100,000 things were going through my head. Now he knows. Now my school will know. My parents would know. The world knows. My brother knows. FUCK.

I absorbed Noorman’s blood and forced Jake to the roof, even though he couldn’t move. The club was a dead zone, with some people crawling or hiding, with some bleeding out. I took some of the blood to use it for healing.

When I reached the roof, I put down Jake. Jake crawled the ball. He tried to move away, which meant Alica’s power wore off. But he stopped and turned around.

“You just killed someone, Louis,” yelled Jake. “Who the fuck is Louis? And they were rival gangs I had to deal with. Now if you shut the fuck up, tell me what they were doing.” I changed my voice pitch, so it sounded like a gangster.

“I don’t know, I just wanted drugs, man. Please, don’t kill me, Louis,” He was persistent. What a fucking annoying idiot. Got to make him run away. I don’t care if he knows. The only person he would tell is Diego, but both are sheep who won’t tell shit. Like he gonna do shit.

I made a blood blade and pointed at Jake, then he moved back. “Listen, you fuckin retard. You don’t accuse any villain of their identity,” I lightly cut him on the chest with a piece of clothing falling off and then he ran away back into the club.

Geez, I didn’t want to do that, but he forced me to. I also need a voice change or the heroes can do a voice recognition test. What a pain in the ass now I’m tired as fuck. Still can feel the pain but luckily I’m ok for now.

I got down through the fire escape and entered the alley, where I saw police cars and heroes, as well as heard talking but couldn’t make it out. Looked around the alley where I saw people slumping on the ground, bleeding. I walked around to take some of the blood for later, but people screamed. “BLOOD VILLAIN!” assholes

I sprinted for my life. Dealing with the heroes would be the worst thing to deal with. I looked around for any escape route. “HEY STOP.” I kept running. I looked down at the end of the alley and saw the police at the end. Who was coming closer to me, then I saw a building have an open door.

I dashed into the building. In the building was another empty club, but three heroes standing on the main floor. I recognized one of them from the first encounter: Vivio. Then I looked behind me to find Wavist. I fought some of them in my first encounter, which is not good as all of them likely know, and told the other two what my power and my weakness are.

I recognized the new heroes who recently joined Energy Knight and Rockheart. Energy Knight wore metal-like armor all over his body while Rockheart looked like a rockstar out of a band but with special equipment like an electric guitar and mini microphones. The two new heroes captured me, but I never fought them, so I don’t know the fullest extent of their powers.

Then I heard the emergency sprinkler go off. It was a trap. I had no way out of this. I was too weak to fight and couldn’t use my ability unless it was in liquid form. Absorbing the water wasn’t an option either, since the water was constantly hitting me. If I didn’t escape, they would capture me and who knows what they would do to me?

“Surrender, you have nowhere to go, Blood.” I heard Wavist say. Only got one option, hand to hand. I wasn’t a master at hand-to-hand combat, but my uncle taught me the basics. Now I haven’t tried to coat my arms and legs with blood on the inside because that could cause clotting, which could kill me. It was my only choice. I shaped the blood into a hexagon structure to make sure every hit counts and maximize the damage. I wasn’t the smartest person alive, but I knew hexagon shapes had the most equal force output, and if this worked, I could escape.

“I know, but I can’t. Heroes are just frauds. Only paid for their job. Surrendering to them is a sign of weakness.” I said.

“Prepare everyone,” right after Wavist said that I Jumped at Rockheart as she is the most dangerous here because of her sleep ability, but Energy Knight tried to block it. “Hurry, put him to sleep,” he said.

However, before she started, my punch broke through it and hit Rockheart. I heard some of her ribs crack. Even if the punch had less impact, it was over as she flew across the floor. Then Energy Knight attempted to punch me but I reacted to it and kicked him hard in the chest, breaking his armor which also made him slide across the floor into a wall where I heard a small crash, and then Vivio trapped my legs in dance floor tiles which I tried to get out of but before I could Wavist shot a water blast, which I blocked with my arms.

The force of the water broke the concrete and pushed me back and I nearly collapsed, and though I blocked it, it wasn’t good enough. I still took damage and was out of breath. “I don’t know how he is using his blood. So restrain him quickly,” I heard Wavist.

Then I felt my body was sinking. I looked down to see it going into the ground. “You fucking bastard, I’m going to make you drown,” I heard Vivio. It was her power. If this kept up, I might lose. I tried to get out, but Wavist shot another water, and I tilted my head to the side. Then I got an idea. If water can hurt people if shot at high speeds, then blood can do the same and it is much more dense.

I put my arm up and shot a wave of liquid blood, however; they ducked down, and then I saw the effects it had as I saw some concrete falling apart. Distracted, as their power stopped temporarily, allowing me to break out of the concrete.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I heard Rockheart singing, which caused me to cover my ears quickly to avoid being put to sleep, but this made Rockheart pull out mini speakers and blast me away with vibrations. I felt excruciating pain throughout my entire body. Rockheart had broken through all my defenses and ruptured my eyes, ears, bones, and organs. I shot blood at high speeds which hit Rockheart causing her to fall to the ground bleeding.

My surroundings were looking blurry. I closed my eyes to focus and tried to get to the blood, as my vision wasn’t reliable anymore. Regeneration wasn’t an option until I got that blood. Then I felt something similar. The presence of that weird crystal. Then I heard Vivio's thoughts. “change the mass to a fist and send it to the villain,”

I dodged out of the way and then heard a crash. It felt weird. Like I could read her ideas. Then I try to look for a way out of this fight. Then I ran towards that exit that I could hear Wavist thoughts. “Create a mini tsunami and direct it towards the villain.”

I couldn’t dodge but I managed to absorb some of the blood before the water hit me. I crashed into something. Don’t know what though, but it fucked with my sense as the voice and thoughts went away. Then the pain came, and it was terrible. “Capture him, he is down,” I heard it, but that made me decide to regenerate my eyes, as it was the only thing I could do.

I was on the ground. My hand touched the concrete. This made me realize I wasn't on the dance floor. I changed and deactivated all my internal blood and put it towards healing. Then I got up and ran, knowing I was outside. At this point, I was running on the adrenaline. However, I felt a bullet hit me, but I kept going. I ran until I could run no more. I didn’t know how long it was. Time wasn’t a concern. I didn’t know if I was going to die or not. The closest thing that I could describe to this event was when I got them.

***

It was like any normal day: wake up, go to school, work at the cafe, then go home. Then start hell all over. It was a simple life besides knowing that blue and purple crystals spawn out of thin air, giving people superpowers. Though rare, most abilities are not powerful unless you know how to use them. It made life 100 times harder as every day as anyone can be a victim of superhumans. How ironic. It happened at work around the end of the shift as I remembered it being dark outside.

“Hello, how may I take your order?” I said. The hero in front of me was Dasher. He was a speedster, but cocky. Nothing noticeable, just a registered hero doing his job. “Oh, I would have a cup of coffee with two cubes of sugar, and you make it dashy... get it”

I cringed at his stupid pun. Like can heroes stop doing these dumb fucking puns. “Hey, I need a cup of coffee with two sugar cubes and quickly because it’s a hero,” I said to my coworker, Imani. She was just my coworker, but sometimes her stupid friends come in and annoy me.

“Uh, what’s with the heroes today?” she said. Then I remember Dasher saying, “Wow, your coworker sure is a handful,” and then he sat down looking at his phone.

The cafe was quiet today even at 6:00 PM. I was almost finished with my shift, but of course, it couldn’t be that easy.

Then I saw four people enter. They looked like typical hood gangsters. I looked at the hero to see him pay attention to them. They walked up to me.

“Yo, is Imani here?” one of them said. “Why, she is working now,” I said.

Then I remembered Imani came out with Dasher’s drink and said. “Nigga, why are you here right now?”

“come on, I came to see my baby girl,” The other guys hyped him up like he won something. “Hey!” I looked behind me and saw my boss Clara come out.

“If you are not going to order something, then get out, and Imani don't say the n-word in the establishment,” she said. I don’t know about this shit, but I remember hearing rumbles. This should have been a warning sign of danger. However, I was oblivious.

“What are you yapping about, white bitch?” I remembered hearing one of the other members say. “Ok, time to settle down,” I remembered Dasher saying.

“My bad, we will take our leave...” then I remembered hearing a loud band, not like a gunshot more of a mini explosion, We all turned to see destruction, and that was when I knew, we were going to all die.

“GET DOWN, IT’S A VILLAIN,” after those words, Dasher disappeared as he vanished in the blink of an eye as we felt the boom. However, not even a second later, we were hit with an explosion.

I remember feeling the shock wave and seeing everyone get blasted back.

I recall looking around with blurred vision and then seeing the gangsters dead. My blood was all over my face and clothes like a tomato. My mind was on horror, but I couldn’t let it get the best of me. Everyone heard about these stories of villain attacks all the time, but it was a different level of nightmare fuel to see it happen in person.

“AHHHH, COME ON. DON'T DIE ON ME FOR THIS,” I remembered Imani leaning on the ground crying with blood all over her body, Clara on the ground bleeding out; She tried to say something but vomited blood.

“Come on Imani, let...” I remembered it. My arm was gone. The pain was immense. I opened and yelled in agony as my body felt like shit. Imani looked at me with wide eyes and with one bleeding.

I remember the thoughts of death. Then I remembered this wave of power rushed to my thoughts, ideas, and memories. It felt like all my trauma, pain, and suffering were put into one core thought and produced something new as I felt my mind having an earthquake.

My body felt like it was going through a new form or a new transformation. Then I remember the feeling natural as the surrounding blood absorbed into me as I felt the pain going away. I recall my arm growing slowly in real-time with the muscle, bone, arteries, and skin regenerated, but then I recall losing the power and I felt my blood was disappearing.

When I was done, my body felt it was reborn. My pain was gone, only fatigue remained. But I remembered hearing voices. Voices of pain, suffering, and death of all my memories.

I looked to see that all the blood was gone, with Imani now looking at me with her mouth open.

“Y-you got powers,” I remembered her words. “come on, we need to get out... now,” I said, trying to grab her, but she resisted.

Now looking back on it, I now understand that people just give up.

“NO, I DON’T CARE ANYMORE. Just leave me here to die... I don’t care anymore.” I saw her look back at the destroyed gangster, who blew up into pieces now with no blood.

I ran out, not wanting to die, at the back of the building into the alleyway, then saw the building coming down with it leaning towards me.

I ran, ran faster than I could. Never turned back, and after that day, I became who I am. A monster who wants nothing more than to help my family and friends.