(No pov)
Part of this chapter was inspired by a song (Goodbye - Bo Burnham)
!!Mentions of kidnapping. Blood, and Death!!
The sky was pitch black, the clouds covered the stars that were too afraid to shine, too afraid to alert the city for what they were about to discover.
Heroes and villains, they obviously didn't get along. But this night, one wanted to make a mark that would forever taint the history of this strange society.
Along the eerily empty streets of the outskirts of downtown, near the big factories that covered the sky in thick smoke on certain days, was a warehouse, a steel warehouse with a glass roof that was missing a few panes, where all the best villains hatch an evil plan.
Muffled screams echoed inside the large warehouse, followed by quiet giggles. The current top hero was tied to a chair, the world had been panicking over the disappearance of the beloved hero, Zero, for the past two days.
Zero's chair was bolted into the center of the wide room, an ominously heavy door was far in front of them, and the glass ceiling above did not help their growing fear.
The hero had a black hoodie with armour underneath on, they had flexible pants that were designed to look like jeans, and black combat boots. Their hood was normally pulled over their head but tonight, it wasn't, their short, blonde hair was a mess and their pointed ear twitched in fear. They had a black face-mask on, and dark sunglasses, but you could still see their yellow eyes darted around the room.
Zero had normally fought with a metal axe that also worked like a boomerang, it helped a lot considering their ability to control lightning, thunder, and electricity. But their kidnapper had taken it away from them.
A sound of humming echoed through the halls outside the heavy metal door, Zero screamed again, their eye's watering, they didn't want to die but they knew it was going to happen.
"Am I going crazy?"
The voice echoed in a sing-song tone, Zero shook, the voice was creepy and slow, it was unsettling and just proved the theory of death above Zero's head.
"Would I even know?"
It said, the doors slowly creaked open on rusted hinges, Zero shrieked as they recognized themself standing in the doorway. That alone confirmed their theory, they were dying tonight.
"Am I right back where I started all those years ago?"
Shift was creepily stalking towards Zero, their boots clicking snd scraping against the hard concrete, the familiar axe swinging freely from their hand, the bloodstained blade worried Zero more than their own approaching death.
"Wanna guess the ending?"
Shift was now a few feet away from them, giggling at the clearly scared hero.
"If it ever does?"
Shift was now directly in front of Zero, a look of pure insanity and joy glistened in Shift's eyes as- Zero assumed- they smiled. Zero bit back a sob of fear as Shift giggled again before their expression and tone changed completely.
"I swear to god that all I ever wanted was."
Their tone was angry now, growling at an unknown person. Shift circled Zero as the hero sobbed, tears splattering on the ground. Like my blood. They thought.
"A little bit of everything all of time."
Step. Scrape. Shuffle. Sob. Step. Scrape. Shuffle. Sob. Sniff. Whisper.
Zero whispered their goodbyes and unknown apologies as Shift circled them like a vulture, the bloodstained axe was swinging more violently now.
"A bit of everything all of the time."
Everything repeated over and over again, the fight drained out of Zero and they slumped forward, giving up on the hope of far-off escape.
"Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime."
Zero squeezed their eyes shut, allowing the sharp and warm feeling of electricity thrum through their fingers, the wind soon picked up as clouds swirled above the warehouse, rain drops splattered against glass roof and concrete, matching their tears, and soon, blood.
Shift stopped pacing in front of them, Zero squeezed their eyes tighter, the storm roared over head, specifically over the warehouse as well, far off sirens echoed the streets like mouse squeaks as they tried to hurry, Zero opened their eyes and lifted the head.
"I'm finished playing and I'm staying inside."
Shift placed the axe across Zero's throat.
"I'm sorry." Was the last thing Zero ever said before Shift swung across, slitting the hero's throat.
Shift stared at the now dead hero before promptly leaving, spinning the dripping red axe and humming the song as they left.
The dead hero stared at ground with a soft smile, they hadn't said any of their goodbyes or apologies to anyone in person, but they still said it either way.
-Three Days Later-
The hero's tower was busier than before, and much more... sad, as well. Everyone was running around, arms full of paper, as they tried to figure out who murdered Zero.
The now top hero, Angel, was leading parts of the investigation for Zero. He knew that who ever killed the previous top hero had the power to get rid of them all.
Angel was sitting in his office, he sighed at the confusing paperwork that laid in front of him. He wished that the police got there in time, maybe if they did, the rain would've stopped by now.
Somehow, even after Zero's death, their powers were still activated. The storm that they had summoned had engulfed the entire city now, the sun hadn't been seen in days.
Angel's wings shivered at the thought of the storm, storms meant that you couldn't fly, and not flying meant that your wings were useless.
Angel's eyes read through the neat writing of the event, the security cameras in the warehouse hadn't been checked yet due to the storm so for now they only had written reports.
Written reports took too long to be used anymore.
Angel sighed and shoved the papers away from him, it was hard to read through the tragedy of Zero's death. They were a strong hero.
A knock echoed through his office, "The door's unlocked!" He said, the knob twisted and opened before his son, Wilbur, burst through the door with a thin folder.
Wilbur was currently his assistant, he had always wanted to be a hero one day but was sadly too young. Wilbur was seventeen, so in another year he would be legally allowed to be a hero.
Wilbur had messy brown that matched his eyes, he had circular wire glasses and wore a maroon beanie that almost covered his slightly pointed ears. He wore a pale yellow sweater and dark jeans with black runners.
Wilbur's wings were held behind him, he was clearly troubled about something.
"Phil, you need to see this." He said urgently, Phil immediately looked up as Wilbur hurried over to his father, before handing him the folder.
"They found who the villain is." Wilbur explained, "Sadly not their identity though." He added quickly and pulled a chair to beside his father.
Once Wilbur was sitting, Phil opened the folder, there were one page of information on the villain, a lot of old security footage photos of them, and a list of crimes that involved them.
Phil took the two information sheets out first, both he and Wilbur were shocked at how little information there was about this unknown villain.
______________________________
Villain Name: Shift
Ability: Shapeshifting and Power Copy
Age: Unknown
Height: Unknown
Appearance/Features: Unknown
Hybrid/Human: Unknown
Danger Level: 42
Villain Level: Medium
Allies: Has been spotted with multiple villains, suspected to be working with Medallion
Extra Notes: Once shifted, they can use the person their copying's power for a limited time, but stay in that form for as long as they'd like(?)
______________________________
Phil and Wilbur were shocked at the villain and danger level, wasn't killing a hero enough to be a supervillain? They knew that it was impossible for someone to reach a danger level of fifty though, no one was that dangerous.
"How... how is anyone that unknown?! Gods, the most mysterious vigilantes have more information than that!" Wilbur cried, Phil just stared at the paper in shock.
"One fucking page. You have got to be joking right now." Phil said in bewilderment, he flipped the page over, only to see a blank white piece staring back at him.
"Shapeshifting and power copy, they're going to be a pain to catch." Wilbur mumbled, Phil nodded in agreement and began skimming through the old crime scene photos.
A photo of Shift walking away from a burning building in a form of Ignite, another of the photos was Shift facing off with Ignite and Fern in the form of Ares.
That photo earned a shiver out of both of them, Ares was Wilbur's older brother and Phil's other son, Techno. It was unsettling seeing 'him' fight two fellow heroes.
There was another of Shift in the form of Devilish in front of a bloodstained street.
The final one they saw was Shift in the form of Zero, while facing off with Zero themself. It looked strange, like Zero was going to fight a mirror.
That's when they stopped looking, it had become clear enough now why Shift had one of the highest danger levels.
"The crime list might have some more information?" Wilbur suggested hopefully, Phil nodded and picked the paper up.
This list of crimes had a lot more information than the actual information sheet on Shift, it was clear how both hidden and active they were at the same time.
______________________________
Crimes of Shift
-Arson of twelve orphanages in four days, very few survivors (72/3541).
-Assisted robberies of Central and Northern Bank.
-Homicide of 28 citizens within two days.
-Blew up three apartment buildings, an abandoned hospital, and a school (194 deaths.)
-Attempted arson of the White House.
-Mocking heroes.
-Attempted murder of Ignite, Fern, and Blade.
-Attempted murder of 14 vigilantes.
-Held twenty-one people from several of the burned down/exploded buildings hostage.
-Repetitive kidnappings of Dream C. WasTaken, started on 5/7/XX, latest is 9/8/XX.
-Murder of top hero, Zero.
______________________________
Wilbur stared at the sheet with a dropped jaw, Phil just stared grimly at the paper before hissing to himself.
Phil looked at Wilbur, "Try to find out anything you can about this, Dream guy. He might be able to help us with our villain problem." Phil told Wilbur.
His son nodded before standing and putting his chair back and leaving, the door quickly shut as Wilbur ran through the halls to his computer.
Phil sighed and looked through everything again, how could someone be this cruel? What pushed Shift so far over to cause this much damage?
He supposed that he would never know, the ghost of a villain was spotted too rarely for any good information to be found.
Yet... maybe there was a bit of hope. A small, tiny, speck of hope waiting to be discovered.
It seemed unlikely though.
-Somewhere else-
(???'s pov)
My calculations aren't correct. Nothing's adding up.
I need to get this all ready though, he's going to be here soon- oh god- Where are the heroes when you need them!?
I stared at the messy bulletin in front of me, rolls upon rolls of red yarn had been used on it, connecting pinned photos to each other- the photos weren't adding up though- where was it!?
The room I was in was a mess, despite it being full of whiteboards, bulletin boards, and tables, there was barely enough room to work. The wastebaskets were overflowing with balled up pieces of paper and dried up markers, the tables were messes of pictures and printed articles and cut up history books, bulletin boards were now just covered in red yarn instead of neat photos and little yarn. The whiteboards were also just covered in nonsense as well now.
I let out a frustrated yell before stalking over to a whiteboard and grabbing one of the nearly dried up markers and walking over to a clean whiteboard.
It was probably the lack of sleep catching up to me now. The room had been messy for awhile, but I hadn't had the time to clean due to the threat of my death over my head.
I could feel my eye bags practically weighing me down. I knew how dark they were, the coffee I occasionally never helped as well.
I quickly began the calculations again, yawning every few minutes before continuing the equations. The lights flickered scarily as I wrote more information down.
I was swaying on my feet. I wasn't even done working before having to lean on the whiteboard from exhaustion.
I slid down the whiteboard to a sitting position with my arms on my knees and my head in between my knees. I felt the whiteboard marker against my face, but was too tired to care.
I struggled to open my eyes again, I slowly got up but stumbled. I stumbled a lot before finally steadying myself on my feet.
I took deep breaths before tiredly continuing my work.
I assume it's been hours, I've written down so much. I've been so distracted, I didn't even hear the door open as I worked. Did the door open all those hours ago? Or was it minutes? Hah, maybe even seconds.
I slowly put my now-dried-out-marker in the wastebasket and let out a shaky breath, I try to turn and see what entered the room, but promptly collapse out of exhaustion before I could see.
A few pairs footsteps run towards me, voices were spoken as panic rushed over me but I couldn't move, my body wouldn't let me. A soothing voice was suddenly heard and I relaxed.
"Oh dear, you don't look so good right now."
I mumbled something in agreement.
"Shhh, we'll get you to a doctor immediately."
"Can't..." I mumbled back tiredly, "Have to... finish working..." I added back. I tried to keep my eyes open but they were too heavy.
I felt reality slip out from under me, but I knew that the heroes had finally figured out where I was.
I could live another day.
(2380 words)