"Hi, you guys must be Blur and Infinite, right? My name is Tempo, it's nice to finally meet you both." Ky greeted the two heroes with a smile hidden beneath his black mask. Both heroes looked to Ky; Infinite nodded while Blur stuck out his hand to shake Ky's in excitement. "Nice to meet you, Tempo! Nice costume, I dig the mask!"
"Thanks." Ky shook the Blur's hand, using his Psychometry ability the moment their hands touched. He wanted to know everything about each person in the room, Blur just happened to be the first.
Inside the Blur's memories, Ky found himself brought back to the launch day of Hero x Villain Online but from the perspective of the cobalt speedster.
It was almost nostalgic to Ky, watching as Kevin Fallon, the Blur, sat at his desk anxiously waiting for the very same email that Ky had received, informing him that he'd been selected to participate in Hero x Villain Online. Sure enough, at exactly noon, Kevin received that fated email.
Hello Kevin Fallon,
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 if he'd already become the Blur, Kevin ran out of his room and down the steps of the townhome he shared with his parents and siblings. Like a gymnast, Kevin skipped the last few steps and performed a textbook landing, compelling everyone who was hanging out in the living room to look down the hallway. "The hermit finally came out of his room!" his older sister, Rachel, teased.
Being a diehard gamer, Kevin rarely left his room but that isn't to say he was anti-social by any means. The times he did spend with his family or real-life friends, he was the life of the party.
Kevin said nothing as he made way for the front door, unlocking and opening it in record time before seeing a box at the front door that was labeled with his name. Closing the door behind him, he brought it inside and started for the steps, only to be interrupted by his mom's voice. "Kevin, come here." Hearing his mom's voice, Kevin groaned before walking into the living room with his box in hand.
"What's in the package?" she asked him.
"A game I ordered. I've been waiting months for it so I'd like to play it as soon as possible." This was textbook Kevin, always in a rush.
"Well, your little sister has something she wants to ask you." Kevin's father added, looking down at Kevin's youngest sister, Raya with a soft smile. Raya looked up at her brother, smiling with missing teeth and eyes full of admiration for her sibling. "Big brother, can you play with us? Pleeeeeease."
She was referring to the board game in front of them. The four of them, Kevin's two sisters, his mother, and his father, were about to start playing before Kevin came downstairs. The objective of this board game was to make the others laugh with jokes written on the cards. Kevin used to love that game before he'd gotten heavily into gaming. For a moment, he was hit with nostalgia, remembering the times he was in his little sister's place, begging his older sister to play the game with him. It used to be his favorite.
He wanted to play the board game with them, but he also had the most anticipated game of the year in his hands. 'I wish I could be at two places at once.'
Though that wouldn't be possible, he had an idea. Kevin got down on his knee to his little sister's level with a compromise in mind. "How about this? Let me at least make my character in my game first, and then I'll come back downstairs and play. Alright? I promise."
"Pinky promise!"
"Pinky promise."
Kevin wrapped his pinky around his little sister's before getting back up on his feet. "Go ahead and play a few rounds. I'll be back in fifteen minutes." They'd usually play for hours, so fifteen minutes was merely a dent in the grand scheme of things. His family smiled and nodded. "You better keep your word." his father ordered.
"Sir, yes sir!" Kevin gave his father a militaristic salute and with no time to waste, Kevin ran upstairs with his package, ravaging it open once he'd made it to his room. Looking inside, he found the same contact lenses as Ky, along with his unique download code.
Kevin first downloaded the app, wanting to see what the game had to offer. He explored the menus for a while, but the main attraction was of course the skill tree.
[Powers: Molecular Momentum - The ability to control the momentum at which one's own body moves at a molecular level]
[Ability: Superhuman Speed - The user gains imperceptible speed thanks to the Molecular Microcosm - 1 Skill Point]
'Super speed! Let's fucking go!'
Seeing as this was the only option for the time being, Kevin accepted it. After looking through everything that the app had to offer, Kevin shifted his attention toward the contact lenses at the bottom of the package. Like any other sensible person, he took those contact lenses with him to the bathroom and began placing them into his eyes.
Before long, just like every other beta tester, Kevin was hunched over the sink of his bathroom after having the contact lenses burned into his retinas. His screams were agonizing, so much so that his entire family was outside of his bathroom door, jiggling the locked door handle.
"Kevin?"
"Kev!?"
"Kevin!?"
"Are you okay!?"
Kevin slammed his hand on the counter and rose to his feet, trying his best to fight through the pain. "I'm okay… I just have something–" The pain was only getting worse as every moment passed. Even though his eyes felt as if holes were benignly drilled inside of them, he opened them and looked closely at them in the mirror. Before his own eyes, the contact lenses were being burned into his retinas. A HUD similar to that of a video game started to appear in his field of vision and the pain suddenly stopped.
It was odd. All of that agony just suddenly disappeared, yet Kevin's breaths were still harsh; his vision blurred.
By the time his vision had finally cleared, Kevin could feel an electric shock go through his body, but not because of any superpower. It was the feeling of fear, the feeling that accompanied the sensation of his heart sinking into the depths of his stomach. Behind him, there was what looked like the silhouette of a man vibrating sporadically, so much so that Kevin couldn't see the man's facial features.
"Who are you?" he asked the man in the reflection before turning around, putting space between him and the strange man by backing himself toward the counter. The vibrating man said nothing, his head facing Kevin as he slowly unlocked the bathroom door and turned the handle. The fashion in which this was done was almost as if he were taunting Kevin.
The door opened and Kevin's family looked relieved for a moment to see that he was okay, but that look of relief quickly turned into a look of fear as they realized the vibrating man was not the middle child of the family.
Kevin's youngest sister, Raya, was suddenly grabbed by the throat by the vibrating man. Before anyone could react, the two of them zoomed across the hallway, into the master bedroom, and he had her pinned against the wall. He'd slammed her with such force, that the wall started to chip and Raya was barely clinging to consciousness. Kevin's father reacted, running down the hallway before grabbing the strange man by the shoulder. "Let go! What's wrong with you!?"
The moment those words left his mouth, the vibrating man threw Raya across the room and impaled Kevin's father through the chest. Mr. Fallon gasped and spewed blood from his mouth as his heart was then ripped from his chest, beating a few times in the vibrating man's hand before it inevitably stopped. Kevin's father reached out for his own heart before slowly but surely falling lifelessly to the ground.
Everyone screamed as the vibrating man crushed the heart in his hand and slowly made his way over toward the youngest daughter who was still on the ground. There were nail clippers on the dresser, the ones that had the sharp end to clean one's nails with. The vibrating man grabbed them, the sharp end facing the little girl on the ground.
"No!" Kevin's mother screamed, running at the vibrating man empty-handed. She didn't have time to grab a weapon, all she could do was hopelessly attempt to save her daughter's life by any means possible.
Just before the vibrating man could stab her daughter, the woman grabbed him from behind, holding his arm back with all of her strength. However, she could not overpower him. As if she was nothing more than a minor inconvenience or a bug, the vibrating man shrugged the woman off before using the nail clippers to slit her throat. Blood began spewing through the bedroom, staining the walls, the furniture, the vibrating man, and the girl in the mother's crimson life essence.
Her body fell to its knees before falling face down onto the ground, a puddle of blood forming beneath her body. The vibrating man then picked up the youngest daughter, holding her by the throat once more. She screamed and kicked as if that were going to save her from what was coming, however, any and all attempts at breaking free or changing the killer's mind were futile.
With the same nail clippers that slit the mother's throat, the vibrating man stabbed the little girl in the stomach; not once, and not twice, but so many times that everyone but Raya, the one feeling the agonizing pain of each stab, lost count of. Eventually, her kicks and screams ceased and the child's limbs had gone limp as her last breaths escaped between her lips.
There were only two Fallon kids left, Kevin and Rachel, the eldest. The vibrating man looked over at them both as they stood frozen in fear after having to watch their family be slaughtered before their very eyes. It wasn't until Kevin said something to his sister that she finally moved. "Run! Get out of here!" Doing as her brother said, the young woman bolted for the steps. However, the vibrating man instantly dashed past Kevin and grabbed the young woman by the ponytail before she could even make it halfway down the steps.
Lifting her up by the hair, the vibrating man held her over the space between the stairs and released her. The eldest daughter fell, breaking the bones in her legs upon impact, a piece of bone sticking out from her shin. She screamed in anguish for a moment, though due to her will to survive and adrenaline coursing through her body, she began crawling with just her arms as if she could escape.
The vibrating man, taking all the time he needed, began walking down the steps. Kevin found himself in yet another trance. Snapping out of it, finally able to move, he sprinted down toward the vibrating man with super speed of his own and delivered a punch to the back of the head, or at least, he tried to. His punch went right through the man's body, causing Kevin to fling himself down the stairs and slam into the railing as he'd put everything into that attack.
The vibrating man then zipped over to the broken girl, grabbing that piece of bone that was sticking out of her leg.
SNAP!
Her screams, along with the sound of her bone being broken in half like a raw noodle, were some of the final sounds heard by Kevin before a vibrating man stabbed her in the throat with her own bone, killing her slowly. She could no longer scream, but Kevin could hear her gargling on her own blood until finally, her agony ended.
The vibrating man looked at Kevin, tilting his head curiously. By this point, Kevin had given up. This vibrating man was unstoppable; he was stronger than him, faster than him, and he killed his entire family. Kevin had nothing to live for. The vibrating man crouched down beside Kevin, getting down to his eye level before speaking in a venomous, deep, and raspy voice. "COME. AND. CATCH. ME. KEVIIIINNNN."
The vibrating man chuckled before sprinting out of the house with his super speed. For a moment, Kevin sat unmoving over his sister's body and wept. He wasn't strong enough to protect her or anyone for that matter. 'You're a coward. You stood and watched as your own family was murdered right in front of you.'
He couldn't quite understand why it was that he couldn't move his body once the vibrating man appeared, it was as if he was under the monster's spell. Kevin held his sister's hand, gripping it tightly before making a promise to her. "I will avenge you, Rachel. I will avenge all of you. I will find that man and I will kill him. I failed to protect you guys, but I swear I will make it up to you all by using my powers to save millions. I swear..."
Ky's Psychometry ability had reached its limit, bringing him back to the present. His trembling eyes were wide and his jaw had nearly dropped to the floor. "What?" the Blur noticed Ky's ghastly expression, having no idea he'd just seen and experienced his traumatic origin story.
"Nothing... I'm just. I'm a big fan." Ky lied as tears started to fall from his eyes. The Blur was quite disturbed. 'I guess he really is a big fan...' he thought, assuming those were tears of joy.
In reality, the curse of Ky's Psychometry ability was making itself known once more. Ky wasn't just watching Kevin's family be brutally murdered in front of his eyes, he'd truly experienced it. Feeling as if he too had lost his entire family.
Regardless, this wouldn't stop Ky from continuing on with his original plan. He looked over at Infinite, the caped hero, and extended his hand.