Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 355 VILLAIN AND OUT

“Who are you!?” Nightwalker yelled as he punched me across the face. Waking me up I spit blood to the side as I groaned. 

“What the fuck,” I said, shaking my head. I was handcuffed to a chair. Looking around I could feel the Spiritual Energy of a few other heroes in the dark room. Arms crossed, still in costume, they leaked fear and anger towards me. 

“What did you do to Medici?!” Nightwalker roared. I shook my head, trying to get my bearings again. A look at my World Escape said I hadn’t been out very long. But it was enough time for them to knock me out and strap me in one of the cells of Sentry Tower. I looked at my newest notification. 

“Shit,” I said, reading it over and over. I hadn’t received a notification like this since My Hero Academia. And for some reason I didn’t really give a shit. These were not good heroes. Every single one of them deserved to be behind bars like their villain counterparts. Granted some villains were more heinous, but they were all scum in my eyes. 

“I didn’t do shit to Medici,” I lied. 

“Lie,” Truthsuitor said.

“Oh fuck you, Barney,” I said. That was his real name. “Why were you kicked off the Sentries last time? For lying in court because Helios bribed you? Time before that, what was it again? Caught sending messages to underage kids?” Truthsuitor stiffened. One unofficial agreement in the Sentries was to not bring up their past sins. All was right with the Sentries, or at least that was how the saying went. Their creed that they said after every meeting or villain beaten. 

“All of you can suck my nuts. Medici too, as she burns in hell,” I said. Looking around the room the heroes didn’t like this sort of talk. “What? Cat got your tongue there Feral Feline?” He was a half-man half-cat, full douche. “You get caught fucking the zoo’s tigers lately?” 

“That was grossly exaggerated,” he said, stepping forward. Lady Day stuck her hand out, stopping him.  

“Weston, what is going on with you? What did Dr. Death do to you? We saw what happened to Medici. That wasn’t your power. Whatever it is that he did, we can-” 

“Fuck you,” I said. My eyes locking onto hers. “All you people do is judge everyone not in your little club. Who was the last vigilante that was showing you up? Jack-O-Lantern? Wore a pumpkin on his head, but no you thought he was a villain and ‘accidentally’ sent him to the hospital. Don’t give me that shit. That was the 4th vigilante you all beat to hell because they wouldn’t join the Sentries. Because they didn’t mind talking about all the shit you all do behind everyone’s backs. Well I for one, am sick of it. Every one of you deserves to be behind bars. How many more hours of community service do you have on your sentence Missconception?” Her power was psychic related, hence the stupid name. “Whose head did you make blow up again? That school teacher your ex-husband was banging?”

“He has some psychic block on him,” she said. Her hand at her head as she tried to use her Power. I was extra glad I had the Medium Psychic Resistance at that point. 

“I am sick of this, and sick of all of you. If you haven’t guessed by now, I am done with the Sentries,” I said. My anger had been boiling for a while. With a groan I broke the chain of the handcuffs as my Berserker mode made me over twice as strong. “I’ll be taking my leave and if I-” I cut off as Nightwalker made a move for me. 

Without hesitation I charged my fist with Nen and my Spark Power. Punching him in the face it crushed under the hit and he was thrown into the wall. The other’s backed up with the show of strength. Nightwalker was the 2nd strongest there, but this body was strong, and so was my Nen. 

I took a step toward them. The ones by the door flinched. I continued on, and they moved out of my way. 

“Weston,” Lady Day said. I was almost surprised by the sadness coming from her, but I ignored it. Walking out the door I headed out of the holding cells and to the elevator. Going down to the ground floor my heart beat rapidly. Old me was ecstatic. I finally said what had been building up for such a long time. So many times he had held his tongue as they condemned villains for acts that weren’t far off from what the Sentries had done. 

On the first floor I wasn’t met with any guards so I left. Ready to start my new life and figure out the changes to my Spark Power. That was when I received a quest. 

Excited to have a new element to play with I decided to stick around for a while. This world could use an actual hero. If that meant playing a villain, then so be it. 

—

I moved through the hospital slowly. As my day persona of Weston Walker, I was visiting my parent’s hospital. Called Walker Hospital, my mother ran it. No one knew my secret identity as the old Chargefist. I had to keep reminding myself that I dropped that name, and would be known as Tesla when I started Hero work again. The Sentries had already released a statement that Chargefist was wanted in questioning for the disappearance of the hero Medici. They didn’t give up my true identity, as they never did. They probably thought I was being controlled and would come back. I planned to never return. 

Moving from room to room at the hospital I slowly began to learn how to work the new aspects of my Spark Power. Medici was right, it was like I was talking to their bodies. Different from my Haki, I could hear what I assumed were the electrical impulses of their bodies. Pain was a big one for a lot of the people. A constant throb that never stopped as they groaned or cried. The pain dulled by medication, the sluggish impulses moving through the patients was an echo in the large hospital as my Spark Power interacted with them. 

It took time, but I planned to slowly learn how to do what Medici could. Healing was always an OP power. I planned to learn all of it’s little attributes before moving onto the next world. 

The power was weak of course, but as I played with my Spark, I could make it do as I wished. Make people no longer hurt as I matched the electrical impulses of the mind and nerves. Slowly telling the body and the general area what to do. Heal this or that ailment, and to my utter joy, the bodies listened. 

The first day at the hospital I spent focusing on 1 patient. He was in a coma, and since I wasn’t exactly sure if my power would hurt someone, I felt he was the best guinea pig since he wasn’t conscious to feel the pain. He had been in a motorcycle accident and was a throbbing mess of damaged nerves and organs. I simply listened to his body. Learning all the minor details as my Spark power somehow translated the pain to information for me. 

Before the Forge, my Spark Power had always been an enigma. My mind knew how to call electricity. Coating my body in the yellow bolts of miniature lightning had been the easiest aspect, thus that was all I did. But current me had been playing with different powers for years. Learning their little tricks and tips. Using my Inner Eye to understand my powers at a base level. Granted I was always learning, but I had a lot more experience playing with powers than old me. So I was able to coat my body in electricity, gauge the power and strength of it, and charge it up so I could shoot it off like a true bolt of lightning. 

This new evolution of my power with Medici’s Forge, had added an aspect to my power I never thought possible. Instead of being able to turn the energy of my body into electricity, I could almost hear the electricity of other people. Tiny electrical impulses controlled the nervous system which controlled the body. Those micro-firings of neurons were speaking to me, and I was hearing them.

After I understood this the first day at the hospital, the second day I attempted to heal the man in a coma as Medici had explained, but it was never that simple. It took another 2 days to get the right frequency to talk to the body. The channel or level of power that the nerves communicated with was so low it was like whispering with my Spark. No, not whispering it was more like thinking. Where before I could talk and yell using my Spark, I had to basically use the wisp of an idea of power. It was an interesting trick to learn, powering down the ability. But as always, I figured it out. 

When I got to the power level to talk to bodies it took me another day to figure out the correct order for the body to follow. It wasn’t like I could think, heal. No, I had to monitor what the body was already doing trying to heal the damage, then match that order. Somehow my Spark translated it, and I was slowly understanding the language it was speaking so I took it slow. Sending in a constant stream of power into the comatose patient as I ordered his body to heal more rapidly. It was a grueling process but I eventually healed all ailments except for his mind. 

The following day I moved to another room. This time it was a kid that had been in a car accident. I learned that the same orders I used on the first man worked on the kid. Which meant I wouldn’t have to relearn how to heal each person. I simply had to understand the one order to make them heal. This time it only took me half the day to heal him. 

I learned over the next few days that I could speed up the healing. I became more competent and confident with the orders I was giving bodies. Making the healing order constant, then increasing the power from a thought to a whisper I was getting the hang of it. Thus increasing the speed at which they healed. 

On the 8th day of my training I was able to heal someone’s broken arm in an hour. By the 9th I could walk into a room and almost sense what was wrong with someone by listening to their bodies. At that point I walked into a room with someone that had brain damage, but it was beyond me. I didn’t want to mess them up, so I gave up for the time being. Happy with my progress I took a break when the perfect distraction came along. 

—

I had been leaving the hospital when I ran into my actual favorite villain of the world. Her name was Justice. As the name implied, she could control ice. Light blue hair that was mostly gray, wearing a skintight bobsled uniform. She had an amazing body that jiggled with every movement. Labeled a villain because she did vigilante work, what most people didn’t know was she targeted corrupt people and businesses. 

The first time I ran into her was 3 years ago. She had been destroying a cop car when I found her. I had of course jumped in to fend her off. Ready to prove myself at all times. Hitting her with Sparks, she froze me and I had to be saved by Lady Day. It wasn’t till later that I found out the officer she had been attacking had been involved in a domestic dispute. He had beaten his wife so bad she was flown to the nearest hospital. 

Justice had given the abusive cop such bad frostbite that one of his nuts had to be removed. I didn’t condone that sort of thing, but the abused wife had recovered and I hadn’t heard anything from the officer. 

After that I held my hand when I was called in against Justice. She had attacked one insurance company after they had refused to pay for damages for a fire. The damage to their building cost them thousands of dollars and brought to light their shady practices. The family was paid and she moved on. 

Always at the center of things. It got to the point that I was the first to rush to her crime scenes. Almost an unwritten agreement between her and I. I would let her do her business. Damage whatever she felt she needed to, to draw attention to some wrong. Before she left I would lock eyes with her. She would give me a nod, and I would chase her off. I always said she just barely got away, and she hadn’t been caught once. 

This time she was freezing the wall of a large apartment building. I came upon her and watched for a bit as she flew around, shooting ice at the side of the building. Studying her as she flew this way and that. Blue beams of freezing cold blasts escaping her like a flying Elsa. 

When she noticed me she didn’t head down right away. But as she dropped to cover every inch of the building in ice she came within a story of me. Locking eyes I smiled and gave her a slight nod. She must have understood the signal because she smiled wide at me. Blushing as she began to drop down I wondered if she really did know who I was. The only part of my costume I had worn to hide my identity was a white mask. It wasn’t like it was impossible to guess my secret identity. 

As she got closer my heart began to beat faster as she moved in. Then Lady Day ruined the moment as she flew toward us. Firing her solar beams at the ice to melt it. The 2 women began to blast one another. Justice hitting Lady Day hard with the ice beam, Lady Day began to glow white. Then a blinding flash went out. 

Though my eyes were closed, even I had trouble seeing once the flash left. When I opened my eyes again, Lady Day was hitting Justice hard into the cement. I didn’t hesitate to step in. Growing angry I moved toward her and tried to hit Lady Day. She dodged, flying away. 

“Weston?!” She yelled. “What are you doing?”

“Helping Justice,” I said. “Get the hell out of here, Lady Day.” 

“I can’t do that,” she said. Her Haki all over the place I couldn’t lock onto what she was feeling. 

“Yes you can,” I said. Ignoring her I helped Justice up. She wasn’t overly hurt, but this wasn’t the time to talk. Passing her a note she blasted Lady Day and flew off. I hoped she would notice the small piece of paper, but only time would tell.