"Seriously, you were so fucking amazing!"

I leaned over my computer. The good old fashioned non-intelligent computer that couldn't do anything worthwhile. The computer that had been part of the reason I had so much difficulty fighting off Dr. Lana in this most recent fight.

But this computer hadn't tried to kill me. And I was pretty sure the computer who'd tried to kill me had just saved my life.

Talk about a confusing world that had turned itself upside down a couple of different times in the past half a year. It was getting exhausting.

"I mean the way you lured her back here, and…"

Selena was still pumped from our fight. I was surprised she was this psyched over that battle. I was really surprised she was this excited over me luring someone back to my dummy lab so all the failsafes I'd put in place could kill her.

Even though I didn't believe she was truly dead. No, I had a feeling she was out there in a Starlight City landfill slowly pulling herself back together. The fact that I'd gone out to the coordinates the computer transported her to and found nothing there only strengthened that thought.

That could've been that the trash was constantly being moved around by the fine sanitation workers of this city, or it could be that my archnemesis was still out there biding her time healing up to come at me again.

I hoped it hurt. A lot.

I sighed. "Okay, so I did good today. You don't have to gush about it so much."

"Are you kidding?" Fialux asked.

She pointed to a monitor up on the wall that was playing the Starlight City News Network feed over and over. I'd muted it, but the captioning was still on.

"That crap?" I asked. "I just leave it on so I can tell when someone's attacking the city. It's not like they ever have anything good to say about me. Other than the time you and I saved the day, but that was mostly for you."

"Are you sure about that?" she asked.

She tapped a button on the remote, and the anchorwoman's voice filled the room. Though it might be more accurate to call her an anchor girl. She looked young. Like fresh out of college young. And familiar.

"To recap tonight's top story. Noted villain Night Terror took a heroic turn yet again, saving the city from giant robots and a mysterious new villain. It's theorized this new villain, not Night Terror, is the one responsible for these attacks."

She paused and turned to smile at the camera. It was a small secret smile.

"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."

She winked, and I realized why she looked familiar. She was from my class. I guess pushing for that drone program got her a big old promotion to the big desk. I had a feeling when she thanked me she wasn't just talking about fighting off the robots.

"Finally some recognition," I said.

"See. I knew you had a heroic streak in you."

Fialux wrapped her arms around me and distracted me with a kiss. "Everyone in the city agrees! You were fucking amazing! I mean I knew I liked watching you in action, but this…"

I'd seen something like this before. It was at a nerd convention at the Starlight City convention center. A young girl in middle school who was way too smart with all the social awkwardness that went along with it was gushing to Valerie Vaughn.

Valerie's line hadn't been nearly as long as the line for Carol Connor, the lady who played Stargirl in the eponymous TV show that vaulted both ladies to fame.

No one ever liked the villain as much. At least not back then. No one had posters of the villain up in their bedroom. No one imagined what it would be like when they grew up and followed in the villain's footsteps to take over the world. Though admittedly my attempts to take over the world involved things that looked a lot more realistic than the rubber and plastic monsters she regularly threw at Stargirl in the series.

No one but that awkward little girl who saw something in Valerie's performance no one else did. Something to aspire to.

So yeah. Maybe I'd been gushing a little at one of my favorite stars. So what? Maybe Valerie had also had some trouble finding work outside of the con circuit because she'd been typecast. Maybe I sent her a nice anonymous pension to help her pay the bills every month as she got on in years.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

No big deal. Just me being me. 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?

The point is I'd heard the voice Fialux was using on me now because I'd used that voice on one of my favorite stars ever. It was nice hearing that voice from Fialux. Even if it did feel a little weird.

She was my girlfriend, after all. She was a famous hero in her own right. Having her gushing about what I'd done felt off.

"I mean the way you swooped down there and used their momentum against them! I would've floated there and took the hit, but when I had my powers I could get away with that sort of thing."

I suppose it was a good thing she was able to talk about losing her powers without completely losing it. That was progress from where we'd been, say, earlier this morning.

I guess going out and saving the city had done more for her than any amount of dancing ever could. Even if it had resulted in her getting kidnapped and nearly killed.

I hunched over my computer and tried to push thoughts of what might've happened to Fialux away. I tried pushing thoughts of what she was doing right now away, because talk about a distraction. I could feel her breath on my ear, and I was trying to work here.

I was reviewing footage taken by my surveillance network downtown during the fight. Particularly footage of a series of rapid hand gestures the robot who saved me made before it sacrificed itself and saved my life. I'd had my eyes closed for the hand gestures, but it had to know I'd be watching the replay at some point.

There was something to that. Something that tickled the back of my mind. Something that…

"Natalie?" Fialux asked, her voice suddenly quiet.

I mumbled something that I hoped would lead her to believe I was paying attention to whatever she was saying.

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.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," I said. "It's just that one of those robots saved me today. That's the only reason I'm still alive now. If it weren't for that robot you'd still be rotting in my dummy lab watching the cable feed while you slowly starved because I'm an idiot who never planned on dying before I got someone out of there, so you owe that robot your life too."

She was suddenly all serious. Which admittedly was a little frustrating. Maybe there'd been a small part of me that'd hoped she'd go ahead and push the whole canoodling thing she'd been working up to, but then she was beside me looking at the same readout.

"You're serious?" she asked, then she got a good look at my face. "Natalie. You look like you've seen a ghost or something."

"Because I have," I said.

She looked back at the screen. I'd slowed down the video so I could get a good look at what the robot had been doing with its hands while I had my eyes squeezed shut to avoid looking at the inevitable. Now that I'd slowed it down I knew exactly what it was.

A message.

"What's that robot doing?" she asked.

"Using sign language," I said. "At least he's signing letters. Crude, but if you go fast enough it gets the message across, and he can move his hands very fast."

"He?" she asked, obviously confused. "Why would you think the robot is a he? I mean robots don't really have gender so…"

"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.

"Why do I feel like you're not telling me something?" she asked.

"Here. Let me spell it out for you," I said.

I went through the slow motion sign language letters one more time. Fialux only looked more and more confused, but I could understand that. It'd taken me a couple of passes to realize what was going on. The robot only had three fingers on its hand which made it a little more difficult to figure out what it was saying.

"I still don't get it," she 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 when I reviewed the fight, which I always do. It would get me to take a second look."

I finished writing out the message on a sheet of paper. What I saw there chilled my blood even more now that I was looking at it in writing rather than simply translating it in my head.

I'd had the hots for a deaf girl back in high school. So sue me. Which hadn't worked out romantically back then, but it helped me now.

"That's impossible," Fialux breathed.

"Come on, Fialux," I said, reaching out and rubbing her shoulders. "You of all people should appreciate how often heroes and villains get second chances in this city."

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.

I figured it was nice to have something that was a warning to all enemies in a front lobby. Anyone who got there couldn't mean any good for me, after all, and a friendly reminder of what'd happened to anyone else who dared cross me couldn't hurt.

The message was plain as day written out.

"SAVE ME MISTRESS."

"What are you going to do?" Fialux asked.

I sighed. I should've ignored the message. I should've left well enough alone. He'd tried to kill me, but he'd also saved me.

"Dr. Lana is holding an old friend captive," I said. "So I guess that means we're going to have to go and save him."

A lot of the stuff she was able to reverse engineer so quickly was making a lot more sense now.

"Mm," Fialux said, her fingers dancing up my arm and setting goose bumps rising all over me. "You know how much I love it when you get all heroic."

"I'm still a villain at heart," I replied, though I wasn't sure how much I believed that these days. "And it's not like I'm saving him out of the goodness of my heart."

"Oh?"

Maybe that was part of it. I was worried. I didn't want to look worried, though.

"At the very least I need to save him so she stops picking his brain to steal my designs," I muttered.

"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.

They'd be waiting for me when we finally came up for air, but with Fialux by my side I could do anything. Even rescue my former partner-in-crime turned enemy from my current archnemesis who may or may not be dead.

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!

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