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They say that meeting when meeting your stars, they're nothing like you expect. Clearly, whoever said that hadn't met Starbright! Chad had interacted with many heroes in the past at various conventions and meetings, but he had never spoken to Starbright directly - only seen him perform on stage. Not only was he a nice guy in person, but Starbright was even professional as well - thinking about the mission first and foremost!

While Chad was very engrossed in his Starbright-induced daze, he was brought back to reality when he heard a voice he hadn't earlier. Standing behind Bypass were two other girls - he couldn't remember either of their profiles since he only skimmed them and they weren't in costume, but he felt bad that he hadn't addressed them earlier. He was about to greet the people he hadn't met and ask for their names when the taller of the girls glared at him angrily.

[color=mediumorchid]“I’m Patricia, by the way, or Aria. Whatever the hell you want, I don't care. And he didn’t save us. We saved ourselves, because we’re real heroes, unlike this third-rate poser over here.”[/color]

Well... She was a bit rude towards someone like Starbright, wasn't she? After all, he did come to save them from trouble, even if he might have been a little late. Chad chose to refrain from commenting, however - he didn't know anyone present, and all of the girls that were there [i]had[/i] just escaped from being kidnapped by a FREAKING SUPERVILLAIN. Anyone would have been a bit aggressive in that kind of situation, so Chad decided to refrain from getting a negative impression of the girl.

Starbright didn't seem to think the same way, however. After Aria threw the camera that the Paparazzi with Starbright had, he started grilling her pretty roughly. Chad kind of felt bad for the girl at this point - it was never fun to see someone get yelled at, especially after they just broke something expensive. Chad broke a vase his mother owned one time, and he was in tears by the time she was done talking to him.

Turning his attention back to the situation at hand, Chad chose to remain silent. It was kind of awkward, even after Starbright apologized for his outburst - besides, it wasn't like Chad knew anyone there. Yeah, talking would probably be the wrong thing right now. Instead, he followed the others through the portal that Grace just created, and by the time he emerged at Club 27, he was dry heaving in his helmet. Chad was very glad that he was still on a cut and hadn't eaten today, because cleaning vomit from the inside of his suit would have taken a long time. He was also glad that he had super speed - if he was lucky, he could minimize the amount of time he'd have to use portals like that for transportation.

[color=lightslategray]"Also joining us is a much younger hero, Chad...he's a character, for sure, and I'm sure there's plenty of work to be done in regards to his abilities, but I'm confident he'll be a very capable hero soon."[/color]

Chad quickly fixed his posture and ceased his dry heaving, holding his hand in a thumbs-up position while smiling beneath his helmet. First impressions were [i]everything[/i] if Drama club had taught him anything, and Chad felt that he already made a few people view him a little less respectfully than he wanted them to. In the end, it didn't really matter too much though - he'd have plenty of time to fix any relationships he might mess up now that he was A FREAKING SUPERHERO!!!

After Powers' left, Chad turned to the other heroes present and tried to introduce himself properly.

[color=8B4513]"It's a pleasure to meet you all - I'm, uh, Chad. Or you could call me THE BULLET, if Secret Identities are what you guys are into... haha..."[/color]

Jeez, it was... a lot more difficult to keep the whole Heroic Attitude going when there were so many actual Heroes in the room. Not to mention how awkward everything seemed to be. Chad had to keep reminding himself that these people were held captive by a supervillain, and he would probably need to wait a while before he could really get to know them. Whatever the case though, he was just glad he was finally a part of the team! Today was one of the best days in Chad's life!

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Today was one of the worst days in Chad's life.

So as it turned out, becoming a Hero was a lot more work than Chad initially thought. He had to fill out several forms, sign waivers that prevented him from suing HERO in the event that he sustained permanent injuries, set up an automated payment account, and dozens of other things that mentally exhausted Chad to understand. And when he finally thought it was over, he had to actually go through the application process by doing an examination - and while the Physical section was fun, everything else just made Chad feel bad about himself.

Of course, the nice lady that helped Chad get through the paperwork did tell him that the process was significantly more complicated and lengthy for him than most others because of how... [i]unique[/i] his application was. As a result, it took 6 days just to get through all of the paperwork and take the proper examinations. After he finished everything, he was told to wait while they processed his application.

And after spending nearly all day sitting next to his phone, the only call he received was how he was overpaying for car insurance, despite the fact that Chad did not own a car. It was so stressful that Chad had even used one of his vacation days just to make sure he wouldn't miss it. After all, it wasn't like he'd need the Pizza job for much longer after he started getting a Superhero's paycheck!

That's what the problem was, though... Percy was the one that called Chad to watch the announcement that appeared on the TV in his office a few minutes ago.

The reason today was so awful was that, apparently, Chad would not be employed at HERO. The only reason that he even managed to apply in the first place was that Powers took pity on him and didn't arrest Chad immediately. And while Chad used to be a fan of Seraph in the past, he had managed to talk to several people that worked in HERO over the last week - and none of them had anything good to say about him or the rest of the Wings of Law.

Now that Seraph was taking over, it was unlikely that Chad would ever manage to get hired, especially considering he had run straight to HERO One in search of a job. 

...Wait a second. More importantly, the photos they showed of all those dead people looked super real! That was bad... Chad didn't really believe that Aria would kill a bunch of people, even if she was the child of a supervillain. Not because he knew her in any real way - after all, he had only been at HERO for a week, and most of that was spent by himself or with staff rather than actual heroes. No, Chad knew Aria was innocent because a Hero wouldn't kill a person - let alone a whole room of people.

Chad thought over his options carefully - he hardly knew any of the people at HERO and Seraph said they would be brought in for questioning, so contacting them somehow would be difficult at best and impossible at worst. Club 27 was probably covered in police officers, and the only thing Chad would accomplish by investigating the crime scene would be to get in the way of anyone trying to find the real culprit. Going to HERO One to question people was just plain stupid, he had already done that a week ago and he got slapped so hard he was knocked to the ground.

Nope - the solution, as always when it came to Chad, was to not think. Grabbing the IDD he had hid under his bed, Chad quickly grabbed the gym bag containing his Costume. After a short walk to the gym, Chad changed clothes and was blaring down the streets of Watervale. When it came to speed, Chad was probably one of the fastest people in Castleburg. It might take a few hours, but Chad felt confident that he could comb most of the city and run into someone that would be useful. Maybe a Hero that could help him contact the others, one of the Wings of Law that he could question in some way - or, as Chad was hoping, he might manage to find Powers and ask why he would leave HERO to a guy like Seraph.

Of course, Chad hadn't thought ahead enough to think that Powers was probably kept in a secure location that wouldn't be detected by an IDD. Or realize that an IDD could easily be tracked by EAGLES.