The next few days are pretty quiet, all things considered. I mean yeah, Marcy does come up to me and ask me to fuck her once or twice a day, but it turns out to be really good practice! After the third day of bending her over the kitchen table I actually got pretty good at keeping my eggs inside their pouch, until I barely even have to worry about it anymore. I do get a little nervous about how attached she is to me, and if other people might notice something's strange about her, but she seems to be pretty good at controlling herself until we're behind closed doors.
The worrying bit was when I made it clear to her that I'm not looking for a romantic relationship and she agreed immediately - eagerly, almost? Like, I don't know a lot about humans, but all the movies I've seen tell me that someone this attached shouldn't be so happy about being basically a booty call. Then again, she is the one that comes to me...either way, I'm definitely a bit concerned I might have cooked one or more parts of her brain in some way.
I mean, I don't stop fucking her. But I am keeping an eye on any developments!
As for the hero gig, we end up spending most of a day just filling out paperwork. It gets more complicated when you add in secret identities to the mix, the state here does allow you to use fake identities as part of hero work but it like, doubles the number of forms you gotta do. Then I spend a good chunk of the next day trying out the gym, testing their agility course. Apparently for a newbie I rank really highly on the acrobatics stuff, although there's definitely some vets on the scoreboard that put my times to shame.
Mostly though it lets me spend some time seeing who else hangs out around here, and letting them see me in return. If anyone catches me doing some shady shit out in town one night, it'd help if they recognize me as a hero. All told there seems to be about a hundred and fifty heroes who work out of this branch of Liberty Stars, alongside all of the support staff, but I'm not that likely to see that many at once. The big names apparently only stop by when they have a meeting or something they have to do, and while a lot of the mid-rangers do come here for training and medical treatment they tend not to live here.
Which means that when it comes to the heroes that do live here full time, it's practically a college campus. Maybe a few years older than that, but the average resident seems to be about twenty-four or twenty-five. And while they may not all rank that highly on the power scale, mmmm do they score high on looking good! A couple of the guys even flirt with me, but for now I'm just leading them on a bit. I've already got a full pouch of eggs (constantly telling me to breed somebody in the back of my mind, ugh), and Marcy's plenty to keep me from feeling pent up otherwise.
But I do gotta start getting to work eventually. In both senses of the phrase!
After sitting through a four-hour training course on patrolling, teaching us do's and don'ts like how to arrest somebody, how to talk to cops and EMTs and all of that, we eventually get our kit. Earpiece for comms, a heavy-duty mini-tablet thing that contains a copy of the Liberty Stars database, and a belt to keep it and our other stuff in. All certified tracker-free because again, privacy laws. I also get the doc's approval to sting people - not only does my venom not trigger any allergies but it's almost impossible to overdose on, once it paralyzes you it basically stops doing anything more. Which I pretty much already knew about, but I suppose it helps to get a second opinion.
Marcy and I team up with a couple of the other low-ranking heroes for our first couple patrols, just so that someone can keep an eye on us and make sure that we don't, I don't know, break somebody's legs for jaywalking or something. Nothing happens on the first day but I'm pretty sure they were intentionally keeping us in the safest part of the city - and during the daytime, too. Then we do a night patrol the next day, and then we're basically cut loose to do our own thing.
There's one night of nothing, but the following night I do catch an arsonist! Middle-aged dude, not particularly appealing for anything, so when I catch him trying to start a fire behind a convenience store I call the cops like they trained us. They suggest it's for an insurance scam but I'm not likely to hear much more about it - it sounds like heroes only get called in to play witnesses in court if it's like, absolutely required, cause it turns things into a serious circus. On the plus side, at least now the cops know of me as someone who catches evil-doers, so yay!
But Void, my eggs are calling to me! They're only good for another week or so, and if I have to just flush them down the toilet that's going to be really embarrassing. But then finally it happens - on my third night of solo patrols I catch a supervillain in the act!
As I'm dashing across the rooftops I can hear the sound of someone trying to force the back door of one of the shops I'm on, and I peak over the edge of this pizza delivery place to find this really furry lady trying to break open the lock, and being all growly about it too. Not a werewolf, probably a canine mutate of some sort? Maybe more wolf than dog, though. She's got reddish-brown fur all along her arms, and definite claws on her fingers. Ears in the normal human spot, but pointier than normal.
She hasn't spotted me yet, partially thanks to my costume. I'll probably still see about getting an upgrade later, but for now it's the one Jef made for me. It's mostly a black bodysuit, but cut off at the elbows and knees so I have an easier time climbing. Some yellow stripes along the sides to match the ones on my tail, but subtle enough to not show off too much at night. Plus a cute little black mask, just for style - it's not like I'm gonna be hard to recognize. I mean, how many other girls in this town are going to have a tail like mine?
However stealthy I might be though I can't sit around and plan for long - if she has canine senses she'll probably smell me soon. Although being in the back alley behind a pizza place might be helping me a bit there, actually. Still, though! She's got some muscles but I have the element of surprise, so I think I've got pretty good odds of taking her on. With a leap and a flip, I've landed in the alley behind her - while my stinger's made its mark in her exposed shoulder. I was aiming for her neck, but not bad!
She turns around to face me, sharp teeth bared. "Who the fuck are you!? Did you just stab me, you little shit? I'm gonna...gonna...what the fuck..."
With that said the wolf-lady collapses to the ground, eyes still staring at me. Her chest is still moving, so she can breathe and speak, but her volume is definitely a lot lower and her tongue seems to be slurring her words a bit. "The ffffuck you do to me...?"
I freeze for a moment, honestly surprised that it worked that well, then I do a little skip and a (quiet) cheer. I just caught my first supervillain!
Now to see what, or who, I just got my hands on. Pulling out my super-tablet, I snap a pic of the puppygirl's face and run it through the facial recognition. It doesn't take long at all to come up with an obvious match - this girl's got a lengthy record.
"Emilia Moore, aka Redfang, age twenty-six, superhuman muscle for hire. Dang, you got some priors, girl!" I tsk and shake my head. "Assault, reckless driving...ooh, domestic assault, that's no good. Very naughty. Also..." I read the next bit and frown. "...Seven charges of breaking into fine dining establishments like this one? At least eight, now. What the hell?"
Redfang mumbles out a response. "M'hungry."
"You're a supermerc, surely you gotta be pulling in enough to buy yourself dinner? How low are your rates!?"
Even paralyzed, she manages to give me an irritated look. "Inflation. S'xpensive."
"Well, I don't know much about money, so I can't say much about that." I examine the scratched up door behind her, and frown again. "...Redfang, this is a Void-damned pizza place. Closed! What were you expecting to find? A box full of tomorrow's deliveries ready to go? Were you gonna fire up the ovens and make yourself a meat lover's or something? Or do you just like dough and tomato sauce?"
There's a pause, and it occurs to me that this woman hadn't actually thought that far ahead. "...Find some pepperoni. Sausage, whatever."
"You were breaking into a place to gnaw on some cold pepperoni." I sigh as a thought occurs to me. My first supervillain, and it's a complete bottom-tier F-lister! Well, I guess that explains why she went down so easily. Although...I skim through the entry on her mutation, and eye her up a bit. Her tank top shows off her thick biceps, and although she doesn't have a tail, her legs are clearly thick enough to cause her jeans some strain.
Redfang doesn't seem to appreciate my wandering eyes. "What'u lookin' at?"
I don't answer her, too busy analyzing. Eventually I come to a conclusion - this girl's just got a skill issue. Or anger management issues, or both. Physically, she could be easily a C-lister at least if she applied herself. And given that I'm only interested in her for her body...I take a quick glance around, and notice that the only security camera in the alley's already been smashed. Probably by Redfang herself, for whatever good that might have done her.
I start to step closer to her, and there's probably something in my smile that alarms the puppygirl. "Ey, get - get back."
Time to finally offload some of these eggs!