Blacktime

Blacktime is an uncaught supervillain and the central criminal power behind much of the Five City Alliance’s underworld. His importance is defined less by a direct appearance than by the damage, fear, and institutional defiance associated with his name: nearly two decades after a disastrous superfight, Blacktime and his people continue to flout Star Central’s rule while pragmatically controlling most of the region’s crime.

Identity and Reputation

Blacktime’s public identity is inseparable from the largest catastrophe in Isaac Hartson and Cayleb’s childhood. Both men were among hundreds of children orphaned by a single superfight almost twenty years earlier. The school panic rooms survived, but nearly everything else within a twenty-block radius was destroyed, producing one of the greatest death tolls in Star City’s history. The villain responsible was never caught, leaving Blacktime’s continued power as a sign that the old violence was not truly contained or resolved.

His reputation therefore combines extraordinary danger with political durability. Star Central has rules governing the superhero order, yet Blacktime and his organization openly disregard them. Their control is described in pragmatic rather than ideological terms: they dominate most crime across the Five City Alliance because they possess the power and connections to do so. The result is an underworld that exists alongside official superhero authority instead of being eliminated by it.

Criminal Network and Associates

Blacktime is connected to Glorybeam, the other member of the superfight associated with the catastrophe. According to rumor, the two are lovers. The relationship is not confirmed as fact, but Glorybeam’s repeated presence around the territory Blacktime operates in gives the rumor apparent weight. Her proximity suggests that Blacktime’s power is reinforced not only by subordinates and criminal arrangements but also by a close alliance with another major superpowered figure.

One of Blacktime’s lieutenants is Crash Hardiron, whose striking name reflects the intimidating identity he has constructed for himself. Isaac’s research indicates that Crash is an old friend of Blacktime’s. That connection makes Crash valuable even if he is not the ultimate target. Isaac believes Crash may possess damaging information, criminal contacts, and other leverage that could be sold to rival gangs or the media. Blacktime and Glorybeam do not need to be killed for their position to be dismantled; exposing or exploiting the network around them may be enough to topple it.

Pressure on Isaac’s Plans

Blacktime functions as the scale of threat against which Isaac Hartson measures his own limitations. Isaac knows that his low-level metahuman ability is insufficient for a direct assault on Blacktime or anyone operating at that level. His intended strategy is consequently indirect: he hopes to reach Crash, obtain useful dirt or connections, and turn those assets against the criminal hierarchy. The plan is an attack on structure rather than strength, aimed at making Blacktime vulnerable without confronting his full power.

The danger also explains why Isaac refuses to involve Cayleb in his actual activities. Cayleb is a powerful enough metahuman to understand that a genuine super-fight could crush both of them, yet his easygoing, heroic temperament makes him unsuited to the skulduggery Isaac considers necessary. Isaac needs technological assistance—armor, weapons, transportation, communications, and fabrication—but he does not trust Cayleb with the clandestine objective of undermining Blacktime. Their friendship therefore exists under the shadow of a divided moral and tactical outlook.

Narrative Significance

Blacktime represents the persistence of unpunished violence. The superfight that destroyed part of Star City belongs to the past, but its orphaned children and surviving criminal order remain in the present. The catastrophe is not treated as an isolated historical incident: it has become the background condition from which Isaac’s distrust, ambition, and covert planning emerge. Blacktime’s absence from the room does not lessen his presence in the narrative; it makes him a power felt through consequences, rumor, institutional failure, and the fear of escalation.

His position also exposes the limits of Star Central’s authority. Official rules can be flouted when a criminal organization is strong enough to control the surrounding economy of violence. Against that system, Isaac’s proposed method is neither heroic confrontation nor simple revenge. It is the use of information, fabrication, and rivalries to convert the criminal network’s own relationships into weaknesses. Blacktime thus serves as both a personal threat and a structural antagonist: the figure whose past crime created the social damage, and whose surviving organization continues to make that damage politically real.