Normie King and Pyrolord
The first time was an accident. Superheroes aren't supposed to kill, not even #supervillains who are murderers. It's an imago thing. At best the superhero becomes a vigilante, at worst they're branded a new supervillain taking out the competition. True unambiguous mistakes and Kill Orders were the exceptions, but both were rare, and most #superheroes weren't interested in the latter.
Despite being admitted to the Superhero #Academy due to his power screening proving that #Joakim had a Majestic-Class superpower, he had yet to manifest it. No one knew what it was, not even he himself. As such he was the laughingstock of the Academy, the Normie King.
When Joakim was thirteen, he went to #Amazonia on a school trip. Amazonia was a small city-state in the Amazon rainforest famous for being the only country in the world led my superheroes. This was pretty natural, as eighty-five percent of the population had #superpowers. It was also home to the Amazons, an all-female superheroine team that focused its efforts mostly to South America.
Due to prevalence of superpowered individuals, Amazonia also had the highest concentration of organized supervillains in the world. Especially active and feared were the #Underdogs, a mostly male supervillain team consisting of twelve members. One of them was #Pyrohydra, an Alpha-Class pyrokinetic capable of manifesting flaming constructs.
It was that supervillain who attacked the Academy's flying transport, probably aiming to kidnap the students. It was unfortunate for him that the trip was for Gamma-Class and above students, which Joakim technically was. Unlike Epsilon- and Delta-Class supers, Gamma and above were considered significant threats to armed groups of normies. Police and government policy was to leave dealing with them for the superheroes.
There were twelve students and two teachers inside the transport, all but two able to fly in some way. Joakim was one of the two unable to fly using his unknown powers, and the other was #Stonewall, a geokinetic girl capable of manipulating earth.
As soon as Pyrohydra rode his signature flaming hydra to face the transport, all but three inside flew out. #Coldflow, one of the teachers, opted to stay with Joakim and Stonewall to keep them safe. Faced with eleven opponents Pyrohydra wisely attempted escape, but was soon surrounded and forced to fight.
The battle was rather one-sided until Pyrohydra, in desperation, assaulted the transport and managed to get inside. There he got a lucky hit through Coldflow's defense and knocked him out. Stonewall managed to escape to the back door and jumped out, trusting for flyers to catch her before she hit the ground. Joakim was right on her heels, but Pyrohydra managed to catch him before he got out.
Despite having no apparent superpowers Joakim had really put his all into his training, making him one of the most accomplished students – in everything except what really mattered in the Academy. One of those courses he excelled in was unarmed combat.
Maybe Pyrohydra had neglected his unarmed training, or maybe he underestimated the thirteen-year-old. The why of it didn't really matter, only the result did. Joakim grabbed the arm holding him in place and performed a picture-perfect throw. The floor in front of them wasn't obstacle-free, though, so Pyrohydra head hit the armrest of a seat, snapping his neck. It was an unforeseen and unlucky coincidence, but Joakim was now a killer.
The moment Pyrohydra's neck snapped, Joakim felt something flow from the dead man into himself, and power like he had never before felt. Since he had no experience controlling superpowers, the power literally exploded outwards, turning the transport's cabin into an oven. As soon as Joakim realized what was happening he tried to focus on cutting the power off, and managed it after a second or so.
That second was a long time, given the inferno he unleashed. The heat immunity Pyrohydra had when he was alive didn't protect his dead body, so his remains were almost completely incinerated. Coldflow's power protected him somewhat despite him being unconscious, so he survived with some serious burns.
Joakim, of course, didn't get a scratch. He had learned something new about his powers, and felt elation like nothing he had previously experienced. He finally had real superpowers!
There were consequences, of course. The transport was unusable, Joakim was the subject of a thorough investigation, and some students and staff blamed him of the burns Coldflow got. Joakim was cleared of any misdeeds, though, and Coldflow himself was forgiving, so eventually most of it passed. As Joakim didn't explain how or why he had gotten powers, the origin of them was the source of speculation for the whole Academy. Something in the interaction between Pyrohydra and Joakim had triggered the latter to gain very similar powers.
Now Joakim had superpowers he could train with, and soon he was at the top of the class at that, too. The title Normie King was discarded for his new moniker, #Pyrolord.
Written by kepic.