The next morning, Qui-Gon got up bright and early to have breakfast before going to work, but the kids jumped when they saw their father in a tank top and shorts. Grown women, and potentially a few girls Kara's age might've been attracted to how muscular Qui-Gon looked. But to Kara and the twins, all they saw was their dad wearing tight clothes that were definitely too small for him.
Unfortunately, most of Qui-Gon's summer clothing shrunk in the wash.
"Dad! Why are you dressed like that while we're trying to eat?" Kara said.
"Is it summer again already?" Carmine said, recalling the last time he'd seen either of his parents dress in such a manner.
Shmi was surprised to see her husband dressed like that too.
"Qui-Gon, it's sixty-nine degrees outside, and you're dressed for summer time." She said.
Qui-Gon sighed in embarrassment.
"I know, but Ms. Huff said I have to dress like this for work from now on, regardless of the season."
"What? She can't do that."
"Apparently, she can. Otherwise, I'll be fired."
"Sweetheart, she has no right to force you to dress this way."
Shmi had seen Qui-Gon wear these outfits before in the hot season, and then she rather liked seeing how muscular her husband was, but she also worried sometimes about how other women would start looking at him. But Qui-Gon told her she had nothing to worry about. No matter how any girls he trained, the only woman he was interested in holding or touching with affection was his beloved wife. He was all hers.
But, the fact her husband's boss was forcing him to dress this way in cold weather, it told her something else was going on, but besides that, he could get sick from being out in the cold without the proper attire.
"I don't like it either, Shmi. But, Ms. Huff said if I don't come to work in this attire, I'll be fired."
"Then you have to quit!"
"I can't. No one else is hiring"
"We make enough money from the diner, Honey."
"I know, but I can't quit now. I have this one student who desperately wants to make her school's gymnastics team this year, and she needs all the help she can get."
"Can she get another coach?" Anakin asked.
"Normally, that would be the case, Ani." Qui-Gon said. "But Jennifer has worse anxiety than Carmine, and most of the other coaches aren't as sensitive to her needs. She trusts me the most, and I need to be there for her at least until next week so she will be ready."
Shmi sighed. Even though he wasn't fighting super villains anymore, Qui-Gon still went out of his way to help those in need.
"I best not be late," said Qui-Gon, kissing his children goodbye. "Have a good day at school children."
Qui-Gon saved the last and best kiss for his bride, and rushed to his pod, parked it two blocks away from the building, and jogged the rest of the way until he reached the building.
Qui-Gon got right to work with his private lesson with Jennifer.
"Good, Jenny. Good." Qui-Gon praised as he guided her through some stretches. "Your flexibility has improved a lot."
Jennifer kept breathing heavily.
"Slower breaths, Jenny." Qui-Gon said as gently as possible. "Don't forget to breath, but don't take it too far."
Qui-Gon felt worried about doing certain stretches himself, especially when parents and other women started to look at him oddly. But, he had to focus for Jenny's sake. He continued to guide her until it was time to test out how well she was doing now. He took her to some mats and encouraged her to try a cartwheel. Jenny looked nervous, but Qui-Gon told her it was going to be okay.
"Falling down is nothing to be afraid of as long as you know how to get back up." Qui-Gon said. "You've been getting better each day, and I know you can do this. Just keep telling yourself, 'I can do this!'"
So, Jenny got ready, did a short run, and... a beautiful cartwheel... no two... no three!
"I... I did it!" Jenny squealed.
"Wonderful, Jenny!" Qui-Gon clapped. "That was incredible. I'd say you're more than ready for gymnastics tryouts."
"All thanks to you, Coach." Jenny said, hugging her coach excitedly.
Qui-Gon gave her a nice pat on the back and told her to keep practicing the stretches he taught her at home, and she should be better than ever when the real thing came about.
"JINN!" Ms. Huff called. "Come to my office immediately!"
Ms. Huff had Qui-Gon sit down.
"I'm not happy, Qui-Gon. Not happy!" said the woman. "Ask me why."
"Why are you unhappy, Miss?" Qui-Gon said reluctantly.
"It is you and the patrons who make me unhappy."
"Why? You've gotten complaints?"
"No, but I see the way many women look at you. And I don't like that."
"You told me to dress this way." Qui-gon motioned to his outfit.
"I should've been a little more specific then. I want you to dress this way. But a little less... at my place!"
That had Qui-Gon standing up.
"No! I am not doing that!" Qui-Gon said. "I have a wife! Even if I didn't, I still wouldn't do that!"
"Qui-Gon, Qui-Gon Qui-Gon, must I explain to you how a business works? A company is like a beehive. The female workers obey the queen without question, whereas the males' sole purpose is to show some love to the queen. Make her happy. Come on, don't act like you really want to be stuck with your so-called wife when you could have a hot, younger woman like me."
That was when Ms. Huff started to get a little handsy with Qui-Gon, and he pushed her off.
"That is quite enough!" Qui-Gon said, literally putting his foot down and making the ground shake, as well as the entire building.
"Earthquake!" someone in the gym shouted.
Everyone proceeded to duck for cover. Even Qui-Gon pushed Ms. Huff out of the way of falling rubble and protected her from it until the shaking stopped. But the latter only saw it as an opportunity to try and force a relationship again.
"Hmm. I see you want to speed things up?" Ms Huff than tried to kiss Qui-Gon, but he quickly pushed her away.
"What is that matter with you?!" Qui-Gon said.
Now that he thought about it, he'd seen a lot of male coaches quit over the years, and he was beginning to see why. This wouldn't be the first time Ms. Huff tried to make a move on him. She'd called him handsome, flirted with him, pretended to fall in front of him so he would catch her and 'accidentally' brushed up against him too many times for it to be a coincidence. But, he didn't think much of it, because she'd done the same to other male coaches.
"Is this how you treat all the male workers?"
"Only the best built ones. I only take the very best." Huff said, still trying to get touchy with him. "Don't act like you don't love the touch of a hot woman like me, or you wouldn't be wearing small shorts like this!"
"I only dressed this way because you forced me to!" Qui-Gon said angrily. "If this is what it means to work for this gym, then I want no part of it!"
"What are you saying?"
"I QUIT!"
Qui-Gon literally busted the door right open and stormed out of there, eager to get into some more decent clothes. And he was going to make sure Ms. Huff's harassment of male employees didn't go unpunished. Not so much out of revenge, but rather to save future coaches from being harassed or potentially framed for harassing her (as Qui-Gon recalled a lot of coaches also being fired allegedly for harassing the boss).
"You're going to regret this, Qui-Gon!" Ms. Huff called as her now former employee took off. "You'll never work in another gym in this town again, I promise you that!"
He decided to make a call to his old friend Sophia Sitala, the best lawyer he knew. Except, it went straight to voicemail.
"That's odd." Qui-Gon said. "Hmm. She must be busy."
So, Qui-Gon decided to shoot a text message instead, asking Sophia if she would be willing to work a harassment case on behalf of the male victims at Huff's Gym. With nothing else to do now, he decided he needed to let his wife know what happened.
As you can imagine, Shmi was shocked to hear about what Ms. Huff did to her husband.
"I can't believe this! The very nerve of that woman!" Shmi said. "I swear, I'm tempted to go over there and give that woman a piece of my mind!"
"Not to worry, Shmi. We'll be seeing her in court very soon, I assure you. I did as you advised and quit that job. I don't care how well she paid me before; no amount of money is worth selling my dignity. If I can't find a new job soon, I'm perfectly fine simply a stay-at-home father. I've been wanting to spend more time with the children anyway."
"That's wonderful, Dear. I suppose it's just as well. My manager just called in sick, and I need to work a little later tonight. Do you think you could pick up the children from school today?"
"I'd be happy to, my love. I'll make sure they have dinner and get their homework done as well."
"Thank you, Sweetheart. You're my hero. I love you."
"I love you too, Shmi." Qui-Gon sighed. How he wished he could just hug and kiss his wife and just keep kissing her right now.
Every superhero had a weakness, and Qui-Gon's was kisses with his wife.
Of course, it wasn't going to be easy telling the kids he didn't have a job anymore, and explaining to two ten-year-old boys the type of harassment he just experienced was not the kind of talk they should've had right before they would hit puberty. Kara, on the other hand, was old enough to know about this kind of thing after that lecture on stranger safety at her high school. Still, Qui-Gon was going to let his children know that the reason he left his job, to put it simply, was because his boss was a bully who took her antics too far, and was going to be in big trouble very soon.
After school, Qui-Gon picked up his children and took them home to start cooking dinner.
While the kids did their homework, Qui-Gon got to making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, the children's favorite. He even stopped at the grocery store before picking up the kids and got some oatmeal cookies and strawberry ice cream to surprise them with homemade ice cream sandwiches for dessert.
"Children. Dinner!" Qui-Gon called.
Qui-Gon began to serve the children dinner, when there was a knock at the door.
"I'll be right back, children. Dig right in." Qui-Gon told his kids before leaving to answer the door.
Qui-Gon answered the door, but saw no one. However, he quickly noticed a large package in front of him, which he brought inside and found that it had his name on it.
"Hmm. That's odd. I don't remember ordering anything."
Qui-Gon scratched his head in confusion and carried it farther into the house, stopping to sit at the table for dinner, when the children noticed the big box.
"What's that?" Kara asked.
"I have no idea." Qui-Gon said. "All I know is it was addressed to me."
"Maybe someone sent you a gift." Anakin said. Then he thought "But Dad's birthday isn't for two months."
"Is it Mom and Dad's anniversary?" Carmine suggested.
"I don't think so," said Qui-Gon, checking the date on his phone. He confirmed it wasn't his wedding anniversary. So, Shmi probably didn't send the package.
Realizing the kids were more curious than him, Qui-Gon decided to open the package, where inside, he found something totally unexpected.
Inside was an astro-mech droid. An R2-unit, and it had a label on it identifying it as R2-D2.
Artoo walked over and sniffed the droid, and the astro-mech beeped, the dog barking. Qui-Gon touched the droid and it immediately scanned him before beeping again as though confirming something. And then, the droid scanned the room to make sure it was secure, which was confirmed, and then it unleashed a holo-graphic projection of a woman the Jinns had never seen before. She looked like she had butterfly wings.
"Hello, Captain Hardwear. Yes, I know who you are. My name is Mariposa Heartwood, hero name: Blue Monarch. You don't know me. But, you probably knew my husband Garrett Heartwood, more commonly known by his hero name Storm Surfer. I was a newly graduated hero when the supers went into hiding. That is why we have created this message."
Mariposa showed holograms of what looked like green and black butterflies, as well as cities in chaos and the Council leaders all trapped in some kind of prison in chains and binders. Qui-Gon was horrified by this sight.
"It's come to our knowledge that shortly after all supers were relocated, the villains all came out at once and kidnapped the entire council and all the leaders across the planet from the chief of police to Supreme Chancellor."
"I should have guessed something like this would've happened!" Qui-Gon scolded himself.
"I'm afraid it gets worse. The villains have become tired of terrorizing only Coruscant, and have begun spreading to other worlds. And all of them are led by the biggest, most dastardly villain of them all. Mariverde."
That had Qui-Gon extra shocked. He'd heard of this Mariverde, but thought she was just a legend made up to frighten children into steering clear of villains and encourage up and coming heroes to work harder to stop crime from rising. Mariverde was said to be the queen of all villains, even many of the worst Sith were terrified of her.
"Mariverde has perfected a new form of villainy by creating new villains out of citizens against their will through these super powered moths called mariclavas. Each time a civilian has negative emotions, she enchants an object and transforms the victim into a villain. To make matters worse, she has stolen technology she is using in an attempt to ensure no one can defeat her. You may remember this girl?"
Into the projection came a girl Qui-Gon almost didn't recognize, given that she was older.
"Hello, Captain Hardwear. It's me, Gizmo Girl. Long ago, you promised you would put in a good word for me to become a hero. I learned you came through on putting in a word for me, but that dream halted when supers were banned."
Qui-Gon felt even worse now; a young Jamie Heart looked up to her heroes, and Captain Hardwear was her favorite. She wanted to become a hero so bad, and after heroes were made illegal, she would never get that chance. And then she shared something he never knew about her.
"My older sister Clarissa, who you probably knew as Heartbeat, was heartbroken when she couldn't become a hero either. Luckily, I had a backup plan, and became an inventor. Except, when I was given a job offer to sell my technology for great purposes, it was all a trap to steal my technology so Mariverde could use it. And among my inventions, she put together a dangerous robot that poses a significant threat to the entirety of the Galaxy. We're not exactly sure what her plan is, but we know it's not anything good."
"The supers aren't gone, Captain Hardwear." Mariposa said. "They're still here. The people need you and all other supers who remain to help them in these desperate times. I know you're scared because it's illegal to do hero work now, but the villains don't care that everything they're all doing is illegal now as it was before the anti-hero laws. And their crimes are much more serious than disobeying one that tells heroes to hang up their capes for good."
"The Heartwoods managed to rescue me before Mariverde could find out I was de-clavatized, and I erased my computers so Mariverde wouldn't have the codes or any information on more of my inventions. In other words, only I know how to defeat each weapon. But it's only a matter of time before Mariverde figures out how to defeat them herself, and there's no telling how many innocent people she's willing to clavatize and put at risk in order to do that."
"We need every hero we can get. Remember the oath of all heroes."
Fantastical forces are we,
Against all evil, we fight as a team
We do no wrong, help all in need
Identities secret we shall keep.
Face our fears, with true heart
Our sacred duty, to protect all
With each good deed
Picking up thee who falls.
It had been ten years since he last did hero work, but Qui-Gon remembered the oath like the back of his hand.
"This R2 unit will guide you to a secret location to further discuss Operation: Fumigation. Simply follow the process provided in R2-D2's memory. If you join us, not only will it serve as support to making superheroes legal again, but it will also allow the next generation of heroes to have the choice to become superheroes."
Qui-Gon thought about it. Kara had been crushed the day she learned she wouldn't get to level up as a hero, and the twins, though they had opposite views on having powers, they deserved a choice of whether to use their powers to be heroes or not. He hesitated for a moment; he wasn't sure how his wife would feel about him going back to hero work, given the dangers she knew he'd put himself into even before she knew he was Captain Hardwear. But, he thought again and realized that if he didn't, it might be harder to stop these villains, and if the villains were spreading as badly as he imagined, it might endanger his entire family, as well as his friends and their families, and he couldn't have that.
R2-D2 held out a communicator for Qui-Gon to use. Qui-Gon took the communicator and activated it. Sure enough, Mariposa answered.
"This is Captain Hardwear." he said. "I'm in."