January 5th, 2011. Brooklin center of recreation and exercise. 11am
It was a normal day at Voughts sponsored recreational center for supe training. A promotion of Supes, as usual, gives the illusion that they are like the local everyday guy, and a few tricks and performances, as well as a staged fight to show off how tough and strong they are. The secretly doping hero in the bathroom here, a child who accidentally breaks the vending machine there, and the weird highly zealous parents who may occasionally love their kids a little too much. Overall, what can be expected for an average day involving Vought activities?
It was to Ashley at least, she managed some of the supes before in the center, granted there were only 10 supes and 2 of them were children, well only 1 was a supe while the other is the child of one but nobody likes to mess with the Nubians when their image is involved. She still remembers having to cover up the death of a child talent management ring as mass suicide from massive guilt of pedophilia just because one of them possessed a half-cropped-out photo of Maya who just so happened to be in the frame of a photoshoot without the Nubian's permission. One of her best cover-ups seeing as the board is looking to promote her to Madylin Stillwell's assistant! Today was perfect (by Vought standards) with everything going to script and nothing bad happening, she was over of the concession stand making her perfect cup of cof-
"Ashley stop fucking around over there! Your supe is kicking the fuck out of mine!" a disgruntled man with a small splat of blood on their collar came hurried to the red-haired woman, who threw their coffee away with intense rage and growled in anger not caring about the direction they threw it. Nor that the hot coffee landed on the face of another supe famous for their ability to float in the air, who was midair in a backflip showing off to the crowd who shouted in pain and fell like a rock landing on his neck with a loud snap and painful groaning emanating from the unfortunate supe. The crowd of onlookers goes silent.
All Ashley needed to do was finish the handling of one more supe for a year and it would be off handling the seven and making sure her previous partners and supe she managed get booted to the wayside, where they belong. There was one problem with that dream though, that supe she was sent to handle was a child, a child capable of beating several supes, a child who despite looking like a humanoid Jackal with green hair was capable of eating fire and creating explosions, and was currently beating to near death in what was supposed to be a sparring match between them.
"Plesh, bosh! Imss sorroy pleash!" Big Game pleaded, their face now covered in blood, welts, burn marks, bruises, bumps, and swelling from the mouth with noticeable teeth missing. The teenage supe raised their arms in front of their face from the attacker.
"Hey Jackal I think he's almost dead, you know you were right. This guy fighting isn't really that cool, it was like watching him twirl some sticks." Maya Nubian said holding a cherry-flavored soda can, then proceeding to drink from it as if seeing the sight of a supe beaten to near death was a usual occurrence.
"But he called you a bitch, I'm not gonna stop until he says sorry for knocking my soda off my hand." Jackal said, now an 8-year-old who was holding the neck portion of Big Games shirt and their fist raised in the air glowing prepared to punch the unfortunate supe in the face again.
"STOP! Stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP! What the hell is going on here?!" Ashley said desperate to gain an answer and shocked at how the leader of teenage kicks was on the floor a bloodied mess.
"I'm beating up Big Loser." Jackal said naturally, then continued to punch him again but only managed to get one punch in.
"I SAID STOP! Let him go Already!" Jackal did so letting go of the shirt and making the back of Big Game's head hit the floor letting out a painful moan.
"Oh fuck! Just what did he do to make you do this?" Big Games hero manager said as he proceeded to take off his blazer to create a makeshift pillow for him.
"He knocked off Maya's soda and called her a 'little black black bitch' when he was doing that practice fight with Jetshit and then Jetshit tried to make me eat dog poop. So I made sure he wouldn't mess with us again." Jackal said with a vile grin, pointing to the two involved supes. Ashley looked over to where Jackal had pointed and saw Jetstreak vomiting into a trash bin, his red and orange spandex costume covered in grass stains and very big splatted-on brown stains covering his mouth up to his broken bloody nose with him spitting out brown bits into the trashcan. His superhero Manager was holding a bottle of Pepto Bismol and a water bottle behind him.
Ashley was furious that Jackal had essentially thrown her entire career in the sink garbage dispenser. She was prepared to let out her rage and frustration on the 8-year-old, putting her head upwards with her hands sliding out her face with a deep breath. Then she noticed the security cameras and saw a way to spin this in her favor.
"Wait so let me get this straight, you thought it was a good idea to bully a child into eating dogshit and engage in racist remarks towards a defenseless 8-year-old girl?" Ashley yelled furiously towards Big Game and His Hero Manager along with Jetstreaks, making the two realize their ticket to making their heroes more popular suddenly disappear.
"And don't try to deny any of it, I have it all on Camera," Ashley said as the hero managers were about to deny her claims. She took Jackal's hands and forcefully walked away with Maya following suit. The two hero managers trying their best to help their humiliated supes and most likely soon-to-be dead-end careers.
After walking some distance to a secluded area Ashley turned around and stared directly at Jackal.
"You are so fu-flipping lucky that you didn't kill them! What the hell was going on in your mind? You knew the script, pretended you lost and learned something from the older hero and act all 'Wow Big Game you're so cool!'. Having one of them eat dog poo and giving the other a skull fracture wasn't part of it!" Ashley scolded the young child hoping it would get his attention like with other supes but instead saw a more disinterested look from them.
"Yeah, so what? They were gonna hurt me and my friend, all I did was make sure they didn't. Not my fault they were too stupid to realize I'm stronger than them. You said they'd be strong enough to practice with but they were so weak! And they all smell so weird too." Jackal whined at the predicament of not having a strong enough sparing partner, ignoring the larger predicament of possibly being blacklisted.
"Plus you turned it around against them so what are you getting mad about?" Maya asked not understanding the deeper conflicts of interest at play. Her parents fought almost to the brutality of Jackal at times so she wasn't sure why Ashley was making a fuss since she managed her parents too.
"Because, Unlike your parents who are getting divorced, I have to explain to my boss that an 8-year-old beat the shit out of one of Vought's potential 7 candidates! Making my Job harder than you already make it!" Ashley screamed at the two who missed the point that beating up other supes even if you are stronger than them usually isn't a good idea.
"My parents are getting a divorce?" Maya asked with sadness and her typical upbeat voice quivered in a way neither Ashley or Jackal had heard before. Jackal himself merely looked at his friend with concern.
Ashley realized that despite multiple warnings to the Nubians to tell their own daughter about the life-changing ordeal, they didn't tell her yet and she just dug another hole for herself to crawl out of. "Uhh, I got to go and check up on Floating Clusty. Jackal your dad is on his way over here, you can tell him you guys can go home early. See you soon and I'll be giving your parents a call." Ashley said as formally as possible before power walking away from the shocked duo.
Andrew walked to the two kids with a warm smile and 3 churros in his hand. "Hey guys, they had those good footlong churros at the snack stand on my way back from the bathroom. What's going on with my favorite kids?" He said, not a single bit of worry on his face, with Big Game and Jetstreak glaring at the man before being shuffled away by their managers.
"I found out my parents are getting a divorce." Maya said taking a churro but still dazed at the news.
"Oh Maya I'm sorry. I just got a call saying they'll be a bit late picking you up, you alright with spending the rest of the afternoon with us after we're done with our show here?" Andrew said lowering himself to knee level and speaking softly to her.
"Yes, please. Thank you Mr. Raynor." Maya said walking next to him with Jackal whispering into his dad's ear.
"Ms. Ashley said it was Okay for us to leave early."
"Alright, let's get to the car. Jackal one more thing, stay close to Maya. She's gonna need a friend right now." Andrew whispered back to his son. Jackal glanced at his friend and saw her take a small yet sad bite of her churro, chewing it slowly still in her daze.
"I will Dad." Jackal said to his dad with firmness in his decision.
" Ese es mi hijo. ¡Vamos, tu mamá llega tarde a casa hoy del trabajo para que podamos cenar pizza hoy!" Andrew said switching back to the language of his roots, Jackal giving a small yet energetic yes following their father to the family car with Maya.
As they left the door they did not hear the screaming of Ashley yelling trying to calm down the crowd of crying children and scared bystanders about the unmoving, unbreathing, clearly broken neck body of Floating Clutsy the air clown that was lying on the floor.
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Raynor household, 8pm.
It had been hours since Maya had come to Raynor's house, and she spent most of that time trying to distract herself with Jackal. At first, she did so by convincing him to show her his powers again with the threat of telling his parents about his secret strawberry candy stash at the school. Maya was surprised to learn he could make landmines when he started jumping around like crazy. Too bad they had to shovel the holes back with dirt as punishment.
Now after a small shower and wearing her spare backup clothes, she was sitting down watching Dragonball with Jackal.
"Why is it in Japanese?" Maya asked.
"I don't know, my dad just bought the disk that way. Just read the subtitles " Jackal said eating a pizza slice.
"Hey Jackal, can I ask you something?" Maya asked him.
"What?" Jackal said in disinterest focusing more on the on-screen fight between Goku and Piccolo.
"Do your parents fight a lot?"
Jackal was confused as to why she would ask this question. His parents never fought with each other, at least not genuine fighting or physical violence. They would fight with him if he did something bad like when he was grounded again when his mom found out he beat up the 2 supes earlier in the day, but they never did any actual harm to each other.
"No, they fight about dinner and with me sometimes but not with each other."
"Really? So, it's normal?"
"Yeah, do your parents fight with each other?" He asked her, now curious in his friend's line of questioning.
Maya was hesitant to answer, she knew her parents' fighting wasn't normal but she thought that was how most families who had supes in them were. But then every moment she spent time with Jackal's family she realized that may not be true. They were even kind enough to get her pizza, her own parents didn't let her eat any sweets or junk food unless she did something good…if they even remembered to keep their promise about it.
Just when Maya was about to speak she was cut off at the all too familiar sound of her parents arguing.
"I told you we shouldn't have got into that meeting! It's 8 and I missed my late-night interview with Jimmy Falon!" Nubia spoke to her husband in a lackluster whispering.
"Oh, I'm sorry we got us up 5 whole points! Ashley would be devastated to know that your girl talk interview with some pasty boy would give higher ratings." Gerald spoke back
"It was an interview about our new movie that we filmed you idiot. 5 whole points don't make millions worth of promotion." Nubia talked back.
"It does when we have more people following us than most of the other black supes out there, we're almost as popular as A-Train. That's 7 numbers right here!" Gerald spat back with frustration in his voice.
"I'd rather those numbers be in our bank account Gerald" Nubia said closing the space between her and her husband.
"I'd rather be rich and secure Nubia!" Gerald said putting his face closer to her wife's face, his own brow frowning.
"Excuse me! Sorry to interject in your squabble but Maya has been missing you two, she's in the living room with my son." Spoke the patriarch of the Raynor family.
"Oh great we can finally see her," Gerald said in relief with Nubia walking towards the living room to see her daughter.
Nubia walked in and saw Maya sitting next to another supe child that looked like a fox of some kind.
"Mom!" Maya said as she ran towards her mother giving her a hug which was reciprocated.
"Come on sweetheart it's time to go home. Say bye to your friend and get your things, it's almost close to your bedtime. Me and Daddy have some important news to tell you when we get home. I'm gonna talk with your friend's dad, when you're ready, meet us outsight alright?" Nubia said caressing her child's cheek.
"I will Mom. I already have my stuff here." Maya said proudly showing off her Nubian prince and Nubia backpack.
"Good. Come on it's late already and you have dance practice tomorrow." Nubia said grabbing Nubia's hand and walking out.
"Buy Jackal! See you later!" Maya waved back toward her friend who waved back with his usually resting bitch face, but to her, it was a very smile equivalent of a smile. Something she hasn't seen him do once.
As she got into the car she thought to herself about her parents. Her parents always told her to use her please and thank yous but only to important people but they never did that with her friend's dad. Maya was looking in the card window and saw the Raynor house get smaller and smaller until it was gone in the distance and looked in the driver and passenger seat of the car.
Even when driving her parents were arguing, but she wasn't paying attention this time. It was like this a lot now. It made it obvious they were getting a divorce, it just stung that she found out through their hero manager and not from them. Maya pulled out her phone and on her password screen was a picture of her, her mom, and her dad all huddled together in a booth in Vought Burger with a plate of food in front of them and most importantly to her. They were all smiling. She then opened her home screen and it was a picture of earlier in the day.
On-screen showed a selfie of Maya smiling with Jackal forcing Jetstreak on the ground to eat dog poop left in the grass outside the building with a glowing patch noticeable on Jetstreaks crotch. It made her happy to beat up a bad guy like him no matter how much he called himself a hero.
"I told you one of us should have been with Maya for the day instead of trusting him with those freakin cracker barrel bitches." Nubia said. In the passenger seat typing furiously on her phone responding to emails from Big Games hero manager of organizing a public apology to her daughter.
"I thought she would be safe from those racist pieces of shit, and I remember you telling me that we didn't need to worry about competition 'cause I remember seeing Maya 'friend' looking pretty super." Gerald said grasping the steering wheel tighter in frustration.
"Oh don't make this about competition, we fucking lucky that we are getting browny points from this. Guess that makes it important to you for your numbers then Gerald." Nubia said pressing the send button on her phone hard enough to cause a crack on the screen.
"Don't make me the bad guy here. Be glad we're not paying the wetback for being a nanny." Gerald said one of his hands letting go of the wheel and pointing directly at Nubia's face.
The two went back and forth in thier argument even after getting home. Maya lay in her bed squishing her plush animals doing her best to ignore her parent's aggressive 'wrestling'. She's pretty sure they are doing something else but is somewhat too scared to ask them what it is they do that makes thunderclouds hover over their house on some nights.
'If only they could find their own bad guy to fight with instead of each other.' Maya thought to herself and smiled. There was a bad guy, a villain that her parents fought sometimes. All she needed was some way to find them and someone to help her in her persuasion in case her cuteness failed.
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January 6th, 2011, 11 am once again. Raynor household
"Mom, do I have to do this? I was gonna go out with Maya to the mall today, they have the chocolate strawberry cake sale!" Jackal said whiningly in a cute- totally intimidating way.
In the backyard of the Raynor household which has expanded thanks to the CIA budget allowing them to buy property, stood Jackal on one end with his mom Susan Raynot pointing a Beretta M9 at him on the other end. Jackal was covered in dirt stains and his cartoon The Deep face shirt and sweatpants with tears. Andrew Raynor was on the side wearing a Kevlar vest and ear protection seen at a gun range.
To most, it would appear this family was committing summary execution to an 8-year-old child, but to the Raynor family, it was reflex and speed training.
"You said you wanted to be a better fighter. This is the way to do it. Just one more magazine and then you can go. After a shower, understood."
"Yes, Mom." Jackal said grumbling about missing strawberries.
"What was that? Do you wanna do more weeks of cleaning the house? Cause the parents of those two idiots you beat up are still mad at us mister." Susan said with the practiced authority of her long and fruitful career that has brought her danger and life difficulties, that of a Mother of a supe. Also helped she was assistant to Grace Mallory.
"Nothing Mom, let's start!" Jackal said as he got into a fighting stance. He crouched slightly in a running position, his wide answer his left palm open and right hand in a fist.
Andrew pulled a stopwatch. "Starting now!" He said and the exact moment he hit the starring button Susan pulled the trigger.
3 bullets shot out of the barrel. The first one was where Jackal's head would have been but instead only hit an unfortunate lock of Jackal's hair as he ducked and ran forward. The second bullet fired was directed towards the boy's left shin only for it to be dodged when he dived forward. The third bullet fired while Jackal was still in mid-dive intending to hit the center mass. It only grazed Jackal's shirt as his body twisted only an inch above his stomach ripping out the entire face of the deep on his shirt.
Susan quickly aimed downwards while stepping back to get a direct hit but was sweep kick when Jackal had rolled on the ground upon landing. The gun knocked out of her hand noticeably destroyed, she took out a baton she hid on her belt and swung it toward her son only slightly gracing his nose. Jackal then blocked the second swing using his arms as a shield and twisted Susan's hand, not enough to cause any serious hard but enough to force her to drop her weapon forcing her to grunt in pain before being turned over. Her face was now in the grass as she felt handcuffs being put on her wrists.
"TIME!" Andrew yelled as a beep came out of his stopwatch.
"How was it this time? Did I beat the record?" Jackal asked as he leaped off his mother to give his father space to unlock the cuffs with his keys.
"15 seconds faster. You took down Mom in less than a minute." Andrew said as he helped his wife stand to her feet.
"Yes! I am getting stronger!" Jackal said as as he pumped his arms up in the air with his hands closed in a fist.
"You remembered not to destroy the handcuffs this time. Only destroy the gun when its not mine though, they're expensive as hell." Susans said massaging her wrist and looking forward to the soothing ice pack to help the strain.
"I can go hang out with Maya now right?" Jackal said as his face of excitement went back to his neutral expression.
"You can, but shower first and put on new clothes. I don't want another phone call of why you were walking around in public looking like Swiss cheese." Susans said
"Cuando regreses te tendré tacos al pastor listos. Simplemente no vuelvas a casa con más problemas. ¿vale, hijo?" Andrew said handing his wife an ice pack
"Con piña?" Jackal asked his father.
"¡Por supuesto! ¿Te parezco un gringo? Now go shower and stay on your best behavior alright?".
"Yes, Dad. I'll text you guys when I'm on my way back!" Jackal said as he ran towards his bathroom shower. The two adults in the backyard smiled at their son's antics.
"That Maya girl has an influence on him." Susan said to Andrew.
"I know, now his expression mostly looks like he's annoyed. Remember when he would threaten anyone that wasn't us? That was an awkward as hell family reunion." Andrew said remembering last Christmas. So many toys Jackal broke, that was considered good behavior by their standards. The Christmas before that they had to pull one of their cousin's kids out of a chimney.
"I still don't know how to tell him you know." Susan spoke with her voice having a clear tone of stress and tiredness.
' Ah, so we're talking about THAT.' Andrew thought to himself. "You know you never told me what you still do at the CIA. Yet we keep telling everyone you gave birth to him, we're lucky that Vought representative believed us when we told her when he was in kindergarten. I don't think there's ever going to be a right time to tell him he's adopted. But even if we tell him that won't change what we have, it'll just make us more honest even if it hurts." Andrew said trying to ease Susan.
"I know, I'm just worried if he starts to ask who his real parents are. What are we supposed to say to that? You were left in a bush in a park in the middle of the night and we don't know who left you there. He's gonna start asking us questions we don't have answers for. You know hard we searched for that. Not a single bit of information. Jackal is reckless and stubborn, he gets into fights and I just… don't want to fight with him that saying sorry can't fix." Susan said. No Matter how much she tried to rationalize it to be some kind of practical advantage or maybe just emotional manipulation. But even at this point, she can't deny it.
Mallory only agreed to let Susan adopt him if she turned them into the CIA's personal supe killer. Even when training her son at the start she trained him for that reason but over time it went from training for the kill to restraint. Susan came to realize it when Jackal introduced Maya to them.
Mallory wanted a weapon and Susan didn't, she just wanted her son. And she can only imagine his reaction when he learns the truth of that.
A few more minutes passed with the two sitting down on the couch, footsteps were heard coming down the stairs as Jackal came out wearing a green tank top and loose white sweatpants, his larger-than-average boots, and of course his scarf that he would never take off.
"I'm off. See you guys later. Jackal said running out the door with it closing behind him, the sound of the door knob locking and then nothing else.
"Wait how's he getting over to the Mall?" Susan asked her husband.
"Believe it or not he knows how to use the bus." Andrew said to her turning on the DVD player to watch Piccolo get his ass beaten by Freeza.
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In front of Ground Hawks's house, 12:00 PM.
"So this the place?" Jackal said as he stood next to Maya eating chocolate-dipped strawberries.
The two were, in fact, not at the mall at all. The text message Jackal had received in the morning asked him to come here to help Maya make sure her parents stay married. Fortunately for him, he did go to the mall just to get those special strawberries then walked the rest of the way.
"Yup. Would have been better if you got here 30 minutes ago like I said in the text." Maya said trying to grab a strawberry only for Jackal to lightly slap her hand away. Maya then glared at him with a death stare he'd never thought she'd be capable of pulling off and then relented making Maya smile as she bit down into it. He did not do it because he was slightly scared of her, of course not. She was his friend…his only friend now that he thought about it.
' Those fairy tail members always had more friends surround them to give them hope. Maybe to get stronger I need to make more important friends!' Jackal thought to himself.
"Did you even hear what I said?" Maya asked him annoyingly.
"No, I was thinking. Why?" Jackal said before eating the last strawberry and throwing the box in a random person's trash bin.
"I said in order for my parents to stop from getting a divorce we gotta convince Ground Hawk to fight them and make them remember their love for each other!" Maya said frustratingly outing at her friend's lack of attention.
"Isn't fighting what's making them get a divorce? What's making them fight someone else gonna do?" Jackal asked her. Despite his time with them, he still didn't grasp some aspects of humans. If two humans constantly fought despite being married, it was only a matter of time before one of them died or split apart. He wished Maya would understand so they could go off and do something else.
"But what if this works? Besides My mom had him in her contact list, that has to mean something. Come on." Maya said walking towards Groundhawks door and knocking on the door with Jackals standing to her right.
"Hello? Uhhh…Mr groundhawk?" Maya asked. The next second a loud and rough voice shouted through the door.
"ITS MY DAY OFF YOU VOUGHT COCK-KNUCKLES!". The voice shouted back.
"We're not from Vought! I Maya, Maya Nubian, and my friend Jackal." She said back to the door.
"Are you two kids?" the voice asked back.
"Hey, we're not kids. We're eight jackass!" Jackal shouted back to the door crossing his arms while Maya stomped her foot on the patio. The two attempts of maturity made them look adorable to the neighbor across the street who was raking their lawn.
"Don't soil yourself foul mouth. Doors open."
Maya turned the doorknob but it did not budge keeping the door locked.
"It's locked," Jackal said as Maya tried to turn the knob hard enough to force it open, only making their face puff up in a blush red from the strain.
"Oh for fucks sake! Watch your eyes!" The voice said. As Maya stepped back the door was instantly thrown off its hinges flying past Maya and Jackal landing on the other side of the sidewalk. Maya looked back with wide eyes at her near-death experience and Jackal only looked at the flying door with a neutral face. The two turned around and saw a large 6-foot man who had on a blue-green hawk mask.
Who happened to have a large beer belly and a pink robe.
"Eh sorry about that kids. I'm not really good with doorknobs. What, your parents send you? And what's with the furry?" Groundhawk asked the young girl.
"What's a furry?" Jackal asked not knowing what a furry is but feeling somehow insulted.
"No. Also, he's a friend, I didn't want to come alone. Plus, I need your help." Maya asked hoping the supe would listen to her.
"Jesus fuckin' christ. Alright, come in. You want a soda or something? It's not like this can look bad to anyone. I'm not a pedo by the way. I don't even have fingers." Groundhawk said as the two kids walked inside but as they went in he turned around and shouted the eavesdropping neighbor.
"IM NOT A GODDAMN PEDO, BENJAMIN!" Groundhawk shouted to Benjamin who recoiled in fear clutching his rake.
With the trio inside Groundhawk sat on the couch hunched staring into the seeming void while Maya and Jackal looked at the house in disgust. Holes punched in the drywall and studs of the house. Trash of various junk food littered the house with the stench noticeable the moment they stepped foot inside.
"This place smells almost as bad as a dead person," Jackal said trying to cover the smell with their scarf as a makeshift mask.
"Yeah, this place is a dump. Ugh." Maya stated with the sight of decayed food in Groundhawk's fridge with the soda in the fridge being the only thing inside that had any semblance of freshness. She grabbed the 3 left in the fridge and opened one for Groundhawk with a straw while tossing one to Jackal.
"Thanks kid." Groundhawk said as he grabbed his drink
"Woah dude! What happened to your VS3!" Maya asked in surprise that someone would break a top-of-the-line gaming system.
"Why do you have your window boarded up?" Jackal asked peeping through the window section that didn't have boards only to see glass caked in dirt and grim.
"I got anger issues okay and I don't want anyone seeing them. Listen kids what are you doing here? I gotta get back to staring into the void and trying not to fatally injure myself when I pee." Ground Hawk said in self-pity.
"My parents are getting a divorce." Maya said looking down at the situation of her reality.
"I heard." Groundhawk said looking down at the news as well.
"You heard?" The two children asked. None of them even mentioned it at the door nor contacted Ground Hawk beforehand about the reason they were there.
"Aw, look, kids, the truth is we work together. All that good guy bad guy stuff is all bullshit. To sell backpacks and lunchboxes. That fight where your folks met, that was all set up! It was fake as your dad's accent. Vought even wrote our lines for us. Mine were fucking stupid by the way." Ground Hawk spoke the confession with as much ease as he could to the two children, most kids who meet their heroes do so in front of the cameras so it's always as if they were just as amazing in person as they were on screen and in comic books. Unfortunately, when the cameras were off, those heroes couldn't give less of a shit about those kids who looked up to them. Hell, sometimes those heroes did worse things to those children than most criminals would think of.
"I know. I'm friends with this guy over here. Plus I read my mom's old scripts." Maya said pointing to Jackal who was looking on the shelf of oddball Groundhawk collectible toys and other merchandise trinkets examining a Ground Hawk doll.
"Hey don't touch that. That's the last piece of public merch I have and I don't want you ruining it. Put it next to the Sindarin paper."
"Whats Sindarin?" Jackals asked never before hearing that language before in his life.
"I think that's the weird language those shadow desert dudes use in Star Wars." Maya responded remembering seeing the old Star Wars movie with her dad on his birthday.
"What? No! It's the language the elves of middle-earth used." Ground Hawk said not believing the very words he had heard. The responses were blank and confused looks from the two kids. "Jesus did nobody else fucking read the Fellowship of the Ring in school? Just put it next to the paper with the weird-looking letters on it."
As Jackal went to do so he noticed that the page indeed had weird letters to mostly everyone not familiar with it. However, it was a very familiar language for Jackal, one he had not seen in 8 years. He picked up the paper to be sure, the accent lines, the sharp corners of the letters, the faded blue ink but most of all a feeling he hadn't felt since he came into this world.
Within the letters of the page was not Sindari, because Jackal could feel the magic energy in them.
"Hey what did I tell you about touching my shit!"
"This isn't Sindari. These are magic letters." Jackal said as he held the page. He was right, ever since he came into this world one of the first things he did once he began his ' hero' career was searching for others who came from his world, or evidence of it at the very least.
Unfortunately, most of the magic he found was just advanced sleight of hand he learned to do himself when his father bought him a beginner magic kit for his 7th birthday after asking if there was any magic in the world. The tricks were useless but the sleight of hand he found useful, he was used to sneaking around and striking with his explosions so being able to slip a marble into someone's pocket and have them blow up spontaneously was certainly enticing to him.
2 things were cemented into him after that. One, never get caught throwing away a birthday gift in front of the person who gave it to you or get grounded by Mom. Two, that any true magic was most likely gone or didn't exist. Fortunately, his search wasn't in vain, it just so happened he needed to search the decrepit house of a 30ish-year-old depressed overweight man.
"Magic what? Look kid its just fiction, not real and all that shit." Groundhawk said getting more annoyed by the second.
"Wait, isn't that the same symbol you showed me was on your fist?" Maya asked Jackal pointing at the page.
Jackal looked on the left corner of the page and saw Maya was right, the same curse symbol that showed when he activated his curses was on the page. However, it seemed to be the only part of the page that looked like it was even related to a curse rune. The rest were in Earthland script, in fact it looked to be structured like one of Jackal's homework assignments.
"Yeah, this is a lacrima paper. It's instructions for using [Transformation Magic ]." Jackal said, surprised that such a paper even reached in this house.
"Okay, what the fuck are you kids talking about? Is this some kind of internet thing I'm not catching up on?" Groundhawk said confused at the children's antics.
"Just show him Jackal." Maya said hoping that the phrase 'seeing is believing' in that one church she went to that had the supe Ezekial in it was true.
Jackal activated his curse, his fist glowing as Groundhawk looked in shock but also curious as the same symbol that Maya had pointed out appeared on Jackals hand, albeit very small.
"Okay your powers are more than being a furry, but that doesn't mean-" GroundHawk was cut off as a yellow-green transparent sphere picked up his soda can and lifted it up in the air before being flung out the door with an audible boom like a loud firework setting off car alarms with Benjamin yelling "MY LAWN!".
"Alright you have my interest, you said transformation magic right, like, making me have actual fucking hands?" Groundhawk asked looking at Jackal.
"I guess so. Why?"
"Please teach me! I can't live with these fucking hammers anymore! Every day I have to be careful not to rip my dick off when I go to take a piss, I can only eat soup or food that comes in bowls or open boxes! I can't hold a woman's hands without crushing it by accident or making it awkward, I can't tear off toilet paper sheets to wipe my ass with, I can't feel what my hammers touch so I can only guess what something feels, and most of all everyone thinks I'm a pedo because IT'S ALWAYS EASIER TO BLAME THE FUCKING FREAK!" Ground Hawk yelled out the frustrations of his life being unable to live like a normal human being. The anger rose and was let out with a loud crack, GroundHawk only registering the broken table after he had let out a long, exhausting, tired breath.
"We'll help you. On one condition." Maya said.
"Name it! Anything you want I'll get it, except money. I'm broke."
"I want you to fight my parents so they remember they love each other." Maya said hoping to get a yes from the man's desperation.
"Hmm" Was all Groundhawk said before he spoke again. "My parents got divorced when I was about your age. They tried and all, but their kid had hammers for hands and kept putting holes in their shitty trailer home. It was better for all of us." Groundhawk said suddenly, never having the chance to be open about his past and could only do so and hope that Maya would listen. Even if the memory brought him pain.
Maya understood what Groundhawk was trying to do, she was smarter and more perceptive than other 8-year-olds. Maybe that's why she was friends with Jackal, he wasn't as fooled as everyone else. Still, if there was a chance to make them remember how much they loved each other, it was worth the emotional and mental extortion.
"My parents are only happy when they're fighting, uh, I mean together. They're only happy when they're fighting bad people together." Maya said correcting herself.
"Well, it is a good time." Grounhawk said remembering when he put down a pedo in the act, now that he thought about it that was probably when those pedo rumors started. Actually, that was around the time when Vought turned his role into a villain.
"So you'll do it!" Maya said loudly in excitement.
"Sorry kid." Groundhawk said meaning it as a firm no.
"I'll give you all this." Maya said pulling out a children's wallet stuffed with loose ones and five dollar bills.
"I'm not taking your money."
"I'll come over and open sodas for you whenever you want!" Maya said knowing the prospect would be tantalizing.
"Fuck, that's worse." Groundhawk said, his resolve slowly being whittled away.
"I guess I'll have to tell everyone you're a pedo, and you lured me here with a broken VS3" Maya spoke knowing she was close to breaking the man's will.
"Aw, fucking hell, I knew this looked bad." Groundhawk said debating if prison is worth more than his pride.
Then Maya pulled out the puppy eyes, with tears threatening to spill out. With Jackal glaring daggers at him for good measure.
"Fine! I obviously don't have shit going on!" Groundhawk said standing up. Maya had a smile light up her face while Jackal only took a sip of his soda.
"And I can't Jack off so I may as well crack some heads!" Maya had looked at Jackal hoping he would know what Jerk off meant only to be met with a shrug of his shoulders.
GroundHawk pumped his hammers together and attempted to throw his soda can in the trash bin, only for it to bounce off.
"Good throw." Jackal said smirking at the failure.
"Lebron James I guess." Maya said trying to bring back some encouragement to the situation.
"So, how do I learn this trans-magic stuff?"
"Well, first I have to know if you have the magic energy to use it." Jackal said reading the paper in full. If Magic was in this world he might as well make sure one of the few people who do know it is on his side.
"So how to do you do that? Blood ritual?" Maya said genuinely believing something that would be typical Vought made up stories of some of their supes.
"No, at least not with any magic I know. I just have to sense it, most people who are potent and strong with magic or curses can do so. Just hold still and let me concentrate." Jackal said with GroundHawk only giving a nod.
Jackal sniffed the paper, not for the scent of the ink or person but to know the trace of magic. He closed his eyes and could sense the last traces of magic in the paper going somewhere, like bits of sand in an hourglass. The trail led to GroundHawk, it was there being stored like a battery but had no way to escape the body. No, it was more like the exit for the magic to come out was blocked by something. Jackal opened his eyes with a strain in them and a small pulse in his head making him blink hard to reorientate himself.
"Hey Jackal are you okay? You're sweating a bit." Maya asked in concern for her friend, never seeing him so strained before.
"I'm fine Maya. I'll be okay." he said while rubbing his eyes.
"So ya find anything kid? Other than my diabetes?" GroundHawk said.
"You do have magic in you. You actually should be able to use it but something is blocking you from using it."
"Blocking it? Well, can you get rid of it? Please I really just want some fucking hands so I can finally know the touch of a woman!" Groundhawk in his desperation.
"You have issues don't you" Maya asked GroundHawk who only gave a look that simply said ' like you wouldn't believe'.
"No, only you can. I guess to start the instructions say to imagine the object or creature you wish to transform yourself Into. Then release your magic." Jackal said.
"So it's basically telling me to believe in myself, that's a lot of help."
"Do you want hands or not?" Maya said wanting to get the situation over with.
Groundhawk only mumbled about the stupidity of magic existing. He looked at his hammers, those large black cartoon hammers. The same hammers that prevented him from being a normal human being.
' Imagine what I want to change huh?'
GroundHawk closed his eyes and tried to feel what magic was. He was a supe, had enhanced durability and senses like most and was stronger than your average one. Not Nubian strong but stronger than Blue Hawk. He could hear the beats of his heart in his ears and felt a sensation he hadn't felt before.
' YES! This is it, I can feel it!'
He felt an energy bubble inside him, locked behind his inner self of depression and self-hate.
' Enough feeling sorry for yourself you fat sack of shit, you want hands? THEN GET THOSE HANDS!'
Groundhawk could feel that energy course through him, flowing through his entire body. Everything felt like an entirely new set of nerves were connected to him. He opened his eyes and instinctively knew what to say, the magic flowing to his hands ready to burst out.
"[Transformation Hands]!" Groundhawk yelled out as loud as he could raising his hammers as high as he could.
Maya looked up hoping to see what magic other than explosions would look like. Jackal however looked at Ground Hawks' hands and could feel the magic coursing through them, wondering if the magic would be like that one white-haired mage from Fairy Tail.
A full second of complete silence over them all. Groundhawk put his hands down his sides and left out an exhausted sigh of disappointment with Maya only giving him a look of pity and Jackal only being disappointed at the lack of transformation.
POOF*
A bright-colored cloud different for each hand appeared in a puff of smoke before disappearing into the air making Maya jump back in surprise along with GroundHawk.
"Holy shit…." GroundHawk said to himself, he looked at where his hammers were supposed to be have been replaced by a pair of hands.
Rough, thick, and somewhat harry human hands.
"I HAVE HANDS!" GroundHawk shouted with elation on levers he had never felt before.
"I HAVE HAND I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HANDS I HAVE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDS!" GroundHawk yelled jumping and touching everything he could.
He touched the moldy damaged floor not caring he was touching a puddle of spilled unknown liquid only caring that he could understand the sensation of 'wet hands'. He ruffled Maya's hair undoing her afro pigtails.
"Hey!" The girl yelled out only for Groundhawk to touch his own merchandise.
"THIS PLUSH IS SO FUCKING SOFT! I HAVE HANDS AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He yelled diving outside hands first into the broken door on the yard. He touched the old cheap wood as if it were the Gioconda Shine Door, feeling every splinter and hammer dent like a long-lost lover.
"This wood. I'm touching wood! I can finally turn a doorknob! AND THE GRASS! IT FEELS SO ITCHY I LOVE IT! I can feel the dirt under my fingernails! I HAVE FINGER NAILS!" Groundhawk said as he plucked out chunks of dirt with blades of grass still attached to them. He laughed in utter joy jumping up and down and then into a handstand.
"LOOK! I'm doing a handstand! GroundHawk yelled without care that his moth-bitten tighty whities were exposed for the world to see. He hand walked over to Benjamin who could only look in utter terror as GroundHawk crotch covered his vision.
"Guess what Benjamin! I got FUCKING HANDS NOW!" GroundHawk yelled to the scared man who was lifted up by his shoulders and spun around like a small child. He was dropped on his butt looking in more fear as GroundHawk proceeded to tear out his precious rose bush pushing his hands against the thorns.
As GroundHawk proceeded to cause more unintentional vandalism, except for Benjamin's lawn, Maya attempted to grab the man's attention.
"Mr GroundHawk! I'm happy you got your hands but can you help us out now? MR GROUNDHAWK!" Maya yelled as loud as her voice could but the man was still lost in his bubble of happiness to pay attention. Groundhawk was just a whirlwind of invasion of privacy as he broke into Benjamin's garage with the sounds of a car alarm going off.
"I don't think he's going to pay attention to us, Maya." Jackal said as he walked outside to witness a car burst through Benjamin's garage door and drive in the wrong lane causing another car that was on the road to swerve. Groundhawk yelled a distant ' I HAVE HANDS!' as his mask was blown into the wind in front of his house as he disappeared into the distance.
"Crap. Now what?" Maya asked to no one as she sat on the steps registering her Head on her knees with a solemn look.
"I don't know. But I think you should let the divorce happen." Jackal said sitting next to her seeing Benjamin curl up into a ball crying in front of his broken garage door.
"I think you're right, when they do fight they get happy for a bit and then they explode when something comes up, I remember when the mailman got the wrong package and they both beat him up. We still get hatemail from his family." Maya shifted her head, still resting on her knees but pointed towards Jackal but not looking at him. She didn't put her sights on anything, only looking into the void.
"I'm starting to think they never loved each other, they just thought the love of their money was love for each other. I don't want to be a part of that anymore, not with them." Maya spoke with tears coming out of her eyes. She pulled out her phone and started to scroll through her gallery, a year ago her family had filled her pictures but now they weren't there. Not even on her birthday, with the only ones actually in frame for the picture were Jackal and his family for the birthday party they held at their house. The only thing she got was a birthday cake with her parents were arguing in their room.
"You shouldn't want to have their love if they don't love you. You should just love yourself." Jackal said back to her, unsure of what humans do to comfort each other. He only put a hand on her shoulder and smiled, like his parents did for him.
Maya now looked at Jackal and although she still cried, knowing her family won't ever be the same. She knew that one of the people that still cared for her was in front of her, like they have always been.
"Thank you for being a good friend Jackal. I don't think I want to live with my parents anymore, and Mr. GroundHawk looks like he needs a friend. Besides, it it means I can get away from them since they are so focused on their hero stuff, I'll make sure those pedo rumors go away." Maya smiled to herself, she knew deep down her parents didn't plan to have her intentionally. It hurt to realize her parent's idea of love wasn't the same as what she had, it explained a lot of why they didn't pay much attention to her when they stopped asking if she felt like any powers were coming out of her.
The two only sat there, watching as Benjamin shoveled the holes filled with dirt on his lawn.
Jackal looked at Maya and he didn't know why, but he smiled. She wasn't going to be okay in the now, but she was in the future. He felt it would.
' I think I know what that friendship Fairy Tail had now is.' Jackal thought to himself.
INSERT LINE HERE
2 weeks later Raynor household.
Sure enough, over two weeks, Maya went from Maya Nubian to Maya Hawk. Jackal saw on the living room TV that the Nubian's divorce had turned into a scandal when it was revealed none of them wanted custody of Maya and GroundHawk was given legal guardianship of her.
"I got a call from Mr. Hawk, Maya will still be going to the same school you do." Andrew said to Jackal whose eyes were glued to the screen.
"Cool" was all he said.
Andrew sat down to the boy and shouldered him. "I'm proud of you for being there for Maya Mijo, You were a real hero you know?"
"I didn't do it to be a hero dad, I did it because she needed a friend like you said." Jackal said. He was closer to understanding the power of friendship now than before, it was the most likely reason he was so concerned for Maya.
Andrew pulled in for a full hug patting his back then simply let go and left giving him space. Jackal was left alone with two thoughts in his head.
' I wonder if this is what being human is like, wonder what Maya wants to do.'
INSERT LINE HERE
AUTHORS NOTES:
This is the most of ive ever written in a single chapter. Almost 9k words. I want to say thank you everyone for the very patient waiting for the update of this story. Wanted to explore some third-person stuff and set some plot points for the future.
Just putting this out here, Jackal and Maya get screen time but either very little or not in-depth inner thought level so the 2 are going to be mainly OC.
I'm writing Jackal as competent in situations that require fighting, being sneaky, or survival. After all, he was throwing hands with Natsu and Lucy and only lost because of the character's strengths and sacrifices (if you know you know). But in social interactions, you might as well talk to a brick.
After all Ashley hates the kid's guts and the reason he was able to beat up 2 supes that were older than him was because he is not a regular child, he's an etherious and he's gonna behave and act like it. Not to mention but I don't imagine a frag grenade equivalent bomb exploding in your face to be a pleasant experience even if bulletproof, and we know from the anime Jackal can create some big ass bombs. Granted though he is nerfed don't get me wrong but most supes we see only train in the basics with those that truly train hard like Noir posing a threat to other supes.
Jackal is an etherious from the book of END. He is not gonna be a pushover even as a kid. That's my reasoning anyway.
To clear up some questions, Yes magic is in the Boy's universe. How did this happen? You're gonna have to wait silly Billy. Not the most exciting answer I know but I will get into it just not the current intro arcs. As for magic and curses they are gonna be in [Brackets] when in use kinda like the manga.
Not much else to say here despite the length of time that has passed but this. Thank all of you for being patient with the slow release of chapters.
By the way can
Translations in order of appearance.
· When you get back I'll have tacos al pastor ready for you. Just don't come home with more trouble. okay, son?
· With Pineapple?
· Of course! Do I look like a gringo to you?