Supervillainess (Part Two)

by Ford, Lizzy

  “Reader, are you in the fucking fortress or not?” he shouted above the grinding of stone against stone.

  “Roof,” she replied.

  “Are you in any shape to run?”

  “Not so much.”

  Kimber stumbled forward and then broke into a dead run. The fortress trembled and shook, but his mind had turned from finding General Savage to helping Keladry. Without knowing exactly how to find her, he assessed he had to continue upward, towards the top of the mountain.

  “Igor! I’ll need directions soon!” he called frantically.

  “Holy fuck. One side of the mountain just collapsed in on itself!” Officer Ford exclaimed. “We’ve got one chopper, but we can’t get anywhere near the rooftop until the air defense is taken out.”

  Kimber sprinted as he listened. He reached a stairwell and bolted upward. Several tremors and two stairwells later, he broke free of the tunnel system and into the main compound. Glimpsing the night sky through shattered windows on the main floor, he heard a commotion from one direction and paused to bend over, gasping for breath.

  “Igor … main level!” he managed.

  Two of the General’s henchmen entered the corridor where he was. Kimber straightened, preparing to fight them, when the earth bucked beneath them. The two pitched forward. Kimber dropped to his knees. A chunk of the ceiling smashed into the area between them, and the two henchmen stumbled to their feet and fled.

  “If you’re facing the windows, turn left. There’s a back stairwell at the end of the hallway,” Igor said.

  Kimber climbed to his feet and began to run again. Not for the first time, he caught himself wishing he had his father’s alleged super speed. His lungs were soon burning from his ragged breathing, and his thighs ached from the pace. He found the stairwell and tripped then sprang forward, putting all his strength into leaping up the stairs four at a time.

  The next shudder of the fortress sent more stones and dust raining upon him from the ceiling and walls.

  “Now what?” he gasped, pausing at the top of the stairs. Ahead of him, he saw henchmen darting along the hallway, headed in the direction opposite of him. “Wait a minute. I know this place!”

  Without waiting for Igor, Kimber raced down the hallway lined with doors. He’d been brought to this wing of the compound before, after the attack on the hospital, when General Savage had wanted to feel out who he was and what he was doing in the city. Kimber raced to an intersection, slid around the corner and darted down a second hallway. This one led to a nurse’s station that had been abandoned. He skirted or jumped over chunks of the fortress that littered the hallway. Turning another corner, he ran towards the open door leading out onto the expansive patio where he’d first met General Savage.

  Breaking free of the fortress, he spotted Keladry near the balcony at the same time he caught movement from the corner of his eye and whirled. No less than twenty feet away, General Savage was darting from the compound to a set of stairs leading to the upper floor. The sound of a helicopter came from above.

  It wasn’t their rescue helicopter but General Savage’s escape vehicle. Anti-air missiles left trails of smoke in the sky as they launched rockets towards the hovering helicopter a safe enough distance away to maneuver away from the missiles.

  Kimber darted forward, uncertain if the Keladry he saw this time was real or not. He dropped to his knees beside her and reached out gently. Her body was warm to the touch through her uniform. She appeared to be in little better shape than her illusion had been earlier.

  “Hey,” he said and rolled her carefully onto her back.

  “Stop him,” she said, gaze moving past him towards the sound of the helicopter.

  His gaze swept expertly down her body. “You have to stop winding up hurt in my arms,” he said in a half-tease.

  “And you have to stop blocking my ability to heal.”

  For once, Kimber didn’t care that she was upset with him when he was just trying to help. “If you’re being sarcastic, you’ll survive long enough for me to take care of a couple other things.” He lowered her to the ground and then rose, eyes going to the first of his two challenges: General Savage’s helicopter.

  It was starting to lift off from the roof, leaving him no time to reach it by foot. After a second of debate, Kimber grabbed one of the chairs from the deck furniture. He swung it a couple of times and took a deep breath, repeating everything Officer Ford had taught him about aim. Pulling back one more time, he flung the chair at the blades of the helicopter and held his breath, watching closely.

  The chair, propelled by his super strength, flew true to his aim and smashed into the rotators of the chopper. The aircraft teetered five feet off the ground while sparks flew everywhere. It slammed down to the ground once more.

  “One down,” Kimber murmured. He grabbed another chair and ran to the edge of the patio. Leaning over, he was able to make out the source of the missile fire.

  The fortress shook, and Kimber landed on his backside. The patio cracked, separating him from Keladry.

  “Half the fortress is gone!” Officer Ford said.

  “I’m working on it!” Climbing to his feet, Kimber ditched the chair for something heavy enough to survive a trip through the rock wall separating him from the missile launcher. He grabbed a boulder half his size and went to the edge of the patio. The compound shook beneath his feet, and he steadied himself the best he could.

  He threw the boulder with all his strength. It flew fast enough to be a blur and smashed through the wall before tearing through the air defense battery targeting the helicopter waiting to rescue him.

  “Air defense down!” he shouted. “Can your people get to Reader?”

  “They’re moving in now. Stay where you are,” Officer Ford directed.

  “I can’t.” Kimber looked up towards the helo-pad. “Get Reader out of here!”

  He started forward and risked a glance towards the supervillainess.

  She was gone.

  “Reader, where are you?” he asked, concerned. The crack in the patio was too far from where she’d been for her to have fallen into it.

  “I’m gonna finish this once and for all,” she responded.

  Kimber bolted up the stairs leading to the helo-pad. He reached the top in time to see the supervillainess taking out the third of General Savage’s three henchmen. She snatched a gun from the ground and limped to her father, whose crushed leg appeared as if it were caught between the helicopter and the ground when they landed.

  “Keladry, no!” he shouted. “We have a deal!”

  “Fuck our deal, Doc.”

  He raced towards her. She shifted away from his approach, keeping one eye on her father and another on Kimber.

  “No prison can hold him. We can’t leave this mountaintop and let him live!” she shouted.

  “You don’t have to be afraid of him anymore,” Kimber replied. “I’m in town to stay. He won’t escape and he’ll never hurt anyone else again.”

  She lifted an eyebrow, doubtful. But she didn’t fire her weapon. “After all he’s done, how can you defend him?”

  “I’m not defending him. I’m saying to let justice take its course. This city has lacked justice for fifty years, which is why your father became the monster he is.” Kimber reached her but didn’t grab for her gun. His heart was pounding harder, this time from the fact he was about to find out if she cared for him as much as he did her. “You don’t have to follow in his footsteps. You can change your fate right now. If you want this city to be ours, if you want there to be an us, you can’t pull that trigger.”

  The ground beneath them quaked, and from the corner of his eye, he saw the stone patio on the level below them beginning to erode rapidly, as the mountain collapsed in upon itself.

  Kimber kept his gaze pinned to Keladry’s dark eyes. “Please,” he added. “Do it for the same reason you submitted my Superhero Application. Help me heal this city.”

  She was silent, studying him. He could a
lmost see her thinking. It struck him then they had been in a similar situation the day she threw him out of Sand City, when she murdered her brother in front of him to prove a point. Kimber wished with all his heart she chose a different path this time, that she understood villainesses didn’t have to be quite so … evil. He waited for her to determine both of their fates. Just when he began to suspect her love for him wasn’t strong enough to overcome a long life of abuse and darkness, she lowered her arm and handed him the gun.

  Kimber released the breath he didn’t know he was holding. He threw the weapon.

  “Fools,” General Savage said with a laugh. “She’s damaged goods, Doctor. You can’t lead someone that dark to the light. I should know. I made sure of it.” He had dragged his leg out from under the helicopter.

  “I don’t need the light, Father,” Keladry snapped. “But I can choose to be something other than what you tried to make me!” Striding forward, she punched him hard and then spun him around.

  Kimber’s attention was mostly on the urgency stirring his blood, and the fact he knew how dangerously close the eroding mountain was coming. They had less than twenty seconds before they, too, were sucked into the mountain and crushed. While he didn’t know the extent of his ability to heal, he doubted anyone could recover from a mountain falling on them.

  The police helicopter was almost overhead, and a desperate plan formed.

  “Asshole,” Keladry was muttering to her father. She tied his hands behind his back then shoved him to the ground.

  The next few seconds passed in slow motion.

  The cement helo-pad cracked and pitched, sending them all sprawling. General Savage’s helicopter fell into the crack, which began to expand at a fast pace.

  Kimber scrambled forward to Keladry. The ground beneath them began to collapse. Grabbing her, he twisted and threw her upward with all his strength, toward the rescue helicopter hovering overhead.

  The cement gave way beneath his feet. And then he was falling backward into the crack, eyes pinned on the sky. A faint flash of yellow streaked by him. He blinked, and the glimmer was gone. He was left with nothing to look at but the sight of the supervillainess he loved.

  One of the police officers snagged Reader’s leg as she reached the height of the helicopter, but it was her eyes Kimber saw last, before the mountain began to close in around him.

  Her guard was completely down. She was terrified, and she was screaming his name, arms outstretched in a completely vain attempt to reach him.

  I knew she loved me, he thought.

  His joy was short lived as the sky above him disappeared, and he was swallowed by the mountain.

  Fourteen: Superheroes have secrets, too

  Two weeks later

  For several hours, Reader didn’t leave her perch on the rooftop corner of the tallest building in Sand City. The moon rose full and large over the calm city. She crouched, watching the nightly activity. Her senses were alert, her mind trained on the task at hand rather than where it wanted to be. It took more effort to fill the void of her father’s leadership than she thought possible. Initial negotiations with law enforcement, re-establishing order and hierarchy among the criminal underworld, and the enforcement of new street rules had filled her days. City leadership required her to think on a completely different level, far less operational and far more strategic. Half a month had flown by without any sign of her workload lessening.

  The hair on the back of her neck rose, and she stood. “Tonight?” she asked the man behind her.

  “Nope. Not tonight either.”

  Reader turned to gaze at her arch nemesis, the superhero in purple. “You have to tell me someday how you escaped.”

  “Why does it matter?”

  “Because, if you did it, my father might have, too!”

  “No. I saw his body. He was crushed beneath half a mountain.”

  Reader glared at him. In the end, she’d gotten her vengeance, even if it didn’t happen exactly as she planned.

  “I wouldn’t lie about this or anything else, Keladry,” the superhero said at her silence. “But I’m never gonna tell you how I escaped.” The Doctor laughed, flashing dimples. His blue eyes glowed in the moonlight, and his muscular form was relaxed despite their natural adversity.

  She directed a few foul curses at him then checked her watch. “Two minutes,” she reminded him.

  “I’ll give you a head start tonight.”

  “As if you could ever catch me!”

  “I snapped up your second in command last night, didn’t I?”

  Reader turned away so he didn’t see her smile. In truth, life was much more interesting when she had a legitimate mortal enemy who was as skilled, determined and smart as she was. “He’ll be out of custody in all of …” she made a show of checking her watch. “…ten minutes. If you hurry, you can capture him again.”

  “Fuck. How many cops do you own?” he grumbled.

  “More than you.” She tugged on her mask and approached him. Rising to her tiptoes, she planted a quick kiss on his lips.

  Kimber wrapped his arms around her and dipped her back, kissing her deeply. Reader responded, always hungry for the man who drove her wild in too many ways to count. He lifted his head and straightened.

  “Try to keep up tonight,” she teased. “I’ve got two operations.”

  “No hints?”

  “You’ll figure out how to do your job one day.”

  “You’re such a bitch sometimes,” he said with a quick grin. He rested his forehead against hers, and they breathed the same air. “I love you anyway.”

  Damn I’m a good superhero trainer, Reader thought. If she had to abandon her supervillainess role one day, she might take up grooming superheroes. Already, the city’s tourism council announced it expected a record year of curious people coming to town to spot what they thought was a fictional superhero.

  The clock at the city’s major cathedral downtown began to chime midnight.

  “Do-good away,” she said and stepped away.

  “Go … wreak havoc in a non-lethal way,” he replied. “Be a good supervillain.”

  She rolled her eyes, recognizing Igor’s words. “Your dad said to tell you hi.”

  “Why does he always call you and not me?” Kimber complained.

  “Because I’m a fucking badass,” she replied. “Reader twenty three, Doctor ten. Remember? Who wants to call a loser?”

  “Whatever. I’m just warming up. See you at home.”

  She waved and walked to the edge of the rooftop, towards the fire escape. Reader sneaked one last glance at the Doctor as she went. His broad smile was genuine, and warmth unfurled inside her, the way it did whenever she thought of him or saw him.

  She had a sneaking suspicion she knew how he’d survived the mountain. One day, she’d wring the truth out of him. Until then, she just had to stay two steps ahead of him at night, while he hunted her. At dawn, they tumbled into bed together. He worked second shift as a prison doctor, giving them plenty of time to sleep and fuck all morning.

  The clock chimed for the last time.

  “Ready or not, here I come!” Kimber called.

  Reader grinned, adrenaline shooting through her as she made a controlled fall towards the alleyway below. When she reached the street, she stepped back and looked up.

  Kimber stood, framed against the moon, peering over the edge of the roof at her, every bit the superhero she’d always known he could become.

  “Game on, superhero,” she whispered softly. She darted away, exhilarated by their nightly game.

  The city finally belonged to them and would forever, if she had anything to do about it.

  ***

  Continue reading for an exclusive, sneak peek of “Aveline,” the first in a young adult post-apocalyptic series launching in Autumn 2016!

  “Aveline” is available on preorder in ebook format starting June 19!

  Official ebook and paperback release date: September 19!

  Cha
pter One

  The corpse on the makeshift dais at the center of the two-room cabin was still warm when the dreaded knock resounded off the walls.

  Not yet, Aveline thought. I’m not ready.

  She gripped her father’s lifeless hand. His scarred features were serene, as if he had found the peace in the afterlife he never experienced in the ruthless criminal underworld of Lost Vegas. She studied his aquiline nose, silvery hair and pale features. Death did little to lessen his commanding presence, and for a moment, she was unable to accept the demise her own eyes had witnessed.

  They had both believed he would die in a fight or in the prisons of the Shield, the police overseeing the inner and outer cities making up Lost Vegas. His illness caught them both by surprise, and his unexpected death left her feeling as if her entire world had been swept away by nothing greater than a sneeze. It did not seem possible for a child to die from a minor illness, let alone someone as strong as her father.

  Would he wake up, once this stage of his illness was over?

  She felt for his pulse, already knowing it would not be present but desperately wishing she had been wrong the previous dozen times she checked it.

  The knock came again, this time harder, and dashed her hope. Many people were waiting for her father to pass. One of them must have paid a clairvoyant to know the exact time, for Aveline had not left her father’s side in a week or spoken of his condition to anyone. The men at the door had come as much for her as for her father’s body.

  At seventeen, a half-breed with no family would not last long in the city that readily devoured the lost, friendless, or weak. Her father was gone, and her survival depended upon her accepting this and moving on, before she followed in his footsteps. She could almost hear her father lecturing her to be practical, logical, to think of her own life now that his was over.

  But I don’t want to leave him.

  Aveline reached for the knife at her waist and glanced over her shoulder to ensure the door remained locked. Either she stayed and faced those sent to enslave her, or she fled and left her father’s body exposed to those same people. Fresh organs sold for the same price as a newly orphaned teen in the city. They’d strip his clothing and hack apart his body and then destroy her home in the search for valuables.