And I became good at my work. Through shadows I would pace, guarding countless cities. No innocents would find themselves experiencing the cold knife through their guts, just because someone ruled by the madness of chemicals needed currency to acquire more chemicals. I took from such people, who in their darkest hours had lost sense, their dependencies, their hunger for more chemicals, and filled them with duty. I ate their mistakes and burned their addictions. Leaving them cured and sane for the first time in years. Many heroes dedicated themselves to fighting large scale crime, the supervillains, and indeed I did partake in that. But to every creature comes a niche. And I found mine. I stalked through every shadow in every city, every town, stopping random murders, kidnappings, and worse things. I, who could exist in several places at once, began hiding underneath beds, and in closets. I waited for the moment when the monsters came to strike.

Soon, the children of Earth would not fear what lived in the darkness of their rooms, for they would know that I am there, protecting them from those who'd seek to do great and terrible harm to them. What the evil ones do in the dark, I make it so that it is brought to the light. The crimes that are truly wicked, I see them. So what if a few superheroes don't trust me? That is normal. Heroes cannot truly trust one-another. Every team-up ends, every society for righteousness breaks down. They keep track of every one of my larger appearances, they whisper in fear that I am playing a long game. That is true, the long game is hope. And I like it. I seek to make more of it, as a superhero should. I find the missing people, I carry the wounded to safety, I keep the innocent free from those who would destroy them. That is my long game. I am a superhero, that is what we do. And today, I take another step towards the creation of more hope, of more that can grow, be breathtaking and wonderful. From within a dark abandoned church, I have carried an orphaned child. Her parents sacrificed to one of the pitiful things called demons, beings that back home would have been considered the same sort of infestation as a nest of cockroaches in a human house. Fearful of the touch of the flesh of mortals, the liquid void that I am, upon which she floats, it soothes her wounded mind.

A hero takes an apprentice. That is right. She has seen her family dead, and she has no-one left. I see a future in which the system fails her, something which I wish to speak with the other superheroes about if I can, I see a future where her grief consumes her. And so, it is my duty to bring hope, to rebuild her and make her my sidekick. So that she will not be lost. I see in that future, that she stands tall and proud, a superhero just like me. There are those in the superhero community who will see that as a threat, but I am not a supervillain. I am a superhero, and I will do the right thing, no matter what. Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall. And in the future that I see, there will be superheroes. Mages, warriors, sneaks, and others of mighty abilities. There beyond them I will be, and amidst them, she will be. My Obsidian Knight. Clad in armour made from the material-flesh of a living black hole, wielding the Potentiality-Blade, that both is, and isn't.

The only thing I am annoyed about, in this future I see as I float her through the dark forest, healing her physical wounds, keeping her safe in my grasp, is that no matter what I do; I can't in any such future see myself wearing one of those wonderful superhero-suits. They're delightfully colourful, but the unending abyssal force of my continued existence is not very conductive towards a superhero-uniform. And I feel a pang of despair from that. I am not humanoid, and my form shifts too much to maintain a permanent human-like shape. So I just can't wear a proper hero uniform. If only I could find a method, then I am sure I wouldn't get attacked by the other superheroes out of fear, so very often.

/r/ApocalypseOwl