Jess Hedfan

**Jess Hedfan** is the main protagonist and narrator of the Hidden Heroes series.

## Biography

### Early Life

#### Before the Accident

Jess Hedfan was born in San Diego, California. He comes from a modest family.

In kindergarten he befriended Josh Turner and Sophie, and remained best friends with them ever since. They were at school together ever since, and they usually hung out to the pier together.

During his childhood and early teenage years, Jess used to go on adventures with his father. They hiked to base camp of Mount Everest, snowboarded in Canada, or trekked through Minnesota, but his favourite memory was when he was around fourteen during spring break, when they canoed down Zambezi River and encountered a hippo. Instead of being scared, his father was fascinated, and therefore it was impossible for Jess to be scared.

#### Skydiving

After begging his parents, he was offered to pass his skydiving license for his sixteenth birthday. With his father, he went through a week long course of several lessons, and time came to make their first solo jump before getting their license. When they jumped, Jess' parachute opened, but his father's didn't. He fell all the way to the ground and died before his son's eyes. Jess was the first one to be by his side when he landed.

Afterwards, Jess developed PTSD and a severe fear of heights, unbeknownst to his friends.

#### After the Accident

After the death of her husband, Jess' mother was forced to work to be able to pay the bills. Since he was still in his sophomore year, Jess couldn't help by working full-time, and his mother refused to let him work past-time so he could focus on school.

Three months after the accident, his friends Josh and Sophie started dating, and Jess felt like a third wheel around them.

Six months after the accident, in the beginning of June, Jess spent two weeks home, avoiding both his friends and school. But, after being quickly convinced by his mother, he followed Josh and Sophie to the pier. After Josh and Sophie illegally jumped from the pier, a police officer apprehended them. To punish Jess for "abandoning" them, Josh and Sophie decide to film him while they throw him off the pier. Despite his asking to not do it and his screams, Josh did it anyway, and threw him off the pier. But instead of falling into the water, he stopped mid-fall and floated a few feet from the water. Josh tried to convince him he should embrace it and become a "superhero", but Jess decided to act as if nothing happened.

But, as he woke up in the middle of the night the next day, he opened Instagram and realised Josh had posted the video of him flying. He watched it over and over again for several hours, before finally going to school. Despite wanting to confront Josh about the video, he couldn't get a hold of him, and after second period, Josh and Sophie explained to him that people from the government had questioned them about the video Josh posted. Jess decided to rush back home to check on his mother, but the people from the government were already there.

After unsuccessfully trying to sneak around his house to watch what was going on, he was introduced to a man he nicknamed Crew Cut. He confronted Jess about the video Josh posted, and, after Jess tried to lie and tell that the video was only CGI, Crew Cut promptly explained to him that he'd be taken to the Academy to learn to use his power. Jess refused and tried to send them away, but as he walked to his mother's room, one of the guards shot him to the neck with a tranq.

### The Academy

#### First Steps into the Academy

Jess spent one or two days asleep and woke up in one of the welcome rooms of the Academy. There he met Alex Tenner