The heroes came calling and left with burns and humiliation.
I found it to be fitting. There was a difference between heroes and knights, and the untested Protectorates knew little about that difference yet.
On that note, my "bombing" of the heroes finally gave everyone enough clues about who I was. They matched my ability to teleport things to the Case 53 villain that I was in Philadelphia. When the news found about this, they blabbed about it, and now all of my boys knew where I came from.
From my perspective, it was an irritating moment of my life which culminated in showing my Endbringer form.
According to my boys, I was a hardcore motherfucker who survived Abaddon's Fire.
I didn't bother correcting them.
1992 February 11
I kept to my corner of Rouchester but the two gangs underneath my protection didn't. It turned out to be a great decision for them (initially) because each of them found and recruited one parahuman cape into their ranks!
Normally, I would be wary, but by this point, I had firmly established loyalty with the leaders of the two gangs with gifts and generosity.
Instead of going about and stealing their new capes, I visited them, congratulated them on their new member, and helped them with power testing. With the Riggies, it went as I planned the day. Their cape, who called himself Blackjack because he could wore red and black and used explosive cards as projectiles, seemed servile enough to both me and the Riggies' boss. I had a drink with the Riggies boss and Blackjack and then gifted him with twenty grand to use as he saw fit, though I recommended that he use the money to better the gang's equipment. After that, I left with big smiles on our faces.
I was happy to get an imprint of Blackjack for my Power Sight and reaffirm their loyalty. Blackjack was happy to get recognition. Riggies' boss was happy to get some more money for doing nothing but bowing to me and paying taxes that came back to him regularly in the form of "gifts."
The next day, I went to the other gang under my protection, the Mainstreet Lords, or Lordies. I entered their base, a regular house on the Rouchester North Street, and got ganked.
I only knew I was getting ganked because I saw with my Power Vision a cape that threw their fist at me.
I ducked underneath the fist strike that exploded the air behind me, and jumped backward, using the vacuum caused by the aftermath of the explosion to pull me through. I rolled haphazardly because I bounced back on my feet.
The Lordie boss, Emmanuel Vealer, stepped out of the house and a brown masked and luchador-costume themed cape walked out behind him.
"How'd you like that greeting, big boss?" he asked sarcastically. "We got our own super now, too!"
"Are you seriously rebelling against me?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I? The only fucking reason I was under you in the first place was because you had powers!" Vealer shouted. "On top of that, you killed my bro! He was the only boss I accepted! I was just biding my time!"
With that, the masked cape roared and charged me.
I wasted no time. I teleported an Explosive Tennisball into the cape's head.
The cape lurched midflight and fell to the ground.
Before Vealer could question anything, the cape's head exploded.
Covered in the gore of the dead cape I turned my eyes to the rapidly paling Vealer.
He turned and fled.
I teleported a tennisball.
And he lurched mid-run, fell down, and two seconds later, his head exploded.
I turned to the rest of the Lordies who'd been there.
"I thought I established rules before, but I guess I have to do it again."
By the end of the day, there was no more Lordies. I gifted their territory to the loyal and responsible Riggies.
1992 February 18
The death of a gang caused a little bit of a power vacuum, but everyone native to Rouchester knew that it was just the "Big Boss" of the Rouchester gangland cleaning up house.
The non-natives, mostly refugees from Philadelphia, did not know that. They saw a chance to grab territory and the lucrative income of selling drugs. A gang of three capes jumped at the chance, and sparked a gang war.
So I ambushed them in the middle of the night as they tried to rob one of the Riggies' safe houses.
It was two men and a woman, dressed in military camouflage slacks, berets, and bandanas. They have been calling themselves the Rouchester Militia and had portrayed themselves as vigilantes, but the gangs knew they weren't vigilantes. They used the drugs they stole. They killed gangsters and bystanders alike. They were villains, and the media wasn't too far from declaring them so.
I watched from across the town in the full moon with my binoculars out as the Rouchester Militia allowed their Brute member, the shorter of the two men, burst the safe house doors open.
By this point, I was a little tired of the Explosive Tennisballs. They were fun when I first brought them out but everyone knew them to be my little toys now.
I needed something knew.
And the Militia was going to be the first ones to see it.
I saw them rush into the house, believing in their Brute's ability to block any attacks coming from the front.
'I love America,' I thought to myself as I mentally pinpointed the things I was going to be using this time. 'It is so easy to get anything and everything.'
As the Militia jumped out of the safe house with bags of cash and drugs, I acted.
I teleported balloons filled with sulfuric acid and with an Explosive Tennisball already lit at the center of the sulfuric acid.
Boom.
Splat.
Screams.
Just to double tap on their downed form, I teleported another one among their screaming and face clutching forms.
Oh, I loved their expressions of horror that saw the second balloon before the second balloon exploded.
I doubled over laughing, and I barely managed to get the phone out and call Ben, the Riggies' boss.
"Okay, okay~. You can - HAHAHAHA - get them now."
Ben muttered something about poor bastards, and I just kept on laughing.
I didn't need to watch the Riggies send their gangsters in to make examples of the capes who killed their friends and robbed their stashes.