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obliqueblade · 7 months

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Desert Duo- Scarian Superhero Chapter 1 (cross-posted)

Hot Guy’s POV

Scar couldn’t remember when exactly the first appearance of Cute Guy was. He wasn’t there and then suddenly he was kind of a deal. Of course, Cub would know, but Scar wasn’t too concerned.

The media, however, had been having a field day since CG arrived at the scene.

“New Vigilante raises suspicion of Hero Association’s ability to protect us”

“Hero Association allows Hybrid to run amok”

“Hybrid Cute Guy- Doing what our Heroes can’t?”

“... if we’re going to allow Hybrids to run around Upper City, what’s next? What’s to stop all of the monsters from entering Upper City? Cute Guy’s appearance is a threat to the peace our ancestors lost their lives to give us! It is time we hold the Hero Association accountable for allowing this threat to continue! By giving these monsters a way into our society, the Hero Association is dooming the good citizens to be torn apart by these monsters”

Scar couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the mainstream newspapers. He knew that outside of the bigger media companies, most people had begun to view the separated hybrids differently. Asking why they hybrids were forced out in the first place when there had been no reported reason. People question the history behind the city. It had been an ongoing issue, but with the appearance of Cute Guy, they had gotten worse. Of course, that hadn’t stopped the Hero Association board from gathering him only a few weeks after the papers had begun to circulate, in order to “discuss the issue”.

“Hot Guy, you have long been regarded as our number one hero, is that correct?” the Director stated, rather than asking. Hot Guy had been summoned up to the main building of the Hero Association in the middle of Upper City as soon as he had gotten in and changed into his hero costume. Aside from the Director, there were five other board members who were all in charge of the different classes of heroes and supports. Hot Guy wasn’t sure why everyone needed to gather for a simple “discussion”, but he doubted it would be any good.

“Yes, Director,” Hot Guy answered the question though he knew the Director only asked because that was the answer he wanted. He had only ever asked questions he knew the answer to. Hot Guy knew these were control tactics- ways to make sure that he remained in control of the situation. That the topic at hand was exactly the way he wanted it to go. It’s the same for dealing with hostage situations, always lead the conversation. Hot Guy couldn’t understand it benign used for this, but he wasn’t the Hero Association Director. The question was technically true, though, so it wasn’t like he was lying about it. Despite having worked for the Association for a little over a decade, having started as he was halfway through his Doctorate program, Hot Guy hadn’t taken long to rise quickly in the rankings before achieving the number one spot. A spot he would hold for the last eight years. Hot Guy was nearly confident that if he were demoted or lowed in the rankings the people in the city would riot. On some level, it pleased Hot Guy, on the other it was one of the main reasons the Hero Association would not allow him to retire.

No matter what, Hot Guy thought solemnly glancing down at the robotic legs strapped to him.

“Then might you be able to explain this?” The Director again asked thrusting a paper across the table at him. Hot Guy glanced down, recognizing the photo plastered prominently on the front page of the article. Immediately, nearly all of Hot Guy’s focus went to keeping the blush off of his face. He had a feeling that would be harder to explain than just the photo at that point.

‘Remember, Hot Guy, room full of people.’

‘Hot Guy unable to stop rouge Hybrid? Is this the end of the Hero Association?’

Pictured was one of the first times Hot Guy and Scar had met, and despite the fight the two had gotten into, the article had decided to use the very end where Cute Guy had managed to get in close and the two were practically nose to nose.

“Director, we were in the middle of fighting, I didn’t realize the cameras were going to use random images of the fight to…” Hot Guy began but the Director quickly cut him off.

“So you admit that you failed in your responsibilities? Not only did you fail to capture the hybrid, but you failed to keep your surroundings in mind and reassure that the Hero Association had this situation handled?” the Director angrily stated glaring over the table. Hot Guy remained silent for a moment. While it was confirmed he hadn’t been able to apprehend Cute Guy at that moment, the fight had stopped due to a monster attack a few blocks over. By the time they had handled the situation, Cute Guy had already vanished when Hot Guy got swarmed by the media. Hot Guy opened his mouth to remind the Director that, his main job was to protect the people, but he was once more interrupted.

“You will do well to remember just how you are able to do the things you do now Hot Guy,” the Director threatened practically spitting the hero's name. Hot Guy froze, and he could have sworn he felt his legs twitch underneath the table. Of course, he knew that wasn’t possible. The robotic substitutes the association “provided” weren’t equipped for him to really “feel”. Hot Guy felt the anger rise within him under the reminder of the “gift” that the Hero Association had “provided” when in reality they were the ones that had strapped them to him and wouldn’t let him take them off. As much as he loved the work, there had to be an end date- a date the Heros Association

“Director, if I may,” a voice interrupted and Hot Guy felt himself relax for a moment. Sat directly to the left of the Director was Xisuma, the overseer of all S-Class heroes and one of Hot Guy's long-term friends. There was no doubt Xisuma had recognized Hot Guy’s rising temper. He was also, right after the Director the most powerful board member of the Hero Association.

“Hot Guy has a long record with us, and we all know he would not do anything to damage our reputation. What we should be focusing on right now is how we can begin to get ahead of the media outburst. The best way I can see us doing that is utilizing Hot Guy here.” Xisuma continued when the Director did not interrupt.

“Xisuma, while that sounds like a good plan, how are we going to do that? The longer we let it run around the more people will think we’re incapable of handling the situation,” one of the lower-ranking representatives spoke up. As much as Hot Guy hated to admit it, they did have a point. The longer they went without an arrest, the more the media would use it to attack the Heroes. However, the more Cute Guy did for the city, the more people would use his arrest to make Cute Guy a martyr.

“Well, the answer to that is rather obvious is it not? We just need to make it appear that Cute Guy is working alongside the Hero Association,” Xisuma stated simply as if merely commenting on the weather. Hot Guy's eyes widened in surprise while the Director slammed his fists against the table turning to fix Xisuma with a glare.

“You’ll have us do what?” he stated tersely. The room was so tense, and no one dared to draw a breath as Xisuma stared calmly at the Director. For all the credit that Hot Guy gets, if Xisuma was in the public more as a hero he could probably spark so much in people. But, Xisuma seemed pleased to help out the S-Class heroes he’d taken under his wing, and in moments like this, Hot Guy was pleased to have him as his supervisor.

“How could we even begin to trust that Hybrid? What happens if we align with it and it decides to betray us? The Hero Association would never be able to recover! Upper City would become just as bad as the filth that thing escaped from!” one of the other board members yelled harshly. Hot Guy tensed at the language the member used to describe Cute Guy, and by how Xisuma tensed, he had also noticed

“It”.

Hybrids were hybrids for a reason, yet there wasn’t a difference to these people.

“Calm down, I have a plan. One that solves all our problems and ensures Cute Guy cannot go against the Heroes.” Xisuma responded once the yelling decreased, effectively silencing the rest of the room.

“We’ll use our number one hero of course,” Xisuma finished when the room silenced. This of course sent the room back into hysterics, but Hot Guy let the noise wash over him as he stared at Xisuma.

Use him? How? How would he be able to ensure that Cute Guy wouldn’t betray them when he had only met the vigilante a few times before? As if feeling his stare from under the visor, Xisuma glanced over at Hot Guy, before winking quickly and returning his attention to the other board members.

Oh, dear, what was Xisuma planning?

“Think about it. Hot Guy is the number one hero and has been for a while, but even before then everyone remarked him as a “true hero”. Don’t you remember the riots outside the building when we didn’t immediately promote him to number one? The people trust him. Look, back at the article. While the title mentions Hot Guy, the majority of it is an attack on the Hero Association, not Hot Guy,” Xisuma pointed out and once more the room fell into silent contemplation. Hot Guy remembered that time well, the previous heroes had mostly been infuriated by the people calling him that, but there was nothing they could really do about it. Hot Guy himself never really cared about where he was ranked, just happy to be of service.

“Go on,” the Director eventually said nodding at Xisuma.

“The media recognizes that the people will gather their pitchforks to protect Hot Guy if the media directly attacked Hot Guy’s abilities or honor. He’s done so much for the people and for the city, that this would not have an effect. So, we’ll use that loyalty. The Hero Association won’t release a statement on this matter. Instead, Hot Guy will be featured fighting alongside Cute Guy, because the people will grow to trust Cute Guy if Hot Guy does,” Xisuma explained and was cut off once more. Hot Guy nodded as Xisuma explained his plan. The people would only grow more suspicious of the Hero Association if they came out and made some vague statement or promise they had no idea if they would be able to do.

“That’s all well and good but how does that assure that Cute Guy won’t go on attacking our citizens?” the board member from earlier crossed his arms and glared at Xisuma. Hot Guy glared at him through his visor, but Xisuma just nodded his head. The very notion that Cute Guy would attack a citizen seemed ludicrous to him. Even though they had only met a few times, Hot Guy could see just how much she cared for the people, even when they hated him for it.

“I was just getting to that. So far, Cute Guy has only ever helped people. He shows up and quickly vanishes when we send heroes after him. So a few weeks ago I had some of the support classes run a few long-distance tests. We primarily set out to try and figure out the threat level, and if we needed to deploy several S-Class heroes to deal with her,”

“Then why was it not dealt with?” the Director interrupted angrily. Hot Guy would have preferred the question to not have come across as a threat, but he supposed he could understand where the Director was coming from. From the sounds of it, this matter could have been dealt with weeks ago from the Directors' perspective. The very fact that it had not been, and the issue had blown up in his face was no doubt irritating for him.

“Well we couldn’t get accurate scans for starters,” Xisuma answered sheepishly, not enjoying the fact that their department had not been able to answer a question. The room filled with shocked gasps and whispers once more, and Hot Guy had to wonder when the board had turned into a bunch of gossiping teenagers. Long-distance scans weren’t perfect, but they always at least revealed the magic level of the being that was being scanned. Every human had a minimal amount, usually, the ones with larger quantities had gear that made it appear that their intrinsic magic level was higher than what it actually was. Monsters had no magic level, they relied on a different type of life force, one that while it wasn’t magic could at least be easily scanned for across the city. It was how they made sure that monsters had not broken into Upper City.

Finally, there were the hybrids.

Now, Hot Guy felt it went without saying that obviously, hybrids didn’t occur naturally. A known, yet not discussed fact about hybrids was that the humans had engineered them back before the city was created. No one knows what the first group of hybrids were, or who they were created by, but they did know they had been created in order to fight the monsters. The hybrids were stronger than the humans and had larger magic reserves to fight.

However, once the monsters had been pushed back, something happened. There were different accounts of what “it” was, but as a result, the group that had created the hybrids constructed the walls.

Walls that to this day keep not only the monsters out but the hybrids as well. Hot Guy knew that every ten or so years, a group would arise voicing how it wasn’t fair that the hybrids had fought so hard to protect them all, yet when the time came, they were shunned. These groups never lasted long, Hot Guy had noted. And no hybrids were willingly allowed into Upper City.

After all, it had been over 2,000 years since humans and hybrids interacted before the construction of the walls. Who's to say they were peaceful? If they had managed to survive on the other side then clearly they were still dangerous. Who knows what would happen if they ever broke through the walls?

Occasionally, the Heroes would be attacked by hybrids within the city, but this was rare. Usually, all they had to deal with were monsters the walls hadn’t been able to completely keep out such as the Phantoms or Ender creatures. Maybe the occasional spider, but unless they crossed the walls that was about it.

Hot Guy had only had to deal with a few hybrids to various degrees. Once a Blaze hybrid had managed to burn his way through a back section that led into an alley and started a massive fire in the city, that job had been hard to handle, as they had managed to evade more of Hot Guy’s arrows than the typical Blaze. Eventually, the hybrid turned and went back through the wall, and it hadn’t taken long before the Hero Association had reinforced the wall.

The only other hybrid Hot Guy had personally encountered was no older than a teenager. He had stumbled upon them sitting in the small alley on one of his patrols through the streets before he got off for the night. Hot Guy recognized half of the hybrid to be Ender, but he wasn’t sure of the other half. As soon as the hybrid had seen him, tears welled in their eyes before they vwooped out of the small alley. When Hot Guy made it back to the office, he refrained from mentioning it. He had wanted to help them, but no matter where he looked he couldn’t find them. All he could hope was that they managed to keep themselves safe.

So who was Hot Guy to say what the hybrids really wanted? Cute Guy was the only one he had ever actually spoken to, and funnily enough, she did not seem to want to reveal her motivations at that time.

“How could you not get any readings,” The Directors voice caught Hot Guy's attention once more as he refocused on the conversation. Hot Guy forced himself to turn his attention away from Cute Guy, who apparently was good at distracting him even when he wasn’t there.

“Well, I discussed it with some of our engineers and there are two real theories, both of which prove this plan will work,” Xisuma started, “The first is that Cute Guy has some equipment that repels our scanners, however, there’s a few problems with this theory. For starters, when we isolated his weapons they came back negative for magic, they were just normal pistols. So we had no problem scanning his gear, and her costume does not leave much room for hidden gadgets…” Xisuma stuttered through his explanation, and Hot Guy felt his face heat. Hopefully, his visor hid some of it, but the reminder of Cute Guys… uniform was… distracting, to say the least.

“... now that does not mean he does not have anything built into the costume to prevent the scan from working,” Xisuma finished.

“I fail to see how this is good news for us?”

“Well, that’s just it. If the hybrids are advanced enough to not only know how our scanners work, but how to prevent them entirely, sending out one hybrid to help the Heroes does not make much sense if they were just going to attack Upper City. They would have attacked long before now, and definitely with more than just a few pistols.” Hot Guy's eyes widened, thinking over Xisuma's explanation. All things considered, Hot Guy never really believed that Cute Guy was doing this for anything nefarious. She might have been chaotic, but Hot Guy could recognize her want to help people. No one put their life on the line that often for people they didn’t know, just to achieve something they could’ve done without it.

“What’s the other theory?” Hot Guy voiced.

Xisuma tensed for a moment before,” The engineers and I concluded that there is a chance Cute Guy’s magic overpowered the sensors, and they could not handle the readings.” For a moment the room was silent once more as the weight of just what that meant settled onto them. Hot Guy couldn’t help himself from tensing. If there was a possibility that hybrids were that strong, then what was Cute Guy's motivation? Why come to Upper City at all? More than that, if Cute Guy was so powerful, why was she just using pistols?

“How likely is that?” the Director finally voiced after a beat of the heavy silence had passed.

“Doc and Cub confirmed it was probably about 10% chance. The level of magic that a hybrid would need in order to accomplish that would more likely than not kill the hybrid long before they entered adulthood, let alone be able to occur naturally. However, even if that was the case this is still a good indicator,” Xisuma admitted. Hot Guy knew what he was talking about and shuddered. It was seen rarely in human children, but, when a child was born with more magic than their body could handle it could literally burn them from the inside out, until there was nothing left. It was rare in humans, but even with hybrids being mixed, there was a limit to just how much power they could withstand before they faced the same fate.

“Why was I not informed of this before now?” The Director questioned, accusation heavy in their eyes. Hot Guy’s fingers twitched, and he had to resist reaching for his bow to defend Xisuma. While the director might be the big boss, Hot Guy would defend Xisuma before all else.

“We had to make sure our numbers checked out, and that we thought of everything. By the time we figured this all out, this meeting had already been scheduled, so we felt it best to report now,” Xisuma responded shrugging the accusation with little fanfare, and Hot Guy relaxed back into his seat. Logically, he knew that Xisuma was far too smart to put himself into a situation he was unable to get out of, but it was that Hot Guy instinct within that made him want to help.

“So, I assume the logic follows closer with your first theory. If Cute Guy were that powerful he would have attacked long ago. Definitely wouldn’t be using those pistols either,” Hot Guy stated leaping back into the previous conversation. Xisuma turned his attention back to Hot Guy and nodded.

“Yep, so this at least confirms that Cute Guy does not hold hostility for the citizens of Upper City,” Xisuma states, “It also shows that in either case, Cute Guy does not mind the presence of Heros, he doesn’t even attack only defends when they go after him until she can get away.”

“And I assume this is where Hot Guy comes in?” A board member spoke up, remembering what Xisuma had said earlier.

“Yes, we can use Hot Guy and the media to shift their perspective. We can make it appear that Hot Guy is helping Cute Guy and ensuring that she remains safe while helping out the city,” Xisuma resolves and Hot Guy nods his head. It was better than the alternative plan Hot Guy knew the board had wanted to go with in any case.

“Sounds like a sound plan, Xisuma,”

“I do have one requirement,” The Director interrupted Hot Guy,” you will have to use this to dissuade another of the other monsters from trying to do what it's doing. One of them is bad enough, and until we can get rid of it we’ll use Xisumas plan. However, if another one of those things pops up, or Hot Guy gets even a hint that it is planning something you’ll take it out,” the Director orders, staring down at Hot Guy. With more effort than Hot Guy cared to admit, he managed to refrain from glaring at the Director. Every derogatory remark made his skin itch, but there wasn’t much else he could do.

If he didn’t accept the mission, they would either use another hero, which Xisuma seemed to convince them was near impossible, or they would…

They would try and wipe out Cute Guy.

Worst case, they would succeed, and Cute Guy would die.

Even worse, if they failed, the citizens had to pay for it in the crossfire.

Hot Guy did not like either of those options.

“... so, will you do it, Hot Guy?” Xisuma's voice broke through the fog that Hot Guy had gotten lost in.

“If it’ll keep the people safe, absolutely,” Hot Guy affirmed staring the Director in the eyes.

Xisuma nods and stands, “Well, that settles it then. Hot Guy, Cub is waiting to give your equipment a check before you go out tonight, so stop by. Remember, what we discussed whenever you run into Cute Guy. Our cameras show he tends to be more active in the next few hours, so you’ll likely run into him more.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Hot Guy responds standing from the table as well “Have a good evening everyone,” Hot Guy nods his head at the members of the board who have remained sitting before turning his back and heading towards the door.

“Hot Guy,” the Director calls out stopping Hot Guy in his tracks.

“Do not forget. If Cute Guy shows to be a threat you will be the one ordered to take it out,” The Director reminds and Hot Guy smiles, lifting his hand to touch the top of his bow slung over his shoulder.

“Do not worry Director, Hot Guy will always be there to protect the citizens,” Hot Guy assures and the Director nods in response before turning his attention to one of the other board members. As Hot Guy began to turn back to the door, he caught Xisuma's eye. Quickly glancing around to make sure no one else was paying attention, he sent him a wink, before turning and walking out the door.

With the door closed behind him, Hot Guy rolled his eyes. Truly the board knew no limits. They didn’t even ask why Xisuma would have run those tests. Of course, Hot Guy knew, because he was the one who had asked them to. Go figure the board did not care until Cute Guy was a threat to their image.

Hot Guy needed to make sure the people were safe.

All the citizens.

If the board made a move to hurt Cute Guy, even though they all knew she was not a threat to the people, Hot Guy would follow what he told the Director.

He would wipe out anything that threatened the civilians.

Especially if they threatened the flirty little bird set on embarrassing him, and not just because he had a crush on them.

Nope, definitely not, Hot Guy affirmed to himself as Cute Guy sat on his chest with her hand over his mouth. Brain totally not shortcircuiting at that moment.

Hot Guy was completely able to do more than only stare wide-eyed up at the Avain as his attention remained firmly on whatever threat he had heard to lead to this situation.

Never mind he was still definitely just checking him out.

He was doomed.

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