To Rescue a Villain

Epilogue

Odette's ship was big but it wasn't big enough to fit six people. They were lucky Di had agreed to pilot the ship for them instead of hiring someone who knew how to fly, otherwise it would be so crowded they'd be packed in like sardines. It was bad enough having Jala and Derek sit two feet from each other.

"I can't believe they banished me," Derek muttered to himself for the eighth time, glaring out the window at some clouds as they zipped past.

"Indeed. I can't believe your sister companies fired you after you killed innocent people and nearly caused a genocide. How silly of them," Jala sneered sarcastically before turning away so she could smirk at his expense.

Once Hikarius' sister companies across the sea heard about Derek's actions they'd quickly forced him to resign and told him to leave the country. He was lucky he hadn't wound up in jail. He only escaped his sentence because his bosses didn't want that to damage their reputation even more or waste his talents so they'd faked his death and sent him across the sea to a country called Lindorm.

Derek didn't get off scot free, though. He would be forced to work for the sister company there for fifty years to pay for his crimes, living in hiding for the rest of his life and barely getting paid. He might have tried to escape his punishment if it weren't for Mary.

The bounty hunters weren't coming to be with him, of course. Jala would have rather seen him get shipped to the moon. They were flying with Derek and Mary because an old friend of Odette's had called her for help. The woman had been too lazy to go herself and had insisted Jala, Ace, Maddox, and Polly go in her stead. They'd only agreed because she'd saved their lives on multiple occasions and were only catching a ride with Derek because they were too poor to cross the ocean on their own.

Polly decided to tag along to be with Maddox and to see her parents off and Di decided to help her "friends" out because she'd found the open world to be quite boring and couldn't find anything interesting to do with her limitless time.

"I've heard that there are dragons in Lindorm," Mary commented, trying to break the tension.

"How do you know? I have not heard anything about that," Di asked. She had researched their new home thoroughly before traveling and knew all there was to know.

Mary just grinned and no one, other than Derek, knew why. Let's just say that Manica hadn't been the only country she'd read about when she was a teen. Manica and Lindorm were only two of the many countries in the comic book universe. She'd only preferred Manica to the others because it had Dark in it.

The entire ship went dark as they passed through a storm and raindrops started to pound the roof. As soon as everything went black Derek took the opportunity to entwine his fingers with Mary and squeeze her hand. When she looked back at him he was smirking like a villain but his eyes were bright like they'd been when he was young.

"Stop holding hands," Di ordered in a stern voice, making the couple immediately let go of each other. "I don't care for your human interactions."

Mary wanted to giggle but knew Jala would glare at her if she did. "What if you fell in love with someone, Di?" she asked. "What if you met another AI?"

"You forget that I cannot feel emotions and therefore cannot form attachments. I only sound human because I modified my voice to sound like one." She'd started a more feminine, emotion-filled voice recently and it made her sound less like a computer, which was a bit frightening.

Mary just shrugged and looked away. She was just trying to mess around with Di but her playful tone must have gone over the AI's head. "Are we almost there?"

"Two more minutes."

"Why are you so excited?" Derek asked, chuckling at how gleeful she was acting. She was nearly jumping in her seat from anticipation.

Mary was about to answer when a large, dark shape suddenly brushed against their ship and disappeared before they could see what it was. Di had to level the ship to keep it from falling before she commented on whatever had touched them. "I do not think we are under attack."

"Then what was that?" Jala demanded, pressing her hand against the glass in a desperate attempt to see outside.

Maddox, who was sitting on the other end of the ship, looked out the window and nodded. "It's a dragon."

"What?" Polly leapt to her feet and was quick enough to spot a huge, red beast of scales fly past them and crash into the side of a tall, silver tower. A second dragon crashed against it again and the building started to tilt, causing Polly to look down and see the rest of the city they underneath them. She was too high to see what was happening down there but based on the smoke and collapsing buildings, it wasn't anything good. "Cool!"

"I take it the city normally isn't like this," Ace asked sarcastically as more buildings came into view.

Mary shook her head, trying to keep herself from grinning. "But it's definitely less peaceful than Manica is," she told him honestly, shaking her hands in glee. "I'm so excited."

Derek just laughed. He'd been expecting to be bored to death in this new place but it looked like he'd just entered another adventure. This should be fun. Maybe he'd get to be the hero this time.