Two years ago, the world saw its first sign that superhumans were not just a thing of fiction. In Portsmouth Ohio, an unknown man was both seen on camera and reported by survivors saving lives during a sudden earthquake. Exhibiting strength far beyond anything humanly possible, he was able to leap streets blocks in single bounds and literally clap out fires with his bare hands.
Dubbed "The Juggernaut" by the media due to his sheer strength, this unknown man was only spotted two more times that year, all within the same month time span. Anyone who met him in the later two instances remained extremely tight-lipped about details. What is known is that he was able to easily bulldoze his way through anything he chose, and almost nothing could stop him unless he wanted it to.
The Juggernaut has not been seen since the explosion at the Dynegy Power Plant facility in Ironton, Ohio.
"So, tell us about your new boy toy, Cat." Jade said as she looked at her redheaded friend across the table, where she sat between Andre and Robbie.
Beck had informed Robbie of the situation with Cat after Sikowitz class while the others followed her to lunch, intent on learning as much as they could about Cat's apparent one night stand.
"Well, his name is John, and he's really big." Cat explained with a bubbly smile. "He's taller than Beck, and I think he might be stronger, too."
"Oh?" Andre asked, glancing towards Beck and Jade at the news. "What makes you think that?"
"Well, he was really muscular, but it was more like… the Terminator than Beck." She explained, holding her hands in an oval shape for emphasis. "Like, his arms were at least this big!"
"Wow!" Robbie said with wide eyes. "That's insane!"
"You kidding?" Rex remarked with a laugh. "Beck's got muscles but they don't exactly pop."
"Shut it, puppet." Jade said, glaring at the puppet, before turning back to Cat. "So, is he nice?"
Cat nodded vigorously. "Yeah! He told me that if I really wanted to, I could have all kinds of boys!"
Jade would never admit it, but she agreed with this 'John' on that note.
"What else do you know about him?" Tori asked curiously.
Cat looked in thought for a moment. "Well… he just moved to L.A. recently. And he lives with his grandparents."
"Really?" Andre asked, glancing towards Cat. "I hope he has better luck than I do."
"Is your grandmother really that crazy?" Tori asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Like you wouldn't believe." Andre nodded with a shudder.
Any further conversation was cut off by the sound of a phone ringing, and Cat pulled her phone out a second later, before gasping in surprise.
"It's him!"
"He's calling you?" Beck asked with a raised eyebrow.
Cat nodded. "What should I do?!" She asked quickly, slightly panicking.
Jade rolled her eyes. "Just answer it."
"Kay Kay." Cat immediately pushed talk, and raised the phone up to her ear, and with a slightly nervous gaze at her friends, she spoke. "Hello?"
"Good, just making sure this number works." John's familiar voice funneled into her ears from the phone. "It's John."
"I know." Cat said, nodding even though John couldn't see him. "I have caller I.D. How are you?"
"Eh, I'm alive." John said through the phone. "How about you?"
"Me too." Cat answered, smiling slightly as she spoke with him. "So, why are you calling now?"
"Um… is that okay, or is this a bad time?"
"Well…" Cat looked around at her friends for a moment. "I am at school, but I'm having lunch with my friends at the moment."
Jade suddenly had an idea.
"Put him on speaker." Jade ordered her friend. Cat looked a little hesitant, but with insistent gazes from the rest of her friends, she conceded.
"Hey, is it okay if I put you one speaker?" Cat asked, causing everyone's eyes to widen. "My friends want to meet you."
"Uh, sure." John obliged. "Go ahead."
With permission granted, Cat brought her phone away from her ear and tapped the speaker icon, before laying it down on the table.
"Okay, John, you are the speaker, and I'm here with my friends." Cat informed John over the phone and the others looked at each other for a moment.
"Um… alright…" John didn't say much after that, kind of registering the way Cat had informed him that he was on speaker. "So, who all am I talking to, exactly?"
"Well, there's my friend Jade." Cat introduced the goth, who rolled her eyes.
"I'd say nice to meet you, but I'd be lying." Jade stated sarcastically.
"Well, I can already tell you're a ray of sunshine." John joked over the phone, and both Beck and Tori couldn't help but to snicker, while Robbie and Andre grinned, and Cat outright giggled. Jade narrowed her eyes, however.
"Anyway, there's also her boyfriend, Beck."
"Sup." Beck greeted simply.
"And then there's Andre." Cat introduced the songwriter.
"Hey man." Andre said.
"Then there's Robbie and Tori."
"Hi."
"Hey."
"Nice to meet you all." John greeted them over the phone.
"So, Cat tells us a lot about you." Robbie remarked as he glanced towards the phone.
"Really?" John asked. "We just met last night. How much could she have to tell?"
"Well," Tori spoke up. "She did tell us you had a date this Friday?"
"Yeah." John confirmed. "Girl asked me out when we woke up this morning. Speaking of, Cat, do they-"
"Yeah, they know." Cat admitted. "Is that okay?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" John asked. "I was just wondering if they knew, and if you wanted them to." He answered Cat's question.
"Yeah, most of us were at that party." Beck revealed to the teen on the phone. "Cat said you and her ended up drinking some of the lemonade?"
"Yeah." John confirmed the statement. "I'm assuming someone spiked the lemonade considering how fuzzy last night was. Damn near had a panic attack when I woke up. Didn't know if Cat remembered any of it."
"Oh, believe us, Cat remembers it very well." Tori assured. "She was so happy that she'd finally found a cute boy to do the deed with."
"Tori!" Cat yelled at her friend, horrified that she'd just said that.
Jade grinned at Tori's words. One of the few things they could agree on was teasing Cat. "Oh yeah. I believe her exact words were 'he was sitting there alone, and he was so nice, and he was such a hottie!'" She told the boy over the phone, to Cat's horror as she did it in a perfect imitation of the red head's voice.
"Jade, how could you?" Cat gasped at her best friend, who smirked at her discomfort.
"Oh really?" John's voice had a teasing tone to it as it came through the phone, causing Cat to groan in embarrassment. He laughed when he heard Cat's groan. "I'm kidding with you, Cat."
"So, Cat tells us you just moved to L.A?"
"Yeah." John confirmed. "My grandfather was offered a job at some construction company, C and C construction or something like that. He's trying to get me enrolled in one of those performing arts schools here." He sounded almost irritated as he said it.
"What about Hollywood Arts?" Tori's suggested. "I mean, you already know Cat, and it's probably L.A's most popular performing arts school."
"Yeah!" Cat agreed almost immediately, looking down at the phone excitedly. "I could show you around!"
They all looked at the phone for a few moments as John went quiet, before he responded.
"Thanks." John sounded rather annoyed from what they could gather as he spoke. "I guess I oughta talk to my grandfather and let him know."
"You don't sound too happy." Andre noted, looking at his friends with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm not really excited to be going to a performing arts school when I really ain't the most talented guy." He admitted his own beliefs.
"Tori thought the same thing, till she performed at a showcase for the school." Andre responded with a chuckle.
"Come on, John!" Cat encouraged. "I bet you can at least do something! What are you good at?"
Cat's words probably had more of the opposite effect, but John seemed to understand her intention.
"Well, I'm pretty good with my voice, I guess." John replied with a sigh.
"Your voice?" Jade asked with a raised eyebrow. "What, like you can sing or something?"
"Eh, I can somewhat sing, but I'm really good at voices. Imitations, or just like different voices I can make."
"What, like a ventriloquist?" Beck asked, glancing towards Robbie, to the curly haired teen's ignorance.
"Nah, I can't throw my voice." John denied over the phone. "It would probably be more like voice acting. I have insane range with my voice, probably something to do with my vocal chords. Heck, I could probably imitate anyone if you, and I've only heard your voices over the phone."
"No chiz?" Rex asked, glancing towards the phone. "Prove it."
"This good enough for you?" If it weren't for the fact that the puppet was still safely tucked in Robbie's arms, or the fact that Robbie was sitting across from them, they might have been able to assume that it was Robbie's, or Rex's, voice coming through the phone.
"Okay, even I have to admit, that's impressive." Jade said with honest fascination. "And you were imitating a puppet."
"Huh?" John's voice questioned in confusion.
"He's not a puppet!" Robbie's voice cried out indignantly in response to Jade's words.
"Right…" John seemed a little weirded out by the exchange. "Anywho, that would probably be my only real talent. Tell me to do a voice, I can do that. I can somewhat sing, though I've never really advertised it." He admitted.
"Well… we do have some voice acting classes here." Robbie revealed to the teen on the phone. "You might be able to do those."
"I have actually thought about that, but I didn't think VA work was performing arts." John admitted.
"They have all kinds of stuff here." Cat spoke up excitedly. "Acting, voice acting, music, singing, and technology classes, like stage lights and programming, game designing…"
"Damn. I didn't think they had all that stuff…" John spoke, and they heard a tone of slight shock in his voice. "Maybe I should try-"
Whatever he was gonna say was cut off by the sound of a loud crashing noise that could be heard in the background, followed by someone yelling.
"What the- Goddammit, Peter!" John's voice shouted over the phone, admittedly surprising them all. "I told you to leave that fucking car alone!" They could vaguely hear a voice replying to John through the phone, before he spoke again. "I know you wanted to help, but Papaw knows what he's doing and you don't know shit about cars, and now we gotta replace the fucking engine!"
The group all shared wide eyed looks at each other as they listened to the exchange.
"Uh, where are you right now?" Beck asked as another voice, distinctly female, could be heard screaming in the background.
John let out a sigh as he responded. "In my grandfather's garage. Buddy of mine tried helping my grandfather, against his better judgement, and now the damn engine is andRachel NO! No fire! You know as well as I do it won't work!"
The female voice from earlier could be heard replying, before John sighed.
"Yeah, I know you didn't mean to, Rach. Look, just- Hey Cat, what time are you all out of school? I'll talk to you in a bit, is that okay?"
"Um, yeah." Cat nodded, just as confused and taken aback as everyone else. "We're out at three if you want to call then."
"Yeah." John said, before letting out a slight chuckle. "I'll call you then- OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE PETER, DROP THE METAL!"
A second later, the sound of the phone disconnecting could be heard, and they all looked at each other in bewilderment.
"Well, that was… something." Andre said slowly.
"I think your new boy toy is just as messed up as you, Cat." Rex joked, earning a pout from Cat and a glare from Jade.
Though she couldn't exactly disagree. Something was weird about John. And a quick glance with her friends told her that they shared her opinion.
Jade could only watch as Cat stared at her phone as they sat in the hall after school. The other students were all hanging out or leaving, and she stood with the others, watching Cat as she sat on the steps, with Robbie and Tori on each side of her.
"You really like this guy, huh?" Robbie asked, and Jade could practically hear the jealousy in his voice.
But Cat being Cat, she was completely oblivious to it.
"Yep!" Cat said with a smile, nodding excitedly. "I really want to get to know him. He was really nice, and I really want to see him again." She admitted.
"So be honest with me, Cat." Jade spoke, catching her best friend's attention. "Do you also like him because he was your first time?"
It took Cat a moment to understand what she meant, but she got it fairly quickly if the blush in her face was any indication.
"Um… maybe…" Cat admitted, averting her gaze down out of embarrassment. "But I really do like him, and I want to at least try and see if I can make something of it.
The conviction in her voice shocked them all, even Tori, who hadn't known her as long as the others.
"Well, it's good that you found someone you like." Beck remarked as he glanced down towards Cat, smiling as he did so. It's even better that he seems to like you back."
Cat looked excited at the prospect. "You think so?" She asked hopefully.
"Of course, Little Red." Andre said with a smile. "He called you, didn't he?"
"I'd say that says a lot." Tori said with a smile as well, rubbing Cat's back encouragingly.
Cat smiled at her friends' support, thankful that they had her back despite her ditzy personality.
Their attention was pulled towards the nearby exit door, where they watched someone enter the building.
Someone who Cat recognized very well.
"John?!" Cat gasped, before jumping to her feet with a squeal of excitement, running towards the teen who had just entered the school.
Meanwhile, her friends were staring at the boy. Cat wasn't lying, he was big.
"Hey, Cat." John said with a smile as he gladly returned the hug. "I know I said I'd call, but my grandfather told me I should just come by and see you, since I could also get a glance at this place."
Cat beamed at his words. "So you're coming to Hollywood Arts?" She asked in excitement, practically jumping with joy.
John laughed. "Yeah, I am." He confirmed with a smile. "Which means I get to see a lot more of my favorite little redhead."
Cat suddenly looked confused. "Who?"
John laughed at the ditzy display. "It means you, Cat. You're my favorite redhead."
At his words, Cat looked embarrassed. "Oh…"
The others could only watch in disbelief as the two conversed.
"That's John?" Andre asked with wide-eyes.
"Look at those arms!" Robbie stared in disbelief.
"She wasn't kidding!" Rex remarked.
"Looks like Cat really wasn't exaggerating." Beck muttered as he looked at the teen.
Meanwhile, Jade and Tori could only stare in shock at John. Cat really wasn't exaggerating.
He was absolutely stunning! Built like a tank, messy hair that is only pulled off by few… and if they had to guess by the boots and slight accent, he was definitely a country boy.
"Oh, come on, you have to meet my friends!" Cat said excitedly as she grabbed John's hand, dragging him towards the steps where her friends sat.
John raised an eyebrow, though the smile was still in his face. "Didn't I meet them on the phone?"
"No." Cat with an amused grin. "You talked to them! Completely different!"
"If you say so." John replied with a shake of his head as he let Cat drag him.
"Guys, now you can actually meet John!" Cat giggled excitedly as she finally let go of John's wrist.
After a few seconds of awkward staring, Beck was the first to step forward and offer his hand in greeting.
"Nice to meet you." Beck said, admittedly still trying to process the fact that there was going to be someone in Hollywood Arts who dwarfed him.
"You too." John returned the greeting with a smile, gladly shaking Beck's hand. "You're Beck, right?"
Beck nodded. "Yeah."
"And this is my best friend Jade!" Cat said, jumping next to the goth in excitement and gesturing towards her.
"Wow. You weren't kidding when you said he was big." Jade said, eyeing him up and down (and admittedly trying not to ogle him, especially with her boyfriend right there).
John laughed. "6'5." He revealed his actual height. "And you're the ray of sunshine, ain't you."
Jade almost immediately scowled. "Do I look sunny?" She asked sarcastically.
"I think she looks like a creature from the night." Rex laughed, causing John's head to snap towards the puppet and his puppeteer. "What?"
John stared at Robbie and Rex for a few moments, before looking at Jade while pointing towards the two.. "Is that what you meant when you said-"
"Yeah." Jade nodded. "You get used to it."
John gave one more glance towards Robbie for a moment, before shaking his head. "Alright." He said with a sigh. "And I'm guessing you're Tori?" He asked, glancing towards the brunette.
Tori smiled and nodded, trying not to ogle Cat's possible new boyfriend as well. "Yep."
"And I'm Andre." The musician piped up, offering his hand towards John as well. "If you don't mind me asking, why exactly are you here instead of calling like you said? No offense."
John shrugged. "None taken. Told my grandfather that I chose Hollywood Arts as my performance school since I already made a friend from that party," The teen rolled his eyes as a thought occurred to him. "Cause he'd kill me if he knew how I actually met Cat, and he told me to just come on down and check the place out."
"I feel like there's an ulterior motive behind that." Rex couldn't help but remark.
John let out a sound between a scoff and a chuckle. "Hah! You're not wrong. He wanted me to take my friends with me."
"Why?" Robbie asked in confusion. "Is something wrong with them?"
"Well…"
John trailed off as the door opened once more, and they all turned to look at the source.
And while John let out a groan, the others were shell shocked at what they were seeing.
Two other teens had walked into the school, irritation on both their features as they argued.
"Peter, Bryan's been working on cars for years! He knew what he was doing and he told you he didn't need your help!" The girl, who had amber eyes and chocolate colored hair that curled naturally, glared at the boy in frustration.
"I know, I'm sorry, Rachel! I just wanted to help!" The boy, who's hair was a platinum blonde color, looked frustrated as well. "But you grilling me is not exactly helping anything!"
"You destroyed the engine!"
"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"
"Hey dumbasses!"
John's voice caused the two teens to turn in his direction, but the others were still rather surprised at what they were seeing. It wouldn't have been anything that would have turned heads…
…if it weren't for the fact that the girl's arms were on fire and the boy's skin was coated in a completely metal substance.
"Peter, you're skin's metal. Rachel, you'll blow the place if you don't calm down."
A/N: To answer a question that was asked on the last chapter and when the story is posted, I went through a multitude of names before I pretty much said "Fuck it" and just went with "Juggernaut" as John's public name. But the only similarities between the two will be immense strength. I don't plan on taking cues from the Marvel Comics character, because when I created John, I knew little to nothing about the character from the comics, and even now I'm not a big fan of him. John has been a character that has evolved in my brain over a period of... honestly, I'd rather just say years and leave it at that. All I know is that despite using the same name, John and Cain Marko are two very different characters.