"So what did you have in mind?" I asked Crystal as I got changed. "Simple spar, theme fight, target practice, or something else?"

I knew she was probably going to go for a straight spar since she was in a bad mood, but who knew? She might surprise me and more options are usually a good thing.

"Theme fights?" Crystal asked.

"Yeah, things where you roleplay based on a situation." I explained. "Like if we wanted to pretend that a powerful, cunning, and gorgeous villain was guarding a device to take over the city, the hero would need to either beat the villain or get her to destroy the device."

"So basically pretending to be something out of an old comic or cartoon?" Crystal raised an eyebrow at me. "Also, you should add humble to that description."

"If you wanna put a label on it then sure." I said, ignoring the last comment.

"Isn't that a little, I dunno…childish?"

I laughed. "Crys, growing old is mandatory. Growing up is completely optional. Besides, we could do more serious scenarios if you want."

Crystal shook her head. "No, that actually does sound fun. I'm just not in the mood. Maybe next time? I think I'd just like a simple spar for today."

I shrugged as the two of us moved towards the teleportation circle near the front door. Nothing wrong with keeping it simple on the first go.

"So where are we going?"

Instead of answering her, I poured my magic into the pre carved circle. It glowed red and a holographic copy began to swirl gently as I focused on our destination.

With a final snap of my fingers, we vanished in a flash of light.

-o-

"The Boat Graveyard?" Crystal, no if we were going to be out in public it should be Laserdream, asked when we reappeared. "Ria-, Luci-, actually did you ever come up with another name?"

I waggled my hand noncommittally. "Not really. Don't know if it even matters anymore since so many people already started calling me Lucifer. You can just stick with that for now."

"Fine, Lucifer. Anyways, we can't be here. Yeah it's technically abandoned but the owners of the ships can still sue us for damages. Most don't bother because it's hard to find the cape responsible, but New Wave has a public address."

"And if they try, let me know and I'll be happy to counter sue them into oblivion." I replied. "I looked into it. The laws stopping people from suing them for not cleaning up this mess only apply as long as they are not directly benefiting a villain or criminal cause or have completely abandoned the property with no intention of recovering it or restoring it. Dr Wily's minions have been seen salvaging metal and other things from the wrecks so they don't have a leg to stand on and the second they claim they were going to repair this crap eventually they will get blitzed with the fines for leaving it untouched for so long."

"...still."

I sighed. Even pissed off, Crystal was completely mindful of her status as a public hero. It would be admirable if it wasn't getting in the way of me having fun.

"Another instance where damages aren't covered by the law is when a recognized hero is preventing a crime. And I think that one of these boats would make a wonderful addition to my lair. So are you going to stop me from stealing one of these clearly valuable and cherished pieces of property, hero, or am I going to get away cleanly?"

"You know, I can kinda see why Paladin gets so focused on you when you talk like that. No one else really follows along with his morning cartoon show banter."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I felt a shiver run through my entire body.

"Well now I'm going to have to beat you up. I have to defend my dignity at least." I raised a hand and a spell circle bloomed in front of me, but I held off until Laserdream smirked and flew a bit away, her own maroonish colored energy gathering around her hands.

After a silent three count I started blasting her with orbs of unaspected magic. Basically, just tennis ball sized red orbs that moved at a decent speed but also hit about as hard as a paintball. There might be a bit of bruising and at worst some broken skin, but that was it. I called them training orbs.

Of course Laserdream was expecting a lightning bolt so the sudden switch let me get three hits in before she recovered enough to make a shield and block the others.

"Ow! Since when can you do that!" Laserdream complained, rubbing one of the sore spots.

"Were you expecting a devil to be predictable?" I taunted, taking random potshots at her. "Sorry to say you'll have to do better than that if you want to even land a hit on me."

Laserdream actually growled and launched herself forward.

The two of us began trading shots back and forth with Laserdream usually choosing to block my orbs with a quick shield while I was forced to dodge constantly. Stupid shield spell not working the way I wanted it to…

Still, even with that handicap, I was still getting hits in while rarely getting hit in return because I was simply faster than her. And that was without using the Boosted Gear and some of my other tricks. But simply beating up on Laserdream wasn't the point of this. It was to let her work out some frustration and have some fun while doing it.

So naturally I started trash talking.

"Is that the best you got?! I could slow down some more if you need it!"

"Well see how you dodge this then!" I smiled as Laserdream also got caught up in our fight.

Only for that to get wiped off almost immediately when Laserdream placed both hands next to her, fanned her fingers, and fired off a continuous beam from every one of them so a near curtain of energy was descending down on top of me.

"AOE is cheating!"

"Should I slow down for you then?!"

Tch, using my own taunts against me was also cheating.

I dove down among the wrecks to avoid the attacks and pulled up before I hit the water, but that turned out to be exactly what Laserdream was after. The fan of energy suddenly cut out and I looked up to see her flying above me, hands placed together so that her fingers formed a ring.

Guessing what her next move was going to be, I cursed and threw a hand up. Another spell sigil briefly lit up before changing into a hazy red dome.

Just as I suspected, Laserdream repeated the finger laser trick only this time to create a narrow cone that pressed in from all sides as she narrowed the radius. Too bad for her the main issue with my shield spell was mobility, not strength. And if I couldn't move anyway there was nothing stopping me from waiting her out. Of course she realized that too and after a few seconds when it became clear the smaller finger lasers were not going to get through, she switched to a single beam from her palm to pin me in place.

I laughed a bit as I made some mental calculations for my next move. I had planned on only using the training orb spell to attack but Laserdream had forced me into a position where that would lead to either my eventual loss or at best a stalemate if she couldn't get through my shield.

And that was just no way to end things the first time out.

Another sigil formed off to my left, angled to face where I guessed Laserdream was based on what I saw before my shield blocked my vision. A bolt of electricity shot towards that point but I frowned when there was no reaction from the heroine or the beam still hitting my shield.

"That was close but too bad for you I already moved!" My eyes widened at the sound of Laserdream's voice. Much closer than I was expecting. Practically right above me actually, I discovered as the attack she had been keeping up cut out and she swung around my shield right into my unguarded side.

I desperately tried to ward her off with a hasty training orb but she pushed past my arm and coiled around my torso until she had me in a headlock and a glowing hand hovering threateningly a few inches from my face.

I could just brute force out of this, but…

"Okay, you got me." I tapped her arm a few times, signaling my surender. "That was neat, how did you–" I paused when I turned to see Crystal was hunched over, far sweatier and paler than I was expecting and swallowing repeatedly. "Are you okay!?"

"Y-yeah, just motion sick." She stammered, still swallowing heavily. "I don't do g-great with high speed turns like that."

Huh, I guess that's why she let me teach the others about maneuvering during our flight training without getting involved much. I thought it was just because she thought the methods of flight were different between us.

I pulled off a glove and pressed my hand to her forehead. While my healing technique was honestly kinda terrible, it was still better and faster than just waiting for her to recover. Even with the limited contact making it even more inefficient.

Laserdream sighed in relief though, so I guess I was doing something right.

"Thanks. I hate that feeling."

"No problem. I guess that's one point to you. Ready to go again?"

Before she could answer, an unfortunately familiar white shape crash landed onto one of the ships above us.

"Do not fear Allies of Justice! Reinforcements have arrived to face the Forces of Darkness!"

Yep, standing there arms crossed, legs spread, and wings flared out behind him with a stupid smirk on his face was Paladin.

I guess things really had been going too well for me lately and this was retribution.

"What do you want, Paladin? We were in the middle of something." I sighed, looking at my 'rival'.

"What any champion of light wants, for you to cast aside your misguided ways and join the side of righteousness!"

"Do you practice these lines in front of a mirror or something?"

Paladin actually flinched at that. No way, did he seriously practice?!

"A-anyway, thanks to Laserdream's efforts we are here to put an end to your schemes. Surrender now if you know what's best!"

Just going to ignore that last part, huh? Wait…did he say 'we'?

Quickly looking around, I saw that not only was Paladin here, so was Dauntless and two wards; Vista and Gallant. Seeing the youngest Ward, I guessed that explained how they showed up in such a distant location so fast. Vista's power to stretch and compress space would make it easy to move around barring something like my teleportation.

Looking between the serious visages of the Protectorate, the recovering form of Paladin, and the nervous one of Laserdream I realized I was once again surrounded by heroes potentially looking for a fight. So naturally I said the first thing that came to mind.

"I don't mind if you want to play but do you mind if we reschedule? It's Laserdream's first time one-on-one and I want to make sure it's special enough to work out all the tension she built up."

There was a sharp slapping sound and I turned to see Laserdream slowly pulling her hand down her face.

"Rias, what the fuck?"