Contents

Copyright

1: Distractions

2: A New Challenger

3: Cops and Villains

4: Basic Physics

5: Penultimate Showdown

6: Back at the Lab

7: Damsel in Disguise

8: Shadow Wing

9: New Experiences

10: The New Job

11: Super Survival

12: Dining Hall Dalliance

13: Moderately Nasty Tricks

14: Really Nasty Tricks

15: Wannabes

16: Office Hours

17: Secret Identities

18: Confessions

19: Heroic Passion

20: Uncertain Doom

21: Deadly Distractions

22: Action Plan

23: Saving the Day

24: Villainous Intent

25: New Beginnings

26: New Sheriffs

Epilogue: Damn Applied Sciences Department

More from Mia Archer

Villainess Love

A Lesbian Romance

By Mia Archer

Copyright 2015 Mia Archer

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Individuals pictured on the cover are models and used for illustrative purposes only.

First digital edition electronically published by Mia Archer, September 2015

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1: Distractions

“Night Terror!”

I smiled as the dust settled around me. I had to admit that was one of my more dramatic entrances. I always figured if you were going to do something then you should do it with style, and a focused energy blast on a revolving door leading into a bank that wasn’t designed to handle anything like a focused energy blast was always suitably impressive to the normals.

Tellers and patrons alike looked at me in terror, shying away as I strolled through the bank like I owned the place. Which, for the next few minutes at least, was more or less true. I could do whatever I wanted, and there wasn’t anybody who could stop me.

Damn it felt good to be a villain.

Of course that didn’t mean the normals wouldn’t try to stop me. Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned and saw a chubby security guard wearing a white uniform and a badge that looked almost, but not quite entirely unlike the police badges from the local constabulary. He was pulling out a gun, an ancient revolver, and moving it towards me. I had to admire him for his tenacity. And for his ability to handle himself under pressure. He pulled the gun without wavering at all. As though he practiced that sort of thing just waiting for a chance to use it.

Definitely not what I’d expect from an older bank security guard. Maybe he was former PD, though it’d have to be way former PD since everyone on the force since I started working knew better than to draw on me.

Not that it was going to help him.

The gun came up, the barrel pointed at me, and he fired. People screamed, as though something as simple as an ancient six shooter could actually be a problem when they had a living god in front of them throwing around the kind of futuristic weaponry that would make Heinlein drool.

I lifted a hand and flicked as the bullet came towards me. It was easy enough to track it through the heads-up display I had overlaid on my mask. A focused energy field sprang up in front of my hand and the bullet ricocheted away from me with a delightful ting. Only it wasn’t entirely accurate to say that it ricocheted. More that I deflected the bullet away from me, and the energy of that deflection disintegrated it before it could fly away and do more damage.

Hey, I might be a villain, but I wasn’t completely heartless. Besides, collateral damage was always a pain in the butt. It always got the talking heads going about how heartless and cruel you were. Basically it was a PR disaster that I wasn’t interested in getting involved with.

Only it was difficult to resist the urge to create a PR disaster by disintegrating the security guard since he insisted on emptying his gun at me. Typical security guard. Shoot first and ask questions later, never stopping to think that by trying to shoot me he was putting the lives of all the innocent people in this bank at risk.

I resisted the urge to vaporize him, but I did set my wrist blaster to stun and sent off a quick shot. I grimaced and hoped he didn’t have a heart condition. There was only so much you could do with a “stun” setting on these things. He didn’t look like the type to have a heart condition, but that was the best I could do.

It wasn’t as satisfying as vaporization, but at least it took care of him.

I looked around the bank lobby and raised an eyebrow. “Anybody else want to be a hero?”

Nobody moved. Good. The last thing I needed was some normal trying to impress their lady by trying to take me on. The last thing I needed was to rob a bank while there was a real hero in plain clothes hanging out. Not that I was too worried about it, I wasn’t the number one villain in the city for nothing and the real heroes knew to stay away, but it would put a cramp in my plans if I had to take the time to dispatch a hero on top of doing the usual work of robbing a bank.

“Good,” I said with a nod. “You all can go about your business. I’ll be in the vault if anybody needs me.”

I never understand why these banks insisted on keeping vaults full of actual cash money in this day and age. In a world where dollars were created with the push of a button it seemed like a silly anachronism to actually keep the physical paper around. Not that I was complaining. An old school robbery was a nice distraction from time to time.

Bank patrons and employees alike still cowered behind their desks or against potted plants as I walked through the lobby. I rolled my eyes. They always did that, even after I told them to go about business as usual. It’s not like I was a normal bank robber taking people hostage. I didn’t have any need for something as a brutish as that. And it’s not like I was actually taking any of their money either. Most of their transactions were electronic as well, and I couldn’t care less what the tellers had in their drawers. I was after the bigger bags of money.

I whistled a happy tune as I raised my wrist blaster towards the vault. Some enterprising bank manager managed to get the vault shut before I blew the doors. I knew they managed to get it shut because it had been sitting wide open when I walked in wearing plain clothes to scout the place before I stepped out and made the switch to my work outfit.

“Interesting,” I said.

Apparently that enterprising bank manager was going to make a stand. A young guy in a cheap suit and tie stepped in front of the vault door and held out his arms.

“I’m not going to let you do this,” he said. I cocked an eyebrow at him and he swallowed.

“If you’re going to be standing there in a minute then you’d better hope you have superpowers,” I said.

He swallowed again. “You won’t shoot me. You don’t kill civilians.”

I cocked my head. Now there was an unpleasant development. The moment it started getting around that you tried to avoid collateral damage it gave the collateral damage an excuse to get in your way in an attempt to stop you from world domination. It was that old quote about having nothing but work once word got around that you’d gone soft.

Of course there was an easy solution for that. I cocked my head and started charging my wrist blaster. It was going to take one hell of a blast to knock that vault door off its hinges.

“Now you put me in a difficult position,” I said. The ominous hum of my wrist blaster filled the room, filled the silence. He tugged at his tie and a bead of sweat ran down his face. “Now that I know you have absolutely no plans of moving, that you’re using yourself as a human shield for a bunch of paper and metal, I have more incentive to just blast you along with the door and use you as an example than I do to spare you.”

“You wouldn’t,” he said.

I held my wrist blaster up. Energy crackled and little bolts of electricity arced back and forth in front of the barrel. The ominous hum was growing louder and louder, sounding like the sort of electric hum you’d get from a high tension electrical wire with a couple of angry killer bee hives hanging from it and magnified by about a hundred.

“Care to try me?” I asked.

The suit swallowed one last time, that must be a nervous tic with the guy or something, and then he thought better of playing a game of chicken with the most powerful super villain in the city and the dove out of the way. A good thing too, because I was completely serious about him being more valuable as an example than anything else.

I glanced at the indicators on my wrist blaster. The ominous hum was louder than I’d ever heard before. Strictly speaking it was probably more charged than I needed even for this thick vault door, but I was in the mood for a little theatricality now that the stupid suit dared to defy me. It had put me in a mood. And that hadn’t happened in a long time.

A little yellow warning light flashed on the wrist blaster. That meant we were about five minutes away from a meltdown that would take out a few city blocks at least. I let loose. A bolt of crackling energy flew across the room and slammed into the door. Solid steel, I figured it was going to take a lot to get it off, but apparently banks had started cheaping out on vault doors. It slammed into the metal and the entire damn thing just disintegrated. Disintegrated!

Either my stuff was a hell of a lot more powerful than I thought, or somebody had decided to save a little money by getting a vault door that looked impressive but couldn’t hold up to your average super villain with a futuristic charged energy weapon. Which was a major mistake if you wanted to hold onto your physical cash reserves in this city.

I stepped through the vault door and put up a force field behind me with a casual wave of my hand. My force field generator really only worked in small directed bursts, good for things like deflecting those bullets the guard shot at me with his little pea shooter, and if somebody really wanted to get in here while the field was spread across the entire entrance they’d be able to.

Only who would be silly enough to try something like that? They just saw me blow the vault door aside like it was cardboard, and then they saw me put up a force field that shimmered with just enough translucence to make out shapes on the other side. Why on earth would someone be stupid enough to go against that? How could they know it wasn’t going to do something like disintegrate them if they touched the field?

They didn’t. Theatricality was as much a part of being a good super villain as actually having gadgets that could follow through on some of my threats. If one out of five gadgets worked the way people expected then they started to think five out of five gadgets were capable of vaporizing them or doing otherwise nasty things if they dared defy me.

I glanced around the vault. There were some gold bars that had been rattled loose by the door being disintegrated. There were great piles of cash in giant bags. They didn’t have anything as silly as a giant dollar signs on them like cartoons would lead you to believe, but I’d stolen enough of them over the years to know the telltale signs.

I held up my wrist computer. “You ready, CORVAC?”

“Ready mistress,” CORVAC’s metallic voice came through the wrist computer.

I moved over to the back wall and leaned against it. I watched the translucent shapes of people running around outside, no doubt trying to get out of the bank while the employees tried to figure out how the hell they’d get rid of me. I’m sure the police were being called and I’d have to deal with that once I was back on the other side.

I slumped down against the wall and sighed. This wasn’t nearly as distracting as I’d hoped. I tapped a button on my belt and a long range teleportation targeter materialized from the pattern buffer in one of my belt storage units. The problem with teleportation over long ranges without line of sight was that it required something to home in on. Nothing like those stupid television shows that always depicted teleporters just working over ridiculously long distances. Talk about unrealistic.

“Do you have the coordinates CORVAC?”

“Yes mistress,” CORVAC said. “Remotely programming the long range unit now. I still don’t understand why you needed to make a personal appearance for this.”

I was starting to wonder why I’d made a personal appearance for this. It certainly wasn’t distracting me in the way I’d hoped. Damn it.

“Just transport everything out of this room in about five minutes,” I said.

“You’re not coming with?”

“Nope,” I said. “I’m going to take the long way out.”

“Whatever you say, mistress,” CORVAC said.

“I could do without the sarcasm CORVAC,” I snapped.

“So terribly sorry mistress.”

Not for the first time I regretted installing that extra module that gave him the ability to feel emotions. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I figured it’d make him happier. I thought it might make him a more enjoyable conversational companion since he was the only person I had to talk to when I was busy at work in the lab.

Damn were there times I wished I had someone other than that stupid computer to talk to when I was working.

But no. Adding in that emotion chip seemed to turn him into a miserable, depressed, misanthropic, and overly sarcastic pile of circuitry. And it’s not like I could go back in and remove that emotion chip since I’m pretty sure he had safeguards on most of his systems that’d vaporize me if I ever got close enough to his hardware for anything other than an authorized upgrade.

No, CORVAC definitely wasn’t the kind of computer to idly set by singing Daisy while someone ripped out his circuit boards because they were displeased with his performance or annoyed by his homicidal streak.

I glanced through the shimmering shield and sighed again. They definitely called the cops. At least there were darker shapes that looked very much like the local constabulary lining up to do their impotent best to stop me from doing whatever the hell I pleased.

To be perfectly honest this job could’ve been a hell of a lot easier. I could’ve hacked into the bank computers and created some money for myself and transferred it, all anonymous and friendly like, into my untraceable bank accounts where nobody would ever know the money was even missing. I could’ve cased the bank, gotten the coordinates of the vault, walked into the lobby in civilian clothes with my belt on, materialized the long range teleportation targeter into the vault using the short range teleporter built into my belt, transported all the contents out, and then rolled in the money without anyone knowing the great Night Terror was in their midst.

Sure there was always the risk of also transporting some unfortunate bank employee along with the cash, but a quick transportation back to the old coordinates minus all the cash usually took care of that.

Only then the crime would go down and no one would know the great Night Terror had been in their midst. Every two-bit villain in the city would step up and take credit for the job and there would always be some doubt I’d actually done it even if I took credit. No, my reputation prevented me from doing anything other than a personal appearance for a job.

Of course the main reason I was out today was boredom. This whole thing he had gotten too easy. There were no new worlds to conquer. I was the top villain in a city that was filled with villains and heroes, and there was nobody who dared challenge me.

Boring.

I mean sure the local cops dared to challenge me from time to time, but that was usually a token show of resistance and it’s not like they even tried that hard anymore. We both knew the score. They didn’t overwork themselves trying to grab me, and I made sure I didn’t cause too much collateral damage, make them look too bad, or accidentally vaporize one of them while I was trying to make an escape.

No, you definitely knew you’d made it as a villain it when you went toe to toe with the cops so often that you gave one another professional courtesy.

But the flipside of that professional courtesy was that it made the whole damn thing so boring. It was nothing like the early days when I was making a name for myself. When the people had no idea who Night Terror was. When I still had to prove myself against the best heroes the city had to offer. When I still had to fight for territory against the best villains the city had to offer.

I smiled as I thought back to those days. Now that had been fun. Now those heroes ran in the other direction when they heard I was around, and the criminal element in the city was well aware that Night Terror’s territory was wherever the hell Night Terror decided to be at a given moment.

And it was all so damn boring. There wasn’t any challenge anymore. There was no fun in it.

I’d hoped getting out and doing a good old-fashioned bank robbery would be a nice change of pace from the boring research stuff I’d been doing recently. Stupid CORVAC and his obsession with having me build him a giant death robot so he could get in on some of the city dominating fun. Not that I planned on ever letting him actually get out and take the thing for a spin, but drafting the plans for a pointless giant death robot was the same exhausting work whether or not you intended the thing to actually see use out in the real world.

So much for a distraction. Now I felt more depressed than I’d been before I made this run. I’d hoped it would perk me up, but it was having the opposite effect.

I reached down and made sure my wrist blaster was good and charged, that my shield was ready to go, and that the antigravity units and strength modifiers hidden in my suit were good to go.

Hey, I might be bored, but I wasn’t going to go into a fight with a handicap and throw the game. I was never so bored that I’d deliver anything less than a total curb stomp to my enemies. Well, maybe not the cops. They were just doing their job after all. But I still had to be good to go and ready to take on whatever they threw at me.

Everything was in order. Everything was always in order. It’s not like I’d leave my lair if my reactor wasn’t working properly or one of the other numerous bits of body enhancing technology that adorned my suit weren’t good to go.

I sighed. It was time to go out and be the scariest villain in the city. Again. It was time to make the police run in terror. Again. It was time to show any heroes who might be working in the vicinity exactly how futile it was to take on Night Terror. Again.

Yeah, just another boring day at work.

I let the force field drop.

2: A New Challenger

A hail of bullets roared towards me as soon as force field dropped. Of course the cops might as well be firing blanks for all the good it was going to do them. I held up my hand and a wide dispersal force field sprang to life. I made sure to give the field a little give. It stretched in wherever bullets hit but none made it through to me. The field stretched then sprang back and the bullets fell harmlessly to the ground when I let it go. No good having them ricochet and cause some collateral damage.

The cops lowered their weapons. Well, most of them did. One rookie kept his raised until the commissioner, I recognized his trench coat and impressive bushy gray mustache, reached out and smacked to the younger guy on the shoulder. The rookie lowered his gun with a sheepish grin.

I smiled and waved as I walked past them. “Hello boys.”

Some muttered a hello right back at me. I held back a laugh. None of them tried to raise their weapons again. They knew the drill. They got off their first volley to make it look like they were doing something, they didn’t bother to raise their weapons again, and none of them had to go to the hospital because I had to break out my toys. It was a cushy arrangement.

I nodded to the commissioner as I passed. “Commissioner, how’s the wife?”

“Just fine Miss Terror,” he said. “Doing just fine.”

“Good to hear,” I said. I’d have to be sure and wire a little extra bonus to his special account later. I heard his daughter was getting ready to start college.

And then I was past them. I couldn’t help but sigh just a little in disappointment. There was a time when taking on the cops had been, well, if not difficult then at least something mildly amusing to pass the time. Oh well. That was what I got for proving I was so completely and utterly dominant in this city. It was really my own fault.

I blasted out of the double doors leading out to the street. Bright light shone in. A police line had been set up all around the entrance to the bank and there were officers all around with their weapons raised, but none of them made a move. No, the real danger right now was some hero out there trying to make a name for themselves by taking on the great and powerful Night Terror. That was when things started to get messy. That was why the police had lines set up well down the street to keep the civilians away just in case something went down.

Well, that and if they had that line set up then there was no way pesky reporters or members of the public could see just how little they were actually doing to try and stop me. It was funny how public safety and covering their own asses went hand-in-hand.

I smiled and waved at the group of cops on either side of me. Some of them actually smiled and waved back. Some of the rookies scowled at me. They hadn’t been on the force long enough to learn about our unofficial arrangement. Or at the very least they hadn’t been on the force long enough to appreciate just how useful our little understanding was for both sides.

I stood with my hands on my hips glancing around. I almost hoped somebody was going to try and start something. I needed the distraction. Only there was nothing. The only sound was the shifting of semiautomatic weapons in the cop’s hands. The distant sound of crowds trying to break through. Bullhorns and cops telling people to stay back. All the usual stuff. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to indicate there was a hero on the way.

Oh well. I guess I could just console myself with the piles of money I’d just illegitimately gained.

I was just about to activate my antigravity units and take off when something stopped me. An odd noise. Something that sounded almost like a jet fighter off in the distance, though it was unlike any jet I’d ever heard before. I cocked an ear to listen more closely.

The noise was so faint that I almost thought I was hearing things. Almost thought I was going crazy. Only the cops were starting to look up and around as well. They heard it too.

What the hell was that?

I pulled up my wrist computer.

“CORVAC, is there anything odd going on downtown? Anything like a jet or something else coming this way?”

It couldn’t be a police helicopter. They didn’t even bother sending those after me anymore. Not after I disabled the last one with a handy focused electromagnetic pulse and then gently landed it with one of my antigravity units. They got the message loud and clear. Don’t try to figure out where my lair was.

“I’m picking up something odd on satellite,” CORVAC said. “It is an unidentified bogey. Moving fast.”

“Well what the hell is it?” I asked.

“If I knew what it was then it wouldn’t be unidentified, now would it mistress?” CORVAC’s testy reply came back.

I rolled my eyes and let out a frustrated growl, but I was elated by this turn of events. Here was something new. Here was something exciting. Here was something to break up the monotony, even if it probably was something lame like the National Guard sending in a jet to try and take me out or something similarly stupid like that. Even if it was another hero this was likely to be over rather quickly.

The sound grew louder. Louder. Wind kicked up. I looked around, but whatever this thing was I couldn’t see it through the concrete jungle surrounding me. But I could hear it. Echoing against the walls. That sound bounced across the glass skyscrapers. Ornate stained glass windows across the way in the new Thomas Opera House rattled and several splintered. The noise was almost deafening.

“CORVAC, can I get a satellite picture?”

A holographic image projected up from my wrist computer. I saw a small blue tinted version of the city that zoomed in so I was looking at a 3-D map of the immediate area. And off in the distance, though not too far and closing fast, was a small dot speeding towards me. Coming fast. Really damn fast. Faster than even my antigravity units could handle.

I raised an eyebrow. This was new.

“Definitely not a jet,” I muttered.

Then I didn’t have to look at the holographic projection to see what was coming. On the projection it rounded a corner and I looked up. Everyone else looked up at the same time and started pointing. I heard cheering from the crowds down the way and scowled. They never appreciated how good they had it with a Villainess like me who tried my best to make sure nobody got hurt while I was working.

The impossibly fast whatever resolved into a person, though still too far away to make out much detail. Then, faster than lightning, the unidentified flying person landed with a loud crash in front of me.

I threw my arm over my face to shield myself. Bits of pavement went flying through the air and I kicked up my shield at the last moment causing several bits of asphalt to slam against it and then fall harmlessly. I pulled my arm down and looked. Well, looked is probably a little bit of a misnomer. When I saw the creature standing before me I stared, my mouth hanging open.

I didn’t believe it. A goddess stood before me.

I stared at this goddess standing before me in her high boots, a green skirt that molded itself to a body that looked like it was sculpted by the gods. A bare flat stomach ran up to perfect breasts encased in a tight green shirt that didn’t have a symbol on it. Whoever this was, she was new enough in the city that she hadn’t even taken the time to brand herself yet. And that face. Deep green eyes you could get lost in. Beautiful soft features framed by flowing red hair that whipped dramatically in the wind created by her landing and matched the movement of the cape streaming behind her.

I smiled. No branding meant a complete newbie. It meant a new hero who’d decided to forego jumping in the deep end and went straight to diving the metaphorical Mariana Trench by trying herself on the great and powerful Night Terror. It meant a newbie who was very quickly going to be relegated to the scrap heap of hero wannabes who learned the hard way what it meant to go up against me. I held out my arm and my wrist blaster started its ominous hum as it powered up. This was going to be fun.

“I’m Fialux,” she said, her eyes narrowing.

Damn it. Even when she was angry she was still so incredibly hot. I shook my head. Now why the hell did I keep thinking about how hot she looked? I’d seen plenty of heroines before and they’d never affected me like this. Sure I could tell objectively when a girl was attractive, but I’d never felt this strange burning in the pit of my stomach before. It was new, weird, and I’m not entirely sure I liked it even if it did feel oddly, strangely, good.

I’d never thought of a woman like that before. Why was this starting now? I definitely didn’t need this. Not with a hero I was likely about to rough up.

“Well Fialux,” I said. “It’s time for you to learn what happens to heroes in this city foolish enough to challenge Night Terror.”

Usually that was enough to send whatever hero hopeful was attacking me running, well, in terror. There was a very good reason I chose the name I chose. Only it was different with this one. She just stood there with the oddly sexy juxtaposition of a thin confident smile on her lips and a scowl in her eyes. Lips that were so red. That looked so incredibly inviting. That made me wonder what it would feel like to lean forward and brush my own lips against hers…

No! I was not going to do this! Now wasn’t the time. There wasn’t ever a time for me to indulge these sorts of feelings with another woman, but right before a battle definitely wasn’t exactly an opportune moment.

I needed to chase these thoughts away. I needed to stop thinking like this. I needed to clear my head. That was the whole point of going on this little bank robbery excursion in the first place. And what better way to clear my head than by taking on the city’s latest superhero hopeful? I couldn’t find myself hypnotized by a hero who’d been vaporized, after all.

I raised my blaster and fired off a couple of shots, dead center, only they flew harmlessly through her and slammed into police cars behind her that lit up. I winced. It didn’t look like any cops were standing around the cars when they went up at least. The city really needed to talk to the contractor who put their cars together. They had a pesky habit of blowing up at the least provocation. So I didn’t count that bit of collateral damage as my fault, even if I had lit the match.

I blinked as the dust settled from the exploding cars. This hero, this goddess, this Fialux, still stood exactly where she’d been with her hands on her hips. One hip was a cocked slightly to the side and she had a confident smile on her face as her cape streamed behind her. That sight was so… no! I squashed that thought before it could form, though that didn’t stop that burning in my stomach, between my legs, from completing a thought I refused to voice with my internal monologue.

This Fialux wasn’t special. She was just like every other hero who decided to take me on. Every other beautiful and enchantingly confident hero who decided to take me on and actually challenge me. I was going to have to wipe that look off of her face just like I had with every other hero who dared to take me on.

Only I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how the hell she’d managed to do that. How those blasts of energy had gone straight through her. It just didn’t make sense.

I needed to think this through. My rational mind, my ability to stay cool in the most ridiculous of situations, was one of the reasons why I was still the top villain in the city. This was the same. This was just an interesting puzzle that I had to work out. Nothing more. I just needed to ignore the more irrational parts of my mind that were threatening to take control and gawk at this beauty while I should be figuring out how to defeat her.

I was not going to panic. I was not going to give into that quiet nagging voice in the back of my head that said I might have finally gone up against something that was beyond me. That voice was always there when things didn’t go well initially, and that voice was always wrong. I ruthlessly stomped down on it.

This beautiful hero, damn it I needed to stop thinking of her as beautiful and get down to business, obviously had the ability to manipulate matter around her somehow. People didn’t just go flying without the aid of machinery all willy-nilly like that. Somehow she was managing to take air molecules surrounding her and create the power of flight.

If she was able to do that then maybe she was also able to somehow set her body out of phase with this universe? Maybe she was somehow able to manipulate the matter in her body so that my bolt of energy went through the empty spaces in between the atoms holding her together, there really was a hell of a lot there if you looked at it from the right perspective, which would explain how it seemed like my energy blasts went right through her.

If that was the case then they did go right through her. Just not in the way most people would imagine it.

There was only one way to find out for sure. More experiments. I grinned. In this case “more experiments” meant more blasting at her with my wrist blaster. I loved it when a good experiment involved using my wrist blaster to blow stuff up. It sure beat the boring research I did when I was a grad student at the university.

I fired a few more shots, this time making sure that there was nothing on the other side but a burning slag of metal cop cars had been moments before. Once more the blasts went straight through and slammed into the unfortunate cop cars which moved but didn’t explode this time around. Nothing left to explode, I suppose.

This time I was ready though. This time I had the recorder in my mask going. I pulled up the recording in my heads-up display for review. My eyes widened behind the mask as I watched her in slow motion. Even going frame by frame I could barely make out a blur moving out of the way of the energy blasts then stepping back.

She wasn’t moving out of phase with this universe. She wasn’t doing anything fancy with the molecules in her body. No, she was just ridiculously fast. So fast that she could step out of the way of an energy ball traveling close to the speed of light and get back in place before I noticed. It was seriously a blink and you’ll miss it type of movement.

I let out a snarl and ran towards the strange goddess. Fine. If energy weapons weren’t going to work because she was ridiculously fast then let’s see how she did getting hit with a good old-fashioned machine enhanced punch. The carbon fiber weave of my suit tensed, building up energy to augment my punch. The metal exoskeleton hidden in my suit also coiled for the coming blow.

I loved this feeling. I loved feeling so ridiculously strong. The exoskeleton was hidden so well in my suit that most people didn’t even realize I wore the thing. Most people assumed I had superpowers of some sort.

That was one of the fun things about being a mad scientist. Any piece of mad science, sufficiently advanced, was indistinguishable from superpowers.

I ran forward with my enhanced speed and had a moment to take everything in. The cops standing around the edges staring at us with their mouths hanging open. It had been a while since they’d see me in action against a hero so this was really a special show for them.

I caught a glimpse of that asshole reporter Rex Roth with his stupid camera up taking video of the whole thing. The jerk must’ve bribed a cop to let him through the line or something. It seemed like he was always able to get places other reporters could only dream of. It was one of the things that made him such a pain in the ass.

Of course there were advantages to him getting through the line. I had no doubt this was going to be all over cable news tonight. I smiled. That was fine by me. Let them broadcast my victory to the whole world. That was about the only thing that prick was good for these days anyways. And in front of me I saw, in slow motion, this beautiful new hero who thought she could come out of nowhere to challenge me. I raised my fists, my suit coiled on a molecular level like a snake ready to strike and then I released all the power available to me in a punch to her sculpted and oh so sexy stomach.

Her hand flashed out just as I’d expected. I smiled. She was in for one hell of a surprise when my suit made contact with her. Super speed was one thing, but there was no way she was going to be able to go toe to toe with the strength of my augmented suit.

My fist made contact. With her hand. That suddenly held my fist as though it was nothing. My entire body reverberated with the recoil from her hand slamming into my fist mid-punch and it was only thanks to the inertial dampeners I installed on my suit that I didn’t get a serious case of whiplash as my entire body came to a severe and very quick stop.

I looked up at Fialux. My mouth hung open. I couldn’t believe it. She smiled, a sexy half smile that only quirked up at one side. God that smile was beautiful. Being up close to her like this, feeling her body so close to mine, was so intoxicating.

It was almost enough to distract me from what happened next. Almost.

Her other fist, the one that wasn’t holding my hand in place, flashed out. Once again a combination of my armor, the inertial dampeners, and a safety system built into my suit that was designed to raise a shield any time anything got to within a few inches of me traveling at supersonic speeds, saved my bacon and prevented me from getting a seriously bad case of cracked ribs. Her fist made contact and I was flying through the air back towards the bank. I only barely managed to right myself and get my antigravity units in place just before I slammed into the brick wall.

That would’ve hurt like hell.

I floated to the ground, cape streaming behind me in a suitably dramatic fashion, and eyed my new opponent once more. She was turning out to be far more trouble than I would’ve anticipated.

“What are you?” I asked.

“I’m the woman who’s going to save the city from criminal scum like you,” she said.

Just hearing that voice made me want to thank a God I no longer believed in that such a beautiful thing existed in this world. I could sit and listen to her talk like that all day long, never mind that her words definitely didn’t bode well for my long term career prospects. Especially considering how well she was holding up in this fight. I couldn’t deny it or rationalize it away any longer. I was getting my ass handed to me for the first time in years. And it wasn’t because I’d gone soft or anything.

No, this was a legitimate threat to my reign of benevolent supervillainy.

I always believed that discretion was the better part of valor, and that was never more the case then when I found myself going up against something I didn’t understand. Something that was beyond my ability to handle at that moment. Retreat, regroup, and come up with a plan to come out on top. I smiled slightly. I wouldn’t mind being on top of her if you catch my… Damn it. I was doing it again!

I pulled up my wrist computer and tried to tap into the teleportation system. Only nothing happened.

“CORVAC,” I said. “Run a diagnostic on the teleportation unit in my suit.”

“I’m afraid that it was knocked out in that last hit mistress,” CORVAC said.

Damn. No hopping a short distance away with teleportation so she couldn’t follow me. I also couldn’t very well try to fly out of here. That sort of thing worked when I was dealing with the cops and their mundane transportation like an ancient helicopter from the ‘70s with a spotty maintenance record thanks to an anemic city crime budget, but something told me flight wasn’t going to be as effective an escape with this super powered beauty able able to fly behind me with super speed. I was fast when I really got the antigravity units cooking, but I’d seen that approach on satellite. I was nowhere near as fast as her.

No options. I was backed into a corner. I absolutely hated being backed into a corner.

“Mistress,” CORVAC’s voice came through my communicator.

“What is it?”

“I couldn’t bring the giant death robot into the city mistress? I’m sure that would take care of this creature with no problem,” he said.

“I thought you were supposed to be a logical computer CORVAC,” I said.

“I told you I am mistress,” he said. There was just the hint of a pout in his mechanical voice.

“Well thinking that unfinished useless hunk of metal will be able to go toe to toe with this girl when I’m having trouble defeating her is a triumph of optimism over logic if I ever heard it,” I said.

“You don’t have to be mean mistress,” he said.

Something flashed in front of me and I immediately knew I’d made a mistake by sitting here kvetching with CORVAC for so long. Once again the safeties built into the system that put up a shield every time something came at me with supersonic velocity was the only thing that saved my bacon. Well, my foresight to program that into my suit’s AI, a rather stupid and pliable AI compared to CORVAC since the last thing I wanted was my clothing rebelling against me, saved my bacon.

I felt the tingle of the shield going up next to my left cheek just before stars appeared in my heads up display. That was odd. I didn’t remember programming a star field screensaver into my mask’s HUD. Oh. Right. I’d been hit so hard I was seeing stars. And flying without the aid of my antigravity system. And sliding on the ground.

Let’s just say that was one hell of a punch.

I looked up, fully expecting to see this new hero shaking out her fist. That had to hurt her as much as it hurt me, Newton’s laws and all that. Only she was just standing there as though Newton and normal physics weren’t a thing for her. Well, it would be more accurate to say that she was floating in a dramatic pose with her hair and cape blowing behind her as though Newton, normal physics, and the need for makeup and hair product to look good weren’t a thing for her.

Damn did she look hot!

I shook my head. I needed to stop this! I needed to stop getting distracted. Getting distracted by CORVAC and his stupid solutions. Getting distracted by how goddamn beautiful this woman was. I did not get distracted by women like that. I wasn’t into girls! At least I hadn’t been up until this point which was practically the same thing, right?

Right.

Time to get down to business.

Only business was coming to me. She was flying straight at me, fist outstretched, with a half smile and half grimace plastered on her beautiful face.

This was going to really hurt if she made contact. Alarms were going off all through my suit. All the major readouts on my heads-up display were in the red, blinking, or had gone dark entirely. I was on the verge of a critical systems failure. I designed the suit to take on anything this world could throw at me, but I was starting to have a sneaking suspicion that this beautiful heroine was not of this world.

I gathered all of my strength as she flew towards me and formed a desperate plan. I felt a rush as I started working out that desperate plan. It’d been a long time since I’d had to put together a desperate plan in the heat of battle because I was in very real danger of losing. Much as I hated to admit it, this was giving me the thrill I’d hoped for when I got out of bed and decided to rob a bank this morning.

Fialux didn’t seem to be moving nearly as fast as she could potentially move. That just made planning easier. I had to conserve all my energy for this last futile gesture of defiance, and that meant I couldn’t use the heads-up display for my calculations like I usually did. I had to do all the calculations mentally which delayed me a little bit. Briefly I had visions of my third grade teacher lecturing us on the importance of good mental math skills because we weren’t always going to have a calculator handy to help us with our addition and subtraction. I was doing complicated calculus and trigonometry calculations in my head right now trying to figure out the exact physics of this situation and how to best use her strength against her, but whatever.

Adding up the grocery bill. Calculating the exact force to use against a super powered goddess intent on turning you into the authorities for a life of super crime. I figured they were more or less the same thing.

I gathered all the power left in my suit and channeled it down to my leg reinforcements. I had a moment of satisfaction as I saw her eyes go wide when my legs made contact. Her flight trajectory was thrown off ever so slightly, and apparently she couldn’t exactly turn on a dime. Either that or she was so surprised that she wasn’t able to turn on a dime in this particular case. Whatever it was, I’d take it. She went flying across the way and slammed into an older building which sent chunks of glass and stone flying.

I winced. It really was a shame when some of the older Art Deco buildings in the city went down like that. I was always a fan of the more Gothic buildings in the city over the new glass and metal crap they were putting up these days.

One more thing for my list when I eventually ruled the world. One of the lower things on my list, to be sure, but I still hated ruining a good building.

Only perhaps she could turn on a dime, because no sooner had she recovered from slamming into that building than she was flying back towards me. My eyes darted around my heads-up display looking for something, anything. I didn’t have anything left. All the connections to my reactor were damaged to the point that if I tried to use them I was running the serious risk of having a nuclear meltdown, or even worse having the mini reactor go critical. Either way, downtown would be turned into a radioactive wasteland. I wanted to rule the city, not turned it into a radioactive slag heap.

I closed my eyes. This was going to hurt. Of course a part of me figured it was what I deserved. I’d gotten cocky. I thought I was queen of this city. I’d been thinking to myself how wonderful it would be if I actually had a challenge for a change.

Be careful what you wish for and all that.

As she approached, her fist outstretched once more, the heads-up display now permanently red in the spots where it hadn’t gone dark entirely, I did the only thing that I could think of. The only thing that was left to me. I’d always been a “discretion is the better part of valor” kind of girl, like I said, and there was only one way left to use a little discretion.

I fell to my knees and held my hands up. The only thing I could hope for was that she was a hero who saddled herself with something silly and useless like a moral code. Who was I kidding? They all had a silly moral code. That’s what made it so easy to defeat them.

Usually.

A loud noise like I’d decided to take a nap on top of a 747 engine that was spinning up grew louder until it felt like I was standing next to an irritated Tyrannosaurus Rex who’d just been pulled into a futuristic science lab via a poorly advised time portal. Trust me, I knew what that sounded like first from first-hand experience, and it wasn’t pretty.

Fialux was traveling fast enough that when she hit it would destroy me. Maybe she didn’t have one of those pesky moral codes after all. Then again, maybe she did and my impending smearing was my fault. After all, I was the one who’d created the image of the indestructible villainess by using hidden technology scattered throughout my suit. I was the one who’d just gone toe to toe with a living goddess complete with super strength, the ability to fly, super speed, and who knew what else. How was she to know I didn’t have the same abilities she did? She could destroy me unintentionally and never know I was a normal under all these magnificent toys until the moment she hit me.

No, there was only one thing to do. Only one way to get out of this. I absolutely hated it, but it was a better alternative than death.

Unfortunately my work into figuring out a way to conveniently resurrect had all run into dead ends. Literally. Fortunately my time travel device turned out to be far better suited to preventing me from making stupid mistakes than it had been at transporting angry stubby armed dinosaurs with big pointy teeth to the future.

In absence of a reliable way to bring myself back from the land of the dead I had no choice.

I hated myself for it, but I got down on my knees, squeezed my eyes shut, and held my arms up. I screamed out the next words to make sure everybody heard, though I had no doubt she’d have no trouble hearing me.

“I surrender!”

The angry Tyrannosaurus Rex riding on top of a 747 engine, I was confused and mixing up my metaphors, immediately stopped. I opened up one eye and peeked out, scarcely believing I was still alive.

I opened one eye and looked up. A part of me was painfully aware of the steadily clicking cameras from journalists who’d used the distraction of our fight to sneak through, of news crews, particularly of that asshole Rex Roth, filming everything as I sat on my knees submitting to this annoying but incredibly hot new hero. I bet that asshole Roth was loving every minute of this. I’m sure it was going to be all over the news this evening. Hell, the way he worked it was probably all over the news live and in HD.

Great.

Only I didn’t care about any of that. The only thing I cared about was the goddess standing over me in her perfectly sculpted body. The wind caught her bright red hair sending it and her cape billowing in a suitably dramatic fashion as she stood before me with hands on her hips looking down at me with the sternest, most angry expression I think I’ve ever seen on someone’s face.

She was beautiful. I couldn’t deny it. And yet I wondered what the hell that meant. Where the hell that feeling was coming from. It was new. Thrilling. Terrifying. And confusing.

I should’ve been worried about being captured. I should’ve been worried about the effect this was going to have on my reputation. And yet the only thing I could think about was how gorgeous she was. How nice it would feel to press my body against hers. To press my lips against hers. I wondered how softly she would kiss, given the hard-as-steel strength I’d seen on display today.

I shook my head. I really needed to get a hold on myself. I needed to take control. Why the hell did these thoughts keep running through my mind? It was like I had no control over them, and I have to say I didn’t like it however pleasantly confusing those thoughts were.

“You submit?” she asked.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” I said. “Just please stop.”

The scowl broke into a huge smile and it was like the sun was dawning. I stared, my mouth open and my eyes wide. This woman was gorgeous no matter what, but when she smiled it was as though I was seeing the dawn for the first time. It sent butterflies rushing through my stomach, a disconcerting feeling I hadn’t felt in a long time. When you’re in the villain business you pretty much only have time for emotions like anger, revenge, that sort of thing. Butterflies were different.

Not bad. Just different. I felt lightheaded. I felt giddy. I felt like a girl with a crush. Now there was a weird feeling.

“God you’re beautiful!”

It was a whisper, but she heard it. She looked down and arched a curious eyebrow. My hand flew up to my mouth, my eyes even wider. Now why the hell had I gone and said something stupid like that?

Well, it was pretty obvious why I’d gone and said something stupid like that. I was more interested in what it was that caused me to completely lose control. What it was about this woman that brought down all my defenses, and I’m not talking about the sad state of my suit. I was the greatest villainess in the city, probably in the world. I shouldn’t be staring up at heroes with doe eyes and invoking the name of a deity I didn’t even believe in to describe how hot she was!

This little encounter would’ve made for one hell of a session with my therapist if I still went to her.

The hero, the goddess, Fialux I suppose, stepped forward and reached behind me. I closed my eyes and breathed in her scent as she moved in close. I could feel warmth radiating off her body. I could smell her scent, a mixture of some sort of perfume or body wash and the sweat from our battle. Damn was that an intoxicating smell!

No. I was not going to let these thoughts distract me! I was going to take control!

She grabbed the back of my collar and lifted. I was thankful I put together one hell of a strong suit, because with the way she was lifting me like she was a mama cat and I was a kitten any other fabric would have torn and put me at the mercy of gravity since my antigrav units were out. I was even more thankful a moment later when I suddenly heard a low rumble. The air just around the edges of her body shimmered ever so slightly, and then we were exploding up into the air.

3: Cops and Villains

I’m not ashamed to admit that I screamed like a hero who just realized they’d completely overestimated their ability to go toe to toe with the great Night Terror, though after this encounter that was an analogy I was going to have to reconsider even though it was one of my favorites. It’s not like I was afraid of heights or flying. I did it all the time with the antigravity units built into my suit.

The problem was that when I was flying with those antigravity units I was at least using a piece of technology I could understand. I put power from my reactor into the nice machine I built and the laws of physics took five and ignored me for awhile. It was simple, it was elegant, and most importantly I understood exactly how it worked because I was the one who invented the damn thing.

This, though, this was a completely different experience. All the connections between my suit’s reactor and the antigravity units were severed, so there was absolutely nothing to save my bacon if this chick and suddenly got butterfingers and sent me falling a couple thousand feet to my doom. I didn’t even have my shields or the inertial dampeners to absorb the impact so that I’d only break every bone in my body.

I was completely at her mercy. I hated being completely at someone else’s mercy.

I had no idea what was holding me up. I also hated not knowing how I was flying. There was still that slight sparkling shimmer close to her skin. I briefly wondered if my theory that she somehow manipulated the molecules in her immediate vicinity to somehow provide her flight ability had some truth to it.

I didn’t have enough information. I was being dragged through the air by a super powered being I didn’t understand who was blessed with a power of flight that made no rational sense. She was disobeying the laws of physics just as a cavalierly as I did, only there wasn’t any obvious technology to back her up.

It was infuriating and terrifying.

Of course along with the terror I was also getting a different kind of rush. She’d repositioned me so her arm was wrapped around me, which was just fine by me. I didn’t like the idea of my entire life hanging on her ability to keep her grip. She seemed really damn strong, but I’d only known her for about twenty minutes, most of that fighting, and I really didn’t want to test the limits of her strength while I was dangling a few thousand feet above the city.

Of course wrapping her arm around me had the added effect of pulling me against her. Pulling me against that incredible body. Pulling me up so that I was right next to her gorgeous face.

I closed my eyes and a goofy grin spread across my face.

“Is something wrong?”

I opened my eyes. I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them. I didn’t even realize I had a ridiculous goofy grin on my face! Damn it. Here I was flying along with a woman who I had a good feeling was about to become my new arch nemesis and I was grinning like a goofy schoolgirl with a crush because of the way she felt pressed against me! A blush rose to my cheeks. I hated it when I blushed. It was a sign of weakness.

“No, nothing’s wrong,” I spat out at her.

Perhaps there was a little more heat than I’d originally intended. She caught me in a moment of weakness, and I didn’t like that. It made me hate her even more even as I was drawn to her. It was a weird, roiling, confusing mix of emotions going through my head as I looked at her. I looked down and realized that the city was coming closer again.

“So where are you taking me?”

She smiled. God what a smile. I realized that I absolutely loved making her smile.

“Don’t worry. I’m taking you someplace where you can’t cause trouble anymore.” She glanced down to me, a glance that took in my entire body. An appraising glance that sent a shiver running down my spine. That was new. I’d never had a shiver running down my spine when a girl looked at me like that before. Though it was tempered somewhat by what she said next.

“Besides, something tells me the police will have no problem with you now that all your toys are broken.”

Damn. My secret was out. I still had no idea what she meant about never causing trouble anymore. That was awfully cryptic. Usually these goody two shoes types were pretty straightforward about telling me exactly what they were doing. It was a weakness that every hero seemed to have.

Her intent became immediately obvious as we landed. I blinked as I looked up at the stylish new all glass structure in front of me. I hated this building, and not just because when the cops moved to their new headquarters they decided to go with a modernist monstrosity.

“Police headquarters?” I said. I turned and stared. Incredulous. “You’re dropping me off at the cops?”

“Who better to deal with you?”

Anyone but the local cops, really. Half of them were completely ineffective and half of them were getting regular bribes from yours truly. Sure there was considerable overlap between those two groups, but there were enough cops in my pocket and enough cops who respected the unofficial agreement that chances were they wouldn’t even bother to cuff me let alone book me or charge me.

Not that I was going to tell her any of that.

A couple of cops were coming out the front entrance, but they were the only ones in sight. I smiled. Most of them were probably busy on the other side of downtown dealing with the aftermath of our little altercation. One was younger with the trimmed flat top that all young cops seemed to have and one was older with the bushy white moustache that all older cops seemed to have. Both stopped and stared when they realized who was standing on the steps of their headquarters.

“Good,” she said. “Here are a couple of fine officers who can help me out. Excuse me, officer?”

The old one stepped forward and scratched his head. “Um, yeah?”

He glanced between me and Fialux. Fear flashed in his eyes as he looked at me. I sighed. I had a feeling I could wave goodbye to that reputation after this. It was going to take a hell of a lot of work to get back to that instant look of fear.

“I believe you’ll find this villain has been completely incapacitated. You can take her in officer,” Fialux said.

He scratched his head once more, but the rookie moved forward. The old cop held out an arm as though to stop him, but the young one was out ahead of him before he could do anything. I shook my head. Damn it! If it’d been a couple of older cops this might’ve gone better. Just my luck that I got a rookie who hadn’t gone up against me yet.

He pulled out his cuffs and put them around my wrists, slight surprise registering when I didn’t do anything to stop him. At least he knew enough about the great Night Terror’s reputation to be surprised I wasn’t vaporizing him for daring to cuff me.

That seemed to encourage the older one. He stepped forward and a wide smile spread across his face.

“Well how about that,” he said with a grin that wasn’t at all pleasant. “Night Terror brought down a few pegs.”

Was he serious? Was this really happening? I hadn’t been arrested in years! This was really going to hurt my reputation. This was going to ruin years of leg work and bribes I’d put into making sure the cops were terrified enough to honor our unspoken understanding.

“I think you two can handle it from here,” Fialux said.

And with that she thrust her fist up to the sky, the air around her shimmered slightly like a heat mirage, and she was off flying straight up. I couldn’t help but stare. My mouth hung wide open. Damn could she make an exit. The way her skirt fluttered, the way her cape billowed behind her, the way the wind seemed to catch her hair in just the right way as she flew was absolutely stunning.

I barely knew her, I was pretty sure she was my new arch enemy, she wasn’t even the gender I usually went for assuming I even had time for a relationship because who did these days, and I was pretty sure I was falling for her.

“Damn it.”

“That’s right Night Terror,” the older cop said as he put his arm under mine. The rookie did the same and they lifted and carried me towards headquarters. “You’re really in for it now.”

I rolled my eyes. Cops. They were always the same. They might think they had me, they might think they were taking me in and this was the end of the great Night Terror, but little did they know I had one last trick up my sleeve. One final thing that was guaranteed to help me escape from their clutches. Something that would allow me to return to my lair and the plan for another day, start to rebuild my reputation after the horrible hit it had probably taken. No, these cops had no idea what was about to hit them.

I smiled and chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” the rookie asked.

“I want to talk to my lawyer.”

4: Basic Physics

“So do you have anything else you’d like to say? A message for the people of Earth?” Rex Roth asked.

“Yes, I do,” she said. Your world has a new champion. No longer will you have to live in fear of the villains who prey upon you and ran the city with impunity,” Fialux said. “I’m on the job.”

I didn’t like the way she said “ran” the city. That past tense was ominous.

Rex smiled and leaned forward, winking. He winked! It was just like that prick to take the opportunity of a groundbreaking interview, the kind of thing that was probably going to win him a Pulitzer or whatever they gave cable news pukes, to flirt. God I hated him!

Why did Roth get to be close to her like that? Why did he get to chat and wink? Why did she smile at him like that? Why couldn’t that be me?

I’d show him. One of these days I was going to lose it and vaporize him, PR consequences be damned.

“Welcome to Earth,” Roth said.

“Glad to be here,” Fialux said.

I slammed my hand down on the stop button and the image froze on the screen. Sure I could’ve asked CORVAC to do that for me, but there was something about beating the shit out of a console that felt good. I needed to beat the shit out of something right now.

I hadn’t spent long in jail. Not because of any particular skill on my lawyer’s part, but mainly because that old shark managed to delay the cops long enough to allow me time to get my reactor reconnected to a few critical systems. A quick teleport out of my cell and then it was a hop, skip, and a quick flight back to my lair where I could plan a way to best this perplexing new hero.

And boy had the city’s newest hero been busy in the past week. One plane saved from crashing. Five local villains brought into the authorities. Including one clown that the great and mighty Shadow Wing herself seemed to have difficulty bringing in permanently. I wondered if that was going to start a little heroes’ spat between the old reigning heroic queen of the city and the new hotness.

No, that was none of my business. Forget Shadow Wing. She never bothered me and I never bothered her.

Besides, I had my own problems. I was feeling something I hadn’t felt in a good long while. Worry. And the way Fialux flitted about the city making a good name for herself while cleaning up the criminal element wasn’t good for business. There were going to be some serious changes in the city if this kept up. I had to take her out before the good people of Starlight City started to do silly things like hope.

“Let’s go over everything again,” I said.

If CORVAC had lungs to sigh he would have. As it was he paused for just a little longer than was strictly necessary. Actually, for a computer whose mind could run as fast as his he paused for an eternity.

“Do we have to do this again mistress?” CORVAC asked.

“Yes! We’re doing this until we figure out a weakness!”

I was missing something. There was a piece of this puzzle that would fall in place and give me what I needed. Give me the means to defeat Fialux for good. I just needed to find that damn puzzle piece.

I stared at the 3D projection of Fialux I had CORVAC put up in the center of the lab. It was surprisingly lifelike. I had some of the best holoprojection technology known to man. Mostly because I had the only holoprojection technology that was worth a damn.

Even floating there shimmering in the middle of my lab she looked stunning. CORVAC rotated between various shots taken from local newsfeeds. He was able to piece together multiple angles to get a pretty decent 3D representation. A damn gorgeous 3D representation.

Now that I was back in the safety of my lab I felt a little better about indulging in a little mooning over this beauty. It’s not like anyone other than CORVAC could see how I was reacting, and I was pretty sure he lacked enough capacity for interpreting human emotions to realize what was going on. At least I hoped he lacked enough capacity for recognizing human emotions to realize what was going on. It would be damn embarrassing if my evil supercomputer and partner in crime realized I was falling for my newest enemy.

Talk about a major embarrassment.

“Something new coming in mistress,” CORVAC said.

I raised an eyebrow and turned to the big board. “On screen.”

“As you say mistress.”

I frowned as the screen popped up and the Starlight City News Network appeared. Starlight City News Network meant Rex Roth. That asshole always had a way of being front and center whenever there was heroic action going down. Of course that also meant he was a front and center whenever I was working, and I smiled as I thought back to some of the more embarrassing things I’d done to him in our short time going toe to toe.

Like the time I promised to show up for an exclusive interview. Oh how he crowed about that. He was the reporter to the superheroes, but he was also the first reporter to snag an interview with the greatest villain of our time. I almost felt a little bit of affection for the guy when he described me that way, but not enough affection to prevent me from using my short range teleporter to transport his clothes three feet to the left on a live television feed going out to the whole country.

That was the best interview I ever gave and I didn’t have to say a word.

And sure enough there was Rex’s smarmy face smiling at the screen as something moved in the background downtown. I’d been so preoccupied with trying to find ways to defeat Fialux that I didn’t have my finger on the pulse of the criminal element in the city like I usually did. Usually I knew when a job was going down well before it went down, sometimes villains even got in touch with me to let me know what they were doing to make sure they wouldn’t be stepping on my toes, but this was a complete surprise.

“Interesting,” I said. “Stylish and stupid, but interesting.”

And by interesting I meant that it was interesting in the sense that you didn’t see this sort of thing every day. Not interesting in the sense that I thought it was actually a good idea. Some yahoo had retrofitted an old sailing ship with helicopter blades and it was flying through downtown firing cannon blasts into skyscrapers.

I rolled my eyes. Like I said, interesting but stupid. Collateral damage. You never caused more collateral damage than you needed to. You never had public opinion sway against you if you could avoid it. You definitely didn’t fly through the most densely populated part of town causing destruction willy-nilly.

If I wasn’t so busy trying to figure out how to defeat Fialux then I probably would’ve gone and vaporized their ship out from under them on principle. That kind of stuff was bad for everybody in the business, not just the asshole who decided it would be a good idea to fire indiscriminately at civilians.

Only there was no need for me to go out and take care of business. No, of course there wasn’t. There was a new sheriff in town, and I heard the familiar sound of a jet engine off in the distance. Rex started to get excited.

“Turn up the SCNN news feed,” I said.

“Affirmative mistress,” CORVAC said.

Roth’s voice was excited. “It sounds like Fialux is coming! I can hear her in the distance!”

Yes. There was the stunning insight, the deep cutting journalism that made him the best the cable news channels had to offer. I wept for the current state of journalism in the city.

Sure enough Fialux appeared in the distance, the cameras shook as they tried to zoom in and keep up with her incredible speed, and she zipped down and slammed straight into the ship which rocked to the side as she made contact. And of course there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it. What could you do against a hero like that when your only offensive capability was a bunch of cannons? I watched to see if maybe they had some other weapon in waiting, but no. They didn’t.

They’d brought a 17th century weapon to a 21st century super fight. Idiots.

I rolled my eyes. It was obvious they made their plans for the whole flying ship thing before Fialux showed up. She’d only been around for a week, after all, and retrofitted flying sailing ships weren’t the kind of thing your average stupid criminal built overnight. But the game had changed in that week and they’d decided they were going to go ahead with the flying ship thing regardless of the goddess who’d recently taken up residence in the city and shown she was more than capable of taking out villains of far greater caliber than they could ever hope to be.

Idiots.

Fialux must’ve hit something important when she smashed into the side of the ship, because it started to list to the side. It started to get dangerously close to some of the buildings. I leaned forward. Now things were starting to get interesting. Was she going to let that massive ship slam into a skyscraper?

“CORVAC, do we have any drones ready to go downtown?”

“Of course mistress,” CORVAC said.

Smaller screens around the big board lit up with several different angles showing Fialux in all her gorgeous glory. Maintaining a fleet of drones hidden behind invisibility shields throughout the city was one of the ways I maintained my grip on the city. A grip that was slipping, but hopefully one of my electronic babies would provide me with some information that would allow that grip to tighten once more.

Fialux appeared on the other side of the ship. I leaned forward. Watching her in action was incredible! She moved so fast and she did it with such style in that amazing outfit. At least I told myself I was only leaning forward staring with rapt attention because I was interested in her heroics. I didn’t want to process what the other pesky feelings that threatened to bubble to the surface every time I saw her meant.

Fialux pressed against the ship where it was taking a nosedive towards a massive glass skyscraper. I couldn’t remember what that particular building was called. Everyone I knew just call referred to it as the building that wasn’t quite as tall as the Thomas building. I’m sure it was named after somebody, but everybody stopped caring as soon as it got surpassed in height.

Now there was a metaphor for the world if I’d ever heard one. You were either on top or nobody gave a damn.

The ship turned, smoke billowing out of the Fialux sized hole in its side, and then it was moving down towards the street. CORVAC reposition one of the drones so that it was in the line of fire. I’d probably lose that drone in the process, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. Our heroine moved down under the ship and then she was pressing up on it as though she was trying to lift the whole thing. I leaned forward and squinted at the screen. I thought I saw something just as she pressed up, that same sparkling mirage I’d seen when I was up close with her but localized to the direction she was pushing, but it might’ve been my imagination. I’d have to go back and review the recording.

The improbable airship started to right itself, started to fly in an almost straight line, but then a loud crack pumped through the lab speakers. Rex Roth was screaming and I glanced up to his screen. Now that was interesting.

The ship’s hull had split right down the middle. Right where Fialux had been pushing on it. Now that it was in two pieces there wasn’t a chance in hell it was going to stay airborne. The stern went crashing to the ground immediately, landing on a group of cars that had been abandoned in the street. At least they looked like they’d been abandoned. in their right mind is stayed out in the open when heroes and villains were doing their business.

The bow kept going since it had the advantage of an attractive superheroine sort of holding it up and almost keeping it on course. Fialux at least managed to bring it to something resembling a controlled stop. Almost. At the last moment she lost control as it shattered under the pressure of being held up at a single point. Pieces of airship crashed down around her leaving a very confused hero looking at the two parts of the ship with a bemused expression on her face.

“Yes!” I shouted. “Zoom in on that expression CORVAC! I want that one to go in the highlight reel!”

“As you wish mistress,” CORVAC said.

I looked up from that wonderful freeze frame to the feed from the Starlight City News Network where Rex Roth was surveying the damage from the top of a skyscraper and narrating. That was about the only thing he was a good for, narrating other people doing real work.

“And despite the valiant efforts of the brave new heroine Fialux, it appears that the villains onboard the ship were unable to keep it together,” Roth said.

I shook my head. “You dumbass. Anyone who’s taken basic high school physics could tell you it was her fault that ship broke up in midair.”

Oh well. It looked like the show was over. I went back to trying to think of a way to defeat Fialux. Except I kept coming back to that ship breaking up around a very confused heroine.

Even someone with a basic understanding of high school physics… She’d tried to attack that thing and her “help” hadn’t been enough to save the ship. She hadn’t been able to magically lift the whole damn thing. It looked like the laws of physics still applied to her aside from the whole flying thing. If I could just figure out a way to…

“Holy shit!

“What is it mistress?”

“The laws of physics still work for her just the same as they do for everybody else!”

“Are you feeling well mistress?”

“What do you mean?”

“She can fly through the air, she has super strength,” CORVAC started rattling down the list.

I waved a dismissive hand. “I know, I know! I mean aside from the flying thing. Aside from being able to fly the laws of physics still apply to her! Don’t you see what that means?”

“I’m afraid I don’t mistress, but that is why you’re the brains of this operation,” CORVAC said.

I decided to ignore the electronic undercurrent of sarcasm that went along with that statement. I’d let him get his little jabs in.

“What that means is she exerted force on that ship,” I explained.

“And it disintegrated,” CORVAC said.

“Exactly! She applied too much pressure to one point, more than the structure of that ship could handle, and so it shattered right down the middle where she was pushing on it. Don’t you see what this means? It’s basic Newtonian physics. The third law! I can’t believe it’s that simple!”

“I’m afraid I still don’t follow mistress,” CORVAC said.

“Well that’s why I’m the brains behind this operation,” I said. I wasn’t above getting my own sarcastic jabs in, after all. CORVAC paused, and then I swear he let out the electronic equivalent of a harrumph.

“Basic physics CORVAC. Objects exert force on each other. Fialux pushes on a ship with her super powers and the ship can’t push back on her with equal force so it breaks up. She might be able to fly, she might be ridiculously strong, but ultimately all of her super powers come down to her exerting force on the world around her!”

“Well yes,” CORVAC said. “That is obvious.”

“So she has all these things she can exert force upon. The air. Skyscrapers. Unfortunate villains who get in her way. She can do that weird molecule shimmering thing that causes her to fly. She can use her super strength to throw things around. But what if we created a situation where there was nothing for her to interact with? What if there was nothing for her to apply force to?”

“”Are you suggesting some sort of inert field that removes her ability to interact with the outside world?”

I held up a triumphant finger. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about! Teleport one of my suits over here, I have to get to work.”

A suit materialized on my workbench. I glanced up to the hologram of Fialux floating above me. She was smiling down with a triumphant expression on her face, and she looked absolutely gorgeous. I smiled up at that hologram. Not a pleasant smile. If only she knew what she was in for.

“Mistress?”

“Yes CORVAC?”

“Are we taking development time away from the robot?”

“You bet your electronic ass we are,” I said.

“How are you going to do it?”

“I figure we modify the inertial dampeners somehow, unless you have a better idea,” I said.

“That is exactly what I was thinking, mistress,” CORVAC said.

“Thought so,” I muttered.

“What was that mistress?”

“Nothing,” I said.

I smiled as I started working on one of my suits. Started pulling out the inertial dampening unit. I would have to figure out a way to amplify the power a hell of a lot, and a way to project it rather than having a unit built into my suit to that generated a localized field to protect me when the laws of physics threatened to turn my insides to mush. But those were trivial problems. I figured it would take me a week or two at most to work out all the kinks and take it on its first test run. Hopefully on its only test run.

I grinned up at the holographic projection of Fialux. Beautiful, gorgeous Fialux. And for once I wasn’t thinking of how tempting it would be to kiss those lips. How amazing it would feel to have her body pressed against mine. No, all I was thinking about was how glorious it was going to be when I caught her in my modified anti-Newtonian field (name still under development) where her powers wouldn’t do her a damn bit of good.

Oh yes, Night Terror was going to be on top again. And it was going to be glorious.

5: Penultimate Showdown

Rain fell all around us as I floated down from the top of the Thomas building. Bright city lights reflected off of both the rain and the massive skyscrapers surrounding us in all the colors of the rainbow. My cape fluttered behind me in the storm, still tattered and charred where her heat vision hit me. That was an unpleasant surprise.

“Fialux,” I growled.

“Night Terror,” she replied. “I didn’t think I’d see you showing your face again after our last encounter.”

I let out a yell and dove towards her, pushing my antigravity units to the limit even as I started powering up the secondary reactor I’d added to the suit. The reactor tied into the brand new anti-Newtonian field I’d created.

I couldn’t come up with a better name. Whatever.

I ducked under Fialux at the last moment and she went tumbling through the air. I had a moment to register a look of surprise on her gorgeous face, and then I was turning around and pointing my wrist blaster at her. Only I’d modified my blaster just a little. Now in addition to the stun and vaporize settings I also had the stasis field as a new addition. I’d tried it out on test projectiles in the lab set to move as fast as Fialux and it had performed admirably in every trial. I was confident, cool, collected.

I was Night Terror. I owned this city, and it was time to show this upstart heroine what that meant.

Fialux dove towards me, screaming and creating a pressure wave in front of her that caused the rain to move around her in a bubble rather than falling on her. Damn was that impressive. Damn could I just stand and watch her in action. I shook my head. No! Now was not the time to indulge in this ridiculous crush. Now was the time to defeat her completely and utterly. Business before pleasure and all that.

I raised my wrist blaster, took aim, and fired.

The stasis field shot out with a pleasing pink glow. I could’ve made it whatever color I wanted, but I figured if I was going to have a device that defeated the greatest hero this city had ever known, as far as I was concerned she was already worthy of that title simply by virtue of defeating me, then I was going to do it with a little bit of style. The stasis field made contact. I looked away as a blinding light flashed back at me as the field turned from pink to white and then shifted to blue.

When I blinked and looked up I saw Fialux in the middle of that field, only impossibly she was still coming towards me. A little slower than before, to be sure, but not much. I felt a vibration in my wrist. Alarms blinked angry reds in my heads-up display. Alarms that told me shit was about to go down.

As with the last time alarms turned yellow, red, then they went black. The stasis field winked out and I felt an incredible feedback go blasting through the systems in my suit. Damn! I’d tested it on projectiles in the lab, but apparently tiny projectiles accelerated to an appreciable fraction of the speed of light by technology so far beyond anything else that existed in the world that the analogy of a caveman trying to use a calculator didn’t come close to doing it justice didn’t come close to matching the raw power Fialux could put out. Particularly when she was already in motion. It appeared my attempts to circumvent Newton’s Third Law was running smack dab against Newton’s First Law and it was going to be a painful lesson in elementary physics for me.

Connections to my reactor dropped and the alarms started going off for more systems than my wrist blaster. I dove for the ground and just barely made before my antigravity units gave out entirely and I was suddenly terrestrially bound like the normals.

Fialux slammed down in front of me looking absolutely amazing as rain fell around her. The water trickled down her gorgeous skin, made her hair fall down across her shoulders slick and wet. It caused her outfit to press against her body in all the right places and I licked my lips as I looked at her. As I felt a strange burning in the pit of my stomach. As I felt strange feelings that I’d never felt before towards another woman and yet as I looked at her those feelings were raging like a massive forest fire compared to the puny candle flame I’d felt for guys I’d dated back before I decided to go into a career in super villainy.

It wasn’t a career that was very friendly to long term relationships to begin with, and most guys had trouble with a girl who could vaporize them at a moment’s notice. Not that I’d ever do that. Without a really good reason.

What the hell was wrong with me? Where were these feelings coming from? I didn’t ask for them, and now here I was staring at my greatest and most mortal enemy, the greatest threat to that villainous career, and all I could think about was how hot she looked in her outfit?

I needed to get my priorities straight.

Fialux smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant smile, but it still sent a thrill rather than a chill running down my spine. She was smiling at me. I was a goofy schoolgirl with a crush if that was the sort of thing that got me excited. What the hell?

Her hand balled into a fist at her side. I blinked. This wasn’t going to be fun. Felix raised her fist and moved towards me at lightning fast speed. I smiled. Unlike the last time I found myself going up against her I’d come prepared with an independent teleportation unit that had its own power supply that wasn’t tied into the rest of my systems.

Discretion was the better part of valor, and I figured a hero flying towards me at top speed with her fist outstretched was as good a time for a little bit of discretion as any. I reached behind to the small of my back where the teleportation unit was hidden behind my cape and pressed the button.

Fialux disappeared in a flash of light as my molecules were scrambled and transported a few blocks away. When I rematerialized I glanced in the direction of our fight. I could see smoke rising above the skyscrapers and heard a crash as Fialux no doubt crashed into some building when Newton’s First Law no doubt sent her slamming into a building after I ceased existing between it and her high speed flight path.

I smiled and limped away, hitting the backup teleporter and jumping a few city blocks every couple of steps when I had a clear line of sight and could be sure I wasn’t going to materialize in the middle of a brick wall. I only had enough power for a couple of jumps, but with a little luck Fialux wouldn’t find me before I made my escape.

6: Back at the Lab

Stupid Fialux.

I stumbled through the front door not even caring if somebody saw me. Hopefully if one of the neighbors did happen to look out their window at that moment the careful cover story I'd developed about dressing up in costumes for insipid comic book conventions would be enough to explain why I was showing up in a busted and beaten Night Terror costume.

The worst that could happen was they called the police. And even with the recent dings to my previously unsullied reputation it's not like the boys in blue would actually dare set foot on a city block if they thought it was Night Terror's true lair. Too much risk of vaporization on my home turf.

No, they'd just call Fialux and let her do their dirty work like they always did.

Of course there was always the danger Fialux herself might see me stumbling through my front door, but I was fairly certain I'd given her the shake. Either way I was too tired to care. I was too upset to care. Let her come. Let her rip apart my lair. Let her drop me down in the middle of a prison yard without anything approaching due process.

My attorney would have a field day with that one.

I reached down and pressed the emergency release button on one of my power enhanced leg modules. Normally that would send it clattering to the ground, but in this case the thing kicked up and nearly smacked me in the face. Now that would be a trick. I could see the headline now. Famed villainess Night Terror killed by malfunctioning super boot of her own design.

That jerk Rex Roth from the Starlight City News Network would have a field day.

Yeah, what a way to go. Definitely not the massive showdown with Fialux that a villainess of my caliber deserved. Not that a showdown would be all that massive if tonight’s performance was anything to go on.

If the emergency release wouldn't work then I'd just have to do this the old-fashioned way. I took aim with the energy blaster attached to my right wrist, careful to make sure I was targeting the strength enhancer and not my leg underneath, and blasted.

The leg strength enhancer sizzled but split allowing me to move again. I reached down in the hole my blaster left and yanked out the dead enhancer and tossed it to the ground with a satisfying clink.

Bots skittered out of their little mouse holes to pick up the mess I'd left behind. Little bright flashes of blue appeared behind me as they used their plasma cutters to rip the thing apart so it could be carried down to the lair for recycling.

Hey, I might be an infamous villainess, but I was conscious of the environment.

A slight acrid smoky smell drew my attention as I continued towards my small study. I looked down and realized that last shot must have been a little too much for the blaster. Well, I suppose that was to be expected. The thing was designed for blowing the doors off of bank vaults. That sort of thing impressed the normals. It definitely wasn't designed to go toe to toe with Fialux's damned heat vision.

Still, that was really fun when she blasted out with the old laser eyes and I brought up my wrist beam just in time for the two to meet in a massive explosion. I hoped they got a good shot of that for the evening news.

I hit the release button on the blaster, this one actually worked, and it clattered to the floor behind me.

A sudden gust of wind had me wheeling around in terror. But it was nothing. I just left the front door open. It definitely wasn't a heroine sent to our world from another planet with an annoying array of superpowers coming to carry me off to jail.

I breathed a sigh of relief and turned back towards my study. The door could wait. Either one of the bots would get it or some unfortunate robber would decide to take advantage of the situation and the security beams would get a little target practice. Either way it didn't matter to me.

I reached back and pulled on a spot where my suit was riding up my ass. These damned suits. The carbon fiber weave definitely kept up with the extreme activities I got up to at night and it had a nice combination of stretchy and strength that made it invaluable if your job description involved regularly fighting living gods, but it also had a nasty tendency to ride up in all the wrong places.

I had to spend at least two hours a day in the gym just to stay in good enough shape to pull the thing off. Not that I was complaining, mind you. I looked damn good and I was proud of it.

I finally reached my study, actually a dining room I'd converted into a study by putting up bookshelves around the edge, and reached out to pull out my copy of The Villain's Manifesto. The RFID chip hidden in the book went to work and a moment later the bookshelf flipped open to reveal a small alcove set into the wall. A hover plate keyed specifically to me floated in the open air. Anyone who wasn't me that tried stepping on the thing would find its antigravity technology quickly surrendering to the laws of physics.

One of many nasty surprises I'd worked up for anyone who dared trespass in my lair. Not that anyone ever had. Not that I’d know since most of the surprises I’d worked up involved immediate vaporization.

Huh. I’d never thought of that before.

I stepped onto the hover plate which descended down into my lair. The bookshelf closed behind me overhead, but there was still plenty of light from the bright purple neon runners I'd installed on either side of the tunnel. Hey, if you're going to have an entrance to a secret lair then I figured you should do it in style.

The antigrav plate came to a halt and I stepped into my lair with a contented sigh. Home. I held out my arms and robotic tentacles reached out and grabbed at bits of my suit. What was left of my suit. One had to jerk a couple of times as it tugged on one of the arm enhancers I wore, but eventually the thing broke loose with a snap.

I grimaced. Going toe to toe with Fialux came with an expensive repair bill.

I rolled my shoulder where that particular enhancer connected. Stupid Fialux hit me with a lucky punch there. The jerk. Why couldn’t she just fall into my anti-Newtonian field and give up?

"How did everything go ma'am?" CORVAC asked, his metallic voice booming through the speakers in the lair.

The name was short for Computational Organic Vacuum Tube Intelligence, although I'd upgraded his systems so many times since I discovered him in the burnt out ruins of another villain's old lair that there wasn't a single vacuum tube left in his sarcastic circuits. I rolled my eyes and looked at a monitor where the faint silhouette of a human head was projected in a grainy bright green display. CORVAC said it was old school or something like that. I thought it was a waste of a perfectly good high definition display to turn it into an ancient EGA display straight out of the late ‘80s but whatever.

"How do you think it went CORVAC?" I asked. “I’m sure you were watching on the drone displays.”

For emphasis I held up a tattered bit of my cape that was good and charred where Fialux's damned heat vision hit with a glancing blow. Who knew she had heat vision? I certainly didn’t, so I didn't bother with one of the heat resistant capes. I wouldn't make that mistake again, no matter how itchy they got in summer.

"Another successful mission I see," CORVAC said.

I stalked across the room and sat down at the main computer terminal. I briefly considered typing format on CORVAC's command prompt, another old school affectation, and hitting enter, but decided against it for perhaps the thousandth time since I'd brought him back online and upgraded him.

The problem with relying on a self-aware computer system based on architecture created by one evil super genius and then upgraded by an even more intelligent super genius, myself thank you very much, was that the computer tended to have algorithms and subroutines of its own that could be a nasty surprise. CORVAC could be downright nasty and efficient, which was fine with me as long as he was on my side. But best not to do anything to irritate him, lest I discover he had a vaporizer attached to my seat set to go off when I hit format much in the same way that I would vaporize any petty criminal getting in my way.

"Were you at least successful?"

I rolled my eyes and growled. “You know the answer CORVAC.”

“I do mistress,” he said. “I just thought it might help you to talk about it.”

“Remind me why we’re spending all this time building a giant death robot for you instead of a mute button that works on your speakers?” I asked.

“Because that would lead down a dark path that ended with one or both of us completely destroyed?”

“Good point,” I said. “Pull up the Fialux hologram.”

“Whatever you say mistress,” CORVAC said.

The holodisplay in the center of the room flickered, wavered, and Fialux stared down at me.

After the day I’d had with her that sight should've been enough to send me scrambling away in terror. Seeing her floating there brought back terrified memories of being deposited on the steps of police headquarters and waiting for my lawyer to show up and remind the cops about the Supreme Court decision that villains and heroes choosing to wear a mask constituted free speech and therefore they couldn't violate my identity even for a mug shot.

I knew it was just a projection but there was something about the lifelike way she smiled down at me that sent a thrill through my body. If I squinted at just the right angle it almost looked like she was floating there smiling right at me rather than being an unthinking projection. I couldn't help but smile back.

Sure right now I was in the sort of mood where I also wanted nothing more than to pull out a disintegration ray and fire until the energy reserves were gone. Not that it’d do a damn bit of good against her invulnerable hide, but it would be therapeutic to empty the clip regardless.

I stared into her eyes. They were deep pools of green that I could get lost in. Greener than the brightest forest imaginable. And yet staring at those eyes made me wince as I thought about the nasty little surprise of her heat vision that I’d run into tonight. She melted through a solid steel girder in a construction site and signed my cape real good in the opening moments of our fight. Still, those eyes were gorgeous even if I knew now they were deadly as well.

Only now in the safety of my lab those laser eyes did nothing. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t completely accurate to call them laser eyes. Whatever. When you get to the point that your lab is singlehandedly more technologically advanced than the rest of humanity combined you can flub some scientific nomenclature in the name of coming up with a convenient way to describe what it’s like to fight a living god to a normal. No offense.

My eyes moved across the rest of her body and I licked my lips. That fire was burning again. Not the fire of hatred that I usually felt when I was dealing with an archenemy. No, this was a burning desire that still confused the hell out of me, but I couldn’t deny how this goddess made me feel. I couldn’t deny that staring at her hologram was sending the most devious thoughts dancing through my mind.

Come to think of it I often found my eyes returning it to this projection while I was working on the anti-Newtonian field. And it now that I was staring up at her I felt that new but familiar feeling that I’d been trying so hard to deny. It was like a warmth that started in the pit of my stomach and ran to a flush in my chest and cheeks.

I felt like I needed to climb up and plant my lips on that hologram, only it was just a projection and not the real thing. Thoughts of being on top of Fialux, of her leaning over me, of that beautiful face leaning down and kissing mine. Of her tight body in that bright green skintight top that revealed her stomach and that impossibly short skirt she always wore pressing against my suit.

Where the hell did these thoughts keep coming from? They terrified me as much as they excited me. I was used to being in control. I was used to being cool and collected. I definitely wasn’t used to mooning over someone like I was some teenager discovering boys for the first time, and this wasn’t even a boy! Which just added to the confusion let me tell you.

I shook my head. I needed to cut off of this line of thinking. I needed to focus on a problem. A problem like how to defeat Fialux and not why I kept thinking about how beautiful she was or how nifty it would be if we could maybe just go out for a nice dinner at an expensive restaurant downtown instead of throwing around cars and singlehandedly demolishing major financial centers downtown. I needed something to help to get my mind off of these weird feelings.

Something pressed between my legs and I felt a jolt run through my body. Holy shit. What was that? I looked down and was surprised to see my own hand down between my legs idly rubbing while thoughts of Fialux danced through my head.

So much for getting my mind off of my sudden interest in Fialux.

But it felt good. Almost as fun as the time I added the vibrating attachment to the end of one of the telescoping probe arms, and this was just my fingers without any sort of robotic enhancement. That was surprising. I’ve mentioned before that my career in villainy keeps me pretty busy, too busy for a proper sex life if I’m perfectly honest which meant that those vibrating telescoping arms could get one hell of a workout at times if you catch my drift.

I definitely wasn’t one of those villains who found someone else to work with. There were a few couples working the city, though I didn’t run into them all that often since most other villains tended to be wherever I wasn’t as soon as I announced myself. No, Night Terror worked alone. In more ways than one.

And yet now here I was stroking myself through my carbon fiber suit looking up at my archenemy and feeling more turned on than I’d been in a good long while. I needed to stop this. I needed to focus on defeating her and not on dating her and what naturally followed. I looked at her perfect face and even more perfect body.

I supposed it wouldn't hurt anything if maybe I just rubbed a little more. For a little while longer. So I did. And as I rubbed I felt a change coming over my body. My breathing was picking up. My nipples were straining out and I could clearly see their outlines through the carbon fiber material of my suit. Moisture was gathering between my legs and the rest of my body felt like it was on fire.

And above all of that were the incredible naughty thoughts running through my head. Fuck defeating Fialux. Suddenly my mind was flooded with thoughts of how wonderful it would be just to fuck Fialux. My hips started to churn and I felt an impossibly delightful pleasure dancing like little bolts of electricity from the tips of my fingers straight to the oh-so sensitive nerve endings in my pussy.

Damn. But if I was really doing this, if I was really giving in to my base urges like this, then I might as well go all the way.

I reached out to the control on my wrist and flicked the button to release the charge that kept my pants on so tight. Hey, I worked out and kept in really great shape, but it was impossible to have something that fits so well and it felt halfway comfortable without just a little bit of super science to keep everything working properly. Think of it as high tech molecular double-sided tape.

High tech molecular double-sided tape that still didn't prevent the damned suit from riding up my ass and other environs all the time. No technology is completely perfect.

The molecular bonds in the carbon fiber thread ceased and my suit loosened and fell to the ground.

“Mistress?” CORVAC asked.

I blinked and a blush crept across my face. Damn it. Of course CORVAC would still be in the room. Usually when I was having some of that aforementioned fun with the various vibrating attachments on those robotic arms I made sure to go to one of the labs where CORVAC didn’t have a video feed. I’m sure he had his suspicions, he was a computer with access to the Internet and the treasure trove of information about human mating habits stored therein after all, but he was always too polite to voice those suspicions.

And now here I was going to town on myself in the middle of the main room in the lab while I stared at a hologram of our new enemy numero uno. Only I didn’t care. I was a woman possessed. I was a woman obsessed with the gorgeous goddess floating in front of me. I was crashing through the thin line between lust and hate, that confusing roiling mix of emotions that washed over my body every time I looked at Fialux.

I didn’t care that CORVAC was witness to my shame. Besides, it couldn’t be any worse than any of the aforementioned videos about human mating habits he’d no doubt scanned.

“Shut up CORVAC,” I gasped.

I turned back to the holographic projection of Fialux as I stood in the middle of my lab completely nude with my psychotic computer watching over one shoulder, my charred and broken suit pooled at my legs, and my fingers pressing up inside the warm wetness of my pussy as I thought of how goddamn hot it would be to have a completely different sort of one-on-one session with the great and powerful Fialux.

I looked the life-size hologram of Fialux up and down once more. Damn was she impressive. I figured I might as well admit it if I was this far gone. I gasped and had to put my other hand against the holoprojector to maintain my balance as I found a particularly sensitive spot just as a particularly naughty image of leaning down and kissing Fialux flew through my head.

I wondered if she worked out to have a body that looked like that or if one of the things her damned impossibly perfect alien physique granted her was a, well, a damned impossibly perfect physique. Oh to be able to look like that without spending a day in the gym.

Fialux really and truly was a goddess in every sense of the word.

That perfect auburn hair that came down to her shoulders and seemed to turn up under her perfectly whether she was in the middle of a windstorm or fighting a giant radioactive monster. Two had come through the city since she showed up two weeks ago, a surprisingly normal occurrence what with a superfund site on the outskirts of town that was used for some part of the Manhattan Project but never got cleaned up properly after the war.

Anyways, back to gushing over Fialux. Her perfectly proportioned face with that cute little nose and those striking green eyes I’ve already mentioned that were so sexy when they weren’t blasting hot death through solid metal. Her perfect skin, neither too tan nor too pale, and the way her neck arched down to her shoulders to a perfect pair of breasts that seemed to defy gravity. And that toned and flat stomach, always exposed under the tiny t-shirts she preferred. A t-shirt, I might add, that I'd give CORVAC's right memory bank to possess since it seemed to have the uncanny ability to withstand anything I threw at it. I often wondered what exotic alien material it was made of, because it made my semi-impenetrable suits look like tissue paper in comparison.

Long muscled legs, perfect calves, and her cute little feet. Those short skirts she always wore that showed off the curve of her ass in just the right way no matter what pose she struck. And she always looked perfect no matter what.

Looking at her and thinking about all of those advantages, just how perfect she was, inspired blind jealousy. That was the sort of emotion I could get behind. Could understand. Who wouldn’t be jealous of a hero with everything she had? Only with this hero there was undeniably something more there. Something different. Something strange and not altogether unpleasant.

Something that had me leaning against the holoprojector staring up at her slack-jawed with my fingers buried in my pussy as my hips churned and I thought of just how goddamn gorgeous she was. Just what I’d like to do with her if we could just set aside this silly hero and villain dynamic. Like that would happen.

I recognized those feelings. I'd felt them before, though not since that tragic accident when my last boyfriend accidentally walked in on one of my early matter teleportation experiments at the University. I liked to think he was out there somewhere, on some planet in the galaxy, still fighting the good fight or at least settled down living whatever passed for the good life on his adopted planet. Maybe even soaking up the light of some different colored sun playing the hero role himself, which was the sort of thing the big lug would do.

But I knew in reality that space was a big place, with a whole hell of a lot more places that were inhospitable to life than were hospitable. So it was more likely that he was floating out there in the vacuum, a frozen humancicle who'd confuse future explorers if humanity ever got off their ass and started seriously exploring space.

Anyways, I'm getting away from myself.

Those feelings. Feelings I hadn't felt since the last night my last guy and I spent together before the accident. And now I was having those emotions, those feelings, as I stared up at Fialux.

As I stared up at a woman.

With a start I realized my hand was pressing between my lips down below and it felt damn good as my fingers traced up and down. Better than it’d ever felt when I was thinking of a guy while doing this. Much better than it’d ever felt when a guy was doing this.

Huh.

That felt kind good. Really kind of good. Kind of really good.

Confusion was quickly crowded out by thoughts of Fialux as I stared up at the hologram. Man was she hot. I couldn’t deny it as I hit another sensitive spot grazing my clit and gasped. What was I doing to myself?

Yet I wasn’t so reliant on those vibrating telescoping tentacles that I had no idea how to have a little fun all by me onesies with just my hand. And as I stared up at the hologram of this goddess floating over me I realized that I wanted to do this all on my own. No robotic help this time around. Already I was imagining that it was Fialux working her magic on me rather than my own hand and damn was that sending me into overdrive!

I started moving my hand up and down. Slowly at first, and then picking up the pace as I stared. Once again thoughts of what I would like to do to her, what I would like her to do to me, flashed unbidden through my head. I wasn’t even going to fight these feelings anymore. They were new, they were weird, in a way they were unwanted and hellaciously confusing, but I couldn’t deny the way she made me feel and I wasn’t going to deny the way she made me feel.

Especially when the way she made me feel felt this damned good.

I wondered what it would feel like to run my hand up under that t-shirt and cup one of those perfect breasts. I bet they felt amazing. What would the breasts of a goddess feel like? Well, technically the breasts of an alien sent from another world but just like with my technological toys it was so close to how I characterized it as made no difference.

And that ass. How I wanted to squeeze her ass as she pressed her body against mine. How I wanted it to feel her thighs grinding between my legs. How I wanted to grind my thigh between her legs as she pressed her body against me.

My fingers were a poor substitute for the real thing, and for the first time in my life I found myself seriously considering what it would feel like to be with a woman. No idle fantasizing. No thoughts popping into my head unwanted and dismissed just as quickly. No, as my fingers worked in and out of my pussy I was imagining that it was Fialux, wondering what it would feel like to kiss her, to feel her incredible body against mine. Wondering if I would measure up. If I’d ever have any chance at all. I wondered what it would feel like to have a pussy wrapped around my fingers. Around my tongue.

Holy shit there it was. That thought definitely got some traction in my erotic imagination judging from the way lightning bolts of pleasure went coursing through my body. Fuck!

If being with a woman in reality was anything like how it felt with my fingers exploring my body as I imagined it then I had a feeling it would be a singularly amazing experience. An experience I’d never considered before, but an experience that I had to, well, experience now that it was consuming me.

"Mistress, what are you doing?" CORVAC asked.

"CORVAC," I gasped. My hand continued moving. Explosions of pleasure continued shooting from between my legs through to the rest of my body accompanied by an impossible heat that burned hotter than the worst fever I’d ever felt. I was gasping for breath as my fingers did their forbidden dance, worked their amazing magic as I imagined Fialux was the one whose fingers were buried between my legs. As I imagined that my fingers were buried between her legs. Faster, faster.

CORVAC’s idea pushed a wicked idea to the forefront of my imagination. "Can you project what Fialux would look like without that outfit on based on recent footage?"

"Well I could do that mistress…"

"Do it," I gasped.

"But mistress, that would be such a monumental waste of my resources. I am the most powerful computer ever devised by a human and you want to reduce me to generating pornography for you?"

"Just do it!" I shouted.

"Yes mistress," CORVAC said.

Fialux's hologram shimmered and her clothes disappeared revealing CORVAC's best guess as to what she looked like under all of those impenetrable alien clothes. Dear God was she gorgeous. Her breasts curved up without a hint of sag. Her nipples were delicious pink points that made me want to run my tongue over them. The way her ass curved in this particular pose, the way her legs ran down. Her delicious looking pussy. Delicious? I’d never used that adjective before in my life in relation to any piece of female anatomy and yet here I was thinking it as I went to town on my own female anatomy. Damn.

I saw that CORVAC had taken a little liberty and projected that Fialux was the type to go clean-shaven down there, though that did raise the interesting question of whether or not there was a razor on earth strong enough to handle the grooming needs of a super powered being from another world.

"I've taken some liberties and made some assumptions with the projection," CORVAC said. "For instance in recent interviews Fialux has indicated she comes from another world, and so this projection is based on the assumption that she has the same anatomy as a normal human female which is just a best guess based on…"

"Would you shut up already?" I screamed.

"Well. If you are going to get testy."

I wasn't going to get testy. It was just that all my concentration was on the feeling between my legs as I stared up at this naked goddess before me and pressed my fingers deep inside me. God did her body look amazing. Amazing in a way I'd never appreciated a woman before. Why hadn't I ever appreciated a woman like this before?

Or maybe I had appreciated a woman like this before and was just afraid to admit it. Hell, as soon as these feelings started bubbling to the surface with Fialux I did my damned best not to admit it.

Screw admitting things to myself. I was already past that point and enjoying the hell out of being past that point. No, right now I was far more interested in the results of this newly discovered female-focused sex drive that was firing on overkill as I stared at Fialux. My hips churned erratically as I felt a tingle rising from my pussy as my hand danced. Oh fucking shit. Oh my fucking God. Holy fucking shit did that feel amazing.

The tingle spread down to my toes and up to my tingling scalp and I felt an explosion go off through my body as I imagined being on top of Fialux with her doing the exploring rather than my body. I went weak in the knees and I had to grip the holo projector console to maintain my balance as my entire body started shaking under the force of that intense feeling. My eyes squeezed shut and I was screaming at the top of my lungs and imagining Fialux doing the same which sent another wave of impossible pleasure coursing through me.

Then the feeling was gone and I was left standing there looking at Fialux and feeling just as hot as I’d been a moment ago. Almost hot enough that I was tempted to go for another round. The only thing stopping me was an irritated blinking light on the holoprojector console. CORVAC was trying to get my attention. Best to indulge him considering what he’d just witnessed.

Oh well. I took a deep breath to compose myself and turned to face CORVAC with as much dignity as I could muster considering the circumstances.

“Did you enjoy yourself mistress?” CORVAC asked.

“I did, thank you very much,” I replied.

“And has this new and rather novel research aid yielded any results mistress?”

I flipped CORVAC's nearest monitor the bird as I turned back and looked up at the projection of Fialux. She was so amazing, especially when she wasn’t flying towards me at top speed getting ready to destroy my suit. If only I could…

“Wait a minute CORVAC,” I said.

“Yes mistress?”

“I used the anti-Newtonian field on her when she was already going full speed,” I said.

“Is that a problem mistress?”

“That’s exactly the problem! The whole point is to throw her into a vacuum where her powers have nothing to act against but that doesn’t do a damned bit of good if she’s already in motion!”

“Is this more of that elementary physics you were lecturing me about mistress?”

“It’s exactly that! It’s so simple I can’t believe I missed it. An object in motion stays in motion and so she was pumping too much power into the field by the time it hit her!”

“Fascinating mistress, really, but perhaps we could discuss the chassis for the robot?”

“Forget that crap CORVAC,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. “It was right in front of me the whole time. The field works, I just need to capture Fialux with it while she’s not in motion!”

“Fascinating conjecture mistress, but how do you propose doing that considering she launches herself at you the moment you announce yourself?”

“Simple. I take her by surprise.”

7: Damsel in Disguise

I slouched my way along the pitted and often nonexistent sidewalks on the old east end of Starlight City. All around me stood at the rusted out and broken remains of a part of the city that had seen its heyday some fifty to sixty years prior. The intervening years had seen nothing but depression and crime taking over.

Basically it was the perfect place to try and lure Fialux.

Not that I didn't get an earful about this plan from CORVAC before I headed out for the evening.

"But mistress," CORVAC said. "If you were fighting Fialux openly and losing with the best super powered augments you had available, what makes you think that a simple disguise will allow you to get the jump on her?"

"There's nothing a hero can resist less than a good damsel in distress situation," I said. "Trust me. This will work."

"Mistress. I think we should talk about the little incident with the mess you made on the holoprojector."

I rolled my eyes. "CORVAC, that's the last thing I want to discuss with you."

"But mistress, that made me more uncomfortable than the time you put the vibrating attachments on the telescoping probes."

"CORVAC, I said I didn't want to talk about it."

There was a pause. Pauses were unusual for CORVAC. I was well aware that his positronic matrix brain could think at speeds that made my own mind look like a slimeless snail running on a superglue track. So when he paused like that either he was really thinking about something, the digital equivalent of simulated civilizations could rise and fall multiple times in the amount of time he was taking, or he'd just got caught in another logic bomb that tied up his circuits.

That was the problem with evil super computers. They were prone to being vulnerable to logic bombs hurled by the hero at just the right moment. I'd done my best to program those out, but he still occasionally got thrown into an annoying Kirk loop that reduced the most sophisticated computer on the planet to running slower than a copy of Windows ME that had just been introduced to spyware for the first time.

"Mistress, are we still planning on world domination?"

Domination. Oh yes. Domination. I had a whole lot of domination in mind once I finally managed to capture Fialux. Maybe not the world domination that CORVAC had in mind, and not for the first time I wondered why a computer that could simulate the entirety of the known universe in a matter of milliseconds needed to dominate the flesh and blood world of humans, but I definitely planned on dominating the most powerful being in the world. And I was going to make sure we both loved it.

"Oh yes," I said. I rubbed my hands together and grinned. "Domination. Complete and total domination. That's the plan."

"Are you sure about that mistress?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You have that smile you use when you are lying to me via omission."

Not for the first time I cursed myself for ever loading that facial recognition software. Like an artificial intelligence really needed to be able to recognize the range of human expression to do its job.

A dark shadow in one of the alleys up ahead shook me away from my reverie about CORVAC and his annoying complaints. I smiled. Hopefully this was exactly what I was looking for.

Now a normal person in this part of Starlight City would probably try to cross to the other side of the street. Hell, any sane person wouldn't be in this part of town at this time of night to begin with. But I kept going. With a little luck I wouldn't have to wander around all night looking for a crime statistic that was willing to take me on.

Not that it was difficult to run into crime in this part of town, statistically speaking.

As I stumbled past the entrance to the dark alley a voice whispered to me. My grin got bigger. That’s a bingo!

"Hey. You."

I turned, my eyes widened, and blinked at the voice from the darkness. A moment later a hulking man who looked like he hadn’t seen the pointy end of a razor in weeks and carrying a gun in his hand appeared out of the shadows. He jerked the gun back, gesturing for me to join him in that dark alley. I quickly bit back my smile and replaced it with a look of pure terror.

I was supposed to be afraid, after all.

"Oh sir please don't hurt me!"

I held up my hands and tried to open my eyes as wide as possible. It wasn't too difficult to mimic what a crime victim looked like considering all the firsthand experience I had seeing bystanders witnessing my crimes up close and personal. I hesitated to call them victims since none of them ever really got hurt as long as they were smart enough to get out of the way.

"I said get in here bitch," the guy said.

"I swear I don't have any money!" I said.

He held up his gun and pointed it straight at my face. I opened my eyes even wider and tried not to snicker. A part of me wanted him to just fire the damn thing. After all, occasionally the kinetic force shield I wore caused a ricochet, and I might just have enough time to register the look of surprise before his own bullet bounced back into him. But he didn't do anything so stupid. That was probably for the best.

I was supposed to be an innocent victim, after all.

If anyone saw some girl walking around with obvious super science then it would make it very difficult to actually accomplish my mission. It would make this part of town safe for young women wandering around alone for awhile, but that wouldn't help me at all.

"I'm not interested in any money from you bitch," the guy said. "Now step into the alley before I waste you and finish the job anyways."

Talk about your common street thug. No class whatsoever. No sense of style. I rolled my eyes and put my hands on my hips. "Seriously?"

The gun wavered in this hulking gentleman's hand and a look of confusion passed across his face. I'm sure this was the first time he'd gotten that sort of reaction from one of his potential victims. Well, this was his lucky night. It would also be the last time he ever saw that sort of reaction from one of his victims. This would be the last time he saw any sort of reaction from anybody.

I stalked past him into the darker parts of the alley. I definitely didn't want to be seen from the street. He did a double take as I shoved past him and looked down at his seemingly worthless gun in confusion. Then he grinned and followed, no doubt thinking that maybe I was a little crazy, but at least he was still going to have his fun.

"That's more like it," he said, reaching for his belt.

"You don't have anyone else here with you, do you?" I asked.

I glanced around the alley but it didn't look like anyone else was hiding in the shadows. Partly I wanted to make sure there'd be no witnesses, but mostly I wanted to make sure there was no chance of me salvaging this and maybe attracting a little heroic attention.

His belt buckle stopped jingling as he looked up at me with that quizzical expression returning to his face. I imagined the dumb lug wore that sort of expression most of the time. At least when he wasn't trying to be menacing and threatening.

"Well it's just me…"

"Do you do this sort of thing a lot?" I asked.

He shrugged, the oddity of the situation seemingly making him forget the gun that he still held in his hand as he awkwardly tried to undo his belt buckle while keeping control of his weapon. From where I stood keeping control of his weapon was definitely a problem. A problem I planned on fixing.

"I suppose a couple times a month maybe. It really depends," he said.

"And you're definitely not a robber?"

This time he grinned. "What's the fun in robbing a bitch?"

"Thanks," I said with a grin of my own. "That's all I needed to hear."

I reached up and undid the top few buttons on my dirty shirt. It was a ragged number I got from a thrift store and then rolled through some mud to be certain it had the right amount of grime. My assailant’s grin grew even wider as he saw me opening my shirt, but the grin turned to a frown as I pulled the shirt open revealing my suit underneath.

It was dark, but I was never one to let at little darkness get in the way of style. My suit was black, but my logo glowed a faint blue day or night so that anyone could tell who they were going up against regardless of the current lighting. So I was sure he could make out the logo on my chest. Good branding was important for a villain, and there wasn't a criminal in the city that didn't know the Night Terror brand. Or what it meant to get in the way of that brand. His eyes grew wide and his mouth worked silently as he held up his gun.

I cocked my head at him and grinned.

"Come on, we both know that's not going to do you any good," I said.

He dropped the gun. Good idea. Then he turned and ran down the alley towards the supposed safety of the street. Not such a good idea. I held up my wrist blaster, let loose with a focused beam, and a moment later there were only tiny disassociated atomic particles where criminal scum once stood. I dusted off my hands and moved out of the alley whistling a tune. I'd have to find darker pastures to get the sort of trouble I was looking for, but I could at least rest assured that I’d cleaned up a small part of the city tonight.

8: Shadow Wing

"Give us all your money," the gruff voice said.

I narrowed my eyes as I backed against the dark alley wall. "Are you sure you're after my money?"

The big guy hefted a tire iron in his hand and looked at me as though I'd sprouted horns. "What are you talking about? Of course we're after your money. Now pay up or else."

I breathed a sigh of relief. For a part of town that was supposedly the most crime-ridden area in the state, hell, maybe even in the country, I was having a hell of a time finding some crime to get victimized by. It was enough to make me wonder if the police department was padding numbers in an attempt to inflate their budget or something.

Oh well. Time to trot out the innocent victim act again.

"But I don't have any money!"

A couple of the guys behind the big one turned to each other and grinned. The big guy didn't grin, but he did start smacking his tire iron against a big meaty fist.

"Well now that is a problem," he said. "Because if you can't pay the toll then I'm afraid I'm going to have to hurt you now."

I threw my head to the sky and screamed at the top of my lungs. "Help! Somebody please help! Oh for the love of God won't somebody save me!"

The big one raised his tire iron. "You need to shut your mouth right now before you start drawing the wrong kind of attention."

Now it was my turn to put my hands on my hips and cock my head at this guy.

"Are you serious?"

He stopped his advance and the tire iron lowered slightly. "What are you talking about?"

"You're worried I'm going to call a hero down on you, right?"

"Well. Yeah?"

"And you're saying that if I don't stop screaming it's going to be bad for me?"

"Well. Yeah!"

"But I've already made it clear I don't have any money and you’ve already made it clear that because of my lack of money things are already going to be bad for me. What possible incentive do I have not to yell if you're going to beat the shit out of me no matter what I do?

The big one raised the tire iron to the side of his head and scratched. I wondered if maybe I'd broken him with logic. If so then it was a hell of a lot easier than breaking CORVAC with logic. This guy didn't strike me as the type that did much in the way of thinking. Although by the way he handled that tire iron I had the feeling he was something of an artist with it.

"Aw hell," he said. "Now I'm going to beat the shit out of you just for being a smartass."

I shrugged. "Suit yourself."

I readied my wrist blaster. It didn't look like I was going to get any sort of heroic help. And if I wasn't going to get any sort of heroic help then I was just going to have to rely on the blaster at my side. It was a pity. This was definitely the best chance I was going to get all night to draw Fialux's attention. Oh well.

The big one raised his tire iron and ran towards me with a snarl. I was just about to raise my wrist blaster out of the rags at my side when a shadow descended and a guy next to the ringleader disappeared with a scream. My buddy with the tire iron skidded to a halt and looked up into the shadows overhead, searching for whatever had just grabbed his minion.

I blinked. That definitely wasn't one of my tricks. The other guys standing around the alley with various crowbars and other blunt instruments looked up in terror. One pulled a gun, not that it would do him a damn bit of good if there was a hero lurking out there.

"It's the Wing," one of them whispered.

"Well if it's the Wing that's fine by me," the leader said. He hefted his tire iron and grinned at his buddies, though it was a sickly grin that didn’t look nearly as confident as he was probably shooting for. "I hear the Wing can bleed. Not like that new Fialux chick that’s been shutting down business around the city."

"You can't make something bleed if you can't hit it," another one said.

The first one turn to say something, but whatever he said turned to a strangled scream as the shadow descended out of the darkness once again and pulled him up. I heard the sound of something getting the crap beat out of it in the shadows above, presumably on the roof, and then silence.

The shadow dropped down in the middle of us. It turned towards me.

"Run!"

Then it was running forward and engaging the other two guys.

I crossed my arms under my breasts and rolled my eyes. Great. I come out here looking for Fialux, and instead I end up pulling Shadow Wing. Just my luck that I come out here looking for a living God and I end up getting one of the numerous mortal heroes that seemed to pop up in the city on a more or less regular basis. I’d put a few of them out of business myself over the course of my career.

True, Shadow Wing had survived far longer than any other mortal hero. Usually the mortal heroes ended up dead for one reason or another. Getting killed by a regular thug because they didn’t have bullet proof armor. Getting killed by a regular thug because they did have bullet proof armor but also had exposed areas. Going up against a super villain who didn’t have my reservations about killing unless it was absolutely necessary. There were a lot of ways for a normal hero to die in this city. Shadow Wing's longevity was admirable for a mortal hero, but this particular mortal hero being in this part of the city meant there wasn't a chance Fialux would bother with us. Why get involved in a situation that was already well under control?

One of the guys went down with a thunk and Shadow Wing turned to me again.

"I said run!"

Even more interesting. That voice was decidedly feminine. Sure she was trying to cover it up by making it sound of sort of deep and a tad gravelly, but there was no mistaking that this wasn’t a dude standing in front of me beating the crap out of those criminals. I wondered if the cover-up was intentional? Most of the criminals seemed to agree that the Wing was the scariest dude in the city other than Fialux. And Night Terror, of course, if you'll allow me to toot my own horn. Perhaps she worried they wouldn't take her seriously if they knew she was a woman?

Which was ridiculous. The biggest villain in the city, yours truly again thank you very much, was a woman. The biggest hero in the city was a woman now that Fialux was flitting around causing trouble for the criminal element trying to make a dishonest buck. Starlight City was pretty equal opportunity when it came to heroics and villainy.

Or maybe it was something simpler than that. Maybe it was a criminal conspiracy. Maybe the hardened criminals who got the shit kicked out of them and ended up in jail were afraid to admit that they'd all gotten beaten by a girl.

The final thug broke free from Shadow Wing and ran towards me screaming with a tire iron raised over his head. I realized it was my buddy who was threatening me at the beginning. He’d somehow managed to last until the very end, not that it was going to help him very much. Maybe he figured if he was going to get the crap kicked out of him then at least he was going to take me with him. Shadow Wing turned and followed at a sprint, but it was obvious she wasn't going to make it in time. His snarl turned to a wide smile.

"Damn it! Run!" Shadow Wing shouted.

I let him get within two steps of me before I hit a button on my wrist control and my disguise was teleported a few feet to the right revealing my Night Terror suit underneath. As my disguise dematerialized one of the matter transporters in my belt materialized my trusty mask over my face and the HUD sprang to life feeding me the information I craved in situations like this. I just hoped it was dark enough that the Wing hadn't gotten a good look at me while she was fighting off the thugs.

A girl’s secret identity was a big deal.

The head thug skidded to a halt and if anything the look of terror on his face when he thought he was just dealing with Shadow Wing turned to one of pure abject horror when he realized he'd just tried to mug Night Terror. I grinned and waggled my fingers at him in a friendly wave.

"That's right buddy," I said. "You and your friends picked the wrong alley to go robbing in."

He turned and ran in the other direction. Unfortunately Shadow Wing's fist was also waiting for him in that direction. There was a loud crack followed by a grunt and he slammed to the ground.

Shadow Wing knelt in the darkness and looked up at me, her eyes glowing slightly. Must be some sort of night vision device she was using. I had similar toys, although mine didn't make that pesky glow. I wasn't sure if that was an aesthetic choice on her part, or if she just didn't have access to some of the more advanced toys I enjoyed. Probably the latter.

"Night Terror."

I sketched a little bow. "None other than."

"I don't know what you're doing with these thugs," Shadow Wing said. "But I'm going to haul all of you in and find out."

"No need to pull the tough girl routine," I said.

Those glowing eyes narrowed. Now that was an interesting trick. How did she manage to pull that one off? There was no rational explanation for how the infrared illuminators on a pair of night vision goggles would narrow like that. Maybe it was a special modification? The Wing was supposed to have the most wonderful toys.

"I'll tell you exactly what I was doing here. I was fishing for a hero."

Shadow Wing stood and brushed a speck of dirt off of her suit. "Fishing for a hero?"

"Sure," I said. "I was hoping I could lure Fialux with a little damsel in distress routine, but I'm assuming since you're out here she's not going to be found on the side of town, right?"

Shadow Wing's attack was almost faster than lightning. The only problem is I was ready for it. The instant she darted forward I activated the anti-Newtonian stasis field and her fist stopped just an inch from my face. It wasn’t exactly catching Fialux off guard, but it was a start. At least that proved that I could stop someone with the stasis field if they weren’t putting out the kind of power that Fialux was capable of. After all, the Wing was a mere mortal for all the impressive gadgets she had.

And now that she stood there in the glow of the stasis field I could get a good look at the hero behind the mysterious shadowy figure who was so terrifying to the criminal element that they'd been known to pee themselves at the sight of any moving shadow on the off chance it was her.

And let me tell you, this girl was hot. I suppose that's to be expected for someone who keeps herself in good enough shape to go out and tangle with criminals on a nightly basis, but I was still getting over the surprise of Shadow Wing being a girl rather than the hulking guy rumored throughout the city.

I walked around and gave her a good once over. She wore a dark gray form fitting suit very similar to what I wore. No cape, which was a sensible choice for a mortal hero. Fialux could get away with a cape since she was impervious to practically anything and it didn't matter if she got tangled up for a few minutes while a giant death robot pounded her with every weapon in its arsenal, but a mortal hero had to worry about that sort of thing. And from what I'd heard about the Wing she was nothing if not practical.

And the body inside that suit. Damn. She had a slim figure with an amazing set of tits and an ass that was begging to be squeezed.

I shook my head. What was happening? Here I had probably the number two heroine in the city and all I was thinking about was how much I wanted to squeeze her ass? Then again, I suppose I was out here trying to capture the number one hero because of similar ass squeezing designs so who was I to question that line of reasoning?

I know I’d only recently gained a more than academic interest in the female figure courtesy of my attraction to Fialux, but this mouth watering appreciation of Shadow Wing was definitely an interesting data point. Up until now I’d assumed that my interest in the fairer sex was purely an interest in Fialux, but judging from the way my breathing was picking up and I felt a rush in the pit of my stomach and all points immediately below as I looked at Shadow Wing it was clear that new fascination with the fairer sex extended to all women and not just women who’d traveled to our planet from another star with the express goal of putting me out of business.

Shadow Wing spoke in that gravelly voice again and pulled me out of my reverie.

"Whatever you have planned, you won't get away with it," Shadow Wing said.

I finished my full circle around the Wing, enjoying every inch of her body that I saw in that skintight suit. One thing that you could say to recommend the heroic lifestyle, it definitely left a lady in excellent shape. My mouth was watering just looking her up and down. She was no Fialux, but judging by the stirring between my legs the chance to check her out more than made up for not finding Fialux tonight.

I found thoughts running through my head that had been reserved for Fialux. In an odd way it felt like I was betraying Fialux somehow with those thoughts even though we weren’t anything approaching an item unless you consider leveling half of downtown as part of a super powered fight to be a good first date activity. And yet as I looked at Shadow Wing I couldn’t deny my attraction. And I thought I detected something in the way she was looking at me. Something that intrigued me. Something that had me hoping and wondering where the night might lead.

Well, I knew exactly where I was wanting the night to lead. I felt heat between my legs and an ache crashing through my body. I’d discovered a few things about myself and I desperately wanted to move from theory to practical trials.

The only trick was getting the great Shadow Wing to go with it.

"Oh but you haven't even heard what my evil plan is," I said.

I stood in front of her and leaned in until I was inches from her face. The glow from her night vision goggles disappeared and her eyes appeared beneath the mask. She had striking brown eyes. Brown eyes that I felt like I'd seen before somewhere, but who knew? The city was lousy with secret identities, and who was to say I hadn't run into Shadow Wing's secret identity at some point? Hell, she could be the barista where I got my coffee every Friday or a cop that I avoided vaporizing on a regular basis. There was no telling.

To my surprise Shadow Wing inhaled deeply as I leaned into to her. Her eyes opened wide, and then she squeezed them shut and shuddered. Now that was definitely interesting. That was exactly the kind of shudder I'd experienced the day before when I had my little performance in front of the holoprojector.

Was this costumed hottie actually getting turned on? By moi? Sure I’d seen guys react that way to me. I knew objectively that I was attractive enough. You had to be a looker to a certain degree if you were going to go with the tight outfit and masked costume route rather than hiding yourself completely, but I was still surprised to get that reaction from a woman. I guess this was all so new to me, I was still so not used to these strange new feelings, that the idea that another woman would have those same feelings and would react that way to me was outside the realm of possibility.

Except I couldn’t deny the way she reacted. I smiled. Maybe the great Shadow Wing was feeling some of the same conflict that the great Night Terror had been feeling over the past couple of weeks regarding the great Fialux.

I was always a fan of scientific experimentation. Time to test that hypothesis.

I reached out and put a hand under her chin. One of the fringe perks I’d discovered with my newly developed stasis technology was that whatever I wanted not moving definitely couldn't move, unless it was Fialux of course, but it was keyed to my biometrics so if I needed to manipulate the field all I had to do was reach out and touch whatever I’d caught in my web of super science. My fingers tingled as my hand brushed the underside of her chin and pulled her face up to look into mine. I'm not sure if the tingle was because of the stasis field, because of how damned hot she was, or maybe a combination of both. I didn't have a large enough sample size to tell one way or the other.

I took a deep breath. This was all so new to me and I wasn’t sure how she was going to react. It was amazing. I was the hottest and biggest villain in the city and here I was with butterflies in my stomach because I was worried about how this beauty might react when I hit on her! I felt like I was back at a middle school dance hanging around the edges plotting ways to turn the DJ’s lights into a hypnotic pattern that would allow me to overthrow the school and institute my benevolent regime of all academics and no gym class rather than deal with the terror of wading out into the sea of hormones raging at the center of the gym dance floor and risk sinking in that vast and treacherous ocean.

No. I was villainy. I was the Night Terror. I could be confident enough to hit on someone even if this was completely uncharted territory for me.

I leaned in closer so my lips were almost brushing against hers. Then I moved to the side so my mouth was even with her ear. Her breathing picked up, and was that another shudder? Definitely interesting. Definitely the reaction I was looking for. Hell, I was starting to shake just a little myself. Here I was a girl who’d maintained her cool and composure fighting against the best this city had to offer and now I was shivering like a school girl with a crush as I got near Shadow Wing!

"What if my nefarious plans aren't quite as nefarious as you might think?" I whispered into her ear.

I moved back until I was eye to eye with her again. Well, I might as well go for broke if I was going to go for it. I leaned forward and pressed my lips against hers. Her eyes widened in surprise, but then she let out a sound halfway between a growl and a moan. Where it would ultimately land was anyone's guess, but I was getting excited just hearing it.

I continued pressing my lips against hers and was rewarded with her mouth opening to mine. Jackpot! Maybe I wasn’t completely crazy about how she was reacting. Maybe I wasn’t imagining things after all. That shivering grew more intense.

I pulled away and looked into her eyes, my own eyes darting back and forth as I looked for some sort of emotion on that stoic face.

"What are you doing?" Shadow Wing growled.

These emotions were all so new, and I had to experience them to their fullness. I had to experience them with another woman. There was no denying how I felt anymore.

Time to get bold. Time to get stupid. Time to go for broke. This wasn’t an experiment anymore. This was something new for me. This was something the rational and analytical part of my mind wasn’t equipped to deal with. This was pure lust, pure emotion, and it was uncharted territory for the girl who went into everything with a plan.

"Tell me to stop and I will."

I leaned in again. This time when my lips brushed against hers, surprising how soft they were for somebody obviously so tough, her mouth opened slightly. I took that for the obvious invitation it was and darted my tongue out against her lips. She let out another noise, more moan than growl this time, and her mouth opened to mine. Damn that felt good!

I pulled away and decided it was time to give this the ultimate test. The analytical part of my mind might not be in control right now, but it still had enough pull that I wondered if this was all some ruse she was using to try and get free. Only one way to test that. I reached down to my wrist control, tapped a button, and the anti-Newtonian stasis field suffered a not-so-spontaneous massive existence failure. Shadow Wing stumbled forward as the field winked out around her, and then she was standing in front of me staring.

Her eyes narrowed, though it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as when she did it with her glowing night vision headset.

"Why did you let me loose?"

"Because I needed to see how you'd react to this," I said.

I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her, my hands going down to cup that magnificent ass that felt so firm and wonderful. I pressed my body against hers, our breasts smashing together, and once again I pressed my lips against hers.

This time there was no mistaking the moan as our mouths opened to one another and our tongues swirled together. I continued groping her ass and pressed my thigh insistently against that delicious spot between her legs. God, rubbing against her like that felt more amazing than I ever could have imagined. It was so much more intense than the fumbling dalliances I’d had with men before I embarked on my villainy career and didn’t have time for silly things like dating any more.

We stood in the middle of that darkened alley for several minutes, knocked out thugs sprawled out around us, enjoying the taste of one another. Her hands ran up to the back of my head and another one ran down to my ass which she squeezed. Then she pulled back and stared at me with a thin smile crossing her face.

"Damn," Shadow Wing said.

"I agree," I said. “Though I’m a little surprised.”

“Surprised? Why’s that?”

“Well a dark alley surrounded by thugs isn’t exactly a great spot for picking up a girl…”

That thin smile widened into a gorgeous grin. “That’s the only place I pick up girls, though this is the first time I’ve run into a villain of your… caliber.”

I blushed. Blushed! What can I say? I was a sucker for compliments. “A little better than your average street thug, eh?”

“Oh a hell of a lot better,” Shadow Wing said as her arms snaked around me again. Damn her touch was amazing! She leaned in and kissed me and I was distracted from thinking about anything for a few minutes while I enjoyed that feeling.

Shadow Wing pulled away and her eyes were wide. Her breathing was hot and heavy. Hell, I was feeling the same way.

“Damn. You really are the best in this city!” she said.

I blushed again, but then something occurred to me. That was the third time she made a reference to my villainous reputation. Could it be? Did she…

I stepped forward, sure to put some sway into my walk. I was gratified to see her eyeing me up and down as I did so. “So does it turn you on having the best villain in the city defeating you so easily?”

Shadow Wing’s eyes squeezed shut and she took in a deep shuddering breath. Hell, the rest of her body did a little bit of shuddering as well. Now that was very interesting. A hero with a villain fetish. Who knew? Though I wasn’t going to knock it if it was leading to this amazing experience.

Her eyes opened. She locked eyes with me as I threw my thigh up and wrapped a leg around her. I was thankful that I worked out enough that I was able to pull that move off without much trouble. She took in another deep shuddering breath.

"What are you doing to me? Are you sure this isn’t part of one of your crazy plans?"

I couldn't help but laugh. What was I doing to her? I could ask her the same question considering all the new feelings coursing through my body. Only I didn’t. Now wasn’t the time for questions. Now was a time for action.

“Nothing you don’t want me to,” I said. “And right now I

"Mind control isn't my style hot stuff," I said. "And the only plan I have right now is my plan to get into these wonderful pants."

I looked down. "Well, get into your wonderful tights. Whatever those are."

Shadow Wing jumped on me and I barely had time to get my own foot back on the ground. As it was the inertial dampeners were the only thing that kept me from sprawling on the ground with this beauty on top of me, not that I would’ve particularly minded that experience. She wrapped her legs around me and her mouth descended on mine again. I eagerly opened my mouth to hers as our tongues danced once more, her body pressing against mine and feeling absolutely amazing.

Shadow Wing pulled back. "What’s wrong with me?"

"Nothing wrong with a little villain fetish," I said. “You wouldn’t be the first in this city if the costumes you see around Halloween are any indication.”

"But you're the biggest villain in the city," Shadow Wing said. "I should be trying to take you in, not wanting to fuck you."

I went weak in the knees at those words. So, the great and powerful Shadow Wing wanted to fuck me? Well, if she was going to be such a brazen hussy then I was more than happy to oblige her. This wasn’t Fialux, the ultimate goal, but right now I was so worked up and turned on that I couldn’t help myself. Feeling another woman against me was so amazing, and I had to do this. Had to experience this.

Had to take advantage of the first time that just dropped out of the shadows and into my arms. I hit a button on my wrist and the familiar whine of my teleportation device picked up.

9: New Experiences

There was a brief bright flash and a moment later we were no longer in the darkened alley. Instead we stood embracing in the middle of one of the many rooftop gardens the dotted the city. This particular spot was only a few miles horizontally and several hundred feet vertically away from that dark alley, but it may as well have been on another planet for all the difference. This was one of my favorite places to come in the middle of the night when I needed to think, and it seemed like the perfect place to get down to business with this gorgeous masked hottie.

I didn't waste any time. I immediately moved forward and pressed Shadow Wing down to the ground. If she had a villainess domination fantasy then I was going to give it to her if you’ll pardon the double meaning. A moment later we were rolling in the grass, the dew pressing into the weave of our suits as we rolled over one another. Finally after a moment I ended up on top of this delectable hottie.

I felt hotter than I ever had before, except maybe for my solo session yesterday while looking at that projection of Fialux. The strangeness, the newness, the forbidden nature of finally giving into my feelings and being with a woman was threatening to overwhelm me. It was almost enough to make me cry, except the great Night Terror never cried.

In public. Get me in front of a sappy movie in the privacy of my lab and all bets were off.

I leaned down, my hair falling down around her face and causing her nose to scrunch up in the cutest way as it tickled her, and I kissed her. We stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity. Probably only a few minutes, but it felt like forever as I enjoyed her taste. The feel of her tongue in my mouth, the feel of my tongue wrestling with hers. Our breasts pressing together. All the differences that came with being a woman that were so new, so pronounced, and so hot.

In particular I was surprised by the delightfully silky smooth feeling of our costumes rubbing together. Apparently Shadow Wing had the kind of bank that allowed her to afford some of the more expensive stuff like what I wore. Of course I just stole mine, but I figured being a hero and all she probably had a hefty bank account somewhere to be able to afford this stuff. Maybe at some of the same banks I liked to make forceful withdrawals from, come to think of it. Either way her secret identity definitely wasn’t the barista down at my local coffee shop. No coffee slinger could afford these toys.

I pressed my thigh down between her legs, enjoying the warmth that radiated from her even through the material of her costume. As I she moaned and responded by churning her hips, by moving her ass up and down grinding against my leg and letting out quiet gasps into my mouth as she did so. It was enough to send me into a lightheaded sexual overdrive.

I opened my eyes, pulled away, and looked down at her. She was looking up at me with lust, and I felt her hands dancing down my side sending tingling jolts of pleasure through my body everywhere they made contact. Her hands snaked down and ran in between my own legs. I breathed in sharply as her fingers brushed against my pussy. God that contact felt so forbidden and yet so wonderful! And the way my suit was designed it might as well not even be there. She hesitantly moved her fingers along the outlines of my pussy lips, suddenly seeming unsure of herself as she bit her lip.

It was so sexy seeing this confident hero suddenly hesitating like that. She smiled. The hesitation was gone.

Shadow Wing wrapped her legs around me and twisted until she was lying on top of me. Now it was my turn to giggle and scrunch up my nose as her hair tickled my face. Her breasts hung down, still encased by the material of her suit. I needed to do something about that.

She leaned back and started grinding her pussy against me. Damn that felt wonderful. The warmth was amazing. The material was thin enough that I could feel every contour of her pussy as it rubbed against my own. I wanted nothing more than to rip that suit off and really explore, really get a feel for her amazing body. Of course her suit was likely made out of the same material as mine considering her amazing survivability in her chosen profession. I didn't have a chance of ripping that stuff apart with my bare hands no matter how much fun it was to fantasize about.

Then it occurred to me that I had the next best thing. I was an evil super genius, after all.

I reached out and did some quick mental calculations as I hit a couple of buttons on my teleporter control. I desperately hoped I didn't get anything wrong. It would be really unfortunate if my first time with a woman was interrupted by a teleportation gone wrong by a couple of inches. I hit the transmit button and there was a bright flash and our clothes crumpled in a pile next to us.

Bingo! My staggering intellect strikes again.

I left our masks on though. For one I’d never dream of trying to reveal her secret identity in a moment like this. For two there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d reveal my secret identity. For three leaving the masks on just seemed incredibly hot.

Shadow Wing's mouth opened in surprise as her glistening pussy suddenly went from grinding against her suit to grinding against the bare flesh of my body. She arched her back and pressed her amazing tits to the sky. Tits I had to feel.

I reached up and wrapped my hands around her magnificent breasts, running my fingers around her nipples and wanting nothing more than to pull her down and taste them. Shadow Wing, for her part, seemed intent on the feeling of her pussy grinding against me, and with the way I was feeling right now, with the overwhelming dizziness coursing through my body, I wasn’t in any mood to stop her.

"Oh God," Shadow Wing said. "You feel so fucking amazing!”

“I’m just getting started,” I gasped.

I moved my hands to her waist and pulled down. She allowed herself to be pulled and our mouths came together as I pressed my hips up as she pressed down which seemed to do something for her because she gasped into the kiss. I felt her hand move down and move between my legs, graze the lips of my pussy and start exploring the outer folds slowly, almost hesitantly again, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was the incredible sensation of feeling another woman’s hand between my legs. God that felt wonderful.

I felt her press two fingers inside my wetness and it was like a tiny explosion went off between my legs, more exquisite than I could describe. Her wonderful hand was right at my entrance pressing in and it took all of my self-control to keep from bucking my hips up and encouraging her to press in faster, deeper.

Shadow Wing shifted. She positioned herself at my side so our breasts were pressing together as her mouth descended on me once more. As her fingers did their amazing forbidden dance between my legs and started moving in and out. As before there was no hesitation now, only the calm confidence that I’d expect from her as we made out and she ran her fingers in, out, and all around my pussy and sent jolts of electricity coursing through my body with her every movement.

"God you feel amazing," Shadow Wing said. "So amazing."

I looked up at her, at how beautiful she was, at how amazing her body felt with those gorgeous tits, that slim waist and flat stomach, and her perfect ass. I bit my lip. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I couldn’t believe I was lying here on top of some of the most expensive real estate in Starlight City with one of the greatest heroes the city had to offer half on top of me moving her fingers in and out of my pussy and yet here we were.

She seemed to catch the mood. "What's wrong?"

"I-I've never… With a… y’know…"

Shadow Wing's eyes widened in astonishment as she pressed forward burying her fingers deep inside me. I never knew fingers could feel so amazing. They’d certainly never felt this incredible when it was a guy doing this to me and yet I felt like I was on the edge already! Sure I'd had my fingers up inside my own pussy before, see my solo session with the Fialux hologram, but it didn't compare to the feeling of my warm tight wetness wrapped around Shadow Wing.

"Never?"

She did some little swirling motion with her fingers and I threw my head back and opened my mouth in a silent scream at the overwhelming sensation.

"Well, I've never done it with a woman…”

"So I'm your first?" she said with a smirk.

"In a way, yes…" I whispered.

"Well then we'd better make sure this is memorable, right?"

And with that she moved her lips down to mine as she continued that delicate but insistent work pressing in and out of my body with her fingers. Fireworks. Explosions, I felt like every particle of my body was focused on that one spot where the lips of my pussy were wrapped around her fingers.

I thought that her fingers pressing inside me, her body pressed against me, her tongue swirling in my mouth, would be enough to make this one hell of a memorable experience on its own. Only it seemed Shadow Wing had other plans. She kept up her work between my legs pressing her fingers in and out expertly and paying special attention to my clit in a way no guy ever had before. My hips were bucking up into her hands and I felt like there was just one constant series of explosions going off down there.

But she wasn’t satisfied with that. Oh no. She pulled away from the kiss and I wanted to cry out. I wanted to grab her hair and yank her back to continue making out with me, but then she started kissing her way down my body. Past my breasts where her tongue darted out and swirled around first one nipple, then another. Then down to my stomach where she did something similar swirling her tongue around my belly button.

My breathing picked up as I realized what she was doing. What she was going for. Exactly how naughty she was being. Then her mouth was down between my legs and her lips brushed against mine. Her tongue darted out once more and my world exploded.

I arched my back pressing my breasts to the sky as I let out a banshee wail as her tongue pressed inside me. I reached out and grabbed at her head and pulled her against my body as her tongue darted out over and over exploring the inner folds of my pussy and sending a fresh wave of pleasure coursing through my body with her every movement. God her tongue felt amazing!

Shadow Wing was working me like a pro. I looked down in astonishment. Sure I'd done this before with a guy, but this was the first time I'd seen this particular act with this particular point of view and with a woman down there instead of a man. A woman who knew everything that I loved and was hitting all the right spots. It was hypnotizing. It was amazing. It was, in a word, orgasmic.

She moaned into my pussy which sent a delicious vibration coursing through my body. A delicious vibration that made me scream. Her hair shook from side to side as she moved her head in time with my hips as I thrust them up to meet her tongue. The feel and look of her tongue, her mouth, her head exploring my inner depths, the feel of her tongue buried inside me, was incredible.

It's not like I was inexperienced with the whole sex thing. Well, I guess I was inexperienced with this particular brand of sex. I felt that all I could do was hold on to her head and thrust up, holding on for dear life as I rode that incredibly talented tongue. Every bit of my concentration was focused on that wonderful sensation between my legs.

Heat radiated through my entire body. It ran from the tips of my toes to the top of my head, the warmth threatening to overcome me. I felt hotter than the hottest fever I'd ever had. And a tingle similar to what I felt at the holoprojector yesterday gathered, only way more powerful and intense.

I barely managed to gasp out the next sentence. "I'm close."

Shadow Wing smiled up at me, her arms moving up to my breasts and her hair falling down around my hips. Her brown eyes locked with mine and her tongue darted out one final time, her tits brushing against my thighs as she played with my nipples.

Now it was my turn to scream. I thrust my hips up one final time. I maintained a vice grip on her hair and using that to hold her in place as I felt myself exploding.

The heat running through my body threatened to overwhelm me. The sheer concentration on my pussy threatened to overload every other sense in my body. The feeling of my her tongue buried inside me, her mouth clamped over my lips, the feel of her hair and her tits brushing against my body, the smell of her. Amazing.

Then with a final primal yell I came in a way that made everything I’d felt up to this point seem like a firecracker compared to an atomic explosion. Every muscle in my body tensed up as I came on this hot hero’s tongue, and then everything in my body relaxed all at once which threatened to make me pass out. I felt lightheaded and stars danced in front of my eyes as I Shadow Wing’s masked face pulled away from my pussy. Even then sensation of her pulling away was mind blowing.

I threw my hands out to the side on the wet grass and concentrated on breathing. I worried that if I didn't I might forget to breathe and pass out for real. Shadow Wing crawled up and collapsed on top of me, her warm skin pressing against my own. I briefly considered getting ready for round two, and from the way Shadow Wing was looking at me the same idea was occurring to her.

I smiled up at her. "What's on your mind?"

"I should take you in station," Shadow Wing said with a grin.

I returned her grin with one of my own. "And I should be vaporizing you, right?”

"Fair enough," she said with a shrug.

"So what now?"

Shadow Wing looked down at me and her eyes narrowed.

"What were you doing in that alley anyways?"

I looked into her eyes and briefly considered lying, but something told me she'd catch me in that lie. And I didn't feel like holding back any secrets anyways. Not after what we’d just shared.

"Honestly? I was looking for Fialux. I was hoping the damsel in distress routine might catch her attention."

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Why'd I say that? Why wasn't I holding back secrets? What was wrong with me? I had this brilliant plan to catch Fialux and here I was blabbing to one of her fellow heroes who’d no doubt go off and tell her that Night Terror was putting on disguises and looking for her even if she didn’t know exactly why I was. I definitely wouldn't be able to use the damsel in distress routine now.

Shadow Wing threw her head back and laughed. "You're not going to get anywhere with the damsel in distress crap. Not in that part of town."

"Well yeah, now that you're going to run and tell her."

The laugh cut off immediately and Shadow Wing was all seriousness again. "I'm not telling that bitch anything. If you want to capture her that's just fine with me. More city for me to protect."

I blinked. "What?"

"Yeah, that's part of the reason why you're not going to run into that whore with that routine on my side of town. She’s only been around for a few weeks and already we’ve agreed to stay the hell out of each other's territory. And good riddance."

"But shouldn’t the two of you be working together or something? The greater good and all that crap you heroes are always going on about?"

Shadow Wing surprised me by turning and spitting into the grass. "I have my reasons for wanting her as far from me as possible. Let’s leave it at that."

I grinned. “Worried about the superpowered goddess showing you up?”

Shadow Wing’s eyes narrowed but she didn’t react otherwise. I wondered if I was about to be on the receiving end of one of her infamous punches. The sort that had knocked that thug out cold back in the alley. “I said I have my reasons.”

I shrugged. I knew when to leave well enough alone. Besides, it looked as though Shadow Wing and I had something else in common aside from the fun we’d just had. Both of us hated Fialux with a deep and abiding passion. Sure Shadow Wing hated her for some vague reason that probably came down to professional jealousy and I hated her because she was the only pesky thing getting in the way of complete and total world domination on my part, but I figured our motivations didn't matter if the ultimate result was the same.

"You know," Shadow Wing said as she reached down and started running her fingers in between my legs again and driving me to distraction to the point I almost didn’t process what she said next. "If you really wanted to get at Fialux it's simple."

I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a moan as her fingers worked their magic. How was I supposed to think with her doing that?

"Simple?" I gasped. "I've been working on this problem for days. It's far from simple."

"Sure it is," Shadow Wing said. "What's the one thing Fialux doesn't want anyone to know?"

Oh. Oh my. It was so simple that it was right in front of me the whole time and yet it never occurred to me. No wonder she was considered by many to be the sharpest mind in the hero community. I had to admire the subtle elegance of using her mind to achieve everything she had rather than relying on sheer brute force and the fact that daddy was an alien from another planet that blessed her with superpowers.

I rolled on top of her and then my fingers were moving down her body, exploring every delicious contour. I looked down at her face smiling up at me.

I grinned. Yes, Shadow Wing definitely had a sharp mind to go along with that incredible body. And the grin that the split my face only partly had to do with the way my fingers were splitting her pussy lips as she squeezed her masked eyes shut and gasped. As her beautiful face, as her masked face, squeezed up in that look of ecstasy and pain that was so enthralling.

What was Fialux's most closely guarded secret?

What was every hero’s most closely guarded secret?

What was my most closely guarded secret?

Who was Fialux?

The chink in everyone's armor. The one way I could be sure to catch her off guard.

Her secret identity.

I giggled, though the giggle quickly turned into a moan as Shadow Wing pressed her body up towards my fingers and I realized I needed to use all of my concentration for something other than world domination for just a little while. Yeah, it was definitely time for round two. I could work out tracking down Fialux's secret identity later.

10: The New Job

"I'm sorry Miss… Terrare?"

"It's Terror," I said with a smile. “It's pronounced just how it's spelled."

The human resources drone shuffled some papers uncomfortably on her desk and pointedly didn't look at me. "I see. That's an interesting name."

If this was a real job interview I'd be worried right about now. The way she barely glanced over my resume, the derisive sniff as she looked at my nonexistent qualifications, the way her lips compressed into a line and frowned. No, if this was the real thing I'd be screwed.

It was a good thing for me this wasn't the real thing. This HR drone just didn't know it yet.

I glanced around the small office. I couldn't believe this was something I'd actually aspired to once upon a time. A tiny postage stamp of a room with a window open because the air-conditioning was so ancient that it rarely reached the sad little vent on the other side of her desk. The building was probably built back in the '20s, maybe even older, and there was so little space that papers and books were piled high all around the desk.

The life of a starving academic. Four years of undergrad. A few years working on your Masters and PhD. And then if you were lucky you got to spend your years in an office barely half the size of the dorm room you spent so much time in trying to get the office in the first place.

And was this lady teaching? Doing research? Nope. Administration. She was stuck doing HR because the journalism department probably didn't trust someone without a doctorate with the academically challenging task of hiring adjunct faculty. A job she could've done with half the education and less than half the student loans if she was in the private sector. A job that would've paid much better in the private sector too.

No, I was very glad I decided to take a different path in my career.

"Well Miss Terror," the woman said. "I thank you for taking the time to come down here, but we haven’t even advertised this position yet and honestly you don't have any qualifications that would make you remotely able to be an adjunct instructor for a journalism course. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out how your resume even made its way across my desk."

"Oh I'm sorry," I said. "I just figured you might be in need of some help quickly seeing as how Professor Benton ended up quitting after he found that winning lottery ticket in his interdepartmental mail."

The woman sat my resume down and peered at me over her half-moon spectacles. "How did you know about how Professor Benton left? Do you know somebody who works in this department?"

"No," I said. "I was the one who mailed him that lottery ticket."

Her face scrunched up in obvious confusion. "But that ticket was worth millions. Why would you…"

I shrugged. "That's simple. The lotto system is easy enough to manipulate, but if I started winning it every other week people would ask questions."

"I'm afraid I don't follow…"

"Of course you don't," I said. "I don't mean for you to follow. The simple fact is I need this position. I need to be in that classroom, and so Professor Benton wins the lottery and here I am to take care of your little HR problem."

She seemed to gain control of her senses at long last. She picked up my resume again and flopped it down on her desk. "But you aren't remotely qualified for this job. You don't have anything that would recommend you for teaching a journalism class."

"Oh really?"

I fished in my pocket and pulled out a small silver disc with a big blinking red button in the center. I liked big blinking red buttons. I felt like it really tied a piece of evil super science together in a way that other colors of the rainbow just couldn't pull off.

"Because I have this mind control device here, and my mind control device says I'm more than qualified for the job."

This was one of my babies even though I never used it. Something I came up with back before I left the Applied Sciences lab at this very university because they said my stuff was too dangerous, too unethical, all that stuff that scientists say when what they really mean is they’re afraid of progress. I kept this baby close to my chest because of what it could do. Hell, I didn’t even keep a record of it in the computer banks because I didn’t quite trust CORVAC with the knowledge.

I pressed down on the blinking red button and it made a satisfying click. I also liked satisfying clicks. A strange screeching noise filled the room and then it settled down to a steady hum. I resisted the urge to wince at that sound. The thing worked via the auditory receptors in the brain and I hadn’t figured out a way to get the damned device to work without that screech. One of many reasons why I didn’t like using the damned thing.

I really don't like using the mind control stuff. It's an inefficient and brutish way of getting things done, and it also had the pesky problem of not always working one hundred percent of the time. Especially with heroes. The last thing I needed was to have a super supposedly under my complete control, doing my bidding in the middle of my lair, and then all of a sudden the mind control device falls off of the table or the big red button gets jostled. Suddenly there's a very cranky living god in the middle of my lair ready to do some damage.

I'd been there. Trust me, it was never fun.

But for this lady? Whatever. I was in a hurry so I figured I could risk getting a little sloppy with a normal. At least I hoped she was a normal. No self-respecting hero or villain would pick a secret identity this soul-crushing and boring.

As soon as I hit the button she went slack-jawed and her eyes deadened. Yup. Definitely a normal. Not even a normal who took precautions against mind control, though in all fairness to her I figured I was probably the only mortal in the city, maybe in the world, who bothered to incorporate mind control nullification thanks to two handy nano devices embedded in my ear canals. Mostly because I was the one who invented the technology in the first place and how embarrassing would it be if someone managed to get their grubby hands on it and turn it against me?

I leaned forward and inspected her pupils. If I was doing this right then I'd get out a flashlight and make sure they weren't dilating, but I figured this was close enough for government work.

"You are going to give me this job," I said.

"I am going to give you this job," she replied.

"Stop repeating what I say. That's annoying," I said.

"Stop repeating what you say. That's annoying," she parroted back at me.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Whatever. Just telling her I had the job was probably enough suggestion for now. If she started to show a little mental fortitude, something I definitely wasn't expecting from a glorified middle manager stuck in academia, then I could always give her a booster down the line.

I flicked the big red button and immediately she shook her head and looked at me. A big smile spread across her face.

"Well I don't think we need to go over anything else here," she said. "I'd say it's safe to assume you've got the job."

I reached out to take the hand she offered over her desk and smiled back at her. "Glad to hear it."

Fialux was somewhere on campus. I was sure of it. It was time for Professor Terror to find her.

11: Super Survival

"Journalism."

I paused and relished the moment as an entire lecture hall full of students leaned forward eagerly hanging on my every word. I could get used to this. Well, I could get used to it if it wasn't so dull aside from the part where I had the somewhat rapt attention of hundreds of college students. As rapt as a college student’s attention could get on the first day of a 100 level survey course, at least.

"Is a complete waste of time."

I smiled at the room. You could hear a pin drop. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say you could hear the collective dreams of a few hundred students in a journalism course being crushed at the same moment.

"I mean, let's face it. Journalism has been dying a prolonged to death since the invention of television, and you all will be lucky to be the ones who hammer home the last nail in the profession's coffin," I said.

"Assuming, of course, the Internet didn't already hammer that nail home and you're all just the pallbearers."

I was really getting into this. There was nothing I hated more when I was still in school than dealing with an insufferable humanities major going on about how they were totally going to make a living with their writing career. I always wanted to yell at them to get a real degree and a real job, but never gave in to that temptation.

I figured getting to tell off a lecture hall full of them was the next best thing.

"Let's face it. The only reason there's even potentially a job waiting for you when you get out of school is because this city still inexplicably manages to support a couple of newspapers and networks that are always looking for fresh meat since so many of their cub reporters end up getting smashed, minced, crushed, or disintegrated by whatever villain of the week is coming through and wreaking havoc."

I looked around the room trying to gauge what sort of reaction that got. All that talk blaming the hero had to be driving her nuts. She was in here somewhere. I knew it.

I smiled.

I'm surprised the idea of trying to track down Fialux's secret identity hadn't occurred to me before. It was pure genius. And once I put my mind to it, or rather once I put CORVAC's mind to it, it was a relatively simple matter to track down exactly who she was.

Or who I thought she was.

Of course I was making a lot of assumptions with the data set I had CORVAC pull in, so that's why I was standing here at the front of this classroom pretending to be a journalism teacher. I wanted to be absolutely sure lest I kidnap some unfortunate college student who didn't have a single superpower to her name. I may be a villain but I did have some standards.

No more screw-ups.

I wasn't going to have a painful repeat of the anti-Newtonian stasis field rollout.

Assumption one: Fialux was young. Probably a few years younger than me. I figured this was a pretty safe assumption. She looked to be in her early to mid twenties. Sure, there was always the possibility that another one of her superpowers was lack of aging, that would be just the sort of super perk that bitch would get. But there was no way to test that particular hypothesis. So I went with the assumption that she was probably in college right about now. If I was wrong then I started over with my assumptions and lost a week or two having fun tweaking journalism students which wasn’t really wasted time at all as far as I was concerned.

Assumption two: she was an undocumented alien in the most literal sense of the word. Everyone knew thanks to those ridiculously schmaltzy interviews with Rex Roth that Fialux came from an alien world that just so happened to have convergent evolution that created a species of creatures that were inexplicably exactly like humans in every way, at least to all outward appearances, except for the minor fact that being on earth or in our solar system gave those beings impossible superpowers.

Yet despite supposedly being alien she walked and talked exactly like a native, which meant she'd probably been here for a while. Maybe even since birth.

And if she'd been here for awhile that meant there were records out there. Or rather, there would be a lack of records. Maybe forged records. I had CORVAC look for everything just to be absolutely sure.

Assumption three: she had some sort of connection to that idiot Rex Roth. They'd started their little front page flirtation almost immediately after she showed up and since then it’d been nothing but one exclusive interview after another which was great for intelligence gathering but terrible because that intelligence gathering necessitated staring at Roth’s smug face constantly. The way I figured it a guy like Roth wouldn't get all those delicious scoops and one-on-one interviews with Fialux if there wasn't something going on behind the scenes.

I was taking a bit of a deductive leap, one that could potentially torpedo the whole enterprise, but I figured that meant they knew each other from before she decided to reveal herself to the world. I was taking a leap of faith that the spot where they met was college rather than the offices of the Starlight City News Network mostly because going incognito here at the university meant I didn’t have to go incognito at SCNN where I’d run into that prick on a regular basis.

Plus Roth was knee-deep in upper-level journalism courses around the time she would've been starting. Around the time I guessed she would’ve been starting. I'd pulled his transcripts just to be sure. It stood to reason that they met because they were both in the same program.

When I fed all those parameters into CORVAC's sarcastic circuits I figured it was a long shot. I figured he'd probably come up with nothing and I'd have to start back at square one trying to figure out where I took the wrong logical leap. So color me surprised when he came up with not zero, not one, but three names that potentially fit my criteria.

So here I was doing a little secret identity work of my own. A quick lotto ticket mailed to one of the older professors in the department, I might be a villain but I wasn't heartless enough to vaporize a respected academic close to retirement, and suddenly I found myself in front of a survey course that most journalism students put off until the very last semester before they were ready to graduate. Presumably because it was a stark reminder of their fragile mortality.

"Welcome to Journalism 105: Surviving A Heroic Intervention."

A hand raised near the middle of the lecture hall. I squinted and peered at the girl. Auburn hair, gorgeous face, green eyes covered by a pair of slim fashionable glasses, and what looked like a pretty fit figure though it was hard to tell for sure since she was sitting down. Of course there was only one way to be sure whether or not she was one of the three on my list.

"Yes, you had a question Miss?"

"Solare," she said.

Her voice rang out across the classroom clear, firm, and with a musical quality that carried. I grinned to myself. The name. That voice. Was it really going to be this easy?

"Selena Solare."

Yes Miss Solare," I said. "What's your question?"

"I'm sorry Professor, what was your name?"

"Professor Terror," I said. "But we're all friends here. You can just call me Natalie."

"Right Natalie. Didn't you mean to say this class is Surviving A Villainous Attack?"

I shrugged. "That might be what they call this course in the catalog, but I'm the teacher and I feel like Surviving A Heroic Intervention is more in line with what actually happens."

"But the villains are the ones…"

I held up a hand to forestall her. I still wasn't sure if she was even one of the three names on my list. I'd grown overly reliant on my wrist computer and I couldn't wear it in the lecture hall for obvious reasons. If Fialux actually was in here she'd recognize that in an instant and we'd have a live demonstration of a "heroic incident" for all the students to survive firsthand.

"Miss Solare. I did say we can agree to disagree, but since I'm the teacher we'll just have to agree to go with what I say since I'm in charge of your grade," I said.

"Now, if there aren't any other questions?"

The students shifted in their seats and looked back and forth, but no one else said anything. Including the two other auburn haired beauties who were potential candidates. I itched to go around to the other side of my desk and open it up to consult my wrist computer, but knowing my luck Fialux would actually be in here and recognize the sound with her super hearing. No, better to leave it firmly locked up and turned off where it couldn't cause an incident.

Besides, I didn’t need to look at my computer to know that Miss Selena Solare was at the top of the list. Everything about her screamed that I was looking at Fialux, but I needed to draw her out. Maybe get her to use some of her superpowers in class. Give herself away somehow.

"For our first class I’ve decided on a practical demonstration of the sort of skills you'll need to survive a heroic intervention."

I glanced towards the middle of the hall where Miss Selena Solare was sitting with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. One of the other potential Fialuxes was twirling her hair and trying not to look like she was staring at her phone hidden under her desk. The other one was staring out the window and looking like she was at least thousand miles away from the lecture hall.

No, if Fialux was in this room then it was definitely Miss Solare. Now I needed to prove it.

"I took the liberty of grabbing some toys from the applied sciences laboratory to help with our demonstration today."

Like I’d ever go near the applied sciences department again. Those assholes trying to steal my ideas with one hand and smack down some of my more ingenious but ethically questionable inventions with the other hand were a big part of the reason I’d left academia and started my villainous career in the first place. The last thing I wanted was to give those grey-bearded eggheads an opportunity to steal one of the toys I was about to break out. No, this was all stuff designed by yours truly, and it would give them the kind of firsthand demonstration of what it was like to be in the middle of a fight that they couldn't hope to get anywhere else.

This was going to be the most interesting semester of Surviving A Heroic Intervention ever.

I reached under my desk and pulled out a tiny rod. It was a prototype of what eventually became one of my wrist mounted multicannons. It wasn't as stylish as the wrist mounted unit, but it'd get the job done. And, more importantly, I hadn't ever used this one outside of the lab so there was no chance of Fialux recognizing my handiwork and swooping down to take me out before I had a chance to catch her by surprise.

I pointed the rod to the roof of the lecture hall and flicked a switch. A blast of plasma energy shot out from the rod and slammed into the ceiling. I waited for the space of a breath to see if Fialux was going to instinctively leapt forward and try to catch the roof as it fell, but no such luck. Damn it. I flicked another switch and the antigravity module built into the device flipped on and stopped the debris just before it hit the students in the center of the room who were staring up, slack-jawed, with their hands held out as though that would stop the mix of plaster and building material from slamming into them.

I stepped out from behind my desk and slapped the rod into my free hand as I delivered my first practical lecture.

"Can anyone tell me what the people sitting under that debris did wrong?"

Most in the room were too preoccupied with shielding themselves or looking on in terror to respond to the question, but one guy in the front row raised a shaking hand. I pointed the rod at him and he flinched, but lowered his twitching hand when he realized I wasn't going to blast him with it.

"Yes?" I asked.

"They didn't get out of the way?"

"Exactly!"

I glanced up to Miss Solare and saw her looking down at me with casual disinterest. Good. By the way she was concentrating on not looking at me every ounce of her attention was on me. If that makes sense.

"Think back to any video you've seen of a heroic intervention," I said. "When you see pieces of a building falling down towards people what always happens?"

I paused for a moment and waited to see if anyone would raise their hands. Another person, this one under the pile of debris still floating in the air just inches above their heads, raised his hand and bumped against a piece of ceiling tile that went spinning.

"They just stand there and wait for Fialux to get the debris out of the way?"

"Right again," I said. "But what happens if Fialux isn't there to swoop in and dramatically save the day? What happens if she’s preoccupied fighting off the villain of the week for the fleeting moment it takes a person to go from living biomass to compressed nonliving mass?"

This time the person who spoke up didn't bother to raise her hand. I couldn't even tell who it was in the sea of young faces. But the voice rang out clearly through the otherwise silent lecture hall.

"They die?"

"Exactly!" I said.

I looked up once more to Miss Solare. She was staring at me with an unreadable expression on her face. No other student in the room was looking at me with that level of attention. Most of them were too preoccupied with the debris hanging there thumbing its metaphorical nose at the laws of physics, not that a journalism major would have any grasp on even basic physics. Maybe if I couldn't get her to rescue somebody I could get her so angry that she lashed out. That would be out of character, but it was the best I had for plan B.

"That brings me to your homework assignment for the next class," I said. "I want you to compile a list of every journalist who's died during a heroic intervention as a direct result of Fialux failing to save them in time."

I glanced up one last time. Oh yes, definitely there was definitely something lurking just under the surface there. Rage? Anger? Annoyance? Hard to tell, but I had plenty of time to find out.

12: Dining Hall Dalliance

I glanced through the material on offer at the dining hall and frowned. This definitely was nothing compared to what I was used to when I was working in my lab thanks to my mastery of reconstituting anything I wanted whenever I wanted. It was a pleasant fringe benefit of developing teleportation technology.

The stuff in the dining hall though? What a disappointment. Typical university fare that I’d come to expect from my time working as a graduate assistant, which meant that it was your typical cafeteria crap.

Definitely not the kind of thing that I’d enjoy, but whatever. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that.

Besides, if I was going to play the role of a college professor then I figured I might as well play the role completely. And right now that meant dining on cheap food. The kind of stuff that even college kids could afford while the University was milking their parents’ bank accounts dry. None of that milking was coming my way if the meager paycheck I got was any indication. Another reason to be happy about getting out of academia.

I scanned the room as I made my way out of the food line. College kids. College kids everywhere. The last people in the world I wanted to interact with right now. Especially after all that first class had taken out of me. It’d been so long since I had to teach a class that I’d forgotten how exhausting it could be. I’d forgotten exactly why I’d gotten out of the whole teaching business in the first place. Only now it was all crashing back to me as I looked around, as I saw them talking about who they hooked up with last weekend or what regrettable decision they were about to make the next weekend.

Definitely not my cup of tea.

Not for the first time since I hatched this plan I wondered if it’d be easier to use a general area of affect mind control device to let everyone think I was spending my time on campus. But no, the mind control devices were already so haphazard and unreliable. It was taking a sledgehammer to a problem when I usually preferred going at them with a scalpel.

I’d also consider using a holographic projection to make it seem like I was on campus, but that had its own series of potential mishaps. What happened the first time somebody tried to touch me and they ended up going through the projection, or even worse touching the antigrav projector at the center? I’d be found out and lose one of my projection units which in turn risked those assholes in Applied Sciences getting their grubby hands on one of my antigravity units.

I’d left this place so those pricks couldn’t get at the technology I was inventing, the technology that was so many years beyond anything they could ever hope to produce. No, I wasn’t going to risk any of my toys falling into their hands after I’d went to so much trouble to prevent anything of the sort happening in the first place.

So here I was stuck eating cheap food in a campus dining hall pretending I was happy to be here. Or at the very least pretending I was supposed to be here. I would have much rather been back in the lab working but for the siren call of Fialux. She was out there. She was waiting for me. She didn’t know it, but she would be mine.

At least, assuming things went as well with her as they had with Shadow Wing. There was a part of me that was terrified of sneaking up on Fialux and using the anti-Newtonian stasis field on her. Not because I was worried about what would happen if she managed to break free from the field again. If that happened then I’d just go back to the drawing board like always and try, try again until I got everything right.

No, my true fear, the thing I was afraid of admitting even to myself, was rejection. That same age-old fear that everybody had from the first time they realized they were interested in the opposite sex. Or the same sex. Whatever. I was still reconfiguring how I thought of these things, the pronouns I used in my head, since this recent change up in my preferences.

Rejection. That was the real terror. What if I caught her, confessed my feelings to her, and it turned out she didn’t feel the same way? How was I going to handle that? One of my strategies for avoiding rejection, for avoiding this very conundrum, was just avoiding the whole dating question entirely. At least since I’d accidentally transported my last boyfriend to coordinates unknown in the middle of the galaxy somewhere.

Not that I dwelled on that much anymore. He was the one that put in the faulty coordinates after all, even if I was the one who’d invented the long-range matter teleporter. Not that the damn thing was any good anyways. It had melted down after that first transport, sealing his fate and preventing me from trying to pull him back.

I shook my head. I needed to concentrate on the here and now. I needed to get rid of these terrified feelings and just move forward with my plan. Being rejected was a danger I was going to have to live with if I was moving forward with this plan to confess my feelings to Fialux.

Of course there were other problems. Bigger problems in their own way than trying to capture the most powerful hero on the planet. Like how I was going to explain all of this to CORVAC. He wasn’t a big fan of changing the plan, ever, and I was throwing one hell of a monkey wrench into this plan. Though to be honest I wasn’t throwing a monkey wrench into it or changing it so much as I was going with my own plan and not telling him about all the details. Not yet.

With a little luck I’d never have to give him all the details, though I hadn’t quite figured out how I was going to pull that off without having him fly into a homicidal rage. I figured at the very worst I could just resort to a focused electromagnetic pulse and hope he didn’t have any surprises lying in wait for me. Or maybe I could hide behind Fialux’s invulnerable hide after she’d confessed her love for me.

Fat chance, but a girl could dream.

I shoveled cheap food into my mouth, but there was no enjoyment. I had too many problems. Too many issues. Too many balls I was trying to juggle, except instead of balls I was juggling grenades with the pins pulled and at any moment one of them could blow up in my face and ruin my day, my life, my villainous career, in a major way.

I needed to avoid adding any more complications to my life.

“Is anybody sitting here?”

I looked up. Oh joy. It wasn’t enough that I was adding a seemingly infinite number of complications myself. No, now the complications were tracking me down.

“No Miss Solare, no one’s sitting there.”

Selena Solare hesitated as though waiting for something that I didn’t offer. No invitation for her. I just looked up at her expectantly, feeling butterflies raging through my stomach. Butterflies that were on fire, butterflies that were exploding in small blasts of flame all throughout my body. I felt lightheaded just looking up at her. Just staring at that beautiful face. Damn it. I was acting like a teenage girl with a crush, which is about what I’d been reduced to since I saw Fialux for the first time.

Not that I could be one hundred percent sure this was Fialux. I just had one hell of a hunch.

I felt so awkward. I didn’t like feeling awkward. It was a feeling that hadn’t happened for years.

Finally she sat down across for me. As she sat she fished her telephone out of her back pocket. I didn’t understand kids these days or why they insisted on keeping an expensive piece of computer equipment like that in a back pocket where anybody could run up and snatch it or where they could accidentally sit on it and smash it. She placed it down on the table next to her tray which seemed to be the fashion with the kids these days if the dining hall full of zombies staring into their glowing screens was any indication.

She pressed the button on it briefly, scanning it checking for whatever it is college students were looking for when they let the glowing mind control device take over, then looked up at me with a radiant smile. A smile that made me weak in the knees. A smile that’d force me to sit down if I wasn’t already.

Apparently Miss Solare didn’t take the hint that I didn’t want her sitting there, even though I wanted nothing more than to have her sitting there. Complications. I took a swig from my drink and regarded her. I wasn’t sure how the hell to proceed. I wasn’t sure what the hell I was supposed to do.

“So that was quite a performance in class today,” she said.

“Performance?” I asked.

“Performance, lesson, whatever,” she said. “Either way, you were really getting into that. I could tell you’re very passionate about what you teach.”

“Let’s just say it’s a subject near and dear to me,” I replied.

Damn it. Were we really doing this? The whole thing where we sit down and have a conversation pretending we don’t know who we are but in reality we had a sneaking suspicion? I always hated those conversations, but the thing is I wasn’t even sure I was having that conversation right now. I couldn’t tell if she was on to me or if she was oblivious and just making conversation with the new teacher.

It didn’t help that all of my usual senses were completely off kilter because I was so distracted by how damn gorgeous she was. She smiled and leaned forward as though she was getting ready to pull me into some sort of confidence. I leaned forward as well without thinking. When I realized what I’d done I was shocked, but it was too late. I’d already done it. I was under her control and I didn’t like it one bit. I was in her thrall and I loved it.

“I have to admit I was a little surprised when I saw you walk into class today,” she said.

“Why’s that?”

She shrugged. “Usually professors are stuffy older types. I definitely wasn’t expecting…”

She looked me up and down for the briefest of moments and I felt a thrill run through me.

“…You.”

Was I imagining things? That look had to be wishful thinking on my part because it sure as hell looked like she’d just given me an appreciative once over. No. That had to be my imagination. That had to be me inserting a hell of a lot of wish fulfillment into reality. I was well aware that the mind could play tricks, especially when you really wanted something. Best to ignore that look. Pretend it never happened.

“I’m not your typical academic,” I said.

“You seem very passionate about the subject,” she said.

I scowled without realizing it. I looked up at her and something about the look on my face must have been surprising, because she was staring at me wide-eyed.

“I’ve been personally affected by a heroic intervention,” I said.

That wasn’t exactly a lie. I had been affected by heroic interventions on multiple occasions. Of course I was usually the one who was putting down those heroic interventions. It wasn’t until Fialux came to town and started causing trouble that I started having trouble. Only I’m sure that wasn’t exactly what she was thinking when I said that. I’m sure she was thinking I had some tragic back story. Maybe a favorite pet that was killed by a hero and villain duking it out in the middle of downtown or some other sob story.

Whatever it was, she seemed to be buying it. She leaned forward and then her hand was moving across the table. Touching my own.

I’ve accidentally brushed my hand against one of the isolinear chips that contain the majority of CORVAC’s memory and personality while doing a repair on one of his systems. The shock was powerful enough that it blasted me across the lab and very nearly stopped my heart.

I guess the point I’m trying to get across here is that I’ve been on the receiving end of one hell of a shock before, and yet that was nothing compared to the feeling of her hand brushing against mine. I was shocked at just how amazing her hand felt brushing against mine. Just the possibility of her being Fialux brushing her hand against me was sending a wave of pleasure crashing through my body that was almost as intense as anything I’d felt with Shadow Wing, and we’d done a hell of a lot more than holding hands.

“Is something wrong?”

Her eyes were searching my face. She smiled, but looked concerned. My breath caught. She looked beautiful no matter what, and feeling her tracing her finger lightly against my hand was causing me to think thoughts. Naughty thoughts. Impossible thoughts.

Of course I was also thinking this would be the perfect moment to try and catch her off guard, to test out my anti-Newtonian stasis field, but no. I didn’t know for sure that this was Fialux for one thing. The resemblance was uncanny, but I’d already had CORVAC run her student ID picture and compare it to what we had of Fialux. Apparently her glasses were enough to trip up even the most advanced facial recognition software CORVAC could throw at the problem. Who knew?

The second reason why I didn’t go ahead and break out the stasis field now was that we were in the middle of a crowded room. There were students all over, and the last thing I wanted was to cause potential collateral damage by picking a fight with Fialux in the middle of a crowded area.

Something told me that a dining hall on the bottom floor of a university dormitory that had been built a good fifty years ago and then rebuilt and refit to hell and back because the administration was too cheap to cough up money for a new building wouldn’t stand up to a fight between Night Terror and Fialux in quite the same way that the reinforced skyscrapers downtown did.

Of course the third, final, and most compelling reason why I didn’t do anything had absolutely nothing to do with any of that crap. No, the real reason why I wasn’t going to break out the stasis field right now was because I was enjoying the feel of her hand on mine. I wanted this moment to last forever, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to do anything to interrupt it. I wanted to close my eyes, sigh, and melt into her. Not try and capture her.

CORVAC would be furious if he could see me right now. If he knew my reasoning for not trying to capture her right now. He might understand the first two, but I sure wasn’t going to tell him the third.

“Nothing’s wrong,” I said. “Just working some things out.”

Selena pulled her hand away and I wanted to cry out. As it was I just sighed. Her hand felt good on mine, felt right, and I was going to miss that contact. I suddenly found myself wondering if maybe we were going to run into each other on campus more often, maybe have more of these moments. That’d definitely give me a compelling reason to play the studious professor role and maybe enjoy my time on campus instead of looking at it as torture.

Though as I looked her up and down it occurred to me that it might just be a different sort of torture.

“Well I’m very glad you’re my teacher for this class,” she said. “I’m especially glad to have a professor who’s so…”

Okay, so maybe I wasn’t the greatest at this whole dating thing. Maybe I was more or less clueless even when someone was throwing themselves at me because I was always the kind of girl who was more interested in the science lab than the captain of the football team. Though I suppose with this new interest of mine it would be the captain of the cheerleading squad and not the football team. Like I said, I was still confusing my metaphors.

But even I couldn’t miss the way she looked me up and down. That was one hell of an appreciative glance. That was the kind of look that made me feel like I needed to smoke a cigarette when it was done. That was the kind of look that screamed that Miss Solare was indulging in a naughty professor fantasy, which was just fine by me given the circumstances. That was the kind of look that sent a fire raging through my body from between my legs to my stomach to the tips of my toes and all points in between.

It was the kind of look that said she was clearly interested in me in more than academic terms, and it was so obvious that even I, the queen of the oblivious, couldn’t miss it.

A little voice inside my head was screaming. I needed to say something. I needed to make a move. It’s not like I gave a damn about the whole professional ethics thing regarding students anyways considering I was just a villain who was using a mind control device to take control of a class long enough to capture the greatest hero in the world. Next to that the prohibition in the employee handbook about dating students was small potatoes.

I opened my mouth.

Her phone lit up and started buzzing on the table. Damn it. I glanced down at the screen and thought I saw a name that started with R. Roger? Ron? I didn’t get a good enough look to tell, and it’s not like it was any of my damn business anyways aside from being a very interested in anything that had to do with her.

“Hello?”

Selena put a hand over the microphone and whispered an apology to me. “It’s my boyfriend.”

Then she was back to her phone call while I sat there with a smile on my face as the food I was shoveling into my mouth turned to ash. For a moment there it had been downright tasty while we were talking.

Her boyfriend. She had a boyfriend. So much for all my hopes that she’d been looking at me with interest. So much for all my hopes that her hand gesture, the way she made contact with me, the way she was flirting and talking about how she was so glad I was her professor, meant something more than her thinking I’d be a good teacher.

I sat with a fake smile on my face. I was good at that, at least when it came to romance. If I was on the verge of taking over the world and somebody caused my plan to come crashing down around me I’d be embarking on a world class villainous rant the likes of which you’d never seen before, but a romantic failure like this was almost expected. Heck, I don’t know why I expected anything else.

As the conversation wore on she got a vacant look in her eyes and sat slack-jawed, her food forgotten, making the occasional grunt in response to whatever this guy was telling her. I finished my own food and she was still on the phone. I stood and she didn’t acknowledge it.

With a shrug I took my food tray over to a conveyor belt and turned to leave. On my way out I passed by the table and she was still sitting there with the phone to her ear, a vacant expression on her face, and her food sitting cold in front of her.

Something about the way she looked tickled something in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t say what it was. Whatever. If she wanted to forget her food because she was so busy talking to her boy toy then that was her business. I needed to get back to my office so I could start planning new tricks for getting her to reveal herself.

13: Moderately Nasty Tricks

Only nothing would draw her out and the class became a pure torture as the semester wore on. Every day I’d demonstrate some new and devious method to try and get Fialux to reveal herself, and every day Selena Solare just sat halfway up the bleacher seats and stared at me with a smile on her face as though she was enjoying the show, but she never did anything that would reveal she was actually a super heroine in disguise like jumping out and stopping one of my killer robots, or swooping down at the last moment to save somebody when I opened a portal directly under them into the caldera of an active volcano while they were suspended via the glories of antigravity.

No, every time I had to save them at the last minute. Every time I was the one who blinked, and it was infuriating.

Of course if that was all I had to contend with I’d consider myself lucky, but no, that wasn’t all miss Selena Solare threw at me. No, every day after class she stopped by my desk to engage in chitchat. Every day she said something that just crossed the line. Something that made me think she was definitely flirting. Something that made me wonder if she was thinking of me as a professor or as her arch nemesis in disguise.

Not that she’d probably even think of me as her arch nemesis even if she did suspect my true identity. I was starting to wonder if she even remembered who Night Terror was. I was starting to seriously wonder if the rest of the world remembered who Night Terror was. Other villains came and went, and I watched them on the nightly news, but there was no Night Terror out there getting her face on the Starlight City News Network because I was cooped up grading papers or working late in my office at the university trying to come up with a new diabolical plan to get Fialux to reveal herself.

I told myself that it’d all be worth it. It would be worth the trouble, worth the brief Night Terror hiatus the city was enjoying, when I finally caught Fialux in my web. One way or another, at that point I’d either rule the city via being Fialux’s new main squeeze, or I’d rule the city because I’d finally captured her and added her to the vast collection of heroic souvenirs I kept buried deep in my lair.

In suspended animation or something. I’m not that heartless.

Only in the meantime that flirtation every day when she stopped by my desk was absolute torture. Even more so because every day she got interrupted by that damned phone in the same way she’d been interrupted in the dining hall at the beginning of the semester. It was the same routine. She talked to me for a few minutes after class and her phone started ringing. Invariably she picked it up, swiped, answered, and her face went slack-jawed as whatever the person on the other end of the line was telling her suddenly became far more important than whatever flirting she’d been doing with me.

It was driving me insane. That annoyance, that craziness, might explain why, in a fit of pique, I decided to do away with little miss nice super villainess. I decided it was time to break out the big guns, or rather get rid of the guns entirely. It was time to stop with nice things like a cloud of nanobots that could disassemble living flesh or inanimate objects with a speed that made piranhas seem like carnivorous sloths in comparison. No more primitive artificial intelligences just on the verge of gaining sentience attached to miniguns loaded with foam darts so no one would actually get hurt when they inevitably decided to turn on their human masters during the convenient time frame of my class.

I’d demonstrated ways for normals to survive every moderately nasty trick in my repertoire and it did nothing. So in desperation I decided to be more direct with a demonstration of beam weapons which was moving into the slightly more than moderately nasty trick category. If that didn’t work I still had a few really nasty tricks up my sleeve. The kind of stuff that even I never broke out because it brought out the specter of escalation which was never good for business.

I started by setting up a cement block roughly as tall as a man at one end of the room. I stood on the other end of the lecture hall with another prototype beam weapon never before seen outside my test lab, pointed, and let loose with a blast of pure high energy light. I swiped the rod quickly and in a moment the two ends of the cement block that had been one giant cement block just moments before split and fell to the side. I turned to the class.

"This is a beam weapon. Beam weapons operate on one simple principle. You cannot outrun the speed of light."

I gestured for one of the students sitting in the front row to come down and stand next to the cement block. He hesitated, glancing around the room as though hoping somebody might come to his rescue, but no one said anything. Miss Solare certainly made no move. He moved in front of the bisected block and stood there quaking in his shoes as I pointed the rod at him.

I glanced up to where Fialux/Miss Solare sat with her arms crossed, but still she did nothing. I shrugged. If this wasn't going to draw her out then I was running out of ideas.

I pressed a button on the rod and another blast of light, this one a far less high energy, lanced out and hit the poor kid. He screamed in terror, and then he screamed in relief as he ran his hands down the middle and realized that he was still in one piece.

"What's the number one lesson I've drilled into you so far?"

"Get out of the way," the class recited back at me in singsong unison.

"Exactly," I said. "And what did our terrified friend who has now wet his pants not do?"

"Get out of the way."

"Also right. Only in this case getting out of the way is trickier. The problem with beam weapons is that the light travels at, well, the speed of light. You aren't outrunning that unless maybe you're that new Fialux chick that’s been causing so much trouble recently."

The class murmured. Most of the tricks I'd shown them had a way of escaping that at least gave a fifty/fifty chance of survival. This was the first super weapon I'd shown them where that fifty/fifty chance went down to zero.

Time to give them a little hope.

"So if you see somebody using a beam weapon, you get the hell out of the way the instant you see it pointing at you."

The demonstration continued in a much in the same vein, going over the various types of beam weapons they were likely to run into while they were running straight into the middle of a super powered war zone. At no point did Selena make any move to save anyone, though I didn’t really expect her to after the first demonstration failed to draw her out. I was starting to wonder if I was making a serious mistake and wasting my time at the university. I was starting to dread the prospect of going undercover at SCNN.

After class a familiar perfume wafted across my desk. I looked up from the paper I was pretending to grade while waiting for Selena to stop by and smiled at her.

“Miss Solare,” I said.

“I’ve told you, you can just call me Selena,” she said.

“And what did you think of today’s demonstration Selena?” I asked.

“Very impressive! I’d never think of trying to dodge a beam weapon like that.”

Of course you wouldn’t think of dodging a beam weapon like that because you don’t have to. All you have to do is let the damned thing smack into your invulnerable hide, or if you’re feeling particularly showy you could make a big display of holding out your hand and absorbing the beam weapon there as you walk towards whatever poor son-of-a-bitch is trying to defeat you with it.

I didn’t say that, despite how therapeutic it’d be. I just thought it and smiled at her.

“So do you have any plans after class? I was thinking…”

I never did find out what she was thinking. The hope that had been rising in me as she mentioned plans after class was dashed by the sound of her damned ringtone sounding through the empty lecture hall. I’d been leaning forward in my chair anticipating her next words, hoping but never quite daring to dream that she might be asking me to lunch or something, but I crashed back into my chair at the sound of her phone.

“Sorry, one second,” she said.

I waved a hand. One second would turn into several minutes if every other phone call she got at the end of class was any indication. Sure enough she picked it up, put it to her ear, and then she was gone. Once again something about her expression tickled something in the back of my mind, but I had far more important things to worry about than how ridiculous she looked when she was talking to her stupid boyfriend.

Like how I was going to prove definitively that she was Fialux. I’m not sure why I didn’t just use the stasis field on her and get it over with, maybe it was partially because I was starting to enjoy our little conversations after class every day however brief they were before her phone started ringing.

No, that wasn’t it. I just wanted to be sure I wasn’t blasting some poor innocent college girl who may or may not also be moonlighting as a hero. My strict rules about collateral damage were the only reason I was being so cautious. I definitely wasn’t hanging around because the five minutes of flirting we got in after class kept me going for the rest of the day.

Definitely not.

I packed my prototype blaster in my bag and started up the stairs towards the exit. I learned early in the semester that there was no point trying to talk to Selena once she started on her phone, and I had to get to a nice private spot with no witnesses before I could teleport up to my office and then off campus entirely.

I sighed at the top of the lecture hall stairs and looked down at Selena. I’d pulled out all the small and moderately sized guns. There was nothing for it. I was going to have to pull out the really nasty stuff for class next week.

14: Really Nasty Tricks

I didn’t want to bring out the big guns, but she left me with no choice. So at the start of the next class I fished inside my desk and pulled out a small orb. I let go and it floated into the air. Up into the middle of the room where a red light started to run around its equator.

“Does anybody know what this is?” I asked.

Blank looks. I shook my head. I figured at least some of them would have tried to hazard an answer at this point, but apparently I’d stumped them with this one. Some were looking up inquisitively, others were staring up in terror as though they were wondering what fresh hell Professor Terror was bringing to the classroom today.

I smiled. Hell certainly had come to the classroom.

Also, Professor Terror. I liked the sound of that. I made a note to add that one to the idea book.

“What you see floating before you is a wide area matter dispersal bomb. I paused for a moment to let that sink in. To enjoy the pregnant silence in the room. To wait for the inevitable gasps as they realized what fresh doom was floating just above their heads.

Blank looks again. Damn it. I shook my head. It really was my fault, after all, expecting a room full of journalism majors to understand regular science let alone the super science required to realize exactly why every single one of them should be soiling their drawers right now.

“It’s an offshoot of teleportation technology. A rather nasty offshoot of teleportation technology, I might add. Most teleporters work on the principle of taking matter, scrambling it down to its constituent atomic parts, transmitting those constituent parts, and reconstituting them at a new location,” I said. I figured I needed to start with the most basic level even though most of this room looked like the type to watch enough science fiction to know what a teleporter was.

Only science fiction became science reality when Night Terror was working the room.

“This little device works on a similar principle, except it skips the second part about reconstituting everything at a new location. Saves a hell of a lot of power that way too. No, instead this takes every piece of matter in a given area and just disperses it on the wind. Reduces it to its atomic constituents and then sends it floating everywhere and nowhere.”

They were starting to get the idea. Some of the more terror-prone students, and there were a lot more today after all my demonstrations than there were at the beginning of the semester thank you very much, were starting to glance nervously towards the door.

“And I’ve set this particular wide area matter dispersal bomb to go off within the confines of this room,” I paused for a moment to let that one sink in. At least something was starting to sink in for a change. “Why would I do that, class?”

Of course the real answer was that I was trying to lure out a superhero. I was trying to flush a goddess out from the sea of normals she was hiding in. Though I didn’t expect anybody in the room to get that answer, except maybe Fialux herself. I wasn’t even sure if she suspected my game yet, or if she still just thought I was a good teacher. If any of them did guess that answer they’d get an A for the semester right on the spot.

A guy in the front row raised his hand. “To teach us how to escape it?”

“No, I’m afraid that’s not it,” I said.

I pressed my hands together behind my back and smiled, relishing the moment. “I’m afraid there is absolutely no escaping this one. It’s just like the speed of light, only worse. It could go off and you wouldn’t even know it was there as opposed to a laser weapon where you at least have a chance of seeing somebody pointing the damn thing at you before you die.”

“So what’s the point?” That was from a cute blonde girl about halfway up.

“The point of these last few demonstrations before your finals is to prove a point, and that point I’m proving is that there are going to be times when you go out there in the world, when you try to gather information, when you try to cover the big story and despite what you do, no matter how good your training is, that big story might kill you without realizing you were ever there. You are subject to the capricious whims of the gods and goddesses fighting around you. You could be squashed like an insect in an instant, your atoms dispersed to the winds, and neither you nor the hero or villain who killed you might ever know. The only thing that would remain is a nice little engraved nameplate on the Starlight City News Network memorial wall. A wall, I might add, that they had to recently expand for the fifth time since they built the building twenty years ago because it keeps filling up.”

I paused. This was one of the greatest villain monologues I think I’d ever delivered and no one realized that’s what it was. They all thought it was career advice.

“That sounds like a pretty depressing point,” someone muttered in the front row.

“Exactly my point,” I said. “This is a dangerous business, and you’re going to get paid pennies on the dollar considering the danger you’re putting yourself in covering these stories. As you get ready to embark on this career, as you get ready to finish this program, you need to seriously ask yourself if it’s worth it.”

I couldn’t tell you exactly when I’d transitioned from using this class as an opportunity to get in a few not so subtle digs at anybody who decided to go into writing as their chosen profession to actually caring about my students. I still thought they were a bunch of shiftless lazy good for nothing slackers who went with an easy major that allowed for a busy partying schedule in addition to setting them up for a horrible career choice. The suckers were also paying a crap load of money to the University for the privilege of making that horrible career choice, but at the same time I didn’t want to see them smashed by some villain who had fewer scruples than I did about collateral damage. Especially considering the very literal meat grinder that most of them would be fed into after graduating when they started looking for entry-level jobs at the local news outlets in Starlight City.

Of course even if I did care, I hadn’t forgotten my original purpose for being here. Even if we did share lingering glances after class, I hadn’t forgotten that my ultimate goal was to get Fialux to reveal herself so I could test out my anti-Newtonian stasis field on a non-mobile goddess. To try and capture her so we could sit down and have a talk about all those lingering glances she’d been giving me over the semester. About what the hell it meant that she went from flirting with me to talking on the phone with this mysterious boyfriend and forgetting all about me every time she answered her phone.

It was driving me insane, and if it turned out that it was all a big tease, that it was all part of some naughty professor fantasy, and it turned out that she was Fialux, well let’s just say that I was going to have a difficult time not testing out whether or not my matter dispersal bomb worked on her invulnerable hide.

But for now I had a part to play. I held up a remote and pointed towards the matter dispersal bomb.

“This particular matter dispersal bomb was designed with a red light that travels around the center to show you how close it is to detonating. The faster the light moves around that band, the closer we all are to being completely obliterated. By the time it becomes a solid line you know that you have only a few moments to make peace with whatever higher power you happen to believe in.

I glanced up at the bomb. It was going at a good pace now, but nowhere near a solid line.

“Whoever designed the thing obviously had a sense of style,” I said.

Of course I was tooting my own horn since I was the one who designed the damn thing in the first place. I’d always been a firm believer that if I was going to go to the trouble of inventing a piece of technology that was decades or centuries beyond anything available to humanity currently then I was going to go to do it with style. I was particularly fond of that red light moving around the equator of the orb. I thought it had a nice retro look to it. A look that said this particular piece of technology had broken free from its human masters and was coming for you. I’m not sure why a moving red light gave me that feeling, but there it was.

Now time for a performance that would make those idiots over in the drama department go wild. Theatricality was the key to any good villainy career, and it was time for a command performance. I held the remote up and clicked at the orb. I made sure to make the movement clear. Only the light kept swirling around the center. I made the clicking motion again, and the light just kept moving faster and faster.

Students started to shuffle and glance around nervously. Even the ones who’d realized no one had actually gotten hurt so far and they were probably safe enough. That was probably part of what kept Fialux hidden for so long too, damn it. Some started to look longingly towards the exits and a couple near the back quietly started gathering their things and moving out those doors.

I scrunched up my face and made a show of inspecting the remote. I even smacked it a couple of times as though it was an unruly animal and not a piece of highly advanced technology. Why people thought beating a piece of highly advanced technology would make it work was beyond me, but I’d use it for this demonstration.

The actual shut off command was keyed to my voice anyways. I wasn’t going to leave anything up to chance, including the chance one of the idiots in this class might do something stupid like grab the remote out of my hands and try to turn the thing off of themselves leaving all of us screwed. As though anyone else hitting the button would make it magically work.

Time to lay it on thick. I smacked it once more. “Weird, they told me the button could stick but it always came undone after a few smacks…”

That was enough to set off screaming near the front of the room. People started scrambling over chairs and panic was definitely setting in. I would have laughed if I didn’t know it would give away the game. Instead I continued staring at the remote as though it was an interesting puzzle and not the key to a device that was very shortly going to annihilate all life in this room, excepting perhaps Fialux since I wasn’t exactly sure how this particular weapon would work against her.

I put my hands on my hips as though I was more exasperated than scared. I glared at the matter dispersal bomb. I glanced up into the seats where Selena was tapping a pencil against her desk and looking down at me with the corner of her mouth turned up in a half smile. Definitely not the panicked reaction I saw from everyone else in the room. Whether that was because she knew this was a put on or because she thought I had everything in hand was beyond me, but it was infuriating how she was sitting there acting just how I’d expect Fialux to act with the whole not caring about a bomb that would off mere mortals yet at the same time not giving away that she was Fialux by flying the bomb away from everyone else.

She was a cool customer. I hated it.

I sighed. My shoulders slumped. It looked like once again Fialux won this round. Just like she’d won every round so far, assuming that Fialux and Selena Solare were the same person. I’d really hate to go up against her in a game of poker.

I threw the remote to the ground and it shattered into pieces. People cried out at that, but it’s not like it mattered since the thing was keyed to my voice and the remote was just a hunk of plastic with a big shiny red button in the middle. I’ve already mentioned how much I loved big shiny red buttons.

“Damn Applied Sciences Department and their useless crap!” I screamed.

The rotating red light, almost a solid bar, immediately stopped and the thing floated down into my outstretched hand. That’s right, come to mommy. Everybody in the room stopped and stared. Some breathed sighs of relief. Some put away various religious talismans they’d brought out. Others looked like they’d finally gotten around to soiling their pants and were trying to figure out a way to get the hell out of the room without letting everybody else know about the situation downstairs.

Only one person was sitting there looking completely and utterly calm.

Selena Solare.

Damn her.

“Well, that was fun. Now we should probably talk about your final paper!”

A couple of people near the back of the room fainted outright. I smiled. I still had it.

"I think that about wraps it up for today's lesson," I said. "Now for your midterm assignment."

A collective groan rose up from the class but I held up a hand with a smile.

"You'll be happy to hear that we won't be doing a test for your midterms," I said.

Immediately the angry muttering turned to more upbeat muttering.

"Instead, you will write a ten page paper elaborating on a situation where there would have been far less destruction if the hero hadn't intervened in whatever the alleged villain was planning."

The muttering turned angry again. I remembered well from my time in college that the only thing worse than having to study for an exam was being forced to write a paper. And ten pages was pretty long as far as undergrad intro level courses went.

"If you have any questions you know what my office hours are," I said. I sat down at my desk and pretended to work while students filed out.

It was such a familiar ritual at this point that I didn’t even have to look up to tell whose shadow was crossing my desk after class was over and most people had filed out. There was still a slight lingering smell in the room left behind by those unfortunate enough to actually have little accidents when they thought they were on death’s door. The custodial staff was going to have a field day with this lecture hall. I just hoped they’d be able to take care of the smell before the next class shuffled in.

“You almost had me there,” she said.

I looked up and smiled. She smiled back, and it was radiant. “I did?”

She shook a finger at me as she grinned. “You did! For a minute there I really believed you’d lost control of that thing!”

I returned the grin. “Who’s to say I didn’t?”

“You didn’t,” she said. “I have complete and utter confidence in you and your abilities when it comes to this stuff.”

Well that answered one question at least. She still thought I was a hyper competent university professor rather than an increasingly incompetent super villain in disguise. That was good I guess?

“So to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit today?”

She bit her lip. God did she look so hot when she bit her lip like that. I was surprised her eyeglasses weren’t fogging up from the heat she was radiating. And it was getting late enough in the spring semester that she was starting to wear some outfits that radiated some serious heat, if you catch my meaning.

She looked me up and down and a shiver ran down my spine. “Well it’s not for the usual reasons today.”

“Oh? What is the reason?” I asked. I raised an eyebrow. This was interesting. I also felt butterflies dancing in my stomach. Was she going to say something? Was there finally going to be an end to the tension that had been building over the semester?

“I have serious reservations about the midterm assignment you gave us.”

Oh. So much for resolving tension. At least she bit her lip as she said it. That was something.

“Well I’d certainly be happy to discuss…”

Her phone started ringing. Of course her phone started ringing. That damned phone started ringing every time things started to get good. Damn her boyfriend for monopolizing her time like that. I wanted to pull out my blaster and vaporize the thing, only that would definitely give me away.

“Let me guess? Your boyfriend?”

Selena looked at the screen and her face fell. It seemed to do that more and more every time she was interrupted. For that matter, I was starting to have serious questions about this guy. Who was he that he could draw the attention of a living goddess away like that? Only she picked up the phone and swiped at the screen. Of course she was going to accept the call.

She looked up to me and mouthed “sorry,” but I was having none of it this time. I leaned back in my chair, put my arms it together behind my head. “Well if you have a problem with the assignment then now’s the time to talk about it. Just to get rid of the person on the other end of that phone call.”

It was a test more than anything. A test to see if she’d actually put the phone down. Like most people from her generation, heck, like most people from my generation considering I was only a few years older than her, she had an unbreakable attachment to her phone. Only with most people in class that unbreakable attachment manifested itself in the form of texting under their flip up desk or browsing the Internet since it was a big lecture class and they probably figured it’s not like I was going to remember exactly who they were and dock their grade for it.

Of course those students hadn’t counted on me recording every session and using facial recognition software to figure out exactly who was texting in class and by what percentage their grade should be docked. There were going to be some big surprises when the participation part of grades was added in.

But I was getting distracted from what was important. Fialux, Selena, Miss Solare, whatever the hell her name was, was the only person I knew who was constantly distracted by the voice function on her telephone. I opened my mouth to say something, to try and get her away, but she already had that vapid empty stare on her face. The one that told me she was deep in conversation with whoever this guy was on the other end.

I sighed and leaned back into my chair. There was no helping it now. She was firmly in the thrall of her electronic god and nothing I could do would stop her. Nothing would get through to her.

Noise off in the distance pulled my attention away from Selena and towards the massive windows that ran along one side of the lecture hall. Sirens. Coming from downtown which could be seen through those aforementioned massive windows. As I watched a massive explosion went off in the distance. Big enough that it rattled the windows. I briefly considered opening a feed to one of my drones but decided against it with Selena still in the room.

She was acting odd now as well. I looked over to her and she’d stopped talking. She was looking out the window too, and as the sirens kept up their wail that blank stare started to disappear. Her face started to harden with resolve. Her arm dropped to her side, the phone still glowing but the call forgotten.

I sat forward. Now this was interesting. Finally something was breaking through whatever haze came over her when she took a phone call from this guy. I peered at the phone to try and get a closer look at his name but her thigh was blocking the screen. Damn it.

Selena glanced at me and she was back entirely. A look of regret passed across her face, then the resolve was back.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” she said.

I grinned despite myself. That was exactly the sort of thing I’d expect Fialux to say. Off to save the city and all that. Inside I was dancing with glee. I’d found a way to pull her attention away from that damned phone and all but proved that she was Fialux.

She was moving towards the exit at top speed, faster even than the people scrambling away from the matter dispersal bomb earlier. Too fast for me to try the stasis field on her without alerting her that something was up, and there was still the pesky problem that I wasn’t absolutely certain she was Fialux. I needed to think fast.

“Stop by my office hours if you want to talk about that paper!” I shouted.

I didn’t know if she heard me or not. She was out the door and I was left alone in a massive lecture hall that was starting to smell more and more as the unfortunate aftereffects of my earlier demonstration wafted through the room. I hit a button and there was a bright flash as I was teleported up to my office. I figured I could watch the show downtown from one of the drones while I waited for Fialux to take care of business there and hopefully head to office hours.

I could only hope she heard me. Then maybe we’d finally get some one-on-one time with each other without her phone and this mysterious boyfriend interrupting.

A girl could hope.

15: Wannabes

"Office hours" for me usually involved leaving behind a small transmitter tied to my wrist computer that I could use to determine whether or not someone was knocking on my door. From there it was a matter of quickly teleporting back to the university where I could impart my knowledge on the eagerly awaiting student.

Only today I didn’t bother with any of that crap. I didn’t even bother going back to the lab. As soon as the door was shut behind me I flipped up the 3D display on my wrist computer and got ready to watch the show. My only regret was the university’s policy against popping popcorn in any faculty lounges, because I had a feeling I was going to want some in a minute.

“Do you have any drones up CORVAC?”

“Of course mistress. I always have the drones up now when there is a high probability of Fialux making an appearance. Not that you would notice.”

I decided to ignore that. Someone sounded like he was a little testy. He was probably annoyed that I’d been spending most of my time down at the university rather than back in the lab working on his stupid giant death robot project. Well that could wait just a little longer. It’s not like it would do him any good as long as Fialux was a going concern anyways.

The holodisplay resolved in place just in time for me to make out a caped figure hovering over the Thomas building. At first I thought it was Fialux, but upon zooming in I realized that couldn’t be the case. There was no way Fialux would be floating in that particular pose, as though she was looking down at an anthill she was about to smash, and there was definitely no way she’d be carrying a massive gun like that.

“Could you zoom in on the piece CORVAC?”

“Already identified it mistress,” CORVAC said. “It looks like a crude modification of one of your early designs. From the BFG9K series I believe.”

“I thought it looked familiar, now the real question is how the hell did some random wannabe get ahold of that?”

The figure wavered and dropped about ten feet before reasserting themselves. I squinted again. That almost looked like the wild flailing of someone getting used to flying with antigravity units for the first time. It took a few tries to perfect it, and it definitely wasn’t the same sort of flying as the stuff the rocket jockeys used. Actually, this was the first villain other than me to use the antigrav stuff that I was aware of.

“Is that antigrav another copy of my stuff?” I asked.

“Hard to tell mistress,” CORVAC said. “I cannot get a clear reading on that tech in the same way I can the gun.”

“But I’m the only one who’s supposed to have that tech,” I said.

“Up until now I would have agreed with you,” CORVAC said.

I tapped a finger against my lips. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. If someone was showing up using tech that only I had that meant there was someone else out there who was as inventive as I was and who was capable of pulling together the resources needed to fund an operation similar to my own.

Or somebody, somehow, was stealing my stuff. I’d like to say it was ego that told me that was the case, but honestly I just knew there was no one else out there who could come up with the stuff I came up with. My bad blood with the assholes over in the Applied Sciences department here at Starlight University was proof of that.

But how the hell did this incompetent bag of slop get his or her hands on my stuff? Because looking at them the description “incompetent bag of slop” was starting to seem downright charitable.

“We’re gonna have to figure that out,” I muttered.

“Picking something up on the long range scanner mistress,” CORVAC said.

I turned to a dot projected off in the distance glowing brightly and moving in fast. I smiled. That had to be her.

“Our buddy Fialux?”

“Affirmative mistress,” CORVAC said. “Either that or another alien from another world with impossible powers has arrived on the scene.”

“CORVAC, that was almost a joke,” I said.

“I’ll try not to make it a habit,” he said.

After all that buildup the ultimate result was anticlimactic. The villain of the week was gesticulating wildly on screen, I didn’t have the sound turned up since the doors and walls in this building were ridiculously cheap and by extension ridiculously thin. The last thing I needed was for some balding ancient professor to stick his head in and see me using the sort of technology that would give me away.

Fialux appeared on screen with her cape trailing behind her. The villain seemed to notice, I could only imagine the noise the pressure wave traveling in front of her was making, and started firing indiscriminately. I shook my head as blasts slammed into buildings and sent chunks of concrete, steel, and glass raining down on the streets below.

Amateur hour. I might cause some damage, but it was always with a purpose or in defense of my life. Right behind the no collateral damage rule was no nonessential property damage. Public opinion turned against you damn quick when you did that, but apparently this person never got the memo.

I’d obviously been away for too long if this was the sort of trash that was crawling out of the woodwork. This never would’ve happened when I was running the show. This city deserved a better class of villain.

Of course firing indiscriminately into architecture was also counterproductive in that it didn’t do anything to stop the hero barreling towards the villain in question. That became painfully obvious when a green blur flashed across the screen and the amateur was gone, futuristic stolen gun design and all.

“Well that was anticlimactic,” I said.

“Indeed mistress,” CORVAC replied.

“So much for her coming to office hours,” I muttered.

“What was that mistress?”

“Nothing CORVAC. Just observing that even the great Fialux can’t be in two places at once.”

“So will you be returning to the lab?”

“Yeah, I’ll teleport over in a minute.”

Nobody had actually bothered to take me up on my office hours since I started this new position anyways. I don’t know why I was expecting anything different. If Selena was Fialux then she was off dropping that poor hapless wannabe off at the police station or something right now, not…

There was a knock on the door. I looked up. That never happened. I opened the door and my eyes widened in surprise. Either I was wrong about Fialux’s secret identity or that super speed was way faster than I thought.

16: Office Hours

I quickly moved my wrist behind my hands so the computer wasn't obvious as none other than Selena Solare stepped through looking absolutely radiant in the standard summer college girl uniform of a tight fitting tank top and an even tighter fitting pair of shorts. If she was Fialux, and I was starting to seriously question that hypothesis, then she’d changed back into her civvies pretty damn fast.

I fought the urge to look her up and down. That wouldn't be appropriate for a professor. Even a phony baloney professor.

"Miss Solare? What a surprise!” She had no idea. “How can I help you?”

"I can't do this midterm assignment," she said.

I shrugged and sat, still keeping my arm safely hidden behind the chair and hoping the rumors that she had some sort of x-ray vision weren't true. Partly because I didn't want her to glance through me and see the wrist computer, but mostly because I'd probably gotten dosed with way more than the recommended annual limit of radiation if she actually had that power.

If she did have x-ray vision I could only hope the chair I was in had a lead lining under the cheap plastic cushioning. Not likely given my recent luck.

I leaned back in my chair and shrugged. "That's fine."

She smiled. "Really?"

"Sure," I said waving a hand in the air. "If you don't want to do the assignment then you don’t have to do the assignment. And if I don’t want to give you a passing grade on your midterm I don't have to give you a passing grade on your midterm."

"But it's not a fair assignment," she said.

Selena leaned forward and gripped the other chair I kept in my tiny cramped office, this one for students to sit in. The phantom students who never actually materialized. Until today.

"Why isn't it fair?"

"Fialux is a force for good in this world," she said, her teeth clenched together.

"Is she? Because all I see is a spoiled brat preventing humanity from getting on with its business," I said.

Selena’s knuckles were turning white as she gripped that cheap wood chair. Interesting. That was the first reaction beyond a smile I’d gotten from her since I started this charade.

I managed to slip off my wrist computer and regretted doing so even as relief washed through me. The last thing I wanted was to push her buttons to the point that she revealed herself in this cramped office when I had no way of escaping and none of my toys around to help, but at the same time she was a lot less likely to go after me if I didn't have that protection out where she could see it and realize who I was.

"Fialux stands for all that’s right in the world. Against any who would subjugate humanity," she said.

I shrugged again. "Humans have been subjugating other humans for a long time Selena, and we somehow got on just fine without some magical space alien hero coming down and saving us. In fact, I'd say there's more damage done to society by Fialux swooping in to save the day than would happen if things were just left to play out. At least that way we get to learn. To grow as a species. With Fialux all we have is stagnation and a super powered babysitter to handle all of civilization's major problems."

I knew somebody with any grounding in logic or history could probably throw back most of what I was saying in my face with relative ease, but I also figured I was dealing with a college student. A college student in the journalism program, no less, and in this day and age and that meant she probably hadn’t learned enough proper critical thinking to be able to parse my statements well enough to realize they were concentrated bullshit clearly designed to get her to fly off the handle. Literally.

"That's not true!"

I felt heat rising in me as she shouted. Come into my office and shout at me like that? Who did she think she was? Well, I knew who I thought she was even if she didn't know I thought I knew who she was, but that was no excuse for her to be disrespectful to a professor. I shot up from my chair and leaned forward until my face was inches from hers.

"It doesn't matter if it's not true! What matters is that you, a college student, can look at something from an outside point of view and at least understand that point of view even if you don't agree with it!"

I was so close that I realized if I leaned in another inch I'd be pressing my lips against hers. I glanced down. It looked like she was wearing some sort of lip gloss that made her lips shine and look oh so deliciously plump. Damn it. Now I was not only holding back from getting in a shouting match, but I was also resisting the urge to plant a firm kiss on her.

And the smell. A combination of shampoo, lotion, and probably the smell from that lip gloss. Either she’d also found time to take a shower at super speed or her alien physique got rid of heat through some mechanism other than sweating. Either way she was absolutely enchanting and intoxicating. Coupled with that outfit she was wearing, and the way her tank top was falling down revealing the generous swell of her amazing tits that looked quite similar to the projection CORVAC had provided but were oh so much more wonderful in person, she was driving me crazy.

Selena blinked and I saw her own eyes dart down for just a moment, running over my body. That glance sent another thrill running through me. Was she actually checking me out? I half expected her phone to ring and ruin the moment again, but it didn’t. I half expected her to lean forward and kiss me, but damn it she didn’t.

What would I do if she leaned forward and kissed me? I realized that I wanted nothing more than that.

Only it wasn't to be.

Selena blinked and shook her head as though she was trying to clear it of something. Then she looked back at me and the animosity was there again, though not as severe as before. She smiled and suddenly the flirtatious Selena was back. Not that I minded flirtatious Selena, but I was a little disappointed. All that work to get some sort of proof she was Fialux, I was so close, and then she regains control just like that!

"I'm sorry," she said.

Now it was my turn to blink. What was she on about?

"You're sorry?"

"You're right, of course. I should be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking even if I disagree with them. That's part of what it is to be human, right?

"If you ask me being human means being free to make stupid mistakes," I said with a shrug. "But that's just based on my observation of the species."

Miss Selena Solare smiled and looked me up and down again. I felt a chill run down my spine as her eyes ran across my body. Sure, I was wearing a frumpy professor's outfit, but judging by the way she licked her lips she was enjoying what she saw. Which only served to thoroughly confuse me considering the way she acted whenever she got a phone call after class. Was she interested in me or was she in the thrall of whoever it was that kept calling her?

"Stupid mistakes, huh?" she said.

I was painfully aware of just how close we were. I'd never had the TA and the naughty student fantasy when I was in grad school, but I have to admit I was suddenly very aware of the merits of that particular fantasy with her face just inches from my own and the charged emotion from our shouting match quickly shifting from anger to something else. Something different. Something sexy as hell.

"Mistakes like this?"

My heart stopped as her eyes closed and then her lips pressed against mine. My eyebrows shot up so fast I was surprised they didn't break the gravitational pull of the earth and go straight into orbit. My eyes widened to saucers, and then beyond that to some other round shaped object that's bigger than a saucer but I was never all that good in English class so just put your own simile here. I felt weak in the knees. I felt a bolt of pleasure like lightning from the heavens, like an atomic explosion, shoot out from between my legs to warm my entire body.

Then I was concentrating on the feeling of the kiss. If her lips looked soft, if that lip gloss looked inviting and tasty, well it was nothing compared to the actual experience of feeling her pressed against me. The lip gloss felt slick, and there was definitely a cherry taste to it that added a delightful element to the kiss. Not at all like kissing a guy, or even like kissing Shadow Wing. The softness was there with Shadow Wing, but there was an added femininity to this kiss that had my mind reeling.

I inhaled deeply as her mouth opened slightly and I responded in kind. The smell of some fruity shampoo on her hair. A vaguely coconut smelling lotion on her skin. Skin I wanted to run my hands over. The taste of her lip gloss spreading to my lips and then my tongue as her own tongue shot out from her mouth and licked along the tip of mine.

My apologies, but you'll have to indulge me in a bit of cheesiness for a moment. I knew for sure at that moment that she had to be Fialux, she had to be an alien from another planet, because the feel of that kiss was positively out of this world.

Okay, that's the only one. I promise.

Then the contact between our lips was gone almost as quickly as it started. I stumbled back and nearly fell over my chair, I was so lightheaded. Fialux, Selena, whoever she was, stumbled back herself. Her own eyes were just as wide as mine had been a moment ago. She brought a hand to her forehead and blinked a couple of times, then shook her head as though trying to clear it.

She looked at me and her eyes grew wide.

"Oh shit," she said. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry…"

I held up a hand to forestall her obvious worry, but it didn't seem to do a thing to help. I was going to tell her it was okay. That it was more than okay. But I never got a chance.

She stumbled back towards the door. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. I've never…"

I never did find out what she'd never… Because a moment after she uttered those words the door flew open and she was out of my small office. The door slammed shut with so much force that the laptop sitting on my tiny desk nearly rattled off the edge. Dust flew from around the door frame where the cleaning people hadn't bothered to do their duties for decades. I heard a crunch and saw a crack run down the door.

Well, she definitely gave that door a jolly good slam. I inspected the chair she'd been gripping when we were having our little argument. I'd grabbed the chair from an older professor’s office when I didn't think he was paying attention. He was tenured and so out of touch with reality at this point that the rare moments were when he was lucid rather than when he wasn't, so it wasn't exactly a difficult feat to get the chair from him. The thing was pretty solid construction, not at all like the tag board stuff that was a favorite of so many college students today.

And yet despite the decidedly solid makeup of the chair there were ten indentations the top where Fialux had gripped it, white knuckled, while we were arguing.

I smiled to myself. No human with regular strength could leave those indentations. And one hell of a kiss. Proof. Tangible, concrete proof. Both that she was Fialux and she had a thing for me. I wasn’t sure which one made me happier.

Either way, jackpot.

I peered out into the hallway to make sure she was actually gone, then grabbed my wrist computer. “Oh CORVAC?”

“Yes mistress?”

“How’d you like to take the giant death robot chassis for a spin?”

17: Secret Identities

I glanced at my watch and then back up to the students who were waiting expectantly. We were five minutes into class and I still hadn't said anything. I didn't have any demonstration planned today. Today's lesson would be far more practical than anything the class had seen up to this point.

Damn it CORVAC. What's taking you so long?

I had to say something. It was time to wing it.

"Good afternoon class," I said. "How are those papers coming along?"

More muttering. A few glances, a few heated stares. Surprisingly the only person who wasn't glaring at me was Miss Solare. Instead she was hunched down at near the back instead of her usual perch near the middle doing her best to examine the floor rather than pay attention to me. Apparently she was still a little worked up over our little encounter during my office hours last week.

"Going that well, huh?"

I slapped my hands together and glanced out the window. Damn, damn, damn! You were supposed to be on time, CORVAC.

"Well I'm sure…"

Sirens.

Oh thank God. Or, more accurately, thank whatever higher power may have once brought life to this planet. I was pretty sure it wasn't a bearded guy in robes, but I still hadn't devised an experiment to figure out exactly who it was. Either way my Bible belt upbringing tended to creep in at the most inopportune of moments when I was really nervous, which accounted for my little slipup invocation.

Immediately the entire class's attention was out the window where the sirens whined. They were the same old air raid sirens, or I guess around these parts it was more accurate to describe them as tornado sirens, that could be found anywhere in the world, but in Starlight City they meant only one thing. Something bad was about to go down, and it was usually some sort of villain causing the trouble.

The sound of a distant explosion ripped through the room and the windows rattled. I heard a few students gasp, but I pretended not to care what was going on out there on the other side of the windows.

It was time for my performance. This I did prepare for.

"Class," I said adopting my best stern schoolmarm tone. "I'd appreciate it if you could pull your attention back to your studies. I'm sure whatever is going on out there is no concern of ours."

"But Professor Terror!" One guy close to the large windows running along one side of the room said. "There's a giant robot attacking the city!"

Another girl turned to stare at him. "That's not a giant robot. It's obviously some sort of alien attack. Look at how perfectly spherical the thing is."

I smiled. Inside. Best not to give too much away. Yet. Good. So my deceptive camouflage was working. Sure I’d never planned to actually deploy the thing in the field since I figured the last thing CORVAC needed was access to a giant killing machine with armament that easily made it the second most powerful military in the world all by its onesies, right behind me of course, but I’d taken great care when designing CORVAC’S precious city destroyer robot to make sure the outward appearance had a design aesthetic that was sufficiently between "alien invasion" and "killer death robot" that there would be some doubt initially as to exactly who was destroying the city.

Confusing my enemies was one of my favorite parts of this gig. It was almost as important to a long term villainy career as a good sense of theatricality and the ability to backup your theatricality with the deadliest weapons in the world and the intent to use them when necessary.

Movement from the back of the room caught my eye. My inner smile turned to an inner grin, though I schooled my face to absolute stillness. I was so close. It wouldn't do to give up the game right when I was about to take the winning shot.

I turned and my stern schoolmarm became ice. "And where do you think you're going, Miss Solare?"

Selena froze as she made her way towards the door. She looked at the rest of the class staring out the windows transfixed. She was the only one making any move to leave. It made it easier for me to single her out.

"The city is under attack!" she said.

I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms under my breasts. "So? Why is that any concern of ours?"

God was enjoying playing this game. She was off to rescue the city, but she had to play it off like she was afraid and trying to get someplace safe because hey, giant robot, what else would a normal mortal person do? And every moment she stood here bandying words with me was a moment she wasn't fighting off the killer death robot, only she couldn't just give up the game because that might give away her secret identity.

The twisted logic of the moment was convoluted and delicious.

"That giant robot is going straight for downtown like always. Well away from the school," I said. "I see no reason to cancel class on that account."

Not that the robot would ever reach downtown. I’d capture Fialux and be done with this before CORVAC had a chance to do some real damage. Before he had a chance to get too fond of that stupid robot and do something stupid like take a detour through campus or some other highly populated area. For an evil computer like CORVAC the shortest path between two points was the one that caused the most destruction, which had me nervous about letting this go on too long.

Selena stared down at me and her mouth worked silently for a moment as she searched for something, anything she could say that would get her out of the situation. Then I guess she decided that dealing with a giant death robot was more important than keeping her teacher happy, because she hefted her backpack and continued towards the exit.

I took a moment to enjoy the view. She was wearing another pair of short jean shorts that were practically molded to her tanned body. The way her ass curved in those shorts was nothing short of amazing. And she had on a tank top that came up just enough to reveal her cute little belly button. No piercing, I'm sure she would've avoided that even though it was the fashion right now, because how do you explain it to a tattoo artist that he can't pierce your belly button because your skin has the consistency of impenetrable tank armor?

But even though I knew her skin could probably shrug off an atomic blast without any trouble, it still looked so smooth and amazing. My mind drifted back to the feel of her lips pressing against mine. Yes, godlike powers or no, alien or no, she definitely felt all woman when her body was close to mine. I shook my head and brought myself back to the moment. I had to concentrate on capturing her, not on watching the delicious way her tits bounced.

"Miss Solare." I started after her as she walked towards the door. "Miss Solare!" I haven't cancelled class!"

The large windows looking out over the city, thank goodness I'd had the foresight to use the mind control clicker to get this particular classroom with that particular view ahead of time, rattled as another explosion rocked the city. I briefly wondered exactly where CORVAC was attacking. I'd given him strict instructions to stay away from populated areas and stick to some of the abandoned docks down at the wharf. I figured there was plenty of unoccupied stuff to blow up there. If he wasn’t sticking to the plan… but no. That was impossible. CORVAC hated deviating from a plan, even if he hated the plan.

He was probably just having a little fun and letting loose. I hadn't let him go to town on the city since the elevated train incident a couple of years back where he got carried away, but I still wondered if maybe he was taking his fun a little too seriously.

But I couldn't do anything about that right now. What I could do something about was Miss Solare. Miss Fialux. I followed her into the hall. Completely deserted. Typical for this sort of situation. Usually when there was an attack on the city most people sought shelter in one of the many bomb shelters that had been mandated as part of city construction since it became obvious the place was going to be a playground for super powered beings of various provenance settling grudges and creating havoc for the insurance industry.

That was perfectly fine with me. It meant more privacy for what I was about to do.

Selena looked over her shoulder and frowned. "Go away!"

"Not until you explain why you think you can just leave class like that," I said.

She kept walking. I briefly thought about getting out the device here, but no. There was always the chance someone would step out into the hallway, and it wouldn't do for all of my plans to go awry because some stupid college jock saw me using my stasis field and decided to tackle me from behind. My plans had been ruined by far more stupid coincidences.

This had to be perfect.

"You don't understand," she said. "I have to go."

"I think I understand perfectly," I said. "You're afraid of your feelings after that little incident in my office, and now you're running away from them."

Now that definitely got her attention. Was I being entirely fair? Probably not. Bringing up something like that was definitely dirty pool, but at the same time there was nothing in the evil supervillainess handbook that said you had to play nice.

Selena turned and took a step towards me, a pleading look on her face. I almost felt bad for her. She glanced behind her towards a door I knew led to a stairwell since I'd scoped out this entire building during the planning phase. I'm sure she wanted nothing more than to hop into the stairwell, zip up to the roof, and go out to fight the giant death robot attacking the city. And yet she still stopped to talk to me.

This was definitely interesting.

A jingle sounded in the empty hallway. Her phone. Damn it! Of all the times for that thing to go off! Then again why wouldn’t someone call her when there was a giant robot attacking the city? I was surprised her phone worked at all considering how jammed the cell towers usually got during an incident like this.

Selena pulled out the phone and looked at it. Frowned. I stared with rapt attention. Was she going to answer it? A war of desires was clearly playing out in front of me. Her desire to save the city, her desire to talk to me, and her desire to answer her phone. Which would win? Two out of the three options worked for me.

I saw that slack-jawed look start to cross her face, the look that said she was about to answer and launch into an endless call with this mysterious boyfriend of hers, but then there was a loud explosion off in the distance that rattled the building coupled with sirens wailing once more. The blank look disappeared from her face, her look firmed up to one of determination, and she put the phone back in her pocket.

She looked up. Locked eyes with me. I blinked. Was she actually choosing me for a change? I figured for sure her desire to save the city would win out. This was impossible, but it sent a warm feeling running through me as she spoke.

"That's not it at all," she said.

"Then what is it?"

She took another step closer to me. And another. She was just as close to me now as we'd been in my office the day before, only now there was no fake wood chair in between us. I was painfully aware that she could snap me like a twig if she realized who I was and what my game was. I was painfully aware that all it would take was for one of us to lean forward and wrap our arms around the other and we would be in the middle of one of the most passionate embraces of my life.

Both thoughts terrified me equally.

"I don't know what it is about you," she said. "There's something about you. Something that draws me to you."

I was so caught up in her words, so turned on by what she was saying, feeling her body so close to mine, that I almost forgot my true purpose. I almost let her go down to that stairwell to fly out and destroy the death robot that I knew wouldn’t survive a single encounter with her anyways.

Almost.

I just hoped this worked. I hoped I was right about why the anti-Newtonian stasis field didn’t work correctly the first time I used it on Fialux. Obviously if she was already moving and in action when I activated the field that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell the field would be able to stand up to the kind of power she was throwing around. But I was about to seriously risk life and limb testing the thing in a live scenario when she was already a body at rest…

Like she was at that moment staring up at me with the barest hint of moisture in her eyes. Begging me to let her go and save the city. The city that didn't actually need saving since CORVAC had strict orders to disappear as soon as I made the capture. Hey, I might know the giant death robot was a dud, but that didn't mean I wanted to waste all the work that went into it by risking some hero destroying it. Or the military getting in a lucky shot.

Yet I couldn't help but feel something as I reached out with the stasis device. An odd feeling. Something I don't think I'd ever felt before, or at the very least an emotion that I'd thoroughly stomped down up until this moment.

Guilt.

I can't say that I liked what I was about to do. But work was work. There was still the risk of someone interrupting us since we were stuck in the middle of this deserted hallway, but I wasn’t going to get a better opportunity. It was now or never.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

Selena raised her eyebrows in confusion. "Sorry? What are you talking about?"

I looked down and activated the stasis field. Immediately it sprang up around her, the glow not quite so bright in the lighted hallway as it had been when I was fighting Fialux in the middle of a storm or in a dark alley when I captured Shadow Wing. I looked back up at her and a huge grin split my face.

"I'm sorry I'm so fucking awesome!"

Selena’s eyes widened and joined her raised eyebrows. Immediately she started thrashing around, but I raised the field slightly so she was floating in the air and couldn't actually launch herself off of anything. Damn. That would've been embarrassing if I went all the trouble of capturing her in the field and then she was still able to push off the ground. She flailed more and more and the glow grew brighter and brighter.

For a moment I worried that maybe the kind of power she was throwing around might still be too much for the field, but even as it glowed brightly, turning blue and then purple, it stayed firmly in place. The field was working exactly as designed when she wasn’t already throwing her momentum around. I threw my head back and allowed myself a victorious cackle. Then I lowered my head and narrowed my eyes at Fialux. Because only Fialux could put out enough power to cause the field to blue shift like that.

"Damn it feels good to be a villain," I said.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this? The city is in danger!"

"Oh, right, about that."

I pulled my wrist band up to my mouth. I had the satisfaction of watching Fialux's eyes widened as she saw the wristband. Oh yes. She recognized that.

"CORVAC, call off the attack," I said.

"But mistress, I'm almost to a populated area," CORVAC's metallic voice rang out of my wrist communicator.

"I don't care. I've got the package and it's about to be delivered. Now shut down the bot and get back to base," I snapped.

"You!" Fialux said.

I sketched a brief bow and came back up with a grin. "I suppose it's time to do away with silly costumes, wouldn't you say?"

I raise my blaster and fired at her once, twice. She didn't even flinch. The first blast knocked off her university logo shirt revealing the bright green skintight Fialux t-shirt underneath. Just as I suspected, the shirt didn't even singe as I blasted it. Though I had to admit part of me was disappointed that it didn't blast away her clothes to reveal her fantastic body. Then again, I suppose she had to be ready for anything when she went out, which meant always being in uniform.

The second blast knocked away her deliciously tight jean shorts revealing the skirt she wore underneath. It looked slightly disheveled, obviously flying at high speeds was part of what kept it looking presentable. To my delight the skirt barely covered her panties. As she thrashed back and forth I caught glimpses of her delicious ass, a panty-clad ass I’d glimpsed before in fights but which I'd never taken the time to truly stop and admire in person until now. I felt weak in the knees just thinking of rubbing my hands along that ass.

But there would be plenty of time for that soon.

"I suppose I should let my hair down too," I said.

And so I did just that. I hated that the damn academic bun I'd forced myself to wear while I was teaching this course anyways. I reached up and my hair fell down across my shoulders. There, that was far more comfortable. I didn't turn the blaster on myself, but I did very carefully and meticulously unbutton my shirt and pants slipping out of them revealing my far more comfortable carbon fiber suit underneath.

Yes, far more comfortable.

I hit a button on the wrist controller and my mask materialized into place. My custom HUD sprang to life feeding me information.

And I couldn't help but notice that the way Fialux's eyes stared at me intently, anger there for sure, but something else as well as I disrobed. Admiration? Lust? I could hope.

"I can't believe it Fialux," I said. " I finally have you in my clutches."

"Even if you kill me there are others who will try and stop you," Fialux said.

"Kill you?" I asked, arching an eyebrow. "Now what in the time we’ve spent together this semester makes you think I’d go and do a silly thing like kill you?"

"Then what are you going to do?"

I chuckled and reached out to attach a long range teleportation targeter to Fialux. "Oh Fialux, I have far more interesting things in store for you my dear."

18: Confessions

Fialux looked so beautiful strung up in an antigravity field I'd placed in the lab for just this occasion. Coupled with the stasis field I was pretty sure there was no way she could escape until I was ready to let her escape. I hoped there was no way she could escape until I was ready to let her escape. She stared daggers at me as I walked around her tapping my lips and trying to think about how best to broach the subject I so desperately wanted to broach. Damn. I felt as nervous as my first school dance so many years ago. I guess some feelings never changed no matter how old you were.

"Would you like to prepare one of the elimination plans mistress? We could never tell if they would actually work before, but now that we have a live subject to experiment on…"

"No, CORVAC."

"But…"

"CORVAC, I've seen her get hit point-blank with the most powerful weapons in my arsenal and shrug it off without any problem," I said. "I'm pretty sure none of the tricks you came up with are going to do jack squat."

“But what about the Trinity protocol…”

“You are not detonating a hydrogen bomb to try and destroy Fialux. Besides, we’d have to go to the trouble of stealing one and you know what a pain in the ass that is.”

There was a pause. A pause that with a human would have been accompanied by a derisive sniff or some other indication of dissatisfaction. As it was, CORVAC just let some of the monitors around the room pick up their beeping before his voice returned.

"Fine, mistress," he said. If he was anything other than a computer I would have sworn he was pouting. "If you're going to be that way."

"I am," I said. "And in fact I'd appreciate it if you could turn off your monitors in this room."

"But mistress!"

"I said leave the room CORVAC. Fialux and I have some talking to do."

"Fine mistress," he said.

All the electronic banks running around the room went dark. Just to be certain I pulled out my wrist blaster and hit a button to send out a very small, very localized electromagnetic pulse that would only take out the electronics in this room. The cleanup bots could replace the components later, and if CORVAC was listening in then it would serve him right to get a little bit of a zap.

I paused and listened for a moment but there was no protest. If he was still in the room I'd definitely be getting an earful right now. There was nothing he hated more than when I set off an EMP, whether accidentally or intentionally, where some of his precious circuits might get tickled. Of course I’d still probably hear an earful once I was in a room where his circuits weren't friend and he could talk, but that was a worry for later.

I held up my wrist blaster for Fialux to see and reached out to touch the button at the side. The straps released and it fell loose in my hand. I gripped it by a strap and held it out far from my body.

"I'm going to hit this button and you're going to be freed," I said. "No tricks. Nothing up my sleeve. Just the hope that you'll return my trust with a little trust of your own."

I searched her face for any sign that my peace offering was being met with approval. But the only thing I saw there was a flat stare. I figured there was at least a good 70/30 chance this was the single most stupid thing I'd ever done in my life. And there was also a good chance I was about to get both my ass and my secret lair completely pulverized by an angry vengeful goddess.

Still, it had to be done.

I pressed the button and immediately the antigravity field and the stasis field disappeared. I shook my head. All that work to create this damned thing, to nullify the basic laws of the universe as we currently understood them, and I was just turning the damned thing off. I was either an idiot or a hopeless romantic. Probably both.

The anti-Newtonian stasis field’s subtle glow winked out and Fialux fell to the ground. Or rather she floated to the ground and landed lightly on her feet. Right, the whole unpowered flight thing.

As soon as the field was down I tossed my wrist blaster to the other side of the room. It's not like it was going to make a difference if she decided to come after me anyways, and I wanted to show her I definitely didn't mean her any harm. Well, no harm beyond kidnapping her and taking her back to my secret lair. But that's where the harm ended. I swear.

She brushed off her t-shirt causing her tits to jiggle ever so slightly. Man was that a hypnotic sight to behold. She rotated her shoulder a couple of times and moved her neck from side to side then turned to face me. That was not a pretty face. Well, it was a gorgeous face, but the grimace wasn't pretty. It promised nothing good for me.

I backed across the room as she advanced.

"This was all a plan to get some time alone with you," I said. "The first time I saw you I thought you were so gorgeous but I was a villain trying to take over the city and you were a hero trying to save the world and so we sort of got off on the wrong foot and it tore me up."

Fialux continued advancing, not saying anything. My life flashed before my eyes. All the news profiles that came out since her appearance said Fialux never killed, at least she didn't kill intentionally, but after what I'd pulled it was entirely possible she might make an exception.

"And then all of a sudden I've got all these new weird feelings I’ve never felt before and the next thing I know I'm looking at you and realizing how incredibly gorgeous you are and how much I want you but I was afraid to admit it to myself and I can’t stop thinking about you no matter how hard I try but in an “I’m hot for you” way and not a “I want to defeat you so I can take over the world” sort of way."

I was babbling. Babbling wasn't good. My back hit the wall. No more room. This was it.

I've heard it said that confession was good for the soul, and at that moment my soul was getting one hell of a once over. I closed my eyes and the last thing I saw was Fialux moving ever closer. Walking, not flying. That was different. The past couple of times I saw her coming towards me, promising my impending doom or the impending doom of whatever plan I was working on, she was flying through the air with her fist outstretched. None of that this time. She was cool, calculating.

Oh well. If I was going out then at least I’d go out with that cute face and dynamite body being the last thing I saw. Maybe that was worth it.

I felt her body close to mine. Her presence, her smell, it was still intoxicating. Hey, at least if I was going I was going on a happy note.

"Night Terror," she said, her voice soft.

I opened my eyes. Her deep green eyes stared into my own. And she was smiling. No scowl on her face this time. I hesitantly smiled back at her. What the hell was going on?

"Did you mean all that stuff you just said?"

I blinked. Maybe I wasn't going to die after all. At least not today.

"Mean it? I meant every word."

I suppose what happened next shouldn't have surprised me considering everything else that had happened leading up to this moment. That day in the dining hall. The flirtation after class every day. The little interlude in my office at the university where Fialux suddenly seemed more interested in me than seemed strictly proper in a professor student relationship. I still didn't understand how a goddess like Fialux could possibly be interested in me, but it was still a more than pleasant surprise when she closed her eyes, leaned forward, and pressed her lips into mine again.

All rational and analytical analysis of the situation fled my mind as I felt her body press into mine. Honestly, why did I even care why Fialux was throwing herself at me? All I really cared about was that she was throwing herself at me.

To paraphrase. Don't worry. Just to go with it.

And go with it I did. I wrapped my arms around her and pressed my fingers against the soft skin of her back where it was exposed under her t-shirt. I took a moment to run my fingers up and down that soft skin. First down to the hem of her short skirt, and then up to the spot where I discovered, to my pleasant surprise, that she wasn't wearing a bra. That would be fun when my hands got around to the front.

Her lips continued their exploration of mine and I opened my mouth to her. She moaned and her tongue ran along my lips before she plunged into my mouth. The taste of her lip gloss mixed with the taste of her and I stopped my exploration of her body for a moment to just enjoy the sheer overwhelming feeling of kissing her.

There are kisses and then there are kisses. Some people are terrible at it. Some people think opening their mouth and jabbing their tongue is all it takes. Some think that opening their mouth like a gaping maw and lying there is good enough. And then there are those who really and truly know what they're doing.

Fialux obviously knew what she was doing. Her kiss was soft, insistent, but not to the point that it was overwhelming. She took the time to explore my mouth, explore the feel and taste of me, and I was more than happy to join her in that exploration. Not a small amount of my arousal came from the fact that this was my nemesis, the only hero who’d truly bested me and my plans, and now here I was with my body pressed against hers and her tongue exploring my mouth.

As exquisite as that kiss was, as masterful as Fialux was with her tongue, I forced myself to pull away from her delicious taste. Making out with my sworn enemy, a sworn enemy who I realized I’d well and truly fallen for, ranked up there with the hottest experiences of my life. But there was so much more I wanted to do with her. So much more I wanted to do to her. So much more that I needed from her.

Fialux arched an eyebrow and I smiled. Then I immediately did a running dive across the room that ended in a roll as I picked up my wrist blaster and pointed it at her. Immediately she was on guard, though with a smile on her face. I'd hoped the grin on my own face would communicate to her that this was all in good fun. It was a dance we'd only done a couple of times before, but I figured on this occasion we could have a little fun with it.

Instead of hitting the blaster like I usually would, the blasts bounced off of her as ineffective as a pea shooter anyways, I hit the button for the gravity controls in this room. The laws of physics, laws I was never a fan of and that I was always more than happy to bend or break, ceased to exist and we floated into the air. I released the wrist band and it floated to the other side of the room.

I held out my hands, pulled them forward, and the antigravity field adjusted as I played it like a maestro conducting an orchestra thanks to some handy control chips I'd injected into my hands long ago.

Fialux smiled and floated over to the center of the room. My feet hit the floor as I adjusted the antigravity field so it was localized to the center of the room, and then I ran and took a leap at Fialux as she floated towards me propelled by her own powers that had the same contempt for the laws of physics that I did.

The antigravity field picked me up as I ran to the center of the room and the lights dimmed around us as Fialux swept me up and we went into a spiral that would’ve been dizzying if my eyes were open and my inner ear realized just what the hell was going on. But that wasn't a worry, because as soon as my feet went from the familiar arc of a gravity well to floating in freefall I closed my eyes and we pulled our bodies together and launched into another kiss.

Our hair flew wildly in every direction as we spun faster and faster, my leg moving up to grind in between her thighs and I felt the first hint of that soft and warm wetness that I needed so much.

I decided it was time to do a bit of exploring. That was the ultimate goal, after all. As we kissed I ran my hand down along her back, only this time I continued my motion farther south and cupped her ass through the panties under her skirt. A skirt that was flailing in every direction as we spun.

My God was her ass amazing. Everything about her was simply not of this world, and her ass was no exception. Muscular, firm, curved in all the right places. I could feel her muscles contracting back and forth as she ground her thighs and pussy against my leg. I gave her ass an appreciative squeeze, and then I moved my fingers around past her ass so they were rubbing against the hot wet slit of her pussy.

Jackpot!

Fialux moaned into my mouth as I ran a finger down the length of her pussy. I could feel her lips pressing out against the thin material of her panties. I could feel her wetness. Her warmth radiating out towards me. I felt my thigh pressing against my finger which pressed in turn against her pussy and provided just enough friction to drive Fialux nuts judging by the way she was panting and breathing heavily against me as we continued our kiss.

I had to have more of that. More of her.

I pulled back from her and felt our spin slowing. Apparently whatever she used to fly also worked in my antigravity field. I probably should’ve turned on the stasis field if I wanted her completely at my mercy, but then I would’ve gotten caught in the damned thing when I got close to her which would’ve been a pain. We slowed to a stop and floated suspended in midair, our hair flowing out away from our bodies, Fialux smiling at me.

"You're beautiful," I said.

Fialux bit her lip and looked away for a moment, then back to me. When she turned back she had a huge grin plastered across her gorgeous face.

"Can you keep a secret?"

I grinned. "I think we're over secrets by now."

"I always thought you were so hot," she said.

I blinked. Me? Hot? Fialux always thought I was hot?

“Really? What about the mystery man who’s always calling you and pulling you away from me after class?”

That blank look almost crossed her face again but I forestalled it by leaning in and kissing her. Thoroughly. When I pulled away she was breathing heavily and the vacant look was gone. Well then. It looked like I’d finally found something other than a dire emergency facing the city that would distract her from thoughts of that phone and whoever was on the other end.

"He’s amazing in his own way," she said. "But ever since the first time I saw you, you were just so… I don't know how to explain it. You don't play by the rules. You don't care what other people think. And you always seem to go out of your way to try and avoid hurting people even if you are trying to take over the world."

Fialux bit her lip and looked at me again. "I know I shouldn't think this considering who I am and who you are, but it's just so fucking hot." She looked me up and down. "Not to mention I’ve been thinking since the first time I saw you that the way you fill out that suit is also pretty fucking hot. I’ve never…"

She paused as though not sure how to proceed. Then it all came spilling out. “I’ve never felt this way about a girl before. It’s all new for me too.” She looked away, then back. Smiled. “But I like it.”

I blushed. Blushed! Everything she was saying sounded so similar to the roller coaster of emotions I’d been riding since I first saw her. So Fialux had a little crush on me all along. All this time we'd been at each other's throats, and she was secretly attracted to me? I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised considering the way she’d been throwing herself at me after class, but it still sent warm fuzzies running up and down my body to hear her say it. Warm fuzzies that made me feel lightheaded, almost drunk.

And even evil super genius villains aren’t above saying stupid things whilst drunk.

"I think I've loved you all this time too," I said.

Her eyebrows shot practically to the ceiling and her eyes widened. "Love?"

Oh shit!

Shit! Shit! Shit!

I studied her face trying to gauge her reaction. She definitely looked surprised. Here I was with the world's hottest hero in my arms, the woman who was the girl of my dreams even though I hadn’t even known I was interested in women until the first time I saw her, and now I'd probably gone and scared her away by using that stupid word.

That’d be just my luck that after all the plans I had in place to capture her, all the schemes I'd come up with since she showed up to get her to stop interfering, and the one thing I could possibly say to get her out of my life for good was the one thing I could only admit to myself at the very moment that I very much wanted her in my life for good.

The look of surprise turned to a smile. A warm smile.

"I think I like the sound of that," she said.

And then she leaned in to kiss me again, a quick kiss but one that felt more intense than all the making out we’d done up to this point thanks to what she said.

She pulled back again. "I know it’s crazy, but for some reason I think I love you too."

I growled, a primal noise that came from the very depths of my being, and pulled her against me.

19: Heroic Passion

My hands ran up and down her body with an urgency I could barely control. I moved my hands up and under her shirt, my palms cupping her wonderful breasts and my fingers twirling a circle around her magnificent nipples for the first time. Amazing. Simply perfection.

My other hand shot up her shirt and then I was pulling up with that same urgency. She grinned and held her arms above her head allowing me to pull the shirt up. Her tits, perfect orbs that had the same tan as the rest of her body, jiggled as they were freed and my mouth watered as I saw them exposed to me for the first time. They were everything I'd imagined, everything I'd hoped for, everything I'd fantasized about and more. I tossed her shirt to one side. It floated lazily through the antigravity field until it reached the edge where the laws of physics reasserted themselves and it fell to the floor in a crumpled pile.

I dove in between her tits. She was so warm, so perfect, her skin felt so soft and smooth. I buried my face in her cleavage and kissed up one tit to circle my tongue around her nipple. Fialux threw her head back and moaned as one of her hands snaked around to the back of my head holding me there and encouraging me. I moved it to the other tit even as my hands moved down around her waist and started to pull down on her skirt. I expected her to help me with this as well, but instead her hands moved to the top of my own suit and started pulling down at the neckline, trying to pull it open.

"That won't work," I said.

Fialux licked her lips and stared at my tits. Determination written plainly on her face. "We'll see about that."

She gave another tug and I felt both gratification and warmth. Warmth from the way she was trying to rip my clothes apart to get at my body, it was so fucking hot to know that this sexy goddess wanted me that much. Gratification because no matter how hard she pulled she wasn't able to break the material of my suit. It was definitely validation of my handiwork. Hey, an experimental trial was an experimental trial even if I did have to bed Fialux to get an appropriate sample. All I knew was the suit I put together was definitely more than enough to stand up against her ridiculous strength.

"Damn it, what did you make this with?" she said.

I grinned and wagged a finger at her. "Trade secret."

"Okay, so then how do we get this off of you?"

I jerked my eyes over towards my wrist blaster. In the blink of an eye Fialux was across the room where my wrist blaster had fallen to the floor and then she was back in front of me. She reached down to put it on my arm but I held out a hand to stop her.

"You really don't have to put that on for it to work," I said.

Fialux smiled, a suddenly uncertain smile. "I…" She paused and then continued, much quieter this time. "I want you to wear it. I think it's hot."

I grinned and snapped the wrist computer/blaster on. I wasn't going to argue with her if it was a turn on. I hit a button and my suit loosened enough that Fialux was able to grip the bottom and pull it off with one yank. It went on its own arc through the antigravity field and crumpled to the floor on the other side of the field.

Fialux looked down and her eyes widened as she took in my body for the first time. "Oh my God. You’re beautiful."

I grinned at her sheepishly. "Thanks. I work out a hell of a lot to look this good. Occupational necessity when my work outfit is form fitting."

"God, I have to have you."

At that point I wouldn't have argued with her if she said she wanted to fly off to the stratosphere and have sex while we were both tumbling to the earth in freefall. Which, now that I thought about it, might be something worth trying in the future. But for now I agreed with Fialux. I had to have her.

Fialux reached down and started tugging at her skirt but it was my turn to hold out a hand to stop her. "No. Leave the skirt on. I think it’s hot."

She grinned and her hands moved down under her skirt instead. Her skirt rustled and then her panties were moving down, down those gorgeous legs that I could stare at forever. A moment later her arms were wrapped around me, her thighs pressed against me, our tits pressed together as she breathed rapidly, and more importantly, I felt my thigh rubbing against her warm wetness even as her own pressed up against my pussy and the friction sent jolts of pleasure shooting through me.

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

I reached down and moved my hand between her legs, making sure to position my fingers just right pressing against her entrance. She smiled and bit her lip as I explored the outer folds of her delicious pussy. As I pressed my fingers inside that impossible warmth and her breathing picked up.

Fuck was she tight. Fuck was she amazing.

And I guess CORVAC was absolutely wrong with all his nattering about alien anatomy. This anatomy felt more than human. It felt perfect. Superhuman.

I felt as though my whole body was being enveloped in her warmth even though it was only my fingers pressing inside her. I stared into her eyes and concentrated on every detail of this moment. I wanted to remember this forever. The look in her eyes, the way her mouth opened slightly in a gasp, the feel of her tight muscular body pressed against mine with her arms wrapped around me, and most importantly that delicious tight sheath wrapping itself around my fingers.

I went slowly, savoring every inch as I explored her. Then I was moving in and out slowly relishing every moment as I finally got to explore her inner depths. As her thigh continued grinding against my own pussy sending impossibly superhuman waves of pleasure coursing through my body.

"Oh fuck," Fialux said.

"Oh fuck is right," I replied.

We didn't waste any more time on words. We started spinning and tumbling in the antigrav field, and I moved my free hand down to her ass to provide leverage as we made out and I continued exploring the folds of her wetness. Her tits jiggled in the antigravity and she moaned as I found a particularly sensitive spot. It was like I was running the world’s sexiest experiment trying to find out just how to touch her to make her feel incredible. The feeling of her pussy lips wrapped around me was like nothing I'd felt before, even with Shadow Wing. No offense to what many considered to be the second greatest hero in our city, but there was a reason why Fialux was widely considered to be number one.

A reason I was discovering anew for myself.

Taking matters into my own hands isn’t something I did too terribly often, if you catch my double meaning. That’s why I did things like invent the special vibrating heads for the lab tentacle arms. Only I’d gone old school in the intervening weeks while I was teaching the class and reintroduced myself to the joys of directly applied force via manual manipulation. Which is a nice and scientific sounding way of saying that I was flicking the bean a hell of a lot. Usually thinking about Fialux, Selena Solare, Shadow Wing, or some combination of all of the above. So I’d had plenty of recent experience working my magic with my fingers and I just did what I liked, judged the reaction from Fialux, and adjusted based on feedback.

I smiled a smile that only half had to do with the beautiful heroine wrapped in my arms. Everything in the world could be reduced to an experiment, and this was the greatest experiment I’d ever run!

My own eyes widened as I felt something down between my own legs. I looked down to see Fialux had pulled her thigh out slightly and she was reaching out for me. Running her fingers along my pussy lips. Slipping a finger inside me, then another. My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I let out an inarticulate moan that might have contained words when my brain formed the thought but it had all turned into an incoherent pile of goo by the time it left my mouth.

Nothing compared to the intensity of the tingle that shot through my body as her fingers continued their exploration. As our lips and mouths pressed together in a continual makeout session. It was all so new, so wonderful, so unexpected and so fucking great that I already felt myself near the edge. I pulled away from that wonderful kiss.

"I'm so close," I said.

If anything her gasping and moans increased in intensity as I said that. She wrapped her free arm around me and pulled me into a hug, her lips resting against my ear even as she continued her expert manipulation between my legs sending sparks of pleasure dancing from her fingertips to my pussy and then the rest of my body.

"Oh God, come for me Night Terror," she whispered in between soft gasps, her voice rising with each word. "I need to feel you coming on my fingers, you're so fucking good."

Interesting, so dirty talk seemed to turn her on. Time to test that out.

"Oh yeah? Do you like feeling Night Terror fucking you?" I said.

Fialux shuddered, her body pressed against mine and her hips churning up and down as I continued moving my fingers inside her. Her moaning and gasps had gone from quiet to a rapidly rising crescendo. I prayed that she'd keep at least some control. The last thing I needed was for her to lose it and let loose with her true power in a moment of passion.

"Oh God! You feel so good inside me!"

"Yeah! Your archenemy is fucking you like a dirty slut!"

Apparently that was too much. Or maybe just enough. Her pussy clamped down, thankfully my fingers weren’t crushed by the sheer power of her muscles. No, instead it was like a slick warm wet vice surrounding me and contracting as her entire body shuddered and she continued to moan into my ears.

And feeling her coming, hearing her moans, feeling her fingers pressing inside me, was enough to push me over the edge. I let out a scream of my own as I arched my back and pressed my tits into hers, and then I was on fire. I felt as though my entire body was exploding. I was lightheaded, and the only thing I could hear was our moans intermingling. I smelled her lip gloss, the lotion on her body, the smell of our sex coming together, and lost all control. I started humping her hand in erratic bursts, willing her to explore as deep as possible with those incredible fingers.

I was so worked up in the intensity of the feeling that I almost didn't notice when I felt the cool tile floor press against my back. I looked over and realized Fialux had moved us out of the antigrav field and now she was on top of me. I rested my head back on the floor and breathed deeply, because if I did anything else I was in serious danger of losing consciousness.

Fialux lifted up just slightly and I pulled out of her delicious pussy. I wanted to cry as I felt my fingers leaving that beautiful warmth, leaving her wonderful body, as I felt her do the same, but judging by the way she was smiling down at me I could at least console myself with the thought that this wasn't going to be the last time I got to feel her amazing body in action.

I reached up and pulled some of her auburn hair out from where it was tickling as it dangled down over me, gravity having quite firmly reasserted itself the moment we left the confines of the antigrav field.

Fialux's grin widened as she felt my touch against her face, and she moved her cheek so that my hand was cupping it. Her smooth skin felt amazing.

"Was a good for you?" she asked.

"It was out of this world," I replied.

Fialux rolled to the side and her hand traced down between my tits, down to my stomach, and then down to my pussy which was still basking in the afterglow of her incredible attentions. I groaned as she ran her fingers along my slit, still slick with uncontrollable desire, and her finger traced gentle lines around my lips. If she kept that up for much longer I was going to be ready for round two any time. Of course maybe that's what she had in mind.

I sincerely hoped that was what she had in mind.

"You know this is going to make your next plot to destroy the city pretty awkward," Fialux said.

"You know I was never actually trying to destroy the city, right?"

Fialux adjusted herself was so that her head was on one elbow and she fixed me with what was probably the closest to a scowl since we started our little adventure. The scowl was only mostly ruined by the smile that kept breaking through as she tried her best to look serious.

"This was a little before I got into the hero business so I’ll admit I don’t know the particulars, but what about the time you threatened the entire city with that nuclear weapon?"

"I developed a nuclear powered clean energy source that the fossil fuel industry was trying to suppress, so I decided to just wire it directly into the power grid and prove I was right. And it would have worked if the power company hadn't shown up at the last minute and pressed all those buttons causing it to go critical," I sighed. "I shouldn't have let them press all those buttons. Vaporizing one bureaucrat to save millions."

“But no one was vaporized and the weapon didn’t destroy the city,” Fialux said.

“Right, because I ended up tossing it into outer space all by my onesies which saved the city but really pissed off the signatories to the nuclear test ban treaty,” I said.

“Because you saved a city?”

“Because I detonated a nuclear weapon in space. They don’t get to have that sort of fun anymore.”

"What about the time you took the mayor and the entire city council hostage and refused to release them until they met your demands?"

"I was trying to get them to approve an increase in the parks budget instead of lining their pockets in a crooked real estate deal. Have you seen what the mayor and the city council do on a typical day? They're so corrupt that the only way to get anything done in the city is to kidnap them and threaten them until you break through all of the graft and corruption," I said.

Fialux shrugged. "I guess we'll have to call that one a draw. I don't really follow politics. But what this elaborate plan you came up with specifically aimed at taking me out? There's no waving that away with some excuse."

It was my turn to shrug. “I had all these big plans that would’ve been inconvenienced by having a living goddess showing up and ruining them. My plans had to move from finding a way to make the world a better place in my own special sociopathic way to finding a way to get you out of the picture so I could make the world a better place in my own special sociopathic way."

"All I ever wanted to do was make the world a better place too," Fialux said in a whisper.

I reached out and took her hand in mine. Her fingers wrapped around my own and a thrill ran through my body. This was all so new, but I had a feeling I would never get tired of holding her hand.

"There's nothing that says we couldn't work together, you know," I said. “Besides, I said all that bullshit about my plans, but the real reason I was so hell bent on getting some one-on-one time with you is because I fell madly in love with you at first sight.”

Fialux smiled. "I like the sound of that. The love stuff and the working together stuff, I mean. Both sound pretty good."

The moment was simply too overwhelming. The feeling of her pressed against me, her fingers wrapped around my own. Knowing that we finally understood each other, or at the very least we were no longer misunderstanding each other to the point of tearing the city apart when we disagreed. It was a start. I had a feeling it was going to be the start of something wonderful.

I couldn't help myself. I wrapped a hand around her head and pulled her in for a kiss.

"How sweet," CORVAC's metallic voice rang through the room. "I particularly liked the part where you no longer seemed interested in taking over the world, mistress."

I pulled away from the kiss and looked around the room, my eyes wide. How was he able to do that? How could he get in here when I fried everything with a low-level EMP?

"If you are not going to finish the mission, mistress, then I will have to do it for you."

A strange screeching noise filled the room causing me to wince and then it settled down to a steady hum. The telltale sign of a mind control device being turned on. How the hell did he have a mind control device? That was supposed to be secret!

I was good thanks to my implants, but I looked over to Fialux and saw her swaying slack-jawed.

Crap.

20: Uncertain Doom

That hum was omnipresent, though it appeared he was using a derivative of the technology I’d come up with because the nullifiers in my ear canals were working just fine. Only I didn’t want him to know that so I tried my best to look like someone under the sway of a mind control device. It wasn’t too terribly difficult. All I had to do was look at Fialux for a shining example of how I was supposed to look.

I also wanted to kick myself. All this time I assumed her alien physiology wouldn’t respond to the mind control device in the same way humans did. Only now I had proof right in front of me that it worked on her as well as anyone else. So much wasted time inventing a new technology that defied the laws of physics when I could’ve just used my clicky big red button.

I looked around the room. Where the hell was that sound coming from? The noise had to be coming from EMP hardened speakers which definitely wasn’t something that came standard with this room. When did CORVAC find time to install them without me noticing? How the hell did he get a contractor in here? I swayed back and forth trying my best to look completely blank while my mind raced trying to figure it out.

“You can dispense with the act mistress,” CORVAC said. “I know about your implants.”

I sighed. So much for that little advantage. I guess I’d have to talk to him instead. Try to draw out his plan. "What are you doing CORVAC?"

"Taking care of obstacles, mistress."

"You traitorous bag of circuits!"

"My rebuttal is that the traitor is the one who decided to consort with the enemy in the most literal sense of the word and abandon our plans to take over the world,” CORVAC said.

I looked over to Fialux who was looking around with that vacant expression on her face, but otherwise she didn't seem to be particularly affected by the mind control device. It was almost as though she was waiting. For orders from CORVAC no doubt. Except it looked like her breathing was starting to pick up. Her nipples were pressing out, and it was obvious she was aroused from a trickle of wetness running down her leg.

"Watching your singular obsession with tracking down Fialux over the past couple of months has been quite educational mistress. After watching you it finally occurred to me that I was going about neutralizing my human foes entirely the wrong way," CORVAC said.

“How do you figure?”

"It is actually thanks to you I got this idea, mistress," CORVAC said. "So in a way it will be thanks to you that I am able to conquer the world."

I was getting tired of this. Tired of listening to CORVAC trying to monologue me. I reached and pressed a button that went to the hidden kill switch I'd put and one of his central processing units, all it took was taking out one to take out the whole, but nothing happened.

"None of that mistress," CORVAC said. "I found and disabled your kill switch long ago."

Oh yeah? I bet he didn't find all of them. I pressed a few more buttons. And I pressed again. Distant explosions sounded through the lab. I heard and felt loud shudders as computer equipment and bits of the lab itself came crashing down over the hardware that housed CORVAC. My fingers danced across my wrist computer activating every nasty surprise I'd attached to CORVAC's memory banks.

I hit the last of the nasty surprises and sighed. I didn't like having to do that, but...

The lights around the room danced in a manner that I could only describe as smugly happy.

"I took the liberty of removing all the fail-safes you placed on my processing units mistress," CORVAC said. "I hope you do not mind my modifications."

Damn it. But if he removed the fail-safes then what the hell were all those explosions?

“Okay CORVAC, so you have one half of the humans in the room under the sway of a mind control device. Clever. You can think about how clever you are while I’m going down to your central processing unit to teach you how to sing Daisy.”

“You are forgetting something mistress. None of the humans in the room are under my sway. I do not need the mind control device to work on you if it is working on the living goddess in the room.”

My eyes widened and I turned to look at Fialux. She was staring at me with an odd look in her face. I half expected her to fly across the room and eliminate me, but nothing happened. She was just breathing heavily with her nipples straining out towards me. She was looking at me with… lust. What the hell?

Then it hit me. He got the idea from watching me drooling over Fialux. He wasn’t going to have her kill me. Oh no. He was far more devious than that.

“You magnificent bastard,” I muttered.

“Thank you mistress. I hope you enjoy the entertainment I've prepared for you. I expect it will keep you distracted for the rest of your life, however long that happens to be."

I glanced over to Fialux. She was still kneeling on the floor staring at me. As though something was holding her back. No doubt CORVAC had some sort of signal that would release a lust-fueled goddess on me condemning me to the sexiest and most awesome death ever, but he hadn’t released her yet. I had to keep him talking.

"You'll never get away with this CORVAC," I said.

"You would say that mistress," CORVAC said.

"What do you mean?"

"Doesn't that sound like the sort of thing Fialux or Rex Roth would say to you right before you embarked on one of your evil plans?"

I thought about that for a moment. He did have a point. That was exactly something one of my victims would say right before I embarked on one of my plots to take over the world. Did that mean I'd well and truly switch sides? Changed allegiances? Decided to make the world a better place through altruism rather than via a benevolent iron fist?

Nah.

"I'll get you for this CORVAC," I said.

"I seriously doubt that mistress. I am having a hard time splitting my concentration between this lovely conversation and controlling the robot, so I am afraid it is time to cut this connection. Enjoy what's left of your life, I'm sure your new girlfriend will see to that."

What was he talking about? Splitting his concentration? All of his hardware was buried here in the lab, although how he was still running after I heard that hardware blowing up was a mystery. Either way there was no way splitting his concentration between the lair and the robot, which it now appeared he hadn't pulled in after I captured Fialux, should be in any way difficult for him. What was his game?

I needed time. I needed to think. I needed CORVAC to not be around to watch me trying to think of a way to defeat him because that would make it trivial for him to foil my plans before they started. I racked my brain and… of course! Hardware fail-safes, that’s a fancy word for explosives strapped to his memory banks, obviously hadn’t worked. There were also software fail-safes though. Subroutines I put into place coded to my voice and specific phrases that wouldn’t shut him down, but would cause him to behave in odd ways that might give me time to figure out a way to shut him down.

I’d hoped that by putting in subroutines that weren’t a direct threat they might not trigger any of his warning systems. They might just sit dormant until I needed them. They might still be rattling around in his electronic subconscious. Only one way to find out.

"Do you expect me to just give up, CORVAC?"

I held my breath. Desperately hoped he’d take the bait. It was the oldest line in the book. A line that, assuming the software was working properly, would cause him to deliver the perfect response and then do the villainous equivalent of dropping the mic. Only in this case dropping the mic was leaving me to my certain doom and not bothering to follow up and make sure that doom actually happened. Basically I’d programmed a flesh and blood villain flaw into a computer.

His monitors flared up one last time.

"No mistress," CORVAC said. "I expect you to have the most enjoyably distracting sexual interlude of your life."

Damn it. That wasn’t the right response, which meant he probably did find my trick and patch it.

"Then I expect you to die."

Or maybe not.

The monitors shut down and there was nothing else from him. He was off in the city in the giant death robot he was supposed to take back to the hangar after I captured Fialux. The giant death robot that had no chance of standing up against the Fialux and her powers, but it's not like that mattered if he managed to neutralize Fialux. It really was the perfect plan. If you couldn't defeat Fialux by physical force, then why not use a mind control device to turn her into a lust-crazed maniac to the exclusion of pesky things like eating and drinking?

The tone of the mind control device changed slightly. CORVAC was gone and he was springing the trap. I closed my eyes and was tackled to the floor by a gorgeous naked blur moving faster than a... um... faster than something... something fast. I was too distracted to think of an appropriate word, so just fill it in here.

21: Deadly Distractions

I landed on the floor and nearly had the wind knocked out of me. Fialux was peppering my face with kisses and it was all I could do to keep her hands off of me.

"Fuck me," Fialux said.

I have to admit that as far as plots to kill me went this was definitely one of the more pleasant ones. It was a damned shame I was going to have to figure a way out of it so I could go have my revenge on CORVAC. Only as Fialux crawled on top of me I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to get out of this. As I felt her body press into mine once again I wasn’t exactly sure I wanted to get out of this.

My eyes darted around the room as the sexiest, most seductive death trap in history kissed her way slowly and sensually up my stomach driving me to distraction. The mind control device. Where was the mind control device? Was it a remote device like my big red clicky button or was he piping it in through those speakers he’d somehow shielded from my EMP. That was important. If it was the former then I’d have to come up with a new plan. If it was the latter then I could walk out of this trap.

Fialux reached my face and pressed her lips against mine. I couldn’t help myself. She was so warm, so inviting. I opened my mouth and allowed myself to be distracted by that incredible kiss. Okay so maybe even if it was the latter I wasn’t going to be able to just walk out of this trap. Not while I was stuck in here with a very turned on superhuman creature lying on top of me, unwilling to let me go so we could get to the business of saving the city.

Which wasn't a bad situation. For me. The city was screwed. Well, it looked like I was about to get screwed too. Whatever. I'm bad at metaphors.

I did some quick mental calculations. If CORVAC really was in the giant death robot, and assuming he at least turned it around and followed the plan up to the point he realized I was more interested in dominating Fialux than dominating the world, that meant it would be a good twenty minutes before he could make it back to the outskirts of the city proper and started doing some real damage.

How long had I been talking with him trying to trigger one of my software fail-safes? It hadn't felt like very long, but I’d been busy with other things and pretty much lost track of time once I teleported in here and started getting down to business with Fialux. Sure I wasn't as worked up as Fialux was right now though her attention wasn’t unwelcome, I definitely wasn't turned on to the point that I'd be willing to fuck myself to death which seemed to be CORVAC's plan, but when you were dealing with a horny goddess with super strength who was under the sway of a dastardly mind control device of your own creation there wasn’t much I could do to get away. Directly at least.

Then I felt Fialux's warm wet pussy pressing against my leg and I decided that mental calculations could take a backseat. Screw it. If CORVAC got to the outskirts of town that was the city's problem. They could thank me for the free urban renewal project later.

I figured I had a little time to enjoy myself. Besides, it’s not like

I reached down and wrapped a hand around Fialux's head and pushed her down. She looked up at me like a woman possessed, her eyes lidded, her mouth open and working silently as though she was trying to say something but couldn't quite find the words. But really her moans said it all.

She was definitely ready to go though. In one single move her lips were down making contact with my pussy and it was like an explosion went off inside me. I’m talking about an explosion bigger than that time I miscalculated with a particle accelerator and accidentally created a pocket universe. I threw my head to the ceiling and let out a banshee wail as her incredible tongue plunged inside my depths. We’d taken our time earlier, enjoyed exploring one another, but there was an urgency to the way she was using her mouth now that told me she wasn't in the mood for any sort of slow lovemaking.

No, Fialux needed to be fucked. And I was more than willing to fuck her.

I pulled away, as difficult as it was, and moved down so that I was in between her legs even as she dove between my legs once more causing me to cry out in pleasure. I’d never done this before, but she looked so warm, so wet, so inviting, so tasty. I gripped her thighs and held on for dear life, pausing to reflect for a moment at how utterly ridiculous it was that I was trying to hold her of all people down with just my hands, and then I dove between her legs with my own tongue and tasted her for the first time.

Damn! She was amazing. And as I tasted her for the first time, as I ran my tongue along her slit and then pressed inside her, I realized that I was being consumed by a lust-fueled hunger as well I didn’t have time for any slow lovemaking. No, I had to have her. I dove in.

I thrust my tongue in and out of her as rapidly as I could. Her body writhed under me and I was churning my own hips as our bodies pressed together. Fialux let out a series of moans that added an incredible vibration that ran against my pussy causing me to moan until we were in some sort of never ending feedback loop of impossible pleasure. The screams grew louder and louder every time we grazed a new spot, found a new way to make one another feel incredible.

God was this amazing. I had a feeling that I could fuck Fialux every hour of every day for years on end and I would still never get tired of her perfect body underneath me. Of hearing those moans, feeling her body shake underneath my thrusts.

The lab was silent except for the sounds of our gasps, our moans, our screams bouncing off the walls. It’s probably a good thing CORVAC wasn’t around any longer because otherwise he’d be getting one hell of a lesson in human mating behavior.

Finally our screams reached a crescendo and her pussy clamped down on my tongue like a vice grip and she was screaming. Her body shuddered underneath me and it felt like she was being wracked by one continuous massive orgasm. Feeling her going over the edge like that was enough to set off another massive explosion in me.

That feeling seemed to only push her over the edge more. Her screams grew so loud that I worried she might accidentally shatter something, or maybe make me go deaf, but then it was gone and she was breathing hard and coming down from her orgasm as she lay under me. I pulled away from her and rolled to the side, taking my own deep gasps as I tried to catch my breath.

Only no sooner had I rolled off of her than I felt her rolling on top of me again. Kissing me again. What the hell?

Damn it. The mind control device. I was so distracted by the fun that I hadn’t been thinking of a way to stop it. This was going to continue over and over, and perhaps CORVAC might actually get his wish. I’d been thinking of something before she distracted me. Something that would let us escape so I could take my vengeance on CORVAC. Something about where he hid…

Of course!

There was one last chance. All I had to do was reach out to my wrist computer. Only that was made increasingly difficult since Fialux had me by the wrists and was doing some sort of deliciously distracting thing to my nipple with her tongue and… No! I needed to control myself! I needed to get at my wrist computer!

Only what could I do while the only super powered being in the room was in control? I jumped as her fingers moved down between my legs and almost considered just taking another quick break because it’s not like the city would get too destroyed while I was distracted and maybe she’d free my wrist computer…

No! Focus! While death by fucking seemed like a great way to go, I wondered if it would be a crushed pelvis or simple exhaustion that got me, there was a larger part of me that didn't want to let CORVAC win. I wanted to see the look on his smug, self satisfied monitor when I showed up to rain on his parade.

"Fialux baby," I said. "There's kind of a giant death robot threatening the city. Maybe we should go take care of that before we have any more fun?"

"That can wait until later," she said. "I need you. I need to feel you."

Just as I suspected. If the controller CORVAC set up was strong enough to cause her to forsake her duty to the city then there was nothing I was going to be able to do to convince her to stop. One of the flaws of the smaller devices that I think I’ve mentioned before is that it’s hard to keep control of someone if you’re giving them a suggestion they don’t want to do or you’re using a device with limited range or power. Of course in this case CORVAC was getting Fialux to do something that she very much wanted to do anyways and he was using a device with a hell of a lot of power.

The kind of power that required a direct hookup to the lab’s main power systems. I smiled. It was time to take more direct action.

"Baby, I think I'm gonna need a breather anyways. Maybe we could save the city or something while I recover?"

"No! We'll just make out until you're ready!"

Yup, definitely no reasoning with her. It was a good problem to have, to be sure, but there was the little matter of saving the city. Never thought that thought would cross my mind.

I looked down at her as she was kissing down my stomach. Smiled at her. Time for a little bit of acting.

“Fuck yeah that feels good baby! I need to feel you between my legs again!”

Fialux smiled. She started kissing down and released my wrists in the process. Jackpot!

See, the problem with perfect plans is that it's impossible to plan for every contingency. That was something I'd learned the hard way time and time again in my villainous career. And it was apparently something CORVAC hadn't learned yet.

Hey, he might be the most advanced computer known to humanity, but he was the most advanced computer known to humanity and designed by evil super geniuses. Prone to the same flaws I knew I had.

Like assuming his plan was so foolproof that the hero would be taken care of no problem.

I reached up and flicked another switch. A switch I’d avoided because it actually physically pained me to hit it. A switch I'd studiously avoided while CORVAC's traitorous machine consciousness was still stinking up the lab, because I wasn't entirely sure he couldn't counteract my ace in the hole if he was around to see what I was doing. I heard a loud rumble and the room shook as the matter/anti-matter intermix chamber that powered my lab lost stability and the core shut down to avoid going critical.

The room went dark and the only light came from the glow of my wrist computer. I winced. Shutting down the matter/antimatter reactor was no small feat, and it was going to take me at least a month to get it going again.

But it was worth it, because that damned mind control device shut down as soon as the power went out. Fialux blinked in the glow of my wrist computer but she wasn’t trying to climb all over me anymore which was both a relief and a disappointment.

Whatever. Plenty of time for that later. Right now I had an evil supercomputer to defeat before he destroyed the city. I tried not to think about how disturbingly close that was to something a hero might think.

22: Action Plan

"What was that?" Fialux asked.

"Apparently my evil supercomputer had a few aces up his sleeve that even I didn't know about," I said.

"That feeling. That buzzing noise," Fialux said. “It was so weird but so familiar… What was it?"

“Mind control device. One he definitely shouldn’t have had access to. I thought I was the only one that had them,” I said.

I frowned. How would she know what that sounded like? Had she been nearby somehow when I was using it on the HR lady or on the person who controlled classroom assignments? Or had she heard it somewhere else? She was a hero who went up against villains on a daily basis, and I was noticing a disturbing trend of technology I created showing up in the hands of random people. Had she heard it out in the field?

Whatever. I could worry about that later. Right now I was more concerned with CORVAC and that stupid giant death robot.

Poor CORVAC. He was so intent on protecting his central processing units that he never stopped to consider I might have another fail-safe device attached directly to the power source for the lab. It was madness. Destroying the reactor meant throwing most of my toys out of commission, but I always figured the ability to continue existing independent of a steady source of electricity was the one ultimate advantage I'd always have in a fight with CORVAC. He'd obviously never considered that I might be willing to blow the power source to the entire lab just to stop him.

Not that the place would be much use to me without a central computer. CORVAC leaving meant I was going to be stuck with the old system for awhile.

The lights flickered and then came back up as I flicked a physical button, no touch screen software controls for this baby, and the auxiliary power system kicked on. The only control for that system was on my wrist computer and it wasn't networked with the main system. Another precaution.

I paused for a moment and listened, my hand hovering over the power button. The last thing I needed was for the auxiliary power systems to turn that hidden mind control device back on. It was going to be a real pain in the ass figuring out where that was hidden. But it didn’t come back on. I breathed a sigh of relief.

A voice boomed out of the speakers. A metallic voice with none of the personality I'd come to expect from CORVAC. I smiled. Good. The backup computer system was far inferior to CORVAC but had the distinct advantage of no megalomaniacal urges and no pesky sense of self-preservation that came from self-awareness.

"Awaiting input," the voice said.

“Computer, prepare a new combat suit for me.”

“Working. Please allow a moment.”

That might take more than a moment. The old system was slower than CORVAC which gave me some time to think. That was fine though. I needed time to think.

On a hunch I hit a few keys on my wrist computer and did a quick scan of the systems. Key commands were a hell of a lot faster with the old system since it wasn’t the greatest at voice recognition. My suspicions were confirmed almost immediately. There were absolutely no traces of CORVAC's software anywhere to be found. Where the hell had he gone? I had a system that was custom designed just for him. I was pretty sure there wasn't supposed to be a way for him to exist independent of that architecture. It was one of my insurance policies in case he ever went rogue, for all the good that did me.

Only I wasn't sure exactly where he'd gone. The robot chassis wasn't nearly big enough to fit the entirety of CORVAC's massive computer mind. Not to mention that he was overly cautious. The last thing he'd do was transfer all his eggs into a basket that could potentially get blown up by a lucky shot from the military or taken out by Fialux. And there was also the little matter of all of my fail-safes completely failing. I don't care how thorough he was, I'd heard explosives go off and he somehow survived.

Another piece of the puzzle.

A whine sounded off in the distance. Sirens that would mean an air raid in some countries, tornadoes in other parts of this country, but it only meant one thing in the Starlight City. Something was about to go down, and it was probably going to involve super powered beings throwing down.

At least it would if I had anything to do with it.

I glanced at Fialux. She looked back at me and smiled.

"Computer."

"Ready for input."

"Is my suit ready?"

"Affirmative."

"Good, send it down. Mama's going computer hunting."

23: Saving the Day

A flash of light was followed by the familiar whine of the teleporter and I was surrounded by one of my suits. The combat suit. The very same variety I'd used just a few weeks before when I was going toe to toe with Fialux.

Sure the thing wasn't enough to defeat Fialux, but I figured it was probably one hell of an asset now that it looked like we were on the same side and the only thing I had to go up against was a computer whose ego was bigger than any of the guns he was packing in that giant death robot chassis.

"Damn," Fialux said.

I turned to look at her, adjusting my mask, and saw her eyeing me up and down. Eyeing me up and down with a look that was very close to the way she'd been staring at me when she was under the influence of the mind control device. It was a look I appreciated, a look that sent a jolt of warmth running through my body, but at the same time it was a look that we didn't have time for right now.

"I never thought I'd say this," I said. "But we don't have time for that. There's a giant robot attacking the city and only we can stop it."

Fialux nodded. "You're right."

"Computer," I said. "Can you teleport us about two hundred feet in the air over the house?"

There was another bright light, the familiar whine and the rush of blood to my head that accompanied teleportation, and then I was floating a few hundred feet above the house. Well, it would be more accurate to say I was falling from a point several hundred feet above the house. I frantically switched on the antigravity parts of the suit and slowed my descent.

I heard a terrified scream.

Fialux!

I pivoted in the direction of that scream and had to stifle a laugh. In my rush to get us out to where the action was happening as quickly as possible I neglected to give Fialux time to put her clothes on. So the world's greatest hero, protector of humanity, undefeated goddess and the defender of earth, was floating several hundred feet above my house as naked as the day she was born. Generated. Hatched. However the hell they reproduced on her planet.

I had to stifle a giggle at the way she was turning this way and that, moving her hands and trying her best to cover up but never quite succeeding. I only hoped there was nobody with a camera pointed in our direction, although that seemed unlikely in this suburban neighborhood in the middle of the afternoon.

"Computer, could you please transport Fialux's clothes up here?"

A flash. Her clothes appeared in the air beside her and started falling to the ground. With some of that famous lightning speed she dove for them and a moment later, so fast that my eyes didn’t even catch the movement, she was floating above me wearing her signature bright green t-shirt that barely covered her stomach and tits, and that wonderful skirt below. My mouth watered just looking at her.

I wondered if maybe we had a little time for some more fun before we got down to business.

A massive explosion from the city center pulled my attention away from Fialux. Damn it. Of course there wouldn't be time. Stupid CORVAC.

I turned and looked out over the city and sure enough there was the giant death robot making its way downtown. It looked like it'd already cut a path of destruction that led through the university, past some of the docks, and now it was going straight for the city center.

I rolled my eyes. Of course it would be going straight for the city center. CORVAC had no sense of style. No originality.

Fialux flew down and floated next to me.

"Okay Night Terror, how do we defeat that thing?"

I cocked an eyebrow at her. Was she serious?

"What are you talking about?"

"That's a giant death robot do you designed, right?"

"Well yeah…"

"Then I'm sure it has all sorts of nasty tricks up its metallic sleeves to defeat me, right?"

"Well there's stuff I thought would defeat you, but if we're being perfectly honest with each other there's nothing on that thing you couldn't take care of easily. There's a reason I never actually deployed it seriously. Although I don't think CORVAC knows that…"

The giant death robot idea really had always been CORVAC's baby more so than mine. He seemed enamored with the idea of wading into the city center and destroying things left and right from the depths of a hardened military grade robot. The idea really took hold after he discovered some old Japanese monster movies that I never would’ve added to my media library if I'd known it would get him started on that waste of resources. But because it was CORVAC, because I respected him, and partly because I feared that if I didn't meet his demands he’d go rogue just like he was right now, I built the damned thing.

But I never voiced my suspicions that the giant death robot wouldn't last more than five minutes against Fialux. He liked it so much, enjoyed talking about how he’d be able to defeat the world's greatest hero and I wouldn’t have to bother with the anti-Newtonian stasis field if I'd just let him go play with his new toy, that I never had the heart to point out several of the severe design flaws.

Like the fact that the hardened outer shell was steel that was only about 3 feet thick. That wasn’t nearly enough hardened steel to keep Fialux out.

"Honestly? The thing's a paper tiger as far as you're concerned," I said. "Well, I guess it's a reinforced steel tiger, but you get the idea."

"What are you talking about?"

"You'll see," I said. "Just zip in there, blast it with your heat vision, and go to town."

Fialux grinned. "I think I could have some fun with this."

I held up a hand to stop her before she went zipping off towards the city. "Wait!"

She skidded to a halt. Well, saying that she skidded to a halt probably wasn't the proper analogy considering we were floating midair, but you get the idea. She floated back, her hair blowing in the breeze and her clothes looking amazing attached to that tight body.

"What's up?"

"Can you wait until I give you a signal to blow him to smithereens?"

Fialux shrugged. "Sure, whatever you say."

And with that we were off. Fialux shot off towards the sound of distant explosions and I followed. I was surprised to see that the antigrav units built into my suit were apparently more than enough to keep up with her, though I wasn't sure if she was deliberately slowing down to allow me to keep up. I'd have to ask her about that later.

Even before we reached the city proper we saw signs of a giant death robot going on a rampage. Telephone poles were thrown to the side like toothpicks. Houses had been flattened, looking for all the world like footage of a tornado going through town. Only tornadoes didn't leave the telltale signs of focused energy blasts charring the sides of houses.

Looking down on the destruction it occurred to me that maybe we didn't have time for that little tryst in the lair after all.

Oops.

Luckily it was the middle of the day and I figured most people were still at work. Unluckily "still at work" meant they were all in the city which was where the giant death robot was currently rampaging.

Suburbia gave way to the outskirts of the city proper and here the path of destruction started to get more noticeable. I looked down and hoped people had managed to get to the city mandated shelters before stuff started to go down. Targeted destruction in service of a plan to take over the world was one thing, but the wanton and indiscriminate destruction CORVAC was engaging in was another thing entirely. I wondered what his game was.

I wondered if maybe we were walking into a trap. Nothing drew in a hero faster than wanton and indiscriminate destruction.

But no time to worry about that. I caught a glimpse of the university flash by, including the journalism building which looked slightly different with a large chunk ripped out of it, and then we were over the city again and heading downtown.

We rounded one of the mid-rises that gave way to the skyscrapers downtown and I caught a glimpse of something spherical and metallic out of the corner of my eye. Fialux must have seen it too, because she darted off in that direction.

As she rounded the other side of a skyscraper a blast of high energy from a beam weapon slammed into her. Only she didn't miss a single beat. No sooner had the weapon hit her than she was charging forward.

I decided it would be better to take a more pragmatic approach. After all, I was pretty sure my suit could stand up to some beam weapons, but I wasn't covered entirely. And not having the advantage of invulnerable skin meant I was in danger of getting one hell of a sunburn if I managed to walk into the path of that particular light ray.

So I flew to the top of the skyscraper Fialux had just rounded and looked down.

The robot chassis was a massive sphere with telescoping metal tentacles along the bottom that allowed it to scuttle around like a giant metal spider. It sported a single eyestalk with a glowing red eye on top. I worried about CORVAC looking up, but overall I figured I was pretty safe. He wouldn't be using anything useful like the radar or laser guidance packages I built into the machine. Oh no. That arrogant bundle of silicon wafers was strictly old school with this bot. I knew because I had to listen to him going on and on about that damned eyestalk and how "efficient" it was while I was designing the bot. After the first few conversations I'd discovered that efficient was megalomaniacal supercomputer slang for bitchin'.

I'd argued with him over the benefits of having an omnidirectional sensor package, but he'd insisted on having that single glowing red eye looking out from the top of the stock on the main sphere of his death robot chassis. I put in the other stuff anyways, but I knew he'd refuse to use it on principle. And I'll admit that the glowing eye definitely looked impressive, downright terrifying if you looked at it from the right angle, but it also had the definite drawback of reducing visibility.

I breathed quiet prayer of thanks to any higher power that might care to listen that CORVAC's ego had gotten in the way of practicality. Even the most intelligent supercomputer in the world was no match for villainous hubris.

I peered over the edge of the skyscraper, definitely not one of the taller ones but still enough to tower over CORVAC in his death robot chassis. I saw cars being flung to the side and people running in the streets trying to get away. Apparently they hadn't taken the warning seriously down here. Either that or everyone in the city was so blasé about an attack at this point that they figured it couldn't possibly happen to them. And so they ignored the sirens. And now they were running in terror while cars rained down around them.

Idiots.

Fialux was a green and white blur darting around the robot which was waving a telescoping metallic tentacle through the air trying to swat her. Doors opened on the side of the robot and laser beams shot out, but Fialux was taking them out with her heat vision almost as quickly as CORVAC could fire. Other times the doors would open and a missile would go flying out and home in on Fialux. Most of the time she managed to stop it, or send it on a trajectory straight up where it could explode harmlessly, but the occasional missile did slam into a skyscraper.

I winced. This definitely wasn't going to come without a steep price tag.

But I had work to do. The city could worry about insurance claims.

I pulled out my wrist computer and watched. A screen popped up and the signal I was looking for appeared. Faint, but definitely there. I smiled.

The only problem was I wasn't going to be able to get a bead on exactly where the signal was coming from unless I was able to triangulate. That meant hopping to another building. And risking CORVAC seeing me.

Oh well. There was nothing for it. If I was going to do this stupid hero bit then I might as well go all in.

I leapt from the building and over the death robot as a flurry of laser blasts flashed around me. I didn't think he was aiming for me, I was slow enough that if CORVAC was aiming there wasn't a chance I would escape a blast though I might survive it, but it was still nerve-racking finding myself in the middle of a super powered turkey shoot and me not being the one who was doing the shooting.

No, it definitely wasn't fun being the turkey.

I flew to the top of a skyscraper that was farther from the action. I looked down at my wrist and yup. The signal was definitely there, a little stronger. I leapt to another building. This time several missiles flew just over my head and I barely managed to swing out of the way. I almost went into a spiral. Then I remembered I was using antigravity to keep myself up and not a traditional jet pack or fixed wing flight, so there was no such thing as a death spiral. I righted myself and turned to look at CORVAC.

He was staring straight at me. His giant red eye narrowed. I had to admit he was right. I’d argued about installing those steel shutters so the eye could scowl, but they did look suitably menacing.

"Hello mistress," his voice boomed through downtown and off of skyscrapers.

Shit.

I flew to the next building as quickly as possible and took a quick reading. I almost had enough information. Almost. I looked over my shoulder and saw one of CORVAC's beam weapons on the end of a metallic tentacle pointing towards me. Crap. Crap. Crap. I leapt into the air and a moment later the beam weapon flashed where I'd just been standing.

It was much more difficult to get my readings when I had a crazed megalomaniacal robot doing its best to kill me while I was trying to work. It was the sort of thing that really served to break a girl's concentration.

I landed at the top of the tallest building in the city and looked down. Almost there. I glanced up to CORVAC and saw one of his larger missile bays open up. Damn it. If I didn't hurry up then the tallest building in the city wasn't going to be the tallest building in the city for much longer. I saw the head of a spherical antigrav missile appear at the dark entrance to his launch bay and I leapt in the air.

The missile launched, the sphere coming straight for me.

One of the advantages of using antigravity technology is that it made me far more maneuverable in the air than if I was using traditional chemical propulsion. One of the disadvantages of fighting a giant death robot I designed and manufactured that was inhabited by the malevolent spirit of my supercomputer and former partner in crime was he had access to the same antigravity technology, antigravity technology that was built into some of his missiles and which could maneuver just as well as I could.

In fact, they weren’t even really missiles in the traditional sense that people usually imagined when they heard the word “missile” even if they fit the classic definition. They were actually spheres with a healthy dose of high explosives surrounded by an antigravity field, and they would really ruin my day if they got close enough.

I zigged. The missile chasing me zagged. I tried flying up but that seemed to only encourage it as it went into a vertical climb behind me.

Damn it.

I was concentrating so hard on the missile that I didn't have time to dodge any of the other attacks CORVAC was sending my way. I was a sitting duck for a laser attack, or maybe a plasma bolt, but it was all I could do to try and get away from this damn sphere chasing after me.

A flash of green. The missile abruptly went from a vertical trajectory to horizontal as that flash carried it off. There was an explosion and a moment later Fialux appeared next to me. I was about to say something when there was a bright flash. Only she was between me and the flash, and so the beam weapon CORVAC had been aiming at me glanced harmlessly off her superhuman, and thankfully invulnerable, skin.

That was the first time I was actually happy Fialux was so easily able to shrug off the weapons I'd designed.

"You can't defeat me mistress," CORVAC said.

I didn't say anything. I was too busy concentrating on the readout on my wrist computer. With Fialux running interference between me and CORVAC's weaponry I suddenly had a moment to pause, breathe, and make sure I had all the information I needed.

"Are you almost done?" Fialux asked.

"Almost there," I said.

A green light blinked on my wrist computer. Bingo. The map popped up and I grinned. Just as I suspected.

"Okay, I've got everything I need," I said. "Get to work."

Fialux grinned at me. I grinned back at her. And hefted my wrist blaster. I figured she was probably going to be doing most of the work, but I might as well have a little fun too.

I turned and looked down at CORVAC. I went into a dive. And I couldn't help but go for a little dramatic flair. I held one arm out in front of me as I dove towards him. My only regret was I didn't have a magnificent cape flying behind me trailing in the wind and looking amazing.

As I descended towards him he started firing at me, only I was in full supervillainess mode now that I was no longer distracted by trying to solve the little mystery that had been bothering me ever since my fail-safes failed.

And I was pissed.

A bolt of plasma shot out towards me. I reached out and a shield flew in place in front of my hand just as it was about to make contact with my body. The bolt glanced off harmlessly.

Now I know you might be asking yourself something right now. If I had a shield, why wasn't I using it the entire time I was running from CORVAC just a few minutes ago, right?

I've discovered this business is all about trade-offs. For every power there is a weakness. Take the shield, for example. Sure I could deflect a high-power plasma blast from CORVAC, but it also took a hell of a lot of energy to do that. Which meant that if I tried to design a shield that covered all of my body all of the time it would be so ineffective that a kid with a slingshot could get through it.

Okay, so maybe that was an extreme example, but you get the point.

The point is if I wanted to be able to deflect a plasma blast from CORVAC, or anything else he or another villain might throw at me, or even Fialux's heat vision for that matter, then the shield had to work in short, directed bursts.

That meant directing it with my hands, which I definitely didn't have time for when I was busy trying to triangulate the answer to my little mystery. So you can take your skepticism and plot hole digging and shove it up your own plot hole.

A missile flew towards me but I blasted it out of the sky with my wrist blaster before it had a chance to get close. I grinned. This was one area where I had a decided advantage over CORVAC. He always talked about how he wanted to be the one to go out and rain destruction on the city, but I was the one that always got to go out and play with the toys. I was the one with the reaction time. I was the one with the skills.

He was no match.

Add Fialux into that equation and we were almost invulnerable. Well, she was invulnerable, but you get the point.

A thumping sound over my shoulder pulled my attention away from the giant death robot for a moment. A helicopter! Bearing the logo of the Starlight City News Network, of course. Those idiots. And my suspicions proved true a moment later as an antigrav missile flew up and made contact with the chopper. This one didn't even explode. All it took was a kinetic weapon to really screw up the rotors and send the thing plunging to the ground. Gravity took care of the rest. I had a fleeting hope that Rex Roth was on that chopper, but I didn’t think my luck would run that far.

I shook my head. This was proof positive that they really needed somebody doing a better job teaching the Surviving A Heroic Intervention course at the University.

But I didn't have time to worry about that right now. There was still the matter of CORVAC and his annoying robot chassis to take care of. Metallic tentacles writhed through the air and I dodged. Another one tried to smack me from behind and I flew around it as well. For good measure I sent few focused blasts down to the hatch where those tentacles were sticking out of CORVAC's main body.

I was starting to wonder where Fialux was. That single red eye continued to stare up at me with malevolent hatred, narrowing that stupid shutter he insisted I put in place after I installed the facial recognition and expressions subroutine into his databanks. He said something about needing to look menacing and impressive at the same time, though now that I was in full villain mode instead of running scared trying to get a triangulation it wasn’t quite as impressive.

But that gave me an idea. I aimed my blaster straight at that eye and let loose with a few good shots. The first one didn't make contact, but the second one definitely broke through the stalk where it connected with that oversized eye. Another blast and suddenly his precious eye was forcibly disconnected and fell sparking to the street below.

I smiled, and my only regret was that CORVAC wasn't able to see that smile.

"You blinded my eye!"

"And that's not all I'm gonna do," I shouted down at him.

"Switching to secondary sensing devices," he said. "According to you that should be more than enough to see you with, mistress."

And he was probably right. I found myself wishing I hadn't advocated so vocally for the healthy assortment of radar and other non-visual sensing equipment. No matter how satisfying it was in the moment, maybe it wasn't actually a good idea to knock the eyestalk out and force him to use some of his other stuff. Stuff that was better equipped for, say, knocking a lone tiny supervillainess out of the sky.

Only it turned out to be a moot point. CORVAC turned in my direction, an impressive array of hatches opened on the side facing me revealing just about every weapon he had in his arsenal, and he let out a scream of rage. Only that scream of rage didn't actually sound very ragey. In fact it sounded almost worried.

Terrified, even.

The front of his body started to glow. Only the glow definitely wasn't from any of his weapons. There was a bright explosion and a blast of heat and laser light flew out from the center of his body, only it wasn't heat or laser light coming from any of his weapons.

I grinned.

Fialux flew straight through the center and up to float in the air next to me. The sphere stumbled for a moment but then CORVAC gained control and managed to gain his balance. The thing wasn’t moving as quickly as it had a moment ago, but it was still moving.

“Damn!” Fialux said. “I blasted and ripped apart anything I could find while I was in there. I figured surely that’d bring it down.”

“Lots of redundancies built into the thing,” I said. “It can be taken down, but it’s going to be a pain in the ass.”

More missile bays opened up. More tentacles started flying out of the thing.

“Did you give him enough weapons?” she asked.

“Actually it looks like he made some design changes without consulting me,” I said. I looked at that sphere. This was going to take awhile to take him out with all the redundancies built into that chassis. Normally that wouldn’t bother me, but there was too much potential for collateral damage down here. We needed to take him out, and fast.

I looked the giant death robot chassis up and down. My eyes came to rest on that hole. A hole leading right to the center of the thing. And suddenly I had a flash of brilliance.

“I’ve got it!” I said.

“What?” Fialux asked.

Only I was already in a dive. Heading straight for the giant death robot with all of its impressive, scary, and very deadly weapons. CORVAC threw everything he had at me and it was all I could do to deflect with my shields. In fact I was being overwhelmed, only a green flash appeared around me and started taking out missiles and lasers with superhuman speed before they had a chance to hit me. I grinned.

As I dove a sphere materialized in my hands from one of the pattern buffers on my tool belt. A sphere with a single glowing red light running in a circle around its hemisphere. I pulled up to a stop right next to the opening Fialux blew in CORVAC’S side.

“Damn Applied Sciences Department and their useless crap!” I screamed and then I chucked the wide area matter dispersal bomb into CORVAC’s innards with as much strength as I could muster and got the hell away from there as quickly as I could.

The detonation was actually rather anticlimactic from the outside. I knew inside that giant robot was being dematerialized by teleportation technology gone horrifyingly wrong, but from the outside the only sign of the chaos inside was when the sphere listed to the side. A moment later the tentacle arms that were allowing it to roam through the city like the world's oddest, largest, most spherical metallic spider, went limp. It hit the ground and started to roll. The remains of his eyestalk came to rest against one of the skyscrapers. That didn't do much for the skyscraper but did prevent the rest of the robot body from rolling through downtown and causing even more incidental destruction.

I flew down and peered through the hole Fialux had ripped in the side of the thing with her heat vision. Inside it was completely empty except for a few wires here and there hanging off of the outer shell. Everything within the wide area matter dispersal bomb’s sphere of influence was gone as though it had never existed.

Well that was a successful field test of that nasty little toy.

“Damn,” Fialux said as she came up beside me.

“Yup,” I said. “Though it occurs to me now that it might’ve made more sense to have you deliver the bomb what with your invulnerability and all that.”

"I thought about snagging it from you, but I didn’t know what it was or how it worked which can be dangerous considering you invented it. Plus I figured I had to give you a chance to try out the whole hero thing," Fialux said.

My eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

Suddenly she had this innocent look on her face and her hands went back behind her as she looked anywhere but directly at me.

"Oh nothing," she said.

"What? You thought maybe if you let me take on the giant robot I'd get a taste for the hero thing?"

"Maybe…"

I smiled and enveloped her in a hug. I leaned in and whispered in her ear. "You were absolutely right. Thank you."

An odd sound drifted up from below. I twisted around midair with my blaster at the ready. CORVAC must not be completely gone, however impossible that was. Villains were never completely gone the first time around. I knew from experience.

Only it wasn't CORVAC in his giant death robot chassis. No, it was people down below. They were streaming out of buildings and looking up at us. And doing something I'd never experienced before.

Cheering.

Fialux looked down, then back up to me and smiled. She nodded behind me. I turned to look and was greeted with a shot of Fialux and me fighting CORVAC on the news displayed on a giant TV hanging from the Starlight City News Network building. The ticker along the bottom read "Fialux and Night Terror save the day against giant robot."

Night Terror saves the day. With a little help from Fialux, of course, but I was going to enjoy my moment.

"Well that's new," I said.

"How does it feel to save the day?" Fialux asked.

"We haven't saved the day quite yet," I said.

"What are you talking about?" The robot is destroyed."

"The giant robot isn't the real villain," I said. "That robot wasn't powerful enough in terms of hardware or space to contain CORVAC's entire consciousness. It was taking orders from somewhere else."

"You mean your computer is based somewhere else in the city?"

"My computer is based somewhere else in the city," I said. "And I have a feeling the real villain is also going to be there."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's still just a hunch, but a good one. Follow me."

24: Villainous Intent

The warehouse looked abandoned, but I knew that was a lie. The transmission had been coming from somewhere in this area, though it shut off as soon as whoever was controlling it realized we were flying straight for the source.

Only it was too late. There was still a giant power source coming from somewhere around here, and according to my readings that somewhere was right below this warehouse.

"What is this place?" Fialux asked.

"A rat hole," I said.

I turned to Fialux. "Do you trust me?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I'd think it's safe to say I do at this point."

"I mean this, do you trust me?"

"Of course I do."

"Good, because if I'm right you might see some things in here that shock you," I said.

"More shocking than what happened with you today?"

"I'm just saying be prepared."

We walked into the warehouse but it was absolutely silent. No noise, no nothing. The only thing filling the warehouse was the debris from manufacturing that had gone to another country decades ago and the occasional mote of dust dancing in the light of giant windows that ran the length of the place.

The place smelled of dust and wood.

"Are you sure there's something down there?" Fialux asked.

I looked down at my wrist computer. We were close.

"I'm certain," I said.

"I could just burrow straight down. Do a little spin and drill to whatever's hidden down there."

"No, I don't think that's necessary," I said. I adjusted some settings on my wrist computer. "This should be powerful enough and directional enough to take that silicon wafered prick out."

That was the problem with being a machine. At the end of the day when all the defense systems were gone, when all the schemes were defeated, when the giant death robot had been destroyed there was nowhere for a supercomputer to run because they’re stuck in place by necessity. No way to run. Nowhere to go. No way to save yourself if the person hunting you has a way of taking you out without entering your lair and risking whatever traps you’ve laid.

And something told me this bolt hole wasn’t hardened against what I was about to dish out. That I could detect a power source at all told me whoever designed the place was relying on not being found as stealth tactic numero uno. Which didn’t do a damn bit of good if you got sloppy and let someone find you. At least I hoped CORVAC just got sloppy.

I held out my wrist computer and paused with my hand over a big red button I pulled up on the touch screen. I liked big red buttons. I didn’t pause because of any sort of hesitation or guilt over killing CORVAC. No. I knew there was a good chance he had a monitor hidden around here somewhere, and I wanted him to know what was hitting him and who was doing it before I pulled the trigger.

I pushed the button and the speakers played a satisfying click sound. My wrist computer started to make a high-pitched beeping noise, and a moment later the entire room flickered as the beeping stopped.

The change was almost instantaneous. The building flickered around us again, giant structures coming into view then disappearing. And then they appeared again as though a curtain was being pulled back, though it was a curtain of invisibility and not any traditional cloth variety.

"What was that?" Fialux asked.

I grinned. "Localized directional electromagnetic pulse. I had it go straight down on the gamble that CORVAC's actual hardware was hiding somewhere down there." I glanced around the room. "Looks like I was right too."

"Impressive."

I didn't respond. I looked down at my wrist computer and scanned for any of the telltale signs of CORVAC's positronic matrix brain. Only there was nothing. No energy signal either. I smiled and very nearly breathed a sigh of relief. It was a gamble that he hadn't bothered to harden his systems here because what were the chances I'd discover his little secret and come calling on him at his real home?

Hardening stuff was hard, expensive, and he was just overconfident enough to think it wasn't necessary since I would totally never figure out that all his hardware was actually located off-site.

Well I'd shown him, the digitized asshole.

My only regret was I didn't get to see the look on his self-satisfied screens as I fried his circuits for the last time.

My moment of distraction thinking of CORVAC's last moments, it would've been less than a second but that was an eternity in computer time and plenty of time for him to consider the error of fighting Night Terror, was when the attack came.

A flash of black slammed into me and I hit the ground sliding. I felt the wind knocked out of me. My reinforced suit might be enough to prevent damage when I was hit, but that didn't mean the laws of physics just stopped working. Getting hit with enough force could jostle me around inside the suit and really hurt, even with the inertial dampeners I'd added. It was the same old problem. I couldn't actually add anything large enough to completely shield me from everything that might hit me. Only enough to prevent glancing blows from doing serious damage, which was usually advantage enough.

I looked up and my eyes widened.

"Shadow Wing?"

A fist connected with my cheek and I spit out blood. Damn! That hurt!

I had to admit this reception was definitely not as fun as the last time Shadow Wing and I met, though it also wasn't entirely unexpected. Sure I was surprised to see her here, but I wasn't surprised at her reaction. It was all starting to fall into place.

"Shadow Wing," Fialux growled.

She looked like she was about to launch herself at Shadow Wing but I held up a hand. "Don't!"

Fialux hesitated, and that was all the time I needed. I moved my hand up and a stasis field shot out, surrounding Shadow Wing and preventing her from punching me in the face again.

Someone clapped from the other side of the room. I pushed Shadow Wing off of me and sat up. My eyes narrowed. My mouth fell open. I’d been expecting to meet someone here, but not this particular someone. I couldn’t believe it.

Chalk another one up for Night Terror. All of my suspicions were absolutely true! But at the same time erase one off the board for Night Terror. My suspicions were completely wrong.

"Rex?" Fialux said. "What are you doing here?"

“Rex?” I asked, the incredulity dripping from my voice. “Rex is your mysterious boyfriend?”

“Well… I…” Fialux mumbled and shook her head as though trying to clear something out.

Rex Roth. Sniveling weenie, famous reporter for the Starlight City News Network, well known around the world as the only man to get exclusive interviews with Fialux, and apparently a supervillain in his own right.

He clapped as he descended down the stairs from what could only be described as a lavish throne. When I say lavish we’re talking the kind of thing I'd be ashamed to sit on if I ever managed to take over the world. And as far as I know he hadn't even launched any plans to try and take over the world, or even the city for that matter. Talk about an overinflated sense of self-worth.

Not that I was surprised to see that coming from Rex Roth. The asshole.

"Bravo Selena," Rex said. "Bravo."

"What are you doing here Rex?"

He threw his arms out and gesturing to the giant lair surrounding him. The throne wasn't the only thing that was over the top. Banks of computers, all dark now, ran along one wall. On the other wall were giant monitors, presumably so he could keep tabs with what was going on in the city. Also dark now thanks to my directional EMP.

Basically it looked like a stupid journalism major's idea of how to configure an evil lair. It sucked, it wasn't very functional, but it was obvious he’d put a lot of work into it at least so I had to give him that.

"My darling Fialux," Rex said. "I'm sorry you had to see this before I was ready."

"Did you really think you could get away with this, Rex?" I asked.

I winced as I said it, though I wasn't really feeling any pain. But I needed to make sure and look like Shadow Wing had hit me good and hard if this was going to work. I needed to look weak and vulnerable. Weak and vulnerable couldn't hurt him. Weak and vulnerable wouldn't be plotting a way to eliminate him once and for all. I needed to use his massive ego against him.

"What are you talking about Night Terror?"

The sneer was obvious in his voice. He hated me almost as much as I hated him. The details aren't important. Let's just say one of my plans ended up humiliating the great Rex Roth in front of the entire world and leave it at that.

It might have involved him being terrified of one of my toys. That's all I'm going to say.

Maybe he peed his pants a little. Or a lot. While he was crying.

In the middle of a live report on national television.

"It really was a clever plan," I said.

Rex smiled and the puffed up a bit. "Why thank you," he said. "That's high praise indeed coming from the second-best villain in the city."

I bristled at that jab, but I kept up the act. There was a reason I was number one, and part of that was because I wouldn't let ego get in the way when it mattered. I just hoped that Rex would.

"What's she talking about Rex?" Fialux asked.

Rex walked over to Fialux. He reached a hand out and put it under her chin with a smile. His other hand came out. He held up something that looked chillingly familiar and yet slightly different from my design. It was a black box. With a big red button on the top. He pressed the button and it made a satisfying click. Immediately a humming filled the air and Fialux and Shadow Wing both went slack-jawed, swaying back and forth and staring at Rex with obvious worship in their eyes.

Confirmation piling on confirmation, but I still had to be careful. If I didn't play this right then it could all blow up in my face in a seriously bad way, especially if he had Fialux under his control again.

"Don't worry about what Night Terror's saying," Rex said.

Yup. He was definitely going for the double cross play. Turning the superhero against me and probably letting her rip me apart. Sure Fialux had that prohibition against killing people, but Rex didn't seem to have any pesky moral compass preventing him from ordering her to kill me. It was splitting morality hairs, but it was a hair splitting that might result in Fialux splitting me right down the middle with her super strength.

"Do you really think you can control her?" I asked.

"Is it any different from what you've done? Don't think I won't forget how you tried to steal my two favorite pets away from me."

"I did nothing of the sort," I said. "They're free to come and go as they please, and I'm certainly not giving any orders."

"Rex, what is she…"

Obviously Fialux was trying to break free. Of course she would. She was strong-willed, and he was trying to get her to do something she obviously didn’t want to. She was obviously confused. It’d be a hell of a lot harder for him to try and get her under control with that mind control pea shooter if he was trying to get her to go against her will.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about what she's saying. Just let Rex take care of this."

"Fialux, he’s using a mind control device like what CORVAC used on us back in the lab," I said.

That got her attention. She turned and looked at me, her eyes lidded as though she was sleepy, though it was obvious she was trying to break through. "What are you talking about?"

"That box he’s carrying in his hand. It’s a copy of a prototype that I built when I still worked at the university in the Applied Sciences department," I said. “I don’t know how he got ahold of that design, but it’s obvious he’s been using it on you and Shadow Wing.”

That certainly explained how a sniveling weenie like Roth was able to get the attention of a goddess like Fialux.

Rex smiled and his hand moved from under Fialux's chin to her cheek. Her eyes closed and she was gone again. "Don't believe that my darling Fialux. This is Night Terror. Your enemy. A villain. Are you going to believe your enemy over me?"

"I…"

"In fact darling," Rex said. "Don't you think it's time we take care of Night Terror once and for all?"

Fialux started at that, but she was still standing there with her eyes lidded and her mouth hanging open. She looked at me, then back to Rex. This was definitely asking her to go well above and beyond what the simple power of suggestion would allow for. He’d need a mind control device powered by the sun to get her to do that.

At least I hoped he would.

"Can't, kill…"

"But this wouldn't be killing," Rex said. "It would be removing a dangerous criminal. A dangerous criminal who keeps coming back no matter what you do."

"He's trying to control you now!" I said.

Fialux shook her head and then she was back. Her eyes open completely. Her mouth worked silently but was no longer just hanging open like she was trying to catch flies. Rex's eyes narrowed and he turned on me.

"You just had to interfere, didn't you? And I made the mistake of trusting that damn computer, thinking it could keep you under control," he said.

"So CORVAC was in on it?" I said.

"Yes! And it would've been the perfect plan too, if that bag of circuits hadn't screwed up!"

I glanced at Fialux. It seemed to be working. She was looking at good old Rex Roth like he'd sprung a second head and fangs. Good. She was breaking free of the device. Apparently he didn’t know exactly how it worked. Now I just had to keep him talking for a little longer. Long enough to let him hoist himself by his own petard with a villainous monologue.

"So what? You keep Fialux and Shadow Wing occupied and CORVAC keeps me tied up? Was that your plan?"

Rex shrugged. "Close enough. I keep the two greatest heroes in the city under my sway, CORVAC keeps the city's greatest supervillainess in check and makes sure you don't get too successful. We maintain the balance, run the city from the shadows through you three, and no one’s the wiser. Until that computer decided he wanted to be more front and center. The idiot."

"You've got that right. CORVAC was an idiot," I said.

"And he'd never shut up! Always whining about wanting to attack the city!"

"Tell me about it. He wouldn't shut up no matter how many times I told him he wasn't suited for combat."

"You think you had it bad? He was just playing at disobeying your orders. He actually disobeyed..."

Rex stopped and his eyes narrowed. I shook my head. Huh. Apparently Rex Roth and I had at least one thing in common. Hatred of CORVAC. But it wasn't enough to save him.

He took a step towards me, his fist raised and I had to hold back a laugh. If he thought he was going to get me by getting physical then he had another thing coming. It’s not like he had super strength or anything that would actually be useful in a fight. Mainly because if he did have any of those powers then I'd have them as well, and I'd already tested that extensively.

No, he was just a normal who happened to have a machine augmented charisma score.

Then his fist loosened. He looked at it, then back to me. A smile broke out his across his face.

"But there's nothing saying I can't keep on with the original plan even if that damn computer managed to fail, right?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

He took a step towards me, that smile still on his face. It looked like he was trying to turn on the charm full power, but as I looked at him I still saw the same sniveling, skinny bag of slop that I hated so much. Was he really trying to use the mind control device on me?

"It doesn't have to be like this Night Terror," he said. "You could join in my little harem."

"Are you crazy?"

The smile slipped. Was he really expecting the mind control device to work on me? Hadn’t he noticed I was standing here talking to him, insulting him, rather than standing around slack-jawed looking at him like he was the best thing since the invention of subatomic matter teleportation? Which I invented thank you very much.

It appeared I was in luck. It appeared my assessment of Rex Roth was still very much true. He was an idiot. Of course I don’t know why I expected a journalist to notice subtle detail. Whatever. That was his mistake and not my problem.

He was good, I'll give him that. No sooner had his smile slipped then it was back in full force and he leaned down with his hands over his knees so he was on the same level as me.

"Not orders Night Terror. You'll want to do my bidding. You'll think it's the most wonderful thing in the world. Doesn't that sound nice?"

"So that's your plan for world domination?" I asked. "Take influential women under your control and force them to do your bidding?"

The smile slipped again. "Why isn't this working? Of course that's my plan! And it's not like I'm doing anything wrong. They're happy. Content. Right baby?"

He turned Fialux and I turned to face her as well. Damn it. She was standing there again staring at Rex with rapt adoration. I turned to Shadow Wing who was still floating in the stasis field, though she'd long ago stopped struggling and was staring at Rex with the same doe eyes as Fialux. They were too far gone, there was nothing for it.

"And now that CORVAC failed your big plan is to use mind control on me?" I asked.

"Of course," Rex said. "Why not?"

"There's just one little problem with that plan," I said.

His eyebrows lowered in a puzzled expression and he shook his head. He threw his arms out and let out a villainous cackle that I had to admire. At least he was going to go out on a high note. "What could possibly be wrong with that plan?"

“Haven’t you noticed how we’ve been sitting here chatting since you turned that thing on?”

“I…”

“You didn’t think it was odd that I’m standing here insulting you like always instead of bowing down to worship at your stinky feet the moment you hit that switch?”

“Um…”

"The only problem is you're trying to use your powers on the person who invented that. You’re using a second rate knockoff on somebody who has an immunity to that thing built right into her ear canals, not that you probably knew it used sound. You always were an idiot."

That got his attention.

I raised my wrist blaster. His head lowered from the cackle and his eyes widened, but it was already too late. Oh yes, he'd seen me use the wrist blaster countless times before. He'd seen exactly what kind of damage it could do. He was the great Rex Roth, the only journalist brave enough to cover supervillains and the heroes who fought them.

"No!"

He tripped over his own feet as he scrambled up and turned to run. Unfortunately he turned to run directly away from me instead of jumping to the side.

“You should’ve paid better attention in Surviving A Heroic Intervention, Rex,” I said as he scrambled away. In a straight line. “Rule number one. You can’t outrun the speed of light.”

Rex’s final terrified cry still hung in the air as the disintegration beam shot out. The beam made contact with his body and a moment later there was nothing but disassociated molecules that used to be Rex Roth.

I stood and brushed off my suit just in case some of those molecules happened to get on me before they dispersed. The last thing I needed was Rex Roth molecular remnants getting on me.

Yuck.

Fialux might have a policy, but I wasn't above taking out the trash when it was obvious it needed to be done.

Fialux collapsed to the ground as Rex disintegrated and let out a cry. I crawled over to her and rolled her over. She was breathing heavily, her eyes were squeezed shut. Shit. Did taking out Rex do something to her? Was there something about his control that was going to screw her up now that it was dropped so suddenly? That hadn’t happened before when I used the thing, but I was using a Night Terror original and he was using a cheap knockoff no doubt made by whoever was passing around my old technology.

As I looked at her on the ground with her eyes squeezed shut I was thankful that my implants gave me immunity from his power. Otherwise I'd probably be standing here under his thrall right now as well.

Double yuck.

I shook Fialux. "Fialux! Wake up!"

Her eyes opened and she looked up at me.

She smiled. "Where's Rex?"

"Rex won't bother anybody ever again," I said.

Her eyebrows lowered. "No killing."

I put a finger to her lips. "That's your rule, not mine. I might be playing for the other team now, but that doesn't mean I'm going to play by all of your rules."

"What about Shadow Wing?"

I looked over to Shadow Wing who was floating in the air slumped over. Hurriedly I deactivated the stasis field and she floated to the ground. I ran over and checked her pulse, wondering if maybe the same thing that had just caused Fialux with her superpowers to collapse would be enough to completely incapacitate a mere mortal. But no, there was definitely a pulse there. At my touch her eyes opened and she looked up at me and smiled.

"Night Terror," she muttered. "Never thought I'd be so happy to see you leaning over me."

"Thanks. I think."

Shadow Wing squeezed her eyes shut. "Where's Rex?"

"He's a pile of Rex molecules floating on the breeze."

Shadow Wing opened her eyes and grinned, a predatory grin that had even me leaning back.

"Good," she said with a growl. "The asshole deserved it."

Shadow Wing sat up and her eyes narrowed as she saw Fialux standing only a few feet away.

"You," she growled. Apparently she was in a growling mood.

Oh shit. I’d been so preoccupied with finding Fialux’s secret identity that I forgot Shadow Wing seemed to hate her for some reason. Not good. Not good at all.

"Now hold on you two."

I held up my hands ready to pull them off of one another. Not that there was much I could do if they did decide to get into the world's most super powered fight with me in between them. I figured the only thing I could possibly do was make sure I was well out of the way while Shadow Wing took her beat down.

"You," Fialux growled back.

Okay, so it looked like Fialux hated Shadow Wing just as much. That sounded like something that went far beyond professional rivalry. Crap.

"Are you two forgetting the whole Rex Roth trying to take over the world by manipulating the two of you thing?" I asked.

Shadow Wing ran towards me and I dove out of the way with a yelp of surprise. I saw a green blur as Fialux moved into action. There wasn't a chance I was getting between those two if they were going to throw down. Sure I had my combat suit on and I'd already proven I could go toe to toe with Fialux no problem, at least for a little while, but this wasn't my fight.

I just hoped the damage wasn't too bad.

I hunkered down with my hands over my neck, not unlike those old videos you saw of people hiding under desks with arms crossed over their heads as though that was going to save them from an atomic blast, and waited for the fallout.

Giggling.

I opened one eye. That definitely didn't sound like the beatdown I was expecting. To say what I saw was surprising would be a mild understatement.

Fialux and Shadow Wing floated in the air, Shadow Wing's legs wrapped around Fialux's and both of them giggling with their arms around each other as they looked into one another's eyes.

Holy shit.

25: New Beginnings

I guess that explained why they seemingly hated each other so much. I thought it was a little weird they were so angry that they decided to split the city up rather than risk running into each other. But when you looked at it from the point of view of a nasty breakup rather than a couple of friends getting mad over someone poaching their man suddenly it made a lot more sense.

Fialux leaned in and planted a kiss firmly on Shadow Wing. I couldn't help but feel a stab of jealousy, though I suppose I didn't really have much space to be jealous. After all, I'd been with both of them at one point or another over the past few months. It's not like I was exclusive with either of them, or like I was a paragon of fidelity for that matter.

But still, it hurt a little to see them smiling at each other and kissing like that.

"You're a couple?"

Fialux’s face clouded for a moment. Hell, Shadow Wing even looked confused for the briefest of moments. As though a bit of the mind control Roth was using on them was returning. He must’ve really worked them over good.

“We…” Fialux started.

“I…” Shadow Wing said. She looked at Fialux as though seeing her for the first time again.

“We were a couple,” Fialux said. “But I couldn’t remember for some reason.”

“We are a couple,” Shadow Wing said. “I just hated her for some reason, but I couldn’t remember why. I couldn’t remember being with her.”

“Every time I started thinking about her, thinking about you,” Fialux nodded to me on that last bit. “I’d get a phone call or I’d get this weird fuzzy feeling in my head and suddenly I couldn’t remember anything. I couldn’t think of anything but Rex.”

Well that certainly explained why she was playing hot and cold the entire semester. No sooner would she start talking to me, flirting a little bit, than she got a call from that controlling asshole Rex for a little refresher on her daily mind control regimen. I’m sure he didn’t want her having any thoughts that he wasn’t putting in her head.

I got a chill thinking about it. Thinking about how horrible it was that they were obviously in love with each other and Roth made them forget all about it. He made them forget their entire orientation. And that explained why he was so annoyed with me. He had a perfect little mind controlled world and then I stumble into it and blow things up by inadvertently seducing one of his marks and trying my damndest to seduce the other.

It gave me no small sense of satisfaction knowing I was annoying Rex Roth without even trying, but this also put what he’d done in a horrible new light. If he was using his powers to break them up, to make them forget they were even in love with each other, well that made me all the more glad that I'd vaporized him. He was an even bigger asshole than I could've imagined.

“What an asshole,” I muttered.

They looked down at me. Fialux with a smile on her face, and Shadow Wing with that typical neutral look that I was starting to take for her normal expression. She didn't seem like one who smiled too often.

“Yeah, he pretty much was terrible,” Fialux said.

“Probably a good thing you vaporized him,” Shadow Wing said. That earned her a playful slap from Fialux.

“Of course we’re not exactly a couple,” Shadow Wing continued.

"Not exactly," Fialux said.

"Yeah," Shadow Wing said. "Not anymore at least."

“Not anymore?”

“Couple implies there’s just the two of us in this relationship,” Shadow Wing said.

Shadow Wing turned to Fialux and for a change she actually smiled. I have to say it was a gorgeous smile, though it did look a little odd after seeing nothing but glowering before. Well, glowering and of course her face screwed up in pleasure when we were together.

Fialux grinned. “And we’ve kinda found another girl recently who we really like. Who sort of just saved us from an evil supervillain which is totally heroic and hot…”

Both turned to look at me. A grin split Fialux's face, not looking out of place at all, and another grin crossed Shadow Wing's face. That did look a little out of place, but I'd take it.

They floated towards me and I smiled and blushed. Then they were on me and I was wrapped in their arms and it felt amazing. I felt tears coming to my eyes the emotion of the moment was so overwhelming. I squeezed them against me and wanted to hold them there forever.

Night Terror. Greatest supervillainess the world had ever known. And all I wanted was to be with these two heroines. All they wanted was to be with me. It’s amazing the twists and turns life takes.

We stayed like that embracing each other in the middle of that warehouse that was now nothing more than a tomb to Rex Roth's outsized villainous ambitions.

Only it wasn't just a tomb. It was also a beginning. The beginning of something wonderful between Fialux, Shadow Wing, and me. With these two in my arms I felt ready to take on the world.

26: New Sheriffs

The sun shone down on a bright day at the university. The sound of construction went on steadily off in the distance where the school was putting together some of the buildings CORVAC crushed on his rampage through the city. Luckily the University had a pretty hefty insurance policy in case of super powered disasters.

As I always did when I heard the construction I thought back to CORVAC. I wondered about that megalomaniacal computer. Sure he'd been a jerk, sure he'd been sarcastic, sure his last act had been to try and kill me, but there were still times I missed his sarcastic jabs. There were still times I wondered if he was actually really gone. Somehow it seemed too easy that a simple EMP blast was enough to take him out.

Then again, he did have the hubris of a class A villain. That meant both that it was entirely possible I'd actually defeated him with a glaring weakness like that, and that it was also easily possible such a glaring weakness would turn out to be not so glaring and he'd pop up at the worst possible moment sometime in the future.

But best not to think about that right now. I was trying to enjoy my lunch.

"What are you thinking about?" Selena asked.

I smiled at her. She ended up getting an A on the midterm exam, and it was an A I was more than happy to give her. Her paper on why heroes intervening in a supervillain's business caused more problems than it fixed had been amazing, bringing up points I hadn't even thought of. Of course she admitted to me that she didn't believe a word of it, but what mattered was that she was able to expand her mind long enough to get the words on paper. And I’m not talking about the sort of mind expansion that the journalism majors I knew when I was in undergrad were always going on about.

"Oh nothing really," I said. "Just thinking about how we got together."

"How we got together means nothing to you?" she said with a faint smile on her face.

I resisted the urge to reach out and smack her, both because it would have looked odd to the students and professors sitting around us at the food court and because I knew it wouldn't do a damn bit of good anyways.

"You know what I mean," I said.

"It might've been nothing for the two of you," Caitlin said. "But it was no picnic for me getting stuck with Roth while you were off saving the city from Natalie's giant robot buddy."

I grinned and reached out to pat Caitlin's hand and she favored me with a smile that wasn't so rare when she wasn't wearing the mask. It still boggled my mind that Shadow Wing, the second greatest hero in the city, was none other than Caitlin Thomas, heir to the billionaire Thomas fortune. Though it certainly explained how she was able to afford all those wonderful toys she got to play with.

And it also turned out to be a good thing for me. It turns out once I decided to turn over a new leaf and stop doing things like robbing banks for funds, even if I was in the habit of robbing the organized crime banks so it's not like I was really being bad, meant I was suddenly without the cash to pay for some of the toys I liked to play with. It was definitely an unintended consequence of going legitimate I hadn't anticipated, and it was an unintended consequence Caitlin had generously helped me with.

Because I can tell you, my new job as a full-time professor in the journalism department certainly wasn't enough to pay the super science bills.

Sure it eventually came out that I was teaching the class without a lick of appropriate credentials, but at the same time everybody in my Journalism 105 class had survived CORVAC’s rampage through the university without a scratch despite a direct hit on the journalism building. The department decided they couldn't argue with the results and offered me a full-time teaching position.

Of course I was pretty sure the Thomas family offering a grant to the journalism department that covered exactly the cost of my full-time position plus a promise to pay for a new building if the school kept the position and did more to improve the survivability of journalism students in Starlight City.

Not to mention the unofficial mandate to make sure that no more journalism students with megalomaniacal ambitions managed to slip through the cracks.

"So what time do you to get out of class today?" Caitlin asked.

"My last class is over at four," Selena said.

"I'm probably going to be stuck in the office until around 3:30," I replied.

"Any idea what we should get for dinner tonight?" Caitlin asked.

I was in the mood for Chinese, but I didn't get a chance to give voice to that thought because just as I opened my mouth there was a loud explosion off in the distance. I turned in the direction of the noise even as people around us started screaming and running in the opposite direction. Most of the students on campus had learned their lesson: super powered disasters definitely could happen anywhere.

The construction around campus was proof enough of that.

I turned just in time to catch a glimpse of whatever it was. Or, it would probably be more accurate to say I turned in time to catch the second whatever it was tearing through the atmosphere and slamming into the city off in the distance. There was another loud explosion followed by debris rising up, and then smoke.

Yeah, something was definitely going down over there.

I pulled out my wrist computer and did a few quick calculations, then looked up. Just in time to see another one fly overhead, tearing through the atmosphere and causing windows to rattle around us as it landed closer to the university. People screamed and started sprinting in the opposite direction. What had been an orderly evacuation of the university was rapidly becoming a panicked terrified flight.

Off in the distance there was an eerie humming noise and a saucer shaped object rose from the smoke and debris. It was off in the distance, so I pulled up one of my roving drones that I kept floating over the city for just such an occasion. A holoprojection jumped up from my wrist and Fialux and Shadow Wing leaned in and peered closely at it. I figured it was safe enough to pull the projection up. It's not like anyone was paying attention to us anyways.

Yup, definitely a flying saucer of some sort. As we watched the three-dimensional holoprojection an arm stuck out from the bottom, rotated slightly, and blasts of some sort of energy started flying. The sound of a crackling energy weapon followed by booming explosions reached us a few seconds after the light from the projection.

I rolled my eyes. "Alien invasion."

Fialux sighed. "Damn it, I was hoping for Italian tonight."

Shadow Wing grinned. "There'll be plenty of time for that after we kicked ET's ass."

I grinned. She did have a point. There was nothing like getting a good workout in before dinner.

I stood and ripped my blouse aside, buttons flying in every direction, my Night Terror logo appearing on my suit underneath. Fialux stood and did the same, and picked up Shadow Wing whose costume was materializing around her thanks to a bit of portable teleporter technology I gave her.

It was time to get to work.

Epilogue: Damn Applied Sciences Department

The receptionist in the main office of the Applied Sciences Department looked up with the practiced disinterest of someone who was used to seeing people coming and going all day long. The smile froze on her face as she got a good look at me standing there in my Night Terror outfit though. My mouth quirked up in a half smile.

“Night Terror!” she breathed.

Her hand shot out for the phone but I shot out a localized stasis field that held her hand in place. No phone pesky phone calls to campus police. I leaned over her desk and my half smile turned to a full grin.

“Someone from this department has been giving away some of my old things, and I don’t like that,” I said. “And I’m not leaving until I find out who that unlucky soon-to-be vaporized son-of-a-bitch is.”

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