Saving Supervillains 1 Chapter 17 (Patreon)

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Pulsar hesitated on the steps up into the bank.

The place was marble with gold trim. It seemed like they could have put the money they held to better use, if you asked me.

Demoness charged right on up to the building, far less concerned. “He’s in charge. Let’s not get distracted.”

I smirked; she wasn’t worried about me one bit. Even if she stuck to rule number two and didn’t try to puzzle out my power, I’d shown her enough that she knew I’d be okay.

A few bank robbers were nothing compared to Omnigirl.

Pulsar reached forward, trying the palatial front doors. They bulged under her strength, but they didn’t come apart.

“They must have barred the doors.” She looked them up and down. “Even looks like resistant materials we—”

Demoness’ kick blew the doors off their hinges. She turned and smiled. “Fixed it!” Sometimes her glee was infectious.

While a lot of doors were built to withstand a lower grade super, very few people invested the kind of money it took to stand in the way of an S Grade super.

“Go in loud. Get them to raise any weapons at you and then take them down.” I gave my instructions, walking into the bank behind them, distracted with my tablet.

While Demoness might have solved the door, I was worried that she’d made the robbers jumpy. And there were lives at stake.

Demoness was bulletproof, and Pulsar could handle far more than the hostages, so I wanted them to take the heat.

As they dashed into the bank to deal with the robbers, I tried to reconnect the cameras with my tablet. The tablets so far seemed amazingly powerful. I wondered if proximity would help me get a connection back.

As I tapped away, a gun cocked behind me.

“Put the tablet down.” A cold female voice spoke.

I froze, curious about why I hadn’t heard or sensed her.

Putting the tablet down on a nearby table, I took the moment to pack the revolver with a block of kinetic energy to stop any stray bullets.

Feeling secure once that was done, I stuffed my hands into my pockets, keeping it casual. “How’d you get behind me?”

Out of my peripheral, I could tell that her feet were partially submerged into the ground.

That was interesting. She phased out through solid objects. That made more sense why I wasn’t able to sense her come up behind me.

I wondered what would happen if I knocked her super power offline. Two masses would suddenly hold the same space. I desperately wanted to find out.

“Are you listening to me, idiot? Hands out of your pockets. And follow me.” She jerked her gun.

“Sorry. Wasn’t paying attention. I got distracted by your feet. What happens when you phase back in with yourself partially in something?”

She went to pistol whip me, but her gun stopped short as I wrapped her arm in kinetic force.

I jerked her out of the floor. “Oh, you can be part in one phase and part in another. How interesting.”

She tried to use her power on her arm, but I pushed it out and away from me as I held her in this phase. As I moved her, I got a better sense of her ability and could phase her into the world entirely. “Wh-what are you doing?” Her face was highly alarmed.

I wagged a finger in front of her. “You don’t ask the questions anymore. I’m looking for Mindfuck. Any ideas?”

She shook her head rapidly. “No. I don’t mess with the bitch.”

“Shame.” It was also a shame that I’d had to show my abilities. I had learned my lesson before; no loose threads.

The robber exploded into red vapor that settled down on the white marble floor, like someone had just popped a can of spray paint.

She hadn’t been any use in finding Mindfuck, but I had examined her ability enough that I thought I could at least partially replicate it.

Pulsar rushed back into the room, followed shortly after by Demoness. Demoness was carrying two limp robbers. “Miles the third…” Her words died in her throat as she saw the blood.

“Don’t worry about it. She put a gun to my head.” I shrugged it off, picking up my tablet and checking that the cameras were still offline.

“Miles.” Pulsar said slowly. “I thought you were just enhanced?”

Demoness cleared her throat. “Rule number two, don’t try to figure out his power.”

Pulsar raised an eyebrow behind her mask. “Rules?”

“Rules that I gave Demoness in order for me to stick around as her manager.” Watching Melody closely, I needed to know if she was going to be a problem before she saw more of my abilities. I had enough to deal with at the moment. One could be explained away, but as she saw others, she’d know enough to guess I was more powerful.

I was happy when she stopped staring at me like she was trying to figure me out and just nodded slowly. “Didn’t know enhanced could do things like that. Maybe Demoness punched the first guy a little too hard?”

“Very plausible.” I nodded, satisfied with her answer. “Let’s bring them out to the cops. What did you find?”

“Fire and electricity.” Pulsar nodded at the two in turn. “You?”

“Phasing. She came up from the floor. I didn’t even hear her.”

“Ah. They were probably using her to move the money, thinking they could make a clean getaway.” Pulsar stated, and I had to agree.

As we left, I waved to the police officers that the coast was clear.

Four men came up the steps and rushed into the bank while the cop in plain clothes came up to me.

“Thought there was a third.”

I cleared my throat. “The third, unfortunately, didn’t survive. They were able to phase through walls and floors. If I had to guess, there’s something under here that is filled with cash.”

The cop cursed and pulled out a radio. “I need four units down in the subway tunnels. Look for a stash under the Bellmark Bank.”

He shook his head and looked back at the girls and I. “Thank you; that’ll make our job much easier.”

I turned back to the girls. “Hostages all okay?”

“Yep.” Stella nodded. “What do I do with these two?”

“Drop them off with me.” The officer gestured to a cruiser.

Stella dropped them like two sacks of potatoes. “Alright, Miles, where to next?”

I started swiping on my tablet, looking for more crimes that might lead me back to Mindfuck.

***

It turned out the third time really was the charm.

A jewelry store heist had been an easy one for Demoness. She swooped in and snatched the criminal quickly.

Now Pulsar was bringing back the stolen jewelry, leaving me some quality time with the twitching man.

“Where’s Mindfuck?” I pinned the man against the alley wall.

“D-d-don’t know.” He stuttered.

Demoness slammed her hand against the bricks hard enough to punch through them. “Bullshit.”

He pissed himself, staring at where her hand had gone through the wall. “Honest. I swear. I just know where to drop the loot.”

“How do you get the drugs?” I frowned, looking at the tweaker that could barely keep his head steady enough to keep eye contact.

“One of the big boys drops it off the next day.”

“She’s got go betweens and dead drops.” Stella sighed. “No wonder the BSH hasn’t been able to track her down.”

Something about that felt wrong. “They just never cared about theft and drugs; the BSH focuses on bigger things.” That and she had Omnigirl working with her.

I turned back to the scrappy man. “Show us where the drop was supposed to be, and I want you to pretend to drop the loot.”

Stella fished up a brown paper back from the garbage can. “With this.”

The man looked like he was about to bolt when Pulsar walked into the alley.

“What are you doing to him?” She asked, a frown crossed her face and her brow pinched together. Her eyes wandered to the hole in the wall beside his head.

It was time to level with her. “I want Mindfuck.”

“Why? You know somebody she did this to?” Pulsar pointed at the robber.

“No, she was there when Omnigirl tried to kidnap me. I want answers.” It was partially true. I just also wanted to bury my secret.

Pulsar slowly nodded her head. “You aren’t just going to…” She dragged her thumb across her throat.

“No.” I waved away that concern. She had better uses than that. “I want her to get arrested, but I want to speak to her first.”

“And this guy has the answers for that?” Pulsar still seemed hesitant.

“It’s a start.” I took the brown bag from Demoness’ hand and shoved it into the robber’s. “Let's go make a drop.” I put him down.

His head swiveled between the three of us with wide eyes before he bolted.

“Is he actually going to do it?” Pulsar asked.

“I think it’s decently likely.” I pulled out the BSH tablet and tracked him via satellite. “We are done for the day. You two need to head back, change out for the day.”

“Then come back here?” Demoness asked.

I shook my head. “No. You should go get some clothes from the manor, and then you’ll meet me at my place.”

Pulsar, or I guess Melody, now that we were coming off the job, frowned. “Manor?”

Stella let out a sigh and explained her situation quickly to Melody.

“Not okay.” Melody declared. “I’m taking you shopping tonight. Miles can do whatever it is his broody self does.”

I raised an eyebrow at her description but let it go.

“Then you… we… need to have a long talk here about this.” She waved vaguely in the direction the robber had gone.

I nodded, accepting she deserved to know more. If she was going to be on the team, I needed to at least trust her with what I’d told Stella. “How about lunch tomorrow?”

A bystander would have thought I’d just told her I was really an alien by how shocked she looked.

“Like a date?” She asked hopefully.

I laughed. “That might be doing things out of order.”

Melody shook her blonde hair. “No, that’s okay. Is tomorrow a date?”

I sighed. “If you want it to be, then it’s a date. I’m your manager now. I don’t want to pressure you.”

Both girls laughed, and I suddenly felt like I was missing something.

“It’s a date!” Melody grabbed Stella, and the two of them flew off before I could change my mind.

Focusing back on the tablet, I watched the robber as he hurried to his dead drop.

When he finally reached a stoop in the middle of the city and stuffed the brown paper bag in with the trash in the corner, I had my location.

Now, I just needed to be sure this stayed off the books.

I let light pass through me as I lifted myself up into the air and rocketed towards my apartment.

It was simple enough to slip in my window and keep an eye on the tablet. Nobody had picked up the drop yet. I still had time to get there.

I looked down at the device. As useful as the Bureau tablets were, there had to be some sort of way for them to trace and track it. The last thing I needed was to leave a trail, and I wasn’t about to start destroying them every time I needed to go off the books.

After I placed my tablet and comms safely on my bed, I checked the feed one more time before flying back out the window.

There wasn’t any time to waste, so I didn’t hold back.

I broke the sound barrier instantly as I launched myself at mach 3 across the city, making sure to keep light passing through me so that I stayed invisible. It took some concentration to control the two rather complex actions at the same time.

When I stopped flying, it was jarring. I grit my teeth and forced myself to a stop.

I could already feel all the ki I had packed in my body drain slightly as it tried to recover from the minor damage done by that maneuver.

Floating down, I hovered over the drop, seeing the corner of the little brown paper bag still peeking out.

I smiled, glad I hadn’t missed it, even if it had been only a few moments.

As I thought that, a black sedan that was far too nice for the area pulled up. A broad-shouldered thug stepped out of the car and sifted through the trash, coming up with the brown paper bag. He clearly knew what he was looking for.

Either a brown bag was the actual drop bag, or somebody had been watching the drop for him. I assumed the latter.

“Fucking tweaker.” The man poured out the brown paper bag full of trash and stomped on it. He grumbled something under his breath and stomped back to his car before driving away. There wasn’t anyone else in the car, but that was okay.

Having my new target, I followed him, floating invisibly in the air above.

He drove over to a nicer part of town and into a residential neighborhood.

I flew close by, not worrying about him catching me since I was invisible. But as we wove through the neighborhood, my senses went on alert.

There was another very powerful super in the area..

It only took me a moment to recognize Rocksolid was in the neighborhood, several houses over from the one where the black sedan pulled in.

And Rocksolid wasn’t alone. There were three other heroes with him.

They had already found Mindfuck and were preparing to take her down.

I didn’t know what they were waiting for, but time was short.

The thug got out of his car and stepped into the house, and I quickly moved to join him.

While the door was open, I slipped in behind him, wrapping a cord of kinetic energy around his throat and lifting him up.

“Thanks for leading me here.” I whispered.

He strained at the cord with super strength, but it did no good.

Carrying him before me, I headed down the hall, hearing voices coming from the basement.

“That isn’t enough. We need to get out of here ASAP.” Mindfuck was shouting at someone, and there was a flutter in the air.

Bringing my latest capture with me, I walked down the steps. They creaked under my weight.

“Kyle.” Mindfuck sounded relieved. “Please tell me that we have something pricey enough to get ourselves setup in Coast. Hell, set up anywhere fucking else than Point City.”

She was trying to escape the city, escape me. Too bad, that would not happen.

I decided to let him speak.

“Run. Someone’s here.” He croaked, his voice-box barely recovering from the momentary relief.

There was a moment of shock on Mindfuck’s face before I wrapped her and a woman next to her with a mohawk with the same kinetic energy.

“Hello again, Mindfuck.” I raised my arm and cast a net of electromagnetic energy. I did enough to disrupt any tools of the BSH, but not enough to give anyone in the area more than a little frizzy hair.

Once that was done, I allowed myself to become visible.

Mindfuck’s liquid body shrank back, her eyes filling with fear. “You.” Her voice was filled with fear and hatred at the same time.

“Me.” I smiled, feeling a little bad once again.

Lifting her two subordinates into the air, I compressed them under impossible amounts of force. They were crushed as they turned into two little red peas.

“Nice and clean. I have a field up so the Bureau can’t listen in; you’d be surprised at how much mad scientist tech they have.” I let the two little peas come before me before I used my pointer fingers to push the two together into a larger bead.

“What do you want?” Mindfuck seemed to settle slightly, watching the small bead that had once been her two subordinates.

There was money scattered on the surrounding floor.

“You see, Mindfuck, you are about to get caught by the Bureau. They are waiting two houses over with a task force, watching you right now.”

She cursed. “You aren’t killing me. What do you want?” She grimaced.

Rolling the little bead between my fingers, I let myself float as I lifted her up over the table she was behind.

“I’ll offer to help you after you are caught in exchange for your help in leading the Bureau away from me. I need you to tell a story about what happened the night in the warehouse with Omnigirl.”

Mindfuck didn’t have an ounce of hesitation. “Done. What should I say?” She shrugged those purple shoulders. Here she wore that same mismatched green and purple outfit made up of her liquid body.

“So quick?” I knew she was a villain, but it seemed almost too easy.

She shrugged. “I’ve kept tabs. Omnigirl is in a coma and not waking up. If you can do that, there’s no reason for me to resist anything you say. But you can always come shake my hand to settle it.”

There was a subtle trickle of ki around her hand as she finished her statement.

“Is that how you do it? Something with touch?” I pulled her hand up with my power and inspected it.

With her already liquid properties, it was hard to see the faint sheen of clear liquid on her hand. “You produce some chemical.” It wasn’t a question.

The scowl on her face was confirmation enough. “Any chemical I want.”

“Interesting.” I pushed her back and forced her to sit at the table. “The night that Omnigirl tried to kidnap me, you are free to tell them everything, but with one additional detail.”

I held up a finger before popping up a second. “There were two men kidnapped by Omnigirl. Myself and one other. The other man caused the problems that led to Omnigirl’s coma. And I become unconscious at the start of any conflict.”

Mindfuck nodded slowly, relaxing now that she knew she wasn’t going to die. “I can do that. He was a short tan man, and he knocked you out first. Then he dealt with Omnigirl, and I fled.”

I nodded. I liked that. “Keep it simple. Use what really happened for concrete details if they ask, but leave me out of it.”

“I do this, and you’ll get me out of their holding cell?”

“You will spend some time there. I need to make sure you have enough time to be questioned thoroughly.”

Her face shifted with a realization. “Then what? I disappear into some ditch? I’m not stupid. You are hiding your powers from them. That means once I throw them off the trail, I become your biggest loose end.”

Her face became more panicked. “What do you offer to not have me sing like a canary for protection?”

I frowned. She was becoming scared again, and scared people made rash decisions.

And we didn’t have much more time. I could feel Rocksolid move from the house he was in when I’d approach.

My jamming of the Bureau’s tech had likely kicked them into gear. I had a feeling they’d descend on the house in less than a minute.

I leaned in and put my nose just a hair's breadth from hers, staring her in the eyes. “I give you my word. It’s better than gold.”

Locking eyes with her, I felt like we were staring into each other's souls for a moment.

“You aren’t cracked in the head.” She finally said. “I believe you.” There was a long pause. “You were the type that did villainy because you were mad at the world, weren’t you?”

I didn’t like her trying to piece me together, so I leaned back, crossing my arms.

Mindfuck raised her hands in surrender. “I used to be a therapist… before this.” She waved at her body.

“Shame. I bet you were pretty good. Yeah, there are three types of villains: thrill seekers, money lovers and those with far too much anger in them. Thankfully, my anger eventually ran cold.”

Mindfuck understood exactly what I was talking about. Unlike Stella, she’d intentionally been a villain.

“Good for you. I think I was close to there.” I knew it was manipulation. She wanted me to believe we were the same, to identify with her so that I went easier on her. She was scared and using anything at her disposal.

We were not the same.

But the sound of the front of her house being torn open interrupted any further discussion.

I released her and stepped back, disappearing from view.

Mindfuck stood, staring wide eyed at the spot I’d just occupied. She looked down at the drain on the floor and took a single step towards it.

I applied a little pressure to her, pushing her away and letting her know I was still around. She wasn’t getting away again.

“Can’t blame a girl.” She shrugged.

Daylight flooded down into the basement as Rocksolid tore the top half of the stairs off and jumped down. “On behalf of the Bureau of Superheroes, you are under arrest. Surrender peacefully.”

Two other heroes jumped down, one of which was a telekinetic.

Before the telekinetic could bump into me with her psychic powers, I used the conveniently large hole that Rocksolid had made to get the hell out and fly back towards my apartment.