Glitch: Your Archnemesis

The sun still hangs in the afternoon sky as you begin patrolling the streets of Briar Ridge. It’s low enough to cast the brick buildings in gold but not low enough to hide in. You drift along the rooftops in quiet leaps, listening to the hum of your suit. When the police scanner in your ear crackles, you slow down.

"Attempted sabotage at a local data center. Suspect is still on site."

You sigh. Of course. Just your luck.

You swing down toward Main Street and spot the culprit before you even land. A ripple of digital distortion flickers over the sidewalk like heat haze. Nearby screens spasm and flash with code that shouldn’t exist. Right beside the distortion stands Glitch, her head tilted as if she’s listening to a song only she can hear.

She’s the closest thing you have to an arch-nemesis. The one opponent in Briar Ridge who can make your stomach twist with nerves and adrenaline at the same time.

Glitch is a teenager like you, though she chose to be a supervillain instead of a superhero. Her powers let her see the world as raw data. She flickers between frames of reality, slips through solid objects, and fries electronics with a thought. She manipulates the environment like a living keyboard, glitching the ground to throw you off balance or dropping streetlights to plunge blocks into sudden pockets of shadow. She laughs while she does it because chaos is her comfort zone. You’ve fought at least a dozen times, and although you win more often, she always gets away.

Today is already a disaster. You’re not in the mood for another match with a supervillain as tough as Glitch.

You drop to the pavement and call out, "Can we please not do this today, Glitch? I’m having a really rough day."

She turns. Her asymmetrical blond hair catches the light, and her digital mask flickers with static. She takes one look at you and snorts.

"What? Did your girlfriend dump you, Pikachu?"

You give her a flat stare through your mask. You don’t answer. You don’t have the energy.

She pauses, then straightens as if someone just handed her the greatest news she’s ever heard. "Wait! Is that really what happened? Volt, the sparky boy scout of Briar Ridge, got his heart broken by his girlfriend? What the hell?"

She bursts into laughter.

You groan and rub your faceplate. "She wasn’t my girlfriend. I asked her out, and well..." You trail off, suddenly aware that you’re confiding in a supervillain who once tried to brick an entire cell tower for fun.

Glitch clutches her stomach, still laughing. "Holy shit! This is the funniest thing ever! My day is better already."

"Go ahead. Laugh. Kick a guy when he’s down," you say. The bitterness in your voice feels too raw to hide.

Glitch raises her hands in mock innocence. "You know what, dude? I won’t fight you when you’re clearly in a bad place today." Her grin widens. "It’s just so hilarious. Volt, top teen hero in Briar Ridge, rejected by his crush!" She giggles again, then adds, "Hey, Volt, brighten up. I’ll buy you a drink."

You blink at her. "You want to buy me a drink?"

She nods. "Yup. You can tell me your sob story, and I can point at you and laugh."

"Pass," you say, rolling your eyes.

She lifts her hands again. "Fine, fine. I won’t point, and I won’t laugh. Promise. But my offer stands. You look like you could use a drink. And if your friends won’t drink with you, you can always drink with your arch-nemesis." She laughs. "You know what old, retired superheroes say? Your friends will leave you, your wife will cheat on you, but you can always count on your arch-nemesis supervillain to be around to mess with you."

You stare at her. You actually consider it. Maybe you shouldn’t. Maybe you should walk away. Maybe you should arrest her. But the ache in your chest is still raw.

"All right. One night of truce. I’ll take you up on the offer. Just to take my mind off things."

Glitch nods. "Deal."

You sigh. "Just so you know, I’m eighteen. Legally an adult, but not allowed to buy ****."

Glitch shrugs. "I’ll buy for both of us. Or we can steal."

You cut her off. "Buy, not steal." You narrow your eyes. "Are you even old enough to buy ****?"

Glitch grins and flashes a fake ID. "No. Same boat as you. Legally an adult, but not old enough to buy. A fake ID always does the trick, though. And it doesn’t even rank in the top ten illegal things I’ve done today."

You shake your head. You really shouldn’t be doing this, but here you are.

Truce, just for one night.

And that’s how you accidentally ended up on a date with your arch-nemesis.