Poison's Kiss. (On Hiatus)

Chapter 2 - Sneaking Through Serpo.

It was completely normal for me to take the long way back home, heroes and villain come out at night, sure, the civilians that live in the cities are usually doing their own thing and living their lives. Its rare for our politics these days to intermingle.

But every now and then a super-villain will rear their head and cause a huge amount of chaos that no one can ignore, deaths, mass destruction and the treaty set in place to quell the villains from getting any bright ideas in teaming up or not focusing on the heroes. The whole spiel had been pretty dull to me, what's the point in fighting each other if there were no consequences to winning and losing. Being a villain hadn't meant the same thing over 20 years ago, they could team as they pleased, and often times cared little when a beloved hero takes a fall and doesn't get back up. But now things are different, perhaps its for the better.

The last Super-Villain that caused a ruckus was Splice. And the less thought about that monster the better. There was nothing stopping me from enjoying the little freedom I had on my journey back to HQ, not home. There had never been one of those either; to the surprise of no-one.

Then again, my mind drifting to Wonderboy, who had been my nemesis for two years now. It wasn't exactly a given thing like most villains get. Sometimes villains get their heroes passed down to them, generation by generation until their feud is an on going war. Not like me, who was casually committing some light larceny when he appeared.

I remember that night like it was yesterday, he was so nervous with it being his first time. It was endearing in a great way, villains and heroes should have that bond, that endearment with each other. It prevents things from getting personal or serious.

I recall him saying "Y-you there, stop that at once or- or face the consequences of Wonderboy, protégé of WonderMan!"

I still wasn't in control of my powers fully yet, neither was he, just two supers who were just starting out despite my ability to kick his ass with my advanced training. He was still superior in strength which caught me off guard, leading to my capture once or twice. They could never contain me for a single night however, their guards sloppy and their cells even more so.

Still, that relationship between us was never planned, we just connected on that level as nemesi.

People from Serpo were forbidden anywhere but their small slice of the city, Avians and their cousins the Vespers were formidable with the two sharing one slice making their criminal territory slightly larger in the north.

Avians were humans with the ability of flight, often with feathers or wind, the Vespers on the other hand were bat-like, relying on their wings and levitation abilities. Beside them was us, the Serpo in the south. But along the other side were the muscle of the criminal world, full to the brim with rock heads and titans, they were branded the Hercs, short for herculean. Sharing what little space that hugged Brightside. Heading south to them were the Velox, speedsters, next to them the Umbra who were masters of shadow and stealth. Mostly kept to themselves unless threatened.

And the biggest slice went to nobody, not if you count the heroes of any importance, which I don't. They nabbed the sweet spot in the middle as their base of operations years ago, purely to keep a watchful eye on the city in a wide sweep. It split the city into a pie and they sat high on the hill like kings, our territories were named Nightside, where they were "preferred" the name Brightside.

They called their base The Core.

It didn't matter to the other half of the city, Nightside was our turf, even if its territories wanted to rip each other to ribbons. Brightside was hardly in better shape, what with WonderMan suddenly disappearing off the face of the earth, and the growing tensions between the heroes alliances were faltering.