There Will Be Blood

The heroes of humanity are everywhere. They are our protectors — they fight the villains, keep the cities safe, and they always will. The billboards say so. The brochures, the commercials. It's what they want us to believe, and it's been a long time since anyone made us choose between believing it and looking too closely. The Federal Association of Heroes funds them, governs them, and reports entirely to itself. Where complaints go, no one is sure. Where investigations go, no one is told. Senior figures do not conceal what they know; they simply choose, year after year, not to look. The arrangement holds because no one has the power to change it and because the only thing more frightening than a hero answering to no one is the world we would have without them. Stanley Roberts is not a hero. He has no powers, no mandate, and no authority. He has put away the things he is done with, yet they have not stopped following him. Somewhere between a friend's offhand story at the bar and a long night with a borrowed laptop, he comes to believe that having hope in these heroes, in their arrangement with society, is itself a kind of terminal disease. He has decided to do something about it. The cure he has chosen is the only one he truly knows how to administer. ~~~~ A/N: This is a book heavily inspired by TV Shows like The Boys, Invincible, and other mystery dramas. It will have adult themes and graphic content. It will not be super long in terms of chapters, but the chapters themselves will be lengthy. (5,000 - 8,500+)