[ WP ] Every aspiring superhero must become a sidekick for a few years before being granted full time hero status . You are the strongest superhero in your age group , but believe you have been assigned to the weakest hero . You learn a lot more than you originally thought you would .

He does n't even notice as I walked towards the man's rotund back on top of the stool. No clairvoyance? Or is this a test? 
 
 `` Oh hey!'' He turns as his eyes meet mine with smile bigger than his face. `` You're here!'' He grunts as he stood using his hands `` Just fixing the good old missile glove, nobody uses missile anymore, now it's all about the ion beamers! I'm Tom!'' My hands shake his scarred hand, dirty with oil, as I scanned his project with my xray vision. An inductive coil is misaligned. An easy feat for my magnepathy, top of my class. Test 1, passed. 
 
 He notices. `` Wow you're sharp, took me all afternoon, you do n't miss a beat, do yah?''. `` No sir, never been put on my back, sir'' I answered. My super strength has yet to be trumped. 
 
 `` Oh right, let's try this now.'' He sweats and breaths heavily. 
 
 Tom puts his hand snugly into the missile glove and puts on safety goggles. `` Really? Safety goggles?'' I thought to myself, `` there's actually nothing going on for this guy.'' 
 
 I raise my impenetrable energy field. He unlocks the missile safety, and aims it at a poorly drawn target on a cardboard box. He awkwardly smiles, `` I know I'm not the best artist, but it gets the job done.'' Wow. I'm stuck with this guy. He triggers the missile glove and I brace for the shockwave. Instead, the missile duds from the glove. I hear a pop, and the glove smokes up. Tom touches it and an arc fries the rest of the electronics. 
 
 `` My past seven years of work, done. Oh well back to drawing board.'' 
 
 `` This guy is pathetic,'' I thought. 
 
 Behind me I hear a crash. It's Malco, my rival. Even superheroes like to spar each other. He never won, though. He got assigned to Devastator, strongest superhero of Tom's class. I see him wearing some new gear. He charges up his ionic laser and aims it at me. This wo n't hurt me, it barely tickles my superhuman defenses. Malco knows this. We've done this a million times. 
 
 As the laser hits my chest, what shouldve felt like a raindrop, hits me like a ton of hammers. I'm blown back as the warehouse zooms away and I land butt first onto Tom's cardboard target. Impossible. What happened? Malco cackles, `` finally got you!'' and flies away. I'm outraged. Was it Devastator's Amplifier Ring he was wearing? It's not fair. Why am I stuck with a mentor who's powerless. Malco's been secretly training. He had an advantage. He had... 
 
 Tom hobbles towards me with the same smile bigger than his face. 
 
 `` Never been put on your back, huh? That's your first for yah.'' 
 
 I stare. 
 
 `` How was your fall?'' He offers me his scarred hand, no cleaner than before. 
 
 I have no decent answer. 
 
 `` You're going to keep sitting on your ass? Lesson one. You learn to get up. Again and again. Come on, you fell. So what? Get up and face rest of the day.'' 
 
 I take his scarred, oil slicked hand, amazed by the power of this guy.
