I've met the guy before. I realise it and he realises it too, his special hero sense power penetrating my faceless mask,detecting the man inside the suit. We were at college together. He went into heroics, flunking, while I studied biomolecular quantum entanglement and got picked up by a supervillain who headhunted me from the pack of graduates.

He growls, and prepares to punch me.

I'm a minion, a mook, a grunt. #337658 of the Grand Army of Doctor Viral. Got temporary genetic enhancements, or 'short term mutations' or as we call them in the goon squads, 'powerups'.

I have super resilience. Super strength. Can think faster than super computer.

If I inject myself thirty seconds before I need such abilities.

I last injected myself thirty one seconds ago, and my armour's HUD tells me it's run out of 'powerups' and I need to refill.

As his fist hurtles towards me, I do not even try to dodge.

I just utter one word. One careful word designed to break him down.

"Eleanor."

The fist crashes into the wall behind me.

I see shock on his face, then tears.

Eleanor was his old girlfriend. It was her research into teleportation for her dissertation that gave him his powers. It caused his muscles to act as if they didn't need to obey Euclidian physics within the confines of his skin, giving him absurd strength.

She was always on at the two of us to stop fighting. The nerdy guy who was her best friend, and the dreamboat sports mcsportsman with a cleft in his chin who was in the course because his parents disapproved of him entering the military.

While he sobbed, I stabbed him with an alien neurotoxin-emitting virus and grinned as he spasmed on the floor, dying a slow, agonising death.

Well, I guess we stopped fighting, E. I bet you're proud of me. Damn, Viral's going to make me work overtime for killing the guy.

... Eh, I can get Bob to cover for me.