Villains Don't Save Heroes! (Night Terror Book 2)

by Mia Archer

I decided to leave aside, for the moment, the fact that I should’ve technically been the most threatening villain she’d ever faced. Even if we were dating now.

“You’re fighting dirty,” I growled.

Being on top of Fialux like this though… Let’s just say it was something I’d been looking forward to and missing for some time now. “Um… So…”

“I get the feeling you’re about to tell me there’s something else I need to do,” I said. “Something heroic.” I hated heroic. Heroic was the antithesis of everything I stood for.

“Flattery will get you everywhere. So what did you have in mind?” I said.

“Lizard, robot. It’s all the same if there’s a big something raising hell and lowering property values,” I said.

“Damn it Selena! Villains don’t save heroes!” I growled.

Circumstances might keep forcing me to be the hero, but I was going to do it in my own unique villainous way.

I was going about this all wrong. I was fucking Night Terror. I could take these assholes. They were just robots. I was the greatest criminal genius the world had ever seen and…

I winced as the thing slammed into the glass façade of a much newer building. Though the wince wasn’t nearly as intense this time around. I wasn’t as much of a fan of anything built after about 1940.

“Because I can tell it bothers you. Because I know that deep down you want their approval, and this is my way of twisting the knife by making them hate you.” I rolled my eyes. “Someone’s projecting.”

I shook my head. I really hoped those poor sons of bitches had giant robot attack riders on their insurance policies. It was actually kind of insane some of the cockamamie insurance schemes companies had come up with over the years to milk people who insisted on living in Starlight City despite the constant danger.

I wouldn’t take the betting odds if I were in Vegas, is what I’m getting at. There was totally a whole ecosystem that had grown up in Vegas to take advantage of the craziness that regularly happened in Starlight City. People betting on the frequent misfortune of the unfortunates who lived here. Whether or not this hero or that hero would win a fight. That sort of thing.

I’d finally run into a scenario where my failsafes fucked me over. They pulled me away, sure, but they were pulling me away from safety. Not that they were smart enough to know that.

“I believe we’re finally in agreement on something,” she said. “We are?” I said, momentarily confused. “You are a fucking idiot, Night Terror, and that’s why I’m about to defeat you for good!”

I resolved that if I managed to survive this clusterfuck I was going to create a remote research outpost in Antarctica or something where I could figure out how the hell to get more power to my suits, because clearly I didn’t have enough.

That was going to be my epitaph. “She got cocky and overconfident and then she died. Messily.” Though I had a feeling any epitaph they came up with for me was going to be a hell of a lot nastier than that.

Death was something you had to contemplate in this line of work if you had any sense. Would it sound like electricity? Like a lab experiment gone wrong? Maybe the bubbling of some caustic chemical turning to deadly mist because I’d been sloppy about how I handled it? The splorching sound of a sentient blob closing in around me? Or would it be the sonic boom of some superpowered hero misjudging a hit, or hitting me just as I was vulnerable because my systems were down, and turning my insides into mush?

And now here I was experiencing the ultimate insult. I was going to be taken out by a robot.

If there was a great beyond out there and it happened to include computers then CORVAC was probably rolling in his digital grave knowing he’d failed where a stupid dumb...

I figured if this was it then I didn’t want to see it coming. I’d never understood the kind of person...

I blinked a couple of times and wondered if there were somehow enough neurons left in the paste that was my brain to conjure up this pleasant fantasy scenario for my flattened body before the darkness took me.

The thing’s eye slit had the little light moving back and forth, but it was bright green. The exact sort of color of Apple IIe monochrome green that CORVAC always preferred when he was designing something.

Killed at the hands of a robot I was pretty sure was being controlled by a ghost. Or an AI who was proving to be far more difficult to kill than I’d first imagined. So still a ghost in the machine, if you’ll pardon the pun.

I was going to beat an expeditious retreat from a situation I’d already barely survived more times than a cat has lives. “Yup, me,” I said.

I held my hand up and gave Dr. Lana a little wave. Looked at that gun and control panel in her hands with regret. I really wanted those, but I wanted to live more.

Well let’s just say I had a sneaking suspicion she’d been working with a particular AI asshole and maybe that explained how she was suddenly able to refine so much of my technology into useable solutions.

“Surprised?” she asked. “Not really. You’re the one stealing my tech, but I invented it and I know how it works inside and out.”

If I teleported. She would follow me. And suddenly inspiration hit me. It was a long shot, but a long shot was all I had right now.

If I survived this I was really going to go back to the drawing board for a lot of my toys. I didn’t like finding myself in situations where a long shot was the only chance I had to save my ass.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sure this is all very interesting, but I need to get going now.” “Seriously?”

Wonderful. That blistered bloody mess was my hand. Well then. That was going to take some time to fix in the medbay. It also hurt like a motherfucker. With my suit running at less than optimal power it didn’t have the sense to pump my body full of all the nice chemicals that usually helped me not to feel pain on the rare occasion when I actually took a hit.

“Over my dead body,” I said, taking a protective step forward. “That can be arranged,” she said. I hated that line, but I totally deserved that.

“You just made one mistake,” I said, my grin widening as the computer reached twenty. “What? What’s going on? I don’t make mistakes! What mistake are you talking about?” she shrieked. “Fucking with me,” I said, sprinting towards her.

“Thank you for visiting Night Terror labs,” my recorded voice cackled over loudspeakers. “I can’t help you right now, but I’ve set up plenty of automated toys that’ll give you a great idea of what would’ve happened to you if we did meet!”

Actually I was going to have to quietly place some bets in the Vegas dead pools. Whether or not a hero or villain was actually dead was big money out there, and I figured if she was still alive then making some money off of it would salve that wound just a little.

“There were no SCNN casualties when reporting this story thanks to the new drone program suggested by this reporter, and I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you Night Terror.”

If you couldn’t help out a childhood hero then what was the point of being the greatest criminal mastermind this world had ever known?

I felt lips on my ear that moved down to my cheek. Down to my neck. I arched my neck without thinking about it, because when you had a total hottie like Fialux pressing her lips against your neck you welcomed that contact! I realized what I was doing and let out a low growl.

“This isn’t a robot,” I said. “What you’re looking at is an advanced artificial intelligence in a robot’s body. Or at least it was driving the robot’s body.” “Like your computer?” “Exactly like my computer,” I said.

“I mean if the robot wanted to send you a message why would it go that fast?” “Because he knew I’d be recording everything to review later. He knew a robot flashing hand signals at me would pique my curiosity. To get me to take a second look.”

It was a simple message. Three words that could only come from one person. Someone who should’ve been dead because I’d fried his circuits completely and utterly and then melted them down and made a lovely statue that sat in the front lobby of my lab that no one ever used.

“SAVE ME MISTRESS.”

“You know how much I love it when you get all heroic.” “I’m still a villain at heart,”

“We’ll see about that,” she replied, and then she straddled me on my computer chair, leaned down for a kiss, and for a little while I forgot about all my troubles.

All in a night’s work for the greatest hero Starlight City had ever seen! Wait. Villain. I totally meant to say villain there. Damn it!