Bladez

[WP] The super villain shook with rage as they stared at the security footage. "He's not even a real superhero with superpowers! He's just some loser who's really good at throwing knives at people without killing them!"

*****

"Is he really a loser?" said Andrew, nursing a bandaged knife wound on his right hand. "He single-handedly kicked our asses. I mean, what does that say about us?"

Dabria frowned. "He got lucky. If I had been there, the result would've been different."

Andrew pursed his lips, doubtful.

"You disagree?" asked Dabria, clenching her fist.

"N-no." Andrew hung his head. "Sorry, boss."

"That's what I thought. And to answer your previous question, yes, you are losers." Dabria gestured at the rest of the crew. Half of them had been arrested, and the remaining ones were all scratched and stabbed throughout their bodies. She had to do everything in her power to contain her fury. "Get this through your heads. None of you would have anything if it weren't for me. I literally took on the entire police force while you idiots fumbled around in the bank."

"W-we did our best, boss." said Derek. "We organized the hostages, cracked the vault and everything. All we had to do was escape but-"

"You fucked it up anyway! You even left the money behind!"

"The ones who didn't were stabbed in the ankles..."

"I don't care! If I'm risking my life for you, you damn well should do the same! There's no possible way he could get all of you!"

Andrew meekly raised his hand.

Dabria arched an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"What are we going to do now? Didn't we need those funds to join the League?"

"Don't worry. There are other ways to gain membership."

Dabria and her crew only needed one big statement to get their attention. This superhero (if one could call him that) had gained a lot of accolades in a short period of time. Defeating him in a public setting should be enough to bolster Dabria's reputation.

They couldn't rush into it, though. The crew needed to recover from their wounds.

Thankfully, that gave them time to study their new enemy. His name was 'Edgelord' and teenagers loved him due to his intimidating dark aesthetic, with a long stylish trench coat, a vest full of knives, and a matte-black helmet that covered everything except his mouth.

Dabria couldn't wrap her head around it. During interviews, he always claimed that his goal was to teeter on the border of acceptable, to teach people to question their assumptions and show that someone who looked scary could also do good in the world. Dabria couldn't help but be disgusted by it.

Edgelord was a proponent of hard work and training, always pushing his limits. People loved him because it gave them hope. If someone without powers could do it, then so could they. Dabria hated that. Heroes like him were all fakes. They tricked others into thinking normies were equal to meta-humans in order to profit from it. A convenient narrative to keep the masses docile.

In a real fight, there was no way he could handle Dabria. She was sure of it.

People who thought they could overcome their natural limitations through effort were exactly the type of delusional fools who maintained the status quo. Some people were just born better than others. Refusing this was one of society's biggest lies.

The crew recovered from their injuries a month later. They still complained about being sore, but Dabria wouldn't hear it. She couldn't keep waiting any longer.

In the meantime, Edgelord had only grown more popular. Although this was beneficial to the crew, since it would only make their victory more impressive, Dabria couldn't stand the thought of that loser getting rewarded. He had to have a superpower. It was the only explanation for his competence.

Their plan was simple. The crew would stage a fake heist, setting a trap for him instead of focusing on the loot. Once he ran inside, Dabria would beat the living hell out of him.

Everything went perfectly.

Half an hour after taking over the bank, Edgelord swung into the building with his grappling hook.

The crew was ready for him. They dropped their bags to reveal their assault rifles and fired at him.

To his credit, Edgelord outmaneuvered all of them, zipping around the bank while they wasted their bullets.

Dabria was careful not to reveal herself, hidden among the hostages. She had to study Edgelord's technique until his superpower became apparent. The fight would be simple once she knew his secret.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be happening soon.

One by one, the crew fell to Edgelord's tricks, causing friendly fire. Was he taunting them? He hadn't even thrown a knife yet.

Andrew and Derek seemed to be the only ones not falling for his tactics. They kept a calm head, organizing the others into a better formation.

Edgelord identified them as the leaders and threw a pair of knives at them.

Dabria stood up and stopped the blades in midair, using her telekinesis.

Edgelord turned towards her.

"Surprised?" asked Dabria, smugly satisfied.

Edgelord smirked. "Not really."

"AHHH!" shouted Andrew and Derek. They both had a knife in their shoulder and couldn't aim their rifles anymore.

Dabria widened her eyes. "How...?"

The pair of knives still floated in the air. He must've thrown four, but hid the second pair behind the first. A cheap parlor trick.

The rest of the crew didn't see it that way. They quickly ran out of the bank, fearing a repeat of their previous encounter.

"Cowards!" shouted Dabria. "I'll get all of you after this!"

"I've been waiting for you," said Edgelord. "The second I saw your crew without you, I knew you were waiting in hiding."

Dabria tore the bank vault out of its hinges and flung it at him with her mind.

Edgelord did a graceful flip over it.

Dabria had already accounted for that, though. She threw a marble statue at his escape route, but Edgelord quickly sliced it in half with a single knife throw.

This couldn't be happening. Was his power precognition? Incredible accuracy? Invulnerable projectiles?

No.

It didn't matter.

Dabria started bending the light around her, turning it into an energy beam. This usually tired her out quickly. She didn't want to use her ace-in-the-hole against a worm like him but there didn't seem to be another way. "Let's see if you're the real deal."

Edgelord readied himself to dodge.

Dabria then aimed her hands at the hostages.

"No!" shouted Edgelord.

Dabria fired with glee.

A real hero would tank the hit in order to save the civilians.

Edgelord didn't do that. Instead, he threw a bunch of knives at an unstable pillar and caused it to fall in front of the hostages, shielding them from the blast. The ensuing explosion created a fog a debris inside the building.

Dabria snarled. She couldn't see anything. "I know you're a fake! Sooner or later, I'll figure it out!"

A knife flew out of the debris.

Dabria melted it with her beam, thinking he was there.

Edgelord jumped from behind, tackling her to the ground.

Dabria didn't have the energy to repel him.

"You know," said Edgelord, tying her up, "If you had gone all out from the start, you might've had a better chance. This is what you get for looking down on me."

Dabria closed her eyes, fuming with anger. All her life, people with better powers had kept her down. She rationalized this by seeing it as the way of the world. Predator or prey. Meta-human or normie. Winners or losers. It made sense. Everyone got what they deserved. If one was strong enough to take something, that meant they were entitled to it. Dabria didn't begrudge those who kept her down. They were merely following the rules of nature.

Edgelord, however, had thrown a wrench into everything. If someone could reach that level without powers, then all of Dabria's failures weren't a function of the universe. They were all her fault.

And Dabria couldn't accept that. She swelled with as much energy as she could, hoping to blow up everything around her, and shouted:

"I AM NOT A LOSER!"

In a split second, Edgelord used his grappling hook to pull them both outside. He couldn't avoid the explosion.

Dabria collapsed on the street, next to his sizzling body. The police quickly captured her. She didn't have the strength to fight back. As they carried her away, though, she couldn't help but utter an evil cackle. This was her victory.

Or so she thought.

Once she was in prison, she discovered that Edgelord had survived the attack. A meta-doctor arrived on the scene and healed his wounds before he could die. Dabria had never been so humiliated in her life. Edgelord gained a metric ton of popularity after the incident. All Dabria could do was simmer in prison, alone.

"This isn't over," muttered Dabria to herself. "Not by a longshot."

*****

THE END