A Hero's Tale

Chapter Eleven: The Road to Being a Hero

It took Shane a bit to get used to his schedule, but after three weeks he finally felt familiar with the inner workings of the Hero's University. Although it was hard to balance all of the studying for the General Learning courses and keep up with the hero coursework at the same time. While he was used to learning things like math, he wasn't used to learning all of the rules and regulations placed upon heroes, which Stretch covered over several days.

"These are important for you to know," he said on the first day. "These rules were established for the safety of the people. Some time ago, way before you guys and way before even me, people didn't have Traits of any kind. Then, for some unknown reason, people with Traits started to pop up. This caused chaos, as more and more people grew to have a Trait of some kind, and there was no regulatory force to keep them under control. We call this the 'Dark Age of Traits'. Villains ran rampant and crime was at an all time high across the country. However, people with Traits began to stand up to the villains, thus causing the advent of the hero as we know it. To keep everyone safe and to make sure things didn't get out of hand, the heroes established a code to follow, which allowed them to protect those in danger while keeping a level of peace among the public. Which is why we're here now, in the 'Golden Age of Traits'." Shane found the history behind Traits fascinating, and actually devoted a lot of time outside of class to learning more about them.

'One of the first humans to have a Trait went by the name Malus. He had super human strength, speed, and could even fly, all of which he used to bring the nation almost to the brink of destruction on his conquest of power. Only when the man under the name Hero rose up and created what's now known as the Hero's Union did Malus find himself imprisoned.' Interesting, I knew some stuff about Malus, but I didn't know he was the original villain of our world. I wonder if I can find anything else on his Trait? As he got up to search for more books on the subject, he felt his phone vibrate. He pulled it out to find a message from Robyn.

Robyn: Come back to the dorms, right now, no questions asked.

Shane raised an eyebrow at the odd text before he shrugged and replied that he was on his way. He shoved the books he had checked out into his bag, then exited the library and walked back to the dorms. He found Robyn waiting outside of his door with a wide grin on her face.

"I got your text, what's up?" Shane asked. Robyn thrust a package into his arms, and he looked down at it before he looked back up at Robyn in confusion.

"Open it," she said excitedly. Shane shrugged and opened the package to find a clothing disk like the one Robyn had given him before. He pulled it out and found it to be slightly heavier than his other one.

"What's this?" he asked. Robyn gestured for him to go into his room.

"Go try it on, then you'll see why I'm super excited about this," she said. Shane looked at her questioningly for a moment before he opened his door and left the girl standing outside. He looked down at the disk before he shed off what he was wearing, then pressed the disk against his chest.

"CALLIBRATING," the loud robotic voice called out. Just like the other disk, lasers beamed out and scanned over Shane as well as his surroundings. Then, the clothing began to spread out from the disk and started to cover Shane's body. However, unlike the other disk, this one created a headpiece which weaved itself onto Shane's head. After a moment of blindness, the mask over his face turned on and Shane could see again. He turned to the room's mirror and was surprised with what he saw. The outfit was made of a dark black material, and along it ran a pattern of white stripes. The headpiece had cat ears on the top of it, and he could now see that the eyes were sort of like lenses that even moved and squinted when he did so. He whistled before he walked back over to the door and opened it. Robyn looked at Shane and cheered with a jump while she clapped.