Accidental Villainy 42 (Patreon)

When I woke up, the first thing I did was text Emily. I spent a long time flirting with her, but as much as the pictures I received in response were beautiful, they were not my primary objective. Instead, I spent half an hour, slowly putting several leading questions until she offered to compile profiles for every hero and villain active in the city. 

I wanted her to offer, as I didn’t want her to realize just how desperately I needed her help. I appreciated her assistance, but no need to give her an overinflated sense of ego. 

The other benefit of asking for a larger dossier was to hide my findings. While I hoped that our communication would stay secret, there was no absolute guarantee about that. And, I much preferred if the enemy didn’t realize that I had already discovered the most likely lineup that would target me. 

However, the names were enough to send me a chill through me. None of those villains were famous for their kind treatment of civilians, and each of them had dozens of confirmed kills — though, once again, someone needed to dig deep to discover it. The news made a point not to focus on that aspect. 

Even King Shadow, the only hero among them, was not any less dangerous. He had killed many henchmen in his ‘heroic’ activities, but with his careless attacks, at least a portion of them had to be hapless civilians who were labeled as such after the fact. 

After all, it was easier to blame a dead man living in the slums than a vindictive hero who could literally get away with murder. 

Once that was done, I stood up with a grunt. My headache was still there, proving that I had overcharged it too much. Not for vain, certainly, but still too much. However, the sight of Tara, cleaning the place in a sexy maid uniform, went a long way to make the situation more enjoyable. 

It was easier to think with such a beautiful eye candy providing a distraction from pain. As the dossiers started to arrive — once again with a shocking speed — I started checking the usual details about their distribution. 

Their powers, their usual operation schemes, or even the speed of their activities. At the same time, I had set up some alerts to inform me whenever there was some news about their fights. 

At the same time, I was trying to decide on one very important activity. Should I trust the effectiveness of the laser cannon and stay on the defensive, or should I act more aggressively? In most aspects, being on the defensive sounded nice. I knew the neighborhood, I had the weaponry needed to deal with them … and, most importantly, I could always run away if necessary. 

Unfortunately, that also meant that I would have no chance of hiding the link between me and the results. Even if not all of them attack, two against four or something like that would be bad enough. Worse, one of them was a hero that was hard to take down without killing … and if I killed him, I would end up publicly known as a hero killer. 

Not exactly a healthy title for a villain to have, even if the hero in question was a serial murderer. 

Then, my phone rang. It was an alert. About a hero and villain battle. King Shadow versus Wall-breaker. It wasn’t too close to our bar, certainly not walking distance, but not too far away either. Pretty suspicious timing.  

“I’ll be out for a while. But, I want you to change and be ready to evacuate or defend the bar as needed,” I ordered Tara. 

“If you say so, sir,” she said, but she sounded stressed. Her voice had a distinct edge that she got whenever she was nervous. It unsettled me. I must have been more open than I intended for her to pick on my stress. 

“Just a precaution, but in case you need it, the laser cannon is at the office. Don’t be afraid of using it for an emergency.” 

“Aren’t you going to take it with you, sir?” she asked. 

“No, it’s too heavy. I can’t bring it with me and still be there on time,” I said, trying to sound calm and collected. “Also, it’s just a scouting trip. I don’t expect anything to happen.” 

It was a lie, as I truly had no idea what would happen once I left the bar. I was walking into an unknown. I packed two guns, and two different sets of clothes that included masks, and left the bar through the secret tunnel, afraid of getting noticed. 

However, there was one possibility that rankled me. The full realization that I might have to kill someone. The realization was like fingernails scraping on bones. It was not something I considered when I tried to bluff for my safety … but already, I was too deep. 

I either took the chance to take down one or two enemies before they could react now, or I would have to do that once they attacked my bar. I didn’t have the luxury of taking multiple supers non-lethally even when prepared. If I tried to do that, it would end up horribly. 

No, I had no option but to deal with them, at least in a way that would have given me plausible deniability. 

It was why, once I got out of the tunnel, I stole a bike. Luckily, it was still a gang territory, and a lot of henchmen preferred bikes like I did due to the mobility advantages. 

Once I did so, I put on one of the masks I prepared, and started driving. I avoided the main avenue and limited myself to the empty streets, still checking my phone as I did so. Wildly dangerous, but luckily, the battle was public enough that several news channels gave a real-time display. 

However, just as I was approaching closer, I had to swerve dangerously. “Fucking heroes,” I growled in anger as I escaped death only thanks to my power, a huge rock flying where my head had been. I managed to stop and throw myself off the bike. I hid behind a car, and just in time for a shadow to explode, creating a rain of rocks. 

The battle was happening on the other street, but he was careless enough to send a shadow here. No wonder King Shadow had such a high number of kills and turned loner … and no wonder he had a secret alliance with a bunch of villains, helping them to deal with the competition. 

I didn’t approach the fight directly, but instead found a nice vantage point that I could watch the battle. 

There were two sides to the battle. On one side, King Shadow stood alone, several walls made of shadows around him to block the bullets, while he continuously sent his shadows to attack his two enemies. 

The Wall Breaker and the Commander — and his large group of henchmen — fighting against him. Two against one, yet King Shadow seemed to have the upper hand, steadily pushing the other two away. Occasionally, one or two henchmen died, but one thing the Commander didn’t lack, was disposable troops. 

I had to admit, the battle was convincing. Without my previous research, I doubted that I would have caught the choreographed pattern of their battle even with the assistance from my power. They were too practiced, and the Commander’s unique ability to control his henchmen like they were puppets helped to disguise a lot of flaws. 

No wonder they were pulling their scam for long.

I needed to deal with them now.  

I retreated carefully even after I came to that decision. I could see that the two were retreating steadily while King Shadow chased them, their direction was almost directly toward my bar. 

Which gave me a chance to put an ambush. I dashed forward even as I tightened my grip on one of the guns, and found a nice spot. A ruined building, abandoned after a bad fire, but close enough to the next one so that I could jump to the other roof safely. 

I went in, my observation helping me to navigate through the mess. First, I checked to see if I could actually climb to the roof. The last thing I needed was to get trapped. The building was a death trap, which worked well for my purposes. Every loose beam and weakened floor made the place more dangerous for the others. 

Then, I waited, trying to prepare myself for cold cold-blooded murder I was about to commit…