#story prompt
“You won’t get away with this, Villain. Superhero will stop you.” A rather brave civilian spat.
He smiled, sad and bitter. “No she won’t. She doesn’t even know I exist. Why would she? I’m just a small-time villain, and she’s got way more important things to do than stopping me. Still, one can always dream, right?”
“I can only officially be recognized as a superhero by defeating a supervillain, like you. Until then, I’m categorized as an illegal vigilante. That’s why cops chase me.”
“Wow, you really know how to sweep a girl off her feet.” Hero weakly smiled as Villain scooped her up in his arms. She broke into a coughing fit. Blood dribbled from her lips.
“Save your breath.”
“Sorry handsome, I can’t do that. You took my breath away.”
“Seriously?”
“Hey, I was in between that or ‘you left me breathless’ or 'you’re just too breathtaking’.”
“Finally! It’s been hours, but we’ve finally been dug out!”
“About time.” The villain muttered and pressed a sharp piece of debris against Hero’s neck.
“Are you kidding me? I thought we built a real connection back there.”
“Nothing personal, but I need a shield to keep the police from arresting me.”
“You’re the worst.”
“Yes I know.”
“Why do you hate me so much? I haven’t done anything to you!”
“No, you haven’t. But you will, very soon in the future.”
“I don’t want your help or protection or whatever this is. I’ve been helping the city for a long time before you were even a blip in my radar, and so far, I’ve done a really good job.”
“No, you’ve been lucky so far. And it’s only a matter of time before your luck runs out, Hero.”
“Is that a threat, Villain?”
“Why didn’t you ever tell us that you’re from the future?”
*Shrug* “Eh. You never asked.”
“Wait, how will we find you again? It’s a big city!”
“Exactly. Big city, big crime. Don’t worry, it’s only a matter of time before we meet up again.”
Continued in: https://seafoamicecream.tumblr.com/post/671197036043960320/villain-a-hide-me-villain-b
“Hold up, have we met before?”
“No, we most certainly have not.”
“Yeah, I’ve definitely seen you before.”
“No you haven’t! This is the first time you’ve ever seen me, and the last before I grind you into dust!”
*Snaps fingers* “It’s you! My old best bud! I remember how you’d always use that phrase back when we were kids.”
“Listen here, I am not your anything except eternal mortal enemy.”
“Yeah, I remember you’d always say that too. Good times.”
“Last time, you only managed to defeat me with the help of your team, and where are they now, hmm?”
“Down on the ground, everyone! This is a bank robbery! Hey you! Didn’t you hear what I said?”
“I did. I’m old, not deaf.”
“Why you-get down on the ground, right now! You have five seconds, old timer!”
“Well, I may be an old timer, but you’re a brat in a serious need of a time out.”
Bang! The gun fired, but suddenly, the robber froze in place like a statue. The bullet remained suspended in mid-air.
“I’m terribly sorry about this, Hero. Is there anything I can offer you other than freedom or a means to obtain freedom?” Henchman asked.
“How on Earth did you get past my state of the art security? Actually, you know what, I’m so sleepy I don’t even care right now.”
“You don’t have any superpowers!”
“No, I don’t. So what?”
“What do you mean ‘so what’? You’re in way over your head. When the other villains find out, they, unlike me, won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“They always want to kill me anyway, powers or no.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
“Oh yeah, what are you going to do? Follow me to all my fights to keep the other baddies from hurting me?”
“Yes.”
“…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I liked you more when you used to want to kill me.”
“Hey, now that we finished saving the world, do you want to go on a da-”
*Narrows eyes* “Don’t even think about it.”
“Yeah okay, you’re right. I don’t even know why I-like, we’ve had zero buildup throughout the story. Hooking up at the last second would just be weird and make no sense.”
“Shut the window, you’re letting all the air out.”
“You just found out that I’m Hero, and that’s all you have to say about this?”
Beat. “Eh. Don’t forget to lock it. I don’t want my things to get stolen.”
“That’s it?”
“Kid, I don’t care what you do outside my house, as long as it doesn’t make the social worker take you and my respective stipend check away.”
“Oh, okay.”
“And for the record, I always knew you were Hero.”
“I should’ve never led you on for so long, but I did, and I’m sorry I hurt you that way.” Her eyes then hardened to steel. “But I’d do it all over again if it means keeping this city safe from you.”
“Of course. In the grand scheme of things, the lives of innocent civilians are worth more than one villain’s broken heart.”
“Now you’re getting it.”
“How cruelly pragmatic.” He sneered as the first tears ran down his cheeks. “You would’ve made a better villain than I ever was.”
“I never meant to hurt you. Not like this. It was stupid of me to think that you would ever give up. I realize now that it’s because you can’t. You truly believe in doing the right thing. I used to hate you for that, you know? You were always getting in my way, until the day I snapped and went too far-”
*sigh*
“I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can, I just want to say that I’m sorry. And…and I love you. Please wake up.”
“I thought being healed faster would make me feel better, not worse.”
“I told you, it doesn’t work like that. There’s a reason it takes so long for humans to recover from sickness or injuries - it takes up a lot of energy. You feel that way because your body had to rapidly cannibalize your muscle mass and burn through your fat reserves.”
“Wait, you mean-no! My abs are gone!”
“Small price to pay for being alive. Next time, try to avoid getting mortally wounded.”
“No promises.”
“I’m serious. I was forced to accelerate your healing factor in order to save your life. But right now, if you got hurt again and I tried to heal you, your body would consume itself to dust.”
“You…you sound like you’re saying that from experience.”
“…just be more careful out there. Please.”
“You can’t adopt me! I already have parents.”
“Oh, well if that was the only thing bothering you, I can fix that.”
“What?”
“Preferably, if you give me your parents’ identities, I can get rid of them right now. Otherwise, I’d have to systematically get rid of all this city’s parents with kids who are roughly your age, gender, and ethnicity. It’d take me a while, but it’ll be worth it to have you as my kid.”
