The next morning, Danny woke up to the sound of someone banging on his apartment door. He groaned, rolled off the couch, and landed face-first in a puddle of stale beer and yesterday's blood.
"Mr Crashtest! It's me, Kyle! Are you in?!"
Danny sat up. His head was aching like crazy. Hangover.
"Of course it is," he muttered.
He wiped the beer off his face and dragged himself to the door and opened it. Kyle stood there with a backpack, wearing a cheap hoodie with a lightning bolt doodled on the chest. He looked like he was about to audition for a school play.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Danny asked.
"You said if I paid for dinner, you'd think about training me."
Danny rubbed his eyes. "Kid, that was sarcasm."
Kyle shoved past him into the apartment. "I brought snacks. And a business plan." he stopped looking at the mess of a room.
"You should really clean up after yourself," he said.
Danny blinked. "A… business plan?"
Kyle unzipped the backpack, dumping papers, notebooks, and what looked suspiciously like energy drinks onto the coffee table.
"Look—hear me out. With your powers and my brains, we can monetize this whole hero thing. Sponsorships. Brand deals. Product testing. Ironvale could love you, not just… tolerate you."
Danny opened the fridge, grabbed another beer, and popped it open. "Kid, Ironvale doesn't love anyone. The best you get is free coffee until you crash into their store."
But Kyle wasn't listening. He had already taped a sheet of paper to the wall. Big bold letters read:
"PROJECT: CRASHTEST 2.0"
Danny took a sip, watching him blab about the whole thing for what felt like an eternity. For a moment, he felt a flicker of something he hadn't felt in a long time. Annoyance.
But at the same time he felt he could make something out of this. Pass the time. It might be interesting.
"Ok fine. But are you sure you can handle this? There's a lot of pain in hero-ing."
"Of course. Watch this" Kyle pulled out a bat from his backpack and hit it on his head as hard as he could to prove he could "handle pain", The kid collapsed on the floor and was bleeding from his head. Danny couldn't help but smirk.
"Yep," Danny muttered. "He'll fit right in."
A few minutes later Kyle woke up on the couch. His head aching like crazy. Head injury. It took a few seconds for him to remember where he was.
"You're awake.Good," Danny stood in front of him, already dressed in his suit. "Get your things sparkles, we're heading out."
"Where are we going?"
"Hero HQ. You said you wanted to be my sidekick. You'll have to fill out some paperwork." Danny said as he put on his brown leather jacket over his suit.
Kyle was filled with so much joy he felt he was going to explode. He hurriedly got up and shoved his things back in the backpack.
They got out of the building and Danny hailed a cab.
"You're paying." He stated. But Kyle was too ecstatic to object.
Hero HQ looked more like a weird spandex fashion show than a hero organisation. Heroes in different shapes and sizes lounged around the lobby, some in high class costumes and some in cheap homemade knockoffs.
"Wow…" Kyle whispered, eyes darting from a guy with fire for hair to a woman carrying three katanas strapped to her back. "It's like Comic-Con but real."
Danny shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. "Don't stare. They bite."
At one side of the lobby was the complaint desk were a bunch of people who were arguing loudly, making damage complaints as the receptionist was desperately trying to call them down.
They walked up to the registration desk where a bored clerk in a polo shirt looked up from his computer. "Name?"
"CrashTest," Danny muttered.
The clerk typed lazily. "Your check is still being processed. Once we've deducted the payment for property damage it should be cleared."
"Damn." He rubbed his hair. Kyle cleared his throat loudly to remind them of why they were really here.
"Oh yeah. I'm here to register a sidekick." he said.
That actually got the clerk's attention and he stopped typing for a second. He raised an eyebrow at Kyle, who stood stiffly and tried to look taller than he was. "Sidekick, huh? You sure you didn't threaten the kid into this?"
"Hey what's that supposed to mean?" Danny objected.
"You might have done it for the training fund." The clerk narrowed his eyes at him.
"There's a training fund?" Danny asked quite too eagerly.
"I actually volunteered," Kyle clarified.
"And I have powers." He snapped his fingers, and sparks of electricity flickered between them.
"Yea but this guy?!" The clerk jerked his thumb at Danny like he was some terrible entity.
"Hey!" Danny exclaimed.
Kyle nodded.
The clerk barely reacted. "Cute. Fill these out." He shoved a stack of forms at Danny, who passed them straight to Kyle.
Kyle flipped through them eagerly. "Health disclosures, power safety forms, injury liability waivers… wow, they really thought of everything!"
Danny sat in a chair nearby. "No respect for my name after all the hard work," he grumbled.
A couple of boring hours later. Kyle stepped out of the fitting room in his first official suit. It was black and dark blue, sleek but simple, with faint glowing lines tracing across the fabric and a small lightning bolt on the chest. He grinned from ear to ear.
"What do you think?" he asked, striking a pose.
Danny looked him up and down. "…Looks expensive."
Kyle beamed. "It was free! Registered sidekicks get one complimentary suit design!"
Danny smirked faintly. "So basically you're Ironvale's newest intern."
"Alright let's go get something to eat. I know a place where heroes eat free on Tuesdays" Danny said.
Kyle raised his brow. "But today's Wednesday."
"Meh, they'll make an exception". He shrugged.