Ven ran towards the sound of the shriek. He wondered just what he was running towards—what kind of horror could he see? And what he would even do when he got to the source of the noise. Beat someone up? Would his powers even still work?

  As the streets became more suburban, he finally, saw a young girl that looked to be about ten years old, running away from three thugs.

  “You gonna pay for what you’ve done you little bitch!” he heard one of the thugs say.

  What could the young girl have done? Regardless, he couldn’t just let the scene play out as it was before. He ran and stepped between the young girl and her pursuers

  “Hey, uh… stop!” yelled Ven, eyeing the thugs

  The girl took cover behind Ven with confused eyes, the same eyes the thugs held. She was panting heavily and almost gripping his jacket. Perhaps she was still too scared, or tired to run away.

  “Who the hell are you!?” one of the men asked aggressively.

  “Oh, I’m a… superhero so you should stop,” said Ven.

  “A superhero?” the girl exclaimed.

  The thugs all just started laughing in unison. None of them seemed to have taken Ven seriously.

  “Ain’t no superhero coming to Ashton,” one of the thugs uttered. “Now you best get the fuck out of here before we really fuck you up!”

  Ven was almost intimidated, but then he reminded himself that he had superpowers. Besides, he couldn’t leave an innocent person in need. Their slang was difficult to understand but he knew enough to know they were out for trouble.

  “Why do you guys want this kid anyway?” asked Ven.

  “It’s cause’ she a thief!”

  “A thief?” Ven looked back at the young girl that was cowering behind him.

  “There’s a perfectly logical explanation for this!” the girl panicked.

  “Right… anyway, can you guys leave the kid alone? I can reimburse you.”

  “Nah, fuck that! We ain’t them kind of guys. You take from us, you pay for it! No exceptions!”

  One of the guys balled up Ven by his black jacket. “Get the fuck outta’ the way!”

  Ven balled his fist and immediately punched the thug. It strangely wasn’t supercharged, though he thought he was believing enough.

  “Get ’em!” All three thugs then started absolutely whaling on Ven. They punched his nose, his cheeks, his stomach, everywhere they could. When he tried to swing back, his attacks were immediately parried like he was a novice. All he could do was keep his guard up, though the impacts were still brutal. Their punches seemed to have hurt a lot worse than the speeding villain’s punches.

  “I thought you were a superhero!” the girl yelled before running away again.

  “Nah, you ain’t going no where!” The thugs yelled as they shifted their attention to the girl.

  Ven wiped the blood away from his nose, before gathering grand strength into his left fist.

  “Don’t go near her,” Ven shouted as he punched one of his enemies in the face. Finally, his super strength seemed to have returned. The impact sent the thug flying several feet backwards. He only stopped until he hit an old building, which made it crumble with debris.

  “Woah,” the girl exclaimed.

  The other two thugs looked at Ven with pure terror, before putting on deep annoyance. It was like they knew instinctively that an ordinary citizen had no chance against a super-powered man.

  “So you an emergee huh? It’s all good, we got something for you.”

  The other two thugs picked up their friend, who was completely unconscious. They began to slowly walk away as the downed man’s arms rested on their shoulders.

  The man looked extremely hurt, almost dead even. Ven really hoped he didn’t hurt him too badly.

  It seemed they were trying to leave the scene. Ven felt it was best to let them go, since they were no longer a threat to the young girl (at least for now), and he wasn’t true if his superpowers would glitch out again.

  “You’ll see us again ‘superhero.’ Best believe that! You ain’t the only emergee in Ashton.”

  The young girl ran up to Ven as he tried to keep the stars away from floating around his head. His anxiety was raging like a storm, he had to keep constantly telling himself that he was “okay,” even if he probably had a black eye.

  “Are you okay!?” the girl asked.

  “Yeah… I’m fine.” said Ven as he wiped away more blood from his nose. “Did you really steal from those guys?”

  “So you really are a superhero!” the girl exclaimed, completely ignoring Ven’s question.“You had me worried for a minute!”

  “Oh… yeah, that’s what I said before,” said Ven.

  “So what’s your superhero name? And Where’s your costume?”

  “I uh… don’t have neither of that.”

  After a brief pause, the girl basically began to scream.

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  “WHAT!? How do you not have a superhero name or a costume!? What kind of hero are you!”

  Her voice was so loud, that Ven looked around the vicinity. “l just got my powers a few days ago! And why are you so loud!? It’s basically night time, people are getting ready to go to sleep!”

  “You’re one to talk after you punched that guy into the wall! Everyone’s already awake after that! I bet you killed the guy! Yep, probably broke every bone in his body!”

  “Man, I hope I didn’t. I just wanted them to leave you alone, I didn’t want to kill the guy,”

  “Who cares, he was just a lame gang member of Cinder Fang anyway!

  “Cinder Fang? What is that exactly?”

  “Tell you what hero,” said the girl ignoring Ven again. “I’ll make you a superhero costume free of charge! All you have to do is shout out my graphic design shop any chance you get!

  “But you’re just a kid… what does a kid know about running a graphic design shop?”

  “Don’t underestimate my business! This is the best shop around for superhero costumes! We can go to the shop right now and start work right away! We can even treat your wounds too, because you kinda got beat up… bad.

  “Ugh, don’t remind me. You’re such a weird kid!”

  “So, have we got ourselves a deal?”

  “I don’t even know your name,” facepalmed Ven.

  “Oh right… My name is Tamu, and yours?”

  “It’s Ven,” answered Ven, still confused by the girl’s proposition.

  “That’s a cool name, maybe we can make you a superhero name that sounds just as cool,” said Tamu. “Ready to head to the shop?”

  “Don’t you have school tomorrow?”

  “It’s Friday silly!”

  “Oh… right. Is the shop even open? It’s almost 9:00pm.”

  “Yep, it’s still open!”

  Ven scratched his head as the young girl looked at him with anticipation. He barely thought about a costume or a name, so perhaps the girl had a point. Tamu clearly wanted to design his outfit, but did he really want her to design it? With the money his family had, he could pay a top quality graphics shop to design the most exquisite superhero costume around. Why would he settle for a free suit from a kid from the slums. But then again… how could he decline Tamu’s request.

  “Okay, fine! I need a costume, so the sooner I can get it, the better.”

  “Great! Now we’re talking! Let’s go to the shop! I’ll get started as soon as I can.”

  “Awesome,” said Ven as he looked around the vicinity. So even extreme poverty had children in it? He felt bad that she had to live in utter chaos.

  The two newly acquainted individuals began their walk in the damaged city.

  “Who’s your favorite superhero Ven? Mine is Stylo, he is the most famous Baharian superhero after all,” asked Tamu.

  “Well… I would say Stylo too, but I met him this morning and he’s kind of a jerk.”

  “WAIT! You met Stylo! Why didn’t you tell me sooner!?” freaked Tamu.

  “Didn’t you hear, he’s a jerk. He just ignored me when I tried to talk to him.”

  “Maybe he was busy, you know heroes are busy people,” said Tamu.

  “Yeah I guess… My favorite superhero right now is Chronos. He’s kind of low-key, but he seems like a really cool guy. Do you know him?”

  “Yeah, he’s alright, but he’s kind of an edgelord,” laughed Tamu.

  “That’s what makes him stand out,” chuckled Ven.

  They both chuckled, as Ven studied the run down environment again. They walked past addicts passed out on the sidewalks, their clothes worn and torn. Tamu seemed to have been strangely staring at them with an angry countenance.

  Ven spoke with a somber tone. “So the name of these slums is Ashton. You live here Tamu?”

  After a brief pause, Tamu answered. “Yeah, but it’s okay! Once my graphic shop blows up I’m gonna live in luxury! My Mom and sister are gonna be so proud!”

  “I see. I hope it blows up,” said Ven.

  “Of course it’s gonna blow up, once people see how awesome of a hero you are, people are gonna see me in droves!”

  “Thanks,” said Ven. “I’ll try to be the greatest hero I can. This graphic shop is gonna explode.”

  Eventually, they walked past many houses that eventually led to one small, almost broken house with a small garage.

  “Wait… this is your house! I thought we were going to your shop!” remarked Ven.

  “Well, yeah what did you think I meant by shop! The shop’s in the garage.” Tamu then walked towards the heavily scratched front door. “Wait right here, I’ll be right back!”

  Weird kid, Ven thought as turned around to face the moon. He put his hand on his swollen cheeks to access the damage. Those thugs did more of a number on him than he thought. Thankfully, his torso did not hurt anymore.

  The garage slowly began to open. It took so long that Ven helped the garage fully open on the other side.

  Upon seeing inside of the garage, Ven was shocked. There were many different fabrics around and the place was also littered with gadgets and other strange tech. Some of the gadgets were probably specifically crafted for superhero costumes. Did her parents not care about their garage being some sort of laboratory now?

  “This is all actually amazing! You did all this yourself?” exclaimed Ven.

  “You know it!”

  Tamu could be seen holding a first aid kit. It didn’t seem to have a lot of supplies in it, but it was better than nothing.

  Ven crouched down as Tamu dabbled a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and braced to put it on a brutal cut on Ven’s face.

  “Hold still, this is gonna sting.”

  Ven grunted as the alcohol stung his face like a bee. Tamu then put a wad of tissue paper up his nose, since one of his nostrils were bleeding. He could still taste the blood from his busted lip, but the amateur first aid was better than no first aid at all.

  “Thanks Tamu,” said Ven as he placed his hand on his swollen cheeks again.

  “Don’t mention it!”

  “Have you had customers before?” Ven asked as he slowly walked into the garage.

  “Not many, but that’s all going to change soon!” Tamu then sat at a desk that was filled with many blueprints of superhero costume designs, and magazine images of real superheroes.

  “Alright, before we even move forward with this costume thing, I think you need a good superhero name. Any suggestions?” asked Tamu.

  “Uh… I have super strength, so maybe something like. Strength Man… or Rock Man?”

  “Steel Man?”

  “Punch Man?”

  Tamu freaked out and ran her hands through her hair. “Ugh, all these names are terrible!”

  She picked up one of the magazines that was on her sloppy desk. “Some of the heroes in the Hero Brunch say that their superhero name is based off of their life story. Stylo grew up wearing rags and always dreamed of having style, so when he gained superpowers and decided to be a hero, he always made sure to have fancy clothing and named himself Stylo. Echoe grew up in total isolation and some days would only hear the sound of his own echo—hence the name. Or on a happier note, Applela used to be a kindergarten teacher and named herself something related to school. The point is, everyone’s got a story. You should make a name related to what defined you. Making creative names works for some people, but not all of us!”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. That would be a great idea,” said Ven somberly.

  “What’s your backstory!?” Tamu asked excitedly.

  “Well, it’s…” said Ven as he scrambled his thoughts.

  “You don’t want to tell me!? Is it too personal!?”

  “Oh no, it’s fine!” Ven turned around to study the iconic garage that lied in a sea of poverty.

  “I’ve been sick most of my life. I was born with a bad heart. Every time I would try to run with the other kids, I would fall over and faint. It seemed every year, my body grew worse and worse until my heart finally… stopped.”

  He put his hand over his heart as he slowly turned back around to see Tami’s shocked expression. “They were able to make my heart start beating again, but it would never be the same. I needed a heart transplant. I received it, but my body still seemed weak. I went to the rumored site of the Emergence that was posted online. I fell asleep, and now my body seems to be healthy, and I have powers now. When I was your age, I was a lot more sad than you are.”

  “Well, my life isn’t exactly perfect you know,” Tamu said softly, making Ven silently gasp.

  “But Ven, I’m sorry you went through all of that, but I’m so happy you feel better now! And you have powers now too!”

  “Yeah, I’m happy too,” smirked Ven. “But it still seems like I have a long way to go.”

  “Well not for long, because you’re going to be the best hero ever now!”

  Ven lightly chuckled. “Really, what makes you so sure about that?”

  “Because I’m the one who’s going to design your hero costume!”