The Gift of Panic Pt# 10. 2/2
Here is the second half of part 10. If you enjoy this snippet consider giving it a reblog, as it gets the lowest number of notes out of all my snippets but I think these guys deserve some more love! Let me know what you think down below!
The hero nodded and followed the villain as they weaved through a couple of corridors and climbed a few sets of stairs until they went through a final door and walked out onto the roof.
“Was coming all the way up here really necessary?” Rhys asked, trying for a playful tone.
Silver shrugged as he walked over to the roof’s edge, “Maybe not, but I don’t wanna risk anyone else hearing about it. Either way, it helps add to the dramatic mood,” he added, joking, sitting down to dangle his feet above the city below.
“Fair point,” the hero agreed, sitting down next to the other.
The chill of the night air blew past them. Despite the bright city lights, Rhys could manage to pick out a few stars in the dark sky above them. The warm glow of the streetlights below illuminated the villain’s face next to him, and the hero felt something akin to deja-vu. For the first time since it happened, Silver looked nervous. Anxious and uncomfortable. Smaller, somehow, like the aura of power he usually exhibited, had been replaced with air so thick you could cut it with a knife.
“The last time I saw you look that nervous has to have been way back when I first learned about the incident. Is this story really that bad?"
To his surprise, Silver snorted a laugh, shaking his head, "You need to remember who your talking to,” he replied, watching the world below him, “My definition of bad is probably different than yours. It’s not like I derailed a train full of children and puppies. Though it certainly isn’t that good,"
"That doesn’t mean much, though,” the hero replied without missing a beat, “I mean, I’ve heard people give the same description about grocery store sushi, so."
Silver fell into quiet yet startled laughter, shaking his head fondly. Rhys had to smile at his ability to make the villain feel better, even in bad situations.
For a few moments, they both fell quiet until Silver took a deep breath and began speaking.
"So, I know you know about the bomb,” he began, “And I’m sure your smart enough to have connected the dots that the Brass Razors were the ones responsible,"
The hero hummed in agreement.
"You don’t have any powers, do you?” Silver asked, seemingly out of nowhere.
“Uh, no, not to my knowledge anyway,"
"How much do you know about them? About how they work?"
“Well, I won’t bore you but, they can be tricky. They can also react and go off to emotion. Anyway, when I was a child, mine were… volatile, to say the least. I know you’ve figured out my first power is metal kinesis, but my second is electricity. Those are a very deadly combination,"
"Yeah, I can think of some ways those might not go together so well,” Rhys admitted.
“My actual childhood didn’t exactly help. Bad parents, bad school life, I’m sure you’ve heard the sob stories before. But back then, I would accidentally hurt people all the time. I was a baby and nearly killed both myself and my parents in a car crash. They were arguing and screaming in the front seat, and suddenly the entire car swerved off the road. We were lucky it only hit a tree. I won’t bore you with the details but, I learned early on people didn’t like my powers, so, I tried to never use them. I just suppressed everything. Emotions included,"
"I’m so sorry,” the hero replied gently, “That’s awful,"
The villain just shrugged, "It’s whatever now. It’s in the past, and it wasn’t all bad, I suppose. But now I guess you know why I don’t like putting my men in danger. Kids need parents, so no one else has to turn into me,” he replied, looking down at his hands, “Not that it was all their fault either but,” he took a deep breath, “that’s a story for another day, but now you know my sad, pathetic origin story, so-"
"No, no. I’m going to stop you there,” Rhys interrupted.
The villain looked at him in confusion.
“Nothing about any of that is pathetic. End of discussion,"
Silver huffed, rolling his eyes. However, he wore a small smile regardless.
"Anyway, maybe we can talk about the details of my childhood another time, but the point was that was when the emotion and power suppression began. It was early on, though I didn’t do it to please anyone or get them to like me; it was mainly because all emotions or powers ever brought me was more headaches. The bomb thing happened years later, when I was relatively new to the villain world, but my fighting and business skills helped me grow quickly. Quick enough to be considered a threat to the Brass Razors. So, they sent the present. The person who…"
"It was my childhood friend.” the villain forced himself to say suddenly, “He was… well, my only friend, I guess. Anyway, the gift arrived in the mail, and I don’t know what possessed him to open it but, he did, and, well…” he took a deep, shaky breath, “I heard the explosion from way down the hall. He was already unconscious by the time I got there. He uh, he died in my arms,"
Rhys looked at Silver in shock, by the villain was simply looking in front of himself, staring off into the horizon almost distantly. In the warm glow of the street lights below, Rhys could make out the single tear the fell on Silver’s cheek.
"Anyways,” the villain said suddenly, sniffing and wiping his cheek as he cleared his throat, “Despite everything, I still managed to keep it all inside somehow, motivated by the determination to find who was responsible and absolutely destroy them. I refused to admit it was revenge or hurt that was fueling it, though. I treated it like a business venture, like a country responding to a declaration of war. I tried to keep it professional as I searched, lying to everyone, including myself, that the reasons were strictly non-personal. I planned. I planned about how I would take apart every aspect of this person’s life and leave them with nothing, all so that they couldn’t interfere with business again,"
Rhys wasn’t sure what to say. What could he say? Nothing would make the situation better. The hero tried to put himself in Silvers’s shoes. All the pain, devastation. Obviously, he would want revenge, but would he want to do more than just get legal justice? Had he been reading a novel, he would have unapologetically rooted for the villain to get justice. Hell, in some stories, the villain might have even been written as a hero.
But this wasn’t a novel. These were real lives they were talking about.
"About a week later, I finally found out who it was. I was coming home one night and found a note on my door. It began by apologizing for the bad birthday present, saying they were wrong to think so little of me. They were impressed by the fact I quote, "Willingly risked one of my own, having them open the present before me to ensure it was safe.” They went on to say they had decided to make up for it by giving me a truly good present, which was their offer to hire me,“
"That’s… so sick and twisted…” Rhys muttered in disbelief.
Suddenly the hero saw the villain’s hands clench into fists in his lap, knuckles white with tension.
“They insinuated that I choose to… the audacity to assume I intentionally-” he took a deep breath, fists and posture relaxing a bit as he regathered himself, “The note was signed: Sincerely head of the Brass Razors,"
There was a pause, the only sounds being the distant bustling of the city below. "The second I saw that name, all the planning I had done went out the window. I saw who was responsible, and the only thing I could see was red. I didn’t even enter my house; I turned right around and went straight to their headquarters on Vincent boulevard along the coast. I had called one of my men whom I knew had connections to them and lied about wanting to talk to the boss. He told me where the building was, and he also said all the higher-ups were there for a meeting that night. It was this sizeable office-type building away from all the others, at the end of the street with a winding driveway that went past the beach until rounding back to the top of the hill overlooking the ocean,"
"It… was??” Rhys asked in confusion.
Silver huffed a laugh, “It’s uh… no longer standing, shall we say. I walked up to that building and… I let all hell break loose,"
"Well, up until this point, I still hadn’t used my powers, especially in villainy or around others. However, that night there were also a few people outside the complex. There were about twenty or so members in the parking lot, gathered around to discuss something while four guards stood by the main doors, not that I even got that far. I-"
Suddenly the villain cut himself off and fell quiet, hands tightening their grip on the edge of the roof.
"Silver…” Rhys prompted quietly, “What? What did you do?"
"I let go,” he replied simply, taking a deep, shaky yet steadying breath before continuing, “I was tired, tired of holding it all back. So I let the dam come tumbling down and watched it flood. Everything came bubbling to the surface, and I let it, encouraged it even, and I felt it all. Every tear I’d held back when dealing with my drugged parents, every fist I didn’t throw in school, every bit of the sorrow and regret of losing my friend… every insult, every failure, nightmare, fear; every ounce of pain and anger that I had ever suppressed. For the first time since I was six, I let myself feel; I made myself feel,"
He paused for another moment.
"My memory of what actually happened is kind of fuzzy. I remember electrical devices started exploding first. A lamp post blew, then a cellphone in someone’s purse, then a generator. I remember a nearby car suddenly erupting into flames. Then people started shooting. I just remember the sound of all the gunshots going off, but I never got hit once. I’m not entirely sure how. Bullets are metal, so it’s possible I deflected them, but…"
"What other explanation could there be?"
"There are rumours that they were incinerated by electricity I had whipping around me,” Silver explained, shrugging as if that was some kind of everyday feat! “I heard someone say it was like I was standing in the middle of an ‘energy tornado’,” the villain explained, making bunny ears at the description.
“Holy crap…” Rhys muttered, stunned at the mental image of such a thing.
“I don’t remember one way the other,” Silver explained with a shrug, “the next thing I remember was my vision going white. I remember zeroing in on the building, focusing all the emotion and pain onto it,”
Suddenly the villain’s face turned hard, “And I ripped that building up by its god damn foundations,” he explained, tone almost close to a cold snarl, before taking a breath, so his voice returned to normal.
“I can’t remember what I was thinking at the moment, if at all. It was all just.. so much. In the end, the entire building went the way of Atlantis,"
"Yep. I somehow managed to launch it out to sea,"
Rhys stared, eyes wide. For the first time since they sat down, Silver glanced over at the hero.
"I mean-! I’m not sure how far- it’s not like I sent it cascading into the horizon or anything!” He sputtered in response to whatever look was on Rhys’ face.
“All I know is where ever it ended up; the water was deep enough that I couldn’t see the place once it sank. I managed to get myself home somehow before collapsing,” he continued, “Luckily, it was late at night, and the only other people around were other criminals, so it never made it to the press. Criminals are good at spreading rumours, though, and this one spread like wildfire. I’m not surprised it was Thorne who broke it to you though, she was one of the villains there that night in the parking lot,”
“Well, at least I now understand what she meant…” Rhys replied almost mindlessly.
"She told me I had the equivalent of a quote 'nuclear bomb on a leash,” the hero recited, before sputtering, “I get the bomb part, I mean! not the other part- I’m not trying to control you or anything!"
Silver laughed in amusement, shaking his head fondly, "No? That’s good. Leashes aren’t really my thing anyway; clashes with the suit,"
This time it was Rhys turn to laugh.
"Anyway,” the villain continued, “That’s pretty much the story. It’s not that I’m… ashamed of it… and I certainly don’t regret getting my revenge. It’s just not something I’m proud of either. Emotions and powers are messy things. Still, they are a part of who I am, which is why I’ve started using them a bit, usually when others aren’t around,"
"I know what you’re afraid is about to happen,” Rhys said suddenly, “What you and probably Thorne thought would follow, but my opinion of you hasn’t changed,"
Silver’s head snapped to look at him, eyes wide with shock, "What?"
"You’re a villain,” Rhys shrugged, “I know that. I knew it before we were friends. You might not be a good person, but I don’t think you’re an evil one either,” the hero looked over at the other, “I’m still your friend,"
The villain blushed and looked away, but Rhys caught the smile on his face, "good… That’s good…"
The hero bumped his shoulder against the other playfully, "And hey, if I ever need help moving furniture around-"
"wait! If my phone dies, can you charge it again?!"
"I regret everything,” the villain groaned, though he was smiling.
“I don’t have powers! I can’t do anything cool!” the hero complained.
“You think throwing an office into the ocean is cool?” Silver asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I mean…” Rhys hesitated, “If I saw a villain in a comic-book do that, I wouldn’t say it wasn't cool?"
They locked gazes for a moment until the villain faltered and rolled his eyes.
"Give me your phone,” he sighed in mock annoyance, extending his hand.
