Free West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide by K.M. Johnson-Weider Page B

the
day of the team competition approached, the situation wasn’t getting any
better. The Super Draft itself was not the problem. He had done well at the
speed and strength trials. Sure he wasn’t as fast as Flash Freeze or as strong
as Mega-Jock, but Flash was a glass cannon and Mega-Jock was an idiot. No one
in the Draft was physically a match for him, but he hadn’t really gotten a
chance yet to showcase his superior senses or intellect. Even if he did it
probably wouldn’t matter. Tampa Bay was getting cold feet.
    Robin Traverse
hadn’t created the problem, but she definitely had helped fuel it since their
interview. She was gunning for him and the rest of the superazzi drones were
following her as usual. They were all pointing out his lack of ‘potent’ super
powers, his arrogance, and his problems with the Tampa Bay community. There was
an online poll with 251,678 signatures as of an hour ago that called for Tampa
Bay to not hire the atheist and vigilante-hating Cosmic Kid. There probably
weren’t even 25,000 people in the Tampa Bay area that would care enough about
the issue to sign the petition, but a number of national advocacy groups were
rallying the troops.
    Yesterday, things
had gotten worse when Joshua, a.k.a. Aureoles, gave an interview about his time
on Teen Ultimate under Cosmic Kid’s leadership. Joshua accused him of being
arrogant, condescending, and a poor team leader. Even more damning was the
accusation that he had stolen the spotlight in heroics. The sad truth was that
there was some truth in the complaints; he had been 16 when he was named leader
of Teen Ultimate and at times he had acted his age. However, the last few years
had been different – he had grown up, unlike Joshua who was apparently still
bitter he had been passed over for teen team leader. Aureoles had been drafted
by Birmingham two years ago and Birmingham was still near the bottom of the
Southern Conference. This was probably just a publicity stunt to have Joshua
get a little bump by attacking Cosmic Kid, but it was depressing to have a
former teammate, albeit one he didn’t get along with, come after him like this.
    Added to all of this
was the image of him being the jilted lover of Elle Solstice who left him for
#1 pick Paradigm Shift. The public opinion was that Elle was a self-absorbed
bitch and Paradigm was an ass, more or less correct, but it put Cosmic Kid in
the Sympathy Box. People felt bad for him. That was never good for a superhero.
Pity from the public was the quickest route to a low-tier charter team. Things
went from bad to worse when he tried to ask Meteor Girl out for a date and was
shot down instantly. News of that hadn’t swept the Internet… yet. His personal
life was getting discussed a lot more than it should, especially considering
how little of a personal life he had.
    He had tried talking
to Corsair, team leader for Tampa Bay Supers, but he seemed to always have an
excuse as to why it wasn’t a good time to meet. That wasn’t good. If #3 Tampa
Bay passed on him then the next possibility was #7 Tucson and they couldn’t
afford him so it meant the League of Steel at #11 was probably it. They were a
good team, actually higher ranked than Tampa Bay, but there wasn’t much of a
future there for him. He would never be the franchise super for Pittsburgh and
they would probably trade him in a few years. Worse, the League of Steel might
pass on him – then it was anyone’s guess who would pick him. Regardless, he
would definitely go in the first half of the first round, but he would be
making a lot less money at that point.
    Tonight was his best
chance for turning things around. It was the team challenge and his group was
scheduled for primetime coverage. If he gave an overwhelming performance then
everything else would be forgotten. That was the nature of the Industry, you
could be a horrible person, but if you could deliver results then you would be
more than tolerated, you might even be revered. The