“Heroes & Villains” by Harper Kingsley
Genre: superhero, action, adventure, mm
Rating: Adult for language and violence
Word count: 135,000+ (540 manuscript pages)
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Summary: As the superhero Starburst, Vereint received only derision and mockery. All his heroic endeavors resulted in nothing but humiliation. No matter how hard he tried, the world could only see him as a joke.
Eventually he was pushed into the life of a supervillain. He changed his name to Darkstar and began his reign over Megacity. He was unstoppable… yet somehow he managed to fall into myth and legend.
“Heroes & Villains” details the budding relationship between Vereint Georges and Warrick Tobias as they explore the idea of a superhero and a supervillain falling in love. It is a story of friendship, affection, romance, and super battles.
Sometimes Vereint/Darkstar can’t help being a jerk. Even if he’s got himself a captive audience:
Warrick wasn’t quite sure how he had ended up in this situation, but he had a feeling it might possibly be karma from some crimes he had committed so far in his past he didn’t even remember them. He’d probably cooked and eaten babies or something, ’cause that’s the only thing he could see as being bad enough to make him deserve this hell.
He was sitting on a dilapidated couch in an abandoned building with a supervillain lounging on an old mattress in the corner. “This is definitely not how I expected to spend my day,” he said.
Darkstar was amazingly young and good looking for someone that had decided to devote his life to evil. He was lying on his back with his arms folded behind his head, not even the overlarge and unattractive clothing able to detract from his superhuman beauty.
More than anything, Warrick wanted to hit the guy. There was no way anyone should be that good looking without even having to try.
“I’m sorry the accommodations couldn’t be more up to your exacting standards, but really, this whole situation was just kind of thrust upon me,” Darkstar said. “I was in the bank to do normal bank stuff. It’s just that the minute I was recognized, it all of a sudden became the scene of *my* crime, even though I was just a hapless bystander.”
“Wow, you get all talky when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, don’t you?” Warrick sniped.
He was half-tempted just to leave, but he knew he couldn’t break his word. There was no way that Darkstar was going anywhere, and he really didn’t want some future situation where he would really need some trust and goodwill from the supervillain, only not to have it because he threw it away just because he could.
“So I didn’t have time to plan this all out, that just goes to show that I wasn’t really doing anything wrong in the bank until the cops decided I was a criminal just for being there,” Darkstar said.
“You *are* a criminal. Sure, you weren’t doing anything this time, but what about all the times before? They saw you there, and you’re a wanted criminal. Of course they were going to call the League to get you,” Warrick said.
Darkstar growled in frustration. “If I’m always a criminal, then how come I don’t get more trouble when I’m going around my daily business?”
“Because you’re also an Omega-class metahuman and most cops are just normals. Still, if they see you using your powers and they for sure know you’re you, of course they’re going to come after you.”
“That’s stupid,” Darkstar said. “And by the way, I have never been convicted of any crime. In fact, I have never been arrested in my entire life. I even pay all my parking tickets.”
“Which makes you the most model citizen in the world, ever,” Warrick said sarcastically.
Darkstar huffed loudly. “God, but you’re kind of fucking annoying, you know?”
“You’re the one that brought me here,” Warrick pointed out. “If it were up to me, I would definitely not be caught dead in a dump like this.”
Darkstar sat up, looking around. “I don’t know. This place is really not that bad, considering I don’t have to pay rent on it or anything.”
“And how can you lie on that mattress? It’s filthy. And probably loaded with hobo urine.” He hadn’t been able to help that last. It had just kind of slipped through on him.
Darkstar looked at him in shock for a moment, then gave a surprised laugh. “I always thought you had a complete stick up your ass, but you’re actually pretty funny.”
“Uh, thank you?” Warrick said.
Darkstar laughed again, a strangely bright sound. “You’re welcome. And now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’ve figured out what we’re going to do for your visit here.”
“Oh yeah, and what’s that?” Warrick asked, trying not to be nervous.
“We’re just going to hang out for a while, get to know each other,” Darkstar said, wrapping his arms around his knees.
“And why would we want to do that?” Warrick asked.
“Simple,” Darkstar said. “We’ve never had a very good relationship. But now that we’re going to be arch-nemesises, nemesi, well, best-enemies forever, we need to get to know each other better. Because there’s no reason we have to be so negative toward each other just because we try to kill each other all the time.”
Warrick snorted. “I have never tried to kill you. It’s against League rules.”
“Whatever,” Darkstar said. “We at least try to beat the crap out of each other on a regular basis. And if we’re going to have a long-term antagonistic relationship, well, we might as well know each other a little better. Don’t you think?”
“Actually, I’ve never really thought about it,” Warrick said. “But, I don’t think you’re quite the guy I want to be trading recipes with. No offense or anything.”
“No offense taken,” Darkstar said, sounding terribly amused. “Still, we are going to get to know each other.”
“Whether I like it or not?” Warrick asked, raising an eyebrow over his mask.
“Exactly,” Darkstar said, laughing. “You being here against your will actually kind of adds to the thrill of it all for me. You’re my newest acquisition in my rise to owning this town completely.”
“You do not own Megacity,” Warrick corrected. “And you certainly don’t own me.”
Darkstar didn’t say anything, just gave him a smirk.
Warrick growled and crossed his arms, leaning back on the couch. This was starting to be one of those days that never ended.
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