Today's #flashfiction #WhatTheHeroStoleFromTheSupervillain

“Tag! You're it!”

Terminator* #quote

        Today I'm headed out to do my trading card game thing and then to go to dinner with my brother and his fiancee. What a lovably busy day it'll be! Anyway onto the flash fiction!

What The Hero Stole From Supervillain

         The other prisoners tended to avoid confrontation with the supervillain. The scars running head to toe on his body were self inflicted wounds. Magic symbols that gave him power. Though deactivated from one specialized attack against him in the final battle, they still scared the other prisoners. Their deactivation meant that he didn't have to go to a specialized wing of the prison where they place people with powers.

He didn't want to be called by his supervillain name. An odd trait since many villains in prison want to as a matter of pride. So the powerful wizard became Harold once again. In fact when people called him by his villainous name he grew very angry and would attack them.

        Cellmates rotated out with him until he got one of the biggest, strongest men in the prison. Someone the guards figured he wouldn't dare to fight with.

       The first thing the man said to him was, “I've worked for supervillains while they had their powers and made them regret it when they crossed me. Don't flip out on me scarred boy.”

For the next few months they had minimal interaction but one day the man said to him.

      “Harold, you're side of the room. It's always been more comfortable than mine. Like you have some sort of heating. I've noticed some other odd things too. You can still use magic can't you? They only messed up your runes right?”

      The supervillain responded, “Yes, Fredrick. But if you're thinking of a jailbreak I have too little power for that. I think that leaving me with a little bit of magic was another way for my nemesis to torture me.”

Fredrick then asked, “Your nemesis? Torturing you? What are you talking about? I know you've always been loopy in the head little man, but you haven't seen him for years.”

     “Exactly,” the supervillain told him. “In our final battle we never fought. The man tricked me into the most humiliating, meaningless defeat. I created my plot, as usual he found out about it first because he knows my M.O. But this time, when he came he didn't fight me. I built the perfect machine. I spent three years working on it. I knew it would defeat him. But he simply turned around and left. A team of superheroes I never met just entered and destroyed my machine and captured me. They neutralized the runes I dedicated years of my life to covering my body with. They eradicated my lab and since nothing has come to break me out of this prison all over.”

     Fredrick looked at him still confused. “And this is torture to you?”

     “They knocked me out for days! When I awoke the police held me in custody. I never knew they names! I lost everything. I had no closure with my nemesis. To have a part of your gone without any real closure. I only have a little bit of magic, types not connected to these scars. Weak magic, but I still look at these scars and I remember how much I hurt myself to get them. I feel only regret and no reward.”

Fredrick laughed. “Well, villain, that's what you get for being a villain. Despite how big I am I'm in here for a  D.U.I. One year. Dumb mistake. Will it make you feel better if I tell people that I met a big, bad supervillain in prison?”

      Harold began to cry. “The few people who tell me things...I'm losing my recognition on the outside. Since the other heroes rescued me he's making it look like I'm something easy to pass on. My past victories are being downplayed. I think he's working for me to effectively disappear from notoriety into becoming a minor villain in the big picture. My nemesis has taken away my closure in the final battle, my magic that I mutilated myself for years to obtain, my history and I don't know what else. I think he's found a way to kill me without killing me.”

     Fredrick looked at the crying supervillain. The man who once held dreams now looked like a traumatized child. Then he said, “You're a supervillain. You've killed, destroyed and enjoyed bringing sadness and pain just for the fun of it. I can't pity you, deserve the life sentence you have. The only person I would pity is someone who would be happy that the life of a supervillain was taken from them. Now go to sleep.”