[Hi, before we start, I, the writer of the Riffs and MOtCD stories would like to bring an issue to your attention, dear reader. Remember Poison? Friend and fellow Riffer who’s been mentioned on here a few times? Well, she needs help paying for college. If you want to donate, go here to do so. I ask that you please do so. Thank you.
Now, onto the regularly scheduled program.]
I’m not an only child.
I know, that’s is an odd way to start this, but I think it works.
I have a sister. Her name is Incertus, or Incy for short. I’m a catgirl, she’s a doggirl.
We never knew our parents. We just lived with a cult for a while, which is a long story in and of itself, so I’ll just tell you the important parts.
We lived with them until our early teens, and found out we had powers. I could control fire, Incy could control water. As long as both of us were alive, we had these powers. If one of us died, the other lost them. When the cult realized we had these powers, they wanted us to use them to do things we really didn’t want to do. So, we left, and ended up on the streets, moving from place to place, trying to disguise our animal parts and colorful lines.
While on the streets, we found some people trying to rob a gas station we were at. We intervened, stopping the robbers. It honestly felt good, especially since the gas station owner was nice enough to give us some free food. We decided then that we wanted to do some good.
We ended up in Vinculux City, where some villain, a guy named Rotten, had decided to start his reign of terror. He was looking for someone named Toxique, who we ended up stumbling upon. She was a bit intense, and had this ability to poison anyone she touched. During our travels through the city with her, with Rotten on our tail, we ended up finding Spyder, but before he became the giant spider monster you see before you. He was a serious person, and, as we found out when Toxique touched him, is immune to all poisons. Apparently he was genetically engineered in a lab to be that way.
We also met a girl named Spellweaver, a very bubbly person who could use magic. She also wore a lot of pink. Then we met Nerdrage, your twin brother, Jake. He was this ubernerd who could build basically anything, and was very good with computers. Then we met Julius, an orange alien with advanced technology, and a girl named Swashbuckler, who was, as her name suggests, trying to be a swashbuckler.
Incy, Toxique, and I told all of them what was going on. Toxique had worked for Rotten as an assassin, but decided she no longer wanted to do that. Rotten didn’t like that, so he went after her. And he has superpowers.
We all ended up fighting, and defeating, him, and decided to stay in the city and work as a team.
Things started to change. Julius and Nerdrage became good friends. Spyder and Toxique fell in love, and started dating. And through it all, we fought all sorts of villains. I loved it. I was saving lives, and I had a new family.
Over time, I noticed that Incy wasn’t exactly as happy as I was. She seemed a bit distant. I talked to her about it one day.
“Are you ok?” I asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fine, sis,” she told me.
“Are you sure?”
She took a breath. “It’s just…doesn’t it bother you?”
“Does what bother me?”
“The villains. We capture them, send them to jail, and then they escape and cause more trouble.”
“Yeah, it does bother me. But we always manage to get them back before they cause too much trouble.”
“But what if we can’t stop them one day? What if a lot of innocent people do get hurt? What then?”
“Incy, what are you suggesting?”
“We kill them.”
I was taken aback by this.
“No. We can’t do that.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“We’re heroes, not killers.”
“I’m not saying that we kill bank robbers or jaywalkers. I’m saying that the truly irredeemable, the truly awful, the rapist, murderers. Them, we should kill.”
“Then we’d be no better than them.”
“Yes we would! We’d be killing to save more lives!”
“We’d be executioners, and that’s not what this is about!”
“Then what is it about?”
“Being heroes, not murderers!”
“Fine,” Incy said. “This…this was just bothering me.”
“Alright,” I said, hoping this was over but knowing, deep down, it wasn’t.
As it turns out, it wasn’t over. Incy started getting rougher with villains, and more withdrawn from the team. I tried to talk to her, to ask her if everything was alright, if there was anything I could do to help. She wouldn’t let me in. I wondered if I was losing my sister.
And then, things came to a head. We were fighting a villain, a guy by the name of Supremacist. He was a racist and a murderer, a truly awful human being. And one day, he decided to go on a killing spree. Well, started to. We got there before anyone was hurt. A quick punch from Spyder, and the day seemed to be saved.
We were wrong. Supremacist got up, aimed at Spyder, and then…
…he was knocked away by a fist of water.
“Thanks, Incertus,” Spyder said. Incy ignored him, walked up to Supremacist, bent down, and snapped his neck.
She turned to Spyder, and said, “You’re welcome.”
Everyone was stunned. No one spoke. That is, until Julius said, “Why did you do that?”
“Because somebody had to. Because murdering slime like this can’t be allowed to live anymore. He’s killed too many people already. He could’ve killed more. But now, he won’t.”
And then, it was basically the same fight she and I had, except now everyone else was telling her the same things I did.
She said, “Fine, if none of you have the guts to do what needs to be done, then I quit!” She walked off, not looking back. I ran towards her.
“Incy, wait!” I yelled. A fist of water knocked me back.
“Leave me alone,” she said.
For weeks after she left, I tried to find her. I wanted to talk to her, I had to say something. But I never could find her. None of us could.
We heard reports of villains being killed. Every time we got there, she was gone.
That is, until a couple of months after she left. There was some big fight going on in the heart of the city. Apparently some girl with dog ears was fighting off four villains at once. We left at once.
When we arrived, one was out, and she was fighting three. We helped take down two, and then…
The villain’s name was Lord Mystery. He was usually the kind of guy who stayed in the shadows, and let everyone else do his dirty work. He had the ability to create illusions. Incy was fighting him, and he was holding his own. Then Incy knocked him into a building. He came out, but he didn’t seem to put up as much fight. She used this opportunity to kill him. Except, when she saw the body, it turned out to be someone else. An innocent bystander, used as a pawn. Lord Mystery got away, and Incy broke.
“Please, please,” she said, running to the faux Mystery. She grabbed the body, hoping the person was still alive.
He wasn’t.
We went over to her.
She wasn’t in the best shape after the fight physically, and it seemed that she wasn’t doing well mentally either. She was cradling the body and crying.
“Kill me,” she said upon seeing us.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m no better than these…these monsters. I deserve to die. Kill me.”
“No,” I said, speaking for everyone.
Incy closed her eyes. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll do it myself.”
“No!” I yelled, and before she could do anything, I hit her, knocking her unconscious.
She was arrested, had a power inhibiting collar slapped onto her, and sent to jail.
I’d sometimes visit her, but every time I came she’s snap, she’d yell, and she ended up having to be forcibly taken away. I didn’t want to hurt her anymore, so I stopped.
Time passed, but things didn’t get any easier. I was still obviously hurting. Spyder and Toxique were having relationship troubles, and Spyder was starting to change. When he’d get really stressed or angry, he’d turn into the creature standing right next to you. He said it was the result of some issues in his creation.
Nerdrage ended up becoming a technopath. He could “talk” to technology, controlling it with a thought.
Bandit ended up joining the team too, by the way. I didn’t really care much for him. Then again, I didn’t care much for anything then.
A few months after Incy’s arrest, all hell broke loose.
Lord Mystery, still on the run, orchestrated a mass breakout of villains from prison. For days, the city was in chaos as we tried to bring them all to justice. It tiring, stressful work. We were able to do it though. They were sent to an interim prison, and we thought our work was done.
We were still on edge though. Someone broke them out, and that someone might be coming for us. Tensions were running high, and Spyder and Toxique decided that now was the time to break up.
Then, there was a knock at the door. We all approached, wary, armed, and ready for a fight. The door opened.
On the other side was Lord Mystery, but he looked like he should be dead. His throat was ripped out, there was a hole where his heart should be, and he was covered in blood.
“What do you want?” Bandit asked.
Mystery just pointed to the front of the base. On the ground were the corpses of every one of the villains we caught and brought back to jail, along with what appeared to be random people. The bodies spelled out the words “I’M BACK”.
Mystery’s body dropped, like it was a puppet with its string cut. We all ran out, ready for anything. And then we heard her.
“Hello, everyone. Good to see you all again.” Incy said. We turned to see her.
She was covered in blood, but, far as we could tell, none of it was her own. And the look in her eyes…it’s a look that still haunts my nightmares.
“Incy?” I asked, not quite believing that was truly her.
“In the flesh, sis.”
“Did you do all of this?” Nerdrage asked.
“Yes, yes I did, thanks for noticing.”
“Are you responsible for the breakout?” Spyder asked.
“No, that was Lord Mystery. See, his thought was that if you were all tired out from fighting all of the escapees, then he could easily kill you all. He decided to break me out too, since in prison I made it clear that I had changed.
“You see, that night all those months ago, an Incertus had died. The one who wanted to do good, protect the innocent, punish the guilty. A new one took her place. One who didn’t care about heroes and villains and right and wrong. One who wanted death and revenge.
“Lord Mystery saw this, and let me go. I spent a bit honing my skills, mainly by killing random people, and finding out I can do some really cool tricks with my powers. I showed Lord Mystery that, and it killed him. Oops,” she said, smiling. “So, after I killed him, I went to where you guys put all those villains, and killed everyone in that prison, guards and all, and brought them here. I can levitate bodies now, because of the water in them. See?” she said, making the corpse of Lord Mystery float. “I did that with every body there, and arranged it as you saw, then used Lord Mystery to say hi.”
“Incy, my God, what happened to you?” I asked.
“I realized you were right, sis. Heroes don’t kill. Good thing I’m no hero anymore.” She said, laughing.
And then, she started throwing daggers of water at us. We dodged them – barely. She was at her peak, and we were barely running.
Nerdrage took out a laser gun (which he had set on “stun”) and fired at her. Or rather, was about to, because, without even looking at him, she washed him away in a wave. Bandit fired arrows at her, Swashbuckler ran at her with a sword, and Julius tried attacking her. All failed and all were knocked aside. Spellweaver couldn’t cast any spells before Incy just made her fly away using her control of water. Toxique ran up to her, and, right before she was about to touch and poison Incy, Incy created a blade of water and cut off Toxique’s arm.
Toxique fell to the floor, bleeding, in shock, not sure what to do.
Spyder, upon seeing this, cracked. He started growing larger, getting more arms and eyes, and became the being standing next to you two.
He never changed back.
He roared, and ran at Incy, leaping towards her and hitting her. She fell over, and, using her powers, basically threw him away. She was about to kill him when I knocked her back with a fireball. She got up, and started going back towards the fallen team. I create a literal line of fire in front of her, and walked through it.
“Leave them alone,” I told her.
“Make me,” she said, a wolfish grin on her face.
I threw fireballs at her. She created a shield of water in front of her, causing the fireballs to turn into steam on contact. I ran at her, hitting her and sending us tumbling forward.
The base, I should mention, was placed near some woods just outside the city. And it was into these woods that we ended up.
I kept throwing fire at her. She dodged, and some of it hit the trees, making them catch fire. She fired bursts of water back at me.
In the back of my mind, I wondered why she wasn’t using the full force of her powers on me.
A burning tree fell over and pinned her. She was able to blast it off with a lot of water, but she was still hurt. I took advantage of it. I lunged at her, grabbing her, hitting her, scratching her, kicking her, doing anything and everything I could. She fought back, biting, clawing, punching. But she seemed to be weaker. Maybe the tree hurt her. Maybe she was weakened from using her powers. I didn’t know. I didn’t care. I just kept at it.
And then, she was on the ground, bleeding, battered, barely conscious. The forest was burning around us.
“What are you gonna do now?” she asked me. “You gonna let me live? Take me back to jail, where I’ll break out? You know I will. I’ll be back, and I’ll kill you and every member of this team. Hell, maybe I’ll just kill you and use your corpse to fight the team for me. Face it, the only way you’re gonna stop me is by killing me, and I know you don’t have the guts for that, sis.”
I knew she was right. I knew she’d be back. I knew she’d try to kill us all.
I couldn’t take the chance.
I looked away from Incy, tears in my eyes, and whispered, “I’m sorry,” before lighting her on fire. As she burned to death, I could’ve sworn I heard laughter mixed with the screams.
The fires eventually stopped.
The team eventually found me.
I looked at them. Everyone was battered and bruised. Toxique had a blood-covered cloth tied around where her arm was. And Spyder was gone.
“What happened?” Spellweaver asked.
“She’s dead,” I said.
“Where are those red lines?”
“Gone,” I replied. “Where’s Spyder.”
“Gone.”
I nodded.
“I said a while ago that you can’t be a hero if you’re a killer. I was right. I am no hero. Not anymore,” I said, getting up and walking away.
“Where are you going?” Julius asked.
“Away,” I said. “Please let me. I…I need to be alone.”
No one tried stopping me.
I walked out of the forest, and never looked back.
Over time, I heard rumors about what happened to the rest of the team. I heard Swashbuckler ended up on the ocean, being some kind of maritime vigilante. I heard Julius took his advanced alien tech to some country and is working on improving it. I heard reports that some giant spider monster was attacking criminals. I don’t know where Nerdrage or Spellweaver or Toxique are, though I heard Toxique got a metal arm.
At the time, I didn’t care. I went back on the streets, going from place to place, trying to forget.
I ended up meeting Dorkuss, and he…he made do something I never thought I’d do again: laugh. So I stayed with him for a while.
And then there was that business with El Catrin and Zorax and Vorix and Jeff the Killer and despite the insanity, I was happy again. I had a new family.
Then one day, I had to leave it behind.
I had woken up, and noticed something on myself.
Red lines.
“Oh, please no. Not again,” I said.
I checked her grave, and read reports that it had been dug up.
She had to be back.
Dorkuss, I never told you about any of this before because I didn’t want to remember. I wanted to leave that part of me behind. But with all of this, I know that I can never leave it behind. I didn’t want you to come with me because I didn’t want you to get hurt.
Before you say it, I know that you’ve fought all kinds of people and come out on top, but Incy isn’t like them. She would hurt you in every way possible, and I couldn’t let that happen. So, I recorded that video saying to leave me alone, and I left.
I didn’t know if I was looking for Incy or the team, but I came across Spyder, and he remembered me. I told him what was going on, and he came along.
And then…
Well, here we are.
Now, onto the regularly scheduled program.]
I’m not an only child.
I know, that’s is an odd way to start this, but I think it works.
I have a sister. Her name is Incertus, or Incy for short. I’m a catgirl, she’s a doggirl.
We never knew our parents. We just lived with a cult for a while, which is a long story in and of itself, so I’ll just tell you the important parts.
We lived with them until our early teens, and found out we had powers. I could control fire, Incy could control water. As long as both of us were alive, we had these powers. If one of us died, the other lost them. When the cult realized we had these powers, they wanted us to use them to do things we really didn’t want to do. So, we left, and ended up on the streets, moving from place to place, trying to disguise our animal parts and colorful lines.
While on the streets, we found some people trying to rob a gas station we were at. We intervened, stopping the robbers. It honestly felt good, especially since the gas station owner was nice enough to give us some free food. We decided then that we wanted to do some good.
We ended up in Vinculux City, where some villain, a guy named Rotten, had decided to start his reign of terror. He was looking for someone named Toxique, who we ended up stumbling upon. She was a bit intense, and had this ability to poison anyone she touched. During our travels through the city with her, with Rotten on our tail, we ended up finding Spyder, but before he became the giant spider monster you see before you. He was a serious person, and, as we found out when Toxique touched him, is immune to all poisons. Apparently he was genetically engineered in a lab to be that way.
We also met a girl named Spellweaver, a very bubbly person who could use magic. She also wore a lot of pink. Then we met Nerdrage, your twin brother, Jake. He was this ubernerd who could build basically anything, and was very good with computers. Then we met Julius, an orange alien with advanced technology, and a girl named Swashbuckler, who was, as her name suggests, trying to be a swashbuckler.
Incy, Toxique, and I told all of them what was going on. Toxique had worked for Rotten as an assassin, but decided she no longer wanted to do that. Rotten didn’t like that, so he went after her. And he has superpowers.
We all ended up fighting, and defeating, him, and decided to stay in the city and work as a team.
Things started to change. Julius and Nerdrage became good friends. Spyder and Toxique fell in love, and started dating. And through it all, we fought all sorts of villains. I loved it. I was saving lives, and I had a new family.
Over time, I noticed that Incy wasn’t exactly as happy as I was. She seemed a bit distant. I talked to her about it one day.
“Are you ok?” I asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fine, sis,” she told me.
“Are you sure?”
She took a breath. “It’s just…doesn’t it bother you?”
“Does what bother me?”
“The villains. We capture them, send them to jail, and then they escape and cause more trouble.”
“Yeah, it does bother me. But we always manage to get them back before they cause too much trouble.”
“But what if we can’t stop them one day? What if a lot of innocent people do get hurt? What then?”
“Incy, what are you suggesting?”
“We kill them.”
I was taken aback by this.
“No. We can’t do that.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“We’re heroes, not killers.”
“I’m not saying that we kill bank robbers or jaywalkers. I’m saying that the truly irredeemable, the truly awful, the rapist, murderers. Them, we should kill.”
“Then we’d be no better than them.”
“Yes we would! We’d be killing to save more lives!”
“We’d be executioners, and that’s not what this is about!”
“Then what is it about?”
“Being heroes, not murderers!”
“Fine,” Incy said. “This…this was just bothering me.”
“Alright,” I said, hoping this was over but knowing, deep down, it wasn’t.
As it turns out, it wasn’t over. Incy started getting rougher with villains, and more withdrawn from the team. I tried to talk to her, to ask her if everything was alright, if there was anything I could do to help. She wouldn’t let me in. I wondered if I was losing my sister.
And then, things came to a head. We were fighting a villain, a guy by the name of Supremacist. He was a racist and a murderer, a truly awful human being. And one day, he decided to go on a killing spree. Well, started to. We got there before anyone was hurt. A quick punch from Spyder, and the day seemed to be saved.
We were wrong. Supremacist got up, aimed at Spyder, and then…
…he was knocked away by a fist of water.
“Thanks, Incertus,” Spyder said. Incy ignored him, walked up to Supremacist, bent down, and snapped his neck.
She turned to Spyder, and said, “You’re welcome.”
Everyone was stunned. No one spoke. That is, until Julius said, “Why did you do that?”
“Because somebody had to. Because murdering slime like this can’t be allowed to live anymore. He’s killed too many people already. He could’ve killed more. But now, he won’t.”
And then, it was basically the same fight she and I had, except now everyone else was telling her the same things I did.
She said, “Fine, if none of you have the guts to do what needs to be done, then I quit!” She walked off, not looking back. I ran towards her.
“Incy, wait!” I yelled. A fist of water knocked me back.
“Leave me alone,” she said.
For weeks after she left, I tried to find her. I wanted to talk to her, I had to say something. But I never could find her. None of us could.
We heard reports of villains being killed. Every time we got there, she was gone.
That is, until a couple of months after she left. There was some big fight going on in the heart of the city. Apparently some girl with dog ears was fighting off four villains at once. We left at once.
When we arrived, one was out, and she was fighting three. We helped take down two, and then…
The villain’s name was Lord Mystery. He was usually the kind of guy who stayed in the shadows, and let everyone else do his dirty work. He had the ability to create illusions. Incy was fighting him, and he was holding his own. Then Incy knocked him into a building. He came out, but he didn’t seem to put up as much fight. She used this opportunity to kill him. Except, when she saw the body, it turned out to be someone else. An innocent bystander, used as a pawn. Lord Mystery got away, and Incy broke.
“Please, please,” she said, running to the faux Mystery. She grabbed the body, hoping the person was still alive.
He wasn’t.
We went over to her.
She wasn’t in the best shape after the fight physically, and it seemed that she wasn’t doing well mentally either. She was cradling the body and crying.
“Kill me,” she said upon seeing us.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m no better than these…these monsters. I deserve to die. Kill me.”
“No,” I said, speaking for everyone.
Incy closed her eyes. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll do it myself.”
“No!” I yelled, and before she could do anything, I hit her, knocking her unconscious.
She was arrested, had a power inhibiting collar slapped onto her, and sent to jail.
I’d sometimes visit her, but every time I came she’s snap, she’d yell, and she ended up having to be forcibly taken away. I didn’t want to hurt her anymore, so I stopped.
Time passed, but things didn’t get any easier. I was still obviously hurting. Spyder and Toxique were having relationship troubles, and Spyder was starting to change. When he’d get really stressed or angry, he’d turn into the creature standing right next to you. He said it was the result of some issues in his creation.
Nerdrage ended up becoming a technopath. He could “talk” to technology, controlling it with a thought.
Bandit ended up joining the team too, by the way. I didn’t really care much for him. Then again, I didn’t care much for anything then.
A few months after Incy’s arrest, all hell broke loose.
Lord Mystery, still on the run, orchestrated a mass breakout of villains from prison. For days, the city was in chaos as we tried to bring them all to justice. It tiring, stressful work. We were able to do it though. They were sent to an interim prison, and we thought our work was done.
We were still on edge though. Someone broke them out, and that someone might be coming for us. Tensions were running high, and Spyder and Toxique decided that now was the time to break up.
Then, there was a knock at the door. We all approached, wary, armed, and ready for a fight. The door opened.
On the other side was Lord Mystery, but he looked like he should be dead. His throat was ripped out, there was a hole where his heart should be, and he was covered in blood.
“What do you want?” Bandit asked.
Mystery just pointed to the front of the base. On the ground were the corpses of every one of the villains we caught and brought back to jail, along with what appeared to be random people. The bodies spelled out the words “I’M BACK”.
Mystery’s body dropped, like it was a puppet with its string cut. We all ran out, ready for anything. And then we heard her.
“Hello, everyone. Good to see you all again.” Incy said. We turned to see her.
She was covered in blood, but, far as we could tell, none of it was her own. And the look in her eyes…it’s a look that still haunts my nightmares.
“Incy?” I asked, not quite believing that was truly her.
“In the flesh, sis.”
“Did you do all of this?” Nerdrage asked.
“Yes, yes I did, thanks for noticing.”
“Are you responsible for the breakout?” Spyder asked.
“No, that was Lord Mystery. See, his thought was that if you were all tired out from fighting all of the escapees, then he could easily kill you all. He decided to break me out too, since in prison I made it clear that I had changed.
“You see, that night all those months ago, an Incertus had died. The one who wanted to do good, protect the innocent, punish the guilty. A new one took her place. One who didn’t care about heroes and villains and right and wrong. One who wanted death and revenge.
“Lord Mystery saw this, and let me go. I spent a bit honing my skills, mainly by killing random people, and finding out I can do some really cool tricks with my powers. I showed Lord Mystery that, and it killed him. Oops,” she said, smiling. “So, after I killed him, I went to where you guys put all those villains, and killed everyone in that prison, guards and all, and brought them here. I can levitate bodies now, because of the water in them. See?” she said, making the corpse of Lord Mystery float. “I did that with every body there, and arranged it as you saw, then used Lord Mystery to say hi.”
“Incy, my God, what happened to you?” I asked.
“I realized you were right, sis. Heroes don’t kill. Good thing I’m no hero anymore.” She said, laughing.
And then, she started throwing daggers of water at us. We dodged them – barely. She was at her peak, and we were barely running.
Nerdrage took out a laser gun (which he had set on “stun”) and fired at her. Or rather, was about to, because, without even looking at him, she washed him away in a wave. Bandit fired arrows at her, Swashbuckler ran at her with a sword, and Julius tried attacking her. All failed and all were knocked aside. Spellweaver couldn’t cast any spells before Incy just made her fly away using her control of water. Toxique ran up to her, and, right before she was about to touch and poison Incy, Incy created a blade of water and cut off Toxique’s arm.
Toxique fell to the floor, bleeding, in shock, not sure what to do.
Spyder, upon seeing this, cracked. He started growing larger, getting more arms and eyes, and became the being standing next to you two.
He never changed back.
He roared, and ran at Incy, leaping towards her and hitting her. She fell over, and, using her powers, basically threw him away. She was about to kill him when I knocked her back with a fireball. She got up, and started going back towards the fallen team. I create a literal line of fire in front of her, and walked through it.
“Leave them alone,” I told her.
“Make me,” she said, a wolfish grin on her face.
I threw fireballs at her. She created a shield of water in front of her, causing the fireballs to turn into steam on contact. I ran at her, hitting her and sending us tumbling forward.
The base, I should mention, was placed near some woods just outside the city. And it was into these woods that we ended up.
I kept throwing fire at her. She dodged, and some of it hit the trees, making them catch fire. She fired bursts of water back at me.
In the back of my mind, I wondered why she wasn’t using the full force of her powers on me.
A burning tree fell over and pinned her. She was able to blast it off with a lot of water, but she was still hurt. I took advantage of it. I lunged at her, grabbing her, hitting her, scratching her, kicking her, doing anything and everything I could. She fought back, biting, clawing, punching. But she seemed to be weaker. Maybe the tree hurt her. Maybe she was weakened from using her powers. I didn’t know. I didn’t care. I just kept at it.
And then, she was on the ground, bleeding, battered, barely conscious. The forest was burning around us.
“What are you gonna do now?” she asked me. “You gonna let me live? Take me back to jail, where I’ll break out? You know I will. I’ll be back, and I’ll kill you and every member of this team. Hell, maybe I’ll just kill you and use your corpse to fight the team for me. Face it, the only way you’re gonna stop me is by killing me, and I know you don’t have the guts for that, sis.”
I knew she was right. I knew she’d be back. I knew she’d try to kill us all.
I couldn’t take the chance.
I looked away from Incy, tears in my eyes, and whispered, “I’m sorry,” before lighting her on fire. As she burned to death, I could’ve sworn I heard laughter mixed with the screams.
The fires eventually stopped.
The team eventually found me.
I looked at them. Everyone was battered and bruised. Toxique had a blood-covered cloth tied around where her arm was. And Spyder was gone.
“What happened?” Spellweaver asked.
“She’s dead,” I said.
“Where are those red lines?”
“Gone,” I replied. “Where’s Spyder.”
“Gone.”
I nodded.
“I said a while ago that you can’t be a hero if you’re a killer. I was right. I am no hero. Not anymore,” I said, getting up and walking away.
“Where are you going?” Julius asked.
“Away,” I said. “Please let me. I…I need to be alone.”
No one tried stopping me.
I walked out of the forest, and never looked back.
Over time, I heard rumors about what happened to the rest of the team. I heard Swashbuckler ended up on the ocean, being some kind of maritime vigilante. I heard Julius took his advanced alien tech to some country and is working on improving it. I heard reports that some giant spider monster was attacking criminals. I don’t know where Nerdrage or Spellweaver or Toxique are, though I heard Toxique got a metal arm.
At the time, I didn’t care. I went back on the streets, going from place to place, trying to forget.
I ended up meeting Dorkuss, and he…he made do something I never thought I’d do again: laugh. So I stayed with him for a while.
And then there was that business with El Catrin and Zorax and Vorix and Jeff the Killer and despite the insanity, I was happy again. I had a new family.
Then one day, I had to leave it behind.
I had woken up, and noticed something on myself.
Red lines.
“Oh, please no. Not again,” I said.
I checked her grave, and read reports that it had been dug up.
She had to be back.
Dorkuss, I never told you about any of this before because I didn’t want to remember. I wanted to leave that part of me behind. But with all of this, I know that I can never leave it behind. I didn’t want you to come with me because I didn’t want you to get hurt.
Before you say it, I know that you’ve fought all kinds of people and come out on top, but Incy isn’t like them. She would hurt you in every way possible, and I couldn’t let that happen. So, I recorded that video saying to leave me alone, and I left.
I didn’t know if I was looking for Incy or the team, but I came across Spyder, and he remembered me. I told him what was going on, and he came along.
And then…
Well, here we are.