warning for kind of depressed/suicidal thoughts. they're p subtle but they might pervade throughout the story. other than that, enjoy!
Dan picked fastidiously at his nail, barely bothering to glance up and survey his surroundings. The waiting part was definitely less entertaining, and he was disappointed to say that this was taking longer than usual. With a sigh, he settled onto the edge of the roof, letting his legs dangle precariously over the edge. He leaned back on one hand, using the other to rub at the skin of his cheek just under his mask—sometimes the fabric scratched his cheeks and left red marks behind, which wasn't really good for helping to keep his identity hidden.
With an annoyed huff, Dan leaned further over the edge of the building, letting his weight carry him further and further, until he was just barely balancing on the edge. He briefly entertained the thought of letting himself fall—and with it, the thought of not activating his gear—but refrained from doing so. He had more entertaining evening plans.
Far below, a man loitered in front of the building, occasionally pacing a few steps in one direction and then another. He tapped his foot, appearing impatient. Dan couldn't help it—sometimes his own emotions interfered. And he did feel impatient; he'd been waiting for almost ten minutes now.
Almost as soon as he thought this, there was a change in the atmosphere. It was subtle, and Dan doubted whether anyone besides himself would've noticed it, but it was definitely there. Dan blinked slowly, his contacts settling easily into place and changing the outlook of his entire surroundings. They were nifty things, able to make him see in the dark as easily as if he were a cat—which was kind of the point. And it was only due to his aesthetic that he'd made them look like cat eyes as well, the pupils thin and slitted.
With them, everything was focused into a much sharper clarity, and Dan almost wished it was a new moon tonight. There was nothing so great as being able to see all of his surroundings while the Raven stumbled to and fro, unable to see so much as Dan's fist connecting with his face.
By closing his eyes, Dan's sense of hearing intensified, everything around him becoming sharp points of focus. It was thanks to his mask, and the enhanced features the cat ears contained, but it felt as much apart of him that Dan felt an acute sense of loss when he wasn't wearing it, when he couldn't comfortably hear what was happening on the other side of the room.
Now, he heard the soft murmur of voices on the street below, and the thrum of cars passing by. Far away, a car honked, and another one returned the greeting, its sound higher pitched. Closer, Dan could hear a rodent of some kind—how it got onto the roof of the building, Dan didn't want to know—scuffling over the metal of the roof, its nails clicking distinctly. Finally, he focused on what was really drawing his attention, what he'd deliberately saved for last. Carefully, quietly—though not quite enough—two human sized feet eased their way across the roof, coming closer and closer to Dan.
Finally, he thought irritably. Took you fucking long enough.
The careful footsteps continued on their way, and Dan let them. Though really, hadn't Raven's mother ever told him it wasn't polite to sneak up on your arch nemesis?
"You should be thanking me," Raven's voice drawled, and Dan felt his lips pull into a smirk. He'd been waiting for this. It was as if his body finally activated when Raven was around, his blood pumping, his senses coming alive.
"And why is that?" Dan drawled. He leaned back on his hands again now, tipping his head backward to look at the other man. He was taller than Dan, that was for sure—not that it was a difficult feat. Dan had long since become acquainted with his height, however, and it only helped his image. The Panther, he thought. Small. Lithe. Unarguably evil.
Raven looked as angry and righteous as ever. Dan knew that his blatant refusal to get angry, to ever appear like he was trying, infuriated the Raven to no end. And so Dan amped up his act, especially for him. Dan imagined he would do anything for the Raven; anything to keep him coming back, anyway. He was dressed in his signature outfit, his mask slightly pointed, as if to imitate a beak. He might as well have gone all the way, like Dan had. Cat ears and everything!
Raven's cape sufficed as wings, Dan knew, invented by the very man who wore it. He was beyond creative, Dan had to give it to him—and a genius too. He was always creating gadgets to fuck up Dan's plans.
"Because I could've kicked you off the roof," Raven finally answered, and Dan raised an eyebrow, though the expression was obscured by his mask.
"Doesn't that go against all your like, superhero morals?" Dan questioned. "Besides, I would've been fine." It was true, Dan's own outfit was made of a special kind of material that assured he wouldn't be harmed, even if he were to fall a very, very long way. More important though was its ability to make him land on his feet—and from there he could start running.
"You're incredibly lax for a villain," Raven commented. This idle chit-chat was fine with Dan. In fact, he was depending on it.
"Am I?"
"You didn't even know I was here," the Raven said confidently. See, that's where you're wrong.
Dan hummed. "Well, yes, that's what you think."
Raven scoffed. "You're just trying to cover up for your own inattentiveness."
"Perhaps," Dan answered. "Or perhaps I knew you were here the second your rubber-soled shoes squeaked onto the roof. Perhaps I knew exactly where you would stand. Perhaps it'd be a good idea for you to not stand where you are for much longer."
Dan closed his eyes, a feral grin gracing his lips as he heard Raven's heart pounding away. Typical.
Move, Raven, he urged silently. Move. Move.
He felt his connection with one of the men below the building tugging at him. Whilst the Raven had chattered away, more of Dan's subjects had gathered beneath the building. Now, he suspected, they weren't waiting around impatiently. They probably looked excited, maybe mischievous. Maybe murderous.
"Press it at 9:30," Dan had instructed, pressing a small button into the man's hands. His eyes had glossed over slightly—he'd looked dazed—but he'd nodded obediently. "And stand below the building on the corner of Marx's Street," he'd added. And then tilted his head slightly. "Actually, press it at a quarter til. The Raven had a knack for being late."
Move, Raven, Dan thought. Or it'll be too late.
He knew already that if the Raven didn't move he'd be forced to save him. Most of Dan's fun originated from the Raven, and Dan didn't quite know what his purpose would be without the other man.
He lifted his wrist up before his eyes, staring at the face of his watch. It was black with silver lines along the side to mark the hours. 9:44. In the watch, he looked at the reflection of Raven, stood still with indecision. He'd already wasted an entire minute trying to decide whether Dan was bluffing.
Dan watched as the seconds ticked away on his watch. He glared. Was he really going to have to save Raven?
As the seconds eased down to five, Dan tensed, ready to spring to his feet and shove the Raven out of the way.
Suddenly, Raven sprang, leaping into the air and taking a quick step towards Dan, before perching on the ledge beside him, the wind making his cape billow out over the lengthy drop. And not a moment too soon.
Just then, in the exact spot the Raven had been standing (which had taken a lot of calculations and guesswork on Dan's part), the flooring disappeared, falling, Dan knew, for several stories. That part of the roof was located directly overtop a large stairwell, and he would've fallen the whole way down, his cape-wings too large to expand in that small space.
"See, Raven?" Dan said, and he glanced up at the Raven with a soft smile. "Don't say I never warn you."
The Raven's mouth was pulled into a sharp line, his displeasure evident through that facial feature alone. Dan didn't blame him. His mind was probably whirring, trying desperately to understand how Dan could've planned that out ahead of time. In reality it was probably just hard for Raven to believe that anyone might possibly be as smart as he was. Sure, Dan wasn't quite as skilled at inventing things, but he was great at plans. He'd gotten straight A's his entire school career, even when it had begun to merge with his more nefarious activities.
"So," Dan said, "shall we get started then?"
—
Dan groaned, loud and long, as he stumbled into his apartment. He was bruised all over, though he supposed he had some salve somewhere that would help with that. His head felt infinitely lighter now that his connection with all those men below that building had been severed.
He closed and locked the door of his apartment behind him, giving his shoulders an experimental roll and wincing when something in his back twinged. Yes, the Raven seemed to have kicked him there, at some point. Dan suspected he deserved it, having forced several civilians to blow up that building. It'd been empty though, Dan had made sure of that. Still, the boss of that corporation probably wouldn't be too happy to see his building reduced to rubble, but that's what he got for rejecting Dan's application. Being a super-villain didn't pay much, after all, and it was a bit exhausting to have to steal his way through all his groceries.
Dan suspected he also deserved to be captured and unmasked for all his other crimes, but that had still yet to happen. The Raven was good, yes, but he wasn't good enough to capture him. To prevent some of his more dastardly plans, yes. To get Dan bound in ropes and his mask ripped from his face? Nope.
With a long-suffering sigh Dan stripped off his clothes, struggling out of the layers of latex and carefully folding his mask into a small square that could fit into his pocket. Practical and compact, his gadgets were. Not to mention fashionable.
He coughed, and his lungs burned in protest. It probably wasn't a good idea to breathe in so much smoke, but his favorite part about blowing things up was watching it. The smoke that billowed away was just part of the added fun. The Raven had been properly peeved to see that Dan had gotten away with his plans. He succeeded just as often as he failed, all depending on which one of them had shown up more prepared.
Still, Dan knew he wasn't properly evil. He wasn't torturing innocent civilians, wasn't shooting down crowds of people. He was just having a bit of fun, sometimes righteous fun, at that. Just last week he'd hunted down and castrated a serial rapist—he should be thanked for some of his deeds! (Some, though definitely not at all. Dan knew he wasn't likely to get thanked for, say, bewitching the mayor, but still.)
Plus, having been born with his powers, wasn't it only Dan's right to put them to use? His divine right, perhaps?
His powers were easy, and once he'd actually embraced them, they'd been simple to control as well. All he had to do was give someone a command with a bit of intent behind it, and they'd do it. It wasn't anything like hypnosis, it wasn't some kind of trick. He could make anyone do anything he wanted, anything under the sun. He could even make them rip off their own dick (which he'd learned just last week).
Limping into his bathroom, Dan turned the knob of the shower and watched it sputter to life. He'd at least returned a few of the more vicious injuries the Raven had given to him.
He closed his eyes as he slipped into the shower, remembering the events of the night.
—
"No time, Panther," Raven said, standing tall over Dan. He looked powerful, although he always did. "Today's the day you're getting captured."
Dan threw himself back against the roof, groaning loudly into the night air. If he were any less skilled of a villain he wouldn't be so ballsy as to do something like that. He supposed he was putting himself in danger whenever the Raven was around—making himself vulnerable to capture, or perhaps death, if the Raven could bring himself to do that. But Dan was faster than the Raven, stealthier too. By the time the Raven could take a step, Dan would be on the other side of the roof.
"You're no fun, Raven," Dan complained, and he looked up at the dark figure with a frown. "Don't you even want to hear my monologue? My tragic backstory? I prepared one like all the proper villains in the movies."
"You're not funny," Raven replied. True, his mouth didn't curl in amusement, though Dan didn't doubt his own sense of humor. The Raven was too serious for his own good.
"Besides," Dan continued. "You've never caught me before. What makes you think today's any different?"
"This." Dan hadn't, of course, been prepared for Raven's new invention. He was always coming up with new things like that, trying to trip Dan up. And it worked. Dan was left gasping and in pain as currents of electricity coursed through his body, until he finally managed to pull himself out of the pain and launch himself away from his opponent, ripping off the bugs that had attached to him with the Raven's attack. They appeared to be some sort of projectiles, ones that latched onto Dan's clothes and released an electric current in response.
"Good God," Dan muttered, breathing hard. "That fucking sucked."
"I thought it would," the Raven replied snarkily. And then Dan grinned. Raven grew visibly angrier, which only made Dan more excited. Fighting the Raven made him feel alive.
The fight was brief but brutal, quick, vicious exchanges that left their skin and muscles throbbing in complaint. At the end of it all, having been electrocuted twice more, Dan was forced to bring it to an end.
"As fun as this has been," he panted, clutching his side. "I've really got to go."
"But you haven't done anything yet," the Raven had pointed out.
"How kind of you to remind me." Again, the Raven had a lot to learn. He wasn't the only smart person out there, after all. Usually, Dan persuaded people on the spot, right in front of the Raven. He enjoyed the disgusted downturn the hero's mouth took. But Dan could persuade them in advance too, and he could command them to respond to certain signals as well.
With a sarcastic salute to the Raven, Dan brought his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly into the night. The first rumbles of the explosion were echoing underneath them as Dan launched himself off the building, watching as the Raven sprang up into the air in flight, surprised. By the time Dan landed (on his feet, as usual), Raven was a speck in the sky, and glass was shooting from the windows of the building into the surrounding area, right before an explosion sounded below them. That'll be the basement level.
Dan then set off with a run, years of practice under his belt, making something like running the easiest task in the world. He was quick. He was fast, just as fast as the Raven was, flying. Police sirens echoed all around, threatening to give Dan a headache. He sprinted on.
The damned Raven was following him from above, as Dan knew he would, and he giggled to himself as he sidestepped into a random alley and pressed himself against the wall. Suspecting trickery, Raven circled above him a few times, before deciding Dan had probably escaped into one of the surrounding buildings, and landed at the entrance of the alley. Dan stayed pressed against the wall. The art of melting into the shadows was as easy as breathing to him, and he stepped out of hiding when Raven was close enough.
The other man's breath hitched quietly, just enough to let Dan know he'd truly surprised him, and then Dan pressed him against the brick wall with his body. He was strong for his size, he knew that, and it was all thanks to the muscle he'd built with his years of being the Panther. Raven was new to the equation, after all, but Dan was happier now than he'd been for a long while.
"Following me into a dark alley, Raven?" Dan whispered. He placed his hand on the exposed skin of Raven's jaw, and the other man's hand shot up to grip Dan's wrist with the strength of iron. Dan concealed his wince—that was sure to bruise. He could feel the Raven's body pressed against his, could feel him panting, due to all the rapid movement he'd been doing. "Don't you know bad guys lurk here?"
"I could fucking electrocute you right now," the Raven threatened. It was a bluff. If he could, he would've done it already, but Dan knew now, as he had suspected back on the roof, that Raven had used his last little electrocution bugs already. He was out of them.
"But you won't," Dan said sensually, and then he leaned up and whispered into Raven's ear, "because you're as turned on as I am?" The Raven made a choked sound, and he moved, just barely, likely about to deploy another hidden weapon. Dan wasn't about to find out what other tricks he'd kept up his sleeve, and he leapt backwards, agilely perching on the ledge of a windowsill, several feet above the Raven's head. This ability was another gadget installed in his costume—his shoes could propel him the length of two men into the air.
"You're disgusting," Raven snapped. Dan pouted.
"You're homophobic," he countered childishly, settling on the windowsill and dangling his feet below himself. Try to grab them, Raven, he silently urged. I dare you. "What a hero! A heterosexual hero. You wouldn't save a queer, would you?"
The Raven growled, and he launched himself into the air, reaching for Dan's feet. Dan laughed giddily, and he slammed the heel of his foot into Raven's chest when he was close enough, delighting in the choked sound he made. Raven collapsed back onto the floor of the alley, and Dan jumped back down to squat beside him, breath knocked out and struggling to regain it.
"We really do have fun together," Dan commented, and he cocked his head, staring down into Raven's blue eyes. "We should do this again sometime! Maybe next week? I was thinking I might do something with the public library."
Raven's eyes filled with rage, and he bared his teeth. Soon enough, the air would flood back into his lungs, and he'd be diving to catch Dan. He stood, laughing as he stared down at Raven. He wasn't quite at Dan's level yet, but Dan was waiting anxiously for the day it came, for the day when it was actually hard, the day he could barely scrape a win. He was at quite the disadvantage, however. Raven was willing to do anything to capture Dan, but Dan would always let him go. After all, how else could he assure that Raven would come back?
"Don't worry so much, Raven," Dan said, and he jumped onto the window's ledge again, and then another. "My plans are actually quite tame. I was thinking I might steal a book!" He was unable to keep himself from laughing in pure delight, at that, and he peered down from the roof of the building now, where below the Raven was struggling to his feet. Dan waved, and then he was running along the tops of buildings. After all, he had a microwaveable meal to get to.