Outsider Chronicles: Needless Hero
Getting reborn into a world of superheroes should be awesome. Instead, its a world threatened by godlike entities and most people aren't even aware of it. Still, at least I know a good way to stay out of trouble!...I just jinxed myself, didn't I?
And we are back! Before we begin I would like to suggest that, while not necessary to enjoy this, you lot should really give Needless a shot. Its fricken awesome. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
You know, considering I'd fought a big time crook last night, I really ought to be feeling less nervous about this. After all, unlike Lung my new classmates weren't likely to burn me alive...well unless I did something really stupid. Like make friends with the school punching bag...eh, that ships already sailed and besides, Taylor needed a friend, if only to stop her going off the deep end. Oh, sorry, I guess I should explain.
It was the day after my debut as Agni (I'd decided to keep the name) and, despite my late night, I was up and raring to go to get to school so I could stop being so damned bored during the day. Only now I was stood outside my new class, waiting to be introduced and feeling like my stomach was trying to digest itself. See despite having two lives to draw from, I had never really been the new kid before.
I was broken from my thoughts as the door opened and the teacher called me inside. Naturally, I immediately found myself under the scrutiny of every student in the room.
"Everyone, this is Adam Blade, a transfer from England," said the Teacher, "Everyone please make him feel welcome and help him if he needs it."
There was a general murmur of assent from the class and the teacher turned to me.
"I'll need to get some idea of your level for this class, so I want you to work through this today," she said, "Just do what you can and we'll get you started on classwork next lesson. Take a seat over there."
She pointed at a free computer next to a girl with curly black hair and a slightly hunched posture, suggesting a lack of confidence. I stifled the urge to smirk. Well, it looks like I won't need to put any more effort at meeting Taylor out of costume than I had in costume. I guess someone must really like me upstairs. Or hate me. Jury's still out on that.
Anyway, I walked over to the indicated seat and sat down. Taylor glanced at me from under her bangs, before looking away just as quickly. Jesus christ, she looked like she needed a hug! I ruthlessly suppressed the urge and instead smiled at her and held out a hand. I've been told I have a smile that either makes people feel better or puts them on edge, depending on my mood and how I feel about the person in question. Fortunately for Taylor, I was both in a reasonably good mood and actually liked her, so she wasn't likely to feel my 'Death Aura' as some of my friends once put it.
"Hey, I'm Adam," I said.
Taylor looked a little taken aback. I don't think she was expecting me to actually talk to her and I could sort of see why. I'm a big guy, tall and broad shouldered, with the looks of the type of guy who's popular, gets on whatever sports team is big at that particular school and flushes the nerds head down the toilet. In other words, exactly the opposite of the guy who'd talk to the girl with specs, little to no confidence and a complete lack of fashion sense. However, looks can be extremely deceiving and the truth was, I'd probably be labeled as one of the nerds before the week was out.
"Um, Taylor," said Taylor, hesitantly shaking my hand.
"Nice to meet you Taylor," I said, "I hope we can be friends."
Taylor blushed and looked down awkwardly.
"That...might not be a good idea," she muttered.
I scoffed.
"I can deal with idiots," I said, "Trust me, I know how to deal with bullies."
Taylors head snapped up and I caught the look in her eye.
"Oh come on, its obvious if you know what to look for," I said, "Lemmie guess, popular girls decided that you're not cool and with them so your the perfect target?"
"Errr…"
"Thats a yes," I said, "Let me give you some advice when dealing with bullies Taylor. Nine times out of ten, their cowards looking to make themselves feel better by picking on someone weaker. Its really not hard to get one up on them. Unfortunately, its that last 10% that are the problem."
"How so?" asked Taylor.
"There the ones who think that they have a right to make people feel miserable," I said, "Either through superiority complexes, being spoilt or any number of other things, they truly believe that there's nothing wrong with what they're doing. With that subset, something needs to happen to make them realize that their actions have consequences. Unfortunately, that type also tend to be the ones with rich parents or are the darlings of the school, so its kinda hard to do anything about them. Well, legally that is."
Taylor looked rather taken aback by my breakdown of the Homo Moronicus Bullus' mindset as I turned to my worksheet.
"Right, lets get started...oh come on!" I said, groaning when I saw what I had to do.
When I died, the year had been 2018, just a few years down the line, but close enough that the computers weren't complete dinosaurs from my perspective. Still, as a former computing student, all of this shit was piss easy for me.
"Well, time to show off my skills," I said as I cracked my knuckles.
I was finished with the worksheet within the space of ten minutes. With that done, I switched to surfing the net and eventually found myself on the message boards about recent captures, reading through what happened with Lung. As expected, Armsmaster had taken credit, but there were a few people calling bullshit. Mainly because the pillar of fire I'd made had been rather difficult to miss and Armsmaster wasn't exactly known for massive explosions. There were a few theories floating around, ranging from the pillar being caused by Lung to one suggesting that Armsmaster was experimenting with a new toy. I left a message posing a theory that maybe it was caused by a new Cape who wanted to remain anonymous for whatever reason, just to see what would happen. Hmm, I think that my power had given me an urge to start fires, even if said fire was a flame war.
With that done, I made a note to come back later and see the results and clicked on the Connections tab. I was curious to see if Tattletale would send me a message. As it turned out, she had. Actually, the message was addressed to both me and Taylor. Apparently she thought we were a due and not just two random people who happened to be in the same place at the same time.
Subject: Ladybug and Agni
Owe you one. Would like to repay the favor. Meet?
Send a message,
Tt.
I had to smirk at that. Looks like my nickname for Taylor might be catching on. Hmm, I wonder if she'd keep the name? I glanced at Taylor and saw that she was also looking at the exact same message and suppressed the urge to smirk. I wonder how long it would take her to figure out I was Agni?
The bell rang before I could consider that question for more than a few seconds and everyone started fileing out. I stood and hurried after Taylor as she left, both because I really wanted to make friends and because I had no idea where I was going.
"Hey Taylor, wait a sec!" I called.
Taylor paused and glanced at me.
"Do you think you can help me?" I asked, "I have no idea where I'm going."
Taylor hesitated for a moment, before nodding. I pulled out my timetable and showed it to her. She quickly scanned it and blinked in surprise.
"You've got the same lessons as I have," she said.
"Well, that makes things easy," I said as I put my timetable away, "Lead the way fair lady."
Taylor promptly went bright red and ducked her head.
"U-um, sure thing," she said, "This way."
I did absolutely nothing to hide the massive grin I was sporting as I followed the bug user down the hall to our next class.
When we entered the classroom, I was once again under scrutiny as the new kid and I have a feeling that the fact I was walking with the school punching bag probably had something to do with it. I suppressed the urge to shudder at the looks some of the girls were giving me. Now, don't get me wrong, having members of the opposite sex appreciating my physique was as much an ego booster for me as any other straight guy, but I really didn't like being stared at like a piece of meat. Especially by people who I knew I'd despise and would probably lead the charge against me once my geek side became obvious. Or rather, they would if I wasn't obviously a skilled and strong fighter.
I took a seat next to Taylor as she took her seat, ignoring the looks I was getting from Madison and her friends.
"So, I take it shes one?" I asked.
Taylor glanced at me and nodded.
"Hnn, she certainly looks the part," I said.
Taylor glanced at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Cute, pretty and popular," I said, "A pretty shell over a rotten core."
Taylor snorted and I grinned.
"Neat, I made you laugh," I said.
Taylor grinned back, before she seemed to catch herself and looked away. Eh, I've made a crack in her shell. Now I just need to widen it.
Mr Gladly entered the room and started setting up for the lesson. It took a few minutes for him to start the class, and he immediately ordered us to break into groups of four to share our homework with one another and to prepare to share it with the rest of the class. The group that had the most to contribute would win the prize he had mentioned on Friday, treats from the vending machine. As the other students started moving around, he approached my desk.
"Adam, if you just join a group and listen in for today," he said, "Contribute if you can, but it doesn't matter if you can't."
I nodded.
"Alright," I said.
I glanced around and headed over to join the only group without four people.
"Hey, mind if I join you guys?" I asked.
"Sure thing," said one of them, a short, chubby guy, "I'm Greg and this is Sparky."
He pointed at his long haired, slightly dazed looking partner.
"Nice to meet you," I said as I sat down, "I'm Adam."
"Hi," said Sparky in a voice that sounded like he was somewhere in the clouds.
"Er, exactly how high is this guy?" I asked.
I didn't get an answer as Taylor sat down and pulled out her homework.
"I didn't get much done," Greg said, pulling out a much thinner file, "I got distracted by this new game I got and it is really really good, it's called Space Opera, have you played it?"
"I have," I said, "Not a big fan of space sims like that. Besides, I'm still playing Skyrim."
That earnt me three extremely odd looks.
"What?" I asked.
Apparently Taylor was already getting used to my admittedly odd mannerisms and quickly shook herself off to get back to work. Well, she tried to, but Greg apparently couldn't be stopped and quickly started up on another tangent that even I found too much. I could talk a lot about the things I loved, but not in lessons. Even I knew when it was time to focus. I quickly got Taylor's attention and we got started while doing our best to ignore the rambling.
"…you have to understand it's a genre, and it's one I've really been getting into it lately, since I started watching this anime called – Oh, hey, Julia!" Greg broke off from his monologue to wave with enough energy and excitement that I wondered if any girl had ever looked at him twice.
I glanced up at the girl who had just entered for a moment before going back to my discussion with Taylor, who actually looked pleased to have someone attentive and competent to work with.
"Can I be in Madison's group?" Julia asked Mr. Gladly.
"That wouldn't be fair," said the Teacher, "Greg's group only has three people. Help them."
Julia glanced at us and frowned.
"Er, there are four of them," she said.
"Adams new so hes still getting caught up," said Mr Gladly as if that ended the conversation.
Julia walked over to where we were sitting and made a face at Taylor. Just loud enough for us to hear, she muttered a disgusted, "Ew." Then she looked at me and eyed me up and down with a gleam of interest in her eyes. I shuddered slightly as she licked her lips.
"Not even remotely interested," I muttered.
It was downhill from there. Madison's group moved so the four of them were sitting right next to our group, which let Julia talk with them while still sitting with us. The presence of all the popular and attractive girls in the class just got Greg more wound up, and he began trying to insert himself into their conversation, only to get shut down or ignored. It was embarrassing to watch and within five minutes I was ready to start banging my head on the table. I HATE being around popular girl cliques! Even if individually they can be intelligent, get them together and they become vapid, giggling annoyances that I was sorely tempted to incinerate.
"Greg," said Taylor in a vain attempt to distract him from the other group, "Here's what I did over the weekend. What do you think?"
She handed him the work she'd had done and, to his credit, he gave it a serious read.
"This is really good, Taylor," He said, when he was done.
"Let me see," Julia said.
Before Taylor could stop him, Greg dutifully handed my work over to her. She glanced over it, then tossed it towards Madisons table. Without looking, I snagged the folder out of the air and dropped it back in front of Taylor.
"Bad mean girl," I said, "No stealing other people's work."
I had to hide a smirk at the looks on everyone's faces. I don't think they were expecting me to be that dexterous, or maybe it was because I wasn't tripping over myself to please the popular crowd. I have to admit that Madison was actually relatively attractive and she at least had enough of a heart to realize that she'd wronged Taylor later down the line. To bad right now she was a bitch, as was proven by what she did next.
She scoffed and crossed her arms.
"What does it matter?" she sneered, "Its just Taylor."
I paused and fixed her with a flat look. Then I kicked her table, sending the package of notes in front of her flying up and into my hands.
"Wha...HEY!"
"Whoa, I can see why you need Taylors," I said as I flipped through the file, "This is shocking."
I tossed it back in front of her, ignoring the looks I was getting, ranging from disbelief to awe. Taylor spent the rest of the class with a slight smile on her lips that only grew when her hard work paid off and our group won hands down. As the lecture started, she elbowed me gently in the side.
"Thanks," she whispered.
I smiled and tipped an imaginary hat to her.
"Any time Ladybug," I said.
Taylor froze and stared at me with wide eyes for a second, before she shook her head and turned back to the front of the room.
When class was over, I headed out and looked around, headed down the hall to try and find my locker so I could grab my lunch and find somewhere to sit. Fortunately, it didn't take me long to retrace my steps back to my first class and from there to my locker that the Principle had shown me to that morning.
"Hmm, now why do I feel like I've forgotten something?" I muttered as I started heading back down the hall, heading to the main doors so I could eat outside and enjoy the nice weather.
I turned the corner and someone brushed past me, running towards the main entrance. I caught a glimpse of the tear stained face of Taylor.
"Ah, that," I muttered, "Right, lets see, how best to do this...oh, I know!"
I turned and headed in the direction Taylor had come from. It didn't take long to find her tormentors, who had just opened Taylors bag and were about to start rifling through it. I narrowed my eyes and focused on the zips. A moment later, the girl who was holding it let out a yelp and dropped it. My power worked best through touch, but I could heat up objects from a distance if I focused. It wasn't really that effective and was pretty much useless in a fight, but it was handy for disarming people if I got the drop on them.
I walked over as the girls checked on their friend, whos fingers were turning red from the minor burn she'd received. It'd be healed by the end of the day, but it still hurt.
"Hmm, I don't think this is yours," I said as I picked up Taylors bag.
"Wha...you again?" said Madison, "Don't you have anything better to do than sabotage any chance you have protecting that freak?"
I snorted.
"If being popular means being like you bitches, you can keep it," I said, "I despise bullies. There are few things lower than picking on the weak to make yourself feel better."
A curvy redhead I was pretty sure was Emma scoffed.
"Its her own fault for being so weak," she sneered.
I paused.
"Weak?" I said, "You think Taylors weak?"
"She just ran out of here in tears," sneered one of the girls.
"And who is it who's been taking who knows how much shit from you lot without snapping?" I asked, "That is anything but weak. I've known Taylor for all of three hours and yet I can already tell that she has an incredibly strong heart. However, if you lot keep this up, she will snap and then...well, I highly doubt you'll like the result."
"Why? What can that freak do to us?" asked Madison.
"She could kill herself," I said, flatly, "How would you like that on your conscious? To know you were responsible for driving a girl who's only crime was being a little different to take her own life?"
That shut the girls up and I could see that a few, including Madison, were paling as the thought. I doubted that would convince them all, but maybe it would give them something to think about. I turned and walked away, leaving the girls to think on their actions.
And with that, I'm done. Well, that was certainly interesting. I don't think I've ever had a character do anything like that before…
I really hope I did a good job of Adam's mental attack on the girls. I actually have plans for Madison that involve her realizing the gravity of her actions and making some changes. Yes, that is a hint.
Anyway, I can't think of anything else I need to say here, so I'll sign out and go to bed. Don't forget to leave a review!