Carrion raised her hand and caught the impudent hero’s fist. It stung her palm a bit, but she refused to let it show. She’d never seen this caped crusader before, and she’d be damned if she was shown up by a newbie.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” She smiled, and her pointed canines gleamed in the sunlight.

“Not even close.” The hero, RiderDie, pulled his fist back from her grasp and lunged forward, his blue cape fluttering in the wind as he did so. They were forty stories high in the sky, but if the new hero was afraid, his face didn’t give him away.

She side-stepped him easily. “Tell me, Rider, why does the Council keep sending me fresh meat?” She cackled at her joke. That was the best part of being a supervillainess, all the cackling. You never saw a hero cackle, they all had sticks up their asses. The only reaction she’d gotten to her jokes from one of them was violent reproach.

“You underestimate me.” He held his hands out, his palms glowing white-hot. “That’ll be your last mistake.”

Carrion dodged his blast and swiped at him. Ephemeral claws mimicked her movements and hit their mark against the hero. He gripped his chest, and when he pulled his hand away to look at his fingers, she knew what he saw. Blood– red hot and sticky. His blue suit started to turn purple around his injuries.

“So, you’re a ride or die for the Council? I’m assuming that’s where the name comes from.” She floated past him, breezy. “But where are they, hm? Do they not return your loyalty?”

He grimaced and glanced up. This was the best part of fighting new blood: the part when they realized their idols had abandoned them, and they were going to die.

He looked at her, his eyes glowing white. She pulled back as soon as she realized what he was doing, and a blast of pure heat brushed past her. Her skin prickled and she glanced at her shoulder to make sure her suit had survived the close contact. It had.

“Do you know why I’m called Carrion, dear hero?” She cooed. “You see, when I was a young girl, I was part of a ring of thieves. We were all impoverished orphans, and over time we became part of a family. That is, until–” she flew around another blast Rider sent her way. Maybe she’d miscalculated, he might need a bit more beating down before he was ready for her final remarks.

She was more than happy to oblige.

She projected two claws around the hero and wrapped him up in them tightly. He struggled agaisnt it, but his chest was now bleeding even more profousely.

“I suggest you stop struggling if you want to live past the next hour.” She said sagely. “Anyway, where was I? Right, the thieving ring. I was the best at it, you know, and even though they wouldn’t admit to it I could tell the other children were jealous of me. I got special attention from the boss, see.

But one day, we got busted, big time. We were running away, me and the people I thought were my family. I was an orphan too, just trying to make my way in the world like the rest of them. But someone tripped me!” Her fists clenched in anger, and the hero gasped for air as the claws crushed him.

“Ugh, those bastards! So of course, I get caught. A little girl with no connections and no money? Who better to use as a human experiment, right? Who better to train for years and years to become a government superweapon? I served my time with them, but they forgot I had a will of my own. They got complacent, and I got away.” She smiled, almost nostalgic for the look on the soldier’s faces when she’d turned on them. “I like to say I’m a government agent, all the better that the suits hate it.

“Anyway, I chose the name carrion because all those years ago, I was left for dead. Not so different to you now, dear Rider. Your heroes still haven’t come for you.”

She flew up and leaned close to him, so close their noses almost brushed. “Can

spoil the ending, Rider? Spoil it, like carrion? They aren’t coming. You’re dead meat.”

RiderDie shook within her claws. His entire body started to glow white. Carrion flew back a few paces. She’d mocked a lot of heroes in her time, all responded with anger, naturally, but this kind of a reaction? Maybe he had some fight left in him after all.

His glow grew brighter, and brighter. Pain shot through her hands, her real hands, and she looked down at them. They were smoldering. That was new, and quite unpleasant. She released her claws and they dissipated. The pain went away, but he continued to glow brighter. She put a hand over her eyes to shade them, then they widened as she realized what he was doing.

“Are you crazy?!” She shrieked. “You’ll burn the whole city down! Cool it!”

He didn’t give any indication he’d heard her. He was staring off into the distance, the glow growing and growing. The shadows around them shifted directions as he started to glow brighter than the sun.

He was going to kamikaze. Take himself down just to defeat her. Suicide bomb, sacrifice himself for those that would never return the favor.

“You’re fucking insane!” She summoned her claws and braced herself for the pain, then bashed him over the head as hard as she could. As she predicted, her hand erupted in a blaze of pain, as if she’d stuck it directly into an inferno. She cried out and cradled her hand against her chest. If this didn’t work, she didn’t stand a chance.

But his light went out, and he dropped. He started free falling from further than the height of some skyscrapers.

He was going to splatter on the pavement if no one saved him. Good riddance, one less firecracker of a do-gooder for her to have to deal with.

His figure grew smaller and smaller in the distance, until he was just a speck. Her heart twisted, and without fully realizing what she was doing, she dropped herself too.

She could see herself catching up with him, but it wouldn’t be in time. She tried to fly faster, but it was a difficult task to fall faster than gravity allowed. Finally, she summoned her claw and caught him just before he hit the ground.

He was still unconscious, but his chest rose and fell with every breath. His eyelids fluttered, then stilled.

“What am I going to do with you?” She said, partially to his fainted form and partially to herself. “Yes, what indeed.”