History Literature / Hench

* NighInvulnerablity: Supercollider's main power, he's immune to almost all forms of damage, but it's implied he still feels pain.

* Nigh-Invulnerablity: Supercollider's main power, he's immune to almost all forms of damage, but it's implied he still feels pain.

** [[spoiler: Supercollider suffers this thanks to Quantum Singularity, having both his arms and legs fused into his body and his head fused into his torso, leaving him an immobile and unspeaking lump of flesh. And thanks to his powers, he's ''still alive'' and it's implied he's left in Leviathan's cell, deep underground where nobody will find him.]]

* NighInvulnerablity: Supercollider's main power, he's immune to almost all forms of damage, but it's implied he still feels pain.

* StartOfDarkness: Anna eventually admits that she never though of herself as villain or evil when she was a low ranking hench, just an office drone who did data analysis for supervillains. Supercollider mangling her leg with a casual backhand

* TomatoInTheMirror: After everything she goes through by midway through the book, Keller points out something she been ignoring or unawares. She works closely with the world’s most feared supervillain, survived two encounters with world’s greatest superhero, inspires enough fear in said superhero to try and lobotomize her to nib a WorthyOpponent in the bud, and even has a name. In other words Anna is no longer a simple hench but now The Auditor, a full blown supervillain in her own right..

* What Measure Is A Mook: The plot of the book is kicked off by the fact that it is from the perspective of a female henchman who is put through a MookHorrorShow by the setting's Superman {{Expy}}.

* CapePunk: The story follows the perspective of a low ranking "hench" whose area of expertise is data analysis rather busting heads but is seriously injured by the carelessness of the world's greatest superhero. As it progresses, henches are shown to be mainly people looking to make money, cynical to the state of the world, and often a victim of CollateralDamage from [[MookHorrorShow Moonk Horror Shows]]. Anyone with superpowers are forcibly recruited by the setting's MutantDraftBoard [[ChildSoldiers at middle school age]] and have little contact with their families, [[spoiler: the same organization have performed murders, cover-ups, and their human experiments resulted in a powerful individual who became a the world's most feared supervillain after the before-mentioned hero and best friend killed his mother, a fellow superhero.]]

* DestructiveSavior: Superheroes are regarded as this from the perspectives of anyone who has suffered bodily harm or had their property destroyed during the course of their "good work". Incidents include when Supercollider tired to rescued a mind-controlled superhero from a villain; his carelessness caused an accidental explosion in a residential apartment that displaced hundreds of innocents, thousands of dollars in damaged, a severely crippled hench, and the villain dying from their injuries. All to save one person, alibet a fellow hero.
* DirtyCop: Two appear to interview Anna in the aftermath of the Electric Eel’s hostage situation. What makes them dirty is they brought Supercollider, who injured Anna, along likely as an intimidation tactic and tried to push the story that Eel was responsible, cutting it short when its clear Anna won’t play along. Later its revealed they left out her injury in the police report altogether. [[spoiler: Although given what we see of Supercollider and the lengths he'll go to, its possible they weren't ''willing'' accomplices.]]
* TheDreaded: Leviathan the most feared supervillain on the planet and a personal enemy of Supercollider whom he hates with a passion. Supercollider is considereda heroic version to the villains as the world's greatest superhero to the point that Anna is considered a higher tier villain than most actual villains just by being in the same room as, and injured by, him.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Even henchmen and woman have friends, families, and spouses…but unfortunately not all of them can handle the violence and dangers of working for a supervillain, not to mention the moral dilemma. [[spoiler: After being kidnapped, June can't handle the stress of her best friend being taken by Draft agents and breaks off their friendship. Keller reveals his husband left him when the Meat switched sides and joined Leviathan, wanting him to do "noble" work even though it was no different from what he does now. He outright says the reason superheroes have the weakness of their love ones being targets and not villains is because they don't have any.]]
* EvilIsPetty: Leviathan has a distaste for superheroes but absolutely '''hates''' Supercollider and will take any chance no matter how small to hurt him. He assigns Anna and her department to find
* Gaslighting: This is what Anna ends up coming up with in expanding The Injury Report and gets a team of her choosing to carry it out. They use the resources of Levitation's organization to mess with their personal and professional lives causing the heroes to make mistakes.

* HiddenDepths: Leviathan enjoys ''Series/CoronationStreet'' and has a Zune filled with Music/{{Vengaboys}}, with his favorite song being ”We’re Going To Ibiza”. He also has a pet iguana named Shannon who he calls one of Inner Circle, and he is so protective of her that he once had the toddler of one of her caretakers kidnapped and returned a few hours later with a mild case of hypothermia. [[spoiler:Because he had left the heat lamps off too long which let the reptile get too cold (but luckily recovered.]]
* ICouldaBeenAContender: Quantum Singularity had the potential to be a stand-alone hero on par with Supercollider. Unfortunately she was forced into the role of what was essentially his female sidekick along with Accelerator and it fuels her resentment for the man

** Doc Proton was this to both Quantaum Singularity and Supercollider, and [[spoiler: is one of the only people, if not only person singular, who knows about the latter's CharmPerson abilities being the source of his OneHundredPercentApprovalRating.]]

* MookHorrorShow: The story shows this from the perspective of a said Mook when Anna witnesses first hand Supercollider as kills or cripple her fellow henches. She herself is causally backhanded by him which hits her like being sideswiped by a transport truck and leaves her with a mangled leg. It emphasizes the fear and hopelessness of facing someone with superpowers regardless if their heroes or villains. Not to mention the painful recovery process if you survive and Anna, despite being young and healthy, is left with a permeant limp and walks with a cane.
* MutantDraftBoard: The Draft is the central organization charged with identifying and training people with superhuman abilities with the specific purpose of having them become superheroes. [[spoiler: They're also horribly corrupt; covering up, and possibly committing, murder, performing human experiments on their trainees, responsible for the creation of the world's most feared supervillain.]]
* NeverMyFault: ZigZagged. Supercollider admits that he considers every villain he faced that rose to power including Leviathan his fault. However, its because he didn't take the imitative to stop them before they grew too powerful and not because of any actions he did that put them on the path to villainy in the first place. When speaking with Anna while she's being held captive, he never once acknowledges nor apologizes for severely crippling her, which led to The Injury Report and gaining a high rank within Leviathan's organization. Only that she's a potential WorthyOpponent that needs to be put down before Anna becomes too much of a threat.

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: The Leviathan Protocol orders his execution after two days, not twenty-one like Quantum Entanglement said. This means that while Anna was lying to her about who killed Melting Point, she was lying right back to Anna.]]

* TheAlcatraz: Dovecote is the newest and most secure super-prison with multiple security measures, and it even secretly includes [[spoiler: a cell that can contain Leviathan. Anna is kept here by Supercollider and Draft agents before moving her to The Vet, its sister medical facility for her lobotomy.]]

** [[spoiler: Supercollider suffers this thanks to Quantum Singularity, having both his arms and legs fused into his body and his head fused into his torso, leaving him an immobile and unspeaking lump of flesh. And thanks to his powers, he's ''left still alive''.]]

* BadBoss: Electric Eel presents himself as a BenevolentBoss who cares about his employees' well-being but leaves them to fight a fruitless battle with Supercollider and fires Anna using her injury (which she got being at the battle he forced her to when she is specifically a office drone hench).

** Superheroes can be this too with their sidekicks: Vesper was a former Kick named Gloom who switch sides after being sick of being mistreated by the hero he worked with. Tardigrade, formerly Blast Furnace, quit and went solo after her ex-lover and the hero she was a Kick for blocked her admittance into the SuperTeam he was a part of.
* BenevolentBoss: Leviathan, which you wouldn't expect from [[TheDreaded the most feared supervillain on Earth]]. He not only hires Anna and gives her a couple months to recuperate from her injury, she's almost immediately moved into a new on-site apartment and given the freedom and time to figure out what her job is exactly. Leviathan admits that
** [[spoiler: When Supercollider has her captured and intends to "dull her mind" i.e. a lobotomy, she assumes that Leviathan would just cut his loses like any other villain would. Not only does he arrange for rescue [=ASAP=] but learns her boss was so pissed off that Leviathan had initially planned to personally "raze Dovecove to the ground and salt the earth" before being convinced to wait until Anna had been moved to a less secure facility for the procedure.]]
* BewareTheSuperman: Anna develops this attitude as she realizes how much CollateralDamage superheroes cause and hates when she's forced to not work while recuperating from her near-lobotomy. Not because she wants payback against the heroes, but because she's sick to her stomach to the
* BlessedWithSuck: June, Anna's BestFriend at the beginning of the story, has extra strong senses of smell and taste that makes her invaluable in sniffing out contraband and uses her skills to make packaging for villains looking to smuggle drugs. She also can't turn it off and has to wear nose plugs and the main reason she works for villains is because she couldn't stand being in an airport (helping the [=TSA=] find said contraband) is caused she could handle the smells.
* BodyHorror: Anna suffers the realistic results of just being backhanded by someone with SuperStrength: she goes flying, lands so bad her leg is left mangled, and despite being a healthy young woman is left with a permanent limp and walks with a cane over a year later.

* CapeBusters: While Anna's department is all about humiliating and discrediting superheroes primarily through {{gaslighting}} most of the team do it because they, like their boss Leviathan, just generally dislike heroes because they're villains, [[ItAmusedMe and its fun]]. Anna however never loses her primary reason stemming from her beginning The Injury Report: that superheroes get away with causing too much CollateralDamage and harm so many people that it outweighs any "good" they might do in the process.
* CapePunk: The story follows the perspective of a low ranking "hench" whose area of expertise is data analysis rather busting heads but is seriously injured by the carelessness of the world's greatest superhero. As it progresses, henches are shown to be mainly people looking to make money, cyncial by the state of the world, and often a victim of CollateralDamage from {{MookHorrorShow}}s. Anyone with superpowers are forcibly recruited by the setting's MutantDraftBoard [[ChildSoldiers at middle school age]] and have little contact with their families, [[spoiler: the same organization have performed murders, cover-ups, and their human experiments resulted in a powerful individual who became a the world's most feared supervillain after the before-mentioned hero, and his best friend, killed his mother a fellow superhero.]]

* CollateralDamage: This is what happens when superheroes are not careful with using their powers when fighting villains and stopping crimes. This is the truly disturbing aspect of the MookHorrorShow Anna is part of: Supercollider isn't holding back using his powers or just DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength. He casually kicks one hench who kicked by the force and Anna is left with a mangled leg after he backhands her while passing by her.

* CreateYourOwnVillain Supercollider has a nasty habit of this which he admits to while Anna is kept captive under Dovecove, something his mentor tried to warn him of. Anna freaks out internally when she realizes that she was thinking too small with The Injury Report and realizes the implication that heroes are responsible for both the villains they stop as well as the damage they cause doing so.

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: One way to interpret Leviathan's [[spoiler: decision to shift his focus and hatred from superheroes in general and Supercollider in particular to [[MutantDraftBoard The Draft]]. It's implied that now that his Archenemy has been permanently crippled into a AndIMustScream situation, Leviathan needed a new focus for his revenge.]]