Swindler

Hugo sipped his coffee as he observed the life of two humorous sociopaths. He couldn't observe the two at the same time, so he just made two Dark Eyes and observed them at the same time through those.

It wasn't a fun experience; observing two people at the same time. But the two he observed were more than enough to ward off the pain gotten from splitting his mind.

After a while, it became evident that the two strange people had nothing to do with the criminal he was hunting.

"Ah shit. My coffee has finished. How to get more without leaving here?"

He wasn't able to go anywhere, no matter how innocent the two seemed to be.

"I wonder if these two can be my sidekicks. They're amusing and can take care of some certain stuff for me. Perhaps even get me a few coffees."

'What's taking Kiter so long?"

Hugo figured Kiter was doing some shit or the other and almost decided to abandon his stakeout. That was until one of the people started moving out of his house.

"He's been in his house all day. Why did he suddenly decide to come out?"

It was suspicious and became even more so when the other one left his house at the same time. Hugo activated his Black Matter Wings and flew above the city, and observed the two at the same time.

He maintained a good distance above certain buildings so no one would be able to recognize his face. Perhaps spot him in the air, but wouldn't be able to recognize his face.

His Dark Eyes followed the two suspects as they ventured through different alleyways, roads, and buildings. The plethora of locations disorientated him a bit, but that was until they had arrived at their respective destinations.

"That's the same place right?"

And as he noticed, the two suspects were in the same location and were now wearing dark red robes with the symbol of a brain embroidered onto them.

Hugo deactivated one Dark Eye and moved closer to their location in an attempt to uncover the mystery of this cult, and that was until his communicator rang.

"What is it Kiter. I'm in the middle of something big right now." He answered the incessant ringing of the communicator and stared at Kiter's floating figure.

"Ah it's nothing. I've only found Kiter and uncovered his crimes. No biggie."

". . ."

"Yes, that's good. Maintain that silence." Kiter's avatar smirked at Hugo in disdain.

"Get to the point."

"Well, the point is that I've narrowed Kiter down. And it turned out that he isn't actually any of the eight identities you thought to be. Those guys are puppets and past criminals with heavy debts. After a little digging, I figured out that Kiter was using those guys' identities while at the same time telling them to dress up as themselves."

"That makes no sense!"

"It's simple. Swindler pretends to be them and they pretend to be the swindler disguised as them. And in return, Swindler pays off their debts bit by bit."

Hugo nodded in understanding and followed up with the most important question.

"Then who's Swindler?"

"That's the thing. He's probably one of those two sociopaths you've been following all night."

At that, Hugo ended the call and shot straight down to Swindler.

*Bang!*

His fast speed had smashed the floor into hundreds of rock pieces that flew across all directions.

"Which one of you is Swindler?!"

He announced while still under the covers of the dust that rose upon contact with the ground.

"I'm surprised it took you that long to figure it out. You are dumber than I thought." A snide statement referring to Hugo cut through the air and reached his ears.

Hugo didn't respond but looked towards the one that spoke.

"You then!"

"Black Matter Manipulation!"

The black matter particles squeezed through his pores and formed a crude sword in his hands.

"Ha!"

The sword slashed down and left a trail of black matter afterward. The supposed Swindler was now bleeding to death on the ground.

"It ends like this, I suppose..."

His voice faded away, losing all life until the second person took action.

"... SIKE!"

The second sociopath rushed forward, gripping hold of a weapon under his coat, and stabbed Hugo's side.

"Oh, that was qui-quite surprising."

His voice faltered as the poison seeped into his body.

"Tsk Tsk. That was easy, much like you thought I would be!"

The second guy took off his hood to reveal an unfamiliar face.

"Who?"

It was a young man, possibly not as old as 25 years of age. He had brown hair and no face, and that was quite literal.

"Swindler; the Faceless."

Hugo fell to the floor gripping his sides as the blood seeped out of the wound, highlighting the dark floor with a darker red colour.

"They were right. This poison is quite amazing when used on you. I thought it would take much more than this pitiful effort at fighting me, but I was wrong." He circled Hugo's body and laughed from time to time.

"I can't believe you fell for those decoys. But I will give you credit for even discovering them. And I will also give myself credit for creating them."

Hugo felt inclined to listen to this man who had a story to tell, yet he couldn't help but remember the poison that was mentioned earlier.

"How did the poison affect me?"

"Now now. Let's not jump the gun here. Why don't we talk about something else? Like the robes? Hmm, would you like that?" He gestured towards the robes on his and the dying decoy's body.

Swindler stopped circling and crouched near Hugo's face to play with his nose.

"I actually made them myself, but apart from that, the robes are the uniform of a secret society of high intellect and villainous individuals. I like to call us the Evil Mensa."

Hugo had no words to say to Swindler's dialogue and only felt an increasing irritation towards his entire being.

"But anyway, I wanted to tell you that many of our members have wanted you dead for a long time now. And I'd be happy to collect the glory of killing you. It's been a fun trip, and I'd like to look back on some of the people that helped me on the way here!"

"The first dedication goes to my mom, my dad, and Cluez!"

And it was until Cluez's name was mentioned that Hugo felt the need to listen.

'Enough of this bullshit!'

He pulled a lighter from his coat and turned it on over his wounds.

"AHHHH!" The flames burnt his skin through and through until the wound was cauterized.

"Oooh, that's nifty. Can I have it once you're dead?"

Swindler's expressionless face seemed to smile for a moment there as he rushed Hugo with the hidden weapon he kept stabbing with.

"HAH!"

Swindler jumped into the air and kicked Hugo twice out of which he raised his hands against his chest to block the kicks.

The villain took advantage of the force and the suitable landing area to backflip off Hugo's arms and upon landing stabbed Hugo multiple times.

Some of the strikes landed, but Hugo wouldn't make the same mistake as last time. He formed a solid shield of black matter and used it to defend against the attacks.

"Not again you won't!"

He ignored the pain of his flesh wound and transformed the shield into a few dozen shurikens.

"Take this!"

The Black Matter shurikens obeyed his mind control and shot at Swindler at the same time. Swindler slipped out of his robes and dodged out of his way so the shurikens would instead pin the robes to the wall.

The fight came to a halt and the weapon Swindler was holding was now obvious to Hugo. It was a short and gleaming chunk of metal coated with a salivary kind of liquid.

Hugo could also now see the full-body form of Swindler.

"What in the Awakened Asteroid is that?!"

Much like his face, his body was entirely blank with no discernible features and was becoming more ethereal by the minute.

"Haha, you've unmasked me. What a bummer!"

Swindler's voice overlapped with each word he said, and more than one voice now spoke on top of each other.

The villain's body also split apart, becoming much smaller in size, yet much bigger in numbers.

"Guess what Mr. Black Knight. I'm not your run-of-the-mill villain..."

As he said this, all of the medium-height Swindlers, including the original one, charged towards Hugo, wielding whatever sort of weapon they could find.

"... Nor am I your extraordinary intelligent person and that is because I am much more than that."

Hidden among the clones, the real Swindler lurked with the poisoned metal shard. And making it more impossible for Hugo to find it was the overlapping voices.

"I am the Faceless and I am a Deity!"

The swindlers were now within arm's length of Hugo and slashed or threw their weapons at him, blinding him with a plethora of unnecessary objects.

"I am Awakened!"

The original grew closer to Hugo and finally plunged his weapon into the opponent's heart.