Villains, Inc Contest Entry: Chromatic Death does some good...or does he?

By Crossroads, ID #11004


New Amsterdam at night. A thriving metropolis, for the most part because of the presence of the Morphon-enhanced heroes who keep criminal activities to a minimum. However, there are dark and dangerous areas of the city where crime exists beneath a quiet surface. Places people do not talk about for fear of being a victim of some not-so-random crime. Some of the danger is from Morphon-enhanced criminals, but there are still the same old regular human scum preying on the weak and defenseless citizens of this city.

One of these underground crime areas is the North Dockside area, home to merchant sailors waiting for their cargo to be off-loaded or loaded as the case may be, business owners catering to this salty clientele, storekeepers, warehouse guards, import/export office workers, business trying to make a quick buck, young men, young women, old women, older men and more. Most of these people are honest (or mostly honest) citizens, however, many are also members of an up and coming crime family, trying to fill the vacuum the older, more established families left when the heroes made their business models unprofitable.

A commotion begins in the Seaside Tavern, a decent if cheap little bar just outside the harbor gates. Loud Yelling and curses can be heard coming from inside the tavern, when suddenly a body comes flying out of one of the front windows, and not under his own power. The broken body comes to a sliding halt against the wall of the building across the street groaning in pain. Another body follows, this one not so gracefully sliding to a halt as it is almost embedded into the wall of the building and not groaning at all.


Crossroads was practicing her portal skills by willing one of her visual portals around the city as fast as she could.  These visual portals allow her to see what is happening wherever the portal is without opening a full portal. A full portal allows travel in both directions, which isn’t a good idea if a rampaging beast or firestorm happens come through to wherever Crossroads was based...like her apartment.  That would be hard to explain to her landlord....again.

Crossroads saw the second body ejected from the tavern and instantly dimension-skipped to its location.  Checking both bodies, she was relieved to see that both were unconscious, but would survive their injuries. Looking back towards the tavern, she was turned just in time to catch the third person to be thrown out of the bar. They were also unconscious and sporting some brutal injuries. She set them down gently so as not to add to their wounds.

Running into the tavern, Crossroads saw Chromatic Death with his guitar strapped to his back, holding a muscular young man by the front of his shirt and just, for the lack of a better term, “bitch-slapping” the cowboy crap out of him.


“Who do you think you guys are?  You think you can come in a place like this and think you own it?” Chromatic ranted on, spittle flying from his lips, “Extorting money from these hard-working people? What gives you the right?  You’re nothing!”

“Oh, hey Crossroads, how’s it goin’ babe?” Chromatic suddenly said calmly as he tossed the man through the only unbroken window.

Confused, Crossroads replied, “Ummm, hi Chromatic...what’s going on?  And don’t call me ‘babe.’”

“Okay, Sweetie. Well these gentlemen decided they would like to extort protection money from the owners of the bar and other business owners in the area.  I decided to teach them the error of their ways, Dollface.”

“Ok, umm, but don’t you think your being too rough with them?  They don’t appear to be Morphon-enhanced or protected in anyway, so they’re going to be spending some time in the hospital. And don’t call me ‘Sweetie’ or ‘Dollface.’”

“Sorry, Boo, won’t happen again. As for the knuckle-heads, if they can’t handle a little rough-housing, then they should try to be criminals.  Hopefully, they’ll learn a little something from this, Babygirl.”

“But who is going to pay for all the damages?  And don’t call me ‘Boo’ or ‘Babygirl’!”

“Sure thing, Sweet Cheeks. As you can see, I have been making them drop their wallets and any cash they have on them.” Chromatic points to a sizeable pile of wallets and cash. “I think that should cover the windows.  I was careful about the chairs and tables, Buttercup.”

“I noticed that there was very little damage to the furniture.  But all four of them had that many wallets and that much cash?  And don’t call me, ‘Sweet Cheeks’ or ‘Buttercup’!”

“You betcha, Honey!  And no, it was more than four guys. The other guys ran away after dropping their stuff.  These four decided they were big bad criminals and wanted to flex their muscles. Not very impressive.  Not like this, eh, Love Muffin?” said Chromatic, flexing his own bulging muscles and kissing his biceps.

Crossroads almost threw up in her mouth at that. “I see.  So what now?  How many got away? And don’t call me ‘Honey’ and definitely not ‘Love Muffin’ ever again?” Crossroads shuddered.

“Not a problem, my little Chickadee! I tagged the runaways with a tracer before they left. There are six of them.  Here’s the tracker.  I hate to ask, my dear, but could you pick them up, and port’ these guys to a lock-up or hospital?  I’m good at beating people up and playing guitar, but transporting more than myself is not one of my skillsets, Sweetheart.”

Crossroads rolled her eyes to heaven and said a prayer.  Not getting an immediate answer, she reluctantly accepted the tracker and agreed to take care of the problem. Just wanting to get the whole thing over with, Crossroads turned and left the tavern, forgetting to tell Chromatic to not call her ‘Chickadee’, ‘Dear’ or ‘Sweetheart’. Outside, she portaled the injured thugs to the nearest hospital, and began tracking the six remaining thugs down and transporting them to jail.

Chromatic Death eyed Crossroads retreating form appreciatively and nudged the guy next to him.  “See that?  I knew she would do it.  She can’t resist me.”

The owner of the tavern came up to Chromatic and thanked him for his help in stopping the protection racket.

“Not a problem at all!  After all, I don’t need the competition,” said Chromatic with an evil smile.

“What do you mean?  I don’t understand,” stammered the owner nervously.

Chromatic Death just kept that evil smile. “Oh, I think you understand perfectly, don’t you, Buddy?”