Ex Heroes 4 - Chapter 2

“What the fuck was that…?” I turned to a confused Gale at my side, then noticed Charm was still on the ground, so helped her up. She clung to me like she’d never let go again. 

“Demise, he’s called,” Andromida explained, hands extended to the walls, presumably feeling the metal for a presence. 

“Muerta, and now Demise?” I frowned. “A theme? Connection.” 

She shook her head. “Not likely. They must’ve found a way to contain Demise, but I can’t imagine how. He was never one to keep a human form long, though he’s a supervillain like the rest of them. Never one to be in one place long enough to communicate with, because he’s always moving. He gets bolder with others’ fright, stronger with their death. More like a force of nature though than a person.” 

“How do we stop him?” Shimmer asked. 

“Freeze him in place?” Gale held up her hands, ice forming around them. 

“Electric shock therapy?” I offered, considering my tempest ability. 

Andromida shook her head to both of those suggestions. “If we find a way, we’ll be the first.”

“Second,” Twitch corrected. “They had him here, after all.” 

“It’d seem.” Andromida’s eyes showed skepticism, like she didn’t really believe anyone had been able to capture him. 

“If he wasn’t captured before, what stopped him from going all over killing everyone?” I asked. “Why haven’t I heard about him?”

“Well, you’re from Earth,” Twitch pointed out, making me feel like an idiot. “But… the question stands. Not all of us have heard of him, I imagine.”

Shimmer nodded, and Charm shrugged. 

“Like I said, force of nature.” Andromida, seemingly content with her feeling-it-out search, approached the gap in the wall and looked through, glancing back at the distant sounds of shouting and gunshots. Now that we knew what was in here, those shouts had a whole new meaning. “He likely holed up on some fringe planet, feeding on the locals until it got so out of control that someone came for him.”

“Holy shit.” Charm finally let go of my arm, hands to her mouth. “Before, I mean… way before, I’d heard of something. These pirates I ran across, they were making a massive move, abandoning their old hideout and trying to make a move into our territory. They kept going on about the darkness. Some horrible evil, beyond even them. Some thought it was an alien force, others a demon…”

“Our territory?” I asked. “Meaning… Supralines?” 

She frowned. “Before that?” 

I raised an eyebrow, waiting for more. I didn’t really know much about her life before that, and our brief time on Junos interacting with those at Supralines led me to believe I didn’t know the full picture of her time there, either. 

Evading the question, she moved over to Andromida. Twitch made eye contact with me in a way that said to let it go, so I did, for now. All of these ladies were special to me, so knowing that any of them might be purposefully hiding something hurt. I laughed at the thought, realizing this was occupying more mind-space than some crazy supervillain killing force, earning me a confused look from Shimmer and Gale. 

“What?” the latter asked, hands ready to shoot out with her powers if more trouble came. 

“It’s nothing,” I said, looking over each of them and the way their tight hero outfits clung to their curves. Gale was especially curve, the danger of the moment still pumping through me and giving me an amped up sense of wanting to live every moment. 

On top of that, though, I realized I didn’t really know any of these ladies as well as I’d have liked. And they didn’t know me so well, either. We were close to my home, so maybe it wouldn’t be so insane to consider heading over to Earth and showing them around, once this was over? A man could dream. 

Regardless, I promised myself right there to find more time for each of them. Not just to fuck, though there’d be plenty of that, but to actually find out who they were, what they cared about… what excited them about life. 

“He’s got that horny look going on, doesn’t he?” Gale whispered to Shimmer. 

“Same look he had first time I realized he wanted to fuck me,” Shimmer replied, glancing around with a bit of worry still, always vigilant, but allowing enough playfulness in to wink my way. 

“I’m not trying to get down right here and now,” I defended myself. “But I can honestly say there’s not a situation in hell I can think about that would make me ever make me forget how sexy you all are.”

Gale grinned and ran a hand across my abs as she passed to join the others. “Moving on, big guy. Focus.”

Shimmer walked by too, adding a bit of extra sway to her hips as she walked. Damn, if it weren’t for the blood and possible death at any moment, I could’ve actually gone right then and there. 

Funny how, not long ago, the threat of death would’ve terrified me. Back at the factory on Earth, I never thought of myself as anything special. Now I was on my way to becoming an Elder at the Citadel and, if I could have my fun along the way, a Space Paladin. I grinned at the thought, catching up with them and seeing Twitch at the back. 

They’d mocked me when I first brought up the Space Paladin idea, but I was serious. Pulling up my screens while we walked and relying on the ladies to keep their eyes open, I scanned over my skills and landed on the Heavenly Light one. 

“Hey, Twitch,” I said, and she glanced over. “About the Space Paladin thing….”

“On that again?” she asked with a grin. “Hey, I think it’s kinda hot. Be my knight in shining armor.” 

“I’m glad you think so. I was wondering, with your reprogramming ways… could you work with what Lamb left me in terms of upgrading and whatnot? I mean, make it more of a paladin thing, with skills like a paladin would have?” 

“Huh.” She watched the others leading the way, pausing with me to quickly scan a screen. “Looks like I can make changes, and she even left in doors to make it easy. What exactly would a paladin have?” 

I racked my mind for old games and how it worked, and quickly explained how paladins were all about being holy, working with heavenly skills, stuff like blessings, holy conviction, salvation, stuff like that. Before I was done she interrupted and said she got it, then made quick adjustments and licked her tongue.

“Damn, I’m good,” she said, turning to see that the others were far ahead now. “Check it out, but let’s get moving before we’re left behind.”

“Thanks,” I said, agreeing and jogging along with her to catch up, but checking my screen at the same time. “Holy shit, you’re amazing.”

“Ah, holy shit—I forgot to include that one.” She winked, continuing on. 

I laughed. “Not sure I’d want to use it too often.”

The skills she had included, though sounded awesome. I had a whole new window of a skill tree that worked with the various powers I held from my interactions with my ladies. It included some pretty cool sounding ones, including one on the next level called Heavenly Blessing. I’d have to check them all out, but right now needed to remember to stay focused. 

I put away my screens when we reached the others, but another shout in the distance, then one closer, reminded me to have the scanner up. Good timing, too, because a name appeared for a brief moment, then was gone—Muerta. 

And then it was there again, closer… and then gone. 

“She’s moving on us,” I said, indicating the direction. “Muerta.”

The others turned toward the wall. Andromida glancing around for cameras or anyone watching, and then used her powers to peel the metal seams apart. 

“Wrong,” she told me. “We’re going for her.”