Princess Fox

Normally, standing in front of a supervillain’s base should have been scary. However, if you worked for said supervillain, that would quickly cease to be a problem. I’d gotten used to the sight of the base, his other employees, and even the supervillain himself.

But today, we were going back to square one. Once again, the base seemed ominous and scary. Mainly because I was on my way there with Fern, his supposed enemy. And despite the two knowing each other personally as I had learned, she was going in masked.

“It would probably be better if I went without a mask, but I feel safer this way.”

I couldn’t blame her. I would probably also take the mask if I were in her place. But that didn’t change the fact that it made me even more nervous.

Being nervous made my mind run away and think back on Troy and his reaction. My words had basically been equal to a freezing beam yesterday, but today, he’d acted as if nothing had happened. Did he think it had been just a dream? Odd.

Suddenly, Fern whipped her head around and looked down an empty street.

“W-what?”

She kept up her glare for a second before shaking her head and saying, “Nothing. Just had a feeling someone was watching us.”

“Someone? Like… aliens?”

The incredulous look she gave me answered the question. “Where did that even come from…?”

“Well--” Before I could answer, we were interrupted by one of my co-workers.

“You!”

We both turned around to see Marvin. “Me,” Iron Pack answered cooly.

“Princess! Are you okay?” he asked, looking at us nervously.

Wait, did he think I’d been taken hostage or something?

“I’m fine! She’s… uh, here to talk.”

“Talk…?” Marvin looked back and forth between us.

“To the boss. Clear up a misunderstanding… you know?”

“A… misunderstanding?” He frowned, before continuing, “I’ll call the boss, don’t do anything.”

He pulled out his phone and proceeded to whisper into it while keeping an eye on my girlfriend. As expected, Fern never dropped her cool fearless persona, while I kept fidgeting around.

A tense moment later, Marvin ended the call and said, “Alright… come this way, the boss will meet you. No wolves, though!”

The two of us exchanged a glance, and I gave her a shaky nod. “Sure,” she said to my colleague.

I didn’t expect Fractal to agree… And I couldn’t tell whether this was a good sign or a bad one. My tension kept rising.

We made it over to the abandoned-looking building and entered the perimeter through the secret entrance I’d found oh so long ago. I kinda expected to go all the way into the base, but instead, Fractal was waiting for us right at the doorstep… Along with two turrets on both sides.

His crossed arms and unmoving figure gave away nothing. I didn’t know whether he was mad, surprised, happy, or anything in-between.

Fern glanced at the turrets, possibly assessing ways of dealing with them should the worst come to pass.

“What is this about then? Have you decided to betray me too?” Fractal turned his head toward me.

“No!” I blurted out automatically. “No, I… there’s a misunderstanding! You two shouldn’t be enemies!”

“What are you talking about? She went ahead, sabotaged my work, and then ran away without any explanation. What am I misunderstanding?”

The anger in his voice made me shut up. Luckily, my girlfriend took over the conversation.

“Only because you were planning on killing me!” she countered.

Fractal’s employees surrounding us gasped in unison.

“I trusted you! I trusted you were better than them, but clearly I was mistaken!”

Wait wait wait, Fern! Dial down the aggression!

“Ki-- what? The hell are you even talking about? How did you come to that conclusion?”

“Don’t play stupid with me! I heard you! You were on the phone back then.” Her eyes narrowed behind her mask. “Don’t worry, I’ll get rid of her soon,” she imitated Fractal’s inflection.

Fractal flinched as another gasp went through the peanut gallery. Could you guys stop it? This wasn’t a TV drama!

“Or what? Are you saying you weren’t referring to me?”

“... No. I was referring to you.”

Another gasp. This time, I joined in as well.

So Fractal was evil all this time? No way! I couldn’t believe it!

“But… I didn’t actually mean it.”

“Oh sure. Go ahead and say that again.” Iron Pack scoffed.

“No! I mean…” He let out a sigh as he slumped. “Those were your parents on the phone back then.”

“... What?”

Wait, her parents? Why did Fractal have her parents’ number? Were they somehow related? Or… were Fern’s parents supervillains too? I was getting confused.

“Somehow, they found out that you were living with me at the time.” He sighed. “And you know how they operate. Saying that was the only way I could think of to appease them.”

Ah… and there came the misunderstanding. Also, why did it sound more and more like her parents really were supervillains…? Was she secretly from the Brimscythe family? Nah, no way.

A moment of silence followed as Fern tried to process this.

“... So… In other words… You were actually trying to protect me?” she said, seeming utterly baffled.

Fractal let out one final sigh before replying. “Yeah… You know, not everyone is trying to screw you over behind your back.”

“And… the gift?”

“I’ve been making what I promised I would make. A machine that would help with your… condition.”

“I…” Fern frowned. “I still don’t believe you,” she stubbornly declared.

The tension returned with a snap. I couldn’t help but intervene at that point.

“Let me use the spa then!”

“W-what?!” Fern’s eyes went wide.

“It’ll prove that it’s safe! That it’s the real deal!”

“Wait, you also need something healed?” Fractal seemed surprised.

“Well, uh, maybe a little something…” I trailed off. “But I want to show her you weren’t lying!”

Fractal glanced at Fern before looking back at me. “Sure, you can use it then. It’s finished for the most part, but there are still some bugs I needed to iron out. Nothing dangerous, though.”

I met Fern’s gaze, her concern evident on her face even through the mask.

“Alright… can I see the machine, first?”

Fractal nodded and said, “This way.”

Everyone followed him into the building like ducklings after a mother duck.

Once we arrived in the spa room, Fern let out a barely audible gasp. “This… is it?” She scanned the pod and the control panels around it.

“This is it,” Fractal replied and walked to the control panels before he started pushing buttons. “It takes a bit to start up though.”

“Start-up sequence initiated. Estimated time left, seven minutes, forty seconds,” the machine announced in a robotic voice that sounded suspiciously like Fractal’s.

Fern snorted. “Of course, you would use your own voice for that, Michael…” She finally seemed to be loosening up.

“Well… do you finally believe me, Fern?” my boss asked, hopeful.

“I…”

“FERN?!” a voice suddenly interrupted.

All heads turned to the entrance from where it came from. I immediately froze when I noticed the three heads peeking into the room. How hadn’t anyone noticed them until now?

“Wha… What are you guys doing here?!” I shouted as my roommate, his sister, and his girlfriend walked into the doorway.

“We followed you, of course!” Miranda yelled back.

“Why?!”

“Why do you think, you dumbass?! You just told me yesterday that you were dating a supervillain! There was no way I wouldn’t be concerned!” Troy finished for them.

“Wait, you did what?!” Fern decided to join the shouting match.

“I… Uh, it might have slipped.”

“Aster!” She glared at me, clearly angry.

“Um!” Kelly drew everyone’s attention. “Before you go into your lover’s quarrel, I think I should mention that the heroes are on their way!”

“What?! You called the heroes?!” Fractal yelled.

“We didn’t know what would happen, so we called them in advance!” Miranda countered. “But… well, after seeing that.” She gestured toward Fern.

“We reserve our judgement! But, well, you probably aren’t evil?” Troy concluded, to which the two girls nodded.

“Dammit! Fine. Fox, go get into your armor, quick!” my boss commanded.

“O-on it!” I said and ran past the trio toward my office.

Behind me, I could hear Kelly ask, “What about us? What should we do?”

To which Fern replied, “You should really just get out. We’ll talk about this… later.”

Things were about to get chaotic… again.