The Boys- Apprentice

The Test

Driving over to Vought I kept thinking, today is the day. Today is the day where I'll see if I'm going to become a proper superhero for Vought, or if I'm just not ready. Entering the building I kept psyching myself up, mumbling to myself, "I'm ready for this, I got this".

When I met up with Queen Maeve she directed me to her car and told me she would be driving us to the location for today's test. She told me that the test was going to be a test mission and left it at that. When we arrived she told me to suit up. I pulled out my briefcase and inside that briefcase was a large block of steel. As soon as I opened the briefcase I manipulated the metal inside to shape it into a full body metal suit of armor. It covered my whole body, in the shape of a super suit, it was sleek, and silver, not leaving much to the imagination. It looked good while also providing a lot of protection. After being fully armored I walked over to Queen Maeve who was standing outside of a gate for an abandoned warehouse.

Queen Maeve turned to me and said, "Ok, inside of this warehouse is a group of people from the Sinaloa Cartel group. They have been kidnapping women off the streets and drugging them up to get them addicted to cocaine and other such drugs. After they've become addicted, they'll force them into becoming prostitutes, basically sex slaves, and they will comply so they can get their next fix of such drugs."

I was horrified to hear all of this was happening right in the middle of the United States. You know how you hear about all of these crimes happening, but they are only statistics you hear on the news, and then to hear that they are happening right in this building, I was getting angry.

Maeve then continued speaking, " We are here right now to stop this group. Well more like you are going to be stopping this group. While I will be right out here just in case of an emergency. If you need me, just call out for help. Any questions?"

I froze for a moment to process all of this. I was going to be taking out that group of criminals all on my own. I knew that I would be doing this one day, but the fact that this was happening right here and now scared me. I took a deep breath to calm down and then said, "No, no questions."

I walked straight inside the gate and then started jogging towards the door to the warehouse. There were two guards that started calling out for me to stop. When I didn't they started shooting at me with what looked like fully automatic AK-47s. The bullets bounced off of my armor, not slowing me down at all. I ran straight into the guards and punched one of them, knocking him out, and then grabbed the other and threw him into the wall. 

Then I ran over to the door and found it to be locked with a metal chain. Using my powers, I manipulated the chain to come undone and then opened the door. I was immediately greeted with a large host of gun fire. I then used my powers to pull all of the guns towards me and out of the hands of the criminals. After that I started running towards them, taking them out one after another. Right after knocking the last criminal through a window in the warehouse, I looked into the room to see a row of barely clothed women in chains. It took me a second before I realized what they were doing here. I then used my powers to unlock the chains they were stuck in and walked towards them to calm them down. 

They backed away from me as I walked closer to them. I then realized that I might have looked more than a little bit terrifying to the obviously traumatized women. I stopped for a moment and then used my powers to lower my mask. I then continued walking towards them slowly whispering what I thought would be comforting words towards them, "It's okay, the criminals have been taken care of. My name is, well I don't have a superhero name yet but I work for Vought."

I put my mask back on for safety with my powers and as the women started to calm down I was able to start directing them out of the warehouse. As I walked out of the warehouse, leading the women to safety, I started to hear and see flashes of light. Then I saw all of the reporters standing outside. I quickly directed the women over to the police before pausing to look over at the spectacle that was going on.

I looked over and saw Queen Maeve standing there talking to the group of reporters. "Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the new superhero Metallic. He has the power to control the magnetic field, in other words, he can control all metals. He will be my first apprentice, and the first apprentice that has ever been had by one of the members of the 7, and who knows, he may become a member of a 7 in the future if there are any openings in the future. Unfortunately we don't currently have any vacancies on the team currently."

"I guess I have a name now", I thought to myself.

Maeve directed me to stand next to her, "Metallic here will now be helping me in most matters related to the 7, such as on missions. Ok, do you have any questions for me or Metallic."

The first reporter called upon asked, "Will you be keeping a secret identity?"

I turned to look over at Queen Maeve, silently asking how I should respond. She whispered in my ear, "Secret identities don't last long, just answer with who you are."

I then used my powers to lower my mask and then called out to the crowd, "Hi there, my name is James Powers, I'm 18 years old, and as Queen Maeve has just said I will be, how should I put this, apprenticing under Queen Maeve. My superhero name is Metallic, as my current mentor has put it. Any more questions?" I was terrified on the inside but I tried to speak as confidently as possible.

The reporters looked over at the new superheroes features, he wasn't overly tall about 5'8. They could see his muscles through his armor, while he wasn't overly buff, he was very toned. He had brown curly hair, and sharp brown eyes.

We then continued to speak to the reporters, answering most of their questions for another, it felt like, 30 minutes. After that I left with Queen Maeve and went back to Vought with her and we started talking on the drive over.

"You did good Metallic, you saved the women without a single casualty and charmed the reporters. Your young, handsome, and seemed confident to the people."

I beamed on the inside, "Thank you, to be honest I was terrified when I entered that building. I was even more scared when those reporters started asking questions."

"Well you did well, though it took a little longer than it should have to take care of everyone, you passed the test."

For a second I was confused on what she meant, but then I remembered that this whole thing was supposed to be a test. Then, after processing what she had said I realized that I would be working with Queen Maeve out in the field. Then, joy began to rise within me after processing this.

"Thank you for believing in me Queen Maeve. I'll make sure to not disappoint you."

Queen Maeve smiled at me and then we parked at Vought headquarters.