Saving Supervillains 1 Chapter 21 (Patreon)

“You two enjoy your date.” I pushed the two tired heroes out of our apartment suite in Coast City.

Point City BSH was covering the bill for us all to stay the night and rest up before flying back the next day.

“You should stay up, Miles.” Melody winked. “Never know what we might get up to.”

“Uh, huh. This is a date between the two of you. Don’t make me the center of it. Have fun.” I pushed Melody out the door. “Besides, it isn’t like you will have to buy yourselves a drink tonight. Not after Stella’s save.”

After Venus’ blast that took out a sizeable chunk of the Leviathan’s neck, Stella was the talk of the town. Her catching Venus had definitely elevated her hero status.

“Now, go shopping, on me.” I handed Melody my credit card, knowing that she’d at least use some common sense. “Get a pair of nice dresses and go out to eat.”

Stella came back inside the apartment. She walked straight up to me, pressing her hands softly into my shoulders and walking me backwards until I hit the wall behind me. She kissed me passionately, her hands on either side of my face as she took a small drain that made my entire body tingle.

She finished the kiss and stepped away, smiling.

My lower body was aching for more, the small drain reminding it of earlier.

“You are the best, Miles. We won’t be too late.” Stella wiggled her fingers in a wave as she bounced out the door.

Melody rolled her eyes, but came in and gave me a peck on the cheek. She stepped back, watching me after to make sure I was okay with it.

I just waved, a bit dumbfounded that they were both okay with each other. It wasn’t often I received kisses from two women in front of each other without it leading to some cat fight.

“See you later, Miles.” Melody turned and headed out after Stella.

I let the door close on its own, watching both of their hips as they walked down the hall and Stella turned back to see me watching her tight rear.

The door clicked closed, and the room was suddenly silent.

I realized it felt odd being alone in the hotel. I’d gotten used to having at least Stella around consistently.

I patted myself on the back mentally, proud of how far I’d come. Although most of that had been Stella’s refusal to leave.

But now I had my own plans.

Taking off my comms and putting the tablet down on the bed, I used my power to force open the hotel window.

It wasn’t meant to be opened, but I could get around that.

Making light bend itself around me, I became invisible as I put the window back and floated up above Coast City.

I had a few loose ends to finish. And the trip to Coast City gave me the perfect alibi.

Angling myself back towards Point City, I blasted off just as the sun was touching the horizon.

Breaking the sound barrier, I reached mach three instantly. I hit my max before expanding a light sail in front of myself and catching enough to double my speed once more.

Kim and most of the heroes of Point City were out of pocket. The BSH was at its most vulnerable, and I was known to be in Coast City.

It was perfect. This was my chance to finish what Omnigirl and her manager had started.

The titan had been a hidden boon.

It was also partially why I helped Venus end the combat sooner, so I’d have time tonight to get this done.

Traveling at mach six, I made the journey back to Point City in just under a half an hour.

Slowing down within the city limits, I guided myself down to the BSH, where the last dregs of the day crew were heading out.

Wanting to stay hidden, I added to my defenses. Not only did I bend light around myself, but I made a shell that self contained my heat. I wasn’t sure if they had some sort of infrared to catch invisible supers.

Picking my feet up, I floated as I made my way to the medical wing. There was no reason to be anything but cautious. I was breaking into the freaking Bureau of Super Heroes.

Finding the door closed with a keypad entrance, it forced me to wait.

But it wasn’t the first time I’d snuck around high security buildings. I just hadn’t done it in a while. Patience was key for any robbery.

A woman in a lab coat hurriedly walked through the door, and I used that moment to slip in and continue through the medical wing.

The area was like a small hospital in the BSH building. All sorts of mad scientist contraptions littered the counters and a few spare cots at the beginning of the sterile hall.

I was sure they were for helping the supers, but they still felt oddly out of place. Usually hospital grade machines were pretty with white plastic covers. These looked far more raw, their mechanics on display.

I moved past the initial rooms, reaching the medical wards where heroes were lying in various states of critical injury. So many of them were injured in the line of duty. Not all of them had the kind of regeneration that the premier S grade heroes did.

So here they lay in the ward smelling of sterilizer and brightly lit by fluorescent light, only making them look paler.

Each of the doors had a security pad. I wandered, until found the one I wanted, Omnigirl’s. She wasn’t alone.

Rocksolid was getting up from kneeling at her bed, where he had apparently been giving her moral support, despite her coma.

I smiled as he got up. Perfect planning. He could open the door for me.

The large, craggy man opened the door and looked down the hall, strangely, right at me. I shifted a little. He was a man. He was supposed to only have one ability.

He closed the door forcefully behind him, staring dead at me.

“Kim said you’d come.” The massive super grinned from ear to ear. “Glad she was right. I wanted to see who could take out Omni.”

I couldn’t help but frown and double check my power. Light was bending around me. I was retaining my heat, letting other heat flow around me, and I was floating.

Rocksolid laughed. “I know. It happens from time to time. How did the big brute see me?” He rolled his shoulders, loosening up for a fight.

He motioned down at himself. “Everyone sees this body and thinks I’m just a big piece of meat. What no one thinks about is how the density of my sensory organs are changed as well.”

Rocksolid had a hundred fold density. Which meant…

“Yeah, I can see your outline. And I can feel the slightest breeze from the air you displace.” He frowned. “But I can’t hear you.”

That made sense. I was blocking sound waves. At least that one was working perfectly.

“Come on. That’s some impressive stealth, but I want to see the person who took out Omni.”

I hadn’t planned on fighting Rocksolid, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t.

I shot a blast of kinetic energy, picking Rocksolid up and flinging him across the room.

Or at least, flinging him part of the way.

He threw out his arms, catching the wall and tearing a rent through it as he slowed himself. He ended up only being flung about five feet before crashing to the floor hard enough to bury his feet up to his ankles.

“Not bad.” Rocksolid was completely unfazed by the blast that would have sent a normal person flying out of the city.

He was a cocky son of a bitch, but he deserved it.

Rocksolid charged down the hall straight for me.

I threw up a barrier of kinetic energy that slowed him, but he strained, trying to push through. I pushed back harder until his feet started sliding on the floor.

I cursed. While maintaining everything else I was doing, holding him back actually required effort.

It had been a long time since someone could make me get serious.

And he wasn’t my target.

Splitting my attention, I threw another blast and ripped apart the room that Omnigirl was resting in.

“No!” Rocksolid thrashed against my barrier.

Alarms blared throughout the Bureau.

I thought about just sapping his ki, but I realized he’d die the second I did that. His density was a mutation, not his super power. Super strength was the only thing keeping his body upright with his mutation. He was defending who he thought was a friend, and it was hard to fault him for that. I wouldn’t kill him if I could avoid it, but if it came down to it, I’d protect myself.

Omnigirl’s medical room was a mess. The wall crumbled in, devices blinking urgently while the lights above dangled precariously as they flickered.

The woman herself was fine, her body durable enough to have survived my blast that only served to tear down the wall.

Pushing out her ki, I turned her into a normal woman before severing her spine and turning her brain into a scrambled mess with liberal application of kinetic force.

The last thing I needed was some unknown super that could make the dead speak. Any memory of what happened in that warehouse needed to be gone.

“You won’t get away with this.” Rocksolid stepped back from my barrier and charged it.

Rather than continue to block him, I dismissed the barrier and slid myself to the side.

He bulldozed right through two medical suites before he could right himself, his sheer weight carrying his momentum forward.

And by the time he’d righted himself, I was already slipping further down the hall, looking for her manager.

She was an even bigger target; I suspected she’d had a larger role to play in their abduction of me.

Rocksolid was pulling himself out of the rubble and coming for me once again.

I spotted the manager; she was groaning and her eyes fluttered open.

I was just in time.

Given that she was far less durable than Omnigirl, I sent a spike of kinetic energy right through her head, destroying everything.

Rocksolid raged, smashing at a new barrier I’d put up behind me. “Evil never wins. Heroes will find you.”

I knew he believed that, but I knew better. Evil had the upper hand. They had no limitations. Omnigirl had used her reputation and power to kidnap and deliver people to villians. It was all grey space, and Rocksolid was only kidding himself if he thought it was anything else.

It had been less than a minute from when I’d smashed Omnigirl’s medical suite and set off the alarms. Heroes were responding, pouring into both sides of the medical wing.

It was time to get out, and this time I didn’t need to be quiet.

I ripped a hole in the ceiling and flew out as a handful of supers tried to catch me in the air.

Thankfully, none of them were hiding abilities like Rocksolid had been.

I slipped through their net and broke the sound barrier, rushing out of the city far faster than any of them could keep up with. I needed to hurry back to Coast City.

Killing Omnigirl had been heavier handed than I wanted, but it had become a necessity.

I may have loosened my grip on my secret with Stella and Melody, but I was determined to keep it from the world. Even then, I had to admit that I was nervous about how Stella and Melody would react.

The idea of both of them leaving me for what I’d just done hit me like a collapsing building. My heart physically ached at the idea.

I realized I was getting soft. Stella was making me soft. But I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be hard again.

It was only a little over an hour round trip as I settled back in the room. I put my comms back on and released all the safety measures I had wrapped around my body.

And I’d apparently just barely made it in time, as I heard a knock on my door.

I pulled it open, finding Kim on the other side.

She pushed past me. “Miles.” She greeted me with a terse expression.

Omnigirl was attacked, and she came to see me. Did she suspect something?

“Where’s Demoness?” She asked sharply.

“Huh?” My gut churned. I hadn’t thought she might suspect Stella. “Let me see. She should still be wearing her comms. Her and Pulsar are having a night out.”

Grabbing my tablet off my bed, I flicked it on and swiped through the screens until I found a location. “Looks like they are still shopping.” Holding up the tablet, I let her see the data for herself.

Rather than just take the tablet’s data, she pulled out her phone and texted someone. “We have to confirm. Tonight Omnigirl was attacked and killed.”

I gasped, acting properly shocked. “How?”

Kim rubbed her face. “We are still trying to piece everything together. Beatrix is working full time on trying to figure this out. Rocksolid engaged with the super, and he confirmed they are at least an S grade super.”

Frowning, I shook my head in sympathy. “I’m sorry. I know she was one of yours.”

Kim snorted. “I’m not so sure about that. She’s been a pain in my ass for almost a year now.”

I raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “What does that mean?”

“Sit down.” Kim pulled out a little device and clicked it, making herself at home on the couch.

There was a faint hum in the air. It wasn’t enough to disturb our talking, but I could see the electromagnetic pulses and how the hum disrupted our conversation from potentially distant ears.

“A precaution.” She explained. “I’ve been trying to phase out Omnigirl from the limelight for eleven months now. You have my sincere apologies for what she did to you.”

Now I was angry. “She’s done this before and still she flies around as a hero?”

“I wish it were that easy.” Kim leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “Every hero gains a following. When she first pulled this shit, I tried to crack down on her, but she was resistant enough to the counseling that I knew she wasn’t going to stop.”

Kim sighed. “So, I tried to pull her back from the public eye. If I just straight up jailed her, there would be an outcry. There could even have been riots on the street. And the public’s trust in the Bureau would diminish.”

I had to interrupt her. “It would show that not even the best hero was above the law.”

“That’s what it would show?” Kim glanced at me dubiously. “It very well might, but then it would also show that the BSH is full of corruption. The unfortunate reality is that when the media gets a hold of a situation with both positives and negatives, the negative always wins out.”

She paused. “After it happened, you came back to work the next morning.”

“Of course. That was for Stella and Melody.” I wasn’t about to leave them high and dry.

She gestured as if that was her point. “I need to keep the BSH running in good standing order for the same reasons.”

“It isn’t the same.”

“No, it isn’t.” Kim agreed. “It is on a larger scale. And the worst possible option is for heroes to go back to military management.” She shuddered, lost in some distant memory. “Trust me on that one.”

“So you just sweep this under the rug.”

“Absolutely not.” Kim scowled at me. “We handle it ourselves. Once I weaned Omnigirl off the public eye, I could have properly taken care of the situation. I’d put her and her manager away and try to see if there was any hope of redemption.”

I crossed my arms. “That's a hell of a lot nicer than how you treat a normal person. It’s certainly better than a villain that would have done the same thing.”

Kim rubbed at her forehead. “That’s not a fair comparison. She’s one of our own, doing good nine out of ten times.”

“Then what? You let her continue because she evens out the scales? Gee, I wish others had the opportunity.”

At this point, we were in a full on argument. Our voices were rising and I could feel my heart starting to pound.

She’d handled Omnigirl with kid gloves, yet had once declared me a villain because of a single act as a scared teenager.

“These are the decisions that have to be made. Heroes don’t grow on trees, and if we aren’t careful, they slip. Seeing villains day after day, who have so much by just taking it, it does things to a hero.”

I paused. “Like what?”

“Imagine busting villains that live the most comfortable life imaginable while you are busting your ass to work.” Kim tapped her head. “It does things to see that.”

“They always get caught, don’t they?” I tried to understand.

“No.” Kim snorted. “Some steal a boatload of money and then donate to politicians. They make themselves untouchable while having more than enough to sit back and relax.”

She continued, “Those are the cases that really pain me. A lot of heroes can’t take it, and they become jaded. Omnigirl hasn’t been able to get a date in over a year because most men are too intimidated by her.”

I wrinkled my nose, not feeling an iota of sympathy for Omnigirl, but starting to understand. “That’s sick.”

“Yes.” Kim latched on to that. “She’s sick, or was sick. We need to treat that illness and not just lock her up and forget it. Just sticking people in jail does nothing but eat away at tax dollars. Somehow, it just seems to be the only tool that gets used.”

I’d calmed down quite a bit, processing what Kim was saying. Locking villains up was the go-to move of a superhero, but maybe there was something better.

They were still humans, prone to changes and the vast array of emotion that came with the human experience.

The unfairness is what rankled me the most. “Then you should try counseling on some of the small-time villains we pick up.”

Kim raised her hands and spread her fingers. “If you want to take on a project like that, you’d have my full backing. Reforming prisoners is a fantastic cause; we have too many as it is.”

I didn’t say no right away, wondering if there was indeed something I could do to help them. “Let me think about it.”

I had to admit; I was a once terrifying villain, but I was now working for BSH and doing some good. Couldn’t others follow the same path if only they had someone to guide them?

Kim nodded as her phone chimed. “Looks like Stella and Melody are still in town. Okay, your team is clear. Sorry, but we have to check during these sorts of instances.”

I realized she had also been keeping me talking, preventing me from warning anyone should we have been part of it.

No matter what I might think about Kim, she was damn good at what she did.

“Beatrix will unlock your access to the investigation. If you remember anything about that night, we need to find out who this new super villain is before anyone else gets hurt.” Kim stood up from the couch and made her way out.

I didn’t move, didn’t say goodbye. I had too many thoughts swirling in my head. It wasn’t a simple solution, certainly not one I was going to unravel in one night.