Chapter 2
Fitting In
A month later…
Disciples of the Darkhand Base, Steel Canyon
James sat relaxing in the base lounge, having just finished up his homework. The past month had been pretty great, getting to know and running missions with the members of his new super group, Disciples of the Darkhand. He finished his probationary period and became a full member two days previous. James was a lot more confident now in his abilities as a hero. With the help of the group, he had increased his security level to 20. James also learned more about his powers, and even learned some new ones, including super jump, which he thought was extremely fun way to travel around the city. His raptor pack was now sat unused in his locker at the base.
College was going well also. Despite his evening excursions as a hero, James was keeping up with his classes and his homework, earning good grades. He was even dating a nice young girl from one of his classes. He managed to spend a couple nights a week with her despite being so busy with his ‘Job’ as a messenger with the Paragon Messenger Service, which was the legitimate front for the super group.
James had developed several contacts that he could go see about getting missions, but he really enjoyed getting on Task Forces. Since joining DDH, James had participated in two. One from Positron, and one from Synapse, and Titania mentioned to him the day before that Sister Psyche might have something for them this coming weekend, so James was looking forward to getting in on that one too.
James dumped his backpack into his locker and headed for one of the teleport rooms in the base. One the way, he ran into Mouse and Lady K., a husband & wife team who had joined DDH a couple days after he did. “Hey guys, I’m headed over to Faultline to check out a new contact. You want to come along?”
Mouse shook his head. “Sorry man, we’re headed for home. Got some family coming over for dinner tonight.”
“Ok, catch you two later!” James went on to the teleport room and stepped up to the pad for Faultline. He keyed in his access code to the control panel and waited. The pad lit up, and with a flash of light, he was teleported to Faultline.
Jim Tremblor, his new contact, was a little standoffish at first, but after a few minutes of talking, asked James to do some missions for him. James put a team together and headed off. First, they rescued a friend of Tremblor’s, a hero named Fusionette, who had gotten in over her head with some Lost. They moved on to defeat a Lost leader named Kurse, and then an Arachnos Night Widow named Nocturne, though she teleported away at the last second to avoid capture. After that, James decided to call it a night, said goodbye to his teammates, & headed for the base.
The next day…
James walked out of his last class of the day. He figured that he’d stop by the apartment to drop off his books, and then head over to the base to see if anything was going on.
“James!” a voice called out behind him. He turned around to see his girlfriend Stacey headed to him. As she got to him, James put his arm around her waist and kissed her. “Hey babe, what’s up?”
“There’s a new Italian place called Vincenzo’s over in Talos that just opened its doors. I thought we could go check it out tonight if you don’t have to work.”
James smiled. “I’m all yours honey. Where in Talos is it?”
“Just a couple of blocks east of the tram.”
James nodded. “Sounds good. What time do you want to go?”
“How’s 7:00?”
“Okay hon. After that, why don’t we go over to my place? We can throw in a video or something.”
She smiled. “Sounds good to me. I gotta get to my next class. See you at 7:00.” She kissed him and ran off to one of the campus buildings.
James was almost to his apartment when his navcomm beeped. He pulled it out and saw that he had a call coming in from Titania. He hit the answer button. “Purple here.”
“Purple, I need you to swing by the base for a quick meeting about the Task Force for this weekend.”
James looked at his watch. It said 4:00. “Is it going to take long? I’m going out to dinner with my girlfriend tonight.”
“Nah, should only take about an hour.”
“Okay T, I’ll be there in about 30 minutes.”
James and Stacey walked hand in hand out of Vincenzo’s. The food was fantastic, and they headed for the Tram to go over to his place. As they walked out of the restaurant, James noticed 5 Warriors standing across the street. As he and Stacey walked away from the restaurant, the group started across the street towards them. Stacey saw them too.
“James?” He could see that she was a little nervous.
“Just keep walking honey, and act like nothing is wrong.” At first, James was hoping that they could make it to the tram station and get past the police drones before the group caught up to them. Stacey didn’t know that he was a hero, and he wasn’t ready for her to find out yet. The Warriors started running towards them though, and he knew that they weren’t going to make it.
As the 5 Warriors stopped in front of them, James pushed Stacey behind him and said. “We don’t want any trouble guys.”
“Well that depends on you,” said one of the Warriors. “You see, this here is our street, and if you want to keep walking down it safely, then you’re going to have to pay a fee.”
James took all of his cash out of his wallet and held it out. “Here’s 150 dollars, that’s all I have.”
The leader of the group took the money. “That’s very generous of you young sir, however, our normal fee is 300.” He looked at the rest of his group. “What do you think boys? Should we show some generosity and let this fine couple be on their way?”
One of the other Warriors said, “I think that we should take the rest of our fee out of his girl there.” He stepped forward and started to reach past James for Stacey.
James grabbed the guy’s arm with his left hand and delivered a swift uppercut to the jaw with his right, staggering the Warrior. James picked him up and threw him into 3 of the group. The leader took a swing at James. He ducked under the swing and delivered a quick combo to the man’s stomach, causing him to fall to his knees and vomit on the concrete. James jumped over him to the other four, who were starting to get up. He delivered quick punches to all of them, knocking them out. James walked back over to the leader, who was still on his hands and knees. He took his money back out of the guy’s hand and told him “Should have quit while you were ahead mate.” James then took Stacey’s hand and the walked around the group and down the street towards the tram station. When she wasn’t looking, he pulled a PPD transport tag out of his pocket, activated it, and tossed it among the Warriors. As the two of them walked away, it activated, and transported the Warrior’s to the PPD Central Lock-up.
As they walked up the ramp to the tram, Stacey, who was a little wide-eyed at what had just happened, asked him “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
James smiled at her. “Oh that? I took up boxing when I was in junior high. I still practice a little at the gym.”
She hugged him. “Wow that was amazing!”
“Well, I couldn’t let them do anything to you now could I? Here’s our tram.” As they got on, James was thankful that he didn’t have to get too flashy while taking them down and expose his secret. He wasn’t quite ready to let Stacey in on that yet.
