Accidental Villainy 66 (Patreon)

“What’s going on?” Emily asked, curious, not showing any sign of panic.

Understandable, as she had no idea about the difference between the two warnings. I didn’t give any outward sign of my panic. I didn’t want to ruin everything after I led her here. “It’s a bar emergency. She probably broke another tap. I’ll go and handle it first. Meanwhile, why don’t you start working on setting the devices,” I said, giving her a deliberately middling excuse, which I could escalate if needed.

She pouted. “But, I thought you would watch —” she said, unhappy that all the build-up of her fun strip show had been ruined, but I pressed my finger against her lips.

“Good things come to those that wait,” I said, gave her a promising smirk, then turned and left. Not the best, or most amusing way to handle her, but certainly the fastest. And, considering we were facing an emergency, I didn’t have the luxury of taking the entertaining path.

Especially since, with her in the room, I didn’t even dare to check the security cameras. Her power could make that very inconvenient. I didn’t give any sign of alarm as I climbed the stairs leisurely, and only started running once I closed the basement door behind me.

Tara was at the bar, wearing her modified biker costume. She had her helmet on, but that didn’t hide her worries. I walked closer. “Sir. I know you told me not to disturb you unless it’s an emergency, but —”

“It’s an emergency,” I completed. “What’s going on?” I asked even as I leaned next to her to catch what was going on.

“There’s three groups gathering. They haven’t done anything suspicious yet, but they were waiting at the spots you asked me to pay attention to, so…”

“You did well,” I said even before I could check the scene. I remember explaining to her the general layout of the neighborhood as well as the spots she needed to pay attention, based on a lengthy analysis that I employed my power.

As a result, I had identified several suspicious spots, ones that looked normal at first glance, but had some small problems that made those areas inconvenient. Bad drift, smelly garbage, or many other small problems that would dissuade people from standing there unconsciously, whether they were walking around idly, or trying to sell drugs.

Yet, there were some advantages of those spots. They had many items thick enough to act as cover, anyone that gathered there would stay hidden if anyone tried to see them from the bar, yet they would have a direct route.

And, most importantly, if all those spots were occupied, it would create a convenient kill zone around the bar, one that would prevent anyone from retreating.

The camera showed that every single spot had been occupied by Slasher’s henchmen, each carrying weapons. Merely automatic weapons, but they lingered.

“You did very well. We’re about to be attacked,” I repeated as I patted Tara’s back. Amusingly, her predominant emotion at that moment wasn’t the fear about the upcoming assault, but the pure satisfaction after she received a compliment.

Her submissive role played a role in that … but then, I could also see that she didn’t take the attack too seriously. After all, none of the henchmen had anything bigger than a handgun with them.

Interesting outlay. After dealing with the guild attacker, they shouldn’t have been limiting themselves to handguns. I could count twenty henchmen preparing for an attack, but Slasher was nowhere to be seen. That attack didn’t make sense —

Unless, of course, they didn’t realize Tara was immune to gunfire. After all, they only saw her fighting against the Chrome Defender, and during that time, she worked very hard to dodge everything. That time, she was able to do so, because I was directing every attack.

Thinking about it, someone without a similar power to catch the delay might easily assume that Tara had an evasive power to support her Strength rather than high damage resistance.

Of course, what they had was just an assumption. There was a gap between high-tech laser cannons and ordinary handguns. Even without something like my power, or the high-tech analysis capabilities of the top national guilds, they wouldn’t miss such an obvious reason.

No, they were here as a test, which probably explained why the Slasher wasn’t with them. After their previous attack had been ruined due to a ‘freak accident’ that ended in the death of two villains and one hero who was under their employ secretly, they were more careful protecting the rest of their assets.

The attack was restricted to henchmen. A few of them were on the phone, asking for orders.

“Be ready for action,” I said to Tara, but I didn’t make any sudden move. I could have asked her to attack the gathering forces, and she could have dealt with them with ease, but it would be a waste.

After all, it was not just an opportunity for them to test Tara, but an opportunity for me to create some convenient misunderstandings.

For that, I needed to understand exactly how they wanted to watch Tara. First, I checked the cameras, trying to see if the henchmen had any cameras. My security system might not be the best, but my power allowed me to identify two henchmen with button cameras and earpieces.

However, I doubted that it was the only source of observation. For that, I walked toward the window, ready to hit down if I noticed a dangerous observer. At a distance, about two thousand miles away, I caught a glint.

I tensed even as I activated my power, trying to understand if it was a sniper. It was too far to see properly, but I caught a double glint, suggesting that it was just a binocular and not a rifle. Not too shocking, as using sniper rifles was the kind of escalation that people were unwilling to commit, once again relating to the warped honor code between supers.

Killing each other with their powers was alright, but ordinary people and military weapons were not. It was the kind of thing that triggered too much attention. The Syndicate would avoid it, as not only did they value that unofficial code of conduct too much to openly violate it — as they benefited from that a lot — but also they didn’t want something that would bring undue attention to the warehouse.

I couldn’t help but sigh as I processed the way the world had been changed during the last decade, where an ordinary sniper rifle earned more scrutiny than a nuclear-powered power armor with multiple laser weapons, wantonly destroying buildings.

Still, even though a sniper attack was unlikely, it was not impossible. As I returned, I made a mental note to replace the windows with bulletproof ones. The current attack would be a good excuse.

“You can handle a bunch of henchmen with guns without letting them tag you, right?” I asked.

“They can’t hurt me either way,” she reminded.

“That’s not my question,” I said with a sharp tone, and she ducked her head down.

“No, sir,” she whispered, quick to accept my admonishment. “I’m … I’m not sure I could avoid all of them.”

“And, what if I command you like we did against the power armor.”

“Then, I can,” she said.

“Excellent. Then, I have a challenge for you,” I said as went to the kitchen, and came out with a small plastic bag filled with ketchup. She looked surprised. “Put this under your shirt, and carefully follow my orders. I want you to let one of the attackers actually shoot you, directly to the bag, but only after you dealt with certain targets, and on a visible location. Do that, and I’ll let you pick a reasonable reward.”

“Yes, sir,” she whispered, but this time, her tone was much perkier.

“Good…” I said. Still, I didn’t ask her to move until the henchmen started to move. I didn’t want them to realize just how many cameras we had around the neighborhood. It was counter-intuitive, but it would play well to our confidence.

As if our bar had some better protections, so we didn’t need to protect the area obsessively.

Only after the first group moved toward the bar, I asked Tara to go out. What followed had been easy. The first group was bait, pulling back quickly. I made Tara follow them. She dealt with half of them before the rest could bring her into what they thought to be a kill zone. With my commands and her speed, she easily dodged most of the attacks, and dealt with more than half of the henchmen, leaving them disarmed and with many broken bones.

“It’s time, to move to the middle of the street, get shot, and shout in pain,” I asked.

She did so. Neither her shout of pain, nor the fake blood was particularly convincing, but hopefully, it would a distant observer with a binocular. Especially since Tara moved even faster while she dealt with the rest, gathered their guns, and came back to the bar.

“H-how was it, sir?” she said as she removed her helmet, anxious.

“You just earned yourself a reward. Now, go and shower while thinking about it,” I said.

This time, I didn’t feel like following her to the shower.

She hesitated. It was a subtle shift, but it told me that she had something to say. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I … I have an idea for the reward,” she whispered. Intrigued, I gestured for her to continue. “I … I … I want to watch you,” she said, her blush threatening her life far more than the earlier guns.

“Your wishes, my command, sweetie,” I said. “Just keep your phone turned on.”