The Rules of Supervillainy (The Supervillainy Saga Book 1) Read Free Page A

next to the block of ice was a figure identical to the frozen man, only lacking in the thin-white covering. The identical figure looked lost and disorientated, which made sense since he was standing next to his own dead body.
    “Is that one of the restless dead?” I asked my cape.
    “I’m afraid so .”
    Walking over to the man, I hefted up the freeze ray in my arms. “Uh, sorry. I wish I could have saved you. Well, sort of. In fact, I’m glad you’re dead. Still, it sucks for you and I suppose that’s all that matters.”
    “ That was horrible .”
    “I’m a beginner at this!” I said, throwing my hands out.
    The bank president, a balding middle-aged Caucasian man with glasses, looked up. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
    “You’re dead. Finito . Kaput. You’ve kicked the bucket. You’re now a ghost,” I shook the freeze ray in my arms for emphasis. “Take a look beside you at your corpse.”
    The man shook his head and turned around, jumping with a start at his dead, frozen, body. “Oh, my God! No! I was just fifty-two!”
    “Yeah.” I gestured to the sky with the gun. “Well, you should let go of your earthly confines or whatever. Go into the light, or given the way you’ve behaved, the big burning pit.”
                  “ Master Warren handled these little heart-to-hearts with the recently deceased better than you .”
    “Well, we all can’t be billionaire philanthropists.”
    “ Hmm ? No, Arthur Warren merely funded the Nightwalker’s crusade against crime. I was referring Lancel Warren, the ex-police officer and Arthur’s brother. He was the Nightwalker.”
    “Oh.” I was a little disappointed. “I just figured Arthur Warren would be the Nightwalker because he was independently wealthy and would have a lot of free time on his hands.”
    “ That was cliché when the Scarlet Pimpernel was published .”
    “Uh?” the bank president started to ask. “Which light? There’s—”
    “Shoo! Shoo!” I gestured with the freeze ray, causing the ghost to back away and disappear. Hopefully, he went on to whatever afterlife awaited him. It occurred to me to ask Cloak what cosmological and religious system was true but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. I’d hate to find out the Ultraologists were right.
    Cindy grabbed a sack of money on the way out, and I helped myself to the other sacks. None of the bank employees made any attempt to stop me. Either they were too grateful at being rescued to care, or they were too terrified of the crazy set of superpowers I’d displayed.
    Maybe both.
    The woman from earlier, the one who objected to my letting Cindy go, shouted, “Wait a second! Who are you?”
    I was tempted to say I was the Nightwalker. He was the coolest superhero ever. It’s a pity the world would never again see his equal.
    Or so I thought.
    Walking out the door and levitating away, I, instead, shouted back, “I’m Merciless! The Supervillain without Mercy!”
    “ You realize, of course, that’s redundant .”
    “Eh, it’s a work in progress. Like me.”
    “ God help us all .”
     

Chapter Two
Where I Tell the Wife
     
    Informing the wife about my new career went about as well as could be expected.
    Better, even.
    “Are you out of your mind?”
    Mandy was wearing tight blue jeans and a GladiatorFest XXXI t-shirt, her gorgeous brown hair hungover her shoulders. Her skin was pale, albeit less so than Cindy’s. Mandy was a bit on the short side, five-foot-four to my five-foot-eight, but I liked petite girls. Mandy was Eurasian with a Korean mother and Caucasian father, favoring neither completely.
    Mandy and I had met when I was studying Unusual Criminology at Falconcrest City University. She was the lead in the all-girl band known as the Black Furies, captain of the track team, a martial arts master, and capable of out-drinking a demigod. We’d dated some of the same people and decided to hook up after a concert. We hadn’t looked back since. My