Joining the League Ch. 02

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It had been nearly six weeks since I joined the SLA and so far my 'training' had consisted of watching a lot of instructional videos, trying (and mostly failing) to keep up with the intense gym regimen that Justin had assigned me, very occasionally practicing controlling my power, and analyzing recordings of the city's heroes in action...in slow motion.

Justin, my recruiter and occasional jerkoff buddy, wasn't terribly keen on giving me first-hand experience.

"Look, Nick. Your power is novel, I'll give you that?" he had told me, "?and like I said before, I could see it coming in handy during a pinch, but you've never had proper training. You're not exactly at peak physical performance. And there is a lot of red tape I need to get through before you even see the far side of a combat area."

He was right, of course, but I was getting antsy sitting in a dark room watching video clips all day. I wasn't thrilled about getting thrown into harm's way, but doing nothing was starting to eat through my patience reserves.

Once I tried to use a pheromone nudge to make him a little more open to the idea of letting me do something more hands-on, but in return he shut down my power. It was the first time I'd ever seen him use his power and the first time (that I know of) I'd ever had someone use their power on me. I don't know how to describe it except to say it was like being dumped into a cold bath: jolting, disturbing, and it left me feeling rattled for longer than you would think.

By the time I was able to speak again his eyes were already shifting from emerald-green back to their natural hazel. Not everyone has a 'tell' ? some external signifier that they were using or had recently used their power ? but some do, usually the stronger powers. The flashier ones. I, of course, do not.

"Don't try to push me again, Nick. Or I'll shut you off for a week."

I had no idea if his power could work that long-term, but I didn't want to find out either. I kept my pheromones to myself after that.

I'm sure it sounds like Justin was hard on me in those early days, and it's true, he was. But he was always clear that this was a part of becoming a superhero, that it was like any other job and that I'd be no good to myself or my future teammates without proper training. I didn't know it then, but Justin, for all his easy smiling and casual attitude toward sex, had seen heroes ? friends even ? die, and that has to leave some scars.

And it wasn't all bad.

Eventually Justin and I headed to a local gym and he had me practice on the people working out. He explained that a part of my training would be an extensive survey of human psychology