"Is everyone clear on what their task is for today? Good, y'all know what to do ... SO GET TO WORK!"

Jason Grace soundlessly groaned and rolled his eyes as his boss withdrew himself into his office. The life of a reporter ... prestigious as it might be, but one still had to deal with overkill bosses, just like pretty much every job ever. Don't get him wrong, he loved his job, it was just the fact that Albert Ward was, to put it as nicely as possible, an intolerable fucking blowhard. Dude made it a daily habit to be as annoying as possible.

"Grace! Can I speak to you in my office, please?"

Jason Grace flinched as Albert yelled his last name only a few feet away from him, completely startling him. He could've sworn he just remembered Albert entering his office. Maybe he did a U-turn and headed back to annoy Jason some more. He should've paid more attention, though, due to the fact that he didn't like being startled like that. Him being startled directly contrasted the fact that he had superlative reflexes.

Jason sighed once more before getting up from his chair and walking into his boss's office. Albert asked Jason to close the door and he obeyed, quietly shutting the door. "Yes, Mr. Ward?"

"I have a special assignment for you," Albert told him. "If you're up to the task."

Pfft. 'Up to the task,' excuse him, did he know who he was speaking to?

Jason settled for replying with, "I am always up to the task, Mr. Ward," though.

Mr. Ward pursed his lips and raised a dubious eyebrow, as if he was saying, Riiiiiight. "How do you feel about a little trip? Because you're going to Athens, my friend."

"What for?"

"You're reporting on the snowmen little Greek children are making," Albert sarcastically replied. "The gods, Grace! What else would you be going to Greece for?"

Jason shrugged. "I thought we were the San Francisco Chronicle. Why would the people be interested in Athens?"

Albert pinched his nose. "This new generation, they don't bother with the news anymore. Our beloved mayor is looking to approve the construction of our very own Athena Parthenon, right here in this beautiful city. He wants a report published into the internet, though, so people can gain an interest in the gods."

"I mean, people could always just visit Nashville if they want to see a Parthenon," Jason pointed out.

"Grace, just do your damn job, will you? You know you're the only guy in this whole building that's up to these tasks," Albert said.

"'Up to these tasks,'" Jason echoed. "You make it sound like I'm Bolt or something."

Albert cackled. "You, Grace? Bolt? Please, don't make me laugh." His expression switched to a more serious one. "Look, you do this and you might just see a significant pay raise in your check, you feel me?"

"Please don't ever say 'you feel me' again, will you?" Jason retaliated. "It just doesn't sound right coming out of your mouth."

"I'm telling you! This generation, no manners whatsoever!" Albert complained.

"Fine," Jason conceded. "I'll get it done."

Albert smirked. "That's the Grace I know. Now, enjoy the rest of your day. You got a flight to Egypt to catch first thing in the morning."

Jason pursed his lips as he started to leave. Frankly, Jason was almost tempted to say that he had no need for a plane ticket, but him showing up in Greece without a plane ticket would probably raise some eyebrows.

"And bring me pictures of the Athena Parthenos!" Albert had to add.

Jason sighed and headed back to his cubicle, passing by the break room on his way, where the famous Piper McLean stood, taking a sip out of her mug and raising her her eyebrows at Jason in amusement. Jason eyed the mug, which had a picture of Piper's even more famous father plastered all over it.

"What was that about?" Piper asked.

"New special assignment," Jason explained.

Piper oohed. "That sucks."

"Yeah, I know, just makes you want to ..." Jason finished the sentence by placing a finger gun to his temple and pretending to shoot himself. Piper laughed breathily, which made him smile in return. It was always satisfying to see when he was capable of making her laugh.

Piper McLean was as captivating as she was interesting, which spelled trouble in the workplace. Guys were constantly hitting on her and she was constantly telling guys off.

Not Jason, though. He was rather more ... professional in his approach. He didn't try to woo her with the callous temerity that the other guys tended to have and seem to think was the way to get women, which Piper called refreshing. They'd been paired up by Albert to cover the story on Bolt, the dynamic local superhero that operated in San Francisco.

Which was ... Jason.

He knew there was going to be an issue there. He would've preferred working on the story by himself, maybe he would've even thrown in some extra details that would make him look good. Or maybe had it just been Piper by herself, it would have been a straightforward one-on-one meetup. But both of them together? Piper wasn't stupid, she was bound to figure out why Bolt and Jason were never in the same room together.

So, yeah. Piper knew who he was. A vigilante, a superhero, a meta-human. Jason didn't care, there were a lot names made up for what he was. A lot of people loved him and a lot of people hated him, but he didn't care. He loved San Francisco and that was all that mattered to him, which was why he fought crime at night.

Reporter by day, vigilante by night. Something to live by, he guessed.

Technically, he guessed, he shouldn't have been seeing Piper like he was. Because Piper was a lot of things and a thief was one of them. At least, she claims she used to be like that. Jason was giving her the benefit of the doubt for now. She also claimed that she wasn't exactly stealing if people just ... gave her what she asked for. There was a really grey area when it came to what Piper did to get her father's attention during her teenage years. It also didn't look good on papers.

Probably why she became a reporter. Plus, she was pretty good at her job. She was good at making people tell her what she wanted to know.

She settled on calling it charmspeak. Simply put, what Piper wanted, she got and people willing abode to her will. Freaky stuff. Jason had never heard of such a thing, but he was an alien with lightning powers himself, so he wasn't questioning it.

Piper knew his secret and he knew hers, and they both agreed to not share it to anybody else. As she had joked before, the key to a good relationship was holding secrets as blackmail against one another. Jason couldn't help but grin at that joke.

"I'll tell you during lunch," Jason finally replied after Piper composed herself.

"You better," Piper replied before pouring more coffee from the pot into her mug.

Jason grinned at her in reply, stealing one more longing glance at her before heading back to his cubicle.

...

"So … what does Albert having you doing now?" Piper asked before munching down on a forkful of chow mein.

It was currently lunch break and as usual, Jason and Piper sat together as they shared a Panda Express bowl. It was kind of a tradition between them to share food on Fridays, and today was no different. The only variation though, was the plate of chow mein and white rice with orange chicken that sat in between them.

"Get this," Jason said, swallowing his orange chicken. "Apparently, Mayor West wants to build an Athena Parthenon here in San Francisco. So Albert wants me to go to Greece so I can type up a report on it."

Piper raised an eyebrow as chewed on her rice. "Oh, I thought ... nevermind."

Jason frowned. "You thought what?"

"It's just ... you know how there's like a giant statue of Athena in the middle of the Parthenon?" Piper asked, swiping through her phone.

"Yeah?"

Piper showed the screen to Jason. "Well, apparently her head was chopped off."

Jason stared in disbelief at the picture of what was now a giant, headless statue of Athena. "How ..."

"Don't ask me," Piper said, swiping through her phone again. "I didn't think it was possible for anyone to get up there, let alone chop her head off. Agh- no, not interested."

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just ... tabloids picked up on my dad getting a new role as a government spy or something," Piper said, shaking her head and putting her phone away.

Oh yeah, Piper's father was Tristan McLean, major action star who's starred in movies alongside some of greats like Jason Statham, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, the sorts. Piper wasn't all that interested in the movies her dad made, but she did pick up an interest in martial arts when she was younger because of them.

"You know, speaking of your dad, I'd like to get to know him sometime. Maybe have me over for dinner sometime?" Jason suggested.

Piper furrowed her brow. "You? With my dad?"

"Yeah, why not?"

Piper shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know how comfortable I'd be with you and my dad in the same together. And dinners usually turn out bad for us, anyway. Remember what happened last month?"

"What were the chances that a thief would decide to rob the very same restaurant we were eating at?" Jason asked incredulously.

"Careful how you talk about thieves," Piper advised jokingly. "You're technically dating one."

Jason grinned. "So we're dating?"

Piper showed no expression. "Perhaps."

"So ... what do you say?"

Piper sighed. "I'll think about it, okay?"

"Yeah. Take your time, I can work with that. Shake on it?" Jason said, extending his hand.

Piper shook his hand before he held her hand up to his lips and kissed it. Piper made a disgusted face and retracted her hand. "Don't ever do some corny shit like that again. You're already tempting me to just cancel it altogether."

"Too late, you already signed the contract," Jason retorted jokingly.

"Then I might just have to call my dad to get his lawyer so we can cancel it," Piper retaliated.

Jason laughed and raised his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright. You win."

Piper played with her fingers awkwardly for a second before she leaned forward to kiss Jason's cheek. "See you around, Grace."

Jason sighed, practically lovestruck. Piper was smoking hot, despite how dangerous she was. And Jason knew firsthand how dangerous Piper was. He'd seen her beat up a dude twice her size at the nightclub. Piper wasn't exactly short for a girl by any means, standing at 5'7, but the other dude, he was like a monster, and yet he'd been the one who ended up sprawled all over the dance floor. Those years at the dojo and the black belt were put to good use.

Man, that had been quite a night, dancing with Piper at the club, drinking together. Piper was a girl that loved to have fun, and as someone who used to be a big nerd back in high school, the activities that Piper brought him to do was a nice touch.

"Jason, get back to work!" Albert yelled at him.

Shit, he was staring off into space again, thinking about Piper. That was one of Albert's major rules, don't ever stare off into space. There was nothing he hated more than an employee doing absolutely nothing at his cubicle.

It was time to get back to work.

...

That night, Jason entered his run-down apartment. It was the usual routine for him when he got home: take off his shoes, hang his keys, take off his jacket and check if his sister was working her night shift at the bar. As usual, she was gone, which gave Jason the luxury of freedom to fight crime at night.

Jason should perhaps explain how he came to be. Jason remembered almost absolutely nothing from his infancy. All he remembered was a man and a woman looking at him with sad expressions and then being stuffed in … something. Later, he would be told that it was space capsule, but he would get to that.

Despite making San Francisco his beloved city, Jason technically landed in Los Angeles. He was picked up by two women, Beryl Grace and her not-so-famous wife, Juneau Grace (yeah, what a strange name. Juneau said it was French for 'young' or something like that) and their daughter, Thalia.

Beryl ... Jason didn't even see her as a mother, calling her by her first name. That's how bad she was. Beryl Grace was a mental case. An alcoholic, a drug abuser, a cheater, a liar. She was just an outright hysterical woman, it was probably easier to list what she wasn't. It really was no surprise when Juneau after multiple attempts of trying to get Beryl to clean up her act; she gave up, packed up her stuff, and left for San Francisco, taking Thalia and Jason with her.

Later it would be on the news. Not the fact that Beryl and Juneau divorced but that Beryl died in car crash after getting behind the wheel intoxicated. It was a real sad ending for her, but one no one could say they didn't see coming.

Jason had been six years old when he moved to San Francisco ... and he was also six when he discovered his tremendous strength, funny enough, on the same day that he moved.

"Here, mom, let me help," Jason had remembered telling her when she saw her struggle with the couch. Then he proceeded to pick the entire damn thing up and shoulder it like a carpenter shoulders wood.

He still remembered the outright bewilderment that had been on his mom's face as she watched a kid carry a couch that she couldn't even move while it was on four legs. Afterwards, she explained to Jason everything that he knew now, how he wasn't a normal kid, how she had found her inside a space capsule that came from outer space. She wasn't entirely sure, but he could have been from another planet, and having the ability to lift a couch over his shoulder at six further fueled that theory. But sadly, she didn't know exactly where he came from, something Jason would never get to find out.

The powers didn't stop there. The further he aged, the stronger he got. He went from picking up a couch, to picking up mom's minivan, to picking up a whole eighteen-wheeler truck. He learned about his power over electricity, going from being struck by lightning and being unharmed to outright channeling lightning through him. He learned about his power of flight, going from floating above the ground to avoid a reckless driver to flying faster than speeding car. And then he learned about his power over the weather, too, from being able to freeze water with his breath to summoning snowstorms.

Jason was just a mere sixteen years old when he had walking around the city and spotted a lady being robbed at gunpoint in an alley. In an instant, Jason was there, like it had been a reflex to fly there in the blink of an eye. The robber went from robbing the lady at gunpoint to being startled and firing on Jason. He remembered thinking he was going to die trying to save the woman, but luckily for Jason, the bullet just ... bounced off of him. It was like getting hit with a Nerf bullet, it didn't even hurt. Seeing that bullet harmlessly bounce off Jason was enough to spook the criminal and he ran off, leaving him with a stunned woman. She never said a word about him, though, simply being grateful that he was there to stop the robber.

It wasn't Jason's intention to fight crime at first, but he found himself picking up a lot of things with his keen ears. He found himself making himself his own outfit and he found himself sneaking out at night and saving people in the city, even if they weren't explicitly asking for it. When the media picked it up, they compared him to a bolt, striking as quick as one, they said. So he was dubbed as the hero known as ... Bolt.

All that during his teenage years. Jason was an adult now and at 25 years old, he had so much more experience than he used to back then. He could fly relatively close to the speed of the light, anything froze up with just a mere blow of his breath, and he was capable of summoning the fiercest storms at his will. With just a thought, he could channel lightning strong enough to shatter gold, he was strong enough to bench press the weight of twenty eighteen-wheelers, and he was utterly bulletproof, no kind of ammo was capable of piercing through him.

Despite his impressive abilities, he still lived in a run-down apartment, rooming with his sister Thalia.

Thalia Grace at her age just kind of lived to pass by, trying to make enough to pay the rent, even if Jason helped out a lot. He didn't know what she did during the day while he worked at the San Francisco Chronicle -maybe she slept all day, he wouldn't blame her- but during the night, she worked a night shift at a bar nearby. Maybe she wasn't around a lot these days, but from a young age, Thalia took an immediate liking to him and decided that she had to protect him from everything. Jason thought maybe she was still reeling with the aftermath of her mother being a raging alcoholic and he could hardly blame her for that. After all, she was Beryl's biological daughter that she apparently had after a one-night stand. Talk about horrible beginnings.

Her protective characterization was probably why Jason never told her about himself. The fact that she worked at night give him liberty to go out and fight crime without Thalia asking too many questions. If she knew, he'd probably never hear the end of it.

Or would she? Would she be more understanding now that they were adults? Or would she be more worried because mom passed away (God rest her soul) and he was all that she had left?

Jason sighed. It was a real dilemma with her. Now with the just the two of them remaining, Thalia was like his mom, too, in a way. If there was one thing moms liked to so, it was worry about their sons. And that, Jason did not need.

He really could clear his head right about now, he figured. And he only knew one way how: by fighting crime.

Jason looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. His suit was designed by a special someone that he'd met long ago that he hasn't spoken to in a long time. The suit was fabricated almost entirely in purple with a red cape, red boots and golden bolt emblazoned onto his chest. And to add the cherry-on-top, a purple cowl to strap over his head. Jason's friend had been rather dexterous when it came to the suit and to this day, didn't show any sign of wear or tear. It was a phenomenal suit.

Jason mentally promised to give him a visit some time. After all, he wasn't so hard to find. But for now … it was time for Jason to see what criminals were up to. That's what he thought as he shot from his window and hovered above San Francisco. From far away, Jason could see commotion at the Hibernia Bank Building, police sirens wailing as a robbery took place at the cornered building.

This ... was going to be an interesting night.

So ... this is a little something that I've been working on, an alternate universe where some of our heroes are essentially ... superheroes. I'd like to hear some feedback, just to know where people stand on this. I don't know if this will be liked or not, but if it is, I'll get Chapter 2 up in no time. For now, if it's liked, I'm thinking this will be in three certain POV's with two chapters going to each character. Jason Grace is up first with his usual lightning powers, flight and control over the weather with some added super-strength, sort of like a mix between Superman and Shazam (without the name-calling). If you read the summary, six other heroes will be a part of this Elite Squad and you can go ahead and guess which ones they will be. For now, I'll stay put and see what kind of feedback this gets. Stay tuned.