The nightclub named Villain's Ransom was in an old wooden building, and there weren't many wooden buildings left in Recalm City due to the prevalence of fires caused by fights between heroes and villains, monster attacks, and tinker tech accidents. The place had one big space where most of what took place there happened. In that space, there was a dance floor of tightly formed wooden planks with a crystal chandelier hanging above. Around the floor were tables, a bar at one corner, and a stage where a band was playing. Above it all, on the second floor, there were booths resembling opera boxes, from where people could watch what was happening downstairs.

  At this moment, Lester was standing in one corner of the big room. Nancy, the young woman he was supposed to protect, had told him to keep his distance. Lester had known it would make it harder for him to protect her. But then again, there were battles and then there were battles not worth fighting. Upsetting Nancy Psion the great-granddaughter of Lord Psion might not have been as bad as upsetting Lord Psion himself, but Nancy was here and the lord was not.

  From his corner, Lester turned his gaze toward Nancy. She was now dancing at the center of the big room. Her slender body whirled there, seemingly enjoying her life. Likely high on something, enjoying the moment. A woman like that. Maybe he, Lester, would, one day, be able to, if he managed to get famous enough, enjoy the rich life, and Nancy would not see him as a simple henchman. And now Nancy was kissing some guy, who she probably just met.

  Shifting his gaze away from the woman he was supposed to be protecting, Lester turned to survey his surroundings. There were some famous villains here. Death Tank, a middle-aged overweight guy with green skin, was here. He was sitting in a corner with two young women at his sides. There was also Virr F, a lean fellow in an expensive-looking black satin suit. Lester thought that he might take some directions from the way the guy dressed when designing his own villain suit.

  Even though the club, he knew, was supposed to be a villain club, Lester had also noticed some superheroes. One was Sergeant Orange. The guy wasn't in his orange military-style suite, but the hero was still recognizable enough. The hero was now talking to a skimpily dressed lady at the bar. There was also Vanadium there. She was in her silvery supersuit and was now passed out on top of a table. Not an ideal place for a superhero to be.

  "She's a real hellion you know," Lester heard a voice say from next to him and turned to look. The speaker was dressed in a dark blue suit. He had pitch-black skin and was thin and tall, exceeding two meters. Lester guessed that the guy was part of the security here.

  Lester noticed the man was nodding toward Nancy and he replied, "I guess so, but I don't really know her."

  The man let out a quiet snort. "A bodyguard should know their client better."

  Curious, Lester turned to look at the man. "So, what should I know then?"

  "What they probably didn't tell you is that she has mind control powers, and she will abuse them with a whim."

  Lester realized then one thing about this job. There had been the mental resistance requirement on the job notice. Red had even gone and pointed it out.

  Guess this is the catch then, Lester thought.

  The man continued, "And now, things will start getting ugly. See, that boy there she's kissing is actually the boyfriend of Birgitta Titangauntlet daughter of James Titangauntlet, who is the nemesis of Nancy's great-grandfather Lord Psion."

  "Okay," Lester said, deciding that things were bad. And he might have to do something. But on the other hand, there wasn't much he could do. He definitely had zero control over Nancy's actions. But still, if something happened to Nancy, Lord Psion might kill him.

  "You bitch, get your hands off of Brad!" Lester heard a woman scream. The woman in question had long white hair and she was dressed in a white miniskirt and a top, which showed her flat belly. She was likely the aforementioned daughter of the famous A-rank hero Titangauntlet.

  "I don't think so," Nancy replied, while he stroked Brad's hair. "See, Brad and I are in love now."

  Lester noticed that the whole club had gone quiet. The band had stopped playing. People were leaving the room. Though, some decided to stay while peeking from behind cover. Also, the tall black guy had vanished. It seemed that the club's security didn't want to take part in the upcoming conflict either.

  Text appeared on Lester's vision.

  Quest update: Keep Nancy alive and unhurt

  The award is now 2 points.

  "Yep," Lester said quietly for only him to hear, "You're totally right Mr. Villain Interface. This quest is definitely worth at least two points."

  Nancy and Birgitta had each brought some friends with them. And these friends were gathering behind their leaders. Birgitta had four friends, one more than Nancy, but it seemed Brad was taking Nancy's side in the battle, which made the two sides equal in number. One of Birgitta's friends, a young man wearing a white evening suit, had, Lester noted, entirely blue eyes. It seemed there was a possibility that many of the kids had actual superpowers, which might make this job even more difficult.

  Lester decided that he would have to at least try something. Even if there wasn't anything he could actually do, as he walked toward Nancy and said to her, "I don't think Lord Psion would want you to get into a fight."

  She threw an angry glance Lester's way and said, "Zip it henchman or I'll have you skinned alive."

  At least I tried, Lester thought as he took a step back, not saying anything.

  Birgitta reached out toward Brad and said. "Brad honey, this bitch is trying to mind control you. Try to snap out of it."

  "No, you're wrong," Brad answered, "I love Nancy now. The relationship you and I had is nothing compared to the love between Nancy and I."

  Birgitta turned her eyes toward Nancy, and a glow of white light started to emanate from her closed fist. But she didn't have the time to do anything as Nancy struck first, letting out a high-pitch scream, which Lester could feel wasn't entirely normal as it brought with it a kind of coldness that entered the mind. Nancy focused this scream on Brigitta, making her stumble backward and fall onto the floor. And now, there was a split second of silence as both sides faced each other, getting ready to strike.

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  Lester tried to think of what to do. He had his gun of course. But using it might be a really bad idea. The kids here might all be related to some famous superheroes and supervillains, and he definitely should avoid harming any of them.

  A bolt of blue lighting flashed forward from the hand of the blue-eyed hero, toward Nancy, but the attack was intercepted as one of Nancy's friends, the young slender man in a black suit, summoned a dome-shaped dark force field, covering all the young villains and absorbing the blast. Then Nancy let out another scream, which went through the force field and hit the young heroes, sending them stumbling backward, but it wasn't enough to knock them to the floor. The heroes spread out, Birgitta and the blue-eyed guy heading in opposite directions, flanking the young villains who stood behind the dark force field.

  Lester noticed that he was the only one not behind the field, and that blue-eyed guy was eyeing him. Likely deciding if he was with Nancy or not.

  The guy launched a bolt of blue electricity right toward him. Lester dodged to the side, but he wasn't fast enough, and the bolt hit him in his right arm, tearing into the sleeve of his jacket, exploding his arm into water, and knocking him down. Immediately, Lester's arm snapped back together within his jacket, where a hole of burned-off fabric revealed his flesh just below his shoulder.

  While Lester was lying on the floor, he saw Birgitta go around the shield and throw a blast of white concussive energy toward the villains, blasting one of Nancy's friends off the dance floor and into a side booth, where she smashed into a glass and steel table, turning it into shards of glass and bent metal.

  Lester turned his focus back toward his attacker, who just released a new blast at him, but Lester pushed up from the floor, barely avoiding the energy as it tore into the dancefloor. He couldn't just stand here, he realized. He would have to fight back, or he would get burned. Or at least his rental clothes would, which was also bad.

  Hope this fellow doesn't have any powerful relatives.

  Lester bounced toward the blue-eyed guy, throwing a left punch at the guy's face, causing him to raise his hands in defense, but Lester switched his attack and sent a right hook into the guy's stomach, lifting him into the air. After he fell to the floor, the young hero curled into a ball, groaning in pain.

  He'll live, Lester thought and turned to look at the situation. The dark force field was now down, and the villain guy who had made it was lying on the floor. Two women, one of Nancy's friends and one of Birgittas, were on the floor pulling at each other's hair and screaming. Nancy had only Brad at her side, who now stood between her and Brigitta.

  "Brad, get out of the way," Birgitta said.

  "I won't let you hurt her," Brad said and stepped closer to Brigitta, who simply threw a backhand punch with a glowing fist, smacking the young man to the side. And now she and Nancy were face to face.

  Nancy started off with one of her scream attacks, directing it toward Birgitta's head, but Birgitta raised her glowing fist, blocking the scream with her power. Then she jumped toward Nancy while screaming, "Now you die you evil bitch."

  Lester watched in horror as Birgitta flew toward Nancy, her glowing fist descending upon Nancy's head. He was too far to do anything. Fuck.

  But just as Birgitta would have hit Nancy, Brad rushed in, tackling his girlfriend while yelling, "Nancy!"

  Birgitta pushed Brad away from her and got up. The glow of her fist intensified and white glowing smoke emanated from it. Then she yelled, "Fuck you, Brad." And she sent a thundering blast of kinetic energy into Brad's chest, sending the guy flying through the air to smash into a wooden wall, cracking thick beams as he went through.

  Lester looked at the hole in the wall. Any normal human would surely have died from that impact. Birgitta definitely had power, which she now was turning toward Nancy.

  But before the young heroine could throw another blast, Nancy jumped at her, grabbing her head with both of her hands and screaming into the face of her enemy. And within her scream, Lester heard the words, "You killed my boyfriend." The words didn't sound quite right. Wasn't Brad Birgitta's boyfriend?

  Ignoring the mystery, Lester leaped forward as one of Birgitta's friends approached Nancy with a chair she was going to smash into her while Nancy was occupied with her screaming. Birgitta's friend flung the chair, but before the piece of furniture could connect, Lester smashed his shoulder onto the woman, throwing her and the chair to the side. Nancy kept on screaming in the face of her rival.

  Lester could feel Nancy's chilling screech in his bones. There was definitely something wrong with the young woman if she could produce such a sound. Also, she might be, at the moment, killing Birgitta, which might be bad in some sense. And maybe he should do something about it, or it might come to bite him later—or maybe sooner—if he somehow got blamed for Birgitta's death.

  Lester slapped his left hand in front of Nancy's mouth, blocking the scream from coming out, but whatever energy the scream was made out of started building inside her mouth, trying to get out, puffing her cheeks out. "Fuck," Lester said, and the energy was released, vaporizing his hand up to the wrist and sending Nancy flying backward to fall down on her back onto the dance floor, where she moaned quietly.

  Lester watched as his hand became solid again, but there was a numbness in his palm; his powers hadn't completely negated the effects of the blast. It seemed that Nancy could actually hurt him.

  Lester turned to look at Nancy, and he realized what he'd done. This was bad. She was on the ground, and she was hurt. Maybe he should skip town. Although if he actually had caused Lord Psion's great-granddaughter serious harm, there would be no safe place for him in the entire world.

  Please be okay. Please be okay, Lester thought as he scurried to her side.

  "Miss Psion," he started, but he couldn't think of what to say. Phrases like I'm sorry, Please don't tell your grandpa, and Don't die went through his mind, but nothing came out.

  Nancy sat up and said, "What happened? Did we win?"

  Lester looked around the club. There were six people lying down on the dance floor, and at least two were launched off of it, including Brad, who'd gone through the wall. One of Birgitta's friends, the woman who'd just been in a hair-pulling contest, was holding Birgitta's hand and crying. All in all, it looked like the aftermath of a shitshow gone sideways.

  "I would call it a draw," Lester said.

  Nancy looked around, like trying to find something. "Where's Brad?"

  Lester pointed toward where he'd seen the young man fly. "He went through a wall. I think he's hurt."

  Nancy sprang up and dashed in the direction. "Brad!"

  Lester followed, trying to figure out what was going on. As far as he was aware, Nancy had used some mental charm on the guy, and they didn't have any kind of a real relationship.

  "You know, mind control powers have side effects," Lester heard a voice say. It was the tall pitch-black man, who'd just appeared next to him possibly stepping out of a shadow or something. And he was talking about some side effects now. Effects likely related to Nancy's powers. Mind control powers fucked, and this was a quite widely known fact, with their user almost as much as their target.

  "I understand," Lester said, not actually understanding.

  "Miss Psion's limousine is waiting for her at the front, if she wishes to leave."

  "Okay," Lester said and walked toward the hole in the wall, where Brad had gone through.