6A/N: Sorry about the late upload; I actually ended up forgetting my USB in my work computer overnight, so I couldn't upload this until now.
With that said, no fanfare this time, just enjoy the chapter.
The New Age of Heroes #2
Ringmaster #2 – Impulse
It was Sunday morning in Charleston, West Virginia, and 9:00 mass had just ended. Band Ringwald and Martin Ebert left the church talking about their plans for the rest of the day; while what they talked about was nothing their parents hadn't heard before, what went unspoken between them was the agreement they had made in secret mere hours earlier, just before Band's father had picked them up from the campsite.
The two boys returned home after mass, each of them quickly changing out of their suits and into street clothes, before hopping on their bikes and riding deep into the woods, eventually meeting up at a shabby wooden hut – a secret hideout they had built for themselves back when they were still in middle school. When they were sure no one else was among the trees around them, Band opened his backpack and pulled out the strange alien ring he had happened upon the previous night. He looked over the extraterrestrial artifact more carefully now that it was broad daylight; the metal was like polished stainless steel, but significantly lighter in weight, there were all kinds of seams all around the surface of the object, and the thin blue lines running across it still glowed with the energy that coursed through them.
Band slid the ring onto his left wrist, causing it to suspend itself in place so as to not touch his skin.
"That's crazy!" exclaimed Martin. "Do you feel anything with it floating there?"
"Yeah, a light pressure, like it's holding itself onto my wrist with some kind of force field," replied Band, as he shook his arm around to demonstrate that the ring wouldn't move.
"Okay, so that's one thing it does," said Martin, taking out a notepad and writing the observation down. "What else does it do? Can you make it do what it did last night?"
"I'm gonna try. Stand back a bit."
Martin did as Band asked and watched his redheaded best friend get into a fighting pose. Band picked one of the nearby trees as his target, then cocked his left arm back with his hand balled into a fist. With a twist of his wrist, he thrust his fist straight forward; a sharp crack, like a gunshot, resounded through the air, a wave of force shot forward in front of him, and the middle of the tree trunk cracked and caved in.
"Whoa, that's crazy!" exclaimed Martin, noting down what he saw. "Try something else."
Band cocked his arm back again and threw a left hook; the bark of the tree was stripped off from left to right. He changed his stance and threw out a few quick left jabs; a slight indent appeared in the tree trunk with every move of his fist. He crouched down and held himself still, his concentration intense, and then popped up into an uppercut; the entire tree was uprooted and fell backwards.
"Holy crap!"
"Did you see that!?" yelled Band, as he ran up to the felled tree.
"Can you put it back?" asked Martin, still furiously taking notes.
Band considered his friend's question. He walked around to the opposite side of the downed tree. He held his hand down by his side with his palm open, he concentrated, and then he made an uppercut motion again, but this time more gently; the tree followed the movement of his hand and stood back up, falling back into the hole it had been torn from.
"How does it work?" asked Martin.
"It's like there's this... 'energy' that I can feel in my hand; the more I focus it, the more powerful it comes out."
"Try doing some other moves."
Band continued to try different punches and palm attacks, stripping the bark off of trees, breaking them, or uprooting them. He wrapped up by trying an open-palmed slap, which completely stripped the bark off and caved in several smaller trees that were grouped close together. When he was done, he sat down with Martin, and the two boys went over the notes that he had taken.
"This ring is like my very own superpower," said Band, after the fruitful training session, "my 'Ring of the Ultimate Fist!'"
Martin snorted. "That name sounds so corny."
"Well, I think it's awesome!" Band retorted, with a big smile on his face.
"So, what now? What are you going to do with it?"
"Hold onto it, of course. Let's really give this superhero thing a try the next time we see someone in trouble."
"Sounds cool. We'll have to keep the ring a secret from now on, though."
"Yeah. Who knows what could happen if it fell into the wrong hands," said Band, as he stowed the ring in his backpack once more.
Back at school the next morning, the day seemed to drift by in the background, as Band's mind was too preoccupied with his new discoveries to focus much on his schoolwork. He spent most of his classes sketching and brainstorming ideas for his superhero costume – an obvious given, seeing as almost every superhero in the comics he read had one. He wanted some kind of bodysuit like the ones the particularly classic heroes had, but he also figured he would need a reasonable amount of padding or armor to keep himself protected; he would also need some kind of helmet to hide his secret identity.
Band was continuing his sketches in class after lunch when Martin passed him a note from the desk behind him. "Are you going to have a cape?" it read.
"Don't know, haven't decided yet," Band wrote back.
Their teacher, unfortunately, caught them in the act and forced them to read their notes aloud in class, much to the confusion of their fellow students.
"We're…talking about Halloween costumes!" exclaimed Martin.
"Halloween was almost a month ago," chimed one of their classmates.
"We're talking about next Halloween's costumes!" Martin corrected.
Ultimately, they both just wound up getting laughed at, but neither minded it since they had thrown off anyone attempting to pry into what they were really doing.
When classes finally let out for the day, Band and Martin made a beeline for the city center. Their destination this time was not the movie theater, but the Charleston Town Center Mall. The three-story mall was lined from wall to wall with stores that covered just about any interest one could have, be it fashion, sports, gaming, literature, and more; even if one wasn't interested in shopping at all, the mall also contained a food court and a variety of event and entertainment venues where people could hang out and pass the time together.
Band and Martin were there for a few reasons. They had already been planning to go on a shopping trip for some weeks now, wanting to scope out the video and comic stores for new entertainment; but now, Band also came with the additional goal of looking for parts for his superhero costume. They walked in and began trawling the perimeter of each floor, stopping by the stores that caught their eyes as they passed.
They stopped by GameStop, where Band happened upon a used JRPG that he bought at a discount. They stopped at Barnes & Noble, where Band snagged the latest issue of the superhero comic series he had been following recently. On the second floor, they dropped into F.Y.E., where Martin scoured the racks and picked up a few classic movies that he had been looking for.
"Did we get turned around or something?" asked Band.
"'Renovations,'" replied Martin, making air quotes with his fingers. "Everything's in a different spot now."
They had just stepped back out onto the walkway of the second floor, when they noticed the number of people in the mall had started to pick up. More high-schoolers from around the city had made their way to the mall to while away their evenings, including many they recognized from their own school; they took particular note of a group of 'popular girls' that they recognized, coming out of one of the nearby clothing stores.
"Hey, you think if this superhero thing blows up that we'll get girlfriends?" asked Martin.
"I think that would kind of defeat the purpose of a secret identity," replied Band, as they began walking. "Y'know, how superheroes are supposed to be anonymous."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Hey, I think they opened a new karaoke place here; wanna check it out?"
"And risk hearing you sing? No way."
"Band, you and I both know my singing voice is beautiful."
"That's one way of putting it. Sure, why not," said Band, as he looked over the balcony and suddenly stopped. "Hold on; that store is new, too. Let's check that out first."
The boys made their way back down to the first floor where Band saw the new store that had intrigued him. On their way, Martin pulled him to the side around the corner, seemingly out of nowhere.
"What!?"
Martin tilted his chin up in the direction they were headed. "Think I just saw Takemi over there by the store that sells all the goth stuff."
Band looked around the corner. Indeed, he spotted Shizuka Takemi skulking into the nearby Hot Topic.
"I thought that store was on the third floor," commented Band.
"Yeah, I know; they moved a lot of stuff around this year – some marketing study to see if changing the layout can get people to stop by more stores and buy more stuff. She gone?"
"Yeah," Band nodded.
"Alright; now she won't be creeping up on us. So, what's this store you were lookin' at?"
The new shop in question was an outlet for motorcycle apparel. They must have only added it recently, because Band had never seen it before today. It had caught his attention because of the ideas he had had earlier that day for his superhero costume; he could certainly use a motorcycle helmet with a tinted visor to cover up his face, and a lot of motorcycle jackets and pants had plenty of extra padding he could strip off to use as armor. He and Martin began browsing the racks when a sharp crack rang out through the air, followed by the sounds of screaming.
Out in the mall, five masked men, armed with guns walked in and opened fire at random. As the shoppers panicked and tried to flee, the criminals each grabbed one and put the guns to their heads.
"Nobody calls the cops, nobody gets in our way, or they die!" said one of the masked men – the leader from the look of him.
The men split up and each went into different stores. Two of them went up to the second floor, one to the third, and two stayed on the first floor. They wore all black leather jackets and jeans, and each carried two handguns, several magazines of ammunition, and a black duffel bag.
"Open the register and give me the money!" one of them yelled.
Martin couldn't see the men, but he was able to hear that much from a nearby store. He looked around for Band, but his best friend was nowhere to be seen. He searched the store, frantically, and eventually found him in one of the fitting rooms. He was throwing on a black motorcycle helmet with a dark tinted visor, and a matching set of motorcycle pants and jacket that were black and white with a green accent.
"What are you doing?" whispered Martin.
"What's it look like? These people are robbing the mall and putting everyone in danger."
"So, you're going to stop them?"
"Of course. I'm trying to be a superhero, right? I don't have a proper costume yet, but that doesn't mean I can't help," said Band, holding the alien ring up in his hand.
"But these guys have guns, Band; this is serious."
"All the more reason to stop them," said Band, a look of determination on his face. "I'm gonna need to sneak around them."
"Um, okay. Cameras."
Martin looked around the fitting room, noticing there were no security cameras inside. He went back out into the motorcycle store and quickly spotted the camera in the corner. He climbed, albeit a bit clumsily, onto one of the racks and pulled the camera down from the ceiling. He pulled an X-ACTO knife and a USB-C cable with a torn end from his bag; he used the knife to cut open a certain cable in the camera, then spliced the wire together with the one from his cable, and then connected it to his phone. He swiped over a few times on his home screen to an unnamed application hidden well out of view and began tapping his screen. When he was finished, he headed back to the fitting room.
"I hacked into the security cameras; I can wirelessly access them from my phone now."
Band was all dressed up and about to put the helmet on; before he did, he took a wireless earbud out of his pocket and placed it in his left ear, and then dialed Martin's number on his phone. "Find a place to hide and keep me updated."
Martin answered his cell phone and put his own wireless earbud in his ear. "I killed the cameras in this store, so no one should notice you coming out of the fitting room. Good luck," he said, before making his way over to the security door in the back of the shop.
"Okay," said Martin's voice over the earbud, "you've got two guys on this floor, two on the second, and one on the third. Looks like they've taken some customers hostage and are using them to ward off security while they rob the registers."
"I'll have to take them out without them spotting me so they don't shoot the hostages," replied Band, his voice a little shaky. "I'll have to take them from the top down so they don't see me from above."
"How are you going to get up to the third floor?"
"I've got an idea; just tell me when they're not looking." Band continued, peeking around the corners from the entrance to the motorcycle store.
"They're all stealing money right now; none of them are paying attention."
With that, Band ran out into the mall and headed toward the closest balcony above him. He felt the power of the ring surge in his left hand, but made sure to keep it to a minimum. He bent his knees and crouched down; when he uncoiled, he thrust his open palm toward the floor beneath him. He could feel a wave of pressure from his left hand push against the floor, propelling him into the air; he grabbed the railing of the balcony and pulled himself up. He ran quietly to the next balcony; he put a little more power into his hand this time and repeated what he did earlier, this time pushing himself well above the railing. Upon landing, he quickly found a place to hide, before talking to Martin once more.
"Okay; I'm on the third floor. Now what?"
"That was awesome! I've got you on camera. The guy up there is in the Japanese restaurant."
With that in mind, Band crept silently up to on of the columns near the restaurant in question; it was little more than a counter with a kitchen in the back. He peeked around the column and saw the agitated man pressuring his hostage to fill his duffel bag with money from the register. With the criminal distracted, Band moved in as quietly as he could, using the columns and indoor plants for cover to make sure he wasn't spotted. Now, he just needed to wait for an opening.
"Hurry it up, bitch!" yelled the criminal.
That was his chance! Band stood up, his left arm already cocked back, and let fly a powerful left straight. A sharp crack resounded through the air, and the thief was sent flying into the wall. Tile shattered as the man impacted the wall, but he wasn't quite down for the count yet; Band quickly focused the power in his hand again, and brought his fist down in front of him like a hammer; the criminal jerked forward, smashing his face into the floor. The young woman that was being held hostage just barely stopped herself from screaming, as Band used his power to lift the man back up and pin him to the wall without even touching him; the helmeted young man hopped the counter and checked the criminal's vitals, confirming that he had lost consciousness, before putting him back down.
"Are you okay?" he asked the woman, approaching her calmly. "Don't worry; I'm here to help you."
The panicked woman nodded her head fervently without saying a word.
"Good. Hide in one of the other restaurants, but don't go down to the lower floors just yet; there are four other robbers down there."
"O-okay," the woman managed to say.
"Martin, where's the next criminal?" asked Band, as he crouched behind the counter.
"You can't just call me by my name; what happened to all that secret identity stuff? Call me 'Overwatch' or something."
"Okay, 'Overwatch," where's the next criminal?"
"One is in Abercrombie and the other is in MasterCuts; you should be able to use the elevators to block their line of sight on each other."
Band dropped down to the second floor, using a light pressure from the ring's power to break his fall quietly. He decided to go to the hair dresser first, since it was smaller and farther away from the elevators. Unfortunately, that also meant the register was right by the entrance, causing the criminal inside to see the helmet-clad stranger sneaking up to the storefront. Band quickly threw an open-palmed uppercut, throwing the man into the ceiling; before he could get up and pull his other pistol, Band threw a fully charged punch, blasting him into the far wall, knocking him out. The bespectacled boy who was being held hostage let out a yelp, and while that wouldn't have been heard over the mall's music playing, the whipping of the air would have; once could have been written off as an accidental discharge or a threat to a hostage, but a second time would warrant investigation.
Band grabbed the boy and ran to the back of the hair salon, hiding the sleeping body of the criminal by moving some chairs in front of it.
"Overwatch, is the other guy on the move?"
"Not quite. He looked out the window in your direction, but it looks like he wrote it off and got back to stealing."
Band uncovered the boy's mouth and released the remaining air that he had been holding in his lungs. "Listen, kid; hide here while I take out that other guy in the Abercrombie, okay. Don't move, there are more guys on the first floor, too."
The boy simply nodded in fear.
"Where is he?"
"Pretty deep in the store. His hostage was kinda rowdy, so he knocked him out."
"Got it."
Not wanting to risk being spotted, Band sprinted across the second floor in the direction of the elevators. He cleared the distance in little more than fifteen seconds and bolted directly into the Abercrombie. The criminal looked up and raised his gun, but Band batted it aside with a wave of his hand; the handgun discharged into the floor, but ultimately flew out of the man's hand, leaving him surprised; he reached for his backup, but found that thrown aside before he could even turn the safety off. Not having much time for a charge, Band did an open-palmed thrust straight at the man, but only managed to lightly push him back. The criminal drew a knife and began swinging; Band dodged the blade by instinct as best as he could, but had to 'catch' the blade with the ring's power on the fourth swing, 'holding' it in the air before throwing the man's arm aside, and then pushing the man upward. The criminal still held the knife, but Band 'held' it in place with his left hand; Band punched the man in the face with a right hook, then followed up with a knee from his left leg; the man's knife hand was freed and he swung at Band, slashing his motorcycle jacket as he dove backwards to dodge. Before the man could bear down on him, Band threw a left hook, throwing the man to the side, before getting up and smashing him headfirst into the ceiling with an uppercut.
"Okay, I think I got him," said Band, checking the man's vitals to confirm he was knocked out. "Where are the last two?"
"One's in Zales and the other is in Littman Jewelers; they're pretty far apart."
"I'll take the one in Zales; it's off to the side, right?" asked Band, as he made his way to the escalators in one of the mall's side wings.
"Yup, still there."
Band dropped down to the first floor; his target jewelry store wasn't that far off. He rushed in and saw the masked robber in a small alcove behind the back counter. He quickly slammed the man into the wall by 'pushing' him into it, and then slammed him into the opposite wall; Band repeated this a few times before slamming the man into the ceiling to finish him off. The man's hostage, a young woman, peeked out from behind the counter, terrified of the paranormal encounter that just happened around her.
"Mall exit is nearby, go out into the parking lot where it's safe!" ordered Band, as he turned to go back to the main mall floor to track down the final criminal. Before he could step forward, however…
"Jeweler-Two, report!"
Band turned back around and looked behind the counter, at the crook he had just taken down.
"Jeweler-Two, report! I'm not getting anything from the others."
It was a small wireless radio, and from the sound of it the final criminal was now wise to the fact that his fellow thieves had been taken down.
"Hey, Band," said Martin's voice through the earbud. "That last guy looks like he's getting pretty antsy."
"Yeah, looks like he knows the jig is up," Band replied, as he got out onto the main floor and started moving between displays and decorations to sneak up the hall.
"Who's out there!?" said a shouting voice. "What happened to my men!?"
Band peeked out for a split second and saw the last criminal heading down the hall in his direction. "Where's his hostage?"
"Still in the other jewelry store; I think he shot her."
Band cursed himself for failing to stop the man, but he didn't have time to think about that now; he could still bring this man to justice at the very least.
"Wait, someone else is coming out of Spencer's."
Band heard a gasp, and then a scream. "Shut up, you little bitch!" he heard the man yell.
"Crap, it's Takemi."
One of their classmates; Band's eyes widened in horror beneath the helmet's visor.
"Alright now, you listen here! Whoever the hell you are that took down my men, get out here, or this chick dies!"
If Band walked out now, he risked getting himself shot; but if he stayed in hiding, another innocent person would die – someone he knew, no less, albeit not very well. There was no decision to make, not if he wanted to truly call himself a hero. Band stepped out and confronted the criminal.
"The hell? You're just some kid!" said the thief, as he leveled his pistol at Band.
"Blaaah!" screamed someone from around the corner. It was Martin.
The criminal jumped, having not expected someone to suddenly shout like that. Seeing the opening, Band punched the air straight forward, but with his hand flat and his fingers outstretched; the air screamed as a narrow blast of force knocked the man back into the Starbucks stand. Martin grabbed Takemi by the arm and ran for the door, but the criminal had managed to keep hold of his gun; he shot at them in retaliation; Shizuka Takemi let out a sharp scream of pain as a bullet clipped her arm.
As the pair of normal students continued to run, Band threw another punch angled downward, knocking the shooter to the ground. He wasted no time rechambering his arm for another punch; he was relentless, letting out shockwave after shockwave, battering the criminal in all directions. With one final uppercut, he sent the man flying through the air and crashing back down to the floor. The thief's head was bleeding from the impact, implying that he now had a serious concussion – he wouldn't be getting up any time soon. It was over.
Before he left, Band went to one of the sports stores and grabbed some rope; he went back to all of the criminals he had defeated and hogtied their hands and feet so they wouldn't be able to escape the police if they woke up. He went into the jewelry store the final criminal had been in, as well, to check on his first hostage…she was dead, shot in the head. The last thing he did was go back to the motorcycle apparel store to return the clothes and helmet he borrowed, before leaving the mall as its final escapee.
He met up with Martin in the parking lot shortly afterward, among all of the other shoppers standing around with worry as the police arrived to storm the building.
"Don't worry," said Martin, "I killed the security feed in the motorcycle store during the whole incident, so no one should be able to see it was you who changed into that outfit."
"Thanks, man," said Band, solemnly.
"You bummed out because of that girl that died?"
"Yeah. I know superheroes can't always save everybody, but it still stings pretty bad," he explained, looking around. "What happened to Takemi?"
"Dunno; she just walked off after we escaped."
At the end of it all, the police arrested all of the criminals, none the wiser about the anonymous hero that helped them do it.
Back home from their unexpectedly crazy shopping trip, the boys spent the rest of their evening hanging out in Band's room. The redhead was compiling all of his ideas and finalizing the design of his hero costume.
"Y'know, you're gonna need a name," said Martin.
"How about 'Blast Fist?'"
"Lame."
"Ringmaster?"
"Doesn't make sense to anyone who isn't you."
"Shockwave?"
"Now you just sound like a Transformer. Why not something that has to do with how crazy you are?"
Band stopped drawing and gave his best friend the side-eye. "What do you mean 'crazy?'"
"I mean how your first act of superheroism, without a proper costume might I add, was to impulsively stop a mall robbery?"
Band shook off his friend's criticism, but then stopped; he thought about what Martin had said for a moment. "That's it. Impulse."
The two boys looked at each other in silent agreement; they knew it was perfect.
Meanwhile, that same night, deep in the Kanawha State Forest, several armed men walked through the woods. Some were dressed in military gear, while others wore black suits. All of them were sweeping the area, taking soil samples and energy readings. Two of them, in hazmat suits, investigated a melted metal sphere at the center of a crater.
"Was it the sphere that caused this?" asked one of them.
"No energy signature. Whatever caused that pulse, it isn't here anymore."
"Keep searching the area. Some animal may have taken it."
"And if it was a person?"
"Then we investigate the town, subtly. We don't want to cause a panic, or cause people to start asking too many questions.
"What should we do with the data."
"Forward it to the kid; he'll want to know about this."
A/N: And there are Band's first steps towards one day becoming the hero we saw in the One Shot chapter. These first chapters are going to be rather slow, having Band learn the ropes of being a hero, both physically and mentally; and in time we'll see the origins and exploits of other heroes in this world as well. I hope you all enjoy it.
Anyway, until next time, stay frosty.