Envy
An experiment in writing the other side of a super heroic story.
This is a companion story for the Supers story line, a new character that had their power manifest at the same time as Conduit’s team, but took a different path…
This is their story leading up to the events in Robbery!, referencing Firefighters.
It doesn’t matter who I was. I am anyone I want to be now.
Initially, I needed to touch someone to take over their body, but my power has grown. Or maybe I’ve realized how weak they are. The weakest humans let me in at a thought. I see them hunched over whatever crutch they are using to get through their pathetic lives, and I can force my way in along their spines. Even better, the puffed chested braggarts - with them I can slip in like I was always there.
The first was that hag, Margaret. She pulled on my shoulder so she could steal my spot at the window as we watched that Super battle. Suddenly I was staring up at her, and I was staring back at myself. So weak.
Before I quit my job at the coffee shop, I took her over one more time and made her slap the boss for me. The look in her eyes as the boss fired her on the spot was exquisite. She tried to deny it, but everyone had watched her do it. She could even feel the sting on her hand. She was always bragging about how much money her boyfriend made at the auto shop, let’s see if they can afford that fancy two bedroom apartment on his wages alone.
I don’t know how that Super, Conduit, had caused my power to awaken, but I couldn’t wait to thank him by ruining his life. Watching those groupies gather around after the battle, begging for autographs made me ill. He didn’t do anything, he just stood there and let the other Super hit him with energy. What a pathetic power, waiting to steal power from someone else. He didn’t even have the nerve to finish off the weakened criminal, he just arrested him. Everyone knows what Conduit did to his family when his power manifested.
And now they’ve given him a team. I even recognize them from the office building. Especially that big dumb lunkhead that used to come to the shop two or three times a day as an errand boy. All the girls had crushes on him, but I could see how he jumped when the engineers snapped their fingers. Now he can teleport. How ironic is that? He can skitter away like the feeble minded intern he was always going to be.
The quiet guy, I think they call him Reset now. I’ve watched them on their portal missions when I could find a weak minded first responder nearby. Still constantly checking his watch. Coffee takes time to brew, you’ll get it when you get it. I hear he can heal himself now. How useless. Another Super that has to wait until someone hits him to use his power. And he usually hangs out behind Conduit, so he rarely gets hit. And yet the Agency decided to make him a licensed hero. Pitiful.
The last is that business chickee all the guys fawned over. Like she needed even more power over men? When I jumped from body to body at a portal site, I could tell all the weak men had been checking her out. She even started wearing a hoodie, I bet it’s because she thinks they aren’t worth her time. She’s apparently got some sort of mental power. Couldn’t be as good as mine, but something about her power keeps me out of the other Supers, as well as any of the Agency people. I know she’s not as powerful as me because sometimes she’ll make eye contact with my puppet and I can feel her mind scrabbling to connect, and fail. When I feel her get close, I make sure to leave the body. Although, my last compulsion to them is always to dredge up some intrusive thoughts to keep them pre-occupied if she reads their minds.
That’s the best part of my power. Not only do I get to ride the dummies, I can leave them with a compulsion when I jump to someone else. Nothing like finding a soft minded stooge with a fancy sports car - I get to take both the body and the car for a spin, then compel them to simply walk home and leave their key fobs on the seat. I almost want to hop back in while they are talking to their insurance and make them tank the claim.
I still think I might be able to take over a Super through touch. I tried at that apartment fire, hopping from screaming human to screaming human, but the only one who had hands on them was the lunkhead. He’d teleport them so fast, I didn’t have time to focus. The chickee stayed outside. Conduit pranced through the building like some self-appointed savior. And Reset… well… I was close enough to touch him once, but his hands were horribly blistered. The fool must have grabbed something that was still too hot as he tried to rescue the humans who were just cowering in their apartments. I don’t need to experience that pain, even if he does heal quickly.
I’m going to give myself another chance. I found a group of “survivalists” while I was body hopping at a dive bar. The arrogant fools were some of the easiest to slide in to. Armed to the teeth as well. It won’t take much to push them to try something stupid that the Agency will have to react to. Like a bank robbery. Even if I don’t manage to grab Conduit, I might be able to get one of the other losers. Or, at least, I can compel the pawns to rack up the civilian body count. The inquiries will take Conduit’s team out of commission for weeks. A couple of them might even quit once things get that real.
As I was writing Robbery!, I realized I’d need some way to nullify Awareness’ ability to see through the eyes of everyone in the bank. Otherwise, she could just direct Blink to the armed men and disarm or remove them. Kind of a neat side effect of writing about super powers - finding a way to give them an opponent that they will struggle against. I also wanted a recurring villain, so having them in the bank to be captured on their very first visible outing wasn’t a path I wanted to take. (Although there are some compelling villain arcs that have started with being foiled easily by a hero and spending time stewing over it in jail.) So I got to compromise by having them easily foiled, but not physically there to be captured. And since the powers that arose during the initial battle that created the rest of the team were emotion based, I came up with Envy.
This was interesting to write. I understand I have to also understand the “villain” side of the story. I do think the character has some interesting possibilities, so I might write more from Envy’s point of view. Might be a fascinating character arc. There is also something to be said for not knowing the villain’s motivations as well. Not every character in the narrative needs to be sympathetic…
Be sure to check out the other stories here.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed,
Dave
A super-villain! Awesome. When we were young, we used to watch Batman on the TV, back when everyone got 3 channels, and Batman was a weekly show. Batman and Robin were up against super villains like the Penguin, the Joker, and Cat-woman.
We watched it as a family, piled up on our parents’ bed.
The first word my youngest sister said was “Ba-aaa” (Batman, the “a” being short “a”.) That’s how important that show was.