Chapter 2: Compromise and Peril

Singularity Storm’s first enemy of the evening was a disgusting centipede-like creature with dozens of clawed feet and a face that was a mess of mandibles and horns. The Hellbeast scurried quickly along the ground, dodging almost half of the flame blasts thrown its way, and lunging for her time and again with deadly intent. The Champion of Conflict had taken a few glancing blows that **** her already quite revealing costume to bare more of her flesh to the terrified-yet-dutiful camera crew cowering behind a nearby truck. She really preferred when civilians fled the scene entirely, but the young man with the camera and the woman with the microphone seemed determined to capture her battle in its entirety.

“Well, may as well give them something worth seeing, then.” Singularity Storm baited the monster into another charge, then used a blast of flame to launch herself into the air. The Hellbeast did its best to follow her up into the air, the front half of its body leaving the ground as its mandibles clicked angrily, but it only succeeded in giving her the perfect shot she’d been looking for. A torrent of flame left her hands and engulfed the Hellbeast’s head while keeping her suspended in the air for just a few moments more. By the time she dispelled the flames and touched the ground again, the monster was dead, and she watched as the parts of its body that hadn’t already been incinerated dissolved into ash. Satisfied that her task here was finished, she gave the camera crew her best reassuring smirk before blasting off towards her next challenge, one she wasn’t looking forward to facing while her Bloodlust was still running its course. Some idiot in her company had somehow managed to transfer the ownership of her building to an outside company, and now Melissa had to have a dinner meeting with the man who intended to have it razed and replaced with a parking garage. Needless to say, a thorough investigation was going to find and fire the person responsible for this situation, but in the meantime, a very angry Melissa needed to play nice and do her best to rectify the situation. R&D was just finishing up development on a lucrative prototype, and she did not have the time or energy to transfer her operations to an entirely new site.

Singularity Storm made her way home and hastily slipped out of her superheroine persona and into a sleek dress. “Remind me again who I’m meeting with, Naalor.”

“I’m not your secretary, Melissa.”

“No, my secretary’s actually useful. Just give me his name, demon.”

Naalor grumbled and slunk back into her subconsciousness, but not before giving Melissa what she wanted.

His name was Roche. Edward Roche.