Post by Everyday Heroes on Apr 29, 2018 20:55:07 GMT
OOC Disclaimer: I know this is past deadline. I got mixed up with my dates and thought deadline was today. I got permission from the fedhead to post it since my opponents didn't RP either and it was already half-written anyway. If nothing else, please enjoy as a CD piece. I did.
Thank you.
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PARTNERS
Thank you.
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PARTNERS
Outside San Antonio, TX
April 20, 2018 1:45PM
Jason heard the car approaching a minute or so before he saw it pull into the access ramp to the Pollo Bucket. It was a modern Ford pickup truck, its metallic black finish glinting in the late morning sun. As Jason admired the small details in the bodypaint – the winged pattern on the door, the silver stripe running along its side – it came to a stop directly behind his own, significantly more beat-up car, the two striking a stark contrast as they sat alongside each other in the otherwise deserted parking lot.
'I hope this guy isn't craving fries', Jason thought, casting a glance towards the resolutely shut doors of the restaurant across from him. Before he could step in and warn the driver about the Bucket's working hours, however, he found himself being pulled into a bone-crunching hug by the other vehicle's occupant.
'Jason! Wassup, buddy? How's it going?'
'Not so hard, Walt...hurting...me...' Jason hoped his muttered mumblings would be enough to get the message across, and convince his tag team partner to let him go.
Much to his delight, his partner had gotten the message; a moment later, the Vanilla Midget found himself free from the suffocating hug, and able to finally look up at the taller man.
'Geez, Walt,' he chuckled, massaging his neck. 'What you trying to do, buddy, injure me so those other guys can't?'
It was Walter Stravinsky's turn to chuckle. 'Sorry, dude...I got a little carried away. It's sure good to see ya, though!'
Walt stepped in for another hug, but Jason had enough presence of mind to dodge, and narrowly avoid another bone crunching.
'Good to see you too, Walt,' he retorted. 'But you gotta watch how you greet people, man. You don't know how strong you are anymore.'
The man known as Owl Man scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.
'Yeah, I know. I keep forgetting I'm buff now.'
Jason nodded. 'That's right. Working out doesn't just make you lose weight. It makes you stronger, too. So let's be careful with our hugs from now on,. You don't wanna accidentally injure anyone, do ya?'
Walter shook his head. 'Oh, geez, no! No way.'
'That's what I thought. That's why you gotta take it easy with the hugging. I mean dang!'
Walt, however, was no longer listening to him; his attention had shifted to what had once been a flabby mound - now a much more defined, if still chunky, abdomen
'Amazing, though, ain't it?' he mused, idly patting what had once been his belly. 'What your body can do when you show it a li'l love?'
His partner nodded. 'Yeah. Your body knows what it wants, man. All you gotta do is give it what it's asking for.'
'Speaking of which,' Walt added. 'I'm freaking starving! Let's get outta here and find some place to eat!'
'Yeah...' Jason chuckled, looking over towards the Bucket once more. 'We're sure not gonna get any food from here...'
That was the last thing either man said for a long moment afterwards. It was not until he was settling into the passenger seat of Walt's car that Jason spoke again:
'So hey, man...what's up with the new wheels? What happened to your old car?'
Walt shrugged.
'Broke down one too many times. I kept having to spend money to fix it. The last time, the guy at the shop said that as much as I was spending on it, I might as well just get a new one. So I did.' The big man smiled. 'Besides...I ain't making minimum wage anymore.'
The genuine, beaming expression on his friend's face brought one to Jason's own.
'That's right. You're moving up in life, ain't ya, bud? Someday soon I'm gonna have to call you Mr. Walter Stravinsky, corporate bigshot!'
Walt guffawed. 'Naw, Jay...it ain't like that. It's just a nothing job...it just pays the bills, or whatever.'
'Can't be more of a nothing job than being a freaking fry cook,' Jason pointed out. 'And if it pays the bills, hey, all the better, right?'
The Midget leaned over to pat his partner on the shoulder. 'C'mon. Let's go get Cherry and go back to my place to talk some shop.'
'Oh, hey, speaking of that, Jason...I got something else to show ya.' Walt reached underneath his seat and pulled out a black shopping bag. He grinned from ear to ear as he handed it to Jason. 'Check that stuff out.'
Jason frowned in curiosity as he took the bag from his partner. His furrowed expression soon lightened into one of pure joy, however, as he peeked inside and saw a familiar orange and blue pattern.
'Ohhhh snap,' he said, pulling the costume out of the bag and holding it in front of him. 'New threads, too? Check you out, bigshot!'
Once again, however, Walt's expression was equal parts proud and modest. 'I kind'a had to, y'know...with the weight loss and all that...you saw how baggy the old one was on me!'
Jason sleaned in to squeeze Walter's shoulder once more.
'Hey...just own it man,' he said. 'It's all right. It's all you, bro.'
He smiled.
'Seriously, though, just wait until Cherry sees you, dude! She's gonna flip!'
Walt could not help but smile, in spite of himself. 'Yeah...we should really get our butts over there before she finishes her shift, shouldn't we?'
'Yup,' Jason said. 'Hit the gas, big guy.'
A moment later, the two friends were zooming down the road, in search of rheir third wheel.
THE THIRD WHEEL
Olive Garden Restaurant, Interstate 10, outside San Antonio, TX
April 20, 2018 2.30PM
'Hey Joe, I'm gonna head out, all right?'
The manager of the San Antonio Olive Garden turned away from his register as the waitress called out to him.
'Say what?'
'I'm gonna head out,' Cherry Oliver said. 'I'm done with my shift. I cleaned all the tables and sweeped the floor and...'
';;;whoa, whoa...hold your horses there. No way you're done with your shift,' Joe said. 'What time did you come in at?'
'I opened,' Cherry said. 'I'm on a six-hour shift today. So actually I finished at like two. But you guys needed help with the lunch hour crunch... I'm going now, though, 'k?'
'Yeah, yeah,' Joe grumbled. 'Get outta here. And make sure you're on time tomorrow!'
Cherry, however, was no longer listening to him. The moment she had had permission to leave, the blonde had headed to the back to grab her purse, and she was halfway out the door by the time her boss finished his sentence.
Less than two minutes after signing herself out of the restaurant, she was sitting in the back seat of a black Ford pickup truck, in the company of her two best friends.
'Dang,' Walter chuckled, 'Just in time! We couldn't have timed that better if we were trying!'
'Yeah,' Cherry said, 'Right on the money! Good job, Wally!'
The blonde stretched her hand forward to slap five with the big man, then turned to smile at the one in the passenger seat.
'Hi, Jason!'
''Sup buttercup?', Jason said, striking a mock-cool pose that made Cherry giggle.
'You guys are such dorks!'
'Yeah. And you love us for it,' Walt said from the driver's seat, causing both his friends to gasp.
'Check this guy out,' Jason chuckled. 'Loses a few pounds and suddenly he's got an attitude!'
'Hey,' Walt retorted. 'Ain't you ever heard of fake it 'till you make it? I'm trying to make it!'
The three friend's laughter was still ringing throughout the inside of the car as Walter turned it around and pulled out of the parking lot.
HEROES ASSEMBLE!
'Surprise, GOL Lucha!!'
The statement, chirped by three youthful voices in unison, opens the latest video uploaded to the GOL Lucha website. A moment later, the camera pulls back to reveal the speakers: Jason Orion, Sailor Cherry (or rather, on this occasion, Cardcaptor Cherry) and the Owl Man, collectively known as the Everyday Heroes. The three stand in front of an ivy-covered wall and lean into the camera, which Jason manually adjusts as he speaks up once again:
'Yup. Gotcha. Bet you weren't expecting to see us, huh? And I get it...what with our injuries and all the rest. And you know what? The plan actually was to stay retired. Give our bodies a rest. Enjoy life a little. But the thing is...we couldn't really enjoy life unless...well, unless we were here. In front of our fans. Being Everyday Heroes.'
'That's right.' Owl Man cuts in, taking over from his partner. 'What we had forgotten after we left GOL...what we've learned again over the past couple of months...is that heroes don't retire. Heroes don't rest. Heroes don't walk away when people want them to be around. Especially not from a place where they helped make history.'
Jason nods in agreement, before cutting in again. 'Exactly. And that's why, when we heard GOL Lucha was having their second anniversary...we knew we had to be there. We knew our fans would want us to be there. We knew we couldn't miss out. After all, what could be a better birthday treat for our fans than to see us become GOL Trios Champions a second time?'
'It's not gonna be easy, though,' Owl Man adds. 'We can't forget who's going to be across the ring from us on the night. The Dogs of War are international wrestling superstars. Us guys? We're still just a bunch of dorks in cosplay.'
'But not as dorky as before,' Cherry pipes up, for the first time since the start of the video.
'No,' Owl Man admits, slapping his new-found lower abdomen. 'Maybe not as dorky as before.'
'Anyway,' Cherry continues, clearly finding her footing now that she has been given a chance. 'Owlie's right. The Dogs of War are awesome opponents. The kind we're usually honored to fight against, win or lose. The only problem is...'
The blonde leans forward, giving the lens her best approximation of a glare of disappointment.
'...the only problem is, you guys don't play fair. And that's not okay. We're not down with that. And that's why, at El Gran Aniversario, we gotta do what Heroes do. We gotta stop you.'
Jason nods, his own expression set and stern. 'Make no mistake, Storm, Tillman, Tiger. What my partner just said was not an idle threat. We don't make idle threats. We're not like everyone else, saying we're going to teach you a lesson just because we think it sounds cool. When we say we're coming to stop you...we mean we're coming to stop you.'
'You said it, Jason,' Owl Man bursts in once again. 'When we get in that ring at El Gran Aniversario, we're not going in to play games. We're not going in just so the fans can see us. We're coming to win. We're coming to show you that no matter how outmatched they are...no matter how many dirty tricks the bad guys pull...Heroes always come out on top. Good always triumphs over evil. And if it doesn't, at least it puts up a heck of a good fight.'
'That's right!' Cherry adds. 'Forget Avengers. The real Infinity War is gonna take place at El Gran Aniversario! The Everyday Heroes against the big bad Dogs!'
The two males seem to thoroughly approve of this analogy, as evidenced by their ecstatic expressions. It does not take more than a moment, however, for the two to regain composure, as Jason continues:
'And you know what else, Storm, Tillman, Tiger? We're not the same Heroes we were the last time people saw us. Hiatuses aren't just for sitting around all day playing videogames. Hiatuses are for learning. Hiatuses are for making a better person out of yourself. And that's exactly what we did. We stayed fit, we worked hard to improve ourselves, and now we're in the best shape of our lives. When we step in the ring against you at Aniversario, we're going to be at the peak of our form. We won't just be the plain old Everyday Heroes anymore. We'll be Orion Prime, Owl Man Prime and Sakura Prime.'
The Midget pauses for a moment, for effect, before adding:
'And guys...trust me...you may have come up with a plan to stop the old heroes...but there's no way you can stop us when we go Super Saiyan.'
Orion extends his hand forward, looking up at his two partners beside him as he states:
'Assemble on three. Ready, guys?'
Owl Man and Sakura both nod, reaching their own hands forward to join the Midget's. Jason's grin grows even wider as he counts:
'Okay...ONE, TWO, THREE...!!'
'HEROES ASSEMBLE!'
It is with the team's war cry, delivered with gusto and in perfect unison, that the video cuts to black.