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Heroes Beneath Us

*A daring police drug bust leaves three dead, including officers Ryan Collen and Anthony Stewart. This raid came after an anonymous tip led police to a residential home in Spring Valley, owned by an unregistered Super. There is currently no official statement on the Super as a study by Washington State University shows that a majority of Supers remain unregistered. The people are pushing for change...*

-Republic Reporter, September 30, 2020

Chapter 2

University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

October 4, 2020

Professor Russel Adams paced across his stage, one hundred sets of eyes following him. He loved how he had their absolute attention, one hundred bright and smart students, or that was what he told himself since history was just a filler class. A class to make it appear someone was busy and productive. He ignored that though, he loved to teach, so much so that he, a Physics Doctorate, volunteered immediately after the previous instructor quit after his wife was arrested for being an unregistered Super.

It had upsetted the man who had been happily married for over two decades. He had no idea that his wife was a super. Apparently, she had the ability to ward off insects. It was minor, completely harmless in every way, but with the recent laws and attitudes, all Supers were automatically dangerous. It was a good thing that much of the staff at the university had spoken out and now the wife was only facing a large fine after she was forced to register, but the stress was still enough that the previous instructor quit to have more time to deal with the legal part of the problem.

Adams wished the best for the man, but for now, he had his students to teach.

Adams was an unfamiliar face to most of the students since he mostly taught and worked on the other side of the campus in the science labs, so introductions were in order. He cleared his throat and gave another look at the class that patiently waited for him to start. There was a wide variety of species. The class was mostly human, with the next largest group being Canis, then Felines, Equines and so on. The diversity was one of the university's bragging points when ever it had to hold meetings with donors. University of Washington was the most diverse schools on the Pacific coast.

"My name is Professor Adams." He made sure to speak loud, the room was large and old with a theater like appearance. The seats were arranged in rows, each on slightly higher than the one in front with ten bolted down foldable seats and tables per row. The walls were a pale beige, though it was hard to tell sometimes since they were covered in paintings and old relics. The old instructor had quite the collection in his room since the paintings and artifacts weren't isolated to the walls. The room was meant to hold around one hundred and fifty people, so the extra space that was meant for students was delegated to storage.

A hand shot up before Adams could even finish. It was a Red Panda, the only one in the class who was seated in the front row. He wore a pair of wire glasses that seemed invisible since its frames disappeared in his fur. He waved his hands a bit as Adams contemplated if he should call on him now or tell him to hold off on questions until he was done introducing himself. He chose the first one.

"Yes?" He asked and stopped pacing, stopping on center stage to get the best view of the class.

"Where is Professor Thaton?" The student asked in a hushed voice as if he had been building up the courage to ask for sometime.

News of Professor Thaton was no secret, information had been passed around and even announced in the school's paper as they rallied support for him. Everyone knew, or almost everyone.

Adams point that out though, that would be mean and there was no point in distancing himself from his new students. "Professor Thaton has left us for personal issues." Adams clasped his hand and answered the question in a straight voice. "I am taking his place."

"Will he be coming back?" The panda asked without raising his hand. He must have really liked Professor Thaton.

"He's not coming back." Another student laughed, a burly Equine that Adams recognized as being from the football team. He wore a wife-beater and had a smaller mare latched around his arm. She seemed to worship him. "His wife was one of those freaks." He spat the last word and the panda flinched.

"Do not speak out in my class." Adams quickly shut down the conversation. He could see that the class was mixed by looking at their faces. Some nodded their heads, others were becoming irritated and there were always those few who just looked uncomfortable, not wanting to be part of an argument. "Professor Thaton's personal life is his own, we are here to learn. If you want to discuss current events, there is a class for that."

The equine flared his nostrils and sat back in his chair, not pursuing an argument, not with staff. Adams made a mental note to watch him for a little while, he hated the types that wanted to cause trouble, he had no patience for that, not after being on this planet for 67 years.

Adams let everyone settle down before he continued his introduction. "As I said, I am Professor Adams and I'll be taking over for Professor Thaton until a proper replacement can be found." He walked over to the central chalkboard. It was amazing that there was still a chalk board here, most of the classes had digital boards with projectors. Adams used white boards in his class since he couldn't have chalk due to the dust that could get into expensive equipment and cause damage, but here there was no fancy machines, just old items.

The chalk was just right in Adam's hand as he wrote out his name. "Now a little about myself." He spoke louder since his back was to the class. "I was born right here in Washington, a bit farther south, but not much." He liked to introduce himself fully to each of his class. He found that classes that were more in touch with their instructors did better since they were more comfortable with asking for help when they needed it instead of holding it in and then failing important exams. "I attended this very school and then joined the Navy as an officer. I stayed in for ten years and then got out and came back here to get my masters in Physics. I worked for Seattle City Lights, working on power plants and such." He turned away from the board and looked back at the class.

A hand went back up, it was the panda again.

"You in the front." He pointed at the panda whose ears twitched slightly. Was in nervousness? He seemed slightly off to Adams, but in such a diverse and populated area, small quirks were common.

He lowered his hand and opened his mouth to speak. Nothing came out for a split, but very noticeable second as he gathered his words. "Where did you serve?" An honest question since he often left the details of his military career out. He had no problems answering though, there was nowhere to hide.

"Nothing glamorous." Adams answered. "I served on the destroyer, USS Cushing as a supply officer. Nothing exciting, straightened his lab coat which he wore everywhere. Many instructors liked to wear lab coats since they were still considered professional like a suit, but much more comfortable and cheaper.

"Did you see anything cool? Another student spoke out which annoyed Adams.

"Please raise your hands before speaking." Adams quickly addressed the student, but answered his question. "Not much happened. My job was mostly consisted of paperwork and sitting at a desk, however." He paused, wondering if he should tell them.

There was the sound of old seats straining as the students all leaned forward, hoping that Adams would divulge something interesting. He couldn't just leave them hanging there and it was a bit of history and that was what this class was about.

"I got to see Helios in action." He said, unsure of what the class reaction would be since Helios was the most wanted Super in the world for being responsible for the Kansas City Incident. A lot of people hated him exclusively for everything that was going wrong in the world, he was the scapegoat.

If there was any hostility in the class, no one showed it. In fact they all seemed to be genuinely interested in what he had to say. Ears perked, hands became crossed as chins were rested on paws and hands alike as students gave him their absolute attention. He was so glad that this was a history class instead of a politics class or he was sure there would have been a riot.

Sure that he was cleared to proceed, Adams once again cleared his throat. "It was in port in Guam where my ship was at for resupply. We were due to leave in a few hours as everyone came back in from the port. The day was hot and humid as it always was in Guam." Adams could recall the day as if it was yesterday.

"I myself was returning from a long night out." Adams could feel the hangover he had that day, the way the headache pulsed in his head as he stumbled back to the ship. He spent a lot of time drinking. It was something he regretted, especially since his drinking habit had begun well before joining and before he was of legal age. He pushed away such thoughts for the moment as he continued his story. "There had been a few murders in town and this was making much of my command nervous so everyone had to be back earlier than normal. I got a taxi and was at the gate when I saw him."

He paused for effect as he recalled his first real life sighting of Helios, at the time, the most famed Super of them all. He was a reptilian with white polished scales and a horned, shovel shaped head with two very reptilian eyes. He wore a yellow leather jacket and a pair of jeans. He would have been passed off as just another normal individual if it weren't for the fact that he flew. His toes were several inches off of the ground as he spoke with an officer about something. They were in heated discussion.

"Professor?" Someone spoke out, or did she? She could have had her hand raised and Adam's would not have noticed, he was so enraptured by his memory.

"I'm sorry." He shook his head and a few people laughed. "As I was saying." He caught them up to where he was in his memory and then pushed on from there.

"They were deep in conversation when there was an explosion." Adams threw up his hands for effect and instantly felt silly. He wasn't telling a story to a bunch of kindergarteners. "Something had gone wrong and a storage warehouse exploded. I ducked down as the world around me shook."

"I heard about this." An Elk with a very impressive rack of antlers said and then caught himself. He raised up his hand and Adam's smiled. They were learning.

"And what did you hear?" Adams asked the Elk who grinned at being called on. Eyes turned to him and some of that confidence faded away. "I... umm..." He gulped. "I heard from my father that there was a terrorist who was trying to target the port and kill sailors but there was a malfunction with the explosives. The ended up going off early and that blew the cover of the terrorists." He spoke quickly, but clearly, letting everyone hear him. He looked to Adams for verification.

"Close." Adams nodded. "Though it wasn't exactly terrorists. It was the Super Villain, Charger, who was trying to get explosives onto the Cushing to try and hold it for ransom."

"Charger?" There was an echo as multiple students tried to remember the list of Supers that were known.

Adams answered for them before they could ask. "Charger was a large rhinoceros that loved two things in the world, muscles and money. He had a body that produced insane amounts of testosterone and had extremely dense and efficient. He could life objects twenty times his weight with ease." He raised his hands up as if lifting something and didn't feel so silly this time. "Though he wasn't that smart and had somehow detonated his explosives while in transit."

"Did he die?" Another question, another speak out. For college students, they didn't catch on very fast. Adam's let it slide, he wanted to tell his story and the questions were helping to do that.

"No." Adams had a smile on his face. He felt like a nerd, he knew more about Supers than most people. "His super dense muscles made his extremely resilient to just about anything. Needless to say, he was only left with some minor burns."

Some mouths were open at the thought of surviving such an explosion. Strong Supers were not new news, but it was still spectacular to hear about such things from an actual witness.

"I immediately got out of my cab which quickly left the area before I could pay." Adams shrugged. "Helios was gone by then and I knew where he went and so, being the extremely intelligent man I was, ran towards the explosion." A few chuckles. "There I saw the most amazing thing ever. Helios duking it out with Charger."

Everyone was on the edge of their seats and Adams was getting excited. His eyes darted across the faces of the students. He saw the panda who seemed better, though a little on edge. He wondered why, everyone else had that same sparkle in their eye except for him, something was bothering him and Adams didn't like it when his students were having troubles. He would talk to him after class.

Adams diverted attention back to the rest of the class and his story. "Helios was swinging, each punch sending a blinding flash of light as Charger blocked them with his giant arms. Each hit pushed him back, digging his heels into the ground of the crater he was in. Then he swung and hit Helios right between the eyes."

The class flinched back as they imagined some lizard, which are generally small and frail in appearance, getting punched by a massive brute of a rhino.

"It didn't do anything." Adams nearly laughed. "Helios didn't even flinch as his nose was crushed."

"No way."

"Yes way." Adams shouted. "He just took it and then, right in front of my eyes, the nose healed. Just snapped back into place." He found himself playing with his nose, getting some chalk which was still in his hand on his face. "Then he smirked and said, 'bad move, bud.'

Adams proceeded to talk for another thirty minutes, telling them all about the fight that lasted for all of two seconds. The story shifted to other famous fights from Adam's time which included the more recent, but still famous confrontation between Bullet Time and Headshot that took place a few years back in Chicago. It had ended in a draw since neither could touch the other. Headshot was a perfect marksman, capable of hitting anything with his M!4, except for Bullet Time who was capable of dodging anything.

He then let the students share their own stories about encounters and everyone had something to input at one point or another, except for the panda who seemed more uncomfortable now than ever. He slumped in his desk as if trying to be unseen, using his books to cover him up. It was odd, very odd and Adams was beginning to get an idea of why.

The bell rang in the middle of a story that a student was sharing about some Super he heard of who could tear a person's mind apart. He was disappointed that he was unable to finish, the Ram struggling to get up, wanting to keep talking, though the assignment of homework got him out quickly.

It wasn't long before it was just Adams and the panda in the room who didn't leave his seat.

Adams stepped off the stage, his loafers not absorbing much of the shock of stepping down onto a hardwood floor, reminding him that he wasn't as young as he would have liked to have believed himself to be. He then sat in the desk next to the panda.

"What's your name?" Adams asked, not actually having read the roster for the class which had everyone's name and the same picture that showed up on their student IDs.

"Dave Cookerly." He answered, not looking at Adams. "I need your help, Dr. Atom."

Adams froze and stared in horror at the student. No one, absolutely no one knew who he really was. He had made sure of that after Kansas City. He had spent so much time erasing everything about his old self to ensure that he would never be found and yet here was this student asking for his help by a name that should no longer exist.

Adams could have feigned ignorance, but the fact that the student already said his old name proved that he knew fully well that he was talking to thee Dr. Atom, one of the most notorious and sought after and powerful Supers in existence right behind Helios himself.