I glanced over the day's mail before vaporising it. Most people would use a shredder, but most people couldn't shoot lightning bolts. I'm pretty sure that wasn't what I was supposed to do with them, but when you have a toy like that, it's hard to resist the urge to zap things.

It had been yet another proposition from some foreign country I'd barely heard of, promising me all the riches I could dream of for emigrating. It wasn't as if I had any loyalty to Lecolie in particular, scum pit that it was, but given that no other country seemed any better, there didn't seem any point in moving. It wasn't as if I needed people to offer me riches. If I wanted them, I could just go and take them. That was the problem, really; in the eyes of our foreign neighbours, I was essentially a weapon of mass destruction. If I decided to go for a stroll one day and wipe out a few of their cities, no-one could stop me. I wouldn't, of course, but the simple fact that I could was enough to scare people.

Fortunately, people were sticking to bribery instead of threats these days. Gronorlie had tried a threat once. I'd heard they'd built a memorial where their senate building used to be, although I wasn't entirely sure what it was a memorial to. Stupidity, possibly.

"Morning Lily," called Ben as he ran past to grab his breakfast.

"Late as usual," I commented, looking at the clock.

"Of course; if I was on time, I wouldn't have an excuse to ask you for a lift."

"I'm not your personal taxi service. That's the job of parents, not sisters."

"And when mum learns to fly, I'll be happy to let her take on the job."

I sighed as I pondered how to convince Ben to stop abusing his flight privileges. It didn't help that he was objectively correct; flying was the best. Maybe I should make him wear a fluorescent jacket and safety helmet? That should be sufficiently embarrassing for him to cut down, shouldn't it? I certainly wouldn't have wanted to at his age.

"Okay, let's go," he called, a piece of toast still in hand.

"Don't you dare get crumbs in my fur," I muttered, following him up the stairs and out onto our roof. We'd moved house a few years back, using all the money I'd earned from carrying satellites into space to adapt the place to my unique needs. Back when I'd been wondering what my career options would look like, I was completely stuck on my offensive abilities, despite the fact that I really didn't want to join the military. I'd assumed some sort of police special ops. Biological satellite launcher hadn't even crossed my mind, but it was obvious in retrospect. I have gravity defying supernatural abilities, and can survive in a freezing vacuum. Rockets are expensive. Admittedly, I can never get the orbit quite right, so they do still need smaller positioning rockets, but I can do all the heavy lifting.

Taking off from what looked very much like a small helipad, unless you were in on the joke that in this case the big painted H stood for harpy, we were soon on our way to Ben's school. "Stop by Jenny's place," he called over the whistling wind. "I promised her a lift."

"..." I replied, letting my silence do the talking.

"You know you're going to anyway, so don't pout," he said. One day I'm seriously going to tear his head off, I thought to myself for the tenth time this week. Yes, one day, I confirmed as I changed direction. Give me a murderer or a rapist and I could quite happily torture them for days, yet for some reason I was complete putty in the hands of this sixteen-year-old. Maybe there was another level above harpy queen, the monster king or something, and I was subconsciously compelled to obey him?

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Fortunately, Jenny was a lot more polite, and I really didn't mind picking her up. On the other hand, she really didn't enjoy unsecured flight as much as Ben did, and if I'd known we were picking her up, I'd have brought a harness for her. Doubtless Ben had waited until we were in the air before mentioning it for exactly that reason.

I ended up reaching their school with one student clinging to each leg, dropping them off for the day, Ben pulling a gloating face at the half of the students who were looking on jealously. The other half were shuddering, or looking at Jenny with pity. Unwilling to let him completely off the hook, I gave Ben a quick zap.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed. "What was that for?"

"Being mean to Jenny," I answered, giggling at his sudden afro. "See you later," I added to them both as I took back off. Why Jenny was dating the idiot, I had no idea, but she seemed happy.

My dating opportunities were rather more limited, being completely asexual. Disturbingly, there had been... volunteers. People wanting to join my flock in a rather more literal sense than my family. I could have had children, of a sort. I turned them all down though; I'd made it a mission of mine to burn corpses of the originals wherever I found them, and to exterminate with extreme prejudice anyone who attempted to replicate Maximilian or Grant's research. This world had enough monsters in it already, albeit wearing the skin of humans. There was no need to manufacture any more.

I'd destroyed the B site too for the same reason, after relocating the mana extracting equipment to the basement of our new house. The tubes were currently occupied by pulsating lumps of raw flesh, the researchers having made some progress on editing humans out of the equation before their mutagen-induced loyalty wore off and I'd had to kill them all. It wasn't as if I had any complaints about using people, but mum did, and she wouldn't have let me put them in the basement otherwise.

Why she got to veto what was put in the basement when I was the one who paid for this place, I had no idea. Yet another case of me being soft on family. Was everyone in my family a damn monster tamer?

I flew freely in the morning sky, watching the activity below. The city was still a cesspit of horrific proportions, but at least people knew better than to touch me and mine now. Selfish as it was, that was all I really wanted. A safe little bubble to live in, giving as little thought as possible to those on the outside.

Which wasn't to say no thought. I spotted some sort of attack going on in a back alley and dropped down to eavesdropping height. I'd quickly learnt that if I was going to play superhero, it was important to make sure I joined in on the correct side. It turns out that harmless-looking little old biddies can in fact be muggers, much to my astonishment.

This case turned out to be far simpler. A pair of young women were of the opinion that they would quite like to keep their clothes on. Four young men, all with knives drawn, disagreed. Once again, I wondered which I hated more; the men in this alley, or the constant stream of people walking past the turning, glancing towards the screams and then hurrying on, pretending they'd heard nothing.

Well, I wouldn't do that at least. Besides, I hadn't murdered anyone in days, and my claws were starting to itch. I dropped lightly to the ground behind my prey, giving a little bow to the now silent victims.

"Oh, finally shut up, have you?" said one of the men, wearing a disgusting leer. "You know no-one's coming to rescue you. However much the media try to scare people straight with tales of mythological monsters, that's not the way the real world works."

That stopped me dead, with a claw practically touching the back of my first victim. "Wait, you don't believe I exist?" I asked. It's not like I do public appearances, but still... I'm hardly a secret. I fly around pretty openly. I've just dropped off kids at school! This is my mobile phone shopping trip all over again.

The four men turned around, and very quickly started to believe in my existence. In the background, one of the girls started laughing while the other turned away and threw up. Ever since my first heroic rescue, I've never stopped traumatising my rescuees, and I doubt I ever will.