Writing Prompt Challenge #6: Hero HQ
This is the sixth and final writing prompt provided to me by fan Chet on my Facebook page. After this, I will see if people want to vote on the stories so I can send the winner a signed copy of The Reality Warper. Otherwise, I'll draw a name from a hat or something.
The final prompt reads as follows:
...And THAT is how I became superhero of the month!
I've known how I wanted to approach this story from the moment I first saw the prompt, so let's find out if it works or not.
Hero HQ
April 15th, 2054
Dear Diary,
Today I start my dream job at Hero HQ! Well, not exactly my dream job... But I will be cleaning up crime! Cleaning up after crime, anyway...
Okay, fine. I'm doing a summer internship at Hero HQ. At the 'interview' they asked me if I knew how to make coffee, and then they gave me papers to sign before I could answer. But it's a foot in the door, and I will not waste this opportunity.
Madeline
April 16th, 2054
Dear Diary,
Yesterday was awful. The heroes lined up all the new interns and asked us to show them our superpowers. I went third. By the time they got to me, they'd already ripped this kid, Allen, apart for being too nervous to demo his telekinesis. Sara faired better, because shapeshifting is at least showy, but they laughed their heads off when she shifted into a weasel.
I didn't even get a chance for a demonstration. The moment I said that I'm a precog, they burst out laughing.
Apparently, being able to see the actual future isn't 'interesting' enough. It can't be visualized on a poster, you see. No action scenes for the news bulletin.
Captain Bigshot actually said that my power isn't flashy enough. Flashy!
I thought the point was to help people, not to look good on camera.
I nearly quit today. I didn't, but my excitement is gone.
Madeline
April 17th, 2054
We were told today that interns don't get weekends. We also don't get paid, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone. I'm too tired to complete my journal in the mornings anymore, so now I'm just scribbling when I get a chance at work.
I'm starting to understand how it works around here.
There are five 'top' heroes who run things, and yes, they're exactly the ones you're thinking of.
Captain Bigshot is in charge. He is terrifying. He'll praise you for doing something one moment and yell at you for the same thing the next. His laser eyes and super strength keep everyone in check. I saved him from a coffee stain today by predicting that he would drop his cup and he yelled at me for twenty minutes for presuming to speak to him.
Lady Jade is the mediator. Her entire job is keeping Bigshot distracted enough so that the others can plan the missions. Bigshot has to sign off on everything, but he's more likely to do it if Jade is the one asking. I'm sure she has the power of persuasion in addition to teleportation, because he just smiles and signs.
Vixen is the strategist. If not for her, the heroes would achieve absolutely nothing at all. She makes the plans, sets the rosters, assembles the teams, and generally keeps the ship afloat. She has an office, but she's always in the nerve center, monitoring criminal activity. Today she shot a fireball at Bigshot's head. Near Bigshot's head. She said it was an accident in a tone that I absolutely loved because she didn't even pretend to be sincere. If not for Vixen, I wouldn't have come into the office today.
Midnight and Ice are just muscle, but they're the loudest muscle in the building and have managed to argue their way onto the leadership team. Their powers aren't all that impressive. Midnight can conjure darkness out of thin air, and Ice shoots ice at things. But I can see why Bigshot likes having them around. They are such suckups.
Everyone else falls into the category "Other". As in "If the Five are unavailable, other heroes may be assigned to your case." They are one step above interns, but without the freedom to quit at any moment. I got a glimpse of an employment contract when I was making coffee for the HR lady. Holy cow. Who would ever sign that?
Madeline
April 18th, 2054
They have a Hero of the Month board. Yes. Really. It's like they took the best parts of being a superhero organization and replaced them with the worst parts of Corporate America.
Bigshot always wins.
I am too tired to write more. I had to stay late washing hero undies. I am shattered.
Madeline
April 19th, 2054
Something is up. Vixen has been pacing constantly and shooting furtive looks at the door every time she speaks. I am pretty much permanently stationed in the nerve center now, so I see her a lot. Some of the techs have realized that, with enough clarity and guidance, my precognition powers can come in handy with spotting crimes about to occur. But it has to be in secret because Bigshot doesn't like interns to contribute to anything.
There's a section of the nerve center that is closed off. Vixen is in there right now. The walls are glass but soundproof, and I have no idea what's going on, but she's huddling with the chief of info security and some of the lesser known heroes. It's been three hours.
Madeline
April 20th, 2054
Saturday. There's no one here except for non-hero staff and interns. And Vixen. It's actually quite nice. We're all more relaxed, and Vixen has spoken to me directly twice. Yes, one of the times was to ask for coffee, but the other was to say good work on predicting the likely destination of a bad guy she's been hunting. I think my powers are getting stronger. Usually, I have to concentrate really hard to see anything at all, but Vixen and the tech guys know how to ask the right questions to get my brain working. I'm glad I stuck it out.
Madeline
April 21st, 2054
Even the tech guys are off on Sundays except for a skeleton crew. There has been a steady decrease in interns since we all started together on Monday. There were about fifty of us on Day 1; now we're down to twelve. There were seventeen yesterday--I guess that working on a Sunday was the final straw for some. Fair enough. I nearly didn't come in today.
But I'm glad I did. Vixen is working, and for nearly twenty minutes it has just been me and her, analyzing crime scene footage. She is my hero. I can't--
...
Okay. So. The reason I broke off and stabbed my pen through the page was because something happened.
I had one of my 'incidents'. You know, the ones that mom and dad would never talk about, the ones that they swept under the rug when I was a kid. I had a full on, head rolled back, eyes glazed over premonition. Vixen said that I "intoned like a badass" (so I can die happy, at least). I never know what I'm saying in the moment, but there are security cameras in the nerve center, and I totally uncovered a plot to overthrow HQ. . .and then the world!
Okay, I'm assuming that last bit, but that's usually the end game, right? Why overthrow the heroes if you have benign intentions for everyone else?
At the center of the diabolical scheme? Captain Bigshot! I kid you not. Basically, I foresaw that he intended to blast into HQ, disguised in an all black costume (as if his laser eyes, super strength, and gelled back hair wouldn't give him away), take over the nerve center, send hero operatives into deadly situations, and emerge as the sole survivor.
Yes, there are a few problems with this plan.
- The aforementioned issue with Bigshot being the world's most recognizable person.
- The fact that he needs help finding the shortcut to his email that some long-suffering IT guy put on his desktop a hundred years ago.
- The fact that it is Sunday and there are no operatives in the field (sorry, America, be victims M-F, 9-5 only).
- The fact that he was very, very drunk.
My premonition gave Vixen time to call in backup and take him down. They all helped, even Midnight and Ice and every single no-name hero on the team. Bigshot gets to be in charge because he is just so strong, but it turns out that I'm not the only one who doesn't like him and Vixen found a type of steel that will contain him. He is now locked in the basement, heavily guarded, surrounded by seven layers of the stuff, awaiting trial.
He said he did it to hide the fact that he lied on his expense report.
They took down his Hero of the Month picture and put mine up instead. They're calling me Soothsayer. Vixen invited me to a strategy meeting, and Lady Jade is giving me lessons on how to access my powers.
Things are going to change around here, I think. Well, they will if I have any say in the matter.
Got to go. Hero stuff to do.
Madeline, A.K.A. Soothsayer
