"I don't know," she said. "After all. Don't we have a lot of important training to do around here?"

I blinked. Now she was talking about training? Of course this would be the moment she finally got a work ethic when it came to her training and…

"I know exactly what you're doing," I said.

"Do you now?" she asked. "Because I have no idea. My teacher has always stressed how important it is to make sure I apply myself in my training. After all, it's not like using your toys is anything like back when I had my powers. It's so totally different that I need plenty of practice and…"

Whatever she was about to say disappeared in a surprised "oh!" as I pulled her down to kiss me.

There was a brief moment where I wondered if she might not take this as an opportunity to do a little more on the ground grappling, but no. Her mouth opened to mine and I sighed in contentment.

There really was nothing quite as wonderful as feeling Selena molding to my body. Feeling her hand starting to run up and down in very interesting places and ways.

There'd been a few times when our training had ended with a distraction like this. More than a few times, if I'm being honest. Enough times that I'd had to put an end to it, much to her frustration. So I could see why she'd decided to have a little bit of fun at my expense even if it was frustrating.

I really should have been training her. But it was just too tempting. She was so hot. I couldn't resist and…

The distant wail of sirens brought me back to reality. It brought Selena back as well. There was still that pesky heroic impulse buried deep inside her that stopped her from doing just about anything when she heard the sound of trouble somewhere out in the city.

"Is that?"

"What?" I asked, maybe a touch defensive.

"We're buried deep under the suburbs," she said. "How are we hearing the giant thing attacking the city sirens all the way down here?"

I blushed, and that blush had nothing to do with what we'd just been doing. No, it had everything to do with the exact reason why those sirens were being pumped down here into the flight training room.

"Maybe I told the computer to pump that sound into whatever room I happen to be in so I know when there's something going on in the city," I said.

It was a crude approximation of the warning system I'd had in place when I was with CORVAC. He'd known to watch all the news channels and figure out when there was something worth my attention.

Unfortunately, this new AI didn't quite have the smarts to pull something like that off. Mostly because I was afraid to take off the training wheels on this one because I was terrified once I did it was going to use the considerable power that came with being an artificial intelligence attached to my lab to wreak havoc on the world just like the last one had.

"Why Night Terror," she said, lapsing into calling me by my villainous name like she always did whenever we were talking about business. "That seems downright heroic of you."

"It's more of a distraction than anything," I said. "My old computer could tell me whenever there was trouble that was worth my attention. Now I have to listen to those damn sirens and have a look at whatever's going on in the city every time they go off. Talk about frustrating."

"You poor thing," Fialux said, her tone indicating she didn't have nearly as much sympathy for my plight as her words might indicate.

"Yeah, well you should be annoyed too. After all, it's taking away from valuable training time."

She blushed, and then she rolled off of me. Damn. I guess it was true. I really wasn't going to get the "training time" I'd been hoping for. Stupid cockblocking emergency sirens. Not that I had a cock to block, but I wasn't aware of a similar vulgar phrase that used lady parts.

Oh well. I guess it wasn't the end of the world. Even if most of my body, every nerve ending that had been attached to her, was screaming that it was very much a problem thank you very much.

"Come on," I said. "It's time for Night Terror and the Heroic Wonder to figure out what's attacking the city."

"The Heroic Wonder?" she asked, both of her eyebrows shooting up.

"I'm workshopping sidekick names," I said. "What do you think of that one?"

Stolen novel; please report.

"It's totally dumb," Fialux said. "And besides. If anyone is the sidekick it's you. Not me."

I turned and arched an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure about that?" I asked. "Because last time I checked you were the one who was only still doing your heroics because of my technology. That screams sidekick. Maybe you'll take over for me someday, or maybe you'll get all dark and brooding and separate from me after we have a falling out. Isn't that how it usually goes with you heroic types who have sidekicks?"

"So you're finally admitting you're a hero type?" she asked.

I rolled my eyes.

"Don't go getting any ideas about my motivations."

I really didn't want her getting too many ideas about my motivations considering there were times when the only motivation that had me doing outright heroic things was lust coupled with the desire to avoid an argument with her when we got back to the lab.

"And why shouldn't I?" she asked.

"Think about those bank robbers we faced down. They thought they knew my motivations, and at least one of them got vaporized for their trouble."

I dropped that deliberately to test her. She hadn't been a fan of me vaporizing anybody, but for a surprise she just cocked her head to the side and nodded with understanding.

Damn. I could get used to this new, more bloodthirsty Fialux. Even if it took Dr. Lana robbing her of her powers and pushing her around until she'd finally reached a breaking point.

That was a dangerous place to be, but as long as she was on the angry and vengeful side of that coin rather than being on the mopey, sad, and depressed side of that coin? I'd take it.

I really didn't want to have to rebuild more of my precious cleaning robots. Talk about a pain in the ass since that was something delicate enough that I didn't trust it to the autofabricator.

"Come on, Heroic Wonder," I said. "We need to save the city."

We needed to get out there and see if there was another giant irradiated lizard attacking the city. Or if there was a mysterious hero in a full face mask who'd show up to fight the thing.

If it was a giant lizard that was one more bit of evidence pointing to a wannabe villain I knew all too well who tended to repeat the same uninspired plots over and over again, only bigger each time.

I called it the Rita Repulsa gambit. It never worked, but a plan not working had never stopped Dr. Lana from trying it.

"You know how much I love it when you get all heroic," she said.

I didn't need her to tell me how she got when I got all "heroic." The way she looked at me as she contemplated me going out to save the city was distracting. A distraction was the last thing I needed right about now. Not when there was probably something attacking the city as part of some plot so ridiculously stupid that I was way too smart to figure it out without going out there and springing whatever trap we were obviously flying into.

I'm probably starting sound like a hell of a broken record whenever I bring this up, but thoughts of CORVAC drifted through my head. Particularly thoughts of how much easier life had been when he was around. The bastard. Why did he have to betray me?

For that matter, where the hell was he? I knew he was out there somewhere. Was he the one attacking the city?

I tried to get up. It was time to get to work. Only Fialux had other ideas. Her hand flashed out and she hit a couple of buttons on my wrist computer. She pushed me back down like she was a giant cat playing with a helpless little mouse. And that sent a little bit of a thrill running through me.

Huh. I never knew that was the sort of thing I'd be into, but now that she'd hit on it…

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked. "I'd think you of all people would be the most eager to get out there and save the damn city."

"Oh, I am," she said. "But first, I was thinking a little bit of fun is in order. After all, in this business you never know when a mission might be your last…"

Then she was on me. Her lips pressed against mine. It was a hungry sort of kiss. We're not talking the kind of gentle, passionate kiss you see in, say, a romantic movie that's supposed to get everyone in the audience so hot and bothered that they go home and pour some of that energy into their significant other.

No, this was pure hunger. Pure lust. Her mouth opened to mine. Her tongue pressed into my mouth. I moaned as her hands ran up and down my body. I was just about ready to say fuck the city. They'd laughed at me enough times that I really didn't care if they were left high and dry.

Her hand moved down. Started to move past my waist. Down to where I knew there was nothing that could save the city because I wasn't going to be able to resist her. But she stopped just before the ultimate goal. She smiled.

"What the hell?" I asked, frustrated at her stopping just when things were getting good.

She grinned and wagged a finger.

"Naughty girl," she said. "Taking your own pleasure ahead of saving all those poor people."

I let my head fall back. And winced. The antigrav was set to a sensitivity that stopped someone who was careening across the room at a high speed. The sort of thing that would happen if we were in the middle of training.

It wasn't designed to stop an idiot from, say, slamming her head against the ground. The force involved in that wasn't enough to even tickle the antigrav sensors. Stars danced in front of my vision, and it had nothing to do with the epic makeout session I'd just been enjoying with the Heroic Wonder.

"So you're saying I go out there and save the city, give it my all, and we come back and do more of this?"

She winked. "It looks like my little experiment in positive reinforcement is working better than I ever could have hoped."

I stuck my tongue out. It was the least she deserved for taking my first love, science, and trying to turn it against me. Then again, if that was the kind of positive reinforcement she planned on using then I was more than happy to be a rat in a maze. Because what she had to offer was a hell of a lot more compelling than a food pellet.

"Now come on," she said. "We have some heroics to do."

"Right," I grumbled, climbing to my elbow and then getting to my feet. "You know, you're lucky. I was just about to really turn up the intensity on your training."

"Sure you were," she said. "Now let's get your cute ass in gear. There's a city to save!"

I kept right on grumbling as I ran a check on everything and undid the button presses she'd just pulled to render me helpless. It was time to head out into the city and see just how much she'd learned while I was training her.

I just hoped I wasn't going to end up regretting it like I had every other time I'd set her loose on the city lately.

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