Of Heroes And Villains

In which a superhero meets his match, masks are uncovered and a mad scientist just tries to get some mad science-ing done without getting distracted by the antics of her magical minion.

Fanart by the talented Ian Samson, creator of City of Reality and artist of The Wotch

Author's Note: I'll be posting a series of small oneshots expanding on the characters a bit before moving on to the proper sequel. Enjoy!

First up: Why did Captain Patriot try to friend Shade so hard?


David is scared.

Scratch that, David is fucking terrified.

Eldritch Eclipse smiles and raises her hand, silver light gathering in her palm to strike him down, like she struck down his teammates. They are lying scattered to his feet, broken and defeated. And now he is next.

He can’t move. Why won’t his legs move?

Everyone expected him to lead, just because he wears this costume. Just because his father is Captain Patriot, the greatest Hero of all time. As if David has any idea what he’s doing.

He’s only been a hero for two months.

Her hand comes down and that terrible blinding light is racing toward him.

And then something slams into him from the side, and the light gets swallowed by darkness. Vertigo envelops him and suddenly he is elsewhere, stumbling, his knees buckling.

“Learn to dodge,” a deep voice snaps.

David never has to dodge. Everything just slides off his impervious body.

His shoulder is burning. Eldritch Eclipse had landed a hit there, and the skin is red and blistered. Is this pain? It has to be.

David slowly raises his head and stares at his savior.

Nobody has ever snapped at him before. They all just worship the ground he walks on. Well, the ground the boots of his father walk on.

“Who are you, dude?”

The man draws his black hood deeper over his face.

“I am Shade. And now listen close, newbie.”

And then follows a long, long lecture about why frontal assaults are a terrible idea. How to distract a villain by getting them to monologue. Why you should always dodge, even if you’re invulnerable, because you never know what nasty side effects that energy ray can have.

David listens eagerly. No one has ever just sat him down and given him such basic beginner tips and tricks. They all just assumed he knew.

And then Shade lays out his plan to save David’s teammates.


***


They save the day.

His teammates slap him on the back, congratulating him on being just like his father.

David cranes his neck and looks for Shade, but he is gone, vanished into his shadows.


***


David runs into Shade a couple more times over the next few weeks. He may be going out of his way to run into him.

Shade gets so annoyed at his presence.

It’s wonderful.

David can’t help but laying it on really thick, just to hear that exasperated sigh. But no matter how annoyed, Shade never gets truly mean. He’ll just give quiet snarky responses, revealing a dry dark humor David quite likes. Sometimes he’ll just up and teleport away in the middle of their conversation.

Nobody else ever takes that tone with David. He loves it. He is so tired of the hero worship. He hasn’t earned it.


***


David finds out that Shade is dating Dazzling Dawn, who belongs to the Tenacious Teens, a supergroup of teenage heroes who are now young adults, making their supergroup name a bit of a relic.

So he starts hanging out with them a little more. They are delighted to have a living legend among them, giving their low-profile group quite a bit of status. David can’t be sure, but he has the feeling Shade is rolling his eyes under that hood at their reaction to him. David agrees.

David notices that Shade always stands apart from the others. The only one he really talks to is Dawn.

In fact, David doesn’t know of any heroes who are friends with him.


***


Shade and Dawn break up, and then Shade stops hanging out with the Tenacious Teens.

They don’t seem to miss him at all.

So when they are out drinking one night at the E, David prods them a little about their thoughts on the taciturn vigilante.

“Shade, man!” Texplosion laughs, his southern drawl especially pronounced when he is drunk. “Good riddance. He is a freak.” He shares a knowing look with Dawn, who fidgets uncomfortably. “Get this, he told Dawn that…”

There is the distinct sound of an energy projectile being fired, and Tex shuts up, wincing. Dawn glares.

David frowns. “Shade’s a good guy,” he offers tentatively.

“He is cold,” says PsyKick in a soft voice.

“Yeah, Shade has all the warmth of a freeze ray.”

“And has just about its sense of humor.”

David balls his fists under the table and says nothing. Then he gets up under the pretense of getting more drinks. As he stands at the counter, silently fuming, PsyKick comes up to him.

“He is not a good person, you know.”

David turns around and frowns at the psychic hero.

“I catch glimpses of his mind sometimes.” PsyKick fidgets uncomfortably; they all know that his powers sometimes invade their privacy without him meaning to, but they generally don’t talk about it. “It’s… not a good place. A lot of rage, a lot of hate. I tried talking to him a little, we all have, but he just shuts us down, even Dawn. He wears Psy-Blockers now.”

“Shade’s a good guy,” David repeats, wishing that he were eloquent, that he could put his thoughts into words. Shade is kind, in his way. He is never cruel to David, even though he can tell that he dislikes him. And his sense of humor is fine; it’s just very subtle.

“Shade is going to snap one day.” PsyKick’s voice is so very gentle, and that makes it worse. “He hates villains so much, it’s not healthy. I wouldn’t want to be near him when it happens.”

David sputters. Shade, a fallen hero? No. Yes, his loathing of villains goes far and beyond what is normal. Yes, he is a little rougher with the criminals he apprehends. Okay, yes, it sometimes borders on homicidal violence.

But…

But.

Shade just needs a friend.

And at that moment Captain Patriot decides that he is going to be that friend.