Crossing the forest, Levi came out in a quiet part of town. Faded old townhomes lined the streets. Here, only stumps showed where the overgrown trees from the forest had infiltrated the space, and the streets, though worn, remained patched. The houses bore scars of battle, both from age and the elements, and from monster and super battles. Boards covered a few windows, and one house’s siding was torn, while shutters showed gnaw marks from hungry beasts.

He glanced left and right, then hopped down from the forest. Turning back, Levi offered Fira a hand.

She hopped down on her own and looked around. “Where are we?”

“Almost there.” Levi bent and grabbed her hand, leading her toward a particularly abandoned-looking townhouse with a slanted roof, a distinct lean to it, five boarded window and one empty shattered one. He knocked a pattern on the door, and it swung open, revealing a dusty old hallway.

“Wait… shave and a haircut, two bits? That’s what you have to do to open that door?”

Levi glanced at Fira and grinned. “No. It’s got a retina scanner. But it’s cool, isn’t it?”

“No.”

He clicked his tongue. “No accounting for taste.”

She looked down. “Do we still have to hold hands?”

“Just a little longer. A little…” He walked into the townhouse, Fira close behind. The door swung shut behind them.

He drew to a halt atop a small, oval-shaped rug and drew Fira up beside him, then drew her over a little more, until both her feet were planted on the rug. “Please keep arms, hands, and legs inside the vehicle. If you are pregnant or have heart troubles, please do not ride this ride.”

“What?” Fira asked, and then the floor dropped out from under them.

Fira yelped and grabbed tight to Levi, hugging onto him with all her might. Fire flickered around her body.

“Whoa, whoa. Don’t immolate me. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!”

They dropped down onto a metal slope and swooshed down into darkness. The pipe twisted and turned, turning them about. Fira held on, but not as tightly.

At last, it spat them out onto a worn old mattress. Fira laid there for a moment, catching her breath.

“Hey, Levi. Quit rolling around in bed with your new girlfriend,” an old woman cackled.

Levi sat up before Fira even could. “Girlfriend? Tsk. I don’t believe in monogamous relationships.”

“You don’t?” Fira asked, lost.

Thumping over, an old woman with gray hair loomed over them. She’d layered tattered, grayed clothes under a stained old lab coat. One pants leg was bound up above the knee, so a robotic knee could operate without snagging the fabric. She gave Fira a look and snorted. “Only when he’s not in one.”

“Which is all the time.”

“But don’t think he’s in polygamous relationships. He’s the forever alone type.”

Levi clicked his tongue. “You’re ruining my mystique, Maury.”

“What mystique,” Maury grumbled, stomping away. Her robot leg whirred, knee freezing, and she cursed under her breath and shook it, stumping for a few steps before the knee caught again.

Fira sat there on the mattress for a moment, partially stunned, partially taking it all in. Before her, a natural cavern gaped, stalactites dripping toward stalagmites. Crammed in between the impressive natural features, strange machines of all shapes and sizes beeped, whirred, and groaned. Lights flashed, and buttons glittered. A large steel box boasted an array of vacuum tubes, while a big, round, bulky machine not unlike an MRI clunked along beside it.

Plastic curtains separated segments of the room, some more successfully than others. To the left, behind her, a messy bedroom, sink, and shower sat poorly hidden behind half-closed curtains, but to the right, beyond the first set of machines, thickly-layered curtains completely obscured the far end of the room. A half-finished set of robotic armor sat on a stand, the eyes glittering in green glass, a vicious blades of the same material sprouting from above each hand.

“What happened to that kid? The one who saved you, or whatever,” Maury called over her shoulder as she turned to one of the machines.

“Goes into surgery tomorrow. She’s got a good prognosis. Pretty likely to pull through,” Levi said, pushing to his feet and stretching.

Maury grunted. “Thought you said you were staying on the straight and narrow after that incident. That I’d only see you again if something terrible happened.”

“It did.”

Maury turned and squinted at him. “Kid’s fine, though.”

Levi gestured at himself. “To me.”

Pausing, Maury stared at him, dead-eyed. After a beat, she chuckled and turned back around. “Typical. Don’t mind me, by the way. I’m glad to see you back. The villain market is so thin nowadays that it makes me want to cry. It’s all idiots who wanna be the super mob, or at best, some megalomaniac who’s all ego and no flair. Where’s the TerraForms of the world, huh? The Splashers? The Ghost Boys?”

Fira froze. She looked at Levi. “You’re a villain?”

“I opened by killing a super. Did you miss that?” Levi asked, squinting at her. He offered her a hand up.

She stood on her own. “I—no, I guess… it makes sense, it’s just…”

“You didn’t see yourself as one of the baddies?” Levi chuckled. “Most baddies don’t. Welcome to the team.”

“We aren’t really baddies. We’re the people who dare oppose Alpha, that’s all,” Maury interjected.

“I mean, let’s not gloss over the killing-supers part of what we do, though,” Levi argued. “We serve the ultimate good of killing Alpha, but the means are pretty messy.”

“But since the supers of Central City serve Alpha and regularly participate in killings and ability hunts on Alpha’s call, is it morally reprehensible to kill them? When taking a life prevents the man you killed from taking a dozen more innocent lives, is it not the morally responsible thing to do, to take that life?”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Levi leaned toward Fira and mock-whispered, “She likes to think she’s a philosopher.”

Maury spat, grimacing. “Yuck. Don’t put that evil on me. I’m not half as pretentious.”

“If you kill a killer, there’s no fewer murderers in the world,” Fira recited.

Grinning, Levi shot her finger guns. “That’s why I don’t stop at one! Once you pop, you just can’t stop!”

“Shouldn’t bring math to moral arguments. The numbers don’t always work out in morality’s favor,” Maury grumbled, shaking her head. Her mechanical knee whirred, and she stomped her foot, letting the metal clank against the stone floor. “So what do ya want from this stiff?”

“Stiff?” Fira stood on her tiptoes, then went pale.

Jet Engine laid out on a plain steel table, exactly as he had on the floor of the apartment. His metal armor still cloaked his skin, the jet engine in his chest clogged with dirty laundry. Saws, chainsaws, forceps, scalpels, and the like sat all around the table’s periphery. A distinct dark brownish-red stain marred the downhill side of the table, where a drain let fluids into a hole drilled through the rock floor.

Fira stumbled back. She pressed her hands to her lips.

“Ah, right. The moral argument does kind of break down at the ‘tear him apart for bits’ point of this whole operation, huh?” Levi murmured.

“Utilitarianism. I’m making much more use of him than anyone would, chucking him into a graveyard and letting him rot,” Maury replied staunchly.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not Utilitarianism,” Levi replied.

“And I’m pretty sure I’m not a philosopher, so I don’t care.”

Fira shook her head. “I… I have to go.”

“Yeah. If you aren’t comfortable with us debating the best parts to chop off this guy, go hang out in Maury’s bedroom for a bit. Because, you know.” Levi shrugged apologetically. “That’s what’s about to happen.”

Fira nodded. She backed up, then retreated behind the plastic curtains.

Maury watched her go. She snorted. “Where’d you find that one?”

“Getting ability-hunted, believe it or not.”

“I do,” Maury interrupted. “She’s so fresh to Central City she’s probably still wet behind the ears.”

Levi laughed. “She’s from some kind of Exclusion Zone. Haven’t figured out which one, but—”

“Didn’t ask for her life story. What’s your game? Why are you hanging with a noob like that? She’ll get you in trouble sooner rather than later,” Maury warned.

Levi turned serious. He looked Maury in the eye. “Her brother has precognition, and he ran away to Central City.”

Maury froze. She stared at the body before her, completely still. Abruptly, she jumped back to life. “Fuck!”

“Yeah, right?”

“Precog? True precog? That’s… that shit was a legend until Alpha almost killed the entire Texas Conglomerate to absorb the Lone Star Saintess’ skill. She saw it coming and got the fuck out, and no one’s seen her for decades, or else we’d all be even more fucked than we are.”

“Yeah,” Levi said.

“But now you’re telling me, there’s a kid running around in Central City with precog?”

“Yep.”

Maury took a slow breath, steadying herself on the table. She shook her head, visibly bracing herself. “If Alpha gets precog, that’s almost as bad as him getting you.”

“Pretty much.”

Pressing her lips together, Maury waved her hand. “Right. Enough of that. You’re on the job, so you’ll figure it out.” She nodded at the body. “What do you want?”

“What’re the options?”

Maury picked up a long metal prod and tapped his chest. “Bio-mechanical jet engine. Could make it into a jetpack. Course, I’d love it for my personal project, but if you’re dead set, it’s your kill. Old rules still in effect: hunter gets first pick.”

Levi glanced at the half-finished armor on the rack, then shook his head. “I don’t need to fly. It’s way too flashy. You can have it.”

“Then there’s two options left.” She tapped Jet Engine’s head. “The armor itself. It’s kind of crappy for defense,” she tilted Jet Engine’s head to the side to show the dents Levi had bashed in it, “but it looks cool, it’s lightweight, and it’s better than no armor at all. Bonus, comes with a mask.”

“I could cosplay as Jet Engine,” Levi breathed.

Maury gave him a look.

He shook his head. “Nah. I mean, I could bash him apart with a piece of rebar. It’s only going to weigh me down.”

“Which leaves extracting his skills or ability points. Neither one is a hundred percent success rate, so you’re taking that risk. Skills are more likely to fail than abilities, but you know how reductive extracting ability points is. Real bad ratio.”

Levi crossed his arms, stepping back. “He was pretty much a hundred-percent-fly build. Speccing into fly is too dangerous this early. I’m still below the radar, and I want to take advantage of that for as long as possible. Until we get Fira’s brother well out of the city, if possible. I’ll go for ability points.”

“What then?”

“Huh? What am I going to invest them in? Isn’t it a bit early—”

Maury lifted her palm, stopping him short. “Once the kid’s out of dodge. What then? Are you back to playing at the quiet life? Or is the Levi I know back for good?”

Levi shrugged. “I didn’t think that far ahead. I’ll figure it out when I get there.”

Maury snorted. “Typical. Alright. I’ll see what I can do. Go entertain your girlfriend or whatever, but don’t get the sheets dirty.”

Levi tutted. “Maury, you’ll never get a boyfriend with a tongue like that.”

She looked at him over her glasses. “I divorced two husbands. Fuck that scene.”

Levi threw back his head, spreading his arms to the sky. “The VIBES!”

“But for real. Shoo.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll leave you to your skullduggery.”

Saluting, Levi backed away, then jogged over to Fira. He pushed the plastic sheet away and stepped inside. “Hey. How’s it going?”

Fira looked up. She nodded at him and took a shaky breath. “It’s just… a lot. Today has been a lot.”

“Yeah?” The mattress creaked as he sat beside her, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees.

Levi wrinkled is nose. The whole room smelled of old lady and dirty laundry, but old dirty laundry. Dust covered everything around them, the sheets crusty with it. A portrait laid face-down on the bedside table, alongside a pair of gold rings. Glancing over at Maury to make sure she was looking away, Levi casually pocketed the rings.

Staring at the floor, totally unaware of the theft, Fira shook her head. “I came to Central City, immediately got kidnapped, watched a murder happen, followed you here, and now you’re discussing dismembering a body to power yourself up… it’s been a lot.”

“It’s basically the same thing we do to monsters. I mean, once something’s dead, a body’s a body,” Levi reasoned.

A drill powered up across the room. Through the gaps in the flimsy plastic sheet, Levi saw Maury’s shoulders hunch, and then the sound of metal grinding on metal rattled through the space.

Fira’s hands tensed. She pushed her hands at the air, as if she could silence him with that—or perhaps, silence the horrible grinding from the next room over. “Could you just… not, right now?”

“Sure. Notting as hard as I can.”

She shook her head. “After all that, I still have no idea where my brother is, and the only people who have helped me this whole time call themselves villains and are currently dismembering a body. What the fuck. I… I just need a minute. A minute to think. To process.”

Levi checked his watch. “Fifty nine… fifty eight…”

“Now isn’t the time.”

“It’s always the time. Time is immutable and unchanging. If it is ever the time, then it must always be the time.”

Fira’s hands tensed in a neck-strangling kind of gesture.

Levi jumped up. “I get it! I’m a lot, things are a lot, it’s a bad combo. You want food? I can cook something.”

Fira glanced at him. “Is the kitchen near the dismembering table?”

“What? No. Don’t be ridiculous. We’re many things, but we’re not cannibals. Can you imagine? Eating people.” Levi’s face twisted, and he shook his head. “Eggs? I can do eggs.”

“Please. Anything. I haven’t eaten since this morning,” Fira confessed.

“Saaaame. I almost had a whole set of groceries, but then Jet Engine happened, so I haven’t eaten at all.” He bounced to his feet.

“Wait.”

Levi turned.

Fira sat up, steeling herself. “You’ll help me find my brother?”

He thumped his fist on his chest. “I’d die to find your brother.”

She nodded. Her eyes dipped, and her fingers knitted together. She said no more.

Levi paused for a moment, then let the sheet drop. “Yo Maury! Where’s the stove?”

“Where do you think? Upstairs!” Maury called, shouting over the sound of the drill.

Saluting to her back, Levi scurried toward a door in the wall. He opened it and ascended a set of twisting stairs.

The drill spun down. Maury popped her glasses up and took a breather. She hauled back and shouted, “Whatever you’re making, make some for me!”

Incomprehensible shouts echoed out of the door Levi had vanished into.

“There were stairs the whole time?” Fira muttered to herself.

Maury glanced at her. “Levi’s the one who installed the slide in the first place.”

Despite herself, Fira cracked a smile. She shook her head. “Figures.”