#5 Drago Hellstrom – Prisoner

In my cold cell, I sit and wait for my visitors. There is no question that there will be visitors. Despite the claims of many that I am a insane mass murderer that should be executed for the good of the world, there are many people who recognize the worth of amoral genius. So it is only a matter of time before they come for me. I don’t know who it will be, but it doesn’t matter. The outcome is the same.

Maybe it will be someone from the government, seeking new and greater weapons for their little wars. They come blustering about God, country and duty, all things that I have discarded in my youth. But I swallow my laughter and bargain with them. Sometimes I ask for freedom to work, sometimes just for a few books to read. Once I asked for a pizza from a restaurant on the other side of the country, just to see if they would get it for me. And when they give me what I ask for, they will receive a toy, a trinket or maybe just an insight. They will not understand it, regardless of the form that it comes in, but they will use anyway, congratulating themselves for destroying their enemies with most advanced weapons that exist.

They are an interesting diversion, but hardly satisfying to me.

No, the visitors that I truly enjoy are the heroes. They only come to me when all other options are expended and there is no hope left. And even then, some of them would still refuse to see me. But someone among them will swallow their pride and come to me. Unlike the pompous general and bureaucrats, I do not play games with these visitors. I take pains to be at my most sane and reasonable, freely giving whatever help I can and asking for nothing in return.

Not because I do not want to see them beg. While seeing them grovel would give me great pleasure, it is nothing compared to watching them after the crisis. The heroes stand before an adoring public, ecstatically grateful for being rescued them from another dire threat to the planet. And they will explain how they saved everything and then they will thank me. I, the brutal madman that routinely endangers the entire world, will be thanked by the greatest heroes of the world. It is delicious to watch the small twitches of disgust float across their face as they speak of my contributions.

But even better than receiving their praise is receiving nothing. When the heroes pretend that they I had no effect on the outcome. It is wonderful. Because eventually they will come to me again seeking my help and I will give it to them, freely and without comment. And on that day, they will look into my eyes and they will be shamed.

While I have no use for such useless emotions, to these heroes, they are everything. For me to show myself greater than them, It is a wound more devastating than any I could inflict by hand.

Category: 2011, Superhero