Chapter 1
A Purplelicious Into
An exhausted James Killian plopped down onto the couch in the living room of his apartment. The day before, he graduated from ‘Hero U,’ the training facility for new heroes that is run by the Paragon Police department and the Freedom Corps. After he was finished with this morning’s classes at the Steel Canyon campus of Paragon University, James threw on his new costume and met up with his fellow Hero U graduates to go on their first sewer run. The sewer run is considered a rite of passage by heroes, the first step in taking everything that they have learned and putting it all to use for the first time.
The sewer run was rough. Several of his group had gone down from injuries, being transported to the nearest hospital by the city teleportation system, but James persevered through his first run as a ‘tank’. He received several injuries during the run, but the empathy of the group did a good job of healing him as the run progressed.
After the sewer run, they stopped by Ms. Liberty, who determined that they had received enough experience to advance to Security Level 6, so she entered their new level into each of their navcomm’s and advised them to stop by the Freedom Corps Training Center in Galaxy City for some advanced training in their powers. The training session lasted until 10 p.m. Afterwards, James hit the locker room, showered, and changed into some street clothes he had in his backpack. He then caught the tram to Steel Canyon and his apartment building near the University campus.
If you were to see James walking down the street, you wouldn’t automatically think ‘Hero’ in your mind. At only 5 feet tall and 215 pounds, he isn’t what you would associate with the stereotypical hero who stands 6 foot plus and bearing a superhuman physique. However, James keeps himself in superb physical shape, working out daily, and doesn’t mind what other people may think of him.
James wearily pulled himself off of the couch, grabbed his backpack and headed for the washer. He pulled his costume out of his backpack, gagged a little at the smell, “Damn sewer muck,” tossed it into the washer with a lot of detergent, and started it up. He then grabbed a rag and some leather cleaner, and proceeded to wipe down his boots and gloves. After he was finished with that, he headed to the kitchen to fix a snack.
He was sitting at his kitchen table eating a sandwich when he heard his navcomm beep from the living room. He went and picked it up, seeing that he had a voice message from Max Tonnage, a hero he had been on the sewer run with. James keyed up the message. “Hey Purple, Max here. Man that sewer run was awesome! Just wanted to let you know that me and the boys are headed over to Kings Row tomorrow to see what we can kick up. Thought I’d see if you wanted to go along with us, we could always use another tank. Let me know dude!”
James sent a message back to Max saying that it sounded great, but he wouldn’t be available until after 2 p.m., and that he’d give Max a holler then. He signed off and plugged his navcomm into the charger. James then headed for his bedroom, stopping long enough to take his costume out of the washer and throw it into the dryer. He got undressed and into bed. As he drifted of to sleep, James thought, “Not too bad of a start for Purple People-Beater.”
The next day…
James hooked up with Max and his group, running several missions with them until the PPD putout an alert that the Atlas Park bank was being robbed. James and his group responded, finding a group of Vahzilok being led by the villain Comatorium trying to break into the vault. They captured all the robbers and turned them over to the PPD. Detective Freitag of the PPD rewarded each member of the group with a raptor jet pack that were confiscated from the Sky Raiders.
The team parted ways for the evening. James stopped by Blue Steel, who advanced him to Security Level 8. James then jumped on the tram for Steel Canyon and home. On the way to his apartment, James decided to swing by Wentworth’s to see what cash he could get for the salvage he had picked up during the day’s missions.
James left the trading floor at Wentworth’s, happy with the 5,000 dollars he earned for his salvage. He ducked out the back door and ran right into a group of 20 men in Outcast colors lounging in the rear parking lot. One of them looked at James. “Oooooooo, look what we got boys. We got us an itty bitty Boy Scout!” The other Outcasts started laughing.
James set down his backpack and raptor pack. He knew that a confrontation was inevitable, but he also knew that he probably couldn’t handle all 20 of them. He hit a button on his navcomm, which sent out an alert, with coordinates, alerting all heroes in the area that another hero needed immediate assistance. Knowing the late hour, and that he had been the only one in Wentworth’s, James hoped that there might be someone nearby. “Something I can help you boy’s with?”
All of the Outcasts stood up, and the leader said “Yeah, there’s something you can do Boy Scout, you can die. Get him boys!” The entire group rushed towards him. Despite the fact that he knew the odds were stacked against him, as the mob reached him, James jumped straight up. Spinning as he dropped to the ground, he brought his right fist down, striking the five Outcasts nearest him, knocking them to the ground. The rest of the mob ran him over, knocking him on his back. James spun on his back, kicking out, and swept several more off their feet. As he started to stand up, James kicked one of the downed Outcasts in the head, knocking him out. Just as he finished doing that though, he saw a baseball bat fill his vision, just before it struck him on the forehead. As the Outcasts stomped on him, James covered up as best as he could, but he was quickly losing consciousness. The world started to black out on him.
Suddenly, James wasn’t being kicked anymore. As he struggled to gain his wits, he felt something jab him in the leg. A soothing wave passed through him, his vision cleared up, and he felt a lot better. He looked around and saw that the entire group of Outcasts were sprawled around him on the ground, unconscious.
James looked up Standing before him was a woman. She was wearing black t-shirt, black leather pants tucked into knee-high black leather stiletto boots, and a black leather trench coat. On her head was sat a black cowboy hat. Her honey colored hair was pulled back into a ponytail, revealing her pointed ears. She was looking down at him. “Are you alright there?” Her voice had a soft lilt to it that was almost hypnotizing. “Hey!” She reached down and slapped him in the face. “Stop staring at me! If I want adoration, I’ll get a puppy. Are..you..all..right?”
James shook his head and rubbed his face where she slapped him. “Yeah, I’m good, thanks,” as he picked himself up off of the ground. “Who are you?”
“The name is Titania Lothiriel.” She answered. “I caught your alert as I was headed home. 20 Outcasts were a bit much for someone of your Security Level to take on don’t you think?”
James didn’t have to ask her how she knew what his level was. When he sent out the alert, his hero name and security level were sent out with it. ”Well, it’s not like I had much of a choice,” James replied. “I walked out the back door and there they were.”
Titania smiled at him. “Well, I’ll give you one thing noob, you’ve got some spunk. How long you been doing this?”
James rolled his eyes at being called a noob, but figured he’d probably earned it. “This is my third day.”
Titania raised an eyebrow. “Your third day huh. Well I suppose someone should probably take your noob butt under their wing so you don’t end up getting killed. You ever think about joining a super group?”
James replied,” Sure, you can’t go through Atlas without stumbling over a recruiter. I didn’t want to join just any group though.”
She nodded. “Not just jumping right in. That’s good. Well, I run a super group called Disciples of the Darkhand. I think you got some potential, and I’d be willing to try you out with us on a probationary status. What do you say?”
James replied “Well, you saved my ass, so you can’t be all bad. Sounds pretty good to me. What do I have to do?”
“Give me your navcomm.” He handed it over to her. She entered some information into it and handed it back to him. “You’re now a member. Go to the base portal here in Steel tomorrow, bring up your super group options on your navcomm and select enter base. That will let you in.”
James stuck the navcomm back on his belt. “Cool, I’ll stop by tomorrow afternoon after I get done with my college classes at 3. Sound good?”
Titania nodded. “Sure. See you then.” She looked around. “You live close to here?”
“Yeah, just a block over.”
She smirked at him. “I trust you can make it home from here? Or do I need to hold your hand?”
James sighed. “No, I can manage thanks.” He muttered under his breath. “Smartass.”
Titania laughed. “I’ll see ya tomorrow then noob.” She turned to leave.
James decided he’d had enough of the noob talk, so as she turned away from him, he smacked her on the ass. “No problem sweet cheeks, see ya then.”
Titania spun around and glared at him. James just gave her his most innocent look. She glared at him for a moment and then laughed. “Careful, you might need that hand later.”She turned away and jumped off into the night. James watched her disappear, and then he picked up his backpack and started for home.
