3 Heroes and A Villian

Chapter 2

He didn't want to do this. He never wanted to do this. It was never in his plans, but it was expected of him, and he hated to fail people's expectations of his, so even though his body ached and he wasn't in the best shape because of the injury on his leg, he crawled out of bed and got ready for his night job.

He got in the shower, hoping it would help with the pain. It didn't. "They're expecting me. I have to show. I'd have wasted their time if I don't," he thought as he pulled the box contain the uniform for his night job from out under his bed. 

It was completely black, even the cape and gloves were black. "To help me blend in with the night," he would always say when someone questioned it, but in reality, he just really liked the color black. He inspected it, making sure that he had patched up all the holed from last night. He couldn't let them know that they actually harmed him and new uniforms cost a lot of money, so he patched it up himself. He actually liked patching it, sewing helped with his anxiety, but if pressed he would fervently deny it.

It took a bit longer to leave his apartment tonight, partly because of his injured leg, but mostly because he didn't want to go out at all, he just wanted to crawl back into bed and forget that he was supposed to do anything. 

"I really need to buy a bike, or any form a transportation. You never see the people in the comics walking to the scene of the battle, they always have cool vehicles," he thought grumpily as he cloaked himself in shadows and began the 20-minute walk to the nightclub, which would serve as the starting point for tonight's fight.

When he got to his destination, he slipped his shadows inside. The lovely patrons would see their worse fears, no matter what it was his shadows were strong enough to make it seem real. He waited, and waited, and waited for the spark of cruel satisfaction that usually came when he heard his victim's terrified screams, but there was nothing. There hadn't been anything for a long time and part of his feared there would never be anything again.

His predecessors never warned him about, the loss of drive or even care for what he was doing. They warned him about the exhaustion, pain, and self-loathing that came with being a villain," no a necessary evil that existed to give good a purpose" he reminded himself. "Maybe they didn't feel it. Maybe they believed what they were doing was important, though it never feels important,"  he thought as he waited for the 3 heroes to show up. They were never this late before and it was concerning. "What if I really hurt them last time?" he asked himself as he control on the shadows weakened a little. 

He immediately shot up to attention when he felt one of the shadows make it's way over to him and begin to whisper in his ear, "You're a failure. No one will ever love you. What if you're actually evil and the numbness is you not caring for your poor little victims anymore," causing his stomach to drop and his heart to start pounding.

It took him a few minutes to get his heart rate back to control, but he still didn't feel ok, and he knew he wouldn't for a while, he knew from previous experience that the shadow's slippery voice would follow him into his dreams, turning them into nightmares and that no matter how tightly he kept his grip on the shadows they would come back to try and destroy him and one day they would succeed. 

"Release them!" a voice he had heard every night for over a year yelled.

He smiled a cold smile and said, "Make me, Pricey,"

The heroes were here and the battle was about to begin.