[ WP ] You ’ re a supervillain who really just enjoys ruining people 's days . Summon rain on people sitting in the park , waking people up at 3AM using your sonic booms while flying through the air , stuff like that . You ’ re on holiday when a real villain decides to take your city hostage ... You 're furious .

It started almost by accident. Like most supers, I developed my powers in high school. Deconstruction can be pretty strong... for a villain. It's hard to fight non-lethally when your power is unmaking. Adam, my best friend, scored the `` hero'' powerset -- enhanced physical attributes, flight, extrasensory perception. The works. I was so jealous! But he did n't want to be a hero any more than I wanted to be a villain. 
 
 We never told anyone about our powers and only messed around with them at the old quarry. To tell you the truth, I half-forgot I even had them while I was in college ( though the weed might have had something to do with that ). My buddy went into construction and used his powers to gain an edge, while I went into politics. 
 
 Years passed, my buddy owned the largest construction company in town and I was just elected to my second term as mayor. My first term I'd been as by-the-book as you can get, I never even met with my friend privately for fear of even the appearance of impropriety, since the city was his biggest customer. 
 
 But that night? Screw it, I was just re-elected, it's time for a party! By 3am we were both quite drunk and decided go mess up the old quarry for old times sake. I'm not sure what started it, but next thing you know I'm complaining to him about the petty budget shenanigans the city counsel pulled. How am I supposed to keep the city running when I barely have enough budget for emergency road repairs? Highway 65 was a major artery, probably half the city relied on it in one form or another, and it was in dire need of replacement 10 years ago! At this rate it would be a miracle if it lasted another 3 before it was just rubble. 
 
 And just like that, we had an idea. Maybe it was the inebriation, maybe it was the intersection of greed and frustration, but... Arbor City had a hero with a stable of villains and it had been designated FEMA disaster area for *years, * with federal funds paying for rebuilding time after time... so why not here? 
 
 And so it began, the tale of the ( not so ) epic rivalry between Breakdown and Steamroller. Breakdown's debut villainy was the destruction of the 18th street bridge ( which was about 15 years past it's expiration date ) before he was driven off by Steamroller. Adam's company was conveniently working on hypotheticals and already had the plans and suppliers researched to build a replacement bridge ready and won the FEMA bid handily. 
 
 Breakdown attempted to rob a bank, even going as far as melting the vault door and breaking open the safe deposit boxes, but Steamroller showed up just in time to drive off the villain. It was a sheer coincidence that the proof the DA needed to tie Zicarelli to a series of mob hits was in one of the lock boxes. Sure, they did n't have enough evidence to get a warrant, but since it was an active crime scene... 
 
 Steamroller was praised, Breakdown was booed, and the city had never been in better shape! Organized crime was down, infrastructure was shiny and new, the city coffers were overflowing ( turns out repairs cost a LOT of money! ), and my buddy now owned the largest construction company in the state thanks to all the extra work. Sure, the Hero and Villain scene thought we were jokes. Steamroller almost never fought street crime, and Breakdown rarely succeeded at anything more than property damage ( rarely were there even any injuries! ). 
 
 And this brings me to my darkest moment. The first and, god willing, last time I deliberately took a life. 
 
 I was enjoying a nice vacation in Hawaii when I heard the news: Loco wandered down from Arbor City. Loco was one of those nasty villains, body count higher than some military units. He was chicken themed ( seriously?! ), and... laid? explosive eggs. Little explosions, big explosions, timed explosions, remote explosions. All kinds of explosions. I'm not really sure how he got his name, but he was pretty crazy. 
 
 He sent a tape ( and actual VHS tape. Who even has a VCR any more?! ) to the local news station. On it he called out Steamroller and told him it was time he faced a `` real villain, unlike that Breakdown < censored >.'' 
 
 This was bad, real bad. Adam's tough, but he's not `` building falls on you'' tough! I got on the first flight back home ( why oh why did n't I opt to use the city's private jet?! ). By the time I landed, Steamroller had been defeated, his broken ( but still living! ) body was being proudly displayed by Loco, who was demanding 10 million dollars from the city in exchange for only *half* of the eggs he placed all over town exploding. 
 
 I. Was. Furious. When I was a teenager I only saw a power that could be used for villainy, because I could only unmake areas. But over the years of practice, I had refined my powers, pushing them to their limits and beyond. From my seat in the mayor's office I could selectively unmake the a single piece of rebar in the support pylon of a bridge though a hacked webcam all the way across town. 
 
 I do n't really remember what I was thinking. I probably was n't thinking. I donned my Breakdown alter-ego and dropped in on the preening Loco. 
 
 I knew I had to make this good, otherwise more villains would come, as though a floodgate were opened. I strode through a wall, unmaking it perfectly in sync with my movements ( that trick took a lot of practice before I stopped dropping bits of all onto my head ). Adam and I always hammed it up, but it's not like Loco was going to follow a script. So I just spoke plainly. 
 
 `` This is my city. Leave now.'' 
 
 Loco laughed! Not the insane chittering of a madman, but the kind of derisive laugh reserved for a tiny dog trying to intimidate a wolf. 
 
 After his laughter died down ( which took entirely too long, in my opinion ), he countered: `` You do n't deserve your own town, < censored >! This is my town now!'' And then he threw an egg at me. 
 
 I mean, sure, that's his thing, but still! I'd neve -- okay, well, there was that one town hall meeting, but other than that I'd never had an egg thrown at me before! It was insulting. So I unmade it. And in doing so, I had all the information I needed to unmake *all* of them. 
 
 The look on his face when I unmade the egg was comical! It was... Then I finally saw my friend, tied to that post. He looked even worse in person than on TV. And I lost it. I attacked Loco with everything I had. I'll never forget the look of terror, dread, and maybe even a little regret as he felt himself being unmade. I think he could even feel his eggs being unmade all throughout the city, because hopelessness was thrown into the mix a moment later. 
 
 Five seconds. That's how long it took to unmake him. I felt every moment of it through my power. 
 
 The world knows what happened next, because the camera feed was still live. I puked. I puked until there was nothing left and I still puked. And then I collapsed into myself and just started sobbing. The police stormed the building, freeing Steamroller and maintaining a wary distance from me. They'd seen what I could do. Even broken like this, perhaps *especially* broken like this, they knew I was dangerous beyond belief. In what the news would later call `` An act of heroic bravery on par with the greatest heroes of our age'' Adam approached me. He sent the cops away, and just held me while I cried. Whether intentional or not, the camera was still live, and the whole world watched as a hero comforted a villain who was broken by his first kill, and unknown to them, his best friend.
