The following morning, I quickly ate breakfast. Miss Claire didn't cook this morning, so I just ate a bowl of cereal and walked over to the training room, intending to uphold the "warm-ups" that Miss Claire assigned me to do every morning.
I guide myself through my warm-up, running on the treadmill in the corner at max speed for half an hour. Afterward, I'm already fairly tired, but I gotta keep going. So I then move to a ladder-like object on the ground and step in and out of the different gaps in it. I loop around and redo it one hundred times.
Afterward, I hold a plank for ten minutes. Before walking over to a weight rack, I saw a one-hundred-pound bar weight sitting on the rack, with a note that said, "deadlift". I sigh and sit down, proceeding to do as instructed for twenty reps. As I barely manage to re-rack the weight after I'm done, I slowly bring myself to my feet.
I am dead tired. But I still need to go about my day, I have a mission tonight after all.
I exit the training room and soon see Miss Claire on the couch, eating a bowl of cereal and watching the news. "Hey, Ray, you're on the news again. They're rerunning the Parker story, I guess Eun-ji having an apprentice is a big deal." She says mid-chew.
"Don't talk with food in your mouth, Miss Claire, it's gross," I say, still noting what she says.
Miss Claire finishes her cereal and drinks the milk out of the bowl before dropping the bowl and spoon through a portal. I hear a little clanking sound, and I look behind me to see the bowl she was just eating out of in the sink alongside the spoon.
"So, Ray, you gonna appear as Parker more?" she asks me while snickering.
"No, I'd rather not get more attention that way. I'll let Mr. Eun-ji deal with that." I reply.
"Wow. That poor man, shoving all the responsibility for the Parker stuff on him? How cruel. I almost feel bad for him." She teases.
"Oh! Ray, I almost forgot I have a gift for you." She says, handing me a box.
I open the box and I see a cell phone. I look back up at her. "Thank you, Miss Claire. What brought this on, though?" I ask.
"Well, I'm gonna start sending you out on missions alone. I need a way to stay in touch with you. It's an older model, not that you'd care about that. But it'll do the job. You should have my number, Eun-ji's number, and Jane's number already put there for you." She explains.
As if right on cue, I get a text from Eun-ji saying, "Hello, this is just me verifying that Claire gave you the phone." I take the phone out of the box and text him back a thumbs-up emoji before putting the phone back in my pocket.
"So, when do I leave for the mission?" I ask her.
"5:00 PM, so you have a few hours. When you leave, head to the same parking garage where you fought Mad Hound." She tells me, pulling out her phone and showing me her screen before telling me: "Here, go to your app store and download this. It's pretty popular with most people, especially kids your age. Maybe you can make some friends."
"Why would I need friends? Wouldn't that be a liability? You don't have any besides Jane and Mr. Eun-ji," I ask.
"Kid, first of all, Eun-ji and I aren't exactly friends. And second of all, everyone knows my identity as Wraith, no one is exactly jumping at the opportunity to be my friend. You, on the other hand, have that opportunity. Especially under the guise of 'Parker'." She explains before saying, "You should make some when you get the chance, it'll be good for you."
Duly noted. Not too sure if it's the best idea. If they found out I am Chameleon, I would be screwed, not too sure if it's sound advice. "Miss Claire, I'd like to take this time to rest," I tell her.
"Okay, wanna watch a movie?" She asks.
"Sure," I reply, sitting down next to her on the couch.
We waste the next few hours watching a movie, she puts on a director's cut of some random superhero movie. Who the hell makes their director's cut six hours? Was it really necessary?
"This is how a hero society should be, eh, Ray?" She remarks.
"Mhm," I succinctly respond.
After we watch half of it, I stand up, grab my mask and cloak, and head out. I'm sure Miss Claire will leave soon for her own mission. After I take the elevator up and exit the warehouse, I get another text from Mr. Eun-ji saying, "Hey kid, Ironhide is out relatively close to where you're going. I'd be careful not to run into him, it's unlikely as he has business there, but it isn't impossible." I text him back, "Thanks for letting me know."
I put my phone away and head east, mindlessly gazing at the clouds in the sky as I walk. After a few minutes, I arrive at the foot of the parking garage. I suppose I need to search every floor for the hero I'm supposed to target.
Seeing nothing initially on the first floor, I walk up the ramp to the second floor, seeing a cloaked figure standing next to a blue SUV. Without hesitation, I run in and have two shadow tendrils pierce it right through the chest with both of them. It falls over, and I see that it's simply a mannequin.
A mannequin?!
Before I can react, I feel a large hand grab my arm and throw me through the concrete up a few floors. I barely managed to stand back up. And I see out of the corner of my eye the culprit walking up the ramp, Ironhide. Figures, I'd wager that the "business" that Mr. Eun-ji mentioned was me. I'm sure he didn't know, or else I wouldn't have been warned to avoid him.
"Immediately moving to kill what you assumed was a person. Claire truly has corrupted you, young one." He says solemnly, looking down at me.
I look up at Ironhide and scoff, "It's my mission, and besides. You know damn well my targets aren't innocent either."
Ironhide simply shakes his head, entirely disregarding my statement. "I have an offer. Come with me quietly and become my third apprentice. Your other option is me taking you by force and having you put through rehabilitation."
Apprentices? Me becoming one? Hell no.
"I suppose you're going to have to use force then." I retort.
"Are you sure? Both of them are around your age, one of them is my niece, and the other is her adopted brother. I adopted them both. I could also adopt you, give you a family if you don't already have one." He says, as if he were desperate to convince me.
I don't respond; instead, I quickly rush in, and he goes to react and swings at me. However, I weave to the left and counter with a kick to the face, the one area he refuses to coat in iron.
Bait and counter. See how that style works out against a stronger opponent.
Ironhide takes the initiative this time and tries to grab my leg. I swing it down before he can grab it and use the momentum to spin and hit him in the chin with my elbow.
"I see you're actually competent in battle. I thought originally that Claire killed Mad Hound and Paleoumbral, but maybe it was you." He remarks.
"You'd be correct," I say, affirming his speculations.
"I see that I need to take you a little more seriously." He says.
In an instant, he's out of my view. Before I can react, I feel his iron-coated fist connect with my left ribcage. I go flying back, my left hand flies to my mask to keep it in place. I barely manage to land on my feet, still bouncing back a bit when I land.
Not giving me any reprieve, Ironhide appears in front of me again.
Damn, he's too fast. Is this the true power of a ranker? To try and put more distance between us, I launch two tendrils up between us to act as a buffer, and I then jump back. I reach into my pocket and grab my phone, and as sneakily as possible, text "Help" to Miss Claire. As I put my phone back in my pocket, Ironhide is already back in front of me.
I just need to hold out until Miss Claire gets here. But how? At this rate, he'll beat me and take me to his "rehabilitation". As a last-ditch effort, I open myself up to a hit, and I allow Ironhide to hit me.
Clank!
I successfully used Ironhide's power manually for a split second to guard against the hit. I probably can only use it in short bursts. So I need to properly make the decision on which hits to guard with his power, and which hits to take without it.
The problem is that he is too fast for me to perceive properly. I honestly got lucky with the timing. I don't exactly like my odds here.
Suddenly, Ironhide drops his stance and stands still. "So, have you learned my power?" He asks.
"How can you tell the difference between this and what I did last time?" I ask, answering his question with one of my own.
"Well, seeing as you're using Claire's power consistently without seeing her use it. I can assume that there's a difference between learning a power and temporarily instantly copying it. I don't know the case here, so I asked you." He explains.
I take the opportunity to launch a huge tendril at him from behind; however, I see the iron disappear from his arms and congregate onto his back.
"Trying to hit me when you think I'm distracted. How cheap." He remarks.
He proceeds to punch me in the stomach. It hits me before I can properly guard myself with iron, I use the power a second after it connects.. I break out into a coughing fit, and I begin to stagger. Giving me no reprieve, he attempts to kick me in the side, but my use of Ironhide's ability earlier guards it before it disappears. I use the opportunity to place a portal below me, and I fall through it to the floor below, seeing if I can escape.
Soon after, I see Ironhide running down the ramp, quickly closing the distance. He swiftly kicks my leg. His foot was coated in two layers of iron. I feel the bone snap as I fall to my knees. He goes for one last punch to knock me out, but I let myself fall fully to the ground to avoid it. Before he can try to hit me again, I make a portal below me, placing the other end on the ceiling, and landing on my feet behind him.
It was excruciating to land on my broken leg, but I don't have many options here. Before Ironhide could make his next move, there was a loud ringing in his pocket. He pulls out his cell phone and answers a call. I use Mr. Eun-ji's power to try and listen to the conversation.
I recognize the person on the other end as Paragon, the top hero. "Ironhide, HQ, now," he demands.
"Paragon, I must finish something up. Can it wait?" Ironhide succinctly responds.
"Hell no. You could be fighting Claire fucking Davis herself and I'd still want you to get back here right now!" He shouts.
I see Ironhide's face contort into one of frustration, it seems like he's tempted to ignore the direct order. But suddenly, a female voice rings out. It's rather far away, but rapidly approaching, "Chameleon!"
Miss Claire. She finally came. I guess I ended up holding out long enough. Ironhide's face turns to one of resignation. "Alright, I'll be there shortly." He says before hanging up the phone. He turns around to leave, but I interrupt him without thinking and shout:
"In one month exactly, right here, I want a rematch!"
What am I even saying?!
I'm unsure whether it was anger towards him and a desire to kill, or if it was a desire to prove my strength. But either way, Chameleon dug my grave with that one.
Ironhide nods and says, "Alright, I'll be there." He then promptly runs, probably a mix of not wanting to run into Miss Claire and not wanting to keep Paragon waiting.
Miss Claire arrives shortly after. She is panting, and she is visibly freaked out at my battered condition. "I saw your text, what happened?!" she asks frantically.
"It was probably a setup. I'm guessing whatever information Mr. Eun-ji gave you was false information given to him by Ironhide, because instead of whoever I was supposed to take down, Ironhide appeared instead." I explain.
"Okay. But how do you know Eun-ji wasn't being a damn snake?!" she shouts, immediatey directing her anger and blame for this situation towards Mr. Eun-ji.
"Because he actively warned me that Ironhide was in the area on his own business, which implied that he knew he'd be around, but that he genuinely didn't know he'd be there," I say.
"But doesn't that mean Ironhide knows that Eun-ji is feeding information to me?" She says.
"Not necessarily, the thought may have crossed his mind that someone was feeding us info. But based on a phone call I overheard between him and Paragon, he seemed to know that Ironhide had business here, but didn't know what. So I'm sure he told what he told Mr. Eun-ji to multiple people." I reply.
Miss Claire does seem to take note of my words, but instead of replying to them, she immediately focuses on my injuries. "How bad is it, Kiddo?"
"He snapped my leg in half. It's definitely broken, but aside from that, I think I'm okay." I say, trying to fully stand up, but I end up staggering back down to a limp.
Miss Claire immediately picks me up. "Nope, I'm carrying you to Jane's. She probably is gonna be very thrilled that she has had to heal you so many times recently," she says, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Miss Claire makes a portal and walks through it with me in her arms. We end up in the forest, and Miss Claire does a modified version of the code, knocking the trees with her foot instead of her fist. The grass below us opens up, and we enter Jane's lab.
Jane is currently sitting at a desk, tinkering with something. She hears the mossy doors open and turns around as Miss Claire lays me down on the operating table, "Well, I've been seeing a lot of you two lately." She remarks before yawning and following up with: "So what happened this time, Ray?"
"I fought Ironhide again and he broke my leg. He got the jump on me, and I had to text Miss Claire to come get me." I respond.
Jane sighs and ruffles my hair, "Well, good job on surviving. Good thing you had the phone, huh?"
I nod as she starts working on me. After a moment, I decided to announce my earlier actions to the room: "I asked Ironhide for a rematch in the same location in a month."
Jane's eyes widen, and her jaw drops. Miss Claire whips her head over, her eyes widening just like Jane's.
"You what?!" Miss Claire shouts.