'Don't get the wrong idea, you are just an intern with me, got it?' Jon said, wagging his finger as the two of them trotted along the streets of S city towards the eastern suburbs. This would have been Pethant's first day on this strange mentor/mentee relationship. If Pethant is being honest, he was sort of expecting a sort of training program given to him by Jon, but instead, he just asked Pethant to shadow him instead in his missions.
With Jon there, Pethant is also able to participate in missions that never would have gained access to, and today is one of those days.
'Why are you saying as if you are scared of social interactions and attachments?' Pethant asked nonchalantly, and Jon turned his head to glare at him.
'There is no way that sentence is original.'
'I...I saw it in a TV commercial.....'
'...Have you done the homework I have sent you?'
'Yes.' Pethant said, taking off his helmet to reveal his head and the red spiky hair that was gelled and combed nicely for the occasion, 'a professional hero debut today? I am surprised that they wanted you to be there too.'
'Public stunts.' Jon sighed, 'but to me, it's always more than a paid outing.'
Here comes the good stuff. Pethant rubbed his hand together excitingly, as he prepared to take notes when Jon drops the golden nugget here and there.
'Do you know why the cameraman's association is formed in the early ages of superhuman society?' Jon asked, and Pethant thought back to his history lessons, and nothing returned to him. He shrugged in his heavy armor as the pair took a turn into a darkened alleyway, 'when the strengths of superhumans way surpassed that of normal humans, who would be there to keep everything transparent and in check? Who watches over those that watch over the rest of us?'
'Pethant, remember this.' Jon said with a serious look on his face, 'we are not only here to take panty shots of celebrities, but we are also here to keep the superhumans accountable for their actions.'
'Yes, master.' Pethant nodded sincerely, an incredibly important lesson and something he never thought of before, 'could you teach me how to get the best panty shot?'
'Being at the top takes talent and hard work...Wait, you meant panty shots? That just takes...a certain perspective on things.'
'Also do you also have the same goal with professional fights?'
'NOPE.' Jon shook his head, 'that's just a paid outing.'
The pair made another turn down a flight of stairs as the more hilly landscape of the Eastern parts of S city revealed itself in front of him. Jon was one of the many cameramen invited to attend the professional debut, though each of the cameraman invited is bound by a contract of non-disclosure in order not to compromise the mission itself.
The assembly place is one of the luxury houses standing upon the hill overlooking a few apartments in a residential area. Each individual cameraman and crew are given specific access through one of the entrances of the house, and by the time Jon and Pethant went into the gigantic basement, it is already packed.
'Watch it, rookie!' Jon felt a shove from behind, and his lighter body was easily pushed forward. Pethant turned around to see a pair of muscle-bound cameraman filling up nearly all of the space at the hallways going into the basement.
Pethant reached out a fist and grabbed onto the arm of one of the two cameramen, and they spun angrily around only to be intimidated by Pethant's massive frame.
'How about you watch your fat ass?' Pethant said with fire coming out of his eyes.
'Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir.' They said before running for their lives and disappearing into the crowd.
'Gosh.' Pethant shook his head before turning towards Jon, 'why didn't they know who you are?'
Jon disappeared from the crowd.
Pethant looked around in a panic for his master, but he simply looked way too ordinary and normal to stand out from the crowd. If anything, his shonen protagonist looking ass is the most outstanding around physically. So far, the room is filled with a variety of cameraman, professional heroes and support crew. The basement the size of a lecture hall is nearly filled to the brim with people.
Towards the back end of the basement was a stage where a costumed superhero and a group of men and women dressed in formal attire are talking. So this is the one that's all the rage today...the one named Beacon.
Beacon is dressed in a fully golden attire with reflective materials over his wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles, with a tight-fitting armor set that showed a symbol of a light bulb over his chest. He had no cape though, thank goddess. With a slick style blonde hair that formed into a single spike up and a face enough to make fashion models jealous, Beacon certainly came with the package of an extremely popular hero.
Professional heroes are one of the many subbranches of superhuman activities register under the gigantic umbrella of the Superhuman Association, and their main role is dealing with threats posed by other superhumans. However, due to the freshness of the industry, a lot of areas are still being fleshed out to this day, and Pethant is too lazy to keep up with the details.
Compared to professional fighters, most professional heroes are requested to hold a license, but allegedly it isn't that hard to pass the test itself. What's hard is making a name for oneself, and the agency behind Beacon seemed to have the right idea.
'Everyone, please pay attention.' Finally, a voice came through the microphone, and the general chatter quieted down with many lenses pointed towards the stage. Pethant did the same and took a few still shots of Beacon on the stage. The few quick snaps that he has taken have all been perfect, and even Pethant himself is surprised by his hands today.
'Today is the debut of the light hero, Beacon! I would like to welcome all of you to his debut mission, where it will be a rescue mission for some of the superhuman teenagers that have been experimented on by the Guild of the Blue Serpents.' A dressed-up officer with glasses and an overly styled hair said to the entire room, and the plack of hair on his head bobs with his enthusiastic words.
'The same rules with superhero outings apply, please remember.' He continued, 'step out and step back if you cannot keep up with the mission, and do not do anything that will compromise the rescue mission.'
With that in mind, please could the rescue crew gather around in the tunnel, and we shall begin the mission promptly.'
'Have you gotten any good shots?' Jon's voice came from beside Pethant, and he turned to see his master appearing out of nowhere.
'Where have you been, master?' Pethant asked and Jon pointed towards the stage, '....no way! You were invited backstage?'
'No, I WENT to backstage.' Jon said, 'I have an uneasy feeling about this...Beacon person. We need to be careful in this mission.'
'But isn't all of this pre-planned and rehearsed?' Pethant asked, and Jon murmured underneath his breath something that Pethant couldn't hear.
A buzzer went off, and the mission began.
A crew of superheroes is supporting in this mission, but Beacon will be taking the lead. Tunneler, the utility hero created an underground tunnel that leads directly from the basement towards the apartment block with the vast hidden underground network where the experiments were said to be conducted, and the floods of the cameraman went ahead and followed suit.
Jon snapped his finger to get Pethant's attention and asked him to follow closely before the two also moved off.
Pethant's chunky and intimidating mechanical armored camera brought plenty of space for himself, but Jon's footwork is much more superior. He navigated the flow of people like an experienced fish in the tidal current pools, as each of his calculated yet seemingly free-flowing steps only take him further along and into the front. Fortunately, Pethant has set a lock on in his visual systems for Jon, so this time he won't be left behind too much.
The tunnel continued on for hundreds of meters before finally opening up. The crowds of cameramen hurried out into the action that has already broken out in the main plane with heroes engaging on the other superhumans from the Guild of the Blue Serpents already. The interns of each of the crowds are left behind to film the heroes in action while the other continued moving in a pack chasing after Beacon and the other main stake heroes.
On his visual overlay, Jon is moving further and further away, but Pethant's already moving as fast as he can, as the crowds of cameramen began to slowly dilute with every step that he has taken, he slowly opened up into a full-on sprint. However, Jon is still moving further and further away from him. Still tracked though.
'You are not getting passed here!' A trio of guards morphed out from nothingness before they surrounded the entire area going down to the deeper levels and flooded the entire area with thick poisonous smoke.
'Beacon, you go on ahead!' One of the support heroes exclaimed before stopping on a dime, forming both of his hands into the gesture of number 2, or that of the scissor and cutting through a thick layer, 'SCISSORS!'
'There's the justice hero, Rockpaperscissors! The perfect counter hero!' A flock of cameraman stopped right here and the poisonous smoke was fully countered out by Rockpaperscissor's special move.
Beacon marched on without stopping for a single moment, and now only a handful of the cameraman is following him.
As they lept down the staircase, through a gap over the endless depths of the earth and down an abandoned elevator shaft to the lowest levels, the number of cameramen remaining behind Beacon has reduced to less than ten. He looked back, and all of those cameras are fully dressed up in battlesuits with enhancements. A few of the superpowered cameramen are floating or straight-up flying behind him.
As they moved through a singular alleyway leading towards the underground factory where the teenagers should be at, the lights were suddenly turned all the way up, and bolts of lightning filled the room all of a sudden before shards of metal were flung through the air in a hurricane fashion.
Beacon immediately created a shield around him with his constructs of light before tossing up a ball of light to light up all of the alleyways. Then, he realized that the scenes of an alleyway were nothing more than a holographic projection, and in fact, he has already arrived in the underground factory.
'Oh, looks like we have some pests in here, brother.' A feminine voice came from one of the corners of the room, as a superhuman walking on a cloud of thunder appeared. She looked nothing older than seventeen and had to scar the shape of lightning bolts all over her body. She had short white hair and a pair of glowing eyes as she looked down at Beacon.
'Can't say you are wrong this time, sister.' From the other corner, an even younger boy walked out. There are tiny belts made up of metal shards orbiting all around his body, and he also had white hair with a crew cut. Here instead, he had cuts all over his body.
'You.....the elemental siblings!' Beacon exclaimed, 'my name is Beacon, and I have come to rescue you!'
'Rescue?' The brother said with a mocking tone, 'You invaded our home, and now wanted to kidnap my beautiful sister?'
'DIE.'