Supervillain

"I had expected more from you, Felix," Professor Dietrich sighed. "You weren't my best student – no offense – but you had a real work ethic when you first came to class. Now? You're asking me for a do-over because you missed my exam."

Felix's head sunk. "I was in the hospital, professor," he said as an excuse.

"And why were you in the hospital? As I understand it, you were there because of an unfortunate training accident. Did you really think boxing was a great idea in the middle of finals week?" Professor Dietrich looked at him, daring Felix to disagree. Felix found he couldn't; the old man was right. Maybe superheroing could take a back seat, just for a little while.

"You're right, professor. I shouldn't have been boxing. Is there any way I can take it with a point deduction?"

"10% off is the best I'm willing to do, Felix. You realize how little room for error you have on this exam, right?" Professor Dietrich asked sternly. Given that Felix's grade was already about to tumble into the 80% range, he needed to ace this exam. Professor Dietrich had just set another obstacle in the way of doing that, but it was an obstacle Felix felt he deserved.

"I do, professor. Thank you so much for this chance," he said, backing out of the room and running back to his room, where a small mound of study materials had amassed since his return. His other exams were done – it was Wednesday, and only Professor Dietrich had chosen to hold his final exam toward the end of the week. The rest of his time would be entirely dedicated to studying. His grade-point average was incredibly important for getting any future work with Green Dawn. While being a superhero was cool, his end goal was still to be one of the pioneers that ventured through space.

And beside that, his mom and dad would be furious if he started slipping in his schoolwork because of something as 'stupid' as fighting. He'd get the lecture of a lifetime, especially if Christina snitched about all of his visits to Kyle's hospital.

Felix took his place in front of the mountain of notes and began to sift through them like some kind of human laser, scanning each and every page in hopes of remembering things he shouldn't have forgotten in the first place.

This was hardly his best way of studying, but given his time constraints, he didn't really have the luxury of doing it any other way. Professor Dietrich had scheduled his make-up date for the following morning, leaving him with exactly sixteen hours to remember all of Calculus 3.

Felix cursed at himself as he worked, ignoring the occasional phone call that tried to get through. He was in the zone – an angry zone – and he was going to make the best of it: without interruptions. To that end, he turned off his phone with the hand that wasn't holding a notecard and focused on memorizing the formula at hand.

For an hour, he cycled through flash cards, going through everything from trigonometry to limits, the latter being fancy math speak for getting infinitely close to something. He was just about finished with this stage of his plan when there was a loud banging at his door.

It was incessant and obnoxious. Someone either really had to tell him something, or they really hated him and wanted to bother him. Felix groaned as he got up from the position he'd been frozen in, shaking out the sleep from his legs.

Garrett stumbled through the open doorway before Felix even had the opportunity to say hello. "Dude, I've been trying to call you all day!"

"Sorry, Garrett. I've been busy trying to learn calculus. What's up?" Felix was starting to get worried at the sweat that literally poured off of his best friend. Whatever this was, it was urgent.

"Turn on the news," Garret commanded. When Felix didn't make a move, Garrett added, "please?"

Felix autopiloted himself to the TV, thinking about all the things that could be on the news that would get Garrett up in such a tizzy. On the one hand, it could have been some kind of incredible play in Garrett's favorite esports game. On the other, maybe it had something to do with superheroes?

Garrett was a huge superhero buff, and he watched all the stuff relating to them like they were part of some holy scripture. Felix would have put all of his money on the line that Derrick Thompson had come out and said something again.

Except, it wasn't Derrick Thompson's face that came to life on the screen. No, it was someone Felix had never seen before, with a huge, black mustache and a thin, wiry frame. Felix couldn't even take in the rest of his features, since he was dressed like a superhero, if superheroes wore all black and laughed maniacally.

The newsman's voice spoke over a silent video of the man that had just appeared as a picture. "This superpowered maniac has taken control of the Eastman Tower, demanding a twenty-million-dollar ransom be paid before he lets its occupants go. He warns that he will destroy the tower if he is met with ay resistance."

Meanwhile, the screen flipped to a different video of, one with sound. In it, the man in question was addressing a crowd of followers. "Today, you witness the result of this world's hypocrisy. They cry out for justice and kindness, but when Supers learn to do something no one else can, they seek to shut us out, calling us villains. They've always wanted a villain. Today, I'll give one to them. I am Blast, and I will not stand for this." Then, Blast turned to address the camera directly.

"You have twenty-four hours to pay me the ransom. Tick, tock, tick, tock!"

Felix cursed as the newsman took his rightful position back.

"I know, right?" Garrett said, softly. "West City is home to the world's first supervillain."