by Logan Jacobs
“Such a lack of grace!” the supervillain screeched. “Your youth is entirely wasted on you!”
I caught a glimpse of Pirouette’s cracked face as she ran toward me again, and I lunged off to the side. When I was able to dodge her more easily this time, I noticed that with one less mirror in the room, it had become a bit easier to gain my bearings.
“Penumbra!” I shouted. “Smash the mirrors!”
The levitating heroine didn’t have to be told twice. She immediately directed all her attention toward the largest mirror in the room, and after only a few seconds of focus, Penumbra manipulated the mirror’s mass and ripped it free from the wall in an explosion of splinters. As soon as the mirror was under her control, the blonde swung it around the room and crashed it into all the rest of the studio’s mirrors.
As each new mirror on the wall shattered, I had to duck before the floating mirror sailed overhead again, but I had to admit that I was impressed by how quickly my blonde partner had managed to break all the mirrors in the room. Once the last mirror on the wall was nothing more than a pile of glass shards on the floor, I rolled out of the way as Penumbra let the floating mirror fall to the studio floor with a thunderous crash.
Now that there were less reflective surfaces to distort my vision, I could tell exactly where Pirouette was, so as the old dancer swiped her bat through the air in an attempt to hit Penumbra out of the air, I lunged at the ballerina.
I slammed my elbow into Pirouette’s throat to knock the wind out of her, and she crashed to the floor in the middle of the shattered glass. Her bat clattered off to the side, so I grabbed it before the ballerina could, and then without a second’s hesitation, I slammed the bat down onto the old woman’s knees.
Pirouette screamed as the metal bat fractured her bones, but I just raised the bat and brought it down again to explode whatever was left of her kneecaps, and this time, the sound of breaking bones was accompanied by a sickening wet crunch.
I wasn’t sorry.
Not only had Pirouette come here to maim children, but she’d disabled plenty of other women in the same way. She had thought she was better than everyone, and she couldn’t take it when she realized that she wasn’t the only ballerina in town. It wasn’t a tragic backstory-- it was downright pathetic.
When the old dancer grabbed at my ankles to try to pull me down with her, I decided her right knee still needed a bit of attention, so I raised the bat one more time and brought it down so hard that her leg exploded into bloody chunks that splattered against my suit.
Pirouette had just enough time to howl as her strangely stretched face contorted, and then she collapsed unconscious against the studio floor.
I dropped the bat to the floor beside me and then bent down to check the villainous ballerina’s breathing. I didn’t even feel relief when I found that she still had a pulse, although I didn’t think she’d ever be able to walk again. I was glad that I wouldn’t have to admit that I’d killed two supervillain targets in a row, but that was only because of the agreement we had made with the Shadow Knight.
I knew that Miles would have been happy if I killed every supervillain we came across.
As my blonde partner landed next to me, I wondered how much she had been able to see just now. It was dark enough in the room that I didn’t think Penumbra had seen the excessive amount of force I’d used, but I knew that she’d still heard the old dancer’s screams of pain.
After Penumbra landed, she circled the ballerina for a few seconds to make sure that the old woman wasn’t about to pop up and slice her hamstrings, and then the blonde just grew still as she stared down at the disabled dancer where she had collapsed in a puddle of her own blood.
“She won’t be able to escape now,” I murmured when the blonde didn’t say anything.
“Well,” Penumbra finally sighed, “I guess the bitch deserved it.”
“Yeah?” I asked.
“I mean, like, definitely,” the blonde said. “She almost hit me with that stupid bat, and… well, she was super scary, right? She would have killed both of us and not even thought twice about it.”
“You’re right about that,” I said. “I actually thought you might be upset that I-- well, that she probably won’t ever be able to walk again.”
“Well, that’s justice, right?” Penumbra asked.
“What do you mean?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Like, that’s what she did to all the other dancers,” my blonde partner replied, “so it seems fair that’s what we did to her. And you know what? I kinda… well, as weird as it sounds, I kinda don’t mind.”
“You don’t mind the fact that I ruined her legs?” I demanded. “But I thought you didn’t like to cause anyone pain?”
“Well, yeah,” she said, “but it’s also, like, I dunno. Like I said, it seems kinda… well, it just seems like she got what she deserved.”
“I think she did,” I said.
“Still, I wish I’d gotten a shot at her myself,” Penumbra giggled. “I really wanted to practice my new powers!”
“Yeah, but look what you were able to do,” I said with a smile. “If you hadn’t broken all the mirrors, I would never have been able to see where Pirouette was.”
“I guess that’s true,” Penumbra sighed. “So, like, you think I helped?”
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” I said.
Penumbra clapped her hands and floated around the studio in delight, but even though I rolled my eyes at her giddiness, I was glad to see that she hadn’t even blinked at the amount of violence I’d used against our target. I knew that my partner hated the idea of getting hurt, and she hadn’t been too fond of the idea of inflicting pain on someone else, but I was beginning to think that Miles and I were really having an impact on her.
After all, Penumbra had been firmly indoctrinated in the Shadow Knight’s rigid code when we’d first teamed up together, and now she was already such a better hero. Part of that was from the technology that Miles was able to equip her with, but it was also partly because of how much I had encouraged her about her powers.
We headed out of the dance studio to call for the prison van to come collect Pirouette. The studio owner was probably going to be upset that most of their mirrors had been broken, but I figured we could easily reimburse them for it. Besides, they probably would have been way more upset if any of their dancers had been maimed, so I didn’t think they’d care too much.
“It kinda feels good,” Penumbra sighed as we stood outside and waited for the van to arrive.
“What does?” I asked.
“That we made a difference,” she said as she stared off toward the spires of downtown Grayville in the distance. “Not only did we save the girls who dance here, but we saved anyone else in the future from getting their hamstrings sliced open by that bitch. And we avenged all the people that she hurt. It really feels good.”
“That’s what heroism is,” I replied. “Haven’t you saved people before?”
“Not like this,” she said with a shrug. “I only ever captured people without superpowers who always got released from jail after a few months. Then they’d go do it again, and I’d have to go capture them again, and it never felt like I was doing anything.”
That was how the Shadow Knight operated, so I didn’t want to say anything. It seemed like Miles’ plan to draw the Shadow Knight’s allies over to our side was working, and I didn’t want to interrupt her. Instead, I nodded and let her continue, but Penumbra just giggled shyly and shook her head again.
“Well, um, I mean, it’s not like it really matters,” she replied. “I guess I’ll just go back to that, after this is all over.”
“You don’t have to,” I said. “With Miles’ help, we could outfit you properly as a hero, and you could continue to keep Grayville safe.”
“Maybe, but…” she trailed off.
I didn’t press her any further. If Miles was here, he’d probably have told me to do the same thing since it would be better i
f Penumbra came to the right conclusion all on her own. If it felt like it was her own idea, she’d be more open to the idea of permanently killing or disabling the supervillains of Grayville.
I wasn’t entirely sure if leaving the city in the hands of Penumbra was the best idea since she was definitely still a ditz that couldn’t operate well without a lot of direction, but at least it would be a step in the right direction.
Luckily, the prison van arrived to collect Pirouette before I had to think of something else to say to her.
“Just something to think about,” I said after the van had loaded up the unconscious ballerina. “For now, let’s go back to the mansion.”
“Okay!” Penumbra chirped. “Ugh, I think that fight definitely pushed me closer to getting some wrinkles… Oh, so don’t forget to ask Miles about that anti-aging cream!”
“Right,” I sighed. “I think I’m going to need some of that soon, too.”
Honestly, I almost envied her for the way she seemed to be able to distract herself. All I seemed able to think about was the future of Grayville and what Miles had planned for it, although I also couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that I never would have disabled, let alone killed, a supervillain before I’d met him.
Miles had changed me for the better, and I knew he would be able to change Grayville for the better, too.
Chapter 11 - Maniac
They were all fools.
Entertaining fools, perhaps, but still fools.
I perched myself comfortably up in the branches of one of those strange city-trees, the ones that somehow spring out of the concrete despite all odds against them. In a way, it reminded me of my beloved Shadow Knight and how hard he fought against the deluge of supervillainous concrete that kept him trapped beneath the ground. Yet, here he was, doing his best to save his city from a concrete truck that got blown up and spilled its excess all over the ground…
Ah, that metaphor got a little bit away from me, didn’t it?
Not that it was even an entirely accurate metaphor, and besides, the Shadow Knight wasn’t really on my mind right now, even though he was always on my mind to some degree. But at the moment, I wasn’t in this tree to watch him. No, no, I was up here to observe the newest “superhero” on the scene.
Miles Nelson.
That guy had amused me so far with his interesting methods, but he was gradually starting to wear on me. I almost would have said that he managed to make me nervous. Me!
The Shadow Knight in all his years never managed to make me nervous, but he knew how to play the game. This Miles Nelson was an outsider, and he didn’t understand the rules. So, rather than spending time with my favorite grumpy hero, I was up in this tree so I could observe this new billionaire and his sidekick.
Though even as I watched them maneuver around the parking garage where their latest target “the Croc” had set up his lair, I had to admit that he definitely did not treat that woman at his side as a sidekick. Not in the way that the Shadow Knight would bark and scream and berate his Silver Squires. Oh, no, not even close. They worked together in a partnership, and he clearly trusted her enough to set up most of the traps on her own. If I hadn’t known that Miles was the true brains behind this operation, I would have considered this woman quite competent on her own.
I watched through my gilded binoculars as the mousy woman set up a variety of net-like traps and other high tech contraptions. I couldn’t quite make out all their functions, but I could at least see that she installed them all into the wall of the parking garage. She worked absurdly fast, like she never even once second-guessed herself. She simply knew how everything should be installed, and then she just set it all up.
Curious. I wondered what type of power she had. She must have had something special to remain so close to someone like Miles.
I could tell that each of the traps would fire off perfectly to ensnare the Croc as soon as he showed his ugly, scarred face. Of course, I also knew that he would show his ugly face quite soon, and it would be sooner than Miles and his sidekick would've expected.
But even though he would appear earlier than they thought, I already knew that they would adapt their plan and fight him in whatever way they needed to in order to win, and yet, I still wasn’t sure how exactly they would change their plan of attack. It still managed to confuse me.
Me! How could they confuse me? I knew how everything worked.
As the moment to the Croc’s arrival ticked down, I adjusted my position in the tree so I could get a better look, but when the tree’s branches dug into my ass, I adjusted a little further because while I might have been into a lot of things, I was very much not into that.
I leaned forward as the mousy woman shouted something that I couldn’t hear, and she and Miles both snapped to attention. How had they heard the Croc’s arrival? I’d known that they probably would, but I couldn’t puzzle out how they’d done it.
Perhaps they’d set up some kind of sensor near the front of the parking garage to go along with the other technological gadgets they’d placed there. Or, perhaps, their surveillance system was more advanced than the good ol’ Shadow Knight’s was, and they’d received an actual alert. I knew there was a camera pointed at the door that the Croc intended to use to break into the parking garage, so perhaps that was what they’d used.
“Absurd,” I muttered, and then I cast a glance toward a squirrel that clung to a branch next to me. “Are you seeing this?”
Of course, it didn’t see anything or reply to me. It was a squirrel.
Everything unfolded exactly as I’d known it would. The Croc bumbled into trap after trap in the parking garage where he’d foolishly gone in to try to steal a car, and Miles and his mousy assistant stood off to the side as they watched their target do all the hard work of capturing himself for them.
Really, though, a parking garage?
Sure, it was the garage for one of the most expensive hotels in Grayville, so some of the city’s fanciest cars were parked there, but really? What the Croc should have done was grab any old car off of the street and drive off into the sunset rather than attempt to take a Lamborghini on a joyride.
It honestly baffled me why most of the idiotic, so-called “super” villains that lived here remained here.
Well, no, not quite. I shouldn’t lie to myself.
Even though they were lesser lifeforms than I was, the other villains of my city understood that Grayville was probably one of the best places to be a supervillain. No matter how many crimes they committed, the law was almost disturbingly easy on them, and the courts tended to rule in favor of the villains rather than the vigilante who brought them in.
The Shadow Knight might be a folk hero to the people of this city, but the courts sure didn’t like the way he chose to do his business. Perhaps they simply wanted to have ultimate control over their own city, or something along those lines.
I could relate.
But I felt nothing but scorn as the Croc slammed face-first into the cement floor of the parking garage where Miles’ trap had tied him up with reinforced high tensile strength ropes. One cord was even cruelly wrapped around his neck to cut off most of his air supply. The set-up of all the traps by Miles and his efficient assistant had been an impressive piece of work, and each one had gone off perfectly.
Exactly as I’d seen it happen, and exactly as I knew that Miles had planned.
Well, I felt no pity for the Croc, anyway. We might both be villains in the same city, but every single one of the villains tossed into the overflow prison was so… crude. No, that wasn’t the right word. Weak, maybe? No, no, they were more like… crass and completely inelegant. None of them knew how to come up with a proper plan that calculated the optimal amount of human suffering and chaos. They all acted purely on instinct, like the animals they were.
I snickered to myself as I watched the Croc’s crocodile tail lash back and forth until Miles drop-kicked the back of the animal-man’s head, and he passed out.
Ye
s, they were all animals, and their worst offense was perhaps the fact that they were all out for themselves. The destruction they caused was only ever secondary to their main goals, and those were all just as selfish as the Croc’s desire to joyride through Grayville in a Lamborghini. They did not understand what it meant to be a true villain who thrived on chaos alone, and whenever I watched these lesser animals work, it made me feel sick to my stomach. It was such a disgrace to the craft, and I truly despised all of them.
That didn’t even take into account the ones that had personally failed me, like Morpho and Pirouette. Morpho had been cute at first, and she’d been very eager to please, but she was fueled only by riches. I’d thought she might be a partner who would share my thirst for blood and reckless destruction, but she had quickly proved disappointing. She didn’t care about the game at all.
Pirouette, of course, had almost been an acceptable partner because she was motivated so purely by revenge, even if she was an old hag underneath her stretched skin. In fact, I had been the one who provided the means she needed to mutate herself into the beautiful creature she became, and she’d impressively managed to avoid the Shadow Knight for quite a while. I could remember the opera where she got herself caught, and I’d warned her not to go after the lead singer.
I had known what would happen if she did, but of course, she refused to listen to me.
None of them ever listened to me, and none of them understood my vision for what Grayville was meant to become. They were obsessed with themselves, with money, with frivolous things like jewels and even something more pathetic like world recognition. I could achieve that in my sleep, and in fact, I would barely have had to lift a finger to achieve most of the stupid things they wanted, but I wanted none of it.
All I wanted was chaos, destruction, and suffering. That was fun. That made me feel like a god.
Well, I was a god.
Ah, I was just so disappointed in all of them. Despite the fact that I’d been the one to sabotage the prison and release them all free into the streets of Grayville, they still managed to disappoint me.