100,000 things were going through my head. Now he knows. Now my school will know. My parents would understand. The world knows. My brother knows. FUCK.

  I absorbed Noorman’s blood and forced Jake to the roof, even though he couldn’t move. The club was a dead zone, with some people crawling or hiding and some bleeding out. I took some of the blood to use it for healing.

  When I reached the roof, I put down Jake. Jake crawled the ball. He tried to move away, which meant Alica’s power wore off. But he stopped and turned around.

  “You killed someone, Louis!” yelled Jake. “Who the fuck is Louis? And they were rival gangs I had to deal with. Now if you shut the fuck up, tell me what they were doing.” I changed my voice pitch so it sounded like a gangster.

  “I don’t know, I just wanted drugs, man. Please, don’t kill me, Louis,” He was persistent. What a fucking annoying idiot. Got to make him run away. I don’t care if he knows. The only person he would tell is Diego, but both are sheep who won’t mean shit. Like he gonna do shit.

  I made a blood blade and pointed at Jake; then he moved back. “Listen, you fuckin retard. You don’t accuse any villain of their identity,” I cut him on the chest with a piece of clothing falling off. Then he ran away back into the club.

  Geez, I didn’t want to do that, but he forced me to. I also need a voice change, or the heroes can do a voice recognition test. What a pain in the ass now I’m tired as fuck. I still can feel the pain, but luckily, I’m ok for now.

  I got down through the fire escape and entered the alley. I saw police cars and heroes and heard talking, but I couldn’t make it out. I looked around the alley, where I saw people slumping on the ground, bleeding. I walked around to take some of the blood for later, but people screamed. “Villain!” assholes

  I sprinted for my life. Dealing with the heroes would be the worst thing to deal with. I looked around for any escape route. “HEY STOP.” I kept running. I looked down at the end of the alley and saw the police at the end. Who was coming closer to me? Then I saw a building with an open door.

  I dashed into the building. Another empty club was in the building, but three heroes stood on the main floor. I recognized one of them from the first encounter: Vivio. Then I looked behind me to find Wavist. I fought some of them in my first encounter. This is not good; they all likely know my abilities and have told them about my powers and weaknesses.

  I recognized the new heroes who recently joined Energy Knight and Rockheart. Energy Knight wore metal-like armor all over his body. At the same time, Rockheart looked like a rock star out of a music band, with special equipment like an electric guitar and mini microphones in her hands. The two new heroes captured me, but I never fought them, so I don’t know the fullest extent of their powers.

  Then I heard the emergency sprinkler go off. It was a trap. I had no way out of this. I was too weak to fight and couldn’t use my ability unless it was in liquid form. Absorbing the water wasn’t an option either since the water was constantly hitting me. If I didn’t escape, they would capture me, and who knows what they would do to me?

  “Surrender, you have nowhere to go, Blood.” I heard Wavist say. I only have one option: hand-to-hand. I wasn’t a master at hand-to-hand combat, but my uncle taught me the basics. Now, I haven’t tried to coat my arms and legs with blood on the inside because that could cause clotting, which could kill me. It was my only choice. I shaped the blood into a hexagon structure to ensure every hit counts and maximize the damage. I wasn’t the smartest in physics. But I knew hexagon shapes had the most equal force output, and if this worked. It could be the ticket out of here.

  “I know, but I can’t. Heroes are just frauds. They only paid to do their job. Surrendering to them is a sign of weakness.” I said.

  “Prepare everyone,” Wavist said. Then, I Jumped at Rockheart, as she is the most dangerous here because of her sleeping ability. However, Energy Knight tried to block it. “Hurry, put him to sleep!” Energy Knight yelled.

  But before she started, my punch broke through it and hit Rockheart. I heard some of her ribs crack. Even if the punch had less impact, it was over as she flew across the floor. Then Energy Knight attempted to punch me, but I reacted to it. Then I kicked him in the chest, breaking his armor. This made him flung back across the floor into a wall. The crash sounded as if a bomb had exploded. Then, Vivio trapped my legs in dance floor tiles, which I tried to get out of. But Wavist shot a water blast before I could, which I blocked with my arms.

  The force of the water broke the concrete and pushed me back. This caused me to nearly collapse, but I blocked it. I still took damage and was out of breath. “I don’t know how he is using his blood. So restrain him quickly,” I heard Wavist.

  Then I felt my body was sinking. I looked down to see it going into the ground. “You fucking bastard, I’m going to make you drown,” I heard Vivio. It was her power. If this keeps up, I’ll lose. I tried to get out, but Wavist shot another water, and I tilted my head to the side. Then I got an idea. If water can hurt people if shot at high speeds, then blood can do the same, and it is much more dense.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  I put my arm up and shot a wave of liquid blood, but. Both of them ducked down, and then I saw the effects it had as I saw some concrete falling apart. Now, have some time, I broke out of the concrete.

  I heard Rockheart singing, which caused me to grab my ears. To avoid sleeping, this made Rockheart use her speakers and blast me away with vibrations. I felt excruciating pain throughout my entire body. Rockheart had broken through all my defenses and ruptured my eyes, ears, bones, and organs. I shot blood at high speeds, which hit Rockheart, causing her to fall to the ground, bleeding.

  My surroundings were looking blurry. I closed my eyes to focus and tried to get to the blood, as my vision wasn’t reliable anymore. Regeneration wasn’t an option until I got that blood. Then, I felt something similar. The presence of that weird crystal. Then I heard Vivio’s thoughts. “change the mass to a fist and send it to the villain,”

  I dodged out of the way and then heard a crash. It felt weird like I could read her ideas. Then, I tried to look for a way out of this fight. Then I ran towards that exit where I could hear Wavist’s thoughts: “Create a mini tsunami and direct it towards the villain.”

  I couldn’t dodge it, but I managed to absorb some of the blood before the water hit me. I crashed into something. I don’t know what, though, but it fucked with my sense as the voice and thoughts went away. Then the pain came, and it was terrible. “Capture him; he is down,” I heard, but that made me decide to regenerate my eyes, as it was the only thing I could do.

  I was on the ground. My hand touched the concrete. This made me realize I wasn’t on the dance floor. I changed and deactivated all my internal blood and put it towards healing. Then I got up and ran, knowing I was outside. At this point, I was running on the adrenaline. But I felt a bullet hit me, but I kept going. I ran until I could run no more. I didn’t know how long it was. Time wasn’t a concern. I didn’t know if I was going to die or not. The closest thing I could describe this event was when I got them.

  ***

  It was like any typical day: wake up, go to school, work at the cafe, then go home. Then start hell all over. Besides knowing that blue and purple crystals spawn out of thin air, it was a simple life. Giving people superpowers. Though rare, most abilities are not powerful unless you know how to use them. It made life 100 times harder every day, as anyone can be a victim of superhumans. How ironic. It happened at work around the end of the shift, and I remember it being dark outside.

  “Hello, how may I take your order?” I said. The hero in front of me was Dasher. He was a speedster but cocky. Nothing noticeable, a registered hero doing his job. “Oh, I would have a cup of coffee with two sugar cubes, and you make it dashy... get it.”

  I cringed at his stupid pun. Like, can heroes stop doing these dumb fucking puns? “Hey, I need a cup of coffee with two sugar cubes and quickly because it’s a hero,” I told my coworker, Imani. She was my coworker, but sometimes, her stupid friends come in and annoy me.

  “Uh, what’s with the heroes today?” she said. Then I remember Dasher saying, “Wow, your coworker sure is a handful.” Then he sat down, looking at his phone.

  The cafe was quiet today, even at 6:00 PM. I was almost finished with my shift, but it wasn’t easy.

  Then I saw four people enter. They looked like typical hood gangsters. I looked at the hero to see him pay attention to them. They walked up to me.

  “Yo, is Imani here?” one of them said. “Why, she is working now,” I said.

  Then I remembered Imani coming out with Dasher’s drink and said, “Why are you here right now?”

  “Come on, I came to see my baby girl.” The other guys hyped him up like he had won something. “Hey!” I looked behind me and saw my boss, Clara, come out.

  “If you’re not going to order something, then get out,” she said. I don’t know about this shit, but I remember hearing rumbles. This should have been a warning sign of danger. Yet, I was oblivious.

  “What are you yapping about, white bitch?” I remembered hearing one of the other members say. “Ok, time to settle down,” I remembered Dasher saying.

  “My bad, we will take our leave...” I remembered hearing a loud bang. It’s not like a gunshot, more of a bomb blowing up a building. We all turned to see destruction, and that was when I knew. We were going to all die.

  “Get down; it’s a villain!” After those words, Dasher disappeared. He vanished in the blink of an eye, and we felt the boom. But not even a second later, we got hit by an explosion.

  I remember feeling the shock wave and seeing everyone get blasted back.

  I recall looking around with blurred vision and then seeing the gangsters dead. My blood was all over my face and clothes like a tomato. My mind was on horror, but I couldn’t let it get the best of me. Everyone has heard stories of villain attacks all the time. But it was a different level of nightmare fuel to see it happen in person.

  “Come on! Don’t die!” I remembered Imani leaning on the ground, crying with blood all over her body. Clara was on the ground bleeding out; She tried to say something but vomited blood.

  “Come on, Imani, let...” I remembered it. My arm was gone. The pain was immense. I opened and yelled in agony as my body felt like shit. Imani looked at me with wide eyes and with one bleeding.

  I remember the thoughts of death. Then, I remembered this wave of power rushed to my thoughts, ideas, and memories. It felt like all my trauma, pain, and suffering were put into one core thought. Then, I produced something new as I felt my mind having an earthquake.

  My body felt like it was going through a new form or transformation. Then, I remember feeling natural as the surrounding blood absorbed into me, and I felt the pain go away. I recall my arm growing in real-time, with the muscle, bone, arteries, and skin regenerating. Then, I remember losing the power, and I felt my blood disappearing.

  It’s like my body felt reborn. My pain was gone; only fatigue remained. But I remembered hearing voices: voices of pain, suffering, and death of all my memories.

  I looked to see that all the blood was gone, with Imani now looking at me with her mouth open.

  “You got powers,” I remembered her words. Come on, we need to get out. NOW!” I said, trying to grab her, but she resisted.

  Now, looking back, I understand that people... give up.

  “No, I don’t care anymore! Just leave me here to die... I don’t care anymore.” I saw her look back at the destroyed gangster, who blew up into pieces now with no blood.

  I ran out, not wanting to die, at the back of the building into the alleyway. Then, I saw the building coming down with it leaning toward me.

  I ran faster than I could. I never turned back, and after that day, I became who I am: a monster who wants nothing more than to help my family and friends.