Big City Villain | BOOK ONE

Revamped Chapter Seven: Let's Put Up a Fight.

"Well, well, well, if it ain't the old man Gust himself. Where have you been? In physical therapy?" I asked. I jumped off the air conditioning unit I had been sitting on and tugged my black jean jacket tighter around me. On top of the Mars Building was the slightest bit of chill in the air, but that could have been because I was there and I'm the coolest person I know.

The super, who went by the really lame name of Gust, landed on the rooftop hard. He wasn't actually that old, but one time, I discovered that he was very sensitive about his age. Now, I made it my goal to try and guess his age, which annoyed him greatly.

"Ember! You stupid piece of trash!"

I laughed, mostly because just seeing me was apparently enough to put him in a bad mood. "Wow, Gust, I'm so proud of you for remembering my name! It's been what? Three days since we last hung out?"

Now hold up, before you go sticking up for Gust O' Farts (disclaimer: not his real name), you should know that he's actually a pretty bad villain. I mean, all of us villains are bad, but Gust had an edge, and, as far as I knew, he had zero limits (though I guess a villain wouldn't be a villain if they had limits, but most of the other guys here just want money and not to necessarily hurt someone... Gust wants to hurt everyone). The other villains tend to hide whenever I get close, and if we ever got into a fight, I knew their weaknesses fairly well and could exploit them if I felt they were getting the upper hand. As far as I knew, Gust had no weaknesses.

King City was overrun with supers. Most didn't have powers that would make them a proper hero or villain, but those with useful powers often did something either for the advancement of good or bad. Every major city held a branch of The Board of Superheroes to keep track of supers and train the next gen. But that's a story for another chapter because I am now officially distracted.

Though we both were villains, Gust and I were natural enemies. Our fights were usually pretty stupid, and I couldn't care one way or another. All I cared about was winning. I can be a bit of a sore loser, fyi.

"What'd you take from Crawler?" Gust snapped.

I frowned and blinked a few times. "What could that weasel of a sidekick have that I'd want?" This is a little random, but you know what this city doesn't have? Sidekicks. Huh. Weird. Or maybe I just never noticed. Does Ben have a sidekick? And if so, who is it? Is it Charlie? Is Charlie a superhero and is that why he hates Ben so much? Lol, yeah, right. Great. I'm distracted again. Focus, Coal Black.

Gust narrowed his eyes at me. "Whatever it is, it's none of your business."

"Then why even ask if I have it? And maybe I do have it, but I just don't want you to have it."

Gust curled his upper lip at me and took long strides till he was in my face. He held his arms out and brought in a windstorm that whipped the air around into a frenzy. "If I find out you have what I need, you'll regret ever interfering, peach fuzz."

Good mood gone. I scowled at him and almost lit myself on fire, but for all I knew, stupid Anti-Gravity or his sidekick was waiting for me to slip up. All I needed from Gust was a reason to use my powers for self-preservation.

"Watch it, Gust, or else I'll send you to an early retirement."

He laughed rudely. "You're not going to do anything. You're too afraid of breaking your ban. Coward." Gust continued laughing while walking backward to the edge of the building to fly off.

Challenge accepted.

Before he could get a couple of feet from the building, I was racing towards him and launching myself at him. I latched onto his shoulders and hung on for dear life as the momentum spun us in sickening circles. He screamed awful threats at me and flew straight up into the sky, where he promptly tried to wrench me away. Lil jerk was trying to kill me.

So, naturally, I set myself on fire. "Aw, come on, Gust! I'm enjoying the view up here!" I shouted, mostly to distract him from what I was trying to do. You see, I snatched that syringe that the home invader had tried getting me with. According to the label, it was a power disabler, but since I wasn't too keen on trying it on myself, I thought Gust was a perfect volunteer.

It just about pricked his back when he jerked to the side and successfully kicked me off. I gasped in shock at his rudeness but didn't get the chance to dish out a retort because gravity dragged me back to the earth and fast. I still had a good grip on the vial and only hoped I wouldn't drop it or accidentally give it to myself.

I wasn't in any particular rush to get back down, so I stayed falling back first and watched the sunset. With big puffy clouds framing the setting sun, I almost took my phone out to snap a quick pic, but the countdown in my head told me it was time to angle headfirst and prepare to absorb the shock of the landing. I tried reminding myself that flying was totally overrated, but it didn't take the sting away.

I angled away from the busy streets and hit the ground in an alleyway. Energy coursed through my body and heightened all my senses. Thankfully, the landing wasn't bad enough that I maxed out. Energy absorbing was a tricky power to have. Technically, you could run off of it, and I have done that a few times, but it's the equivalent of drinking espresso on an empty stomach if you go too long without proper rest or actual food. Also, if I max out on energy when absorbing the shock of something, it's the most painful thing to experience, and excess energy is let out by a pretty intense wildfire.

"Aren't you banned from using your powers?"

I jerked upright and found myself in the presence of Red. Red was the head of the Board of Superheroes here in King City and also one of the most powerful ones around town. Even though he was considered the good guy, he was one I never wanted to cross.

"Self-perseveration," I grumbled. I kept my hand behind my back as casually as I could. I didn't feel like answering any questions about the vial. "If you were doing your job, you would have noticed that Gust was trying to kill me."

"Did you get him first?" Red asked with a snicker.

"He got away."

"You're getting slow, Ember."

I scowled. "What do you want, Color Theory?"

Red mirrored my scowl and grabbed my arm. "We need you at the Board."

"Pfft, and why should I even go with you?" I tried wrenching myself away from him, but his grip only tightened, and my vision began to turn a hazy red as he started to take my powers away. Red was a power taker; if he wanted to, he could leave me powerless. I immediately stopped struggling, and my vision cleared up. "Okay, okay, you win."

"And I always will."

See? What'd I tell you? Scary.

Yo, what's up? Okay, it's been a hot minute but here is a small life update no one asked for: I'm moving again at the end of the month and it's not across town, more like across the state, so I've been overwhelmed and underwhelmed and lacking any and all motivation to do anything other than scroll stupid Instagram. So, updates will be sporadic until sometime in June, when, hopefully, I'll be semi-settled and into something like a routine.