Super Villains

You might be surprised to learn that super powers exist. Nothing like the flying Hercules with super speed and x-ray vision you see in comics. More accurately there are psychics. People who can read minds, talk to the dead, tell the future, that kind of thing. Subtle powers, ones a magician might use with reasonable doubt. Almost anybody can achieve these supernatural gifts, typically it happens to people who have died and were quickly resurrected before brain damage. It is believed that those who visit the afterlife and return to the realm of the living; often come back with a paranormal ability most men and women will never receive. I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you've ever had a vision for the future, only for it to come even slightly true, there is a chance you also have this gift.

A bunch of New York criminals, calling themselves the Randy Gang, were all killed in a fatal car accident during a particularly intense police chase across Staten Island. They had just murdered several rival gangsters from the Samaris Mafia. Of course, the NYPD came out to arrest the four escaping Randy Gangsters, who were driving away in an orange four door sports car. The chase proved too much for the driver, William Scott, to handle, he spun the driving wheel in a panic when two police cruisers raced directly towards the front of the car. This made the vehicle lose control and tip over, rolling four or five times into speeding traffic, as cars, trucks, vans and motorbikes all came colliding into them, causing a massive carnage that ended their lives alongside countless others. A lot of blood was spilt that day, only a small handful of the car crash victims survived. Three of the four Randy Gangsters were revived, that being the driver William Scott. The other two were named Brian Miles and Damien Reece. They all awoke in hospital and we were quickly escorted to jail after they all healed from their wounds. It was on the prison bus that Brian Miles first discovered his paranormal powers; the handcuffs and chains around his feet felt incredibly light and weak, almost like they were made of cheap plastic. He laughed.

"What's so funny?!" The prison guard onboard the bus sneered at him.

"Why have you put toy handcuffs on me?" Brian asked with a smirk. This made the whole prison bus laugh hysterically, except for the driver and guard.

"That's solid metal." The guard replied bluntly. Brian broke free from his chains within an instant. Everybody gasped.

"Cheap plastic!" He dropped the restraints onto the ground, with a loud, metallic thud. He was just as shocked as everyone else onboard. He genuinely believed they weren't metal. The guard pulled out his baton and struck Brian with it immediately, it barely hurt. In fact, that also felt like a cheap toy against his chest. The guard then pulled out a teaser and shot Brian with it, the prisoner chuckled as the electricity from it merely tickled him. Then Brian punched the guard in the face so hard, his skull caved in with a bloody squelch! It was unbelievable! The bus driver was panicking, driving the vehicle fiercely left to right, trying to knock Brian back down. Half the prisoners in the bus were horrified, screaming in terror. The other half were laughing and cheering the unstoppable juggernaut on.

"What the hell, Brian!" William exclaimed, "When were you going to tell us you had super strength?!"

"I- I didn't know!" He shrugged.

"Wait!" Damien gasped, "ever since I awoke from my hospital bed, things haven't felt right. Almost like I'm different now."

"Yeah!" Brian agreed, "everything has felt super light and flimsy."

"Jesus Christ!" The bus driver interrupted them, screaming in terror as he rocked the bus left and right, desperately trying to knock the super powered prisoner back down, but it was no use!

"You're doing my fucking heading, bus driver!" Brian grinned, tearing open the metal door that separated them and lifting the bus driver up in the air, like he was no heavier than a bag of groceries. The prison bus spun out of control, almost crashing again. In a panic; Brian threw the bus driver out the front windshield and then grabbed control of the steering wheel, steadying the bus to a sudden halt.

"Get us out of here!" Cried a fat prisoner, who was sat in the front row.

"All right!" Brian smirked, breaking his restraints like they were fortune cookies.

"I'm free!" The fat man exclaimed excitedly.

"You're all free!" Brian smiled brightly, as he broke everyone out of their chains, including William and Damien.

"You think we all got powers after surviving that car accident?" William asked Damien, as they all abandoned the bus and walked along the country road.

"Maybe." Damien shrugged, "I certainly don't have super strength like Brian here, otherwise I would've broken out of my own restraints."

"But, you said things have felt different since waking up from the hospital." William replied.

"I feel smarter." Damien said.

"Lame super power!" Brian laughed.

"What's 32×178, Brian?" Damien asked. The brute only grunted in response.

"How about you, Will?"

"No idea..." He shook his head.

"It's 5696." Damien grinned snugly.

"Still a lame power." Brian shook his head, "you're the HUMAN CALCULATOR!" he exclaimed sarcastically, "big wow!"

"Don't you get it?!" Damien groaned, "I can strategize, come up with the perfect game plan for our next robbery or heist. With my help we won't get caught again, we could steal more money than any of us could ever imagine. Be rich beyond our wildest dreams."

"Not much use in fortune now though, is there?" William added, "we're fugitives."

"Only in America!" Damien winked.

"Well, how are we supposed to get out of New York?" Brian asked.

"See, now I could hotwire a car, drive to the docks and steal a boat, there will likely be a ship we can steal. Then we're free men!"

"Oh, you are a genius!" William grinned.

"So, what's your power?" Brian asked him.

"Fuck..." William sighed, "I don't know. I don't feel any different. Not stronger, nor smarter. Just... The same."

"You must have some power." Damien reassured him with a pat on his back, "you just haven't figured it out yet."

"Well, if you're so bloody intelligent all of a sudden, why can't you tell me what powers I have?"

"I'm a genius, William. Not a mind reader." Damien explained.

"You'll figure it out." Brian smiled weakly, "I guess I'm the dumb muscle then."

"Better than nothing." William shrugged.

Damien took the lead, he did exactly what he said; steal a car, then a boat before escaping the city by sneaking onboard a cruise liner leaving for Canada, that they had found out on the water already sailing towards freedom. With Damien's help, they all stayed undetected, grabbing spare clothes from suitcases that fit them perfectly. They found an empty room that wasn't being used (as the cruise wasn't fully booked). Damien had found the room keys and they remained hidden from the other guests and staff. All three of them were starving, so Damien (being the smartest) sneaked out of the room at midnight, creeping around cautiously, stealing food from the kitchen, he only took small portions, to avoid the chefs getting suspicious the next day. Brian was furious, the food Damien brought was barely enough to feed all three of them.

"We're grown men, not children!" Brian barked a little too loudly.

"Keep it down!" William hushed, "you're going to wake up the other guests!"

"He's right!" Damien agreed, keeping his voice low. Brian sneered.

"You think you're so smart..." Brian said, "I could kill everyone onboard, eat all I can eat, then drive the ship to Canada myself!"

"Don't be stupid!" Damien spat. Then Brian lifted him up in the air by the collar, like he was nothing but a toy doll.

"Brian!" William gasped, "don't do anything foolish!"

"I'm not the dumb muscle, William!" Brian roared loudly.

"Please..." Damien wept, "you're going to mess everything up. I'm not trying to fool you, this is all the food I could get without the staff being suspicious tomorrow!"

"Fine..." Brian sighed, throwing Damien across the bed, even though the mattress was soft, Brian's strength meant the fall was fairly painful. Damien yelped a little too loudly. Then there was a knock at their door.

"Shit..." William winced.

"What do we do?!" Brian gasped, looking at Damien.

"Oh, so now you need my help?!" Damien groaned, standing up and approaching the door. Opening it slightly to see who was knocking. To his relief it was just some middle aged woman, she looked like a mother and definitely wasn't staff.

"My boys are trying to sleep!" She barked, "keep it down!"

"Of course, miss. We're sorry." Damien gulped, smiling weakly.

"It's Mrs Thompson." She corrected him. This woman had a very Upper Class English accent.

"Oh well, I'm sorry Mrs Thompson. We'll keep our voices down then."

"You best had young man!" She huffed, before turning back to her room opposite them.

"That was a close one..." Damien sighed heavily.

"Let's just... Eat and get some sleep." Brian grumbled, feasting on the tiny portion he had.

It took a few days, but eventually they arrived in Canada. The three of them had barely ate and staying in such a small room together for so long was agony. Yet, here they finally were on the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada. It was a province with big buildings and such, like a miniature New York, only much colder as they were further north. The first thing they wanted to do was eat, but they had no money. So they only had one choice. It was the last thing any of them wanted to do, but to commit another theft seemed to be their only option for survival. As hungry as they were, routing through a trash can for half eaten food just seemed too gross a barrier for any of them to cross.

"So what's the plan?" William asked Damien.

"Why not ask me?" Brian frowned.

"Looks like we have no choice, but to commit another crime." Damien replied to William, ignoring Brian entirely.

"Don't ignore me!" Brian grabbed Damien's collar.

"Fine then, what do we do?!" He asked Brian, who was a loss for words.

"Speechless..." Damien shook his head, pulling Brian's hand away, "first we're going to need some masks."

"Why?" William asked.

"Are you dumb too? To hide our identities!" Damien snorted.

"I think your powers are getting to your head!" William groaned.

"Who got us out of New York?!" Damien asked, pointing at himself, "me!"

"After this last score, I'm going my own way." Brian grumbled.

"Fine by me!" Damien smiled sarcastically.

"So, where we buying these masks?" William asked.

"Buying?" Damien laughed, "this will be our first crime; stealing them."

"So how do we do that?"

"I'll distract the shopkeeper, while you and Brian steal the masks. I'll meet you two outside." He replied to William.

"I'll stand in front of the security camera, so that they can't see William shoplift." Brian added smugly.

"Smarter than I thought." Damien grinned.

"Told you I'm not dumb muscle." Brian winked.

"What do we do, after we get the masks?" William asked.

"We're going to rob a gas station on the way out of town, we'll need a getaway vehicle. Since I'm the brains behind this operation, it will be me and Brian who will go inside. William, you're going to be our getaway driver." Damien explained.

"Boss, you're joking!" Brian laughed, "after last time?! He'll only fuck it up again."

"Brian's right, Damien, I don't think that's very clever." William had to agree with Brian.

"Something tells me you won't fuck up again. Call it; intuition." Damien smiled.

"You better be right, dork!" Brian shook his head.

"First things first..." Damien looked at a nearby fancy dress store that sold masks and Halloween costumes.

All three of them entered the fancy dress store, it was fairly big inside, giving them just enough room to walk around without staff noticing that they were up to no good. Damien turned to William and Brian.

"You know what to do." He said, before approaching the nearest shop employee.

"Hello darling." Damien greeted her, she was a young and cute blonde woman about 25.

"Oh my, where are you from?" She asked in her Canadian accent.

"New York." Damien grinned, fortunately he was quite a young and charming man, so this lady was bewitched.

"Oh, an American. Not many round these parts." She blushed, "what can I help you with today?"

"I've been invited to a Halloween party." He said.

"Oh that's cool..." She winked, "so you want something scary?"

"I suppose, maybe a clown." He shrugged. Then Damien heard the door to the store open, William and Brian were leaving with their jackets looking slightly bulkier, they had done it. Damien didn't want to bail, because that would look suspicious, so he let the woman lead him to the clown section of the store.

"As you can see, we have a wide collection of circus stuff... But none of it looks frightening." She smiled weakly.

"Ah what a shame." Damien fake sighed, "thanks for looking."

"Any time." She smiled sweetly, "don't be a stranger."

"See you again." He nodded before leaving, meeting a fine woman like that made him want to stay in Nova Scotia, but he and his gang had already committed their first crime here and were about to make a few others.

Damien met his gang across the street.

"What took you so long?" Brian asked, frowning.

"Kept you waiting, huh?" Damien smirked.

"We got the masks..." William was seconds away from revealing them, before Damien stopped him.

"Not here!" He gasped.

"Jesus Christ, he's the dumb one, not me!" Brian chuckled.

"All right, all right..." William shook his head, "so now we steal a car?"

"That's right chum!" Damien nodded.

"Chum?" Brian smirked.

"Chum." Damien smiled, "soon we'll have enough money to start new lives."

"Sounds good to me." Brian grumbled, "now, let's get this over with."

Hot-wiring another car was easy, as Damien suggested; William was the driver. He was nervous as fuck, considering the last time he drove they ended up in hospital and then prison. As the car drove out of Nova Scotia, Brian noticed a gas station just outside of the province leading into the Canadian countryside.

"How about this place?" He suggested.

"Yeah, this is the spot." Damien nodded, "you know what to do." He said to William, who gulped and pulled over into the petrol bay. Damien already pulled on their Halloween masks before exiting the vehicle, William had one on too, just to hide his identity from security cameras outside the building. Damien wore a zombie mask with brains sticking out. Brian's mask depicted a Gorilla and William's was of a Hare. The masks matched their personalities. Before they even entered the gas station, the owner knew what was up. He reached under his counter and pulled out his shotgun before they even entered.

"Take cover!" Damien ordered Brian as they both charged inside. Several customers inside screamed and ran out. Both of them used the store aisles to avoid getting shot, as the cashier began firing wildly at them. Damien reached for a six pack of beer cans, hurling them at the cashier's head. He was so focused on trying to shoot Brian, the man didn't see the beer cans coming and was stunned long enough for Brian to run over to the cashier, then snatch away his shotgun, aiming it at the cashier and screaming; "open the cash register, give us all you got!" The employee complied, emptying the money into Damien's rucksack.

"Pleasure doing business!" Damien grinned, then Brian punched the cashier so hard he blacked out. As they both exited, distant police sirens were already gaining on them. They both climbed inside the car and William drove off as fast as he could. Soon police cruisers revealed themselves in the rearview mirror, traffic ahead was getting busy too. Then William discovered his buried super power; when narrowly avoiding traffic, it felt like he was driving in slow motion with steering that was on a god-like level of precision. It was like he had become one with the vehicle.

"Holy shit, Will!" Brian cheered, "this is your power!"

"Always trust the genius!" Damien laughed. William did not reply, he was far too focused on his driving. Escaping the cops was far too easy. The three super criminals had gotten away with it this time and they couldn't have been happier.