Alex reflected on the fact that he’d spent almost his entire life since he could first form a memory looking up to villains who tried to take over the world. It was what got him to put on a mask in the first place. Now he’d killed one of them by mistake.
He had been pacing around his apartment for almost an hour now, a modest single-bedroom-and-half place. It had seen better days but was still several notches up from “old” or “in disrepair,” even though a few of his projects scattered across tables made it look messier than it truly was. The walls had accumulated marks on them over the last ten years but the paint was barely beginning to fade – much less chip or crack. The same couldn’t be said of the posters stuck to the walls with museum putty, most of which were beginning to curl or tear. He was going to miss it.
Okay, he thought to himself, not trusting himself to speak out loud, so I gotta get out here. You obviously don’t kill one of the League’s head members and just stick around in the same 400 mile radius.
But! If I bolt immediately, even if it takes anyone awhile to notice, that’s too damn obvious, he reasoned. They’ll figure it out the moment someone looks at a date. Plus, it takes more than what I’ve got to get set up in a new city.
He had a modest emergency fund, but he’d spent so long with that earmarked for a specific emergency he was loath to dig into it now. Especially since outside of the mundane-but-still-substantial costs that a normal civilian might deal with when picking up their life and moving elsewhere, relocating as a supervillain came with a lot of its own expenses.
Especially being a tech villain who isn’t also a mad scientist. With his kit in disarray thanks to some super powered teenagers, he’d need to get that sorted here before he could even consider hopping on a bus. You don’t just show up in a new town and begin asking “where can I buy a bunch of illegal super tech?”
Then there was ingratiating yourself with the locals, both the villains and a few interested parties. You could almost never bribe heroes or Arrestors outright, but you tended to want some local businesses to know you were a big spender when you moved in. Suddenly, cameras got less reliable and broken windows were slower to be reported. As for other villains, it wasn’t often that you’d need to assure them you weren’t muscling in on their turf. Rather, you’d need to start trying to lay the groundwork for future team ups quick.
There was this idea that being a villain meant being a loner, completely against the world and unwilling to share your spoils with anyone, but Alex had found the opposite to be true. It sometimes felt like you had to network and team up more than most heroes, especially if one wanted jobs to actually go smoothly.
As for funding his actual move?
Most of the mundane worldly possessions he’d bother keeping wouldn’t be too expensive to move. Over roughly the last decade that he lived here, he hadn’t accumulated too much, outside of his Iron Menace gear. A career which saw you make large sums in relatively unpredictable intervals with some expensive maintenance wasn’t exactly a great one for expensive hobbies. The tricky part was that he’d need to be careful with his villain gear and the few things he had stolen over the years which hadn’t been fenced.
Despite the fact that it was an open secret that the authorities, such as the Amera Union government and the various superhero “guilds”,1 could always be more proactive when it came to tracking down villains, they weren’t idiots. Letting villains move all over the globe unchecked was a pretty stupid idea and one they tried to crack down on. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the same might be true about letting villains run freely in whatever city they took up residence in, but there was an uneasy equilibrium when it came to that.
It turned out to actually be good business for everyone to let villains who could understand the unwritten rules run loose. Obviously not the type that leveled buildings when they wanted to make an entrance, but a smattering of B-listers and below that kept the property damage to a reasonable minimum and who mainly stole things you could get back made for a decent ecosystem for places like Victory City.
New superheroes got to train by going up against known threats. Businesses garnered a lot of sympathy from the general public after becoming the poor victims of a heist, one which barely flickered on their annual profit reports compared to the free advertising they raked in if the villain managed to stay in the headlines long enough. Construction agencies constantly had work and reasons to keep R&D departments running to make better buildings when you had to keep up with all the superhuman shaped holes knocked into them.
Not to mention, villains were likely to do their own self-policing if someone threatened to bring the heat down. Heroes were as prone to puff out their chest and start cracking heads when they felt disrespected as villains were. Things got ugly for everyone when goodie two shoes capes felt that you robbing a bank no longer meant a quick tussle with nothing broken that ended with confiscating your sacks of cash all just because some little shit on your side went on an ego trip and caused a bloodbath. Problem villains weren’t welcome by their peers.
If you knew where the line was, then the job was always risky, but not rocking the boat too much meant the do-gooders didn’t try to crack down too hard and your “own” didn’t throw your body in a river.
The exact nature of that careful balance depended on where you were. Hallowsguard and Orion City north up the East Coast tended to be a little rougher. Villains there needed to prove they weren’t posers, but there was still a line. Sure, you were expected to hit harder, back up your threats if you wound up in a hostage situation, and kick the shit out of any hero who made the mistake of misjudging how dangerous you really were. But stacking bodies, fucking with government shit, or trying to make a play for the big leagues meant that you’d be marked as a problem that needed to be addressed.
Hopping town with a crate of super tech tends get you on the same kind of lists as those problem children. The type of lists made by scary government agencies with acronyms for names. Those spooks made it kind of expensive to stay out off their radar when you wanted to get a fresh start unless everyone was distracted by something else at the time.
And as scary as those people were, it was catching the attention of the League that was the real issue.
The League of Domination was birthed out of the ashes of the Great War, with their roots from Duchard’s regime change when those superpower supremacists came into power. While the Thelees2 were thoroughly trounced when the first hero guilds and Mr. Wonder decided to join the war, the ideology they spawned took root among some megalomaniacal types who liked the idea that they were entitled to rule as long as they were powerful enough.
Splitting off from the Thelees that made it out of the war, the League slowly formed in the shadow of the rising super heroes. Allegedly, they supported rising villains, preaching that anyone who would break the law to get what they want was entitled to what they could hold onto and they would back anyone who dared to call themselves a villain in a world of heroes. However, in practice it was a club with a clear in-group and out-group.
So if they actually took note of you, it meant you either bent the knee and tried to rise up through their ranks to play with the bigwigs, or ended up in a morgue as one of many nuisances. And their information net was vast and scary. Anything that a government’s spy agency learned, the League would know soon enough.
And people like that had egos to match.
Considering that the Iron Menace wasn’t exactly an up-and-comer who’d be threatening most of the East Coast of the Amera Union within a month,3 if they discovered that Alex was the guy who killed Maniacal, it would be seen as an embarrassment. A personal slight against them, even, and those were the kinds of things they loved to make an example out of.
These people threw Endbringer at Mr. Wonder, nearly killing the invincible man, only to turn around and attack Atlanthea’s crown city itself the next month. They did not suffer watching one of their top members get knocked off by a guy with repurposed microwaves on his hands by simply taking that in stride.
A knock on the door pulled Alex out of his pacing.
His heart-rate spiked even as he tried to tell himself that there was no way that anyone could know this quickly. He began to creep towards the door, cautiously grabbing his single working gauntlet off the table and slipping it on.
As he powered it up, a melodic voice drifted through the door he was taking aim at.
“Hey! Don’t forget the rent!” his landlady, Ms. Song, called out.
Her voice was casual even though it held that slight edge of firmness to it that he’d never felt comfortable trying to test even with his super gear.
Alex relaxed, knowing Ms. Song was already heading down the hall to tap on other doors. She no doubt knew about his less than law-abiding career, or at least suspected it. You don’t get an apartment in a city like this and pay rent in cash without something to hide. The middle-aged woman wisely knew what questions to ask and what not to. Honestly, from the few times they’d actually spoken, she seemed to know all the answers anyways. As long as you didn’t bring trouble back, she was more than happy to turn many a blind eye towards her tenants’ professions.
Not that this complex seemed to visibly fit the idea of a den of crime and ne’er-do-wells. Surprisingly, most of Alex’s neighbors seemed extremely normal, with no obvious signs of being in a gang, organized crime, minion organization, or actually being super villains themselves. Sometimes Alex wondered if he was the exception in this building. The healthy paranoia that kept him alive and afloat in this business told him that probably wasn’t true and that everyone here was just good at hiding their true lifestyle.
Which meant that if the League found out before he got out, there was a good chance most of this building would be gunning for the bounty that would be on his head. All the more reason to make this break clean and raise as few questions as possible on the way out.
Okay, so, time to start a plan.
Step 1. Figure out a cover story.
Easy, you’re a loser here and you want to try a reboot somewhere easier.
Ouch, but it works. Okay then step 2. Where to go?
He started by by ruling out leaving the AU. Too risky at the moment, but that was probably the long term plan. Too many questions would come up on why anyone would try a reboot across the sea after failing out of Victory.
Obviously you can’t go back to Orion City for a number of reasons. You don’t leave Victory to go to Orion unless you actually outgrow this city, and there’s too much baggage there. Going there would be like going back home to the family but somehow ten times worse.
Hallowsguard is out too. The city of eternal night wasn’t hard to get lost in, but considering it was where The Dark Knight patrolled, you only went there if you were trying to build a reputation, not disappear. Alex didn’t feel as though he wanted to learn the proper way to break someone’s leg to send a message, which felt like a requirement for being a villain over there.
Okay, maybe Washgreen City or Seasmeet. There’s a couple of big names there but the vast majority were up-and-comers so either felt like the type of place someone starting over would try to hit up. Going further south to the other half of the AU is a little far to travel and would mean having to get things shipped and that’s too expensive and risky.
Good, we’re on a roll, then step 3.
Alex looked back towards his bedroom and remembered the safe hidden in a panel under the floor. It was practically empty. He’d been planning on filling it up after selling the goods from the heist that never happened. The emergency stash was there along with the other valuables he wasn’t going to be pawning off anytime soon, but in terms of what he could readily use, he was running dry.
Yeah, step 3: get some funds. Maybe kill The Broker if no one else has gotten that twerp yet. But priority one is making sure that Ms. Song doesn’t kick you out before you’ve gotten the cash to start getting you out of town.
Alex looked at the remains of his costume. The spandex was slowly healing itself. The joys of Dr. Iridium’s many inventions since the Revolutionary Six started superheroing almost 80 years ago was that clothing didn’t get quite as worn out these days.? Sadly, the tech components of his kit were going to be a little more costly to permanently fix.
He went over to his helmet and winced at the huge crack down the center of the face.
Alright, I’ve got to figure out how to rob enough money with a quarter of my suit working in order to fix the rest of it, pay rent, and still be on track for getting out of this city, all without attracting enough attention that anyone looks too hard and starts to get suspicious. No problem.
Alex wandered over to his workbench and sat down to quickly patch what he could, taking a short break to reapply some ice packs to his bruises and slap together a sandwich from what he had left in the fridge. With the supplies on hand, he had to jury rig up some patches and the interior of his gauntlet began to look more like a bored first year shop student’s experiments with electrical tape and soldering sculptures.
A couple hours later and he had something that could work. This wouldn’t hold up to a fight with anyone rocking a cape, but it should at least let him threaten a civilian or two. He threw what was in working order in a gym bag, pleased to see at least the cloth portion of his suit didn’t have any remaining holes. He’d have some dignity at least. Cautiously, he ventured out of his apartment and when seeing no one in the hallway, quickly scurried out into a darkening night.
--------------------------------------------------
The elevator doors opened to a luxurious suite on the top floor of Amberheart Tower, a meeting place for multiple hero groups in Victory City. Usually, this place housed maybe a dozen superheros who mingled between patrols or came to mentor newbies in the business, but currently it was packed with almost every group and individual hero that was present at the morning’s fight with only a few footpaths between them.
It was into this packed room that Ned Nubudi disembarked with a stack of donut boxes in his arms.
If anyone had suspected ArachNed to show up, they would probably have thought he’d swing in via a webline onto the balcony outside, but that hadn’t been Ned’s style in years. A couple representatives from Victory City had approached him awhile back and let him know that even though the webs he produced lost cohesion and fell apart within a few hours, they tended to get caught on windshields and gum up the sewers. Crossing the city that way could be devilishly quick, but it was a hassle for the streets below unless they sent someone to clean up his trail, and that meant having an Amberheart liaison tracking him as he worked.
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So he mostly depended on the four extra robotic legs he’d manufactured and stuck to his back, interspersing some parkour with them which let him launch himself throughout the city in bursts. That still let him show up along the sides of buildings and crawl his way inside through the roof, but the sad reality of going that route just so he could enter through the top floor would mean a lot of bouncing around to get anywhere at a reasonable pace. And jostling the valuable prizes he reverently carried with both his hands wasn’t worth the risk right now.
He wove through the gaps in the crowd towards the large windows at the back of the room, offering a precious sugary treat to a few friends and colleagues he passed before finally reaching an open spot on one of the many couches clustered near one another. Despite how occupied the room was, most of the seating still seemed free, with only a few of the more battered heroes that were toughing out getting bed rest begrudgingly choosing to not to stand.
Ned plopped down and touched a hidden button on the side of his mask. A portion of it surrounding his jaw faded away with a whir, allowing him to enjoy his treats.
The blue, white, and gold costume was the latest of many he’d worn over his long super powered career. It still kept the spirit of that original stretchy outfit he’d managed to throw together as a teen, but this one was practically from a different genre than that amalgamation of workout clothes and Scare Day costuming. While it lacked all the fun gadgets that his silver suit from three years ago hid beneath dozens of sliding panels, this sleeker outfit hid a bunch of shock absorption, automated hacking hardware, and self cooling tech, among other fun surprises. Plus the mask had adorable animated eyes projected onto the adaptive fibers with a retro pixel-y flair so everyone could see how much he enjoyed his donuts!
While those animations pretended he had shut his eyes in rapturous enjoyment, he spotted Wavelength scowl his way out of the corner of his actual peepers. The telepath had never really liked him since they first met on account of how Ned had learned long ago to ensure his inner monologue never gave too much away. It only took a couple villains attempting the easy way to try and deal with a secret identity and the unreliability of anti-mind tech to hold up to a few good blows for Ned to start keeping his thoughts a little more guarded, which tended to upset the nosy type.
Ned’s eyes scanned the room as he sampled a couple more delicious bundles of calories. His web production didn’t seem to care about nutritional content for some reason but was dastardly about running through whatever he put into his mouth. A hard day of fighting basically left him a black hole for anything that was edible.
Looking around he was pleased to note that the Young Guardians were absent. While it wasn’t a school day, they shouldn’t let the mask take over all their life this early. Ned had struggled with that early on, especially with his refusal to join a team.
He also noticed that Secret Keeper was hovering nearby the “front” of the room, which meant that someone had asked the Library to help out with the coming debrief. No mystery as to who or why.
Well, plenty of mystery when the Library’s concerned, Ned corrected himself, but it’s not surprising that someone would ask the dusty old monks to help give a play by play to see if anything new fell out. Especially when…
His gaze met the eyes of Azure Avenger, the leader of the New Aurora Champions. Instinctively he knew that Azure also knew the two had locked eyes.
The man was dressed in a simple, if not classic, style of super suit with three or so shades of blue scattered across it, the only break in color scheme being his light brown skin visible on a mostly exposed face. The domino mask was a classic touch but one that probably did nothing to hide who he was given the glowing blue eyes and bright blue hair. Naturally his waist was adorned by a rainbow gem at the center of his belt that matched the rest of his team.
A subtle smile crept onto the other hero’s face before he moved to a nearby stage in front of the large glass window and stepped up behind a podium with a microphone. Sometimes there’d be cameras pointed at this stage for a hero’s words to be broadcast across the city, but today this was just for those gathered in this room.
“Thank you for coming,” Azure’s voice quieted the myriad of conversations around the room as the heroes all turned to look his way. “I’m sure we all have things we want to do so we’ll try to keep this brief.”
He wore a halfhearted smile as he continued, “I say that but we’ve got to start this from the top. This morning, a little after 8, we all got that message from Dr. Maniacal.”
Dr. Cedric Calhoun, a genius in his field of energy sciences, had really jumped into the entire persona of the classic mad scientist and was about as gleefully prideful as you might expect from someone who decided “Maniacal” was the perfect moniker. Decades back, the League of Domination had kidnapped him for their own aims, but he’d quickly become a true believer and succeeded Lightning Lord on both the League’s head council and as the top scientist at their “Overlab”. Since then, whenever he made an actual appearance rather than sending minions to steal from other research labs, he’d usually make an announcement, allowing a city to gather up enough heroes for a proper fight. While it was rare for him to actually take to the fray himself in those in-person doctor’s visits, he seemed to enjoy watching it more than actually having his plans work.
Ned suspected that this probably had something to do with losing his first big evil scheme, whatever it was, to a big showdown with heroes. Villains tended to get fixated like that. It’s how you got rogue’s galleries and nemeses. Given how often the man had targeted Victory in particular, Ned bet if he looked Maniacal up on the intranet, the very first entry after he adopted the name would be “beaten by the Aurora Champions”. Probably even the originals ones too.?
Anyways the message was the standard “I’ve got a superweapon, defend your city or else, I’m so smart, Mwhahaha!” with just a few too many insults about the Aurora Champions for Ned to feel like he was welcome to show up, but Victory City was where he hung his web so it wasn’t like he was going to skip that.
“Ice Hawk was the first to find where Maniacal’s weapon was located,” Azure continued, nodding towards another blue-clad superhero. “When his team attempted to knock it down, he was intercepted by a group of previously unaffiliated villains. I’m sure that story sounds familiar as the rest of you came to help out.”
The antenna-like device had been set up near a set of warehouses on the northwest side of the city. It had turned out that Maniacal had hidden his flunkies in said warehouse, as well as in a few thankfully abandoned buildings across the street.
“Most of these villains were smaller time crooks. Red Robber, Wastrel, Captain Arbor-”
“Laser Badger,” Ned chimed in.
This got both some chuckles and a few other heroes began to pipe up with other small time crooks who had been there. Ned watched Azure’s face get stony for a second before he cleared his throat to wrestle back control of the conversation.
“Yes, most of them were clearly there to delay us, while the real threats like Baron Zen, Ikor, and Stormfury,” Azure shot Ned a glare to stop him from adding anything to this list, “hung back to make sure that we couldn’t get close. Meanwhile, his device began to siphon various forms of energy from the surrounding area. According to Amberheart’s analysts, while it looks like some of that was definitely being pulled from the city’s power grid, the ambient leylines, and a storm front that was coming in, a good portion of it was actually from all of us.”
The mood of the room darkened as the superheroes present remembered Dr. Maniacal’s ranting about how all their efforts were just empowering him.
Apparently the device had been intended to grant the scientist all the powers of those present and more. While the League was born of superhuman supremacists, the key difference between them and Thelees was that you didn’t have to actually have super powers to matter to them. But apparently, Dr. M didn’t agree and wanted to actually join the same ranks as his peers like Thunderer, NecrOver, Life Tyrant, and Arex. Classic inadequacy issues.
As much as Ned felt like joking about it now, in the moment, he’d seen how close the doctor had gotten. While he wasn’t too devout, he’d considered praying to the gods at that moment for Mr. Wonder to show up out of the blue to do battle with whatever Maniacal was about to turn into. It was about to quickly turn from a fight to save the city into a fight to save the world.
“However, all of this was stopped by someone interrupting his ascension,” Azure gestured for Secret Keeper to step forward.
The hooded figure glided forward, white cloth bandaged around every part of their body. Strips of it floated off them, held aloft by levitating keys of various shapes. A skirt concealed most of their legs, lined with padlocked tomes chained together. Their fingers twisted in a complex pattern, several rings glinting in the light.
Ned pretended not to care about the gossip in the hero community, but he was fairly sure that this was going to spark some more rumors about Azure and the Librarian. It had been no secret that for the past few years, they’d been glued to Azure’s team and a lot of people a little more interested in whispering about who was dating who insisted that there was something up between the… pair? Ned wasn’t sure if that was the right word to use.
“Thank you, Azure Avenger,” their four voices said in unison, the raspiest one trailing the rest. “We have examined the scene and found this.”
A screen flicked to life in midair, completely blocking out the window behind the floating monk, showcasing the object that now floated in front of them to the whole room. ArachNed hadn’t taken his eyes off Secret Keeper and still had missed the moment they’d made it appear.
It was a foot and half long piece of rebar wrapped in a chunk of concrete. No different than the debris that usually followed a particularly large clash of supes in a city. Secret’s hands flitted over it and a dull red glow barely materialized.
“This was enchanted and teleported through the shield that the doctor projected around himself,” the learned, masculine voice spoke alone. Then the other three joined him, “After hitting him, it broke the barrier and attracted the full force of the gathered energy into his body repeatedly.”
And the result hadn’t been pretty. At the time, Ned was grateful his mask had filters built in when he’d approached the smoldering remains.
Secret Keeper paused, their body seeming to twitch before finally saying, “Unfortunately, due to the massive amount of conflicting energy, it has been almost impossible for us to learn more about the magic used to do this. It is... unknown if this magic would’ve had any other purposes besides attempting to harm the doctor.”
They retreated back, apparently finished speaking. Whispers began to circulate.
Okay, that’s not great. The unsaid conclusion was that if you killed someone holding a bunch of unbound power in their hand, typically you’d be doing so to nab it for yourself. Stealing the prize and getting away without anyone noticing was basic villain MO.
Ned had been primed for this since watching Maniacal fry. Things just couldn’t end that conveniently. Welp, the amalgamated monk of enlightenment apparently had no idea if the chunk of rock that killed a man attempting to ascend to relative godhood had any other magical purpose. To Ned, that meant it was certain that it did and that he needed to find out what that was quick.
If the lifetime of heroing spent since a nerdy teenager had touched that magic spider statue in the shady bookstore which had disappeared the next day had taught Ned anything, it was that inevitably this kind of thing meant that someone else had just stolen the big old cup of put-the-city-in-danger juice.
Azure came back up to the podium, “We’ve got a couple more avenues to check out, but this attack was targeted and executed at the exact right moment to take out the doctor, a leading member of the League of Domination. We’re not telling this to scare you, but we want you all to be on the lookout in the coming days and to keep us in the loop if you find anything.”
Ah, another appeal to Amberheart’s authority. Didn’t miss that, Ned thought.
The blue hero shook his head, “But you’ll be pleased to note that we’ve got Baron Zen and Stormfury behind bars along with a dozen other villains, and Maniacal’s machine has been dismantled entirely.”
ArachNed quickly disabled his automatic eye animations so that he could safely roll his own eyes from behind the mask. While he was pleased that the superpower-granting lightning rod – was that in poor taste? – was out of commission, the number of villains in that fight had been closer to triple digits than a dozen. Ugh, this is why Ned hated morning fights. You still had the whole day to go, which also applied to the villains.
Well, there were a bunch of angry super powered bullies out there all riled up and thinking that the heroes were going to kick up their feet for the rest of the day. Not to mention half a box of donuts left to fuel up on. Looks like Ned was going to have to work overtime tonight.
--------------------------------------------------
“Hey, Rac,” someone called out to Ned as he was heading out.
“It’s Ned,” he called back on reflex as he turned back. People just didn’t want to use that shortened version of his name for some reason.
He’d expected Azure to be the one to nab him before he could slip out, but instead found himself face to face with Reflecta, one of Wavelength’s teammates. The telepath herself was chatting with the other members of the Starlight Squad.
Her mirrored facemask let him get a great look at his own mask, which he noticed had a slight delay on its timing with the eyes. Need to get that fixed this week. Can’t let down my adoring fans.
“Yeah… no it’s not,” Reflecta shot back. Ah, another non-believer...
“That’s what it says on my driver’s license. Not that I’ve got it on me obviously, can’t give up my secret identity that easily,” he told her. It was the truth as well.
She sighed, “It shouldn’t be that easy to fake an identity in this city.”
No one ever believed that Ned could be his real name. Not that using your actual name was uncommon for making a “sypernym”, but apparently no one believed that a hero that never took off their mask or joined a team would use their actual name in their moniker.
“You’d be surprised,” he shrugged. “Anyways, did you need something? I’m headed off to patrol.”
Reflecta crossed her arms, the mirrors set on the back of her hands catching the light with the motion, “You know you’re supposed to let some of the newbies take on these guys.”
Ned didn’t stop his eyeroll animation this time, “I’ll leave a few… if they’re fast enough to realize what’s about to happen. Besides, I’m sure you and just about everyone else in this room knows I’m not going to let them get a free party tonight.”
Ned wasn’t in this business to punish people. Hell, most days, if not full on months, actually passed by without him getting into a fight, contrary to what people thought about him. Still, a few of the unspoken rules rubbed him the wrong way sometimes.
Yes, letting some D-listers loose helped the next generation get some learning in, but it meant that ordinary people had to deal with Laser Badger smashing the glass door at their local deli to steal all the lunch meat (Three. Godsdarn. Times.) or Wastrel covering their car in sewage. Sure most of these guys didn’t actually do much lasting harm, but it was still harm all the same.
Plus, to be honest, a couple of them were just looking for attention, and if dealing with a slightly sarcastic spider shaped super helped redirect from causing trouble, then Ned was happy to oblige.
Reflecta shook her head, “Look, just… the containment center’s going to have its hands full with the Baron and Stormfury. I know you don’t like it but…”
Ned quickly shut down his “angry eyes” animation. This was the unfortunate truth. Despite all the bending over backwards about why the small guys got to walk, it really came down to the fact that keeping superpowered individuals locked up was hard and it looked way better if the crooks “got away” after a beating rather than them busting out of a cell that couldn’t hold them, and everyone would rather lock up a Baron Zen over a Laser Badger if you only got one of them.
Unfortunately for everyone, ArachNed had a strong moral compass and webs that crooks didn’t conveniently just wander out of before the Arrestors showed up, which made for awkward situations in times like these. And so this conversation was the roundabout way of saying “Please for the love of the gods, don’t actually try to string up anyone for arrest tonight.” If it wasn’t Reflecta, it was going to be someone else.
“Fffffffffine,” he relented. “But there’s still going to be some kicked butt.”
Despite her face being completely covered, Ned could tell the mirror themed superheroine smiled as her posture loosened up. He also wasn’t blind to the fact that half a dozen heroes around him seemed to relax as well. Man, no trust around here. Well, everyone is wearing masks in here so that’s probably fitting.
Reflecta thanked him and Ned managed to slip away uninterrupted after that. A quick glance on his way out at Azure Avenger across the room made him suspect that the Champion had politely asked Reflecta to be the one to intervene. Navigating the politics of this already, huh? Well you’re definitely shaping up to help run this band of costumed crazies.
As he made his way across town he stewed in his thoughts. He didn’t particularly relish the idea of beating on some costumed bullies who were probably still sore after the morning, even if it meant sparing the city their temper tantrum. Especially if all he was allowed to do was leave them with more bruises and a stern talking to.
Maybe if he was particularly stern for once, one of them might actually quit breaking perfectly good windows and stealing the cheap jewelry that shops put up to minimize losses. Maybe one of them might actually do something good for once and help out.
Maybe one of them could… help… Hm… There was an idea. Ned had heard that Dr. Maniacal had knocked out all cameras in the area so that everyone had eyes on him alone, which had made things difficult to find who had thrown the chunk of rubble that had killed him. But there were a lot of villains on the scene.
Maybe one of those that were planning on misbehaving tonight had seen something.
Ned shrugged as he launched himself across the rooftop of another building. It was worth a shot. And at least then, maybe the butt kicking wouldn’t be pointless after all.
Fun fact, I can only occasionally get Royal Road to maintain the superscript when I use mouse over text. If anyone knows how to guarantee it, I'd love to hear from you.
1. The Superhero community disagrees strongly on the language used to describe the coalition of different superhero teams and groups in local regions, as well as how official these “guilds” should be, especially to adhere to the Wonder Accords. In some countries, there’s an expectation that any official team should be part of a larger guild with a formalized code of conduct in order to share information and to keep each other in check. In other countries, such larger formal organizations are seen as too militarized. The Northern Amera Union, despite Orion City’s council system as an outlier, tends to prefer informal partnerships and often shuns the use of this term.
2. Thelees were originally a political group based off some of the teachings of the Dark Magister Alister Crowley’s Thelema philosophy – specifically the “Do as thou wilt” tenet. They espoused that the power superhumans and empowered Atlantheans possessed not just entitled them to rule, but that any other governance was illegitimate, especially with the rising frequency of powers as the Industrial Era continued. This doctrine morphed into superhuman supremacy – eventually excluding Atlantheans from its ideology and outright xenophobia towards the newly arriving Juneans – as it took root in Duchard in its prewar era. While the original Dark Magister was never actually a member of the Thelees, his third clone was indoctrinated by a remnant group during a conflict in the 80’s, resulting in Crowley IV leading the neo-Thelee remnants in an attempt to conquer the Steppeland as the group’s apparent final actions in the modern era.
3. Contextually, this would refer to the northern region’s Eastern Coast, rather than the entire eastern coastline of the larger landmass. Due to the size of the Ameran Union, most people tend to use qualifiers when referencing the entire federation’s lands or the lands in the opposite hemisphere.
4. Dr. Iridium and the rest of the Revolutionary Six are known as some of Amera Union’s greatest superhero teams of the postwar period on the merits of their scientific advancements rather than actual superheroics, although they saved the world from intergalactic threats multiple times. After almost 40 years officially operating as superheroes, he team gradually retired from superheroism one after another before the turn of the century. This did not slow their contributions to multiple fields of science and technology since then. Dr. Iridium and his wife, the first Lady Photon, were last seen disappearing through a portal in their lab to parts unknown to live out their final years in peace. Their daughter took up her mother’s mantle and is the vice leader of The Protectors of the Globe while her twin and younger brother have taken over their business and laboratories in Orion City.
5. Indeed, the first scheme hatched in Maniacal’s villain career was thwarted by the original Aurora Champions. Records of this fight were intentionally targeted as part of an attack on the intranet as a whole when Dr. Maniacal partnered with the Human Virus over twelve years ago. Many believe the act was a distraction solely to remove these records, which failed when offline copies in Victory’s city hall were saved from destruction at the hands of mercenaries linked to the League by the New Aurora Champions early in their career. Since then, the Doctor had an obsession with the successors of his former archenemies.
