Hector stared at the large screen in front of him and tapped a finger on the armrest of his black chair repeatedly. A news report was playing from the east side of Waterdales low income neighborhoods. Condemned buildings and crumbling bridges were the backdrop as the reporter read her speech, “Mayor Hurley Muriel has already been on site, but could only comment that the city didn’t have the budget to follow through with the major infrastructure bill he promised during his campaign. In other news-“

Turning off the projector with a scowl spreading across his face, Hector mumbled to himself. Walking across his lair look a few minutes. He stopped to check on a few experiments and tests in the lab, which was stark white in contrast to the black and red theme present elsewhere, before making his way to a metal door with a glowing exit sign above it. Opening the door revealed a large garage off the back of the lair.

Scanning the vehicles at his disposal, a black sports car, a stolen military helicopter, an experimental jet, a golf cart, he grinned and nodded when his eyes fell upon the two-story robot suit. It was a blocky humanoid shape with a black body, one fist, one raygun, and a set of folding red wings atop two stocky legs.

“Perfect!” Hector exclaimed with a sly grin. He climbed a metal set of stairs onto a balcony yhat ran arpund the black suit to climb into th cockpit. Fumbling with a few switches and buttons, he finally managed to start it up with a loud humming and tumping as the hydraulics engaged. “Lets go!”

With the press of a button, the roof of the garage opened to reveal a bright blue sky without a cloud to be seen. Hector laughed as the jets on the back of the robotic suit fired up and the wings opened to allow the suit to propel into the ceiling. Circling around the jagged mountainside that Hector’s lair was built under, the suits black exterior cast a large shadow over the country side as it turned towards Waterdale.

Skyscrapers appeared on the horizon before long; a concrete jungle that stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions and glinted in the sunlight. From above it looked like a prestine, shinning beacon of hope: The foundation of order, technological advancement and justice in an otherwise underdeveoped and rural area.

Hector flew above the high rise apartments and office buildings to the other end of town, where his jets threatened to crumble an aging overpass bridge. “Disgusting,” Hector scoffed as he hovered above the bridge leading from the west to the east side of town. Everything to the west looked like ot was built days ago, while everything to the east looked like it was lost in time from an ancient, abandoned civilization.

Landing a mere stones throw away from the reporter he had just seen on the news, Hector charged his raygun and pointed it at an old building that was closed and condemned to be demolished at a date yet to be determined. With a grin, he turned the building into a pile of rubble.

Screams echoed throughout the city, but Hector ignored them. He kicked an old apartment building long devoid of tenants and laughed. “I’ve always wanted to do that,” he mused to himself, pointing his raygun at another long-abandoned building.

Before he could fire, something yanked his arm backwards and changed the trajectory of his blaster. Flying across the river that divided the rich from thr poor, Hector’s misplaced shot slammed into an occupied office building. People poured out of the building as it slowly caught fire.

“No!” Hector shouted, turning towards the wreckage.

“Thats right, you wont get away with this so easily,” a voice boomed as Hector got slammed into from behind and crashed into an overpass bridge that was likey to collapse anyway.

Getting the robot back on its feet, turned to face a well-built man in white spandex and red tights floating above the damaged city block.

“Hero-man,” Hector spat through gritted teeth as he prepared for a fight. However, the screams from across the river were too distracting as his opponent started flying towards him.

With a maniacal laugh, Hector pointed towards the damaged skyscraper to where a pretty blonde girl is a power suit was clinging onto a damaged and crooked balcony railing for her life. Following Hectors direction, hero-man turned and saw the damsal in distress. “Curse you, Villian!” He cried as he swereved to save the beautiful citizen, who like many in that building, was screaming for help.

Chuckling to himself, Hector turned in the opposite direction and ran further into the dilapidated, poor part of the city. He fired his raygun at a few building that were fenced off and clearly vacant. Careful to avoid moving cars and fleeing citizens, he leaped into an old neighborood with houses that were collapsing in on themseves and stomped them into oblivion.

“Ignore them now, Mayor Hurley,” he screamed to himself with another maniacal laugh. His fun was interruped when he was slammed intk from behind again.

Crashing face first into a busy street, Hector rolled over carefully to avoif a bus full of people; however, he was immediately slammed into the bus and pinned. Unable to see where the passengers were, he stopped moving.

“Ive got you now!” Hero-man shouted from on top of the suit.

“Thats what you think,” Hector laughed. He pressed a button that ejected him from the robot and zipped through the air on his jetpack.

Leaving the bus and robot behind, Hero-man gave chase to Hector. Looking over his shoulder, Hector judged that he had a few seconds before he was caught. He dropped to the street and ditched his jetpack, blending in with a crowd of terrified people running about as Hero-man zoomed by over head.

Climbing into the nearest sewer, Hector slipped out of sight and used his smart watch to call his villian-mobile for the long drive home. As he waked through the sewer to the edge of town, he thought over the events of the day.

“Dont think anyone actually got hurt…” he muttered to himself. “Or they wouldn’t have if that oaf hadn’t grabbed my raygun… oh! My raygun!”

Hanging his head, Hector tried to turn off his brain for the remainder of the walk to his car. The drive home was just as somber. “That was my only prototype,” Hector lamented when he finally returned to his lair of solitude.

Sinking into his chair, he turned on the news. The news anchors read some quick facts about the events that happened. Notably, they critized the villain known as “Nefarious” for attacking the city and praised Hero-man for saving it. As Hectir was about to turn off the projector and return to his lab to rebuild a raygun, they switched to a live reporter.

“Thank you, this is Patricia Patrick reporting live from Waterdales East side,” a young brunette announced. “While the attack just hours ago seems devastaing, it might not be as bad as previously projected.”

Hector stopped and turned the volume up as the reporter continued.

“All if the buildings destroyed were schduled for demolition, saving the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction costs and moving up any potential rebuilding efforts considerably. Additionally, there seem to be no fatal injuries as a result of the attack. It makes you wonder if Nefarious really intended to-“

“Sounds like Hero-man showed up just in time,” one of the anchors interrupted as they cut away from the young reporter.

He then droned on about the stock market, prompting Hector to shut the projector off. However, a girn spread across Hectors face as he repeated her name out loud, “Patricia Patrick…”