1 Carl
"Mom, when is Dad coming back?" The voice of a cheerful child reverberated through the kitchen as a young woman looked down at him before smiling and picking him up.
"What, are you already missing Daddy, he's only been out for an hour."
"He promised we would play after he's back." The child said as the mother chuckled at him before placing him down and continued cutting the vegetables she had been washing previously.
The large apartment they lived in was spacious and the wide kitchen allowed her to easily move around while preparing the food, it was also a hazardous area when a child is there thanks to their unpredictable actions.
"I'm going to watch some TV!" The child said as he sped toward the living room that was connected to the kitchen.
"Alright, but not too long." The woman said before shaking her head as she stared at her little boy who was running to the sofa. Even though he was only 5, Carl was quite the smart kid and was never troublesome. He was easy to deal with and never gave her or her husband any trouble.
The TV remote was quickly grabbed by Carl who turned on the TV, quickly switching to his favorite channel that always aired his favorite cartoons.
"Mom, why did dad have to go out, he said he was free today."
"Daddy had to go to work for something, don't worry, he should be back soon, he promised that you two would play, didn't he?" The woman asked with a gentle smile on her face as Carl smiled widely and nodded his head enthusiastically.
"Yeah, Daddy never lies, so he will definitely be here soon."
The sounds of gunfire could be heard from the TV as the would-be bank robbers were being chased by a hero who was moving with incredible speed. His figure was blurry and each step he took made the bullets that were being shot miss him.
In mere seconds, the bad guys were caught, making Carl cheer in happiness as he stared at the TV with his eyes shining like jewels. He liked watching the cartoons that showed villains and heroes fighting against each other, those were his favorite ones by far.
As minutes passed, the tv show ended and Carl sighed as the next one was one of the rare ones he disliked. In order to not be bored, he started switching channels, hoping to find an interesting one.
Since this channel was his favorite one, his dad had placed it to be the first one and taught Carl how to switch to it immediately, but for any other channel, he had no idea where they were.
As he was going through channel by channel, Carl suddenly stopped as big red letters appeared on one of them.
[ BREAKING NEWS! ]
The tv channel suddenly switched by itself.
A part of a city that was mostly in ruins was shown, multiple figures were fighting, but their speed was too fast for the camera to catch them, only allowing the spectators to see blurs and clashes that made the rain scatter around them.
For Carl, it was like watching his favorite TV show, but this time, it was not a show, but a live feed from the main news network.
"People of Privilance City, this is a live feed of the current battle between the hero association and the villains that have been ambushed." The reporter that was currently standing inside the helicopter that was filming the entire thing said with a shout.
"As you all know, in the recent couple of weeks, Privilance City has been terrorized by the villains that have been doing their best to ruin the efforts of the heroes who were doing their best to establish a temporary base for the Hero Association, the two villains that had done the most damage, 'Black Heart', and 'Anum' have attacked the association and entered in a trap, they are now fighting against the heroes."
Two faces, or to better be said, masked faces, appeared on the screen.
One was a black mask that had little to no details on it while the name 'Black Heart' was shown below it, while the other one was a mask that looked similar to Anubis, the guide to the underworld in Egyptian mythology.
"Five heroes, four A-grade heroes, and a new C-grade hero with a lot of potential have started fighting against the villains, from what we already know, the villains are on the back foot and are expected to be defeated soon."
Carl stared at the screen with sparks in his eyes.
The battle taking place was almost invisible to him, but he was imagining just what was happening and how the brave heroes were battling the villains, doing their best to finally defeat them and bring peace to the city.
As the battle continued, a change finally occurred.
Carl could only see a line passing through two buildings before a person was seen embedded in the wall of the third building. The camera quickly zoomed in as the heroes quickly attacked.
The mask of the 'Black Heart', an A-grade villain could be seen as he tried to move his bruised body, only to be struck by one of the heroes with incredible force and sent through the building while a second A-grade hero was waiting for him behind the building.
With his wings flapping, the hero clenched his large hammer before hitting the villain with full force, sending him flying back to where he came from.
One could imagine the pain the villain felt as the rain droplets some 40 meters around the hero dispersed from the powerful blow he had inflicted. As the villain plummeted down from the sky, a third person waited, a hero with golden hair and a white suit of armor whose entire body had started shining a brilliant golden light.
With a powerful grunt, the hero moved, striking the villain straight in the stomach, forcing blood to spew out from his mouth as the half-torn mask no longer shielded him completely. The hero didn't stop there, a cold glint passed through his eyes as golden light gathered in his other hand which was straightened out.
The energy formed what looked like a blade, and with a shout, the hero swung his hand, decapitating the villain and destroying his mask in the process.
"Honey, you shouldn't be watching something like-" Carl's mother suddenly stopped dead in her tracks as the tray she held in her hands fell down to the ground, the food on the tray scattering on the floor of the living room.
Carl blinked before staring at the screen as the decapitated head of the villain was shown flying through the air.
"Move the camera you dunce, quickly, move it away!" The shocked voice of the reporter could be heard as she quickly moved the camera away, but it was too late.
"Daddy?" Carl said with a shaky voice as a loud thud was heard behind him. Looking back, Carl was able to see his mother who had collapsed on the ground.
The following months proved to be incredibly hard for the young Carl. His father had been discovered to be the 'Black Heart' a powerful and dangerous villain that had done many evil deeds in the past.
He was immediately expelled from school, and even if the government had done its best to protect the mother and son duo who had nothing to do with his father's deeds, it was not enough.
His family suddenly vanished. His uncles, aunts, his grandparents, none of them talked with him any longer, nor did they talk with his mother who had found herself abandoned as well. She was fired from her job, the friends she used to have left, some even cursing her and her child that not only had nothing to do with his father's actions, but didn't even know his identity, and she had to move several times in a couple of months.
Mere months after the murder of his father, thanks to heavy depression, Carl's mother took her own life, and Carl was the one to find her. His remaining childhood was spent bouncing from foster family to foster family as no family member of his wanted to take him.
His childhood, as well as his teenage years, were spent like that. The more time passed, the more he started hating the heroes, hating what they did to his family and how many of them acted righteous while in fact, they were not.
Carl didn't just start hating heroes, however, but people as well. He still remembered how everyone had shunned him and his mother, acting like they had done something wrong. It was like he was at fault for even being born, his very existence was hated by those that knew who his father was.
He started working right after high school and had been on his own ever since, but he still managed to get his bachelor's and get an office job thanks to the fact the government had sealed his documents and even forged a fake identity for a father he never had.
His life was mundane, simply doing the same old tasks every single day, dulling his brain as he tried to talk with his colleagues who were in his opinion as boring as the job was. That was how his life was, until, right after his 26th birthday, Carl joined the agency and started his new career.
