Battle Heroes X: S02E01

Back for the First Time is the eighth episode of the Battle Heroes X series and the first episode of season two. It revolves around Zack, Julius, and Cloud adjusting to their new lives and encountering new enemies.

Zack, Julius, and Cloud face new enemies.

## The Episode

Dusk was falling over the Fowler City docks. Bane watched the sun set from an alleyway. As he nursed his wounds, his mind wandered to the events that had occurred earlier that day. Yet again, he had failed to kill Zack, Julius, and Cloud. Even with the Pawakuri tribe's crystals under his control, he was still defeated. Bane looked to Chan and Hoji, the two members of the tribe who he had mind controlled to serve him. They had their latent power unlocked by the crystals, but they were still weak. From Bane's shadow, two tendrils made of energy rose and pierced Chan and Hoji's chests. The tendrils created no hole in their bodies and drew no blood. Both brothers cried out in pain.

"Your performances have been...inadequate." Bane stated, watching them squirm with a blank look on his face. Something would have to be done.

3 MONTHS LATER

"Are you sure you made the right decision, Zack?"

"Yes, Julius, I'm sure."

"I'm telling you, you made a big mistake."

"I think it all worked out ok, Cloud."

"Or do you?"

"Yes, I do! Why are you grilling me so much about my choice?"

"Because if you ordered the combo meal, you woulda save yourself $1.20!"

Zack, Julius, and Cloud were at the Fowler City Mall, talking in front of a fast food restaurant. Julius was behind the counter in a yellow uniform along with a blue apron and cap. Zack stood on the other side of the counter with a bag full of food from the place and Cloud stood with him. The mall was closing for the day and the food court was nearly empty. The other employees of the fast food joint were leaving.

"Fine, have it your way," Julius said.

Zack looked around. "Anyway, we came to check up on you and the job."

"Thanks, Zack. I'm doing--"

An older man in a dress shirt and a name tag labeled "Manager" came from the back of the restaurant. '"GET BACK TO WORK, VLADMIRE! I DON'T PAY YOU TO RUN YOUR YAP!"

"But Mr. Rosendale--"

"IF I WANTED BUTS I WOULD HAVE TAKEN THE JOB AT THE STRIP CLUB! BUT I DIDN'T! GOD YOU AND YOUR GENERATION!"

"...Sir, we just closed."

The manager froze. "Oh yeah, we did. See you tomorrow."

Julius took off his apron and slid over the counter to Zack. "Let's roll, Zack."

The trio exited the food court and Julius started talking. "You gotta get me outta there, guys. I *hate* that job."

"Who would of thought it would be that bad with a name like Golden Palace," Cloud laughed.

"It's temporary, Julius. Just so we can make ends meet for now," Zack added.

"I know, I know. Until we stop Bane and get to go back to normal."

After that, they walked in silence. Since Bane retreated that day 3 months ago, Zack, Julius, and Cloud made a pact to stay together, not just because of Bane and Tifa, but because they were friends. So they put their post-secondary educations on hold, rented an apartment, and got jobs. Zack, Julius, and Cloud entered the apartment, climbed up the steps, and unlocked the door. Zack set his food down on the kitchen counter and took a seat.

"Moving on, then. Bane's been gone. No sightings of him anywhere. In the interim, we shouldn't let up on being ready for him. That's why I propose we dedicate some of our free time to training days.

Julius got up at the sound of training. "Hey, hold on, Zack! Last time we fought Bane, he got his ass handed to him! Sounds like we're all trained up to me."

"Bane's not the only reason we should have them. It's also an opportunity for us to discover more about our powers. We can learn how to control them. Maybe even figure out why we got them in the first place."

"This situation is just like hot dogs. We have the powers, why would we want to know where they came from? Besides, I don't know about you two, but I got my powers under control."

Cloud went to the counter and grabbed the bag from Golden Palace. He took out a drink in a paper cup and sipped some through the straw. "Aw man, it's lukewarm."

Julius smirked and made a finger gun gesture at Cloud's drink. "Allow me, my good man." A blue orb of energy shot out of the tip of his finger and hit the drink. Julius was sent off balance from the recoil of the shot and fell down. Cloud brought his mouth to the straw and drank, but failed to get any liquid into his mouth. The entire drink was frozen solid.

Cloud frowned. "My drink..."

Julius looked away and scratched his head sheepishly. "Heh...alright, maybe you're on to something with this whole training thing."

Zack walked to the door. "I was thinking we start tonight with some conditioning. Something I've been noticing is that after we've used our powers a lot, we get really hungry. After Cloud teleported us to Japan, and me after we took down Bane 3 months ago."

Cloud and Julius followed him. " What do you mean by conditioning," The latter asked.

"Oh, push-ups, sit-ups, *sprinting."*

Cloud smiled at Julius. "Looks like this is payback for freezing my drink, Jolis."

Julius groaned as they walked out the door. "Aw, come on!"

Much later on in the night, Zack and Cloud stood at a water fountain in the city park. Julius was nowhere in sight.

"What a run, huh, Zack?" Cloud said between breaths.

"Yeah, Cloud. Feels nice...to get out and run. For a while, it feels like all your troubles are behind you," Zack responded.

Right behind them, Julius was still running. Once he got to the fountain, he greedily began drinking from it.

"There you are, Julius! Where did you go?" Cloud asked.

"You guys..." He slurped some water. "Gotta slow down. This thing is killing me!"

"Or maybe you gotta speed up. Don't worry, Julius, once your body gets use to this kind of strain, it'll get easier."

"Cloud's right. Now how about we head over to the convenience store and grab some drinks?" Zack offered. Julius and Cloud nodded their heads and the three walked over to a store near the park.

"Now that I think about it, couldn't I just make my own ice water?" Julius pondered as he grabbed an energy drink off the shelf.

"I wouldn't try that until after you can handle those frosty powers better," Cloud said, taking his own drink from the shelf.

The cashier stared at Cloud and Julius with a confused look.

Zack looked concerned. "Hey guys, maybe we shouldn't..."

"It doesn't matter, Zack. No one'll believe us anyway," Julius said nonchalantly. He walked up to the cash register and the cashier scanned his drink, along with Cloud and Zack's.

"That'll be $18.00," The cashier said.

Julius was flabbergasted. "$18.00! For three stinkin' drinks?! That's like..." He paused to calculate the cost in his head. "$6.00 each!"

"$18.00, take it or leave it, vanilla ice," The cashier said, chuckling.

"Man, forget you and your overpriced drinks! For $6.00, I could buy not 1, not 2, but 5 Golden Palace combo meals!" Julius turned to put his drink back.

"Agreed. Damn, now I could go for some Golden Palace. But I gotta stay in shape..." Cloud said as he went to put his drink back as well.

"I'm...gonna go find something cheaper," Zack said, leaving to put his drink back. As he put his drink back on the shelf, he saw something in front of the store. Three men were parking and exiting their truck in the parking lot. This would be normal if not for all of them immediately put on ski masks as they walked towards the sliding door.

"Guys, we might have a problem," He pointed to the door as the men walked in. Julius and Cloud watched as one of the men pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the cashier.

"This is a stick up! Hands where I can see 'em!" He announced. The cashier threw his hands up. One of the other men climbed over the counter and opened up the cash register, pulling out bills and putting them into a bag. The third man turned to the security camera and shot it, then looked at Zack, Cloud, and Julius and pointed his own gun at them.

"All three of you, get over here and put your hands up! No funny business, alright?!" The trio slowly made their way to the man and put their hands up.

Julius turned to Zack. "Hey, Zack, you know those training days you were talking about? Well, I think this is the perfect opportunity for a field test."

"Julius, bullets aren't concussive like Bane's shadow balls. If those hit you, you're more likely than not dead," Zack said.

The man aiming the gun at the three cocked his pistol. "I don't know what you're talking about, but don't be heroes! Don't give me a reason to put some rounds in ya!"

Julius simply grinned in response to the threat. "Don't be a hero?"

"That's what I just said."

"Don't be a hero?" His grin grew.

"Julius, where is this going?" Zack asked.

"Think about what you're about to do, it might just get all of us shot!" Cloud added.

The gunman holding the cashier at gunpoint turned to his partner in crime. "Yo, get him to shut up, man!"

"What's he gonna do, huh?" The other gunman replied cockily.

"Don't...be...a hero?!"

"Yes! What are you, stupid or something?"

"I may not be stupid, but I'm definitely a *HERO*!" With that statement, he made the finger gun gesture at the man aiming the gun at him and a burst of blue energy shot out of his fingertip. The burst got the gunman in his gun hand and ice formed around it.

"AUGH!" He cried out in pain.

The gunman putting the money in the bag turned around and looked at his fallen partner. "How the hell?!"

Zack summoned two crystals and fired them at him. One knocked the gun out of his hand and the other hit him on the head and he went down. The last gunman was shocked, but he still aimed his gun at Julius. "What *are* you creeps?!"

This time, Cloud acted. His eyes were filled with a pink light and he held his head in his hands. Suddenly, a shockwave of pink energy propelled the gunman into the wall. He hit it and fell down.

Zack, Julius, and Cloud looked at their surroundings. One gunman was writhing on the ground in pain, clutching the hand that was encased in a block of ice. Another was on the ground, out cold from a crystal to the head. The last one was unmoving, but breathing. The wall had a crack in it from the impact.

"Hey, uh, guys?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah?" Zack and Julius asked.

"We...we should get outta here," Cloud said.

Zack and Julius nodded in agreement and started towards the door with Cloud. However, Julius returned and ran to the back of the store to grab the drink he wanted. He went to the counter, where the cashier was cowering.

"Can I take this with me? I'm a hero, you know," Julius said matter-of-factly.

"T-t-take whatever you want, just don't hurt me, man!" The cashier said fearfully.

"JULIUS LET'S GO!" Zack and Cloud yelled from outside the store.

"Pleasure doing business with ya, pal!" Julius said before exiting the store and following his friends into the night.

## Trivia

* The episode name is a reference to the name of the second album by the rapper Ludacris.