All eyes immediately pivoted to the dark green hero who’s presence seemed to bare down over the crowd like a tsunami over a small village. His suit parodied a soldier's outfits from before the apocalypse, except lacking the helmet in favour of polarised shades. The military suits of today favoured black and grey, due to most modern areas of conflict being urban, allowing camouflage into the concrete landscape. This individual’s getup was all green, albeit many varying shades. Though the tactical plating on the suit was largely the same as ones from today, both covering vitals, his attire looked thicker and heavier.

Wracking my brain, I mentally flipped through my repertoire of hero knowledge. I'm really missing my journal right now.

“You know what I see when I look around here?” The soldier cosplayer seemed to pause for a moment as if expecting an answer. “A whole fucking lot of pussies.” His confident and matter-of-fact tone resounded through the crowd, silencing whispers from even my most chatty peers.

It finally clicked as I remembered the page of my journal I specifically made for him. Apparently, his father fought in some war before the apocalypse, which inspired his suit and career path. He fought for the Australian government during the collapse of society 112 years ago and developed his powers in service. The guy should've been around 20 then if my mind wasn't deceiving me. During a particularly nasty fight, he developed enhanced vitality and super strength. While becoming the subject of propaganda, he was labelled the “Super Soldier”, attracting hotheaded individuals who wanted powers and to fight for the country. After pulling through the war and helping establish the Sydney metropolis, he faded into obscurity 30 or so years ago.

Then an obvious truth hit me: Fuck, he’s 122 plus 20... he has to be around 142 years old? His enhanced vitality must be slowing his ageing to a mere inconvenience. I guess this is his new career path: training new recruits.

“A soldier is three things: Strong, both mentally and physically, brave, willing to put their life on the line for the betterment of this country without flinching and conviction. If any of you can't handle the mantle of these ideals, then you won’t be able to handle any kind of villain. Hitch a ride while the bus is still here.” Super Soldier gestured to the portal powering individual from before.

No one moved an inch. Anyone who got this far was either brave or did not comprehend what was ahead.

“Now sonny, piss off,” Super Soldier said to the teleporter.

Wordlessly, the dishevelled man warped space and disappeared with a frown.

“Assemble into teams, five each. Consider composition. You have ten minutes.” Super Soldier pulled out a chair from behind the stand and sat his camouflaged arse on the seat.

Looking to my side, my redheaded friend looked mortified as groups already started forming.

“Truce?” I asked whilst putting my hand out.

“Truce,” she finally responded, shaking it back.

“My name's Elijah, we need a plan to get people” I calmly calmly while trying to formulate a strategy in my head.

“The names Reina,” she stated brashly. “We need to scavenge loners that have either been kicked out of groups or didn't have one to begin with. We split up to get as many people as possible. Meet back here when it’s time. Got it?”

“Yep,” I stammered out of surprise at her quick thinking.

Speed walking to the closest person I could find I pitched “Hey, my names Elijah and I have enhanced regeneration.Wwant to join m-”

“Dude that's all you have? Good luck!” the kid with black hair and glasses scoffed while walking away with his hands in his pocket to approach a group of four.

Brutal. Disheartened, I walked up to the next girl I could see, eager not to waste a second. She was short and looked timid with the way she stood off to the side and fiddled with her long curls.

“The name Elijah, I have enhanced healing. Want to join my team? I already have one other person,” I repeated my pitch.

“Uhm. You don't have any secondary manifestations?” she asked curiously while lifting an eyebrow.

“Well, I might. But I haven't really gotten to test it out” I stammered out.

“Sorry mate. You seem nice, but if you don't even know if you have complimentary powers, I can't team up with you. I need a team I can strategize with” she said awkwardly, scurrying off as if afraid of what I was going to say next.

Is regeneration really that bad? It's not that much of a problem to not know if I have secondary powers. So what if I don’t? I'm not useless.

It had been around 4 minutes later when I looked over at Reina, her red hair sticking out like a beacon for me. Nerves started taking root in my gut. I could see her arguing with another guy, escalating it to a yelling match. This bitch needs to get her priorities straight.

Taking a deep breath in a useless attempt to calm down, I surveyed the thinning crowd around me.

Turning my head to the outskirts of the crowd, I could see a boy slightly younger than me sitting crossed-legged on the floor, his head being a smoothly shaven surface with no hair in sight. With his right hand he tugged uncomfortably at an oversized black t-shirt with a cartoon skull. With his left hand, he pulled on a pair of black jeans, which were also oversized and loose.

Taking the risk of wasting more time, I walked up and sat next to him. “What's up man, shouldn't you be looking for a team?” I said after a moment of silence.

He looked up at me, his blood red iris staring into my brown ones. When he spoke, he did so following an exhale, making his words rushed and harder to understand immediately. “I was promised I gotta burn shit as a job if I worked as a hero! I didn't sign up for group work!” his high pitched voice whined and his childish face contorted into a pained frown, as if he was angry at me for his predicament.

Wow, he doesn’t sound stable. I was apprehensive, but I pursued regardless. This was mostly out of personal desperation, but also partly out of pity for this strange creature I found myself sitting next to. “You know, plenty of people would love a pyrokinetic on their team to... burn shit. You kno-”

“Really? Do ya think so? Can I join yer team?” his eyes lit up like mini fires as he knocked his hands together erratically.

“Uh, yeah, sure thing. We need two more people now.” That had been surprisingly easy, though I had a feeling I was going to regret this decision. “Shit, I think we only have a few minutes left now. I don't know about you, but I don't want to see what happens when the ten minutes are up,” I said before standing back on my feet and dusting the dirt off my backside.

Looking around desperately, I could already see the more proactive people conversing in groups of five and some groups on the brink of fighting. One such group was rather close, where six guys were all arguing, gradually starting to single one guy out in favour of a new member. He was tall for normal human standards, his sandy blonde hair swaying as he started to push the ringleader of the group.

“Wow, I hope there's a fight! A fight between two supers, how cool would that be?” the previously depressed boy seemed to be rather reinvigorated at the prospect of violence.

“Are you fucking kidding me? I thought we decided this weeks ago! You’re taking the piss if you think you’re replacing me with a freshie!” the muscular blonde boy yelled, pushing the group’s leader again.

“I'm sorry mate, but Johnny here is much stronger. You're the weakest link.” a brown man slightly taller than the others by a few inches, nearly 6’7 in height, listlessly said, clearly not sorry at all.

“Go mingle with the retards before the ten minutes is up,” the one who I guessed was Johnny snickered.

Long strands of muscle fibres started to sprout from blondie’s arm like little worms, as they squirmed and interwove in order to grow extra muscle atop his already decently muscled arm. The mass of pulsating red muscle tissue hit Johnny directly in the jaw. The sickening crunch silenced the surrounding conversations. I looked over in panic along with a few others at Super Soldier, who continued to sit in his seat, now drinking a bottle of beer while watching.

“Yeah, man! That’s what I’m fuckin’ talkin’ about!” My new team member pumped his fist in the air, practically jumping with glee. “Hey boss, where’re ya goin’?” he added after I started walking towards the fight.

My legs moved on their own as they moved to protect the aggressor. He might be a dick but I can't let him get crippled no less than 10 minutes into hero training can I?.

I could see the tough-looking ringleader twist his torso unnaturally, causing tears in his shirt as he pulled back his fist, causing me to pick up my pace as I ran into the fray. Forcing myself in between the blonde boy, who was already backing up, and the leader, I could see the latter’s torso unravel at a frightening speed as his arm elongated and turned green, nearly see through.

I felt my liver rupture as the fist hardened upon impact, turning a solid green. The concussive force shattered three of my ribs in a distinct crunching sound, sending me sprawling into a tangle of limbs with blondie.

Fuck. Fuck. Am I going to die? I thought as the pain flooded my midsection. Now, I could hear a few screams among the crowd, reminding me of the bodies and the blood curdling screams from the incident before that brought me here. The adrenaline that came with the memory allowed me to get up on my knees as I could feel my liver regrowing and my bone shards shifting inside me. Standing up, I felt warm, viscous bile rise to my throat. Bloody chunks and shards of bone erupted from my throat, dirtying the ground. Guess I'm not dying then.

The pain subsided as the last wounds in my throat from the bone shards healed. Now all that remained was the metallic taste of blood in my mouth.

Turning to the blonde guy I took the beating for, I declared “My name’s Elijah, want to join my team?” I smiled, my teeth turned red from blood. I must've looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

My red-eyed teammate shook in excitement as he slapped me on the back twice with each hand. “That! Was! Fucking! Sick!”

Super Soldier got up from his seat and casually threw his bottle a few hundred metres into the surrounding forest. Sighing, the blondie resigned and muttered “Alright, fine. Thanks for taking the hit, I guess.”

Something smacked my head from behind like I used to do to Ryan and I looked behind me to see a familiar redhead with a gorgeous girl with long blonde hair and full red lips, her grinning mouth left hanging open at the display.

“What the fuck? I knew I shouldn't have split up with a halfwit like you. What kind of crazy have you invited to our team?” Reina spouted off, clearly not as impressed as the other girl.

Extending my hand to the muscled boy, I could now see he had high cheekbones and a defined jawline. His tanned hand gripped mine as his fabricated muscle tissue withered and fell to the ground.

“Ten minutes is up, cadets!” Super Soldier’s voice thundered across the surroundings.