The Origin

At the Hero Association HeadQuarters, the S-Class talks over the current situation with the Monster Association and the ever-present Hero Hunter Garou and Christan. Rank 4: S-Class hero Atomic Samurai, Kamikaze is the first to speak up. "So. by a show of hands, who has heard of the Vigilante Hero?" It was no more than a second before a few of the other S-Class raised their hands. "This vigilante is quite the enigma. I myself have been curious about this one." Rank 3: S-Class hero Silver Fang, Bang started with a very stern look on his face. "Silver hair and controlling fire. That's the best any of us have on this guy. We need a little more than that to find him. We don't even know if he's actually real." Rank 8: S-Class hero Zombieman said while leaning back in his chair with a partially lit cigarette in his mouth. "This is stupid. Why are we even talking about this?" Rank 2: S-Class hero Tornado of Terror, Tatsumaki asked with a condescending sneer as she started floating out of her seat using her psychic powers. "We have more important things to deal with. The Monster Association is still at large, this supposed Vigilante is nothing more than a stupid myth. He's not real." She told them which got a little chuckle out of Metal Bat, who was well aware of Christan. Which promoted a back and forth argument between Metal Bat and Tatsumaki, with them almost coming to blows before Rank 5: S-Class hero Child Emperor stepped in-between them. 

"Regardless of our opinions, the Vigilante Hero is viewed as a dragon-level threat by Sitch and higher-ups. That being said I'd like to say that I'm well aware of the Monster Association. I haven't gotten a definite location on their headquarters though, I just need time and patience. That's all I ask." He told his fellow heroes before Tatsumaki, rolled her eyes at his lack of results. This put down the young hero as he sat down in his chair. "What makes you think he isn't real?" Metal Bat suddenly asked Tatsumaki, catching her attention. "Huh? It's clear as day. Some mysterious man with white hair, that supposedly shoots fire from his hands. He comes out of thin air before leaving without a trace and answers to no one. It's just rumors and speculation by people who can't tell fiction from reality," she finished her speech by uncrossing her arms and putting her hands on the table. "Let me give you all a hard dose of reality. He's nothing but a distraction. This wild goose chase keeps us from focusing on the real threats. And for the record, if he was real, he's nothing but a coward. Does that answer your question?" She asked him as she leaned back in her chair. 

Bad wasn't deterred by what she said, he was just a bit taken aback. He let out a sigh before uttering what he came here to say. "What if I told you I've met em' more than once?" He said which got a loud "WHAT" from the other heroes. None of them believed him, so he explained what he meant. "Right. You've met him. What, is he your imaginary friend." She said which didn't get much of a reaction out of him. "Alright listen up. I'm only gonna say this once. The Vigilante Hero is real and his real name is Christan. I've met him up to three times now, the most recent time was last week…" Metal said as he began to tell what happened last week.

Last Week…

Metal Bat POV

"So why do you want me to go with you to his place. You know how to get there yourself." I told my sister as we made our way into T-City while it was being rebuilt. "Because you're someone he wanted to meet. He might not seem it but he looks up to you heroes. You never really got to talk since you were fighting that ice lady and you two could both use more friends." She told me while skipping up to his place. "I don't need him as a friend," I told her before she knocked on his door. As we stood there, no one responded. "Must not be home, let's go." I quickly said trying to turn and walk away but Zenko grabbed me by arm, stopping me in my tracks. "He's here, he can't even move after what happened." She said as she surprisingly picked a key that was behind some plants. 'I hate this.' I thought as we entered the building to only be greeted by him shirtless, sitting on the couch cauterizing up his wounds while watching TV. "Stop, stop. What are you doing?" she yelled out. "Oh hey Zenko," He casually said as she pulled his hand away from his arm. "What's up? What are you guys doing here?" He asked her as she was just staring at him. I walked up behind her, curious at what she was looking at.

When his chest came into view, I saw that it was covered in scars. The one that caught my attention first was the large one on his left pectoral reaching over his left shoulder. "All these are from then?" She asked him with a concerned tone. He looked like he didn't want to answer before letting out a sigh. "Nope. These scars are old, I got these over the first few fights I had with monsters. The only new ones I got from fighting Tanya are the two on my face," He explained to us pointing to his two face scars. One vertical scar over his eye and another across his cheek. "I bruise easily, so I hide most of them. Sorry if this is a bit weird. It's just what I've always done." He said as he gradually tried to stand but slumped back down onto the couch groaning as he landed. Zenko started to help him bandage up his arms. "Oh and by the way Metal Bat. Thanks for helping getting T-City rebuilt. I really appreciate it." He said before he winced at Zenko tightening his bandages. "Not that big of a deal. This happens all the time." I said as something on the wall caught my eye. 'No fuckin way.' He has a ton of Hero posters on his wall. Every S-Class hero was there, including me. Every edition of the hero catalogs and a bunch of figurines. "So you're some kinda super fan?" I jokingly asked as he noticed me looking. 

He let out a small laugh before telling me that he admires us S-Class heroes. Saying he wanted to join the Hero Association so he could meet and work with us. Now I'm confused. "What do you mean WANTED to join the Association. You know that you have to join to be an official-. He then cut me off. "I'm well aware of that and I've tried already. Three times actually," he stated, surprising me and Zenko. "I've signed up for the hero registry three times and every time, I got the same thing. Sorry kid, you're just not what we're looking for right now. Try again next time." He told us as Zenko finished tapping him up. "So what then? Did you just give up because you couldn't hack it?" I yelled out, getting an angry look from Zenko. "Yeah, your right I did give up. The first time I heard that I didn't have these powers. Nothing but an idiot with a dream. I was and still am naive. When I got these powers, I thought that this time I had it. Nothing could get in my way, even though I couldn't even do anything near the level I can now. But once again, my hopes were too high. When I was told that again I was crushed but not done yet. I trained my ass off for weeks, before trying one last time and getting denied." he said as he slowly stood up from the couch groaning as he struggled to stand on his broken leg. He then hopped over to me and put on hand on the wall.

"That was my," he looked back over to Zenko and told her to cover her ears. "fuck this place moment." He said before telling her she can uncover her ears. "I wanted to prove them wrong. That they were missing out. That I was different, that I had changed. That I wasn't a failure but the hero they didn't see anything in. I wanted to be right for once in my life." He told us as he looked at the posters on the wall. 

Christan POV

"I had only one goal. It was all to satisfy my damaged ego, I was gonna be the best all by myself. I worked alone for my own selfish desires." I told them as I looked down at my tapped-up palm. "I remember it like it was yesterday. I haven't told anyone this before. I never had anyone to talk to before now," he said before turning around to look at us. "So you better get comfortable, this may take a bit. Now let me weave you a tale of how this all started," I said which made Metal Bat hop over the couch and sit down on the couch next to Zenko. " Alright, it was a few months ago. It changed my life forever.

~Flashback~

 I was being evacuated from the A-City, worst job interview ever. While getting out of the city I felt the sun go away as the world I knew was draped in shadows. I looked up and saw a ship shaped like a tooth made of purplish metal with a cannon barrel aimed down at us. I had never felt so afraid for my own life. I remember falling to the ground before the ship then shot a bunch of missiles down at the ground. It was only seconds but it felt like my entire life. I was going to die, and I wasted my life doing nothing. I closed my eyes and braced for impact. It was quiet for a moment. I thought I had died when I opened my eyes the missiles were suspended in the air.

I was confused at first. What was going on but then I saw that the S-Class heroes had saved us. Tornado of Terror was the one that stopped the missiles before she then sent the missiles back at the ship damaging it enough to damage it. But that caused a chain reaction that I don't think she or anyone thought would happen. The debris fell down and crashed into a building near us. It looked to be an alien engine with a glowing crystal in it. We didn't think too much of it till the engine bursted into blue and orange flames, causing me and the rest of the civilians to be thrown backward." Zenko and Bad looked to be really into the story as I glanced at them. "I don't know why it did what it did but my body absorbed the energy. The flames created ripples around me. All around the crash site, rocks turned into dust and disintegrated. My body continued to absorb the energy, my hands began to spark as my hair changed from black to white. Shortly afterward, the blast suddenly stopped and the last thing I saw was the ship going down.

I woke hours later in a room with a bunch of other people, including Tanya. I later found out she was doing some business in A-City and just so happened to get caught up in the blast. Before I could ask anything a scientist told us that we are in a program called the Dark Matter Program. AKA, the DMP. They were looking over our new abilities we gained from that explosion. Of course, not everyone wanted to be a part of this program and it took a long time for people to get used to this new life. Tanya is the only one that got out early, she disappeared before anyone even knew it. Like I said before, I was naive and power-hungry. I was willing to do anything if it meant I could gain more power. After many trials and errors that psycho even called nothing but a failure of an experiment. I don't hate many things or people, but that guy is someone I truly hate. He's just lucky that after a month or so we'd get the option to be 'cured. The Hero Association found out about the tests and shut it down. They made a cure for our abilities by studying the remains of the ship. I obviously chose to keep my powers along with a few others. After that, I trained my ass off for the Hero Exams, and got rejected." Zenko then asked me what happened next while sitting up on the couch.

I was a little reluctant to even continue speaking. But I had already dug my hole, now I gotta lay in it. "Well after I was rejected for the third time I struggled to find a monster to fight that didn't already have another hero dealing with it and the ones I did fight to beat me within an inch of my life. I saw being a hero as a game. I wanted somebody that was recognized as a hero. I actually used to be bandaged up from fights I barely survived all the time. My clothes were ripped and shredded and I was running out of money since I wasn't official. I was actually going to give up after the first month. I had no motivation to keep going and I was probably gonna die if I kept going. But one day all that changed, I was sitting on the roof of this place when I heard a bunch of gunfire coming from the bank behind this place. It was your run-of-the-mill stereotypical bank robbery. I wasn't too thrilled to be having to take down normal people but I still wasn't going to just sit back and watch. Well at least that's what I thought, the thought of death shook me to my core. I was petrified, shaking even. I knew I had the power to do something but I was almost unable to make a move. I am a coward. Some hero I am, right?" I said before awkwardly laughing at myself. 

"The fear of dying is what kept me from acting at that moment but as I stood there staring at my trembling hands I thought about my fears. At that moment I asked myself am I afraid of dying or afraid of failing again. Then it clicked. I was more afraid of failing for the last time than dying. Using that fear as strength to get up, I jumped in between the robbers who were still firing at the cops. I kicked one off the car they were standing on before then punching the other guy hard enough to his head made cracks in the ground due to how hard I hit em. I had picked a few things from getting my ass handed to me for so long, realizing what worked and what didn't. It was almost instinctual.  It was my first time punching a normal person so I was surprised by my strength. Realizing I was way stronger than I imagined, it freaked me out. But then while I was thinking another robber saw me and started to open fire at me at almost point-blank range with an SMG. I thought this was it for me but as the bullets were coming at me it was as if they were moving super slow as they came towards me. Without wasting any more time I effortlessly caught all the bullets in my hands until he ran out of ammunition. 

Understandably, the robber was shocked that I wasn't dead just as much as I was. I raised my closed fists towards him and opened them letting the bullets fall down onto the pavement. I then jumped off the car and kicked the guy that shot at me into a wall. But while I was doing that the two guys from before tried to get away by driving away in their truck. But before they got too far I raised my arm towards the car. I then used something I had developed to use at long range against monsters but never got the chance to. I held my hand out, aiming at the truck before I sent a shockwave of heated air towards the car from my hand, a kind of air cannon.

 This flipped the truck over completely, leaving it up to the cops to deal with the rest. Before anyone could really say much to me I jumped away from them without anyone being able to follow me. I later found out that I had saved not just the cops but the twelve hostages that were inside the bank. I saved someone, me of all people," I thought to myself. "And it felt good. I got a win and that wasn't what I was worried about by the end of the day. All that was a wake-up call for me." I said which finally got something from Metal Bat. "So what, you saved a couple of people, and now you're all self-righteous. Big whoop." I was a little ticked off at what he said but coming from his perspective he wouldn't see it as that big of a deal since he's been doing this a lot longer than me. I let out a sigh before I sat on the edge of the couch.

"It's… It's because I've been me my whole life, and I've had these powers for a few months. I watch TV, I play video games, and I would love to be in the Association, but I couldn't then so I shouldn't be able to now," I said, getting a stunning reaction from Metal Bat. "But I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I can't blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Official Heros, vigilante heroes. Screw the labels. For me, my self-knowledge has surpassed that and I have come to understand that my life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. Its kind of exciting. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of my past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude." I told him as I flinched my fist and smiled at him.

Back to Present...

Metal Bat POV

"That young man has quite the outlook on life. Truly someone to keep our eye on. Threat or not. He could of a great ally in the future." Old man Sliver Fang said nodding his head. "The only other thing that happened that day was that I gave him a cut of the money I got from fighting that Ice Monster with em'. He also said that he was fine if I told you guys this. I've seen the guy in action twice and he's no slouch and I don't think he's a threat. He likes the challenge. Almost craves it." I told them which got a Tornadoto speak up again. "You expect us to just believe this little story of yours. So I'm the reason for the Vigilante. You have some nerve blaming me." She said which ticked me off. "So of all the things I told you that's the only thing you heard and I ain't lyin ya little brat!" I yelled out putting a foot on the table staring her down as she floated out of her chair covered in that green aura. But before we did anything, Child Emperor spoke up while looking at a monitor. "His story holds up. Christan, the vigilante hero, was one of the Dark Matter patients. All physical information of him is all in the association database and he did take the hero test three times. Each one with an increasing physical score, though only the third attempt looks to be one where he could have passed. I'm not sure where it went wrong." He said as he displayed Christan's face and records in the tests on the monitors in the room. "He's quite the looker if you ask me." Rank 17: S-Class hero Puri-Puri Prisoner said. "So how long were you going to keep this a secret between you and your friend?" Atomic Samurai asked me while giving an intense look. 

"Don't give me that look old man, I owed the white-haired bastard. He saved my sister's life when I couldn't. And we ain't friends. He's a stubborn big mouth that can take the ass-kicking of a lifetime and still get up and dish it back out. That. I respect." I told him, making him sigh. I noticed that Tornado wasn't saying anything after I was proven right. But she did look pissed. 'Serves her right.' I thought as I then remembered another thing he told me that day. 'Something about his clothes or whatever. I always forget something.' I thought as Child Emperor suddenly spoke up. "Guys! There's a live broadcast of T-City News. The Vigilante Hero is fighting a group of monsters right now!" He said as he pulled up the live feed, which showed us a helicopter feed of Christan outside his place staring down a pack of monsters. "I thought you said he could barely stand a week ago." Bang said as we stared at the bruised and battered Christan. "I also said he craves a challenge. He'll try to protect that city my by any means. He'll fight, till he collapses."