by Mia Archer
For example: cars got tossed into the air as part of a failed and ill advised counterattack from the military. Usually I made sure to fire a couple of anti-Newtonian bubbles on those things to make sure they didn't land on any civilians.
It would appear that the new masters of this city didn't particularly care about that though. No, I’d watched a wave of cars caught in the antigrav backwash from one of those flying saucers slam into a crowd of people, though thankfully the good people at the Starlight City News Network had enough discretion to not show the aftermath.
The alien invaders proved that even SCNN had limits to the “if it bleeds, it leads" mentality that had infected so much journalism these days.
Another example: there were a lot of buildings that got screwed up real good when I was top dog, but I always went out of my way to minimize damage and preserve the architectural heritage of Starlight City. If there was a pesky hero who was attacking me from, say, a window on a particularly prominent building I’d try to do something about that hero, or maybe the window, or maybe in extreme cases I’d do my best impression of Arnold in a particularly bad ass scene from the underrated classic True Lies and take out an entire floor.
Never the whole building though. Never when it could be avoided. These aliens and their human leaders didn't seem to care about architectural heritage.
A snake-themed villain I recognized from some of the tabloids slammed against the bars to my cell. They opened slightly, they were all unlocked right now thanks to the riot, but I simply moved farther back into my cell. The guy I’d seen brought in with Fialux, the one with the gut that couldn’t be contained by his super suit, appeared out of the fray and started beating the shit out of the snake dude.
Again, not the guards. What the fuck?
Not that it mattered. I rocked against the back wall. Seeing a villain getting the shit kicked out of him wasn’t even in my top ten of horrifying happenings lately.
I’d watched in horror yesterday as one of those flying saucers had hovered above a building where aliens were supposedly fighting floor to floor against plucky humans, heroic and mortal alike, who were taking the fight to them guerrilla style.
The aliens hadn’t seemed to care that more and more humans were heeding the not-so-subtle call to arms and joining the fight in that building. The horrible cold logic of what the aliens were doing had only become apparent when the flying saucer hovering over the thing fired a beam down that destroyed the whole damn building and everyone in it.
Clearly these alien assholes didn't give a damn about maintaining the architectural diversity of my wonderful city. Clearly they were willing to commit horrors in the name of squashing resistance.
And it was all my fault.
I hadn't done enough to fight the aliens when they came through those portals. I hadn’t done enough to save Fialux when she was thrown through that portal. I hadn’t done enough to stop Dr. Lana from shoving her through the portal in the first place. I hadn’t done enough to prevent whatever had mind controlled me into forgetting Sabine from working its wicked magic on me.
I hadn’t done enough.
Though the more I saw of Sabine and how she handled things the more I realized she wasn't the kind of woman I’d want to date long term even if she hadn’t had a tragic accident somewhere in her backstory that filled her with a burning desire to have her revenge against me while taking over the world.
But there must have been something about her once upon a time.
I just couldn't imagine what that something was. Not from my current vantage point. Then again if something had happened it would've been back when I was in college when how a girl looked in a tight outfit probably counted for a heck of a lot more than how they’d comport themselves if they suddenly became the unquestionable dictator of a once great city that had since become a Banana Republic city state that the rest of the country couldn't touch.
Though it did give me some pleasure thinking about the generals sitting in their rooms with their big boards sweating it out as they thought about how the aliens had only paused in Starlight City because they were mustering their strength. Getting ready to launch a new series of attacks that would make what they'd done so far seem like nothing in comparison.
"Assholes," I said, not sure if I was talking about the aliens or the generals.
Though even the thought of the military sweating didn't bring me much pleasure. No, when the only pleasure I could take was in the displeasure of others it meant I'd fallen pretty far.
Out in front of my cell Firebrand and some of the prison guards faced one another, only they weren’t fighting each other. No, there was that rock villain between them and Firebrand seemed to be doing her best to take him on, though he was impervious to her flames. The guards were getting in on it too.
Like they were working together.
I looked at the fray again. And as I watched I realized that it wasn’t villains and heroes against guards. No, it was the heroes who’d been added to the prison population recently working with the guards to beat the shit out of any villain stupid enough to step out of their cells.
Sometimes they even grabbed a villain and dragged them out of their cell.
Boy was I glad I’d stayed out of there with my normal non-superpowered ass. If this was an excuse to beat on villains then I didn’t want to be anywhere near that fight, thank you very much.
I decided I'd had enough. I could only have enough self-flagellation as I tortured myself with SCNN, after all. So I stepped away from the riot in the common room and the television delivering all of its horrors.
I settled against the bars and sank to the ground. Not exactly the most comfortable backing, but I’d take what I could get.
"You know I'm surprised you're such a huge fan of Starlight City News Network considering all the nasty things they're always saying about you," a voice said behind me.
11
Cellmates
I jumped. Wheeled around and found myself looking into a pair of pretty… Purple eyes? Huh. I hadn’t even realized they put someone in the cell next to me. It must’ve happened before the riot, and she must’ve been hanging at the back of her cell where there were no bars and a little more privacy.
Which is basically what I did when I wasn’t staring at the parade of horrors on the TV in the common area.
"What are you in for?" I asked.
I kicked myself for the idiotic line as soon as it left my lips, but hey. Can you blame a girl? Those were a pretty pair of eyes, and I’d just discovered that my old girlfriend had been shacking up with a new girl on some strange planet and was trying to take over the world.
I'd already had a twinge of something awkward like this with Nancy Norris, and it looked like it was happening again. Damn.
It was odd how the whole world could be going to shit around me, and yet the only thing I could think of was the complexities of my love life. I suppose there's a commentary on the human condition in there somewhere, but I'm not going to try and draw any conclusions. Hard science was always my thing. Not the humanities.
Purple eyes smiled a wistful smile.
"They took me out a few hours ago," she said. "I took out a couple of the blues, but there's always more of them, and it's really hard to crack their armor."
She reached out and grabbed the bars holding her in place. Started pulling onto them.
"Strength is your thing?" I asked.
It seemed odd that strength would be a power for a girl who was so petite, but then again stranger things had happened. Fialux looked like an Olympic gymnast, not a power lifter, and yet she was able to leap tall buildings and all that nonsense you hear about in the comic and Hollywood adaptations of the real life adventures that happened on the regular in Starlight City.
"Nope," she said, hitting me with a grin that seemed slightly unhinged. “Just wanted to keep you guessing.”
"So what is your power?" I asked.
"None of your business," she said, then reached t
hrough the bars. "I'm Skylark, by the way.”
"So flying is your thing?" I asked.
I looked at her extended hand and decided I wasn't going to touch it. I wasn't going to go near someone when I didn't know what their power was. For all I knew she could be a touch empath or something and the moment I shook her hand she'd be invading my thoughts.
"Smart girl," she said. "So how long have you been here?"
I hit her with a flat stare.
"Seriously?" I asked. “You know how long I've been in here. My apprehension was a matter of very public record.”
I glanced to the TV. Right now it was playing footage of a bunch of blue aliens standing on the rubble strewn steps of city hall with Sabine draping medals over their heads. No doubt received for excellence in shooting unarmed civilians with overwhelming firepower.
The girl shrugged. "Just making conversation Night Terror.”
"So you know who I am," I said. "But I still feel like I'm at a disadvantage here."
"Of course you are," she said. "Isn't it fun?"
"Not for me," I said, irritation creeping into my voice.
"Well I never said it was fun for you, did I?" she asked. "I just said it was fun."
I'd had enough of this girl. She was clearly a little unhinged. She wouldn't be the first villain or hero who'd gone a little cracked in the head as a result of manifesting her powers. Considering where I was there was probably a large percentage of the prison population who had those problems.
I had other concerns right now though. Concerns that were far more pressing than whether or not this girl next to me was crazy.
"I'm going to walk to the other side of my cell now," I said. "I'd appreciate it if you would…"
Then it hit me. Those purple eyes. Those weren’t the kind of eyes someone forgot easily. I'd gone against her before. I was sure of it.
"You’re that girl from the warehouse district," I said. "The one I found rummaging through a bunch of old secondhand junk in the old superscience section!”
Her eyes went wide for a moment, but that smile never left her face. It didn't seem like there was much that fazed this girl. Which could mean she had nerves of steel, or it could mean my suspicions that she was certifiably insane were more than a suspicion.
"You remember me!" she said. "I was starting to think I wasn't all that memorable, but wow."
She stuck her hand through the bars again. "Can I just say what a pleasure it is to meet you again? And meet you when you’re not trying to kill me? I mean I know the last time we met it wasn't exactly under the best of circumstances, but I'm a huge fan. Really."
I arched an eyebrow and still refused to take her hand. As I recalled the last time we'd gone toe to toe she'd been tried fighting me off with a series of slapdash but surprisingly inventive gadgets. The kind of stuff I might've found in my own lab once upon a time, but less refined.
The fact that I'd found her rummaging through all the superscience remnants in the warehouse district, the place where I'd unearthed CORVAC’s dusty remains long ago, told me enough about her.
She hadn’t mentioned the fan girl thing the last time we met though. Understandable since my first reaction on seeing her had been to try and vaporize her.
Though the fangirl thing did sort of make sense. Especially if she was a fan of tinkering with superscience remnants which had also been a hobby of mine before I became the person making the superscience stuff. Everyone had to start somewhere.
Her fangirling all over me also meant the good people running SuperMax, without realizing what they'd done, had just put me in the corrections equivalent of my own personal hell.
"Right," I said. “I’m going to the other side of my cell. Have fun here."
"But Night Terror!" she said, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry.” A note of pleading hit her voice. "I was just so excited, and I've always been a huge fan."
I sighed. I'd moved over to the other side of my cell, but it would seem that these cells were small enough that no amount of space was going to get me completely away from this girl.
I glanced over my shoulder. It was still strangely dark in there. And I felt almost like there was something in there that was reaching for me. Trying to…
Something moved along my back, and when I looked down there were shadows moving through the bars and trying to wrap around me. I jumped as one of them lashed tight around what would’ve been my waist and cried out as I tried to jump free.
The thing hit my ankle instead, and I went rolling. Luckily I’d taken tumbles often enough in my career that I knew how to land, but it was still a pain in the ass. When I turned around and looked at the creature in there I saw…
Nothing. Just that darkness again. Shadows writhing, but two big shadowy spots were wrapped around the bars. Like there was a set of massive hands in there grabbing the bars. I stared, and licked my lips. Wondered if that thing was going to try and break through our cells.
But it didn’t. The thing stayed in there, and I thought I heard the faint sound of laughter but that was it. The thing wasn’t even making a move to exit its cell. Like its cell was on a separate power circuit or something to prevent it from getting out.
If they were maintaining separately powered raptor fences on that motherfucker then I didn’t want to go anywhere near it. So I quickly scrambled back over to the fangirl.
Talk about an ignominious end for the great Night Terror. I wasn’t going to let myself get killed by a prisoner in a prison I should've never been in in the first place.
I scooted back over and the girl smiled. It was a pretty smile. As I looked her over I realized that while she was petite, she wasn't exactly young. No, she had be college aged. Maybe a little older. Though a few years younger than me.
"Thanks," she said. "It is kind of scary in here."
I looked out at the prison riot still in progress. I could understand where it would be intimidating to someone who'd never been in the big show. I’d never heard of this girl aside from that one unfortunate encounter where I’d nearly killed her, and that meant she’d probably been passing her time quietly in the underground as far from the big leagues as she could get.
Maybe her brush with greatness had been enough to convince her she wasn’t ready for the majors yet. Young up and coming villains made that decision a lot considering this was a career where a brush with the majors usually ended with the majors trying to kill you.
"So how did they pick you up anyway?" I asked.
She looked down and went silent.
"Come on," I said. "You know how I got in here. It's only fair that you tell me how you got in here."
"They got me trying to steal some parts off of one of the busted flying saucers they were trying to repair out at city’s edge,” she said. " One you ripped the middle right out of when they first invaded. I figured scavenging a little bit of alien tech might be worth some money down the line when all this invasion business is taken care of."
I frowned. Thought back to the time I'd fought this girl. She'd been scavenging then. Which didn't seem like the kind of behavior you’d find in a hero named Skylark.
"Who are you really?" I asked.
"No one important," she said with a grin. "Not nearly as important as Night Terror, at least."
"Everyone's important in their own way," I said, surprised that I was suddenly giving touchy-feely life advice, but this girl seemed like she needed a pick me up and there was a little bit of a hero worship here so why not leverage that to make her feel better?
If I couldn't do any good for myself then I could at least do some good for this girl. I told myself it was just because I was trying to be nice, and not because of a pair of pretty purple eyes attached to a body that… Damn it. I was not doing this right now!
"Yeah, well it turns out they don't take too kindly to people trying to steal their stuff.”
I grinned. "Funny how people get touchy about young upstarts stealing their shit.”
"Hey. I wasn't
stealing any of your shit when we had our little scrape,” she said.
"Sorry," I said. "But there's a lot of useful stuff hidden in the warehouse district, and I sort of consider all of that old stuff to be my shit until such time as I decide I don't want it. Even then I'm going to keep someone else from digging through that stuff if I think there’s a chance they’re trying to put something together that’ll challenge my dominance in this city.”
"Whatever," she said with an eye roll. "That stuff was free and clear, and you tried to kill me for dumpster diving. You were like an angry manager at a mall video game store who’s pissed someone was trying to save the stuff they were throwing out."
I blinked. That's not an analogy I'd ever considered before, but it was slightly fair. It didn’t make me feel any worse about chasing her away from my stuff, but it was a fair if unorthodox comparison. This chick had an interesting way of looking at the world.
"So what was your game plan anyway?" I asked. "If these aliens take over the world it's not like there's going to be much of a black market for their stuff. Especially if they're picky about people taking that stuff."
"Are you kidding?" she said. "I figure this is the perfect time to set up shop. This alien invasion is great!"
Yup. I was absolutely correct. This girl was beautiful, but crazy. A dangerous combination.
12
Crazy Beautiful
I stared at her. Partly because staring at her was nice, but mostly because I wondered if she was serious.
Again I tried not to focus on her piercing purple eyes. The combination of thinking that Fialux was truly lost and gone forever for a good few months coupled with having her show up again on earth looking like she was trying to take the place over and didn't care about me anymore had me hitting one hell of a rebound, and that could be dangerous.
At the same time I didn't know why I felt even a twinge of guilt for thinking about another girl. Sure when I'd been looking at Nancy Norris and thinking about how good she looked in person that’d been when I still had no idea what was going on with Fialux, but now that she’d come through those portals with another woman in tow…