Underdog Heroes

“Damn it!” grumbled Clyde while running in a crowd.

Clyde is late. He should be with his team right now doing a mission. The mission is to take care of bank robbery. He is informed that a strong criminal joins the robbery. He is worried about the safety of his friends and people in the bank. He is also worried that he could not make it in time and that he might end up failing the mission.

Clyde keeps on running in a hurry. He almost bumps into some people in his way. The heat of sunlight makes him sweat and he is about to get pissed off by the situation right now.

“He is the Buff Hero, right?” A lady asks her friend while staring at Clyde.

“The Buff Hero is here? Where are the other members?” A young boy recognizes Clyde.

The crowd starts to recognize Clyde as one of the heroes in the city. Knowing that some people know about his identity, Clyde starts to control his temper and stays cool.

“Good luck, Buff Hero!” A middle-aged man shouted at Clyde.

Hearing that words of encouragement, Clyde starts to smile and his eyes are gleaming with enthusiasm. His steps are getting stronger and his body feels somehow refreshed.

Clyde responds to the man encouraging him by raising his right hand and then lifting his thumb. “I will do my best!”

Clyde is a young man who enjoys his life to the fullest working as a hero. Clyde can raise physical potentials like power, defense, and speed. He is well known as Buff Hero. Many people underestimate his passive ability but he always tries his best to make his ability useful for others and save people in danger.

Clyde starts to pick up his phone and he tries to pinpoint the location where the robbery is happening. It will be about one kilometer until he arrives at the designated location. He swiftly puts his phone back into his pocket and he starts to accelerate his running speed.

“Alright, I’m almost there.” Clyde starts grinning and he tries not to panic.

The situation around him is getting quiet. Few people are spotted in his sight means that the citizens have been told to evacuate. Whenever there is a criminal case, sometimes a battle might occur. When a battle occurs, the area can be dangerous for the citizens.

As a hero, Clyde is responsible to keep people safe. He is also responsible to deal with criminals or villains. Being heroes can be a risky job because they risk their lives to save others' lives. However, if heroes are working together in a team, they will have a higher chance to accomplish missions. The payment for the hero job is also promising. That is why many people born with power in the city want to be heroes.

Some minutes later, Clyde finally arrives at the location.

The area around the bank looks messed up. The bank’s door is broken. The walls are tattered. Broken glass is scattered on the road. Clyde sees one of his teammates, Lottie laying on the road. It seems like she is fainted. One big guy is protecting Lottie from a masked robber. The big guy is Ralph, one of his teammates too.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, guys. How is the situation, Leon?” Clyde quickly walks toward Leon, one of his teammates.

Leon is the leader of Clyde’s team of heroes. Their team’s name is Fiesty Five. Fiesty Five is well-known for its great power and contribution to dealing with various criminal cases. If people are talking about Fiesty Five, of course, they will always refer to Leon, who is the leader. Leon is famous for his ability to use his firepower. He can control and manifest his fiery power very well and combine it with his fighting abilities. Those things make him very good in battle. Leon’s hero's name is Flamethrower.

“What takes you so long, Slackey Clyde!?” Leon shouted at Clyde.

“I said sorry!” Clyde answered Leon.

Clyde feels a bit angry because he had to deal with Leon’s duty. As a leader of a team, Leon has to report to the cops regarding the recent missions and cases happening. However, when Leon was about to do reporting duty, he accidentally accepted a job dealing with robbery because it will give worthy cash and also he could get more points to rank up. So, Leon ended up asking Clyde to do a reporting job while Leon and the other three went for the mission first. Clyde had no idea what to do with the reporting duty and Leon did not give him some detailed instructions about the duty. That is why Clyde had a difficult time doing reporting duty and it made him come late to do his mission.

“You are not going near Lottie!” Ralph is angry. He growls and slowly his body is pumped up.

Ralph is a muscular man with a big body and can strengthen his power. The rise of power in his body can transform him into a monster with insane power. However, if he goes too far, he can lose his sanity which makes him a berserker. Ralph’s hero's name is Cruncher. He can crush many objects with his big strong hands.

“Not so easy, big guy.” The masked robber points his unique gun at Ralph.

PEW!

A strong electric laser is shot and it hits Ralph. Ralph’s body is covered with electricity and it stuns his movement. Ralph is struggling and he tries to recover from the paralyze. After some seconds, Ralph stopped moving and he slowly goes down. Ralph still have a little consciousness but he could not move his body.

While Ralph is facing the masked robber, a woman quickly comes closer to pick up Lottie’s body and move her to a safe place. That woman’s name is Lucille.

Lucielle is the vice leader of Fiesty Five. She is quite intelligent and has a strong will. Lucielle’s ability is shooting lasers from her fingers and hands. The laser power can be destructive and can pierce through some objects if she gives more focus while shooting. Her hero's name is Limelight.

Lottie is the youngest member of Fiesty Five. Her ability is acceleration. She can move and run very fast. Her movement is agile and she can create a hurricane with her speed. Her hero's name is Swift Feet. Even though she is agile, she has a low defense which makes her quite vulnerable.

“Any good strategy, Leon?” Lucille asks Leon. She is panicking because two of her teammates are down.

After some seconds, some robbers are coming out from the bank with bags full of money. They are heading toward the two big cars parked near the bank.

“I will stop them!” Lucielle lifts her two hands. She aims her fingers at those running robbers to stop them from escaping.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Lucielle’s lasers are shot consecutively. Some shots are hit and some are missed.

“Get lost already, you heroes!” The masked robber helps cover the escaping robbers. He tries to interrupt Lucielle from shooting her laser by shooting his paralyze gun.

“That masked robber has a paralyzing gun with him. We need to be careful with that. ” Leon is mumbling and he is thinking hard.

Leon knows that going near the masked robber is hard because that gun is troublesome. Lottie who has high speed can also be taken down easily. It seems like that masked robber is an experienced wanted criminal. That masked robber can also avoid projectile attacks from Lucielle with ease. Even Ralph with high power could not get near him. And now he has Clyde on his side.

“Clyde, I want you to be the bait,” Leon asks Clyde without hesitation.

“What! How? Why me!?” Clyde responded with confusion.

“It will be hard for me and Lucielle to stop that masked robber. We need to distract him and limit his movement.” Leon tries to explain his strategy.

“I don’t think that is a good idea. Isn’t it better if I use my ability to strengthen your ability instead? As usual?”

“Come on! Make yourself useful! I know what is best for us. I am the leader! To be the bait! Distract that masked robber! I and Lucielle will finish him off!” Leon commanded.

“Are you trying to let me get hurt?” Clyde still refuses Leon’s idea.

“You are a hero! Heroes sometimes risk their lives!”

“ You are also a hero!”

“Enough!” Lucille shouted from a distance. “Save the debate for later! Look! They are escaping!”

The two cars are starting up the engine and both cars are ready to move. While continuously shooting his paralyzing gun, the masked robber moves closer to one car and he quickly gets into the car.

“Tch!” Lucielle feels irritated.

“Clyde! Speed up on us!” Leon commanded Clyde to use a speed-up speed-up buff.

“Alright!” Clyde focusing on himself. After some seconds, a dimmer light aura glows from their bodies. They feel lighter.

“After them!” Leon commanded them to chase the two cars.

The two cars start running. The first car has some robbers and bags of money. The second car has some robbers and the masked robber protecting their friends from behind.

Leon together with Lucielle and Clyde are running at high speed trying to stop the escaping cars. Their speed might not be as fast as Lottie’s speed, but they might catch up with the cars.

“Let’s focus our attacks to stop the car with that masked robber!” Leon commanded.

“Huh? Shouldn’t we get that car with the money first?” Clyde suggested.

“No, if we beat the strong opponent first, it will be easy to beat the weaker ones. That masked robber is one of the wanted criminals. We can get more points capturing him.” Leon with his great ambition tries to convince his teammates.

“Roger!” Lucielle responded. She follows Leon’s command and she is now trying to aim her fingers toward the second car.

“Alright, then.” Clyde disappointedly agrees with Leon’s idea too.

Clyde picks up his gun and he is trying to aim for the car with the masked robber. Clyde might not be good in close-range combat but Clyde is quite skilled in using guns. But in this kind of situation, he might not be accurate in aiming.

Lucielle starts attacking. She shoots the laser from her fingers. Some lasers hit some good spots of the car and it manages to slow down the speed of the car.

Leon joins the attacks. He summons fire covering both of his hands. After some seconds his hands are covered in hot flames, and he shoots fireballs to the car. The car is hit by the fireballs and the car’s movement starts to unbalanced.

The villains are counter-attacking. Some robbers are holding their guns and they begin to shoot. With the help of a speed buff from Clyde, the three heroes manage to avoid the bullets easily. Feeling itched, the masked robber shows up with his paralyzing gun.

“Here we go.” Clyde tries to focus on himself. He tries to raise his accuracy. The accuracy buff is successful and now he tries to aim his gun at the masked robber.

Bang!

When the masked robber is about to shoot the paralyzing gun, Clyde managed to shoot precisely and hits at the paralyzing gun first. The paralyzing gun is dropped. The gun hits the surface of the road pretty hard and is broken afterward.

Bang! Bang!

Clyde continues to shoot. The two shots precisely hit the guns of other robbers and they drop the guns too on the road. Now they have no weapon to counter Leon’s team attacks.

Leon starts to condense his fire. The ball of fire is created and it gets bigger and hotter every second. After that, Leon shoots the big fireball and it successfully hits the car. The car is pushed hard because of the fire explosion and it hit the edge of the road. The car then spins around for some seconds until it stops moving.

The three heroes stop running and they take a short break. They might be victorious because they can capture the wanted criminal and some robbers however, the other car with lots of money is managed to escape.

“Good job everyone. Let’s capture them now.” Leon praises his teammates with his winning face.

Leon and Lucielle slowly walk toward the car without any fear.

Clyde can only watch from afar while trying not to let his guard down. Clyde thinks that some robbers might be waiting to fight back. For Leon, the robbers might not be a big deal because Leon is a skillful combatant.

Some meters before Leon and Lucielle are getting closer to the car, the car’s roof is opening. Slowly a big bazooka-like weapon shows up and it aims at Leon and

Lucielle. Both Leon and Lucielle are not aware of that bazooka. Clyde from afar knows that bazooka is dangerous.

“Leon!

Lucielle! Watch out!” Clyde quickly runs toward both of his teammates. He focuses lots of his energy and uses the defense buffs on both of them and also on himself.

Hearing the warning from Clyde, both Leon and Lucielle realize that in front of them, a bazooka is ready to shoot them.

Kaboom!

The bazooka shoots a very destructive fire. The fire unluckily hits Lucielle pretty hard and it throws her up far away from the car. The explosion cracks the road around it and also hits both Leon and Clyde until they are thrown. Thanks to Clyde’s defense buff, Lucielle’s body is taking quite severe damage. She is still alive but she lost her consciousness.

Leon directly moves his view toward the car. The car starts to turn on again. After some time, the car starts to move and escape. Leon cannot stand up because the explosion got him. He is very disappointed and upset at the same time. Not only he could not get the reward for capturing the wanted criminal, but the robbers also got all the money from the robbery.

Clyde tries to stand up after being pushed by the explosion. He is the only one who took less damage from the Bazooka attack. He is worried about both Leon and Lucielle's condition. Not only them. He is also worried about Lottie and Ralph in the bank area.

Clyde thinks that the mission this time got them. He is upset but feels relieved because his teammates are all safe and still alive.

It is rare to see Fiesty Five fail to accomplish the mission because they tend to accomplish the missions neatly and perfectly. What makes them fail?