I dove for the deck with my fist outstretched. I even let out a nice scream for good measure. Though the scream was nothing compared to what was coming.

I smiled and pulled up the interface with my eyes and went to the sound library. I projected the distinctive whine of a Stuka dive bomber going for the kill.

I'm sure it was a sound that, once upon a time, had puckered the assholes of anyone who fought on the right side of history in World War II. These days it was just known as the default sound for a plane going into a dive.

Fun fact. The Germans actually put little things called Jericho Sirens on their planes to make that distinctive sound. Psychological warfare at its finest, and I could appreciate that even if I thought everything else they'd done was repugnant and disgusting.

People who'd been fleeing a moment ago turned to look. They pointed up in the sky. I'm sure they were wondering if I was a fowl or a heavier than air flying machine, but I was nothing of the sort.

I was Night Terror.

Unfortunately, none of the bastards looking up were the bastards I was going for. No, those bastards were all in the bank robbing the place blind by the time I reached street level.

I flipped around and pointed my shields down to the ground. I slammed into the pavement with enough force that it gave my shields and inertial dampeners a run for their money, but not so much that it drained my power.

I'd learned the dangers of letting my power levels get too low time and again when I was fighting Fialux at her most powerful, but never had that lesson been taught as starkly as when I was fighting Dr. Lana and her toys. I'd nearly bought the big one in that fight, and I hated to admit it, but if it wasn't for a save from a giant robot that I was pretty sure was being controlled by a computer who should've by all accounts been completely dead?

I wouldn't have made it out of that fight in one piece. And unlike whatever I suspected Dr. Lana was doing to come out of a fight alive and well despite obviously and graphically dying in front of me numerous times, I didn't have anything that could bring me back from dead.

My medbay could bring me back from mostly dead, of course. No chocolate coating required. Totally dead, though? The only thing left to do would be the government finding my lab and going rummaging through my stuff.

I was still doing a hell of a lot of research into putting two reactors next to each other in the interest of keeping myself alive. I kept running into little issues where they'd go critical, and I kept having to teleport them out to the Kuiper belt where the explosions wouldn't hurt anything or potentially interfere with any life that may or may not have developed on other planets or moons.

"Night Terror!"

The gasps came from all around. I stopped. Closed my eyes. Took in a deep breath. God it felt good to hear people saying my name with fear on their lips.

It'd been way too long. Way too fucking long. First dealing with Fialux who wiped the city streets with me, and then Dr. Lana who didn't have the proper reverence for the villain who basically put villainy on the map in Starlight City.

Before me? Being a villain was a bullshit career that existed solely to provide a reasonable foil for the many heroes who came through the city looking to make a name for themselves. Now villainy was something people aspired to as much as being a hero, if not more.

It was more fun being a villain.

I stepped through the giant hole in the bank's front door and looked at each robber in turn. They wore ski masks and had shotguns and other sorts of weapons you could get by going to one of the numerous neighboring states that had far more lax gun-control laws than what you found in Starlight City.

They also wore a motley collection of tactical gear that screamed they did all their shopping out of the back of gun magazines. They were trying their best to look like the real thing and failing utterly and completely.

The dude I presumed was the leader of this merry band of misfits stepped forward and scratched the back of his head with his shotgun. Not exactly the safest thing, but then again I shouldn't expect to see much in the way of smarts from a bunch of normal guys who had the audacity to try robbing a bank in Starlight City. And in the middle of a giant irradiated lizard attack, no less.

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"Um, excuse me Night Terror, ma'am," he said. At least he had the smarts to show proper deference to his betters. "But what the hell are you doing here? We thought you was doing heroi…"

He stopped. He seemed to realize he might've gone too far by even implying I'd moved to the straight and narrow. I frowned, and he flinched.

That was good. It was nice to know there were still some members of the criminal element in this city who remembered a time when I'd been at the top of the pecking order.

I still was. If they chose to delude themselves into thinking I wasn't? That was their problem when they ran up against me. I was going to show them who was still in charge of things around these here parts, thank you very much.

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to tell them what the hell I was doing in the bank today. No, no sooner had that guy asked his impertinent question than they all gasped and then grinned.

Not the kind of reaction I was hoping for. I figured we needed to get back to some of that fear and terror, honestly, but none of them seemed interested in me for some reason.

"Fialux!" one of them breathed.

I looked around at the assembled bank robbers. My frown deepened. Simply put, this group should've been crapping their pants at the mere hint of Fialux being nearby. But they were looking at her with huge grins. As though they saw a payday, and not a painful beating incoming.

Now why the hell would they be grinning like they saw a payday? It just didn't make sense. Unless…

"Let's get her, boys," one said.

The leader turned. Held up a hand. He looked pissed off, but he also clearly looked like he wasn't going to give anything away in front of the heroines who'd come to ruin his day.

Wait. Did I just think of myself as a heroine? Damn it. I was a villain.

"Now hold on just a damn minute," he said. "I didn't say anything about taking anyone captive!"

"But what about the bounty?" the one in the back asked.

"Yes," I said, my voice a low purr that could be heard even over the sound of masonry and concrete tumbling over itself as the bank shifted and got used to the fact that a giant hole had been blown into the front of the place. Not to mention the ever present screech from that damned oversized irradiated lizard. "Why don't you tell me all about the bounty on Fialux? I'd be very interested in learning more about that."

They all went silent. In particular the one who'd mentioned the bounty looked like he was about to piss himself. Like he was so pale he looked like a group of vampires I'd ferreted out of a club on the east side of town.

Yeah, turns out vampires were real and you didn't need stakes to take them out. Extensive experimentation on my part revealed that vaporizing worked just as well on the undead as it did on the living. And that adventure wasn't even on the top ten list of weird shit I'd seen since ascending to the top of the A-list of Starlight City villainy.

Seeing that fear felt good. It was good to know the Terror part of my name could still be struck into the heart of my enemies.

Even if, in this case, my enemies were a bunch of low-rent criminals who never would've dared to pull a job like this back when I was at the height of my power. Back when they thought I was at the height of my power, that is, because the truth was I'd never left.

And it was time to remind this city why they'd been afraid of me. Even if I was pulling the hero routine right now trying to fight off bank robbers. Sort of. Not really.

It was complicated.

"I'm not telling you anything," the ringleader said.

"Oh yeah?" I asked, raising my wrist blaster and letting it give off that ominous hum I loved so much. "You sure about that?"

The leader rolled his eyes. Clearly he wasn't buying what I was selling. Clearly he'd bought into all the news reports that said I might've gone good, or at the very least that I'd lost my edge even if I was still bad.

Too bad for him he was going to be the tip of the spear in my new marketing campaign to remind everyone just how bad I could be. Though to be fair, what I was about to do to him was going to hurt a hell of a lot less than getting stabbed by a spear.

"Get her!" the one in the front said. "She's gone heroic. She's not going to…"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a beam flashing out from my wrist blaster. The beam hit him before he could react. As I was so fond of telling my classes, the time to dodge a beam weapon was when it was aimed at you since there was no outrunning the speed of light. A moment later he was reduced to his constituent molecular parts as he vanished into a screaming glowing puff of dust.

It was over in a matter of seconds, but that was still longer than it usually took for a vaporization. I wanted to make sure he felt it as he was vaporized. I also aimed low so there'd be a chance for him to scream just a little and let all his buddies know how much it hurt getting vaporized, even if it was over in seconds.

I blew at the tip of my wrist blaster even though that was completely unnecessary. It's not like it was an old-fashioned powder weapon that actually had smoke curling from the tip, though I made a mental note that it might be a good idea to add something like that.

There were a lot of costumers who were doing wonderful things with e-cigarette kits to add smoke effects, and I was all about a bit of theatricality.

I looked at the bank robbers who'd frozen in place. Clearly they were reconsidering whether or not it would be a good idea to cross me, but the fact that they were still considering it rather than running in terror was proof enough that I had so much work to do to rehabilitate my bad image.

I grinned an evil little grin.

"Anyone else want to presume I've gone heroic and I'm not going to hurt them?"

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