Ch. 1: Not Just Any Puff, Power-Puff

When Aerin was a young girl, she had a competitive streak and simply believed that to make it in this world, she had to be the best of the best. She ran faster than every one else at recess, got perfect scores in every subject, and was the lead singer in choir class. Naturally, all of this success went to her head, and she was as conceited as a child could be.

Alas, the heavens rained down on her parade when she turned 12, though she could remember it as clear as day. She was singing her solo for the school play and before she knew it, kids were fainting and dropping like flies around her while the entire audience fell asleep. Fast forward one day later, and some strange people knocked on her parent's door to whisk her away in a black sedan. At first, she thought she was being sold to the mob, but instead, she arrived at a huge skyscraper in the middle of the city. It was the headquarters of the Heroes Association, and there, the Big Man told her that she was special. But, when Aerin entered the Trainee Academy and was declared a Sidekick, she learned the cold reality that she was nothing compared to the kids of the Heroes class.

Each child that entered the academy received a rank that corresponded with their power. While Heroes had their abilities from Ranks 5-10, and Sidekicks ranked lower, Aerin was the worse of the worse at Rank 1.

Aerin had met Taehyung when they were both 15. At that age, most of the sidekicks had already been chosen by a hero, except for Aerin because the kids looked at her with contempt because of her useless power. Their rationale? "How am I supposed to do my job if she sings me to sleep as well?"

Aerin tried to compensate for her inability by becoming a black belt in three styles of martial arts and excelling in shooting and swordsmanship. Despite her efforts, she could never be as good as someone that was already born super. She was only a teenager, but she had the soul of a spinster cat lady.

Taehyung was a late-bloomer, whose power had just recently awakened. However, rumors had been spread throughout the academy that Taehyung had possessed a Rank 9 power. Aerin remembered when the Big Man called her up to the office to meet the boisterous, handsome boy. Aerin knew that Taehyung was somehow different from the other kids of the Heroes class. Maybe it was because he was new and didn't know how things worked around in the academy or maybe it was his excitement upon finding out her power. "You can put people to sleep by singing?! You're like the Pokémon, Jiggly Puff! I choose you!" He declared eagerly, as if he was Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town.

Regardless of the highest degree of stank face that Aerin gave him for that comment, Taehyung was the first ever Hero that had agreed to take her as his Sidekick so she desperately took the offer. Thus, started Aerin's painful days of being Taehyung's Sidekick, personal secretary, mother figure, older sister figure, alarm clock, and his trusty reminder-binder. Not to mention that Taehyung had no control over his power. Sometimes, he would accidentally conjure force fields and then walk right into them without knowing what he did. All of those head bumps into force fields was probably why he could never remember to turn in homework. Hell, once he accidentally put a force field right in front of where she was walking and it gave her a bloody nose. 

Aerin and Taehyung were the underdogs of the academy. She was a sidekick with a useless power and he was a hero that couldn't control his power. It was a miracle that the Big Man decided to add them to a team. Things got a bit better when they were assigned to be part of Team Bulletproof at age 20, considering that Aerin could count on the older boys of the group to help her deal with Taehyung's antics. 

And that was how Aerin got to this very moment, age 21, being held at gunpoint on a rooftop while wearing a mask and spandex, as Taehyung tried to reason with a hitman from the local drug cartel. The duo had already managed to knock out the rest of the gang, but this one guy snuck up on Aerin. She knew the death of her attention span from all that smart phone use would get back to her one day.

"Don't move or I'll shoot!" The hitman had Aerin held by the throat as he shoved the muzzle of the gun closer to her head, digging into the skin of her temporal lobe. That's gonna bruise tomorrow.

Taehyung had his hands up in the air even though he didn't even have a physical weapon to begin with. He was trying to buy time to think of how he was going to make a force field between Aerin and the hitman. The hitman held Aerin closely from behind and Taehyung wasn't confident that he could materialize anything without hurting her as well.

"Please calm down and kindly let go of Puff." Taehyung politely told the hitman. Aerin rolled her eyes at his attempt to be civil with someone who worked in the drug trafficking business. Where was Jungkook when she needed him? Jungkook and Jimin had been tasked with chasing down the elusive drug lord of the cartel while Aerin and Taehyung were left with taking out the hitmen.

The hitman took a moment to stare blankly at Aerin. "Your name's Puff, little girl? Puwahaha." He started to laugh, breaking the serious life or death mood of the scene, all because of her ridiculous Codename.

"Hey! She's not just any Puff! She's a Power-Puff." Taehyung exclaimed, fury rising underneath his silver-grey Hero's mask. He felt insulted that the villain would mock his girl like that.

Meanwhile, Aerin just wanted to kill the stupid person who decreed that Heroes had the privilege of picking Codenames for their Sidekicks. But Taehyung was definitely V(ery annoying).

"Power-Puff?" The hitman guffawed even harder. Okay, enough of this.

Aerin used the hitman's distraction to her advantage and smacked the back of her head into the hitman's nose. She quickly wrestled the gun away and gave the man a good kick in the gonads. Then, she backhanded the man using the handle of the gun, knocking him unconscious.

Aerin did a hair-flip before stalking off towards Taehyung, who was giving her a standing ovation as if he just saw an box office action blockbuster. This man.

"That's my Puff! Good job!" Taehyung was still clapping like a seal.

Aerin ignored his compliment and stated, "Let's hurry up and find Shade and Golden Boy. I can't wait to head home. I am so sleepy. Plus, we have class tomorrow." Even if being in college was practically useless for them, Aerin still wanted to take it seriously.

Aerin yawned and checked the time on her phone. 11:43 p.m. "By the way, did you ever turn in the paper that's due at midnight?" She gave Taehyung a wary eye.

"We had a paper due at midnight?!" Taehyung was baffled by this fact, as if he had never heard of such atrocity.

"Taehyung, that paper's worth 30% of the grade!" Aerin exclaimed in exasperation. She told him this five times already.

"Oh, does this mean I might fail?" Taehyung asked, a bit nonchalantly.

"Idiot." Aerin muffled her face with her palms.

"Hah! I'll just re-take the course. You're re-taking it with me, right? Remember the rules: whatever the hero does, the sidekick must follow." He reminded her, as if he was the responsible one here.

"I am going to slap you so hard, you'll see stars for days!" Aerin always meant her threats. Always.

"Baby, I see stars every time when I look into your beautiful eyes." Taehyung, who was used to being threatened on a daily basis, waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her.

She raised her hand at him and Taehyung instinctively flinched. "Sorry!" He apologized, but then used his deep bass opera voice and cheekily sang, "What is love? Baby, don't hurt me no more."

Aerin glared at him, very unimpressed. He's a dead man walking.

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Author's Note

Yay for first chapter! It's mostly introduction though. Stay tuned and if you're bored waiting, go read The Misconception. Please comment and subscribe!