Chương 3: Rock Bottom

Alex watched and waited. Like a predatory jungle cat stalking its prey through the darkness, he stood vigil in the shadows, waiting for the exact moment to move in. Patrons continued to file in throughout the night, their wallets fat and heavy as they wandered in only to be emptied oh so carelessly. The desire to crack this prize open grew with every single person who walked out the doors, but he resisted the urge to break from his hiding spot and swoop in.

Until at last he'd witnessed the place had emptied of the last of its visitors and then waited even longer to be sure no more were coming. Finally, the moment had come, this would be his big score! The thing that would put him on the path to fleeing this city in triumph. He silently moved forward across an empty street, quickly threw open the door and slipped through, leveling his right arm at the man behind the glass in one fluid motion as he did so.

The violet glow of his gauntlet's barrel washed over the man's skin.

"Oh come on," the heavy set Atlanthean grumbled, "I was just about to clean up." Alex smiled from behind his mostly repaired helmet. The corner store clerk's attitude aside, this had been an absolutely perfectly executed hold up.

"The money, if you would," he told the fish-man, projecting a calm confidence in his power. Some Atlantheans were basically humans with brightly colored skin or had a few markings or scale patterns over their body, often sporting fins which folded up when they were out of the ocean. Some of them were some sort of undersea creature on two legs, ranging from sharks to rays to crustaceans.

¹ And some of them took their damn time when being threatened by a villain, as evidenced by this one who stood there, arms crossed as he glared at Alex.

"Bro, you look trashed as hell. What gives? You one of Wastrel's minions?" Alex blinked in confusion, not that it was visible to the clerk, then felt his anger rise, "I'm no one's minion! I'm the Iron Menace!"

"You new?"

"I've been here for almost a decade!" The man scratched his scaly blue chin, "Huh. Well, whatever. You got an actual weapon to threaten me with or is it just the flashlight?"

"It's a gravitor gauntlet!" The man gave him a blank look.

"It uses a specialized coil to-" The look didn't change.

"It hurts when it shoots you, asshole."

"Fine, man, whatever, look you want to ruin a small business, be my guest," the man started to unlock the register with agonizing slowness. Alex shook his head, "I know you're insured for supervillain crime. You have an inspection sticker on the sign right behind you. Don't try to guilt trip me."

"Bro, after what happened with that doctor villain today, my rates are gonna go up too much," he grumbled and barely made any moves to continue to open the till.

"No they won't. That's a city based event which had at least three response teams and resulted in almost no damage to the surrounding areas," Alex explained.

"If they try to raise your rates about that, you can talk to city's regulatory board to get them to back off. The chamber of commerce should put you in contact with someone who can help." The man paused in his almost snail's pace of responding to this robbery, looking flummoxed.

"How-?"

"I'm a professional law breaker. I know the laws," Alex cut him off.

"Professional? You're knocking over a bodega."

"Corner store at best. You don't even have a microwave here," the villain scoffed as he gestured behind himself at the drink station which barely held a soda station and a coffee machine with an empty pot and half the lights on it still working. A voice intruded on the pair of them, "Hey, Vin, I'm grabbing a thing of chips and a drink, man." Both faces turned to see a scruffy youth in an oversized hoodie indeed grabbing a bag of chips on his way towards the refrigerated section of the store.

Both the Iron Menace and the store owner could only watch in stunned silence before he came back and tossed some cash on the counter. Alex finally came to his senses, "Do you mind?"

"Yeah, Richie? Do you want to actually do something useful?" the clerk, apparently named Vin, asked incredulously.

"Hey, if I pay him then that means you get more out of this," the kid reasoned with the supervillain.

"Anyways sorry, Vin, but his glow hand looks scary, man. Good luck!"

"You're a bastard Richie!" Vin weakly shook a fist, his voice barely raised, as the kid slipped out of the store, sounding almost playful as he watched him go. Alex watched as the shopkeep palmed the money in front of him.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked.

"Hm? What?" the Atlantean had the nerve to act confused.

"What do you mean 'what?' Obviously that's mine! And come on, get the register empty already!"

"Oh come on, if he'd come in just a little later then you'd be gone! You didn't even want him in here, so I think that makes it mine. Besides, I didn't even get a chance to scan any of that so it wouldn't show up on the records and insurance wouldn't cover it! Then I'll be out a bag of chips and a drink even after to dealing with insurance anyways! Man, there's only like 50 decks ² in the register."

"Vin, I swear to the gods… First off, I'll drop the chips and drink money if you hurry the hell up. Secondly, no, I've seen how many sales you've made in the last hour. Just dump the till already. I'm being nice here and not asking for the safe." The fish man grumbled and got to work actually opening up the register, "Bet that thing doesn't even fire…"

"It does, but if I do that then it breaks this window and this goes from just an armed robbery by a villain to a more complicated thing for you and me. And neither of us want that. You want to-?" Alex managed to hear the door open this time.

"Gods, look, whoever you are, you need to come back lat-" Alex was halfway through turning to face the newcomer when he froze mid-motion. ArachNed hovered in the doorway, eight animated eyes all "happy" on his facemask. Two metallic legs extended from his back to creep along the floor, suspending the hero in midair.

Another pair of spindly limbs peeled inside over the doorframe to tap along the ceiling as the hero slipped fully into the corner store, the mechanical legs carrying him along while his arms crossed his chest. That left him towering over Alex. Shit. Gods damn shit. ArachNed was practically a legend, even managing to have a small following outside of Victory.

A solo hero who had been in the biz for over a decade and had foiled countless villains' schemes, faced off against all sorts of team ups, and even tangled with a few of the world ending threats from space that popped up every now and then. He wasn't Mr. Wonder but honestly who was? ³ But even on a good day, with all of Alex's gear working and probably with a couple of his associates backing him up, AND with the drop on him, this fight would still end with ArachNed easily winning the fight.

"Bad time?" the hero quipped. Alex sighed, feeling this entire day just coming together for the perfect level of awful, "Yeah, I can come back later." The eyes on the mask flickered to a pointed, and disbelieving stare, "Really?" Alex shrugged, "Worth a shot."

"I almost respect the attempt enough to let you off with a warning," ArachNed shifted into a ready stance as his feet touched the floor and the robotic spider legs lifted up in a threatening manner, "but you really will come back later if I do, so let's do this dance."

"Wait!" Alex quickly threw up his hands, shocking both the hero and the clerk who had once more stopped attempting to open the register to watch the fight.

"Mind if we take it outside?" ArachNed's eyes flickered to a suspicious squint. Alex pointed a finger, "Vin's insurance is good, but it'll take a few days to come through and I'd rather not inconvenience the neighborhood by getting flung through the Coda Cool machine." ArachNed's stance didn't shift, "That's a little more considerate than I'd expect from t he Iron Menace."

Oh, this had been such a shit day, and it clearly was going to get worse in a few moments, but godsdamn was it somewhat gratifying to hear an actual hero of note knew your name. Alex swallowed to prevent from tearing up behind his helmet.

"I chose the name awhile back. Besides, it's been a long day and I'd rather get smashed outside where I won't have to clean the condiment station off my suit." ArachNed shrugged and slipped aside. The electronic eyes lazily followed Alex as he cautiously stepped forward and approached the door. The villain gingerly tested it, his whole body tense as he watched the hero from the corner of his eyes. The door cracked opened smoothly and the blue, white, and gold clad supe didn't immediately jump him.

So Alex took a deep breath. Then shot through the door and started running as fast as he could. He didn't expect to get far, but he at least hoped to be out of sight of the corner store before the first blow came to preserve a little bit of dignity. And he almost made it to the nearby alley before the breath was knocked out of him as ArachNed's delivered a dropkick into the center of his back. The hero had sprung after him like a spear, turning his whole body into a solid kick with the aid of his mechanical limbs.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Alex crashed to the ground, wheezing as he rolled over the curb and came to a rest right at the gap in the buildings he'd been fleeing to. His vision swam as he gazed into the shadows ahead of him, the tantalizing escape they offered feeling so far out of reach.

"Gonna be honest, I knew you'd bolt if you made it out," Ned told him.

"However I'm grateful you didn't try to hold the clerk hostage."

"W-wouldn't," Alex coughed as he tried to push himself up, "matter. You'd- you'd have just taken me out there." There was a popular video online from some of ArachNed's antics in tight spots dealing with villains who tried to turn things to their advantage. One of those clips had involved him disarming a hostage taker with a quick strike from his metal legs in such a way that caused the poor villain's pants to drop to his ankles. Coughing here on the sidewalk still felt more dignified than that.

It did until ArachNed actually kicked his ass – literally – to boot him upwards. Awkwardly stumbling to his feet, Alex tried to spin around and at least get off one shot. His heart sank as he saw the hero open up his hand and point an open palm his way. A blob of webbing manifested between ArachNed's fingers, launching forward to smash into his right arm.

The impact sent him backwards and instantly pinned him to the wall as his gravitor gauntlet was completely covered with a somewhat stretchy netting which barely let him move an inch away from the wall before it snapped his arm back against the brickwork.

"Darn it, reflexes," Alex heard the hero mutter. He raised his voice, "Oh well, if you leave the glove behind you should get out once we're done here. Now then, Menace, let's have a quick chat." The hero leapt upwards to a nearby streetlamp and perched on it, the four spider legs extending to grip onto the pole and nearby wall.

ArachNed probably intended it to look lazy, but the effect was actually insanely intimidating, the spindly metal legs clawed towards Alex like descending talons as he craned his neck to look up at the hero.

"Look, you're the fourth small fry I've had to knock around tonight. I get you guys are mad but I really can't have you taking it out on regular people. How about you answer my questions, and I'll let you run away and leave your toys behind so you don't have to spend time behind bars for the next couple years?" Alex's helmet thumped against the wall behind him, and, resigned to his fate, he replied, "Ask away." Great, ArachNed was here to ask questions.

Sure, it wasn't like he'd be smacking Alex with a bat like some of those vigilantes would, ⁴ but it was still considered something of a faux pas in the villain community to rat out your fellow capes. If word got around, and this was ArachNed so people loved to talk, then all those favors he'd need to get out would probably either evaporate or cost more.

Cool, no cash to make rent and repair my gear, my goal probably just got more costly, and now I'm on Creepy Crawly's radar for some reason, so the rest of the night is probably shot too, if not the whole week.

"You were at the big party this morning, weren't you, Menace?" Alex looked up determined to make this a little difficult at the very least, "Maybe."

"Look, I'm busy tonight, and you're already my third stop already, so could we show each other a little respect here? You normally have two gauntlets, another plate on your back, and another boot. Or greave or whatever you want to call it. Plus your wacky helmet normally looks better than that."

"Hey! Lay off the helmet!" Alex shouted before he could stop himself. The nerve, seriously. Even if it was a little scuffed up, it still had that menacing and mysterious quality that Alex was proud of. If anything, the damage to the paint and the half repaired crack added to the best qualities! ArachNed held up his hand, "Sorry, sorry, I know you guys can be defensive of your costumes. Anyways, it's pretty clear that you got roughed up recently and from what I can tell…"

He drifted off and there was a flicker on his projected eyes.

"You don't normally pull stunts this desperate. Usually your heists are a little more thought out and toss in a few more theatrics." Okay, yeah, it was very clear that ArachNed had just looked up some of Alex's previous jobs, but that gratification was still there when he heard this hero give him some credit. And yes, most of his previous work was more the "hold up a local branch of a bank" or "grab a specific exhibit out of the museum" than a simple hold up. This fiasco was the exception to his usual, dammit!

"Okay… Sure, let's say I was there," he'd give that up in exchange for the small acknowledgment.

"But that doesn't sound like the question, and I'm getting the feeling that you're not fishing for the confession that I was there." ArachNed's eyes shifted to "happily satisfied." Somehow that read as differently than "smug" and Alex realized then how many animations he probably had. And people think that I'm obsessive over my mask.

"You guessed correctly. Nope, I'm interested in knowing who offed Dr. Maniacal," the hero happily told him. Alex's blood ran cold. Did he know? Oh gods, did they really find him this quick? Shit, did they trace his magic back from the apart-"We all know that someone offing a member of the League is going to bring down some heat, especially since it was one of the guys in charge.

And that's only going to be worse if they ended up stealing Maniacal's prize right at the finish line," ArachNed continued, "So why don't you help me find the guy or gal who zapped him and we can skip over the part where Life Tyrant, Axgrinder, or Hawk Lord show up and knock over all the bodegas before you can rob them, or stop whoever this mystery assassin decides that they want to fight with the Protectors of the Globe to make a statement. Both of those seem like they'd be really bad for business."

Alex was stunned. Okay, so ArachNed and the other heroes didn't know it was him. That was good. But they thought someone killed Maniacal to steal all the glow-y power. That was bad. If that was the leading theory the heroes had, then should anyone ever point fingers his way he'd be classified as a Nation level threat. ⁵ And if the League figured they were right, then they actually might have Arex, Axgrinder, or Oni Overlord stroll into town and try to punch him in the face.

Alex already could imagine watching one of those supervillains turning him into a red cloud under the assumption that he had the magic juice to take hits like he was Mr. Wonder. He had to say something, anything, to at least try and wriggle out of this investigation.

"I was, uh… busy at the time," the words limply fumbled out of his lips.

"... No." ArachNed's tone was flat, clearly unwilling to accept that weak of an excuse.

"It's true!" Alex lied. Crap, he needed something that he could give here to throw off the hero. The hero didn't even bother to respond beyond crossing his arms.

"I was picking myself off the pavement," he began to recount, hoping that he could spin something together by just rattling off some mostly innocuous truths – for a villain at least. Or at least buy some time until his brain could figure out a good lie.

"I figured I'd just get on out of there with the others, so I wasn't paying attention." ArachNed mimed pinching his nose through his mask. At least the projected eyes didn't shift with his hand's motion so he probably didn't actually do it, "Okay, others. Name one then."

"Terror," Alex said before he could help himself, still on autopilot of recounting events. Shit. The hero didn't respond to that for a moment.

"Terrorantula?" he asked.

"Really?" Alex bit his lip. He'd already blown it with her. It did not seem wise – and frankly would probably read as pathetically vindictive – to put her on ArachNed's radar, but again his mouth apparently was on board with the universe's plans to make this day one of his worst.

"Yeah, she was helping me out of a crater one of those teens put me in. She and I were heading out before things got hairy," Alex explained, trying to see if he couldn't push for the idea the two of them had left together before things got rough. Hmm… maybe he could push the Broker in front of this trolley and get ArachNed chasing down that weasel. He'd settle for at least throwing Laser Badger under the bus if he could. Asshole still owed him like 12 decks.

"No offense," the hero shifted around to lazily slouch on the lamp, "but I kinda find it hard to believe you and Terri run in the same circles."

"We've worked together on a few jobs!" Alex protested.

"She and I get along pretty well actually! Which is why-" He clamped his dumb mouth shut. No. No, no, no, no, no. You are not telling ArachNed of all people about that. Unfortunately, judging from how the hero shifted forward attentively and the stupid "curious" expression on his mask, Alex had let too much slip and gotten the full attention of ArachNed on the one topic other than "I killed Dr. Maniacal" that he really didn't want to talk about right now.

"So, anyways, I was leav-""Nope, we're not moving past whatever that was, Menace. Man, you'd think you would have a better poker face in a full helmet. Anyways, spill," ArachNed's said with a stupid, smug voice. Alex turned away and remained silent.

"You know you're on borrowed time here. It's only a matter of time until that clerk dials in and the Arrestors show up. ⁶ You want me gone to try to wiggle out of here? You need to tell me your secrets so I can move on."

"It's… unrelated." Alex murmured as he tried to subtly test the strength of the web holding him to the wall. Damn that was solid.

"I disagree." He clearly wasn't going to drop this and Alex didn't trust his lying skills so…

"I thought… Well, there were some… Ugh," Alex clocked his helmet against the wall behind him, almost wanting to see if he could simply knock himself unconscious. No dice.

"Look, I tried asking her out."

"Oh. Oh." ArachNed slipped down from the perch above to land softly on the pavement. His robot legs seemed to shrink and retract as he approached Alex.

"She, uh, didn't feel the same way, I guess?" Alex sighed, "Yeah, took off without me. Just, jumped away." ArachNed's jaw shifted as he tried to find words. Eventually he strode over and patted the restrained villain on the shoulder, "That's, uh… I'm sorry." Alex pushed through the pain, "So yeah, I was a little distracted as I left. Just wanted to get out of there." The hero went over to his trapped arm and pulled some of the threads.

The webbing shifted so that it was only contacting his gauntlet, not the rest of his arm. Clearly the hero was going to stick to his word and actually let Alex wiggle free so long as he left behind his gear. Apparently that was the compromise for him not spending a night in a cell. It felt like he'd given up more than that though.

"You, um, see anyone else nearby who might've seen something?" Alex shook his head. He didn't even feel like trying to pin this on Laser Badger right now.

"No, I was pretty out of it." ArachNed nodded and unfurled his extra legs again, "Well if you think of anything, pretty sure the New Aurora Champions have an anonymous tip line. Just… go home and sleep this day off. And maybe put your talents to better use." With that, he sprung away, abruptly shifting directions after landing atop a shorter building as though drawn to some other crime elsewhere in the city by an invisible thread.

Alex watched him leave, a crushing feeling of insignificance beginning to seep into his bones.

"Hey, man," the shopkeep, Vin, came by, gently placing a bottle of Coda Cool and some chips at his feet. Alex looked down and then back up at the Atlanthean, his confusion apparently visible even behind the mask.

"I, uh, overheard that last bit. I was hoping to give those to ArachNed but he took off and well… Sounds like you might need these after today." The slightly round fish man awkwardly chewed on his bottom lip as he thought through his next words.

"Also thanks for the advice on the insurance. I'll make sure to keep it in mind if they try to raise my rates. You should consider helping people, dude. You're better at that I think." Vin quickly shuffled away before Alex could reply. He was left to stare down the street, at the locked up corner store and the few people lingering on the sidewalks ahead, slowly dispersing as the night darkened, unconcerned about the villain stuck to the wall.

After a moment, Alex shifted around so he could reach a pouch on his left leg and pulled out a small reinforced vial of liquid that he poured on the webbing, causing it to hiss. Some idiots online had figured out a solution that dissolved ArachNed's webbing and posted it to one of the forums he lurked on awhile back.

Though the video showed the chemical mixture quickly melting the individual strands they'd scooped off the ground, plenty of others online had tested it to find that the solution took roughly 5 minutes to burn through the thicker globs the hero typically tossed around. Consensus quickly became that it was useless in a fight. Still, it was stable enough that you didn't need to brew it more than once every few years and it didn't take up too much room so who was laughing now spiderfan677?

As Alex sat there, he found he couldn't even take satisfaction in "winning" an old online argument from years ago. He was drained. He was bruised. He was hurt in more ways than one. But more than that.

Somehow, after all this- After the morning where everything went wrong- After not managing this simple score- After being beaten by a hero, again, and then being pitied- After being told by a civilian that he was better at helping people than being a villain- The one emotion screaming at the core of him more than anything, more than the pain, more than inadequacy, more than the doubt, more than the fear- Was pure, unbridled, unrivaled, burning, furious Rage.