NOT a Super Hero

**Not a Super Hero** is the first chapter of the Ray Fox comic. It introduces Raymond Fox as the vigilante of Meva City, Blaze, in his attempts to be a respectable superhero.

## Plot

The story begins at 1 AM on Friday, at the Meva Isle Arsenal. The Port Town Gang, a group of mercenaries who specialize in high tech, steal something from the Arsenal, taking out the guards in the process. Before they can escape, they are met by Blaze, who takes all of them out with martial arts (while having a cold). As Blaze trash talks the Port Town Gang, Halberd, the leader of the group, shoots an energy beam to one of the guards. Blaze protects the guard by summoning fire from his hands. The clash of beams creates an explosion that destroys the Arsenal, which Halberd and his group exploit to run away.

The next morning, at Jak's Fitness Gym, Jak is punishing Ray for exploding the Arsenal and letting the Port Town Gang escape. Liz, Ray's older step sister, enters the office and tells Jak to lower his volume unless he wants the gym to find out about Ray's identity. As Ray and Jak keep arguing, Jak tells Ray that his days as Blaze are over because of his irresponsibility. Ally, a close friend of the group enters the office, wondering what's happening. Liz asks Jak to leave the office while she talks to Ray about the incident.

Upon leaving, Liz starts asking Ray about what happened at the Arsenal while checking his condition. As Liz is checking up Ray's condition, she calls him out for his lack of responsibility, bringing up incidents where his fire powers caused trouble for him and those around him. Ray concedes with Liz's point, but voices his desire to do better next time. He brings up a magazine featuring Jessica Castle, the number one Meta on the planet. Ray wants to be like her, but he believes he won't achieve that dream if he gives up on being Blaze like Jak believes he should do. After a pep talk from Liz (and a bunch of kisses on the cheek) Jak intrudes, ruining the moment.

Meanwhile, at the Meva Railway, Halberd is enraged at Liev, their client, for only giving them half of the agreed payment for stealing the cremators. Liev reasons that he gave Halberd half the payment because of his inability to bring the cremators to him without being discovered. Halberd counters by pointing out Blaze's interference, citing that he was a neo-mutant who stopped him and the gang, catching Liev's attention.

Liev offers to pay the Port Town Gang the rest of the money if they catch Blaze. Halberd responds by threatening Liev with a gun, demanding his payment. Liev then uses his Rein Breaker hammer to easily defeat Halberd. As Liev threatens the gang, he loses his cool when his underlings point out that Liev's lion mane grew again, causing the lion to shout in anger. After calming down, Liev orders the Port Town Gang to capture Blaze so that he can show them how to kill a neo-mutant.

The next day, at Meva Heights, in the Diva Square Apartments, Liz wakes up and is shocked to discover that she and Ray are late for gym work. She wakes up Ray, who spent the whole night researching the Port Town Gang. Ray refuses to go to the demo since he's exhausted from the all nighter he pulled. Liz exploits Ray's crush on Ally to get him to come, causing Ray to recover his energy and go with her to meet Jak.

As the trio is driving around Meva City, Jak scolds Liz and Ray for waking up late. Liz complains about not getting to shower, as she doesn't want to greet the new district attourney while being sweaty because it brings bad connotations on account of her being a skunk. Ray gets interested when she brings up Khali Spencer and Natasha Blacke as being the bodyguards of the new district attourney. Upon arriving to the gym, Ray notices an article about Blaze. Liz accidentally reveals to Jak that Ray spent the whole night researching criminals. As Jak goes to scold Ray for wanting to continue being Blaze, he snatches his computer and is shocked at Ray being called an arsonist by the media. Angry and hurt at this poor reception, Ray storms out, leaving Jak to feel guilty.

Meanwhile, the Port Town Gang are resting in their hideout. Halberd is enraged at the bruise he got from Liev's hammer. Boony, his second in command, suggests capturing Blaze for Liev's offer, but Halberd is outraged at the idea of obeying him, since that means making the Port Town Gang look weak. Wasp, the research of the group, then proposes they kidnap Jason Morales, the attorney of Meva City, as he was a litigator of the Cremator Weapon Project. Wasp proposes they capture Morales to get information on the project to blackmail Liev. Wanting to get back at the lion, Halberd orders the Port Town Gang to move out.

Back at the gym, Jak is showing a demonstration of his Black Boxing fighting style by making two of his best students spar in the ring. He explains that Black Boxing was created twenty years ago, with Jak being one of the first students. He passed out his art to five students (not including Liz). Jak stops his explanation to greet Morales and his bodyguards, who questions the utility of Black Boxing in stopping Blaze, pointing out that the so called arsonist has been on the loose for three months.

One of the visitors, points out that the last trainee that Jak mentioned is not there. Jak then reveals that Ray is the last student he has, referring to the fox as his best student , calling him a prodigy who learned the technique when he was 10 years old. Everyone is disbelieving of Ray's fighting prowess, pointing out that he looks weak. Morales points out that it's impossible for Ray to be the strongest mammal in the room, pointing out that he has two Meta bodyguards and there is a yak in the room.

Jak then challenges anybody to land a single blow on Ray, offering 500 bucks as a reward. Ray is initially against the idea, but he can't bring himself to quit when Jak points out that Ally is present among the witnesses. Ray is fighting a huge yak as an opponent. Despite the size difference, Ray easily dodges the yak's attacks and gets the upper hand against him. Feeling confident, Ray is ready to defeat his downed opponent. However, his emotions caused him to set the yak's crotch on fire. Ray tries to turn off the fire without being noticed, but the yak uses this chance to sucker punch him, winning the challenge and humiliating Ray.

Outside of the gym, the Port Town Gang is waiting for Morales to come out. Meanwhile, Ray and Liz are talking about the demo. Liz blames herself for what happened at the demo, believing Ray's powers were off balance since he saw the article. Ray states that Jak put him on the ring because he felt bad for him, and Ray still didn't refuse because he wanted to show everyone how strong he was. With all of the emotional baggage hindering his performance, Ray starts believing that Jak was right at him not being ready to be a hero.

Morales and his bodyguards leave the gym, talking about the demo. Khali believes that Ray was an interesting fighers, which annoys Natasha because Ray lost. As the two are about to argue about it, Khali attacks a news reporter, who turns out to be Tang from the Port Town Gang. The lights turned out and Khali is suddenly attacked by Boony. As Natasha tries to defend Khali, she is attacked with an energy blast from Tang. Halberd uses the commotion to capture Morales.

Back at the tower, Ray and Liz noticed Halberd kidnapping Morales. Liz tries to motivate Ray to save Morales, but Ray feels disheartened by the day's events. Jak arrives and gives Ray a motivational speech, pointing out that Ray is capable of doing goods despite his mistakes by reminding him that he saved a guard from being killed the prior day. As Jak leaves, he tells Ray that the Port Town Gang took Morales to the east bound train, telling Ray that he already knows where the train goes to intercept them.

Natasha manages to defeat Tang by using her gun, disrupting a EMP that prevented Khali from using his Iron Rhino armor. He goes to the east bound train, where Halbered is interrogating Morales about the cremators. As Halberd keeps demanding information, Khali arrives and starts overwhelming Boony and Wasp. Knowing that he can't defeat Khali in a fair fight, Halberd slices the train into pieces. Khali manages to hold the train to prevent the passengers from falling to their deaths, but this leaves him vulnerable to Halberd's attacks.

Before Halberd can attack him with his energy whips, Ray arrives as Blaze, throwing his bike at Halberd to stop his attack. Halberd and Boony prepare to fight Blaze together, but Boony is easily defeated with a fire blast. As Blaze throws a fire blast at Halberd, the weasel deflects it with his whips, accidentally slicing part of the bridge, which makes the passengers feel endangered by him. Determined to prevent more innocents from getting hurt, Blaze directly grabs Halberd's whips to stop him.

To everyone's surprise, Blaze is still alive from grabbing the energy whips. Blaze theorizes that he survived because his flames grew hotter than the whips when he grabbed them. Now that he knows he's stronger than Halberd's weapons, Blaze easily defeats the criminal with a powerful fire punch that takes him out. With Halberd defeated, Blaze leaves the scene, allowing the police to arrest Halberd and Boony. Morales shows up to thank Khali for saving him and the passengers. Khali feels conflicted, wanting to tell Morales that it was Blaze who saved him, but he can't bring himself to say anything about it.

Back at the gym, Ray is annoyed that the media gave Khali and Natasha credit for saving everyone while he was slandered as jeopardizing the safety of everyone present. Though angry at the reception he got, Ray resolves to be better, stating that he doesn't care about his reputation as long as people are safe. Jak and Liz leave Ray alone to clean the gym, leaving him alone to have time with Ally. As the two of them are cleaning up, Ray accidentally burns Ally's skirt, much to his embarrasment and Ally's panic.

Back in his lair, Liev is angry at how things turned out. Though his underlings propose killing Halberd and Morales, Liev opts to follow the plans set up for him. He decides to spare Halberd because he already played his part. That being said, he decides to get revenge on Blaze, as the neo-mutant tarnished his plans twice in a row. He orders his men to prepare the weapons for tomorrow, promising that Blaze will die. The chapter ends with Liev watching a picture of an unmasked Blaze, revealing that Liev figured out Ray's identity and is coming after him soon.

## Trivia

* Due to Scotty improving his art over the years, there are notable differences in character designs.
	+ Liz has a more humanoid face than usual.
	+ Amber and Ruby look different than normal, with Amber having her eyes open instead of closed.
	+ Ray, Liz, Jak, and other random characters wear shoes in contrast to being barefoot with straps.

* Boony has the classic Yamcha Pose after being defeated by Ray.
* Ray makes a reference about Batman when fighting the Port Town Gang.