he knew, Micro was on top of Brick's shoulder, clinging to him for security. He looks at the bulldog, which is attacking the mannequin and trying to rip the steak off its face. Micro faints while Brick uses his finger to pat the little guy's back, feeling guilty for making him go through something that he wasn't mentally prepared for. They, along with the other boys gasp when they see the dog managed to rip off the steak... along with the mannequin's head.
The six heroes spend the next few minutes chasing after the dog to regain the head.
We switch from the disgusting, garbage-filled junkyard to a place none of the boys, except for one, expected to be, nor would be caught dead entering.
A spa.
This was Tom's idea, by the way.
Cody is seen wetting his feet on a bowl full of water, while Tom is wearing a bathrobe and has pickles slices on his eyes, while receiving a massage and a pedicure from the spa employees. To his left, Brick is wrestling some of the ladies who try to give him a pedicure and take off his boots and socks, apparently in an effort to keep his masculinity intact. Dave and DJ are also getting foot treatment, while Devin is the only one not taking any treatment, instead sitting on a lounge chair and looking at his cellphone.
Just like how his new friends failed to understand his interest in comics, Cody fails to understand the appeal of being in a place that he wouldn't be caught dead entering. He may be wealthy, but that doesn't mean he likes to spend his time being pampered and having spa treatment; he considers it more of a girl's pasttime (his cousin Taylor comes to mind), not to mention that he has more important things to do than that, like crime-fighting. After all, in the fight against crime, you have to get a little dirty.
"Normal Teenage Lesson N#26" Tom says.
"Um, what are we doing again?" Cody asks, completely baffled as he continues wetting his feet in the bowl.
"Pampering ourselves." Tom answers, feeling complete bliss "Isn't this relaxing? An important part of being a teenage boy is taking care of yourself, treating your body like a temple. Tell me Brick, did they teach you in the army how to take care of your body?"
Once he stopped struggling and finally let the ladies do their job, Brick rubs the back of his head "Well, I would say that they taught the importance of being in perfect physical condition, but not to this extent. My fellow cadets would probably laugh at this, they think it's for women and sissies."
"Is that so? Oh well, their loss, especially if they think having calluses makes them 'manly'. They simply don't know how to take care of themselves like I do." Tom replies.
"And the toenails are the point of focus?" Brick asks.
Tom takes off one of the slices to look at Brick "Precisely. Isn't this fun?"
Brick then gasps when one of the ladies, a rather unappealing-looking older woman, stares at his left foot, which is filled with calluses.
"Such enormous calluses." she says before pulling out a belt-sander and activating it "Time for the big guns."
Confusing this for an attack, Brick pulls out his shield "WEAPON!" he exclaims before chasing down the spa ladies, who run away screaming in terror. The other guys go after Brick to prevent him from injuring anyone.
Badger
Back at the junkyard, Brick points to Cody, or Badger as he calls himself, to be the next. Badger blinks a few times before waving his hand at the cadet, who points to the other end of the junkyard, more specifically, an old tree. On said tree, there is a cat plushie that is meant to be used as a training excercise for the classic heroic act of getting a kitty down a tree. The tree is surrounded by mannequins that are meant to be the civilians standing between Cody and the cat.
Brick turns around, and is surprised to see Badger getting distracted by a butterfly. The cadet throws a rock at him to get him to concentrate. After getting hit, Badger looks at Brick, who signals him to start. Getting the hint, Badger sheepishly rubs the back of his head before making a battle pose. He immediately runs to the mannequins, while making a few acrobatic flips, and then, surprisingly, delivers a kung-fu kick to one of them, knocking its head out. He then pulls out a few bombs and throws them at the mannequins, making them explode while he punches two others from behind. Finally, he jumps to the tree and gets the cat plushie out of the tree.
He makes a superhero landing and holds the cat in a victory pose. He then looks at his friends with an expectant grin, only to see the guys staring in disbelief, while Brick gives him a deadpan glare. Cody immediately feels embarrassed.
"Uh, those were bad guys?" he says shrugging sheepishly.
Beast-Mon
The final hero to try out was DJ, aka Beast-Mon. He is standing next to Brick, points another group of mannequins, and signals the excavator that Cody is operating, to make it look like a monster attack. It appears that DJ is understanding, but when Brick shows him that he needs to attack the excavator like he would an actual monster, DJ shakes his head, refusing to use violence. Brick throws his hands in frustration; he just can't believe that, out of all the heroes in his team, DJ, who looks like he can use his powers for offense and has the muscles to do it, is the least willing to fight.
When Brick walks away, Beast-Mon transforms into an elephant and, using his trunk, picks up the mannequins and places them on his back. He then goes to the other side of the junkyard and places the mannequins safely. He transforms back and looks at his friends smugly. An annoyed Brick signals the excavator, which starts attacking Micro, Tradewind and the Masked Magician. The machine has trapped Tradewind inside its mechanical jaws.
Beast-Mon screams in horror as he runs to the machine, while Micro struggles to open the excavator. It turns out to be unnecessary, however, as Tradewind makes the earth around him break the jaws, freeing him. Unfortunately, this has the side effect of pieces of debris falling on the mannequins.
If Brick wasn't already mad enough, now he looks like he could erupt at any second, feeling more and more frustrated at how inept his teammates are turning out to be. It is clear that they need more training and more discipline, and he will make sure that they become true heroes by the end of the day.
Even if it kills him.
Finally, the boys are in the cinema, watching a movie. The movie they chose (again, Tom's idea) is called Dawn of Love.
"Normal Teenage Lesson N#86: Sensitivity" Cody says as he sits next to Brick. On the screen is an Edward Cullen-like guy talking to a redhead woman.
"I never wanted to love her, Alexandra, but she's the most important thing to me now." the young man says "The most important thing to me, ever. So why hasn't Kate been texting me?"
"Why are we watching this?" Brick whispers.
"To be in touch with our sensitive side." DJ replies "Didn't they teach you that in the army?"
"Well, no, in the academy they taught us that being sensitive equals weakness."
Cody chuckles "Brick, Brick, Brick, those hard-asses are probably old men who are the product of an era that has been thankfully forgotten."
"Cody's right, those military types may think being sensitive doesn't fit a man's image, but this is the 21st century; men are now allowed to share their feelings and be more humane." Tom explains. "As well as be more open about their sexual preferences."
On screen, the redhead holds the young man's hand.
"She just needs time, Adrian. It's only been two days." Alexandra explains "If she texts you in three days, that's unbreakable love."
"So, what's happening?" Brick asks.
Dave turns to him "Adrian just realized he can't live without Kathleen, but Alexandra is telling him that Kathleen won't text him until tomorrow because that's exactly what Michael didn't do to her when they broke up." he explains rapdily, before sighing "Isn't that so sad and beautiful?"
Needless to say, Brick still looks confused. "Women are so confusing."
"Tell me about it." all the guys reply as they continue watching the movie.
The next scene involves a blonde girl with glasses staring at the rain from her window in a melancholic manner.
"Kathleen!" Adrian's voice is heard, which makes her turn around to see her boyfriend at the door. She takes off her glasses, and her previously dot eyes turn into anime-like blue eyes and her ponytail is undone, letting her long hair loose. Adrian holds her in a loving embrace.
"You will be mine, Kathleen. Forever!" he declares dramatically.
Again, Brick confuses this for an attack as he pulls out his shield and stands up "No! I won't let you attack her!" he exclaims before throwing his shield at the screen.
His friends gasp.
"No Brick, wait!" Dave exclaims frantically "He's just going to kiss her!"
Too bad his warning fell on deaf years, as the shield ends up damaging the screen, screeching the movie to a halt. Everyone in the room groans in annoyance.
Next thing they knew, the boys were kicked out of the cinema.
"And stay out, hooligans!" the manager yells before closing the doors.
The boys start walking away, most of them feeling frustrated that their efforts to educate Brick in becoming a normal teenage boy are failing, pretty much like how Brick's efforts to turn them into efficient heroes seems to have no effect.
"He's just not getting it, guys." Devin says, annoyed.
Cody, however, would not be deterred.
"No, I am NOT giving up on this team!" he exclaims desperatey "There's gotta be some place to loosen up an uptight army cadet!"
"Oh! I know!" Dave replies.
Dave turned out to have a really great idea, as they went to the amusement park at the docks. The park itself is filled with persons of various ages, enjoying the rides, playing in the arcade, and eating food that is being passed around. There are actually few people since it is the first day all kids and teenagers go back to school, so the line is short, which means more fun for our heroes. They guys can barely hold their excitement, as they enter the park with anticipating grins.
They enter the arcade, where they first start playing at the skeeball machines. Each of the boys throws their ball into the machines, getting one hundred tickets each.
Next, Brick is seen eating a piece of pizza. After taking a bite, though, a trail of cheese is hanging from the piece. Brick struggles to eat the trail, but it only results in him getting tangled with the cheese. He and his friends laugh at the silliness of the situation.
After going to the carrousel, they go to the roller-coaster, where they sit in pairs, Brick and Cody, Devin and DJ, and Dave and Tom. After rising up to the top, they all scream in excitement as they go down.
Next, Cody is doing some kind of hip-hop movement in front a musician playing the guitar. Brick joins him, but is dancing rather awkwardly, given that in the academy he was never taught how to dance, as it was considered unimportant. He still appears to enjoy it. Cody then grabs Brick's hand and takes him to a photo booth. Brick enters and gets his picture taken. Soon, Cody and Dave join for the second photo, followed by DJ and Tom in the third, and finally Devin joins them and all the guys take one last photo together.
They appear to be having the time of their lives.
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, a dark skinned man and a white man, both of whom are wearing blue and red track suits respectively, are waiting on a corner. They look threatening, except for the fact that they both have dogs in their harnesses.
The blue-wearing thug presses his ear "We have arrived, master. We await further instructions."
Inside a dark room, a mysterious figure is sitting in front of many monitors that are filming everyone from the city, including our protagonists.
"The boy has been located in a site called Sweet Justice, located in downtown. Go there, capture the boy and retrieve the vial. If possible, bring me more test subjects. Do not fail me." he speaks in a deep, menacing voice.
The larger thug nods as he and his partner walk down the street in search for 'the boy'.
The plot thickens!
The next chapter will show the heroes having their first real battle. How will it fare out for them? Find out next time on Origin of the Teen Force.
Also, in case any of you complains that I made Brick OOC in this chapter (like attacking civilians, or being willing to hit ladies), that's the point: as I stated in the first chapter, Brick has been living a sheltered life in the army since he was a kid, not knowing anything other than acting like a soldier. They probably even taught him to fight women, but only those who attack first, otherwise he's a gentleman. The point of his character is him learning that life isn't limited to serving your country, that you need to loosen up once in a while. And that's exactly what his new friends are doing in this chapter.
(1) DJ's superhero outfit is based on that of Yah-Mon, an obscure character from Powerpuff Girls (the original, not the crappy 2016 version).