Captain Gravitas flew across the city as fast as his powers would allow, he had found and defused the bombs, fought off the attack robots, and saved a bus full of civilians from being drowned. Tasks she’d set up to distract him, but now it was time to face the big boss herself.   

He stopped as he reached the top of the Spencer building, the tallest structure in Centerville, there she was, Devastator. Dark purple spandex, long black flowing hair, heavy eye makeup, she looked as unhinged as one would expect from a villain who had descended into attempting to destroy the city over and over out of some vague notion of revenge. Her motivations had always been corrupt but once they had at least been sane, but now? It was just destruction for its own sake. 

“You're too late Captain!” She yelled. “This whole city will be sucked into an escapable black hole! You’ve crossed me too often! Now everyone dies!” 

“Devastator, please don’t do this! It doesn't have to end this way!” He yelled back, floating in the air around him where camera droids recording the encounter. Gravitas was the archetype hero, strong, handsome, with orange hair that glowed when he engaged his powers, somewhat older than most other heroes in the business but still well respected and powerful. 

“Oh we are long past the point of no return Captain! I warned you last time what would happen if you got in the way, but you. Did. Not. Listen!” 

She rushed him, flying across the air at close to the speed of sound, her body coated in a dark, purple aura, Captain Gravitas’ body glowed orange. The two collided and began throwing punches and kicks in mid-air, each blow each hit that collided created a small shockwave. The hero ended the exchange of blows by grabbing Devastator’s arm, spinning 180 degrees and throwing her into another building, causing her to break through the wall into an empty office floor. He raised his hand and fired an orange ball of energy, hitting her square in the chest just before she was about to rush him again, she fell to her hands and knees as a powerful gravitational force descended on her. 

Gravitas did not let up, he fired a second attack, this one caused a powerful pull towards her, the loose debris from the broken wall, as well as any and all objects within thirty feet of her were pulled in. A shell of rubble, computers and other office furniture formed around her, with any luck keeping her distracted long enough for him to deal with the device. 

Turning his attention to it, he and the drones looked it over; it mainly consisted of a large, metal ring about seven feet across, connected to a control panel and a small, nuclear generator. Inside the metal ring a small, black ball of pulsating energy, that was slowly getting larger. 

He turned to one of the drones, “Can you tell me how to shut it down?” 

On the other end of the feed a woman was watching the events unfold, her name was Jenny, sidekick and tech support. “No, there’s not enough time, you’ll have to get rid of it!” She said in his earpiece.

“Understood” 

He flew over, grabbed the device, he easily lifted the device and threw it as hard as he could into the sky. 

Behind him there was an explosion as an energy pulse from Devastator vaporised the objects that had been attracted to her, free she looked up at her device being launched.

She screamed in rage and began to fly up but Captain Gravitas got in her way. “No Devastator! it will destroy you too!”

“Out of my way!” She fired two energy beams from her eyes, they hit the superhero in the chest, he managed to absorb the damage, but the attack winded him, she took the chance to fly up and strike him hard across the face, dazed he was unable to stop her flying above him to her device. 

She reached it just as the black ball of energy was big enough to touch the edges of the metal ring, the city watched as the black hole formed. In a matter of seconds it rapidly expanded, then collapsed in on itself. Leaving no trace of it, or its maker, as high up as it was, the device failed to suck in anything from the city. 

Jenny watched as Captain Gravitas witnessed this, he sighed then looked at the drone and offered a smile. “We did it,” He told her. “The city is safe” 

Later that day he was shaking hands with the mayor of the city, it was customary for him to do a press conference after any major villain fights. 

With the powers of super strength, speed, hearing, durability, flight and ability to manipulate gravity, he was a force to be reckoned with, for almost two decades he had defended Centerville from any and all threats. One by one his foes had been defeated and turned over to the government to be held in a nigh impregnable prison, all but one, Devastator. 

He’d lost track of how many times he’d saved the city, and how many conferences he’s done, the hero was largely tuned out as the Mayor said a few words to the journalists that had gathered. It got boring but it was part of the contract, the city allocated a budget to him so he could be their full-time protector and make public appearances for the city’s morale. 

Once the mayor's opening statements were done he stood up, said a few words, thanked his support staff, mainly Jenny for their assistance today and talked about the importance of the city coming together to defend itself against criminals. Both powered and non-powered. 

During questioning one interview asked him if he thought Devastator was gone for good. 

“I don’t know about that, but I am confident we won’t be seeing her any time soon, in any case my team will be keeping a close watch on the city for me, and I’ll be ready to respond at a moment's notice.” 

He spoke in his well-rehearsed ‘hero voice’ and wore his carefully practiced expressions to best bring across his brand image. 

Photos were taken, autographs signed, he de-briefed with his team, he told them that the battle had worn him out somewhat and that he’d be out of costume for a while to recover, but to contact him at any sign of danger.

It was then time to return home, he had a civilian identity for when he was off the clock so that he could enjoy some level of normalcy, out of his hero costume he wore jeans and a shirt that hugged his muscular frame. He entered the apartment complex and took the lift up, his room was a luxury apartment on the 15th floor, all paid for by the city. 

He took a moment to take in the view as the sun set, then begun to make himself a drink, however he stopped when he heard movement, in a flash he turned around and grabbed the figure who was trying to sneak up on him by the shoulder and raised his fist, ready to punch whoever the intruder was, he stopped however when he saw who it was. 

He let her go with an annoyed sigh. “I told you not to do that!” 

“Sorry love…” She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. “It was too tempting to resist” 

Without her pale foundation, heavy eyeliner, contacts and black wig, Devastator looked like a typical, mid 30s woman with short brown hair and green eyes, fairly plain by most standards, the woman who was terrorising the city just a few hours ago, now would not get a second glance in the street. 

“Why are you here? We’re not leaving until Tuesday…”

“I wanted you to myself for a couple of days before we flew out” She said sweetly, then frowned as she looked at the side of his face. “Sorry, did I hit you a too hard?”

He put a hand up to his bruised cheek. “I’ve had worse, mostly from you.” 

Devastator had not seriously threatened the city for a few years, with him having turned over the rest of his rogues gallery to the government, and her having given up on her former ambitions that lead her to become a supervillain in the first place, the two of them had come up with this scheme. It kept him relevant along with his funding and in the meantime, she could enjoy civilian life without him coming for her; over time, their business partnership had formed into a relationship. Come Tuesday the two of them would leave for a nice long holiday to Hawaii, paid for by the city, like almost everything else in the hero’s life. 

They enjoyed each other's company until there was a ring at the apartment door, Devastator, or Mel outside of costume, waited in the bedroom while he answered.

It was Jenny, his heart sank as he saw the concerned look on her face. “Hi Ca-Matt” She said, ‘out of costume’ meant civilian names, even if they were alone. “Can I come in?”

“Of course” 

Jenny was a handful of years younger than himself, slightly overweight with sandy blond hair and glasses. She joined his support staff after graduating from MIT, having good tech support personnel was very valuable back when the likes of Devastator were constantly inventing doomsday devices. She was a powered individual as well, although not a very top tire one, ‘Super Stamina’, able to function for days at a time without sleeping or eating. A very helpful power for a staff member who might need to act at any time of the day, but she had a tendency to overdo it, even if she did not feel tired mentally or physically, working too much still was not good for her health. 

She entered the apartment and made a beeline to his kitchen table, he winced slightly under his breath, but the bedroom door was closed. She pulled out her laptop from her rucksack and began pulling up files, showing images of Devastators device that was taken by the drones. 

“I just can’t help but think, was today planned? Like, could this be another one of her schemes? Remember when we thought she was dead during the station bombing but she then ambushed you the next day at the fundraiser?” 

A few notes and calculations came up alongside the images taken and she got him to take a look, even though most of it flew over his head. 

“I don’t think a device this large could realistically threaten the whole city, and she was right next to it, I could believe she’d be crazy enough to kill herself along with us…but she must have known this would, at best only have an effective range of about 1500 feet before closing in on itself, you saw how short lived it was earlier this afternoon. She normally is much smarter than this, what if…”

Jenny went on to list her theory, she had a habit to go on and on when she was worked up, Matt raised a hand to stop her, and mentally switched back into ‘hero mode’. 

“Jenny, I’m proud of your commitment, but you need to take care of yourself too, all this overtime is not good for your health.” His preferred tone was one that was that of a strong, authoritative figure but not too patronising or threatening. 

“We both know Devastator's mental state has been declining for years, it makes sense the quality of her inventions would decline as well. I can tell you're worried but please, relax, I’m taking some time off, I suggest you do the same, I promise if she does come back, I’ll be here in a flash, I will keep you safe.”

He gave her his best, confident smile, that seemed to work, she smiled weakly back. “Thanks, enjoy your time off, I’ll leave you alone now” 

Once he saw her out he let out a sigh, Devastator came out and looked at him, concerned. “What’s the matter? 

“It’s nothing, just Jenny overdoing it” He told her. 

She shrugged “She’ll be fine, she always is” She wrapped her arms around his torso. “Lets go to bed, it’s been a long day” 

...

My entry for the NG Fests 2023 Short Story Contest!

I've had this idea for a while about a super hero/super villain who secretly are just doing an act, ether for attention or profit. I don't really care about winning the short story contest, but it was a good incentive for me to sit down and actually commit some idea's to paper. I may continue this story in some way, putting in other chapters about them running there scheme. If you like heroic fiction let me know what you think, I don't do a lot of wrighting and feedback would be appreciated, I mostly only write content for Mutants and Mastermind games so this sort of short story format is new to me.