In HFO Post 5, Benjamin Mahir, often known as "Company Kid", reflects on his role within the superhero team Hero Force One. He's awoken from his self-reflection by the call for more coffee from Qhobeg, despite being served tea.
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The Company Kid[]
Benjamin Mahir, known these days as the Company Kid, steps silently away from the others to place the tea set down on a table beside a window displaying the vast expanse of outer space. He stares at his own reflection in the meta-strength glass and sees a mousy frame in the cowboy hat and sponsor-stickered brown jumpsuit, easy to mistake as a young boy. He forgets for just a moment that he is in his twenties and not a child -- an easy mistake to make when surrounded by most of the members of Hero Force One and easier still because his ability to heal from any wound heightened his youthfulness. With no visible scars, he could forget the third-degree burns that he had once suffered, the numerous bullet wounds he more than once failed to evade, the merciless street life he lived not long ago. Without the visible Earth, he could even forget the absurd ideas some tried to convince him of before his recruitment into Hero Force One. He takes his cowboy hat to look inside, to see the smaller blue and orange crocheted hat made just for him as a present, and wonders if he would want to forget...
Qhobeg's voice beckoned for "more coffee", despite having been served tea, and Ben sighed. He wondered briefly if any of the previous Company Kids had their short lives ended by brain aneurysms caused by sheer idiocy, then made his way back to the others before he could think about the more gruesome, and likely, deaths that awaited him.
(Non-Story Note: While traditional superhero-style stories are not my forte, I may drop in every now and then, if for no other reason than I like the Company Kid.)