“You know,” I looked at the girl walking beside me, “We are never listening to your ideas ever again.”

“Yes,” she nodded her head in agreement.

“In fact, when idea time comes around next time, you are to actively avoid talking about any and all ideas you might have.”

The tip of a gun poked my back and I stopped talking. The two of us were being herded towards a jail medical examination room.

As soon as they had reached the security gate an alarm had gone off and they had been surrounded by armed personnel.

“Maybe,” I looked at her again, “If you had actually existed on the civilian archives -or any records at all for that matter- as a person, then this wouldn’t be a problem.”

She shrugged her shoulders and looked at me with her big blue eyes as she pouted, “The organisation wanted to make sure I didn’t exist.”

I whistled, “They sure did a good job of that.”

Their guard whacked me over the head with the gun.

“Stop talking. Once we get in there both of you are to undertake the examination in complete silence. Do you understand me?”

We nodded and the hero looked forward as we continued walking. A genetic analysis would be taken to see whether or not he was who he claimed he was, and more importantly, to see who the girl that didn’t appear on their records was.

Being put in shackles and placed heavily under guard from the moment we entered the door.

I smiled to myself, ‘So it seems like the hero association hasn’t changed much since I was last here.’

~~~~

The entire room was bare except for a single desk and chair. The head of the hero association adjusted her glasses as she looked outside and at buildings which lay below her. She had never regretted replacing every single wall in the room with glass. Even if bulletproof glass was harder to see through than regular glass, the view was spectacular.

She glanced at the pile of papers lying in front of her. There was a lot of work to do and so little time to do it.

*Knock knock*

“Madam.”

The woman sighed.

“Come in Light.”

The air in front of the woman shimmered and she blinked as the room filled with a bright light.

When she opened her eyes a dark-skinned man wearing a studded white and red suit that used to look good on Elvis Presley before he got fat, and sporting the tackiest fluoro green runners she had ever seen was standing in front of her desk.

The superhero known as Light was standing in front of her desk and waving papers in front of her face.

“We have doors for a reason Light. And how many times must I tell you, call me Flora. Madam makes me sound like I’m an unmarried thirty year old woman that’s too occupied with work to have a social life.”

Light grinned, “But you are an unmarried thirty year old woman that’s too occupied with work to have a social life.”

“Just go.”

Light spun around, finished in a dramatic bow and began to glow. A light started to shine from his bald head and Flora closed her eyes as the middle of the room became too bright to look at.

*Creak*

The door opened slowly and Light walked inside wearing a suit, tie and a pair of sunglasses he had probably liberated from some unfortunate soul down the hall. He was still wearing the runners.

“Photon’s report on the intruder’s genetic analysis is complete.”

He waved the papers in front of her face again and she snatched them out of his hands. She also grabbed his sunglasses and threw them on the desk.

“So it was just as we suspected?”

Light put on an innocent expression, “I don’t know what you mean Madam.

“I know you read the report Light, you always read the report.” Flora crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. Light rubbed his head and nodded.

She started to sift through Photon’s report, “So she’s not human. Do we know who could be behind her creation? She’s certainly well made, too well made for any half assed groups to have cobbled her together.”

Flora groaned internally as she considered the possibility she had raised. The association’s resources were stretched to the limits at the best of times and adding yet another evil organisation for it to deal with would only cause problems.

“I’m afraid that it’s a little worse than that, this is something we have to deal with as soon as possible. Right now preferably. I’ll go down there myself if I have to.”

Flora’s head snapped up at Lights tone. He was being serious. Light was never serious.

“Flora…” He was also using her name, this was bad, “Photon’s checked and checked again to see if there was an error in his analysis, to see if there was any way his machines were wrong.”

Light rubbed his head, it was a nervous habit he had never been able to get rid of.

“Spit it out Light.”

Light shuffled anxiously and rubbed his head harder.

“She’s not just a synthetic human, the insides of her match up completely with previous specimens… She’s a death machine.”

The blood drained from Flora’s face and she felt the report crumble as her hands balled into fists and destroyed it.

“Are you sure?”

Light shook his head sadly, “Photon says there’s no mistake. It looks like a human, talks like a human, genetically parts of it are human and it’s been modified in ways that he’s not even sure he understands completely. It even has intelligence, emotions and bodily functions. It was created to fool anyone it came across into thinking it was human. It was designed to fool us.”

To be able to create and improve a death machine, there was only one man in the world that could do that and they both knew it.

“But The Healers gone, killed by Destroyer’s own two hands. We did every check possible on the body to confirm his death. Even Richter confirmed he was dead.”

“That may be so, but this is without a doubt one of his death machines-”

Light looked into her eyes. She could see the fury blazing in them along with something else, something that she hadn’t seen in those eyes for years.

His eyes were filled with fear.

“-and now it’s entered the hero association.”

Flora slumped back into her chair as memories of a time long past rushed through her head. It had been a time of blood and death, a time where no one was safe.

Light took her collapse as a sign and turned around, “I’ll go and dispose of it now.”

“Wait!” Light jolted as she shouted at him and looked back at her in surprise. Flora took a couple of deep breaths.

“Wait, we’re not sure what it’s here for yet. You reported earlier that she said she had escaped from the organisation that created her?”

Light waved his hand in the air dismissively, “It’s clearly a lie fabri-”

“You’re not thinking straight.”

Shock crossed the superheroes face at her words but she continued.

“You’re not thinking clearly. We all lost much in the war and we will never forget that, but this is a new problem. One we must tackle with a clear mind, you can’t allow anger to cloud your judgment.”

A simple nod of the head was offered to show that Light was listening and Flora continued.

“The Healer is dead but clearly there is a death machine in our midst. If there is somebody else with the resources, with the knowledge, to create more death machines then we have to find them and quickly. This… girl… is the only link we have to this person and I don’t intend to lose her. If we destroy her now we may lose the trail forever.”

Light’s body shimmered brightly as he forced his anger down. He knew Flora was right.

“But we can’t let it stay here, it’s too dangerous.”

Flora nodded her head, “Agreed, she came in with Avenger? Do you think he knows what she is?”

Balls of light fell out of the superheroes body and flew around the room as he shook his head violently.

“Avenger would kill her faster than any of us if he knew. You know that.”

She considered her options carefully. They would have to tread lightly with this issue.

“Then we can’t let him find out. We can’t let anyone find out. There are too many people that have been affected by the death machines for us to control them all. Tell Photon to keep quiet as well.”

Light put his hands on the desk and looked at her, “And Avenger? When he finds out you knowingly let him work with a death machine he won’t stop at just destroying her.”

“I’ll deal with Avenger when the time comes. For now we do everything we can to prepare. Do not let him find out. We can’t afford to slip up at this point. You and Photon will personally investigate this matter and report to me and only me when you find something.”

“Then what do we do with it… the girl?”

Flora smiled, “Avenger hasn’t been active for years, and so his rank has declined to the lower D’s. His house has been destroyed and since only B ranked heroes and above are allowed to live in the association living quarters we will have to extend our good will to him and give him a home. Of course, he will have to work for this new home by doing his duties as a hero and completing missions as we hand them to him. We can keep the girl close to us and gain a powerful asset at the same time.”

Light’s eyebrows rose at her explanation, “Sounds like something you’d come up with. Only one problem, how do you know he’ll do what we tell him to? He left the hero association for a reason.”

“A young, blue eyed blonde girl has just escaped an evil organisation and is in need of help and a home to live in. I know his personality and I know what motivates him. He won’t be able to decline our offer even if he wanted to.”

“Will we assign someone to watch over her?”

It was Flora’s time to shake her head, “Avenger would never allow someone he sees as a guard dog near him, besides he’s more than enough to handle the girl. Let him and the girl go for now, staying with… the rank B36, Lunar princess?” Light nodded, “Also, get me another copy of Photons report if you can,” she looked at the papers in her hands, “I appear to have destroyed this one.”

A single grunt of acknowledgement and a bright flash of light followed as Light left the room. Flora looked through the windows and wondered how the hero association today would have held against the troubles they had faced during the war.

Emperor, Core, Destroyer, Avenger and countless others, some of their names had long been forgotten by the people while others were revered as legends, but the dangers they had faced were no less real. Dangers that were so terrible even the hero association had faced total destruction. The re-appearance of a death machine only brought worries to her mind.

Perhaps she too would have to watch the city below her burn to the ground one day.

~~~~

I grimaced as I looked around at the pink walls covered in bunny patterns and curiously counted the various stuffed bunnies lying around the room. There were over a hundred by my estimations.

But this wasn’t just any old pink walled and bunny covered room. It was the living quarters of a hero.

“So,” I could tell that Lunar Princess had question marks in her eyes behind that bunny mask as she looked at me, “You were an A ranked hero?”

I stopped looking around and sighed. For better or worse I had finally returned to the last place on earth I wanted to be.

“Hohoho~ I knew all along of course!” A head of blonde hair and the white edge of a towel poked out of the shower room door as the girl tried to listen in on the conversation. She was curious about this topic as well.

I had returned to the hero association.

*Knock knock*

With an expression of confusion Lunar Princess lifted herself up from the pink chair she was sitting on and went to open the door.

She opened the door…

“A-ah!”

…and walked back so quickly that she tripped over her own feet and fell onto the floor. Her bunny mask was staring at the entrance.

A familiar red and white jumpsuit appeared and a grinning man walked in, I groaned and he kicked the door shut with his fluorescent green runners.

“Hey there Lukey, long time no see. I heard your house got blown up.”

“First things first Light.”

Light raised an eyebrow at me, “What’s up?”

“I see they still haven’t found a cure for boldness.” He grinned and I put a fist out. He hit it then went up top and down low.

“When I heard you were dragged into the associations jail under heavy guard and in chains I was surprised.”

Sounded like the usual to me, “Which part surprised you?”

“The fact that you brought a pretty blonde on one arm and you were carrying a brunette in the other, how are we supposed to stay friends when you won’t even introduce me to the girls you meet.”

He looked down at Lunar Princess who was still on the ground. She was staring at him with wide eyes and I could see her chin bobbing underneath her mask as her mouth open and shut repeatedly.

“I just met them Light, do you know how fast they’d leave if I scared them with your face in the first few days?”

“Phew, that was nice.” A female voice called out.

Light had moved his mouth to reply to me but immediately snapped his head to look at the new arrival. The girl known as E-23 pulled up a pink chair as she moved out of the shower with a towel on her head. She was wearing a shrine maiden outfit given personally to her by Lunar Princess.

“Oh my god!” She looked up in shock and Light moved towards her.

“You-you’re Light!”

He smiled and opened his arms wide, “In the flesh.”

“The Dir- I mean, I’ve heard so many stories about you! You’re fight against Darkness and Dying, your rescue of 72 orphans two years ago. My favourite was when you teamed up with Perfect to fight Game Over!”

I had warned her earlier to not go telling everybody that she had escaped from an evil organisation and I was glad to see that she took my warning seriously. Light shrugged and I couldn’t help but think that he was secretly pleased. But something seemed a little off.

“It’s always nice to meet a fan, so you know all about me do you?” He put his hand underneath her chin, well, nearer to her throat than her chin actually.

“What’s wrong?” I looked at him “You’re acting strange.”

Light’s smile lowered a fraction but he quickly raised it up again and he disappeared in a flash of light, popping up in front of me, rustling his hands through my hair.

“Can’t a single, good looking, and if I may say, quite rich bachelor try to work his magic on the ladies without being reprimanded by his wing man?”

Laughter left my throat and it hurt a little. It felt weird doing something I hadn’t done in years.

“Good to see you too Light, actually, I’ll be living here for a little while. Do you mind doing me a favour?”

He stopped messing with my hair and cocked his head to the side, “What did you want me to do?”

“I got a message from the hero association that I need to work for my lodgings.”

Light grinned at my words.

“So get me a hero name change.”

A frown replaced the smile on his face, “Yo-you sure? Avenger’s been your name since-”

I waved my hand in front of him to cut him off, “I’m sure.”

He nodded.

“I’ll look into it. I heard the girl also has powers right? Are you signing her up as well?”

“No she- argh!” Agonising pain shot into me from my ear as I was assaulted by the girl formerly known as E-23, she was twisting it as far as she could, “me hero!”

I looked at her and she repeated what she had just said, “Me. Hero.”

The meaning was clear. She wanted to be a hero too. I wasn’t surprised at her outburst, the reason she had run away from the organisation had been because she had fallen in love with stories about heroes and their lives.

‘Well, I guess it’ll finally give me a name to call her.’

I saw that Light was struggling to hold back laughter while looking at our exchange and frowned.

“Fine, sign her up as well. She can use her powers at least.”

*Pff* He continued laughing, “She’ll have to take the standard hero test but I think at her power she should be able to get into C rank on the first try, unless you want her to stay down there where you are mister D ranker?”

The frown on my face was replaced by confusion, “What hero test? And what are these ranks people keep talking about?”

Light broke into laughter, “Ha, you always make me laugh Lukey.” The laughter died down as he saw the look on my face, “You serious? I knew you’d been out of the loop but I didn’t think… you have a lot to catch up on.”

I looked around the room and saw that Lunar Princess was still out of action gasping like a goldfish at Light from the floor. The blonde girl seemed to have started walking around the room in a trance muttering under her breath about what her hero name and her battle cry would be.

“I got time.”

Light pulled back a chair and put his runners on the table.

“Welcome to the class rookie. While here I’m Mr Teach, but you can call me Awesome if you really want to. Wait, no, you call me Awesome no matter what. In fact, add a Mr to that too. Call me Mr Awesome.”

I smiled, “I remember that time in a certain cave when a certain ‘Mr Awesome’ got scared while holding it in and his crap went south before it was winter.” At my words Light shivered as though he was remembering something terrible.

“What’s done in the past stays in the past.” He looked me in the eyes,

“It’s time for me to teach you what it means to be a hero.”