The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism

Chapter 305: 305 | Percy Is Home [PS BONUS]

"She currently operates as an independent hero at Rank C in Portland. She has not recovered her previous ranking and likely never will, because agencies in the Portland market are aware of her management history and refuse to affiliate with her. When you burn your reputation in this industry, you burn your career. The market remembers."

Castillo returned to her end of the table and picked up her mug. The gesture felt deliberate, as if she were giving the room time to absorb the point before she moved forward.

"The hero you become depends on the agency that supports you. The agency that supports you depends on the contracts it negotiates, the insurance it carries, the sponsors it maintains, and the internal compensation structures it establishes. None of these things are glamorous. All of them are essential. This course teaches you to understand the machinery that keeps heroes operational, because heroes who do not understand the machinery become its casualties. Some of them loud casualties with property damage lawsuits. Others quiet casualties who realize at thirty-five that their agency has been taking forty percent off the top for ten years and they have nothing to show for it."

She sipped her coffee.

"I am here to prevent both outcomes."

"Now. Page two of your folders contains a simplified agency budget template. You have fifteen minutes to identify three structural vulnerabilities in the budget and propose solutions. Work in pairs. I don’t care how you pair up. I care about the quality of your analysis."

The room reorganized. Percy had already opened the budget template before Castillo finished her sentence, his pen moving across the page with a speed that suggested Analyze had identified all three vulnerabilities in the first four seconds and Percy was now trying to decide which order to present them in. I leaned over to look at his work.

"Insurance premiums are twenty-three percent of total expenditure," Percy said without looking up. "Industry standard for a mid-tier agency with six heroes is between fifteen and eighteen percent. The excess represents either inflated premiums from a claims history that suggests frequent property damage or a broker who is overcharging because the agency failed to shop competitive rates."

"That’s one."

"The equipment allocation line item has no depreciation schedule. They’re treating gear replacement as a lump-sum annual expense rather than amortizing costs over the expected lifespan of individual items. This creates artificial budget spikes in years when multiple heroes need simultaneous upgrades."

"Two."

"And the hero compensation structure uses flat rates rather than performance-scaled incentives. A hero resolving thirty cases per quarter receives the same base compensation as a hero resolving twelve. This destroys motivation and rewards mediocrity."

Percy set his pen down and looked at me with brown eyes that held none of their usual anxiety. In moments like this, surrounded by structured problems with quantifiable solutions, Percy wasn’t nervous. Percy was home.

"Three," I said.

"Three." He nodded.

Around the table, other pairs worked through the same exercise with varying degrees of success. Caden and Marco appeared to be having a genuine argument about whether equipment depreciation constituted a vulnerability or a feature. Marco insisted that replacing gear on a fixed cycle prevented heroes from clinging to outdated technology. Caden countered that forced replacement schedules wasted money on heroes whose gear still functioned perfectly.

Felicity leaned across her partner, a student named Finn whose threads were conspicuously absent from his casual demeanor, and pointed at something in the budget with enough conviction that Finn’s lazy posture actually straightened. Whatever she’d spotted had substance.

Nyx worked with Maribelle in their usual formation of complementary silence and commentary. Nyx identified numbers while Maribelle provided the contextual analysis that made the numbers meaningful. Her golden eyes scanned the budget with the attentiveness of someone whose entire family ran small businesses and understood what thin margins actually meant. When you grew up watching your parents negotiate vendor contracts, you learned to read a balance sheet like a survival document.

At the far end of the table, Camille and Theo bent over a shared copy with the intensity of two people who treated every assignment like a ranked competition. Camille’s pen moved with quick, decisive strokes. Theo provided the broader perspective that Camille’s competitive tunnel vision sometimes missed. They worked well together. Two people who ran at full intensity found natural rhythm when the intensity aligned in the same direction.

Petra’s setup was predictable in its precision. Leather planner open beside her budget template, handwriting that looked like it came from a calligraphy seminar taught by spreadsheets. She worked alone because she didn’t need help. Her parents ran both an agency and a hero-tech company. This exercise was probably something she’d practiced with her mother’s accountants before she started high school.

Castillo moved between tables, reading over shoulders without offering anything useful. Her expression stayed neutral regardless of what she was seeing. Some instructors used silence strategically. Others just enjoyed watching students sweat.

When she stopped behind our table, Percy’s pen slowed but didn’t stop. I kept my posture casual. The Oracle Feed tracked Castillo’s position in my peripheral awareness without requiring direct eye contact. She was reading Percy’s notes. Then mine. The pause extended slightly longer than it should have if she was just confirming we were actually working.

Her attention shifted to Percy.

"Mendoza. Your insurance analysis assumes a claims history driving premium inflation. What if the premiums are inflated not by claims but by the agency’s risk classification based on Aspect types?"

Percy’s pen stopped for exactly one second.

"Certain Aspect classifications carry higher actuarial risk regardless of individual claims history," he said. "Explosive types. Fire types. Structural manipulation types. An agency with multiple high-risk Aspects would face elevated premiums even with a clean record because the insurance model prices expected damage rather than documented damage."

Castillo’s lips curved. Not a smile. Something closer to professional satisfaction at encountering competence she didn’t have to spoon-feed.

"Good. Factor that into your revised analysis."