When watching the news, you often felt distanced from what was happening. A house burning down was horrible, but it wasn’t like it was your house that burned down.

Similarly, if you saw news about a villain moving into your city, you shrugged, maybe felt a little annoyed, but that was the end of the story. It wasn’t like you had to face them, after all.

Well, not if you were neck deep in the super matters already.

Maybe I should have paid closer attention to this.

“Fox?! What’s happening?! Were you attacked?!” came through my communicator.

“Shadeskip,” I answered.

Which, once again, the voice modulator turned into something that apparently got misinterpreted as a scrutinizing taunt by the villain in front of me.

“That’s me…” he carefully said.

In the meantime, my boss was talking at the comms as well. “Dammit, so he came back for it? Alright, I’m coming in for a backup! Hang in there!”

“And who might you be? Fissure’s daughter?” the villain continued.

I almost choked at that. Thanks to the voice modulator though, it came out as a dark chuckle.

“What? Why would you say that?”

“Well… menacing, all armored up, and… you know, in the middle of his workshop.”

“Well, no. I’m not his daughter!”

“Alright, then… niece? Granddaughter? Wife?”

Oh my god! What the heck was wrong with these guesses?

Also, why did I feel oddly pleased with the idea of being someone’s wife? Get a grip, me!

“No, I’m… Princess Fox. I’m, uh… a villain?” At this point, I was, wasn’t I?

“You’re asking me…?”

Argh, I was making an idiot out of myself again! Not even the almighty voice modulator could beat my dumbassness!

“Well, nice to have met you… Princess Fox. I’m just gonna take this back and be on my way then.”

The teleporter reached for the stone.

I panicked, seeing the objective of this entire mission was about to be taken away right in front of me.

“Wait!”

The villain stopped once again as the grip on his weapon tightened. “Yeah…?”

My thoughts were spinning at lightspeed as I tried to think of something to somehow not let him steal it while also not murdering me.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Uhm… what is that, anyway?” I pointed at the stone.

Shadeskip glanced at the stone and then back at me. “Are you sure you want to know…?”

Well, that was just ominous.

“Sure?” I said with a gulp, which was conveniently filtered out by the voice modulator.

“It’s dragon poop.”

…

“What.”

I stared at the villain in front of me trying to figure out what I’d just heard.

Dragons existed? And they pooped?! Wait, no, of course they did, everyone did! But, what the heck?! Hadn’t Fractal said it was supposed to be this ultimate material? Why the heck would dragon poop be the ultimate material?!

“Adios!” the villain’s yell brought me back to reality.

Apparently, while I was contemplating the digestive system of a dragon, he’d used the chance to free the suspicious matter from its containment and was already summoning up the smoke to teleport away.

Had that just been a distraction?!

Without thinking, I charged at my adversary to tackle him.

Just as I got near him though, the world around me spun and I was plunged into darkness. After one long disorienting moment, I felt like I was just spat out back into reality by whatever transdimensional thing had just chewed on me.

“Why, you…”

Once I got my bearings again, I found myself staring off against Shadeskip again.

On top of a roof.

Not in an underground lab.

What.

Had I just hitched a ride on his teleport?

“Well, if you wanna play it that way…”

The teleporter hid the supposed dragon poop in his costume-- eww --and once again shifted into a battle stance. I instinctively did the same.

Wait, but I didn’t want to fight! Especially not since we’d teleported away from my backup!

My opponent didn’t seem to care about my opinion as he swung his sword at me. I panicked and let out a yelp -- which got voice-modulated into an odd battle cry -- before jumping into a random direction and pushing all the buttons I found within my suit.

My rocket boots activated in spurts, making me stumble back, before my foot shot up and connected with Shadeskip’s hand holding the sword.

I heard a cling as I spun through the air and somehow did the classic superhero landing a short way away from my opponent.

Once I looked up, I saw his astonished face staring at me, and a bit further away from him, his sword stuck in the roof we were on.

…

I felt like I was going to make a habit of accidentally winning against superhumans.

Well, the good news was that there was no longer a dangerous mercenary swinging his sword at me. Safe, at last.

“So--” I started.

Before I could say anything else though, he turned on his heels and booked it.

“Wait!” I shouted as I ran after him.

He ran to the edge of the building and I expected him to jump to the neighboring one, but instead, he turned and ran in another direction while the smoke began gathering once again.

Not wanting to lose him just yet, I once again fiddled with the jet boots controls and ended up propelling myself forward. I noticed him looking back and trying to dodge my tackle this time, but as my vision darkened and the world spun, I realized I’d hijacked his teleport once again.

This time, I recovered much quicker and found myself in an alleyway staring at Shadeskip lying on the ground.

“Who… are you?” he asked, breathing heavily. “How can you so reliably intercept my teleport?”

Well, I had just charged forward. Wasn’t too hard… was it supposed to be hard?

“Who knows?” my nonchalant modulated voice answered him.

He frowned as he carefully got off the ground while visibly exhausted. Was teleporting twice in a row taxing for him?

”You want the stone, don’t you? Why? Do you know what it does?”

Stone? Oh, the… the dragon poop?

Well… “My boss wants it.”

His frown deepened. “So you’re just a mindless minion, then? Not ever thinking for yourself? This thing could bring destruction you can’t even imagine!”

Wait, what? Why was dragon poop so dangerous?!

“Never mind.” His expression shifted into a sinister smile. “Time is up for you. Checkmate.”

Before I could even think about what he’d meant, a familiar sound reached my ears from behind.

I quickly turned and saw something running towards me. A woman with an iron mask riding atop a metallic wolf.

The creature and its rider stopped in front of me.

I had no idea what to do in this situation. Why was Iron Pack here?!