"The bill? Just don´t worry about that, alright? What gang are you from?"
"I don´t have a gang"
"Then are you a psycho hero who kills people just because?" The weirdo pondered for a second. "I consider myself a hero, but I am not with the association... not anymore" Jenny looked at him weirdly "What do you mean not anymore? Did you get kicked out?"
"No, I resigned" Jennie was now dumbfounded, a hero resigning? That´s impossible.
"Why would you do that? Aren´t heros set for life once they get into the association?"
"That place is a lot darker than you think, saw a lot of shit so I left"
"You don´t give me the impression of an ex-hero, to be honest. Not after this bloody mess"
The weirdo sat down and leaned back into the chair. "I never fit in, thats another reason. I was raised by villains, not heroes. Since my childhood all I knew was killing. I really tried to be better than my pops, go the right way, it´s just that there is no right way, or at least, I can´t see one right now"
Now, Jennie´s interest was piqued. She never had the chance to learn about the world of superheros and was deeply intrigued about what this man had to say about it.
"How so? Also, can you tell me your name?"
"Arthur. About your other question, superheros are very adamant about the no killing rule, but of course, they don´t really need to"
"Hm?" Arthur looked straight into her eyes "You´re a villain right? have you ever gone to prison? not the ordinary one, but the real deal"
"You mean the one in antartica? Had a buddy who got life in there, why?"
"You see, there´s a certain woman in charge of that prison. Her power enables her to make people into lifeless monsters by frying their brain. Of course, they´re still alive. Do you see what I am getting at now?"
Jennie was perturbed... For the lack of a better word "Wait,so what happens to these people?" Arthur pulled a cigarrete and light it up. "Special brigade, do you know of them? If anything, they are the base soldiers of the association who throw themselves at villains without a care in the world, can you guess why?"
"That´s... really messed up. So I could be a zombie without any will right now if they ever got me?"
"Compared to that, killing people isn´t that bad now, don´t you think?"
"Well, yeah you are probably right. Can you help me take these bodies to the backdoor? I´ll take care of the rest" They picked the bodies and threw them outside "Luckily for you, my power is to burn things, so there´ll be no evidence" She proceeded to burn them.
As they watched the flames, Jenny warned Arthur "You got us in big trouble, you know? This guy was backed by a big gang of the zone. They probably know he came here so... yeah, I´m pretty much screwed. They shouldn´t know you were here, if I were you I´d go now. This place ain´t safe anymore"
"What about you? Got any place to go?" Jenny smiled sadly and lit up a cigarrete with her finger "Nah, my friends and I aren´t that close. I don´t really have a family either, so atleast I´ll defend this bar till my last breath" She exhaled smoke peacefully, as if she was coming to terms with her fate.
Arthur exhaled some smoke too and threw the cigarrete to the floor, stomping on it to extinguish it.
"If that´s what you want" he put his hands on his pockets and started walking away. Jennie smiled, a rare occurrence on her "Thank you" she muttered, before entering the bar and closing the door behind her.
***
"huff...huff..." Jenny was in a pitiful state, she had cut wounds all over her body, her whole mouth tasted of blood and her head was bleeding so much she was incredibly dizzy. She had been burning the wounds until this point, but it was incredibly painful.
She had defeated at least a large part of the group that came for her, but alas, she was defeated by the leader of the gang, nickname 'devil' "You have fought well, Jennie. It´s a shame you didn´t join our gang when you could"
"Screw... You... Fucker"
She vomited some more blood and passed out on the floor.
"We are taking her. The heros must have heard of the commotion by now"
***
Arthur was tormented by something. And that was really rare. Jenny was a villain, and she was going to die by other villains. Was it fair to go save her? Had he would have helped if he had meet the gang first? Would that make him a hypocrite, like the other heros he despises so much?
"What does being a hero even mean?" He laid down on his old, broken couch and watched as a cockroach crawled onto the ceiling. He recalled a memory of his infancy.
He had gone to steal alcohol for his father, again, when the rival gang cornered him and almost kidnapped him. If it hadn´t been for that one hero, cockroach-man. It was stupid. The costume, his jokes, his powers, everything about him was stupid. He nearly died, but he won. He risked his life for a slum rat that didn´t even matter to anyone.
Arthur grew up to be a hero, like his newfound idol. He was finally going to meet him in person and thank him for that day. Then he learned he was dead, long dead. Not very long after saving Arthur, he tried to track down the gang that almost kidnapped him and was killed and hung to a pole.
Nobody seemed to care. Is this what being a hero is about? Why did he have to die and not the other assholes in the association that let people die because they consider them less important? Why? How does that make sense?
He eventually grew deatached to the association and resigned. Cockroach´s ideals were right, but he wasn´t strong enough to make them come true. Arthur will, and the first step to do that...
He got up and picked his gun and a combat knife.
"Making cockroach´s ideals come true. That, that is my duty. I´ll save Jennie"