An Introduction To The World Of Heroes And Villains

Adam stood atop a nearby building, watching a concrete plant below with an intense fervor. Those who had the awareness to look up would see the vague outline of a man in jeans and a jacket standing over the streets below with a metal water bottle in hand, though few in the city had the tendency to look above their heads from what Adam had found, even in a world where flying heroes were common. Not that Adam blamed them. The man he used to be had rarely taken the time to gaze up at the sky before his accident either. His mundane problems were far more important than birdwatching for fancy heroes and villains flying through the sky. The accident had changed his viewpoint a bit more nowadays though. Now there were no longer strangers blessed or cursed with abnormal abilities. Now they were his peers, allies and enemies. People of note he'd likely need the befriend or avoid in the future if he wanted to keep operating in this city. The man he was now wasn't averse to taking a gaze into the sky every now and again.

Adam finished the last of his water with a mighty swig before wiping his mouth with his sleeve and returning the bottle to his jacket pocket. He'd been scoping out the plant for quite a while now, and had finally decided what he was going to do about it. His mind flashed back to the rumors he'd heard at his workplace that lead him to scope the place out originally, and the thoughts made him burn and bristle with indignant fury.

This concrete plant had popped up in response to the attacks on the city a while back, the ones by Doctor Necrodium and the hero called Holocaust. With so many buildings razed, a concrete plant would be a very profitable venture to start up here in this city. It turned Adam's stomach, but the concrete he could stand. What he couldn't however was the fact that management had gotten sloppy in creating it. Minimal safety precautions lead to large swathes of dust particles spreading over the area, choking out both the plants and people in the surrounding area. Not to mention the fact that they'd placed it right smack dab in the middle of a residential district they were building, likely to keep a good chunk of workers nearby. Respiratory disease was on the rise, and nobody in that plant management cared at all. Numerous complaints lodged against the plant were all waived away with great sums of money to local politicians and half-hearted comments about sacrifice for the good of the city. Nothing was getting better, not without outside intervention by someone with the power to do something.

Adam began to stretch atop the building, slowly loosening himself for what was to come. He popped his knuckles and his neck, and breathed deeply before creating the vines that gave him his supernatural strength. They snaked forth from his body and connected to his joints, forming thick, green, makeshift muscles along his thin form. Bark resembling oak began to grow forth, surrounding the vines that lined his frame and engulfing his body. As the process finished, a creature resembling a tall and muscular wooden golem stood atop the building. Adam flexed his mighty muscles underneath the wooden shell, reveling in the great strength it afforded him. He reckoned this would be enough to deal with the concrete plant below.

Adam flexed his leg muscles, evaluating how much power he had for a leap. Satisfied, he lowered himself into a crouch before rocketing upwards in a mighty jump that cracked the ground where he was standing beforehand. He rose higher and higher into the air, until he stood a good thousand before the plant. The forces of gravity slowly began to weigh heavy upon the creature as it sent him hurtling towards the factory below. He stretched his arms upwards as he plummeted, swinging them forth with a mighty crack at the roof of the building as he came close. Debris shattered downward from the point of impact, sending concrete chunks flying downwards throughout the plant floor. Employees screamed and began scrambling for cover while heavy alarms began to blare.

Adam had burst into the room where they mixed the material it seemed, though he remembered the layout of the plant well. In addition to the indoor mixing stations they had silos outside where they stored to product before sending it off to wherever it needed to go. Additionally they had a wide array of cement delivery trucks to distribute the product wherever it needed to go. Every last bit of it would need to be destroyed if Adam wanted to send a message. Sure, a little property damage would likely go a long way, but Adam wanted to bring the whole thing crashing to the ground. The financial loses would be substantial, and with luck they wouldn't construct another one here for years to come, if ever again. Adam crashed to the floor, sending cracks throughout the ground under his weight. The plant creature's faceless wooden head began to swivel the room, searching for the next target for him to destroy.

Rowan despised the city. All cities really. They were massive, smog spewing jungles of concrete, metal and glass that rooted out nature and spread poison like tendrils throughout the world.  He felt it on the wind, smelled it through the earth and heard it from many plants and animals that were forced out of their natural habitats.  Picking out the sources of these corruptions was difficult; he didn’t know how to move through the human world so well. Complex mazes of streets, sidewalks and buildings that formed a vast network that he reviled at the core of his being. Far different than the massive forest broken by glades, rivers and lakes of The Conclave.  Even thinking back on it only managed to enflame his own resentment towards the cities of man.  

Despite not knowing how this city worked, he always had ears around. Things that knew where corruption flowed from, even if they didn’t know why. Spirits of the wind, small plants that rose between the cracks in concrete and even the scavenger animals that thrived out here.  A large concrete factory was the culprit, spreading their poison through the air. The very kind of thing that promoted blight and would cause problems for everyone if he didn’t do anything about it. Because he always sought to clean up the messes of many it would seem.

The half fae hidden in dappled leathers, furs and glamours moved through the city unnoticed. Relying more on the illusions than anything else. He couldn’t afford for the guardians of these cities to pull him aside with their asinine concerns. Their guns would only prove more annoying too, especially with how often he found them being shot at him.  To the more mundane human they wouldn’t even see him as worth considering, at worst a blur in the corner of their eyes but that wasn’t worth following.  

Perched atop a building Rowan considered the concrete plant from a distance, eyes narrowed  and mind working through how one might destroy it. He lacked the mana to whip at a wind storm that could do the job, so he’d need to be a little creative. Places like this were all too well enforced with steel and concrete. It would require a pure nature spirit to do enough damage. Perhaps he could look for a weak point in the building and cause the whole thing to fall down. There always appeared to be mechanisms that could explode within large complexes.  

All things he thought about until someone beat him to the punch. Smashing through the roof with less than elegant motion. ”I believe that answers my questions,” His fingers ran over the small brown squirrel hide on his shoulder. Drawing upon the instincts and memories of the animal as he took on its characteristics. Shifting and shrinking until he was something else entirely; nose twitching and eyes considering. With a motion he stretched his body and the skin flaps between the limbs out, allowing the rodent to glide through the air between various vantage points until he reached the lip of the concrete plants roof.  

Looking down, all he could see was a strange amalgam of flesh and plant, though it wasn’t blighted which left him even more confused.  Gliding down through the massive hole, he landed on the floor and let the shift fall to reveal his small form. ”I was targeting this place but...” He paused, eyes narrowing under the hood of his armor. ”what are you?”