Of Heroes and Villains

Moonlit Encounter

        Less than two percent of the population had the mutated gene that allowed for supernatural powers. Some used these powers for the good of mankind. Others, many others, abused these mutations to further their own ends. Emmet was one of these lucky few. Blessed with capabilities to manipulate fire he had carved out a nice little niche for himself in the annals of history. Granted, he was technically and officially label a villain; actively hunted by those heroes who could match his caliber.

        Emmet lived what he considered a quite life. He had no grandiose plans of world domination or destruction, he simply had a warped honor-bound sense of justice. A need to seek vengeance to all and any slight upon his person. That coupled with an overinflated ego had really set his path apart from others. Rarely did he kill and most of his "offences" boiled down to nothing more than property damages.

        Long ago when he first started down the path of a villain Emmet had purchased a goodly sized house in the foothills of the mountains near his hometown. Beneath his home he had transformed a natural cave system into a well equipped and labyrinth-like lair. Far enough away was he from any prying eyes of curious neighbors that the quiet chirps of his proximity alarm going off had him cautiously placing his book down and rising to go check the many monitors he had set up. At first he could discern nothing on the few cameras that had been triggered by motion, the shadows of night obscuring almost everything to a uniform black, then a distorted shadow moved and caught his eye.

        A spy? Had a hero actually discovered his lair? Emmet snarled as he stormed off to his lair to don his concealing outfit that hid his true identity and identified him instead as Inferno, the Villain of Fire. With swift economic movements he set out along the tree line towards his unexpected intruder. Soon he could hear the snap of a twig breaking and the rustling of something heavy dragging along the forest floor? Emmet stopped and listened, his anger ebbing away, taken over with a curiosity. This could be no spy, nor hero. Ahead of him a smaller figure limped past a bush and paused.

        Emmet inhaled sharply as the dim moonlight reveled to him a lean man he knew all too well. Kyle was a high ranking hero that had taken to clashing with Inferno on many occasions, the media even going as far as to call him his arch nemesis. Once they had been childhood friends but as their powers began to develop and grow Kyle and his family had moved away, leaving Emmet alone. It was years later when Inferno was ranked among the top twenty most dangerous villains on the continent did they unexpectedly meet again, and not in the way Emmet would have wished.

        Kyle had suddenly swooped down and thwarted Inferno during one of his rage-fueled vengeance sprees. His glorious wings no longer fluffy with down but fully fledged in shades of rust with faint black bands and a smattering of white speckles on the undersides. Inferno had been too stunned by his childhood friend's return to put up much of a fight. It was only after Emmet had returned to his lair did he realize that Kyle, no Falcon, had not known who he was under his mask. Now out here in the dark forest Emmet understood immediately that something was terribly wrong.

       Kyle's wings dragged through the dead leaves upon the forest floor and the right one dangled limply as to indicate a break. His clothes consisted of a pair of tattered scrub pants and his combat boots. Kyle's right arm dangled sickeningly by his side and his left hand was gripping his ribs in a defensive gesture. Dried blood marred his face and chest while the dark glitter of fresh blood darkened the pale skin of his right shoulder and dripped down to the leaf litter from his limp fingertips. Even from the distance of the few feet that separated the two of them Emmet could hear Kyle's breathing was labored and shallow.

        To add to Emmet's rapidly growing concern the hero Falcon had been missing for the past five months. To be fair, if a hero was injured and did not possess the rare power of swift healing they would often be out of the game for long stretches' as they recovered. This however, this was no absence of Kyle's choosing. Of this Emmet was suddenly very sure, what had happened to his childhood friend was not good. Ripping off his mask Emmet quickly closed the distance between them and looked down at Kyle in worry.