Supervillains 2 Chapter 10 (Patreon)

"Going in!" Demoness yelled as she tore the secret hatch off the floor.

"Wait, a minute." The convenience store clerk tried to stop Demoness with her words, but paused when she saw the three beads of light that Venus had hovering around her head.

The rest of the convenience store had been cleared out, and Pulsar was watching overhead in case one managed to slip out a bolt hole we hadn't identified.

This group included three B grade supers, all of whom had physical type powers.

Demoness would tear them apart.

My tablet showed the satellite images all broken up still. Apparently, my blast had seriously taken them out. They were still working to calibrate.

"Why do you do it? Support villainy?" Venus asked the clerk, honest curiosity in her voice.

"I don't know what you are talking about." The clerk was a large woman, another strength type super, I assumed. She held her hands up, acting like none of this was her problem.

But she was the owner of the store.

I stared at her. "There's no way you weren't aware of the hatch in your store."

"I just work here."

A blatant lie. I pulled up the records for the store, and her image came up next to it.

Frowning, I scanned the hideout below again.

There were still three figures. None of them were out of place, and Demoness had already tied two of them down, closing in on the third.

"Report." I ignored the clerk for a moment.

"All good. Easy peasy. Hey, what do you want for dinner tonight?" Demoness asked as someone screamed in pain in the background.

I smiled. I loved that crazy woman.

"Maybe some non-breakfast food tonight." I suggested.

She gasped over the comms. "But breakfast is the best meal of the day. It recharges you after a night of fun, and it gets you ready for the next one."

"I do not need to hear this." Venus rolled her eyes.

The clerk took that moment of distraction, snatching something from under the counter.

For a moment I thought it was a gun and prepared to protect myself, but she slammed her palm into her mouth. My interest spiked immediately.

Venus must have had the same thought, because she used a beam of light to cut straight through the clerk’s throat, severing her head.

It fell and rolled to a stop before the body collapsed.

"Cut open her throat."

Venus paused for only a moment, looking sick to her stomach as she shot several more concentrated beams of light, opening up the woman's throat and mouth.

A small wriggling mass was expanding in the back of the clerk's now exposed mouth.

"Eew." Venus made a disgusted face covering her nose. "The smell."

I took a candy bar from the counter and opened it, munching on the bar.

"What the fuck, Miles?" Venus stared at me like I was a monster. "Is this really the time for a snack?"

"What's wrong? Need me to come inside?" Pulsar asked.

"No, things are fine." I took the rest of the candy bar in my mouth and then unfolded the foil wrapper. I used it to pick up the wriggling mass from the clerk's throat and place it on the counter.

No way in hell was I touching that thing with my hands.

Venus looked at me strangely. "You didn't have to eat the candy bar."

"Would have been a waste to toss it in the trash." I put the mass wrapped in the foil on the counter and focused on my tablet. "I'm ordering a pickup from the bureau--"

With a blast, the door blew open. I turned, ready to face the attacker.

A speedster stood there, holding a steel canister. "Deputy director, you ordered an emergency pickup?" The eager woman bounces from foot to foot, happy to help.

Relaxing, I held out my hand. The speedster zoomed over, placing it in my palm.

Turning, I nudged the wrapper off the counter and into the canister. "Take this back to the bureau. Give it to Doctor Wells or Kim Smith. No one else."

"Do I tell them anything?"

"No, I'll send them a message." I swiped around on my tablet as the speedster broke the sound barrier again on her way out.

I shot off a message, letting Kim and Doctor Wells know about the object.

Venus took one more look at the severed and dissected head and turned around, puking in the aisle.

"I bagged them." Demoness sounded chipper through the comms.

"Good work. The clerk is dead unfortunately. They tried to swallow something, and Venus did her job. Pulsar, come on in. I want to search this hideout. There may be more of whatever this pill-like thing is around."

It didn't take long for Pulsar to come swooping in. She looked around, spotting the puke and the head. She raised an eyebrow. "You going to be okay, Venus?"

"Fine." She pulled back her hair, and I handed her some paper towels from the dispenser. "Thank you." She dabbed at her face.

"Let's get into this lair and look for more." I swiped at my tablet and ordered a clean-up crew for the body and for the convenience store, then I headed down the steps to the secret hideout.

The space was a plain concrete structure, mostly undecorated. Interior design clearly wasn’t one of their top priorities.

"I got them~" Demoness sang as she came around the corner with a rope over her shoulder, dragging three hog-tied villains. They looked to be the ones from our intel, but one of their faces was covered in welts and bruises that made it hard to verify.

Another villain was passed out, her face dragging drool along the ground as Demoness skipped to me. Only the last one appeared to be in any condition to talk.

"Did I do good?" Demoness stopped next to me, looking up at me through her eyelashes expectantly.

"You did great." I rubbed the top of her head. "Let's talk to the last one you have there.” I turned my attention to the villain. “What's your name?"

"Trish." She grunted, trying not to look afraid. But I could tell she was absolutely terrified of Demoness, as any sane person would be.

Demoness spun on her heels and knelt down next to Trish. "Here's how this is going to go. You tell my Master everything he wants to know, or I ruin what looks you do have. 'Kay?" She smiled and tilted her head in a threatening yet pleasant manner.

"Sometimes she scares me." Pulsar whispered.

"Me too. But she's mine, and I wouldn't trade her for the world." I leaned in towards the villain. "Trish, the clerk upstairs tried to swallow something. We've seen it before; it mutates supers horribly. It might enhance their power, but it turns them into monsters. Is the rest of your group in possession of these?"

Trish swallowed loudly and glanced at Demoness's smile before returning her focus to me. "Yeah. We each were given one. I don't know where the others put theirs, but I know where mine is. He said taking it held a risk, but it was well worth the possible reward. Said it could give us a better power."

"Who gave these to you?" I asked, getting excited to finally make some progress.

"He called himself Warlock. A big scaley guy, teleports--"

My suspicions were verified. "I know him. He gave you these? Anything else come with them?"

Trish shook her head. "No, he offered them to us, no strings."

I snorted. "You're an idiot if you thought there weren't strings attached."

"That's why we agreed not to take them yet, and I put mine in a little lock box. Didn't trust the bastard." Trish spat. "Here, I'll show you the lock box if you let me go."

"Venus, burn the ropes tying her to the others, but don't free her hands. Trish, show me."

Trish was free in a moment, stumbling to her feet. She used the wall for leverage as she hurried down the hall.

"Pulsar, stay with these two and protect yourself if necessary. Venus and Demoness, with me." I followed Trish without worry.

Even if I couldn't use my powers in front of Venus, Demoness had this covered.

"In here, the middle drawer." Trish called as we entered the room.

"Get it Demoness."

She pulled out a square metal brick the size of a thick book.

"The key is--"

The sound of metal being torn open stopped Trish from continuing.

Demoness twisted the metal brick until she had enough texture and then ripped it apart.

Cash fluttered into the air, and something that looked like a dried berry fell to the ground.

"Don't touch it." I shouted before she did something stupid. With them popping it in their mouths, I had assumed a pill of some sort, not what looked like a dried strawberry.

Taking a few of the loose bills, I picked it up. It looked vaguely like the live sample we'd sent in earlier only dried out and inert. "This is it?"

"Yep." Trish nodded.

"The one that the clerk tried to swallow was alive and wiggling in her throat when she lost her head." I commented, staring at the non-moving sample.

Trish paused, dumbfounded. "She lost her head?"

I realized she hadn’t been up to the shop yet. "Yeah, Venus severed it with a beam of light when she tried to swallow it. The last time we saw a girl use one of these, it turned them into a fifty foot tall giant covered in cancer. We couldn’t take that risk again." I gave Trish a warning glare.

If she had another, I wanted to make sure she understood we’d stop her before it did her any good.

As if reading my mind, Demoness grabbed Trish's shoulder and the back of her head, leaning forward to stare into her mouth.

"Don't kill her unless she does something stupid." I told Demoness.

She let out a sigh, but Stella backed off just slightly.

Trish was holding perfectly still, her eyes moving over to me, clearly aware of the danger Demoness presented. Her head was likely weaker than that metal box had been.

"Let's get them out of here; the cleanup crew shouldn't be long."

Demoness escorted Trish out. Trish seemed to be moving carefully, keeping her arms in full sight as Demoness bounced next to her.

We re-entered the main room, and Demoness grabbed the rope holding the other two villains, continuing to drag them behind her as Trish walked next to her.

As we got to the top, a handful of C grade supers were in the convenience store and looked up from the corpse with wide eyes at the rest of us.

"Here, someone needs to bag this and get it to the scientists." I held out the dried piece of flesh.

Given that it looked like a berry, I thought of it as monster fruit. "It's top priority. Then get these three to lock up and start their processing."

Before I could even wrap up this case, my tablet went off with an alarm.

Checking it, I swiped off the annoying noise and saw the messages floating in.

"Team, we have an emergency. We are going now."

Pulsar stopped mid-sentence of her report and shot out of the store, floating in the air for further directions.

Venus was right behind her. Demoness was last, grabbing me and lifting us both high into the air.

"Three of the cancerous giants are rampaging not far from here. We are the closest team. They are at the Auburn Plaza." It was an enormous shopping center in the city, which meant there was a huge collateral risk.

"Oh, I know the direction." Stella took off.

I was surprised she had actually gone the correct direction. "You can't tell north from south, but you can find the mall?"

"It has a big bell tower, which is really easy to spot from the air. Plus, they have this super tasty specialty cupcake shop--"

I smacked my forehead. "Just get us there."

From the air, we could already see the large shopping complex. From what I could tell, the three giants were still in the process of growing.

"Demoness, put me down on top of the theater." It was removed enough from the action that I shouldn’t need to use my powers for protection, and it was tall enough to give me a good view.

"Roger!" She dove, increasing her speed before planting me on the roof and zooming off towards the giants.

I reached out with my powers and boosted Demoness, talking over the comms. "Try to attack the head. See if you can minimize the damage. Don't let that fat body crush the entire complex. Pulsar, you’re focusing on preventing as much collateral damage as possible."

"Miles, there's no way I can cover all of this." Her voice hitched up at the end as I boosted her. I ignored her complaint; I’d help her where I could, and I needed to stay focused.

"Venus, you know your job. Take them out."

"I’ve got the biggest one." Demoness cried out as she shot over the roof.

My tablet continued to ping, and I responded to the analysts. They were blind because of the satellite outage and wanted to know what was happening.

'Giants are engaged. Our focus is on protecting citizens. Collateral risk is extremely high.'

Ben shot messages back. 'Reports of one other villain. They are described as a human-sized hornet.'

I cursed, reaching out to sense for the last villain.

But the shopping center was crowded; I was struggling to tell a random person from a villain. Everybody had varying levels of ki. While some were brighter than others, there was too much variation to be confident any were the villain.

I heard a crunch and looked up as Demoness finished her swing. She blew half the giant’s face off with her hit, and blood sprayed into the afternoon air.

It groaned loudly, but it didn't go down. More of the tumors traveled under its skin and filled in the mass that Demoness had blown away with her punch.

"Uh. Miles. This one regenerates." Demoness paused.

"Don't just float there, keep at it." I opened up my senses toward the giants.

To my surprise, besides the tumors, most of their limbs and head didn't contain much ki. It was all still focused in their core and in the tumors. "New plan. Demoness, Venus, focus on where their hearts should be. That's how Venus killed them the last time."

I remembered the previous two and used it as an excuse for my revelation.

"Almost charged. Just keep them busy." Venus sounded strained. I wasn’t about to boost her right now.

Luckily Demoness' sudden entrance and attack of one giant had drawn the other two's attention.

They waded through the building to get to her, crumbling the surrounding roof.

Pulsar swooped in, her hands glowing orange as the debris floated mid air rather than fall on the fleeing citizens below. "Can't keep this up." She was making huge areas of low gravity in order to catch it all.

"Give each of the zones a little gravity, maybe one quarter of normal. Let the debris settle slowly so people can get out of the way." While I gave the order, I reached out with my power, taking many of the zones away from her. Then I let the debris float down slowly.

"Much better." She realized what I was doing. "Demoness, kick their asses before they do too much more."

"On it." Demoness shot at her target, aiming for the chest this time.

One huge punch blew its chest out, and Venus used the same moment to release her own powers. The burst took down the second giant.

"Pulsar, handle Venus' target. Demoness, get your target to the ground safely." I knew Pulsar was already struggling to handle all the debris. She wouldn't be able to handle any of the giants. I reached out with my own power to help as she pretended to support everything.

"Readying an attack for the next." Venus communicated.

I nodded. My eyes flicked down to the tablet, but then flicked right back up as something floated in my peripheral.

A giant hornet had risen behind Venus while she was focused ahead.

"Venus, dodge." I shouted into the comms.

She hesitated, looking around instead of just moving.

The hornet crashed into her from behind, taking them both down and through the movie theater wall.

"Demoness, Pulsar, handle the last giant." I rushed to the edge of the theater and grabbed the lip as I swung over. With a liberal use of my power, I shot myself through the hole in the wall.

"Damn it. Venus, report."

She coughed loudly enough for me to hear her not only through the comms, but in the theater.

My eyes were still adjusting to the darkness, but I knew she was around.

The movie switched scenes to something brighter, and I could finally make out the hornet man between two rows of seats.

Venus' power was barely a twinkling light in the dark theater as she tried to gather more light to attack.

The scene change had helped her some; as she knocked the villain off of her and stagger down the aisle, trying to get back to the hole in the wall.

I wrapped myself in kinetic force and raced over the seats to grab her and throw her over my shoulder.

"Miles." She shouted, surprised.

"We need to get you back in the daylight." I blew out a sharp breath. The bureau thought I was enhanced; this seemed like an okay amount of strength to use without blowing my cover.

"Where are you going?" The hornet man buzzed in front of us, blocking the exit. He was fast.

Venus threw her hand forward, shooting a ray of blinding light.

Unfortunately, it wasn't concentrated enough to do harm.

The hornet appeared before us in a blink, grabbing Venus off my shoulder and throwing her deeper into the theater. “In the darkness, you are nothing.”

He then spun, his leg snapping out and catching me before throwing me through several rows of the theater seating.

My kinetic force wrapped around my body had prevented any harm, but as I sat up, the Hornet had Venus pinned on the ground, his bulbous butt poised to strike with his stinger.

Venus looked terrified as she struggled underneath the hornet, but he had her pinned. Here in the darkness, her power was almost useless, while her telepathy wasn’t going to help her either.

I wasn’t about to just watch what was about to happen; it was time to use my powers.

AN - Oh no! What's about to happen! Such an evil author to cut here.

Also, I am starting to work on Omnibus/boxed sets. We'll get Michelle and Kat on the Mana covers and Kelly on the first boxed set for Dragon.

There seems to be a lot of NSFW art interest, more than I expected. I will be working with Yanai on some cover versions, but will look at other high quality artists for additional. It will remain on the $10 art tier, and I will look into Gumroad or other format to offer it for anyone just interested in the art.