Villains Don't Date Heroes! (Night Terror and Fialux, #1)

by Mia Archer

I had no idea what was holding me up. I hated not knowing how I was flying. There was only that slight sparkling shimmer close to her skin to go on.

It was infuriating and terrifying. Also? I was just a little jealous. That must be pretty awesome to be able to fly whenever you wanted without worrying about putting on an advanced flight suit first.

“Besides, something tells me the police will have no problem with you now that all your toys are broken.” Damn. My secret was out. I still had no idea what she meant about never causing trouble anymore. That was awfully cryptic.

Fear flashed in his eyes as he looked at me, then disappeared as he realized this new hero had actually gotten the best of me and had me in custody. Or at least as close to “in custody” as someone could get with me. Which was pretty close to actually being in custody, as much as I hated to admit it. Even to myself.

Heroes these days. They had no appreciation for their betters. I was going to have to teach her a lesson. As soon as I figured out a way to get out of this.

No, these cops had no idea what was about to hit them. I smiled and chuckled. “What’s so funny?” the rookie asked. “I want to talk to my lawyer.”

I smiled and chuckled. “What’s so funny?” the rookie asked. “I want to talk to my lawyer.”

I had to take her out before the good people of Starlight City started to do silly things like hope.

At least I hoped he lacked enough capacity for recognizing human emotions to realize what was going on.

Talk about a major embarrassment.

Now there was a metaphor for the world if I’d ever heard one. You were either on top or nobody gave a damn.

“I know, I know! I mean aside from the flying thing the laws of physics still apply to her! Don’t you see what that means?” “I’m afraid I don’t mistress, but that is why you’re the brains of this operation,” CORVAC said.

“I’m afraid I still don’t follow mistress,” CORVAC said. “Well that’s why I’m the brains behind this operation,” I said.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about! Teleport one of my suits over here. I have to get to work.”

She was smiling down with a triumphant expression on her face, and she looked absolutely gorgeous. I smiled up at that hologram. Not a pleasant smile.

“Are we taking development time away from the robot?” “You bet your electronic ass we are,” I said.

I’d have to figure out a way to amplify the power a hell of a lot, and a way to project it rather than having a unit built into my suit that generated a localized field to protect me when the laws of physics threatened to turn my insides to mush.

Beautiful, gorgeous Fialux. And for once I wasn’t thinking of how tempting it would be to kiss those lips. How amazing it would feel to have her body pressed against mine.

Oh yes, Night Terror was going to be on top again. And it was going to be glorious.

My cape fluttered behind me in the storm, still tattered and charred where her heat vision hit me. That had been an unpleasant surprise.

Right. No more Miss Nice Villain. She singed one of my favorite capes, and those things were made of a supposedly indestructible polymer that wasn’t cheap!

I was confident, cool, collected. I was Night Terror. I owned this city,

It was literally about to go down. As in all the defensive systems in my suit were about to go down and I’d be a sitting duck before a woman who was basically a goddess.

It appeared my attempts to circumvent Newton’s Third Law was running smack dab against Newton’s First Law and it was going to be a painful lesson in elementary physics for me.

It wasn’t a career that was very friendly to long term relationships to begin with, and most guys had trouble with a girl who could vaporize them at a moment’s notice.

Not that I’d ever told any of those guys that I was actually an infamous supervillain by night. And by day. Really most of the time,

Where were these feelings coming from? I didn’t ask for them, and now here I was staring at my greatest and most mortal enemy, the greatest threat to that villainous career, and all I could think about was how hot she looked?

It wasn’t a pleasant smile, but it still sent a thrill rather than a chill running down my spine. She was smiling at me. I was a goofy schoolgirl with a crush if that was the sort of thing that got me excited.

The only problem with that idea was if I could read her mind I’m sure the only thing I’d find in there were thoughts of how much she wanted me to be safely locked up somewhere that I couldn’t bother her anymore.

And if she did manage to catch me I could see if she could read my mind, though she might be surprised. There was less anger there and more the sort of thing that might make Starlight City’s newest heroine blush if she could find out what I really thought of her.

Let her come. Let her rip apart my lair. Let her drop me down in the middle of a prison yard without anything approaching due process. My attorney would have a field day with that one.

I reached down and pressed the emergency release button on one of my power enhanced leg modules. Normally that would send it clattering to the ground, but in this case the thing kicked up and nearly smacked me in the face.

I could see the headline now. Famed villainess Night Terror killed by malfunctioning sup...

Bots skittered out of their little mouse holes to pick up the mess I'd left behind. Little bright flashes of blue appeared behind me as they used their plasma cutters to rip the thing apart so it could be carried down to the lair for recycling.

I’d just left the front door open. It definitely wasn't a heroine sent to our world from another planet with an annoying array of superpowers coming to carry me off to jail.

I had to spend at least two hours a day in the gym just to stay in good enough shape to pull the look off. Not that I was complaining, mind you.

Going toe to toe with Fialux came with an expensive repair bill.

I rolled my eyes and looked at a monitor where the faint silhouette of a human head was projected in a grainy bright green display. CORVAC said it was old school or something like that.

I briefly considered typing format on CORVAC's command prompt, another old school affectation, and hitting enter, but decided against it for perhaps the thousandth time since I'd brought him back online and upgraded him.

“You know the answer CORVAC.” “I do mistress,” he said. “I just thought it might help you to talk about it.”

“Because that would lead down a dark path that ended with one or both of us completely destroyed?”

I hated her. I needed more. I hated that I needed more.

Seeing her floating there brought back terrified memories of being deposited on the steps of police headquarters and waiting for my lawyer to show up and remind the cops about the Supreme Court decision that removing a villain’s mask without a warrant was an illegal search.

Which just added to the confusion let me tell you.

A problem like how to defeat Fialux and not why I kept thinking about how beautiful she was or how nifty it would be if we could maybe just go out for a nice dinner at an expensive restaurant downtown instead of throwing around cars and singlehandedly demolishing major financial centers downtown.

Something that had me leaning against the holoprojector staring up at her slack-jawed thinking maybe we could just set aside this silly hero and villain dynamic. Like that would happen.

I had a eureka moment. One of those perfect moments where an idea struck my brain like a lightning from the heavens.

“It’s exactly that! It’s so simple I can’t believe I missed it. An object in motion stays in motion!”

resist less than a good damsel in distress situation," I said. "Trust me. This will work." "Mistress. I think we should talk about the little incident where your system froze in front of the holoprojector."

Apparently he’d used that lens to determine that my little staring contest with the holprojection of Fialux a few days back was my brain hanging on a processing error.