How I became a super villain part 1

I didn't set out to be a super villain. As far as I know, no one sets out to be a super villain. I wanted to be a hero, come in and save the day from the bank robbers or the super villain or the aliens that were invading the planet, you know the stuff super heroes usually do.

The problem is I was born into a family of super villains, and there's this expectation that you'll go into the family business, whether you want to or not. My brother loves being a super villain, takes to it like a fish takes to water and my dad couldn't be more proud of him. But me? Well I've ben going to super villain school and let's just say the lowliest of hench people are getting better grades than I am, because I keep going for the heroic route.

"Denise, are you ready for school?" Dad asks.

Not really. I'm not ready to go into that hive of scum and villainy. Send me to superhero school instead, please. That's what I want to tell him.

"Almost dad. I've still got to put my costume on."

"Well hurry it up! I've got an appointment to take a military base and you're making me late!"

"Yes, Dad."

You heard that right. He has an appointment to attack a military base. My dad really isn't a super villain, just like the super heroes of our world aren't really superheroes. It's all an elaborate show, but they do a good job of making it seem real. And that's another reason I hate school. I'm being prepared to go into a career where I'm playacting all the time. The class I hate the most is villain monologue. You have to come up with ridiculous poses and over the top canned speeches and bad super villain laughter. I don't get how anyone would enjoy it, but my brother thoroughly enjoys it.

I reluctantly put on my costume. It's a skin tight black and gray suit with red stripes at the shoulder and it leaves very little to the imagination. At least I don't have to wear a cape.

"Denise!" Dad yells.

"I'm coming dad, I'm coming."

I walk out of my room and head downstairs. My brother is already in his suit, which does have a cape. His suit is black with a gold symbol that he's started using lately. He's gotten permission to use that symbol, because of his excellent grades.

"About time you got down here," my brother says, with a sneer on his face.

"Is the poor pretty prince unhappy that he isn't in front of his adoring audience?" I reply.

"Enough you two! I have better things to do than listen to your squabbles," my dad dramatically says. Why can't he just be a normal dad, and can it with the monologuing? Why do I even ask?

He shuffles us into the car. Neither of us is allowed to fly yet and even though dad can fly, transporting two teenagers is a little much for anyone and doesn't look dignified, regardless of whether you're a superhero or a villain, so dad drives us to school, which is absolutely one of the most normal dad things to do and then finds a place to park the car and flies off to his appointment, leaving us to walk into the school alone. At the end of the school day he flies back to the car and waits for us and then drives us home, unless of course he got captured that day and sent to jail. Then one of his teammates will drive us home.

My brother, Jim, can't wait to fly so he doesn't have to do this routine each day, but I'm happy we have to do it, because if only for a moment we're a normal family.

Jim and I are in the same grade. We're actually twins, but we're as different as night and day. He always wanted to be a super villain and follow in Dad's footsteps and I always wanted to be a hero, especially after our mom died. I wonder what she would think of my wish to be a super hero? She wasn't a super villain like my dad. He never talks about her or how they met, but I know he misses her because one night, after my bedtime I came down the stairs to get a snack and I saw him in the living room, holding a picture of her, with tears streaming down his face. She's been dead since I was 5, but I saw this scene a couple years ago. He never shows us he misses her, but I know on the anniversary of her death and her birthday he disappears for the day and we're left to fend for ourselves. I don't know if its just that he doesn't feel like he can show grief or something else, but it makes me sad that he doesn't connect with us in that way.

Jim peels away from me, heading toward his friends and followers. He's one of the more popular kids and if he can help it, he doesn't want to be seen with me. I get it, and don't take it personally the way I used to. We're growing apart more and more each day. We've both got flying class, which we're both trying to pass. He's got flight naturally, whereas I have to use technology, but that's my special power. I communicate with machines and get them to help me, by becoming whatever I need them to be. Jim can fly and shoot eyebeams and has super strength, but I wouldn't exchange my powers for his any day of the week. It takes real creativity to use my powers, but they're infinitely more interesting than his powers.

Jim's super villain name is Justice Breaker. It's not terribly original but its what he came up with and for now, until graduation he's stuck with it. I like Tekno and plan on keeping it as my super villain name. I may as well have one thing I like about this career I'm in.

The first bell rings and I rush over to the flight amphitheater. My friend Anima is there, her hair colored purple today and her skin green. She can become anything she wants, being a shapeshifter. Sometimes she just makes small cosmetic changes like the hair and skin tone and other times she'll come in sporting horns or a tail When you can be whatever you want, why settle for being normal? Once in a while though she will come in looking like the rest of us, which always surprises me.

"Hey Tekno! Ready to dazzle all of us with your flying skills?"

"I think you'll be the one dazzling us. You did that glitter show last time, which pissed Mr. Hornsbee off."

"Can't help it that he's an old stick in the mud."

"He can't help it either," I say and we both laugh.

A few minutes later the rest of the students come in, followed by Mr. Hornsbee. My brother sits in the front row, as far from me as he can be. Anima looks at him longingly, which I really don't get, but we've already agreed he's off limits. It would be way too awkward if my best friend dated my brother.

"Class, today we're going to fly. That means you need to put on safety gear. And yes that includes you Justice Breaker. You may all think you know how to fly, but you're young and dumb."

All of us roll our eyes but we get up from our seats and go to the locker rooms to strap on the required elbow and knees pads, body armor and helmet. Yes they really make us wear all of that, with the thought being it will help us if we fall. Having fallen a couple times, I can tell you the protective gear does help a little bit. You only end up with bruises where you might otherwise have broken bones, but it feels heavy and awkward and there's simply no way flying can feel like that when you know how to do it well.

We all file out to the amphitheater field. I squint because the morning sun is shining in enough to make it harder to see. Mr. Hornsbee actually approves of this because if its harder to see, it means you're getting the full experience of what its like to try and fly in adverse conditions. Sometimes Mr. Hornsbee uses his weather powers to make it rainy, foggy, or snowy, but today its sunny, and even so I'm sure he'll find a way to test us.

"Who wants to volunteer?" Mr. Hornsbee expectedly asks.

I don't want to volunteer, but I want to get the flying over with today so I raise my hand, right as my brother's hand shoots up. Mr. Hornsbess arches his eyebrow at me and then says,

"Tekno, go for it. Justice Breaker, you can wait today, can't you?"

My brother glares at me and I'm lucky Mr. Hornsbee is watching him, because otherwise I'd be at receiving end of a laser blast. He hates it when I upstage him at school. I try not to do it, but today I just want to get the flying out of the way.

I've already got my ankle and wrist tech on for helping me fly. I pull out my jetpack and awkwardly put it on my back. Anima helps me out and I give her a grateful glance. The ankle and wrist tech is my own invention. It helps me stabilize the thrusters. I had to develop them after my first disastrous flight because of how the thrusters nearly got my killed when I started the flight and they propelled me much faster than I planned. The wrist and ankle tech generates a stabilizing field that simultaneously cushions me if I bump into something and also controls the speed of the thrusters.

I flick the jetpack on and it rumbles and lifts me into the air. My wrist and ankle gauntlets make a little beeping noise and I feel the stabilizing field kick in. So far, no issues. I glance over at Mr. Hornsbee and he gives me a subtle nod of approval.

I slowly propel myself into the air and then do a graceful loop. The first time I tried to do a loop I almost lost my breakfast. Since then I've been waiting to eat until after flying class, but I don't know how I'll manage it when I actually have to fly to villain gigs.

Next I swoop through the air and then climb to the top of the amphitheater. That's when my left wrist bracelet starts beeping. I quickly look over and see the red light flashing. It's almost out of power already. That's the one problem I haven't solved yet, with the wrist and ankle gauntlets. I want to land, but I have to stay up in the air for another half minute. The left wrist stops beeping and just shows a steady red. No more power left, except to show the color red.

The right wrist gauntlet's sensor flashes yellow, and I veer sharply to the left. The jetpack thrust gets stronger and I'm certain I'm going to hit a beam or something else if I don't get this under control. I jerk myself to the right and that causes me to do a sharp turn I didn't want to do and now I'm somersaulting through the air and feeling nauseous as I go.

"We have to help her!" Anima yells.

"NO! You are super villains. You don't help each other! She's got to get out of this situation on her own," Mr. Hornsbee sternly replies.

The super villain code explicitly states that super villains always have to be out for themselves. Unfortunately I'm no good with that code. Neither is Anima, so having to not help me is killing her, just like it could kill me, literally.

I am flipping head over feet and feeling nauseous. I catch a glimpse of my brother's face and he's smirking to his friends, probably thinking it serves me right that I'm having this experience. I curl into myself and use the opportunity to grab my wrist and push a button on the gauntlet. I slow down again and now I'm descending. I'll get docked for points, but given how this situation has turned out I don't care. I want to live and that's more important than a few lost points. I hit the ground with a thud and my entire body throbs with pain. In that moment I appreciate the protective gear I'm wearing. I push myself up off the ground and slowly get to my feet.

Mr. Hornsbee comes over and gives me a severe look.

"Tekno you already know you didn't pass with today's performance though you started out doing so well. If you were fighting a superhero they might take pity on you and save you from your own stupidity, but of course you'd end up in jail. As it is you had to figure out how to save yourself, which is an important skill whether you're a villain or a hero. You did a good job of doing that, so you pass today's class, but you need to work on your technology. Do you know what went wrong?"

I glance at the left wrist. It should have had enough power. I certainly worked on it enough so it would. Then I spot the tiniest of scorch marks and I know what happened. I also know I can't prove it. I briefly look at my brother and he gives me a jerky smirk.

"I think I need to resolve some power leakage issues in my tech," I say.

"Then you'd better get on it, because you nearly lost your life. The rest of you pay attention. Whether you fly naturally or through some other assistance, always make sure you have contingencies in place to prepare for the worst situation. Now Justice Breaker, its your turn."

I watch my brother liftoff, perform some maneuvers and even dodge a couple of attack droids and then destroy them. He lands effortlessly and of course is given a perfect score. I wish I could sabotage him the way he sabotaged me. Then I smile to myself and carefully move to the back of the class, toward where the attack droids are. All I need to do is modify the programming on one of them and my brother will be in for a big surprise.

Mr. Hornsbee is focused on the next student, watching them intently as they try to do a loop de loop in the air. I touch the carapace of the attack droid and within a few moments a panel swings open. I reach in and pull out the circuitry and make a few quick changes to the programming. Then I put the circuitry back in and the panel swings shut. I step away and intently begin working on my wrist module.

The attack droids are launched toward the student who's currently flying. They menacingly move toward the student and then abruptly one of them changes direction and launches itself toward Justice Breaker at ramming speed. He's surrounded by several other students, but all of them scatter and the droid homes in on Justice Breaker. He laser beams it, but the attack droid throws up some shielding and the lasers are absorbed, making it go faster. It slams into my brother and he staggers, holding it in place with his hands.

The attack droid unleashes electricity on my brother's hands. He grunts in irritation and then he tenses his hands and starts trying to crush the attack droid. All this does is make the attack droid stronger, because its taking any energy he applies toward it using it to strengthen itself. I've thought out how to beat my brother and I know in the end that the best way to beat him is to make himself his own worst enemy.

My brother grunts with effort, trying harder to crush the droid, but it simply won't give into his power. He starts panting and then he grimaces and pushes the droid away from him. It momentarily goes away from him and then comes back and he takes off in the air and starts flying, unsanctioned, which will cost him points for the class. The droid aggressively chases after him and my brother speeds up and almost slams into the student who is supposed to be flying, but manages to move out of the way and lets my attacking droid hit the student instead. The droid rams through the student like he doesn't exist and continues chasing after my brother. The other attack droids react to this and peel off to also follow my brother, which makes me feel a bit better about the other student, because he didn't deserve to get slammed by my droid running amok.

My brother happens to glance behind him and spots the other droids chasing him now. His eyes flash and several of them blow up. Mr. Hornsbee won't be happy about that. He tries the same move with the droid I've enhanced and the eye beams get absorbed. He looks at me for a moment and I know he's figured out what's happened. I wave my wrist at him and he knows why its happening. He scowls and then gives me a brief nod of acknowledgement and with that I call the droid off. It suddenly stops chasing him and the other droids also stop. A few moments later they descend to the port bays. I'll have to find someway to reprogram the droid I've messed with when no is looking, but that can wait.

"Justice Breaker! Get down here now! What's the meaning of this?!"

My brother descends to the ground, shooting me a glare. He won't tell on me because I didn't tell on him, but he doesn't like it that he's not showing up in a way that looks good.

"The droid just attacked me, sir. I didn't know what to do because no matter what I did it kept attacking me. I had to get away. I certainly didn't mean to mess up Cylo's flying, but I didn't know what else to do."

"I'm not pleased with you, but that droid's level was set higher than it should have been. I'll take a look at it after class. In the meantime, no droids for the rest of the flight drills."

No one seems too put out about that and the rest of the class gets through their flight training in record time. I keep working on my right wrist tech, thinking of how I can make it impervious to my brother's blasts. I can't just have it absorb the energy, since I might get burned if it does that, so I've got to get clever about it. Then the bell rings.

"Tekno, Justice Breaker stay back. The rest of you can go."

We look at each other, my brother and I and we both know Hornsbee saw through what we did.

"Here in villain high school we do encourage rivalries. Afterall you're training to become super villains, so technically what you both did today would be approved of. But I don't approve of it because you're siblings and its clear to me this was a case of sibling rivalry. That can actually be a pretty potent super villain story, but I don't buy it with you two, because you haven't executed it masterfully. Instead Justice Maker you could have killed Tekno and Tekno, you might have inadvertently killed Cylo. And that is simply unaccepted and sloppy villain acting. What do you have to say for yourselves?"

"She shouldn't have upstaged me by going first," my brother says.

I roll my eyes and say, "Or maybe you should just get over your ego and realize you aren't the center of the universe."

"Enough!" Mr. Hornsbee says and slams his his down on the desk dramatically. "This isn't the kind of villain behavior I, or any of the other faculty, want to see. It's not good super villain behavior. It's childish and when you are out there performing your roles, this kind of behavior is what gets people actually hurt."

"Yes sir," we both say, straightening up in our seats.

Mr. Hornsbee gives us an unpleasant smile and says, "No, that's not going to work. You two are going to have to work together as a team. I want to see a brother and sister villain team and this isn't just for today or this week. No, it's for the rest of the term."

Oh. My. God.

My brother and I look at each other with horror. We have to work together?!

To be continued.

Want more superhero fiction: Check out my story: Learning How to Save the Day.