As much as I hated it, superpowers were a lot of fun. Having the strength and invulnerability to plough through a group of armed thugs just felt great. It almost made me enjoy this whole hero thing.

Case in point, punching someone through a wall is seriously satisfying. You see it a lot in movies, but you never really appreciate it until it happens in real life. The wave of adrenaline and awe that hit me as I punched a man through a wall was a real rush. Such a rush that I momentarily forget what the fuck I was doing.

BANG!

Before I even heard the shot, I felt a searing pain in my left shoulder. A burning agony ripped through my muscles as I realised I had forgotten to put my shield back up. I turned to see a very surprised looking thug lying dazed against the wall with a smoking gun in his hands. I grimaced as I stormed up to the man, who really looked like he was regretting his shitty aim, and punted him in the skull, slamming his head against the radiator.

I had just enough sense to stop my dark powers kicking in, only hitting him with a normal kick but still enough to knock him unconscious. As soon as he was down, I yelled at the top of my lungs, “FUCK!”.

My breathing became heavier as I held a hand to my shoulder, feeling my hand become slick and wet as blood started to trickle out. Today’s raid was on a brothel frequented by the Slasher’s. It was off the books, meaning it was practically a hive for these scum. Still, I hadn’t been quite ready for how many there would be and found my energy supplies were beginning to run low.

I wasn’t given much time to recover as a team of five thugs appeared in the hole I had made in the wall of the room, looking between their unconscious friends and me. At this point I was really pissed off and let out a growl at the group. The five of them suddenly became shell shocked, freezing up briefly before they reached for their weapons. However, before they could I grabbed the bed that was in the room and tossed it through the wall at them.

Two managed to get out of the way, but the other three were levelled by it, slammed to the floor as the dust from the wall started to settle. Through the dust, I burst out, both hands extended out and firing energy beams into the last two thugs. As they hit the ground, one of the ones on the ground had enough strength left to reach for a knife. He tried to slash at my legs but found resistance as an energy shield blocked his attack.

An energy beam to the skull knocked him down as the last two thugs decided getting up was a bad idea and decided to stay on the ground. I kneeled down to face one of them and said “Listen to me. I want Alejandro. Tell me where he stays, or I’ll break both your legs”.

The man scoffed and said “You’re all talk. Just another pussy in a ma-“.

I could see where this was going. So, to extradite the process I punched him in the side of the head, using just a bit of energy to make sure he was down. I stood back up and looked to the last thug. “You got anything you want to say?”, I asked.

He froze for a second before shaking his head, hands raised in peace. I sighed and continued “Good luck with the police then”.

The second I said it, a rush of footsteps echoed from the floor below me as a series of police began storming the building. Just before they burst into the corridor I punched through the outward facing wall, sending pieces of mortar flying as I created a big enough gap for me to jump through and onto the street below. As I landed on the concrete, there were a few abandoned police cars to my left and to my right, a long empty road with plenty of convenient alleys to escape into. Slowly but surely, I began walking down the empty street before ducking into an alleyway. I raised my hand to my injured shoulder finding the burning pain had begun to dull now, almost to the point that it was no longer there. I pulled some of the torn fabric to the side to find the wound seemed to have stopped bleeding. Actually, as I looked closer I saw the flesh was knitting itself back together, a slight white glow coming from my insides.

“Well shit!”, I exclaimed.

So I got healing as well as shielding from my light powers. From what I’d tested the past few days, my powers drew from an energy source that I stored up inside me. Light energy was charged during the day and when under direct light while my dark energy was charged at night and by immersing myself in complete shadows. Still, there was a lot I didn’t know about my abilities yet and I got the feeling I was capable of a lot more than what I’d done so far.

A single light illuminated the alley, occasionally flickering off before springing back to life. As I walked under it, I found myself smiling. The Slasher’s had to be on the backfoot. By my estimation, I’d dealt with over fifty guys the past week, not even counting the police raids that had been happening as well. Surely, they couldn’t have many left. Still, I had to deal with Alejandro. Only then could I consider this whole thing over. He was the head of the operation and without him, the Slasher’s would fall apart. So, walking down this alley I thought to myself, “I have a pretty good feeling about this”.

XXX

“Fucking idiots! He’s one man! How the fuck have you not dealt with him!”. Alejandro was losing it. Everything had gone to shit so quickly, all because four men were too incompetent to deal with one kid quietly. Not only were the police suddenly on him which had a much darker indication, but now there was some vigilante asshole tearing the boys a new one.

The Chain he could handle. He’d always anticipated the possibility that his benefitter’s might turn on him which was why he’d spent so long preparing counter-measures. This new guy though? That was different. From what he’d been told, this guy was on a warpath, knocking down any Slasher’s he found.

So far, he hadn’t taken out too many. There were hundreds of members so running out of manpower wasn’t really a problem. The issue was no one could take this vigilante down. The last place he hit had over twenty guys stationed there and he’d still walked out without a scratch. The more successful this guy was, the lower morale would drop among Slasher’s. If they thought this was a losing battle then people might begin to abandon ship.

Alejandro addressed a handful of the few lucky enough to escape this vigilante. Most wore casts, the unluckiest of the lot was on crutches. They sat around, heads down, while Alejandro chewed them out. One particularly adventurous lad said “Boss, he wasn’t normal. He was like you, a meta-“.

“What did you just say?”. Everyone else in the room had a moment of realisation as the implications of the poor youths' words set in. “You saying people like me aren’t normal? You saying we’re freaks?”.

The boy's eyes widened as he shook his head rapidly. He exclaimed, “I didn’t mean it like tha-“.

Alejandro moved in the blink of an eye, grasping the boy by his neck. Like second nature, he activated his power and began draining. The doctors had named his power Strength Manipulation. The power to diminish another’s strength while bolstering his own. Something about tricking the muscles, converting something or other into adrenaline. Alejandro didn’t give a shit about the science of how this worked, but all he knew was it was kickass. Especially when a point needed making.

He didn’t find any joy in it. He never did when he turned his powers against his crew, especially when it was the younger ones but he’d made him look weak. Undermined him. Alejandro couldn’t afford that, especially not now.

The boy tried to claw at Alejandro, but his strikes were like a light breeze, not an inch of force behind them. Once he felt he’d drained enough, Alejandro turned the boy around and wrapped an arm around his throat before starting to squeeze. The boy coughed and sputtered while Alejandro snapped, “They’re not wrong. I am a monster. I’m the bogeyman who haunts out in the night. You’re scared of what I can do, that there isn’t anyone out there who can stop me. Well you’re right. I’m the leader of the Davenport Slasher’s, the baddest motherfucker in town. You call me Leech behind my back but Mr Alverez to my face! So next time you find yourself ballsy enough to say I’m a freak, remember who gives the orders and who takes them”.

Feeling the boy go limp in his arms, Alejandro realised his vice grip. He fell to the floor, unconscious but not dead. Alejandro always hated when he had to lay his hands on one of his gang, but he had to send a message to the others that their leader wasn't scared of this new meta in town. Alejandro gestured to Bull who grabbed the boy and dragged him away.

Power play over, Alejandro continued “Get as many Slasher’s together as you can and tell them what you know about this guy. His powers, his fighting style, is he left-handed or right-handed? Tell them everything! When you’re done, lay low. This’ll be over within the week”.

The rest took this as a sign to leave and hurried away, even the guy on crutches making haste. Still, Alejandro wasn’t done yet as the Bull returned, having finished dealing with the boy. “What you need me to do?”, he asked.

Alejandro opened the door to his trailer and paused in the frame. “Get a group of Slasher's”, he told the Bull. “No more than eight. Tell them to make some noise and draw this guy out. When he arrives, kill him. We clear?”.

The Bull smiled and uttered “Crystal”.

Alejandro nodded and closed the trailer door, proceeding to collapse onto his couch as he found himself doing so often these days. In the kitchen, Jade was sorting through the fridge. “You alright baby? Sounded stressed out there”, she asked.

Alejandro sighed before rummaging through his pockets for a blunt. The stress of the past few days was catching up and he needed to relax. “Don’t worry”, Alejandro replied. “Just an act for the boys. Bull will take care of this hero problem and then we can focus on the bigger problem”.

“And if he doesn’t?”.

Alejandro raised a lighter to light his joint and took one long puff. “Bull’s the best hired hand around. He can handle this problem”.

Jade walked around and sat on Alejandro’s lap, running her hand through his surprisingly smooth hair. “I’m not underestimating the Bull baby. But it never hurts to have a plan B”.

Alejandro put one hand around her waist, the other still holding the blunt, and nodded. “I’m open to ideas”.

Jade leaned in, resting her head on Alejandro’s shoulder while taking the joint from him and having a smoke of it for herself. "Words will only go so far to remind the boys why they follow you. People like them, they learn through action. So get out there and remind them yourself”.

She had a point. Alejandro knew it was smarter in the long run, staying hunkered down in the Rusty Hinge while he figured out just how fucked he was. But the Slasher’s wouldn’t see it that way, they’d see it as a sign of weakness. That Alejandro was scared of the vigilante.

“We’ll let Bull have his chance”, Alejandro stated. “The younger guys look up to him so when they see him fail, they’ll respect me even more when I take down the vigilante”.

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“Now there’s my man”, Jade grinned. “So you think you can take this guy on?”.

Alejandro didn’t even have to think about his answer. “Without a shadow of a doubt”.

XXX

I had been to a hospital more times in the past couple weeks than I ever had in my life up until now. But this visit wasn't because I was ill. I entered the room with a wrapped present in my hands, greeted by the familiar beep of the heart monitor. In the hospital bed was Kaine O’Reilly, blissfully sleeping while an IV drip kept him hydrated.

“Hey Ronin”. I turned to see Ashely, sitting in the corner of the room with a handful of textbooks in her lap. She was dressed in the same clothes I’d seen her in the last time I visited, jeans and hoodie over a black vest top.

“Hey Ash. Is it just you watching him?”, I asked.

“Dad had to go to work today, but mum’s just getting some lunch right now", she answered. “You doing alright?”.

I nodded and said “Don’t worry about me and try yourself for a change. When was the last time you got a full night's sleep?”.

“It’s fine, I’m getting enough. If you think this is bad, just wait till I get to uni”, she joked.

A brief smile came across my face as some of the tension left my body. I’d visited Kaine a couple of times now, but it never felt any less awkward. They’d managed to get him to the hospital in time to save his life, but he was in and out of consciousness still. Early reports said he would pull through, but the bullet had gone right through his spine. They’d done their best to save the nerves, but the surgery had failed. He was never going to walk again.

“Has he woken up yet?”, I asked.

“Kind of. Every now and then he seems to wake up but he doesn’t say anything when he does. God, I just wish he would say something”.

Before I even knew it, I reached out and placed my hand on her shoulder. It felt wrong in a way, that I was the person who was comforting her. After all, I was the one behind their collective suffering. If they had never met me, they wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

“Just give it some time. He’s gonna pull through”, I told her. I hoped they would be comforting to her because to me they just felt hollow.

Still, she smiled ever so slightly. “Thanks. I’m really glad you’re here Ronin. I know Kaine will be happy when he gets to see you again”.

Would he? Maybe under these current circumstances, but if he knew the truth? That I was the reason he couldn't walk? I doubted he’d be so forgiving.

I knew no one would blame me. No one could possibly know the role I’d accidently had in this. Hell, they thought I’d done my best to save people. But that wasn’t even close to the truth. This was my fault and I needed to own up to it.

“I’m sorry. Ash I should have-“.

“Don’t”, she uttered. Ashley stood up from her chair, looking me right in the eye as she walked over to me. “This isn’t your fault. If you’re going to blame anyone then blame the assholes who shot up our school, not you. You saved my life and you still wanted to do more. Meanwhile I was fucking useless…”.

Ashely’s fist started to clench up as her eyelids winced. I interjected, “Ash, you didn’t do anything wrong. Those guys were after me, I should never have gone back to school so soon-“.

“That wasn’t your fault”, she reassured. “You had no idea they would take it as far as they did. I don’t blame you and neither does he”, as she gestured to her brother.

She didn’t know how wrong she was. If I’d just used my powers I could have made sure Kai ne was safe from harm; If I’d just stopped those thugs that morning, then they never would have gotten near the school; If I wasn’t such a piece of shit then no one would have gotten hurt.

I wanted to tell her so bad. I needed to get this off my chest, I had to drag my guilt out into the open.

“Ash, I… I guess you’re right”.

But I was too much of a coward.

XXX

Being a superhero involves a lot more standing around than you’d think. It is really hard to find a crime happening, even in a city like Greyhall. Going into this whole crime fighting thing, I knew a handful of places that the Slasher's would hangout, just from word of mouth or from sneaking a peek at Faith's research into the gang. Within a week, I’d already run out of those places. So here I stood, perching on a rooftop like a bloody gargoyle.

Fortunately, the Slasher's stuck to the docks which meant if I would find them anywhere, it would be here. Just meant I would have to wait a bit…

Tonight was different though. I was pissed tonight and I really wanted to punch something. Someone. Only problem was there was no one around. Why is it the one night the Slasher’s take a day off is the one I need it the most? Technically that was a good thing since it meant I was winning, but today I had to work out some issues…

Damn this was boring. I should get a car or something. It would make getting around easier. But I didn’t have a driver's license. And I wasn’t old enough for one. And I didn’t have the money for lessons...

BANG

BANG

BANG

BANG

Go-time. I pulled on my balaclava and leaped off the roof. As I hit the ground, I braced my legs with dark energy so my landing was soft, not even losing a stride as I sprinted down the street. It had taken four tries to get that move right. Still, with this surge of power I was as fast as a car as I charged in the direction of the gunshots.

As I neared the scene, the normally empty streets were filled with those fleeing the chaos, a group of bordering the hundreds. They parted around me, in part due to my costume, in part because they wished to flee. When I finally broke through the crowd, I saw four men wielding machine guns which they were firing into the front of a pawn store. “You know the rules Micky! No cash, no protection!”, one yelled.

Wait, a minute. I recognised that voice. These were…

The four from the school.

The first of the four was sent flying across the street by an energy blast to the chest, a little more power packed in than usual. One of them turned only to get gut checked so hard he flew through the windscreen of a nearby Ford Fiesta. Bullets bounced off my shield as the last two opened fire, leaving not even a scratch.

I raised both hands and created light screens inside the barrels of the gun, jamming the weapon as the screens shattered on impact with the bullets. It seemed the further away the barrier was, the weaker it was. Luckily, it had served its purpose.

I rushed forward, using the brief pause in fire to grab both of the thugs heads, slamming them together before sweeping their legs and tossing them to the floor. With them dealt with, I heard groans coming from the thug lying on the hood of a car. I grabbed him by the throat, lifted him up into the air and slammed him down as I yelled “WHERE’S ALEJANDRO!”.

The thug was coughing and spluttering but managed to say “I don’t know! I don’t-“.

Not even letting him finish, I slammed him again and punched the hood next to him, making a fist sized hole in the metal next to him. “If you don’t know, then I don’t need you conscious”, I shouted.

I so badly wanted to start laying into this guy, but before I could, a firm hand grabbed my hand. I expected to easily overpower this person and pull my hand away but found I couldn’t. I turned to face this physical beast of a man, glaring down at me from above. He wore a white tank top and jeans that were stained and torn in places along with a studded leather jacket, emblazoned by a flaming bull skull on the front.

"Knew you’d take the bait”, he threatened, a thick Russian accent dripping from every word.

With one hand, he tossed me across the street and into the side of a lamppost. I barely got my shield up in time, blocking the impact for the most part but I was still stunned. As I got up onto my feet, a vicious right hook hit me square in the jaw and knocked me right back down. And this time, my light barrier shattered completely.

I rolled out the way of another punch and activating my dark powers, I kicked out at his knee. The man didn’t fall over completely but stumbled for a second. I used this time to jump up to my feet and punched him square in the chest, to which he didn't even stagger. I quickly followed up by an uppercut to the chin, however the man easily blocked my attack and grabbed me before tossing me onto the hood of the car.

I sat up just as the man rushed me once more, hands clasped together for a sledgehammer smash that just missed me. The entire car shook from the strike as the man punctured the metal and sunk into the engine, so I took my chance to limp off the car and make some distance between us. I was about ten metres away when the man dislodged his hand from the car, scowled at me before grabbing the car and tossing it across the street at me.

“OH FUCK!”, I yelled as I raised my hands to fire a laser at the car, cutting the car into two clean halves that landed at either side of me. Before I could take a sigh of relief, the man was in front of me, holding onto the split car in both of his hands which he used as clubs to try and crush me between. I summoned a shield in the nick of time, but it was shattered by the impact of the cars.

As the man dropped the pieces of the car, I reared back to attack again however he got punched me in the split of a second, followed by a hook to the nose, knee to the chest, elbow to the temple and finally a thrust kick that knocked me back across the street.

The world got really fuzzy for a second, but a rush of light energy gave me enough strength to clear my vision. I got back to my feet as the man paced towards me, a cruel snicker on his face. “I was promised a warrior, but it seems you are just a child. I’m disappointed”, he sneered.

Oh great, now this asshole was judging me. Just what I needed. With one hand, I flipped him off and shouted “You’re better at fighting than smack talking”, while with my other hand I fired a beam of energy at the man.

I hit him in the chest and while he flinched initially, he began to grit his teeth and continued walking towards me. Well, this wasn’t going well. It usually only took one of these to put a person down. Still, I was committed so I used my free hand to fire a second beam, both blasts converging on the man.

This time he was pushed back a couple feet before he planted his feet into the ground, sinking into the concrete by a few inches, and held his ground. I continued to blast him, but after about ten seconds, found myself exhausted. Turns out I did have limits.

The man panted as he grinned and growled, “You’re strong. Not as strong as me, but no one is better than the Bull”.

He charged me, hitting me with a shoulder barge so powerful that I was flung backwards and right into a wall. And this time there was no shield to block it. I dropped to my knees, my body seizing up with pain as agony racked through my back. Oh, actually, there was a pain in the back of my head too. That sucked. What was I doing? Oh shit, the Bull man.

I dodged, well more like fell out of the Bull’s path as he came flying in with a thrust kick. His foot shattered through the bricks behind me, a small grunt of pain as he did, and tried to punch down at me again. I threw a punch to match his, our fists clashing in mid-air, but found myself knocked back as Bull’s force was greater than mine. I turned this into a backwards roll, sitting on one knee as the Bull came hulking over once more. I fired two lasers at the ground, launching myself up into the air and over the Bull’s head. First, I hit him with a frankly awful roundhouse kick, barely connecting with his skull, and followed up with a knee to the spine.

However, the Bull turned around to catch my leg before sweeping out my other, knocking me to the ground. I tried to fire a beam at his head, but he grabbed my arm, making sure to avoid aiming it at his head, and dropped down next to me to lock in an arm bar. I wasn’t a great fighter, but I knew I had a couple of seconds before this guy broke my arm.

I put my weight onto my shoulder and managed to get my feet up, hunched over the Bull as he held my arm. I tried to lift him up off the ground, but the Bull changed his sitting to lock in a triangle choke hold. Wow, this was getting worse and worse. I brought my free hand around to punch the Bull, but once again he had the up on me. He used his weight to get his spine back on the ground where he shifted his weight, so he was on my back, still with my arm. He then leaned back as far as he could, pulling my shoulder at an angle so unnatural that it was sickening.

Almost out of instinct, I released a blinding light that erupted around my entire body, surprising the Bull to the point that he let go of my crippled arm. I was acting on pure instinct when I placed my hand on the Bull’s chest and fired. This beam was more powerful than any before it, my normal regard for how much power I use thrown out the window in the face of death, as the shot tore right through the Bull’s chest. I missed most of his vital organs, but a gaping hole in your chest was still an issue even as the beam seemed to sear the wound shut as it cut through.

The Bull’s eyes widened, and his hand slowly reached towards me until he passed out. I rolled off of him and onto my back, feeling my arm buzz with energy as the slow healing effort started. I’d be good to go in about… how long does it take to fix a broken arm? Time to find out, I guess.

“Well fuck me. You’re tougher than I gave you credited for”.

That voice.

I looked over to see walking down the street, flanked by at least ten other men, was Alejandro, baseball bat in hand. “I heard you’ve been looking for me. Thought it would be rude to make you wait any longer. So now that you have my attention, tell me, what are you going to do with it?”.

This fucker was at the heart of all my recent misery. He’d kicked me down in the streets and ordered the attack on my school. With a growl, I got to my feet. My arm was nowhere near repaired, but I was not going to waste my chance at Alejandro.

“I’m going to kill you”, I spat at him.

Alejandro smiled. “Then take your shot”.