Johnny the 'Superhero'
by maxathron
Copyright© 2026 by maxathron
Fiction Story: Johnny's been out in the backwoods for some time and the government wants to know what he is: if he's a threat, or not. They know he's superpowered, or so they think they know, and want to know if he'll be a superhero, or supervillain. They send a team led by Jasper Jaguar to make contact.
Officially, Johnny Rocket was just a man living his life on a plot of land out in the country. He did what most guys wanted to do. He banged metal into shape, rolled rocks around, and made sticks out of the wood he chopped in the woods. He was living man’s dream of do cool things and not be bothered.
The issue to the government bureaucrats back in the nearby state’s capital was that he had been doing this for over three hundred years.
It was clear to them that Johnny was some kind of superpowered hero. They didn’t know what kind, and it infuriated them. The world periodically plunged into chaos by the actions of supervillains and having another powerful hero on their side would help push back the fires and chaos set by those supervillains.
Of course, to normal folks, nothing went amiss. That was a key part of conflict between good and evil. No superheroes nor supervillains were part of mainstream awareness. Didn’t stop supervillains from causing trouble and didn’t stop needing superheroes to stop them so nothing got out.
But to the bureaucrats at the capital city, they were aware of all the problems and only had so much hero capital to push evil back. A neutral superpowered human was only going to be a problem, or an issue.
They would be a problem if they decided, “You know what? I’m going to be evil.”
They would be an issue if they decided, “I don’t care about those supervillains.”
The people at the capital decided to send a team to that man’s doorstep to recruit him, or neutralize him if he decided to be evil.
The government sent a team of four: Jasper Jaguar, Miss Viper, Arclight, and Cherry Bomb.
A standard team of four.
Jasper was a mix of power and versatility. Jasper had the superpower of jaguar claws. He could slash through steel literally with his claws or through his claw magic. He wore a jaguar costume with Aztec undertones as he was from Mexico. He was the picked team leader but his age meant that the other three would look up to him by default.
Miss Viper as she called herself was really more of a cobra than a viper. Her powers were that of poisons. When she attacked, enemies had a chance of being poisoned. Any part of her body was like this, bare skin or her combat suit. Additionally, she could spit poison. Her powers gave her a transhuman appearance, too, as she had snake fangs, a scaled hood like that of a cobra, and snake eyes. She could flare the hood as needed for intimidation.
Arclight was the youngest member of the team. He was coursing with electricity and able to use it as a weapon, bending the power of lightning into swords and bows on the fly. There wasn’t much to say about him so far but the guys upstairs were looking at his career with great interest.
Cherry Bomb was a spunky young woman who themed herself off cherries, naturally. With deep red hair and love for explosives, her name came up often in cases against supervillains. She was iconic. Cherry already downed two supervillains to rot in the Supermax, the prison for supervillains. Her powers were the ability to create explosions from her hands, clouds of smoke, and teleport between clouds. The last one made her an excellent fast response super as she could travel great distances through the sky’s weather systems.
The four came to the edge of Johnny’s property, a vast sprawling piece of land in the country’s interior. Cherry got there first, naturally, from her teleportation ability. Arclight walked a few miles from the nearest powerline. He was able to essentially surfboard power lines with his abilities. The other two took a car. Two government agents, decked out in combat gear and having extensive cybernetic augmentations, were there as back up.
“No need, guys,” said Jasper, “Just stay with the car.”
The two agents nodded and hung back. The four supers proceeded into Johnny’s property. None of the six realized the ginormous perception filter that became active. Hundreds of kilometers in every direction would be unable to realize what was going to go down.
A few thousand feet in, Viper noticed a puppy dog sniffing around a bush. It was mostly white with a circle of spots on its back and two black ears. She told her comrades but all four of them paid no real heed.
About halfway into the property, a few days into the trek, she noticed the same dog on a log off the beaten path.
“Hey, guys.”
“Yes, Viper,” asked Jasper.
“That’s the same dog as I saw earlier. Or, at least, it looks to be.”
“What did you describe it as?” asked Cherry.
“Nearly white all over except for a circle of spots on its back and both ears completely black.”
The four looked at the dog. It fit the description to a tee.
“That can’t be a coincidence,” said Arclight.
“No, it cannot,” said Jasper.
“Maybe part of this super’s stuff?” brainstormed Cherry.
“Perhaps,” said Viper.
“Let’s continue,” finalized Jasper. The others nodded in agreement. They had a mission, regardless of the puppy dog.
A week into their trek, the four supers were coming to a clearing. In the middle was a modest looking cabin, obviously the super’s home. As they neared the cabin, they realized what was sitting on the cabin’s porch.
It was that puppy dog.
Viper came up to the puppy.
“Hey little guy. Do you know if your master is home?”
“Knock it off, Viper,” said Jasper, “It’s clearly just a dog. It can’t understand us. We’ll just wait for Johnny to show up. He’ll have to come home sooner or later.”
The puppy dog shook its head, as if to say “No”.
“Did you see, that, Jasper?”
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