"Computer, show me a satellite view of downtown," I said as I hit the click button again and my suit materialized around me.

That was the sort of thing that would've gone without saying back when I had CORVAC at my side.

I had to do this the old-fashioned way. I used eye motions on my visor to zoom in on areas of interest. Finally I had to resort to using my hands, as though I was playing with a baby toy and not hacking into one of the most advanced surveillance apparatuses society had ever known.

The only reason I hadn't launched my own shit, which would've been more advanced by nature of me creating it, was because the government stuff was good enough for government work. Literally. It wasn't worth the cost of reinventing the wheel.

"Damn," I muttered. "Those robots are playing for keeps today."

"What are you talking about?" Selena asked.

Something that looked very much like the giant radio tower that sat on top of the iconic Thomas building came flying through the air. Well, I guess it was the giant radio tower that used to sit on top of the iconic Thomas building now.

It would've landed right on top of us, but I held my wrist blaster up and disintegrated the damn thing.

"Someone's throwing things at us!" Selena shouted, ducking and covering.

I gave her an odd look. "I can remember a time not so long ago when that wouldn't have freaked you out nearly as much as it just did."

"Yeah, well you're the one who's been going on about how I should make peace with the fact I don't have my powers anymore, so don't complain when I act like I don't have my powers anymore."

I shrugged. The woman made a good point. I figured reacting with terror at the loss of her powers rather than depression was a step in the right direction.

Something went screeching through the air. I watched on the overhead display from one of my drones as what could only be a missile from some jet several hundred miles away came tearing into the city. It ricocheted off of a building at the last moment, but the resulting explosion did hit one of the robots with a glancing blow.

Not enough to destroy the thing considering how tough they'd been when we…

I frowned. And threw myself over Selena as the concussion from the robot going up rocked our part of the city. It shook and rattled windows all around us, but we were high enough that it didn't hurt us.

"What the hell was that?" she breathed, and then I realized we were in a bit of a precarious situation because I'd reacted to save her without thinking.

I'd landed right on top of her. She was breathing heavily, and I couldn't tell whether that was because I was on top of her, or because she'd just been saved from certain doom.

I certainly knew why I was breathing heavily, and it had nothing to do with fighting off giant robots which, to be perfectly honest, was another day at the office for me.

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 hated this. I try to save a girl and then suddenly I find myself on top of her feeling as awkward as I had at middle school dances years ago. But what a good awkward feeling it was.

And for a surprise, she leaned up and kissed me.

"I know you're trying to show me the perfect date night here," she said. "And being here with you is incredible, but…"

"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.

"You're a smart woman," she said. "I knew there was a reason you're the number one villain in the world. Even if you're right and you're going to have to do something heroic here tonight."

Now it was my turn to lean down and give her a kiss. A thorough kiss that had both of us distracted from the city-destroying robots.

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

"You know what you need to do," she said. "Go out there and be the hero I know you can be. The hero I can't be right now."

I sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say something like that."

She grinned. "You know what you need to do to impress the girl, so what are you waiting for?"

I got up. Being a hero because it was the right thing to do made my stomach turn. Being a hero because it impressed the pretty girl and might get me laid was much better motivation.

I looked at the drone feed and the satellite picture. I frowned. The satellite I'd been using had passed beyond Starlight City while I was canoodling with Fialux.

CORVAC would've known to switch to another satellite without asking. Now here I was having to do it the old fashioned way myself.

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Luckily the government kept multiple satellites over Starlight City so they could monitor all the superpowered shenanigans. If there's a wasp in the room you want to keep an eye on it, and if there was a city that was oddly predisposed to super powered throwdowns the government wanted to make sure they had eyes in the sky and on the ground.

Even if traditionally they'd washed their hands of the place at the federal level. As long as the superpowered shenanigans didn't spill too far over the city's borders.

"I count four robots still out there," I said.

Something came screaming into the city again. Moving fast enough that I could barely see it as a shining point of light on the satellite feed, and it was too fast for the drones. Thankfully there was radar to keep an eye on things that moved that fast.

I frowned. Missiles shouldn't look like shining points of light. There should be a small infrared signature from the exhaust trail, but that's it.

And this thing, well, it was moving like one of my antigrav missiles.

"Goddamn Dr. Lana and her goddamn motherfucking Applied Sciences Department!" I screamed, but the scream was lost in the noise and destruction as the antigrav missile slammed into one of the robots and it exploded spectacularly. Though the explosion wasn't enough to take the robot out of the running.

I frowned. What the hell was going on here?

"Correction," I said. "We have three and a half bogeys out there now. Uncle Sam just got a hit on one, but it didn't take it out."

Selena looked up in the sky.

"Uncle Sam? But I don't see any jets or tanks or anything out there."

I grimaced. "It's a common misconception people have from watching too many Japanese kaiju movies where fighter jets fly within claw length of a monster. It looks impressive in the movies, but that's not how air-to-monster combat works."

"It isn't?" she asked. "But these are robots, not giant monsters. Why couldn't it be a giant irradiated lizard? Those things are awesome!"

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

"So where are those missiles coming from?" she asked.

"Jets can fire on a target from hundreds of miles away and hit a target with pinpoint precision these days. What's the point of flying within arm's length of a giant death robot or irradiated lizard if you can hit it from hundreds of miles away in the comfort of your padded air conditioned cockpit? There's no question that's well out of these things' reach."

Which again begged the question why these things didn't have more advanced weaponry that would allow them to fire on the distant objects that would inevitably pester them.

Was Dr. Lana deliberately setting up a turkey shoot? She had been annoyed when I interrupted her last "demonstration," so maybe there was something to that.

When I sent CORVAC out in that robotic monstrosity he'd been armed to the teeth. He would've been the belle of the maniacal death robot ball if it weren't for the fact that Fialux and I had come along to ruin his fun.

Maybe Dr. Lana was pulling her robotic punches because she wanted to let the military types think whatever she'd ripped off from me and sold them was way more effective than it actually was. It was a clever gambit.

I was also going to give her the business end of a disintegrator ray the next time I saw her for using the city as a practical demonstration in her advanced weapons sales pitch.

No. The disintegrator was too good for that woman. I was going to figure out all sorts of fun ways to test out my weaponry on her and figure out the limits of her miraculous healing. I was going to…

I was interrupted by a clanging. Not good. Then a familiar someone swooped out over the building and grinned down at us.

"Why Night Terror!" Dr. Lana cackled. "And Selena, but of course you'd be with your new friend wouldn't you?"

Selena looked at me and then up to Dr. Lana. She tensed as though she was about to do something stupid like rely on powers she didn't have to take a flying leap at the good doctor, but I put a hand on her arm.

She turned to me and I shook my head. She didn't have anything to help her fight. Sure I could transport her suit around her, but I didn't want Dr. Lana to know she was using a suit to fly around these days.

"Don't worry dear," Dr. Lana said. "Your secret is safe with me, but I will be needing to take you back to my lab to figure out why my favorite invention didn't work on you. I'm just glad I happened to notice the signature of someone wearing a teleporter and now here I find the two of you! What a happy surprise!"

It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about. Her favorite invention. That gun. She had to be talking about that gun. And it was back at her lab.

I'd have to pay her a visit in full force, but it obviously wasn't going to be today. No, I had bigger problems than trying to figure out how she used that gun to rob Fialux of her powers.

I wasn't even all that curious as to how she knew Selena's real name. The lady worked for the university and Selena was a student. It didn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to figure out how she'd figured that out, even if it did grate that she just dropped a bomb like that when it took me weeks of research with CORVAC's assistance for me to figure it out.

What I was curious about was all that nonsense about tracking a teleporter. Sure I had a small unit attached to me, never leave home without it, but that was something I'd miniaturized well after I left the Applied Sciences Department.

How did she know about that, let alone know how to track it? Not that I had much time to think about that before a giant metal hand appeared over the building's edge.

The hand slammed down on the beautiful metal fence that had kept people from accidentally plunging to their deaths for nearly a century. Though there were a few ghost tours that spoke of people who still haunted the Skyhigh because that fence wasn't nearly tall enough to stop someone who was determined.

Given the clientele, that fence had seen a lot of action back in the late twenties on a certain Tuesday that had a lot of rich people who suddenly found themselves not-so-rich practicing their swan dives.

The robot reached out and grabbed at Selena, and of course she didn't give any resistance because what could she do? She didn't have her suit on. I should've teleported the damn thing onto her. Better she had a way to get away from that thing than be stuck in the clutches of Dr. Lana and one of her robots.

Selena's eyes went wide as she realized what was going on. Her mouth opened and she let out a shriek that was very unheroic, but given the change in her circumstances I could hardly fault her for it.

"Natalie! Save me!"

Then the robot was gone. Its head moved down and its hand pulled Selena along with like a giant robotic King Kong, only the asshole was stealing my girl. Dr. Lana gave me a little wave and a smile and then she was gone too.

I sprinted to the edge and watched the robot climb down the building. It wasn't doing it with any sense of finesse or style either. No, it was just shoving its hands into the building to get a handhold or foothold as it moved down. The thing didn't even bother using the holes it'd already created on the way up.

I tried to activate a remote teleportation to get her out of there. Nothing happened. I tried to teleport a super suit onto her. Again, nothing happened. Like Dr. Lana had figured out how to interrupt my teleportation signal on top of figuring out how to track it.

Son of a bitch.

I should've known Dr. Lana knew we were here. Why else would the robots target this building in particular?

"Damn it Selena! Villains don't save heroes!" I growled.

Only that's exactly what I was about to do. I held up my wrist blaster and gave it a little kiss for good luck. It was going to get a good workout by the time this was all done.

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

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