A Common Hero

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

"Lady," Jack mutters to himself, practically a whisper, "you're the one coming off as a psychopath right now."

Jack turns around and offers a hand to help the rat up. "Look, I'm sorry about that," he says as he grabs his Jump Boots again. Walking without his shoes on in this place was probably a bad idea, but he was keeping a close eye out for broken glass. "You want to come inside for a bit? The place is a hole in the wall, there's no food in the fridge, and the lock on the door's still busted, but maybe you can catch your breathe for a minute inside, right? Come on."

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

What the hell does she want with him?

"No. Should I watch out for him?"

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

"Come out here to fight? Lady, I did not come out here to fight! That was my first and last experience in the ring.

"I came out here into the city looking for work as a mechanic! A mechanic! That's like, well OK maybe not the furthest possible thing from being a street fighter, but its pretty damn far from being a street fighter. Some stuff- nothing involving street fights!- went down back home, and I decided I had to leave in a hurry so I came here. I broke up with my girlfriend and, well, I don't like talking about it. I thought maybe I could get a job for a bit, maybe open my own shop someday, but it's not like the country here in the city. People don't look the other way with my... eccentricities.

"So I was running out of money, living in this god damned hole in the wall," he points at his apartment, "and I was desperate, ok? So when I learned I could make some money in the fights... well frankly I was almost too scared out of my fucking mind to do it anyway! Maybe you can't tell, but even talking to you right now has me freaked right the hell out! But I needed the money, and I thought maybe... maybe I could handle it, right? So I tried. And I guess I succeeded.

"Except now some crazy vigilante woman has show up not a block from my apartment, and I'm about to get my face kicked in anyway! Do you have any idea how unfair that is? Really?"

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

What the hell, what the hell, what the hell!

"L-Listen, I'm not going to let you hurt this guy," Jack manages to stammer out. "He didn't do anything wrong. Just fighting? It's not like the Iron Giant wasn't asking for it right?"

He flinches.

"Ah hell."

Nice job genius, she has to know you were involved too now.

He sighs. His voice is resigned. "Look, this guy didn't fight the Iron Giant tonight, ok? I did. So if you're going to beat up anyone, it's going to have to be me."

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

"Holy hell, are you ok?" Jack asks as he runs up to the Rat. He places his boots, which he had been carrying because it's pretty hard to walk along with springs sticking out of the bottom of your shoes, on the ground beside him. He looks in his eyes to see if he can notice the pupils contracting, but doesn't have any equipment or ability to better asses the possibility of a concussion. He didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere at least.

He looks down the alleyway. "What the hell happened?"

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

Jack looked down at the large amount of money with a bit of awe. he'd never actually seen that much money in one place before.

"I can't really take all the credit," he shrugged. "For some weird reason it was like I could see the future during the fight. I think maybe god was helping me. I dunno. Probably not. They say god works in mysterious ways but... I really hope not this mysterious. Well replacing the lock wont't be a problem anymore. Going to have to rebuild these too..."

He removes his waterlogged shoes, literally pouring the ocean water out of the boots. He'd say something optimistic like, 'Well the sea water couldn't have screwed them over any worse than they already were right?' But actually it probably could.

"I could probably come back with a mask and something other than the boots. I could afford some materials for that Unobtainium catapult or something now. But um... yeah, no. I'm out of this business."

Jack goes home.

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

...

The sound of nervous laughter began to well up in Jack's throat like phlegm. He mustn't laugh. But he couldn't help it. It burst from him. He nearly collapsed from laughing. To those in the crowd, perhaps he looked mad. Perhaps that was even an appropriate look.

"HAHAHA... hahaha... ah... oh man, Marvel is going to sue somebody. Not me though, none of you schmucks know my name!"

Maybe he should have worn a mask too. Oh well.

"Now then, for my closing comments. Ehem. You, are not a gun. You are who you choose to be. Also, where's my money and fuck the Russians!"

He probably should go through the Giant's wallet, that was his excuse for the fight or something right? Then again he couldn't really bring himself to get close to the big guy. What if he woke up.

"Well anyway. Good afternoon, good evening, and-"

Then the second set of springlocks went off, in his other foot this time, he found himself laucnhed a good twenty feet into the air, and into the ocean water beyond the docks.

Oh well, as good an exit strategy as any...

He swam back to land, a ways away from the fights.

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

He lay there for half a second. Perhaps half a second too long. Ahhhh... Oh that stinged.

"Fuck this."

Archer pushes against the platform with his spring loaded feet. The springs are out, but the pressure still allows them to push him forward with more efficiency. He leaps up with his back in the corner, and loads his boot again. He leaps forward, his arc almost flat with the ground. The board breaks under him as he leaps, and the platform begins to shudder. Suddenly all the holes in the thin, lazy particle board crack open even further, and it all collapses in on itself. As he flies through the air, yet still low to the ground, he allows the spring on his other foot to catch the giant's leg. Combined with the platform tilting down in front of him...

He should fall face first into the corner of the arena. But the knowing how tough his skin was to crack it would probably hurt the ground more than it hurt him.

As Jack slid up the slop of the board, he loaded his boot again. He released it almost immediately, and brought his knee into the base of the giant's skull.

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

His knee was bleeding, he noted in a detached corner of his mind. He would have to fish the splinters out of it later.

Also, what?

"Shit, shit, shit! The sprnglock wasn't supposed to break!"

He quickly rest the other boot by adjusting his weight, but the one from the kick wasn't exactly going to let itself be tamed. That was going to be a hindrance, but if he abandoned the boot he wouldn't be able to make safe landings. So he would just have to do his best with what he had.

"Hey ugly!" he shouted at the Giant, because this wasn't cliche enough yet. "Come and get some!"

Ah, there it is.

Noting that the crowd aparently had no problem with his weapon, he released the springlock again. The board broke under his foot, and he barely hopped three feet into the air, and keeping his flight path straight was a bitch, but he managed to launch himself at the Giant (bloody) knee first.

Common Heroes (Ryu and ACommonHero)

Jack blinks in confusion.

"Um... it's a reference. To the Iron Giant? No one here has seen the Iron Giant? Not even, not even you and its your, well, its you name. Oh boy. Alright, alright, we can work through this."

The ground is made of particle board, so I can't exactly use my jump boots without breaking through. Not that this wouldn't get me disqualified anyway. What I wouldn't give to be Tony Stark right around now. Who am I kidding, Tony Stark is rich he wouldn't even be in this mess. Well, maybe if he was drunk.

"How about this, this one work for you? You're the Iron Giant? Well, I'm Iron Man."

And that's when Jack runs across the arena and kicks the Iron Giant in this face. Which is also around the time the springlocks in his boot have decided they've put up with enough of Jack's shit. They release sending the sole rocketing into the poor sod's jaw with enough force to send a man Jack's less than average size leaping over a small building in a single bound. Jack, of course, falls on his ass from the unexpected recoil, and his kicking knee goes straight through the particle wood on the way down.

"...ooooow...." he hisses out.