The Anti Hero

They say a hero would sacrifice someone to save the world and a villain would sacrifice the world for someone, I beg to differ. Hero's like Captain Shock cause havoc in the name of heroism and stopping some scruffy criminals. It never bothered me till it tore my world apart. Two weeks ago Captain Shock took on her arch nemesis, Doctor Delta, who had rapidly flooded the city, many civilians were in the flood water but the water was slow moving and only the most unexperienced swimmers were at risk of harm. Did Shock care of all the civilians in the water around her when she charged her electrical strikes and abilities? No.

The AHO (Anti-Hero Organization) reported that the battle caused 67 deaths and many more injuries. Of the 67 deaths only 14 of them were caused by Doctor Delta, the remaining 53 were all caused by Shock, 3 of those were my wife and two kids. Was she arrested? No. Was she seen as evil? No. Was she even given a smack on the wrist? No. I even seen on social media a funeral of a victim of Shock, and their family said that their death was a "necessary sacrifice for the delivery of justice". Fucking delusional. If a cop was to even injure someone in the name of bringing a criminal to justice their whole existence would come under scrutiny.

I have spent the last two weeks building a counter Shock suit. Its a padded suit similar to that of a SWAT officer, with plates on the front and back torso, shoulders, thighs and helmet made from carbon steel which is a strong metal with a poor conductivity of electricity. The suit is jet black other than the small parts of the suit that are made with gold. These gold pieces conduct electricity and power the energy rifle I made to deliver my vengeance, meaning the stronger the attack the stronger my counter attack.

I am not a bad person. I just want to wake people up. These so called hero's are not gods, so they shouldn't be treated as such. They are just humans born with a special privilege, and so they should act and be treated as such. They need to be held accountable for their actions, and I don't believe I am the one to do so, but someone needs to start. I now know this is my purpose on this earth, the start the domino effect on enforcing the rules on these hero's.

I don't plan on going out of my way to cause an issue, I will simply wait till the next "battle" between Shock and one of her many enemies. At such time I will deploy myself to the scene and wait for shock to use an attack. Majority of her attacks cause rogue bolts of electricity to arc out to nearby civilians, delivering fatal shocks, instead the shocks will be attracted to my suit, powering my weapon. At this point, I will use her own power back at her to teach her some discipline.

2 weeks later

"ALL UNITS ALL UNITS, WE HAVE REPORTS OF THE ROGUE AGENT THROW AT THE VULCAN JUNTION DOWNTOWN. REPORTS SUGGEST CAPTAIN SHOCK IS ENROUTE. DO NOT ENGAGE, ALLOW CAPTAIN SHOCK TO TAKE CONTROL" my police radio blares. Within minutes I have suited up in my new suit. Its heavy, not just physically but heavy with the burden I have placed on it to help me deliver discipline. I promptly exit my second floor flat, loudly clunking with each step, rifle strapped to my back. The incident is a few blocks away and I would be unable to drive with my suit on so I run the way. Initially many people stared at me with confusion and interest but as I got closer to the incident less and less people took notice of me.

Eventually I reach the scene, apparently quite late, Shock is floating in the air, the bodies of civilians littered around the junction but its too hard to tell who stole their lives. Agent Throw lays on the floor beneath Shock seemingly pleading for mercy.

"Agent Throw, this will be the last time you cause issues for our city, your actions have made you lose your right to life." Shock says in her growling and static-like voice. Was she going to kill him? Hero's never killed the villains, they simply incapacitate them and allow the justice system to deal with them, but Shock seemed to be taking it into her own hands.

"You cant do that! What gives you the right to?!" Throw responds, his typical harsh and deep voice wavering in fear of death.

"My powers give me the right. You have slaughtered innocent people. You are a terrorist and a danger to our society." Shock responds and begins to charge her attack. It was now or never.

I charge forward, Shock unaware of my presence, too busy charging her powers to execute Throw. Mere milliseconds before her attack I get in front of Throw. Shock screams out as her electrical power arcs out from her into my suit. I feel her power pulsing throw me and the suit, for a moment all I can do is stand there, paralyzed by the power.

"Who the fuck are you and who gives you the right to stand in the way of justice!?" Shock shouts. For a moment longer I stand, unable to utter a word or move a muscle, partially due to the power striking me but also due to fact I am currently about to go toe to toe with a hero, the hero who murdered my family. What felt like an eternity later I reach behind me and pull out my rifle.

"Who gives you the right to be judge, jury and executioner? Who gives you the right to end innocent lives in the name of justice?! WHO GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO FACE NO RETRIBUTION?!" I respond before firing my rifle at Shock who barely manages to dodge, the shot nicking her in the side causing her to yelp in pain. Her white "hero suit" now with a growing red stain on the side. I turn to look at the crowd of onlookers and yell, "SEE?! She is HUMAN, like the rest of us, she is not a god, she is not special! She was born privileged, that is all, but why does this privilege give her immunity to the rules the rest of us have to follow?! These hero's cannot be left unchecked, and allowed to operate freely no more, it has come too far."

"Thank you, you are a true hero" Throw mumbles behind me before groaning and picking himself off the floor.

"I am no hero, that word has no true meaning, I am against hero's. And I am not a villain, but it is not my responsibility to deal with villains. I am just a man, trying to bring discipline to these spoilt and entitled brats that call themselves hero's. I am the anti-hero." I respond.

"You are a fool, that is what you are. Defending a criminal like you are makes you an accomplice, an accomplice of a terrorist. This man you defend is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians." Shocks growls through barred teeth.

"Law enforcement? That's what you think you are? How is Throw any different to you? How many innocent lives have you stolen Shock?" I respond, calmly but sternly.

"They willingly sacrificed their lives in the name of justice and for the cause of bringing down deadly criminals" Shock replied with a slight smirk.

"Willingly? What did they do? Shout, 'Oh please Captain Shock, kill me in the name of your thoughtless rampage!'? DID THEY? DID MY WIFE AND KIDS SAY THAT TO YOU BEFORE YOU SHOCKED THEM TO DEATH? DID THEY CAPTAIN?!" I shout back, gripping my rifle and aiming it at Shock. With this arcs of electricity began jumping between her limbs and fingers.

"You think I don't regret every death caused by these criminals, you cant blame the death of your loved ones on me, its the criminals that caused it. Had these scum...", Shock says beckoning towards Throw who was standing, hiding behind me, "...been eradicated, countless lives would not have been lost, don't stand there and blame me, blame them!"

"Its time for you to take some responsibility for your actions" I say, powering up my rifle with some of the leftover energy.

With a yell Shock fires out a large arc at me, my suit absorbs it with ease, my rifle whines as it charges up more. Shock flies back and I take aim and fire, the shot hits her in the right thigh causing her to scream out with pain and fall to the ground.

"Kill that bitch" shouts Throw.

"No, that makes me no better then her" I respond, marching over to her.

"DONT TAKE ANOTHER STEP," a police officer says over a loudspeaker "OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE", I turn to look at the large crowd of officers that had gathered behind us, guns aimed at me.

"The hypocrisy...I save a life and am forced to pay for it, she..." I say pointing to Shock, "...takes many and is hailed as a hero. Make it make sense. You leave these hero's unchecked and unregulated they will continue to take more and more innocent lives. I feel like a damn broken record but no one will listen to a thing I say."

"PUT THE WEAPON DOWN AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP" came the response. While this was happening I hadn't realized Shock had gotten up and began charging herself.

"This ends now" she growled. I turned around in time to see Shock arc out a bolt of electricity at Throw who promptly went limp and collapsed to the floor. Before I could realize what I had done I had lifted my rifle and fired the last pulse of electricity.

Her head exploded. The pulse had burst through the center of her face and caused her head to explode and her body collapsed to the ground. Almost instantly was a chorus of bangs from the police. I fell to my knees, I was so numb I couldn't even feel how peppered with bullets my body was but I felt my eyes getting heavy, and my life slipping away. In the moment I felt regret, Captain Shock would die a hero and I would be portrayed as the villain who killed her. But I felt happy, I would see my family again, and I would have escaped this delusional and corrupt world.

The following day

"Breaking news, the magnificent Captain Shock has tragically died fighting a terrorist duo. She heroically died after taking one of the terrorists down shortly which the police took down the second. The police have come under scrutiny due to their lack of action which ultimately caused the death of a national hero." the news anchor reported, "One of the terrorists have been named as a rogue agent Throw and the other is currently an unknown male thought to have links to overseas terrorist organizations. Memorials are being held all over the country and it has been announced today will be known Captain Shock Day and will be a public holiday. Because of what happened, parliament is discussing a new bill that was proposed called the 'Judge, Jury and Executioner' bill, which argues that hero's were chosen to have greater power and therefore should be allowed to use that power to decide if someone deserves to live."