"Heroes & Villains," by Harper Kingsley. Chapter Seven. [superhero novel]

Title: Heroes & Villains
Author: Harper Kingsley
Series: Heroes & Villains trilogy (Heroes & Villains, Allies & Enemies, All That Remains)
Genre: superhero, science fiction, action, mm
Rating: Teen+ (violence, language)

Summary: Vereint Georges has spent his entire life dreaming of being a superhero and making a difference in the lives of the people around him. Unfortunately, his first venture into heroing doesn't go quite the way he plans and he earns himself an undeserved reputation for incompetence. From there, the recriminations start rolling in.
    Is it any wonder that he might just chuck all the good and go for the bad? Because if people are going to treat him like he's crap, why should he go out of his way to save their lives? It's a lot easier being rich.

Read: Chapter Seven



CHAPTER SEVEN

Life was always changing, that was one thing he'd noticed. Every single day was like a new beginning. Though sometimes it was like the same day beginning again.

Vereint hadn't committed any crimes or come up with any nefarious plots in a couple of weeks and he was quickly growing bored with the not doing anything. So when he came across an invite to the annual supervillains convention, Gatcha-Con, it wasn't exactly a hard choice to decide to attend.

There were going to be a lot of posers there, of course. And he was probably going to run into a lot of wannabe losers dressed up as Darkstar, but that was all right. He could use their total lameness to hide his own. Or something like that. Because of course there were going to be superheroes there, even though it was kind of an unwritten rule that they didn't go all arrest happy at the Con. Just like when Hero-Con took place, the supervillains pretty much left it alone, even though it was a ripe target for heckling and general mayhem.

He dressed himself in a pair of black leather pants, a long-sleeved red shirt with a black vest over top, and a pair of black boots. Glancing in the mirror, he thought he looked pretty good, especially when he added the black Kato mask and the black gloves that were going to somewhat protect his identity.

It only took him a second to fly across the city and drop into an alleyway. From there, he strolled out to join the rest of the crowd, none the wiser that he hadn't taken the bus or driven himself to the Megacity Convention Center like most everyone else.

It was a little claustrophobic in the middle of the crowd, but he had decided to be just another Con member. And most of these people were just civilians dreaming about having superpowers.

Vereint paid the forty dollars at the door, ignoring the nearly contemptuous look the kid in the mirror shades gave him as he passed over the lanyard and badge.

Pausing a moment at one of the long tables, Vereint really couldn't help himself when he wrote on the name line of the badge: VD. Verient Darkstar, or venereal disease. It made him snicker a little to himself as he slipped the lanyard over his head, positioning it name out on his chest. He didn't want there to be any confusion as to which Darkstar he was.

Vereint smirked as he looked around. Just coming in the door he had seen at least five different Darkstars in various facsimiles of the outfits he had worn at different crime scenes. It was kind of flattering and a bit weird.

Wandering through the crowd, he had to laugh a little when he recognized Captain Victorious dressed in normal clothes, trying to fit in even though he was head and shoulders above nearly everyone else in the place. He was looking a little shifty and the ridiculous black sunglasses he was wearing didn't really protect his identity from someone that knew what to look for.

Once he spotted the Captain, it wasn't hard for Vereint to identify a handful of other superheroes trying to fit into the crowd. It was really kind of funny, especially when he saw a badly disguised Masque jotting down notes in a small notepad, probably trying to figure out which wannabe supervillain was going to graduate to the real time in the future.

Looking around, Vereint didn't think that too many of the people here were ever going to be anything more than nerds and wannabes. They dressed in their handmade costumes and posed for pictures, but there were very few metabilities being displayed.

He chuckled a little to himself when he saw the whiteboard listing some of the panels available:

How to Subvert a Crowd to Your Will
So You Want to Be a Villain
Get the World to Notice Your Evil
Supervillain Fashion Do's and Don'ts
Minioning for Fun and Profit

The panels were all tabled by people he had never heard of before, though they were supposed to be "well known" supervillains.

"What are you laughing at?"

He twitched and turned to see a group of four teenagers dressed in various "supervillain" outfits they had obviously sewn themselves.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"I said, what are you laughing at?" The girl was dressed in bright yellow bicycle shorts and a matching crop top, black combat boots, and a short-sleeved silver trench coat that swirled around her black knee pads. She had a pair of mirror shades pushed up on her black, blue, and magenta tri-colored hair.

He skimmed his eyes over the others, taking in the swirling capes, the skintight outfits, the cyberpunk fashion, and the fact that none of them had any kind of metability, or if they did, they were so minor as to not even matter.

"I just thought that the panels looked a little lame," he said. It felt a bit weird having to justify himself yo a bunch of teenagers.

"What's wrong with them?" a pointy chinned boy demanded, crossing his arms over his thin chest. "What do you know?"

Vereint raised an eyebrow, quirking his lips. He decided to play along for now. "I guess I don't really know all that much," he said, trying to keep the amusement in check. "I just thought that the panels sounded a little ridiculous."

"Please. Madame Murder is the greatest guest speaker ever," a blond girl in a lot of goth-style makeup and a black body stocking said. "She paneled last year and totally changed my life."

Vereint carefully kept his eyes from slipping up and down her body. "She changed your life? How?"

She blew out a breath, rolling her eyes. "I almost gave up my dream of being a supervillain until I heard her speak. She totally revitalized my desire to do evil. It was the most life changing forty-five minutes of my life. She's just great."

"Just," he said, nodding his head.

"Hey man, don't just us," the first girl growled, trying to sound tough. "I can totally see you secretly mocking us in your mind. But you're just one of like thirty Darkstars wandering around here. So when you're thinking about lameness... there you are."

Vereint couldn't help laughing. "I guess you're right," he said. "When you put it like that, I kind of come off as the king of lame. So, you guys have been to this con before?"

The first girl nodded. "This is like my third time. Brill," the blond girl, "has been five times. Morocco," pointy chin, "has been here two times, and this is Mighty Meg's first time," a boy in a brown steampunk suit and monocle.

"And what's your name?" Vereint asked.

She gave him a sharp-eyed look. "Tanis."

"And is that your real name, or your future supervillain name?" he asked.

Morocco pushed forward to stand in front of her. "What are you, a cop or something?" he demanded suspiciously. "Are you trying to ID us before our careers even take off?"

"Your careers?" Vereint asked in honest surprise. "You're seriously planning on making lives for yourselves as supervillains?"

"Well, duh, why the hell else would we spend all our time practicing and learning everything we can? If we're lucky, we'll be able to join the Guild of Calamitous Intent once we get out of school," Tanis said.

"You want to join the Guild of CI? Really?" Vereint raised an eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mighty Meg asked, his voice cracking a little in the middle. His monocle slipped down and he had to push it back up again.

Vereint held out his hands in a placating gesture. "Settle down. I'm not trying to insult you or anything. It's just that the Guild is kind of a... well, they're kind of a joke and no one really takes them seriously. When the League of Superheroes gets called out, it's never because the Guild is doing something. They usually leave the Guild to the junior members or to the teen super groups that need some experience before they're really allowed to go out on their own."

"And how do you know that?" Tanis demanded.

"I just know some stuff, that's all," Vereint said. Looking at them, he felt a little bad. They were undeniably pathetic and didn't even know it. Wannabes that were probably never going to get any further than this: attending conventions and dressing up in their costumes so they could call each other by the supervillain names they would probably never really get to use.

"'VD' huh?" Brill said contemptuously. "So you advertising the fact that you've got some gross diseases?"

Vereint felt a little of his sympathetic feelings dissipate. The girl was kind of a pest, and from the looks on their faces her friends weren't that far behind her on the annoyance meter. "I just thought it was funny, since there were so many others registering as 'Darkstar,'" he said. "I didn't want to end up as Darkstar3499 or something stupid."

"What I think is stupid is the fact that you're giving us such a hard time, and you couldn't even come up with your own original name," Mighty Meg said. "That's pretty stupid."

"Yeah, you're trying to take on the identity of a big time super," Morocco said. "At least we're being original."

He could tell they were a little upset that he had derided their dreams of joining the Guild. But he was just trying to be honest, and when they ended up minioning for some Guild loser they would realize that he hadn't been giving them such a hard time. The Guild was not a good place to end up, especially if you were young and new and too stupid to realize that there were better organizations out there that actually took care of their members.

"Dude, I'm not trying to hassle you," he said. "I just think you need to do a little research on the Guild or any other organization before you sign on. Because I'm sorry to say, but once you register with an organization, that's pretty much it. They don't really let you hopscotch from one group to another."

"Seriously, man, how do you even know?" Morocco asked. "Who are you?"

Vereint shrugged. "I've been around," he said. "I've met some people that signed on to the Guild and they're not as cool as the brochure suggests. If you just look around, you'll find out that some people have been seriously burned by them."

Tanis bit her lip, her suspicious eyes looking at him. "Are you a member of any organization?" she asked.

Vereint shrugged. "I've done some stuff in the past, but I'm not currently a member of any organization."

"Why are we even talking to this guy?" Brill whispered not too covertly to Mighty Meg. She had obviously never dealt with someone that had superhearing. "He's just some dude that's trying to be cool."

On one hand, Vereint was kind of mad. On the other hand, these kids obviously didn't know how cutthroat the world of supers could be. Boy were they going to be in for a big surprise.

"Don't take my advice," he said, "I really don't care. I just thought you might like to know that the Guild will eat you up and not even feel a little bit bad about it. They're sharks, and to them you're nothing but guppies."

"You're full of shit," Morocco snarled, jabbing a finger at him. "I don't think you know anything you're talking about. I think you tried to be a supervillain and failed, and now you're trying to take it away from us too. You're just like my dad."

"Is that why you're here?" Brill demanded. "Are you some kind of anti-recruiter or something? Do you just go around talking people out of being supervillains or something?"

Vereint was honestly surprised. "No. I would never advocate the bursting of anyone's personal bubble. I'm not a hypocrite. I was just saying that the Guild isn't totally on the up-and-up. I mean, if you're not one of their prime members, you probably won't enjoy your experiences with them. You'll just end up as someone's bitch."

"Look, you might be trying to help us and I appreciate that," Tanis said. "But why don't you butt out? You're just some stranger."

Vereint held his hands up. "All right, all right, whatever makes you happy. Just as long as you don't blame me when you find out how the Guild really is."

"Don't worry," Brill said. "We're not even going to remember meeting you at all."

"Yeah," Mighty Meg said. "We're going to be the greatest super team ever."

"And what are your powers exactly?" Vereint asked.

"Fuck you, man!" Morocco turned to the others. "Come on, he's just making fun of us now."

"Yeah, come on," Brill said, grabbing Tanis' arm and pulling her away with the rest of her friends.

As they disappeared through the crowd, Tanis looked back, a thoughtful frown on her face. Which made Vereint feel a little bad because he could already tell things weren't going to go so great for their "super group."

He shook his head and turned to explore the rest of the con. They were a bunch of kids he didn't even known and they would have to have their bubbles burst for themselves.

He figured that the only reason he had even cared at all was because they reminded him of himself before he registered as a superhero and had all his dreams destroyed by reality.

Superheroes and supervillains were dicks, and that was all there was to it.

Vereint sighed and wandered into the merchants hall.

There were long tables and booths set up in aisles, boasting things like tee shirts, cups, anime, manga, snack foods, toys, and basically anything else the merchants thought might make them a few bucks. There were representatives from various supervillain groups at their own booths with recruitment pamphlets, large HD screens showing videos, and laptops showing sparkling interactive presentations.

A small smile quirked Vereint's lips as he began to wander around. If there was one thing every supervillain loved, it was Pocky. And he could already see a table with a vast display of delicious snacks.

Fingering a ten dollar bill, he skimmed over the selection of Pocky. He completely ignored the strawberry and green tea flavors and went straight for the chocolate. There were at least ten different kinds, which made him giggle a little to himself.

He grabbed four boxes and quickly paid the girl manning the booth. "Thank you."

She nodded at him distractedly, already reaching past him for the money a heavyset woman was holding out.

He wandered past the various booths, occasionally munching on Pocky, until one table caught his eye.

"DARKSTAR'S DESIRES" written in lurid green cursive was pretty hard to ignore, along with the rest of the banner which featured a half naked rendition of his supervillain self.

He pushed his way through the crowd around the table, careful not to use too much strength and hurt anyone. There were art prints and books on the table, all with graphic images of "Darkstar" doing largely unspeakable things to various men, women, and in one horrifying instance a strange cat-snake creature.

"What's this?" he asked a young woman standing next to him.

She gave him a surprised look. "Considering who you're dressed as, I can't believe you don't know. It's fanart and fanfiction."

He flipped through one of the novels, which turned out to be some thinly veiled pornography hiding as literature. "Is this legal? It says here that I... Darkstar is having sex with like twelve different people I've never even heard of."

"Wow, you must be really new to the scene," she said, shaking her head. "It's harmless fun. The only person that it would probably hurt is Darkstar, and I can't really imagine him wandering through here to find any of this." She reached forward to grab a glossy print featuring a shirtless Darkstar embracing a fully costumed Starburst.

"Look at that," he said, "how is that even possible? Darkstar used to be Starburst, so how can they even have a sexual relationship? That's crazy."

"Who cares," she said, "it's pretty and sexy. It makes me think that Mirror-verse Starburst is here to have a fantastic time with Darkstar. Nice." She passed some money to the woman running the booth, who also seemed to be the artist with how she took a silver paint pen and quickly scrawled her name across the bottom of the white cardboard frame of the picture.

Vereint looked over the stuff on the table, then glanced at the crowd clamoring to buy them, and didn't know whether he was freaked out or not. Finally, he decided that he was just going to pretend he had never seen any of this.

If he could have self-induced some kind of amnesia, he would have, especially when he flashbacked to all those fantasy images of his engorged penis. Or that one image where he seemed to be hiding a second face on his chest, a face that liked to do some really obscene things.

He wandered off through the crowd, his newly opened eyes seeing that there was a lot of Darkstar paraphernalia around the hall. There were tee shirts with his likeness, buttons, art prints, Kato masks, and even stuffed dolls made up to look like him and wearing renditions of his more well-known outfits.

When he paused next to a toy booth, he overheard a group of girls talking, "Look at that one. How many losers do you think decided to dress up like Darkstar today?"

"I don't know. At least that one's not like seven hundred pounds overweight like the last one."

"Still, he probably has mommy issues. All the guys dressing up like Darkstar usually do. Sure, he's super good looking just like the real Darkstar, but look at what he's wearing. There's no way Darkstar would ever dress like that. He's just another poseur. Lame."

Vereint felt a flush staining his cheeks and very carefully didn't turn around to see the speakers. He had a feeling that if he looked at them, bad things would probably happen.

Though it was nice to think about throttling the little bitch and leaving her body somewhere for her family to find, it was probably not something he wanted to do in real life.

He walked away, stiff-backed, toward one of the recruitment booths for a group calling itself "The Society Of Sociopaths." Anyone whose acronym was SOS either had to be interesting... or stupid. He kind of wanted to see which.
"Are you interested in our group?" the heavily cowled man behind the table asked.

Vereint looked over the brochures arranged on the tabletop, some of them looking expensively glossy and full colored. These guys had gone out of their way to make themselves look appealing to people that didn't know any better. "I've never heard of your group before," he said, "are you guys new?"

"New? Us? No way. We've been around since the beginnings of organized crime. Our group is one of the most respected groups in the metahuman community. We have very strict recruitment standards, which is why we're not too well-known outside of meta circles."

"Really?" Vereint asked. "So why are you recruiting here?"

"We've recently lost a few of our members in a wide-scale super battle versus the League of Superheroes. Because of that, we made the hard decision to open our doors to new recruits, so attendees of Gatcha-con are lucky enough to be given the first opportunity to sign up for consideration. The sign-up is here, but there is a rigorous testing period, then the recruit will be considered by the full Society of Sociopaths council before any final decision is reached."

Vereint flipped through a pamphlet, reading some of the information inside. It wasn't really that awe-inspiring, but he could see how someone who didn't know any better could be sucked in.

"This seems very interesting," he said. "You guys have been around for a long time, huh?"

"Oh yes. We're one of the original super groups," the guy said. "We are very respected in the meta community and anyone that joins our group is destined for nothing but greatness."

"And what was your name?" Vereint asked.

"I'm Major Malfunction," the guy said. "My power is the ability to cause any electronics device to malfunction."

"Wow, that must be hell on anyone with a pacemaker," Vereint said.

The guy's mouth twisted nastily. "You have no idea. One trip near the old folks home and I can make people drop like flies."

"Do you do that often?" Vereint asked, trying to keep the disgust out of his voice. The guy was just a little too greasy for his peace of mind. Plus, he was talking about killing old people.

"Not really," Major Malfunction said. "King Alpha, the head of the Society, doesn't really like that kind of publicity. He's not really into the flashy stuff. It's one of the reasons why he's not so fond of Darkstar," he gestured at Vereint's outfit.

"Really," Vereint said. "I don't think I've ever heard of King Alpha, and I have a pretty good memory for names."

"Well, he doesn't like the publicity, like I said. He would rather be the power behind the scenes. All the major heroes and villains know who he is."

"Really. Including Darkstar?"

The guy smiled brightly. "Oh yes. They like to keep it all hush-hush, and King Alpha doesn't like to toot his own horn so he hasn't really been yelling it around. But a couple months ago Darkstar was messing around in Society territory, and King Alpha put him in his place."

Vereint didn't even try to stop the surprise from crossing his face. "He beat up Darkstar? Is that what you're really saying?"

"I don't know if I would say he gave the guy a beat down, but pretty much, yeah." Major Malfunction grabbed one of the pamphlets and flipped through it to a certain page. He tapped an image. "Here, this is a picture of King Alpha. Do you honestly think a pussy like Darkstar would be able to stand up to someone that awesome?"

Vereint dropped the pamphlet he held onto the table and took the one Major Malfunction held out. The man pictured certainly was hugely muscled and impressive looking, all ripply and tendony. He also didn't happen to be anyone Vereint had ever seen before, either in costume or out.

"Wow, dude looks big," he said.

"Yeah. This picture doesn't even do him any justice," Major Malfunction said. "I'm not very little, and King Alpha is close to twice as tall as me. They had to custom build all the furniture he uses at Society headquarters."

"Impressive," Vereint said through gritted teeth. "And King Alpha beat Darkstar with no trouble at all?"

Major Malfunction quickly glanced around before leaning in close. "The League of Ultimate Evil is trying to keep it quiet, but King Alpha made that pussy cry. There's talk that he fucked him up so bad he almost died. That's why he hasn't been in the news lately, no close-ups anyway."

"Why would the League want to keep it quiet, though? They don't really have anything to do with Darkstar," Vereint said.

"That's what they want you to think," Major Malfunction scoffed. "They're all in each others' pockets. Darkstar is their personal pet project. They're the ones that built him up, that's why he was able to rise so fast in the city. They're going to wait a little while, then they're going to make Darkstar their new puppet. It's the kind of thing they've been doing for years. It's one of the ways they've kept power in the city."

"Whoa, that's some heavy stuff. So if the League is trying to make a... a supervillain monopoly, then why doesn't your Society of Sociopaths use your amazing powers to stop them?" Vereint asked.

"Because we're not stupid. The League of Ultimate Evil is in the pocket of the League of Superheroes. They work together so that they can both be known as the primary super groups. Darkstar is their newest toy, and pretty soon the League of Superheroes is going to pick who's going to be his nemesis and they're going to be the only news happening in the city. Best bet is that Darkstar is going to be paired with Lady Arcana."

"Why her?" Vereint asked, genuinely curious.

Major Malfunction shrugged. "Because she's the hottest thing most of those sweaty fisted virgins have ever seen. Whenever she and Darkstar battle it out, all anyone's going to be able to think about is the two of them duking it out buck naked like wild animals."

Vereint thought about Lady Arcana a moment. Sure, she was pretty hot, but she was also the coldest fish he had ever run across in his life. And there was no way she was even close to his power levels. "You don't think a fight between Darkstar and Lady Arcana would be a little one-sided?"

"Nah," Major Malfunction said confidently. "The media talks up Darkstar's power levels. All anyone cares about is that he's good-looking, and that's why his story has been spun so far out of belief. In reality, he's only a little stronger than Beta-class. I could probably take him out if I wanted to go there."

"You really think you could take on Darkstar?" a disbelieving voice demanded loudly.

Vereint turned to see that Masque had somehow wandered up without him noticing. She had ditched the disguise and was wearing her regular outfit, probably just to deal with the situation she had noticed developing. She was focused on the guy in front of him and his awesome claims.

"Yeah, what of it?" Major Malfunction asked, glaring at her. He either didn't recognize her as the real deal, or was foolish enough to think that he could take her on. Vereint wasn't quite sure which. "What are you doing here, hero? This con isn't exactly for your kind."

"I just came over when I heard you being stupid," Masque growled. There was a bit of a crowd gathering behind her as they realized that a real superhero was in attendance. "You do realize that Darkstar is a pretty big name and that there's plenty of people that would fuck you up just for saying his name, right?"

"Oh yeah, and why should anyone care that I called him a pussy?" Major Malfunction asked.

Masque shook her head, her blond ponytail whipping back and forth. "Because some of the small-timers and minions think that if they do things like beat up and kill anyone that disses him, they'll get on his good side. So if you keep up the strong talk, someone might just ace your spade."

Vereint snorted into his hand. She had a flair for the dramatic and liked to use some pretty weird talk. It was funny.
"I can handle anyone that comes my way," Major Malfunction said. "I'm one of the top members of the Society."

"The Society?" Masque asked, sounding genuinely confused. "The Society of what?"

"The Society of Sociopaths!" Major Malfunction waved his hand at the banner. "We're one of the original super groups."

"I've never heard of you," Masque said, shaking her head. Someone in the crowd drifting around her laughed and said something snarky to a friend.

The bits of Major Malfunction's face that showed flushed with embarrassed anger. "Don't fuck with me, bitch! I know you know who we are. King Alpha even said he could hear you talking about us at one of your secret meetings."

"He heard us talking about your group?" Masque asked. "When was that?"

"A couple of weeks ago. Don't lie to me. King Alpha used his superhearing and overheard your little group talking about us, planning your conspiracy with the League of Ultimate Evil."

"What conspiracy?" Masque asked. From her expression, she realized she'd stepped into a whole lot of crazy. "And why would we do anything with the League of Ultimate Evil? They're our enemy. And oh yeah, they're evil."

"No they're not." Major Malfunction slammed his hand down on the table in front of him. "Everyone knows you're all in each others' pockets. You work together to try to push all of the other super groups out of the city. You're all like gangsters. And you're jealous of your authority, everyone knows it."

"You're crazy," Masque said after a long moment. She looked around, trying to spot an escape route. "I'm gonna go." She gestured with her thumb over her shoulder.

"You're not going anywhere, bitch," Major Malfunction growled suddenly, leaping the table in front of him. "You're a superhero and you decided to show your face. And now I'm going to beat the crap out of you and everyone here is going to see just how pathetic the League of Superheroes really is, especially when compared to some real superpowers."

Vereint backed away, giving the guy room to face off with one of the premier superheroes of the world. He thought it might be amusing to see her hand the idiot his ass.

Major Malfunction swung his fist around and slammed it into Masque's face. She didn't even make a move to block him and certainly wasn't moved by his effort.

Just eyeballing the guy, Vereint was sure Major Malfunction had only slightly stronger than normal strength, not enough to do any real damage to Masque.

She stood looking at the man for a long moment, then reached out and grabbed his wrist, twisting it smoothly back and to the side. He screamed like he was being killed.  "I don't really want to hurt you," she said. "It's obvious that you have some serious mental issues that you need to deal with."

"You bitch! I'll kill you!" he screamed, bringing his other arm around to try and hit her.

She blocked him with negligent strength. "I don't think you'll be doing anything of the sort."

"What's going on here?"

Vereint cringed a little. There was nothing like a little Captain Victorious to make him want to get the hell out of view.

Masque turned to face her colleague cum leader. "Oh, Vic, this guy was talking big about Darkstar. I thought it prudent to tell him that that wasn't a good idea, especially considering what happened a few weeks ago. But instead of listening to me, he got all aggro and attacked me."

Vereint was curious about what had happened a few weeks ago, but it wasn't like he could ask them for the information. He made a mental note to find out later.

"That's reasonable," the Captain said. He ran disgusted eyes over Major Malfunction's squirming, cursing form. "We don't really need any serious trouble from a bunch of Darkstar's little fans. And if he somehow managed to offend Darkstar himself..." He shook his head.

Vereint wondered if he should be offended or not. It sometimes just seemed as though a lot of people thought he was a few bricks short of a brick shit house. They all just assumed that since he was a supervillain he didn't have any self-control and would spaz out over every little thing.

Major Malfunction suddenly twisted in Masque's grip to face him. "Hey man, you help me and I'll make sure you get an in with the Society!" he yelled.

When Captain Victorious and Masque both turned to face him, Vereint wished more than anything that the idiot had just kept his mouth shut. Disguising himself as himself only worked so long as the person looking at him didn't know him.

He saw the Captain's eyes focus on him, then widen in surprise. He held his hands out. "Look, dude, I'm not really here for any..."

"Darkstar," Masque breathed in an unfortunately carrying voice.

There was a surprised murmur from the crowd and Vereint realized he wasn't going to get out of this by pretending to be anything other than himself. "Hey, Captain Vic," he said, grinning and waving a little. "You wanna know the worst thing about this whole situation? I didn't even get a chance to buy some funnel cakes from the booth over there."

Captain Victorious didn't really look scared, just very, very nervous and aware. He held up his big hands, palm out.
"Don't hurt anyone, please. All these people here, they're basically just a bunch of nerds in dress up. Most of them aren't ever going to do anything more than this playing pretend they do here at the con. They don't really mean any harm."

Vereint ran his own eyes across the crowd, his gaze caught by the teenagers from before staring at him with their mouths agape. They looked shocked and horrified that he really was Darkstar and they had mouthed off to him earlier. There was a widening wet spot at the front of Morocco's tight pants.

Vereint felt bad for the kid, so he thoughtfully didn't focus too hard on him or his friends. "When did I get a reputation for being such a monster?" he asked. "Honestly, when have I ever done anything to warrant such fear?"

"You've been terrorizing this city for the past year," Captain Victorious growled as though that were the perfect answer.

"I don't think I'm that bad," Vereint said, pressing one hand dramatically to his chest. "I've always thought that I was a very understanding and wonderful individual. I've always tried to be the best me that I could be."

"That's practically poetic," Captain Victorious sneered.

Vereint wagged his finger at him. "Hey now, there's no reason to be so rude. I've always been nothing but nice to you."

He could tell just by looking that more than anything Captain Victorious wanted to beat his ass. But the Captain was just unsure enough about the outcome of the fight that he didn't want to be the one to start things that didn't really need to take place. Though it would feel pretty good to make the Captain cry, especially if it was in front of a crowd of people.
"If you're not here to cause trouble, then why are you here?" Captain Victorious demanded.

Vereint shrugged. "This is a supervillain convention, isn't it? And I like to think of myself as a pretty super member of the whole villain thing. Sure, I might not be the most well-known villain," he smiled charmingly, "but I think I can make some shit happen if I want to."

"What were you planning on doing here?" Captain Victorious asked suspiciously.

"Why do I get the impression that you don't really trust my motives?" Vereint asked. "I thought it would be kind of cool to come to Gatcha-Con, so here I am. No nefarious plans or anything like that. Just another nerdy con attendee taking the chance to meet up with other like-minded individuals. Why do you always have to be so suspicious of my motives?"

"Because you're a bad guy," Captain Victorious growled. "You cause trouble and strife wherever you go."

"That's mostly not my fault," Vereint excused. "Sometimes stuff just happens and I get caught up in the moment. For the most part, I live a pretty quiet life and try my hardest not to cause problems wherever I might go."

"Tell me the truth, what are you doing here? What do you have planned for these poor people?"

Vereint looked around. "Sure, they're kind of freaking me out with the googly eyes right now, but I don't think these people are that poor. I mean, anyone that's willing to spend fifty dollars for a three-inch tall plastic statue of yours truly can't really be that short on cash, you know. And just like I said, I was hoping to maybe get some funnel cake." He held up the plastic bag hanging around his wrist. "I've already gotten some Pocky, so I'm pretty much set in the snack department."

He leaned against the edge of the table next to him. "I guess I can be pretty much done here just so it doesn't cause a big problem for you. The real question here, though, is whether you're just going to let me go, or if you want to fight me. Whatever your decision, I've got no problem beating the shit out of you if that's what you really want."

It was a pretty near thing. Captain Victorious obviously wanted to lunge forward and try to remove Vereint's face with his fist. But Masque clasped a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back to some sense of sanity.

"I think we're just going to let you go today," she said. "I personally wouldn't mind beating the complete and utter shit out of you, but there's way too many people here and we don't want anyone to get hurt. But the next time we meet..."

"I will destroy you," Captain Victorious threatened, his voice falling into a low growl.

"Ooh, I like the voice, it's very dramatic. You've totally got me trembling in my boots, that's for sure." Vereint couldn't help the smarmy smile that twisted his lips then. "Is that the same voice you use when you've got Masque and Lady Arcana in bed together? Though I hear they're more into each other than into you. Is that really true? 'Cause that's fucking sexy if it is. Two smoking hot ladies getting it on; I would pay good money just to watch, not even participate."

"You're disgusting," Masque snapped.

He gave her his most charming smile, watching the way she couldn't seem to help how her lips wanted to smile back at him. "I don't think it's disgusting," he said. "Do you really think it's disgusting?"

She stared at him for a long moment, her eyes focused on his through his mask. A rosy flush colored her cheeks and not even the small black mask over her eyes--with the white lenses that covered the eye holes--could hide the almost hypnotized look she was sporting. "Well, I guess it's not that bad," she finally said, her pink tongue flicking out to moisten her lips. She leaned unconsciously a bit closer in his direction. "You might have said it a little better, but I don't think there's any reason for anyone to ever be ashamed of their sexuality."

"See, that's why you've always been one of my favorite members of the League of Superheroes," he purred.

She smiled back at him. "I don't think you're as bad as everyone's been saying lately. Honestly, from the things people have said I would have thought you would be a real monster, but... you're actually pretty charming, you know?"

"Am I?" he asked.

She nodded. "Uh huh. I think that's one of the reasons why you're so popular with the public. You're always so nice to old people and children, and unless someone moves against you, I don't think there's ever been a story where you've hurt anyone without reason."

"Thank you," he said. "You're very flattering."

She shifted a little closer. "I don't think it's flattery to tell the truth," she said. "What do you think about..."

Captain Victorious gripped her shoulder and jerked her back a few feet. "Masque! He's charming you. Wake the hell up!" He shook her a couple of times, sending her head bobbing on her neck.

She blinked hard, then looked around, shrugging the Captain's hands off her. "I'm all right now," she said. She glared at Vereint, her little chin setting hard with determination. "Don't try that again."

He held his hands out. "Try what? I didn't do anything."

She growled at him, a low sound that rumbled up from her chest. "You know what you were doing. Don't try it again, or I'll cut you in half."

He couldn't help laughing a little. She was glaring at him with everything she had and it was more cute than terrifying.
"I guess you caught me," he said. "I don't know what I could have done to offend you, but I promise to never do it again. Pinkie swear."

"Shut up," she snapped.

He gave her a charming smile. "God, but I love it when you're dominant like that. You've already got the leather catsuit, all you need now is the whip and chains."

Masque clenched her hands into fists at her sides. "You're a real asshole, you know that?"

"Aw, your words are like candy. Have you ever thought about being a phone sex operator? I mean, you are getting pretty up there in years and you can't be a superhero forever. Phone sex could be your retirement plan."

"I am not fucking old!" she snarled.

"Temper, temper," he said, wagging his finger at her. "You know, being unable to control your anger is a sign of senility."

She snarled and it wasn't nearly as sexy as he had thought it would be. In fact, the way her face contorted with rage and that vein bulged in her forehead pretty much nixed any idea he had had that she was hot when she was angry. "Shut the fuck up!" she screamed. "I am not fucking old or senile or a lesbian dominatrix or anything else you want to call me.! What I am is completely pissed off and if you don't shut your hole I'm going to shut it for you."

Vereint mock-winced. "Whoa, lady, I don't think I want you anywhere near my hole."

Earlier she had been the one to hold back Captain Victorious, but now their roles were reversed. "Calm down," the Captain said, pulling her back from her lunge at Vereint. "He's trying to provoke you. We really don't want to get into a physical confrontation with him, not with this crowd of people." He gestured at the mass of con attendees that had been attracted by the drama. Most of them had never been in the presence of real superheroes or villains before, not ones with any power anyway.

Vereint grinned at the Captain. "You afraid of the bad PR if I beat your ass in public?"

Captain Victorious sneered back. "I don't know who you think you are, but we both know who you're always going to be. You were a B-class superhero, and no matter how hard you push at being an A-class supervillain, you're always going to be second-class. So why don't you get the hell out of here before things get ugly?"

"Whoa man, is that how you always talk to the bad guys you deal with?" Vereint asked. "Your chatter doesn't make me want to walk away without causing trouble. Instead, it makes me want to kick your ass and embarrass you in front of all these people here."

"Is that really Darkstar?" someone in the crowd asked. "This isn't just some publicity stunt?"

Vereint turned to the man that had spoken. He was probably pushing thirty and was about seventy pounds overweight, a fact that was most unpleasantly highlighted by his skintight vermillion bodysuit. His little black cape barely brushed the bottom of his ass, so it didn't do much good at hiding the horror. Still, Vereint managed to give the guy a pleasant smile. "Hi, how you doin' today, fella? My name's Darkstar. And I want to play," he said the last in a creepy sing-song voice.

The guy blanched under his black eye-mask and stumbled backward. "Holy shit, it's really him!"

A stir went through the crowd and Vereint couldn't help but to smile. The whole being instantly recognizable thing was still pretty much a thrill. It always just kind of gave him a happy whenever his name was spoken in that fearful yet reverently awed way. He just wasn't cool enough to be blase to it.

"Wh-what are you going to do with us?" a black woman wearing a large and overly curled blond wig asked. She was at least six feet tall and was wearing a silver bodysuit with dark blue piping that was at least halfway unzipped down the front to reveal obviously enhanced breasts. Her heavily made up face wasn't really pretty, might even have been considered unattractive in different circumstances, but was currently oddly fascinating. The persona she was putting across was just too interesting to be ignored.

Without really thinking about it, Vereint drifted across the floor until he was close enough to reach out and brush his fingers through her awful wig. It was just as hair sprayed and terrible as he had imagined it to be, but he had just needed to experience it for himself. "If you're really lucky," he purred, "I won't do anything to you. If you're unlucky... well, I guess then we're going to party."

"Whoa, I didn't think Darkstar used awful lines like that in real life," someone in the crowd whispered. Another voice laughed in response.

Vereint grit his teeth, his happy mood sinking a little. He hated to be criticized. But when you were in the meta business there was always someone with an opinion out there, and they had no problem expressing what they felt even when no one asked.

"I don't think you quite grasp the seriousness of your situation," he said loudly.  "You may think that we somehow know each other and are thus best friends forever, but in all honesty I don't give a fuck about any of you as much as I do about pigeons being Alka-Seltzer bombed, and I don't give a fuck about them. So why don't you can it with the witty commentary before I personally show you all why I was voted this year's Greatest Supervillain in the Yucksies. Understand?"

There was a gentle murmur of assent from the crowd. Most of them probably weren't as scared of him as they should be, but they seemed to be taking a careful approach to him, which still translated into them shutting up and doing what he said. So even if he wasn't completely satisfied with the response he got, at least he wasn't going to have to make an example of someone. He always hated having to do that, but he wasn't going to let anyone walk all over him either. That way led to a loss of crowd control, not just here, but everywhere that people had heard about his total lameness.

Sometimes he could really see why he had sucked as a superhero. He had been so afraid of offending someone that he hadn't done all the things he should have. He should have fought for respect and not let anyone take it away from him. He had let the rest of the League of Superheroes walk all over him, and because of that he had never become his own man.

But when he had decided to go supervillain, he simply had not given a fuck. His definition of a supervillain meant he got to do anything he wanted and use any means necessary to do it, including playing at being a monster, and sometimes having to really be one.

It wasn't the greatest moment in his life, but he had made examples of people before. He didn't really like using his powers like that, but if he couldn't keep crowd control, then he should just throw his supervillain title away. Because then he wouldn't just have been a B-class--possibly C-class--superhero, he would be a B-class supervillain too. And that would be just too lame for him to bear.

He rose up a few feet in the air. There was something about looming over people that made them more likely to do what he wanted. Plus he was easily visible to the rest of the crowd and no one would be dumb enough to just assume he was part of a publicity stunt.

"If you all remain calm and just stay the hell out of my way, I think we will get along perfectly fine. But if I hear you making snide remarks about what I am wearing, what I am saying, or anything else about me, I promise you that I will be anything but kind. At least have the intelligence to wait until I am gone before being an asshole, because that just shows you don't really think I might boil one of you alive from the inside out. And I think we would all hate for anything like that to happen, right?" He smiled unpleasantly.

He could almost smell the fear in the room now. He probably shouldn't have enjoyed it, but there was something so cool about being able to completely dominate a room. They would do anything he told them to, that was how afraid they were.
They belonged to him.

"Seriously, what are you going to do?" Captain Victorious demanded. "Are you really going to start a fight in here, with all these people?"

"I thought you guys had been painting me as a real monster at your League meetings? Don't you really believe I'm so terrible that you have to get me off the streets at all costs? So you don't want to face me yourselves, but you tell your newbie members to try and take me on? What kind of assholes are you really?"

"That is totally not the way it is!" Masque shouted, though the way she looked around at the crowd when she said it didn't exactly engender confidence. "We have never advocated that anyone start a super battle with you. We make sure our members know just how dangerous you are, but that you don't usually attempt to kill a bunch of people every time you make an appearance. We emphasize that most of the time, if they just pretend they don't see you, you won't make a big scene."

Vereint thought about that, then didn't know if he really liked the way he was being handled. "So what you're saying is that the League of Superheroes doesn't take me seriously? You all think that I'm some kind of joke or something? So I should go out there and do something to make you all take me seriously no matter what situation I'm in?" He had honestly never thought of the idea before, but now that he had he didn't really want to change his situation, because it was pretty sweet.

What she had said was that he could be out and about and be recognized by the League of Superheroes, but unless he was causing havoc, they would basically pretend like they didn't know who he was or what he was doing. And that was actually pretty cool. He had a good situation going for him, one that he didn't really want to change.

Still there was nothing like spooking a world known superhero to make his day just a little bit shinier.

"If you guys should have let me go about my business, then why did you guys bug me today when I was just standing here? Couldn't you have just pretended not to recognize me?" Vereint asked. "I wasn't hurting anyone and none of these people were in the kind of danger that they're in now. They would have been able to go about their lives without having to worry about me melting them into a pile of goo. Which is something they totally have to worry about now."

"Whoa now, there's no reason to get all crazy." Captain Victorious held up his hands. "We both know there's nothing of value for you here at the con, so you've basically got a bunch of hostages for no real reason.  You're not going to start a super battle so you can get away with a bunch of stuff, because there's nothing here you really want. There's no real reason to invite trouble when there's no need for it. We should have just let you alone."

"Which is just what I asked you: Why did you guys start it today?" Vereint asked.

"Look, it was kind of a mistake," Captain Victorious said. He was still holding on to Masque's arm just in case. "There was a lot of surprise involved with seeing you here. When you come to one of these things, you don't really expect to see any really famous people. It's mostly newcomers or people whose careers never quite picked up and they just want some exposure, you know? So seeing you here? Kind of a shock."

"So you had to out me in front of a whole crowd of normals? Great, I'm real thankful for that. So now what am I supposed to do: terrorize the place, or sign autographs?" Vereint raked a hand through his hair. "Are you guys looking to start a super battle, because I was kind of hoping for a quiet day today. You know, stress free and everything. Kind of a day of pacifism to make up for the fact that I usually enjoy kicking way too much ass to be karmically healthy."

Captain Victorious studied him for a long moment. "You're really not here for any nefarious reasons?"

"Nefarious? Really?" Vereint rolled his eyes. "Allow me to reiterate myself once again: I was just here to enjoy the con. If you want me to turn all supervillain and do something to add to my rep, just let me know and I'll be glad to do it."

"No, no, that's not what we want," the Captain said hurriedly, waving his hand. "I don't think any of us here are really prepared for an all out brawl with a bunch of civilians here."

"Personally I think that I'm always ready for an all out brawl, it's just not what I was planning on today. So if you want to be my personal change of plans, I have no problem with kicking your asses before I leave. Or you could be cool and I'll just leave. This con is pretty much over for me anyway." He waved a hand at the crowd. "I don't think any of those people are going to forget who I am any time soon and I just don't want to deal with the drama of a bunch of fanboys trying to get my autograph or the crazy ones that really believe they're in the same league as me."

He was getting so tired of having to repeat himself that he thought being able to bring the hurt on them would have made him feel better. "Look, do you guys want to fight, or should I just go?"

Captain Victorious looked around with an indecisive expression on his face. "We can't have any problem here," he said to Masque, who quickly nodded.

"Then I'm gone," Vereint said, rising up into the air. "Maybe we'll have more fun next time."

He turned to where the terrified teens were still huddling, probably going over everything they'd said to him and all the stories about what he might do to them if he was mad enough. He pointed a commanding finger at them, trying to look as stern as possible. "Hey kids, stay in school. And just say no to drugs--the hard ones at least."

They looked as though he'd just shot them in the face. It made him have to fight back a crazy giggle. "Laters!" he called, flying toward the open double doors and the freedom beyond.

He left behind a babble of shocked voices and pointing fingers as even those that hadn't been in the merchant's hall realized that he was the real Darkstar. It made him laugh a little to himself as he broke for the outside and was finally able to go to real speeds.

The con hadn't quite been what he thought it was going to be, but it wasn't all that bad either.

He hadn't been bored at least.


"Should we really have let him go like that?" Masque asked, ignoring the crowd around them.

"We didn't have any choice," Captain Victorious said. "Let's get out of here before we get overrun by a bunch of fan nerds."

She filled her body with power and wrapped her arm around his waist. It was kind of awkward considering he was at least two feet taller than her, but needs must when the devil drives.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"Just get us out of here," he growled, trying to keep from glaring around at the crowd of staring people.

Masque concentrated hard on where she wanted to go and let her power burst out of her, enveloping them both. There was a flash of black light and they disappeared back to headquarters.