Unwanted Reputation

[WP] As a villain henchman, the number 1 rule you're always taught is to never outshine the boss. However, during a small bank heist, you accidentally kill your boss' arch nemesis, and the legion of superheroes now see YOU as their ultimate threat.

*****

"Today will be for many of you, the first in the fire. Will it scald or will it temper?"

I was smart enough to know Dread Gaze didn't expect an answer, as were the nameless henchmen beside me. Walking into the bank, my heartbeat got away from me. When had I started sweating?

My scowl, matching the boss's, gave away nothing behind the ski mask. The spacious bank's patrons and employees all wore a singular expression, fear, instinct's respect.

Dread Gaze tapped me with a clawed gauntlet as he strode confidently towards the vault. This was it, what I had longed for.

I reached into my pocket, panicked for a moment before checking the other, and pulled out the small device.

"People of Hawthorpe, I and my brothers mean you no harm. Keep your wallets and your jewelry," the super villain orated. "I steal from the thieves."

He pointed a menacing finger at the smug statue of Darrel Grestpeck. I flinched but remembered my cue. One press of the button lit the charges left there the night before.

Screams surrounded us as the statue blew to dust, revealing the side of the inner vault behind it. The henchman on my right and left pushed past me, bags already open and ready, rushing into the vault. Something made me stay back.

As the dust cleared, two tall silhouettes walked from the vault, each holding one of the henchmen by the neck.

A hammering punch sent one henchman down to crack the tiles beneath him. Noble, the impervious hero spotless despite the mess, stepped over the broken man, who let out a wheeze.

Beside him, a thin man in a flowing robe flickered up 20 ft in the air, dropped his opponent and flickered back to the ground, telegrafted ever so slightly by a glimmer twinkling in the air. He comically stepped to the side as the henchman smashed into the floor.

The new hero I didn't recognize smiled. "Robbing a bank, isn't that a little cliche?" The robed man asked.

"I could say the same thing about hiring a sidekick. I teach a broader-" Dread Gaze began, not sparing a glance for the wounded minions.

"It doesn't matter," Noble cut off with a commanding voice, only slightly muffled behind his golden helmet. "We don't have time for the song and dance today, villain. Come willingly or in a bag."

The pupils of the super villain boss grew black as miasma began to drip from the sockets. In a moment the two heroes were on him. The fighting was too fast to see.

I felt like I should be doing something but I had no idea what. I doubted firing my gun would do much to the robed one, if I could even manage to land a hit and I knew it would bounce off Noble.

I knelt beside my fellow henchman that had been dropped. His blank and bloodshot expression stared up at nothing. The busted chest didn't move. I scrambled to the other as the heroes choked through Dread Gaze's fog and claws.

"I'm going to die, man," the henchman on the floor screamed, patting weakly at his chest. "It's all broke in here. I can feel it, it's sharp."

"Stay calm, just breathe okay," I said.

"I can't fucking breathe, man." He gripped my shirt, stronger than I would have expected and shook it. "Help me."

With a slam, Dread Gaze was knocked back. He pressed claws into the floor to slow his movement, raking across the henchman's chest.

"Fuck," I said, muted by the now three pieces of the man in front of me who had been talking only a second before.

I pulled my gun, and fired at the robed man as he dusted himself off. He flickered and my bullet busted glass behind him. He turned to me with a smirk.

"Oh my, it seems we missed one." He walked towards me.

Later that night I would try to remember the order of events but, as cliche as it sounds, it all happened so fast.

One on one for a moment, Dread Gaze was getting the upper hand on Noble, and their fight moved between me and the robed man. Somehow, I ended up holding Noble's helmet in my hand. Did I grab it? The metal had a constant background hum and vibration. It was warm.

I saw the glimmer of sparkling motes in the air to my left. Without thinking, I thrust the helmet into the space just as the robed man appeared, right where my hand was.

He backed up screaming as gouts of almost black blood spurted from his chest. He had teleported around the helmet and it was sticking from the front of him. His left arm dangled, almost no longer attached.

The screams ended as he flickered away, taking the helmet with him. Noble had choked the villain unconscious and now turned to me.

"Where the fuck's my helmet, little man," he asked, approaching me slowly. The skin on his bald head was paler than his face, pale as paint.

As I watched, his muscles shrunk, chainmail armor hanging baggy off of him.

I fired the gun without aiming, the bullet caught him in the eye and he fell back, like a slab of meat.

The bank was silent. I dropped the gun from my shaking hand.

"What the fuck did you just do?" Dread Gaze asked as he stood, glancing first down at Noble's sprawled body and then back at me, a look on his face I hadn't seen before, fear.

Once, inexplicably, a college girlfriend had found a large hoop earring in my bed. No clue how it got there. I made much the same face now as I did then while trying to avoid eye contact with the wounded and clearly still quite smoking Dread Gaze.

“I shot him. I have no clue why it worked.” I wrinkled my nose and looked over at Noble. The dust didn’t roll off him now, neither did the blood.

“Right,” Dread Gaze croaked, voice like grave gravel as he stroked his chin with a bloody claw. “So what was the plan? You thought you could hide under my wing, wait for the right moment and reveal yourself? Take my place, maybe? Is your name even Hernando?”

The henchmen watching the entrance had wandered in to gawk at Noble but inched away from me now.

“No, no, no, sir,” I said, backing up as he began to walk forward. “I mean yes, that’s my name, but I don’t even have powers. That was all a freak occurrence. A one-time thing, please believe me. I don’t want any bad blood with you.”

“There’s a freak, alright, and I see to make sure this is a one-time thing. I don’t work with other supers, too likely to get stabbed in the back.” He reached out a claw, heavy smoke rolling in grey rivulets down the points.

Smoke pooled in twists until it took the shape of a coiled ethereal snake. With a subtle twist of his head, the snake sprung forward.

I flinched but the snake rushed just past my face, smelling like burnt popcorn. It flew around and into the mouths of each of the remaining henchmen, one by one, second by second. Scream, cough, gasp, and choking wheeze played out in discordant harmony, a song of hell.

While the men suffocated, Dread Gaze didn’t take his eyes off me. “How did you kill him? Retaliation-based power, I’m guessing? That’s why you're baiting me now, cowering like a miserable shit after you one-shot the toughest super in the city?”

“I told you, I just shot him. His power must be linked to his helmet and that other guy teleported away with it and…” I stopped. With each word, Dread Gaze’s stare grew sourer and sourer. I hadn’t worked with him long, but long enough to know that was his slow murder face, not the merciful quick one.

“It’s the gun,” I sputtered out. “It can kill anything. It grants wishes. I got it from a wendigo in South Carolina!” Okay, too much, dial it back. “That’s my secret.”

Dread Gaze squinted as the last of the men died then darted his eyes to the gun laying near my feet. I could feel it just before he pounced. I kicked the gun forward, landing a game-winning shot into the vault. I turned and sprinted for the door, holding my shirt against my mouth as I charged through the burnt smell of the dissipating serpent.

I heard sirens roaring just as cleared the doors. The getaway car idled invitingly, its driver among the breathless inside. One frantic dash later and I was behind the wheel and flooring it, managing to weave into the midday traffic without a fender bender.

A roar from the bank faded behind me, either from the police showing up or my boss realizing the gun was pawn shop garbage and not the key to anything.

I swerved around traffic as I dialed.

“Jorge!” I yelled as the line picked up.

“Oh, so we’re not too small time for you now, huh?” He sounded groggy.

“Fuck all that, I’m done with the big guys. Job went south, bad. I was the only one that got out. I need to lie low at your place for a few days.”

“Uhh, I don’t know H. You watching the news?”

“I am currently fleeing a crime scene. No, I am not watching the news.”

“Oh yeah, right. Big new hero in critical condition, Shimmer step. They’re showing the footage of the bank job. That’s the one, right?”

“Yes, that’s the one! How are they playing footage already?” I debated for a moment before flooring it through a red light.

“H,” Jorge said, muttering to himself. “Don’t come here, man. Holy shit.”

“What do you, mean?”

The line went dead, just in time for me to hear my name play over the radio. I turned it up as I clipped a curb, no clue where I was headed.