James had mixed feelings about the new student that arrived at Canterlot High. On one hand she seemed like the picturesque student that pays attention in class, she has even already integrated herself with the student body. On the other hand James knew there was something off about her, she could play off what he saw as his imagination but he was not convinced. He didn’t have all that great of one anyway.
So James did what he thought was the most logical course of action, he decided to follow the new girl around and see what she did and said. It did not seem to be hard in the slightest as almost everyone stood out in some way, and her hair was also rather bright and noticeable.
The morning proved to be the easiest since the new girl, Sunset Shimmer as James would learn to be her name, had the same classes as he did.
First period went by slowly after his teacher gave him a slight reprimand about being late to class. James took the only open seat left, one of the front ones. Normally he would be annoyed, but the seat just so happened to be right next to the new girl. He placed his bag down and took his seat as he and Sunset glared at each other from the corners of their eyes.
“I will find out what yer hidin’, girly,” James thought to himself.
“I’d like to see you try,” was his imagined answer back.
The rest of the morning went by with the two glaring at each other, daring one of them to act. Lunch fast approached, and James bit into his sandwich as he searched the cafeteria for any sign of the new girl from his seat on top of the cafeteria table.
“Here you go!” a voice from his left chirped, a flyer being handed to him.
“Eh? The hell is this?” James asked the other student as he took the flyer from the girl, taking another bit of his lunch.
The grey girl next to him didn’t seem bothered by his word choice and smiled at him. “A flyer for the upcoming Fall Formal next month!” the bubbly girl replied before skipping off to pass out more of the paper.
James scanned the paper before him, not finding anything that really interested him. He looked up from the paper and spied the new girl eating her lunch, she too had a flyer and was looking at it with great interest.
“What does she want with this? It’s just some stupid dance,” James thought to himself. He looked back down and reread the flyer, most of the information could be discarded but if he was a guessing guy then he could only assume that Sunset was looking at the big event of the dance. Being crowned the princess of the year’s Fall Formal.
James rolled his eyes, “Ugh, who even cares about that junk?”
He set the flyer down on the table and finished the rest of his sandwich, putting the straw of his drink to his lips and continued his vigilance on the new girl.
“You know,” a familiar voice said. “It would be better to go and talk to the girl than sit and stare if you want to get to know her better.”
James jumped in his seat and looked over at his new mother as she took a seat at the table he was sitting on. Principal Celestia smirked knowingly at James as she rested her head on the palm of her hand.
James snorted, “It ain’t like that. Somethin’ about her just seems off is all.” His mother looked at him oddly as he sucked the rest of his drink through the straw and crushed the can in his hand. James chucked the crushed can into a nearby trash can, “Don’t worry about it.”
James saw that Sunset seemed to notice that their principal was here, her eyes narrowed slightly as if she was remembering something unpleasant before she glanced away when she saw that James was looking at her. James frowned, unsure of what to make of this.
“If you say so James,” Celestia shrugged. “But that isn’t what I came here to talk to you about. Do you remember when you first got to the hospital?”
“Yeah?” James looked at his mother strangely.
“Well, I already made arrangements to pay for your visit.” James started to sweat, already knowing where this was going to go. “But, as it turns out, the hospital gave me a full refund because your visit was already paid for.”
She glared at James, “Do you know who paid for it?”
James gulped, “Eh… the Hero Association?”
Celestia smiled, “Indeed. Do you mind explaining yourself mister?”
James was about to answer when his phone went off, “Eh? Could ya give me a sec?”
Principal Celestia’s smiled never wavered as James pulled his phone out of his pocket and answered it, “Hello?”
“Ah, mister James, how are you? This is Fine Thrust from the Hero Association, I believe we met?”
“Ah, yeah. What’s up?”
“Nothing, I just wished to inform you that you have been fully entered into our systems. You may engage in hero work as you see fit, I have already sent you an email containing your current rank.”
“Ah, yeah, thanks. That’s fine. Later.” James put away his phone.
“So, who was that?”
James licked his lips, he almost forgot about her, “Ahaha, the Hero Association?”
“Damn guys have the worst timing,” James thought to himself.
“Do you have something to tell me, young man?” Celestia asked her adoptive son.
Sweat trailed down his brow as James tried to come up with anything that could appease the woman before him, he found nothing. “Ah… I joined the Hero Association?”
Celestia frowned as her eye twitched in frustration, “Why? You are only fourteen right now.”
James looked down as he thought about what to say, “I… have the ability ta fight monsters, so shouldn’t I? If it keeps you and Maiya safe from ‘em, then I’ll gladly fight every single monster in this city.”
Celestia blinked at his reply then sighed, “You don’t have to burden yourself you know. But… if it truely means that much to you then all I ask is that you be as safe as possible. I saw what you can do, so even if I don’t like it I can accept it as your choice.”
James smiled at his mother.
“Though I can’t say the same for Maiya.”
And just like that his smile was replaced by a grimace.
The rest of the school day went by faster, James didn’t have any classes with Sunset after lunch so he couldn’t observe her like he had wanted to. He decided to forgo following her to see where she lived, that was delving into territory he did not want to venture into. Instead James decided to go for a walk around town.
“Man, this place looks like it could belong in an anime or manga,” James said to himself as he took in the appearance of the town, dodging around people going for late afternoon shopping. He noticed a sports store selling an expensive looking metal bat, James winced, “Tsk, I don’t have the cash fer that. I could use a bat fer all the hero work I need ta do.”
James turned away from the store’s window and went back to walking around the town. He was so caught up with the sights of the town that he did not see the person walking in front of him suddenly stop. James grunted as he bumped into the tattooed, wild blonde haired man in front of him, making that person drop his drink.
“Oi jackass! Don’t just stop in the middle of the sidewalk, ya stupid or somethin’?” James yelled at the taller male.
The older man, a scar running across his chin, looked at James annoyed, a vein throbbing on his forehead, “Wanna run that by me again punk? Or do I gotta beat it outta ya?!”
James got up into the man’s face as best as his shorter stature would allow, “I said don’t stop in the middle of the sidewalk jackass, people are walkin’ here.”
Said people noticed the commotion the two of them were causing and slowly started to back away from them. “You wanna take this in there, you little shit?” the man pointed to an alley with a thumb, vein throbbing more violently on his forehead.
James grinned, his own forehead sporting a throbbing vein, “Yeah, I’d like that.”
James strutted out of the alley, leaving the body of the punk annoying him unconscious and twitching and sporting a brand new black eye. He casually flicked a few bills in his hands as he counted out his new earnings. James grinned, “Yeah, this should be enough fer that bat.”
James strutted back into the sports shop he passed by earlier, heading straight for the new baseball bats.
James held one of them up and inspected it, “Hmm… much better than the ones at school. Should hold out fer longer.” James walked up to the cashier, “Oi, I wanna buy this.”
The old man that ran the cashier looked up from his magazine and boredly nodded. James waited patiently for the man, sticking his hands in his pockets. A rumble slightly shook the building, causing dust and plaster to fall from the ceiling. The old man looked up in surprise and worry.
“The hell?” James asked as another much stronger rumble made the building shake violently. The old man fell backwards onto the ground, James managed to keep his balance. Screams could be heard outside the window of the store, people were running down the street.
James slapped the money he got onto the counter, not bothering to count it out. “Oi, old man, I’m takin’ the bat. Keep the change.”
James grabbed the bat and ripped it out of its casing as he sprinted out of the store. He came to a sliding stop in the middle of the street to appraise the cause of the panic. Ignoring the few people still hurriedly running past him, James gripped his new weapon in his right hand and glared at the monsters in front of him.
Dozens of large, six foot tall, hellish looking rabbits stood in front of him. Almost all of them had matted fur and a scar somewhere on their body. The largest of the group stood almost twice as tall as the smaller ones, keen red eyes betrayed the intelligence hidden inside of its head as it looked over the human standing against it.
“What, a bunch of wimpy rabbits lookin’ for a fight?” James asked, ignoring the hissing of the monsters in front of him. He grinned triumphantly and gripped the handle of his bat tighter as he stared hard into the glowing red eyes of the largest rabbit in the pack, “I was lookin’ ta break this new bat of mine in. Now come on fuzzballs! I’ll make a stew outta ya!”
With that said James gripped his bat in both hands and leapt into the air, already starting to swing down at the leader’s head.
Typing and beeping was most of the sound in the dark planning room of the Hero Association. Conversation and muttering between members of the workforce was the only thing breaking up the unexciting atmosphere. Without warning a loud alert echoed around the room, the room turning red from the lights above. A large red dot appeared on the massive technological map in the front of the room.
“Sir!” yelled one of the Hero Association workers working at the computers of the dark room.
Fine Thrust hurriedly looked down at the young man, “What is it? Another monster attack?”
The man nodded, “Yes sir, Canterlot district has just received another attack.”
“What?! So soon after the last?” Fine Thrust gripped the railing in front of him and leaned forward over it to better see the man’s computer screen. “What’s happening?”
The man quickly looked back at his screen, “Another demon class! Hell’s Rabbits! One of the more potentially devastating monsters out there thanks to their ability to breed quickly. If we don’t contain it soon, they may become too numerous to fight against.”
“How do we know so much about them?” Fine’s assistant asked.
Fine bit his lip and explained, “A few years ago a biology lab was experimenting with various chemicals and steroids. They used rabbits as their test subjects because of their relative ease of obtaining. One day they finally succeeded in their testing, only…”
“Only?”
“It worked too well. The leader, who was one of the few to survive and escape from the military retaliation that day, single handedly slew most of the scientists working there. It spilt the chemicals onto other rabbits in order to make more of them and fled with its new army. On its own I’d classify it as low demon level, but it is one of the few monsters in the world that has the potential to quickly go up disaster levels from sheer numbers alone,” Fine looked worried. “Do we have anybody close enough to respond?”
“Yes!” the man shouted. “Although I don’t know how much help he’d be.”
Fine looked down at the man, “Who is it?”
“The new C-class rank three hundred and twenty two, James, hero name not yet given. A single C-class against such a monster...” the man trailed off.
“James huh,” Fine muttered.
“Well, with the rankings as they are it’s not like, C-class, B-class, or A-class mean much right now…” Fine Thrust thought to himself.
“I have faith in James, I hand picked him myself, but send help anyway from any available heros. He might need it,” Fine commanded.
“Yes sir!”