New Recruit
#12 of Writing Prompts
This Week's Writing Challenge: "Never meet your heroes."
Knocking out some of the older prompts, so if you're following other members,
some of these might be out of order.
A potential super hero is haven't a rough start getting his empathic powers under control.
The solution: Lock him up somewhere remote where he can figure himself out.
But the leader of the team stops by with some news.
Kinda feel like scripting it out sometime.
If you would like to join the writing group I'm in (It's good fun! We talk about food a lot.)
Please send me a DM and I will get you added to the group. :D
Also! This new hero needs a super hero name. Please leave some suggestions.
He cried through his shower again. It was nothing new for "The Worlds Most Powerful Empath". The young goat was still shaking off the effects of another failed amplifier session. He breathed deeply as he sat on the couch in the empty living room. He hadn't bothered getting dressed. The windowless concrete walls of the base did little to comfort him from the sadness of the world. Somewhere in South America was a secret base that he'd been "housesitting" while he learned to control his powers. It was approaching his third month here, alone. The Unsavories had been too busy with some new cosmic threat, leaving him to get to know himself a little.
The base hadn't been used since the seventies, but Scrapheap had kept it up in his off time as a hobby. Jose starred at the large concrete wall opposite the couch as he rubbed his eyes. The tears had stopped and the pit in his stomach was recovering. He watched the light reflect off the plastic which coated the wall. He'd been told the wall could be used as a screen. He still hadn't yet met Scrapheap, the dalmatian who refurbished the place.
He missed people, despite how his powers made him feel around them. Displacer tried to visit weekly at first, but communication had stopped a month ago. There was no phone service, no one ever gave him the wifi password and he couldn't figure out how to get television to work on the screen he was now staring at himself through. As grateful as he was to be able to feel his own emotions for the first time, he could only take so much "bored" before he needed some new stimuli. There was nothing but practical manuals in the pitiful library, and there were only so many times in one day the goat could jerk off without something to look at. The only positive was that the boredom made him work out in the gym more.
He lied down, his damp fur rubbing off on the leather seats as he looked up at the ceiling above him. Counting the vents circulating the air as far as the upstairs balcony. Everything was gray, lifeless. An old lounge was upstairs, but there were no drinks. Scrappy had taken all the booze as he didn't was some drunk nineteen year old wrecking the place or pissing on the expensive electronics.
A series of clicks and beeps caused Jose to shoot up. As he felt the air pressure change in the room he felt a new set of emotions. He had a guest. He was feeling apathetic towards his current actions. In the background there was an excited nervousness with a hint of horny.
"Hello?" A familiar voice spoke out.
It was a voice Jose had only ever heard of the news. His heart beat faster. Someone was finally visiting! Not just anyone, THE Scrapheap. The junkyard dog himself. The same man who stopped the runaway monorail he was riding years ago. Jose nearly ran towards the man.
"Still alive in here?" Scrapheap said as the naked goat made his appearance.
Jose looked over at the villain squashing hero of the people, excitement coursing through him, causing the dopey grin on his face.
"You're naked." The dog was wearing his flight suit, just taking off the helmet now. Annoyance was growing in him.
"Oh! Sorry!" Jose tried to cover himself, "I just took a shower."
"Go get dressed." He gestured towards the bedrooms, "Just hear to fix some things."
Jose nodded, "Yes, Sir!" Then scurried over towards his room, shaming himself, feeling the other's annoyance at being called "Sir"
Once dressed, he returned to find the dog working at a console in the living room. The largest wall began to fill with text. Computer jargon Jose couldn't begin to understand. He sat on the couch, immediately feeling a sense of unease. The same feeling a parent would get when interacting with a pestering child they never wanted. He still felt the swirl of different emotions coming off the man.
Trying to spark a conversation Jose said, "So, big date, tonight?"
"How do you know?" Scrap said, bemused.
Jose shrugged, "Excitement, nervousness for something later and.. Something else." He replied with a knowing tone.
"I'm not nervous!" He said, as he filled himself with arrogant bravado.
The goat nodded, "Right, sorry." He shrunk into the couch.
"Aren't you supposed to be learning how to control that?" He spoke bluntly.
"Yeah, sometimes things slip through, though."
"Well I'd prefer you didn't go poking around in my head."
"Gotcha." Jose nodded, watching the wall-screen begin to function for the first time since he'd been here.
The two sat in silence as the goat worked on not feeling what the canine was feeling. Though he couldn't shake frustration.
"Are you frustrated right now?"
"Huh?!" The dog looked over his shoulder.
"I don't know if it's me or you who's frustrated right now."
Scrapheap leered, "Why would you be frustrated?"
Jose frowned, "Because you're the first person I've talked to in weeks and you're not very talkative."
"In case you can't tell, I'm very busy."
"Sorry." Jose said, feeling agitated.
Scrapheap sighed, "Anything you need fixed, while I'm here?" He said, tying to be more friendly.
"Well, there's no internet, phone gets no service and I don't know how to use this." He pointed towards the wall.
"Anything else?"
"Some reading material would be nice."
"No, I mean something physically wrong with the base."
"Oh." Jose looked around the room, "Could use some company, Y'know?"
"Again, that's not something I can fix."
"Why not? You're hiding something."
"Why would I-"
"I can feel it!"
Scrapheap let out a long sigh, "Alright, there's a situation and I don't know who I can trust." He tilting his head towards the goat, "I can trust you as you are new to the group and surveillance over the past months showed how boring you are. Happy?"
"You've been watching me?"
"Yup."
Jose's eyes welled with tears, "You're just here to fix the surveillance, aren't you.."
The only response was an apathetic shrug.
"You son of a bitch."
Scrapheap stopped typing to turn around and slapped his thighs, "Alright, we'll start with Displacer. Prove that he's not the mole and I'll give him access. Okay?"
Tears spilled onto Jose's cheeks, the feeling of being used and the anger that came from it were nothing compared to the indifferent contempt he felt from the dog.
Weakly Jose nodded, "Fine. I'll do it."
"Good, keep practicing on the amplifier, really try to reach just one person at a time. Then we can work on clearing the team." He smiled smugly, "Then we'll see about the internet."
"I thought you were one of the good guys."
Scrapheap stood up, "I have to make the hard decisions sometimes, you'll understand when you're older." He walked over to the couch, placing a small remote onto the sofa, "For the T.V." he then headed towards the door, "It's programmed for weekends only. See you soon."
With another few clicks, Jose was alone.