Chapter Text
John walked into the SDN building that morning with extra bounce in his step. He walked through the front door, making his way toward the bathrooms. He normally would just go straight to the locker room to prepare himself for the day, but he had plans.
He shoved his hands in his pockets, quietly forming a little bug out of clear ice in the palm of his hand as he walked past the desks of the morning dispatchers. Even if someone acknowledged him, he simply nodded politely and kept moving awkwardly, like someone who really needed to piss and stopping would spell disaster.
As he turned down the hallway toward the bathroom, he sent the bug under the door of the locked computer room. If he kept his focus on the bug all day, then his plan would work perfectly. All he had to do was keep even a part of that bug formed all day.
John pushed open the door to the bathroom and ran into one of the stalls, exhaling a nervous breath. The worst part was over, and now his practice over the past few days would be truly tested.
After he felt enough time had passed awkwardly standing in the middle of the stall, John calmly walked out, washed his hands, and left the bathroom. As he made his way down to the locker rooms, he spotted Smitty walking in with Blarg, coffee in their hands. Of course, the rest of the obnoxious team followed, all with various drinks.
Smitty spotted John from across the hallway and waved, “Hey, Kryoz! Could you come here for a second?”
Fuck.
John walked over to Smitty, his stomach dropped to his toes. Smitty smiled brightly as he handed John an iced coffee, “I know you don’t like coming with us, but you’ve complained about being tired and mentioned you like brown sugar lattes, so hopefully you like this one!”
Another weird thing from the past few days, Smitty was being oddly nice. The angry dispatcher he usually got was casually buying him food and drinks almost every day! Last week, it was a bagel from a place he mentioned once. Another, he saw a boba place and made a comment on their drinks, and the guy got him a gift card!
So of course, it’s all a trick. Smitty isn’t a good person.
He’s just trying to make sure John doesn’t try something. Little does he know, it’ll take more than a few drinks to quell his hatred.
John accepted the drink anyway, nodding while muttering a quiet, “Thanks”.
Smitty launched back into his animated conversation with Blarg, arguing how dumb it was to say burritos are sushi.
“One is seafood and seaweed, dude!” Smitty shook his head as Blarg scoffed, “Both get rolled up in some sort of wrap, I beg to differ.”
“Okay but it’d be the other way around! Sushi is a burrito, but a burrito isn’t sushi!”
“You’re wrong!”
“No!”
“YES?!”
John ignored them as he walked away, taking an experimental sip of his drink.
Fuck… it was good.
Damnit Smitty.
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“Kryoz, can you handle a minor robbery?”
Even when he was dispatching, Smitty always tried to find missions that John could do alone. He leaned back in his chair, “Sure, what’s the problem?”
“Guy stole some electronics from a store, said he’s escaping on foot, but he’s outrunning the police. He is said to be in all black with a brown bag.” Smitty paused for a moment, humming softly, “His last known location is pinged on your watch, good luck!”
John groaned as he got up, checking the blinking dot on his watch as he formed his roller skates to travel out of the building. People on the sidewalk were nothing but obstacles at the moment as he sped toward the blinking dot.
There was a crackle in his ear as he turned a corner, “A pedestrian spotted him closer to you, I’m updating the location right now but this dude is fast.”
“Fuck.” John muttered, turning down an alleyway as the dot updated again. He spotted a man on roller blades in all black, and he sighed out loud as he froze the guy to the ground up to his waist. The perpetrator let out a yelp as he slammed to a halt, watching in horror as John casually slid up to him.
Maintaining the guy in ice and trying to hold down his ice back at SDN hurt like hell. John winced as the guy pounded on the ice holding him in.
“Fuck, this is cold, asshole!” The guy yelled.
John scoffed, “Oh poor baby, is it too cold for you? Maybe next time don’t steal! Brilliant idea, huh?”
The guy glared at him, “Well at least you’re making rent. Heroes always sit on their high and mighty pedestal while us without powers suffer in a world praising you fucks.”
“As pathetic as that speech is, there are plenty of opportunities besides hero work for powerless individu-” John paused, a spike of pain shooting down his back as the ice around the guy melted slightly.
The guy grinned as he began to try and free his leg from the trap. John grimaced, if the guy was going to escape, he was not taking the bag with him. John released the block of ice around him, simultaneously slicing the bag from the handle as swiping it as he sped away. The guy yelled something at him, but John rushed away from the scene toward the police station. The ache in his chest would not go away as he weaved in between traffic.
John burst into the station with the bag in hand. An officer came to take it as John sighed softly, “He got away, but I got the bag.”
The officer raised an eyebrow, “He got away?”
“Yeah…” John muttered, watching as the officer took a slow breath, slightly shaking his head as he muttered, “Fucking newbies.”
Smitty cut in, “Pezzy got the guy, could you tell the officer so they don’t send out a team?”
“My teammate got him, though.” John called, embarrassment sinking in his gut as the officer nodded, “Good. You should thank them for covering your ass.”
John nodded and walked out of the station ready to fight Smitty, “Hey, asshole.” John muttered as he switched his headset on, walking calmly back toward SDN. Smitty was silent, and John groaned, “Smitty!”
“Yes?”
“Why didn’t you answer me, dickhead?!”
“Well my name isn’t asshole or dickhead, so I’m not responding to something that isn’t my name. Besides, those are fighting words for someone who begged to be alone and let a minor criminal go, are you feeling okay, man? Do you need to go home for the day?”
“No.” John muttered as he crossed the street, glaring pointedly at a car.
Smitty huffed, “Then why did you let him go?”
“Stop asking.” John grumbled, and Smitty went silent for a moment.
There was a soft click from his watch as it shut off.
“Take the day off, Kryoz. You aren’t well.” Smitty sighed, “I can’t have you on my team if you can’t handle simple missions. Get some rest.”
John opened his mouth to yell back at the dispatcher, but the line went dead. All it said on his watch was Return to SDN, or be docked pay.
Of course, he had to stop working, but he had to return to SDN anyway. John shook his head, but an idea started forming in his mind. There was a cafe close to SDN, if he sat there he could still enact his plan without the risk of getting caught in the building. He just needed to… adjust. He walked into the locker room and hurriedly changed, ignoring his teammates' concerned looks as he pulled his hoodie over his head. Thankfully, he had brought his laptop with him because he had some graphic design projects he wanted to work on during his downtime, but now he had all the time today to do it. It was even better, since it was lunchtime, and he knew Smitty’s mom would be off. He had a window to execute his plan, but he needed to go fast.
He sped over to the cafe, nearly getting hit by a car in his haste. The building was painted white, with fake vines hanging off of the building. Slightly overused, but it was still pretty. John paid for a drink, (was it a brown sugar latte again… yes…), and found an upstairs balcony seating that had privacy corners for people doing work. John settled down in a random one and pulled out his computer.
After clicking around in his photoshop program for a few minutes, he leaned back in the chair, his vision shifting around.
He could still partially see the cafe around him, but it was covered by the view of a dark room. John pushed out with his magic, and the little ice bug shifted in its spot. It’s legs were gone, but that was fine. The legs reformed, and with a wave of nausea, he moved the bug forward. The bug’s vision was partially his own, and he could barely see the room around him.
Shaking his head, he sighed, knowing his next idea would hurt like a motherfucker. He pushed outward with his magic, changing the bug into a life-size ice sculpture of a human being. His magic sent a wave of pins-and-needles down his arms, but he shook it off, forcing the ice sculpture toward a computer set on the desk toward the back of the room.
This little office used to be used by senior dispatchers, but they were getting lonely, so this room was only available by special request. John stared at the computer’s login screen, hurriedly typing in:
User: y,.0to.smr
Pass: g0/dma3t
The screen flashed, and he was in. He glanced at the file icons, his hands shaking on the mouse as he clicked into the SDN database. When the search bar popped up, he hurriedly typed in Smitty. There was only one Smitty in the database; Smitty Plus (dumbass name, truly). John clicked on the file, and began reading through it.
Name: Smitty M. Plus
Age: 25
Powers: Powerless (N/A)
“N/A?” John frowned, his eyes widening as he went over the facts. Only kids had N/A in their files. Anyone who has ever been tested would have Powerless in their file.
John glanced over to the side, and saw ??? edited 10 years ago off to the side of the file. Only dispatchers of high clearance could edit a file, exactly what Smitty’s parents were. He shook his head, and continued reading.
Gender: Male
Current Occupation: SDN Dispatcher, Senior Level
“Senior Level?!” The job with the most pay, and the most benefits. There’s no way that Smitty would’ve been given that without some sort of interference. There was absolutely some bullshit going down.
He went back to the search bar, and typed in the last name of Plus. Of course, the last name didn’t pop up with anything else. He searched through the database for the high level dispatchers, and found two with locks on their files.
CLASSIFIED
Golden Brigade
CLASSIFIED
Solo-Hero Dispatcher
The screen flashed, and the “Classified” files shifted
Hero Name: Storm Chaser
Name: CLASSIFIED
Golden Brigade
Hero Name: Indomitable
Name: CLASSIFIED
Solo-Hero Dispatcher
He gaped, staring at the screen. Storm Chaser and Indomitable were top-rated heroes thought to have died after getting into a battle with Shroud. The child of the two was believed to have passed. There was no fucking way though, Storm Chaser and Indomitable were well-known Canadian heroes, but here they were… in the US.
There was a click at the door behind the ice sculpture, and John quickly melted the ice sculpture, snapping his focus back to the cafe.
He sat in his chair frozen in shock as he took a shaky sip of his drink. What the fuck did I find?!
─────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆─────
Smitty sat across from Heat Seeker, trying to tamper down his nervousness as she glared at him. She had wordlessly pulled him from his desk, and his parents were nowhere to be seen. He heard that she saw something, and immediately called security. Smitty sat in the chair as he waited for her to say something, besides the occasional typing from her keyboard. She closed her eyes and stood up, placing her hands on the desk as she spoke in a low, threatening tone, “Tell me why your file was pulled up on the computer in the abandoned office.” Heat Seeker narrowed her eyes, fire licking at her arms.
Smitty paled, “I- I don’t-!”
Heat Seeker shook her head, “Alright then, different question, do you know why you have your powers listed as N/A?”
Shit.
Smitty fidgeted nervously, “Oh…”
The hero leaned in, “Smitty Plus, if you don’t tell me now, you will be put into solitary-”
“Fine.”
Smitty blinked as his alarm blared beside him. He gently shut it off, groaning as he sat up. He wiggled out of bed and planted his feet on the ground. Immediately, a jolt ran down his spine, but instead of vanishing, it stayed, annoying and mildly painful.
He gasped, falling back into bed. As soon as he hit the bed, the feeling stopped. Smitty had been getting weird jolts down his arms when something was about to happen… especially the other day when Matt almost fell through the porch they were sitting on.
Smitty shook his head as he stood up again. The jolt returned, and he squeezed his eyes shut. Images flashed in his vision. Machines in the middle of the gymnasium, with heroes standing around them. He walked into a machine, and the lights started flashing red. He tried to open his eyes, but he couldn’t. The lights faded, and a sense of fear climbed into his throat as his stomach dropped.
He snapped his eyes open, his breathing heavy as he registered the room around him. He collapsed in his bed, tightly gripping the sheets. Smitty slowly released the sheets, and hid under his covers. He wasn’t usually a school-skipper, but today seemed… different. He grabbed a rice bag from his closet, one that he used when it got cold during the winter, and crept across the house to the kitchen, trying not to disturb his parents' sleep. He got it out before the timer went off, and he laid in bed with it on his forehead to try and get a high temperature reading if his mother found him.
After a while, he heard his mother calling.
“Smitty? Where are you?”
She slowly opened his bedroom door, and tutted softly, “Are you okay, Smitty?”
“I don’t feel good.” Smitty mumbled, pressing his face into a pillow.
His mother checked his forehead, shaking her head, “You’re burning up, hon.”
She smiled, “We’ll keep you home for today, okay?”
“Okay…”
The next day, Matt eagerly told Smitty during their lunch he found out he would have powers. Smitty congratulated him. Matt tilted his head, “Were you sick yesterday?”
“Yeah.” Smitty took a bite out of his sandwich, watching as Matt nodded, “I figured.”
That wasn’t an isolated incident either, a few days after, he got the feeling again. It happened every single time there were supposed to be mobile power testing clinics. They didn’t search for him afterwards, they just assumed no kid would skip every single time.
Heat Seeker frowned as he finished his story, “Those tests are done randomly so you can’t skip. That’s why there are ten in a year. The statistical probability of you skipping every time…”
Smitty stared off to the side at the wall behind Heat Seeker, covered in framed newspaper articles and journals about SDN and Heat Seeker’s achievements.
“Smitty, how did you know… every single time…” she bit her lip, shaking her head slightly. Without warning, she snapped her head toward him, “You have powers, but you…”
“I had a feeling.” Smitty muttered, “That testing showing up on my file wouldn’t be good.”
“A feeling?!” Heat Seeker pinched the bridge of her nose, “You mean to tell me you’re fucking clairvoyant?!”
Smitty froze as Heat Seeker began to pace the room, “Of course, who else but a clairvoyant to perfectly dispatch any team they’re given!” she spun around, “How you hid this is astonishing to me.”
She continued on, holding her hand up to her face as she thought aloud, “Given who your parents are, I assume you’ve had training?”
Smitty frowned, “They trained me how to fight as a kid and kept up with it… but who they are…?”
Heat Seeker closed her eyes, exhaling slowly, “That… was a slip.” She sat down at her computer, her fingers flying across the keyboard as he typed, “Regardless, I’m putting you in your own team as a hero.”
Smitty glanced up at her, his heart dropping as he spluttered, “I- what? Who will dispatch them-?!”
“We will find a dispatcher. Until then, you’ll get a remote dispatcher.”
He sat listening to the sound of the keys clicking before he muttered, “Wait… so am I in trouble?”
Heat Seeker sighed, her typing stopping as she looked around the screen at him, “You should be, but considering the circumstances, this is the best option. This will be reviewed by the SDN Board of Trustees, but until then, consider yourself a hero.”
“So… when do I start?”
“Now.” Heat Seeker stood up from her desk, handing him a sweatshirt, “This was from a former hero who left the service. They never wore it.”
The black sweatshirt had one red and one blue sleeve, with white stitching all over. Smitty nodded quietly, staring at the sweatshirt as Heat Seeker smiled, “Good thing you’ve already bonded with your team, yeah?”
“Yeah…” Smitty mumbled.
The older hero patted his shoulder, “It’s either you do this, or you go to jail for evading testing, which has a minimum of 10 years.”
Smitty glanced upward, laughing nervously, “Being a hero sounds great!”
“That’s what I thought.” Heat Seeker shook her head, “Do you know where the technicians’ office is?”
Smitty frowned, “Technician?”
“The weapons technicians?”
“Oh, no, I don’t.”
Heat Seeker nodded, “I’ll call one of them up here. He’ll get your gear sorted. Your mom mentioned you’re a sharpshooter?”
Smitty glanced to the side, muttering, “Sure?”
“Alright then, I’ll tell him.”
She picked up the phone, and chatted animatedly with the person on the other line, occasionally nodding enthusiastically at Smitty.
“Alright,” she put the phone back and turned to Smitty, “He’s on his way!”
A few minutes of silence broken up by Heat Seeker’s typing was interrupted by a man in a yellow SDN polo bursting through the door. He had grease smeared across his arms, but he smiled brightly at Heat Seeker.
“Hi! You called for me?”
Heat Seeker nodded, “Smitty, this is Daukey. He is one of our technicians.”
Daukey beamed, “Hi! Are you a new hero? Oh my gosh, you’re trusting us with your toolkit?! Usually you all have it figured out by the time you get to SDN!”
“He’s a… special case, Daukey.” Heat Seeker gestured toward Smitty, “I’m sure he can give you all the information you need, right Smit?”
Daukey lit up, but Heat Seeker glared at him, and he shut up. Smitty nodded, “Yeah… thanks, Heat Seeker.”
She waved to the two of them, and as soon as the door shut, Daukey gasped, “Smitty, like… the dispatcher?!”
“Yeah.” he muttered as he followed Daukey down the halls. Once they were alone in the hallway, Daukey suddenly spoke up, frowning as he whispered, “You have powers?!”
“Uh… yeah, clairvoyance.”
The other nodded, “That makes so much sense. So they caught you?”
Smitty grimaced, and Daukey shook his head, “Nah, I’m kidding. Anyway, tell me more about your powers, y’know, like training and stuff!”
Hesitantly, Smitty recounted his experience in combat and with firearms. Daukey hung onto every word, and when Smitty finished, he nodded, “I have an idea for you for your gear, I’ll run it by Sovi, though.”
“Sovi?” Smitty said hesitantly.
“Yeah, Sovi! He’s the other technician.” Daukey grinned, “We’re a pretty good team.”
Daukey paused at a door, pressing his keycard up to it before turning the handle. Inside was lit up in soft yellow lights, with metal plates, fabric, and all sorts of tech laying around the floor. Off in a corner sat another man in a purple SDN polo, his gaze focused on the gloves he had on the table.
“Sovi!” Daukey called, making the other jump. Sovi whipped his head toward the door, groaning loudly, “You asshole, Daukster, you didn’t have to yell across the fucking room!”
“Sorry, but we get to make gear for a new hero for once!”
Sovi immediately dropped his project, “I’m on my way over.”
The two immediately began talking, running around the room to place items on a table. Smitty sat in confusion as they talked over each other, yet still perfectly understood what the other needed.
Daukey spun around from the cabinet he was in, “Yo, do you have the-”
“Holster!” Sovi threw the black belt, and without blinking Daukey caught it and continued rummaging through.
After ten minutes of rushing around, the two stood together in front of a table, showing Smitty his options as he put on the holster.
Sovi glared at Daukey, “He doesn’t need a katana.”
“But it’s fun!” Daukey muttered.
“What about long distance says fucking katana, Daukey?!”
“The fun kind!”
Smitty sighed as he grabbed two pistols on the table, and a knife as well. He glanced around the table, noticing the odd piece in the group of items. A propeller hat sat toward the edge of the table, away from the firearms and weaponry.
“What’s with the hat?” Smitty called, interrupting the technician’s argument.
They glanced at the hat, and Sovi sighed, “It’s a propeller hat that is supposed to make people fly, but Daukey can’t figure that part out, so it’s just a hat.”
“You want it?” Daukey muttered.
Smitty rolled his eyes, “Yeah, it’s entertaining.”
He picked up the hat and placed it on his head, earning a giggle from the two technicians. The three talked for a bit, especially after Sovi learned who Smitty was. He mentioned the activities he does with his team, and they begged to join sometime.
“Sure, why not? As long as you guys can keep up!”
“Oh pal, I can keep up.” Sovi slammed his hand on the table, and immediately deflated as Smitty giggled, whispering, “Pal?”
“Oh fuck you, Smitty.”
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John had long since left the cafe, and now sat in his bedroom, in his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Guilt climbed up his throat as he pulled his covers closer over his face, his mind whirling with what he did. He made the mistake of checking his emails when he got home, faced with the tagline “Important News” and “unfortunately, you are let go”.
They saw the puddle in the chair, and of course, Puffer had seen him run from the cafe. SDN knew what he did, they had to. John took a deep breath as he rolled out of bed, gathering his most important belongings. He had to try to run, they were going to throw him in prison, no doubt.
Why didn’t I think about any of this?! John shook his head as he threw in his phone into his bag, racing toward the front door, Smitty cost me my fucking job!
He threw the door open, only to run face-first into a man standing in front of his door. A hood covered most of his face, but he spoke calmly, “Kryoz, I presume?”
John backed up, his eyes wide as the man let himself into his apartment. John held out his hand to cover the guy in ice, but the man was fast to pull a gun out, accompanied by the soft click of the safety turning off, “Don’t do it.”
“How-”
“You’re a hero, there’s a roughly 95% chance you were going to attempt to use your powers.”
John frowned, “Huh?”
“Probability, pretty easy to calculate, no?” The man laughed, “Ah, who am I kidding, talking to the hero who couldn’t hide evidence if his life depended on it.”
John froze (ha), “What- you know about that?!”
“Kryoz, SDN doesn’t do the best job at hiding information. Especially classified information. It’s why I have my own organization, run better than SDN.”
John tilted his head, “Another organization?”
“Yes,” the man nodded, “One of solo vigilantes who work for the greater good of humanity, to increase their wellbeing!”
He tilted his head upward so John could see his face covered entirely by metal with glowing eyes of teal and red, “We could use a hero like you. Clearly, SDN doesn’t see your potential.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You don’t have anywhere else to go. Do you think you can run from SDN on your own?”
John glanced downward, slowly shaking his head, “No…”
“Then come with me, and we can make you a hero worth fearing.”
“Okay.”
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Shroud sat at his desk, smiling as he sat behind a glass window, watching his newest recruit fight in an arena against his best, and miserably fail. He smiled as he watched his golden ticket fly across the arena, proving his 10% chance of winning was slim.
If this hero was the key to finding what he needed, then he would take any measure to make sure he gets information out of him by any means possible.
He leaned back, in his chair, staring at the recording he got from the computer. He knew his target now.