"It isn’t working," I told her. "Try thinking as if a phantom arm reached out of your hand to grab me."
Some powers were all visualization.
She tried it, and the little suckers actually rose about six inches out of her skin, waving in the air sort of like a hand.
"That’s working. You just need to push it further," I encouraged her.
Stella’s jaw set and her eyes squeezed shut.
The suckers continued to push out another foot, but they stopped there.
She took a deep breath, and they shot back into her skin.
"How was that?"
"We need to work on your breathing, but they went further."
"Still not enough," Stella grumbled, focusing on me yet again, only this time she puckered her lips.
The multitude of suckers around her lips shot out and latched onto my own lips as Stella breathed and started to drain me.
"And what did you do there?" I glowered at her, letting her have a taste before disconnecting the suckers by force.
"Imagined what our first kiss would be like." She smiled dopily.
"Great, now go imagine kissing the bactimen. Sounds like you got this figured out." I kept my expression and voice neutral.
Stella snorted, stomping away. "Got it, Master. Off to smash some bactimen."
She tossed aside the manhole cover and crossed her arms as she jumped down, splashing into the sewer.
The ground shook as she started to take out some of her anger on the bactimen.
This time, I watched down below, trying to sense her power.
I could feel it stretch out, destroying the bactimen at range.
She’d learned her lesson the first time and was taking them out before they could escape or form something larger.
But bactimen still spilled out onto the street, running from her as she jumped out of another manhole.
Her little suckers latched onto the bactimen running in a dozen directions and drained them of power.
"Good job, Demoness. How’s it look down there?"
"All clear, but I desperately want a bath." She shook her boots before ripping them off and letting muck drip into the street. "Last time, I was able to stay on the walkway. This time, they pushed me into the actual sewage."
"No one ever said hero work was all glory. Let’s keep at it. We have another site."
"Off we go!" She went to carry me once more.
"No can do. You hurry up to the next one. I’ll be there in a few minutes on foot." I was not being carried by her as she dripped sewage onto me.
---
Night was just starting to settle across the sky as we wrapped our last assignment.
Clouds were turning purple and orange with the sunset.
"Good work today, everyone. We have another shift coming in tonight to keep looking for hot spots and monitoring the situation. Working heroes to the bone does us no good. Get some sleep and be back here bright and early tomorrow." Kim stood in the middle of the path.
The other BSH managers and I were spread to one side, and the heroes stood on the other.
I was thankful for the separation.
Stella stank from repeat sewer entries, and some supers smelt like burnt sewage.
It was a whole new level of disgusting.
With Kim’s dismissal, the heroes departed, many of them flying off.
Stella hung around, awkwardly waiting for me as Kim turned to address the rest of us.
"I expect all of you here an hour earlier than your heroes. You should get yourself up to speed on the situation before they arrive." Kim shooed everyone away as soon as she finished, but she met my eyes and jerked her head back for me to follow her.
Looking across the field, I motioned Stella to join as well.
Stella literally flew across the field to get back to my side.
"What is it?"
"I have no clue," I told her, ducking into the tent that only had a skeleton crew for the night.
Kim was already seated, turning as we entered.
It seemed like a casual situation, so I sat down too.
Stella stood awkwardly, her super suit still wet and gross.
"You two did well today. I just wanted to tell you that you have earned your pardon." Kim focused on Stella.
"I—"
"Don’t thank me. Just keep doing what you are doing. I’d love to fast track you to the hero qualifications next week if you are interested," Kim told Stella.
Won’t this ever end?
"Qualifications?" she asked.
Kim leaned back in her seat, kicking her feet up on the table. "We run prospective heroes through a battery of tests to see if they make the cut. It’s a public spectacle too, good for your start as a hero to put on a good show."
She continued, "It isn’t normal for us to pull several dozen people off the street for just their power and call them heroes. We had twenty-six emergency heroes out there today, people like yourself."
Stella nodded slowly. "Okay. I..." She glanced at me. "I think I’d like that. I’d like to turn my life around."
Kim grinned. "I looked at your file and the psych eval a little closer. I believe that you didn’t mean to be a villain. And I think, with Zayn’s help, we can save you from that life."
I paused, realizing we were saving a supervillain.
I hadn’t thought that was possible.
"It won’t be easy, though," I reminded Stella. "There’s going to be someone who will remembers what you look like and cause a fuss."
Her head dipped, but she nodded along with me. "I know."
"You’ll probably have to get a real manager, though. I’ll go back to my job in marketing," I added.
Stella’s head snapped up, her eyes wide as she looked at Kim for help.
"He’s right. I’m afraid I only have him on loan for the weekend. I’d love to poach Zayn, but that’s his choice." Kim held her hands up in surrender.