System Supervillain, Chapter 90

Chapter 90 – Butting Heads

I was considering who I would talk to next in this session of awkward mingling between mind controllers, but it appeared that someone else had decided to take that decision out of my hands. Almost as though they were just waiting for me to get close enough to strike. Well, they probably wouldn’t start anything too bad, not in the middle of the party. But I’d been wrong before.

“Hypnodomme,” I nodded genially to the woman as she walked up with her Thralls. “I see you’re in good form tonight. I don’t usually see a woman walking up with a quartet of football players outside of certain videos on the internet.”

“Hmph,” she said, acidly. Her demeanor came off as cool and collected, but I could see murder in her eyes. She would gladly try and kill me, or turn me into a Thrall, if we weren’t at an event under Guild rules. “You’re one to talk, Iceblade. Most of those on the guest list decided to bring normal people as their pets for the evening. And here you are, with supervillainesses in your wake.”

“What can I say?” I shrugged. “I don’t believe in having tons of slaves at my beck and call, so I go for quality over quantity. Unfortunately, I also have a lot of young children, and some of my pets are pregnant, so I had to pick and choose who would come with me.”

“So, you don’t have any pets who aren’t supers, hmm?”

“Oh, I do, but some of them are in important positions that they cannot just run away from. The rest are in wildly different time zones. Yes, it is the middle of the day where they are, but they have responsibilities that I wouldn’t tear them away from without reason. Even normal folk have things they have to do to keep up appearances, after all.”

I smiled, and then said, “But where are my manners? Hypnodomme, I would like you to meet my pets for the evening. Web Mistress, Bloodmoon, FX, and Tammy. And, for what it is worth, Tammy, here, is a normal person, though I’ve equipped her so that she can at least defend herself if it comes to fighting.”

Hypnodomme tore her gaze from me, to look over the rest of my group. “Interesting. Eyes are alive. Not drones, like you see with Puppetmaster and Dollmaker, but no outward signs of control, as with the Tamer or the General. Not unlike my Thralls, or Stepford’s Wives.”

I nodded, “Yes, my process doesn’t remove who the person is, so much as reshapes things a bit. Stolen Victory had quite a bit of trouble adjusting to the ‘new normal’ at first, but eventually she and the other former Squadron Supreme members stopped resisting their new mindset.”

“Well, I admit that you have some skills, at least. That will make turning you into a Thrall all the more satisfying. Having multiple means of dealing with potential issues is always preferable.”

“Oh, dear. I’m afraid that you’re not going to be making me into a Thrall, Hypnodomme. For one, you’re still too weak to overcome my defenses before I could overwhelm you. Granted, my mental abilities are more of a tertiary thing, so I cannot overcome you with just that, but you will need more than just these high school athletes if you intend on taking me down. You do remember how our last meeting went, no?”

Hypnodomme snarled at me. “You only won because you’re a cheating bastard, Iceblade! And I’ll never forgive you for what you did to me! I was still a virgin back there!”

“Now, now. Don’t be like that! I was only respecting your wishes, after all. You kept begging me not to cum in your pussy. Something about it not being a safe day, right? So, I was very nice, and made sure to give you everything in a hole where you couldn’t get pregnant. Really, you should be thanking me. Unless you regret not having my child?”

As Hypnodomme sputtered, trying to form a coherent response through her anger, I took a moment to appraise her costume. From what I knew, her powers used her costume as a focus. Most of her mental powers were a channeled through her thigh-high, high-heeled leather boots. The leather corset that just barely kept her tits from spilling out in full view provided her with protections for her body and mind, and the cloak allowed her to fly at a speed of almost forty-five miles per hour, though she could only manage a fraction of that in combat conditions.

Of course, like most supers who were intelligent enough to know that being a one-trick-pony meant that you were just asking to get beat, Hypnodomme did not rely entirely on her mental magics to attack. Indeed, the last time we’d fought, she’d tried to use both a whip and a handgun on me, once I’d proven too tough for her attack spells. The two items were nonmagical, which allowed them to bypass some protections against magic, and operate in areas where her normal powers were restricted.

That was what I liked about proper villains. Not the idiots who were always going on about world domination or the more general psychos and insane cultists. The people who actually took the time to think about their craft, and what they wanted to do. Most of the villains here knew about covering their weaknesses. In fact, out of all the main attractions at this party, only Maestro, Stepford, and the Tamer didn’t have any way to subdue someone if they didn’t already have minions at their side, and mental attacks weren’t working.

Maestro had the ability to escape any situation by just… singing his way to a different point in time, like when he escaped the Toronto Tribunal by going back to before the city was founded, and just flying to a different area before returning to the present. He was one of the ones I’d had to clamp down on, after the System came online, since I didn’t want him distorting our present reality and taking away my admin privileges. That limited some of his escape options, especially if he was in the middle of a very secure area, but he still had some room to maneuver.

Stepford, on the other hand, was far too cautious to get into a situation where his powers didn’t work in the first place. If he believed there was a good chance that his Wives or his powers wouldn’t be effective against a target, he simply withdrew. Since most of his targets actually came to him, when he told them they’d won a free trip, and he had them programmed before they knew what was happening, that wasn’t as big an issue as you might think. His cleverness got him points, there.

The Tamer, though? The rotten bastard relied on weaponized cuteness to get people to drop their guard. If his Willbreaker Pistol couldn’t affect them, and they were able to break free of his Tamer Ball? Well, he wasn’t anything to write home about. And he was far too easily goaded by people treating him like a kid, which was why he’d been in prison before the System allowed many villains to escape confinement. He’d underestimated Psyren of the Crown Protectors in London, after making a fool of himself trying to capture the Prime Minister in a bid to take over the country.

Words like warm silk over cool steel broke that train of thought, and kept Hypnodomme from further embarrassing herself. “Please, this is a party, no? Let’s not have any trouble that would spoil the mood.”

I turned to the source of the voice, unsurprised to see Mistress Midnight standing there, wearing the floor-length strapless black gown made of living shadows, along with the matching hooded cloak and eye mask which was her costume. She looked absolutely delicious, as always. I nodded my head respectfully to her, and said, “Midnight. I must admit that I was surprised when I heard you were coming to this party. Forgive me if it sounds presumptuous, but I am fairly certain you wish half the guests here dead, no? Including the host?”

“Hmph.” Midnight managed to almost keep the disgust off her face as she looked at me. “This and that are two separate things. I can put aside my feelings of disdain and loathing for you and the others who abuse women as you do for a night. There are some women here I wished to meet in person, and this is a setting where they would be more willing to speak plainly with me. If I tolerate beings like you in my presence to do that, then I will manage.

“But do not mistake my actions or words, Iceblade. The only reason I am bothering to speak with the likes of you is because I did not wish for Hypnodomme to run afoul of the rules, since she was both the one that approached you, and started the conversation down a contentious path. Even if you were deliberately provoking her, if she lashed out, then we would be honor bound to subdue her, and then she likely would be taken as a toy by one of you lecherous men.”

I smiled, and nodded. “Of course. Your position on men who act as I do is well established. And, as you said, I was trying to avoid ‘poking the bear’, shall we say, but Hypnodomme approached me. That aside, I will say that you are absolutely one of the people in this hall that I would least like to attack head on. You proved your skills quite effectively when you eliminated the Cabal of the Shadowed Candle. You were quite impressive.”

That actually got a pause from the shadow lady. A bit of surprise? “Flattery will get you nowhere, Iceblade. I sense the demon magic upon you, but your enhanced charms will not avail you.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not trying to seduce you, or anything. I’m well aware that I have the wrong equipment to be your type. You simply have always acted in a way that has earned my respect. You use your powers with intelligence and skill, you minimize collateral damage when you can, and while it is rare for you to kill, it is never without reason. These are things that I respect in any professional villain.”

“Oh, please, Iceblade!” Hypnodomme had clearly recovered to the point where she could speak. “We all know that you’re just saying that so you can try and get in her panties, like you do with every woman that crosses your path.”

“No,” Midnight spoke before I could, her face looking as though she’d bitten into a lemon. “If there is one thing that is well known about Iceblade, it is that he always tells the truth, or at least some version of it. Despite the demonic influence upon him, or perhaps because of it, if he says he is not trying to seduce me, then that can be counted as truth, at least for the moment. It is one of the few things about him that isn’t completely repulsive.”

“I thank you for your kind words, Midnight. But perhaps you would excuse me? I’m sure that you and Hypnodomme have some things to discuss, and I would like to speak with the General. I haven’t seen him since his attack on Area 51, almost six years ago, now.”

Hypnodomme looked like she wanted to argue, but Midnight gave her a quelling look. “Let him go, Hypnodomme. Hunting him now would only turn back on you.” She looked back at me, and said, “And as for you, Iceblade, I hope dearly that we meet again, somewhere that is not under the Guild’s flag of truce.”

I just smiled, and nodded, before turning with my pets to head over to where the General was. As I did so, Web Mistress moved up beside me, and said, “Well done, Master. I believe that was as close to a compliment as Mistress Midnight has given any man in the last two decades.”