Eager Beaver - misadventures of the sidekick programme

You are Rachel Castor, an attractive redheaded woman who had always aspired toward being a hero from a young age, drawn to their heroic deeds and being the embodiment of all that is good and just in the world. You had idolised heroes, from the raw charisma of the larger than life types like Maiden America, down to the more stoic and brooding types who you always believed shouldered the weight of the world so fine citizens of Acropolis such as yourself could rest easy at night.

You stand in a 5’ 9” cutting an impressive athletic figure with shoulder-length red hair, often put up in a ponytail while honing your body by training yourself and keeping fit, attending various martial arts classes in the hopes of taking up the metaphorical cape one day.

You have a soft-featured face that was a delight to look at, vibrant green eyes and a smattering of freckles coupled with a near-constant infectious smile only help cement that girl next door look. With an impressive set of perky D cup boobs and an ass that belied your otherwise trim and athletic frame, too.

If anything you did look like the poster child of what most people would think a heroine would look like, beautiful, radiant smile, strong sense of justice and a drive to protect those that needed protecting. There was just one tiny problem, the complete lack of any powers. Well, you had been told once that the eagerness that you attacked any task or goal you had was inhuman, but you didn’t think that would help stop any crime.

While many inherited their super human feats through birth, or discovery of an artefact of great power from some alien race, or used gadgets and technology to boost their human prowess to super human levels, you were less fortunate in that regard. With no powers, no meteor-showers forecast in your area and no invitations to participate in an archaeological dig in a remote exotic locale it seemed that your only hope lay in technology. Although in that regard you lacked the skill set to build your own, and bizarrely the league didn’t look too kindly on civilians being issued with powerful and potentially dangerous equipment.

Most people would have been crushed by such a revelation and given up on any far fetched dream of becoming a hero by this point, but you just saw this as an obstacle to overcome. After all, no hero just wandered into the job without a difficult upbringing or overcoming some hardship to forge them into who they were today, this would just be yours.

Finishing high school with reasonable good grades, you eschewed a college education, much to your parent's annoyance, in favour of pursuing a job at the league. It was a well paid but unglamorous office job mostly pushing papers. Unsurprisingly having almost 100 heroes in service generated an impressive amount of paper work, insurance claims, sexual harassment claims, and even a few paternity claims.

As unglamorous as the job was, to you it was helping the league which in turn meant you were helping the heroes. You took the job seriously as the training you still maintained, hoping your bosses would notice and maybe catch the eye of a grateful hero or heroine who might take you under their wing and start your hero career.

Your coworkers often mocked you for working so hard, teasing you for holding your lofty dream, but you’d grown used to people doing so. With your body and looks, you should have been one of the most popular girls in high school, but most of your classmates were put off by your devotion to your dream of becoming a heroine. Bullying wasn’t much an issue, if anything you saw it as just more training, after villains you’d one day fight would be saying and trying to do much worse to you.

Still, while your plan to gain the attention of a grateful hero or heroine hadn’t paid off just yet, you had met a few of the heroes you followed for years. Most didn’t say much to you beyond returning your greeting or giving you a nod or smile. Your plan had also got you promoted to junior executive administrative assistant, which didn’t pay any more but gave you more confidential paperwork to file.

Although your proudest moment was catching the same elevator as Green Streak. Not only did he compliment the bread buns you were bringing down from the canteen you, but he almost shook your hand, his hand slipping and slapping against your ass instead. He gave you a wink and got off on his floor recommending a clothes boutique downtown and to tell them he had sent you. At first you thought it might be the break you were waiting for, but instead, the boutique did you a great deal on a new office ensemble. The skirts were a little short and the buttons on the blouses seem to pop open but they felt amazing.

It was just after your 23rd birthday when you finally got the break you were waiting for, an all staffer email from the league HR department advertising a new sidekick programme right at the bottom of a lengthy email about discussing recent scandals and talking to the press about league matters. The final sentence making your heart race. ‘We’re looking for fresh faces to show the public, All applicants welcome, powers not required,’

Your colleagues had dismissed it as a PR stunt to distract the public from the latest rumours of sex tapes of various heroes including some of the big 7 being bought and suppressed by the league. You didn’t believe any of the rumours, although you hadn’t had time to follow them with the long shifts you had put in recently. The leagues Legal and finance department both producing boxes and boxes of paperwork and a weird briefcase that need putting in the vaults in the underbelly of the building. The weirdest part was the two guards the had to assist you with the briefcase, it wasn’t even that heavy but you guess it must have had something dangerous inside of it.

Two weeks after sending off your application you get the reply confirming you had been selected to join the sidekick programme and have even been assigned a hero name of the Eager Beaver. The email told you to report to the HR office where you’d be assigned your mentor and given your costume. By this point, you were practically vibrating with excitement at finally being all that closer to becoming the heroine you had dreamed of.