Saving Supervillains 1 Chapter 10 (Patreon)

The next morning I walked out into my kitchen feeling much better. The sun wasn’t up, but a night of rest had really put things into perspective for me.

I wanted to continue my ‘normal’ life above all else.

The stolen pancake mix still sat on the counter, a reminder of the morning with Stella.

Rolling my eyes, I waved it into the trash. I never took the time to make pancakes, so it didn’t make sense to keep it. I smiled as I stared at the box in the trash. The night of rest had given me clarity.

Waving my hand, I used my powers to pull out ingredients and make myself a quick breakfast of eggs and toast.

And I didn’t even need to dirty any dishes. I grabbed my toast midair and snacked on it while I watched my eggs cook. Then I used an imaginary fork to eat them as they floated around me. When I finished, I got dressed for the morning.

There was an old bike that I rarely used hanging in my apartment, and I lifted it with my powers, floating it over to the window as a reminder before I left.

Breakfast done, I double checked to make sure I wasn’t still exerting my power over anything in the apartment as I stepped out of my window and ghosted across the early morning sky before the sun rose.

I put the bike down in the shadow of a tent. I made sure no one was watching before I became visible again along with the bike and walked into the BSH tent.

Kim was already in the tent, and a few of the early bird types were sipping on coffee.

I had to wonder if Kim even slept or if her immortality healed that too.

“Miles, good morning.” Kim spotted me and took time to greet me.

“Morning.” I picked up the tablet, sitting right where I had left it the day before. “Point me towards where I’m going to get an update on what happened last night?”

She tapped my tablet. “All right in there. Read the reports. It seems that our work made the night shift easy. Short version: The night scouting team reported a sixty-four percent reduction in total bactimen count under the city.

“That’s a fantastic improvement, but it’ll get harder from here. Weeding out the holdouts and making sure none of it exists to replicate is going to prove challenging.”

Beatrix, the analyst from the day before, waved at us, trying to flag Kim.

“I think someone wants your attention.” I nodded towards the analyst. “Let me get up to speed and see where we can plunk Demoness into the sewers to do the most damage.”

Kim smacked my shoulders with a grin and turned around to deal with the eager analyst.

Flipping through the report, I saw several spots that referenced prior reports or facts that I didn’t already know.

I didn’t have all of these old reports, but I managed to piece together enough of them.

Bactimen apparently congregated at night to share bacteria. Anything that survived various types of assaults the day before would share that survival mechanism among the other bactimen.

It would be impressive if it weren’t terrifying. It was like bacteria that became antibody resistant if partially treated. They were growing an overwhelming amount of immunities.

I read through the list of the different abilities they had developed immunity against, and I grimaced. The list was long, and I could see why Kim was getting concerned.

The only abilities they hadn’t grown resistant or immune to were extreme heat and life draining.

There were a few that could do heat, but as far as I knew, Stella was the only one with life draining, as they called it.

Technically, she was draining ki, but I’d let them call it whatever they wanted.

I read on through the report. Scouting showed that rather than escape to the edges of the city, the bactimen were actually converging in the middle of the city.

And the BSH had been herding and narrowing their range of operations. The night shift had used ice and earth powers to close off sections of the sewers, narrowing the areas we had to clean up.

It seemed like a good enough plan. I certainly didn’t have a better one. The sheer scale of the bactimen would be hard to eradicate in their entirety and would take some time.

While I was musing over the report, more BSH managers had filtered in and mimicked me.

“Heya, Newbie.” A woman sat down in the chair next to me. “I hear you’re managing the star of the show today.”

“Not quite sure how I wound up here, but I guess that’s true.” I put down the tablet. I’d gotten through all the important information.

The other manager leaned over conspiratorially. “I hear she’s a villain recruited for her power. Careful with her. You never know when those types are going to turn on you. She was probably pulled from a supermax somewhere and will fight us when this is over. Barely worth the air she’s using.”

“Huh?” I wasn’t sure what to say for a moment, the overwhelming prejudice clear. But then I felt myself wanting to defend Stella. “Not that it’s any of your business, but she only became a villain because she couldn’t control her power. Power that she has a lot of, and has been using to help this city now that she has control.”

“Oh, sure. I’m sure she’ll use any excuse to get in your pants.” The woman bounced her eyebrow at me. “Careful, you can only trust the good ones like me.”

Funny, I was just thinking the exact opposite about her. She hit me as the type to abuse her position of power and authority.

“I’ll pass. Demoness has been great to work with.”

The woman grimaced and dropped the mask of civility. “You should learn to take the offers when they come politely.” She pushed off the chair next to me and walked away, excitedly greeting a woman in a blue and pink outfit as she walked in.

I recognized the hero immediately. Omnigirl, one of the city's premier heroes.

I grimaced, noting that the manager I’d just told to take a hike seemed to go with Omnigirl. But so be it. I could take whatever she dished in retaliation.

“What’s up, Miles?” Stella walked up to me, nervously holding her arm.

“Not much. I’ve been reading last night’s report so I can do my job today. This is my last day as a hero manager; I don’t want to mess it up.” Trying not to upset her, I spoke quietly. I wanted to make sure Stella began dealing with the fact that we’d be separating further. I’d half expected her to show up at my apartment the night before.

“Where’d you stay last night?” I asked, curious about what she’d ended up doing.

She was wearing different clothes today, her hero outfit cleaned and hanging over her arm.

“Oh, back at the manor. It’s not like I have a better place to live. Though, I’d rather figure something else out. There’s a lot of terrible memories there.” Her eyes wandered around me, a sad look crossing her face, but refocused on me a moment later.

I smirked, knowing I was being at least partially played. I was sure she did have awful memories at the manor, but she also would say most anything for me to invite her back to my apartment like I had after finding her on the bathroom floor.

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out. You’re a super now after all. I’m sure most of them have grand apartments somewhere.” I started tapping on my tablet again, pretending to be busy so I wouldn’t see her face fall at my answer. “Get dressed. From what I’ve been reading, we have some work to do.”

I kept tapping on my tablet aimlessly until she headed back out the tent door to go get dressed.

When she was gone, I let out a sigh of relief. I just needed to stay strong one more day to get back to normal. It would be easier once she was out of my life.

I stepped into the war room. The analysts were busy talking and scribbling up on the projection on the whiteboard, playing a complex game as they worked through a structured way to cordon off the sewer systems.

“Where do you need Demoness to start today?” I asked Beatrix, who seemed like the senior staff in the room, as she coordinated a few of the other analysts.

At first, she seemed surprised at my question, but then she focused on the whiteboard. “Here. If we can cut off this large mass, we can close it off here.” She pointed to another spot on the map. “And then we’ll send in pyros to clear out this subsection.” She circled a large block of the sewer system.

Other analysts in the room nodded at her statement.

“Alright then. Demoness is heading out in five minutes.” I confirmed for her.

Stepping out of the war room, I waited by the hero tent for several minutes, tapping away at my tablet, marking some of the spots that the analysts had labeled as hot spots on their map.

“Ready? I’ll carry you.” Stella smiled brightly as she emerged. She knew I hated being flown around.

“I brought a bike today.” Pointing to where I’d left it. “So, let’s go. 8th and Kennedy. Four blocks east and three to the north.” I directed my arms in case she wasn’t sure where I meant.

“Oh.” Stella wilted.

Swinging my legs over the bike, I headed over on 4th street. Stella glided in the air above me.

“Alright, down you go.” I stopped the bike at the intersection. “The mass should be just over there.” I pointed to eastern side of the intersection, checking my tablet for accurate information.

Stella didn’t say anything as she tossed aside the manhole cover and jumped down into the sewer.

The ground shook, and I could tell she was angry. But I let her take it out on the bactimen, hoping when she emerged she might be less grumpy.

***

Hearing a ding, I saw a message pop up on my tablet.

Rocksolid and Omnigirl are headed your direction. All readings are showing bactimen leaving the outskirts. We are concerned they are smart enough to know when they are being cornered and will lash out.

I read that line out loud to Stella as she landed. She had just about finished off a large mass of bactimen.

Peeking up through my fingers to gauge time, I noted that the sun was high in the sky. We’d been at it the whole morning.

We were in a residential downtown area, highrise apartments shooting up all around us.

This was an older part of town, so a lot of these buildings had two different design styles halfway up the building where they stretched the design to build more on top.

“Do we wait?” Stella asked me. It was the first time she’d spoken to me since we had left the park.

“No. Omnigirl and Rocksolid aren’t going to be able to do anything against the bactimen.” I replied.

She snorted, tossing her hair before she grabbed the manhole cover.

But the moment she lifted it off. Green gunk hit her in the face, sending her flying.

It caught me by surprise as well, and I immediately responded, my body moving towards her.

I spoke into my comms. “Stella, report.” I tried to hide my concern.

“I’m fine.” She grunted. “Just surprised.”

I noted that even more green gunk was pouring out of the sewer and filling the street. It even began breaking through the glass on a nearby grocery store.

The bactiman flowed into the grocery store, consuming everything inside.

I started typing into my tablet, reporting on the new activity.

We have a very large bactiman here destroying the nearby shops, trying to grow larger.

The response came immediately.

Understood, help is on its way. This is likely to be the big one.

The analysts must have predicted this would be the holdout where the bactimen would make their stand. It would also explain why Rocksolid and Omnigirl were coming. They were damage control, not actual help.

I grit my teeth, upset that they hadn’t told us beforehand. Typical heroes.

“Stella, this is the big one. The bactimen are making a last stand. Try to pull it away from the apartments.” Quickly swiping on my tablet, I saw further north was clear. “North, two blocks. If you can manage to fight it there, we can prevent casualties.”

“On it.” Stella swooped down, and her little suckers came out, pecking at the massive blob that was forming in the intersection.

This one was much larger than the one before, but it hadn’t taken on its normal humanoid form yet. Instead, it was moving like a wave, flowing over the city street.

Stella’s ability was working, but it almost looked like she wasn’t trying. She certainly wasn’t driving it up away from the residential area.

Grabbing my bike, I swung right by the massive blob on the north side, letting my foot get dangerously close to it.

A green tendril struck out, trying to get me, but I used just a tiny bit of my power to make it look like I avoided it.

“MILES! What are you doing?” Stella shrieked.

“What I told you to do.” I grumbled, putting just an enhanced amount of power behind my pedaling as the blob tried again to get me again.

“I’m coming. Stop with the heroics.” Stella pleaded, swooping after me.

It only took me a moment to realize what she was doing.

Stella snatched me off the bike even as the bactimen lurched forward in a wave of green to catch me.

Her wings flapped hard, and the wave crested, accelerating. It looked like a perfect surfing opportunity if it weren’t for the human digesting slime it was made of.

We blew past the two blocks, and the bactiman crashed into a highschool.

Thankfully, it was the weekend, and with the lockdown, there were no weekend activities. No one was rushing out of the school screaming.

Stella then shot straight up into the air, crushing me to her chest.

The bactiman shot up after me, growing and forming a humanoid shape as one of its hands stretched out for us.

It was moving more quickly than I’d expected, and the arm nearly reached us.

But two red beams appeared, lancing across the arm, cutting off that section. It fell down to the ground.

Blue and pink flashed before us as Omnigirl peppered the colossal bactiman with laser eye beams. “Give him to me. You handle this.”

Omnigirl might have been able to separate that arm and save us, but the arm turned into muck and just reabsorbed into the main body. She wasn’t actually able to kill any of it.

Her lasers were barely scratching the thing as a whole.

Stella hesitated, but handed me off.

“Hey handsome, how about a date when this is over?” Omnigirl winked at me as she held me to her chest.

And she was beautiful, the classic hero. She had super strength, speed, flight and laser eye beams. It also didn’t hurt that she had a shapely figure and a long mane of blond hair that the wind caught perfectly.

Unfortunately, BSH supers were definitely not my type, but I figured it might help Stella move on and get over me.

I looked up at Omnigirl. “Sure. How about tomorrow?” I didn’t plan to go through with it, but neither of them knew that. My comms were still on and Stella heard the whole thing.

Sure enough, Stella zoomed away, and she seemed pissed.

“Score. I recognize you.” Omnigirl said as she held me. “You’re the new manager. Too bad you got stuck with that villain.” She made a face at Stella, who was currently trying to save the city.

Any ounce of interest I had in her dried up at that moment. It looked like her manager and her were two peas in a pod. Suddenly, I really wanted out of her arms.

“Yup. Want to put me down on that building?” I pointed to a low five story building. It would give me a great view of the fight.

She shot down and deposited me gently before flying back off to help with the massive bactiman.

“Stella, go for the limbs first. We need to keep it as contained as possible.” I spoke into the comms.

Demoness was flying around the thing like an annoying fly, chipping off relatively small bits. At her rate, it would take far too long to bring it down.

More heroes came flying in. Those flying in on fire started pelting the massive monster with fireballs, while those who had come with other abilities started making a patchwork blockage around the highschool grounds to hold the bactiman in.

A group of telekinetics rose up, blocking a stray punch that threatened a neighboring building.

Together, they blocked the arm, straining in the air as half a dozen spots rippled from the force they were trying to exert.

Thankfully, the bactiman pulled away from them, its arm splashing down on someone standing on the football field.

Whatever super that was, they took it in stride, barely even moving.

The colossal bactiman made the ground shake with an eerie screech as multiple arms blasted out of its back, catching some of the pyros that had been circling behind it. It sucked them all into its chest.

“We’ve switched you to public comms.” Kim’s voice rang out in my ear. “Demoness, we have the thing trapped. Get those supers out of there.”

“How?” Stella sounded panicked.

I tried to insert as much calm into my voice as I could. “Dive into it. Make a breach with your power and collect the supers there. You’ll all have to work together and fight your way out from the inside.”

When I finished, Stella didn’t hesitate. Folding her wings back, she dove straight for the bactiman.

Kim landed next to me on the building, but I didn’t take my eyes off Stella. “Do you think that’s the wisest idea?” She said, covering her ear piece.

“She has no idea what she’s doing, but she thrives under pressure.” I commented, also covering my comms device.

Kim eyed me for a moment before nodding and uncovering her comms. “Okay everybody, when Demoness tries to push out, I need everyone helping.” Kim rolled a small ball of fire over her hand in some sort of mindless fidgeting as she watched. I wondered if she was itching for a piece of the action.

“Got them!” Stella’s voice crackled in my ear. “Pushing out.” Her voice was strained.

I was tempted to reach out and help directly, wondering if I could pull her out without anybody noticing.

But then I realized Kim was next to me, and there was no chance. I couldn’t believe I’d even considered it.

I focused back on Stella, needing to know she was okay.

As I watched, the little air bubble Stella had formed suddenly shrank, and I wasn’t the only one who saw it. I took an involuntary step forward towards her.

“Demoness, what’s going on?”

“I can’t. Not without hurting the others. It’s pressing in too hard.” Stella sounded on the verge of tears.

“Demoness, you can do this. Remember what we worked on.”

“Miles?” She sounded confused, and I understood why. We hadn’t worked on anything, but I just needed the others to buy into it.

Reaching out, I packed a massive ball of ki, far more than she could take, and spiked it into her.

I’d never tried this before, but logically it made sense. I could take ki away, so it seemed reasonable I could also supercharge somebody.

I took the power inside of her and made it blaze to live with the excess ki.

Stella screamed over the mic, and the air bubble lurched inside the bactiman, breaking free.

A dozen fliers swooped in, grabbing the other heroes as Stella rose up in the air, eye level with the bactiman.

I knew the others wouldn’t see how massively more powerful she was, but I could. Millions of her little suckers flew out, covering the colossal bactiman. It began to crumble.

“Amazing.” Kim breathed. “She really has the potential to be an S Class hero.”

“Good.”

“She has an amazing manager, too.” Kim nudged me with a suggestive smile.

I knew she wanted to poach me, and in the moment, I felt good enough to give it a thought. “She did all the hard work.”

“You believed in her and used your knowledge of her to make the right call for her to save those other heroes. While hero managers might not be on the front lines, they save just as many lives.” Kim gave me a serious look.

I nodded absently, watching Stella in awe as she drained the bactiman dry.

A few more people landed on this building, some carried others of their own volition.

Omnigirl and her manager were among them.

“Wow, what a save.” Her manager said. “Great place to do it too, right in front of Fortess himself.” She pointed down to a massive bronze bust in front of the highschool. “Wasn’t that built in his memory?”

Truly looking around for the first time, I recognized the area. So much had been built over the damage that I hadn’t placed it at first. The high school had been entirely redone.

My mood soured instantly as I glared down at the statue of Fortress.

“Miles!” Stella flew down and landed next to me. The bactiman had collapsed, destroyed by her ability.

“Yeah, I think Miles deserves some credit. Great job, both of you.” Kim tried to rally some applause from those on the rooftop. “What do you say about joining the BSH?” she asked me in front of everyone. She was a leader for a reason; she knew how to use what she had at her disposal, including a crowd to add pressure.

But after staring at Fortress and remembering what he had done, I wasn’t ever going to join the BSH. How could I have ever thought about it? No, Fortress, one known as the world’s hero, was the entire reason that I couldn’t join the BSH. The timely reminder saved me from making a terrible mistake.

“I’m glad the threat is over.” There was no emotion in my voice. “I’ll leave you to the rest of the cleanup.” I turned, ready to head home.

Stella was so stunned she just stood there, mouth agape, as I walked away.

AN - This is the last push away.

PS - Dragon 3 is out. https://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Justice-3-Bruce-Sentar-ebook/dp/B09V4CNPVD