The Undoing Of Heroes | ✓

four

four

I WOULD'VE BEEN slashes to pieces by whatever sharp knife hurtling toward me in high speed, had it not been for someone grabbing the dark knife in mid-air. 

Paindealer grinned as his grip tightened around the object, before it snapped completely, and two clean-cut shards clattered against the ground. 

I sent him a grateful look but he just nodded, as if it was expected of him to endanger himself. I snuck a glance at his gloved palm, and surprise struck me like a punch as I saw that he hadn't been harmed. At all. Not even a single scratch. 

"Who are you?" Mindcracker snarled at the darkness, and an answer came in the form of a rumbling laugh. 

"Your worst nightmare." A freezing voice whispered, right next to my ear. I swivelled around, prepared to fight but there was nothing but shadows.

Shivers crawled down my spine as my eyes drifted across our surroundings. Then, that eerie voice surfaced yet again: 

"I really thought you were smarter than this, you villains." It cackled, evilly, "Especially you, Nightspark. So adamant on keeping to your bad self."

I stiffened. 

"You need the hate, and the fame, don't you? You need the money, too-"

"Shut up!" I sneered, "You don't know anything about me."

Electricity crackled as fury simmered in my veins, combining with my power. The streetlights illuminating the park suddenly stopped glowing, and we descended into a darkness only lit by my hands, sparking with electrodes. 

"Calm down." Blaze muttered, but my power didn't cease sparking. I saw black spots dance in my vision, and I was unable to calm down as I saw a flicker of the silhouette hiding in the shadows.

"Little Nightspark, so much to learn." It tutted, "Did you not stop to think for even a second why you were doing something so ... heroic?" 

Mindcracker's eyes narrowed behind her mask, and her gloved fists clenched. 

"Why you were investigating such a villainous crime, a murder. That's what the superheroes live for, isn't it? Yet you intervened. I wonder why. Perhaps because a certain super's sister's boyfriend was horribly murdered." 

Lacey's boyfriend? 

My eyes inadvertently slid toward Mindcracker, whose teeth were clenched and posture stiff. 

The heroes looked her way too, with gleaming curiousness dancing in the way their eyes seemed to scan Aria. 

"Fuck off, murderer." I intervened, saving Aria from further time in the red-light.

"The only murderer here is you."

The silhouette stepped out of the shadows, and for the first time, we could fully see him.

He was tall, around Blaze's height, if not even taller. His mask covered his entire face, and was shining in a metal-like way, giving off an ominous glow in the light of the full moon. The mouthpiece of the mask was extraordinary in a horrifying way, as there were pieces of metal jutting out of the mask like jagged teeth. 

The rest of the suit was built more like amor, with metal everywhere. There were glinting steel knuckles, and the crusted substance on them made my stomach roll. 

Aside from the metal ornaments the suit was black, with blood red veins running across it.

"Blackblood." I seethed, and his eyes snapped to mine, seemingly surprised.