Chapter Text
Villains and heroes weren't supposed to mix.
"Breaking news! The villain known as Heart Twister has..."
It was about Heart Twister again. It was about me again. I chuckled to myself. Villain? I'm only trying to help. Sure, I might try to steal some things here and there, but I give back to people in need. The system is corrupt, and it needs changing. The door lock clicked. "Alejandro, I'm back!" My roommate, Noah, yelled from the front door. I turned around from where I was sitting, pressing the off button on the TV remote. Noah had two bags of groceries hanging off his arms, and a pack of paper towels pressing against his light tan sweater vest. His brown eyes were dull and tired, not sparkling as they usually did. “You look tired,” I said, standing up. “Let me handle the groceries, you can go rest.” I offered, taking the groceries. “Thanks, Alejandro. My boss has been making me work a ton of overtime recently.” He said, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his white, long sleeve button up, pushing his glasses up as he did so. “It’s no problem, now go rest before I make you.” I jokingly threatened, making my way to the kitchen.
Noah and I had been roommates for a few months now, and as broke college students, being able to share the rent made life a little easier. At first, Noah was cold, but over the months, he’s opened up a little to me. Not much, but a little is still better than nothing. My watch buzzed, pulling me out of my trance. I put the last of the groceries in the fridge and pulled my phone out of my pocket.
HEATHER
Heyy Alejandro, got a new assignment for ya since you were at lecture during this week's meeting <3
You know the office building by the Whole Foods? They have some important documents there. Or something, I don’t know. I wasn't really listening then.
But anyway, you gotta like, get them and return them to The Puppeteer by tomorrow or something.
ALEJANDRO
Is it another seduction job?
HEATHER
No, you got lucky this time. Now go, I know you have stuff to do tomorrow.
Usually robberies followed this pattern:
-Walk in
-Steal the thing
--If you get caught, smooth talk your way out.
-Walk out
-Bring item to The Puppeteer
-Get some money
But today, today was different. I walked in, used my powers to manipulate security to let me through, walked up to the documents, and pulled them out. But as I was walking out, step 3, someone unknown stopped me. And I knew it couldn’t be anyone who worked here because they’re all on spring break, and all the security was still hypnotized. “Who are you?” I questioned, just wanting to get out of here to make some more money for rent that week. I looked the new person up and down. He was shorter, because though we were able to make eye contact without having to look up or down, he was wearing SUPER tall platforms. Jeez, how did he move around in those? Nonetheless, he wore a gas mask to cover his face, and his jet black hair was pulled into a ponytail. “Ghastly. New hero.” His voice was somewhat deep, not obscured by the gas mask at all. Strange.
I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my chest as I was knocked backwards. “The league doesn’t like the way I fight, but it gets the job done.” He stood over me, a hand on his hip. I put my arm up, sending a surge of power towards the new hero. He hung in the air, struggling, to no avail. “Well they don't call you the most powerful villain for no reason I suppose.” With a flick of my wrist I sent him flying backwards. He hit the wall, but instead of sitting there for a moment to cover, he came flying out of the dust, ready to attack again. Ghastly started throwing punches and kicks, some of them coming very close to hitting me. It took a lot of physical strength to fight back. Though I did find it strange Ghastly didn't seem to be using any form of power.
As I got distracted by that thought, Ghastly struck me in the jaw. I sat there, shocked for a second. “Not bad, I’ll give that one to ya.” I held my jaw as I spoke. Damn, that hurt. Not bad for a new hero though. He came running towards me again. I unclipped my grappling hook from my belt, shot it up onto a pipe, and slid under him. But I miscalculated, and I ended up sliding right out of the window. That was fine, nothing I hadn’t done before.