Villain Retirement
chapter-974

"My name is… Halfday."

"You have got to be kidding me right now."

By all means, the individual who introduced himself as Halfday did not look menacing at all. The color of his suit was bright; mellow, but bright. And like his name suggests, it almost seemed like the afternoon sky; almost like a painting, especially now since they were in a dark alley.

Everything just felt… surreal.

Unfortunately for Dorothy and the others, they did not really have any time to appreciate the surrealness of it all as they recovered from their mild stupor; all of them, now on high alert as they stared at Halfday.

"You said… you're a part-time supervillain?" Jake asked as he stepped forward; his now silver skin, reflecting the bright blue and orange outfit of the person in front of him. Jake made sure to completely cover Dorothy as he started asking his questions to the ominous stranger,

"And you said that you're the Dark Alley Butcher?"

"I never truly liked that name," Halfday let out a very long and deep sigh as he raised his hand, causing Jake and everyone else there to flinch. Halfday, however, did not really do anything and just pointed at the corpses painted on the wall,

"Butchers are known for using knives, I do not — all of this is made by my hands, and my hands alone. Although, I do appreciate how you might think I am using knives from how clean I dismember them and for that…

…you have my gratitude."

"Our biological clock's moving again…" Dorothy whispered loudly as she leaned her head to the side to look at Halfday, "...and these weirdos just have to pop up. A supervillain, seriously? That's like so 600 years ago."

"Part-time," Halfday corrected Dorothy as he nodded several times, "A part-time supervillain, Ma'am — there is a big difference between the two."

"And that difference is…?"

"This time all of you actually get a chance to breathe," Halfday stretched his arms to the side; his outfit, seemingly glowing like the sky drowned by an orange sun, "A chance to repopulate; to breed and grow faster than I can kill you."

"And you're just telling all of this to us?" Dorothy smirked as she looked at Halfday from head to toe, "What is this? Are you trying to make a statement, mocking us?"

"Not at all," Halfday let out a small chuckle as he shook his head; his helmet, not showing even a single millimeter of flailing at all, almost as if the entire suit, including the helmet, was just one single flesh,

"I am only here to introduce myself."

"In any case…" Dorothy let out a sigh as she tapped Jake's shoulder, making him subtly and slightly stepped to the side to make way for her,

"...You're under arrest."

A thunderous snap then reverberated throughout the entire alley as Dorothy stepped to the side; her feet, creating a ripple that blew away all the dirt and dust from the ground. Everything else turned slow for her, and as she moved past Jake; his hair did not even have any time to be blown away before Dorothy was already only a meter away from Halfday.

Dorothy then grabbed a pair of handcuffs from her waist as she continued to rush toward Halfday. But as soon as she stretched out her hand, she realized that Halfday's helmet was actually facing her.

"Wh—!!!"

And before she could even react, Halfday suddenly grabbed her arm, completely snapping her bones with just that simple act. And then once again, she could not even scream before Halfday grabbed her by the side of her face and then mercilessly slammed her head on the wall of the alley.

And almost instantly, Dorothy could hear a whistle deafen her ears as everything once again moved normally for her; as a super with superspeed, this was normal for her to hear — it was just a little too intense than normal. Of course, the fact that her head was slammed to the wall probably had something to do with that… it just wasn't registering in her mind just yet that she couldn't even see it happen at all.

"D… Dorothy!?" And as soon as Jake saw the wall crumbling as Dorothy's head was stuck to it, he couldn't help but just rush toward Halfday; each of his steps, causing the ground to crack, "Let go of her!"

Jake then rolled his fist as tight as he could before striking Halfday right on the sternum. A loud, cracking noise, snapping in the air as he did so — unfortunately for Jake, the sound was coming from his fist; his silver skin, slightly crackling as blood seeped from the cracks that now littered his fist.

"Grah!" Jake let out a gnarling scream as his leg gave out from the sudden and unexpected pain. He wasn't allowed to rest on the floor for long, however, as Halfday also grabbed him by the face and lifted him up, "Wh…!!!"

Jake's muffled screams whispered in the air as his armored skin started to shatter; his face crackling even more violently than his fist as Halfday tightened his grip by the second. And as soon as the other officers saw this, they finally rushed toward Halfday to try and pin him down with their numbers.

"I like these two," Halfday whispered out as he glanced at Jake and the unconscious Dorothy, "Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the rest of you."

"!!!"

Flesh, bones, and guts started flying everywhere as Halfday's figure just started to blur; just flickering in everyone's eyes. And each time he revealed himself, body parts flew everywhere as he swung and flailed Jake's sturdy body through his comrades. Through.

He used him like a weapon, completely massacring the other officers by treating him like a mace. Halfday did not seem satisfied, however, as he did not just target the officers who were rushing toward him in the alley—no.

After he was done killing all of them there, he stepped out of the dark alley and introduced himself to the curious and nosy bystanders… by mercilessly killing half of them in the blink of an eye.

They couldn't even see what happened. They saw Halfday stepping out of the dark alley, and the next thing they knew, they were completely covered and drowned in the blood of the people who were just standing next to them. They did not suffer the worst of it, however… Jake won that title.

His lungs now had the blood of innocent people in them, literally. And he was sure he just swallowed someone's guts too.

And almost as if to contrast them; while they were completely soaked in blood, the perpetrator and cause of all of this was still completely immaculate. He was just… standing there.

The crowd wanted to disperse and run in panic, but their fear seemed to great that the only thing they could really do was stand there and stare at Halfday. They then watched as Halfday dropped his human weapon on the pool of blood beneath their feet.

Jake was still alive, very much so… but it would have probably been better if he just died there and then.

"Hm…" Halfday then casually started looking everywhere until his eyes settled on a surveillance camera hanging on one of the streetlights, and with a small chuckle seeping out from his helmet, he suddenly waved at the camera. And then a few seconds later, he once again turned his focus back to the petrified crowd, or more specifically toward the one who was holding his phone to record Halfday.

The man holding the phone could really only shriek as soon as he saw Halfday approaching him, but as was the case from the start, his legs were completely frozen in fear. Fortunately for him, Halfday seemed completely uninterested in him and seemingly more interested in his phone.

"Is that live or just a video recording?" Halfday tilted his head to the side as he stood in front of the poor man.

"It… it…" The man's hands began to shiver uncontrollably… but Halfday grabbed his hands and forced them to stay still, "It's… live."

"Oh," Halfday then let go of the man's hand and started backing away, "I am assuming that your viewer count is substantially going up?"

"Y… yes?"

"Perfect," Halfday clapped his hand before turning to face the phone,

"Hello, everyone. I am a part-time supervillain called Halfday. I am sure you have not heard of me before, because I have also not heard of me before I introduced myself as Halfday," Halfday then started introducing himself; the tone of his voice, although monotonous, was completely friendly.

"I realized that there was a lack of death happening lately," Halfday let out a long and very deep sigh, "And with everyone aging again, I thought I would take it upon myself to remedy that — and what better way to debut as a supervillain…

…by killing each and everyone here until a hero responds to his or her proper calling."