Chapter 1 - I Didn't Know That Raising A Ghost Army In An Abandoned, Possibly Haunted House Was Illegal

Art by NeverCatchMe

On the night before the last day of my junior year of high school, I found myself stealing souls, visiting a haunted mansion, battling Captain Fedora, and baking a batch of rather tasty blueberry muffins. It wasn't exactly a typical night for me, but I can't say that it was completely abnormal either. It was just another day in the life of my alter ego, the Dastardly Demon.

Forgive me - I should probably start from the beginning. It all began when I got home from school that day. I was about to start studying for my English final, but a nagging feeling in my stomach distracted me. It was impossible to focus on whatever had happened in The Scarlet Letter with that sort of pain gnawing at me from the inside, and before long, I had not only a stomach ache, but a headache as well, and my left leg was beginning to throb. By the time I finished reviewing my notes, I knew what was going on.

I hadn't used my superpowers in nearly three months.

Nobody really knew what happened to people who didn't use their powers, but the rumors didn't give anyone much hope. During my time at the Academy, I had heard of an experiment where a group of superhumans were forced to go without using their powers. Their health had steadily worsened, going from mild aches and pains to organ failure over the course of a year as their powers ate them from the inside out. Like many things in the superhuman community, it was a story told in hushed whispers, never confirmed by the Academy, but that didn't mean that it wasn't true.

I knew what I had to do as soon as I realized that this wasn't an ordinary illness. I felt an impulse to use my powers as soon as possible, but I took a deep breath and tried to contain the urge. My house was definitely not the best place to use my powers. Dad was the only one who was home, and I would never forgive myself if I took his soul. I had to find a better way to get this over with.

I thought of the graveyard on the outskirts of San Urbano, where there might be a few recently dead people who probably wouldn't mind me stealing their souls. It was the best chance that I had at using my powers without harming anyone else. I opened the door and was about to leave when Dad called from the living room, "Jay! Where are you going?"

"It's kind of complicated," I said. "I'll explain later. Can I please borrow the car?"

"Oh, I see," Dad said. "Is this one of your supervillain exploits?" I nodded, and Dad shrugged and said, "I suppose you can borrow the car. Just be back before eleven o'clock this time." He then returned to his novel. Thankfully, he never asked too many questions. He seemed to think that it was better not to know too much about my superpowers, which was probably true, but it was hard not being able to share a huge portion of my life with my dad.

I left the house, hopped into Dad's black SUV, and drove down one of San Urbano's winding streets until it led me to the graveyard that I was looking for. I parked the car and entered the graveyard. Once I was in the cemetery, I walked past each grave and read the dates engraved on them. Almost every grave was far too old for me to use. I couldn't steal someone's soul if they had been dead for too long, although I couldn't figure out why. Even after four years, there were still so many things that I didn't understand about my own powers.

After some searching, I found what I was looking for. There was a woman who had been buried in the graveyard just a week earlier. I stood in front of her grave and let my powers surge through me, just as they had taught me at the Academy. I could feel the energy cascading through my veins, and I focused on the woman resting six feet below me. According to her tombstone, her name was Irene Bronson. I repeated her name in my mind, and at once, I began to tremble. That was when I knew that it had worked. I had stolen Irene Bronson's soul.

For a moment, I doubted myself. What if this wasn't as harmless as I thought it was? I didn't know if I was affecting Irene Bronson at all by stealing her soul. For all I knew, I could be screwing her over in the afterlife. It's better than stealing souls from the living, I told myself. I know that's giving them a fate worse than death. I don't know what happens when I steal from the dead, but it has to be better than what happens to the living. Despite that thought, I still worried that I might be doing something horrible to Ms. Bronson, but the deed was done. Once I had stolen someone's soul, there was no way that I knew of to give it back.

I looked up from Irene Bronson's grave. Next to the graveyard, there was an old, abandoned mansion. All of the horrible things that might be inside flashed through my mind, but I decided to take a look inside anyways. I couldn't release her soul, but I might be able to let it run free in the mansion.

The front door creaked as I pulled it open, but the house itself was empty. I entered the mansion, and let my powers surge through me once again. As I did, dozens of ghosts materialized around me and began to float through the mansion. I watched all of those souls wander around, exploring the mansion. They were still mine - they could never return to their bodies - but it made me feel a little bit better that they could have a few moments of freedom.

I cursed myself again for having such awful powers, even though it wasn't exactly my fault. I knew plenty of people who could fly or lift heavy objects or talk to animals or do all kinds of things that actually helped other people, but I was stuck with stealing souls. It seemed so unfair, yet I tried my best not to pity myself too much. I couldn't use my powers for good, but that didn't mean that I had to use them for evil. Even though the newspapers labeled people like me as "supervillains," that didn't mean that I actually had to be one.

I rested on an old wooden chair, tracking the ghosts that floated by. When I looked at the clock, I saw that I still had another two hours before I had to be home. I could let the ghosts have another few hours of freedom, and then I would have to return home and get some studying done. Hopefully, that would be enough time to satisfy them. I leaned back into the chair and closed my eyes, hoping for a quick nap before I had to go home.

All of a sudden, the door opened. I jerked upwards and saw that there was a man at the door. I couldn't tell exactly how old he was, although he couldn't have been more than a few years older than I was. His face was concealed by a black domino mask, but his brightly colored costume and the black fedora perched on top of his head gave his identity away. "Captain Fedora," I mumbled.

"The Dastardly Demon," he said as he stepped closer to me. "Did you really think that you'd get away with this?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.

"Likely story," Captain Fedora said with a chuckle. "Raising a ghost army in a haunted mansion is illegal under state and federal law. I'm surprised that you didn't know that."

"First of all, I wasn't raising an army. Second, I'm the only person that I know of who could do something like that," I said. "I doubt that the law would be that specific."

"I don't know," Captain Fedora admitted. "I'm just going off of what the Academy told me. Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. I could just take you to the police station, or perhaps the Academy could find a use for a piece of supervillain scum like yourself..."

No matter what happened, I couldn't go back to the Academy. I sprinted out the door, but I knew that it was useless. Captain Fedora would use his super speed to catch up to me, and I would be doomed. When I looked back, however, I saw that he was using a different tactic. His fedora had begun to glow a sickly green color, and just as I turned a corner, he caught up to me, took off his fedora, and shot a beam of energy directly at me. I ducked just in time to avoid the energy beam, and I focused on regaining control of the ghosts that were roaming around the mansion. I commanded them to attack the Captain, and while he was distracted trying to fight off the ghosts, I sprinted towards my car.

Unfortunately, the distraction didn't last long. Captain Fedora fought off the ghosts faster than I could summon them towards him, and by the time I made it to my car, he was right in front of me again. I looked around and realized that there was nowhere to go. No matter where I ran, Captain Fedora would catch me.

That was when I realized that there was a direction where Captain Fedora couldn't follow me: up.

I focused my powers once again, and this time, I morphed into a demon. My fingers transformed into claws as wings sprouted from my back and I flew up into the sky. Captain Fedora gave me an irritated look and then circled around the city at an inhumanly fast speed as I bolted into the clouds. I couldn't help but laugh as I watched the city's greatest superhero run around like an overgrown toddler. I had already won. Once Captain Fedora gave up, I could fly back down to my car and drive home.

My celebrations were a little bit premature. When I looked down, I saw that Captain Fedora had gone missing. I flew a little bit lower to search for him, and after I looked around for a while, I figured out where he was. He's climbing up the Central Tower's fire escape, I realized. Sure enough, he had slowed down to a normal speed, but he was halfway up one of the tallest buildings in San Urbano already. I drifted further downwards and floated over the Central Tower, hoping that Captain Fedora wouldn't make it to the top.

As it turned out, I was right. He climbed carefully, but he lost his grip near the top and tumbled towards the ground. I watched in shock from the top of Central Tower for a few minutes before I decided that I had to do something. Captain Fedora may have been my greatest enemy, and it wasn't unheard of for heroes or villains to die in battle, but that didn't mean that he deserved death. I swooped downwards, catching Captain Fedora in mid-air, and then placed him gently on the ground. After I landed, I transformed back into a human and told the Captain, "Let's make a deal. In exchange for saving your life, can you please not tell either the police or the Academy about the ghosts?"

"I suppose we can do that," Captain Fedora said. "We're not done though." His fedora began to glow a sickly green color again, and before I could react, he blasted me in the shoulder with his fedora. I let out a cry of pain, but Captain Fedora was already gone. I walked back to my car, grasping my wounded shoulder. Captain Fedora and I had both spared ourselves the embarrassment of a defeat, but this meant that he would be back. It was only a matter of time before I had to do something like this again.

Driving wasn't easy with a wounded shoulder, but at least I was home before curfew. As usual, Dad didn't ask any questions, although he did give me a confused look. "I got into a fight with Captain Fedora," I explained. "He thought that I was raising a ghost army in an abandoned mansion."

"I never understood your mother's job, and I don't think that I understand you either, Jay," Dad said. He paused and then added, "It's probably better that way."

I headed back into my bedroom, took off my shirt, and inspected my shoulder. The injury didn't look too bad - it wasn't much worse than a sunburn. It still throbbed with pain, but I suspected that it would be better by the time I got to school the next day.

Already, my night had been insane. I needed a way to calm down, and as I rubbed some lotion over the wound and then put my shirt back on, I came up with an idea. Baking was always a good stress reliever for me, and my classmates would probably appreciate homemade muffins on the last day of school.

Perhaps I wasn't exactly a stereotypical supervillain, but stereotypes were overrated anyways. I headed out to the kitchen, took a deep breath, and started working on my muffins, hoping that I could forget about my powers and the drama that came with them for a little while.

A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you guys like Villains For Hire so far! If anyone is interested in illustrating parts of this story, please let me know - I'm trying to have illustrations to go with each chapter. Also, am I the only one who seems to always get notifications that my titles are too long? I think I'm turning into Fever-era Panic! with my chapter titles xD

Thanks for reading! :D