A Former Superhero Chapter 1: A Former Hero Meets An Agency

<Written by Jeremiah and Matthew Ellison>

In an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of some town a door opens and a guy with ruby red eyes, brown hair, and a slightly average yet partially bulky build flies out the door clinging on to several flyers before falling down back down to the ground on his butt. (Jeremiah Ellison, Series: The Superheroes/Agency of the 5th World, Author: Jeremiah Ellison) The door slams shut. He gets up and dusts himself off. As he goes to retrieve the flyers on the ground he mumbles to himself grouchily, “Dang Alucard, sending me here to advertise. Was kicking me in the rear really necessary? I missed the old days when I had that solid gold castle. Oh well, next time I’ll read the fine print when I apply for a job.” He finished picking up the flyers and starts heading to town. While he heads to town, he spots a giant monster attacking that town while also being attacked by two floating guys, one seems to be aiming an arrow at that big monster and the other seems to be glowing up a Random-Ass-Sword Sword.

“HEY FUCKER! TAKE SOME SHIT!” the one with the bow and arrow says, firing the arrow at the heart of the monster.

“Heh! Why not have a side of light?!” the other one said while slicing the monster in half, and exploding the ever living fuck out of it, blood getting on everything in sight, including Jeremiah.

Jeremiah complains, “Seriously!? Not only did I miss it, I’m now covered in freakin’ blood. Oh well.” He turns into air real quick and swirls around making a contained high gust wind before remartilizing. He continues walking and sees a wall on a building also covered in blood. “How am I supposed to hang these up now?” He asks right as all the blood that he saw just magically disappears. “Convenient.” He gets out some tape from his pocket and starts hanging up a flyer on the wall that says, “Omniverse Pub: Come on down and have a drink or 30.” He continues walking, hanging up flyers all over town until he eventually finishes putting up the last one. As he puts all the flyers on walls around town, he noticed a lot of people talking about the fight that just occurred, most saying how the Soular Protection Agency is amazing and what-not. “By the way, what is this Soular Protection Agency? Oh well, not any of my business. I wonder if there’s a Pizza Hut nearby?” wonders Jeremiah before going off in search of a Pizza Hut. As he searches for a Pizza Hut, he notices a building with a Huge-Ass-Random Sign Sign saying “Soular Protection Agency! Hiring Now”.

Jeremiah looks at his wallet noticing how little there is in there and says, “I don’t really like this job anyway.” He walks into the building. The inside of it looks like a highly tech-heavy lab, but also has a comforting kind of feel to it….somehow. With two visible people, one covered in blood, the other staring at a Huge-Ass-Random-Computer Computer. While hearing what sounds like a shower happening in the back.

“Ok, so it looks like that we have no more monsters that are located in the city,” the one at the computer says, “Well if there is no others, then I guess I have nothing better to do right now then, so I'm going to go change in the back, alright Ra?” the blood-covered one says, who has a greenish-blue trench coat, grayish-blue shirt, dark gray pants and black boots while wearing shades, now hovering above his eyes. (Lyric Hunton, Series: A Megalo Stream, Author: Matthew Ellison)

“Mhm. Go right the hell ahead then.” Ra says, who's wearing the same greenish-blue trench coat as Lyric, has an eye patch covering his right eye, wearing a golden necklace saying “I’m da Boss!” at the bottom of it, also wearing a gray shirt and a very dark shade of gray pants, while having a nice trim of a beard and sideburns. (Series: Demonic Fellow/Identity Crisis, Author: Matthew Ellison), as the other one just goes off to go change.

Jeremiah is starstruck at the place as he mumbles softly, “Just like home.” He walks up to Ra and greets, “Hello there. I saw you were hiring and was wondering if you had any positions for a hero or an agent or something?”

“That can be determined, just follow me out back and we shall have a nice little spar to determine if you're good enough for us,” he replies.

“No problem,” says Jeremiah with vigor and absolute confidence.

Ra takes Jeremiah out back into an arena like area. There's multiple seats for people to sit IF they wanted to but nobody else is there at all. Once in the arena Jeremiah presses a big red button on his gray watch with a strange logo on it causing a green data sphere to appear around him. The sphere downloads his clothes and uploads his bio-suit on him. When it disappears he’s in a blue bio-suit. The visor kicks on showing him tactical information. He says, “Where I come from they used to call me the Elemental.”

“So you’re one of them huh? Well well well, it’s nice to finally meet one. And just so we’re clear, my name is Ra,” he says as another person, having a towel covering most of him while having another towel wrapped around his neck comes out. (Note: Casually wears a green with red stripes hoodie, dark red pants, with red eyes while being buff and 5’9”. Chara Dragonic, Series: Demonic Fellow, Author: Matthew Ellison)

“What’s sup fucker?” They said.

“Hey Chara, mind giving me a sword of yours?”

“You get a knife,” Chara says as he gives Ra a red knife, with some black spots.

Jeremiah reaches out his hand and in a brief flash a silver sword with ancient writing appears in his hand. He readies it. “You ready?” he asks with vigor.

“About as ready as Chara over there was the first time I saw them. And he barely put up a fight.” Ra said.

“HEY U FUCKER IM RIGHT HERE!” Chara says angrily.

“Wow, rude much,” says Jeremiah about Chara’s attitude.

“Eh, let him be, he did just fight a huge monster after all, a little light teasing won’t hurt no one.”

“Whatever. En garde,” says Jeremiah as he quickly goes in for a slash at near light speed.

Ra just barely dodges it, kicking Jeremiah in his stomach with enough force to cause him to fall onto his stomach on the ground while feeling a bit winded, but still able to do anything. Jeremiah creates a burst of light energy. While Ra was airborne, Jeremiah quickly gets back up and blasts him with the same energy and nailed him in the gut. Ra just takes it and looks to be barely harmed from it. He starts speed levitating up, goes above Ra, and kicks him down to the ground. Then, Jeremiah disappears as he turns into air. Ra just stops breathing, or so it seems very realistically. Suddenly, the wind starts intensifying and concentrating on Ra cutting him from every angle. Ra just starts looking so pale, not moving, not breathing. It seems to be like Ra was actually killed. The wind stops and Jeremiah reappears. He goes in front of Ra guard up and asks concerned, “Are you ok?” Ra then suddenly grabs Jeremiah’s wrist before he could respond at all, and just throws him to the ground on his back. Jeremiah just says, “Interesting.” Ra then suddenly pulls Jeremiah in and throws him into the air. Ra quickly floats upwards and slices him into multiple pieces utilizing the borrowed knife. Blue slime suddenly rains down to the ground as Ra comes back down for a soft landing. The pieces of slime start coagulating together and form a giant axe-like pendulum before solidifying and changing its color and properties to that of one and slices Ra vertically. Afterwards, it turns back into slime and changes shape until it turns back into Jeremiah. Before solidifying, it splits into three Jeremiahs and they all solidify and regain their colors. Two of them lung at Ra while one of them begins charging a red sphere in his right hand. A whip of fire manifests beginning from the hand of the right Jeremiah while the left one’s hand catches on fire and he goes in for a punch. The fire whip hits Ra first from a distance knocking him to the side a bit and while stumbling, the other copy rushes him and punches him down to the ground using his blazing hand. The copy’s hand goes back to normal before he jumps to the side. The last one jumps above Ra and fires a red beam much more destructive than any of his other attacks thus far creating a huge explosion and crater on impact. He lands and says, “I call that move: Power Blast.” Ra just lays there, not moving again, not breathing yet again. Jeremiah’s duplicates turn back into blue slime and return to the main body becoming part of him once him. He walks closer to the crater and says to Ra, “Like I’m going to fall for that trick again. Do you surrender?”

He gets no response what-so-ever, but soon sees that part of Ra starts dusting away. Jeremiah observes, “Armor? Or is that a shed skin? Is he reptilian?” He ponders this for a moment and wonders, “Is he even inside there?” Jeremiah's eyes start glowing blue and he uses his Citaloanin sight to see inside the presumed armor, but all he sees is just an empty body, filled with dark gray like dust, fading away with an upside down heart, cracked from side to side. It’s crack seems to be getting worse by the second. His eyes stop glowing and Jeremiah yells to anyone who can hear, “HEY! Is this weird heart-thingy inside him important cause it’s about to break!?” Once again, no response comes out. And the heart just breaks, Ra’s body completely goes to dust, leaving behind his clothes, and an eye patch. Jeremiah starts panicking and saying, “Oh crap. I disintegrated him. This is bad. This is very bad! Ok, Jeremiah just calm down.” He takes a deep breath. His eyes start glowing blue and he looks around the stands, not moving his head, to see if there’s any witnesses. While he looks, a yellow beam of pure light encases the dust that was once Ra. The dust and clothes start to float up. The dust forming the shape of Ra yet again and he just pops back into life. Jeremiah is just standing there with a blank expression on his face emphasizing his massive confusion and relief. “What just happened?” His eyes turn back to normal and he looks up at Ra.

“Oh hey, I’m back from the dark void. Good job, Chara.” He said as he floats back down onto the ground.

Jeremiah states with the same blank expression, “I have no clue what’s going on anymore.”

“That’s normal for people who are new to SilverKeep. And I can teach you what just happened after I get you kitted out with some new weapons and a uniform,” he replies.

Jeremiah presses a button on the wrist of his suit and another green data sphere appears putting back into his regular attire. “So I guess this means I aced the test?” asked Jeremiah hopefully with a nervous smile.

“Yeah, you did. Just, please don’t kill me next time will ya?”

“No problem. That doesn’t normally happen. If I was still in the Superheroes I might have been fired,” says Jeremiah.

Ra then takes Jeremiah to a room filled to the brim with weapons: some knives, some swords, and a whole lot of guns. He then says “Well, here's your selection of what you want to use, so feel free to try out any of it on me if you so need.” He then gives Jeremiah a uniform, informing him that this is the Soular Uniform and that when on duty needs to be worn. He replies, “Ok, no problem. Quick question, do they have infinite storage pockets?”

“No, all the high tech stuff were mainly from Chara who is fast asleep at the computer right now,” he replies.

“Ok, I’ll install them later. I actually learned science and engineering from the prince and princess of Planet Gaxi (Gal-a-za) themselves, before they died that is,” states Jeremiah.

“I don’t know what you're talking about but ok i guess.” Ra replies as he sits down on a chair nearby.

Jeremiah scratches his head and says calmly, “Oh yeah, different dimension. By the way, what’s the pay for this job?”

“Pay is $12 an hour, but you only get paid every 2 weeks. Also, just so you know, this job here: is an assassin and/or a hero job,” he replies.

“Assassin?” asks Jeremiah nervously.

“Yep, but before anything we will test you for any information you think should be known to us so that you don’t get assigned anyone with people you rather keep alive. We do happen to care about who we assign to people and don’t want any casualties that you didn’t want,” he replies.

“So wait, you mean to tell me that my job...is to kill?” asks Jeremiah nervously and cautiously.

“Well yes, but we do also tend to work with the government, police, and what-not and they do know who we kill, what we kill, and when we need to kill them. But we send them info about who we don’t want killed before-hand.”

The famous line, “You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain,” echoes in his head. What he has wandered into was the exact opposite of his usual mindset, training, and experience. All his previous jobs had a strict, “No-kill unless absolutely necessary'' policy and even then he only killed one individual: a supervillain by the name of Darkness. He says, having trouble thinking of the words, “I’ll...have to think on it.”

“What are you thinking of this job? Do you like what will happen? Or are you thinking that it’s more of a villain kind of job?” he asked.

“No offense, but I lived my entire life as a Superhero. I was trained under a strict no-kill policy. Heck, there were at least three manuals of rules to learn in that organization. So yes, this does seem like more of a villain thing to me,” plainly states Jeremiah a bit harshly.

“Well, I can assure you, that this is not a villain job. We work to get rid of villains, and there are times where we are strictly told not to kill them, but more often than not we do kill the villains. So I understand if you need a bit of time to think this over, I’m not heartbroken or anything about it. I understand whether you need time to think it over and if you do decide to not take the job,” he replies.

“Understood.” Jeremiah bows in respect and leaves giving serious thought to his dilemma. He decides to go over to Pizza Hut and order some pizza because he hasn’t had lunch yet. Once his pizza got done he began eating it deep in thought about all the hard battles he has fought in his life from Planet Gaxi’s invasion to the war against Darkness among countless other battles. He decides instead of moping about it to gather some intel on them. He pays for his pizza and leaves Pizza Hut before going into a dark alley. He turns into blue slime and shapeshifts into a woman with blond hair with green eyes with a slightly curvy figure. “This way they won’t recognize me. Now first off, I need to go to the library. I should have the entire day before Alucard comes looking for me.”

He/she, now I’m confused, goes over to the library sponsored by Random-Ass-Corporation Inc. and walks over to the librarian who has a very cartoony reaction to whatever gender he/she is with hearts coming out of his eyes and his tongue sticking out. She says, “Hello, I’m looking for information about the Soular Protection Agency. Know where I can find a few books on that?”

He replies “Actually there is an employee from that Agency in the back right now. He could give you some information.”

“Cool. Thanks for your assistance.”

She walks over to the back of the library and spies the one who originally was covered in blood near Ra when Jeremiah first entered, while wearing a bright blue hoodie now, complete with dark blue pants and still wearing his black shoes., looking at some children’s book.

“Let’s see…. What book did she say she needed?”

Jeremiah walks up and asks, “What book are you looking for?”

“That I don’t know yet.” He replies.

“Do you know what it’s about?” Jereline asks.

He looks at his phone and summons a decent size wings and flies to the top of the shelf and grabs the book that he needs and comes back down.

“By the way, I heard you work at the Soular Protection Agency? What’s it like working there?”

“Honestly, it really is something great. While we don’t always get attacks each day, we do tend to normal stuff we would usually do at home when not saving the town from certain damnation. But when we do get attacks we are there to either get the monster away from the city or flat out kill them. But we will sometimes, not often, get assigned to an assassin mission. But again, that does not happen too often,” he answers.

“I see. Who do you usually have to assassinate on these missions?” asked Jereline with a serious tone in her voice.

“Usually we are assigned people who are criminals and have escaped a penalty of some kind,” he answers.

“So here, the penalty for escaping from prison is death? Seems kind of harsh,” reiterates Jereline to make sure she’s got it.

“Well I mean, we do give them about a few weeks or so before we actually do get assigned to them. We won’t always get assigned to them as either we’re beaten to it, or the police just gets them before we’re even informed on it,” he replies.

“Hmm, intriguing. Do you have access to all the classified police records?”

“Not as far as I know. If anything, Ra would know that answer,” he replied.

“Hmm, I see. What about threats to the entire planet such as an alien invasion? What do you do about that?” asks Jereline.

“At first we would get informed by the government themselves, and we’re usually sent off to go check it out. And if we need to, we can resort to just killing them right there and then, but more often than not we are under orders to not kill them.” He replies.

“I see. How much of this information is not available to the general public?”

“Mainly what we do during the mission. But at times, the general public will be told of certain threats, or other stuff that they need to know,” he replies.

“For example, the assassinations? Does the general public know about that?” interrogates Jereline.

“Mainly the major ones are told out to the public. The minor cases aren’t as well known however.”

“I see. By the way, how advanced is your Agency’s technology? Are you capable of space-travel yet?” continues Jereline.

“By normal terms, no, but having the employees having access to magic does in fact make space-travel possible. Though we are still developing a way to make it possible without magic.”

“I see. Last question, how big of an offense does it take to be targeted for assassination?”

“Usually breaking the law, being sent to prison, breaking out of it, staying out for a long period of time and committing more crimes is when someone is targeted. But if someone say, was framed, or just simply never done any of it, we do look for solid evidence for it before determining if they’re a target or not.”

She says, “Ok, by the way if you want to find ways to advance your technology, I highly recommend checking out the Omniverse Pub which is connected throughout all of space and time. There’s currently an entrance in the outskirts of SilverKeep if you’re interested.” After that advertisement she walks away and out of the library. She thinks, “That was a lot of useful information but just in case I better fact-check it.” Jereline goes around Silverkeep questioning many individuals about the Soular Protection Agency. Many of which do seem to give very similar answers. During the evening she gets a call from Alucard asking where he is. She says, “Don’t worry. I’m almost done over here, I’ll be over there soon.” She hangs up and finally turns to his regular form. He smiles and says, “For the most part, they seem alright. However, I’m not sure how trustworthy they are. Well then, let’s go.”

He goes back over to the Agency. He then finds Ra, sitting in his chair, looking at the screen. He seems to be talking to someone from the government and not paying attention to anything else. Jeremiah shapeshifts into blue slime and approaches making sure not to alert Ra and eavesdrops on the conversation turning himself into part of the back of the chair.

“Yes sir, all damage that was done to the city today was repaired and already dealt with.” Ra says.

“Alright, then, so I assume that this monster was killed then?”

“Yes sir. Killed like you wanted it to be. If anything else comes by we will be sure to take care of it. Unless you need us to go under a No-Kill policy for now.”

“That won’t be needed for now. Just keep doing what you guys do.”

“Alright. Goodbye.” Ra hangs up the phone and looks at Jeremiah. “Well now you know what I do in the evenings. Jeremiah turns back into blue slime and back into his normal form, “How did you know?”

“I could sense you the entire time.”

“Alright, have you considered just upgrading your containment technology? It’d be a much better solution than killing. I’m sure I got some old Superheroes files on laser bar tech,” suggests Jeremiah.

“While I do like the idea, I can’t argue that with the government.”

“Well then, I just wanted to let you know I thought about your offer and I accept it for now, but I’m not quitting my day job at this time.”

“Alright, shall we work on your timeframes for now then? We have some night shift slots open right now.”

Suddenly, Jeremiah’s phone rings. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be right there I’m just wrapping things up.” He hangs up and hands Ra a copy of his schedule for the Pub. “Here’s a copy of my schedule for my first job and I got to get back to work so I’ll see you later.”

“Alright then, take care, I do want you to return at 5:30 pm tomorrow for your schedule alright?”

“Roger, have a good day.” He leaves with his final thoughts being, “I’ll just have to change this organization from the inside.”