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


Paragon City was in chaos.

Paragon City was used to chaos.

But even with the high bar set for the city, The Event – a name community consensus was already settling on – would live in infamy.

The one affected the hardest were those who had their powers stripped from them while using them for travel. Several superspeedsters found that velocity was a harsh Mistress indeed. One teleporter was lost in the space between dimensions. And dozens fell out of the sky that day.

Some were flying low enough to survive the impact, and could be tended to. Others were flying high enough that they had the time – and presence of mind – to manually override their med ports to save themselves before they hit the ground. One villain had the fortune to be fleeing a winged hero, who caught him.

Most were not nearly as lucky.

A villain had been walking through a hail of police bullets, confident his invulnerability would protect him.

A hero had been surrounding herself with an air bubble underwater, trying to infiltrate a villain lair.

A shapeshifter had been mid-transformation, leaving him stuck in a grotesque half form that was not biologically viable.

The fallout left the hero response to The Event crippled; not only because most had lost their powers, but because those that were still fully functional were busy saving what they could.

That’s why it took more than 20 minutes to locate the source of The Event and to then assemble a first response Taskforce, consisting of 8 tech-based heroes. They all had some variety of flight capabilities, be it in the form of jetpacks, rocket boots or power armor. They needed it to navigate the canyons of Faultline, but mostly they needed it so they could run away should the source of The Event prove too powerful, and report back what they had seen.

Tech-splosion – no relation to Texplosion, and both of them in a bitter rivalry over who first laid claim to their respective name – activated the camera in his visor, and would be transmitting images back to home base where more heroes were slowly filtering in.

“All right,” he said in a distorted voice, speaking through his helmet. He’d been selected as leader. “Move out.”


***


Shade rubbed her aching throat, breathing in sweet, sweet air.

David sank to his knees beside her, cradling his bleeding arm. She wasn’t sure but she thought she heard a suppressed sob. She swayed as she stood up and tentatively took a step forward, trying to think of something, anything she could say–

Something unseen slammed into her from the side.

And hugged her.


***


Diane held Kara tightly, planning on never, ever letting go again.

She’d been so helpless watching the fight unfold; without her powers she’d only have gotten in the way or, worse yet, could have been actively used against Shade, just like in the hospital.

Kara’s hand buried itself in her hair and pressed their bodies closer.

“You can do better than her.” Amelia’s voice was low and tense.

Kara tensed, muscles growing rigid, and Diane turned her head, gazing at the woman who had saved her.

The villainess was standing with her arms crossed; there was a flickering sheen to the air around her that Diane recognized as her giving off scalding heat. With a start she realized that she, too, now had her powers back.

“Don’t want to,” Diane whispered. “We fit.”

Cinder Snow’s expression was entirely unreadable through her black goggles, but Diane saw her mouth tighten.

“So do we.”

“Once,” was Diane’s gentle answer.

Amelia said nothing. Then she raised her head, seeming to notice something in the distance. Then her lips curled into a sneer. “The cavalry. Took them long enough.” She lowered her gaze again. “They’ll arrest you, Diane.”

“No, they won’t,” snapped Kara.

“Yes, they will,” said Captain Patriot in a weak voice.

“They’ll have to go through me first.”

All around them there was the hum of machinery as they were surrounded. Diane drew back out of Kara’s embrace to survey their surroundings.

Eight heroes were spread around them, all of them pointing some manner of weapon right at Cinder Snow.

Amelia gave them the Queen Elizabeth wave.

“I suppose that concludes my retirement. Pity. I got so much science done.”

Then she ignored them, eyeing Kara with what Diane could only assume was distaste.

“Know this, hero. Hurt her and I will beat you to death with a shark, feed you to my piranhas, grind their molecules into a fine, red mist and then disintegrate them. I am not joking. I will do it. And I have ways of making sure you stay conscious.”

Kara blinked slowly.

“…okay?”

“Cinder Snow,” snarled a distorted voice. It came from an armored man, his folded steampunk wings dwarfing his form. Diane could see the intricate clockwork whirring within. “You’ll pay for what you’ve done today. Surrender!”

“Hush, insignificant one. The important people are talking.”

There was a furious yell and he fired the cannon mounted on his shoulder. It ricocheted off of Amelia’s forcefield, hitting another hero. She barely dodged in time. The rocket brushed her rocket boots, upsetting her balance and sent her careening out of control. Another hero broke from the circle with a curse to go catch her.

“This is why reforming is pointless. See this, Dionaea? Firing rockets at me for saving lives. An ungrateful lot if there ever was one.”

“Saving lives?” The robotic voice manages to sound utterly furious despite being flat and cold. “You killed dozens with your power suppression field.”

“What…?” whispered the Captain, looking up and blinking rapidly. He was swaying dangerously, about to pass out from blood loss.

“Your deductive reasoning skills awe me,” Amelia breathed. “It wasn’t mine, idiots.”

She took a step forward, away from Diane who tentatively and uncertainly stretched out a hand for her. The circle of heroes backed away, tensing.

“Call me when you rediscover your standards, Dionaea. Shade, go die in a fire. Nameless and unimportant heroes – do spread the word.” She smiled. “I’m back in town. And no magic will ever defeat me again.”

Lightning struck as she activated her teleport beacon, leaving behind nothing but a smoking crater.

And then Diane realized she was a lone villain surrounded by very, very angry heroes.


***


“…did she just call one of us Shade?”

Some of the heroes craned their neck in confusion, looking for the infamous vigilante.

Bitch.

Kara gritted her teeth; she had to have used the name on purpose. She suddenly felt Diane tighten her grip on her and she realized what a precarious situation they were in.

“Don’t see him. I think I’d have noticed the creepy vibes.”

“Yes,” Shade said in her best approximation of her old low growl. “Your observational skills are clearly superior.”

Stunned silence.

“Magical accident. Don’t ask.”

“…is that Dionaea you’re holding?”

“Yes.” She arched an eyebrow, daring them to say something, milking her intimidation skills for all they were worth.

There was an awkward shuffling of feet as confusion spread through the heroes. Shade did not make common cause with villains. He could barely bring himself to be polite toward reformed ones.

David chose that moment to pass out, hitting the broken pavement with a thump.

“Fucking hell, his hand,” yelled Tech-splosion and quickly crouched beside him. “What happened here?”

Shade didn’t answer, and just looked down at the unconscious hero. He was so terribly pale. And if they didn’t know it was Amethyst’s work, he had a feeling David would want to keep it that way.

“We got a medic?”

“I got a first aid kit.”

“Why didn’t his med port go off?”

“System’s overloaded.”

“Shouldn’t someone arrest the villain already?”

Cold eyes turned to Diane.

She pushed herself out of Kara’s embrace and straightened her back, raising her chin.

“Out of my way, amateur,” she said to the heroine kneeling over David’s prone form with a bandage.

“Villain, step back, or I won’t be responsible for what I do to you. I have had a really shit day.”

“I am the best fucking healer you’ll ever meet in your life. Now get out of my way and prepare to be awed.”

“Let her,” Shade said.

Most people had to use threats in an if, then, this construction. If you don’t do what I say, then I will do this most unpleasant thing to your various orifices.

Shade didn’t need to. It was implied in just about everything she said.

Ghost Current wisely backed off.


***


Diane raised her head to look at the sky.

It was a bright, sunny day.

She reached for her magic and was glad to find it whole and intact and at her disposal once more.

She knelt over the still form of Captain Patriot. He was important to Kara, she could tell. Diane would mend him to be good as new. She hoped. She had never regrown someone else’s limbs before.

Just to be sure she gathered as much magic as she could.

And the sky lit up with red.


***


Transmitted through the camera lens of the First Response Team, almost all of Paragon saw the villainess Dionaea heal a national icon.


***


Somewhere in Paragon, a mad scientist was clearing out her lair.

She brushed her fingertips along a cage, and sharp bunny teeth snapped at them.

“You’re my only friend now, Sir Fluffington.”