Chapter 7: Villain

<Damian POV>

I sighed as looked over at the aftermath of the whole situation.

It honestly went better than I had expected.

I took zero damage, my identity was safe, and I even had enough time to safely copy the power.

It went as well as it could've.

But...

Why did I feel conflicted?

Looking over at the prone form of Shadow Stalker I understood why.

I kept telling myself that I would do anything to go back home..

But actually doing it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Sure, Shadow Stalker was a bitch and didn't deserve her powers...

But did I have the right to judge her?

I also knew about what sort of life Taylor was living... And I still did not care how I was hurting her by taking her power...

I didn't have to be so... Villainous with any of them. I could've made some other plan.

One where I didn't have to forever traumatise anybody...

So why didn't I?

...

Because it would be too risky.

The chances of success would be less than 30% if I confronted her upfront.

And not to mention that she could also call backup in that case.

It was simply cold logic.

'Was I always so cold and calculative?' I asked myself.

Sure, I engineered some pretty complex but harmless pranks with my friends... But they were never to this level.

Maybe... Maybe coming here had changed me in more ways than one.

*Buzzzz! Buzzz!* Stinger nudged me in concern.

I sighed. "I'm alright Stinger... I'm just having an internal crisis."

She tilted her head in confusion. *Buzz! Buzz?*

"Yeah... I didn't have to be so brutal with her... I could've just made a more peaceful plan..."

*Buzz. Buzz!* She shook her head.

"Why not?" I asked her confusedly.

*Buzz! Buzzzz!* She resolutely said.

"I see..." I quietly said.

She was right...

If I wanted to stay safe... Then I HAD to take some hard measures...

Not to mention the other targets...

The only silver lining was that Shadow Stalker wasn't a good person and that I wouldn't have to be so brutal after tonight (for the most part)...

If everything went as planned atleast...

And above all, I had chosen this role. The role of someone who would do anything to accomplish his goals.

The role of a Villain.

And I had chosen this out of my own free will.

Of course, the circumstances forced it on me. But in the end, this was my choice.

So I had responsibility to accept everything I did and would do. No matter how good or how evil... I accepted it and acknowledged them.

I atleast owed that much to whoever I hurt.

But it didn't mean that I would stop my evil deeds...

For if I did that, then it would mean that I gave up on my family.

And a man never gives up on his family.

Even if the conditions for my return home were impossible... I wouldn't give up on them.

I could see it.

The only path by which I could return home...

And for that, I would need one thing...

Absolute Power.

And I would do anything to gain it...

All for the sake of going back home...

...

Getting a signal from one of my surveillance bug in the area that the ambulance was close, I command my minions to clean this alley up of any signs of my presence here and kneeled down to check on the downed man.

I sighed in relief that he was still breathing.

I didn't want to be responsible for someone dying. Atleast not someone who didn't deserve it.

That was a line I still wasn't ready to cross.

Good thing that I had quickly called an ambulance after he passed out.

Really, if Stinger hadn't reminded me to wear a mask then my identity probably would've been blown wide open despite all the countermeasures that I had taken.

I had also made sure that I was wearing some gloves so that don't leave a fingerprint behind.

All of the CCTVs in the area were also taken care of by using the bugs to cut the wires or obscuring the camera itself.

And as I previously said, I was also using my bugs to clean this area up of whatever traces of my presence that I had left here (footsteps, hair, etc). 

... I was not overdoing it. Trust me. Who knows what kind of machine Armsmaster or Dragon could come up with to find me?

... Though now that I think about it. It's unlikely they would go about that route as it would be going against the 'Unwritten Rules'.

Which were also dumb, but for now they protected me so I intended to use that protective shield to the fullest.

Now that I had made sure that my presence here would be unnoticed, I walked over to the falled Ward and crouched next to her.

I hadn't taken her power from her yet as I didn't want her to die (the only reason she was still alive was because of the basic endurance that came with being a Cape) but now that the ambulance was close, I didn't care.

I carefully pulled off the glove from Shadow Stalker's hand and scrunched up my face when I saw that her hand was full of insect bites and leaking puss.

'... If the hand looks this ugly then God knows how her face looks right about now.' I shivered at the thought of it.

I really wouldn't want to be her right now.

Gulping I carefully touched her hand, making sure to not touch any of the pus, and sighed in relief as I found that she had not died.

Yet. But I had called the ambulance, and with the technology of this world she would probably survive.

Though if she had died, then her power would have been gone alongside her. And that would've been a... setback.

Unfortunately I didn't have the time to sit idle, the ambulance (and the police with them) were on their way. So I quickly activated [All For One] and stole her power (recieving all info about it alongside it) just to be surprised once again.

Because of the traumatic experience of tonight... she had gone through a second trigger.

And so, her power had changed and became more powerful.

Not gonna lie, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. But what happened had happened.

There was no use to think more about it.

I could only learn from this and move on.

But atleast...

The power was worth it.

Now the user, thus me, was able to easily pass through objects and people. Unlike before when it took a lot of concentration and time to do so.

The weakness to electricity had also dulled by a large margin. So now only mid-powerful electric shocks could really hurt me and I didn't have to worry about being defeated by a taser.

But what really put the cherry on the cake for me though, was that now it also gave the user the ability to fly.

When in the semi-gaseous state, the user was able to use the generated black smoke to propel themselves to the sky and fly the same way.

It was very similar to the way Voldemort flies in the Harry Potter movies.

A smile bloomed on my face at the thought of flying.

It had always been my favourite power that wasn't OP.

Just the thought of flying sent jolts of excitement in me.

Plus the combination of intangibility AND flight was a very versatile and useful combo.

*Buzz! Buzz!* Stinger nudged me from my side as the sound of the ambulance alarm begins ringing in the near distance.

Nodding I commanded the insects. "Quickly clean everything that was left of our presence here. Then quickly disperse, make sure to not let yourself be seen."

So with that, I activated Shadow Stalker's power and felt my body turn into a strange dark gaseous, but sand-like substance.

... It felt weird not gonna lie, but I didn't mind it when I could now FLY! And was sure that I would get used to the feeling with time.

I shared my vision with Stinger, so that I could see how I looked in third perspective and-

-Not gonna lie, I looked very cool and intimidating (but also very edgy). A blob of floating, smoking darkness in the vague shape of a human. If you looked closely you could see a white skull like sign where my head should've been and two glowing eyes that I could control the brightness of.

With a smirk I looked up at the cloudy night sky and propelled myself with a push...

"WOOOOHOOOOO!" I yelled in joy and exhilaration as I traveled up into the sky at... very fast speeds.

The ability was like a muscle... A muscle that I didn't have access to before.

So it took me some minutes to get the hang of it, but in the end I quickly got used to it.

As I came up on the other side of the cloud, I was greeted to the sight of a calm and serene night sky with a big bright full moon.

I looked at it with sad eyes. Remembering all the times my father and I had camped out in the forest and had spent the whole night watching stars.

I sighed in melancholy. I was alone in this world, this really hammered the nail down.

But then I shook my head. There was no use thinking about it more...

If Stinger found out that I was once again overthinking things, then he would pester me to hell...

Seriously, that little wasp had a sixth sense for this stuff. Somehow she always knew what I was thinking!

I chuckled at that. The support from my thousands of minions was probably the only thing holding me together from breaking down.

I truly cherished them.

I sighed when I remembered that I didn't have enough time to truly admire such a beautiful view.

There were many powers on my list tonight...

And I wanted to get through atleast half of them tonight...

So without waiting any longer I quickly flew towards the location of my next target.

...

==============

And Done!

Damian finally, and truly, accepts his lot in life and that he has become a villain to fulfill his goal.

Shadow Stalker's power has evolved and Damian can now fly! Voldemort style!

But the night has just begun! And Brockton Bay is gonna wake up to find that the city has lost a few capes while gaining a new Villain!

By the way, with this my stock of chapter has dried up and from now every chapter is going to be written and released side-by-side. So expect long gaps between uploads.

Till then, see ya!