Super Babes 2: A Superhero LitRPG Adventure Read online

  "Hope we're not intruding," Heather whispered before giving Ryan a kiss.

  Ryan shook his head and kept his voice low as well. "No, it's okay. Thanks for coming."

  Alice held a large blue teddy bear against herself. "No biggie. Never got to even see the old guy before."

  His grandfather's eyes fluttered open. "Hey, what's with the crowd all of a sudden?"

  Heather took his thin hands in hers. "Hello, we met before. I'm Heather."

  "I remember you. Beautiful lady such as yourself ain't easy to forget."

  Heather laughed. "I see where Ryan gets his charm."

  Ryan grinned. "Nah, I can't score with the ladies like he can."

  "I wish." His grandfather's head turned to Alice. "And who's this angel?"

  Alice giggled. "I ain't no fuckin' angel, baby."

  Heather put her hand on Alice's shoulder. "This is my roommate, Alice. Another friend of Ryan."

  Ryan was relieved she didn't go into more detail about their relationship. He wasn't sure the old man could handle knowing he was in a polyamorous relationship.

  Alice held out her gloved hand and squeezed his grandfather's. "Hey, old timer. I heard you got some shit goin' down."

  His grandfather sighed. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

  Alice pressed the teddy bear into his arms. "Well, here. Maybe this little fucker'll help."

  His grandfather chuckled as he took the bear. "Thanks, we'll see."

  Ryan's grin widened. "Hey, you always tell me off when I curse around you. How come she gets away with it?"

  "'Cause she's a guest." His grandfather flicked a smile. "And she's prettier 'n you."

  "Whatever."

  Heather folded her arms over each other. "So, have we, uh, heard anything?"

  Ryan shook his head, feeling the night's exhaustion sweeping over him. "Not yet. Oncologist is gonna do a bunch of tests. They're coming up with a treatment plan."

  His grandfather glared at him. "Which reminds me. What's all this about five hundred thousand dollars?"

  Ryan had been thinking about his story the night before. "Yeah, I got a scholarship."

  "A scholarship? Since when? What for?"

  "I just got a letter last week. I applied for it a few months ago, and meant to tell you, but just wanted to look into it more. Five hundred thousand dollars. It's for academic excellence in the field of criminology."

  His grandfather raised an eyebrow. "With your grades?"

  "It's not just about grades. They also wanted to pick students from Eros City and I fit a bunch of other criteria. Plus, I wrote a killer essay."

  Ryan glanced at Heather who smiled and gave him a quick nod. Maybe this would work.

  His grandfather grunted. "Well, I'm happy for ya, but that scholarship is supposed to go to your tuition. Pay off those student loans."

  "Don't worry about that. I can use the money for whatever I want, and there's nothing more important to me than you, Grandpa." He squeezed the old man's hand. "Now don't try to talk me out of it."

  His grandfather looked down at the blankets over his frail body. "Well, I ain't gonna lie and say I don't wanna live. But it's gonna be a long road."

  "And we'll take it together."

  Heather touched his shoulder. "That reminds me. Ryan, can I speak to you outside for a moment?"

  "Sure."

  He followed Heather and Alice into the hallway.

  Heather folded her arms and lowered her voice. "So you're going to use the reward money, after all?"

  "Well, I'd like to." Ryan opened his wallet and took out the check. "But I realized last night that I can't. It's made out to Paragon, not me. And even if I could deposit it in my account, I'd give away my secret identity."

  Heather raised her eyebrows. "You haven't opened an account at Power Financial yet?"

  "No, what's that?"

  "It's a sort of bank for superheroes. They handle accounts for regular blokes, but they handle anonymous accounts and don't ask questions or release information."

  "Like a Swiss bank?"

  She smirked. "Quite a bit better. Come along, I'll show you."

  Alice grabbed his arm. "Oh, yeah, let's do it. I got a killer savings account with them."

  "Okay. Let me go tell Grandpa."

  He went back into the hospital room, grabbed his backpack, and squeezed one of his grandfather's hands. "Hey, I just gotta check something out. I'll be back."

  His grandfather waved him off. "Hey, you don't have to hang around here, son. I'm in good hands. You go do what you gotta do."

  Ryan left to join Heather and Alice in the hallway. "Okay, what do we do?"

  Heather led them through the hospital to the elevator. "Well, first we need a change of clothes, if you catch my meaning."

  He nodded, glancing around at the other people they passed in the corridor.

  They took the elevator down to the ground floor where they left the hospital and climbed into Heather's car. They rode back to her bookstore, where they just went to the back where no one would see them and changed to their powered forms of Paragon and Heavenly Hawk. Alice stripped out of her disguise to become Alley Cat.

  They put on costumes, climbed up to the roof of the Nest, and flew across Eros City to a bank in the Financial District. On the front of the building, it read "Power Financial."

  When they landed and walked in the front door, he was a little surprised. The bank looked like every other bank he had been to. Only a couple people stood in line, and he took his place with them. A guy ahead of him who looked like a construction worker only glanced up at him for a moment before looking away.

  A woman in a black dress hurried up to him. "Good morning, sir. No need to stand in line. Step this way."

  Paragon glanced at Heavenly Hawk and Alley Cat who only smiled back at him, then he followed the woman in black to a small office.

  The woman waited until they were all inside before shutting the door and sitting down behind her desk. "I'm Anna Chase, a manager here at Power. It looks like you haven't worked with us before if you were waiting in line. All our powered clients get personalized service."

  Paragon glared at Alley Cat and Hawk who were giggling. "No, I didn't know that. Would have been nice to be told."

  Heavenly Hawk forced a straight face while shaking her head. "I'm sorry, but you looked so cute standing in line like that."

  Alley Cat laughed and gave Heavenly Hawk a high five. "Good one!"

  Anna folded her hands over her desk. "So I'd like to give you a quick rundown about what we do here, Mister Paragon. We have a wide range of accounts you can choose from, just like any bank, but we don't require personal identification or verification. You'll be assigned a random number, and that's all we need to know about you. Here at Power Financial, we treat your anonymity with the utmost importance. Of course, if you'd prefer to give us your identity, you can, but not only won't we ask your real identity, we don't want your real identity. That way, we can't be forced by the government or law enforcement into giving up your information."

  Paragon glanced over at Heavenly Hawk. "So how do you know I'm really Paragon?"

  "We verify your identity from a number of methods, including documented footage of your appearance, scans of your ATLAS implant, and a few powered individuals we employ who specialize in this sort of thing. Trust me, from the moment you walked in, we knew you were the real Paragon."

  "But still, isn't having anonymous superheroes as clients kind of risky?"

  Anna smiled. "Actually, it helps to have superheroes coming in and out of your bank. Our regular clients find it quite reassuring to see Captain Alpha or Miss Megavolt in the lobby. That alone makes up for any potential loss of income."

  "And what about taxes?"

  "Well, very few superheroes file taxes in their alter egos to begin with. However, we are not a tax haven. We pay the government a percentage of all money received as a flat tax. Power Financial is actually based outside the country in Vergendalia. All
our money is transported immediately out of this location and stored there for safekeeping where it can be teleported back if needed."

  He looked at the other and nodded. "Okay, sounds good. I need to make a deposit then."

  From there, it felt like any other bank. He filled out paperwork, handed over the check, and got an ATM card. The card had the random number assigned to his account instead of his name.

  When he was done, they all shook hands and headed out.

  As they walked out of the bank, Heavenly Hawk turned her head towards the other end of the street and said, "Do you hear music?"

  Paragon stopped and heard it as well, what sounded like a band playing a triumphant song in the distance. "Yeah, what is that?"

  Hawk's eyes glowed for a moment, as she said, "It looks like they're having some sort of grand opening or something."

  Alley Cat grinned. "It's the grand opening of a new science center. How am I the only one who knows that?"

  "I suppose I haven't been paying attention." Hawk narrowed her eyes. "I have a bad feeling about this. I think we should keep an eye on it."

  Paragon had seen Heavenly Hawk's intuition like a sixth sense in action and trusted her. "You think Aphrodisia might show up?"

  "I don't know, to be honest. But something is coming."

  "Okay, I trust your judgment. Let's go."

  They crossed the street to head down to the next block where he could see a large industrial park with a crowd gathered in the parking lot in front of it. The crowd stood before a stage with men and women gathered on it, along with a high school band.

  Mayor Bill Kubert stood at a microphone, clapping and smiling. He drew golden scissors from his coat and approached the red ribbon strung across the entrance of the park. "What a great band. Young people who will be the future of this country, much like this facility will be the future of Eros."

  He swept his smile across the crowd. "I'm proud to be a part of this grand opening, welcoming the Marino Corporation to our fair city, along with thousands of jobs, and cutting edge technology."

  Paragon shook his head. "Why would Aphrodisia show up here?"

  "I don't know." Heavenly Hawk lowered her eyes. "I'm not even sure she will, not now."

  Alley Cat leaned over to Paragon. "Hey, what'll we do if she does show up?"

  Paragon shook his head. "I don't know. I can't fight her, not without the Night Watchman's defense against her, but I can't let her do whatever she wants, either. Anything, Hawk?"

  Heavenly Hawk's eyes glowed as she looked over the crowd. "I don't see her, but I'm going up to get a better view."

  She flapped her wings and rose off the ground as Paragon pointed at Alley Cat.

  "Cat," he said, "I need you here to keep an eye out, especially for the mayor. I'm going to do a sweep of the area, see if she's coming."

  Alley Cat snapped off a salute. "Aye-aye, Captain Cutebutt."

  Paragon took off and flew over the city block, getting a birds-eye view of the city. He looked down at the huge office building that the mayor was unveiling, and outwards to the city streets.

  Heavenly Hawk flew up to him, waving a hand. When she came close enough, she called out over the winds, "I think I've spotted her. Over there."

  He looked down to the street where she pointed. A long white limousine came down the road. The limo itself caught his eye, but what was more disturbing is that traffic seemed to be moving out of its way. Cars in front of it would pull to the side to make room for it. When the limo came to an intersection, it kept going through a red light, yet the cars all stopped to allow the limo to go through the intersection.

  Paragon nodded. "Yeah, that's gotta be her. She's headed right for this lab. You were right."

  Hawk looked up at him. "The question remains, how can we fight her when she can control our minds?"

  "I think Alley Cat had something. We attack her at a distance, stay out of range. Maybe we can stop her from getting here. But first, we need to warn people."

  Paragon launched himself back at the podium where the mayor stood.

  Kirby continued his speech, saying, "And so as we open this laboratory, we hope it's only the beginning of a new wave of innovation for Eros City--"

  Paragon landed next to him, interrupting the mayor who lunged back. Paragon didn't bother trying to talk to him, but leaned over to the microphone and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, you need to evacuate this area immediately. Aphrodisia is headed this way."

  Some of the people in the crowd started yelling, screaming, and running. Most of the crowd just looked at each other, laughed, or cheered.

  Paragon felt a surge of anger. "Don't you get it, people? Aphrodisia is coming. You all need to clear the area!"

  The mayor grabbed the microphone from him with one hand and held out his free hand. "All right, everyone. No need to panic."

  "Yes, there's absolutely a need to panic." Paragon pointed at the street nearby. "She'll be here in a few minutes."

  Mayor Kirby gave him a wide but forced smile. "I was expecting this, Paragon."

  Detective Morrison Grant stood up from the crowd behind them. "I told you once, we're not dummies. We can handle this. We have the area surrounded."

  He pointed up and swept his hand in a circle. "Snipers are on the rooftops surrounding the area with orders to shoot to kill, but if she gets past them, we got police cars set up in all directions. When she gets here, we'll be setting up roadblocks on all the exits to keep her from getting away."

  Paragon looked out at the sidewalk and saw police officers standing within the crowd. "It's a trap."

  Grant nodded. "You got it."

  Mayor Kirby clapped Paragon on the shoulder. "This is our chance. With your help."

  "Absolutely." He pointed. "There's a white limo headed this way from the south. I'm gonna try and stop it. Hope you don't mind me doing some damage."

  Kirby chuckled. "We've come to understand it goes with the territory."

  Grant jabbed a finger at him. "But keep it to a minimum, cowboy."

  Paragon took off to fly over to a streetlight at the nearby intersection. He flew up to twist off the pole holding the lightbulb, and bent it to make it into a straight line. Then he flew higher to a nearby roof.

  A SWAT member lay prone on the roof's edge, looking down the sights of a rifle. He jumped back when Paragon landed next to him.

  Paragon nodded down at him. "Sorry. As you were."

  He took a moment, testing himself. He didn't feel any different so it seemed like Aphrodisia hadn't gotten in range yet. That meant he had time.

  He looked out at the city, and could see the white limo drawing closer. Paragon drew back his arm, holding the metal pole like a javelin. He wasn't sure he could make it from this distance, but his Strength and Dexterity stats had gone up, so he hoped so.

  He took a few steps forward to build up speed and threw the pole.

  It went better than he had hoped. The pole sailed straight and true through the air and slammed into the hood of the car, impaling the limo like a needle, pinning it to the road so the car came to a sudden stop.

  As smoke poured from the hood, the driver's side opened and a naked man stepped out. He seemed to be the driver, and he looked dazed as he stared at the pierced engine.

  Paragon clenched his fist. "Yes."

  Aphrodisia's voice echoed through the streets, coming from the limo. "I know that was you, Paragon. Well done, lover. I suppose I'll have to walk."

  Paragon patted the SWAT sniper on the head. "Get ready."

  "You know it." The sniper bent down to look through the sight and placed his finger on the trigger.

  "But shoot to wound, not kill."

  The sniper shook his head. "I got my orders."

  Paragon wasn't too happy about the idea of killing Aphrodisia in cold blood. He knew some superheroes believed in killing their enemies, but he didn't. He wanted to become a force for justice, not an executioner. He didn't want to replace the court system. Everyone, including
supervillains, deserved a day in court. Besides, once he started killing his enemies, he would become a target for the police who would be trying to stop him.

  He had also seen what happened in Umbrapolis when the Bloodhound started killing his enemies, and the supervillains began striking back. The city was destroyed in an all-out war between the hero and villains, and the Bloodhound was finally killed himself. Murder was a slippery slope.

  At the same time, maybe Aphrodisia was the exception. They had put her on trial and the defense managed to avoid the death penalty, but she had escaped to wreak havoc again. Maybe Aphrodisia was too powerful to let live.

  As he considered it, the back doors of the limo swung open. A red boot stepped out onto the asphalt.

  Paragon could hear a click of guns being cocked.

  Another red boot stepped out of the other side.

  Paragon watched with widening eyes. "Oh, shit."

  A woman with long red hair and a red bikini climbed out of the limo, but another identical woman came out of the other side. As they walked out onto the street, two more redheaded women climbed out, too.

  Six identical women came out of the limousine, turned towards the public square, and walked in unison towards the mayor's stage.

  "Decoys," Paragon whispered. "She's got decoys."

  Chapter 9

  THE SWAT sniper pressed a button on a walkie-talkie on his shoulder and said, "I have eyes on the target, but she's got other women with her. Awaiting orders."

  Paragon could see Detective Grant on stage talking into a walkie-talkie of his own, and the one on the sniper's shoulder spoke. "You have your orders. Take 'em out."

  Paragon grabbed the rifle and yelled into the walkie-talkie. "Wait! Don't shoot! The other women are under her control. They're hostages."

  Grant said from his walkie-talkie. "Stay out of this, hero. We have a chance to stop her here, once and for all."

  Paragon yelled, "We can't kill five innocent people just to kill Aphrodisia."

  "Yes, we can. Take the shot."

  "No!" Paragon yanked the rifle out of the sniper's hands and bent it into a pretzel.

  As he dropped the metal knot onto the roof, he looked out at the other rooftops where the snipers all took aim. "You can't do this!"