《Heroes, Villains, and Everything in Between》 A normal day I was in the air, floating above the beautiful streets of Serenity City, a green aura surrounding me as I looked down at the sleek buildings and peaceful parks. I enjoyed the peace, but before I could relax, a flurry of villainous activity took place! With a confident grin on my face, I swooped down and knocked out five villains in the east, three to the west, seven to the south, and... oh no, my greatest enemy, the vile Mechanist! "I Paragon, shall stop you!" I charged in smashing through his evil robots. After fighting through them, I rushed to the Mechanist and knocked his lights o-. I woke up to the feeling of grogginess as I realized what had just happened was a dream. I wasn''t Paragon and neither did I have powers though I wouldn''t have minded either to be true. I was Patrick Carpenter a 15... or I guess 16-year-old teen now with it being my birthday. "Shine bright, shine bright, shine bri-." My alarm was still blaring with the characteristic catchphrase of Paragon, the strongest hero of Serenity City. I turned in my bed to slam on it and saw the time and date. 6:34 AM, 28/5/2030, the day I was hoping and dreading... the last day of school. I sat up in bed and stretched, my lips feeling chapped as usual. I reached for the chapstick I kept on my bedside table and placed the cherry-flavored balm on my lips. I smacked my lips and headed out of my room to get ready for the day. It was Friday and I still had today left until I was off for the summer. ''Lucky me, right?'' I sighed internally before I walked towards the bathroom where I looked into the mirror, my brown eyes the color of mud looking back as I scratched at my pale skin. I went to brush my teeth which were looking sort of dull despite the whitening toothpaste I always use which I annoyingly put on the top shelf of the cabinet above the mirror. I tried my best to reach for it but my below-average height was not working in my favor. Deciding it could wait I grabbed my comb on a lower shelf and ran it through my hair, pieces of dandruff catching on the comb as my tangled black hair caused me no little amount of trouble. Following that I grabbed a stool and grabbed my toothpaste, applying it to my toothbrush and cleaning the previously mentioned dull teeth. Finally, I went for my clothes and... then I remembered I forgot to grab clothes. I groaned as I went back to grab what I thought was a good shirt and pair of pants. Putting them on I looked at the white and green striped shirt and purple sweatpants. ''They look good.'' I nodded to myself as I put on my Paragon-themed socks like any good fan of heroes would. Soon I was walking towards the door of my room with my backpack in hand but stopped when the knob turned to reveal... "Surprise!" Two voices rang out as I let out a totally manly yelp. "What the fu-?!" I saw the figures of my uncle and mother holding a stack of pancakes with a singular pink candle on top. My mother''s brows scrunched as I realized what I''d just said. I turned to my uncle for help but he looked like he was on the verge of a laughing fit. "Patrick Phillips Carpenter." I froze at the use of my full name and tried to give my best smile. "Wow, thanks for the pancakes!" I tried to grab them out of my mother''s hands but they were stuck like glue and despite my mother being at least a few inches shorter than me it felt like I was staring at someone much taller than me now. "Didn''t I tell you not to make a habit of swearing?" I nodded at my mother, Linda Carpenter, whose eyes drifted down to my outfit with an even bigger frown as she sighed. "And what''s with that outfit?" I looked down at my clothes. "What? What''s wrong with my clothes?" Mom shook her head and turned to my uncle, Rodney Phillips, whose last name as many could guess with my mother''s big hint inspired my middle name. "Rodney, go help him pick out better clothes for his birthday." Rodney nodded, his face straight. My mother left soon after that with the pancakes I regretted not being able to eat, but oh well, I can probably eat them later. "So you still have that horrible sense of color?" I frowned at that but decided to ignore the slight to my perfectly normal preferences in my clothing. "It''s not horrible, but yes I''m still dressing like this." I gestured to my clothes and got a weaker yet equally irritating chuckle. Rodney was my favorite uncle, but that was only because he was my only uncle and cared a lot about me and mom. He showed up a few years back after having ''traveled the world'' or so he said. My mom thought he''d just decided to run off with his good-for-nothing girlfriend and ended up breaking up with her, but that''s in the past and now he visits us every week and attends an engineering college in Serenity City, the place our neighborhood is close to. "How about this white shirt?" Uncle Rodney held a white shirt with a dog on the front catching a ball and I frowned. "No thanks." My Uncle went back to searching as I went back to my thoughts. Summer was almost here and I''d have tons of time to read my backlog of books I''d gotten for myself last year. I remembered how I saved up a ton of money from doing chores and splurged on a bunch of novels and various subjects that I was interested in like the powers of heroes and villains, the theoretical origins of their powers, and how they might interact with each other. I thought of the biology books that my mother insisted I buy. Finally, I thought of my most important book. "Roughing it, a book of general camping and wilderness survival practices in all biomes?" My head darted over to the beat-up leather book that''d been sitting on my shelf until now. "You still have this old thing?" I growled and grabbed it from his hands. "It''s a good book." I looked down at the leather cover and read the name of the author. ''Derek Carpenter,'' I placed the book back as my mind started to drift. ''Where are you now?'' I shook my head and turned back to Rodney who gave me an awkward smile. "So... how about this?" This time he raised a pair of black sweatpants and not seeing anything wrong with it, I nodded. "Great, now let''s get downstairs, so your mom doesn''t start yelling at us." Rodney smiled and I rolled my eyes at his joke. "Sure, let''s go." I slipped on the pair of sweatpants and headed out with my uncle behind me and my bag on my back. ********** A few minutes later... Polishing off the last of my pancakes I stood up and headed for the door. "Hey, aren''t you forgetting something?" I turned back and Mom was standing there holding my bag. "Oh, thanks!" I smiled, but it felt crooked as I silently grabbed my bag only for my wrist to be grabbed as I felt a kiss on my cheek. I turned to look at Mom and saw her pointing to her own. I sighed, giving a quick peck as well before grabbing my bag and rushing for the door. "Have a good day!" I heard from behind me as I looked back with a slightly straighter smile. "I''ll do my best." I turned back to the door and opened it to a sweltering sun that almost wiped my small smile off my face. I took a minute or two to make my way to the bus stop where similarly miserable students were waiting for the bus... all except for one exceptionally tall, tan-skinned boy with green eyes that shone in the bright summer sun. "Hey, Marcus." I waved as the larger boy turned to me with a friendly smile. "Hey Patrick, how''s it going?" I shrugged as I glanced around at the other teens around us once again. They seemed to be ignoring the conversation as they scrolled through their phones. "I''ve been better." I raised my head to the sun, Marcus looked up to the sun and shrugged. "It''s not that bad." I rolled my eyes at that, remembering that Marcus always had a strangely high tolerance for heat that everyone including me didn''t seem to have. "Then how are you mister I''m not bothered?" Marcus was still smiling as he patted me on the back, causing me to jump. "Great, since I get to celebrate my best friend''s birthday!" I was annoyed at the sudden action as I glanced around to see if anybody had started watching us. I sighed when I saw no one looking. Relief washed over me only to turn to annoyance a a snicker entered my ear and I turned to see the amused face of Marcus. "Not funny," I whispered with the same annoyance that I held for the sun now. This only caused Marcus to laugh more. I frowned as I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Hey man, seriously, happy birthday." He held out a present wrapped in a colorful wrapping dotted with Christmas ornaments. I looked up at Marcus with confusion as he gave me an awkward smile. "Mom and Dad were busy with work, so I had to improvise." This time I let out a snicker as Marcus looked down at me with a mock offended look. "You''re laughing at my effort!" He placed his hand on his chest with an overdramatic flourish. He kept that look for a few seconds before also breaking into similar snickers at his act. We stopped a few moments later and I smiled at the friend I''d known since Elementary school as I went to open the present. Tearing one side open I saw a cover that looked similar to... "No way!" I tore more of it open and saw the cover of my favorite fantasy novel. "Fallen Warriors 10!" I grinned with a manic glee as I turned and patted him on the back not caring about the possible attention that it would bring at the moment. "Thanks, man!" Marcus kept his smile, nodding in response. "You''re welcome." A few seconds passed and I started to think about how he knew I needed the 10th book in the series. I turned to Marcus but he raised a finger. "Before you ask, I saw that it was out and I knew you only had 9 since you talked about it at school," I remembered the moment and felt a bit of my anxiety return as I realized I had been chatting his ear off the last few days. "Ah uh, sorry?" Marcus shook his head. "It''s what you do." I sort of agreed with that but at the same time. "I don''t talk that much do I?" Marcus snorted at that. "Again, it''s what you do." I sighed at that and turned to look at the people around us to see some of them mumbling as they looked at us. ''Uh...'' I tensed at the attention as I remembered how loud I was being. "H-hey, how long until the bus gets here?" Marcus looked down at me confused before pulling out his phone and glancing at the time. "6:56, why?" I glanced back at the people around us and Marcus seemed to catch it. "Dude, stop worrying about it." My body stayed tense, but I felt my anxiety lessen just a tiny bit at the confidence Marcus was showing. "So uh, is the football season over?" Marcus nodded as he stared off into the distance. "We didn''t do great this year but I think that was just because we weren''t able to replace our Edge rusher." I frowned at the words. "Is that bad?" Marcus gave me a so-so look. "Sort of? They defend the edge of the field, so it was harder for us to keep the quarterback from getting to our end line." I gave him my best sympathetic smile. "Well, it''ll be better next season?" Marcus shrugged, looking down at the reminder of our high school''s less-than-stellar performance. Luckily before any other mentions of sports could be made, the bus arrived allowing us to get on with our day. ********* I took the bus ride to get through the first few pages of Fallen Warriors 10. It wasn''t bad, but the author''s writing felt off despite how well it was written. I couldn''t tell what it was though besides that it was fine. So fine in fact that when I split from Marcus I kept reading through my classes since none of them needed me to do anything until... "So students, I know it''s the last day of school but I wanted to give a fun pop quiz." I frowned as I looked up from John''s exploration of the Jovian plains. "Nothing for a grade of course... but it will test your knowledge in geography to see if you know the best vacation spots around!" Our over-enthusiastic teacher got groans for his words as he chuckled, passing out the papers. We all took as little time as possible, reading through the questions and answering them. It took me roughly 15 minutes and I was out the door soon after the bell rang. ''Same boring school, same boring classes.'' I sighed as I made my way over to the bus pick up only to stop when I felt a buzz from my pocket. I opened my phone and noticed a text from Uncle Rodney. "Hey kid, I just came over to your school, but I''m a little lost, where''s the pickup?" I thought over how to explain where I was and just decided to go with the most obvious place to go. I walked up to the front of the school as I explained the location and soon enough I saw Uncle Rodney in his car waving at me with... Marcus? ''When did they meet up?'' I walked over as I got in the back and watched Rodney pull out of the lot and out onto the street. Marcus and I chatted on the way home, talking about our last day of school and how cool this summer was going to be with nothing we needed to do. The party went well with Marcus''s family coming over to celebrate too. They gifted some books and a gift card or two before they left to get some sleep. I waved them goodbye, and following them not long after was Uncle Rodney who had to get back home for work. A few hours after that Mom tucked in for the night. I watched her walk up stairs thinking about her usual work schedule. This was probably one of the few days she had off in the earlier months. I sighed at the thought before I got up and started looking for Marcus. Assuming he''d been getting ready for bed too... only to find him staring out the window with astonishment. "What''s up?" Marcus didn''t look away as I turned to see what had him so entranced only to freeze at the sight of a glowing green light in the air. It swooped in and out as a giant set of arms competed against the light and surprisingly, despite its size it was losing. "Holy sh- is that Paragon?!" Watching further I realized that the giant robot belonged to the Mechanist who was hiding away like always. I turned to Marcus whose eyes were shining than even this morning. "Dude... we need to find a place to film this!" My excitement dampened slightly at the idea, but seeing the excitement in his eyes and him being my best friend I didn''t want to let him down. I decided to go against my better judgment and nodded as I grabbed my book on heroes, thinking it might help us avoid any problems. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I always knew about heroes and Villains with them being on the news and all, but never thought more about it until there was a fight in front of me. So as I ran out the door I started to read through the book looking at the history and how the whole hero and villain thing worked. Heroes and Villains appeared approximately 70-80 years ago in the fifties when an influx of super-powered men and women showed up some using their powers for good like community service or helping save people in life-threatening situations. Another portion used their powers for their gain or as the book phrased it, evil, which sparked the first super crimes ever committed eventually leading to heroes countering them within individual cities. Eventually, this idea of good battling against self-serving evil had the effect of starting what could informally be called a new era and weirdly enough the current name for the planet, Neo-Earth, which was kind of lazy, but it worked well enough to be held up today sort of? The book went on about how it signified a change in the world and the advancement of the human species. Something something religion, something something god''s sign to humanity. ''Ah, here''s an important detail.'' I looked at the page as I read out what the author stated was the cardinal rule of supers in the world. ''A hero always has a villain... huh, that''s interesting.'' I flipped to the index after that only to feel someone tug me on my shoulder I noticed I was going to walk into a wall. I focused on the hand and saw the frowning face of Marcus who pointing at an empty building with a for sale sign close by that had a fairly high vantage point. "Patrick, come on focus." I felt a bit guilty at losing focus as I followed Marcus over to the building. "Help push me up?" I nodded as I took his foot into my hands and- "Wow, you''re heavy!" I wheezed as my arms gave out a few seconds later. Luckily my efforts and my limp arms were not in vain as I saw a hand reach down for me. "Take my hand." I looked up at Marcus''s excited face and then my arms. Sighing I looked back up at Marcus and shook my head. "Hey man, I think you might have to go without me." I lifted my sore arms a bit before they fell to the side. "Shit, sorry Patrick." I shook my head and smiled. "Just get some good footage and I''ll be fine." Marcus nodded, taking off towards the roof as his footsteps became quieter and quieter I sat there in the dark, my arms resting in my lap. A throb in my hands was the only thing to keep my focus while I waited for Marcus to finish filming. After a few moments, I picked up my book tentatively and looked back at the index where I saw the two supers that were fighting nearby. I wanted to start with Paragon as one of my favorite heroes, but weirdly I gravitated towards the pages on the Mechanist. I slowly flipped to page 132 as I saw the appearance of a steampunk hat and goggles in tandem with a rust-brown bandana that covered the supervillain''s mouth. ''I wonder why they don''t wear something more secure?'' I started to flip through powers and theories for his power when I heard steps nearby. I froze as I spotted the figure of a man with what looked to be a top hat. ''Is that...!'' I scrambled for the corner of the warehouse as silently as possible when I noticed the man in a top hat turn towards my spot on the ground. ''Come on, come on, come on!'' I approached the corner and reached out only to hear a familiar voice other than mine or Marcus''s as a chill went down my spine. I turned slowly, the voice''s owner becoming clear to me. ''Mom...?'' ********** 20 minutes before Marcus and Patrick left to get a video... Linda lay flat in the bed as she recalled how nice today was. Her son had been so excited, hanging out with his friend, and was especially excited, or at least she hoped he had been when he got home for his birthday party. She spent so much time setting up the decorations and cooking his favorite chocolate cake. It''d been hard to make it despite the instructions and the help of Marcus''s parents, but it worked out. ''And I''m glad for it.'' She smiled softly as she thought of the day ahead of her tomorrow, her shift that''d be way too long for her liking, and the time-consuming task of taking down all the decorations. Luckily she didn''t need to be as careful taking them down as she did when setting them up. Then there wa- A flash of green light blinded her as the street side window was showed a glowing green figure that most including her would recognize. It was Paragon, one of the strongest heroes in Serenity City and the one person she never wanted to see. Flashes of the plane ca- no, she wasn''t going to dwell on that, but she would check to see how the two knuckleheads downstairs were reacting. "I bet they''re all over this." Linda smiled at the image of two young kids watching in awe as they drove by a few heroes who had been patrolling near the hospital stopped and waved. "I guess no child can resist the idea of heroes." She chuckled as she silently made her way down the stairs with her lips upturned in an ever-present smile only for it to stiffen and lower when she noticed the Marcus and Patrick putting on their shoes. ''What are they...'' Marcus and Patrick stood as they headed to the door with giddy smiles. This alarmed Linda as she went to stop them, but stopped when she saw Patrick''s smile again. ''Should I really ruin this for him?'' She thought of how rare it had been to see Patrick smile before meeting Marcus and discovering superheroes. She shook her head again and decided it might just be best to follow them just in case rather than stop what was probably a safe activity... right? So she followed them over to a more desolate section on the edge of Serenity Oaks where a shady-looking warehouse was located. ''I-It''s ok Linda, it''s just an empty warehouse and nothing else.'' Linda tried to convince herself as the Collins'' boy had her son help climb onto the roof. She didn''t like that, knowing that her son wasn''t as physically inclined, but she didn''t say anything only huffing when Marcus took off excitedly further up onto the roof while he sat down and pulled out a book. ''Well, at least he''s safe...'' Linda sighed in relief behind the tree that she hid behind as she watched for a bit before with amusement at her son''s shifting expressions while reading. She always found it adorable, but her observation was interrupted as she noticed a shady-looking man walking out of the warehouse. An unmistakable top resting on his head, tilting as he presumably looked up at the fight happening above. ''Who is that?'' She squinted her eyes a bit more before noticing something that set off alarm bells in her mind. It was a gun and her son was sitting only a few meters away reading a book with a flashlight in hand. ''I have to get him out of there!'' She watched the man as she started making her over to her son through the trees only to realize that the cover they provided cut off at a run-down-looking street she would have to cross to get to Patrick. She glanced up at the street lights dotting the road and noticed a gap between two of them that was closer to the armed man. ''Should I?'' She looked back to her boy, sitting there out in the open, so with a deep breath she started making her way to the gap in the street lights and inched her way through. One step... Two steps... Three steps... She sped up seeing that the man didn''t seem to react, so as 4 steps became 5. She made it to the other side with no proble- the crunch of a branch rang out. Linda''s head shot up as the man in the top hat started to turn. She shot to the wall as quietly as she could before turning to the sound of shoes on concrete. She turned back to her son who had looked up at the noise and turned in her direction with wide eyes that passed by her form in the shadow of the building before he started to scramble back. She panicked at the action and turned back to see the approaching figure of the man in the top hat. Linda felt her panic reach a crescendo as she tried to follow her son''s example, but her limbs tensed as her body didn''t seem to agree with her choice between fight or flight. Her thoughts started to race as she tried to think of anything, but seeing her son''s scared form as he tried to scramble away. She felt a bit of rage at the man approaching her, so as she looked back on her choice of flight or fight. She changed her choice and felt the adrenaline rush into her body as she went to reach for the gun on his side. Unfortunately, she barely noticed the hand as it reached for her neck. ''?!'' She felt it clamp over her neck as she let out a scream. ********** ''Mom...?'' I looked at the woman being by the Mechanist and saw Mom. ''Did she follow me?'' I tried to how she''d discovered that I snuck out, but seeing her struggling form stopped the thoughts as I felt something welling up in my chest, my eyes turning a bit blurry. I tried to think of something, anything I could do to help, but I knew that this was a Supervillain and that I was just a kid...I felt my body shoot forward, ignoring the voices telling me this was impossible, that I couldn''t do it. I already knew that, but I couldn''t just stand around, so when I saw the Mechanist''s figure turn up to look at me I yelled and threw the only thing in my hand at his face. It made him flinch as I rammed into his gut, hoping it might knock the breath out of him. It almost worked as he bent over, but when I turned to grab Mom and leave I felt something cold and metallic grip my wrist. "Patrick!" Mom tried to grab me as I watched her reach out for me. "Don''t touch my friend!" I turned to another familiar voice as the large figure of Marcus rammed into what I was now seeing was a human-sized mechanical creation shaped like some kind of crab with a sphere-like wheel sticking out from the bottom. I lurched back as Marcus knock the robot over its grip unrelenting. "Number 378!" A modulated voice rang out as I saw a blurred figure heading towards us before I hit the ground and pain blossomed in the back of my head. Everything went silent for a moment, the world spinning while I laid on the ground unsure of what I was doing or why I was on the ground. Then everything snapped back into focus with a painful ache and a feeling of something wet beneath my hair. "Bring them in!" I heard someone call, the ground moving under me as I looked around to see the unconscious forms of two of the most important people in my life being dragged with me. I turned my eyes toward the direction that we were going. I saw the dark interior of the rundown warehouse beyond the doors. I tried to do anything to wriggle from the grip of the machine holding me only to feel my eyes getting heavy and a shout as something lifted me and the rumbling of something heavy moving rippled through my body. I turned towards the entrance again and noticed the ground moving, my sight dipping in and out of the darkness before my sight finally fell into the pitch black of unconsciousness. ...My eyes fluttered open sometime later as I saw a gray ceiling. I groaned, blinking away a haze that covered my mind like a blanket. I tried to sit up, but a pounding headache cut through the fog as I laid back and reached up to my head. I froze as I touched it, feeling... "bandages?" I knew the feeling of them from when I was younger, I had sprained my ankle and had to get it wrapped. It''d been on for days before Mom and Uncle Rodney... ''Mom!'' I shot up ignoring the throbbing pain, propping up my upper body with my arms. My neck turned back and forth almost as fast as a wheel on a car before I noticed I was in a cluttered room, filled with scrap and parts of electronics familiar and unfamiliar. I ignored those as I focused on the more important things in the room. The unconscious form of my mom and the struggling form of a conscious, fiery-eyed Marcus were on the other side of the room. A robot larger than the one before was holding him down while another figure wearing a top hat was messing with something I couldn''t see. ''What are they doing?'' The Mechanist seemed to be fidgeting around as he did whatever he was doing. He cursed as he threw... a piece of paper with complex symbols forming something I couldn''t quite tell from my distance. I looked down at myself for any sort of restraint, but surprisingly found none. ''Huh, why would a Supervillain leave someone without handcuffs or a rope at least?'' Then I remembered the gauze on my head and scrunched my brows in confusion. ''D-did the Mechanist wrap my head?'' Another more hazy memory came to mind of a feeling of being lifted and the rumble of moving concrete. I looked around once again and saw a stairwell not too far away from where I was. ''I guess that''s where I came from.'' I focused on the feeling of being lifted. ''But, why did the Mechanist bring us down here?'' My jaw tightened as my mind went into overdrive and my thoughts overwhelmed my perception of everything around me. A few seconds later I snapped out of the flurry of thoughts as I heard the modulated voice of the Mechanist growl. "If only I didn''t have to deal with all of this I wouldn''t..." His voice faded into a mumble before he went back to work. I soon realized what kind of position I was in and looked back to Marcus who was still struggling in the corner. "Mechanist, you''ll never get away with this!" Marcus kicked at the robot holding him down it seemed to wobble a bit as the gears around its body turned a bit faster to recover its balance. "Paragon will stop whatever this is!" The Mechanist stopped what he was doing and turned to the fiery teen on the floor. "I won''t need to worry about him stopping me anymore after this..." Despite his modulated voice, I could hear the resentment in his words as I silently hopped down from the table I had been on. Marcus seemed to notice my movement as he glanced over at me with wide eyes before I mimicked a talking motion with my hand. Marcus seemed to pick up on it as he turned back and started yelling again. "And what''s the big plan, huh?" Marcus grinned mockingly at him. "Make a huge death laser or something?" The Mechanist twitched at that as he turned to respond. I took the chance to tip-toe around and look for something, maybe a weapon or the device that controlled the concrete trap door that the stairwell presumably went to. "This isn''t some cartoon you''d see on a Saturday morning!" I checked a table and I spotted a pipe. ''That should work...'' I glanced back at the ranting man. "-grow up and see that Paragon isn''t the shining beacon that the media shows him to be!" I lifted the pipe and headed over to the still fuming man. Marcus smiled even wider as I approached only for his eyes to widen and his grin to fall a second later. I noticed he seemed to be looking at something behind me and before I could fully turn I felt something grip me, it felt familiar as I saw the crab bot from earlier gripping my forearm. "Wha-!" A startled voice came from in front of me as I turned back to see the Mechanist had taken a few steps back from me with a tense posture. "H-how are you up?" He pointed a finger at me. "I saw the blood and..." Despite what seemed to be a disbelieving remark his shoulders seemed to sag with relief. ''Why''s he relieved?'' I glanced at Marcus to confirm if what I was seeing wasn''t just my imagination, but he''d gone back to trying to push the robot off of him. I glanced back at the crab robot, which now that I thought about it was a stra- I shook my head, admonishing myself for getting distracted in a situation like this. I focused on the bot and saw the pipe. I glanced back to Marcus as a the beginnings of a plan formed in my head, a really bad plan, but a plan nonetheless. I looked over to the paper that I recognized as another attempt at the collection of symbols from before that looked more complete for some reason. "What''s that?" The Mechanist turned to look in the direction of his diagram of symbols. "Nothing of your concern, it''s-" I took that moment of him turning to the diagram to move my other hand under my restrained arm and drop the pipe into it before sliding it under his legs and into the direction of Marcus who looked towards the sound of metal scraping against concrete to see the pipe. So with a tug of his arm, he freed his hand and grabbed the pipe, swinging it into a gap in the gear-riddled machine as it seized up. Soon after it fell to the ground and Marcus began prying his leg from the stilled machine''s grip. "What?!" The Mechanist turned back to me with his mask covering whatever reaction he had before I turned to the paper on the table and grabbed it with my only free hand, placing the other side loosely in my teeth. "Put that down!" The Mechanist reached for the paper but hesitated when I went to rip it. "Don'' muph!" The Mechanist hesitated and backed up. "Ok fine, just don''t rip that." He raised his hands in surrender before I noticed Marcus had gotten out and was waiting for a moment to rush The Mechanist. "Firft, geh dis'' crb fing off me." The Mechanist hesitated for a moment before he made a gesture and the vice-like grip was gone as I heard the sound of a whirring wheel. I repositioned my hand to the other side of the paper, loosening the grip my mouth had on it. "Now, explain why this paper is so important and why you need whatever this is?" The Mechanist sighed at my comment and gave the paper a long look. "First, it''s not just a paper, it''s a ritual." He reluctantly explained as my brows furrowed once again. "A ritual?" I glanced at the paper. "For what?" The Mechanist stayed silent for a few more seconds before I made to rip it. "Alright! It''s a-." His words were interrupted as a crashing noise came from the stairwell leading up above. I turned towards the noise only to hear a voice calling out from a meter or two away accompanied by the sound of rapid footsteps only to turn to see the Mechanist, who had closed the distance and was now gripping the paper with Marcus not far behind. A few moments passed as my eyes widened in surprise at the speed of the man in front of me. I saw a green glow from the corner of my eye, but I didn''t have time to focus on that as Marcus finally reached us and went to tackling the Supervillain. Despite this the Mechanist still had good grip on the paper. I pulled and pulled and I seemed to be making progress until a glow, unlike the previously seen one, appeared from the paper itself as an odd current of something started flowing through the symbols, consuming our hands in light and soon after that engulfing the room too. ********** The void was an unforgiving place devoid of life. A place that if one was not past their second evolution, could not survive in. This was also the case for the entity drifting through it. It had long passed its second evolution millennia ago and had now ascended to the peak of power, its power. Despite this fact, it longed for something more, a peak higher than its own, higher than the Bastard who had cursed its race in return for the Entity''s actions against the Bastard''s race. So it kept beating itself against the barrier that held its progress hostage as it continued its eternal slumber... or that was the case until a ritual it hadn''t seen used since its early days of life shot out a signal into the universe, waking it and what seemed to be many other entities from their slumber. None of them seemed equal to it in its might, but its focus wasn''t on testing the power of others. It was on the signal and the three souls that had sent it... Well, only one sent it, it seemed but regardless it was curious about the three and extended a probing tendril into the light, the rest of the consciousnesses interacting with other souls around it parting for its mental limb. It froze as it felt a familiar presence within the largest soul of the three. A descendant of its blood... but it seemed diluted somehow? It mattered not as the entity went on to the next. This soul was already awakened by another and contained unremarkable powers as one of the Earthen races. The Entity lost interest and moved on to the next. This one was... interesting, but nothing special in its eyes. It turned back to its descendant as it thought of what to do about the issue of their awakening and its diluted blood. Pondering this, it floated a bit more before coming to its verdict. It would just bolster the blood to overtake the less promising part while they gifted its essence for the awakening. He knew this might hurt, but if his descendant couldn''t handle a little pain then were they worthy of his blood at all? It thought not, so with a-. The Entity froze as it noticed a new more distant presence nearby emerge and contempt filled the entity''s mind. It was the Bastard and he was sending out a tendril faster than it could react. It rocketed into the light plunging towards the promising soul with fervor as the Entity noticed the soul''s blood being overturned by the Bastard''s own. It had to stop this, it was not going to let the Bastard get its way. It went to send another tendril at the promising soul but froze when it noticed something astonishing that was happening to it. It was resisting. While it was resisting, its defenses were failing fast, so without another thought the Entity plunged its tendril into the soul and bolstered its defenses only to notice that it was too late. The moment of hesitation had cost it and the soul as the Bastard''s blood and essence took root. The Entity fumed, but it calmed down more as it realized that while it may not have stopped it. It had allowed the soul to bolster its defenses and suppress the seedlings planted within the soul''s being allowing the soul to separate its blood from the Bastard''s. Seeing this it had reconsidered its approach of fully wiping its descendant''s Earthen half, allowing for its own blood to mature and flourish as it gave the same treatment to its descendant, allowing for the suppression of its bloodline for now. Considering these actions and the bittersweet outcome of its efforts, it watched an irritated tendril float back into the distance as the Entity followed suit and retracted its own, closing its eyes and going back to its eternal slumber and struggle.