Supervillains 2 Chapter 36 (Patreon)

Daeva and I broke apart. Her chest heaved as she clutched her heart. I was sure it was thudding under her hand.

“Finally, an equal. This has to be love,” she said with a smile.

“You don’t love me,” I sighed, floating in the air.

She’d been essentially raised in a lab. I could only imagine the upbringing she’d had. Clinical attention was all she’d known, and her sense of love morphed to match whatever she had read.

I felt sorry for her, but I also needed to stop her. Not wanting to drag the fight out any further, I tried to change up my strategy. I needed to use my power differently.

Rather than relying on just kinetic energy, as I’d done usually, I gathered static from the clouds and lightning bolts raced through the sky towards her.

Daeva laughed into the storm as the jagged, crackling light of the bolts surrounded her.

She came out unscathed beyond some singes on her clothes and launched herself at me immediately. If it was at all possible, her power seemed to glow even brighter.

But I wasn’t interested in another physical confrontation. We’d proven that was useless, and I could hear trouble continuing to unfold down below us. It sounded like I might not have gotten everyone in the kinetic dome.

So instead, I turned up the heat to several thousand degrees, hoping to find a weakness.

Daeva flew through the heat, her skin merely turning red as she hit me.

I blocked her hit, letting it carry me away, as I shifted tactics. This time, I dropped the temperature as low as I could.

“Brrr,” She clutched her shoulders as ice gathered on her skin. “This is very uncomfortable, love. I don’t want to fight over the thermostat, but can we turn it back up a little?”

She came at me again with a punch hard enough to make my Void guise peel away for a moment, before I snapped it back in place.

She paused, a gleeful sparkle in her eyes. “So that’s what you look like. I would have loved you regardless, but damn, love. You’ve got a face to remember.”

That was it. I was tired of that shit. She’d seen my face and could expose my secret. This had to end.

I frowned. Instead of just focusing on her ki, I worked on taking all energy from her body. I removed her body heat, any chemical traces, small amounts of electrical energy in the brain, as well as her ki this time.

Daeva faltered, sinking in the sky, before I snagged her with my kinetic force and lifted her up. She was finally down for the count, like I’d switched her off.

Anticlimactic, yet effective. I hadn’t thought of literally turning someone off before, and wondered if I could do something like this to Angel, if we met again. The thought of putting him in his place made me smile, as I looked down at the limp doll.

“I’m sorry. I am sure you’ve had a hard life, but I cannot let you overturn the entire city.” She’d been an experiment, and now she’d been terminated. I couldn’t blame her for wanting a different life, and considering a society that had created and then abandoned her as broken.

Feeling pity for her, I didn’t turn her into paste. For what she’d been through, that seemed disrespectful. Instead, I just broke her brain stem and let her fall.

A part of me withered as I watched her fall. She was broken, and probably savable, but she was simply too powerful.

She fell into the shell I’d formed over the prison, and I let her fall through.

I floated high in the sky, thinking of her words.

Were we deities?

Though she didn’t have the soundest reasoning, there was a truth in her logic. I was powerful enough to rule Point City, if I had wanted to rule it. Luckily, I didn’t.

But others were beginning to emerge, also overpowered. So far, there had been Angel and Daeva, but something told me there would be more. With monster fruit scurrying around, they were far more likely. Who was to say there wouldn’t be another one tomorrow?

This was a new type of villain. Vilains had been kept in check by others, before. Their hierarchy could be overturned if they didn’t run the organization effectively and fairly.

However, Daeva could rule by sheer force. She was likely a titan class, like me.

I felt a headache coming on, but as the sounds carried on below, I headed down to help clean up the prison.

Before I could get far, the bubble over the prison faltered and shattered before me.

As it popped, Daeva burst out, waving her fingers goodbye as she shot out.

A wave of villains poured out behind her, lifted up by her abilities.

I moved to get to her, but I already knew I would be far too late.

“We’ll fight again soon, love. I want you to make my heart beat even faster next time, so make sure to keep training,” Daeva’s words entered my ears even at a distance as she shot away at full speed, with all the villains in tow behind her.

Blinking, I was stunned for a moment as I watched her shoot away.

For a second, I was tempted to chase after them, but she was too quick. It would take hours, and Miles still needed to be here for the cleanup.

While I didn’t love her having a small army at her disposal, I was glad the villains were gone from the city. Hopefully, we’d have a bit of time to organize and regroup before going after her.

Realising that wewould be fight another day, I turned the world dark once more and shot down next to Angelina and Melody. Then I removed my Void guise, and returned to being Deputy Director Miles.

“Alright, everyone. Move in on the Gateway correctional. With the unknown super out of here, we need to lock away anything that’s left,” I told the other managers.

“On it, boss,” they shouted back, and the heroes still on their feet rushed in to contain what little remained of the prison.

I swiped on the tablet until I got Emma. “Emma, status?”

“Hiding. That… woman tore through here, taking anyone that wanted to come.”

“I’m aware. Get yourself to safety,” I replied.

“The prison is pretty much empty. "Besides, I'm hiding in a room next to the mess hall with a big cart of monster fruit stuffed hot dogs,” she told me.

“Hang on, then. Demoness will be there shortly.” I swiped over to Demoness and got her moving in that direction.

Melody tapped my shoulder. “Miles, what happened?”

Without even asking, I knew she was referring to Daeva’s return.

“I’m not sure. She was dead, and I let her fall. Then… she wasn’t dead anymore.” Pausing, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “I think she must have played dead on me, and it worked.”

“But you beat her, right?” Melody almost sounded scared.

I nodded. “Yeah, I had to get a little creative, but I beat her. She’s messed up, though. She had the upbringing of a lab rat. I think it made her feelings a little faulty. The fact that our fight got her blood pumping made her think her heart was telling her we were in love.”

Both my women were silent for a long moment.

Angelina sighed. “So, she’s the newest project?”

“I don’t follow,” I frowned.

Melody nodded, along with Angelina. “She’s totally the newest project. But what else did she say?”

“She thinks she’s a deity. She rules some new city she called ‘New Haven’” I gazed in the direction she went. “Whatever she is, she’s crazy strong.”

Melody sagged, and I realized that had been the wrong thing to say. She was still feeling weak in the grand scheme of supers.

Angelina gazed at me, adoration on her face. She already thought I was a deity.

“Come on. Let’s get in there and see what we can clean up.” I prodded Melody, who nodded weakly and grabbed me with her one good arm, while I held onto Angelina.

We landed down next to the site of the wreckage.

“Miles,” Venus landed gracefully next to us. Her suit was torn, but none of her injuries looked severe.

I could feel her searching my mind for what had happened. She’d been too busy to follow along with me in the moment. “You should have pasted her,” she replied at the end.

“Pasted?” Melody frowned at the word.

“Yeah, he should have turned her into paste. It is his signature move. Well… that or the little blood beads, or maybe the big dangerous beam.” Venus rambled a little as she sorted through my most intense power uses.

Melody glared at me. “Please tell me you don’t think of it as ‘pasted’.”

“Can confirm. I don’t think of it like that. I just think of turning them into paste, and they become paste.” The words struck me as I said them. Maybe I wasn’t so far different from Daeva. I did make my thoughts a reality. But I still gave people free choice as long as they weren’t interfering with my life.

Venus was soaking up my thoughts, but she didn’t seem to mind them, just filing them away.

Why are you not reacting to the idea that I might consider myself a god?,I probed her.

Venus paused. Because we all already knew you were one. With just that pause in her stride, she continued.

I had no idea how to reply to that.

Demoness flew out of the prison carrying Emerald and a big crate. “I got our Kitty Cat.”

Emerald just sighed in defeat as they landed. “She just forces these stupid names on us. Wears them down, until you just accept them.”

“You are Miles’ Kitty Cat! Don’t even try to deny it,” Demoness stuck out her tongue. “We all know you purr for him.”

“I do not purr,” Emerald refuted.

“Could have fooled me.” Demoness dropped the crate on the ground. “That’s full of monster fruit-hotdogs. They stuck it in the food at the mess hall. The prisoners seemed to be well aware of what was inside.”

“There were still a few stragglers trying to get their own while I was inside,” Emerald confirmed. “They knew this was coming and wanted it.”

“Wonderful,” I grunted. “This is going to make for a very long report.”

“Report?” Demoness’s eyes widened before she pressed herself up against me and pushed out her lower lip. “We should go celebrate rather than fill out reports. You could fill out much more pleasurable things.”

I stroked her hair. “You still need to be your master's pretty little succubus later tonight. After you only teased me this morning, I need to remind you who you serve.”

Demoness melted into me with a sigh while her tail curled around my leg possessively. “Yes, Master.”

“Let’s get this all cleaned up and join the rescue operation,” I clapped my hands, and they shot off to work. Well, all but Angelina and Melody, who stuck close by.

“Walk with me,” I told the slime woman as I reached out, using my power to search for anyone who might have been trapped.

Luckily, I could multitask. And I felt the need to talk to my therapist.

“Daeva– that is her name– said she thought of herself as a deity, like the Greeks. That she accepted offerings in return for favors,” I explained.

Per usual, Angelina was already several steps ahead of me. “It bothers you that her her assessment of you two as gods isn’t wrong.”

I grunted as she got to the heart of the matter. “I don’t see myself above you and the other girls.” That needed to be put out in the open.

Angelina laughed. “No, I don’t think you do. But you are above us. You walk around this city, and when something gets in your way, you remove it without a care in the world. When Melody was injured, you tore apart Libertech for her.”

Somehow, the weight of the term ‘deity’ weighed on me far more heavily.

“I’m still just a human.”

“One that has stopped aging and has little of the limitations the rest of us do. Sure, you’re human. The term seems to be what is throwing you off, not the change in your strength or perception of yourself. Daeva’s terms don’t need to be yours. You just need to be ourMiles.” She put a gentle hand on my arm. “You don’t have to be anything more than what you already are.”

She paused, waiting to see if I had anything to add. When I didn’t, she asked her next question. “You said she was crazy, that she didn’t understand love…”

I nodded. “Daeva thought that because our fight made her heart beat quickly, she must be in love with me.”

Angelina deftly climbed over a pile of rubble. I had been scanning, but it seemed that people had either gotten out or had died.

“She still seems to have some grounding, even if she has some odd perceptions of herself. Maybe instead of elevating yourself up to a deity, you need to prove to her she’s still human.” Angelina got to the top of the pile and stopped to look out over the destruction.

People who had fled were coming back and removing the rubble and pick through to help already.

“What it means to be human,” I stared out over the people rushing to help their fellows recover from the disaster. “Thank you, Angelina. I don’t know how anyone survives without a therapist.”

She just chuckled and rested herself against me, trying to hide the reverence she felt for me.

I went to lean my head down on her, but a cry broke my focus. It came from behind us.

Melody was bent over the crate and clutching her throat.

“No,” I breathed, rushing down the pile of rubble and over to Melody. As I moved, I sent out my power to get a sense of what was happening. I tried to find the threat.

And as I did, the picture came together quickly.

I could feel the pulsing ki of the monster fruit in her throat.

Locking her in place, I forced open her jaw and sent a scalpel of kinetic force down her throat. I cut it out and threw it to the ground before burning it to ashes.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” I screamed at her.

Venus had sensed my distress but hadn’t found the cause, as she flew over and landed next to us.

“I… I…” Melody cried.

It took Venus a moment to realize what had happened, then she joined me in anger. “Melody, that was reckless, especially for you.”

“None of you understand.” Melody scratched at her throat. “Compared to all of you, I’m so weak. I get injured, I get kidnapped, and now a god-like woman has appeared and… and I’m side-lined.”

“You aren’t sidelined,” I sighed. This was an issue she needed to work through. “Angelina, I need your help.”

“Of course.”

But Melody kept scratching at her throat.

I sensed for ki again and could see remnants of monster fruit worming through her throat. I felt helpless in that moment, unsure what the monster fruit would do for her.

“Melody, I tried to stop it, but I was too late. The monster fruit is already in your system.” My tone was icy with fury. “Grab another two fruits. We are going.”

“Going where?” She asked.

I was too busy to reply, as I sent a message to Doctor Wells. “Doctor Wells is at the office. I’m going to hand you over to the mad scientist. From what I can tell, the monster fruit is slowly working through your system. I’m hoping she can help us prevent you from becoming a giant blob that’ll have to die.”

The idea of her transforming into one of the cancerous giants came into my mind, but instantly, Mona was there pushing it out and filling my head with many attractive mutations she could find, instead.

Thank you, Mona.

Do not worry. Between your abilities and the mad doctor, I have full confidence that you can succeed.

Melody had red marks on her throat from where she scratched but held two spare monster fruits with a downcast expression. “I’m sorry, Miles. I just…”

“What’s done is done. We’ll fix this and then… then I don’t know, but I’m pissed, Melody.”

Angelina put a hand on my arm. “We’ll talk about this later. For now, you should focus on helping Melody.”

Grabbing Melody by my power, I wrapped light around the two of us and ripped us off the ground, hurling us towards the office.

On the way, I played with my power on the wriggling bits of monster fruit working its way down her throat.

I pushed all the ki out of them. They stalled but didn’t die. I wondered if I could kill them by starving all the energy types, but I didn’t want to experiment until we got Melody to Doctor Wells.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Melody whispered, running her hand along my face as tears streamed down her eyes.

I sighed, feeling her pain in her words, but still hyped up on the adrenaline coursing through my body. “I know you’ve struggled with your power level compared to the rest of us, but to do something so reckless is beyond what I thought you could do. It was stupid Melody.”

“I know,” She replied.

“Damn it. You are supposed to be the normal one in our group,” I muttered, coming down from my rage.

Melody laughed through her tears. “Yeah, because the model industry pumps out normal functional people, doesn’t it? Miles, I’m fiercely competitive and put into a group of people I can’t expect to compete with. So… I did something dangerous to get an edge.”

“We’ll get you through this.” My immediate anger was cooling, and my mind was shifting towards how to save her. Angelina was right– this had to be my focus.

It helped that Mona was riding shotgun in my mind, giving me strange ideas about what fun mutations she could have.

And if I was being honest with myself, some were quite appealing.