by Logan Jacobs
“Anybody want some coffee?” Norma called as she headed to the kitchen.
“I do not require coffee,” my AI system replied through the speakers.
“Well, I didn’t really mean you,” my assistant said. “Does anybody human want coffee?”
“I’ll take some,” Elizabeth said.
“Me too,” I added.
“You got it,” Norma said.
“So exactly how bad is this prison breakout?” I asked Elizabeth.
It was pretty difficult to tear my eyes away from her creamy, exposed thighs to pay attention to the screens. We hadn’t made love last night because of the stake-out, and I was starting to become a bit addicted to her.
“Bad,” she admitted, “but with some help, I think we can easily handle it. Most of them seem pretty weak.”
“I think we should split into groups, then,” I said. “I’ve looked into the Shadow Knight’s team, and we should mix it up. Some of us, some of them.”
“You want to work with the other team?” Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.
“Sure,” I chuckled. “That way we can influence them a bit. You know, explain what our vision is for taking care of supervillains once and for all.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth snickered. “I should have guessed you wanted to seduce them.”
“Ohhh, I wouldn’t call it seduction,” I laughed. “Just… hmm… educating them?”
“Does the Shadow Knight really work with a team?” Norma asked from the open kitchen. “That’s hard to imagine.”
“He doesn’t have a team in a traditional sense,” Elizabeth explained, since she used to be the Shadow Knight’s fan and knew more about him than both me and Norma combined. “More like former Silver Squires that aged out of training. Do you know which ones he’s bringing with him, Miles?”
“Dunno,” I replied with a nonchalant shrug, since I didn’t care too much who the Shadow Knight brought with him as long as they were useful and I could potentially influence them to my methods. “Hopefully powerful ones.”
“Probably Beacon and Penumbra then,” Elizabeth reasoned. “Beacon was a previous Silver Squire, and Penumbra is a low-tier wannabe who couldn’t take the training, but has a weak levitation superpower that could be useful paired with someone stronger.”
“Great,” I noted, because that might make for a good pair with Elizabeth’s powers. “Well, maybe they’ll be more tolerable than their mentor.”
“You might make a good team with Beacon,” she suggested with a laugh.
“Well, I definitely don’t plan to team up with the Shadow Knight himself. I just hope his lackies are less...” I trailed off.
“Stubborn?” Elizabeth smiled.
“I was actually thinking about how annoying his voice is,” I smirked. “The fake growl that makes it sound like he has throat cancer.”
“It makes it hard to take him seriously,” Norma laughed as she began to pour our coffees into mugs.
“Well, that aside,” Elizabeth sighed, “we’re going to have to try our best to get along with them for now.”
I sighed, but I’d already resigned myself to do just that. As Elizabeth continued to flip through the screens, it only drove the point home that we’d need to cooperate in order to take out these supervillains. Norma returned to the couch and handed us our coffees. Elizabeth and I both took our coffee black, but Norma’s was some fluffy, whipped-cream covered monstrosity that I tried not to look at.
“One minute until expected arrival,” Aileen crooned.
I got to my feet and shook my head when Norma and Elizabeth made to follow me. I would greet the Shadow Knight and his team on my own first.
I made my way out of the living room and into the foyer-- an open, gothic-styled room with a spiral staircase that led to our bedrooms upstairs. Everything in Grayville seemed to be themed in a gothic, old-fashioned style. It was a bit more cartoonish than my classically styled home back in Pinnacle City, but the decoration wasn’t too terrible to look at. It helped that we’d renovated a lot of this mansion already, with tech hidden in every nook and cranny.
“They’re here,” Aileen alerted me.
I opened the door before the Shadow Knight could even knock, and as soon as I did, I had to bite back a laugh. The Shadow Knight was still in his full regalia, mask and all, despite the fact that we all knew his civilian identity. He had his hand on the shoulder of a smaller, teenage boy dressed in all silver. I didn’t remember the previous Silver Squire being as short as this one, and it took me a moment to recall the news from a month ago.
Everyone already knew about the death of the Shadow Knight’s previous sidekick, since it had been broadcasted on all the news channels. It was obviously a supervillain attack, and once I’d had Aileen casually investigate it to see if we could figure out who it was, the answer was obvious: the likely perpetrator was the Shadow Knight’s archenemy Maniac, who was the most dangerous supervillain in all of Grayville. Apparently it hadn’t even been the first Silver Squire that the Maniac had killed, either. I wasn’t cold-hearted enough to bring it up, but it made me wonder how many Squires the Shadow Knight would have to lose before he started to rethink his philosophy on not killing.
This Silver Squire’s costume wasn’t nearly as dark and feathered as the Shadow Knight’s was, but it was very similar. His mask was a basic design with a much more subtle bird motif. Honestly, I thought he looked far less silly than the Shadow Knight’s crow-themed outfit, until I looked lower and saw that he was in shiny, metallic-colored shorts. Not pants. Shorts.
Okay, then.
He was flanked on either side by two more sidekicks. As I’d expected, he’d brought along Beacon and Penumbra.
Beacon was on Slade’s right, and he was a young man dressed entirely in black with a white circular design on his chest. It appeared to have a faint glow, and it made me wonder what the purpose of it was besides making a nice place for a sniper to rest his scope sights on. His mask was simple and only covered his eyes with subtle feathered edges. He was dressed the most practically of the group, without anything flashy besides the glow on his chest. Unlike the Shadow Knight’s buff, muscled appearance, Beacon was built thin and lithe. He stood casually, but with a calculated gaze as he scanned the interior.
On the Shadow Knight’s left was Penumbra, a very energetic woman who Aileen had informed me had the ability to levitate. Her long, pin-straight blonde hair tossed about her head as she peered excitedly around. Her eyes were a pale shade of blue that bordered on gray, and the outfit she wore was a skin-tight leotard that ended in a flared, short skirt. Penumbra’s legs were bare and runway-model-shaped, so she clearly lacked the powerful muscle of my girlfriend. There was a half-moon symbol on her chest, and her mask was Valkyrie style with two black-feathered wings that sprung up from the sides.
It struck me as a little silly for them all to arrive in full costume. I really wasn’t sure what they expected to find here, or how the Shadow Knight had primed them for this mission.
“Miles,” the Shadow Knight greeted me with a subtle inclination of his head.
“Slade,” I greeted him back.
The usage of his name startled all three of the members of his team, and the Shadow Knight glared at me. Had he not told them that I already knew? He must have failed to mention it to try to save face.
“Yes, well….” He cleared his throat. “I’ll save the introductions for when we get inside. There’s no time to waste.”
Right to business, then. I nodded and stepped aside so they could enter.
“Come on in, then, we’ve already started.” I tried to sound inviting as I lead the four heroes through the foyer and into the living room.
Elizabeth and Norma had both gotten up to greet the new arrivals, and I saw that the screens had changed back from the city’s security cameras to information on the escaped supervillains. Elizabeth had set them on a rotation, so the details of each supervillain would cycle through on their own.
“This i
s Dynamo, and this is my assistant Norma,” I introduced the two girls.
Elizabeth looked over the new arrivals carefully, and from the way she lingered on the blonde woman, I didn’t think my superpowered girlfriend approved of her. Norma was less composed, and her gaze darted between the Shadow Knight and his sidekicks. In contrast to Elizabeth’s guarded expression, she smiled nervously.
“Nice to meet you both!” Penumbra chirped and then swung entirely to face me instead. “But especially nice to meet you, Miles. I’ve heard so much about you!”
Then she giggled, Elizabeth cringed, and Slade winced.
“Wish I could say likewise, but your leader likes to keep everything close to the vest, so I don’t know anything about you--”
The Shadow Knight exhaled in irritation. “This is Pen--”
“Penumbra!” She cut him off excitedly and approached me to grasp my hands in hers. In a way she probably thought was subtle, she adjusted the position of her arms to push out her breasts and make them look bigger. “I’m Penumbra.”
“The pleasure is mine, Penumbra,” I let my voice drop to a seductive purr, mostly so I could look over and see Elizabeth roll her eyes and the Shadow Knight grind his teeth so hard that I swore I heard them crack.
He cleared his throat again, and Penumbra let go of my hands with another giggle.
“This is my new Silver Squire,” the Shadow Knight said as he gripped the silver-clad boy’s shoulder. “And that is Beacon, a former apprentice of mine.”
“Nice place you’ve got here,” Beacon commented as he walked closer to inspect the screens.
“Thanks.” I replied casually. “I designed it all myself. Well, with Norma’s help.” And Aileen’s, but I didn’t think that was necessary to say. She was still my backup in case they ended up less than trustworthy.
“Really?” Beacon said with an impressed whistle. “That’s cool. Slade never let me help him with any of his tech. Insists on doing it all alone, even though--”
“Beacon,” the Shadow Knight interrupted with an annoyed warning.
The glowing sidekick shot me an exasperated look that I reciprocated, and then he put up his hands defensively.
“Just saying,” he said with a similarly annoyed tone. “It’d get done a lot faster if you actually accepted my offers to help. Whoa! She’s hot.”
I followed Beacon’s gaze to the screens and saw a picture of Arachne, a black-widow spider themed supervillain. He was right-- she was pretty hot, with a jet-black, open-backed leotard on and another opening in the front that revealed plenty of cleavage. She wore fishnets patterned with webs over her juicy, thick legs. Arachne had the sort of sexy villain look that would give any teenage superhero wet dreams.
“Hot?” the Shadow Knight scoffed. “She’s a supervillain and a murderer.”
“Yeah, but he’s right-- she is hot,” I agreed with the kid, who gave me a starry-eyed look. “You can still appreciate a body like hers from afar. Nothing wrong with that.”
I heard a giggle from Penumbra. “You can appreciate me from close up, Miles, if you--”
“We should get started now!” Norma squeaked to cut her off. “Like, um, we should come up with a plan. I mean, we already kind of have a plan, right, Miles?”
“Yup,” I confirmed.
“How do you already have a plan?” the Shadow Knight barked.
“It’s a bare-bones plan, but it’s something to start with,” I replied smoothly. “Why don’t you all make yourselves at home? Relax a bit, take off your masks. Norma, make some coffee for our guests.”
“We don’t need coffee,” the Shadow Knight grunted.
Beacon dropped down onto the couch in front of the screens.
“No way!” he exclaimed. “I definitely need coffee. Light cream, please.”
I thought it was a pretty good sign that he’d immediately disagreed with his former teacher.
“I want coffee too,” Penumbra chimed in with a flutter of her eyelashes at me. “Um… how do you take your coffee, Miles?”
“Black,” I replied.
She made a face.
“Oh, um, well…” the blonde stammered as she curled a lock of hair around her finger. She whirled away from me to face Norma. “Can you make mine with lots of cream and sugar? Thanks, you’re the best!”
“Same,” the Silver Squire spoke up timidly. He glanced between me, Norma, and the Shadow Knight, who was very obviously displeased that his allies were disobeying him. The new Silver Squire didn’t really seem like the type to disagree with his mentor ever, so I took it as a good sign that he was. Even just for something as small as coffee.
“Hurry up, then,” the feather-caped crusader said with a grumble as Norma began to make the coffee orders. “No more distractions. What’s your plan, Miles?”
I sat down next to Elizabeth and changed the main screen so it showed a full list of all escaped supervillains. Aileen had arranged them in order from most dangerous to least dangerous, but I didn’t specify that. The Shadow Knight was probably roughly aware of the power levels of the supervillains in his own prison, but I doubted he’d remember all of them exactly.
I settled in comfortably on the couch, while Norma brought the Shadow Knight’s sidekicks their coffee where they had all taken various seats around the room. The crow-masked man himself chose to stand in the back with his arms crossed, and he refused to even take off his mask. He really took this “masked hero” stuff way too seriously. Even Beacon had tossed his mask carelessly aside, and while I thought he looked way too comfortable in my mansion, it seriously seemed to bother the Shadow Knight, so that made me happy.
“So here’s the plan,” I announced. “We’ll split up into three teams-- me, Norma, and Beacon on one team, the Shadow Knight and Silver Squire on another team, and then Dynamo and Penumbra on the last. Each group will pick one supervillain to capture, and then we’ll all meet back up here once we’ve handled our respective catches. After that, we’ll regroup and figure out which ones to go after next. If a group runs into trouble, they can contact the other groups over a communication system I’ve set up for us with my AI assistant, Aileen. Sound good to everyone?”
I didn’t think any of them would have any major objections, even the Shadow Knight since the teams I’d come up with weren’t too far off from the way he usually operated. It was usually just him and the Silver Squire working together, with Beacon and Penumbra on backup duty or running solo after petty criminals that the Shadow Knight himself didn’t have time for. When it came to major supervillains, he didn’t like to trust anyone else with handling it. I couldn’t decide if that was because he was overprotective to a fault or just a major control freak, but I leaned toward the latter.
“I’m teamed up with you, Miles?” Beacon asked and then shrugged. “Works for me.”
“It’s an acceptable plan,” the Shadow Knight admitted. “Beacon will ensure you stick to your promise.”
“Seems like the best way to handle it.” Elizabeth agreed, though I could tell she wasn’t entirely pleased with her group.
I rested my hand against her thigh in sympathy, and she gave me a resigned look in return.
Penumbra pouted for a second as she glanced at me, but then her blue-gray eyes drifted to Elizabeth and a wide smile spread across her face.
“You were in the Wardens, right?” the blonde chattered as she scooted closer to my girlfriend on the couch. “That’s really exciting! I wanted to join them, but I didn’t make the cut. You must be sooooo strong!”
I didn’t think her excitement or praise was fake, and neither did Elizabeth. She seemed a little annoyed with the blonde’s vapid attitude, though, so I gave her thigh a comforting squeeze.
“My power is super strength,” she explained, “and accelerated healing.”
“That’s so much cooler than mine,” Penumbra sighed. “I can levitate and I’m really lightweight, so I can move super quickly but I can’t hit very hard or anything.”
I nodded
as I listened in on their conversation. I’d lied to them a bit earlier, since I already knew what her power was, which was why I’d paired her up with my heaviest hitter, Dynamo. Elizabeth did seem to understand that after Penumbra explained her powers and gave me a wry smile.
I lifted the remote at the screen and pulled up the file for The Golem. The image of a generic rock monster appeared on the screen. He was vaguely human-shaped and made out of pieces of segmented stone. The Golem was much bigger and much stronger than any normal human could be, but he was practically mindless. The only thing he knew how to do was crush and destroy anything that got into his path. As a barely sentient monster, The Golem should have just been flat-out destroyed rather than placed in a prison. But, for now, that wasn’t my call.
“You two should take this guy,” I said. “Dynamo’s super strength will work great against him, since he’s just a pile of rocks. Penumbra’s ability will be great at luring him out and keeping him distracted while Dynamo strikes him down.”
Dynamo and Penumbra exchanged a look, and then they both nodded.
“Okay. We’ll take him.” Dynamo agreed.
I flipped through the list to pick out our next target. I settled on one named Morpho and pulled up an image of what appeared to be a woman made entirely out of water. Her body wasn’t as nice to look at as Arachne’s, but she had a perfect hourglass figure with wide hips and long legs. I switched through several images of the woman in various stages of matter, which was her ability. A slippery one, for sure. Since she could make herself incorporeal, it would be all too easy for her to escape our grasp if we weren’t careful. I didn’t want to give this one to the Shadow Knight, since I didn’t think his methods of brute force capture would do very well against someone like her.
“Let’s go after her.” Beacon said suddenly, which surprised me. He was already acting like we were a team, much to the chagrin of the Shadow Knight. I could hear Beacon’s old mentor grinding his teeth behind us again.
