Villain Retirement

"You… didn't have to kill him."

While Empress was looking at the villain's almost unrecognizable corpse, Riley was busy looking at the homunculus, which was already regenerating from only having a single drop of blood left. Riley had overlooked this during the first encounter in Los Angeles, but this kind of healing ability… wasn't it too fast?

Julius was also able to recover from any sort of wound almost instantly… and their powers all belonged to Megawoman.

"..." Riley then looked at his hand… before one of his fingers was suddenly sliced off. Empress was about to say something as she saw this; but before she could even open her mouth, the number of fingers on Riley's hand was once again what it was just moments ago.

Empress's eyes turned wide from this scene; Riley, on the other hand, just stared at his finger, waiting to see if another Riley would grow from it– but nothing. His eyes then returned to his hand, checking if his finger worked the same as before, and it did.

This kind of healing ability was from Megawoman. Then by all means… Riley shouldn't have been able to beat her the way he did. Was it possible that her regenerating abilities just lost their effectiveness because of their long battle?

…Or did Megawoman just allow herself to lose?

"...You didn't have to kill the target."

Empress was slowly getting used to Riley's weirdness as she repeated her words, "We could have easily neutralized a Grade-C villain without killing him."

"I only opted for the fastest and most effective option, Miss Empress," Riley said as he looked at the recovering homunculus; still deformed, but its limbs were already slowly allowing it to crawl on the ground,

"And I have been in prison. I believe it would be better not to take any as the food is unpalatable, they wouldn't like it."

"...What?"

And with those words, the homunculus was finally able to fully recover– immediately rushing its way towards Riley as it did so. But before it could crawl 3 meters from its spot, Empress suddenly appeared above it; both their backs, facing each other with Empress having her hand on one of the homunculus' limbs as she continued to almost pirouette. The limb she was grabbing, forcefully being torn off. She then pierced the detached limb straight onto the homunculus' face, which was positioned at its buttocks, causing a ripple to echo throughout the ground, blowing away the cars that were unfortunately parked nearby.

And before the homunculus could even utter a single movement, Empress once again pulled off another limb; this time, piercing the homunculus on the chest.

"..." Riley watched as Empress disappeared from her spot, only to return wielding some sort of lamp post… which she used as a stake to completely pin down the homunculus on the ground. And now, with a lamp post and two limbs attaching it to the ground, the homunculus was no longer able to stand up; even after it regenerated its dismembered limbs.

Empress's somewhat deep sigh whispered in the air as she backed away; her eyes, staring at the wriggling and struggling homunculus. She then removed one of the rings around her arms before throwing it on top of the monster; and as soon as she did so, the ring began to let out a raging, and violent burst of green lightning.

An uncomfortable shrilling wail then reverberated through the air; lasting exactly 9 seconds before fading, and along with it, any movements that came from the homunculus.

Empress did not seem to let her guard down, however, as she continued to stare at the homunculus. But after confirming that it truly was dead, she once again let out a sigh.

"Electricity is their weakness," Empress then muttered as she approached Riley, "But I guess you already know that since your group was the first to make contact with them."

"The ones in Los Angeles survived Victoria's electricity, Miss Empress."

"...Yes," Empress once again sighed,

"There are variants that are stronger than the rest, but this one isn't one of them," she then said as she looked at the fried homunculus.

"They all smell like fried chicken, Miss Empress."

"...Please don't put that image in my head," Empress shook her head as soon as she heard Riley's words. She was about to say something else, but before she could do so, the civilians that were hiding nearby the ruined infrastructures and debris all started to emerge.

"It's alright now," Empress then quickly raised her hand in the air, "The threat is gone, please wait for the Villain Aftermath Assistance Unit. Please help those that are injured and gather in a single–"

"Why… did you kill Whipper?"

But before she could finish the words of protocol she has been saying for a thousand times, the faces of the civilians began to frown.

"...Whipper?" Empress raised an eyebrow. She couldn't understand the other words that the civilian said, but she caught onto that word for some reason.

"The Grade-C Supervillain, Miss Empress," Riley was the one to answer Empress's confusion, "They are asking us why we killed him."

"He was trying to help us!" Another civilian began to approach the two of them, "He was trying to hold the homunculus!"

"..." Even with the voices of the people starting to thunder, Empress still held a calm; almost stoic expression. Not even saying or looking at the civilians and instead just walking nearer to Riley.

"I don't know what they're saying, but we should leave," Empress then whispered.

"Don't even try to leave! I caught everything on camera!"

"..." Empress slightly furrowed her eyebrows as she saw one of the civilians suddenly raising a phone towards them. Although she couldn't understand anything, it was clear what the civilian was trying to say. She only seemed slightly bothered, however.

"Let's leave, we did what we–" Empress was about to fly away, but before she could do so, Riley stepped forward.

"What… are you doing?" Empress then asked as Riley started talking to the civilian that was recording. She couldn't understand what the two were saying, but seeing as the civilian's expression was turning for the worse, then their conversation… was probably not going well for the two of them.

Riley then took a step back, before turning around to look at Empress. As soon as he did so, however… the civilian that was holding the phone was split in half.

"!!!"

Empress was about to rush towards Riley, but then noticed that the one who sliced the civilian in half was not him, but another homunculus– No. Empress glanced at the dead homunculus she had pinned on the ground just earlier, only to see that it was no longer there.

"It was still alive!?" Empress could only grit her teeth as she changed trajectory, her fist, already heading straight towards the face of the raging homunculus. But as she was only a meter away from it, the homunculus suddenly increased in speed– killing another civilian.

"It got stronge–"

Empress was not able to finish her words as the homunculus suddenly appeared in front of her; plunging its large body towards her and causing her to fly a few meters in the air. And as if seemingly taking this chance, the homunculus started mowing down all the civilians within the vicinity– killing them within the span of seconds.

"Shit!" Empress quickly propelled herself towards the homunculus, but as she was only a meter away from it…

"...What?"

The homunculus suddenly dropped to the ground.

"Let's go, Miss Empress."

Empress then heard Riley whisper, but he was already flying away.

"W… what?" Empress then turned to look back at the homunculus… which was clearly already dead. She then turned to look at the dead civilians for a few seconds before following Riley.

"What did you do!?"

"The fastest and most effective way to deal with the problem, Miss Empress," Riley answered without even looking at Empress; who was rushing to follow him from behind.

"You controlled the homunculus to kill all those people!"

"Whipper did that, Miss Empress."

"The guy was dead!"

"Maybe."

"What do you mean maybe!?"

"We weren't there when it happened."

"...What?"

"They were already dead before we could respond, Miss Empress," Riley let out a small sigh as he finally took a small glance at Empress, "And if you are worried about the video, then you do not have to– the woman was not able to upload it yet, I asked her."

"Even if there was a video, your father could have handled that! There was no need to–" Empress was about to say more, but she finally once again remembered who she was talking to,

"Why… why do you treat people as if they're just insects, Riley?"

"That is not true, Miss Empress," Riley shook his head, "I…

…don't like killing insects."

***

"Can you try making contact with them?"

"We're still trying to figure out their signal, sir."

"Have they done anything? How far away are they from us?"

"384,396 kilometers, sir. The same distance as the moon."

Back in the NASA headquarters, the people were currently scrambling, panicking, and feeling excited all at the same time. Some, however, can't help but feel somewhat fearful of the seemingly large ship that was being shown on the screen.

"Does it look like a Theran ship? Can we identify whether they're Themarians?"

"N… not until we make contact."

"What's the nearest satellite we have near it?" A man that was wearing an office suit currently had his hand placed on the shoulder of a scientist.

"The one that is capturing the feed, sir."

"...Is it manned?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good…

…tell them to approach the ship."

"...Sir?"

**NOTES**

If you want to support me, you can do so on my P.A.T.R.E.O.N: romeru.

Would really appreciate any value! I might also start drawing the characters once a certain goal is met. Thank you very much for liking and reading my story, let's do this shit!