The Hero to my Villain au
Once upon a time, Hero and Villain's fights were epic encounters on which the world's destiny depended. It was a time of chaos and stress.
However, in the last 20 years, peace has come, and heroes and villains are more acts of showmanship and entertainment than anything else. So, while petty crime is still a bit issue, the world isn't in a lot of danger anymore; the biggest known Super Villains are the Germa 66 group, a group consisting of the Mad Scientist Mother and her 4 kids, all of whom mostly use their stunts to show off and sell their technology, as the main rivals of Vegapunk, who does much of the same but with the heroes.
One of these heroes, and a very popular one at that, is Fire Fist (secret identity: Portgas D. Ace), who also happens to be the one person always getting in Germa's "Sparking Red"'s way, their rivalry well known and witnessed. It's a casual rivalry, a fun dynamic that both hero and villain revel in.
So casual is the relationship between Super Heroes and Super Villains that some rivals even exchange contacts, and the more bold don't fear sharing their secret identities.
Ace doesn't know the real identity of Sparking Red, but by the time he's become a well-known and beloved household name of Vegapunk's Super Heroes, he already has Sparking Red in his contacts and chats with the guy semi-regularly. It's fun; the man chats overly formally and seriously, juxtaposing with his over-the-top villain persona, which is bratty and arrogant and yet easy to fluster when Ace says anything even slightly flirty.
It's after he's had a hard fight against another villain that he sees Sparking Red's message, "I'm the only one allowed to defeat you" (as if it wasn't Ace constantly defeating him over half the time), it gives him a strange feeling, it makes him nervous in an unfamiliar way.
He ignores it and goes on as usual.
Then a new hero arrives and starts taking Sparking Red's villain time. It starts simply, he joins Fire Fist and Sparking Red's fight, offering to help the hero (and Ace can't merely reject that), but it continues until he's suddenly having 1v1 fights with the villain while Ace is busy with other things.
Ace shouldn't be this bothered, but he's dying to throw Sparking Red's words back. Only HE can defeat Sparking Red!
There's some comfort to be found in Sparking Red's lack of chemistry with this new hero compared to what he has with Ace, as well as the villain messaging him to wonder why he hasn't been fighting the villain like he used to.
Coincidentally, the Head of Germa 66 has changed.
There's a lull in Germa's Super Villains' activities.
The next time he sees Sparking Red, the villain is surrounded by a league of the same-looking goons, and his playful theatrics are gone..
Anyway, inspired by this:
discoholicmusic
germansingergirl
dededos
stormborns
romaincrisis
titsay
kaledo-art
pixelskylines
