Later that night, Ethan took in his haul. A large pile of game consoles, controllers, wires, and video games sat in his hideout. Ethan had managed to steal every type of game console available, including some that had been discontinued. Ethan felt a touch of pride over grabbing such a valuable stock of electronics, but it barely covered up his lingering feeling of guilt.

  Not to mention the villain couldn’t help but feel he had gone overboard with the animal heists. A chimpanzee taking stuff from a closed shopping mall was weird, but benign enough so long as it only happened once. But having several other animals break in and steal from different stores across the city all in one night? That was suspicious.

  Though, Ethan couldn’t be bothered to care about that right now. If anything, he welcomed the extra scrutiny. With how everything was going so far, he’d clearly need it.

  Ethan examined his stolen goods, trying to figure out what to set up and play first. But the boy just couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm for games, so he gave up.

  Despite all of his hard work, he wasn’t in the mood to play anything. Stealing all this stuff in the first place was a good distraction for Ethan’s troubled mind. But now he was tired, and the guilt still wasn’t going away. The only thing keeping Ethan from calling it a night and collapsing in his bed was the fact that he’d be going to see Uncle Sunny when he did.

  Naturally, Ethan didn’t want to face his mentor after what happened. He didn’t feel like he had crossed the line, but this sensation of wrongdoing was making him uncertain about pretty much everything. Ethan’s hands clenched into fists as the nausea returned. He was so anxious his stomach was getting ready to throw out whatever it was holding.

  Could he just not go? Maybe. But he’d have some explaining to do next time they met, and there would be a next time, Ethan was sure of it. He doubted Sun Wukong would let Ethan skip his training for long. Even if he let Ethan opt out of his lessons for a time, eventually, he’d send someone to find the boy and ask what was going on. Maybe he’d show up himself, and wouldn’t that be a giant clusterfuck?

  Ethan let out a resigned sigh, there was nothing else he could do. He’d have to face the Monkey King sooner or later. Might as well get it over with now and think up ways to defend himself.

  “You’re distracted,” Uncle Sunny stated after their session. “Why?” Ethan couldn’t answer right away. Like his mentor stated, he’d been distracted during their lesson as the guilt gnawed at him. It made him anxious and kept him from focusing on his training, which ended with the Monkey King punching him in the face halfway through the bout, knocking Ethan to the ground. Uncle Sunny stopped the session there and Ethan still hadn’t picked himself up.

  The boy lay on the ground trying to catch his breath and get his thoughts in order. He wasn’t sure how to explain himself or even sort out what he was feeling. There was also the real possibility that Ethan had gone too far and would have to face the consequences, whatever they may be. But there was no going back now, The Monkey King noticed something was off with Ethan so whatever slim chance he had at hiding it was gone.

  “I beat up someone,” Ethan admitted with a huff. “And I went pretty hard…” Instantly some of the weight the kid was carrying disappeared, which was nice but did nothing for the anxiety. Ethan sat up and stared at a random spot in the cave, not wanting to meet Sun Wukong’s eyes. “There was this gang of thugs attacking this other guy. I stepped in and beat up a couple of them.”

  “Didn’t you say you wanted to be a villain?” Uncle Sunny asked, a note of amusement in his voice. “You seem to be saving a lot of people.”

  “I’m not trying to,” Ethan said bitterly. “I go after people who I can fight without freezing up or feeling guilty over. The best way I can tell if they’re bad guys is if they’re already beating someone up.”

  “Like with this gang you're talking about,” Sun Wukong surmised. “And yet you still feel guilty. Why?”

  “Because… I really hurt them…” Ethan admitted. “I hit one of them so hard he didn’t get back up… Then I just kept hitting their boss until one of them begged me to stop…”

  “Is that all?” The Monkey King asked. Ethan stared at his ancestor like he suddenly sprouted a second head, though that would be something he could do.

  “You… expected more?” Ethan asked hesitantly.

  “With how you're acting I expected you to say you killed someone.” Ethan briefly remembered one of the thugs claiming he killed a guy named Rikki but decided not to say anything. Those guys were scared and overreacting. They had to be. “I remember you saying you injured a demon badly but you didn’t act this. Why is that?”

  That was a good question. Why did Ethan feel guilty right now? Was it because he regretted what he did to those guys?

  No. Ethan didn’t regret his actions, if anything he felt like those punks got off lightly. Only two of them got beat up when the whole group shared their crime. So why was Ethan feeling bad over hurting them when he didn’t feel bad over the Demon Hillbilly?

  “I guess… because that was an accident,” Ethan assumed. “This wasn’t.”

  “So it seems like you're more distressed over why you acted, not specifically what you did,” The Monkey King stated.

  “I guess… I mean, I don’t regret what I did but I still feel awful. Why is that?”

  “That tends to happen when you act on hatred.”

  “What?”

  “You say you attacked this group because they were already attacking someone else. And while you claim not to have acted out of heroism, I bet you still sympathized with the victim's plight. You saw yourself in that boy and you decided to act in a way that was really more about standing up for yourself rather than him.”

  Ethan said nothing as he took in the Monkey King’s words. They made sense in a way, Ethan barely spared a thought for the victim, only bringing him up when he needed to justify beating up Jordan. While Ethan did feel sorry for the kid, his attack was more about unleashing his anger rather than dispensing justice.

  “So… I feel bad for giving into my anger…” Ethan surmised. “That… makes sense… I’m not proud of losing control like that… I’m not sorry about what I did but I don’t want to just fly off the handle like that.” Ethan nodded in his head, the last bit of weight sliding off his shoulders as the answer cleared his mind. Then, remembering what he confessed, looked over at his mentor with a bit of trepidation. “Am I in trouble?”

  “Hmm…” the Monkey King replied causing Ethan’s blood to run cold. “No. I feel this incident tows the line of what’s acceptable. But just barely.” That last sentence came with a warning tone that made Ethan that reintroduced his warming insides to icy dread. He had narrowly avoided being… well the Monkey King never said what he was going to do to Ethan if he went too far but the villain wasn’t going to test him.

  “I understand,” Ethan said with a low bow. It felt ridiculous but he wasn’t sure what else to do. The boy felt like he was treading thin ice, so it shouldn’t hurt to be extra respectful.

  “The path you’re on is a dangerous one,” the Monkey King stated. “Dangerous to both your body and your soul. For now, you’ve kept yourself restrained, but as more time passes, the greater risk you have of becoming something worse than what you envisioned. Someone I can no longer support. Be sure to keep that in mind.”

  “Of course,” Ethan said reverently. He left the cavern feeling free of his guilt but also conflicted about his future. Ethan wanted to be a villain, but Sun Wukong wouldn’t support him if he overstepped his bounds. Ethan didn’t want to lose Uncle Sunny’s support, so what did that leave him? Would Ethan still be a Villain if he only did petty and moderate crimes? Never hurting anyone, just being a nuisance? Was there a way to become a Villain without becoming a Monster?

  Ethan wasn’t sure what to do, but for now, he decided to table that dilemma. Once his Violence Training is done with, then he can worry about the kind of crimes Ethan Sun should and shouldn’t commit.

  The next morning heralded the weekend, and Ethan was determined to be productive. More people would be out and about, giving the would-be villain plenty of targets to choose from. And with his clones keeping an eye out for people Ethan could attack without shame, the Wukong could expect to have a day of pure criminality ahead of him. But first, he wanted to check on last night’s incident.

  Ethan didn’t want to think about the bullies he brutalized, but he’d be remiss not to see if his outrage bore the toxic fruit he was looking for. Ethan could easily see those punks blaming him for everything just to save their skins. Since the public only had their word for it, they’d instantly latch onto it and start smearing Ethan’s name for attacking minors. The idea gave Ethan some hope and he quickly looked up on his phone for any news.

  Ethan eventually found what he was looking for, but was disappointed to see he was only half-right. There was an online article about a group of boys bringing three other guys to a hospital. However, rather than talk about how the goons were attacked by a masked vigilante, the article spoke about an act of bullying gone wrong.

  Ethan was right when he thought those would try to shift the blame to avoid punishment. What he didn’t count on was for the thugs to pin everything on Jordan rather than him.

  The article talked about how Jordan made all of his friends gang up on this one guy who tried to stand up to him. After knocking the kid unconsious, Jordan wasn’t satisfied and demanded they all stomp him into the ground for good measure.

  His goons decided that was the last straw and stood up to Jordan. Jordan retaliated by beating up one guy, which explains Rikki’s condition, but the others stood their ground and fought Jordan together.

  It told a heroic tale of fighting bullies and seeking redemption, and it might have given some people a warm fuzzy feeling, but Ethan barely managed not to chuck his phone across the factory. He almost did too, but something grabbed his attention. A passage in the article that talked about Rikki.

  “The injured were all taken to Poppytown Central Hospital. Jordan McConnell and Theodore Mould are expected to make a full recovery with time, but Richard Aiello is currently in the ER. He’s expected to pull through but his injuries will likely lead to some form of brain damage.”

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  “Brain Damage…” Ethan whispered numbly. He swallowed nothing and suddenly had difficulty breathing. Rikki had brain damage. He did that. His first truly villainous act was to give a teenager head trauma. On the grand scale of things it was pretty small but it was still awful in its own right. That’s probably why Ethan felt ready to throw up again.

  Ethan found himself sliding down a wall to sit on the factory floor. His breath coming in shallow bursts as the hyperventilating started. The villain had to take a moment to stop panting before he could begin to process everything. The guilt came back in full force, naturally. Though rather than try to push it back, Ethan faced the nasty feeling inside of him.

  Rikki was in the hospital because of him, there was no denying that. He’ll be scared for life thanks to him. And if Ethan kept on trying to become a villain, Rikki wasn’t going to be his only victim. That’s something he has to come to terms with, Ethan can’t just break down each time he screws someone over. Hell, he has to do that in order to reach his goals. His enemies will never learn their lessons if they aren’t hurt in some way.

  Besides, Rikki had it coming. It was easy to get swept up in the pity party surrounding that punk, but Ethan knew better. The memory of Jordan’s gang of brutes laughing as they tried to stomp a kid’s whole body flat was still fresh in his mind. Ethan focused on that reminder, remembering the gang’s cruel laughter and the soft thuds of their kicks, then the regret faded away.

  There. Ethan didn’t ignore his guilt, he acknowledged it, then appeased it. That was the right way to do things.

  “Okay,” Ethan said, letting out a loud huff of relief. “Enough sulking. It’s time to get to work.”

  With his self-doubt out of the way, Ethan could get back to his training. And with it being Saturday, the issues at home should be kept at a minimum. Just to be safe, Ethan quickly checked in with his clones at home. They reported that everything was normal for now, though they did note that Leonora’s homework wasn’t in the folder they got yesterday. Looks like the psychotic blonde realized she was on her own when it came to schoolwork.

  Ethan felt a bit satisfied learning that he finally got Leonora to back off, but he wouldn’t let her off the hook. There was far too much bad blood between them for Ethan to forgive her now. That slap the other day being the most recent of the many grievances he had against her. Some day, Ethan would make sure Leonora paid for her cruelties against Ebenezer, along with the rest of those bastards in that school of his.

  But he needed to finish his training first. Ethan needed the guts to do some real damage or things would never change, and his enemies would never get their just deserts. All yesterday’s incident did was show Ethan one of the lines he shouldn’t cross. Revenge was fine so long as he didn’t go too far. Admittedly, Ethan wasn’t sure what counted as “too far” other than maiming someone, but he still had a clearer picture of his limits.

  “Okay, guys,” Ethan said as he reached out to his other clones. “I’m ready to keep going. What do you got?” His doubles hadn’t stopped searching the city for targets so they should have a few people Ethan could go after.

  “And we got some prime targets for you!” a copy’s excited voice replied. “We scouted most of the city and found over 100 people that are perfect for you!”

  “Seriously?!” Ethan asked in shock. He was expecting a handful of quarry at most, not a hundred.

  “Yeah! We don’t need to sleep or eat so we kept searching non-stop. After we found a target we assigned a clone to shadow them until you were ready to deal with them. We ran out of watchers somewhere in the early morning, but we still got a good haul.”

  “That’s… awesome,” Ethan said stunned.

  “We aim to please!” the double cheered. “So, who do you feel like going after today? I’d recommend the corrupt cop that moonlights as a domestic abuser, the vampire succubus who seems to get off on ruining marriages, or the rich kid that’s hired a bunch of goons to stalk and harass the girl he likes.”

  Damn. Those all sounded like prime targets. Even better, if Ethan went after that cop, he’d be guaranteed to become a villain. Poppytown still venerated their policeman so attacking one would instantly crush Ethan’s hero reputation! It should’ve been a no-brainer, but the future villain hesitated in choosing that one.

  “The cop…” Ethan asked carefully. “What does he do?”

  “He regularly beats his wife,” the double responded. “He hasn’t touched his kid yet, but given his temper he’ll probably start at some point.” Ethan swallowed as his anxiety spiked. He’d have no problem going after the cop but there was a high chance the attack would end the same way it did with Jordan.

  He could see it now… Ethan going to the officer’s house, planning a controlled but violent surprise attack. He watches the cop through a window or something, and catches him hitting his wife. The wife falls to the ground and the policeman is screaming or laughing. And the wife on the ground crying, looking helpless and trapped…

  Ethan could feel the anger bubble inside him despite only thinking about a possibility. Ethan could see himself losing control over this police officer if he sees him beating up his wife. He may not have been in that exact situation, but it’s similar enough that Ethan could get enraged and treat the cop as a stand in for Menelaus.

  Ethan really didn’t want to use the word “abuse” when thinking about his father, even as it slowly becomes the only thing that describes their relationship. The second the boy attached that word to his parents, that was the point of no return. He couldn’t pretend everything was alright and that they were a normal family anymore.

  Ethan shook his head to clear the depressing thought. Now was not the time to get lost in his familial issues. He had to get on with the more important issues of hardening his nerves.

  “You said there was a vampire,” Ethan asked, hoping his clones wouldn’t point out the change in subject.

  There were rumors that there were vampires in the city. Ethan saw some mentions of sightings online that people claimed were vampires, but he didn’t put much faith in them given the locals’ habit for jumping at shadows. But now that Ethan thought about it, it was strange he never heard about people checking out those rumors. The citizens of Poppytown would demand some form of investigation, but as far as the Wukong knew, there wasn’t one.

  “A nasty piece of work,” the double answered, his tone full of disgust. “The lady has a gaggle of men she’s enslaved. All of them married, or I’m guessing they’re married, since a woman showed up looking for her husband. You should’ve seen it… the lady was half-crazed with desperation and when she saw her husband literally slaving away for another woman… It was heartbreaking. But the vampire just laughed in her face.”

  “Yeesh…” was all Ethan could say. He definitely wouldn’t feel bad about beating up this woman. The only thing that was holding Ethan back was the finer details surrounding this lady, or more precisely, her species.

  Vampires were a mixed bag, some were little more than pests that could be dealt with by anyone who had the right tools. But other were more dangerous, some even having otherworldly power that made them a threat to even the strongest of Gifted.

  From what Ethan knew, the difference between the two was both age and control. Vampires were more dangerous the older they got and the more control they had over their urges. Ethan wasn’t sure how strong this undead woman was, but given how she was enslaving guys instead of draining them dry, it meant she had some level of control. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to fight her.

  To top it all off, this bloodsucker wasn’t a common crook or an asshole being a nuisance. This woman was a bonafide villain, brainwashing men for her own amusement. If Ethan Sun took her out and people learned about it, his Heroic reputation would no doubt get worse. And according to his doubles, this vampiress had a harem of witnesses. It might be better to leave her alone for now.

  “Tell me about this rich kid.”

  “It seems like a typical story of a spoiled brat lashing out after not getting what he wants,” his clone replied. “Though in this case, the brat is psychotic and is willing to send goons out to bully anyone he doesn’t like.”

  “But he’s sending them after a girl he likes?”

  “Yeah. From what we gathered, he asked her out, she said no, and now he’s sending out goons to make her life hell until she changes her mind. We just watched them wreck her parents' car.”

  “Okay, he’ll do.” Compared to the other two this wealthy nutjob would be the easiest to manage. Essentially this guy was another bully, but he should be different enough that Ethan wouldn’t lose control when teaching him a lesson. None of Ebenezer’s classmates sent hoodlums to stalk him. Plus, he’d probably get some bonus training in by fighting off his thugs.

  Ethan was going to ask for details… but something gnawed at him. He didn’t have any reservations about going after the rich kid, but Ethan still had this uncomfortable feeling. The kind of dreadful foreboding you get when you knowingly put off something important. Ethan could instantly guess what that “important” thing was. The Cop and the Vampire.

  They were hurting people, and they weren’t going to stop. Ethan had the power to make them stop, but he was choosing not to. If he ignored them now, any further damage caused by those two would be partly because of him. Could he live with himself if he turned his head away from people suffering out of convenience?

  Ethan grits his teeth in frustration. The indecision and contradiction of his emotions caused his leftover anger to boil over. It was bad enough his niceness was getting in the way of his Violence training, but now it was demanding he acted like a Hero?! That was bullshit! All his Niceness ever did was make him weak and vulnerable. It allowed him to be picked on by scum of the earth like his classmates and his father! He should just-!

  “Boss?” the clone called, snapping Ethan out of his spiral. He was suddenly shivering, his body trembling over the dark rage that had come over him. He took a breath to calm down and answer his double.

  “I’m fine,” Ethan said without prompting. “We’ll go after all of them. The rich psycho first. I can handle him easily enough. As for the other two… I’ll need to think up some plans for them…” The bloodsucker would be dangerous and the policeman would be… complicated. If Ethan was going to fight them he’ll need contingencies in place in case things went wrong. And given his track record, things would inevitably go wrong.

  “You said you have the other clones watching more targets?”

  “Yeah, they’re all still in their bird forms and no one’s noticed them.”

  “Alright. Tell me where the rich kid is and I’ll deal with him. Along the way, I’ll make more clones and have them watch the Cop and Vampire. Not sure what I’m going to do with them yet, but I’ll probably need the backup.”

  “Good thinking, Boss!” The clone replied. A second later, Ethan knew where to find the wealthy stalker. With a determined huff, Ethan stomped out of his hideout. Despite the setbacks, Ethan wasn’t going to stop pursuing his goals. He will become a villain, and then he’d be free.