Saving Supervillains 1 Chapter 7 (Patreon)

“Morning.” Stella sang as I unlocked and opened my bedroom door to the smell of only slightly burnt pancakes.

I didn’t have pancake mix, and I was pretty sure I didn’t even have milk for her to make them from scratch.

“How did you make pancakes?” I grumbled, tapping a little chemical energy into my body and speeding up my mind.

“I went to the store.” She said, coming over to the table with a fat stack of pancakes and putting them down next to syrup, which was also foreign to my home. None of these were burnt. I had to imagine there were a few failed first attempts in the trash.

I squinted at her, wondering where she got the money. “Did you take my wallet?”

“Why would I need that?” Her brow pressed down in confusion.

“To pay for the pancake mix?”

“I — uh—” she stalled, and her face shifted to a look of horror. “I’m not used to paying for groceries. Usually people are pretty distracted, dying around me and all. So I try to keep moving.” She finally admitted.

I slapped my palm against my forehead hard enough to rattle the silverware on the table. “So, right before you talk to the BSH, you decided to go and steal pancake mix and syrup.”

“And orange juice.” She added.

“That makes all the difference.” I said sarcastically.

She winced. “I fucked up.”

“Yes, you fucked up. No stealing, rule number three.” I laid down even more rules for her. But I had to admit, the pancakes were tempting.

“But I appreciate the effort. I’ll eat these and then we’ll call the BSH.” I tried to pretend like I was doing her a favor, but damn, the pancakes smelled delicious.

Stella nodded her head obediently. Her emotional intelligence was pretty keen, but her situational intelligence left me unimpressed.

I grunted as I ate the first bite of pancakes. They melted in my mouth, and I had to suppress a groan. I looked up, and something told me she’d read the look on my face as she smiled, pleased with herself.

Finishing quickly, I went to find my pants from the night before. They had the number to call at the BSH. I dialed it into my phone.

It rang four times, and I was worried no one was going to pick up.

“BSH tip line. If you are calling about the lockdown, I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but it is necessary to ensure the safety of our citizens. Your safety is always our number one priority. This is Marge. How can I help?” The woman was clearly on autopilot, and she sounded battered. I had a feeling public opinion on the lockdown must be harsh.

“Uh. I’m not calling about the lockdown, I’m calling about a bounty.”

“Great!” She perked up. “Which bounty?”

“New one, for a call from Demon?”

“Do you have him there?” Marge asked.

“Her. Demon is a Demoness.” I clarified. “And yes, I have her here.”

“One moment then.” Marge went quiet on the line.

About ten seconds later, a tired Kim came on the line. “Hello, is this Demon?”

Not about to talk to her, I handed the phone to Stella, who juggled it in surprise. “Uh, hello?”

There was squeaking on the other end of the phone, and I didn’t bother trying to listen in.

I listened as Stella replied ‘no’ to some questions, ‘yes’ to others, and then ‘absolutely not’ to a final one. And she was clearly growing angry at the most recent questions.

“Yes, one.” She looked at me when she answered the last bit, as if it involved me.

“Yes, we can do that. I’ll see you shortly.” Stella ended the call and handed me back my phone. I had picked up on the use of ‘we’ in her latest answer.

Stella added, “We’re supposed to meet them in Rogers Park in a half an hour.”

“We?” I frowned as I drank the last of the orange juice. “Pretty sure you are the one that is a super.”

Stella’s face turned disappointed. “You said you would help me with this.”

I paused with the orange juice halfway to my mouth, replaying my words to her back in the manor. And I realized I had said I’d help. I cursed, taking another swig of orange juice.

“Fine. We need to get going if we are going to make it in time.” I pushed off the table and grabbed my shoes.

Stella bounced excitedly and followed suit, getting on a pair of cute booties that I didn’t remember her having the night before, and I definitely did not own.

She looked up, catching me watching her shoes, and she smiled sheepishly.

***

Rogers Park was the dead center of the city; it was a sprawling park roughly in the shape of a figure eight.

Normally it was busy with office goers out and about, trying to get some sunshine and fresh air as they talked on their phone.

But that’s not what it looked like today.

Military uniforms dotted the park, and several large command tents were set up, along with another hanging a large red cross. It was a field hospital, if I had to guess. Which was a little funny. Something told me that the bactimen were not following the Geneva Convention.

And countries had their own issues internally that kept them from fighting with each other now. No one could even live outside the cities with the number of monsters that thrived in what used to be rural areas of the country.

We may have threats like the Bactimen, but we also had the manpower to combat them. Outside the city, it was rough.

“Excuse me. We are supposed to meet Kim Smith.” I grabbed the nearest person who looked to be more than a grunt.

“Name?” She pulled out her phone.

“Demon.” I told her.

She gave me an odd look and then appraised Stella. As she took in the black horns curling over Stella’s head and the spaded tail that flit between her legs, she seemed to back off.

Her phone chimed after a second. “Okay, head to that big tent there in the middle. You’ll see Kim.” She hurried off to whatever her task had been, but she gave us a little more respect after that text.

“You heard her, to the tent.” I pushed forward, happy to move along and be done with all the nonsense.

Heroes stepped out of the tent as we walked up, splitting up and taking off into the sky on whatever mission they had been assigned.

“Miles.” Kim caught me as I stepped around the heroes and pulled back the flap. “What are you doing here?”

“I decided to check out that note you gave me on my own. This is Demon.” I gestured to Stella next to me.

“Maybe we’ll have to rename you Demoness. You look nothing like the pictures we had been given.” Kim frowned.

I didn’t want there to be any problems. “Those pictures depicted a dried up husk with two black horns? That’s how I found her.”

Kim nodded, still holding onto a frown, but she waved for both of us to follow her as she went to the back of the tent where a little room was sectioned off.

A graying, yet fit man sat there in military uniform. I had a feeling the icons on his uniform depicted some sort of high rank, although what that was, I had no idea.

He had a pair of spectacles barely hanging onto his nose as he read off of a laptop that looked like it could survive a nuclear warhead.

A woman in a white lab coat was poring over a laptop as well. She didn’t even notice our entrance.

“This is General Patton, and this is one of our lead scientists helping with the bactimen situation.” Kim introduced the two of them before introducing us. “This is Demon, and Miles from the marketing agency.”

General Patton gave a gruff hello while the scientist finally looked up and squinted at both of us.

I could tell instantly that she was an eccentric and brilliant woman. And she had some sort of superpower that helped her with her job, and possibly made her a bit mad. I could see the ki swirling all around her brain.

There was often a thin line between brilliance and madness. Those that danced it were often called mad scientists regardless of which side they normally stood on.

“Take a seat, you two. We’ll need to go through a few questions.” Kim smiled politely at both of us.

“The only thing I want to know is how effective is she at taking out Bactimen.” The general laid his glasses down on his laptop, as if taking them off would help him read us better.

“Actually, she fought some last night at ‘The Underground’. You may have gotten a report? She was there and dealt with them herself.” I championed her.

If nothing else, I wanted to make sure they knew she was effective. That way, they’d take her off my hands.

“Really?” The scientist looked up. “Can you describe what functionality you possess to disable the bactimen?” She asked Stella.

“Uh. I just touch them and they fall apart.” Stella stated, a little unsure of herself.

The scientist seemed disappointed.

Putting my hand on her shoulder, I stepped in. “Her power seems to drain energy, or life force, from its victims. Dynama was ineffective. Her punches just made them take longer to reform. When Demon touched them, they just became inert puddles.”

“Yes, I saw the samples from that attack.” The scientist nodded. “All samples showed one hundred percent degradation of the super bacteria that made up the bactimen.”

“One hundred percent?” The general perked up. “Even some of the pyros we have running around only have done ninety-nine percent.”

“Ninety-nine point eight.” The scientist clarified.

General Patton made a gruff noise at being corrected. “Either way, this is what we need, isn’t it?”

Kim cleared her throat, and both the general and the scientist snapped their mouths shut. I was impressed. She held more pull than I had thought.

“She has to pass a psych eval before I’ll put her in the field. Then there is the situation of management.”

Patton groaned. “Get that figured out and get her out there. The city needs her, and the mayor is all over my ass to get this squashed so we can lift the lockdown. I don’t care if she’s cracked in the head. We need to get rid of the infection below the city today, or else…” He cut off suddenly, looking at me. “Get it done.”

The general pushed off the table, standing to go do something. He seemed like a man of action.

“Roberts, would you like to run any tests?” Kim asked the scientist.

“I’d just like a video from the event at ‘The Underground’ last night to confirm she was the one who killed those bactimen.”

“You got it.” Kim tapped away at her phone. “One of my girls will get it and send it to you shortly.” Kim focused back on Stella. “You come with me.”

“Thank you. I’ll be on my way.” I stood, having not been addressed.

“Hold up.” Kim said, and I paused, my heart clenching. I’d hoped I could just slip away.

Kim studied me before turning to Stella. “Demon, you said your power changed recently, and I assumed Miles here was responsible?”

I cursed. This was not an okay line of questioning. If Stella even hinted at my ability, I’d destroy the whole park if necessary to keep it quiet.

For now, I settled with silently warning Stella with a glance.

Either she understood my words, or she had already had other plans. “My super power connected to him. When he’s around, it is far more controlled.”

Stella touched her horns, and a goofy smile rose on her lips. “I kind of look like a succubus, don’t I? It is like Miles is a warlock and I bound myself to him, stabilizing my abilities.” She smiled and looked over at me.

I smiled back, thankful she had kept my secret, not even running through what she’d said until a moment later, when I cursed. Sure enough, Kim turned and stated simply, “Then you are coming with us, Miles.”

It wasn’t that she was doing this out of any malice. Stella was just terrified that I’d leave her and she’d go back to the way she was. She was adrift at sea and I just happened to be a piece of flotsam that she could cling to. There was no way she was going to let go until she had a more stable support system.

I couldn’t blame her for being scared like that. Even if she was somewhat restricting me.

Maybe Stella was a bit more intelligent than I’d given her credit for. I looked over, and the guilty smile on her face told me she knew exactly what she had done.

“Stop stalling.” Kim, despite being a head shorter than me, wrapped her arms around my shoulder. “I know you. We already do background checks on your agency, so we can skip some of the protocol, and you get to see behind the curtain of what the BSH does.”

“What about my job? We need to make those commercials for you.” I tried to find an excuse.

“I’ll talk to Candice, and put you on loan to the BSH for a week or two.” Kim pulled me along while Stella followed with a bright smile on her face.

Kim led us out of the tent over to another.

This tent one didn’t have military uniforms marching around. Instead, heroes talked with men and women in office wardrobes.

“— Here in the tunnels you have three routes to clear.” I watched a woman lay out a game plan for a group of three heroes, circling the map and going over the plan multiple times with different contingencies.

“Every hero and hero team as a manager. That’s why the BSH was founded.” Kim stated as she led us through the tent.

I nodded in understanding. It was another leash to put around superheroes to keep them serving the government's interests. After all, supers were just too important to the infrastructure of a city now.

“The manager’s role is to help their heroes train, prepare and execute a mission. They take care of all the logistics and admin work, so our heroes can focus on what they do best.” Kim continued to explain. It felt a little like a sales pitch.

“Is Miles going to be my manager?” Stella asked excitedly.

Kim nodded. “Given how receptive you are to him, I think we can swing that in a pinch. Miles seems like he’s got a good head on his shoulders, and quite frankly, we are swamped. We don’t have enough managers to go around as it is.”

I paused in my steps for a moment, but Kim just ushered me on further, like she hadn’t caught my hesitation.

“In here.” Kim pulled aside a flap.

On the other side was a bank of computers with people busily typing away. “Sarah, can I get you to do an eval? This is Demon, or maybe we should start calling her Demoness?” Kim did a little side nod at Stella.

“Right away.” A woman with glasses set in a thick black frame jumped to her feet and came up to us. “Hi, I’m Sarah, but you probably already got that. I work for Kim and will just double check that you are clear for field work.”

Sarah put her hand on Stella’s back and guided her away.

I watched after them until Kim got my attention. “Walk with me. While Sarah gets Stella set up, I need to give you the rundown.”

“Aren’t I just a temp?” I joked.

Kim’s jaw set firmly as she gave me an ‘all business’ expression that made me shut my mouth.

For a petite woman, she had quite the presence.

“What we do is vital. Never forget that.” Kim reminded me. “Besides, I like you. You’ve worked for Candice for how long?”

I gave it a moment’s thought. “Five years.”

“And she hadn’t turned you into a brainwashed simp. I was paying attention during that meeting. And I’ve been working with her for far longer than you’ve been there. Her past lackeys didn’t have an ounce of self thought after being exposed to her power for a single year.”

“Wait, you know that she’s using her power on people?” I was actually a little angry that the BSH wasn’t doing anything about that.

Kim raised a brow, sensing the anger in my voice. “We make sure to swoop in and quietly move people out of her sphere of influence before she does too much damage.” She eyed me again.

“And I have to say, it takes quite a bit of willpower to shrug off her power.” I paused, ready to blow things up and bolt depending on her next words if she so much as suspected my abilities. But she simply said, “It tells me you are driven.”

Relaxing, I continued on with her as she spoke. “I’ve seen your intelligence first hand and you are data driven, not emotional. You are everything we look for in the BSH.” Kim stepped into another area of the tent, where people were laying out plans on a large whiteboard. It had a map of the city, with the city’s sewer system projected on top of it.

“Miles, the bactimen pose a dragon-level threat. It’s the first in almost five years. But the worst part is, it isn’t a single entity that we can just throw supers at.”

“Dragon level?” I asked.

“Potential loss of a city.” Kim clarified. “It’s one of the terms we use here in the BSH to describe danger level and apply the correct heroes to take care of it.”

I had been right. The bactimen had become a much larger problem than the public knew.

“So what is this?”

“These are all hero managers. Rather than have the heroes sit in here and argue about what to do next, we offload that onto the managers to figure out. There’s less ego involved this way, too.”

“Kim.” A woman spotted her. “We got the report from Echo. Look at this density. We need to send in a team now.” She pointed urgently to a spot under Fifth and Corway.

“Have we sent in Overwatch to get a positive ID?” Kim asked sharply.

By the look on the woman’s face, they had not.

Kim glared at the woman, and it felt like the room had heated up several degrees as Kim grew angry. “Even if this is an emergency, we ALWAYS double and triple check the situation before sending in a hero. We always follow protocol. Understood?”

The woman nodded, but Kim continued. “That density could be some mad scientist's secret weapons cache. You could light it up and end up blowing a city block to smithereens.” Making a dramatic pause, Kim looked around the room, making sure every single person present had heard her.

I made a mental note to double check before reporting anything to her.

“Yes, Director.” The woman got quiet and turned to someone else in the room. “Can we get Overwatch and Ratgirl to Fifth and Corway? We have an urgent reading that needs to be checked out.”

Kim turned back to me, pulling my attention from the rest of the room. “Sorry about that. I’m quite passionate that we do everything we can to support our heroes. The whole point of the BSH is to prevent accidents that used to happen in the superhero business.”

“Like what?” I asked.

Kim grimaced. “All sorts of shit happened when I was a hero and the military ran point. Let’s not go down that rabbit hole.”

I shrugged, not wanting to hear those horror stories. My opinion of heroes was already pretty piss poor.

“Here, this way. We’ll get you a tablet and everything.”

“That feels permanent.” I said slowly, trying to reinforce my temporary nature.

Kim looked at me over her shoulder. “Maybe I’m trying to poach you from Candice.”

I waited for the smile to crack or for her to laugh it off as a joke, but Kim just turned back and kept going. I paused, but in the end, I followed her.