Villain Hunting Villain (2)
On the road leading to the tunnel, the villains launched a group assault.
They must've figured they had a shot if they all rushed me together. But they were short on intel.
Most of the techniques I used were AoE attacks. Them clumping up to charge was actually doing me a favor.
I swung the baseball bat with everything I had at the three leading the pack.
KABOOOOOM—-!!!!!
I'd gotten pretty used to using my superpower by now. Unleashing a full-force strike that blasted shockwaves everywhere felt like a basic attack. It just worked, no matter how roughly I swung.
But this time, the hit landed perfectly.
Crack-crack-crack-crack.
The moment the bat connected straight-on with the villain up front, cracks like those on shattered glass appeared in midair. There was no glass around, of course—it was just this bizarre sight of fissures etching into empty space.
This happened sometimes when the shockwave really popped off.
KABOOOOOM——!!!!!!
The three villains caught in the blast radius exploded spectacularly.
I figured that might take out the next five charging in too, but there were some competent ones among them.
One guy sensed the danger, sent his three buddies ahead as cannon fodder, then dodged mid-charge to evade the shockwave.
The lizard-man and another villain had wisely pulled back on their own, putting distance between us.
"That's some insane power you've got, Blank."
"…."
The lizard-man and the assault-rifle villain flinched after watching their three vanguard buddies turn to mush in an instant. They were rattled by the sight of their comrades bursting right in front of them. Perfect—I just had to exploit that opening.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!!
A sound four times louder than fireworks exploding rang out as I twisted my body like mad, scrambling for cover.
I dove behind the wall of a service corridor next to the tunnel and somehow escaped the line of fire.
Watching those bullets chew up the corridor wall like crazy was pure terror.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
He must've modded it with an extended mag—the burst kept going forever. I figured he'd have to reload soon, but the gunfire dragged on.
"UHAHA! That's it! Pour it on!!! Even Blank's gotta be human under there! Bullets will kill him!!"
The lizard-man's pissed-off shout cut through the gunfire.
'Yeah, they would.'
My superpower let me infuse shockwaves into strikes or slashes. Otherwise, I was pretty much a regular human. A knife or bullet would end me just fine.
'Wish I had a healing factor or something.'
Then I could shrug off bullets and stab wounds, tanking hits like a boss.
Click.
I heard the rifle guy reloading. Had to time my rush perfectly. If the gap was iffy, I'd make it bigger.
Kick the ground, blast a shockwave to draw attention, then charge in?
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
While I was mulling it over, fresh gunfire erupted like a timeout buzzer. Guess I'd have to wait for the next window.
Then, abruptly, the shooting cut off unnaturally.
Something happened. I peeked out from cover, and my body went slack with relief.
Flash had just landed on the ground, neatly subduing both villains with clean hand-to-hand moves.
The lizard villain was pinned but struggling to get up. Flash punished him with a beam shot straight through his Achilles tendon. The heat ray pierced clean, and the lizard rolled around screaming.
With both villains down, Flash spotted me and walked over.
"Blank. Knew you'd be here."
Flash approached with her usual blank expression.
"Hey, long time no see."
It was a sudden run-in, but seeing a familiar face beat staring down villains trying to kill me.
"Heard you've been hunting villains in District 23 lately. What're you up to?"
Flash stared me down in a stance ready to lunge any second.
"Too many guys gunning for me."
I racked my brain—had I ever been this popular? Nah, this was peak fame.
"…."
Flash eyed me like she was scanning for weaknesses, then dropped a random bombshell.
"Villain Blank. I know you have your own sense of justice. You're hunting villains to enforce your version of it, right?"
Flash was talking out of her ass like she'd heard a noise in her sleep.
"No. They're the ones coming at me."
It was just villain turf wars—nothing more, nothing less. Evolutionarily speaking, survival of the fittest. That's it.
"…So you're just gonna brush it off like that."
Flash shook her head wistfully.
Her expression told me she'd badly misunderstood something. After all our run-ins, she'd built up some wildly distorted image of me.
'That's Flash for you.'
She overthought everything alone, hated chit-chat, and once an idea took root, it ballooned in her head without escape. Stubborn dreamer type.
Flash had latched onto a misconception and twisted it into a heroic narrative about me.
"I get it. You never attack civilians, no terror acts. You're even keeping District 23's villain pool clean by weeding them out."
Flash rattled it off like a machine gun.
"No, seriously, that's not it."
I was just a possessed guy going with the flow. But Flash had slotted me into some dark hero archetype.
"Your methods are wrong, though. Villains need proper arrests and trials under the law. Justice has to be legal."
Flash advanced, wrapped in her signature glowing light.
"I know you won't attack me. You've got that no-heroes rule. Hurting a non-resisting foe doesn't sit right, but…."
Her sparkling eyes were terrifying. Whatever I said, she wasn't hearing it—pure conviction.
'No, I just knew I couldn't win and bailed.'
Flash was the type who, once fixated, had no brakes. I'd never fought her head-on, always fled. Simple reason: she was this world's protagonist. She'd patched that with other clues into a massive misunderstanding.
"I'm arresting you. And I'll personally set you straight."
Flash was dead set on cuffing me. A runaway tank fueled by delusion—that was her.
'Can't let her catch me.'
Having read the original, I knew what happened to captured villains. Standard treatment, sure, but in this world, they weren't treated humanely. Best case, you rotted in a moldy cell. Most became lab rats for Carl's Industries or other corps—vivisected. Some got bomb collars and shipped to warzones.
Villains clenched their teeth and fought capture for good reason. Once nabbed, your life was over.
'How do I ditch her?'
Flash had just arrived—no stamina drain. Unlike the brainbuster incident last time, she was at full power. No signs of letting her guard down.
Her mentality was another wall. Zero mental cracks. She was laser-focused on taking me down here and now.
No openings.
If there were none, I'd make one.
In the distance, drones with camera gear swarmed in—media drones dispatched for on-site coverage.
Time to shake things up. Payback for that Crusher asshole who screwed me over.
"Only a villain like me could snag intel your heroes couldn't dream of."
Drop a shocker to rattle Flash, then bolt in the gap. That was the plan.
I shouted loud, flicking my eyes toward the drones.
"Sure. Whatever. I'll hear it back at the station."
Flash blew off my words sweetly and closed the distance. In seconds, she'd be on me. Had to unsettle her first.
"Four days from now, Starfield department store opens. Crusher and his crew plan to terrorize it. Send minions first as a distraction, then he crushes the whole building remotely with a massive gravity field."
Spilled some original-knowledge spoilers only a possessed reader could know.
"…!!! "
Flash's steps faltered. Even the boldest villain wouldn't hit a downtown department store crawling with heroes and cops. Suicide. She looked incredulous that Crusher would try something so insane.
How much truth was in my words? Flash stared, eyes full of doubt.
"If I were you, I'd worry less about grabbing me and more about defending Starfield with the other heroes."
So quit harassing harmless me.
I said it loud and clear. The drones' cameras caught it too. Might even hit the news.
"Wait…! Details!"
Flash remembered her arrest-first priority, but the crack was there.
I seized the moment, shockwaved the ground, and leaped away, escaping the highway.
"Stop—!!!"
Flash reacted a beat late, chasing after. But chaining shockwaves gave me solid escape speed. Pure running? I could outpace her.
Just haul ass.
Blank's pursuit-dodging intel leak(?) got a bigger reaction than expected.
Scenting drama and clicks, networks broadcast his terror warning far and wide. The bombshell content spread like wildfire.
And the biggest victim? One guy.
"Shiiiiiit!!!!"
Crusher, watching TV, unleashed a gravity field and crumpled the set like an aluminum can.
"Who the fuck…?! Where'd the leak come from!!"
Crusher bellowed at his pale-faced minions, fists shaking.
Their secretly shared terror plot had leaked to Blank. Crusher's flashy villain debut was crumbling before it even started.