A forceful, chilling wind could be felt flowing through the devastated streets of what was once New York City. The once-congested streets were flooded with ocean water and abandoned; the only things present were corpses and forsaken vehicles. Many of the city's famous, sprawling skyscrapers had been reduced to rubble and the few high-rises that remained erected were falling apart.
Atop one of these dismantled high-rises, two figures could be seen standing as still as statues as water rushed around the platform they stood. One of these aforementioned figures was a swordsman, his blade gleaming with black-and-white energy that was seemingly of another plane. His iconic, long, fantastical blazer was flowing from the wind, as was the tie around his neck. Though his face was covered by a black, skin-tight mask, his disdain for the man in front of him was seen through the glowing white eyes emitting from the mask itself.
The man– no, the monster in front of him was clad in an all-black, skin-tight getup that covered every inch of his body. He wore a mask over the top half of his face, exposing the bottom half and displaying his distorted, toothy grin. Not a second or two would pass without his body spazzing as if he were a glitch in the system– perhaps he was a glitch. His origins were a mystery to most after all.
"Humans aren't meant to have this sort of power, Black Haze." the suited man uttered, his voice tired yet vexed. He'd been fighting non-stop for days with not a moment's rest.
Black Haze's shoulders bounced as he scoffed and chuckled soundlessly. "Humans? You and I have relinquished our humanity long ago, Tempo. We are gods now!" Black Haze flourished his arms, outstretching them with his palms facing the heavens.
"We're not gods. We're just kids– we were just kids." Tempo gripped his sword tighter as he spoke, his voice shifting from vexed to grieved. He grieved his past, his friendships, and his young adulthood that was robbed from him. He mourned his city, the home he shared with millions.
It was supposed to all just be a game– it wasn't supposed to be like this.
Black Haze exhaled while cocking his head to the side mockingly. "You're pathetic." His palms began to emanate a crimson, electric light, and a scythe of the same color manifested within them. "When I am done with you, I will have finally scrubbed all feeble-minded mice like you from this world."
Seen through the glowing white eyes on his mask, Tempo gromaced as he squeezed the weapon in his hand with an even tighter grip. Without exchanging another word, the two flash stepped toward each other and their weapons clashed. A crackling, rose-colored light, a concoction of their two energies colliding, could be seen for miles, as could their clashing be felt through tremors that dispersed throughout the entire city.
This is where Tempo's story ends.
But the hero's story, like any other, has a beginning.
Years prior to New York's destruction, the city was known for many things, from Broadway to its cultural mishmash of cuisine; however, in fiction, the city was also known to be the home of some of the world's most famous superheroes, whether it be web slingers or blind catholic devils.
It wasn't until one faithful day that fiction became our reality.
Ky Tempus, a high school senior, gamer, and comic book enthusiast, sat at his desk refreshing his email page. It was 11:59 AM and at noon he would know if he was selected for the beta of the hit new ARRPG: Hero x Villain Online, which promised to bring these heroes from comic books, television, and movies into the real world.
It was marketed as an Augmented Reality game for mobile phones, allowing the player to create either a hero or villain with their own unique abilities. As the player walks around in the real world, they'll occasionally be prompted to engage in a PvE combat sequence to earn EXP and unlock more abilities. If two players were to come across each other, they'd have the option to engage in a PvP battle, which would give even greater rewards.
It'd become a worldwide phenomenon off of the premise alone and millions of gamers all across the world were itching to try the closed beta test for the potential new giant of the mobile game industry and Ky Tempus was one of them.
The clock struck twelve, and a new email from the developers appeared on Ky's monitor. His eyes gleamed, his heart jolted, and he could feel an electric shock coursing through his body. 'This is it.' he thought with a single finger hovering over the left-click button on his mouse. He exhaled, shutting his eyes as his finger fell onto the button and the mouse clicked. When he opened his eyes, they grew wide, as did the smile on his face upon reading the personalized letter on his screen.
Hello Ky Tempus,
Congratulations!
You have been selected for the Hero x Villain Online Closed Beta Test!
We have left a package at the address listed on your application. This is your Hero x Villain Online Starter Kit! Instructions for the next phase of the process will be inside.
Thank you for your participation and welcome to Hero x Villain Online.
As Ky read the email, his eyes were quivering with excitement and he still had that stupidly large smile on his face, laughing to himself in disbelief. "I got in! I GOT IN!" Like a speedster, he dashed out of his room and slid on his bottom down the railing of the staircase, nearly eating shit upon landing.
As if he were in a 90s cartoon, Ky ran in place due to his socked feet sliding off of the tile before taking off toward the front door. He opened it to see a package with his name on it placed neatly on the doormat. Ky leered around the corner, checking both ends of the street. Oddly enough, there was no delivery truck in sight. 'Eh.' Nonetheless, he grabbed the package, rushed back upstairs, and began tearing the box apart like a ravenous child on Christmas morning. Inside, he found the Hero x Villain Online starter kit, which came with a download code for the mobile app and a pair of contact lenses.
Ky downloaded the app first, following the instructions left in the starter kit before ending up at the game's menu. Immediately, Ky was entranced by the animations of superheroes and supervillains fighting each other, these animations were unlike anything he'd ever seen. At the top of the main menu, it read Hero X Villain Online, written in sprawling eye-catching golden letters. Beneath the title, there were three options listed: Map, Alignment, and Powers.
Curious, he clicked the alignment tab first, though every section in this tab was blank yet still labeled. He noticed a section labeled Allies as well as ones for Criminal Record, Alias, and Nemeses.
'Woah… I wonder if real players can become my nemesis in this game. That would be so sick! I wonder if the map shows any nearby players.'
Ky's thumb swiped the screen and he switched to the map, which showed objectives and crimes scattered all around the city. Each objective offered three types of points: Skill Points, Hero Points, and Villain Points. Excited to see what he could potentially spend these points on, Ky swiped over to the section labeled Powers.
At the top of the screen, he could see that his character's powers had already been chosen randomly for him.
[Time Manipulation - The ability to control and manipulate time.]
[Skill points - 1]
[Hero Points - 0]
[Villain Points - 0]
Ky's eyes lit up upon seeing the hundreds of potential abilities he could unlock under the Time Manipulation move set. Each unlockable ability was labeled under one of three sections: Hero, Villain, and Neutral.
Abilities labeled as hero or villain required a certain level of heroism or villainy to unlock. However, it seemed the neutral abilities lacked any sort of restrictions.
'Well, I only have one skill point, so I guess I'll spend them on this one.'
[Ability - Time Warp. Warp time forward or backward for one second. Warp length can be upgraded.]
[Cooldown: 1.5 Sec (CD = 1.5x amount of time that has been warped)]
[Unlock ability? Yes/No]
[Ability Unlocked!]
'Okay… Now what? Oh!' Ky was so excited to see what the app had to offer, that he had forgotten all about the contact lenses that came in the starter kit. He thought it was a bit odd for a game to come with contact lenses, however, the possibilities of what these contact lenses could do excited him.
Ky took the lenses into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. Before him was a young man with auburn skin whose glasses shielded his sharp eyes that always looked as if they were half awake, even after a full night's sleep. He removed his glasses and opened those eyes as much as he could before he placed a contact lens into each one, but they didn't seem to do anything. 'That's weird. They just seem like regular old-'
"Agh!" Ky's eyes suddenly felt as if holes were being drilled into his pupils as the contacts began melting into each eyeball. He fell forward, holding himself up on the bathroom sink as that pain in his eyes started transferring throughout his entire body. The pain was so intense, that Ky swore he could feel his entire nervous system.
Meanwhile, as he writhed in pain, knocking over his toothbrush, hairbrush, and hygienic products off the counter, he could see things starting to appear in his vision, a HUD similar to that of a video game. He could see a health bar for himself, along with the cooldown for his Time Warp ability in the bottom left corner.
A map of his surroundings started to materialize in the bottom right corner and a red circle with an exclamation point appeared in a far-off corner of the map. As the symbol appeared in his vision, words appeared in all capital letters in the middle of his visual field.
[CRIME REPORTED]
It felt as if his brain was being assaulted with more information than the human mind was supposed to handle until all at once, the pain stopped.
Ky got back up on his feet and looked at himself in the mirror, breathing harshly. He was horrified. This was not what he signed up for. 'I need to get these things out!'
Ky tried, but the contact lenses had truly melted themselves onto his eyeball. It was as if there was nothing there. 'What the fuck…'
Wanting to call for help, Ky stumbled back into his room and reached for his phone on his desk. However, it was as if his motor functions were still recalibrating and he knocked his phone off of the desk. 'Shit!' Ky reached out and as he did so, the world around him started to move in reverse, and so did his own body.
The phone began defying gravity, flying upward before landing on the desk just before Ky's hand had accidentally swiped it. In the bottom of Ky's vision, he could see the cooldown reset for his Time Warp ability.
'Holy shit! What was that!? Did I just… reverse time?' Ky looked at his own trembling hands in horror. 'This was supposed to just be an AR game where you walk around the real world, stopping fake crimes while leveling up your made-up hero… But I…'
Ky's horror soon shifted to laughter as he rotated his hands around. 'I'm a real-life superhero!' Ky continued to chuckle to himself in disbelief before looking at the baseball on his desk. He walked over to it, grabbed it, then chucked it at the wall. Before a full second could pass, Ky reversed time and watched as his own body and the ball were forced back into the position they were in just a second prior.
He exhaled humorously before grabbing his phone to check social media. He saw a few posts from other players discussing what had happened to them and their stories were all very similar to his. The only difference between everyone's stories was that they each had their own unique powers. Some had super speed while others had super strength or the ability to create constructs.
Knowing his new powers wouldn't serve him any good sitting inside all day, Ky decided to give the game a test run. 'I guess it's time to level up.'