High atop a twisted pile of metal there was a man, hated by all who knew his name. A black cloak whipped in the air behind him warning it away and his raven hair joined in the odd flowing dance with juvenile twists and turns of its own.. His body refused to move in the same way though, instead being stubbornly rigid against the gusts that were rushing about the open air. The sleeves of the cloak were long and went to his wrists, but his hands were bare of clothing, covered instead by the persistent oil smears that had haunted them for his entire life.

The man was tapping his fingers idly as he waited, yet another ghost of his past that refused to leave him be, but a ghost that he paid no heed, instead focusing his attention on the entrance to the room, a pair of large wooden double doors that were set in the wall far below him, ensuring when they entered he would have the height advantage. The air was occupied by a sort of half song mixed by the rhythmic pumping sounds of machinery and his idle tapping playing a light bass line. His face bore no smile of evil superiority, he was much too old for that, he’d grown out of that several years before, just a friendly grin of welcome, one that seemed far too forced for where he stood. There was no pride he held in this victory of his, he had grown tired of it, this all too common, flawless victory.

        In fact, it was less than a minute later when the doors were blown open, black smoke curling around the site where the explosion had detonated. Snakes encircling their prey in ominous rings. Unfortunately, their lives ended  as three men and one woman entered through the door, forcing them to dissipate on the wind.. The sheer magnitude of the four’s determination almost enough to affect the man who stood poised above them, yet his smile hadn’t budged and neither had he. Why would he? Everything was going to plan.

        “Hello.” The tone of the man was calm, striking a dark comparison between his smile and his words. “I am ever so pleased you made it on time.” He took a step forward so as to catch the eyes of the four who stood below him. Beneath him. “Of course, that’s on time for me. If you meant to achieve your goal then you are a few minutes late.” The tone had shifted quickly, a sneer having found it’s way into his throat and carried through his speech, but he quickly shunted it away. He would not let himself fall into that cycle of pride and pain.

        “What are you planning to do, Dredge?! Tell me!” It was the largest of the men who said this, his tone full of rage. As he spoke, a feeling that can only be described as a mixture of glee and guilt ran through Dredge’s body at the sound of his name, he hadn’t been called by that in a while. He wanted it to go away completely, but he knew there was no point in fighting it. Not here anyway. The response was delayed for a moment as the man took a few seconds to digest the odd emotion that had surged through him. Then, his smile reasserted itself and a glint flashed in his eye.

        “You aren’t in much of a position to be making demands you know. You may think you have the upper hand, but all that means is that I bluffed far better than I thought.” He saw looks of confusion cover the faces of all but the girl, her face displaying concern. “Ah, I see that Miss Lou has figured it out already, a prodigy just as her teachers said. If it wouldn’t bother you too much then, would you kindly explain it to your less then mentally endowed companions?”

        “You can’t actually be planning to do this.” Her voice was sickeningly worried about him. She always did care a little too much about people. Even the villains got her damnable pity. “It will tear you apart!”

A feeling of appeasement pushed away the feeling of being cared for as he saw each of the others look amongst themselves, their eyes saying quite obviously ‘That wouldn’t be too horrible.’ Oh it felt so good to be hated. His skin crawled and shivered at the looks and he felt the twisted smile fighting it’s way back to his face. It was harder to push it down again.

        “No, Miss Lou. It would tear you apart. You may recall that I have a certain affinity for immortality.”

        “Enough of this witty banter.” It was the slimmest man now, a white rifle hanging from his grasp for but a moment before he pointed the barrel toward Dredge’s head and, without hesitation, pulled the trigger. The sound of it’s explosion rocked the room as it drove the bullet powerfully through the air. Faster than the blink of an eye, the bullet met it’s target and the man was knocked off his feet and out of sight from the people at the door.

        Silence reigned as high commander with it’s generals. Disbelief, Hope, Uncertainty, and Surprise. The sound of metal broke the regime in one fell swoop, wiping away the false beliefs as it filled the air. A second later and the man slowly rose from his prone position, the last of the smoke floating off of his forehead from where the bullet had make contact, but had failed to pierce. “Thank you, Ralph, for proving my point.” The force seemed to have knocked some sense into the man, his tone calm once again.

        “My congratulations on your victories, you win.” Dredge said, sparing a glance toward the console to his right to confirm his guess. When he looked back toward the heroes he was greeted precisely how he thought he would. Confused. “I realize that Miss Lou didn’t get the opportunity to finish her assessment, so allow me. This is a multi-dimensional matter transporter. The purpose behind it is to take a person and force them through to their intended destination. After much tinkering I managed to set it correctly. I will be teleported to a habitable planet somewhere far away from your stupid ideals, and then you’ll be free to spread them all over this planet as you fill the power vacuum I leave behind.”

        The hum of the machine intensified and a manic grin split Dredge’s face, accompanied by a flinch as the dark grin finally fought it’s way out. He attempted to hide it from the heroes below. “I will be off from here. I can’t win, after all, against you four. So I will go to this other planet, change things, set myself a life on course.”

        “I can’t let you escape my judgement, you fiend! To carry your fear and terror to some new realm!” Claimed the third and final man, his templar armor shining as it always did. “I have retrieved, from the deep halls of Orginath, the one weapon that will pierce your defenses.” As he made this claim he pulled, from his deceptively small bag, a spear that shone despite the lack of light. “Taste the sharpened edge of the Justicar!”

        The spear was thrown into the air, as the machinery began to spin faster. With apathetic eyes the man walked away from the heroes and towards a purple portal that had began to form in the air at the center of his machinery. Just as he was about to step over the threshold the blade made contact with the man, and it dug deeply into his flesh before flying out and away, the man’s pace seemingly unhindered by the gash.

        He did let one side glance pass to the heroes, the ones who realized he was going to escape, the ones who had for so long wanted to make things ‘right’. And he looked at them with a look of deep pity that none of them would understand for a long time. In fact, Lou would be the only one who even realized it at all.

        He’d tried to do what they intended to do now. And with all his power, and all his influence, he’d failed. Time and time again, he’d failed. Until, at last, he snapped, his mind splintered, he’d gone mad with a level of strength no man should ever have. And now, with sanity returning, he’d had enough of it all.

 After he had passed through the portal it collapsed and the machine exploded, rendering it unrepairable. He didn’t want them following, should they ever discover a way to survive the intense pressure of the device. That would most definitely throw a spanner in the gears.

As he exited the other end of the portal he was immediately aware of his surroundings. A forest, the majority of the area was shrouded in darkness, the shade from the large stretching branches blotting out much of the light that endeavored to brighten the ground beneath them. Some light managed to get past in holes between the trees but it was generally outmatched by the dark around it. Much like the mind of the man who stood in it’s midst even now.

He hadn’t moved since his arrival, to do so without knowing his surroundings fully would have been foolish. Instead he let his eyes analyze everything around him, the trees and bushes, the dirt, the small blue plants a short distance from his feet, everything was examined and subsequently prioritized in a ranking of ‘most dangerous’. When all of it had been judged, Dredge stepped away from the plants immediately. The vividness of their colors practically shouting ‘we’re poisonous’ to the man. Plants wanted to live, not to kill. Nature would tell you when to stay away, and it would be to your own detriment if you ignored the signs.

Secondly, he turned to listen closer to the screams that were coming from a short distance off. They were high pitched, certainly, but they held a specific tinge to them that led the man to think they originated from a young male of some description. Deciding that it would be best to investigate, if only to find out how he could avoid a similar fate, Dredge set off towards the sound.

Watching each individual step he took the man approached the noise, until at last it’s source came into view. It took but a moment for the man to confirm what his eyes had seen, luckily he had expected to see odd sights or else it might have taken him longer to recover than it had. A small, scaley, purple, and bipedal creature was caught in an oversized spider web. A bright red bird next to it’s left claw. Both were immobile besides what small actions they could manage with their bodies bound.

Dredge crouched to hide himself, his dark cape swirling around him almost as if by instinct, and making his form harder to spot in the bushes. Instead of running forward into this situation like the back of his mind urged him to do, he hung back instead, waiting to see what would happen. He always preferred first hand experience when it happened to someone else anyway. Before too long the inevitable occurred, the web began to shake and the two beings caught in it’s sticky grasp froze solid. As if hoping that by some miracle that would make their predator pass over them.

Nevertheless the black creature clambered out of the trees and toward the foolish beings it had caught in it’s web. From this distance Dredge assumed it to be about twelve feet from left leg to right leg and about eight feet long from head to spinneret. “Hello. I hope you’ve had a full life my treats, for it is about to end.” The spiders talked here, that was interesting.

“Come- come on, you wouldn’t try and eat a dragon right? We have thick scales you know. Why, I doubt that your teeth would be able to pierce them.” The purple ‘dragon’ seemed to be trying to fake it’s way past the creature by boast alone. An honorable goal but foolish in all rights. Even if it was a dragon, spiders had a tendency to... get their way with their prey so to say.

“Oh, a dragon? Why, I haven’t tasted dragon in ten years, or was it twenty? Hmmm.” Panic hit the purple biped and he began to squirm against the silk bindings that held him tight. “Yes, he fought as well. Well no worries young dragon, you see, I won’t be gnawing on you like some gummy babe. I am a shredder spider, you see.” The female arachnid twirled about to show her body in it’s entirety. “My teeth can shred diamond, you see, so your death shall be swift.”

It was at this point that the man began to fight with himself about if he should leave them be or not. Nothing was keeping him there physically of course, but the pros and cons of his choice began to flow through his mind. After arguing with a nonexistent force in his head, the man sighed and stood. It would be easier to leave them be, definitely, but if someone found out he had done so before he established an outstanding reputation then things would go sour fast.

Besides, maybe saving the reptilian and it’s red feathered friend would get him some degree of sway with a nearby community or some similar reward. Of course, there was every chance that the spiders would make good allies, but he didn’t particularly like the idea of teaming up with ferocious eaters.  Taking a moment to straighten his cloak and observe his surroundings for something he could use, Dredge began his approach. If he was going pretend himself a hero, he needed to look likable. It seemed a universal rule.

“My sincerest apologies good sir, but both of these creatures seem to be quite young. Surely you wouldn’t end their lives so readily would you? After all, you seem to have quite a store of food there in the corner nearest you.” His words dragged the attention of all three creatures, each of them perplexed by what they saw. Which was quite a look on the bird and quite the frightening glare on the spider.

The spider was the first to recover. “Hello to you as well, my fine fellow. I might be inclined to free them in another circumstance but, as I’m sure you would agree, it is better to have a surplus of food than to starve.” The man nodded a few times and spared a quick glance to the captives. The dragon seemed to be whispering to the bird at his side, then he made a few motions towards Dredge that seemed to ask him to distract the creature.

“But surely there is other food to be had, I imagine that such a smart and clever creature as yourself should have little trouble.” Asking nicely hadn’t worked, time to play to an ego. He had had quite a bit of experiance with heroes in his years, he knew a few of the tricks to the role. It was working as well, he seemed to have the spider’s ear. Hypothetically speaking of course. “To have caught all that other prey you must have been quite wise, and given your slow appearance here I can only imagine that you have set up several other extremely well placed-”

“NOW PEEWEE!” The purple creature shouted, catching both the biped and the spider by surprise. The small bird began to glow, much to Dredge’s surprise while the spider merely started cursing, until the web beneath caught aflame. In reaction the spider swiftly moved and swung it’s leg, severing them both from the web. Then it hit them across the midsections, to the chorus of snapping bones, and sent them tumbling backward behind the man.

It swiftly sorted out it’s web before it was completely burnt away, then it turned to face the perpetrators. “I tried to be nice, but now all three of you are my snacks.” It broke into a clicking run toward them as it’s legs darted over the ground with amazing speed, it’s vision blinded by rage as it drove onward. It’s head plowed directly into the man’s midsection, sending him flying backwards. The force of the hit strong enough to shatter the tree that he impacted with.

So it was quite surprising for his attacker when he stood from the splinters, a couple tears in his clothes the only sign that he had suffered the hit. His hand was tightly gripping a wound on his side to protect it from further harm, but something about how nonchalant he was regarding the wound told the spider that it hadn’t been caused by the attack. A glance behind himself confirmed that the duo of ex-prisoners were unconscious, after which he looked back toward the spider. “I would suggest that you ignore this prey, and you go on to other webs to see what else you’ve caught this day.” His tone was cold. He hated fighting, but being an evil ruler occasionally pressed you to battle, and heroes always fought. That was almost the entirety of their job description really.

The creature thought it over, trying to figure out how long it might take him to take down this particular foe who had already demonstrated immense toughness. It’s gaze lingered on his midsection for a long period of time. Then, with an almost imperceptible nod, it left the area. Dredge moved back into his normal standing pose and removed his hand from the bleeding wound that decorated his side. He pulled his hand away to see quite a lot of blood on his grip, and grimaced.

“He wasn’t lying, that stupid spear did pierce me.” Deciding that there was nothing to do about it given his unknown surroundings, he wiped his hand across his pants to remove the blood before he turned to face the two beings that lay out cold on the ground, probably with broken ribs. With a heavy sigh he bent down and carefully lifted them both off the ground, draping them over his arms as he looked around for the prints that the small dragon would have left in his wake during his approach. Such a thing would easily enable the man to backtrack and find out the home of the dragonling.

Eventually he stumbled upon the trail and began to follow it back toward its origin, all the while cursing himself for interfering with something that didn’t affect him. Was being evil always this hard? He asked himself rhetorically as he walked, Pretending to be a hero must be miles worse than actually being one, he concluded, on account of how much harder it was to simply not kill the spider, it had caused him to debate it, while a hero wouldn’t have had a question in their mind. They were a blind insufferable group of people, but at least they were self-assured.

Regardless, that mattered very little. He was done with his act now. The witnesses were knocked-out. And if any other monster decided to try it’s hand he would be free to seperate it into two neat halves without fear of what stories the dragon would tell it’s colleagues.

 Desperate to get out of the forsaken forest and to see what exactly the civilizations were like. What’s the worst it could be? Talking horses? A short coughing laugh broke across his lips and the man straightened his back, it was time to find out what he had gotten himself into.