Saving Supervillains 1 Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Stella stood up and stepped around the table, now brimming with confidence.

My support seemed to have made the difference to her.

Ben and Rachel tried to call out to stop her, but I gave them a look to let them know she’d be okay.

Stella was one of the few standing, and not cowering under a table, so she quickly caught the notice of one of the bactimen.

It flung its sticky green goop body at her, neglecting to even reach, just letting its body to the work.

Stella put her hands forward, so that they were the first things to touch as the bactimen came at her. Her hands sunk into its chest.

Watching with my abilities, I saw what happened next, though others wouldn’t.

The ki throughout the bactiman was ripped out and draining into Stella. It took a moment, but the bactiman fell apart, turning into simple slime on the floor.

It was dead; the bacteria had collapsed without ki sustaining them. They were reliant on ki to survive, which meant Stella could take them all out.

A bactiman exploded nearby as a caped super flew into the club. “Fear not, citizens. Dynama is on the scene!” The super shouted before she punched another bactiman.

There was a muffled boom before that bactiman exploded as well, and Dynama jumped off the floor to tackle another one.

Despite the impressive power behind her attacks, the splatter of bactimen was still alive. I watched as it dribbled across the floor back towards the other pieces of itself. And then started oozing towards the dancefloor. The dancers had created a ring trying to defend themselves.

Gurgle.

A spec of splatter near me made a series of bubbles as it rolled on after the rest.

“Stella, you need to help her. She’s only slowing them.” I urged her.

Stella was flexing her hands. I noticed that they looked a little red from where they had been in the bactimen.

“I got it. You stay safe.” Stella winked at me, clearly enjoying that I had to play dumb with my powers as she launched herself across the dance floor, taking out another bactiman by draining it of power.

“Miles, is your date a hero?” Rachel asked with wide eyes.

A genuine smile crossed my lips. “Nope. Not even close.” She was technically a villain, and seeing her do more good than the present hero brought a smile to my face.

Even a villain can help people more than a hero. I couldn’t wait to point that out to Kim if I saw her again, although I was hoping our interactions were done.

I cringed as I watched a wave of scattered bactimen rise above the crowd on the dance floor and crash over them.

The slime rose up from the dance floor, forming into one massive bactiman. The group that had been on the dancefloor was floating in its torso, screaming as they clutched their arms and stomachs, their bodies dissolving before our eyes.

The massive bactiman was digesting them right then and there. It was a gruesome scene to watch.

Dynama jumped into action, throwing another one of her explosive packed punches.

But the large bactiman ripped a pillar from the stage and caught her in the side, sending the hero flying through the divider wall.

Dynama’s body blew right through the wall, continuing until she had shattered dozens of bottles of liquor on the back wall behind the bar.

The shelves collapsed, and more sounds of glass breaking caused us all to look, waiting with bated breath to see if she’d crawl back up from behind the bar for another round.

But Dynama didn’t show herself again.

Meanwhile, Stella had finished off a few more of the lone bactimen before the large one paid a little closer attention to her, swinging for the fences once again.

“Stella!” I shouted, hoping to warn her.

But she didn’t move, except to raise her hand.

The large bactimen’s pillar came to a dead stop. Stella had her fingers sunken into the pillar, then she tore it out of the bactiman’s hand and tossed it on the ground.

Strutting forward, looking hot as hell, a pair of red bat wings fanned out from Stella’s back and she jumped, giving her wings a few flaps before she landed on the large bactiman, her head brushing the metal rafters.

The bactiman tried to grab at her, but she kept herself stable above it as she sunk her hands into its neck.

Ki drained out of it, the edges of the bactiman sloughing off as the bacteria collapsed and died.

Bactimen were actually pretty low on density of organic mass, which meant they were also pretty light on ki.

She drained the massive bactiman quickly. Its mass continued to fall off, making it shrink until it was just a pile of slime on the dance floor with a number of dancers curled up in the fetal position, their bodies covered in slime and skin worn. A few coughed slime out of their lungs as the crowd swarmed in to help.

I grabbed my group now that the coast was clear. “We need to get out of here. More might be coming.”

We ducked out from under the table, a cheer going up around us as everybody focused on Stella. She stood victorious among the mess.

But despite all the eyes, she was only focused on one thing, and that was me. She bit her lip, clearly wanting me to be proud of her.

Sighing, and knowing I was digging myself into a deeper hole, I gave her a thumbs up.

Her face lit up as she did a little happy dance, bounding her way over to us. The second she got close, I pulled her in and quickly wove our group through the crowd and out of the club.

Emergency vehicles were lining up outside.

“Sir. What’s the situation?” An officer grabbed me roughly by my shirt.

Stella got in his way instantly, lifting him up off the ground, anger painting her face. “Hands off. The bactimen are gone, but there are a lot of hurt people.”

The cop looked scared. He wasn’t even a C class super. Stella’s power was so far beyond him, he looked like he might pee himself.

“Come on. Let’s go.” I pulled her off the cop and was thankful when he didn’t pursue us. Instead, his partner grabbed him and led the rest of the emergency services down into the club.

“Did you see that?” Mary gawked at Stella. “You are so fucking badass.”

“It wasn’t much. Without Miles, I wouldn’t be able to do what I did.” She blushed, and the wings disappeared.

“Yeah, without Miles.” Mary gave me a conspiratorial wink.

I wasn’t sure how they were interpreting it, but it seemed to be off from the truth, so I didn’t care much. At least my secret was safe.

“I think this is enough for me tonight.” I apologized to the girls and Ben. “We are going to head home.”

Stella did a double take at ‘we’ and smiled so wide, I thought her face was going to split.

I sighed. I’d already determined I needed to watch over her until she got her power more under control. It didn’t mean anything, although I had a feeling she didn’t think that. Based on Ben’s face, he didn’t think so either.

“See you guys later.” Stella pulled me away eagerly. “I could fly us to your place.”

“You’d what? Princess carry me?” I grumbled. If I wanted to fly, I could fly myself.

“Oh, you don’t like that sort of thing?” She asked.

Sighing, I kept walking, sticking my hands in my pocket. Women often had two powers, which meant statistically women, on average, had stronger powers than men.

Maybe it was a little of an old school mindset, but I liked to do things myself.

“I don’t like being carried. But we can walk to my place from here. It’s this way.” Turning down Baker, I headed north. It was maybe a twenty-five minute walk, but that was still walkable.

“So… uh…” Stella hesitated.

I checked to make sure none of the girls or Ben were behind us. “We aren’t doing anything. I’m going to sleep. I’ll top you off in the morning, and then you are going to call the BSH.”

“Uh… I’m a super villain.” Stella reminded me.

“The reason I met you in the manor was because there’s a bounty on you to get on the phone with them. The Bureau wants your help with the bactimen, and from what I just saw, you could really help them.” I didn’t particularly want to help the Bureau, but I had to admit that the bactimen seemed like a genuine threat to the city.

Tonight felt like the beginning of something bigger. They were more organized than before, and they’d gone hunting. Far from the sewer cleaning bacteria, some of the news had called it.

“Okay, if that’s what you want me to do.” Stella nodded. I couldn’t believe how much she trusted me when she’d just met me.

It was starting to feel like I had just adopted a lost puppy.

“Will you be there to help me then, too?” Stella asked.

Groaning, I rubbed my palms into my brow. “Sure, I’ll help you with some of this. But Stella, I’m not going to be around to help you for long.”

I didn’t enjoy having to say it, but it was best that I didn’t mislead her. We would not settle down into some fairy tale romance. I wasn’t that type.

She went quiet in response, and I gave her time to think.

While we walked, I inspected the leak in her super power again, trying to add a patch, but it just kept sucking up the ki.

“How are you feeling, Stella? Your abilities in functioning order?”

“Yeah, they feel fine, great even.” She flexed her hands. They no longer looked pink, but her leather jacket was ragged at the sleeves where the bactiman had digested some of it.

There were also a few new holes in the designer clothes, but at least it matched.

We got to my place, and I waved at the doorman as we walked past.

“Evening, Mr. Mathers. Lovely date you have there. Don’t think I’ve seen you bring one home before.” He focused on Stella. “You must be a special lady.” Steve the doorman tipped his hat.

“Can’t get anything past you, Steve.” I gave him a wink as he opened the door and gave me a grand gesture, trying to earn the large tips I gave him.

Steve was a good person. He was a hardworking type who wasn’t given nearly what he deserved, and I had no problem giving him a little something extra.

“Evening to you too, Steve.” Stella gave him a bright smile before following after me.

We walked through the marble lobby, passing a big, stately dark wood front desk.

Mark, the security guard, saw me and went back to work watching the cameras. He wasn’t the type to spark up conversation like Steve.

“This place is nice.” Stella twirled, taking in the stately marble lobby before focusing back on following me.

“Yeah, well, I do okay.” It also helped that I might have done a few things for money, well, a lot of money once upon a time. But that was well behind me.

My skills and power had made it easy to acquire some money when I was young, stupid, and full of anger at the world. Now I focused on more legitimate money, working as a Sr. Manager in the marketing firm.

Stepping into the elevator, I hit the button for the sixth floor. We rode it up in silence, and I appreciated that Stella was giving me the slightest bit of space, no longer clinging to me.

The elevator dinged, and I walked down the short hall to my apartment.

The place was nice, but it was also simple. I liked to think of myself as a minimalist, but the truth was I just spent little time in the apartment.

“You’ll take the couch tonight. It folds down.” I stepped over and showed it to her.

Stella nodded the whole time. “You know, I can’t figure you out.”

“What’s there to figure out?”

“You are nice, like a genuine good person, yet you push everyone else away. What are you afraid of?”

“Nothing.” I replied, not liking where the conversation was going.

“See, I believe that. You walked into that manor, where dozens had died, without batting an eye. You helped me when you could have just left me to flounder. But you keep this wall up.”

She eyed me. “You might be more broken than me.”

I didn’t like how much she was picking up. “Here are some blankets.” I pulled them out of the closet, turning to find her right behind me, her head tilted.

“You’re ignoring what I’m saying. That means I’m getting close.”

I frowned. “What happened to the girl that didn’t know social norms a few hours ago?”

She shrugged. “Shell shocked. Lots of new things, like being in a crowd. But I used to be a normal-ish person at one point. And I was pretty good at reading people.”

I turned, walking to put the blankets on the bed. She followed, continuing to talk. “Plus, you helped me. So I’m determined to help you right back.”

“Help me?” I asked incredulously. “With what?”

“Living.” She smirked.

I let out a belly laugh, my eyes squeezing closed. “That’s a good one. I’m living just fine. Now, it’s been a long day, and you need to be rested to get on the call with the BSH tomorrow.”

She sat down on the bed, gripping the blankets up to her chest. “Miles, I can recognize the sort of pain you are going through. You lost someone or something, and you refuse to let yourself connect to anyone other than superficial relationships like your colleagues.” She waited for me to argue with her, but I was done with the conversation.

“Have a good night, Stella.”

Turning, I left her in the living room with a bundle of blankets before entering my room and closing the door. I made sure to click the lock closed loudly.

I took a deep breath, pushing back down the feelings that were surfacing from her words.

I had to get rid of her.

“Miles, you can’t hide from whatever it is forever.” She called through the door.

I didn’t reply, but I’d kept it suppressed this long. I could handle Stella for a night.

Tomorrow I’d pawn Stella off to BSH and she’d be their problem. And my life would continue on as normal.