Alex watched and waited. Like a predatory jungle cat stalking its prey through the darkness, he stood vigil in the shadows, waiting for the exact moment to move in. Patrons continued to file in throughout the night, their wallets fat and heavy only to be empty oh so carelessly. Every single one that left there tempted him further to crack this prize open, but he resisted the urge to break from his hiding spot and swoop in until he’d counted enough of them leave and then waited even longer to be sure no more were coming. Finally, the moment had come, this would be his big score.

  As the last customer he’d been observing inside headed out, he silently moved forward and slipped through the door, leveling his right arm at the man behind the glass in one fluid motion. The violet glow of his gauntlet’s barrel washed the man’s skin.

  “Oh come on,” the heavy set Atlanthean grumbled, “I was just about to clean up.”

  Alex smiled from behind his mostly repaired helmet. The corner store clerk’s attitude aside, this had been an absolutely perfectly executed hold up.

  “The money, if you would,” he told the fish-man, projecting a calm confidence in his power.

  Some Atlantheans1 were basically humans with brightly colored skin and a few markings with some fins that folded up when they were out of the ocean. Some of them were some sort of undersea creature on two legs, ranging from sharks to rays to crustaceans.

  And some of them took their damn time when being threatened by a villain, as evidenced by this one who just stood there, crossing his arms and glaring at Alex.

  “Bro, you look trashed as hell. What gives? You one of Wastrel’s minions?”

  Alex blinked in confusion, not that it was visible to the clerk, then felt his anger rise, “I’m no one’s minion! I’m the Iron Menace!”

  “You new?”

  “I’ve been here for almost a decade!”

  The man scratched his chin, “Huh. Well, whatever. You got an actual weapon to threaten me with or is it just the flashlight?”

  “It’s a gravitor gauntlet!”

  The man gave him a blank look.

  “It uses specialized coils to-”

  The look didn’t change.

  “It hurts when it shoots you, asshole.”

  “Fine, man, whatever, look you want to ruin a small business, be my guest,” the man started to unlock the register.

  Alex shook his head, “I know you’re insured for supervillain crime. Don’t try to guilt trip me.”

  “Bro, after what happened with that doctor today, my rates are gonna go up too much,” he grumbled and barely made any move to actually unlock the till.

  “No they won’t. That’s a city based event which had at least three response teams and resulted in almost no damage to the surrounding areas,” Alex explained. “If they try to raise your rates about that, you can talk to city’s regulatory board to get them to back off.”

  The man paused in his already snail's pace of responding to this robbery, looking flummoxed. “How-?”

  “I’m a professional law breaker. I know the laws,” Alex interrupted.

  “Professional? You’re knocking over a bodega.”

  “Corner store at best, you don’t even have a microwave here,” the villain gestured behind him at the drink station which barely held a soda station and a coffee maker that was currently empty.

  A voice interrupted the two, “Hey, Vin, I’m grabbing a thing of chips and a drink, man.”

  The two of them turned to see a scruffy youth in an oversized hoodie indeed grabbing a bag of chips on his way towards the refrigerated section of the store. Both the Iron Menace and the store owner watched in stunned silence before he came back and tossed some cash on the counter.

  “Do you mind?” Alex finally came to his senses.

  “Yeah, Richie? Do you want to actually do something useful?” the clerk apparently named Vin asked incredulously.

  “Hey, if I pay him then that means you get more out of this,” the kid reasoned to the supervillain. “Anyways sorry, Vin, but his glow hand looks scary, man.”

  “You’re a bastard Richie!” Vin barely raised his voice as the kid slipped out of the store, sounding almost playful with his insult.

  Alex watched as the shopkeep palmed the money in front of him.

  “You’re kidding, right?” he asked.

  “Hm? What?”

  “What do you mean ‘what?’ Obviously that’s mine. And come on, get the rest of the register empty already!”

  “Oh come on, if he’d come in just a little later then you’d be gone, and you didn’t want him in here, so I think that makes it mine. Besides, I didn’t even get a chance to scan any of that so it wouldn’t show up on the records and insurance wouldn’t cover it! Then I’ll be out a bag of chips and a drink and have to deal with insurance anyways! Anyways, there’s only like 50 in the register.”

  “Vin, I swear to the gods… First off, I’ll drop the chips and drink money if you hurry the hell up. Secondly, no, I’ve seen how many sales you’ve made in the last hour. Just dump the till already. I’m being nice here and not asking for the safe.”

  The fish man grumbled and got to work actually opening up the register, “Bet that thing doesn’t even fire…”

  “It does, but if I do that then it breaks this window and this goes from just an armed robbery by a villain to a more complicated thing for you and me, and neither of us want that.”

  Alex managed to hear the door open this time.

  “Gods, look, whoever you are, you need to come back lat-”

  Alex froze as he turned to face the newcomer.

  ArachNed hovered in the doorway, eight animated eyes all in their “happy” pose on his facemask. He was suspended off the ground by two metallic legs extending from his back to the floor, with two more peeling inside from the store front above the doorway as the hero slipped fully into the corner store.

  Shit. Gods damn shit.

  ArachNed was practically a legend. A solo hero who had been in the biz for over a decade and had foiled countless villains’ schemes, all sorts of team ups, and even tangled with a few of the world ending threats from space that popped up every now and then. He wasn’t Mr. Wonder but honestly who was?2 But even on a good day, with all of Alex’s gear working and probably with a couple of his associates together, AND with the drop on him, this fight would still end with ArachNed on top.

  “Bad time?” the hero quipped.

  Alex sighed, feeling this entire day just coming together for the perfect level of awful, “Yeah, I can come back later.”

  The eyes on the mask flickered to a pointed, and disbelieving stare, “Really?”

  Alex shrugged, “Worth a shot.”

  “I almost respect it enough to let you off with a warning,” ArachNed shifted into a ready stance as his feet touched the floor and the robotic spider legs lifted up in a threatening manner, “but you really will come back later if I do, so let’s do this dance.”

  “Wait!” Alex quickly threw up his hands, shocking both the hero and the clerk who had clearly stopped attempting to open the register to watch the fight. “Mind if we take it outside?”

  ArachNed’s eyes flickered to a suspicious squint.

  Alex pointed a finger, “Vin’s insurance is good, but it’ll take a few days to come through and I’d rather not inconvenience the neighborhood by getting flung through the Coda Cool machine.”

  ArachNed’s stance didn’t shift, “That’s a little more considerate than I’d expect from The Iron Menace.”

  Oh, this had been such a shit day, and it clearly was going to get worse, but godsdamn was it somewhat gratifying to hear an actual hero of note knew your name. Alex swallowed to prevent from tearing up behind his helmet.

  “I chose the name awhile back. Besides, it’s been a long day and I’d rather get smashed outside where I won’t have to clean the condiment station off my suit.”

  ArachNed shrugged and slipped aside. The electronic eyes lazily followed Alex as he cautiously stepped forward and approached the door. He gingerly tested it, his whole body tense as he watched the hero. The door opened smoothly and the blue, white, and gold clad supe didn’t immediately jump him. So Alex took a deep breath.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Then shot through the door and started running as fast as he could.

  He didn’t expect to get far, but he at least hoped to be out of sight of the corner store before the first blow came to preserve a little bit of dignity. And he almost made it to the nearby alley before the breath was knocked out of him as both of ArachNed’s feet collided with his back. The hero had sprung after him like a spear, turning his whole body into a solid kick.

  “Gonna be honest, I knew you’d bolt if you made it out, but I’m grateful you didn’t try to hold the clerk hostage.”

  “W-wouldn’t,” Alex coughed as he tried to push himself up, “matter.”

  ArachNed actually kicked his ass, literally, to boot him upwards. Alex tried to spin around and at least get off one shot before he saw the hero open up his hand and point his open palm at him. A blob of webbing appeared between ArachNed’s fingers and smashed into his right arm, instantly pinning him to the wall and covering his gravitor gauntlet completely with a somewhat stretchy netting that barely let him move an inch away from the wall.

  “Darn it, reflexes,” Alex heard the hero mutter. “Oh well, if you leave the glove behind you should get out. Now then, Menace, let’s have a quick chat.”

  The hero jumped up to a nearby streetlamp and perched on it, spider legs extending to grip onto the pole and nearby wall. ArachNed probably intended it to look lazy, but the effect was actually insanely intimidating, the spindly metal legs clawed towards Alex like a descending claw as he craned his neck to look up at the hero.

  “Look, you’re the fourth small fry I’ve had to knock around tonight. I get you guys are mad but I really can’t have you taking it out on regular people. How about you answer my questions, and I’ll let you run away and leave your toys behind so you don’t have to spend time behind bars for the next couple years?”

  Alex’s helmet thumped against the wall behind him, and, resigned to his fate, he replied, “Ask away.”

  Great, ArachNed was here to ask questions. Sure it wasn’t like he’d be smacking Alex with a bat like some of those vigilantes would3, but it was still considered something of a faux pas in the villain community to rat out your fellow capes. If word got around, and this was ArachNed so people loved to talk, then all those favors he’d need to get out would probably either evaporate or cost more.

  Cool, no cash to make rent and repair my gear, my goal probably just got more costly, and now I’m on Creepy Crawly’s radar for some reason, so the rest of the night is probably shot too, if not the whole week.

  “You were at the big party this morning, weren’t you, Menace?”

  Alex looked up determined to make this a little difficult at the very least, “Maybe.”

  “Look, I’m busy tonight, and you’re already my sixth stop already, so could we show each other a little respect here? You normally have two gauntlets, another plate on your back, and another boot. Or greave or whatever you want to call it. Plus your wacky helmet normally looks better than that.”

  “Hey! Lay off the helmet!” Alex shouted before he could stop himself. The nerve, seriously. Just because it was a little scuffed up, it still was that menacing and mysterious quality that Alex was proud of. If anything, the damage to the paint and the half repaired crack added to the best qualities!

  ArachNed held up his hand, “Sorry, sorry, I know you guys can be defensive of your costumes. Anyways, it’s pretty clear that you got roughed up recently and from what I can tell…”

  He drifted off and there was a flicker on his projected eyes.

  “You don’t normally pull stunts this desperate. Usually your heists are a little more thought out and with a few more theatrics.”

  Okay, yeah, it was very clear that ArachNed had just looked up some of Alex’s previous jobs, but that gratification was still there when he heard this hero give him some credit. And yes, most of his previous work was more the “hold up a local branch of a bank” or “grab a specific exhibit out of the museum” than a simple hold up. This fiasco was the exception to his usual, dammit!

  “Okay… Sure, let’s say I was there,” he’d give that up in exchange for the small acknowledgment. “But that doesn’t sound like the question, and I’m getting the feeling that you’re not fishing for the confession that I was there.”

  ArachNed’s eyes shifted to “happily satisfied.” Somehow that read as differently than “smug” and Alex realized then how many animations he probably had. And people think that I’m obsessive over my mask.

  “You guessed correctly. Nope, I’m interested in knowing who offed Dr. Maniacal,” the hero happily told him.

  Alex’s blood ran cold. Did he know? Oh gods, did they really find him this quick? Shit, did they trace his magic back from the apar-

  “We all know that someone offing a member of the League is going to bring down some heat, much less one of the guys in charge. And that’s only going to be worse if they ended up stealing Maniacal’s prize right at the finish line,” ArachNed continued, “So why don’t you help me find the guy or gal who zapped him and we can skip over the part where Life Tyrant, Professor Mutation, or Arex show up and knock over all the bodegas before you can rob them, or whoever they are decides that they want to fight with the Protectors of the Globe to make a statement.”

  Alex was stunned. Okay, so they didn’t know it was him. That was good. But they thought someone killed Maniacal to steal all the glowy power. That was bad. If the heroes thought that then if fingers ever got pointed his way then he’d be classified as a Nation level threat.4 And if the League thought it, then they actually might have Arex stroll into town and try to punch him in the face. Alex already could imagine watching the supervillain turning him into a red cloud under the assumption that he had the magic juice to take hits like he was Mr. Wonder.

  Still he had to say something, anything.

  “I was uh… busy at the time,” he fumbled out of his mouth.

  “...No.” ArachNed flatly replied, clearly not letting him leave it at that.

  “It’s true!” Alex lied. Crap, he needed something that he could give here to throw off the hero.

  The hero didn’t even bother to respond beyond crossing his arms.

  “I was picking myself off the pavement,” he began to recount, hoping that he could spin something by just rattling off some truths before. “I figured I’d just get on out of there with the others, so I wasn’t paying attention.”

  ArachNed mimed pinching his nose through his mask. At least the projected eyes didn’t move with his hand so it seemed like he didn’t actually really do it, “Okay, others. Name one then.”

  “Terror,” Alex said before he could help himself. Shit.

  The hero didn’t respond to that for a moment.

  “Terrorantula?” he asked. “Really?”

  Alex bit his lip. He’d already blown it with her and didn’t really want to be setting up her for ArachNed’s attention, but again his mouth apparently was determined to make this day worse.

  “Yeah, she was helping me out of a crater one of those teens put me in. She and I were heading out before things got hairy,” Alex explained, trying to see if he couldn’t push for the idea the two of them had left together before things got rough. Hm… maybe he could push the Broker in front of this trolley and get ArachNed chasing down that weasel. Or at least Laser Badger.

  “No offense,” the hero shifted around to lazily slouch on the lamp, “but I kinda find it hard to believe you and Terri run in the same circles.”

  “We’ve worked together on a few jobs!” Alex protested. “She and I get along, which is why-”

  He clamped his dumb mouth shut. No. No, no, no, no, no. You are not telling ArachNed of all people about that.

  Unfortunately, judging from how the hero shifted forward and the stupid “curious” eyes on his mask, he’d said too much and gotten his attention.

  “So, anyways, I was leav-”

  “Nope, we’re not moving past whatever that was, Menace. Man, you’d think you would have a better poker face in a full helmet. Anyways, spill,” ArachNed’s stupid smug voice told him.

  Alex turned away and remained silent.

  “You know you’re on borrowed time here. It’s only a matter of time until that clerk dials in and the Arrestors show up.5 You want me gone to try to wiggle out of here? You need to tell me your secrets so I can move on.”

  “It’s… unrelated.” Alex murmured as he tried to subtly test the strength of the web holding him to the wall. Damn that was solid.

  “I disagree.”

  He clearly wasn’t going to drop this and Alex didn’t trust his lying skills so…

  “I thought… Well, there were some… Ugh,” Alex clocked his helmet against the wall behind him. “Look, I tried asking her out.”

  “Oh. Oh.” ArachNed slipped down from the perch above, his extra legs curling up against his chest. “She, uh, didn’t feel the same way, I guess?”

  Alex sighed, “Yeah, took off without me. Just, jumped away.”

  ArachNed’s jaw shifted as he tried to find words before coming up and patting the restrained villain on the shoulder, “That’s, uh… I’m sorry.”

  Alex pushed through the pain, “So yeah, I was a little distracted as I left. Just wanted to get out of there.”

  The hero went over to his trapped arm and pulled some of the threads so that they only were contacting his gauntlet. Clearly he was going to actually let Alex wiggle free so long as he left behind his gear. Apparently that was the compromise for him not spending a night in a cell.

  “You, um, see anyone else nearby who might’ve seen something?”

  Alex shook his head. He didn’t even feel like trying to pin this on Laser Badger right now.

  “No, I was pretty out of it.”

  ArachNed finished up and unfurled his extra legs, “Well if you think of anything, pretty sure the New Aurora Champions have an anonymous tip line. Just… go home and sleep this day off. And maybe put your talents to better use.”

  With that, he sprung away. Alex watched, a crushing feeling of insignificance beginning to creep in.

  “Hey, man,” Vin, the clerk, came by, gently placing a bottle of Coda Cool and some chips at his feet.

  Alex looked down and then back up at the Atlanthean, his confusion apparently visible even behind the mask.

  “I, uh, overheard that last bit. I was hoping to give those to ArachNed but he took off and well… Sounds like you might need these after today." The slightly round fish man awkwardly chewed on his bottom lip as he thought through his next words. “Also thanks for the advice on the insurance. I’ll make sure to keep it in mind if they try to raise my rates. You should consider helping people, dude. You’re better at that I think.”

  Vin quickly left before Alex could reply. Alex stared down the street, at the locked up corner store and the few people lingering on the sidewalks ahead, slowly dispersing as the night darkened. After a moment, Alex shifted around so he could reach a pouch on his left leg and pulled out a small reinforced vial of liquid that he poured on the webbing, causing it to hiss.

  Some idiots online had figured out a solution that dissolved ArachNed’s webbing and posted it to one of the forums he lurked on awhile back. Everyone quickly had learned that while the video showed off the stuff quickly melting a couple strands they’d picked up off the ground, the solution took almost 5 minutes to burn through the thicker globs the hero typically threw out, making it absolutely useless in a fight. Still, it was stable enough that you didn’t need to brew it more than once every few years and it didn’t take up too much room so who was laughing now spiderfan677?

  As Alex sat there, he found he couldn’t even take satisfaction in “winning” an old online argument from years ago. He was drained. He was bruised. He was hurt in more ways than one.

  But more than that. Somehow, after everything-

  After the morning where everything went wrong-

  After losing this simple score-

  After being beaten by a hero, again, and then being pitied-

  After being told by a civilian that he was better at helping people-

  The one emotion screaming at the core of him more than anything, more than the pain, more than inadequacy, more than the doubt, more than the fear-

  Was pure, unbridled, unrivaled, burning, furious Rage.

  1. Atlantheans are actually several species of humanoid lifeforms culturally united as one people who originate from a large area at the center of the Atlanthea Ocean. The nations of these peoples were myriad and often secluded from surface dwellers, though the Ignati Empire unified them in the 300’s PTE and their isolationism ended at the dawn of the current calendar. Multiple Empires have fallen and risen since then, and the resulting country tends to take the name of the dynasty, with the current name currently being Nautilia, though most continue to refer to the people and even the country as Atlanthean and Atlanthea.

  2. An obvious answer here would be Rednow, an alternate dimension version of Mr. Wonder who invaded the world twice in the 80’s.

  3. While a good number of heroes are not officially registered with government organizations, the term “vigilante” often is colloquially used solely to refer to a specific type of hero that tends to be more violent with their crime fighting.

  4. There are official designations for threats that villains or events can represent, though an unofficial scale is simply Street, City, Nation, and World. This scale is extremely loose and not very reliable for understanding how much force is needed to combat a villain, and is mostly used by less informed parts of the superpowered community.

  5. Arrestors are a government sanctioned force in the Amera Union which typically deal with the processing and detainment of accused criminals, as well as handle investigations relating to their arrests. Due to policing reforms in the 30’s, most areas in the Amera Union don’t have true police forces and rely on superheroes and Arrestors to handle criminal enforcement. Arrestors also act as a limiting power on superheroes by expressly being granted jurisdiction of several elements of law enforcement, requiring the heroes to cooperate with them.