Hey.

Well, I guess this is kinda like my last will and testament, ya know? Something like that. I mean, I’m pretty sure that this’ll be the last anyone hears about me, so I guess they oughta hear about it from me, the horse’s mouth.

My name is Daniel. Well, the name I go by is Point Break, because my power is creating shields. It’s probably why I’m in the villain crew that I was in. I did say was. But, let me tell it right.

I go by the name Point Break. I make shields for me and my crew. Also in my crew were Ion, who could control metal and metal particles; Firestorm, who was a bit of a pyrokinetic; Phoenix, who could use telekinesis to fly, and carry others— and those ‘others’ were the rest of us in the crew; and Depth Charge, who was our powerhouse and leader. Most of the time.

Anyway, we’d gone up against the heroes— to be fair, lots of heroes, over the weeks and months since I’d joined the crew— but there were a few we encountered more than others, and Depth Charge had gotten it into his head to take the fight to them, and beat them down. And so, that’s what we did.

Surprisingly, just about everything had gone to plan. I suppose, to be honest, that was probably the moment when I realized that someone was terribly, awfully wrong. I just didn’t know how wrong it was.

Anyway...

When we managed to break into the heroes base, it was just the four of them. There was Animal, who could change into any animal— anthropomorphic, that is— on the planet, with just about all of that animal’s strongest traits; Fasttrack- he was a speedster, almost stereotypically so- the cocky way he carried himself, thought he was God’s gift to swooning women; and Ra, who was a powerhouse in his own right, getting his powers from the sun, or so it was said, probably rivaling Depth Charge, if not surpassing him. And ... Valkyrie- and wasn’t that a strange one? She was usually the tank of any bunch, as it seemed that she was invulnerable to most anything anyone had thrown at her so far. She could also fly, but that wasn’t one of her strong suits.

What was most strange, I’d thought in those few moments before everything went to hell, was why are the other three surrounding her? Why does it seem like they’re trying to protect her?

And then the world around us exploded.

Honestly, that was part of the plan. The explosion, that is.

The plan was, right before we burst into the base, Ion took about ten kilos of magnesium dust, and using her power, saturated the air inside the base with it. The dust was so fine, that it probably wasn’t even noticed by the heroes as they breathed it in. As soon as we broke through into the base and saw who was there, Firestorm was told to ignite the dust, and I was supposed to shield us from the explosion. We were all wearing air filtration masks, so that we didn’t breathe in any of the dust by accident before it could be ignited.

And that worked!!

Holy shit, it worked.

Animal and Fasttrack were immolated almost immediately; Valkyrie held on for perhaps a handful of seconds longer, as she, I guess, burned from the inside out, her face caught in agony that she couldn’t scream out, before she burned. I guess she wasn’t as invulnerable on the inside, as she had been on the outside.

Even Ra didn’t escape unscathed, as the magnesium flash burned pretty quickly, and then Firestorm caused the leftover fire to create vortexes that drew the dust in the air away, and we say him— Ra— laying on the ground, burned— savagely burned— but still alive, his breathing heavily labored, wheezing, sounding like it hurt just to take in air. He glared at us weakly, though I imagine if looks could kill, we’d have all been dead right then.

Suddenly, he stiffened, and I don’t know if anyone else noticed a sudden flash of fear cross his features; he managed to slowly drag his head and his gaze around to where the other three had stood, as we drew close to where he and they had stood before the explosion, and gave a gasp at what he saw- or didn’t see.

Depth Charge dropped down to a squat just in front of him, right where Ra could see him.

“Looks like we win, hero,” Depth Charge gloated, grinning; I didn’t have to see his face, to hear the smug look on his face; it was in his words.

“Nn-n-no...” Ra hissed/wheezed; he paused to take in a breath, and then coughed out, “Yy-y-you’ve ... dooomed us ... doomed us all...”

There wasn’t even a moment for Depth Charge, or anyone, to respond to that, as all of a. Sudden the ground shook. Not like the quick back and forth like an earthquake, but more like a tsunami in the ground, a tidal wave that lifted us all up, and then let us drop- once, then again, dropping us all onto the ground.

And in its wake, was a sudden, heavy pressure in the air, like trying to wade in the water, that made it hard to try and get back up. I didn’t have the strength for it, and even trying to shield against it had zero effect.

And then, the coldest voice in the world, spoke in a quiet tone, but the words seem to resonate in the air all around us.

“Well, that was quite foolish...”

A figure seemed to step out of the shadows, out of the darkness where there were still lingering clouds of dust from the explosion. He didn’t appear all at once, and, honestly? He seemed to almost form right out of the dust that was still in the air, becoming a man.

He was a bit dark of skin; not like a black person dark, but kinda like someone who had a permanent bronze tan. Kinda. He was a bit on the short side for a guy, and the only thing he was wearing looked like a pair of skin-tight biker shorts, and when I say skin-tight, they were skin tight!! If they hadn’t been black, I’m pretty sure it would have looked like he was an anatomically correct doll of some sort.