What do you want?" Jake spat at the giant.
Just as she figured out the best opening. Just as she knew the exact thing to say, Jake had to mess it up. There wasn't even anything wrong with what he said.
It was how he said it.
In the Main Meeting Hall of the Super Society, Jake and Paulina stood in front of a giant of a man with no idea what to do.
But not anymore.
And his monstrous voice sure as hell didn't help.
There was a brief silence between the two as Jake stared right into the man's tiny little eyes. He was a pale white man and had orange hair he clearly never shaved, resembling that of an unkempt old man. He wore a black singlet and red pants, like the type you see in a gym goer's outfit.
Suddenly, with a loud thunderous voice, he spoke.
"Nothing really." He said, his voice booming. "It's just my friend over here wants to talk to you."
He then stepped aside to reveal a woman covered head to toe in silver. Like someone had painted her in it. She wore a large green sweater with a light yellow stripe in the middle, the type you'd see only on Christmas Eve.
As the girl stepped forward, she gave a menacing stare to the giant, who looked nervously back to her.
She then morphed her left arm into a mallet and slammed it onto his knee.
"Strong, you big goof! I told you not to scare him! Now you've ruined everything!" She said with a high-pitched voice. The monster didn't take any physical damage from the attack, but his face would tell a whole different story.
He began to sob.
"I'm sorry SilverBlade. I... I'm still not used to talking to people." He said with tears welling up in his eyes.
"Still? Well, you better learn 'cuz you're ruining my life here!" She shouted, causing the monster to shriek in sadness.
The two were flabbergasted.
This girl, not even half his size, was making him look so small, so pathetic.
She then turned toward Jake and buried herself in her sweater. She wanted to walk away but took a step towards him instead.
"H...hi. my name i...is Solverblood. Fuck! No, that's not...I..." She fumbled to say with her mouth still in the collar of her sweater.
"Don't forget to handshake!" Strong pointed out only for SilverBlade to give him another menacing stare.
She slowly reached out her hand to Jake, who stared at it blankly.
He looked confused.
But Paulina was the most confused of the two.
Despite their strange personalities throwing her off, she recognized these two. Sergeant Strong and SilverBlade, members of Retribution. One of the two teams competing to be the new Elite.
These were the crème de la crème of supers they were talking to.
And they were acting like children.
Suddenly, Jake shook the girl's nervous hand with a smile.
"Nice to meet you Silver. Can I call you that?" Jake said, causing her to sink deep into her sweater.
Despite the metallic feel of her fingers, Jake felt a slippery texture to them. Was she sweating oil? Why was she so nervous around him?
"Was it because of his appearance? Surely. It was." Jake thought to himself.
"Look. You don't need to be scared of me. I'm a pretty chill guy. Ask my friend here."
"Oh...yeah, you seem like it." She said, poking her head out of her sweater nervously.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Jake asked her, causing a small peep to escape her lips.
"I...there's a lot of people here with powers but none of them look as messed up as I do."
"You look fine." Jake mused.
"Now I do. I could manage with the silver skin but that's not my main problem."
"Main problem."
"You don't want to see me in action."
"Is it worse than how I look?" Jake said, pointing to himself.
"Well... I don't know. I just... wanted to talk to someone with a similar condition. Sorry if I'm being rude."
"Not at all. It's good to talk to people you have stuff in common with."
"Y...yeah. No one really talks to me 'cuz they're afraid of me. Either that or this big oaf scares them off." She said, pointing to Strong who looked away in embarrassment.
"Well, I'm here if you want to talk Silver. Can I call you Silver?"
"Y...yeah, I'd like that." Silver said with a wide-eyed smile.
Jake smiled back at her and the two kept on talking.
Paulina smiled.
She wasn't expecting the situation to turn out like this but was pleasantly surprised. The two members of Retribution, a team renowned for their cold and efficient brutality and hatred of Canman, were so friendly and welcoming.
That's when she noticed, there were just two of them.
Retribution had three members.
Where was their leader?
Where was Amazo?
Suddenly her advanced hearing picked up something from her left. She turned to see Zack and Stacya still talking to the young supers. So it wasn't them.
However, from a far end of the hall, she heard loud and fast footsteps, like someone was walking angrily towards them.
Before she knew it, that someone spoke.
"What the fuck is a dirty 'giller' doing here?" A large imposing figure spoke, silencing the whole hall.
That figure was Amazo.
He was a six-foot-tall man wearing a black spandex suit with a large red 'A' in the middle. He wore a small mask to cover his eyes but his white skin and blond hair were perfectly visible.
Everyone turned to look at the scene. Jake was surprised by the random silence the man caused. Just when he was about to ask Silver who it was, he saw her head buried in her sweater again.
"Uh...who is that?"
"A...Amazo. My boss." She said, quivering.
"I see. And what was that word he used just now?"
"What word?"
"Giller."
She stayed silent for a brief moment and spoke.
"It's a slur for Atlanteans."
"What?!"
Jake turned to see Amazo standing in front of Zack, who was blocking him from Stacya.
"Out of my way, brat. I have to get this disgusting giller out of our great hall." Amazo said to Zack.
Stacya had gotten on all fours and was quivering behind him.
"I'm not letting you do that. And stop calling her that." Zack said with a confident tone Jake hadn't heard from him before.
"I can call her whatever the fuck I want you little shit. What the hell are you gonna do about it?"
"I don't know. You tell me." Zack said with a smile in the same confident tone.
"The nerve of you new supers. Wait a damn minute, I recognize you."
"Me?"
"You! I remember! Five years ago! Rocket brought some snot-nosed brat in here as his protégé."
"What about it?"
"It's no wonder you act like it. That damn fool. Trained his protégé to be a dirty giller defender."
"What did you call him?" Zack said, his fist clenched.
"I called him a damn fool! Well, what do you expect from a man who's foolish enough to respect Canman..."
Before he could even finish the word he got hit square across the jaw by Zack's enlarged fist. Everyone in the hall gasped in shock. Some took a step forward to defend him. Some stayed back and began to gossip.
One super began to laugh. That was Max.
"Didn't know he had it in him." He said as he laughed.
Paulina wanted to join in. To stop Zack from making a grave mistake. Seems he already did.
"Shit! Zack, what have you done?!" She screamed.
"What should we do Paulina?" Jake asked.
"I'm heading over there." She said and took a step.
"Wait!" Silver said and got in her way.
"Out of my way, girl." Paulina said in anger.
"I can't let you go there."
"Why?"
"The boss might kill you."
"Kill her?" Jake cut in.
"He's got severe anger issues. I should know. One guy punching him in the face won't piss him off as much as multiple people jumping him." She explained.
"So what am I supposed to do? Let him attack my boyfriend in revenge?"
"I...I didn't know he was your boyfriend. I..."
Paulina pushed her out of the way and was horrified at what she saw.
Zack and Amazo were standing mere inches from each other. If Paulina's plan was to stop them from fighting, she had already failed.
"Those are some guts you got there, kid. I can see Rocket, despite his foolishness, taught you well."
That last comment caused Zack to pop a vein.
"Too bad you're using it to protect a giller." Amazo said with a smirk.
"Stop calling her that." Zack said, dead serious.
"I can call her and her kind anything I want. Do you know how they view us humans? How much they're disgusted by us? Meanwhile, the scaly fucks shit in the same water they breathe." Amazo said and laughed.
Paulina took a step forward. Maybe she could stop this. Maybe she could...
Zack raised his right arm for another punch. This time was different though.
This time, Amazo raised his fist.
She was too late.
Zack was going to take the punch of one of the strongest members of the Super Society.
At least, that's what she thought.
Until Jake made his move...
Jake had appeared between the two, grabbing both their hands before they could send them flying at each other.
Both were flabbergasted.
"That's enough, you two." Jake said calmly.
"What the hell are you?" Amazo said, shocked.
"Name's Blue Shadow. I'm a teammate of his." He replied, tilting his head towards Zack.
"I see. Well, you're aware he attacked me first, right? Only fair I returned the favour." Amazo said, pulling at his arm.
"Calling my friend a slur deserves much more than a punch." Jake said, making eye contact with the fuming super.
"Why you damn..."
"Boss!"
Before he could finish, SilverBlade and Sergeant Strong followed Jake into the scene.
"C'mon sir. This isn't right. The Elite would be done with their meeting and be here any minute now."
"So?"
"We can't afford another incident, sir."
Amazo withdrew his arm from Jake and walked, grumbling the whole way. SilverBlade and Strong followed him.
As she left, Silver turned to wink at Jake.
Jake gave her a smile.
The team left on a whim, just like that, surprising everyone. Once they were gone, the silence left too. Soon, the murmur and chatting began again.
"You didn't have to do that, Zack." Stacya said, still on all fours.
"Yes, I did. I'm not gonna stand aside while some douche badmouths you for no reason." Zack said and approached her.
"There was a reason, though. My people..."
"Your race isn't a reason!" Zack shouted loud enough for the hall to go silent again.
Stacya went silent. Soon tears started welling in her eyes. Then she got on her feet and hugged Zack then and there. Zack hugged back, caressing the back of her neck, something she loved.
As everyone stared at Zack and the others, he could feel his confidence deteriorating. His lip started quivering and his arm...
Then he heard a clap.
It was Luthor.
He was clapping.
"Yeah! That's showing 'em! Nice Job Green Guardian!" Luthor said as he clapped even louder.
Soon everyone began to join him in the clapping. In just a few seconds, the massive hall was filled with the sounds of clapping from around 60 different supers.
"Great job, kid." Goldberg, leader of K.O, said with a smile.
"Yeah, way to show him who's boss." Max Flame, leader of the Elementals, said.
"I've had enough of that guy. Good job putting him in his place." Major Red, leader of Spectrum, said under his mask.
Then, Bash from the Icons approached Zack and shook his hand.
"Sorry for not helping out. He kinda outranks us. Plus he's kinda scary."
"Don't worry, Bash. It's no problem. Hell, the me from a few months ago would never have done this."
"Then it's good that you changed." Paulina said from behind.
"Ah! Where were you?" Zack said, running over to hug her.
"Was explaining some stuff to Jake. Little did I know leaving you alone would get you into a fight. Lesson learned."
Zack chuckled and gave her a gentle kiss.
"Well, what a sight!" A booming voice shouted at the group.
They all turned to see a man only a foot shorter than Strong. He wore a yellow hazmat suit and had red dots where his eyes should've been.
"No way." Zack said.
"Yes, my friend. It is I. Radioactive Man. Leader of the Legion." The figure shouted proudly. Behind him were three supers, Dr Hoo, Dr Small and Sno. His team. His Legion.
"Radioactive Man?! Sir. I... I'm a big fan. I have all your comics and your action figures. Plus I've watched your..."
Paulina then put her hand on his mouth to stop his fanboying. Zack thanked her internally. He had no idea what the hell he was doing with that. It's like his inner child took over.
"Sorry, sir. He's a bit of a fan."
"Understatement of the century right there." Radioactive Man said with a chuckle. "I must admit I'm a fan of his as well. Not everyday you see someone so young stand up to injustice. Especially from his superior."
"Yeah. It was such a fascinating sight." Dr Hoo said.
"We really don't see that everyday around here." Dr Small chimed in.
"Well, it was about time someone put that asshole in his place." Sno said and patted Zack on the shoulder. "Good job, kid."
"T...thank you, sir." Zack said and started blushing.
Jake burst into laughter, causing Zack to blush even harder.
"And you." Radioactive Man pointed at Jake. "That was quite a feat, stopping Amazo's hand like that. Hell, not just stopping his hand but also keeping it in place for so long."
"Oh. Uh, well I didn't see it as that impressive." Jake said nervously. He started to understand Zack's situation now.
"You might be in the running to be an All-star."
Jake looked at him puzzled.
"An All-Star is someone who's qualified enough to be in the Elite. The greatest team in the Super Society." Dr Hoo explained. "Having a level of strength to stop Amazo is some major All-star material."
Jake didn't even know what to say. All-star? He didn't even see himself as that strong. He saw Zack in trouble and used his super speed to step in. Then used his strength to keep that asshole in his place. He didn't realize his feat was that impressive.
Could this have something to do with how he stopped Dao D?
"And as for you, Atlantean girl." Radioactive Man said, pointing to a nervous Stacya. "Don't worry about him. Most of us don't share his sentiment. You're as much a super as any of us."
Stacya could only smile at him. She had no idea what to say to such an imposing figure.
"And if anyone says anything. You can count on your friend here." Radioactive Man said, nudging Zack's shoulder.
His entire body was already shaking and Paulina was praying for an excuse to leave because it seemed he was going to break down.
Luckily her prayers were answered.
Milten appeared from the back of the crowd and called his team over. Never had they been so quick to follow his orders. Well, except Max.
"Well, what's going on here? Seems you've gathered an audience." Milten said playfully.
"Oh, its nothing. We'll explain later." Paulina said with an innocent smile.
"Well, I'd love to hear..."
Milten was cut off by Radioactive Man, who glared at him. He returned the favour.
"C'mon guys. Let's just go." Milten said and got the orange card out of his pocket.
Paulina was the only one who noticed the brief exchange.
As the team left the hall, Max and Luthor followed. Max approached Jake and put his arm around him.
"Didn't know you could do that. Impressive."
Jake just nodded. He turned to see Luthor congratulating Zack for his bravery and Milten giving a small chuckle.
He didn't know why but this just felt right. Like they were a cohesive unit.
A team.
"If only Ivy was around to see this."
To be continued...