Hatchetfield.

hatchetfield superhero au i don't have a name for yet

SMASH!!!

A body was hurled like a projectile through the window of Beanie's. Shattered glass covered the floor like snow. The person suddenly lying crumpled on the floor had long, slicked-back black hair, with goggles over his eyes, and wore a leather jacket with a popped collar, fingerless gloves, sweatpants and combat boots. He pushed himself up off the ground, spitting out a bit of blood. Slowly, he turned towards the terrified barista and the normal-looking office worker she was talking to.

"Could I please get a hot chocolate?"

Emma blinked twice at the man, utter confusion knocking her out of her terror. She knew this person - he was the so-called superhero Displacement. And he had just gotten defenestrated right in front of her. And he just got up and asked her for a fucking drink.

"I'm sorry, what?" was all Emma could offer in a bewildered response.

"I'd really like a hot chocolate, please, my blood sugar is low and I don't want to pass out in the middle of this." Displacement politely asked again.

Emma glanced at the man waiting in line - Paul, he had said his name was - and back at the hero. "Um, okay," she starts, "would you mind waiting until I finish his coffee?"

Displacement gawked at her momentarily. "I really don't want to seem entitled, ma'am, I'm sorry, but I could really use it before they come back for me."

Emma scoffed. Who knew a notorious hero was such a shitty customer? She poured him some hot chocolate, and moved to spit in it as an act of spite, but it quickly disappeared from her hands before she had the chance. When she turned around, Displacement was already downing the whole thing, having teleported the steaming cup right out of Emma's hands and into his. After drinking it all, he politely wipes his mouth with a napkin before thanking Emma and teleporting out of the coffee shop to rejoin the fray in a rush. The crabby barista couldn't help but turn her head towards the chaos happening outside.

Displacement was fighting alongside two other heroes - Spotlight and Ikari. Ikari was another boy, with messy hair completely dyed a dark blue and wearing an all-black outfit, complete with a longcoat to top off the edgelord protagonist look he was going for. Spotlight, meanwhile, was hard to get a read on - they were wearing an electrician's protective gear, with a hood over their head that obscured their face. Emma recalled that they were shy and barely spoke in front of others, even if it seemed like they wanted to. The hood was probably just as useful for coping with stage fright as it was for not getting sparks in their face.

Opposing them was Specter, a ghostly beast of a man, muscles and blue veins visible under his blood-stained Hatchetfield High School letterman jacket. He was currently locked in combat with Ikari, the latter using the spectral hands his power provided him to catch and block the brutal attacks coming his way while gleefully taunting his assailant.

Emma looked over at Paul, his electric blue eyes firmly focused on the clash. She's surprised that he's still here - most of the other customers had already fled the building. It took Emma three attempts to get his attention, with the third involving her waving her hand in front of his face and saying "Helloooooo?"

He blinked and looked back at her, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry. It's distracting. And noisy."

She laughs a bit. "That's why I'm wondering why you haven't run away by now."

"Oh." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking like he just realized that the cafè was now barren. An awkward smile crept its way onto his face. "Well, as a matter of fact, I'm trying to get the number of this nice barista who works here..."

Pete felt much better after getting that hot chocolate. Having powers that drained your energy a bit every time you used them made long, drawn-out fights like this a nightmare to get through - especially because he spent so much time teleporting civilians away while Richie and Ruth did all the real fighting. He was proud of his powers, obviously, saving people was the most important part of what they did.

Still, would it kill Richie to stop making fun of Max and just punch the guy already? It's not like he couldn't.

His angry train of thought was interrupted by a shriek of terror. Pete whipped around to find the source, and- holy shit, was Max holding Stephanie fucking Lauter hostage??

One ghostly claw was near her neck. She was struggling and writhing, trying to get out of the jock's grip. Richie and Max were shouting some inane banter at each other as usual, but Pete wasn't paying attention.

What was that about saving civilians?

He sprinted towards the two, and with his running start, teleported himself close enough to tackle the mayor's daughter out of the ghost's grip and, with enough exertion, teleported Stephanie along with himself far away from the fray, both of them tumbling onto the ground.

Pete pushed himself up and away from Stephanie, trying to ignore the compromising position the two were just in, and looked around. Looks like he had teleported the two of them to his brother Ted's house - figures, considering Pete didn't exactly have a location in mind, just somewhere safe.

"Um, are you Displacement?"

Pete turned around. Steph had just stood up - and she was blushing. Pete swore he could feel his face heating up as well, and his voice cracked awkwardly when he responded. "Uuuuhhhh... yEah?"

The girl giggled, seemingly unbothered if not amused by Pete's awkwardness. "I'm, like, your biggest fan." She said with a wink. "You're rocking the bad boy look."

He looked down at himself. It had honestly never occurred to him that his "costume" was any particular look at all, he just selected things that were both easy to get and provided a good range of movement or any particular utility during a fight. The sweatpants were because wearing anything that wasn't loose-fitting would probably restrict joint movement (as he had repeatedly insisted to Richie, to no avail), and the boots, jacket and goggles were for blocking debris that would otherwise fly into his face. Plus, he managed to get prescription lenses for the goggles. He had learned his lesson from trying to teleport with glasses on - eventually, they were gonna fly off and break.

All he could say in response to the gorgeous girl in front of him was "Am I? I, uh, didn't notice." which made her giggle even more, oh god she was making fun of him wasn't she, he was a total idiot to think Stephanie Lauter would ever think he was cool -

She walked over to him and tenderly adjusted his collar with a smile. "Well? Don't keep me waiting, I live near here anyway. Go get 'em, tiger."

It took Pete's thoroughly flustered mind a full three seconds to realize what she meant. He smiled a bit too, awkward as he was. "Yeah! Yeah. I'll, uh, do that. Thanks, Stephanie." He turned around and teleported away, not realizing he had accidentally let the girl know he knew who she was.

Only about a minute and a half had passed since Pete saved Steph, and when he got back, things didn't seem to be going much different. Richie and Max were evenly matched, and while Ruth's powers were strong, electricity was risky to use against someone who could suddenly become incorporeal - it could very well just cause more damage. Once Pete reappeared, he shot a glance towards Richie, and the otaku nodded at him in response - they had done this a hundred times before. Using the strength he had left, he teleported Max behind Richie, who swung around and used one of the spectral arms he summoned to hit Max in the back of the head with a haymaker, taking Specter down for the count.

"Nothing personal, kid." Richie gloated, earning him an eye-roll from his friend.

"Dude," Pete started, avoiding his teammate's real name, "no matter how hard you try, it's never gonna be cool when you say that."

"It is too!! It was so fucking cool, you have no idea how cool it was."

"To a twelve year old, maybe."

"Shut up!!"