One Punch Man: Attitude Adjustment
Chapter 2: Illegal Activities
Randal's first week of being a Class B hero was finished and for the most part it was similar to the way he worked before. He walked around the city everyday, helped out civilians with little things like fixing their broken down cars and moving things that most people would need a forklift to handle. He also caught a couple purse snatchers and killed a weak little goblin monster that raided food from downtown store rooms for the last two weeks. The only thing that stuck out from that week happened at the very end, when Randal woke up to an unanticipated knock on his door.
He got out of bed to throw on the first shirt and pair of pants he saw in his drawers, then he went to the door to open it and see two men standing on the other side. On the left stood a man who looked just as stout as Randal along with being at few inches taller. He wore a dark blue tunic that went down to his knees with the collar open, exposing the chain mail that was being worn underneath. On his feet were brown, medieval styled boots with pants that matched in color and aesthetic. Strapped to his left arm was a round wooden shield that had a metal, domed boss stud in the middle of it and hanging on his belt by his right hand was a one-handed war-hammer. The helmet he wore was a simple, round-topped design with a nose-guard coming down from the middle of the forehead. All this, along with the massive brown beard that covered most of the top part of his chest made it clear that this man was going for a viking motif.
Next to him was a much smaller, scrawnier man who was mostly covered in a green forest themed ghillie suit. His face was still visible, showing patchy bits of stubble on his rat like appearance. In his hands was a medieval looking crossbow with the bolts in a quiver tied to his leg. One look would be enough for anyone to see just how dirty he was; with sticks, leafs and mud visible all over his ghillie suit.
"Greetings fellow warrior, I hope that you are well." The man dressed as a viking said with smile and a boisterous attitude. "I am Nordic, Class B Rank 75. This is my sidekick Bushwhacker, Class C Rank 112. You're the hero that recently got promoted, correct?"
"That's right, what do you want?" Randal asked without much care as he leaned against the door-frame, looking at the two men like he was waiting for them to try selling him something.
"Oh, nothing too serious. My friend and I just came by to send a message." Nordic replied joyfully.
"Yeah...just a message..." Bushwhacker said with an odd snicker, his voice was high-pitched and raspy.
"Oh really?" Randal asked, his interest peaked as he eyed both men from head to toe. "Then what is it?"
"You see, there's already a handful of Class B's operating in this city. I'm sure you know that keeping up with other Heroes in Class A and S is hard enough, so competing with each other is something we can't really afford to do." Nordic explained, still smiling pleasantly.
"Yeah...too many heroes can be a problem..." Bushwhacker said, his crooked smile not looking pleasant at all.
"Hmm...I guess that makes sense." Randal replied, acting like he didn't already guess what all this was about.
"Of course it does, and I'm glad you're smart enough to see that." Nordic said, putting his hand on Randal's shoulder in what seemed to be a friendly way. "That's why I'm sure you'll understand when I say...stay out of our way old man." He said as his expression quickly changed from friendly to serious. "Next time you see people in danger, you're going to step back so we can save the day and get the credit that comes with it;do you get what I'm saying?" Nordic asked, squeezing Randal's shoulder to make him understand what would happen if he did not comply.
Even though he wouldn't show it, Randal was starting to feel sore. Nordic may have looked like a renaissance fair reject, but Randal had to admit that he had a strong grip. It almost made up for how amateur this whole shakedown was.
"Yeah, I get it." Randal said, his eyes locked with Nordic's in an intense stare down. "You're rookie crushers, here to make there's one less guy to steal the spotlight."
"That's right, and you wouldn't be the first fool that we've crushed." Nordic said as he took his hand off Randal's shoulder to tap the head of his hammer, drawing Randal's eye to it. "I hope you'll be wise and listen to what I've said." He said with a very cocky grin.
"Yeah...don't be stupid old man." Bushwhacker said while slowly pointing his crossbow at Randal.
Randal sighed, it was too early in the morning to deal with this. He didn't even have the chance to make something for breakfast yet. He looked back and forth between Nordic and his little henchman for a few moments, deciding how exactly he should handle this situation.
"Well, when you put it like that fellas...I guess there's only one thing to do." Randal said as he stood up straight and took his hands out of his pockets.
It wouldn't take long for the issue to be solved, the walk to the hospital actually took longer but that's because plenty of traffic and construction made taking a detour mandatory. Sitting at the hospital front desk was a man whose attention was caught up in looking at the game on his phone. He didn't look up from the screen until he heard a mans voice asking for attention.
"Oh, sorry about that." The man said as he put the phone down on the counter. "How can I hel...oh my god!" He said with a sudden jolt of shock after looking up at the person who spoke to him. "Wh-what happened?!"
Standing in front on the hospital worker was Randal, dragging two concussed looking men inside the hospital with his arms around their shoulders. On the left side was Nordic, who's head was put through the middle of the shield that he was now wearing around his neck. His left eye was swollen shut and his right arm was bent in ways a humans limb never should be. On the right side was Bushwhacker; his ghillie suit was torn off which left him only wearing shoes, a white tank top and camouflage boxers. He also had three cracked ribs and was now missing seven teeth.
"We're heroes that received a call about a monster attack nearby..." Randal said with fake concern, breathing quickly as he spoke to make it seem like he was tired. "There was a dozen of them, we held them off until backup arrived but these two got the worst of the it." He said with a small, black mark under his eye.
"Oh man..." The hospital worker said as he looked at Nordic and Bushwhacker, wondering just how brutal the monsters they fought must have been. "Don't worry, we'll take good care of them. Please wait there." He said before picking up the PA system phone to call for two stretchers brought to the front desk.
"Thank you so much." Randal said with a grateful smile before pulling Nordic and Bushwhacker's heads close to his. "So...am I going to hear from you two again?" He whispered while looking at Nordic.
"No..." Nordic groaned, barely conscious.
"And are you going to crush any more rookies after this?" Randal asked as he turned to look at Bushwhacker.
"Nuh-uh..." Bushwhacker mumbled in a sniveling manner.
"Good." Randal whispered with a smile, smacking both on the back hard enough to make them groan in pain. "Get well soon fellas, I'll make sure the others know how brave you were." He said in his normal tone of voice because the doctors had arrived to put the two men on stretchers.
Even though the whole thing felt like a waste of time, Randal still walked out of the hospital with a smile on his face. Nordic and Bushwhacker were probably the type of scumbags that would try to spin the story into something that made him seem like the one in the wrong, but Randal didn't care. Putting idiots like them in their place never weighed down on his conscience.
Two days later, Randal received a call from the association. He was told to report to the nearest H.A. facility right away and assumed it was so the committee could whine about what he did to those two wannabe rookie crushers. As soon as he arrived, Randal realized it was a much different type of meeting.
It looked like most of the heroes from cities R,S and T were gathered into one place for a meeting. There were no S-Class present, but a handful of Class-A's as well as a few others that Randal recognized from TV and the one time he skimmed through the hero guidebook were around. He even saw that one weird guy who always wore a karate gi and a big frog mascot head. The room they all stood in was mostly empty except for a small stage that an H.A. committee member stepped onto to address everyone.
"Greetings everyone." A man with a metal right eye said. "My name is Sekingar, I will be conducting today's meeting." He said in a no nonsense manner. "Like yourselves, heroes all over the world are being gathered to discuss the current rise in gang activity and similar crimes. With so much effort being put into combating monster attacks and natural disasters it is likely that criminals believe our forces are stretched so thin that we cannot assist law enforcement in apprehending them. It is our job to make these lowlifes understand just how wrong they are." Sekingar said with a stern look, clearly taking the matter seriously.
The heroes attending the meeting spent the next hour and a half listening to Sekingar go over the latest criminal activity, the most affected cites and various other elements of the growing crime problem. Most were listening attentively, but Randal's attention faded in and out because it all just sounded like a boring lecture to him. The one part he really paid attention to was when Sekingar starting listing off some of the gangs that had become more active along with a quick profile of the people leading them. As Sekingar talked, he used a large wall monitor that was next to him to show photos and graphs that were part of the presentation.
"First, we have the B-Class criminal Tommy Escobar. Head of the Escobar Cartel, they seem to have gone from drug dealing to smuggling a large amount of stolen military hardware."
Sekingar clicked for the next slide to appear on then monitor. It showed a man with short, curly brown hair and a bushy mustache. He was wearing an expensive gold colored 80's style suit with the jacket open, showing a purple buttoned up shirt underneath. The monitor showed the man standing on a beach, with a gold-plated Cadillac muscle car and behind him and two men in casual cloths holding shotguns at both of his sides. In the photo Tommy and his men were meeting with another trio of men who were all dressed in matching business suits. A briefcase sat in the middle of both parties, showing that the picture was taken in the middle of a black market deal.
"Next, we have Class A villain Bella Zera. Other wise known as the cold obsessed mad scientist "Below Zero" and the leader of the Glacier Gang. They are known for being tech thieves and have been doubling their efforts to acquire advanced scientific equipment."
The photo showed a somewhat short, middle aged woman dressed in a white lab coat that went down to her thighs with matching white pants, gloves and boots. She also had a grey utility belt around her waist and a pair of silver tinted, large framed goggled that made seeing her eyes impossible. Her most defining features were still visible, her completely shaved head and the light blue shade of her skin that seemed to be covered with little bits of frost.
In another picture, Bella was standing beside a tripod mounted laser in the middle of a countryside road. With the direction the laser was pointing at, it was likely responsible for the two story tall iceberg that froze the two lead cars in a tech companies security convoy solid along with the drivers inside them. This photo seemed to be taken from the air by drone, after the Glacier Gang had successfully overwhelmed the security team and was in the process of putting the stolen technology into their own vehicles. All of Bella's men were wearing thick, white parka jackets with half of them carrying guns and the rest were walking around with ice climbing picks in their hands.
"Another Class A criminal, this man is simply known as Jackson. He is a very competent former soldier that now leads the Nighthawk Mercenary Militia. For most of the last decade, Jackson and his men worked as guns for hire for the anyone willing to pay their price. Recently, they have kidnapped over a dozen VIP's from various walks of life, collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from the combined ransom money."
Jackson's photo showed his body mostly covered by a long, black leather trench coat and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. His hands also had black, leather gloves on with a single pistol holstered at his left hand side. The only part of his body that was visible was the light brown skin on his face and neck as well as his black hair that was buzzed down to a thin fade.
With his team of mercenaries, Jackson was shown on hidden camera at the roof of a building. Two of his men were dragging a man into a helicopter against his will, with Jackson watching sternly as he watched by the helicopter side door. There was half a dozen mercenaries showed on screen, all wearing full military body armor and carrying assault rifles.
"This is our most...outlandish member of the current list. This is Sergei "Simian' Sutherland, the self proclaimed "ring leader" of a group of violent vagrants that call themselves The Wild Pack. Theft and assault were their most common offenses, but now they've grown in numbers and have recently started five riots in three different cities."
Sergei's footage was by far the most chaotic, it was a traffic camera showing an entire street in the middle of a massive riot. Groups of people ran around in brightly colored, punk rock looking cloths along with crazy hairstyles dyed all sorts of colors. These people were smashing store windows, mugging random people trying to escape the riot and ganging up to assault any police that try to get in their way. After half a minute of footage plays, the riot is suddenly blocked by a person taking up the screen.
It was a man that appeared to be in his early to mid twenties. His lower half wasn't visible on screen but his upper half was, showing that he had no shirt and a toned body. There was also a long, messy head of pink hair that seem to flow all the way down his back. The man had apparently climbed up the pole where the traffic cam was placed just to wave directly into the camera with a big, carefree smile on his face while the sounds of the riot were still heard going on behind him.
"These criminals are considered extremely dangerous, if they resist arrest I expect everyone here to fight them as hard as you would any monster." Sekingar said, looking over the crowd to make sure every hero was listening.
After going through the rest of the gang list and a few more minor points, the meeting came to an end. Some of the heroes stayed to deliberate about to handle the rise in criminal activity, but Randal was more then happy to walk out and get on with the rest of his day. To start, he figured he might as well start looking into this so called crime problem. To do that, Randal had to make a trip down a few familiar streets in City-T and walk into a small store with a sign above it that said "Quick Cash Pawnshop". Inside, Randal was met with a short old man sitting behind the pawnshop desk and also a security gate. The man grinned as he saw Randal come in, showing a gold tooth on the left side of his mouth. He wore a tacky looking, bright yellow Hawaiian flower pattern shirt and glasses. His hair was balding, obviously dyed black and combed over the side.
"Well, ain't this a surprise." The man said as Randal walked up to his desk. "Haven't seen you in a while big man, how's life treating you?"
"Getting by as always Ted, hope you're doing the same." Randal said with a small smile and a friendly nod of the head.
"Oh you know me, there's always opportunity popping up somewhere." Ted replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "So, you got anything good for me?"
"Actually, I was hoping you could help me out. Are you still good for info?" Randal asked.
"On most days yes but today...I'm not so sure pal." Ted replied with an expression like his hands were tied. "From what I heard, you've got a new line of work and I don't know if I should be telling you anything that could get me dragged out of here by one of your new Hero buddies."
"Come on man, do you really think I would do that to you?" Randal asked.
"Can you give me a good reason I shouldn't Randy?" Ted answered.
"Actually, I can give you three." Randal said with a confident smile, leaning forward on the security gate with one arm. "Number one, we've known each other for years. Number two, I've brought you a lot of business during those years and last but not least; I already know enough about your after hour hobbies to lock you up any time I want. So, what do you say pal?"
"Fine..." Ted said after rolling his eyes. "But Heroes pay double."
"Fair enough." Randal replied as he took two hundred dollars out of his wallet, pushing it through the space between the chain links of the gate. "So what can you tell me about a bunch of different crews getting more active lately?"
"Not much, people are keeping their lips tight these days." Ted said as he took the money and tucked it into his pocket. "But rumor has it there's a new player around who's managed to get a lot of big names onto their payroll. Some friends of mine think all this new action is going on because these guy want to prove their worth to a new boss, or maybe it's because that new boss has something big planned. I don't what that plan would be, but with all the gear and cash that's been swiped lately I'll bet it's for something big"
"Sounds about right, does this new guy have a name or is it just a ghost story?" Randal asked.
"Like I said, all I've got are rumors and you know how those tend to go. There's more then one name going around, but the one I've heard the most is Spade." Ted answered. "Is that enough to help you Superman?" He asked in a joking way.
"Yeah, at least I have something to work with now. Thanks for the help Ted, take care." Randal said before turning around to walk out the door.
"Just remember Randy, if anyone asks you didn't hear it from me." Ted called out as Randal was leaving.
"Hear what?" Randal asked, looking back at Ted with a sarcastic smirk before heading out the door.
With that done, Randal checked the time on his phone and decided he should head home for some dinner. Once his meal was done, he planned to look through the criminal list Sekingar showed them again. If Ted was right about someone new with big plans, than Randal was going to make sure that plan didn't come to fruition. Most of his determination came from believing it's what the person that made him a hero would do, but a small part also wanted to do the right thing and put these people away. It made him stop and laugh for a second as he realized just how different his life had become in such a short amount of time.
Later that night, miles away from Randal as he slept sat an abandoned power plant. It was a big place with three massive, rusted thermal smokestacks sitting in the middle. The buildings were all abandoned and a chain link fence topped with barbwire circled the entire property, making it look like no one had been there in years. Under the power plant was different, in fact there was a much more complex and high tech facility going on. The entire structure went down for a dozen floors. At the very bottom was the smallest floor, with just a hallway leading from the elevators down a large pair of black metal doors that had silver, demonic looking skulls with tusks coming out of the mouth placed in the middle.
Stepping out of an elevator was young, beautiful woman walked on the velvet red carpet laid out on the hallway floor. She hair that was black as night tied up in a bun. She wore a blood-red business blazer with a matching skirt and heels. A tablet was tucked under her right arm as she approached the doors, which opened for her automatically once she got close enough.
Inside was a lavish office that also served as a bedroom. The color black was all over the walls, floor and ceiling. One the left side wall were brutal looking medieval weapons and armor all placed in one large case. On the right side was the type of bar you would usually see in a five-star hotel along with a wall mounted, flat screen entertainment system sitting just beside it. On the back wall was a king side bed with silk sheets and two young ladies in bikini's sleeping peacefully under them.
"There you are love, right on time as always." The gruff, male voice said with slurred words and an English accent.
The voice came from a man who sat in the middle of a black, old fashioned desk. Sitting on it was a state of the art computer, an ashtray with an unlit cigar beside it, a glass of expensive bourbon and a skeleton bobble-head with the skeleton holding a heavy metal styled guitar.
"Have all our little friends been doing their part?" The voice asked as the woman approached the desk.
Sitting in a leather chair twice his a size was a man who looked like he was middle aged, with a face that was worn out from years of living in excess. Like his room, he was dressed from head to toe in black. From his shoes, to his pants, to his belt, to his button-up shirt with the first two buttons below the neck open, to his his cowboy hat. Even his hair was the same despite showing signs of thinning with age, flowing down to the top of his back with a mustache that connected to his mutton chops. The only difference in colors came from the gold and silver rings on each of his fingers. Some of them had Diamonds, Rubies and Jade on them that were worth a small fortune.
"So far, everyone is performing as needed. Supplies, funding and recruitment are all meeting the expected numbers." The woman replied as she looked over the data on her tablet.
"That's what I like to hear, how's the doc coming along?" The man asked as he reached for his bourbon and took a sip.
"Her team has been able to capture a fair number of subjects, some have been considered useful to us and the rest have been used to aid the doctor and her...pet project." The woman said with a nihilistic tone at the end.
"I figured as much, I'm thinking it's about time we give one of these new toys a spin. I want to see just how well they work out in the real world." The man said as he put his feet up on top of the desk.
"Are you sure about that? It will more then likely draw the attention of the Hero Association." The woman replied.
"I'm well aware of that Rose, but with all the fun we've been having I'm betting they already know somethings going on." The man said as he reached into his shirt pocket to pull out a card, the ace of spades. "And when I bet on something, I'll do everything I can to make sure it pays off."