Empowered Boy

Ch. 3 The First Act of Heroism

Perry was filling the last question on a written test that was 100 questions.  The watch went off as the attractive African American female instructor said, “Time’s up.”

She wore a blue suit jacket with pencil skirt, the shirt she wore with the suit jacket was white.  She had dreadlocks with blue and black beads lining them as the hair was held in a pair of twin tails.  Her blue eyes at first shocked Perry, but he quickly moved on from that.  The woman’s name tag read, ‘Carol Witman’.  Her left hand had markings on it showing that she used to wear a wedding ring.

Ms. Witman began to walked as she collected the test scantron.  She then said to him beckoning him, “Follow me to the next test Mr. Turner.”

A nod came from Perry as he followed her to a room with a car inside.  The car had a dummy inside and the car was smashed into a wall.  She then said to him pointing at the wrecked car, “This test is also timed, but is designed to see how you would rescue a person in a car wreck.  The objective is to get the dummy out of the car and to the blue circle as least harmed as possible.  There are no rules or methods you must follow or implicate into the test.  Just complete the objective in 10 minutes.  Which started 2 minutes ago.”

Perry snapped his head as he dashed into the situation.  Perry pulled out his bow from his brief case with his quiver.  He pulled on the quiver as he knocked an arrow.  He fired the first arrow with supreme accuracy at the back window.  The glass smashed as looked the various little red lights inside the car.  A few lit up as they began to emit a dull light as Perry looked at them confused.

He heard Ms. Witman say from a short distance, “The red lights are flames that will get brighter as the flames grow.  When they began to flash then that means you have only a few seconds before the car explodes which will be a buzzer.”

Dashing in Perry went to the back of the window as he tried climbing inside, but the quiver got in the way.  The glass pressed into his abdomen, but the costume he worn protected him from any true injuries.  Wiggling out Perry began to feel the roof of the car squeeze.  He heard pounds as he felt an orb hit his back.  He then assumed that several balls were fell down as ‘debris’ during a crash.

He then touched the car as he realized what he could do.  The car turned into a blue energy as it turned to dust.  He saw the metal being smelted, the ore being dug out.  The oil that was being pumped out of the ground.  The conveyor belt had several car parts that were being assembled by mechanical arms.  The car was bought by a white man with orange hair wearing a black suit with shades. 

Perry got out the dust as the car reassemble new with no damage to it.  He then walked over to the car door as he opened it and pulled out the dummy.  He walked over to the circle as he placed down the dummy.

Carol Whitman then said to him as she marked on her clipboard, “Very Good Mr. Turner.  You have passed the physical exercise and according to our test grading system you achieved a 92.  You are officially a hero.  You will check with your handler every two weeks which you will meet this Friday.”

Ms. Whitman gave him a card as he then nodded and said with a smile, “Thank you ma’am.”

Ms. Whitman said to him, “You can pick up your license at the desk where you’ll also get your picture taken.”

Carol then shook his hand as she said to him, “Congratulations, Mr. Turner.”

Perry walked out of the room as he went back to the lobby.  The girl with the fox get up walked out of a door about the same time he did.  She smiled as she threw up a victory sign with her left hand.  She cheered and bragged at the people who were leaving or sitting in the lobby, “I’m a Heroine!”

Perry smiled as he walked up to her and shook her hand, “I’m glad you are a heroine.”
The girl smiled at his impulsive behavior as she then said with a lick of her lips, “Why, who are you cutie?”

Perry was surprised at this but blushed as he sputtered, “U-u-uh, Em-empowered Boy.”

With a purr the woman replied to him as she then took a finger to his masked chin and drew it down his neck, “More like Empowered Man, to me.”

She then flicked his chest as she said to him with a wink, “See you around.”

Empowered Boy then asked her as she went to sit down in front of a camera, “Uh, you never told me your name.”

The girl replied to him with a smile, “Fox Tail is the name.”

Empowered Boy looked down at his new ID in his hand.  He smiled as he saw that he was now an official hero of Tennessee.  He began to walk as he went up to the bus stop.  A bus pulled in as he got on after paying the fee.  His dad was off shift by now and not driving the city bus. 

The bus came to a stop as he got off the bus and began to walk from the hospital.  He heard sirens as he became alert.  He saw an ambulance driving up the street towards the hospital.  He had no way of getting to somewhere right other than a bus.  Perry said with jealousy rearing it’s head, “Man, if only I could have powers like Here and There (A comic book duo that Perry is a fan of.).  Teleport like they do to get to a crime faster.”

Suddenly blue energy flowed around him as his eyes glowed blue.  The energy died down as he saw in his mind’s eye a tall man with a sword.  He glowed green as he flashed away and appeared in front of a Law-mart store.  He was in the parking lot as he turned his head to a scream..

He gasped as he saw a car fly through the air.  The car was on fire as it was coming straight at him.  He heard the scream coming from a girl that was in front of him.  She was a short and had long blond hair that was wavy with a curl at the bottom.  She was likely his age, just short as her clothes were designed for a teen like him. 

The car came near to hit them as Empowered Boy moved in and grabbed her up.  He wrapped an arm around her waist as he pulled her up off the ground.  His feet made a dash as he got out of the way of the car. 

The car slammed into the ground as he threw a hand back.  The impact caused the car to have the driver’s side down fly at their backs.  The hand Empowered Boy threw back touched the door that came at them.  The hand glowed blue as the door became ash the events of it’s origin appeared in his mind.  The door then reassembled and acted as a shield from the explosion.

Glass from the window of the car flew as they cut some of his mask.  He gritted his teeth at the pain of a piece of glass lodged in his skin.  He realized the the pain was nearly unbearable.  The girl shuddered in his hold as the explosion died down.  The door was dropped by the lack of force holding it up anymore. 

Empowered Boy let go of the girl as he said to her, “Get up and get out of here.  Run into store, hard for cars to get inside.”

The girl nodded as she ran away from him and went inside the store.  Empowered Boy turned towards the parking lot as he took out his bow and grabbed an arrow.  He ran forward abandoning his brief case. 

He saw a giant of a man standing by several cars.  He was surrounded by cop cars as three people laid with the officers.  The attacker held a sword in his hand that was black metal with a hilt of gold.  The pummel was a large jade chunk that was glowing have green energy come off the blade.  Wielding the magical blade was a blonde haired man wearing a green mask that was apart of his skin tight shirt.  The man wore a black kama with his green pants that also had metal shin guards.  A pair of green eyes could be seen on the large 7 or 8 foot tall man.

The opponent of the man was a man wearing blue spandex long sleeve shirt.  On the front of his shirt was the word in red ‘Law’.  His pants were a fish scale designed black with a red belt.  He had a head of red hair with only a pair of blue lenses shades as his mask.  This was the famous sponsored hero of Tennessee Law Marts, Tennessee Thunder.

Empowered Boy knocked his arrow as he aimed it at the sword.  His expert eye from remembering all the knowledge of the archer who had wielded it before him.  He let the arrow fly as it flew through the air.  The arrow zipped through the air as it stabbed into the man’s pinky.  A bellow came from the man as he dropped his sword.  Empowered Boy shouted to Tennessee Thunder, “Thunder, now!”

Tennessee Thunder threw both of his fists forward as lightning came from his hands.  The lightning hit the man as he was shocked into submission.  He hit the ground with a boom from his height and weight. 

The officers moved it as they tossed down ropes to hold him down.  Tennessee Thunder turned to the direction of the arrow as he saw Empowered Boy.  He walked up to him as he then said to him, “Thanks for the opening, I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Stuttering Empowered Boy replied to the man, “Uh, yeah, I’m uh.  I’m Empowered Boy, first day being a hero and all.”

Smiling the man slapped him on his shoulder as he said to him, “Well good job, so what’s your fee?”

Empowered Boy replied to the hired hero, “Oh, nothing, I do this for free.”

Laughing Tennessee Thunder said to him as if the boy was kidding, “Yeah, yeah sure.  So, what is it?”

Empowered Boy replied to the hero, “Nothing, I don’t enforce payment.  I’ll accept your gratitude as payment.”

Smiling Tennessee Thunder replied to him, “All the more money for me then, well have a good night.”

Empowered Boy nodded as he walked away.  He walked towards the store as he saw a few people holding up their phones.  One of the people then shouted at him angrily, “And what’s this going to cost us free lance!”

Empowered Boy had expected this a bit.  Most free lance heroes were looked down on for forcing people to pay up or sue them for getting free services.  Empowered Boy then said to the people as he walked away, “Nothing at all.  Have a good night, from Empowered Boy.”

Empowered Boy had green energy flash around him as he saw his flat in his minds eye.  He seemed to have vanished as the people gawked at his vanishing.