Villain Retirement

Thousandblade.

Not much is known about him. He was a superhero that was active during the 70s when media wasn't as prevalent as it is now… and that's it– not much is known about him, after all.

But perhaps now, he will be known throughout the world. After all, he was inside the Paige and Paragon Superhero Agency– and supers belonging to an agency have the duty…

…to livestream everything they were doing.

"You… what are you doing?"

Thousandblade then watched as Paragon just casually walked away, kicking the two corpses beside him so he could move without any obstacles. Thousandblade thought that he was going to attack, if so, then he actually already had something prepared for Paragon– once he came into range, he would slice him up into a million pieces.

Contrary to his expectations, however, Paragon… turned away from him as he grabbed something from his pocket– a phone.

And as soon as Thousandblade saw this, he quickly rushed towards him, holding a pencil in his hand that seemed to cause the air itself to split.

"Youngsters don't really know any–"

And before Thousandblade could finish his words, he found his wrist suddenly grabbed by Paragon; his back was still turned, his eyes, not even glancing or looking at him. And without even turning back, Paragon raised his foot and kicked Thousandblade back to his seat.

The kick didn't seem strong as it didn't really cause Thousandblade to roll and fly away… but why did it feel like he was just hit by a truck and then something just caught him from behind?

"..." He… was starting to have a bad feeling about this, he thought as he watched as Paragon continued to move around. If Paragon wanted to escape, then this would be the best chance to do so, but no.

Instead, he walked around the lobby while holding his phone– until finally placing it on some sort of stand… facing the lens of the camera towards Thousandblade before casually proceeding to return to him.

And without even any word or warning… Paragon suddenly punched Thousandblade right on the face… completely dislocating the old man's jaw.

***

In a random house somewhere, a skinny young man with hair that reached his shoulders had his head almost buried in his monitor. His finger, almost endlessly scrolling as he had been trying to find something to watch for more than 3 hours now.

He was currently scrolling through Tremor– the most popular streaming platform used by Superhero Agencies to promote and publish their supers. There were thousands of streams, but Nick, the skinny young man, could not choose what to watch.

All of them were pretty boring– he had also been trying to find the more popular ones like the Baby Crew, Silvie, and Golden Fox, but they were not really on Tremor. One of the members of the Baby Crew, Monarch, used to be there… but deleted his account as soon as it was revealed that he was Megawoman's son.

And so, there truly wasn't anything interesting to watch; but still, Nick continued to scroll down… until he found himself in the deepest parts of Tremor– the New Streamer category.

"..." The only thing he could do was let out a sigh, however, as most of the new streamers just post videos about their training and helping people cross the street.

"Boring."

"Boring."

"Boooring."

Nick continued to scroll only stopping when he sniffled and wiped his nose. He scrolled more another entire minute, before shaking his head and letting out a disappointed sigh. He was about to leave the New Streamer category when a new stream suddenly popped out at the very top of the list.

"Hm? Cute," Nick scoffed as he looked at when the account was created– just a few hours ago. And seeing as the preview was still completely black, then that would mean the streamer was just preparing.

The newbie was probably just testing out how Tremor works. Maybe a little help could go a long way, Nick thought as he entered the stream chat.

"You need to press the icon in the lower-left that looks like a camera with an arrow to share your camera with us," Nick whispered as he typed. And without even a second later, his comment was liked by the streamer.

"Hm, cute," Nick once again scoffed as he nodded to himself. He was about to close the stream, but before he could do so… blood and guts quickly filled his screen.

"!!!" Nick almost jumped back; his eyes, completely blurry as they started to adjust from having been removed away from the screen for the first time in hours. But before it could even have a chance to clear… Nick quickly planted his eyes back on the monitor.

"W… what the fuck?" Nick took in a small gulp as he focused on the screen. And it would seem he wasn't hallucinating– a man was currently split in half, his guts all over the floor, "What… the fuck is this? Is…

…is this a villain's stream?"

Nick was about to click the report button, but then the camera started to move… this time, it showed a woman that was crucified on a wall.

"Oh… fuck," Nick truly wanted to report it– but by doing so, his account would lose access to the video instantly. And so, the only thing Nick could really do was continue to watch.

Until finally... a series of rattles drummed in Nick's ears as the streamer seemed to have found a place to put his camera on– and there, he finally saw what the streamer looked like.

"..." It seemed to be a young man? With long black hair; his face, most of his face, covered by some sort of futuristic white mask. No, it wasn't only his face– his entire outfit seemed futuristic. It was somewhat hard to see, however…

…as it was covered in blood.

[...Is this working now, viewer?]

"..."

"..."

"Y… yes," Nick once again whispered as he typed.

[Thank you. My name is Paragon– and right now, my Superhero Agency has been breached by someone named Thousandblade, trespassing and killing most of the entire staff.]

"Super… hero agency? He wasn't a villain?" Nick then continued to watch as Paragon stepped out of view, revealing an old man sitting on a sofa, "What the fuck is happening? Is that the one he called Thousandblade?"

And before Nick could type again, he saw Paragon approaching the old man… and punching him on the head without even saying another word.

"Oh fuck!" Nick could only close his fist as he watched as the old man's jaw was almost torn off from his face. Nick stared at this for a few seconds, before looking at his extra monitor and searching for information about the streamer– and the first one that popped out was the incident with Matchstick.

"Cut off Matchstick's hands… then apprehended a truck driver… what?" Nick tried searching for more, but that was it. But that was really all he needed to know about Paragon.

He… was fucking hardcore.

[F… fu–]

[Please don't curse. There might be children watching.]

"!!!"

Nick then watched as Thousandblade waved something towards Paragon… only for it to completely… melt? It was hard to see since they were a bit far, but it looked like whatever Thousandblade tried to stab through Paragon just melted as soon as it made contact with his suit.

And hearing Thousandblade scream as a huge chunk of his hand also completely… disappeared, it would seem that really was the case. According to the article Paragon was capable of summoning some sort of lightsword that could tear through a steel truck like it was butter… Did he cover his entire body with that?

"..." Nick then once again looked at his other monitor to search information about Thousandblade, but only a handful of articles popped up. He was trying to find out what Thousandblade's power was… and finally, as he reached the end, he was able to see it.

Thousandblade has the ability to turn anything into a sharp object– a paper, cotton, or even a feather. But it also says that although it was not as strong, Thousandblade also had Super Durability and Super Strength.

He was a superhero– but disappeared when… he accidentally killed a supervillain's entire family.

Nick once again turned his focus on the livestream, only to see Thousandblade's face already completely caved in. He seemed to still be alive since his limbs were wriggling as Paragon still continued to smash his face in.

But after a few more seconds, Thousandblade completely ceased to move. And almost as if he had just finished doing the dishes, Paragon just shrugged his shoulders and walked away– flinging his hand to wave off all the blood and flesh that was stuck on his gauntlet.

He then turned his eyes towards the camera, causing Nick to flinch even though he was on the other side of the screen. And then, very slowly, Paragon walked back to his camera and grabbed it.

[Thank you for watching.]

Nick then heard Paragon's voice as he once again walked with his phone… before putting Thousandblade's completely crushed head in view.

[I hoped you enjoyed watching a criminal die.]

And with those words, the stream once again turned black.

"W… what?"

Leaving Nick completely baffled. Did… he truly just witness someone getting executed live?

"Oh… fuck… fuck, fuck!" Nick then turned his head… towards a camera that was placed behind his monitors,

"Did… did you guys just see what I saw!? Oh, fuck!" He then said– after all, Nick was also live…

…and with more than a thousand viewers watching him react to other people's streams.

"Who the fuck is this new superhero crazy motherfucker!?"