July Writing Challenge: The Hero We Deserve

[Sean *]

It's writing challenge time again. To enter, just post a ficlet (300-4000 words suggested) in this thread. When the voting for this month's OTM winners comes around, a voting poll will go up for this as well.

The Challenge: In honor of summertime and the blockbuster season, and also as a stark contrast to last month's challenge, you are encouraged to write stories about Hammel superheroes. Spandex costumes, capes and cowls, vigilantes - draw inspiration from the long history of superheroes in media and apply it to the Hammelverse! (Please don't use Frank Miller as inspiration.)*


The rules:

• Characters must be in Hammel canon, but the ficlets are not site canon. You may do cross-overs, but the main thrust of the story must involve Hammel characters. (Acceptable: Hammel meets the X-Men, James Campbell meets Wolverine. Not acceptable: An X-Men story set in Vermont starring an epic battle between Storm and Magneto).
  
• Entries must be more than 300 words.
  
• You can enter no more than three ficlets. Any ficlets posted after the original 3 will not be considered for voting. If you want to post more, however, have fun.
  
• Ficlets must be titled.

*I can't stop you if that's what you want to do.

[Stefan Spencer]

Drinking Buddies

Sure, Stefan didn't have the kind of wealth, flashy cars, or fancy suit that his friend did. But Stefan did have enough money to keep his liquor cabinet stocked and his cat fed and happy. And he had his motorcycle. And though his suits weren't made of armor and other high tech gear, they were fancy enough for Stefan. His suits didn't shoot repulsor beams, but they did have a pocket with a filled flask in them.

Sure, Stefan and Tony weren't exactly on the same level in their superhero skills.

Their drinking and relationship skills on the other hand...

It was a typical Friday night at Stefan's house. Meaning that the booze was flowing and the people were plentiful...and plenty drunk. It wasn't a special occasion. At least not one that people would find on a normal calendar. Though at one point Stefan had claimed it was his cat's half-birthday, it was just an excuse for him to get a kiss from a pretty red head.

As the night started to wind down, meaning the lightweights were passed out or had been dragged home by their designated drivers and several of the bedrooms in the upstairs were in use. Stefan and Tony were just leaving two such rooms with grins on their faces and bumped into each other in the hallway.

"Join me for a nightcap?" Stefan asked, gesturing towards the stairs.

"Just as long as that's all you expect me to join you for," Tony replied, laughing.

A few moments later the two men were seated on the downstairs couch, a bottle of scotch between them as Tony entertained Stefan with his latest adventures. He didn't worry too much about keeping secrets from Stefan. The old man was technically a civilian and he was sure shield S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't look too kindly on him knowing the details of missions, but Stefan was okay at keeping secrets. Besides the alcohol and the late hour were loosening his tongue. Besides Stefan was more interested in...

"...that red head I see you with all the time?"

"Pepper? Or Natasha?"

"You've got two? Didn't anyone ever teach you to share?"

At this both men laughed and poured themselves fresh drinks.

"Pepper. Seriously though," Tony continued. "I've been thinking of settling down a little. Or at least getting a little more serious." Stefan raised and eyebrow, sure his playboy friend was joking. "Seriously, Stefan."

"If you have to say 'serious' three times, I think you're not serious," Stefan said.

"I'm serious. Seriously," Tony said, prompting another round of laughter. "But really, don't you ever...want...more?"

Stefan paused for a moment. Truth was, he did. A lot of the time. But it wasn't something he could allow himself to think about for long. Or admit out loud. "You're too young to settle down," he replied. "And so am I for that matter."

Tony opened his mouth to add something else, but was interrupted by the arrival of a shirtless brunette coming up behind Stefan.

"I thought you were coming right back," he said, shooting a jealous look at Tony as he wrapped his arms around Stefan.

"Be right there," Stefan replied, giving Tony a grin as the other man left. "See what you'd be missing out on?" Stefan added once he had gone back upstairs.

"I'll leave it to you old man."

"Suit yourself." Stefan refilled his glass again to take upstairs with him. He handed the now mostly empty bottle with Tony. "And I'll leave this to you, handsome. Wouldn't want you to get lonely."

[Rachel Kells]

Super Hero Recruitment Test

Rachel wasn’t sure what they were doing here, but she knew that they were important. At least that is what all of her teachers and trainers said as they insisted that she and the other students show the strangers their powers. It hadn’t started this way at all. Instead it had started with a student basically exploding into goo on the campus.
Pretty crazy right?

Rachel had a feeling that the people here were here about more than just a student who had goo’ed himself. After the goo incident the students were called into the auditorium, with the head of the school standing at the front. It had turned out that they had attracted the attention of some... pretty important people. Which was odd to Rachel as Hammel had an excellent security system. With a member like Mr. Stark on the team though, Rachel wasn’t surprised they had gotten past Hammel security. Plus it was only a matter of time until Hammel was found Rachel supposed, with all of the powered kids running around.

Speaking of powers, in this auditorium Rachel was staring at some of the most famous people in her world. On the far left was the woman the world knew as Black Widow. Personally, Rachel liked her a lot. She wasn’t a guy, and she could still kick butt. On the far right was Black Widow’s partner, Hawkeye. She wasn’t sure about him, and what role he had played when the hole had opened in the sky, but she knew that he was important to Black Widow. Thus he was of some consequence.

“Students, as you can see we have some special guests here at Hammel. You will do anything they ask of you, and in return they have assured us here that you will not be harmed. They are here from the government and demand the utmost respect. I expect you all shall comply.”

Rachel couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of the headmistress’s mouth. They were just supposed to stand around while THEY were here. Something wasn’t right. She looked up on the stage and saw how Captain America was standing directly in the middle of the stage. The avenger was always her favorite. It represented everything her father used to stand for. He was a true patriot.

Standing on either side of the good solider on stage were the science bro’s. The world knew them as the Hulk, and Iron Man. The two of them were exchanging glances and it was kind of freaking Rachel out. She didn’t know what to think of the people up on the stage, but she knew that this would be interesting. An interesting she didn’t particularly like.

Suddenly, before anyone had time to react, There was a bolt of lighting, and Thor was standing on the stage. “Mortals! Did I miss the event?”

The entire auditorium looked shocked and even the headmisstress seemed to lose her place in prepared speech she had. Rachel didn’t know how to react, but she started to giggle as the giant man just looked around at the students who were amassed in front of him. The other members of his team wore various expressions upon his arrival. Black Widow smirked, Ironman laughed, Captain America just sort of shook his head and Hawkeye could be seen stifling a laugh. The Hulk sort of shifted, looking as uncomfortable as ever.

“Ahem, as I was saying, I hope you all will cooperate in this transitional phase the institute is going through.” The students shifted their expressions back to their headmistress, and just stared. “Dismissed.”

That, was two weeks ago. Rachel was more on edge than ever. The students were high with tension and Rachel knew that they weren’t telling them everything. What she did notice though, was that some students began to disappear. It was mostly the older ones at first, but soon students from Rachel’s classes had begun to disappear.

She didn’t know what was going on right now, but when she had just gotten back to her room she opened her door and was more than surprised to see that The Black Widow was there. On her bed. Holding a folder with her name and picture on it. Rachel gulped, and contemplated running from her room right then and there, but instead she slowly walked into her room as the butterflies that floated in and out landed on her hair.

“Rachel Kells,” came out of the mouth of the woman who was sitting on her bed.

“Ms. Widow” was all that Rachel could reply.

“Say’s here your father is Nicholas Kells right?”

“Yes Ma’am”

“Just what I thought. What’s a kid of a hydra agent doing here, at Hammel?”

What? Rachel’s dad was a Hydra agent? What? The surprise must have shown on her face. Rachel had no idea what the Widow was talking about. Her dad couldn’t be Hydra. She must have gotten her information wrong. There was no way her father would be working for Hydra. He was just too dedicated to his country. Stunned Rachel totally forgot to answer and just stared at the woman.

“Well, if you don’t have any excuses for yourself, you might as well be Hydra yourself”
At that Rachel physically paled. She vehemently shook her head and stammered out. “No ma’am. I am not one of those psychos. I didn’t know my father was working for Hydra, but ma’am I think you have the wrong Nicholas Kells. My dad loves America, he would never...”

Suddenly Rachel remembered how Hydra had just set a new mandate that all metas would be annihilated under their rule. First though they would be dissected and studied. She quieted down as the woman looked at her and smiled.

“Finally dawned on you didn’t it. He hates you. He hates your kind. All he sees when he looks at you is a monster.” Black Widow laughed and shook her head before leaning forward to go a little bit closer to Rachel. “Wanna change that? Wanna change the world? Then it’s time you suit up Rachel.”

Rachel stared baffled at the woman who seemed to smirk. She nodded at the questions before biting her lip and barely looking at the woman. She knew she had to do this.If she had the chance to change her father’s mind she would take it in a heartbeat. It hurt what Black Widow was saying, but she wasn’t wrong. Nothing she had said was wrong.

With new determination in her eyes Rachel stared at the woman sitting on her bed. “I’m Ready.”

With those two words the woman smile sweetly over at Rachel before standing up and stretching. Rachel was ready for whatever the woman would say next and stood straight at attention.

“Good. You’re recruited to the Young Hero’s Initiative. I’ll give you time to pack your bags, and I’ll see you in an hour at the front gate. You will be transported to our northern facility immediately.”

Rachel finally knew what was going on, and dutifully packed her bags. Standing at the front gate she turned to look at the school which had taught her everything. She would probably never see it again.

Smiling she walked out of the gates and muttered under her breath. Only the butterflies could hear her say the two words that would be the downfall of the Y.H.I., and ultimately the downfall of the Avengers.

“Hail Hydra”

[Axelle Flint]

Hero Worship

Shivering with the shock and trying to block out the pain, Axelle dragged herself out from under the wreckage of the semi-truck she had used as a shield against the incoming lasers. Of course the truck had exploded but she hadn’t been too terribly injured…just surprised and wow yeah, she was going to have bruises later. She took a moment to collect her breath, huddling down under a piece of twisted metal as the alien ship hovered overhead, searching for her. The only thought that kept returning to her was how ridiculously fast everything had happened. She’d been a week from graduation when the alien ships had come in, there had been no warning, despite how advanced Earth’s technology was, it was not match for something as amazing as what the alien’s had.

Axelle still hadn’t seen one. She’d seen their ships of course, but they seemed reluctant to come out of them. They’d methodically wiped out most of the world’s military that first week and most people were too intent on surviving to fight back much. That’s when the world’s meta population seemed to have had enough. If there was anything to be done, if anyone could do what they could, they certainly had a better chance than most. Axelle spent most of her time ripping through alien ground vehicles, tearing them apart, exposing whatever she could to allow someone else the chance to blow the shit up as she scrambled away.

Maybe that’s why they were hunting her now? She was pretty distinct with her red hair, she’d have dyed it a long time ago but it made her feel more powerful. They called her the “Crimson Bull” which wasn’t the most flattering nickname but she’d deal with it. She heard the ship hovering over again and decided that she had rested enough to take a shot at it. Grabbing the metal she’d been hiding under she braced her feet, flexed her muscles and tossed it with a spin up at the ship that was flying right at it and too shocked to shift away. The explosion was loud and hot, Axelle felt herself hitting the ground again as the shockwave bowled her and some of the other debris over. Damnit she was going to be a peacock tomorrow with all the black and blue she was sure to have.

Seeing no movement from the wreckage Axelle quickly scrambled for it and hunted through the twisted space metal, hissing as the heat occasionally seared her thick skin. Finally, she found what she was looking for. Everyone who’d brought down the ships were looking for their guns but they were so hard to find intact. But she’d done it, sheered it right off by some strange twist of fate. She quickly took off her jacket, wrapped it around her hands and dragged the steaming pile of metal over the ground to look at it. She might not have had a working knowledge of alien mechanics but earth mechanics were surprisingly versatile. She would need tools though and quickly shouldered the gun, trudging through the wasteland that had once been a supermarket parking-lot back to the main base. She hoped everything was fine there; she’d left the scene of a fairly significant battle, something about the alien leader making an appearance but she’d been too busy trying to lead away and take down ships and tanks to really care.

She made her way back into the heart of the city, vigilant to falling pieces of once towering buildings and enemy ships that whined by once or twice a day keeping fear a top thought in most people’s minds. As she neared she began to hear a strange, garbled voice over a loud speaker. It was weird because when she heard it she knew she didn’t understand…but inside her head it became words she knew…

“Your kind is so pathetic yet truly worthy of admiration, fighting against something you cannot possibly hope to defeat. We will be merciful masters to you, should you simply lower your weapons against us…” fuck, she had no time to deal with this bullshit.

She turned down a side alley and picked her way across rubble and debris. Someone would probably come looking around here after a while; they weren’t stupid enough to assume that they got all the humans in one place right? What about the other meta’s? How were they staying so calm with that alien talking to them? She looked over and saw an abandoned garage not too far away and quickly ran towards it, almost toppling over in the process. She thanked her lucky stars as she set the gun down and quickly grabbed some tools to get to work. All she needed to do was connect some wires and the gun would fire again if she touched just the right panel. For being a superior alien race, she thought they were pretty dumb.

She heard guns whine behind her. “Shit,” she sighed as she turned to finally see the aliens that had been terrorizing them for the last month looked like.

It took her a moment to realize that they didn’t look all that different from her; taller and broader of course, but their skin WAS a bit green and their eyes were…different. She couldn’t quite tell how and their hair was all sorts of fantastic colors, sometimes more than one. They certainly kept themselves covered too, and seemed to have masks on that assisted with their breathing. The aliens said something to one another, gestured towards the gun on the ground and Axelle’s red hair. They seemed to come to an agreement of sorts and gestured for her to march in front of them with her hands on her head.

What was she going to do now? She tried to keep herself calm every time one of them butted her in the back with their guns. They lead her through a crowd of nervous humans and then away from them, up the platform. Holy fuck what was going on? Axelle skittered across the stage after briefly trying to stop and being shoved forward, her hands coming down from her head to keep her balance.

The alien’s leader was…big…tall and built like a professional wrestler. These were people who valued strength. Axelle thought of two things and both of them made her uncomfortable. One, these people knew she was the one responsible for destroying their tanks and ships in this area and therefore knew how strong she was -

OH GAWD WHAT IF THEY WANTED TO BREED HER LIKE SOME CREEPY ALIEN EXPERIMENT?!

Wait, calm down.

Two: They DIDN’T know she was responsible, but found her with the gun and decided that she was threat enough to try and possibly make her an example to get other people to comply?

The leader looked down at her with an expression Axelle read as curious and disgusted, but they were aliens so who really fucking knew? She felt herself grow angry and figured these were not alien’s of words but rather of action. After all, they’d simply attacked out of nowhere, no posturing or threats, just outright attack. Worth a shot, she figured she wasn’t going to live long enough anyway and it was always sound advice to cut the head off the snake.

So she struck. All 110 lbs. of her, launched at the giant alien overlord/lady(??) as she realized that “holy shit this thing is soft…” and ripped away their breathing mask. She screamed furiously as she hit, kicked and flailed against anything she touched, finally stopping when she realized she had literally beaten the leader into a pile of alien goo. She thought she was going to puke but stood up immediately and turned towards the guards that had brought her up to the platform. “YOU’RE NEXT!” she shrieked, diving towards them.

Axelle had literally never seen anything move so fast in her life, one moment aliens were there and the next they were gone. All that remained was the goo of the alien dripping from her arms and fingers onto the stage….

~ Five years later~

“You know Red, when you said you had nothing to do with the whole Earth victory over the Xquitol, I didn’t realize how big of a liar you were,” Corbin smiled as he helped her adjust the gigantic medal pinned to her chest before he kissed her on the cheek. “And to think! By doing that, you got all those other nice aliens to come down and be useful!”

“Still not sure why they just decided to sit up there and watch us all be slaughtered, don’t seem really nice to me,” Axelle huffed as she fidgeted in her uniform suit. In the aftermath of the events 5 years ago Axelle had become somewhat of a celebrity. After she’d beaten the leader to death the aliens that had been attacking them had been immediately detained by a force that everyone now knew as the I.P.F. or “Intergalactic Police Force”. They had been assessing the situation for the last month, trying to determine the most peaceful way to end the conflict. Apparently the Xquitol race had been rather prominent in the Intergalactic government and no one had wanted to cause waves…that is, until one meta-human girl beat one of the high-princes to death with her bare hands. So now humans were a recognized “protected species” and no one would bother screwing with them in the future. Axelle found out later that several other meta-humans had defeated alien’s and everyone outside of earth seemed to think this made them some sort of hero. Axelle had been told by one of her alien co-workers that there was a movie about her playing somewhere on Avarntia 6. She really didn’t want to see it.

She’d been recruited into the I.P.F. along with several other meta and non-meta humans and was getting ready to receive yet another “Thank You” plaque for her efforts five years ago. As she stepped out onto the stage after hearing her name (and a little push from her husband) Axelle thought it was so weird. Everyone called her hero, a “super-hero” and she always remembered them has having capes and fighting normal, everyday (sometimes not normal) bad guys but they were always just stories, and she was living one right now.

It was a little mind blowing honestly.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

7'O’Clock News/Silent Night

...Brought traditional enemies together but it left the defenders of
the measure without the votes of their strongest supporters.

The Battle of 1978.

Nobody had asked his permission, or Robert’s permission, to film the movie. The events technically qualified as public domain, given how it had affected far more than simply the heroes involved. The villains had forfeited the right to profit from, or object to, their likenesses being used in any form of media, as a consequence of their trials and convictions. Both Sage and Oracle (rather than Sean Neville and Robert Hopkins) were public figures, and thus they couldn’t sue for libel or slander for their appearances in the film.

As long as those appearances were obviously satirical. Or else were historically accurate.

Unlike the villains, the superheroes were entitled to share in the profits from their likenesses.

Neither him nor Robert were attorneys in their day jobs, and contract negotiations for a movie could be a nightmare for even the most qualified individuals. Fortunately, while neither of the heroes had legal training, Sean’s spouse did.

Joshua Bernstein worked at a successful civil rights law practice. He also handled all contract negotiations for the heroes in their professional lives.

Securing the rights to use Batman in a film involved more lawyers than using real people, and Batman was a fictional sociopath with too much time and money on his hands. Sean had far too much on his plate to ponder that too often, but the implications reflected poorly on their society.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Sean admitted to Robert, as the elder hero drove them to City Hall. The City Council had opened up public hearings about how best to handle the steep increase in social ills: drug abuse, poverty, homelessness, crimes of desperation, and the subsequent exploding prison population. Oracle and Sage had been invited to share their wisdom and expert opinions. Due to their telepathy, they had already coordinated what they would say, and none of it fit with the narrative that several of the politicians hoped to push. The conversatives that had been swept into office with Ronald Reagan’s election, and reelection, had been disastrous as far as both men were concerned. Despite their reputations, Sean expected little to come of their testimony, aside from the spin machine engaging.

If Josh had been beside him, his partner would assume he meant he upcoming hearing. Not due to any fundamental misunderstanding between them - it would be a reasonable assumption given temporal proximity - but simply because Josh was mindblind. Not being psychic, the attorney couldn’t keep up with Sean’s shifting thoughts unless he chose to articulate them.

He never took for granted the luxury of sharing telepathy with Oracle, with his mentor and one of his oldest friends.

“For someone who doesn’t specialize in entertainment law, your boyfriend has done a remarkable job with the contract negotiations so far.”


“I’m not worried that he’s doing a bad job.” The defense came instinctively. Although Sean knew that the older man hadn’t implied otherwise, he always felt it necessary to reassure the world that he thought highly of his partner. Josh dealt with a great amount of pressure as his boyfriend and as his attorney, and Sean never wanted him to believe that he somehow found him less than. Even if remarks had been made in absentia.

Obviously Robert understood that; he said nothing and waited for his protégé to explain
himself further.

Sean sighed softly and glanced out the window, gazing for a moment at the always heavy traffic flow of downtown Manhattan. Driving was an inefficient means of getting to City Hall, but they had precious few other options. They couldn’t fly. Public transportation was unwise when they had to be somewhere at a specific time. Taxis were subject to the same traffic conditions as cars. At least this way they could control their route and take the time to themselves.

“I don’t want them to use us as mouthpieces to promote endless wars or tough on crime policies.”

“The last draft of the script didn’t do that. For a big-budget picture, it was fairly accurate.”

“We don’t have any power to compel them to keep that draft though.” Sean turned back around and then corrected himself. “At least we don’t have the legal power to compel them.”

Robert raised his eyebrow but didn’t take his attention from the road.

“That was a joke,” Sean clarified. “But they’re going to put a scene like that in the final draft.”

“And I thought I was the one named Oracle.”

“I watch more movies than you do,” he reminded the older man. “Hollywood loves that cliche, and I don’t think Josh is going to win us consulting rights.”

“All we can do is wait and see.”

The car came to a dead halt; traffic had come to a standstill, and they had no way of turning around given the mass of vehicles around them, bumper to bumper. They were nine blocks from Chambers Street.

They were going to be late.

Both men detested being late.

Robert glanced at his watch. “How do you feel about walking the rest of the way?”

“I’m game if you are.”

The older man turned off the engine and dropped the car keys into his jacket pocket. “What should we do with the car?”

Sean closed his eyes briefly. Upon opening them, he replied, “I just asked Russell; he’ll put it in a pocket for us. We just need to let him know when we need it back.”

Those were the perks of working with other meta-humans.

Of course, Robert’s license plates were well-known to every member of law enforcement. They needn’t worry about a ticket for abandoning the car in the middle of the road, but he didn’t like to cause a nuisance to other people. They were tasked with helping the residents of New York City, after all.

With that, the two men began their walk, striding confidently down the sidewalk. Every so often, Sean would adjust the sleeves of his jacket; he wanted to look professional for their testimony.

Just as they reached the steps of City Hall, Sean began to laugh. Robert quirked his eyebrow, prompting his protégé to share whatever had him so tickled.

“Josh says they’re looking to tap Brad Pitt,” he said around a chuckle. “Can you imagine?”

Robert smiled as well. Before he could reply, one of the security guards at the door asked, voice a mixture of excitement and awe, “Hey, aren’t you Oracle and Sage?”

Although the older man nodded in the affirmative, he said, “Not today. Today, we are simply two concerned citizens here to testify.”

The guard nodded as though he understood. “Gotcha.” He ushered them inside and helped them to skip the security line.

One of the perks of being well-known superheroes.

“Say, when you finish with the hearing, do you think I could have an autograph?”

“If you are still on duty when we finish, you can have as many as you wish.” With that, Robert thanked him for his assistance. After sharing a last glance with Sean, the two heroes approached the Council chambers and stepped inside.