“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

Nathan Young, known to the public as Captain Invincible (he wish he chose another name, this one is starting to sound stupid), crumpled the newspaper article in front of him and threw it. “Are you telling me we can’t sue this bastard?”

“I thought you didn’t care what people said about you?” Curtis, known to the public as WindBack (not as good as Nathan’s suggestion: Mr. Backwards), says mockingly, “You said ‘any press is good press for celebrities’,” He curls his fingers around the words as emphasis.

Nathan scoffs, “I know what I said,” He uncrosses one arm to point to the newspaper. “But that bastard called me a fucking sell out! And cowardly! I am the opposite of cowardly!”

“Really?” Alisha spoke up from her perch on the couch, a mean smile on her red painted lips. “Cause I remember the time you ran from a group of fucking nuns. Kelly had to get in and save your ass.”

Nathan says defensively, “It was to save you and Curtis! And that was before we were heroes!”

“The whole world knows about it, though.” Kelly chimes in.

Nathan throws his hands up, “Why are you guys ganging up on me right now?” He sulks. “I’ve been defamated.”

“Defamed,” Curtis corrects.

Nathan waves him off, “Same thing.”

“Unfortunately,” Laura, their manager, walks into the room with her hands folded in front of her. Her face was carefully blank. “We can’t sue the person who wrote this paper. In fact, even if we could, it’d backfire heavily. The public would rage against you.”

Nathan groans. It’s a deep drawn-out groan that lasts a full uninterrupted minute.

Laura waits until he’s done before continuing, “We’ll have to work on recovering your image.” She pulls out her phone and types along the screen. “If it comes down to it, we’ll do another press tour.”

“Wait. What?” Nathan scowls. “All this for one reporter? I was just kidding about the suing part,” He pauses. “Well, not really. But a press tour? That’s a bit much.” He hates press tours.

A press tour is the fucking worse. All the fake laughing and smiling. Walking elderly across the street, saving animals, holding babies (that one isn’t too bad, Nathan loves babies), it’s exhausting. Even worse is the interviews. Nathan isn’t allowed to blurt things out.

He’s forced to think about his words carefully. Boring. Even worse is when Laura hands him a script to try and keep his personality when he’s answering questions. She makes him sound like a twat. Not even in a good way.

Laura narrows her eyes at him. “Except this isn’t just some reporter,” She says. “This newspaper was sent out yesterday and the damage has already started.” She flips her phone over and hands it to Nathan.

Her phone showed a post that had blown up, talking about him in the article. In the comments, many were agreeing with the article. “This is just one post, though,” Nathan sniffs.

“One post out of the many blowing up right now,” Laura said. She took her phone back. “It’s everywhere. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, even the news channels. This is serious.”

Nathan smile falls.

“So who the fuck is this guy?” Alisha asks.

Laura sighs, “He’s a famous reporter for Wertham Weekly that writes about heroes. Power analyses, costume functionality, public perception, Bellamy writes about it all. What made him so popular is his photos. He captures images no other reporter can.”

Nathan recalls, before he crumpled the paper in rage, the image of him on the front cover, still in costume between an ally-way shagging a fan. Which he has no regrets about. What’s the point of saving people and the world if there’s no hot girls lining up to throw themselves at you? It’s what motivates him.

“So, he’s a stalker, big deal,” Nathan shrugs,

Laura shakes her head. “It’s more than that.” She insists. “Do you remember the guy who debuted before you? The one with the milk abilities.”

“Uh,” Nathan’s mind blanks.

Alisha raises a brow, “Who?”

“No idea,” Curtis shakes his head.

Kelly squints, “Milk abilities?”

“Of course you don’t. He disappeared completely. He had to.” Laura said, “It was a week after the death of Daisy that Bellamy posted an article with pictures to prove that the guy killed her. The investigation reopened and he was found guilty.”

Nathan briefly remembers Daisy. She was sweet, a real Mother Teresa, but she reminded him of one of those mind-controlled nuns he had to save his friends from with the long skirts and soft cardigans.

“No offense,” Alisha says, “But I doubt we’d remember him even if he didn’t have to disappear for being a murderer. There ain’t shit else you can do with that power except…make coffees or something.”

Nathan snorts, “He sounds like one of those fat kids who had milk seeping out of their man boobs during puberty.” He waggles his eyebrows. “I had a kid like that at my school. We used to milk him at lunchtime.”

The kid had a nervous breakdown afterwards, which wasn’t as funny when Nathan remembers the kid having to be sent to the nurse where he snitched on Nathan (and only Nathan which is unfair since he wasn’t the only one jerking the kid’s nipples).

Alisha laughs, “No fucking way,”

“You’re such a prick,” Curtis says, looking away to hide the fact that he was fighting back a smile.

Laura looks at them with a stern expression. Quickly, they shut their mouths and straighten up. She’s a tall thin middle-aged woman, but she’s scarier than anyone Nathan has ever known. Her gaze alone intimidates him. Sometimes, in a sexy way.

“I was hoping that your last mission would prevent this, but you’ve toed the line in the public too often.” Laura sighs. She lifts her hand to rub the crease in her forehead. “Thankfully, it’s not a mess yet. We can still fix this.”

Nathan leans back against the love-seat. “I still think this an overkill,” He grumbles.

“Why don’t we get that Bellamy guy to interview Nathan,” Kelly suggests. “If the public is sucking his dick this hard about his fuckinf opinions on heroes, why not make him shine Nathan in a good light.”

Curtis mutters, “As good of a light as you can with him,”

“If I could get Bellamy on the line whenever I please, that article wouldn’t have arrived in your hands.” Laura states, visibly frustrated. “He doesn’t interview heroes. He refuses. And we’ve tried to recruit him. He won’t accept working for anyone that isn’t the Wertham Weekly, Lord knows why.”

Alisha rolls her eyes, “What a pretentious dick,”

“Well, I think I should find him.” Nathan throws out. “I’ll give him a good piece of my mind and convince him to do another article.”

Laura leveled him with a look. “You’re going to convince him?”

“Yeah,” Nathan shrugs, “Why not?”

Kelly squints her eyes at him, “Nathan, why the fuck would that work?”

“Cause it’s me,” Nathan gestures to himself. “I’ll put on my most charming smile, give him a few compliments even if he ends up looking like a toad, and bam. New article the next day talking about how awesome I am.”

Alisha groans, “This fucking idiot.”

“Let him,” Curtis laughs, “I wanna see his face when he fails.”

Nathan gasps, affronted. “Do you guys have no faith in me?”

“No,” They said in unison.

Nathan furrowed his brows, “Well, you guys are all haters.” He stood up from the love-seat. “I’ll crack this guy nice and easy, you’ll see.”

The office building bustled with people running around, papers flying everywhere, rushed phone calls, hurried typing, and the sound of what seemed like a thousand printing machines in a cartoon-ish manner.

Nathan strides in through the office wearing a crisp freshly-ironed gray suit. His black oxfords were shined and his hair was neatly parted. He contemplated giving himself a full slick back but that just made him look like an old man.

With everyone so busy rushing around him, no one stops to question if he belongs here. It’s just his luck that he picks a perfect time to be here.

But Nathan didn’t have the patience to snoop through the whole building. He flagged down the nearest person he could which happens to be a lady holding a stack of papers. “Excuse me,” He smiles, charming and beautiful, and softens his eyes.

The lady blushes, “Yes, how can I help you?”

“I was wondering if you knew where I could find Bellamy?” Nathan asks. “I have an appointment.”

Her eyes narrow, “Simon doesn’t take appointments.”

Fuck.

“Well,” Nathan pouts his lips. He tucks a curl behind his ear and looks at her through his lashes. “I was told to come here to deliver something to him, so—”

The lady’s eyes widen. “Oh! You’re here early, then.” Under her breath, she mutters. “We weren’t told to expect you until tomorrow,”

“Really?” Nathan’s blinks. He didn’t think that would work.

The lady nods, “Simon’s office is on the second floor. Down the right hall at the near end.”

“Thank you,” Nathan gives her one last smile before walking off.

The lady calls out, “Wait, if you’re the delivery boy, where’s the—”

Nathan rushes to the stairs and hurries up. Hopefully, that lady doesn’t call security on him. Or worse, the police. There’s only so many times Laura can stop him from being charged with breaking and entering.

Nathan reaches the second floor and stops in front of the door. He takes a second to smooth the lapels of his blazer and straighten out his tie. He doesn’t touch his hair, trusting that it still looks okay.

He takes a deep breath, grips the door handle, and enters.

The hall is quiet. A big difference from the first floor’s rowdiness. Nathan steps through as silently as he can. He’s a little unnerved by the fact that he can hear his own breathing.

He turns the corner into the right hall and picks up the pace. Nathan’s never been the sneakiest person, something Laura learned quickly after his first three stealth missions, so he can only pray that no one confronts him.

Simon Bellamy, Specialized Reporter. The name was engraved onto a silver plaque hanging on a wall beside a door. This is the prick trying to ruin his career.

Nathan takes a deep breath and gears himself up to tear a new one into this guy. He thinks on what he should say. Should he come in hot or be all mysterious-like? Hmm. He needs to be butch. Should he start off with—

A voice says behind him, “What are you doing?”

“AHH!” Nathan screams and jolts away from the door.

He whips his head around. “What the fuck—” His words are cut off as he takes in the man who appeared beside him. “Uh, hello.”

The man was shorter than him. He was pale with short brown ruffled hair and big blue eyes that were weighed by the heavy bags under them. His gray button up was wrinkled and he was holding a mug of black coffee. Despite his tired appearance, the man didn’t look bad.

“What are you doing?” He repeated.

Nathan leaned against the wall. “What are you doing?” He asked.

“Getting into the office,” The man replies, “You?”

Nathan sniffs, “Looking for this Bellamy prick.”

“What for?” The man narrows his eyes at him, suspicious.

Nathan furrowed his brows, “Why the fuck would I tell you?” He leans forward. “Who even are you?”

“I’m just surprised,” The man says. “It’s not everyday the Captain Invincible comes looking for a reporter,”

Nathan gapes at him, “How did you—” Nobody is supposed to recognize him out of his disguise.

The man takes out a pair of keys from his back pocket and unlocks the office door. “I’m assuming this is about the article,” He walks past Nathan into the small neat office.

“Oh,” Nathan realizes. “You fucking twat. You’re the twat.” He points at the guy—now known as Simon Bellamy—and says, “You’re the twat who wrote that bullshit.”

Simon rounds the desk and sits down in his chair. “Yes, I wrote the article.”

“Well, I need it gone!” Nathan demands. His plan of being charming and nice is forgotten in the face of the man who’s to blame for Nathan becoming infamous.

Simon placed his mug on the desk, “No.”

“Why not?”

Simon’s brows knitted. “...Because it’s already out in the public. I can’t exactly erase it.”

“Oh,” Nathan blinks.

“Yeah.”

Nathan strides up to Simon’s desk and slams his hands down on the wood. “Well, put another one out! You’re bullshit article is ruining my image! Do you know the shit I’m gonna have to go through to fix this!”

“It’s not a bullshit article,” Simon said firmly. “And how the public responds isn’t my issue.”

Nathan lifts a hand and grabs Simon’s collar, making the other boy choke. “I don’t care what’s your fault or not. I want another article out.” He threatened.

“No,” Simon glared up at him.

Nathan scoffs, “No? Do you know who the fuck you’re talking to?” He growls. “I will ruin you. I’m still a celebrity. I could kill you and no one will find your body.” He tightens his grip on Simon.

“That’s not very heroic,” Simon chokes out.

Nathan sneers, “Well according to you, I’m no hero.”

“I’m not scared of you,” Simon grits his teeth.

Nathan smiles, wide and mean. “Are you sure about that?”

“I’m not,” Simon snarled. He grabs Nathan’s hand and, with a surprising amount of force, pushes him off. “I suggest you leave before security comes up. They’ve already been notified.”

Nathan looks down at the desk and sees Simon’s finger pressed against a button on the multi-line phone, something he must’ve done while Nathan was choking him.

“You think I care about security?” Nathan laughs,

Simon shrugs, “Your manager might,” Unfortunately, the bastard was right. How he knew that, though, was beyond Nathan.

“Listen, why don’t we calm down.” Nathan softens his tone. “Emotions are running high. Clearly, there’s something in the air. We just need to take a deep breath and speak like adults.”

Simon squints at him. “You came in threatening me.”

“I’m hormonal, sue me.”

Simon shakes his head. “I’m not going to put out an article that lies about you. I only speak the honest truth in my work.” He said firmly. “My article was about the integrity you lack as a hero.” He sizes Nathan up. “And, I see, as a civilian.”

This bitch. “I’ll show you integrity—”

He’s held back by two tall buff men in uniform. “Sir, we’re going to have to ask you to leave.” One of them states.

“Shit,” Nathan curses. He glares at Simon as the two security guards force him away. “This isn’t over, freak!”

Simon sits back and picks up his mug. The last thing Nathan sees before he’s out of the office is the bastard’s tiny smug smile on his face.

The absolute wanker. Nathan wants to kill him.

“So, what was that about convincing him?”

Nathan doesn’t look up, “Just say it.”

“I told you so,” the three of his friends—right now, not so much—said.

Nathan lifts his head up from where it was resting on his arms. “I don’t understand why we can’t just get rid of the freak.” He says. He slides his thumb across his neck in emphasis. “You know?”

“Oh, so you want to go to jail for murder?” Curtis asks. “Cause that’s what’s gonna happen.”

Nathan twists his face. “Why would they pin it on me?”

“Of course they would,” Kelly huffs, “If you kill the dickhead now, everyone’s gonna know it’s you. And even if it wasn’t you, they’re gonna know it’s related to you.”

It’s not like Nathan didn’t understand the logic, but he’s beyond frustrated at this point. Laura had told him earlier of the millions of things he’ll need to do for his public image and his head hurts just thinking about it.

“You should’ve been there, Kelly.” Nathan crosses his arms over his chest. “You would’ve set that bastard right, no problems.”

“Yeah, and have my fucking career on the line next? No thank you.” Kelly replies,

“You know, I think he kinda likes you,” Alisha pipes up. She sat on a stool, reading a copy of the newspaper. “If you ignore the whole ‘not heroic’ bullshit in the first paragraph,”

Nathan leans over and snatches the paper out of her hand, “Don’t read it. That’s betrayal.”

“It’s betrayal to read the paper?” Alisha stared at him like he was stupid.

Nathan tosses the article aside. It falls on him. He tosses it again. It falls on him again. He gives up and leaves the article on his lap. “Yes,” He ignores their amusement at the display. “None of you are allowed to read anything from that wanker or his publisher!”

“Sure, whatever.” Alisha rolls her eyes. She stands up and grabs her purse. “I’m heading out, I gotta shoot in the morning and I’m not trying to hear our manager’s mouth.”

Curtis and Kelly follow her after her, standing up from their seats on the couch.

“Night, Nathan.” Kelly calls out.

Nathan grumbles, “Night.”

The room is quiet with nobody around. Nathan stares out the window. It’s a nice view, a good look into the busy city. He wants to open the window, just so he could listen to the sounds. He hates silence.

He pulls out his pack of cigarettes and sticks one into his mouth. He grabs the lighter off of the window seal and lights the end of it. Seconds later, he watches the smoke curl around him.

Nathan sighs. He tears his gaze away from the window and eyes the article in his lap. It sat there, taunting him with it’s stupid Times New Roman font.

If I skims through it, it doesn’t count as reading, he justifies to himself.

He takes the newspaper into his hands and reads past the first paragraph, already knowing there was nothing but scornful—and untrue—insults there.

...regardless of his morals, one cannot deny that Captain Invincible has a useful power. Immortality is rare to come across, even in comics. I find myself fascinated by how it works for him in particular. Unfortunately, the ‘hero’ refuses to divulge any further than, ‘I die. I wake up. I’m healed. Done.’ — Captain Invincible, in his interview with Amanda Bryne. I’m sure all of us have some of the same questions. What happens when he dies? How long does it take for him to heal? Are there any side effects? So much more.

Many heroes would’ve been pressed further on their powers, if only to keep from invoking a mass hysteria from the public because the people aren’t assured of how limited a power is (or really, what others can do to control a hero, should they go rogue), but not Captain Invincible. He has managed to charm the hearts of many despite his crass nature. For the purposes of fully analyzing the ‘hero’ that is Captain Invincible, it’s only right I acknowledge his good bone structure. It seems to be what lets him get away with anything…

“Good bone structure?” Nathan snorts. “That’s so gay.”

He takes drag from his cigarette.

“...Should I try to seduce him?”